Meera Srinivasan Courtesy The Hindu

Courtesy Pakistan Today

With a view to helping the brotherly people of Sri Lanka to mitigate the severe drought, the government of Pakistan sent a relief flight to Colombo containing 25 metric tonnes of rice.

The High Commissioner of Pakistan in Sri Lanka, Maj Gen (r) Syed Shakeel Hussain, handed over the relief consignment to Sri Lankan authorities at Bandaranaike International Airport, Colombo, today.

On the occasion, the high commissioner reiterated the resolve of the people and the government of Pakistan to stand by the people of Sri Lanka. He further stated Pakistan will spare no efforts to carry out the assistance and help for their Sri Lankan brethren. Both of our countries have always reciprocated in the same manner at the time of need since the inception of our diplomatic relations,” he further added.

Courtesy jurist.org

The Sri Lankan [official website] Foreign Minster [official website] said Wednesday that the country will petition the UN for more time to investigate the allegations of war crimes occurring during the country’s 26-year-long civil war [BBC country profile]. Sri Lanka promised the UN in 2015 to investigate the estimated 65,000 missing peoples from the civil war with the Tamil Tigers. Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera communicated that the government would seek an extension at the next UN human rights session that begins at the end of this month.

The global community has been calling on the Sri Lankan government to create more accountability, most recently since the end of the Sri Lankan civil war. Last month a Sri Lankan panel of the Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms recommended the appointment of a hybrid court composed of local and international judges to oversee the adjudication of allegations of war crimes committed during the nation’s civil war [JURIST report]. Late last year the UN Independent Expert on minority issues, Rita Izsák-Ndiaye urged the Sri Lankan government to better protect minorities [JURIST report]. The UN released a report in 2015 finding that war crimes may have been committed [JURIST report] during the war. Later in 2015 the President of Sri Lanka rejected [JURIST report] a UN recommendation for international involvement in its domestic investigation of the war crimes.

Full Report

http://www.jurist.org/paperchase/2017/02/sri-lanka-to-seek-additional-time-to-investigate-war-crimes.php

Courtesy The Gulf Today

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka is in the process of borrowing up to $2.5 billion via syndicated loan and sovereign bonds this year, Central Bank (CB) Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy said on Wednesday.

The cabinet has approved to raise up to $1 billion through syndicated loan and we are waiting for cabinet approval to go for up to $1.5 billion sovereign bond,” Coomaraswamy told reporters in Colombo.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan rupee traded weaker on Wednesday due to dollar demand from banks to facilitate continuous exit of foreign investors from government securities amid importer demand for the greenback, dealers said.

The central bank revised on Tuesday the spot rupee (LKR) reference rate to a record low of 150.75 from 150.50 amid downward pressure, dealers said.

Rupee forwards SLKR were active, with two-week forwards trading at 151.30/35 per dollar, compared with Tuesday’s close of 151.22/32.

There is demand for dollar from local banks for general imports and from foreign banks to facilitate foreign bond exits,” said a currency dealer asking not to be named. Officials at the central bank were not available for comment.

The central bank kept its key rates steady on Tuesday for a sixth straight month, but flagged possible corrective measures” in the months ahead in a sign further tightening might be on the cards to temper inflation pressures and safeguard a fragile rupee.

Reuters

Adaderana

The Governor of the Central Bank, Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy stated that the Central Banks main aim would be do reach and maintain a real effective exchange rate at Rs. 100.

During a press conference held at the central bank today (8), He also revealed that although the change won’t happen over time, valiant efforts are being made to help reach these goals.

One of the most important financial tasks the country faces, according to Dr. Coomaraswamy is to increase non – debt creating foreign inflows, which would reduce the country’s reliance on borrowing.

He also stated that cabinet approval is yet to be provided for the syndicated loan and sovereign bond worth up to one billion and 1.5 billion U.S dollars respectively.

Dr. Coomarswamy claimed that raising one billion U.S dollars would not be impossible due to the measures put in place, such as the trading off of government assets like hotels and commercial properties.

The agreement made with the Chinese merchants regarding the Hambanthota port will generate another one billion dollars, a much needed input, which will help the country to achieve cash reserves worth $7.5 billion by the end of the year, stated the governor.

By Rohana R. Wasala

This year, we are supposed to be celebrating 69 years of independence from the British. But, with  the national security deteriorating, the economy taking a nosedive, and inter-communal relationships unravelling as never before, one could wonder what there is to celebrate. The disconcerting truth is that, politically and economically, we have been returned to the state of dependence on foreign interlopers that we were deemed to have left seven decades ago. When all’s said and done, May 2009 saw the end of the Tamil separatist problem that had plagued our country since 1949 and frustrated all our efforts to forge ahead as a free people; it also marked the beginning of an era of national resurgence in the economic, social and political spheres. This was not to the liking of internal and external elements with different personal axes to grind. The country’s determined march towards progress was conspiratorially brought to an abrupt end.

Only those citizens who have a genuine love for Sri Lanka as their inalienable inheritance, as the land of their ancestors who built up a unique island civilization, and who do not look upon it as a piece of earth to grab possession of, or to plunder, are determined to see it survive into the future as one undivided country.  It was that just aspiration of the Sinhalese that is now being challenged. Nationalism is not a bad thing; it is not the same as racism. The majority of the ordinary British and the Americans have discovered this recently, though the long entrenched subversive Western media are trying to misrepresent the situation. The ordinary British and Americans have never been our enemies, though their rulers have been nothing else. However, we need not worry about whether the British and Americans accept or reject nationalism. That is up to them as free peoples. As for us, we must embrace nationalism since we cannot willingly give up our historical national identity.

What Sri Lanka was granted in 1948 was the status of a ‘dominion’. ‘Dominion status’ is defined in Encyclopaedia Britannica (updated 1998)thus: Although there was no formal definition of dominion status, a pronouncement by the Imperial Conference of 1926 described Great Britain and the dominions as autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations.” Our independence was therefore effectively hamstrung by two conditions: allegiance to the (British) Crown and membership of the British Commonwealth of Nations. So, theoretically at least, we became an ‘independent’ dominion within the British empire; we were not made really free. The British empire was even then only nominal, but that is a different matter. As far as we are concerned, we are still subject to imperialist intervention in our affairs.

It was the ‘Brown Sahib’ class politically led by the leader of the United National Party Mr D.S. Senanayake (and by his successors after his sudden death in a horse-riding accident in 1952), who stepped into the shoes of the departing colonialists.  Brown Sahib” was a derogative term used by critics of that class. It was applied to natives of South Asian countries that the British ruled as their colonies who had been influenced by European/British culture and thinking, and who adopted a Western lifestyle and a servile Western bias in politics. In Sri Lanka, they were toppled from power democratically in 1956 by an alliance of parties led by Mr S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike the leader of the SLFP, ushering in the ‘era of the common man’. He preferred a  socialist economic model to the UNP’s capitalist one. It was Mr Bandaranaike who initiated nationalising private or foreign owned assets such as the Trincomalee harbour and oil companies. The changes that Mr Bandaranaike brought about had been long overdue. (By the way, Mr D.S. Senanayake who Mr Bandaranaike disagreed with and hence parted ways with to form his own Sri Lanka Freedom Party, was also a genuinely patriotic nationalist, though he had to serve the interests of his West-oriented reactionary class under the then prevailing circumstances; in spite of his comprador social background he was an honest Sinhalese Buddhist political leader who had great empathy with his people.)

An event that impressed on the public the fact that we hadn’t still moved away from the shadow of British imperialism even after the 1956 ‘revolution’ was when the suspects of the 1971 JVP insurrection were formally accused of rebelling against the queen of Britain, instead of against the Sri Lankan state/ government. It was a legal requirement, a corollary of the country’s dominion status. (Incidentally, the queen has sent warm greetings for this year’s independence day celebrations, as reported in the media; that is nothing unusual, for she is the head of the commonwealth.) Under Mrs Sirimao Bandaranaike’s SLFP-led coalition of left parties that had swept the polls in 1970, a republican constitution was adopted in 1972, that significantly distanced the country from the sphere of British influence. The UNP government of Mr J.R. Jayawardane that ousted Mrs Bandaranaike in 1977, drafted and promulgated the second republican constitution (1978), which still operates. Both those constitutions were formulated by local constitutional experts and were adopted by MPs who had been elected to office by the people. Not the same thing can be said about the proposed constitutional reform or reformulation program. According to informed critics, the yahapalana government has not got a popular mandate to bring in a new constitution. The genuine will of the multiethnic public has not been ascertained to guide the current constitution making process. Federalism is what the government wants to introduce to please the Tamil diaspora, the Western powers and the Indians. But it will only alienate the communities from each other, instead of uniting them into a single sovereign people. It threatens to put a forced end to our 2600 year unitary state of Sinhale. Some foreign NGOs and some local media seem to have been paid money to bamboozle the ill-informed public into accepting the new constitution when it is submitted for a referendum.

The right-leaning UNP has always been pro- West. The left-leaning SLFP was always opposed to the UNP’s foreign policy orientation and its basic capitalist economic strategy associated with total reliance on the private sector. On the contrary, the SLFP prefers a more non-aligned foreign policy, and a more public sector based economic model that, nevertheless, takes care of the local entrepreneurs . The uneasy ad hoc alliance that forms the so-called yahapalana regime is actually the baby of a shotgun marriage between two rival groups (the UNP and a section of the SLFP) that hardly ever see eye to eye with each other regarding those two important matters. This malformed creature is likely to reverse the historic victory of 2009, which itself was the culmination of the transition that was launched by the pioneer of the SLFP in 1956. Will the Brown Sahibs eventually succeed in eliminating the common people, though the latter are deemed to be sovereign?

It is doubtful whether our average legislators, most of whom are innocent of knowledge, intelligence, and common sense, have taken at least a cursory glance at the constitutional proposals. During a political debate broadcast on Sirasa TV some time ago, a participant (I’m not sure if it was an MP, PC or LG councillor) was asked by the moderator to explain what he understood by the term ‘mega-polis’. The panel member’s response must have surprised the viewers, for he said that since the law and order situation in the country was in a bad way, with the crime rate rising, this was an important subject, implying that, to him ‘mega-polis’ meant a ‘mega’ police! If he had wanted to find out what the minister of mega-polis development was actually responsible for, he would have learnt what ordinary people know: that a mega-polis means a large city. If they remain ignorant even about the subjects of their ministers, it is hard to imagine that they would make an effort to read through the new constitutional proposals to see what the obscure constitutional experts are trying to enforce amidst a chorus of dissent from patriotic citizens.

Written on February 4, 2017

Malin Abeyatunge

POLITICIANS WERE CELEBRATING INDEPENDENCE DAY TO BOOST THEIR POLTICAL EGO. Are the majority Sri Lankans really enjoy this independence when their lives are battered with economic and social problems. The question to ask is are we really independent? As we observe the actions and decisions taken by the Yahapalanaya over the last two years, we have become YES PEOPLE for the western block, India & China in the presence of spineless duo FM and PM. It appears our independence and the sovereignty of the country has been gradually eroding over the last two years as we see below.

• Ports of a country is the main veins of her economic activities. So is with Sri Lanka. But we are going to loose our main ports namely Colombo, Hambantota, Trincomalee and Palali  with highest stakes allowed for a few foreign countries. The Government has decided to offer these ports on a platter to the foreigners;
• !5000 acres to be handed over to China on 99 year lease which amounts to almost selling. WE WILL NEVER GET THEM BACK EVEN AFTER 99 YEARS .
• ECTA- The trade  and services agreement the Government has planned to sign with India will restrict employment for our next generation and that will be a death knell to our economy ;
• We are being dictated by the European Union on GSP benefits even demanding Sri Lanka to legalise same sex marriage if we want those benefits;
• Our FM MANGALA, TNA MP Sumanthiran and America conspired together in 2016 to accept the war crimes by our Forces and appoint a special international Courts to  probe thereby selling country’s soul and the sovereignty;
• No Equality before Law -only people with money could afford legal actions and can seek justice and not the poor.
• There are still  thousands of poor citizens in the country who do not have basic human needs like drinking water, shelter, sanitary needs, health and basic education facilities etc.

With all these can we open our wide mouth and say we are independent? This booru Nidahasa” kanteda?

Malin Abeyatunge

They thought that all Sri Lankans are idiots.  They lied to us and got into power.  Yes, no shame, I too voted.   We never thought that this so called  ” Yaha Palanaya Police” was going to be the most corrupt Government  in the History of Sri Lanka.

“Hitan:”  is trying to hoodwink the public by a commission, this man who is educated only up to 8th standard  Please correct me if I am wrong)  may be thinking that all Sri Lankans are idiots..  See Below

Bond Scam

The biggest financial crime in the history of Sri Lanka was carried out by gang of thieves headed by Perpetual Treasuries Ltd.   27^th February 2015 scam (1^st Bond Scam) is not the biggest fraud.  The biggest fraud tookplace thereafter.

History

Perpetual Treasuries Ltd, commenced its business on 5^th February 2014 with a capital of Rs. 300 Mln.  Governor Ajith Nevard Cabral’s   sister Ms Shiromi Wickremasinghe was one of the directors of the company.  She continued as a Director of the company till 9^th March 2015.

For the Year 2014/2015 the Company earned Rs. 959.8 Mln .as profit.

It was alleged that the   Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has routed all its transactions through Perpetual Treasuries with the blessings of the Governor, allowing them to make a huge profit.

Profitability of the Company

For the Year  2014/2015                –   Rs. 959.8 Mln . as profit.

Profit for the Year 2015/2016                       -Rs. 5,124.3 Bln   (1^st April 2014 to 31^st March 2016

Profit in April and May 2016                        – Rs. 4,652.7 Mln  ( As per  Central Bank  leaked Report)

Profit transferred to holding Company    – Rs.   323.6 Mln

Accordingly Company has earned over Rs. 10,100.6 Mln as profit after 1^st April 2015.

First bond scam was took place during Financial Year 2014/2015.   

 According to above figures it is very clear that   the magnitude of the 2^ndbond Scam is gigantic.

2^nd Bond Scam

This is the biggest well organized scandal which has taken place during   the years of    2015 and 2016.

Perpetual Treasuries Ltd abused CBSL Systems, Auction procedures, Best Market Practices and ethics while violating Central Bank directions in collaboration with under mentioned individuals/institutions. They have acted as gang of thieves.

• Central Bank Officials,
• Dealers of the Employees Provident Fund and officials of  EPF
• Dealers of Pan Asia Bank, DFCC Bank
• National Savings Bank
• Some Primary Dealers
• Money Brokers.

Fraudulent Activities were done through different modes.

1. Pump and Dump Deals
2. Insider Trading
3. Concealing of portfolio
4. Dealing through National Savings Bank
5. Bidding without Funds and Borrow excessively from Central Bank.
6. Front Running

1. Pump and Dump Deals with Employees Provident Fund (EPF)

Transactions were done through number of stages.

