Editorial Courtesy The Island

October 29, 2016, 12:21 pm The much-awaited COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) report on the Central Bank bond scam has been released at last. It is being described as damning, but, we reckon, it is not damning enough.

The COPE report has, as we reported last Friday, reveals that there has been a bond scam and holds the then Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran responsible. It has also called for legal action against the culprits and recovering the losses the state has suffered because of them.

The UNP members of the COPE raked us over the coals for reporting facts and even threatened to sue the editor of this newspaper for doing that. A UNP MP yesterday repeated the call for summoning editors and reporters and questioning them for reporting on COPE proceedings which were not open to the media. Speaker Karu Jayasuriya should have fulfilled his promise to open COPE proceedings to the media in time for the committee’s last few stormy sessions. Better late than never!

We believe that it is media pressure that compelled the government to act with restraint and come to terms with the inevitable as regards the COPE findings. Else, perhaps, the COPE report would not have seen the light of day or it would have been heavily watered down before being released.

COPE Chairman Sunil Handunnetti, presenting his committee’s report in Parliament yesterday, stressed what had been in the previous report (which we quoted from) remained unchanged. Interestingly, he revealed that 16 COPE members had taken exception to footnotes in the final report, but nine others had endorsed them. One member, Ranjan Ramanayake, has chosen to remain noncommittal. His silence is eloquent!

It is a pity that Handunnetti was prevented from revealing to the public his ordeal at the hands of the UNP members of the COPE. The government took cover behind parliamentary traditions and ethics to silence him. So much for its much-flaunted commitment to right to information!

The billion-rupee question is what will happen to those responsible for the bond scam.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe sought to scotch rumours that Mahendran had fled the country. He said the latter would return after attending a wedding overseas. It will be interesting to see whether complaints against the former Central Bank Governor will be entertained by the FCID, CID and other such outfits whose raison d’etre is to arrest the political opponents of the government. A bond fraud which has cost the state coffers billions of rupees is surely a far worse offence than keeping elephants without permits or misusing one or two state-owned vehicles, for which the backers of the former government get arrested.

One should not be so naïve as to expect legal action to be instated against Mahendra or others on the basis of the COPE report. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has said the Attorney General would have to be consulted first of all. The AG’s department has been reduced to an appendage of the government and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa must take the biggest share of the blame for this sorry state of affairs. It has earned notoriety for helping further the interests of governments in power. Under the previous regime, it let the then Rajapaksa loyalist Mervyn Silva, who owned up to a cheque fraud off the hook. Any other person would have been sent to jail for that.

So, as for the damning COPE report and action to be taken against those responsible for bond scams there’s many a slip twixt the cup and the lip.

It may be recalled that the COPE headed by Wijayadasa Rajapakshe, once, blew the lid off several illegal transactions under the UNP-led UNF government (2001-2004). Subsequently, the Supreme Court declared them null and void and the state took over the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation and the Lanka Marine Services bunkering facility, which had been sold illegally. But, strangely, nobody was arrested and prosecuted for those illegal deals.

It is now clear that President Maithripala Sirisena was right in denying Mahendran another term as the Central Bank Governor even at the risk of the government breaking up on that issue. Will he go the whole hog and ensure that no one responsible for the fraudulent bond auctions will go scot free?

ALI SUKHANVER

Certainly one would call it illogical to trace some connection between the terrorist attack on Police Training Academy in Quetta and the successful completion of international PACES championship at Ayub stadium Lahore but unfortunately these two events are closely connected. And the whole episode revolves around a single point; Pakistan’s international isolation. Pakistan’s international isolation has been an ever green dream of the forces hostile to Pakistan. Our closest neighbour India is on the frontline of all such dreamers. For this purpose India leaves no stone unturned.

A few days back India tried to give a new life to this old dream by boycotting the 19^th SAARC Summit which was to be held in Islamabad in November this year. Apparently India’s boycott of this summit was a reaction to Pakistan’s so-called involvement in Uri attacks, though latter it was proved that the terrorists were purely of Indian origin and they had no linkage with Pakistan, India remained adamant on its blame.

The only purpose of this stubbornness was to deface the realities and to defame Pakistan as a policy matter. India’s boycott was followed by the boycott of Afghanistan, Bhutan and Bangladesh. Now after India’s boycott of the SAARC Summit, it was a big challenge for Pakistan to neutralize this negative propaganda that Pakistan is drifting towards international isolation. Pakistan Army accepted the challenge of defeating India on this front too. Recently this ‘Internationally isolated Pakistan’ extremely successfully hosted the first ever international PACES championship at Ayub Stadium Lahore on 18^th of this October. Participants from 16 countries including United Kingdom, China, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Bahrain, Malaysia, Australia, Maldives, Bangladesh, Turkey and Indonesia honoured this championship with their presence.

The Championship event continued for five days. This grand event was organized by the Pakistan Army and it was the first ever competition in the world of this type. The abbreviation PACES stands for Physical Agility & Combat Efficiency System. This is basically a fitness testing and training program introduced and initiated by the Pakistan Army specifically for the preparation of military officials for Operation Zarb-e-Azb. PACES championship was introduced after the militaries of several nations showed interest in Pakistan Army’s training methods and programs.

Apart from its military value and importance, the championship simply rejected the so-called propaganda that Pakistan has become internationally isolated. It also proved to the world that Pakistan is a very safe place to hold International events successfully. But our friends in the neighbourhood could not accept this marvelous success of Pakistan. Just after the completion of the PACES Championship event, the terrorists’ attack on Quetta Police Training Academy seems an attempt to quash the recently created positive heart-winning image of Pakistan. In other words this attack is an attempt to give the world again an impression that Pakistan is not a safe country.

The story of hostility against Pakistan does not stop here; in India’s hatred-based war against Pakistan we come across so many characters whose aim and objective is nothing but to malign Pakistan’s image at every forum. Naila Qadri is also among the long queue of such poisonous characters. Naila Qadri claims that she is President, World Baloch Women’s Forum though originally she does not belong to Balochistan.

During her recent visit to India this lady stated in an interview that Baloch activists want to form Azad Balochistan Government in Exile” and they want India, Afghanistan and SAARC countries to support Balochistan Government in Exile. She told the media that a conference is being organized at All India Institute of Local Self Government, Mumbai in the last days of October. In this conference the speakers and the participants would express solidarity with their brethren across the border.

But this struggle of Naila Qadri for the formation of Azad Balochistan Government in Exile” was strongly condemned by another ‘Baloch leader’ Hamdan Baloch in a statement. Hamdan said that no single person can speak on behalf of Baloch people without any support from people of Balochistan. He further said that his organization BRP will support no such idea without taking the Government of India into confidence. In short India is doing all possible to crush Pakistan by helping the terrorists, by supporting the insurgencies and by favouring the enemies of Pakistan. We as a nation will have to be very alert and vigilant in this context.

Communist Visvanandadevan –  Murdered 30 Years ago by Tamil Terrorists

Book Release Event – November 19, 2016

Saturday 6pm to 8pm at

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By Noor Nizam – Peace and Political Activist, Political Communication Researcher, SLFP Stalwart and Convener – The Muslim Voice”, October 28^th., 2016.

Shoora Council  calls for meeting of all Muslim parliamentarians/MPs/Ministers to discuss the Muslim issues faced by the disgruntled Muslim community of Sri Lanka. Insha Allah, a very good move, but how long will this last? This type of gatherings were even called by the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka during the Mahinda Rajapaksa government. The Muslim Voice” is overwhelmed to learn of this political action plan, Alhamdulillah. Yet The Muslim Voice” is doubtful of the intentions of the SHOORA COUNCIL” because we have seen those in the helm of such organizations, that they are self motivated with ulterior objectives to propagate their image and popularity in the community and the political playing field of Sri Lanka, just like any other corrupt Muslim political party leaders and their henhaiyas”. A good example is one of the political dramas staged by the SOORA COUNCIL in February the (http://www.omlanka.net/news/top-stories/846-religious-hatred-has-ended-chandrika.html) which was a bluff and an eyewash to please the political hierarchy of the Yahapalana government”, but BENEFITED the Muslim community at large of NOTHING”. It is sad to say that some of the organizing members/office bearers of the SHOORA COUNCIL in the aftermath of these were political events were offered very high positions in the Yahapalana Government” at the cost of the poor and humble Muslim vote bank and are enjoying the POSITION and PERKS” even today. As such, Muslims in Sri Lanka do NOT have a voice – a POLITICAL VOICE for that purpose. We have lost that “VOICE” since our vote-bank had been traded by our politicians. The SLMC is dead. The ACMC is busy making money, the Muslim politicians stooging the UNP are ONLY interested in their personal benefits. The ungrateful Muslim politicians who benefited the most from Mahinda Rajapaksa, Basil Rajapaksa and Gotabaya Rajapaksa are now stooging the Yahapalana government and enjoying their best with their kith and kin and henchaiyas, by selling the VOTE BANK of the Muslims who have been deceived lock-stock-and-barrel. The Muslim Civil Society, the The National Shoora Council, MCSL, the All Ceylon Jammiyathul Ulema (ACJU) and Muslim Media organizations in Sri Lanka and their leaders will stage dramas by releasing “press statements” because all of them have been well taken care by the Yahapalana government and the foreign interests who are giving them large amounts of funding to keep their mouth shut. Like what happened in Aluthgama, Beruwela, Maharagama and Dambulla, they all have helped the government to COVER UP everything. The TRUTH has been hidden and the Muslims have been told a “LONG STORY, as being told now. WHY HAS THE SHOORA COUNCIL NOT PUT PRESSURE ON THE YAHAPALANA GOVERNMENT or got their closet ally – Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge to set-in-motion the probe or inquiry into the Aluthgama/Beruwela violence that took place on Sunday June 15th., 2014?

IT IS 2 years and 4 months since this communal riots against the Muslims of Aluthgama and Beruwela happened. WHOM ARE THE MUSLIMS OF SRI LANKA TO TRUST – Insha Allah?

It is time up that a NEW POLITICAL FORCE that will be honest and sincere to stand up and defend the Muslim Community politically and otherwise, especially from among the YOUTH, has to emerge from within the Sri Lanka Muslim Community to face any new election in the coming future, Insha Allah. THIS IS THE ONLY WAY THE MUSLIMS CAN SAFEGUARD THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY AGAINST THE YAHAPALANA GOVERNMENT (or for that matter any government)  AMENDING ANY LEGISLATIVE ENACTMENTS OR MUSLIM LAWS ALREADY ENACTED BY PARLIAMENT AND MADE LAW IN THE COUNTRY. The Yahapalana government (President Maithripala Sirisena and PM Ranil Wickremaratne) has forgotten that it was the minority Muslim votes and the Tamil votes and a very small fraction of the Sinhala votes the tipped the balance for the Hansaya” to win the Presidential Elections in 2015. The en-block Muslim votes and Tamil votes to the Muslim candidates and the Tamil candidates made the Yahapalana government to get their majority in parliament in the 2015 general elections. In the next elections, surely the Muslims are contemplating to vote the Joint Opposition” to power, Insha Allah. Signals are already out there in the political arena of moves been made by certain Muslim political chameleons to get closer to the Joint Opposition and Mahinda/Basil Rajapaksa Muslim loyalists are being brought into The SLMC and the ACMC to pave the way to build the political bridges of supporting the Joint Opposition/Mahinda Pela” at the forth coming local government elections, in the aftermath of the episodes concerning the Central Bank Bond issue, the conviction of the former Governor of the Central Bank, Arjuna Mahendran by the COPE Committee and the unprecedented peoples gathering and support shown at the Ratnapura JO political meeting by the TRUE SLFPers and Anti-government and disgruntled masses.

This is the worry to the unscrupulous, deceptive and dishonest Muslim politicians and so-called Muslim Civil Society such as the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, the SHOORA COUNCIL (National Shoora Council), and the All Ceylon Jammiyathul Ulema and Muslim politicians who are stooging the Yahapalana government”. So the question is – are the Muslims been taken for a ride? Have the Muslim Civil Societies started the game again? THIS HAS TO BE STOPPED, Insha Allah.

On the authority of Abu Sa’eed al-Khudree (ra) who said:

I heard the Messenger of Allah (saw) say, Whoso- ever of you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand; and if he is not able to do so, then [let him change it] with his tongue; and if he is not able to do so, then with his heart — and that is the weakest of faith.”

[Muslim]

By M D P DISSANAYAKE

 President Maithreepala Sirisena is continuing to have short memories.  When he was the Minister for Health, the President Mahinda Rajapakse had reprimanded him on several occasions for criticising the media for exposing shortcomings in the health sector.  In 2013 when Daily Mirror exposed the Ministry of Health for issuing blood virtually free from the National Blood Transfusion Unit to private hospitals, and charged patients Rs 50,000 for a pint.   Maithree was furious with the Daily Mirror for exposing the facts.

It took several years for Maithree to compile a draft legislation of National Medicinal Drugs Policy, which he presented to President MR on the Health Day  on March 11, 2014, after severe criticisms by the press for the delay.

Maithreepala took a quite a long time to resolve a minor dispute at his own electorate of Polonnaruwa, when a room at the Polonnaruwa Base Hospital was taken over by the Special Grade Nursing Officer, the room allocated normally for the Doctors to take rest whilst on duty.  Maithreepala was extremely annoyed with the media for making the issue to blow out of proportions.

But when  he contested as the Common Candidate for the Presidential race, he released a book titled MAITHREE”  with his both hands held together in a style of worshipping,  to hoodwink the electorate.  The image of the book attracted massive media attention.  He was instantly portrayed as a Bodhi Sathva by Late Maduluwawe Sobitha, Athuraleiya Ratana, Ranil Wickremasinghe and Chandrika.

Now as the President of Sri Lanka, this absent minded President is once again attacking media for criticising him.

Fear of possibility of  losing power and the subsequent events likely to follow are haunting this isolated man.

It is great that the main road of Mulleriyawa  leading to the Angoda Mental  Hospital had been newly built and renamed as Mulleriyawa New Town by President Mahinda Rajapakse, so that the lives of Luminaries  requiring urgent medical attention can be saved.

Dr. Sudath Gunasekara 21.Gemunu Mawatha, Hanthana Pedesa

Posted on September 28th, 2016 Lanknaweb.

(Outline Draft for discussion: Sudath Gunasekara  (SLAS Class 1) Retired Permanent  Secretary to Prime  Minister Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike (15.Sept.2016)

 Introduction

There is unanimous agreement that the political party system, introduced by the British, has ruined this country. After establishing their hegemony they plundered, destroyed and then destabilized the native political, socio-economic and cultural systems in all the countries they conquered and thereafter they established their own political, administrative and legal mechanisms replacing the native systems, to tighten the colonial grip in order to perpetuate their hegemony and exploitation. Westminster Party system that was alien to the natives was the main instrument through which they manipulated and controlled these countries with the assistance of a new generation of rulers they have nursed over the years, subservient and servile to them who acted as their accredited local agents. Therefore no country that was subjected to their depredation can ever be free, either politically economically, culturally or otherwise until and unless these alien elements are completely eradicated

Practically everybody talk about it. But no one has so far found or seriously thought about any practical solution for this vexed national problem. What I put down here is the result of my search for a workable solution to that all important problem. I do not claim this to be a perfect answer. But I have an inner feeling that, if we implement this proposal it will serve as a turning point in the country’s political history, in our joint search for a satisfactory answer. It is a new idea that came to my mind, capable of generating a live debate on this subject. Two people have inspired me in this mission. The first is my good friend and colleague late UB Wijekoon, an uncommon politician who presented me a copy of a book Paksha Desapalanaya Ratata Sapaya) written by him in (2010) highlighting the need to change this curse; making a request appealing to me to think about a solution for this cancerous social disaster. Dr Gunadasa Amarasekara who wrote a book recently (2016) titled Sabbyatva Rajya” calling for a new system of government based on our own civilization is the other person who accelerated my search. I thank both of them sincerely for their inspiration.

However, this is not the result of an in depth research, on this subject. It is only a note prepared based on my thirty five years of experience and understanding of our political system, past and present, to be presented at a discussion organized by my colleague and friend Dr Nath Amarakoon at Navinna, Kotte on 15^th  October .

I wish and hope this note will inspire you all patriots to search for the answer we all need very badly to rescue our motherland and the nation from the imminent threats snarling at us, both internal and external.

The Philosophy and Mission

1 Balachackram hi nisrāya Dharmachakram Pravartatē” (The Wheel of Power Revolves on the Wheel of Dhamma)

2 Bahujana Hitāya Bahujana Sukhāya”  Lord Buddha. (For the Good of the many; For the Happiness of the    many)

Objective

To replace

The system of Government we have in this country today, what I call a Government by the Politicians, for the Politicians and of the Politicians”

With,

A Home grown system of Government A Government by the People, for the People and of the People,”

Based on the Dasaraja Damma, the Dharmasokian model, Pansil and the Mahasammatha concept of state craft that had made this country a Proud Land of plenty, prosperity, peace and just governance

and

To set up a new form of Government similar to what Martin Jacques calls the ‘Civilization State,” based on our own political philosophy, institutions and systems, traditions and social values that formed the  foundation of that heritage, to liberate this country from the shackles and clutches of Western colonial hegemony and exploitation. It is also an attempt to fully free our people from their mental servility to Western forms of Government, alien and utterly inappropriate to the East; to inspire people of this country to understand the value and relevance of their age old and time tested native system as the golden key to the portals of our future prosperity and pride. My final aim here is to call upon you all to ‘wake up’ from hibernation and to come forward to save the Motherland and lift it up once again to lofty heights as a strong, vibrant and a prosperous nation.

