අද කොලඹ හයිඞ් පිටියේදී ඒකාබද්ද විපක්‍ෂයේ සංවිධානත්වයෙන් පැවැත්වෙන ‘ජන සටන’ විරෝධතා රැළියේ සජීව විකාශණය මෙතනින්

නලින් ද සිල්වා 

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග 

පහත ලිපිය උපුටා ගත්තේ දිවයින පුවත්පතෙනි. මෙම ලිපියේ අන්තර්ගතය මුසාවක් කියා මම නොසිතමි. මෙවැනි විපරීත ලංකාවේ වෛද්‍යවරයෙකු ලෙස සේවය කල වසර 16 තුල මම සහ සුද්දෙන් දුටුවෙමි. අපගේ සමහර බොස්ලාද මෙසේ අසරණ දුප්පතුන් නොතකා චැනල් චිට් රෝගීන්ට ප්‍රමුඛතාව දුන් අයුරු මම දුටුවෙමි. ඒ කාලයේ අපට මෙවැනි අසාධාරනකම් වලට එදිරිව කථා කිරීමට ගටක් නොවූ බව අවංකව කියමි. එසේ කථා කලේ නම් බොස්ලා අපගේ රෝහල් ජීවිතයේ සිට පශ්චාත් උපාධි අධ්‍යාපනය දක්වා දේවල්  කඩාකප්පල් කර දැමීමට ඉඩ තිබුණි. නමුත් මෙවැනි දේ සිදුවීම මනුශ්‍යත්වයටද නිගාවකි.

පුද්ගලික චැනල් සේවය ලංකාවට අවශ්‍යය​. නමුත් මෙවැනි ඉතා   අසරණ දුගී රෝගීන්  චැනල් සේවය හරහා නොපැමිනීම නිසා පොදු වදනින් කියනවා නම් චාටර් කිරීම අපායගාමී ක්‍රියාවකි. මේ දුගීන් චැනල් කිරීම සඳහා මුදල් සොයා ගන්නේ ගෙදර තිබෙන බිත්තර වී ටික විකිනීමෙනි. මෙය රජයේ වෛද්‍ය නිලධාරීන් ගේ සංගමය මෙන්ම වෛද්‍ය සභාව විසින් අවධානයට යොමු කල යුතු දෙයකි.

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග 

අනුරාධපුරයේදී ලෙඩක්‌ හැදෙනවාට වඩා හොඳයි හැදුණු ගමන් මැරිල යන එක  (එප්පාවල – රත්න බී. ඒකනායක දිවයින පුවත්පත)

අප්පුහාමි පදවියේ සිට පාන්දර තුනහමාරේ බස්‌ එකෙන් අනුරාධපුර ශික්‌ෂණ රෝහලට ආවේය

ඔහුට ලැබුණු අංකය රතු අංක 6 ය

ලොකු දොස්‌තර මහත්තයා පැමිණියේය. ඔහුගේ චැනල් රෝගීන් ටික බලා යන්නට ගියේය

දෙවැනි දොස්‌තර මහත්තයා පැමිණියේය ඔහුගේ චැනල් රෝගීන් ටික ඔහු බැලුවේය.

අප්පුහාමිට චැනල් කළ වෛද්‍යවරයෙක්‌ නොවූ නිසා,පාන්දර 5.30 සිට සවස 2.00 වනතුරු බංකුවේ එකම තැන වාඩිවී සිටින්නට වූවේය

අනුරාධපුරයේදී ලෙඩක්‌ හැදෙනවාට වඩා හොඳයි. ලෙඩේ හැදුන ගමන් එක පාරටම මැරෙන එක අනුරාධපුරයේ ලෙඩ්ඩු මහ කරුමක්‌කාරායෝ.”

අනුරාධපුර ශික්‌ෂණ රෝහල ආශ්‍රිත චිකිත්සාගාරයක උදය හයට බංකුවේ වාඩිවී සිටි අප්පුහාමි සවස දෙක වනතුරුම එතැන නොසෙල්වී සිට බැරිම තැන නැඟිටගෙන ඉහත කතාව කියාගෙන කියාගෙන ගියේය.

දිනය – 2016.02.29 වැනිදා

ස්‌ථානය – අනුරාධපුර ශික්‌ෂණ රෝහල ආශ්‍රිත චිකිත්සාගාරයක්‌

“මම ආවෙ පදවියේ ඉඳල පාන්දර තුනහමාරෙ බස්‌ එකේ. අනුරාධපුරයට එද්දි පහමාරයි. තේ එකකට වත්a මග නොරැඳී චිකිත්සාගාර පෝළිමට දුවගෙන දුවගෙන ගියා. අප්පුහාමි රතු නොම්මර දෙක බංකුවේ වාඩිවිය. ටික වෙලාවක්‌ යනවිට අතපය හොලවන්නටවත් බැරි තරමට කිටි කිටියේ හිරවන්නට විය.

අප්පුහාමි තේ එකක්‌වත් නැතිව පාන්දර දුවගෙන ගියේ මුලින් නොම්මරයක්‌ ගන්නටය.

පෙරවරු 08.30- ට පමණ එතැනට පැමිණි හෙදියක්‌ රතු අංක බෙදන්නට විය. අප්පුහාමිට අංක 06 ලැබිණි. “යාංතං ඇති. කලින් බෙහෙත් ටික අරං අදම ගෙදර යන්න පුළුවනි. අප්පුහාමිට සිතුණි. අප්පුහාමි හිsටි තැනම ඉඳගෙන සිටියේය.

උදය අට නමය විය. නමය දහය විය. දහය එකොළහ විය. රතු නොම්බර බලන්නේ ලොකු මහත්තයා. සීයා ඔහොම ඉන්න. වරින් වර හෙදිය කියන්නට විය.

ඒ අතර ලොකු මහත්තයෙක්‌ ආවේය. ලොකු මහත්තයාගේ කාමරයේ වැඩ කළ හෙදිය වරින් වර නම් කියවන්නට විය. එසේ කියවූ නම් ඇති අය ලබාගෙන තිබුණේ නොම්මර 10- 15- 20 – 25 – 30 ආදී වශයෙන් පසු අංකයන්ය. ඒ අය දවල් වී පැමිණි රෝගීන්ය. උදය පැමිණි අප්පුහාමිගේ නම කියවුණේ නැත. මේ අන්දමට අංක 18 ක්‌ම රෝගීන් කැඳවා අවසානයේ ලොකු මහත්තයා යන්නට ගියේය.

අපි ආවෙ උදෙන්මනෙ. ඇයි මේ අපි කැඳවන්නෙ නැතිව පස්‌සෙ ආපු අය කැඳෙව්වෙ. අප්පුහාමි හෙදියකගෙන් විමසීය. එහෙම කැඳෙව්වෙ ලොකු මහත්තයා චැනල් කරපු ලෙඩ්ඩු. දැන් දෙවැනි මහත්තයා සීයාව කැඳවයි. හෙදිය විස්‌තර කළාය.

දෙවැනි මහත්තයාද පෙර පරිද්දෙන්ම යම් යම් නොම්මර කතා කළ නමුත් ඒ අතරද අප්පුහාමිගේ නොම්මරය කියවුණේ නැත.

ඇයි දෙයියනේ… මගේ නොම්බරය හය. මට කතා කරන්නෙ නැද්ද? අප්පුහාමි නැවතත් හෙදියගෙන් විමසීය.

ඉන්න. ඉන්න දෙවැනි මහත්තයගෙ චැනල් ලෙඩ්ඩුත් ඉවර වුණාම කථා කරයි. හෙදිය කීවාය. වෙලාව පස්‌වරු දෙක වී තිබිණි. උදය හයට ඉඳගත්ත ගමන් සවස දෙක වනතුරු පැය අටක්‌ උන්තැනම සිටි අප්පුහාමිගේ අතපය හිරිවැටී තිබුණි. උදය සිට නිරාහාරව සිටි නිසා ක්‌ලාන්ත ගතියද ඇතිවිය. හොඳටෝම, බඩගින්න පිපාසය. උගුර කට වේළීම අප්පුහාමි උන්තැනින් නැඟිට්‌ටේය.

වැඩිහිටියන්ට මුල්තැන දෙනවලු. මෙහෙම තමයි දෙන්නෙ. මගේ දැන් වයස 83 යි. තවත් හිටියොත් යන්න බස්‌ නැතිව පාරෙ බුදියන්නයි වෙන්නෙ. අනුරාධපුරයෙදි ලෙඩක්‌ හැදෙනවට වඩා හොඳයි හැදුන ගමන්ම මැරිල යන එක. අප්පුහාමි ගොත ගසමින් කියාගෙන නොම්මරය විසිකර දමා යන්නට ගියේය.

Global Sri Lankans Forum, (GSLF)a group

Global Sri Lankans Forum, (GSLF)a group of expatriate Sri Lankans in Europe, North America, Australia and Middle East submitted their proposals to the proposed amendments to the Sri Lankan Constitution to the Chairman of the Committee of Public Representations on the Constitution (CPRC) Secretariat Office.

The salient features of the proposals submitted by GSLF are that the devolution of limited power shall be given to the Districts. In that way it could develop each district with micro management and would give each majority ethnic community to manage their district development. Further it has proposed Buddhism as Religion of the State and Sinhala as official language of the country and proposed to repeal the 13^th Amendments in its entirety.

The summary of the proposal submitted by the GSLF is are follows;

              Proposals to the Proposed Constitution Amendments

• THE PEOPLE, THE STATE AND SOVEREIGNTY
  • Unitary State.

The Republic of Sri Lanka shall always be a Unitary State. In any forms or any acts, it should not be allowed and/or promote to create a separate state or states, or federal state or states, or to create any form confederation state or states within Sri Lanka. Such acts or promotion or and the like shall be punishable.

Further, the characteristics of Unitary status shall not be diluted under any circumstances by delegating its power(s) and authorities to any other local or provincial or any other institution whatsoever.

1.2       Exercise of Sovereignty.

In addition to the Sovereignty of the People described in the Article 4 of the current Constitution following shall be considered;

(a)   Election System; The present proportional election mechanism shall be abolished and electoral representative system shall be brought back to select their respective representative by the people;

(b)     Judicial Power; The judicial power of the people exercised by the Parliament through courts shall not be delegated to any other institutions whether there are National or local or International or even to a province of Sri Lanka.

1.3       The Territory

1.3.1      Republic of Sri Lanka shall consist of the twenty-five (25) administrative districts. These district shall not be re-demarcated or amended or increased or decreased in the basis of any ethnic groups or religions.

1.3.2      The current provisions provided for amalgamation of provinces in the 13^th Amendment of the current Constitution should be removed from the Constitution.

1.3.3      Sri Lanka is an Island. Accordingly, the boundaries of the Sri Lanka shall not be physically or otherwise annexed whatsoever with a neighbouring country or countries.

1.4       The National Flag

The current Lion Flag depicted in the current Second Schedule of the Constitution shall be maintained as it is and it shall not be amended and changed even through a referendum.

1.5        The National Anthem

1.5.1          The National Anthem of the Republic of Sri Lanka shall be Sri Lanka Matha”, the words and music of which shall be as set out in the current Third Schedule of the Constitution.

1.5.2          The National Anthem shall only be sung in Sinhala Language.

1.6       The National Day

The National day shall be 22^nd May of each year on which day Sri Lanka obtained its complete freedom by removing head of state as Queen of England.  It shall not be the date of 4^th February on which date the British withdrew its colonial rule but retaining several colonial vestiges.

1.7      Ethnic Communities

The Constitution shall recognize that there are mainly three ethnic communities such as:

1. Sinhalese (majority community),
2. Tamils (including Indian origin Tamils) – minority community,

• Muslims (Including moors and similar others) – minority community.

These communities shall not be referred as nationalities. It is only one Nationalities which is Sri Lankans.

There should not be given preferential treatments and/or advantages to the ethnically or religiously minority communities of Sri Lanka.

1.8     Citizen of Sri Lanka

Those who have been issued with a Birth Certificate by Sri Lankan Government shall only be entitled to be called them as Sri Lankan Citizen. No other any person shall be given Citizenship in Sri Lanka which imbalance the current ethnic distribution of Sri Lanka.

                2.0          BUDDHISM

The following proposed provisions of the Constitution shall be maintained as it is without any amendments or changes. It is also noted that the foremost place given for the Buddhism and Buddhists and Buddhist mocks shall not even be amended or changed through a referendum.

Note –

In many countries has identified a main religion as State Religion. In Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Pakistan Islam is considered as Religion of the State, Norway, United Kingdom, United State, Germany considered Christianity as Religion of the State.

Accordingly, Buddhism shall be stated as Religion of the State of Republic of Sri Lanka”.

The Current wording under Article 9 of the Constitution shall be amended as follows:

The Republic of Sri Lanka shall give to Buddhism the foremost place and considered as State Religion accordingly it shall be the duty of the State to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana, while assuring to all religions the rights granted by Articles 10 and 14(1)(e).

                3.0          LANGUAGE

          3.1.1    The Official Language; The official language of Sri Lanka State shall be Sinhala.

Tamil and English shall also be the link languages and can be used as appropriate.

         3.1.2    The Sinhala language shall be given the top priority as it is the language being spoken and used over 90% of the population of Sri Lanka.

3.1.3    All government publications and the like shall be in Sinhala language along with other two languages of Tamil and English where appropriate.

3.1.4       Sinhala shall be the languages of administration throughout Sri Lanka and Sinhala shall be the language of administration and be used for the maintenance of public records and the transaction of all business by public institutions of all the Provinces of Sri Lanka. Where appropriate Tamil and English language shall be used along the Sinhala Language.

3.1.5       All Orders, Proclamations, Rules, By-laws, Regulations and Notifications made or issued under any written law by any Provincial Council or Local Authority and all documents, including circulars and forms issued by such body or any public institution shall be published in the language used in the administration in the respective areas in which they function, together with a translation thereof in Tamil or Sinhala where appropriate with a common translation of English.

                4.0          THE EXECUTIVE

4.1          The President; The Presidents shall have the full executive powers in all affairs of the Republic of Sri Lanka. The President shall be the Head of the State, the Head of the Executive and of the Government, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

4.2          The Executive Power; President shall have full executive powers to interfere with the affairs of government bodies, local authorities, district authorities and the like when it is matter related to national security, and any other matters which are endearing the Unitary status of the Republic of Sri Lanka.

4.2.1      With regards to power vested on the President in paragraphs 4.1 above, the President shall have executive power to abolish, dissolve, take over, suspend, take back, cancel of any such government bodies, local authorities, and district authorities as appropriate.

                5.0          THE LEGISLATURE

 5.1          The Parliament; The Parliament shall consist of two hundred (175 from Election and 25 from National list = 200) Members elected in accordance with the electoral based election mechanism.

5.2          Members of Parliament; Any Sri Lankan Citizen who contesting for the Parliament shall declare his/her wealth in written form to the Commission of Election and he/she shall have minimum of educational qualification of General Certificate of Education (Ordinary Level) conducted by Ministry of Education of Sri Lanka and any other approved and recognized international body.

5.3        The Supremacy of Parliament; There should be no institution, body or authority locally or internationally restrict or impediment on the legislative supremacy power of the Parliament.

5.4        Members shall be Citizen of Sri Lanka; The President, Prime Minister, Ministers, Members of Parliament, including any office in the Executive, Legislature, or the Judiciary, Chiefs of Security forces must be held only by a citizen of Sri Lanka who is not a citizen of any other country.

5.5        Appointments; All appointments to senior management executive positions in Ministries, Departments, Commissions, Judiciary, Corporations, Local Authorities or in any other institution shall only be made on the recommendation of the Constitutional Council.

5.6        The Constitutional Council; The Constitutional Council shall consist with nominees of recognized political parties proportionately represented therein. No majority representational shall be given to the ethnically minorities simply because number of recognized ethically minority based political parties.  All nominations made to the Constitutional Council shall be approved by a majority of the Members of Parliament.

5.7      Number of Ministers; The number of ministers in the Parliament shall be restricted to 30 with similar number of Deputy or State Ministers. There must also Monitoring Council appointed by the Parliament to review the functions and efficiency and progress of each ministry. The Monitoring Council shall directly responsible to the Parliament and shall report on each ministry every 12 months. Upon the recommendation of the Monitoring Council appropriate actions shall be taken by the parliament within 60 days of such recommendations.  The Monitoring Council shall consist of 21 members of Academics, Civil Servants, Intellectuals, Members of Security Forces, and Professionals without visible political alliances selected by the Parliament upon proposed by the recognised political parties.

6.0        ELECTION

 6.1         Election of Member of Parliament; Each Candidate of the Member of Parliament shall not spend more than the amount prescribed by the Commissioner of Election in his/her election campaigns.  The political parties shall also not spend for the election campaign(s) not more than the amount prescribed by the Commissioner of Election for each election such as General Election and Presidential Election.

6.2          Members of Parliament from National List; Twenty-five Members of Parliament shall be allocated to the Parliament through the National List. The nominees for the National List from each political party shall only include academics, intellectuals, professionals and eminent personality of the society.  No any other candidates participated to the election or person who has not contested in the election other than who are in the proposed National List shall be nominated to the Parliament under the National List quota.   

                                6.3        Cross-overs; After elected to the Parliament, the Members of Parliament shall not cross

over to another recognized political party in the parliament nor sit and act as an independent member of the parliament. This adversely affects the Rights of the Sovereign of the Voters who voted based on his political party ideology as Candidate who contested under recognized political party; exception applies where it is an independent Candidate. Those who Cross Over to another Political party from his original party from which he sought the votes shall be dismissed from the Parliament membership and new member shall be appointed through a By-Election for that electorate.

                7.0          THE JUDICIARY

7.1          Source Law; The Parliament is the primary source of law. Provinces and other local bodies shall not have power to make laws.

7.2          The Supreme Court; The Supreme court of Sri Lanka should be unlimitedly empowered with the Judicial Review Power to decide the Constitutional validity of any Law made by the Parliament.

7.3          Foreign Courts and Jurisdictions; Foreign government or foreign institution should not be allowed to exercise any judicial power or proceedings to interfere in Sri Lankan Judiciary system. No any other special tribunals, commissions, courts, institution and the like shall be established over and above the current Sri Lankan Jurisdiction system.

7.4          Police powers; Police powers relating to law and order shall not be delegated to any provincial or regional or district local authorities. The Sri Lanka Police shall be under the direct command as currently administrated by the Inspector- General of Police of Sri Lanka who shall be the head of the Police and reported to the President.

Sri Lanka being a small country it is not practical on the ground have nine separate Police forces for each province. Further, considering the imminent security concern from neighboring countries it is not advisable to have regional Police forces considering the National Security and historical circumstances of Tamil terrorism.

• FINANCE

• Only Parliament Control Funds; Parliament shall have full control over public finance. No tax, rate or any other levy shall be imposed by any local authority or any other public authority, and Provincial or district authorities.

• No Direct Funds; No direct funds, grants, aid and loans etc. whatsoever shall be directed to any other institutions in Sri Lanka unless such funds, grants, aid, loans first channeled through the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Foreign States, Non-Governmental Organizations, and United Nation and the like shall also first channel such funding and materials through the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

9.0        DISTRICT DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL

The current Provincial Council system imposed by India by force on Sri Lankan Constitution is a failure. It was not able to serve the intended purpose but create mess and constitutional failure in all aspect of current Provincial Council mechanism.

The current provincial council mechanism create mistrust among the various ethnic communities. In particular, the 13th Amendment enacted for the Provincial Council is violating the Unitary status of Sri Lanka and but promoting Federal State. This has created a huge mistrust among the people in North and Eastern Provinces with rest of the country. In short, the Provincial Council formed under the 13th Amendment, while violating the Unitary status of Sri Lanka promoting the Federal Stated based on principle of United country which lead ultimate Separatism in Sri Lanka – Refer Figure 01- Attached below.

In view of foregoing, it shall abolish the current Provincial Councils and repeal the entire 13th Amendment made to the current Constitution.

In place of failed Provincial Council, it should establish District Development Council for each district. In this case there will be four Tamil majority Districts Development Councils and one Muslim majority District Development Councils and number of Sinhala majority District Development Councils. Each of these council shall take care development of their respective districts. In this way there shall be 25 District Development Councils instead of number of Provincial councils and Local councils.

10.0      INTERNATIONAL TREATIES AND AGREEMENTS

The Government shall not enter into any agreement which are injurious or which has a prejudicial effect on Sri Lanka’s sovereignty, unitary character, territorial integrity, and national security.

Such agreement which are in relation to sovereignty, unitary character, territorial integrity, and national security of Sri Lanka shall only be valid upon approval of the two third majority of Parliament and a two third majority at a referendum.

           11.0   LANDS

All lands are belonging to the Government of Sri Lanka. No land shall be given any other country     or province and district.

                          All historical and archeologically valued and Buddhist historical important locations shall be preserved and developed by the Government.

                12.0    National Oath

The Seventh Schedule related to the Current Constitution referred in Article 157A and Article 161(d( (iii) shall be amended as follows;

do solemnly declare and affirm;

“I,……………………………………………… swear that I will uphold and defend the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and that I will not, directly or indirectly, in or outside Sri Lanka, support, espouse, promote, finance, encourage or advocate the establishment of a separate State or Federal State or and the like which harm, damage, imbalance, breach of Unitary state of the country within the territory of Sri Lanka.

