ඊතලය

මුළු රටම කෝප් අර්බුදය සහ බැඳුම්කර මගඩිය දෙස බලා සිටියදී 2008 සහ 2009 වසරවල යුද හමුදා සන්නද්ධ බුද්ධි බළකා රේජිමේන්තු මධ්‍යස්ථනයේ රාකාරි කළ දැනටත් සේවය යෙදී සිටින සහ විශ්‍රාම ගොස් සිටින උසස් නිලධාරින් සහ සෙසු නිලයන්ට අයත් සියලුම බුද්ධි අංශ රණවිරුවන් අපරාධ පරීක්‍ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට කැඳවීමට සීඅයිඩීය පියවර ගෙන තිබේ.

මාධ්‍යවේදී ලසන්ත වික්‍රමතුංග ඝාතන විමර්ශනයට මුවා වී බුද්ධි නිලධාරින් තුන්සියයක් පමණ මෙසේ ප්‍රශ්න කිරීම සඳහා කැඳවා ඇති අතර ඒ සියලුම දෙනා එල්ටීටීයට එරෙහි විජයග්‍රාහී සටනේදී රට වෙනුවෙන් ජීවිත පරදුවට තබා සුවිශේෂී මෙහෙවරක යෙදුණු විරුවන් බව ආරක්‍ෂක ආරංචි මාර්ග සඳහන් කරයි.අදාළ කැඳවීම පිළිබඳ යුද හමුදා මූලස්ථානයට ලිඛිතව දැනුම් දීමටද රහස් පොලිසිය කටයුතු කර ඇත.

නිශ්චිත දින නියම කරමින් ලබන නොවැම්බර් මස දෙවන සතිය දක්වා වූ කාලය තුළ කණ්ඩායම් වශයෙන් එකී බුද්ධි නිලධාරින් තුන්සිය දෙනා අපරාධ පරීක්‍ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ සමූහ මංකොල්ල ඒකකය වෙත කැඳවා මෙසේ ප්‍රශ්න කිරීමට නියමිතය. ඒ අනුව බුද්ධි නිලධාරීන් කණ්ඩායමක් ඉකුත් දිනක අපරාධ පරීක්‍ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ සමූහ මංකොල්ල ඒකකය හමුවට ගොස් ඇති අතර එහිදී ඔවුන්ගෙන් පෞද්ගලික ජීවිතයේ තොරතුරු – රාජකාරියේදී භාවිත කළ අන්වර්ත නාමයන් – බැංකු ගිනුම් විස්තර – සමාජ ජාලවල සිටින ආකාරය සහ අඹුදරුවන්ගේ තොරතුරු ආදී ලෙසින් විවිධ දේ විමසූ සීඅයිඩීය අවසානයේ රටේ නමගිය අපරාධකරුවන්ගේ (අයිආර්සීකාරයන්ගේ) ඇඟිලි සලකුණු සටහන් ලබා ගන්නා පෝරම තොගයක් ගෙන එකී බුද්ධි නිලධාරින්ගේ ඇඟලි සලකුණු සටහන් ලබා ගැනීමටද කටයුතු කර ඇති බව පොලිස් මූලස්ථානයේ නිලධාරියෙක් පැවසීය.

එහිදී එකී බුද්ධි නිලධාරීන් පිරිස දැඩි අසීරුවකට පත්ව ඇතැයිද කී එම නිලධාරියා රහස් පොලිසිය අද සිදු කරමින් සිටිනුයේ ඉකුත් 2002 වසරේ සිදු වූ මිලේනියම් සිටි මහා පාවා දීමටත් එහා ගිය නින්දිත පාවා දීමක් බවද පෙන්වා දුන්නේය.

මෙසේ එක් ඝාතන විමර්ශනයකට මුවා වී යුද හමුදා සන්නද්ධ බුද්ධි බළකායේ නිලධාරීන් තුන්සියයක පමණ පිරිසක් හදිසියේම අපරාධ පරීක්‍ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව වෙත කැඳවීමට සීඅයිඩීය කටයුතු කිරීමත් සමඟ මේ වන විට යුද හමුදාව තුළද දැඩි කැළඹීමක් ඇතිවී තිබේ.

මේ පිළිබඳ අදහස් දක්වන ඇතැම් හමුදා නිලධාරීන් පවසන්නේ ඉකුත් යුද සමයේ රට වෙනුවෙන් ඉතාම රහසිගත ලෙස මෙහෙයුම් සිදු කළාවූ බුද්ධි නිලධාරින් මෙසේ රහස් පොලිසියේ අත්තනෝමතික ප්‍රශ්න කරීම්වලට ලක් වීමෙන් ඔවුන්ගේ අනන්‍යතාවය ලෝකයට හෙළි වී එම නිලධාරීන්ගේ ජීවිතවලට පවා තර්ජන එල්ල විය හැකි බවකි.
වර්තමානයේ රට තුළ සිදුවන ඇතැම් සිද්ධීන් දෙස බැලීමේදී මෙසේ යුද හමුදා සන්නද්ධ බුද්ධි බළකායේ නිලධාරින් කලකිරීමට ලක්වන ආකාරයේ කටයුතු සිදු වීමෙන් එය ජාතික ආරක්‍ෂාවට එල්ල කෙරෙන මරු පහරක් විය හැකි බවද ඔවුහු පෙන්වා දෙති.

එසේම සීඅයිඩීය යහපාලනයත් සමග ආරම්භ කළ විමර්ශන තුළින් යුද හමුදා බුද්ධි බළකායේ සිටිනුයේ මිනීමරුවන් යැයි සමාජයට ඒත්තු ගැන්වීමට ඉකුත් කාලයේ ඉතා පහත් උත්සහයක් ගනු ලැබූ අතර එම තත්ත්වය හමුවේ එල්ටීටීඊයට එරෙහි සටනේදී උපන් බිම වෙනුවෙන් දිවි පරදුවට තබා සේවය කොට මේ වන විට යුද හමුදාවෙන් විශ්‍රම ලබා තමන් පදිංචි ප්‍රදේශවල පවා රහසේ ජීවත් වන විශ්‍රාමික බුද්ධි නිලධාරීන්ගේද තොරතුර අනාවරණය වීමෙන් ඔවුන්ට සමාජයට මුහුණ දීමට නොහැකි තත්ත්වයක් නිර්මාණය විය හැකි බවද එම හමුදා නිලධාරීහු සඳහන් කරති.

එම තත්ත්වය තුළ සීඅයිඩීයේ නිසා යම් සමාජ අපවාදයකට මුහුණ දීමට එකී විශ්‍රාමික බුද්ධි නිලධාරින්ට සහ ඔවුන්ගේ පවුල්වල සමාජිකයන්ට සිදු වුවහොත් අවසානයේ ඔවුනට සිදු වන්නේ රට වෙනුවෙන් වැඩකොට සිය දිවි නසා ගැනීමට බවද ඔවුහු වැඩි දුරටත් සඳහන් කරති.

Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai, Dehiwela

Recently I had a patient who made my heart bleed. His name was Susantha, aged about 35, he was a soldier fighting for the country during the ethnic war. In 1990’s when he was in the thick of the war he got repeated attacks of Malaria, and the last time happened to be a virulent attack that he had to be airlifted to Colombo. After recovering from it, he returned to the battle field but was advised to take chloroquine continuously. He took it for the next 6 years for fear of contracting the virulent form of malaria.

The normal practice is, when a patient takes long term chloroquine, their eyes have to be checked up regularly, for in some patients it affects the macula – the main part of the eye with which one sees. There was no facilities nor advice about such check ups while in the battle field, and today he is almost blind – He cannot see anything beyond one foot from his face and cannot read any thing – not even very large letters. But the most pathetic thing is that he does not know how exactly his daughter who is about 2 years looks.  He says he sees her face as broken up pieces and cannot put it together to make a full picture. He had tried various ways to get help or compensations  but so far he has filed. His wife works to keep the home fire burning.

Now this is just one case. How many similar cases are out there? Where do they go for compensation? How do these young soldiers survive?

Debates rage about who won the war – was it Mahinda, Gotabaya or Sarath Fonseka? Not really, it is won by these young men of our soil, who put their lives online to save us a country, who fought valiantly not thinking about their own lives, their sight  or their family. Who recognize them today? Who deals with their problems today? Their mental effects of shelling and shooting, their physical effects of war in cases such as this?

We as a nation owe them justice, peace and gainful employment if not a thumping retirement payment as the politicians get after running around in cushy, air conditioned cars, getting paid for service they never provide and  an indecent retirement payment to top it all.

Can we do something about them?

Samantha can be reached at 0718015354

Sent by:

Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai, Dehiwela

The Global Sri Lanka Forum (GSLF)

October 26, 2016, 9:23 pm

The Global Sri Lanka Forum (GSLF) has said that it believes that the racist comments made by the Northern Province Chief Minister CV Vigneswaran at the recent Ezhuka Tamil (Tamils Arise) rally in Jaffna represent a much wider separatist agenda that threatens the unitary status and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka.

It said “The Ezhuka Tamil campaign, which calls for a ‘sovereign federal unit through recognizing the Tamil people of the North and East as a distinct nation, while also acknowledging and respecting their right to self- determination’, follows the same theme as the LTTE’s ‘Pongu Tamil’ (Tamil Resurgence) events which also incited hatred among the Tamils, in particular the youth, towards the Sinhala population.

While unreservedly condemning Vigneswaran’s call for an ethnically cleansed Northern Province, devoid of Sinhala people and Buddhist places of worship, the GSLF also notes that he is an aggressive mouthpiece for a common ideology shared with other Tamil separatists and the pro LTTE Tamil diaspora.

In fact, Vigneswaran’s actions are completely in line with the objectives of the TNA/ITAK (‘Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchi’ or ‘Lanka Tamil State Party) which adopted the infamous ‘Vaddukoddai Resolution’ of 1976 calling for the ‘Tamil Nation in general and the Tamil youth in particular to come forward to throw themselves fully into the sacred fight for freedom and to flinch not till the goal of a sovereign state of Tamil Eelam is reached’.

It is apparent that the Tamil separatist movement has become increasingly aggressive due to the weak commitment of the Yahapalana government towards the unitary status and the national security of Sri Lanka. The Vigneswaran led Northern Provincial Council passed the infamous ‘Tamil Genocide’ resolution in February 2015, just over one month after the election of the new President of Sri Lanka and the appointment of the current Prime Minister. The expulsion of Sinhala Students from the Jaffna University, the destruction of Buddhist places of worship in the North and the assault of the Sri Lankan High Commissioner in Malaysia by Tamil goons are further examples of this new found arrogance.

Regardless of these provocative actions, the current regime has continued to follow a pattern of appeasement in the name of reconciliation. This includes the co-sponsorship of the UNHCR Geneva Resolution that is clearly hostile to the nation’s security forces, the closing down of strategic defence establishments in the North and East, the releasing of hard-core LTTE cadres, the de-proscription of foreign LTTE front-organisations.

In contrast, some of those who led the campaign to free Sri Lanka from the LTTE reign of terror are being hounded by the current regime. The former Defence Secretary and several military officers including three Navy Commanders have been hauled up before the courts using dubious charges while a number of intelligence officers have been incarcerated without trial for many months.

At the same time, several leading figures in the Yahapalana camp are acting as strong advocates for federalism and apologist for Tamil separatism. This ‘appeasement group’ has a shameful record on national security and are responsible for the infamous P-TOMS proposals, the one-sided Cease Fire Agreement which nearly led to a LTTE controlled terrorist state within Sri Lanka, the Sudu Nelum movement which discouraged defence force recruitment, the exposure of the Sri Lanka Army’s elite LRRP Unit at Athurugiriya and the supply of high-tech satellite communication equipment to the LTTE.

In conclusion, the Global Sri Lanka Forum (GSLF) calls on the following.

The President of Sri Lanka to use his executive powers to dismiss Chief Minister Vigneswaran and dissolve the Northern Provincial Council if it continues to foster Tamil separatism and hatred towards the other Sri Lankans.

All patriotic members of the Sri Lankan Parliament to prevent any legislative or constitutional changes that dilute the unitary status of Sri Lanka.

The people of Sri Lanka to overwhelmingly reject any constitutional changes that facilitate federalism at a future Referendum”.

UPFA Ratnapura District MP Ranjith de Zoysa claims that former Governor of the Central Bank Arjuna Mehndran has left the country today (27).

The MP informed Parliament that Mahendran, who has been accused over the controversial Central Bank bond issue, has left the country.

Zoysa quipped that a shark” escaped and that it was not caught by the Fisheries Minister’s net. 

The report prepared by the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) on the bond scam is to be presented to Parliament tomorrow (28). 

ලංකා සී නිවුස්

යහපාලනය යටතේ සිදු වූ මහ බැංකු බැදුම්කර වංචාව ලක් ඉතිහාසයේ එතෙක් මෙතෙක් සිදු වූ අති දැවැත්න මුදල් මංකොල්ලය බව ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණු නායක පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත‍්‍රී විමල් වීරවංශ මහතා පවසයි.

පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී ඊයේ පැවති වැට් බදු ඉහල නැංවීම පිලිබද විවාදයේදී අදහස් පල කරමින් ඔහු කියා සිටියේ කලින් නම් අගමැති රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහට කිවුවේ ‘මිස්ටර් ක්ලීන්’ කියා වුවත් දැන් ඔහු ‘මිස්ටර් ඩර්ටි’ ලෙන නම වෙනස් කරගෙන ඇති බවයි.

රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහ යනු මහා මොලයක් යයි විපක්‍ෂයේ සිටියදී කියා සිටියද ආණ්ඩුව කරද්දී වසර දෙක්ක යන්න පෙර රටේ ආර්ථිකය හතර ගාතෙන් බිම ඇද දමා මහ දවාලේ මහ බැංකුව මංකොල්ල කා ඇති නිසා අද කියන්නට ඇත්තේ ‘මොලයක් නොවෙයි අලයක්’ ලෙස බවද මන්ත‍්‍රීවරයා කියා සිටියේ විපක්‍ෂයේ දැඩි බාධාකාරීම් මැදයි.

සම්පුර්ණ වීඩියෝව මෙතනින්

ලංකා සී නිවුස්

2020 වන විට අපේ රටේ ණය බර අඩු කරන බව අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය වික්‍රමසිංහ පසුගියදා ප්‍රකාශ කලේය. එය ජනතාවට තාවකාලික අස්වැසිල්ලක් වුවත් මෙය ලෙහෙසියෙන් කල හැකිද යන්න සොයා බැලීම වැදගත්ය.

එහිදි 1990 සිට ශ්‍රීලංකාවේ තිබු රජයන් විසින් ඊට පෙර රජයන් ගත් ණයද ඇතුලත්ව ඉදිරියට ශේෂය ගෙන යනු ලබන අතර ඒ ඒ වර්ෂවල දල ජාතික නිෂ්පාදනය හා ඉදිරියට පවත්වාගෙන යනු ලබන ණය ප්‍රමාණයන් හා එම වසරේ ලබා ගත් ණය රාජ්‍ය ණය National Debt ලෙස අර්ථ දැක්වෙන අතර සෑම වසරක් අවසානයේ එය එම වසරේ දල ජාතික නිෂ්පාදනය ප්‍රතිශතයක් ලෙස පෙන්නුම් කරයි.

මේ අනුව ශ්‍රීලංකාව් දීර්ඝකාලීන යුද්ධයකට මුහුණදෙමින් ලබාගත් ණය ප්‍රමාණය 1990 ප්‍රේමදාස යුගයේ 98% ප්‍රමාණයේද, 1992 රනිල්- ඩිබී.යුගයේ 95% ප්‍රමාණයෙද, 1995 සිට චන්ද්‍රිකා යුගයේ 106% දක්වාද [ ශ්‍රීලංකා ඉතිහාසයේ පලමුවරට වසරේ දල ජාතික නිෂ්පාදනයට වඩා වැඩි ] රනිල් 2002 සිට 103% දක්වාද 2005 සිට 2014 වනවිට 71% දක්වාද [ 1977 ට පෙර තිබූ තත්ත්වයට] පවත්වාගෙන ගොස් ඇත.

රටකට ණය අවශ්‍ය වනුයේ රටේ බදුවලින් ලැබෙන ආදායම අපේක්ෂිත ඉලක්කයට නොපැමිණීම.රාජ්‍ය මුල්‍යම තත්ත්වය අස්ථාවර විම, රජයේ ආයෝජන වැඩිවීම. දේශපාලන පොරොන්දු ඉටුකිරීම. යුද්ධයක් පැවතිම මෙන්ම අපේක්ෂිත ආර්ථික වර්ධන වේග ඉලක්ක ලබා නොගැනීම යන කරුණු මතයි.

