Dilrook Kannangara

Deception is used again to get the India petroleum deal passed. Leasing or selling Trincomalee oil tanks is not the issue; ruining Lanka’s petroleum industry and making it dependent on India is the real deal. It will be an all round disaster with far-reaching consequences including war, riots and economic ruin. The deal must not be signed. If it goes ahead, it must be abrogated by a future government.

Economic Ruin

Petroleum retail market of the island is worth over $1 billion. At present Indian LIOC company has a 18% market share. CPC’s market share is 82%. With the proposed deal, the entire market will go to Indian companies. Local refineries also add value to the petroleum industry now. This too will be lost costing another $1 billion. Under the deal, oil refinery operations will be done in Andra Pradesh and refined petroleum will be distributed in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Bhutan monopolizing their petroleum industry.

Indian petroleum hub in Andra Pradesh will be making all the profit from exports.

This is a profitable industry that keeps making profit despite neglect by successive governments. With the deal, all economic worth of the industry will go to India. It will worsen Lanka’s balance of payment by $2 billion annually. This has to be borrowed to bridge the balance of payment gap adding more interest cost and worsening the debt crisis.

Tens of thousands of CPC employees will be unemployed as the CPC will be routed economically. Indians will be holding all senior positions of LIOC and other Indian firms that replace CPC. Very few locals will be employed at managerial levels. All material cost, machinery cost, senior management cost, service cost, profit and management fees will go to India. Direct and indirect suppliers of CPC and banks will also suffer enormously. Economic ripple effects will be enormous. This is why most developing countries have state ownership of the petroleum industry.

Dangerous Energy Dependency on India                      

Most concerning is dangerous energy dependency on India. Energy is crucial to national security and the national economy. Petroleum is the largest power and energy source of the island nation. After the deal, within a few years, Sri Lanka will be at the mercy of India for its energy. India will use energy as a weapon to negotiate with Lanka on all matters of its choosing.

Pricing of petroleum and its dependents including electricity will be determined by India without regard to Lanka’s national policy. At present (apart from election gimmicks), the Lankan government manages pricing of kerosene, petrol, diesel and gas to stimulate the economy. This ability will be lost. India will be manipulating the economy and even elections using petroleum pricing as a tool. Increase in petroleum prices increases the cost and price of all goods and services!

In 1952 when the country was facing a serious food crisis, the government entered into the rubber-rice pact with China. Western governments vehemently opposed it and their petroleum companies threatened not to fuel ships involved in importing rice to the island and exporting rubber from the island. Prime Minister Kothalawala’s treasury secretary in turn warned against such action pointing out the likelihood of nationalization of oil companies. Fearful of repercussions, oil companies toed the line. However, given the strategic national importance, Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike nationalized them in 1963. It added an enormous value to the national economy and saved billions of dollars over the years in foreign exchange.

Trincomalee Turned into Crimea and Sri Lanka to Ukraine

Indians landing in Trincomalee can be equated to the Russian invasion and occupation of Crimea. In fact, it is far worse. Russia has some historical claims to Crimea but India has no historical claims to Trincomalee. Thereafter Sri Lanka will be turned into another Ukraine of total dependence and conflict.

Ukraine has two main ethnic groups – ethnic Ukrainians (native to Ukraine) and Russians (the largest minority). Largest group in Eastern Ukraine is the ethnic Russian minority. Russia has traditionally used the Russian minority to pull strings on Ukraine. In 2013, following the unconstitutional removal of the pro-Russian Ukrainian president (after a series of corruption allegations), a pro-western government was elected which decided to join the EU. As a sovereign nation, Ukraine has the right to come to any agreement with any country or organization. It is not Russia’s business to interfere. However, Russia interfered and invaded Ukraine grabbing strategically important Crimea including its ports. Russia also armed Eastern Ukraine Russian minority separatists to wage a war on Ukraine for separation. Civil war has ruined the economy of Ukraine. Today it is a de facto divided country along ethic divisions.

Ukraine also depends on Russia for gas for energy needs. Russia continuously exploits Ukraine’s energy dependency.

These events must ring a bell because this is exactly what is happening in Sri Lanka!

Accompanying the deal is an Indian project to link Mannar, Vavuniya and Trincomalee. North to this axis is Tamil-only. In 1970s and 1980s, India financed and armed Tamil terrorists that fought unsuccessfully against Sri Lanka to create a Tamil-only nation within the island. Sri Lanka relied on India’s rivals – China and Pakistan – for weapons to defeat the terrorist group in 2009. With the petroleum deal, Sri Lankan territory north of the axis will become the equal of Eastern Ukraine. Sri Lanka will have to contain Chinese economic deals. Otherwise, India will use the split to create havoc in Sri Lanka once again.

Just as Russia manipulated Ukraine out of the EU, India will force Lanka out of China’s Silk Road initiative.

Hambantota Port Becomes Unprofitable

Most profitable, rather the only profitable business line of Hambantota port is its bunkering facility. However, when India monopolizes petroleum industry in the island, Sri Lanka will be unable to sell fuel in Hambantota. India will price fuel high enough to make it unprofitable. Trincomalee will become the choice of refueling for a limited number of ships. With its most profitable line of business gone, Hambantota will automatically become an economic burden. China will either leave Hambantota or scale down its economic imprint. India will achieve its desired outcome without a war. Deprived of another vital economic asset, Lanka will reel in underdevelopment.

Tamil Eelam on Wings

Just as Donbas rebels assert Independence, Tamil separatists will assert Independence in the north. Trincomalee as the vital petroleum entry and storage point of the island, Tamils will make further extortionist demands. If Sri Lanka doesn’t cave in, Tamils will assert Independence which will disrupt petroleum movement. If Independence is reached, Sri Lanka will have to depend on Tamil Eelam for all petroleum and will pay a higher price as a mark-up. South Sudan and North Sudan are in a similar situation. South Sudan relies on North Sudan (its rival) to export crude at which point the North imposes various disruptions.

Sri Lanka will end up as Ukraine, Sudan or worse.

Conclusion

It is imperative that a future government nationalize all petroleum assets in the country once again. Otherwise, it will be the end of the island nation as we know it. Never-ending war, riots and disruptions will become the norm just as in Ukraine and Sudan. However, trying to nationalize them will not go without severe Indian pressure including possibly another military intervention. As executive presidents of the island nation lack the courage for bold action its prime ministers of the past had, nationalization threat will remain confined to election platforms.

It will be a new dilemma for the island torn along ethnic lines. Hidden in metaphorical small print of the deal is another Indian instigated war in the island. Other smaller neighbors of India will also become victims of India’s new petroleum hegemony.

Sudath Gunasekara 2017. 5. 8

I am posting herewith two news items for your serious attention. Now you can see the covert political objectives of the Indian PM’s Sri Lankan visit. Why should he address a meeting of Sri Lankan Indian estate labourers who are people of Indian origin ( PIO), though they are Sri Lankan citizens on paper and they live here, work here, eat here and sleep here but in mind live in India and day and night conspire against native Sinhalese.

Even the Sri Lankan hornets and wasps have no freedom to live in their nests when and Indian politician comes. You can just imagine the plight of Sinhala people under this Yahapalanaya of Chandrka-Sirisena-Ranil Troika

A detailed article on ‘An open letter to Indian PM Modi” will follow.

1 Prime Minister Modi on May 12 will inaugurate a well- equipped hospital in the central hill area of Dickoya built with the Indian assistance. He will later address a public rally at the Norwood grounds.

2 Modi’s visit: Wasp nests in estate sector to be removed

Ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the upcountry areas, action has been taken to remove hornets and wasps nests found in certain parts of the estates to avoid any possible attack on the visiting dignitary.

The security units assigned with the provision of security to the Indian Premier had coordinated with the Hatton SPs office and obtained the assistance of the Organization for the Protection of such bees.

Premier Narendra Modi is scheduled to declare open the Intensive Care Unit of the Glencarn hospital in Norwood, Hatton, an event where President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe are also due to participate.

A public rally and several other events are lined up to coincide with the visit, and authorities had taken measures to prevent any sudden attack by these wasps that are now present in large numbers in the estate sector.

The whirling that would be created by several Helicopters making their landings, the Wasps who had built their nests on large tree tops might be disturbed and aim their attacks on the large crowds due to assemble at the grounds where public meetings would be held. Special measures were adopted to remove these nests with technical assistance as well. (Suranga Rajanayake)

Sarath Wijesnghe (Solicitor- Attorney –at –law and a former Ambassador)

Daul Nationality and Citizenship

Daul Nationality is a person’s citizenship states regarded as a citizen in more than one country, under laws of those states. There is no international convention which determines nationality or citizen’s status which defines exactly by national laws. The issue could be traced back to 1867 when Fenin Rising” an Irish – American was charges for treason in Ireland. British recognized perpetual allegations in citizenship issues and American Congress passed Expatriation Act in 1868 granting Americans freely denounce the US citizenship. British followed suit by formulating the British Nationality Law in 1948, removing restrictions on dual citizenship. Sri Lanka follows the British principles and models including Parliamentary procedures and allowed dual citizenships to Sri Lankans qualified. Daul citizenship is applicable to a person whose citizenship of Sri Lanka has ceased under S 19/20/21 of the citizenship act or Sri Lankan citizenship is likely to cease. This is a privilege extended to few countries such as Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Israel Australia, Barbados, Bangladesh, Canada, Cyprus, USA, South Korea, South Africa, Greece, France, Finland, Germany, Iraqi, Ireland, Hungary, Iceland, Sweden, Slovenia, Syria, Serbia, Armenia, Lebanon, Malta, Spain, Tango, Philippines, Sierra Leone, Pakistan, Portugal and Turkey. There are 53 countries with restrictions including India, Japan. Singapore and Nepal with reasons confined to their national laws on the decision on this national issue. This issue has raised new political and legal issues and complications in view of many other members of the Parliament alleged to hold daul citizenships and if so their eligibility to continue to be members of the Parliament. USA, British and Israel are pioneers of the concept and applicability of dual citizenship. In Israel there is a mechanism to obtain citizenship – dual- (Jus Sanguinis) on condition to abide by the requirement to military services, with right to return (conditional) though it is said that every Israeli worldwide has the right to be a citizen provided Jewishness is proved. UK and USA almost follow the same pattern.

Daul Citizenship is a privilege and not a right

Daul Nationality is not a right but a privilege for a citizen to enjoy the rights and privileges of one or more countries to enjoy rights to own properties, invest and conduct businesses and enjoy restricted privileges with the right to denounce or to be taken away by the state at any given stage. In Sri Lanka Daul Nationality holders could hold public office and be elected as a Member of the Parliament until the introduction not the 19th amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka expressly prohibited a citizen of Sri Lanka who is also a citizen of any other country from contesting elections. Today this issue has come to light with the decision of the Court of Appeal on the election of Hon Geetha Kumarasinghe to the parliament with the allegation that the office was held whilst she is still a citizen of Switzerland. The 19th amendment came in to effect on 15th may 2015. Nominations of the Parliamentary elections closed on 13th July 2015; as such it was theoretically possible for election department official to have rejected nomination papers with a candidate rendered ineligible on account of holding dual citizenship. The election commissioner apparently had no provision to reject the entire nomination list. Now that the MP has appealed against the order she could continue to be a Member of Parliament until the determination of the appeal. Holding public office by a non-national or a dual citizenship holder is a grey area to be resolved with the maize of citizenship issues and anticipated constitutional changes on the table. Appointments of Arjun Mahandran (Singaporean National) as the Governor central Bank and Gotabaya Rajapaksa ( Daul Citizenship holder) as the Defence Secretary may be topics of discussion in the forthcoming controversies to be resolved. This may be an important on constitutional making and the new dual citizen holders will have an impact on economy, society and legal system.

Legal Basis and issues

Legal basis and issues are still complicated. Like the 18th amendment 19th amendment is also a hurriedly drafted and passed legislation on various political strategies aiming at individuals rather than political ideologies or polices. It is no secret that the intention of the hurriedly passed legislation is to Block Mahinda Rajapaksa and Gotabaya Rajapaksa – the possible contenders in future power struggles, reminds us of blocking Mrs Bandaraneika by her rival J R jayawarden Government. These are political games manipulating the legal structure for the advantage of those in power. In the present controversy there is also a question on the jurisdiction as to whether the proper method should have been an election petition to the Supreme Court rather than the writ of Quo Warranto”, pleaded by the petitioners in the Court of Appeal, and the procedure adopted which will be canvassed heavily in the Supreme Court in the near future. This will open a floodgate of cases of many others with citizenships in other countries but elected before the 19th amendment. Supreme Court is the final appellate court with enormous powers inherent as well as from the legislature and the decisions will be taken considering the supremacy of the Parliament, intention of the legislature, power of the mandate of the people and supremacy of Parliament and inherent powers.

Threat of contempt and constitutionality

Now there is another development and threat to file further documents by the petitioners for contempt of court for citizen the court/judgment and not complying the order forthwith. Contempt of court is disobeying, offends, and disrespects the court order undermining the dignity and authority of the court, is some of the grounds of the offence, which will depend on the facts and circumstances and the allegations. The Article is clear in that No person shall be elected as a member of Parliament or to sit or vote in Parliament if Article 92 (b), 20 (4) 91 (1 (d) X111 is contravened, subject to appeal and valid explanation to the controller of immigration, and the Speaker of the Parliament. There is a misconception that the defendant or and accused will have no right to comment is a false notion based on hearsay, as there is ample opportunity to criticize the judgment/determination of the court/tribunal with the parameter.

In a cross road today

We are in a maze of controversies and a cross road in the citizenship issue in the absence of a proper nationality law as In the UK which is a living document with changes through practice and regulations, in the fast moving digital age. With the influx of uncontrolled offer of dual citizens unlike in other countries we are expecting dangers in the near future. In the United Kingdom and USA naturalisation is necessary to acquire the citizenship and to convert to dual later. There could be an imbalance on economy and defence if flood gate is allowed with no control and this is a warning signal to keep legs in other parts of the world. Israel citizens in the legislature in the USA are required to take allegiance on oath as Patriotic Americans as other citizens. The citizenship act no 18 of 1948 is out dated and inadequate with the modern trends and challenges and to be redrafted to be compatible with national standards/aspirations and international norms. When all other states are practicing protectionism it is time for us to adopt new measures through the proposed constitution in making.

Sarath Wijesinghe 0777880166- (sarath 7 @hotmail.co.uk)

Dear Sir/ Madam Please give publicity to the following event in you newspaper. Thank you

Vesak Lectures

organised by the

Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka

on

Monday 15^th May 2017

Lecture 1 (4.00-4.45 pm)

by

Ven. Prof. Khammai Dhammasami; DPhil (Oxford), PhD (MCU)
Professor, International Theravada Buddhist Missionary University (ITBMU), Myanmar

on

“Buddhist Mindfulness Meditation in the West: An overview on mutual benefit between traditional and scientific approach”.

Lecture 2 (4.45 – 5.30 pm)

by

Prof. Lewis Lancaster; Emeritus Professor, Dept. of East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of California, Berkeley

on   

The Altus of Maritime Buddhism: A different lens for the study of culture and religion in Sri Lanka

at 

 Gamini Dissanayake Auditorium

No. 96, Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha, Colombo 07

ALL ARE WELCOME

Nagananda Kodituwakku

Friends, don’t ignore the total breakdown of rule of law in this country and don’t wait till things directly affecting your own family.

Come forward, please speak aloud against the gross abuse of people’s SOVEREIGN RIGHTS by the utterly corrupt people occupying the office in the LEGISLATURE and the EXECUTIVE.

Please join hand to EMPOWER the JUDICIARY to deal with this corrupt elements appropriately.

In the case filed in the Supreme Court (SC/Writs/07/2016) against the abuse of tax free car permits by corrupt MPs and Ministers, the CIABOC has already given an undertaking to the Supreme Court to inquire into this day light robbery of public funds. I have declined to accept this undertaking and have urged that any such inquiry shall be transparent, independent and credible which shall be conducted under the supervision of the Supreme Court.

The CIABOC has already lost its credibility as the CIABOC Commissioners had let down and betrayed the trust placed in it by the CONSTITUENTS by conspiring with the Executive President Rajajapkse to get rid of the CHIEF JUSTICE – the Court served 3 charge sheets against the CJ which were initiated by the CIABOC, but after the CJ’s removal the same CIABOC withdrew all three charges).

The case on abuse of tax-free car permits due on 09th of May 2017 in the Supreme Court, I invite you all to join me and demonstrate that you condemn the total breakdown of RULE OF LAW in the REPUBLIC OF SRI LANKA.

Govt submits Supplementary Estimate Rs.329 M for Ministers’ cars – Ceylontoday.lk

ceylontoday.lk

https://ceylontoday.lk/print20170401CT20170630.php?id=20500

Editorial Courtesy The Island

May 7, 2017, 9:06 pm

Anything Indian goes under the present yahapalana dispensation as is common knowledge. Government leaders shuttle between Colombo and New Delhi so frequently that when they get up in the morning they must be wondering which city they are in. They are known for their predilection for adopting Indian models from ambulance services to devolution. But, there are lessons that we can learn from China, as well, but, sadly they have gone unlearnt. We don’t mean the wrong ones like digging up land to build inland harbours or reclaiming land from the sea to build mega cities at an enormous cost. Instead, we have to learn from China how to hold state officials accountable for their actions at least where disasters are concerned.

In China, as many as 45 persons have been jailed over a landfill collapse which snuffed out 73 lives in Shenzhen two years ago. The media reported extensively on that disaster in 2015, jolting the Chinese authorities into action. Among those sent to jail are the manager of the company that ran the waste soil and construction material dump and the former head of the city administration bureau: they got 20-year jail terms for criminal negligence.

International media reports tell us that 20 Chinese public officials have also been thrown behind bars for the Shenzhen disaster, which occurred as there had been 5.8 million cubic metres of waste materials in the dump which was permitted to hold only four million cubic metres of waste. At the time of collapse, the landfill was 160m tall whereas the recommended height was only 95m. This kind of stringent punishment is called for as it is sure to have a deterrent effect on the entire officialdom; no official will dare expose the public to danger hereafter.

But, in this country, neither politicians nor bureaucrats have to fear legal action for their commissions and omissions which are legion and lead to disasters. Nobody has been held accountable for the Meethotamulla garbage dump collapse, which killed more than 32 persons a few weeks ago. In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, we wrote in this space that the officials responsible for running the dump and their political masters were lucky that we were without laws to make them face firing squads for their serious lapses which had led to the tragedy.

Sri Lankan parliamentarians, provincial councillors and local government members visit China at the expense of the public, year in year out, claiming to study various things in that country. Let the Chinese government be requested to take them to Shenzhen and also make arrangements for them to visit the government officials in prison for the 2015 landfill disaster.

Needless to say that accountability is an integral part of good governance, which the present administration claims to uphold. But, it is conspicuous by its absence in spite of moral tub-thumping we hear from the present-day leaders ad nauseam. A former minister has been charged with misusing one vehicle under the previous government. Such action is, no doubt, welcome, but the question is why those responsible for far worse offences such as the mega bond scams which have cost the state coffers and the workers’ superannuation fund billions of rupees and creating garbage mountains which expose the public to danger, have not been hauled up before courts.

Environmental groups are a dime a dozen in this country. Will they care to explore the possibility of instituting legal action against the bureaucrats and politicians, both past and present, responsible for dumping garbage at Meethotamulla over the years amidst protests from the public and in spite of warnings of a disaster?

By Shivanthi Ranasinghe Courtesy Ceylon Today

The Stock Market boomed into life, with the successful conclusion of the war, in May 2009. After stagnating for years, the rising activities were the barometric readings of the fast reviving economy. Yet, despite the massive development projects and investments taking place, the market was slowing by 2011. Investor confidence began to erode and by 2012, the market was crashing.

Stock Market mafia was pumping and dumping and 17 cases to be investigated screamed headlines. By 2013, the market revived and by 2014 was yielding the investors 23 per cent return when banks were only giving nine. In 2015 January, the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) unveiled their year 2020 plan, promising a market capitalization of US$ 100 billion. However, the market plunged that year and is yet to recover.

Stocks and shares

When the Colombo Stock Market commenced in 1985, it was technically one of the most advanced in the region. When others were still with manual systems, we went for automated trading. Stock Market is the place where entrepreneurs could raise funds from the public. The other options to raise funds are to either borrow or put one’s own money. However, with terrorism gripping the country, development was at low ebb. Thus, the Stock Market was stagnant as there was too much uncertainty and promise of destruction to attract investors. When the war ended, the All Share Price Index (ASPI) was only 1400 points.

With the successful annihilation of terrorism coupled with a pro-development administration, investors enthusiastically rushed to the Stock Market. As market activities increased, so did the daily turnovers. This attracted the attention of all – including the media and inexperienced investors. All some understood of the Stock Market was that it was a gamble, and not much else. Still, it did not deter these investors, for the returns were increasingly promising.

The significance of this changing phenomenon was not immediately understood by the then powers. This was evident by the appointment of Indrani Sugathadasa – a retired public administrator as the SEC Chairperson.

Shortly after retiring from her post of Secretary at the Plantation Industries Ministry and the Children’s Development and Women’s Empowerment Ministry, in May, 2010 she was appointed as the Chairperson of the SEC. This post was traditionally coupled with the Chairmanship of the Insurance Board of Sri Lanka (IBSL). When the then President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, thus appointed her, he obviously felt her experience as a public administrator was sufficient to manage the SEC and IBSL. He failed to note that she was a total stranger to the dynamics of the capital market.

