Aruna Laksiri Unawatuna B.Sc(Col), PGDC(Col), Attorney-at-Law. Coordinator, Dr. Thilaka Padma Subasinghe Memorial Legal Education Program

1. The Bill of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was introduced to the Parliament on 19 September 2002, which sought to amend Article 70 of the Constitution. However, the amendment was not implemented in 2002 because  7 Supreme Court judges delivered their Supreme Court determination SC/SD/11/2002, which ruled that the amendment should be made law through a referendum.

2. A Bill of the19th Amendment to the Constitution was presented to the Parliament again on 24 March 2015, seeking to amend Article 70 and several other Articles of the Constitution and the said amendment became law without holding a referendum in accordance with the Supreme Court determination SC/SD/04/2015 given by 3 Supreme Court judges.

3. Individuals filed cases SC/FR/177/2024 and SC/FR/191/2024 in the Supreme Court to correct the errors made in the 19th Amendment to the Constitution brought in 2015, and those cases were dismissed with costs of Rs. 1 lakh and Rs. 5 lakh.

4. In such a situation and background, President Ranil Wickremesinghe made a public statement at the opening ceremony of the Galle Court Complex on 19.07.2024, stating that due to the oversight of a legal scholar, a mistake had been made in the 19th Amendment to the Constitution brought in 2015 and that he apologized to the people for it. This was stated in the presence of Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya, Attorney General Parinda Ranasinghe and other judges, government officials and the public.

5. To correct the errors that occurred in the 19th Amendment to the Constitution brought in 2015, the Bill of the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution has been published in the Gazette issued on 18.07.2024 in accordance with Article 78 of the Constitution with the approval of the Attorney General. The purpose of this bill is to amend Article 83 of the Constitution by correcting the term of office of the President and the Parliament.

6. The fact that individuals have filed cases in the Supreme Court to correct the mistakes made in the 19th Amendment to the Constitution brought in 2015, and after receiving decisions in this regard, the President has admitted that mistakes have been made in the 19th Amendment to the Constitution brought in 2015 and stated that those mistakes were the oversight of a legal scholar, apologized to the people for those mistakes, and published the 22nd Amendment Bill in the Gazette with the approval of the Attorney General to correct those mistakes are constitutional and legal matters that should be brought to the attention of the Bar Association.

7. The Bar Association has the responsibility and duty to investigate and correct the mistakes made in the 19th Amendment to the Constitution brought in 2015, to correct the errors in Article 83 of the Constitution, to protect the precedent of the Supreme Court decisions, to protect the right to the rule of law and to ensure the rule of law. To remain silent in this regard is to deprive the people of liberty, justice and equality.

http://neethiyalk.blogspot.com/2024/12/is-bar-association-silent-on-mistakes.html?m=1

Aruna Laksiri Unawatuna B.Sc(Col), PGDC(Col), Attorney-at-Law. Coordinator, Dr. Thilaka Padma Subasinghe Memorial Legal Education Program. Tel. 0712063394.
(*Translation)

by Gomi Senadhira Courtesy The Island

ranil – sajith – anura

During the presidential election campaign, the importance of trade, particularly exports, to Sri Lanka’s was emphasised by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) and the other two main contenders in the fray, namely Sajith Premadasa (SP) and Ranil Wickremesinghe (RW) in their manifestos. These three candidates together polled more than 90 percent of the votes at the presidential elections. During the parliamentary elections the political parties which based their campaign on these manifestos – Jathika Jana Balawegaya (NPP), Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and New Democratic Front (NDF) together polled more than 83%. Therefore, the electoral support for these pro-trade policies is undisputed. For the Sri Lankan export community this should be a superb development, as for many years, the trade policy had been, one of the more contentious areas of island’s politics. Our main trading partners and the foreign investors would also welcome this policy convergence.

Pro- trade policies in the policy statements of RW and SJ were not unexpected. But the pro-trade approach in the AKD’s manifesto surprised many, mainly because all other parties had repeatedly warned the people against voting for AKD as he would turn Sri Lanka into another North Korea or Cuba.

For example, during the election campaign, at a conference organised by the National Bankers Association, RW stated, On September 4th, MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake emphasised the importance of focusing on exports for our country’s businessmen and industrialists. While this principle is commendable, there is a concern. Their policy statement suggests that Sri Lanka plans to cancel its free trade agreements.

This raises a significant question: how can we develop an export industry without these agreements? Such contradictions pose challenges.” Since then, he had repeated these comments at several other meetings.  In the same way, SP’s trade policy wonks also had spread similar misinformation on NPP policies.  However, the NPP policy statement clearly states its position on Free Trade Agreements, that is … updating of existing free trade agreements and negotiating new free trade agreements.” The updating of the trade agreements certainly does mean cancelling of these agreements. All FTAs need to be reviewed and updated periodically.

During the election seasons, politicians sometimes manipulate public opinion about the crucial issues by arousing fear. But this is not the time to deliberately mislead the public in general and, more particularly, the business community and our trading partners with false information on trade policy. At this juncture, what we need are facts. Not scare tactics and false information. So, let’s hope our politicians would avoid such scare tactics in the future and join together to strengthen this consensus on export-oriented, outward-looking trade policy.

To those who are familiar with the way the NPP policies evolved in the recent past, their shift towards pro-trade policies is not a surprise. After all, if the NPP and AKD want a socialist model to emulate, they have many examples of socialist governments, other than North Korea and Cuba, to draw lessons from. For example, the success story of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. While cautiously staying away from the labels AKD’s policy statement refers to Vietnam, Bangladesh, and South Korea (and not North Korea) as export success stories, Sri Lanka can acquire lessons from. More importantly, Vietnam’s success story was also highlighted at the top of RW’s policy statement and by the trade experts in the SJB as a success story to follow. What is needed now is to strengthen this consensus further and develop a pro-export national trade strategy approved by the parliament. That would help to attract much-needed foreign investments and export orders.

If we already have a general consensus on pro-trade and pro-export policies, then why do we need to rethink trade policies now?

From export-oriented economy to import dependent economy

Sri Lanka was the first country in South Asia to liberalise trade policies with the ‘open’ economy introduced in the late 1970s. However, the open economy introduced then was not fully open. It had a strong focus on the expansion of the export of goods while discouraging imports, particularly nonessential imports. A special cess was imposed on the nonessential imports to protect local farmers and manufacturers and to collect funds for export development.

The main thrust of the trade policy was exports. During that period, the government proactively managed to get an adequate level of market access to Sri Lankan exports through multilateral trade rules (GATT/WTO rules) as well as the distortions to those rules (textile quotas). These policies worked well, and during the 1980s and 90s, Sri Lanka’s exports registered almost a fivefold increase, from US$1.35 billion in 1981 to US$6.37 billion by the year 2000. The exports-to-GDP ratio increased from 30.46% in 1981 to 39.02% in 2000. During the period, Sri Lanka was slowly but surely progressing into an export-oriented economy.

Unfortunately, during the next two decades, the export growth slowed down and only increased from US$6.37 billion (in 2000) to US$13.03 billion (in 2020). The exports-to-GDP ratio also declined substantially during this period. At 15.46% in 2020, it was the lowest ever recorded. More alarmingly, the growth of exports during the last decade was almost stagnant, and it increased only from US$ 10 billion in 2013 to US$ 12 billion in 2023. During the same period, Vietnam’s exports increased from US$132 billion in 2013 to US$370 billion in 2023.

Hijacking of trade policy by importers and profiteers

The main reason for this decline was the absence of interest in export development by the successive governments and the influence of the importers, the profiteers and perhaps even hawaladars on trade policy formulations. If one analyses the trade policy formulation in the recent years, it is easy to understand how trade policies and even free trade agreements were directed towards import promotion at the expense of export development. After signing Sri Lanka’s first bilateral FTA with India in December 1998 and second with Pakistan in August 2002, and the enhanced GSP arrangement in the EU, no new tangible initiatives were taken by the government to develop market access for Sri Lankan exports.

During the last decade the situation deteriorated further and even the free trade agreements, which countries normally negotiate at the request and on behalf of their exporters to get better levels of market access for them in other countries, were negotiated at the request of the exporters of other countries to provide them with enhanced market access into Sri Lanka without reciprocal concessions for Sri Lankan exporters. The free trade agreements Sri Lanka signed with Singapore and Thailand are clear examples of this approach.

These agreements were negotiated under RW’s leadership, first as the prime minister and then as the president. Despite his rhetoric about the critical need to swiftly transform Sri Lanka into an export-oriented economy, as stabilising the economy alone would not solve Sri Lanka’s problems due to the country’s heavy dependence on imports, it was under RW’s leadership that the trade policy got blatantly hijacked by the importers mafia and profiteers.

Another adverse development during the last two decades was the relaxation of foreign exchange regulations. Due to this Sri Lanka also does not fully benefit even from the limited amount of exports, as a substantial portion of the export proceeds are not repatriated. In July 2022 the Central Bank revealed that less than 20% of export proceeds are being repatriated by the exporters. Though this may have improved since then, the conversion rate remains below accepted levels. In addition to that, a significant amount of money is transferred out through trade misinvoicing by the exporters and importers.

As the elections are over now it is the time for a new beginning. It is the time to intensify analysis and advocacy regarding the numerous ways that trade agreements and po8licies must be reformed and strengthen the consensus on trade policies and adjust them to undo decades of capture by the importers’ mafia, profiteers, and hawaladars.

(The writer, a retired public servant and diplomat, can be reached at senadhiragomi@gmail.com)

– ශර්මිලා ගෝනවෙල – උපුටා ගැන්ම  ලංකා ලීඩර්

උතුරු නැගෙනහිර මෙන්ම විදේශයන්හිද මෙම වසරේ කොටි සැමරුම ඉතාමත් උත්කර්ෂවත් ලෙස සිදුවිය.

අප රටේ රණවිරුවන්ට අභූත චෝදනා නගමින්, රණවිරුවන්ගේ කීර්ති නාමයට, මානුෂීය ගුණයන්ට, කැපවීමට අපහාස කරමින්  අප මාතෘ භූමියේ ව්‍යවස්ථාවට පටහැනිව යමින් රටේ ස්වෛරීභාවයට සහ භෞමික අඛණ්ඩතාවයට එරෙහිව සටන් වැදුණු ත්‍රස්ත සංවිධානයකට බෙදුම් වාදී දෘෂ්ටිවාදය නිදහසේ ප්‍රවර්ධනය කිරීමට  ඉඩ හැරීම උපන් බිමට සාමය උදාකර දීමට තම ජීවිත කැප කරමින් අනාගත පරපුරට රටක් ඉතිරි කිරීමට ත්‍රස්තවාදියා හමුවේ ජීවිත දන් දුන් රණවිරුවන්ට කරන අපහාසයකි.

රටේ නිල හමුදාවන්  සමඟ යුද වැදුණු තහනම් ත්‍රස්ත සංවිධානයක කොඩිය හෝ එය සංකේතවත් කරන වර්ණ පුෂ්පය  ප්‍රදර්ශනය කිරීම රට කඩන ඊලාම් සිතියම සමග මිනීමරු ත්‍රස්තවාදී නායකයාගේ ඡායාරූපය ප්‍රදර්ශනය කරමින් සැමරීමට ශිවාජිලිංගම් වැනි බෙදුම්වාදී ජාතිවාදින්ට ඉඩ නොදීමට තරම් ශක්තියක් රජයකට තිබිය යුතුය.

උතුරේ සහ දකුණේ ජනතාව විසින් 2/3 අධික ජන වරමක් ලබා දෙමින්  වාර්ගික දේශපාලනයෙන් සහ කලාපීය බෙදීම් වලින් තොරවූ  ආර්ථික හා සමාජීය එකමුතුවක් කෙරෙහි වැඩි අවධානයක් යොමු කරන සමස්ත ජනතාව මෙන්ම විවිධ රටවල කොටි ප්‍රවර්ධනයට එරෙහිව කැපවීමෙන් ක්‍රියා කරන සියලු ශ්‍රි ලාංකික ජනතාවට එරෙහි බලවත්  අසාධාරණයකි.

යුධබිමේ මියගිය බහුතරයක් කොටි සාමාජිකයින් නිවෙස් වලින් බලහත්කාරයෙන් පැහැරගෙන ගොස් කොටි සංවිධානයට බඳවාගත් පසැල් වියේ පසුවූ දරුවන් බව ලොවම දන්නා කරුණකි.එවැනි දරුවන්ගේ වියෝව සැමරීමට දෙමව්පියන්ට ඇති අයිතියක් උදුරා ගැනීමට තරම් උතුරේ හෝ දකුණේ කිසිවෙක්  කෘර නොවනු ඇත, පාසල් නිල ඇඳුමෙන් පැහැර ගත් එම කුඩා දරුවන්ට අවි පුහුණුව ලබාදී සයනයිඩ් කරලක් ගෙලවට එල්ලු ම්ලේච්ඡ  ත්‍රස්තවාදී නායකයින් සැමරීම හෝ සිහිකිරීම මානසික විකෘතියක්  නොමැති කිසිවෙකු අනුමත  නොකරනු ඇත.

එනමුත් ත්‍රස්තවාදය අවසන් කළ ස්ථානයට ගොස් කොටි කොඩිය හෝ සමාන කොඩි එසවීම ඊලාම් සිතියම ප්‍රදර්ශනය කිරීම කොටි නිල ඇඳුමෙන් සැරසුණු අයගේ ඡායාරූප ප්‍රදර්ශනය කිරීම සංහිඳියාව ලෙස දැකීමට තරම් කිසිවෙක් නිවට නොවිය යුතු බව මගේ පෞද්ගලික හැඟීමයි .මන්ද යත්  ඒ මගින් අප රටෙන් පිටතදී බෙදුම් වාදය පෝෂණය කරමින් මහා ධනයක් හ ජාත්‍යන්තර සබඳතා ගොඩනගා ගැනීමට මෙය  ධනාත්මක සාධකයක් වනු ඇත.

තවද උතුරු සහ නැගෙනහිර පළාත් දෙමළ කතා කරන ප්‍රදේශ ලෙස නිල වශයෙන් පිළිගන්නා ලෙස ඉල්ලීම වෙනුවෙන් දෙමළ ජාතිකවාදී පක්‍ෂ සන්ධානයක් පිහිටුවීමට සැලසුම් කර ඇති බවඋතුරු පළාත් හිටපු මහ ඇමති විග්නේෂ්වරන් පසුගියදා ප්‍රකාශ කර ඇති අතර මෙරටින් පිට ස්ථාපනය කර එළි දක්වන තමිල් ඊලම උතුරේ ස්ථාපනය කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය මානසිකත්වය සංහිඳියාව අගයන ජනතාව තුල බලහත්කාරයෙන් පැල කිරීමට ඉඩ නොදිය යුතුය.