Shenali D Waduge

There is nothing to be surprised when the UN & its heads denounce local mechanisms and laugh at our judiciary and poke fun of our judges. It’s a pity that same sadism does not extend to the more powerful nations who most often are the reasons why nations cannot end conflicts. Most conflicts are in strategic third world nations where those funding terror need conflicts to enable them to descend as conflict resolutionists. These UN created courts only go after anyone and everyone who becomes their enemy and attempt to penetrate into the domestic legal systems so they can manipulate these to their advantage as well. The powerful nations, their local stooges and the organizations funded and providing material support to fan terror are left out of all investigations. So why does a country need to spend millions to frame charges against a selected few only? So far none of the courts held under auspices of the UN/UNHRC have anything to show of success in weighing the time and money spent on it. That money could have been utilized for better causes and given directly to the victims.

World War 2 – criminals were only the enemies of the West.

The victor’s justice came with the hurried establishment of a military court to hold war crimes charges against ONLY the Axis powers (Nuremberg Trials). The war crimes of the Allies went untouched. Another tribunal was held against the Japanese – International Military Tribunal for the Far East. The criminals became the Germans & the Japanese only.

• British took position that Nazi leaders were to be shot without trial.
• German defendants were on trial for offences that had no precedent under international law (though international laws could have been written taking to account the colonial war crimes/crimes against humanity)
• Over 60 million people were killed, which was about 3% of the 1940 worldpopulation
• Battle deaths on both sides – 15,000,000. Civilian deaths on both sides 45,000,000

International Criminal Court: (ICC)

• Established in 2002 and Luis Moreno-Ocampo became Chief Prosecutor
• Annual budget over $140m (£90m) & 766 staff. Between 2002-2013 ICC cost was $1billion.
• In 10 years it has only completed 1 trial spending $900m (£600m).
• All of the formal investigations are in Africa –
• December 2014, the International Criminal Court dropped its case against the Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta (there was no case against him – ICC had only wishful thinking and perjured ‘testimony’. The chief ‘judge’ was not even a lawyer)
• 2015 ICC 6 judges – 2 judges do not have any experience in human rights, humanitarian law or genocide. 3 judges have little knowledge of Africa while 1 judge was a former legal advisor to DRC while the other is close to French foreign ministry. 2 judges have no experience in international courts. 2 judges have no working knowledge of French since most cases involve testimonies in French. 1 judge has little experience outside Europe. All judges are male and all are European. https://justicehub.org/article/new-icc-judges-pros-and-cons
• The Chief Prosecutor was accused of withholding information on Thomas Lubanga the Congolese military/political leader which the UN had given him exonerating Lubanga. The UN & the prosecutor were conspiring to imprison a man based on lies. But the Prosecutor was not asked to resign or was he removed and he went on to launch his next attack on Al Bashir of Sudan.
• Why has the ICC not taken up any of the West’s illegal military interventions, war crimes, crimes against humanity and use of illegal & banned chemicals? Is it not the West that are arming most of the rebel movements and terror groups globally? But then the biggest culprit the US does not recognize the ICC!
• Why is ICC refusing to open case against war crimes in Gaza because of US & Western pressure doesn’t give any confidence of ICC being an impartial body.

ICTY – Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

• In May 1993 UN’s 1st war crimes court and 1st tribunal since the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals was created by the UN Security Council in accordance with chapter VII of the UN Charter.
• ICTY officially shuts down in 2016.
• The ICTY has taken 23 years, 4500 witness testimonies, costing $2billion and only 161 indictments!
• Legal scholar Robert Hayden says that the ICTY has spent $14m per individual trial!
• ICTY did not take up atrocities committed by NATO. ICTY was used to cover up western-influenced military policies.
• ICTY is accused of selective bias in choice of indictments and attempts to re-write history of Yugoslavia conflict.
• ICTY prosecutor Carla Del Ponte declared ‘NATO is not under investigation by the Office of the Prosecutor’
• Case against Serbian leader Milosevic went for 4 years but he died in prison in 2006 (official stand was heart attack but rifampicin was found in his blood) Milosevic was refused the right to defend himself.
• Croatia’s top generals, Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac, who had been convicted by the ICTY on extensive war-crimes charges relating to Croatia’s 1995 victory offensive, were acquitted on appeal and went home free men. Momcilo Perisic, who was Serbia’s top general convicted on numerous counts, he went home on appeal. Stanisic and Franko Simatovic had to be released because the 3 judges could not tie the men directly to war crimes.
• Serbian politician Vojislav Seselji voluntarily turned himself in 2003 and for 10 years waited to be put on trial while a Bosnian Muslim General convicted of war crimes against Croats and Serbs was given a state funeral with full military honors in 2010!
• Allegations of massacres exceeding 100,000 on ethnic Albanians was given global coverage. US FBI claimed it was the ‘largest crime scene in the FBI’s forensic history’ – funnily enough only 3000 bodies were exhumed in the ‘mass graves’ drama that hit mainstream media. Even the ICTY had to announce in 2000 that the ‘mass graves’ was only 2788 victims!

UN’s international Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)

• The 2^nd Tribunal created in November 1994 Security Council Resolution 955
• Prosecution focused specifically on Rwandans that committed the act of genocide.
• The foreign involvement including the UN was omitted from investigation.
• £1 billion spent much of it donated by Western countries including Britain and only 43 are behind bars!
• 20 years of arguments, 8 years to find 2 guilty of inciting genocide in 2011 after their arrest in 1999 but the Tribunal’s appeal judges threw out their convictions because of ‘errors’ in the initial judgement. So much for competency that Zeid was boasting about! 12 others indicted have also been freed.
• The cost per person for the court’s 95 indictees is higher than £11 million each. The victims believe that instead of these trials the money could have been given to the victims directly.
• The ICTR promised in 1994 to indict 700 politicians, government officials, priests (The pastor of a Pentecostal church in Kent, Celestin Mutabaruka, is alleged to have led Hutu militias, armed with spears and machetes, that hacked Tutsis to death and gouged their eyes out) and journalists accused of orchestrating the genocide when 800,000 people were killed in 100 days. 700 became 300 and then just 92 people. Noteworthy is that Jean Kambanda the ex-PM pleaded guilty to genocide.
• The informal courts ran for about 10 years, between 2002 and 2012 and some 1.9 million people appeared before locally elected judges. Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, estimated that gacaca courts had cost his country about $40m, compared to the $1.7bn spent by the ICTR. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/02/rwanda-genocide-fight-justice

Cambodia

• U.N.-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) was founded in 2006 (formed as a hybrid tribunal)
• Hype about ‘appalling genocide’ but after 8 years and spending $200million only 5 indictments were served and only 1 convicted. So much for justice!
• The mainstream newspapers called it Cambodia’s Killing Fields with allegations of 1.7million slaughtered by the Khmer Rouge in the mid-1970s by Pol Pot.
• In 2006 the UN created Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia to investigate crimes against humanity formed as a hybrid tribunal comprising international and domestic law and proceedings heard by foreign and Cambodian judges.
• Declassified US government documents admit to illegal and secret bombing Cambodia by President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger between 1969 and 1973.
• UN’s complicity is also omitted from investigation – although Khmer Rouge government (Democratic Kampuchea”) had ceased to exist in January 1979, its representatives were allowed to continue occupying Cambodia’s seat at the UN
• American pressure, the World Food Programme handed over $12m in food to the Thai army to pass on to the Khmer Rouge; 20,000 to 40,000 Pol Pot guerillas benefited,” wrote Richard Holbrooke, the then US assistant secretary of state.
• British complicity – On 25 June 1991, after two years of denials, the government finally admitted that the SAS had been secretly training the resistance” since 1983
• Cambodian lawyer defending Ta Mok, the Khmer Rouge military leader says  All the foreigners involved have to be called to court, and there will be no exceptions . . . Madeleine Albright, Margaret Thatcher, Henry Kissinger, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George Bush . . . we are going to invite them to tell the world why they supported the Khmer Rouge.” But that is only wishful thinking.  http://johnpilger.com/articles/dance-on-thatcher-s-grave-but-remember-there-has-been-a-coup-in-britain

Special Court for Sierra Leone

• Special Court for Sierra Leone was created by an agreement between the UN and the Government of Sierra Leone in 2002 http://www.sc-sl.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=CLk1rMQtCHg%3d&tabid=176
• Sierra Leone became independent in 1961 after 153 years of colonial occupation. UN established a Peace Keeping Mission in 1999 but collapsed in 2000 and led to the military intervention by UK & UN deployment.
• 65 hectare court complex was built – maintenance of the compound currently costs $1,066,300 annually another tax burden!
• prosecution lawyers most of them are from the United States and none of the local judges knew them nor the procedures that the foreigners were following.
• judges are from countries that have close ties with the US or the US have direct influence over
• under Article 2(2)(a), the agreement says that a trial chamber will be made up of three judges where one shall be appointed by the Government of Sierra Leone and two judges appointed by the Secretary-General, upon nominations forwarded by States, and in particular the member States of the Economic Community of West African States and the Commonwealth, at the invitation of the Secretary-General.”
• in 2006 Charles Taylor was transferred to an International Criminal Court chamber in The Hague
• Special Court for Sierra Leone found Charles Taylor guilty of aiding the RUF during the Sierra Leonean Civil War on 26 April 2012 and was sentenced to 50 years in prison in UK
• The Court spent up to $23 million on every defendant. Only 22 have so far been indicted!
• The Court trained members of the police force who, back in the real world, still struggle to live on $30 a month
• The Special Court’s brand of justice has been irrelevant to the lives of ordinary people.
• The ICTY was established to deter future crimes – that didn’t happen, indictments in Bosnia didn’t prevent atrocities in Kosovo while indictments for Kosovo didn’t stop atrocities in Sudan nor even in Libya and now Syria.

Special Court for Lebanon

• In January 2007, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) held its opening session in The Hague to try in absentia the suspects (all of them members of Hezbollah) in the Feb. 14, 2005, bombing that killed Hariri and 21 others
• the court, officially launched in 2009, was preceded by a U.N. investigation set in motion by Security Council Resolution 1595.
• The court issued warrants in 2011 for Mustafa Badreddine, Salim Ayyash, Hussein Oneissi, and Assad Sabra – evidence against the four suspects appears to be largely based on analysis of mobile phone networks.
• The tribunal was requested by the government of then–Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, a dedicated U.S. ally quick to pin the blame on Syria. Syria says assassination was part of an Israeli and US conspiracy.
• The year after the Syrian withdrawal, the Israeli military attacked Lebanon for 34 days and killed approximately 1,200 people, most of them civilians.
• In September 2005, four former pro-Syrian Lebanese officers were arrested at the request of the U.N. International Independent Investigation Commission for their suspected role in the assassination.
• most of the STL’s top judges hail from countries that categorize Hezbollah as a terrorist organization
• STL has simply absolved itself of challenges to its legitimacy – The [STL] trial chamber dismissed all the motions of the defense counsel, who argued that the tribunal was set up illegally, violates Lebanese sovereignty, has selective jurisdiction and does not guarantee the accused a right to fair trial.”
• when the Lebanese parliament failed to ratify the creation of the STL in 2007, the U.N. invoked Chapter 7 of its charter to sidestep the uncooperative state. (This happens to be the same chapter that authorizes military force to uphold U.N. decisions.)
• The head of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) [official website] has rejected two motions requesting the disqualification of judges on the grounds of bias.
• 4 years of international investigation has already cost $325 million
• 49% of the court is to be funded by the Lebanese government – a country with a poverty rate more than 60% can do far more with this money than wasting it on a court and judgements that are biased.

Special Court East Timor

• Amnesty International on August 27 called upon the UN Security Council to immediately set up an international criminal tribunal with jurisdiction over all crimes committed in East Timor between 1975 and 1999.
• However, East Timorese President José Ramos-Horta, the founder of the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (Fretilin), which led the independence movement declared both as a human being, victim and head of state, is that we, once and for all, close the 1975-1999 chapters of our tragic experience and forgive those who did harm to us.”
• At a more local level, more progress was made. The UN Special Panel for Serious Crimes in East Timor was established by the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) to try serious criminal offences that occurred during 1999. This hybrid East-Timorese-international tribunal convicted 84 individuals, but most of them were low-level defendants – not high-ranking commanders
• Over 75 per cent of the people indicted remain at large and only one person is in prison in East Timor for crimes committed in 1999.
• In January 2000, the UN International Commission of Inquiry on East Timor submitted its report to the UN Secretary-General. The commission concluded that Indonesian armed forces were responsible for patterns of gross violations of human rights which… took the form of systematic and widespread intimidation, killings and massacre, humiliation and terror, destruction of property, violence against women and displacement of people.” The Commission recommended that the UN establish an international human rights tribunal.
• The Indonesian government passed a law in 2004 creating a national Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to begin to confront past abuses, but the law was severely flawed.
• In January 2006, former East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao handed a report of the East Timorese Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
• The report estimates that between 84,000 and 183,000 people were killed between 1975 and 1999, and that 90 per cent died from hunger and diseases as a result of Indonesian repression.
• There was no sovereign East Timor when the Tribunal was created. East Timor became independent only in May 2002 (Portuguese occupied, 24 years under Indonesian occupation and then 2 ½ UN administration) UN ended its Mission in May 2005. The relationship with Indonesia and East Timor is somewhat like Sri Lanka’s & India!

The East Timor, Cambodia and Sierra Leone were hybrid courts. Kosovo too followed a similar model. Hybrid courts are those that combine international and national element. East Timor became the 1^st model of a hybrid court. All 3 crimes plus the Tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda occurred before the entry of the Rome Statute and the ICC. Therefore, the ICC does not have jurisdiction over these 3 crimes. The 3 hybrid courts were created by a special agreement between UN (the same scenario being attempted through the GOSL) However the ICC Statute is clear that state judicial authorities have primary responsibility for prosecuting and punishing international crimes.

One reason for the hybrid tribunals were to cover crimes committed prior to the ICC if so why are Sri Lanka’s foreign affairs and legal teams not producing LTTE’s roots and India’s role?

Hybrid tribunals were suggested in environments where domestic systems had collapsed. Sierra Leone and Cambodia had made requests. There is no such scenario in Sri Lanka and moreover it is a fact that UN and foreign interference through the LTTE did not reduce but helped flame the conflict as enough of examples are available to showcase links with NGOs, the Church, foreign governments, foreign parliamentarians, foreign media with LTTE and LTTE diaspora.

However hybrid courts do not have direct authoritative backing of the Security Council. The hybrid courts will apply both domestic and international law, combine international and domestic personnel and judges and employ both domestic and international lawyers (which is probably why Sri Lanka’s lawyers are looking at the lucrative deals they can land if chosen and answers the silence of the USAID run Bar Association)

The issue at hand for the Sri Lankan populace is why should the Sri Lanka army be put on trial when the UN and world bodies ignored 30 years of LTTE terror and kept mum about India’s role in starting armed militancy?

From the resolutions and the manner that the UNHRC has been carrying out itself it is clear that the LTTE’s foreign backers are very much in control of and steering international opinion and orchestrating how and what and who is to be tried. In such a scenario the Sri Lankan public wishes to play no role in handing over the forces who eliminated terrorism enabling 20million people to live without the fear of bombs/suicide missions going off. That for us is far more important than some TRUTH that obviously is unlikely to come and has been shown very clearly by the failed Tribunals and Hybrid Courts held so far.

Taking all the tribunals as examples it is clear that the West indirect role has been omitted from investigation. If so are these tribunals not a mockery of justice. How ridiculous is it to hear reconciliation and TRUTH when 75% of the truth is kept out from investigations for criminal justice?

There is little point in going after sprats when the sharks are very much out there and part of all the problems the world suffers from.

The present government should be well aware of these scenarios without blindly walking into trouble and taking the entire nation with them because they seek revenge against their political opponents!

Shenali D Waduge

Yugoslavia – http://www.iacenter.org/folder04/myths.htm

Rwanda – http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-us-was-behind-the-rwandan-genocide-installing-a-us-protectorate-in-central-africa/18540

Cambodia – How Thatcher helped Pol Pot https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/53763

East Timor – US approved Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2001/12/kiss-d19.html

Sierra Leone – Britain’s military intervention in Sierra Leone part of a new Scramble for Africa”  https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2000/05/sier-m20.html

Kosovo – http://www.globalresearch.ca/kosovo-s-mafia-state-and-camp-bondsteel-towards-a-permanent-us-military-presence-in-southeast-europe/30262

Lebanon – The real aims of the US-backed Israeli war against Lebanon https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2006/07/leba-j21.html

Nalin de Silva

Order was reserved in the Fundamental Rights application citing the Right to Information with regard to the COPE report of the previous Parliament, regarding the bond issue of the Central Bank. The Petition filed in August of 2015, states that all citizens including the Petitioner are entitled to every right to all information with regard to the Central Bank bond issue that took place early in 2015, which by some accounts had led to a colossal fraud, amounting to rupees14 billion. The Petition filed by Dr. Nalin de Silva, stated that all information should be available to the citizens of Sri Lanka on this issue, as that was a constitutional position, and stated that there is a newly promulgated Right to Information law, which guarantees citizens’ rights on obtaining such information.

When this issue was taken up in the Supreme Court recently, Counsel for Petitioner Rajpal Abeynayake countered preliminary objections made by the Counsel for the the Prime Minister, President’s Counsel Mr. K. Kanag Ishwaran. President’s Counsel Dr. Harsha Cabraal appeared for the Governor of the Central Bank and Presidents’ Counsel Shanki Parthalingam for one other Respondent, and Mr. Malinda Goonewardne appeared for the Attorney General.

Preliminary objections of opposing Counsel were essentially based on the legality of the Right to Information as a Fundamental Right. Counsel argued that the Right is still not justiciable.

Counsel for the Petitioner Rajpal Abeynayake said that the Right to Information has already been recognized as justiciable even before the enactment of the fundamental right.

Counsel Abeynayake filed written submissions and stated that under guise of preliminary objections, Counsel for Respondents had taken up substantive issues with regard to the application per se, made by the Petitioner.

,

Posted by Nalin de Silva

DHARSHAN WEERASEKERA

The resolution converting Parliament to a ‘Constitutional Assembly’ was adopted unanimously on March 9^th.  With it, in my opinion, the Joint Opposition lost legitimacy as an entity capable of representing Sinhala Buddhist interests.  It is said that all things happen for a reason, and perhaps what has happened is for the best.

The Sinhala Buddhists must realize that they are on their own.  They cannot rely on coalitions of various political parties to protect their interests:  they must build a Movement and a political party for themselves, based on a core set of principles reflective of their identity, and their particular social and political aspirations.

As the Movement gains strength, big-name politicians will of course join it, but the point is that the Movement has to be independent of those politicians in the sense that the long-term interests of the Sinhala Buddhists are not hurt if any of the said politicians leave, are imprisoned, or betray the ‘cause’.

In this article (which will be my last on this subject because it is too depressing) I shall briefly repeat what I think is wrong about what happened on the 9^th, discuss the type of Constitution that is going to be imposed on us, and what I think will happen afterwards.

a) THE TRAGEDY OF THE 9TH

What is wrong with what happened on the 9^th can be summarized as follows.  In the Parliamentary elections of August 2015, the Sinhala Buddhists voted overwhelmingly for the UPFA thinking that under that party their interests will be safe.

Nowhere in the UPFA manifesto was there a hint that if UPFA candidates failed to win a majority of seats in Parliament, they reserved a right to join their rivals in the UNP and form a Government.  But, that’s exactly what happened.  Thus, the franchise of a majority of persons who voted for the UPFA, who as I said were overwhelmingly Sinhala Buddhist, was blatantly abrogated.

A Parliament consisting of a significant number of MP’s who have betrayed the trust placed in them by their voters does not have the moral authority to contemplate bringing even amendments to the existing Constitutions let alone frame a new Constitution.  A Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land, and as such the law to which the aforesaid voters who were betrayed will be ultimately subject.

It might be argued that the voters who were betrayed will get their chance when the new Constitution is submitted to a referendum.  That argument is valid only if we suppose the referendum is going to be genuine.  I think most Sinhala Buddhists now realize that the referendum, if and when it is held, will be rigged.  So, they’re finished.

Under the circumstances, the Joint Opposition had a duty to stall the vote until the Sinhala Buddhists could organize.  At the very minimum, the Joint Opposition should have placed on record the injustice done to the Sinhala Buddhists at the August 2015 elections.  But, they voted without a whimper of protest.  So, that’s that.

b) THE TYPE OF CONSTITUTION THAT WILL BE FOISTED ON THE SINHALAS

It is suggested that the new Constitution will follow the Austrian model.  I’ve even heard the Icelandic Constitution being suggested as a model.  The Prime Minister, if I’m not mistaken, has shown a fondness for the Litchavi Constitution of Buddhist lore.  Some people say it’ll be the Indian model that is finally adopted.  In my view, all this is nonsense.

It is not in dispute that the country is now being run according to the wishes and needs of the U.S., U.K. and India.  Of those three, the U.S. is in charge, because the Americans don’t like to play second fiddle to anyone, and indeed don’t have to.  So, when it comes to a new Constitution, the Government will do what the U.S. tells it to do.

I think most people will agree that, generally speaking, the U.S. (and its two partners) want to achieve two goals with the new Sri Lanka Constitution:  one, to allow maximum infiltration and exploitation of the country by foreign elements including ‘investors’; and two, set the ground-work for a division of the country by giving Tamils control over the North and East.

If we start with the premise that the specifics of the Constitution will follow what the U.S. more or less dictates, the question is, ‘What is the model the U.S. will want to impose on Sri Lanka in order to achieve the two goals mentioned earlier?’  In my view, the Americans have a range of what I like to call ‘Slave Constitutions’ from which to choose—Constitutions which the Americans have in one way or another helped draft.

By ‘Slave Constitution’ what I mean is a Constitution designed to enslave a nation and subjugate it permanently to U.S. interests, while maintaining the façade that the locals actually have some control over their destiny.  The latest and most advanced version of such a Constitution is the Iraqi Constitution, and in my view this is what will be foisted on Sri Lanka also.