It further escaped him that the Stock Market was no longer a sleepy joint. It was evolving fast. The experienced investors on the other hand, quick to realize the full potential of the capital market growth were enthusiastically trading. By February, 2011, the ASPI had rapidly risen to 7800. This attracted the inexperienced as well. This unchecked growth of a bullish market however presented the danger of a free fall.

Thus, Sugathadasa as SEC Chairperson faced fresh challenges not experienced by her predecessors. Lacking an overall vision for the capital market, she failed to be proactive. Instead, she, reacting to the market dynamics, issued directive after directive. Most of these regulatory interferences were ad-hoc, resulting in investors losing confidence in the system. Two instances that severely affected investor confidence and motivation were when restrictions were imposed on broker credit to investors and when a ‘price band’ was introduced.

It has been a standard practice for investors to get credit from their brokers. These, called margin accounts, let investors trade for a higher value than the actual value he had paid for his portfolio. For example, the actual value of an investor’s portfolio may be at Rs. 1mn. The broker may give further credit – say 50per cent of the paid value, so the investor has Rs 500,000 credit that he has to pay back with interest. Now the investor can buy stocks of value up to Rs 1.5mn and settle the debt by selling these when the market price goes up.

When regulations were suddenly brought in, limiting the amount of credit brokers can give, the investor holding high stocks was forced to sell at the existing market price, even if the prevailing prices were low. Many investors incurred heavy losses due to this sudden rule.

Price bands, was another failed regulation that was introduced. Here, an external limit was put on the value of stock that can rise for a day. This artificial control of price escalations disappointed the investors. In turn, this affected the market that is deeply sensitive to investor sentiment. Price bands were withdrawn subsequently due to industry protest.

Overall, these directives confused the investors, resulting in the market downturn. The ASPI thus began to slide from February to December 2011. The entire industry blamed Sugathadasa, accusing her for over-regulating.

The SEC under her was so intent on regulating the market, they failed to realize that to regulate there must be a market. Our market was still very small. Thus, it first had to be widened. Especially, when it is being regulated, it must be done in a manner to develop it. This part was completely ignored. Therefore, investors felt that the SEC was policing them, instead of introducing the much needed laws to prevent the market from been mismanaged or exploited and to ensure transparency.

By end 2011, the ASPI had fallen to 6100 from almost 7800, in just 12 months. The Stock Market is usually considered the barometer of the economic healthof a country. Thus, when the indices started to fall, it reflected badly on the government’s economic performances. The Opposition quickly capitalized that the Stock Market was in a crisis.

It was in this climate that Sugathadasa resigned. She claimed that she could not function according to her principles. Insiders claim that she was given the opportunity to honourably resign from the SEC for non-performance. She however remained as the IBSL Chairperson – a position usually held by the SEC Chairperson. Many felt it was a balancing act, for she was the wife of the then President’s loyal secretary, Lalith Weeratunga.

If she had actually resigned on principles, as she claims, then it is questionable how she retained part of the portfolio that is under the same Minister. Interestingly, with the change of the government in January 2015, many administrators of the previous government, suspected to be Rajapaksa loyalists, including Weeratunga, have come under intense FCID investigations.Sugathadasa, however, has been reappointed as the IBSL Chairperson since early 2015.

Though she insinuated misuse of powers at the highest levels, the then government never challenged her statements. This was a mistake that administration made with all allegations against them. Whatever their reasons for ignoring these allegations, their silence simply created more space for more allegations. Eventually, the voter lost all confidence in that government, but the lesson came too late for them.

Thilak Karunaratne took over from Sugathadasa, a chemist and entrepreneur, with some dabbling in politics; he too did not have the required background to address the challenges faced by the SEC.

In the background, the sensation at the Stock Market caught media attention. Not understanding the implications, the media closely followed the big players and reported their trading activities. Suddenly, these key players were treated as celebrities. The new comers, without the experience or knowledge to make suitable decisions, blindly followed these celebrities. The shares these key players bought made following day’s newspaper headlines. This created a rush to buy these stocks, which naturally raised its price. When stock is fetching a good price, the celebrity would sell it, earning a good profit and exit. Prices then start falling, often proving too late for the followers.

Instead of educating the media of the consequences of such reporting, Karunaratne claimed the market was dominated by a mafia. Elements against the Rajapaksa administration too fuelled the situation by calling this trend as pumping and dumping. Karunaratne repeated these, making fresh headlines.

In reality, pumping and dumping occurs when a number of parties together deliberately manipulate the market by artificially driving the price up and then dumping the stock. In this case, the prices were driven up because of media hype. Hence, it was not possible to legally punish the big players, who anyway had not technically committed any wrong. From Karunaratne’s public statements, it is obvious that he had not understood this reality.

As media attention increased, Karunaratne promised that the culprits would be punished. In fact, he actually sent a notice to a large number of investors, questioning their regular trades. These headlines created negative publicity, and his actions made investors uncomfortable. As a result, in 2012, the market continued to crash and during the next nine months the ASPI plunged to 4900 points.

In comes Dr. Godahewa

This time the investors sought the President’s intervention. They wanted someone with proven expertise to take over such as Dr. Nalaka Godahewa, a person qualified in multiple disciplines coupled with an engineering and finance background, who had also turned around Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation. An active investor, who was a chairman in a listed company and on board of several listed companies, Dr. Godahewa had the right knowledge to address the challenges SEC faced.

Karunaratne was thus pressurized to leave. He insinuated that it was because he had commenced investigations on 17 companies, without naming any. Indika Sakalasooriya reports in the Daily Mirror, in January 2016, that Karunaratne was breathing fire when he first interviewed him in 2011. “But this time we found the man mellower, more focussed and determined to complete a mission – making Sri Lanka’s capital market a fair place for everybody. Interestingly, during the interview, he never uttered ‘stock market mafia’, a phrase he coined to identify some of the high-net-worth investors and influential stockbrokers in the country.”

Indeed, it is almost two and half years since then, and now he is once more the SEC Chairman, reinstated by the incumbent government. Yet, the 17 pending investigations he alluded to, seems buried with time.

Certain media entities were against Dr. Godahewa even before he assumed the SEC Chairmanship. Though a company headed by him, Colombo Land & Development was said to be under a ‘cloud of share manipulation’, two years of investigations by the FCID and nothing was found. It thus appears that certain newspapers were getting information from corrupt sources. Despite the negative portrait, under him, the Stock Market recovered within 30 months and by 2014 was recognized as the most sustainable in Asia.

By December 2014,

– the main price index ASPI had increased by 255 per cent

– Market Capitalization increased by 535 per cent

– Rs 97 Billion net foreign inflow in 3 years

– The average daily turnover increased by 205 per cent

– Corporate Debt market had appreciated by 6,390 per cent

– The market capitalization to GDP has increased from 11 per cent to 36 per cent

– Capital raised during his tenure, Rs 178 Billion

For the first time since establishing the SEC, the following three-year, 10-project plan was unveiled in late 2012:

1. SEC Act amendments

2. Increase corporate listings (public and private) to increase liquidity and the market capitalization

3. Attract new funds (foreign and local) to broad base the market

4. Develop trading Infrastructure to facilitate product innovation and to improve efficiency

5. Develop the corporate debt market

6. Intensify education and awareness in order to have an educated investor base and to enhance investor confidence

7. Develop Unit Trusts industry as a conduit to mobilize savings of the less sophisticated small investors

8. Strengthen risk management systems

9. Develop new products to broad base the market

10. Demutualize the Colombo Stock Exchange

Most of these projects were in progress when the government changed in January 2015. Since then the master plan is languishing.

As a nation, we are abysmally weak in analyzing facts. We run with the headlines than peruse the details. The Stock Market is a game of numbers. Thus, its story is written on the walls. One only needs to study the numbers without prejudice to understand whether it is corruption or non-performance that almost derailed our Stock Market. Unfortunately, the best of us choose to side with insinuation, because it is more interesting than studying numbers.

ranasingheshivanthi@gmail.com

Disna Mudalige Courtesy DailyNews.lk

Monday, May 8, 2017 – 01:00

A debate on Constitutional reforms by the Constitutional Assembly is likely to take place towards the end of June.

The interim report of the Steering Committee headed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will be placed before the Assembly next month, a member of the Steering Committee told the Daily News yesterday.

A copy of the same would be handed over to President Maithripala Sirisena. The interim report, which deals with the vital aspects of Constitutional reforms including the electoral reforms, devolution of power and nature of the State, spells out the contours of the Constitutional Bill. A member of the Steering Committee said a draft interim report prepared by the Constitutional Assembly Secretariat was circulated among the Committee members last week.

The draft report is given in all three languages. All members of the Steering Committee have been asked to make their comments, if any, on the report in writing on or before May 23,” he said.

The Steering Committee is to sit consecutively from May 23-26 to consider the responses of the members and finalize the report. Through compromise and negotiation, we will try to reach a consensus during these meetings. Where there is no consensus, the members will be allowed to mention their own positions in the report. Likewise, the dissenting views will also be accommodated,” he explained.

However, it is learnt that this is the third draft interim report presented to the Steering Committee. The Committee members were unable to reach an agreement on the two previous drafts. The latest draft has taken into account all the deliberations up to last Tuesday’s meeting, the Steering Committee sources said.

Sources said the President has regularly been kept informed of all developments at the Steering Committee.

When contacted Joint Opposition Parliamentary Group Leader Dinesh Gunawardena, one of the two members who represent the JO in the Steering Committee spoke in very negative terms on the Constitutional drafting process stating it seriously lacks transparency.

The JO flatly rejected the two previously submitted draft interim reports. We have been making our contribution actively at the Steering Committee. However, the government wants to do everything in secrecy keeping the others in the dark. We do not have secrets when it comes to matters that affect the country and national security,” he commented.

The reports of six sub-committees on ‘Fundamental Rights, Judiciary, Finance, Public Service, Law and Order, Centre-Periphery’ were presented to the Constitutional Assembly by the Prime Minister on November 19. A three-day debate on Constitutional reforms initially scheduled for January 9 was postponed indefinitely as there was no consensus among the political parties.

The Steering Committee has so far conducted over 50 meetings and according to the sources, a broad agreement over vital aspects such as electoral reforms and devolution of power have been reached after lengthy discussions.

By Shamindra Ferdinando

May 7, 2017, 10:44 pm
The National Joint Committee (NJC) has alleged that recently unveiled constitutional proposals are at variance with repeated assurances given by both President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe regarding matters of crucial national importance, including the status of Buddhism.

The NJC alleges that controversial proposals are contained in an interim report of the Steering Committee of the Constitutional Assembly tasked with the constitution making process.

Constitutional affairs expert Manohara de Silva, PC, said that in the wake of strong public criticism of the Report on Public Representations on Constitutional Reform (Lal Wijenayake Committee) and reports of Six Sub Committees, the government had reassured that foremost place would be given to Buddhism.

Addressing the media at the National Library and Documentation Services Board, attorney-at-law de Silva flayed the yahapalana government for seeking to deprive Buddhism of its foremost place, do away with unitary status of the Constitution and transform Sri Lanka to nine federal governments.

The lawyer pointed out that in accordance with the repeated promises given by yahapalana leaders, the Steering Committee should not have interfered with Article 9 meant to ensure Buddhism the foremost place while assuring to all religions the rights granted by Articles 10 and 14(1)(e). Instead, the Steering Committee had made six recommendations in respect of Buddhism/Religion in addition to the existing Article 9.

NJC heavyweight Gevindu Cumaratunga said that the government had accused those opposed to the ongoing constitutional making process of propagating lies. The government repeatedly alleged attempts were being made to sabotage post-war reconciliation process, Cumaratunga said. There couldn’t be any justification for proposing four recommendations in place of Article 1 and Article 2 that dealt with unitary status of Sri Lanka, Cumaratunga said.

Alleging that the government was bending backwards to appease those wanting to divide Sri Lanka on ethnic lines and transform the country into nine federal areas, Cumaratunga said that proposals were meant to empower Provincial Council to such an extent they would enjoy unprecedented powers at the expense of the central government.

Cumaratunga said that the Joint Opposition had quite rightly rejected the entire interim report toto.

Commenting on proposed provision in respect of merger of two or three neighbouring Provinces, Cumaratunga said that the government objective was to restrict referendum in case of a merger of the Provinces concerned. The move was meant to facilitate the merger of the Eastern Province with the North, Cumaratunga said, pointing out that the government wanted to do away with the country’s ability to exercise franchise as one electorate.

Cumaratunga explained the circumstances under which Provincial Councils could take control over land at the expense of the government. The civil society activist alleged that the central government would be at the mercy of provincial government if a particular administration declined land required for security purpose.

Recommendations pertaining to introducing amendments to the proposed Constitution in case adopted by parliament were meant to thwart any such move, Cumaratunga said. According to him, an amendment couldn’t be moved unless it received a two-thirds majority in the proposed Second Chamber comprising five members representing each Provincial Government and also obtained two-thirds majority in Provincial Governments.

PC de Silva and Cumaratunga dealt with recommendations in respect of devolution of powers and how the process could endanger the unitary status much to the disappointment of the vast majority of people. They asserted that the elimination of the Concurrent List, limiting Reserve List, Provincial Government given the authority to implementing laws in respect of subjects coming under the purview of the Central Government, subject of national Policy to be removed from the Reserve List, sharp dilution of powers currently exercised by Governor vis a vis Chief Minister to pave the way for the former to take decisions in consultation with the latter.

Cumaratunga pointed out that recommendations had been made to deprive the Governor the authority to intervene in the Provincial Statutes. The activist said that the Steering Committee had gone to the extent of recommending an unprecedented Constitutional Court to decide on constitutionality of Provincial Statutes.

Cumaratunga urged political parties to examine the threat posed by setting up judicial mechanism outside the existing system. “We are heading for chaos, unprecedented turmoil,” Cumaratunga warned, faulting successive governments for not abolishing the 13th Amendment to the Constitution forced on JRJ government by India three decades ago.

The NJC pointed out that the 13th Amendment had considerably eroded supremacy and sovereignty of parliament thereby undermined significantly the unitary status. PC de Silva said: “Article 154 G (3) requires a majority of 2/3 of the members of parliament to repeal or amend laws passed by a Provincial Council whereas it only needs a simple majority to repeal or amend own laws.”

PC de Silva said that the Parliament needed a two-thirds majority to only amend the Constitution and not amend ordinary laws.

The NJC said that a wider discussion involving all stakeholders was required and a cohesive effort made to educate the people of the despicable project. Cumaratunga said that giving in to separatist demands was as worse as losing the war.

Mrs. M. Weeraratna Colombo 05

The practice of religion requires effort. It calls for personal sacrifice, self – restraint and discipline. Above all such practice must be overarched by compassion and kindness based on a clear moral footing. Then the practice becomes noble in character.

When we look around our society we see Muslims conduct an annual fast during the month of Ramadan. Not even a drop of water is taken during the time of fasting. The purpose is to simulate the pain and suffering and develop an insight into the plight of the poor who do not have enough food to eat and drink and therefore are forced to go hungry and thirsty regularly. Fasting helps one to better equip himself / herself morally and generate empathy for the disadvantaged.

The celebration of Vesak is not meant to make one indulgent. Vesak is the day that commemorates the themagula – Birth, Enlightenment and Parinirvana of the Buddha. It is a day for observance of Sil (meditation and quiet reflection on a disciplined footing). If Islam can promote empathy for the poor through fasting, likewise Buddhists can show compassion and loving kindness for all those beautiful innocent animals who are slaughtered, by becoming vegetarian at least for the month of May.

The consumption of flesh food invariably results in the slaughter of innocent animals. Buddhists can lessen the number of animals killed by not partaking flesh food at least during the month of Vesak i.e. May. There is enough Vegetarian and Vegan related food in the market today. No can go hungry by not eating meat.

The First Precept – Reverence for life including that of non – human sentient beings must be inculcated in every child in school. Life is dear to all (Dhammapada). Peace and Reconciliation should not be confined to only one (human) species.

Mrs. M. Weeraratna
Colombo 05
May 8, 2017

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission

Coming on the heels of the recent lynching, killing and attacks in Pakistan on the pretext of blasphemy, the legislative assembly of Pakistan controlled Azad Kashmir has unanimously passed two resolutions regarding the finality of the Prophet Hood (SAW) and honour and respect of the Prophet’s companions and family (Sahaba Karam and Ahle-Bait (RA)). The resolutions state that Qadiayani, Ahmadi and Lahori sects are against Islam and they should be declared as non-Muslim. Furthermore, if they call themselves Muslim, they should be criminally charged with blasphemy.

It is unclear why the legislative assembly of Azad Jammu Kashmir chose this time for taking a position in favour of blasphemy laws similar to those of Pakistan. Regardless, the assembly is dominated by members from PML-N, Pakistan’s ruling party, and it only works under the guidance of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, coming under the federal ministry. Instead of tackling the issue of people taking the law into their own hands on the mere accusation of blasphemy, the incumbent government through its legislators is adding fuel to the existing bigotry, further fanning religious violence in the country.

The month of April has been quite disastrous for Pakistan in terms of attacks under blasphemy allegations. The most shocking attack was on student Mashal Khan, who was lynched on April 13 by a mob of 500 persons at Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan. While he was accused of blasphemy, his true crime was criticising the university administration. On April 20, three armed sisters in Sialkot, central Punjab, shot and killed a man accused of blasphemy 13 years ago. On April 22, a mob attacked a man accused of blasphemy during Friday prayers in a northern Pakistani town, and injured six police officers after they intervened to rescue him. On April 25, at least 14 people, including six children and two women were killed and 13 others injured, when a passenger van was targeted with a remote-controlled bomb in Parachinar, Kurram Agency in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The Shiites are the dominant population of the area, whereas the fundamentalists and Taliban do not consider Shias as Muslim.

The accusation of blasphemy is a lethal tool, allowing the accuser to dispense justice there and then. Used as a pretext to deny almost every single fundamental human right, the accused is reduced in stature in the eyes of the law itself. Asia Bibi for instance, was denied the right to medical treatment inside the jail. Her case has been pending for almost a decade as she has been denied the right to fair trial.

Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy law does not clearly define blasphemy, but states that the offence is punishable by death. Anyone can file a blasphemy case, claiming his or her religious feelings have been hurt. The accused are often lynched, and lawyers and judges defending or acquitting them have been attacked. Rights groups say the blasphemy law has even been used to seize money and property.

Blasphemy law has long since morphed into an anti-Shia and anti-Ahmadi tool for vendetta; causes of allegations vary from financial to revenge, having little to do with hurt religious sentiments. Allegations of blasphemy are usually based on rumors, spread with the intention of whipping up violence.

In May 2014, 68 lawyers were charged with blasphemy for using the name Umar” in protest slogans against a high police official of the same name. In the same month, prominent human rights lawyer Rashid Rehman, who was defending a university professor accused of blasphemy, was shot and killed after being threatened in court by other lawyers.

Blasphemy laws are particularly dangerous in countries like Pakistan, where the collapsing judicial system, weak rule of law and ineffective state control makes certainty of punishment for crime absent and selective applicability of law routine. Failure to deliver justice has caused the people to dispense mob justice.

Increasing blasphemy allegations and misuse of the law is but a symptom of failed governance, and is exacerbated with the deteriorating law and order situation. The blasphemy law’s loopholes and intrinsic prejudice against all religious minorities has enabled the misuse of power using religion as a pretext.

Pakistan’s criminal justice system ranks 81 out of 113, and is in urgent need for improvement and reengineering. With rising incidences of miscarriage of law and a breakdown of law and order, giving rise to military courts, it becomes incumbent upon the judicial officers to partake their duties with full honesty and integrity.

The mercenaries that the state has been harbouring and appeasing with sharia and blasphemy laws have turned against their masters, as can be seen through the rise in extremism and violence in the society. There is an urgent need to open a public discourse into blasphemy and the laws pertaining to it. The state cannot continue to use blasphemy as a tool against dissent or to oppress any group. Hoping for interfaith harmony while patronising a particular sect is a fool’s dream.

By allowing assemblies to pass religious resolutions, the state is instigating people to violence. Sadly, whenever incidents of violence occur, the state does little more than pay lip service. Despite their tall claims to bring the perpetrators to justice, the government covertly introduces laws and policies that instigate people to more violence. Such things must stop in the interest of national security and sanity. How long must people like Mashal Khan die for the felony of the state?

කේ.ඞී. ලාල්කාන්ත සභාපති National Trade Union Center / Unions Lanka 

ගරු ජනාධිපති,
මෛතී‍්‍රපාල සිරිසේන මැතිතුමා,
ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලය,
කොළඹ – 01.

ජනාධිපතිතුමනි,

විශ‍්‍රාමික ග‍්‍රාම නිලධාරීන් කොන්ත‍්‍රාත් පදනම මත නැවත සේවයේ පිහිටුවීම

මේ වන විට ග‍්‍රාම නිලධාරි සේවාවේ පුරප්පාඩු සංඛ්‍යාව 1850ක් පමණ වන බැව් අපට දැන ගන්නට ලැබී ඇත. මෙකී පුරප්පාඩු පිරවීම සඳහා ග‍්‍රාම නිලධාරීන් බඳවා ගැනීමේ පටිපාටියට අනුව, විභාග දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව විසින් අයදුම්පත් කැඳවූ අතර ඒ සඳහා 120 000 ක් පමණ වූ අයදුම්කරුවන් පිරිසක් අයදුම් කර ඇති අතර, ඒ සදහා වූ තරග විභාගය 2016/09/03 දින පවත්වා ඇත. සෑම අයදුම්කරුවෙකුගෙන්ම විභාගය සඳහා රු. 500.00 ක විභාග ගාස්තුවක්ද අයකිරීමට කටයුතු කර ඇත.

