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President seeks JSC recommendation to dismiss Kannan

March 13th, 2017

By C. A. Chandraprema Courtesy The Island

The Island exclusively reported last week that the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) had, in a letter to President Maithripala Sirisena dated 23 February 2017, disowned the recommendation it made earlier that Ramanathan Kannan be appointed a High Court Judge. In that letter, the JSC stated that if the BASL had made ‘no proper recommendation’ that Kannan be appointed a High Court judge, the recommendation that the JSC had sent earlier to the President had ‘no force or avail in law’.

This retraction by the JSC made Ramanathan Kannan’s appointment as High Court Judge unconstitutional as Article 111(2) (a) of the Constitution stipulates that judges of the High Court can be appointed by the president only on the recommendation of the Judicial Services Commission.

However, in their letter of 23 February 2017, the JSC has not expressly recommended that Kannan be removed from office.

The Secretary to the President, P. B. Abeykoon has written to the Secretary of the Judicial Services Commission on 8 March 2017 seeking recommendation for the removal of Mr Kannan in terms of Article 111(2) (b) of the Constitution, which provides for the dismissal of High Court judges by the President on the recommendations of the JSC.

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Ex-war criminals try to protect human rights now – Gotabaya

March 13th, 2017

By Binoy Suriyaarachchi Courtesy Adaderana

March 13, 2017 09:17 pm

Those who committed war crimes have now become the ‘champions’ who attempt to act as guardians of human rights, former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa says.

He also pointed out those who endorsed to the LTTE are now with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). These are the kind of people who raise their voice to safeguard human rights now,” he said while addressing a gathering held in Colombo on Monday.

He also slammed the UK’s PM for turning a blind eye to the alleged war crimes committed by the British soldiers, while unnecessary attempting to interfere into internal affairs of Sri Lanka.

Rajapaksa further stressed that the role of the Defence Ministry of a country should be to convey the message in order to ensure the reputation of the country in terms of human rights situation, rather taking steps to make the situation even worse.

– See more at: http://www.adaderana.lk/news/39600/ex-war-criminals-try-to-protect-human-rights-now-gotabaya#sthash.4EyvTNnZ.dpuf

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Time is now ripe for the Tamil speaking people to know the real roll of the TNA

March 13th, 2017

V.Anandasangaree Secretary General –TULF

It is not a question of digging into the past, for anyone to find fault with me. But I have a sacred duty cast on me to record correctly the past events in the TULF and of the disaster that fell on the TNA, in order of time and also about the great individuals, who toiled hard for the Party to achieve a solution to the ethnic problem. I will limit myself only to matters relating to the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) and the TNA. I hope my efforts will be greatly appreciated, since the present generation knows little or nothing about our recent past and also because what I say is true. I am not a Historian to deal with all aspects of history. But to deal with the history of the TULF, the TNA and about its leaders, I am one of the very few living today who can claim to be one of the founder members of the TULF and the TNA, knowing every leader and many youth leaders personally and about their worthy contributions and sacrifices made by them, in finding a solutions to the long standing ethnic problem. I have a great sacred responsibility to show the world by whatever way possible, that the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) which is now functioning, has nothing to do with the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK)founded by the great S.J.V.Chelvanayagam who left behind a new formation called the Tamil United Liberation Front, in place of the Federal Party ‘ITAK’ which he intended to wind up with the appointment of two other much respected Tamil leaders Hon.G.G.Ponnambalam Q.C leader of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress and Hon.S.Thondaman leader of the Ceylon Workers Congress to share with him the chair of the TULF. The ITAK now formed was 26 years after the death of the founder and many others connected with it. The legal successor of the original ITAK ‘Federal Party’ is only the TULF. If I remain silent even now, all their sacrifices and the hard work they did risking their lives and some losing their lives as well, will remain buried with their bones.

In the present confused situation it is not that easy to deal with the history of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) and about the TNA. But my mission is not to confuse the situation further but only to bring to light certain selected incidents relating to both the TULF and the TNA to clarify matters that have hitherto remained concealed, some exaggerated, some misinterpreted and many erased off from the memory of the people. Without going much deep into the matter I will confine myself to the period starting with the reunion of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) and the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchchi (ITAK)the two political parties led by Hon.G.G.Ponnambalam Q.C and the Hon.S.J.V.Chelvanayagam Q.C respectively.

The adoption of the New Republican Constitution in 1972 precipitated a constitutional crisis and at the request of Hon. S.J.V.Chelvanayagam, Hon.G.G.Ponnambalam agreed to merge his party with that of the ITAK to form a new party called the Tamil United Front which later adopted a new name as Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) at a subsequent convention of the Party. Office bearers for the new Party were selected from both groups. Hon.S.J.V.Chelvanayagam became President. Mr.A.Amirthalingam of the ITAK and Mr.M.Sivasithambaram of the ACTC became Joint Secretaries and Mr.V.Anandasangaree of the ACTC and Mr.M.Aalalasundaram of the ITAK became joint Propaganda Secretaries and Mr.T.Thirunavukarasu of the ACTC and Mr.V.Dharmalingam of the ITAK became Joint Treasurers. There were very senior lawyers from both parties like Ex-Senator S.R.Kanaganayagam, M/s T.Sangarapillai, R.Vishvanathan, V.Yogeswaran. K.Selvarajah, S.Rajanayagam, S.Nadarajah and many such other prominent citizens. Mr.S.C.Chandrahasan functioned as legal secretary.

I who represented Kilinochchi in Parliament from the ACTC, was also a founder member of the TULF. At the time of inauguration of the TULF Mr. R.Sampanthan had not join the TULF. Mr. Mavai Senathirajah too, being in detention for writing slogans against the Republican Constitution. At the 1977 General Election 18 of us got elected to Parliament from the North and the East. The Nomination Board of the TULF headed by Hon.S.Thondaman, nominated Mr.R.Sampanthan for the Trincomalee Electorate and Mr.A.Amirthalingam for the K.K.S Electorate. which both of them won. Mr.Senathiraja should know why Mr.A.Amirthalingam was shifted from his Vaddukoddai Electorate to the K.K.S Electorate and also why Mr.S.Nadarajah was not nominated for K.K.S electorate.

From the time the TULF was formed in 1972 till 1983 the TULF was involved very actively in various activities of the TULF, as and when decided by the party. Our leaders served even jail sentences. I served a jail term once. Many of our youths arrested were either tortured or tortured and killed. The leaders and the people had undergone untold hardships. The biggest contribution to democracy any political party ever made in Sri Lanka or elsewhere was the quitting of 18 of us from Parliament, protesting against the extension of term of office of Parliament by a referendum. When we all quit Parliament in July- August 1983, the Government passed the 6th amendment to the constitution in our absence to prevent anyone committed to TULF principles, from contesting a seat without subscribing an oath under the 6th amendment. Our seats remained vacant for a full period of six years. Each one of us has long tales of woe neither understood nor heard of by the present generation, which thinks that there were only one or two like Mr. Mavai Senathirajah who had made the greatest sacrifice for the Tamil cause, when in fact there were thousands of them who had undergone severe hardships. During this time a lot of incidents took place such as 1983 communal riots, resignation of TULF Members of parliament some leaving for India to take up temporary residence, assassination of Hon .V.Dharmalingam and Hon.Alalasundaram, the cold blooded murders of young Party volunteers, some other youths, signing of Indo- Sri Lanka Accord and many more.

After a long break the TULF contested the General Elections in 1989 and got badly beaten due to the unsettled situation and the domination of some armed groups in the North and the East. The TULF managed to get only one seat, that too was from the National list. The National list vacancy was filled by Hon.A.Amirthalingam former Secretary General of the TULF. Within six months he was assassinated. Unfortunately no one offered to give evidence against anybody, although there were people close to the late Mr.A.Amirthalingam at the scene of the incident, no one volunteered to give evidence. One was Mr. Mavai Senathiraja. Many people were keen to have a Presidential Commission appointed to inquire into this murder but those who should have taken interest did not bother about it.

Many were interested only in getting nominated to fill the vacancy in Parliament. It was I who presided over and proposed Mr.Mavai Senathiraja’s name at the meeting held on 16^th September,1989 to fill the vacancy. Much later only I came to know that Mr.Mavai Senathiraja wanted to be both the leader of the party and also the nominated membership of Parliament. All members of Mr.A.Amirthalingam’s family were aware of it, because this request was made to Mrs.Mankayarkarasi Amirthalingam. There were several others who participated at that meeting thinking that their names also will be considered. Mr.R.Sampanthan came all the way from India with this idea and Dr. Neelan Thiruchelvam wanted a postponement when Mr.Senathiraja’s name was considered for appointment as nominated MP. Accordingly at a subsequent meeting held on the 05^th of October,1989 also, it was I who proposed Mr.Senathiraja’s name and had him nominated to fill the seat occupied by Mr.A.Amirthalingam in Parliament. I hope Mr.Senathiraja and Mr.Sampanthan will remember the difficulty we had in persuading the Commissioner of Elections to accept Mr. Senathiraja’s nomination, because according to the records available with the Commissioner of Elections Mr.A.Amirthalingam’s name was there as the Secretary General of the TULF. I am sure Mr.Senathiraja will agree and Mr.R.Sampanthan will confirm that if not for the declaration made by three of us as members of the politburo, Mr.Senathiraja would not have got it even in his dreams. In any case only very small number of people attended this meeting, most of whom were not members of the party, only supporters. Mr.Mavai Senathiraja was aware about it. Following Mr..A.Amirthalingam’s assassination even important members of the party avoided visiting the office in Colombo for years. Two people who attended the meeting were shot dead one of whom was Mr.Nadesu, a District Council member.

Mr.Senathiraja who got all what he was entitled to as a Member of Parliament, including the vehicle, enjoyed all facilities, but didn’t have the courtesy to give to the party even the Photo Copy machine free which he got from Parliament. The party had to pay him Rs.25, 000 for the machine. Mr.Senathiraja has up to now, not shown his gratitude to those very senior members who kept silent and showed their magnanimity in his nomination as MP. The party underwent severe hardships due to lack of funds. Mr.Senathiraja did not offer to the party even one cent out of the money he realized by the sale of the duty free vehicle. It is painful to come out with some of these matters but unfortunately it is due to his own seeking. Many more will follow.

The next General Election took place on 08^th of August, 1994. At that Election due to the dominance of the armed groups the TULF could not win any seat in the North but won four seats in the East totaling five including the one National list seat. Mr.Senathiraja who contested Digamadulla and Mr.R.Sampanthan who contested in Trincomalee lost at the Elections. The only National list seat was justifiably given to Dr.Neelan Thiruchelvam when Mr.M.Sivasithambaram the President of the party was living. Although there were several defeated candidates including me, only Mr.R.Sampanthan and Mr.Mavai Senathiraja were demanding the National seat for themselves. But the party could not give in. In the mean time Hon A.Thangathurai who won the Trincomalee seat was assassinated and that vacancy automatically got filled by Mr.R.Sampanthan who was next in the list. Up to now except me no one had asked for a Presidential Commission to inquire this case also. Mr.Senathiraja and his constituents continued to agitate to get the National list seat inspite of the fact that National list vacancy had already been given to Dr.Neelan Thiruchelvam. They were repeatedly sending deputations from Digamadulla Electorate to pressurize the party. Since Mr.M.Sivasithambaram, the President of the party who was ill in India, I had to take a decision in this matter.

On the 31^st of May 1999 I wrote a lengthy letter running to five pages to Dr.Neelan Thiruchelvam explain the situation and asking him to resign his seat and nominate Mr.Mavai Senathiraja in his place, since the Ampara people were harassing me. Their claim was that they had given a substantial number of votes to Mr.Mavai Senathiraja. Since I had to go to Germany to take up the issue of the asylum seekers with the German officials, I wrote another letter briefly on the 05^th of July,1999 asking Dr.Neelan to resign the seat and give it to Mr.Mavai Senathiraja without waiting for my arrival. Unfortunately Dr.Neelan Thiruchelvam was assassinated and I had to rush back to Colombo to attend the funeral. A couple of days later Mr. R.Sampanthan as Secretary General of the party convened a meeting which M/s R.Sampanthan, Joseph Pararajasingam, P.Selvarajah,S.Thurairajasingam all of whom were Members of Parliament, Mr.Mavai Senathiraja Mr.S.Thiyagaraja and myself attended. When Mr.R.Sampanthan asked as to who we should nominate, I promptly told him what I wrote to Dr.Neelan before leaving for Germany and expressed my support for his nomination, hearing which Mr.Mavai Senathiraja appeared to be very happy. Accordingly Mr.Mavai Senathiraja was nominated and he was happy that he was qualifying for Parliamentary pension. Those present at the meeting were shocked at my decision and some of them even found fault with me subsequently for offering the National list membership to the same person a second time. As far as I was concerned it was a scarifies on my part to keep the party united. Had I indicated my willingness I would have got it easily. Now I realize my mistake because some of our party members were angry with me for not considering them for the appointment, if I did not want it. If another person had been appointed to this office he would have helped the Party, which was financially poor. Furthermore the embarrassment I suffered due to this appointment cannot be described in words. I earned a number of enemies unnecessarily, all of whom are still angry with me, even more than 25 years after Mr.Mavai Senathiraja was nominated as M.P twice on the initiative taken by me.

The next General Election took place on the 10^th of October 2000 without any problem but although the polling was low I came first among the nine members elected for the Electoral District of Jaffna. This Parliament was dissolved after one year and date fixed for the next General Election was 05^th December,2001. Before nomination the following leading citizens namely Mr.V.Kailayapillai, Mr.Kandiah Neelakandan Mr.V.R.Vadivetkarasan, Mr.Nimalan Karthikeyan, Mr.S.Thiyagaraja and Mr.S.Jeyapalasingam convened a meeting of four Tamil political parties on the 22^nd of October 2001 and formed the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) with Tamil United Liberation Front, All Ceylon Tamil Congress, Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization and EPRLF. This alliance contested the General Election on 05-12-2001 on the symbol of the TULF (Rising Sun). When the TULF met to nominate candidates Mr.Mavai Senathiraja shockingly expressed his wish that at that Election he should be the Chief candidate for the Electoral District of Jaffna. The members of the Nomination Board although disgusted and angry took it as a joke, ignoring his request.

At that Election out of the candidates nominated he selected two strong candidates and canvassed support for the three of them which act was condemned by everybody as unethical and also as a selfish act. At this Election he polled about 33,000 votes while I polled 36,000 votes. This is the time Mr. Mavai Senathiraja started showing his true colours and led the party to total destruction.

After the 2001 Election at the request of Mr.V. Prabaharan the newly elected Members of Parliament paid a visit to Killinochchi and had a good reception with rich lunch and dinner. Much later the LTTE wanted the TULF to recognize them as the Sole Representatives of the Tamil People which I refused to concede because they were not so and also that this claim will prove counterproductive. This is what the Island of 26th March 2003 said The President of the Tamil United Liberation Front Mr. V.Anandasangaree has stated that his party does not accept the hegemony of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The TULF had accepted the Sole Representative position of the LTTE only in regard to the peace process and the talks with the government.” If this position had been maintained by all, a lot of killings could have been avoided enabling Mr.Prabaharan and several thousand innocent youths to live.

The TULF is a Political Party based on non-violence and founded by the late Hon.S.J.V.Chelvanayagam who was affectionately referred to as Gandhi of Eelam. Gradually the conduct of Mr.Mavai Senathiraja became very shocking. Although he was appointed as nominated M.P twice on my initiative and gave all help to contest to enter Parliament a third time on the TULF ticket. His trying to revive the Federal Party was an outright betrayal of the trust the leaders like Hon. S.J.V.Chelvanayagam, Mr.A.Amirthalingam and such others had on him. The following report in the media raised serious doubt in the minds of the people about the genuineness of this M.P. Mrs.M.Amirthalingam in a statement had said My husband preserved the registration of the Federal Party for the sole purpose that no undesirable elements could misuse its symbol and the name. He never wanted to revive the Federal Party” She further said Thus I categorically make it clear to all that I have neither approved nor blessed the revival of the Federal Party but instead condemned it, as this act is a ploy to destroy the TULF which was formed by our great leaders” .

In reply to her Mr.Mavai Senathiraja issued a lengthy false and a contradictory statement saying that the Federal Party and its policies are very well protected by him. The following news dated 14^th October, 2003 18 days after his statement appeared in the press under the caption Mavai meets LTTE in Killinochchi TULF M.P Mavai Senathiraja who is in the process of reviving the Federal Party visited Killinochchi and had meetings with LTTE’s deputy political commissar Thangan on 14.10.2003. The revival of the Federal Party is being undertaken at the behest of the LTTE”. His jugglery stands confirmed with an interview he gave to an English paper that carried it on 19^th Oct, 2003 exposing his true colours. To a question, Is it because the LTTE wanted to get rid of the TULF leadership that they have instructed you to revive the Federal Party,” for which, his answer was, This is not true. I totally reject it”. In any case convening the convention is the duty of the Secretary of the Party. In our case it was Mr.R.Sampanthan’s business. Furthermore, from 1972 till 2004 a period of 32 years not a single person enrolled as a member of the Federal Party. There is a limit for lies and frauds also. I wish to mention another matter here. Mrs Amirthalingam in her statement had said that her husband had the Federal Party’s registration inforce to prevent anyone, misusing the name and the symbol of the Federal Party. It is for the same reason in 2004 the President of the Federal Party Mr.K.Sinnathurai wanted to file action to prevent Mr.Mavai Senathiraja misusing the name, and the symbol of the Federal Party. But Mr.Mavai Senathiraja sought the support of the LTTE’s Political Head Mr.S.P.Thamilchelvan to silent the President of the Federal Party Mr.Sinnathurai. Even today no one has any right to hold any office in the Federal Party because the Federal Party was not properly constituted.

Apart from bringing disgrace to the much respected leaders like Hon.S.J.V.Chelvanayagam Hon.G.G.Ponnambalam, Mr.A.Amirthalingam, Mr.M.Sivasithambaram and dishonor to the innocent and genuine supporters of the TULF, it is very low on the part of some leaders, who pretend to be followers of the great leader, affectionately called and referred to as Gandhi of Sri Lanka, to misuse his name for their personal gains. The leader of this group is none other than Mr.Mavai Senathiraja.

The TULF as a mark of respect, through the CWC leader Hon.S.Thondaman honored him with the title ‘Mootharignar’ at the Silver Jubilee celebration of the ITAK on 18-12- 1974 at the Ramakrishna Mission Hall at Wellawatte. It was also at this function that only I was privileged to adorn him with a ‘Golden Shawl’ ‘Ponnadai’. This was the last function ever held in the name of the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) during S.J.V’s life time. Not only that, from that day till 2004 when his name was misused, covering a period 30 years , only the name TULF was used at all Elections and all positions were held in the name of the TULF.

He never, even in his dreams, intended to revive the ITAK after the Silver Jubilee celebration. For all intends and purposes he wanted the Tamil United Liberation Front to attend to all matters relating to the Tamil speaking people including the Up-Country sector. He also wished to have all Tamil speaking people under one umbrella. As a prelude to this, while living, he shared the chair of the TULF with two others, much respected by the Tamil speaking people, Hon.S.Thondaman and Hon.G.G.Ponnambalam, the leaders of the CWC and the ACTC respectively. Since these three leaders are no more, it does not mean that anyone can usurp their place.

In 2001 four parties the TULF, ACTC, TELO and EPRLF formed the TNA at the request of some Tamil leading citizens. I was elected as its Chairman. From the time the TULF was formed in 1972 till 2001 when the TNA was formed and thereafter till the General Election held in 2004, the TULF continued to function. Mr Mavai Senathiraja who was opposed to the TULF, fraudulently replaced it with the ITAK in the TNA without the knowledge of the other constituents. This too is an arbitrary act. The ITAK founded by Hon.S.J.V.Chelvanayagam that remained defunct for a long period has nothing to do with the ITAK which Mr.Senathiraja claims to have revived on somebody’s advice. Therefore neither the removal of the TULF from the TNA nor accommodating the ITAK in the TNA is justifiable. Not only that, this incident had very serious repercussions on the Tamil people. The worst part is, their accepting the LTTE as the National leaders and as the Sole Representatives of the Tamil people. They had also vouched to support the LTTE to achieve their objectives. This commitment will mean that the TNA should take responsibility for all actions the LTTE got involved in, from the day the TNA released its manifesto at the 2004 Parliamentary Elections.

The General Election of April 2004 was the worst political disaster the country as a whole, ever faced, completely derailing the democratic process in the North and the East for which Hon.R.Sampanthan and Hon.Mavai Senathiraja should be held responsible. Duties of the Government officials were taken over by the LTTE. At the end of the day all the 22 candidates of the TNA were declared elected, creating a record polling of over 95% of the votes. All rival candidates were not allowed to campaign or even to vote. Hon.R.Sampanthan and Hon. Mavai Senathiraja of the TNA were two of the 22 who won the elections. Since this victory was forced on them with the connivance of the LTTE, they should have resigned enbloc, the very next day. But they comfortably occupied all the 22 seats for a full term of six years, enjoying all benefits. The request made by the International Monitoring Teams to annul the elections and to hold fresh elections was turned down by the Commissioner of Elections, on the grounds that there was no provision for such arrangements in the Elections Ordinance.

The Government that should have taken remedial measures did not take any action. The Members so elected, should have been either removed or expelled from Parliament. They did not resign their seats on their own or any legal action taken again them. Instead all these 22 Members, who were 10% of the total Membership of Parliament, which was 225, continued to serve their full term of six years uninterruptedly. They also contested the next election with their legal disability and won 14 seats by obtaining only 10% of the total votes. The TULF was not merely defeated at the poll. The TULF a moderate political party committed to non-violence that had 18 members in Parliament once, was virtually got rid of forever, by illegal means and without any action taken by the Government to have it reinstated. The irony is some who lost the Election in the morning surprisingly won in the evening. Furthermore for the assassinations of M/s Kingsly Rasanayagam, N.Raviraj, T.Maheswaran, Laxman Kathirgamar, Rajan Sathiyamoorthy and for the killings of over five hundred innocent people and injuring over 1500 others are commitments for which M/s R.Sampanthan and Mavai Senathiraja, should be held responsible for misleading the TNA and for all crimes committed till the end of the war. The irony is that some of the authors of this master plan, who got defeated at the 2004 General Elections in the morning and later in the day, won the election mysteriously. The truth is that the Election was conducted by the LTTE and these gentlemen owe their victory to the LTTE. These are the great leaders now wanting the LTTE to be tried for War Crimes, having encouraged them as Sole Representative of the Tamil people and indirectly appreciated and encouraged all their activities.

I have brought out, although not in full detail, a brief history of the Tamil United Liberation Front, and that of the TNA to show the world as to what an important role the TULF had played from the time of its inception. The inauguration of the TULF was the product of great sacrifices made by two great men second only to the patriots like Sir.Ponnambalam Ramanathan, Sir.Ponnambalam Arunachalam and such others. The said two leaders S.J.V.Chelvanayagam and G.G.Ponnambalam put aside their petty differences for the benefit of the Tamil cause and formed the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF). I being a founder member of the TULF which was founded based on Gandhian principles by no less a person than the late Hon.S.J.V.Chelvanayagam popularly known and referred to as Eelathu Gandhi and Thanthai Chelva. The revival of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi, 26 years after the demise of the founder who wound it up and replaced it with the Tamil United Liberation Front was the greatest political betrayal of the last Century. Thanthai Selva shared the Presidentship of the TULF with the two great leaders Hon.G.G.Ponnambalam Q.C and Hon.S.Thondaman to look after all the interest of the Tamil speaking people and to promote unity among them.

A massive 80 foot tall pillar with the ‘Rising Sun’ emblem engraved on its top, erected by the grateful people of Sri Lanka, stands majestically at the Jaffna esplanade on the spot where he was cremated and will continue to remain so, may be perhaps till the end of the Universe. In the tomb adjoining this pillar his remains lay entombed.

Since major part of this great personality’s history has been concealed and distorted due to the confusion created by the revival of the ITAK ‘Federal Party’, I had a sacred duty by him to let the whole world know as to what had happened to the TULF and the Federal Party founded by him. This is to inform the public and all concerned all over the world that the TULF still functions. The Federal Party claimed to have been revived by an individual 26 years after the founder was cremated as the leader of the Tamil United Liberation Front and a monument erected by the grateful public of Sri Lanka, the progress of the TULF had been deliberately curtailed and the founder insulted.

If our great leader’s soul is to rest in peace, the Federal Party that is now functioning should be wound-up. All those concerned should dissolve it and join the TULF, the doors of which will be kept opened for anybody who honestly love and respect Thanthai Chelva.

V.Anandasangaree Secretary General –TULF

PS: – With deep concern that the Tamil community is being dragged down a destructive path, I am compelled to write this letter to bring to light some truths. Certain important matters that are irrelevant are omitted. All what are said here are true. Therefore I plead every Tamil to read this to know the truth and act accordingly.

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SRI LANKA: Man killed by police officers in the Headquarters of the Gampaha Police Station

March 13th, 2017

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME Extra-judicial killing; impunity; rule of law; justice

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about Mr. Sunanda Dias, a resident of No: 31, Niwandama, Ja-Ella, in the Gampaha District. He was extra-judicially killed on 04 November 2016, by officers attached to the Gampaha Police Station. No proper investigation has been carried out as yet. This is justice denied for the victim and his family. In this case we see illustrated the extraordinary collapse of the rule of law in the country. And, the State’s policy of combating crime by killing suspects has encouraged police officers to kill with impunity.

CASE NARRATIVE:

Information has been received by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) about Mr. Sunanda Dias, a resident of No: 31, Niwandama, Ja-Ella, in Gampaha District. He was extra-judicially killed on 04 November 2016, by officers attached to the Gampaha Police Station.

On 2nd November 2016, a team of police officers arrested Sunanda between 12.30pm-1pm at his home. After being arrested, he was severely tortured by the officers in front of his relatives and neighbors. Then he was brought to the Headquarters of the Gampaha Police Station by car. While he was being tortured, Sunanda’s mother, Ms. K R Dhammika, pleaded with the officers not to torture him. But they did not respond to her and continued their assault.

In the evening, a friend of Sunanda, Mr. Muthuwadige Thushan Anuja Pushpakuma (NIC No: 881403340V) of No: 80, Kadirana North, Deman Handiya, Katana went to the police station to visit him while he was detained in a cell. Anuja learned about the incident from Sunanda’s mother. Although Anuja brought several food items and a milk pack for the victim, he refused all foods–and drank only few sips of milk.

On the third evening, Sunanda’s mother informed Anuja that her son had been admitted to the Gampaha General Hospital. The message was delivered by a police officer via his mobile phone. At 6pm Anuja, visited him in the hospital. He saw his friend in Ward No: 7 on the 5th floor. Anuja observed that one hand was cuffed to the hospital bed and a saline solution was continuously dripping. His friend was seriously ill and not able to get up from the bed or move on his own. Several police officers were guarding him. Although Anuja tried to provide some food for his friend, the officers would not allow it.

In the evening of the same day, Anuja again went to the hospital. This time, Sunanda tried to talk to him. He needed to go to the washroom to relieve himself. A police officer holding Sunanda from one side, and Anuja holding him from the other side, brought him to the washroom. They partially lifted and carried him to the washroom, as he could not walk by himself. Here he removed the bed sheet which was wrapped around his body. Then Anuja saw how his both knees were swollen. Sunanda told him that he was severely tortured at the police station. Officers beat him with poles. Anuja also observed a large number of contusions on the victim’s back. Sunanda explained to him that all these were the result of the severe torture he suffered. The horror, stress and pain he was under, made him breakdown and cry in front of Anuja.

On the 4th morning at 5.30am, Anuja again went to the hospital to visit. But Sunanda was not in the same bed. Then Anuja inquired from other patients the whereabouts of his friend. Finally, the ward nurse said that Sunanda was brought to the National Hospital of Colombo (NHSL) after he had fallen. Anuja went to Sunanda’s parents and informed them of the situation. Later, the victim’s sister, J B Suwendani Dias asked the police how her brother was at this time. The officer abruptly informed her that Sunanda was dead.

At 12.30pm, Sunanda’s father, J B Gunawardana and Anuja visited the NHSL. Several prison officials approached, informing them that while Sunanda was being treated he jumped out the window and ran along the first floor. It was at this point that he was brought to the NHSL after a hospital attendant noticed the victim lying on the floor. Anuja vehemently refuted this explanation. First, he said that as Sunanda was handcuffed how could he get out of bed? Second, he mentioned that the victim’s both knees were swollen and he was unable to move. So how could he walk or even run. Anuja and the father both accused the officers of killing Sunanda by pushing him out the window to cover up the evidence of their torture. The officers then left .

Anuja was called to give evidence before the Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) before they conducted a post mortem examination. He testified before the coroner at the death inquest. Before he gave evidence, a police officer from the Gampaha Police Station threatened him, warning him not to give evidence and not to reveal what he witnessed. But he reiterated that he would testify to what he witnessed throughout the whole process from after his friend’s arrest until his death.

Anuja and his family members declared that Sunanda was illegally arrested, detained, severely tortured and finally extra-judicially killed—all to cover up evidence of torture by the police. They seek justice for him.

According to the Constitution, law enforcement authorities are bound to protect the right to life of its citizens and their constitutionally enshrined rights. Sri Lanka is a country governed under a democratic framework. It is obligated to support the Judiciary, impose the rule of law, and protect the civil liberties of all its citizens. Extra-judicial killing of its citizens by police officers has become an unrestricted norm throughout the country.

Any incident in which a policeman kills a person should be investigated promptly—without delay and efficiently. However, in this instance, the State has not shown any interest in investigating the killing and bringing the responsible police officers before the courts. For too many years there has been no responsibility taken by Sri Lankan police commanders. It is the supervisory officers that should be held primarily responsible for the killings perpetrated by officers under their command.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

The Asian Human Rights Commission has reported numerous cases of arbitrary arrest, detention, torture and extrajudicial of citizens at the hands of the police. These are behaviors that are illegal under international and local law but have been taking place in all police stations over the past twenty years. It has been observed by the Asian Human Rights Commission that the Sri Lankan police have used torture as an instrument to terrorize innocent persons and harass the public. Furthermore, the police throughout the country are implementing a policy of eliminating criminals by arresting them, by killing them without ever producing them in a court of law.

There is a lack of protection for those who are willing to take up cases against abusive police officers and State authorities. This means that the law continues to be employed as a tool by the police to harass people. By undermining civilian respect for the law and encouraging impunity, a long-term toll falls on the victims, their families and on society as a whole.

The Asian Human Rights Commission has continuously exposed the way witnesses and victims are harassed and, on some occasions even killed to suppress justice. The AHRC has urged the State of Sri Lanka to draw up and adopt a new law for a witness protection scheme.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write to the authorities listed below expressing your concern about this case. Request an immediate investigation into the allegations of extra-judicial killings by police, and the prosecution of those proven to be responsible under the country’s criminal law protocol. All officers involved must be subject to an internal investigation for breach of Departmental Police orders. The AHRC will write a separate letter to the Special Rapporteur on Extra-judicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions in this regard.

