Mahinda Gunasekera, 84 Tambrook Drive, Agincourt, Ontario, Canada  M1W 3L9
July 26, 2017

His Excellency, Maithripala Sirisena
President of Sri Lanka, Colombo 1, Sri Lanka

Copy to: Hon. Ranil Wickremasinghe, Prime Minister

Your Excellency, Honourable Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers and Elected MPs,

Confusion prevailing in respect of Reconciliation, Constitutional Changes and UNHRC Resolution

The messages coming from leading members of your government tend to be confusing as they often contradict each other, and usually lack any form of consultation with the general public who will be affected by such policies. If there has been any consultation at all, it is with select individuals representing foreign funded NGOs or other special interest groups closely linked to the ruling political hierarchy.

1. Reconciliation: While the Tamil IDPs have been systematically resettled in the north and east, no such action is being taken to resettle the Sinhalese and Muslim people who were evicted from these regions by the LTTE and other Tamil militant groups that carried on armed warfare to establish a separate state for Tamils encompassing the north and the east. All persons affected by the violence who were displaced from their original places of residence have an inherent right to return to their prior place of residence or alternate acceptable place with state assistance after restoration of normalcy. Even after the elapsing of 8 years since the elimination of LTTE terrorism, there has been a total lack of action as regards the resettlement of affected Sinhalese and Muslim IDPs, although the government keeps harping on reconciliation which requires the equitable treatment of all concerned not withstanding their ethnicity. As a consequence of the lopsided policies being adopted by the state, the north is becoming a mono-ethnic region which will give rise to separatist tendencies leading to yet another violent confrontation in the future that would seriously disturb the peace within the island.

1. Constitutional Changes:   The main areas of concern to the public were the 13th Amendment establishing Provincial Councils imposed on Sri Lanka by the Indian Government which militarily intervened in 1987 contrary to the Bandung and international principles to which they subscribed, to save the Indian trained and funded Tamil separatist terror groups unleashed by India to destabilize the country who were on the verge of elimination at the time. The enabling legislation was consequently passed by parliament through unethical and coercive means compelling the ruling party’s caucus to vote for it under threat of tabling undated ‘letters of resignation’ surreptitiously obtained by the then President . The other areas of concern to the public were the extent of powers wielded by the Executive President in times of peace and normalcy within the country, the maximum term the incumbent Executive President may hold office, and the need for truly independent Commissions to manage key areas such as the police, judiciary, bribery and corruption, public service, human rights, elections, finance, etc.

In fact, the present government campaigned on a platform of good governance, elimination of bribery and corruption, investigation and punishment of corrupt activities on the part of previous political leaders and officials, restoration of democracy, rule of law, media freedom and the establishment of independent commissions. They have fallen far short of their commitment with serious charges of new corruption such as the ‘Central Bank Bond Scam’ costing the nation immense amounts by way of higher interest charges for the next three decades including the stifling of the flow of FDIs, and politically motivated actions that have eroded the confidence in the new regime. There were proposals to reduce the powers of the executive presidency to which the present president wholeheartedly agreed, but there was no proposal to revise the existing constitution in its entirety including the pride of place given to the Buddha Sasana in order to give expression to a civilizational pillar which goes into the very root of our existence and history of the nation.  While primacy of place is given to Buddhism which is the philosophy that nourished the nation for over the past 2300 years and gave us the humane values, culture and traditions, space has been provided for the practice all other faiths freely both in private and public without any bars whatsoever.

Sri Lankans resident in the homeland and overseas have earlier jointly made proposals to revoke the 13^th Amendment imposed by India with the aim of restoring stability and removing any risk of the break-up of the unitary state of Sri Lanka. This involves switching from Provincial Councils to District Councils at the periphery, and scaling back excessive powers devolved to provinces and replacing same with adequate decentralized powers needed by districts to administer local subjects directly concerning the resident community. The District Secretariat already functioning could be easily adapted to serve the New District Councils.  This move could be accompanied by sharing more powers at the Centre to compensate for withdrawal of provincial powers granted at the present time, while at the same time enhancing powers to gramiya (village) units at the grass roots as in the case of India’s Panchayat system.  In addition, share some powers at the Centre by co-opting the elected members and qualified experts within the minority communities to Advisory Bodies to be set up for key Ministries where they would have input in the development of policy, plan implementation and monitoring process giving them an opportunity to have a say in the day to day governance of the nation.  This is a proposal that would win the favour of a majority of the people as it would save an enormous amount of funds wasted by provinces in virtually running a weaker parallel administration to that of the centre.  As an interim measure, steps should be taken on an urgent basis to amend 13A by deleting Police powers, restoring rights over land matters by transferring the related powers to the Central Government, and revoking the right of two or more Provincial Councils from amalgamating to form a unified Provincial Council, pending the holding of a National Referendum to determine the abrogation of the problematic 13^th Amendment.

It has been reported in the media that part of the reasons for drafting a new constitution was to give effect to the presence of a multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic and multi-religious society in present day Sri Lanka, and to attempt to heal the divisions and differences and bring about a greater degree of reconciliation amongst the resident populace.  Such thinking is flawed as people of different backgrounds lived in harmony in the earlier historical Kingdom of Sinhale pledging their loyalty to the state and in return receiving equal protection from the crown. The problems that we face today is due to foreign colonial powers having exploited the underlying differences in order to divide and rule the people and create hostilities between different communities thereby destroying the communal harmony and peace within the society. The solution does not lie in highlighting such differences and transforming the society into strict ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious compartments, which will continue to pull the nation apart in different directions, but drawing strength from the past and building on the commonalities based on our shared values generating trust free of external divisive influences. The people of SINHALE always welcomed persons of different ethnic backgrounds that arrived later in the island to settle freely, making them an equal part of the nation of SINHALE with freedom to observe their cultures and religious beliefs so long as these did not threaten the peaceful co-existence of the resident populace.

Certain Tamil leaders and some foreign powers including India have said that a meaningful power sharing arrangement which gives the Tamils a due place must be put on the table, in order to create the stage for reconciliation to take place between the majority Sinhalese community and the minority Tamils who enjoy the same rights as the rest of the citizens.  The Tamils who today number around 8 percent of the total population following the large scale migration of over a million Tamils to the west and other developed countries, have moved out of the north and east with almost 54 percent now living in the rest of the country with a high percentage in and around the capital city of Colombo, in mixed ethnic surroundings.  Whilst the voluntary relocation of the Tamils is welcome, it is best to similarly arrange for other communities to be settled amongst the Tamils of the north and east in order to form similar multi-ethnic societies that will live side by side as in the more densely populated areas of the south to build better human relations leading to peaceful co-existence of the various ethnicities.

Tamil cooperation with the majority community following the grant of independence from Britain was short lived, as a section of the Tamils led by Mr. S.J.V. Chelvanayakam broke away from the Tamil Congress as early as 1949 to form what they called the ‘Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi’’ (Lanka Tamil State Party) where they conjured up a Tamil Nation, but disguised it in English as the Federal Party which would stay within the Sri Lanka state, masking their hidden agenda of establishing a separate state for the Tamils. The ITAK replaced the word ‘Shamasthi’ with ‘innaipatchchi’ in 2008? If Shamasthi meant federal what does Innaipatchchi mean? We can conclude that innaipatchchi does not mean federal but confederal and that explains why ITAK/TNA leaders inclusive of the NPC Chief Minister are making demands that align with a confederal system. In 2008 ITAK not only amended its constitution but included a clause that completely endorsed the 1976 Vaddukoddai Resolution where they decided to form a separate state by all means including armed warfare. In so doing, ITAK & TNA officially puts to paper that its aims & objectives are for a separate state.  Further, political parties should be barred from carrying names with ethnic or religious labels as they tend to heighten racial, ethnic and religious divides and disrupt peaceful co-existence.

Scale down the level of politicization and resultant political rivalry which unduly pits one against the other within society, by at least allowing for election of members of local government bodies based on individual qualifications instead of on party lines for each ward or electorate. This will eliminate confrontational party politics within each ward or electorate and it will greatly reduce excessive rivalry and hostilities at the local level. Adopt each electorate as the unit which elects representatives to the main parliament as well. It will attract better candidates at the general elections to the main parliament, as the need to canvass within a whole district can be avoided by seeking popular support within a single electorate with a smaller budget.

A Truth Commission like in South Africa is meaningless with the elimination of the LTTE leadership and them not being present to admit to their wrongdoing.  Regurgitating the unsavory aspects may open up new wounds instead of healing the heavy hearts which is required at the moment.  It is not a good guys versus bad guys issue, but acceptance of the fact that decisions made from time to time are not necessarily perfect and meeting the aspirations of all competing sectors.  The nation has to adopt a forgiving and tolerant attitude to seek well balanced policies in attempting to rectify any shortcomings while ensuring that all citizens are secure from harm and treated justly.

A Plan of Action For Reconciliation:  In order that the desired harmony and reconciliation may be achieved, we must refuse to recognize political parties with ethnic or religious labels, and furthermore give positive effect to the fundamental right of ‘Freedom of Movement’ where citizens are free to move to any part of the island which is their common homeland, and settle in wherever they may engage in lawful pursuits to support themselves and their families.  This right of Freedom of Movement is currently not being upheld equally, as the internally displaced Sinhalese and Muslims are not being given equal treatment in the resettlement plans as Tamil IDPs are being given the highest priority.  While in the early 1970’s there were as much as 27,000 Sinhalese and around 75,000 Muslims living in the Northern Province, their natural increases over time too should be taken into account in determining resettlement plans .  Only about 57 Sinhalese families have been permitted to resettle in the Navattakuli area, with no statistics of resettled Muslims being available in the public domain. The few Sinhalese allowed to resettle too have not been provided the same level of assistance extended to the Tamil IDPs, even though they too were displaced owing to violence directed against them by extremist Tamil separatist terror groups.

The Sinhalese and Muslims of the eastern province too were attacked by the LTTE and other Tamil separatist terror groups in the 1980’s and 1990’s as they sought this region for their proposed mono-ethnic separate state of Tamil Eelam, forcing many thousands to flee the area thereby depriving themselves of their properties and livelihoods to seek safety elsewhere.  They too have a similar right to be resettled in their places of origin with similar assistance as that  given to Tamil IDPs.  This policy of step-motherly treatment being extended to the Sinhalese and Muslim IDPs is paving the way for Tamil mono-ethnic regions that would tend to drift towards separatism rather than reconciling with the rest in forming a united nation.

Reconciliation between people of different backgrounds could take place mainly through interaction in day to day living, by fostering the sharing of space instead of compartmentalizing of different communities to different regions.  The northern province which is predominantly Tamil following the historical events of ethnic cleansing during the time of Sankili, and policies subsequently adopted by our former European colonial masters and the more recent forced evacuations of non-Tamils by Tamil forces seeking a separate state, have led the region to become a mono-ethnic enclave with underlying separatist tendencies given voice to by prominent members of the Tamil community.  While the road and rail links have helped somewhat for the meeting and mixing of communities within and outside the region, more needs to be done to encourage non-Tamils to move to the region just as a large percentage of Tamils have been welcomed by the Sinhalese and Muslims living elsewhere in the country. I would suggest as a policy measure, that the state formally decide to select new settlers in land development projects island-wide on the basis of National Ethnic Ratios, so that new communities will reflect the nation’s make up.  Even the private sector too should be encouraged to follow a similar policy subject to their finding the necessary skills, so that multicultural communities will come into being everywhere.  This will permit more non-Tamils to settle amongst the Tamils in the north and for more Tamils to settle in other areas leading to more interaction and shared community life that will help to establish inter-communal harmony and true reconciliation

Flawed UNHRC Process On Sri Lanka:   The UNHRC adopted Resolution A/HRC/25/1 at its sessions held in March 2014 granting the High Commissioner an investigative mandate in violation of HRC Resolution 60/251 and the IB package, which is in direct conflict with the limits of authority of the HC. The High Commissioner, Ms. Navi Pillay has on her own extended the period of the investigation originally fixed from February 21, 2002 to May 19, 2009, to cover the additional period up to November 15, 2011, in direct variance with the enabling Resolution adopted at the March 2014 session of the UNHRC. The Resolution should have called for the investigation of the entire period of the armed conflict which commenced in 1983 and ended on May 19, 2009, as it now leaves out a major portion of the atrocities committed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam prior to February 2002 and IPKF operations from 1987 to 1990 against Tamil armed groups in the north and east with reported HR violations.  The UNHRC Resolution is based on the unofficial report commissioned by the Secretary General on his own accord without the authority of the UNGA, UNSC or the UNHRC, where he appointed a three member panel of so called experts from outside the UN system on issues of accountability in Sri Lanka, that looked into the last stages of the conflict covering the period from January 1, 2009 to May 19, 2009. The UNSG most likely influenced by the western funded rights groups, western powers and the remnants of the LTTE rump domiciled in western countries decided to take this course of action against Sri Lanka.

Navi Pillay, the High Commissioner for Human Rights who is a South African of Indian Tamil descent comes from a South African community which has raised funds for the Tamil Tigers and even operated military training camps, which were ordered to be dismantled by President Nelson Mandela at the request of Sri Lanka’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Late Hon. Lakshman Kadirgamar.  Her actions tend to be influenced by the views of major western powers which still selectively follow their ‘divide and conquer’ agendas that exploit ethnic, religious and other differences to weaken or even break up nations in the guise of extending democratic freedoms and human rights. In the case of Sri Lanka, her bias is apparently linked to her Indian Tamil roots that induced her community in South Africa to fund the Tamil Tiger terrorists and even arrange secret military camps to throw in their lot to fight alongside the LTTE in pursuit of a separate state of Tamil Eelam” to be carved out of Lanka’s sovereign territory. As an official of an international body reviewing aspects of a conflict involving Sri Lanka and the militant Tamils designated as a terrorist movement by the UN Security Council, she should have been wise enough to recuse herself to avoid criticism of her highly assertive and biased role.

The UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon selected persons who had publicly declared their antipathy to Sri Lanka such as Marzuki Darussman, Steven Ratner and Yasmin Sooka a close associate of Navi Pillay for his panel.  The panel gathered information mainly from pro-Tamil Tiger supporters, just one side of the conflict which is obviously a prejudiced source, and comes up with what they term as credible allegations” of violations of International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law on the part of the Sri Lankan armed forces. The panel also arrived at guesstimates of civilian deaths repeating the fibs of Gordon Weiss and the ICG of tens of thousands said to be the highly inflated number of around 40,000 without any logical basis, even ignoring the UN Resident Representative’s count of 7,721 from August 2008 to May 13, 2009 without distinguishing between combatants and civilians. The panel which conducted its hearings in New York stated that none of the allegations have been proven, and also that their report does not meet the high standards of a UN report, and further goes on to lock away the evidence presented to them for the next 20 years.  To add insult to injury, Ban ki-Moon causes the panel’s report to be leaked, although it was intended purely for his own guidance in dealing with similar situations in the future, and not meant for worldwide publication or any related UN action.  The SG not only violated the spirit of the Joint Statement with Sri Lanka but acted in an interventionist role outside the limits of his authority to single out Sri Lanka for arbitrary treatment. The SG’s actions are in direct violation of Article 2 (7) of the UN Charter which prohibits intervention in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state.

Furthermore, these actions on the part of the SG are in contravention of the decision taken by the UNHRC of June 2009, where the issues of human rights and international humanitarian laws were discussed resulting in a resounding vote upholding Sri Lanka’s sovereign right to defend her security using every possible means within her power. It is relevant to quote from the Op Ed column which appeared in ‘The Hindu’ newspaper of June 25, 2010, which stated as follows:  Sri Lanka is a sovereign, independent country, having the indisputable right under the UN Charter itself, to act in its best judgment on issues relating to its internal affairs, especially where maintenance of peace and security is concerned”. Sri Lanka not only eliminated terrorism, but also restored the ‘Right to Life’ of all her citizens who were constantly targeted by the Tamil Tigers, whilst at the same time rescuing 300,000 Tamil IDPs who were being used as a human shield by the cowardly terrorists since resettled, but also rehabilitated and released nearly 12,000 former LTTE fighting cadres with new life skills to society.

Two Presidential Commissions have studied this subject of ‘Missing Persons’ and a wealth of material has been gathered after meeting with the affected people. The second commission led by Justice Maxwell Paranagama had the benefit of renowned legal experts from the UK and the USA led by Sir Desmond de Silva, QC, UK, Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice, QC, and Professor David Crane from the USA , who are all highly recognized legal luminaries both internationally and in their respective countries, in an advisory capacity. They are similarly acknowledged by the UN authorities which retained their services in the ICC and other tribunals where leaders of several countries were tried for violation of international humanitarian laws and war crimes in past conflicts. The Paranagama Commission also had a leading military personality in Major General (Rtd.) Sir John Holmes, former leader of the British SAS, who had the experience and background to analyse and study the battle situations faced by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in facing the armed LTTE terrorists who forcibly used the Tamil civilian population as a pool of auxiliary forces to be conscripted for battle,( exploited for their labour in building defensive berms, etc., or as a human shield or sandbags), was firmly of the opinion that the SLA took necessary precautions to minimize casualties and assessed proportionality in pursuing their military objectives. Based on the latest information gathered by the Justice Paranagama Commission, they were presented with a total of 19,000 complaints relating to missing persons of whom 14,000 were from Tamil residents of the north many of whom have most likely left Sri Lanka’s shores and even taken different identities,  and 5,000 from family members of security forces personnel who are missing in action during the period from 1983 to 2009.