ජර්මනියේ කිසිදු දිනක නාසි සොල්දාදුවන් සැමරීමට ඉඩ නොදෙන්නේ නැවතත් යුද විෂබීජ වැපිරීමට අවශ්‍ය මානසිකත්වය ගොඩනැගිම වැලැක්වීමට බව සංහිඳියාව ගැන මනුසත්බව ගැන ලිපි ලියන බහුතරයක් නොදන්නවා වියහැක. ගාලු මුවදොර අරගලය අතරතුර යට ඇදුම් පවා ප්‍රදර්ශනය කරමින්  හමුදා සෙබළුන්ට අභියෝග කල තරුණ ප්‍රජාවට මේ රටේ ඉතිහාසය ගැන යම් අවබෝධයක් ලබාගැනිමට මේ සුදුසුම කාලයක් විය හැක.

බෙදුම්වාදී ආකල්පයන් ප්‍රදර්ශනය කිරීම හෝ ප්‍රචාරණය කිරීමට ඉඩදී බලා සිටින්නේ රටේ ඒකිය භාවය හා ස්වෛරීභාවය උකසට තබමින් ඡන්ද ලබා ගැනීමට පමණක් බලා සිටින අවස්ථාවාදී දේශපාලකයන් පමණි.

– ශර්මිලා ගෝනවෙල –

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

පවතින සහල් හිඟයට අදාළව වෙළෙඳ අමාත්‍ය වසන්ත සමරසිංහ විසින් තමාට එල්ල කළ චෝදනා ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කරන බව රත්න සහල් හිමිකරු, මිත්‍රපාල ලංකේෂ්වර පවසනවා.

අමාත්‍ය වසන්ත සමරසිංහගේ චෝදනාව වූයේ රාජ්‍ය බැංකුවලින් රුපියල් බිලියන ගණනින් ණය ලබාගත්තත් රත්න සහල් හිමිකරු වෙළෙඳපොළට සහල් නිකුත් නොකරන බවටයි.

ඇතැම් මහා පරිමාණ සහල් මෝල් හිමියන් රාජ්‍ය බැංකුවලින් බිලියන ගණනින් ණය ලබාගෙන තිබුණද වෙළෙඳපොළට අවශ්‍ය පරිදි සහල් නිකුත් කර නොමැති බවට වෙළෙඳ, වානිජ, ආහාර සුරක්ෂිතතා සහ සමූපකාර සංවර්ධන අමාත්‍ය වසන්ත සමරසිංහ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී ඊයේ චෝදනාවක් කළා.

කෙසේ වෙතත්, එම චෝදනාට ප්‍රතිචාර දක්වමින් සහල් ව්‍යාපාරික මිත්‍රපාල ලංකේෂ්වර සඳහන් කළේ, එම චෝදනා තමන් ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කරන බවයි.

පාර්ලිමේන්තු වරප්‍රසාදවලට මුවා වී අමාත්‍යවරයා විසින් සාවද්‍ය ප්‍රකාශ සිදුකරන බවයි ඔහු සඳහන් කළේ.

මේ අතර රට තුළ පවතින සහල් හිඟය සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඊයේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී වෙළෙඳ, වානිජ, ආහාර සුරක්ෂිතතා සහ සමූපකාර සංවර්ධන අමාත්‍ය වසන්ත සමරසිංහ පැවසුවේ ඊයේ දිනයේදී පමණක් සතොස අලෙවිසැල් සඳහා සහල් කිලෝ 150,000කට ආසන්න ප්‍රමාණයක් මුදා හැරීමට කටයුතු කරන බවයි.

කෙසේ වෙතත්, දිවයිනේ ඇතැම් ප්‍රදේශවල සතොස අලෙවිසැල් සඳහා සහල් සහ පොල් තොග නිසි පරිදි තවමත් ලැබී නොමැති බවට ජනතාව චෝදනා කරනවා.

මේ අතර, රට තුළ පවතින සහල් හිඟය සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඊයේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී වෙළෙඳ, වානිජ, ආහාර සුරක්ෂිතතා සහ සමූපකාර සංවර්ධන අමාත්‍ය වසන්ත සමරසිංහ පැවසුවේ ඊයේ දිනයේදී පමණක් සතොස අලෙවිසැල් සඳහා සහල් කිලෝ 150,000කට ආසන්න ප්‍රමාණයක් මුදා හැරීමට කටයුතු කරන බවයි.

කෙසේ වෙතත්, දිවයිනේ ඇතැම් ප්‍රදේශවල සතොස අලෙවිසැල් සඳහා සහල් සහ පොල් තොග නිසි පරිදි තවමත් ලැබී නොමැති බවට ජනතාව චෝදනා කරනවා.

මේ අතර, රට තුළ පවතින සහල් හිඟය සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඊයේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී වෙළෙඳ, වානිජ, ආහාර සුරක්ෂිතතා සහ සමූපකාර සංවර්ධන අමාත්‍ය වසන්ත සමරසිංහ පැවසුවේ ඊයේ දිනයේදී පමණක් සතොස අලෙවිසැල් සඳහා සහල් කිලෝ 150,000කට ආසන්න ප්‍රමාණයක් මුදා හැරීමට කටයුතු කරන බවයි.

කෙසේ වෙතත්, දිවයිනේ ඇතැම් ප්‍රදේශවල සතොස අලෙවිසැල් සඳහා සහල් සහ පොල් තොග නිසි පරිදි තවමත් ලැබී නොමැති බවට ජනතාව චෝදනා කරනවා.

Courtesy Adaderana

The owner of ‘New Rathna’ Rice Mill, Lankeshwara Mithrapala, has invited Trade Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe to personally inspect the company’s rice production facilities in the wake of the minister’s statement in Parliament yesterday (6) accusing large-scale rice millers of stockpiling.  

Responding to the allegations, Mithrapala stated, I urge the Trade Minister to inspect my company at any time. I can prove the quantity of rice I released, my production capacity, and the stocks I have.”  

He explained that his operations involve maintaining rice stocks to ensure consistent market supply until the next harvest season.  

We don’t release all our rice stocks to the market at once. I have 1,000 employees working at the mill, and I manage these stocks to produce rice daily and supply it to the market until the next harvest begins. I must protect the rice stocks I have and continue production until February 1,” Mithrapala explained.

Courtesy Adaderana

Following a discussion with rice traders, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has directed new maximum retail and wholesale price limits for various rice types, according to the President’s Media Division (PMD).

President Dissanayake has directed rice traders to sell Nadu rice to consumers at a wholesale price of Rs. 225 per kilo and a retail price of Rs. 230 per kilo.

The President also instructed the officials Consumer Affairs Authority to closely monitor the situation over the next ten days and strictly enforce the law against rice mill owners who fail to comply with the fixed prices.

President Dissanayake made these remarks during a meeting with officials from the Ministry of Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Cooperative Development, along with rice traders, at the Presidential Secretariat today (07), the PMD said.

The President highlighted that the largest investments in the country are allocated to the Ministry of Highways, followed by the Irrigation and Agriculture sectors, with substantial subsidies provided to farmers. 

The President further pointed out that low-interest bank loans have been provided to traders for the purchase of paddy and urged rice traders not to undermine the public’s right to access affordable rice.

As a result, the following rice prices are to be implemented:

• Wholesale price of a kilo of Nadu Rice: Rs. 225, Retail price: Rs. 230
• Wholesale price of a kilo of White Rice: Rs. 215, Retail price: Rs. 220
• Retail price of a kilo of imported Nadu Rice: Rs. 220
• Wholesale price of a kilo of Samba rice: Rs. 235, Retail price: Rs. 240
• Wholesale price of a kilo of Keeri Samba: Rs. 255, Retail price: Rs. 260

The President also strongly criticized rice mill owners for frequently changing rice prices on a daily basis and instructed the Consumer Affairs Authority to monitor the daily rice production and distribution by mills.

Furthermore, President Dissanayake urged the rice traders to collaborate with the government in resolving the rice-related issues in an amicable manner, the statement added.

The meeting was attended by Minister of Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Cooperative Development Wasantha Samarasinghe, Secretary to the President Dr. Nandika Sanath Kumanayake, Secretary to the Ministry of Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Cooperative Development A. Wimalenthirajah, Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Lands and Irrigation D.P. Wickramasinghe, Director General of the Department of Development Finance Malarmathy Gangatharan, Acting Director General of the Department of Agriculture Dr. S.K. Wasala, Chairman of the Consumer Affairs Authority Hemantha Samarakoon, Chairman of the Paddy Marketing Board A.M.U. Pinnalanda, Director of the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agricultural Research and Training Institute A.L. Chandika, among other officials.

–PMD

Courtesy Hiru News

The Department of Archaeology has refuted claims that its excavations in the Wandurawa area of Veyangoda are related to treasure hunting.

Director General Thusitha Mendis emphasized that no objects of significant financial value have been unearthed in these investigations. Legal Officer Attorney-at-Law Rohana Kariyawasam highlighted that the site has been frequently targeted by treasure hunters, resulting in damage of Rs. 2.6 million to the highway over three months.

Following the Magistrate’s request, the department submitted a report confirming no archaeological significance at the site or its vicinity. Additionally, a scan conducted by the Special Task Force, at a police officer’s request, revealed the presence of colored metal at the location.

Subsequently, the Magistrate ordered an open excavation, not with the aim of treasure hunting but in response to claims that a discovery of immense financial value could settle the nation’s debts.

Hiru News

The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Mr. Donald Lu expressed the United States government’s commitment to supporting Sri Lanka’s on-going anti-corruption initiatives as needed during a meeting with President Anura Kumara Dissanayake at the Presidential Secretariat today (07).

Mr. Lu stated that the US is prepared to provide financial and technical assistance to strengthen Sri Lanka’s security and economy. He also emphasized the US government’s willingness to offer technical expertise to help recover funds that were illegally taken out of the country, as part of Sri Lanka’s anti-corruption program.

The discussion highlighted the US government’s appreciation for the new administration’s prioritization of key political, economic, and social challenges. Mr. Lu reaffirmed US support for safeguarding Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, speaking at the event, highlighted that Sri Lanka’s political culture significantly influences corruption and waste. He emphasized that efforts are underway to reduce these issues by fostering a new and improved political culture.

The President also spoke about initiatives to uplift rural living standards through improvements to the rural economy and efforts to establish a modern civil service by enhancing the quality of public services.

The meeting was attended by Minister of Labour and Deputy Minister of Economic Development Anil Jayantha Fernando, Secretary to the President Dr. Nandika Sanath Kumanayake, Additional Secretary to the President Roshan Gamage, U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka, H.E. Ms. Julie Chung, USAID Deputy Assistant Administrator for Asia Ms. Anjali Kaur, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Asia and the Pacific at the U.S. Department of Treasury Mr. Robert Kaproth, USAID Mission Director Gabriel Grau and Counsellor for Political and Economic Affairs Ms. Shawn Gray, among others.

Madyawediya

CHAPA නිදහස්

Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake

There will be no honeymoon for the newly minted National People’s Power (NPP) Government in Colombo. The storm blowing from Washington across the Indian Ocean World–targeting China to the East, Iran to the West, and now it seems, India in the Middle is growing.

Development projects that promised much needed foreign investment in Sri Lanka have been thrown into disarray by expanding United States sanctions on Russian firms, as well as, court action against the Indian conglomerate, Adani.

Two months ago India’s Shaurya Aeronautics Pvt Ltd and Russia’s Airports of Regions Management Company’s plans for joint development of the Chinese built Mattala International Airport in southeast Sri Lanka were put on hold due to US sanctions.[i] The U.S. Department of the Treasury had sanctioned India-based Shaurya Aeronautics Private Limited, among 275 individuals and entities involved in supplying Russia with advanced technology and equipment. The airport near the Hambantota Port is located near some of the world’s busiest trade, energy and submarine Data Cable routes.

Meanwhile a bribery case was filed in New York against India’s Adani conglomerate last month. Adani was set to develop the Western Terminal of the Colombo port in partnership with local conglomerate John Keells holdings with significant US funding. This was before US authorities had accused India’s Adani, a partner of US hedge fund BlackRock, of bribery in India’s Andhra Pradesh and filed a court case in New York. Adani, said to be Asia’s richest man is seen to be personally close to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

These US moves against Indian firms have likely given Sri Lanka Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath a big headache. Meanwhile Donald Lu, US Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of South and Central Asia would be in Colombo this week to offer ‘capacity building’ assistance to Colombo, presumably, for more institutional capture. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka has been already effectively privatized to serve the interests of predatory International Sovereign bond holders, rather than the long suffering people of Sri Lanka– via International Monetary Fund reforms.

Will Mr. Herath be able to persuade Lu to hold back US sanctions, or make an exception for debt trapped Sri Lanka– to enable the Mattala International Airport and Colombo port west terminal projects to proceed with Indian and Russian investments? A US agency that agreed to lend $500 million to Adani’s port development in Sri Lankasaid it’s conducting due diligence on the project.

Targeting Indian Projects and Sri Lanka’s BRICS application

Indian firms are being targeted by Washington, which has long sought access to strategic Sri Lanka’s transport, telecom and energy infrastructure. This was evident in the US Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact, rejected by Sri Lanka back in 2019. At the time there were fears of the US establishing military bases under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), in the geostrategic island nation.

The Colombo harbour is South Asia’s busiest port but that development is also now on hold. Of course, the US promise to fund Adani’s port development to the tune of over USD 500 million was in any case a tall order! The sum was much more than the aborted Millennium Challenge Corporation MCC project, after which the mysterious ISIS-claimed Easter Sunday hybrid war attacks targeted tourist hotels and churches, crashing economy and society. The attacks were clearly designed to set off a ‘cascade of violence” in the multi-religious island nation.

The Mattala International Airport in Hambantota, initially built by the Chinese was perceived to be a White Elephant’ development project, but is actually located near one of the world’s busiest maritime trade, energy and submarine Date Cable routes in the world. The Indian Shaurya Aeronautics plan to develop the airport would bring needed foreign investment and showcase collaboration among the big three Asian powers- China, India and Russia but is now on ice due to US sanctions.

Sri Lanka, clearly caught in the cross-hairs of big power rivalry, had formally submitted an application to join BRICS and the New Development Bank at the meeting in Kazan in October where President Putin hosted China’s President Xi and Indian Premier Modi along with other Global South leaders. The new government in Colombo would be hoping to leverage regional growth and support from the Global South in the Asian 21^st Century”.

However, no senior Minister from Sri Lanka attended the meeting in Kazan where de-dollarization and trading in national currencies was a hot topic– an opportunity missed in deference to Washington? Sri Lanka’s application to join the New Development Bank has been accepted but the BRICS application remains pending at this time.

A New Regional Cold War: Delhi defies US Sanctions on Russia and Pivots to BRICS?

A new Cold War is clearly ramping up across the Indian Ocean–and not just on China. Having pushed Russia and China into ever close partnership Washington seems keen to ensure that India warmly embraces its erstwhile foe – China and the BRICS.

India had defied US sanctions on Russia over the past two year and ramped up Rupee-Ruble trade and Russian oil and gas purchases, benefiting from Russia’s decoupling from Europe and the war in Ukraine, also given historically strong and deep relations with the Soviet Union during the Cold War (1945-1991).