    ඒ අනුව දැන් කළ යුතුව ඇත්තේ විභාග දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවෙන් අදාල විභාග ප‍්‍රතිඵල කඩිනමින් ලබාගෙන විභාගයෙන් වැඩිම ලකුණු ලබාගත් අයදුම්කරුවන්ගෙන් අදාල පුරප්පාඩු පිරවීමයි. නමුත් එය එසේ කළ යුතු වුවත් අදාල විෂය භාර ස්වදේශීය කටයුතු අමාත්‍ය වජිර අබේවර්ධන මහතා විසින් විභාගය සමත්වූවන්ගෙන් පුරප්පාඩු පිරවීම වෙනුවට, මේ වන විට සේවයෙන් විශ‍්‍රාම ගොස් සිටින ග‍්‍රාම නිළධාරීන් කොන්ත‍්‍රාත් පදනම යටතේ සේවයට බඳවා ගැනීමට කටයුතු කරමින් සිටින බව අප වෙත දැන ගැනීමට ලැබී ඇත. ඊට අදාලව මේ වන විට විශ‍්‍රාමික ග‍්‍රාම නිලධාරින්ගෙන් අයදුම්පත් කැඳවීමට කටයුතු සිදුකරමින් ඇති බවට අපට තොරතුරු ලැබී ඇත.
 
    මෙය බරපතල ලෙස අදාල බඳවා ගැනීම් පටිපාටිය උල්ලංඝණය කිරීමක් සේ අප දකින අතරම එය එක් පැත්තකින් විභාගය සදහා ඉදිරිපත් වූවන්ට කරන බරපතල අසාධාරණයක් බව අවධාරණය කරමු. මේ වන විට උපාධිධාරීන් මෙන්ම අ.පො.ස (උ පෙළ) සමතුන් විශාල ප‍්‍රමාණයක් රැකියා නොමැතිකම විසින් දැඩි පීඩාවට පත්ව රැකියා ඉල්ලා අරගල කරන තත්වයක් තුල ඔවුන්ට රැකියා ලබාදීම වෙනුවට නියමිත කාලසීමාව අවසන් කර විශ‍්‍රාම ගිය ග‍්‍රාම නිලධාරීන් නැවත සේවයේ පිහිටුවීම තුල එක් පැත්තකින් රාජ්‍ය සේවයේ ගුණාත්මක භාවයට මෙන්ම ඵලදායිතාවට හානිකරවීම වැළැක්විය නොහැකි වනු ඇත. තවද මේ තත්වය තරග විභාග පදනමින් බඳවා ගන්නා අනෙකුත් සේවාවන් සඳහාද ආදේශ කරන්නට ගතහොත් රාජ්‍ය සේවයම බරපතල කඩා වැටීමකට ලක්වීම වැළැක්විය නොහැකිවනු ඇත. ඒ මන්ද? තරග විභාග පදනමින් බඳවාගැනීම් නිසා පසුගිය කාල සීමාව තුල රාජ්‍ය සේවයට පිවිසි සියල්ලම වාගේ ඉතාම දක්ෂ පිරිසක් බව ඒ ගැන සොයා බැලීමේ දී දැනගන්නට ලැබුණි.
 
    එබැවින් ඉහත සියලූම තත්වයන් පිළිබඳ රටේ විධායක ජනාධිපතිවරයා ලෙස අවධානය යොමුකර, තරුණ අසහනයට මගපෑදෙන අයුරින්, ඔවුන්ට රැකියා ලබා නොදී ඒ වෙනුවට විශ‍්‍රාමිකයින් නැවත සේවයේ යෙදවීමට ගන්නා උත්සාහය වළක්වාලීමට මැදිහත්වන මෙන් ඉතා  ඕනෑකමින් ඉල්ලා සිටිමු.
 
ස්තූතියි.

සම්බන්ධීකරණය – පලිහවඩන 071 4497556  

V.Anandasangaree  Secretary General – TULF

Hon.R.Sampanthan. M.P
Leader of the Opposition

Dear Mr. Sampanthan ,

Federal Party must learn to deal with problems diplomatically

It is with deep concern that I am writing this letter requesting you to keep the Federal Party members of your Alliance, under your strict control. They can’t make statements as they like, to wound the feelings of not only a country but its people as well. I do not know whether you are aware of the immense damage caused to the friendship and goodwill of India, by the thoughtless acts and utterances, more by the Federal Party members of your alliance, than by the others who only share the blame by remaining silent, ignoring the conduct of such members. Perhaps they are helpless. Due to certain reasons, which I do not want to mention openly, there is conflict of interest between two countries in Sri Lanka that may explode one day to the detriment of both sides. It is our innocent people who will ultimately get badly affected. By our foolish utterances let us not provoke a situation for that to happen. It is regrettable to note that with so much of experience you have in politics and also as the head of the team, you have failed in your duty to promote goodwill and friendship with India, which is now fast declining.

First of all you must realize that as our immediate neighbor, whenever we are in distress it is India that always rushed in first with our urgent needs such as medical teams, food etc. For example during the last Tsunami even before clearing the areas in their own country, the Indian teams rushed in here with urgent requirements that reached all parts of the country, irrespective of any ethnic, religious or regional differences. A new tradition has been established that in the event of a national disaster, India comes first to help us. Please don’t forget that after the end of the war, a lot of families received aids not only to build houses but also in a small way, individuals received some aid that enabled them to earn a living.

Therefore I appeal to everybody in Sri Lanka not to make statements to hurt the feelings of the people who take a lot of risk and come all the way from various places to help our people.

I take this opportunity to remind you of the trouble the Indian government took in trying to solve our ethnic problem during the last 30 years. The involvements in the ethnic issue had cost the country the lives of  a Prime Minister Madam Indira Gandhi, a prospective Prime Minister Hon.Rajiv Gandhi,  several Jawans  and many such others, that cannot be valued in terms of money. It is only India that has the capacity to make the solution successful and till the final solution is reached, no one should interfere with it.

The visits of your team to South Africa to solicit its support to solve the ethnic problem has caused a lot of misunderstanding among the Indians and our own people. Obviously India is very much hurt about it. You will realize that in recent times, no Indian leader talked about our ethnic problem. If I remember correct our Prime Minister himself had commented about it. I am very strongly of the view that you and your team have made the biggest blunder in visiting South Africa and receiving delegation from South Africa to discuss our ethnic issue. Let me not be misunderstood as one opposed to South Africa. I hold it at high esteem. In fact I have even suggested to His Excellency the President, giving him a copy of the South African constitution, with a request to adopt the Bill of Rights of South Africa.

I also like to remind you without any comments, that your visit to China was unwanted at this stage, even if you visited in your capacity as leader of the opposition. You should know why I say this. I hold china also at very high esteem. But we should know what to do and when to do without ourselves confusing.

I do not want to raise the hornet’s nest and embarrass anybody. That is why I have not reasoned out any matter but I am sure you are aware as to what the people expect you to do.

Thanking you,

Yours Sincerely

V.Anandasangaree
Secretary General – TULF

නලින් ද සිල්වා

2017 මැයි 07

 වෙසක් දිනය ළඟට ම ඇවිත්. ඒත් වැඩි සූදානමක් නැහැ. අද සූදානම් වන්නේ එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ වෙසක් දිනයට. එය ජාත්‍යන්තර වෙසක් දිනය ලෙසත් හැඳින්වෙනවා. එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ වෙසක් දිනය තායිලන්තයේත් පවත්වලා තියෙනවා කියලා ආණ්ඩුවේ ප්‍රබලයකු කියා තිබෙනවා. අපට මෙච්චර කලක් මේ ජාත්‍යන්තර වෙසක් දිනය පවත්වන්න බැරි වුණෙ මොකද කියල ව්‍යංගයෙන් අහනවා. ඒකටත් වැරදිකාරයා මහින්ද වෙන්න ඇති. ඇත්තට ම මහින්ද මොකද මේ ජාත්‍යන්තර වෙසක් දිනය ලංකාවෙ පවත්වන්න කටයුුතු නො කෙළෙ.

එක්සත් ජාතින් වෙසක් දිනය පිළිගෙන. ඒ සඳහා මුල් වුණෙ ලක්‍ෂමන් කදිරගාමර්. ඒත් ඒකෙන් තේරෙන්නෙ වෙසක් දිනයට නත්තල් දිනයට ලැබෙන පිළිගැනීම තියෙනවයි කියන එක නො වෙයි. වෙසක් දිනය බටහිර රටවල නිවාඩු දිනයක් නො වෙයි. ඒ රටවල ඉන්න බෞද්ධයන්ට සිල් සමාදන් වෙන්න 13 වැනිදා හරි 14 වැනිදා හරි වෙනකන් ඉන්න වෙනවා. මා කියන්නෙ නැහැ ඒ රටවල වෙසක් දිනය නිවාඩු දිනයක් කරන්න කියා. ඒක ඒ රටවල බෞද්ධයන් බලා ගන්න ඕන. ඒත් නත්තල අපේ රටත් ඇතුළු ක්‍රිස්තියානි/කතෝලික නොවන රටවල් රාශියකත් නිවාඩු දිනයක්.

මේ තමයි සංස්කෘතික ආධිපත්‍යය. එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගෙ නත්තල් දිනයක් තියෙනව ද කියා මා දන්නෙ නැහැ. තිබුණත් නැතත් අපට එදිනට නිවාඩු. එංගලන්තයට වෙසක් දිනය නිවාඩු නැහැ. එහි සෑහෙන බෞද්ධ ජනකායක් ඉන්නවා. ඒ අය  සිංහල බෞද්ධයන් ම නො වෙයි. මේ පඬියන් එංගලන්තය අනාගමික රටක් කියාවි. එය බහු සංස්කෘතික රටක් කියාවි. එහෙත් එහි සංස්කෘතික ආධිපත්‍යයක් තියෙනවා. ඔවුන්ගේ රජු හෝ රැජින ඇංග්ලිකන් ක්‍රිස්තියානි ආගමේ ප්‍රධානියා. එකී විශ්වාසයේ (ආගමේ)ආරක්‍ෂකයා. එංගලන්තයට ලිඛිත ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් නැහැ. තිබුණත් එහි ක්‍රිස්තියානියට ප්‍රමුඛස්ථානය දෙනවා කියලා ලියන එකක් නැහැ. ඒත් ප්‍රමුඛස්ථානයටත් වඩා එය එංගලන්තයේ රාජ්‍යාගම. ඒකත් ව්‍යවස්ථාවෙ නැහැ කියලා පඬියකු කියාවි                           

අප ව්‍යවස්ථාවෙ බුද්ධාගමට ප්‍රමුඛස්ථානය දෙනවා කියලා ලියලා ඊළඟ වාක්‍යයෙන් අනෙක් ආගම් ද ඒ තැනට දානවා. සිංහල බෞද්ධයන් ගිවිසුම් ව්‍යවස්ථාවලින් හැමදාමත් පරාදයි. එහෙත් මෙවර පරාද විය යුතු නැහැ. තෙල් ටැංකි ගිවිසුමෙන් අප පරාද වුණෙ වර්ජනයකුත් කරලා. වර්ජනත් අපේ සංස්කෘතියෙ නො වෙයි.  ව්‍යවස්ථාව පරාජය කරන්න පුළුවන්. අප එදා ඉඳළ ම කියන්නෙ ව්‍යවස්ථාවට තුනෙන් දෙක ලැබීම වළක්වන්න කියලා. කොහොමටත් මෛත්‍රිපාල ජනාධිපතිවරණයෙ දී පොරොන්දු වුණෙ ජනමත විචාරණයකට තුඩු දෙන ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය නොකරන බව.  අප මෛත්‍රිපාල තම පොරොන්දුව ඉටු කරන බවට වග බලා ගත යුතුයි. එහෙත් වඩා භයානක දේ ව්‍යවස්ථාව ව්‍යවස්ථා මණ්ඩලයෙන් පමණක් සම්මත කර ගැනීමට ඉඩ තිබීම. අප එය ද පරාජය කළ යුතුයි. පඬියන් එංගලන්තයටත් වඩා බහු සංස්කෘතික වූ ලංකාවේ බුද්ධාගමට ප්‍රමුඛස්ථානය දීමට විරුද්ධ වේවි. පඬියන්, ඒ කියන්නෙ බටහිර දැනුම් ආධිපත්‍යය, පරාජය කරන එක අත්‍යවශ්‍යයි.

 එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ වෙසක් දිනයෙන් සිදු වී ඇත්තේ බෞද්ධයන්ගේ වෙසක් දිනය නැති වීමයි. ගැමුණු රජතුමා වෙසක් උත්සව විසිහතරක් පැවැත් වූ බව ඉතිහාසයේ සඳහන් වෙනවා. සුද්දන්ගෙ කාලෙත් සිංහල බෞද්ධයනට වෙසක් දිනය තිබුණා. දැන් එය නැති වී ගෙන යනවා. අද වෙසක් දිනය සර්වාගමික කටයුත්තක් බවට පත්කිරීමට උත්සාහයක් තිබෙනවා. මෙය බටහිරයන්ගේ වැඩක්. බටහිරයකු වූ රනිල් එයට විරුද්ධ නැහැ. අද තිබෙන ලොකු ම බොරුව තමයි සියලු ආගම් සමාන යැයි කීම. බෞද්ධයන් උත්සාහ ගන්නේ නැවත නූපදින්නට මිස අනෙක් ආගමිකයන් මෙන් ඉප දී අමරණීය වන්නට නො වෙයි. මෙය මොන තරම් ලොකු වෙනසක් ද? සිංහල බෞද්ධ සංස්කෘතිය පදනම් වී ඇත්තේ නිවන මත. ඉන් කියැවෙන්නේ නිවන යනුවෙන් තැනක් දෙයක් ඇති බව නො වෙයි. එයත් බුදුදහමේ තවත් වෙනසක්. නිවන සදාකාලික ස්වර්ගයක් හෝ බ්‍රහ්මන් කෙනකු හෝ නො වෙයි. අප නූපදින්නට උත්සාහ කරන මිනිසුන්. වෙසක් දින ඉප දී අමරණීය වන්නට අපට කියා දීමට ගෙවල්වලට කිසිවකු ආවෙත් අප ඒ අයට අමරණීය කෙසේ වෙතත් අමතක නොවන පාඩමක් ඉගැන්විය යුතුයි.

 වෙසක් දිනයට කිට්ටු වෙලා රනිල් රවි වෙළෙඳ දෙබෑයන් සමන්තභද්‍ර රහතන් වහන්සේ බැහැ දැකීමට ගිහින්. ඔවුන් තපස්සු භල්ලුක වෙළෙඳ දෙබෑයන් බුදුන් වහන්සේ බැහැ දැකීම  අනුගමනය කළා ද? තපස්සු භල්ලුක ගැන රනිල් පසුගිය දා මතක් කර තිබුණා. ඔවුන් ඉන්දියන් කාරයන් කියා. එකල ඉන්දියාවක් තිබුණෙ නැහැ. ඒ වෙළෙඳ දෙබෑයන්ට බුදුන් වහන්සේගේ කේස ධාතුන් වහන්සෙ ලැබුණා. රනිල් රවි වෙළෙඳ දෙබෑයන්ට රහතන් වහන්සේගේ  ධාතු ලැබුණා ද? මට අමතක වුණා කාරණයක් කියන්න. නූතන වෙළෙඳ දෙබෑයන් විකුණන්නෙ බැඳුම්කර හා රට.

 බුද්ධාගම රැක ගැනීම ලෙහෙසි පහසු කටයුත්තක් නො වෙයි. එහෙත් අප එය කළා. සිංහල බෞද්ධයන් නොසිටින්නට අද ලෝකයේ ථෙරවාදී බුද්ධාගමක් නැහැ. මේ ආණ්ඩුව බලයට පත්වෙන්න ඡන්දය දුන්නෙ සිංහල බෞද්ධ තරුණයන්. මෛත්‍රිපාල විශාල පාවාදීමක් කළා. ඒත් ඒ සියල්ල හදා ගන්න පුළුවන්. ඒ අද හෙට ම රනිල් අගමැති කමෙන් ඉවත් කිරීමෙන්. ඒකට මැතිවරණ එනතෙක් බලා ඉන්න ඕන නැහැ. වර්ජන කරලා ඒක කරන්නත් බැහැ. ව්‍යවස්ථාවෙන් ම ඒ කළ හැකියි.  බුද්ධාගම තවදුරටත් මෙරට රැක ගත හැක්කේ රනිල් රැක නොගැනීමෙන්. අපට එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගෙ, මෝදිගෙ හා රනිල්ගේ බුද්ධාගමක් හා සර්වාගමික වෙසක් උත්සවයක් අවශ්‍ය නැහැ. අපට අවශ්‍ය සිංහල බුද්ධාගම හා සිංහල බෞද්ධයන්ගේ වෙසක් උත්සවය.   

මේ ලිපිිය ද තවත් ලිපි ද කාලය වෙබ් අඩවියෙන් කියවිය හැකි ය.

https://www1.kalaya.org

නලින් ද සිල්වා

2017 මැයි 07

 Courtesy The Daily Mirror 

– See more at: http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/MR-s-security-detail-first-reduced-then-restored-128467.html#sthash.lxgCAVqM.dpuf

ගාල්ල හබරාදූවේදී පැවති “පෙරළියක පෙරමඟ” ජනරැළියේදී මධුමාධව අරවින්ද මහතා දැක්වූ අදහස්

https://youtu.be/sxF4k4t6y-Y

Editorial Courtesy The Island

May 8, 2017, 8:14 pm

The government has made a volte-face anent the latest cut in former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s security. It usually does not buckle under pressure where action against its political rivals is concerned. What really happened?

On May 03, 42 police personnel attached to Rajapaksa’s security contingent were removed all of a sudden. The Joint Opposition (JO) cried foul, claiming that it was the government’s reaction to Rajapaksa’s successful May Day rally. Minister of Law and Order Sagala Ratnayake sought to rubbish that claim; he told the Parliament that Rajapaksa’s security had been reduced following a proper threat assessment and the latter could manage with 187 guards.

The second cut in Rajapaksa’s security came four days later on Sunday. The government ordered that 50 more police personnel be removed from Rajapaksa’s security detail. The JO let out a howl of protest. After a couple of hours the government changed its mind. One is intrigued. If Rajapaksa’s security is actually reduced in keeping with threat assessments as the government claims, then it logically follows that a fresh threat assessment must have been done on Sunday evening within four days of the first one which led to the May 03 security cut. The question is whether another threat assessment was carried out on Sunday prior to the government’s surprising about-turn. Is it that threats to political leaders are now assessed on an hourly basis? Curiouser and curiouser!

It is being argued in some quarters that the provision of extraordinary security to those out of power amounts to an utter waste of public funds and a severe strain on police though they have become marked targets due to the pivotal role they played in defeating terrorism. If so, the defeated candidates who were taken out of the dustbin of politics after the last general election and appointed to the Cabinet in the most undemocratic manner must not be provided with any security at all. But, they, in spite of being rejected by the people, enjoy the same perks and privileges as their elected counterparts besides drawing attractive salaries for sinecures as ministers. They move about with armed escorts. Shouldn’t they be stripped of at least their security?

One of our readers argues, in a letter published on the opposite page today, that we should be concerned about the security of ordinary people and not that of politicians. True, the law-abiding citizens, especially women and children, are the most vulnerable section of the society vis-à-vis the rising crime rate. The country has come to such a pass over the last three decades or so that it is awash with illegal firearms in the hands of trigger-happy criminal elements. Police do precious little to neutralise criminals, who are having a field day. People are not safe even at home. Their safety must be ensured first of all. However, the fact remains that political stability is a prerequisite for public safety, which becomes the first casualty of anarchical upheavals, as we have argued in a previous comment.

One may recall the unprecedented chaos the Lalith Athulathmudali assassination plunged the country into in April, 1993. But for the tectonic shifts in national politics, triggered by the Premadasa assassination which happened a few days later, anarchy would have been ‘loosed’ upon the country. The credit for preventing a popular uprising should go posthumously to President D. B. Wijetunga, who like a river bar pilot steered the ship of state to safety, by restoring democratic governance and respecting political dissent.

It is hoped that the yahapalana government won’t carry out another ‘threat assessment’ tonight and order drastic cuts in security provided to its rivals in the Opposition.

By Noor Nizam – Convener The Muslim Voice, May 7^th., 2017.

During the last week of April 2017 Sri Lanka saw a storm of challenges, political challenges that were thrown at Mahinda Rajapaksa to fill Galle Face Green esplanade with pro-Mahinda and anti-government voters/citizens of Sri Lanka. Mahinda himself has stated to the media casually that he was also not sure whether this will happen. But the reality was – Mahinda did fill the Galle Face Green esplanade with pro-Mahinda and anti-government supporters on May the 1st., 2017 May Day rally organized by the Sri Lanka Podu Peramuna, the new political party created by the Joint Opposition and the leader being Prof. G.L. Peries, a brainchild of former Minister Basil Rajapaksa.