The report of the Commission had been duly presented to the Government by August 15, 2015, along with the detailed explanatory notes provided by the legal experts in support, wherein paragraph 49, a strong rebuttal of the grave allegations made in the UNSG’s PoE report and the OISL had been provided. Strangely, for some unknown reason, the current government failed to use this valuable report to defend Sri Lanka’s good name at the subsequent sessions of the UNHRC, which is a gross dereliction of duty for which no answer has been received up to now. It has also failed to provide the contents of these reports affecting the country in the national languages for the wider understanding of the general public. The government has failed to represent the people and nation of Sri Lanka by disregarding these expert opinions by bowing to foreign sources with questionable agendas. It is indeed laughable to have the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner, Prince Zeid, call on Sri Lanka to disband the Sri Lanka Missing Persons Commission and assign its work to a more credible body, notwithstanding the fact that we are a sovereign country and an equal member of both the UN and UNHRC of which he is only a paid employee.

The Office of Missing Persons Act No: 14 of 2016 as amended by the Office on Missing Persons (Amendment) Act, No. 9 of 2017, which were hurriedly passed without proper public consultations and just made operative, is not merely an office but a tribunal with a vast array of powers to conduct investigations and even accept evidence disregarding provisions in the Evidence Ordinance. Yet another anomaly is the empowerment of the OMP to receive funds from any source local or foreign which could lead to undue influence in its proceedings. Furthermore, all officers of the OMP have been granted complete immunity from civil and criminal liability for any act or omission on their part or the contents of any report they may publish with the ability to withhold information, even when their actions are reviewed by the Supreme Court overriding articles 126 and 140 of the constitution.  This certainly leaves room for unfair practices and excesses on the part of the OMP to escape public scrutiny giving rise to a great deal of public concern.

It is shocking to say the least to have the leadership of the present government decide to co-sponsor  a resolution drawn up by western countries, INGO and the rump of the LTTE based overseas against Sri Lanka. More damage was done by deliberately shelving the valued legal and military opinions gathered from world renowned experts on the conduct of Sri Lanka’s Security Forces in the armed conflict concluded on May 19, 2009.  The western powers which adopt policies of regime change, engage in military intervention with limitless collateral damage, death and displacement, have as their primary objective not the much publicized democratization of societies or upholding of human rights, but destabilization and the division of countries to enable exploitation of resources, establishing military bases and benefiting otherwise. Due to the lack of foresight on the part of the present national leaders who would do deals to gain power and control the financial and economic levers of the nation, we have opened ourselves to further intrusions by the same western powers who are only focussed on their hegemonic interests and domination over their former colonies.  It is time the public becomes aware of the dangerous waters in which the ship of state is sailing and take measures to steady the course and get a capable captain and crew from amongst the educated and proven leaders in their midst.

Yours sincerely,

Mahinda Gunasekera

Editorial Courtesy The Island

July 27, 2017, 9:50 pm

We thought the practice of deploying goons to operate alongside the riot police to crush public protests would end with the 2015 regime change. The present-day leaders, in the run-up to the last presidential election, promised a clean break from the past and a new political culture. But, two-and-a-half years on, we see pro-government thugs operate openly in full view of the police, assaulting as they do protesters, with absolute impunity. They were first sighted in Hambantota, where they pelted stones at a group of Opposition activists protesting against the signing of a controversial port deal with China about seven months ago. Police shamelessly shielded the rock throwing thugs.

On Wednesday, the yahapalana regime laid bare its true face once again. It unleashed its goons on the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) workers engaged in a strike against a government decision to hand over the state-owned oil storage facilities to China and India. The military may not want to fight another war for fear of being hauled up before war crimes tribunals. But, the army and the navy go flat out, at the drop of a hat, to crush protests because the UNHRC and the so-called international community don’t care two hoots about workers’ or students’ rights here.

Armed to the teeth and in full battle gear, hundreds of soldiers launched what may be considered the biggest operation since the conclusion of the war in 2009 on Wednesday. Their Entebbe-style offensive, with zero resistance from unarmed oil workers, helped bring the CPC facilities under military control in next to no time! The troops were backed by the STF in the task. After the army and the STF had secured the ‘enemy territories’ a group of club-wielding yahapalana goons swung into action to carry out mopping-up operations around the Kolonnawa oil installation. They can be seen in the photographs we have published including the one on this page today.

Police valiantly descend on even drunkards who micturate in public. They also round up schoolboys who misbehave near girls’ schools during the big match season. But, none of the goons who assaulted the CPC workers had been arrested until this edition went to press.

Various excuses are being trotted out for police inaction. The Police Spokesman has apparently gone missing. What takes the cake is Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera’s explanation. He has, true to form, put his foot in the mouth once again. He doesn’t seem to have learnt anything from his disastrous encounters with Susie and Malinga. He has, in answer to a question posed by this newspaper, claimed that the CPC protesters were attacked by members of the public who were angered by the strike. We are reminded of one of the many goon attacks on protesters under the Rajapaksa government. UPFA thugs were once seen carrying sticks among the riot police personnel in Colombo. Subsequently, asked why police had not taken any action against the thugs, the then Police Spokesman audaciously claimed they may have been carrying sticks to ward off stray dogs!

Many civil society outfits, trade unions etc, threw their weight behind the yahapalana campaign, condemning the Rajapaksa government and promising to restore the rule of law and democratic rights. Where are those ardent champions of democracy? Their silence is deafening.

The goons who set upon the CPC workers can be easily identified. They must be arrested for that serious offence. The yahapalana government must ensure that police act without further delay. Let all civil society organisations, human rights groups and trade unions be urged to crank up pressure on the government to do so. It is no use asking the Joint Opposition to take up cudgels for the people whose rights are being blatantly violated. It, too, has chosen to play softball with the yahapalana government. Its bark is worse than its bite! There is a pressing need for a robust Opposition to act as a counterweight to the present administration which signals left and turns right.

By Hemantha Warnakulasuriya Courtesy The Island

July 27, 2017, 10:00 pm
I was happy to receive the news that Shiran Guneratne had been nominated by Chief Justice Priyasath Dep to fill one of the 03 vacancies in the Court of Appeal. But, I was also deeply concerned that the evil forces, conspiring to destabilise the independence of the judiciary, would work overtime to prevent the Constitutional Council from approving the recommendations of the Chief Justice. These evil forces shouted themselves hoarse, in a most despicable manner, against the most Senior High Court Judge, Manilal Waidyathilake being appointed to the Court of Appeal. Waidyathilake is the most Senior High Court Judge; he was transferred from Kandy to take the position of the most Senior High Court Judge and sit in the Colombo High Court’s Court No. 1 in the Western Province. It has been the practice that before a Judge is elevated to the Court of Appeal, he is enabled to act as the most Senior High Court Judge in Court No. 1, Colombo.

Rumors are spreading at Hulftsdorp about the manner in which the evil forces conspire to have their favourites appointed to the judiciary. They insult the judges who have not found favour with them; they hound such judges by accusing them of being corrupt or branding them as loyalists of the previous government or making some other unsubstantiated allegations. The sinister elements who did not get favourable judgments rallied round to prevent Manilal Waidyathilake being promoted. If such a thing had happened during the time of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL), and its head would have asked for the intervention of the executive to prevent such sordid manipulation of the judiciary and to stop that unwarranted interference. But now the Bar is silent.

We all rallied behind BASL President Upul Jayasuriya, who spoke out against the Executive for overlooking Sriskandarajah when the President of the Court of Appeal, which was responsible for squashing the Select Committee Report on Shiranee Bandaranayake, was appointed. Jayasuriya, after the untimely death of Sriskandarajah, said, “From this day his vision would move away from our sight, but his mission, though uncompleted, would linger in our hearts and memories. Until such time he would not have died in vain”.

A similar fate befell justice Guneratne for dismissing a Select Committee Report as regards former Chief Justice Shiranee Bandaranayake. But, justice prevailed and he is one of the most loved Justices of the Supreme Court.

We are thankful to the present Chief Justice for having recommended Gunerathne to fill one of the vacancies in the Court of Appeal, and silencing the web mafia.

By C. A. Chandraprema Courtesy The Island

July 27, 2017, 9:51 pm
In view of the CPC strike the army and the STF were deployed at the Kolonnawa and the Muthurajawela oil storage facilities on Wednesday. Many persons armed with clubs etc were seen threatening and attacking the strikers at Kolonnawa. (File photo)

Last Wednesday, for the first time in living memory, the military was deployed to distribute fuel in the wake of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation strike. My generation has seen many things in our lifetimes, civil war, terrorism, suicide bombings, World War II scale military debacles, piles of dead bodies – the whole works, and we thought we had seen it all and that in the interval between now and our death, we would not see anything that we had not seen earlier and that life would be at the very worst, seeing a repetition of what we had seen earlier. But the present government has proved us wrong. They have shown us many things that we never thought we would see in our lifetimes. A Chief Justice sacked with just a chit from the Presidential secretariat, the majority group in parliament which votes against the budget and holds separate political rallies, denied the leadership of the opposition on the basis that they are a part of one of the governing parties and other strange and new things.

It was also the first time that we had seen the military deployed to distribute fuel in the wake of a strike. We had seen the military deployed to run the passenger transport on the roads in the wake of the forced CTB strike that the JVP induced in 1989. But that was not a strike by legitimate trade unions, but a strike that was enforced by terrorists at the point of a gun. What we saw on Wednesday was however normal trade union action. This is not to say that trade unions cannot be unreasonable. We have seen some very unreasonable strikes in the past. During the Chandrika Kumaratunga government, there was a month long postal strike demanding the removal of the head of the Department. During the Rajapaksa government we have seen strikes by midwives in opposition to nurses and vice versa. Then there was that strike by university teachers in 2012 demanding that 6% of the GDP be allocated to education.

So there has been no shortage of unreasonable trade union action. However, the CPC strike last Tuesday was based on three demands – not leasing the Trincomalee oil tank farm to India, handing over the Hambantota bunkering facility to the CPC and the modernisation of the Sapugaskanda refinery. None of these were based on parochial interests which often motivate trade unions. For example, even though the 2012 university teacher’s strike was sold to the public as a demand for more money to be allocated for education, the actual reason why the university teachers engaged in the strike was to win more personal perks which included an allowance to educate children of university teachers in private schools. However there were no such hidden demands in the CPC strike last Tuesday.

It was all over a matter of policy. The CPC in particular has been watching bits and pieces of their institution being sold off over the years. The lubricants division was sold off to a private company. Some of the filling stations were sold off to the Indian Oil Company. One of their demands was that the Hambantota port bunkering facility be handed over to the CPC – which given the potential it has, was a reasonable demand especially view of the fact that the CPC has been depleted of income earning assets over the years especially under the previous UNP government of 2001-2004. The way the government met the CPC strike was to send the military in to forcibly enter the CPC premises and to take over the distributive functions. Striking workers were arrested by the police and bundled into trucks to be taken away to the hoosegow.

They were granted police bail later in the night but the arrested workers had complained to visiting opposition parliamentarians that they had been assaulted by the police and by pro-government thugs as well. There is, in fact, video footage and newspaper pictures of thugs armed with clubs chasing after workers. This strong arm approach to strikes does not come in isolation. At the same cabinet meeting that decided to approve the 99 year lease of the Hambantota port, the other important decision that was made was that all Provincial Council elections will be held on the same day. For all practical purposes, that will be a way of heading off the elections to the three PC elections in the NCP, Sabaragamuwa and the East which will stand automatically dissolved in early October this year. If these elections were held and the government either lost or came close to losing, that would have sealed their fate. A defeat at any election at any level – whether local government, provincial or national will effectively end the government’s ability to govern.

The fact that Cabinet has taken a decision that all PC elections will be held on the same day does not necessarily mean that the elections will be postponed. A cabinet decision cannot postpone a PC election – the Constitution itself will have to be changed for that. Article 154E of the Constitution states: “A Provincial Council shall, unless sooner dissolved, continue for a period of five years from the date appointed for its first meeting and the expiration of the said period of five years shall operate as a dissolution of the Council.” According to this provision, the Sabaragamuwa, North Central and eastern PCs will cease to exist after early October. Unless the Constitution is changed, there is no way that the terms of the existing councils in those three provinces can be extended.

The government has a two-thirds majority in Parliament so they can amend the Constitution. However, the sticking point is that if they try to Amend Article 154E of the constitution so as to extend the original term for which the PC was elected, there is the possibility that the Supreme Court may interpret it as an infringement of Article 3 of the Constitution, which speaks of the franchise. Article 3 is an entrenched provision on our constitution which cannot be amended without a referendum in addition to the two thirds majority in parliament. Any move that impinges in any way with the right to vote is interpreted as an infringement of Article 3 and hence necessitating a referendum. This is also why the government has not been able to abolish the executive presidency. Turning the elected president into a non-elected president will be interpreted as a impinging on Article 3 and therefore needing a referendum.

If not for this Article 3, which keeps popping up in the most inconvenient fashion, any provision relating to the president in the constitution can be amended with only a two thirds majority in parliament because none of those provisions are entrenched. Now, if the government in its eagerness to put off the impending provincial council elections seeks an interpretation from the Supreme Court that such postponement does not impinge on the franchise, that may have a knock on effect on the provisions relating to the executive presidency as well and place President Sirisena’s job in jeopardy.

According to Section 10 of the Provincial Councils Elections Act, No. 2 of 1988, once the dissolution of a provincial council takes place under Article 154E of the Constitution, the provincial Councils elections law kicks in and within a week of such dissolution, the Commissioner shall publish a notice of his intention to hold an election to such Council and call for nominations. After the nominations proceedings are over, according to Sections 20 and 22 of the Provincial Councils Elections Act, the district returning officers will fix the date of the poll. One way for the government to postpone holding the PC elections would be to suitably amend the provisions of the PC Elections Act instead of the constitution. The need of the government is avoid holding an election, not to extend the terms of the existing PCs.

The only way to extend the term of a PC is to amend the Constitution but by fiddling about a little with the PC elections law No 2 of 1988, it will be possible to postpone holding elections to a council that has been dissolved. This in fact seems to be the likelier scenario. Thus we may be in for a period when PCs stand dissolved when their five years is up in accordance with the constitution, and then there will be no provincial councils in those three provinces, just as there are no local government institutions. In fact, the government does have an excuse for putting off elections to the PCs, too, because they are planning to bring in a new Constitution, and can claim that it will make more sense to hold elections to the PCs once the constitutional reforms are in place. Thus, we will become the only nation on earth to have good governance without elections.

නව ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ මූලික කෙටුම්පත් ලබන අගෝස්තු මස පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කරන බවත්, නව ව්‍යවස්තාව ජනමතවිචාරණයකින් සම්මත කරගැනීම සදහා සූදානම් වන ලෙසත් අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා ‘පුරවැසි බලය‘ ඇතුළු රාජ්‍ය නොවන සංවිධාන ප්‍රධානීන්ට දන්වා ඇත.

වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුව බලයට පත් කිරිම සදහා කැපවූ රාජ්‍ය නොවන සංවිධාන ප්‍රධානීන් පිරිසක් සමග පසුගිය ජූලි 21 වනදා අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේදී පැවති සාකච්ඡාවකදි අගමැතිවරයා මේ බව දැනුම් දුන්නේය.

මූලික කෙටුම්පත පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමෙන් අනතුරුව ඒ පිළිබද රටේ සාකච්ඡාවකට භාජනය කර අවසන් කෙටුම්පත පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ තුනෙන් දෙකක අනුමැතියෙන් පසු ජනමතවිචාරණයකට යොමුකර බවත් සදහන් කළ අගමැතිවරයා ජනමතවිචාරණය ජය ගැනීම සදහා සූදානම් වන්නැයිද ප්‍රකාශ කර තිබේ.

විවිධ පාර්ශව වලින් එන විරෝධතා එතරම් ගණන් නොගත යුතු බව ප්‍රකාශ කර ඇති අගමැතිවරයා ආණ්ඩුව බලයට පත් කිරීමට කැප වූ පුරවැසි බලය ඇතුළු සංවිධාන වෙනුවෙන් තමන් නිරතුරුවම පෙනී සිටින බවද සහතික වී ඇත.

මෙම සාකච්ඡාව සදහා, දඹර අමිල හිමි, ආචාර්ය වික්‍රමබාහු කරුණාරත්න, ගාමිණී වියන්ගොඩ, සමන් රත්නප්‍රිය, ධර්මසිරි බණ්ඩාරනායක, නිමල්කා ප්‍රනාන්දු, කේ.ඩබ්. ජනරංජන ඇතුළු රාජ්‍ය නොවන සංවිධාන ක්‍රියාකාරීන් 20 දෙනෙකු පමණ සහභාගී වී ඇත.