මේ අනුව ශ්‍රීලංකාව නිදහසෙන් පසුව එනම් 1950 සිට අද මේ වනවිටත් ඉහත අවස්ථාවකන් ඉටු කර ගැනීමට දේශිය සහ විදේශීය ණය ලබාගෙන ඇත,එමෙන්ම රටක ණය ප්‍රමාණය ගණනය කරන්නේ අදාළ වසරේ දල ජාතික නිෂ්පාදනය GDP හා එතෙක් එම රට ලබාගත් ණය ප්‍රමාණයේ හා අදාළ වසරේ දල ජාතික නිෂ්පාදනය ප්‍රතිශතයක් ලෙස සලකාය.

එහෙත් පුදුම දනවන කරුණ නම් දැන් රටේ යුද්ධයක් නොමැතිව විශාල ප්‍රමාණයේ සoවර්ධන කටයුත්තක් සිදු නොවි විශාල සහනාධාර රටේ ජනතාව නොදි, පොහොර සහනාධාරය අඩුකොට, ග්‍රාමීය ආර්ථික සoවර්ධන කටයුතුවල සැලකිය යුතු ප්‍රගතියක් නොමැතිව, 2015 සහ මේ වසර වන විට ණය ප්‍රමාණය 76% දක්වා වැඩි වී ඇත. මෙය රාජපක්ෂ ලබාගත් ණය ගෙවීමට යයි කීවත් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ 2005 දි රට භාරගන්නා අවස්ථාවේදි ඒ වන තෙක් රටේ හිටපු පාලකයන් විසින් ලබාගත් රටේ සමස්ථ ණය ප්‍රමාණය එම වසරේ දල ජාතික නිෂ්පාදනයෙන් 105% ක් දක්වා ඉහළ ගොස් තිබූ බැව් සියළු පාර්ශවයන් හoගමින් මේ දිනවල කථා කරන බැව් දැක ගත්ස් හැකිය.

මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ යුගයේ 30 වසරක් මේ රටේ තිබු කුරිරු ත්‍රස්තවාදී යුද්ධය නිමාකොට රටට සාමය ලබාදුන් අතර රටේ අධිවේග මාර්ග වන දකුණු අධිවේගය කටුණායක එක්ස්ප්‍රස්වේ, කෙරවලපිටිය තාප විදුලිබලාගාරය, නොරොච්චෝලේ , ඉහළ කොත්මලේ , හම්බන්තොට වරාය සහ මත්තල ගුවන්තොටුපොල අලුතින් ඉදිකිරිම, පාරවල් කාපට් කිරිම විශ්වවිද්‍යාල අලුතින් ඇතිකිරිම, මහින්දෝදය පාසැල් වැඩපිළිවෙළ, පොහොර සහනාධාරය, පාසල් නිල ඇදුම්, රාජ්‍ය සේවය පුලුල් කොට ලක්ෂ 6 ක් තිබු රජ්‍ය සේවකයින් ලක්ෂ 11 දක්වා වැඩිකිරිම වැනි රජය විසින් විශාල වශයෙන් මුදල් ආයෝජන සිදු කොට සමස්ථ රාජ්‍ය ණය ප්‍රමාණය 71% දක්වා අඩු කල අතර මෙය ශ්‍රීලංකා 1977 ට පෙර තිබු වසරේ දල ජාතික නිෂ්පාදනයේ ප්‍රතිශතය වීම වාර්තාගත තත්ත්වයකි.

එමෙන්ම වර්තමාන අගමැතිවරයා මීට පෙර දෙවරක් රටේ පාලනය මෙහෙය වූ අතර එනම් 1992 සිට 1994 දක්වාත 2001 සිට 2004 දක්වාත් නමුත් ඒ කාලවල රටේ සමස්ථ ණය ප්‍රමාණයන් 95% වඩා වැඩි මට්ටමේ තිබු බව පහත සඳහන් මහ බැoකුවේ වගුවෙන් පැහැදිලිවේ.

ලංකා සී නිවුස්

මුදල් ඇමති රවි කරුණානායක විසින් මහ බැංකුවේ අධිපති ඉන්ද්‍රජිත් කුමාරස්වාමි මහතා වෙත යොමු කරන ලද ලිපියක් සමාජජාල තුල හුමහාරු වෙමින් ඇත.

ඇමති සරත් ෆොන්සේකා මහතාගේ බෑනනුවන් වන දනුන තිලකරත්න මහතාගේ ව්‍යාපාරික කටයුත්තක් සම්බන්ධයෙන් මෙම ලිපිය මුදල් ඇමතිවරයා විසින් මහ බැංකු අධිපතිවරයා වෙත යොමු කර සිහිපත් කරන්නට විය හැක.

ලංකා සී නිවුස්

වැට් බදු ඉහල නැංවීම තුලින් උපයා ගැනීමට බලාපොරොත්තුවන රුපියල් කෝටි 180ක මුදල උපයා ගත හැකි පහසුම මගක් ජවිපෙ නායක අනුර දිසානායක මහතා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ වැට් පනත විවාදයට එක්වෙමින් හෙලි කලේය.

ඔහු යෝජනා කලේ ඇමතිවරුන්ට වාහන ගෙන්වීම සදහා පරිපූරක ඇස්තමේන්තුවකින් වෙන් කරගන්නා ලද රුපියල් කෝටි 180 හා අගමැතිවරයාට වාහනයක් ගෙන්වීමට වෙන් කර ඇති රුපියල් කෝටි 30ක මුදල නවතා දැමුවහොත් වැට් බද්ද වැඩිකිරීම අතහැර දැමීමට හැකි බවද ඔහු පෙන්වා දුන්නේය.

By Charminda Rodrigo Courtesy Ceylon Today

Professor Rohan Samarajeewa was a member of the Intergovernmental Joint Study Group on the India-Sri Lanka Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in the year 2003 and chaired the GATS Advisory Committee of the Department of Commerce, Sri Lanka (2002-2004). He expressed his views to Ceylon Today on the proposed Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement (ETCA).

?: Are we allowing Indian workers to flood our labour market by signing ETCA?

A: The government has announced that MODE 4 is restricted from the proposed ETCA; MODE 4 is the free movement of natural persons. MODE 3 is the free movement of legal persons. By signing the agreement, we can impose restrictions on the intra corporate transferees. The other side is the independent consultants. These are the two extremes. This agreement is not taking away the immigration laws in the country, but it clearly depicts the conditions that one should fulfil in order to get the necessary entry permits. We can take away the discretion when granting visas and impose conditions to fulfil when applying for visas.
How will it flood the labour market, when it restricts unnecessary workers entering the country; the guidelines are clearly in place.

ETCA is not going to take away jobs from Sri Lankans but it would enhance the competitiveness of the corporate.

?: Are we allowing free movement of professionals?

A: Well, there is only one region on the planet where they allow free movement and that is the European Union; that is because it’s a single market region. I can say with much confidence that we would not allow free movement through ETCA.

?: How do you assess the cultural and social effects of ETCA?

A: Well, I remember a time where the culture was such that we were supposed to eat what the government told us to eat; but that has changed over the years. The aspirations of the people have taken a turn; society and the culture changes over time. Nobody can stop it from changing. We should not restrict development based on uncertainty.

?: Why can‘t we enter into trade agreements with developed countries?

A: We cannot enter into agreements with unwilling partners. There are some people going around saying that we should get into an agreement with the Great Britain after Brexit happened. But Britain even negotiated a trade agreement with Canada. Every country gives prominence to their important trade partners. The countries willing to get into an agreement with us at the present time are India, China and Singapore. In fact geographical factors too favour us for this move.

?: What is the growing desire of India to get into an agreement with us? What do you think is the appealing factor?

A: India stays on top in terms of imports, India is on the top five in terms of exports, India is in the top three in terms of investments influx, India is on top in terms of tourist arrivals. It’s the geographical condition or the gravity model. Gravity affects more on the objects which are closer. It’s the norm in trade.

?: Are there any non economical factors behind this urge to enter into an agreement?

A: India is eyeing for its seat at the UN Security Council. They need to maintain good relations with their neighbours in order to do that. India has engaged in endless ruthless fighting with neighbouring Pakistan, There is a tense situation prevaling with China. India maintains strange relations with Bangladesh, also there are tensions with Bhutan, so whom do they have to present to the world as good neighbours? India’s reputation looks horrible at the international level. Therefore they badly need to show that they have managed to build good relations with at least Sri Lanka to make the world believe that they are a good neighbour.

When you think about the market size in Sri Lanka it is close to the entire population of Mumbai alone, the size of the market is not at all important. But India needs to balance the Chinese presence here in Sri Lanka. Therefore it is strategically important to make their presence here. So, the ecta with Sri Lanka is strategically important to India at this juncture. We have to keep that in mind.

?: On top of economic, geographic and strategic reasons do you think there are any other reasons such as modern day imperialism?

A: You may be referring to India’s expansionism as claimed by the JVP sometime back. Does India want to have a degree of authority over us? I think that’s normal, any big and powerful country would like to have a sense of authority over their neighbours. When they see the Chinese submarines docking in the ports of Sri Lanka, yes their tension may rise. India has pulled all their strategic assets to the South. India considers Pakistan as their enemy so they have developed far away South as their safe zone. India doesn’t have proper military bases in the South, because they do not consider it as much vulnerable to any threat. We have to understand these concerns and use it to our advantage.

?: In your opinion how does the ETCA benefit our economy?

A: We are basically focussing on two service sectors under the ETCA, under the World Trade Agreement rules we cannot take everything out from an agreement. We need to keep some sectors in. I would propose that we should include at least 5 service sectors in the agreement. See when it comes to ship building Japan stays on top. It even supplies to the Government of India. But when this agreement comes through our manufactures can supply even to the Government of India. Therefore, this agreement would take away all uncertainties associated in the trade between the two countries. So it might attract more investments.

?: You are a researcher, analyst, an expert in communications and technology. In your opinion what are the flaws in our economy?

A: We have to look at all economic problems from the perspective of the people, which we express in common terms “development must be felt”. One may feel the development when they are strong enough to meet their expectations. If you look at the young generation, what we have is an odd picture. Overall unemployment rate of this country is about 4 per cent. It seems good when taken merely as a number. One element, out of a number of elements attached to it is our labour force participation is very low, compared to countries like Vietnam and Cambodia; which means a large number of people are simply not coming into the labour market. You could say that we Sri Lankans value leisure than a real commitment to work. That hampers their status of disposable income. Our women participation in labour force is comparatively low; it is around 30 per cent of the labour market. So we need to ask the questions, what will it take to become a middle income country? What will it take to absorb these unutilized elements into our labour force?

There’s another peculiar significance where unemployment is concerned, especially when age groups are considered. The 20 to 30 age group has an extremely high unemployment rate. It’s like they are looking for work but they can’t get the employment they aspire for; in other words, the jobs that are on offer are not interesting to them. So, it is in my mind, it’s the salary factor. A person should at least get Rs.45,000 per month.

We cannot afford it unless we have a vibrant economy. We have to have a large vibrant economy to find solutions to all these problems. If we compare our case to the situation in Vietnam, the amount of foreign direct investments each country received during the last 14 years, we actually received more. However, the difference is that the FDIs they got were related to export oriented ventures. In contrast ours have mainly focussed on ventures related to the telecom industry. Telecom is a service industry where it focuses on the local market unlike exports which bring more foreign exchange into the country. It’s not that I totally criticize the decision but had we focussed on the export sector we could have earned more revenue to our economy. Vietnam enhanced their exports nine fold creating a bigger market; whereas we increased our market only two fold. How can we go on like that?

?: What really made the change in Vietnam?

A: Amongst many other reasons Vietnam has expanded their market by entering into Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with many countries across the globe; with both leftist and rightist countries. Even with their rivals China. They went to the extreme of signing an FTA with the USA; the country that bombed them. But in contrast we have only one proper FTA signed, and that is with India. We have an FTA with Pakistan but that is more symbolic than active. We should always enter into FTAs with trading partners. Our trading partners are Europe, US, India, China and Singapore; these countries are on the top of the list; and those are the countries that we should be signing agreements with.

We had basically halted discussions on FTAs during the former government. The government had let the Ministry of Trade go into a deep sleep. They have framed those who stood for FTAs as traitors.

?: What is an ideal trade agreement?

A: My contention is a trade agreement in this day and age gives the certainty needed. It is not about increasing exports or minimizing the trade deficit.

When making the investment decision in Vietnam’s case, the investors exactly knew the rules of the game. In our case investors would know the rules only after visiting the Greater Colombo Economic Commission or the Board of Investment (BOI). Sometimes what they say is not what is exactly happening on the ground. Now, the BOI has become just another government organization, like a cop at an intersection where the traffic lights are placed to divert the traffic. What’s the point having the traffic light if it is manually overridden by the cop? Likewise we have an ambiguity in facilitating investments. The Ministry of Economic Development says ‘X’ when the BOI says ‘Y’. So the investors are completely confused. Tax structure changes; taxes with retrospective effect comes into effect.

?: How do we change the nature of the investments influx?

A: We do not get investments which are a part of a complex value chain. Value chains are important in creating revenues. One may think the best value addition is to find the raw materials locally, manufacturing an end product and export it to an end user overseas. That is not a complex value chain. Complex value chains are such that the inputs are acquired from overseas, they are put together with the local resources and later sent to another country as inputs to some other processors. The entire value chain should work for it to be rally beneficial. In order to run such complex system, the certainty is a virtue.

?: Do you think the prevailing system facilitates local entrepreneurs in the light of promoting industrialization?

A: Entrepreneurship is all about taking risks. The real question is can a business sustain and survive in this situation? The next obstacle is the regulatory risk in the country. It clearly shows when imposing a large fee on closing down a company. See an entrepreneur starts a venture and after sometime they may close it down and move on to another industry. Investors would think twice when making the investment decision when a large fee is imposed when closing down a venture. It’s not a crime changing the business plan when the going gets tough. Also nobody can expect an investor to confine himself to one particular industry. There is no human explanation to this. How can we expect them to go for new investments when there is an entry and exit fee? We have to think on broader lines when addressing these issues.

?: How do you see the commitment of the government towards the economy in Sri Lanka?

A: President Sirisena during the extended 100-day programme had achieved many of the set objectives. But nothing much has changed since the UNP came into power after the general election. They are basically killing time rather than undertaking some drastic economic reforms. It is close to two years but nothing has been delivered. Had they got their plans in place by now, the government could have taken up the time to strengthen the economy. But unfortunately we do not see that happening. People must feel the change. Just imagine with the amount of money invested in Hambantota, do the people feel development? In fact, the lives of the people in Anuradhapura have changed more compared to that of the people in Hambantota; it is shown in the available statistics.

We need to create jobs that are felt by the people. We need to create jobs that can uplift the standard of living. We need to be connected to the global economy. In order to do that, we need to enter into more and more trade agreements covering goods, investments and services.

Editorial Courtesy Ceylon Today

Could the genesis of the killings of the two Jaffna University students last week have been the July 26 clash between Tamil and Sinhalese students at the Jaffna University ostensibly because the University heads had agreed to demands that a late entry application, be dismissed, for a Kandyan dance to be included in the annual traditional orientation programme of that University?
Interestingly, Minister Lakshman Kiriella casually played that incident down dismissively with the statement that ‘these things happen everywhere’. Hardly the kind of response one expects from a responsible spokesman of the government.

While the mainline media failed to bring pictures of that clash to the public, several websites did so. The pictures were ugly. Among them were ones with Sinhala students brandishing clubs at the Tamil students and ample signs of blood being spilt. The Tamil diaspora and Tamil websites went to town with that incident before the first newspaper could hit the streets the next day.

That happened against the backdrop of still simmering racial tensions and a strident call for a Tamil Nationalist Renaissance spearheaded by the TNA and Tamil parties as well as the Tamil diaspora.

It also happened against a backdrop of pepped up efforts by the Tamils to turn the March 2017 UNHRC sessions into a lynch mob cry for the prosecution of former political leaders and services members for alleged war crimes at the end-game stages of the ethnic war back in 2009.

Getting things into perspective – let’s record the fact that had this government not come into power, the scenario at the UN – and UNHRC level to be specific – would be one in which we will be seeing the former government leaders and services leaders dragged into the vortex of a damning war crimes lynch party led by the outgoing UNSG Ban Ki-moon. They are today running around using that freedom to very foolishly drag down the incumbent government and bring themselves to a place in which they will be vulnerable to prosecution by an international Court.

As things stand, President Maithripala Sirisena has adroitly made some deft moves in the face of massive international pressure to save not just those former political leaders and services commanders from a damning war crimes trial, but has in that process dragged Sri Lanka out of that potential cesspit of shame.