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උතුරු මැද පළාත් සභාවට අයත් ආයුර්වේද කාර්ය මණ්ඩලය කලක සිට මුහුණ දෙන පහත දැක්වෙන වෘත්තීය ගැටළු වන.

March 13th, 2017

උතුරු මැද පළාත් සභාවට අයත් ආයුර්වේද කාර්ය මණ්ඩලය මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනයයි.

උතුරු මැද පළාත් සභාවට අයත් ආයුර්වේද කාර්ය මණ්ඩලය කලක සිට මුහුණ දෙන පහත දැක්වෙන වෘත්තීය ගැටළු වන.

අනියම් කාර්ය මණ්ඩලය ස්ථිර නො කිරීම.
06/2006 චක‍්‍රලේඛය විධිමත්ව ක‍්‍රියාත්මක නො කිරීම.
2016 අයවැයෙන් වැඩි කළ මුදල් මෙතෙක් නො ගෙවීම.
ආහාර දීමනා හිඟ මුදල් නො ගෙවීම.
විශේෂ දීමනා හිඟ මුදල් නො ගෙවීම.
නිල ඇඳුම් දීමනා හිඟ මුදල් නො ගෙවීම.

යන ගැටළු විසඳා ගැනීම සඳහා පසුගිය කාලය තුළ සමස්ත ලංකා ආයුර්වේද සුවසේවා සංගමය උතුරු මැද සෞඛ්‍ය හා දේශීය වෛද්‍ය අමාත්‍යතුමා, උතුරු මැද සෞඛ්‍ය හා දේශීය වෛද්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ලේකම්තුමා, එම පළාත් සභාවේ ආයුර්වේද කොමසාරිස්තුමා යන වගකිව යුතු පාර්ශවයන් සමග සාකච්ඡුා වට ගණනාවක් පැවැත් වූ අතර, අවසන් වශයෙන් 2016.11.30 දින ප.ව.2.30 ට ඉහත වගකිව යුතු පාර්ශවයන් සියලූ දෙනා සහ අප සංගමයේ නියෝජිතයින් සහභාගි වූ සාකච්ඡාවේ දී 2017 පෙබරවාරි මාසය ඉක්මවීමට මත්තෙන් ඉහත ගැටළු සඳහා ස්ථිර විසඳුම් ලබාදෙන බවට පොරොන්‍දු විය.

එහෙත්, එම ගැටළු සඳහා විසඳුම් ලබාදෙනවා වෙනුවට, උතුරු මැද ආයුර්වේද කොමසාරිස්තුමාගේ අඩන්තේට්ටම් වලට මුහුණ දීමට ආයුර්වේද කාර්ය මණ්ඩලයට නිරන්තරයෙන් සිදු වී ඇත.

මේ සම්බන්‍ධව 2017.02.16 දරණ ලිපිය මගින් අප සංගමය උතුරු මැද ආණ්ඩුකාරතුමා, දේශීය වෛද්‍ය අමාත්‍යතුමා, ආයුර්වේද කොමසාරිස්තුමා, ආයතන ප‍්‍රධානීන්ට ද පිටපත් සහිතව අමාත්‍යාංශ ලේකම්තුමා දැනුවත් කර ඇත. එසේම, ඉහත ගැටළු සම්බන්‍ධයෙන් මෙතෙක් ගෙන ඇති පියවරයන් කවරේ ද යන්න අප සංගමය වෙත දන්වා සිටින ලෙස ද, එයින් ඉල්ලීමක් කර ඇත.

එහෙත්, මේ වන තෙක් ඒ සඳහා කිසිදු පිළිතුරක් ලබා දීමට වගකිව යුතු සියලූම පාර්ශ්වයන් අපොහොසත් වීම හේතුවෙන් අකමැත්තෙන් වුව ද, 2017.03.15 දින සිට අඛණ්ඩ වෘත්තීය ක‍්‍රියා මාර්ගයන්ට එළඹීමට අප සංගමය තීරණය කර ඇත.

2017.03.15 දින දහවල් 12.00 ට සියලූ කාර්ය මණ්ඩල සම්බන්‍ධ වන උද්ඝෝෂණයක් උතුරු මැද දේශීය වෛද්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශය ඉදිරිපිට දී පැවැත්වීමට කටයුතු යොදා ඇත. එසේම, 2017.03.16 හා 17 දෙදින පැය 02 ක් සියලූ සේවාවන් ගෙන් ඉවත් වීමට ද තීරණය කර ඇති අතර, අදාළ ගැටළුවලට සාධාරණ විසඳුම් නොලැබෙන්නේ නම්, 2017.03.20 දින සිට අඛණ්ඩ වෘත්තීය ක‍්‍රියා මාර්ග වෙත එළඹීමට ද අප සංගමය තීරණය කර ඇත.

මේ පිළිබඳව ඔබ මාධ්‍ය මඟින් අවශ්‍ය ප‍්‍රචාරය ලබාදෙන ලෙස කාරුණිකව ඉල්ලා සිටිමු.

ස්තුතියි,

මෙයට,

මහින්‍ද ගුරුගේ

ප‍්‍රධාන ලේකම්.

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Hue and cry over Hybrid non-starter

March 13th, 2017

BY Sugeeswara Senadhira Courtesy Ceylon Today

Another March Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is coming to an end in few days and the wide expectation is Sri Lanka will get a reprieve for two years; despite the official rejection of the proposal for Hybrid Courts, with participation of foreign Judges, to inquire into the alleged violations of human rights during the final phase of the fight against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009.

President Maithripala Sirisena consistently held the view that Sri Lanka will not need foreign judges. Although, there were indications that the two partners in the consensual government had divergent views on this issue, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe clarified the position of his party last week when he categorically stated that the Sri Lankan Constitution did not have provisions for Hybrid Courts.

The issue of internationalization of the ethnic conflict, purely an internal issue, has a long history. The LTTE first succeeded in dragging in India to be an interested party and finally it resulted in the signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement in 1987 and the deployment of Indian troops in the North and East.

After wiping out the LTTE in May 2009, the international community shifted its focus to alleged ‘war crimes’ and insisted on an international or multilateral inquiry into the issue. The United Nations got involved in a big way and the then Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed the controversial Darusman Advisory Panel ‘to advice him’ on the Sri Lanka issue. However, the Darusman Report went beyond its mandate and proposed an international court for probing ‘war crimes’.

The Government of Mahinda Rajapaksa, while acknowledging its commitment to cooperate with the UN, tried a dual strategy. In 2011, President Rajapaksa held discussions with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the official press release stated:

“The government was taking every action to prevent terrorism from raising its head again,” said President Mahinda Rajapaksa to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who was reminded of his assurance about the actual purpose of the Darusman Advisory Panel. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was reminded of the assurance he gave President Rajapaksa almost one year ago, that the Darusman Panel had been appointed solely to advice the UN Secretary General on developments in Sri Lanka in the final stages of the operation to defeat the LTTE and the immediate post-conflict situation, and would in no way be engaged in carrying out any inquiry or investigation into the relevant situation in Sri Lanka. This recall of the assurance by Mr. Ban Ki-moon given on 27 September, 2010 when he met with the Sri Lankan President took place at the first meeting between them, since then, which took place at the United Nations on 24 September, 2011. The UNSG was informed of the minutes of the meeting in September last year, clearly recording his assurance.”

Paranagama Commission

However, in the meantime, the Maxwell Paranagama Commission, appointed by President Rajapaksa, also suggested obtaining assistance of foreign Judges for probing into the conflict, without limiting it to the last phase of fighting in 2009. Furthermore, President Rajapaksa appointed three foreign experts as the Advisory Council to the second Mandate of the Paranagama Commission. They are Hon Sir Desmond de Silva, QC, a world authority on the law of armed conflict who was the Chief Prosecutor of a UN sponsored international Criminal Court at a level of an Under Secretary General of the UN, Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice, QC, Gresham Professor of International Law in London, who was also the lead Prosecutor in the case of the late President Milosovic of Serbia at The Hague and Professor David Crane, Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

The Paranagama Commission’s recommendation is made at Section E – Paragraph 625 of the Second Mandate Report. In addition, the Paranagama Commission made a comprehensive analysis, with the assistance of its international experts, of various different judicial mechanisms that may be acceptable to the Government of Sri Lanka, such as in the Gambia, however, the Commission’s recommendation was for a domestic mechanism. The review of the different mechanisms should not be confused with the recommendation for either a Hybrid or an international Gambian style mechanism. One of the reasons this was done was that it had been suggested by the Darusman Report that prosecution was the only mechanism opened for the Government of Sri Lanka to consider.

The Paranagama Report recommends “a domestic process” for accountability. The OISL Report supports this concept in principle, and at Paragraph 1278 of p.244, says; “The commitment by the new government to pursue accountability through a domestic process is commendable, particularly in a context where some political parties and sections of the military and society remain deeply opposed.”

However, the OISL Report at paragraph 1278 at p.244, states that the Sri Lankan justice system is not yet fully equipped to promptly conduct an independent and credible investigation. It goes on to assert that there should be “a hybrid court” which will integrate international Judges, prosecutors, and investigators.

President Rajapaksa appointed the Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) to study the allegations and recommend measures. The LLRC recommended that, “based on the available material and taking into account the above considerations, the Commission wishes to recommend that the Government initiate an independent investigation into this matter to establish the truth or otherwise of the allegations.”

“The Commission therefore recommends that the Government of Sri Lanka institute an independent investigation into this issue with a view to establishing the truth or otherwise of these allegations and take action in accordance with the laws of the land.

Equally, the Commission feels that arrangements should be made to ensure and facilitate the confidentiality and protection of information and informants. The Commission strongly urges all those concerned, especially the organizations that provided the original images and the broadcasting organization, to extend fullest cooperation by providing the necessary information to facilitate this work,” the LLRC recommended.

The Indo-Sri Lanka Joint Statement issued on 9 June 2010 states that the devolution process would go beyond the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. The Statement says, “The Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) emphasized that a meaningful devolution package, building upon the 13th Amendment, would create the necessary conditions for a lasting political settlement.

The President (Mahinda Rajapaksa) of Sri Lanka reiterated his determination to evolve a political settlement acceptable to all communities that would act as a catalyst to create the necessary conditions in which all the people of Sri Lanka could lead their lives in an atmosphere of peace, justice and dignity, consistent with democracy, pluralism, equal opportunity and respect for human rights”.

The Government of President Rajapaksa, at various meetings abroad and in Sri Lanka has acknowledged the role of the UN and given assurances to many leaders including the Indian Prime Minister and UNSG Ban Ki-moon.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Prince Zeid Al Hussein, who visited Sri Lanka last year held a media briefing after his meeting with President Sirisena. He praised the steps taken by the government during the last 12 months. In his media briefing he refrained from insisting on the involvement of foreign Judges in Sri Lanka’s accountability process. “There was no invocation of an international investigation, and the process is going to be a Sri Lankan one,” he said.

Now that the proposal for Hybrid Courts has been totally rejected and the UNHRC has given Sri Lanka a respite, the political spectrum must refrain from undue jubilations and wild allegations and ensure that a consensual solution is found to the satisfaction of the all the communities and safeguard the interests and the respect of the nation.

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US “Stop Arming Terrorists Act” – time for action against TGTE & LTTE Tamil Diaspora

March 13th, 2017

Shenali D Waduge

US & Western Governments needs to wake up to the fact that terrorists are not only Islamic & Jihadists. LTTE remains banned by the US, UK, Canada & EU. If the US State Department declares LTTE international network is alive even 5 years after LTTE military defeat the Bill introduced to US Congress by Senator Tulsi Gabbard requires immediate action to be taken against LTTE Tamil Diaspora living in the US and the West. In the minimum a joint investigation by US and Western Governments should be launched against LTTE Tamil Diaspora immediately.

That the Bill includes ‘Other terrorist groups’ certainly gives provision for the inclusion of LTTE Tamil Diaspora.

http://www.activistpost.com/2017/03/dr-rand-paul-introduces-tulsi-gabbards-stop-arming-terrorists-act-senate.html

As per the Bill, if the Act is meant to prevent American tax payers money from being used to directly/indirectly support armed militants, then it means that all the Tamil US residents who have been providing legal aid to LTTE even functioning as the LTTE’s legal counsel like V Rudrakumaran needs to be investigated. That US needs to immediately launch an investigation into TGTE of which Rudrakumaran is head is primarily because even being a US citizen and knowing that the LTTE is banned by the US he has the audacity to display the banned Eelam flag next to the US national flag. That he has been regularly standing next to the Eelam & US flag giving speeches goes to show to the world that he and his TGTE are cock-sure that the US Government will not take action against them. This is really shocking how a banned LTTE front has the audacity to display its Eelam flag against the flag of the most politically powerful country in the world

This is Rudrakumaran speaking in December 2015 in New York!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbgzGW1tn8k&t=29s

The Bill introduced by Dr. Paul Rand claims that it aspires to ‘strengthen our foreign policy, enhance our national security and safeguard our resources”.

Raj Rajaratnam the single most contributor to the LTTE is in prison for insider-trading. The money he swindled from US tax payers has gone into the LTTE coffers. TRO Tamil Rehabilitation Organization which the US banned in 2007 and froze its assets has also ben swindling the US tax payers. LTTE media is famed for false propaganda showcasing weeping stories of discrimination just to fool the US citizens into donating money all of which had gone to buy arms and ammunition to the LTTE before 2009 and all of which are now being spent on influencing and buying over foreign MPs, foreign officials and even influencing US security authorities trying to bribe them to remove LTTE from the list of banned terrorist organizations. Hope people have not forgotten the incident

https://www.justice.gov/archive/usao/nye/pr/2006/2006Aug21.html (please read this document)

Surely the words of United States Attorney Roslynn R. Mauskopf. “We refuse to allow the LTTE and its supporters to use the United States as a source of supply for weapons, technology, and financial resources.” should be still valid!

Moreover, what the US authorities should be concerned is that these LTTE Tamil Diaspora have made cosy homes in the West, they have fooled the Western governments, bought over Western players to be party to their ‘cause’ and then devised various illegal mechanisms to cheat the citizens of the very countries of which they are now citizens having come crying pleading for asylum and refugee status.

From credit card scams, to abusing the welfare systems, the LTTE Tamil Diaspora have masterminded a plethora of illegal money generating channels into which the LTTE kitty has been expanding. They camouflage these illegal acts by opening legal entities all of which provide perfect cover. The magnitude of the operation that they are conducting inside the very Western nations that have been empathetic can be found out if and only if an impartial investigation is launched.

Does the US want to make the LTTE Tamil Diaspora rich or is the US Government concerned that the LTTE Tamil Diaspora is swindling the American public and the gullible citizens of other Western countries as well!

https://terroristfronts.wordpress.com/2014/05/08/western-govts-watch-while-ltte-front-organizations-swindle-their-citizens/

Surely, the American Government officials must think for themselves. You have a bunch of Tamils living overseas most of whom have not been to Sri Lanka but have been living in the West and happily making money through various legal and illegal means.

https://www.hrw.org/report/2006/03/14/funding-final-war/ltte-intimidation-and-extortion-tamil-diaspora

If the LTTE Tamil Diaspora can intimidate their own people as the Human Rights Watch report clearly showcases, will LTTE Tamil Diaspora have second thoughts about fooling and swindling the citizens of US, UK, Canada & EU?

They buy arms and ammunition and send to the LTTE so that the LTTE can carry out a guerrilla war which will keep that cash cow till forever flowing and when the LTTE looks to be weakening, they get their media to come up with all types of stories which get relayed widely using LTTE’s media networks (they own tv stations, satellite stations, websites, social media sites etc) they write the script, they produce the show, they are the witnesses and they give a nicely packaged ‘documentary’ dramatic enough to bring tears to all onlookers, but search deep and you will find the loop holes. Remember Vany Kumar the star witness of the C4 Killing Field videos – she was a LTTE cadre!

http://www.sinhalanet.net/ltte-member-vany-kumar-how-many-ltte-terrorists-have-become-witnesses

As per the Bill presented it requests to instruct the Director of National Intelligence to determine the individuals and groups that should be considered terrorists – LTTE remains considered a terrorist group. It also means that anyone aiding and abetting banned terrorists should also be included. TGTE and its head as well as other Tamil Groups operating in the US should also be investigated.

Ideally the US and Western Governments should launch a joint-investigation into all of the 16 Organizations proscribed by the GOSL in April 2014 using UNSC Resolution 1373. These organizations are all located overseas and their heads living overseas possessing foreign passports. They should not be carrying out any type of material assistance to a terrorist organization that has been banned in the US since 1997 and by other western nations since 2001.

The new Sri Lankan Government surprisingly deproscribed 8 LTTE fronts without valid reasons however TGTE and its head remains banned. TGTE head Rudrakumaran has been LTTE’s legal counsel and political advocate even when the US banned LTTE. He has participated as LTTE’s legal counsel flying from US to attend these negotiations on behalf of the LTTE.

LTTE was declared a FTO in 1997 but the following year he organized the LTTE Heroes Day in New Jersey in November 1998, not stopping there he even arranged an agreement in 2002 between LTTE & South Sudan People’s Liberation Movement. In his role as LTTE advisor for constitutional affairs, he convened a meeting in Paris in 2003. In 2006 he participated on behalf of LTTE in Oslo and later in Geneva the same year. In November 2009 after the demise of the LTTE leader, he issued a Heroes Day message in Germany.

Can we know why the US Government is silent on TGTE and this US citizen openly making a mockery of US laws and ridiculing the status quo of US bans! What if all other US banned terrorist outfits act in a similar fashion not caring for any of the laws that the US Govt issues? In September 2009 President Rajapakse himself had queried from US envoy Butenis why US was not taking action against Rudrakumaran a US citizen supporting LTTE – quite openly too.

The US laws applicable to V. Rudrakumaran

USSC 2339B (a) (1): Unlawful Conduct.—

Whoever knowingly provides material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, or attempts or conspires to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 15 years, or both, and, if the death of any person results, shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life. To violate this paragraph, a person must have knowledge that the organization is a designated terrorist organization . . ., that the organization has engaged or engages in terrorist activity.”

USSC 2339B : ‘Free Speech’ under 1^st Amendment of the US Constitution:

Plaintiffs claim Congress has banned their ‘pure political speech’. However, plaintiffs can speak and write freely about PKK / LTTE… ‘the statute does not prohibit independent advocacy or expression of any kind’, plaintiffs can even become members of the PKK /LTTE BUT Congress prohibits ‘material support’ which does not constitute any form of speech.

USSC 2339B: contacts with FTOs criminal even to promote peace

Material Support ‘meant to promote peaceable, lawful conduct’ helps terrorism in multiple ways. It gives legitimacy to foreign terrorist groups – making it easier for them to recruit members, raise funds and facilitate more terrorist acts. Even benign support benefits terrorist organizations.

USSC 2339B : Does not require any proof the defendant intended to further any act of terrorism or violence by the FTO. The example of Suresh Sriskandarajah’s convinction
(h).It clarifies that section 2339B(a) criminalizes providing personnel” to a foreign terrorist organization only where a person, alone or with others, works under that terrorist organization’s direction or control or . . . organizes, manages, supervises, or otherwise directs the operation of that organization.”

Shenali D Waduge

U.S. charges 8 over ‘Tiger plot’ – http://edition.cnn.com/2006/US/08/21/srilanka.terror/index.html?iref=newssearch
FBI – Taming the Tamil Tigers From Here in the U.S. https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/stories/2008/january/tamil_tigers011008
Rajaratnam and the Tamil Tigers Connection –https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/rajaratnams-donations-and-the-tamil-tigers-connection/
Tamil Rehabilitation Organization and its U.S. Branch Shut Down http://www.foreffectivegov.org/node/3540
http://www.sinhalanet.net/president-donald-trump-what-is-your-stand-on-ltte-terrorists-ltte-terrorist-diaspora-fronts
Example of Rudrakumaran publicly speaking on behalf of the LTTE: http://tamilnation.co/conflictresolution/tamileelam/cnfZU06/05rudrakumaran.html
https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2017/02/05/if-president-trump-says-america-first-how-come-us-citizen-rudrakumaran-is-prime-minister-of-a-government-called-tgte-and-aspiring-to-create-tamil-eelam/
https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2015/06/26/what-is-the-us-stand-on-rudrakumaran-a-us-citizen-flouting-us-supreme-court-ruling-usc-2339b-and-declared-banned-under-unscr-1373/
Conciliation Resources publication 2005: http://www.c-r.org/sites/default/files/16_Choosing%20to%20engage_2005_ENG_F.pdf which carries a paper by Rudrakumaran on LTTE describes him as Legal advisor to LTTE and an Attorney at Law in the USA”

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කතාව දෝලාවෙන් …..!!

March 13th, 2017

තේජා ගොඩකන්දෙආරච්චි

මේ දිනවල ජගත් මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සලය රැස්වී ශ්රී ලංකාව සම්බන්ධවද කතා කරති. වත්මන් රජය මානව හිමිකම් සම්බන්ධව පෙන්නුම් කරන ප්රගතිය පිලිබඳව ඔවුන් සෑහීමකට පත්ව නැති බව පැවසේ. ශ්රී ලංකාවට තම ප්රගතිය පෙන්වීම සඳහා තවත් වසර 2 ක් ලබා දියයුතු බව බ්රිතාන්ය කියා සිටී. මේ සියල්ල අතර ශ්රී ලංකාව තුල මානව හිමිකම් ස්ථාපිත කිරීම සම්බන්ධව කාරණයක් කර ගනිමින් ඔස්ට්රේලියාවේ ඩීකින් විශ්ව විද්යාලය මගින් අගමැති රනිල් වික්රමසිංහට ආචාර්ය උපාධියක්ද පිරිනමා වැඩි දවසක් නැත.

බ්රිතාන්යයේ පලවන ‘ද බෑන්කර්’ සඟරාව විසින් ආසියා පැසිෆික් කලාපය තුල හොඳම මුදල් ඇමතිවරයා ලෙස ශ්රී ලංකාවේ මුදල් ඇමති රවි කරුණානායක නම් කර ඇත. ඒ රටේ ණය වාරික ගෙවීමේ අර්බුදය වලක්වාගනු වස් ජාත්යන්තර මූල්ය අරමුදලෙන් ඇ.ඩො. බිලියන 1.5 ක් ලබා ගැනීමට සමත්වීම නිසායි. ඒ අතරම ජා. මූ. අරමුදලේ අධ්යක්ෂිකා ක්රිස්ටීන් ලගාඩි පවසා සිටින්නේ ශ්රී ලංකාවේ ආර්ථික ප්රගතිය පිලිබඳව සලකා බලන කල්හි මුදල් ඇමතිවරයා ලෙස රවී කරුණානායකගේ ඉටුකරන කාර්ය භාරය සම්බන්ධව කිසිසේත්ම සෑහීමට පත්විය නොහැකි බවය. මේවා අසන කල්හි ජාත්යන්තරයට පොට වැරදිලාවත්ද කිය සිතේ. රටේ නිශ්පාදන වලට ජීඑස්පී ප්ලස් සහනය ලැබී ඇතැයි පසුගිය කාලයේ මැති ඇමතිලා ගමක් ගානේ යමින් ගස් ගල් යට පවත්වන කුඩා රැස්වීම්වල පවා කෑ ගසමින් ගියහ. නමුත් එය මේ වන විටත් පවතින්නේ සාකච්ඡා මට්ටමේ බව අසා සිටින අහිංසක ජනතාවට නොපවසා සිටීමට ඔවුහු ප්රවේසම් වූහ. රවීගේ සම්මානය හෝ රනිල්ගේ ආචාර්ය උපාධිය පුම්බා පෙන්වමින් කයිවාරු ගසන ආණ්ඩුවට මිනිසුන් කරුණු කාරණා ගැඹුරින් නොදන්නාකම ආශීර්වාදයකි.

ශ්රී ලංකාව තුල ෆෙඩරල් ක්රමය ස්ථාපිත කලයුතු බවද ජාත්යන්තර අධීක්ෂණය යටතේ ක්රියාත්මක වන යුද අධිකරණයක් පිහිටුවිය යුතු බවද ජගත් මානව හිමිකම් සංවිධාන බලධාරීන්ගේ අදහසයි. තමන් බලයට පැමිනි පසුව ජාත්යන්තරය තුල තමන්ට විශාල පිලි ගැනීමක් ඇතැයි වහසි බස් පවසන අතරම තමන් සිටිනතාක් රටේ ඒකීය භාවය සුරක්ෂිත කරන බවත්, රණ විරුවන්ට කිසිදු අයුරක හානියක් සිදු නොකරන බවත් ජනාධිපතිවරයා පවසයි. ඔහුගේ වෑයම ජාත්යන්තරය රැවටීමද නොඑසේ නම් ජනතාව රැවටීමද කියා දන්නේ ඔහුම පමනි. ඒ අතර විවිධ චෝදනාවන් යටතේ සිරභාරයට පත්වන හමුදා නිළධාරීන්ගේ සංඛ්යාව දිනෙන් දින ඉහල යයි. තමාව ජනාධිපති බවට පත්කල ජනතාවට තිබුනු බලවත් අඩුපාඩුවක් වූ 1818 හා 1848 කැරැලිවලදී ඉංග්රීසින් විසින් දේශද්රෝහීන් බවට නම්කල පිරිස විශේෂ ගැසට් නිවේදනයක් මගින් මුදවාලන්නේ මෙතුලින් අද රටේ තිබෙන දැවෙන ප්රශ්න සියල්ල විසඳේවි යයි සිතී විය යුතුය. නමුත් අද ක්රියාත්මක වන එෆ්සීඅයිඩී ය හරහා මෙන්ම ආණ්ඩු පක්ෂ දේශපාලකයන්ගේ කියුම් කෙරුම් තුල පවත්නා ත්රස්තවාදයෙන් රට මුදවා ගැනීමට මුල්වූ පිරිසක් රටට විනකල ද්රෝහීන් පිරිසක් බවට පත් කිරීමේ ක්රියාවලියක නිරතව සිටින බව ජනාධිපතිවරයාට වැටහේද?

රටේ ප්රධාන පුරවැසියා ලෙස ජනාධිපතිවරයා රඟ දක්වන භූමිකාව නම් ඉතාම හාස්ය ජනකය. මාර්තු 8 වන දින පැවති ජාත්යන්තර කාන්තා දින සැමරුමේදී ශ්රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂ කාන්තා සාමාජිකාවන් ඇමතූ ඔහු, බැඳුම්කර වංචාව පිලිබඳ විමර්ශණයේදී වැඩිම බරක් ඇති සාක්ෂිය ලබා දුන්නේ කාන්තාවක බවත්, ඒ ගැන කාන්තාවන් ආඩම්බර වියයුතු බවත් පැවසීය. මෙය සැලකිල්ලට ගතයුතු පුවතකි. මේ කතා කරන්නේ ශ්රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුවේ රාජ්ය ණය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ හිටපු අධිකාරිවරිය වන දීපා කාන්ති සෙනවිරත්න මහත්මිය පිලිබඳවය.

පසුගිය වසරේ කාන්තා දිනයේදීද ඔහු දොස්තරවරුන් වෙතින් කාන්තාවන්ට සිදුවන අතවර පිලිබඳව කිසිසේත්ම සමාජයේ පොදු කාරණයක් නොවූ විකාරරූපී කතාවක් කලේය. මෙවර කතාවද ඊට දෙවැනි නැත. මහ බැංකුවේ කාන්තා නිළධාරිනිය සම්බන්ධ කාරණයේදී ඔහුට පෙනී ඇත්තේ ඇගේ නිර්භීත බව පමනි.
මේ නිළධාරිනිය කියන පරිදි ඇයට එම පත්වීම 2015 පෙබරවාරි 9 වන දින ලැබෙනවිට, ඈ එය ප්රතික්ෂේප කර ඇත. ඒ රාජ්ය ණය අංශය පිලිබඳව තමාට කිසිදු පලපුරුද්දක් නොමැති බව ඇය දන්නා නිසාය. නමුත් එම තනතුර භාර ගන්නා ලෙස ඇයට මහ බැංකු අධිපතිවරයා බලකර ඇත. ඒ වනවිට ණය අංශයේ සිටි වඩාත්ම සුුදුසු සහ පලපුරුදු සහකාර අධිකාරිවරයා වූ ආචාර්ය ආසීම් ඉවත් කිරීමට තමන්ට වුවමනා බව මහ බැංකු අධිපතිවරයා පැවසූ බව කී ඇය එය රහසක්ව තබා ගන්නා ලෙස ද ඔහු තමන්ට පැවසූ බව කියා සිටියාය.

බැඳුම්කර නිකුතුව වෙනුවෙන් ඉදිරිපත් වූ ලංසු භාර ගැනීමේදී බිලියන 10 ලංසුව භාරගන්නා ලෙස තමාට මහ බැංකු අධිපතිවරයා බලකර සිටි බවත් නියෝජ්ය ණය අධිකාරී ආසීම් මහතා විසින් සිවු වතාවක් එහි ඇති අහිතකර බලපෑම් පෙන්වා දුන්නත් අධිපතිවරයා එය නොසලකා හැරි බවත්, ඇගේ සාක්ෂියේ සඳහන් විය.
මේ කරුණ විශ්ලේෂණය කරන විට එම කාන්තාවගේ තමන් දුටු නිර්භීතබව යට අන්තර්ගත වූ යතාර්ථය ජනාධිපතිවරයාට නොපෙනුනේද? සුදුසුකම් සහිත පිරිමින් සිටියදී මහ බැංකු අධිපතිවරයා විසින් පලපුරුදු බවින් තොර කාන්තාවක්ම මෙම තනතුරට පත් කරන්නට පියවර ගත්තේ ඇයි? පිරිමියෙකු මෙන් නොව කාන්තාවක අදාල තනතුරේ සිටිනවිට බලපෑම් මගින් ඈ දමනයකර, තම ඉලක්කය කරා යා හැකි බව ඔහු සිතුවා වන්නට පුලුවන. එමෙන්ම පසු කාලීනව අත්විය හැකි ප්රතිඵල ගැනද ඔහු තුල බයක් තිබෙන්නට නැත. ඒ අනුව ඔහු මේ කාන්තා චරිතය මැන ඇත්තේ ගතානුගතික මිණුම් දඬු වලිනි. එමෙන්ම විෂයානුබද්ධ පලපුරුද්ද අඩුකම තුල තමාට මහ බැංකු බැඳුම්කර හිතුමතේ භාවිතාකල හැකි බව ඔහුගේ අරමුණ වන්නට ඇති. එනම් මහ බැංකු අධිපතිවරයාද කාන්තාවන්ගේ ‘හැඳිමිටේ නුවණ’ ගැන උපකල්පනය කර තිබේ. කෙසේ වුවද මේ කාන්තාව නිර්භීතව ඉදිරිපත්ව තම ගැලවීම සඳහා හෝ සිදුවූ දේ පවසා ඇත. ඉතින් රටේ ජනාධිපති වශයෙන් ඔහුට මෙම කාන්තාවගේ නිර්භීත භාවය ගැන පමනක් ආඩම්බර වී නිකම් සිටිය හැකිද? එවිට එතැන සිදුව ඇති පැහැදිලි චංචාව? මේ සම්බන්ධව ජනාධිපතිවරයා ඍජු ප්රතිපත්තියක සිට වරදකරුවන්ට නිසි දඬුවම් දීම පිනිස තීරණ ගනී නම්, අන්න එවිට එම කාන්තාවගේ නිර්භීතභාවයේ ප්රතිඵල දෘශ්යමාන වී කාන්තා පරපුරට ආඩම්බර වීමට හැකි වනු ඇත. එසේ නැතොත් ඇයටද තම නිර්භීත බවේ ප්රතිඵලය ලෙස සමහරවිට රට හැර යාමට සිදුවනු ඇති. එය එසේ වුවොත් මේ කතාවත් හරියට ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් විවිධ නම් දමා උත්සව පවත්වා ආරම්භ කරන මුත්, නිකම්ම නමට පමනක් සීමාවන අනෙකුත් ව්යාපෘතීන් ගනනටම වැටෙනු නිසැකය.