I recall that the original version of the 19^th Amendment, before some of its egregious clauses were removed, contained key features of the Iraqi Constitution.  (See, my article, ‘Does the 19^th Amendment make the SL Constitution remarkably similar to the Iraq Constitution?’ lankaweb.com, 31-3-2015).  If I’m not mistaken, some of the same worthies who drafted the 19^th Amendment are in charge of drafting the new Constitution.

I shall briefly discuss four main features of the Iraqi Constitution, and then describe the extensions of those features that I think will appear in the new Sri Lanka Constitution.

First, The Iraqi Constitution sets up a Federal System, and explicitly recognizes Kurdistan as an autonomous region entitled to have its own Constitution, subject to some of the overall powers of the Federal Constitution.  I think this particular feature will be replicated in the new Sri Lanka Constitution, in this case with the Tamils being given control over the North and East.

Second, there is a President under the Iraqi Constitution, but he’s just a figurehead.  For instance, he is supposed to be a ‘symbol of national unity’ and so on, but doesn’t have any power to enforce anything.  I predict the new Sri Lanka Constitution will create a President that is almost a word-for-word replication of the Iraqi model.

I shall now move to the most important component of the Iraqi Constitution, namely, the Council of Ministers (equivalent to a Cabinet) headed by the Prime Minister.  This is the unit with real power in the country.  It is worthwhile delving into this unit in a little more detail.

Under the Iraqi Constitution, the Prime Minster and the Cabinet of Ministers, among other things, plan and execute the general policies of the State, including overseeing all ministries, propose Bills, propose the general budget, recommend appointments to the highest offices of the State, and negotiate treaties.

The Prime Minister is the nominee of the largest bloc in the Council of Representatives (i.e. the Iraqi Parliament) which means that he commands the support of the majority in Parliament.  So, there’s really no question of the Bills proposed by the Council of Ministers being rejected when they get to the Council of Representatives.

In other words, under the Iraqi Constitution, the Executive Branch and the Legislative Branch are seamlessly blended:  the Executive generates the policies of State and proposes the laws to carry out those policies, and the legislature dutifully passes those laws.  If there’s any dissent it is only for cosmetic purposes:  it doesn’t have any real impact on the final outcome.

At the very start of the Iraqi Constitution one finds a statement to the effect that the Constitution shall be guided by the principle of separation of powers.  But in reality there is no such separation:  the PM and the Council of Ministers have carte blanche to do more or less whatever they want.

The only drawback for the PM is that he can lose his job if he loses the support of the majority bloc in Council of Representatives.  That means he can be replaced at the whim of the Council of Representatives (or of any foreign power with enough leverage over members of the Council to get them to withdraw their support for the PM) without having to go for fresh elections.

(It should be noted that the above is how the Americans saw to it that former Iraqi PM Nouri Al Maliki was replaced by the present chap, when it was felt that Maliki was too close to the Iranians.)

In short, the Iraqi system is designed to allow maximum control of the country by a small group of people (Council of Ministers) who are in turn under the thumb of the Prime Minster.  The PM, in turn, is under the control of any foreign power with the means and the resources to manipulate the majority bloc in the Council of Representatives.  To make a long story short, I predict the Americans will ensure that this system is replicated in its entirety in the new Sri Lanka Constitution.

I shall finally turn to the judiciary.  The Iraqi Constitution creates a Supreme Court, which is to say the Iraqi Supreme Court is anchored in the Constitution itself.  This is one of the few good features of that Constitution.  Precisely because this feature is good (i.e. ordinary citizens might have at least a remote chance of challenging legislation that encroaches on their rights) it will not be included in the new Sri Lanka Constitution.

Instead, the present arrangement, where the judicial power of the people is reposed in Parliament, will continue, along with the provisions of Article 80(3) which will preclude challenges to legislation after such legislation is enacted.  That means members of the public will have just one week to challenge a proposed Bill after it is placed on the order Paper of Parliament, and after that it’s all over.

Along with the aforesaid elements, I also predict that a ‘Constitutional Court’ will be introduced with exclusive jurisdiction to adjudicate on Constitutional issues.  This will be hailed as a brilliant innovation by the academics and assorted ‘intellectuals’ who will be trotted out at the right time to endorse the new Constitution, but will in truth deal a death-blow to even the limited vibrancy of Constitutional jurisprudence in this country at present (the result of the limitation placed by Article 80(3) mentioned above).

The advantage to the Government of a ‘Constitutional Court’ is that once a group of political appointees are put into it (or it is packed with Tamils and Muslims under the bogus claim of increasing minority ‘representation’) the Government can ensure that the interpretations it wants are always forthcoming.

So, for instance, suppose the Government wants to start a Hybrid or a Special Court to try our soldiers for war crimes.  A member of the public or even one of the soldiers concerned challenges the proposal, and asks the Constitutional Court for a ruling on whether the proposed court is compatible with the Constitution:  Presto will come the answer:  ‘Of course it is compatible!’  It’ll be the same with questions over federalism.

To sum up, then, the aforesaid farce, masquerading as a ‘Constitution,’ is what is going to be foisted on the Sinhalas.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN AFTERWARDS?

Given what I have described above as the disaster that is about to come down on the heads of the Sinhalas, it is natural if they were to think along the following lines: ‘All we have to do is hang in there for four more years, when the elections come around, defeat this bunch of rascals ruining the country at present, throw their sorry excuse for a ‘Constitution’ in the trash, form a Government of our own people, enact a genuine Constitution, tell the minorities ‘its our way or the highway,’ and go from there.’

In my view, the above is where the Sinhalas are wrong:  there will be no elections.  The Government will pull a ‘’82 (i.e. extend its term by way of a referendum) or in some other way postpone elections.  I believe this will happen primarily for the following reason.

It appears that the Americans have made a policy decision that Sri Lanka is strategically important for them.  This is different from the situation from even a few years ago.  For instance, in 2007, then U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka Mr. Jeffery Lundstead is on record as saying:  ‘The U.S. has no significant strategic interests in Sri Lanka.’[1]

In contrast, the following is the assessment of Sri Lanka by a high-ranking U.S. Official—in this case the U.S. Navy Commander, and head of U.S. Pacific Command—in a report submitted to the House Armed Services Committee in February 2016:

‘President Sirisena, elected in January, is serious about addressing Sri Lanka’s human rights issues.  We have an opportunity to expand U.S. interests with Sri Lanka—Asia’s oldest democracy, and will proceed deliberately as progress is made.  Given Sri Lanka’s strategic location, it is in America’s interest to increase military collaboration and cooperation.’[2]

To repeat, the present reality is that the Americans have made a policy decision that Sri Lanka is important to their strategic interests.  My point is this.  Once Americans decide that a particular country is strategically important, they will do everything in their power to bring that country under their control, and to maintain that control over the long haul.[3]

To turn to Sri Lanka, the Americans are not idiots:  they won’t go to the trouble of imposing a new Constitution on the country (one that gives them everything they want) only to see it thrown into the trash-bin in four years.  So, they will order their local puppets to postpone elections, and the latter will have no choice but to comply.

What will happen once the elections are postponed?  Only one thing can happen: a general uprising of the Sinhalas.  In my view, this is exactly what the Americans want because it will give them the chance to order the local puppets to carry out a promiscuous slaughter.  (I presume that in four years the Army, which has traditionally been an institution of national defence, will have been ‘reformed’ enough to be unleashed on the local population)

In short, the Americans will use the uprising as an excuse to break the back of the Sinhalas one and for all, so that the Sinhalas will never again pose a significant threat to their (i.e. the Americans’) plans for the island.  The bad news is that the Americans are masters at this particular tactic.  Their list of successes is as impressive as it is harrowing:  the crushing of the Filipino resistance following the Spanish-American war, (conservative estimate of the native casualties:  220,000)[4];

The ‘counter insurgency’ in Indonesia which brought Suharto to power after the extermination of the Communists in that country (conservative estimate of casualties:  500,000)[5]; East Timor (American assisted invasion and occupation of East Timor by Indonesia, estimate of native casualties, 200,000)[6]; Invasion and occupation of Iraq (conservative estimate of local casualties:  500,000)[7].  And the list goes on.

To make a long story short, in my view, something like the above will happen in Sri Lanka also.  A critic might say, But will Sri Lankan ‘leaders,’ rascals though they may be, actually allow something like the above?  Most of these ‘leaders’ are from the Sinhala Heartland, or have connections to it.  Is it reasonable to suppose that they will unleash wholesale violence on their own people?’ In my view they will, for two reasons.

One, once the violence starts, it will gain a momentum of its own because the ‘leaders’ will be fearful that if the Sinhala Buddhists ever gain the upper hand, they will put their tormentors (i.e. the said ‘leaders’) before firing squads.  So the only way to avoid that fate is to win at any cost, which means to keep on killing.

The other reason is what appears to be an endemic element of the psychology of violence, particularly of mass killing:  when one starts down that path, it is easier to advance, rather than to cease and return.  We are reminded of Macbeth’s words:

I am in blood

Stept in so far that,

Should I wade no more,

Returning were as tedious as go o’er

Such then is my grim forecast.  I sincerely hope none of this will come to pass, but if it does, the Joint Opposition should know that its servile act on the 9^th March is what helped set it all up.

Dharshan Weerasekera is an Attorney-at-Law.  He is the author of two books:  The UN’s Relentless Pursuit of Sri Lanka (2013), and, The UN’s Subversion of International Law:  The Sri Lanka Story (2015) 

[1]‘U.S. Aid to Sri Lanka declined since 2005, now halted,’ Asian Tribune, 24 July 2011

[2] Statement of Admiral Harry B. Harris Jr., U. S. Navy Commander, U.S. Pacific Command, on U.S. Pacific Command posture, 24 February 2016, www.docs.gov. It should be noted that in the said report Sri Lanka is classified as a ‘Partner’ of the U.S., to my knowledge the first time that has been done by US pacific Command.

[3] It appears that elements of the apparatus to maintain control over Sri Lanka has already been put in place, with for instance the launching of the ‘US-Sri Lanka Partnership Dialogue’ an annual powwow for key foreign ministry officals and their Washington counterparts.  (The relevant question is, ‘Partnership’ for what?)  In my view, forums such as this are ideal settings for the Americans to convey the necessary instructions to the Sri Lankans.  According to the newspapers, the inaugural session of this ‘Dialogue’ was held on February 26, 2010.  See, ‘US to support Lanka’s Constitutional Reforms,’ Daily Mirror, 2 March 2016.  Coincidentally, the Government, within less than two weeks of the said ‘Dialogue,’ rushed to initiate the vote on the ‘Constitutional Assembly’, for instance by agreeing to the amendments suggested to the related resolution by the Joint Opposition and Sirisena’s SLFP’ers, something that had been stalling the Constitution-making process since early January.

[4] www.en.wikipedia.org

[5] Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman, The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism, South End, Boston, 1979, p. 208

[6] See ‘East Timor:  Acceptable Slaughters,’ Joe Nunes, www.mega.nu

[7] See  ‘Half-million Iraqis died in the war-New Study says,’ Dan Vergano, www.nationalgeographic.com, 16 October 2013

– ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍රයේ විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන්

එජාපයේ ‘77 තරුණයින්ට‘ පෙළපාලි යන්නට ආරක්ෂාව සලසන පොලීසිය අද සැබෑ තරුණයින් උද්ඝෝෂණය කරන කොට ඔළු පළමින් සිටින බව ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍රයේ විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා පවසයි. ඒ මහතා මේ බව සඳහන් කළේ සරසවි සිසු උද්ඝෝෂණයට එල්ලවු පොලිස් ප්‍රහාරයට විරෝධය පළකරමින් සිවිල් සංවිධාන නියෝජිතයින් විසින් අද කැඳවා තිබු මාධ්‍ය හමුවකදීය. අද (16) මරදාන සමාජයීය හා සාමයික කේන්ද්‍රයේදී මෙම මාධ්‍ය හමුව පැවැත්විණ.

එහිදී අදහස් දැක්වු  කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා අධ්‍යාපන කේෂ්ත්‍රයේ බලාපෙරොත්තුවුණු කිසිම ප්‍ර‍තිසංස්කරණයක් සිදු කරන්නට අසමත් වූණු රජය දැන් ශිෂ්‍ය පෙළපාලිවලට පහරදෙමින් කඩාකප්පල් කරනවා. සැබෑ තරුණයින්ට පහර දෙන ගමන් ‘77 තරුණයින් වෙළා හිටපු ආචිචිලා – සීයලා‘ පාරවල් වහලා ටවුල් හෝල් එකේ පෙළපාලි ගෙනියනවා යැයි ද පැවසීය.

එම මාධ්‍ය හමුවේදී වැඩිදුරටත් අදහස් දැක්වු කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා

මේ වන විට විශ්ව විද්‍යාල ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ සහ අධ්‍යාපන ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ බරපතල අර්බුද ගණනාවක් මතුවෙලා තියෙනවා. මේ අර්බුධ  යට ගහන්න හංගන්න විවිධ උපක්‍රම රජය විසින්  භාවිත කරමින් තිබෙනවා. රටේ ජනතාවට ඡන්දයට කලින් දුන්න පොරොන්දු ඉෂ්ට නොකිරීම තුළ  ඊට විරුද්ධව තරුණයෝ ශිෂ්‍යයෝ අරගල කිරීමේ ස්වභාවයක් මතුවෙලා තියෙනවා. මේ අරගල කිරීමේ ස්වභාවය වර්ධනය වුණාම රජය ඊට පිලිතුරු දෙන්නේ මර්ධනයෙන්.

අපි ඊයේ දැක්කා කොළඹ කණ්ඩායම් දෙකක් එකම වෙලාවේ පෙළපාලි ගියා.ඒ පෙළපාලිවලට පොලිස් ආරක්ෂාව, රාජ්‍ය අනුග්‍රහය සැපයීම සහ විවිධ සම්පත් සැපයීම සිදුවුණා. ලංකාවේ ඉතිහාසයේ  පළමු වතාවට  අපිට ආණ්ඩුකරන්න දෙන්න කියලා, අපිට රැකියා දෙන්න ඉඩදෙන්න කියලා පිරිසක් පෙළපාලියේ ගියා.මේ සඳහා ආවරණය විදිහට යොදාගත්තේ මේක ශිෂ්‍යයින්ගේ ඉල්ලීමක් , තරුණයින්ගේ ඉල්ලීමක්, කාන්තාවන්ගේ ඉල්ලීමක් කියන සටන් පාඨය.හැබැයි එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂේ මේ පෙළපාලියේ ගිය බොහෝ දෙනා තරුණයෝ වෙලා හිටියේ 1977 හෝ ඊට එහා කාලේ මිසක් අද ඉන්න නියම තරුණයෝ නෙවෙයි. අද ඉන්න තරුණයින්ට ඉතාම පැහැදිලිව පේනවා අර කිව්ව ප්‍රතිපත්ති වෙනස සිද්දවෙන්නේ නෑ කියන කාරණාව ඒ වගේම රැකියා උත්පාදනය සිදුවෙන්නේ නෑ කියන කාරණාව. මෙහෙම පීඩාවට පත්වෙලා ඉන්න ශිෂ්‍ය උද්ඝෝෂන වලට කඳුළු ගෑස් ගහලා බැටන් ප්‍රහාර දීලා විසිරුවා හැරියා මිසක් සැබෑ ප්‍රශ්නය සොයා බලා විසඳුම් දීමක් සිදුවෙලා නෑ. අනික් සෑම ක්ෂේත්‍රයකම ප්‍රශ්න වලට සාකච්ඡා කරන්න අවස්ථාව තියෙනවා හැබැයි මේ උසස් අධ්‍යාපනයේ ප්‍රශ්නය විසඳන්න  සාකච්ඡා කරන්න කවුරුතු ඉදිරිපත් වෙන්නේ නෑ.  මේකට විරෝධය දැක්වීම පුරවැසි අයිතිවාසිකමක්. මේකට විරෝධය දැක්වුයේ නැතිනම් මේ විදිහට කොරගගහා මේ අධ්‍යාපන ක්‍රමය ඉදිරියට ගෙනියන්න බෑ.

අනිත් අතට මේ ප්‍රශ්ණය මේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ ප්‍රධාන විපක්ෂය නැත්තං ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂය බවට පත්වෙලා ඉන්න කණ්ඩායම් සාකච්ඡා කරන්නේ නෑ. ඔවුන්  මාද්‍ය සාකච්ඡා තියලා, විරෝධතා කරලා උත්සහ දරමින් ඉන්නේ  ඔවුන්ගේ හොර නඩය ආරක්ෂා කර ගැනීමේ දේශපාලන උත්සාහයක නිරත වෙමින් ඉන්නවා.

ඔවුන් නිකම්ම නිකං මාධ්‍ය සංදර්ශන තබමින් ඉන්නවා මිසක් සැබෑ ප්‍රශ්ණවලට මැදිහත් වීමක් සිදුකරලා නෑ.

මේච්චර කල් පෙළපාලියනකොට පාදක කරගත්ත කාරණාව වුනේ පාරේ මිනිස්සුන්ට යන්න ඉඩ නෑ. බාධා වෙනවා මාර්ග අවහිර වෙනවා කියන කාරණාව.නමුත් ඊයේ එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ රැස්වීම සඳහා හයිඩ් පිටිය වෙන් කරගෙන තිබුණට ඔවුන්ගේ රැළිය ඔවුන් තියන්නේ මහපාරේ. මේ කණ්ඩායම් වලට සැබෑ තරුණ සහභාගිත්වයක් නැති නිසා ඔවුන් පාරවල් වහගෙන රාජ්‍ය අනුග්‍රහය යටතේ පෙළපාලි ගියා. හැබැයි අර දැවෙන ප්‍රශ්ණවලට පිළිතුරු ඉල්ලලා පාරට බහින ශිෂ්‍යයින්ට පහර දෙනවා.  රජය තමන්ගේ නොහැකියාව වහගන්න අවුරුදු 75 තරුණයෝ පෙළපාලි යවලා තේරුමක් නෑ. මේ රජය ඉතා ඉක්මනින් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ පාලනයේ තිබු මර්ධනකාරී ස්වරූපයට ගමන්කරමින් ඉන්නවා.

මේ විදිහට මේ අධ්‍යාපන ප්‍රශ්න විසඳන්න නිසි පියවරගන්නේ නැති වුනොත් මේ තරුණයෝ මේ විදිහට පෙළපාලි යන එක නවත්තන්න කිසිවෙකුටත් බැරි වෙනවා. ඒ නිසා මේ රජයට කියන්න තියෙන්නේ හැකි ඉක්මනින් මේ  ප්‍රශ්ණවලට ප්‍රතිපත්තිමය මැදිහත්වීමක් කරලා මේ තත්වයට විසඳුමක් ලබාදෙන්න කියලයි.

මෙම මාධ්‍ය හමුව සඳහා සිවිල් සංවිධාන නියෝජිතයින් වන අචාර්ය නිර්මාල් රංජිත් දේවසිරි, කෞෂල්‍ය කුමාරසිංහ සහ දුමින්ද නාගමුව ඇතුළු පිරිසක් එක්ව සිටියහ.

මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය

ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍රය

2016 මාර්තු මස 16 වැනිදා

Dr Sarath obeyskera

As an ardent supporter of Port City ,I suggest that following aspects should be looked at and action initiated from now ,much in advance  to make it a successful venture ……

• How do we treat /dispose garbage of about 5000 tons per day ( expected ) from Port City and where ?-We do not have a plan to get rid of even existing 1500 ton garbage from Colombo as yet  ?
• We need about 500 MW power for  Port City .Where do we get it ,from ailing Norrocholai and much talked about Sampur Coal Power Plant ?
• We may need LNG run generation plant in the Port City itself?
• How do we plan to make facilities to commute over 1 million workers to build it and later for operations? Buses /Trams /monorail /bikes /trains?? ( or horse back/bullock cart  !)
• Extension of Airport Highway to port to facilitate transport ?
• Fuel storage tanks in the City and have arrangement to pump vis SPM (single point mooring buoy installed  or for  transporting from Kollonnawa or MurhurajAwela ??
• Planning to ban Three Wheeler not only entering Port City but a boundary around port city ?
• 1 million tons of water required for construction and operation?

May be to install RO desalination plant dedicated for the Port City ?

• Sewerage treatment 500 ,000 cu m disposal to the sea perhaps far away for fish to consume ?( I may have to be vegetarian)
• SLT telephone services to be expanded and improve broadband services ??
• 500,000 Work force to build ( are we allowing Indians or Chinese ?) as all our young work force is driving one million three wheelers ?
• Bricks, sand, earth and metal to be imported? (as we have Environmental Restrictions to transport ) or use sea sand ?
• Steps taken to provide work to local construction companies who are now idling?
• Do we have enough cattle ,goats and swine for the consumption by work force of Chinese when they build ? ( no problem if it is Indian as they are vegetarians and Dahl consumers ) If not ,we have a have to start  cattle farms ,piggeries ( not in Muslim areas)  ,goat farms in the East and they should commence breeding from now ????????????
• Finally we may require lot of coconuts for opposition to smash in Seenigama against Port City and foreign invasion ??

Dr Sarath obeyskera

Elmo de Silva Mount Lavinia  Courtesy The Island

(The reference to a soldier in this article would include any person in the Armed Forces, who is placed in such a situation).

I refer to the article, written by Mr. Neville Laduwahetty, appearing in The Island Newspaper of 9th March 2016, on the question of “Addressing Accountability”.

While I found this a most educative and valuable contribution to the debate on this very important subject, I would like to reproduce an excerpt from it, on which I wish to add my own comments.