Was India rewarded with regime change in Bangladesh for defying US Sanctions and drawing nearer its neighbouring BRICS? India was also embroiled in a Canadian Sikh spy murder mystery with Woke Diaspora identity political overtones also emanating from Washington.

More concerning for India and indeed the South Asia region as a whole is the latest regime change operation with the obligatory student protests directed via social media right under India’s nose in neighbouring Bangladesh, and the weaponization of Hindu-Muslim-Buddhist regional religious identity politics that has followed.

Departing President Joe Biden seems to have run out of patience with India. The G-20 afterglow in Delhi now seems like a prelude to the parting of ways between India and the West, as Delhi appears to pivot to BRICS. Or perhaps it’s just Biden’s farewell to South Asia and the world, which increasingly seems like: ‘Apres moi le deluge!’

Debt Neocolonialism as a new Cold War takes Shape in South Asia

Will Sri Lanka caught in the IMF’s neocolonial debt and Eurobond bailout business be able to withstand US pressures as India has and turn its back on Indian and Russian investments? 

Will Colombo be asked to choose between Washington and New Delhi again? During the previous Cold War, Delhi armed and trained the Liberation Tigers (LTTE), against any possible US bases in its backyard as Colombo moved close to Washington under J.R. Jayawardena. This ensured that Sri Lanka’s so-called internal ethnic conflict’ which was really a regional Cold War proxy war, with India closely allied with the Soviet Union, would run for 30 years.

Geostrategic Sri Lanka’s ports and airports at the center of the Indian Ocean and a choke point of Submarine Data Cables are again of great interest to Washington’s neocons and the NATO war machine, which now aspires to Full Spectrum Dominance (FSD)–over earth, air, sea and Cyber operations.

The targeting of energy and electricity systems as well as transport and telecom infrastructure in the South Asia region– from MCC in Nepal in the north to IMF’s privatization push in Sri Lanka in the south may have much to do with the rush to setup Data Centers, as well as, control over trade and energy choke points as a new Cold War ramps up.

Cold War Redux: Regime Change and Debt NeoColonialism

Back in 2022 the Pakistan premier Imran Khan accused Donald Lu of running a regime change operation against him. Simultaneously a soft regime change operation also unfolded in Sri Lanka with the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED) funded and social media directed Aragalaya ‘protests’.

The regime change in Colombo was masked as a people’s protest to ensure that the geostrategic island staged a smooth Sovereign Default into the waiting arms of the lender of last resorts- the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Washington backed President Ranil Rajapakse was installed for precisely this purpose.

Two years later, Imran Khan for his impudence in naming Donald Lu as the instigator of regime change in Pakistan in 2022 languishes in prison in Islamabad amid huge protests. Fate has been slightly kinder to Sri Lanka’s erstwhile president Gotabaya Rajapakse who was also ousted in the soft Aragalaya coup in 2022.

Rajapakse remains a free man albeit an ex-American citizen barred from travel to the US.  He was dispatched and humiliated amid the Woke Aragalaya protests that rocked Colombo, after the dreaded Victoria Nurland’s visit in early 2022 to triggered the regime change. Thus, South Asia’s only Upper Middle Income county was declared bankrupt overnight and forced to stage a first ever Sovereign Default!

Meanwhile, India the South Asian regional hegemon, grapples with yet another US instigated regime change right under her nose – this time in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Deposed secular Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina had sought refuge in Delhi given historic ties but religion/s have been weaponized in Bangladesh as part of an old Cold War project to destabilize the region.

A quiet parting of Ways? Weaponizing Diaspora Identity Politics

South Asia and the Indian Ocean region appear to be seeing a quiet parting of ways between the US and India, despite the G-20 hype of last year.  The side show with Canada may well be a distraction from the far more serious issue of regime change in Bangladesh, where religious minorities (Hindus, Buddhists and Christians), are now under threat from the same Saudi-funded Islamist Cat’s paw and handmaiden that the CIA with partner in crime Israel’s Mossad deploys around the world to destabilize countries and regions. Call it the ISIS, or Al Qaida, the Muslim Brotherhood, whatever.

The recent regime change operation, weaponizing religious identity politics in Bangladesh that saw the ouster of Prime Minister Hasina a close ally of Delhi certainly put a spanner in the works in the West’s wooing of mother India with the Indian Diaspora in the west in tow; from Rishi Sunak to Kamala Harris who embodied the I2 (Israel-India) partnership given her Jewish husband, to all those Indian Diaspora CEOs of big US and EU corporations.

The Indian Diaspora in the West had been massively mobilized for the charm offensive to cement the I2 (India-Israel) alliance brokered as part of Washington’s Judeo-Christian-Hindu fundamentalist outreach via I2U2 (India, Israel, UAE, US), with the Islamist Cat’s paw to persuade India to fight a proxy war on China and crash the Asian 21^st Century. That kite did not fly.

The developments before and during the BRICS summit in Kazan where China and India made relative peace, and the regime change in Bangladesh may break the I2U2 partnership, or at least the I2, India-Israel part.  I2U2 was partly designed to help ‘normalize’ Israel’s occupation of Palestine and the massacre in Gaza via the Abraham Accords. The U2- UAE and US part may be fraying at this time.

As winds of change blow in Washington come January when Donald Trump would be ensconced President of the United States, Donald Lu would be perhaps saying a fond farewell to South Asia on this trip.

[i] https://economynext.com/us-sanctions-indian-firm-involved-in-deal-with-sri-lankas-mattala-airport-186347/

Shenali D Waduge

The Age of Discovery was committed during times when there were no international laws. Those who eventually wrote the international laws were the perpetrators & violators of territories & committed insidious crimes that under their own terminologies constituted crimes against humanity, war crimes & genocide. None of these crimes that took place across the world have been taken up in any Court of law. Many of the conflicts that prevail find their roots to the policies of colonial rule. One such policy is the Colonial Settler colonization” policy applied in Sri Lanka that brought in natives from another country & intentionally usurped and pushed away the ethnic group originally living there & intentionally changed the demography while showering undue perks & privileges which created in them the mentality of superiority warranting them to pursue demands pre-independence & post-independence for a separate State including aiming to achieve it via an armed conflict & terrorism. Modern politics cannot disassociate from colonialism because the issues currently faced by nations are a result of colonial policies & legacies. Colonization involved not only seizing of land & displacement of people & implanting foreign settlers but also the most damaging aspect being colonization of people’s minds.

The Western colonial powers who landed & occupied nations have committed immeasurable damage & crimes. Not only are they guilty of annihilating natives they transported natives of other nations & planted them in lands all round the world & treated them as superior to the original natives. They destroyed or attempted to destroy the political, physical, cultural, spiritual, intellectual & even space of the indigenous populations through these settlers.

Before giving into unfair demands of the Settler occupiers shouldn’t the world emphasis be on the people who were usurped to enable settler colonialism?

Who is going to be voicing or defending the people who were annihilated or pushed away from areas that they lived in to occupy settler colonizers?

People have the right to resist annihilation.

British colonial evidence suffices to prove this intentional annihilation of the Sinhalese by colonial administrative policy.

The rights of the Sinhalese & the discriminations they were subject to during colonial rule cannot be silenced, erased or forgotten.

Benjamin Horsburgh who was Governor of Northern Province, declared in 1916: that the Sinhalese occupied the Northern portion of the mainland, ……., there is ample evidence carved in stone all over the Mannar and Mullaitivu Districts.” (Horsburgh. p 54)

Should the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples who have suffered from historic injustices as a result of inter alia, their colonization & dispossession of their lands, territories & resources” be applicable more to the Sinhalese if historical facts as per colonial records is used as evidence & not the string of myths & fabricated yarns being woven?

The British denied water to areas where Sinhalese lived thus killing them or forcing them to move elsewhere. In 1833 the Kantale tank that was populated by Sinhalese had no Sinhalese by 1855. GA Trincomalee C. M. Lushington was concerned about the fate of the Sinhala villages due to lack of water under him & admired the ancient Sinhala civilization. His appeals in 1898 to restore the tanks were ignored. The Sinhalese in the East declined due to the intentional step motherly treatment of colonial British.

Settler rights cannot supersede the rights of those who were living on the lands & were chased out. The Sinhalese are the aggrieved party & their grievances should be addressed first.

Settler logic & settler supremacy cannot override the rights of the indigenous people.

Only the Sinhalese have evolved in Sri Lanka – they created their own language, their own customs & cultural heritage revolving around Buddhism, their own man-made hydraulic engineering system that is not second to none & they were nation builders, creating a civilization & treating the land & resources with love & defended it with their blood from invaders, not simply to lay claim to it as a possession & not defending it against invaders. It was the Sinhalese who came forward to defend the nation against South Indian invaders & the 3 colonial invaders. Only those who defend the land can lay claim to it.

Today, the colonial settlers are being given virtually the same preferential treatment that the colonials gave them when they settled them in lands that colonials forcibly occupied. They have made fake histories, fake claims, they use global kittys to promote fake propaganda & purchase foreign politicians vulnerable to vote bank politics.

Is it not strange that of the South Indians taken to all corners of the world by the colonial British & intentionally placed to change the demographics of nations are laying claim to an exclusive area only in Sri Lanka! None of the settler colonialists taken to the Caribbean, South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore, Fiji are claiming a separate homeland. Why is it only in Sri Lanka?

Cognitive imperialism denies people their language and cultural integrity by maintaining the legitimacy of only one language, one culture and one frame of reference (Battiste) The Sinhalese were victims of targeted discrimination.

There are some hard questions that need to be asked & answered or at least suffice to think about.

Can any group of people who were brought in from a foreign land either as mercenaries, labor & settled in areas after intentionally displacing those that lived in those areas, with time have moral or legal right to claim the areas they were forcibly settled in as theirs” & claim this area to be a separate homeland” exclusively for only themselves?

This is a question that colonial British must answer mainly, as well as colonial Dutch who codified Malabar to make it a customary law” applicable to only Malabars from South India.

Only the Sinhalese can showcase that it evolved as a separate ethnic group, it created its own language, own culture & legal system that revolved around Buddhism, its owned distinguished chaithyas, irrigation systems and so forth. No other community can claim its own distinguished facets as the Sinhalese have. The colonial records suffice to show that the Sinhalese were very much living in the North & that the colonial policies intentionally displaced them to be replaced by the settler colonization scheme.

No politician or political party can be bargaining against the truth & facts for political power or political careers.

This island nation was defended by the Hela people to remain as one entity. Settlers under colonial colonization schemes cannot split the Nation & separate it by claiming a homeland”. All of their demands over the years have stemmed from a superior complex mentality injected to them by the colonials as a result of the perks, privileges & favoritism given to them during colonial rule & beyond independence simply to keep newly independent states destabilized & eternally suffering some form of conflict which finds its legacy back to colonial rule.

The colonials must be asked to solve the problem they created not to palm off their problem on post-independence governments forcing them to give citizenship to foreigners that the colonials intentionally dumped on other nations to change demography & cause conflicts thereafter.

What readers need to ask themselves is a simple question – can people forcibly brought in by colonials from foreign states or during foreign invasions, and settled in the island displacing the Sinhalese who were living in these areas have any right to claim a separate homeland? Even those who have come by choice & settled cannot & should not be allowed to claim & separate any part of Sri Lanka. Everyone must learn to live in harmony & peaceful coexistence.

Shenali D Waduge

KAMALIKA PIERIS

When the Accelerated Mahaweli project started, Gamini Dissanayake, Minister for Mahaweli had asked Ven. Ellawela Medhananda    to do a history of the Mahaweli region. While engaged on this, Medhananda had met Ven.  Kitalagama Seelalankara of Dimbulagala.

Dimbulagala and Medhananda decided that the best way to prevent Tamilisation of the east was to settle Sinhalese in the Maduru Oya area.    ‘We settled the excess population from Hingurakgoda and Minneriya, numbering 40,000 in Toppigala, Kunchanamalai,  Nelugala,  Atubandigala,  Vesibandigala and  Piyangala.    We informed President  JR  Jayewardene that we were going to settle Sinhalese there. JR was against this, but we  continued  with the project, recalled Medhananda  in his biography. [1] The dates of this settlement is not given.

Maduru Oya originates from Mahiyangana in the Badulla district. The Maduru Oya delta  begins   south of Polonnaruwa and ends up in Batticaloa district. The outer perimeter comes within Eelam”. Part of Maduru oya plains came within the administrative district of Polonnaruwa , the rest  was under Batticaloa. Polonnaruwa side was Sinhala dominated, the Batticaloa side was Tamil dominated 

Maduru oya delta contained about 125,000 acres of land. The delta runs up to the sea.  There were  many Tamil settlements along the sea coast. 126 Sinhala families had been settled  in the Wadamuni area in Batticaloa in 1953. There were smaller Sinhala settlements south of Maduru oya towards Ampara.  hoever,  most  Sinhala settlements were confined to Polonnaruwa and were very few, reported observers.  

Maduru Oya  land was  fertile but lacked water. Mahaweli water was to be diverted there. Mahaweli project planned to irrigate 115, 000 acres of  paddy  land. A  monumental transfer of settlers from the south was planned, said  analysts. Over 34,000 farmers could be settled at Maduru oya.

The Maduru Oya  project had two segments, Left bank and Right bank. Right bank included three divisional secretariats, Welikanda, Dimbulagala and Koralai pattu. There is a large extent of flat fertile lands under rain fed cultivation extending from Welikanda to Valaichchenai on the Right bank, said analysts.

Mahaweli authorities  decided to divert Mahaweli water to Maduru Oya and   develop the Right bank. The Feasibility Study of this Project was carried out by ACRES International Ltd in August 1980. Detailed designs of the right bank  main and branch canals were carried out in late 1981 and in 1982 with USAID financing. Mahaweli work  on Maduru oya  started in 1982-1983.

Tamil Separatist Movement had studied the Mahaweli plan carefully and had marked out two strategic locations where Sinhala settlements   could puncture Eelam.   One was Maduru oya.  While the right bank canal was being cut, Tamil Separatist Movement started encroaching on Maduru oya delta from Batticaloa.  Part of Maduru Oya   delta came under  GA  Batticaloa  .

In August 1983 we got news of large scale land grabbing at Maduru oya  while the 1983 riots were going on in Colombo, reported Malinga Gunaratne, who was working at the  Mahaweli Ministry at the time. [2]  Panic stricken messages were pouring into the Ministry stating that Tamils were encroaching on state land. Main thrust was in Maduru oya.  There was a massive encroachment of land on the right bank.

Maduru oya engineers spoke to Malinga. Malinga had access to the Minster  so they came to him. They were frantic. They said we are developing the Right Bank at enormous cost so that that entire nation would benefit. But by the time we finish work there will not be any land left for settlement.   It is all getting occupied by Tamil settlers.

This activity is being encouraged by Tamil officials from Batticaloa who are working closely with the separatist movement.   Politicians on the government side are also with these separatists. Please notify the Minister.  The engineers came a second time to Malinga. Please hurry, they said, she situation is becoming very serious.