1. EPF Dealers pass information to Perpetual with regard to the funds available with them and details offuture cash flows.
2. EPF agree with Perpetual to

• Refrain from buying bonds from the Auction.
• Allow Perpetual to buy bonds from the auction.
• Buy Bonds from Perpetual in the secondary Market after the auction.

3. Perpetual buys Bonds from the Primary Market (auctions) at higher rates.

Officials in the Central Bank accept their bids over and above the offered amount and ensure highest rate for Perpetual.

4. EPF provide funds to Perpetual by way of Reverse Repo to fund the bonds purchased from Primary auction.

5. Deliberately move market prices by Perpetual together with few Primary Dealer and Banks.

Eg.

Buy  Rs. 1000  Mln from Auction   at   Price of  Rs. 94.00

They do deals in between themselves and increase the price of the particular bond in the market.

A  sells  100 Million   to    B       – Price      95.00

B sells   100  Million  to    C       – Price      97.00

C sells   100 Million  to    A        – Price    100.00

A Sells  100 Million   to    C       – Price    103.00

After few round of  trading market price of the bond  move up to  103.00.

(This will happen during few days)

6. Sell Bonds to EPF at 103.00

Profit -Rs.  9.00 Per every Rs. 100 (Rs 103 – Rs. 94)

Profit for   Rs 1000 Million is Rs.90 Million

In the latter part of the scam, bonds have been sold to EPF by Perpetual through Pan Asia Bank and  DFCC Bank. This kind of deals is known as SWITCHES.

EPF want to hide (from Internal Auditors/Investigators) that they had purchased bonds from Perpetual. Therefore Perpetual and EPF got together and arrange switches” through money brokers.

In switch deal

First leg –   Perpetual              sell     Bonds   to         DFCC or Pan Asia

Second Leg    –     Pan Asia/DFCC    sell     Bonds   to          EPF

Pan Asia Bank and DFCC receive a small profit margin for their intervention. Money Brokers receive Brokerage.

(Refer table 17 under clause 5.3 Central Bank leaked report – Capital gain earned from Pan Asia  Rs. 3,302.94 Mln  and  DFCC Rs. 2,990.77). Actually, entire Capital Gain is coming from EPF.  EPF is the loser who is at the receiving end)

Finally in EPF books the sellers name appears as DFCC or Pan Asia.  Name of the Perpetual who is the main culprit behind the chain does not appear in EPF books.

Majority of the profit was earned through the above operation. This is the great injustice to the contributors of the Employees Provident Fund.

Matters to Investigate

• Transactions done by Perpetual Treasuries with other Primary Dealers and Banks (Specially DFCC and Pan Asia) should be scrutinized to identify pump deals.

• All the Deals done by EPF with Pan Asia Bank, DFCC, Perpetual and other Primary Dealers should be examined carefully to identify dump deals.

• Details of Reverse Repo transaction of EPF with Perpetual.(To trace funds provided by EPF to fund Perpetual portfolio)

• Details of SWITCH deals done by money brokers.

• Assets of the EPF employees who directly involve in the Transactions of Perpetual.

2. Front Running

Front running is the unethical practice of a Primary Dealer executing transactions on bonds for its own account while taking advantage of advance knowledge of pending orders from its customers.

The front running Primary Dealer buys for its own account before receiving customer buy orders that drive up the price. Front running is considered unethical since the Primary Dealer is making a profit at the direct expense of its own customers.

In this case Perpetual Treasuries receive information in advance from EPF that they will buy bonds in the secondary market.  Therefore Perpetual buy bonds from the auction and thereafter jack-up prices of the bond as describe in the example under 1 above.

This can be clearly identified through published financial account of Perpetual Treasuries for the year 2015/16.  Their trading portfolio had declined to Rs. 495.1 Million as at 31.03.2016. This indicates that they had sold their portfolioby this date and getting ready for the next auction. As per the leaked CBSL report Perpetual has purchased Rs. 36 Billion worth of bonds even without a proper funding plan.  A Stand-alone Primary Dealer cannot purchase such a huge amount unless he has a backing of a client. Since bonds have later been sold to EPF it is very clear that they have targeted EPF while they were submitting bids.

Matters to investigate

• Reason for excessive bidding of Rs. 36 Bln in the Treasury Bond auction?
• Who purchased these bonds in the secondary market from Perpetual?
• Price at which they sold bonds in the secondary Market?

3. Insider Trading

1. First Bond Scam

• At the meeting held on 27^th Feb 2015 the Domestic Debt. Management Committee(DDMC) which is  the committee responsible for  managing the domestic public debt,  with a view to minimizing  the cost and risk of government public debt,  comprising 5 members of the  Central Bank and Ministry of Finance  recommended to raise Rs. 1,000 Mln from primary  auction and further Rs. 12,500 Mln  by direct placement method.

• However at the Tender Committee meeting held on 27^th Feb 2015 decided to accept bids up to Rs. 10,058 Miln instead of Rs. 1,000 Mln decided by the (DDMC) which is a deviation from the Decision of the DDMC.

• The Public Debt Dept. recommended accepting only Rs. 2,208 Mln from the auction.

It was revealed that the deviation has occurred due to the intervention of the Governor (Refer : the leaked COPE  Report  prepared By Mr Dew Gunasekera). He had requested the Tender Committee to accept all Rs. 20,000 Mln bids.  But Superintendent of Public Debt and Addl. Supdt. of Public Debt did not agree. Therefore he instructed them to accept Rs. 10,000 Bln.

Matters to investigate.

• Offer amount was only Rs. 1,000 Mln. Why Perpetual Treasuries submitted bids to the value of Rs. 15,000 Mln for Rs. 1000 Mln Offer?

(Total Bids submitted by all other PDs  were only Rs. 5,000 Bln). Excessive bidding pattern indicate insider trading.

• Intervention of the Governor in the Tender Committee proceedings.

Why he instructed to accept all bids?   Definitely he was aware of the details of   bids of Perpetual Treasuries.

1. Policy Rate  Decision

Monetary Board of Central Bank   at its meeting held on 23^rd February 2015   had taken a decision to maintain policy rates unchanged until the meeting of next month. However, just after the announcement of the Treasury Bond results on 27^th February 2015, Central Bank announced the change of policy Rates and removed the 5% SDF rate, on 27^th February 2015.

Before the policy Rate announcement Perpetual Treasuries Ltd sold bonds in the secondary market with forward value dates. After the policy rate announcement bonds rates in the market went up. (Prices of the bond declined).  At this point Perpetual purchased bonds from the market to deliver short sale bonds  making a huge profit.

Matters to investigate.

• According to the Central Bank Directions Primary Dealers cannot perform short sales in the market. This is a clear violation of Central Bank Directions.

• It is evident that Perpetual has prior information that Central Bank was going to increase policy rates which amounts to insider information. Who passed the information to them?

4. Concealing portfolio

According to Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Directions all Primary Dealers should adhere to the Capital Adequacy Requirements stipulated by CBSL.   As per direction portfolio limitations have been imposed on Primary Dealers in line with their Capital.

Throughout its operations Perpetual Treasuries maintained a very high portfolio over and above  limits violating CBSL directions..

We suspect that they used following banks to hide their portfolio as well as to fund the same portfolio,

Bank of Ceylon

National Savings Bank

DFCC Bank

Pan Asia Bank

Other Primary Dealers.

In order to hide the portfolio they executesell and buy Bond Swap deals with these institutions. According to the accounting procedure, forward leg should be accounted as a contingency liability. However Perpetual records only the sale leg in their books thereby hiding its own portfolio.

Matters to Investigate.

• Information should be called from all Banks and Primary Dealers institutions with regard to Bond Swap Deal done with Perpetual from Year 2014.

5. Dealing Through National Savings Bank

A Dealer who is an employee of Central Bank (attached to Employees Provident Fund) was transferred (seconded his service) to National Savings Bank Treasury as a Chief Dealer in the early part of year2016. According to our knowledge, the purpose of this transfer was to provide funding facilities for Perpetual Treasuries as well as to support their illegal activities through NSB fund base.

It is highly irregular being the regulator of banks, Central Bank of Sri Lanka to appoint its own employee to run a treasury of a bank which comes under its purview.

This was an unprecedented move  in the history of  NSB, that  an employee of the Central Bank was assigned to  handle  dealing  activities of  NSB Treasury  while highly talented  and experienced treasury experts  are available in the  treasury.

It was alleged that this person had made questionable high value transactions with Perpetual Treasuries utilizing NSB funds. When the Deputy General Manager (Asset Management) who was in charge of the Treasury functions of NSB refused to authorize his deal tickets, she was transferred tothe International Division of NSB. The Chief Manager attached to Primary Dealer unit of NSB was also transferred out making false allegations in order to clear the ground for fraudulent activities. Deal tickets of the Dealer were authorized by the General Manager thereafter overlooking the Treasury Consultant, working in the  NSB Treasury.

However this person has left NSB recently after the 2^nd bond scam was exposed. It is believed that he has taken leave from Central Bank and gone abroad for higher studies in order to evade possible action against him.

Matters to Investigate:

• Under whose instruction the Central Bank assigned an Official of EPFto the NSB Treasury?
• What is the motivation behind his appointment?
• Details of the Deals done by EPF Officer with Perpetual Treasuries and losses incurred by NSB if any?
• Benefits enjoyed by Perpetual Treasuries through this appointment.
• Reasons to transfer Deputy General Manager (Asset. Management) from NSB Treasury
• Reasons for the General Manager of NSBto authorize deal ticketsoverlooking the Treasury Consultant.

6. Bidding without Funds and Borrow excessively from Central Bank

It was pointed out in the leaked Central Bank report that Perpetual Treasuries has exposed itself and Primary Dealer system as a whole to excessive risk by bidding excessively without contingency funding arrangement. It was further revealed that they have excessively borrowed from Central Bank amounting to Rs 66 Bln during the period from 1^st to 8^th April 2016. This kind of behavior cannot be expected from a standalone Primary Dealer. In the other hand Central Bank has accepted unusual excessive bids   of Perpetual Treasuries Ltd and accommodated their extraordinary funding requirements.  It is very unlikely that a Primary Dealer will behave in this manner unless strong support is received from the Central Bank.

• Under whose authority the Primary Dealer handled its affairs in high handed manner?
• Who were the officials of Central Bank assisted Perpetual Treasuries and approve massive facilities in these unethical transactions?
• Who gave them instructions?

7. Unethical Transactions

Provide Funds Under Reverse Repo to a Money Broker to run a leveraged  portfolio.

According to Section 12(a) of Money Broker regulations issued by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka An authorized money broking company shall act only as a broker, agent, facilitator or mediator for the transactions being brokered and not as a principal”

However, according to the leaked Central Bank Report Perpetual Ltd had provided funds under Reverse Repo facility to authorized money broker Bartleet Macklai & Roy Private Ltd (BMR) to run a leveraged portfolio.

Accordingly, BMR has deposited Rs. 42,424,450 with Perpetual under Repo. BMR was given a Reverse Repo facility of Rs. 403,571,250 (approximately 10 times more) to run their own portfolio. This is a clear violation of the above direction. (Refer Table 6 and 8 CBSL leaked Report)

For  the Perpetual Treasuries,  it is unethical and violation ofthe Customer Charter  for Primary Dealer Industry in Sri Lanka issued by CBSL to provide Reverse Repo Facility to a Money Broker to run its own portfolio.

Matters to investigate

• Reason for money broker to run a portfolio as a principal.
• Reason for Perpetual to provide funds to BMR to run its own portfolio.

Conclusion

As discussed above, this is the biggest financial crime that took place in the history of Sri Lanka. Therefore, culprits should be brought to the book and punished.

Central Bank Officials including former Governor, high ranking officers, and dealers of EPF, National Savings Bank, Pan Asia Bank, DFCC, Money Brokers and some Primary dealers are involving in this racket. It is alleged that these individuals have received financial benefits from Perpetual Treasuries for  assisting this financial crime. Therefore a proper investigation   should be carried out to reveal theirassets accumulated during the recent past.

We do not expect, the Solicitor General, officials attached to his department or CID , FCID   to have necessary expertise  to carry out such an examination . If a case is filed in courts without a proper investigation all these culprits will escape.

Therefore, it is highly essential that a high powered Presidential Commission should be appointed comprising of a  Supreme Court Judge, persons with sound practical/technical knowledge in the field and a Representative from   the Association of Primary Dealers to investigate the crime  The committee should order  a Forensic Audit to be carried out by a Local or Foreign Auditcompany covering all the institutions who were involving  in the scam.

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

Mr. Donald Trump,

The President,

United States of America.

Dear Mr. Trump,

We write to convey   the congratulations and best wishes of  our association and of Sri Lankan expatriates world wide , on your assumption to the office of the President of  United States.

We are particularly pleased to thank &  congratulate you on your strong and unwavering stand against terrorism.

Sri Lankans   know more than any other the ills of terrorism , having been the victims of Tiger Terrorism for over three decades that saw over hundred thousand massacred  and many time more maimed , at the hands of the Tiger Terrorists that the FBI labeled as the Worlds Most Brutal” in 2008 and many times thereafter.

Sri Lanka , on the 19^th of  May 2009 became the only country to have eradicated a terrorist movement from their soil when the then administration , did so militarily.

Unfortunately many western administrations   at that time, including that of your predecessor, did not welcome this victory as, among other reasons,  the  ill gotten war chest of billions of the Tiger’s had made generous contributions to many election campaigns in these countries. Instead they denounced the victory by alleging that  the victory was achieved at the cost of an unacceptably high casualty rate in the last weeks of he war, singing directly from the song book of the Tiger Diaspora  based in the UK, Canada & the US.

Many investigations, two presidential commissions with international  oversight and censuses carried out by the Tamils themselves in Sri Lanka, has established that this allegation is entirely unfounded. Wikileaks  leaked emails form the US embassy in Sri Lanka to the State Department also had confirmed the same

Though the Tigers had been defeated militarily in Sri Lanka, the Tiger Diaspora based especially in UK , Canada and US, remained unscathed and now had their entire war chest acquired through , distortion, extortion and drug trafficking, to spend on misinformation and false propaganda to gain their objective of carving out a separate state of Tamil Elam consisting of two thirds of Sri Lanka’s coast and one third of it’s land for the 12% minority Tamils, of which less than half resided in these area’s.  Cash strapped UK’s Channel 4 TV station provided handy support for this campaign of distortion, influenced by Tiger generosity.

All of this and  geopolitical considerations culminated in the previous US administration and the Hilary Clinton state department repeatedly  and annually between 2010 and 2015 sponsoring  resolutions placing  Sri Lanka’s liberation from terrorism in poor light . These have resulted in Sri Lanka having to initiate further investigation ,with international participation, of this Tiger originated  allegation of high casualty rate in the last weeks of the war.

This amounts to an unacceptable intrusion into the sovereignty of  Sri Lanka and the best conceivable example of , interfering in the affairs of small far away nations that we know  little or nothing about”, which after your successful election you called to put an end to”.