” The circumstances were so extraordinary and unique that commanders away from the battle scene would NOT have been in a position to lay down policy. Furthermore, they also could not have been in a position to give instructions to the Field Commanders because of the fluidity of the unparalleled circumstances presented minute by minute, hour by hour, and day by day .Their only option was to leave it to the judgment of those in the thick of the battle to realise the twin objectives of saving the civilians as an integral part of Military Necessity and neutralizing the LTTE to restore the territorial integrity of the State …”

My comments are as follows:

Christiane Amanpour on a war: the dilemma facing forces in the battle field

I watch the Christiane Amanpour programme on CNN, quite often, once, last month (February) the subject was about a movie produced in Denmark titled A WAR (amanpour.com). All Actors are persons in the Danish armed forces, and had fought in the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. This is what they said when talking to Christiane Amanpour. (I have given what follows below in my words as it is not possible to couch this in the words spoken by those, in the Amanpour interview on television). What is said below, by the Danish personnel cum actors, is based on their real experiences on the Battle Field.

One Commander cum Actor tells Christiane Amanpour that when he and his Regiment were fighting the Taliban, in Afghanistan, there was one instance (among many), where his platoons were facing an imminent attack from the enemy. They had to face a ruthless enemy and were outnumbered. The only solution was to bomb the enemy. But since the enemy was amongst civilians, collateral damage was inevitable. Not to bomb was to face annihilation. He is in a dilemma. To safeguard his troops he has to act. He orders the bombing.

When he gets back home, he is sure he will be accused of human rights violations. He tells this to his wife. She screams at him and asks him to lie in the Courts, denying the charge. She says “You are thinking of other children, what will happen to our children, if you are incarcerated”. This portrays the ‘The Dilemma of the Soldier’.

The other Commander cum Actor says that when the Politicians send us out to war, they want us to abide by the Rules of War. But when we are in the thick of the battle it is not always possible to keep to the Rules of War.

Those who preach Human Rights and war, should get into boots and go to the battle front

In this Category should be included the following:

Those in the Geneva Human Rights Commission who pontificate on Human Rights, who have never put on boots, or been on the battle front, particularly when fighting ruthless terrorists.

Those persons in Governmental and Non-Governmental organizations who blindly speak of Human Rights and who have never fought ruthless terrorists or perhaps never held a gun.

The Tamil Diaspora who are able to fool all the people all the time with their diabolical lies.

My own experience in the Volunteer Force (Gemunu Watch) which was for a few years and not in troubled times (I was a sub-lieutenant)

I would challenge anyone who speaks of Human Rights, to be in Army fatigues and boots for just one day in the jungles, to see whether he or she can endure this for even for one day.

The Human Rights resolution against Sri Lanka. When I was under training at Diyatalawa, at that time we had to undergo training in bayonet attack. (The command was in Sinhalese: ‘vamin valakkan (avoid from the left), atchu kaden pahara then (hit with the butt of the gun), pannin (jump) annin (pierce). Though I had no occasion to do this drill in battle, I was too sensitive to even think of doing this, and that partly contributed to my resigning from the Volunteer Force. The point I am trying to make is that we do not consider the mental state of the soldier on the battle front. Does not the soldier on the battle front value his life, just as any of us value ours?

Co-sponsoring the Human Rights violation resolution against Sri Lanka

I consider the co-sponsoring of the Resolution against Sri Lanka, as a gross betrayal of our armed forces, as it was a meek submission by persons, who are not aware of battlefield conditions.

This is an affront to each and every Sri Lankan.

Why do we meekly endorse a pack of concocted falsehoods without challenging them?

Why did we not contest the damnable lies, concocted by the Tamil Diaspora?

Why did we not ask the Chairman of the so called Human Rights Commission to cite any report or inquiry where witnesses cannot be cross examined, and is the basis of unfounded allegations against our Armed Forces?

Is the above not against Natural Justice?

He who pays the piper calls the tune, even though devoid of veracity

Co-sponsoring of this Resolution, could have been avoided if those responsible had some idea of battlefront conditions. My experience of international institutions, it is that you do the bidding of those who pay the Piper. I can say this with some knowledge of how international organizations are financed and function. There was an instance, when the US authorities refused to pay the American Contribution for maintaining The World Customs Organization (WCO), as there was a dispute between the American Authorities and the Secretary General of the WCO, who was a Senior American Customs Officer, and was on secondment. The American annual contribution was twenty-five per cent of the Total Cost of maintaining the WCO. The balance was shared by the hundred and forty eight other member countries. T
he WCO management was contemplating terminating operations of the Organization, if the American contribution was not forthcoming. The Secretary General of the WCO, resigned and the issue was settled.

Do armed forces personnel have no Human rights?

Those in the battlefront are also human beings, but are more subject than others to immense stress and strain. If they do not fight for the safety of all of us, who will?

That is why Sir Winston Churchill said, during the Second World War, “Never in the field of human conflict, have so many, owed so much, to so few”. We could say the same of our Armed Forces.

Elmo de Silva

Mount Lavinia

Dr Sarth Obeysekera

What I am going to write is nothing new .Just common sense

.I am writing this Opinion in the car  travelling to office from Kotte to the Mutwal Harbour to give kick start to the daily work commencement  .If I do not go early    ( or give impression to my low level managers and workers that I may turn up 7.00  am  any time early) they tend to take things easy .

I m travelling in the car and my driver drive uses the brake to drive instead of accelerator ! and stopping slowing down frequently along the way thru the city .

I cannot tolerate this agony daily in getting stuck in traffic

.If I decide to leave late there is no Electricity at home  and it is quite warm

What I do is get into the car in the front ,put on the car Air conditioning and put my lap top on top of my lap” and connect my broadband thru either hot spot” of the smart phone or ,using the broad band dongle from Dialog  and get into Internet and reply to all my mails which came last evening and or send emails to my managers on important issues .

I write opinions to paper as I see the mess we are in when we travel to work,for  example  a water leak in Rajagiriya for last few days and Water Board is not attending to repairs or the poor man’s travelling companion three wheeler” which I call a menace .and how they break every traffic rule and create chaos ,traffic light off due to power cut or wise policeman remotely putting them off, or passing Kollonnawa sometimes feeling the bad smell from the garbage dump, traffic jams created by unruly drivers ( some time wearing  a tie like me !) .

My AC is on  and  ,broadband is on I work efficiently during 1-1.5 hours to work an 1-2 hours back home,and I do not get irritated for people breaking traffic rules except keep telling my driver not to drive using the brake all the time .He says that Sir I cannot help ”

One might say Oh you have  a car  and driver and a mobile broadband ,!!!

We are not so effluent?”

Now a days everyone has a  tablet or tap top ,school children and middles class executives , and if you are in the bus or train you have a  “driver ”

If you drive to work with your wife or over 18 child let them drive .

I will guarantee that Your efficiency will go up  and youe will nor get heart attacks ( which I got at 50 and now healthy after a bypass)

Now all offices do not have generators therefore ,when you go obviously no fans ,no AC and it is hot and  some computers do not work

Take you annual holiday and go to Sinharaja or to you village where you do not need any of above !!

I mentioned in one of hard hitting opinion that we cannot depend on state to supply everything as they are failing

I AM REACHING MY DESTINATIONN  AMD  HAVE DONE  SOMETHING FOR THE DAY

Dr Sarth Obeysekera

By : A.A.M.Nizam – MATARA

In the contemporary world the NGOs have become a powerful tool that are being used by the neo-colonialist rogues to effect regime changes, to destabilize countries and to make spineless leaders of countries dance to their tunes. Many countries highly conscious of their sovereignty and independence do not permit formation and functioning of NGOs in their countries and even imprison the traitors who attempt to form such NGOs at the behest of neo-colonialists.  Unfortunately, Sri Lanka has plethora of these treacherous elements, the dollar voracious vultures who are more loyal and slavish to foreign lackeys than their duty and responsibility to the nation as the citizens of this country.

During the war period these traitors Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu, Kumar Rupasinghe, Jayadeva Uyangoda, Mrs. Nimalka Fernando, and Jehan Perera to name a few acted against Sri Lanka’s efforts to vanquish terrorism and closely collaborated with the terrorists and the diaspora enemies.  Although they contributed very much and to their utmost in bringing Eunuch Sirisena to power these brutes still continue to play a major role to support the separatists and help them achieve their goal of segregating Sri Lanka.

The ruffian Jehan Perera who even held discussions and seminars against Sri Lanka when the subject of Sri Lanka was taken up for discussions at the UNHRC sessions in Geneva continue to support the view that the Sri Lankan army committed war crimes and mass murders in the last stages of the war, a concocted view promoted by the Tamil diaspora through Darusman report.

This ruffian in his latest article in The Island” today (15^th March) claims that Sri Lanka is in a transition process and hails the treacherous speech made in parliament recently by former army commander Sarath Fonseka calling for an international role in ascertaining the truth of what happened in the last phase of the war and the so-called White Flag incident.

This ruffian Jehan Perera points out that since the end of the war in May 2009 there has been intense pressure on the government to investigate whether war crimes took place in the closing stages of the war due to indiscriminate and mass killing of civilians and also whether there was targeted killing of LTTE leaders and their families who surrendered to the Sri Lankan military. He commends Fonseka for saying that enquiries should be made open to international observers.

He further states that the Norwegian facilitation, (the sponsoring country for his treachery) attained its high point in 2002 with the signing of the Ceasefire Agreement by the government and LTTE, and this gave the country the best opportunity to arrive at a mutually acceptable solution, the high point of which was the Oslo Declaration in late 2002 in which the government and LTTE agreed to explore a federal solution to address the root causes of the conflict.

He adds that even today the contours of a just political solution will need to lie in the domain of the federal arrangements of power sharing in which the numerical preponderance of one community does not become a permanent tyranny of the majority as seen from the perspective of those who are doomed to be a permanent minority in an ethnically plural society.

He calls that Fonseka’s statement on international observers should be built upon constructively, in order to contribute to greater confidence within the Tamil polity regarding the promise of national reconciliation.

In the name of national reconciliation what these ruffians anticipate is for the Sri Lankan society to bow down and give in to all Tamil demands without any reciprocal measure by them.

First of all Tamils in the North and East should unconditionally condemn any form of separatism, eschew the separatist ideology, declare that they sternly uphold the unitary status of this country and they are totally opposed to federalism and the demand for self rule, self government or regional autonomy. And this should be firmly displayed in deed and not by word. To achieve this objective the government should be firmly patriotic and not a puppet of the neo-colonialists. (End)

Shenali D Waduge

A daily newspaper released an article Journalist tags Eknaligoda a fake” in late February 2016. The journalist making the allegation was Daily Mirror’s News Editor who said that in his 30 years of serving as a journalist he had never read a news item written by him, never seen him on a tv programme or seen him attend a press conference. He ends by asking how did ‘Prageeth Ekneligoda become a journalist”. It’s been some weeks now and what is strange is that none of those who were mourning for Prageeth the ‘journalist’ has come forward to answer this very valid question. It becomes all the more valid because not only is an entire country being ridiculed by foreign entities citing his disappearance under category of journalist, intelligence officers are under arrest for his supposed disappearance. Why have fellow media personnel put a brake on standing up for a fellow missing ‘journalist’? Is it because it is now emerging that he was never one?

Shouldn’t those that championed the movements and mourning for Prageeth Eknaligoda the ‘journalist’ now come forward to even challenge the Daily Mirror News Editor? This is what most readers expected to occur, but so far none of the local/foreign entities who were holding vigils, sending petitions and including his name in their public statements/reports have come forward to answer this question. In 2011 there was even a request for UN intervention to find Prageeth

If we go by the allegation made by the Daily Mirror News editor the all-important question is if Eknaligoda is not a journalist who is he? This leads to the next question who turned him into a journalist and why? If he is supposed to have ‘disappeared’ for a cartoon or an article he had written, can someone produce that and let us know how this was the cause for his ‘disappearance’ Rajapakse loved to see himself on cartoons and numerous exhibitions had been held inviting him to see cartoon impressions of him! http://archives.dailynews.lk/2001/pix/PrintPage.asp?REF=/2012/02/20/fea03.asp

Then we come to the all-important UNHRC/OHCHR who is on record for using Prageeth’s name as a journalist to accuse the GOSL for the disappearance. On what grounds did UNHRC/OHCHR accept Prageeth as a journalist? This is a pertinent question that UNHRC/OHCHR is bound to official now answer.

On 7^th March 2016 another article ‘Who is Prageeth Ekneligoda’ appeared. This article claims that 9 military intelligence officers are in remand over their alleged role in conspiring, abducting and killing Ekneligoda. The case has been so confusing that we need to wonder whether he was actually missing since January 2010.

https://www.ceylontoday.lk/90-120328-news-detail-who-is-prageeth-ekneligoda.html

An interesting part of this article refers to his wife as ‘legal wife’…aren’t wives legal? This legal wife the article says falls short of extending the allegation of abduction into murder. However, an article appearing in a website in August 2015 titled Prageeth’s Matale Mistress & Douglas Devananda’s Secretary to be questioned” makes the situation more confusing. https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/prageeths-matale-mistress-and-douglas-devanandas-secretary-to-be-questioned-first-abduction-was-exactly-six-years-ago-today/

The March 2016 article claims that the CID has failed to establish whether Ekneligoda’s case was one of voluntary disappearance or not but that the CID investigators have concluded that ‘he has been murdered’. The article goes on to say the charges against the detained military personnel are conspiracy, abduction and murder. Hence, the main reason for this investigation to fail is that the investigators are trying to force the clues to meet their conclusion than let the clues lead them to the conclusion.”

The father’s woe over arrested son is certainly painful for anyone serving their nation. “My son,” attests Siriwardana, “was taken in on 24 August, 2015. When his wife went to the bank to collect his pay check for September only did she find that his pay was stopped. He has two children – 8 and 10. Though his wife is a school teacher, our legal fees are very high. Already we had spent over two and a half lakhs. Both my wife and I are retired teachers and between the two of us, our pension comes to about Rs 36,000/=. Even though my son joined the Army in 1992, and rose to the rank of Lt. Col., he has not earned anything. It is I who built him the small house that is behind ours for his salary was only just enough for his immediate expenses.” This is not how military officers should be treated.

Quite a lot of falsehoods have taken place some of which have even blown up in one’s face. The best one was the allegation of using chemical weapons by Prageeth’s legal wife. Unfortunately this allegation is virtually negated from the US diplomatic cable from Ambassador Blake on 19 April 2009 claiming that both ICRC and Indian High Commission confirmed that no evidence of chemical weapons usage was found. What should happen when false statements of this nature is made against the State & Military?  Chemical weapons aspect is covered in a 2011 article Disappearance Of Ekneligoda And The Chemical Weapons Saga” in which the author also asks Was he really a journalist or a poser?” So it looks like a lot of people have been silently asking if Prageeth was a ‘journalist’ and only a handful have come forward to ask the direct question.

Made to Disappear” very interesting thought …..by whom is what we would like to know!

The article goes on to say that ‘P Ranjith & Prageeth Ekneligoda are one and the same” and also asks if the rest of the LTTE network taken in by military intelligence are still living, why would the then government only eliminate P Ranjith alias Prageeth Eknaligoda? Is it right to detail 9 military personnel without any concrete evidence against them, some for over 6 months without pay over what might not even amount to a crime”. There is even a tape recording floating around the social media that is quite shocking to say the least & further questions the integrity of this ‘missing’ character.

https://www.ceylontoday.lk/90-120328-news-detail-who-is-prageeth-ekneligoda.html

Well if the contention is that Prageeth is not a journalist why did Upul Jayasuriya donate all of his USD5000 through the President of Sri Lanka in a public ceremony to his ‘legal wife’ and the Finance Minister offer a scholarship to his son?

Let’s take a look at some of the entities mourning Prageeth

• Free Media Movement – the first to claim Prageeth as a ‘missing journalist’ has yet to come forward and refute the allegation made by the Daily Mirror news editor.
• Reporters Without Borders writes Prageeth, who regularly contributed to LankaeNews web site, went missing 24th January 2010. Prageeth is a political analyst and a cartoonist known for his outspoken views critical of the government of Sri Lanka.”  http://en.rsf.org/sri-lanka-where-is-prageeth-10-08-2010,38113.html
• Cartoonists Rights Network International
• Amnesty International
• Committee to Protect Journalists, International Media Support, Reporters Without Borders, and the International Federation of Journalists all wrote for UN intervention citing journalists disappearance.
• Scores of other international organization have used Prageeth’s name in their reports to internationally humiliate the country.

As citizens we find the efforts to embarrass Sri Lanka using a questionable ‘journalist’ an affront to our country’s good name.

With the case now in court it is left to the courts to deliver justice. In law there is something called ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ which is the standard evidence required to validate a criminal conviction.

People cannot be put in prison for political agendas. As per In dubio pro reo a defendant may not be convicted by the court when doubts about his/her guilt remain. The presumption of innocence also known as ei incumbit probation qui dicit, non qui negat (the burden of proof is on the one who declares, not the one who denies) based on this principle one is considered innocent unless proven guilty (not until).

In many nations presumption of innocence is a legal right of the accused and it is that person’s international human right under UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights article 11. Thus, the burden of proof rests with the prosecution which is bound to collect and present enough COMPELLING evidence. The accused has to be proved guilty beyond reasonable doubt. If there is reasonable doubt the accused must be acquitted.

In this instance should the Blackstone’s formulation apply it is better that 10 guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer”.

What the public wants to know is where are the people who claimed this man was a journalist and why are they not coming out to produce evidence that he is a journalist following the allegation made by a journalist with over 30 years experience! More importantly where are the rights organization who claim their objective is to seek the TRUTH and why are they not demanding to know whether he was afterall a journalist since there are people suffering based on the premise he is a journalist.

As citizens we have every right to know the truth.

Shenali D Waduge

• http://ceylontoday.lk/e-paper.html
• http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session14/LK/JS13_UPR_LKA_S14_2012_JointSubmission13_E.pdf (Joint Submission by Free Media Movement, INFORM Human Rights Documentation Center)
• http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news/2009/8/46743_space.html
• http://www.amnestyusa.org/pdfs/PetitionSRILANKA.pdf
• http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news/2015/9/95323_space.html
• https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/cid-convinced-prageeth-ekneligoda-was-no-journalist-abducted-for-other-reasons/ – CID Convinced Prageeth Ekneligoda Was No Journalist; Abducted For Other Reasons

නලින් ද සිල්වා

By M D P DISSANAYAKE

Afghanistan has  won all three matches in the qualifying round, beating Scotland, Hongkong and Zimbabwe.  The wicket keeper and opener  Mohammad Shahzad scored  142 runs in 99 balls in the  three matches.  Mohammad Nabi, the  low order batsman and bower scored 59 runs and taken 6 wickets.

In contrast Sri Lanka lost both warm up matches against  New Zealand and Pakistan.  The New Zealand gave a drubbing to the reigning World Champions  Sri Lanka.  In these two innings, Dilshan  faced 5 deliveries and failed a score a single run.  Our all rounder Tissara Perera had taken 2 wickets and given away 69 runs, whilst  batting had scored 11 runs in 11 balls faced, in the two matches.

Beating Afghanistan today is an uphill task for Sri Lanka.  No one should be surprised if Afghans  annihilate the current World Champions.  The morale of Sri Lankan team is extremely low. 

During the Asia Cup, Sri Lanka played and lost  a losing battle with Pakistan, as both teams failed to reach the finals.  Even though this was not  a Final, the VVIP stand was full of Sri Lankan  disgusting dignitaries, such as Thilanga Sumathipala, Dayasiri Jayasekera and illustrious but dubious Wijitha Muni Soysa dressed in full European suit.   After all Sri Lanka is now a very rich country, even these pedestrian VVIPs could enjoy perks wily nilly,  even though shamefully the Government is failing to provide power supply to the country.   Any hopes of watching the match between Sri Lanka and Afghanistan and the entire tournament  live will be at the mercy of  “Most inefficient Post Independent  Government of Sri Lanka”

The hardworking players comforts and their basic grievances are not being addressed.  They are being given Lectures on Leadership by convicted criminals like Sarath Fonseka. Do you listen to convicted criminals to enhance your morale?  The entire Sri Lankan Cricket is run by lethargic  corruptors.

It is very hard for me to mention the name of a single team in the 2016  World Cup fixtures, that Sri Lanka is capable of beating.  Beating Afghanistan  will be a miracle.    If Sri Lanka can produce a miracle today,  full credit must be given to the Team.   We wish them very best.

Courtesy Adaderana

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe’s allegation that there are undisclosed loans and liabilities of my government which are only now coming to light is a complete falsehood, Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa said in a statement today.

In a press release Rajapaksa added, State owned enterprises engage in commercial activities and they have their own dealings with banks. Borrowings by state entities are governed by their respective acts of parliament and have to be approved by cabinet. Such borrowings are paid back from their own revenues. Some loans may be guaranteed by the Treasury and in such event are reported to Parliament.”

Full release;

Venerable members of the Mahasangha, clergymen of other faiths, Members of Parliament, and distinguished guests,

In announcing increases in the VAT and income taxes, and the reintroduction of the capital gains tax the Prime Minister said in his special statement to parliament last week that the government has been compelled to increase taxes in this manner because my government had got the country into a debt trap. The country is now facing an unprecedented economic crisis and we should examine how and why things came to such a pass.

After coming into power, the present government obtained 400 million USD under a currency swap arrangement with India in March 2015. They obtained another 650 million USD through a sovereign bond issue in May 2015. Another 1,100 million USD was obtained from India in July under a currency swap agreement. A further 1,500 million USD was obtained through a sovereign bond issue in October. Between March 2015 and March 2016, the government issued short and medium term Sri Lanka development bonds on 12 different occasions borrowing over 2,711 million USD. Thus in the 15 months they have been in power, the present government has obtained 6,361 million USD in foreign loans.

