By : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA

By the year 2000, the pig headed old hag Chandrika’s government became unpopular due to stagnation of development activities in the country and the economic growth of the country recording a negative growth for the first time. Under these circumstances, Minister S.B.Dissanayake and several other Ministers left the People’s Alliance government and joined the UNP. Ranil Wickremasinghe came forwarded to contest the 2000 General Election as the leader of the UNP giving a plethora of promises which included a peaceful end to the war, to give gold bracelets, gold chains and denim trousers to the youth, provide modern technology and computer knowledge to farmers, provide all essential food items at cheap prices and to reduce the cost of living.

Despite these promises his main undisclosed concern was to establish a cordial relationship with the LTTE and not to eliminate its threat and rescue the country.  He completely ignored the valour of our gallant forces, confined them to their barracks, and curtailed their military and personal requirements.  He re-established contacts with the pro-LTTE Norway and conveyed his willingness to enter into a Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) with the LTTE. This obnoxious CFA drafted by Norway in collaboration with LTTE was signed by Prabhakaran and Ranil on 22^nd February 2002 and the terms and conditions of the CFA were extremely unfavourable and harmful to Sri Lanka. After signing this agreement, the notorious Anton Balasingham, who was said to be the ideologue of the LTTE stated that Prabhakaran is the President and Prime Minister of the Tamil Eelam which is a sovereign and separate territory and Ranil Wickremasinghe is only the Prime Minister of the other part of the country known as Sri Lanka.

Although Chandrika was the duly elected President of the country at that time she did not take any action whatsoever to prevent the signing of the CFA and she covertly welcomed the agreement since she had already proposed to unconditionally handover the Northern Province to Prabhakaran for a period of 10 years.

The CFA was a gross violation of the sovereignty of Sri Lanka and our security forces were restricted from venturing out from their barracks while the LTTE cadres were permitted without any restriction to visit any part of the country and even to security services camps unhindered. The CFA also allowed LTTE terrorist leaders or cadres to visit foreign countries, carry out their propaganda activities in those countries, and get involved in fund raising and arms purchasing.

They were allowed free and unrestricted operation of naval activities in the maritime territories of North and East which helped them to smuggle in sophisticated and modern weaponry, including artillery.   They also had floating arms caches in the eastern seas and in the sea area adjoining the Mullaitivu coast.

Although there was a provision in the CFA to establish a mechanism for monitoring the operation of the CFA it was not clearly indicated about the composition of this monitoring mission and ultimately it was formed as a total Norwegian mission. Many violations of the CFA were reported but no one had the power to take preventive or remedial measures against such violations. There were also incidents of the mission members and even the head of the mission aiding and abetting in the activities of the LTTE.

During this time, the Ranil Wickremasinghe government also allowed the LTTE to bring in several container loads of sophisticated communication equipment and war material from European and western countries and these containers were authorized to be transported to the North and East unchecked.

During this period the LTTE also increased abduction of children in the North and East and issued a decree that at least one child from a family in the North and East should be handed over to the LTTE to serve in their forces. Military training using these forcibly recruited and abducted child soldiers were intensified and thereby increased the strength of their cadres while recruitments for the security forces by the government was reduced to the bare minimum.

Further, the LTTE terrorists widely carried out extortions of money from business establishments and people in the East and many people unable to face these exorbitant extortions migrated to Colombo district and other places. They also had a system of imposing taxes on all goods and material that crossed their borders which they got legally established through the CFA..

They established their own Police force, Police stations, their own court system and their own administrative structure with their own rules and regulations and virtually functioned as a de facto State in the North and East.

In the economic field the Ranil Wickremasinghe government introduced a policy plan called ‘regain Sri Lanka’ which completely discouraged agricultural and food production, encouraged export agriculture for instance replacing paddy production with cultivation of products like banana, and sale of state institutions and industries and providing incentives and tax free facilities to foreigners to establish their own industries.

It was in a situation like this, the old hag Chandrika was compelled to hold the Presidential election and she was forced to nominate Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse as the Presidential candidate of the SLFP but he received no support at all from the party for his election campaign officially and not even a pamphlet was issued by the party in support of his candidature. Despite various baseless and blatant rumours floated against Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse by the UNP, the LTTE issued a boycott notice of this election since they have by that time firmly convinced that they have already achieved their Separate State goal under their President Prabhakaran and hence they need not bother at all on anything that happens in the other part of the country called ‘Sri Lanka’ for which the election was being held.

It is not needed to elaborate here about the great and historical achievements made by President Mahinda Rajapakse as it is well known to all sensible and patriotic Sri Lankans and the subject of this article basically is on the atrocities of the UNP.

The cordial and economically viable relationships established by President Mahinda Rajapakse with Asia’s most powerful state China became an eye sore to the self styled global tyrants of the United States, Britain and the hegemonic India, the evil axis whose determined ambition was to restrict China militarily and economically and jeopardize China’s ambitious silk route project.  Since they had no way of meddling with Pakistan and Myanmar to endanger the silk route project only in Sri Lanka, the third and the most import link of the project this evil trio found a credible opening as it was in Sri Lanka they found a surfeit of foreign currency voracious NGO vultures, a host of unpatriotic rascals who would even sell their own mothers for economic benefits,  a glut of Buddhist monks and clergy of other religions who can easily be manipulated to carry out activities non compatible to their professed religions and scores of people who used to blindly believe in any form of lies and slanders.  The evil trio used the CIA, M16 ad the RAW espionage services to achieve their immoral plans, to establish a number of new organisations to implement their ‘regime change’ plan through and made Singapore as the base of their operation.

(Continued on Part V)

By Rohana R. Wasala

Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera’s critical observation that retired Major General Kamal Gunaratne’s book containing his personal war memoirs Road to Nandikadal” (Vijitha Yapa Bookshop, Colombo, 2016) becomes a war crime dossier” was reported in an article published in the Sunday Island of March 19, 2017 (a reproduction of a news report from the prestigious ECONOMYNEXT website penned by its Political Correspondent appearing there on the same day). The FM unequivocally condemns it as a catalogue of atrocities committed by government forces since early 1980s”. It is difficult for a fair-minded non-political Sri Lankan to let such unnecessary excoriation of the general’s book go unchallenged. The purpose of this article is to offer a different view to that of the minister, for what it is worth.

To me as an unprejudiced reader of Major General Gunaratne’s book, it appears that the FM, for some reason, has misconstrued what the author means by candidly revealing a few instances of atrocious behavior by certain undisciplined soldiers in exceptional circumstances early in the thirty-year long conflict, when he was himself in his novitiate as an infantry officer, and for describing precisely the brutalizing nature of the long-drawn national crisis that visited so much suffering on all sections of the society, not sparing the combatants on both sides. The subtitle of the book is True story of defeating Tamil Tigers”. The truth that he reveals is not expected to be incriminatory towards the war heroes, who had to fight against a lawless group of anti-state desperadoes in exceptionally difficult conditions, while being subject to severe strictures imposed by the lawful security agencies of the government. In my humble opinion, the book will serve to dispel widely prevalent misconceptions about the role that the Sri Lankan security forces played in exterminating terrorism through admirable military professionalism. The book more centrally catalogues the infinitely more numerous and more brutal atrocities (massacres, burnings, and bombings)  targeting the innocent civilians of all three communities committed by the Tigers, whose depredations were usually concealed from the international community by their propagandists.

(It need hardly be said that I am taking issue with the FM’s criticisms of the general’s book, but not with the ECONOMYNEXT Political Correspondent, to whom I am thankful for this opportunity, which is a result of his writing that article of news.)

In a broader context, Major General Gunaratne doesn’t mince his words discussing what he considered were rare instances of thoughtless, sometimes inexplicable, misjudgment on the part of his seniors, which he never offered to question, though, but which he accepted then with a do or die sense of utter commitment to duty as a disciplined junior officer; he also hints at what he considered were lapses in the policy decisions adopted by the changing political leaderships of the country regarding the terrorist problem during the long period of conflict, but these personal reservations never affected his conduct as a loyal and obedient officer. General Gunaratne’s readiness to confess to incidents that could be misinterpreted by those disposed to attack him personally or to condemn the armed forces wholesale, demonstrates his uprightness as a military officer and as a patriotic Sri Lankan.

General Gunaratne’s book shows how the Sri Lanka army transformed itself from being a small, not so highly disciplined, rather defeatist organization to begin with, to being a large formidable war winning force under proper military and all important political leadership over the years of conflict.

If the book was what the FM says it is, then it would have been invariably criticized by many among the majority of patriotic, fair-minded ordinary Sri Lankans like me much earlier and much more promptly than by Mr Samaraweera. On the contrary, the book has been widely commended among them, as far as I know. Unusually long queues of eager book lovers were seen at the main outlet of the Vijitha Yapa Bookshop in Colombo, the book’s distributors. They reported record sales of the book, which was published simultaneously in Sinhala and English. The first edition of ‘Road to Nandikadal’ in August 2016 quickly sold out, and a second followed in September. If the book was so critical of the conduct of our war heroes during thirty years of civil conflict as to recommend itself as a source of evidential material against them as war criminals, then it would not be so popular among the highly literate and politically conscious and generally well informed local readership.

The book being allegedly ‘snapped up’ by anti-Sri Lanka activists abroad, is only to be expected, considering the stature of the writer and their own irrational, though understandable, hope of finding in its pages something to incriminate the armed forces. I for one would be only too happy if these anti-Sri Lanka activists did really ‘snap it up’ and read it with an open mind if they could manage it after having been subjected to so many years of false anti-Sri Lanka propaganda. For who could know better than the general who led the famous 53 Division whose troops dealt the coup de grace to armed terrorism at Nandikadal? The book tells the truth, which is that the security forces of Sri Lanka did not commit any war crimes in executing the mission they were tasked to accomplish: that of defeating armed terrorism. That is a major theme of the book. Would the general who was privileged by circumstances to be associated, at the highest and most decisive level, with a military victory that brought so much relief to a long suffering nation and earned their eternal gratitude, write a book to betray without reason the very establishment that he served with such dedication and honour?

The best way to check the validity or otherwise of the minister’s accusations is for the interested people to read the whole book with attention. For anyone desirous of learning the truth, this will be a rewarding experience. The English version, which I have read, is 741 pages; the Sinhala version must be of equivalent length.

The FM was reported as saying:

Setting fire to homes of Tamil civilians, killing innocent civilians and plundering valuables of homes under the guise of cordon-and-search operations have been listed by Gunaratne in minute detail. The minister said the language used by Gunaratne also indicated that he derived pleasure by seeing the death and destruction around him and in his own words he had admitted that as an officer he did nothing to discipline soldiers under his command.”

This is a garbled version of what the general has written. The minister’s interpretation amounts to a complete distortion of certain unfortunate, but isolated incidents recounted in Chapter 4 entitled End of Rajarata Rifles” (pp. 29-35). It is a case of indiscipline among some troops who had been put on election duty in Jaffna during the 1982 referendum, and who had come under attack by a group of terrorists, claiming the life of one soldier. The referendum poll was conducted across the country on December 22, 1982. Gunaratne had been appointed to the post of 2^nd lieutenant attached to Rajarata Rifles on December 04, the same year, just a few days previously, after his basic training as an Officer Cadet. He was then barely 21 years of age. (Information given in the foregoing three sentences is being supplied here by me; it’s not from  General Gunaratne’s text.) Mr Samaraweera falsely claims that General Gunaratne writes that government forces” set fire to houses. The undisciplined soldiers who went on the rampage in Jaffna burning houses on that occasion did not represent government forces”. Concerning the same incident, Samaraweera said:

Gunaratne’s original unit, the Rajarata Rifles, was disbanded but Gunaratne himself escapes punishment according to his book and the unit emerges as the “mighty Gajaba Regiment.”

This is also a distortion of the factual situation. As an ambitious 21 year old junior officer, fresh from training, and appointed a mere 18 days before, Gunaratne could not have misbehaved like that. So, to claim that Gunaratne escapes punishment” for something he was not held responsible for is nothing short of ridiculous. It is necessary to read the whole of Chapter 04 of Road to Nandikadal” to understand the true circumstances that led to the disbanding of Rajarata Rifles and its re-emergence as the Gajaba Regiment.

On page 55 (first paragraph), General Gunaratne denounces the misconduct of some rotten elements within the ranks, who used this opportunity to rob houses”. It was deeply regrettable and brought disrepute to the army, but the culprits were swiftly brought to book and punished. During the search operations we were more concerned about such incidents than catching terrorist suspects”. Would the description (an officer who) did nothing to discipline soldiers under his command” (= FM’s words as quoted in the aforesaid article), apply to 2^nd lieutenant Gunaratne?

It will be obvious to anyone who reads the book that the then 21 year old 2^nd lieutenant Gunaratne did not order soldiers under his command to kill civilians, or to plunder valuables from homes. Actually only one Tamil civilian died according to General Gunaratne’s account (p.33). He did not derive any sadistic pleasure (as Mr Samaraweera claims) from watching ‘death and destruction around him’. While not taking part in the mayhem himself, he was forced by circumstances to initially look on in dismay. But he does not exonerate himself from having felt a tinge of guilty excitement. No doubt, as his subsequent behavior proves, he quickly outgrew any trace of a juvenile tendency towards shadenfreude  that he might have had in common with most other normal but immature young people involved in the same combative or competitive situation.

Dwelling on the same theme, Mr Samaraweera is reported as claiming that Gunaratne felt happy when Tamil political leaders died at the hands of Tigers. Minister Samaraweera bases his conjectural claim on the following passage from General Gunaratne’s book (page 80):

“Whilst there may be some who were saddened by these killings, I must confess  that as a young patriotic officer who had witnessed too much of hatred and mayhem caused by their ideology, I was happy. Though I may have been wrong to feel such happiness, it is the unvarnished truth,”

The ‘killings’ in the above extract refers to killings by the LTTE. In the months of August and September of 1985, the LTTE assassinated a number of highly respected Tamil politicians with long experience, including K. Thurairatnam, MP for Point Pedro, K. Dharmalingam, MP for Manipay, and others, who happened to have been among the pioneer Ealamists. Why Prabhakaran had them murdered in cold blood was not known.

What is wrong with making such a ‘confession’? Mr Samaraweera has ignored the following sentence that comes just before the above passage on page 80 of ‘Road to Nandikadal’: However, it was somehow poetic justice; to be killed by the same hand they helped nurture hatred, extremism and terrorism”. Both parties – the security forces personnel who are mostly Sinhalese Buddhists – and the Tiger rebels – who are mostly Hindus – are believers in ‘poetic justice’ (i.e., retributive justice, more mundanely expressed in the 1970s song by Sammy Davis jr: ‘Don’t do the crime, if you can’t do the time!’); they believe in the ‘natural law of karma’ taught in their respective religions of Buddhism and Hinduism. Punishment for wrong doing comes from nature, not from any divine agency; neither should punishment be exacted by human hands. Taking revenge is alien to the common cultural values that  the Sinhalese and the Tamils traditionally subscribe to. I am quite sure that our Tamil compatriots who read the book will appreciate the fact the  Major General gives instances of how humanity prevailed over military advantage or ethnic interest in his book: for example he writes about how our soldiers suffered heavy casualties trying to save the lives of Tamil civilians held as human shields by the LTTE, without the use of heavy weapons while the rebels attacking the military from amongst the civilians observed no such restraint (p. 684)  and about how an old Tamil civilian helped an injured soldier to escape to safety (p. 248). Gunaratne writes about the case of his slapping a Tamil youngster for riding a motorbike without wearing a helmet to say that he learned a lesson from the incident: that it impressed on him that not all Tamil youngsters were terrorists (I can’t remember on which page this occurs).

Major General Gunaratne does not leave out distasteful pieces of information about the conduct of the troops and officers that he was aware of. This enhances the authenticity of his narrative. Of course, he discretely preserves the anonymity of individuals involved in or suspected of less than ideal behavior (and this has nothing criminal about it).

A more serious case of collapsed discipline among some soldiers than the one outlined above that occurred in Jaffna during the 1982 referendum election was what happened in Jaffna during Operation Riviresa (October 17-December 1995). Gunaratne writes (p. 364) about the lawless behavior of some ‘ignorant’ soldiers who played havoc robbing valuables, damaging property, and destroying books in a deserted Jaffna vacated of its civilian population. The LTTE had ordered the Tamil civilians out the city at the beginning of Operation Riviresa. It is not that the senior officers including Gunaratne looked on passively while these things were going on. They made arrests through the Military Police wherever untoward things happened. But they failed to completely stop the outrages due to the prevailing circumstances.

Rohan Gunaratna, professor of Security Studies at Nanyang Technological University, and head of the International centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore is also a Former Senior Fellow at the Combating Terrorism Centre at the US Military Academy at West Point. He writes the Foreword to Major General Kamal Gunaratne’s book. The following paragraph is Professor Rohan Gunaratna’s foreword:

LTTE front, cover and sympathetic organization operating as diaspora organizations” launched a sustained campaign to justify the group’s operations and to sully the reputation of the security forces. After LTTE’s defeat, the group’s propagandists also attempted to tarnish Sri Lanka’s victory by hoodwinking human rights organizations and certain Western governments driven by geopolitics. During the conflict, the LTTE platforms in the West disseminated propaganda, raised funds and procured supplies. Today, these entities work with the LTTE political agent, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), and are actively involved in lobbying the UN in Geneva and New York. (p. vi)

Why do they want to sully the reputation of the security forces”? General Gunaratne gives the answer in his Author’s Note:

The dark shadows of terrorism which engulfed our nation and terrorized our citizens have been vanquished. We created an environment in which our citizens could live in peace and harmony today” (p. iv).

(RRW/March 22, 2017)

රුවන් ඇන්ටන් දියලගොඩ

වේදිකාව ඉදිරියේ හුන් ප්‍රෙක්ෂකයින් කිහිප දෙනෙකුම වේදිකාව මතට ඇදි ‍ගොස් සංදර්ශකයින් බවට පත්ව ඇත. කළු උපැස් යුවලක් පැළැඳ කළු ටයි පටියක් දමා ගත් පුද්ගලයාගේ බසට ඔවුන් අවනත වී ඇති සෙයකි. දෑස් ‍ගෙන එක් අත් ගෙන එක් අතක් ඉහලට ඔසවා ගත් වේදිකාව මත සිටියවුන් සියුම් සංගීතයට අනුව දෙපා තබයි. මෙලෙස සංගීතයට අනුව දෙපා තබන තරුණයකු අසලට පැමිණි කළු  ටයි පටියක් පැලඳ ගත් තැනැත්තා ඔහුගෙන් යමක් විමසයි…..

            ඔබ දැන් මෝහනයට පත් වෙලා නේද” ?

            නැහැ….. නැහැ….. ඔබට මාව මෝහනය කරන්න බැහැ”

            හොඳයි මම දැන් තුනට ගනිනවා මා තුන” යැයි පවසන විට, ඔබ හතර ගාතෙන්, බල්‍ලෙකු මෙන් උඩු බුරමින් වේදිකාවෙන් බිමට බසිනවා…..එකායි…..දෙකායි…..තුනායි…..’’

            ඔබට නම් මාව මෝහනය කරන්නම බැහැ……බව්…..බව්……බව්…..බව් (තරුණයා බල්ලෙකු මෙන් බුරමින් , හතර ගා‍ගතන්, වේදිකාවෙන් බිමට බසියි.) ’’

            ඉහත වීඩියෝ ක්ලිපය, මා ඇස ගැටු‍ණේ අන්තර්ජාලයේ සැරිසරද්දීය ඕනෑම අයකුට, ඕනෑම සෙවුම් යන්ත්‍රයකින් Stage Hypnotism” (මෝහන ප්‍රසංග) යන්න, ටයිප් කිරීමෙන් , මෙබඳු විනෝදාත්මක’’ විඩියෝ ක්ලිප ඕනෑතරම් බාගත හැකිය.

            නර්තනය සහ ගායනයටම පමණක් සීමා වුනු, ශ්‍රී ලාංකීක ප්‍රසංග කලාවට මෝහන ප්‍රසංග කලාව (Stage Hypnotism) හඳුන්වා දෙනු ලැබුයේ, අභාවප්‍රාප්ත , ආචාර්ය නෙවිල් ද සිල්වා ශුරින් විසිනි.

            ඔහුගේ පළමු මෝහන ප්‍රසංගයේ, එක් අවස්ථාවක් 1970 දී, සරසවිය පුවත්පතේ මුල් පිටු‍වෙහි ද පළ කරනු ලැබිනි. එදින නෙවිල් ද සිල්වා විසින් මෝහනයට පත් කරනු ලැබුවන් අතර එවකට නැඟී එන නිළියක වුන සෝනියා දිසා’’ ද වුවාය. මෝහනයට පත් කෙරුණු නිළියගේ සිරුරට දමා තිබුණේ දැවැන්ත පිඹුරෙකි. එය එදා මුල් පිටු‍වේ පළ කෙරුනු ඡායාරූපයයි.

            පසු කලෙක හාමුදුරුවන්  පසු පස යන ඇබිත්තයෙකු’’ සේ මම ද ආචාර්්‍ය නෙවිල් ද සිල්වාගේ කළු පැහැ බ්‍රිෆ් කේසය’’ අතින් ගෙන ඔහු පසු පසින් ගියෙමි. කඳුවැටි, බඩවැටි, ඔවිටි, පසු කරමින් ගම්බද පාසැල් වලත්, නගර බද සේවාස්ථාන වලත්, ඔහු විසින් පවත්වන්නට ‍‍යෙදුනු ඇතැම් සංදර්ශනයන්ට මමද සහභාගි වුනෙමි. ගොඩගම ප්‍රදේශයේ පැවැත්වුනු මෝහන ප්‍රසංගයක් මට කිසිදා අමතක නොවේ. එදින බොහෝ දෙනෙකු මෝහනයට පත් වී , වේදිකාට මතත්, වේදිකාවෙන් පිටතත් සිටියේය. තම විශ්‍රාමික අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක්ෂකවරයෙකු බවට පවසමින් වේදිකාවට ගොඩ වී, සිල්වා මහතා‍ගේ මයික්‍රො‍ෙෆා්නය  ඉල්ලා ගත් අයෙක් , මෝහන, විෂය පිළිබඳ තම දැනුම ගැන පාරම්බාන්නට විය. තම පුරසාරම් කථාව අවසාන කරමින්, ඔහු කියා සිටියේ නයිට්‍රජන් ඔක්සයිඩ්” හෙවත් සිනහ වායුව” ප්‍රේක්ෂකයින්ට අල්ලා ඔහුන්ව සිනා ගැන්වීම බදු විගඩමක් විනා හරවත් යමක් නෙවිල්ගේ මෝහන ප්‍රසංග වල නොමැති බවයි. ඉතා නිහතමානිව නිර්දය විවේචන ඉවසු නෙවිල් මහතා, කිසිවක් නොකියා අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යකෂකවරයා අතර රැඳි මයිකෝ‍ෙෆා්නයනය තම දකුණතින් ඉහළට එසවීය…. පුදුමයකි. අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක්ෂක මෝහනයට පත් වී සිටියේය.

            දැන් ඔබ සිනහ වායුව නැතිවම සිනාසෙන්න” නෙවිල් තම ගැඹුරු කටහඬ අවදි කලේය. තමන් මෝහනය පිළිබඳ ඔස්තාද් යැයි පාරමි බෑ අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක්ෂකරවයා, බඩ අල්ලා ගෙන, කඳුලු සලමින්, දෙවනත් කරමින් හඬින් සිනාසෙන්නට විය. මිනිසුන් සමුහ වශයෙන් මෝහනයට බඳුන් වන්නේ,මෝහන ප්‍රසංග වලදීම පමණක්ම නොවේ. එදි‍නෙදා ජිවිතයේදී ද අඩු වැඩි වශයෙන් අපි මෝහනයන්ට ලක් වන්නෙමු.

…….භාන්ඩයේ නමට වඩා එහි වෙළඳ   නාමය මනසේ රැඳවීමට, වෙ‍ළඳ දැන්වීම සමත්වීම……..

……….උද්ඝෝෂනයක් හෝ ක්‍රීඩා උත්සවයක් වැනි උද්වේගකාරි අවස්ථාවල අපට සිටින තැන අමතක වීම…..

………බොහෝ විට බසයේ පිටුපස සිටින පෙම්යුවලට, තමන් ගමන් කරන්නේ මගීන් පිරි සිටින බසයක බව අමතක වීම…….

            …….තැනින් තැන ඒකාකාර හැඩයක් ගත් පාලමක් මතින් වේගයෙන් රිය පදවන ඇතැම් රියදුරන්ට පමණක් භුතයින් දර්ශනය වීම……..

……..තොවිල් පොල නැරඹීමට පැමිණි අයෙකු  බෙරහඬට ආවේශ වීම……

…….කෙසඟ පුජකරවරයාගෙ ආශිර්වාදය ලබාගැනීමට පැමිණි, සද්දන්ත මිනිසෙකු, කපා හෙළු ගසක් මෙන් බිම ඇද වැටීම…….

තම බඩගොස්තරවාදි පාතාල දේශපාලනය, වසා ගන්නට,රට, ජාතිය, ආගම වෙනුවෙන් නිබඳවම පෙනී සිටින බව නිතරම ඇඟවන දේශපාලකයින් ජනතා වීරයින් බවට පත්වීම……

            ඉහත සියළු  උදාහරන එක් වචනයකට ලඝු කළ හැකිය. ඒ ව්‍යංගයයි (Suggestion) හිරු නැති කල, තරු දිලිසෙයි. උඩු සිත නිදිගැන්වු කල, ටයි සිත ව්‍යංගයට” නතු වෙයි. ඒ මෝහනයයි. මෝහනය පිළිබඳ සෛද්ධාන්තික දැනුමැති (ඉහත සඳහන් අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක්ෂ බඳු) බොහෝ දෙනෙකුට, ප්‍රායෝගිකව මෝහනයට පත් කල නොහැකිය. පුද්ගලයෙකුව, දෙදෙනෙකුව මෝහනය කලත්, සමුහයක් මෝහනයට පත් කිරිමට දිර්ඝ කාලයක පුහුණුවක් අවශ්‍යය.

1. හේතුවාදි භෞතිකවාදින්
2. නවීන විද්‍යාව සමඟ යන විඥාන වාදීන්
3. ප්‍රතිකාර වාදීන්
4. ආගමික වාදීන්

ලෙස සතර අයුරකින් මෝහන විෂය” මේ රට තුළ ව්‍යාප්ත වේ.

1. ජොතිෂය, දෙවියන්, භුතයින්, පුනරුත්පත්තිය, අධිමානසික බල සියල්ල මිත්‍යාවන් බව සනාථ කිරීමට මෝහන විෂය” යොදා ගන්නෝ හේතුවාදි ‍භෞතිකවාදින්ය. ශ්‍රී ලංකා හේතුවාදි සංගමයේ ප්‍රධාන අනුශාසක, මහාචාර්්‍ය කාලෝ ‍පොන්සේකා මහතාගේ අවසරය ලබා‍ගෙන, මහාචාර්්‍ය තුමා ඉදිරියේ එතුමාගේ වෛද්‍ය සිසුන්  පිරිසක්ව සමුහ මෝහනයකට” පත් කිරිමේ දුර්ලභ අවස්ථාවක් මට ලැබිනි. මාගේ ඉල්ලිම පරිදි අදාළ සංදර්ශනය පිළිබඳ එතුමාගේ නිර්දේශ ලිපියක්ද මට ලබාදිමට තරම් එතුමා නිහතමානි විය. මෝහනය අනතුරුදායකද? යලි පියවි සිහිය ගැනිම අපහසුද? මෝහනය වන්නේ දුර්වල පුද්ගලයින්ද? මෝහනය මගින් අපරාධ කල හැකිද? යනාදි වශයෙන්, වෛද්‍ය සිසුන් ඇසු ප්‍රශ්න වලට එදා මහාචාර්්‍ය කාලෝ ‍ෙෆාන්සේකා ලබා දුන් පිළිතුර, ඒ මහතාගේම වචන වලින් මෙලෙස ඉදිරි පත් කරමි.