පුලතිසි යොවුන් කඳවුරට පැමිනෙන ඔහු තරුණ පරපුර නගා සිටුවීමට කැපවන බව පවසයි. ඉන්දුනීසියාවේ හෝ වෙනයම් රටක සමුලුවකට ගියවිට ශ්රී ලංකාව ආසියාකරයේ ඒ ඒ සමුලුවට අදාල විෂයවලින් ප්රමුඛතාවයට ගෙන එන බවට පවසයි. අගමැතිවරයා රැකියා දස ලක්ෂයක් දෙන බව කියමින් නාම පුවරු විවෘත කරමින් තැන තැන යයි. රැකියා පන් ලක්ෂයක් භාර ගැනීමට සූදානම් වන ලෙස මුදල් ඇමතිවරයා ජනතාවට අණ කරන්නේ හරියට ජනතාව එපා කියනවාක් මෙනි. ඒ හැර විවිධ වර්ණවල ටී ෂර්ට් අැඳගෙන ඊට ගැලපෙන කැප් තොප්පිද දමාගෙන ව්යායාම කිරීම හෝ පා ගමන් යාමත්, ඒවාට ලොකු ප්රචාරයක් ලබා දීමත් ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ පුරුද්දක් වී තිබේ. රටේ දිනෙන් දින මතුවන ප්රශ්න දෙස බලන කල්හි රටේ අනාගතය ගැන සහතිකයක් දිය හැකිද? වත්මන් අගමැති බලයේ සිටි සෑම වකවානුවකම මෙන් මෙවරද රටේ දල ජාතික ආදායමට සාපේක්ෂව ණය ප්රමානය 100% ඉක්මවා යන ලකුණු ඇති බව ඩේලි මිරර් පුවත්පතේ සඳහන් විය. අද වන විට රටේ දැවෙන ප්රශ්නය ඇත්තේ මැති ඇමතිලාටය. ඒ වාහන මදිකමය. පසුගිය වසරේ මැදදී රු. කෝටි 118 ක් වැයකර ලබාගත් වාහන අබලන්ව ඇති සෙයකි. දැන් තවත් පරිපූරක ඇස්තමේන්තුවක් මගින් රු. කෝටි 49 ක් අනුමත කරගෙන ඇතිවා මදිවට ඒ ගැන අසන මාධ්යවේදීන්ගේ ඇඟට ගොඩ වන්නේ ‘ඔයගොල්ලො කියන්නෙ අපට කියන්නෙ කබල් ජීප් වල යන්න කියලද?’ අසමිනි. මේ තැනට එන්නට පෙර චන්දය අයදින්නට ගියේ කෙසේදැයි අසන්නට එකෙක් නැත. මේ සියලු පව්වල බර කර ගහන්නට සිදු වන්නේ අනාගත පරපුරටය. ඉතින් ජනාධිපතිවරයා යොවුන් සමුලුවල පවසන මෙවන් ලාභ ප්රකාශවල අර්ථය කුමක්ද?

අනික වාහන ඉල්ලා සිටින අයගේ අදාල ඇමති පට්ටම ජනතාවට මතක් වනු ඇත්තේ නම් ලැයිස්තුව දකිනවිටය. ඒ ඒ විෂයයන් යටතේ මේ වසර 2 ට මඳක් වැඩි කාලය තුල රටේ ප්රගතියට සිදුව ඇති දේ කුමක්ද යන කරුණද ජනතාවට මතකයට නැගෙන්නේ නම් මැනවි. නැතිනම් ඉතින් මේ අය ඇමතිලා කියා දන්නවා විනා ඒ මොන මොන විෂයයන් පිලිබඳවද යන දැනීම ජනතාවට තිබෙන්නට බැරිය. විෂය ඉතා සීමිත සංඛ්යාවක හැර එවන් දැනුමක් ලැබෙන්නට තරම් හොඳ හෝ නරක කාර්යභාරයක් රට තුල සිදු වන්නේ නැති තරම්ය.

ඒ මදිවාට විජිත් විජිතමුණි සොයිසා වැනි අඳබාල පෘථග්ජනයන් ඇමතිකමට මුවාවී තමන්වම හඳුන්වා ගන්නේ ‘ප්රභූන්’ යන වචනයෙනි. මේ කතාවම සනාථ කරමින් ඊයේ පෙරේදා බස්නාහිර පලාත් මහ ඇමතිවරයා පැවසුවේ තමන්ට මිලියන් ගණන් වටිනා නිවාස, වාහන ආදිය ලැබී ඇත්තේ පෙර පින් බලයෙන් බවය. පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සිටින 225 දෙනාගේ පින් මහිමය ගැන ඔහු කතා කලේය. ජනතාවගේ බදු මුදලින් තමන් ලබන සැප ගැන මෙසේ ජනතාව ඉදිරියේම මෙසේ කතා කරන්නට තරම් මොවුන්ට දැන් ලැජ්ජා බයක් නැත. මොවුන් පෙර පින් පුරන කාලයේ ජනතාව ඔවුන්ගෙන් ණය අරන් නොගෙවා සිට ඇති හැඩය. අද මේ පිරිස නඩත්තු කරන්නට විය ගහට බැඳි හරකුන් මෙන් ජනතාව බදු බර කර ගසාගෙන යන්නේත්, ජනතාවට කොස් කොල, ක්රෝටන් කොල කන්න කියන්නේ එබැවින් එබැවින් විය යුතුය.

ඉතිහාසයේ කිසිදු රාජ්ය නායකයෙකුට නොලැබුන තරම් ආරාධනාවන් සංඛ්යාවක් තමාටත් අගමැතිවරයාටත් ලැබෙන බව ජනාධිපතිවරයා ඉන්දුනීසියාවේදී පැවසීය. ඒ තමන්ගේ නිරන්තර රට සවාරි සඳහා ඇති හේතු පාඨයන්ය. ඒ ද අර කීවාක් මෙන් පින් මහිමයේ ප්රතිඵල විය යුතුය. සමාජ වෙබ් අඩවි වල තියෙන තරමක් බොරු බවද ඔහු පවසයි. සමාජ වෙබ් අඩවි ඇත්ත කියූ කාලය 2015 ජනවාරි 08 වන දායින් අවසන්ව ඇත.
අගමැති, ජනාධිපති ප්රමුඛ පින්වන්තයින් 225 දෙනා කරන කියන දේ දකිනවිට අසන්නට කටට එන පැනයකි.
පිස්සුද? හැටිද?

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Gota’s war heroes off to Geneva

March 13th, 2017

By Sulochana Ramiah Mohan Courtesy Ceylon Today

2017-03-12

Rtd. Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekara will leave for Geneva tomorrow leading a three-man delegation to meet UN Human Rights Chief Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein to mount an offensive against the case, now argued before the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), that Sri Lankan forces committed war crimes, especially during the closing stages of the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

This allegation is the centrepiece of the UNHRC resolution that is widely accepted by the international community including the Tamil Diaspora.
He takes a 100-page dossier of facts to buttress his arguments against the allegations.

Weerasekara, Chief Coordinator of The Federation of National Association sponsored by the Global Sri Lankan Forum, told Ceylon Today that UN Human Rights Chief Zeid has violated his own mandate by getting involved in a sovereign country’s internal affairs.

“I will seek a meeting with Zeid and be at the debating table when the Council takes up for discussion the Resolution on Sri Lanka, co-sponsored by the Government, on 20 March,” he added. The Rear Admiral said that despite the fact the LTTE had committed serious war crimes including the recruitment of child soldiers, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera had been ‘treacherous’ and a ‘traitor’ to the country by acknowledging and expressing appreciation of the UNHRC Report, having also gone to the extent of co-sponsoring the resolution.

“Things like the Truth Commission and the Office of Missing Persons … these are ‘hurting’ us,” he added.
He said he was going to Geneva in a bid to ‘put a stop’ to war crime allegations against the Army. The dossier has been prepared after a serious study by intellectuals and experts in international human rights and humanitarian laws. It also contains statistics proving how the war was won and how humanitarian aid was distributed in the war zone contrary to this being disputed by the Human Rights Council.

“The UN congratulated us for defeating terrorism at the first UN Resolution tabled on 27 May 2009. Germany and 17 other UN member countries stood against it but the Non Aligned Movement rejected and contested the case in our favour. That was approved at the presentation of the first Resolution but now it has turned out to be totally against us. “Subsequently, the LTTE sympathizers and the Tamil Diaspora went against that resolution with negative inputs and gradually got it reversed,” he noted. He said, “The Darusman Committee Report based on the Tamil Diaspora call, tabled the 2012 UNHRC Resolution on that same thematic position and it was tabled with the 2013 and 2014 Resolutions.”

He said the Council adopted the 2014 Resolution by a vote of 23 in favour, 12 against and 12 abstentions, and the Resolution requested the Office of the High Commissioner to undertake a comprehensive investigation into alleged serious violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes by both parties (GoSL and the LTTE) and that a Commissioner- General initiates an investigation into our national affairs.

He recalled that India and Pakistan at that time said the resolution was an infringement into a sovereign country’s rights and considered it was a case of double standards being adopted by the UNHRC.

“Leading international jurists and experts in laws relating to international rights such as Sir Desmond de Silva QC, Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, Rodney Dixon QC. (UK/ South Africa), Major General John Holmes and many others literally dismissed the one-sided charges levelled against Sri Lanka.”

He noted that a special committee comprising reputed lawyers and specialists in international affairs was appointed two weeks ago to counter the ongoing ‘traitorous move’ in Geneva.
He said they have included statistics on how humanitarian aid was distributed in thousands of tons to the North during the final phase of the war.

“The dossier has been vetted by former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva and will be handed over to former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa at a ceremony beginning at 3 p.m. tomorrow at Sambhuddhathwa Jayanthi Mandiraya with the support of Ven. Kirama Wimalajyoti Thera. Rear Admiral Weerasekara will leave for Geneva after the event. A copy of the dossier will also be handed over to President Maithripala Sirisena who would be urged to send it to UNJRC Chief Zeid.
He said the team working on this agenda includes Generals and Admirals of the Forces who fought the war.

“I will give the dossier to Zeid and tell him it was not an international armed conflict and that what’s applicable is ‘international humanitarian laws’ and not ‘international human rights laws’. He added that no organizations can interfere in any country’s internal affairs. As for responsibility for civilian safety in a war, he stressed that the protection of civilians depends upon whose controlled area they were at that specific time. “If the people were in an LTTE controlled area, then the LTTE should acknowledge responsibility for their safety.

Likewise, we would have been responsible for the protection of the people when they were in government controlled areas. We cannot take responsibility of what happened in LTTE controlled areas.” He stressed that the LTTE used civilians as human shields and so, the Forces cannot be blamed for that.

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THE REIGN OF MAHINDA RAJAPAKSE (1)

March 12th, 2017

KAMALIKA PIERIS

(Revised 25.4.17)

When Mahinda Rajapakse became President of Sri Lanka in 2005, Ajit Samaranayake said the event ‘opens a new chapter in post independence history, where a leader unburdened by either dynastic trappings or the stigma of elitism find himself at the head of a popular movement. His tenure of rule is therefore pregnant with profound possibilities. Rajapakse has shown an instinct for the fight without soiling his hands and has emerged as a formidable leader at a crucial juncture in the country history.’

Rajapakse said in 2010 that he would like to be remembered as a man who loved his country and his people and did his best to serve them. On his return from Jordan in 2014, visibly moved, President Rajapakse knelt down and worshipped the ground after getting down from the plane. All the newspapers carried this picture, with a full page picture of it as the advertisement for Sri Lanka Telecom. Rajapakse should be commended for this. He did what others also wanted to do but did not dare. Two of my university friends, both male, told me, independently, in the 1970s, that when they returned from postgraduate studies abroad, they wanted to ‘fall down and worship the ground,’ they were so happy to be back.

Rajapakse was the least highbrow leader to have led independent Sri Lanka, said one analyst. Dayan Jayatilaka observed that Rajapakse comes across as resolute but affable, more personable, less dangerous. Rajapakse was hard working, had a devotion to duty, good oratorical skills, sociability, and the ability to mix with a wide range of people, said another analyst.

Rajapakse was looked down on by snobs who only admired westernized persons. One Parliamentarian referred to Rajapakse as ‘gode baiya’ or village buffoon. Rajapakse is an ‘infinitely cruder predecessor’ to Sirisena said another. Foreign negotiators, it was observed, did not know how to ‘respond’ to Rajapakse. They were more comfortable with the anglicized elite.

However, if Rajapakse can be persuaded to shave off his beloved moustache, go to a gym and lose weight, give up his comfortable sarong and shirt and get into uncomfortable western attire, he will immediately impress. He has the height (6 feet), colour and the poise which comes from being a seasoned and very successful politician. He is a former head of state with a sound record of achievement.

In 2014, Lakshman Keerthisinghe spoke up in praise of Rajapakse. He said he was moved to write his piece after reading the innumerable, mostly unfair criticism leveled at the government and its leader, Rajapakse. These criticisms, he said, were part of the political agenda set by the USA to destabilize Sri Lanka and set up a puppet regime. Keerthisinghe spoke of the ‘wonder of a single man’s effort to unite the country and develop it from a ‘failed state’ to a middle income country with formidable economic progress never seen before.

Mahinda Rajapakse has been the president for only nine years, continued Keerthisinghe, and within that period of time he has brought about positive changes. The country has not seen such a great transformation in the last 57 years since independence. He has organized and developed every sector of the country, tourism, agriculture, transport, education, IT to the villages , electricity, fresh water, health, towns, train service and also maintained diplomatic relations with the Middle east and Africa. Rajapakse developed a team of ministers, academics, scientists, technicians and the armed forces for this purpose. Rajapakse eliminated terrorism at the same time that he set about infrastructure development. Lastly Rajapakse was not a mafia chief, harboring drug dealers, rapists and criminals, concluded Keerthisinghe.

Rajapakse was a seasoned politician. He had been a Member of Parliament, a Cabinet minister and Prime Minister and was familiar with the mechanics of government. Under Rajapakse, Sri Lanka has managed to haul itself from being a poor country to a middle income country despite three decades of war, said one analyst. No other country that did well had ‘an outfit like the LTTE’ operating on its soil. Also, other Asian countries which enjoyed economic development were dictatorships, whereas Sri Lanka was a well functioning democracy. Several free and fair elections were held.

Rajapakse was a great leader, he ended terrorism and developed the economy, said his admirers. These were very real achievements. Mahinda Rajapaksa had a well thought out nation building plan for the whole country, said Rohana Wasala. N.A. de S Amaratunge said, in 2016, we had a government with one powerful head in 2014. It was doing alright. It had managed to eliminate terrorism, overcoming huge obstacles, local and foreign, a feat no other government in the world has been able to do Corruption and nepotism were rampant but things were better than what we have now.

Dinesh Gunawardene said despite criticism from certain quarters, there was genuine growth in the country and living standards improved. Rajapakse brought tremendous change to the lives of the rural folk. Under Rajapakse, investment increased, unemployment went down and so did the poverty level, agreed Bandula Gunawardene. The transformation of the country brought about by the Rajapaksas is visible said Ven. Muruttetuwe Ananda.

The Rajapakse government has been by far the most over achieving government in post independence history said a political analyst. Several mega projects, highways, harbors, airports were started and completed. The economy began to surge impressively, outperforming other more fancied Asian countries on occasion, observed Palitha Kohona. Sri Lanka is one of the few countries that achieved UN Millennium Development Goals. By 2015 the country ranked 73rd on the UN’s Human Development Index.Despite the endless allegations, the economic direction and achievements of the Rajapaksa era are plain to see, he said.

The Rajapakse regime transformed the 2005 US$ 24 billion Sri Lankan economy to a US$ 80 billion economy by 2014, while enhancing the GDP per capita from US$ 1,242 to US$ 3,853. Economic growth for the six years, 2009 to 2014, averaged an unprecedented 6.5% per annum and 6.4% between 2010-2015, in the process dragging the country from being based on agriculture, to services. Inflation was controlled at mid-single digits for six years from 2008 to 2014. The debt situation as indicated by the Debt to GDP ratio which was dangerously high at 91% in 2005 was skillfully managed and reduced to 70% by 2014, even while a massive infrastructure development programme was implemented.

Foreign reserves increased from US$ 2,735 million at end 2005, to US$ 8,208 million by end 2014. The Balance of Payments (BOP) recorded a massive surplus of US$ 1,369 million in 2014. From 2006 to 2014, the rupee was maintained at stable levels, with the average depreciation of the rupee during this period being the lowest-ever since the liberalization of the economy in 1977.By end 2014, interest rates of all Government Securities from three months to 30 years had stabilized between 5.5% and 9.5%.

The country’s credit rating and economic outlook had improved significantly, and foreign investors invested confidently in Sri Lankan stocks and government securities. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) recorded significant growth and reached USD 1,616 million in 2014, its highest-ever in history. Throughout my tenure, the main foreign investors of the long term bond market and the stock exchange were from America and Europe. It was only after I was voted out of office that these investors started withdrawing their money from Sri Lanka, said Rajapakse

Overall, the economy progressed smoothly through the severe global economic, financial, oil and food crises, as well as across the major terrorist conflict and a possible bank failure. As a consequence, external and internal shocks did not penetrate into the economy, and people did not suffer any adverse effects of these mega challenges.

‘My government has an economic track record of which I am proud’, said Rajapakse. In 2008-2009 when the entire world was reeling under the worst global depression since the 1930s Sri Lanka were not even aware of this because of the measures that we took to contain the crisis. A healthy economic growth was also maintained. Sri Lanka was able to achieve a per capita income up to US $ 3,280 in 2013. ‘During our rule broadcasts were full of the building of airports, harbors, sports stadiums expressways, road, reservoirs, schools, hospitals and markets’ added Rajapakse.

An enthusiastic supporter of Rajapakse wrote to the newspapers in 2011, challenging the UNP view that the Sri Lanka‘s economy is in a mess. Sri Lanka has had more than 8% growth for two years consecutively in 2010 and 2011, he said. Our unemployment rate is just 4.2% the lowest in our history. Poverty levels have plummeted and today it is less than 5%. Every two minutes a motor cycle is registered, every three minutes a three wheeler is registered, all newspapers carry more advertisements than before, there are more than 105 telephones for every 100 persons, imports are mainly of small cars which shows that these are bought by the middle income group who did not have cars before this, rural electrification had taken place rapidly and election coverage is gone up from 72% to 92%. There are more than 10,000 kilometers of concrete village roads that have been constructed over the past four years, the writer concluded. (Island 5.4.12. p 9)

Sri Lanka obtained favorable social rankings during Rajapakse’s tenure as President. Sri Lanka was described as the star performer of SAARC in 2014. Sri Lanka ranked above almost all SAARC countries in many of the international economic evaluations. Only India was ahead of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka led in life expectancy at birth, infant and under five mortality rate, maternal death, total fertility rate, access to improved sanitation and infant immunization indicators.

Sri Lanka was placed 73 out of 188 countries in the UNDPs Global Human Development Report 2015. It was the only south Asian country in this bracket. India and Bangladesh were in the medium category and the rest in the low category. Sri Lanka was ranked 31 in Youth development index compiled by the Commonwealth secretariat for 2015. India was 133, Singapore 43. Sri Lanka had ranked highest in South Asia on the Environmental Performance Index of Yale University for 2014. Sri Lanka ranked 11 out of 38 countries in the global midyear Pollution Index for 2015.

By 2010 Sri Lanka had achieved 95% birth registration, while neighboring India only had 50%. Sri Lanka has been placed first in the world in breastfeeding during an international survey conducted in 2016 among 121 countries. Sri Lanka achieved WHO’s malaria free country Status for the fourth successive year in 2016. It is the second country in the world to achieve this. National Blood transfusion service of Sri Lanka had won the 2012 global award for NBTs in Developing countries, awarded by the International Society for Blood Transfusion, coming first among 78 developing countries.

There is no disagreement over the fact that the Rajapaksas got together and defeated the LTTE. And paved the way for peace and economic development. This was not done by any of the previous leaders. If certain others had been in power, the country would have been divided by now said N.A. de S Amaratunge. The previous four executive presidents could not take bold decisions to eradicate terrorism and the problem dragged on for nearly 30 years.

Victor Ivan said Rajapakse’s decision to go to war and implementing that decision successfully is of such magnitude that it can be described as the biggest achievement of any political leader since independence. Rajapakse faced tremendous pressure from the west, specifically USA and the EU to stop the war, but he refused to give in. The war was won, defeating a formidable terrorist outfit singlehandedly and without the need for outside intervention. Elsewhere such an achievement would have been considered laudable, observed Tamara Kunanayagam.

Eelam War was won in about 2 ½ years with team work and leadership. While this was going on, infrastructure developments, such as 7 fly overs, three harbors, one airport, 222 bridges, and over 24,000km of roads, stadiums, economic canters and cities were built or renovated within 4 years. A feat unachieved by any other nation excluding Singapore, said Manisha Fernando.

No country in the world has resettled 283 displaced civilian and rehabilitated 11,500 of the 12000 terrorist and successfully reintegrated them back into society. Any other country would have prosecuted the LTTE leaders, members and helpers for the terrorist crimes they have committed or supported. The economic development, especially in the north and east is unprecedented, said Rohan Gunaratne.

The Rajapakse government is reproached for triumphalism, and the positive humanitarian achievements, the rescue and resettlement of hundreds of thousands of IDPs, near 100% completion of demining by the army, the rebuilding of road, bridges, and essential infrastructure in affected areas, the retraining and release to society of former LTTE combatants have been ignored, observed Sarala Fernando. Countries pass through three phases after the end of a war. Emergency phase, transitional phase where schools etc have to be rebuilt and the development stage. We went through these three phases very rapidly, observed analysts.

After the war Mahinda Rajapakse launched a massive development programme that ‘took the country into the fast track of growth’. An unprecedented programme of infrastructure development was begun, with special emphasis on rural electrification and road development.

In electrification, Upper Kotmale hydro power plant was completed in 2013 and Norochcholai coal fired power plant in 2014. It was very expensive but it has paid for itself and rendering enormous service, said Rajapakse. A plant at Sampur was planned. Electricity was provided to rural areas through several new rural electrification projects island wide. The total electrification level reached 97.6 per cent by July 2014, said Central Bank. The last major blackout was in 2009.

The road network improved and expanded magnificently. . Everybody could see this. Sri Lanka’s first three expressways came up in Rajapakse’s time. Colombo – Katunayake expressway completed in 2013 reduced travel time from Peliyagoda to Katunayake to just 20 minutes. Southern Expressway, Colombo to Galle, commenced in 2011 and was extended to Matara in 2014. Travel time to Galle was reduced to just one hour from the usual three hours. Outer Circular Highway connected the Southern Highway, Colombo – Katunayake Expressway and other major roads, such as A1, A3, and A4.

Several A grade roads were improved. Padeniya – Anuradhapura National Highway (A28) opened in 2013. Nugegoda to Homagama (A04) road section was completed at a cost of Rs.989 million in February 2013. Improvements to Ratmalana- Nalluruwa junction section of Colombo – Galle Road (A2) and Peliyagoda to Ja-Ela section of Colombo -Puttalam Road (A3) started in 2013. The 18 hairpin bends to Mahiyangana on the Kandy-Mahiyangana road were eliminated by widening the road. Causeway at Potuvil was done with minimum damage to water bodies and there were solar powered lights at Pooneryn Bridge, Mannar. Rehabilitation of Peradeniya – Badulla – Chenkaladi (A5) Highway Project. Project was to start in 2015. Junctions such as Pelawatte, Miriswatta, Ukwatta, Nawala, Piliyandala and Kaduwela had traffic lights installed. Flyovers such as Veyangoda flyover were constructed.

About 2,200 km of rural access roads were upgraded. Lunugamvehera- Kataragama gravel road was upgraded to a 17.2 meter wide four lane highway. Kalugama- Vilkatupotha road was widened and raised to prevent flooding. Roads under improvement in 2014 included PIliyandala bypass, with signalization, Ekala Kotadeniyawa road pedestrian overpass in front of Horagasmulla School at Minuwangoda, and Pannala Roundabout. Rajapakse had ordered the Road Development Authority to build drains and walkways along the roads to make them safer and more pleasant for pedestrians All roads in the future , will have high quality pavements said Gotabhaya in 2012.

Bridges were also repaired, parallel to road development. It was intended to reconstruct 100 – 150 bridges annually. 163 bridges had been identified for strengthening. 38 bridges were improved by 2014. Polduwa Bridge on Sri Jayewardenepura road was completed and open for the traffic on September 2014. Nawala Bridge on Narahenpita-Nawala-Nugegoda Road was widened. There was a program to build 210 bridges countrywide to link villages with towns. Polwatte oya bridge, in Matale Dambulla, Weddawala bridge at Weddawala, Hapuvida bridge near Lower Rattota in Matale, Kuda oya bridge at Ethiliyawewa in Balahuruwa, Wellavaya, were included in this program. The rural bridges in Kegalle were completed.

The road projects were funded by donors such as Government of Korea, Government of France, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Asian Development Bank, China Development Bank, Saudi Fund for Development, Bank of Spain and HSBC. Asian Development Bank (ADB) provided USD 800 million and Government of Sri Lanka allocated Rs. 106 million for rehabilitation of rural roads. Veyangoda flyover was done with financial assistance from Bank of Spain. ADB gave additional funds for the proposed Southern Expressway link roads. This project commenced in February 2012 and was scheduled for completion in January 2015. Total length of road is 58.4 km.

Mahinda Rajapakse said he did not borrow money for egoistic projects, as alleged. Some projects were long term projects which need a long gestation period. Rajapakse responded to the criticism that the superhighways had been overvalued. He pointed out that all costs associated with large projects are scrutinized by a technical evaluation committee and a Cabinet appointed tender board and everything had to finally get Cabinet approval. Express ways and high ways are planned to accommodate the growing traffic demands of the future as well.

No project can start without a consultant. The consultant designs the project, sets the standards and supervises its implementation form start to finish. Also, in the construction industry every firm sub contracts. There is no contractor in the world that does not do this. The sub contractor cannot contract to third parity. Even standard practices in the construction industry have been presented as abuse, he observed.

Rajapakse said his critics used a standard rate of cost, saying that in 2010 the average cost for a two lane highway was Rs 75 million per kilometer. The actual costs were way beyond that. Road projects could not be costed like sugar or dhal which can have an average market price. Every road project is unique and costs differed. A highway erected on columns across marshy land will increase costs. Costs increased when there was leveling of hills, blasting through rock, filling of marshy or low lying land, building of bridge and culverts, payment for acquiring the land .the width of the road and the number o lanes, also affected costs.

For the Kegalle by-pass land had to be acquired from private owners. It was a completely new road, 2.4 km long, with two lanes 12.5 meters wide. If also had a long bridge, culverts and reinforce concrete retaining walls ranging in height from 1.5 to 12 meters. This road passed through a hilly area with low lying marshy land. Gabion walls were needed. Jaffna-Punalai-Point Pedro road was widened to four lanes with a width of 19.3 meters and a 2 meter paved sidewalk on either side. Construction material had to be brought from Medawachchiya and Vavuniya and earth and sand form Kilinochchi resulting in higher costs.

All the high ways I built are making money every day and will continue to earn revenue in ever increasing amounts, said Rajapakse . Southern expressway earned a record income of Rs 16 million during the last 24 hours of Christmas Day, 25^th December 2015. The usual income for a day was around Rs 10 to 11 million. In December 2016, island said that express ways had yielded a record income of over Rs 26.5 million by way of toll over one weekend. Katunayake yielded around Rs 6.5 million daily.

During the Sinhala New year, April 1917,the Southern and the Katunayake Expressways had earned a record income of Rs. 24 million during the 24 hours from the Friday midnight to Saturday midnight. Around 95,000 vehicles used the two ways with people returning to villages for the weekend and the Avurudu season. Around 65,000 vehicles had used the Southern Expressway, while around 35,000 vehicles had used the Katunayake Expressway.

The British rulers created three botanical gardens in Sri Lanka, Peradeniya Royal Botanical Gardens (1821), Hakgala Botanical Gardens (1861) and Henaratgoda Botanical Gardens, Gampaha(1876). Peradeniya gardens became a garden containing plants and trees from all over the world. Hakgala Gardens had roses, snapdragons, pansies and coniferous trees from the cold countries of Europe. During the Rajapakse regime three other botanical gardens were created, Forest Medicinal Herbal Botanical Garden at Ganewatte in 2007, Mirijjawila Dry Zone Botanical Garden, Hambantota(2013) and Seethawaka Wet zone Botanical Garden, Avissawella (2014).

Seethawaka Wet Zone Botanical Garden, Avissawella, which will eventually extend to 103 acres, was created to conserve endemic and threatened plants in the Ratnapura – Sinharaja region,

Training programs and research facilities are also provided. Mirijjawila Dry Zone Botanical Garden, Hambantota is the first Sri Lankan botanical garden developed by local experts for the conservation of dwindling species of trees and shrubs, medicinal herbs and plants. It extends to 300 acres. (Continued)

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THE REIGN OF MAHINDA RAJAPAKSE (2)

March 12th, 2017

KAMALIKA PIERIS

(Revised 25.4.17)

The ‘Mahinda Chinthana’ of 2010, was a comprehensive economic plan prepared by the Department of National Planning of the Ministry of Finance and Planning. Economic development was to be along five hubs, maritime, aviation, commerce, energy, knowledge plus tourism. The policies and strategies were in line with the UN Millennium Development Goals. The plan took into account the current social and economic indicators and future projections. The regional hub for maritime affairs, banking, IT and aviation are achievable, said Palitha Kohona.