Mr. President this was a profound and righteous call you made. We call upon you now, in the spirit of this call to withdraw these ill advised resolutions and leave Sri Lanka to determine it’s destiny using their home grown wisdom that saw the unprecedented victory over terrorism and nearly three score years and ten of democratic administrations that has seen regular changes in it’s government through the ballot, not withstanding the Tiger bullet..

We also urge you not to be mislead by  shameless   US  Tamil Tiger Terrorist Diaspora overtures, to mislead your administration too as it did your predecessors, not withstanding their having had champagne celebrations in anticipation of a  Hilary Clinton victory on election night .

With our very best wishes again and many thanks for your wise and  understanding  support,

Yours Sincerely,

Dr. Chula Rajapakse MNZM

Spokesperson, United Sri Lanka Association , Lower Hutt, Wellington New Zealand.
7^th Feb 2017

 By Binoy Suriyaarachchi Courtesy Adaderana

February 7, 2017  05:17 pm

Some politicians are opportunists, Dr. Neville Fernando, Chairman of the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) claimed on Tuesday.

– See more at: http://www.adaderana.lk/news/39008/some-politicians-are-opportunists-dr-neville#sthash.UAPL5WXG.dpuf

උපුටාගැණීම නෙත් News

රජයේ වෛද්‍ය නිලධාරීන්ගේ සංගමය සයිටම් ආයතනයට එරෙහි වන්නේ තරගකාරිත්වයට ඇති බිය නිසා බව එම සංගමයේම සාමාජිකයෙකු වන මහාචාර්ය වෛද්‍ය නෙවිල් පෙරේරා පවසනවා.

ඔහු ඒ බව පැවසුවේ සයිටම් ආයතනය කොළඹ අද (07) පැවැත්වූ මාධ්‍ය හමුවකදීයි.

එහිදී ඔහු වැඩි දුරටත් සඳහන් කළේ වෛද්‍ය විද්‍යාව විතරද පෞද්ගලීකරණය වෙන්න හදන්නේ..ඊට සමාන වෘත්තියන් රැසක් දැනට පෞද්ගලීකරණය වෙලා ඉවරයි. මේ තියෙන්නෙ ඒකාධිකාරිය බිඳ වැටීම ගැන ප්‍රශ්නයක්.” යනුවෙනි.

සයිටම් ආයතනය රැක ගැනීම සහ ප‍්‍රවර්ධනය කිරීම හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතාගේද වගකීමක් බව මෙහිදී ප‍්‍රකාශ කෙරුණා. විශේෂඥ වෛද්‍ය දීප්ති සමරගේ පැවසුවේ සයිටම් ආයතනය යනු මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතාගේම බිළිදෙකු බවයි.

එහිදී වැඩි දුරටත් ප්‍රකාශ කෙරුණේ එතුමා වසර 03 ක් මෙම සයිටම් ආයතනය හැදුවා. ඊට පස්සෙ තමයි මේ රජයට භාර දුන්නේ. එතුමා මෙම ආයතනයේ ප්‍රගතියට කටයුතු කළ යුතුයි. මේ එතුමාගේ දරුවෙක්.” යනුවෙනි.

2nd Most Beautiful Princesses in Indian History -Rani Padmini:

She was the beautiful queen of Chittorand the wife of King Rawal Ratan Singh who defeated Malkhan Singh in a swayamvar and married her. It is said that reason for one of attacks on Chittor by Alauddin Khilji was to forcefully capture the beautiful Rani Padmini. He was so obsessed of making Padmini a part of his harem such was her beauty. But he failed as Padmini chose to commit suicide by jumping into flames before Chittor fell.

She was the beautiful queen of Chittorand the wife of King Rawal Ratan Singh who defeated Malkhan Singh in a swayamvar and married her. It is said that reason for one of attacks on Chittor by Alauddin Khilji was to forcefully capture the beautiful Rani Padmini. He was so obsessed of making Padmini a part of his harem such was her beauty. But he failed as Padmini chose to commit suicide by jumping into flames before Chittor fell.

Padmini, also known as Padmavati, is a legendary 13th-14th century Indian queen (Rani). The earliest source to mention her is Padmavat, an epic poem written by Malik Muhammad Jayasi in 1540 CE. The text, which features elements of fantasy, describes her story as follows: Padmavati was an exceptionally beautiful princess of the Sinhala kingdom (Sri Lanka). Ratan Sen, the Rajput ruler of Chittor, heard about her beauty from a talking parrot named Hiraman. After an adventurous quest, he married her and brought her to Chittor. Alauddin Khilji, the Sultan of Delhi also heard about her beauty, and attacked Chittor to obtain her. Meanwhile, Ratan Sen was killed in a combat with Devpal, the king of Kumbhalner who was also enamoured with Padmavati’s beauty. Before Alauddin Khilji could capture Chittor, Padmavati and her companions committed Jauhar (self-immolation).

http://topyaps.com/top-10-most-beautiful-princesses-in-indian-history

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rani_Padmini

Kumbha Palace In Chittorgarh . Rani Padmini Killed Herself By Doing Jauhar In This Palace

https://twitter.com/IndiaHistorypic/

Rani Padmini Palace / Padmini Mahal

https://www.trawell.in/rajasthan/chittorgarh/rani-padmini-palace-padmini-mahal
At a distance of 1.5 km from Kumbha Palace and 7.5 km from Chittorgarh Railway Station, Padmini Palace is situated at the southern part of Chittorgarh Fort. It is one of the most famous palaces inside the fort complex and also one of the top places to visit in Chittorgarh.

Padmini Palace was once the palatial abode of the exquisitely beautiful Rajput queen, Rani Padmini, the wife of King Rawal Ratan Singh. Revered as an epitome of beauty,

Rani Padmini was the daughter of a Sinhala ruler Gandharvasen and plays a crucial role in the history of the gallant Rajput warriors. This queen was mentioned in the epic poem of ‘Padmavati’, which had been composed during 1540 CE, by Malik Muhammad Jayasi.

Rani Padmini Palace leaves behind the tincture of beauty, valour, sacrifice, honour, and tragedy of the past. Padmini Palace was the very legendary palace from where Ala-ud-din Khilji was permitted to obtain a glimpse of Padmini in a mirror placed in the main hall. Allured by her beauty, Ala-ud-din Khilji fought a fierce battle with Rana Ratan Singh, husband of Rani Padmini. Rani Padmini was augmented by her preference of death to abduction and dishonour during the historic siege of Chittor in 1303 AD, by Ala-ud-din Khilji. As an aftermath, Ala-ud-din Khilji killed thirty thousand Hindus in revenge and entrusted the fort to his son Khizr Khan.

It is a 3 storied white building that overlooks a pleasant lotus pool. The palace is adorned by the pavilions at the top and surrounded water moats. The architecture of this palace becomes the example for many other notable structures which were surrounded by the water. The bronze gates to this palace were carried off by Akbar and can now be seen in Agra Fort. Near Padmini’s Palace is a small prison where captured invaders were kept; former prisoners include sultans of Malwa and of Gujarat.

https://www.trawell.in/rajasthan/chittorgarh/rani-padmini-palace-padmini-mahal

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග 

2007 පෙබරවාදි හත් වන දින දිවයින පුවත්පතේ මිච්ඡා ධම්ම වශයෙන් හඳුන්වන  සමලිංගික විවාහය බුදුදහමට පටහැනියි යන මාතෘකාව යටතේ හෑගොඩ විපස්‌සි හිමියන් විසින් මා විසින් මීට ඉහතදී දිවයින පුවත්පතට ලියන ලද   සමලිංගිකතාව – මනෝ සමාජ විද්‍යා විග්‍රහයක් යන ලිපිය ගැන විවේචනයක් කොට තිබේ. මේ විවේචන ගැන කරුණු පැහැදිලි කිරීමක් මා කරමි. 

(මිච්ඡා ධම්ම වශයෙන් හඳුන්වන  සමලිංගික විවාහය බුදුදහමට පටහැනියි  * හෑගොඩ විපස්‌සි හිමි Link : http://www.divaina.com/2017/02/07/feature01.html )

හෑගොඩ විපස්‌සි හිමියන් විසින් තමන් වහන්සේ ගේ ලිපිය මෙසේ අරඹති. 

වෛද්‍ය රුවන්  එම් . ජයතුංග නැමැති ලේඛකයා ස්‌වකීය ලිපිය සාවද්‍ය ලෙසම ආරම්භ කරමින් බුදුදහම විෂයෙහි දක්‌වා ඇති සාහසික ප්‍රකාශය මෙසේය.

”බුදුන් වහන්සේ සමරිසියන් කෙරෙහි බලන ලද්දේ මානුෂික ඇසකිනි. බෞද්ධ ඉතිහාසයේ කොසොල් රජුගේ ඇමැතියන් දෙදෙනෙකු අතර තිබූ සමලිංගික සබඳතාවක්‌ ගැන සඳහන්‍ය. එසේම බුදුන්ගේ රූපයට ඇලුම් කළ වක්‌කලි තෙර තුළ යම් ආකාරයකට සමරිසි ආශ්‍රයන් තිබූ බවට උපකල්පනය කළ හැකියි. කච්චාන තෙර කෙරෙහි ඇළුණු සොරෙයිය සිටුවරයා තුළ ද මතු වූයේ සමරිසි හැඟීම්ය. (දිවයින 2017.01.31)”

උන් වහන්සේ තව දුරටත් මෙසේ සඳහන් කරති.  

ත්‍රිපිටකයත් අටුවා ග්‍රන්ථත් ආදී ඉපැරණි මූලාශ්‍රයන් පරිශීලනය කරමින් අතිශය පරිණත දැනුමකින් ඉදිරිපත් කළ යුතු අදහස්‌, එවැනි පරීක්‍ෂණයක්‌ නොමැතිව කොහෙන්දෝ අහුලා ගත් කරුණු කීපයක්‌ අවිචාරවත් ලෙස ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට යැමෙන් මෙම සාහසික ක්‍රියාව මොහු සිදු කොට ඇත. තමා අනුව බුදුරජාණන් වහන්සේ මැනීමට යැම නිසා ”බුදුරජාණන් වහන්සේ මානුෂික ඇසකින්” බැලීම යනුවෙන් බුදුගුණ ලඝූකොට දක්‌වා ඇත.

බුදුන් වහන්සේ සමරිසියන් කෙරෙහි බලන ලද්දේ මානුෂික ඇසකිනි යන ප්‍රකාශය මා විසින් කරන ලද්දේ බුදුගුණ ලඝූ කිරීමට නොව විනිශ්චය විරහිත කාරුණික ඇසකින් හෙවත් humane  කෝණයකින්  බව පෙන්වා දීමටය​. ක්‍රිස්තියානි , ඉස්ලාම් සහ යුදෙව් ආගම් වල සමරිසියන් පාපකාරීන් බව පවසා ඔවුන්ව හිංසනයට ලක් කොට තිබුනද බුදුන් වහන්සේ විසින් සමරිසියන් හිංසනයට පත් කිරීමට අනුබලයක් දුන්නේ නැත​. අද දිනයේ බටහිර ලෝකයේ බුදුන් වහන්සේ ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨ දාර්ශනිකයෙකු ලෙස සැලකීමට එක් හේතුවක් වනුයේ උන්වහන්සේ තුල තිබූ මේ අවිහිංසා ගුණය නිසාය​. මේ හේතුවෙන් බුදුන් වහන්සේ සමරිසියන් කෙරෙහි බලන ලද්දේ මානුෂික ඇසකිනි කියා මම ප්‍රකාශ කලෙමි. 

කොසොල් රජුගේ ඇමැතියන් ලඟ තිබුණේ යෑයි කියන සමලිංගික සබඳතාවක්‌ පිළිබඳ කිසිදු මූලාශ්‍රයක සඳහන් නැතැයි හෑගොඩ විපස්‌සි හිමියන් පවසති. එහෙත් බෞද්ධ ඉතිහාසයේ මෙම සිද්ධිය ගැන සඳහන් වේ. තවද මනෝ වෛද්‍ය ඩී.වී.ජේ හරිස්චන්ද්‍ර මහතාද වරක් මේ ගැන නැණ පහන වැඩසටහනේදී ප්‍රකාශ කරන ලදි.  මනෝ වෛද්‍ය ඩී.වී.ජේ හරිස්චන්ද්‍ර  මහතා  බුදු දහම ගැන ගැඹුරු දැණුමක් තිබූ විද්වතෙකි. 

හෑගොඩ විපස්‌සි හිමියන් වක්‌කලී තෙරුන් වයසට ගොස්‌ පැවිදි බිමට පත් බමුණෙක්‌ බව පෙන්වා දෙති. එහෙත් ධර්ම මූලාශ්‍ර වල සඳහන් වන අන්දමට වක්කලී යනු තරුණයෙකි. වක්කලී බුදුන් ගේ රූපය දැක එම රුවට වශීවී බුදුන් අසලම ගැවසුනේය​. බුදුන් ගේ රූපය නිරතුරුව දැකීම සඳහා පැවිදි ද වූයේය​. එක් අවස්ථාවකදී බුදුන් වහන්සේ වක්කලීට තමා කෙරෙන් ඉවත වන ලෙස දැන්වූ අතර ඉන් ශෝකීවූ වක්කලී දිවි නසා ගැනීමට තැත් කලේය​. ඉන්පසු බුදුන් වහන්සේ වෙත එලඹ වක්කලී මා දෙස නොව මගේ ධර්මය දෙස බලන්නට කියා ධර්මය දේශනා කලේය​. එම ධර්මය අසා වක්කලී නිවන් අවබෝධ කලේය​. 

 අංගුලිමාල වැනි මිනීමරුවන් ද අම්බපාලී වැනි ගණිකාවන්ද  ධර්මාවබෝධ කොට බුදු සසුනට එක් වූහ​. එම නිසා සමරිසියෙකු ධර්මාවබෝධවී බුදු සසුනට එක් වීම මවිත දනවන සිදුවීමක් නොවේ. එසේම සතුන් සමග මෙවුන්දමේ යෙදුනු භික්‍ෂූන් ද සිටි බව ජාතක කතා පොත සඳහන් කරයි. එහෙත් බුදුන් වහන්සේ මිනිස් දුබලතා තේරුම් ගත් උත්තමයෙකු හෙයින් එම පුද්ගලයන්ට දඞුවම් කෙලේ හෝ ඔවුන්ව පිටමං කලේ නැත​. ඔවුන්ට අනුකම්පා සහගතව ධර්ම මාර්ගය පෙනූවා පමණි.