It’s against the backdrop of this very real possibility that we saw five Policemen arrested over the deaths of two Jaffna University students last week, just hours after the visiting UNHRC envoy left after a week-long fact-finding visit to Sri Lanka, at the end of which she savaged the Lankan Government’s reconciliation efforts as being wholly inadequate.

So, were these two deaths a sentence taken out of an odious choreography scripted by the pro-liberationist Tamils (formerly known as the LTTE) in which the Lankan Police played a part they did not know was scripted for them? Or will we later come to know, as in the Jeyaraj Fernandopulle assassination, that at least one senior SSP played a pivotal role in facilitating that assassination and coordinated it in fact with LTTE activists?

This could be why despite the CID working on the case, the Police Commission also decided to launch its own independent probe into those deaths/killings to establish whether in fact they were avoidable deaths in that the Police did not have to shoot to kill two ostensibly fleeing students after a night out with friends.

Wisely, knowing how the then government of which he was Acting Defence Minister, shoved crime by the score under the carpet, the President assured TNA Leader Sampanthan that he would order an independent probe into the incident.
That independent probe is the one launched by the Police Commission.
Special Task Force troopers and Military Intelligence men had to be hurriedly deployed to ward off the danger of that violence pouring out into the streets.

In March this year, Tamil students were attacked by unidentified Sinhalese followed by Sinhala students in April assaulting a Tamil Security Guard at the University.

We then saw Sinhala students attacking Tamils at the Eastern University on 13 March this year too.
Could there be a subtle plan by extremist Sinhalese to use Sinhala university students as cat’s paws to trigger a racial crisis once again as a political tool to drag the government into a crisis it cannot handle?
On a recent occasion we saw President Sirisena postponing his planned visit to Batticaloa in July 2016 after a Sinhala mob attack at the venue which he was to visit.

Last week’s tragedy ‘happened’ just as President Sirisena was at a function with TNA Leader Sampanthan close by. Coincidence? It’s beginning to look like there is a pattern to this ‘coincidence’.

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By A. Abdul Aziz.

 Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad addresses Canada’s first National Peace Symposium 

The World Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, the Fifth Khalifa (Caliph), His Holiness, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad delivered the keynote address at the 1^st National Peace Symposium hosted by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Canada,  held recently.

The event was held at the Baitul Islam Mosque in Peace Village, Vaughan, with an audience of over 600 people, comprising government officials, including the Mayor of Vaughan, Hon. Maurizio Bevilacqua, Member of Parliament, Deb Schulte, and City Councilor, Marilyn Iafrate.

During his keynote address, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said that the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community was an entirely peaceful sect of Islam because it followed the true teachings of Islam. Hence it should not be considered to be a‘liberal’ or ‘reformist’ group.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

It is absolutely true that we, Ahmadi Muslims, are peace-loving and seek to build bridges of love and hope between different religions and different communities.  However, this is not because we have deviated from Islam or ‘modernised’ it in any shape or form. Rather, it is because we follow Islam’s authentic teachings.”   

His Holiness referred to a saying of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), that Muslims should love for others what they love for themselves. His Holiness said this principle laid down the foundations for peace and it was incumbent on Muslims to reflect upon this.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

Do we have ambitions to be mired in poverty and to go to bed hungry every night? Do we want our children to be plagued by ill-health, to be uneducated and to be placed in danger? Of course, no normal person would ever hope for any of these things. Therefore, as Muslims, we must seek prosperity not only for ourselves but also for others.” 

His Holiness said that conflicts arose between people and nations from time to time, however rather than prioritising self-interest, they ought to be resolved with justice and fairness.

The Caliph referred to chapter 4, verse 136 of the Holy Quran that requires a Muslim to be willing to testify against himself, his parents and his loved ones in order to establish justice.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

Islam teaches that a Muslim’s first loyalty must always be to the truth and so a person must never hide the facts or give false testimony. A person should not be governed by his own personal desires, as this leads to bias and prejudice and takes a person away from what is fair and what is right. This enlightened principle is the means to solve the problems of the world and to transform all forms of hatred into peace, tolerance and mutual respect.”

His Holiness said that Muslims are in fact commanded to go beyond the level of adopting justice. The Holy Quran says that a person should give like kindred”. 

Explaining this teaching, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said: 

It means that a person should offer sympathy and compassion and be willing to serve others without any expectation, just as a mother serves and selflessly nourishes her child without any desire for reward or recompense. This is the altruistic and benevolent spirit that Islam advocates and teaches, wherein it calls on Muslims to open their hearts for the good of mankind.”

Referring to the treatment of prisoners of war, His Holiness said that in the modern world it was often the case that prisoners were kept in inhumane conditions with little or no recourse to justice. 

In complete contrast, His Holiness narrated the example of the Battle of Badr where the non-Muslims of Mecca waged a war against Islam.

The Muslims were victorious and the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) instructed the prisoners of war that could read and write to educate the Muslims who were illiterate. This was their means of freedom.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

It was an incomparable example of how even from amongst a state of bitter war and conflict some good could ultimately be retrieved. Those who had themselves shown no mercy towards the Muslims were treated with compassion and consideration and utilised as teachers.” 

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad continued: 

This example exhibited two beautiful aspects to the character of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). On the one hand, he was neither vengeful nor bitter towards those who had persecuted him and his followers. Secondly, it proved how highly he valued education and learning. He desired for people to better themselves and to progress in all spheres of their lives and education was the key to this.” 

Highlighting the Quranic teaching of not casting envious looks at the wealth of others, His Holiness said that ignoring this principle had led to world’s peace being undermined time and time again.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

Some governments completely ignore the human rights abuses taking place in countries because they wish to have access to the oil or natural resources of those nations. However, members of the public are not blind, deaf or dumb. They can see that such policies are not based on justice and naturally this leads to frustration and anger.”

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad continued: 

Nations must be fair in their dealings and should not be governed by narrow self-interest but rather by what is right, what is just, and what is in the interest of the world at large.” 

Concluding his address, His Holiness warned of the possibility of an imminent Third World War.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

We are charging madly towards a catastrophic and devastating world war. The consequences of such a war do not bear thinking about. The misery, horror and destruction could last for generations to come. Therefore, we can only hope and pray that Allah the Almighty grants wisdom and sense to humanity.” 

Prior to the keynote address, various dignitaries spoke about the importance of peace and the efforts of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.

Lal Khan Malik, the National President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Canada said:

This Symposium is being held to promote a deeper understanding of Islam and inspire a concerted effort for lasting peace. We have the honour of launching our first national Peace Symposium today here with a keynote address by His Holiness, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, World Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat.” 

Hon. Maurizio Bevilacqua, the Mayor of Vaughan said:

When I think about you, Your Holiness, I think about your incredible message; the message of peace, love and compassion, and also something the world needs a lot more of – that is, interfaith dialogue and interreligious harmony.”

Deb Schulte, MP said: 

I want to thank His Holiness very much for taking the time to come to Parliament Hill (on 17 October). He gave a wonderful speech with a message of love for all and hatred for none, focusing on religious tolerance around the world. He also included several suggestions on policy direction that we might want to take and we very much appreciate the time that he took to share his wisdom with us.”

City Councillor, Marilyn Lafrate presented a gift to His Holiness to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Canada and said:

Most people will know that I am probably the most ardent champion of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. A Community that speaks to love, speaks to tolerance, speaks to giving back to the community which is very unique.”

After the event’s proceedings, His Holiness met personally with dozens of guests and dignitaries. 

PRESS RELEASE The Muslim Council of Sri Lanka

The Muslim Council of Sri Lanka (MCSL) welcomes the cabinet decisions to appointment another committee to address the reforms needed to the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act. The ministry of Justice had earlier appointed a committee of 17 eminent representatives of the Muslim community under the leadership of former Supreme Court Judge, Hon Saleem Marsoof to make recommendations to reform the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act. This report has still not been released.

The Muslim Council is deeply concerned about the statement made by Hon. Sagala Ratnayake, the Minister of Law and Order and Southern Development at the cabinet media briefing on 26th November 26th 2016 that the reforms to the Muslim Marriages and Divorce Act has to be enacted as part of the conditions to regain the GSP Plus concessions from the European community.

There is certainly a need ammend the Muslim Marriages and Divorce Act, but this has to be done in consultation with the Muslim religious leadership and the Muslim community in Sri Lanka and not at the dictates of the European Union or the International Community. The demand by the international community to intervene in a religious issue could cause irreparable damage to co-existence in Sri Lanka.

Similarly, there is widespread concern that the North and Eastern provinces would be merged by the current administration to accommodate the demands of the international community. The foreign policy of the Sirisena-Wickramasinghe administration should not be on the dictates of the International Community but in the best interest of the citizens of this country.

We urge the government to address the concerns of the Muslims through a consultation process with Muslim political, religious and Civil Society leadership.

N M Ameen

President

The Muslim Council of Sri Lanka

Senaka Weeraratna

This is an expanded version of an address delivered by Mr. Senaka Weeraratna, Hony. Secretary of the German Dharmaduta Society, on Sept. 28, 2016 in support of his Resolution entitled ‘Recognition of Buddhism as an official religion in non – Buddhist countries’ at the First Plenary Session of the 28^th General Conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB) held in Seoul , South Korea from Sept. 26 – 30, 2016.

Respected members of the Maha Sangha, Mr. President, Vice –Presidents, Members of the Executive Council of the WFB, the President and Members of the Jin- Gak Buddhist Order, Distinguished Delegates and Observers, Brothers and Sisters in the Dhamma

Thank you Mr. Chairman, for giving me an opportunity to address this august assembly.  It is undoubtedly a great privilege and honour.

The World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB) being the leading international Buddhist Organisation, was founded by a great visionary, Dr. G.P. Malalasekera, in 1950 in Colombo, to unite all Buddhists despite glaring ideological differences between the various traditions, under the umbrella of ‘Fellowship’.

There were 129 Buddhist delegates from 27 countries representing Asia, Europe and North America ( including Hawaii) at this historic meeting which saw the founding of the WFB. It is now generally accepted that this meeting marked the first event in Buddhist history when Buddhists (laity and sangha) of nearly all sects in the globe were duly represented and attended with the singular purpose of contributing to the spread and advancement of Buddhism through fellowship. This was undoubtedly a laudable and ground breaking move.

Among the notable figures present on this occasion was Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the then Minister of Law and Chairman of the Drafting Committee of India’s Constitution (also known as the father of India’s Constitution and regarded by some as the ‘Modern Manu’). More importantly he was greatly instrumental in the revival of Buddhism in India in the modern era being the leader of India’s Dalits (so called – Untouchables) who converted to Buddhism.

Ambedkar’s advice to WFB

In the Book ‘Ambedkar and Buddhism’ by Sangarakshita (1986), an interesting account is given of Ambedkar’s stance at the Inaugural meeting of the WFB which took place at the Dalada Maligawa (Temple of the Tooth) in Kandy on May 25, 1950. Sangarakshita says as follows:

On 25 May (1950) he ( Dr. B.R. Ambedkar) arrived in Colombo by air with his wife and Rajbhoj and the same day attended the inaugural meeting of the World Fellowship of Buddhists at the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy. Since he was not attending the meeting as a Delegate (for that would have implied that he considered himself a Buddhist), he declined to speak at the official session and, instead, addressed the Delegates after they had adopted the resolution inaugurating the Fellowship. There were people in India, he told them, who thought that the time had come when the effort might be made to revive Buddhism, and one of the objects of his visit was to observe Buddhist ceremonies and rituals, which the people of India had no means of witnessing. Another object was to find out to what extent Buddhism was practised in its pristine purity and to what extent its teachings had been encrusted with beliefs incompatible with its basic principles. He was also interested in finding out to what extent the religion of the Buddha was ‘a live thing’ and whether it existed merely because the people of Ceylon happened to be Buddhists in the traditional sense of the word.

Having thus explained the purpose of his visit, Ambedkar turned to the conference itself. He was not fully satisfied, he said, with the resolution that had been passed calling for a World Fellowship of Buddhists. What was wanted was a declaration on the part of all the Buddhist countries that they were determined not merely to have a Fellowship but that they would propagate the religion and make sacrifices for it. Whether the delegates realized it or not, what Ambedkar was really saying was that the Buddhist countries of Asia should be less inward-looking and more outward-looking. He himself was, as usual, sufficiently outward-looking.

After the conclusion of the Conference he not only saw as much as he could of the ceremonies and rituals of Ceylon Buddhism but found time to address the Young Men’s Buddhist Association, Colombo, on ‘The Rise and Fall of Buddhism in India’. Buddhism had not disappeared from India, he asserted. Though its material form had disappeared, as a spiritual force it still existed. What had led to the decline of Buddhism in India was not clear. He himself was still studying the subject, but he believed that Buddhism had faded away in India because of the rise of Vaishnavism and Shivaism and because of the Muslim invasion of India. ‘When Alla-ud-din marched into Bihar, he killed five to six thousand Bhikkhus. The remaining Buddhist monks fled to neighbouring countries like China, Nepal, and Tibet. Efforts were, subsequently, made by Buddhists of India to raise another priesthood in order to revive Buddhism. But these failed as by then ninety per cent of the people had embraced Hinduism.’ Answering the question why Hinduism had survived in India and Buddhism had died, Ambedkar observed, ‘Buddhism as a religion is difficult to practise while Hinduism is not.’ Shortly afterwards he addressed a meeting in the Colombo Town Hall and appealed to the Untouchables there to embrace Buddhism, saying that there was no need for them to have a separate organization. He also urged the Buddhists of Ceylon to accept the Untouchables and look after their interests with paternal care”.

No Mechanism to help protect and save Buddhist communities and Buddhist Nations in danger.

Dr. Ambedkar’s advice to the WFB was that it must not confine itself to mere ‘fellowship’ but must be forthright and determined  to make sacrifices in fostering (and protecting Buddhism), and have an impact on the unfolding major events in the world. In other words, WFB must be outspoken, engage in advocacy for noble causes like the Buddha did and give leadership for the cause and progress of Buddhism.

If we look at the world today we see powerful  and influential organizations like the ‘Organisation for Islamic Co – operation’ and ‘ World Council of Christian Churches’ who will stand by and publicly support the cause of their co –religionists unequivocally. Leading Buddhist organizations must do likewise. We must evolve mechanisms to help protect and save Buddhist communities and Buddhist Nations in danger. The protection and preservation of Buddhism must be placed high on the WFB Agenda. This is because it is Buddhism more than any other religion that has lost more ground and space to other religions during the last 1000 years.

Protection of Buddha Gaya

There are threats even to the sanctity of the Maha Bodhi Temple at Buddha Gaya. It is subject to constant disturbance from sound amplifiers i.e. loudspeakers, installed at a nearby Mosque situated only 60 meters away from the Maha Bodhi Temple. The tranquility and serenity that one associates with the most sacred place on earth for Buddhists i.e. place of enlightenment of the Buddha, is not possible due to management of the Temple not being under the control of Buddhists. It is tantamount to humiliation of Buddhists to be forced to listen as a captive audience to shrieking sounds in a foreign language amplified many times over in the most sacred site for Buddhists. The Govt. of India which has taken special steps to attract tourists from all over the world to visit important Buddhist sites in India must address this issue on an urgent and serious footing without any further delay. WFB must add its voice and urge the Govt. of India to act effectively to put a stop to highly amplified sounds of another Religion that disturbs the tranquility and calm of the main Maha Bodhi Temple at Buddha Gaya.

Official Recognition of Buddhism in non – Buddhist majority countries

The Resolution before this House is a call to the WFB to set in motion suitable arrangements to lobby the international community to extend official recognition to Buddhism in countries outside Asia.

The World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB) is mandated in its Constitution to propagate the sublime doctrine of the Buddha (Article 3.3). A reasonable construction of this mandate empowers the WFB to take all possible lawful steps to facilitate the spread of the Buddha Dhamma in both Buddhist and non – Buddhist communities and countries world –wide.

It is estimated that there are now altogether between 1 and 4 Million Buddhists in Europe, the majority being in Germany, Italy, France and the United Kingdom. Despite a commitment to ‘multi – culturalism’ and ‘religious pluralism’ in Europe, the official recognition of Buddhism is confined only to two States i.e. Russia and Austria.