In early August Malinga sent two Mahaweli officials to check on illegal settlements on Maduru Oya right bank. They reported that considerable Tamil settlements were coming up around numerous small tanks in Maduru oya. They were being made in a systematic and methodical manner. Food supplies were coming to the encroachers from an organized body.

More and more settlers were flocking in.  The delta was a hive of activity. Houses were coming up over night. Villages were given Tamil names, the few Sinhala settlers, mainly Vaddha were given Tamil names. District boundaries were being altered. The illegal Tamil settler was establishing himself with the active assistance of the Batticaloa administration.There were no Sinhala settlers in the area.

Malinga informed the   Director General, Mahaweli Authority, N.G.P. Panditeratne who took immediate action. Maduru Oya delta was a declared a Mahaweli area. GA Batticaloa had no authority over it thereafter.

 But apart from this, nothing was done to curb the illegal encroachment from Batticaloa. These encroachments did not engage the attention of any one. People in the south were not concerned, complained Malinga.   There was deliberate apathy at the top.

However, Mahaweli Minster   Gamini Dissanayake, when he heard, wanted an army post placed at Maduru oya. But Panditeratne was reluctant to contact the army   and the army was not stationed at Maduru oya. Gamini had also suggested to Malinga, Why you don’t settle some Sinhala people unofficially in Maduru oya. (Continued)

[1]  Lakshman Kahatapitiya. Ellawela Medhananda hamuduruwo. P 312-314  

[2]  Malinga Gunaratne. For a sovereign state

චානක බණ්ඩාරගේ

ගතානුගතිකත්වය, සම්ප්‍රදාය 

තමන්වහන්සේ විසින් පන්සලේදී ගැට ගැසූ පිරිත් නූල එක් දේශපාලනඥයෙක් පන්සල් භූමියේදීම ගලවා දමා ඉවත්කර පන්සලෙන් නික්ම ගිය බව රජරට එයිතීහාසික විහාරස්ථානයක විහාරාධිපති හිමි නමක් මෑතකදී පැවසුහ. එකී  දේශපාලනඥයා එවැනි සිද්ධියක් සිදු නොවූ බව තරයේ කියා සිටියේය.

මෙහිදී කවුරුන් සත්‍යය පවසන්නේදැයි අප නොදනිමු.  එය මේ ලිපියට අදාළ නොවේ.

නමුත්, එවන් සිද්ධියක් ඇත්තට සිදුවී නම්, එම දේශපාලනඥයා සිදු කර ඇත්තේ ගතානුගතිකත්වය, සම්ප්‍රදාය   ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කිරීමක්ද?

අප ගතානුගතිකත්වය, සම්ප්‍රදාය  ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කිරීම හොඳ දෙයක්ද?

ඇතැමෙක්, විශේෂයෙන්ම නුතන තරුණයන්, එය හොඳ දෙයක් යයි පවසත්. මෙම ලියුම්කරු පවසන්නේ එය හොඳ දෙයක් නොවන බවය.

අපට අපේ අනන්‍යතාවය – අප කවුරුද, කොහේ සිට පැමිණියේද, ජාතිය, ජන්මය, ආගම, දෙමව්පියන්, පවුල් සංස්ථාව යන දේ පිළිබඳව විශ්වාසය, ආත්ම තෘප්තිය සහ ආත්ම ශක්තිය ලැබෙන්නේ සමාජයක් ලෙස අප පිළිගන්නා ගතානුගතිකත්වය, සම්ප්‍රදාය  නිසාය. මේවා නොමැති කල අපට රොබෝ වරුන් මෙන් ජීවත් වීමට සිදුවේ.

‘අපට ඉතිහාසය වැඩක් නෑ, වර්තමානය සහ අනාගතය ගැන බලමු’ යන්න 1994 පසු මන්ත්‍රයක් මෙන් ජනතාවට ආරෝපණය කිරීම විශේෂයෙන්ම දකුණු ඉන්දීය සම්භවයක් ඇති සිංහල රුපවාහිනි වැඩසටහන් සේවා වලින් සහ සමහර යු ටියුබ් නාලිකා විසින්  උත්සහ කරන ලද්දකි. මහාවංශය, විජයාගමනය, මහින්දාගමනය බොරු හෝ ඉගෙනුමට අනවශ්‍ය දේ ලෙසට මේ නාලිකා විසින් පෙන්වා දෙන ලදී. අවාසනාවකට, රජයන්ද මේ මතය ස්ථාපිත කිරීමට උත්සහ ගති. අපේ පාසැල් ඉතිහාසය පෙළ පොත් වල සිංහලයා පිළිබඳව පිළිගත් ඉතිහාසය විකෘති කිරීම හෝ අව තක්සේරු කිරීම කර ඇත – එක් පුරාවිද්‍යා මහාචාර්යවරයෙක් ප්‍රමුඛව සකස් කරන ලද ඉතිහාසය පෙළ පොත්.

මෑතක සිට රාවණා නමැති ඉන්දීය හින්දු ප්‍රබන්ධ චරිතය (මහාභාරථ ග්‍රන්ථයේ එන) මෙහි සිටී සත්‍ය රජ කෙනෙක් බවට පෙන්වීමට දැඩි වෑයමක් පවතී. කාශ්‍යප රජු විසින් නිර්මිත සිගිරිය පවා රාවණාගේ නිපැයුමක් යයි සමහර අය දැන් පවසති. රාවණා යනු ශිව දෙවියන්ගේ භක්තිමත්ම  සේවකයා යයි විකිපීඩියා පවසයි. රාවණා වෙනුවෙන් හින්දු කෝවිල් මේ රටේ ඉදිවෙමින් පවතී. ත්‍රිකුණාමලයේ  මුහුද අද්දර ඇති කෝනේෂ්වරන් දේවාලයේ ශිව දෙවියන්ට වැඳ සිටින විශාල රාවණා පිළිමයක් ඇත.

ගතානුගතිකත්වය, සම්ප්‍රදාය  ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කරන්නෝ මනුෂ්‍ය ජිවීත පිළිබඳව වටිනාකම/අගය අඩු කර සළකන අය විය හැකියි.  නමුත්, සැම විටම එසේ නොවේ.

ලෙනින්, ස්ටාලින්, මාඕ, පොල් පොට්, කැස්ත්‍රෝ වැන්නන් (සියල්ලෝ විප්ලවකාරී වාමාංශික ඒකාධිපතියෝ වුහ) ගතානුගතිකත්වය, සම්ප්‍රදාය බොහෝ දුරට  ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කල අයයි. ඔවුහු ජනයා ආගම් ඇදහීමෙන් වලකාළහ. මාඕ නවතා දැමු  බෞද්ධ පන්සල් චීන රජයන් දැන්  විවෘත කර දී ඇත. කාම්බෝජයේ සිටින ඇස් කන්නාඩි පළඳින්නන් මරා දැමිය යුතුයයි පොල් පොට් තීරණය කළේය. ඒ, ඇස් කන්නාඩි පළඳින්නන් බුද්ධිමතුන් යයි ඔහු  මෝඩ ලෙස විශ්වාස කල නිසාය. 

පොල් පොට් කාම්බෝජ වැසියන් ලක්ෂ 20  – 40 ක් තරම් මරා දැමිය.

වයස අවුරුදු 60 පැන්නවුන් සමාජයට බරක්ය වැනි මතයක් 1960/1970 ගණන් වල ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ මාක්ස්වාදී පක්ෂයක් පවසා තිබුණු බවට වාර්ථා එකළ පළ විය. මෙහි සත්‍ය අසත්‍ය භාවය මෙම ලියුම්කරු නොදනී.

නුතන ඇමරිකාව, ඕස්ත්‍රේලියාව අළුත් රටවල්ය. ඒවාට ඇත්තේ වසර 225 ට වඩා මඳක් එහා ගිය  ඉතිහාසයකි. නමුත් පොදුවේ, ඔවුන් ගතානුගතිකත්වය, සම්ප්‍රදාය තදින්ම අදහති/අගය කරති. ඇමරිකන් ජනාධිපති දිවුරුම් දීම වොෂින්ටන්, ලින්කන් එදා වසර 225ට එහායින් සිදු කල අයුරින්ම, අදත් ඔවුහු මහ ඉහළින් සිදු කරති. 1900දී බ්‍රිතාන්‍යයෙන් මිදී, නව පාර්ලිමේන්තුවක් ඕස්ත්‍රේලියාව බිහි කර, අද දක්වා සැම දිනකම එහි ආරම්භය බයිබලයේ පාටයක් දේශනා කිරීමෙන් සිදු කිරීම ඕස්ත්‍රේලියාව ගතානුගතිකත්වය, සම්ප්‍රදාය  අදහන රටක් බව පෙන්වීමේ සාක්ෂියකි. මහා බ්‍රිතාන්‍යයේ වත්මන් රජ පරම්පරාව වසර 1,000ට වඩා පැරණිය. එරට වැසියන් ගතානුගතිකත්වය, සම්ප්‍රදාය  අගයන/රකින බැවින් අදත් රජ පරම්පරාවට සියලු ගරු බුහුමන් දක්වමින් එය පවත්වා ගෙන යති.

රටක පැවැත්මකට මේවා අවශ්‍යය. මේවා නොමැති නම් අප අනාගත පරපුරට භාර කරන්නේ කුමක්ද? කොතරම් උගතෙක් වුවත් ඔහු/ඇය හොඳ නරක, සාරධර්ම නොදන්නේ නම් අසම්පුර්ණ පුදගලයෙක් වේ.

මෙවැනි වාතාවරණයක් යටතේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විවෘත කිරීමේ රාජාසන කථාවේදී ජයමංගල ගාථා ගායනය කිරීම මෙවර සිදු නොකිරීම අප ගතානුගතිකත්වය, සම්ප්‍රදාය  බැහැර කිරීමක් ලෙස කෙනෙකුට පැවසිය හැක. මෙය රජයේ වියදම් කපා හැරීම පිණිස කරන ලද දෙයක් ලෙසට පිළිගත නොහැක්කේ ජයමංගල ගාථා ගායනය කරන යුවතියක් උදෙසා රුපියල් 5,000ක් වැය කලත් එවන් යුවතියන් 8ක් සඳහා වැයවන්නේ රුපියල් 40,000 පමණ මුදලක් වන නිසාය.

රටේ ගතානුගතිකත්වය/සම්ප්‍රදාය රැකීම සඳහා එවන් මුදලක් වියදම් කිරීම ගැන රට වැසියා කිසිසේත් රජයට දොස් නොකියනු ඇත. 1948 සිට හෝ ඊට කළින් සුද්දාගේ කාලයේ පටන් පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විවෘත කිරීමේදී රාජාසන කථාවවේදී ජයමංගල ගාථා ගායනය කිරීම දිගටම සිදුවී ඇතැයි පැවසේ. මෙය සත්‍යද?

ජයමංගල ගාථා ඇසීමට ඉතාම රසවත්, ප්‍රියදායි  ගාථාවකි. බෞද්ධයෝ විවාහ උත්සව වලදී නොවරදවාම ජයමංගල ගාථා ගායනය කරවයි.

ජයමංගල ගාථා ගායනය කිරීම මෙවර සිදු නොකලේ රටේ සුළු ජාතින් ඒ ගැන අමනාප වේ යයි යන අනියත බියක් නිසාද?

නැත්නම් රාජ්‍ය පාලනයට ආගම සම්බන්ධ නොකළ යුතු යයි වැනි අදහසක් රජය සතු නිසාද?

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව යනු සිංහල බෞද්ධ අත්තිවාරමක් ඇති රටකි. මේ සත්‍යය  ප්‍රකාශ කිරීමට කිසිවෙක් බිය විය යුතු නොවේ.

මෙයින් කියන්නේ අන්‍ය ජාතිකයන් මෙහි ජිවත් නොවිය යුතුය කියා නොවේ. අප සියල්ලෝ එක මවකගේ දරුවන් මෙන් මෙහි ජිවත් වෙමු; එය සැමදා එසේ සිදු විය යුතුය.

2017 දී පමණ යහපාලන රජය ආන්ඩු ක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 9 වෙනි වගන්තිය ඉවත් කිරීමට මාන බලද්දී, මහානායක හිමි වරුන් පවා නිහඬත්වය දරද්දී හෝ ඔවුනගේ මතයට රජය කන් නොදෙද්දී, එයට එරෙහිව ඉදිරියට ආවේ වත්මන් කාදිනල්තුමාය. ‘බෞද්ධාගම රැකුනොත් තමා අපේ සුළු ආගමුත් රැකෙන්නේ’ යයි උන්වහන්සේ අභීත මුඛයෙන් පැවසුහ. ‘මේක සිංහල බෞද්ධ රටක්’ කියා එතුමෝ කීහ. ඒ ගතානුගතිකත්වය/සම්ප්‍රදාය රැකීමේ වටිනාකම ඉතා දැන උගත් බුද්ධිමතෙක් වන උන්වහන්සේ දන්නා නිසායි.

එවැනි වදන් මුස්ලිම් ඉමාම් වරුද කීහ.

ඉන්පසු රජය ඒ අමනෝඥ තීරණය අත් හරින ලදී.

අප රටේ ජනාධිපතිවරයාට සහ අගමැතිවරයාට වාසය කිරීමට කදිම නිළ නිවෙස් තිබේ. රටේ නායකයන් ඒවායේ වාසය නොකරන්නේ මන්ද? මේ ගතානුගතිකත්වයට/සම්ප්‍රදායට බැහැරව යාමකි.

මේවා හුදු නිළ නිවාස පමණක් නොවේ. ඒවා ආයතන ද වේ. ඒවා හා බැඳුනු ගතානුගතිකත්වයක්/සම්ප්‍රදායක් ඇත. ‘මම ඒ නිවසට කැමති නැහැ; ඒ නිසා මම එහි ලැගුම් ගන්නේ නැහැ’ කියා ජනාධිපතිවරයෙකුට, අගමැතිවරයෙකුට කිව නොහැක.

ඇමරිකන් ජනාධිපති අනිවායයෙන්ම වයිට් හවුස් හි ලැගුම් ගත යුතුය. ඕස්ත්‍රේලියාවේ අගමැති කැන්බරාහි ඇති ද ලොජ් හි අනිවාර්යයෙන්ම ලැගුම් ගත යුතුය. එය, ඒ රටවල ගතානුගතිකත්වයයි/සම්ප්‍රදායයි.

ජෝන් හොවර්ඩ් මහතා ද ලොජ් හි ලැගුම් ගැනීමට දැඩිව අප්‍රිය කළේය. නමුත් ගතානුගතිකත්වය/සම්ප්‍රදායට ගරු කිරීම වස් ඔහු වසර 8ක සිය අගමැති කාලය බිරිඳ සමඟ එහි ගත කළේය. සති අන්තයේ සිඩ්නි ගොස් ඔහු සිය පුද්ගලික නිවසේ වාසය කලේ නැත; එවිට බිරිඳ සමඟ සිඩ්නිහි තිබෙන කිරිබිලි හවුස් නමැති නිළ අගමැති මැඳුරේ විසීය.