මහා කච්චාන තෙරුන් වහන්සේ විෂයෙහි වරදවා සිතුවේ සොරෙය සිටුවරයා නොව ඔහුගේ පුතා බව මේ ලේඛකයා නොදන්නේ මූලාශ්‍රයන් පිළිබඳ අනවබෝධයෙන් බව හෑගොඩ විපස්‌සි හිමියන් සඳහන් කරයි. සොරෙය සිටුවරයා  සොරෙය සිටු පුතා පටලැවිල්ල සුවිසල් වරදක්ද ? කෙසේ නමුත් සොරෙය සිටු පුතා රන්වන් සිරුරකින් සෝභමාන මහාකච්චාන තෙරුන් වහන්සේ දැක අනුරාගී හැඟීම් ඇති කර ගත්තේය​. මේ නිසා ඔහු ලිංග විපර්‍යාසයකටද ලක් විය​. සොරෙය සිටු පුතා මහාකච්චාන තෙරුන් වහන්සේ දැක අනුරාගී හැඟීම් ඇති කර ගැනීම එක්තරා ආකාරයකින් සමරිසි හැඟීම් ඇති කර ගැනීමක් බව කීම සාවද්‍ය නොවන බව මගේ අදහසයි. 

 මහාකවි කාලිදාස සහ කුමාරදාස කිවූ අතර සමරිසි සබඳතාවක්‌ තිබී ඇත කීම මගින්  ඉන්දියාවේ විසූ සංස්‌කෘත සාහිත්‍යයේ දක්‌නට ලැබෙන විශිෂ්ට කවියෙකු වූ මහාකවි කාලිදාසයන්ටත්, ලංකා රාජ්‍ය පාලනය කළ අති විශිෂ්ට කවියෙකු වූ කුමාරදාස රජුටත්  මම නිග්‍රහ කල බව හෑගොඩ විපස්‌සි හිමියන් චෝදනා  කරති. එසේම මෙලෙස නිග්‍රහ කරන්නේ කාගේ උවමනාවක්‌ සපල කරන්නට දැයි ප්‍රශ්න කළ යුතු බවද විපස්‌සි හිමියන් ප්‍රශ්න කරයි.   (සාමාන්‍යයෙන්  මෙලෙස නිග්‍රහ කරන්නේ බටහිරයන් ගේ උවමනාවට , එන් ජී ඕ උවමනාවට සහ ඩොලර් ලබා ගැනීමට කියා සුලබ චෝදනා තිබේ ) හෑගොඩ විපස්‌සි හිමියන් නොදත් නමුදු මම ජිවත් වන්නේ උතුරු ඇමරිකාවේය​. මට එන් ජී ඕ එකක් නැත​. මා කරන රැකියාවෙන් මට ඩොලර් ලැබෙන නිසා මට වෙනත් ආදායම් මාර්ග අවශ්‍ය නැත. මම වජිරාරාමයේ නාරද මාහිමියන්  යටතේ ධර්මය උගත් අයෙකි. එසේම බුදු දහම – මනෝ විද්‍යාව මෙන්ම බෞද්ධ ජාතක කතා වල මනෝ ප්‍රතිකාරාත්මක පාර්ශවය ගැන බටහිර ලෝකය දැණුවත් කරමින් පොතපතද ලියූ අයෙකි.  මා විසින් ලියන ලද Psychological Aspects Of Buddhist Jataka Stories|ග්‍රන්ථය බුදු දහම ගැන විශ්ලේෂණාත්මකව හදාරණ බටහිර උගතුන් ගේ අවධානයටද ලක් වූ කෘතියක් බව කියනු කැමැත්තෙමි.  

මහාකවි කාලිදාස සහ කුමාරදාස කිවූ අතර සමරිසි සබඳතාවක්‌ තිබූ බව මම කියා නැත​. නමුත් තිබුනා විය හැක කියා මම උපකල්පනය කොට තිබේ. ඒ 

මන්ද යත් ඔවුන් දෙදෙනා අතර ඉතා හෘදයංගම ගැඹුරු සබැඳියාවක් තිබූ අතර කුමාරදාස කිවියන් ගේ මරණය නිසා කුමාරදාස රජුද දිවි නසා ගත්තේය​. කුමාරදාස රජු අන්තපුර ස්‌ත්‍රී පිරිවරා සිටි බව විපස්සි හිමියන් කියති. එහෙත්  Bisexuals ලෙස හඳුන්වන්නෝ සම සහ විශම ලිංගිකත්වයට නැඹුරුවක් දක්වන බව පෙන්වා දෙමි. 

මගේ ලිපියෙන් බුදු දහම සමලිංගිකතාව පිළිගන්නා බවක් හෝ සමලිංගිකතාව බුදු දහමට එකඟ බවක් කියා නැත​. මා විසින් පෙන්වා දෙනු ලැබුවේ වෙනත් ආගම් සියල්ලම සමලිංගිකයන් වෛරී ලෙස පිටමං කරන විට ඔවුන්ව හිංසනයට ලක් කරන විට බුදුන් වහන්සේ තම අපරිච්ඡින්න කරුණාව සමරිසියන් කෙරෙහිද යොමු කල බව කියන්නටය​. මීට වසර 2500 කට ඉහතදී බුදුන් වහන්සේ සමරිසියන් කෙරෙහි දැක්වූ ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී ආකල්පය අද ගෝත්‍රික නොවන දියුණු සමාජ සමරිසියන් කෙරෙහි දක්වති. මේ අනුව බුදුන් වහන්සේ කෙතරම් ප්‍රගාමී උතුමෙක්ද කියා පෙනී යයි. 

සමලිංගික විවාහය නීතිගත කිරීම හෝ නොකිරීම එය රාජ්‍ය තාන්ත්‍රික කරුණකි. සමලිංගික විවාහය නීතිගත කරන්නට කියා මගේ ලිපියෙන් ඉල්ලා නැත​. එහෙත් මගේ ලිපියෙන් මා ප්‍රශ්න කලේ පුද්ගලයකුගේ ලිංගික දිශානතිය සහ ලිංගික අනන්‍යතාවය මත ප්‍රචණ්ඩත්වය, හිංසා කිරීම, විවේචනය, බැහැරකිරීම, ගර්භාවට පත්කිරීම මානුශිකවාදීද කියාය​. වෛද්‍යවරයෙකු ලෙස එලෙස ප්‍රශ්න කිරීමට මට අයිතියක් තිබෙන බව පවසමින් මගේ හේතු දැක්වීම අවසන් කරමි. 

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග 

 හෑගොඩ විපස්‌සි හිමි උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින

”සමලිංගික කතාව මනෝ සමාජ විද්‍යා විග්‍රහයක්‌” යන ශීර්ෂ පාඨයෙන් ජනවාරි 31 දින “දිවයින” පත්තරේ පළ වූ ලිපියේ බුදුදහමට නිගා කරණ, පාඨකයා නොමඟ යවන සුළු සදොස්‌ ප්‍රකාශයන් තිබූ බැවින් ඒවා නිවැරදි කිරීම, මෙම ලිපියේ පරමාර්ථයයි. වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එච්. ජයතුංග නැමැති ලේඛකයා ස්‌වකීය ලිපිය සාවද්‍ය ලෙසම ආරම්භ කරමින් බුදුදහම විෂයෙහි දක්‌වා ඇති සාහසික ප්‍රකාශය මෙසේය.

”බුදුන් වහන්සේ සමරිසියන් කෙරෙහි බලන ලද්දේ මානුෂික ඇසකිනි. බෞද්ධ ඉතිහාසයේ කොසොල් රජුගේ ඇමැතියන් දෙදෙනෙකු අතර තිබූ සමලිංගික සබඳතාවක්‌ ගැන සඳහන්ය. එසේම බුදුන්ගේ රූපයට ඇලුම් කළ වක්‌කලි තෙර තුළ යම් ආකාරයකට සමරිසි ආශ්‍රයන් තිබූ බවට උපකල්පනය කළ හැකියි. කච්චාන තෙර කෙරෙහි ඇළුණු සොරෙයිය සිටුවරයා තුළ ද මතු වූයේ සමරිසි හැඟීම්ය. (දිවයින 2017.01.31)”

ත්‍රිපිටකයත් අටුවා ග්‍රන්ථත් ආදී ඉපැරණි මූලාශ්‍රයන් පරිශීලනය කරමින් අතිශය පරිණත දැනුමකින් ඉදිරිපත් කළ යුතු අදහස්‌, එවැනි පරීක්‍ෂණයක්‌ නොමැතිව කොහෙන්දෝ අහුලා ගත් කරුණු කීපයක්‌ අවිචාරවත් ලෙස ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට යැමෙන් මෙම සාහසික ක්‍රියාව මොහු සිදු කොට ඇත.

තමා අනුව බුදුරජාණන් වහන්සේ මැනීමට යැම නිසා ”බුදුරජාණන් වහන්සේ මානුෂික ඇසකින්” බැලීම යනුවෙන් බුදුගුණ ලඝූකොට දක්‌වා ඇත. කොසොල් රජුගේ ඇමැතියන් ලඟ තිබුණේ යෑයි කියන සමලිංගික සබඳතාවක්‌ පිළිබඳ කිසිදු මූලාශ්‍රයක සඳහන් නැත. එසේම වයසට ගොස්‌ පැවිදි බිමට පත් බමුණෙක්‌ වූ වක්‌කලී තෙරුන් බුදුරජාණන් වහන්සේගේ රූපය බැලීමේ ආශාව ඔබ කියන එම පහත් හැඟීම් නොවේ. ඔබට මෙවැනි උපකල්පනයන් උපදවා ගන්නේ පාපී සිතිවිලිය. 

යම් පුද්ගලයෙක්‌ මිහිරි ලෙස ගායනා කරද්දී ඔහු කෙරෙහි කෙනෙක්‌ ඇලෙන්නේ ඔහුගේ හ`ඩට මිස ලිංගික තෘප්තිය ලබා ගැනීම පිණිස නොවෙයි. 

මහා කච්චාන තෙරුන් වහන්සේ විෂයෙහි වරදවා සිතුවේ සොරෙය සිටුවරයා නොව ඔහුගේ පුතා බව මේ ලේඛකයා නොදන්නේ මූලාශ්‍රයන් පිළිබඳ අනවබෝධයෙනි. තවද රන්වන් සිරුරකින් සෝභමාන මහාකච්චාන තෙරුන් වහන්සේ දුටු සොරෙය සිටු පුත්‍රයා ”මේ තෙරුන් වහන්සේ මාගේ භාර්යාව හෝ නැතහොත් මාගේ භාර්යාවගේ ශරීරය, මේ තෙරුන්ගේ ශරීරවර්ණය වන්නේ නම්” සිතුවා මිස මේ ලේඛකයා කියන හැඟීමෙන් නොවේ.

කෙසේ වුවත් මේ ලේඛකයා ස්‌වකීය බහුශ්‍රැතභාවය සාමාන්‍ය පාඨකයා හමුවේ තබමින් සමලිංගික විවාහය සදාචාරව පවත්තේ යෑයි කුළුගැන්වීමට ගන්නා තවත් බොල් උත්සහයකට නිදසුනක්‌ වශයෙන්, 

”ඇතැමෙක්‌ විශ්වාස කරන පරිදි මහාකවි කාලිදාස සහ කුමාරදාස කිවූ අතර සමරිසි සබඳතාවක්‌ තිබී ඇත.” යන්න පෙන්වා දිය හැකිය. ඉන්දියාවේ විසූ සංස්‌කෘත සාහිත්‍යයේ දක්‌නට ලැබෙන විශිෂ්ට කවියෙකු වූ මහාකවි කාලිදාසයන්ටත්, ලංකා රාජ්‍ය පාලනය කළ අති විශිෂ්ට කවියෙකු වූ කුමාරදාස රජුටත් මෙලෙස නිග්‍රහ කරන්නේ කාගේ උවමනාවක්‌ සපල කරන්නට දැයි ප්‍රශ්න කළ යුතුයි. තව ද රජෙක්‌ අන්තපුර ස්‌ත්‍රී පිරිවරා සිටින බව මේ මහා ලේඛකයා නොදන්නේ ද? 

විරුද්ධ ලිංගික ආකර්ශණීයභාවය සත්ව සංහතියේ පැවැත්ම උදෙසා පවතියි. ස්‌ත්‍රී රූපය, ස්‌ත්‍රී හඬ, ස්‌ත්‍රී ගන්ධය, ස්‌ත්‍රී රස, ස්‌ත්‍රී ස්‌පර්ශය, පුරුෂයා සිත හාත්පසින්ම මැඩගෙන (අල්ලා ගෙන) සිටින බවත්, ස්‌ත්‍රී රූප, ස්‌ත්‍රී ශබ්ද, ස්‌ත්‍රී ගන්ධ, ස්‌ත්‍රී රස, ස්‌ත්‍රී ස්‌පර්ශ පුරුෂයාගේ සිත බැඳ තබන එබඳු අන්කිසිවක්‌ නැති බව බුදුන් වහන්සේ වදාළ සේක. අංගුත්තර නිකායේ ඒකක නිපාතයේ තවදුරටත් සඳහන් වන්නේ පුරුෂ රූපය, පුරුෂ හඬ, පුරුෂ ගන්ධය, පුරුෂ රස, පුරුෂ ස්‌පර්ශය, ස්‌ත්‍රියගේ සිත හාත්පසින් මැඩගෙන අල්ලාගෙන සිටින බවත්, පුරුෂ රූප, පුරුෂ ශබ්දය, පුරුෂ ගන්ධය, පුරුෂ රස, ස්‌ත්‍රියගේ සිත ඇඳ ගන්නා බැවින් අන් කිසිවක්‌ නැත. නූතන වෛද්‍යවරුන් DNA වශයෙන් හඳුන්වන්නේ එදා බුදුන් වහන්සේ වදාළ මෙම ස්‌ත්‍රී පුරුෂ ආකර්ෂණ භාවයෙන් දෝ හෝයි අපගේ හැ`ගීමය. පාරාජිකා පාලිය අනුව ස්‌ත්‍රී පුරුෂ උභතොබ්‍යඤ්ජක යන්ව මෙන්ම පණ්‌ඩක හෙවත් නපුංසක සFව උත්පත්තිය ලොව පවතින බව ප්‍රකට වේ. පණ්‌ඩක සත්ත්වයාගේ ආකර්ශණීය බව විරුද්ධ ලිංගිකත්වය ඉක්‌මවා යයි. මේ පිළිබඳ නූතන වෛද්‍ය විද්‍යාවේ ඉගැන්වීම් විමසා බැලීම වැදගත් වේ. එනම්, 

”කෙසේ වුවත් නූතන වෛද්‍ය විද්‍යාව ලිංගිකත්වය තීරණය කිරීමේ දී ප්‍රධාන සාධකය වනුයේ සිරුරේ සෛල තුළ පවතින වර්ණදේහ DNA ආකෘතියයි. ජීවී සෛලයක අලිංගික වර්ණදේහ යුගල 22 ක්‌ හා ලිංගික වර්ණ දේහ යුගලයක්‌ පවතියි. ලිංගික වර්ණ දේහ යුගල අයත් වන කාණ්‌ඩ, අනුව පිරිමි හෝ ගැහැණු ලිංගිකත්වය නිර්මාණය වනු ඇත. ලිංගික වර්ණ දේහ යුගල X සහ X ලෙස පිහිටි විට ගැහැණු වශයෙන් ද Y සහ Y ලෙස පිහිටි විට පිරිමි වශයෙන් ද පිළිගැනේ. ලිංගික වර්ණ දේහ පිහිටන ආකාරය අනුව මෙලෙස පිරිමි හෝ ගැහැණු බව තීරණය වුවද, බාහිර ලිංගික ලක්‍ෂණ ද ඇතැම් විට එයට හාත්පසින්ම වෙනස්‌ ආකාරයට පිහිටීමේ ඉඩක්‌ නැත්තේ ද නොවේ.” (උපුටා ගැනීම වෛද්‍ය ශාන්ත හෙට්‌ටිආරච්චිගේ සෞඛ්‍ය දැකීම සහ විඳීම) 

බුදු දහමෙහි සමලිංගිකත්වය හඳුන්වන්නේ ”මිච්ඡා ධම්ම” යනුවෙනි. මිච්ඡා ධම්ම (මිත්‍යා ධර්ම) යනු පුරුෂයන් පුරුෂයන් කෙරෙහිත් ස්‌ත්‍රීන් ස්‌ත්‍රීන් කෙරෙහිත් ඇතිවන බලවත් කැමැත්තයි. යම් සමාජයක දිළිඳුකම, සොරකම, මිත්‍යා දෘෂ්ටිය ආදිය වර්ධනය වේ නම්, එම සමාජයේ අධර්ම රාගය – විෂම ලෝභය, මිත්‍යා ධර්ම වර්ධනය වෙමින් සමාජය පිරිහෙන බවත් දීඝ නිකායේ සඳහන් චක්‌කවත්තිසීහනාද සූත්‍රයෙන් පසක්‌ වේ. 