The idea of establishing Sri Lanka as a Maritime” hub was excellent and timely, said maritime specialists. The location of Sri Lanka in relation to other countries and its close proximity to sea lanes makes this very feasible. Also Sri Lanka is better endowed and better located than Singapore. However, Sri Lanka has a long way to go from its current transhipment hub position to be a maritime and a logistics hub. A Maritime Hub involves many things, not just having a harbour. It involves, inter alia, cargo handling, bunkering, ship repair facilities. The services offered must be efficient, competitive and in line with international standards and practices.

The main contribution of Rajapakse to the Maritime hub was Hambantota port which he created from scratch. Rajapakse also developed the Colombo South Container terminal in Colombo port. .This terminal became the first in Sri Lanka capable of handling mega container ships . It made Colombo Port one of the biggest in the world. Construction was given to China Merchant Holdings on a 35-year BOT deal using an Asian Development Bank loan. The terminal commenced operations in August 2013.

The Aviation” hub included Mattala airport, opened in 2013. Airports are now key nodes in economic development. Mattala has a single runway, capable of receiving the world’s largest passenger aircraft, Airbus A380 and can handle 1 million passengers per year. It was an international airport. ICAO had given it a certificate effective for two years.

Mattala airport has been heavily criticized. Sri Lankan pilots say that the runway orientation of the airport makes the aircraft face dangerous crosswinds. They were not consulted when the airport was planned. Environmentalists complain that Mattala airport was built in an elephant and migratory bird habitat. During the planning stages of the project, environmentalists had warned of the threat to wildlife. 2,000 acres of forest were cleared to build the airport, displacing about 200 elephants. Peacocks and migratory birds, which frequent the area, have been involved in collisions with aircraft.

Critics say Mattala was a mistake. The cost was too much. Sri Lanka can only justify a second airport if the first is used to capacity and cannot be expanded. It was possible to expand Katunayake. If you only needed an airport for emergency landing, then an airstrip is enough and we have two at Hingurakgoda and Pallai. A runway conforming to international standard was all that was needed. Airbus A380 will not fly into Sri Lanka, critics added.

Whether the new airport should be at Mattala or not, everyone will agree that there should be another airport, said Ariyawansa Ranaweera. ‘When I was Additional Secretary, in charge of Civil Aviation in the 1980s, there was a plan to locate the second airport at Hingurakgoda. The plan was dropped due to financial issues. It is creditable that the former President Rajapakse fulfilled this need in double quick time. We now have a full fledged second international airport when even the largest aircraft can land. A new airport cannot realize its potential in a short time, ‘he added.

Mattala has been used from January 2017 since Katunayake is under repair. Television news of 18.2.17 reported that it had unloaded 29,000 passengers from 284 flights. A passenger said Mattala had a lot of potential. He was speaking as a business man. Passengers said they liked it better than Katunayake. Despite the renovation work on the Katunayake runway, in March 2017, the runway was not upgraded for use by large aircraft such as A380s. So Mattala remains the only runway for big planes.

The Knowledge” hub focused on literacy in ITC, Internet access for all and the creation of knowledge-based jobs. The Rajapakse government made a sound start on this. This is described in detail later on. Energy” hub included development of renewable energy sources, a new oil refinery at Hambantota and oil exploration and production in three offshore locations identified in Mannar, Cauvery, and the Southern waters. Sri Lanka’s first oil and gas exploration company, Ceylon Energy, chaired by Dr. Kulasinghe was launched in 2013. (Daily News 9.7.13 Business supplement. p 1).

Tourism was the last subject added to the Hubs. Gotabhaya and Kohona independently stated that tourist arrivals increased during the Rajapakse period. Travel magazines such as Conde Nast, Lonely Planet recommended Sri Lanka as a tourist destination. High end tourists, Bridge groups, history buffs and bird watchers visited Sri Lanka. More than a million tourist arrivals were recorded in 2012. More Chinese and Russians are visiting Sri Lanka as tourists said Kohona. The Mahinda Chintana hubs” never got going, they were dropped by the Yahapalana government in 2015.

A National Physical Plan was prepared for the first time in 2007. The printed version, which I have seen, ran to ten outsized volumes. The earlier governments failed to formulate a national physical planning policy and plan. My government has been able to do this, said Rajapakse in his foreword to the summarized version Sri Lanka in 2030”.

The National Physical Plan provides for an urban network, consisting of metro regions and metro cities and a second network of small townships for the rural sector with supporting infrastructure. Mega cities, main cities, secondary cities, tertiary cities are identified. The metro regions would be : Colombo-Gampaha-Kalutara in the west, Jaffna in the north, Hambantota in the south, Ampara-Batticaloa in the east and a massive Anuradhapura-Trincomalee–Polonnaruwa –Dambulla metro region in the North-west.

The main highways would be Colombo-Matara-Monaragala, Colombo-Kandy, Hambantota-Batticaloa-Trincomalee, Negombo-Mannar, Colombo-Jaffna and Colombo-Trincomalee. There would be domestic airports at Ampara, Anuradhapura, Batticaloa, Dambulla, Hingurakgoda, Jaffna ,Kalutara ,Puttalam, Ratmalana, Trincomalee and Vavuniya.

Paddy cultivation would be in Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Ampara, Trincomalee , Hambantota areas, also at Vavuniya, which I was told at a seminar, was to be for export, Two areas were allotted to rubber, at Ratnapura and Moneragala, coconut was left in its triangle, and a small section was given to tea near Nuwara eliya and Galle-Matara. Industrial locations were situated within the metro regions.

There would be electric power generation plants at Matale, Ratnapura and Mannar, coal power at Kalpitiya, Hambantota and Trincomalee, wind mills at Chilaw, Nuwara eliya, Mullaitivu, Oluvil and ocean power at Trincomalee. The plan also looked at potential areas of petroleum and oceanic resources. A settlement pattern which avoided natural disasters was sought. The area between Naula to Morawaka, Lunugala to Dehiowita, was listed as a central fragile area unsuitable for settlements. The central hills and the coastal areas were identified as the two areas prone to natural disasters Forest reservations and wild life reservations were marked out.

There was an economic boom in the Rajapakse period. The best evidence to prove that the Rajapakse government was indeed presiding over an economic boom is that IMF gave the Rajapakse government a huge standby facility of USD 2.5 billion in 2009. It was utilized to the fullest satisfaction of the IMF. Also IMF did not then impose the kind of conditions mentioned in their September 18 2015 statement. The Rajapakse government had greater credibility in the eyes of the IMF than the Sirisena government, said Chandraprema.

Many leading international companies, notably Shangri La Hotel chain, Hyatt Hotels, Sheraton Hotels, Indo-Ocean Developers and the Krrish Group, have invested in the hospitality and real estate sectors in Sri Lanka. They will build high-end hotels, residential spaces, office buildings and commercial facilities in and around Colombo. The Krrish Group intends to preserve and transform the old Transworks Building into a high-end boutique hotel. This indicated the confidence that the international community had in Sri Lanka as well as their optimism about the country’s future prospects. Sri Lankan companies too started to invest in these sectors, with several conglomerates planning to construct several new mixed developments, hotels and office buildings.

Rajapakse looked at modern ways of making money. James Packer, a leading casino mogul, was to invest in USD 350 million casino resort in D.R. Wijewardena Mawatha Colombo. The government wanted to develop the area as an entertainment centre. This would cater to the international gambling elite, who presently went to Macau and Singapore. Sri Lanka would be a third gambling destination for them. It would bring substantial revenue for Sri Lanka, also employment. There was no chance of the locals getting corrupted. Locals did not have the money to go anywhere near the casino.

Packer said a luxury casino resort is a necessity if Sri Lanka is to become a leading tourist centre. He cited the success of Singapore which became a successful tourist destination with the development of two integrated casino resorts. Packer was planning to lure the gambling elites of India and the Middle East to Colombo. India did not permit gambling and Colombo was just four hours away. Packer backed out when the Yahapalana government came in. Yahapalana cheered.

Rajapakse wanted to create a second development zone in the island. We are now a nation of 20 million and we need another population centre instead of everyone converging on western province, he said. The next development zone was to be at Hambantota .For this he created Magampura port, Mattala Airport, the southern express way and planned a railway extension to Hambantota. Instead of foolishly calling a presidential election in 2015, he should have used the two years remaining to him to build up this zone.

Rajapakse’s rule benefited the business sector. They were able to maintain high balance sheets. In the past the private sector always supported the UNP, which was seen as private sector friendly and good at economic management. Today, it is under the SLFP of Rajapakse that the private sector thrived, said Chandraprema. Under Rajapakse both the producer and the consumer was looked after it was the only government that did this, said Chandraprema.

Since 2009, Nawaloka Steel (Pvt) Ltd, a subsidiary of Nawaloka Holdings began manufacturing wire nails at its own production facility. Today its product portfolio has expanded to include mild steel wire nails, barbed wire – galvanized and PVC coated, galvanised roofing sheets, galvanised welded mesh and PVC coated chain link fencing. All products manufactured by Nawaloka Steel is in keeping with international standards.

Rajapakse paid great attention to the delivery of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in Sri Lanka, particularly mass literacy in ICT and internet access to all. Sri Lanka was ranked 5th best development in ICT globally by the World Economic Forum in its Global Information Technology Report of 2012. In 2013, World Bank reported that Sri Lanka achieved significant growth in the ICT sector during the last 10 years. Internet, email, mobile phones, e-services and automation were available..

IT Network readiness Index, listed in the Global Information Technology Report, is one index which shows how well an economy is poised to gain the benefits of ICT. In 2015, it ranked Sri Lanka 65, three places below China and 24 places above India. Which is in 89 place. Also Sri Lanka was within the top ten countries from Asia and it the only south Asian country in that list.

A seven storeyed Information Technology Park was to be set up at Hambantota close to Suriyawewa International Stadium. Several investors including Intel Corporation, IBM, two universities from India and Singapore, Tech One Global, and Mobitel had expressed willingness to set up IT ventures at the Hambantota IT Park.

Sri Lanka started an e-Sri Lanka Development program”, with World Bank funding in 2005. E-Sri Lanka was the first project of its kind. ‘This was something new even the World Bank’. World Bank considered it a great success, thanks to ‘one visionary leader’ said World Bank consultant N.K.Hanna. This project became a valuable case study for the World Bank. Sri Lanka has shown that a coherent ICT-enabled strategy could be forged even when there were difficult initial conditions and political uncertainties, World Bank said. E-Sri Lanka experience was used for other World Bank assisted programs including e-Bharat , e-Ghana, e-Pakistan, e-Rwanda and e-Brasil.

Under the e-Sri Lanka Initiative and as a part of a larger country-wide strategy to “take the dividends of ICT to every village and every citizen,” Nenasalas providing free access to Internet and computers were set up by the government in rural areas., The purpose was to spread ICT services to the rural and semi-urban population and also to develop students knowledge of information technology.

Computers were set up in Nenasalas throughout Sri Lanka in places accessible to all. Most were placed in religious institutions, since these are central to the village, but they were open to everybody. The first Nenasala was set up in Kataragama in 2005 by Mahinda Rajapakse when he was Prime Minister. By 2010 there were 751 such centers in the country, including one at Kuliyapitiya Technical College. The Nenasala at Yallapatha was at the post office, there was another Nenasala at Ilukpotha.

Nenasala provided training in basic computer and Internet skills, using email and social media platforms. Nenasalas also provided extensive learning opportunities for school-age children, including a video-based programme for learning English. Women are given specialized content on critical issues facing children and families, including information on nutrition, breast-feeding, safe sanitation, and vaccines. Adults can perform job searches, learn how to create a resume, and access a wide variety of Government services, including passport applications, driver’s license renewals, and Government exams. Migrant workers who make up a significant portion of the Sri Lankan workforce can communicate via Skype with family members

Local youth often became volunteer computer trainers at the Nenasalas. They were given basic training at the beginning of their service followed by refresher courses, online training programmes, and peer to peer learning opportunities. Deepika Priyadharshanee, a ‘Nenasala’ operator from Sooriyawewa Nenasala, Hambantota, won the best tele-centre manager award at the 2016 Global Telecenter Awards in Spain, beating 60 tele-centre operators around the world.

Nenasalas helped Sri Lanka increase its computer usage The IT literacy rate which was four percent in 2004, increased to 43 percent in 2014. The Nenasala Programme won the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s 2014 Access to Learning Award receiving a cash grant of US $1 million Microsoft Asia Pacific gifted ‘up to the minute’ Microsoft software to the value of US$ 2.1million.

Lakshman Kiriella said, Rajapakse could not start even one factory. This is probably correct. Rajapakse was not interested in labor intensive factory production .Rajapakse wanted to send the country’s highly educated work force into knowledge-based industries. Sri Lanka was to ‘march towards a smart economy , based on knowledge services.’ There has been some success in this field. ICT brought in revenue of US$ 166 million in 2006 and US$ 850 million in 2015 with a workforce of over 75,000.

Sri Lanka was awarded the Outsourcing Destination of the Year” in 2013 and shortlisted for Offshoring Destination of the year Award in 2014 and 2015 by the National Outsourcing Association (NOA) in UK. Sri Lanka ranked at 16th in the A.T. Kearney’s Global Services location Index (GSLI) in 2014. A number of Sri Lankan companies developed highly acclaimed software products, during Rajapakse’s time.

Sri Lanka’s National Nanotechnology Initiative (SLNNI) commenced in 2006 on a proposal made to President Rajapakse in 2005 by scientists. President Rajapakse responded positively. The state would put up 50% of the starting costs if the private sector would come in. The private sector was agreeable. The Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology (SLINTEC) was established in April 2008 as a private Company with the support of the government and five leading companies, Brandix Lanka, Dialog Telecom PLC, Hayleys, Loadstar and MAS Capital.

NANCO was established in July 2008 as a fully Government owned private Company to build, operate and manage a nanoscience park, to undertake research and development in nanotechnology for value addition for export oriented manufacturing companies. SLINTEC and NANCO merged in 2011. NANCO would be the commercial or production facility with the proposed Nanotechnology Centre and the Nanoscience Park on a 50-acre land at the Homagama Industrial Park.

SLINTEC was the research and development arm. SLINTEC is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities for advanced materials research and has attracted an expert talent pool with global training in world’s leading universities. It is the first public-private research institute in Sri Lanka . It is today the recognized pioneer in nanotechnology and advanced technology research in Sri Lanka. It has the potential to be the leading Research and Innovation platform for sustainable nanotechnology in Asia. We could be an outsourcing operation to the world. We have good brains and low cost structures, said Prof Eric Karunaratne.

SLINTEC’s objectives were to develop nanotechnology based industry using Sri Lanka’s own raw materials and human resources and develop Sri Lankan patents and products. SLINTEC holds several ground breaking patents. SLINTEC acquired five international patents in its first year of operation. The first patent was obtained for urea, it was bought by India. Three patents in the areas of fertilizers, apparel and rubber, brought in Rs. 9.55 billion for Sri Lanka. The purchasers included Nagarjuna Fertilizer, India and Lankem.

There were advances in the services sector. In health , the first ‘National Health Accounts’ were compiled in 2013. In secondary education, technology subjects were introduced to the school curriculum. There were plans in 2014 to open a prison school for about 100 inmates under the age of 30 at Homagama with classes from Grade 9 to O level with the support of the Ministry of Education.

In technical education, the Rajapakse government established the University of Vocational Technology, UNIVOTEC in 2008. Advanced Level passes were not needed for this institute, NVQ level 5 diploma was sufficient. ( NVQ stands for National Vocational Qualification issued by NAITA) This meant that, unlike most undergraduates, these students knew their subject before coming in. All courses were job oriented. They are conducted on week day and weekends. Duration is three year fulltime, part time four years. One student was awarded a University of Moratuwa research assistant scholarship, on his presentation at the Institute of Engineering Technology exhibition. He is now following a postgraduate course there.

The Rajapakse administration improved the delivery of public services. The government information Centre GIC hotline 1919 is good, said a user in 2012. They listen to the public patiently and provide answers. She got useful information on how to get the passport renewed and on the closure of Baseline Road. Her mother got information on ETF (Island 19.11.12 p 9).

The 20 storied office complex housing the Department of Immigration and Emigration and the Department of Registration of Persons was constructed on the direction of President Rajapakse. It opened in 2016. The 700,000 sq feet building complex includes state of the art security system, automatic building management system, public address facility, internal CCTV, and cutting edge fire fighting and control system. It had a four storied car park, a post office, banks, cafeterias and toilets. Much care was taken to cater to the needs of people with special needs. My passport application was completed within two hours despite a hundred other applicants.

Rajapakse did not hesitate to intervene when necessary. When I was minister of science and technology, said Tissa Vitarana, I wanted to set up a support service for small and medium services (SMEs) in the rural sector in the form of the Vidatha project, to help existing SMEs and those wishing to become entrepreneurs. We wanted to link the rural entrepreneur with scientists and researchers in the university so that they can improve their products and remain competitive. When I first put this up to the Public Service Commission it was stuck there, officials haggled over matters like the salaries of computer operators and the whole project was delayed for over one and half years till I went to the President and approval was given to the cadres.

Rajapakse had an excellent foreign policy. Palitha Kohona said Rajapakse cultivated the Non-aligned movement and the G7 group assiduously. He attended their summits. These groups were useful for Sri Lanka.. In the last months of 2009, Gaddafi of Libya had agreed to lend 500 million USD to Sri Lanka in response to a single phone call by Rajapakse . If not for that the economy would have collapsed before the war was won.

Rajapakse ‘managed’ India and had good relations with Pakistan. He had excellent relations with Australia and New Zealand. Rajapakse saw that China and Russia were the emerging world powers and maintained contact with them. Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Sri Lanka in 2014. This was the first visit of a Chinese President in the past 28 years. Rajapakse realized that the west and its international financial institutions no longer had money to fund foreign projects. The main source for such funds was China and Rajapakse turned to China very successfully for this.

Sri Lanka established diplomatic relations with 13 countries in Latin America He visited Kazakhstan, in 2012. Rajapakse also started diplomatic relations with several African countries. He should be commended for this, it has not been done before, said experts.

Rajapakse set up resident missions in Uganda, Nigeria and Seychelles. Sri Lanka and Uganda have signed five agreements boosting technology, tourism, etc. Uganda supported Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Commission. Seychelles is important as it gives us access to east Africa and southern Africa, said G.L.Pieris. There are Sri Lanka businesses there, in construction industry , power and energy sectors. Bank of Ceylon, and Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation have set up branches there. Sri Lanka obtained accreditation status in the African Union in April 2014 as a non African state..

We had an excellent relationship with Middle East countries, said G.L.Pieris. This resulted in significant benefits, Iran gave interest free credit facility to purchase Iranian crude oil. This helped Sri Lanka in its war with LTTE. An agreement was signed with Saudi Arabia, where the Sri Lankan worker can now retain his passport and his wages will be paid into a bank. Until now, the passport was retained by the employer and wages were in cash.

The agreement covered 12 categories of workers, including housemaids, drivers, cleaners, and waiters. Contract must be drafted in a language that is understood by the worker, and the worker must know where to turn in case of emergency. Also where to go for health and personal safety. Employer must agree to terminate the service after a maximum period of two years, if the worker wishes it.

A difficult but successful balance was achieved between Israel and Palestine. President Rajapakse visited Israel and Palestine in January 2014. He is the first Sri Lankan head of state to visit both Israel and Palestine. In Palestine he stated that Sri Lanka will always support the cause of Palestine. A road was named “HE Mahinda Rajapakse Road” in Ramallah and Rajapakse was conferred the highest award in Palestine, the Star of Palestine.

Rajapakse’s political leadership was recognized by the neighboring countries. In 2010, Nepal president Yadav had met President Rajapakse at the Shanghai Expo and sought his help to overcome the political crisis in Nepal. Rajapakse had visited Nepal on several occasions earlier, and had mediated to solve such issues in the past. (Daily News 1.11.10. p 1).

The President of the Maldives called Rajapakse in Ukraine, in 2010 and asked him to come to Maldives and use his good offices to resolve a deepening political crisis in Maldives. Rajapakse went there and had discussion with the various groups and got them to agree to meet and settle their differences. At the 65th general sessions of the UN, Maldivian Vice president thanked President Mahinda Rajapakse for his assistance in solving the Maldivian political crisis of the time. (Daily News 29.9.10 p 1). (Continued)

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World Consumer Day 15/03/2017 Theme Building a Digital World Consumer Can Trust

March 12th, 2017

Sarath Wijesinghe-(Solicitor/Attorney-at-law, former Chairman Consumer Affairs Authority, former Ambassador to UAE and Israel)

World Consumer Day”

World Consumer day (WCD) is an annual event on 15th March every year for celebrations, activism, and solidarity, among the consumer and consumer organizations worldwide. Consumerism has a historical significance until WCD was originated in 1983, and subsequently the Consumer rights were elevated to a position of international recognition and legitimacy by adopting the guidelines by the United Nations. John Kennedy said on 15/2/1962 that consumer by definition includes as the largest economic groups effecting and affected by almost every private and public economic decision, yet they are the only important group whose views are often not heard. Today things have changed as in the West where the consumer is organized and powerful. WCD is one of those events of showing strength and power of the consumer. Seminars, workshops and show of activism give a sense of power and strength to the consumer. Junk Food Generation which has an adverse effect on the health of the human being -especially children has been a popular and important topic of the Day. Some topics chosen before were Unethical Drug Promotion (2007), GM Food (2005) Consumers and Water (2004) and Control of Food Chain (2003). Selection of the same topic Junk Food consecutively for two years indicates the importance of the issue. Twenty two million children around the world are already overweight. Mostly children are targeted by multinational organizations as victims. As a result there is a strong campaign to urge the world to introduce an international code on the marketing unhealthy food to children. Consumer rights day depends on initiatives, planned functions and projects carried out by consumer organizations on every continent. This takes the shape of special campaigns press conferences exhibitions, workshops publications and similar events. There are websites, Magazines, books, and on-2going activism worldwide in promoting the activism in the interest of the citizen. Unfortunately in Sri Lanka there is less activism leaving the helpless consumer alone in the hands of errant trader, and

industrialist continue to exploit freely despite inactive regulators led by the Consumer Affairs’ Authority.

CONSUMER”

Consumer is defined in the Consumer Affairs Authority Act No 9 of 2003, as any actual user of any goods or services made available for a consideration by a trader or manufacturer” which is a unique and a broader definition from the common law perspective. In a literal sense, a consumer is one who preachers goods or services” (Longman Dictionary of the English Language, 2nd Ed.) (Harlow: Longman1991) For the purpose of the English consumer protection law, the term consumer has narrower meaning which is based on the capacity in which the consumer and the supplier of the goods and supplied have acted. Until the introduction of the CAA act of 2003-hereafter known as the Act-, by replacing Consumer Protection act, no 1 of 1979, Fair Trading Commission act, no 1 of 1987, and the control of prizes act ( chapter 173) , consumerism in Sri Lanka was primarily governed by English Law principles. Act desires to provide for better protection of consumers through the regulation of trade and the prices of goods and services and to protest traders and manufacturers against unfair trade practices and restrictive trade practices, and promoting competitive pricing wherever possible and ensure healthy competition among traders and manufactures of goods and services. This is a complete transformation of the principle and procedure of price control to Regulation and Competitive trade, which is a mixture of the basis of USA, Australian and European models in practice.

Definition

The definition covers actual and potential users of goods and services which gives a further and broader meaning and an area including every citizen worldwide in the definition who is a potential consumer in this competitive and developed world. The standard perception of a consumer is of an individual purchaser of goods or services and in most cases it will be the case. Most of the provisions of the Consumer Credit Act, 1974 (CCA) (U K) only apply where the debtor is an individual under English Law, and generally a non-business purchaser. In Sri Lankan context any actual user could be a company or a juristic personality. In the UK much of the legislation can be regarded as being directed towards fair trading rather than consumer protection. Many modern consumer protection measures no longer require proof of fraud. A trader can be found guilty of a criminal offence without proof of criminal intention.

CAA- Consumer Affairs Authority – the Main Regulators in Sri Lanka”

The main legislations on consumerism in Sri Lanka before and during the introduction of the Act – some of which are replaced, amended, and replaced

were, Consumer Protection Act, Fair Trading Commission Act , Control of Prices act , Trade Marks Ordinance, Prisons, Opium, and Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Control of Prices Ordinance, Weights and Measures Ordinance, Food and Drugs act, Control of Prizes act, Food Control act, Licensing of Traders act, Bureau of Ceylon Slandered, National Prizes Commission Law, Consumer protection act, Code of Intellectual property act, Petroleum Products act, Food Act, Cosmetic Devoices and Drugs Act, Consumer Credit act, Sri Lanka Standards Institution Act, Fair Trading Commission act, Measurement Unite Standards and Services act, Unfair Contract Terms act. Today the concept of price control is replaced by regulatory powers where it is controlled by regulation indirect means and competition. How far and whether this is a success is a moot issue.

Are We At The Door Steps” Of The Digital Age?”

Consumer International selects timely topics in the process of activism for consumers worldwide. It was Fix your phones right, Healthy Dilates in 2015 and Antibiotic Resistance in 2016, which are current and timely then. World is fast reaching digital age with 3 billion world citizens online which is 30% of the world population,1.25 Face book users, when Sri Lanka has 23 million Mobile phomes,5 million internet users and 3.5 million Face Book users which is high on international standards, when almost every citizen has mobile phones with substantial decrease of land lines. E-Bay and online shopping is fast growing with an enormous future potential when consumerism in Sri Lanka is lagging behind with no amendments to the Consumer Affairs’ Authority act still old and archaic with no changes or improvements from 2003, with a question mark on legal protection from the main regulator of the country. Online shopping, credit cards, local digital platforms and worldwide platforms such as eBay, and major players are freely available in Sri Lanka with the clientele increasing fast unnoticed and untouched by the traditional regulatory procedures in the absence of a mechanism and lack of knowledge of the Sri Lankan regulators in the dark on the digital age.

Building A Digital World the Consumer Can Trust-Theme On 2017-

CAA is the main regulator in the country on consumerism responsible for regulating quality, standards, prize, and access to consumer items and services at a reasonable prize without poisonous and hazardous consumer items and services of accepted standards to the consumer freely, through regulatory 2powers and activism via the CAA and the organization it is expected to supervise. This mechanism is important as it involves the future, health, wealth and the existence of the Nation. 2017 on the theme consumer in the digital age and we hope the momentum will be gathered and centralized from activism during this period will continue until next year. We wish and pray that all the

parties concerned namely the consumer, trader, manufacturer, industrialist, and the State (CAA and the Ministry of Consumer Affairs) will work hand in hand realizing and aiming at their honourable aims and objects in making the consumer happy and satisfied.

Consumer Trust”

Developing consumer trust is an arduous task in the highly complicated digital atmosphere, on the consumer now at the door steps of the digital age. Digital Storms is blowing away the human mind which is the most advanced computer now depending on artificial intelligence and advanced digital technological developments. We are at the door steps of the modern digital transforming the entire style on the modern advanced systems and innovations in all areas of human life. Consumers are inadequately protected by traditional safeguards provided by respective legal systems worldwide and out-dated regulatory powers in Sri Lanka incapable of meeting the modern challenges in the digital e-com age. Consumer trust will be developed with the modern trends with the success of a mechanism which is not introduced yet meeting the new trends needs and requirements. For example the world and local e- sale-business-transections platforms have their own regulatory powers and remedies due to ferocious competition and self-regulation to safeguard their present and future customers/ consumers in the hands of their mercy. Sections 7,8,9,10,12,13,15,16,17,18,19,21,22,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,34,35,36,39,45, of the act which deals with the operational and conceptual matters have to be adopted/amended to meet the current challenges and a discussion and complete overhaul of the act and the working procedure is an urgent necessary to meet the digital challenges.

Way Forward For The Happiness And The Satisfaction Of The Consumer”

In the United Kingdom magazine Which” media, Citizen Advice Bureaux, Legal Aid System, Consumer organizations, NGOs with the State is protecting the consumer with the network of the consumer organizations and consumer groups. Citizen is used to look upon which magazine for directions and information which is a medium for information, advice and guidance, available for the citizen. European Union spreads tentacles over the member countries in safeguarding consumer by/through directions. Consumerism in India is organized and powerful with governmental support, legislation, legal system and separate Consumer Courts for implementation with the Judiciary favouring public interest litigations and class actions as in USA and UK even against giant multinational Cola, and Junk food Chains poisoning and making the entire world potential patents. Consumerism and consumer protection models are organized and effective in the Socialist Block and the Commonwealth with different legal systems. There is uniformity in the

Commonwealth including Canada, Australia, with similar legal systems and Sri Lankan model is a mixture of Australian, UK, models and European concepts. Consumer is powerful and considered to be a King in other parts of the world able to flex muscles on the parties concerned for just and fair treatment on consumerism, with the adage Consumer is always Right” practised in the competitive trade. It is a satisfactory trend that the CAA, IPS and Consumer Organization led by powerful activists have organized events with the participation of Mr Satya” representing the World Consumer Federation based in the United Kingdom and we hope a new chapter and a trend will emerge as a result with the influence and participation of the Consumer International , State, Trader, Industrialist, and the Consumer with a joint and a consorted efforts in achieving happiness and satisfaction of the consumer badly in need of assistance. We hope and pray Sri Lanka will have the strength and vision to set up a network of consumer organizations, a proper legal mechanism with amendments to meet the modern challenges, with the concept alert consumer and just trader”, to work with all concerned parties namely consumer, trader, industrialist and the state hand in hand in the interest of the citizen deserves closer attention. Author could be reached on sarath7@hotmail.co.uk and the views expressed are that of the author taking responsibility on the contents.”