Political parties the curse of the Nation 

Of all legacies left behind by the British, political party system, has been identified as the most disastrous and baneful factor that has divided and ruined this country and the Sinhala nation ever since 1948. It is now widely accepted by everybody as the most fatal cancer that has killed the political stability and the unity of this Island nation, while continuously promoting the divide and rule policy of the British. Therefore the crying need for an immediate solution to put back this great nation once again on its own feet.

The proposed Model envisages replacing the existing so-called Western democratic model of government imposed on us by force and intrigue by the colonial invaders, with a novel native system, sans the political parties, administrative and legal systems and social values imposed on us by them. Going back to our roots in search of a permanent remedy to these ugly legacies of political, social, economic and mental maladies handed down to us by the West, to disrupt, disorganize and destroy our country to achieve their diabolical strategic, military and economic goals, is the aim of this effort.

I begin on the assumption that we have not got any independence in 1948. I challenge any one who says we have got any independence other than a British made Parliament to make legislation. The way how the West and India runs this country today with the assistance of their stooges  is sufficient proof of this pathetic situation. Have we won independence over our motherland, our language, religion, political institution , our social system or our heritage and values as India or Mianma did in 1947?  Do we have at least a homemade Constitution? Isn’t this country not run by the West orchestrated by the UN and the so-called International Community and India to suit their agendas. So in this backdrop how can one say we are an independent nation.

The following model is proposed to make this country once again a free and Independent country.

 Proposed model of Government

  Permanent Supreme National/ Rajya Advisory Council at the Centre (S N/R A C)

 The Mahanayaka Theros of Malwatta, Asgiriya, Amarapura and Ramanna Nikaya          4

Mahanayaka Theras of Kotte, Ruhunu, Rangiri Dambulu, Uva Wanavasi Sects                    4                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Two eminent scholarly monks nominated by the 7 Mahanayaka Theras                          2

The three Religious leaders of Catholic, Hindu and Islam                                              3

President Uttara Mantrana Sabha                                                                                  1

Speaker Rajya Sabha                                                                                                     1                  Attorney General                                                                                                                   1              Head of the Public Service (Secretary to the Treasury)*                                               16

*(The Secretary to the Treasury like in the Civil Service days should be the most senior and competent Public Servant from the Sri Lanka State Administrative Service. SLSAS should also be fully upgraded and reorganized to the level of the unchallengeable Premier Public Service and the steel frame of the machinery of the State)

This will be a non-political Supreme National Advisory Council that stands above all state institutions and individuals in the country. It is an independent National Institution set up primarily and solely to protect and safeguard national interest and welfare of the people. It is expected that this Council will act as the guardian god to protect this country and the nation.  This Council to be formally appointed by the President of the Republic

Permanent Supreme National Planning Council (SNPC)

It is also proposed that we also set up a Permanent Supreme National Planning Council consisting of 10 or 15 eminent persons in fields like Economics, Finance Agriculture, Environment, Industry Education, Trade and Commerce, History and Culture of this country etc, to prepare the overall National Plan so that politicians will have only to implement national policies after they get elected.

This will be appointed by the President of the Republic on the recommendation and advice of the Jatika Rajya Sabha and the Supreme National Advisory Council

Every plan prepared by this Council has to be formally approved by the legislature and the President of the Republic in consultation with the Supreme National Advisory Council

1 A Strong Central Government  

 Executive President (to be called Lakisuru)   

The President of the Republic of Sinhale shall be elected by the people or by an electoral college as given below. He will be the Head of the State, the Government and the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces 

He shall be elected on a non-party basis by an Electoral College consisting of

Members of

1. a) Jatika Rajya Sabha (JRS)    National level
2. b) Ratasabha                                 Rata level
3. c) Disa Sabha (DS) District level
4. d) Upadisa Sabha  (US)                 Divisional level
5. e) Grama Sabha    (JS)                  village level

(as proposed to be newly set up)

Or directly by the people

It is proposed that TWO or THREE names of outstanding personalities shall be nominated as candidates by the Supreme National Advisory council to the Election commission so that people also could have a wide choice. Selection could be made on public nomination or application.

After nomination is made and the approval of the Supreme Advisory Council, the Election Commission will arrange for three Public debates over the TV to enable the people to select the best person

The aggregate of all votes received by a candidate should exceed 50 percent of the valid votes poled for him to be declared elected as the President.

Persons nominated for the post of President should be of unblemished character, over 40 years of age and who has rendered a distinguished service to the country in any field like Law, Politics, Administration, Academia, Science, Finance, Agriculture and Industry etc, Trade and Commerce and Culture or any other professional field. He should be a proven National Figure acceptable to all at Home as well as the International Community.

Only a Sinhalese Buddhist shall be nominated for this position. That was the inalienable tradition in this country throughout history.

His term of office shall be 5 years. He should not run for office for more than two consecutive terms unless the whole country wants him back.

Prime Minister ( Agramatya)

An Electoral College consisting of the 15 Chairmen of the 15 Executive Committees as stated below will elect the most suitable person among them as the Prime Minister. He shall be formally appointed as the Prime Minister by the President of the Republic thereafter, with the concurrence of the Supreme National Advisory Council. The Prime Minister shall be in charge of the subjects of National Security, External Affairs.

The President will preside over the Amatya Mandalaya (Cabinet)

The Jatika Rajya Sabha (JRS)

(Rajya Sabha (Parliament) shall consists of The President, Pahala Mantrana Sabha  (PMS) and  Uttara Mantrana Sabha (UMS)

Rajya Sabha consisting of the two Houses shall be the supreme Legislative body in the country. Its legislative power is in-alienable.

The PMS It will have 151 Members (140 elected to represent the 28 Districts at 5 Members per District and another 11 nominated to represent unrepresented sections of the society Eg, Communities and professionals.The 28 Districts to be set up under the Tun Rata Sabha system as given below).

The 11 nominated members will be appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Prime Minister with the concurrence of the Supreme National Advisory Council.

The Jatika Rajya Sabha  will get the Speaker elected at its first meeting

When one member gets elected as the Speaker the balance 150 will form in to 15 Executive Committees. Each Committee will then elect one member as its Chairman and another as Deputy Chairman.

Where a Committee is unable to elect its Chairman the President, in consultation with the Speaker of the House will nominate a Member from among the members of that Committees to be Chairman

 Uttara Mantarana Sabha,UMS (Senate)

There shall be a Senate of 36 members; 28 elected representing the 28 districts, and 8  nominated to represent eminent persons who have rendered a distinguished service to the nation  in different fields  such as Politics, Administration, Finance,, Science, Education, Arts and Literature, Business & Commerce and Agriculture or any other field..

The 28 Senators be elected by each District at the General Election conducted for the election of Rajya Sabha and Rata Sabha Members by introducing a separate ballet paper giving three names for each District to be elected as Senators.

The nomination for the Senate should be for the whole District and not for an electorate as in the case of a JRS Or Rata Sabha (RS) Member. The one who gets the highest number of votes will be declared the Senator for that District as there is only one place for a District in the senate

Qualifications for one to be nominated and the process of selection and election will be the same as for a Member of the Jatika Rajya Sabha or Rata Sabha

Sabha Nayaka ( Kathanayaka or Sabha Nayaka Pahala  Mantrana Sabha ((Speaker), Deputy and the Executive committees)

At the first meeting of the new Jatika Rajya Sabha it will elect the Speaker, the Deputy, the Committees and the Chairmen of Committees at its first meeting after the conclusion of the General Election

The President will appoint the Chairmen of Executive Committees of the Jatika Raj Sabha as Ministers. Other Ministers other than the Minister of justice, the President will appoint from among other members of the Jatika Rajya Sabha. But he cannot remove any Minister or a Deputy unless a given Committee makes such formal request in writing from him for reasons such as misconduct, insolvency, failure to perform his duties due to illness, misbehavior, breach of trust or finding guilty by a court of law etc

This will remove the arbitrary powers of the President in appointing and removing Ministers and Deputies at his will to suit his private agenda like a despot, as it is done today and make the process more democratic and also allow the Ministers to work independently as representatives of the people answerable to them instead of the President. Under the present system not only the Ministers and Deputies but all MPP and even the organizers have become virtual hostages in the hands of the President or Party Leader. So much so it has boiled down to a one man show- a virtual dictatorship. The proposed arrangement is expected to restore democracy and Yahapalanaya in its true sense once again in this country unlike today.

Term of office of Jatka Rajya Sabha should be 5 years starting on 1^st of May immediately following the General Election

 The Amatya Mandalaya (Cabinet)

There shall be an Amatya Mandalaya of 17 including the President of the Republic. All the Chairmen of the Committees will function as the Cabinet presided over by the President but the President shall not hold any other Ministry other than the Ministries of Defense and Buddhasasana. Of the 15 Ministers two shall be selected from the Uttara Mantri Mandalaya and one of them shall be the Minister of Justice. The other, to fill the vacancy created by the one who get appointed as the PM. The 15 Committees will be named on a functional basis like Agriculture, Industries, Finance & Public Administration & Home Affairs, Justice, Health and social Service, Education, Lands and Irrigation, Trade and commerce, Public Works, Cultural Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Defense, Shipping and Aviation, Telecommunications, Information & Media etc. Only functionally related subjects should be allocated to each ministry.

Machinery of Governance

 The present system of Government departments, corporations and statutory bodies will continue to function after scrapping all superficial and redundant ones to maintain economy of governance. Subjects like Law and order, National Security and defense, Foreign Affairs, External trade, Fiscal and Monetary policy, National Planning and all other National level policies like Agriculture, Industries, Health, Education shall be handled by the Central Government.

Sovereignty

Sovereignty of the people will rest with the people and it will be exercised by The President, Rajya Sabha and the Judiciary, and by the People at a referendum. The legislative powers of the Rajya Sabha shall be in-alienable

Government will execute its policies and Programmes at different levels through central government Departments, Disa Lekam Karyala (District Secretariats), Upadisapathi Karyala (Divisional Secretariats) and Grampati Karyala  and Rata Sabhas, Disa Sabhas, Upadisa Sabhas and Grama Sabha and Nagara Sabhas  at each level as people’s Councils dealing with Governance.

The Central government Officials at each level will function as the ex-officio Secretaries of the local Government institution. For example the District Secretary of a District will be the Secretary of the District Council. Same principle will apply at Divisional, and Village level as well, ending up with the Grama Seva Niladhari becoming the Secretary to the Grama Sabha at the village level.

The Head of the District Secretariat should be named as District Secretary and Disapathi. The anachronistic colonial term GA should be scrapped immediately as they have ceased to be the Agents of any government long ago and today they are only Public Servants and as it also carries the stigma of colonial administration. Similarly the designation of the GS should also be changed as Gampathi/Grama Lekam

All these Government Institutions and Councils must be administered by professional Public Servants recruited through open competitive examinations only where meritocracy shall be the hallmark.

The Sabhas should be headed by elected representatives as Chairmen. This arrangement will enhance the sovereignty of the people while at the Same time strengthening independence and quality and efficiency of delivery of services by State officers at the same time.

However powers and functions of each of these officers and Chairmen should be clearly defined and laid down to avoid clash of interests and ensure smoothness in public Service.

Election of Members to Jatika Rajya Sabha, Rata Sabhas, Disa Sabhas, Upa disa Sabha, Grama Sabhas. (The present Palath Sabha and Pradesiya Sabha system will be scrapped with this reorganization)

This will be done on an electoral basis as decided by the Election Commissioner General who will also function as the Chairman of the National Election Commission.

Qualifications to be a politician

The selection as well as election of persons under this system will depend solely on the overall quality such as education, character and proven capacity, ability and commitment to serve the people.

Selection and Election of Members to the Jatika Rajya Sabha and other Sabhas

Candidates at different levels shall be first selected by the respective Councils on public consensus by Nomination or application, from among qualified and distinguished persons permanently resident within such electorates. (They also can hold a primary election to selectees). They will be elected on a non-party basis as there will be no parties in this system, on the first past post basis on and electoral basis thereafter. The simple criterion for selection shall be all-round suitability to hold public position. (Such qualifications have to be worked out)

Since Elections to JRS, UMS and Rata Sabha are conducted at District level for the purpose of electing them, the District Council will submit two separate lists

One for the 3 names for each electorate, for the JRS and Rata Sabhas candidates from among  whom the voters of the respective electorate will elect two. 1 for the JRS and the other for the Rata Sabha.

The other list of 3 names for the UMS for the whole Disava so that voters will have a wider choice.

Only persons with permanent residence within the electorate/District as the case may be are qualified to be nominated for any given electorate.

The persons who come first in each electorate will go to the Jatika Rajya Sabha and one who comes second to the Rata Sabha.

In the case of the UMS list the one who gets the highest number of votes get elected

At the conclusion of the Election the Commissioner of Election will announce the list of Jatika Rajya Sabha. UMS and Rata Sabha Members accordingly.

The timing of elections should be logically arranged in a sequential manner to ensure there is no disruption of public life in the country and smooth governance is maintained)

 2 Local Government

This will be a Five- tired structure

1 Grama Sabha –               Grama Seva Level

*Referring to Sinhalese Village Council system even J. F. Dixon, one of the most renowned British Civil Servants, GA of CP in his Annual Administrative Report of 1872 has described the Village Council system that was there before 1815 in this country as ‘a remarkable system of self government which under native rule was so strikingly developed in the Village Communities of the East’ He said so after reintroducing the system in the Central Province, they abolished in the wake of 1818 Independent Struggle. Korale level we can have the old Gamsabha for the purpose of deciding petty disputes at village level under the M/Justice to replace present Sama Mandala). I strongly recommend we should revive and re-establish this system at the grass root level as early as possible as a mechanism to effectively deal with village level problems. (Setting up of people’s committees consisting of 5 village elders including the village monk, GS, village School master and three other elders is suggested to deal with petty village disputes to promote harmony and  peace at each village level. I have experimented this system very successfully in 1966-1971 at Uda Dumbara when I was DRO and it proved a wonderful success in solving village level problems with no cost to poor villagers and also saving their time and money, to engage in their day to day work without resorting to cumbersome litigations)

2 Upa Disa Sabbha  – Divisional Secretary’s level

3 Disa Sabha  –          District Level

4 Rata Sabha              Regional level

5 Jatika Rajya Sabha  (JRS) National level

In addition we will have

Nagara Sabha (Town Councils) and Mahanagara Sabha  (Municipal Councils) as local Government for urban centers.

The present system of TCC (Nagara Sabha) and MCC (Mahanagara Sabha)  will continue with suitable representations in the District and Rata Sabhas.

Election of Members of Disa Sabha (District Councils), Upadisa Sabha (Divisional Councils) Grama Sabha  to be conducted as follows.

 We start here with the Grama Sabha

Grama Sabha at GS Divisions Level

There will be a Grama Sabha for each GS Division consisting all above 18 years in the village are qualified for membership and it will function as a voluntary association of the village like a Grama Sanwardhana Samitiya. A Grama sabha   will have an elected Council of 15 members elected by the residents of the Gramaseva Division.

A separate Committee under each councilor, comprising all villagers over 18 years of age will be set up at this level as well. Each such Committee will be directly linked to the 15 Executive committees at the centre and the periphery.

The Grama Sabha  will be elected for a period of five years by the voters of the Grama Seva Division at a Grama Sabha  meeting summoned and presided over by the GS.

The GS while holding Office will function as the Secretary of the Sabha as well.

The Village Monk, the Grama Seva Niladhari and the Village School Master will function in an advisory capacity.

The outgoing Grama Sabha at its last meeting at the expiry of its term of office   should select the list of candidates for the next council and submit to the Grama Sabha for the next election.

At the conclusion of the election the Council at its first meeting presided over by the GS   they will elect the Chairmen of Committees and then elect one of them as the President/ Chairman of the Sabha.

For this Council to function smoothly with authority and in line with the national system the name GS should be replaced with the new term Gampathi/ Grama Lekam. The GS system has to be fully reorganized and re-structured   (including the scheme of recruitment, educational qualifications and salaries etc) to meet the demands of this new situation

The Chairman of the Grama Sabha will represent the Grama Seva Division at the  Upa Disa Sabha

 Upa Disa Sabha

The  Upa Disa Sabha (Divisional Council) will consist of the Chairmen of the Gamsabhas. At its first meeting will elect the Chairman at a meeting presided over by the Pradesiya Lekam /Divisiona Secretary at the Divisional Secretariat.  The Chairmen and Secretary of the Upa Disa Sabha (Divisional Councils) will represent the Division at the District Council.

 Disa Sabha

All Upa Disa Sabha (Divisional Councils) Chairmen and Secretaries will go to form the Disa Sabha at the Disa Level/District level. The D/Sabha will elect the Chairman and the Deputy at it’s first meeting at the District Secretariat presided over by the Disapathi/District Secretary). The main functions of the DS will be coordination and supervision of Govt work at the District level. If necessary you can have subcommittees at this level for areas such as Agriculture, Industry and other development work

Rata Sabhas

The Chairmen of the nine (9) Disa Sabhas in each Disava (District) will also represent their Districts at the Rata Sabha, in addition to the 40, elected at the General election. In addition to this the representatives of the Mahanagara and Nagara Sabha will also represent their Sabhas in the respective  Rata Sabhas

This scheme is expected to drastically reduce the number of parasitic politicians, excess public servants and enormous public expenditure and improve coordination and efficiency of delivery of services to people. The Government Officials like the Disapathi, Upa Disapathi and Gampathi will represent the interest of the Central Government and the elected Chairmen will represent the people’s interest at these respective levels. Both will work together to deliver the services to the people but at the same time each will   act as a device of check and balance on the other to ensure the best service to the people.