නව ව්‍යවස්ථාවට ජනාතා කැමැත්ත ලබා ගැනීම සදහා ‘පුරවැසි බලය‘ විසින් මේ වන විටත් රට පුරා සම්මන්ත්‍රණ මාළාවක් ආරම්භ කර ඇති අතර, ඒ සදහා දෙමළ බෙදුම්වාදය වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටන, ආරක්ෂක හමුදාවට යුධ අපරාධ චෝදනා එල්ල කිරීම සදහා දෙමළ ඩයස්පොරාව සමග එක්ව කටයුතු කරන පිරිස්ද පෙරමුණ ගෙන කටයුතු කිරීම විශේෂිතය.

Courtesy Port Strategy

According to Reuters, under the new agreement cleared on July 25, the Sri Lankan government has limited China’s role in the port to the running of commercial operations, while Sri Lanka maintains oversight of broader security.

The port has been the subject of controversy following Chinese state-run China Merchants Port Holdings’ signature of an agreement granting them an 80% stake in the facility.

Chinese control of Hambantota, part of its modern-day “Silk Route”, as well as a plan to acquire 15,000 acres to develop an industrial zone next door, had sparked concerns, primarily in India but also in the US and Japan, that Chinese naval vessels could use the port.

The first deal’s terms also sparked street protests by Sri Lankans, who were concerned they would lose their land, while politicians said that such large-scale transfer of land to China encroached on Sri Lanka’s sovereignty.

According to Reuters, the document says that two companies are being established to split operations at the port and alleviate concerns about the port being used for military purposes.

China Merchants Port Holdings will hold an 85% stake in Hambantota International Port Group – which will run the port and its terminals – with the remaining shares being taken by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority.

A second firm, Hambantota International Port Group Services Co., will be created to oversee security operations, with Sri Lanka holding a 50.7% stake and China holding 49.3%.

China has been creating what military officials call a “String of Pearls”, or a network of friendly ports where the country’s warships can refuel, through its building of ports in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and smaller island nations.

According to Reuters, Ports Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said that a number of foreign missions had sought clarification about whether the Chinese navy would be using Hambantota port.

“We told China that we can’t allow the port for military use and that 100 percent responsibility of security matters should be with the Sri Lankan government,” he reportedly said.

Reuters also said that China Merchants Port Holdings had also agreed, in the document, to reduce its share in the Sri Lankan joint venture running the port’s commercial operations to 65% after 10 years.

According to the news agency, one source commented on the new agreement: “They [Sri Lanka] emphasized that they wanted to maintain balanced relations with other countries.

“But the deal is still beneficial for China in terms of revenue.”

http://www.portstrategy.com/news101/world/asia/sri-lanka-agrees-on-port-deal-with-china

Vavuniya High Court on July 26 sentenced K. Dasan, a former cadre of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for abducting and recruiting children to fight during the war, to life imprisonment, reports Colombo Page. In 2008, complaints have been lodged with the Police that the suspect had abducted children on several occasions. However, the Police at the time were not able to arrest him since he was with the terrorist organization. After the end of the war, the suspect has surrendered to the security forces and was rehabilitated. Following his return to his home in Kilinochchi, the Police had taken him into custody on a complaint made by his family and produced him in court for trial.

Meanwhile, the European Court of Justice in Brussels on July 26 removed LTTE from its terrorism blacklist, reports Colombo Page. In 2006, the Council of the European Union placed on the list the LTTE, a movement which opposed the Government of Sri Lanka in a violent confrontation that resulted in the LTTE’s defeat in 2009. The Council has maintained the LTTE on the list ever since. By the judgment the Court of Justice reaffirming its case-law, said the European Union had not provided any evidence showing that the LTTE was a risk after their military defeat in 2009.

Courtesy Ceylon Today

The Special Task Force (STF) will, on a directive issued by President Maithripala Sirisena, provide security to Jaffna High Court Judge M. Ilancheliyan, informed sources said.

An eight-member STF team, led by a Sub Inspector, will provide security to Judge Ilancheliyan’s residence and his convoy.

On the directions of President Maithripala Sirisena, Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara, in coordination with STF Commandant and the Deputy Inspector General of Police for Jaffna, had worked out the security plan for the High Court Judge, informed sources said.

Judge Ilancheliyan even stressed on the need to strengthen his security soon after his bodyguard, Sub Inspector Sarath Premachandra was gunned down, by a man who was believed to be under the influence of alcohol, on the Southern street of historic Nallur Kanthaswamy temple in Jaffna, last Saturday(22).

Lawyers, from all five districts in the Northern Province, along with several civil society organizations have been staging demonstrations in the North to condemn the attack carried out on the High Court Judge’s convoy while expressing their condolences on the death of Sub Inspector Sarath Premachandra.

Meanwhile, Sarath Premachandra’s funeral in his home town Chilaw was held with full Police honours yesterday. The dead Sergeant was posthumously elevated to the rank of Sub Inspector. (PA)

Xinhua | 

Wade Shepard ,  CONTRIBUTOR Courtesy Forbes

A deal between China and Sri Lanka over the Hambantota deep sea port may be done — finally. After nearly a year-long showdown that brought China and India into the ring and sparked tensions and even outright violence between the various facets of Sri Lanka’s political spectrum, the toboggle may now be over . . . at least on paper.

According to a July 25th press release from China Merchants Port Holdings Co., the state-owned port operator will agree to pay $1.12 billion for an 85% share of the Hambantota port for 99 years, a portion of which is to be put towards a 58% cut of a new company called the Hambantota International Port Services Company (HIPS), and the remaining $146.342 million put into a bank account to cover operational expenses.

However, according to a document that a Reuters reporter claims to have seen, the ownership breakdown for the Hambantota International Port Services Company was 50.7% / 49.3%, with Sri Lanka getting the controlling interest, and China Merchants agreeing to drop its share of the port to 65% after ten years.

More on Forbes: Sri Lanka’s China Enclave: Set To Boom Or Bust?

But whatever is the case, full control of commercial operations and development at Hambantota is going to China, along with a provision which prevents any third party country from coming in and presenting competing offers or developing another port within 100 kilometers. Or basically what China was after all along.

The biggest compromise in the deal, if it can be called that, was the setting up of the Hambantota International Port Services Company, which is to be responsible for port security. One of the biggest fears expressed by members of Sri Lanka’s government, citizenry, and India — not to mention the United States and Japan — was that China could potentially use Hambantota for naval purposes. Reputedly, this new company will give Sri Lanka 100% responsibility” over security matters and the right to inspect ships entering the port.

The allure of Hambantota to China is its location: right smack in the middle of the energy supply lines between the Middle East and East Asia; a logically positioned node in Xi Jinping’s signature 21st Century Maritime Silk Road — an emerging network of new and enhanced seaports stretching from the coast of China to Africa, Europe, and beyond. Like so, Hambantota has interests to China that extend far beyond the economic capacity of the port itself, as it is a key building block of the country’s long-term foreign policy vision — which seems to make all the problems that have arose during its initial stages of development worth it.

What have these problems been? As I wrote for Forbes:

Developing the Hambantota region started as a dream of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, and has become emblematic of his highly-controversial reign and a highly polarizing topic within Sri Lanka. The vision was to build a number two city that would grow up around an emerging deep sea port in an under-developed, jungle area that’s best known for its pristine beaches and wildlife preserves.

The Hambantota dream hasn’t quite worked out as designed… Without an accompanying industrial zone or other local businesses to drive demand, Hambantota’s deep sea port struggled to attract ships and cargo volumes, Mattala International Airport became known as the world’s emptiest because of the region’s inability to attract passengers, newly paved, multi-lane highways provided thoroughfares for a severe lack of vehicles, the new cricket stadium was deficient of matches, and the conference center sat empty except for the odd local wedding. All the while, this loss-making infrastructure continued consuming massive amounts of national revenue to operate and maintain.

Far from becoming the catalyst that would propel growth in Sri Lanka’s lagging southern region, Hambantota has so far contributed to a monumental debt trap that’s rattled the country to its financial core and prompted a recent IMF bailout. Nearly all of the infrastructure built in Hambantota was done with Chinese money, bringing Sri Lanka’s debt to the up and coming superpower to the east to over $8 billion.

Last July, in a move towards remedying this squalid state of affairs, Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe proposed to China’s Ambassador Yi Xianliang a debt-for-equity swap that would see the Hambantota port and the Mattala airport go to Chinese companies in exchange for $1.2 billion of debt relief. At first, China said no way, but later started listening, and eventually decided that it was a good idea.

This was a move that didn’t go over well for many in Sri Lanka. Farmers in the Hambantota area began protesting because they feared their land would be taken to build the proposed 15,000 acre industrial zone next to the port; politicians began objecting to the apparent sacrifice of sovereignty that would come from selling China a key piece of infrastructure; India began chirping about how China is wrapping them up in a ‘String of Pearls’ by developing ports around their maritime periphery; and the issue very publicly polarized the populous. All of this caused the transfer of the Hambantota port to be delayed, with Sri Lanka’s finance minister Ravi Karunanayake trying to calm everyone by stating, I assure you that we are not, and cannot, sell the port.”

Not a true statement, as it turned out.

The sale of Hambantota to China Merchants — a deal which, according to Reuters, happened within weeks of President Maithripala Sirisena booting the Hambantota-sale-opposing ports minister out of his cabinet in exchange for someone a little more open to the idea — is set to be finalized by Sri Lanka’s parliament tomorrow.

I’m the author of Ghost Cities of China. Traveling since ’99. Currently on the New Silk Road. Read my other articles on Forbes here.

Courtesy The  Deccan Chronicle

Chennai: DMK Working President M K Stalin on Wednesday welcomed European Union lifting the ban on LTTE and asked the Sri Lankan Government to ensure meaningful share” of power to Eelam Tamils.

In a statement, Mr Stalin said it is a moment of elation as EU’s highest court has removed LTTE from this list and that the DMK view the decision as an important turning point in the long struggle to secure the rights of Eelam Tamils.

The Government of Sri Lanka which has systematically interfered and undermined investigations about the human rights abuses orchestrated by the Sri Lankan Army on Eelam Tamils, should understand the intent of EU’s highest court act of lifting ban on LTTE and work towards ensuring meaningful share of power to Eelam Tamils, equal rights on par with Sinhala majority and create an ecosystem for Tamils to rebuild and live their life with self-respect,” the Opposition Leader said.

He also asked the Sri Lankan Government to expedite actions regarding identifying the Tamils who vanished during the war, to return the land parcels belonging to Tamils which are presently occupied by Sri Lankan Army and to cooperate with an independent, international investigation regarding the human rights abuses.

He also asked the Union Government to exert enough pressure” on the Government of Sri Lanka to safeguard and deliver the rights demanded by Eelam Tamils, which they rightfully deserve.

I urge the Central Government to initiate proactive actions towards structuring a political solution and emphasise the fact that India does have a role to play in ensuring the just treatment of Eelam Tamils in Sri Lanka,” he said.

I urge the Central Government to initiate proactive actions towards structuring a political solution and emphasise the fact that India does have a role to play in ensuring the just treatment of Eelam Tamils in Sri Lanka,” he said.

Courtesy The Asian Age

Beijing has the potential to exploit the situation and steamroller its way in dealing with Colombo through a mix of carrot and stick.

The Chinese-built southern Sri Lankan port of Hambantota, strategically located on the world’s busiest sea lanes in the Indian Ocean, has woken up the somnambulists in India as the military standoff with China at Doklam gains greater salience.

Therefore, there was not a little relief felt here when last Tuesday Colombo officially decided to revise its agreement with China on the management of the port in a direction that would leave the overall port security matters to Colombo, permitting the Chinese a major say only in commercial operations.

This was in response to concerns raised not just by India but also Japan and the US that the Chinese-built major port facility might be put to military use by Beijing. The terms of revision are not yet public. But it has been reported that the Hambantota project will be divided into two parts — in the part dealing with commercial operations China will have 85 per cent stakes, and on the side concerned with security uses of the port, Colombo will have 50.7 per cent of the stakes.

 
India and China flags (Photo: PTI/File

No pragmatist can afford to derive too great a sense of relief from an arrangement of this nature, which, really speaking, appears to be in the nature of a placebo — meant to calm nerves without being the real medicine. Sri Lanka has a debt crisis as well as a balance of payments crisis on its hands. Beijing has the potential to exploit the situation and steamroller its way in dealing with Colombo through a mix of carrot and stick.

China has built a port in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa, and is at various stages of completion of port facilities in Gwadar on Pakistan’s Makran coast, Hambantota, Bangladesh and Myanmar. This network potentially serves its maritime silk road” concept as well as docking stations — string of pearls” — for ships of war. There was much negative excitement in India when a Chinese submarine docked in Colombo back in 2014. Fortunately, Indian concerns were noted by Sri Lanka and the Chinese also made appropriate noises, as the game was just starting and Beijing had no wish then to make a big splash.

But a strategic planner is duty-bound to look only at the availability of strategic assets and capabilities and not empty statements of nations. And the outlook from the Indian perspective will need much fixing.

This can take various forms — the building of effective alliances as well as investing in infrastructure in friendly countries. In the latter respect, it has to be conceded that in India what we know best is to repent at leisure. The Hambantota port, which the Chinese built at an estimated cost of $1.5 billion, had been first offered to India by the Sri Lankans, but we found ourselves to be lethargic.

Sugath Samarasinghe

(I sent the attached article as a reply to an article on this subject by a Prof. Fernando, to the Island newspaper. But it was not published)

This is an attempt to explain the question raised by Prof. Laksiri Fernando in his article titled Is there a Sangha State behind the state” that appeared in ‘The Island’ of 10^th July. The straight answer is, yes, there is. It has been here in this country for the last 2300 years, other than during the last 400 years, when it did not go away but was made to take back seat, for survival. The Professor is right when he says, It has reappeared after a long slumber”.  This is how it derives its legitimacy and justification to exist and continue in this country.  This ‘state behind the state’ was revived in 1972 under the Republican Constitution. In fact even prior to that, immediately following the so called ‘silent revolution’ in 1956, SWRD who ushered the ape Aanduwa” took his Cabinet of Ministers to the Kelani Viharaya for their swearing in before the Buddha and Sangha.

This tradition commenced the day that Ven. arahant Mahinda Thero told King Devanam Piya Tissa something to the effect O great king, birds of the air and the beasts have as equal a right to live and any part of the land as thou; the land belongs to the people and all living beings ; thou art only the guardian of it.” . This is  2 millennia ago before the West ever dreamt of any idea of Fundamental Rights. This thought was based on the universal concept of Metta. From that day onwards the Sangha had been the guiding light to the kings in their political thought and governance, through Buddhist thinking, in this country. From it flowed the fundamental ideal political philosophy of Dasaraja dharma which evolved the most stringent concept of Chakkvatthi Raja whose required qualities have been described in the Buddhist texts. It is this thought that Emperor Asoka of India through his Asokan Edicts, tried to live up to that Buddhist ideal of kingship. It is thought that many Sinhala Kings at least of the Anuradhapura Period that ran into 1500 years, tried to emulate this idea. One is reminded of King Buddhadasa the great physician king who introduced to the world, the idea of hospital system for organized cure of the diseased and accordingly built many hospitals in countrywide the remnants of some are still extant. In fact under the tradition of Sangha admonition there developed the idea of ‘Dharmista’ governance that was adopted by the subsequent kings. That is why the Buddhist monks chant at the end of Pirith chantings Raja bhavathu dhammiko” May the kings become dharmistha”, the most extreme case being that of  Sirisangabo who offered not only his kingship but also his head tooon a platter, to satisfy the ambition of his contender. Thus, this country which was then internationally known as Seehaladweepa also came to be known alternatively as Dhammadeepa.  In fact it is with this ‘Dharmista governance‘idea that President JRJ deluded the people of this country in 1977, fraudulently saying that he would re-usher that ideal state! And, after 2000 years too people fell for it! People fell for it again in 2015 this time, for the same product differently brand named as Yahapalanaya. Why? Because the idea is embedded in their ethos deep within.

Anyhow the Sangha continued to be advisors to the Kings right through. They were reported to have been advising the kings on Dhamma and Artha. The Dhamma here did not confine itself to Buddha Dhamma alone. Dhamma also meant here the ways of the world. Artha was statecraft politics and economics. Their advice was called ‘Anusana’ and not like Papal edicts issued from the ‘Buddhist Church’ as such. However it is not always that the kings listened to the admonitions of the Sangha. There have been several such known  instances in our history. The great king Mahasen who was tutored by a Mahayana Bhikkhu in his youth, turned against the Mahavihara Bhikkhu fraternity, killed them and drove away the others, burnt all their Buddhist texts, as he supported the Mahayana Bhikkhus of Abhayagirivihara. Then, king Rajasinghe I became incensed with the Sangha when they told him that there was escape for him from the sinful Kamma of patricide, he drove away the Sangha from Sitawaka and embraced Hinduism. Quite recently it was that JRJ who was incensed at the chief monk of the Getambe Temple who disapproved some of his actions, got a  barbed wire fence erected round the temple to the consternation of the people!