Sri Lanka media and political analysts had praised the phenomenal gathering putting the attendance to a near 2 million disgruntled people/voters as the largest political gathering in the history of Sri Lanka. Even the Sirisena-Wickremasinghe

Camp hailed this victory of Mahinda Rajapaksa, “but in camera”. This is what a prominent Sirisena-Wickremasinghe government cabinet minister had to say of the victory”. Foreign Minister Samaraweera said he would accept one hundred percent” that there was a large turnout at the Galle Face Green. Don’t belittle or underestimate Rajapaksa”. But the media confirmed that the crowd at JO rally was bigger than both UNP and SLFP rallies. These were told at the meeting of the UNP parliamentary group Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe summoned at ‘Temple Trees, just after May Day to discuss in detail the outcome of the May Day rallies/meetings.

According to Surveyor General P.M.P. Udayakantha, the Galle Face Green (together with the adjacent roads) is 18 acres in extent. The Campbell Park, (where the United National Party (UNP) held its rally) was only 3.5 acres and the Municipal playground in Getambe (where the pro-Maithripala Sirisena SLFP rally was held) was only 2.5 acres, he told the media. The extents itself give one an idea of the numbers each venue could hold. But Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Joint Opposition and the Sri Lanka Podu Peramuna shattered the dreams of Sirisena and Ranil Wickremasinghe with the support of the hundreds of thousands of people who have begun to hate this treacherous “YAHAPANANA GOVERNMENT” since it started cheating the people in it’s election promises and started to demean the SOVEREIGNTY of “Mother Lanka”. The failure of the “YAHAPALANA GOVERNMENT” unable to substantially prove the allegations of corruption against the Rajapaksa family, but only making false allegations questioned the credibility of the government. Sri Lankans may have different party loyalties, but they have turned “Patriots” since the ethic war commenced and they are not willing to “demean the sovereignty” of their country under any circumstances. The victory of the ethic war against the world’s ruthless terrorist organization, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eeelam (LTTE) in 2009 by Mahinda Rajapaksa, Gotabaya Rajapaksa the then Defence Secretary and the valiant “tri-forces” had consolidated this position well.

It is noteworthy to state here, that the most deceptive Muslim politician who had jumped from one party to another and become the UNP Colombo district MP by hoodwinking the Muslim voters of Colombo district and around the island – Mujeebu Rahuman has at this meeting stated that the UNPers were now frightened to lose an election and something had to be done. The PM who was charing the meeting has hit back at Mujeebu Rahuman by saying – “If you are frightened, you should not wait (meaning, be with the party). You may leave now, he had stated loudly. Unable to face the humiliation of been shouted by the party leader, the deceptive Mujeebu Rahuman knowing that the axe will fall on his neck, on May the 5th., in parliament, makes a drastic allegation against former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and MP for Kurunegala that Mahinda was planning to let loose violent communal riots against the minorities, hopefully assuming that Ranil will not be too hard with him. UNP party stalwarts (it is rumoured) have indicated the reality of Mujeebu Rahuman’s situation as bad and that he will be denied UNP nomination to contest Colombo district at the next general elections. Muslims will have to be thankful, that a political opportunistic, deceptive Muslim is removed from the political arena of Colombo district. This is the state of liars in politics who hoodwink the humble poor Muslim voters, lock-stock and barrel. Maybe Mujeebu Rahuman will now be thinking of joining the All Ceylon Makkal Congress (Rishad Bathiudeen) or the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (Rauf Hakeem) to still hood wink the Muslim voters of Colombo district. The Muslim voters of Colombo district should be very careful about this political munaafik” in the future.

The call for elections both local and general has been made by the JO, Mahinda and the SLPP. When this will happen, is to be seen, but I pray that the disgruntled people of Sri Lanka should not have to come out to the streets to forcefully get the “democratic right of franchise” by over throwing the government by political riots. Mahinda Rajapaksa still believes in “democracy and democratic institutions” to form his new government that the people, especially the minorities and the Muslims are longing for, the groups who betrayed him at the 2015 Presidential elections and General elections.

තේජා ගොඩකන්දෙආරච්චි

වැඩ කරන ජනතාව වෙනුවෙන් සමරන මැයි දිනය නිමවී සතියක් ගෙවී ගියේය. ඒ සඳු දින කැම්බල් පිටියේ සිට ‘තමන්ට රටේ සංවර්ධනය වෙනුවෙන් කටයුතු කරන්න ඉඩ දෙන්නැ’යි තම පාක්ෂිකයන්ගෙන් අයැද සිටි රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහලා, මැයි 5 වන සිකුරාදා වන විට තවත් රුපියල් කෝටි 33 ක පරිපූරක ඇස්තමේන්තුවක් පාර්ලිමේන්තු අනුමැතිය සඳහා ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇත. ඒ තවත් ඇමතිවරුන් 6 දෙනෙකුටත්, අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ලේකම් වරයෙකුටත් වාහන ගන්නටත්, ඇමතිවරයෙකුගේ නිළ නිවස අලුත්වැඩියා කරන්නටත් (රු. කෝටියක්) සහ රාජ්‍ය නිළධාරීන් කිහිප දෙනෙකුගේ විදේශ චාරිකා සඳහාත් (රු. කෝටි 4) වශයෙනි. මේ පසුව කී කෝටි 5 අතහැර බැලුවත් එක වාහනයක් සඳහා රු. කෝටි 4 ක ට වැඩි ප්‍රමානයක් වෙන්වනු ඇත. මේ, මැයි දිනය දා අයැද සිටි සංවර්ධන කටයුතු පටන් ගන්නටද කියා නොදනිමු.

මැයි දිනය සමරන්නේ වැඩ කරන ජනතාව වෙනුවෙන් වුවද, වැඩ කරන ජනතාව පිලිබඳව කතා කලේ එහෙමත් දේශපාලන රැස්වීමකය. මැයි දිනය එන විට සියලු දෙනාගේම උනන්දුව වන්නේ වැඩිපුරම ජනතාවක් සහභාගි වනුයේ කාගේ රැළියටද කියා තරගයක් තැබීමටය. ඒ අතරම ශ්‍රීලනිපයේ බෙදීම අල්ලාගෙන තලු මරන එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ ඇත්තෝ තම මැයි රැළියටත් වඩා කතා කරන්නේ ඒ ගැනය. තම තමන්ගේ පක්ෂ වෙනුවෙන් ඇදී ආ (ඇදගෙන ආ?)  ‘වාර්තාගත’ ජන සංඛ්‍යාව ගැන කතා කරන අතරම ගොල්ෆේස් පිටියේ පිරුනු සෙනග අවතක්සේරු කරන්නටද සමහරු මහන්සි වූහ. කෙසේ වුවද මේ සියලු රැස්වීම්වල පාහේ කතාකල කථිකයින් මැයි දිනයේ අර්ථය දැන සිටියාද යන්න සැක සහිතය. රජයක අහිතකර ප්‍රතිපත්ති ගැන පැවසීමේදී වැඩ කරන ජනතාවට යම් අදාලත්වයක් ඇත. නමුත් එසේ කතා වනුයේ විරුද්ධ පාක්ෂික රැළිවලය. රජයට සම්බන්ධ මැයි රැළිවලදී නිකම්ම සීනි මී පැණි ගෑ වචනවලින් ලණු කවා ජනතාව ගොනාට අන්දවන කතන්දර මිසෙක වැදගත් යමක් අසන්නට ලැබෙන්නේ නැත.

මේ සියල්ල අතර ජනතා අවධානයට ලක්වූ කතා කාරයෝ දෙදෙනෙක් වූහ. ඒ රාජිත සේනාරත්න සහ සරත් ෆොන්සේකා යන ඇමතිවරුන්ගේ කතාවන්ය. දෙදෙනාගේම කතා විලාසයන් ජනතාවට අමුතු දේ නොවේ. මේ දෙදෙනාම යොදා ගන්නා වචන තුල ගලා යන්නේ තමන් තුල කැකෑරෙන වෛරයයි.

එකල අනගාරික ධර්මපාල තුමා කල කතාවල් දෙස හැරී බලන කල්හි එතුමාද භාවිතා කලේ මෙවන් සැර භාෂා විලාශයකි. නමුත් ඒ කතාවල වෙනසක් තිබිනි. ධර්මපාලතුමාගේ කතා තුලින් ගලා ගියේ අධිරාජ්‍යවාදී බලපෑම් තුල සමාජය හසුව යන ප්‍රවාහය පිලිබඳව එතුමා තුල වූ සිත් වේදනාවයි. රට තුල පැතිරෙන පරාධීනත්වයට මොලය කළඳක් පාවිච්චි නොකරම ගොදුරු වෙමින් යන ජන සමාජය කෙරෙහි එතුමාගේ සිත තුල මතුවූ අනුකම්පාව මුසුවූ කෝපයයි. එය කොහෙත්ම තම බඩ වියත වෙනුවෙන් නොවේ.

නමුත් මේ විලාපය?

එතැනත් ජනතාව සම්බන්ධ කෝපයක් තිබේ. ඒ, ‘මෙතරම් කියලත් මුන් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ පස්සෙ යන්නෙ ඇයි?’ යන හැඟීමෙනි. නමුත් ඒ තුල ජනතාව යන්නේ හරි පාරකද වැරදි පාරකද යන එක ගැන සිතන්නට රාජිතට හෝ ෆොන්සේකාට දැනුමක් හෝ අවශ්‍යතාවයක් නොමැති බව පැහැදිලිය. මේ කෑ ගැසීම තමන්ගේ පැවැත්ම පිලිබඳ පදනම දෙදරා යාම සම්බන්ධව ඇති බිය සංකේතවත් කරන්නකි.

මොවුන් භාවිතා කරන වචන දෙස බලමු. රාජපක්ෂලා කරන වැඩ රාජිත සේනාරත්නට ‘වලත්ත’ වැඩය. රාජපක්ෂවරුන් ගැන කතා කරන සැම විටම කෝපයෙන් බුරා හැලෙන මොවුන් දෙදෙනාගේම භාෂා කෝෂය තුල ‘උන්, මුන්, ඕකුන්’ වැනි වචන වරදින්නේ නැත. තම විරුද්ධවාදියා වූ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ගැන කවර කතාද? තමන් සමග එකම කැබිනෙට්ටුවේ සිටින කම්කරු ඇමති ජෝන් සෙනවිරත්න හෝ විජේදාස රාජපක්ෂ ගැන කතා කරන්නට ඉඩ හලොත් වන විනබ්බෑසිය එදා ජනතාවටම අසා ගත හැකි විය. රජයේ වගකිව යුතු අමාත්‍යවරයෙකු ලෙස මෙවන් වචන ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ භාවිතා කිරීම තරම් ‘වලත්ත කමක්’ තවත් ඇතිද?

රාජිතගේ ඇති මේ නැහැදුනු උද්දච්ච බව මේ කතාවල පමනක් නොව සම කැබිනට් ප්‍රකාශක ලෙස මොහු සහභාගි වන මාධ්‍ය සාකච්ඡාවලදීද පිලිබිඹු වේ. අනුන් පහත හෙලමින්, කටේ තොලේ නොගෑවී බොරු ඇද බාන්නේ තමන් බොරු කියන වග මාධ්‍යවේදීන් දන්නා බවත්, මේවා පිලිබඳව ප්‍රශ්න කරන්නට තරම් නිර්භීත කෙනෙකු ඔවුන් අතර නොමැති බවත් දැන දැනමය. වැරදිලාවත් කිසිවෙකු මොහුව ප්‍රශ්න කලොත් මොහු අධික කෝපයට පත්වේ. මෙවැනි ගති ස්වභාවයන්ටද යෙදිය යුතු වචනය ‘වලත්තකම’ හැර වෙන කුමක්ද? 

අනිකුත් දේශපාලකයන් ගැන විග්‍රහ කිරීමට රාජිත යොදා ගන්නා වචනය ‘වලත්තකම’ නම් මොහුගේ ඉතිහාසයම පිරීගොස් ඇත්තේ එවන් ‘වලත්තකම්’ වලිනි. සමහර ඒවායේ බර අරිටත් වැඩිය. 1975 – 1989 දක්වා ඔහු දැරූ රජයේ දන්ත වෛද්‍යවරුන්ගේ සංගමයේ මහ ලේකම් තනතුර තුල ඔහු දේශපාලනයට බැස්සේ වාමාංශික දැක්මක් ඇතිවය. එකල ජේ. ආර් ජයවර්ධන ප්‍රමුඛ එජාප රජය දැඩිව විවේචනය කල ඔහු, අද ඒ දෙයම කරන ශ්‍රී ලංකා වෛද්‍ය නිළධාරීන්ගේ සංගමයට එරෙහි වන්නේ එදා තම විවේචනයට බඳුන් වූ එජාපයේම සෞඛ්‍ය ඇමති ලෙස සිටිමිනි. එදා තමන් කැපී පෙනීමේ පටු අරමුණින් නොව අවංක සිතින් ඒ විවේචන කලා නම් මොහු වත්මන් එජාප රජය වෙනුවෙන් මෙසේ පෙනී නොසිටින්නේය. මීට දශක 4 ක ට එපිට ඒ දේශපාලනය අද තරම් දූෂිතව නොතිබුනි. අඩු තරමින් හොඳ මිනිසුන් කිහිප දෙනෙකු හෝ එහි සිටියහ. නමුත්  සමහරවිට ඔහු එදා එජාප රජය ගෙනයන ප්‍රතිපත්ති ඔස්සේ රට මේ තැනට ඇදගෙන යන බව දකිමින්ම නිකම්ම ප්‍රසිද්ධිය පතා ඔවුන්ව විවේචනය කලා වන්නට පුලුවන. ඉන් දස වසරක් ඉක්ම යන්නට මත්තෙන් 1994 දී එවකට හිටපු ජනාධිපති ඩී. බී. විජේතුංගගේ ඇරයුමෙන් ජාතික ලැයිස්තුවෙන් එජාප මන්ත්‍රීවරයෙකු ලෙස ඔහු පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට රිංගා ගන්නේ ඒ වන විට 17 වසරක දුර්දාන්ත පාලනය නිසා එජාපය ජනතාවට එපා වූ බව දැන දැනමය. ඔහුගේ දේශපාලන අභිලාශය එතුල මනාව පිලිබිඹු වේ. ඊට පෙර ඔහු ගැසූ කරණම් සියල්ල තම පැවැත්ම පිලිබඳ අත්හදා බැලීම් බව නිසැකය.

පේරාදෙණිය විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයේදී ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයට සම්බන්ධව ශිෂ්‍ය ව්‍යාපාරයෙහි යෙදුනු ඔහු විජය කුමාරතුංග විසින් ශ්‍රීලනිපයෙන් කැඩී ගොස් පිහිටුවා ගත් ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහජන පක්ෂයට සම්බන්ධ විය. ඉන්පසු එය ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ ඉලක්කයක් බවට පත්වූ විට, ජවිපෙ මර්ධනය සඳහා ගොඩ නැගුනු මිනීමරු සන්නද්ධ කණ්ඩායම් අතරින් එකක් වූ ‘ප්‍රා’ සමග රාජිත සේනාරත්න නමද ඈඳී තිබිනි. ඔහුගේ එජාප ය සමග මිත්‍ර සමාගමය ගොඩ නැගෙන්නට ඇත්තේ එලෙසය. විජයගේ ඝාතනයෙන් පසු පක්ෂයේ නායකත්වය භාරගත් ඔසී අබේගුණවර්ධන එජාපයට සම්බන්ධ වූ විට ඔහු විජයගේ වැන්දඹුව වූ චන්ද්‍රිකා සමග එක්ව බහුජන නිදහස් පෙරමුණ පිහිටුවාගෙන එහි මහ ලේකම් ධුරය ලබා ගත්තේය. ඔහුට සැම විටෙකම ‘මහ’ තනතුරු අවශ්‍ය වූ බව පැහැදිලිය. 

1994 දී චන්ද්‍රිකා යලි ශ්‍රීලනිපයට සම්බන්ධ වූ අතර, රාජිත එජාපයට එකතු විය. එයට පෙර ඔහු 1988 පලාත් සභා මැතිවරණයේදී වාමවාදී පක්ෂ කිහිපයක් එක්ව පිහිටුවා ගත් එක්සත් සමාජවාදී සන්ධානය යටතේ කොළඹ දිස්ත්‍රික්කයට තරග වැද බස්නාහිර පලාත් සභාවට තේරී පත්විය. නමුත් එම පක්ෂය යටතේම 1989 පාර්ලිමේන්තු මැතිවරණයට ඉදිරිපත් වූ විට අන්ත පරාජයට පත්විය. ඉන්පසු 1994 අගෝස්තුවේදී එජාපය යටතේ කලුතර දිස්ත්‍රික්කයෙන් තරගකර අසුනක් දිනා ගැන්මට සමත් වූයේය. 

2000 මාර්තු 31 දා රාජ්‍ය ආයතන කිහිපයක් සමග සිදුකල නීති විරෝධී ගණුදෙනු කිහිපයක් සම්බන්ධව රාජිත සේනාරත්න වරදකරු කල අභියාචනාධිකරණය ඔහුව පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී තනතුරින් ඉවත් කල යුුතු බවට තීන්දු කලත් පක්ෂ ව්‍යවස්ථාවේම ඇති හිදැස් ප්‍රයෝජනයට ගත් එජාපය රාජිතගෙන් හිස් වූ අසුනට යලි රාජිතවම පත් කරන ලදී. එවක එජාප නායකයා වූයේද රනිල්මය. ඉන් පසුව 2000 වසරේ පැවති පාර්ලිමේන්තු මැතිවරණයේදී ඔහු යලිත් එජාපයෙන් කලුතර දිස්ත්‍රික්කය සඳහා තේරී පත් වින. යලි 2001 මහ මැතිවරණයෙන් පාර්ලිමේන්තු ආ ඔහුට එවර බලය හිමිවූ එජාප රජය යටතේ ඉඩම් පිලිබඳ ව්‍යාපෘති ඇමති තනතුර ලැබිනි. නමුත් 2004 පාර්ලිමේන්තු මැතිවරණයේදී එජාපයට බලය අහිමි වීමත් සමග ඔහුගේ ඇමති පට්ටමද අහෝසි විය 

2007 ජනවාරියේදී තම එජාප සගයන් බොහෝ දෙනෙකු කලාක් මෙන් රාජිත සේනාරත්නද එවක පැවති එජනි සන්ධානයට පැනගත් අතර අද ඔහුගේ පරම සතුරා වන මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ එවක හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් ඔහුට ඉදිකිරීම් හා ඉංජිනේරු සේවා ඇමතිකම පිරිනමන ලදී. 2010 පාර්ලිමේන්තු මැතිවරණයේදී ඔහු තරග බිමට ආවේ එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධාන අපේක්ෂකයෙකු ලෙසයි. එයින්ද තේරී පත්වුන ඔහුට ධීවර හා ජලජ සම්පත් අමාත්‍ය ධුරය ලැබිනි. ඒ වකවානුවේදී මොහු විසින් සිදුකල රුපියල් මිලියන ගණන් මූල්‍ය වංචා ජනතාවට හෝ එවක රජයට රහසක් නොවීය. 

2011 දී ඔහු තම බිරිඳ වන වෛද්‍ය සුජාතා සේනාරත්න කොළඹ මහ රෝහලේ අධ්‍යක්ෂ ධුරයට පත් කරවා ගන්නට කටයුතු කලේය. සුප්‍රිම් උසාවිය හමුවේ පැවරූ නඩුවක් මත මෙම පත්වීම බල රහිත කලද මහජන සෞඛ්‍ය සේවා පිලිබඳ අතිරේක අධ්‍යක්ෂ පදවියට ඇයව පත් කර ගත්තේ තම දේශපාලන බලය යොදාගෙනය. 

මේවා ගැන මාධ්‍යවේදීන් ප්‍රශ්න කලොත් ඔහු පවසන්නේ ‘ඇයි මොකද? එයා මෙඩිකල් ඩොක්ට කෙනෙක්නේ’ කියායි. හරියට මේ රටේ වෛද්‍යවරියකට සිටින්නේ ඇය පමනක් මෙනි. තම බිරිඳගේ දොස්තරකම ගැන මෙසේ තක්සේරු කරන මේ මිනිසා අද අනිත් දොස්තරවරු ගැන කතා කරන්නේ කෙසේද? 2014 දී රාජපක්ෂගේ පවුල් පාලනයට එරෙහිව කතා කලද වසරක් යන්නට පෙර තම පුත්‍රයා වූ චතුර සේනාරත්න දේශපාලනයට ගෙන ආ අතර මේ වන විට තම පුත්‍රයාගේ කට නිසා අනා ගන්නා දේවල් දෙස බලන්නේ සුරතල් දරු සෙනෙහසිනි. තම පුතාගේ ඒ නොමේරූ මන්ද මානසික ක්‍රියා කලාපය තුල කිසිදු වරදක් රාජිතට නොපෙනේ.

2014 දී තම ඇමතිකමින් ඉවත්වී 2015 ජනවාරි 8 වන දිනයට හදිසියේම යොදාගත් ජනපතිවරණයේ පොදු අපේක්ෂක මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන දෙසට හැරුන ඔහු, අද දක්වාම, තමන්ට දේශපාලනික වශයෙන්ද, ආර්ථික වශයෙන්ද ඉහලට යන්නට අත්වැලක් සැපයුනු වගකිව යුතු ඇමති පදවියක් ලබාදුන් හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයාට සලකනුයේ බද්ධ වෛරයකිනි. ඊටද යම් බලවත් හේතුවක් පවතිනු නිසැකය.  