සිරිත්/විරිත්

අපේ යාග හෝම, බලි, තොවිල්, ජන ගී, ජන කවි, වසර දහස් ගණන් පැරණිය. උඩ රට, පහත රට නැටුම්ද එසේය. අපේ සිංහල අවුරුදු චාරිත්‍ර ගැන රොබර්ට් නොක්ස් ඉතා ඉහළින් වර්ණනා කළේය.

අපේ පාරම්පරික ආයුර්වේද විද්‍යාව, නක්ශස්ත්‍ර  ශාස්ත්‍රය ඉතා දියුණුය; විදේශිකයෝ මවිතයට පත් කරන සුළුය.

අපේ ආදිවාසි, ද්‍රවිඩ, මුස්ලිම්, බර්ගර් සහෝදරවරුනටද ඔවුනට ආවේනික සිරිත් විරිත් ඇත. යාපනය වනාහි සංස්කෘතික කලාගාරයකි.

මෙවැනි වාතාවරණයක් යටතේ මේ ඉපැරණි සිරිත්, විරිත් වලට අවමන් කරන, උසුළු විසුළු කරන සංස්කෘතියක් මේ  රටේ නිර්මාණය වී තිබේ – විශේෂයෙන්ම සමාජ මාධ්‍යය අවකාශයේ.

සමහරවිට විද්‍යාත්මකව බලන විට මේවා බොරු, හිස් දේ බව ඇතැමෙකුට සිතෙනු ඇත. කෙසේ නමුත් කළින් කීවාක් මෙන් අප, අප සමාජය සැදී ඇත්තේ මේ සිරිත් විරිත් වැනි දේ තුලිනි.

අප නිවසෙන් බැහැරව යාමේදී දෙමව්පියනට වැඳ ඔවුන්ගෙන් ආශිර්වාද ලබා ගනිමු.

මේවාට සිනාසෙන්නෝ මෝඩයෝ නොවේද?

දියුණු යයි සම්මත රටවල මින්සුන් පවා අදෘශ්‍යමාන දේ පිළිබඳව අදහති.  එහි වරදක් නැත. වෙනස නම් ඒවාට සිනා සෙන්නෝ නම් මෙරට නැත. සුද්දා කරන නිසා අපට ඒවා හොඳය.

1990 පමණ දක්වා අපේ වටිනා සිරිත් විරිත් පවත්වා ගෙන යාමට, අනාගත පරම්පරාවනට ඒවා ආරක්ෂා කර දීමට රජයන් නොයෙක් ක්‍රියාමාර්ග ගත්හ. මේ පිළිබඳව ශ්‍රී ලංකා ගුවන් විදුලි සංස්ථාව කරන ලද කාර්ය භාරය ඉමහති.

නියපොත්තෙන් කැඩිය හැකිදේ නොකැඩීම 

1976දී ප්‍රභාකරන් යාපනය නගරාධිපති ඇල්ෆ්‍රඩ් දොරේඅප්පා මහතාව වෙඩි තබා මරා දමන විට ඔහුගේ වයස 22කි. මේ අපරාධය කලේ ඔහු බව සිරිමා බණ්ඩාරනායක රජය දැන සිටීය. නමුත් ප්‍රභාකරන් අල්ලා දඬුවම් කිරීමේ දැඩි අවශ්‍යතාවයක් එම රජයට නොවීය. ඇල්ෆ්‍රඩ් දොරේඅප්පා මහතා එවක තිබු ශ්‍රීලනිප රජයේ පාතාක යෝධයෙක් විය.  

1978 සිට ප්‍රභාකරන් මේ රට තුල  විවිධ ත්‍රස්තවාදී ක්‍රියාවල නිරත විය. 1978දී ඔහු ද්‍රවිඩ  ජාතික පොලිස් නිලධාරින් 4 දෙනෙක් මුරුන්කන්හිදී (පොලිස් පරීක්ෂක බැස්ටියන්පිල්ලේ ඇතුළු) මරා දැමිය. 1979 – 83 කාලයේදී ඔහු විවිධ ත්‍රස්තවාදී ක්‍රියාවල නිරත විය. 1983 ජූලී මස 24 දින තිරුනෙල්වේලි හිදී ඔහුගේ අණින් හමුදා සොල්දාදුවන් 13 දෙනෙක් බිම් බෝම්බයකින් මරුමුවට පත් විය. නමුත් 1987 දක්වා ප්‍රභාකරන් අල්වා ගැනීමේ දැඩි උවමනාවක් එවකට තිබු රජයට අවශ්‍ය නොවීය. 1987 වඩමාරච්චිහිදී ප්‍රභාකරන් හමුදාවට කොටු විය. නමුත් අවසාන මොහොතේ යුද්ධය නතර කරන මෙන් JR හමුදාවට අණ කළේය. ප්‍රභාකරන් ඉන්දියාවට ගොස් සැඟවී සිට නැවත ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට හොරෙන් පැමිණියේය.

1995 වනවිට නියපොත්තෙන් කැඩිය හැකි වූ එම ත්‍රස්තවාදී පැලය දැවැන්ත වෘක්ෂයක් බවට පත් විණි.

2007 – 2009 දක්වා යුද්ධය හරියට නියමාකාරව මෙහෙයවූ නිසා 19/5/2009 දින නාන්තිකඩාල් කලපුවේදී ප්‍රභාකරන් මරා දැමීමට හමුදාවට හැකි විය. ඒ පිළිබඳව ගෞරවය සහ ජාතියේ ප්‍රණාමය යුද්ධයේ නියැලුණු සියළු රණ විරුවන්, එවකට සිටි ජනාධිපති, ආරක්ෂක ලේකම් සහ හමුදාපතිට හිමි විය යුතුය.

නමුත්, වසර වසර 40ක් මුළුල්ලේ ප්‍රභාකරන් මේ රටට කරන ලද අපරාධය කෙබඳුද?

ඔහුව අල්වා නොගෙන හුරතල් කල එවුනට අප අදත් ගරු බුහුමන් දක්වමු!

යුධ ජයග්‍රණයෙන් පසු ‘LTTEය ඉවරටම ඉවරයි, නැවත යුද්ධයක් නැහැ’ වනි උකටලී වදන් නිරතුරුව අසන්නට ලැබේ. මේවා සත්‍ය විය හැකියි. නමුත් ද්‍රවිඩ ඊළාමය බිහිකිරීමේ අධිෂ්ටානය ඔවුන් අත් හැර නැත.

මේ උවමනාව දැන් ඇත්තේ බටහිර රටවල සිටින දෙමළ ඩයස්පෝරාවට පමණක් යයි ඇතැම් සිංහල මාධ්‍යවේදීන් කරන ප්‍රකාශය ඔවුන් තුල ඇති වැරදි වැටහීම පිළිඹිබු කරයි.

නොවැම්බර් 26 යනු ප්‍රභාකරන්ගේ උපන් දිනයයි. මිය ගිය ද්‍රවිඩ තරුණ තරුණියන් සැමරීම එදිනටම යොදා ගන්නේ ඇයි?  ඒ අය සැමරිය යුතු නම් එය සිදු කල යුත්තේ ඒ අයගේ මරණ සංවස්තර දිනයේය.

යුද්ධය නිසා හමුදාවේ 30,000 නොවැඩි පිරිසක් මිය ගියහ. ඒ අය වෙනුවෙන් පුණ්‍යානුමෝදනා ඔවුනගේ පවුලේ අයවළුන් කරනුයේ ඒ අය මිය ගිය දින මිස අප සෑම වසරකම යුධ ජයග්‍රහණය සමරණ මැයි 19දා නොවේ.

2019 පාස්කු අපරාධය සිදු කල සහරාන් හමුදා බුද්ධි අංශ හොඳින් දැන සිටි කෙනෙක් බව පැවසේ. ඔහුට රජයෙන් (පොදු පෙරමුණ) ගෙවීම් දීමනා කල බවද සැලයි. ඔහුව ඒ අවධියේ අත් අඩංගුවට ගෙන සිරගත වීමට නොසැලැස්වීමේ ප්‍රමාදය නිසා අප කෙතරම් නම් අපහසුවට පත් විමුද?

නියපොත්තෙන් කැඩිය යුතු කාලයේ කුඩා පැලය කඩා දැමිය යුතුය යන පිරුළ අදටත්  අප රටට ඉතා වලංගුය.

ත්‍රස්තවාදී මර්ධන පනත අහෝසි කල යුතු යයි කෑ ගසන්නන් ඒ පිළිබඳව ඉතා සුක්ෂමව සිතා බැලිය යුතුයි. සමහර විට අනාගත ත්‍රස්තවාදී ප්‍රහාරයකින් මිය යන්නේ/තුවාල වන්නේ ඔවුන්ම, මෙය කියවන ඔබ හෝ අප විය හැකියි.

Aloysius Hettiarachchi

As a senior citizen concerned with the statement made by the chairmen of the CEB and the request for comments on the EIA of the Galle Harbour extension project, I thought of giving my two cents worth in this forum.

I have viewed the credentials of the current chairman who has had many years of experience in this field including in the CEB. It is the CEB engineers themselves who prevented the implementation of alterative energy projects for selfish reasons and we all suffered as a result. Now it seems they want to implement projects that were line up including the costly wind power towers. Lots of water has passed under the bridge since them and other counties have started abandoning the wind power towers as they are costly to maintain and therefore the unit rates are high. Therefore, I ask the authorities not to sign agreement with investors who will want to tie the citizens for long term power supply agreements. Solar power is becoming so cheap and available in abondance. In places like California, they do nt know what to do with excess power. In the US they are developing high speed electric trains. In Pakistan (our elder brother) the ordinary citizens are producing solar and that country has become 75% self-sufficient in electrical power. Few years ago, I have seen videos the locals mounted solar panels on helium ballons to supply power to households. Chinese companies have started making Perovskite solar panels by printing them like printing news paper complete with backing. They can be just pasted on a vehicle or any structure without framing. I believe this scenario should be evaluated before embarking on mega projects that had been lined up. The project that has been signed with Adani should be cancelled without tying us up with India on a long-term basis.

It seems the extension of Galle harbour is going to be implemented in a hurry. The Galle Fort built by Portuguese and the Dutch is already in the hands of one community. There was a talk of a yacht making project with the funding from Saudi. Are they the ones going to fund this as well. If so, it is a case of conflict of interest. So, is the suggestion to get Indians involved in Trinco oil Tank farm. Some of our officials do not have an iota of integrity. I am sure they are aware about the long-term implication of such projects on national security and sovereignty.

Nava Thakuria

Guwahati: Assam chief minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma will grace a spectacular cultural event, organised by Valmiki Sangeet Vidyalaya, on Sunday (8 December 2024) in the city. Titled Samatar Chandere Jivanar Joigaan (Joy of Living with Rhythm of Equality), the program will begin at 4 pm in Barsapara’s Assam Cricket Association stadium. The Vidyalaya, run by Dr Hedgewar Memorial Trust, has been organizing this annual event for the last few years with an aim to honour the revered architect of Indian Constitution Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (14 April 1891-6 December 1956) on his death anniversary.

Nearly 1200 students of the Vidyalaya, along with over 100 children from different parts of the city will perform Borgeet, Dashavatar Nritya and Bhortal dances during the event. Mentionable is that the institution has taken a noble mission to train the children of 21 slum-areas of Guwahati inhabited by the sanitation workers on Borgeet, Sattriya & Bhortal and folk dances, patriotic songs, and modern Assamese melodies. Through various other programs, the Vidyalaya strives to foster the cultural development of the children of sanitation workers in the city.

The initiative is taken not only to pay homage to Bharat Pran Ambedkar, but also to enlighten the citizens about their constitutional duties and responsibilities, where Dr Krishna Gopal Sharma, Sah-Sarkaryavah of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh will deliver the keynote address. A number of religious leaders from various faiths, Satradhikars, eminent writers, artists, educationists, sanitation workers and citizens from various walks of life will attend the program. Dr Hedgewar trust president Dr Bhupesh Chandra Sharma and secretary Khagen Saikia, Valmiki Vidyalaya principal Ananya Talukder and celebration committee chairman Ram Singh have invited everyone to enjoy the event and pay respect to the great social reformer of Bharat through different cultural programs.

from the desk of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

A cascade of anti-French sentiment continues to sweep across the belt of the Sahel in Africa: joining Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, Chad and Senegal demanded in November that the French government withdraw its military from their territories. From the western border of Sudan to the Atlantic Ocean, French armed forces, which have been in the area since 1659, will no longer have a base. The statement by the foreign minister of Chad, Abderaman Koulamallah, is exemplary: ‘France… must now also consider that Chad has grown up, matured, and that Chad is a sovereign state that is very jealous of its sovereignty’. The key term here is ‘sovereignty’. What Koulamallah signals is that the countries of the Sahel are no longer satisfied by the symbolic independence – or flag independence – critiqued by Frantz Fanon in The Wretched of the Earth (1961), what they want is genuine sovereignty.

Fanon’s book was published the year after the countries in the Sahel won their formal independence from France in 1960. But this ‘independence’ was shallow. It meant that these countries, from Senegal to Chad, would remain part of the Communauté franco-africaine(French-African Community, CFA) and that they would allow for the use of the CFA franc, anchored in France, as their currency, that they would allow French companies to remain in control of their economies, and that they would allow French troops to be based on their territory. In September 1958, a constitutional referendum was held across the French colonies of the Sahel, with only Guinea voting against the proposition for ‘independence’ from direct French colonial rule under the French neocolonial CFA. Forces that campaigned against joining the CFA and winning actual independence faced repression from Charles de Gaulle’s political and military establishment.

Djibo Bakary (1922–1998), the leader of the Union of Popular Forces for Democracy and Progress-Sawaba (Liberation) party and president of Niger’s Government Council, articulated the mood of the people in the late 1950s with his slogan, l’indépendance nationale d’abord, le reste ensuite (‘national independence first, the rest afterwards’). Bakary was invested in the idea of sawki (‘deliverance’), which meant not only relief from French colonialism but abolition of poverty and distress. In May 1958, the General Union of Workers of Black Africa (UGTAN) met in Cotonou (Benin) and called for the total end of the French colonial system. That July, at an inter-territorial conference in Cotonou, Bakary catapulted this demand into wider public discourse in Niger and across the Sahel. At the Sawaba party congress the following month, in August, Adamou Sékou reflected the sensibility against the French desire for colonial rule by other means: ‘this sense of our human dignity that too many of our metropolitan friends have difficulty admitting; a dignity that we can never renounce because the black Africans want to be themselves free first and foremost’.

If people are not allowed to be ‘themselves’ or free, Fanon wrote around the same time, then they will rebel. ‘The masses begin to sulk’, he wrote in The Wretched of the Earth. ‘They turn away from this nation in which they have been given no place and begin to lose interest in it’. The false nationalists, or flag nationalists, Fanon wrote, ‘mobilise the people with slogans of independence, and for the rest leave it to future events’. Six decades later, we are now in the midst of these ‘future events’.