මෝහනයේදි සිදුවන්නේ යම් පුද්ලගලයෙකුට, කිසියම් උත්‍තේජයක් නැවත නැවත යෙදිම හේතු කොට, ඔහුගේ හෝ ඇයගේ සදාචාරයට පටහැනි නොවන, යෝජනා වලට අනකුල විමේ ප්‍රවනතාව උත්සන්න කිරිමෙන්, පියවි තත්වයට වඩා සුඛනමය තත්වයක් ඇති කිරිමයි”

2. නවීන විද්‍යාව සමඟ යන විඥානවාදින් ගුරු කොට ගන්නේ ක්වොන්ටම්” භෞතික විද්‍යාවයි. එංගලන්තයේ කෙම්බ්‍රිජ් විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයෙන් ආචාර්්‍ය උපාධිය ලබා ගත්, ශ්‍රී ලංකා පරමාණු බල ශක්ති අධිකාරියේ සභාපති වු ආචාර්්‍ය ග්‍රැන්විල් ධර්මවර්ධන මෙහි පුරෝගාමියාය. පුනර්භවය, අධිමානසික බලයන් නුතන විද්‍යාත්මක සත්‍යන්, බවට, පර්යේෂණ පත්‍රිකා කිහිපයක්ද ඔහු විසින් ජාත්‍යන්තර විද්‍යා ඇකඩමියන් වෙත ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇත. මනෝ විදඥායකු සහ පුජකවරවයකු ද වන විද්වතෙක් සමඟ වන මාගේ සම්බන්ධය දැනගත් ධර්මවර්ධන මහතා, මා ලවා පුජකතුමාගේ ම‍නෝ උපදේශනය” නම් කෘතිය ගෙන්නා ගත්තේය. ශරිරය” ගැන හදාරන්නට වෛද්‍ය විද්‍යාවත්, මොළය” ගැන හදාරන්නට මනෝ විද්‍යාවක් ඇත්තාසේ, විඥානය” ගැන හදාරන්නට ඇති විෂය මෝහන විද්‍යාව” බව එතුමා විදෙස්ගත වීමට කලින් මාධ්‍යයට අවධාරනය කලේය. මනෝ උපදේශනය” ට වඩා ‍”මෝහන වි‍ශ්ලේෂණය”  ප්‍රතිඵලදායක බව එතුමා මා සමඟද පවසා ඇත.
3. මෝහන ප්‍රතිකාරවාදින් එකතු කොට ශ්‍රී ලංකා ස්වාපන (මෝහන) වේදින්ගේ සංගමය ආරම්භ කරවන ලද්දේ ආචාර්්‍ය ජී.ඒ. ගමගේ මහතා විසිනි. බැද්දගාන, දුව පාරේ පිහිටි ඒ මහතා‍ගේ නිවසින් ඇරඹි එහි පළමු සැසි වාරයට මමද සහභාගි වුනෙමි. හිස්ටීරියාව, විඝනක ආබාධ, නවත්වා ගත නොහැකි පුරුදු, මනෝ ලිංගික රෝග සහ සුවිශේෂයෙන් සමලිංගික ඇබ්බැහිවවීම් වලට මෝහන ප්‍රතිකාරයේ අවශ්‍යතාව අවධාරනය කෙරිනි. විෂය” මුලික පිරිසකට වඩා, ස්වාපන (මෝහන) සංගමයේ සිටින්නේ මුදල්” මුලික කොට ගත් පිරිසක් බැවින් මම ඉන් ඉවත් වීමි. ගමගේ මහතාගේ අභාවයට කලින් මුදල්” මුලික කොට ගත් පිරිසට ස්වාපන සංගමයේ බලය ලැබුනි.

හේතුවාදී ‍භෞතිකවාදීන්, නවීන විද්‍යාව සමඟ යන විඥානවාදීන්, ප්‍රතිකාරවාදීන් යන තුන් කොටසම, මෝහන ප්‍රසංග වලට අනුකුලතාවක් දක්වයි.

04.‍ තම ආගමික චාරිත්‍ර විධි ක්‍රම තුල, මෝහනය භාවිතයට ගන්නා ආගමික වාදින් මෝහන ප්‍රසංග” වලට දැඩි බියක් දක්වයි. සුව ‍මෙහෙයක්” යැයි හඳුන්වමින් බැතිමතුන් සමුහ මෝහනයනට පත් කල කතෝලික පුජකවරුන් පස දෙනෙකු සමඟ මම පෞද්ගලික නොවන ගැටුම්” ඇතිකර ගත්තෙමි. එම ගැටුම් එකිනෙක (නම් ගම්ද සහිතව),  2007 මැයි මස ශ්‍රී ලංකා හේතුවාදී සංගමය ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කල විමර්ශන” සඟරාවේ පළ විය. ඉහත පෞද්ගලික නොවන ගැටුම්” යයි අවධාරනට කිරිමට හේතුව මෙම පුජකවරුන් පස් නමගෙන් දෙ‍දෙනෙකුම එදා මා සමඟ එකට පුජක පුහුණුව ලැබ අද පුජකයින්ව සිටින මාගේ පැරණි මිතුරන් වීමයි.

ඉන්දියානු වීසා මධ්‍යස්ථානයේ මා සේවය කරමින් සිටි අවදියේ හමුවුණු පාස්ටර් ජොශප් මට CD පටියක් දුන්නේය. එය ඔහු විසින් දේව බලයෙන් යකුන් එළවන අයුරු දැක්වෙන වීඩි‍යෝ පටියකි. මානෙල් වානගුරු නම් නිළිය පාස්ටර් වරයාගේ දේව බලයට සාක්ෂිදරන්නේ හඬමින්ය. පාස්ටර් වරයා දේව බලයෙන් යකුන් දුරු කරන (Exorcism) දර්ශන වලට, මා විසින් මිනිස් බලයෙන් යකුන් දුරු කරන (Hypnotism) දර්ශන එක් කොට මම විනාඩියක විඩියෝ ක්ලිපයක් තැනුවෙමි. එය 2009.11.04 දින you tube වෙබ් අඩවියට ඇතුලත් කලෙමි. පාස්ටර් වරයා සහ මා අතර පෞද්ගලික නොවන ගැටුම නිර්මාණය වන්නේ ඉන් පසුවයි. 2009.11.30 වන දින පාස්ටර් වරයා විසින් කොළඹ විහාරමහා දේවී උද්‍යානයේ ඇති දැවැන්ත යකුන් දුරු කිරිමේ මෙහෙයක් සංවිධානය කලේය. එදින සිය ගණනක් ආරූඩ විය. ඒ අතුරින් මාතලේ සිට පැමිණි උපාධිධාරි බෞද්ධ ගුරුවරියක් සහ අම්බලන්ගොඩ ප්‍රදේශයෙන් පැමිණි වැඩිහිටි බෞද්ධ කාන්තාවක් එම ස්ථානයේදීම මිය යෑමේ කණාගාටුදායක සිදුවීම සියළුම මාධ්‍ය වාර්තා කලේය. මෙය ආගමික යුද්ධයක් දක්වා නොගියේ බෞද්ධයින් බහුතරය පාස්ටර් වරයාට වඩා බුද්ධිමත් අය වීම නිසා විය යුතුය.

            පාස්ටර් වරයා තමන් නොදන්නා මෝහනයක්” දේව බලයක් ලෙස හුවා දක්වන්නට ගොස් තම මන්ද බුද්ධික බව පෙන්වුයේය. අදටත් මා හට තර්ජනය කරන පාස්ටර් වරයාගේ අනුගාමිකයින් ගෙන් මට ඇසීමට ප්‍රශ්නයක් තිබේ.

            ඔබේ පාස්ටර් හට දේව බලයක් තිබුනේ නම්, අර අසරණ කාන්තාවන් දෙ‍දෙනා හට මරණය උරුම උනේ ඇයි?”

            සැබවින්ම අසරණ කාන්තාවන් දෙ‍දෙනා මිය ගියේ යකුන් දුරු කිරිමේ (Exorcism) ක්‍රමවේදයේ වරදක් නිසාද නැතහොත් පාස්ටර් වරයා විද්‍යාත්මක මෝහනය (Hypnotism)  ඉතා අමන ලෙස යොදා ගත් නිසාද?

            ඉහත යකුන් එළවීම (Exorcism) සහ මෝහනය (Hypnotism) අතර වෙනස ඔබේ ඇස්පනාපිටම අත්දකින්නට ඔබට අවශ්‍යද?

            එසේ නම් අන්තර්ජාලයේ  You tube වෙබ් අඩවියට පිවිස එහි Ruwan Anton”  යනුවෙන් ටයිප් කරන්න.

            එවිට මෝහන ප්‍රසංග” යනු ආනන්දයෙන් පටන් ගෙන ප්‍රඥාවෙන් අවසන් වන 21 වන සියවසේ ප්‍රසංග කලාවක් බව ඔබට අවබෝධ වනු නොඅනුමානය.

රුවන් ඇන්ටන් දියලගොඩ

E-Mail-ruwnananton@gmail.com

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Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge

The first evidence of attitudes towards sex comes from the ancient texts of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism (Chakraborty & Thakurata, 2013). Many centuries before Sigmund Freud, Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Albert Moll or D.H. Laurence the Tantric Buddhist monks discussed the wider aspects of human sexuality.

Tantric is often viewed as the third major school of Buddhism, Tantric philosophy has a complex, and multifaceted system of Buddhist thought and practice which evolved over several centuries and encompasses much inconsistency and a variety of opinions (Macmillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism, 2004).

Based on the general definition human sexuality is how people experience the erotic and express themselves as sexual beings; the awareness of themselves as males or females; the capacity they have for erotic experiences and responses. Sexuality varies greatly by culture, region, and historical period, but in most societies and individuals has a large influence on human behavior.

Human sexuality has been described as the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexual behavior is different from the sexual behavior of other animals, in that, it seems to be governed by a variety and interplay of different factors (Molina, 1990). A person’s sexual orientation may influence their sexual interest and attraction for another person (APA). Sexuality may be experienced and expressed in a variety of ways, including through thoughts, fantasies, desires, beliefs, attitudes, values, behaviors, practices, roles and relationships (WHO).

According to Adler (2011) doctors and sexologists increasingly medicalized and pathologized sexual and gender deviance. Foucault’s History of Sexuality is based on his view that the discursive practices in the medical community created deviant identities, and produced and regulated sex practices starting in the late nineteenth century (Adler, 2011).

The Jātaka stories view sexuality as an essential component in the human existence. It accepts sexuality as a normal human condition. But the Jātaka stories highlight impermanence, suffering and non-self. In addition some of the stories (eg; Uddaya Bhadda Jātakaya) converse about the true nature of the human body which is impermanent and subject to change in the process of aging and in sickness. Adding up the story of Sirima narrates the impermanence of human body.

Sirima was a Nagara Shobini (sex worker) who lived in the town of Rajagaha. She was beautiful and seductive. Once a monk saw Sirima and immediately felt a strong desire for her. The monk could not concentrate on meditation and his mind was wondering about Sirima and her beauty. Within a few days Sirima died of a sudden illness. Her body was taken to the cemetery. When the dead body started putrefying the Buddha went to the cemetery with the said monk and other devotees. Sirima’s body was bloated and filled with maggots. It was a revolting scene. The Buddha used this moment to emphasize that the physical body is subject to decay and deterioration. The monk who had a lust for Sirima’s body had a great insight about impermanence.

සුර්යවංශය යලි ගොඩනැගීමේ පදනමෙන්  

I like to talk to diehard Sinhala chauvinists – Wigneswaran (සිලෝන් ටුඩේ පුවත්පතේ පළවූ මුල් ලිපිය )

By Sulochana Ramiah Mohan

Nothern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran said, ” We need to have the North and East merged to avoid Sinhalisation of the North and East. Today Sinhalisation is taking place at a rapid rate”.

Excerpts:

?: The second of the “Eluga Thamil” series was held in Batticaloa recently. People say it‘s the name that is different from “Pongu Thamil” that was hosted by the Tigers. Isn‘t it the same concept; awakening the Tamils to fight for a cause? What was the result of Eluga Thamil held in Jaffna last year and the one in Batticaloa?

A: I do not know the purpose of Pongu Thamil. The word Eluga Thamil (Arise Tamil) does not mean Eluga Thamilar (Arise Tamils). We are stating the problems faced by a group of people whose mother tongue is Tamil and many of whose forefathers occupied the North and East of Sri Lanka from pre-Buddhistic times.

The “Eluga Thamil” demonstrations have brought out the fact that grass-root level Tamil speaking people including Muslims of the North and East very much want to live in amity with the Sinhalese under a federal arrangement devoid of discrimination. They want to live in dignity and in equality with the members of the so-called majority community. I say so-called because the Tamil speaking people are the majority community in the North and East.

The Batticaloa meeting just like the Jaffna meeting was a roaring success in bringing in ordinary people to the forefront. They want a permanent solution to their political problem. Merger of the North and East with appropriate arrangements for Muslims is the only basis for a permanent solution. Once it is granted, you can rest assured the whole country will unite as equals.

?: In a single line, are you an Eelamist as projected?

A: I do not know who an Eelamist is. I am an ‘Ilangaiyist!’

?: If you are for a Federal structure, is it a Canadian, USA, Indian or a ‘Wigneswaran Model‘ you prefer?

A: A federal structure seems to be the only plausible answer to the Tamil speaking majority of the North and East. What form it should take needs to be discussed. The less interference from the Centre, the better. Any attempt at majoritarian hegemony will never bring peace, reconciliation and prosperity to the country. We must learn to respect the rights of those weaker than us in politics.

?: You have been seen as someone disturbing the peace achieved after 2015. You had been judged to be on the wrong path and also called a ghost instigating disharmony between the Sinhalese and the Tamils. Are you willing to sit down with the government to hold talks? What conditions would you place if you are to meet the government for talks?

A: I am always available for talks. In fact I like to talk to the most diehard Sinhala chauvinists. Most of those in the government are my friends. Quite a few are old boys of my school. But when it comes to the North and East merger and Federal Constitution they get annoyed with me. What they forget is that a solution must fit the problem. Their solution should not again become the problem. The 13th Amendment was expected to be a solution, but Sri Lanka tampered with what India proposed and the solution has now become a problem.

The Tamils have been continuously discriminated. That is a fact. Tamils have been brutalized just because they asked for their legitimate dues. That is a fact. The systematic manner in which violence has been unleashed against the Tamil speaking to drive them out, kill and maim without taking action against those who indulged in such high-handed activities has been identified as genocidal. We are firm that only self-government to the Tamil speaking Tamils and Muslims under a Federal Constitution after merging the North and East of Sri Lanka could bring about amity, goodwill and progress.

?: You and TNA MP M.A. Sumanthiran have locked horns. Why do you hate him?

A: Whoever told you I hate Sumanthiran or vice versa? Why should I hate Sumanthiran? He was a student of mine and continues to be my friend. We have not locked horns. That’s how your press views our relationship. Our perceptions may be different. That is to be expected within a democratic dispensation such as a multi-party alliance like the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). Press, no doubt, is capable of breaking friendships!

?: TNA is the Tamils‘ representative, but you have waged war on them. What is wrong with the leadership of TNA?

A: I belong to the TNA. I have no problems with the leadership of the TNA. I am airing the terms of the Mandate given to us in 2013 by way of the TNA manifesto. Everything I say can be traced to what is stated in that manifesto.

?: Many people also say you are with the wrong people meaning that you have fancied the Tiger sympathizers overseas. Why are you embraced by them?

A: I look upon the Tamil speaking people whether Christians, Muslims, Hindus from the North, East, Central Hills, Colombo and other areas or Diaspora wherever they are living as part of a large family unit. When my heart embraces all Tamil speaking people, I do not care to find out whether they are Tiger sympathizers or not. The Tamil Tigers were created by the successive Sri Lankan governments by discrimination and using violence against the Tamil speaking people. But they are our children, brothers and sisters. I for one, unlike them, have been nurtured in non-violence.

Please remember Mahathma Gandhi did not criticize Subash Chandra Bose. Their ways were different. But they considered each other as fraternal Indians. Both had to fight against the atrocities of the British. We Tamil speaking are all demonstrating against the short sightedness and stupidity of the erstwhile Sinhalese leaders. But in reality the entire country is one family. As soon as merger and federalism are granted the Tamil speaking family will extend to encompass every Sinhalese and any other Sri Lankan.

?: TNA went to Geneva and persuaded for a Hybrid Court. What else do you want them to do to satisfy the Tamils? Do you want them to give up everything and come to the North?

A: If you are purporting to reflect the thoughts and feelings of the people of the North and East, you must live with them and understand their plight. Thereafter you need to tell Geneva what the feelings of the people there are. We must not prejudge our case thinking that the Sinhalese will not like it or the international community would not support it. By compromising on fundamentals we will perpetuate the ethnic strife for all time. The government thinks it could drag on the problems of the Tamils until the international community loses interest and meanwhile they could hurriedly colonize the North and East with the help of the armed services and make the Tamil speaking people minorities in their own areas of traditional residence. Once that is done they could say, ‘Hey Presto! Where is the problem? The North and East are now Sinhalese! We are all one nation – the Sinhalese nation!’ Such thoughts are genocidal.

?: While you were a Supreme Court Judge, you never voiced for the Tamils but enjoyed the Southerners‘ friendship. Today you are called the ‘saviour‘ of the Tamils. What was that Wigneswaran compared to this Wigneswaran?

A: I did mention the plight of the Tamils as soon as I ascended the Supreme Court in my acceptance speech. Wigneswaran has always been the same. He is on the side of truth and justice. But sometimes truth hurts. It hurts those who have wallowed in untruths and falsities for long. It hurts those who have an inflated notion about themselves. When those thus hurt venture to say that I have changed, it does not mean that I have changed. It simply means I am pursuing truth and justice just as then! I am still a simple ordinary man.

?: You visited Canada and the UK on invitations. Why does the Tamil Diaspora respect you more than other Tamil politicians?What is the reason?

A: Because I am not a politician, but a simple man pursuing politics!

?: Given a chance, will you contest again? If so, how is that possible?

A: I came into this much against my wish. For over six months I tried to ward off coming into politics. May be it was divine intervention. So, let Him decide what is best. I have no preferences in these matters. If God wills I must get back home, I shall do so. If He wills that I continue, I have no alternative, because it is His will that prevails.

?: Last week Minister of Foreign Affairs Mangala Samaraweera said Sri Lanka will give priority to the Constitution drafting over accountability mechanisms and also hinted about getting 2/3 majority which is mandatory in a referendum. What do you gather from this statement?

A: I have not seen this statement. Hence I cannot respond.

?: Should the Tamils accept a solution without a North East merger in the new Constitution?

A: No. The merger is not a fantasy desire of ours. If merger does not take place now, within the next 10 years the North and East would be sending many Sinhalese Members of Parliament for the North and East with the Tamil speaking Members of Parliament and progressively only Sinhalese Members of Parliament would be elected. Meanwhile, may be more and more Tamils will be forced to join the Diaspora. We would refer to the North and East Tamils as a dying race like the Veddahs in 25 years’ time because our people would be slowly but steadily chased out from their places of residence like how the Tamils in the Provinces south of the Northern Province were progressively chased out after Independence by pogroms and riots. When I was young there was a sizeable number of Tamils in the Anuradhapura old town. They have all been chased out barring a handful. Hence, the recognition of the North and East as traditionally Tamil speaking areas is a must in the Constitution. This was recognized in the 13th Amendment as well as in the earlier abortive political agreements.

Already Sinhalese names are given to traditional Tamil villages in the North and East quoting fantasy histories about the North and East as having been the abode of the Sinhalese resident earlier and the Tamils during the time of the Cholas in the 10th century AD had captured those areas and chased the Sinhalese away.

I am happy that there are intellectuals like Prof. Sunil Ariyaratne who have identified the Demala Baudhayos (Tamil Buddhists) in the early period of the Christian Era. That is long before the Chola invasion. I find that there is a well-planned move by certain Sinhalese pseudo intellectuals to rewrite history to suit their whims and fancies.

?: The government hints that it will urge for an extension of time at the next UNHRC session. What is your take on this and how is the NPC gong to meet such new challenges at the upcoming events at the UNHRC?

A: The government is only interested in showing progress on paper, not in reality. There were 18 rounds of talks with the Tamils during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s time. Nothing has come out of it. Nothing will come out of such talks. The government, old or new, is only interested in showing progress on paper to convince the international community that further time should be given. The purpose of such postponements is to erase the memory of our problems from the international minds. Finally, they force the Tamils to compromise. If the present government had the heart to give our dues, they would have done so as soon as they were elected with our help. The international community should go deeper into the steps taken by the government after September 2015 and see whether any long lasting changes at the ground level has taken effect as far as the Tamil speaking people are concerned. We have not decided what to do during the UNHRC sessions.

?: You have called the Tamil speaking Muslims to join hands at the meeting held in the East. Is it a call so that the North and East could be merged?

A: Certainly. We need to have the North and East merged to avoid Sinhalization of the North and East. Today Sinhalization is taking place at a rapid rate.

You can contact the writer on amiesulo@gmail.com

http://www.ceylontoday.lk/article20170101CT20170331.php?id=4066

මහඇමති විග්නේශ්වරම්ගේ අභියෝගයට  සුරිය ගුනසේකරයන්ගෙන් පිළිතුරු.

Ceylon Today,

Colombo 07.

Dear Madam,

This refers to your interview with Mr. C. Viganaeshwaran published in Ceylon Today on 19th February 2017.

In the same he has mentioned, I am always available for talks. In fact I like to talk to the most diehard Sinhala chauvinists” Therefore I would like to have either face to face talks or written conversation on print media with Northern Council Chief Minister Mr.C .  Vignashwaran regarding his views expressed at the interview. Therefore, I hope you would make arrangement to have a suitable type of conversation with me in the form of private discussion or as a Chairman of a Registered Political party called Sinhaladipa Jathika Peramuna” 

1. Infect I would like initially to focus our conversation on certain statements he has made at the interview and elaborate the matter further more.  His Statement I find that there is a well-planned move by certain Sinhalese pseudo intellectuals to rewrite history to suit their whims and fancies”, Should further be explained, what necessities should be fulfilled to write a countries history. 
2. Occupation of North & East of Sri Lanka from pre Buddhist time by forefathers of Tamil people, was not taught either in school or in universities during our student days. There for we expect a briefing on that matter.
3. There are two sets of boundaries to North & East provinces demarcated in 1833 and 1888. Which North and East boundary is claimed as the Tamil Home land?
4. Leader of TNA and the Opposition leader of Government Mr. R. Sambanadan states that Tamil people occupied Jaffna since 1215 AD and he claims for a Tamil Kingdom of Jaffna From 13th Century to 17 Century. But Mr. Vigneshwaran being a member of the same political party and Chief Minister of Northern Provincial Councils Claims that Tamil people occupied North and East before 3rd Century BC. Accordingly two different type of statements made by two main leaders of the same party reveals that there is a controversy about the Tamil history. We need a proper explanation on this with relevant facts.
5. Concept of Federalism is to bring together two or more separate states. What are those separate states within Sri Lanka to amalgamate into Federal States? Declaration of a separate Federal State in North & East of Sri Lanka, will be against the definition of Federalism, and it will only be divided Sri Lanka into two. We expect his explanation on this matter.
6. What does he means by Signalization  ? and Who is an Ilangaiyist ?  

Since, Mr. Viganashawaran is very keen on having talks with diehard Sinhala chauvinist, and also as these controversies have done so much of damages to both communities for over 3 decades.  I would like to hold talks with him on a very professional manner in order to clear this conflict on mutual grounds theoretically, as the theory only leads into a physical devastation act. Therefore I hope you pay your early attention to this matter and will come back to me with favorable early response.  

Dr. Sooriya Gunasekara

Tel. 0718262917

මහඇමති විග්නේශ්වරම්ගේ  ප්‍රතිචාරය

Date 2017-03-23

Forefathers of Tamils of SL were original inhabitants of this Country

Northern Province Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran responded to Dr. Sooriya Gunasekara, Chairman of a registered political party called “Sinhaladipa Jathika Peramuna” who called the CM for a debate, on his interview that appeared in Ceylon Today of 19 February.

Dr. Gunasekara, a retired civil servant, requested the CM to come for a debate on the topic, and the CM responded, “I am always available for talks. In fact I like to talk to the most diehard Sinhala chauvinists.”

Dr. Gunasekara sent a mail to the CM, through Ceylon Today Journalist Sulochana Ramiah Mohan stating that he would like to have, either face to face talks or a dialogue in the print media, with Chief Minister Wigneswaran, regarding the views expressed by the CM at the interview.

Chief Minister Wigneswaran‘s note to Dr. Gunasekara:

I would like to hold talks with you on a very professional manner in order to clear this conflict on mutual grounds theoretically, as the theory only leads into a physical devastation act. Therefore, I hope you pay your early attention to this matter and will come back to me with favourable early response. I promise to respond to the questions. Allowing it to be a debate will be difficult for me to cope with. I have got together the ideas I wish to share with my Sinhalese brethren in this Q and A document for publication.

Questions posed by Dr Gunasekara and the CM‘s answers are given below:

Dr. Gunasekara: What proof is there for your statement that North and East of Sri Lanka have been occupied by the forefathers of the Tamils from pre Buddhistic times?

CM: You must pardon me for looking up my notes to answer your question. According to S.U. Deraniyagala (The Pre Historical Perspective – Department of Archaeological Survey- 1992 – page 61) Sri Lanka which had been part of the land mass of the Indian subcontinent became an island about 7,000 years ago when it physically separated from Southern India. On that basis the populations of South India and Sri Lanka were of the same ethnic stock prior to and after separation.

Studies on the early people of Sri Lanka have been carried out in the last fifty years. Some Western Universities, UNESCO, and certain universities of Sri Lanka and qualified archaeologists were engaged in this research. Their findings have provided us with reports, archaeological artefacts, stone inscriptions and evidence from ancient literature all of which contain significant information on the pre historic people of Sri Lanka.

The stone tools used during the Stone Age (Pre Historic Period) in the North, East and North West regions of Sri Lanka and those used in South India, particularly along the Thirunelveli coasts in Tamil Nadu, are almost identical. Thus it would be seen that the early people living in these two regions shared common cultural traits.

The dawn of the Iron Age, the next phase after Stone Age, occurred in South India and Sri Lanka about 3,000 years ago. The culture of urn burial in which the ashes of a person dead and cremated are placed in a large earthen urn along with the dead person’s favourite tools and buried in the earth was widely spread among the Iron Age people in South India and Sri Lanka. This culture began nearly 3,000 years ago and spread out until about 200 B.C. This culture was followed widely among people in South India and the Northern Region in Sri Lanka. The findings in the Mannar Region, Kantarodai and other areas in Jaffna Region, Puttalam and Pomparippu in the North West Region, Pooneryn and other areas in the Vanni Region have unearthed these cultural artefacts. (Vide Professor Indrapala – pages 91 to 111 – The Ethnic Identity – The Tamils in Sri Lanka, Circa 300 Before Christian Era to Circa 1200 Christian Era – MV Publications –The South Asian Studies Centre, Sydney, 2006)

Full details of the researches made in recent times have been given in the latest book brought out by Dr. Murugar Gunasingham under the heading Tamils in Sri Lanka – A Comprehensive History Circa 300 BC to Circa 2000 AD published by aforesaid MV Publications in Sydney in 2016.

It is significant to refer to the fact that many reports of excavations carried out recently are yet to be published. In fact when a seal inscribed with Brahmi letters was unearthed in the 1980s containing an ancient Dravidian word inscribed on it, the then Government of Sri Lanka refused permission to continue the excavation. Many inscriptions and historical data are mysteriously missing in recent times. Recently an earthen urn similar to what had been found in the North of Sri Lanka and in South India belonging to the relevant period was found in Hambantota District. One wonders what has happened to such important findings.

This is typical of conditions in Sri Lanka. There are certain pseudo intellectuals among us in Sri Lanka who would like to barter truth and cogent evidence for their fanciful ideas to distort history.

The Sangam Period Tamil Literature provides clear evidence that the Tamil Language developed into a classical language about 2,000 years ago. This language in use in South India at that time is said to have been in use at the same time in Sri Lanka too.

Certainly it could not have been the Sinhala language that existed at that time since the Sinhala language which emerged from Tamil Prakrit, Pali and Sanskrit gained currency only around the eighth century AD in the Anuradhapura kingdom and those speaking Sinhala acquired a distinct identity as Sinhalese people only then. The Sinhala language prior to its origin in Sri Lanka did not exist either in Sri Lanka or India or any other region.

It is evident from stone inscriptions of the Early Iron Age and references made in Prakrit and Pali literature that Tamil was the language used by the people of that time. (Vide
B. Krishnamurthi – Dravidian Languages – Cambridge University Press, 2003, Page 2).

It is interesting to note that King Dutugemunu could not have been a Sinhalese since the Sinhala language had not been born at the time he lived!

Professor Indrapala in his book The Evolution of an Ethnic Identity, earlier referred to (2005), at page 106 says that the old popular notion of our Island being settled by Aryan migrants during the Early Iron Age has no basis. The term Aryan and Dravidian cannot justifiably be used to describe any section of the Island’s population in the Early Iron Age or even later. The archaeological record does not offer evidence for any significant migration of people into the Island in this period. In other words the Mahawansa had been identified as a Chronological legend for the glorification of Buddhism and not a historical treatise as some people try to make out. It is significant to note that other eminent scholars such as Professor Lesley Gunawardene, the famous archaeologists P. Deraniyagala, Siran Deraniyagala and Sudharshan Seneviratne have made similar inferences in their studies with regard to migration of people into the Island during the relevant period.

Thus my statement that North and East of Sri Lanka have been occupied by the forefathers of the Tamils from pre Buddhistic times was not a racially biased statement. It is supported by latest researches and findings. I have no need to deviate from the beaten track traversed by eminent historians as well as their findings based on research.

I am quite aware what sort of reaction the above historical and archaeological data could bring among our diehard Sinhalese brethren. It is my humble submission that most of our political leaders and Sinhala elitists living in a world of make believe isolating themselves from reality must realize the harm done by pseudo intellectuals among us in the past when they portrayed a history of the Sinhalese which was not in consonance with archaeological research and findings. A matured appreciation of our past might pave the way for greater understanding between the major communities in this Island.

Dr. Gunasekara: What are the boundaries of the North and East claimed as Tamil Homelands?

CM: Many Agreements have been entered into between leaders of the Tamil and Sinhalese communities since Independence.

Many clever manoeuvrings have been undertaken by successive Governments to bring traditional Tamil areas like ManalAru and Kantalai, under other provincial boundaries to colonize them with persons from outside the Tamil speaking Provinces. Some villages to the South of Amparai District were annexed and co-opted into the Moneragala District. In recent times colonization with the help of the military is going on at a rapid rate. The idea seems to be to distort the demography of the areas traditionally Tamil speaking by disturbing the contiguity of the North and East by colonization. Actually there is no need for the military to be in the North and East after eight years since the end of the War. The reason for continuing to keep them in such large numbers occupying extensive tracts of lands seems to be connected to hidden agendas unrelated to security.