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කොටි ත්‍රස්තයෝ, යහපාලකයෝ සහ බෝධීන් වහන්සේලා

March 12th, 2017

ධර්මසිරිසෙනෙවිරත්න

කොටියෝ ස්රිමහ බෝධීන් වහන්සේට වෙඩිතබා විනාශ කරන්නට උත්සාහ කළහ දළදා මාලිගාවට බෝම්බ ගැසුහ උතුරේත් නැගෙනහිරත් ඇති සියලු බෞද්ධ පුරාවස්තුන් විනාශ කිරීමේ ව්‍යාපාරයක උන් නියලී ඇත මුස්ලිම් කාරයෝ දීඝ වාපිය බුල්ඩෝසර් කළහ කුරගල පල්ලි හදුහ සිරීපාද භූමියටත් රිංගාගෙන ඇත ..එහෙත් තවමත් රටේ බෞද්ධයන් 70%සිටින්නේලු .එහෙව් රටේ අගමැති අන්ග්ලිකන කිතුණුවෙක් වී ඇතවසර 2600ක් බෞධ්ධරාජ්‍යයක්ව පැවතෙමින් එන මෙරටේ ,බෞධයන් විනාශ කරමින් මුලින් කී අපරාධ සිදුකල කොටියෝ විනාශකර බෞධ්ධයන්ගේ රට බේරාගත් පාලකයා එළවා අබෞධ්ධයෙක් අගමැති කර ගත බෞද්ධයින් එළඹී සිහියෙන් කටයුතු කල අ ය නම් විය නොහැක සදා ජනතාවගෙන් ප්‍රතික්ෂේපවූඅබෞද්ධ මිනිහෙක් අගමැති කරන්නට අවශ්‍ය වුයේබටහිරයන්ට හා ඉන්දියාවටය .ඒ සඳහාවූ ව්‍යාපාරයේ මුලිකයෙක් ලෙස විදේශිකයින් විසින් පත් කර ගත්තේ රටේ ජනප්‍රිය බෞද්ධ භික්ෂුවකි. රිදීසීනු හඬින් ඒ භික්ෂුව’’’සාධාරණ සමාජං ගච්චාමි ‘’’’’’කියමින් ජනතාව පිස්සු වට්ටේව්වේය අවසානයේ තෙමේම පිස්සුවටී මියදුනේය .රටේ තිබු ජාතිකවාදී එකමපක්ෂය දෙකට කඩා දැම්මේය ..කොහේදෝ සිටි පෙන්දෙක් ඉදිරියට දමා ඔහු මගින් බලය ලබාගෙන ඇන්ග්ලිකන් ආගමිකයෙක් අගමැති කරවුයේය

දැන් උන් බෞධ්ධරට අනාගමික රටක් කලයුතුයය් කියති බෞද්ධ .මහානායකයෙක් අදත් ඒ අන්ග්ලිකානුවා විස්වාසදායකයය් කියමින් ජනතාව රවටය්.අරුම පුදුම බෞද්ධ නායකයින් ඉන්නාමේ රටේ අබෞධ්ධයෝ බඩපිණුම් ගසති. කොටි බෙදුම් වාදීහු සිරිවර්ධන බෝධින්වහන්සේ කපා ගසමුලට සිමෙන්ති දැමු හැටි සන්සෝනි කොමිසමේ කියවුනේය එහෙත් බෞද්ධ රජය කලේ කුමක්ද .සිරිල් මැතිව් මේවා හඬගා කියනවිට ජේ ආර් ඔහු පන්නාදම්මේය .දැන් අගමැති රනිල් ඒ ජේ ආර්ගේ බෑනය .මේ බෑනා කිසිවිටෙකත් බෙදුම්වාදීන්ට නෑ බෑ නොකියය් .මොහු රණවිරුවෝ හිරෙදමා බෙදුම් වාදී ත්‍රස්තවාදීයෝ ගරුනම්බුදී ගෙදර යවය්

මේ දවස්වල අගමැති නිරතවී සිටින්නේ නොයෙක් දේ ‘’’කෙලින් කරන ‘’’ ව්යාපාරයකය .ජෝන් අමරතුන්ගගෙන් උපදෙස් ගෙනදෝ අනවශ්‍ය හැමදේම කෙලින් කරවිය යුතුයය් ඔහු සිතන විය යුතුය .පන්නිපිටියේ පාරත් කෙලින් කරවන්න පාර අයිනේම තියෙන බෝධීන් වහන්සේත් උගුළුවා දැමීමට මොවුන් උත්සාහ කරමින් සිටිති අනේ සෝභිත හාමුදුරුවෝ හිටියනම් මේගැන රිදීසිනු හඬින් මොනවා කියනු ඇත්ද .මුස්ලිම් පල්ලි හා ලයිට් කණු පාර මැදහා අසල ඇතත්ඒ තැන් වලදී කෙලින් කර ගැනීමට මුන් බයය් වගේ .

මුන්ට අවශ්‍ය බෝධි සංස්කෘතියට පහර ගැසීමටය .වඳින පුදන හැම බෝධියක්ම බෞද්ධයාට බෝධීන් වහන්සේ නමකි .තුන් මුනින් දාඩිය දමාගෙන බස් එකට දුවගෙන ඇවිත්බසෙක එනතුරු බෝගහ යටට ආවිටම අපට දැනෙන්නේ ‘’’’ නිවන් ගියා වාගේ ‘’’ හන්ගීමකි .ඒ සේවනම ඒ සිසිලම ඇති බෝගහට ගරු කරන්න , බාරහාරබෝධි පුජා පැත්තකින් තියමු .බෝගහක් දකින හැම මොහොතක් පාසාම බෞද්ධයාට සිහිවෙන්නේ වසර 2600ක ඉතිහාසයකි ..බෝගස බෞද්ධයාගේ ගරුබුහුමන් ලැබූ නිසා බෝ පත්‍රය කර පලන්දනාවෙත් ,හිස පලන්දනාවෙත් ,කුන්ඩලාභාරනයේත් සටහන්විය . වෙස් තට්ටුවේ ,දාගැබ් මුදුනේ බෝපත් හැඩය ගැන්විණි ..කොටින්ම බෝධි සංස්කෘතියක් බිහිවිය .

යහපාලකයන් බලයේ සිටින කාලයේදී කලදුටු කල වල ඉහ ගන්නට හෙන්චය්යෝ කටයුතු කරති මේ උගුළුවා දමන්නට හදන්නේ සිංහල බෞද්ධ සංස්කෘතිය මිස බෝගහක් නොවේ .මු නසන්නේ ගතට හිතට හෙවන නිවන දෙන බෞද්ධ සන්ස්ක්රුතියය්

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ජනමාධ්‍යවේදියා සහ දොස්තර මහතා

March 12th, 2017

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග

ජනමාධ්‍යවේදී සිරිමෙවන් කස්තුරිආරච්චි මහතා විසින් තමන් ගේ අසනීපයකට බෙහෙත් ගැනීමට වෛද්‍යවරයෙකු හමු වූ අවස්ථාවේදී ලද අත්දැකීම ඔහුගේ මුහුණු පොතේ පළ කොට තිබේ.

“අසනීපයට ප්‍රතිකාර ගන්න 05 වැනිදා නවලෝක පුද්ගලික රෝහලට ගොස් රුපියල් 1150ක් ගෙවා මෙරට සිටින ‘ගුණ වඩන’ විශේෂඥ වෛද්‍යවරයෙක් ලඟට ගියා.ඔහු වයසක කෙනෙක්.මුහුණේ සිනාවක්.ලේ කඳුලක් නැති අකාරුණික,මරුමුස් කෙනෙක් වුණත් කරගන්න දෙයක් නැතුව ලෙඩේ ගැන කිවුවා.”මේ පරීක්ෂණය කරගෙන එන්න.තුණ්ඩුව ලියලා දුන්නා.අනේ ඒක අරගෙන ආවා.දැන් බයයි පරීක්ෂණය කරගන්න මොකද කීයක් යයිද දන්නෙත් නැහැ,අතේ සල්ලිත් නැහැ.ඔන්න මිතුරෙක් උදවු කළ නිසා පරීක්ෂණය ඊයේ (08) කරගත්තා.රිපෝට් එක පෙන්වන්න සල්ලි නොගන්න නිසා අද (09) සවස 05 ට ගිය ඒක පෙන්නන්න.142 කාමරය ලඟට ගිහින් කිවුවා රිපෝට් එක පෙන්නන්න ආවේ කියලා.කාමරයේ හිටි රෝගියා එළියට ආවාට පසු මාව ඇතුළට යැවුවා.රිපෝට් එක දුන්නා විතරයි මේ ‘ගුණ වඩනා’ ජීවකයා ඇඟට කඩා පැනපි. “දැන් දින පහුවෙලා,එපොයින්ට්මන්ට් එකක් දාගෙන එන්න” කියලා කියපි.අනේ ඉතින් ගිහින් රුපියල් 1150ක් ගෙවලා 20 නොම්මරය අරගෙන ගිහින් පයක් විතර ඉඳලා දොස්තර ලඟට ගියා.මගෙ මුහුණවත් නොබලා මෙන්න බොලේ කියාපි “ඔපරේෂන් එකක් කරන්න ඕනෑ.ඇඩ්මිට් වෙන්න” කියලා. “කීයක් විතර යයිද ඩොක්ටර්?” මම බැගෑපත්ව ඇහුවා. “85000ක් විතර යයි.ඊට වැඩිවෙන්නත් පුළුවන්.දැන් යන්න ඇඩ්මිට් වෙන්න” කියලා ඔහු කිවුවා. ලෙඩේ තවත් වැඩි වුණා ඔහුගේ අකාරුණික බව නිසාම.ලෙඩෙකුට කාරුණිකව කතා කරන්නවත් නොදන්නා ඔහු ලඟට නැවත නොයන බව සිතාගෙන,මැරුණත් කමක් නෑ කියලා පිටත් වෙලා දැන් ගෙදරට ආවා.ඇත්තටම එච්චර දෙන්න සල්ලිත් නැහැ.මැරුණත් කමක් නැහැ.දොස්තර සංහතියම එපා වුණා ඒ අකාරුණික ‘දොස්තර මුදලාලි’ නිසා” (සිරිමෙවන් කස්තුරිආරච්චි)

ලංකාවේ බොහෝ වෛද්‍යවරුන් තුල සන්නිවේදන කුසලතා මෙන්ම වෛද්‍ය ආචාර ධර්ම අවම බවත් වෛද්‍යවරු පුහුණු කිරීමේදී මේ ගැන සැලකිලිමත් විය යුතු බවත් මනෝ වෛද්‍ය ඩී.වී.ජේ හරිස්චන්ද්‍ර මහතා වරක් කීවේය. සංවර්ධිත රටක වෛද්‍යවරයෙකු විසින් පෙන්වන රෝගී සත්කාරය එකී රටවල ජීවත් වන පුද්ගලයන් විසින් අත් දැක තිබෙනවා සැක නැත. එකී ධනාත්මක රෝගී සත්කාරය ලංකාවේ ඇති කල නොහැක්කේ මන්ද ?

ලංකාවේ තිබෙන්නේ රෝගියා කේන්ද්‍ර කොට ගත් සත්කාරක ක්‍රමයක් නොවේ. එහි වැඩවසම් බව , වෘත්තීන් අතර කුලල්කාගැනීම් , වෛද්‍ය ආචාර ධර්ම කඩ කිරීම් , රෝගියා සමග සන්නිවේදනයේ හීන බව කැපී පෙනෙයි. රෝගියා ඉදිරියේ වෛද්‍යවරයා බොහෝ අවස්ථා වලදී පෙනී සිටින්නේ මවාගත් ගාම්භීර භාවයකිනි. සමහර වෛද්‍යවරු රෝගියාගේ මුහුණ දෙසවත් නොබලති. රෝගියාට වෛද්‍යවරයාගෙන් ප්‍රශ්න ඇසිය නොහැක. රෝගියා සහ වෛද්‍යවරයා අතර විශාල වැඩවසම් පරතරයකි , Power Difference එක විශාල එකකි. වෛද්‍යවරයා රදලයෙකු මෙන් හැසිරෙන අතර රෝගියා යටත් සහ පහත් වැසියෙකි, ප්‍රවේණි දාසයෙකි. ලංකාවේ වෛද්‍යවරු සියල්ල මෙසේ රෝගීන් ඉදිරියේ හැසිරෙනවා කියාමම නොකියමි. එහෙත් බොහෝ විට මේ තත්වය රෝගීන් විසින් අත් දැක තිබේ.

මා විසින් නිරීක්‍ෂණය කල අන්දමට බොහෝ විට මෙම වැඩවසම් පරතර සිතාමතාම පවත්වා ගන්නේ පහළ සමාජ ආර්ථික ස්ථර වලින් පැමිනි දිස්ත්‍රික් කෝටාව නිසා වෛද්‍ය පීඨයට තේරී වෛද්‍යවරු බවට පත් වූ පුද්ගලයන් වෙති. එසේම මෙවැනි කොටස් තුල ග්‍රාමීය පසුගාමීත්වයද උග්‍ර වශයෙන් දක්නට තිබේ.

සාමාන්‍ය පෙළ දක්වා ග්‍රාමීය පාසල් වල අධ්‍යාපනය ලබා රාජකීය , ආනන්ද නාලන්ද පාසල් වලින් උසස් පෙළ නිම කොට වෛද්‍ය පීඨ වලට ගිය සමහර වෛද්‍යවරු ගමේ යහපත් දේ වෙනුවට කරට ගන්නේ ග්‍රාමීය හීනමානය සහ පසුගාමීත්වයයි. එසේම කොලඹ ඉහල පාසල් වල නවීනත්වය වෙනුවට ඔවුන් ආදේශ කර ගන්නේ නාගරික තුප්පහිභාවයන් වෙති. මේ නිසා දරුණු අනන්‍යතා අර්බුධයකට මැදිවන ඔවුන් දුප්පත් රෝගියා ඉදිරියේ දෙවිවරු ලෙස මහන් තත්වයකින් හැසිරෙති. රෝගියාගේ ආත්ම ගරුත්වය ගැන නොසලකා ක්‍රියා කරති.

(ග්‍රාමීය ප්‍රදේශ වලින් විත් වෛද්‍යවරු වන සෑම පුද්ගලයා තුලම මෙම තත්වය තිබෙන බව මම නොකියමි. ග්‍රාමීය ප්‍රදේශ වලින් විත් වෛද්‍යවරු වූ නියම යහ ගති ගුණ තිබූ මහත්වරු මම දුටුවෙමි)

පහත දැක්වෙන්නේ ත්‍රිමාණ වෙබ් අඩවියේ පළවූ ලිපියකි.

……………රජයේ රෝහල් වල වෛද්‍යවරුන් රෝගීන්ට සළකන අකාරය ගැන අප මදක් කල්පනා කර බලමු. ඔවුන් රෝගීන්ව සළකන්නේ තමන් විසින් ගත කරන යහපත් ජීවිතය විනාශ කරන්නට පැමිණි කරදකාරයන් පිරිසක් ලෙසයි. ඒ අනුව රෝගීන් හෝ ඔවුන් ගේ ඥාතීන් යනු මේ දැනඋගත්,බුද්ධිමත්,වැදගත් වෛද්‍යවරුන් ඉදිරියේ අදබාල මෝඩයන් පිරිසකි.

මේ නිසා හද්දා පිටිසර කහටගස්දිගිලියේ සෝමාවතී ගේ සහ සිරිපාල ගේ දියණිය දකුණු කොළඹ කලුබෝවිල ශික්ෂණ රෝහලට වෛද්‍යවරියක් ලෙස සේවයට පැමිණි පසු එහි පැමිණෙන රෝගියෙකු ගෙන් මෙහෙම අහනව. “ඔයා දන්නවද කෝලිකුට්ටු කියලා කෙසෙල් ජාතියක් තියෙනව. අන්න ඒවා හොදයි ඔයාගේ අමාරුවට පුලුවන් නම් ගෙනත් කන්න”.

එම වෛද්‍යවරියගේ චින්තනයට අනුව මේ වගේ ආණ්ඩුවේ රෝහල් වලට එන්නේ යන එන මං නැති අන්ත දුප්පත් අසරණ මිනිස්සු විතරයි. ඒ නිසා ජීවිත කාලයම තමන් අන්ත දුක් විදලා වෛද්‍යවරියක් වෙන්නට ගත කරපු කාලය පුරා ඇයට තියෙන සමාජ වෛරය නැතනිම් එරියස් එක පිරිමසා ගන්නට ඇයට මේ වගේ රෝගීන්ට පාට් දාන්න වෙනව.

මේ වෛද්‍යවරියම රෑට නවලෝක රෝහලේ අමතර වැටුපකට සේවයට ගිය විට එහි සිටින මිනිසුන් ගෙන් මේ වගේ කතා අහන්න යන්නෑ. මොකද එයාට පුර්ව නිගමනයක් තියෙනව ආණ්ඩුවේ රෝහල් වලට එන්නේ අවැදගත්, නූගත්, මෝඩ, දුප්පත් මිනිසුන් බව. ඇය දන්න සමාජ ඥාණය අනුව ආණ්ඩුවේ රෝහලකට එන පුද්ගලයන් කියන්නේ වෛද්‍යවරුන් ගෙන් ප්‍රශ්ණ අහන්නට සුදුසු නැති කිසිම දෙයක් ගැන දන්නැති පිරිසක්. ඒ නිසා රෝගීයෙකු තම මූලික අයිතාවාසිකමක් වන රෝග විනිශ්චය ගැන ප්‍රශ්නයක් ඇහුවහම ඇයට තරහ යනව.එවිට ඇය මෙහෙම උත්තර දෙනව. ඔයාගේ ලෙඩේ තවම හොද නෑ. තව ප්‍රතිකාර කරන්න තියෙනව. ඒ නිසා අර රතුපාට පෙත්ත දිගටම බොන්න. තැඹිලිපාට පැනියෙන් තේ හැදි දෙකක් බොන්න. තව පරීක්ෂණ ගොඩක් තියෙනව. ඔයාගේ කටින් කැමරාවක් දාලා පරීක්ෂණයක් කරන්න තියෙනව. ඔයාගේ දකුණු කකුලෙන් පපුවට වයර් එකක් යවලා පරීක්ෂා කරන්න තියෙනව.

ඔවුන් කිසි විටෙක මේ වගේ රෝහල් වල ඉන්න රෝගීන්ට වෛද්‍ය විද්‍යාත්මක භාෂාවකින් කතා කරන්නෑ. ඔවුන්ට අනුව වෛද්‍ය විද්‍යාවේ පාරිභාෂික වචන සහ ඖෂධ වල නම් දන්නේ ඔවුන් පමණයි. රෝගීන් ඒවා දැන ගත යුතු නැහැ.

දුප්පත් මිනිස්සු කන බත් පතේ ඉදන් පරිභෝජනය කරන සෑම භාණ්ඩයකින්ම අය කරන අසාධාරණ බදු මුදලින් විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයට තේරිලා ඇවිත් ආණ්ඩුවේ මහපොල ආධාර මුදලින් යන්තම් එදා වේල පිරිමසා ගත්ත ගොබ්බයන් වෛද්‍යවරුන් වුනාට පස්සේ මුදල් දෙනවා නම් ඕනෑම දෙයක් කරන තත්ත්වයට පත්වෙනව. සුදු කබාය ඇදගෙන හිප්‍රොක්‍රටීස් දිවුරුම දීලා තමන් සම්බන්ධ වන්නේ මිනිසුන් ගේ ජීවිතය සහ මරණය හා සම්බන්ධ වූ ගෞරවණීය වෘත්තියකට කියන එක මේ අයට අමතක වෙනව. මේ අය හිතන්නේ තමන්ට වෛද්‍යවරයෙක් වෙන්න පුළුවන් වුනේ පෙර ආත්මයේ පිං කරපු නිසා කියලයි. භෞතික විද්‍යාව මුල ඉදන් අගට ඉගෙන ගත්තත් මේ අය චින්තනමය වශයෙන් ඉන්නේ ග්‍රෝත්‍රික මානසිකත්වයක. විශේෂයෙන් මනෝ විශ්ලේෂණය වගේ විෂයක් ගැන ලංකාවේ වෛද්‍යවරුන්ට තියෙන්නේ මොන්ටෙසෝරි දැනුමක්. (ස්ටැන්ලිලා ගේ ලෝකය – ත්‍රිමාණ වෙබ් අඩවිය )

වෛද්‍යවරුන්ට සමාජය තුල තවමත් ගරුත්වයක් තිබේ. ඊට හේතුව පූර්වගාමී වෛද්‍යවරු විසින් අතීතයේ ගෞරවනීය ලෙස තම වෘත්තිය කරගෙන යාම නිසාය. එහෙත් වර්තමානයේ සන්නිවේදන කුසලතා මෙන්ම වෛද්‍ය ආචාර ධර්ම බිඳ හෙලමින් ඇතැම් වෛද්‍යවරු විසින් ගෙන යන ක්‍රියා කලාපය නිසා නුදුරු අනාගතයේදී වෛද්‍ය වෘත්තිය ප්‍රයිවෙට් බස් කොන් දොස්තරලාගේ තත්වයට වැටෙනු නොඅනුමානය. එම තත්වය වලක්වා ගැනීම සඳහා වෛද්‍යවරු විසින් පියවර ගත යුතුය.

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග

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The Rock Band KISS and the Death Instinct

March 12th, 2017

Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge

I was never interested in being a rock star. I always wanted to be Boris Karloff. Gene Simons

The hard rock band Kiss was famous for their thought provoking music and extraordinary flamboyant stage outfits with face paint. The group had a dramatic affect on young people and KISS fans started to grow in tens of thousands since 1973. They have sold over 40 million records and became one of the popular rock bands in North America. Despite the group’s popularity, many religious and civil groups criticized the band for using satanic lyrics and glorification of death and violence.

Some critics view KISS is an acronym for the Kinder SS or “Knights In Satan’s Service. Their music and lyrics are predominantly based on death, violence and sexual promiscuity. Some of their songs express a deep alienation, a sense of being at war with the world.

The group members identify themselves as Daemon, Starchild , Spaceman and Catman. On the stage, they often do wired actions such as fire breathing, blood spitting and pyrotechnics. Their stage actions and performances are highly unorthodox and obviously attracted to teens all over the world. Their social impact is colossal. One time the KISS was identified as an anti religious, anti liberal group. The founder member of the band KISS Gene Simmons once publicly declared himself as “evil incarnate,”

The psychology of KISS music is much more complex than the superficial rhythm. KISS music and stage performances are attracted to many people. Even though they look scary on the stage and their voices are overriding, their fans adore them. What is the secret behind this fatal attraction? Do they touch some innate parts of the human psyche?

Probably the KISS touches the death drive of their fans. Through their music KISS, address the death drive or the Thanatos, which is a drive towards death, self-destruction and the return to the inorganic. In Greek mythology, Thanatos is the daemon personification of death. On the stage, Gene Simmons often imitates as demon or the Thanatos. The song Unholy that was released in 1992 (The Album Revenge) gives positive clues of death and destruction preached by the group.

I was there through the ages

Chained slaves to their cages

I have seen you eat your own

I’m the cycle of pain

Of a thousand year old reign

I’m suicide and salvation

The omen to nations

That you worship on all fours

I’m the infection and famine

That’s knocking at your door

That’s why you’re feeling so Unholy

The death drive defined by the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan does not describe literal death, but death within the symbolic order. Lacan sees death as the only potential for the subject who cannot ever experience a ‘life’ or only a version of striving towards ‘life’ through language and the symbolic order. The song Unholy recounts the death within the symbolic order. The second phase of the song evolves in to drastic symbols of death.

I was created by man, you know I’m Unholy

I am the incubus

Ilay the egg in you

The worm that burrows

Through your brain

But you are the beast

That calls me by my name

You send your children to war

To serve bastards and whores

So now you know

You created me

On the day that you were born Unholy

I was created by man, yeah I’m the Lord of the flies, you know I’m

From the left hand of power comes the father of lies – Unholy!

I lay you down to sleep

Your soul to keep

Better cross your heart before you die

And now you know

Know that you are mine

The Psychoanalyst Patricia MacCormack is on the view that death is all about desire for abundance contrasting an absence of being, both of which are explicitly unattainable and henceforth unimaginable. It is a theoretical death within a defined linear zone, a death in theory.

The connection between hate, violence, and death seems obvious. Hate is a deep enduring, intense emotion expressing animosity, anger, and hostility towards a person, group, or object. Freud defined hate as an ego state that wishes to destroy the source of its unhappiness. Freud’s 1915 work Instincts and their Vicissitudes broadly analyzed the psychic energy involved in hate.

Following is the song Hate sung by KISS

Hate is what I am

Cuz underneath this heart

There beats the heart of man

You’ll wear your crown

When you’re lyin’ 6 feet underground

Don’tcha think it’s odd

Man was created in the image of God

All you martyrs and saviors

Go through the same door

Listen all you butchers, saints and sinners

We’ve all been here before

Lead a lamb to slaughter

All you ever did was follow orders

All you martyrs and saviors

Go through the same door

Listen all you butchers, saints and sinners

We’ve all been here before

In this song, KISS talk about man’s negative emotions and his primal desire to be with the father figure (God?). As Lacan stated only father is a dead father. According to Lacan father is mealy a signifier or a symbol not a living being. It is a fantasy, which is germinated in the psyche.

The songs of KISS divulge darker instincts of death and aggression, but their songs are attracted to millions of people. The Kiss would be one of the most enduring groups in all of rock ‘n roll history. From 1976-1979 Kiss was voted “Most Popular Group in the World”, over the Beatles and Led Zeppelin. As Bennington Banner from Rock Music magazine stated “with its members bizarre, Kabuki-like makeup, studded black leather costumes and arsenal of on-stage firepower — both musical and literal — Kiss represents the most extreme form of hard rock.

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Govt. renders National Audit Bill toothless Revises it a third time

March 12th, 2017

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

March 12, 2017, 10:14 pm

The government had further diluted the proposed National Audit Bill making it ineffective, Auditor General’s Department sources said yesterday.

Officials told The Island that the latest amendment had made the proposed piece of legislation wholly useless and it wouldn’t yield the desired results. The Bill was aimed at tackling public sector corruption, sources said.

The National Audit Bill was to be introduced on Feb. 19, 2015 at the beginning of the 100-day programme of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government.Asked whether the government had discussed the matter with the AG’s Department at that time, sources pointed out that it was a public pledge made in the run-up to January 2015 presidential poll. The passage of the 19 Amendment to the Constitution on April 29, 2015 was to pave the way for the introduction of the National Audit Bill the following day.

Combined Trade Union Alliance of the Auditor General’s Department has repeatedly alleged that the government was acting very much contrary to the promises given in the run up to presidential and parliamentary polls in 2015.
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Speaker Karu Jayasuriya shares a light moment with Auditor General Gamini Wijesinghe and COPE Chairman JVP MP Sunil Handunetti at the AGM of Audit Service Association recently (pic courtesy Speaker’s Office)

The Bill had been diluted thrice much to the disappointment of those who really believed in powerful and independent audit mechanism to straighten the public sector, sources said, faulting the Joint Opposition (JO) for not taking up the matter both in and outside Parliament.

A four-member Cabinet Sub-Committee comprising Dr Sarath Amunugama, Rauff Hakeem, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa and Ravi Karunanayake proposed amendments to the original Bill. Subsequently, it was sent to senior prime ministerial adviser Charitha Ratwatte for further examination and further amendments. Thereafter, twice amended Bill underwent further amendments severely inimical to the very purpose the Bill, according to sources. Accusing the Finance Ministry of proposing the most recent changes, sources said that the AG’s department felt that there was no point in making further representations to the government in this regard.

Asked whether the Auditor General’s Department had succumbed to political pressure to dilute the original Bill, sources said that the government had initially wanted to do away with or amend about 20 out of 57 sections in the Bill. Then there had been further amendments, sources said, alleging that an effort was made to subject the authority of the AG to that of the Audit Service Commission. However, even the National Audit Commission couldn’t function until the passage of the National Audit Bill, sources said.

There had been no reason for amending the original Bill as it was drafted by a top level committee headed by the Auditor General, officials said.

Sources alleged that th weakening of the Bill was contrary to an assurance given by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya at the AGM of Sri Lanka Audit Service Association on January 6. Addressing the gathering, Speaker Jayasuriya said that environment would be created soon to pave the way for the AG’s Department officers to serve the country fearlessly. Speaker Jayasuriya said that the Department’s role was indispensable in respect of work undertaken by the COPE as well as the Public Accounts Committee. The Speaker said that a survey had revealed that a staggering 40 per cent of taxpayers’ money spent on public projects was wasted.

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හිටපු අමාත්‍ය විමල් වීරවංශ සිරගතකොට ඇත්තේ FCID ASPගේ වංචා සහගත සහතිකය මතයි!

March 12th, 2017

රෝහාන් වැලිවිට මහතාගේ ‘මගේ කට උත්තරය’ කෘතිය එළිදැක්වීමේ අවස්ථාවේදී සිදුකළ දේශනයේ කොටසක්

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අද මේ මොඩරේට් බෙදුම්වාදීන් හදන්නේ “ඒකීය වී ඇටේ ඇතුළේ ‍‍ෆෙඩරල් හාල් ඇටේ හදාගන්නයි”

March 12th, 2017

මල් අද(22) පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී බෙදුම්වාදීන්ගේ නව න්‍යාය පත්‍රය හෙළිකරයි… අද මේ මොඩරේට් බෙදුම්වාදීන් හදන්නේ “ඒකීය වී ඇටේ ඇතුළේ ‍‍ෆෙඩරල් හාල් ඇටේ හදාගන්නයි”

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රණවිරු දීමනා කපා දැමුවේ පලිගැනීමට ද?

March 12th, 2017

සමන් ගමගේ උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින

වත්මන් ආණ්‌ඩුව සහ ඒ ආණ්‌ඩුවේ නිලධාරීන් සිතාමතාම මේ රටේ විමුක්‌තිය උදෙසා ජීවිත පූජා කළ සහ රට වෙනුවෙන් සටනට ගොස්‌ ආබාධිත වූ සහ අනෙකුත් සමස්‌ත රණවිරු ප්‍රජාවෙන්ම පලිගනිමින් සිටින්නේයෑයි යන්න දැන් පැහැදිලිවම පෙනෙන්නට තිබේ.

අප එසේ කියන්නේ කට කසනවාට නම් නොවේ. වත්මන් යහපාලනය තුළ සිදු වෙමින් තිබෙන දේ හමුවේය. ජනාධිපතිවරයා රණවිරුවන් සුරකින්නේ යෑයි කියද්දී අපේ පොලිසිය නොහොත් සීඅයිඩීය රණවිරුවන් අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන විවිධ චෝදනා නගමින් සිරගත කිරීමට අපමණ වෙහෙසක්‌ දරන්නේය.

එහිදීත් බොහෝ විට දඩයම් කෙරෙන්නේ ප්‍රභාකරන් වැනසූ ඉකුත් සටනේදී බොහෝ කැපවීමෙන් කටයුතු කළ බුද්ධි අංශ නිලධාරීහු වන්නාහ. පසුගිය කාලයේ සීඅයිඩීය අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීමෙන් පසු සිරගත කෙරුණු බුද්ධි අංශ නිලධාරීන් සහ මේ මොහොතේත් අත්අඩංගුවේ පසුවන නිලධාරීන් කවුරුන්ද යන්න පිළිබඳ විමර්ශනාත්මකව බැලීමේදී එය පැහැදිලිවම තහවුරු වන්නකි.

ඒ සඳහන් කෙරුණේ විරෝදාර රණවිරුවන්ගෙන් අද මෘග ලෙස පලිගැනීම සිදු කෙරෙන ආකාරය ය. ඒ පසුපස සිටින්නේ එන්ජීඕ නඩ සහ විදේශීය කුමන්ත්‍රණකරුවෝ බව ඉකුත් දිනෙක යහපාලනය ගෙනඑන්නට බොහෝ සේ වෙහෙසුන අතුරලියේ රතන හිමියෝම පැවසූහ.

පොලිසියේ කෙරුවාව එසේ වෙද්දී දැන් තවත් පැත්තකින්ද අපූරු වැඩක්‌ සිදුව ඇත. එල්ටීටීඊය අවසානය සටහන් වූ ඉකුත් 2009 වසරේ මැයි මස 19 වැනිදායින් පසු රැස්‌වූ පළමු පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී රට රැක ගත් සමස්‌ත රණවිරුවන් දිවි ඇති තෙක්‌ සුරකින්නෙමියි යන්න හැන්සාඩ්ගත කිරීමට කටයුතු කෙරිණි.