Then also the Sangha intervened in the bitter feud between the two brothers Dutugemunu and Tissa who fought each other, and saved Tissa who sought refuge at Dematamal viharaya. The important thing here is that the Sangha never took sides. On the other hand, the Sangha accompanied Dutugemeunu when he marched on Elara to capture Anuradhapura. And before setting out on his campaign Dutugemunu declared that his endeavor was not due to his ambition for kingship but to restore Buddha sasana to its pristine glory. Again, it is reported that at least one of his generals entered the sasana as a monk after the war was over. When the king was later assailed by a great guilt that he had to kill so many people in his war effort, the Sangha tried hard to console him. He was however lucky that the UNHRC was then not in place at that time to take him before an international court! These ideas nevertheless illustrate how the Sangha and the politics of this country was intertwined like gahata pottha wage” as they say in Sinhala, to mean inextricable ‘like the bark and the tree’.

On the other hand, when the Sangha hit bad times the kings came to their rescue. Because serving the Sangha meant serving the sasana. Thus in the time of Parakramabahu III of Dambadeniya when the Sangha hit the rock bottom, at their request the king helped them to rescue themselves to promulgate what was called Dambadeni Kathikawatha, for the Sangha to abide by. Similarly when the Sangha was found to have deteriorated in the seventeen hundreds under Portuguese and Dutch assault, Ven. Saranankara Thero requested King Keerthi Sri Rajasinghe for assistance to bring back higher ordination from Siam (present Thailand). He saw to it that it was done with the assistance of the Dutch Governor. This much maligned Siyiam Nikaya does not give higher ordination to members of the so called low castes, is known to be practiced on the injunction of the king as such members were found to be uncomfortable when the king worshiped them. So the tradition continues whether we like it or not. This indicates that the king had lower his crown to the Sangha  However the good outcome of this discrimination is that the outraged Southern monks proceeded to Burma (Myanmar) and brought higher ordination for themselves from Ramanna and Amarapura leading to the establishment of these two Nikayas in the mid-18^th century. The Bhikkhus of these two Nikayas turned out to be aggressive in ushering the religious and cultural awakening among the Sinhalese Buddhists who were demoralized and demotivated under the Western and Christian cultural and political assault after the fall of the Sinhala kingdom since 1815, when it came to a point that the Buddhists were looked down upon as ‘natives’ and were ashamed to claim that they were Buddhists. The growth of these two new Nikayas eventually led to the emerging of the two significant centers of Buddhist learning, Vidyodaya and Vidyalankara Pirivenas which awakened the Buddhist monks to new learning re-enhancing their confidence to reclaim their political role to lead the country towards independence movement. It was these Pirivenas that produced erudite monk like Ven. Dr. Walpola Rahula who wrote a book named Bhikshuwakage Urumaya – redefining the role of the Bhikkhu to reclaim their place in the socio-political arena and the need to return to their original role as the ‘shadow government’ at a time when the English educated middle class thought the place of the Buddhist Monks was in their temples, peacefully practicing their religion. It is the remnants of this kind of thinking among them that question whether is a ‘state behind the state’ in this country.

The institution of the Sangha, evolved through the centuries to further crystalize the Sinhala political thought to the development of ideas such as that a person who would aspire to be king in this country should be a Buddhist. This is like it is a constitutional requirement in Norway that whoever becomes king in that country should be a Christian. This idea continued throughout history until the last kings who were Wadugas. Though they by birth were Hindus had to embrace Buddhism to become king. We do not need to go that far. After Universal Franchise, most political leaders whose parents had become Christians to get to positions of influence under the Colonial rulers had to revert to Buddhism  like J.R. Jayawardene and S.W.R.D. Bandaranayake who aspired to come to the political top, after Independence. In fact, Keerthisri Rajasinghe who experienced a lot of hostility from the people for the fact that he was not Sinhalese despite being Buddhist, had to do a lot promoting Buddhism, in order to win over the people’s support politically.

Then, after the Sacred Tooth Relic of the Buddha was brought to this country from Kalinga, the idea developed further over the years that whoever who had the right to become king in this country should have under his possession the Sacred Tooth Relic. This was considered the right to kingship. When under threat of a foreign attack especially since Portuguese times, the first thing that the king did was to hide away was the Tooth Relic the symbol of kingship. They always had a contingency plan in place for this eventuality and a code name for this secret operation. Thus, our last king Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe too, no sooner than he heard that the British were approaching Mahanuwara to capture him, had the Tooth Relic dispatched secretly to Kithulpe Dalada Gaman Maligawa to be under the eye of a trusted Buddhist monk. After capturing the king, the British launched a protracted operation to trace the Dalalda to complete their conquest.

In the Buddhist literature the Buddhist society is composed of 4 elements viz., Bhikkhu, Bhikkhuni, Upasaka, and Upasika. (Bhikkhus, Bhikkhunis, Laymen and Laywomen). They are dependent on each other for their survival and progress, in fact for the very survival of Buddha sasana. For instance Buddhism disappeared in India despite being the Buddha’s homeland because this social organization collapsed there. The same thing is now happening in Bangladesh. So when any component of this organization is threatened, the other component/s have to do their utmost to protect. This time the monkhood, the Sangha, has come forward because they think that a grave threat has emerged. For, if the unitary existence of the country is threatened, the Buddhist community is threatened. And when the Community is threatened, the very existence of the Sangha is threatened. When that happens, the entire Buddhist social structure would collapse. Then the support base of the Sangha would disappear. When that happens, the Buddha sasana will disappear from this country as it happened in India. This is why the alarm bells are ringing like temple bell, the Gantharas. May be this is what Ven. Galaboda Atthe does in his own way.

This is the self-evolved reciprocity concept on which the Sinhala Buddhist (Sinhala Buddhagama) revolves. It is the same in the case of Thai Buddhism and Burmese Buddhism. In fact, these three cultures too are mutually supportive as explained above. For instance Buddhist meditative feature had disappeared from Sri Lanka during the hard times of 400 years of colonialism. This technique was brought back here in the Buddha Jayanthi year in 1956, as a special gift from Myanmar after the last Buddha Jaynthi Convention there. The cultural features of Sinhala Buddhism is described by Prof. J.B. Dissanayake for the benefit of the modern generation and the future in a book titled ‘Sinhala Buddhagama’.

When the Kandyan Kingdom was finally ceded to the British, by the Kandyan chiefs and the Sangha, there was apprehension that this system may be endangered. This is why the Sangha insisted that a clause in the Kandyan Convention be inserted before they placed their signatures, to the effect that the new rulers should undertake to ensure the continued protection of the Buddha Sasana and the administrative systems of the Kandyan Provinces which would ensure their continuance. This provision was not contained in the Soulbury Constitution drawn by Dr. Ivor Jennings which was enjoined to the then compliant local leaders. However, since the republican constitutions of 1972 and 1978, this provision was brought back as Article 9 which in effect enabled resumption of the status quo which in effect recognized the right of the Sangha to advise the governments as done over the centuries. This may be the reason why all heads of state and those appointed to highest positions of the government make it a point to pay homage at the Sri Maha Bodhi at Anuradhapura and visit the Mahanuwara first to worship at the Dalada Maligawa like the kings of old and to obtain blessings of the Sangha at the Malwatte and Asgiriya Chapters. This is because the Sinhala people always looked up to the Sangha as the Guardian Gods of the nation and religion. They were expected by the unwritten constitution of this country like in England, that it was the duty of the Guardian Gods to intervene in the face of a threat to the nation. It may be recalled that when the ‘Eelam war IV’ was being fought by the soldiers of the Nation the monks chanted continuous Pirith on the Maluwa of the Ruwanveli Seya day and night, seeking Buddha’s blessing for all people involved in the war effort. It may be the same situation now that a grave danger to the nation has emerged by way of safety of the unitary character of the state and the traditional prime status accorded to Buddhism over the centuries is apprehended that the Asgiriya Monks had decided to voice their concern to those involved in running the state. It is because of their above mentioned legitimacy by written and unwritten law that their voice made such waves countrywide, that made people like Prof. Fernando raise the question, Is there a ‘Sangha State’ behind the state?”

One couldn’t blame the Professor’s ignorance because the Sangha was forced to be in hibernation during the British times who introduced to us a written constitution drafted by them when in fact we already had a centuries old tried and tested unwritten constitution in this country, like in their own country. Even during their period of hibernation, the Buddhist monks were always behind the resistance to the colonial rule and were behind the two main Rebellions of 1818 and 1848 and also other movements throughout the 19^th century. A high point of their campaign was that of the revivalist endeavour of Ven. Migettuwatte Gunanada Thero who defeated the Christian Priests in the Great Panadura Debate that really sparked off the Buddhist National revival that continues to date and future, judging by the current happenings. Then when the status of Buddhism was threatened during the time of Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga, a Buddhist Monks’ front came up to challenge the then government. They succeeded in their effort, but when the monks realized that their direct participation in the legislature was not their role, they withdrew to their temples to continue with their religious pursuits and the conventional role of the Buddhist monks and now re-appeared in the form of the Asgiriya monks’ intervention. There may be much critism on the conduct of the monks and questions are asked on their Sila itself. In a corrupt society where all norms of decency is undermined one could not expect Bhikkhus who come from the same corrupt environment to be different. Yet the wonder is that we still have among them a significant number who are silwath and are seriously engaged in the practice of Buddhist norms, leading the people on the religious path.

Prof. Fernando states in his final paragraph that I am almost a Buddhist in my thinking but not a Sinhala Buddhist” etc. Being almost a Buddhist” will not help him to gain the full benefit of being a follower of the Buddhist path. He appears to be not a Sinhala Buddhist but an intellectual Buddhist at the most. Prof. Nalin de Silva describes such types as ‘Olcott Buddhists’. This kind of intellectual Buddhists, mostly read and try to understand Buddhism in English language which is written to fit the Western way of thinking. They find it difficult to grasp the spirit of Buddha’s  teachings. Buddhism could not be grasped through intellect alone but through developing insight. He needs to cultivate Saddha” for that. The problem of the likes of Prof. Fernando is that they look upon what they think is Buddhism with some intellectual conceit. He would take to it only if it measures upto his self-conceived expectation. If it doesn’t he would look down upon the Dhamma and its followers. One needs a lot of humility to be able to access the Dhamma.

Another significant aspect of this matter is that it was the late Ven. Maduluwawe Sobhitha Tehra who conceived the idea of re-brand Marketing ‘Yahapalanaya’ and led the political campaign which toppled the Rajapakse regime. When a strong support mobilized behind the monk’s leadership, the Sinhala Buddhists did not question his right to do so instead of confining himself to the practice of Dhamma and meditation, because they recognized that he was exercising his role as ‘a state behind a state’. But isn’t it strange that at that time the likes of Prof. Fernando did not raise the question whether a concept of ‘state behind a state’ was functioning here instead of the Sangha confining itself to the temples? Thus isn’t this sheer hypocrisy?

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

The convenor of the Joint Opposition and the Gampaha district Parliamentarian Mr. Prasanna Ranaatunga said that those who are looking out for a split in the joint opposition will face the same fate as the fox that went after the goat expecting THAT to fall down.

Addressing a gathering in the Divulapitiya area, he said that no one will be capable to halt the forward march of the joint opposition which is consolidating the growing confidence being gained from the people day by day.

Speaking further Mr. Ranatunga said that today’s biggest dream of those in the government is to find a division in the joint opposition.  They go to sleep in the night with the prayer to see a division in the joint opposition when they get up in the following morning.  But that dream is a dream that will never become a reality. The joint opposition is the true opposition that is represented by the common people of this country.  More than 90% of the representatives of the Local Government Institutions and the majority of representatives in the Provincial Councils are supporting the joint opposition. In addition to this the support of many political parties in the parliament and the support of the majority of the people of this country are with the joint opposition. This foreign slavish government is getting despised by the people day by day and on the contrary the popularity of the joint opposition is getting swelled day by day.  This cannot be stopped by anyone.

The biggest headache of the government is the fact of the joint opposition getting strengthened. I saw in the papers that some people when they realise that their dreams of joint opposition getting divided do not become a reality they get news items such as ‘the joint opposition gets divided’ published to get a temporary pleasure.

Their objective of doing such things is to show it to their leaders and get more and more perks and privileges.  But the people of this country cannot be fooled by such lies.  The people of the country now believe that it is only the joint opposition that can save this country from this coalition government.

Those who look forward with their mouths open for a division in the joint opposition do not see the divisions taking place within their side itself.  By now the government has got shattered completely. The behaviour of the government is just like a naked man laughing at a person wearing a loin cloth.

The government which has got sunk up to its neck is laughing at the joint opposition.  The people are fed up with the ‘fox dramas’ of this government.  This yahapalana government is a good example of the fact that although the power was obtained through lies that power cannot be sustained through lies. The leaders of the government who also look out for a division in the joint opposition will face the same fate as the fox that went after the goat expecting THAT to fall down.

During the time of the previous government what was much talked by the then opposition was about white vans.  The government which assumed power by misleading the people on the help of white van episodes has now introduced yahapalana white vans” to the country.  We ask on what yahapalana fundamentals that attempts to abduct student leaders in the broad day light by white vans come under.

In the past Sathosa was used to provide essential items to the people at concessionary prices.  Under the yahapaalana government Sathosa is now being used to distribute narcotics to the whole country. The containers that go to Sathosa now contain narcotics instead of sugar.  Today this government has become a government of narcotic kings.

Underworld Lords and Narcotic Kings have become the central players of this government.  The former Defence Secretary Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa completely eradicated the underworld and narcotic peddling activities.   What this government did immediately after coming to power was getting down the underworld gang leaders and narcotic peddlers who fled the country then fearful of Mr. Gotabhaya.

Now the government is compelled to endure the results of these things. Whatever the lightening that strikes that are not at all mindful for the Ministers who associate underworld gang leaders and narcotic kings.  What we feel sad about is that it is the innocent people who have been compelled to experience the adversities of these activities.

Good governance, human rights, democracy, media freedom are mere slogans used by this government to come to power.  Since a group of our own people got misled by these slogans it resulted in this country dipping into a deep abyss.

There is no dementia than thinking of building a yahapalana with the United National Party.  It is just like observance of ‘Sil’ by the tiger. The tiger will not forget the taste of blood even if it observes ‘Sil’. The UNP is also like that.  It was because of that we did not join for that marriage.

It is not a coalition government that is required for this country.  What is requires is a strong government steered by a leader with a firm backbone.  There still is such a leader among us in this country.  That is only Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa.  We do not puppet leaders.  It is for this purpose that the joint opposition has embarked on this journey.

Meanwhile, the Minuwangoda electorate SLFP High Command is to be dissolved and all are to join the Sri Lanka Podujana Freedom Party (SLPFP)

The transformation of the Minuwangoda electorate SLFP High Command as the Sri Lanka Podujana Freedom Party High Command will take place on the 29^th Saturday at the Reggie Ranatunga grounds in Minuwangoda under the leadership of the former Minister Mr. Basil Rajapaksa.

The Secretary to the Minuwangoda SLFP High Command the former Chairman of the Minuwangoda Pradeshiya Sabha Mr. Kumara Arangala said that they do not have any more faith on the Darley Road SLFP President and they have decided to continue their political activities by joining the Sri Lanka Podujana Freedom Party and get transformed theselves as the Sri Lanka Podujana Freedom Party High Command and to get involved in future political activities under their electorate leader Mr. Prasanna Ranatunga.

The SLFP High Command of the Minuwangoda electorate was established by the former Minuwangoda MP Mr. Reggie Ranatung when he was the SLFP organiser for the Minuwangoda electorate.   After his demise Mr. Prasanna Ranatunga, who was the Chief Minister of the Western Province became its Chairman.

After 8^th January 2015 when Maithripala Sirisena acquired the Chairmanship of the SLFP, Mr. Prasanna Ranatunga who was a staunch supporter of the former President Mr. Mahinda Raapaksa was removed from the post of SLFP organiser for the Minuwangoda electorate and the person who was appointed as the new organiser was not accepted by the SLFP High Command of the Minuwangoda electorate and they continued to involve in political activities with Mr. Prasanna Ranatunga.

Mr. Arangala said that accordingly that around 250 organisations consisting SLFP branches, Youth Fronts, Women’s Fronts, Farmers’ Fronts will join the Sri Lanka Podujana Freedom Party as its branch organisations.