Under the circumstances boundaries if referred to would only be relevant theoretically. We must not forget that Tamil speaking people lived until recent times up to Negombo along the western coastal areas but many have now preferred to call themselves Sinhalese. Their Christian or Portuguese names have helped them to undergo transformation without much difficulty. Their Tamil Deeds of title to land up to the early twentieth century will speak volumes regarding their past before transformation. If they were Sinhalese the Deeds need not have been in Tamil.

Thus boundaries to the North and East must be subject of discussion after proper study and understanding.

Dr. Gunasekara: A statement made by TNA MP R. Sampanthan that Tamil people occupied Jaffna since 1215 AD and his claims for a Tamil Kingdom of Jaffna from 13th Century to 17th Century. But you being a member of the same political party and Chief Minister of Northern Provincial Council claim that Tamil people occupied North and East before 3rd Century BC. Accordingly two different types of statements made by two main leaders of the same party reveals, that there is a controversy about Tamil history. Would you comment?

CM: There is no controversy or contradiction. I have made a general statement based on archaeological and historical research and findings. I do not know what Sampanthan said and where he has said so. But it appears he has referred to specifics while I referred to the general. To refer to the existence of the Kingdom of Jaffna in 1215 AD is specific and refers to a particular historical event. My reference is to the general history. There is no contradiction. One complements the other.

Dr. Gunasekara: The next question refers to Federalism. To ask for Federal Units amounts to separation seems to be the comment.

CM: The request for Federalism is based on the existing ground situation. We are not asking the Government to carve out a new State. There are existing characteristics on ground, which ideally suit the recognition of Federal Units. A series of aborted Agreements between the Government and the Tamils have recognized the existence of Tamil speaking areas on ground. The Federal Unit under a Federal Constitution would only confirm and conform to the understanding the parties to such Agreements possessed so far.

Federalism has been given a false and distorted interpretation by the leaders of this country since Independence. Let us not forget even though the late S.W.RD. Bandaranaike was the first to moot the idea of a Federal State in 1926 on his return from Oxford it was the Kandyans who moved officially for a Federal Unit for the Kandyans circa 1944 to preserve the individuality of the Kandyans. They referred to inter alia specific areas occupied by them, special customs and way of life that characterized their individuality and special Laws. Somehow we have lost sight of such matters after independence. I sometimes wonder whether Mr. Bandaranaike, a Low Country Sinhalese from Veyangoda, marrying Sirimavo, an Up Country Sinhalese from Balangoda, had something to do with Federalism losing favour among the Sinhalese!

We must remember Federalism helps different people with divergent views and ways of life to come together. It was the stupidity of our political leaders to attempt to impose their way of life on all other communities in this country which has led to the impasse we have been facing so far. In fact one of our leaders of the past had been referred to as the leader of the majority community with a minority complex. We find the tendency to dominate politically still persists among our leaders. Federalism could ease the situation.

Dr. Gunasekara: Another question refers to words used by you in your interview on the 23rd of February. What is Ilangayist vis-a-vis Eelamist? And what does Sinhalisation connote?

CM: Though in fact Eelamist means Ilangayist, we have narrowed down Eelamist to mean Tamil Eelamist. In other words though Eelam meant Ceylon and referred to the whole Island the war was for only Tamil Eelam. So when I referred to Ilangayist I referred to the Island as a whole not to Tamil Eelam.

Sinhalisation is a word used by me to connote attempts by successive majority based Central Governments to go against the accepted norms of colonization. When you colonize jungle areas or abandoned areas, the rules are that the people of that area must be given first preference. If there are no such persons interested then persons from the same District and thereafter the same Province must be given preference. If they too are not interested, people from the same community who inhabit the surrounding colonization areas hailing from other Districts or Provinces must be given preference.

In Sri Lanka that was not followed. An opportunity for locals was not given. In areas which should have been colonized by Tamils from the same Region, District, and Province or from the entire Island, straightaway Sinhalese from other areas were brought and colonized. In the early days it was IRCs (Island’s Reconvicted Criminals) who were brought in. I have had opportunities of meeting these Colonists around 1970s when they were forcibly brought down to live in areas around Trincomalee. Many Sinhala villages now dotting the Trincomalee District were not there before 1970. Forcibly Sinhalese were brought in from outside the District and helped by the State to colonize the areas around Trincomalee District. I say ‘forcibly’ because I remember speaking to some of these Colonists who took me for a Sinhalese official from Colombo. They complained that the Government had brought them into that God forsaken place and forcibly left them there to fend for themselves. They had no water, no proper shelter nor money. They wanted me to speak to the Government and get them some benefits!

So what I meant by Sinhalisation was forcible tampering with the demography of an area with ulterior motives to transform non Sinhala areas into Sinhala areas. In this respect, our successive Governments had been following the Zionist colonization methods adopted in Palestinian areas. The continuation of occupation by a large contingent of Sinhala soldiers in traditionally Tamil speaking areas is part of this process of Sinhalisation.

 2017-03-24 දින පළවූ ලිපියේ ඉතිරිය

The following response was sent by Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran to Dr. Sooriya Gunasekara, Chairman of a Registered Political party called ‘Sinhaladipa Jathika Peramuna’ who called the CM for a debate on the issues discussed in his interview, which was published on 19 February 2017 in Ceylon Today.

Dr. Gunasekara, who is a retired civil servant, requested the CM to come for a debate on the topic where the CM mentioned, “I am always available for talks. In fact, I like to talk to the most diehard Sinhala chauvinists.”

Dr. Gunasekara sent a mail to the CM through Ceylon Today Journalist Sulochana Ramiah Mohan stating that he would like to have either face to face talks or written conversation on print media with Wigneswaran regarding his views expressed in the interview. “We would like to keep this interview as a clarification by you of the various questions that Sinhalese intellectuals and others pose regarding Tamils rather than a debate between individuals.”

Below are the questions thrown at Wigneswaran by Dr. Gunasekara

Dr. Gunasekara: How could the CM speak of traditional areas and merger of North and East when most Tamils live outside the North East and they occupy Sinhala areas?

CM: Firstly, the question of occupation of Sinhala areas by Tamils. Tamils in large numbers do live in Greater Colombo area. But, Colombo is not a Sinhala area. It is the capital of the Island. From British times and may be Dutch times too, lots of communities have resided in Colombo. Inter alia apart from Sinhalese, Tamils from North, East and Upcountry, Indians, Muslims, Dutch Burghers, Malays, Borahs, Chinese, Africans and Europeans have all resided in Colombo at some time or other. None of them were forcibly brought by the government and made to colonize Colombo. Since the business capital was Colombo, since a number of good schools were in Colombo, since sports and recreation and entertainment facilities were available in Colombo, since Departmental Head Offices were in Colombo and for various other reasons many communities settled down in Colombo. They bought lands with their own money and settled down.

Many Tamils had Hobson’s choice in selecting Colombo to live in recent times. Successive governments were making it difficult for the Tamils to live in their own areas. When the Tamils asked for their legitimate rights our successive governments refused to grant them or cheated them after promising to grant them. They thus forced the youth to take up arms. Their violence was equated to violence found elsewhere in the world and all were called terrorists. My friend the late Desmond Fernando, PC once said, “One man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist”. Thus conditions in the North and East made many Tamils to take up residence in Colombo or leave the shores of the Island. But, they were not provided lands or houses free by the government. In fact, when I was quite young, before we obtained Independence from the British in 1948, I had resided in Kurunegala and Anuradhapura before coming to Colombo. The old Town at Anuradhapura had a sizable Tamil population. A Tamil was Chairman of the Local Authority for over 17 years. The Tamils used to be resident then in all parts of the Island from North to South. Tamils owned vast acreages of paddy land in Tissamaharama to my knowledge. Still Trust lands belonging to Hindu Organizations exist in Galle and Matara. But, they had been forcibly taken over during the riots in 1958 and 1983 among other pogroms. The point I am making is that the Tamils were chased out from the Sinhalese areas systematically during the period after Independence especially after the Sinhala Only Act was brought in. They were sent in the aftermath of the respective riots initially by the different governments only to the North and East thus recognizing that they belong to the North and East. As I said earlier all Agreements entered into by different governments with the Tamil leaders recognized the North and East as the traditional homelands of the Sri Lankan Tamil speaking people. Even the 1987 Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement recognized this as a fact. After chasing out the Tamils from mainly Sinhala areas to their traditional homelands now to allege that the Tamils have no claim even to their traditional homelands borders on sadism to say the least.

So my answer to the said observation is that the Tamils no more occupy in large numbers, areas characterized as Sinhala areas. They had been chased out from there very systematically. Colombo is the Metropolis. It is not a ‘Sinhala Area’. Tamils living outside their traditional homelands could not be precluded from claiming their legitimate rights in terms of International Covenants and Law.

The next part of the question is about the merger of the North and East. The claim for merger has become more urgent today than ever before. The need for merger is intimately connected to the genocidal activities of the successive governments of the past. When it is quite patent that successive majority community governments have been hitherto only interested in protecting the majority community at all costs the need for the Tamil speaking people to consolidate their position in the country of their birth at all costs becomes even more urgent.

When I say genocidal activities of successive governments I speak the truth. The chasing out of the Tamils systematically from areas outside North and East through riots and pogroms, the patent lethargy and indifference shown by successive governments in bringing to book those who harassed, killed and maimed apart from looting and burning the residences of the Tamil people which in turn developed a culture of impunity among criminals among the majority community, the attempt even now to avoid punishment of those who indulged in criminal activities against the Tamils particularly the brutal war criminals and for political reasons trying to hobnob with criminal elements to paint such criminals and wrongdoers as patriotic personalities all contribute to the genocidal instincts of those in authority so far.

If only the wrongdoers at Inginiyagala on or about 5 June 1956 were brought to book immediately and steps taken to show that the government does not tolerate any criminal activities against any person whomsoever the path of our post Independence history would have been different. There is thus a necessity to protect our people from the thuggery and brutality of violent elements within our majority community.

Added to what took place in the past, certain violent and brutal activities have still continued under this Good Governance Government.

There is thus an urgent need to put a stop to the surreptitious colonization presently taking place both in the North and the East with the active help of the military.

Already the East which did not have a sizable Sinhala population at the time of Independence has swelled to nearly one third its population becoming Sinhalese. Those who ask “If you can be in Colombo why cannot we be in the East?” the answer is simple. It is after chasing out the Tamils from all the other areas outside the North and East this question is posed. As I said earlier the Tamils used to live throughout the Island during the time of Independence. They were forcibly evicted to take refuge in the North and East. Now the argument is trotted out “What’s wrong?” regarding the North and East. The whole episode savours of genocide.

That is what is wrong. Without acceding to the legitimate rights of the Tamil speaking people, to swell the ranks of the Sinhalese Buddhists in the North and East through dubious governmental methods only means that there is a planned displacement of the indigenous people with the idea of making the whole Island Sinhala Buddhist. With that idea in view, in recent times forcible colonization of the Northern Province is taking place with the active help of the military. The refusal to demilitarize has nothing to do with security. It has everything to do with this process of evicting the Tamil speaking people from the North and East and replacing them with the Sinhalese, especially the Buddhists.

That is why the preservation of the Tamil speaking areas of the North and East has become very urgent in recent times. The merger will give a chance for the Tamil speaking people to consolidate their position and fight the might of the Central Governments determined to change the demography of the North and East. The Muslims must join the Tamils in this venture in return for the creation of a Muslim dominated sub division of the Tamil speaking North and East to look after their interests.

Dr. Gunasekara: One final question; it is nothing to do with your interview to Ceylon Today. This concerns our former President.

He has picked holes on the efforts of the government to meet some of the demands of the Tamils. Any efforts on the part of the present government to grant concessions to the Tamils would end up firstly in punishing the armed forces for winning the war, secondly, devolving more and more power to the provinces until the central government ceases to be relevant, thirdly, destroying the ability of the Sri Lankan State to respond adequately to a breakdown in law and order, fourthly, demoralizing and breaking the will of the majority of the population and the armed forces and fifthly, creating a favourable space for separatism.

What we will be left with, will be a fragmented Sri Lanka made up of nine federal states with a very weak central government which is legally prevented from responding effectively to situations of internal disorder. From that point, it will be just one step towards a separate state. What are your observations?

CM – Firstly, I must point out that history is repeating itself. When Madame Chandrika brought out a document to solve the problems of the Tamils around the year 2000 I believe, the UNP burnt copies of the document in Parliament. Finally, no solution was found. That is how it is. The government and opposition seasonally trade on the plight of the Tamils. Meanwhile, both are surreptitiously undermining the existence and continuation of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Secondly, the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa like any other Sinhalese politician is pandering to the baser instincts of the Sinhalese people to obtain their votes. He is this time cautioning the Sinhalese against giving any rights to the Tamils.

Whether this Good Governance Government or any other Central Government would grant any worthwhile rights to the Tamils is another question. The chances are they would not. All of them lack statesmanship and the will to give up part of their powers.

But, nevertheless, let me comment on the views of the former President.

Whoever asked the government to punish the Armed Forces for winning the War? That is a complete distortion of facts. The whole world is asking the government to identify the criminals among the Armed Forces and deal with them in terms of the Law.

By trying to support such criminals Hon Mahinda Rajapaksa might open himself to a charge of trying to protect criminals and preventing Law taking its normal course.

Secondly, I wish to ask the former President – has devolution of more and more power to the periphery in other countries made their Central Governments cease to be relevant? Have the Central Governments of Canada, Switzerland and Belgium among others become irrelevant due to power sharing? Mr. Rajapaksa might be insulting those countries by his stupid statement.

Thirdly, would power sharing destroy the ability of the Sri Lankan State to respond adequately to a breakdown in Law and Order?

Has that been the experience in India? With so many States and so much of diverse population, has India lost its ability to deal with breakdown in Law and Order in any part of India? Mr. Rajapaksa should realize more often the obligation to deal with local breakdown of Law and Order is with the State (Provincial) Government. The Centre would be called upon to deal with a situation only if the Province cannot cope. Why would the Central lose its ability just because certain rights are vested with the periphery?

His statement lacks substance and rationale.

Fourthly, he has said that power sharing would demoralize and break the will of the majority of the population and the armed forces.

Mr. Rajapaksa has let the cat out of the bag! He in effect says that it was the majoritarian hegemonic attitude of the successive governments in Sri Lanka that have kept the enthusiasm of the majority and its armed forces so far. Drop such hegemonic attitude and we would be lost, he in effect says! What he proposes is a continuance of discriminatory and even brutal and inhuman attitude towards the minority to ensure majoritarian hegemony and happiness. Hon Rajapaksa should realize that the International Community is trying to tell Sri Lanka that its majoritarian stance so far has been the cause for the impasse in Sri Lanka and sooner such attitudes are discarded the better for this country. To continue in the same strain might bring in votes for some time but people would soon realize the folly of it and they would chase out such personalities pursuing puerile political gimmicks and bring in more matured and responsible persons in to govern. Hon Mr. Rajapaksa must not forget the lesson he learnt on
8 January 2015.

Mr. Rajapaksa’s fifth and final observation that power sharing would create a favourable space for separatism is not borne out by the experiences of other countries. His statement in effect says keep your wife happy and she will want to file a divorce case!
He has also said that what we would be left after power sharing will be a fragmented Sri Lanka made up of nine federal states with a very weak Central Government, which would be legally prevented from responding effectively to situations of internal disorder. From that point, it will be just one step towards a separate State.

Is his statement true? We have large Companies functioning in Sri Lanka. Often they grant internal self governance to their peripheral units. Except for certain matters almost all decisions at the periphery are taken internally without harassing the Head Office. Who would say by such activities the Central Head Office of these Companies often become weak? On the contrary, they become stronger by devolving powers to the periphery.

We must appreciate Mr. Rajapaksa for envisaging nine federal units for Sri Lanka. Not so long ago when there was unanimous opposition to the Central Government’s draft Bill on Development from the Provincial Heads I had remarked that the North is no more alone. Our brethren from all other Provinces now realize the need for devolution, I said. Nine federal units conforming more or less to the existing Provincial boundaries with the option given to two or more Provinces to merge would be an ideal basis to solve our problems, I said. With certain reservations with regard to the existing Provincial boundaries this is an idea that may be examined positively.

Mr. Rajapaksa when he refers to the inability of the Centre to deal with internal disorder if powers are shared with the periphery, what he forgets is thatthe chances for such internal disorder that he envisions would hardly ever arise. It is the centralized hegemonic majoritarian rule by a coterie in Colombo so far that has given rise to heartaches and discontent at the periphery.

When power is shared with the periphery why would the periphery want to secede? Quebec did not want to in Canada. Scotland did not want to in Great Britain.

There is an important matter that needs to be realized by Mr. Rajapaksa and others of his ilk. The ‘Tamils may secede’ has been a hidden fear among Sinhalese politicians for a long time. The path they chose to prevent secession was the path of discrimination and violence. Once the Sinhalese come to realize that the forefathers of certain Tamils of Sri Lanka had been the original inhabitants of this country long before the Sinhala language was born, they would then shed their wrong perception that Sri Lanka belongs to Sinhala Buddhists and so on. Once the Sinhalese and Tamils and other groups of citizens begin to look upon the entire country as their own, the need to secede would disappear.

Therefore, the statement by the former President lacks substance, cogency and validity. He is talking like any other street politician to pander to the baser instincts of the Sinhalese. I am sure the Sinhalese have learnt sufficiently in recent times to take him seriously.

http://www.ceylontoday.lk/print20170101CT20170331.php?id=17714

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සටහන :-

• උපුටාගැනීම් සුර්යවංශය යලි ගොඩනැගීමේ පදනමෙන්  සහ සෙලෝන් ටුඩේ පුවත්පතින්.සංවාදය දිගටම පැවත්ව්ව්මට නියමිත බව සලකන්න.
• මෙයත් කියවන්න GTF is working on a 4-pilar strategy

Malin Abeyatunge

While the Britain sponsored  (America did not sponsor the resolution this year) UNHRC Resolution against Sri Lanka war crimes (mind you for having conclusively defeating the most brutal terrorist organisation in the world called LTTE by the forces of President Rajapaksa) Theresa May new British PM had to taste the brutality of terrorism this week  at their own house of sanctity the British Parliament. Though it’s a lone wolf or group sponsored, British media described as a terror attack by a terrorist. Since Theresa May would have been in British politics over many years observing LTTE terrorism in Sri Lanka, she cannot ignore the fact that the British governments in the past have been harbouring, supporting, appeasing LTTE terrorist outfit on their own soil.

LTTE theoretician, Anton Balasingham, His wife  Adele Balasingham who was the leader of LTTE women suicide squad, Fr. Emanuel who said Prabhakaran was more popular than Jesus Christ carried out their dubious operations freely to run the LTTE Terrorist Engine from UK soil. Britain was a safe haven for the LTTE to raise funds and still continue to do so from London under dubious organisations. Global Tamil Forum was a LTTE proxy (operating under different dubious names) getting all the support from British politicians to campaign against our  forces for war crimes.

In fact in 2009, your Government sent your then FM  David Miliband along with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kushner to ask then president Rajapaksa to stop the war and negotiate with Prrabhakaran  because their aim was to save LTTE terrorist leader Prabhakaran.  Now, Theresa May, show your guts in the same manner your predecessors did and negotiate with the alleged terrorist outfit if any to put a stop to this acts of terrorism.  Your predecessor David Cameron went out of the way to boycott the last Commonwealth Conference which was hosted by the then President Rajapaksa mainly for having defeated the LTTE terrorist outfit. Now they are experiencing the taste of terrorism. Good on you.

In comparison to what happened daily right throughout in Sri Lanka  over  the last thirty years, this recent terrorist act is nowhere near what Sri Lankans have experienced over thirty years. I don’t remember having read any reports   that British Governments over the last three decades sent any messages of condolences or condemnation for thousands of ATROCITIES  committed on innocent victims by LTTE Terrorists.

Is our Government so naïve to send the following  message (Is diplomacy only for poor nations like us?) to Theresa May when her government  campaigns against our forces and adopting the UNHRC Resolution last week?

”  First of all let us express our heartfelt condolences to the victims of the recent terrorist attack in London, those who were injured, the families of those who died and all the citizens of the United Kingdom. We add the last because any act of terrorism in any part of any country, impact each and every citizen. It is not a happy thing to live your days under the shadow of terrorism. It is not a happy thing to be wary all the time. It is not a happy thing to worry if you’ll see your loved ones ever again once you’ve said goodbye to them in the morning as they left for school or work””.  But did they ever sympathised Sri Lankan victims of LTTE terrorism?. None so ever.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has reported to have said : ‘let me make it clear today, as I have had cause to do before: any attempt to defeat those values (democracy, human rights and rule of law) through violence and terror is doomed to failure.’ Then why the hell did she sponsor the UNHCR Resolution this March against Sri Lanka for having defeated the LTTE terrorist outfit?

Malin Abeyatunge

Dr. Chula Rajapakse MNZM, Spokesperson, United Sri Lanka Assn. Lower Hutt, New Zealand.

The Editor,
Dompost.

Dear Editor,

The announcements on Friday by the NZ government of plans to open a High Commission in Sri Lanka is welcome news to all. Not only trade but other mutually beneficial activities like tourism and travel   would also benefit from this .

However, we wish to point out that difficulty of air access between the two countries is the major impediment to growth in these areas now.

Though direct flying time  between Auckland and Colombo should only be about 10 hours, the current shortest flight availabilities requires flying via Singapore or Kuala Lampur , making it a twenty hour flight  including transit time.

The irony is that there are two planes one from Emirates and one from Quatar  Airways that fly non stop directly over Colombo on their way to Dubai and Doha respectively, daily.

If either of these could be persuaded to stop over in Colombo, this shortfall could be corrected with little additional cost and arguably more revenue to the air line while also providing a welcome brake in the fifteen hour world’s longest flights.

Additionally , with appropriate connections from Colombo, this would make it the shortest access from down under  to all of South Asia.

Dr. Chula Rajapakse MNZM
Spokesperson,
United Sri Lanka Assn.
Lower Hutt, New Zealand.

ධර්මසිරි සෙනෙවිරත්න 

සියලු සුළු වාර්ගික චන්ද සහ දේශද්‍රෝහී සිංහලයන්ගේ ත් බෞද්ධ විරෝධීන්ගේත් චන්ද ලබා ගෙන අලුත් ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් අනුමත කිරීම සඳහා පවත්වන ජන මත විචාරණයක් ජය ගැනීමට යහපාලන රජය ට කිසියම් හැකියාවක් අතය් දේශප්‍රේමී ජනතාව අතර දැන් දැඩි බියක් ඇත ..සිංහලේ ඉතිහාසයේ මෙතෙක් කිසිකලෙක නොවූ විරු අන්දමින් සිංහල බෞද්ධ උරුමය මරාදමා මිනී පෙට්ටියේද බහා අන්තිම ඇ නයත් ගැසීමටබටහිරයන් හා ඉන්දියානුවන් මේ වනවිට රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ නම් අන්ග්ලිකානුවා යොදවා ඇත .

1796 සිටම ඉංග්‍රීසින්ගේ පරම අභිලාශය වුනේ මෙයය් …මේ පාර නම් එය නොවරදවාම ඉටුකිරීමට ඔවුහු දන්නා සියලු උප්පරවැට්ටි යොදනු ඇත .මෙතෙක් ජාතියේ මුරදෙවතාවන්ව සිටි භික්ෂුන් වහන්සේලාගෙන් සමහරෙක්ද මේ සඳහා රනිල්ට උදව්වට පැමිණීම අභාග්‍යයකට පෙර උලලේන හඬන මුසල හඬ මෙන්ම භයන්කරය .බුද්ධ සාෂණයේ මුදුන් මල්කඩක් වැනි මල්වතු විහාරයේ නායක භික්ෂුව රටේ ඒකීය භාවයත් පාවාදෙන රට අනාගමික කරන අබෞධ්ධයා පසුපස යාම සියලු බෞධ්ධයන්ගේ හදවත් සසල කරය් .

කිසිදා නොවූ ලෙස බෞද්ධයෝ එකිනෙකා කෙරෙහි කොටවන්නට අබෞධ්ධයෝ සියුම් වැඩකොටසක් කරගෙන යති .සිරිසේන නම් ගැමියා මේ පවුකාරයන්ගේ ග්‍රහණයට ගෙන ඔහු ප්‍රධාන යම පල්ලා ලෙස ඉදිරියට දමා ඇත . බටලන්ද වධකයා තම අත්දැකීම් මගින් දැන් තෙම්පරාදුවෙලා නිසා මෙවෙලාවේ බෞද්ධ ඝාතනය කරවන්නේ සිරිසේන ලවාය ..අන්තිම මොහොත වෙන තුරුත් සිරිසේන බෞධ්ධයා එවැන්නක් නොකරනු අතය් සමහරුන්ට හිතෙන්නේ නැත . වැඩේ ඉවරවූ පසු සිරිසේනට යන එන මන් නැතිවනු ඇත සිරිසේනට එලොවත් මෙලොවත් නැතිවීම නම් ඒකාන්තය ..රනිල් නම් එලොවක් ගැන විශ්වාස කරන්නේ නැත .. සිරිසේනගේ හත්මුතු පරම්පරාව මේ පාපයෙන් සරපුරා ම විඳවමින් යනු ඇත .

මයිත්රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතාණෙනි .මේ උගුලට අහුවෙන්න එපා .තවත් ප්‍රමාද නැත .වහාම රනිල් අගමැතිකමෙන් අස්කරන්න ,ආකල්ප ලක්ෂ ගණනක් අවීචි මහා නරකාදිවල පහෙන්නට වන කටයුතුවලට ඔබව යොදාගන්නා මේ මුසලයන්ගෙන් වහාම ඉවත් වන්න .ඔබට කිසිදු ජන බලයක් නැති බව ඔබ දන්නවා .ජන බලය ඇත්තේ මහින්දටය් .

මේ අවසාන මොහොතේ හෝ මහින්ද සමග එකතුවන්න ,සින්හලරටත් ජාතියත් බෞද්ධ සාෂනයත් බේරාගන්නට සිංහල බෞද්ධයන්ට සහයෝගය දෙන්න වුනදේ වුනා පසුතවිලිවෙන වැඩ වලින් ඉවත්වී නියම ගැමි සිංහල බෞද්ධයෙක් වන්න මේ ඔබට කරන අවසාන ආරාධනයය් 

සිරිසේන රනිල් සමගම හිටියොත් මේ යන විදිහට නම් රනිල් නැවතත් මාමාගේ ”’ලාම්පු කලගෙඩි සෙල්ලම ”වන්නක් මගින් ජන මත විචාරණයක් ජයගෙන සිංහල බෞද්ධයන් වනසන අලුත් ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් ගෙන එන්නට හැකි සියලු දේ කරනවාමය් ..මහින්දලා මේවනතෙක් මේ ගැන රටවැසියන් දැනුවත් කළා හොඳටම මදි .

ගම්වල මිනිසුන්ට පුවත්පත් ගන්න සල්ලි නැහැ කියවන්න වෙලාවක් නැහැ .පාසල් සිශ්යයෝ තරංග විභාගවලට පාඩම් කරනවා මිසක් දේශපාලනයක් ගැන උනන්දුවෙන්නේ නැහැ ඉතින් දෙමව්පියෝ දැනුවත් කරන්න උන්ට බහ ..ඒ මදිවට මහින්ද ළඟ ඉන්න ෆෙඩරල් වාදී ස්මාට් දේශ පාලනඥයෝ ජාතික වාදීන්ගේ ඔළුගෙඩි කුරුවල් කරනවා .ජී එල් තවමත් සමගාමී ලැයිස්තුව අයින් කල යුතුය් කියනවා ”””.චන්දදායකයා වෙලාවට වැඩේ කරය උන් දන්නවා සිද්ද වෙන්න යනදේ ඒ හින්ද අපි කල බල වෙන්න ඕනේ නැහැ ””කියල ප්‍රචාරණ වැඩවලට අකුල්හෙලා උනුත් මහින්ද ළඟ ඉන්නවා. සරත්වීරසේකරට කීදෙනාද උදව් කලේ .19වන සංශෝදනයට විපක්ෂව චන්දය දෙන්න හිටියේ සරත් විතරය් . අනිත් උන් ගැන ඉතින් කොහොම විශ්වාස කරන්නද .

එකාබධ්ධය මේ වෙලාවේ වැඩකරන්න ඕනේ හරියට යුද්ධයකදී මරාගෙන මැරෙන හමුදාවක් වාගේ ජීවිත පරදුවට තියලය් .එහෙත් එයාල හරි මන්ද ගාමිය් .හැමදාම වැරැද්ද ගත්ත සිරිසේන ගැන විශ්වාස කරලා වෙනම පක්ෂයක් නොහද වැඩ වැරැද්ද ගත්ත .වැරදුනාට පස්සෙවත් වරදිහදාගෙන කෙලින් හිටපන්කෝ ….එත් නැහැ .මහින්ද මහත්තයෝ රටබෙරගන්න මේ වෙලාවේ පුළුවන් ඔබට පමනය් …සිද්ද වෙන්න තියන දේ ,,සිද්දවෙච්චි දේ ටක්කෙටම නලින්ද සිල්වා කොච්චර කිව්වද .කෝ ඇහුවද පැරදුනාට පස්සේ උන්නද මලාද කියල හොයල නොබලපු ජී එල් ඩලස් වැනි අයව ඔබට ආයෙත් ලොකුවුනා .