To put matters into perspective, this is enough to meet the entire foreign loan components of the Mattala airport (190 million USD) the Hambantota Port (426 million USD) Norochcholai Coal Power plant (1,340 million USD), The Colombo-Matara Highway (630 million USD), The Colombo-Katunayake Highway (248 million USD) all put together, and there would still be enough money to build not one, but two Port Cities (1,400 million USD each) one 500 megawatt Sampur Coal power plant (500 million USD) and yet another Mattala airport with the final leftovers.

This government enjoyed foreign exchange savings of around USD 2,500 million in 2015 due to the precipitous drop in oil prices after they came into power. But they could not build up foreign exchange reserves or even make the Petrolem Corporation and the Electricity Board profitable. All these colossal borrowings including the massive savings from petroleum imports have been spent on consumption. It is because of the almost comic fiscal irresponsibility shown by the government that Sri Lanka’s credit rating was downgraded by Fitch and Standard and Poor’s recently.

Explaining their reasons for downgrading Sri Lanka Fitch ratings pointed out that the government had loan repayments amounting to 4,000 million USD this year which would place an immense strain on foreign reserves. Of this four billion, more than 2,497 million USD or over 62% of the total were loans that the present government had taken in just the past year. The 1.1 billion USD currency swap arrangement with India entered into in July 2015 for six months and taken in September fell due this year. Furthermore, of the Sri Lanka Development Bonds issued since March 2015, over 1,397 billion USD were short term bonds coming due this year. The share of the repayments due in 2016 attributed to all previous governments put together was thus just over 1,500 million USD. Fitch would not have downgraded us if the debt repayments had remained at a more manageable level as was the case when the economy was managed by my government.

This downgrade has led to a situation where it has become very difficult for Sri Lanka to borrow in the financial markets and they have been forced to rely on multilateral lenders like the IMF who impose conditions such as increasing government revenue to demonstrate that the borrower will be able to pay back the money lent. This is why taxes are to be increased. Last Friday the government had to repay the 1,100 million USD borrowed from India. This month, the government was so desperate for money that they issued Sri Lanka Development Bonds with three and five month maturity periods to raise money. Development Bonds are supposed to be long term instruments. But this government has been using them to raise short term funds. Usually any country would phase out the loans they take so that there is no ‘bunching’ of loan repayments. This government has been ignoring even those basics. Such things do not go unnoticed in international credit markets.

The last time Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe was Prime Minister between 2001 – 2004, the government debt to GDP ratio was consistently above 102%. It is my government that brought this ratio down year after year until it reached 75.5% by the end of 2014. This was the lowest debt to GDP ratio achieved since 1979. During the war years from 2006 to 2009, government expenditure remained at around 23% of GDP but after the war, we controlled expenditure until it reached 18.3% in 2014 – the lowest govt. expenditure to GDP ratio since independence.

It is because of this demonstrated fiscal dicipline that the IMF gave my government a stand-by facility of 2.6 billion USD during the global economic crisis of 2009 without any of the strict conditions that they have imposed on the present government. My government did borrow money to build infrastructure projects, but these were long term concessional loans at 2% or less in interest. Furthermore such borrowings were spread out over many years. We never borrowed for consumption like the present government which is why there were no fiscal fiascos like sweeping revisions of budget proposals and constant revision of tax rates when my government was in power.

The prime Minister’s allegation that there are undisclosed loans and liabilities of my government which are only now coming to light, is also a complete falsehood. State owned enterprises engage in commercial activities and they have their own dealings with banks. Borrowings by state entities are governed by their respective acts of parliament and have to be approved by cabinet. Such borrowings are paid back from their own revenues. Some loans may be guaranteed by the Treasury and in such event are reported to Parliament.

The Prime Minister said during his special statement to parliament last week that he increased the salaries and pensions of public servants, and reduced the prices of fuel, gas, sugar, canned fish etc. He was claiming to have fulfilled all the irresponsible promises made during the Presidential election to win votes. The present precarious situation shows that there are serious consequences to contend with when you try to win votes by pledging the taxpayer as live collateral.

Even before the present debt crisis, the economy was in an uncontrolled freefall. The All Share Price Index has lost around 1500 points after 8 January 2015 and over Rs 600 billion has been wiped off the market capitalisation in the stock market. Foreign holdings of Sri Lanka rupee bonds have gone down by more than half during the same period. Foreign investors who kept renewing their investments when I was in power started exiting the Sri Lankan bond market after January 2015 because they have no faith in the economic management of the present government. During the first nine months of 2015, the unemployment rate increased by nearly 1%. The Rupee has depreciated more than 10%. Foreign reserves which at an all time high of 8,200 million USD at the end of 2014 have gone down to less than 5,000 million. In the coming months, all that can be reasonably expected are more tax increases, more cuts in welfare measures and increases in water, electricity, telecommunications and transport costs not to mention even more unemployment due to the continuing economic mismanagement of this government. The present government will have to be held accountable for the hardships the people will have to face.

 වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග

සාජන් ”

ඔව් සර් ”

මෑන්ව ගන්ඩ එදා ගිය රාලහාමිලා දෙන්නත් දාගන්ඩ බණ්ඩාරට කියන්ඩ  වාහනේ පිටිපස්සටකරලා නවත්තන්ඩ කියලා  ”

ඕකේ සර්”

මල්ලි සර් කිව්වා ඔය දෙන්නටත් අද එන්ඩ කියලා මෑන්ව කූඩුවෙන් ගන්ඩ අත් පිටිස්සට කරලාමාංචු දාන්ඩ ”

හරි සාජන් මහත්තයා”

බැද්දේ පළයං මං එන්නං.  සාජන් මහත්තයා අද මට පොඩි දත් කැකුමක් තියනවා අද මාව තියලාප්‍රියන්තව ගෙනියනවද ?

රත්නේ දතේ අමාරුව පුකේ අමාරුව නෙවෙයි හරියට ඩියුටිය කරපං 

සාජන් මහත්තයා මීට කලිං මම කොච්චර ඇවිල්ලා තියනවද මේ වගේ ගමං. මේකයි කාරනේ සාජන් මහත්තයා, වයිෆ්ට ළමයෙක් හම්බ වෙන්න ඉන්නවා. මම දැං හරක් මස් වත් කන්නේ නැහැ.මම මේ දවස් ටිකේ ස්ටේ‍ෂන් එකේ රාජකාරි කරන්නද ?”

මේ උඹ මගෙන් කුණුහර්ප අහගන්නැතිව බැද්දයා එක්ක ගිහිල්ලා අරූව ජීප් එකට දාගනින්.   උඹටඩියුටිය කරන්ඩ බැහැ කියනව කියලා මම සර්ට කියන්ඩද ?

හරි හරි සාජන් මහත්තයා මම එන්නං කවදා හරි දවසක මේවා පබ්ලික් වෙලා අපිටත් කේස්වැටනොත් සාජන් මහත්තයාම අපි වෙනුවෙං උත්තර දෙන්න ”

මේ තෝ මගේ යකා අවුස්සන්නේ නැතුව අරූව ජීප් එකට දාගනිං. ආවා මෙතන නීති කතා කරන්ඩ”

හරි හරි සාජන් මහත්තයා ඕකට කෑගන්න එපා මම එන්නං”

බැද්දේ හරිද වැඩේ , කෝ මූ තාම සෙල් එකේනේ . අඩෝ මෙහාට වරෙං , ඒයි උඹලා පස්සට වෙලාඉඳපල්ලා. බැද්දේ මූට මාංචු දාපං , ඉක්මං කරපං සාජන් මහත්තයට තද වෙලා ඉන්නේ.

 සර් මාව කොහේ ගෙනියන්න ද ?

කෑගහන්නේ නැතුව හිටපං උඹෙන් තව කට උත්තරයක් ගන්න තියනවා ”

අනේ සර් මම ඔක්කොම කිව්වනේ. වෙපන් එක චුල්ලේ ලඟ මීගමු ගියොත් දැන් ඌව අල්ල ගන්නපුළුවන්.

හරි හරි ඒකට තමයි අපි යන්නේ කට වහගනිං”

බැද්දේ ශේප් එකේ පිටිපස්සට ගෙනිහිල්ලා මූව වාහනේට දාපං,  දැන් සරුත් එනවා.

සාජන් හරිද වැඩේ?

හරි සර් පොර වාහනේ”

ඔකේ එහෙනං දැන් පිටත් වෙමු 

ආ කස්ටිය හරිද ?

හරි සර්

අනේ සර් මාව කොහේද ගෙනියන්නේ මේ ?

හෙඩ්ක්වාටර්ස් බං මොකද බයද ? උඹල ගේම් දෙනකොට තිබ්බ බොක්ක කෝ දැං ?

අනේ සර් මම ඔක්කොම කිව්වනේ වෙපන් එක චුල්ලේ ලඟ”

වෙපන් එකක් ගැන නෙවයි මම අහන්නේ ආරියදාස​ මුදලාලි මැරුවේ කව්ද ?

සර් මම නෙවෙයි ”

උඹ නෙවෙයි ? මූ තාමත් අපිව ගහේ අරිනවා නේද ?

අම්මපා සර් ආරියදාස​ මුදලාලි මැරුවේ වැළි චන්දරේ. ඌ තමයි සේප්පුවේ තිබ්බ සල්ලි ඔක්කොමත්ගත්තේ. මගේ කොටසවත් මට ලැබුනේ නැහැ ”

යකෝ උඹ කරපු ඔක්කොම චන්දරේගේ ඇඟට තියලා කපනවා නේද ?

නෑ සර් මම කිව්වේ සහතික ඇත්ත 

අම්මප ? ඉතින් දැන් කොහොමද හගිස්සන්නේ ? චන්දරේ නැහැනේ”

ඇයි සර් චන්දරේට මොකද උනේ?

මොකද උනේ?  අපි චන්දරේව ගල් කරා ඌත් උඹ වගේ අපිට පානිය දාගෙන ආවා. ඇත්ත කිව්වේනැත්තං උඹවත් අපි ගල් කරනවා”

සර් මම කිව්වේ ඔක්කොම ඇත්ත ”

කිව්වේ ඔක්කොම ඇත්ත එතකොට බෙන්තොට කෙල්ලව දූෂණය කරේ කව්ද?

 සර් මම කවදාවත් කෙල්ලෙක්ගේ කැමැත්තක් නැතිව අතක්වත් තියන්නේ නැහැ රොබරිය දීලාගම්පොළ සනා කෙල්ලවත් ඇදගෙන වී ගබඩාවට ගියා. ඌ තමයි වැඩේ දුන්නේ 

එතකොට කෙල්ලගෙ කට උත්තරේ තියෙන්නේ උඹත් බලහත්කාරයෙන් ඒකි එක්ක හිටියා කියලා?

 මම දන්නේ නැහැ සර්

මම දන්නේ නැහැ ? තෝ ඔක්කොම ගේම් දීලා දැං බබා පාට් නේ.  සාජන් මූව හොඳට තද කරලාඅල්ලගෙන ඉන්ඩ , මූ ආමි එකේ එස් ඕ පී කෝස් කරපු එකෙක් 

අනේ නෑ සර් මම හමුදාවේ එච්චර කාලයක් හිටියේ නැහැ 

කටවහගනිං මට කෝල් එකක් එනවා 

හලෝ”

ඔව් සර් ”

එහෙමයි සර් ,

 දැන් යනිං ගමන් සර් , එදා ගිය ටීම් එක යන්නේ ”

බොල්ගොඩ සර් ”

හරි සර් ප්‍රශ්නයක් නෑ සර්  ”

හරි සර් මම ඒක නියමට බලා ගන්නං ”

ඕකේ සර් වැඩේ ඉවර වෙලා මම මැසේජ් එකක් දෙන්නං  ”

ඕකේ සර්”

බණ්ඩාර පොට් එකට ගිහිල්ලා මූණ ඉස්සරහට තියලා පාක් කරන්ඩ ”

හරි සර්”

ආ මෙතන දාන්ඩ”

සාජන්,  රත්නේ එක්ක මූව බස්ස ගන්ඩ , බැද්දේ පොඩ්ඩක් ඉස්සරහා වොච් එකේ ඉන්ඩ

හරි සර්”

අඩෝ බැහැපං ”

සාජන් මහත්තයා මාව කොහෙද ගෙනාවේ ”

උඹව ගෙනාවේ නාවන්ඩ , නොදකිං මූ ලඟ ගස් ගඳ බැහැපිය වතුරට පරයා

සර් මට කළුවරේ මොකුත් පේන්නේ නැහැ , අනේ සර් මම ඔක්කොම කිව්වනේ . සර් මට පොඩි ළමයි දෙන්නෙක් ඉන්නවා ”

ළමයි පස්සේ බලන්ඩ පුළුවං දැන් ඔහොම අඩිය තියපිය තෝ වැටෙන්නේ නැහැ අපි අල්ලගෙනඉන්නේ”

සාජන් මහත්තයා මට තව අඩියක්වත් යන්ඩ බැහැ මට මොකක් ද කරන්න යන්නේ මම කෑගහනවා ”

කෑගන්ඩ ? රත්නේ උස්සපං මුගේ කකුල් දෙකෙං, ඔහොම ගනිං දැං ඔබපං වතුරේ. කෝ අල්ලපංහරියට ඔබපං ඔළුව යටටම. යකෝ හයියෙං ඔබපිය ගැම්ම බුරුල් කරන්ඩ එපා හු…පුතෝ. බැද්දේඉක්මනට වරෙං මුගේ කකුල් දෙක තද කරලා අල්ල ගනිං , මූට අමර හයියක් තියෙන්නේ ”

කස්ටිය බලාගෙන  ඇඟට මොකුත් කරන්ඩ මාක් තියන්ඩ එපා. තව යටට කරලා අල්ලගෙන ඉන්ඩ”

හරි සර් , බැද්දේ කකුල් පොඩ්ඩක් උස්සපං ඔළුව තව යට යන්ඩ ඕනේ. යකෝ රත්නේ උඹ ගැම්මබුරුල් කරන්ඩ එපා. මූ තමත් දඟලනවා ”

ඔන්න ඔහොම ඔබං හිටපං ”

තව තව මම කියනකං අත අරින්ඩ එපා ”

තව ඔබං හිටපං ”

ඔන්න ඔහොම ඔය තියෙන්නේ ”

මම කියනකං අල්ලං හිටපං ”

තව තව ”

සාජන් මහත්තයා මූට වැඩේ හරි වගේ පොර සයිලන්ස්  උණා ”

නැහැ නැහැ තව ඔබං හිටපං”

කොහොමද වැඩේ නැගලා යනවද ?

සර් මූට මාර ගැම්මක් තිබුනේ අපි තුන් දෙනෙක්ටවත් මේච්චල් කරන්ඩ අමාරු උණා

හරි තව විනාඩි දහයක් විතර අල්ලගෙන ඉන්ඩ උඩට ගන්ඩ එපා ”

රත්නේ මූව තව ටිකක ගැඹුරට ගෙනියමු ,  බය නැතුව වරෙං යකෝ මෙතන මඩ නැහැ ”

ඔන්න ඔහොම තව අල්ලගෙන හිටපං,  ඇඟං අල්ලන්ඩ එපා යකෝ මාක් හිටිනවා සේට් එකෙන්අල්ලපං ”

බැද්දේ  පොඩ්ඩක් කකුල්  පාත දාපං”

හරි අයියට බඩු බනිස් වගේ ”

බැද්දේ තව අල්ලගෙන හිටපං තාම ගන්ඩ එපා ”

පොඩ්ඩක් අත බුරුල් කරලා බලපං මූ දඟලනවද කියලා  ”

නෑ සාජන් මහත්තයා මම කිව්වේ මූට සැට් කියලා ”

හරි හරි අත ගන්ඩ එපා යන්තං බුරුලට තියාගෙන හිටපං ”

සාජන් කොහොමද වැඩේ ”

සර් පොරගේ වැඩේ හරි වගේ ”

එහෙනං බොඩි එක තව  ඈතට දාලා මැසෙජ් එක ගහමු. ”

බැද්දේ මූගේ සේට් එකෙන් ඇදගෙන ගිහිල්ලා වැව මැද්දට දාපං ඒ කරලා ඉක්මනට පීනගෙන වරෙංතව ටිකකිං සර් මැසේජ් එක යවයි”

හරි සාජන් මහත්තයා”

රත්නේ මුගේ බාටා දෙක ජීප් එකේ , ඒ දෙකත් ඔන්න ඔය​ ඉවුර පැත්තට විසි කරපං ”

******************************************************

පැය තිස් හයකට පසු : පසුගිය දා බොල්ගොඩ වැවේ ඉවුරේ සගවා ඇති ආයුධ සේවීමටසැකරුවකු ගෙන යාමේ දී අදාළ සැකකරු මාංචු පිටින් වතුර​ට පැන, අත් අඩංගුවෙන් පැනයාමටඋත්සාහ කිරීමේ දී දියේ ගිලී මිය  ගිය බව පොලිස් මාධ්‍ය ප්‍රකාශක සඳහන් කලේය. මෙම සැකකරු හමුදාවේ සිට පළාවිත් මංකොල්ලකෑම් සහ ස්ත්‍රී දූෂණ වල යෙදුණු අයෙකු බව පොලිස් මාධ්‍යප්‍රකාශක වැඩි දුරටත් සඳහන් කරයි.

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

They say that fish keep going around the tank wall because he forgets where he was  >>>>> >

We Sri Lankans are also like fish

January 2015 people were fed with information about nepotism and corruption –Now forgotten

Millions in Dubai –now forgotten

Sunday leader’s murder –Forgotten

Kollonnawa garbage problem during heavy rains –Now forgotten

Fan of a foreign singer throwing a bra and creates chaos. And president promised to use tail of the  fish  -Now forgotten

Mega deals by a yahaplanaya minster   leasing our harbours –         Now forgotten

ETCA –           Almost forgotten

GMOA and SAITEM –    Forgotten

Noise pollution by Pann Chuun Three wheelers       -Forgotten

Sajin and Basil locked up –Forgotten

Good looking female MP’s upper hand in law enforcement -Forgotten

Seya;s muder –forgotten

Thajudeen muder still making ripples but almost forgotten

Tusks destroyed in Galle Face spending colossal amount  money      -Forgotten

Danno Budunge song sung by a soprano in Galle Face  Forgotten

TV presenter calling her  a Howling Cat                   Forgotten

Extended Power Cuts  –Will be forgotten when rain comes

We live with anxiety and continue to live with  hopes because of our media

Media can manipulate the whole nation   We keep looking for new episodes to keep our memory live

I listen to a renown Buddhist monk who recited a sermon and said that the  Last bit of Memory Coming to your Mind before you die ( your good and bad deeds) decides where you are reborn irrespective of good Karma ( good deeds) you have committed

If it is about some evil act your neighbour did to you and you had a hatred towards him  and it is the last thing  coming to your mind before you die ,you may be re-borne  as an animal in his garden  like a porcupine and destroy all his crops !!or  urban monkey eating all the bananas ( like what is happening to me now though I am still NOT DEAD !)

I told my wife that old people get dementia because they have done many good deeds ,,, what ever  bad karma they would have committed will not come to your mind before you die as you have Cronic Dimentia”

In our country I think we have some sort of Dimentia and I am happy about it as I can forget and forego !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Dr. Ruwan M Jayatunge

We have lost the art of living, and in the most important science of all, the science of daily life, the science of behavior, we are complete ignoramuses. We have psychology instead.  -D. H. Lawrence  

Author D.H. Lawrence is one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Lawrence has been praised for his stories that explore human nature through frank discussions of sex, psychology, and religion. The work and life of D. H. Lawrence is providing a rich source of material for examination of the respective importance in personality development of Oedipal conflict and the pre-Oedipal establishment of a sense of self.   Lawrence‟s works are therefore the accumulation of repressed memories

His famous novel Sons and Lovers is considered as more of a biographical fiction. However the setting, characters, plot, theme, and tone of the book are changed from their factual model into a fictitious model. According to Anthony Beal in D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers (is) the autobiographical novel that tells so much about the first twenty-five years of his life, about his family and friends and society in which he grew up. In this novel Lawrence reexamined his childhood, his relationship with his mother, and her psychological effect on his sexuality.  Sons and Lovers, which projects the young Lawrence persona’s struggle between life and death, partly accounts for a deepening sensitivity to life and death in modern society in Lawrence’s subsequent works.

The novel depicts the lower class in English coal-mining town in Nottinghamshire. Sons and Lovers tell the story of the Morel family, and in particular, of Paul Morel. Paul witnesses family violence and his mother’s unhappy marriage to an uneducated alcoholic coalminer. His mother Gertrude who is bitterly unhappy with her married life devotes all her love and ambition to Paul.

Paul’s conflict between his love for his mother and his need to grow up and have sexual experience are central to the novel. Also Gertrude’s jealousy towards Paul’s girlfriends causes interpersonal unconscious conflicts in Paul. Paul cannot expand towards the universe in normal activity and form an independent sex interest because for him his mother has become the universe; she stands between him and life and the other woman. Trembled between his unconscious desire for his mother and attraction to his girlfriend Paul finally ended up in relationship failure. After the death of his mother Gertrude, Paul goes in to a dramatic psychological transformation.

Sons and Lovers is primarily a study of human relationships. Divided into two parts, Sons and Lovers presents to us in the first part of the book a vivid illustration of family life of the Morels, their working class condition, childhood growth, games, and problems and festivities, the little amount of money they make and the debts they owe. The theme of interest split between father and mother is constructively portrayed. The second part of the novel poses to us the theme of struggle for Paul’s soul between his mother and Miriam, a girl that lives in a small farm with her family near the Morels.

The novel has a form, which is governed by its inner logic and is rigorously controlled by an idea. It is not a mere chronological account of a family. Lawrence’s primary interest lies in the spiritual and psychological development of his characters.