වෛද්‍ය එම්. ජයතුංග නැමැති ලේඛකයාගේ ලිපියේ බුදුදහම සම්බන්ධ කරුණු කිරීමේදී වැරදියට තර්ක කොට වැරදි නිගමනවලට එළඹෙමින් සාමාන්‍ය පාඨකයා මුලා කිරීම බලවත් වරදකි. බුදුදහමට අනුව යම් සමාජයක මිත්‍යා දෘෂ්ටිය බහුලව පැතිරෙමින් එම සමාජය පිරිහෙමින් පවත්නේ නම්, ධර්මානුකූල නොවන අපායගාමි චර්යාවක්‌ වන මිත්‍යාධර්මය හෙවත් සමලිංගිකචර්යාව නීතිගත වේ. අප සමාජය තවමත් එම තත්ත්වයට පත් නොවූ හෙයින් සමලිංගික විවාහය නීතිගත කිරීමේ කැබිනට්‌ පත්‍රිකා යෝජනාව අලුයම ලු කෙළ පිඬක්‌ සේ ඉවත් කිරීම සත්පුරුෂ පුරවැසියන්ගේ ගෞරවයට හේතු විය.

මිග් 27 ප්‍රභාරක ගුවන් යානා මිලදීගැනීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට එරෙහිව එල්ල කරන චෝදනාව පිළිබඳව ඔහු විසින් මෙසේ පැහැදිලි කරයි.

මිග් ගනුදෙනුව පිළිබඳ පැහැදිලි කිරීමක්.

2006 දී ලංකා ආණ්ඩුව විසින් මිග්-27 ප‍්‍රහාරක යානා කිහිපයක් මිලදී ගැනිමේ ගනුදෙනුව සම්බන්ධයෙන් විමර්ශනයක් කරන පොලිස් මූල්‍ය අපරාධ කොට්ඨාශය එම ගනුදෙනුව සිදුකිරීමට දින කීපයකට පෙර බි‍්‍රතාන්‍ය විජිතයක් වන වර්ජින් දුපත් හි බෙලිමීසා හෝල්ඩින්ස් සමාගම නමින් විවෘත කරන ලද රහසිගත බැංකු ගිණුමක් සොයාගෙන තිබෙන බව පසුගිය ඉරිදා එක්තරා ඉංග‍්‍රීසි පුවත්පතකද තවත් වෙබ් අඩවියකද පලවිය. ඊනියා ”මිග් ගනුදෙනුව” ගැන ලිපි පලවී ඇති ප‍්‍රථම අවස්ථාව මෙය නොවේ.

ඉකුත් අවුරුදු 9 පුරාම විටින් විට මේ මාතෘකාව මාධ්‍යයේ සාකච්ඡ වුණි. ආණ්ඩු පෙරලියත් සමඟ අපගේ විරුද්ධවාදීන් මේ කාරණය නැවතත් කරලියට ගෙනවිත් තිබෙන නිසා මිග් ගනුදෙනුව සැබවින්ම කුමක්දැයි මහජනතාවට විස්තර කර සිටිමට මෙය උචිත අවස්ථාවක් යැයි මම සිතමි. මෙකී මාධය නිවේදනයේ සඳහන් සියලූම ලියවිලි ගල්කිස්සේ දිස්ත‍්‍රික් උසාවිය සතුව තිබෙන බවද සැලකිය යුතුය.

[1]. 2000 වසරේදී චන්ද්‍රිකා කුමාරතුංග ආණ්ඩුව විසින් මිග්-27 යානා දෙකක්ද එක් මිග්-23 යානාවක්ද මිලදීගත් අවස්ථාවේදී ඒවා සැපයීම සඳහා 2000 ඔක්තෝබර් 24 වන දා ගිවිසුම් අත්සන් කරන ලද්දේ සිංගප්පූරුවේ ඞී.එස්. ඇලයන්ස් නැමැති කොම්පැනියේ ටී.එස්. ලී නැමැත්තෙකු සමඟය. මිග් ගුවන් යානා නිපදවන්නේ සිංගප්පූරුවේ නොවේ. අපගේ ආණ්ඩුවේ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය වූයේ සියලූම අවි හා යුධමය ආම්පන්න සෘජුවම නිශ්පාදකයාගෙන්ම මිලදී ගෙන අතරමැදියන්ව ඉවත් කිරිමයි.

[2]. 2006 වසරේ දී නව මිග්-27 ප‍්‍රහාරක යානා 4ක් මිලදි ගැනිමටත් ගුවන් හමුදාව සතුව පැවති තවත් මිග්-27 යානා 3ක් හා මිග්-23 යානාවක් සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම අලූත්වැඩියා කිරීමටත් අවශ්‍ය වූ විට අපි යුක්රේනයේ මෙම මිග් යානා නිපදවන ”යුක්රින්මාශ්” නැමැති සමාගම සෘජුවම සම්බන්ධ කර ගත්තේය. ”යුක්රින්මාශ්” සමාගම 2006 පෙබරවාරි 06 වනදා අපගේ ආරක්‍ෂක අමාත්‍යංශයට ලියමින් එම ගුවන් යානා මිලදි ගැනිමට හා අලූත්වැඩියා කිරීමට මිල ගනන් ඉදිරිපත් කල පළමු ලිපියේ මෙම ගනුදෙනුව මූල්‍ය සමාගමක මැදිහත් වීමෙන් සිදුකරන බවත් සියලූ ගෙවිම් එකී මූල්‍ය සමාගමට සිදුකල යුතු බවත් පවසා තිබුණි. මෙකී ගනුනෙුව සම්බන්ධ ගිවිසුම අත්සන් කොට දින 3ක් ඇතුලත එම මූල්‍ය සමාගමේ නම අප වෙත දන්වන බවද එම ලිපියේ සඳහන් විය.

[3]. 2001-2004 එක්සත් ජාතික පක්‍ෂ ආණ්ඩුවද මිග්-27 ප‍්‍රහාරක යානා 4ක් මිලදී ගැනීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් මෙකී යුකරින්මාශ් සමාගමෙන් විමසීම් කර තිබුණි. යුක්රින්මාශ් සමාගම 2003 අපේ‍්‍රල් 22 වනදා එවක ආරක්‍ෂක ඇමති තිලක් මාරපන මහතාට මිල ගනන් දන්වමින් එවා තිබූ ලිපියේද එම ගනුදෙනුව සඳහා මූල්‍ය සමාගමක් මැදිහත් වන බවත් සියලූ ගෙවිම් එම මූල්‍ය සමාගමට කලයුතු බවත් ගිවිසුම අත්සන් කර දින 3ක් ඇතුලත එම මූල්‍ය සමාගමේ නම ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවට සපයන බවත් කියා තිබුණි. යුක්රින්මාශ් සමාගම මාරපන මහතාට එම ලිපියේ සඳහන් කළ මුදල් ගෙවීමේ ක‍්‍රමවේදය 2006 අපට එවූ ලිපියේ සඳහන් ක‍්‍රමවේදයට වචනයක් පාසා සමානය.

[4]. යුක්රින්මාශ් සමාගමේ අධ්‍යක්‍ෂක වරයෙකු වන ඞී.ඒ. පෙරිගුඩෝව් මහතා ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවේ ආරක්‍ෂක අමාත්‍යංශය වෙත ලිපියක් ලියමින් විස්තර කර සිටියේ යුක්රින්මාශ් යනු සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම යුක්රේන රජයට අයත් සමාගමක් බවත් ඒ රටේ නීතියට අනුව ඔවුන්ට ණයට භාන්ඩ සැපයීමට නොහැකි බවත්ය. අප ඉල්ලා සිටි පරිදි අවුරුදු දෙකකින් ගෙවිමට ණයට භාන්ඩ සැපයීමට නොහැකි නිසා බෙලිමීසා හෝල්ඩින්ස් නැමැති මූල්‍ය ආයතනයක් එම ගනුදෙනුවට මූල්‍ය පහසුකම් සපයනු ඇති බව ඔහු කියා සිටියේය.

[5]. 2006 ජූලි 26 වනදා මිග්-27 ප‍්‍රහාරක යානා 4ක් මිලදි ගැනීමටත් තවත් මිග් යානා 4ක් අලූතිවැඩියා කිරීමටත් ගිවිසුම් අත්සන් කල විට එයට පාර්ශව තුනක් සම්බන්ධ විය. ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා ගුවන් හමුදාව ගැනුම්කාර පාර්ශවය විය. යුක්රින්මාශ් සමාගම විකුණුම්කාර පාර්ශවය විය. බෙලිමීසා හෝලිඩින්ස් සමාගම සියලූ ගෙවිම් ලබා ගන්නා පාර්ශවය විය. මේ පාර්ශව තුනම ගිවිසුමට අත්සන් කොට තිබේ. මෙම ගිවිසුම ලංකාවේත් යුක්රේනයේත් රජයේ ආයතන දෙකක් අතර සිදු කෙරුනු, යුක්රේන හා ජාත්‍යන්තර නීතිය යටතේ නිතිමය බන්ධනයක් ඇතිකරන ගිවිසුමක් වේ.

[6]. මෙකී ගිවිසුමේ 23.1 වගන්තියට අනුව බෙලිමීසා හෝලිඩින්ස්් සමාගම විසින් මෙම ගනුදෙනුව සඳහා මූල්‍ය පහසුකම් සපයන බව ගැනුම්කාර පාර්ශවයත් විකුණුම්කාර පාර්ශවයත් පිළිගන්නා අතර මේ ගනුදෙනුවට අදාල සියලූම ගෙවීම් බෙලිමීසා හෝල්ඩින්ස් සමාගමට ලැබිය යුතු බවත් පැහැදිලිව සඳහන් විය.

[7]. 2006 ජූලි 31 වනදා යුක්රින්මාශ් සමාගම විසින් මෙම මිග් යානා මිලදි ගැනීමට හා අලූත්වැඩියා කිරීමට අදාල ඉන්වොයිසිය ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා ගුවන් හමුදාවට එවු විටද ලංකා බැංකුව විසින් මුදල් ගෙවිය යුත්තේ බෙලිමීසා හෝලිඩින්ස් සමාගමට බව නැවත වතාවක් සඳහන් විය.

විදේශීය රටක රජයට අයත් ආයතනයක් සමග ගුවන් යානා මිලදි ගැනිම සඳහා ගිවිසුමක් අත්සන් කල විට ගැනුම්කරුවා මුදල් ගෙවිය යුත්තේ විකුණුම්කරුවා නිර්දේශ කරන ආකාරයටය. බෙලිමීසා හෝල්ඩින්ස් සමාගමට මුදල් ගෙවීම කිසිසේත්ම රහසක් නොවන්නේ ඔවුන්ද මෙකී ගිවිසුමට අත්සන් කල පාර්ශවයක් වන නිසාය. අපි මෙම මිග් යානා සෘජුවම යුක්රේනයේ නිෂ්පාදකවරුන්ගෙන්ම මිලදී ගත් අතර ගෙවු මුදලට ලැබිය යුතු සියල්ල අපට ලැබුනි. මෙම ගුවන් යානා යුද්ධයේදී භාවිතා වූ අතර යුද්ධය ජයගැනිමෙන් පසු තවමත් ඒවා ගුවන් හමුදාව සතුව පවතී.

මෙම මිග් ගුවන් යානා මිලදි ගැනිම සම්බන්ධයෙන් රහසිගත කුමක් හෝ සිදුවී ඇති බව ජනතාවට ඒත්තුගැන්වීමට කරන මේ උත්සාහය මාගේ නම කෙලසිමට දිගු කාලයක් මුලූල්ලේ පවතින ප‍්‍රයත්නයක කොටසකි. යුධ ජයග‍්‍රහණය අවමානයට ලක් කිරීමේ උවමනාවක්ද මෙය පසුපස ඇත. බොරුවක් නැවත නැවතත් කීමෙන් එය සත්‍ය බවට පත් කිරිමට උත්සහ දරන විවිධ පාර්ශව වල ප‍්‍රචාරයන් වලින් නොමග නොයන මෙන් මම ශ‍්‍රී ලාංකික ජනතාවගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිමි.

ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්‍ෂ
හිටපු ආරක්‍ෂක ලේකම්

Embassy of Sri Lanka Washington D.C. 

The United States will continue to stand with you as your friend and your partner. While our level of cooperation today is unprecedented, there is always more progress to be made”, said Acting Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Ambassador Bruce Wharton speaking as the chief guest at the celebrations hosted by the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Washington D.C. to mark the 69th anniversary of Sri Lanka’s independence.

Ambassador Wharton further observed, Today Sri Lanka has the potential to become the next Asian Tiger”, it boasts one of the most strategic maritime locations in the entire Indo-Pacific:  at the nautical crossroads of Africa, South Asia, and East Asia, with the Strait of Hormuz to its west and the Strait of Malacca to its east.  Forty percent of all seaborne oil passes through the former and half the world’s merchant fleet capacity sails through the latter, making the sea lanes off of Sri Lanka’s southern coast some of the world’s most important economic arteries. Pointing to U.S. economic cooperation with Sri Lanka, he noted, All of this cooperation wouldn’t be possible without the democratic progress Sri Lanka has made and its renewed commitment to reconciliation, accountable government, and freedom of expression.”

In his remarks, Ambassador Prasad Kariyawasam quoted excerpts from messages of the President, the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister, relating to governance, promoting reconciliation, and striving for equitable economic development.