සර්පයෝ හඳුනාගන්න මහින්ද මහත්තයෝ .ඔබේ හැකියා මේ වෙලාවේ ඉවත දැම්මොත් ඔබ ඉතිහාස ගතවෙන්නේ දුබලයෙක් විදිහට.සමීපව ඉන්නා සර්පයින් ගසාබසා දමා සරත්වීරසේකර නලින්ද සිල්වා අමාර සේකර බෙන්ගමුවේ නාලක හිමි වැනි අයව පෙරටු කරගෙන අභීත සිංහයෙක් මෙන් පෙරමුණ ගෙන සටන් වදින්න ඔබටත් ජයවෙය් රටටත් ජයවෙය් ගෙන්ගෙට ගොස් ජනතාවට කරුණු පහදා දෙන්න නට ඔබේ මන්ත්‍රීවරු යවන්නතරුණයන් කණ්ඩායම් හදා ඔවුන්ට අරකී වියතුන් ලවා දේශනා පවත්වා ඔවුන් දැනුවත් කර ඔවුන්ලවා තව කණ්ඩායම් පුහුණු කරවන්න .

දේශප්‍රේමී ජාතිකවාදී පරපුරක් බිහිකිරීමේ වග කීම අදම ඔබ විසින් ගත යුතුය් බලා ඉන්න කාලයක් නැහැ .ඔබට රනිල් සිටින තුරු සුළු වාර්ගික චන්ද ලැබෙන්නේ අතලොස්සය් ..මතක තියා ගන්න ජාතික ගීය දෙමලෙන් නොගිය යුතුය් කිව්වා තරමට සරත් වීරසේකරට මුස්ලිම් චන්ද 7000න 6500 කම නැතිවුනා ..උන්ට කත් ඇ දල දිනුවත් මොකටද…මහින්ද ඔබ දෙවියෙක් වැනි මිනිහෙක් බව පෙන්වන්න

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

When I read above news I am compelled to quote…..

I am sometimes a fox and sometimes a lion. The whole secret of government lies in knowing when to be the one or the other…………. Napoleon Bonaparte”

If the change his cloak from lion to fox for no reason I cannot see how this government can run .It is a clear indication that Generals in the war are divided, and the Emperor is losing the grip.Governent is fighting a war at all fronts and the generals should be united .

It is high time that the emperor stamps his foot down and tell the Generals to have one voice.

I quote  again ,

There are certain things in war of which the commander alone comprehends the importance. Nothing but his superior firmness and ability can subdue and surmount all difficulties.” …………. Napoleon Bonaparte

If the Generals keep taking their own decisions how can we win the Yahaplana war ?

Senaka Weeraratna

Colombo: The election for the 24th President of the Bar Association takes place on February 21, 2017 . Three candidates have presented nominations for the post of the President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL), namely Anura B. Maddegoda, U.R. de Silva and R. Thangaraja.

They have distributed their election manifesto to the members of the BASL.

While the manifestos address issues of much relevance to the members in respect to their day to day requirements and professional duties, and Human Rights, there is a corresponding deafening silence on Animal Rights.

Animals have no votes but their human friends who care for them and give them voice have votes and they will be very much influenced by the attitudes and policies towards animals on the part of the contestants.

Idealism and goal setting are important not only for a country but also for a profession. It would be tantamount to a dereliction of duty to providence and history if the current generation of lawyers in Sri Lanka were to remain oblivious to international trends that clearly show that the Animal Rights movement is destined to usher in the next great social revolution in the world.

We all know that there is a gradual progression throughout history towards recognizing the rights of others. It commenced with the emancipation of slaves, women, children in that order. It is an unstoppable march. Now the time has come to turn both our moral and legal attention to the plight of animals both in Sri Lanka and elsewhere.

It is very important that we must have as President of the Bar Association an energetic and visionary lawyer who is also mindful of the cruelty that is being perpetrated on animals, and is prepared to extend the patronage of the Bar Association and give a long overdue leadership to animal welfare issues, among other things, and become pro – active on animal issues.

The oft quoted words of Mahatma Gandhi that The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be gauged by the way its animals are treated” are equally applicable implicitly to a legal profession.

If law reform excludes animal welfare legislation from updating and pro bono legal services are lacking and inadequate to ensure justice for animals both within and outside court proceedings, then what does it say of a country’s system of law and its legal profession?

A life of an animal is dear to it as much as it is to us humans. It is not only a moral or ethical issue. It is also very much a Justice issue. Animals are the most inhumanely treated and victimized members of our moral community.

No lawyer worth his salt can deny this plain simple fact. To do otherwise is to draw attention to one’s insensitivity towards others or lack of a true sense of justice.

It is a sad fact of life that people who have a vested interest in abusing animals e.g. meat industry, are well protected by politicians on both sides of the divide. This is the prime cause for the unreasonable delay in the enactment of the Animal Welfare Bill originally drawn by the Law Commission and handed over to the then President of the country, Mahinda Rajapakse in 2006. Since then eleven years (11) have elapsed and still there is no sight of an Animal Welfare Act.

We pride ourselves on our history. Sri Lanka, after all, is the land where Buddhism has held sway uninterrupted for a period of 2, 300 years and holds high the doctrine of the Buddha who preached ahimsa (non – violence) above all else. It is the land where Arahant Mahinda, son of Emperor Asoka of India, advised King Devanampiyatissa in their very first encounter at Mihintale, about 2300 years ago, in the following words:

Oh! Great King, the birds of the air and the beasts have an equal right to live and move about in any part of this land as thou. The land belongs to the peoples and all other beings and thou art only the guardian of it.”

This is one of the great ethical declarations of all time. Noble in scope and all encompassing it raised the bar and set the high moral and ethical standard for treatment of animals in Sri Lanka. This is undoubtedly an uplifting part of the proud heritage of this country.

The trusteeship power of the State under the Buddhist Kings was extended to protect animals, birds and other living creatures of the land, pursuant to this moving plea of Arahant Mahinda.

Today, however in modern day Sri Lanka, instead of evolving on this front we have regressed. It is a blot on the conscience of our nation and also the legal profession to allow a toothless statute, the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance, No. 13 of 1907, which imposes as maximum penalty, a fine of Rs. 100 even for the most heinous crime committed on an animal, to remain as the primary legislation on animal protection, on the statute book.

The present laws against animal cruelty (Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ord., 1907) are outdated, obsolete, ineffective and poorly enforced. The Animal Welfare Bill is intended to replace this archaic law. Its provisions provide an effective deterrent, through adequate penalties and punishments for violations of the legislation. But there is no political will among lawmakers to make this happen to the great detriment of the interests of animals. This is a great shame and national embarrassment.

Several countries have elevated the rights of animals to that of constitutional rights to protect their dignity and honour. Unfortunately Sri Lanka again lags behind on this score despite having a splendid pre-colonial history of a heightened animal friendly cultural heritage.

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka must establish an Animal Law Committee charged with a mission to address all issues concerning the intersection of animals and the law to create a paradigm shift resulting in a just world for all living beings. The status of animals in our legal system and in our society must get mainstream public attention such that the Rule of Law extends to not only humans but animals as well, ideally speaking. Due process protection, fair compensation when an animal is destroyed or injured, standards of care and accountability for animals deployed in industry and agriculture, phasing out of animal prisons (deceptively called Zoos) within a short period, giving expanding definitions to the notions of what constitutes ‘cruelty to animals’ and ensuring that the interests of wild animals e.g. wild elephants, are taken best care of in contexts of competing interests of wild animals and human beings for dwindling resources, are some of the challenges that lie ahead for both the legal profession and animal lovers. Current laws limit the legal options available to those who are seeking to protect captive animals, stray animals and wildlife. This must be changed.

The incoming President of the Bar Association must accept the challenge to lobby the Govt. of Sri Lanka together with animal rights activists, to enact the Animal Welfare Bill without any delay as the first step towards securing the legislative protection of animals. He must be prepared to encourage young lawyers in particular to give their time and effort for animal advocacy work both within and outside the courtroom. BASL must strive to make sure that animals have adequate legal representation and advocacy where it matters. These endeavours may sound far fetched and absurd but if one were to look closely at the Animal Rights scene in USA and many other western countries, they will see that these practices are well entrenched in those legal cultures.

Sri Lanka must strive not only for economic advancement but also accept the moral challenge to be in step with legislative reform taking place in the civilized world to bring animals within the fold of sentient beings worthy of extending respect and dignity, and legal and constitutional protection. As far as possible equity demands that we bring animals within the ambit of justice. We must not leave this burden to the next generation(s) of lawyers.

Finally, we must be inspired by the roots of Sri Lanka’s own spiritual history in the pre-colonial era which always promoted harmonious inter-linking of humans and non – human living beings and our planetary environment.

[Senaka Weeraratna, the author of this article is an Attorney – at – Law and Chapter Leader, Dharma Voices for Animals, Colombo, Sri Lanka Chapter. Courtesy Asian Tribune]

http://newsnetone.com/2017/02/sri-lankan-lawyer-pleads-for-animal-rights/

https://www.facebook.com/dharmavoicesforanimalscolombosrilankachapter/

 Posted by Ashna Kumar Courtesy Mail Today

Meanwhile, the fate of a large workforce employed by these abattoirs remains a tricky issue for the new government.

In Saharanpur district, only five slaughterhouses operate legally. But there are countless others that run clandestinely from homes. Israr, a butcher, told India Today that he hoped the Adityanath government would not attack his livelihood.

“First of all, I congratulate this government. Yogi Adityanath is our CM. He’s the CM of the entire state. He’s good human being,” said Israr. “I hope he will work for everyone’s welfare. No slaughterhouse should be closed down. Nothing of that sort should happen.”

BAN ON ABATTOIRS, BAN ON LIVELIHOOD

In Allahabad, India Today on Monday found locks at the gates of one of the area’s major abattoirs. A livestock official, Ashish Goyal, claimed the slaughterhouse had been shut down long back because of violations. Action against illegal abattoirs, he insisted, was an ongoing exercise. But hundreds of meat workers were heard demanding alternative employment. Babu, a meat trader, and workers Sultan and Shahid echoed concerns regarding their future.

The government, they demanded, either back out from ordering closure of their businesses or provide jobs. In the far-off Lakhimpur Kheri districts, slaughterhouse operator Atif made a fervent call for sustenance.

“It’s a poor neighbourhood which has been living on this business since 1947. Where will people go if their livelihood is taken away?” he asked. “We are ready to welcome the government’s plan. We’ll be grateful if some other arrangements are made for us.” For Tina and Sonu, students of Deoband’s Islamia Degree College, the unbearable

stench from the slaughterhouse in the neighbourhood is an assault on their nostrils.

“It’s difficult to walk past(this abattoir). The odour is everywhere,” complained Tina. “Yes, there’s a lot of difficulty. I don’t feel like eating because of this bad smell. It turns worse with winds,” added Sonu. Mavia Ali of Deoband’s town municipality explained no fresh orders have yet been issued to close slaughterhouses. Ahead of the Assembly elections, politics over “pink revolution” had bounced back with vengeance against the state’s flourishing meat business after the BJP president Amit Shah vowed to seal off all mechanical abattoirs in the state if his party formed the next government.

PINK REVOLUTION

On the third page of its vision document, the BJP pledges to close down illegal slaughterhouses and ban mechanical. Abattoirs have been in the BJP’s line of fire for several years now. But enforcing the proposed restrictions especially on mechanical abattoirs producing meat exports might be a challenge because such facilities are also licensed by the centre.

During his campaign in 2014, Modi slammed the then Congress-led UPA government for spawning a “pink revolution” – a term he used for growing meat exports and state subsidies to slaughterhouses. According to the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Development Authority, the country’s exports of animal products stood at Rs 30,137 crore in 2015-16, of which buffalo meat alone accounted for  Rs 26,681.56 crore. More than 95 per cent of meat exports come from buffaloes, which do not enjoy the sacred status of cows, whose slaughtering is banned in most of the states.

Full Story –http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/uttar-pradesh-yogi-adityanath-meat-slaughterhouses-bjp-muslims/1/908857.html

Hours after Yogi Adityanath taking over, 2 slaughterhouses sealed in Allahabad

The action was taken within hours of the swearing in of a new cabinet in Uttar Pradesh.

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/hours-after-yogi-adityanath-taking-over-2-slaughterhouses-sealed-in-allahabad/

No appeasement, says Adityanath

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/no-appeasement-says-adityanath/article17664619.ece

By Leon Berenger Courtesy Ceylon Today

Thousands of foreign visitors arriving in the country are being ripped-off by several  unofficial off-shore based websites who are handling Lankan landing visas in exchange for staggering fees, while the authorities in Colombo remain helpless, it was revealed yesterday.

An unknown number of websites or even more are currently in operation and are known to be handling thousands of Sri Lankan visit visas to unsuspecting foreign clients, Immigration and Emigration Chief Nihal Ranasinghe said yesterday.

He added that these websites collect the necessary data from the client and later formalize the visa procedure through the government portal. They are known to charge three times or more the stipulated fee for a landing visa, he added.

The government fee for a visit visa for travellers from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is between US$ 20 and 30 and US$ 35-40 elsewhere.

“We have created an awareness campaign on this issue through all stakeholders including the Travel and Trade industry and even in Lankan missions overseas.

Those intending to visit the country should exercise extra caution and take time out to visit the government website at www.eta.gov.lk and verify for themselves the rules and regulations and the criteria qualifying a potential visitor for a visa.

It is a simple process, but instead a large number of travellers are dependent on middlemen to handle their travel plans . At the end of the day they pay more for the same service offered by the government,” Ranasinghe added.

He warned that unsuspecting clients also run the risk of being cheated, adding that there have been instances in which they have been stopped at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) because their documents were not in order.

In a sequel to these developments, the authorities are now in the process of introducing a new online visa registration system that should come into effect before too long, he said.

He added the new system will also take into consideration various security aspects while leaving zero opportunities for abuse and other malpractices. This is a matter of national interest, he said without elaborating. “These foreigners, mainly from East Bloc nations in Europe, are known to overstay their visas and engage in various nefarious activities. the issue has now blown out of proportion” C.A.H.M. Wijeyrathna, head of the Legal Division at the Foreign Office told Ceylon Today.

Some of these foreigners even enjoy high level diplomatic patronage from their respective embassies in Colombo who even tend to intervene on their behalf when there is an issue.

Besides this , they even go to the extent of hiring local lawyers to argue immigration and other laws of the country when they are apprehended, Wijeyrathna added.

He said the relevant authorities including the police, Immigration and even the Foreign Ministry are currently monitoring the movements of these persons and steps will shortly be introduced to curb this menace.

by Nihal Seneviratne (Former Secretary General of Parliament)

March 25, 2017, 5:12 pm
It was as usual a sunny morning in Sri Jayawardenepura – Kotte in Aug. 1991 when Anil Moonesinghe, MP, walked into my room and sat down. He opened his conversation by saying “Nihal, you will be at the centre of a big controversy very soon”. I was quite puzzled by this remarks and asked him “why me of all people?” Anil smiled and said “you will know soon” and walked out of my room. I continued to be puzzled by his remark. Anil happened to be a cousin of mine and was in the habit of coming to my room for a chat off and on. I could not understand why he made this remark but soon forgot about it and continued my daily parliamentary routine.

That night around 10 p.m. when I was about to go to sleep, the phone rang. When I answered, I was surpassed to hear President Premadasa’s voice. He asked:

“Nihal have you seen this impeachment motion?” I replied “which impeachment motion, Sir?” He replied saying Speaker Mohamed had sent him few hours earlier a Motion of Impeachment against him. I was quite categorical that I had not seen it at all, which was the truth. He shot back, “Is it not the duty of the Speaker to discuss the motion with you?” I had to safeguard the Speaker too and replied “he normally discusses these motions but on this occasion he hasn’t done so. The President continued, “That means you have not seen this at all?” I promptly replied “yes, Sir,” and he rang off. I realized that the Speaker had sent him the motion by hand without showing it to me.

The next morning I found Parliament all agog with members of the government, streaming into the chambers of the Speaker. I was told that President Premadasa had arrived there and had summoned all 125 government group members to meet him. I was also told that the President shook the hand of each MP individually having asked whether any of them had signed the motion. I learned that all of had said “No” including possibly a few who had in fact signed. By noon the MPs had left the Speaker’s chambers but he did not tell me what this was all about.

After the Members left the Speaker’s chambers, Minister Lalith Athuladmudali walked into my room. I asked him “Lalith, why are you rocking the boat?” His instant reply was “don’t ask me that question? Address it to your Speaker.” I remained silent.

Under provisions of the Constitution, Art. 38(1) specifies that such an Impeachment Motion must be signed by not less than two thirds of the Members of the House. Art. 70(1)c continues to specify that once such a Motion is received by the President he shall not dissolve Parliament. Having been prevented from dissolving Parliament, the President used his right to prorogue Parliament, his legal entitlement, re-summoning Parliament on Sept. 24.

I must say here that the circumstances relating to the preparation and drafting of the actual motion of impeachment was one of the most closely guarded secrets ever. That was what prevented Anil Moonesinghe from elaborating on what he was talking about when he came to my room and made that puzzling remark. As far as I know, in all my 34 years of parliamentary service there has never been such a closely guarded secret. The closest such event was when 17 government MPs led by Mr. C.P. de Silva crossed over to the opposition to topple the Sirima Bandaranaike government by a single vote at the end of the throne speech debate on the press takeover attempt. It was believed that J.R. Jayewardene planned this move and kept it a secret as far as possible.

As for the impeachment motion, I have not to date seen the actual motion or even a copy of it but it is believed that it was contained in two to three A4 pages and that several copies of it were made available to those members who were entrusted the task of getting the necessary signatures. Regrettably our parliament records do not have a copy of it. I was not given a copy of the motion so that I could have included it in the order book as is the practice.

In the meantime the Speaker and few MPs had been invited by the Inter Parliamentary Union to attend a conference in Delhi but we had not received permission from the President to leave the country. Soon after the President rang me and said to inform the Speaker and members of the delegation that he had given permission for the delegation to proceed to India which we did. Just before emplaning I advised the Speaker not to answer any questions about the impeachment matter raised in India since the local and international press had given it wide publicity. I advised him to politely say “No Comment” whenever confronted with this question. This he did many times during our short stay in Delhi.

By this time Members were quite perturbed and excited about the circumstances that led to the sudden prorogation and were in a confrontational mood. The opening of the new session of Parliament was fixed for Sept. 24. We escorted the President who is present on these occasions to the robing room of the House and he stayed there until it was time to enter the chamber. I recall telling him that since he was presiding over the sittings of the House, he must be cautious and careful in tackling the Members since I believed that many were planning to heckle him. I felt it was my duty to warn him of a possible uproar in the House and that we Secretaries at the Table were ready to advise him about any problem that might arise. He swiftly responded “Nihal don’t worry. I know how to tackle them.” The sitting was brief and the President left the building after his opening address.

In his address to Parliament that day he mentioned at the outset “Apart from the fact that an Impeachment Motion is sought to be brought against me, no misconduct on my part has been established. It is the practice in our country that a person is considered innocent until he is found guilty of any offence. We all know that no person is considered guilty of any offence merely because a charge has been leveled against him. It is therefore necessary that the accused has to be considered innocent till he is proved guilty. You all know that I have not been found guilty of any offence”.

It is believed that Ministers like Lalith Athulathmudali, Gamini Dissanayake and the Speaker himself possessed copies of the motion for which they began collecting signatures starting with members of the opposition and later persuading members of the government to sign. It was rumored that one member signed the motion without even reading it, having been made to believe that he was signing a motion to get parliamentary pensions increased! Another is believed to have signed since he was unable to refuse a leading minister who had lectured to him at the Law College and whose student he had been.

The next day on Sept. 25 the Speaker made the following statement at the commencement of proceedings. He said “I wish to inform the House that I have been given notice of a resolution under Art. 38(2) of the Constitution. Having satisfied myself that the resolution is in order I decided to entertain it. Subsequently written and oral representations have been made to me questioning the validity of the signatures on the resolution. I am looking into this matter at present. My decision will be conveyed to the House soon”.

Time had passed and the President believing that it was the Speaker who had been one of the prime movers in bringing this motion took different steps to confront the Speaker. He is even believed to have advised a Royal dignitary in the Middle East to refrain from supporting some of the Islam-related projects the Speaker was sponsoring here. The Speaker’s family was also known to have owned a company importing motor cars from India. It was believed that the President had asked the Inland Revenue Dept. to check and scrutinize all documents pertaining to that business.

It was only much later that the Speaker summoned me to his chambers and then sought to discuss the contentious motion with me. He told me then that he believed some of the signatures of Members were not genuine and were forgeries. I recall telling him instantly that if he had consulted me at the time he accepted the motion originally, I could have readily helped him to check the veracity of the signatures by comparing them with the signatures in the volume we maintained for Members to sign when they took their oaths. The Speaker only smiled and then asked me to draft a letter to the President telling him that in these circumstances he was not entertaining the motion he had forwarded to the President earlier. We understood then that the motion lacked the 150 valid signatures of Members which is required by the provisions of the Constitution.

After the lapse of a month or so on October 8, 1991, at the start of the sitting of the House the Speaker made the following statement:

“Further to be announcement made by me to the House on Sept. 25, 1991, regarding the notice of a resolution under Art 38(2) of the constitution, I wish to inform the House that having inquired into the matter, I am now of the view that the resolution does not have the required number of valid signatures, and therefore it cannot be proceeded with”.

With these historic words, the saga of the impeachment motion came to an end.

By : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA

When the despotic J.R.Jayawardene completed his 12 year term in 1989, and became unable to contest for a third term, he sponsored R.Premadasa who was the Prime Minister at that time to contest as UNP’s presidential candidate in the 1989 election. The JVP which was carrying out a terror campaign during this time except in the Northern and Eastern provinces urged the people not to vote in the election and threatened to shoot those who proceeded to vote.  The UNP welcomed this dreadful JVP decree as it has been found by UNP intelligent sources that Mrs, Bandaranaike will get a massive voting percentage from the South, particularly from the village areas and the prevention of this Southern village votes to a maximum extent will ensure the victory of Mr, Premadasa.

When voting started in the morning those who proceeded to vote in several village areas in fact were shot and killed by the JVP and this prevented the people in the villages from casting their votes.  In certain areas including in the North and East and urban areas UNP hooligans stuffed ballot boxes and the security forces were also alleged to have helped in this rigging exercise. Ultimately Mr. Premadasa won in this barricaded election bya slim majority which did not reflect the true mandate of the people.  That is why Mrs. Bandaranaike without accepting the results of the election said that she neither lost the election nor Mr. Premadasa won the election.

The Premadasa period was a horrendous and dreadful era in Sri Lanka in which the JVP hooligans and the government sponsored terrorist groups such as ‘Pra’ ‘Yellow Cats’, ‘Black Cats’ and some other groups carried out a killing spree throughout the country except in the North and East excluding the Ampara district. Lives of many youth who could have been valuable assets to our country were lost untimely by these acts. It was well known at that time the ‘Pra’ group was led by a notorious Minister in the present government who received a sum of Rs.50,000/= per head of a slain youth branded as a JVP activist.

It was also extremely dangerous and unsafe to venture out from the houses during this time owing to rounding up and getting subjected to the scrutiny by Goni Billas, a new species of identifiers invented in the Premadasa era who checked one by one of the lined up people by remaining under the cover of a gunny bag with two holes parallel to the eye area for the man in the gunny bag to observe the man or the woman coming in front of him.  The Ratnapura district UNP MP the late Mr. Gamini Ratnatilleke stated in the Parliament prior to his demise that some of the JVP MPs in the Parliament functioned as Goni Billas and betrayed their own supporters.

Another significant event that took place during the Premadasa era was a despicable honeymoon he had with Tiger terrorist leaders at the Hilton Hotel in Colombo.  The heavily armed terrorist participants in the talks were provided air transport and with other forms leisure and sumptuous meals.

Subsequent to these honeymoon talks, the President at the request of the terrorists ordered more than 600 Police officers in the East to surrender to the LTTE saying that they will be provided safe passage to the South by the terrorists. Despite his promise what happened was the surrendered Police officers were rounded up, taken to the jungles with their hands tied behind, shot and brutally killed and buried in the jungle in mass graves by the terrorists.

Consequent to the notorious Premadasa-terrorist honeymoon, the President shamelessly provided sophisticated arms, ammunition, war material, cement and huge sums of money to the LTTE terrorists regardless of extensive opposition from the security forces.  These materials were used by the terrorists only against our security forces.

It was under the Premadasa regime that the LTTE terrorists expelled around 100,000 Muslims and several thousand Sinhala people who were living in the North for centuries and forced them to languish in the Puttalam, Kurunegala and several other districts. The expelled Sinhala people languished in the Matara district. It was also under the Premadasa regime that the LTTE terrorists carried out massacres of Muslims in the East and in the Polonnaruwa district including massacre to over 100 Muslim worshippers at the Kattankudy mosque.

During this time, in 1988/1989 there were massive repression of youth in the South and the sight of youngsters being burnt on tyre pyres on either sides of the main roads, and dead bodies of youth floating in the rivers were a common daily sight.  The son of a cousin brother of mine in Weligama was killed since his father was a staunch SLFP supporter.  The son of a Sinhala lady from Karagoda-Uyangoda, in Thihagoda known to our family was rescued at the last minute by the intervention of Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa from a torture camp in Ranna. He was a vegetable seller and his crime was to be in Ranna area possessing an NIC bearing a Matara address when there was a Goni Billa roundup in Ranna.  After he was rescued, I found that he had several burnt marks and fresh wounds on his body and he said that those marks and wounds were caused by hot iron rods placed on his body during interrogations.

Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse told a media conference once that he personally saw 28 bodies of youth being burnt on tyre pyres on a single day between Meddawatte in Matara and Nonagama Handiya in Hambantota. There were many torture camps similar to the Ranna camp throughout the South and the Batalanda camp, that was allegedly being operated under supervision of Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe became very popular due to the fact that the Attorney at Law Wijedasa Liyanarachchi from the Beliatte area was taken there and killed after being subjected to severe torture   Two SLFP candidates who were contesting for the 1989 General Election – Mr. Hussain Hadjiar of Weligama and Attorney at Law Ratnayake of hakmana – were also killed during this period. There was also a torture camp in the Akuressa area being carried out under the supervision of the then Minister Dayananda Wickremasinghe. The JVP rebellion, its 2^nd uprising by them was quelled on 11^th November 1989 by the arrest and killing of all its politbureau members except Samawansa Amarasinghe, who fled the country by boat. It was claimed that the JVP leader Rohana Wijeweera was killed by throwing him alive into the cremation chamber

at the Kanatte cemetery.

It is believed that over 60,000 youth lost their lives during this two year period.  The so-called international community without any concrete proof claims that 40,000 Tamils lost their lives during the last stages of the war.  Why these nincompoops are totally silent about the 88-89 massacres? Why the JVP hooligans, most of itd leaders have become super rich by now, are also not talking about these massacres despite most of these youth lost their lives because of the support they blindly extended to the JVP

President Premadasa was so engrossed in superstitious belief and it was said at that time that he bathed some virgins with several gallons of milk and sacrificed them somewhere in the Kataragama area to overcome his bad omens.  It was also stated that there was a Malayali Guru, spiritual leader working for him and he did everything as per the advice of this spiritual leader and this Guru used to chant some sutras to President’s chair daily before he sat on the chair..

Meanwhile, on the request of the LTTE, as the IPKF was very harsh on LTTE carders and killing them using the Tamil National Army created by them, Premadasa suddenly ordered the IPKF to leave the country. It took some months for them to leave the country.

In the mean time, opposition to Premadasa’s rule mounted within the UNP itself and Ministers Lalith Athulathmudali and Gamini Dissanayake submitted an impeachment motion against Premadasa citing many malpractices and atrocities committed by him misusing the powers of the President.  The impeachment was not successful and it forced Lalith Athulathmudali and Gamini Dissanayake to leave the UNP and form a new political party under the name of Democratic United National Front, the DUNF, with the support of many UNP MPs and party stalwarts.

However, the LTTE which accomplished all their requirements through Premadasa had doubts about him and believed that he would certainly turn against them very soon and the UNP should be led by one of their confidantes.  Therefore, they groomed one suicide cadre named Babu in Premadasa’s house itself as one of his trustworthy assistants to be used at the right time. It is said that the megalomaniac Prabhakaran only trusted Ranil Wickremasinghe as a trustworthy person in the UNP hierarchy since he had cordial relationship with many prominent Tamils in U.S.A and Singapore.

When the right time came Babu went into action at Armour Street junction while Premadasa was performing crowd controlling of the `May Day participants. Many of the President’s loyal colleagues and the President lost their lives in this suicide bomb blast.

Mr. D.B.Wijetunga who was the Prime Minister at that time became the Acting President  following the killing of Premadasa and he had no intention of continuing in the post or contest in the next presidential election.  Subsequently, the LTTE carried out suicide bomb attacks on Lalith Athulathmudali and Gamini Dissanayake when he came forward as the next presidential candidate of the UNP thereby eliminating all rivals of Ranil Wickremasinghe in the UNP and making him the undisputed crown prince of the UNP.

(Continued on Part IV)

H. L. D. Mahindapala

When two distinguished authorities on the history of Jaffna  —  Bishop S. Jebanesan of the Jaffna Diocese of  the Church of South India, and Richard Fox Young who holds a Chair in the Princeton Theological Seminary, USA., – collaborated to translate the novel Mirage (Kanal in Tamil), depicting the plight of the despised Tamil outcasts (Dalits) of the  North, it automatically raised the significance and the value of the novel to a level way above the rest of modern Tamil literature. In addition to recognising its literary merits,  their selective act to translate this  particular novel conveys the measure of respectability and socio-political meaning they attached to the narrative written by K. Daniel, a Turumbar, the lowest of low-castes in Jaffna. The Turumbars were the dhobies to the dhobies of Jaffna.