Sigmund Freud rebelled against the Victorian idea that children are asexual. Freud stated that psychological evolution of the emotion of love as finally expressed by a man or a woman towards a member of the other sex. According to psychoanalysts Sons and Lovers reflects one of Freud’s most famous theories is the Oedipus complex.

As indicated by Freud man usually falls in love for the first time in his life with the image of his mother. When the boy grows up a little, his super ego gets activated.   As he grows older, his super ego is suppressed by his ego. The protagonist Paul, in this novel is trapped by the conflict between his ego and super ego.

The Oedipus complex of Freud is based on the inevitability of the tragic fate of a man who fled his home to escape the prophecy of parricide. Thus, he fulfilled it by killing a stranger who proved to be his father. The meaning of Sophocles’ play Oedipus the King is found to lie in the clash between Oedipus’ omnipotent narcissism (hubris) and the power of the unconscious psyche, rather than in cross-generational sex. As Freud does, this consideration of the tragedy of Oedipus takes as its point of departure the inevitability of the confrontation between father and son. Paul has deep resentment towards his father and unconsciously sees him as a competitor. When the father is dead the completion is over. Paul’s passions upon his mother and the mother’s upon him are quietly mutual.

Freud’s theory of the oedipal complex, however, held that the heterosexual outcome was the “normal” resolution, while the homosexual outcome represented arrested sexual development. In the normal resolution the boy identifies as a male with the father, gives up the mother as a love object, and later substitutes another woman of his choice for the mother.  He suggests that infantile sexuality is bisexually orientated the final object choice due to repression of either homosexual or heterosexual desires.

On the evidence of Sons and Lovers, neither Lawrence as author nor Paul as a character in the novel appear to master their deepest feelings towards the mother. Paul never utters a single word against her gentle but unyielding rule, trying to contain his violently conflicting emotions, wildly alternating from admiration and compassion to anger and despair. But at the end Paul finds a new direction.

………”Mother!” he whispered—”mother!” She was the only thing that held him up, himself, amid all this. And she was gone, intermingled herself. He wanted her to touch him, have him alongside with her. But no, he would not give in. Turning sharply, he walked towards the city’s gold phosphorescence. His fists were shut, his mouth set fast. He would not take that direction, to the darkness, to follow her. He walked towards the faintly humming, glowing town, quickly.

(Sons and Lovers D.H. Lawrence)

At the end of the novel, Paul takes a major step in releasing himself from his Oedipus complex. He intentionally overdoses his dying mother with morphia, an act that reduces her suffering but also subverts his Oedipal fate, since he does not kill his father, but his mother.

1. H. Lawrence felt that society made people lifeless and unreal, and that the class system was pernicious. Lawrence believed in the ‘life force’, in Nature, its beauty and its power. He also believed passionately in man’s natural instincts; he believed that sexual feeling between a man and woman was natural and should be celebrated. He was the first novelist in western culture to attempt to explore sexuality seriously and frankly.

References

Bragan, K.(21986). D. H. Lawrence and Self-Psychology. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry Volume 20, Issue 1.

Clark M.(2009).Suppose Freud had chosen Orestes instead.J Anal Psychol. 2009 Apr;54(2):233-52.

Datan N.(1988).The Oedipus Cycle: developmental mythology, Greek tragedy, and the sociology of knowledge.Int J Aging Hum Dev.  ;27(1):1-10.

de Kuyper E.(1993).The Freudian construction of sexuality: the gay foundations of heterosexuality and straight homophobia.J Homosex.  ;24(3-4):137-44.

Gutierrez D.(1980).D.H. Lawrence and modern destructiveness.Suicide Life Threat Behav.10(4):219-29.

Haritatou, N.(2012).Emotion and the Unconscious: The Mythicization of Women in Sons and Lovers.

Heenen-Wolff S.(2011).Infantile bisexuality and the ‘complete oedipal complex’: Freudian views on heterosexuality and homosexualityInt J Psychoanal.  ;92(5):1209-20.

Kuttner,A.B.(1916).  “`Sons and Lovers’: A Freudian Appreciation,” in The Psychoanalytic Review , Vol. III, No. 3.

Mbanefo, O.S. (2013).Psycho-Analysis in Fiction and a Study of D. H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers. AFRREV LALIGENS, Vol.2 (1).

Niazi,N.(2013). A Stylistic Analysis of D.H. Lawrence’s ‘Sons and Lovers. International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature    Vol. 2 No. 4 .

Sons and Lovers. Teachers Notes. Penguin Readers Retrieved From http://www.penguinreaders.com/pdf/downloads/pr/teachers-notes/9781405880114.pdf

මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ (පා.ම) හිටපු ජනාධිපති

H. L. D. Mahindapala

I wish to forward the following e-mail I received from Mr. Ramachandra Sunderalingam, the Police Superintendent of Jaffna when the Maviddipuram revolt of the low-castes was at its peak. I think this letter has value for research students digging deep into the caste issue in Jaffna. It  is an insightful first-hand account of an eye-witness who actively participated in the negotiations with his  namesake, C. Suntheralingam (CS), the casteist firebrand who was leading the Vellahla counter-attack to keep out the low-castes storming the gates of Maviddipuram Temple. It also reveals the tightly-knit  caste network of  the Vellahlas who were pulling  for each other from  their commanding  positions  in strategic places.

Mark you, CS was a professor  of mathematics and had been a Cabinet Minister in the Cabinet of D. S. Senanayake, the first Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. CS  is the archetypical Vellahlite who combined in him the two main characteristics that defined a Vellahla : 1. casteism and 2. racism. He was well-known for running down the Sinhalese saying: Sinhalaya modaya, kavun kanda yodaya. As revealed in this letter CS went as far as the Privy Council to defend Vellahla supremacy denying the low-castes their basic right of worshipping the shared Hindu God/s. Readers  will also remember that  another star Vellahla leader, Ponnambalam Ramanathan, too went to London to urge the colonial masters to legalise the caste system in the interests of the people of  Jaffna. Which, of course, meant the Vellahla ruling  elite.

Mr. Sunderalingam retired from Sri Lanka Police and served in the top rungs of Interpol located in Paris. He now  lives in Chennai. Here’s the full text of Mr. Sunderalingam’s letter:

Dear Mahinda,

Just returned to Chennai from Hyderabad. A Lecture at the Police Academy. Well, you have written a thesis on Vellala caste Tamils in the Jaffna Penninsula. A well researched  analysis. My input will be minimum, confined to my personal experience and happenings on caste disputes during my 6 year tenure in Jaffna as SP Northern Province. It was  a fact the Vellalla community, considered the High Caste, dominated all political and economic activities in the Peninsula for decades in the pre-Independent and post-Independent Ceylon. In 1970 all Jaffna MPs were Vellallas. If one had visited  a village in Jaffna, one could have  observed that the Vellalas lived in residential area in well built houses, the lower castes always lived in clusters in the outskirts in cadjan sheds doing daily menial  work for the high caste Vellalla Hindus and Christians. To be fair,  Christians were more compassionate. It was during the sixties the  so called depressed classes including  Nalavas, Pallars, Parayas etc etc woke up , thanks to Mr Shanmugathasan and his Peking-wing  set up a Minority” (low-caste) front  to fight for their rights

Prevention of Social Disabilities act 1957 was only an act in the statute book to deal with social disabilities based on caste discrimination, more applicable to Jaffna Penninsula. The bubble burst with the Maviddapuram Temple Dispute in 1968. My namesake Mr C. Sunderalingam (CS), a fanatic, put up a barricade in front  of the Temple dividing  the area. The  outside area was exclusively for the Lower castes while a separate entrance was erected for the so-called Vellala caste people to walk closer to the inner sanctum.

I visited the Temple with a Police Squad when tensions were running high. I saw CS, with a walking stick, ordering the Palla community worshippers to do  their worshipping by standing  behind the barricade. They were not allowed to enter the sacred area reserved only for the upper caste. In the meantime, GA Jaffna, Vernon Abeysekera, and Mr Stanley Senanayake, SP Special Operations Anti-Immigration, KKS also arrived on the scene.  Negotiations failed and free-for-all occurred between CS group and Minority group. It was not a major clash. Only a few were injured.

I mentioned to CS that he was morally bound to open the Temple to all persons alike or close the Temple doors for everyone.  I remember telling him God  is equal to every one standing before him. Mediation with CS failed and Temple doors were closed. In one of the telegrams sent by CS to IGP and PM  he alleged that  the SP was acting as a Dictator and asked for my removal. PM Dudley Senanayake was well briefed by IGP. PM’s response : Let the Sundaralingama fight it out”. The next morning Sunday Observer headlined The Battle of the Sundaralingams rages in the North.”  Police filed a plaint against CS under the Social Disabities Act.  Same time CS filed action against me for Unlawful Assembly etc in Mallakam Courts.

The Magistrate was a die-hard Vellalla who was determined to go for trial. I went to Colombo, and met Attorney General, Mr Victor Tennakoon. By virtue of his position under the criminal procedure he  had the right to withdraw any private plaint filed against any Government official. When the State counsel appeared in Court with A/G’s letter  on the next date, this caste-minded Magistrate rejected   A/G’s plea and  document. Believe me, this case  went up to Supreme Court (SC) in Colombo. It overuled the Magistrate’s order and granted  my discharge.  In the meantime, Police filed action against CS   under Social Disabilities Act and he was fined Rs 100. 00 and warned. When, however, SC upheld the Magistrate’s order  CS went to Privy Council.  With his personal appearance he was hopeful that the conservative Lords  will accept his arguments based on the customs and traditions  of the Jaffna Tamils but the Privy Council upheld the SC order. Mr Gratien appeared for the Govt of Ceylon. This was the last Privy Council case from Sri Lanka with no more appeals after that ( I believe).

Aftermath- Maviddapuram Temple was closed, with an injunction filed by AG  restraining CS and the Maviddapuram High Priest. My evidence was recorded for 3 days in District Court of Jaffna.  In 1971 a Parliamentary Committee composed of Pieter Keuneman, Leslie Goonewardena and Cholomondely Gunawardena, with my recommendation, passed a new amendment to 1957 Act with more stringent  provisions

Caste discrimination prevailing in Jaffna,  no doubt, initially led to  the growth of extremist  Tamil Youth Movements. One Sivakumar, identfiied as a Militant Youth leader before Prabaharan in 1970, planned a campaign in the Peninsula for a common sit-down meal comprising all-caste youth in one sitting. This was a movement to get all youths of all castes together. Sivakumar was suspected in two bomb throwing incidents, including  Alfred Duraippah’s car bomb  incident, during this period. To begin with, all Youth leaders of the LTTE came from VVT  Karaiyar  caste.

I have always stated that the detention of Rohana Wijeweera in Jaffna 1971 and JVP attack on Jaffna Jail was an inspiration to Jaffna Youth. The cry in Jaffna was : If Sinhala Youths can revolt  against Government what are we doing? From one perspective, it can be argued that Rohana  Wijieweera created Prabahaharan (?).

You are free to quote me in the incidents and happenings in Jaffna during my tenure in Jaffna.

Best wishes to your wife

Sunda
PS : On a personal note, may I add that Sunda’s family and my family have been close from our salad days.  In fact, my wife and I shared one  wing of the palatial house of his equally famous brother, Dr. S. Pararajasingham, the eye surgeon, at Turret Road, almost opposite  the Liberty Cinema. My wife and I lived as  his guest for years. Dr. Pararajasingham worked  as a volunteer with Fred Hollows, attending  to the optical needs of Aborigines in remote places in the  Northern Territory. Later he  joined WHO. My wife and I are grateful to  his generosity. We are privileged to  be friends of such a distinguished family, 

චන්ද්‍රසේන පණ්ඩිතගේ විසිනි

හිටපු ජනාධිපතිණි චන්ද්රිකා කුමාරතුංග ම හත්මිය පසුගියදා අපූරු කථාවක් සිදුකලාය. ඒ මෙසේය.

“අපි දැක්ක පහුගිය අවුරුදු 9යේ, 10 වෙච්ච දේවල්, ව්යාපෘති කරනවා කියල කරපු දේවල් කලේ නැහැ කියන්නේ නැහැ. ඒ ව්යාපෘතියට යා යුතු වාගේ දෙකහමාරක මුදලක්, වැඩියෙන් දාලා ඉතිරි එකහමාර ඒගොල්ලන්ගේ සාක්කුවට දාගන්නවා. නොරොච්චෝලෙ ගැන මට කථාවක් තියෙනවා, මම නොරොච්චෝලෙට අත්සන් තැබුවේ. ප්රෙජෙක්ට්ස් 6ක් මම අත්සන් කෙරුවා. හම්බන්තොට වරාය මම අත්සන් කරපු එකක්. නෙලුම් පොකුණ කියන එක හරි ලස්සන ව්යාපෘතියක් අද ඒක කක්කුසි පෝච්චියක් වගේ, කැතම කැත ජරාවක් හදල තියෙන්නේ, කාගෙ වත්කම්ද? දැන් ඒවා ගෙවාගන්න බැරුව, අපේ පිට මේවා ඔක්කොම ඇවිල්ල තියෙන්නේ. කවුද දන්නෙ නැහැ මේ පක්ෂෙ ඉන්නවා.මොකක්ද නමක් තියෙනවා, ඩලස්ද, මොකක්ද කියල මේ මිනිහා, කොහෙද කියල තියෙනවා ප්රෙස් කොන්ෆරන්ස් එකක, චන්ද්රිකා, පක්සෙ ලාංඤනය යූ. ඇන්. පී එකට භාර දෙන්න ගියාලු. මේ මිනිස්සු භාර දෙන්න යනකොට අපි ජීවිතය පරදුවට තියෙලා, මේකට සටන්කරලා මැතිණියගේ නායකත්වය බේරගෙන පක්ෂය බේරගත්තෙ. ඒ මිනිහා පක්ෂය ගැන දන්නේ නැහැ. තව මාසෙකින් සිරිමා බණ්ඩාරනායක මැතිණියගේ 100 වෙනි උපන් අවුරුද්ද අප්රේල් 17 වෙනිදා. පක්ෂය මුකුත් හිතලා නැහැ. පක්ෂය මුකුත් කෙරෙන් නැහැ කියන කොට ඒක ලොකු ලැජ්ජාවක් අපට. ඒක නිසා තමුන්නාන්සේලා මොකක්හරි හිතන්න, දුව හැටියට මට මුකුත් කියන්න බැහැ අරක කරන්න මේක කරන්න කියලා, මොකක් හරි කරන්න හිතාගන්න, නිකම් ගිහිල්ලා මල්ටික තියෙන එක නෙමෙයි. ඊට වැඩිය දෙයක් කෙරෙන්න ඕනි.”

ඔනෑම  පුද්ගලයෙක් කථාවක් කිරීමට පෙර සලකා බැලිය යුතු කරුණු කීපයක් තිබේ.

1. තමා සිදුකරන කථාවේ අරමුණ.

2.කථාව සිදු කරන තමා හා කථාවට සවන්දෙන සමාජය අතර ඇති සබැදියාව.

3. කථා කිරීමට භාවිතා කරන භාෂාවේ විලාෂය යනාදියයි.මිනිසෙකු සතු ප්රභලම ආයුධ වලින් එකක් වනුයේ ඔහු සතු වචන සමුදාය හා ඒවා භාවිතා කරන ආකාරයයි. වචන නිසි ආකාරයට භාවිතා කිරීම හා නොකිරීම මත, මිනිසෙකුගේ නැගී සිටීම හා පිරිහීමද සිදවන බැවින් මෙතුමිය විසින් සිදු කරන ලද මේ කථාව, සාමාන්ය ජන මනස විසින් අවබෝධ කරගන්නේ කෙසේදැයි යන්න තේරුම් ගැනීම ඉතා වැදගත් වේ. රටේ සාමාන්ය ජනතාව වන අප, ගුවන් විදුලියේ හෝ රූපවාහිනියේ ඇති සෑම පුද්ගලයෙකුගේම කථා අසන්නෝ නොවෙමු. අපට චන්ද්රිකා කුමාරතුංග මහත්මිය, එක්තරා යුගයකදී අප රට පාලනය කල රාජ්ය නායිකාව යන ගෞරවය අප හදතුල ඇත.. ඒ ඇයට දක්වන විශේෂ ගෞරවයක් නොව, ඒ යුගයේදී ඇය විසින් දරණ ලද පදවියට දක්වන ගෞරවයයි. ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම, ඇය එක්තරා යුගයකදී මෙරට පාලනය කල රැජිණයයි හැදින්වුවද වරදක් නැත. එවන් ගෞරවණීය තලයක සිටින  මහත්මියකගෙන් අප සමාජය හැම විටෙකම අපේක්ෂා කරන්නේ උදාර කථා විලාශයක් හා හරවත් කථාවක්ය. නමුත් මේ කථාවෙන් ඇය සිදුකරන්නේ කුමක්ද? මේ කථාව තුල ගැබ්ව ඇත්තේ මොනවාද යන්න සමාජය සාකච්ඡා කල යුතුම තත්වයකට පත් ව ඇත.

ඇය පලමුව කියන්නේ, 1. “අපි දැක්ක පහුගිය අවුරුදු 9යේ, 10 වෙච්ච දේවල්, ව්යාපෘති කරනවා කියල කරපු දේවල් කලේ නැහැ කියන්නේ නැහැ.”

ඇය පසුගිය රජයේ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට එරෙහිව නැගී සිටින්නේ එසේය. ඇය ඉතා හොදට දැක ඇත. මොනවද ඇය දැක ඇත්තේ? පසුගිය අවුරුදු 9යේ 10 යේ වෙච්ච දේවල්ය. ව්යාපෘති කරනවා කියලා කරපු දේවල් ඇය දැක ඇත. හැබැයි ඇයට මුකුත්ම මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ රජය කලේ නැහැ කියන්නට ශක්තියක් නැත. ඒ නිසා ” කරපු දේවල් කලේ නැහැ කියන්නේ නැහැ.” යනුවෙන් ඇයට පැවසීමට‌ සිදුව තිබේ. ඒ කියන්නේ ඇයට, “මහින්ද මොනවද කලේ?” යන ප්රශ්නය ඇසීමට නොහැකි බව ඇයම එක්තරා ආකාරයකට පිලිගෙන ඇත.

සාමාන්ය ජනතාව, මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ විසින් සිදු කරන ලද කාර්යයන් ඉතා හොදට දන‌්නා අතර, ඔවුන් නොදන්නේ, චන්ද්රිකා කුමාරතුංග මහත්මිය විසින් ඇගේ පාලන කාලය තුල සිදුකල රටේ සංවර්ධනයට උරදෙන කාර්යයන් මොනවාද යන්නයි. එමනිසා ඔවුන්ට කිසිදු චකිතයකින් තොරව “ගරු හිටපු ජනාධිපතිතුමියණි,  ඔබ විසින් රට පාලන සමයේදී සිදු කරන ලද ව්යාපෘතින් මොනවාද?” යන ප්රශ්නය ඇසිය හැකිව තිබේ.. මෙරට සාමානම්ය ජනතාවට අනුව, ඔබතුමියගේ පාලන සමයේදී රටට ලබාදුන් කිසිදු සංවර්ධන  ව්යාපෘතියක් දක්නට නැත. ඔවුන් වැරදි නම් ඔවුන්ව කරුණාකර නිවැරදි කරනු මැනව.

ඔබතුමියගේ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට ඇති මීලග චෝදනාව වන්නේ, 2. “ඒ ව්යාපෘතියට යා යුතු වාගේ දෙකහමාරක මුදලක්, වැඩියෙන් දාලා ඉතිරි එකහමාර ඒගොල්ලන්ගේ සාක්කුවට දාගන්නවා.” යන්නයි.මෙරට ජනතාව ඔබතුමියට ඒ සම්බන්ධව අභියෝග නොකරන අතර,. ඊට හේතුව වන්නේ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ එසේ කලාද? නොකලාද යන ප්රශ්නය ඔවුනට, එතරම් වැදගත් නොවන බැවිණි. නමුත් මෙරට ජනතාවට වැදගත් වන්නේ ජනතාව වෙනුවෙන් පාලකයා විසින් සිදුකරන ලද කාර්යයන් මොනවාද යන්නයි. ඒ අනුව, මෙරට ජනතාව, මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා විසින් සිදු කරන ලද උසස්ම කාර්යය වශයෙන්, ප්රභාකරන් මිනීමරුවාව විනාශ කොට, ජනතාව ත්රස්තවාදයෙන් ගලවා ගැනීම හදුනාගෙන ඇත.. ඒකත් මෙරට ජනතාවට, අනුව ව්යාපෘතියක්ය. ඔබතුමියට අනුව මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා ඒ ව්යාපෘතියෙනුත් සාක්කුවට අර කිව්ව එකහමාර දමා ගන්න ඇතැයි සිතුවද, ප්රභාකරන් මහත්තයාව විනාශ කිරීමට එතුමා විසින‌් වැයකල මුදල කීයක් වුවද, මේ රටේ ජනතාව ඒ සම්බන්ධව කිසිවෙක් කථා කරනවාටත් කැමත්තක් දක්වන්නේ නැත්තේ, පෙර සිටි පාලක පාලිකාවන් මිනිස් ජීවිත රකිනවාට වඩා මුදල නම් වූ කඩදාසි කැබලි පසු පස හඹාගිය ආකාරය සම්බන්ධව දන්නා බැවිණි. කීයක් වැය වුනද මෙරට සිදුකල එෙතිහාසික වශයෙන් ඉහලම කාර්ය මෙය බව ජනතාව හදුනාගෙන ඇත.