(Details of powers and functions of each of these Sabhas, their officials, inter Sabha relations etc have to be worked out in detail as the above is only an outline of the proposal)

(I request you to read this along with my note on the Sinhalaye Avadi Sabha Concept)

Elections to all Positions at all levels except for the post of President of the Republic shall be conducted as follows according to a fixed time schedule to avoid overlapping and smooth operation of the Sabhas.

Day one

• Grama Sabha, TCC and MCC

Day Two

• Upadisa Sabha within one week after the day one

Day Three

• Disa Sabha, within one week after the day Two

The election process described here will have no opposing propaganda meetings, no posters and cut outs or banners, no murders, no public demonstrations, no wastage of time, no disruption of public Services or any other Service and the cost will also  be minimum, perhaps the country want even feel. However after selection the selected candidates can have joint a maximum of 3 meetings to enable the electors to have the best choice. That money also could be used for the welfare of the people. There will also be no soliciting, back biting, bribing and infighting and above all politics in this country will, once and for all, cease to be a plundering business and get transformed in to a sacred mission  of service to man, I hope.

Finally, I appeal you all Patriotic people to go back to the following traditional Geopolitical system to achieve our targets of building a stable, strong, peaceful and prosperous country.

The Tun Rata: Ruhunu, Pihiti and Maya (Tun Hele)

 Devolution and decentralization of power to the periphery

The whole Island and its territorial waters will be divided in to three Regions (Prantha) to be named ‘Ratasabha’; viz Ruhunu, Pihiti and Maya keeping with the age old tradition that had been there in this country from 427 BC to 1815 AD. (no other country in the world has had an uninterrupted geopolitical system for such a long time like this)

This is how Mahavamsa narrates the demarcation of village boundaries by Pandukabhaya in 427 BC.

Dasavassabhisitto so – gamasiima nivesayi

Lakadeepamhi sakale – Lankindo Pandukabhayo’    (MV.X.103).

(King Pandukabhaya attained the throne in 437 BC).

(This demarcation of village boundaries was later incorporated in to the Tun-Sinhale map which continued until 1815 with minor boundary changes, the last being the Udarata Rajadhaniya (Kandyan Kingdom) with its capital in Senkadagala Pura (Kandy) extending up to the sea right round the Island including the Rjarata, part of Malaya Rata and Ruhun Rata excepting a narrow coastal belts occupied by the Portuguese, Dutch and British successively, more particularly in the South Western littorals.

It must be noted with precision that the Sinhale or Ceylon as the British called it, when it was handed over to us to be governed as a dominion under the Ceylon Independence Act 1947 within the British Commonwealth of Nations (10^th Dec 1947) included the whole Island. The only part of the ancient Sinhale territory that was not handed back to us was the Maldives Islands, which the British retained as one of their protectorates under clause 2 Part 1 of the said order until 26^th July 1965 and declared it as a separate country. Besides failing to claim for Maldives our politicians could not get restored even the very name of this country-Sinhale” ceded to them in 1815. They also failed to send out nearly 1 million South Indian coolies like what Burma did in 1947. Today they occupy nearly 13 lahks acres of our Motherland on the hills right at the centre of the country where the present government has now taken steps to establish  a Malayanadu for these Indian Tamils thereby betraying the sons of the soil who owned it from the dawn of history.

It is in this backdrop the following proposal is made with the best of intentions with a view to rescuing the country from the present tragic situation by bringing all communities together as one nation. In order to achieve this noble goal, it is suggested that we go back to the re-establishment of the ancient Thri-Sinhale with boundaries as shown in this map. This division will ensure equitable distribution of resources, both physical and human, among the three units (land, water, coast line and even people), restore ethnic reconciliation and firmly establish a permanent geopolitical framework that will, once and for all, put an end to the present political and ethnic crisis and lay the foundation for re-building a strong and vibrant nation state.

Above all it will, will enable us to get rid of the curse of the British Provincial System imposed on us in 1833 along with the Huniyama that is Palalth Sabha thrust on us by force by India in 1987.

This I am confident will provide the golden key to National, Regional, Divisional and Village level development in this country.

The following map shows the proposed Tun Rata Divisions, 27 Districts and the Capital District.

The 3 Rata Sabhas shall be re-established accordingly. I have used Mahaweli, Walawe and Deduru Oya as their boundaries. But boundary changes could be altered after factors like population; area and ethnicity are carefully studied in detail before we finally decide on the boundaries to avoid future ethnic segregation. The need to not to disturb the overall historic ethnic composition, needed to avoid communal segregation, as a safeguard to territorial integrity etc to be born in mind, when demarcating these boundaries has to be stressed.  The boundaries of the proposed geopolitical division will extend from top to the sea coast. These three Rata Sabhas will be the main arms of the government in the Regions in implementing Government policies and Programmes in the periphery.

Each Rata Sabha will be divided in to nine Districts totaling to twenty seven (27) for the whole country. The 28^thDistrict where the Capital will be located shall be named as a special District (Capital District- This could be Mahanuwara or Anuradhapura) with special arrangements to represent it in the Jatika Rajya Sabha and the Uttara Mantrana Sabha. Within this geopolitical demarcation one has to give up all divisive dreams like Tamil or Muslim autonomy. Everybody has to think in terms of one nation and one country.

Each District will be demarcated in to five electorates using population and area as the criteria 

Map Sudath Gunasekara 2004

Each District will again be divided in to five electorates making provision for 10 MPP vize: 5 for the JRS and 5 for the Rata Sabha.

The Three Ratasabhas will also have 151 Members; 140 elected, 9 Disa Reps and and 2 distinguished persons nominated to represent unrepresented or under-represented sectors from the whole Rata Sabha area

Each Rata Sabha area Will also send 28 elected  Members to the Senate, one for each Disava

Members to Jatika Rajaya Sabha and Rata Sabha

 Each District Council will nominate fifteen15 names at 3 per electorate names of outstanding persons from among whom the voters will elect five to represent them in the Rajaya Sabha and five to the Rata Sabbha. The five members who come first will go to the Rajya Sabha and those who come second will go to the Rata Sabha. All these Members should he permanent residents at least for 5 years within that electorate for which his/her name is proposed and their term of office is 5 years.

The members of the Rata Sabha at their first meeting will elect the Chairmen and Deputy of the Rata Sabha and also the Chairmen and Deputies of the 15 Committees. The Chairmen and Deputies of Committees in turn elect the Chief Minister and the Chairman of each Committee will be designated as a Minister of the Rata Sabha. The Chief Minister will be appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Governor in consultation with the religious dignitaries of the Rata area. The other Ministers will be appointed by the Governor in consultation with the Chief Minister and religious dignitoreies of the Rata.

A Governor appointed by the President in consultation with the Prime Minister, the Chief Minister and the Religious Dignitaries of the Rata will function as the chief executive of the Rata Sabha.. The Rata Sabha will nominate three (3) other names to the President from among persons who have rendered a distinguished service to the country or the Rata Sabha area who have permanent residence within that Rata Sabha area to be appointed as Governor

There will be a Council of Ministers consisting 15 members presided over by a Chief Minister who will again be appointed by the President in consultation with the Prime Minister who will make his recommendations after consulting the MPP of Jatika Rajya Sabha representing the particular Rata Sabha area and Rata Sabha Members of the relevant Rata Sabha and the Religious Dignitaries of the area.

The Chief Minister will be in charge of the Ministry of Finance and Public Administration in addition to any other subject as decided by the central government

The term of office of all members other than the Governor who will remain in office until the new Sabha takes office after swearing in will be 5 years

Other than the President of the Republic all other elected Members and Governors should be permanent residents of the electorate or the Rata Sabha for which he/she seeks election or appointment to qualify to be elected or appointed to such posts. No person from an outside shall be appointed or nomination given.

But any person resident in any part of the country could be nominated for the post of President provided he has the necessary qualifications stipulated in the Constitution.

The Governor should be eligible for reappointment on the recommendation of the new Council of Ministers of the Rata Sabha in consultation with the Members of the Rata Sabha and religious dignitaries of the area.

Constitutional provisions shall be made to provide for the recall of any elected member in case of his or her failure t fulfill the task assigned as a representative of the Public.

(Since the PM is included within 225 and 151 he is not added to the total)

The 3 Rata Sabhas (Ruhunu, Pihiti and Maya) under this system will have 3 Governors and 3 Chief Ministers and 151 Ratasabha Members (including the CM), instead of 9 Governors, 9 Chief Ministers, and 638 odd parasitic Provincial Councilors?

This will  save more than Rs 600 Billion annually currently wasted just to upkeep Provincial Councilors, their kith and kin and this monstrous and wasteful system for nothing (absolutely brings no benefit to the country) that takes the country and the nation down the Gadarene slope for total disaster and bankruptcy, that could be gainfully used for the development of the country,?

All development work at each level will be done by the respective Councils and Government Departments. But intra-Divisional and Intra District and Intra-Rata Sabha project will be handled by the central Government. But no local work should be done by outsiders without the concurrence of the respective Councils. The central Government in this case will only facilitate the work with funds, technical knowhow etc. This will ensure self rule for the local people.

All elected people other than the President of the Janarajaya should have permanent residence within the electorate which they represent. However, the nominees for the post of President could be from anywhere in the Island.

Planning for the grass root level under this system will start at the Grama Sabha (Village Council) level

No politician or public servant, either directly or indirectly shall be allowed to engage in contracts with the Government at any level.

The Provinces, Provincial Councils, and the existing Pradesiya Sabha will be abolished under this system immediately.

 I also suggest that we implement the recommendations given in my Siya Panatha (100) to make the new system more effective and meaningful

The proposed Tun Rata Model will benefit the country in the following manner.

The proposal will,

1 Remove the Provinces introduced by the British in 1833 to divide and rule this Island and also the Indian imposed Provincial Council System and the 13^th Amendment embraced by JR firstly to the North and East for his survival and rest of the country for dirty political maneuvering when no one asked for it in these regions.

2 Firmly establish a sound, strong and sustainable geopolitical framework that will consolidate the political map of the Island that conforms to geographical, regional, and cultural differences and lays the foundation for re-building a strong and vibrant nation state.

3   Provide a framework for maximum decentralization  of administrative powers to the periphery that will bring about better democracy to the people and ensure balanced and contented development in the regions.

• Stop ethnic segregation and polarization and promote ethnic and regional harmony and reconciliation that leads to national integration. It will also put an end to all agitations for separate and independent Tamil and Muslim political entities and induce them to think and behave as full citizens of this country without having allegiance to India, Arab world or leave for any Land of Promise.
• Result the drastic reduction in expenditure on Provincial Council Councils and Pradesiya Sabhas white elephant and reduce the number of politicians and superficial politico-administrative institutions and so-called public servants to a workable and economic minimum that suits the country, thereby saving billions annually wasted at present to maintain a ceremonial, corrupt and wasteful system

6 Drastically cut down the Government expenditure and make available more funds for national development that will improve the standards of living of the common people.

7 Put an end to colonial administrative and political legacies that nurtured ethnic polarization and colonial servility, their divide and rule policy that seriously hampered the forward march of the post-independent Sri Lanka and open up new vistas for a united and prosperous new Lanka.

8   Ensure fair and equitable distribution of resources both natural and human among the regions        and promote maximum and balanced regional development.

9 Provides a political framework where all people will begin to think firstly, as members of a Rata (Ruhunu, Pihiti or Maya), and secondly, as one nation instead of the present tendency of thinking as Sinhalese (Low country and Kandyans), Tamils or Muslims etc.

10 Restore the lost core historical, political, cultural and economic heritage of the people of this Island nation and lay the foundation for future political stability and socio-economic prosperity.

11 Put an end to the curse of provinces that were designed by the British to divide and dis-integrate this country on ethnic grounds and the Provinces and Provincial Councils forced on us by British and India to achieve their sinister   objective of creating a Tamilnadu within this country.

12 Prevent the formation of the Malayanadu in Central Sri Lanka will get divided between the Tun Rata and EELAM in the North and East as it will get divided between Rajarata and Ruhuna

13 This system will do away with political rivalries and wastage of time, money and election related crimes and bring about a system of government of our own keeping with the age old traditions of the country.

14 Drastically reduce political and administrative positions and Institutions and overheads.  Therefore it will result in drastic reduction of Government expenditure on salaries, vehicles, buildings and Elections etc

15 Remove dictatorial powers and immunity of the President and empower people with decision making power down to the very grass root level and make their sovereignty meaningful.

16 Will result in the devolution of power to the grass root level and people will share the power of governance making it fully democratic.

17 The number of Ministers and Ministries at the centre will get reduced to sixteen

18 Party politics will disappear from Trade Unions, Universities and government offices thereby millions of man hours lost per day on demonstration etc could be used for nation building.

19It will mark the formation of a government by the people, for the people and of the people. Every citizen under this system will feel proud that he is also a part of the Government.

20 It will mark the dawn of new era in democracy in practice and might become a model for all countries that have become victims of colonial exploitation and western systems of government utterly inappropriate to their native environments.

21 This will end the present system of Government by the politicians, for the politicians and of the politicians, their families and cronies” and instead we will have a Home grown system of self Government by the people, for the people and of the people”

22 This system of government is expected to guarantee governance in accordance with Dasarajadharma and enthrone the principle of ‘Bahujana sukhaya Bahujana hitaya” preached by the Buddha.

23 The new system of Government will also be based on the principle where the Wheel of Power will revolve on the Wheel of Dhamma and where Dhamma will form the solid Foundation of Governance.

24 It will mark the dawn of an era of new political culture leading the way to a ”civilization’ State as Martin Jaque has described in his book ‘When China Rules the world’’.

25 Finally the whole country will begin to move forward with one national policy

26 There will a closer relationship between the representatives and voters

27 No politician will be able to run away from responsibility firstly as they have become local people who have amoral obligation to the people and secondly as they could be recalled by the people

28 All institutions will have politicians who are compelled to do what the people want and none will be able to deceive and rob the people and do what they want.

29 The word political victimization will never be heard in this country thereafter as there are no political parties

30 There want be any claim for devolution as maximum power will be decentralized up to the village level under this system for people to take their decisions within the framework of broad National Policies.

31 With an Independent and strong Judiciary and Public   Service;  a New Political Culture in Sri Lanka and A new approach to Good Governance, all this you can expect under this system

32 Finally political, socio-economic, ethnic and regional conflicts will hopefully come to an end

Proposed action Plan

It is suggested first we appoint a panel of experts to finalize this document. It would be very useful to have public sittings on a District wise basis to get public participation before the preparation of the final Report on which we should base the Charter 2017; Towards a New Political Culture in Tun Sinhale”

Thereafter we invite party leaders for a joint meeting and present our document. The group who accept our proposals and gives a definite written undertaking to implement our programme to the letter after they win the election, we will organize the whole country to support them. Just like what the Sinhala Buddhist patriotic people did in 1956, but with a difference, that is they cannot go back  on their promises like how they have been doing ever since 1948, with impunity. Besides acceding to our above requests  they also have to agree to accommodate 28 candidates recommended by us to represent the 28 Districts and agree to reserve a minimum of five important ministry positions and five Deputy Ministry positions to our movement.

After coming to power under the present Constitution they have to agree to promulgate the new Constitution as agreed within six months and dissolve the Government. Thereafter new Elections have to be held under the new Constitution and immediately begin to implement the new Constitution

Overall these are only some random thoughts that came to my mind. Details have to be worked out jointly by a panel of patriotic experts in each field like eminent persons well versed in Local Government, Constitutional Law,  Systems of government including our own traditional Sinhala system that was there from ancient times.

Dr. Sudath Gunasekara

21.Gemunu Mawatha, Hanthana Pedesa

Mahanuwara. 081 2232744—071 8075326

By Lucien Rajakarunanayake Courtesy The Island

October 29, 2016, 12:20 pm
COPE is almost everywhere; it sounds like the new theme song of Good Governance, or did someone call it Yahapaalanaya.

One does feel sorry for the COPE Chairman, Mr. Handunetti, had to do a rapid scoop out of COPE, with the pressure brought on him by the Green Elephants in the Committee, who had a special love for the former Governor of the Central Bank – Arjuna Mahendran. It looks like the COPE Report, which has somehow been presented in Parliament, without any sub-reports from the Greens, will have to face a Perpetual Problem in the days ahead, with the details of the hoary profits made by Mahendran’s son-in-law, Arjuna Aloysius, who was involved in perpetual and hugely profitable dealings with the Central Bank, which were not profitable to the country.

Twisting and turning the law with regard to Treasury Bond auctions seem to have been a family business of the Mahendrans – the father-in-law and son-in-law, giving a whole new twist to ‘in-law profiteering’ that appears to have gone beyond the crooked profiting activities of the Family Tree of the corrupt, which held sway in the politics and finances of the country not so long ago. Those who make huge noises about Good Governance or “Yahapaalanaya” as it was dubbed in Sinhala, to suit Polonnaruwa thinking in politics, will soon have to come to understand how they are to COPE with the reality of ‘in-law corruption’ at the Central Bank.