From 19 to 21 November, hundreds of people from around the continent and the world gathered in Niamey, Niger, for the Conference in Solidarity with the Peoples of the Sahel. This was the first such conference since the military coups overthrew the French affiliated governments in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, and since the establishment in September 2023 of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). The conference, held at Niamey’s Mahatma Gandhi International Conference Centre, was coordinated by the West African Peoples Organisation (WAPO), Pan-Africanism Today, and the International Peoples’ Assembly (IPA). Speakers at the conference included representatives of the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP), people’s organisations from the AES as well as other countries in the Sahel, West Africa and the continent, and political leaders from Latin America to Asia. The three days culminated in the passage of the Niamey Declaration, whose last section bears quoting in full:

1. We commend the governments emerging from recent coups for adopting patriotic measures to reclaim political and economic sovereignty over their territories and natural resources. These measures include terminating neocolonial agreements, demanding the withdrawal of French, American, and other foreign forces, and undertaking ambitious plans for sovereign development.
2. We are particularly encouraged by these countries’ formation of the Alliance of Sahel States. This move revitalises the legacy of Pan-African leaders and represents a concrete step toward true independence and Pan-African unity.
3. These governments currently enjoy widespread support from their citizens, who drive and rally around these revolutionary actions. This unity is crucial for achieving democratic and patriotic ideals and is an aspirational development model for other African nations.

In conclusion, while much remains to be done toward the complete liberation of the Sahel states, we are optimistic that these governments, by continuing to listen to their people, will fulfil their objectives for total national liberation and contribute to the broader goal of a unified and free Africa.

Conference in Solidarity with the Peoples of the Sahel, Niamey, Niger. Photograph by Pedro Stropasolas for Peoples Dispatch.

In August 2022, fifteen social and political organisations in Niger joined together to form the M62 Movement (Sacred Union for the Safeguard of the Sovereignty and Dignity of the People, M62). They released a statement against the presence of the French military in Niger, which had been ‘driven out of Mali and [are] illegally present on our territory’, and called for their ‘immediate departure’. The movement asked ‘all citizens to form citizens’ committees for dignity’ across the country. One of the movement’s leaders, Abdoulaye Seydou, heads the Pan-African Network for Peace, Democracy, and Development, whose office is named after the Burkinabe leader Thomas Sankara (1949–1987). The office itself has a picture of Fanon with the quote, ‘Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfil it, or betray it’. Seydou’s general political outlook at that time was that the misery of the people of Niger could not be overcome within the context of French neocolonial control. That is why the M62 began rolling protests against the French military presence and held a nightly cultural festival in Niamey to deepen the message for deliverance. These protests galvanised the military to move against the neocolonial administration of Mohamed Bazoum and install a government lead by General Abdourahamane Tchiani. This coup, like those in Burkina Faso and Mali, was widely celebrated in the country for having opened the door to what Fanon had called ‘future events’.

At the solidarity conference in November, Souleymane Falmata Taya, a leader of the M62 movement, said that the struggle in Niger was not being led by the military but by the youth and women. ‘All we want is to be treated as human beings’, she said. A few months earlier, she had said that the people of Niger appreciate the strides made by the government of Prime Minister Ali Lamine Zeine, a former minister of finance, but that the people must be vigilant and the government must be transparent.

In 1991, former left-wing student leaders formed the Revolutionary Organisation for New Democracy-Tarmouwa (‘star’ in Hausa) or ORDN-Tarmouwa. This political organisation has played a foundational role in the mass movements against the French neocolonial structure and the parasitic governments that enabled it. Mamane Sani Adamou, one of the founders of the ORDN-Tarmouwa, called the recent period a second awakening for the people of Niger. ‘We are living through a patriotic revolution, a struggle for a second independence’. The people of Niger need sovereignty over their monetary system, over their food production, and over their overall economic agenda. ‘We need to adopt a new strategy’, he said. ‘The difference today is that we are deciding on our own. We no longer get instructions from Paris. We take instructions from home’.

The fundamental word in the Sahel is sovereignty. If a dependent country such as Senegal or Niger fights for sovereignty, and if it tries to deepen its sovereignty, it will certainly need to dislodge the tentacles of the neocolonial structure. There can be no sovereignty with the neocolonial structure in place. At this point, imperialist intervention is inevitable. How the forces for sovereignty will deal with a sharp imperialist attack is to be seen. When the French tried to intervene against these popular military coups through the military forces of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in 2023, this threat only accelerated the integration of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger into the AES. The first test was successfully overcome by the popular coup governments, who refused to surrender to an imperialist intervention. To escalate the demand for sovereignty through a struggle with the imperialist system, as is demanded by ORDN-Tarmouwa and M62, will necessarily force these governments to deepen their commitment to solving social problems.

Fanon’s ‘future events’ are now our present. So is the expectation of Sawaba’s Adamou Sékou, who said in 1958, ‘From Téra to N’guigmi, the refrain of independence must have its echoes in every village’. Independence, he said, ‘is the end of backward colonialism, with its slave-trading economy, its dispossessions, its social injustices. It is the end of the calculation of values based on the pigmentation of men. It is the end of prejudices. It is the resurrection of our people’.

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

කථානායක අශෝක රන්වල මහතා තම අධ්‍යාපන සුදුසුකම් සම්බන්ධයෙන් සත්‍ය තොරතුරු ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇත්නම් ඔහුට ඉල්ලා අස්වැන්නැයි බල කළ යුතු යැයි ආචාර්ය නිර්මාල් රංජිත් දේවසිරි මහතා සඳහන් කරයි.

එසේ නොවෙනම් ඔහු ඉවත් කිරීමට කටයුතු කළ යුතු බවද හෙතෙම කියා සිටී.

පසුගිය මහ මැතිවරණවලදී ජාතික ජන බලවේගය වෙන මිනිස් සෘජුව පෙනී සිටි සිටි දේවසිරි මහතා තම සමාජ ජාල ගිණුමේ මේ බව සඳහන් කරමින් මෙම  සටහන  තබා  තිබේ.

රන්වල පරීක්ෂාව!!!
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ආණ්ඩුව තමන් ජනතාව දුන් පොරොන්දුව සම්බන්ධයෙන් බැරෑරුම්ව සිතන්නේ නම් කතානායක අසෝක රන්වල ගේ උපාධි පිළිබද තත්වය තමන්ම සොයා බලා ඔහු ඒ සම්බන්ධව වැරදි තොරතුරු ඉදිරිපත් කර තිබේනම් එක්කෝ අස්වන්නැයි බල කළ යුතුය. නැත්නම් ඔහු ඉවත් කිරීමට කටයුතු කළ යුතුය. රන්වල මෙහි දී වරදක් කර තිබේනම් එහි වැරදි දෙකක් ඇත. එකක් නැති උපාධි තිබේ යැයි ජනතාවට ප්‍රකාශ කිරීමයි. අනෙක මෙවැනි කාලයක මෙවැනි දේ සම්බන්ධව ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ බොරු කියා, ඒ බොරු සගවාගෙන මෙවැනි කැපී පෙනෙන තනතුරක් දැමීමට හැකි යැයි කල්පනා කිරීමයි. දෙවැනි වරද පළමු වරදට වඩා බරපතල වේ. ජාතික ජන බලවේගයේ ආණ්ඩුව දැනගත යුත්තේ තමන් හිස් ආවරණ, පා අවරණ හා අනෙකුත් ශරීර අවයව සදහා වූ ආවරණ නොමැතිව ප්‍රබල වේග පන්දු යවන්නන් ඉදිරියේ පන්දුවට පහරදෙන ක්‍රිකට් පිතිකරු බලකායක් මෙන් බවයි.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  ලංකා ලීඩර්

ණය ප්‍රතිව්‍යුගතකරණයට ක්‍රියාවලියට අදාළ මුල්‍ය හා නීති උපදේශකවරුන් සඳහා  ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුව සිදු කරන ලද ගෙවීම් ප්‍රතිපූර්ණය කිරීමට රුපියල් මිලියන 3213 ක් මෙවර පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කරන ලද පරිපූරක ඇස්තමේන්තුවෙන් අනුමැතිය ඉල්ලා ඇති බව සමගි ජන බලවේග පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී කබීර් හෂීම් මහතා පවසයි.

රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා සහ ඔහුගේ රජය රට හදන්න වැල් පාර්ලිමේ ගියේ රෙදි ඇඳගෙන වුවත් අද ජනාධිපති අනුර දිසානායක මහතා හා වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුව වැල් පාර්ලිමේ යන්නේ රෙදි නැතුව යයිද ඔහු කියා සිටී.‍

අද පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී පරිපූරක ඇස්තමේන්තුව සම්බන්ධ විවාදය අමතමින් ඔහු මෙම අදහස් පල කරන ලදී.

ජාත්‍යන්තර ස්වෛරීත්ව බැඳුම්කර දරන්නන් සමඟ ඇති ණය තිරසාර ගිවිසුම ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමට පෙර රජය ඒ සඳහා පාර්ලිමේන්තු අනුමැතිය ලබා ගත යුතු බවත් ඔහු පැවසීය.

ණය තිරසාර ගිවිසුම පිළිබඳ තොරතුරු මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් දැනගත යුතු බවත් පැවසූ ඔහු පසුගිය රජය ඇතිකරගත් එකඟතාවයෙන් ඉදිරියට යනවාද නැතිනම් අලුත් ගිවිසුමකට ගියාද යන්න දැනගන්න අවශ්‍ය යයිද පැවසුවේය.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/www.newshub.lk/?ref=embed_video

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The Colombo Additional Magistrate questioned how the arrest and request to remand individuals who shared videos related to recent Maaveerar Naal commemorations can be justified without first investigating those who created and uploaded the videos.

The Magistrate observed that this approach is akin to “shooting the messenger.”

Colombo Additional Magistrate Manjula Ratnayake made these remarks while granting bail to Renuka Perera, the Administrative Secretary of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, who was arrested by the CID for allegedly spreading false information regarding the Maaveerar Naal commemorations.

The suspect was released on two sureties of one million rupees each, as ordered by the Additional Magistrate.

The Magistrate further directed the CID to investigate those who organized the commemorations and to arrest and produce them in court.

The CID informed the court that the suspect was arrested in connection with sharing video clips of celebrations held in Australia via Facebook and that no such celebrations had occurred in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province.

The defence counsel argued that the Minister of Public Security had admitted in Parliament that Maaveerar Naal celebrations had taken place in the Northern Province this year.

Defence Counsel further informed that the Minister had stated there were 244 such celebrations and 10 instances where the LTTE flag was displayed.

After considering the arguments from both sides, the Additional Magistrate inquired whether the CID had investigated the individuals who created and initially posted the video shared by the suspect.

The investigating officers responded that no such investigation had been conducted.

Further magisterial inquiry fixed for June 10.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The medical fraternity has raised serious concerns over a letter issued by the Regional Director of Health Services in Matale, instructing specialists over the age of 60 to retire by December 31.  

The letter, which the Daily Mirror has exclusively obtained, directs heads of relevant institutions in the district to advise medical professionals above 60 to vacate their positions. This directive has caused uncertainty among medical specialists in the area.  

Furthermore, the letter stipulates that the heads of institutions will be held accountable for any misconduct committed by professionals over the age of 60 if they continue to work after January 2025.

However, commenting on the issue, a senior health official told Daily Mirror that the letter in question is expected to be revoked tomorrow (December 6).

The uncertainty stems from the failure of the Ministry of Public Administration to issue a circular stipulating the Court of Appeal ruling that extended the retirement age for specialist doctors in state hospitals to 63 years.

This bureaucratic delay has put over 200 specialists at risk of premature retirement by the end of this year.  

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The Health Ministry is grappling with a shortage of multiple drugs, including several essential drugs, a senior official said.

Speaking to Daily Mirror, Medical Supplies Deputy Director General Dr. G. Wijesuriya said while the shortage has affected several hospitals, the situation is under control as measures are being implemented to address the issue.

There are about 130 drugs currently in shortage at the Medical Supplies Division, while about 85 drugs are in short supply in hospitals,” he pointed out.

The ministry has recommended the use of substitutes for certain drugs facing shortages,” he said.

In addition, he stated that instructions had been given to airlift specific drugs which are in immediate need.

When asked about the reasons behind the shortage, Dr Wijesuriya said the key challenge is the lack of adequate suppliers

However, Dr Wijesuriya reassured that there is no shortage of 14 lifesaving drugs.

Out of the approximately 1,300 drugs currently in use, 383 are considered essential.

Speaking to Daily Mirror, All-Island Private Pharmacy Owners’ Association (ACPPOA) President Chandika Gankanda said their pharmacies have not encountered a significant shortage of drugs.

Meanwhile, commenting on the matter, Health Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa said that action would be taken to resolve the shortage in medicines including Sodium bicarbonate within the next few days.

According to ‘Swastha’ which is the information management system of the availability of medicinal drugs, items such as Ampicillin Injection 500mg vial, Cloxacillin capsule 500mg, Co-Amoxiclav Dispersible Tablet 156.25mg, Cefalexin (Cephalexin) Capsule 500mg, Cefuroxime Sodium Injection 250mg Vial, Cefepime for Injection 500mg Vial, Netilmicin Injection 100mg, Clarithromycin syrup 125mg, Sodium Fusidate Tablet 250mg, Ethionamide Tablet 250mg, Trimethoprim Tablet 200mg, Pyrazinamide Tablet 400mg, Cycloserine capsule 250mg, Clofazimine Tablet, Ofloxacin Tablet 400 mg etc, are in short supply.

Courtesy Adaderana

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake emphasized that he regards the media not as outsiders but as an integral part of the effort to build a better state and improve the lives of all citizens.

He made these remarks during a meeting held today (05) with the heads of electronic media organizations at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo, the President’s Media Division (PMD) reported.

The President highlighted that the people expect a good political culture and elected the current government to fulfill that expectation. He invited all media organizations to collaborate in fostering the new political, social, and economic changes that the people desire.

Additionally, President Dissanayake urged media heads to refrain from reporting false information that could harm national harmony. While affirming that the media has the right to question or criticize the government on political and economic matters, he stressed the importance of responsible reporting.

Recalling the country’s history of enduring decades of war, the President declared that racism would never be permitted again. He also assured that he would not compromise or restrict media freedom in any way, the statement said.

During the meeting, the President elaborated on the government’s stance on several critical issues under public discussion. He outlined programs such as the initiative to eradicate poverty, a pressing issue, and the Clean Sri Lanka program.

The event was attended by members of the Sri Lanka Broadcasters’ Guild, along with senior officials, including heads of electronic media institutions, group directors, chief executive officers, and general managers.

–PMD

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka vowed Thursday to complete its long-delayed foreign debt restructure within the month before a 2025 budget adhering to strict revenue targets set by the International Monetary Fund.

The island nation defaulted on its $46 billion external debt in April 2022 after running out of foreign exchange to finance even the most essential imports such as food and fuel.