2015 පෙබරවාරියේදී ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන පක්ෂ සභාපති බවට පත්වූ විට රාජිතට පක්ෂයේ උප සභාපති තනතුරක් පිරිනමනු ලැබිනි. නමුත් 2015 අගෝස්තුවේ පැවති මහ මැතිවරණයේදී ඔහු යලි එජාපයටම මාරු විය. හේතුව ලෙස සඳහන් වුනේ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂට කුරුණෑගලින් නාම යෝජනා දීමට ඉඩ හැරීම සම්බන්ධව වූ විරෝධය වුවත් මෛත්‍රී – මහින්ද විරසකය තුල දෙකඩ වූ සන්ධානය තුල මෛත්‍රී පාක්ෂිකයෙකු ලෙස ඉදිරිපත්වීම තුල තමාට අත්විය හැකි ඉරණම ගැන සිතා බැලුවා වන්නටත් පිලිවන.

ඔහුගේ චතුර පුතා නම් මේ වන විට චිර ප්‍රසිද්ධියට පත්ව ඇති නමුත් ජනතාව රාජිතගේ එක්සත් පුතා ගැන දන්නේ නම් ටිකකි. 2015 මාර්තු මාසයේදී හදිසියේ ජනතා අවධානයට ලක්වූ නඩුවක් විය. එනම් රාජිත සේනාරත්නගේ දෙවන පුත්‍රයා වන එක්සත් සේනාරත්න විසින් 2014 පෙබරවාරි 24 වන දින ආසියානු ජාත්‍යන්තර පාසලේ සාමාන්‍ය පෙල ඉගෙනුම ලබමින් සිටි දිනිති ආලෝකා රණසිංහ නම් 16 හැවිරිදි තරුණිය අමාත්‍යංශ වාහනයක් යොදාගෙන පැහැරගෙන ගොස් අමාත්‍ය නිළ නිවසේ රඳවාගෙන සිටින බවට ඇගේ දෙමව්පියන්ගෙනි. මේ සිද්ධිය සිදුවූ පෙබරවාරි 24 වන දින, දියණිය අමතර චිත්‍ර පන්තියකට සහභාගි වන බවත්, සවස 3.30 ට තමාව පාසලෙන් රැගෙන යන ලෙසත් දුරකථන මගින් පියාට දන්වා ඇත. නමුත් පියා පාසලට යන විට දැරිය එහි සිට නැත. ඇගේ යෙහෙළියන් ඇයව අවසන් වරට දැක ඇත්තේ අමාත්‍යවරයාට අයත් ‘ජීඑල් 7370’ නොම්මරය දරන වාහනය තුල සිටියදීය. 

මේ බව මව්පියන් විසින් පොලිසියටද ජාතික ළමාරක්ෂක සේවා අධිකාරියටද පැමිණිලි කලද පලක් නොවීය. පසුව පොලිසියට යලිත් කල පැමිණිල්ලකදී දෙපාර්ශ්වයම කැඳවන බව ඔවුන් පොරොන්දු වුනත් අමාත්‍යවරයාගේ පවුලේ අය එන්නට කියූ දින නොව වෙනත් දිනක එම දැරිය සමග පැමින, ඇය තම කැමැත්තෙන් පැමිනි බවට කට උත්තරයක් ලබා දී ඇත. පොලිස් මාධ්‍ය ප්‍රකාශක පවා එම දැරියගේ වයස විකෘති කර ප්‍රකාශයක් කලේය. 2014 මාර්තු මාසයේදී ජාතික ළමාරක්ෂක අධිකාරිය විසින් එම දැරිය තම භාරයට ගෙන ඇගේ ඥාති නිවසක රැඳෙව්වේ සා පෙළ විභාගයට ලියන්නට ඉඩ සලසන්නටයි. නමුත් 2014 අප්‍රේල් මාසයේදී ඇය සිටින තැන සොයාගත් එක්සත් සේනාරත්න ඇයව යලි පැහැරගෙන ඇත. ඉන්පසු තමා පැහැරගත් මේ බාල වයස්කාර දැරිය තම අඹු කමට තබා ගත්තේ තම දෙමව්පියන්ගේ අනුදැනුම සහිතවය.

ඇගේ වයස සම්පූර්ණ වූ පසු මහ ලොකුවට උත්සවයක් පවත්වා එම විවාහය නීත්‍යානුකූල කලත්, බාල වයස්කාර දැරියක් පැහැරගෙන, ඇය අඹුකමට තබාගෙන තම දේශපාලන හයිය පෙන්වා පොලිස් පරීක්ෂණ යට ගසමින් ඒ දැරියගේ දෙමව්පියන් අසරණ කරමින් ඔවුන් කල දේ හරිය කියා කියන්නට එතුලින් හැකි වනවාද? එදා තම පුතා කල ඒ ‘වලත්ත’ වැඩයට අනුබල දෙන අතරම 2015 දී මේ නඩුව තමන්ට මඩ ගසන්නට කල එකක් බව කියමින් රාජපක්ෂලා පතුරු ගසන්නටද ඔහු අමතක නොකලේය.

කවුරුන් දනිත්ද? පැණි වරකාවට හෙණ ගැසුවා සේ රාජපක්ෂවරන් සමග රාජිතගේ තිබූ යාලු කම නැති වන්නට මේ සිද්ධිය බලපෑවා වන්නටත් පුලුවන.

ඉතින් අද රාජපක්ෂලාගේ ‘වලත්ත’ වැඩ, පවුල් පාලනය, වංචා දූෂණ ගැන පාතාල භාෂාවෙන්ම වේදිකා ගණනේ කෑ ගසන්නේ මේ මිනිසාය. අප මඩු වලිගයෙන් තැලිය යුත්තේ මොවුන්ටද? නැතිනම් මෙවැනි දිවේ මවිල් ඇති, ලැජ්ජාවක් කියා දෙයක් නැති මනුෂ්‍ය රූපයකින් පමනක් පෙනී සිටින මෙවන් පිශාචයින් මනාප කතිරය ගසා රජගෙට යවන අමන මිනිසුන්ටද?

ෆොන්සේකාට නම් මෙසේ කීමට දීර්ඝ දේශපාලන ඉතිහාසයක් නැත. මිනිසුන් ඔහු ගැන දැන ගත්තේ 2005 දී රාජපක්ෂ රජය විසින් ඔහුව හමුදාපති තනතුරට පත් කලාට පසුවය. එසේ වුවත් එතෙක් හිටපු ජනධිපතිවරුන් මෙන් විදෙස් බලපෑම්වලට දණ නමා යුද්ධය ඔහේ යන්නට ඉඩ හැරියා නම් ෆොන්සේකාද තවත් එක හමුදාපති කෙනෙකු පමනක් වන්නට ඉඩ තිබිනි. එදා ඒ යුද්ධයේ අවසන් අදියරේදී හමුදාව අතින් යම් වැරදි වූවා නම් හමුදාපති ලෙස ඔහුද ඊට වගකිව යුතු වනු මිස ගෝඨාභයට පමනක් වරද පටවා අත පිසදා ගනු ඔහුට නොහැකිය. යුද ජයග්‍රහණයේ හොඳ කොටස පමනක් භාර ගන්නට සැදී පැහැදී සිටින ඔහු තමා ඉලක්ක කරගත් බෝම්බයට හසු වූ රථය පෙරහරේ රැගෙන ගියේ ඒ හා බැඳුනු අනිකුත් සියලු සිද්ධීන් ජනතාවටත් අමතක ඇතැයි කියා විය යුතුය. තවත් බොහෝ දේ කියවන අතරතුර තමන් පැවසූ සුදු කොඩි කතාව යට ගසමින් අද ඔහු පවසන්නේ, 2009 දී බැන් කි මූන් ගෙන්වාගෙන හමුදාවට යුද අපරාධ චෝදනා කලේ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා බවයි. 2009 මැයි 24 දින සිදුවූ එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ මහ ලේකම්වරයාගේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා සංචාරය  පිලිබඳ වාර්තාව අන්තර්ජාලය ඔස්සේ ඔබට කියවිය හැකි නම් මේ සිදුවීම යථා පරිදි වටහා ගත හැකි වනු ඇත. මොවුන් තම කතා අසා සිටින ජනතාවගේ බුද්ධිය තක්සේරු කරන්නේ මේ අයුරින් නම් අසන්නන් එ් ගැන එක්කෝ ලැජ්ජා විය යුතුය. නැති නම් සිහි බුද්ධියෙන් ඇසිය යුතුය.

ඔහු ජයග්‍රාහී හමුදාපති වීම නිසාම, පෙරදී ඔහු ගැලවීමේ හමුදාවට නම් සුදුසු බව කියූ එජාපයම ඔහුව බිලී බා ගත්තේය. එතැනදී ඒ මේ අතට විසිවූ මඩ ප්‍රහාර තුල ෆොන්සේකාගේ පැටිකිරියද එලියට ඇදී ආයේය. කෙසේ හෝ එජාපයේ ඇමට හසුව පොදු අපේක්ෂක වී ඉන්පසු පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට දක්කාගෙන යන්නටත් ඉඩහල නිසා මිස, වැරදිලාවත් මේ රජය පත් වෙද්දී ඔහු අනිත් පිලේ සිටියා නම්! එසේ නම් නොඅනුමානවම වත්මන් රජයේ පාලනය තුල හමුදා නිළධාරීන්ට අත්වන ඉරණමත්, ෆොන්සේකාගේ නම ඉදිරියේ ලියැවුන වාර්තාවනුත් බලන කල ඔහුට කොහොමටත් හිරේ ලගින්නට සිදුවනු ඇත. 

1989 පාර්ලිමේන්තු මැතිවරණ සමයේ තමාට මනාපය ඉල්ලමින් රාජිත සේනාරත්න වෙනුවෙන් තාප්ප වල ඇලවූ පෝස්ටරවලට චන්දයෙන් පසුව කවුදෝ පිරිසක් අපූරු එක් කිරීමක් කර තිබිනි. එනම් ‘රාජිත’ යන නම ඉදිරියේ ‘ප’ යන්න සටහන් කිරීමය!

මොහුගේ සහ ෆොන්සේකාගේ නම හා බැඳුනු අලකලංචි මෙන්ම භාෂා විලාශය දෙස බලනවිට මිනිසුන් වීඅයිපී කියා සලකන්නේ මොවුන්ටද කියා පුදුම සිතේ. මෙම සියලු දහදුරාකම්වලට පසුතලය සකසන ශ්‍රී ලාංකික දේශපාලන සංස්කෘතිය ගැන කිව හැක්කේ මොනවාද?

මෙවන් පුද්ගලයන්ට තනතුරු, නම්බුනාම දෙනවා මදිවාට ලෝක ආර්ථිකයේ කොඳු නාරටිය වන් වැඩ කරන ජනතාවගේ ශුද්ධ වූ දිනය වන මැයි දිනයේ වේදිකාව මෙවන් පහත් පෙලේ කතාවලින් ජරා ජීර්ණ කරන්නට පියවර ගන්නා අයටත්, හුරේ දමමින් මේ විකාර අසා සිටින අයටත් කිව හැක්කේ එකම දෙයකි. 

‘ප’රාජිතයන් උන් නොව නුඹලාය !!!

In conversation with Former Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Dr Palitha Kohona

Sri lanka will celebrate the United Nations Wesak day with much pomp and ceremony next month in Colombo and Kandy and in almost every temple in the country. Prime Minister Modi of India who has sought to employ Buddhism as a vehicle for India’s soft power outreach will be the chief guest at these celebrations. Other international dignitaries are also expected to be present in Sri Lanka during this period. A special exposition of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kandy is scheduled. In New York, the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka will co-host a comemorative meeting with Thailand at the United Nations.

The History of the Effort to Make Wesak a Public Holiday

Over the years, many national leaders have clamoured to make Wesak an internationally recognised day and a holiday. Anagarika Dharmapala, American Civil War veteran Henry Steel Olcott, theosophist Madame Blavatsky, educationist Museus Higgins and others were at the forefront of this effort. They succeeded in having Wesak declared a national holiday during the colonial period (in May 1885) and were also responsible for the adoption of the Buddhist flag (1885). Their work was continued later by the leading lights such as L.H. Metthananda and Gunapala Malalasekara who wanted the United Nations to declare Wesak a holiday given that over 500 million people around the world professed to follow the teachings of Gautama the Buddha. The political headquarters of the UN, located in the United States, and dominated by Western Christian values, was not receptive to this suggestion, even though the sixties witnessed an Asian Buddhist, U Thant heading the organisation. In fact its bias towards Christian sensitivities is demonstrated by the fact that in the early days of the Organisation, all General Assembly committees sought to complete their workloads by the first week of December so that delegates could reach their own countries, those days by ship and then by train, in time for Christmas. This practise continues, with the exception of the Fifth Committee, although delegates travel by air these days.

Foreign Minister Kagiragamar Takes the Challenge to the United Nations. What Happened?

In the late nineties, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister, Lakshman Kadiragamar, with impeccable charm overwhelming erudition, called on the UN to declare Wesak a holiday. Sri Lanka was supported by 15 other countries, some non Buddhist, including Russia, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, but its endeavour was not fully successful mainly due to the lack of sympathy on the part of the Secretariat. The Secretariat advised that the days allocated for holidays at the UN were already occupied by host country holidays and Christian and Islamic holy days. Furthermore, it contended that any additional holidays on the UN calender would result in an extra cost burden to the Organisation and would be in an unbudgeted item on the UN balance sheet. The Fifth Committee of the General Assembly balked at the prospect of additional costs and as a compromise proposed that the UN recognise Wesak as a special day but NOT as an extra holiday. The sixteen countries which advanced the proposal, including Sri Lanka, settled for this diluted fall back option. The first meeting marking Wesak as a special day at the UN was hosted by Sri Lanka’s Ambassador John de Saram at the small  Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium. Wesak continued to be marked at the UN  enthusiastically but in a low key manner, over the next few years.

Sri Lanka Celebrates Sambuddhatwa Jayanthiya in an Unprecedented Manner at the United Nations in New York

In the lead up to the Sambuddhatwa Jayanthiya (Enlightenment) of Gauthama the Buddha in 2011, the Government of Mahinda Rajapaksa decided to celebrate the event in a high profile manner, including at the UN in New York. The Mission in New York quickly mobilised the support of the Buddhist countries and a range of other countries to celebrate the event in an appropriate manner. The Secretariat, including the Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, who repeatedly referred to the fact that his mother was a Buddhist, came on board the project. The UN media unit extended it’s full support. In addition to the obvious religious aspect of the event, the Mission of Sri Lanka recognised the potential for projecting a softer and likable image of Sri Lanka through a high profile celebration of the Buddha’s enlightenment at a time when allegations of human rights violations and war crimes were crowding Sri Lanka’s image in the international landscape..

The Sambuddha Jayanthi celebrations in New York provided the opportunity to highlight many Buddhist traditions from different Buddhist countries to New Yorkers. The event which was ably coordinated by Ambassador General Shavendra Silva, commenced with 200 monks from different traditions, both Heenayana and Mahayana, n yellow, gray and brown robes, walking in single file from opposite the UN building to the Dag Hammarskjold Tower for early breakfast (heel daane). It was a memorable sight. Along the way they were offered alms (pindapathaya) by hundreds of devotees from different countries. The slight drizzle did not deter them. The chief monks (the Mahanayakas) from Mongolia and Vietnam were among the participants as were leading monks from Thailand, Myanmar and Laos. Breakfast (heel danaya) was served at the common room of the Dag Hammarskjold building where the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka, Dr Palitha Kohona, the chief dayaka, resided. The Sri Lankan community participated in the event with undiluted enthusiasm.

Following the heel daane, the monks assembled at the General Assembly Hall which was packed to capacity, including most of the diplomatic community. A day long discussion on Buddhism commenced. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Ambassador Dr Palitha Kohona chaired the assembly. For the first time ever, the GA Hall reverberated to the rhythm of pirith chanting by 200 monks at the commencement of the proceedings. This had never happened in the GA Hall before. The discussion followed, with key-note addresses being delivered by the Reverend Gunerathana and Bhikku Bodhi (the highly regarded Buddhist Jew from Brooklyn). His Holiness the Pope sent a message, read by the Papal Nuncio. A display of historic Buddhist art occupied the Kuwait Boat Room at the entrance to the GA Hall. Many Buddhist countries and countries which were Buddhist in the past contributed valuable pieces to this exhibition. The day’s events were concluded with a buffet dinner for over 1200 guests hosted by the countries involved in contributing to the event.

The annual UN Wesak Day event continued at the General Assembly Hall until renovations to the Secretariat building forced it to be moved to the temporary new building. The call for Wesak to be declared a holiday kept bubbling away in the background.

Sri Lanka Again Requests the UN to Declare Wesak a Holiday

Then in 2014, the Permanent Mission of Israel requested the UN to declare Yom Kippur, a day significant to 13 million Jews, a holiday. This was resisted by Saudi Arabia, obviously for geo-political and other reasons. Curiously, the Secretariat which had found reasons for refusing to accommodate the request from Sri Lanka to declare Wesak a holiday in 1999, now declared that it saw no financial or other reason for objecting to Israel’s request. Grabbing the opportunity presented, the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka (Chamitri Rambukwella was the Vice President of the Fifth Committee at the time) again asked that Wesak be declared a UN holiday. It successfully lobbied other member states and the Secretariat. However, to the surprise of many, the Indian delegate to the Fifth Committee threw a giant spanner in the works by first refusing to join the emerging consensus and later suggesting that four days sacred to Indian religions as possible candidates for holidays. (Guru Nanak Day, Mahavir Day, Maha Shiva Rathri and Pongal). All requests now seemed likely to be rejected but Sri Lanka kept up the pressure, including by keeping the Secretary-General informed on a regular basis as did Israel with the massive support it could readily muster in New York. Eventually, at the eleventh hour, a compromise emerged, The Fifth Committee agreed and the General Assembly unanimously endorsed that no meetings of the UN will be held on the day of Wesak at duty stations where there was a Buddhist majority and the day was a public holiday. Any person wishing to observe the relevent Buddhist rituals could also take leave on this day. While this is not ideal outcome for the Buddhist world, it was another significant step on the way.

Prospects for the Future

As the UN Wesak celebrations will be held in Sri Lanka next month, with the attendance of a number of Buddhist dignitaries from around the world, it would provide us with the opportunity to lobby for support for the call to declare Wesak a UN holiday – a demand that has the backing of over 500 million Buddhists. Given that Buddhism has begun to attract significant numbers of intellectuals and free thinkers in the Western world, a special effort could be made to include them at the celebrations. Buddhism is the fastest growing religion/philosophy in Australia. Mindfulness, based on Buddhist meditation techniques, is sweeping through Western business circles. The presence of Prime Minister Modi as the chief guest makes this opportunity even more attractive given his own efforts to project India’s soft power as the country that gave Buddhism to the world. Sri Lanka could also use this opportunity to mobilise the support of fellow Buddhist countries and others in a soft power outreach given the attractiveness of the Buddha’s message of peace and loving kindness in an increasingly strife torn world.

චන්ද්‍රසේන පණ්ඩිතගේ

ජනාධිපතිවරයකු සිටියද ජනාධිපතිවරයකුත් නැති, අගමැතිවරයකු සිටියද අගමැතිවරයකුත් නැති, කතානායකවරයකු සිටියද  කතානායකවරයකුද නැති. ඇමතිවරුන් සිටියද ඇමතිවරුන්ද නැති, විපක්ෂ නායකයකු සිටියද, කිසිම දෙයකට විපක්ෂද නොවන, විනිසුරුවරුන් සිටියද විනිසුරුවරුන්ද නැති, ස්වාධින මැතිවරණ කොමිසමක් තිබුනද  මැතිවරණද නැති මොකක්දෝ මලසමයමක් “යහපාලනය” නමින් හොල්මන් කරන සමයක අපුරු සිදුවීම් රාශියක් තුලින් ගමන් කොට මැයි  පළමුවෙනිදා ගිනි කාස්ට අවුවේ වේලෙමින් මුහුදු සුලන්වල ආස්වාදය විදිමින් ලංකාවේ සියලු  දිග්බගයන්ගෙන් පැමිණ ගෝල්ෆේස් පිටිය පුරවාලු මහජන ගංගාව විසින් ඉතිහාසයේ සනිටුහන් කරන ලද දැවැන්තම පණිවුඩය කියවා තේරුම් ගැනීම මෙරට සිටින දේශපාලනය කරන සියලුම දෙනාගේම හිතසුව පිණිස වේ..

කෝට්ටේ, බුවනෙකබාහු මහාරජතුමාව වෙඩිතබා ඝාතනය කල පෘතුගීසින්, ඒ අරාජික රාජ්‍යතුල සිදුකල සියලුම ක්‍රියාවන් නුතන අරාජික ශ්‍රී ලංකාව තුල ඒ ආකාරයෙන්ම නුතන යහපාලකයෝ සිදුකිරීම කරන අතරතුර මේ මැයි දින සැමරීම හා එයට අතිවිශාල ජන බලකායක් එක රොක්ව නිකුත් කල පණිවුඩය කුමක්ද? ඒ පණිවුඩය දේශප්‍රේමී බල කණ්ඩායම් අවබෝධ කරගන්නේ කෙසේද? එය වටහාගෙන කලමනාකරන්නේ කෙසේද? යන කරුණු අප ඉදිරියේ දිස්වෙමින් තිබේ.