එහෙත් එවන් රටක ඇති විශ්‍රාම වැටුප් දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ ලොකු පුටුව දරන අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ ජනරාලවරයා විසින් අද තමන්ගේ ජීවිත සුරක්‍ෂිත කරන්නැයි ඉල්ලා ආබාධිත රණවිරුවන් විදී බසිද්දී මෙතෙක්‌ එකී ආබාධිත රණවිරුවන්ට සහ මියගිය රණවිරුවන්ගේ බිරින්දැවරු ඇතුළු පවුල්වලට ගෙවන ලද සියලු අතුරු දීමනා මේ මස සිටි කපා දැමීමට පියවර ගෙන තිබීම ඒ අපූරු කටයුත්ත ය.

වසර දොළහට අඩු සේවා කාලයක්‌ තුළ වෛද්‍ය හේතූන් මත ත්‍රිවිධ හමුදාවෙන් විශ්‍රාම ගැන්වූ ආබාධිත රණවිරුවන් ඉකුත් දිනවල සේවා විශ්‍රාම වැටුප ඉල්ලා වීදබට අවස්‌ථාවේ ජනාධිපතිවරයා කීවේ ඔවුනට දිවි ඇති තෙක්‌ සම්පූර්ණ වැටුප ගෙවන බවය.

එය කෙසේ වෙතත් පසුව ඔවුන් ඉල්ලූ සේවා විශ්‍රාම වැටුප ලබා දෙන්නට කටුයුතු කෙරුණු අතර එහිදීත් බොහෝ ගැටලු නිර්මාණය වී තිබිණ. පසුව මෙසේ ලබා දෙන ලද සේවා විශ්‍රාම වැටුප නිල වශයෙන් ප්‍රදානය කිරීම යෑයි සඳහන් කරමින් ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් උත්සවයක්‌ද පැවැත්විණ. සියල්ල සිදුවූයේ ඉහත කී ආබාධිත රණවිරුවන්ගේ ගැටලුව නිසි ලෙස විසඳී නොතිබියදීය.

ඒ හේතුවෙන් ඔවුහු යළිත් පාරට බැස උද්ඝෝෂණද කරන්නට වූහ. කතාව එතන තිබියදී දැන් විශ්‍රාම වැටුප් අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ ජනරාල්වරයා කර ඇත්තේ පනස්‌ දහසක්‌ පමණ වන ආබාධිත රණවිරුවන් සහ මියගිය රණවිරුවන්ගේ පවුල් වෙනුවෙන් මෙතෙක්‌ ගෙවන ලද වැටුපට අදාළව තිබූ අතුරු දීමනා සහ අයවැය දීමනා ආදී වශයෙන් වූ සියලු දීමනා කපා දැමීමට පියවර ගැනීමය.

රණවිරුවා තමන්ට ප්‍රශ්න ඇතැයි කියමින් ආණ්‌ඩුවට දුක කියද්දී විශ්‍රාම වැටුප් අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ ජනරාල්වරයා එසේ කටයුතු කෙරුවේ කාගේ වුවමණාවටද? මේ අන්දමට මෙතෙක්‌ ඉහතකී රණවිරු ප්‍රජාව ලද දීමනාවන් කපා දැමීම පසුපස සිටිනුයේ කවරෙක්‌ද?

ඒ පසු පස මොකා සිටියත් මෙහිදී අපට කියන්නට එක්‌ කතාවක්‌ ඇත. අද ආබාධිතව සිටින රණවිරුවාගේ අත්පා සහ අනෙකුත් ශරීරාංග ඔවුනට අහිමි කරනු ලැබුවේත් මියගිය රණවිරුන්ගේ ජීවිත උදුරා ගත්තේත් වේලුපිල්ලේ ප්‍රභාකරන්ය. වෙනත් විදිහකට එය පැවසුවහොත් රට වෙනුවෙන් පෙරට ගිය රණවිරුවන්ගේ හිස්‌ අත්පා කපා දමා දහස්‌ ගණනක්‌ ජීවිත රටට අහිමි කර අපේම වූ මිනිසුන් පිරිසක්‌ ආබාධිතයන් ලෙස අපට ඉතිරි කෙරුවේ ප්‍රභාකරන්ය.

එදා ප්‍රභාකරන් ඒ කැපිල්ල කැපුවා සේ අද දවසේ රණවිරුවන් ඉලක්‌ක කර විශ්‍රම වැටුප් අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ ජනරාල්වරයාත් මේ අන්දමට රණවිරුවන්ට මෙතෙක්‌ දුන් දීමනා කපා දැමීමෙන් සිදු කර ඇත්තේ ප්‍රභාකරන්ට නොදෙවැනි වන්නා වූ කැපිල්ලක්‌ නොවන්නේද?

රාජ්‍ය චක්‍රලේඛ, ලිපි ආදිය පසෙක තබා කොන්දේසි විරහිතව රණවිරුවන් වෙනුවෙන් කටයුතු කරන්නැයි අපි ආණ්‌ඩුවට සහ ඒ ආණ්‌ඩුවේ සිටි නිලධාරීන්ට වරින් වර කීවෙමු. ඒ අප සහ රට වෙනුවෙන් පෙරට ගොස්‌ ආබාධිත වූ හා මියගිය රණවිරුවන් අමතක කරන්නට තරම් අප කාලකණ්‌ණි ජාතියක්‌ නොවිය යුතු නිසාය.

එහෙත් කොතෙක්‌ කීවද ටයිකොට්‌ අඳින ලොක්‌කන්ට සහ ඇතැම් නිල යුනිෙµdaම්කාරයන්ට මෙන්ම සුදු පිරුවට අඳින බහුතර උත්මයන්ටද එය තවමත් වැටහී නොමැත. ඇත්ත එය නොවේ නම් මේ අන්දමට පනස්‌ දහසක්‌ පමණ වන ආබාධිත රණවිරුන් මෙන්ම මියගිය රණවිරුවන්ගේ බිරින්දැවරු ඇතුළු පවුල්වල සාමාජිකයන්ට මෙතෙක්‌ ලබා දුන් මුදලින් රුපියල් තුන්තහසත් හයදහසත් අතර මුදලක්‌ හිටි හැටියේ කපා දමන්නට සිහිබුද්ධිය ඇති කිසිවකුත් තීරණය නොකරන්නේය.

ආබාධිත රණවිරුවන් සේම මියගිය රණවිරුවන්ගේ බිරින්දැවරු සියල්ල කළමනාකරණය කරගනිමින් මෙතෙක්‌ ජීවත් වූයේ එසේ ලද මුදලිනි. ඔවුහු ඉන් දරුවෝ පාසල් යෑවූහ. උසස්‌ අධ්‍යාපනයට වැය කළහ. බැංකු ණය ගෙන ගේදොර ඉදිකර ගත්හ. එසේ ගත් ණය තවමත් ගොවන්නෝද අති බහුතරයක්‌ සිටින්නාහ. එසේම නිවසේ ජලවිදුලි බිල් ආදියත් ගෙවාගෙන දෛනික ජීවිතයේ අවශ්‍යතා සපුරා ගන්නා අතරේ දරු පැටවුන් සමඟ ඔවුන් ජීවත් වූයේ මාස්‌පතා ලැබෙන එකී මුදල පිළිබඳ බොහෝ බලාපොරොත්තු තබාගෙනය.

අද රෝගීව සිටින ඇතැම් ආබාධිත රණවිරුවෝ තමන්ගේ ජීවිතය රැකගනුවස්‌ අවශ්‍ය වෛද්‍ය ප්‍රතිකාර සහ බෙහෙත් ආදිය ගැනීමට ඒ මුදල් වැය කළේය.

එම තත්ත්වය තුළ විශ්‍රාම වැටුප් අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ ජනරාල්වරයාගේ එක පෑන් පාරකින් ඔවුන් ලද ඒ මුදලින් රුපියල් හයදහසක්‌ තරම් වූ කොටසක්‌ හිටි හැටියේ කැපී යැමෙන් වත්මන් ආර්ථික තත්ත්වය තුළ ඇතිවන අසීරුතාව කිසිවකුටත් අමුතුවෙන් කියා දිය යුතු නැත.

යථාර්ථය එය වුවද විශ්‍රාම වැටුප් අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ ජනරාල්වරයාට නම් ඒ බවක්‌ දැනී නැති සේය. ඔහුට එසේ දැනෙන්නේ නම් මේ අන්දමට ප්‍රභාකරන්ගේ කැපිල්ල වැනි කැපීමක්‌ රණවිරුවන් අරබයා සිදුවන්නේද නැත.

මේ රටේ දේශපාලනඥයන් වේදිකාවකට ගොඩ වුවහොත් ඔවුන් තරම් රණවිරුවන් සුරකින්නට වෙහෙසෙන පිරිසක්‌ තවත් නැත. බොහෝ සුරංගනා කතා වේදිකා මතදී කියෑවෙන්නේය. එහෙත් ඒ සෑම කතාවකින්ම සිදුවන්නේ තමන්ව මුරුංගා අත්තට නැග්ගවීම බව රණවිරුවෝ දැන් වටහාගෙන සිටින්නාහ.

රට පුරා පිහිටි ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කාර්යාල වෙත යොමු කරන ලද විශ්‍රාම වැටුප් අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ ජනරාල්වරයාගේ 2017/01 දරන ලිපියක්‌ මගින් සිදු කර ඇති ඉහත කී රණවිරුවන්ගේ ලැබීම් කප්පාදුව දෙස බැලීමේදී පෙනී යන එක්‌ වැදගත් සිදුවීමක්‌ වන්නේ නින්දෙන් පිබිදුනාක්‌ මෙන් හිටි හැටියේම සියල්ල සිදුවී තිබෙන බවය.

විශ්‍රාම වැටුප් අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ ජනරාල්වරයාගේ ලිපියට සමගාමීව ඇතැම් රණවිරුවන්ට ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කාර්යාල මගින් කප්පාදු පිළිබඳ සඳහන් කර ඇති ලිපි දෙස බැලීමේදී එය මනාව පැහැදිලි වන්නකි. එදා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී කියෑවුණු ලෙසම රාජ්‍ය සේවකයනට යම් දීමනාවක්‌ ගෙවීමේදී එය රණවිරුවන්ට ලබා දීම කාලයක සිටම සිදු විය.

ඒ බවක්‌ කිසියම් රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරියකු නොදැන සිටියේ නම් ඔහු සේවය කළේ ලංකාවේ නොව අඟහරු ලෝකයේ විය යුතුය. දිය යුතු සියල්ල මෙතෙක්‌ කලක්‌ රණවිරුවන් අරබයා ලබා දුන්නේ ඔවුනට කරනු ලබන ගෞරවයක්‌ සේ සලකාය. කැපිල්ල කෙසේ වෙතත් තව මොන දේ දුන්නත් රට වෙනුවෙන් ආබාධිත වූ රණවිරුවනට අහිමි වූ කිසිවක්‌ දෙන්නට අපට නොහැකිය. එසේම ඒ අහිමි වීම මුදලකින් මැන බලන්නටද නොහැකිය. කොතෙක්‌ දේ දුන්නත් මියගිය රණවිරුවාට යළි ජීවය දෙන්නට ද අපට නොහැකිය.

ආණ්‌ඩුවේ ඇතැම් නිලධාරීන්ගේ සහ රණවිරුවාගේ දොස්‌ දකිමින් බයිලා කියන ඇතැමුන්ගේ ටිකිරි මොලවලට ඒ බව නොවැටහෙන්නේද?

විශ්‍රාම වැටුප් අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ ජනරාල්වරයාගේ කැපිල්ල එසේ වෙද්දී මේ වන විට බහුතරයක්‌ වූ රණවිරුවන්ගේ හිස මතට තවත් කැපිල්ලක හෙණගෙඩියක්‌ද පහත් වී ඇත. ඒ ඉකුත් කාලයේ රණවිරුසේවා අධිකාරිය මැදිහත් වී එක්‌තරා බැංකුවකින් සියයට පහක පොලියක්‌ මත ලබාදුන් න්‍ය මුදලක පොලිය මෙම මස පළමුවැනිදා සිට සියයට දහසය දක්‌වා ඉහළ දැමීමට පියවර ගෙන තිබීමය.

මෙහිදී ණය ලබා ගත් රණවිරුවන් ඒ බව රණවිරු සේවා අධිකාරියට දන්වා සිටියද ඔවුන්ට ලැබී ඇත්තේ කැකිල්ලේ පිළිතුරක්‌ බවද දැන ගැනීමට ඇත. එසේ දැනුම් දීමේදී එයට පිළියමක්‌ යෙදීමට නම් ණය ලබා ගත් සියලු දෙනාම ලිත විරෝධය ප්‍රකාශ කර ලිපි ලබා දියයුතු බව රණවිරු සේවා අධිකාරියේ උත්මාවියන් සඳහන් කර ඇත.

මේ ණය මුදල රණවිරුවන් අදාළ බැංකුවෙන් ලබා ගත්තේ රණවිරු සේවා අධිකාරියේ මැදිහත් වීම මත නම් මෙසේ පොලී අනුපාතය අධික ලෙස ඉහළ දැමීමේදී ඒ වෙනුවෙන් කතා කරන්නට රණවිරුසේවා අධිකාරියට නොහැකිව ඇත්තේ කුමක්‌ නිසාද? වැඩි වෙන පොලියේ කොමිස්‌ මුදලක්‌ කාගේ හෝ අතට එන නිසාද? එසේ නැතිනම් මේ දිනවල රණවිරුවන්ගේ වැඩවලට වඩා දේශපාලන වැඩ වැඩි වී තිබෙන නිසාද?

මෙසේ සිදු වන කැපිලි දෙස බැලීමේදී අපේ සිහියට එන දෙයක්‌ද ඇත. ආබාධිත රණවිරුවා වීදි බසිද්දී ඔවුන් ඉල්ලූ සේවා විශ්‍රාම වැටුප එපා වාහෙට හොදි බෙදන්නාක්‌ සේ දෙන්නට ආණ්‌ඩුව කටුයුතු කළේය. එසේම මියගිය රණවිරුවන්ගේ බිරින්දැවරුන්ට සියයට සියයක විශ්‍රාම වැටුපක්‌ ලබා දෙන බවක්‌ද දැන් කියෑවෙමින් ඇත. ඒ අතරේ ආබාධිත රණවිරුවන්ට ජීවිත කාලය පුරා වැටුප් දෙන්නේ යෑයිද කියන්නේය.

සියල්ල දෙන්නේ නම් ඉතා හොඳය. ඒත් ඒවා දෙන්නේ රණවිරුවන්ගේ සාක්‌කුවටම පොකට්‌ ගහලා නම් ඊට වඩා කුජීත වැඩක්‌ මේ තුන් ලෝකයේම නැත. අප ඒ ටික කියන්නේ ඔය කපන මහත්වරුන්ට ඇසෙන්නටය. කෙසේ වෙතත් මේ කැපිලිවලට පිළිතුරු ඉදිරියේදී ආණ්‌ඩුවට හැරෙන තැපෑලෙන් ලැබෙනු ඇතැයි කියාද නිකමට වගේ අපට සිතෙන්නේය.

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Disaster Politics and Political Disasters

March 12th, 2017

by Tisaranee Gunasekara

March 11, 2017, 7:02 pm

Close to one million – that is the number of drought-affected Lankans in immediate need of food assistance, according to an assessment carried out jointly by the government and the UN. Of these, 80,000 men, women and children are in need ‘urgent life-saving support’.ii The numbers of drought-affected Lankans are likely to increase in the coming months, especially if the monsoons fail to become active (as was the case last year), and drought is transformed from a seasonal phenomenon to a fact of daily life.

This week, the government moved a supplementary estimate in parliament for Rs. 494 million – to buy luxury vehicles for several cabinet and state ministers.iii

It seems obscene, spending so much money on vehicles, when hundreds of thousands of ordinary Lankans are suffering for the want of two of the most basic necessities which support life, drinking water and food. Unfortunately what gold was to King Midas, luxury vehicles are to Lankan politicians; a lure almost every one of them, irrespective of ethnic, religious or political differences, find impossible to resist.
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“The drought of 1788, or rather the famine coming in its wake, was, of course, not the primary cause of the 1789 revolution. However it contributed significantly to its timing and to the violence, especially to the type of violence… (including) the spread of mass hysteria that has come to be known under the name ‘The Great Fear of 1789.”J Neumann (Great historical events that were significantly affected by the weather)

The drought has already affected all nine provinces and 23 of the 25 districts of the country and this is pushing people into adopting ‘coping strategies’ with devastating medium-to- long-term consequences, such as taking children out of school and selling livelihood assetsiv. If monsoons continue to fail and the affected are not provided with adequate assistance, restlessness will spread in farming communities and rural poverty will increase. In a few years, the country might witness a surge of internally displaced, driven away from their lands and their homes by drought and its myriad consequences ranging from poverty to land degradation and the depletion of ground water.

This week the government moved another supplementary estimate in parliament for Rs. 134.4 million. The money is to fund one more giveaway to the already heavily subsidised parliamentarians – a monthly allowance of Rs. 100,000, ostensibly to maintain an office in their electorates.

Bribing ministers and parliamentarians with perks and privileges at the expense of the country is the way President Maithripala Sirisena and the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe maintain their hold over their respective parties. Many a broken promise and a significant departure from the basics of good – and sensible – governance were born from this tactic, starting with a bloated cabinet. This tactic has won for the government a majority in parliament. The victory, however, is an ephemeral one, something which can be upended in a matter of days; most ministers and parliamentarians would change sides, again, and become born-again Rajapaksa loyalists, the moment the government is sufficiently unpopular. It doesn’t take a feat of imagination to visualise Dilan Perera or SB Dissanayake singing the praises of the Rajapaksas and damning Mr. Sirisena as a traitor to the party and the country.

A Suicidal Indifference

In 2016, Sri Lanka’s rainfall was 23% less than the average rainfall for the three previous decades.v Consequently cultivation levels fell to a record low. For example, of the 800,000 acres of paddy land, only 300,000 acres were planted last year.

Harvest failures and resultant income losses are causing a worrying hike in rural indebtedness. Over 60% of drought-affected Lankans are said to be in debt, each to the tune of US$1,200vi; at the current exchange rate this is about Rs.250,000, a massive sum most of the debtors won’t be able to repay if monsoons and harvests continue to fail. A medium-to-long-term debt relief programme is another urgent necessity which is neither being acknowledged nor addressed by the government.

Even the generally tone-deaf IMF seems more aware of the systemic consequences of the drought than Lankan politicians. “A more prolonged drought could raise food and oil imports with adverse impact on growth, inflation and the balance of payment,” IMF mission chief Jaewoo Lee reportedly warnedvii.

The IMF might be concerned about the economic effects of the drought, but the Finance Ministry remains in a state of infantile sanguinity. The Ministry has reportedly predicted that the drought will not affect the budget deficitviii.

There’s no better proof that the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration has begun to see the world through Rajapaksa glasses.

The IMF, having compelled the government to implement a VAT increase, has warned of its inflationary effects. The warning, though hypocritical, is accurate; inflationary pressure is building up and is likely to reach a new high if monsoons fail in 2017. This is likely to exacerbate another worrying consequence of the drought – a tendency on the part of the affected people to eat less, quantitatively and less well, qualitatively.

The overall prospect is a worrying one: increases in rural poverty, landlessness and unemployment, in school-dropout rates, malnutrition and diseases; generation of village and area level civil conflicts over water and other depleted resources; eventually the creation of internal climate-refugees.

Juxtapose this with another tendency: of Colombo experiencing 160% increase in super rich over the next decade, a hike second only to that of Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City.ix

The rapid increase in income inequality began under Rajapaksa rule, as a result of their tax-borrow-and-spend policy. The Rajapaksas increased indirect taxes which imposed a disproportionate burden on the poor and the middle classes; they borrowed at high rates, often for vanity projects with no chance of even breaking-even, such as the Mattala Airport; and they prioritised mega infrastructure projects with minimal positive effect on the lives of ordinary people.

The UNP was rightly critical of Rajapaksa economics, highlighting the depressive effect on the Main Street, the lack of employment and income generating opportunities and the worsening of income imbalances. During the presidential election campaign, a radical departure from the Rajapaksa path was promised. Without that promise, Maithripala Sirisena would not have won, even with the minority votes. A segment of the Sinhala South was hurting from inflation and unemployment; their support was a critical building block in the victories of Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Two years and two months in power, the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration (especially the UNP component) has become born-again adherents of Rajapaksa economics, regarding mega-projects, especially highways, as the road to economic salvation. Even more fraught is the government’s decision to lease 1,300 acres of land to China, in the environmentally vulnerable districts of Hambantota and Moneragala. This is particularly worrying given the possibility that China might establish pollution-intensive industries (PII) in their exclusive economic zone, exacerbating Sri Lanka’s climate woes.

A society in which a tiny minority wallows in riches while a large majority is plagued by absolute or relative poverty and economic uncertainty is not a healthy society. Such a society is vulnerable to civil and systemic instability and to anti-democratic and extremist impulses. These are all horrors Sri Lanka had known in the past. The challenge is to ensure that they don’t become a part of the country’s future.

The Wages of Squandered Opportunities

The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration came into office on a popular wave. Mr. Sirisena and the UNP were able to defeat the Rajapaksa juggernaut because they succeeded in inspiring the voters by giving them a new sense of hope.

Two years and two months on the government has squandered almost all the goodwill it once enjoyed.

Mr. Sirisena had the opportunity to create a post-Rajapaksa SLFP invulnerable to the siren song of the Rajapaksas. He could have turned the SLFP from a backward looking semi-feudalist entity into a modern democratic political party. He was popular and he was trusted. Unfortunately he failed to develop a new vision and a new path for the SLFP. He has also failed to develop a set of new leaders who can take over the party once he retires. As a result of these multiple failures, the SLFP remains vulnerable to a Rajapaksa takeover.

Mr. Sirisena could have met the Rajapaksa challenge far more effectively had he opted to occupy the moral high-ground. A certain degree of bazaar-politics was inevitable, but Mr. Sirisena went beyond the boundaries of necessity (not to mention decency) when he opted to bring in the likes of SB Dissanayake and Dilan Perera into parliament through the national list. From that moment onwards, his dealings with the SLFP became marked by a cringe-worthy level of opportunism and a distressing absence of courage. The result has been a politically-debilitating inability to dominate (let alone hegemonise) the party of which he is the nominal leader.

The bond scam has depleted Ranil Wickremesinghe’s credibility and legitimacy to near zero-levels. He was expected to usher in a government of financial probity and administrative efficiency. He has failed to live up to both expectations.

The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration lacks a long-term perspective, not just economically but also politically. This is why the government has focused almost exclusively on keeping the political class – and other influential interest groups such as the military and the Buddhist monks – happy while neglecting the problems and needs of ordinary voters (including the rank-and-file of the three forces and the police). Since a change in the parliamentary balance is the easiest way to bring down the government, both Mr. Sirisena and Mr. Wickremesinghe would do almost anything to retain the parliamentary support they currently enjoy. This is the logic of bestowing more largesse on parliamentarians in a time of severe financial crisis, when five percent of the country’s populace is suffering under the hammer blows of a crippling drought.

This strategy might have worked if the drought been a short-term phenomenon, a dry spell lasting for no more than a few months, in between the regular monsoons. But the current drought, said to be the worst in decades, is the outcome of global warming. A continued increase in Indian Ocean temperatures is beginning to affect monsoon patterns in South Asia.x Failed monsoons resulting in long periods of drought; short spells of extremely-intense rain causing unprecedented floods and landslides – that was what Sri Lanka experienced in 2016; and that might be the shape of our foreseeable future, weather-wise. If so, the drought is likely to be not a distant memory but a living reality for a significant percentage of Lankans when the time comes for the next round of presidential and parliamentary elections.

Just as water takes the colour of its receptacle, human woes caused by climatic factors can don the clothes of existing rivalries, be they economic or ethno-religious. Several studies have identified the severe drought in Syria’s greater Fertile Crescent as one of the factors which contributed to the current Syrian conflictxi. In Sri Lanka, the danger of popular discontent generated by climatic woes taking the form of ethnic or religious conflicts is a real one. This is particularly so since extremists of all ethno-religious communities will see in a prolonged drought and resultant socio-economic devastations an opportunity to advance their divisive and often violent agendas. What is easier than for a Sinhala-supremacist to blame climatic woes on the greed of Tamils and Muslims or for a minority extremist to point the finger at Sinhala indifference or criminality? The victims of the drought include – and will continue to include – members of all ethno-religious communities. But when have extremist politicians allowed facts to cramp their destructive style?

ihttp://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/1520-0477%281977%29058%3C0163%3AGHETWS%3E2.0.CO%3B2

ii https://www.irinnews.org/news/2017/03/06/exclusive-drought-leaves-80000-sri-lankans-need-%E2%80%9Clife-saving%E2%80%9D-food-aid

iii http://www.ft.lk/article/602050/Vehicle-bonanza-for-select-MPs

iv https://www.irinnews.org/news/2017/03/06/exclusive-drought-leaves-80000-sri-lankans-need-%E2%80%9Clife-saving%E2%80%9D-food-aid

v http://www.ipsnews.net/2017/01/drought-could-cost-sri-lanka-billions/

vi https://www.irinnews.org/news/2017/03/06/exclusive-drought-leaves-80000-sri-lankans-need-%E2%80%9Clife-saving%E2%80%9D-food-aid

vii Daily Mirror – 8.3.2017

viii http://www.nasdaq.com/article/sri-lankas-drought-wont-hit-budget-deficit-finance-minister-says-20170303-00559

ix http://www.dailynews.lk/2017/03/07/business/109638/colombo-ho-chi-minh-city-see-160-growth-super-rich-class

x http://roar.lk/environment-wildlife/the-indian-ocean-climate-change-and-failing-monsoons/

xi http://www.pnas.org/content/112/11/3241.full

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Yahapalana brain-fade in Geneva

March 12th, 2017

by Malinda Seneviratne

March 11, 2017, 7:05 pm
Way back when Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government was getting slammed left, right and centre by the ‘international (sic) community’, especially at the UNHRC, his detractors were thrilled. Little did they care that the accusers were tainted in ways that made Sri Lanka look pretty innocent in terms of (alleged) ‘war crimes’. Rajapaksa was accused of being moronic in his foreign policy. Dark stories were spread about impending sanctions. The removal of the GSP Plus facility was thrown in as evidence and a sign of worse things to come.

The previous regime resisted all moves to interfere in the affairs of the country including direct involvement in judicial processes. It was a foregone conclusion that Sri Lanka would time and again be bested in votes taken in the UNHRC, apart from the first vote with respect to the conflict when Dayan Jayatilleka was the Permanent Representative in Geneva. A good battle was fought and lost, as expected.

Rajapaksa didn’t do himself any favours back home. Corruption, wastage, nepotism, serious compromising of the Rule of Law and other such negatives slowly but surely brought just enough forces together to throw him out of office.

Today, the very same international community is going easy on the current regime. Why? Because they have perceived this government has shown greater commitment to getting things right by way of reconciliation, transitional justice, transparency and what not?

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Well!

What do have now? We have a regime that is same-same as the Rajapaksas with a key difference. They’ve adopted Rajapaksa Ways in record speed. Whereas it took the previous regime more than five years to lose the plot, it has taken this government less than two to lose it, if they had a plot in the first place that is. And this is best evidenced by the short-sighted, irresponsible and sophomoric thinking with respect to dealing with the international community (via the UNHRC) on human rights, transitional justice and so on.

Prince Zeid has not exactly patted this government on the back, but he’s not swishing any whips either, as was the forte of his predecessor. He is still calling for hybrid courts.

What do the President and the Prime Minister have to say?

The President has clearly said that there will be no foreign judges in judicial procedures to probe war crimes allegations. That’s a blatant snub on the Consultative Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms. Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene has said that the President and the Government have full confidence in the judiciary and legal processes. “We have extremely eminent and experienced judges and our judges have served in various countries and global organizations that have given much credit to the country,” he said. The issue of establishing a hybrid court does not arise, as far as that component of this coalition government is concerned.

As for the other half, the Prime Minister has said that a hybrid court was not politically feasible and as such a feasible alternative should be found.

His words: “Setting up a hybrid court is not politically feasible because such a move would need a referendum. Against this back drop, how can we fulfill the expectations of the international community? Let’s get together and think of a feasible alternative for such a court.”

And what do the strongest backers (and now approvers) of the forces that ousted Rajapaksa have to say? Jehan Perera, writing about the Governments performance in Geneva puts it well.

“During their stay in Geneva, the Sri Lankan delegation was able to meet with most important parties at the side events to the official conference. This included meetings with the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and with UN Human Rights Commissioner Prince Zeid bin Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein and with the ambassadors to the UN of various powerful countries. Some of those who are currently playing a decision-making role in UN processes have had previous engagements with Sri Lanka and are in a position to make a comparative analysis of the situation in Sri Lanka as against other countries. They tend to be impressed at the overall developments in Sri Lanka which they can compare with the deterioration to be found in many parts of the world.”

So now it’s about relative merits. Sri Lanka is better than Myanmar. One can’t help observing that Sri Lanka was always better than a lot of countries (including the USA, UK, Canada and the EU) in terms of dealing with terrorism AND, more importantly, in sorting out post-conflict issues such as reconstruction, settlement of the displaced, restoration of democracy and rehabilitating hardcore terrorists, people with a combat history and adjuncts in the cause of terrorism, from whose grasp, let us not forget, some 300,000 civilians held hostage were rescued. Try beating that!

But that’s not what this government did. The UNHRC officially recognized all this and then duly forgot, but then again, the likes of Perera never even acknowledged all this for reasons that are obvious.

The problem with the Government’s current position is what G.L. Peiris has pointed out. Prof Peiris asks, correctly, “who approved the UNHRC Resolution that Sri Lanka co-sponsored with the USA?” That Resolution clearly shows that Sri Lanka is amenable to the involvement of foreign judges. Didn’t the President and the Prime Minister know back then that a) Sri Lanka has competent judges and a credible judicial process (as the President now claims) and b) that such mechanisms are untenable (as the Prime Minister now claims)? Were they, like all politicians, merely playing the age old game of seeking the postponement of the inevitable in the absence of a coherent, pragmatic alternative approach?

It is clear that an international community that is sorely lacking in integrity should not be shown any respect. This Government was let down by the champions of righteousness (corrupt though they are in this respect). Today the Government is looking to a less-friendly China for help. Well, the previous regime appears to have got everything right in this respect. They knew what the international community was about. They knew who had the bucks and who had the swagger. They blew it domestically.

This government is close to blowing it domestically. And they’ve read the ‘international’ all wrong. In Geneva, they suffered a brain-fade. That’s putting it mildly. They’ve remained brain-faded since then and demonstrated the fact this year as well.