Its economy has recovered after getting an IMF rescue package and imposing austerity reforms aimed at repairing the government’s ruined finances.

Economic development deputy minister Anil Jayantha Fernando said debt restructuring had been delayed by more than two years, costing the country an additional $1.7 billion in accumulated interest.

We are hoping to complete the restructure of bilateral debt and international sovereign bonds by December 31,” Fernando said.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, voted into office in September, told parliament that his government would present its first revenue and expenditure proposals for next year in February.

Dissanayake last month announced it would honour a deal secured by his predecessor to restructure $12.55 billion in international sovereign bonds, a key condition to maintain the $2.9 billion four-year IMF bailout loan.

Agreements have yet to be inked to complete the debt restructuring process and allow Sri Lanka to return to international financial markets to raise new loans.

A majority of private creditors to the South Asian nation agreed in September to a 27 percent haircut on their loans.

Dissanayake’s National People’s Power (NPP) coalition had previously criticised the restructure deal as unfair on the impoverished nation and vowed to renegotiate after coming to power.

But since its win in snap parliamentary elections last month he has made a U-turn, saying the economic recovery was too fragile to jeopardise with any changes.

As part of the deal agreed in September and ratified by the new administration, bondholders will also take an 11 percent haircut on overdue interest payments.

Sri Lanka secured its IMF bailout in 2023 after doubling taxes, withdrawing energy subsidies and raising prices of essentials to shore up state revenue.

Source: AFP

Madyawediya

Madyawediya

Chanaka Bandarage

The debate on abolishing the Executive Presidency  has come to light again. This is good.

True we have a new President, elected by the majority vote. But this does not negate the long felt need of abolishing the Executive Presidency.

Since 1978, incompetent, fraudulent, sometimes violent, visionless Presidents have come and gone. They used the excessive power available to them to the maximum and destroyed this country. This could be repeated.

We must leave a good, safe country for our future generations. For that the Executive Presidency must go. The NPP government must facilitate this.

Creation of the Executive Presidency is the worst thing that happened to Sri Lanka. In the last 45 years the Executive Presidency has been directly responsible for most of the  country’s ills.

Look at the arrogant statements of the past Executive Presidents:

• The only thing the President cannot do is to make a woman a man and a man a woman
• The President’s word is the Circular.

They reflect the unlimited power that the Executive President has.  

The possession of massive power by one person is not suitable for a country like Sri Lanka, where most of the citizens do not love their country, do not care as to what happens to the country and are full of selfishness, greediness (for money/material benefits) and unfriendly to each other.  

This has not been the case in the past – before 1978.

We must not forget that in the two recent elections 30% – 40% of the electorate abstained from voting. True some permanently live overseas, yet this is a very high number.

Why have so many people removed from the election process?

•  Years of the Executive Presidency – ‘few achievements’:

• Around 1979 – The war with the LTTE and other Tamil terrorist groups commenced and it was  earnestly carried on by the Presidents for over 30 years. Except between 2007 -2009 the entire war was conducted in an extremely inefficient, weak, lethargic and corrupt manner. Hundreds and thousands of people of this country died and became injured due to the brutal war.

• Initiation of Black July 1983 and the massacre of innocent Tamils.

• 1987 – The armed forces won the battle of Vadamarachchi and Prabhakaran was trapped; the then President fearing of India, abruptly stopped the war. Foolishly, he enacted the 13^th Amendment that introduced the Provincial Council system, which is a major threat to the country’s sovereignty and economic development. 

• This huge White Elephant is the pathway to create the Tamil Eelam by Pen. Note, the then President introduced the Provincial Councils after keeping the entire country under curfew. He ignored the objections to it even by the then Prime Minister and some Senior Ministers.

• Between 1994 – 1999, Sri Lanka encountered major losses against the LTTE. It was during this period that we lost Jaffna (1995), Elephant Pass (1999), Kilinochchi (Operation Jayasikuru – 1997) and Mulativu (1996). In the Mulativu battle, we lost about 1,500 soldiers. On 19 April 1995, our Navy lost the gunboats – SLNS Sooraya and SLNS Ranasuru – scores of our seamen were killed/injured.

• From around 1980 until 2024 – the introduction of large-scale fraud, corruption and various malfeasance (the rapid Mahaweli Development Program is the beginning of this). Rogue ministers, MPs and civil servants instead of being sent to the prison (like in Singapore), were saved by the Presidents. This is because the Presidents were also ‘part of the game’.

• 1988 – 1990 – JVP insurrection where they  unleashed horrific terror. The  then government resorted to brutal, extrajudicial killing of the country’s youth – at least – 60,000, all Sinhalese.

• In 1988, JR introduced ‘Tyre Pyres’, Mr R Premadasa continued with it.

• 1980s – Instead of the very democratic Westminster parliamentary method (practices followed in the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand) MPs were elected by bizarre proportional representation/preferential voting, Chit (National List) systems. The current complex system deprives the people the right to elect  MPs/independent MPs of their choice at constituency level. Now people do not know who their elected representative is. We do not have by-elections – a clear symbol of Westminster democracy.
• 1992 to 2015- Waves of assassinations occurred allegedly with the Executive President’s blessing. Eg. Rohana Wijeweera, journalists Rohana Kumar, Lasantha W, Pradeep E and sportsman W Thajudeen. Harassments of Anoja W, Rookantha/Chandraleka, Poddala Jayantha, Keith Noir, burning of media houses etc. 
• 1994 – the daughter President appointed her ailing mother as the Prime Minister; in 2020 the brother President appointed his ailing elder brother as the President. By this, they demonstrated their arrogance – they treat the country as their cradle. Following this principle, the Ministers  appointed their family members and friends to the country’s top positions. 
• 2009 to 2011 – Immediately after the war victory, what should have been done was to repeal the 13th amendment and thereby abolish the Provincial Councils, but the foolish leadership allowed it to continue. The abolishment could have easily done through a referendum (the government had 2/3 majority in the Parliament).
• Policies were never implemented enabling the citizens to live in any part of Sri Lanka that they so wish. The inability of the Sinhalese to live in most parts of the North and the East is Sri Lanka’s biggest human rights problem.
• Internationally, the Presidents failed to counter-attack strongly and tangibly  the agendas of Tamil separatism including support for same from the West.
• The Presidents failed to tell the world loudly that we have not committed any war crimes but helped and rescued innocent Tamils. The unsatisfactory situation is still the same.
• The governments were dumb when international sanctions were imposed against defence forces heroes who brought forth victory to the country.
• 1978 to present – The Bribery Commission, which was very powerful during the Sirima coalition (1970 – 1977) was made a relic by JR. Successive presidents followed the same policy – until now.
• 1980 – 1998 – The famous underworld leaders who terrorized the country like Gonawala Sunil, Sotthi Upali, Baddagane Sanjeeva, were all ‘darlings’ of the former  high-powered Presidents. The Presidents ‘gave birth’ and  nurtured them.
• 2019 Easter Attack – The acceptance of many countrymen that the President was informed about the Zaharan bombings in advance. It is alleged that the President fled the country well knowing of the impending attack. After the attack, he purposely delayed the return to the country.
• 2022 – The then President bankrupting the country.
• Indian fishermen are still stealing fish from the country’s waters.
• Massive environmental destruction. 49% of the country’s forest resources in 1948 is decreased to about 12% today.  
• Elephant-human conflict has grown to the extent that one wild elephant gets killed every day. No president was able to solve this thus far. Basically, they were uninterested in visiting the root causes of the problem. Deegadanthu – the world-famous tusker was killed in Kalawewa only last week (27/11/2024).
• In the last 45 years, basic characteristics of every government have been – lying, stealing, cheating, kickbacks, bribery, nepotism/cronyism, alcohol, thuggery, wastage, committing sexual misconduct etc. The ordinary society picked those attributes and themselves resorted to such conduct. We have a very undisciplined society today.

Due to the Executive Presidency, the Sinhalese were the most disadvantaged:

• After the war, the Sinhalese were still made unable to live in many parts of the North and the Eastern provinces. If Tamils/Muslims can live anywhere in the country, why are the Sinhalese banned from the North and the East?
• Sinhalese and Muslims were driven out from the North and the East by Prabhakaran,  some were very eager to return to their native areas; but such resettlement did not properly take place.  
• Some say that there were 50,000 Sinhalese in Jaffna before the war . Are there even 5% of them today ?
• A situation arisen that there is absolutely no work happens in Sinhala language in most government offices in the North and the East.
• Buddhist shrines, relics, artefacts in those areas have been dispossessed (in many places). The ancient Kurundi temple has become a forbidden area even for Buddhist monks.
• Even (recently) non-Sinhalese were appointed as governors in the North (introduced by Maithripala). This has become the norm? There is absolutely no voice for the Northern Sinhalese now.
• After the war many important military bases in the North and East were shut down. Some of them had been established during the British period, considering their importance to  the country’s territorial integrity. The North is the gateway to Sri Lanka from Southern India.
• Now the governments are eager to give full 13 or 13+ (Amendment to the Constitution).  By this, the Sinhalese will lose many more things. It certainly paves the way for the Tamil Eelam. Just imagine the North and the Eastern Provincial Councils given the Land and Police powers!
• 1989 – Sirima – Shastri agreement was canceled by JR; JR granted citizenship to lakhs of plantation Tamils by the  stroke of a pen. Up to then, these Tamil comrades held the Indian citizenship.
• Thanks to this, more than 5-6 Tamil MPs (separately appointed) (suddenly) came from the up country.  This was also the case in the Provincial and Municipal Councils. The country’s politics turned upside down. Upcountry Sinhala political power diluted; The injustices faced by the Sinhalese in those areas increased a lot.

In the 1977 election, only Mr S Thondaman emerged from the plantations. That too as the 3rd MP of Nuwara Eliya/Maskelia (behind Gamini Dissanayake and Anura Bandaranaike).

• After the war a significant number of military personnel were withdrawn from the North and the East. The number of Sinhala-speaking police officers were also greatly reduced.
• In the Good Governance government (Yahapalanaya) the President restricted the military camps to buildings only, citing various reasons and deprived the army of large lands/farms that they had occupied. Some military lands were transferred to the Northern Provincial Council. He claimed that he had forfeited to the army over 90% of allegedly privately owned land (a process initiated by  MR’s Podu Peramuna government). Is it possible to maintain military bases with only buildings, without land?
• In the last 45 years, the Sinhalese population of the country has decreased greatly. The Sinhalese population within the Colombo Municipal Council, which was around 65% in 1978, has dropped to less than 40% today (these figures are only estimates).

Due to the Executive Presidency, the country can well be divided

• The two recent elections have shown that the minority vote is important to obtain an absolute majority. From 1994 onwards the governments have done all they can to make minorities happy. This is good.
• But, in order to win a presidential/parliamentary election the Presidents must not do things that betray the country/nation.
• Just prior to the 2019 Presidential election, Palali Airport, which was always under the Air Force, was hurriedly declared an international airport by the then government. In the future, under international law, having an international airport is a very good qualification to demand a separate Tamil State.
• Otherwise, the Sinhala politicians know that they cannot come to power (become the President). Prior to the Presidential election some leading Presidential candidates  promised to give full 13 or beyond 13+. They did this knowing that such an act will be harmful to the country.
• Such a situation/problem would not arise under an Executive Prime Minister. The Prime Minister will not be elected by a Presidential election but a general election.

True, we have won the war, it is likely that the country can break up in the future because of this high-powered Presidency.

• We had leaders who feared the pressure from India and the international community – a good example is JR. R Premadasa was the only exception. He had the guts to demand India to leave Sri Lanka within few days. The previous President (RW) showed fearless characteristics, but his stay was too short. Not enough incidents have happened to make predictions about Anura.

Solution:

• The Constitution needs to be amended to make the Prime Minister the head of the State. He/she will be the head of the Cabinet. Unlike the current Presidency, the Executive Prime Minister will not have unlimited powers.
• The 1972 Republican Constitution (lasted until 1978) did a very good job for the country. We should abolish the current Constitution that promotes the Executive Presidency, and revert to the 1972 Constitution.
• With this change, it will be a major victory if the Provincial Councils (13th Constitutional Amendment) is abolished. In 1987, the 13^th Amendment arose due to Rajiv Gandhi’s incomprehension/lack of knowledge about Sri Lanka and JR’s cowardice. The brainchild of the 13th Amendment was  Kerala  born, JN Dixit (then High Commissioner of India in Sri Lanka). Dixit was the most powerful person in Sri Lanka in the 1980s.

In his upcoming talks with Mr Modi, our current President has the ability to ask India to silence the Tamil politicians like TNA who secretly agitate separatism (Eelam) and promote communal disharmony.

• The 1972 Constitution is better because under same it  will not be necessary to please the Northern/Eastern minority leaders to form a stable central government.

In 1965, the Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake’s ‘ 7 Party Coalition’ government had Tamil leaders like Chelvanayagam, GG Ponnambalam, M Thiruchelvam, S Thondaman (some of whom were staunch racists), but only Thiruchelvam headed a ministerial position (that too was of minute one).  In that government, Dudley Senanayake did not allow any of the racist/separatists to emerge top. Dudley Senanayake was actively involved wherever possible in good development projects (eg. Galoya, Padaviya – creating new farming colonies).

• There is power in the present Constitution to prevent the Provincial Councils from coming together and destroying the country’s unitary nature. They are the Articles (of the English version Constitution): 154A1, 154 J, 154K, 154L, 154M and 154N. In the future change, these powers must be vested with the Prime Minister.
• Article 154J – The President can dissolve a provincial government after issuing a Proclamation under the ‘ ‘Public Security Ordinance’ that the maintenance of essential supplies and services is threatened or the security of the country is threatened by war or external aggression or armed insurgency. The then President R Premadasa dissolved Vardharaja Perumal’s Northern Provincial Councils  by invoking this provision. The 15,000 strong police force in Perumal’s provincial government operated as an ‘army’ and tried to unilaterally declare a ‘Tamil Eelam’ in Northern Sri Lanka. This could happen again in the North under a future racist Provincial regime.

154K – Provision for the President to advise the Governor and the Provincial Council.

154L – If the President is satisfied that a situation has arisen in which the administration of the province cannot be carried out in accordance with the Constitution (failure of the administrative mechanism), the President can take over the functions of the administration of the Provincial Council.

154N – If the President is satisfied that a situation has arisen which threatens the financial stability or creditworthiness of Sri Lanka, he may make a declaration to that effect (for approval by a Parliamentary Resolution) and within the period of the declaration the President may direct the Governor to observe and act on such financial expedients.

• Under the 1972 Constitution, a nominal President is to be elected by the Parliament (like in India).