ගරු හිටපු ජනාධිපතිතුමියණි, ප්රභාකරන්ව, මරා දැමීම, මෙරට ජනතාවට වටින්නේය. ඒ ඔහු ඔබතුමියගේ පාලන කාලය තුලදී මේ රටට ලගාකරදුන් විනාසයන් දෙස බලන විටය.  වර්ෂ 1994 සිට වර්ෂ 2005 නොවැම්බර් මස 18 වෙනිදා දක්වා කාලය තුලදී, මේ රටේ පාලකයින් හා ත්රස්තවආදීන් එකාවන්ව මේ රට මහා විනාශයක් කරා ගමන් කරවමින් තිබූ ආකාරය සිහිපත් කලවිට මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා වේළුපිල්ලේව හා ඔවුන්ගේ ඇම්බැට්ටයින්ව විනාශ කිරීම යුගයේ සිදුකල විශාලම ව්යාපෘතිය බව ඉතිහාසය පෙන්වා දේ. ඒ යුගයේදී,  රාජ්ය පාලකයින් කිසිදු සංවර්ධනයක් සිදු නොකලේ යුද්ධය පෙන්නමිණි. ඔබතුමියගේ පාලන කාලයේදී, වර්ෂ 1995 සිට 2005 නොවැම්බර් මස 18 වෙනිදා දක්වා, ප්රභාකරන් මහත්මයා ඔබේ රජය පවතින කල සිදුකල ක්රියාකාරකම් මෙරට ජනතාව,
1. අහිංසක සිංහල ගම් ඉලක්ක කරගෙන සිදුකල වාරිගික පදනමින් කල ජන සංහාරයන්.

2. රජයේ ආර්ථික වශයෙන් වැදගත් ස්ථාන කේන්ද්රීය කරගත් විනාශ කරීම්
3. ආරක්ෂක අංශ ඉලක්ක කරගෙන සිදුකල ප්රහාරයන්.
4. ද්රවිඩ දේශපාලකයින් ඉලක්ක කරගෙන සිදුකල ප්රහාරයන් වශයෙන් හදුනාගෙන ඇත.

වර්ෂ 1995,දී ගම්මාන පිටින් කැතිගෑම හා නගරවල බෝම්බ පුපුරුවා හැරීමෙන් පොකුරු පිටින් මිනිසුන් මරාදැමීම සාමාන්ය දෙයකඅ බවට පත්ව තිබූ යුගයක, ඔක්තෝම්බර් 20 වෙනිදා, කොලොන්නාවේ තෙල් ගබඩා සංකීර්ණයට පහරදීම විශේෂිත පහරදීමක් විය.

වර්ෂ 1996 ජනවාරි මස 31 වෙනිදා මහා බැංකුවට එල්ල කරන ලද ප්රහාරයද අති විශේෂිත ප්රහාරයක් වන අතර, ලංකාවේ ආර්ථිකයට පහරදීම මෙහි ඉලක්කය විය.

වර්ෂ 1996දී ජූලි 18 වෙනිදා මුලතිව් කදවුරට පහරදී හමුදා බටයින් 1200කට අදික සංඛ්යාවක් ඝාතනයට ලක්කර් යටත් වුන සොල්දාදුවන් සිය ගනනක් පන පිටින් පුලුස්සා මරා දමන ලද්දේද, චන්දඅරිකා කුමාරතුංග ජනාධිපතිතුමියගේ යුගයේ වීම විශේෂිතය. ඊට දින හයකට පසුව දෙහිවල කෝච්චියක් තුල බෝම්බයක් පුපුරවා 70කට අධික ජනතාවක්ද මරා දමන ලදී.

වර්ෂ 1997 ඔක්තෝම්බර් 15 කොළඹ ලෝක වෙලද මශ්යස්ථානය ඉලක්ක කරගෙන පුපුරවන ලද බෝ්බයෙන් මිනිසුන්13 ඝාතනය කර, සිය ගනනකට බරපතල තුවාල සිදු කරන ලදී.

වර්ෂ 1998 ජනවාරි මස 25 වෙනිදා ශ්රී දළදා මාලිගාවට පහරදීමත්’ එම අවුරුද්දේම අගෝස්තු මස 29 වෙනිදා ලයන් එයාර් ගුවන් යානයට වෙඩිතබා මගීන් හා කාර්ය මණ්ඩලය 55 දෙනෙක් විනාශ  වූයේද චන්දඅරිකා කුමාරතුංග මැතිණියගේම පාලන සමයේදීය.

වර්ෂ 1998දී තවත් අමතක නොවන ප්රහාරයක් දියත් කරන ලද්දේ කිලිනොච්චි හමුදා කදවුරට එරෙහිවය. එහිදී, හමුදා සබලුන් 1500කට අධික පිරිසක් ඝාතනයට ලක්වූ අතර, 500 කට අධික පිරිසක් අතුරුදන් වූවන් සේ සලකන ලදී, තවද 3000කට අධික සෙබලුන් තුවාල ලදහ. මේ අන්ත පරාජයට ලක්වන්නේද චන්ද්රිකා කුමාරතුංග සේනාධිනායිකාව ලෙස සිටි ස්රී ලංකා හමුදාවය.

වර්ෂ 1999 මෙරට යුධ ඉතිහාසයට ඉතා වැදගත් වර්ෂයකි. මේ වර්ෂයේදීන් සාමාන්ය ලෙස සිවිල් වැසියන් පොකුරු පිටින් ඝාතනය වන අතර,නොවැම්බර් මස 1 වෙනිදා සිදුවූ ඔඩ්ඩුසුඩාන් හමුදා කදවුරට පහරදීම තුලින් සොල්දාදුවන් 800කට වැඩි පිරිසක් මියගිය අත, සොල්දාදුවන් 1200ක් හමුදාව අතහැර පලා යෑමෙන් රටේ යුද්ධය මෙහෙයවන සේනාධිනායිකාව, යුද්ධය කරනවා නොව, තමන්ව මරා දැමීම සදහා සතුරා වෙත ගාලකර බාදෙන ආකායක් අවබෝධ කරගත්  බැවිණි.

වර්ෂ 1999 අප හමුදාවන්ට විශාල පරාජයන‌් අත්කර දෙමින්, දෙසැම්බර් 11-  වර්ෂ 2000 ජනවාරි මස 2 දක්වා වූ මසකට අඩු කාලය තුලදී,සොල්දාදුවන් 250කට අධික සංඛ්යාවක් මියගොස්, 2118 ආසන්න සංඛ්යාවක් තුවාල ලදහ. ඒ අතර, දෙසැම්බර් මස 18 වෙනිදා සේනාධිනායිකාව වූ ජනාධිපතිතුමියද බෝම්බ පහරකට ලක්ව එක ඇසකට බරපතල තත්වයකට පත්විය.

වර්ෂ 2000 අප්රේල් 22දින එලිෆන්ට්පාස හමුදා කදවුරට එල්ල කරන ලද ප්රහාරයෙන් හමුදා භ‌ටයිනම් විශාල සංඛ්යාවක් මරුමුවට පත්ව කදවුරේ පාලනයද අහිමි කරගන්නා ලදී. එයද සේනාධිනායිකාව වශයෙන් චන්ද්රිකා කුමාරතුංග මැතිණිය මෙරටට උරුම කරදුන් දැවැන්ත පරාජයකි

වර්ෂ 2001 ජූලි 24 වෙනිදා කතුනායක ගුවන් තොටුපලට සිදු කරන ලද බලවත් විනාශයත් සමගම වාගේ,ශ්රී ලංකා ජනරජයේ සේනාධිනායිකාව කොටි සංවිධානය ඉදිරියේ විවෘතවම යටත් වීමේ ස්වභාවයක් දක්වන ලද අතර, 2002දී සාම ගිවිසුමක් මගින් උතුරු නැගෙනහිර දෙපලාතම කොටි සංවිධානයේ පාලනයට නතු කර නිවට නියාලු ස්වභාවයක් රජය පාර්ෂවය පෙන්නුම් කරන ලදී.

රජය නිවටව කටයුතු කරන විට ස්වභාවය ප්රචණ්ඩව කොටි සංවිධානයට දැඩි ප්රහාරයක් එල්ල කිරීමත් සමගම කොටි සංවිධානය මහා අර්බූදකාරී තත්වයකට ඇද වැටුන වෙලේ,  ශ්රී ලංකාවේ සේනාධිනායිකාවට දකුණේ විනාශයන් ගොඩනංවමවාට වඩා, තමන් ලිඛිතව කොටි සංවිධානයට බාරදී තිබූ දෙපලාතට සුනාමි සහන මණ්ඩලය ලබාදීමට උත්සහ කිරීමේ හේතුවෙන් බලයෙන් ඉවත්ව යන්නට සිදුවිය. එහි ප්රතිඵලය වූයේ 2005 නොව‌ැම්බර් මස 18 වෙනිදා මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා ජනාධිපති ධූයට පත්වීමයි

දැන් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා අතට ශ්රී ලංකාවේ පාලන බලය හිමිව ඇත. ඇත්තටම කුමන ආකාරයක රටක්ද ඔහු අතට ලැබුණේ.?

1. 1. උතුරු නැගෙනහිර, දෙපලාතම, ලිඛිතව පාලනය, කොටි සංවිධානයට පැවරා තිබූ, උතුර හා නැගෙනහිර අහිමිවූ ශ්රී ලංකාවක පාලන බලය, චන්ද්රිකා කුමාරතුංග මැතිණිය ගෙන් පසු මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට උරුම විය.
2. හමුදා කදවුරු වලට ගාල් කරන ලද, සමාජය විසින් බිලි බෝයිලා වශයෙන් පරාධීනත්වයම උරුම කරණ ලද ආරක්ෂක හමුදාවක්, මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ජනාධිපති තුමා අතට භාර විය.
3. වසර 37ක් මුලුල්ලේ ගලායන යුද්ධය නිසා ගරා වැටී විනාශව ගිය යටිතල පහසුකම් සහිත රටක් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට බාරවිණි.

4.යුධ බියෙන් සලිත මානසික වාතාවරණයකින් පිරි ජනතාවක් සහිත රටක් ඔහුට බාර විිණි.

5. ඊට අමතරව, රටේ රාජ්ය දේපල වූ. ලංගමය, රක්ෂණ සංස්ථාව, ශ්රී ලන්කන් ගුවන් සේවය, වී අලෙවි මණ්ඩලය, සතොස, යන සියලූ ම රාජ්ය සම්පත් විකුණා දමා තිබූ රජයක් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට බාරවිය.
6. ජාත්යන්තර වශයෙන් කිසිදු රටක් පිලි නොගන්නා, සංචාරකයෙකුටවත් ලගා නොවන ලෙස ජාත්යන්තරය විසින්දැනුවත් කරන ලද රටක් උරුම විය.

2005 නොවැම්බර් මස 18 වෙනිදා බලය ලබාගත් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා,

1. හරියටම අවුරුදු 3 යි මාස 6ක් ගෙවෙන දිනයේදී, වසර 37ක් පුරා පැවති යුද්ධය නිමාකොට, මුලු රටේම ජනතාව යුද්ධයෙන් මියදෙන එක හා අණග විකලත්වයට පත්වෙන එක නවතා ලන ලදී

2.ලමා සොල්දාදුවන් වශයෙන් සිටි දරුවන් මරණින ් මුදවාගෙන ඔවුනට පාසල් දිවිය ආරම්භ කිරීමට මග සලසා ලන ලදී.

3. වසර 37 පුරා දිනෙන් දින සිදුවූ යටිතල පහසුකම්‌ිනාශයට තිතක් තබණ ලදී.

4.යුධ බිය නැති සමාජයක් ගොඩනංවන ලදී.

5.විකුණා දමා තිබූ ලංගමය, රක්ෂණ සංස්ථාව, ශ්රී ලන්කන් ගුවන් සේවය, වී අලෙවි මණ්ඩලය, සතොස,යලි පවරාගෙන යලි රාජ්ය ආයතන වශයෙන් පවත්වාගෙ යන ලදී. ඒ අනුව, චන්ද්රිකා කුමාරතුණග මැතිණියගේ යහපාලන රජයට ඉතිහාසයේ, දෙවැනි වරටත්, විකුණා දැමීමට බන්දේසියක් මත තබා ලංගමය, රක්ෂණ සංස්ථාව, ශ්රී ලන්කන් ගුවන් සේවය, වී අලෙවි මණ්ඩලය, සතොස, යන ආයතන ලබාදී ඇත්තේ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ පසුගිය රජය බව වැටහේ නම් එයද යම් දෙයකි.

6. ජාත්යනතරය තුල සංචාරකයින්ට ආරක්ෂිතම රටක් බවට පිලි ගන්වන්නටත් සංචාරකයින් පිරි දේශයක් බවට මේ දිවයින පත් කරන්නට මහින්ද රාජ පක්ෂ මහතාට හැකිවීම චන්ද්රිකා කුමාරතුංග මහත්මියගේ නොහැකියා‌ුෟුප්පා පෙන්වන පසුබිමක, එතුමියගේ කථාව සම්බන්ධව අපට ඇය ගැන හිරිකිතක් ඇතිව තිබේ.

7 මේ සියල්ලටම අමතරව,  අධිවේගී මාර්ග ජාලය ජනතාවගේ කාලය ඉතිරි කරමින්, ජනතාවගේ ආයුකාලය වර්ධනය කිරීම සම්බන්ධව අවබෝධ කර ගැනීමට තරම් බුද්ධියක් නැති ලක්ෂ 62ක් ජනතාවක් සමග චන්ද්රිකා කුමාරතුංග මහත්මියද පෙලගැසී සිටී.

ඇය මෙසේද කියයි. 3.නොරොච්චෝලෙ ගැන මට කථාවක් තියෙනවා, මම නොරොච්චෝලෙට අත්සන් තැබුවේ. ප්රෙජෙක්ට්ස් 6ක් මම අත්සන් කෙරුවා. හම්බන්තොට වරාය මම අත්සන් කරපු එකක්. නෙලුම් පොකුණ කියන එක හරි ලස්සන ව්යාපෘතියක් අද ඒක කක්කුසි පෝච්චියක් වගේ, කැතම කැත ජරාවක් හදල තියෙන්නේ, කාගෙ වත්කම්ද?

ගරු මැතිණියනි, ඔබතුමිය අත්සන් කර මුල්ගල් තැබූ සංඛ්යාව ඔබතුමිය කියන ආකාරයට 6ක් නම් නොවේ ඊට වඩා බොහෝ වැඩිය. නමුත් ඉදිවූ එකද ව්යාපෘතියක්වත් නැති බව නොකියාම බැරිය. ඔබගේ වචන වලට අනුව කක්කුසි පෝච්චියක්වන් නෙලුම් පොකුණ නම් වූ මහා රංගන ශාලාව අපට උරුමව ඇත. ඔබතුමිය සිටියා නම,් මේ වන විට එහි මුල්ගල පමණක් ඉතිරිව මුදල්ද අතුරුදහන් වෙන බව මෙරට ජනතාව දනී.

ඔබතුමිය අවසන් වශයෙන් ඉතා වැදගත් ප්රකාශයක් කලාය. ඒ මෙසේය.” තව මාසෙකින් සිරිමා බණ්ඩාරනායක මැතිණියගේ 100 වෙනි උපන් අවුරුද්ද අප්රේල් 17 වෙනිදා. පක්ෂය මුකුත් හිතලා නැහැ. පක්ෂය මුකුත් කෙරෙන් නැහැ කියන කොට ඒක ලොකු ලැජ්ජාවක් අපට. ඒක නිසා තමුන්නාන්සේලා මොකක්හරි හිතන්න, දුව හැටියට මට මුකුත් කියන්න බැහැ අරක කරන්න මේක කරන්න කියලා, මොකක් හරි කරන්න හිතාගන්න, නිකම් ගිහිල්ලා මල්ටික තියෙන එක නෙමෙයි. ඊට වැඩිය දෙයක් කෙරෙන්න ඕනි.”

අප ඔබ තුමියගෙන් ඉතා ගෞරවයෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටින්නේ මේ උතුම් කාන්තාවගේ සතුරන් සමග එකතුව, ඇයගේ ප්රතිපත්තීන්ට ගරහමින් සිදුකරන එෙතිහාසික විනාසය නවතා,එස්.ඩබ්ලිව් ආර්. ඩී බණ්ඩාරනායක හා සිරිමා බණ්ඩාරනායක යන නාමයන් ඉහලින් ඔසවා තැබීමට ඉදිරිපත් වෙන ලෙසයි.

නලින් ද සිල්වා

By Charles .S.Perera

Chairman,

The Committee of Public Representations on the Constitution(CPRC)

Secretarial Office,

Staple Street,

Colombo 2,

Dear Sir,

CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS

I hesitated to write before on the wisdom of writing a new Constitution to Sri Lanka at the present moment, as I am not quite sure of the independence of the Committee of inquiry.

However, I send this letter to record my protest  on the proposal to write a new Constitution to Sri Lanka at the present time, as there are others who hold my point of view.

Further more I believe that the present constitution even with its Article on Executive President is  quite a satisfactory Constitution.  It would be more so after the removal of the 13^th Amendment.

A country should not write a New Constitution each time a new Government is formed by a new Political system coming into power.  None of the developed countries in the world resort to that sort of a radical change in a country’s Constitution  with a change of a  political system.

It is my opinion that the 1978 Constitution  should be retained as the permanent Constitution of Sri Lanka, making changes to it whenever necessary, by Amendments.  

The 1978 Constitution had stood its ground until  2015, and it would serve its purpose for more years to come.  There was criticism in the use of the Constitutional procedure  for the impeachment of the Chief Justice in 2013. There was no error in the implementation of the Constitutional procedure for that impeachment.

It was   the wrong interpretation, for whatever reason , of the Article 107(3) of the Constitution given by the Supreme Court that raised the contention in the minds of some who were biased against the Previous President that the impeachment was not Constitutional.

However, if it is necessary to write a Constitution to Sri Lanka it should be done under a popular government of the people. The Yahapalanaya is a wrong word applied to the present Government.  It is for all intents and purposes a UNP Government  which is determined to carrying out UNP’s own programme  without consulting the Parliament or the people, with a false majority it claims to have. 

I give below the reasons why a new Constitution to Sri Lanka should NOT be written  by the present Government  led by President Maithripala Sirisena:

1,This Government proposing to write a new Constitution to Sri Lanka is not a National Government as it claims, which according to me is  the modus operandi of the present Government to mislead the people of Sri Lanka.

2, There is no National Government in Sri Lanka,  as the SLFP and the UNP cannot form a National Government.

3, In 1951 Mr.S.W.R.D.Bandaranayake broke away from UNP as he did not agree with UNP’s capitalist policies and set up a political party of the Panch Maha Balavegaya opposed to the UNP System.  Therefore, at no point of time could these two parties-UNP and SLFP,  politically poles apart  form a National Government.

Those  members of the SLFP including the President Maithripala Sirisena in joining hands with the UNP to form a pseudo National Government has turned their back to  SLFP Policies conceived by its organiser S.W.R.D.Bandaranaya, to become a part of the UNP System.

4, Therefore the Yahapalanaya Government for all intents and purposes is a UNP government and not at all a National Government. In that respect too this Government led by Maithripala Sirisena has no right to even conceive the idea of writing a Constitution to Sri Lanka.

5, No National Government could be formed in Sri Lanka with Ranil Wickramasinghe as the Prime Minister.  He has shown on several occasions, specially during his Premiership under President Chandrika Kumaratunga in 2002-2004, that he cannot work in cooperation with any one without imposing his own arbitrary  manner of decision taking. Signing of the CFA with the terrorist Prabhakaran was a great mistake made by Ranil Wickramasinghe which caused the lost of thousands of lives.

The Prime Minister  demonstrated his  penchant for  arbitrary decision taking  when he stated recently in Parliament  that he will sign the ETCA  with India in June this year even if there is opposition to it.   This government has lost the confidence of the people in its mishandling of several issues.

This government  has even failed to  inform  the  people of the  Sea Bridge Tunnel  proposed to be constructed between India and Sri Lanka.  This government’s actions lack transparency.

The Prime Minister and the Finance Minister did not take the correct decision in the interest of the country when they sponsored the USA Resolution against Sri Lanka presented at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.  This government has also  taken the police powers into its own hands by appointing a FCID.

The Judges refuse bail to persons connected to the Previous President who had been arrested by  the FCID.  This shows that the Judiciary fears to take  independent decisions.

6, The Government led by Maithripala Sirisena has acted contrary to democratic norms appointing as the leader of the Opposition a political leader having lesser number of  parliamentary seats,  when there is another united group of opposition parties which has a much larger number of  parliamentary seats.  That has been done purely to win over the minorities onto its side, which shows the government’s bias in favour of the minorities.

7, This government has distanced Sri Lanka from its friends who helped in the progressive and rapid development of the country and taken it into the fold of the enemies of the Sovereign State of Sri Lanka. Therefore this government if it is given the responsibility to organise the writing of a new Constitution , will be influenced   by the enemies of Sri Lanka who helped the terrorists and prolonged terrorism.  The people of Sri Lanka has also the fear that this government may be fooled by the enemies of Sri Lanka to include clauses in to the Constitution  that may change the unitary status of Sri Lanka.

Under the above conditions the people of Sri Lanka has no confidence in this Government and therefore it is not appropriate a new Constitution to Sri Lanka is written under the aegis  of the present Government.

This government cannot be trusted for the  preparation of a Constitution to Sri Lanka in keeping with the historical cultural and religious values of Sri Lanka.

Furthermore,  it is no secret,  and no body can deny that it was the votes of the minorities that assured the  election of  the President Maithripala Sirisena, and the UNP at the  following general election of  August,17,2015.  Therefore, this government indebted to the minorities –Tamils and Muslims, will continue to take decisions in all maters including in writing the Constitution  to please the Tamil and Muslim minorities that voted them into power. Therefore,  allowing  this government to make preparations for the writing of a new Constitution to Sri Lanka will have dangerous consequences.