මේ අප දකිමින් සිටින්නේ, ශ්‍රී ලාංකීය දේශපාලනයේ වර්තමාන රංගධරයන්ගේ නර්තන විලාශයන්ය. එය ඉතිහසය විසින්, “යහපාලනය” ලෙස නම් කර ඇත. යහපාලනය නාඩගම ආරම්භ වන්න, එහි ප්‍රධාන නළුවා, වූ වර්තමාන ජනාධිපති සිරිසේන මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂයන් සමග අවසන් බෝජන සංග්‍රහයේදී ආප්ප කා කෝපි එකක්ද බි සරම මදක් ඔසවාගෙන කම්බි වැට පැන විපක්ෂගතවිමත් සමගමය. ඒ වර්ෂ 2014 නොවැම්බර් මස 21 වෙනිදාය. ඒ අනුව මේ පුද්ගලයා මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂයන්ගේ රජයේ නොසිට ඇත්තේ, 2014 නොවැම්බර් මස 21 වෙනිදා සිට, 2015 ජනවාරි මස 8 වෙනිදා දක්වා වූ, දින 48ක් කාලයක් පමණි. එනම් මාස එකහමාරකි. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂගේ රජයේ ආරම්භය වර්ෂ 2005 නොවැම්බර් මස 18 වෙනිදා මැතිවරණයත් සමගම ආරම්භ වන අතර,එදා සිට 2014 නොවැම්බර් මස 21 වෙනිදා වැට පැන විපක්ෂගතවන තෙක්ම එම රජයන් විසින් සිදු කරන ලද විශාලම ජාතික මෙහෙවර වන වසර 30ක් යුද්ධය නිමා කිරීම, උතුරු වසන්තය නම්වූ ව්‍යාපෘතිය තුලින් උතුර ඒකාලෝක කිරීම, උතුරේ ජනතාවව ත්‍රස්තවාදී භීෂණයෙන් මුදවගැනීම් නැගෙනහිර සංවර්ද්ධනය කිරීම, අධිවේගී මහා මාර්ග පද්ධතිය ඉදිකර මහා ජනතාවගේ කාලය ඉතිරි කරදීම, හම්බන්තොට සංවර්ධනය, කොලබ වරාය සංවර්ධනය, පොර්ට් සිටි නම්වූ මහා වරයා නගරය ඉදිකිර්ම ඇතුළු සියලුම සංවර්ධන කාරයන්ගේ ගෞරවය රජයක සාමුහික වගකීම යටතේ ඔහුට හිමිවන්නසේම, එම රජය විසින් සිදුකලායයි මෛත්රිපාල සිරිසේනයන් විසින් හඩනගා කියන සියලුම දුෂණ හා භිෂනයන්ගේ අපකිර්තියද ඒ ආකාරයෙන්ම, ඔහුට හිමිවේ, ජනාධිපතිවරණයට දින 48කට පෙර, එම රජයෙන් ඉවත්ව, මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂයන් දෙසට ඇගිලි දිගු කොට ඔහු දුෂකයය, භිෂකයාය කිවූ පමණින් තමන්   කිරි මුහුදින් මතුවූ සදුන් රුවක්සේ සුපිරිසිදු චරිතයක් වන්නේ නැති බව විදහා දක්වමින්, මෙරට බිහිවු කිසිදු සංවර්ධනයකින් තොර දුෂණය,, භිෂණය, පමණක් රජයන, සැබෑ රජයක් නැති අප මලසමයමක් නමින් හදුන්වන යහපාලනයේ, පිසාචරයාව පන්නා දැමීමේ මහා තොවිලය ආරම්භ කරන මෙන් බලකිරීමට මෙරට ජනතාව මැයි මස පළවෙනිදා ගෝල්ෆේස් පිටිය පුපුරුවා හැරීමට තරම්වූ ජන කන්දරාවකින් පුරවා ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයට බල කොට සිටියහ.

තමන්ව පලවා හැරීමට මේසා විශාලවූ ජන ගංගාවක් නිර්මාණය කරගත්තද, ඔහු මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂගේ රජයේ දුෂණ භීෂණ සම්බන්ධව කතා කරනුයේ, තමන් කිසිදාක මහින්දගේ දුෂණ හෝ භීෂණ වලට සම්බන්ධ තාවයක් නැති ආකාරයක් මවා පාමිනි. තවද මෙහි ඇති විශේෂිතම කරුණ වන්නේ,, ඔහුගේ වැට පැනීමෙන්, දින 48ක් කාලයක් තුල ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ, ජනාධිපතිවරණයට ඉදිරිපත්වීම හා ඔහු ජනාධිපතිවීමයි.  මෙතන අප අවබෝධ කරගැනීමට වෙර දැරිය යුත්තේ,, නිකම්ම නිකම් පුද්ගලයෙක් දින 48කදී මහා බලගතු දිගු ශිෂ්ටාචාරයකට උරුමකම් කියන රටක රාජ්‍ය නායකයා බවට පත්වුයේ කෙසේද යන්නයි. මේ කරුණ සුළුපටු කරුණක් නොවන බැවින්ද, මේ සිදුවීම මෙරට තුල ඇති ව්‍යවස්ථාවයි කියන දෙය තුල ඇති තවත් ජාතික මර උගුලක් බවද තේරුම් ගත යුතුය කිසිදු දේශපාලන පක්ෂයක්ද නැති,පක්ෂ නායෙකුවත් නොවෙන අයෙකුට දින 48ක් කාලයක් තුලදී රටේ රාජ්‍ය නායකයා බවට පත්වීමේ හැකියාව තුල ඇති ප්‍රාතිහාර්යය කුමක්දැයි අවබෝධ කරගත යුතුමය. ඔහු තුල ඇති බලය ඔහු තුල ඇති ශක්තිය කුමක්ද යන්න අවබෝධ කරගැනීම ජාතික වගකීමක් ඇති විශේෂිත කරුණකි.

රටක නායකයා හා රටක පාලකයා විය යුත්තේ, විශේෂිත පුද්ගලයෙකි. ඔහු තුල විශේෂාංග රාශියක් තිබිය යුතුය. ඒ නිසා සැම  රටකම නායකත්වය උදෙසාම ජනතාව පෙලගස්සවන විවිධ ව්‍යාපෘතීන් නිර්මාණය කර ඒ සදහාම තරුන තරුණියන් ගොඩනංවන තත්වයක් ඇති සමයක, අපේ රටේ මේ යහපාලන ආශ්චර්යය සිදුව ඇත. තොටගමුවේ ශ්‍රී රාහුල ස්වාමින්වහන්සේ, සැළලිහිණි සංදේශය කරවන ලද්දේ, ශ්‍රී ලංකාද්වීපය පාලනය කිරීමට සුදුසුකම් ඇති පුත් රුවනක් මේ දිවයින එක සේසත් කල සයවැනි පරකුම්භා නිරිදුන්ගේ දියණිය වූ උලකුඩය දේවියට ලබාගැනීමේ අධිෂ්ටානයෙනි. මේ ආශිර්වාදය බලාපොරොත්තු වුනේ කැළණිපුරයේ වැඩවසන්නාවූ විභීෂණ දෙවියන්ගෙන්ය. දිව්‍ය ආශිර්වාදයෙන් මේ රට පාලනය කිරීමට පුත් රුවනක් පැතුවේ, මේ ආකාරයෙන්ය.

දීත් රුපු කිරුළු මල් දම් සුවද මී වැස
තෙත් සිරි පා යුත් සුරිදුනි තිලෝ ඇස
සිත් පිනවන ඇති ආසිරි නුවණ යස
පුත් රුවනක් සොද දුන මැනවි නිසි ලෙස

බිසවට පළමු රත්නාවලි  නම්           සොදුරු
සහතුට දෙවු හිමි දිවැසින්            කුළුණු පිරු
මෙලකට ඉසුරු වී පැරකුම්           රජ කුමරු
පලකොට කිමෙක ඔබ සොද තෙද බල මහරු

එසෙයින් දෑ සමන් මානෙල් කුසුම් ගෙන
පුදමින් එ සුරවර සිරි සරණ         වදිමින
බුහුමන් කරන රජ දූ සදුට මේ       කියන
දුන පින් සමග යස සිරි වඩි පුත්     රුවන

මෙසේ දෙවාශිර්වාදයෙන් ලද දු පුතුන් පාලනය කලයුතුවූ මේ පින්බිම, මේ අහබු චරිතයක්වූ සිරිසේනයන් අතට පත්වීමෙන් ඇරබි අවිචාරවත් සමයට එරෙහිව ගොඩනැංවී ඇති බලවේගයේ, දෘශ්‍යමාන තලයේ ස්වල්පයක් පමණක් එදා ගෝල්ෆේස් පිටියට රැස්ව සිටි බව සලකනවිට, මුළුමහත් බලවේගයේ ප්‍රමාණය කුමක්දැයි සිහි නුවැනත්තන්ට මනාව වටහා ගත හැකිය. මේ අප දකින රුපකායන්ට වඩා සියදහස් ගුණයකින් ප්‍රබලය මනොකායන් මේ දේශයට මේ දුෂිත යහපලකයින් විසින් සිදු කරන්නාවූ මහා අපරාධ සමුහය දෙස  බලා සිටින්නේ, මහා පීඩනයක් ගෙන දෙන්නාවූ වෛරී සිතුවිලි සමුහයක් සමගිනි. මේ වනවිට මේ රජයට එරෙහිව ඇති සමාජ සිතුවිලි පරම්පරාවන් පාලනය කරනු ලබන්න බවට පත්ව සිටින්නේ,මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ජනාධිපතිතුමන්ය. එතුමා විසින් මේ පවතින තිරිසන් පාලනයට එරෙහිව යමක් සිදුකරාවිය යන බලාපොරොත්තුව විසින්, ජනතා කෝපය උතුරා යආන්නට නොදී පාලනය කරගෙන සිටි.කොටින්ම කියතොත් මේ අවස්ථාවේදී යපලනයේ, ආරක්ෂකයාද මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂයන් බවට පත්ව සිටි. නමුත් එයටද සීමාවන් පවතින බව අප අවබෝධ කරගත යුතුය.

මෙරට ජනතාව, යහපාලනය විනාශ කරන බවත්, එය දැවී හලුවී විනාශ වෙන බවත්. අප පැහැදිලිවම දන්නෙමු. සිරිසේනයන් තුල යහපාලන බිජයට සරුව වර්ධනය වීමට හේතු පාදකවූ කරුණුද අප පැහැදිලිවම දන්නෙමු. සේරිවාණිජ ජාතකයේ, රන් තාලියේ හිමිකාරිත්වය අහිමිවූ වෙළෙන්දා මෙන්, 2010 මහවැලිය අහිමිවූ සිරිසේනයන්ද මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂයන්ව හබා ආවේ දෙව්දත් තෙර,බෝසතුන්ව, ආත්ම ගණනාවක් පුරා හබා ආ ලෙසටමය. ජනාධිපතිවූ පසු ඔහුට අහිමිවූ ඒ මහවැලිය යලි ඔහු යටතට ගත්තද, රටටත් ජාතියටත් ආගමටත් රාජපක්ෂවරුන්ටත් සිදු කරන්නාවූ මර්ධනයේත්, පීඩනයෙන් සීමාවන් ඉක්මවා ගොස් ඇත. ජනතාව අනිවාර්යෙන්ම මේ රජය පෙරලා දමන බව අප පමණක් නොව සිරිසේනයන්ව දින 48කදී බලයට පත්කළ බලවේගයන් මෙහෙයවන හාම්පුතුන්ද මනාව දනී. තවද ඒ අවස්ථාවේදී කලයුතුදේ කුමක්දැයි ඔවුන් මනාව දනී. බලය ජනතාව අතට යාමට ඉඩ නොදී, ජනතාව ඉදිරියේ පෙනෙන්නට සලසා ඇති ජන සතුරාව විනාශ කොට බලය ඔවුන් අතම තබා ගැනීම සාමාන්‍ය සිරිතයි. මේ සංසිද්ධිය, එදා ආර්.ප්‍රේමදාස මහතාට උරුමකර ජනතාව රතින්ඥ පත්තු කරන තත්වයට පත් කර ජන සතුරු බලවේගයේ, නියෝජිතවරිය ඔසවා තබා බලය තවත් වසර 10ක් පුරාම පවත්වා ගත්හ. මේ වර සිදුවන සිද්ධිදාමය එසේ නොවීමට වගබලාගැනීම මෙරට ජනතාව සතු විශාලම වගකීමක් බව වටහාගෙන කටයුතු කල යුතුමය. දැන් අප කතා කලයුත්තේ, එසේ කරන්නේ කොහොමද යන පැනය සම්බන්ධවයි.

සතුරා මෝඩය, උද්ධව්ච්චය, ජනතාවට එරෙහිව බොහෝවිට බියගැන්වීම අවියක් ලෙස පාවිච්චි කරයි. සැබෑ ලෙසම සතුරා කඩදාසි කොටියෙක් බදුය. මේ වනවිට සතුරා බියට පත්ව ඇත. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂයන්ගේ ආරක්ෂාව අඩුකර ඇත. එය හොද දෙයකි. දැන් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂයන් තමන්ට ඇති අවදානම්කාරී තත්වය ඇත ලගටම ඇවිත් බව වටහාගෙන ඇත. දැන් පළමු පියවර වශයෙන් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂයන්ගේ ආරක්ෂාව පිණිස සෙබළුන් 1000කින් සමන්විත ආරක්ෂක හමුදාවක් ගොඩනැංවිය යුතුය. රටේ රජයක් නොමැති බැවින් ඒ සදහා කිසිවෙකුගෙන් අවසරගතයුතු නොවේ. එදා ජේ. ආර්. ජයවර්ධන ජනාධිපතිතුමා හඩනගා පලකල නාදය වූ “තම තමන්ගේ ආරක්ෂාව තම තමන්ම බලාගනිල්ලා” යන්න වලංගු යුගයක් සිරිසේනයන් විසින් නිර්මාණය කර හමාරය. ජනතාව ජනතාවගේ ආරක්ෂාව ගොඩනැංවීමේ කාර්යයට ඇත ගැසිය යුතුය. පවතින යහපාලන හුචක්කුව නඩත්තු කරන ජනතාවට නව ආරක්ෂක වලල්ලක් තමන් වෙනුවෙන් ඉදිකිරිම අපහසු කටයුත්තක්ද නොවේ. එදා ගෝල්ෆේස් පිටියට රැස්වූ ජනතාව ඉල්ලා සිටින්නේ ජන අරගලයට ආරම්භයක් දෙන ලෙසයි. මැතිවරණය නොපැවැත්වීම තුලින් ඒ සදහා හොද සරු බිමක් නිර්මාණය කර ඇති තත්වයක් තුල ජන අරගලයේ ස්වරුපය හැඩගැන්වීමේ කටයුතුවලට යහපාලන විරෝධී බලමුළු සුදානම් විය යුතුය. ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය  ඉල්ලා සටන් වැදීමට ජනතාවට ශුද්ධවූ අයිතියක් ඇති අතර ඒ අයිතියේ හඩ මැයි පලවෙනිදා මෙරට ජනතාව ගුවනට මුදා හළහ. ජනතා සටනට ජයවේවා!

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

News Item …….. The Nation

Quote by Lee Kwan  Yew

 Lee was unapologetic in the face of criticism that Singapore interfered too much in individuals’ lives, telling the Straits Times in 1987 “had I not done that, we wouldn’t be here today. We decide what is right. Never mind what the people think.” Lee was critical of what he saw as the overly liberal approach of the US and the West in general, saying it had “come at the expense of orderly society.”

We have a democratically elected government .

Statements made by the Ex-president that he can topple the government even today ,tantamount to grabbing power with un democratic means ?

Whether people regret or not , a  new President has been selected by the people  Ex-President may have been a charismatic leader, due to his courageous act to beat terrorism. Even President Premadasa was a charismatic leader who  has eradicated JVP terrorism at that time .

Instigating a strikes demanding punishment to some people who may have been involved in obvious corruption during the past few years could have been more democratic  .Supporting island-wide strike action by doctors Indirectly  or directly and make the ordinary citizens duffer .gives the impression  to an outsider that people are punished for voting the current regime to power.

Idea behind the demand by JVP to abolish  the presidency  is not for the good of the people but for their own benefit .It will  enable then to  freely instigate such strikes and protests without  any fear of being harmed and persecuted by an autocratic regime .Doctors ,Buddhist priests ,drivers will fear any strike action if there is an absolute president running the country who will put the people in forefront

In communist or quasi socialist countries you  never hear of any strike  because there is autocracy in the form of Dictatorship of Proletariat ,who will imprison any striker in the pretext of being Imperialist instigators  .

I find this regime quite democratic to satisfy the demands of foreign powers who keep blackmailing us citing human right violations .If the regime becomes aggressive, they tend to threaten us and deprive us from giving much needed grants /aid.

Lately government tend to get court orders to prevent such strike action ,but no one abbeys the law.

My honest opinion is Yahaplanaya cannot provide meals for the poor .Just like in Singapore ,we need to have Executive President who thinks about the country and take any meaningful action  to stop  unfair strike

It can be a dictator backed by Imperialists or Socialist background, but we need a firm Executive to govern the country .JVP can say anything but they losing ground.

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

(බුද්ධික කුමාරසිරි)   News Item Lankadeepa……..

මාලඹේ විද්‍යාලය ජනසතු කිරිම හේතුවෙන් අද (5) පැවැත්වෙන වැඩවර්ජනයට සහභාගී  නොවී පාදුක්ක දිස්ත්‍රික් රෝහලේ වෛද්‍යවරු අද (5) බාහිර රෝගීන් සඳහා ප්‍රතිකාර සිදු කරති.

Name of the Hospital is Padukke”  ( Dukke means  Sorrow )

Doctors may have felt sorrowful of the poor patients of Padukke !

We should name all the hospital with that suffix?

Nawalaoka Hospital where Pa( hara) deniya  ( as usually called by pro Saitm People ) is working on private capacity has a history.

SAITEM ,GMOA AND SRI LANKA MEDICAL COUNCIL (SMC)   AND WAY FORWARD
Posted on February 26th, 2017

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

I was just watching a TV program where Consultant Dr Padeniya eloquently explained  that SAITEM is an illegal organization which has violated every rule and laws in the country .Saitem was established in 2008 and after 9 years neither GMOA and SMC has not been able to take meaningful action   to terminate the functioning of this institution .

My honest opinion is that establishment  of private educational institutions should be encouraged and GMOA should sit together with SAITEM management and their Russian Counterparts and guide them to continue the functioning of the Institution .

I was arguing with ac colleague and insisted that the Saitem students should be allowed to practice after passing the  exams under act 16 .

Many Sri Lankan doctors have  obtained free education in Sri Lanka and migrated abroad to work because ,there isn’t any  bond signed between Sri Lankan government and the doctors where  they have to at least serve  10 years in Sri Lanka to pay back the cost of education .They bolt away with no regard to the fact that tax payers have paid for their education

I have to suggest following by way of a compromise to settle this issue .

Government shall terminate the permission to run a private medical school to fill the short fall of doctors in Sri Lanka ,but impose a rule that none of the doctors who have obtained degree in Sri Lankan state medical schools with public money should be allowed to leave the country until they  serve at least 10 years in Sri Lanka .

They should also  sign a bond for 5 million rupees .If the doctor bolts away ,the bond value should be claimed from the person who has signed the bond  and cancel his local registration and place the informaation in SMC website .

ThenS we can wait and  see what GMOA is going to do ??Will they go on strike and take the patients at ransom ?

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

By: Vandita

His name is King Leopold II of Belgium and the living incarnation of evil killed over 10 million innocent people in what is now called the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Of the Europeans who scrambled for control of Africa at the end of the 19th century, Belgium’s King Leopold II left arguably the largest and most horrid legacy of all. — BBC

Reign Of Terror

To fulfill his dream to establish Belgium as an imperial power, Leopold led the first European efforts to develop the Congo River basin, founded his own private colony – the Congo Free State – in 1885 with the pretext to improve the lives of the native inhabitants, only to annex it as the Belgian Congo in 1908.

Under the reign of terror instituted by Leopold, as many as 10 million Africans lost their lives to one man’s greed, exploitation and brutality that Africa and the world must not forget. Presenting himself as a philanthropist eager to open the heart of Africa to Christian missionaries, Western capitalists, and Western civilization, Leopold embarked on an ultimately successful effort to make a vast fortune from his new possession by committing widespread atrocities against his colonial subjects.

He bought” the Congo and enslaved its people, turning the entire country into his own personal slave plantation. He disguised his business transactions as philanthropic” and scientific” efforts under the banner of the International African Society. He used their enslaved labor to extract Congolese resources and services. His reign was enforced through work camps, body mutilations, executions, torture, and his private army.

Leopold never set foot in his” Congo — for all the 23 years — but his rubber terror” and barbarity knew no bounds. Since the Congo economy was largely operated by forced labour, the effects were devastating. 10 million Congolese were either murdered or worked to death by Leopold’s private army. Women were starved and systematically raped, worker’s hands were cut off and hundreds and thousands of indigenous people endured kidnapping, looting and village burnings.

Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold’s Ghost, writes:

Some were beaten or whipped to death for failing to meet the rigid production quotas for ivory and rubber harvests, imposed by Leopold’s agents. Some were worked to death, forced to labor in slave like conditions as porters, rubber gatherers or miners for little or no pay. Some died of the diseases introduced to (and spread throughout) the Congo by Europeans. And still others died from the increasingly frequent famines that swept the Congo basin as Leopold’s army rampaged through the countryside, appropriating food and crops for its own use while destroying villages and fields.

Hostage-taking and the grisly severing of hands (from corpses or from living human beings) were part of the government’s deliberate policy — a means of terrorizing others into submission. As the rubber terror” spread through the Congolese rain forest, entire villages were wiped out: Hundreds of dead bodies were dumped in rivers and lakes, while baskets of severed hands were routinely presented to white officers as evidence of how many people had been killed.”

The Curious Case of World Ignorance

Ever wondered why the world and the media don’t remember Leopold and why his name doesn’t produce fear, hatred, and sorrow? Leopold ensured that his crimes would never make it into the history books. Shortly after the turnover of the colony, Hochschild writes, the furnaces near Leopold’s palace burned for eight days, turning most of the Congo state records to ash and smoke.

Is there a hidden agenda to not talk about genocides in Africa perpetrated by European capitalist monarchs? There’s a Wikipedia page called Genocides in History” but the Congolese Genocide isn’t included in the list despite the fact that attempting to eliminate a portion of the population is enough to qualify as genocide under the UN convention. Wonder why?

“He’s part of a long history of colonialism, imperialism, slavery and genocide in Africa that would clash with the social construction of the white supremacist narrative in our schools. It doesn’t fit neatly into a capitalist curriculum. Stories which support the white supremacist narrative about the subhumanness of people in Africa are allowed to be entered into the records of history. The white guy who turned the Congo into his own personal part-plantation, part-concentration camp, part-Christian ministry and killed 10 to 15 million Congolese people in the process doesn’t make the cut” — Liam O’Ceallaigh

උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම

‘මහින්දවත් බලාපොරොත්තු නැති විදියට ගෝල්ෆේස් පිට්ටනිය නිල් පාටින් පිරුණා. එකම හිස් ගොඩක්. ගෝල්ෆේස් පිට්ටනිය විතරක් නෙවි, ගාලු පාර පුරාමත් කොල්ලුපිටිය හන්දිය දිගටත් ජනතාව පොදි කකා රැස්වීමට එකතු වුණා. ඒ තරම් ජන ගඟක් මතක හිටින කාලයක දැක්කෙ නෑ. විශේෂයෙන් ගෝල්ෆේස් පිට්ටනියට මෙහෙම ජනගඟක් ගලපු මුල්ම අවස්ථාව වෙන්න ඕනෑ’

මේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාකාරයන් තැන තැන එකතු වෙලා කසු කුසු ගාපු දේ නොවේ. මේ කතා තැන තැන කතා වුණේ යූඑන්පීකාරයෝය. රැලියට එන්න බැරිව ළතැවුණු ශ්‍රී ලංකාකාරයෝය. පසුවදා පත්තර සිරස්තල දාන අයට හරිම ගැටලුවකට මුහුණ දෙන්නට වුණේ ඉතිහාසයේ පළමුවැනිදාටය. සමහර පත්තර මෛත්‍රිවත්, රනිල්වත් ශේප් කරගන්නදෝ දැමූ ශීර්ෂ පාඨ මෙහෙමය.

;ශ්‍රී ලනිප මැයි රැලියට ජන ගඟක්. ඒ දා මෛත්‍රි වටා ඒකරාශී වූ ශ්‍රී ලංකාකාරයන් සතුටු කරන්නටය. ඊළඟට රනිල් ෂේප් කරගන්නට දාපු හෙඩිම මෙහෙමය.
‘එජාප රැලියට ජන ගඟක්’ ඊගාවට මහින්දගේ ජන බලවේගය කොයිතරම් දැවැන්ත වුණත් ප්‍රබල වුණත් ඊට දාපු හෙඩිම මෙහෙමය. ‘ඒකාබද්ධයේ රැලියටත් ජන ගඟක්’
මෙයින් ඒත්තු ගන්වන්නට උත්සාහ කරන්නට ඇත්තේ ‘මෛත්‍රිටත්, රනිල්ටත්, මහින්දටත් ජන ගඟක් තිබුණා’ කියලා කියන්නට විය යුතුය.
‘එතකොට මහින්ද මහත්තයටත් හිටියෙ මෛත්‍රිට රනිල්ට හිටපු ජන ගංගාවමද? එහෙම නම් කාට කාටත් එක සමාන ජන ගංගාවක් හිටියද?’
මහින්ද වටා පෙළ ගැසුණු රටවැසියන්ට මේ ශීර්ෂපාඨ දැක්කම එහෙම හිතුණොත් පුදුමයක් නැත. නමුත් මැයි දිනයෙන් පසු මාධ්‍යවේදීන් එස්.බී. දිසානායකගෙන් මහින්දගේ රැලිය සාර්ථකද අසාර්ථකද කියලා ඇහුවාම දුන්නු උත්තරය හරි පුදුමය.

‘ඒක සාර්ථකද අසාර්ථකද කියලා කියන්න බෑ. මං හිතන්නෙ තිස්දහසක් තිස් පන්දහසක් විතර සෙනඟ ඉන්න ඇති’
එහෙම නම් පත්තර ශීර්ෂ පාඨවලටත් එහා ගිහින් එස්.බී. කියපු කතාව යූඑන්පීකාරයන්වත්, මෛත්‍රිගේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාකාරයන්වත් පිළිගන්නේ නැති බව සත්තය. හැබැයි ඔය කොයි අයියාටත් වඩා තෙම්පරාදු වෙච්ච මහින්ද රැලියෙන් පස්සේ ජනමාධ්‍යවේදීන් හමුවෙච්ච වෙලාවකදී මේකට හොඳ උත්තරයක් දුන්නේය.
මාධ්‍යවේදියා – එස්.බී. මහත්තයා නම් කියන්නේ තිස් දාහක් – තිස් පන්දාහක් විතර ආවා කියලා.
මහින්ද – වෙන්න ඇති. උදේ සෙනඟ එන්න පටන් ගත්ත වෙලාවෙ උඩින් බැලුව නම් එහෙම පෙනෙන්න ඇති. ගෝල්ෆේස් පිටියත් පිරිලා පාරත් පිරිලා කොල්ලුපිටිය පැත්තටත් සෙනඟ හිටපු බව එය දන්නෙ නැතිව ඇති.
එස්.බී. කියන කතාවල වලංගුභාවය කොයිතරම්ද කියලා ඒක ජනතාවට තේරුම් ගන්න ඉඩ අරිමින් මහින්ද පැමිණි ජනතාවට ස්තුති කළේ කෙළෙහි ගුණ දන්නවුන්ට ශීර්ෂ ප්‍රණාමයෙන් ගෞරව දක්වමිනි.
සෙනඟ ගැන හරි තක්සේරුවක් දෙන්න මහින්ද පිලේ ඉන්න අයට වඩා ඉදිරියට ගිහින් ඇත්තම කියන්නට වුණේ මහින්ද අමරවීරය.
මාධ්‍යවේදියා – ගෝල්ෆේස් අය එක්ක එකට එකතු වෙන්න ලැබුණොත් මොකද හිතෙන්නෙ?
අමරවීර – ‘එහෙම වුණොත් අති විශිෂ්ටයි කීවේ නිකමට නොවේ. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂගේ බලවේගය අතිමහත් නිසා එම බලවේගය සමඟ ඉතුරු බිතුරු ගැටඹේට එක්රොක් වූ සෙනඟ එකතු වුණොත් යූඑන්පීයට ඇඩ්‍රස් නැතිවග අමරවීර ව්‍යංගයෙන් පැහැදිලි කළේය. අමරවීර අනියමින් මහින්දගේ බලවේගය, පිරිස බලය අති විශාල බව පිළිගත්තේය. රනිල් වුණත් කැම්බල් පිටියට ආපු යූඑන්පීයේ ජනගඟ ගැන උදම් අනන්නට ගියේ නැත. බී.ආර්.සී. පිටියට ආපු ජේ.වී.පී. ජන ගඟ ගැනත් අනුර කුමාර වර්ණනා කරන්නට ගියේ නැත. ඒ දෙන්නාම ‘අපිට ආව සෙනඟ අපි දන්නවනේ. ආයේ මොකට ඒ ගැන කියනවද?’ කියල නොකර සද්ද ඉන්නට වගබලාගත්තේ ඒ ගැන කියන්නට ගිහින් ලකුණු කපා ගන්නට ඕනෑ නැති නිසා විය යුතුය.
ඒ වුණාට අනුර කුමාර එක දෙයක් නම් කෙළින්ම කීවේය.
‘මැයි දින සැමරුමෙන් ජනතාව ලබා දුන් සංඥාව තේරුම් ගන්න ඕනෑ. එයින් කියන්නේ මැයි රැලි තියලා ආණ්ඩුවටත් ආණ්ඩුව ඇදගෙන යන යූඑන්පීයටත් කප් එක ගන්න බැරි වුණා’ කියන කතාවය.
එහෙම නැතිව ‘බීආර්සී’යේ සෙනඟ දැකලා ආණ්ඩුව බය වෙන්න ඕනෑ’ කියන කතාව නොවේය. කැම්බල් එකේ සෙනඟ දැකලා මෛත්‍රිපාල බයවෙන්න ඕනෑ’ කියන කතාව නොවන්නේය.
අනුර කුමාර මොන බයිලාව ගැහුවත් ආණ්ඩුවේ ඇතැමුන්ද පිළිගන්නා ජේවීපීයත් පිළිගන්නා. එක දෙයක් කියන්නට අමතක නොකළේය. ඒ මෙසේය.
‘මේ වෙද්දි ආණ්ඩුව මර්දනකාරී පිළිවෙතකට එළැඹිලා තියෙනවා. වෛද්‍ය නිලධාරීන්ගේ සංගමයට, අරගල කරන ශිෂ්‍යයන්ට, ගොවි ජනතාවට මර්දනය එල්ල කරලා තියෙනවා. මේ ආණ්ඩුව මැයි දිනයෙන් ලබාදුන් පාඩම් ඉගෙන ගන්නවට වඩා අරගල කරන ජනතාව වෙත මර්දනයේ හස්තය දිගු කරන්න පියවර ගනිමින් ඉන්නවා. ඒ නිසා මේ ආණ්ඩුවේ තර්ජනයට එරෙහිව මහා ජන පවුරක් ගොඩනැඟිය යුතුයි’
හැබැයි මේ අනුර කියන ජන ගඟට බීආර්සී පිටියේ ගංගාව විතරක්ම අරගෙන අරගල කරන්නට පුළුවන් එකක් නොවන්නේය. ඒකට ගෝල්ෆේස් පිටියේ සෙනඟ නැතිවම බැරිය. ඒ වුණත් අනුර කුමාරලාට කටක් ඇරලා ගෝල්ෆේස් අයත් එක්ක අරගල කරන්න වෙනවාය කියලා ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ කියන්නට බැරිය.
‘යහපාලනය ගේන්න අනුර කුමාරලා ගත්ත මහන්සියේ තරම දන්නෙ ජනතාවයි. උන්දැලාගෙ ඡන්දයත් හංසයා වෙනුවෙන් ඡන්ද පෙට්ටියට දාලා දැන් ආණ්ඩුව හොඳ නැතෙයි කියලා කියන්නේ අහවල් කටින්ද?’ ජනතාව එහෙම අහන්නේය.
මේ කොයික වෙතත් රැලියෙන් පස්සේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී අගමැතිගෙන් ගම්මන්පිල ඇහුවේ ෆොන්සේකාව ඉස්සරහට දාගෙන හමුදාවක් හදාගෙන අහවල් එකක් කරන්නට යනවාද යන්නය. අගමැති වෙනදාමෙන් විහිළු කතාවක් කියලා ෂේප් වෙන්න ගියත් ගම්මන්පිලගේ ප්‍රශ්නෙට උත්තර දුන්නේ ‘ෆොන්සේකාගේ නායකත්වයෙන් විශේෂ හමුදාවක් හදන්නෙ නෑ’ කියලාය. අගමැතිත් ගෝල්ෆේස් සෙනඟ දැකලා සඳලුතලයෙන් බිමට බැස්සාදෝයි හිතෙන තරමට පාර්ලිමේන්තු ලොබියෙදී කාගෙ කාගෙත් කසු කුසු ඇසෙන්නේය. ඒ අතර සමහරු කියන්නේ,
‘අපේ එවුන්ට තිබුණේ පුළුවන් නම් ගෝල්ෆේස් පිට්ටනිය පුරවලා බලපල්ලා කියලා නොකියා ඉන්නයි. ඒක අහපු ඔරිජිනල් ශ්‍රී ලංකාකාරයෝ මැරුණත් කමක් නෑ ගිහිල්ලම පෙන්වනවා කියලා ගෝල්ෆේස් ඇවිත් පෙන්නුවා’ කියලා.

කොහොම වෙතත් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී රටේ තත්ත්වය මෙන්න මේකයි කියල බන්දුල කීවේය.
‘ගිය අවුරුද්දේ ඒකපුද්ගල ආදායම පහළටම වැටිලා. කෘෂිකර්ම අංශයත් ආපස්සට ගිහිල්ලා. පිට පිටම වසර දෙකක් ගෙවුම් ශේෂය පහළට ගියා.’
ඒ අතර ඒකාබද්ධයේ අය කියන්නට ඕනෑ දෙයක් හඳුන්නෙත්ති පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී කීවේ මෙහෙමය.
‘අපේ සම්පත් මේ විදියට අත්පත් කර ගැනීම වැරැදියි කියලා අපි චීනයට කියනවා. අපට තියෙන්නේ එක රටයි. චීනයත් එක්ක ගිවිසුම් අස්සන් කළොත් අපේ ඉතිරි වෙලා තියෙන දේශීය කම්හල් ටිකත් වැහේවි.’
හඳුන්නෙත්තිලාට යහපාලකයන්ගේ කෙරුවාව හරියටම පෙනිලා තියෙන්නේ දැන්ය. එහෙම තියෙද්දී යහපාලකයන් රටට ඇහෙනන කියන්නේ, උද්ඝෝෂණ රැල්ලට බයේ නන්‍ෙදාඩ වන්නේ,
‘අනේ මෝඩි අගමැතිතුමා එන්නේ වෙසක් බලන්නයි. එයා මෙහෙ ඇවිත් ගිවිසුම් අස්සන් කරන්නේ නෑ. එනවා යනවා විතරයි’ කියලාය.
මේ අතර ආණ්ඩුවේ මර්දනකාරී පියවරට එරෙහිව රට පුරා වර්ජන රැල්ලක් දියත් කෙරෙන්නට නියමිතය. රජයේ වෛද්‍ය සංගම් සහායට තවත් වෘත්තීය සංගම් 160ක් එක්වන බව කියැවෙන්නේය.
ඒ නිසා දෝ කොළඹ ආරක්ෂාවට යැයි කියමින් යහපාලකයන් කොළඹට අතිරේක සීසීටීවී කැමරා සවි කරන්න යුහුසුලුය. ෆොන්සේකාට බැටන් පොලු දෙන්නට සූදානම්ය. අතිරේක බළඇණි හැදෙන කතා කෙරෙමින්ය. ඇසුවාම ‘අනේ එහෙම එකක් නෑ’ යැයි කියැවෙන්නේය.
ගෝල්ෆේස් ගිහින් වැඩ පෙන්නූ ඒකාබද්ධය දැන් ටිකක් හති අරින්නට පටන් අරන් යැයි ආණ්ඩුව හිතනවා විය යුතුය. ඒ අතර ජනතාව තව තවත් මහින්ද වටා පෙළ ගැසෙමින්ය.

ඒ අතර බොරැල්ලේ ආචාර්ය ඇන්.එම්. පෙරේරා කේන්ද්‍රයේදී නාමල් වෙනදාට වඩා මහත් වගකීමකින් යුතුව මෙසේ කීවේය.
‘ජනපතිත් – අගමැතිත් ජනතාවගේ අවශ්‍යතාව තේරුම් ගන්න ඕනෑ. සැබෑ ජනමතය නම් රට ගොඩනැඟීම මිසක් රට විකුණාගෙන කෑම නොවේ. රටේ විනය හදන්න ඕනෑය කියලා ෆොන්සේකා පත් කරලත් වැඩක් වෙන්නෙ නෑ. මහින්ද මහත්තයටත් ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයටත් ඇඟිල්ල දිගු කරලා ප්‍රශ්න විසඳන්න බෑ. ඒ නිසා ආණ්ඩුවට ආණ්ඩුවේ වැඩපිළිවෙළ ගැන ඔය තරම් විශ්වාස නම් කරන්න තියෙන්නේ ඡන්දයක් තියන එකයි.’
නාමල් කියන, ඉල්ලන ඡන්දයක් ගන්න නම් තව තවත් ආණ්ඩුවට රිදෙන්න ජන ගඟක් එකතු විය යුතුය. දුන්නේ නැති වුණත් ඡන්දයක් ගත්තොත් ඒකාබද්ධයට කරන්න තියෙන දේ බොහෝය. ගහන්න තියෙන ගේම තියුණුය. ගේම ගහලා දිනාගන්න හැටි දන්න මහින්දට මේ ජන ගඟ ආණ්ඩුවට විරුද්ධව මොන විදියෙන් හරි පෙළ ගස්වන හැටි කියලා දෙන්න ඕනෑ නැත.

BY JANAKA LIYANAARACHCHI Courtesy Ceylon Today

Sri Lanka has 758 unguarded level crossings which claim at least one human life each month. So far, the only solution to the problem was deploying the villagers who live nearby to guard these crossings under the co-ordination of Civil Defence Department.

Sri Lanka Railway first called for global tenders in November 2011 under No: SRS/F 6919, with the intent of acquisition of security systems for use at these crossings. However, the Tender Committee was in division regarding the bidder to be selected. As a result, the tender was eventually cancelled.

Another tender call

Two years later, again a tender was called for this purpose globally as per No: SRS/F 7089. The tender was roughly expected to be around Rs 850 million. The chief engineer of the signal unit of the Railway Department A.T.L.P. Samarathunga was the Chairman of the Seven-member Tender Committee. The members of the Technical Evaluation Committee were W.P.M. Fernando, L.A.R. Rathnayaka, P.R. Jinadasa, R.S. Mathiwathani and Mahesh Hewavitharana.

Five companies including M/S N-Able (pvt) Ltd & M/S Uni Consultancy Services, State owned local company of the University of Moratuwa bid for the tender.

To verify the standards of the supplies, government specified six criteria in the tender announcement.

Accordingly, the bidder had to provide a written submission on the producer’s financial and human resources capacity to supply, install, inspect and stabilize the production.

The companies should have successfully installed, inspected and handed over at least three security systems of the level crossings in the past five years.

The company should have the capacities of producing all components of the railway crossing security systems, installing them, inspecting and stabilizing them without support of other companies.

The suppliers needed to be on or above the international standard level of SIL/3 in terms of public security and also it should be ISO 9001-2000 standardized.

The producer must verify the production capacity in writing with the evidence for previous supplies. A printed manual of the main components and the technical details must be submitted.

The proposed railway security system must be functioned in the main railways for three years.

Wrong tender offer

As per the above requirements, seven companies were shortlisted. The lowest bid was submitted by the above mentioned local company belonged to Moratuwa University. They bid for Rs 837 million (US $ 6,478,190). The next lowest bid was from M/S Ingenieria Y Control Ferroviario Spain which was Rs. 866 million (US $ 6,698,331.72).

The Technical Committee decided the tender offered to the company belonged to Moratuwa University. However, all the bids were freight on board (FOB) which meant the price at producer’s end. However, the last price with shipping and all other costs is decided on cost and freight (CFR).

Accordingly, CFR of the M/S N-Able (pvt) Ltd & M/S Uni Consultancy Services was US $ 7,418,021 which was higher than M/S Ingenieria Y Control Ferroviario Spain’s CFR of US $ 6,783,831.72.

In this backdrop the offering of the bid to M/S N-Able (pvt) Ltd & M/S Uni Consultancy Services was fundamentally wrong.

Under the existing tender code of 2006, the tender committee must select the bidder logically based on economic benefit and technical quality.

Additionally, M/S N-Able (pvt) Ltd & M/S Uni Consultancy Services had not fulfilled any of the six criteria stipulated by the Tender Committee. The company did not have evidence for any previous experience in production, installation and testing, independent production capability, standard certificates and verification of its financial and human resources capacity. The company had mentioned in its bid that some components would be purchased from a Chinese company.

The main competitor, M/S Ingenieria Y Control Ferroviario Spain had fulfilled all these criteria in addition to bidding the lowest CFR.

The tender board rationalized the offering of the tender to M/S N-Able (pvt) Ltd & M/S Uni Consultancy Services stating it is a company that belonged to Moratuwa University and it is bidding for the lowest price which was not true.