The SLFP High Command of the Minuwangoda electorate is the first such organisation that unanimously decided to join the joint opposition formed under the leadership of the former President Mr. Mahinda Raapaksa. (niz)

මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

            පාරම්පරික බීජ කටුගෙට දමා දෙමුහුන් නව බීජ සමග අත්වැල් බැඳගත් රාජ්‍ය කෘෂිකර්ම ප්‍රතිපත්තිය වෙළෙඳ පළ ආර්ථිකය වෙනුවෙන් යලි සකස් වන්නට ආරම්භ වූයේ අසූව දශකයෙන් අනතුරුවය. විවෘත ආර්ථිකය යටතේ රජයේ බිත්තර වී ගොවිපළ වල් පෞද්ගලික අංශයට විකුණා දැමූ පසු බහුජාතික සමාගම් විසින් බීජ ඒකාධිකාරය තමන් සතු කර ගත්හ.කෘෂිකර්ම ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ ප්‍රවීණයන් සහ දේශපාලනඥයන් වරින් වර මේ සමාගම් සමග ඇති කර ගත් ගිවිසුම් නිසා දේශීය බීජ අයිතිය පවා අන්සතු කරලිය හැකි බීජ පණත් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් විය. පසුගිය කාලයේ දිවි නැගුම හරහා මෙම බහුජාතික සමාගම් අත්කර ගත් ප්‍රගතිය ඉතා විශාලය. කෘෂිකර්ම දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව වැනි පලපුරදු ආයතනයක් තුළින් ඉටු කරගත හැකි ඵලදායී ජනතා මෙහෙවර පසෙකට කර මෙම බහුජාතික සමාගම් මත යැපීමට උත්සාහ කිරීම තුළින් රටේ සෑබෑ උරුමයක් වූ බීජ අයිතිය අන්සතු වෙමින් ඇත. මෙහි නවතම පියවර වන්නේ මහඉළුක් පල්ලම ගොවිපළ සතු ඉඩම් අක්කර තුන්සීයක් බංගලිදේශ සමාගමකට පවරා දෙමුහුන් බීජ නිෂ්පාදනයට පෙළඹවීමයි.මෙම ගිවිසුම හොර රහසේම පසුගියදා අත්සන් කර ඇත.

          මෙම කර්යයේ එක් පාර්ශවයක් වන්නේ කෘෂිකර්ම දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවයි.  මෙම නව ගිවිසුම අත්සන් කර ඇත්තේ මෙම රාජ්‍ය ආයතනය සහ බංගලි දේශයේ ලාල් ටීර් බීජ සමාගමයි.මේ දෙපිරිස අතර ඇති වන එකඟතාවය යටතේ පහත සඳහන් පරිදි රජයේ කෘෂීකර්ම ප්‍රතිපත්තිය තුළ බීජ නිෂ්පාදනය කෙරෙන පරිදි ගිවිස ගෙන ඇත.

• අත්තිවාරම් බීජ නිෂ්පාදනය සහ පවත්වාගෙන යෑම
• එළවුළු බීජ නිෂ්පාදනය පිණිස නව දෙමුහුන් තාක්ෂණය යොදා ගැනීම.
• එළවුලු බීජ සංවර්ධනය දෙමුන් කරණය එම සංරක්ෂිත ප්‍රභේදයන් පවත්වා ගෙන යෑම ගබඩා කර ගැනීම පර්යේෂණ ආදී සියලු කටයුතු බංගලි දේශ සමාගම සතු වේ. මෙහිදී තුන්වන පාර්ශවයකට කිසිම මැදිහත් වීමක් කළ නොහැකි වන ලෙසටද ගිවිසුම සකස් කර තිබේ.

මෙම කටයුත්ත සඳහා රජයෙන් ඉඩම් අක්කර තුන්සීයක් පමණ ලබා දීමට දැනට එකඟ වී ඇතැයි දැන ගන්නට ඇත. මේ සඳහා යොදා ගනු ඇත්තේ මහ ඉළුක් පල්ලම ගොවිපලේ ඉඩම් බව ද දැන ගන්නට ඇත.එසේම වැඩ පිළිවෙලේ සාර්ථකත්වය මත තවත් ඉඩම් ලබා දීම රජයේ පාර්ශවයේ එකඟතාවයයි.

          මෙහිදී මතු වන ප්‍රශ්ණය නම් උක්ත ඉලක්ක ලඟා කර ගැනීමට දැනට කෘෂිකර්ම දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව සතුව ශක්‍යතාවයක් නොමැතිද යන්නයි. රජයේ මුදල් වියදම් කොට වාර්ෂිකව පුහුණු කරනු ලබන කෘෂිකර්ම නිළධාරීන් සිටින රටක ඒ සඳහා භූමිය වශාල වශයෙන් යොදා තිබෙන රටක විදේශීය සමාගමකට සියලු පර්යේෂණ කටයුතු සහ බීජ නිෂ්පාදනය භාර දීම කෙතරම් දුරට ආහාර සුරක්ෂිතතාවය පැත්තෙන් සාධාරණද යන්න අප සලකා බැලිය යුතුය. එසේම මේ වන විට දේශීය බීජ සංගම් 19000 ක් පමණ රට පුරා සාර්ථකව ක්‍රියාත්මක වෙමින් තිබේ.බීජ නිෂිපාදනයට එම සංගම් තුළද විශේෂ ශක්‍යතාවයක් ඇත. පසුගිය රජය කාලයේ ද  පැල්වෙහෙර ගොවිපළ සතුව තිබූ විශාල ඉඩම් ප්‍රමාණයක් පුද්ගලික සමාගමකට බදු දී තිබුණි. එම ක්‍රියාවට එරෙහිව යහපාලන ඇමතිවරයෙකු වන වසන්ත අලුවිහාරේ මහතාගේ පොරොන්දුව වූයේ නව රජය බලයට පත් වූ පසු එම ගිවිසුම අවලංගු කරන බවයි. නමුත් එසේ සිදුව නොමැත.එසේ නම් මෙම බදු දීම් හරහා රජය බලාපොරෙත්තු වන්නේ කුමක්ද යන්න පිළිබඳ විමසීමක් කළ යුතුය.

        2001 වසරේ දී රජය ශාක බෝ කරන්නන්ගේ අයිතිවාසිකම් පණත නමින් කෙටුම්පතක් සකස් කළහ.මෙයට සාභාගි වූයේ කෘෂිකර්ම දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව සහ බුද්ධිමයදේපළ කාර්යංශයයි. මෙම පණතෙහි පසුබිම ඇති වන්නේ ලෝක වෙළෙඳ සංවිධානය මගින් රටවල් අතර පවතින වෙළෙඳාම දියුණු කරවීමේ අරමුණින් ඇති කළ ගිවිසුම්ය. වානිජ වටිනාකමක් ඇති  බුද්ධිමය දේපළ  සඳහා රැකවරණ ලබා දීමේ අරමුණින් එහිදී එක් එක් රටවල්  ස්වකීය වපසරිය තුළ නීති කෙටුම්පත් ඇති කිරීමට ගිවිස ගෙන ඇත. ශ්‍රී ලංකාව මෙතනදී තෝර ගෙන තිබෙන්නේ නව ශාක ප්‍රභේද සඳහා බුද්ධිමය දේපළ ලබා දීමේ නීති කෙටුම්පත් ඇති කරලීමටයි.ඒ අනුව 2001 වර්ෂයේ සකස් කළ මූලික ලියවිල්ල පණතක් ලෙස වර්ධනයව තවමත් සම්මත කර ගෙන නොමැත. ඊට හේතුව වරින් වර ගොවීන් ගෙන් ගොවි සංවිධාන වලින් මීට එල්ල වූ විරෝධතාවයයි. නමුත් කිසිවිටක් මෙම අදහස කෘෂිකර්ම ක්ෂෙත්‍රයේ බල ධාරින් විසින් ඉවත් කර ගත්තේ නැත. දැන් යළිත් එම අදහස මතුව එන්නේ මෙලස විදෙශීය සමාගම් වලට ඉඩම් බදු දීමෙන් පසු කෘෂිකර්ම දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවත් එම සමාගම් අතරත් ඒකාබද්ධ ගිවිසුම් වලට යෑමෙන් අවශ්‍ය පසුබිම සකස් කරවීමටයි. එවිට අවශ්‍යතාව පැණ නැගී නීති කෙටුම් පත පාර්ලිමෙන්තුවට දමා සම්මත කර ගැනීමට පහසු වේ.

      මෙම පණත කෙටුම්පතේ ඇති වගන්ති තිහෙන් ගම්‍ය වන කාරණා කීපයක් මෙලෙසය. එහිදී ශාක බෝකරන්නා යනු යම් ශාක ප්‍රභේදයක් අභිජනනය කරන වැඩි දියුණු කරන හෝ අනාවරණය කරන පුද්ගලයාය. මෙතෙක් එම කාර්යය කරන ලද්දේ රජයේ කෘෂිකර්ම දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවයි. ඔවුහු ජනතා සුභ සිද්දිය සඳහා එය කළහ. සේවවාක් ලෙසට පවත්වා ගෙන ගියහ. නමුත් වෙළෙඳාම මූලික කර ගත් සමාගමක ඉලකක්කය එය නොවේ .විශේෂයෙන් දෙමුහුන් බීජ යනු වෙනස් ප්‍රභේද දෙකක් අතර අන්තරාභිජනනයෙන් ඇති වන බීජයි. මේවා එම ප්‍රභේද දෙකේම යහපත් ලක්ෂණ හා විශේෂයෙන් වැඩි දියුණු කරලීමෙන් වැඩි අස්වනු ලබා ගැනීමට වගා කෙරේ. එහිදී දෙවනි වර වගාවෙන් ලබා ගන්නා බීජ වලින් පළමු අස්වැන්න නොලැබී යයි. එම තත්ත්වය තුළ ගොවියා නිරන්තරයෙන් බීජ ලබා ගැනීමට පෙළඹේ. කෘෂිකර්ම දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ වගකීම වන්නේ ගොවියාද ආරක්ෂා කර ගනිමින් මෙලෙස  අත්තිවාරම් බීජ සහ පැලෑටි රෝපණ ද්‍රව්‍ය සැපයීම් සේවය සැලසීමයි. සීතඑළිය අර්තපල් ගොවිපළ තුළින් මෙම සේවය ඉහළින්ම ඉටු කරන බව කවුරුත් දනී.නමුත් සමාගම් බලන්නේ තමන්ගේ ලාභය තර කර ගැනීමටයි. එහිදී ඔවුහු එම ලාභය පවත්වාගෙන යෑමට ඒකාධිකාරි අයිතිවාසිකම් මාලාවක් අනුගමනය කරති.යම් කිසි සුළු වෙනස් කමක් ඇත්තා වූ පැලෑටියක් හෝ බීජයක් අභිනනය කරන්නා වූ එම සමාගමට මෙම පණතින් ආරක්ෂාව ලබා දේ.ඇතැම් විට දේශීය පාරම්පරික බීජයක සුලු වෙනසකමක් ඇති කොට අභාජනනය කළ විටද බෝකරන්නාට බුද්ධිමය දේපළ අයිතිය හිමිය. එවිට පාරම්පරික බීජය පවා වතා කරන්නට අවසර ගත යුතු වේ.මේ අන්දමින්  ගොවියාට හිමි වන වරප්‍රසාද එකින් එක අහිමි කරන්නට මෙම පණත මගින් පසුබිම සැලසේ. එහි වාසි අත්වන්නේ ශාක බෝකරන්නා වන සමාගම් වලටයි.

      මෙවැනි තත්ත්වයක් යටතේ කෘෂීකර්ම දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව සතු ගොවිපළවල් යොදා ගෙන වානිජ පරමාර්ථයෙන් බීජ අභිජනනය නව පැලෑටි සකස් කිරීම ආදී කාර්ය කිරීමේදී අනාගතයේදී රජය විසින් කරන මැදිහත් වීම ඉතාමත් අවම වනු ඇත.පණත සම්මත කිරීමෙන් පසු ඒ පිළිබඳව ප්‍රශ්ණ කිරීමටද නොහැක වනු ඇත. එවිට නිසැකයෙන්ම ගොවියා බහුජාතික සමාගම් වල වහලෙකු බවට පත් වීම නොවැලැකවිය හැකිය.එසේම විදේශ වලින් ගෙන්වන ඇතැම් මව් බීජ වෛරස ආසාදිත වූ ඒවා නම් කෘෂිකර්ම දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව මෙන් යහපත් නිරෝධායන පිළිවෙත් අනුගමනය කිරීමක් සමාගම් වලින් බලාපොරොත්තු විය නොහැකිය.එම රෝග කාරක මෙරට මුල් බැස ගැනීමෙන් දේශීය බීජ සම්පත පවා අනතුරට ලක් වනු නිසැක වේ. අධික ලෙස කෘෂිරසායන භාවිතය දැනට අඩු කර ඇතත් ඉදිරියේදී එම බාධක පවා ඉවත් කරලීමට මෙම ගිවිසුම් නිසා රජයට සිදු වනු ඇත. එම තත්ත්වය තුළ බංගලි බීජ සමාගමක් සමග අත්සන් කරගත් මේ  ගිවිසුම මගින් රටේ බීජ උරුමය සදා කාලික ලෙසට අන්සතු වීම වැලැක්විය නොහැකි වනු ඇත.ගොවි පුතෙකු වශයෙන් රටේ  ඉහළම පුටුවට පැමිණි ජනපතිවරයාගේ බංගලිදේශ ගමනන් පසු ඇතිවූ මෙම ගිවිසුම මගින් ගොවි අයිතිවාසිකම් ද සහමුලින් වැළලී යන්නට ඉඩ හසර සැලසෙනු ඇත.

මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

Mahinda Rajapaksa Former President of Sri Lanka (Translated by A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA)

The former President Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa said that under the Act for the establishment of the Office of the Missing Persons which was signed recently by the President foreign countries have been empowered to request to hand over anyone who is suspected of making a person missing in Sri Lanka.

Given below is the translation of the text of an open letter written by Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa to the Most en. Mahanayake Therroes and the Maha Sangha.

An open letter respectfully written to the Maha Sangha including the Most Venerable Mahanayake Theroes.

Establishing new Institutions and enacting new Laws empowering central authority to foreign powers for hunting war heroes,

A few days ago the President signed the Act empowering the Office of Missing Persons and declared that it was a progressive step taken for reconciliation.  It was by force disregarding the objections of the joint opposition that this Act got enacted unitedly by the UNP, the SLFP group in the government, the JVP, and the Tamil National Alliance. They did not spend even 40 minutes to debate this Bill.

The special attention of the Most Ven, Maha Sangha should be focused on the following conditions of the Missing Persons Office Act Ni, 14 of 2016 as amended by the Missing Persons Office (Revised) Act No, 9 of 2017 which has been empowered andlegalized by the signature of the President.

1. Although the Institution that will be established under this Law will be termed as an Office, under Clause No, 12 of this Act this will be an Institution similar to a Court of Law empowered to accept and investigate complaints, obtain evidence from witnesses, summon people and issue orders, and for holding enquiries.
2. Clause 21 of the Act has empowered this Office to obtain financial assistance from any local or forein source. Accordingly this Office can obtain funds from any foreign government, International non-Government organisations, and even from non-proscribed Tamil diaspora Tiger Terrorist organisations.
3. Under Clause 12(B)iii.the Missig Persons Office has been empowered to accept as evidence any statement or document even contravening all rules and conditions of the Evidence Ordinance. Due to non consideration of the Evidence Ordinance a suspect summoned by this Institition will not even have the just protection available for an accused under an ordinary criminal case.
4. In accordance with Clause 12(E) of this Act all Government Institutions, including Security Forces and Intelligence Units are obliged to provide all information and documents requested by the Missing Persons Office even violating the State Secrecy Act.
5. As per Clause No, 15 of this Act, even the Supreme Court has no power to order to submit to a Court of Law information provided to the Missing Persons Office under the promise of the protection of rights. Similarly the Right to Informatin Act does not become applicable in respect of the Missing Persns Office.
6. Clause No. 25 of the Act has given the liberty of making it incapable to file a civil or criminal case against an act of officers of the Missing Persons Office, any lapse by them or on any report published by them. Any act being done by the Missing Persons Office cannot be challenged unless by a case filed in the Supreeme Court under Article Nos.126 and 140 of the constitution. However it becomes meaningless to go to the Supreme Court since Missing Persons Office is empowered under Clause No, 15 of the Act not to divulge information even to the Supreme Court.

Infirmation received by the Missing Persons Office can be directed under Clause No. 14(1)(A) to the Law implementation or prosecution institutions.  The Missing Persons Office is one of the many imstitutions the yahyapalana government has agreed to establish to invesrigate about the past under United Nation’s Human Rights Council proposal No. 30/1 of 14^th October 2015.   It is clear that the objective of this Office is to provide information to other institutions.  Recently the present government presented a draft Bill to the Parliaament to empower in Sri Lanka the International Convention against making persons missing.  Under this proposed Law foreign countries can request Sri Lanka to handover to them any person suspected of having connection to making any person missing in Sri Lanka.  Accordingly they can present such a Sri Lankan person brought to their country on suspicion of a crime committed in Sri Lanka to a Court in their country or to an International Tribunal.