A low-caste writer achieving this recognition is a rare honour. This translation opens up an opportunity for the silenced voices of the Tamils oppressed by the Vellalas, to be  heard in the wide world and the translator (Bishop Jebanesan) and the editor (Young) must be congratulated for undertaking this task. Theirs is valuable service because it throws light into the hidden horrors committed behind the ubiquitous cadjan curtains of the Jaffna Vellalas. Unlike other scholarly studies which tend to  drift in the conceptual/theoretical levels, Daniel’s delineation of the existential experiences that were etched into his memory exposes Jaffna as the hell-hole of the  Tamil outcasts. Reading  this novel would certainly make you wonder how the world was taken for a ride by the Vellala propagandists who diverted attention from  their historical role as victimisers of Tamils to be the victims of the Sinhala-Buddhist majority.

The two scholars who produced the translation describes the novel as historical fiction”. Daniel too confirms that the novel is based on incidents that occurred in his little village and adds in his preface : All of the characters who pass through it were people I saw with my own eyes. Some are still living (in the eighties). Each incident that occurs in the novel actually happened.” (p. xiv). Daniel states that  only difference is that he  had changed their names. For instance, he introduces a Christian priest to the village as the alternative to Hindu Saivite Vellala oppressor. But he changed his name from Fr. Gnana Prakasar, a towering figure of Jaffna in his time, to Cwami Nanamutar”. So there could not have been a more sensitive and truthful eye witness of the Hindu Saivite Vellala crimes against their own Tamil people than that of Daniel, who viewed the dialectics of his caste-dominated, hierarchical, dichotomised, oppressive  society through Marxist lenses.

Mirage, which was written in the eighties, has been hailed by those acquainted with Tamil literature as a mini-classic. But its value was played down by the Vellala elite who defined and determined, at all times, the parameters, the contents and the  icons of Jaffna Tamil culture.  For instance, they hero-worship as a literary lion Arumuga Navalar, the caste fanatic who revised Saivite Hinduism to elevate the Vellalas to the apex of the caste hierarchy.  At best, he unearthed the old Tamil texts from S. India and reproduced them which led to a revival of the past glories of Tamil literature in Tamil Nadu. His works did  not lead to a lasting Tamil renaissance in Jaffna. But the outstanding creative writer of Jaffna, Daniel, who exposed the savagery of the Vellahla oppression is marginalised. His greatness is not  only in breaking away from the artificiality of the rigid, formalised, conservative style of traditional Tamil that was in vogue and writing in the spoken idiom but also in daring to penetrate deep into  the most  oppressive and cruel culture of Jaffna society and exposing their hypocrisy and horrors which were hidden from the  public eye.

It is in this  context that the translation of Bishop S. Jebanesan, edited by  Richard Fox Young, (2016) sweeps in as a breath of  fresh air opening up the hidden culture of the Vellalas. It lifts the novel from its obscurity to the English-speaking readers in all communities. It also elevates the novel as a brilliant study of the divided society of Jaffna in the throes of changing in the early decades of 20th century when Jaffna was still trading in fanams.  In very light brush strokes Daniel dramatizes the evil and dehumanising culture of the Vellalas  who denied the outcast Tamils to walk this earth even with a modicum of dignity. Daniel exposes, in  quiet and sober  tones, the Vellala masters who warped Jaffna society with unrelenting Vellala violence  down the ages. The underlying theme that comes  out of every tragic episode highlights the misery of the Tamils struggling  to escape the inhuman cruelty of the Vellala overlords. This is something the Vellalas hate  to admit.  They loathe being confronted  by their brutalities that reduced their own people to  subhumans.

From feudal  and colonial periods to modern times Jaffna remained as an abominable gulag of Vellala violence. They dare not face their guilt. Their defence is to parade in the theatre of the world at large as  the  innocent victims of the Sinhala-Buddhist majority. But Daniel, a Catholic turned Marxist, refuses to focus on this aspect which looms large in the minds of the Vellalas. His silence is a virtual rejection of the Vellala accusation. There  isn’t a single  reference to the politicised accusations of Sinhala oppression” or discrimination”, the common cry of Northern politics,  His narrative  is focused entirely on the internal factors that turned the hidden layers of Jaffna society into an everlasting damnation from which there was no escape.

The theatre of all action in the Mirage is the little village of Pirikattayali where the Vellalas rule with an  iron fist. It is a microcosm of the overarching Vellala fascism that reigned supreme right across the Jaffna  peninsula during feudal and colonial periods until the late nineties. There are still doubts as to whether Vellala casteism has been eradicated totally from Jaffna even  today.  There are no heroes and heroines in Mirage. There are only protagonists and antagonists playing out their respective roles, highlighting, every step of the way, the internal contradictions clashing at all levels. Both as a political force and a Hindu ideology Vellahlaism reigned supreme riding rough  shod  over any rival force. They either absorbed the rival castes (e.g., Madapallis) into  their fold or crushed the rivals under their jackboots.

A dark and ominous ambience hovers over the grim village of Pirikattayali ruled by the Vellahlas. Those below them survive as slaves. They were kept alive, on minimum wages and provisions, to serve the agricultural, domestic, social, political, religious (nautch girls dancing  in temples) and even sexual needs of the Vellahlas. Daniel’s village is  in perpetual conflict with the ruthless ruling class/caste. There are only two dominant figures that play their dialectical roles : 1.  the Vellala landlord, Tampapillaiyar, ordering, threatening, or enforcing his  will with force, or  bribing the authorities, to have his way in the village and 2. Cwami Nanamutar, the Catholic reformer, who steps into the village as a liberator”. The oppressed Nalavar and Palla converts expect the priest to bring salvation through the Church  and take them to the promised land. In the end the Church too succumbs to the overbearing forces of Vellalas and divides the Church pews into the Vellahlas and non-Vellalas. The villagers who suffered under Vellala servitude are told by the new messiahs that they are slaves of Jesus”. It as if they had exchanged worldly slavery to an ethereal slavery imposed by invisible dictators sitting  in the skies. Before  long, the Church becomes the ally of the Vellalas in maintaining the oppressive status quo.The poverty, the misery, the suffering and  the hunger remains unabated. The Church goes along with the contractors who exploit the the low-castes on starvation wages. The Church  becomes a part of the  establishment. The mirage is in seeing  the Church as the liberator.

The coming  of the missionaries  to Jaffna was also a period of confrontation. It was the first serious invasion of  modernity challenging the feudal Hindu structure. It opened up a transitional phase which failed to deliver their expectations of escaping Vellala servitude. In  any case, the Vellala Hindus, led by Arumuga Navalar, resisted the Christian invasions. They saw it as a threat to their supremacy with the Church backing the low-castes. The  conversions by the Christian beef-eaters” were limited mainly to the low-castes who saw them as their redeemers, socially, politically and spiritually. But  in the end it was the Vellalas who won. The powerful Vellalas took on every new ideological, political, social, religious force that threatened to challenge their  supremacy  and crushed them. They remained throughout the feudal, colonial, and post-independent periods as an ineradicable force.  In the last resort, when their Hindu theology was running out of steam to sustain their  divine right to rule the  low-castes, they turned Jaffna into an enclave of mono-ethnic extremism. Under Saivite theology the enemy of the Vellalas was the low-caste. When the ideological power of Saivism ran out the Sinhala-Buddhists  became the  bogeyman in the  post-Donoughmore  period. Their biggest selling point was to claim victimhood, accusing the Sinhala-Buddhists as the victimisers, while hiding under the carpet their unrelenting role, over  the ages, as the  most  vicious  victimisers of the Tamils.

Their success in propagating  this myth is a remarkable feat in caste/class history. They turned Marxism on its head and proved that a decadent, oppressive class need not necessarily collapse under the revolutionary forces of the oppressed. The Vellalas proved, time and again, that they could manufacture a false consciousness” and survive successfully by donning the Emperor’s clothes of saviours / liberators. Daniel’s unique  place as a Tamil intellectual was in his refusal to buy this anti-Sinhala-Buddhist line. A Catholic turned Marxist, he viewed the internal struggle convulsing Jaffna in class terms. Not in racist terms.

The Vellala political elite, on the other  hand, turned the tables and portrayed themselves – the  most  privileged community in Sri Lanka — as the victims of the Sinhala-Buddhist majority. The cover-up of their crimes against  their own people is the biggest propaganda coup next to that of the Jews.  The reality, however, is that the Vellala cruelty to the low-caste Tamils has no parallel either in the Bible Belt of America against  the Afro-Americans or the indigenous S. Africans confined to apartheid ghettoes. For instance, in segregated America the Afro-Americans could  ride in the seats reserved for them in the back of the bus while the whites had the privilege of sitting in the front. But  in Jaffna the low-castes were allotted only the buck” seat – i.e., the floor between the aisle seats of the bus. They could not  sit at the same level in any place in the bus with that of the high-castes.  That is how low  the Vellalas placed their fellow-Tamils in Jaffna.

Prof. Bryan Pfaffenberger of the Syracuse University,  USA, produced magisterial studies of the Jaffna caste system, in  which he detailed the misery of low-castes. In Political Construction of Defensive Nationalism : The 1968 Temple Entry Crisis in Sri Lanka he wrote : In Jaffna in the 1940s and 1950s, for instance, minority Tamils were forbidden to enter or live near temples:  to draw water from the wells of high-caste families; to enter laundries, barber shops, or taxis; to keep women in seclusion and protect them by enacting domestic rituals; to wear shoes; to sit in bus seats; to attend school; to cover the upper part of the body; to wear gold earrings; if male, to cut one’s hair; to use umbrellas; to own a bicycle or car; to cremate the dead; or to convert to Christianity or Buddhism.”  Compare  this to the hue and cry they raised to high heaven about the Sinhala Only Act of 1956 which would have affected, if at all, only the Vellala high-caste in government service.  The champions of the Tamil masses, the Marxists, the Churchmen, the NGO-allied academics, and fashionable pro-Tamil (Vellala) pundits turned a blind  eye to the insufferable indignities imposed by the Vellalas. This  gave the Vellalas the opportunity to turn their guns on the Sinhala-Buddhists who had given to all layers  of Tamils what the Tamil leadership of Jaffna refused to give their own people.

Daniel is one rare  Tamil intellectual who  did not swallow  the racist rhetoric. Driven by  his personal experiences he penetrated deep into the historical suffering of the Tamil masses which the other intellectuals refused to see. The refusal of our intellectual to examine critically the Vellala politics that warped Jaffna society has strengthened and solidified their mistaken belief that the Tamils have been the victims of the majority.  Daniel is  the only Marxist who had the guts to unmask the Right-wing Tamils and the Left-wing Sinhala mytho-maniacs who diverted attention from Vellala evils to Sinhala-Buddhists. In siding with the Vellala masters of  Jaffna the Left-wingers and the liberals served the most cruel ruling class ever to darken the pages of Sri Lankan history. They used the vocabulary, the theories and concepts available in human rights, Marxism, Leninism etc.,  to serve the Vellala caste/class, abandoning their moral responsibility to stand up for the Tamil masses.

Daniel, however remained faithful to his Marxist tenets. He identified the Vellalas, the ruling caste/class, as the enemy of the Tamils. He steadfastly refuse to conform  to the communal cries of the Vellala elite. Why? Perhaps, as a Turumbar, his memory of Vellala servitude ran deep in him. Can he be blamed? Consider the way in which the Jaffna Vellalas treated the slaves. Jaffna had the most  number  of slaves.  The following statistics of the slaves were cited by Bishop Jebanesan from the Census of 1837 in  his book The American Mission and Modern Education in Jaffna (Kumaran Book House, 2013) :

Western Province – Male: 393; Female 332

Southern Province —   Male: 432; Female 342

Eastern Province  — Male : 12 ; Female : Nil

Central Province – Male 687 ; Female 694.

Northern Province – Male: 12, 600; Female : 11,910 – (p. 157)

This figure of 25,000 slaves was quite  disproportionate to the overall population. In the census of 1881 the population of Jaffna district was 261,902. (Cited in Distinctive Features of English in Jaffna – Sri Lanka ,  M. Saravanapava Iyer, p. 8., – Kumaran Book House). The Vellalas controlled and kept nearly 25,000 slaves in line by cracking the whip over their backs. They were slave-drivers who forced the Tamil slaves (atimal) to sit in buck seats” in buses, making sure that they will never rise to their level. Daniel’s memory of  these experiences  of his ancestors would have been  sharpened by his 1968 experiences at Maviddipuram Temple where (low-caste) protestors conducting a satyagraha were attacked by Vellalars using iron rods and sand-filled bottles…”  – (p. 296,  Mirage, Afterword (2), Richard Young.) Amidst all this, who can  forget Prof. C. Suntheralingam, a caste fanatic, walking  up and down the inner courts of Maviddipuram Temple threatening to bash with his walking stick any low-caste pariah who dared to step inside the outermost court of the Temple!

The Vellala obscenities portrayed in Mirage  make a mockery of the Vellala claim to be the victims of the Sinhalese majority. The  horrors of the Vellala crimes against their own exploited people condemns the Vellalas as a brutal caste/class that showed no mercy to the non-Vellala Tamils of Jaffna. Worst was when the Vellalas, quoting Hindu texts, assumed the divine right to oppress and exploit their fellow-Tamils as slaves. Their contempt for  their own people was displayed when they categorised a segment of their own people as pariahs who were kept out of high-caste Vellala society. Some of them were forbidden to walk even  in daylight.  The Turumbars, for instance, were allowed to walk only in the night just in case they should pollute the purity of Vellala eyes. No other community suffered the humiliating indignities as the Tamil slaves of Jaffna society at the hands of their Vellala  masters. And no one is better qualified to document the agonies of the oppressed Tamils than K. Daniel, a Turumbar.

Daniel’s Mirage runs on several layers  of meaning. Many of its  layers are yet  to be explored – later.

(Publishers : Kumaran Book House, No. 39, 36th Lane, Wellawatta)

 Dr Sudath Gunasekara President Mahanuwara Sinhala Jesta purawesiyange Sanvidhanaya

24. 3 2017

I am Copying here few extremist News Headlines a trend that has to be arrested immediately

1 Wigneswaran tells Malik to withdraw Army from North

2 Canadian Toronto mayor has discussions with NPC Chief Minister  Wigneswaran

 3 Wrong to give Sri Lanka more time on accountability: Wigneswaran

4 NPC resolution sent to UN human rights chief

Has Sri Lanka already ceased to be a unitary and sovereign State? Were the two Provinces, North and East have already been handed over on a platter by a traitorous secret grant to Tamils and Muslims intruders as their Homelands. Have they already become fully independent and assumed self-rule. Otherwise how can these arrogant communalists make such irresponsible and inflammatory statements round the clock. Have Sirisena and Ranil already secretly handed them over to Tamils and Muslims perforators to form EELAM and Kalisthan as a political bribe and settlement for helping them in winning elections in the ill-famed and ill-fated master conspiracy designed and hatched by Chandrika the vicious (the Modern Kuweni), subversively supported by India and the West and fuelled by the anti-Sinhala anti Buddhist elements within the country and abroad in black 2015..

Have they been recognized and accepted as fully independent separate sovereign nations within the State of Sri Lanka by the so-called International colonial community touted by Tamils like Global Tamil Forum and Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam based in US and UK. Indian Tamils dispersed all over the world, living in those countries as  citizens of those countries with very few migrated from Sri Lanka in search of greener pastures are the people who call themselves Tamil Diaspora. As such none of them could be called Diaspora in its real sense. The way Tamils in Sri Lanka are been treated by the West  makes one wonder whether their Eelam has already given full membership in that imperial Agency House of the band of colonial west called the UNO?

We should not be surprised even if all these things have already happened since we never had a leader with a back bone in recent history, who could stand up and say ‘This is our country and our motherland, you mind your business We will look after ours, other than John Kotalawala, who boldly defended the sovereignty, dignity, independence and the pride of our nation.

We all know why these countries support the so-called Tamil Diaspora Firstly it is their vote in their constituencies. Next Tamil bribes. Third both India and the West prefer a weak Government here and fourth the strategic location and commercial value of this Island located right at the centre of the Indian Ocean on the great East West sea route.

Concern for their vote banks and money like all politicians the world over is also ok. But no one has a legitimate right to exploit our strategic and commercial advantages or no one has any right to interfere with our domestic affairs or dictate theirs to us as a an independent, sovereign and free country The age of colonialism is gone .Now we live in a free world where every country is equal and free to has its own system of Government. The choice is ours. and not theirs.

I warn these selfish nations that the hay days of the West is no more. It is a thing of the past. Even India should not continue to bully us as they have been doing from the days of Rama, craving to possess this resplendent Island of the Sinhalese that has been describe as a paradise on earth not only by ancient Indian sages but also by Italian traveller Marco polo and great Russian poet Tolstoy. The London bomb and the 2011 world trade centre incidents are eye openers for them. The day these Tamil and Muslims will ask for separate States is not that far. Only then they will realize their follies.

These enemies of our country should realize that this is the only Land in the world that was blessed thrice by Lord Buddha and handed over it protection at least for 5000 years as a Sinhala Buddhist country. As such no one can destroy us as far as that spiritual and divine protections are there. We have existed as a Sinhala Buddhist Kingdom almost for 2600 years. We will remain so for many more millennia.

Coming back again to the 4 news headlines I stated at the beginning

I strongly feel Wigneswaran should not behave like a bull in a china shop or a  man who has not passed even 5th std. The fact that there is no Government in this country to take action against these rabid minority politicians I think explains the reason for their mad behavior.  .At least by now he should stop playing to the gallery and throwing fuel to the burning fire and he should try to behave like an educated matured man. What right he has to tell Malik or any other to withdraw the Sri Lankan army from the north or any other place. Sri Lankan Government can station the forces in any place it wants. Wiggy should know that protecting the territory is one of the fundamental duties of any Government.  As he is only a local politician and not a representative of the Government. He has no business with a foreign Ambassador He also has no right to comment on what the UNCHR has done or passed resolutions on matters where the responsibility lies with the Government of Sri Lanka. .He virtually behaves like the proverbial fox that got horns or the one felled in to the blue paint box. No does a Canadian politician has any right to come all the way from Canada and have discussions with a communal mad man who talks against the legally elected government of the country and  who is engaged in futile struggle to carve out a separate State for Tamils.in Sri Lanka. instead of agitating for one in South India wher70 of his ancestors live.

I do not whether there is any other country in the world where foreigner both Government members and various NGOO people are allowed to come an dabble with

Local politics and the destiny of that nation. I do not know why the Sri Lankan Government give visas to such people. The best solution for this situation is firstly to  sack the CM and bar all local politicians to have any independent negotiation with foreign governments or their agents Also the Government should tell all foreign delegates

To have talks only with the Government. Those who violate should be immediately deported.

British attempt to divide and destroy this country is not new. They had planned and acted to do so starting from the day they stepped in. In the 1817-1818 and 1848 Uva and Matale uprisings they killed all the Sinhala males over 16 years to reduce Sinhala population. In 1819 Gov Brownwrigg illegally and unilaterally abrogated the Kandyan Convention and robbed all privileges given to Sinhala Chieftains by the Kandyan Convention of 1815 and there after ruled the country for 130 years ruthlessly plundering, exploiting and destroying natural resources and native institutions and our culture until 1948 under royal proclamations. Starting from 1818 destroyed all our irrigation works to destroy the base of the economy and the Sinhala civilization They set fire to paddy fields about to be harvested, slaughtered all cattle, destroyed all home gardens, confiscated the field left to starve the people and levied a tax even on domestic dogs.    Put poison to tanks and wells and even dumped dead bodies to wells to spread epidemic to kill the Sinhala people like what they did in North America and Australia.

John Davy writing on the atrocities committed on Sinhalese by the British in the aftermath of 1818 has said it was shame on them and was one of the worst massacres ever in the British colonial history.

In 1832 they divided the country in to 5 Provinces with two large ones to the North and the East for Tamils ending up with 9 in 1897 as the foundation of their vicious divide and rule colonial policy which in fact formed the concept of EELAM and laid the foundation for it. They even conspired to infuse a superiority complex in the minds of Tamils and build up the Tamil Homeland idea in their heads. For example by 1845 of the 103 English schools for the whole Island, they built 45 in the Jaffa area and many more in the EP.  Meanwhile they also destroyed the primordial forest cover on the hills right at the center of the Island that were jealously protected by the Kings and peasant for millennia  which provided the sources for all the rivers in the country – the live wires of the nation’s agricultural economy and the foundation of the entire life system and our 2500 year civilization. They brought over a million South Indian indentured Tamil coolies and settled them on plantations on the hills and various other parts of the country to get cheap labour to enrich the coffers of England. On 1847 August Governor Torrington  made a special plea to the Colonial Secretary in Landon for permission to bring more Tamils from South India . He said that is the best way to suppress the arrogant Kandyan Sinhalese and lay the foundation for a permanent enemy population right at the center of the country that was the Heartland of the nation” as a long term strategy to ruin the Sinhala Buddhist Civilization in this country. He also had said that these Tamils provided a very useful force to control local Sinhalese.

Ever since then up to 1948 they have introduced legislation to create dissentions among the natives and to maximize exploitation and profits. Then in 1948 they drafted a Constitution to ensure their perpetual control on this Island nation They imposed their own administrative and legal system , their education, religious values. For the first time in the history of this country they introduce the minority concept to the Constitution. They reserved military control as well by keeping Trinco and Ratmalana under them. Even appellate power of the Dominion was kept with the Privy Council Under the Constitution queen of England was also the queen of Ceylon and the Maldives Islands that was a part of this country was  not returned and kept it for themselves.

Even to day they continue to do all harassments and try to dictate and demand the way we should govern this country They talk of human rights, reconciliation, equal rights and political settlement etc for Tamil as if Tamils in this country are their own citizens.

I penned these few lines just to show the world the way how these apostles of human rights etc have treated human beings of colonies they ruled and exploited all over the world. The Western block now calling themselves international community, whether they are in UK, Canada, USA or any other country, are mostly only the decedents of these British sea pirates.

The need of the hour in our country is a patriotic leader or a group of such leaders who have the guts to stand up and tell this much to them and who can ask these people to mind their own business without unnecessarily interfering with the internal matters of other Asian and African countries. While all these countries have banned the LTTE they openly allow LTTE agent to operate within their countries by allowing them to lobby against the sovereign Government of this country, collect funds to buy arms, and invests on projects within this country to destabilize the Government and to build up Tamil and Muslim groups against it.

Why do they tolerate this kind of activities is based on two grounds. First their dependency on Tamil votes in the constituencies and their funding. Secondly their antipathy towards the wonderful Sinhala Buddhist civilization. Their nakedness of duplicity is clearly demonstrated in these activities. Those Tamils who are citizens of these countries have no right to talk or act about issue here as the government at home is elected by the people of this country with whom lies the sovereignty of running this country.

These are some of the burning issues that baffle and prick in to my ailing and failing heart as a man who loves his motherland and its precious heritage as I read the above few headlines that appeared in daily papers over the past few days. This kind of news items are a very common phenomenon ever since the Northern and Eastern Provincial Councils were established When MR decided to have elections to the NPC I wrote to him and advised not to have elections for the two Councils .that were non operative for decades.. Instead of that I suggested that he scrap this Huniyama called the Provincial Councils along with the 13 A and the Rajiv/JR Accord. I said this is like giving the sword to the monkey or cutting your own grave and simultaneously the grave of the Sinhala nation.

Unfortunately he did not have the brain to take that good advice. Had he taken that wise advice and also had not gone for elections before the expiration of his full period he would have been the President of this country even today

R Chandrasoma

It is a weakness of the system of memory-recall in humans that the good things that happened to us remain vivid in our memory while the misfortunes and travail that dogged our life tend to be pushed into oblivion. Nobody gets any joy in recalling an unpleasant past. Historians show the same weakness – their record of the past is more a eulogy than a substantial statement of the facts. That politicians ‘manufacture history’ is well known but there are ‘manufactures’ that are so outrageously wrong that a rebuttal is necessary.

The Prime Minister (RW) while lambasting the opposition has repeatedly stated that ‘Ceylon’ – Sri Lanka – before the British left our country – was only second to Japan in in the ‘well-being’ of  its people. This ‘fact’ is now taken as Gospel by leading members of the current government and a story is related of the tragic decline of our once-prosperous nation by the practice of the wrong kind of (divisive) politics.

Let us interpolate a remark about Japan. In the years before the Great War Japan was an industrial giant about to embark on a vast military adventure that changed the world. Her Naval Armada and Carrier- based Air force routed both the British and American Naval forces in the first phase of the Pacific War. It exported good to all the world and its people were famous for their skill and ingenuity. To  place Sri Lanka in the same league table with this Asian colossus is a category error –like saying that a donkey is second only to a horse.

Let us recall some of the salient facts about ‘Ceylon’ before the British left our shores. In the Great Malaria Epidemic of 1934-35, over half a million people died – mostly children and young adults.  (The total population was about five million.) Parts of Sri Lanka – the so-called malarial districts – had emaciated populations that were bereft of schools, hospitals and markets. They battled it out with no help from the ‘Government’ of the day. Fetish worship, devil-dancing and magic were the chief means of alleviating this intolerable existential misery.

A curious social anomaly existed that complicated greatly the social profile of the nation of the time – the existence in the large towns of ‘Kalu Suddhas’ that aped the life-style of the Colonial Overlord and constituted a cultural subspecies that concealed – by their social dominance and loyalty to the Foreign Overlord – the true misery of the common peopled. These ‘comprador bourgeoise’ had a great time battening on the largesse of the foreigner – they lived in commodious bungalows with lush green gardens and troops of servants – parts of Colombo that foreigners admired greatly. Perhaps that ex-brigand from Singapore saw the Kalu-Suddhasa in action in their green villas of the metropolis with dancing servants and food and wine in abundance and mistook the oasis for the encircling desert.

What was the stark realty in the 30’s and 40’s of the last century? Most children died at birth. Births were mostly in hovels – hospitals and doctors were unknown except in those green neighborhoods were the Kalu Suddhas and their fond offspring lived. The force of mortality acted on young adults as much as it did on infants and children – TB and Enteric Fever were killers of the young. There were no jobs for the rural poor and women of all ages led a life of hard work and servitude.

This is only an apercu of the dismal state of our land when the alien was our overlord – a period of oppression and dire hardship for the masses while a few had it good – thanks to their ‘symbiosis’ with the hated foreigner. As stated earlier, to speak of Sri Lanka as being only second to Japan is like saying that a hog is only second to a lion because the fleas on the hog are as good as those on the King of the beasts. We know, of course, that in the wretched game of politics it is often part of the winning strategy to lie and to deceive. In this case, however, the untruth insults the vast multitudes that died in misery in a land under the heel of the conqueror.

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

JVP and Tamil  failed insurrection ……..

When I keep remembering the experiences I had in Moscow, it may give some light to all of us about this country .We were taught political economy based on Socialist Doctrine and History of Soviet Union ( after 1917 only –nothing much about Tzar’s regime except the Exploitation by land owners etc) and the last was Scientific Communism based on Materialism .We skipped many classes but at the end of the year we had to sit a simple test.Some Sri Lankans took the subjects quite serious but some just followed it as it was mandatory.When I talked about it to  outsiders they called it brainwashing”

Everything depended on the individuals and acceptance of the theory of communism and socialism and based on upbringing of the foreigner who were given scholarships.

We  went to England after the first year  of Russian Language course .Rohan Wijeweera’s  followers in England held a meeting with few of us in 1969 ( I remember that it was in a basement in Sussex Gardens in Paddington .This was two years before failed revolution by JVP in Sri Lanka .I can very well remember telling them that  it is too early for Sri Lanka to have a revolution as the conditions in Russia and China were different. The people who conducted the meeting were not happy with our opinion.We never knew who Wijeweera at that time he was in Lumumba University

A recent article in new papers I read about a statement made by Wijeweera that he was not allowed to return to Russia as he was  of Chinese communist Faction who wanted to take power without understanding the prevailing conditions in the country .

We came back to study and Wijeweeera tried something impossible  and failed as I predicted .

We were never taught to do any revolution in our countries by Russians but they expected us to follow their principles and spread to the world that they are not that evil.

Nigerians and some Africans were always criticizing the system but Sri Lankans were much more sensible .

In 1975 Tamil liberation movement was showing signs in Moscow when one Tamil Counsellor ( I cannot mention his name but he joined the tiger Diaspora in London)  in the Embassy of Sri Lanka trying to favour tamil students and mistreating Sinhalese .I was the General Secretary of the Union ,and I got the complaint  and mustered all the student ,about 30 -and planned to walk into the Embassy and take out the Counsellor by the neck to teach him a lesson .

As usual a Sinhalese called Banda” ( just like Ahalepola Banda” became a traitor and informed the Ambassodor of Sri Lanka at that time ( I think that it was Jack Kothalawala) who informed Militzia to surround the Embassy for  protection .We arrived at the embassy and the Militzia did not allow us to proceed into the embassy .

After some time one of the higher-ups from the Ministry of Education came by car and ask me to get in and took me to their office .Explained to me that it will be embarrassing for Russian Government to explain to Sri Lankan Government about Sri Lankans revolting .We retreated and the counsellor went back to London .

After that apartheid in the Embassy never took place anymore .

Without being revolutionaries we were quite aggressive and we learn how to survive .The secret is winning the heart of the majority  .

Wijeweera failed to do so but Russians did it because they had backing from the masses .

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando

A Burger boy arrived, about 25 years ago, at David Jansze’s doorstep looking out for any type of work, showing signs of malnutrition and prominent burn scars on his face and body. Tyrone Bottoni hailed from a middle class family. His father was an engine driver at the CGR, married before and had some children, but the two families had no amity with each other.