This is the new issue that Parliament will have to COPE with in the coming weeks, offering opportunities for great excitement, as the Greens and Blues in government, try to find escape routes for those perpetually rich Mahendrans, to escape the Rule of Law, that is said to be a policy priority of Good Governance, until the President with Polonnaruwa ideology, recently came up with new thinking of the independence of probing into the corruption of those who display medals of honour in the armed forces, and we are now seeing a race to release ‘War Heroes’ from the cells of the Remand Prison.

Parliament is a privileged place, and its members will have all the privileges they need to probe into the COPE Report, and the various sub-issues on its content that will come from the Greens and Blues, depending on whether the voices of discord are in favour of the father-in-law or son-in-law.

But this is only one issue in the much wider COPE crisis facing the country. What the COPE members of Parliament have to worry themselves about, is nothing compared to what the public have to COPE with today, in the much wider area of politics, corruption, and corruption of a huge scale in almost every aspect of government.

Just think about it. Can you COPE with the situation where Members of Parliament, whether elected or appointed or crept in, are given permits to import luxury vehicles duty free, and no sooner the permit is obtained sell it for millions of rupees to those outside the House at Diyawanna. There are senior MPs who say this profiteering on duty free vehicle permits is part of the privileges of an MP, as it has been going on for quite a long time, on the principle that practice makes it perfect or gives it privilege.

How can you COPE with any Minister who obtained a huge building on rent worth several millions of rupees of taxpayer money, and does not occupy the premises for months on end, as the repairs and fittings have not been completed in the building? All this while there is government premises nearby, that is wholly capable of accommodating that minister, his ministry and his political work, too. That is certainly a huge COPE issue before the public, which is never discussed in parliament.

How does the public COPE with a situation when VVIP Security Guards accompany a Dahamson, member of the power that be or the ‘palana balaya’ tries to enter a night club, after closing hours (night clubs do close very late) and has violent confrontations with the Night Club Bouncer, who is injured and treated in hospital; and somehow, when the power-of-powers calls for a full inquiry there are no CCTV records available of the entire incident, the Bouncer cannot recognize those who assaulted him, and the proprietor of the Night Club, gladly agrees to bear the cost of all damages, as if he was doing a great service to the country, and not the paternal forces that produced that Dahamson, of canny and powerful escapability.

There is much, much more the people will have to COPE with from next week, with the new VAT coming into force, and there will be even more pains to COPE with when the new Budget is presented next month, trying to cover up all the failings of the last Budget, as well as sort out the huge economic, budgetary and fiscal crisis we are in, thanks to the corruption in the past, and in the present.

It is time you and I decided to find a way of COPING with the reality of the pledges of Good Governance or Yahapaalanaya being the stuff of political forgetful convenience. Get used to COPING with the new corruption that is holding sway, in a coalition of the consensual corrupt. There will be no stunning statements coming soon or even later on how the people have to learn to COPE with the broken promises, of those who sought the vote of the people to defeat corruption, but now expect the people to COPE with both the old and new corruption.

Let’s try to get used to COPING with a Cabinet of the Crooked. It will take a long time to develop the COPE-surgery, needed to remove corruption, fraud and crime from our body politic. Have patience and just learn to COPE with in all.

by Saman Indrajith Courtesy The Island

COPE Chairman Sunil Handunnetti was not permitted to tell the House of harassments and intimidation he had undergone at the COPE sessions while investigating the Treasury bond scam.

After tabling the COPE report, MP Handunetti tried to narrate what he had been subjected to by UNP MPs. He had already promised on a previous date that he would tell the House of his experiences. “These recommendations are important. They came from various parties. There was difference of opinion with regard to the recommendations. I have been accused of… (UNP Members shout at Handunnetti)

Leader of the House Minister Lakshamn Kiriella: This is not a debate. Those who clap for COPE chairman have forgotten how it had been done during the Mahinda Rajapaksa government. Thirty COPE reports were relegated to the dustbin.

Handunnetti: Please let me finish. I request from the Deputy Speaker not to let me undergo the difficulty I suffered at the COPE meeting in this House, too.

Deputy Speaker: You presented the report as COPE Chairman. But you cannot be permitted to discuss what happened at committee meetings.

JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake: What you say is right. It is not permissible to make public what transpired there at committee meetings. It is against the tradition. But this is a special case. Newspapers reported that COPE chairman had walked out of a meeting. Some interpreted it as a part of conspiracy. According to some that action was a betrayal.

Some said it was a sell out by COPE chairman. Everybody needs to know what actually happened. The chairman should be given opportunity to explain.

Minister Rauff Hakim: I am also a member of the COPE. I have chaired committees including the Public Accounts Committee. We too have presented committee reports in this House. MP Handunetti could present his report but it is against traditions for him to reveal things that were discussed and what happened. There are ethics and traditions we have agreed upon. Westminster system has given us many traditions. We have to uphold them. The COPE chairman has acted responsibly. When an MP becomes a chairman of a committee he should leave aside his party politics. None of us mixed our politics with traditions. His views could be expunged from the Hansard. Nothing that would amount to harming dignity of the House should be permitted.

Thereafter the Chair instructed COPE chairman to wind up his speech.

by Saman Indrajith Courtesy The Island

* Calls for recovering losses from culprits
*Chairman prevented from revealing his ordeal
*AG will have to be consulted – PM

October 28, 2016, 11:55 pm

COPE Chairman Sunil Handunnetti informed Parliament yesterday that his committee had found that former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran was directly responsible for the Treasury bond scam and recommended legal action against him and the other Central Bank officials responsible for it.

Handunnetti, presenting the report on Treasury bond scam, said that the committee observed that there was enough ground to believe that former CB Governor Mahendran had interfered with or exerted his influence on the bond sales from Feb. 27, 2015 to May 2016.

He said that the incident had led to an erosion of confidence in the Central Bank.

The COPE has observed that Perpetual Treasuries recorded massive profits and recommended that if the company’s profit making has resulted in any loss to the Central Bank or the government, then it should be recovered from it by initiating legal action.

The COPE recommends that Parliament should directly intervene to monitor the process of implementing the watchdog committee recommendations and to prevent the recurrence of such incidents in the future.It recommends a proper mechanism be in place in the CB and affiliated institutions to prevent similar incidents in the future.

It recommends that the President appoint a special observation group to monitor financial activities of the CB.

The COPE recommends holding a separate investigation into Perpetual Treasuries Ltd.

The COPE Chairman said all the members collectively had agreed to the 15 recommendations of the report, but there had been dissent on the content. He said out of the 26 members in the Committee 16 members had endorsed the report without footnotes, whereas nine members had endorsed it with footnotes.

The 16 members who endorsed it without footnotes include JVP MPs Sunil Handunnetti,  Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Bimal Ratnayake, Dr Nalinda Jayatissa, UPFA MPs Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, Dayasiri Jayasekara, Lakshman Seneviratne, Lasantha Alagiyawanna, Chandrasiri Gajadheera, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Weerakumara Dissanayake, UNP MP Rauf Hakeem, and TNA MPs S Sritharan, M A Sumanthiran, Gnanamuthu Srineshan and Mavai Senathirajah.

The nine members who endorsed it with footnotes include Dr Harsha de Silva, Ajith P Perera, Sujeewa Senasinghe, Hector Appuhamy, Ravindra Samaraweera, Wasantha Aluvihare, Ashok Abeysinghe, Abdullah Maharoof and Harshana Rajakaruna. UNP MP Ranjan Ramanayake remained neutral.

The report contains 55 pages and annexes running to 1,900-2,000 pages. It deals with the investigations into the CB Treasury Bond sales from February 2015 to May 2016. It includes 15 recommendations and 15 conclusions.

Handunnetti tabling the report called on the students, university academics, professionals, specialists in the finance sector and the media to study the report carefully and note the dissenting views in the content and the footnotes.

He called the report that came out yesterday a victory of all who were against corruption, waste and abuse of public money. He said, as a Member of Parliament and COPE for 16 long years and as the Treasurer of Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Anti-Corruption he was glad to present the report to the House.

Handunnetti said the draft report had been presented before the Committee on October 20 and it was endorsed by eight out of 14 members who were present at the meeting on October 21. “I want to stress that the recommendations given on my original draft on October 21 remain intact in the report that I table today. They have been endorsed by all. There was only one change and that was made based on a legal point made by MP Sumanthiran,” he said.

– ධර්මසිරි සෙනෙවිරත්න  –

අද ලංකාවේ    දෙනු  ලබන  අධ්ධ්යාපන ක්‍රමය  ඉංග්‍රීසින්  විසින්  තම  අවශ්‍යතා  සපුරා  ගැනීමට  සැකසු  ක්‍රමය  මතම  සැකසුනකි අතීතයේ  පවතී  රටට ජාතියට  ගැලපෙන අධ්ධ්යාපන  ක්‍රමය  අහෝසි කර  ඇත .තමන්ට  සුවච  කීකරු  ගෝලබාලයන් හදා ගනී   මටත් ඉංග්‍රීසින් යොදාගත්තේ අධ්යාපනයය් . මෙය ඔවුන් විසින් ඉන්දියාවේද අනුගමනය කල ක්‍රමයය් . .ඉන්දියාවේ ජාතික කොන්ග්‍රසය බිහි කිරීමට දේශීය ප්‍රභූන් සමග එකතුවූ ඩබ්ලිව් හියුම් ප්‍රකාශ කලේ තව දුරටත් බලය අල්ලා තබා ගැනීමට හොඳම ක්‍රමය නම් ඉංග්‍රීසින්ගේ සංස්කෘතිය අනුව හැඩගැසුණ පිරිසක් බිහි කිරීම බවත් එවිට කීකරු කීප දාහක් සමග පමණක් ගනුදෙනු බේරාගත හැකි බවත් ය .. ලංකාවේදී ඉංග්‍රීසින් පළමුවෙන්ම කලේ බෙදා වෙන්කර පාලනය කිරීමේ න්‍යාය යටතේ ඉතාම සුළු ජන වර්ගයක් වුත් ඔවුන්ගේම කුලී වැඩට ඉන්දියාවෙන් ගෙන ආ දෙමළුන් ට ඉංග්‍රීසි ඇතුළු මිෂනාරි අධ්‍යාපනයක් දී රාජ්‍ය පාලනයට සහභාගී කර ගැනීමය .. මෙනිසා 1956 පමණ වන තුරු මහා ජාතිය සුළු ජන වර්ගයට යටවී සිටියේය .75% කට නොඅඩු සිංහල ජනගහනයක් සිටි රටේ නිදහස ගැන ඉංග්‍රීසින් හා සාකච්චාවට යැවීමට සිදුවුයේ රාමනාදන්ය .ඉංග්‍රීසි දැනුම නිසාම දෙමලු උගතුන් සේ සැලකීමටද සිංහලයෝ පෙළඹුනහ රාමනාදන් ආපසු පැමිණෙන විට ඔහු කරත්තයක තබා ඇදගෙන ගොස් ගරුබුහුමන් දක්වීමට ද එදා සිංහල ප්‍රභූ වරු කටයුතු කලේ ”සුරුස් බුරුස් ”ගා රාමනාදන් කතාකල ඉංග්‍රීසියෙන් බිරන්තට්ටු වී සිටි නිසාය 
යාපනේ අධ්‍යාපන කටයුතු ඉංග්‍රීසින් විසින් බාර දුන්නේ ඇමරිකන් මිෂනාරීන්ටය.1816 09 -25 දින ඇමරිකන් සිලෝන් මිෂන් ව්‍යාපාර කටයුතු අරඹන ලදී .පුජක දනියෙල් පුවර් තෙලිප්පලෙය් හි පදිංචි වී වසරක් තුල දෙමල ඉගෙන ගෙන දෙමලෙන් දේශනා කිරීම ඇරඹුවේය . පළමු වසර දෙක තුල දෙමල පාසල් 12ක් අරඹන ලදී . අනෙක් සේවා මෙසේ වෙ .
1820 දී ආසියාවේ ප්‍රථම බටහිර වයි ද්‍ය මධ්‍යස්ථානය පොන්දිතිරිප්පු වල 
1821 මනිපය් වල මුද්‍රණාලයක් 
1823 වඩු ක් කොඩෙය්(වඩු ගොඩ) පාසලක් 
1824 දී උඩුවිල් හි —උඩුවිල —–ආසියාවේ ප්‍රථම නේවාසික ගැහැණු පාසල 
1848 මනිපය් රෝහල හා 1849 දී මනිපා ය් හෙදි පාසල හා මනිපාය් වයිද්ය විද්‍යාලය 
කාන්තා නේවාසික පාසලේ මුල් කාලයේදී ඉගැන්වීමට අමතරව ඇඳුම් පැළදුම් හා ආහාර සපයා ඉගෙනීමෙන් පසුව විවාහයන්ද කරදෙන ලදී .. ඔබ්සර්වර් පුවත් පතට පමණක් පැරණි කමෙන් දෙවන වන ”’උදය තාරකෙය් ” නම් පුවත් පතක් පුවර දේව ගති වරයා විසින් 1841 දී අරඹන ලදී .
මේ සියල්ල කඩිමුඩියේ ලහි ලහියේ එහෙත් දිගු කාලීන සැලැස්මක් ඇතිව කරන ලද්දේ ඉංග්‍රීසි පාලකයන්ගේ අතවැසි දෙවන පන්තියේ නිලධාරී පැලැන්තියක් නිර්මාණය කර සිංහලයන්ට ඉහලින් රාජ්‍ය සේවයේ පිහිටු වීමටය .. එය එසේම සිදුවිය .. සිංහල රාජ්‍ය භාෂාව කරන තුරුම සිංහලයන්ට සිදුවුයේ සිංහල ගුරු පත්වීම් වලින් පමණක් සෑහීමට පත් වීමටය .
ඉතිරිය පසුව

Mahinda Gunasekera

By Email
84 Tambrook Drive
Agincourt, Ontario
M1W 3L9, Canada

October 27, 2016

Hon. James Berry, MP
Chair and Registered Contact
All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils
Copies to: Officers of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils

Dear Sir,

Book Launch by British Tamils Forum in association with the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils

On October 24, 2016  titled ‘Proliferating Buddhist Structures in Tamil Homeland sowing the seeds of Disharmony’ at the Atlee Suite, Portcullis House, Westminster  

I am writing to show my displeasure at your participation and support given to the British Tamils Forum which was earlier involved in actively funding and promoting the extremist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which engaged in all forms of violence including suicide terrorism to break up the unitary state of Sri Lanka causing a rift amongst the constituent communities making up the national fabric of the island nation.  You are once again providing a forum to the GTF who are now attempting to mislead the public and wrongly bring up issues of a religious nature on this occasion to again stir up new feelings of bitterness amongst the multi-religious people of that country who are peacefully coexisting with each other. You are no doubt aware that the LTTE was designated as an international terrorist organization by the UN Security Council per Resolution Number 1373 of 2001, whilst the UK authorities took action to proscribe the same group effective March 2001, which proscription continues to remain in force.

The Sri Lankan people have undergone a great deal of strife for a period in excess of three decades and have since been able to usher in an era of peace following the military defeat of the Tamil Tigers on May 19, 2009, thereby eliminating terrorism from the land bringing all violence to an end unlike ongoing gun fights experienced in other conflicts elsewhere. Steps have since been taken to demine 6700 sq. km. of the land and resettle the nearly 300,000 displaced civilians, rehabilitate the 12,000 plus former fighting cadres of the LTTE and release them to society, restore infrastructure, re-establish democratically elected local/provincial councils, and pave the way towards normalization of living conditions within a short space of time.  These tasks were speedily achieved as a result of the state allocating 85-90 percent of the development funds of the national budget running into several billion US dollars to the areas formerly occupied by the Tamil Tiger terrorists in the north and east, generating vast improvement in the economies of the region registering a 22-27 percent increase in the GDP whilst the index gained by just 6-7 percent in the rest of the country. The private sector and civil society members in the south also made valuable contributions to uplift their fellow Tamil citizens to rebuild their lives.

In the present situation, where Sri Lanka has been taking vigorous measures to bring about healing and reconciliation amongst the constituent communities, it is most disheartening to note that the leaders of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and members of the pro-LTTE organizations of the expatriate Tamil groups such as the GTF are continuing their separatist and divisive policies to prevent the healing process, in pursuit of their objective of breaking up Sri Lanka in order to establish a mono-ethnic separate state for the Tamils with western intervention.  It is therefore the main reason why they tend to stir up issues of this nature in western cities such as London, New York, Toronto and other EU centres where they have been granted refuge during the period of the ethno-terrorist conflict in Sri Lanka (having bypassed culturally and linguistically linked Tamilnadu in South India just a 20 mile boat ride away), where western politicians are known to disregard all principles and support their cause to woo their votes to win elections.