The country’s leader must be directly accountable to the Parliament – the current Presidency is not:

• If the leader of the country is not directly answerable to the Parliament of the country (Parliament is the People), if he/she does not directly answer the questions of the country that are asked in the parliament, it is an anti-democratic form of governance. 
• This country needs a head of state who participates in every parliamentary session and answers questions , who does not have Hitler-style executive powers and who is not subject to any immunity.
• Government systems of Canada , Great Britain , Australia, New Zealand – almost on every parliamentary session, an hour or two is reserved for asking questions from the Prime Minister. During that time, a ‘dual war’ arises between the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader. The people of the country watch it live on television and come to a conclusion about the talents of their leaders. This helps them to use the ballot correctly when voting at elections. That is why those countries are developed. They have true democracy. 
• The fact that our President visits the Parliament only when he/she feels like (once in 3 months – per the Constitution) is anti-democratic.  We have seen our recent Presidents walk out of the House after sitting for about 10 minutes, without answering difficult questions put to him brilliantly by the Leader of the Opposition. This is very unsatisfactory. Why should the Country’s head flee? Why cannot he answer?
• The people of the country should know the opinions of the country’s leader about the country’s problems and his/her solutions/visions for them. For that, like other MPs, the President must come to the Parliament regularly.
• What is the point if the country’s leader is not in the Paliament?

Bizarre aspects of our Constitution:

• The 1972 Constitution is better because it did not have  ‘Constitutional Councils’ that we now have. To represent the 3 main racial groups  3 civil society representatives are now there. They are not legislatures elected by the people. This is undemocratic.

The people vote and appoint a government. Thereafter, the government should be able to appoint people of their choice to top positions.

If the government is not good, people would topple them at the next election. This is the essence of democracy.

• National List MPs (CHIT MPs) are not elected by the people – this is totally undemocratic. We now see the mess that the National List system creates. In effect, selection of the Chit MPs has become somewhat a Mafia type activity.
• Public Utilities Commission and similar Commissions introduced by RW and his cohorts are failures. We do not want them.
• Are they really impartial? They are also white elephants.

There were reports that some of their chairpersons/members have been biased.

• Do we need a Police Commission? No. If we have a good, efficient Inspector General of Police (like the present), he/she can perform the tasks of the Police Commission. The former IGP stated that the OICs of the Police stations were appointed by the MP of that district. Then why we maintain a Police Commission?

An Executive Presidency is another government within a government:

• After 19945, the Executive Presidency has become a big  White Elephant that swallows people’s money.
• The President allocates most money for himself from the budget. Today’s President’s Staff includes many bodyguards, drivers, peons, typists, bunch of unelected Presidential Advisors etc. If he/she has good, efficient Ministers, why appoint Presidential Advisors?
• In the past, some of the Presidential Advisors  have been more powerful than Ministers and Permanent Secretaries of the Ministries. Some of them conduct Press Conferences to articulate government policies. This is the work of the Ministers, not of unelected Ministerial Advisors.
• There are also octogenarians called the Presidential Task Force. They are also White Elephants. These members do the work that should be done by the Ministers.
• Today, the number of vehicles belonging to the President’s office is hundreds/thousands. The President’s Fund is not audited. The Constitution has made it so; no citizen can file a civil suit against the President.
• The President must not be immune from criminal prosecutions (this is the case in most countries).
• Apart from the Galleface Presidential Complex, many valuable buildings in Fort (Chatham Street/ Mudalige Mawatha, Janadhipathi Mawatha – former Chartered Bank/Postal GPO, other large private buildings) are being occupied by the President’s Office. It is time that all these buildings are vacated; if owned by the government then they must be rented out.
• There are many Presidential residences across the country where the past Presidents have stayed for one or two days a year. These buildings must be allocated for public use – eg. establishing government offices.
• None of the Presidents have lived at the President’s House in Colombo. This is wrong. The protocol is that they must live there.  The Prime Minister must live in the Temple Trees and nowhere else. They are not mere buildings, but Institutions. They are the country’s pride.
• In the US, whether he likes it or not, the President must live in the White House. In Australia, it is a rule that the Prime Minister must live in the Lodge (in Canberra).
• It is the poor people of this country who have to support not only retired Presidents (already 5 ) but also their wives until they die. This is not fair. All benefits for them must be scrapped.  Perhaps a nominal pension is alright to be given.
• 5 previous Presidents articulated that they will abolish the Executive Presidency as soon as they become the President. None of them fulfill the promise. This means they gave false promises to the people. How can the people trust such people who lie?

End:

• JR became the Prime Minister in 1977 and in 1978 he illegally converted it (without a referendum) into an Executive Presidency, with extraordinary, unlimited powers.  The destruction/carnage he had brought to this country is unprecedented. Basically, he  turned this country upside down. He retired at the old age in 1989, because he felt that he no longer had the strength and ability to govern the country. By then the country had fallen into a deep pit. The terrorists were ‘ruling’ it both in the North and the South.
• Those who came after him further destroyed the country.
• R Premadasa implemented some good programs to build the country. Unfortunately for the country, he was killed in 1993 by a bomb.
• It is very scary to have such enormous powers in the hands of a single person. Tamil separatists have not given up their Eelam dream. It is foolish to say that only the Tamil Diaspora wants the Eelam. Lots of TNA MPs have secretly advocated separatism. They continuously racistly indoctrinate innocent Tamil people.

The racists will not give up their intention to create the Tamil Eelam. It is easy for them to achieve it under the Executive Presidency. In the last 45 years, under the present system, they have achieved much.

This country has gone down the drain. This article has articulated some of that.

It is difficult for the separatists to achieve their goal under a Prime Minister led government (per the 1972 Constitution). The Executive Prime Minister would not need to beg for the minority vote solely to come to power.  He/she becomes the Prime Minister by virtue of being the leader of the party that had won the most seats; not by the vote of all the people of the country in a Presidential election.

• The 1972 Constitution provides a smooth , uncomplicated, transparent structure that worked very well for this country. The present Executive Presidency has proven to be a failed structure that takes the country to the abyss; it is a huge White Elephant. Under it, the President can hide in his office without coming to the Parliament. This is not good enough.
• The fact that the 1978 Constitution has undergone 21 amendments in 45 years shows its failure. The 22^nd Amendment is forthcoming?
• The Constitution is not a Dogs Act. They do not get amended in every turn of events. Since inception in 1900, the Australian Constitution has been amended only 8 times, they were also very minor amendments. The US Constitution has been amended only 27 times (since 1788).

by Garvin Karunaratne

I write in support of MP Mr Tilvin Silva’s, idea that Provincial Councils should be abolished(FTLK:4/12)

I enclose  my opinion  as an administrator why the Provincial Councils imposed on us by an outsider, Rajiv Gandhi,  should be abolished.

Why the 13 th Amendment is inimical for our development and how it will create a separate State

Posted on March 4th, 2021

By Garvin Karunaratne .

 I have in several of my Papers detailed as to  Why the 13 th Amendment should be abolished. I have detailed my experiences in my eighteen years’ service in the Administrative Service implementing development programmes islandwide. To state briefly if I were to work in either the agricultural marketing sector, the agrarian extension sector or the small industries sector I will not be able to achieve any target purely because the subjects are devolved(not decentralized) and the implementation of any policy determined by the Minister working at the Centre, on policies laid down by the Houses of Parliament  will depend on the whims and fancies of the Provincial Ministers. Officers in the provinces takes orders from him.

 The full effect of the 13 th Amendment even without devolving land and police powers has not yet been felt because the Provincial Ministers have not asserted their full rights.

 I am most thankful to Cecil Dharmasena of the Department of Agriculture, for his insightful article that appeared in The Island of 22/4/2013. Let me quote a few of his words, which fully support my above statement:

Referring to agricultural extension today he states:

The lack of an organized and coordinated extension and advisory system today as we had in the past(prior to the Provincial Administration System) where the Department of Agriculture through its comprehensive islandwide extension Division provided an efficient service appears to be the biggest drawback in agriculture at present.”

 The situation today he says is that all types of agencies of the Provincial Councils and private sector offer confusing services”.

 He details what happened to the Department of Agriculture after the implementation of the 13 th Amendment. The Department was broken up, the research division broken into independent institutes, the extension service given to the Provincial Councils and the seed farms sold to the private sector.

 Harking back to my days ”…” up to 1973, the Department of Agriculture had a full control over the technical side of Agriculture. At the divisional level there was an Agricultural Instructor, an officer who had two years’s study at the Agricultural School. Under him were several  Overseers- Krushi Vyapti Sevakas at the village level. They had an year’s training in agriculture. This was an effective service. In addition, after the Paddy Lands Act was enforced in came the Agrarian Services Department with cultivation committees at the grass roots level. This Department had Divisional Officers at the Divisional level and Overseers at the village level. The Overseers had an years’ training in agriculture. The Cultivation Committees took over grass roots level planning. Today the Paddy Lands Act is no more and the cultivation committees do not exist.

 Another important change that took place is that the  Overseers of the Agriculture Department- the Krushi Vyapti Sevakas were all promoted as Grama Sevakas( now Grama Niladharis) during the time of President Premadasa. No official trained in agriculture took their place.  After a few years’ lapse when the Agricultural Instructor at the Divisional Level did not have a single Overseer Assistant, during the days of President Kumaranatunge , O Level qualified youths were appointed as Niyamakas.

 This was the extension system that was bequeathed to the Provincial Councils. Cecil Dharmasena has stated that the efficiency of the extension system depended entirely in the hands of the Provincial Minister of Agriculture.

 My own experience with the agricultural extension system under the Provincial Council administration is detailed in my book: How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka.& Alternate Programs of Success”.(Godages):

The entire  agriculture department has to get a bone shake which I hope can get done. In about 1997, running my small family farm I had the occasion to visit the extension centers at Kadawata and Delgoda. The officers there did not know the exact amount of fertilizer that I should use and when. At my insistence they raked their files and provided me with details. The circular advised the use of  ammonium sulphate and urea  at the basal stage  and no mention was made of the top dressing. ¦ About a year later I dropped into one of these Centers and to my amazement  I found that even then  the top dressing had not been incorporated into the advice. . In our inefficiency we are wasting fertilizer.”. This fully supports Cecil Dharmasena’s statement that the extension system is in shambles. My comments pertain to the late Nineties while Dharmasena speaks of the extension service of today.

 Sri Lanka is a small country which is smaller than a State in India and there is no necessity to devolve any subject in administration. Under the 13 th Amendment we have devolved many subjects and accordingly the extension sections of the Department of Agriculture and the Department oif Agrarian Services has been handed over to the Provincial Councils.

 In my days in the Agrarian Services, I was once in charge of fertilizer distribution and we sent out the first circular on fertilizer use for the entire island and this was immediately enforced through the cultivation committees. Not so any more. The futility of devolution is easily realized when one realizes that the Kegalla and Ratnapura Districts which come under the Sabaragamuwa Province is only some 25 miles away from the City of Colombo. It is inimical for Provinces situated in close proximity to have an extension service that is not coordinated. In my days if a circular left the main department signed by the Commissioner or his Deputy it had to be effective. Not so now because one will have to contact the Provincial Ministers and cajole them. In my days as a Senior Assistant Commissioner any communication from me was acted on in the entire island on the next day. Not so now my paper will sit on the Provincial Minister’s desk and mind you there are  a number of them. 

 It is also well known and not disputed by anyone that the 13 th Amendment was drafted by India and imposed on our country under duress by Rajiv Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India. Though President Jayawardena shivered in his boots and gave in and forced his Members of Parliament to vote for it. The fact remains that President Jayawardena held all his members of parliament incarcerated in a Five Star Hotel and they were all marched to parliament to vote. What Democracy! This fact is proved because the Finance Minister Ronnie de Mel shouted and stated that he was not among the incarcerated.   Though the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, also under duress (judges quarters were stoned),gave legitimacy to it, the 13 th Amendment remains a foreign appendage onto our Constitution.

 I am certain that if any Provincial Council asserts itself, the working of all Government Departments will totally cease from the Centre and the implementation of the policies laid down by Acts of Parliament can no longer be a reality.

 This will be the situation once a TNA which is pro Tamil Nadu and also following the LTTE agenda of separation is elected.  The Government will be faced with a crisis of severe dimension, a situation that will eventually lead to the formation of a separate State.

 All this is not surmise. As an experienced administrator with four decades’ experience, I can sense what will happen.

 The abolition of the 13 th Amendment is the only option if we are to remain a sovereign country.

 The International Community, India and the LTTE Diaspora whom we are trying to please by retaining the 13 th Amendment and implementing it are having their act cut and dry. Their one aim is to enable a separate State in the North and the East of Sri Lanka and it is hoped that our leaders will realize this fact before it is too late.

 It is upto our leaders to decide for our sovereignty.

Garvin Karunaratne, Ph.D

former GA Matara, International Consultant

4/3/2021

The Provincial Counils is a waste of money that has stalled our developoment.

Garvin Karunaratne

former GA Matara

Dilrook Kannangara

NPP government received the largest percentage of votes in any parliamentary election in South Asia. What is more important is its mandate came from all ethnic and religious groups. It won all except one district. With 159 seats in parliament, it is the only party ever to rule Sri Lanka without a coalition. In addition, unlike some leaders in the past, NPP leaders have no foreign travel restrictions, war crimes or serious human rights violation allegations against them. They have no corruption or other criminal cases in courts of law against them. Compared to all previous ruling parties, the NPP has the highest number of professionals as MPs. Only NPP unified the north, south, east, west and the hill country for the first and only time in over 550 years. Impressive in every way.

This puts the NPP government in a commanding position to fix manyfold problems affecting Sri Lanka.

If the NPP government cannot fix Sri Lanka’s problems, obviously no one else can.

The question of experience is irrelevant. Experienced politicians bankrupted and bloodied the nation, literally and at every level of meaning of those words. Besides, by the time of the next parliamentary election, NPP MPs and ministers will be the most experienced in the island. The others in active politics will be far less experienced in managing ministries, etc. by then.

However, the real questions are, can Sri Lanka be saved, can Sri Lanka truly develop and can Sri Lanka be truly peaceful?

A dispassionate, honest and expert analysis of all aspects of Sri Lanka suggests that it cannot. Root causes of problems facing the nation are far bigger than the capabilities of all political, economic and social power Sri Lanka can muster. From an economic front, the three evils cannot be overcome.

Trade deficit since 1977 – the gap between export earnings and import expense (negative)

Budget deficit since 1991 – the gap between government revenue and expenditure (negative)

Debt trap since 2013 – the inability to repay debt without further borrowing

With an economy of $84 billion and a total loan balance of $102 billion, Sri Lanka needs at least a GDP growth rate of 6% to repay interest and not do anything else additionally. A 14% annual GDP growth is needed to repay loans and interest and not do anything else additionally. Impossible. An annual GDP growth of over 16% is needed to achieve all this and develop the country where people feel some development takes place. Absolutely not possible to achieve.

A very rare opportunity is there to overcome some of these challenges with radical and drastic measures. However, taking these measures will fracture ethnic harmony, national security and public loyalty towards Sri Lanka.

And these are only Sri Lanka-specific challenges. There are global challenges including climate change and climate change action (both cost money, lives and livelihoods), ageing population, increasing hostility between superpowers and economic sanctions and counter sanctions crisscrossing international trade. How Sri Lanka can navigate all these challenges and develop itself is beyond reality.