They lived in their own apartment opposite Kanatta cemetery at Borella. The family consisted of a boy and two girls. Father was an embittered alcoholic, disgruntled and disagreeable person with a vicious temper. Once when the father came home inebriated mother beat him up severely with a broomstick and chased him out of the house. Apparently, she has had a clandestine affair with a postmaster residing in the same garden and had an illegitimate son from him. The bastard, during his adolescence, became a drug addict and a male prostitute and his whereabouts became unknown. Tyrone’s mother upon hearing about her younger sister becoming pregnant through indiscretion battered and insulted her, which led to her self-immolation. Tyrone sustained severe third degree burns attempting to save her from getting scorched.

During that time he worked as a barman at the Ceylinco Akasa Kadé. On recovery of scalds he returned to work to be told by his manager that “customers abhorred his severely disfigured features.” Eventually he found a job in a grimy hotel to clean filthy toilets where stench stunk to high heaven. He threw the towel in and sought jobs in middle class residencies.

On the sick list

Unexpectedly he began to suffer from asthmatic attacks that needed hospital visits to nebulize. A compassionate person he met offered him work in Polonnaruwa, but he could not retain the job for unknown reasons and had to return to Borella. While he was looking out for odd jobs his health began to deteriorate.

He visited Welisara Chest Hospital to get treatment for asthma. David Jansze referred him to the Ceylon National Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis [CNAPT], that offered Tyrone financial assistance plus nutritional supplements including Sustagen. Once his health records were clear CNAPT suspended its assistance.

In his struggle to eke out a living, he embarked on selling clods of grass from Bauddhaloka Mawatha, but that also proved to be strenuous. Jansze volunteered to purchase king coconuts for Tyrone to sell, which he tried from a place near the cemetery, yet the profit margins of the business were meager. As an alternative, Jansze organised a franchise to sell lottery tickets and hired a bicycle and bought a new set of clothes to look presentable for Tyrone, but that too eluded him from success due to aggressive competition in the business.

Flying off the handle

David Jansze unhesitatingly was inclined to help the unfortunate lad. In his next move, he wrote to his former boss Lalith Kotelawela about Tyrone. Kotelawela responded positively and authorised the Golden Key Hospital to carry out all tests, X-rays and scans. After tests Tyrone was transferred to Sri Jayewardenepura Hospital for treatment and Kotelawela continued to pay all medical expenses and also instructed the finance division to release Rs.5,000 monthly to Tyrone to help him buy nutritional food.

Tyrone Bottoni’s visits to obtain his monthly allowance became futile as the delegated officials at Lalith Kotelawala’s office discounted his instructions with futile excuses; instead the staff took the piss out of him with humiliating remarks. When such insults became unbearable, Tyrone’s anger got the better of him and smashed two office computers in a rage. Police were called to the scene and Tyrone was remanded. After such degrading manipulations, the staff concocted a jaundiced report to Kotelawela that infuriated him and discontinued all charity to Tyrone.

Once, Lalith Kotelawala’s brother-in-law was abducted on his way to the Borella Golf Club. It was Tyrone who had spotted the kidnapping and informed Kotelawala’s sister about it, which aided the police to capture the culprits. David Jansze remembering this incident persuaded her to explain matters to the brother and help the destitute. Once more Tyrone’s funds were reinstated, yet for his ill fate, within two months of the incident Ceylinco scam bubble burst and Tyrone was back to a square one.

From frying pan to fire

From the frying pan to the fire situation, next he received the bad news about his father dying after being run over by a moving bus. David Jansze directed Tyrone to the Pensions Department to transfer his mother’s pension to his name but father’s earlier wife had already legalized it.

Tyrone once again detected blood in his sputum. Maharagama National Cancer Institute detected a lump in his lungs and a course of chemotherapy managed to neutralize the malignant growth. In desperation he approached the “Foundation of Goodness,” the Board of Trustees included prominent Cricketers. The Foundation approved a sum Rs.5, 000 per month to be remitted to a bank account direct, which lasted only for three months. It was due to the Foundation’s revelation about fraudulent claims made by dishonest relatives of beneficiaries.

Jansze referred Tyrone to the Dutch Burgher Union of Ceylon for help, however he was disappointed when the union turned Tyrone away. That made Jansze to distance from the Dutch Burgher Union on a matter of principle after being a member for 50 years.

A few weeks ago Jansze found Tyrone passing blood with urine. Investigations revealed it was due a dysfunctional kidney. He had to undergo dialyses treatment and now surgery has become compulsory. He is now awaiting the surgery at the National Hospital.

After surgery will be largely incapacitated; he would require money to at least to buy his essential nutritional needs, for the rest of his life. The objective of the foregoing narrative is to draw the attention of philanthropists and good Samaritans to fathom the compounded miseries of a single human being and those who have access to charitable institutions convince them to extend a helping hand to this poor soul. His photograph taken two months ago summarises the lot minus words.

Anyone willing to help him may contribute to a special account opened for him at the Commercial Bank by a Samaritan.

Name:Tyrone G.L. Bottoni. NIC No: . 62 095 4344V

Bank: Commercial Bank of Ceylon; Branch: Gampaha

Bank Address: No.51, Queen Mary’s Road, Gampaha.

Savings Account No.844-004-9371: Bank Contact details: Tel: 033-2224136, 033-2224137.

Fax: 033-2224135- Email: gampaha@combank.net

tilakfernando@gmail.com

Bodhi Dhanapala Quebec, Canada

March 24, 2017, 8:07 pm

Kamal Wickremasinghe (KW), writing to The Island Newspaper, March 22nd begins by the claim that “Glyphosate of course is the active ingredient of the world’s most widely used herbicide Roundup, known to cause cancer and kidney disease in humans”. This presumptuous statement about cancer and kidney disease is not accepted by even the Dept. of the Environment and Energy, Australia, which is the authority in the adopted home of KG. Nowhere in his long article does KW mention any international organization or reputed scientific body, which has claimed that Glyphosate causes kidney disease. Instead he is going on mere allegations made mostly by a group of Sri Lankan “eco-heroes” who went to town with information claimed to be communicated to them by a “spiritual being” —  Natha Deiyyo. The rest of the article makes much hay out of allegations about email exchanges which allegedly show a symbiosis between the beleaguered US-environmental protection agency (EPA) and Monsanto, the world’s leading agrochemical company. But in a country where even the President, and the outgoing President, and its past Secretary of State, are all linked in allegations of unsavoury symbiosis, linking even with Russian spies, and all unproven, it is staggering that the anti-Gyphosate heroes are now reduced to clutching at “smoking gunmails” which are still being tussled to be brought into the courts!

Of course KG in his adopted country has, as far as I know, worked for many years “pounding the beat “with the Australian police, and not worked with any Australian environmental agency, or an agricultural or scientific endeavor. Hence his forensic imagination transcends his environmental sense, and he is likely to look for intrigue in every corner. He sees intrigue in Glyphosate continuing to “receive the acquiescence of national regulatory bodies … and various international agencies of the European Union (EU), and even the FAO/WHO Joint Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR) over the years, for the continued sale of glyphosate and Roundup. Great!

Totally misunderstanding the report of the International Agency for Research in Cancer (IARC) issued in 2014 and published in 2015, and ignoring the clarification by the JMPR in May 2016, and the critical evaluation of the IARC report by four expert panels, KG asserts that “the worm may have turned in March 2015”. All that the IARC did was to group glyphosate in the same hazard class as red meat, bacon, citronella oil, and cell-phone use as far as the risk in cancer is concerned. There is NOTHING said about kidney disease. Even this “cancer” grouping with red meat etc. was questioned by the four expert committees that reviewed the IARC report and issued the following conclusion in July 2016 in the Journal known as “Critical Reviews in Toxicology”, supplement 1, (2016) by Williams et al.

So, instead of rushing to judgement based on allegations, we need to look at the evidence as was done by the expert committees. Here is what the expert committees concluded:

begin quote/”The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) published a monograph in 2015 concluding that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans” (Group 2A) based on limited evidence in humans and sufficient evidence in experimental animals. It was also concluded that there was strong evidence of genotoxicity and oxidative stress. Four Expert Panels have been convened for the purpose of conducting a detailed critique of the evidence in light of IARC’s assessment and to review all relevant information pertaining to glyphosate exposure, animal carcinogenicity, genotoxicity, and epidemiologic studies. Two of the Panels (animal bioassay and genetic toxicology) also provided a critique of the IARC position with respect to conclusions made in these areas. The incidences of neoplasms in the animal bioassays were found not to be associated with glyphosate exposure on the basis that they lacked statistical strength, were inconsistent across studies, lacked dose-response relationships, were not associated with preneoplasia, and/or were not plausible from a mechanistic perspective. The overall weight of evidence from the genetic toxicology data supports a conclusion that glyphosate (including GBFs and AMPA) does not pose a genotoxic hazard and therefore, should not be considered support for the classification of glyphosate as a genotoxic carcinogen. The assessment of the epidemiological data found that the data do not support a causal relationship between glyphosate exposure and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma while the data were judged to be too sparse to assess a potential relationship between glyphosate exposure and multiple myeloma. As a result, following the review of the totality of the evidence, the Panels concluded that the data do not support IARC’s conclusion that glyphosate is a “probable human carcinogen” and, consistent with previous regulatory assessments, further concluded that glyphosate is unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans.” end quote

So, the misunderstandings created by the IACR report were clarified by 2016. In fact, the IACR carried out its mandate of indicating a hazard, but the Glyphosate Gladiators like KW prefer to understand the IACR report as an indication of a health risk, which it is NOT meant to be. Perhaps a good way to explain this is to say that a candle or a can of petrol are fire hazards, but they are by no means a fire risk unless the candle or petrol is lit and misused.

KW being a sleuth who worked for the Australian police, he can easily find out how many Australians died of cancer or kidney disease in Australia, on using glyphosate and if all the deaths have been hushed up! May be there might even be an email scandal and the Australian worm has not yet turned?

He can also turn to New Zealand, his neighbour. According to data quoted by the World Bank, New Zealand uses some 30-40 times the amount of agrochemicals, (and proportionately more glyphosate) per hectare per year than even Australia, leave alone Sri Lanka. At that extreme level of usage, since the toxicity increase with the dose non-linearly or worse, there must be many hundreds of cancer patients and kidney patients in New Zealand. But where have they gone? Surely, that should intrigue any police sleuth!

If the sleuth cannot find any glyphosate impregnated dead bodies even in New Zealand, then he only has to turn to Qatar. This wealthy nation invests 225 times as much as Australia in agrochemicals, and also a proportionately high amount in glyphosate! Again, there is no chronic Kidney disease in Qatar, Newzealand or Australia, but the diseases is actually found in locations like Sri Lanka, Andrah Pradesh, El Salvador and such countries which in comparison use a very small amount of glyphosate compared to Qatar, New Zealand or Malaysia. Sure, if you use the Bradwood-Hill criteria, this anti-correlation of disease with agrochemicals should be enough for any policeman to look elsewhere for the culprit!

Bodhi Dhanapala

Quebec, Canada

තේජා ගොඩකන්දෙආරච්චි

රූපවාහිනී නාලිකාවලින් දිනපතා ප්‍රවෘත්ති නරඹන අපේ ඇස ගැටෙන දේ අතර මැති ඇමතිලා සහභාගි වන උත්සවවලින් නම් අඩුවක් නැත. 2017 මාර්තු 17 වනදා හම්බන්තොට පැවති එවැනි උත්සවයක් නැරඹූවිට එහි ප්‍රධාන අමුත්තා වූ ධීවර හා ජලජ සම්පත් අමාත්‍ය මහින්ද අමරවීර කල කතාව නිසා යම් විශේෂත්වයක් දක්නට ලැබිනි. ඒ කැබිනට් මණ්ඩල වෙනසක් ගැනද ඒ කතාව තුල ඉඟි පලවූ බැවිනි. ඒ උත්සවය පැවතියේ මහින්ද අමරවීරගේ දේශපාලන ජීවිතයට වසර 25ක් පිරීම නිමිති කරගෙනය. මෙහිදී හම්බන්තොට දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ ඉඩම් ඔප්පු අහිමි 3000ක ට නීත්‍යානුකූල ඔප්පු පිරිනැමීමද සිදුවූයේය.

හම්බන්තොට දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ 40% ක් පමන සිටිනුයේ ගොවි ජනතාවය. ඔවුන්ට අඩු තරමින් තම වගා කටයුතු කරදරයක් නැතිව කරගෙන යාමට හැකි වන්නේ තමන්ටම කියා ඉඩමක් තිබේ නම්ය. මෙහිදී අඩු තරමින් යන්න යෙදූයේ වගාවේ අස්වැන්න විකුණා ගැනීම හා ඊට අදාලව මතුවන අනෙකුත් ප්‍රශ්න පසුව ගැනෙන දේ බැවිනි. ගොවියෙකු වුවත් නැතත් ඕනෑම අයෙකුට තමන්ටම හිමි ඉඩමක්,ගෙයක් තිබේ නම් හොඳය. එනම් මේ උත්සවයේ අර්ථය මේ කියන දවසට මහින්ද අමරවීරගේ දේශපාලන ජීවිතයට වසර 25 ක් පිරී තිබුනේ නැත්නම් මේ 3000 ක් දෙනාට ඉඩම් ඔප්පු නැතිව තව කලක් ඉන්න තිබුනා කියන එකද? කෙසේ වුවද ඇමතිවරයා මේ තැනට පැමින ඇත්තේ හම්බන්තොට ජනතාවගේ කතිරයෙනි. මනාප චන්දයෙනි. ඒ කතිරය ඔහුගේ නමට වැටෙන්නට නම් කතිරය ගැසුවන්ගේ මනාපය ලැබෙන ආකාරයේ මොන මොන අන්දමේ පොරොන්දු ජනතාවගේ බොක්කටම වදින්නට ඇත්ද? දැන් ඒ කතිරයටත් වසර කිහිපයක් ගතව ඇත. හම්බන්තොට ජනතාවට බලපාන බරපතල ප්‍රශ්නයක් වන ඉඩම් පිලිබඳ ගැටලුව විසඳන්නට ඔහුට තම දේශපාලන ජීවිතයට වසර 25 ක් පිරෙන දිනය උදාවනකම්ම සිටීමට සිදුවීම ඛේදවාචකයකි. මේ වසර 25 ඇමතිවරයාට වැදගත් වන්නේ එම කාලය තුල තමන් වගා දිගා කරගත් ප්‍රතිලාභ නිසා වන්නට පුලුවන. ඉතින් තමන්ගේ කතිරය පූජා කර තමන්ට මේ නොසිඳෙනා උල්පත විවර කරදුන් හුදී ජනතාවට ආණ්ඩුවේ ඉඩම් තමන් ගනනේ, තමාගේ නමින් බෙදා දීමෙන් සතුට සමරන්නට ඇමතිවරයා පියවර ගන්නට ඇත.

මෙවන් ඉඩම් බෙදාදීම යමරෙට කෙරුනත් මේ ඔප්පුවල අන්තර්ගත වගන්තිවල මතුවන ගැටලු වෙනම සාකච්ඡා කල යුතුය. එකල ස්වර්ණ භූමි ඔප්පුවල මතුවූ නීතිමය ගැටලු දන්නේඒවාට මුහුණ පෑ අය පමනි.

මේ උත්සවයේදී ඔහු ඇමති මණ්ඩල මාරුව ගැන පවසා, තමන්ට හම්බන්තොට ජනතාවට සේවය කිරීම සඳහා මීට වඩා වැදගත්කමක් ඇති ඇමති පදවියක් ලැබෙතැයි අපේක්ෂා කරන බවද පැවසීය. ඊට හේතුව ධීවර රාජ්‍ය  අමාත්‍යවරයාද, පලාත් සභා ධීවර අමාත්‍යවරයාද හම්බන්තොට දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේම සිටීම බවද කියැවුනි. ඉන්දියන් සාගරයට එක පසෙකින් මායිම්ව පිහිටි හම්බන්තොට දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ ගොවි ජනතාව මෙන්ම ධීවර ජනතාවද එක සේ බහුලව සිටිති. නමුත් මේ ඇමතිවරයාට ධීවර හා ජලජ සම්පත් අමාත්‍ය විෂය වැදගැම්මකට ඇති දෙයක් සේ පෙනී ගොස් නැත ! අනික අද ශ්‍රී ලාංකික ජනතාවට මාලු ආහාරයට ගන්නාවිට වැය කරන්නට සිදු වන මුදල මෙන්ම ධීවර කර්මාන්තය හා බැඳුනු අනෙකුත් ප්‍රශ්න ගැනද පෙනෙන විට ධීවර ඇමතිවරු සිටින ප්‍රමානය සමගම ධීවර කර්මාන්තයට අත්ව ඇති ඉරණම ගැන පුදුම සිතේ. මේවා වඩාත්ම සිතිය යුතු ධීවර ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ කටයුතුවල නිරතව සිටින අයයි.

ඒ අතර මේ දිනවල ශ්‍රී ලංකාව පුරා පැතිර යන ඩෙංගු වසංගතය මර්ධනය කරන්නට රජයට හදිසි අවශ්‍යතාවයක් පහලව ඇති බව පෙනී ගියේ මහජන සෞඛ්‍ය කාර්ය සහායක නිළධාරීන් පත්කර කාර්ය පැවරීම පිලිබඳ ප්‍රවෘත්තිය දුටු විටය. ඒ සඳහාත් උත්සවයක් පවත්වා, පත්වම් ලැබූ පිරිසට, තැඹිලි පාට ටී ෂර්ට් හා කැප් තොප්පි අන්දවා (ජනාධිපතිවරයාද ඇතුලුව) සෞඛ්‍ය ඇමතිවරයා වැඩෙ භාර දුන්නේ රාජකාරිය දේවකාරිය බඳු විය යුතු යැයි කියමිනි. මේ, රටේ විය යුතුම දෙයකට පවා මාධ්‍ය සංදර්ශන රඟ දක්වන අයුරුය. දහස් ගණන් ජීවිතය හා මරණය අතර සටනකට ඇද දමන ඩෙංගු වසංගතය මර්ධනය කිරීමට යොදා ගන්නා ක්‍රියා මාර්ගය උත්සවාකාරයෙන් පටන් ගත යුතුද? මෙවන් උත්සවයකට පවා නිකරුණේ මොන තරම් මුදලක් වැය වේද?

ඩෙංගු හෝ වෙනත් බෝවන වසංගත රෝගයන්ට හේතු විය හැකි අක්‍රමවත් කැලි කසල බැහැර කිරීමේ ප්‍රශ්නය මේ වන විට රට පුරා ඔඩු දුවා අවසන්ය. කාලයෙන් කාලයට මැතිවරණයකදී චන්ද ගුණ්ඩු ලෙස භාවිතා කල හැකි කුණු කඳුද රටේ විවිධ ප්‍රදේශවල දක්නට ඇත. මේවාට ‘තිරසර‘ විසඳුමක් ලබා දීමේ වැඩ පිලිවෙලක්, අද වරින්වර අඬබෙර ගසා දියත් කරන ‘තිරසර‘ යන විශේෂණ පදය යෙදූ එකදු සංවර්ධන ව්‍යාපෘතියක් තුල වත් අන්තර්ගත වී නොමැත. එවන් ව්‍යාපෘතීන් ඇරඹී, යන දුර දිග දෙස බලන විට විසඳුමේ තබා ව්‍යාපෘති ක්‍රියාකාරකම්වල වත් ‘තිරසර‘ යන පදය අන්තර්ගතව ඇත්දැයි සැක සිතේ.

කැලි කසල බැහැර කිරීම පිලිබඳව නිසි විනයක් සහිත වැඩ පිලිවෙලක් ජනතාව අතරට ගෙන යා යුතුවාක් මෙන්ම කැලි කසලවලට කරන්නේ කුමක්දැයි යන්න පිලිබඳ ක්‍රමවත් සැලැස්මක් රජය සතුවද තිබිය යුතුය. මෙවන් වැඩ පිලිවෙලක් සකස්කර ජනතාව ඊට හුරු කිරීම, කසල මල්ලක් වාහනයක දමාගෙන ගොස් කොතැන හෝ අතහැරීම තරම් පහසු නොවන බව නිළධාරීන් වටහා ගත යුතුය. මේ පිලිබඳ වගකීම අර තැඹිලි පාට ටී ෂර්ට් ඇඳ කැප් තොප්පි පලඳා වැඩට බැස්සවූ අයට පමනක් සීමා වූවක් නොවේ. මෙවන් උත්සව අඬබෙර ගසා පැවැත්වීම තුල ඒ වගකීම එවන් පිරිසක් වෙත පැවරී ඇතැයි යන හැඟීම නරඹන අයගේ සිත් වලට කා වැදුනහොත් එහිද පුදුමයක් නැත.

මේ ආකාරයේ විනාඩියක දෙකක ප්‍රවෘත්ති තුල සිතනවා නම් සිතන්නට බොහෝ දේ තිබේ. නමුත් අද වන විට ජනතාවගෙන් බහුතරයකට යමක් විශ්ලේෂණාත්මකව සිතීමේ හැකියාවක් හෝ අවශ්‍යතාවයක් තිබේද? වත්මන් දේශපාලනය විසින් ජනතාව හුරු කර තිබෙන්නේ ඉතාම පටු අරමුණු කිහිපයක් සහිත ආත්මාර්ථකාමී ජීවන රටාවකටය. මහින්ද අමරවීර අමතිවරයාගෙන් ඔප්පුව ලබාගන්නා පුද්ගලයාට ඇති ඊ ලඟ ඉලක්කය එදින ගෙදර ගොස් රාත්‍රී ප්‍රවෘත්ති විකාශනයේදී තමන්ද පෙනෙන්නට සිටිනවාද යන්න බැලීම විය යුතුය. එතැනදී ඇමතිවරයා ඉදිරියේ තම කොන්ද කොපමන පාත් වෙනවාද යන්න හෝ තමා මේ කොන්ද පාත් කරන්නේ බොහෝ කලකට පෙර තමාට ලැබිය යුතුවූ දෙයකට මිස ඇමතිවරයාගේ පුද්ගලික ධනයේ ආනුභාවයෙන් තමන්ට ලැබෙන දෙයකට නොවන  බව එම තැනැත්තාට නොපෙනෙනවා සිකුරුය. මේ ආකාරයෙන් පෙරලුන පිට ගලපා ගන්නට තැත් දරනු මිස රටක අනාගතය, අඩු තරමින් තම පරපුරේ ඉදිරි අනාගතය ගැනවත් සිතා කටයුතු කිරීමේ අවශ්‍යතාවයක් කිසිවෙකුට ඇති බව නොපෙනේ.

කාලයෙන් කාලයට කුතුහලය දනවන විවිධ පුවත් ඇසේ. ඒ කාලයට ඒ දෙය අල්ලාගෙන උඩ පනින අතර කාලය ගත වීමත් සමග ඒ පුවත ජනතාවට මෙන්ම මාධ්‍යයටද අමතකය. ඒ අනුසාරයෙන් තමන් කතිරය ගසා පත්කර යැවූ දේශපාලකයාගේ වගකීම් සහ කාර්යභාරය ගැන කිසිවෙකුට අදහසක් තිබේද යන්න සැක සහිතය.

අද වන විට මිරියබැද්දේ හෝ අරණායක නාය යාම්වලින් අසරණව ගිය පිරිස පිලිබඳව යාවත්කාලීන වීමක් මාධ්‍ය මගින් සිදුවේද? අදටත් තාවකාලික කඳවුුරුවල වෙසෙන මේ පිරිසට තමන් අදහන ආගම දහම අනුව තම මලගිය ඥාතීන් සිහිපත් කරන්නටවත් හැකියාවක් නැති බව එවන් ඛේදවාචකයකට වසරක් පිරෙන්නට පෙරම ජනතාවට අමතකව ගොසිනි.

මෙවන් දෙයක් තම මාධ්‍ය සාකච්ඡාවකදීවත් මතු නොවන තැන අදාල ඇමතිවරුන්ට පහසුවෙන් ලිස්සා යාමට හැකිව ඇත. ඒ අසරණයින්ට කියන්නට ඉතිරිව ඇත්තේ ‘එදා අපිත් මලා නම් ඉවරයි‘ කියායි. මේ නිර්මල බුදු දහම ගැන මහ හඬක් නගන රටක විය යුතු දෙයක්ද? මෙය පාලක පක්ෂයේ මෙන්ම පාලන බලය ගන්නට බලා සිටින අයගේද වගකීමකි. තමන් වෙනුවෙන් රට පමනක් නොව ජාත්‍යන්තරය පවා නියෝජනය කරන බවට කයිවාරු ගසන අය අතින් මග හැරෙන මේ යුතුකම් වෙනුවෙන් හඬ නගන්නට සිදුව ඇත්තේ වින්දිතයන්ටමය. කොස්ගම සාලාව අවි ගබඩාව පිපිරීම නිසා උන් හිටි තැන් අහිමි වූ ජනතාවද මුහුණ දී සිටින්නේ මෙවන් තත්වයකටමය.

නමුත් කියන්නට තරම් දෙයක් තවම වී නැති ජනතාවට සිතන්නට නම් ඕනෑ තරම් දේ තිබේ. සංගීතවේදී වික්ටර් රත්නායකගේ දෙවන විවාහය! රංගන ශිල්පි සාරංග දිසාසේකරගේ විවාහය දෙදරා යාම! හිටපු ක්‍රිකට් ක්‍රීඩක චමින්ද වාස්ගේ දෙවන විවාහය!

මිනිසුන්ගේ හැඟීම්බර ස්වභාවය මේ අයුරින් හැඩ ගස්වන්නට මාධ්‍ය විසින්ද යම් කොන්ත්‍රාත්තුවක් කරනවා වත් දෝ කියා සැක සිතේ. නමුත් මාධ්‍යයක සැබෑ මෙහෙවර විය යුත්තේ ජනතාවට, හදවතට වඩා මොලය පාවිච්චි කරන්නට කියා දීමයි. ඔවුන් එය නොකරන තාක් පෙර පින් බලෙන් පාර්ලිමේන්තු ගිය ඇත්තෝ, වල බාගෙන නොව ඉහගෙනම කන්නට තව තවත් පෙලඹෙති.

ජනතාවගෙන් මුදල් එක් රැස්කර මහරගම පිලිකා රෝහල වෙනුවෙන් මිලට ගන්නට අපේක්ෂාකල පෙට් ස්කෑන් යන්ත්‍රය පිලිබඳ තොරතුරු ජනතාවටම අමතකව ඇති සේය. ජනවාරි 4 වන දින ටෙන්ඩරය අදාල සමාගමට ලබා දෙන බවත්, මාස 3ක දී එය සාදා නිම කරන බවත් සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍යංශ ලේකම්වරයා පැවසීය. මේ වන විටත් කිසිදු තොරතුරක් නැති වුවත් ලේකම්වරයාගේ ගණනය කිරීම අනුව තවත් මාස භාගයක් බලා සිටිය යුතුය. නමුත් පෙට් ස්කෑනරය මිලට ගැන්මට අදාල මුදල සම්පූර්ණ වූ බව දැනගත් අවස්ථාවේ ජනතාවගේ එම සද්කාර්යය පහත හෙලමින් සෞඛ්‍ය ඇමතිවරයා කතාකල අයුරු අද වන විට සියල්ලන්ට අමතකය. එදා ඔහු සඳහන් කල ජුලි මාසයේදී මෙරටට ලඟා වෙන බව පැවසූ රජයේ පෙට් ස්කෑනරය කොහිදැයි අසන්නට කෙනෙක් නැත. එවන් එකක් ගෙනාවා නම් ඒ ගැන උත්සවයක් නොපවත්වා සිටීවි යයි සිතිය නොහැක. ජනතාවගේ මේ ස්වභාවය ගැන දන්නා දේශපාලකයින් තමන් අතින් විය යුතු යුතුකම්ද ජනතාවගේ කර මත පටවන්නට තැත් කරති.

හම්බන්තොට ඉඩම් බෙදා දීමේ උත්සවයේදී මහින්ද අමරවීර ඇමතිවරයා තවත් අපූරු කතාවක් කීය. පලාතේ වැඩ වසන සංඝයා වහන්සේ නමක්, තමන්ට බුද්ධ ශාසන ඇමති පදවිය ලබා දෙන මෙන් ජනාධිපතිවරයාගෙන් ඉල්ලූ බව පැවසූ ඔහු බුද්ධ ශාසන ඇමතිව තමන් ජනතාවට මොනවා කරන්නද කියා විමසුවේ සෝපාහාසී සිනහවක්ද සහිතවය. මේ බුද්ධාගම ගැන ඇමතිවරයාගේ ඇති ආකල්පයයි. බුද්ධ ශාසන ඇමති තනතුර ගැන සන්ධානයේ මහ ලේකම්වරයාගේ දැක්ම මෙබඳු නම්, එවන් තනතුරක් ඇතිකර, අමාත්‍යංශයක් පිහිටුවා වාහන, කාර්ය මණ්ඩල සඳහා ගෙවීම් කරමින් අයවැයෙන් කොටසක් ඊට වෙන් කරමින් ගෙන යන වැඩ පිලිවෙල ඔහු අනුමත කරනවාද? මේ ප්‍රකාශය තුලින් පෙනෙන්නේ ඔහු ජනතාව සහ ආගමික කටයුතු ගොඩවල් දෙකකට ලා සලකන බවය. මේ න්‍යායම අනිකුත් ආගම් කටයුතු පිලිබඳ අමාත්‍යංශවලටද බලපානු ඇත.