In most Muslim countries in West Asia the existence of Buddhism as a religion is denied because it does not subscribe to the belief in a creator God. This translates itself into denial of any form of freedom of worship including access to places of worship for Buddhists in the Middle East despite over One Million expatriate Buddhists working and living in these countries. In some Muslim countries including Maldives, Buddhists are not allowed to enter these countries with Books on Buddhism or any artifact that resembles affinity or respect for Buddhism e.g. Buddhist statues. In some Airports they are pulled out from the possession of the foreign visitor by Customs Officers and dashed to the ground. This is a clear violation of a fundamental Human Right. The Right to choose one’s religion and practice it. Many International bodies including the UNHRC are complicit tacitly in such Human Rights violations through conduct of omission and deafening silence.

Buddhist adherents make up just over 0.3% of the total population of the Middle East. Many of these Buddhists are workers who have migrated from Asia to the Middle East in the last 20 years, many from countries that have large Buddhist populations, such as China, Vietnam, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. A small number of engineers, company directors, and managers from Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea have also moved to the Middle East”

Buddhism in the Middle East (Wikipedia)

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

However in contrast to the practice of countries in the Middle East, several Muslim Majority countries in South East Asia i.e. Indonesia and Malaysia, and South Asia e.g. Bangladesh, have given Official Recognition to Buddhism and declared Vesak as a Public Holiday.

Pakistan officially recognizes Buddhism and held the first – ever Vesak Festival organized by the Government of Pakistan at Taxila commencing in year 2016. Celebration of the Vesak Festival at Taxila is intended to be an annual event in which Buddhists from all over the world will be invited to participate.

In Europe, so far only Russia and Austria, have granted Official Recognition to Buddhism, despite Buddhism being one of the oldest religions and accepted as a global religion by the UN which has allocated a special day in its Annual Calendar for celebration of Vesak (Buddha’s Birthday).

The non – recognition of Buddhism as an Official religion in Europe has led to discriminatory treatment such as categorizing Buddhists as being members of ‘sects’ and ‘cults’ among other things. The absence of State recognition to Buddhism in almost all European countries bar Russia and Austria functions as an impediment to the proper practice and development of Buddhism in Europe.

There are no public holidays for Buddhism or any other non – Christian religion in the Public Holiday calendar of European nations i.e. with a Christian heritage. This is in stark contrast to the conduct of traditional Buddhist countries e.g. Sri Lanka, which has granted public holidays on days of religious significance to adherents of Abrahamic religions i.e. Christianity and Islam, and Eastern Dharmic Religions i.e. Buddhism and Hinduism.

Even UK denies Official Recognition to Buddhism. It does not allow the construction of new Buddhist Temples. But allows Buddhists to occupy existing Buildings and use them for their religious functions. This is also true of several other West European countries.

What does Official State Recognition of Buddhism mean?

Official Recognition would allow Buddhists certain rights such as access to the media, financial support, legal standing, and recognition equal to those of Christian Churches, and right to teach in a school. It would allow them the legal right to form voluntary societies as exclusive Buddhist Societies with membership restricted only to Buddhists.

However, despite restrictive laws, there is growing public acceptance and accommodation of Buddhism in several European countries including UK, France and Germany.

Conclusion

The WFB must take leadership in association with the Governments of Buddhism friendly countries and other Buddhist organizations and Buddhist communities, in lobbying for greater official recognition of Buddhism by nations outside Asia. Buddhists in these countries are entitled to equal rights similar to those enjoyed by the followers of the Abrahamic faiths. This task is long overdue for the World’s premier International Buddhist Organisation, namely the WFB.

Senaka Weeraratna

By A. Abdul Aziz. Press Secretary.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad delivers address calling for equality and justice

   The Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community welcomed to Canada by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

 Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad officially recognised during Question Period in House of Commons

 Dozens of Ministers, Senators, MPs and policy makers receive Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad in Parliament

 His Holiness presents Louise Arbour with Sir Zafrullah Khan Award for Public Service

 Recently, the World Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, the Fifth Khalifa (Caliph), His Holiness, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad was welcomed to Canada’s Houses of Parliament by Prime Minister, Rt Hon. Justin Trudeau, Cabinet Ministers and over 50 MPs and Senators.

 Later in the day, His Holiness delivered an historic keynote address entitled Human values – the foundation for a peaceful world” to an audience of more than 225 people at a special reception held at the Sir John A. Macdonald Building at the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa.

 More than 110 guests attended, including over 50 Members of Parliament. The event was also attended by a number of Government Ministers including Hon. Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science and the official representative of the Prime Minister and Hon. John McCallum, Minister for Integration, Refugees and Citizenship.

 Also in attendance were Senators, Members of the Diplomatic Corps, including 11 Ambassadors of State, media representatives, academics, NGO leaders, religious leaders and prominent figures from various other sectors of society.

 During his keynote address, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad addressed various issues of global importance, including the risk of a global war, religious freedom, increasing radicalisation and extremism and international relations.

 His Holiness called on the world’s governments to display true justice and equity in all matters. His Holiness also presented Islamic teachings and offered solutions to the world’s problems based on the teachings of the Holy Quran.

 Reflecting upon the need for unity in society, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

 Irrespective of differences of background, I believe that on the basis of humanity, we are all joined together, and should therefore be united. All people and all organisations, must collectively endeavour to uphold human values, and strive to make the world in which we live, a better and far more harmonious place.”

 Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad continued:

 If human values and human rights are not upheld in one country or region, it has a knock-on effect upon other parts of the world and such wrongdoing can spread further afield. Conversely, if there is goodness, humanity and prosperity in one part of the world, it will have a positive effect on other societies and other people.”

 Speaking about the increasing conflict in the world, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

 As a result of modern forms of communication and transport, we are all now much closer together and are no longer confined or bound by geography. Yet, it is a strange and tragic paradox that even though we are more connected than ever before, we are actually growing more distant by the day. It is extremely regrettable, and a source of grief, that instead of uniting and spreading love amongst mankind, the world has paid far greater heed towards spreading hatred, cruelty and injustice.”

 His Holiness admitted that fear of Islam was growing in much of the world. However, he said that fear of the religion itself was completely unnecessary.

 Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

” Let me reassure all of you that Islam is not what you commonly see or hear portrayed in the media. As far as my knowledge of Islam is concerned, I only know of that Islam whose teachings are based on its name. The literal meaning of the word ‘Islam’ is peace, love, and harmony and all of its teachings are based upon these noble values.”

 Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad continued:

Unfortunately, it cannot be denied that there are some Muslim groups, whose beliefs and actions are in total contrast to Islam’s teachings. In complete violation of Islam’s fundamental teachings, they are perpetrating the most horrific violence and terrorism in its name.” 

His Holiness said that universal religious freedom was a pre-requisite for any successful and tolerant society.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

The Holy Quran categorically states in chapter 2, verse 257 that ‘there should be no compulsion in religion.’ What a clear, comprehensive and unequivocal statement that enshrines freedom of thought, freedom of religion and freedom of conscience. Thus, my belief and my teaching, is that every person, in every village, town, city or country has the undisputed right to choose his or her religion and to practice it.”

His Holiness said it was a cause of regret that governments in the Muslim world and also some Western Governments had sought to restrict the religious rights of some communities within their nations.

His Holiness said that any attempt to curb religious freedom was dangerous.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

Every individual has the right to peacefully preach and propagate his or her teaching to others. These freedoms ought to be guaranteed as basic human rights, and so legislative assemblies or governments should not unduly involve themselves in such matters.”

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad continued:

It is not wise for governments or parliaments to place restrictions on the basic religious practices or beliefs of people. For example, governments should not concern themselves with what type of clothing a woman chooses to wear. They should not issue decrees stating what a place of worship should look like. If they overreach in this way, it will be a means of restlessness and heightening frustrations amongst their people. Such grievances will continue to exacerbate if they are not checked and ultimately will threaten the peace of society.”

Speaking about the role of Government according to Islamic teachings, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

It is the task of the government and parliamentarians, as guardians of their nations, to legislate in a way that gives rights to their citizens rather than takes their rights away.”

His Holiness said that though religious freedom was a principle of vital importance, wherever there was a risk of extremism or incitement to hatred, it was the task of Governments to intervene and take firm action in order to protect their people.

His Holiness also spoke of the need for justice both in domestic affairs and international relations. 

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said: 

To be handed the keys to government is a huge trust and so we often see heads of state pledge to serve their nations faithfully and with absolute justice. Sadly, in many cases such honourable pledges prove to be hollow words.”

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad continued:

In some countries, there are dictatorships or unjust governments, yet the major powers turn a blind eye to their cruelties, because those governments happen to support them and facilitate the procurement of their interests. Yet, in countries where the leaders or governments do not bend to the whim of the major powers, they are quite happy to support rebel elements or to demand regime change. In truth, there is no difference in the way the respective governments are treating their own people. The material difference is only that in some cases the governments cooperate with the major powers, whilst in others they do not.” 

His Holiness criticised certain Governments for selling weapons to some Muslim nations without considering the potential consequences”. He said such weapons often end up in the wrong hands or are used in order to kill innocent civilians.

Citing Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen as a prime example of injustice and reflecting upon its potential consequences, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said: 

It is well known that Saudi Arabia is using weapons purchased from the West in its war in Yemen, in which thousands of innocent civilians, including women and children, are being killed and so much destruction is being wrought. What will be the ultimate result of such arms trading? The people of Yemen, whose lives and futures are being destroyed, will not only bear hatred and seek revenge from Saudi Arabia but will also bear hate towards Saudi’s arms suppliers and the West in general.”

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad continued: 

With no hope or future prospects left, and having witnessed the most horrific brutality, members of their youth will be prone to radicalisation and in this way a new vicious cycle of terrorism and extremism will arise. Are such destructive and devastating consequences worth a few billion dollars?”

His Holiness also said that international institutions such as the United Nations needed to ensure fairness and equity between members states.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

If only the major powers and the international institutions, such as the United Nations, had truly acted upon their founding principles, under all circumstances, then we would not have seen the toxic plague of terrorism infect so many parts of the world. We would not have seen the world’s peace and security repeatedly undermined and destroyed. And we certainly would not have witnessed the huge refugee crisis, which now confounds and frightens the people of Europe and other developed countries.”

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad continued:

The United Nations must also play its role in establishing peace in the world, unencumbered by politics, injustice or favouritism.”

Concluding, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

I hope and pray that Allah the Almighty enables the United Nations and the world’s governments to act in this way so that true and long-lasting peace may be established. The alternative does not bear thinking about, because if we continue as we are then the world is charging madly towards a huge catastrophe in the shape of another world war.”

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad continued:

May Allah grant wisdom to the world’s leaders and policy makers so that the world we leave behind for our children and future generations is a world of peace and prosperity.”

During the event, His Holiness, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad presented Hon. Louise Arbour, the former High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations and a former Canadian Supreme Court Judge with the Sir Zafrullah Khan Award for Public Service. This award recognised her outstanding public service during her long and distinguished career.

Upon receipt of the award, Hon. Louise Arbour said:

I am deeply honoured to receive this very prestigious award that is named after a great jurist, lawyer, judge and a great diplomat. I am particularly honoured to be associated with Sir Zafrullah Khan, as he was a Chief Judge and President of the International Court of Justice… I have also always been deeply impressed by the promotion of the culture of peace that the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has stood for and continues to stand for.”

A number of guest speakers also took to the stage.

Hon. Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science and official representative of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said:

It is an honour and privilege to be here tonight to welcome His Holiness, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the Fifth Caliph and leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community to Parliament Hill. All of Parliament Hill has come together today to join His Holiness, to celebrate with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and to demonstrate our strong support… The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community makes an enormous difference here in Canada and always demonstrates Love for All, Hatred for None.”

Dr. James J. Zogby, Vice-Chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom said:

Your Holiness, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, on behalf of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom I am honoured to be with you tonight. What has always impressed us about the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is how, despite being all too often victims of persecution, you remain champions for the rights of others who are being persecuted. In a world where intolerance seems to be increasing the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community remains a strong advocate of tolerance and goodwill.”

Earlier in the day, His Holiness held a range of meetings with Federal Ministers of Canada’s Government, Senators and MPs. His Holiness also held a meeting with Prime Minister Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau.

The Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community was also officially recognised by the Speaker of Parliament during a session of Question Period, in which all present members of the House of Commons, including the Prime Minister, stood and gave His Holiness a standing ovation. 

Further, Hon. Judy Sgro MP, read out a Members Statement in the House of Commons that stated:

Mr. Speaker, earlier today the global spiritual leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community arrived in Ottawa for a formal visit to Parliament Hill.

During his time with us, he will meet with Cabinet Ministers, Senators, Members of Parliament, and the Prime Minister in an effort to further underscore his peaceful message of love for all and hatred for none.

This work is part of an ongoing effort undertaken by His Holiness to showcase the peaceful nature and beauty of the faith (of Islam) and while calling on global powers to advance an agenda of peace, religious freedom, and the advancement of human rights in Canada and around the world.

I applaud His Holiness and members of the global Ahmadiyya faith for their work, and I extend a hand of friendship on behalf of my constituents and the people of Canada.”

The special reception concluded with a silent prayer led by Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad. Following dinner Parliamentarians and guests were able to meet personally with His Holiness.

By Rathindra Kuruwita Courtesy Ceylon Today

As the United National Party (UNP) members of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) refused to recognize the Chairman’s Report on the controversial Treasury Bond issue, COPE member Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) MP Nalinda Jayatissa, spoke to Ceylon Today of the COPE splitting on party lines, and of betrayal of public expectations by the two main parties.
Excerpts of the interview:

?: Right now the biggest investigation handled by the COPE is the one on the two controversial Treasury Bond auctions in 2015 and 2016; this investigation has also led to a split in the COPE with one group wanting to stick with the Chairman Sunil Handunnetti‘s Report, while the United national Party (UNP) members of COPE wanting to present a separate report. As a member of COPE, tell me about the investigative process that was followed?

A: We were entrusted with investigating allegations of irregularities by the Central Bank in the issuing of Treasury Bonds from February 2015 to May 2016. We used testimonies given before the previous members of COPE, which also investigated the issue, the Report of the Auditor General and the statements given by the former Central Bank Governor and others, before us in our investigation. Last Thursday, Chairman of COPE MP Sunil Handunnetti presented a report at the COPE, based on the above mentioned evidence. It was a 45 page document. We discussed the report, page by page, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday and we started the discussion again at 9.30 a.m. on Friday. Most of the COPE members agreed with the contents of the report and they wanted to present this report to Parliament on 25 or 26 of October. So, I have to reiterate that the majority of COPE members agreed with the Chairman’s report. At this point the UNP members said that they will not accept this report. So they set upon preparing their own separate report and their report will also be presented to Parliament. Thus the Chairman’s Report, accepted by most COPE members and the report of the UNP members will both be submitted to Parliament, hopefully within this week.

?: So the COPE is to present two separate reports on the same issue. Has this happened before?

A: A lot of people think this is something new, but there have been previous occasions where various Parliament Committees have submitted more than one report on the same issue, with contrasting conclusions. COPE members can also present more than one report based on their individual observations. It is up to Parliament to decide which report that they accept.

?: From what you told me I get the impression that the UNP members of the COPE went along with the view of the majority until last week, or at least their dissent was not militant. But from the news reports that we get today (24), not only did the UNP members object to a few recommendations of the report, but also the entire process. What triggered this?

A: The UNP members of COPE acted in a particular way from day one. I think the public was not aware of this fault line. On 7 July, MP M. Velu Kumar stepped down from COPE and State Minister Sujeewa Senasinghe was appointed in his place. He was specifically chosen because of his actions on the Treasury Bond controversy. Last year Senasinghe filed a case against DEW Gunasekera, chairman of COPE at that time, for releasing an interim report on the Treasury Bond investigation, and he also wrote a booklet defending the former Central Bank Governor, Arjuna Mahendran. The UNP from the beginning wanted to clear Mahendran and to show that there were no irregularities in the Treasury Bond auction. The UNP attempted to manipulate the investigation to suit their agenda till the last moment and when they realized that they couldn’t influence the Chairman’s Report, they set out to produce a separate report.

Not only that, the UNP members threatened the Auditor General around 5.30 p.m. on Monday (24). During the previous sessions they insulted the Auditor General and on Monday they insisted that we revoke the recommendations of the Auditor General stating that he has a political bias. At that point COPE chairman Sunil Handunetti left the discussion in disgust. But I must reiterate that the UNP had from the beginning wanted to disrupt and manipulate the process. They wanted the COPE to clear Mahendran, say that there were no irregularities and they wanted us only to probe Perpetual Treasuries Limited, to determine whether they made an undue gain. They did and are doing all they can do to achieve these goals.

?: There were reports throughout last week that UNP members of the COPE shouted at the Auditor General in filth during the sessions. Given what happened on Monday many believe that these reports must also be true. As a member of COPE, did you witness the UNP members of the COPE shouting at the Auditor General in filth?