Proliferating Buddhist Structures in Tamil Homeland”

This is a ‘red herring’ that is being dangled before western eyes by pro-LTTE expat Tamil groups to mislead them into believing that Buddhists in Sri Lanka who are predominantly Sinhalese are attempting to bait the Tamil populace into another violent conflict by putting up Buddhist structures in the so called Tamil Homeland” thereby sowing seeds of disharmony. Firstly, it must be stated that there is no region within Sri Lanka that is considered a Tamil Homeland”, even though presently, the northern province is predominantly Tamil while they make up about 40 percent of the eastern province’s population with the non-Tamil Moors and Sinhalese being in the majority. The only place which can be deemed a ‘Tamil Homeland’ is the semi-autonomous union state of Tamilnadu in South India where over 72 million Tamils live. The Tamil leaders of the north have been objecting to the resettlement of the 27,000 Sinhalese evicted prior to 1981 and the 75,000 plus Moors (Muslims) driven out of the north in 1990 on 48 hours notice. The few Sinhalese numbering about 100 and the small proportion of Moors who have been resettled in the north are facing severe harassment from Tamil politicians and their thugs. By blocking the resettlement of the previously evicted Sinhalese and Moors, these Tamil separatist elements are seeking to create a mono-ethnic region of the north, while at the same time these Tamils are able to freely move to all parts of the south and live amidst the Sinhalese people without any problems. The greater majority of Tamils numbering over 55 percent live outside their falsely claimed traditional homeland” in the north and east, in mixed ethnic surroundings.

Sri Lanka is the motherland of the Sinhalese people who originated in the island that founded the Nation of Sinhale (Sinhaladeepa) and developed the unique hydraulic irrigation civilization, culture based on Buddhist values and the Sinhala language, which is a living proof of their written history of 2600 years contained in the recorded texts called the Deepavamsa, Mahavansa and Chulavansa and other ancient works of Sinhala literature.  Sri Lanka faced 17 invasions since 230 BC from South India where Tamil forces entered the land to plunder and pillage, only to hold on to pockets of territory for short periods till they were defeated and driven out by the indigenous Sinhala people.   Some of the invaders are likely to have remained and become assimilated with the Sinhala people. The Tamils first came as settlers only in the 12^th century as per Tamil historian, Prof. Karthigesu Indrapalan, and therefore arrived much later than the Sinhalese who were in occupation of the entire island.  Prof. S. Krishnaswamy Aiyengar of the School of Historical Studies of the University of Madras writing the foreword on August 29, 1926, in Mudaliyar  C.Rasanayagam’s book titled ‘Ancient Jaffna’, has stated that the word ‘ILAM’ (Eelam) said to denote a Tamil Homeland in Sri Lanka  has been derived from the Pali word ‘SIHALA’ meaning Sinhala, also confirmed in the Tamil Lexicon published under the authority of the University of Madras (refer page 328), that the Tamil word Ilam did not refer to a Tamil land but to ‘ the land of the Sinhala people’. Tamils are therefore late settlers in the Sinhala Homeland.  (https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2010/11/09/invasions-violence-atrocities-and-plunder-characterize-tamildravidian-involvement-in-sri-lanka-from-230-bce/ )

The final invasion launched by South Indian Dravidians was in the latter part of the 13^th century by the Pandyan Emperor Kulasekera who established a kinglet in Yapa Pathuna also called Jaffnapatam, confined to the Jaffna peninsula and a narrow strip on the northwest coast up to Mannar.  The sizable number of Sinhala residents present in Jaffna during the Dutch period in 1695 would have had to flee the area or assimilate with the Tamils who were able to previously establish a sub-kingdom of Jaffnapatam.  According to a map found at the Beeldbank National Archives in the Netherlands shows that more than 85 percent of all the villages in Yapanaya or Jaffnapatam had Sinhala names. The rebels of Jaffnapatam under Kanakasooriya Cinkaiariyan Arya Chakravarti were subdued by the forces of King Parakramabahu VI of Kotte led by Sapumal Kumaraya around 1450, who regained suzerainty over the territory compelling the sub-kingdom to once again pay tribute to the emperor whose seat was in Kotte.

J.P. Lewis, a British officer of the Ceylon Civil Service, in 1896 presented a paper before the Royal Asiatic Society, Ceylon branch, titled ‘The place names in the Vanni ‘. He said Vanni was colonized by the Tamils only recently. The original Sinhalese inhabitants had been driven out and new Tamil place names given. Some place names were Tamilised versions of the original Sinhala names.  Horsburgh published an essay on Sinhalese place names in the Jaffna Peninsula”, in the Ceylon Antiquary and Literary Register, 1916. He said that the Sinhalese had earlier occupied the north portion of the mainland, which is now Tamil country. ‘There is ample evidence carried in stone all over Mannar and Mullaitivu district. In Jaffna the evidence is in the place names,’ he said. At least thirty of the place names in Jaffna were Sinhala in origin. He pointed out that Tamil place names which ended in ‘kalappu’, ‘vattei’, ‘palai’, ‘kam’, ‘pai’ and ‘vil’ were meaningless in Tamil. ‘Vil’ is bow in Tamil, ‘pai’ is net or sail. However the names made sense when they were seen as translation of Sinhala names. Valikamam and Vimankam have no meaning in Tamil but made sense as the Tamilised versions of Weligama and Vimangama. Chunnakam was Hunugama, Kokkuvil was Kokavila, Uduvil was Uduvila, Tanankalapu was Tanankalapuwa, Saravattai was Sarawatte and Manipai was Mampe. Tamil historians of the time, namely, Rev. S. Gnana Prakasar and S.W. Coomaraswamy wrote to the Ceylon Antiquary agreeing with Horsburgh and giving their own lists of Tamilised place names. The recorded history and the Rock inscriptions in Proto-Sinhala, Prakrit or Sinhala provides ample evidence to support the Sinhalese being the original inhabitants of the region.  Even the first Tamil rock inscription was by the Sinhala King Vijayabahu I in the 11^th century, erected at a port of entry outlining the permitted items that could be brought in terms of the Customs regulations prevailing at the time. Nothing further need be said to debunk the claim of a Tamil homeland within Sri Lanka much touted by the TNA, GTF and other Tamil separatist groups. (https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2016/07/02/sinhala-place-names-in-ancient-jaffna/)

In 1505, a Portuguese fleet with mounted guns headed for India were blown into the Port of Colombo by adverse winds. They used their military superiority to control the western seaboard and monopolize the trade. The Dutch ousted the Portuguese in 1658 and took over their colonial possessions and further obtained a narrow coastal strip on the eastern seaboard from the Sinhala King of Kandy in violation of the treaty to hand over the territory to the king in return for a monopoly of the trade. The Dutch encouraged Tamils from the Malabar coast of South India to settle in the Jaffna peninsula as well as the eastern seaboard to grow tobacco by incorporating Tamil land regulations known as Thesavalamai. The British took over the Dutch colonial possessions in 1796 and later in 1815 gained control over the entire island in terms of the treaty referred to as the Kandyan Convention, where the Chieftains of the Kingdom of Sinhale deposed of their South Indian Tamil King and ceded power to the British.

The British soon breached the terms of the Agreement wherein they undertook to protect the Religion of the Boodhoo, imposed unfair taxes, neglected irrigation works needed for local agriculture, and other rights and customs of the indigenous Sinhalese people resulting in the Uva-Wellassa Uprising of 1817-1818 which was brutally put down by the British with the help of Indian mercenaries, who followed a scorched earth policy making the region uninhabitable and even ordering the killing of all Sinhala youth. They later proceeded to confiscate the lands of the Kandyan people without a penny in compensation which they sold to British capitalists at Ceylon Cents 50 per acre which was less than even the survey costs. They even forced the Sinhalese to provide free labour to build roads and railways to serve the new plantations of cocoa, coffee and tea belonging to the British. Yet again the people revolted in 1848 in the Matale rebellion to drive away the unjust foreign ruler, which was also put down with brute force. As the Sinhalese who had been dispossessed of their lands were unwilling to give their labour to the new masters, the British arranged to bring in over a million deprived Tamils from South India who were willing to work for a little food into the heartland of the country. These actions of the British resulted in landlessness amongst the indigenous Sinhala population and extreme changes to the demography of the social mix with the vast majority of Tamils arriving in Sri Lanka after the advent of European colonials to the island.  The British policies of divide and rule and greater access to English language education for Tamils in the north enabled this minority of roughly 11 percent to dominate the civil service and professions. After grant of independence by the British in 1948, and the introduction of free education and expansion of the school system in all parts of the island along with the switch to the national languages, the dominant position enjoyed by the Tamils gradually declined which the Tamils deemed as being discriminatory making them seek a different path including violent ways that would allow them to form a separate state through the break-up of the unitary state of Sri Lanka.

Buddhist Structures in the North of Sri Lanka

The first Royal Capital of the main seat in Rajarata was regained in 161 BC by King Dutugemunu from the Chola South Indian Tamil invader Elara who held sway in Rajarata for 44 years. It remained the capital for a total period 1400 years till it fell to another Chola invader named Rajaraja I in 993 CE. The Royal Capital of Rajarata was relocated to Polonnaruwa also in the North Central Province (NCP) by King Vijayabahu I in 1045 after ousting the Cholas from Anuradhapura.  As the Rajarata kingdom encompassed all regions of the north, Mayarata in the centre and Ruhuna in the south, the Sinhala people were settled throughout the length and breadth of the island. Having embraced the Teachings of the Buddha which was received during the reign of King Devanampiyatissa from the missionary monk Arahat Mahinda, son of Emperor Asoka of India in 307 BC, Buddhism has flourished during the past 2323 years in the island making it the foremost religion with over 70 percent adherents even today.

The Sinhala who ruled from Anuradhapura the Royal Capital of ancient times built magnificent monuments to honour the Buddha and his Noble Disciples where well preserved ruins of one of the greatest civilizations of Asia exist to this day –  now recognized as a UNESCO City. The monarchs who ruled the island constructed numerous other temples to house the monks and provide special places of worship to consecrate the relics of the Noble ones in all parts of the island. In a survey carried out in the 1900s, it was observed  that there were 276 Buddhist archaeological sites in the north of Sri Lanka, where it is feared that many have been vandalized and destroyed by the Tamil Tiger terrorists that controlled the Vanni region for almost 21 years, with intent to erase the historical remains of the prior Sinhala presence in the north in order to claim this region as the traditional homeland of the Tamils. Following the defeat of the LTTE, efforts have been made to mark these Buddhist sites by erecting images of the Buddha, which are serene and calming to the mind, and certainly not causing any disharmony to the resident population. These are part of our national treasure and steps must be taken to restore and maintain these sites without resorting to the barbaric actions of the Taliban as seen in Bamian, Afghanistan. Even the military camps established in the north to prevent a resurgence of Tamil Tiger terrorism too had erected Buddha statues to enable security forces personnel to engage in their spiritual practices, which have not been dismantled after the closure of some of the camps.

Conclusion

It must be pointed out that the entire island was occupied by the Sinhalese prior to the arrival of Tamils who came first as invaders and nearly twelve centuries later as invaders cum settlers. It is the motherland and the only homeland of the Sinhala people who have no other place to call home unlike the Tamils whose homeland is in Tamilnadu, South India, while large Tamil communities are present in South Africa, Mauritius, Malaysia, Singapore, Fiji, etc. which are former British colonies to which they were previously taken as indentured labour. Whilst Sri Lanka remains the motherland and only homeland of the Sinhala people, the Sinhalese recognize the fact that other ethnic communities have later settled in the island sharing this homeland as equal citizens. The citizenship rights enshrined in the national constitution including the Right of Freedom of Movement must apply equally to all citizens. Therefore, the Buddhist Historical Sites of the north or any part of the island which forms the heritage especially of the Sinhalese Buddhists must be accessible to them at all times, just as much as Hindu Kovils, Mosques, Christian Churches, etc. be accessible to persons of the respective faiths. The Right to Freedom of Movement goes much further, and gives the right to each and everyone irrespective of their faith to freely move within the island, and even relocate and engage in lawful means of livelihood.

The leaders of the Tamil community representing political parties aligned with the Tamil National Alliance such as the ITAK, EPRLF, PLOTE, TELO, etc., and pro-Tamil Tiger expat groups such as the GTF are attempting to block the free movement of the Sinhalese into the northern areas, by which means they seek to create an exclusive Tamil region, a precursor to forming a separate state, with the backing of western powers.  They are vehemently protesting the re-settlement of the evicted Sinhalese and Moors who were former long time residents of the north, and by their latest move claiming that Buddhist structures in the north would cause disharmony in order to prevent access to Buddhists to their heritage sites. The Tamils however, are free to move freely, take up residence, construct their temples or churches in any part of the island, which right they want to deny to the indigenous Sinhala people. The Tamils fail to realize that their foolish actions are leading to disharmony and possible conflict.

Please do not rush to reach any conclusions based on one sided views being presented by Tamil extremists just like the UNSG’s so called three member Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka headed by Marzuki Darusman  which looked at data submitted by one party to the conflict to prepare an incredible report based on so called ‘credible allegations’ to indict Sri Lanka on war crimes charges and violation of International Humanitarian Law, which material they recommended be locked up for the next 20 years.  I trust that you will be fair minded and make a careful study of the various aspects before you once again extend your support to the wild allegations coming from the extremist fringe of Tamil separatists who seek to create a second exclusive homeland for the Tamils in addition to their original  homeland in Tamilnadu, South India.

Yours sincerely,

Mahinda Gunasekera

Dharma Voices for Animals (DVA) Colombo Chapter, Sri Lanka

 Deepavali (or Diwali) is a national holiday in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Guyana and many other countries. The festival signifies the triumph of good over evil.

It is one of the most important festivals of the year and is celebrated in families by performing traditional activities together in their homes. Diwali involves the lighting of small clay lamps filled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil. Celebrants wear new clothes through the festival and share sweets and snacks with family members and friends. Diwali is the most popular festival in India. The whole country is lit up.”

The Indian tradition is the consumption of a delicious traditional vegetarian dinner to mark Deepavali. It is a meatless occasion.  The food is vegetarian, as nonviolence (ahimsa) is a principle of major Indian religions and by not killing an animal to make the meal, it is considered pure.

Yet leading Hotels in Sri Lanka regardless of the Hindu tradition brazenly offer non – vegetarian dishes as Deepavali fare. This is outrageous conduct.  Local newspapers are unwilling to point out the misrepresentation and falsification.

It can happen to Vesak also if leading hotels are not challenged on matters of this nature by followers of the Eastern Dharmic Religions i.e. Buddhists, Hindus,Jains.

Celebrate Deepavali ( with meat ) at Chutneys, Cinnamon Grand

http://www.ft.lk/article/576514/Celebrate-Deepavali-at-Chutneys–Cinnamon-Grand

Honouring the traditions of the ‘festival of lights’ celebrated by Hindu’s around the world, the city hotel Cinnamon Grand is laying out an extensive buffet featuring customary Deepavali food and delicious South Indian cuisine at Chutneys, on 29 October from 7.00 p.m to 11.00 p.m

The special menu will include vegetarian and non-vegetarian fare.

Speciality dishes include kodi mirchi (chicken with chilli flakes), nandu melagu masala (whole crab cooked in pepper masala), kozhi mappas (chicken with potato curry), mavidikai royyala pulusu (prawn with raw mango curry), mutton sukka (mutton sautéed with onion, pepper and chilli spices) from the non-vegetarian section.

Dharma Voices for Animals (DVA)

Colombo Chapter, Sri Lanka

Dr Hector Perera     London

When you walk down your high street, you might see different kinds of little shops such as grocery, vegetable and butcher shops. Have you not noticed that in some butcher shops they hang chickens, pieces of beef and lamb just above the counter just like that for hours? Who would say that any kind of meat should be left hanging in the air open to air than in the fridge or freezer? I think sometimes they leave these pieces of meat and chicken for hours without fridge or freezer condition. Now who would say this is hygienic and safe to eat?

Raw chicken
Raw chicken becomes contaminated   with bacteria from the gut, skin and feet of the birds during slaughter and from the water and ice used in processing. It says, chilling the carcass immediately after slaughter reduces the number of microbes on most meats because it dries the surfaces. However this has less effect on chickens because their skin can stay moist. The raw chicken is stored at a low temperature which reduces the rate at which bacteria reproduce. Eventually cold-loving microbes such as Pseudomonas will cause spoilage, making the meat smelly and slimy. Other factors which affect the rate of spoilage are pH and the type of packaging.

Cooked chicken
At home chicken should be cooked thoroughly, handled hygienically, wrapped to prevent contamination by microbes from the air or other foods, cooled quickly and stored at 0–5°C. Refrigeration will slow the growth of microbes but it will eventually spoil. Cooked chicken should be eaten up quickly. Have you not noticed that in some cooking programmes in British TV, some chefs do not take care in handling and cooking them properly?

ලංකා සී නිවුස්

ජවිපෙ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත‍්‍රී සුනිල් හදුන්නෙත්තිට කෝප් කමිටුවේ සභාපති ධුරය දරන්නට අයිතියක් නැතැයි සභානායක ඇමති ලක්‍ෂමන් කිරිඇල්ල මහතා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී කියා සිටියේය.

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත‍්‍රී සුනිල් හදුන්නෙත්ති මහතා විසින් බැදුම්කර වංචාව සම්බන්දයෙන් වූ කෝප් කමිටුවේ වාර්තාව සභාගත කිරීමෙන් පසු ඇමති කිරිඇල්ල මෙසේ කියා සිටියේ විපක්‍ෂ මන්ත‍්‍රීන්ගේ දැඩි බාධා කිරීම් මැදයි.

ඇමති කිරිඇල්ල මහතා මීට පෙර අවස්ථා ගණනාවකදීම කියා සිටියේ බැදුම්කර වංචාවක් සිදුව නැති බවයි.