The reality of the company

When investigating this company, no information could be found about any State or semi-State company called M/S N-Able (pvt) Ltd & M/S Uni Consultancy Services. The Chairman of the Technical Evaluation Committee cited that the company had installed testing railway security system many years back. However, the installation of this security system had no connection with this company. It was only limited to a foundation stone and the documents which had been submitted were fraudulent.

M/S N-Able (pvt) Ltd & M/S Uni Consultancy Services did not want ISO 9001-2000 because it was said to be a State company which belonged to Moratuwa University. However, the university authorities were unaware of such a company.

The secret behind this so-called company has now been exposed. The brother of the chairman of the tender board has taken the contract via this bogus company.

However, the tender agreement could not be signed during the specified period. The chairman of the tender board was transferred to another department. Railway Department received complaints on the tender and a committee was appointed to look into the matter.

The committee reported that M/S N-Able (pvt) Ltd & M/S Uni Consultancy Services was not qualified for the tender. The prices they had cited were also exorbitant. They could not show cause for that in the audit. According to the audit report, the supplier had submitted US $ 56,100 over expense. The tender was also offered at US $ 1,698,282 higher than the recommended cost of the technical evaluation committee.

Now, the Chairman of the relevant Tender Board who offered it to his brother is the Additional Secretary – Technical of the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation. He had been so powerful to get the Cabinet approval for this tender which had violated all the tender procedures.

FCID has also received complaint on this corrupt deal but so far to no avail.

Dilrook Kannangara

This is an estimate of voting power of each party can be assessed based on the ground extent.

All grounds were packed so their extent can be used as a gauge of strength. SLFP, JVP, UNP and JO held their rallies in grounds with the extents of 2.4, 2.4, 3.8 and 18.7 acres each.

Minorities generally don’t attend may day rallies which is an annual feature. A few would attend CWC and other rallies but these don’t come any closer to major parties. Therefore the 25% minorities are allocated to major political groupings by 2015 August election results (20% to the UNP-TNA-SLMC and 5% to SLFP-ACMC-CWC part of it tickling down to the JO).

These are the resultant percentages and number of parliamentary seats if a parliamentary election is hel

JVP – 7% (13 seats)

SLFP-ACMC-CWC – 12% (25 seats)

UNP-TNA-SLMC – 30% (70 seats)

JO – 51% (117 seats)

The Joint Opposition has a clear and unassailable advantage over all other parties. With a likely win of 117 seats, the JO can face a parliamentary election alone and win. As the single largest political party, it can easily win 14 district bonus seats (included).

However, despite a 51% votes percentage estimated, it may not go the JO way at a presidential election. This is because at a presidential election, UNP, TNA, SLFP and JVP will most likely contest once again from the same platform against the JO. If these parties held a May Day rally together, it would have easily become much larger than the sum of their individual rallies. Though still smaller than the JO’s rally, when minority votes and upper and upper middle class sections of the society that never participate in May Day rallies are factored, a combined coalition (Swan Alliance) will edge out the JO in a presidential election with synergy supporting them.

Election fraud in the north, east, Nuwara Eliya and Colombo districts and double voting by a significant percentage of voters in these districts will also tip the scales in favour of the Swan Alliance. In a parliamentary election, the impact of double voting is confined to the district. Even if, for argument sake, a district has a 90% voters turnout due to fraud, the total number of seats that district can have will not change. Due to the formula of allocating seats, the impact will be further dented. No matter how peaceful the election is, the affected districts are UNP-TNA-SLMC strongholds. UNP-TNA-SLMC wins them almost by default.

Incumbency advantage is huge in a presidential election whereas it is relatively small for parliamentary elections. All incumbents won a second term in presidential elections. Mahinda is the only incumbent to lose a presidential election.

All contesting presidents won the second term which is a 100% success rate for the incumbent. However, in parliamentary elections, only 4 out of 15 elections had the incumbent ruling party winning it. A miserable 27% success rate. In other words, the JO has three times more chances of winning a parliamentary election than a presidential election.

The JO has reason to be confident of winning a parliamentary election, however, it should not be cocky about winning a presidential election. At least not yet.

By Rohana R. Wasala

 When sovereign and ministers show perversity of mind, it is impossible even for a Sun Tzu to encounter the foe.-Huai-nan Tzu

A couple of days back, we celebrated the most momentous May Day in living memory held in Sri Lanka. I watched the five hour long Joint Opposition rally live on the Internet without any significant break, switching channels when necessary; later I also looked at videos of the other three main rallies and listened to some of the speakers. The Joint Opposition, the only coalition of forces unambiguously opposed to the present yahapalana regime, conducted what may perhaps go down in history as the largest May Day rally held since the first May Day in this country was marked in 1934 under the leadership of  the legendary A.E. Gunasinghe, Secretary of the All Ceylon Labour Federation. Hundreds of thousands thronged not only the 18.5 acre  Galle Face Green, but also the road bordering it from the Fort end to Kollupitiya; for a long time after the rally started, there were still more people marching on the road from Union Place to the venue of the rally. The JO leaders claimed that this rally was three times larger than the combined strength of the competing rallies conducted by the three main parties, namely, the SLFP (Sirisena faction) at Gatembe, Peradeniya, the UNP at Campbell and the JVP at the BRC Grounds in Colombo. The JO’s claim is not an exaggeration.  While the JO attracted the largest crowds, the other parties and groups including the principal ones held successful rallies attended by huge numbers. Like the 2009 May dawn of the current terror free peaceful era, the May Day this year brought all Sri Lankans together to focus on a single national theme. Truly a moment that demonstrated unity in diversity with far-reaching implications for the future.

It is difficult to agree with the popular criticism that gets repeated every year that the May Day is invariably appropriated by self-seeking politicians while labour concerns are relegated to the background as mere slogans or are totally forgotten. There are politicians who are genuinely worried about workers’ problems; and workers after all form the bulk of the electorate in any country. Who else but politicians can give political leadership to workers and harness their collective power to influence government policies so they become worker-friendly?

The crowds that took part in the JO rally were from across the whole island, and represented all three communities. Most speakers spoke in Sinhalese. But there were three rousing speeches in Tamil as well, one by an elderly Muslim, and the other two by two young Tamils. One of the Tamil speakers was Vinayagamurthy Muralidharan, second-in-command to LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, before their famous split. This demonstrates the interethnic harmony that usually exists among our people; it is in spite of the divisive influence of some diaspora Tamils and foreign politicos who try to exploit them for their own domestic and geopolitical ends. These elements have no empathy with us, nor are they concerned with our welfare. The so-called reconciliation efforts sponsored by them are meant to effectively undermine the normalcy that  prevails among Sri Lankans from different ethnic backgrounds.

What makes May Day this year a very consequential  event? A number of factors made it more meaningful to the people than in previous years. It delivered a clear message to the government and  to interfering foreigners (the West and India). Keep off our country. Don’t try to divide it for your own benefit. Treat us as a single undivided people. We are able to manage our affairs easily by ourselves strengthened by the legacies of our millennia old shared history and our common non-violent and tolerant  religious and cultural values, which you foreigners cannot understand. You are making hateful attempts to manipulate affairs here through subservient NGOs and UN bodies in order to harass our immensely popular leaders who are capable of establishing peace and harmony in our country without your assistance and also capable of bringing in economic development with help from genuine friends. Your interference is only contributing to the growing misery  of the innocent millions of our country. So, please stop those attempts. And, desist from interfering with their peaceful activism directed at ushering in truly democratic governance. I think this is the message that the massive JO May Day rally conveys to the international community.

At  the same time, the success of the JO rally tells those in power to be responsive to the just demands of the people, without assuming threatening authoritarian postures. All those citizens who attended May Day rallies everywhere are one people, one nation. They are not rioters. The majority of them are saying that something is not right. It is important that prices of essential items of daily consumption are maintained at an affordable level for the average household. That is the least a government can do. There are vitally more important things such as choosing efficient economic strategies that are acceptable to the majority of the people, saving the country from disintegrating into ethnic enclaves, and avoiding auctioning the valuable national assets that we have built up over decades at great cost and that we must bequeath to future generations. Raving madly against those who have a good track record will not solve any problems.

(Note on the epigraph: Huai-nan Tzu is the compiler of an ancient encyclopedic work on Chinese philosophical thought. Though his birth year is not known, he is believed to have died in 122 BCE. Sun Tzu {544-496 BCE} is the celebrated Chinese general who wrote the well known treatise on war called ‘The Art of War’.)

Dr Sudath Gunasekara. President Mahanuwara Sinhala Bauddha Jesta  Purwesiyange Sanvidhanaya and EX: Perm Sec to Prime Minister Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranayaka 2017.5.4.

I request all our present day Unpatriotic Politicians to learn a bitter lesson at least from these two great World Leaders: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Australian Prime Minister John Howard

(The Statements of the Two Leaders are given at the end of this note)

Patriotism is a quality that should be in the blood of leaders of any country. Though we had such Kings and Leaders in ancient times, it is a tragedy and a pity too that we don’t have any in modern times. But almost all other countries in the world do have such Great Leaders. Now starting from the far- East look at Japan, China, Burma, Singapore, India, Pakistan, Israel, Germany, England, France and USA to name a few only. All these people always put the country before self.  But our leaders and their teams from top to bottom put self before the country. The rating I would say is 100% self and the country almost nil. Whether one likes it or not that is the real truth. Truth, and nothing but the truth. There may be one or two exceptions.

How unfortunate we are not to have had any, in recent times except Mahinda Rajapaksa, with few of his ardent followers, though they also could not still get fully released from the Minority vote trap and hanging on to it, like the proverbial hungry fox that went after a Goat expecting its dangling testicle to fall, without realizing finally what really will happen to the fox. In that story only one fox got seriously kicked by the goat. But in our case a whole nation has got fatally kicked for 70 years for the follies of power hungry, avaricious and selfish politician and their lack of any vision of a vibrant and free Nation. In fact I have told this story to MR over the phone on 30^th April last year and advised him not to go after Tamil and Muslim votes anymore and concentrate only on Sinhala votes (75%) but who do not have a leader. His home place being Magama, the birth place of Dutugemunu the epic hero of the Sinhala nation, he is the best man to give leadership to fill that coveted vacuum.

Sinhala people badly want a leader. They were looking for that historic leader even in early 1950s as the UNP government was not fulfilling the aspirations and great expectations of a free new and a resurgent nation. They were talking of Diyasena Kumaraya  in early 1950s to rescue the Sinhala nation. I do not know whether he got the point I was trying to drive at and the message to give. I hope he will at least now, try to understand what I saidand what the masses expect of him  in the light of the unprecedented crowed that poured in to the Gall face green.

I rated MR as a patriotic Leader for three reasons. First, for his undisputed chivalry and historic role in defeating the30 year LTTE terrorist war In 2009 May. Second his rejection of the request made by the West and India to stop the war at the last moment and the brave manner he faced that critical situation taking a big risk even on his life, and his reply to the British and French delegates. Third he is the only Leader who openly said that there are no minorities in this country. Had he also said that we have only one nation in this country and that is Sinhala the people of the Sinhale-the Land of the Sinhala people- that was handed over by a Convention to the British in 1815 that claimed an unbroken record of nearly 2500 years.

I do not want to comment on other fellows who are in leadership positions at the moment in different capacities. The issue here is the absence of a Sinhala Leader. Tamils and Muslims have enough leaders. Even buffaloes have Leaders, as Ellawala Medhananda Thera once said. But we Sinhalese, a nation once who had World class leaders like Dutugemunu, Parakramabahu, Wijayabahu and in recent times Keppetipola and Rajasinha.

Unfortunately today we don’t have a single true national leader. All our present day so-called leaders who come to leadership positions are concerned only about their power, position and wealth.

Therefore I am addressing this note to all present day politicians and inviting them to read the following two great statements by two patriotic World Leaders and Learn from them as to how a true Leader of a country should rule his country. More particularly I am addressing this note to President Sirisena as the incumbent  President of this country as he has been voted in to power at least by about 4.7 Million Sinhala Buddhists in this country out of a total of 10.5 million Sinhala voters, of whom the balance 5.8 voted for MR.

If not for the 4.7 million Sinhala UNP votes he would never have been elected as the President, in spite of the Tamil and Muslim Communal block vote he polled to which he always says very grateful. Beside that he is the President of all people of whom 75 % constitute Sinhalese, the true sons of the soil, who are the real architects of the civilization of this country and who had sacrificed their sweat, blood and lives in millions against foreign invasion from south Indian  in ancient times and the Western Colonial powers from 1505 up 1948 in defense of their Motherland.

Sinhalese are the true Bbhoomiputras of this land. This is not negotiable at any forum and is inalienable in the name of his pet mantram national reconciliation he is desperately trying to impose on the Community of Mahasangha, the guardian gods of the Sinhala Nation and this countr.y

Historically the present day Tamils in the north are the descendants of slaves brought by the Portuguese, Dutch and British since 1505 to work on their projects like tobacco farms etc and left behind as destitute on someone else’s soil. Some of them are the remnants of earlier invaders and some illicit immigrants Kallathonis who have come in search of greener pastures. The greed for this country Indians had in their minds is proved by the Malayalam saying ‘Eelam Kandavar illan kanukka illei”( one who has seen Lanka will never come home). The Tamils on the central hills were the descendants of indentured labour slaves brought by the British to work on their Coffee and tea plantations and left behind as an ugly legacy of colonial rule. Just like what they did all over south Asia and Africa. This is one way how the colonial powers disrupted the socio economic cohesion of these countries and left behind an eternal headache.

Their importing these slaves had two main objectives. Firstly it was economic, cheap labour for plantations. Second, for destroying the age old unique Sinhala Buddhist civilization. That is why they introduced a separate law for these slaves called the Thesavalamei, which is defined in legal jargon as the law applicable to the Malabar inhabitants of the peninsular of Jaffna’ which they extended it to other parts of the Island as well through their own judicial mechanisms. They did not stop at that. For Muslims they introduced the Muslim Law. But for the native they replaced the local legal system with English and Roman Dutch Laws. Meanwhile they also brought their religion Catholicism with its variances of Christianity ad Missionary activities were intensified  all over the country with State  patronage and large scale conversions were made. They also used these Missions to propagate western values and English education and Tamil Vellala people as a super social group like Ponnambalan Arunachalam Ramanathan to take over Sri Lanka in future with special privileges to Tamil area For example by 1845 out of a total of 103 for the whole Island 45 schools were given to Jaffna District with under the supervision of American Missions Their education programme also took care to destroy the country’s native Pirivena system of education. Added to this and various other administrative military and judicial mechanisms they also sold arrack to villagers even using mobile bullock carts. Now you see how the well-designed long term conspiracy had been built up over the years by these colonial rascals to destroy the Sinhala Buddhist Civilization in this country and build up political and social instability.

Resistance was made by the natives .But they were brutally and mercilessly suppressed. The 1818 and 1848 suppressions were the highlights of such native uprisings.  This country was ruled by the gun. So until 1948 natives were powerless. Leaders who agitated were killed or imprisoned.

But my question is as to what our politicians did after independence.  Why didn’t they assert in and after 1948. Why didn’t they get at least the original name of the country ‘Sinhale’ restored in place of Ceylon. Why did they accept the suggestion made by Governor Lord Soulbury the name UNP for the political party that was started to take over the Dominion status. The word United National Party directly implied the presence of many nations that was cleverly introduced to the Constitution to create divisions within the Sri Lankan community. They also introduced the concept of minority for the first time in to the constitution under sec 29, adding fuel to the simmering communal fire in the country. Prior to 1815 there was only one nation Sinhala in this country. Why they didn’t get that restored. Why didn’t they ask the British to hand over vacant possession of our Motherland by taking Indian Tamil labour on estates back to either India or Britain as they were British citizens before 1948. We remember even Trincommallee Harbor and the air base at Ratmalana were not taken back in 1948. They were freed only 9 years later by Bandaranayaka in 1957. Why didn’t they make Sinhala the Official Language of the country, that was the Official language here for over 2600 years as soon as they got Independents. I presume they should have got these conditions included in the declaration of 1947. I also wonder as to what politicians understood by freedom without any of these things. I think they were mesmerized by the term self- rule at that time like what has happened to the present day politicians who try to see the world through one word ‘Reconciliation’. All these mediocre politicians at all times get the wood lost for the tree.

Next question is what have been done for 70 years by our politicians to make this country a free, Sovereign, Independent and vibrant nation. What are they doing even now? Divided in to opposing political camps armed with utterly irrelevant political ideologies like communism (JVP) Just look at the way things are happening at present in the country. Quarelling among themselves they are competing to sell the countries assets to China and India and foreign Multinational Companies. Look at the squabbles between the parties and intraparty disputes. The way politicians behave in Parliament and rob public assets with impunity. I can’t comprehend as to how the Prime Minister of  a country appoints one of his friend, who is not even a citizen of this country a Tamil violating the Constitution of the country even against the wishes of the Executive President of the country with impunity and defend him to the hilt when he is caught red handed robbing over 15oo billion as ongoing inquiries have revealed.

In this backdrop I ask these simple questions any one can understand. Is there a President in this country at present, Is here a Prime minister. Is there a Parliament; a Speaker; a leader of Opposition. Whither Law and order had gone: Where is justice. Is there a Public Service or are there public servants anywhere in the Island. Where is the Government and where is the Governance though they talk of Good Governance. Isn’t it total anarchy hat prevail all over the country today. I feel that Sirisena Government has already come to a total stand still now. If it has not very soon we will be able to witness it very soon I think.  I don’t think he knows whether he stands on his head or feet the way he does things these days.

What are the reasons for this unfortunate situation. Partly it is the fault of the people who have put these useless fellows to power. But mainly the fault is with the Leaders. They only think about themselves and never about the country or the people. None of them I think know their responsibilities by the country or the people. Obviously none is patriotic and honest Most of our politicians are better suited to a human zoo rather than an August Assembly like the Parliament. Now just look at the way the President behave and act. People think he is only a puppet of Ranil and some unseen vicious forces. None of his orders other that orders to withdraw MRs security, are effective The speaker is only a UNP devotee. Even yesterday when Dinesh complained regarding the withdrawal of MR’s security t what is the answer he gave. He said he will discuss with the President and PM and let the Parliament know. Is nt it responsibility to safeguard the interests of its. Specially the security of an ex-President like MR whose life is in real danger from various quarters like LTTE and political enemies both here and abroad. It could be even Raw or CIA. Who knows. One thing Mr Speaker I can assure you that this country will never have a leader of MR’s caliber and leadership qualities for another 500 years President Sirisena and Ranil will do everything possible to destroy him  Because MR is their arc political rival and the only threat. His disappearance will certainly be the biggest blessing for both. As such it is your responsibility to look after his security as the Speaker of the House where is a n important member. As the Speaker you must look at him as a National asset to the country that should be protected at any cost. If something happen to him due to this security lapse please not that you along with the President and PM will have to be fully responsible to the country and the people

Please also note that I am not a political dependent or a henchman of MR. No have I got any personal benefit from him either. Like the present President he also has not listen to good advice people like has ever given either. But Still I value him and Gota and like them for their chivalry, patriotism and the way they handled the so-called invincible LTTE and the colonial and Indian LTTE proxies and the massive infrastructure network they have achieved in Colombo as well as all over the country particularly the network of highways ,bridges and harbos and Hambantota Airport.

This is why I want all of you people to read the following two statements and learn a lesson at least from them as to your responsibilities by the country and the people who have voted you to power I am making this special request to you as a man with a distinguished background to take care of MR as invaluable asset of this country and advice the PM and President as to how they should think and act.

Conclusion

You have two options

Option 1

 To tell all Tamils and Muslims brothers to follow this advice and continue in politics with or without their blessings

Option 2

Not to do that, perish as an extinct tribe in course of time or quit politics and live as ordinary citizens leaving room for some patriotic Sinhala men and women to do the job. I have a strong feeling that someone will do it after reading this note.

Now I ask the final question from our Leaders and all Sinahala Politicians. Have you all read these two statements in between lines and understood fully what the message these two great Leaders have given to any minority anywhere in the world who are trying to create unnecessary problems and rob other people’s countries.

So sit down and patiently and carefully and seriously too think as to how are you going to apply this principle to this country and how are you going to get rid of the Tamil and Muslim nuisance and bring back the ancient glory, unity and prosperity to Mother Lanka.  If you can’t change your present attitude of going after the Tamil and Muslim goats for the hanging vote behind, then for heaven’s sake please say good bye to politics for good and make room for some patriotic men and women to save the Sinhala nation, this paradise Island and the Sasanaya for the sake of posterity.

Why don’t you also clearly and boldly tell this to Tamils and Muslims in Sri Lanka that this is our country, our culture and our law and asked them to adjust or go back to their countries if they can’t adjust accordingly  to back to their heaven in Tamilnadu which is the traditional Homeland of Tamils all over the world without trying to rob our motherland and destroy the Sinhala Nation, country and the Sambuddha Sasana

Why don’t you ask them to follow the footsteps of  present day so-called  Karave and salagama  Sinhala Buddhist community in the South Western Coastal belt of the Island who are definitely the best Sinhala Buddhists in this country who are supposed to be descendants of immigrants from South India, more particularly Kerala in the medieval times.

Mr President this is the best and the only solution to your pet reconciliation theory that will bring sustainable peace and prosperity to all in this country. The theory of so-called devolution, decentralization of power, under whatever system like a Federal or con federal or any other,  will never work. I can vouch for certain that it will lead to more problems and the remedy will be worse than the existing malady.

Siddhirastu !