The government had to postpone the debate on the draft Bill brought forward to empower in Sri Lanka the International Convention against making persons missing due to objections raised by Maha Sangha and the public. But the Ministers of the government have said that the postponement is only temporary and the draf Bill will be taken up for debate in the Parliament in the future.  Accordingly we can see that these new Laws being brought by the yahyapalana government have a coincidence to each other. The foreign countries have a right to request to handover a person against whom an allegation has been made by the Missing Persons Office which is sustained with foreign funds, under the provisions of the international Convention.  Accordingly the foreign country that gets down a Sri Lankan suspect to their country can file a case against him in that country or to hand him over to an International Tribunal.

After it became necessary to postpone the draft Bill to empower in Sri Lanka the International Convention against making persons missing the UNP as well as the SLFP Ministers in order to justify that Bill said that this is a Law that will be applicable only to the future and not for the past. This is a totally incorrect statement.  If the draft Bill brought in to empower in Sri Lanka the International Convention against making persons missing was approved in the Parliament it would automatically become effective retrospectively under the article 13(6) of our constitution.  It is very clear that there is a great enthusiasm among the yahapalana political parties such as the UNP, the SLFP group in the government, the Tamil National Alliance and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna to punish our armed forces and the political authorities who gave leadership to the War.

Under these new Laws the yahapalaana government and draft Bills that have been presented to the Parliament, the foreign authorities have been entrusted with a central task for hunting our war heroes through the Sri Lankan Laws itself.  I believe that the attention of the Maha Sangha including the Most Venerable Tri-Nikaya Mahanayake Theroes will get focussed on this great betrayal being carried out under the name of establishing reconciliation.

Mahinda Rajapaksa

Former President of Sri Lanka

මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ හිටපු ජනාධිපති

1. මෙකී නීතිය යටතේ පිහිටුවන ආයතනය ‘කාර්යාලයක්’ ලෙස හැඳින්වුවද, අදාල පනතේ 12 වන වගන්තියට අනුව මෙය පැමිණිලි පිලිගෙන විමර්ශන පවත්වන, සාක්‍ෂි කරුවන්ගෙන් කටඋත්තර ලබා ගන්න, තමන් ඉදිරියට පුද්ගලයන් කැඳවමින් නියෝග නිකුත් කරන, හා විභාග පවත්වන උසාවියකට සමාන ආයතනයක් බව පැහැදිලිය. මේ කාර්යාලයේ නිලධාරීන්ට දිවා රෑ ඕනෑම වෙලාවක, ඕනෑම පොලිස් ස්ථානයකට, හමුදා කඳවුරකට හෝ බන්ධානාගාරයකට ඇතුලුවීමටත්, ඔවුන්ට අවශ්‍ය ලියවිලි හෝ වෙනත් දේවල් තම භාරයට ගැනීමටත් බලය පවරා ඇත. කවුරුන් හෝ අතුරුදහන් වූවන්ගේ කාර්යාලයට සහයෝගය නොදී සිටියහොත් එය අභියාචනාධිකරණයට කරන ලද අපහාසයක් සේ සලකා දඩුවම් කළ හැකිය. 
2. ඕනෑම දේශීය හෝ විදේශීය මූලාශ්‍ර‍කින් අතුරුදහන් වූවන්ගේ කාර්යාලයට මුදල් ප්‍ර‍තිපාදන ලබා ගැනීමට පනතේ 21 වන වගන්තියෙන් බලය පවරා ඇත. ඒ අනුව මෙකී කාර්යාලයට විදේශීය ආණ්ඩුවකින්, ජාත්‍යන්තර රාජ්‍ය නොවන සංවිධානයකින් හෝ තහනම් නොකරන ලද දෙමළ කොටි ඩයස්පෝරා සංවිධානයකින් වුවද මුදල් ලබාගත හැක. 
3. සාක්‍ෂි ආඥාපනතේ සියලු විධි විධාන වලට පටහැනිව වුවත් ඕනෑම ප්‍ර‍කාශයක් හෝ භාණ්ඩයක් සාක්‍ෂි හැටියට පිළිගැනීමට පනතේ 12(ඇ)(iii) වගන්තිය යටතේ අතුරුදහන් වූවන්ගේ කාර්යාලයට බලය පවරා ඇත. සාක්‍ෂි ආඥාපනත නොසලකා හැරීම නිසා මේ ආයතනය ඉදිරියට කැඳවන සැකකරුවන්ට අපේ රටේ සාමාන්‍ය අපරාධ නඩුවකදී වුවත් චූදිතයෙකුට තිබෙන සාධාරාණ ආරක්‍ෂාව නොලැබෙනු ඇත. 
4. මෙම පනතේ 12 (ඉ) වගන්තියට අනුව රාජ්‍ය රහස් පනත උල්ලංඝනය කරමින් වුවත් අතුරුදහන් වූවන්ගේ කාර්යාලයෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටින සියලු තොරතුරු සහ ලියවිලි ඔවුන්ට ලබා දීමට සන්නද්ධ හමුදා හා බුද්ධි අංශ ඇතුලුව සියළුම රජයේ ආයතන බැඳී සිටී. 
5. පනතේ 15 වන වගන්තියට අනුව අතුරුදහන් වූවන්ගේ කාර්යාලයට රහස්‍ය භාවය රැකීමේ පොරොන්දුව මත ලැබෙන තොරතුරු උසාවියට ඉදිරිපත් කරන මෙන් නියෝග කිරීමට ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයටවත් බලය නැත. එමෙන්ම තොරතුරු දැනගැනීමේ පනත මේ අතුරුදහන් වූවන්ගේ කාර්යාලය සම්බන්ධයෙන් බලපවත්වන්නේ නැත. 
6. අතුරුදහන් වූවන්ගේ කාර්යාලයේ නිලධාරීන්ගේ ක්‍රියාවක් හෝ පැහැර හැරීමක් හෝ ඔවුන් පලකරන වාර්ථාවක් සම්බන්ධයෙන් සිවිල් හා අපරාධ නඩු පැවරිය නොහැකි ආකාරයට පනතේ 25 වන වගනත්තිය යටතේ සම්පූර්ණ මුක්ත භාවය ලබාදී ඇත. අතුරුදහන් වූවන්ගේ කාර්යාලය කරන කිසිවක් ආණ්ඩුක්‍ර‍ම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 126 හා 140 යන වගන්ති යටතේ ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයේ පවරණ නඩුවකින් මිස වෙනත් කිසිදු උසාවියක අභියෝගයට ලක් කල නොහැක. නමුත් පනතේ 15 වන වගත්නියට අනුව ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයට වුවත් තොරතුරු හෙළි නොකර සිටීමට අතුරුදහන් වූවන්ගේ කාර්යාලයට ඇති බලය නිසා, මෙම කාර්යාලයේ කටයුතු වලට එරෙහිව ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයට යෑමෙන්වත් පලක් නැත.

KAMALIKA  PIERIS

Sri Lanka has a literate, educated, strong minded public. That is because of its ‘free health  and education’. These two sectors therefore need to be weakened and the country’s spirit broken, if the West is to bring the island under control. In 2014  it was observed,’ If we have this same stability for the next five years then it will be difficult to achieve this, but a weaker Sri Lanka is easy to dominate.    Yahapalana was therefore instructed to hit these two services as fast as possible.

The budget allocation for education was reduced drastically from Rs. 185.98 billion in 2016 to Rs Rs.76.94 billion in 2017.  This was a 58% reduction compared to the previous year, said critics.  The budget has been reduced from 2.7% in 2016 to 2% in 2017. Western Province Council complained that its education allocation for 2017 was cut from Rs 1,092 million to Rs 183 million. Development projects for schools in Gampaha, Kalutara and Colombo have come to a halt. ‘We believe that this had been deliberately done. Finance ministry has not responded to our letters’. Ceylon Teachers Services Union  observed that  instead of strengthening public education, Yahapalana  is encouraging setting up of private institutions.

The Ceylon Teachers Services Union  observed that  Yahapalana  government was trying to scuttle free education.  Circular no 17 of 2016  amended  the previous circular of 2013  and allowed schools to solicit donations from parents when admitting their children to Grade  One. The Union objected to this. Yahapalana  government also issued a circular authorizing the collection of funds from parents. Parents were allowed to make payments for school projects. Parents  now had an additional burden,  finding money for various  school projects.

Over a hundred students studying at Kingwood College, Kandy were barred from sitting for the term test owing to their failure to pay the  full fees for  the school development committee. They were  ordered to stay away from the examination hall.  The  parents  complained and the Kandy Zonal Education Director ordered the principal to allow the affected  students to sit for the term test. The  Director had pointed out that there is no connection between the term test and the non-payment of school development committee fees.

Under President Mahinda  Rajapakse, the  government had    provided  free school uniform material. Yahapalana stopped this and  gave vouchers to purchase material from shops, instead. A press advertisement  showed children in ethnic symbols, pottu and scarf, praising the school uniform voucher system (Sunday Times 13.11.16 p 17).  A school principal who issued material instead of uniform vouchers was interdicted.

Parents, teachers and principals  had  many complaints about this voucher system. Parents complained that the cloth provided by the voucher was not sufficient even for one uniform,  also that  the quality of the material is poor. The better quality available for purchase in the shops is not covered by the  voucher, they  added.

To get this  400 rupee voucher we have to spend two day away from work,  we lose two days wages, they said. In addition the Principal and teacher must sign each voucher. The parent must also sign in the  presence of the class teacher. Then  lists have to be prepared.  Earlier it took just two teachers to bring  the uniform material into the school. Now parents need to lose two workdays and travel to and fro to get it done.

In 2006,  the ‘gray cloth’ used for the uniforms  was imported and local enterprises dyed it,  critics said. This created new jobs and saved us money.  In 2007 government imported thread and the  local textile industries produce the cloth. That year, 10% of the total requirement was  met. By 2013   the local industry met 100% of the requirements.  Only 40% of the cost went on imports. In 2014, 1100 million  of 1800 million worth of uniform material was  from Sri Lanka. This provided jobs for 3000 people, too.  The  Rajapaksa government called for offers from domestic textile producers every January. In  January  2015 however,  this exclusively domestic enterprise was opened to foreign participation.

Yahapalana government has made certain positive changes in the secondary school system. The government  made 13 years of school education compulsory. An E-learning class room programme, ‘Cloud Smart Classroom’, was initiated at Jayawardenapura Kotte Boys School, Pitakotte  as a pilot project.

But several  other changes were opposed. Ceylon Teachers Services Union opposed the creation of additional grade 1 classes in Colombo saying that village  schools will be further neglected. Ministry  decided that printed text books should   be replaced by tablets. These will help teaching. But critics observed that since the number of ‘A level’ students (250,000) exceed that given in the budget (175,000) all pupils will not get free tablets.

The Education Ministry issued plastic Geography text books for Grade Seven. The paper textbooks cannot be used for  more than one year, the plastic books could be used for five years, explained the Ministry.  This was a health hazard announced the GMOA. No, it was not, said the Ministry. The GMOA claims are false and baseless. No complaints have been received by the Ministry except for the GMOA. It was also pointed out  that  the curriculum would have changed  within the five years.

One way of weakening education is by removing good teachers from the good   schools. Teachers serving ten years in the same national school will be transferred, announced Yahapalana . Teachers in leading schools in Kandy and Colombo were  among the first to be transferred.  There  was a mass transfer of teachers from schools in Kandy. The best teachers of Dharmaraja and Mahamaya were transferred out. Dharmaraja and Mahamaya are the two leading Buddhist  schools in Kandy.

Royal College, Colombo was also affected. Royal is the premier government boys school in the country. There was a  major ‘purge’ of senior masters at Royal. Eight members of the senior staff, including two Deputy Principals, two senior Games Masters/Assistant Principals, a Section Head and a senior most teacher at the Primary section  were either transferred or interdicted.

Royal College  principal , who had held office for eleven years was unceremoniously removed,  and various allegations leveled against him. Most of the longstanding teachers have been transferred out for flimsy reasons, said the media. Good teachers who remain are being harassed by a few non-performers, while the authorities look the other way. Teachers are frustrated and de-motivated.

Many of those transferred were teachers  appointed to sit on the admissions panels or assist in finalizing the 2017 Grade 1 entrants. They were reportedly held accountable for being unable to detect the fraudulent documents (i.e. registered deeds, extracts from the Land Registry, lease agreements drawn up by lawyers and voters lists certified by the Elections Commissioner) submitted by some applicants. Other   reasons given for the transfers or removal from important posts were that these teachers had done ten years of service,   that they were obstructing school administration, among other charges.

This purge of senior teachers at Royal raises concerns as to the real reason for the unplanned terminations. These teachers have played a major role in managing this institution and  contributed to the outstanding success of Royal students in the last many years in studies, sports, community projects and other extra-curricular activities, said the media. Changes like this are ‘the catalyst for the slow death of the school.’

It is  a remarkable coincidence that these varied number of reasons all happened in a very short period of time, said the media. The real and eminent danger to Royal College now is that all these vacancies will be filled by powerful people in the ministry with obvious animosity and malice towards Royal, sending unsuitable people to the school for their own purposes and agendas.

The Grade One admission interview panel at Royal,   included a representative of the Royal College Old Boys Union. But  In 2016, the Education Ministry amended the circular  and past pupils were left out of the panel. The Ministry soon reversed the decision due to the public outcry against it. However, Old boys are now opting out of entering their children to Royal due to the prevailing atmosphere and the admissions for 2017 saw a 25 percent drop in the Old Boys category applications from the previous year, noted the media.

School teachers and Principals play an important role in the delivery of education . One way of weakening  the education sector was by harassing them. Yahapalana  is doing this very well. Teachers can no longer have their children admitted to schools close to where they are teaching. Teachers recruited in 2015  were given their letters of appointment  in 2017  with the word ‘pensionable’  missing.

Ceylon Teachers Union threatened to strike if the government did not grant promotions to the   7000  (or    5000 , figure varies) principals in national and provincial schools in keeping with the Principals Service Minute. Principals have not been given their promotions in the last two years. The promotions were due in 2015.

Education Ministry had awarded 3856 appointment letters for those who had passed the competitive exam of recruitment to  Class 3 of the  Principals service. But they have not been given appointments.  Instead Yahapalana appear to be ready to grant appointment to the acting principals instead,  complained  teachers in 2016. These persons  did not even sit the exams.  They are political appointees. The teacher trade unions supporting the government were silent.   A cabinet committee is  studying the issue, but they need more information said Yahapalana. Cabinet had wanted information on the acting principals in schools  from the Provincial directors.

Yahapalana explained the matter in this way. In  2016, the government had, granted promotions to 4,000 Principals following exams, but only 500 of them have been able to assume duties. The rest have not been able to assume duties. There is a dispute with the Provincial Chief Ministers over the acceptance of the  remaining newly promoted 3,500 Principals. The Chief Ministers have refused to accept the promotions and continue to allow Acting Principals to perform the duties. The appointments have already been made and these Principals now cannot return to teaching and therefore, their  time is wasted. We will resort to trade union action if the problem is not resolved,”  said the teachers in July 2017.

Yahapalana government is delaying to pay the salary arrears of principals and teachers. 35,000 teachers working in 350 national schools have not received their salary arrears  due to them on promotion.  Under the  service minute of 2014, national school teachers were due for arrears from July 2008, but government is only going to pay from 2011. This too is being delayed, teachers complained in 2016. The  authorities said that they were still awaiting funds from the Ministry. Payments  are now  done by zonal offices, causing further confusion and delay in payments.  Repeated request are unheeded and  teachers threatened to strike.

Yahapalana has also hit Higher Education. Earlier all students who passed the  ‘A level’ were able to apply for an  external degree without restrictions. Yahapalana government  issued circular  no 13 of 2016 which said  that the number of external students enrolled must not exceed twice   the number enrolled as internal students.  Yahapalana gave the flimsy excuse that all those who pass will then demand jobs. This is incorrect. Most are already employed.   Also only a small proportion of those who register actually complete the degree.

The University Grants Commission  complied with this circular. Now those who registered cannot continue and cannot  recover their money.  The  worst affected are outstation students, said the media.   Some 14,000 who had applied at Kelaniya were affected. Yahapalana excuse was that  Kelaniya was finding it difficult to cope with the numbers.  They should try to enter Open University, said Yahapalana . But  charges for Open University were more than for external degree. Some of those  whose applications for external degree was rejected on the basis of the UGC circular have gone to   Supreme Court  asking that this circular be squashed.

Catholic Bishops Conference has urged government not to reduce the student intake for external degrees.  It is a mistake to distribute the external degree progamme among all universities as  some universities do not  teach all the disciplines, the Bishops said.   Also restriction by district is ‘beyond comprehension.’ Limits placed on external degrees will mostly affect the poor students not the rich.

This circular is a gross harassment to students who aspire to higher studies, the Bishops continued. The government should open up more possibilities for youth to follow external degrees. The freedom for education is something precious that student in Sri Lanka have enjoyed from the time of independence,.  Any move to restrict that will be seen as a grave injustice toward the right to education, which determines the quality of life also the future of the nation. There is enormous wisdom in the long standing traditions of education in Sri Lanka which should not be changed.