1. janaka says:

   October 28, 2016 at 12:15 pm

   වහාම අගමැතිට විරුද්දව විශ්වාස බන්ගයක් ගෙන එනු .මුදල් ඇමති පමණක් මෙයට දොශාබියෝගයට ලක්කර පලක් නැත .මොවුන් සියලු දෙනාම මෙ වාර්තාව වැලක්වීමට කටයුතු කල නිසා මොවුන් සියලුම දෙනා මේ මහා හොරකමේ කොටස් කාරයෝ වෙති .
   කෝ අපේ unp කාරයෝ කියන මිස්ටර් ක්ලින් දැන් මිස්ටර් ඩර්ටි උනා නේද ?
   කෝ මහා මොලය දැන් අලයක් උනා නේද ?

   Reply
   • Asaranayaa says:

     October 28, 2016 at 2:36 pm

     ලඟදීම අල බැහැලා වැල මැරී යයි. අනිච්චාවත සන්කාරා.

     Reply
2. කසුන් says:

   October 28, 2016 at 12:24 pm

   මේ සියවසයේ ශ්‍රිලංකාවේ සිදුවූ මහාම හොරකම සිදුකල ඒවගේම එම හොරකම යට ගැහීමට නින්දිත ලෙස උත්සාහ කල තොපි මේ රටේ ජනතාව ගේ විශ්වාසය බංග කළා තොපිට අපේ ඔලමොට්ටල ජනතාව චන්දෙ දුන්නේ හොරකම් කරන්න නොවේ එනිසා තොපිට මේ රජය පවත්වාගෙන යාමට කිසිම අයිතියක් නැත .තොපේ රනිල්ට රටේ අගමැතිකම කිරීමට කිසිම අයිතියක් නැත ඒවගේම තවමත් මේ හොරකම යට ගහන්න තැත් කරන තොට මේ රටේ ජනතාවගෙන් චන්දය ඉල්ලීම තබා මේ රටේ විසිමටවත් අයිතියක් නැත

   වැදගත් කමක් තොපිට නැතත් අඩුගානේ තොපිට එහෙම එකක් තියෙන බව තොපේ බටහිර හාම්පුතාලාට පෙන්නන්න වත් ඉල්ලා අස්වෙයවූ ආණ්ඩුව විසුරුවා හරිවු .ජනතාවෙනි මුන්ට විරුද්දව පාරට බසිමු

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3. daham says:

   October 28, 2016 at 12:35 pm

   thawath kayiwaaru nogaha sirisena dan vahaama kala yuththe agamathi kamin ranilwa ivath kota ohuta viruddhawa pareekshana aarambha kireema.
   nathnam putho doshaabhiyogaya enna oheta. eka mathaka thiyaa gaththoth hondayi.

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4. sidu says:

   October 28, 2016 at 12:37 pm

   වෙන්දේසිය දවසේ ඔහු වෙන්දේසිය පැවත්වෙන කාමරයට ගියාය යන කට කතාව ඔහු ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කලේය.
   ගිය සතියේ මහ බැංකු අධිපති අර්ජුන මහෙන්ද්‍රන් කෝප් කමිටුවට කැඳවූ වෙලාවේ සිදුවූයේ ඔහු කිසි විටෙක අපේක්ෂා නොකල දෙයකි.
   ඒ කවුරුන් හෝ විසින් මහ බැංකුවේ සී. සී .ටී .වී . දර්ශන කෝප් කමිටුවට ලබා දී තිබීමයි.
   සී. සී .ටී .වී . දර්ශන සියලු දෙනාටම පෙන්වූ කෝප් කමිටු සාමාජිකයන් අර්ජුනගෙන් අසා ඇත්තේ බැඳුමකර වෙන්දේසිය කල කාමරයට පෙබරවාරි 27 දා තමා දෙවරක්ම ගොස් කලින් දැනුම්දී තිබුනු බිලියන 1ක් වෙනුවට බිලියන් 20 ක් දක්වා ලංසු බාර ගන්නා ලෙස බලපෑම් කල බව දැන්වත් පිලිගන්නවාද කියායි.
   හොඳටම කලබල වූ අර්ජුන මහෙන්ද්‍රන් එතන් සිට මුලු සිද්ධියම වමාරා ඇත.
   ඔහු කියා ඇත්තේ තම සිංගප්පූරු ජාතිකයෙකු බවත් සිංගප්පූරු රජයේ නීති වලට තමන් යටත් බවත් හොරකමකට වරදකරු උනොත් ආපසු සිය රටට යහතින් යන්නට නොලැබෙන බවත්ය. තමන් මහ බැංකු අධිපති කම බාර ගත්තේ රනිල්ගේ බලවත් පෙරත්තයට බවත්, මහ බැංකු ගනුදෙනුව සම්පූර්නයෙන්ම රනිල්ගේ සැලැස්මක් බවත්, මීට අදාල සියලු දෙනාට උපදෙස් දුන්නේ රනිල් බවත්, එදා උදේ පවා රනිල් බොහෝ වාරයක් තමන්ට දුරකතනයෙන් කතා කරමින් පියවරෙන් පියවර උපදෙස් දුන් බවත්ය.
   https://www.facebook.com/BondFraud/?ref=page_internal

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5. saman says:

   October 28, 2016 at 1:27 pm

   මේකා නම් කිව්වොත් කියන්නේ ගොන් කතා … ඒ ආණ්ඩුව කරපුවා කරන්නද යකෝ තොපිට බලේ දුන්නේ මැට්ටෝ

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6. DS පරපුර says:

   October 28, 2016 at 1:35 pm

   මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ආණ්ඩුව හොරුන් වශයෙන් හංවඩු ගසා මුලු මහත් ලංකාවේම ජනතාවට හොරමැරකම් නවත්වන බවට ප්රතිඥා දීලා බලයට පැමිණ බිලියන ගණනින් හොරකම්වලට සම්බන්ධ මේ ආණ්ඩුවේ බොරුකාරයින්ක්කෝ ඔක්කෝම මේවට වගකිවයුතු නිසා උසාවියේ නඩු පවරා මුං සේරම ගෙදර යැවිය යුතුයි. විහ්වාස භග තියලා පලක් වෙන්නේ නෑ, උං කොහොම හරි ඒක පරද්දවන නිසා.

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7. lion says:

   October 28, 2016 at 3:00 pm

   අද රනිල් ඔසවා සිටින්නේ බටහිරුන් සහ යන එන මං නැතිව සිටින මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන විසිනි. වැඩ බැරි රනිල්ට උපදෙස් ලැබෙන්නේද බටහිරුන්ගෙනි. සමාජ ජාලා ඔස්සේ බොරු පැතිරවීමට ඔහුට කියා දෙන්නේ ඇමෙරිකාව විය හැකිය. ඇමෙරිකාවට මෙරට ජන මාධ්‍ය වේදීන් පුහුණු කිරීමට ඇත්තේ පුදුම ඇම්මකි.

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ලංකා සී නිවුස්

සන්ඩේ ලීඩර් සහ ඉරුදින පුවත් පත් පල කරන ‘ලීඩර් ගෘප් ඔෆ් කම්පැනි පුද්ගලික සමාගම’ රවි කරුණානායක මුදල් ඇමති හා අර්ජූන් ඇලෝසියස් මහ බැංකුවේ හිටපු අධිපති අර්ජූන් මහේන්ද්‍රන්ගේ බෑනා විසින් මිලට ගෙන ඇති බවට වාර්තාවක් එජාප හිතවාදී වෙබ් අඩවියක් වාර්තා කර ඇත.

එම ආයතනයේ කාර්ය මණ්ඩලයට මාස දෙකකින් වැටුප් ගෙවා නැතැයිද එහි දැක්වෙයි.

අර්ජුන් ඇලෝෂියස් සහ ඔහුගේ සමාගමේ ඉහල නිලධාරීන් අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන නඩු පැවරිය යුතු බවට කෝප් කමිටුවේ එජාප නියෝජිත නියෝජ්‍ය ඇමති අජිත් පී. පෙරේරාද පවසද්දී මේ ආකාරයේ හවුල් ව්‍යාපාරයක් සිදුවීම විශේෂය.

අදාල පුවත මෙතනින්

චිකේ මුදල් ඇමැතිතුමා.. නීචයි, කැතයි, ලැජ්ජයි..! රවි සහ දූෂිත අර්ජුන් ඇලෝෂියස්ට අයත් සන්ඩේ ලීඩර් සහ ඉරුදින කිසිදු සේවකයෙකුට මාස දෙකකින් පඩි ගෙවා නෑ..!!

(ලංකා ඊ නිව්ස් -20­­­­16.ඔක්.27, පෙ.ව‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍.7.20) මුදල් ඇමැති රවි කරුණානායකට සහ රාජකීය දූෂණ චෝදනා ලත් අර්ජුන් ඇලෝෂියස්ට අයත් සන්ඩේ ලීඩර් සහ ඉරුදින පුවත්පත් වල සේවය කරන සමස්ත කාර්ය මණ්ඩලයට මාස දෙකකින් වැටුප් ගෙවා නැති අතර ඔවුන් ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් තම දුක් ගැනවිල්ල ගැන ලංකා ඊ නිව්ස් කතුවරයා වෙත  පැමිණිලි කර තිබේ. එය සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම මෙසේය.

‘සන්ඩේ ලීඩර්‘ සහ ‘ඉරුදින‘ පුවත්පත් වල සේවය කරන මාධ්‍යවේදීන් ඇතුළු සමස්ත කාර්ය මණ්ඩලය මුහුණ දී ඇති වැටුප් ප්‍රශ්නය සම්බන්ධවයි.

මුදල් ඇමැති රවී කරුණානායක මහතා ගේ සහ මහ බැංකුවේ හිටපු අධිපති අර්ජුන් මහේන්ද්‍රන් ගේ බෑනා වන අර්ජුන් ඇලෝෂියස් ගේ මූල්‍ය දායකත්වයෙන් සහ සෘජු අධීක්ෂණය යටතේ, ඔවුන් ගේ සමීපතමයන් විසින් පාලනය කරනු ලබන ලීඩර් ගෘෘප් ඔෆ් කම්පැනීස් පෞද්ගලික සමාගමේ සමස්ත කාර්ය මණ්ඩලයට මේ වනවිට මාස දෙකකින් වැටුප් ගෙවා නැත.

රවී කරුණානායක ඇමැතිවරයාගේ නියෝජිතයකු ලෙස ආයතනයේ මෙහෙයුම් කළමනාකාර ධුරය දරන්නේ රුවන් ගාල්ලගේ ය. අර්ජුන් ඇලෝෂියස් ගේ නියෝජිතයකු ලෙස ආයතනයේ සාමාන්‍යධිකාරි ධුරය දරන්නේ ජනප්‍රිය නිවේදකයකු සහ මාධ්‍යවේදියකු වන මහේෂ් සේනානායක ය. මීට අමතරව ආයතනයේ අධ්‍යක්ෂ ධුරය දරන්නේ රවී කරුණානායක ඇමැතිවරයාගේ බිරිඳ ‘මේලා‘ ගේ සමීප ඥාතියකු වන අක්බාර් නමැත්තෙකි.

http://lankaenews.com/news/4726/si

IMR Chandrika,

Top Spin by Suni – Oct 28th 2016

Sadly the realties of  Sri Lanka’s key strike bowler Dhammika Prasad who was injured during Sri Lanka’s tour of England last year seem to be somewhat misrepresented by some of the the media and sympathetic sources who seem to think he was given a raw deal which seems to be the furthest from the truth looking at the facts involved.

Indeed he had  a remarkable year of cricket in 2015 but the fact of the matter is he was injured preventig him functioning  in his role as Sri Lankas no 1 seamer although to all intents and purposes the Sri Lanka Cricket Board has looked after him to the best of its capability.

So it seems unfair to say ” Dhammika Prasad received probably the unkindest cut from his employer Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) when he was overlooked for an annual contract for the 2016/2017 period after a spate of injuries kept him out of cricket for over a year.”

Despite the fact that In 2015 he took 38 wickets in eight matches at an impressive average of 22.92 his best year in international cricket  the nature of his injuries undoubtedly influenced the Cricket Board’s decision not to grant him a contract until he was fully fit to return as a player and there seems no injustice  about this as it stands to reason and makes no sense if it was to the contrary as it is the fitness and performance capability that governs the awarding of contracts and Prasad did not fully meet ths requirement.

That the Board with its Chief Thilanga Sumathipala and Chairman of Selectors Sanatha Jayasuriya have taken necessary steps while also seeing to it that Prasad was not unfairly treated becomes obvious as the details unravel as follows, quoting from the latest media reports which hopefully will appease the critics who have vehemently suggested Prasad was wronged which seems the furthest from the truth .

It says that quote “He last played for Sri Lanka in October 2015 against West Indies at home and even though he was part of the New Zealand (December 2015) and England (May 2016) tours, a back injury and a shoulder injury forced his return home without playing any part in the above tours.

Prasad was not among the 17 players announced for annual contracts last week and, according to the Chairman of Selector Sanath Jayasuriya, the 33-year-old seamer’s status quo will remain till he recovers from the shoulder surgery performed last month in Melbourne, Australia.

We are not sure whether he can play for the whole of next year. Of course, he was our strike bowler but he is injured and done a shoulder surgery. This means he will be out for at least six to seven months. We will give him a contract after he recovers,” Jayasuriya told journalists at a press conference held on the eve of the National Team’s departure to Zimbabwe.

Prasad, who toured England in May as the country’s pace spearhead, returned home without playing a game with a shoulder injury that he had sustained during training. He was advised to take rest and undergo rehabilitation by the team physiotherapist early on. But a MRI scan confirmed substantial damage and immediate surgery was recommended. He underwent surgery in Australia late last month and was advised to take at least three months rest before bowling again.

When contacted, a Board official has said  they had not cold-shouldered the seamer and had, in fact, borne all expenses relating to his surgery.

As Sanath had said, we will offer him a contract once he’s fit to play but as for now his name has not been recommended by the selectors,” a top Board official said.

However, SLC’s decision has come under heavy criticism from the sports fraternity who voiced their support on various social media platform for the injured seamer.

When horses get injured, you put him down with a gun as they often cannot recover from injuries. This ironically appears to be exactly what happened to Prasad. He was excessively used as there was no proper player management in our system and when he breaks down, they have just abandoned him. He got injured while on tour and it’s the responsibility of the Board to look after him till he recovers. I can understand if he was left out due to poor performance or if the injury was caused outside the cricket field,” a concerned cricketer voiced his support, requesting anonymity for obvious reasons.” end quote

In the face of all this it seems appropriate that  SLC Chief Thilanga Sumathipala  addressing a media conference on Monday. commenting on injuries  has blamed poor player management for the number of injuries in the National Team  at the moment as further testimony to the related issues He has been quoted as saying We have not managed our players properly for the last three years. We are experiencing good cricketers who have come in from Under-19, 23 and club level that once they reach the top level they can’t sustain their physical condition because they have been badly managed,” said S.