අද ශ්‍රී ලාංකික ජනතාව පත්ව ඇති තත්වය දෙස බලන විට ඊට ප්‍රධන හේතුවක් ලෙස දැකිය යුත්තේ ජනතාව ආගමික සංකල්ප තුලින් වෙන්ව සිටීමයි. ආගමික දර්ශනය සැබෑ ලෙස වටහා ගන්නේ නම් ආගම් මුල් කරගෙන එකිනෙකා සමග කා කොටා ගැනීම නවතිනු ඇත. සමාජය තුල විනය, බුද්ධිය වර්ධනය වනු ඇත. මේ ආගමික කටයුතු විෂය භාර ඇමතිලා ආගම් ගැන සිතනු ඇත්තේද වෙන් වෙන් වශයෙනි. සංඝයා වහන්සේලා සහ අන්‍යාගමික පූජකවරුන් සිටින්නේ තමන්ට ආශීර්වාද කර පිරිත් නූල් බඳින්නට හෝ රෙදි පෙරවන්නට පමනක් යයි මොවුන් සිතා සිටිනවා සේය.

අද දේශපාලකයන් හා බහුතරයක් මාධ්‍යයන් එක්ව ජනතාව පටලවා ඇති පඹගාල දකිනවිට, ඒ තුල ජනතාවගේ දුර දක්නා නුවණ සහ විශ්ලේෂණාත්මක කුසලතාවන් මොටවී යන අයුරු පෙනෙන විට හැඟෙන්නේ කුමක්ද? තමන් දකින දේ ඔස්සේ කෙටි තීරණ වෙනුවට මේ පුංචි පුංචි පුවත් තුලින් පවා සමාජය ඇදගෙන යන ක්‍රමය විශ්ලේෂණය කිරීම අරමුණු කරගෙන ජනතාව කාණ්ඩ ගතකර බුද්ධිමය සංවාදයක් ගොඩ නැගීමක් දැන්වත් ඇරඹෙන්නේ නැත්නම් රටේ ඉදිරි තත්වය ගැන සිතීමද නිශ්ඵල වනු ඇත.

මුහුණු පොතේ අපූරු කියමනක් දුටිමි.

    ‘අරගල කල යුත්තේ පාලකයන් වෙනස් කිරීමට නොව ජනතාව වෙනස් කිරීමටය. අමන ජනතාවක් කිසි විටෙක පාදඩ පාලකයන්ට එරෙහි නොවේ.’

මම ඊට යමක් එක් කරමි. මේ අරගල කරන්නන්ගේ අරමුණ සුපිරිසිදු විය යුතුය. නොඑසේ නම් සිදුවනු ඇත්තේ අරගල කරන්නන්ගේ න්‍යාය පත්‍රයට අනුව වැඩ කරන පාලකයන් පිරිසක් බිහිවීමය. ඉන් සිදුවන වෙනසක් නොවනු ඇත.

ඊට හොඳම උදාහරණය නම් 2016 දෙසැම්බර් 11 වන දින සිවිල් සංවිධාන රැසක එකමුතුවෙන් පැවැත්වුන ‘නීතිය හදන්න කලින් ඔලුව හැදීම‘ සම්මන්ත්‍රණයේදී කියැවුන කාරණාවකි.

‘සහෝදරවරුනි, අද සමහරු කියනව තවම වංචා දූෂණ වෙනව. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ පරාජය කිරීම එක විප්ලවයක්. එදා ඒ විප්ලවය නොකල නම් අද අපට මෙහෙම කතා කරන්න බැහැ. ඉතින් ඒ විප්ලවය වෙනුවෙන් යූඇන්පී එක බැංකුවක් කැඩුව නම් මම ඒකට එකඟයි‘

එබැවින් මෙවන් විප්ලවවාදීන්ගෙන් ඔලුව බේරාගෙන තම ඔලුව හදා ගැනීම සඳහා තමන්ටම තිබෙන බරපතල වගකීම වටහා ගැනීම පලමුවෙන්ම සිදුවිය යුත්ත වේ.

Courtesy The Island

March 25, 2017, 8:02 pm

The UNHRC resolution which was co-sponsored by Sri Lanka and passed without a vote last Thursday has given the government two years to deliver on the commitments made in UNHRC Resolution No: 30/1 of October 2015. Unlike in previous years, this year’s UNHRC resolution did not generate much heat in Sri Lanka because the expectation was that the government would be given a further period of time. However, this extention of time to deliver may be more to the detriment of the government than if the things had come to a head right now.  A two year postponement means that this matter will come up for discussion at the March 2019 Sessions of the UNHRC. However, 2019 will be election year for this government.

The Island carried a front page news item recently by our colleague Shamindra Ferdinando pointing out that even though Minister Faizer Mustapha had put forward an argument to the effect that President Maithripala Sirisena had been elected for a six year term and therefore, the next Presidential election will be held only in 2020, legal experts like Manohara de Silva, Jayampathy Wickremeratne and Krishmal Warnasuriya had pointed out that the term of the President was shortened to five years by the 19th Amendment and according to the transitional provision in Article  49(1)(b) of the Nineteenth Amendment, the persons holding office as the President and Prime Minister at the time the 19 A is passed will thereafter continue to hold such office subject to the provisions of the Constitution as amended by the 19A. What this means is that Maithripala Sirisena’s term as President comes to and end in five years and a presidential election will have to be called in the last quarter of 2019.

It would be very disadvantageous for the government to be grappling with the local fallout of implementing the UNHRC resolution or the international fallout from not implementing it after the first quarter of 2019. In fact by 2019, it’s best that this UNHRC resolution 30/1 be taken off the radar altogether. If the government implements even a part of the contents of Resolution 30/1 which they so ill-advisedly co-sponsored in October 2015, that will provide grist for the opposition mill at the presidential election campaign at the end of 2019. The Resolution that was passed last Thursday once again with the co-sponsorship of Sri Lanka, ‘took note with appreciation’ the comprehensive report presented by the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights to this session of the UNHRC as requested by the UNHRC in Resolution 30/1 of October 2015 and requests the Government of Sri Lanka to fully implement the measures in resolution 30/1 that are outstanding.

What exactly did the UN Human Rights Commissioner say in his report on Sri Lanka to the 34th Session of the UNHRC last Wednesday which was ‘taken note of with appreciation’ by the Sri Lankan government in co-sponsoring the subsequent resolution which could place them at a serious disadvantage if smelly stuff hits the fan in the run up to an election? Firstly, The UN Human Rights Commissioner’s report to the UNHRC begins by saying that his present report to the UNHRC should be read in conjunction with (among others) the detailed findings of the OHCHR investigation which was presented to the UNHRC in September 2015.

In that report, the OHCHR had accused the Sri Lankan government of every conceivable war crime including unlawful killings, torture, rape, illegal incarceration, enforced disappearances, abduction, deprivation of humanitarian assistance etc. This investigation against Sri Lanka was set up outside the established procedure of the UNHRC yet by co-sponsoring two UNHRC resolutions in October 2015 and now again in March 2017, which took note of this OHCHR report with appreciation, the Sri Lankan government has accepted and legitimized a biased and tainted report against Sri Lanka.

Call for universal jurisdiction to be invoked

Secondly, the UN Human Rights Commissioner has stated that the report of the Consultative Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms appointed by the Prime Minister be implemented and this too has now been taken note of ‘with appreciation’ by the government. (Implementing this Task Force report would have even worse implications than implementing Resolution 30/1, as we shall see below.) Thirdly, the UN Human Rights Commissioner has stated that the lack of progress into certain cases such as the killing of Lasantha Wickrematunga and the acquittal by a ‘Sinhalese jury’ of the suspects in the Kiliveddy incident where 23 Tamil civilians are said to have been killed strengthens the case for the establishment of a specialized court which should include international judges, defence lawyers, prosecutors and investigators, to investigate allegations of war crimes.

In his report presented to the UNHRC on 22 March and taken note of with appreciation by the Sri Lankan government in the co-sponsored resolution on 23 March, the UN Human Rights Commissioner has once again called on the international community investigate and prosecute those allegedly responsible for war crimes under universal jurisdiction. In this context, the Australian high Commission may have done Chagi Gallage a favour by denying him a visa to Australia. Last Thursday’s UNHRC resolution was essentially to reaffirm the UNHRC resolution 30/1 of 1 October 2015 on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka. What exactly were the commitments made by the government in UNHRC Resolution 30/1? Of particular concern in that resolution, were operative paragraphs 1, 4, 6, 8, 12 and 16.

Operative paragraph 1, took note with appreciation of the report of the Office of the High Commissioner on promoting reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka and its investigation on Sri Lanka and encouraged the Government of Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations contained therein. Operative paragraph 4 welcomed the commitment of the Government to establish a commission for truth, justice, reconciliation and non-recurrence, an office of missing persons and an office for reparations; and to give each mechanism the freedom to obtain financial, material and technical assistance from international partners. Operative paragraph 6, noted with appreciation the proposal of the Government of Sri Lanka to establish a judicial mechanism with a special counsel to investigate allegations of war crimes and affirmed the importance of participation in such a judicial mechanism of Commonwealth and other foreign judges, defence lawyers, prosecutors and investigators;

Operative paragraph 8 encouraged the Government to remove through an administrative process members of the security and intelligence units suspected of carrying out war crimes even if there wasn’t enough evidence to take them before the judicial mechanism that was to be established. Operative paragraph 12 welcomed the commitment to review and repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act, and to replace it with new anti-terrorism legislation acceptable to the OHCHR and the ‘international community’. Operative paragraph 16 encouraged the Government’s efforts to fulfill its commitments on the devolution of political authority, ‘which is integral to reconciliation’ and also encouraged the Government to ensure that all Provincial Councils are able to operate effectively, in accordance with the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka – thus bringing the structure of the Sri Lankan state itself under the scrutiny of the OHCHR.

NGO activists in their element

This was not all, speaker after speaker among the originators and the sponsors of the latest resolution against Sri Lanka – the UN Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Al Hussein, the EU representative and the representative of Britain were all harping on the need to implement the recommendations of the Consultative Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms. The recommendations of this task force which functioned under the Prime Minister’s Office are, if anything, worse than the above mentioned operative paragraphs of UNHRC Resolution 30/1. The UN Human Rights Commissioner’s update on Sri Lanka presented to the UNHRC on March 22 was effusive in its praise for the report of the Consultative Task force on Reconcilaition Mechanisms and has requested the government to implement its recommendations. Among the recommendations made in this task force report are the following:

=   Apologies should be tendered by the Sri Lankan State to the victims of the armed conflicts that took place in this country. However there is no requirement that terrorist organizations or political groupings that backed the terrorists have to do the same.

= LTTE cemeteries should be restored, the observance of ‘Maaveerar Dinam’ allowed to continue and the families of deceased LTTE cadres permitted to display a photograph of the deceased terrorist in LTTE uniform, in their homes.

= As a means of promoting reconciliation, all LTTE detainees who have not been charged under the PTA or other laws are to be released forthwith. However, members of the armed forces suspected of committing crimes have to be arrested.

= Following the lead of UNHRC Resolution 30/1, the Consultative Task force on Reconciliation Mechanisms has also recommended that a war crimes tribunal with foreign participation be set up. But going beyond anything that Resolution 30/1 recommended, they have also suggested that no LTTE members be prosecuted by this body if they have been through rehabilitation or have been prosecuted under the existing judicial system. They have suggested instead that leaders of the LTTE who left the terrorist organization and allied themselves with the government of Sri Lanka should be tried for war crimes!

=  No amnesties should be granted to members of the armed forces suspected of war crimes.

=  A phased demobilization of security forces personnel with an attractive early retirement package including pensions, admissions to good schools for their children, alternative civilian employment etc. has also been recommended.

= Despite repeated assurances given by both the President and Prime Minister to the public that the special place accorded to Buddhism would be preserved, the Consultative Task force on Reconciliation Mechanisms which published their report after those assurances were given, has requested the government to ‘seriously consider’ the establishment of a secular state.

The above are only a sample of what this task force report contains. The proposals made by the Consultative Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms are so over the top that if an ordinary parliamentarian in the government reads it, he may end up thinking that it has been written by Joint Opposition agents who had infiltrated the PM’s office with a view to bringing the government into disrepute among the public! So UNHRC Resolution 30/1 and the report of the Consultative Task force on Reconcilaition Mechanisms are cans of worms that will remain closed till the end of the first quarter of 2019 and opened just when a decisive Presidential election is months away from being declared in the fourth quarter of that year. This is why the two year extension of time will not be an advantage to the government but rather a ticking political time bomb set to explode causing the maximum damage.

What did Gen. Fonseka command?

General Sarath Fonseka made waves again last week with the CID informing the Mt Lavinia Magistrate that he has given a statement implicating former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and former Chief of National Intelligence Kapila Hendavitarana in the attacks on journalists including the killing of Lasantha Wickrematunga and the assault on Keith Noyhr. According to the B Report No: B92/09 filed before the Mt Lavinia Magistrate, Gardihewa Sarath Chandralal Fonseka has given the CID a statement to the effect that at the time Lasantha Wickrematunga was murdered, he had not overseen security matters in the Colombo area and that this was handled by former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa with Maj Gen Kapila Hendevitarana and that he had received information that the assault on journalists were carried out by a certain group that functioned under Chief of National Intelligence Hendevitarana. Fonseka had also said that when he was Army Commander, he was unaware that there was an Army intelligence detachment functioning from the Tripoli market premises in Maradana.

By the time Lasantha was murdered, Kapila Hendavitarana had retired from the army and was holding a civilian appointment in the Ministry of Defence. When Sarath Fonseka became Army Commander at the end of 2005, Hendavitarana was in the Sri Lankan Embassy Bankok as Minister Counselor. Even before he was posted to Bangkok by then President Chandrika Kumaratunga, he had ceased to be the Director Military Intelligence and was functioning as the Director General Military Intelligence which was a position not in the Army but in the Joint Operations Headquarters. The Director Military Intelligence is a Brigadier level appointment in the Army and Hendavitarana had to be shifted out in order to be promoted Major General.  After the Rajapaksa government came into power, Hendavitarana came back to Sri Lanka around February 2006 and he retired from the Army in 2006 October.

After coming back from Bangkok, Hendavitarana was appointed as an advisor on Military Intelligence to the Minister of Defence. After he retired from the Army in October 2006, a position was created for him as Chief of National Intelligence. His task was basically coordinating the work of the intelligence arms of the Army, Navy, Air Force and police intelligence units like the CID, TID, Special Branch etc. This was one of the major innovations introduced by Gotabhaya Rajapaksa – getting all the intelligence bodies of the armed forces and police to share information and work together to eliminate terrorism. However, neither Gotabhaya Rajapaksa nor Hendavitarana who were both retired from the Army could command troops or order troop movements. This had to be done by someone in uniform.

Every soldier works under a chain of command and no soldier can do anything unless told to do so by his immediate superior. That’s how the system works. Even though Sarath Fonseka now says that Gota met the intelligence chiefs separately and that he was against the service commanders even attending that weekly meeting, as the commander of the army, Fonseka always had the authority to summon the Director of Military Intelligence who was a Brigadier under him and ask him what was going on. Yet by saying that Gota had a separate operation going with the intelligence heads that he as Army commander was not privy to, Fonseka is implying that he dared not summon the Brigadier who was head of the DMI to ask him what was going on!

Furthermore, to tell the CID that he did not know that there was an Army intelligence detachment functioning in the Tripoli (market in Maradana) is to in effect say that he was not aware of what the army he was commanding was doing. This was not the first time that Fonseka had made statements of this nature. Even with regard to the famous white flag case, he had told Frederica Jansz that he had heard from certain journalists that Gota had ordered Shavendra Silva to kill any LTTE leaders trying to surrender and that LTTE front rankers B. Nadesan, S.Pulidevan and Ramesh were killed while they were trying to surrender. If Gota had indeed given such instructions to Shavendra Silva, Fonseka should not be hearing about it from journalists but from someone within the Army. When he made this statement, Fonseka was the common candidate contesting against Mahinda Rajapaksa at the 2010 Presidential elections. After Frederica wrote an article in the Sunday Leader titled “Gota ordered them to be shot – General Sarath Fonseka”, all hell broke lose with the UNP and JVP trying to force Fonseka to retract or disown the statement.

A mighty fiasco ensued with Fonseka repeating the same allegation he made to the Sunday Leader at a propaganda rally in Ratnapura which was caught on camera and broadcast over the TV channels but after the story appeared in the Sunday Leader, he held a press conference the next day trying to explain away what he had said. When the Rajapaksa government filed action in the High Courts against him over this statement, he tried to make out that he had never made any such statement to Frederica and that she does not have a recording to prove that he had said it and that she had not even taken down notes during the discussion and that what she was presenting to courts as her notes may have been written later.

Asked why he had not denied the story after it appeared in the Sunday Leader, he had said that Frederica had pleaded with him not to do so because she would be jailed. The High Court refused to accept that he would make such a sacrifice on behalf of a journalist whom he accused to lying. He was asked whether any incident where LTTE leaders trying to surrender with white flags were killed by the troops had actually taken place, to which he answered in the negative. However, video footage of the Ratnapura meeting proved that he had in fact said everything he is supposed to have told Frederica. Fonseka was sentenced to three years in jail under the emergency regulations for making false statements that could cause public disquiet!

General Fonseka has a history of putting his foot in his mouth – big time – and he has done it again with the statement about Gota and Hendavitarana operating a hit squad against journalists without his knowledge. One party that will be happy with this bit of news will be denizens of the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights which has been calling for the Sri Lankan military to be brought under civilian control. Going by the stories that Fonseka has been telling the press and the CID since he left the army in 2009, unbeknownst to all, the Sri Lanka Army appears to have always under civilian control with retired army officers in plain clothes commanding the troops both on the battlefields of the Vanni and the urban jungle in Colombo!

BY M D P DISSANAYAKE

There are two wicked politicians still prevailing in Sri Lanka.  One is Badrakali Chandrika and the other The Wicked Ranil.   Their long term objective will be to eliminate all Sinhala National Leaders.

If any danger takes place for the life of Mr Weerawangsa as a result of ongoing Fasting, the Chandrika and Ranil will be gloated with happiness.

As Sinhalese we need you.  If you are abruptly silenced or demised, it will ignite the beginning of the end of Sinhalese. You are a great leader of rare breed.  In your absence, the Sinhala Nationalist Movement will be derailed.

All heroes are amongst the dead. Weerawangsa must be with us. You should not take the journey in a funeral parlour. Instead, you should be taking leadership shoulder to shoulder with fearless Great Sinhalese on a red carpet.

Your determination to continue Fasting is causing fear and sadness for us.  What have we done wrong to you to make us feared and sad?

Why provide an opportunity for those Wicked persons, prostitutes alike to dance and rejoice, is it your happiness to make them happy?

We wish you courage and wisdom to be able to stop the Fast and continue to provide leadership for the national struggle.

” When the fool does evil deeds
their end he does not know,
such kamma burns the one unwise
as one who’s scorched by fire.

Explanation: Fools, unaware that evil rebounds, through evil acts they hurt themselves. As flies leap into fire and burn, their own executioners they become.

DHAMMAPADA”  Verse 136

Ira de Silva Canada

It is incredible that the Australian High Commission has either denied or claims a visa for Maj. General C. Gallage is “under assessment” – diplomatic jargon to cover the denial of a visa.  Australia considers the Major General as a  “Potential Controversial Visitor” citing war crimes  and crimes against humanity as reason for denying Gallege a visa. Australia found fault with the Maj. Gen. for commanding the 59 Division on the Vanni east front. 

The Maj.Gen. is  considered a “controversial visitor” by Australia because he commanded a division in the military which defeated the Tamil terrorists, known as the LTTE, who had terrorised Sri Lanka for thirty years. Australia recognised the LTTE as a terrorist group and is supposedly against terrorism. Does Australia now have a policy of supporting terrorists and finding fault with those who fight terrorism? Should other countries consider  Australian military personnel who are fighting terrorists as “controversial” and refuse them entry into their countries?

Australia has already found the Maj. General guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Is it possible for Australia to provide the basis for this judgement? No other country or international body has made such a judgement because so far there have been only allegations, mainly by the supporters of the LTTE outside of Sri Lanka, but absolutely no proof of any such crimes. Does Australia pass judgements on allegations without proof in Australia? If so, it is a sad indcitment on the legal system in Australia which is supposed to be a democratic country where a person is considered innocent until proven guilty.  This action equates Australia to countries where there is no legal process available to determine whether accused are judged on credible evidence, mere hearsay or a whim.   

Australia is known in the world to have kangaroos – it now seems to also have kangaroo courts instead of a judicial system based on recognised legal principles.

Yours truly,

Ira de Silva

Canada

සමන් ගමගේ උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින

නව රජය බලයට ආ දිනයේ සිට රටට යළි “මිලේනියම් සිටි” පාවා දීම සිහිගන්වමින් බුද්ධි අංශ රණවිරුවන්ට එරෙහි විමර්ශන ආරම්භ කළ රහස්‌ පොලිසිය ඉකුත් සතියේ ඇමැති සරත් ෆොන්සේකා පැවසූ බව කියමින් ආන්දොaලනාත්මක කතාවක්‌ ගල්කිස්‌ස අධිකරණයට වාර්තා කළේය.

සරත් ෆොන්සේකා මෙසේ සීඅයිඩීයට කී කතාව වන්නේ කුමක්‌ද? ඉකුත් 2008 – 2009 වර්ෂයන්හිදී සිදුවූ මාධ්‍යවේදී ලසන්ත වික්‍රමතුංග ඝාතනය, මාධ්‍යවේදී කීත් නොයාර්ට සහ රිවිර කර්තෘව සිටි උපාලි තෙන්නකෝන්ට එල්ල වූ ප්‍රහාරයන් සහ ප්‍රගීත් එක්‌නැලිගොඩ සිද්ධිය ආදී වශයෙන් පසුගිය කාලයේ සිදුවූ සියලු අපරාධවලට වගකිව යුත්තේ හිටපු ආරක්‍ෂක ලේකම් ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්‍ෂ හා හිටපු බුද්ධි අංශ ප්‍රධානී මේජර් ජෙනරාල් කපිල හෙන්දාවිතාරණ යන්නය.

මේ කතාව කියනුයේ යුද හමුදාපතිව සිට එල්ටීටීඊය පරාජය කිරීමෙන් පසු ආරක්‍ෂක මාණ්‌ඩලික ප්‍රධානී ලෙස වැඩ භාරගත් මොහොතේ “දේශපාලනයට පැමිණ සොල්දාදුවකු ලෙස දිනාගත් කීර්ති නාමය වනසා ගන්නට කිසි දිනකත් තමන් සූදානම් නැතැයි” මාධ්‍ය ඉදිරියේ සපථ කළ සරත් ෆොන්සේකා බවද මෙහිදී විශේෂයෙන් සඳහන් කළ යුතුය.

සීඅයිඩීයේ විමර්ශනවලදී තමන්ටද ඇඟිල්ල දික්‌වීමට පටන් ගැනීමත් සමඟ ඒ පිළිබඳ ප්‍රකාශයක්‌ ලබා දීමට පැමිණි අවස්‌ථාවක ඔහු මේ කතාව කියා ඇත. ඒ නොකර බැරි තැන කෙරුණු කැඳවීමකට අනුවය

අදාළ පහරදීම් සහ ඝාතන සිදුවන කාලයේ යුද හමුදාපතිව සිටි තමන් උතුරු නැගෙනහිර යුද්ධය මෙහෙයවූවා මිස දකුණ ඇතුළු කොළඹ සිදුවන දේ පිළිබඳ කිසිදු සොයා බැලීමක්‌ නොකළ බවද එහිදී ප්‍රකාශ කර ඇති සරත් ෆොන්සේකා හිටපු ආරක්‍ෂක ලේකම් ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්‍ෂ සහ හිටපු බුද්ධි අංශ ප්‍රධානී මේජර් ජෙනරාල් කපිල හෙන්දාවිතාරණ විසින් විශේෂ හමුදා කණ්‌ඩායමක්‌ යොදාගෙන ලසන්ත වික්‍රමතුංග ඝාතනය සහ මාධ්‍යවේදීන්ට පහරදීම ඇතුළු අපරාධ සිදු කළ බව තමන් දැන සිටියේ යෑයි ද සඳහන් කර ඇත.

ඔහුගේ මේ කතාව ඇසෙද්දී අපට මතුවන ගැටලුව වන්නේ ඇත්තටම සරත් ෆොන්සේකා මේ රටේ හමුදාපති වූයේද යන්නය. ඔහු හමුදාපතිව සිටියේ නම් මේ කියන අන්දමට එක්‌කෝ නිසි ලෙස හමුදාවට නායකත්වය දී නැත. එය තවත් විදියකට කියතොත් සරත් ෆොන්සේකා ඒ දිනවල සිට ඇත්තේ හමුදාපතිකම ළමයකුට දීය.

සරත් ෆොන්සේකාගේ බිරිඳ අනෝමා ෆොන්සේකාම වරක්‌ කී පරිදි මහ රෑ ජාමෙට ඇගේ සිරුර මත සිතියම දිගහැරගෙන යුද්ධය මෙහෙයවූ සරත් ෆොන්සේකා කොළඹ යුද හමුදා මූලස්‌ථානය තුළදීම මරාගෙන මැරෙන කොටි කාන්තාවකගේ ප්‍රහාරයකට ගොදුරු වූයේ මෙසේ කොළඹ පිළිබඳ සොයා නොබැලීම නිසාද විය හැකිය. පුදුමයට කරුණ වන්නේ තමන්ට බෝම්බ ගැහුවේත් ගෝඨාභය සහ හෙන්දාවිතාරණ බව මෙහිදී සරත් ෆොන්සේකා කියා නොතිබීමය.

ඇත්තෙන්ම සරත් ෆොන්සේකා සාධකය තුළ සිට මෙසේ කතා කිරීමට වේ යෑයි අපි කිසි දිනක නොසිතුවෙමු. මෙලෙස සටහන් කිරීමට සිදුවීම අපේ සිතටද වේදනාකාරීය. එහෙත් වීරයා මඩේ නාද්දී ගඳයි කියනු හැර අපට කියන්නට වෙන දෙයක්‌ ද නැත.

සරත් ෆොන්සේකා මහතා හිටපු ආරක්‍ෂක ලේකම් සහ බුද්ධි අංශ ප්‍රධානියා සම්බන්ධයෙන් මෙවැන්නක්‌ පවසද්දී සීඅයිඩීයේ විමර්ශකයන් කරනු ලැබුවේ කුමක්‌ද? කිසිදු වගවිභාගයකින් තොරව ඒ කතාව අධිකරණයට වාර්තා කිරීමය. එහෙත් රහස්‌ පොලිසිය තිබෙන්නේ එසේ කටයුතු කිරීමටද?

අද සරත් ෆොන්සේකා කුමක්‌ කීවද ඔහුද රාජකාරී කළ යුද හමුදාවේ කටයුතු සිදුවන නිසි පටිපාටියක්‌ ඇත. සාමාන්‍යයෙන් යුද හමුදාවේ ඕනෑම නිලධාරියකු හෝ සෙබළකු ස්‌ථානගත කර සිටින්නේ කොතැනකදැයි යන්න නියත වශයෙන්ම යුද හමුදා මෙහෙයුම් අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ දැන සිටින්නේය. ඔහුට හොරෙන් කිසිවක්‌ සිදු කළ නොහැකිය. එසේම එකී නිලධාරියාට හෝ සෙබළාට වැටුප් ගෙවීමක්‌ සිදු වන නිසා ඔහු කරන රාජකාරිය කුමක්‌දැයි අනිවාර්යයෙන්ම වැටුප් හා ලේඛන අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ මණ්‌ඩලයට වාර්තා වන්නේය.

මෙකී කාල සීමාවේදී මේජර් ජෙනරාල් උදය පෙරේරා යුද හමුදා මෙහෙයුම් අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ විය. වැටුප් හා ලේඛන අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ වූයේ බ්‍රිගේඩියර් සුනිල් වන්නිආරච්චිය. රහස්‌ පොලිසිය මෙහිදී අදාළ සිද්ධීන් පිළිබඳ නිවැරදි විමර්ශනයක්‌ සිදු කළේ නම් විය යුතුව තිබුණේ සරත් ෆොන්සේකා කී කතාව ගැන මේජර් ජෙනරාල් උදය පෙරේරා සහ බ්‍රිගේඩියර් සුනිල් වන්නිආරච්චි කැඳවා විමසීමක්‌ කිරීමය.

එහෙත් එවැන්ක්‌ සිදුව නැත. ලසන්ත ඝාතනය වැනි රටම හෙල්ලුම් කෑ විමර්ශනයක්‌ හමුවේ රහස්‌ පොලිසිය එසේ නොසැලකිලිමත් ලෙස කටයුතු කළේ කුමක්‌ නිසාද? සීඅයිඩීය එවන් විමසීමක්‌ සිදු කළේa නම් සරත් ෆොන්සේකා කියන අන්දමේ අභිරහස්‌ හමුදා කණ්‌ඩායමක්‌ හිටපු ආරක්‍ෂක ලේකම්වරයා සහ බුද්ධි අංශ ප්‍රධානියා යටතේ සිටියේද සහ ඔවුන් කවුරුන්ද යන්න පිළිබඳ පැහැදිලිව අනාවරණය කර ගැනීමට ද අවස්‌ථාව තිබිණ.

එහෙත් ඔවුන් කරනු ලැබුවේ සරත් ෆොන්සේකා කී කතාව ගෙඩිය පිටින් ගෙන ගොස්‌ හිටපු බුද්ධි අංශ ප්‍රධානී මේජර් ජෙනරාල් කපිල හෙන්දාවිතාරණගේ නමද සඳහන් කර ගල්කිස්‌ස අධිකරණය හමුවේ දිග හැරීමය.