A: There were definitely insults and threats. Maybe what you described happened after 2.30 p.m. on Friday when we left the proceedings. So, I can’t confirm whether UNP members of the COPE shouted at the Auditor General in filth on that day, but given the behaviour of the UNP MPs, it is extremely possible.

?: UNP acted as if outraged by President Maithripala Sirisena‘s speech, last week, criticizing the independent commissions. But now it‘s known that UNP members of the COPE insulted and threatened the Auditor General because they didn‘t like what he was saying about the Treasury Bond issue. If they actually care about independent commissions and depoliticizing the State sector, would they have acted in this manner regarding the Auditor General?

A: Indeed, the speech given by President Maithripala Sirisena criticizing the independent commissions and the behaviour of the UNPers at COPE regarding the Auditor General, are identical. In his speech, the President attempted to protect SLFP MPs, facing corruption allegations, have now joined the UNFGG Government. He wanted to protect people like Dilan Perera, Priyankara Jayaratne, A.H.M. Fowzie, Anura Priyadharshana Yapa and Susil Premajayantha. When cases against these MPs were being investigated, the President attempted to put an end to the investigations by threatening the independent commissions. As a result the Director General of the Bribery Commission, Dilrukshi Dias Wickramasinghe had to go home. That’s how the President guarded the crooks in his camp.

The Prime Minister on the other hand attempts to protect the crooks in his camp by using the UNP MPs to threaten the Auditor General, tarnish the image of COPE and by manipulating the COPE to clear Arjuna Mahendran. So, both sides are using various ploys to protect unsavoury characters in their respective camps. Both these groups have forgotten the promises given to the people during the Presidential election.

?. Due to accusations, of the Rajapaksa Government misdemeanours, it was decided that independent commissions must be appointed. Despite appointing independent commissions there are concerns that it can also be interfered with. What can be done about this?

A. The problem is not the independent commissions. The problem is that these independent commissions are not allowed to function independently by the powers that be. In fact, we prefer if Dilrukshi Wickramasinghe did not resign from her post. If she felt threatened by the President’s remarks she should have brought the criminals who are part of the current government to book. According to the mandate given by the people to this government, they are supposed to punish the miscreants; not protect them. If the highest of the political power is protecting these wrongdoers, these independent commissions should expose it. We request the members of the commissions to work according to the responsibilities bestowed upon them, and if they do so, the people of this country will protect them.

?. What are the other aspects of concern which the COPE is looking into?

A. From January to July this year, we have submitted 19 reports on the State institutions which we looked into. Yesterday, we debated in Parliament about these institutions. We hope to have the issue of the Treasure Bonds before the budget comes up. In the meantime we are investigating into other State institutions as well. The main motive and interest displayed by the UNP when the COPE was appointed, has not gone up in flames. Earlier when Rajapaksa’s miscreants were brought to book, they were very happy. But, now when we do our investigations pertaining to State institutions the miscreants are the UNP ministers. Therefore they are trying to sabotage the work done by COPE. We should be alert as to how the mandate given to this government is taking shape; it is up to the people to take part in preventing this.

?. Next year, the Local Government elections will be held. What kind of preparation has your party done?

A. We are doing our day to day political work. However, the matter of the methodology in which this election would be held is a common problem for all parties. Although a new electoral system has been passed in Parliament, there are still shortcomings in it as acknowledged by the Elections Commissioner. The public and the candidates do not have any idea about this new system.

With regard to Constitutional Reform there are also discussions with regard to amending parliamentary elections and Provincial Council elections. So, when introducing an electoral system there cannot be a different one for Provincial Council, Local Government and Parliamentary elections. They should all agree to one system. It is wrong for the government to postpone elections when they feel that their power is threatened. It is also wrong to put forth an electoral system which neither the candidate nor the public understands. The government must definitely hold elections. We request that elections should be held in the old system till a new system is introduced and the candidate and the public are made aware of it. They can make this the last election to be held in the old system.

Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon Executive Director/CaFFE

A few days ago United National Party (UNP) members of Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) state minister Ajith P Perera stated that COPE must investigate Perpetual Treasuries Limited.

Attending the Cabinet Press Briefing today, State Minister of International TradeSujeewa Senasinghe said that United National Party (UNP) members of Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) posed a number of questions to Auditor General regarding its report on the controversial Treasury Bond scams.

Earlier this month Anti Corruption Front spoke of ‘gimmick politics of anti corruption’ and the above two instances are prime examples of this. COPE is an institution ‘established on 21.06.1979 to ensure the observance of financial discipline in Public Corporations and other Semi Governmental bodies in which the Government has a financial stake.’ Thus it has no mandate to examine private companies and it’s highly unlikely that Perera was not aware of this.

ACF believes that Perera’s attempt is to divert attention from Arjuna Mahendran and the members of the Monetary Board. If the state minister believes that  Perpetual Treasuries Limited must be investigated he can lodge a complaint with the FCID. Instead he is playing a gimmick on Facebook, other social media outlets and the media.

Senasinghe’s statement seems, on the surface, looks fair. Why shouldn’t the COPE members cross examine the Auditor General about any error or to clarify any doubts? But if one takes a look at how the Auditor General’s reports are produced, one wonders why the UNP members of Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) suddenly decide to scrutinize the Auditor General’s report.

Usually COPE uses information, observations and recommendations given by Auditor General, about a government institution, to question officials from the relevant institutions. According to the constitution COPE is responsible for the initial reporting of the accountability of all state owned enterprises to tax payers and the Auditor General is entrusted to carry out an independent audit of all state owned enterprises and submit the reports to COPE. Before submitting these reports the Auditor General shares his reports with the relevant institutions and obtains their views on his report. Thus these institutions have the ability to submit their objections before a report is presented to COPE, which calls upon relevant officials and raise issues directly with tem based on the Auditor General’s reports.

Since the Auditor General is appointed by the Constitutional council, based on his ability to carry out such audits and his professionalism and independence, Auditor General’s report has never been questioned by COPE members.

Media has reported that on 24 October COPE chairman Sunil Handunnetti walked out of the chamber in which they had met after witnessing United National Party (UNP) members of the COPE ‘threatening’ the Auditor General. There were also reports that they UNP members had continuously harassed the Auditor General in previous sessions, questioning his impartiality.
Given this context, it is obvious that the UNP is attempting to manipulate the COPE to clear former Central Bank Governor, Arjun Mahendran. The attempt of the UNP to block the Bribery Commission investigation on the bond scam cost Dilrukshi Dias Wickremasingeh her job. MPs have a social contract. They are there to safeguard the inalienable sovereignty of the people; the primary interests of the nation and its people; and fundamental rights of the people. ACF earlier had shown, for example, how the bond scam has adversely affect millions of EPF holders. Thus the scamhas violated the interests of the people and their fundamental rights and as MPs they should do whatever it takes to rectify the matter. The UNP members of COPE must keep this in mind,” Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon, Advisor of ACF said.

Media Unite

October 26, 2016

Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon
Executive Director/CaFFE
Executive Director/CHR-Sri Lanka
100/19 A, Welikadawatta Road,
Rajagiriya,Sri Lanka.

Royal Asiatic Society Sri Lanka Public Lecture 

                                  “Indo-Pacific Beads and Sri Lanka’s External Connectivity during the Pre-modern Period”

by 

Wijerathne Bohingamuwa, Senior lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology,

University of Ruhuna and doctoral candidate at the School of Archaeology, University of Oxford

  on

 Monday 31^st October 2016 at 5.00 p.m.

  at the

 GaminiDissanayake Auditorium, No. 96, AnandaCoomaraswamyMawatha, Colombo 07

ALL ARE WELCOME

Indo-Pacific beads (IPB) are small monochrome beads cut out of drawn glass tubes. They are generally considered as being first made at Arikamedu in South India ca. 250 BCE, although they were also produced at a number of sites in India, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia; possibly before the Arikamedu production. Archaeologically, IPBs are recovered from South Africa in the west to Japan and Korea in the Far-east; the highest concentration being, however, in Sri Lanka and India.

IBPs are the most numerous beads found at many urban/port sites such as Anuradhapura, Tissamaharama, Mantai/ ahatittha in Sri Lanka. Findings indicate that Mantai produced IBPs from ca. the 2^nd century BCE to the 12^th/13^th centuries CE. It was among the four main IPB producers in the ancient world and a major IPB supplier to the maritime bead trade. Sri Lankan made IBPs are found in East Africa, Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Southeast Asia and possibly in China. Based on the analysis of beads from Mantai, Kantharodai and Kirinda and drawings from findings from the contemporary sites within and outside Sri Lanka, this talk will attempt to provide an alternative reading to Sri Lanka’s external trade and connectivity during the pre-modern times.

By Rohana  R. Wasala Courtesy The Island

The article entitled Can Sri Lanka hold on to its fragile peace?” on the National Geographic  website by American journalist Robert Draper  seems to be nothing more than a sample of the run-of-the-mill false propaganda that is usually churned out to promote the Tamil separatist cause in Sri Lanka. By being accommodated in a prestigious world-class magazine like the National Geographic, damaging lies about our beloved motherland gain international currency as undisputed facts. The periodical itself is not likely to incur any serious damage to its reputation as a result of this, because the low quality journalism patronized by it on this occasion concerns a small insignificant third world country in Asia. However, except for its geostrategic importance of its physical location for the Americans, Sri Lankans would have been allowed to sort out the separatist problem by themselves without much ado.

The title of Draper’s write-up alludes to an alleged ‘peace’ (between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority) that is claimed to have come into being after the ‘change’ supposedly effected at the January 8, 2015 presidential election. We, the ordinary Sri Lankans, as the most important stakeholders in this context, know that the truth is otherwise. It is a truth that ill-informed foreign journalists are never likely to recognize: The peace that the defeat of armed terrorism restored in 2009 became permanently  threatened on the day of the so-called ‘change’. What Sri Lanka achieved politically, economically and socially during the previous six years has now been completely overturned under the so-called yahapalanaya (good governance) administration. The question is not Can Sri Lanka hold on to its fragile peace?”, but Will Sri Lanka ever regain the peace that it achieved in 2009?”

Robert Draper (57), who is an alumnus of the University of Texas at Austin, is a correspondent of the New York Times and the National Geographic magazine. His epic intention in the National Geographic article seems to be that of justifying the ways of the West  to Sri Lanka, which is a politically vulnerable and economically weak nation that is subject to the relentless geopolitical  domination of regional and global powers.

Draper’s article shows that the ‘International’ media have not let go of Sri Lanka as yet. The West wants Sri Lanka destabilized through federalism for their own purposes, which have nothing to do with the welfare of Sri Lankans. A federal ‘solution’ to this alleged ‘ethnic’ problem  will only be a halfway house between a unitary state and a fragmented country. When the country gets broken up into two independent states, one in a combined north and east, ethnically cleansed of the Sinhalese as already demanded, and the other in the rest of the island, the Sinhalese majority will still have to coexist with more than a half of all Tamils and Muslims of the whole of undivided Sri Lanka as it is at present, but without access to the natural resources in one third of its land area and two thirds of its vital coastline.  This means that the alleged ‘ethnic’ problem will not go away, but instead will assume really unmanageable proportions. So, a federal solution cannot be envisaged without some grave apprehension about the future, particularly on the part of the majority Sinhalese. Whatever eventually happens, no rational Sri Lankan (be they of Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, or other ethnicity) will ever be ready to accept actual or potential fragmentation of the country with fatalistic passivity. Are we being frog -marched towards an uncertain future of worse political instability than now?

The bald editorial summary of his thesis in the article is: Seven years after a brutal civil war, the South Asian nation faces the aftermath: tens of thousands homeless or missing”. This is a gross oversimplification of the complex current state of the artificially created ‘ethnic problem’ in our country. The unduly exaggerated ‘missing persons’ issue is not the most vital problem the country is facing. The essay also gives the false impression that the Sri Lankan state did nothing between 2009 and 2015 about the problem of war displaced and alleged enforced disappearances.  It is clear that Robert Draper, unfortunately, like any average Western journalist nowadays, is basing himself on unverified information gathered from alleged victims and biased UN bodies. Draper appears to be building on the recent passage of the office of missing persons legislation, controversially pushed through a chaotic Sri Lankan parliament amidst strong opposition. The opposition was not to justice being secured on behalf of persons, if any, who have been subjected to involuntary disappearances, but to the forced establishment of foreign backed legal mechanisms to punish the political and military leaders who defeated the world’s most ruthless terror outfit, on the basis of unsubstantiated allegations of wrong doing lodged by terror backers without allowing them a proper chance to defend themselves.

The article opens with an emotive account of the case of a young Tamil woman of 34 allegedly grieving over the disappearance of her fisherman husband ten years ago. They had met and fallen in love with each other in a refugee camp in South India in 1999 when she was 17. According to her account she had escaped with her family leaping over the corpses of neighbours killed in a bombing raid by the army. Such allegations of indiscriminate attacks on Tamil civilians must be investigated, and perpetrators punished. No one would dispute that. But they usually turn out to be false allegations or instances of misreporting real incidents. Besides, it is a fact that many Tamils and a handful of other ethnics made use of false charges of army atrocities and other forms of persecution to escape to Western countries seeking greener pastures there. According to what I have read, some powerful armies apparently seek to minimize casualties among their own service personnel while maximizing weapons use for the purpose; the fateful implications of that policy for the enemy and the civilian population associated with the enemy need hardly be elaborated. While this is the case elsewhere, the Sri Lanka army, in the last phase of its legitimate campaign to contain separatist terrorism, followed a strict ‘zero civilian casualties’ regime, which eventually resulted in a higher than normal casualty rate among the soldiers.

According to Draper, the unnamed woman’s brother was said to have been tortured by the Sri Lankan military. Whether true or false, the complaint has helped him to be in Paris, at least illegally and without a job. ‘If he were to return home, he fears he might well be apprehended..’. The woman herself sells rice and telephone cards at a roadside kiosk to make a living. She told him that her fisherman husband used to supplement his income by selling canisters of gasoline to ‘Tamil resistance fighters’. (Doesn’t this suggest that he probably courted arrest by the security forces?) The woman is confident that her husband is still alive. ‘She asked not to be identified out of fear for her safety and that of her family….her husband remains a ghostly prisoner of a war that concluded seven years ago’. That returned refugees are ill-treated by security forces is a deliberate falsehood that is frequently uttered to hoodwink gullible host populations in Western countries.

Stories about anonymous characters cannot be checked for veracity. Of course, the army fought a lawless group of terrorists, who used civilians as human shields. They even used heavy weapons against the army from among civilians, a strategy that must have drawn retaliatory fire from government soldiers who were unaware of civilian presence where the rebel cadres were firing from. But the army did not target civilians deliberately, unlike some LTTE cadres who tried to stop Tamil civilians held by them as human shields from crossing over to the safety of the army lines by shooting at them at point blank range.

The former president established  the Presidential Commission to Investigate Complaints regarding Missing Persons (PCICMP) on August 15, 2013 consisting of three respected legal experts: Judge Maxwell P. Paranagama  (chairman), and Mrs Mano Ramanathan and Mrs Suranjana Vidyaratne. During public hearings in the north and the east, the Commission gathered evidence relating to approximately 2700 complaints over a period of roughly one year, which constituted its First Mandate. Then the remit of the commission’s mandate was expanded, as its Second Mandate, by gazette notification on July 15, 2014 to address the facts and circumstances surrounding civilian loss of life and the question of the responsibility of any individual, group or institution for violations of international law during the conflict that ended in May 2009”. Under the Second Mandate, the commission limited its inquiry to the period between the fall of Kilinochchi on January 2, 2009 and the end of the war on May 19, 2009. On February 5, 2015, under the new government, the time frame for the First and Second Mandates was extended until August 15, 2015. So, it is clear that Sri Lanka has done enough to address  the issue of involuntary disappearances and alleged human rights violations without foreign involvement.

Draper maintains that the island nation squandered its opportunity for international legitimacy when it descended into a spiral of violence fomented by long nurtured ethnic grievances”. This is a meaningless statement. Which period is he referring to? The whole of the post-independence period, the  early 1980’s or the post- 2009 period? It cannot be the last because terrorist violence had stopped by then with the defeat of the LTTE. So, Draper must be referring to the earlier periods. During the whole period different governments ruled, but did nothing to forfeit ‘international legitimacy’ in this connection.  Of course, we know what the term means, and that is the problem. To earn ‘international legitimacy’ the country must do what the Americans tell it to do, which involves ignoring the democratic will of the people, something that the former president (to his credit) refused to do. And what are these ‘long nurtured ethnic grievances’ of the Tamils? No one has defined them despite repeated requests from the majority Sinhalese to please oblige them with an answer. The majority of Sri Lankans of all communities do not want their country to be divided into several ethnicity-based states, which will inevitably destabilize the country for ever. That prospect may be attractive to America and India for different reasons, but it will spell disaster for all Sri Lankans. (To be continued)

චන්දන සූරියආරච්චි  ප‍්‍රධාන ලේකම්  සංවර්ධන නිලධාරින්ගේ සේවක සංගමය

ලේකම්,
පී. කේ. ආර් ඒකනායක මහත්මිය,
ග‍්‍රාමීය ආර්ථිකය පිළිබඳ අමාත්‍යංශය,
සතොස මහලේකම් කාර්යාලය,
වොක්ෂෝල් වීදිය,
කොළඔ – 02.