While it appears that Dhammika Prasad has been given a raw deal by the Cricket Boad, it is not entirely true where hopefully with all the attention and care extended to him he will return to the squad post haste as Sri Lanka is dearly missing bowlers of his calibre where he is also a useful batsman.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

 Nimal Algewatta-Habaraduwa Courtesy The Daily Mirror

By Lankesh Courtesy Ceylon Today

Delaying the Local Government Election will not affect the Joint Opposition because the people have already decided to make a change and are with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, National Freedom Front (NFF) media spokesman Mohammed Muzammil told Ceylon Today.
Excerpts of the interview:
? Why is the Joint Opposition unsatisfied with newly proposed Value Added Tax (VAT) Amendment Bill?
A: When the current government was elected they accused former President Mahinda Rajapaksa of taking mega loans from other countries and putting Sri Lanka’s economy at risk. Then they promised people who voted in support of this government, that the government will impose a tax which is fair; but the way the government is managing the economy is very disappointing.
For example, one year back this government invited the billionaire businessmen George Soros and organized an economic forum. The government said that Sri Lanka will receive many investments in the future; but what are the investments the government has got, so far. The government has a debt of Rs 4.4 billion dollar loan to pay back and the Central Bank is also at risk after the bond scam. The Stock Market is also at risk. Therefore, the only option the government has to earn more revenue is imposing tax on the people.
Also they are not even concerned about the income level of each individual in our country before imposing taxes. I have to point out that the government has rushed into things and they cannot even get the VAT Amendment Bill correctly, so we can see how weak the current government is at the moment.
? Why does the Opposition always criticize the current government?
A: As we see the government has still not done anything that can satisfy us or the people who voted in support of them. But if they do we will surely appreciate them; but they have not.
Why I say so is, now we do not have enough investment projects and we do not have developments in Sri Lanka. No economic development and there is no Yahapalana (Good Governance) as promised.
Also the law is not equal to everybody but the law is to hunt the people in the opposition which is not fair at all because if the opposition agitate they bring the certain individuals up to the Financial Crime Investigation Division (FCID) or the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
But as a party we have to inform the people about how the government is operating and also we have to make them aware the wrong steps taken by the government. I think we as a party who stand with the people, we are doing a magnificent job of showing how inefficient this government is.
? You mentioned before that government lacks investors but recently countries like China and India have planned to invest in Sri Lanka. What is your take on this?
A: There is nothing special about China investing in Sri Lanka; because it has been like that for many years but India actually they are not investing but they are trying to take over Sri Lanka on their conditions. The current government is helping them to do so.
The Hilton franchise is in Sri Lanka which is owned by India and there are so many petrol sheds owned by India but what they are doing is investing Rs 5 and taking Rs 25.
As we know India does not have a stable economy or their economy is not developed so what we can say is that we do not need investments from India.
Also for example if India gives a loan of 1.1 billion dollars Sri Lanka will have to repay the loan in one year because even India cannot afford to give loans with the problems they have in their country. But the current government is not that friendly with China as the previous government, because, even if the government requests for investments from China, still they have not invested for anything other than the Port City.
? The Local Government Election has been postponed to June, so do you think delaying in the election will benefit the Joint Opposition?
A: The government will not be able to put barriers in our way to emerge victorious at the local government election as we are prepared for it for months even the people stand by us.
This government speaks about democracy, good governance and freedom but they have delayed the election and taken away the right of the people to vote.
Chairman of the Election Commission has allowed politicians who were defeated at the general election to enter Parliament through the National List and given ministerial portfolios.
The Election Commissioner has no say because of this situation, therefore, we know how unfair the current government, is.
? What has the Joint Opposition planned before the election?
A: Actually we have arranged two programmes before the election. First is to form a new alliance and to conduct national trade union activities.
We are forming a new alliance because people expect a change from the current government, as they only accused former President Mahinda Rajapaksa but is not doing anything. But now the people have realized that President Rajapaksa’s leadership was way better for the country and for the people than anyone in this government.
This government is unable to conduct the development plans already agreed to by the previous government because the government is very inefficient.
Also a few ministers of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) want to resign from the SLFP because there is no future if they stay with the SLFP as they have become the tail of the elephant, and some do not agree with it.
Also the government is trying to bring the ETCA again and many professionals are against it.
? Do you think this change you are referring to can be done by only winning the Local Government Election?
A: As I see the government’s intention to stay in power till 2020 is just a dream for them. Because they know they will not be able to last long seeing how the work is conducted. Their honeymoon will be over very soon.
Therefore, the local government election is the start of our change because the government will not be happy about the result after that.
But as the election has been delayed to June we might see many changes in society and we will conduct our campaign with many forces.
? Sources revealed that ETCA will be signed at the end of this year, what will happen afterwards?
A: Actually we have prepared to conduct protests and stand against ETCA because we do not agree with the decision to sign the agreement. We do not want Indians to come to Sri Lanka and take over our jobs.
Either the government has to reconsider the agreement or face many consequences.
? Also we see a halt in investigations regarding the incident which happened recently at a well-known night club in Colombo, what is your opinion?
A: We saw President Maithripala Sirisena told the Police to conduct a special investigation on this matter. We thought the Police will take statements from the individuals involved in this brawl but Police have failed to get statements from the President’s son Daham Sirisena or any other person involved in the brawl.

උපුටා ගැන්ම Lankanews.org

අන්තර්ජාලවල මේ දිනවල පලවන පරිදි ශ්‍රීපාද පුදබිමේ සංචාරක හෝටලයක් හෝ සංචාරක නිකේතනයක් ඉදි නොවන බව ශ්‍රීපාදස්ථානාධිපති පැල්මඩුලු රජමහා විහාරාධිපති, ඌව වෙල්ලස්ස විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ කුලපති රත්නපුර මහ දිශාවේ ප්‍රධාන සංඝනායක අතිපුජ්‍ය බෙංගමුවේ ධම්මදින්න නායක ස්වාමින් වහන්සේ පැවසුවා. Sri Padaya
උන්වහන්සේ ඒ බැව් පැවසුවේ 2016 -2017 වසර සඳහා ශ්‍රීපාද වන්දනා වාරය ආරම්භ විම සම්බන්ධයෙන් අද (28.10) නල්ලතන්නිය ග්‍රාමසේවා කාර්යාලයේදි රාජ්‍ය නිළධාරින් හා පෞද්ගලික අංශයේ නිළධාරින් දැනුවත් කිරිම සඳහා පැවති විශේෂ සාකච්ජාවකදිය.

මෙහිදි වැඩි දුරටත් අදහස් දැක්වු ශ්‍රීපාදස්ථානාධිපති හිමියන් පැවසුවේ ශ්‍රීපාදස්ථාන භූමියට පහලින් පෞද්ගලික සමාගමට අයත් ඉඩමක සංචාරක නිකේතනයක් ඉදිකිරිම සදහා අදාල වගකිවයුතු ආයතන වලින් අවසර ලබා ගෙන ඉදිකරන බවට තමන් වෙත එම නිළධාරින් දැනුවත් කර ඇති බවයි. එයට විරුද්ධ විමට තමන්ට නොහැකි බවද උන්වහන්සේ මෙම රැස්විමේදි අවධාරනය කර සිටියා.
2016 -2017 ශ්‍රීපාද වන්දනා වාරය උදුවප් පොහෝ දිනයෙන් ආරම්භ කරන බවත් පැල්මඩුල්ල ගල්පොත්තාවල රජමහා විහාරයේ තැන්පත් කර තිබෙන සමන් දේව ප්‍රතිමාවන් සහ පුජා භාණ්ඩ රත්නපුර පලාබද්දල මාර්ගය ඔස්සේ රත්නපුර අවිස්සාවේල්ල හැටන් මාර්ගය ඔස්සේත්, පැල්මඩුල්ල බලංගොඩ බගවන්තලාව මාර්ගය ඔස්සේත් ශ්‍රීපාද මළුව දක්වා වඩම්මන බව උන්වහන්සේ පැවසුවා.
මෙම රැස්විමෙන් අනතුරුව මාධ්‍යට අදහස් දැක්වු අඹගමුව ප්‍රාදේශීය සභාවේ ලේකම් එස්. සරවනන් මහතා පැවසුවේ මාවුස්සාකැලේ ජලාශයට ඉහලින් වු මරේ දිය ඇල්ලට ආසන්න පෞද්ගලික ඉඩමක සංචාරක නිකේතනයක් ඉදිකිරිම සදහා සියලුම අයිතිවාසිකම් සහිතව අවසර ඉල්ලා ඇති බවත් ඒ සදහා අවසර ලබා දි ඇති බවයි.

Portion of Parliament attempting to cover up bond scam – Handunnetti
මහ දවල් අමු අමුවේ භාණ්ඩාගාරය කොල්ලකෑමක් කරලා…

ලංකා සී නිවුස්

පසුගිය වසරේදී ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුව විසින් සිදු කරන ලද බැදුම්කර නිකුතුවේදී සිදුව ඇතැයි කියන අක‍්‍රමිකතා සම්බන්ධයෙන් කෝප් කමිටුව විසින් මාස ගණනාවක් තිස්සේ නොයෙකුක් අවුල් වියවුල් මැද සිදු කරන ලද පරීක්‍ෂණයන්හි අවසන් වාර්තාව මීට ටික වේලාවකට පෙර පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සභාගත කරනු ලැබීය.

කෝප් කමිටු සභාපති ජවිපෙ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත‍්‍රී සුනිල් හදුන්නෙත්ති මහතා විසින් වාර්තාව සභායට ඉදිරිපත් කලේය.

එම වාර්තාවෙන් නිර්දේශ කර ඇත්තේ අදුල ගනුදෙනුව සම්බන්ධයෙන් හිටපු මහබැංකු අධිපති අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන් මහතා සෘජුවම වගකිව යුතු නිසා ඔහු සහ මහ බැංකුවේ වගකිව යුතු නිලධාරීන්ට එරෙහිව නීතිමය ක්‍රියාමාර්ග ගත යුතු බවයි.

වංචාවෙන් රටට සිදුවූ අලාභය ඊට වග කිව යුත්තන්ගෙන් අය කර ගැනීම, වගකිව යුත්තන්ට එරෙහිව අධිකරණ ක්‍රියාමාර්ග ගැනීම, එම පිරිසට එරෙහිව නිසි ලෙස දඬුවම් කෙරෙන්නේදැයි සොයා බැලීමටත් යළි එවැනි වංචා සිදු නොවීමටත් අවශ්‍ය පියවර ගැනීම, පසු විපරම් සදහා විශේෂ කමිටුවක් පත් කිරීම, වංචා සම්බන්ධයෙන් සොයා බැලීමේ රාජ්‍ය ණය කළමනාකරණ මෙහෙයුම් අත්පොත සක්‍රීය කිරීම වාර්තාවේ සෙසු නිර්දේශ අතර වෙයි.

කාරක සභාවේ නිර්දේශ

2015-2016 යන වසර දෙක තුළදී ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුවේ සිදු කරන ලද බැදුම්කර නිකුත් කිරීම්වලදී, අප පරීක්ෂාවට භාජනය කළ 2015 පෙබරවාරි 27 වන දින ගනුදෙනුවේදී එවකට මහ බැංකුවේ අධිපතිව සිටි අර්ජුන මහේනුද්‍රන් මහතා මැදිහත්වීමක් හෝ සිදු කළ බවට සාධාරණ සැකයක් ඇති විය හැකි ආකාරයේ සාක්ෂි හා කරුණු කාරක සභාව ඉදිරියේ හෙළිඳරව් වී ඇති බව කාරක සභාව නිරීක්ෂණය කරයි.

කාරක සභාව විසින් කරන ලද පරීක්ෂණ හා සාක්ෂි විභාග කිරීම්වලදී, ඇතැම් ගනුදෙනුවල උපරිම පාරදෘශ්‍යභාවය නොමැති බවද, එහිදී කටයුතු කළ ආකාරයෙන් ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුවේ විශ්වාසනීයත්වය පළුදු වී ඇති බවද යන්න පිළිබඳව සාධාරණ සැකයක් ඇතිවිය හැකි ආකාරයේ සාක්ෂි හෝ කරුණු කාරක සභාව ඉදිරියේ හෙළිඳරව් වී ඇති බව කාරක සභාව නිරීක්ෂණය කරයි.

එසේම ඒ කාලයේ සිදු වී ඇති බැඳුම්කර ගනුදෙනු හරහා ප්‍රාථමික ගනුදෙනුකරුවන්ගෙන් එක් ආයතනයක් වන පර්පෙචුවල් ට්‍රෙෂරීස් ඉතා විශාල මූල්‍යමය ලාභ උපයාගෙන ඇති බව කාරක සභාව නිරීක්ෂණය කරයි.

එසේම මෙම ගනුදෙනුවලට වගකිව යුතු මහ බැංකුවේ නිලධාරීන් හා ආයතනයන්ට එරෙහිව පැනවිය යුතු දණ්ඩනයන් හා වෙනත් නියමයන් නිර්දේශ කරමි.

එකී අයතා කටයුතු හේතුවෙන් රජයට හා මහජනතාවට සිදු වී ඇති අලාභ හෝ පාඩුව එකී වගකිව යුතු පුද්ගලයන්ගෙන් හෝ ආයතනවලින් අයකර ගත යුතු බව නිර්දේශ කරන අතර ඒ සඳහා අවශ්‍ය අධිකරමය ක්‍රියා මාර්ග ගත යුතු බව කාරක සභාව අවධාරණය කරයි.

එසේම නිර්දේශ දණ්ඩනයන් හෝ වෙනත් නියමයන් අවශ්‍ය අයුරින්ම ක්‍රියාත්මක වන බව සොයා බැලීම සහ සහතික කිරීම සඳහාත් ඒ පිළිබඳව පසු විපරම් කිරීම සඳහාත්,

එමෙන්ම එබඳු ආකාරයේ කටයුතු මින් ඉදිරියට සිදු නොවීම සඳහා අව‍ශ්‍යයෙන්ම ගත යුතු සියලු පියවර ආවේක්ෂණ හා තුලනයන් ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම සඳහාත්,

එකී ආවේක්ෂණ හා තුලනයන් මහ බැංකුව විසින් නිසි පරිදි ක්‍රියාවේ යොදවන බවට සොයා බැලීම සහ සහතික කිරීම සඳහාත්,පාර්ලිමේන්තුව සෘජුව මැදිහත් විය යුතු අතර එය පාර්ලිමේන්තුව සතු රාජ්‍ය මූල්‍ය පාලනයට අදාළ මූලික වගකීම බව කාරක සභාව අවධාරණය කරයි.

එසේ ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමෙන් රජයට සිදු වූ අලාභයන් අය කර ගැනීම සහ පවතින නීති යටතේ ක්‍රියාත්මක වීම පාර්ලිමේන්තුව සතු වගකීමක් ලෙස ඉතා ඕනෑකමකින් කාරක සභාව නිර්දේශ කරයි.එසේම යළි මෙවැනි තත්ත්වයක් ඇතිවීම වැළැක්වීමට පියවර ගැනීම ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුව තුළ සහ ඊට අනුශාංගික අනෙකුත් ආයතන තුළ සුදුසු යාන්ත්‍රණයක් ක්‍රියාත්මක වීම එම ආයතන විසින් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට සහතික විය යුතු බව කාරක සභාව අවධාරණය කරයි,

එසේම,

රටේ මූල්‍ය අවශ්‍යතා සපුරාලීම සඳහා වගකිව යුතු ප්‍රධානතම ආයතනය වන ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුවේ මූල්‍ය ටෙන්ඩර් නිකුත් කිරීම හා ප්‍රධානය කිරීම්වලදී ර් පිළිබඳව කටයුතු අධීක්ෂණය කිරීම සඳහාත් අවශ්‍ය සියලු පසු විපරම් කිරීම සඳහාත් විධායකය මගින් විශේෂ නිරීක්ෂණ කණ්ඩායමක් වහාම පත් කළ යුතු යයිද කාරක සභාව නිර්දේශ කරයි.

මහ බැංකුවේ නිලධාරීන් විසින් එක් තනි ආයතනයක් ලෙස පර්පෙචුවල් ට්‍රෙෂරීස් ආයතනයට අයථා වාසියක් ඉපයීමට හැකි වන ලෙස කටයුතු කිරීමටත්, එසේම ප්‍රාථමික ගනුදෙනුකරුවන් ලෙස අදාළ ආයතනයද එම වාසි ලබා ගැනීමේ අරමුණ සහිතව ක්‍රියාත්මක වීමත් මහ බැංකුවේ මූල්‍ය පාලනයේ විනිවිදභාවය සහ විශ්වාසනීයත්වය සඳහා බරපතළ ලෙස අහිතකර තත්ත්වයක් වන බැවින් එම තත්ත්වය පිළිබඳව නීතිමය බලය සහිත පිළිගත් ආයතනයකින් පුළුල් විමර්ශනයක් කිරීමත් නැවත එවැනි තත්ත්වයක් ඇති වීම වැළැක්වීමට ගත හැකි සියලු පියවර ගැනීමත් නිර්දේශ කරයි.

බැදුම්කර ක්‍රියාවලිය හරහා රටට අවශ්‍ය මුදල් සම්පාදනය කර ගැනීමේදී රජයේ හදිසි මූල්‍ය අවශ්‍යතාවයන් සපුරාලිය හැකි රාජ්‍ය මූල්‍ය ආයතන සඳහා ප්‍රමුඛතාවය ලබා දිය යුතු බව නිර්දේශ කරන කාරක සභාව ඒ සඳහා ප්‍රතිපාදන සලසන වගන්ති මහ බැංකුවේ මෙහෙයුම් අත්පොත ඇතුළු අනෙකුත් අදාළ ලේඛන වලට ඇතුළත් කළ යුතු යැයි මහ බැංකුවට නිර්දේශ කරයි.

මෙම ප්‍රශ්නගත බැදුම්කර ගනුදෙනුවට සම්බන්ධ පර්පෙචුවල් ට්‍රෙෂරීස් ආයතනය ප්‍රාථමික ගනුදෙනුකරුවෙකු ලෙස ඉතා කෙටි කාලයක් තුළ අධික ලාභයක් උපයා ඇති අතර එසේ ලාභ ඉපයීමේ ක්‍රියාවලිය පිළිබඳ පූර්ණ බලැති යාන්ත්‍රණයක් මගින් පරීක්ෂණයක් කළ යුතු අතර එමගින් ඔවුන්ගේ කටයුතු හරහා මහ බැංකුවට හා රජයට මූල්‍යමය පාඩුවක් සිදු වී ඇත්දැයි ඉතා කඩිනමින් අනාවරණය කර ගැනීම මහ බැංකුවේ වගකීමක් ලෙස කාරක සභාව තරයේ විශ්වාස කරයි.

ඉදිරියේදී මෙවැනි මුල්‍ය අක්‍රමිකතා ඇතිවීම වැළැක්වීම සඳහා ප්‍රාථමික වෙළෙඳුන්ගේ වෙළෙඳපොළ කටයුතු සහ ද්වීතියික වෙළෙඳපොළ ක්‍රියාකාරීත්වය පිළිබඳව පසු විවරණය කිරීමේ යාන්ත්‍රණයක් ස්ථාපිත කිරීම නිර්දේශ කරන අතර එමගින් මහ බැංකුව රජයේ මූල්‍ය අවශ්‍යතා සඳහා මුල්‍ය සම්පාදනය සිදු කරන ආකාරය පසු විපරම් නිරීමේ හැකියාව ලැබෙනු ඇත.