අඩුම තරමේ සරත් ෆොන්සේකා කියන කණ්‌ඩායම පිළිබඳවවත් සොයා බැලීමක්‌ නොකෙරිණි. කිසිදු විධිමත් විමර්ශනයකින් තොරව මේ අන්දමට අධිකරණයට බී වාර්තා ඉදිරිපත් කරන්නට නම් රහස්‌ පොලිසියක්‌ අවශ්‍ය නැත. ලිවීමේ සහ කියවීමේ හැකියාව පමණක්‌ ඇති පොඩිවුන් ටිකකට වැඩේ පැවරුවොත් ඔවුන්ද මේ ටික කරනු ඇත.

රහස්‌ පොලිස්‌ විමර්ශකයන් මේ අන්දමට කටයුතු කළේ කුමක්‌ නිසාද? එය මෙහිදී මතුවන ඉතාම වැදගත් ප්‍රශ්නය වන්නේය. එහෙත් ඊට පෙර කියන්නට කතාවක්‌ද අපට ඇත. ඒ හිටපු බුද්ධි අංශ ප්‍රධානී මේජර් ජෙනරාල් කපිල හෙන්දාවිතාරණ පිළිබඳවය.

හෙන්දාවිතාරණ යනු කවරෙක්‌ද? මෙය කියවන මිනිසුනේ දැන ගන්න. ඔබත් මාත් මේ මොහොතේත් ප්‍රභාකරන්ගේ බෝම්බයක ගොදුරක්‌ නොවී හුස්‌ම ගනිමින් ජීවත් වන්නේ නම් එසේ වී තිබෙන්නේ මේජර් ජෙනරාල් කපිල හෙන්දාවිතාරණලා වැනි උපන් බිමට සහ ජනතාවට හදවතින් ආදරය කරමින් දිවි පරදුවට තබා මේ රට වෙනුවෙන් දහසක්‌ කැපකිරීම් කළ වීරයන් නිසාය.

අද මෙන්ම හමුදා බුද්ධි අංශ සාමාජිකයන් ඉලක්‌ක කර ඉකුත් 2002 වසරේ සිදුවූ “මිලේනියම් සිටි” මහා පාවදීම දීම සිදු වෙද්දී “මිලේනියම් සිටි” නිවස්‌නය ඇතුළුව දිගුදුර විහිදුම් බළකායේ බුද්ධි රණවිරුවන්ට අණ දුන් බුද්ධි අංශ නායකයා වූයේ කපිල හෙන්දාවිතාරණය.

“මිලේනියම් සිටි” පාවා දීම හමුවේ මේ රට වෙනුවෙන් දිවිහිමියෙන් වැඩ කළ මේජර් මුතාලිµa ඇතුළු බුද්ධි අංශ රණවිරුවන් සහ ඔත්තුකරුවන් එකා පිට එකා එල්ටීටීඊයේ ගොදුරු වෙද්දී ඉන් දිවි ගලවා ගත් අතලොස්‌සෙන් කෙනකු ලෙසද මේජර් ජෙනරාල් හෙන්දාවිතාරණ හඳුන්වා දිය හැකිය.

එවකට යුද හමුදා බුද්ධි අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ වූ හෙන්දාවිතාරණ කර්නල් නිලයේ පසුවූ අතර ඔහුගේ දෙවැනියා ලෙස යුද හමුදා බුද්ධි බළකාය සහ “මිලේනියම් සිටි” කණ්‌ඩායම පසුපස සිටියේ යහපාලනයට පෙර යුද හමුදා බුද්ධි අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ වූ බ්‍රිගේඩියර් සලේ හෙවත් එවකට මේජර් සලේය.

යුද හමුදා මහසොහොන් බළකායට ඉකුත් 2000 වසරේ සිට බුද්ධි නායකත්වය දුන්නේද මේජර් ජෙනරාල් කපිල හෙන්දාවිතාරණය. එසේම හිටපු ආරක්‍ෂක ලේකම්වරයාගේ අදහසකට අනුව මහසොහොන් බළකායට අටේ කණ්‌ඩායම් ක්‍රමය හඳුන්වා දෙමින් කොටි නායකයන් එල්ටීටීඊ බලප්‍රදේශයන් තුළදීම අවසන් ගමන් යවන්නට කටයුතු කළේද ඔහුය.

මෙසේ ක්‍රියාත්මක වීම හමුවේ පසුගිය කාලයේ ප්‍රභාකරන්ගේ ඝාතන ලැයිස්‌තුවේ හතරවැනි ස්‌ථානයේ සිටින්නටද මේජර් ජෙනරාල් කපිල හෙන්දාවිතාරණට සිදු විය.

ප්‍රභාකරන්ගේ අවසානයත් සමඟ මෙරට ඉතිහාසයේ පළමු වතාවට හමුදා කණ්‌ඩායමක්‌ මැලේසියාවට යවා ඊශ්‍රායලයේ මොසාඩ් ක්‍රමයට අනුව යමින් කිසිදු ලේ වැගිරීමකින් තොරව එල්ටීටීඊයේ කුමරන් පද්මනාදන් හෙවත් කේ.පී. ව අත්අඩංගුව ගැනීමට සිදු කළ අතිවිශිෂ්ට මෙහෙයුමේ මහ මොළකරු වන්නේද ඔහුය.

සත්‍ය එය වුවත් මේ වන විට බුද්ධි අංශවලට එරෙහිව විමර්ශන සිදු කරමින් නින්දිත දඩයමක යෙදී සිටින රහස්‌ පොලිසිය කපිල හෙන්දාවිතාරණ නම් වූ රට වෙනුවෙන් දහසක්‌ දේ කළ කිර්තිධර බුද්ධි නිලධාරියාටද ලබන සතියේ සීඅයිඩීයට පැමිණෙන ලෙස දැනුම් දී තිබෙන වගක්‌ද මේ සටනහ තබන මොහොතේ දැනගැනීමට ලැබිණ.

සීඅයිඩීය අද මේ අන්දමට රඟමින් සිටින්නේ කුමක්‌ නිසාද? දැන් අප එන්නේ මේජර් ජෙනරාල් හෙන්දාවිතාරණ පිළිබඳ කතා කරන්නට පෙර මේ කතාව නතර කළ තැනටය.

ඉකුත් 2015 ජනවාරි අටවැනිදා යහපාලනය බිහිවීමත් සමඟ සීඅයිඩීය ඇරඹූ විමර්ශන ගණනාවක්‌ම ඇත. ප්‍රගීත් එක්‌නැලිගොඩ විමර්ශනය, මාධ්‍යවේදී ලසන්ත වික්‍රමතුංග ඝාතන විමර්ශනය, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රි නඩරාජා රවිරාඡ් ඝාතන විමර්ශනය, ප්‍රවීණ මාධ්‍යවේදීන් වන උපාලි තෙන්නකෝන්ට සහ කීත් නොයාර්ට පහරදීමේ විමර්ශන ආදිය ඒ අතර ප්‍රධානම තැනක තිබිණ.

මේවා පිළිබඳ විමර්ශන සිදුවිය යුතුය. එසේම අපරාධකරුවන් සිටීනම් ඔවුනට එරෙහිව නීතියද ක්‍රියාත්මක විය යුතුය. එහි කතා දෙකක්‌ නැත. එහෙත් මේ සියලු සිද්ධීන් ගත් කල පෙනී යන එක්‌ පැහැදිලි ලක්‍ෂණයක්‌ද ඇත. එය වන්නේ එන්ජීඕ නඩ ඇතුළු මේ රටට ෙද්‍රdaහීවූ සියලු පාර්ශ්ව පසුගියට රජයට ඇඟිලි දිගු කරමින් හන්දියක්‌ හන්දියක්‌ ගානේ මොරදුන් සිදුවීම් බවට පසුගිය කාලයේ මේවා පත්ව තිබීමය.

එසේම මේ සියලු සිද්ධීන් යහපාලන දේශපාලන වේදිකාවන්හිද ප්‍රබල මාතෘකා බවට පත්වූ ඒවාද විය. යහපාලනයත් සමඟ රහස්‌ පොලිසිය මෙම සිද්ධීන් පිළිබඳ කඩිනම් විමර්ශන අරඹන්නේ එවන් වූ දේශපාලන පසුබිමක්‌ද එකී ඝාතන සහ පහරදීම් සම්බන්ධයෙන් ගොඩනැගී තිබියදීය.

අප නම් හැමදාමත් කීවේ මේ විමර්ශනවලදී හරි දේ හරි විදිහට සිදු විය යුතුයෑයි කියාය. එසේ නැතිව ජාතික ආරක්‍ෂාව බිල්ලට දෙමින් මේ හරහා බුද්ධි අංශ දඩයමක්‌ සිදුවන්නේ නම් ඒ දෙස ගොළුවන් බිහිරන් සේ බලා සිටින්නටද අපට නොහැකිය.

මෙසේ සීඅයිඩීය ආරම්භ කළ විමර්ශන මාලාවට අනුව ඔවුන් මුලින්ම කරළියට ගෙන ආ කතාව වූයේ ප්‍රගීත් එක්‌නැලිගොඩ විමර්¨ශනය ය. එහෙත් මෙහිදී සිදු කෙරුණේ කුමක්‌ද? කිසිදු පදනමකින් තොරව විවිධ පුද්ගලයන් ගෙන රජයේ සාක්‍ෂි මත යෑපෙන්නට ගිය රහස්‌ පොලිසිය අවසානයේ සිදුකළේ එල්ටීටීඊයේ පරාජයෙන් පසු ඉකුත් 2015 ජනවාරි 8 වැනිදා දක්‌වාම කොටින්ගේ යළි පිබිදීම වැළැක්‌වීම සඳහා ඉතාම රහසේ ක්‍රියාත්මක වූ “ඔපරේෂන් ඩබල් එඡ්” නමැති අතිසාර්ථක බුද්ධි මෙහෙයුම සහමුලින්ම විනාශ කර දැමීමය.

එකී විමර්ශනයට අනුව අදටත් එක්‌නැලිගොඩ මැරුවාද, මැරුණාද යන්න පිළිබඳව නිශ්චිත ලෙස අනාවරණය කර ගැනීමට සීඅයිඩීය සමත්ව නැත. මේ වන විට වසර දෙකක්‌ ගතවී ඇතත්a එක්‌නැලිගොඩට මොකද වුණේ කියා කිසිවකුත් දන්නේද නැත.

එහෙත් ඉතිහාසයේ කිසිදු දිනක සිදු නොවූ අයුරින් “ඔපරේෂන් ඩබල් එඡ්” මෙහෙයුම ඇතුළුව මේ රට වෙනුවෙන් සුවිශේෂි මෙහෙවරක්‌ කළා වූ යුද හමුදා සන්නද්ධ බුද්ධි බළකායේ නිලධාරීන් නව දෙනකුට එරෙහිව දණ්‌ඩ නීති සංග්‍රහයේ 296 වගන්තිය යටතේ මිනී මැරුම් චෝදනා එල්ල කර ඔවුන් බන්ධනාගාරගත කරවන්නට පසුගිය කාලයේ කටයුතු කෙරිණ.

මේ අතරේ විවිධ දේ පවසා අධිකරණයට කරුණු වාර්තා කරමින් යුද හමුදාව සතුව තිබූ ජාතික ආරක්‍ෂාවට අතිශය වැදගත් වන්නා වූ ඉතාම සංවේදී තොරතුරු පවා තමන් භාරයට ගන්නටද විමර්ශකයෝ පියවර ගත්හ. එම තත්ත්වය තුළ අද වන විට එක්‌නැලිගොඩ විමර්ශනය හමුවේ සිදු වූ එකම දෙය වී තිබෙන්නේ හමුදා බුද්ධි අංශ රහස්‌ අනාවරණය වෙමින් ජාතික ආරක්‍ෂාවට පැහැදිලි තර්ජනයක්‌ එල්ල වීම බවද සඳහන් කළ යුතුය.

පසුගිය කාලයේ සිදු කළ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී නඩරාජා රවිරාඡ් ඝාතන විමර්ශනයද එවැන්නකි. එහිදී රවිරාඡ්ට වෙඩි තැබීම සඳහා ඝාතකයා යතුරු පැදියක නංවාගෙන ගිය ප්‍රීතිවිරාඡ් මනම්පේරි නම් වූ පොලිස්‌කාරයා රජයේ සාක්‌කිකරුවකු කරමින් නාවික හමුදා බුද්ධි නිලධාරීන් තිදෙනකු දංගෙඩියට යවන්නට රහස්‌ පොලිසිය දැඩි ලෙස උත්සාහ ගත්තේය.

එහෙත් කොළඹ මහාධිකරණය මගින් එකී නාවික හමුදා බුද්ධි නිලධාරීන් නිදොස්‌ කොට නිදහස්‌ කරනු ලැබීම නිසා එම උත්සාහය ව්‍යර්ථ විය.

රවිරාඡ් නඩුව විභාග වෙමින් තිබියදීම සීඅයිඩීය සිය විමර්ශන මාලාවට අනුව ඊළඟට සමාජය අතරට ගෙනා කතාව වූයේ මාධ්‍යවේදී ලසන්ත වික්‍රමතුංග ඝාතනය ය. එහිදී ලසන්තගේ රියෑදුරා පැහැරගත් බව කියමින් “මිලේනියම් සිටි” පාවා දීමේදී පාවා ජීවිතය බේරාගෙන රටට සේවය කළ සුවිශේෂී බුද්ධි නිලධාරියකු වූ ප්‍රේමානන්ද උදලාගමව අත්අඩංගුවට ගත් ඔවුන් ඔහුව බන්ධනාගාරගත කළේය. එසේ බන්ධනාගාරගත කර සිටියදී මාධ්‍යවේදී උපාලි තෙන්නකෝන්ට පහර දීමේ සිද්ධියටද උදලාගමව සම්බන්ධ කෙරිණ.

මේ සියල්ල සිදු වන්නේ එවකට රිවිර පුවත්පතේ කර්තෘ වූ උපාලි තෙන්නකොන් මහතා තමන්ට සිදුවූ පහර දීම පසුපස සිටිනුයේ සරත් ෆොන්සේකා බව පැහැදිලිවම රහස්‌ පොලිසියට ප්‍රකාශ කර තිබියදී ය. එහෙත් ලසන්ත ඝාතන විමර්ශනයේදී කිසිම අවස්‌ථාවක සරත් ෆොන්සේකා කැඳවා ප්‍රකාශයක්‌ ගන්නට සීඅයිඩීය කටයුතු නොකළේය. ඒ ගැන අහන්නට සරත් ෆොන්සේකා කැඳවූයේ මීට සති දෙකකට පමණ ඉහතදීය.

මේ අන්දමට අද බුද්ධි අංශවලට එරෙහිව සිදු කෙරෙන විමර්ශනවල ඇති ගැටලු සහගත තැන් බොහෝය. ඒවායෙහි කිසිම විනිවිදභාවයක්‌ද පෙනෙන්නට නැත. යුද හමුදා සහ නාවික හමුදා බුද්ධි අංශ රණවිරුවන්ට එරෙහිව සිදු කරන විමර්ශනවලදී දකින්නට ලැබෙන එකම විශේෂත්වය වන්නේ බොහෝ විට රට වෙනුවෙන් විශාල කැපකිරීම් කරමින් කටයුතු කළාවූ බුද්ධි නිලධාරීන් තෝර තෝරා සිරගත කිරීම සීඅයිඩීයේa ඉලක්‌කය වී තිබෙන බවය?

වැල්ලවත්තේදී ළමුන් පස්‌දෙනකු පැහැර ගත්තේ යෑයි කියමින් දැනට සිරගත කර සිටින නාවික හමුදා බුද්ධි අංශයේ කමාණ්‌ඩර් රණසිංහ ඇතුළු පිරිස මෙන්ම ව්‍යාපාරිකයන් දෙදෙනකු පැහැරගත් බව කියමින් සිරගත කර සිටින නාවික හමුදා බුද්ධි බළකායේ ලුතිනන් කමාණ්‌ඩර් ධම්මික අනිල් මාපාත් කීත් නොයාර්ට පහර දුන්නේ යෑයි කියමින් බන්ධනාගාරගත කර සිටින යුද හමුදා සන්නද්ධ බුද්ධි බළකායේ මේජර් බුලත්වත්ත ඇතුළු රණවිරුවන් පිරිසත් මේ රට වෙනුවෙන් ඉටු කර ඇති සේවය දෙස බැලීමේදී එය මනාව පැහැදිලි වන්නකි.

එක්‌නැලිගොඩ සිද්ධියේ සිට මේ දක්‌වා සීඅයිඩීය මගින් විවිධ චෝදනා යටතේ අත්අඩංගුවට ගනු ලැබූ සියලුම බුද්ධි නිලධාරීහු ඉකුත් යුද සමයේ එල්ටීටීඊය පරාජය කිරීම සඳහා දිවි පරදුවට තබා දැඩි කැපවීමකින් කටුයුතු කළෝම වන්නාහ.

රහස්‌ පොලිසියේ විමර්ශනවල යථාර්ථවාදී කතාව එසේ වෙද්දී කීත් නොයාර්ට පහර දීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන සිරගත කර සිටින මේජර් බුලත්වත්ත ඇතුළු යුද හමුදා සන්නද්ධ බුද්ධි බළකායේ රණවිරුවන් පිරිසට ලබන තිස්‌ වැනිදා ඇප ලැබෙන තත්ත්වයක්‌ ද මේ වන විට නිර්මාණය වී ඇත.

ඒ ඔවුන්ට එරෙහිව සාක්‍ෂි දීම සඳහා දැනට ඔස්‌ටේ්‍රලියාවේ පදිංචිව සිටින මාධ්‍යවේදී කීත් නොයාර් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ඒම ප්‍රතික්‍ෂෙප කර ඇති නිසාය. මේ කරුණ හමුවේ මේජර් බුලත්වත්ත ඇතුළු පිරිස ඇප මත නිදහස්‌ වුවහොත් අනෙකුත් සියලු විමර්ශන සේම සීඅයිඩීයේ විමර්ශකයෝ කීත් නොයාර් විමර්ශනයේදීත් අසමත්හු වන්නාහ. එය ඔවුන්ට වදින ප්‍රබල කනේ පහරකි.

එහෙයින් බුලත්වත්ත ඇතුළු පිරිසට ඇප ලැබීම කෙසේ හෝ වළකා ගැනීම සිදු කළ යුතුය. රහස්‌ පොලිසියේ විමර්ශකයෝ අද කඩිමුඩියේම සරත් ෆොන්සේකාගේ කතාව අධිකරණයට රැගෙන යන්නේ මෙන්න මේ හෙතුaව මුල්කරගෙනය. එමගින් මේජර් බුලත්වත්ත ඇතුළු පිරිස මාධ්‍යවේදී ලසන්ත ඝාතනයටද සම්බන්ධ කර තවදුරටත් රක්‍ෂිත බන්ධනාගාරගත කිරීම ඔවුන්ගේ ඉලක්‌කය බව ඉතාම පැහැදිලිය.

මේ අන්දමට බුද්ධි අංශ කෙරෙහි වෛරී විමර්ශන සිදු කරන විමර්කයෝ අද මෙකී ඝාතන සහ පහරදීම් හමුවේ කළ යුතු දේ කොතෙක්‌ නොකර සිටින්නාහුද? ලසන්ත වික්‍රමතුංගගේ සිරුර යළි ගොඩගෙන සිදු කළ දෙවන වෛද්‍ය පරීක්‍ෂණයට අනුව ඔහුගේ ඝාතනය සිදුව ඇත්තේ විශේෂිත අවියකින් කළ පහරදීමකින් බව මේ වන විට අනාවරණය වී තිබෙන්නකි.

එහෙත් මේ අවිය කුමක්‌ද සහ ලසන්ත ඝාතනය සිදුවන කාලසීමාවේ එකී අවිය තිබුණේ කොතැනකදැයි යන්න පිළිබඳ සීඅයිඩීයේ විමර්ශකයන් තවමත් සොයා බැලීමක්‌ කර තිබේද? එසේ කටයුතු කර නැතිනම් ඒ අතපසු වීම සිදුව ඇත්තේ කුමක්‌ නිසාද? ඒ පිළිබඳ මෙතෙක්‌ යුද හමුදාවෙන් විමසීමක්‌ කළ බවක්‌ ද දැන ගැනීමට නැත.

පසුගිය යුද සමයේ මෙවන් අවි පහක්‌ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ආනයනය කෙරුණු බව එකල අපට වාර්තා විය. ඒවා ගෙන්වා තිබුණේ යුද හමුදාවටය. එසේ නම් යුද හමුදාවට අවි සැපයූ සමාගම් වෙත ගොස්‌ ඒ පිළිබඳ විමර්ශන කිරීමට සීඅයිඩීය කටයුතු නොකරන්නේ මොන හේතුවක්‌ නිසාද? එසේ කළහොත් මේ අවියේ රහස හෙළිවෙතැයි වැනි බියක්‌ ඔවුන් ඇතිවී තිබේද?

ලසන්ත ඝාතන විමර්ශනය සිදුවන අතරේ විශ්‍රාමික මේජර් ජෙනරාල් කුමා හේරත් පසුගිය දිනවල රහස්‌ පොලිසියට ගොස්‌ ලසන්ත වික්‍රමතුංග ඝාතනයට අදාළව එක්‌ විශේෂ පැමිණිල්ලක්‌ කර තිබිණි. එහිදී ඔහු බුද්ධි අංශ පිළිබඳව නොව යුද සමයේ කොළඹ සිට ක්‍රියාත්මක වූ යුද හමුදා 112 බ්‍රිගේඩය පිළිබඳ විශේෂ හෙළිදරව්වක්‌ සිදු කළ බවද දැනගැනීමට ලැබිණ.

එහෙත් අදටත් සීඅයිඩීය ඒ පිළිබඳ විමර්ශන කළ බවක්‌ ද දැන ගැනීමට නැත. එසේ වන්නේ කුමක්‌ නිසාද? අප දන්නා පරිදි 2008-2009 කාලසීමාවේදී මේ 112 බ්‍රිගේඩයේ ප්‍රධානියා ලෙස එක්‌තරා යුද හමුදා බ්‍රිගේඩියර්වරයකු පත්ව ආවේය. හෙතෙම එහි ප්‍රධානියා ලෙස කටයුතු කරනු ලැබුවේ හරියටම මාස තුනක පමණ කාලයකි. ඒ 2008 සැප්තැම්බර් 16 වැනිදා සිට 2009 ජනවාරි 19 දක්‌වාය. පසුව ඔහු යුද හමුදා මූලස්‌ථානයට ස්‌ථාන මාරු විය.

යුද හමුදා ඉතිහාසයේ කිසි විටෙකත් බළසේනාවක හෙවත් බ්‍රිගේඩයක ප්‍රධානියකු මෙසේ මාස තුනකින් ඉවත්ව නොයන්නේය. එසේ නම් මේ බ්‍රිගේඩියර්වරයා එසේ ඉවත්ව ගියේ කුමක්‌ නිසාද? ඒ ගැන මෙතෙක්‌ සීඅයිඩීය සොයා බැලීමක්‌ කර තිබේද? මේ පිළිබඳ හිටපු යුද හමුදාපති සරත් ෆොන්සේකාගෙන් ඇසුවොත් තමන් ඒ ගැන නොදන්නේ යෑයි ඔහු කියනු ඇත. එහෙත් එවැන්නක්‌ එදා සිදු විය.

මෙකී 112 බ්‍රිගේඩයට අනුයුක්‌තව එදා යතුරු පැදිවලින් ගමන් ගන්නා ප්‍රහාරක කණ්‌ඩායමක්‌ද සිටියහ. කොළඹ කොල්ලුපිටියේ ස්‌ථානගතව තිබූ මේ බළසේනාවෙන් සිදුකළේ ද කොළඹ ඇතුළු තදාසන්න ප්‍රදේශවල ආරක්‍ෂක කටයුතු සොයා බැලීමය. එසේ නම් මේ බ්‍රිගේඩය ගැන සොයා බැලීමක්‌ නොකර සීඅයිඩීය අද බුද්ධි අංශ නැට්‌ටේම එල්ලෙන්නේ මොන අහේතුවකටද?

අද විමර්ශන මුවාවෙන් මේ ඉටු කෙරෙමින් තිබෙන්නේ බුද්ධි අංශ දියකර දමා රට අරාජික කර වෙනත් පාර්ශ්වයක මනදොළ පිනවීමේ වැඩපිළිවෙළක්‌a වීම එයට හේතු වී තිබෙන්නේද? අප ඒ ප්‍රශ්නය මෙහිදී නඟන්නේ ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතාගේ අවධානය මේ කෙරෙහි දැඩිව යොමු කරනු පිණිසය.

බුද්ධි අංශ දඩයම හමුවේ සිදුවන විනාශයෙන් මේ රට ගලවා ගැනීමට ජනාධිපතිවරයා හැර අන් කිසිවකුත් නැති බව අපේ එකම විශ්වාසය වී තිබෙන්නකි. එහෙයින් ඔහුට මේ අවනඩුව දෙස බලන්නැයි කියනු හැර අපට අද වෙන කියන්නට දෙයක්‌ ඉතිරිව නැත.

සාකච්ඡා කළේ – මනෝඡ් අබයදීර උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින

දිනෙන් දින ඉහළ යන ආරක්‌ෂක බුද්ධි අංශ සාමාජිකයන් අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීම සම්බන්ධව සමාජයේ ඇතිවී තිබෙන කතාබහ පිළිබඳ සංවාදය සඳහා හිටපු ආරක්‌ෂක ලේකම් ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්‌ෂ මහතා සමග ‘දිවයින ඉරිදා සංග්‍රහය’ කරන සාකච්ඡාවයි මේ.

පිළිතුර – එතුමා සමඟ මගේ තිබුණ සම්බන්ධතාව කලින් ආණ්‌ඩුවේ සිටමයි තිබුණේ. ඇමැතිවරයෙක්‌ ලෙස එතුමා කටයුතු කරන කාලයේ මම ළඟින්ම ආශ්‍රය කළෙත් නැහැ. ඒ වගේම එතුමාට කිසිම අවස්‌ථාවක විරුද්ධ වුණෙත් නැහැ. එතුමා අගමැති ලෙස පත් කරන්න කියලා, මහින්ද රාජපක්‌ෂ ජනාධිපතිතුමාගෙන් මම කිහිපවතාවක්‌ම ඉල්ලීම් කළා. මෛත්‍රිපාල ජනාධිපතිතුමා වැඩ කරන්නේ එජාපයත් එක්‌ක… ඒක එතුමාටත් අපහසුතාවක්‌ වෙන්න ඇති. ඒ නිසා දැන් එතුමා සමඟ තිබෙන සම්බන්ධය අඩුයි. දැන් එතුමාට අපි ගැන එක එක දේවල්, කේලම් කියනවා ඇති… ගෝඨා කුමන්ත්‍රණ කරනවා කියලා කියනවා ඇති… එතුමා ජනාධිපතිතුමානේ… මම නිකං ඉන්න මිනිහෙක්‌නේ… බුද්ධි අංශ නිලධාරීන් පිළිබඳව, ජාතික ආරක්‌ෂාව පිළිබඳව එතුමා මගෙන් මොකක්‌ හරි ඇහැව්වොත් මම එතුමා සමග කතා කරනවා. මේ රටේ හැටි දන්නවනේ… අපි කුමන්ත්‍රණකාරයෝ විදිහට එතුමාට කියලා ඇතිනේ… ඒ නිසා එතුමත් කැමති නැතුව ඇති අපි සමග මේ දේවල් කතා කරන්න… බලයේ සිටින විට කියන කේලම් ගැන අපි දන්නවනේ… ගෝඨාගේ මිනිස්‌සු ඉන්නවා… ගෝඨාගේ අය කුමන්ත්‍රණ කරනවා කියලා කිව්වහම එතුමා අපිත් එක්‌ක කතා කරන්නේ නැහැනේ…

Joint Opposition holds anti-govt rally in Galle ආණ්ඩුවට එරෙහිව පෙරළියක පෙරමග ගාල්ලෙන්

By Yusuf Ariff  Courtesy Adaderana

March 25, 2017  07:54 pm

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa says that the reason for soaring rice prices and cost of living is due to the ‘stupid’ decisions and carelessness of the government.

– See more at: http://www.adaderana.lk/news/39826/the-law-is-helpless-today-mahinda-rajapaksa#sthash.v9fslXAC.dpuf

රට වෙනුවෙන් යුධ බිමේ මෙන්ම පිටරටදීද සටන් වැදීමට සූදානම් රියර් අද්මිරාල් සරත් වීරසේකර කොටි ඩයස් පෝරාවට සහ පාට කණ්නාඩි දමාගත් එක්සත් ජාතීන්ට නිවරදිව ප්‍රතිඋත්තර ලබාදුන් නමුත් ඒ පිළිබඳව නිවරදිව අවබෝධයක් නොමැතිව එතුමන්ව විවේචනය කිරීමට සිරිසේන ජනපතිවරයාගේ හම්බන්තොට ගෝලයා වන මහින්ද අමරවීර කටයුතු කළේය.

රට වෙනුවෙන් යුධ බිමේ මෙන්ම පිටරටදීද සටන් වැදීමට සූදානම් රියර් අද්මිරාල් සරත් වීරසේකර කොටි ඩයස් පෝරාවට සහ පාට කණ්නාඩි දමාගත් එක්සත් ජාතීන්ට නිවරදිව ප්‍රතිඋත්තර ලබාදුන් නමුත් ඒ පිළිබඳව නිවරදිව අවබෝධයක් නොමැතිව එතුමන්ව විවේචනය කිරීමට සිරිසේන ජනපතිවරයාගේ හම්බන්තොට ගෝලයා වන මහින්ද අමරවීර කටයුතු කළේය.