ලේකම් තුමියනි.

සංවර්ධන නිලධාරින්/සංවර්ධන සහකාර නිලධාරීන් අමාත්‍යංශ කාර්ය මණ්ඩලයෙන් ඉවත් කිරිමේ තීරණයට විරෝධය පලකරමු. – DOSU – 2016.10.26

ග‍්‍රාමීය ආර්ථික කටයුතු අමාත්‍යංශය යටතේ සේවය කරමින් සිටින ඉහත තනතුරු දරන නිලධාරීන් ඉවත් කිරීමට ගෙන ඇති තීරණය අත්හිටුවා එම නිලධාරීන් වසර කිහිපයක් තිස්සේ ඉටු කරමින් පැවති රාජකාරී අමාත්‍යංශ විෂය පථයට පවරා ගනිම්න් කි‍්‍රයාකරන මෙන් පළමුව ඉල්ලා සිටිමු.

ආණ්ඩු වෙනස් වීම රාජ්‍ය සේවකයින්ට අදාළ වෘත්තීයමය වශයේන් අදාළ නැත.ග‍්‍රාමීය ආර්ථිකය පිළිබ`ද විෂය යනු අපේ රටේ ආණ්ඩුවක් විසින් වැඩි ඉඩක් ලබාදෙමින් වැඩි අවධානයක් යොමු කල යුතු විෂයකි. ලංකාවේ ජනගහනයෙන් වැඩි ප‍්‍රතිශතයක් නියෝජනය කරන්නේ ග‍්‍රාමීය ජනතාවයි.

ගෙවුණුු වසර කිහිපය තුළ ඉහත තනතුරු දරන නිලධාරීන් තමන්ට අදාළ දිස්ති‍්‍රක්කවල ග‍්‍රාමීය ජනයාට අදාළ ආර්ථිකය නංවාලීම සඳහා විශේෂ ව්‍යාපෘති විශාල ප‍්‍රමාණයක් කි‍්‍රයාවට නංවා ඇත.

කුඩා ව්‍යවසායක සංවර්ධන කටයුතු, නුවර දුම්බර හස්ත කර්මාන්ත සංවර්ධන කටයුතු, මැටි කර්මාන්ත සංවර්ධනය, බට ගම්මාන සංවර්ධනය, ජාතික කිතුල් සංවර්ධන ව්‍යාපෘති ඇතුළු ගණනාවක් කි‍්‍රයාවට නංවා ඇත.ගාල්ල, මාතර, නුවර ඇතුළු දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කවලින් වාර්ථාවන තොරතුරු අනුව ඒ බව ඉතා පැහැදිලිය.

සිදුකල යුතුව ඇත්තේ ග‍්‍රාමීය ආර්ථිකය නංවාලීම පිළිබඳ කෙටිකාලීන හා දිගු කාලීන ක‍්‍රමෝපායන් සකස්කර තමන් යටතේ සිටින නිලධාරීන් එම ඉලක්කයන් කරා මෙහෙය විමයි. චීනය වැනි සංවර්ධිත රටවල ආර්ථිකයේ වර්ධනයට ග‍්‍රාමීය ආර්ථිකය මගින් විශාල දායකත්වයක් ලබාදේ. නමුත් එසේ තිබිය දී රජය මෙම සියළු දෙනා අමාත්‍යංශයෙන් ඉවත් කර නැවත රාජ්‍ය පරිපාලන අමාත්‍යංශයට නිදහස් කිරීමට ගෙන ඇති තීරණයට අපි විරුද්ධ වෙමු. ආණ්ඩු වෙනස් වන ගානේ සංවර්ධන නිලධාරීන් ඉවත් කිරිමට කටයුතු කිරීමට සිදුවුවහොත් එය ගැටළුකාරී තත්වයක් වන බවද දන්වා සිටිමු.

අමාත්‍යංශයට අයත් ඉහත සඳහන් නිලධාරීන් කාර්ය මණ්ඩලයෙන් ඉවත් කිරිම පිළිබඳව නිලධාරීන් දැනුවත් කිරමින් 2016/10/13 දින නිකුත් කල ලිපියෙන් වැඩිදුර සඳහන් කර ඇත්තේ තව දුරටත් ඔබ අමාත්‍යංශය යටතේ පැවරිය හැකි රාජකාරියක් නොමැති බවයි. මෙතෙක් එම නිලධාරීන් ඉටු කල රාජකාරි විෂයන් ඉවත් කිරීම ආණ්ඩුවේ ප‍්‍රතිපත්ති තීරණයක්ද යන්නත් දැනගත යුතුව ඇත.

ග‍්‍රාමීය ආර්ථිකය පිලිබඳ අමාත්‍යංශයේ කාර්යය මණ්ඩලය අඩුකිරිමේ තීරණය යටතේ ඉහත නිලධාරීන් ඔබ අමාත්‍යංශයෙන් ඉවත් කිරීමේ තීරණය අත්හිටුවන ලෙසත්, ඉහත නිලධාරීන් වසර ගණනාවක් ඉටු කල කාර්යභාරය අහෝසි නොකරන ලෙසත් ඉතා වගකීමෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිමු.

එමෙන්ම මතුවී ඇති මෙම ගැටළුව පිලිබඳව සාකච්ඡා කිරිමට අප සංගමයට අවස්ථාවක් කඩිනමින් ලබාදෙන මෙන්ද කාරුණිකව ඉල්ලා සිටිමු.

ස්තූතියි.

මෙයට,

චන්දන සූරියආරච්චි                                                     

ප‍්‍රධාන ලේකම්

පිටපත්:

1. ගරු ජනාධිපති තුමා. (අ.ක.ස/දැ.ග.පි)
2. ගරු අගමැති තුමා. (අ.ක.ස/දැ.ග.පි)
3. ගරු ග‍්‍රාමීය ආර්ථිකය පිලිබ`ද අමාත්‍යතුමා. (අ.ක.ස/දැ.ග.පි)
4. ගරු ජනාධිපති/ගරු අගමැති ලේකම්වරු. (අ.ක.ස/දැ.ග.පි)
5. ඒකාබද්ධ සේවා අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ ජනාරාල් තුමිය. (අ.ක.ස/දැ.ග.පි)
6. ජේ්‍යෂඨ සහකාර ලේකම් (පාලන*. (අ.ක.ස/දැ.ග.පි) 

ධර්මසිරි සෙනෙවිරත්න 

මරක්කලයෝ සිරී පාදෙත් අල්ලන්න දැන් මාන බලනවා උන් දැන් පුජා භූමියට අයිති රක්ෂිත කලාපයේ සංචාරක නිකේතනය හදනවා සවුදියෙන් හා මැලේසියාවෙන් ඉස්ලාම් පුජකයෝ මෙහෙ ඇවිත් සොයාබලනවා කොහොමද සිරීපාදේ ආදම්ගේ පාසටහන බව ලෝකෙට ඒත්තු ගන්වලා ස්ථානය අල්ලගන්නේ කියල . කාලයක් සිරීපාදෙත් හින්දු පුජකයෝ අරක් ගත්තු තැනක් වෙලා තිබුන බවත් සිරිමාවෝ මැතිනිය විසින් බෞද්ධයන්ට නැවත බලය අරගෙන දුන් බවත් මා අසා තියෙනවා .කතර ගමත් එහෙමය්සෞදි රජුගේ ඉල්ලීම අනුව රනිල් අක්කර 82ක් උන්ට දීල සිරීපාද අඩවියෙන් මුස්ලිම් මද්රාසා පාසල් වල උගන්වනවා සිරීපාදෙට මුස්ලිම් වරුන්ට අයිතියක් තියෙනවා කියල . දෙමලුත් උන්ගේ පොදිඋන්ට ඉගැන්නුවේ ලංකාව දෙමළුන්ට අයිතිව තිබී සිංහලයෝ උන්ගෙන් උදුරා ගත්ත කියල . ඒ අනුව ළමා පරපුර සිංහලයෝ එක්ක වයිර බැඳ ගත්ත ඉලන්දාරි වුනාම උන් සිංහලයන්ට විරුද්ධව තුවක්කු ගත්ත . මුස්ලිම් කාරයෝ කරන්නෙත් ඒ ක. මේවට කතා කරන බොදුබල සේනාවට අපේම උන් ජාතිවාදියෝ කියල ගරහනවා . මේවගේ පර සිංහලයෝ ඉන්න තුරු සිංහලයට ගැලවිල්ලක් නැහැ . සිරිසේන රනිල්ට එකතුවෙලා කලේ ජාති ජාතිත් පලදෙන ආනන්තරි ය පාප කර්මයක් .දැන් පුතා නිසා නින්දා විඳිනවා තව තව ලබෙය් . සිරිසේන දැන් ගිරයට අහුවෙච්චි පුවක් ගෙඩියක් වාගේ රනිල් කොය් වෙලේ හරි තද කරලා චප්ප කරනවා . එයාට නම් මොනවා වුනත් කමක් නැහැ ,,කලපවූ පල දෙන්න එපාය . සිංහල බෞද්ධයෝ සම්පුර්ණයෙන්ම විනාශ වෙලා අන්තිමේ බුදුහාමුදුරුවොත් අපට නැතිවෙන එකය් ප්‍රශ්නේ . හින්දු කාරයෝ නම් බුදුහිමියොත් විෂ්ණුගේ අවතාරේට දාල බාල්දු කරලා හුඟක් කල් . එත් බෞද්ධයෝ විෂ්ණුට තවත් වඳිනවා . එක නිකායක මහානායක කෙනෙක් ළඟදී දිවයින පත්තරේට ලියල තිබුන ලිපියක තිබුනා ”’ලංකාව ගැන විෂ්ණු දෙවියෝ බලාගන්න බව විශ්වාසය ”’ කියල ඉතින් මොකාටද අපි මෙව්වා කියන්නේ සංඝයාත් එහෙමනම් නිකම් සංඝද .. නායකයෙක්නේ ..
මරක්කලයොත් මේකම කරය් සිරීපාදේ උඩදී අන්‍ය ලබ්ධිකයින්ගේ හිස් ගසා දමල එතනදීම උඩ ගිහින් දිව්‍යලෝකේ ට සම්ප්‍රාප්ත වෙලා දිව්‍යාංගනාවන් 72ක් ලබාගෙන ”’සැප වෙනසක් ”’ ලබාගන්න වැඩකරනකොට බෞද්ධයන්ට වෙන්නේ එක්කෝ ගෙල කපා ගන්න නැත්නම් ”අග්ගිස්ස ” කපාගෙන ඔරුවේ පෙරලුන පැත්ත හොඳය කියන්න . මේ වෙන කොට වික්‍රමබාහු හිටියොත් කියය් අපේ රටේ නම ”සිංහලේ ”’ නොවෙය ”’මරක්කලේ ” කියල
අශ්රොෆ් දීඝවාපිය බුල්ඩෝසර් කළා විරුද්ධ වුන සෝම හාමුදුරුවෝ මරල දැම්ම .විල්පත්තුව සහ තවත් වනෝද්‍යාන වල මුස්ලිම් ජනපද ඉදිවෙනවා ,කෞතුකාගාර හදල පරාක්‍රමබාහු රජ්ජුරුවන්ගේ අමතිමන්ඩලයේ හිටිය මුස්ලිම් ඇමතියෙක් කියල රුපහදල ලෝකෙට පෙන්නනවා . කුරගල පුද බිම දැන් මුස්ලිම් කාරයෝ අල්ලාගෙන විෂ්ණු රට බේරලා දෙන කන් සංඝයාද බලාගෙන ඉන්නවා . මල්වත්තේ නායක රනිල්ට රහස් ලිපියවනවා .කරනදෙයක් පරිස්සමෙන් කරන්න කියල යාළුකම නිසා .දළදා මාලිගාවේ ඉන්න ඉබ්බෝ ප්‍රමාණය වැඩිවෙන්නේ මොකද කියල මම හිතුව මොකෝ දන්නවද සාශනේ පාවාදෙන සංඝයා මැරිලා ඉපදෙන්නේ ඉබ්බෝවෙලා. .ලෙබ්බේ හාමුදුරු කෙනෙක් ප්‍රාදේශීය සභාවකත් ඉන්නවනේද . මිනිස්සු දවසක් එකට නම් පන්න පන්න ගැහුවා එක හොඳ පුර්වාදර්ශයක්. අපට රටට අද අවශ්‍ය හාමුදුරුවරු මිස හාමුදුරුහොරු නොවෙය් . බෞධ්ධයිනි වෙනස හඳුනාගනිව් . මේ වාගේ දේවල් යහපාලනයට පෙර අහන්න ලැබුනේ කළා තුරකින් නේද .සිංහල බෞධ්ධයිනි හොඳට හිතා බලන්න මහින්ද නැවත ආවොත් මේවා බේරුම් කර දෙය් ද.බලකරලා කරව ගත්තේ නැත්නම් වැඩේ හරියන්නේ නැහැ මහින්දත් තවම හිතන්නේ සුළු වාර්ගිකයන්ගේ චන්ද නැතුව දිනන්න බහ කියල ඉතින් සිංහල බෞද්ධයෝ එක හැඳින් එකාවගේ නැගීසිට මහින්දට බල කරන්න ඕනේ සිංහල බෞධ්ධයගේ අයිතිවාසිකම් ආරක්ෂා කරදෙන්න කියල . එයත් බටහිර වර්ගයේ දේශ පාලකයෙක්නේ. ”””””’ බුද්ධ සාෂණයේ චිරස්ථිතිය සඳහා පමණක් සටන් කරන ”’ දුටු ගැමුණු කෙනෙක් නොවෙය්නේ . අපිම තමය එයාටත් හය්යක්වෙලා මේවා කරව ගන්න ඕනේ .
මේ ලිපියට විස්තර සොයාදුන් සුමේධ ඇල්පිටිය මිතුරාට පින් .

Editorial Courtesy The Island

October 25, 2016, 8:06 pm

An internal investigation conducted by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) into Treasury bond scams has shed light on unusually huge profits made by one of the primary dealers, Perpetual Treasuries, belonging to the son-in-law of former CBSL Governor Arjuna Mahendran. A damning report put out by the Auditor General’s Department on the issue has held Mahendran accountable for the irregular bond transactions. Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) Chairman’s report has also established this fact. But, some self-important UNP MPs are all out to take Mahendran off the hook at the behest of their political bosses. Those who projected themselves as paragons of virtue before the last general election and duped the public into voting for them have laid bare their true faces!

The UNP group of the COPE, after the exit of the committee chairman, Sunil Handunnetti, in a huff on Monday, announced that Perpetual Treasuries would be probed and asked to explain how it had made huge profits as a primary dealer. The question is whether it is in keeping with best parliamentary practices or the Standing Orders for a group of MPs, representing one political party, to make such ex cathedra statements after smoking out the COPE chairman. One may recall that the UNP refused—and rightly so—to accept controversial decisions the UPFA members of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC), which ‘tried’ the then Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, made without any Opposition MPs present. It is now doing what it used to condemn while it was in the Opposition!

Regrettably, a section of the media shamelessly sided with the government propagandists and made a futile bid to mislead the public into believing that the COPE Chairman’s damning report did not exist. It prepared the stage for Monday’s COPE drama.

One is being naïve if one thinks a cornered UNP has undertaken to conduct an investigation with a view to punishing the culprits. If Perpetual Treasuries is to be probed it is sure to deny having received any inside information from Mahendran as regards the bond auctions at issue so that the UNP can claim there has been no wrongdoing on the part of the former Central Bank Governor. According to a popular saying in this country it is futile to solicit the assistance of a crystal gazer to catch a thief who happens to be her son. It is equally pointless to try to nab a culprit by investigating his son-in-law! If the decision of the ‘hijacked’ COPE is implemented an escape route will be opened for those responsible for the bond scams.