Commenting on bilateral relations, Ambassador Kariyawasam referred in particular to the high level U.S.-Sri Lanka Partnership Dialogue and the selection of Sri Lanka for a compact programme of the Millennium Challenge Corporation in 2016, and remarked that the leaders of Sri Lanka look forward to working with the new US Administration to build on the exponential progress of the multi-faceted bilateral relationship, nurtured especially during the last two years. As an island nation” considered a pre-eminent maritime hub of the Indo-Asia-Pacific, Sri Lanka values its ever-growing partnership with the U.S. The U.S. can be a natural partner to Sri Lanka as it progresses on the challenging transformative journey, to develop the nation as a modern democracy, rapidly integrating with the world of business and trade, in peace and friendship, for the mutual benefit of both countries.

The celebrations were attended by a large gathering of Sri Lankan Americans, the D.C. diplomatic community, senior U.S. government officials and several Representatives from the U.S. Congress, including Chairman of the Congressional Caucus on Sri Lanka Rep. Robert Aderholt of Alabama, member of the Sri Lanka Caucus Rep. David Price of North Carolina, and Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee Rep. Ted Yoho of Florida.

In the morning of February 4, the Ambassador and the Embassy staff hosted a solemn independence commemoration event at the Embassy with multi-faith observances conducted by religious dignitaries representing the Buddhist, Hindu, Islam and Christian faiths and with the participation of Sri Lankan community representatives. Minister of Science, Technology and Research Susil Premajayantha, visiting DC, was a special guest on this occasion.

Full text of the remarks by Ambassador Prasad Kariyawasam

Full text of the remarks by Ambassador Bruce Wharton

By Chathuri Dissanayake Courtesy Daily FT

In an apparent reply to the Finance Minister’s scathing criticism of him, the Auditor General (AG) yesterday said he would always speak openly and strive to maintain the institution’s transparency.

Highlighting that transparency and openness were two of the main features of good governance, AG Gamini Wijesinghe said that he was duty-bound to give information on public assets, especially following the enactment of the RTI Act.

How can the Auditor General have secrets and form good governance. Transparency and openness are two of the main features of good governance. We are all handing assets that belong to the public so I cannot maintain secrecy on information regarding public assets,” Wijesinghe said while speaking at an event held to present the audited accounts of the Colombo Municipal Council.

If anyone wants to write secret letters to me then they should first state that. As the Auditor General I will not write any secret letters to anyone. I cannot do so. I will uphold the transparency and sensitivity of the Government service,” he quipped.

As a mechanism to fall in line with the new regulations presented by RTI and to ensure transparency, Wijesinghe plans to upload all his reports to the official website of the Auditor General’s Department.

The RTI is in force; one may take me to courts if I don’t publish the reports. Before this happens, I have developed my website. After sending the report to the relevant officials I will upload all of them to the website,” he said.

During the parliamentary debate on the Committee on Public Enterprises report on the controversial bond issue, the Auditor General came under fire for allegedly releasing a report, which Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake requested, to JVP MP Bimal Ratnayake before it was given to the Minister.

However, Ratnayake, who quoted the AG’s report, later clarified that it was sent to the COPE office not released to him directly.

Wijesinghe also spoke of the wider powers vested in the office of the AG by the 19th Amendment to the Constitution and the proposed National Audit Bill highlighting that there would be no room for corrupt practices once the new Act was in force.

He highlighted that both the Act and the 19th Amendment had widened the scope of the AG to audit not only financial accounts but also other areas such as the quality of service provided and to conduct environment audits.

One of the main features of the new Act is the authority it bestows on the office of the AG to issue surcharge certificates to any government servant working at any state institution who is found guilty of corruption or malpractice, he said. With the current Act, the AG only has power to do so in cases relating to local authorities and universities. However, even this is reversible by the subject minister. Under the proposed Act ministers will no longer have the power to reverse surcharge certificates.

The Act will provide for the establishment of an Audit Commission which will deliberate on surcharge certificates issued, Wijesinghe explained, adding that individuals also have provisions to seek legal action if they were dissatisfied with the audit process.

The surcharge certificates are not issued overnight. They are issued after much deliberation following audit quarries and discussions. Even then the only thing possible through the surcharge certificate is to recover the losses suffered by the state from the wrongdoer,” Wijesinghe said, adding that the process had been demonised unnecessarily.

He also highlighted that wrongdoings or shortcomings should not be forgiven or overlooked, asserting that doing so would perpetuate the declining quality of the government service.

The Auditor General also urged Government servants to stand strong to deliver services with discipline and integrity. Emphasising that Government servants had lost their drive and respect by trying to curry favour with their superiors, Wijesinghe said that state officers should not try to become pets” of anyone.

Do your duty diligently and pay attention to the process. Always add notes on why a certain decision was taken, if there is a record of that then the Government officer is safe,” he said, dishing out advice on how to avoid manipulation by higher officials.

– See more at: http://www.ft.lk/article/596403/-I-will-always-speak-openly—Auditor-General#sthash.nUMMcjEs.dpuf

BY METHMALIE DISSANAYAKE Courtesy  Ceylon Today

Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) yesterday stressed that the independent parliamentarian Athuraliye Rathana Thera acts according to the propaganda of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

Speaking to media, at a press conference in Colombo, SLPP member Renuka Perera said that it was……Rathana Thera who opened the door to import rice from India.

“Rathana Thera first said that manure given by the government as a subsidy is harmful to the soil and the body. Taking this as an excuse, the government cut the fertilizer subsidy. It directly affected paddy cultivation and now we can see the result,” Perera said.

The government has now taken steps to import rice from India to control the shortage. As we all know, India wants to be a food supply centre of the region by 2018. Anyone who has sense can clearly see the link between these two factors,” he added.

Perera further said that it was Rathana Thera who guided the country towards India’s plan and he is clearly a RAW agent.

Taking that path he shows, the government will import every essential food item from India in the future, he stated.

By Roosindu Peris Adaderana

– See more at: http://www.adaderana.lk/news/38998/slmc-cannot-take-action-against-saitm-sb#sthash.guG0OWQz.dpuf

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

February 7, 2017, 7:56 am

Embattled Auditor General Gamini Wijesinghe yesterday declared that a note made by a lady officer as regards a certain directive received by her pertaining to a controversial matter now under investigation would surely help establish the truth.

Wijesinghe was referring to the alleged Central Bank bond scam involving primary dealer Perpetual Treasuries now investigated by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry.

The outspoken official said that note had made a significant impact on the overall inquiry.

President Maithripala Sirisena recently appointed a three member Commission of Inquiry to probe and make recommendations to the Attorney General regarding the alleged bond scam that had taken place in late Feb 2015.

Wijesinghe said public servants had the right to ask for written instructions from those above them as regards directives issued to them under various circumstances. In case their superiors had declined to issue directives in writing, they should ensure the inclusion of specific note in the relevant file for future reference, Wijesinghe said.

The first COPE investigation headed by the then MP D.E.W. Gunasekera established the note made by a senior lady officer of the Central Bank.

In an obvious reference to recent controversy over him releasing information pertaining to Central Bank bond scam to COPE Chairman Sunil Handunetti, Wijesinghe declared that he wouldn’t deal secretly with anyone. Emphasising that the public had a right to know what was going on; Wijesinghe said that efforts to sweep things under the carpet should be examined against the backdrop of enactment of the Right to Information law.

The section pertaining to the Auditor General in the 19thAmendment to the Constitution had given the department immense power and authority to intervene in the public sector, Wijesinghe said. “We can now inquire into entire gamut of issues, including security systems at state institutions. Current investigations are being conducted in accordance with the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.”

Wijesinghe said that had there been a mistake or a serious lapse on the part of an official he was ready to inquire into it in his capacity as the AG with an open mind. However, the situation would be very different had the mistakes and lapses were repeated, Wijesinghe said.

Soft spoken Wijesinghe warned of the corrupt of dire consequences. Wijesinghe said that those corrupt elements would be birds or four legged animals in their rebirth. Wijesinghe made the reference to the corrupt and those who neglected their responsibilities being ended up as birds thrice in his speech.

Asserting that the vast majority of public servants discharged their duties honestly, Wijesinghe alleged that small group of corrupt but influential elements continued to manipulate the entire system for their benefit at the expense of the country. Wijesinghe said that government servants shouldn’t be the pets of their superiors. Urging government servants to hold their ground whatever the pressure exerted on them by superiors, Wijesinghe said adding that the worse that could have happened was a transfer. Wijesinghe said that it would be better to receive transfer than end up behind bars.

Some people caused massive losses to the country for their personal benefit. Declaring that the public service had been in dire straits for want of proper direction, Wijesinghe said that those who performed their duties honestly and to the satisfaction of masses were in fact acquired merits. Wijesinghe said that they wouldn’t have to especially go to temples had they honestly discharged their duties.

Responding to criticism directed at him by various interested parties, Wijesinghe emphasized that he couldn’t be faulted by anyone for promoting much touted yahapalana practices of accountability and transparency. Reiterating his determination and commitment to pursue his strategy, Wijesinghe said that his department would vigorously push forward.

The AG said he was not going to face legal action under Right to Information law by hiding facts. “Why should I hide facts and end up in courts.”

Editorial The Island

February 7, 2017, 8:27 am

Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (CBK), who claims to be the chief architect of the 2015 regime change and what is being flaunted as the UNP-SLFP unity government, has recently called for action to prevent corruption within ministerial ranks of the yahapalana administration before bringing the corrupt in the previous government to justice. So, now, it is confirmed that the yahapalana gods also have feet of clay!

CBK has, however, added in the same breath that corruption in the present government is not even one thousandth of that of the members of the previous government. She deserves thanks for her candid statement though one may not agree with her on the scale of corruption under the present regime. On the other hand, some key members of the Rajapaksa government, accused of corruption, are in the present Cabinet! The question is what action the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe coalition has taken against its own members indulging in corruption.

CBK minced no words when she accused a member of the former ruling family of having stashed away ill-gotten money to the tune of USD 1,000 million in an offshore account. Naming the person concerned she dared him to sue her if she was wrong. What follows from her argument is that the amount of public funds which the incumbent ministers help themselves to averages at least USD 1 million each at present, being one-thousandth of USD 1,000 million.

Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera has gone on record as saying the former ruling clan helped itself to public funds amounting to USD 18,000 million. This works out, according to CBK’s logic, to USD 18 mn for the current ruling cabal. Will the government explain why none of its members has been arrested and remanded for lining their pockets at the expense of the public? Joint Opposition (JO) firebrand Wimal Weerawansa has been remanded for allegedly abusing state vehicles and causing a loss of Rs. 90 million.

The general consensus is that the Rajapaksa regime was corrupt though the stolen money has not yet been recovered. A government in power is capable of covering its tracks because it keeps police, the state prosecutor and the anti-graft commission under its thumb. President Maithripala Sirisena has publicly admitted that there has been a bond scam at the Central Bank and the culprits must be brought to justice. He has appointed a special presidential commission for that purpose. But, there have been several other mega rackets which have gone uninvestigated. The JHU, a constituent of the Wickremesinghe-Sirisena coalition, has publicly alleged that some ministers received bribes amounting to USD 100 million from the Hambantota Port deal alone. The Customs have, under political pressure, released hundreds of fraudulently imported SUVs from its custody. There have also been paddy and rice rackets which have cost the state coffers billions of rupees.

It has been a case of Hobson’s choice for the people. They helped dislodge the previous regime because they believed it was corrupt and the crafty politicians who toppled it, promising a radical break from the past have proved to be no better. Public disillusionment and resentment, welling up at an alarming rate, presage trouble as can be seen from what is happening in Romania, where Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu’s government, which also came to power pledging to eliminate bribery and corruption as a national priority, has let down people by opting to give kid glove treatment to the corrupt.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets across Romania against a controversial decree of the Grindeanu administration to let many crooks off the hook. It has been revoked due to public protests, but demonstrators say they have lost faith in the government; they are vowing to go on protesting indefinitely.

This is what happens to any country when politicians who capture power pretending to be messiahs fail to live up to people’s expectations and are found to be a bunch of rogues themselves. People power protests become the inevitable outcome of public discontent, especially when elections which help the public vent their anger are postponed indefinitely. Leaderless protests and anarchy are coterminous. If the yahapalana rulers think they will be able to prevent a popular uprising with the help of some malleable judges and a servile police force they are mistaken.

Courtesy The Island

February 7, 2017, 7:43 am

AG Gamini Wijesinghe in a pensive mood at an event at the Colombo Mayor’s residence. (right) Wijesinghe lashing out at corrupt elements (Pics by Nishan S. Priyantha)

Auditor General Gamini Wijesinghe yesterday said that he was darling only to his wife. Referring to a recent remark by Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake that the AG is the darling of the media, a smiling Wijesinghe stressed that he had to address issues which attracted media attention. Addressing a group of senior staff of the Colombo Municipal Council at the Mayor’s Residence, Wijesinghe said that he would have to be cautious due to the presence of the media.

Sarath Wijesinghe – former Ambassador to UAE and Israel

IS ECTA A LIMPING HORSE

Indo Sri Lanka Economic and Technical Cooperation has become a limping horse with many more obstacles ahead. Both parties have failed to reach a consensus on traffic barriers, negative lists and several other matters on the proposals from either side. It is a tough deal for both sides struggling for a better deal carefully watched by both countries – mainly Sri Lankan side. Sri Lanka is a reluctant partner forced to renegotiate the current agreement in the light of the past unsuccessful agreements when the other party is willing and impatient to conclude due to other political and economic developments. After several rounds of talks it is again postponed further. Sri Lankan government is forced to go ahead with the proposals, when the professionals have reservations based on fears on opening up the employment and economic traffic to the ambitious regional and world leader aiming to be in the Security Council sooner or later. National minded civil society and professionals in Sri Lanka are demanding a national policy and a cautious approach” in view of previously failed FTA, SEPTA, and Indu Sri Lanka Accord concluded under emergency and curfew rule. Unpleasant memories of previous incidents with India are still haunting in the minds of the Sri Lankans aggravating the suspicions with current disputed on fishing issues with bottom crawling, destructions to the sea bead and fish and continuous disputes with the invasion of fisherman with the tacit blessings of the powerful South Indian State always hostile to Sri Lanka. The progress of the ECTA is at an increasingly slow pace due to opposition from within and outside on justifiable concerns based on previous experiences. But it appears that the Government is determined to push through for reasons known themselves on economic and political fronts.