Yahapalana has some sunny plans for the Health sector. Hospitals will be grouped into clusters, teaching hospital, general hospital,, provincial, base and peripheral unit. There will be a Family doctor for each     family. He will have data on the health of the family. Each doctor will serve 500 persons. The Health Ministry will make it compulsory for all patients seeking medical treatment at state hospitals to produce their medical reports issued by the Healthy Life Centers (HLC), at present there are 842 Healthy Life Centers countrywide for men and women and another 946 Suwanari centers for women. Sri Lanka will build the world’s first hospital for Thalassemia patients.

In reality Yahapalana  is  squeezing the Health services. Health Ministry  budget allocation was reduced from Rs 175 billion in 2016 to Rs 160 billion in 2017. Capital expenditure  was reduced from Rs 60 billion to Rs 40 billion. There is VAT on health services. This is quite unjustified and unconscionable specially when done to get a few million rupees, said  C.R. de Silva. GMOA   said that abrupt structure changes have been carried out in the health services since 2015 and these will totally destruct the system in five or ten years.

All Ceylon Nurses’ Union looked at  the 2017 budget proposals relating to the health sector and said that the government is gradually moving the health sector towards privatization.  There will be paying wards connected  to the private sector in the state  hospitals. Private medical laboratories  would be allowed to function within hospital premises. These will increase the presence of the private sector in the free health system.

The free health service is  to be phased out and an insurance based service put in place. The Education Ministry   has decided that all school children aged 5-19,     including international school children,   would  be provided with  a free health insurance policy worth Rs 2 lakhs per annum.  This sum will be divided between indoor and outpatient treatment and will be for specified illnesses and treatments only. Hospitalization payment will be one lakh per event per student.

The scheme will be sponsored by the Finance Ministry    and executed by Sri Lanka Insurance   starting 2018. The Ministry will also negotiate with insurance companies   for further benefits for identified surgeries, but parents will have to pay the insurance. Critics objected to paying billions to insurance companies on behalf of children. They angrily observed that this will affect the free health service   and will also help to increase insurance penetration in the country.

GMOA declared that the proposed health insurance scheme will  lead to  an insurance based health care system. This  system  has failed even in developed countries. Other countries are giving up the system.  Our country which has a highly acclaimed, time tested and cost effective health care system is doing the opposite, they said.

GMOA further said, this will enable insurance companies to make money while destroying the government health service of the country. The insurance companies will ask the children to get all sorts of tests done. Sri Lanka’s free health service has set an excellent example for the world by providing free healthcare for the children

Yahapalana  has introduced an Indian ambulance service, running parallel to the government ambulance service. GVK Emergency Management and Research Institute (GVK EMRI) , a private Indian  concern has been allowed to set up an ambulance service  for the western and southern provinces,  with plans to extend this to the rest of the country. GVK will have the power to recruit personnel and will work with the private sector as well as    government.

The project is funded by an  Indian government  grant of USD 7.55 million. Indian government will provide the capital  for ambulances and pay staff for the first year.  Yahapalana  government will help by letting GVK import their vehicles and  medical equipment  duty free and provide space to set up their rapid response centers and provide work visas for the Indian manager and trainers.

The proposal was  put to  the Cabinet  by Prime Minister Ranil  Wickremasinghe  it. It is very unusual for a  Prime Minister to put forward cabinet papers relating to a matter like an ambulance service said the Joint Opposition.    The proposal did not go through the Health Ministry  observed GMOA.

This Indian ambulance service has started operations in Hambantota, Matara and Galle, with a command centre in Rajagiriya.  There  are 88 fully equipped ambulances.  20 more ambulances are expected, provided free of charge. This ambulance service  is a ‘high class emergency ambulance service’  with state of the art medical equipment. The ambulances contain the world’s most advanced equipment.

The emergency medical technicians have been trained at GVK EMRI in Hyderabad. 50 emergency response officers have been trained to run the command centre, to answer calls  and so on. The company is not under any compulsion to hire Sri Lankans said the Joint Opposition.  But Minister Harsha de Silva said that the 500  employees  are mainly Sri Lankan. There are three to four Indian specialists consultants helping the operation.

GMOA was  highly critical of this Indian funded pre-hospital care ambulance service. It could endanger lives not save them, said GMOA. In  the government health  service even junior doctors were not allowed to handle a cardiac monitor and defibrillator. Only qualified and expert doctors do this, but in this ambulance service, paramedicals were doing so. There is no information on who trained the staff and whether they are registered with the Health Ministry in India, observed GMOA. GVK   is an NGO.   ‘It is a serious thing to hand  an ambulance service to an NGO.’ This has led to structural changes in the government  health service as well.

Under Yahapalana the government health service is a mess.   Yahapalana has not shown any interest or readiness to combat the prevailing Dengue epidemic. In March 2017 it was reported that in  just 10 weeks dengue had rocketed past  19,400 cases in the Western Province.  The all island statistics for Dengue reported on 24. July 2017 was 103,144 cases and 292 deaths.

The service is failing in other areas too. The media reported in  August 2016 that heart surgery at  the National Hospital, Colombo had reduced since the two theatres and the ICU have been shut down for repairs. It was to be repaired within two weeks or so, but would be delayed till December. Only one theatre was working. Patients have been there for months, some from far flung areas. All beds were occupied and  patients were also  placed on the  floor.

Bandaragama government hospital  had no eye surgeon in February 2017.Eye surgeries were done there earlier. Oncologists refuse to use a new controversial Russian cancer drug imported by the Health Department . It was for the  aggravated stage of the illness  when patients will in any case die.  Health   authorities said this drug was a big saving compared to other drugs. Government Nursing officers Association complained  that  the tender for Specialist nurses Training Facility has not been awarded though the money had been allocated.

There were 44 Eye Care units in the country  but there was a severe shortage of the  phaco machines needed for cataract surgery. The hospitals had only 22 phaco- machines  62 more machines were needed.  The cataract operations in state hospitals had been done with the use of phaco machines loaned by the private sector. The private sector had provided this to strengthen and expedite the number of cataract operations the free health service was able to perform annually.

But due to a statement made by Minister of Health the private sector withdrew some of the machines it had lent. There was a severe shortage of phaco machines  in hospitals  and doctors had halted surgery.  This resulted in some hospitals with eye care units being unable to perform any cataract surgeries. the National Eye Hospital usually  performed 80 to 100 cataract surgeries per day. Now however, the number had dropped to 23.

There was another complication. The statement by the Minister of Health had been about taking legal action  against doctors and hospitals  if they  performed surgeries with lenses from the private sector. Government  eye doctors could  operate only on patients who get free lenses from  the Health Ministry Vision 2020 programme.. Doctors point out that even if the Health Ministry was able to supply the needed lenses for the cataract surgeries the 44 hospitals with eye care units would not be able to perform the operations without the Phaco machines. Steps should also be taken to analyze the circulars which had been issued regarding the provision of lenses in government hospitals, they said.

Yahapalana has angered the doctors. In 2016,  Yahapalana  cut their vehicle permit, and did not grant schools to  doctors’ children  when  doctors were transferred or returned from abroad. Their children were also denied admission to Grade One. Yahapalana said it had sent Report to Education Ministry in connection with Grade One school admission of doctors’ children, but doctors rejected this..Doctors said  all children had not got schools. Only     20 out of 138 children had got schools. GMOA threatened trade union action.

In January  2017, GMOA said  the Doctors Transfer List for 2017 was  still not ready. The list should have been published  last December. The Ministry  said the GMOA was preventing the transfers. GMOA said this was nonsense. The GMOA has  participated in the transfer process for years and it is only this year that GMOA had clashed like this with the Health ministry. By now the doctors would have been in their new stations. Directors who  implemented the orders of the Public Service Commission and Health Ministry and sent doctors on transfer are now in  difficulty  since they do not get the next set of doctors. Some state hospital face closure due to this. Ministry said the real reason is the shortage of new doctors.

(to be continued)

R Chandrasoma

According to the wide-eyed prognostication of Mr Ranil Wickramasinghe, we in Sri Lanka are in a most fortunate position to secure that economic take-off that politicians of all stripes had dreamed of in Post-Independence Sri Lanka. His starting premise is that the ‘Centre of Gravity’ of global commerce and economic activity will shift to Asia in the decades ahead and that Sri Lanka – geo-politically wedged between the two Asian Giants, China and India, will have all the benefits of competitive patronage in the ongoing economic tussle between the Asian Giants. More specifically, both India and China will make economic and political overtures that go beyond those merely motivated by commercial gain – the chief of which will be the willingness to use our territory as a base for ventures that would turn our poor country into a ‘Megalopolis’  of the kind seen in such places as Singapore and Dubai. That Sri Lanka is a biodiversity hot-spot and the locus of an ancient and distinctive civilization – in contrast to such human sink-holes as Singapore and Dubai – does not seem to perturb Mr RW who, presumably, sees jobs, factories and tall buildings as the key indicators of civilization. A Naturalist might rightly ask – is pristine Sri Lanka with its forests, mountains and glades, its rich wild-life and the ancient civilization to be sacrificed to assuage the commercial greed that finds allure and attraction in the enslavement of the many to satisfy the yearnings of a dominant capitalist class? In RW’s thinking, the chef existential problem for a human being is the securement of a well-paid job – and the unavailability of well-paid jobs for young people in Sri Lanka is the daunting political challenge that we (supposedly) face in this day and age.

Is all this true? In the days of ancient glory, did we buy and sell to keep body and soul harmoniously together? Must foreigners and foreign capital – and, above all, foreign models of facing the existential threats that we encounter at this troubled moment in our history, be our sole route to felicity? Global trade has made winners and losers – a few have flourished and are held up as wonderful illustrations of the success of this economic model. – The dismal truth is that this destructive model– of forced dependence on hot-house traders and manufacturers  that necessarily  battened in the misery of the majority – is a freakish perversion  of the good life as classically understood.  Like Africa, South Asia will be a region of conflict and misery if Western-style Capitalism  – and its philosophy of pampering a consumerist greed that fattens the purses of the rich  – be the ruling paradigm. This seeming ‘grand felicity’ of the ruling elite makes the world lose worth as a green habitat for life while the enslaved masses toil to secure the wherewithal to survive in a world bereft of greenery and natural beauty. When the engine of growth is powered by an insatiable consumerist greed, nature withers and the new life in all its artificiality becomes the doleful norm .There are other ways of living nobly and it is the task of philosophers to show us the way. There is an important caveat – one must be wary of both Politicians and Priests – deceit is part of their professional ethos.

By M D P DISSANAYAKE

Majority of Sinhalese in Sri Lanka in today’s society are quite funny.  If you go through the Media, the impression is that Sri Lanka is almost finished.

But lets look at the behaviour of Sinhalese. None of the topics that are being currently debated have  grass root  reaction. Sinhalese  go merrily with their days work, looking after themselves and families and solve their problems.

They are divorced from the so-called problems of the country.   Lets examine few burning issues and reactions of Sinhalese:

1. New Constitution:  Many Sinhalese say that is only a sheet of paper, who cares, (apita moko”);
2. Maha Sanga disagreement over new Constitution:  Most of them never heard of such a thing, they simply say: we don’t know” (apita wedak neha);

iii.            Bond Scam: Sinhalese say: They are all the same”

1. Delay in holding elections:  Sinhalese say when an election is held, we just vote for someone who help us ( apita wedak thiyena kenekuta chandaya denawa”;
2. SAITM Issue: Sinhalese don’t care about this matter;
3. DENGUE:  This is the only issue Sinhalese are serious about at the moment. There is a growing commitment at the lowest level of the society, to carry out proper housekeeping. Numerous deaths  and serious illnesses at most villages have forced parents, friends, children to take ownership of this matter on voluntary basis;

vii.         COST OF LIVING: Sinhalese spend less money on food, but spend more money for educating children, buying land, renovating house or building three storey homes.

STRANGE SINHALA BUDDHISTS:

DANSALS:

In the past, the Dansals were conducted mainly during Wesak and Poson Poya Days.  But today, in almost every poya day, you will find Dansals, providing cool drinks, rice and curry.  For rice and curry, the queues are generally longer than 1 km.  Dansals are well illuminated plus Sunil Perera’s  type of thuppahi bailas take the prominence.

PIRITH CHANTING:

This has become a style nowadays. Pirith Chanting is not organised now for death anniversaries or 3 months after death, but for any occasion including wedding anniversaries, birthdays etc.   Once again, there is a growing business for those providing Tarpaulin Sheds, Lighting.  It is like an Exhibition, with 3 wheelers waiting outside.

BUDDHIST TEMPLES:

Almost every Buddhist Temple will now have a Hathara Maha Devela” complex for God Vishnu, God Saman, God Katharagama and God Ganesh. Each complex is built by a particular person/family in memory of beloved ones, their names and photos displayed prominently. ( These complexes look like Vevrukannala Vihara in Matara District, with huge photos of dead persons attached to Wall Painting. The entire temple looks like a Cemetry). Vast volume of Joss Sticks are burned by devotees at the complex, making it extremely difficult to breath;

ALCOHOL:

Those who organise Dansals, celebrate their achievements with Gal, Pol, Mendis Special.   Whilst Dansal is still  in progress, you find the drunkards fight among themselves, with their sarongs falling down, providing a moment to laugh whilst waiting in the rice and curry queue.

In one of these incidents, a 3 wheel driver who got beaten went home with his family. He pretended as he was sleeping, later at night he drank further, carried a knife and got into his 3 wheeler to teach a lesson to those who attacked him in front of Dansala”.  On the way, he was run over by another vehicle almost at mid-night and killed in a drain instantly.

ඉල්ලීම් තුනක් මුල් කර ගනිමින් වර්ජනයේ නිතර වුණු ඛණිජ තෙල් සංස්ථාවේ නිරායුධ සේවකයින්ට පොලු මුගුරු සහිත මැරයින් කණ්ඩායමක් විසින් මහ පාරේ එලව එලවා පහර දුන් ආකාරය රූපවාහිනී නාලිකා විසින් විකාශණය කරනු ලැබීය.

https://youtu.be/RDa8DF60RgU

 lanka C news

යාපනය නල්ලූර් කෝවිල ඉදිරිපිටදී පොලිස් නිලධාරියෙකු වෙඩි වැදී මිය ගියේ තමන් ඉලක්ක කරගෙන තැබූ වෙඩිල්ලකට බව යාපනය මහාදිකරණ විනිසුරු ඉලංචේලියන් මහතා පවසයි.

පොලිස් මාධ්‍ය ප‍්‍රකාශකවරයා වගකීම් සහගතව ප‍්‍රකාශ නිකුත් කල යුතු බවත් කිසිවෙකු මෙම සිදුවීමට අතපොවන්නේ නම් එය අධිකරණයට අපහාස කිරීමක් බවත් ඔහු සදහන් කරයි.

https://youtu.be/TRuP-LX0U0A

by Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

The Joint Opposition yesterday alleged that President Maithripala Sirisena and the SLFP group in the UNP-led government couldn’t absolve themselves of the responsibility for unprecedented Central Bank bond scams in Feb 2015 and March 2016.

Addressing the media at Punchi Borella, former External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris and MP Bandula Gunawardena pointed out that President Sirisena had appointed a three-member Commission of Inquiry (CoI) in January 2017, ten months after the second scam, to probe the worst financial fraud ever to have taken place in the country.

Prof. Peiris emphasized that the second scam was definitely bigger than the Feb 2015 robbery.

Had President Sirisena acted swiftly, the second larger fraud could have been averted, the former law professor said.

The CoI comprises Supreme Court Judges Kankani Tantri Chitrasiri, Prasanna Sujeewa Jayawardena and retired deputy Auditor General Velupillai Kandasamy.

Prof. Peiris said the shocking revelation regarding the then Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake and those investigated for bond scams before the CoI was evidence of what the internationally recognised legal scholar called the scale of the operation.

The former External

Affairs Minister was referring to Walt and Row Associates on behalf of Arjun Joseph Aloysius paying rental amounting to Rs 11.6 mn for a 4,000-square-foot luxury apartment at Monarch Residencies, situated at Colombo 03 occupied by the then Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake. The agreement has covered period of six months from Feb 12, 2016 to Aug 11, 2016 and the amount included refundable two months’ advance.

Responding to a query, Prof. Peiris alleged that President Sirisena had dissolved parliament in late June 2015 to pave the way for early parliamentary polls. Early dissolution was meant to thwart the then Chairman of Committee on Public Enterprises (CoPE) Dew Gunasekera presenting a damning report on Feb 2015 scam to parliament, he alleged.

MP Bandula Gunawardena said the government certainly owed the country an explanation regarding inordinate delay in inquiring into disclosures made by the JO in and outside parliament. Gunawardena said that JO MP Mahindananda Aluthgamage had some time back revealed that Aloysius paid the lease of the Karunanayakes’ penthouse. Gunawardena also questioned the circumstances under which the Global Transportation and Logistics Pvt Ltd had bought the penthouse for Rs 165 mn on behalf of Karunanayakes eight months after the original agreement.