In the very least, the Foreign Minister has shown gross negligence, total absence of intelligence, and utter political immaturity. That’s only if he acted on his own steam, which again is hard to believe. That particular brain-fade buck floats upwards. And whether or not it is acknowledged, it sticks.

Malinda Seneviratne is a freelance writer. Blog: malindawords.blogspot.com. Email: malindasenevi@gmail.com. Twitter: malindasene

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How rich & influential is the LTTE Diaspora kitty after LTTE defeat?

March 11th, 2017

Shenali D Waduge

The business of terrorism has caused bloodshed and agony. It lasted 30 long years. While the innocent died, were maimed and continue to dress the wounds, the strategists, planners, fundraisers and propagandists continue to thrive plotting another debacle. Their endeavor is to continue to milk the LTTE cash cow kept alive by the promise of a Tamil Homeland that has been the driving force for decades and the carrot presented to voluntarily or by force keep the kitty filled. The players who silently raised funds for LTTE when Prabakaran was alive have today established themselves as ‘promoters of human rights, reconciliation & peace builders’. The camaflage has been excellent and LTTE media have robed them in angel suits. The money they are now saving from spending on buying arms, ammunition and other logistics for LTTE cadres & the maintenance of their families is now spent buying foreign MPs, influencing international players and using their entities to brush shoulders with the high & mighty, tap their weaknesses and bargain their cause. LTTE Tamil Diaspora, less dangerous when Prabakaran was alive, is more dangerous now. What good are western reports, arrests investigations if people and organizations that provided material support, raised funds and who are now buying over foreign parliamentarians are not indicted under western laws as most of them hold western passports and are citizens of those countries?

Robert Rotberg in his Creating peace in Sri Lanka: civil war and reconciliation. Brookings Institution Press.” 1999. Web. Accessed 22 July 2013 says The LTTE is one of several violent offshoots of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), formerly the Tamil United Front (TUF). TUF was formed in the early 1970s from groups such as the Tamil Congress and the Federal Party.”

United States declared in 2014 that said that LTTE Tamil Diaspora network was still active and the LTTE uses its international contacts and the large Tamil diaspora in North America, Europe, and Asia to procure weapons, communications, funding, and other needed supplies

http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/ltte-intl-network-intact-diaspora-still-funding-us-46552.html

In March 2017, Canadian authorities arrested a Tamil couple accused of money laundering $8million. How many more in the Tamil Diaspora are involved in similar rackets is the question.

With the arrest of Raj Rajaratnam for insider trading, it emerged that he was the single largest known U.S. contributor to a charity linked to the LTTE having given more than $3.5 million to the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO). US Treasury froze TRO assets in 2007. http://www.asianmirror.lk/news/item/3968-raj-rajaratnam-to-be-tried-for-funding-ltte

Diasporas as autonomous political actors: The case of the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora by Lola Guyot in 2016 During the Sri Lankan civil war that lasted almost thirty years, the diaspora was the rear-guard of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) abroad, providing the financial resources and armament necessary for the conduct of the war.”……………..” Most diasporic organizations have not diverted from the LTTE ideology on the issue of the separate state.”

http://repository.graduateinstitute.ch/record/293224/files/GMResearchpaper_N14_Gazagne_Sanchez-Cacicedo.pdf

Understanding the Politics of the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora in Switzerland by Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies …. There are substantial differences in opinion between generations on the goals and means of the Tamil diaspora’s engagement in Tamil politics” …” there is a high degree of infighting within the different organisations due to the predominance of personal agendas over ideological or organisational concerns”…………” Several interviewees noted how former LTTE representatives have reinvented themselves as members of the newly created transnational Tamil organisations.”

A section of the Tamil diaspora, particularly within the second generation, is trying to fight the 2006 European Union (EU) ban on the Tamil Tigers since it has a strong impact on financial transactions from EU countries to Sri Lanka and diminishes the international legitimacy of the LTTE.”

In 2016 the Swiss Govt filed charges against 13 Tamils for funding LTTE – they had raised $15.2 million.

http://www.thenewsminute.com/article/swiss-government-files-charges-against-alleged-tamil-tigers-fund-raising-46889

Dr. Rohan Gunaratne’s Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Organization & Operations in Canada” estimates LTTE raised more than $22m in Canada in 1999 alone!

According to Solomon and Tan (2007), the LTTE outsourced its fundraising – including extortion – tasks within the community to ethnic Tamil gangs for a commission, in countries like France and the UK

Wikileaks cable April 10, 2006 by the US Embassy Ottawa…”Experts have estimated that in the 1990s, over 80 percent of the Tamil Tigers’ military budget came from overseas sources, and various reports have estimated that the Canadian Tamil diaspora was a source of between $1-10 million annually.”………. Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) stated that eight front organizations support the Tigers in Canada…….A former Canadian ambassador to Sri Lanka, Martin Collacot, told the National Post “The Tigers and their supporters in Canada and particularly Toronto had become adept at delivering votes from the Tamil community to Liberal candidates at election time, and as long as this support continued, the Liberals were prepared to let the Tigers have virtual free rein to carry out their activities (in Canada).”

Dr. Asoka Bandarage writing to the Harvard International Review writes that U.S and western policy towards Sri Lanka has been shaped largely by the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora.” http://hir.harvard.edu/diasporas-and-post-conflict-development-in-sri-lanka/

International Crisis Group writing after the defeat of the LTTE says Although the May 2009 defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has dramatically reduced the diaspora’s influence, the majority of Tamils outside Sri Lanka continue to support a separate state, and the diaspora’s money can ensure it plays a role in the country’s future”…..” Funding networks established by the LTTE over decades are seriously weakened but still in place”

In 2006 Human Rights Watch produced a report Funding the Final War” LTTE Intimidation and Extortion in the Tamil Diaspora” covering October 2005-February 2006 using telephone and personal interviews of Tamil communities in Toronto, Canada, London, UK, Geneva, Switzerland and Germany and meetings with London Metropolitan Police, the Toronto Police, UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office, independent experts & World Tamil Movement.

https://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/ltte0306/ltte0306webwcover.pdf

What the report confirms is that the Tamil communities living in the West became a ‘significant source of financial and political support for the LTTE’. It also declares that Tamil Diaspora were ‘willingly & actively supporting the LTTE’ while some were subject to ‘intimidation, extortion, physical violence’ by LTTE Diaspora who wanted a steady flow of income. We would like to know how many were willing supporters and how many Tamils were not. Either way both had to fill the LTTE kitty. How much was inside that kitty is the question.

That LTTE took control of Hindu temples in UK was also highlighted. HRW also emphasised that a ‘culture of fear within the Tamil community’ prevailed. Is that still continuing is another question to be answered!

HRW says that fundraisers for the LTTE and LTTE-linked organizations” launched a massive fundraising drive (house to house/businesses & professionals) for the ‘final war’ in 2005-2006. Is the LTTE Diaspora now doing the same to buy over Sri Lanka’s parliament and bring about a new constitution to carve out the Eelam they have promised?

HRW goes on to say The LTTE’s dependence on the Tamil diaspora for financial support, and the diaspora’s substantial size and influence, give the diaspora unique potential to influence the LTTE’s policies and behavior, including its human rights practices”

HRW confirms that LTTE was responsible for carrying out more than 200 suicide bombings aimed at both civilian and military targets” and assassinating politicians from rival Tamil parties, journalists and human rights activists” as well as massacres and retaliatory killings of Sinhalese & Muslim villagers. HRW also confirms that LTTE ‘imprisoned and tortured thousands of dissidents and their family members and conducted public executions of suspected informers”. This was the LTTE that the Ban Ki Moon appointed Panel of ‘Experts” claim was ‘disciplined’! HRW also confirms that LTTE ‘recruited thousands of children for use as soldiers, often through force or coercion, and used some of them to carry out suicide bombings”.

From February 2002 through January 2006, UNICEF documented 4,347 cases of child recruitment; over 36 percent involved children under the age of fifteen at the time of recruitment” LTTE Diaspora today speaking of human rights are not bothered about what has happened to these 4347 children most of whom would have been sent to battle after minimum training.

HRW quotes Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission that logged 3471 violations against the LTTE and 162 only against the SL Army.

http://www.slmm.lk/OperationsMatter/complaints/Accumulated.pdf

Wikileaks April 2006 cable of Canadian Government banning LTTE. Noteworthy is that CSIS has stated that eight front organizations supported LTTE (are they the same as the Fronts banned by GOSL in April 2014?)” Experts have estimated that in the 1990s, over 80 percent of the Tamil Tigers’ military budget came from overseas sources, and various reports have estimated that the Canadian Tamil diaspora was a source of between $1-10 million annually.” (are these organizations continuing fund raising) https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/06OTTAWA1029_a.html

In 2014 the Mackenzie Institute featured an article by Jeff Sole titled Is Canada an Unofficial State Sponsor of Terrorism?” According to Toronto police Tamil task force, there were as many as 8,000 members of, Tamil terrorist factions” in Toronto in 2000 (how many has the figure increased to by 2016?) The article confirms that While the LTTE made a profession out of document forgery”

Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) report The Exploitation of Canada’s Immigration System: An Overview of Security and Intelligence Concerns,” raises the question – how guilty are LTTE fronts of abusing the Canadian immigration system and what is the Canadian Govt doing about it?

In 2012 John Thompson suggested that the LTTE created a Sri Lankan diaspora as a mechanism to maintain an international support structure.

http://mackenzieinstitute.com/canada-unofficial-state-sponsor-terrorism/

The Institute came out again with another report What next for the Tamil Tigers” after its defeat in 2009 http://mackenzieinstitute.com/what-next-for-the-tamil-tigers/

Basically, what it means is such a cash rich cow has to find ways to sustain itself! ‘The new constitution’ is how the LTTE fronts have ‘brought back’ people into the fold.

Michael Freeman’s ‘Financing Terrorism”

The British military publication Jane’s Intelligence Review says LTTE fronts raise up to $300 million (204 million euros) a year, or between 80 and 90 percent of their total budget, abroad

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/extorting-the-diaspora-tamil-tigers-exploit-exiles-abroad-to-fund-insurgency-a-535316.html

The LTTE’s Online Network and its Implications for Regional Security by Shyam Tekwani January 2006 https://www.rsis.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/rsis-pubs/WP104.pdf

http://web.stanford.edu/group/mappingmilitants/cgi-bin/groups/view/225

Around 20% of the LTTE’s funding came from internal sources, including extortion, taxation, and payments for protection. …. One of the main sources of internal revenue for the LTTE came from custom duties passing through areas controlled by the LTTE. These customs duties ranged from 10-30% of the cost of the items. Manoharan, N. Financial Fodder – Internal Sources of LTTE Funds.” Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies. 16 October 2004

Stewart Bell writing to the National Post claims 8,000 Tamil Guerrillas” live in Toronto. http://www.nationalpost.com/home.asp?f=000617/320822

It is clear that the intelligence units and police in the very countries that LTTE has been banned have done their homework and have updated reports on the illegal activities of LTTE Tamil Diaspora. Arrests have also been made. However, a more concerted effort connecting all of the LTTE Tamil Diaspora would reveal the international network and its scope. The question is should LTTE Tamil Diaspora that had been funding LTTE over the years be allowed to dictate what and what not the Government of Sri Lanka should implement. These groups are now regular visitors to Geneva, they dictate how resolutions are drafted, they are now dictating the Government of Sri Lanka to remove military bases and whom to issue land deeds to. This is like ISIS and Al Qaeda dictating to the Western governments.

Sanity should prevail. These LTTE heads and their organizations were banned under UNSC Resolution 1373, why have they not been investigated when reports of their activities are available and documented. Given that they are foreign citizens why are they allowed to be championing breaking up of a sovereign nation and spearheading activities that violate Western laws?

Surely Western governments should not act in the appeasing and shameless manner that the current government is functioning in falling at the feet of the LTTE Tamil Diaspora and agreeing to every ridiculous demand they make.

Shenali D Waduge

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The Voices of threatened Buddhists must be heard at the UN Day of Vesak 2017 Conference

March 11th, 2017

by Senaka Weeraratna

Of all the international Buddhist Conferences held in Sri Lanka the one that stands out clearly above the rest is the Conference held in 1950, particularly because it led to the formation of the World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB). There was a huge need then for unity of all Buddhist schools and Dr. G.P. Malalasekera’s vision ensured that disparate groups were brought together under the banner of fellowship via the WFB.

The world of 2017 is significantly different to that of 1950. If the UN Day of Vesak Conference to be held in Colombo in the month of May 2017, wishes to have a lasting impact then it must address the shortcomings of regular International Buddhist Conferences taking into account the strengths and weaknesses of International Buddhist organizations that organize such gatherings. Most importantly, the time has come for the formation of a new international Buddhist organization say, for example, League of Buddhist Nations, that will function in areas where the pre-existing Buddhist organizations are inactive, weak or silent.

To hold international Buddhist Conferences more or less based on the premise of fellowship and goodwill, and nothing else is tantamount to an unpardonable folly and dereliction of duty. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s warning given on the occasion of the inauguration of WFB in 1950, that if Buddhist conferences were to be a success and have an impact on the rest of the world, it must go beyond fellowship, still rings true.

Buddhist Solidarity

Protection of Buddhism nationally and internationally and the crisis facing the Buddhist world must rank high in any credible agenda of an International Buddhist Conference. Unfortunately this is one area that no one wants to touch like Dynamite and consequently the cries of threatened Buddhists fighting for national survival and protection from religious persecution and discrimination in various parts of the world go unheeded. There is no International Buddhist forum to listen to the grievances of Buddhists and act on their behalf in world councils. Buddhists vis a vis other religions are largely unrepresented or under represented in UN bodies. As a lobby group Buddhists are weak internationally. In such context, the world Buddhists must unhesitatingly come together on the basis of solidarity rather than fellowship, and project strength and assertiveness on the international stage, to combat the rising challenges to the very existence of Buddhism in several parts of Asia.

The lack of an effective institutional mechanism that can lend support when a Buddhist institution, Buddhist community or even a pre-dominant Buddhist nation is in danger is a glaring lacuna. We see the lack of substantial networks of support driving threatened Buddhist nations or Buddhist communities into a sense of despair and hopelessness at times of an emergency. Traditional Theravada Buddhist countries such as Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Laos, are now under severe pressure in many areas. One such area under pressure is to distance the governing polity from extending state patronage to Buddhism and erase the Buddhist national identity which had held these countries together for over two millennia and embrace a secular identity that has no roots either to their heritage or culture. Further no such similar pressure is being applied to countries in other parts of the world such as the Middle East or the Catholic belt of Europe.

Despite a 2500 year old history that makes Buddhism one of the oldest religions in the world, a worldwide presence that makes it a global religion, and a way of life grounded in wisdom and compassion that attracts the envy of other civilizations, Buddhism still retains its biggest constraint i.e. lack of effective protections. It is a historical and sad fact that Buddhism has lost more territory and space in Asia, its traditional homeland, in the last one thousand years than any other religion. It is also a hard fact that this process continues with no sign of abatement and no effective measures being developed to counter it.

Rising challenges to Buddhism

The issue of rising challenges to Buddhism to the extent of undermining its very existence as the pre-dominant religion of traditional Buddhist nations, has hardly attracted much attention in discussions of International Buddhist Organisations, International Buddhist Conferences, or among National Governments in countries with predominant Buddhist populations and corresponding state and constitutional obligations to protect and foster Buddhism.

In addition, traditional Buddhist countries find themselves force fed with ideas on governance and conflict resolution using inquisitorial methods that are unsolicited and foreign to Asian countries, that had been given birth primarily in a Western setting and related to the interplay of dynamics of European societies but are nevertheless required to be uncritically accepted and transplanted in Asian societies without due consideration being given to the social tensions that would be generated in transplanting such ideas. To de-link state patronage to Buddhism is one such pressure brought on by various religious interests that during the heyday of western colonialism enjoyed exclusive patronage from colonial rulers. Though it may appear somewhat anachronistic and archaic to modern European societies, where plurality, secularism and multiculturalism are now seen as normal, it is worthwhile to remember that throughout Asian history, Buddhism was only able to grow and survive wherever it received the patronage and support of Buddhist Monarchs, commencing with the Indian Emperor Asoka in 300 B.C. In Sri Lanka in the pre-colonial era, the foremost duty of a King was to serve and protect the Buddha Sasana.

The solidarity that countries in Buddhist Asia showed towards each other in the distant past i.e. pre – colonial era, has greatly diminished or become non – existent. The sense of kinship of being fellow travelers in the Sansaric journey overarched by Buddhist precepts and bonded by common religious beliefs and foundations no longer act as a reference point to summon or render assistance even between Buddhist peoples based in neighbouring countries at times of need.

Tension at Buddha Gaya

Reciprocity is the hallmark of any relationship. No peaceful co-existence can be sustained if incursions are taking place affecting the sensitivities of the majority populace of a country. The magnanimity of wanting peaceful coexistence also has attendant obligations i.e. in removing that which are stumbling blocks to peace.

Buddhists in Sri Lanka welcome peace and peaceful co-existence between adherents of different religions. However, as indigenous Sinhala Buddhists we must state that co-existence cannot be one-sided. While preaching peaceful co-existence adherents of other religions that entered Sri Lanka much later in time after Buddhism had become firmly established in Sri Lanka as the national religion, cannot expect to transplant their religions by building their Churches and Mosques, in the vicinity of sacred citadels of Buddhists and expect the Buddhists to keep silent. The obligations under peaceful coexistence are mutual and cannot be one-sided and it is certainly no one way street for one religious group only. Further the growing media campaign to design historical Buddhist sites as multi – cultural sites to deny Buddhist exclusivity over a place of worship is grossly unfair and carries the seed of future conflict.

Sacred Cities of Buddhism

There are increasing number of examples of mosques being built close to hallowed Buddhist shrines in highly venerated Buddhist citadels – Anuradhapura, Dambulla, Kandy, Mihintale, Mahiyangana, Polonnaruwa (former Royal capital), Kelaniya and even in Buddhagaya, Lumbini and Kusinara. There is a new mosque built within a stone throw i.e. 60 metres away from the Maha Bodhi Temple premises in Buddhagaya where the Bodhisatwa (Prince Siddhartha) attained enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree to become the Buddha, 2600 years ago. To establish a mosque so close to the most venerated site of the Buddhists and then use loudspeakers for the daily Azaan knowing very well that these high pitched loud screeching sounds would disturb the tranquility and peaceful environment conducive to meditation of the Buddhist monks and worshippers, must be considered as a direct affront to peaceful co-existence. The failure of the Govt. of India to take steps to remove or re – locate this Mosque or take steps to withdraw the permit given to use loudspeakers is tantamount to a dereliction of duty and guarantees given to the Buddhist world by the Govt. of India to provide a peaceful and noise free environment surrounding the Maha Bodhi Temple. It diminishes the claim of the Indian Govt. to protect Buddhism in its birthplace i.e. Buddha Gaya. The silence of the International Buddhist organizations on this critical issue is deafening and a huge letdown of the hopes of the world Buddhist community for effective institutional leadership to take up Buddhist grievances.

It is highly unlikely that other contenders for leadership of the Buddhist world such as China or even Nepal (where the birthplace of Prince Siddhartha is located i.e. Lumbini, now being increasingly projected as the Fountainhead of Buddhism) would allow a Mosque or any other enterprise using amplified sounds to interfere with the proceedings of a hallowed Buddhist shrine. It is also a lesson for Buddhist countries like Sri Lanka to ensure that Mosques and even Churches are not allowed to be constructed anywhere near an important Buddhist Temple because once permission is given it would be near impossible to prevent the Trustees of the Mosque from using loudspeakers out of spite and lack of sensitivity to disrupt the peaceful atmosphere of a Buddhist Temple. If it can happen in Buddha Gaya it can happen anywhere else including disturbing the proceedings of, for example, the Dalada Maligava in Kandy, in the future.

Reciprocity and not Reconciliation – the way forward

The situation can be reduced to a simple axiom. One can demand only up to what one can and is prepared to concede to the other party. Nothing more. Every religion with their main bases lying in foreign countries and having a minority religion status in Sri Lanka must sincerely ask this basic straight forward question. Buddhists have been very magnanimous, but unfortunately Buddhism enjoys step-motherly treatment in countries with Abhramic religious majorities, with only Russia and Austria conceding official recognition to Buddhism, in Europe. Most countries in the Middle East do not even recognize Buddhism as a valid religion, despite its global status as a major world religion.

Some tragic situations affecting Buddhists, are set out below as examples:

i) In Bangladesh, in 2012, a 25,000-strong mob set fire to at least five Buddhist temples and dozens of homes throughout the town and surrounding villages,
ii) the killing of Buddhists (both monks and laymen) have been reported, fromBangladesh, in addition to the persecution of the indigenous tribes of the Chittagong Hill Tracts such as the Chakma, Marma, Tripura and others who are mainly Buddhists,

iii) the crisis generated by Bengali Muslims of Rakhine (Arakan) state of Myanmar classifying themselves as Rohingyas,

iv) the threats to Buddhists of Ladakh, India, to change their religion and convert to another religion, as recorded by the Ladakh Buddhist Association,
v) the plight of Buddhists in South Korea whose numbers have dropped from 90% in 1945 to 22% in 2016, and attacks on Buddhist temples continue, and
vi) the insurgency in South Thailand where Buddhists including monks are attacked, should be of great concern to all right thinking Buddhists and planners of International Buddhist Conferences.

The loss of numbers in the Buddhist communities can have a domino effect in other countries in Asia, as well. Therefore the voices of the threatened Buddhist communities must be given an opportunity to be heard at this Conference.

It is recommended that the Agenda of the UN Day of Vesak 2017 Conference, include the following subjects for discussion and any resolution flowing from such discussion, placed in the final Declaration:

1) Official Recognition of Buddhism in non – Buddhist countries, including Europe and the Middle East, and Declaration of Vesak as a Holiday at the UN

2) Establish a noise free zone in the environment surrounding the Maha Bodhi Temple at Buddha – Gaya, with a strict prohibition on use of loudspeakers and amplified sounds,

3) Use of the Internet as a medium for spread of Buddhism,

4) Formation of a Panel of Buddhist Scholars to review Wikipedia entries and correct theological and factual errors on the Internet,

5) Establishment of a League of Buddhist Nations on lines similar to the Organisation of Islamic Co – operation (OIC) and World Council of Churches, with a view to functioning in areas where other international Buddhist organizations are inactive, weak or silent. Buddhism is part of the national psyche of a good number of Asian countries and there can be opportunities for such an organization to serve as a platform to co-operate and to promote Buddhism among themselves and others, a mediator in conflicts between Buddhist nations (Thailand/Cambodia), and a pressure or lobby group in respect to countries where Buddhist minorities are oppressed. It would entertain Buddhist grievances and complains, with a view to taking up such complains at an inter-governmental level. The OIC and EU perform this role currently on behalf of Muslim and Christian communities respectively,

6) Focus on both Human and Animal Rights, the Buddhist First Precept, and enactment of legislation providing both protection and modern day standards of treatment to animals, e.g. Animal Welfare Bill of Sri Lanka, and issue of a call that in predominantly Buddhist countries, Buddhist values such as non – violence towards all living beings including animals, must be allowed to prevail over the values that cause destruction to innocent lives of harmless animals e.g. animal sacrifice, which the Buddha has condemned without qualification and considered as an hideous and foul practice by Buddhists and other right thinking people all over the world,

7) Moratorium on the building of non – Buddhist places of worship in areas declared as ‘sacred areas of Buddhism. This is a common practice in Muslim majority countries and must be adopted in Sri Lanka. It has been recommended in the Buddhist Commission Report,

8) Special Historical bonds that exist between Buddhists and Buddhist nations to be further strengthened with appropriate steps including production of films e.g. Fascinating Journey from Sri Lanka to Siam” based on the narration of Wilbagedera who wrote the original account of his journey to the Thai capital of Ayuthiya and the magnificent welcome accorded to the Sinhalese delegation by the Thai King and the Thai people. Such a film will strengthen the religious and cultural bonds between the Thai and Sri Lankan people.

Finally it would be most appropriate and fitting taking into consideration the Maha Karuna of the Buddha that only vegetarian and vegan foods be served to all the delegates at this Buddhist Conference and thereby sparing the lives of innocent animals and providing a strong message to the world that we are in step with the UN Goal of reducing the consumption of meat in the best interest of protection of the natural environment.

Senaka Weeraratna

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Israeli Lawmakers Advance Bill to Curb Loudspeakers in Muslim Call to Prayer

March 11th, 2017

By NIRAJ CHOKSHI Courtesy The New York Times

A bill that would regulate the traditional use of loudspeakers for the Muslim call to prayer passed its first legislative hurdle in Israel’s Parliament on Wednesday, provoking frustration and anger among some Arab lawmakers.

One version of the bill would prohibit places of worship from using loudspeakers between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., while another would ban any broadcast over such speakers regardless of the time of day if it is deemed unreasonably loud,” the BBC reported. The first daily prayer is traditionally performed before sunrise.

Both versions passed with slim majorities, but a final draft requires further approval from Parliament before becoming law.

Opponents describe the legislation as an attack on religious freedom that targets the five daily calls to prayer. Supporters describe it as something closer to a noise ordinance.

Israel is committed to freedom for all religions, but is also responsible for protecting citizens from noise,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in November, when his ministers approved an earlier version of the proposal and sent it to the Parliament.

Zouheir Bahloul, a member of Parliament belonging to the center-left Zionist Union, disagreed, calling the bill dangerous” in a translated interview with i24, an Israeli television station.

We’re talking about small politicians who are trying to persecute the Arab minority in the country,” he said. It’s a stain on the forehead of Israeli society and the state of Israel. In the book of laws, this law is the blackest.”

Some Arab lawmakers ripped up copies of the legislation during a debate. One, Ayman Odeh, the leader of an alliance of Arab parties known as the Joint List, was thrown out of the chamber after doing so, according to the BBC.

When the ban was proposed in November, it was denounced by Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.

The call to prayer is a symbol of Islam,” Adel Elfar, the imam of a mosque in Lod, a city of Arabs and Jews in Israel, said at the time. This is something that’s existed for 1,426 years.”

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USLA Wellington Spokesperson’s Report

March 11th, 2017

2016 April to 2017 March – Dr. Chula Rajapakse MNZM

The year began with me being shown a picture of a car on a Wellington road , brazenly displaying a personalized plate bearing the letters , LTTE. Having come to NZ to escape from LTTE terror, I decided that very evening to seek the withdrawal of this taunting plate and have it’s owner placed under surveillance, on the basis of the plate being a brazen declaration of support for a brutal terrorist group, it being offensive to those of us who were victims or potential victims of their terror, that it was provocative to us and threatened the peace and racial harmony in New Zealand. I also identified through the CarJam” website that the plate was registered by Ushanthan Balakrishnan of Dixon Street Wellington.

I made these points in complaints as Spokesperson USLA to NZTA, New Zealand Personalised Plates and Prime Minister John Key. The latter acknowledged our concerns, immediately & referred the matter to MFAT who emailed me next day , that they would take up the matter with NZTA . The following week I, along with Mr Rudra de Zoysa, made a formal written and oral submission along these lines at the Lower Hutt police station to two very receptive detectives from the Wellington Crime Squad , who undertook to act promptly to secure and destroy this number plate and enter LTTE as being proscribed for a future number plate.

Within three weeks of our complaint I received confirmation that all of these had been achieved, a result far better than many anticipated. This is but a demonstration that in a democracy, especially in a western democracy, it is our obligation to counter mischievous misuse of democracy, to taunt and misinform , and that properly exercised, such a counter has every chance of success .

Sadly, I believe it is the lack of such countering of misinformation timely and effectively, that has been a significant contributor to the greatest externally generated challenge that Sri Lanka faces today. I refer to the US/UK initiated, UNHCR resolution demanding establishment of hybrid war crimes courts to trial SL servicemen who liberated SL from three decades of tiger terror facing an allegation 40,000 civilian victims in the last stages of the war. The resolution also demands drastic reduction of security surveillance in Tiger Terrorist operative areas for three decades, delegation of land and police powers to the provincial governments of these areas with provision to unit despite not making any security sense.

Much of the arguments for justifying these calls have come from inadequately challenged and misinformation based reports like the Darusman report supporting the allegation of 40,000 civilian victims in the last weeks of the war, with no source of information revealed and the UK Channel 4 documentaries , entirely based on videos that have no author, no date or place of filming .

The calls made of the SL government in these resolution also runs entirely counter to the letter and spirit of UK PM Theresa May’s call in 2016 that she will not allow any of her servicemen who served in Iraq to be hauled before war crimes courts .

I have communicated these misgivings to Prime Minister John Key , on the occasion of the Chilcot report release in July ’16, that named Iraq as a victim of faulty UK & US foreign policy. I sited the above to suggest that Sri Lanka has been an even a worse victim of such faulty policy and requested him to use NZ ‘s position in the security council to obtain redress from the ill advised UNHCR resolutions. I made the same call following the Neice Truck Bombing in France also in July, highlighting that what Sri Lanka faced was three decades of bombings, that Neice faced just one night.

The advent of the Trump administration in the US opened up an opportunity to discredit the US sponsorship of UNHCR resolutions as being a product of his opponents, Clinton & Obama , tainted with receiving campaign contributions from the Tiger diaspora war chest of billions & echoing the 40,000 civilian casualty allegation which really originated from the Tiger diaspora. I also warned him of not being fooled by the Tamils for Trump” group ,as they were the same that before the election was Tamils for Clinton”.

His strong call against the NYT for fake news from unnamed source”, opened an opportunity to highlight UK channel four as the leader of fake news.

Bases on the strong stand that President Trump has taken against terrorism I have sought his support for the only country that was able to wipe terrorism from it’s shores, Sri Lanka by withdrawing the Clinton/Obama UNHCR resolution hampering Sri Lanka’s progress.

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APPALLING SITUATION

March 11th, 2017

By Dr. Tilak. S.Fernando

During a visit to a local renowned supermarket last week I approached the ‘pharmacist’ to make enquires about an allopathic cardiac drug (RanCV500). A guy who did not appear to have any knowledge of the inquired medicine questioned me as to what the drug was prescribed for? Quite bemused by the answer coming out of the so-called ‘pharmacist‘ I ventured to ask him whether he was a qualified pharmacist, to which his answer was affirmative. I was not satisfied, and summoned the store manager to his presence and enquired whether the employee was a qualified pharmacist. The manager became tongue-tied, which convinced me that the pharmacist in this particular supermarket was an ‘ordinary cashier.’

Subsequently, I spoke to the Operations Manager of the giant supermarket chain on the telephone to verify whether the company employs ‘unqualified pharmacists’ as a policy matter. He promised to deal with the complaint but let it ‘die a natural death.’ In the meanwhile further enquiries from the neighbourhood pharmacies revealed an established local pharmacy runs the supermarket pharmacy as well. A week later, I spoke to the Operations Manager once again, and he was surprised to hear my latest findings and admitted that the ‘Supermarket operation was done with the aid of the local giant pharmacist’s licence.’ When pointed out that it was illegal to employ unqualified ‘pharmacists’ using someone else’s licence, his blunt answer was: “In that case we have to close our pharmacies in all our branches.” The writer explained to the OM, that the law that states, “if the licence holder is not available at any time, either the pharmacy will have to be closed or a locum pharmacist should be employed.”