Fears Based on previous Lessons

It is now revealed by ROW and CIA that J R Jayawardena was forced to sign the Indo Sri Lanka accord by India in 1987 under emgerancy rules while the country was in flames. Members of Parliament were brought to Parliament voting under army escort from hotels where they were sheltered. All previous FTAs with India are non-functional. Oil Tank agreement in Trincomalee” is in crisis with India not paying the agreement lease payments, yet not permitting Sri Lankan government servants to enter the premise’s and acting against the agreement entered into. India is eying for Colombo and Trincomalee harbours after China grabbed Magama” harbour for 100 years lease which amounts to outright sale with land extent of 15000 acres. Indo Sri Lanka dispute on force fishing and pooching takes place despite protests by SL government and Sri Lankan fisherman. Sri Lnkan economy is in a very bad shape and Sri Lanka depends on china for assistance in most sectors. Prime Minister declared his strategy to open up Sri Lanka for the world by setting up FTAs with many countries, regional and international organisations, expecting FDAs and investors to export the products via trade facilities of the agreements. Now half the period of the government is over and to

what extend these aspirations will materialises are doubtful. There is a fear that India may attempt to fish in troubled waters with her regional mentality” to keep Sri Lanka under control as an obedient friend.”

POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE ECTA MOVEMENT

ECTA has a controversial history. It is a continuation of previous failed international agreements hurriedly entered into including FTA entered 1998, in India whilst President Chandrika Bandaraniake was on a visit to India on a different agenda. Sri Lanka has historical religious and cultural bonds with India amidst political and economic differences emerging from time to time. Due to geo- political situation the Giant regional neighbour, she wants to have a control over Sri Lanka politically and economically. All the achievements Sri Lanka gained with India was achieved with the goodwill and diplomatic skills of the leader of the country then, from the time of Great Asoka who sent the son and daughter as emissaries to propagate Buddhism that made a new culture for Sri Lanka which still in force. Now that Sri Lanka as a reluctant partner has given Magama” Harbour to China with 15000 acres of land for 198 years Sri Lankan government is, forced to give equal or more concessions to India actively involved on process of regime change with other local and international groups led by west NGOs and the diaspora.

ECTA AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

It is reported that SL/India ETCA – (Indo Sri Lanka Economic and Technical Corporation Agreement) had rounds of talks in February 2017, despite many deliberations for and against. Hon Nirmala Sitaramanthe Indian Trade Minister was to have been exited, and worked hard on the final touches, which is the continuation of previous failed CEPA. This shows how important and impatient India is to conclude this as early as a matter of urgency. Sri Lanka from the inception have been a reluctant partner due to fear, enormity and imbalances of economic asymmetric conditions of India with previous bitter experiences with India, other member countries, and international organizations. Historically Sri Lanka was cheated by Portuguese, Dutch and British, traders’ powerful countries and powerful NGOs. Today diplomacy and international relations are based on economic interests where Ambassadors and representatives in the global family are advised to give priority to economic trade and business interests over other considerations. It appears Sri Lanka will push through the legislation following the inauguration of Hambantota” project with resistance from the opposition and the people of the area and the nationalist polite.

Diplomatic Manoeuvre or a Trade Affair

ETCA is more a forcible and forceful diplomatic manoeuvre than a trade affair for India to have a stronger foothold with Sri Lanka while Sri Lanka is strengthening friendship with China initiated by previous government. There was a stormy and unfriendly period of one year with China with uncertainty due to differences of policy before matters were activated after failing attempts for funding from the West. India has invested in Sri Lanka on oil and look forward to investing on Trincomalee” Oil Tanks, and development projects, especially in the North and East. It is in the

public and international domain that, India with USA and the West manoeuvred the process of Regime Change” in Sri Lank and opposed Sri Lanka at the UN by bringing a motion against Sri Lanka with the West.

DIPLOMATIC AND INTERNATIONAL LAW PRACTICE

Diplomatic and International Law practice demands clarification whether the Sri Lankan Prime Minister can agree with the Prime Minister of India to conclude such an important agreement without the approval and consent of the President, the legislature and the citizen when the matter is vehemently challenged and disputed in the country. There should be a government policy and State policy acceptable the polite professionals and the citizen. The urgency to conclude the agreement is the matter the citizen cannot understand when there are many unresolved and contentious matters on economy an politics to resolve. Unfortunately the newly passed act has forbidden the public to access to the documents subject to

STATE PARTY IN THE GLOBAL VILLAGE

State Parties must intermingle with the members of the world community to be successful in trade and commerce. Living in isolation in the present political and economic world order is not acceptable. To be successful in the world economic malaise state member should be alert and vigilant armed with an experienced team With the mass and vast communication skills and advancements in trade and commerce with ferocious competitions, small and upcoming state parties sandwiched by world powers are vulnerable and subjected to pressure and danger. Countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong UAE Israel are different and exceptionally advanced in this area and other upcoming economies trading with the rest of the world successfully. Prime Minister appear to be confidently planning entering into agreements with Provincial Governments in India and many trading Nations such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand act, expecting ECTA be a vehicle for export FTA products other countries via Sri Lanka. Why should other countries do business with India via Sri Lanka? There should be attractions and profitable for the world to do so. Are we fit and ready for the challenge? Is a million dollar question. Prime Minister is expecting the market in 1.2 billon from India against 20.3 million Sri Lanka exports to flow via ECTA. What have we got to export and are we ready for the challenge? What have we got to offer and export and there is a possibility of invasion of Indians for employment and business especially in the service sector currently there are 300000 illegal foreign workers in Sri Lanka day by day increasing apart from the Indian Tamil labour in the upcountry controlling the tea economy. This may be a dream or a fantasy of the Prime Minister as there is a long way and his gamble depends on the strategies and planes of other trading nations. On the other hand most of the Pitta” mega business is in the hands of former Indian traders still controlling Sri Lankan entire Export Import trade and wholesale business. Other danger is the multinational companies such and Lever Brother, Singer with flourishing business in both countries will benefit from the changes. Prime

Minister will have to be mindful of these concerns and dangers which are irreparable once put to action by international agreements. Sri Lanka will be in the Laboratory Test” and gunny pigs with great risk of being a failure as all previous agreements namely, SFTA, APTA, ISLFTA, PSFTA, SATIS, GSP,and SAPTA which are ineffective and dormant.

Trade Agreements

International Trade Agreements are an agreements resulting from cooperation between two or more countries and international organizations to reduce trade barriers, import quota and traffics and to improve trade with each other as a second stage of economic integration. To enjoy concessions we must improve export. We have few items for export and it is time for us to increase the export quotas before entering into trade agreements.Sri Lanka has exported goods worth 643.03 $ to India and in return India has exported goods worth 4273.30 $ to Sri Lanka still increasing rapidly when Sri Lankan exports are lagging behind. India has a population of 1.2 billion struggling with poorest with only 50% toilet facilities. Sri Lanka was protected due to isolation as an island with sea right round unlike other SAARC members experiencing bitter battles with the gint neither aiming to be regional policeman of the Indian Ocean and a world power aspiring to be a member of the Security Council. Sri Lanka was pressurised to enter into Indo- Sri Lanka Accord resulting the Provincial Councils which is a white elephants today and cause of many political ramifications and ethnic tensions, with demands from India for the full implementation of the 13th amendment they have forced upon on Sri Lanka. LTTE was groomed and given life in the Indian soil over 30 years reversing the progress of Sri Lank backwards by few decades. There is unrest in illegal fishing and demands from Tamil Nadu is intensified demanding abdication of previous agreements concluded with Sirimavo and Indra Gandi on many contentious issues settled amicably. Indo Sri Lanka is active with tensions on illegal fishing and threats for recalling Kaththive Island settled previously.

Free Trade Agreements

Sri Lanka has entered into only few FT Trade agreements of which all are badly drafted and practically failures and dormant. India is active and vibrant in this area with thousands of experts, professionals and lawyers worldwide. In anti-dumping and many issues with WTO Sri Lanka has not taken legal or procedural steps due to want of experts and lawyers. It is a sorry states that there are hardly any experts or lawyers in Sri Lanka to deal with international trade agrements and take the process forward. Before entering into complicated agreement we must be ready and armed with knowledge and ammunition to meet any eventuality/s to put the house in order. FT’s should not be done in a hurry. It has to go through the process of assessment, Decisions to launch negotiations, Legal Verifications, and Call for Submissions. In Sri Lanka, after few days of the Indian Ministers visit, a group of Sri Lankan delegation consisting retired government officers left to India for the final draft of this important instrument which has long-term effects and irreparable ramifications for the future of the Trade and Commerce in the Nation. The political culture and the situation on the region are not satisfactory and volatile and definitely not conducive for

negotiations as India is now on agitated mood. Therefore it is nothing but fair to hold on proceeding with the ECTA- FT agreement until a thorough study is done keeping the house in order arming the Ministry and patiently await the uncertain Political situation in the region which is uncertain and volatile becomes normal and Sri Lanka is ready to meet the challenges international and locally

Way forward

Israel, Singapore, Hong Kong, though small nations have entered into number of trade agreements with countries regional and international organisation with great care and caution based on their experience and knowledge which is lacking in sri Lanka , unless the knowledge is bought over or tapped through the educated professionals worldwide. It is time to be cautious when we are in trouble. It is the duty of all the political and non-political groups and parties to work together for a solution on national matters including the preparation of International agreements taking these to as priorities.

 Sarath Obeysekera

Nawlaoka Mudalali who has been a pioneer in starting a private hospital in a small scale expanded it with his visions ,because he knew that Colombo Lower middle Class and poor class can still afford 350 Rs to see a doctor in no time ,where as a labourer who earns mere 1500 rs rupees  has to spend whole day in a government hospital lining up to see an OPD doctor ,thus depriving his daily wages .They will go to Nawalloa at 7 am see the doctor within 10 minutes and still go to work

Once he was sitting in his office and a well-known surgeon walked into his room sans his stethoscope. Director of the hospital introduced the surgeon to the Mudalali .Mudalali told him If you are a doctor where is Nalawa ( stethoscope )?”

The surgeon immediately responded by saying I work with Pihiya ( knife) not with Nalawa !!!!!)

Now GMOA has also dropped the Nalawa and trying to use Pihiya ( in another words strike ) to kill the patients .

We should call them butchers not doctors

Sarath Obeysekera

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Name and Shame ……….This is better than complaining to CIABOS…..

I would like to highlight an incident where I was penalized by the government  ( Customs) when I brought my Lexus Car which I used for many years in England  to Sri Lanka .I obtained a Green Permit on the strength of my earnings and got the import license.But last moment I decided to bring the car on temporary Carnet Permit which allows you to bring the car  if you are either a citizen of another country or you have a work visa.

As I was short of over 10 m RS custom duty I brought the car on Carnet Permit and used for a year planning to pay the duty later .Then Customs were gunning after me and wanted me to export the car back other wise I will arrested at the airport .I showed them my permit and offered to pay duty ,but they were insisting that I should export the car back.

I knew that many people have brought their vehicles on Carnet ,bribed the customs and Motor Vehicle Registration Department without paying a cent and got away .

I exported the car back to UK

This is how customs play games with ordinary citizens .They should exercise their powers and arrest those vehicles sold my MP’s and ask the new buyer to pay the duties and taxes. ,Let them go to court and get redress if they feel it is not justifiable .

What do you expect in this country when Justices also who got state land from UDA on a migre 15000 Rs per perch in Colombo have sold them at exorbitant prices ??

This is law and order in this country

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

By Dr.Tilak S. Fernando

It was an early night indeed that I went to bed quite early. I could hardly finish my bedtime prayers that I felt as if I got lifted up from the bed and floating up in the air! Was it a dream or an optical illusion? Next, I landed on a screne and peaceful environment. Figures clad in white robes were moving at snail’s pace, holding ‘threesules’ (three-pronged weapons). I stood like a statue frozen with fear. Suddenly an elderly figure, with silky beard and long white hair, appeared before me and whispered tenderly.

Are you a journalist from Sri Lanka”……?

I trembled and mumbled –  ‘Yes, in a kind of way’!

He laughed heartily and said,  a dominant politician in your land is irritated with the local media and has several times come out with obnoxious statements and threats to journalists and institutions alike”!

‘Its true sire, but today everyone enjoys freedom of speech unlike during the ‘white van era’ in the last regime.’

Don’t you agree there are few foxy creatures still, who cross the boundaries often, despite such freedom? – I am the Archangel in Heaven! Let l me introduce to you”.

‘Am I in a dream world’? Thought to myself.

You are in Heaven son; your astral body has travelled as per Almighty’s wishes. Archangel replied to my thoughts in a flash.

Frozen with fright I politely enquired: ‘Why me sire, of all the people in the world’?

For a special reason son! Besides, God is rather disappointed with the current rulers in your land.

At that very moment I saw an Angel ushering a familiar face, a Sri Lankan, clad in European attire  through the portals of Heaven.

Administrative Centre

God’s Superlative Suite was beyond description. Layers of glistening escalators extended to the vacuum and space beyond. The colossal screens of ‘sky- size’ kept on zooming the countries in the world, in and out, every millisecond.

 When the Archangel waved his hand, Sri Lankan scenes appeared in a ‘virtual tour’ immediately. Flashes of Batalanda graves, LTTE terrorists massacring a group of STF intelligent Officers; scores of policemen forced to kneel down and shooting them at point blank range; multiples of other butcheries and assignations and tortures on ‘rebellious’ youth; explosions and destruction to property, Terrorist leader Prabhakaran’s dead body lying at the Nandikal lake-bank; numerous hanky panky election manouvours, along with the scenes of the  last elections in the country and replacement process of the previous regime.

In a jiffy, an intensified light adjusted itself to bearable human eye limits and perched on a glittery throne. Multitude of laser beams focussed on statues of all religious leaders known to man on earth, Buddha, Jesus, Lord Shiva, Prophet Mohammed et al, and deflected from the throne and reflected into the outer space.

Voice of Almighty

Summon the mortal to my presence”! A loving but commanding tone amplified out of the light. I started to bite my nails with fear. Sri Lankan visitor was made to sit right in front of the throne; he had become pale with his facial countenance changed.

How long are you going to take your people for fools? Especially the Leader I chose for you”?

As God’s voice reverberated like thunder, the mortal was dumbfounded and shivered with fear.

You being a Christian should know better about me. Don’t you realise that I can create or destroy anything just by saying, BE”?  That’s why they called me GOD! (Generator, Operator and Destroyer). Get it”?

You cried your heart out and prayed to me, years on end, to afford a chance to lead the country to wards prosperity and make your people happy. You even made a responsible vow to me and swore on countrywide platforms to get rid of the scroungers of the public purse, cheaters and plunderers who led luxurious life styles out of peoples’ money. Then I gave you the thumbs up, afterwards what did you do? Tried all types of monkey pranks with me also ah! Now look what a mess you have got into. All you did was to turn yourself into tyrant and be smart. The worst being you tarnished the image of my choice seemingly in the eyes of people, by turning him into an effigy”!

 You destroyed all my efforts in convincing people to trounce political phonies who thought they would rule forever. I gave you a golden opportunity to lead the country for prosperity, and what did you do instead? Turned into a despot and behaved like a joker and got your name spoilt!  Look at the extent of damage befallen upon you due to your haughtiness in dabbling in a dirty game, which everyone calls it the ‘CB Treasury Bond Scam”!  You did not even listen to my choice when he requested you to refrain from doing silly things. Even he has run out of patience in tolerating you and appointed a Supreme Court Committee to deal with it!  I want them to go pell mel and slate all the cronies connected with it”.