මේ දක්වා යාවත්කාලීන නොකරන ලද රාජ්‍ය ණය කළමනාකරණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තු මෙහෙයුම් අත්පොත වහාම යාවත්කාලීන කළ යුතු අතර එහි බැදුම්කර හරහා රජයට මුල්‍ය සම්පාදනය කිරීමේදී එසේ මූල්‍ය සම්පාදනය කළ හැකි රාජ්‍ය ආයතන සඳහා ප්‍රමුඛතාවය දීමේ ප්‍රතිපාදන ඇතුළත් කළ යුතු බව නිර්දේශ කරයි.

මෙම ප්‍රස්තුත බැදුම්කර ගනුදෙනුව සඳහා හිටපු මහ බැංකු අධිපති අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන් මහතා සෘජුවම වගකිව යුතු අතර ඔහුට සහ මහ බැංකුවේ අදාළ නිලධාරීන්ට එරෙහිව නීතිමය ක්‍රියාමාර්ග ගැනීම නිර්දේශ කරයි.

මෙවැනි ගනුදෙනු වලදී විනිවිදභාවය සහ මහ බැංකුවේ විශ්වාසනීයත්වය ආරක්ධා කිරීම සඳහා විධිමත් යාන්ත්‍රණයක් සැකසීම සහ දැනට පවත්නා විනිමය කොමිෂන් සභා පනත ඇතුළු අදාළ නීතිරීති අණ පනත් කඩිනමින් සංශෝධනය කළ යුතු බව නිර්දේශ කරයි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා ප්‍රජාතාන්ත්‍රික සමාජවාදී ජනරජයේ ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 148 වැනි වගන්තිය ප්‍රකාරව රාජ්‍ය මූල්‍ය පාලනය සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම පැවරී ඇති මෙම උත්තරීතර පාර්ලිමේන්තුව වෙත කාරක සභාවට මෙතෙක් ඉදිරිපත් වී ඇති සියලු ලේඛණ, තොරතුරු හා සාක්ෂි (එකී ඇතැම් තොරතුරු සංවේදී යයි ප්‍රකාශ වුවුද) ඉතා ඉක්මනින් ඉදිරිපත් කිරීම කාරක සභාවේ දැඩි වගනීමක් බවද කාරක සභාව විශ්වාස කරයි.

එම වගකීමට අනුව මෙම නිර්දේශ සහ විගණකාධිපතිවරයාගේ නිර්දේශ හා නිඟමන සහිත වාර්තාව පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කරන අතර මෙම වාර්තාව ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමෙන් පසු පාර්ලිමේන්තුව තුළ ඒ පිළිබඳව විවෘත සංවාඳයක් ඇති කළ යුතු බවටත් කාරක සභාව නිර්දේශ කරයි.

– COPE Report

by Chandra Jayaratne Courtesy The Island

October 27, 2016, 9:38 pm

Please reflect for a moment on the Oath of Office you took in entering Parliament as a member. You swore to uphold the Constitution of Sri Lanka on that occasion. You are aware that by article 3 of the Constitution, the sovereignty is vested in the People and is inalienable. Sovereignty includes the powers of government, fundamental rights and the franchise.

You are thus duty bound as persons elected by the exercise of the people’s franchise, to function as members of Parliament and safeguard the inalienable sovereignty of the people; govern safeguarding the primary interests of the nation and its people; and safeguard the fundamental rights of the people. This is supplemented by the social Contract you have entered into with the people upon your election.

In terms of the aforesaid Social Contract, this appeal humbly requests you to, take a few minutes to reflect and question your conscience ( ie. your moral sense of right and wrong, viewed as acting as a guide to one’s behaviour) before you review, debate and adopt or reject the Report ( or Reports) of the Committee on Public Enterprise on the purported Bond Scams of 2015 and 2016;

By Charles.S.Perera,

Does it really matter ? There is little difference between the Republicans and Democrats. Both want unchallenged world leadership for America. Both want a foreign policy beneficial to America. There is little concern even for the American people whose financial, health, and moral standards remain low. The rich enjoy themselves while the poor suffer. There is racism, class difference, and a considerable gap between the rich and the poor. Their foreign policy is to interfere into internal affaires of foreign sovereign states, with the aim of changing regimes to set up governments acceptable to USA.

There were three debates between the two Presidential Candidates. Trump the Republican was inapt to  meet the arguments put forward fluently and with confidence by the Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump was acting foolishly interrupting and making odd remarks at inappropriate times in the debate.  But Trump the Republican  had more acceptable statements on foreign policy,  following of which would make American State Department contribute more positively to other developing Nations in the world. Trump is willing to work with Russia setting aside  political differences.

The Democratic President Barrack Obama came from an under privileged American background. As a young graduate out of University he was working with  social welfare  groups to ameliorate the living conditions of both poor white and black Americans living in poor and insalubrious environments.

When he was a Senator he represented the people whose voice was not heard in the political hierarchy.  Therefore when he became the President not only the Americans but also the foreign countries  victims of American State Department’s aggressive foreign policies,  hoped for a changed America both at home and abroad.

His ability to speak out in clear, forceful, and attractive language won him over to the people, both intelligent intellectuals and the poor black Americans, and the people of the world. He promised lot of changes to the political system. He began by ordering the close of the Guantanamo Camp and promising to bring back the American soldiers. But he was soon disappointed. Unable to go against the American established system, he had to fall in line with it.

That was the unfortunate circumstances, once elected as the  President he became a  part of the establishment, a pawn on the chequerboard of American State Department . Barrack Obama came with the slogan Yes We Can”, but he failed to deliver what people both the Americans and the people of the countries outside America wanted of him.   .

But he was soon to realise that America is after all not what he expected it to be. USA wanted only that which the American State Department wanted. It had always been so and will remain so. Therefore whether Trump wins or Hillary Clinton wins it will not have great difference within, or in the world outside.

It was Hillary Clinton who  raised her voice as the Secretary of State to say that all terrorists are not the same. There were  their terrorists, and terrorists of other countries. The State Department under Hillary Clinton was saying clear and loud that those who take arms against America and its European friends are terrorists, while others are rebels and freedom fighters fighting against the elected governments seeking freedom  of expression of their political views. That suited USA , it helped them to change regimes, divide countries, or even create new Sovereign states.

Hillary Clinton as the Secretary of State was all out to change the  Rajapakse regime in Sri Lanka . She was against  Rajapakse Regime as it did not bow to the wishes of USA  to accord a  cease fire during the terrorists war to allow the foreign ministers of UK, France and Sweden to go to the war zone. She was arrogant, vicious, and  undiplomatic even to pay an unofficial visit to a Chief Minister of India Jayalalaitha to spite Sri Lanka and make the rift between India and Sri Lanka greater.

Hillary Clinton did not fail to generalise rape and violence against women as an arm in conflict situations: Clinton chaired the UN Security Council session on 30 September 2009 when it adopted Resolution 1888, which dealt with conflict-related sexual violence.The official transcript of her address contained this: “We’ve seen rape used as a tactic of war before in Bosnia, Burma, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere. In too many countries and in too many cases, the perpetrators of this violence are not punished, and so this impunity encourages further attacks”. This is not an off-the-cuff remark – she was reading a prepared speech to a session of which she was the chair.” (Padraig Colman in Ceylon Today 2016).

Barrack Obama , Hillary Clinton and the State Department Staff sitting in the White House gloated over American Navy Seals trespassing into Pakistan and murdering Osama Ben Laden before his family. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogUDnIuvZdQ

George Bush got the UK Prime Minister Tony Blair to write a false report to declare war against Sadam Hussain. They lied that Iraq possessed  Weapons of Mass Destruction. Similarly Barrack Obama and his European Allies lied  to  the UN Security Council to get its sanction  to  survey the space over Libya to bomb the country to rubbles. Then they allowed the rebels to hunt Colonel Gaddafi the leader of Libya like an animal and torture him   before he was killed.

Barrack Obama and his European Allies using their NATO Armed Forces wanted to repeat what they did in Libya in Syria as well, but fortunately Russia intervened to stop the same unfortunate fate of Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi  come over  the Syrian Leader Bachar el-Assad.

Using Ukraine as a springboard USA and EU carry out sanctions against Russia.  Hillary Clinton as President will continue this  disastrous war against Russia,  as well as  on developing nations which refuse to toe their political  line.

Hillary Clinton in her third debate with Donald Trump, showed what she would be if se is elected President in pointing accusingly at Trump’s close connection with the Russian Leader Vladimir Putin. Clinton  accused the Russian leader for interfering into American elections and sending a host of spies. That is nothing new to USA, Hillary Clinton knew that USA State Department interferes all the time into internal affairs of other countries to destabilise governments and for regime Change.

The world needs peace. The main barrier for world peace is America. America craves to command the world and does not want any other power-China or Russia challenging the leadership it assumes in the world.

It is USA that is responsible for the rising of Islamic extremism. Now the ISIS has become their nightmare.  But the US and the West do not know how to play their cards to end terrorism. Their bombs will only enhance  acts of extremism in the world.

Their only solution for the world is creating more and more satellite states like Sri Lanka. USA is  now using economic hit men” to destabilise countries and keep them indebted to the West. The Economic Hit Men come as economic advisers, businessmen, or philanthropists and proposes development projects etc., which at the end leave the countries in debt to the USA and the West.

In the light of this perhaps Donald Trump could proposes other means of development burying the hatchet between America and Russia and propose peaceful coexistence. But that cannot be expected from war Mongers like Barack Obama or Hilary Clinton.

If Hillary Clinton wants to make USA different, she should begin by changing the State Department completely, and recruit young Americans who are not for war but for peace with every country in the world. She should have a new State Department which is willing to make America a peace loving nation.

America should accept armed rebellion against  elected Governments as  terrorism. No rebel who takes arms against an elected government could be a freedom fighter. Every rebellious groups has the right to negotiate instead of taking guns to demand their tights. The moment they take arms they become terrorists as they are using terror to win their rights.

America should not use or instigate its European allies to resort to economic sanction against countries that do not agree with them. USA should allow the UN to play its roll without buying” it over to carry out the dictates of USA or any one of its Allies, as UNO had been hitherto under Ban-Ki Moon.

If we could expect these positive reforms from Hillary Clinton,  her Presidency would be most welcome, otherwise the world will see no difference other than continuous war, aiding and abetting rebels to change regimes, move economic sanctions and infiltrate into sovereign states to change regime and make the people in those countries worst off than under their own elected Governments with what ever defects.

මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය කැෆේ සංවිධානය

මාමා බෑනා ගණුදෙනුව නිසා  භාණ්ඩාගාර බැඳුම්කර වංචාව මඟින් සිදුවූ පාඩුව හේතුවෙන් මෙරට සෑම පුද්ගලයෙකුගේම ණය බරට අළුතින්  රුපියල් 20000 ක් එකතු කර ඇතැයි කැෆේ සංවිධානයේ විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා කියයි. අද (27) දහවල් ජනතා බුද්ධි මණ්ඩපය විසින් කොළඹදී පැවැත්වූ මාධ්‍ය හමුවකදී ඒ මහතා මේ බව කීය. එහිදී වැඩිදුරටත් අදහස් දැක්වූ කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් මහා පෙන්වා දුන්නේ  වත්මන් කෝප්  කමිටුව තුළ අර්බුදයක් ඇති කර ඇත්තේ දූෂණ විරෝධී ජිමික් දේශපාලනය විසින් බවයි.

එපමණක් නොව ව්‍යවස්ථාදායක සභාව විසින් සුදුසුකම් සහ හැකියාවන් පිළිබඳව මැනවින් සොයා බලා පත් කළ විගණාකාධිපති වරයා විසින් සකසන ලද වාර්තාව ද ඉතිහාසයේ ප්‍රථම වතාවට  ප්‍රශ්ණ කිරීම්වලට ලක්ව ඇත්තේද එම ජිමික් දේශපාලනයේ ප්‍රතිඵලයක් ලෙස බව තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා මෙහිදී පෙන්වා දුන්නේය.   විගණකාධිපති වරයා  සිය අවසන් වාර්තාව ඉදිරිපත් කරන්නේ මැනවින් අපක්ෂපාතීව කරුණු සොයාබැලීමෙන් පසුව බවත්, එලෙස සැකසූ වාර්තාවද එම චෝදනාවට ලක්ව ඇති ආයතන වෙත සහ එම ආයතන ප්‍රධානීන් වෙත යොමු කිරීමෙන් පසුව බවත්  හෙතෙම සඳහන් කළේය. එලෙස සැකසූ වාර්තාවක් පවා ප්‍රශ්න කිරීම සඳහා කෝප් කමිටුවේ ඇතැම් සාමාජිකයින් බලපෑම් කිරීම   දූෂණයට එරෙහි වීම පසෙක තබා දූෂිතයින් රැකීමේ උත්සාහයක් බව පෙනී යන්නේ යැයි ද තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා පැවසීය.

කෝප් කමිටුව හෙවත් පොදු ව්‍යාපාර පිළිබඳ කාරක සභාවේ කාර්ය භාරය වන්නේ රාජ්‍ය ආයතන වල සිදුවන මුල්‍යමය කටයුතු අධීක්ෂණය කිරීම වුවද පසුගිය බැඳුම්කර වංචාව සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඇතැම් කෝප් කමිටු සාමාජිකයින් පෞද්ගලික සමාගමක් වෙත ඇගිල්ල දිගු කිරීමට කටයුතු කර ඇති බව ද කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා පෙන්වා දුන්නේය. මෙම බැඳුම්කර වංචාව සම්බන්ධයෙන් ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුව  ක්‍රියාකර ඇති ආකාරය විමසනවාට වඩා පර්පචුවල් ට්‍රෙෂරීස් සමාගම වෙත චෝදනා එල්ල කිරීම විහිළු සහගත බවද හෙතෙම සඳහන් කළේය.

අල්ලස් හෝ දූෂණ කොමිසම බැදුම්කර සිද්ධිය ගැන ඉතා හොඳින්  පරීක්ෂණ ආරම්භ කළ බවත්  එම පරීක්ෂණ පවා යට ගැසීමට  ඇතැම් නිලධාරීන් උත්සාහ කළ බවද හෙතම සඳහන් කළේය. දිල්රුක්ෂී වික්‍රමසිංහ මහත්මිය  අල්ලස් කොමිසමේ අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල් ධුරයෙන් ඉවත්වීම හා බැඳුම්කර වංචාව හා සම්බන්ධ බව පෙන්වා දුන් ඒ මහතා කියා සිටියේ  දිල්රුක්ෂි වික්‍රමසිංහ මහත්මියට සිය  හෘද සාක්ෂීයට අනුව එම තනතුර දැරිය නොහැකි  තත්වයක් උදා වූ බවද  ඒ මහතා සඳහන් කළේය.

එහිදී වැඩිදුරටත් අදහස් දැක්වූ කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා

බැඳුම් කර වංචාවට පමණක්  දෙවෙනි ගල් අඟුරු වංචාව සම්බන්ධයෙන් මෙතෙක් විධිමත් පරීක්ෂණයක් ක්‍රියාත්මක නෑ.  ඒ වංචාවට සම්බන්ධ නිලධාරින් සතුව ඔස්ට්‍රේලියාවේ ඉඩම් මිලදී ගැනීම් පිළිබදවත් තොරතුරු වාර්තා වෙලා තියෙනවා. ඒ වගේම මේ වනවිට මේ ගල් අඟුරු වංචාවට එරෙහි වීම නිසා  ලංකා ගල් අඟුරු සමාගමේ සභාපති වරයා ඉවත්කිරීමේ කුමන්ත්‍රණයක් මේ වංචාකාරී නිලධාරිවාදය විසින් සිදුකරමින් ඉන්නවා. මොකද ලංකා ගල් අඟුරු සමාගමේ වත්මන් සභාපති වරයා මෙම වංචා සහගත ක්‍රියාවලිය සිය විරෝධය ප්‍රකාශ කරලා තියෙනාව මේ නිසා ඔහුව ඉවත් කරමින් තමන්ගේ වංචාව  කරගන යන්න උදව් කරනවා.

නීතිඥ ක්‍රිෂ්මාල්  වර්ණසූරිය, අසාත් සාලි , යන මහත්වරුද මෙම මාධ්‍ය හමුවේදී අදහස් දැක්වූහ.

මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය

කැෆේ සංවිධානය                                                                    2016 ඔක්තෝබර් මස 27 වැනිදා 

ප්‍රියශාන්ත සඳරුවන්, මහනුවර, 2016.
(විශේෂ ස්තූතිය කුමාර් මොශේ මහතා)  

පන් විසි දහස් දිවි හිමියෙන් රැකි ලංකා
නෙක කම්කටොළු විඳ ගැමි කොලු දුක් සංකා
බිඳ ජන කඳුළු මර බිය සොව සැම දුංකා
දෙසපලු රැළක් නැසුවයි ජය බිම ලංකා

පච්ච නීල රඹ දඹ ලෝහිතයි හොරු
කබ්බ සීන කර රට වුනු කලෙක සරු
පක්ස පරා රජයන උන් හිත මිතුරු
එක හොර මුලක් සුරකියි තව කම්බ හොරු

දෙමළට මරක්කලයට සුද්දට කාසී
සිහලට හොරා අසිහල හැතිකර වාසී
දහමට නිගා කර කොවිලට වට දාසී
ලිපටම තමා චන්දය සුදුසුම ලෙහෙසී