Gunawardena said that in spite of the JO making representations to international lending agencies, they didn’t take tangible measures. The JO spokesman accused them of ignoring their concerns.

President Maithripala Sirisena has extended the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (CoI) by three more moths. The CoI was to lapse on July 27, 2017, a senior government official told The Island.

A senior spokesperson for the CoI said that sittings had to be cancelled as Foreign Minister Ravi Karunanayake was the only witness scheduled to appear before the CoI yesterday.

Courtesy newsin.asia

Luxembourg, July 26 (Reuters/newsin.asia): The European Union’s top court kept Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on the EU terrorism blacklist on Wednesday and removed Sri Lankan separatist rebels, the Tamil Tigers.

However, the EU said in a press release later that the ban on the Tamil Tigers stays as the judgment did not take into account later developments in the EU regulations and had only taken into account the law prevailing between 2011 and 2015.

Judges at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) overruled the General Court’s view of 2014 that the Council of the European Union, the 28-nation grouping, had insufficient evidence to maintain asset freezes and travel bans on Hamas.

The lower court had found that the listing was based on media and internet reports rather than decisions by a competent authority”. But the ECJ said such decisions were not required for groups to stay on the list, only for their initial listing.

The Council may maintain a person or an entity on the list if it concludes that there is an ongoing risk of that person or entity being involved in the terrorist activities that justified their initial listing,” the ECJ said. The EU needed to rely on more recent material than used in its initial decision, it said.

It said the General Court should now examine the facts and arguments it did not consider in its 2014 ruling.

In a parallel case, the top court did rule that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of Sri Lanka, the Tamil Tigers, should be removed from the EU’s terrorism list.

The court said that EU had not produced any evidence to show that there was a risk of the Tamil Tigers carrying out attacks after its military defeat in 2009.

The Court of Justice therefore confirms the annulment of the continued freezing of the LTTE’s funds,” it said.

The EU terrorism list, created after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 and last updated in January, includes 13 individuals and 22 organizations, such as the Communist Party of the Philippines and Peru’s Maoist-inspired rebel group, Shining Path.

Hamas has been listed since 2003, its military wing since 2001. LTTE was added to the list in 2006.

By Anil Perera

Thirty four years ago, some criminal elements among Sinhalese carried out indiscriminate attacks on Tamils after some Sinhalese soldiers were killed by the LTTE in Jaffna. Majority of Sinhalese condemned this dastardly act and protected their Tamil neighbours. There was never a recurrence of such madness in the last thirty four years, even when the LTTE went on rampage killing innocent men, women and children in Sinhalese villages in North & East Sri Lanka and other parts of the country.

Yet, even after thirty four years, some imbecile elements among Sinhalese blame the entire Sinhalese nation for what happened in 1983 July. They forget that they too are Sinhalese and if all Sinhalese are to accept the guilt for what happened in 1983, then they themselves should be guilty. We need not be guilty about what a small section of our population did thirty four years ago. It is like holding ourselves responsible for rapes, murders, drug trafficking and embezzlement carried out by some Sinhalese. In any society there are black sheep. We condemn them; we feel sorry for the victims; but the perpetrators had nothing to do with us.

The same people who blame Sinhalese for the incidents of July 1983, do not utter a word about the LTTE atrocities against our own people from 1983 to 2009. For twenty six long years, the LTTE butchers brutally hacked Sinhalese infants, children, women and unarmed men to death just because they were Sinhalese. Entire villages were wiped out; people were lined up and shot. Yet there are some Sinhalese idiots defend the LTTE. They do not cry for hundreds of Sinhalese and Muslim children killed by the LTTE, but they cry for the son of the butcher who ordered the killings. If Sinhalese are to be collectively responsible for Black July, on the same logic, Tamils are to be collectively responsible for LTTE massacres.

For our people it is not just Black July, but also Black January, Black February etc. to Black December. There is not a single month when innocent Sinhalese were not butchered by LTTE terrorists. Do Tamils accept guilt for this? No, except for a handful of them. Not even the people who funded LTTE admit their guilt; they still defend the LTTE and even deny these massacres.

Some people claim that Sinhalese should apologise to Tamils for Black July. Yes, we should apologise, not just to Tamils, but to the entire world for belonging to a nation which has a high number of such imbecile people, who would stoop down to such a low level to condemn their own people for something they are certainly not guilty of. We should be ashamed to belong to the same nation, if they call themselves Sinhalese.

ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණේ නියෝජ්‍ය නායක, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී, කෝප් කමිටු සාමාජික වීරකුමාර දිසානායක මහතා පිටකෝට්ටේ පිහිටි එහි ප්‍රධාන කාර්යාලයේදී පැවැති විශේෂ මාධ්‍ය හමුවකදී මෙසේ පෙන්වා දුන්නේය.

එහිදී වැඩිදුරටත් අදහස් දැක්වූ වීරකුමාර දිසානායක මහතා මෙසේ ද සඳහන් කළේය.

මෙම මාධ්‍ය හමුව කැඳවූයේ මහ බැංකු බැඳුම්කර වංචාව පිළිබඳ පරීක්‍ෂණ සිදු කළ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ කෝප් කමිටු දෙකේම සාමාජිකත්වය දැරූ මන්ත්‍රිවරයකු ලෙසයි. ඒ වගේම බැඳුම්කර වංචාව පිළිබඳ සෙවීමට පත් කළ ජනාධිපති කොමිසම හමුවේ ද මා සාක්‍ෂි දීමට අවස්ථාවක් ලබා ගෙන අදාළ කරුණු ඉදිරිපත් කිරීම සිදු කළා. ඒ සෑම මොහොතකදීම අප දැරූ ස්ථාවරය තමයි, මහ බැංකු බැඳුම්කර ගනුදෙනුව කියන්නේ මෙරට සිදු වූ බරපතළම මූල්‍ය වංචාව බව. ඒ වගේම අපි සෑම විටම කෝප් කමිටුවලදීත්, ජනාධිපති කොමිසම හමුවේත් රට හමුවේත් පෙන්වා දුන්නේ ‘මෙම බරපතළ මූල්‍ය වංචාව හිටපු මහ බංකු අධිපති අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන්ට සහ ඔහුගේ බෑණා වන අර්ජුන ඇලෝසියස්ට තනිව සිදු කරන්න බැහැ’ කියන එකයි. මෙවැනි බරපතළ මූල්‍ය වංචාවක් සිදු කිරීමට නම් පැහැදිලිව යහපාලන ආණ්ඩුවේ සහයෝගය ලැබිය යුතුයි. එදා කෝප් කමිටුව ඉදිරියට කැඳවූ මහ බැංකු අධිපති අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන් පැවසුවා, ‘මට මේ බැඳුම්කර ගනුදෙනුව සඳහා උපදෙස් දුන්නේ අගමැති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතායි’ කියලා. කෙසේ නමුත් කෝප් කමිටුවේ සීමාකම් නිසා ඊට අදාළ ඇතැම් වැදගත් සාක්ෂි ලබා ගැනීමට හැකි වුණේ නැහැ.

‘හිරිකිත – පිළිකුල් සහගත – නින්දිත වැඩක්’

පසුව මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් පත් කළ ජනාධිපති කොමිසම, පරීක්‍ෂණ ඉදිරියට ගෙන යමින් තිබෙනවා. එහි කටයුතු ජනමාධ්‍ය මගින් රටේ ජනතාවට දැන ගැනීමට ලැබෙමින් තිබෙනවා. කොමිසම හමුවේ ලබා දුන් සාක්‍ෂියක් පිළිබඳව විද්යුත් මාධ්‍ය සහ පුවත්පත්වලින් දැන ගැනීමට ලැබුණා. හිරිකිත, පිළිකුල් සහගත, නින්දිත ක්‍රියාවක් ගැන තමයි අපට එමගින් අහන්න, දකින්න ලැබුණේ. එය ඇසූ මට ‘මේ රට මේ තරම් අවාසනාවන්තද?’ කියා සිතුණා. ඒ අනුව යහපාලනය පිළිබඳ පැණි බේරෙන තර්ක ඉදිරිපත් කරපු, මූල්‍ය කළමනාකරණය ගැන මහා විචක්‍ෂණභාවයකින් කථා කරපු හිටපු මුදල් ඇමති රවී කරුණානායක ඇතුළු එතුමාගේ පවුලේ සාමාජිකයන්ට බැඳුම්කර වංචාවේ ‘සුපිරි පුත්‍රයා’ වූ අර්ජුන ඇලෝසියස්ගෙන් මහා ත්‍යාගයක් පිරිනැමී ඇත.

මේ විදියට තෑගි දෙන්න අර්ජුන ඇලෝසියස් සහ රවී කරුණානායක අතර තිබෙන සහසම්බන්ධය කුමක්ද? නෑදෑකමක්ද, හිතවත්කමක්ද? ගෝල්ෆේස් හෝටලය ඉදිරිපිට තිබෙන මොනාක් සුපිරි නිවාස සංකීර්ණයේ නිවාස ඒකක 02ක් මිලියන 165කට රවී කරුණානායකට අරන් දීමට අර්ජුන ඇලෝසියස්ට තිබෙන උවමනාව කුමක්ද? මුලින් මාස 06කට කල්බදු පදනමින් මේ අතිසුඛෝපභෝගී නිවාස ඒකක දෙක අරන් දෙන්න අර්ජුන ඇලෝසියස් වැය කළ මුදල රුපියල් මිලියන 7.3ක් බවත් ඉහත ඉහත සාක්‍ෂියේදී හෙළි වුණා. ඒ අනුව රවී කරුණානායක පවුල වෙනුවෙන් තැගී දෙන්න අර්ජුන ඇලෝසියස් වැය කර ඇති මුදල රුපියල මිලියන 172.3ක්. අර්ජුන ඇලෝසියස්ගෙන් මේ වගේ තෑග්ගක් ගැනීමට තිබෙන සම්බන්ධය රවී කරුණානායක ඇමතිවරයා වහාම රටට කිව යුතුයි.

‘බැඳුම්කර වංචාව ඒකාබද්ධ මෙහෙයුමක ප්‍රතිඵලයක් බව ඔප්පු වුණා’

කෝප් කමිටු දෙකක් විසින්ම මහ බැංකු බැඳුම්කර ගනුදෙනුවේදී මහා පරිමාණ මූල්‍ය වංචාවක් සිදුව ඇති බව තම පරික්‍ෂණවලින් සොයා ගත්තා. නමුත් මේ ආණ්ඩුවේ අගමැතිවරයා ඇතුළු පිරිස් බොහෝ සුරංගනා කතා කියමින් ඒවා වැහුවා. මේ මිලියන 172ක ගනුදෙනුව මේ හොරකමේ එක් පුංචි කොටසක්. තව තවත් මේ හොරකම පිළිබඳව සොයා ගෙන ගියාම මේ හොරකමේ විශාලත්වය ඔබට පෙනේවි. මේ බැඳුම්කර හොරකම රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ – රවී කරුණානායක – අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන් – අර්ජුන ඇලෝසියස් යන අයගේ ඒකාබද්ධ මෙහෙයුමක් මගින් සිදු කළ එකක්. කෝප් කමිටුව හමුවේ එදා අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන් කීවා ‘මට අගමැතිතුමා තමයි මේ ගනුදෙනුවට උපදෙස් දුන්නේ’ කියා. දැන් අගමැතිවරයාට තමන් නිවැරදි නම් කියන්න පුළුවන් ‘මම නොවෙයි මේ හොරකම කළේ රවී කරුණානායක’ කියලා. රවී කරුණානායකටත් ඒ විදියට තමන් නිවැරදි නම් කියන්න පුළුවන් ‘මම නොවෙයි මේ හොරකම කළේ අගමැතිවරයා’ කියලා. ඒ ප්‍රකාශ කරන්න දැන් වෙලාව ඇවිල්ලා තිබෙනවා. දැන්වත් අගමැති සහ මුදල් ඇමති තමන් කළ දේ රටට කියා පුළුවන් නම් රට හමුවේ නිවැරදිභාවය ඔප්පු කළ යුතුයි.

හොරකම්, ජඩකම් හොයන්න ආපු යහපාලකයන්ගේ යහපාලන හොරකම්, යහපාලන ජඩකම් දැන් කරුණු සහිතව එළියට එමින් තිබෙනවා. ඒ නිසා අපි කියනවා ‘ඇඟේ සෛලයක හෝ ශිෂ්ට සම්පන්න භාවයක් තියෙනවා නම් රවී කරුණානායක තමන් දරන සියලු තනතුරුවලින් ඉල්ලා අස්විය යුතුයි’ කියා. ඒ වගේම ජනාධිපති, අගමැති, අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩලය මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් වහාම රට හමුවේ ප්‍රකාශයක් කළ යුතුයි.

අල්ලස් ගැනීමත් – දීමත් නීතිය ඉදිරියේ වරදක්. ඒ නිසා කොමිසමේ කටයුතු තවම අවසන්ව නොමැති වුවත් මේ අයට විරුද්ධව නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක කළ යුතුයි. දැන් අපට කියන්න ‘අගමැතිවරයාගේ පොකට් එකට මුදල් ඇමති ගැහුවාද? නැතිනම් අගමැති සහ මුදල් ඇමති එකතු වෙලා ජනතාවගේ පොකට් එකට ගැහුවාද? කියලා. මේක එක සිද්ධියක් විතරයි. තව ඒවා තිබෙනවා. නමුත් මේ ආකාරයෙන් රට ඉදිරියේ හෙළිදරව් වූ මේ සිදුවීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් නීතිය ක්‍රියාවේ යොදවන්න බැරිනම් මේ ආණ්ඩුව ඉල්ලා අස්විය යුතුයි”

අනුරුද්ධ බණ්ඩාර රණවාරණ
මාධ්‍ය ලේකම්
ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණ

Editorial Courtesy The Island

July 25, 2017, 8:32 pm
President Maithripala Sirisena has extended the term of the presidential commission of inquiry probing bond scams. Investigations have taken a dramatic turn and several key witnesses have not testified yet. The commission, therefore, needs some more time to complete its work, but care has to be taken to prevent the probe from dragging on indefinitely.

A campaign against corruption, in this country, is as arduous as a war on terror. Perhaps, it is more difficult than a military campaign. But, for the ongoing presidential probe the public would have been kept in the dark as regards the nexus between the bond racketeers and politicians; they would have had to settle for what the second COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) report says of the bond scams. President Sirisena can rest assured that all right-thinking Sri Lankans will rally behind him if he succeeds in ensuring that the bond racketeers are brought to justice and the massive losses they have caused to the state coffers and the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) are fully recovered. Now that he has talked the talk—very eloquently at that—he has to walk the walk.

The strength of the bond racketeers, protected by powerful, corrupt politicians pretending to be paragons of virtue, shouldn’t be underestimated. They wield tremendous political power and have huge slush funds at their disposal. Therefore, the need for keeping a close eye on their political manoeuvring cannot be overemphasised. They may be licking their wounds and looking beleaguered, but the possibility of a devastating Parthian shot cannot be ruled out; they won’t go down without a fight. It may be recalled that a dispute over the appointment of the Central Bank (CB) Governor last year almost brought down the so-called unity government with the UNP going flat out to have the then Governor Arjuna Mahendran, under a cloud, reappointed. President Sirisena stood his ground and the UNP fell in line, but succeeded in having another person of its choice appointed CB Governor.

It has been reported that a high-ranking CB officer, backing the bond racketeers, has removed a whole slew of files from the CB in spite of objections from the bank security personnel. He may be desperately trying to cover his tracks by obliterating vital evidence. Who authorised the removal of those files? A thorough investigation is called for. There may be an all-out attempt to derail the bond investigations because their findings are sure to destroy some government top guns’ political future.

Strangely, trade unions, whose leaders claim to be ready even to lay down their lives for the sake of the working class, have chosen to ignore the colossal loss the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) has suffered due to the bond scams. The lid has been blown off mega pump-and-dump operations which caused the workers’ superannuation fund to haemorrhage a huge amount of funds. But, the silence of the trade unions is deafening. Have their leaders been bought off?

All those desirous of having the bond racketeers hauled up before courts must not be complacent; it is a mistake for them to leave that uphill task entirely to the intrepid Central Bank officials and the equally courageous and brilliant Attorney General’s Department counsel who are unmasking the bond racketeers and springing surprises for the corrupt undesirables in the garb of politicians. The public must pledge solidarity with the indomitable state officials on a noble mission.

The Joint Opposition (JO) leaders must be ashamed of themselves for soft-pedaling bond scams and trying to cover their nudity with the SAITM issue. They stand accused of political horse-trading with the UNP, which controls the state outfits probing corruption charges against them and their kith and kin. If they think they can regain lost ground by bellowing rhetoric and holding rallies they are mistaken. Their single-issue agenda aimed at ousting President Sirisena won’t be appealing to the people faced with a plethora of burning issues which have gone unaddressed.

Of what use is an oppositional force which ignores the biggest ever financial racket in the country?