 I helped you to create political history by installing a ‘ unity government’ with my own choice, but today no one cares ‘ tuppence h’penny’ about you or what your colleagues come out with.  You set up numerous anti-corruption units and created the FCID, which only turned into a political teledrama”!

 I have already earmarked a list of plunderers, swindlers and fraudsters, and all ‘wolfs in sheep’s clothing,‘ including schemers and double-crossers in your own lot, who are enjoying the lap of luxury on earth. In a moment you will be taken and shown how the Hell looks like, and the terrorist Trojan, who once thought he was mightier than God (Me) is crying out for help while burning 24/7 in Hell Fires, then you will realise no one can escape from Me if any leader mistreats his people on earth”.

 I will warn you finally not to indulge in any hanky panky with my choice given to you; just leave him alone to do his job properly, and also refrain from   any attempts of saving or covering up all those charlatans. They need to pay partly for their own sins on earth itself before they come here ! If you do not obey me, I will have no mercy upon you too. Bear one thing in mind. Those Commissions and FCIDs are worthless if you cannot bring those imposters, swindlers and embezzlers to book”.

I expect you to behave like a senior good leader and a gentleman when you get back, and not to be an ignoramus like Lucifer. You need to bear in mind that only pure hearts can enter My Kingdom? I felt sorry for you, that is the reason why I had to call you here, the first mortal ever allowed to enter Heaven to see me in flesh and blood before his death. Hell fires are mind-bogglingly intense and it scorches the entire soul continuously!  Let those who enjoy sensuous worldly pleasures, temporarily out there, and those who think there is no God or a World after death continue until the final day dawns on them. No one is able to visualise what Hell is like until they come and see for themselves

This is my final warning to you to put your nation island in the right perspective and to make people happy. Don’t you ever try to play pranks with Me anymore. I want you to see from your own naked eyes  how the terrorist tyrant, who tried to be too smart with Me, is crying in Hell and seeking forgiveness. Consider yourself to be lucky to have an opportunity to get personal advice from Me, a rare opportunity given to a mortal ever, in My Abode, while alive on earth.”

I could see the Sri Lankan’s face getting reddened in the presence of God’s luminosity. He wanted to utter something, but except an open mouth and a rolling tongue, I couldn’t hear a single word coming out of his mouth.

The next moment God’s sparkling luminous light lifted up and vanished at rocket speed with a huge thud making a spectacular spectrum of conspicuous colours. I jumped out of the bed to the screaming sound of my alarm clock. Was it a real dream ?

tilakfernando@gmail.com

Dr. Chula Rajapakse MNZM Spokesperson, United Sri Lanka Association.New Zealand.

Rt Hon Bill English MP,
Prime Minister of New Zealand.

Dear Mr.English,

Thank you for your acknowledgement of my letter of 12th December offering our thanks and best wishes to your predecessor Mr.John Key on his retirement from a very successful tenure as Prime Minister during which time New Zealand and it’s people enjoyed a happy and a economically prosperous period .

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you similar success and and an equally long tenure as you commence the new parliamentary year as his successor. We also wish that New Zealand would enjoy similar economic prosperity and happiness as we did under Mr Key.In saying that we do appreciate that you were a major contributor to this economic prosperity as the Finance Minister during this entire period, so inspiring confidence in us. This was reinforced by the success you had in your first public appearance this year at the Ratana Church.

Sri Lankans remember Mr.Key fondly among other for the support he showed to Sri Lanka . Attending the CHOGM in Colombo in 2013, his subsequent visit to SL in 2016, his fostering closer ties with SL and decision to establish a high commission in SL, and his firm stand against terrorism demonstrating among others, by his firm stand against accepting boat people from Sri Lanka with possible links to Tiger Terrorists, are some of his actions in this regard.

We lookforward to similar cordial interactions between our community and yourself and entertain the hope that you would be able to grace one of the many social occasions our community hosts in Wellington , most particularly the the annual Cultural Show & Dinner hosted by the United Sri Lanka Association in September r /October each year. For the past several years the local national MP’s  Chris Bishop , Paul Foster Bell & Bret Hudson have had regular and prominent presence at this event and so hope for your presence  at this years event.

In fact, last evening (Saturday  4th of February) Hon Chris Bishop, figured prominently in another such event, the celebration of Sri Lanka’s independence day falling on the 4th of Feb. and the Waitangi day falling on the 6th Feb., organised by the Wellington based Sri Lanka Dance Academy of four decades stranding. The academy and the SL community were pleased and proud to feature dances and music combining Sri Lankan and Maori tradition specially choreographed for the event which also signified the commitment of the Sri Lankan community to integrate with the wider New Zealand community while adding to it’s richness.

If there is one thing I could identify as being most missed by the SL community in NZ ,it is the difficult access to SL from NZ, having to go via Singapore or Hongkong adding unnecessary time and distance to this travel. The irony is that there are five planes ( four from Emirates airlines and one from Quatar airways) that leave Auckland every evening and night and fly over Colombo on their way to Dubai and Quatar respectively .If any of them could be persuaded to stop off in Colombo it would make travel to SL from NZ significantly easier.This would be a significant way to advance the intentions announced of NZ & SL ’ s  joint commitment to progress trade and investment between the two countries that Trade Minister Mr. Todd McClay  announced on the 20th of January, following his meeting with the SL Prime Minister at the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland.

We thank you very much for giving consideration some of these thoughts and sentiments and once again wish you  the very best as  Prime Minister of New Zealand.

Yours Sincerely,

Dr. Chula Rajapakse MNZM

Spokesperson,

United Sri Lanka Association.

Wellington, New Zealand.

BY GAGANI WEERAKOON Courtesy Ceylon Today

Sri Lanka yesterday celebrated the 69th anniversary of gaining independence from Britain, and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on the occasion of Independence Day sent the following message: “It gives me great pleasure to send Your Excellency Maithripala Sirisena my congratulations on the celebration of your National Day, together with my best wishes for the good fortune and happiness of the people of Sri Lanka in the coming year — Elizabeth R”.

While many argue whether Sri Lanka has achieved freedom in the true meaning of the word, the most awaited and sought after piece of legislation of the country in the recent past, the Right to Information (RTI) Act was gazetted on the day before the National Day, which would hopefully enable its citizen to ‘know what’ in many cases.

The RTI aims at restoring transparency and good governance in a country that has been plagued by corruption and misrule. The government last week gazetted the categories of public authorities that fall within the purview of the RTI.

“RTI is new to us, so we can’t expect it to be 100% perfect.But we will learn from experience. However, we urge the public to make use of the new law,” Minister of Mass Media Gayantha Karunathilaka told media while strongly encouraging the citizens to make use of the RTI Act, even though the minister admitted the process could be subject to teething problems.

As of now, it seems that the corruption watchdog, Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) will submit at least six RTI queries on the basis of public interest inquiry. According to TISL spokesperson, one such would be filed at the Presidential Secretariat requesting information about the President’s assets declaration. The rest would be filed at the Employees’ Provident Fund, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Land Reform Commission, the Elections Commission, the Ministry of Health and the Department of Customs.

“From the Elections Commission, we have requested for financial reports of registered political parties,” the TISL Spokesman said.

Applications for information can be made orally, in writing or electronically through email, and citizens should be clear about what information specifically they are applying for.

As per the Gazette notification, every public authority that falls within the purview of the RTI Act must place public notices from Monday (6), with details of the Information Officer appointed for the office, with the officer’s name, email address and telephone number. In the event an Information Officer, having not been appointed at that institution, the head of the institution becomes the information officer.

Information requests made at Government offices must be processed within 14 days, but if further time is required, the office may request a 14-day extension.

President warns his Cabinet Ministers

With RTI coming into effect, President Sirisena too warned his Cabinet Ministers to get their act together and work diligently.

Cracking the whip on those who were accused of being errant in the past so many months, President Sirisena, in Eravur on Wednesday, made it clear that he would have to take firm decisions, in the future, over the wrongdoings committed by the government.

“This government too is engaging in wrongdoings, the people know who is doing what. A new government was installed not to commit the same thefts, thuggery, corruption and fraud that the previous government engaged in.

Therefore, if those in the government engage in wrongdoing they have to be aware of the fact that they too will receive charge sheets from me and investigations will be launched. As a result, there are no factions as former and present. Whoever commits wrong is wrong,” the President said.

He also said that, even though certain individuals say that they will topple the government that can only be done by the people.

He added that, in the future he will reveal how the previous government engaged in State administration.

Speaking further, the President said that certain people say they are going to topple the government but these are merely dreams they see in their sleep.

“Those who engaged in governing and those who engaged in wrongdoing are fond of power.When they go to sleep they can see in their dreams how they ruled the country. They recall the privileges they were deprived of.They remember how they used State property, State assets and the Treasury for their private purposes. They are not aware of how they caused billions of USD losses to SriLankan Airlines by travelling round the world in aircrafts of the government and retaining them for days on end.During that time, helicopters were used like the motor cycles at home. If they are saying that they want to govern again, I have many things to think about.”

President Sirisena on the previous day at the Cabinet meeting did mention of an imminent Cabinet reshuffle. Accordingly, while it is expected that some ministers are bound to lose the portfolios they are currently holding several others will get additional subjects to handle, with their current portfolios.

President Sirisena had also warned the ministers to be mindful of what they are saying as nothing should lead to jeopardize the unity of the Unity Government till 2020.

Dayasiri lashes out at Wigneswaran

While the President maintains such a position, Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara, last week, was seen lashing out at Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran saying the latter’s statements made Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) members of the government to think twice about abolishing the Executive Presidency.

Addressing media at the SLFP Headquarters in Colombo he said because there were doubts about the abolishing of the Executive Presidency there should be a capable leader to contest at the next presidential election and so far the SLFP has only one capable leader and that is President Maithripala Sirisena.

When a journalist pointed out to him President Sirisena’s election pledge not to contest again and that he had reaffirmed he would not contest for another term on several occasions, Minister Jayasekara said it was a party decision and as President Sirisena is the leader of SLFP he would obviously be the candidate to contest at the next presidential election, but if he did not have such an intention he should state his stance to the contrary.

The Minister stressed that CM Wigneswaran was promoting racism through his statements and feeding the Sinahala and Tamil extremists.

The majority of the Tamil people living in the North and the East want some devolution of power and economic development and they do not want what CM Wigneswaran was highlighting through media. It was for the consumption of the Tamil Disapora and NGO’s who were working for the LTTE’s agendas. Many parliamentarians had agreed to devolution of power to some extent. Therefore, the Chief Minister was trying to raise the stakes and create issues among Sinhalese and Tamils in the North, Minister Jayasekara said.

Commenting on former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s recent statement that the Joint Opposition (JO) would contest separately from the SLFP at the forthcoming Local Government election, State Minister of City Planning and Water Supply Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle requested former President Rajapaksa not to divide the party as it would be of no advantage either to the JO or the SLFP.

She stressed that the JO would not win the election and the SLFP would be weakened but the advantage of the split would go to United National Party.

Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara said it was still too early to come to a conclusion based on the statements made by former President Rajapaksa as he had changed his statements from time to time. Therefore, the party should patiently wait till he officially makes a statement.

He noted that if the party is divided, the SLFP would not be able to come back to power at the least for another 20 years.

Minister Jayasekera claimed that those who are trying to divide the SLFP are trying to bring back former President Rajapaksa to power.

Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran in response said that the Tamil people’s issues could not be solved by chasing him (Wigneswaran) away.

Replying to a statement made by Sports Minister Jayasekara recently, he made this remark, at a function held in Vavuniya to declare open the new two-storey building of the Vavuniya South Sinhala Pradeshiya Sabha.

“Minister Jayasekara recently said that I should be banished from the Northern Province. But the issues faced by the Tamils would not be solved by banishing me. Not only me, even my successor will say the same thing I said, as we always speak the truth,” he said.

Enter Praveena Raviraj

In a bid to take the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to the youth of the country, the party is planning to field young candidates at future elections. As an initiative, Praveena Raviraj, Attorney-at-Law, the twenty-five-year- old daughter of former Member of Parliament and Attorney-at-Law, Nadarajah Raviraj, will enter politics.

She has decided to enter politics, following an official invitation by the TNA and will take membership of the party soon. TNA sources also said that she would receive a post in charge of youth affairs. She will be contesting at the next general election, on the TNA ticket.

Praveena is a past student of Bishop’s College and recently returned from the United Kingdom as a law graduate. She was a teenager at the time of her father’s murder.

Navy Commander on Indian visit

The Commander of the Navy, Vice Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne completing his five-day official tour of India visited the Southern Naval Command in Kochi.

During this visit, the Commander of the Navy met the Flag Officer Commanding Chief Southern Naval Command (FOC-in-C, South), Vice Admiral A.R. Karve, AVSM and Flag Officer Sea Training (FOST), South, Rear Admiral M.A. Hampiholi, NM as well.

At the cordial discussions held with Rear Admiral M.A. Hampiholi, Vice Admiral Wijegunaratne shed light on the present stance of the Sri Lanka Navy which is in a period of transition, changing from Fast Attack Craft operations to operating Offshore Patrol Vessels with high hopes towards the future. As such, he requested all assistance in realizing that hope in terms of providing constant training for Sri Lankan officers and sailors in operating Offshore Patrol Vessels.

As part of this tour, the Commander of the Navy also took time off to visit the Joint Operations Command and Anti- Submarine School in Kochi.

Moreover, he shared a light moment with the Sri Lankan naval officers and sailors undergoing training there. Coincidently, the Anti- Submarine School in Kochi happened to be the place where the Commander of the Navy completed his Anti-Submarine Warfare specialization in 1989.

During his visit, the Navy Commander speaking to Indian media assured India that neither will its land nor water around it be used for any activity against Indian interests, amid increased Chinese naval forays into the Indian Ocean.

“We assure the Indian Government that nothing against India will happen in Sri Lankan land and waters around it,” Vice Admiral Wijegunaratne said when asked about the docking of Chinese submarines there.

He asserted that the Chinese presence in Sri Lanka was purely for economic reasons.

“We have also invited Indian firms,” he said.

Wijegunaratne said security at the Colombo Financial City would be entrusted to the Sri Lanka Navy and not the Chinese as is being speculated.

He also hoped that training of Sri Lankan defence personnel at the Defence Service Staff College at Wellington in Tamil Nadu will restart.

As he was touring in India, the Oceanographic Research Vessel of the People’s Liberation Army Navy, ‘Quan Sanqiang’ arrived at the Port of Colombo for a replenishment and technical halt.

The ship was welcomed by the Sri Lanka Navy, in accordance with naval traditions, on her arrival. Subsequently, the Commanding Officer of ‘Quan Sanqiang’ Lieutenant Commander Yang Haitao paid a courtesy call on the Commander Western Naval Area, Rear Admiral Niraja Attygalle at the Western Naval Command Headquarters and held cordial discussions. Mementoes were also exchanged to mark the significance of this official meeting. The Chinese ship is scheduled to stay in Sri Lanka till tomorrow.