President Maithripala Sirisena is left with two alternatives. He must either have the bond scams which, according to experts, have cost the public purse more than ten billion rupees, probed by a special presidential commission with the media given access to its proceedings or publicly renounce his much-advertised commitment to good governance. People reposed their trust in him and elected him President last year. He is responsible for the formation of the present government. He must live up to people’s expectations. Whoever would have thought that wealthy men in three-piece suits would rob the bank of the banks with impunity on his watch?

Meanwhile, parliamentarians have no right to ride rough shod over public officials or anyone else, for that matter, summoned before parliamentary committees. Let Speaker Karu Jayasuriya be urged to probe the allegations that the Auditor General and Central Bank officials were verbally abused by some COPE members.

Time was when the COPE commanded the respect of the public though parliamentary standards were falling. The watchdog committee conducted thorough probes; it, to its credit, exposed numerous irregularities and malpractices in the public sector institutions and, above all, illegal transactions such as the sale of the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation and the Lanka Marine Service bunkering facility by the UNP-led UNF government (2001-2004).

Sadly, the misconduct of some MPs has caused a severe erosion of public faith in the COPE, which is being manipulated to cover up mega scams and defend rogues! If this is the brand of good governance the present administration promised, the country will certainly be a much better place without it!

By Noor Nizam, Peace and Political Activist, Political Communication Researcher, SLFP Stalwart and Convener – The Muslim Voice”, October 25^th., 2016.

 SEDEC Auditorium, Caritas Sri Lanka-SEDEC is the social arm of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Sri Lanka and is affiliated to Caritas Internationalis, a confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development, and social service organizations present in 200 countries and territories. It is located at 133, Kynsey Road,

P.O. box: 1681, Colombo 08.

The connections between the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka and SEDEC should be watched with suspicion by the Muslim Community.

Is this is another “EYE WASH” to indirectly sub-due the Muslim political “Aspirations and Inspirations” that the Muslims hope (Insha Allah) to bring forth to call for a MINORITY RECOGNIZED and MUSLIMS RIGHT CONSTITUTION and the PROHIBITION of the amalgamation of the North and Eastern Provinces. There was such a discussion organized in the beginning of this year at the Kadirigamar Institute at 27 Horton Place, Colombo 7 by the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, where the moderation was done by President Council and former Attorney General Shibly Aziz where the same so-called Constitutional Lawyer Jayampathy Wickremaratne was the main speaker, but he “BLUFFED” the Muslim audience when serious and important questions was put forward for clarification even by the late Attorney-at-Law Adil Bakeer Makkar. During the regime of the Chandirka Bandaranaike government, this guy was involved with Prof. G.L. Peiris and MP Mangala Samaraweera in the “Sudu Nelum” movement to bring about “Devolution of Power” but nothing happened. At a meeting called by at the Organization Professional Association at 275/75, Prof. Stanley Wijesundera Mawatha, Off Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 07, Sri Lanka, to discuss the Rights to Information Bill in the beginning of this year, this unscrupulous professional political chameleon who was one of the main speakers, did not turn up and deprived the media of getting answers to some serious questions that were raised. During the Devolution of Power” campaign of Chandrika Bandranaike regime, Dr. Wickramaratne served as Consultant in the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs from 1996 to 2001. He was Senior Advisor in the Ministry of Constitutional Affairs in 2004 and from December 2005 to February 2008. During this time he had access to Rs. 100 million given by the Norwegian Government through the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Colombo and was given a free hand in the disbursement of the funds and HE. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga did not question the disbursemenmts. Some of the negative actions that came to light later on, were, the use of funds to pay for luxury bunglows for certain University Professors who were brought into the propoganda machinery and the high priced vechiles they were using even for their private use during their assignments with this programme. The other issue was that the MUSLIM FACTOR” in the Peace process, then was completely derailed by this character who was a political opportunist and played into the hands of the Tamil Diaspora and the Norwegians. What happened to the balance of the Rs. 100 million is still to be accounted.

How can this guy reason out the Muslim Factor’ in a new constitution rather than hoodwinking the Muslims once again?

Recalling some memories of the political plight of the Muslims, especially the Muslims of the Eastern Province during the Chandrika era Devolution of Power Campaign”, none of the Tamil Academics and Intellectuals supported this programme and even Tamil speaking Parliamentarians of the then PA government evaded to support the “Devolution of Power” project of the PA (HE. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga)

It was only a group of Muslim Intellectuals grouped under a Civil Society Movement called the “National Muslim Movement” which carried out a very vigorous publicity campaign in support of the “Devolution of Power” Package in the Press, TV and also arranged Seminars in Sinhalese areas where Muslims and Tamil speaking communities were domiciled. Dr. H.M. Maharoof, a Sirimavo Bandaranaike loyalist and one of the former VP of the SLFP along with an SLFP Stalwart from Trincomalee were at the helm of the “National Muslim Movement”, two (02) SLFP Muslims who have NOT left the party for selfish or personal political gains or other benefits up to now, Insha Allah. It should be said with great honour, that not a single cent of the Norwegian Funding or from the Ministry of Constitutional, Ethnic Affairs and Integration, Sudu Nelum or the Presidential Secretariat, was seeked for or received by the National Muslim Movement.

Failure by the Chandrika government’s indifferent treatment given to the complains made by the Muslims of the Eastern Province definitely led to the very dangerous political situations in Mutur in the Trincomalee district and in Akkaraipattu and Vallaichena, which had been curtailed with just a few deaths taking place, but millions in property damage to the Muslims and the Tamils happened. The Hon. Mr. Azwer, Minister of Parliamentry Affairs was correct in saying at the 85th., anniversary celebrations of the YMMA held at Hamza Muslim Vidiyalaya, Mutuwal on Oct. 26th.-2002, that “the Muslim Community has an important role in establishing Peace in Sri Lanka for everyones PEACE It was supporting Hon. Athaullah, Deputy Minister and rebel leader of the boycotting Muslim parliamentarians, who has made a very strong claim – expressing “The Muslim MP’s were agitating for recognition of the Rights of Muslims in the East”. But the Muslims were thrown into the Political dustbin then by Chandrika, Ranil and the Norwegians, YET the Muslims being a political power to themselves then too, and depriving the MUSLIM FACTOR” in the Peace Process. What is the GUARANTEE” that listening to this unscrulpous opportunistic political academic who has been a political chameleon in the team of Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge, Ranil Wickremasinghe and the Norwegians will be reasonalble and who have joined again in the Yahapalana Constitutional group” of the Yahapalana government” (President Maithripala Sirisena, Ranil Wickremesinghe, Chandrika Bandaranaike) NOT betray the Muslims who voted en-block the Hansaya” in the 2015 Presidential elections and the General Elections?

THIS IS WHY “THE MUSLIM VOICE” IS PRAYING IT IS TIME UP THAT A NEW POLITICAL FORCE THAT WILL BE HONEST AND SINCERE THAT WILL PRODUCE ‘CLEAN’ AND DILIGENT MUSLIM POLITICIANS TO STAND UP AND DEFEND THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY POLITICALLY AND OTHERWISE, ESPECIALLY FROM AMONG THE YOUTH/YOUNGER GENERATION HAS TO EMERGE FROM WITHIN THE SRI LANKA MUSLIM COMMUNITY TO FACE ANY NEW ELECTIONS IN THE COMING FUTURE, INSHA ALLAH. Let Muslims that are WISE and REALLY CARE ABOUT THE MUSLIM UMMAH AND THEIR FUTURE GENERATIONS will NOT recognize all these Muslim parties AND POLITICIANS that cause more and more harm than good. Muslims who REALLY CARE ABOUT THE MUSLIM UMMAH AND THEIR FUTURE GENERATIONS should come forward INDEPENDENTLY, form INDEPENDENT GROUPS as the “NEW POLITICAL FORCE” and contest all elections in the future, Insha Allah. ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS SHOULD ALSO BE DELIBERATED. IT IS TIME UP THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY GET PREPARED FOR THESE CHALLENGES, INSHA ALLAH.

Shenali D Waduge

 Facts speak louder than words. There is little doubt that the UN created by victors of World War 2 is Eurocentric with aim to safeguard interests of Western imperialists. UN resolutions are enforced as per imperialist agenda. Selective application and double standards of human rights make a mockery of the entire UN system. World Bank and IMF are used to draw countries into debt and freedom and democracy are marketed only to allow puppets to come to power. The last people to preach on human rights are the nations responsible for heinous acts throughout colonial rule and plunder. Buddhism was a target of annihilation by these very nations that today preach accountability, secularism and equalities when none of their sins and war crimes have never even been investigated. The objective since colonial Europeans arrived was to annihilate Buddhism and the Buddhist heritage of Sri Lanka. UN is carrying out that insidious gameplan today on behalf of these countries.

Christian colonial plunderers used Bible and Sword to bring people to their knees. Today the tools being used are the UN, associated entities & puppet lackey officials happy to forsake their nation, race and religion to mingle with the white West,

UN is pro-Christian https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2016/03/08/is-un-pro-christian-and-continuing-to-carry-out-the-white-mans-burden/comment-page-1/

When countries of the West except Russia and Austria have not even accepted Buddhism as an official religion and when Muslim majority nations will not even allow a Buddhist statue to be carried inside their country, how can their officials preach equal religious rights and demean Buddhists and Buddhism?

Let us also remind everyone that when Japan proposed the inclusion of Racial Equality to the Charter of the League of Nations it was the West that vehemently refused!

https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2016/07/27/racism-caused-collapse-of-league-of-nations-same-will-happen-to-un/

In June 2005 the Joint Committee of Buddhist Organizations, Sri Lanka accused United Nations Special Rapporteur Asma Jehangir of falsifying and distorting facts in a press release on the issue of unethical conversions.

http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=43,1286,0,0,1,0

UN regularly issues statements and reports denigrating Buddhists making vile accusations even before closure of investigations but refrains from inserting to their reports the attacks upon Buddhist shrines, Buddhist archaeological monuments including the attack on the Sacred Bo Tree and the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy. All this despite the UN declaring destruction of cultural property as a war crime. The attacks on Buddhist priests does not even get mentioned. The recent Jaffna protests and the vandalizing of Buddhist statues also have not received any UN response whatsoever.

The latest hit comes from the UN rapporteur on minority issues airing issues regarding minorities constructing new places of worship. She has not travelled around to see that majority of religious structures being erected even in residential areas are Islamic madrasas, Evangelical churches and even garages being turned into Hindu kovils.

These flying officials single out Article 9 of Sri Lanka’s constitution because that is the focal point aimed to change – the key to kicking off the slow death to the Buddhist heritage and ethos of Sri Lanka. Efforts are now taking place to build up arguments to justify the change.

Vatican City was a created state, will Vatican allow other religions equal status? Muslim majority nations will never even afford any status to any other religion but Islam and Christian West having dabbled with Islam migrants for economic gain are now turning their racism on the very people they invited into their country.

Christians and Islam who have a murderous history both past and present have no moral standing to be preaching. UN or any foreign envoy cannot take one single example of Bodu Bala Sena which emerged only after 2012 to dilute and deny the place of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. BBS has not thrown a single stone or killed any person except to publicly make statements that not many people want to hear but no one can produce evidence to prove these statements as wrong. The best option that they resort to is to ridicule the messenger so that the message gets pushed to the background.

UN does not hesitate to release statements against Buddhists in Myanmar but never releases statements on armed Muslims associated with Western imperial jihadists attacking the indigenous people of Myanmar. UN response is closely linked to West’s pivot to Asia and designs by West to capture territory bordering China with ulterior motives and the armed Rohingyas projected as the discriminated minority is excellent reason to interfere and intervene in Myanmar. The UN and West as a policy are using the minority discrimination tagline as a convenient battering ram. The UN has helped Western imperialists dilute country laws and suffocate administrative and law & order systems making it easier for the West to devour targeted nations.

The Research report by Prof. Jeremy Carrette of the University of Kent’s Dept of Religious Studies confirms that within the UN there is no religious equality for equal UN goals to exist.

• UN is a pro-Christian world body.
• Over 70% of NGOs in the UN were Christian representing Christian interests & ideology (According to the Union of International Associations, there are approx. 33,500 international NGOs in the world) Many of them have consultative status at the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in the United Nations
• Vatican is the ONLY Religion to be given a special observer status as both state & religion – how equal of religions is that? It gives a special ‘moral leadership’ to one religion only. But this very religion has been responsible for inquisitions.
• The report even called for greater transparency & equality in the way the UN & religious NGOs operate.
• The report also highlighted the incongruences’ as funding would be inequal
• The report highlighted how while more than 70% of NGOs were pro-Christian, the Islamic States were represented through Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
• Dharmic faiths are under-represented and lack funding major drawback for equal access and level playing field globally as religions form an important part in international global politics and the religious NGO groups (Catholics, Quakers, Bahai) have the highest number of meetings with UN diplomats thus influencing their decisions. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/01/united-nations-too-christian-report

Study on International Religious Organizations in the UN by Marie Juul Peterson of University of Copenhagen, Denmark highlights https://sites.tufts.edu/jha/archives/847

• Religion’s emerging importance – Evangelical right has become a political force in US, Catholic Church role in democratic transitions in Eastern Europe, growth of Pentecostal movement in Latin America & militant Islam since 2001.
• Increase in religious organizations/faith-based organizations involved in development & humanitarian aid.
• World Vision a religious NGO gets US Govt 1.6billion funding
• World Bank says 50% of health & education services in Sub-Saharan Africa is by Faith-Based Organizations funded by Western Governments to instil Western Christian culture.
• Role of religious organizations in development & humanitarian aid is being drawn by Christian bodies thus tilting processes in their favor – Religion & Global Development headed by Katherine Marshall, World Faiths Development Dialogue established by former World Bank President James Wolfensohn, Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey of Clifton is also involved. Thus Christian religions are generating the rules of justice, social change, development etc as per their ideological thinking. There is nothing secular or equal
• Of the 3,183 NGOs with consultative status at ECOSOC, 320 are religious. World Visions’ vision is an international partnership of Christians whose mission is to follow our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in working with the poor and oppressed to promote human transformation, seek justice and bear witness to the good news of the Kingdom of God’. Similarly, Muslim NGOs refer to Quran and Prophet Mohammad.
• Most international NGOs have their origin and headquarters in Western Europe or North America

Mainstream media owned by corporates linked to Western governments are quick to give passing reference to crimes by Christians but takes pain to ridicule the Buddhists who react. Content analysis of the English media will prove this beyond doubt. Buddhists, victims of HATE SPEECH and Media manipulation http://archives.dailynews.lk/2013/06/20/fea01.asp

Very little global media attention went to the attacks on Mosques and Muslims in the UK following the killing of a British soldier. The UK government that preachers human rights in the halls of the UN makes no apology to how more than of all Britain’s mosques have been attacked since 9/11 and Muslims in UK suffer racism and hate speech. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/half-of-britain-s-mosques-have-been-attacked-since-911-8679304.html

Set against this in Sri Lanka when Buddhists react to actions by minorities without highlighting the wrong actions, the reaction and reactors are projected as being the wrong party and ridiculed through the media to such an extent that the politicians themselves end up having little choice but to take action against the reactors based on the hype portrayed by the media. https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2014/07/10/sinhala-muslim-riots-sri-lankan-local-media-blackout-on-version-of-ayagama-samitha-thero/

Take the example of Myanmar – Rohingyas and their origins are never allowed to be debated but the entire global emphasis is on violations against them without so much as giving any media attention to the fact that these groups are being armed and trained by Islamic fundamentalists connected to the West and Muslim satellite states to use ‘ethnic tensions’ as a means for the UN to cry foul and land as interventionists and conflict solvers. Very systematic attempt is taking place to use Rohingyas to infiltrate Islamic groups to set up mosques around Buddhist sites with long term motive to stir future tensions all with complicity and nod of approval by West and UN. Every statement from UN is only on the ‘killings’ by Buddhists upon Muslims and nothing is released about the mayhem by Muslims upon Buddhists. The name calling of Buddhists has reached shameful and exaggerated heights. https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2014/07/10/sinhala-muslim-riots-sri-lankan-local-media-blackout-on-version-of-ayagama-samitha-thero/ ‘TIME’ Magazine was wrong – Burmese nationalist monk Wirathu stands vindicated http://archives.dailynews.lk/2013/07/06/fea02.asp

Similarly when Buddhist temples were attacked in Bangladesh the UN system was silent. 25,000 Muslims went on a rampage to destroy ancient Buddhist sites/temples. https://www.rt.com/news/buddhist-temples-torched-bangladesh-342/

UN action against attacks on Buddhists in South Korea was no different despite Ban Ki Moon’s mother being a Buddhist though he converted to Christianity as that was the only means to progress in education and career http://www.sriexpress.com/articles/item/790-unhrc-turns-blind-eye-to-attacks-on-buddhist-temples-in-south-korea.html

The media enjoys giving selected Abrahamic writers a field day to ridicule Buddhists through regular feature columns and will hardly permit right of replies. Most often Poya Day is used by the English newspapers in Sri Lanka to have writers scoff at Buddhism instead of writing the merits of Buddhist compassion. The English newspapers of Sri Lanka often indulge in this ugly practice. It is suggested that Buddhists stop buying these English dailies on account of the bias as enough of updates on local and international affairs are available freely on the internet. Why pay to read biased and double standard newspapers?