Efficacy and safety of medicine

The problem in this country is everyone is not familiar with their consumer rights and existing laws of public litigation. Safety and efficacy of medicine is vital to prevent maltreatment to patients. To this end only the public health mechanisms demand qualified pharmacists to dispense drugs. Sri Lankan Health Laws specifically make it compulsory for licensed ‘Pharmacists’ to exhibit their licence in the pharmacy. Despite such legal necessities what seems to take place is many licensed pharmacists employ ‘unqualified cashiers’ to deal with customers and drugs, which could endanger human life if wrong medicines are dispensed by unqualified square pegs in round holes, while the licence holders are busy with other exploitations.

While writing this article, a known person who is a qualified pharmacist who has had to work only as a pharmacy technician in a London Hospital (Sri Lanka registration is not acceptable in the UK) phoned me to inform about a similar occurrence from a pharmacy in Narahenpita where the licence holder apparently employs two girls to run the pharmacy. On that ominous day the girls, being naïve about the procedure, had refused the issuance of a cosmetic drug without a prescription. Under Sri Lanka schedule 1, drugs are permitted to be sold without a prescription, not loose but a complete pack.

The Drug Control Authority has taken perpetrators in the pharmacy operations to task, induced by public complaints and heavy court fines have been levied. This evidently calls for frequent flying squad operations by inspectors at least on a monthly basis to overcome drug related problems in pharmacies, and moreover to ensure qualified and licensed pharmacists are physically present at all times rather than ordinary cashiers substituting them. The giant franchises (like the supermarket exposed) should come under the stringent, vigilant eye and action of drug control inspectors regularly.

Statutory requirements

Statutory requirements on pharmacy operations require area Inspectors from Food and Drug Implementation, the Cosmetic Devices Agency and Drug Control Authority to organize regular monthly visits in appropriate areas to carry out investigations on ‘outdated stock’ (if any) and to ensure that every pharmacy maintains a prescription book daily. The book should carry information such as daily issues of drugs with patients’ names and address, type and strength of the drugs issued. The pharmacy should maintain a list of their processed prescriptions with the issuing doctor’s name on a daily basis.

The current Sri Lankan situation helps anyone known to the pharmacy staff could obtain any drug, including a controlled drug, without a prescription, except in hospitals, law-abiding pharmacies or OSU Sala. This has given rise to the thriving nature of private pharmacies dealing with illegal activities by hiring unqualified staff as ‘cashiers‘. To overcome this abuse and to protect the public an effective pharmacovigilence system, similar to that of the UK’s Medicines Control Agency in London (Department of Health) is vital.

Operation

In the UK, for example, only qualified pharmacists displaying their names and ‘Pharmacist’ tags on the lapel of their white overall are permitted to handle drugs in chemists such as Boots. Even if a junior pharmacist prepares a prescription, the senior pharmacist has to double-check it, as a precaution and prior to handing over the prepared prescriptions to the patient; a double-checking process takes place with regard to the patient’s name and address as against the details on the GP’s prescription. This goes to show how delicately and dedicatedly drugs are handled when dispensing drugs to the public.

In Sri Lanka such norms seem to fly through the window, instead drugs are placed in small envelopes & given to customers, with the minimum of information (without writing the name of the drug or its strength etc.) Despite having stringent Health Regulations (with amendments to the Cosmetic Devices and Drugs Act 27 of 1980) imposing severe punishments of Rs 100, 000 or one year jail sentence or both on violators of health regulations, Sri Lankan Health sector needs to pull up their socks particularly in the area of pharmacy scams.

The writer’s attempt to contact the Chairman CAA or Director Consumer Affairs and Information or the Deputy Director Consumer Affairs and Information to bring this matter to their attention was a disaster. Instead, a staff member answering the phone advised the writer that ‘the CAA hasn’t got teeth to bite pharmacy fraudsters, but the problem needs to be addressed by the Ministry of Health’. Dear Minister of Health, the ball is now in your court.

tilakfernando@gmail.com

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Ex-Attorney General In Hot Water For Favouring Ravi Karunanayake In Money Laundering Case

March 11th, 2017

Courtesy Colombo Telegraph

Former Attorney General Yuvanjana Wijayatilake has been accused of abusing his office and for unethically granting favours to Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake.

In a letter addressed to the Chairman of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery and Corruption (CIABOC) yesterday, Nagananda Kodituwakku, an Attorney-at-Law and Public Interest Litigation Activist claimed that Wijayatilake had abused his office by offering favours to Karunanayake, which according to Kodituwakku falls within the offence of corruption as defined in the Section 70 of the Bribery Act.

In an affidavit filed along with the letter, Kodituwakku said that he had ‘credible evidence’ against the ex-Attorney General in favouring Karunanayake, in the US $ 3 million money laundering case connected to Raj Rajaratnam, the founder of the Galleon Group.

Full Report

Ex-Attorney General In Hot Water For Favouring Ravi Karunanayake In Money Laundering Case

The four page affidavit by Kodituwakku submitted to the CIABOC chairman is below;

Affidavit

I, Nagananda Kodituwakku, a citizen of Sri Lanka and the UK, a public interest litigation activist, an Attorney at Law (Sri Lanka) and a Solicitor (UK), being Buddhist, currently residing at 99, Subadrarama Road, Nugegoda, do hereby solemnly and truly declare and affirm as follows:-

1. I am the affirmant above-named and I affirm to the facts herein contained from my personal knowledge and by reference to records available to me, and I do so with a sincere hope to restore the deteriorating trust and confidence in the Office of the Attorney General by the people, a fundamental necessity to convey a message to any person appointed to the office of the Attorney General that he performs the office according to rules of reason and justice, and not according to the private opinion and that the executive power vested in the office of the Attorney General shall be exercised within the limits, which an honest person competent to discharge the office ought to confine, having in mind that the power conferred in the office solely to be used for the pubic good, and not for the benefit of any other person in authority or the person holding the office which is held in trust for the public, to be exercised in good faith according the constitutional oath taken to be faithful to the Constitution and the law and perform the office honestly and faithfully, only upon lawful and relevant grounds of public interest, bearing in mind that the accountability of actions is certainly an important facet of good governance and is of paramount importance ensuring that the person holding the office of Attorney General does not abuse, misuse or overstep the powers he has been entrusted which shall only to be used for lawful purposes.

Credible Complaint on corruption concerning the Attorney General Y Wijayatilake

2. I state that in the HC Case No. 4648/2009 (decided on 18th May 2015) Mr Ravi Karunanayake, the person now holding the public office of the Minister of Finance was indicted before the High Court of Colombo, in which he was accused for his connivance in the commission of a very serious money laundering offence involving 3 million US dollars, which he had received from one Raj Rajarathnam, who is now serving a 11-year prison sentence in the US.

3. I state that after Mr Maithripala Sirisena was elected to the office of the Executive President at the Presidential Election held on 08th Jan 2015, a new government was formed in which Mr Ranil Wickramasinghe, was appointed to the office of the Prime Minister and the accused Mr Ravi Karunanayake appointed to the office of the Minister of Finance.

4. Thereafter on 18th May 2015, this case, which was initially taken up at the High Court No 1, was heard at High Court No 4 before the HC Judge Iranganee Perera who was about to be retired from the Office.

5. At the hearing, an objection was raised on behalf of the accused Mr Ravi Karunanayake, by his counsel that the indictment served on the accused was flawed. Inter alia, the primary objections were raised that the accuracy about the date of receipt of the money referred to in the indictment, (3 million US Dollars sent by Raj Rajarathnam) as referred to in the Charge 1 to 4. The indictment refers to the deposit of funds in the account No 1122258 – 02 at the Standard Charted Bank, Kirulapona, whereas the dates referred to in the indictment did not clearly specify whether the dates given therein referred to the date of receipt of the funds in Sri Lanka or the date on which the said funds were credited to the account referred to therein.

6. As there was a clear ambiguity in the said indictment the Court declined to proceed with the matter on the basis that the indictment was defective. Accordingly, the accused Mr Ravi Karunanayake was discharged, however with specific reference made to the legal right of the Attorney General to serve an indictment afresh to the accused Mr Ravi Karunanayake.

(A true copy of the Order made by the Court dated 18th May 2015 marked X1 is attached hereto).

7. I state that despite the fact that the accused Mr Ravi Karunanayake had never been exonerated by the Court, the media, based on interviews had with him, reported that he was exonerated from all the charges leveled against him in the indictment, which was absolutely false and tantamount to deceiving the public.

8. I state that after the discharge of the accused by the High Court, the then Attorney General Mr Yuvanjana Wijayatilake, apparently under political pressure, absolutely failed to perform the public office he held as required by law, whereas in a similar case where the accused Basil Rajapakse, a former Minister in the Rajapakse administration, was served with a faulty indictment, the Attorney General performed the office as required by law by serving an indictment afresh on the accused Basil Rajapakse.

9. I state further that it was manifest from the conduct and demeanor of the then Attorney General, Mr Yuvanjana Wijayatilake, that he had deliberately failed to perform the public office of the Attorney General as required by law and to serve an indictment afresh on the accused Mr Ravi Karunanayake, purely to confer the accused a favor or benefit.

10. And I state that if not for gross failure on the part of the Attorney General Mr Yuvanjana Wijayatilake, the accused Ravi Karunanayake would have faced the full force of law for his connivance in the money laundering case referred to above (HC/4648/2009) filed in the High Court of Colombo.

11. I state that any person holding the office of the Attorney General is required by law to perform the office honestly and faithfully, only upon lawful and relevant grounds of public interest and only for the public good, bearing in mind that the accountability of his actions is certainly an important facet and is of paramount importance, ensuring that the Attorney General does not abuse, misuse or overstep the powers he has been entrusted with only to serve the people and not to confer favors or benefit to any person who is charged or indicted before the High Court as in this case.

12. I state that the material facts presented herein to support the complaint clearly establish a prima facie case of abuse of office by the then Attorney General, Yuvanjana Wijayatilake for improper purposes, which falls within the offence of corruption as defined in the Section 70 of the Bribery Act, that warrants the Corruption Commission to initiate a credible and independent investigation into this complaint in terms of the Section 4 of the commission to investigate allegations of bribery and corruption act No 19 of 1994.

Read over, explained, affirmed
to and signed at Colombo on
this 09th day of March 2017
Before me

Justice of Peace

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Let’s learn from South Korea

March 11th, 2017

Editorial Courtesy The Island

March 10, 2017, 9:24 pm

Some French voters, fed up with their leaders, especially the candidates in the presidential race, recently chose to give vent to their pent-up anger in an unusual manner. They launched a campaign to invite former US President Barack Obama to run for President in their country! They have thus sent a very clear message to the French politicians who have failed to live up to public expectations.

Sri Lankans are doubtlessly as resentful as the French where their failed politicians are concerned though it is doubtful whether they are enamoured of Obama’s style of governance. But, they must be envying their South Korean counterparts who don’t suffer crooks in highs posts gladly and are blessed with robust legislative and judicial mechanisms capable of acting against even the heads of state accused of corruption or any other form of wrongdoing.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye has been ousted from office. The Constitutional Court has unanimously upheld a parliament decision to impeach her over corruption. She is in trouble because of a friend under a cloud; she is accused of having given the latter free access to state documents and even the pleasure of editing presidential speeches! Now that she has lost her legal immunity, she is expected to be arraigned on criminal charges. Whether she has really run afoul of the law or not will have to be established, but her predicament will certainly serve as a warning to her successors and other politicians.

What Geun-hye is said to have committed pales into insignificance in comparison to very serious allegations against Sri Lankan leaders, who are above the law. The present yahapalana government has even permitted their cronies to help themselves to public funds to the tune of billions of rupees. The abuse of workers’ savings in the Employees’ Provident Fund to purchase Treasury bonds is a case in point. Even the family members and cronies of government politicians enjoy legal immunity to all intents and purposes. Only Opposition politicians are arrested and remanded while investigations into allegations against them are being conducted.

Many Sri Lankans naively expected the 2015 regime change to pave the way for sweeping political and judicial reforms to strengthen democracy. But, nothing of the sort has happened. The much-flaunted 19th Amendment has not yielded the desired results owing to some serious flaws therein. Its architects sought to further the interests of the UNP-led alliance which they backed at elections instead of helping safeguard the national interest. The so-called Independent Commissions have been reduced to mere appendages of the power that be and packed with stooges. The anti-graft commission and the special police units set up to probe financial crimes steer clear of powerful politicians and their kith and kin for obvious reasons.

The self-proclaimed champions of good governance promised us a new Constitution. Now, the SLFP group in the yahapalana government says it does not want the existing Constitution repealed and it needs only amendments thereto. It fears that a plot is being hatched to strip the President of his executive powers and vest them in the Prime Minster. The UNP is determined to introduce a new Constitution, we are told. So, whether we will get a brand new Constitution or only some constitutional amendments, we don’t know. Perhaps, we will be left with neither of them in the end.

A prerequisite for strengthening democracy and tackling bribery and corruption is to bring in constitutional provisions for instituting legal action against leaders for wrongdoing while they are in power. If those engaged in constitution making here are genuinely interested in helping battle bribery and corruption they ought to borrow from the South Korean Constitution. We know we are only hoping against hope!

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Distorting Thirukkural in a bid to justify cruelty to animals

March 11th, 2017

Maneka Gandhi Courtesy The Island

March 10, 2017, 9:20 pm
In all the recent sound and fury about Jallikattu, many people from Tamil Nadu quoted the Thirukkural to justify their support to this horrendous cruelty to helpless animals. In fact, after it was forcibly restarted by a very strange notification by the state governor, who overrode two judgments of the Supreme Court, thereby weakening the very fabric of India’s administration, hundreds of people have been wounded and some have died in these so called peaceful games that only demonstrate the “Tamil love for the bull”. Many of the maimed and injured bulls have subsequently been sent to slaughter in Kerala.

In any case, quoting the poet Thiruvalluvar to support violence is literally twisting everything the Thirukkural stands for. While the book of verses is revered all over the world and translated into 82 languages (the treatise has earned the title “Ulaga Podhu Marai” the universal scripture or Potumaṟai – “The Universal Veda” or “Book for All”), it is little known in India and it is time we learnt some of its wisdom.

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The Thirukkural is the Bible of Tamil Nadu. Meaning Sacred/Respected Couplets it was authored by the poet Thiruvalluvar (of whom nothing is known. The first instance of the author’s name is found centuries later in a song of praise called the Garland of Thiruvalluvar in Thiruvalluva Malai) and has 1,330 couplets or kurals dealing with morality, ethics and virtue. It is a truly sage and beautiful work and is one of the finest, non-religious, works of philosophy. Written in Old Tamil, it is a palm leaf manuscript of the 4th to1st century BC. It was printed for the first time in 1812. The first complete English translation of the Kural was the one by George Uglow Pope in 1886, which brought the Tirukkural to the western world.

It has 133 chapters of ten couplets each. Tirukkural was originally known as ‘Muppaal’, meaning three-sectioned book. There are three parts that the Tirukkural is divided into, namely, aram /dharma (virtue), porul/artha(wealth) and inbam/kama (love). He has left out moksha as he felt if a person followed the first three doctrines diligently in life, he or she would automatically attain it.

What is different about the treatise is that it expounds a moral and practical attitude towards life. It makes no promises of heaven beyond earth. It speaks of the ways of behaving to achieve bliss in the present life itself. The ideas of the poet are luminous, humane: humility, charity, nonviolence, forgiveness, asceticism, good administration. It is a perfect guide to live your life at the highest and purest level so that you are happy and make everyone around you happy. Thirukkural deals with dilemmas that normal people face every day – over morals, politics, economy, love and domestic life, providing practical solutions to these problems.

Albert Schweitzer said “There hardly exists in the literature of the world a collection of maxims in which we find so much of lofty wisdom. Like the Buddha and the Bhagavad Gita, the Kural desires inner freedom from the world and a mind free from hatred. Like them it stands for the commandment not to kill and not to damage. There appears in the Kural the living ethic of love.”Leo Tolstoy was inspired by its concept of non-violence.”What are wanted for the Indian as for the Englishman, the Frenchman, the German, and the Russian, are not Constitutions and Revolutions: the knowledge of the simple and clear truth which finds place in every soul that is not stupefied by religious and scientific superstitions – the truth that for our life one law is valid – the law of love, which brings the highest happiness toevery individual as well as to all mankind.” Mahatma Gandhi studied Tirukkural in prison and called it “a textbook of indispensable authority on moral life” and went on to say, “The maxims of Valluvar have touched my soul. There is none who has given such a treasure of wisdom likehim”.

Here is the heart of the work:

“Mannuyir ompi arulaalvaarkku illenpa thannuyir anjum vinai” For he who treats other living beings with kindness, In his own soul the dreaded guilt of sin shall never feel — 244th verse. Another translation of the same verse is “The compassionate, who care for all other lives, do not fear for their own lives.”

This week let me give you the Thirukural verses on not eating the flesh of animals.

How can someone possess kindness, if one eats meat from another body to grow one’s own body?

251

One, who doesn’t value money can’t be wealthy; one, who eats meat, can’t be compassionate.

252

The heart of one who has eaten and relished flesh, is like the heart of one leading an army: it cannot be compassionate.

253

The heart of one who has eaten and relished flesh, is like the heart of one holding a deadly weapon: it cannot be compassionate.

253 V2

What is compassion, and the lack of it : not killing and killing; it is not virtuous to eat meat got by killing.

254

Compassion is exemplified by not killing; and the lack of it, by killing: to eat meat so obtained, is not virtuous.

254 V2

Kural 254 is structured very interestingly, allowing another interpretation: “Lack of compassion is exemplified by straying from the value of ‘not killing’; to eat meat so obtained is not virtuous.

254 V3

Survival of species, depends on not being eaten; those who eat them…hell will not split its mouth to spit them out.

255

The rationalist in Kalaignar, finds another interpretation (literally more accurate, but contextually not quite convincing) for Kural 255: “Even a swamp will not swallow a life; survival of species is ensured by presence of vegetarians

255 V2

There won’t be anyone selling meat for the sake of earning, if the world stops killing for the sake of eating.

256

Meat is the wound of somebody; if one gets this realization, stop eating it.

257

Those who have wisdom, free of flaws, would not eat a body, freed of its life.

258

To desist from killing a life and eating it, is better than doing a thousand rituals, offering oblation.

259

To one who doesn’t kill and refuses meat, all lives will fold their arms and pay obeisance.

More next week.

To join the animal welfare movement contact gandhim@nic.in , www.peopleforanimalsindia.org

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Who are the Sinhalese?

March 11th, 2017

By Gamini Gunawardane Courtesy The Island

An interesting question arose at a recent Royal Asiatic Society’s Monthly Lecture, delivered by H. L. D. Mahindapala now resident Australia, on the topic: “The Last King of Jaffna was a Sinhalese Buddhist”. At the end of Mahindapala’s presentation, during the question time, a young member of the audience raised a question on the following lines: ‘Who are the Sinhalese? Was there a land called Sinhale in India from where they came? Did the olden day kings identify themselves as Sinhalese?

I think this is a very legitimate question to ask, especially at a time after 500 years of foreign domination when we are still groping to rediscover our identity. It is natural that younger generation among us raises the question: Who are we? For this reason I believe a fairly comprehensive explanation is called for. In the following paragraphs I shall attempt to do this for the benefit of the many.

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Vijaya-Kuveni encounter as seen by an artist

The second limb of the question–– ‘Was there a land called Sinhale in India from where they came?––seem to flow from a presumption that the questioner entertained an idea that the Sinhalese may have, like the English colonizing New Zealand, Australia, Canada or the US, colonized this country some time down the history. Or, he may have been influenced by other examples of Spaniards and Portuguese colonizing South Americas or to a lesser degree the Indians and Chinese or even the Italians colonizing different countries outside their mother countries. This is mainly a phenomenon mostly of the 18th and 20th centuries. In the case of the Sinhalese, we are talking of what could have happened two millennia before. So, the picture is far more inscrutable today.

However, the situation is that there probably was no land in India or elsewhere, called Sinhale. Such a people or a land are found only in this country and nowhere else in the world. Let us now examine the other aspects of the question: ‘Where did they come from? etc.

It is fairly well settled among historiographers, I believe, that probably there were as many as four tribes living in this country at the time Vijaya and his followers are said to have arrived here by ship, expelled from his country probably known as Laata, may be a part of present day Odisha, Southern Bengal in India, believed to be in 5th century B.C. These tribes are known as Yakshas, Nagas, Devas, Raksahasas and a fifth tribe called Veddhas who were hunters. The Yakshas were known to have been builders, hydro engineers, while Nagas are believed to have been sea farers and Rakshasas probably were good at arts and crafts. It is not known as to what the Devas were good at.

Reading through the Vijaya legend available in Deepavansa and later in Mahavansa chronicles, one could darw a conclusion that Vijaya and his followers were probably a violent lot who were reported to have been banished from his home country, for that reason. If this notion could be given some credence, one could deduce as believable, the further information that Vijaya and his people overpowered the native tribes, with the assistance of Kuveni (probably a Yaksha girl), to grab control of their country. It is also possible to believe that Vijaya’s colleagues established villages under their respective names such as Anuradhagamaetc and took over power. However, over time, according to the chronicles, there appears to have been power struggles between the Vijaya group and the the native groups and the emergence of Pandukabhaya who was probably a mix of the Vijaya and the Yaksha tribes that seem to have led to a more settled community, with Pandukabhaya establishing formal control and administration with Anuradhapura as the capital. Neverthless the Vijaya strand of this compex grouping, appear to have maintained a dominant role equipped with their legend of the Lion origin myth, like the myth of the building the city of Rome attributed to Romulus and Remus, who were said to have been suckled by a she wolf. (In fact, some details of this myth reminds one of the similarities of the early days of Pandukabhaya’s life and his ultimate building of Anuradhapura as a city etc.) Reflecting on the Mahavansa version of this rather hazy history of the very early stages one could say, if the author of the Mahavansa recording those events that had happened over 1000 years before that could have whitewashed the now considered bad aspects of the Vijaya-Kuveni story and the violent history of Vijaya to give our history a more ‘respectable’ look, when he wrote the Mahavansa then. But he had not. He had faithfully recorded what came down to him by tradition and the Atthakathas of the time. This, perhaps, was the discipline of historiography prevailing at that time of scholarship. Therefore it may be a fruitless exercise to engage in passing judgment in today’s terms and values on the notions of the characteristics of the Sinhala people as seen today after 2000 over years.

Apart from these stories of the origins of the today’s Sinhala people, according to historians, there may have been several migrations of people at different time in this early era, from the North Western and North Eastern parts of India and also from Kerala (originally Chera). They appear to have landed and occupied different parts of the country’s North West, South West and North/South Eastern regions in those early times as reflected by the many stone inscriptions excavated in these regions today. All these communities over time probably mixed into one community, with rice growing being their main economic activity, they settled down along the river valleys in accordance with their old practice in the Gangetic Basin.

Some evidence confirming their original North Indian are seen in the legends, habits and food etc. of these different regions todate. Some examples that come to mind are the Beatle chewing habit of the Sinhalese said to be a common feature among the Bengalis, similarly in some parts of Bengal women are said to wear a dress somewhat similar to the Kandyan Osariya, while some foods and habits are similar to those found in Kerala and South India. There are some similarities between the Sinhala Vannams reflected in some aspects of Karnata music. Similarly there is said to be references to the Vijay legend both in Maharashtra and in Bangladesh.

However, the dominance of the Vijayan migrators probably led to this mixed group of peoples to be known as the Sinhala and the language that developed to communicate with each other which had significant features of Indo-Aryan linguistic characteristics. There is how ever a different interpretation on the probable origin of the Sinhala language. This originated form the theory that the aforementioned four tribes were known as Helas and that the language the four tribes spoke was (Siw)hela and that this land was called Hela Diva (Island of Helas), and in fact the name Siwhela became Sinhala. As far as I know, there is no linguistic and phonetic explanation as to how ‘Siw’ could become ‘Sin’. On the other hand, the lion symbol and the name derived from it would indicate the totemistic origin of a tribe.

Apart from the diversity and richness the four tribes that provided this new community, the arrival of the Buddha’s dispensation in this country, besides describing the international relations the Sinhala kings already developed by this time I the 3rd century B. C., added a further dimension to its cultural depth and identity. From that momentous event,followed the growth of a script (Brahmi), architecture, art, sculpture, literature and grammar, medicine, folk lore and many other related disciplines. However it must be remembered the reflection of the intellectual capacity of King Devanampiyatissa displayed, in answering the abstruse but simple questions of Ven. MahindaThero to satisfy himself of the mental capacity of the king to grasp his doctrine. It again shows the general intellectual background of his community for their king to possess such a level of clear thinking. Mahavansa also mentions that prominent people from different parts of the country including the Kahsatriyas of Kataragama attended the next sermon of Ven. MahindaThero. This shows how well established and well integrated the polity was in other areas of the country outside the Rajarata, at the end of 200 years since the arrival of Vijaya’s people, which may be a little less than the total age of history of the United State of America. The arrival of the Sri Maha Bodhi and subsequently the sacred Tooth Relic of the Buddha from Kalinga gave further cultural and Political dimension to this young nation. The other momentous event that defined the identity of this nation, which had been formally stabilized under King Pandukabhaya onwards is when the Doctrine of the of the Buddha which was till then brought down for over none thousand years, was committed to writing at the Aluwihare temple in the 8th century A.D. since when this country came to recognized among all other Buddhist countries as the repository of Theravada version of the Buddha’s Doctrine especially after this Doctrine virtually disappeared from India, then referred to as Jambudweepa.

The identity of most countries in the world, other than perhaps the countries lately colonized by the British and later others, such as the US, Canada, Australia which are now described as Multicultural, were defined by the language of the people who lived in those countries. People of France spoke French language and as such the country is known as, France, its people are known as French. Same with Germany, England, Norway, Italy or Malaysia, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, Burma, Laos, Kampuchea etc. etc.

Thus, the common language the people who peopled this country at least since the 6th Century B.C. that developed to communicate with each other came to be known as Sinhala and the people who spoke that language, as Sinhalas. Hence their country came to be known as Seehaladweepa in ancient times the world over, and as Seylan (Ceylon) in the early Western and Arab countries while in South India, as Seehalam (Eelaam) and as Sinhale within the country. Thus, there may not have been a need for the people to specially call themselves Sinhala because the entire population of the country would have been Sinhala, or been absorbed into the Sinhala nation. Similarly, those who became the kings had no need to announce that they were in fact Sinhalese because no one else could become king of the Sinhala unless he was one of them. Not only that he had to be Sinhala, after Devanampiyatissa, they had to be Buddhist too. This practice was continued up to the last King. In fact the right to be the king was enshrined in the notion that he was the custodian of the Tooth Relic of the Buddha, for which reason the palace where the Tooth Relic was kept was erected closest to the King’s palace. Most Kings offered the first part of their meal to the Tooth Relic before they partook their royal meal daily. It will be seen therefore the King had necessarily to be a Sinhala Buddhist and the possession of the Tooth Relic gave him legitimacy. There were of course two dynasties of the Kshatriya clan that vied for kingship, the Lambakarnas and the Moriyas. But they necessarily had to be Sinhala Buddhist.

Thus it would be seen that the Sinhalese did not come to this country from anywhere but evolved here. Therefore they could be described as autochthonous. Another unique feature of this community is that any out sider could be absorbed into it without losing its essential character. Yet another factor that gave and preserved its unique identity is its ‘splendid isolation’ as an island that facilitated it to absorb different people, cultures and yet not be absorbed by any other country or cultures. Thus Le Mercier became Lamasuriya, Gascoigne became Daskon (adikaram), and cookies became Kokis etc. etc. Also ‘Kandyan’ Dance, folk dances and Kolam masks are unique cultural features which reflects deeper layers of original cultural absorption given a newer identity. The diversity of the people also were assimilated into the Sinhala community over time. This is confirmed by Dr. Susantha Goonathilake who mentioned at his meeting that a genetic analysis recently done by the SLASS had revealed that genetically the Sinhalese had diverse origins.

All this would go to show the Sinhalese are ‘homegrown’ people who live in this country for at least over two millennia absorbing so many strands of people and cultures into their own system. A curious feature is that they have been able to survive on this earth with an unbroken line of kings, a recorded history despite being one of the smallest nations in the world. They perhaps are the people who held out against Western colonials powers for over 300 years by themselves, which perhaps may be the longest resistance to Colonialism in this part of the world.

As a post script it may also be relevant here to deal with currently vexed idea of ‘Sinhala Buddhists’ in modern times. In my understanding this notion is a late development, probably as late as the late 19th and early 20th centuries during the Buddhist revivalist movement that emerged during that time. The need to identify a group called Sinhala Buddhists arose because by this time there had occurred a new development of, a community of Sinhala Christians, because by this time, as a a result of sustained effort of Christian evangelism with the backing of Colonial Governments some Sinhalese had been converted to Christianity. Before this development there would not have been such a necessity as almost 98% of the Sinhalese would have naturally been Buddhist.

Towards the Mid-20th century, Prof. J.B. Dissanayake who did some research work from an anthropological angle on the localization of orthodox Buddhism, identified features of the nature of Sinhala Buddhism which was an adaptation of the Buddhist thought and practices that again gave further character to the unique Sinhala culture.

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By C. A. Chandraprema Courtesy The Island

By Binoy Suriyaarachchi Courtesy Adaderana

V.Anandasangaree Secretary General –TULF

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME Extra-judicial killing; impunity; rule of law; justice

උතුරු මැද පළාත් සභාවට අයත් ආයුර්වේද කාර්ය මණ්ඩලය මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනයයි.

BY Sugeeswara Senadhira Courtesy Ceylon Today

Shenali D Waduge

තේජා ගොඩකන්දෙආරච්චි

By Sulochana Ramiah Mohan Courtesy Ceylon Today

KAMALIKA PIERIS

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Sarath Wijesinghe-(Solicitor/Attorney-at-law, former Chairman Consumer Affairs Authority, former Ambassador to UAE and Israel)

ධර්මසිරිසෙනෙවිරත්න

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග

Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

රෝහාන් වැලිවිට මහතාගේ ‘මගේ කට උත්තරය’ කෘතිය එළිදැක්වීමේ අවස්ථාවේදී සිදුකළ දේශනයේ කොටසක්

සමන් ගමගේ උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින

by Tisaranee Gunasekara

by Malinda Seneviratne

Shenali D Waduge

by Senaka Weeraratna

By NIRAJ CHOKSHI Courtesy The New York Times

2016 April to 2017 March – Dr. Chula Rajapakse MNZM

By Dr. Tilak. S.Fernando

Editorial Courtesy The Island

Maneka Gandhi Courtesy The Island

By Gamini Gunawardane Courtesy The Island

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