Sri Lanka’s Media racist towards Buddhists https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2014/05/10/sri-lankas-media-racist-towards-buddhists/

Neither the UN nor the so-called international community can claim to be impartial, unbiased and treating all nations, their people and all religions equally. The UN is pro-Christian and protecting the interests of imperial Western agenda. Part of that agenda is to totally destroy the dharmic faiths. Buddhism is not only a religion but a scientifically proven philosophy – media campaigns cannot tarnish the essence of the ideology though plenty of efforts will be taken to buy over Buddhists, even Buddhist clergy (the Dalai Lama for example does not represent Buddhists as he is promoting Western interests and multiculturalism – he has never said any word on the violence against Buddhists or stood up for Buddhists under attack)

Therefore, it is of paramount importance that the Buddhist Associations/Organizations realize the dangers and the plans in progress and use international forums to meet these challenges and align with fellow Buddhist nations to build a bloc to protect each other.

Shenali D Waduge

– අනුරුද්ද බණ්ඩාර

මහ බැංකු බැදුම්කර වංචාවට අදාළ කෝප් කමිටු වාර්තාව මෙම සතිය තුළ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට අගමැතිවරයා ඇතුළු ආණ්ඩු පක්‍ෂයේ මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් ඉඩ නොදුනහොත් එම වාර්තාව පමණක් නොව ඊට අදාළ කෝප් කමිටුව සතු සියලු ලියකියවිලි රට හමුවේ තබන බව ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණේ නියෝජ්‍ය නායක, කෝප් කමිටු සාමාජික වීරකුමාර දිසානායක මහතා අවධාරණය කළේය.

පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ පැවැති කෝප් කමිටුව විසින් නිරික්‍ෂණය කළ රාජ්‍ය ව්‍යවසායන් 19කට අදාළ විගණන වාර්තා පිළිබඳ විවාදයට එක්වෙමින් ඒ මහතා මෙසේ සදහන් කළේය.

අදාල වීඩියෝව මෙතනින්

ලංකා සී නිවුස්

මහ බැංකු බැදුම්කර සිදුවීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී ඊයේ දිනයේ ඇති වූ උණුසුම් තත්වයේදී ඇමති සුසිල් පේ‍්‍රමජයන්ත් මහතා ඉතා තියුණු ලෙස අදහස් දැක්වීමක් සිදු කලේ මෙසේය.

ලංකා සී නිවුස්

බැදුම්කර මගඩිය සම්බන්ධයෙන් කෝප් කමිටු වාර්තාව කලින් දන්වා තිබූ පරිදි ඊයේ දිනයේ ඉදිරිපත් නොකිරීම ගැන පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී උණුසුම් වාද විවාද ඇති විය.

එක් අවස්ථාවක අගමැති රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහ මහතා කතා කරද්දී ‘හොරා හොරා’ යයි ඒකාබද්ද විපක්‍ෂයෙන් මහත් හඬක් නැගින. ඊට පිලිතුරු ලෙස අගමැතිවරයා ‘මට හොරා කිවුවට හොරු ඉන්නේ ඒ පැත්තෙනෙ’ යයි කියා සිටියේය.

Sithum Rajakaruna

Perceptions shape our reality. And in turn these Perceptions get conditioned by the said reality giving rise to another perpetual cycle of cause and effect. However, we could only perceive the world through personalized filters based on our inherent tastes i.e. Likes & dislikes. This inadvertent procedure naturally disassociates us from the bigger picture, due to the loss of information that had already been filtered out. Furthermore even our deeply ingrained tastes are conditioned, a perennial fact that is being exploited by the advertising industry. Well okay then, what am I rambling on about? Well, could it be that the Batwoman is merely marketed as the savior whilst the Joker as the villain i.e. the destroyer of peace?

As we all know, a super hero safe guards the peace of the system. However If one were to dismantle the semantics and dig deeper, one would soon realize that its merely the fluctuating state of its existence that is being marketed or in other words labeled as peace, and also its merely the despotic and corrupted control of the elite that is being marketed as the system. If we get lost in the aura of words, wed never find the underlying reality that which it encompasses. So, what does this superhero safeguard? A state of -make believe peace- enforced by the corrupted authority of the elite. Therefore it’s only natural that the system wants us to perceive their savior as the superhero. They achieve it through the monopolistic liberal mainstream media, which handles the brainwashing aspect of the operation perfectly. And they are well aware of the fact that feelings of repulsion, anger, contempt and embitterment are more vibrant than their counterparts. Hence, they’d rather vilify the Joker than glorify the Batwoman. Because it’s harder to doubt disgrace than glory.

But, there have always been a few stubborn sheep, who does not find the staff and the rod comforting, and also, in their rebellious heart and mind they are haunted by a certain instinctual awareness which assures them that the shepherd is only leading them on to green pastures not because he cares about their well-being or with a special father-like love, he only wants them well fed because only then will the lamb chops be juicier and milk more abundant.
In comes Julian Assange, the most stubborn sheep there is. Thousands and thousands of leaked e-mails threw a rod at the corrupted beehive. Democrats paying millions of dollars to land jobs as foreign ambassadors under Hillary and Obamas pay to pay initiative, rigged presidential debates where Hillary was provided with debate questions before hand, the attempt at bribing FBI officials with the aim of unclassifying Clinton e-mails, The shameless covering up of the Benghazi scandal and other unspeakable acts resulting from these leaks like the cold blooded murder of Seth Rich, the prime whistle blower of the whole DNC leak who exposed this bitter corruption of Hillary and the gang.

The rebellious sheep hurt the shepherding system so bad, that on one of the leaked e-mails Hillary had asked one official, and I quote “Can’t we just drone this guy?” referring to Julian Assange.
Even the mainstream media spearheaded by the CNN realized that no amount of perfume could repel the stench of the Clinton pile of feces so they came up with a mischievous plan of making the other erratic, emotion driven, loud mouthed, narcissistic, undiplomatically refreshing, unpredictable and not so smart (also not as naive as portrayed by the mainstream media) captilastic piece of shit more repulsive to the public. And in this process of defamation something miraculous happened, the Joker became more and more popular. Taking the political arena by storm, breaking off with the traditional conservative stand point, much to the dismay of democrats as well as ‘system guarding’ staunch republicans. Now, for those who are only watching CNN, reading Google news and occasionally glancing at snapchat suggested news stories, Hillary is leading the polls, Trump is a complete idiot and Hillary is going to win by a landslide.

See, the truth is seldom seen in plain sight. The real lions are not found in the zoo, because they are being fed. The real artists never go platinum because their works are too difficult to be comprehended by the masses. And all of this is so because the truth can only exist in isolation, somewhere far from the reign of lies. And the Truth shall set you free, simply because it cannot be otherwise. You’d have to dig deeper, or in other words, distance yourself from the clutter and clamor of pop culture and turn your head in refusal of the green grass that the shepherd is trying so hard to feed us. The truth will only arise spontaneously from within as a result of freeing yourself from all the nonsense that you are being force-fed.
The notorious group of hacktivists, Anonymous, well known for their anti-establishment stance, did exactly that and dug deeper taking matters into their own hands by conducting a nationwide poll amongst 50,000 American citizens consisting of 33% Liberals 33% conservatives and 34% independent voters. And the results? Mind blowing. 67%-30% in favor of Trump.
All polls conducted by the NBC, ABC, CNN and other media on the ruling party’s pay roll, have Hillary winning. And that’s what we hear in Sri Lanka as well. But the facts are undeniable. Americans are just tired of this prevailing corrupt system. They are fed up with all these cold blooded, enigmatic and hypocritical politicians who had them tangled up in a partisan tug of war whilst carrying on with their merry ways of sucking money off their citizens for the sake of so called national security. They are done with the continuously failing system, which left them with 47 million of their fellow citizens eating off food stamps. They are tired of all the promises of the elite, when the US economy is presently struggling and sinking in a national debt of $20 trillion dollars. They are heartbroken, due to the fact that more blacks have been brutally murdered by the police under Obama than under any other president in the history of American politics.

The expected change never came…Yes we can! Yes we can! Yes we can … can what? Tolerate this cancerous system which is not only hazardous to its own country, but to the entire world? This time around, Americans can be heard saying no. No we can’t tolerate more of the same. Its game over for you. Whoever is fighting against you, that’s our man. He’s an idiot? Well you all have proven your idiocy, over and over again. He’s not diplomatic enough? Ok, see where your diplomacy has lead us. He doesn’t know what he’s saying? Well we elected Bush for two consecutive terms, now nobody would describe him as eloquent, correct? Why not give Trump a chance then? Besides, he’s funding his own campaign and there’s hardly any possibility of him serving his term for the benefit of some greedy foreign fundraiser. And at the end of the day, what do we have to lose?

So there you have it. Unless there’s a recurrence of the Bush-Al gore incident, and if the presidential elections were to be carried out in a fair manner, the joker will most probably win, marking the dawn of a new era of undiplomatic and politically incorrect politics.
But for the rest of the world, the United States of America will continue to be the HIV of our dear mother earth.

On Sat, Aug 6, 2016 at 12:19 AM, Sithum Rajakaruna <sithum666@gmail.com> wrote:

A devil dance for those who are proudly wearing the colonoscopic cologne of colonialists.

*Warning : highly hazardous to the whiskey soaked heart of kalu suddas*

Its high time to care about whats ours, before the rest of the world defecate on us.

And, No, I’m not going to discuss about the old issue regarding the National anthem or deliberate depletion of the strength of our national security. Because I’ve expected the stench as soon as I heard the fart on the 8th of January 2015.

I’m not surprised at all, I’m surprised that you are.

Is patriotism the religion of the common retrograde?

First lets take a step back.

Ask yourself.,

Would you allow someone to pop in your house out of nowhere and start dictating terms? Change your surname, force you to worship his god, and sleep with your wife?

That’s exactly what ‘they’ did. and its sad to learn that there are still some පොන්නයෝ ‘s who don’t see any fault in this.

Actually In a perfect world, Patriotism is nothing but an illusion. Because we are all earthlings who share the same air, water & food.

Besides-the most prominent characteristic of pop patriotism- is that it had always seem to have been a Soul satisfying label for the spiritually feeble and morally empty folks, usually stereotyped as the red necks in the west or baiyyas in Sri lanka. These are individuals who are incapable of forming their own opinion, and thus, falling in line with rest of the sheep, continue to obey the shepherd with no idea of the real meaning or value of patriotism or self-identity. For them, patriotism and politics provide great outlets to stand out by regurgitating what they’ve heard or read somewhere else.

But, unfortunately, this is not a perfect world.

And whatever said and done, we are, and we will forever be separated based on our evolving ideologies.

Lets view patriotism in a different light, in the current context.

Even though owning a gun can be viewed as being morally backward, If everyone was owning a gun, and the legal system had gone haywire (Like in the wild west, 19th century America) would you not consider purchasing a weapon? if not for your own good, but merely for the safety of your beloved ones? You’d have to be a coward and a fool not to. Because we have to realize that, once the pond get polluted so does the fish.

Now the pond is really polluted friends. And Sri lankan tunas (කෙලවල්ලා, කොහොමටත් දැන් සෑහෙන දුරට කෙලවෙලා ඉවරයි ) sadly, have a lot to lose compared to American sharks and British eels.

Think about it, we are the only country, with a written record of history spanning for over 2,500 years. And also, we have to keep in mind that, if it weren’t for Sinhala-Buddhist kings, who built reservoirs (4th century before christ) when the English were sleeping in tree houses, defended this country from foreign forces with sincere sacrifices, we would’ve long lost our values so unique and so dear to us, the fundamental essence of who we are and the building blocks of our identity.

So what? you may ask.

The imperialists conquered us, because they ran out of spices to make the ginger bread man(True story), raped us for 130 years. Converted Innocent sinhala buddhists to white mans religion, providing them with incentives such as missionary school education, estates, acceptance to higher social circles etc. They destroyed our ancient temples and replaced them with churches. (not their fault, they were merely following the old testament , allow me to quote the holy bible- Exodus 34:13 ”…But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherim”)

And still, we’ve managed to safeguard our identity. Because, our heroes of the yesteryears had pure patriotism, which was not a replacement for wisdom, virtues or personal integrity, but rather, a result of these positive qualities acting in harmony.Because, they, had a spine, a backbone, which flexed before none. Because, they were true sinhala buddhists, who showed their middle finger to colonialists and their holy book.

All the other identities have homes, our poor Sinhala identity is like an orphan ignored by everyone.

Right now, Its not about being patriotic or not, its about figuring out whether you are a vertebrate(පෘෂ්ඨවංශී සත්ත්ව) or an invertebrate(අපෘෂ්ඨවංශී සත්ත්ව)

The rest of the world, are proud of their identity, they are willing to fight for it. Also They are even willing to die for it.

And in a world where everybody  else is plotting to spread their empire, if  we cant at least have an ounce of pride in our identity, we will be slaves chained by the neck in ‘Western progressive thinking’ or a lost civilization of buddhists that used to exist in indonesia, malaysia, bangladesh, india , afghanistan, iraq, iran etc.

Whats the number one priority of a Japanese man? Dignity

Whats the number one priority of a Muslim national? Religion

Whats the number one priority of a Modern day Sinhalaya?  Money

Wake up

Ancient Sinhala Buddhist

Sithum Rajakaruna

Sugath Samarasighe 

Prof. Ratnajeevan Hoole. in his illuminating essay()pinion Page- 14th Oct.) on the trivilasing and emasculation of the Independent Elections Commission by the government, says inter-alia as follows: The President said, military commanders who led a successful campaign to crush separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in May 2009 should not be humiliated by bringing them to courts In other words, total impunity and hero-status to those who butchered Tamil civilians in the tens of thousands”

Such a statement coming from a renowned academic Prof. Rajan Hoole, holding responsible  position among others, as a Member of the Independent Elections Commission is really serious and needs some clarification. We the public were made to understand that the government forces were busy fighting a Terrorist group who called themselves Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) who were finally defeated militarily at Nandikadal in May 2009, after a continuous battle for over 30 years. So, according to the good professor, were they all Tamil civilians carrying arms against the government, destroying and robbing, killing etc.? Again, if this is the case who killed over 20,000 soldiers and so many more injured in the final battle? Were it the ‘tens of thousands of Tamil civilians’ who killed them or did the soldiers die and others injured themselves, I mean, were they self-inflicted, likee suicide bombers?

Even if the Tamil civilians were not the people who were fighting the government forces, what were they doing on the battle fronts of Mullivaikkal and Nandikadal etc.? Who brought them there? The soldiers? Whose children were those who were fighting the security forces? How could they be both civilians and arms carrying civilians at the same time?

Once the final round was concluded at Nandikadal on 19^th May, we were made to understand that over 285,000 Tamil civilians crossed over to the side of the Forces, who were safely taken to welfare camps, fed, medical attention and clothing etc. provided and sent out to their home areas after those areas were demined. We were told that even while the Tamil civilians were being entertained by the Army at the receiving points, a Tamil civilian had blown herself up killing and injuring many Tamil civilians around and many soldiers? Is this also the work of Tamil civilians?

Incidentally and coincidentally, there had been some LTTE fighters among the Tamil civilians who had came over to the government side for safety, who later owned themselves up. They had been later rehabilitated and returned to their parents. Strange, none of these people were ‘butchered’ by the armed forces. They seem to be so inconsistent.

Later we learnt that a census was conducted in the former fighting areas through Tamil Government Servants to enumerate the number of family members who had died and disappeared during the fighting times from the relevant areas. We are told that there were only 7000 odd such people,who died out of natural causes or otherwise. So where are the Tamil civilians who were Butchered” by the soldiers? On the other hand, could that 7000 odd add up to those Tamil civilians” who died fighting the armed forces donning LTTE uniforms, carrying arms?

When finally the Armed Forces succeeded in crushing and eliminating who ever those people who were fighting the government, didn’t the ‘Butchering’ of the Tamil civilians come to an end for good?

But I wonder whether the one time Supreme Court Judge Mr. Wigneswaran is trying hard now to re-open the ‘Butcher’s Shop’ once again. What do you think?

Sugath Samarasighe