Since the coming into power of the President Maithripala Sirisena  on 9 January,2015 he had continued to act in breach of the Constitution of Sri Lanka .  Therefore this government led by Maithripala Sirisena has forfeited its  right to replace the present Constitution they deliberately breached  to serve their own political  purpose.

A Sovereign State is recognised from its majority, and the Constitution of  a Sovereign State should safeguard the country’s Culture- which is unique to it, its original religion, language and other national identities such as the National Anthem and the Nation Flag.  

 This government of President Maithripala Sirisena has already mutilated the Sovereignty of Sri Lanka and therefore they cannot be entrusted with the writing of a new Constitution to Sri Lanka.

I therefore wish to express to the Committee,  my strong opposition, and my condemnation of  even  the proposal  by the Present Government of  President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe to write a New Constitution to Sri Lanka.

Yours Sincerely,

Charles.S.Perera

වරුණ චන්ද්‍රකීර්ති෴

 ඉන්දියාව කියන්නේ අලූත් රටක් කියන එක පැහැදිළියි. ඒ වගේ ම දැන් අපි දන්නවා, මේ අලූත් රටේ තියෙනවා කියලා කියන පොදු සංස්කෘතික ඇවැතුම් පැවැතුම්වලින් බොහෝමයක් දිල්ලි සුල්තාන්, මූගල් ආභාෂයෙන් ගොඩ නගාගත් දේ බව. පර්සියානු, අරාබි සහ තුර්කි දායාද පැරැණි බ‍්‍රාහ්මණ ආගමේ අලූත් අර්ථදැක්වීම් එක්ක මිශ‍්‍ර කරලා තමන්ට ම අනන්‍ය වූ සංස්කෘතික ලෝකයක් ගොඩ. නගාගන්න මේ ඉන්දියානුවෝ” සමත්වෙලා තියෙනවා. ඒක අපි අගය කළ යුතුයිමේ සංස්කෘතික ගොඩනැගීම්වලට අලූතින් හදපු රාජ්‍යයේ ධන බලය, පිරිස් බලය උපකාර වුනු බව අමුතුවෙන් පෙන්වාදිය යුතු නෑ. විශාල ධනයකින්, අති දැවැන්ත පිරිස් බලයකින් මහා පරිමාණ නිෂ්පාදන කරන්න පුළුවන්. ඒ වගේ දේකට වැඩි කාලයක් ගතවෙන්නේ නෑ.

 මේ ගොඩනැගීම් ඇතුළේ අපේ නෑදෑකම් හොයන්න හදන එකේ තේරුමක් නෑ. අපේ සංස්කෘතියටත් යම් පමණකින් පර්සියානු, අරාබි, තුර්කි ආභාෂයන් ලැබෙන්න ඇති. ඉපැරැණි මුහුදු සේද මාර්ගයේ හරි මැද පිහිටි රටකට ඒ වගේ සංස්කෘතික ප‍්‍රවාහවලින් ඈත්වෙලා ඉන්න පුළුවන්කමක් නෑ. ප‍්‍රබල පොදු සංස්කෘතියකින් බැඳිලා හිටියාට මේ රටේ ඉන්න අපි එකිනෙකා ගේ මුහුණුවර එක එක විදිහ. අපේ මුතුන් මිත්තෝ ලෝකයේ විවිධ පැතිවලින් මේ රටට එන්න ඇති. ඒත් අපිට පොදු – අපේ ම කියලා; සංස්කෘතියක් තියෙනවා. මේ සංස්කෘතිය නෑදෑකම් කියන්නේ කාට ද – කාගේ සංස්කෘතියට ද? මෙන්න මේ කාරණය අපි විමසා බැලිය යුතුයි. අපේ නෑදෑකම් හොයාගන්න පුළුවන්වෙන්නේ ඒ විදිහේ විමසීමකින්.

 අපේ ප‍්‍රධානතම සංස්කෘතික අනන්‍යතා හඳුනාගැනීමෙන් මේ කටයුත්ත ආරම්භ කරන්න පුළුවන්. අපි බහුතරයක් බෞද්ධ. මේ බෞද්ධකම අපිට අද ඊයේ ලැබිච්ච එකකුත් නෙවෙයි. අපේ වංශකතා කියන විදිහට නම් අපි බුද්ධාගම වැළැඳගත්තේ මීට අවුරුදු 2270 කට කලින්. අශෝක අධිරාජ්‍යයා ගේ 13 වැනි පර්වත ලිපියෙන් කියැවෙන විදිහට, ඒ, මීට අවුරුදු 2275 කට කලින්. ඒ වගේ ම අපේ වංශකතා සහ බෞද්ධ සාහිත්‍යය අපිට කියනවා බුදුන්වහන්සේ මේ රටට තුන් වතාවක් වැඩිය බව. ඒ අවස්ථාවල දී පවා අපි යම් ප‍්‍රමාණයකට බෞද්ධ වෙන්න ඇති. මිහිඳු හාමුදුරුවෝ කළා කියන හපන්කම බුදුහාමුදුරුවන්ට කරන්න බැරිවුනා කියන්න පුළුවන්කමක් නෑනේ. ඒ මාර්ගයෙන් මේ රටේ යම් ආකාරයක බෞද්ධ ශාසනයකුත් පිහිටුවාගන්නත් අපිට පුළුවන් වෙන්න ඇති. එහෙම නම්, අපි බෞද්ධ වෙලා මේ වෙනකොට අවුරුදු 2500 කටත් වැඩියි. ඒ අපැහැදිළි ඉතිහාසය පැත්තකින් තියලා අපි වංශකතාව කියන දේ දැනට පිළිගනිමු. මොකද ඒ කතාවෙයි අශෝක අධිරාජ්‍යයා ගේ පර්වත ලිපියෙන් කියැවෙන කතාවෙයි වැඩි වෙනසකුත් නැහැනේ. අනිත් කාරණේ මේ කියන කාරණය තේරුම්ගන්න අවුරුදු 2270 ක ඉතිහාසයක් ගැන කතාකිරීම  ඕනවාටත් වඩා ප‍්‍රමාණවත්.

 මේ කාරණයෙන් තහවුරු වෙන දේ තමයි ලෝකයේ දීර්ඝතම අඛණ්ඩ බෞද්ධ ඉතිහාසයකට උරුමකම් කියන ජාතිය අපි කියන එක. මේ තරම් දීර්ඝ කාලයක් අඛණ්ඩව බුද්ධාගම අදහපු, පිළිපැදපු ජාතියක් මේ ලෝකයේ වෙන කිසිම රටක, කිසිම ප‍්‍රදේශයක නෑ. ඒ වුනාට පාරම්පරිකව බෞද්ධයන් බවට පත්වෙච්ච ජනයා සිටින රටවල් තව සෑහෙන ප‍්‍රමාණයක් තියෙනවා. මෙතෙන් දී කියන්නේ පොත් කියවලා හරි බණ අහලා හරි බෞද්ධ වෙච්ච අය ගැන නෙවෙයි. අත්තා, මුත්තා, නත්තා, පනත්තා බෞද්ධ වෙච්ච හින්දා උපතින්ම ලැබිච්ච උරුමයක් විදිහට බෞද්ධ වෙච්ච අය ගැන. මේ විදිහට පාරම්පරික උරුමයක් මත බෞද්ධ වෙච්ච අය සියල්ල ම – මේ රටේ ඉන්න අපි හැරෙන්න; මොංගොලොයිඞ් වර්ගයට අයිති මිනිස්සු. මියන්මාරය, තායිලන්තය, කාම්බෝජය, ලා ඕසය, වියට්නාමය, චීනය, කොරියාව, ජපානය, මොංගෝලියාව, මැලේසියාව, භූතානය වගේ රටවල් උදාහරණ විදිහට පෙන්නන්න පුළුවන්. මොංගොලොයිඞ් නොවී පාරම්පරිකව බෞද්ධ වෙච්ච එක ම මානව කොට්ඨාසය අපි. මේ ගැන හිතලා බලන්න. මෙහෙම වුනේ ඇයි?

 අපේ බෞද්ධ සාහිත්‍යය විස්තර කරන විදිහට බෝධිසත්වයන්වහන්සේ තුසිත දෙව් ලොවින් චුත ව මේ ලොවට එන්න තීරණය කරද්දී කාරණා පහක් සළකලා බැලූවා. අපි ඒ කරුණුවලට කියන්නේ පස් මහ බැලූම් කියලා. ඒවා තමයි – කාලය, දීපය, දේශය, කුලය සහ මව. සිද්ධාර්ථ කුමාරයා උපන්නේ කිනම් කාලයක ද කියන එක අපි දන්නවා. ඒ වගේ ම, උන්වහන්සේ උපන් ද්වීපයත් අපි දන්නවා. මේ ද්වීපය දඹදිව විය නොහැකි බවත් එය ලංකාද්වීපය විය යුතු බවත් මෑත කාලයක සිට යම් පිරිසක් පවසන බව ඇත්ත. මේ වගේ අදහස් පළකිරීම දුටුගැමුණු වගේ මහා රජවරුන්ට කරන අවමානයක්. මේ කතාව ඇත්තක් නම්, ඇයි අපේ මහා රජවරු ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් යමක් නො කළේ? සිදුහත් කුමරුන් උපන් බිම, බුදු වූ ස්ථානය, උන්වහන්සේ වැඩවිසූ තැන්, පිරිනිවන් පෑ තැන් මේ රටේ වූයේ නම් ඒ තැන් මුල් කරගෙන ස්මාරක ඉදිකිරීමේ හැකියාවක් ඒ මහා රජවරුන්ට තිබුණා. නමුත් එහෙම දෙයක් වෙලා නෑ. මේ බිමට අත්විය යුතු ව තිබුණු ගෞරවයක් වෙන කොහෙටවත් ලබාදෙන්න ඒ අය කටයුතු කළා කියලා හිතන්න බෑ. ඒ කොහොම වුනත් ඒ වාදයට සම්බන්ධවීමේ අදහසක් මේ ලියුම්කරුට නෑ. මේ ලිපියෙන් කියන අදහස අපේ මූලාශ‍්‍රත්, චීන මූලාශ‍්‍රත් පදනම් කරගෙන කියන එකක්. ෆා-ෂියැන් (අපිට පුරුදු විදිහට, පාහියන්) හාමුදුරුවෝ පවා බුද්ධෝත්පාද භූමිය විදිහට ලූම්බිණිය හඳුනාගෙන තියෙනවා.

 ලූම්බිණිය තියෙන්නේ දඹදිව. හැබැයි අපි එකක් මතක තියාගන්න  ඕන. ඒ තමයි, දඹදිව කියන්නේ මේ දැන් හදලා තියෙන ඉන්දියාව කියන රට” නෙවෙයි කියන එක. දඹදිව කියන්නේ ඉන්දියානු උප මහාද්වීපයේ ඊසානදිගට බර ව තියෙන, මධ්‍ය මණ්ඩලය කියලා හඳුන්වපු භූමිය. බුදුන් වැඩවිසූ කාලයේ දී රාජ්‍යයන් දහසයක් ඒ දඹදිව තිබුණු බවත් අපි බෞද්ධ සාහිත්‍යයෙන් ඉගෙනගෙන තියෙනවා. අපි ඒවාට කියන්නේ සොළොස් මහා ජනපද කියලා. ඒවා අතරින් බුද්ධභූමිය විදිහට සළකන්න පුළුවන් කෝසල සහ මගධ රාජ්‍යයන්. බුද්ධ චර්යාව බොහෝ දුරට කිඹුල්වත්නුවර සහ බුද්ධගයාව අතර ප‍්‍රදේශයට සීමාවුනා. ඒ අතරිනුත් උන්වහන්සේ බොහෝ දුරට වැඩවාසය කළේ කෝසලයට අයිති සැවැත්නුවර සහ මගධයට අයිති රජගහනුවර. කිඹුල්වතින් එන සුළඟත් සැපයි කියා වසර 45 ක් වූ බුද්ධ ජීවිතයෙන් වසර 25 ක් ම උන්වහන්සේ වස් විසූයේ සැවැත්නුවර. මොකද සැවැත්නුවර තියෙන්නේ කිඹුල්වත්නුවර පේන මානයේ.

 කිඹුල්වත්නුවර සිටි ශාක්‍යයෝ බමුණන්ට සැළකුවේ නෑ. බමුණන්ව ගණන් ගත්තෙත් නෑ. මේ ගැන හොඳින් ම හෙළිවෙන තැනක් තමයි දීඝ නිකායේ එන අම්බට්ඨ සූත‍්‍රය. එය අපි බොහෝ දෙනෙක් දන්නා කාරණයක් වුනත් ඒ ගැන නැවතත් කියන එක ප‍්‍රයෝජනවත්.

 එක් වතාවක් අම්බට්ඨ බමුණා තම ගුරුවරයා ගේ – ඒ කියන්නේ, පොක්ඛරසාති බමුණා ගේ, කිසියම් කටයුත්තකට කිඹුල්වත්නුවර තිබුණු සන්ථාගාරයට ගියා. ඒත් එහි හිටිය ශාක්‍යයෝ අම්බට්ඨ බමුණාව ගණන්ගත්තේ නෑ. අඩු ගණනේ ඔහුට උස් අසුනක්වත් දුන්නේ නෑ. තමන් වාඩි වී සිටි උස් අසුන්වලින් නැගිට්ටෙත් නෑ. ඒ මදිවාට ඒ අය අම්බට්ඨ බමුණාට කොලොප්පම් කරන්න පටන්ගත්තා. මේ ගැන කෝප වී හිටිය අම්බට්ඨ බමුණා ඒ ගැන බුදුහාමුදුරුවන්ට මෙහෙම කියලා තියෙනවා. ශාක්‍ය ජාතිය චණ්ඩයි; ශාක්‍ය ජාතිය පරුෂයි; ශාක්‍ය ජාතිය හෑල්ලූයි; ශාක්‍ය ජාතිය දොඩමලූයි; බමුණන්ට සත්කාරකරන්නේ නෑ; බමුණන්ට පුදන්නේ නෑ; බමුණන්ට හිස නමන්නේ නෑ.” ඒත් බුදුහාමුදුරුවෝ ඒ ප‍්‍රකාශයට පිළිතුරු දීලා තියෙන්නේ මෙහෙම. අම්බට්ඨය කැට කිරිල්ලට පවා ඇගේ කැදැල්ලෙහි දී කැමති විදිහට අඬන්න නිදහසක් තියෙනවා. කිඹුල්වත්පුරය කියන්නේ ශාක්‍යයන්ගේ නගරය. ඒ නිසා තොප ඒ සුළු කාරණය හින්දා ශාක්‍යයන් කෙරෙහි වෛර බඳින එකේ කිසි ම තේරුමක් නෑ.”

 මේ සිද්ධියෙන් පැහැදිළි වෙන දේ තමයි බුද්ධෝත්පාදය වෙනුවෙන් තෝරාගත් දේශය බමුණු සංස්කෘතියට මුල් තැනක් දුන් බිමක් නොවුනු බව. ඒ වෙනුවෙන් තෝරාගත් කුලයේ පිරිස් බමුණන් කෙරෙහි ගරු සම්මාන දැක් වූ අය නොවන බව. බුදුදහමේ ප‍්‍රචාරයත් මේ සංස්කෘතික වෙනස හා බැඳුණු එකක්. බමුණන් රජකළ සමාජවල බුදුදහම මුල් අල්ලාගත්තේ නෑ. බුද්ධ පර්නිර්වාණයෙන් ටික කාලයකට පස්සේ බුදුදහම ඉන්දියානු උප මහාද්වීපයේ වයඹ පැත්තටත් පැතිරීගිය එක ඇත්ත. ඒත් ඒ කාලයේ ඒ ප‍්‍රදේශවල ව්‍යාප්තවෙලා තිබුණේ යෝනක (ග‍්‍රීක) බලය. මේ යෝනක පාලනය නිසා බමුණු බලය යටපත්වෙන්න ඇති. යෝනකදේශයට ධර්මදූත කණ්ඩායමක් යවන ලද බව මහා වංශයත් අශෝක රජු ගේ 13 වැනි පර්වත ලිපියත් කියනවා. බොහෝ දෙනෙක් හිතන්නේ මේ යෝනකදේශය කියලා කියන්නේ ග‍්‍රීසියට කියලා. ඒත් තමන් ධර්මදූත කණ්ඩායමක් යවපු ඈත ම ස්ථානය විදිහට අශෝක රජ්ජුරුවෝ සඳහන්කරන්නේ තම්බපන්නිය. ඒ නිසා, ඔහු ගේ දහතුන්වැනි පර්වත ලිපියේ සහ මහා වංශයේ යෝනකය කියලා සඳහන් කරලා තියෙන්නේ ග‍්‍රීසිය කියලා සැළකිය යුතු නෑ. ඒ කියලා තියෙන්නේ ඉන්දියානු උප මහාද්වීපයේ වයඹ ප‍්‍රදේශයේ පැතිරිලා තිබිච්ච යෝනක පාලනය ගැන. අපි කවුරුත් දන්න නාගසේන වස්තුවේ කියැවෙන මිළිඳු රජ්ජුරුවෝ ඒ ප‍්‍රදේශයේ සිටි කෙනෙක්. බුදුදහමේ ව්‍යාප්තිය ඉපැරැණි බාහික (බ‍්‍රැක්ටියා) දේශයෙන් ඔබ්බෙන් බටහිරට වන්නට තිබුණු රාජ්‍යයන්ට පැතිරුණු බවට කිසිම සාක්ෂියක් නෑ. කොහොම වුනත්, මේ ගැන වාදකරන එක මේ ලිපි පෙළේ අරමුණට අදාළ නෑ.

 බුද්ධෝත්පත්තිය ඉන්දියානු උප මහාද්වීපයේ ඊසානදිගට බරව සිදුවුනත්, බුද්ධ චර්යාව ඒ ප‍්‍රදේශයේ මගධ, කෝසල රාජ්‍යයන් දෙකට බොහෝ දුරට සීමාවුනත් බුදුදහම යම් පමණකින් හෝ බටහිරට වූ බිම්වලට පතුරුවාහරින්න යවන පාලනය උදව්වුනු බව පැහැදිළියි. බමුණු ආධිපත්‍යයක් තුළ බුදුදහමට තැනක් ලැබුණේ නෑ. බුදුදහමත් බමුණු ආධිපත්‍යය පිළිගත්තේ නෑ. යවන පාලනය යටතේත් බමුණන් හිටිය බව නාගසේන වස්තුවෙන් පැහැදිළිවෙනවා. නාගසේන කුමාරයා ගේ උපතට අදාළ ප‍්‍රවෘත්තිය ඒ ගැන තොරතුරක් සපයනවා. රොහණ මහ තෙරුන් වහන්සේ ද ඒ මහාසෙන දෙව් පුතුන් මවු කුස පිළිසඳ ගත් දවස පටන් පුරා හත් හවුරුදු දස මසක් ඒ ගෙට සිඟා වැඩ බත් සැන්දක් වේවා යි හුළුකැන් සරළුවක් වේව යි නො ලත් සේක. ඔබ්බේ තුබූ බත් තබා මුබ්බේ තුබු වැඳිම් පිඳිම් පමණකු ත් ලබන්නට නැත.” බමුණෝ සංඝයාවහන්සේට සැළැකුවේ ඒ විදිහටයි. ඒත් යවන පාලනය යටතේ බමුණු ආගමට මුල් තැනැක් ලැබුණු බවට සාක්ෂි නෑ. ඒ පාලකයෝ බුදුදහම වැළඳගත්තා.

 යවන පාලනයෙන් පස්සේ ඉන්දියානු උප මහාද්වීපයේ වයඹදිග ප‍්‍රදේශයේ කුෂාන් අධිරාජ්‍යය ස්ථාපිත වුනා. මේ අධිරාජ්‍යය පිහිටවනු ලැබුවේ චීනයේ යුඑ-චි (යුවේ-චි) ප‍්‍රදේශයෙන් ආපු පිරිසක්. යුඑ-චි කියන්නේ චීනයේ ශිං-චියාං පළාතට අයිති ප‍්‍රදේශයක්. අපි දන්නවා මේ පාලනයේ නායකත්වයට පැමිණි කනිෂ්ක අධිරාජ්‍යයා බුදුදහමට ලබාදීපු අනුග‍්‍රහය. මේ සමාජ දේශපාලනික පදනම බුදුදහම ඉන්දියානු උප මහාද්වීපයේ වයඹදිග ඔස්සේ චීනයට පැතිරෙන්න පාලමක් වුනා. අවසානයේ බුදුදහම මොංගොලොයිඞ් මිනිසුන් ගේ අනුග‍්‍රහයෙන් තව තවත් ව්‍යාප්තවුනා.

 අපවත් වී වදාළ බද්දේගම විමලවංශ නා හිමියන් නිරන්තරයෙන් කියපු කතාවක් තමයි ශාක්‍යයන් කියන්නේ මොංගොලොයිඞ් මිනිස් වර්ගයට අයත් පිරිසක් කියන එක. මේ අදහස වෙනත් පර්යේෂකයෝ පවා පෙන්නලා දීලා තියෙනවා. නේපාලයේ අද පවා මොංගොලොයිඞ් වර්ගයට අයිති මිනිස්සු විශාල ප‍්‍රමාණයක් ජීවත්වෙනවා. බුද්ධෝත්පාදය වෙනුවෙන් තෝරාගත් කුලය – ඒ කියන්නේ, ශාක්‍ය කුලය; මොකක්ද කියන එක තේරුම්ගන්න  ඕන මේ කරුණු සළකලා. ඒත් අපි කවුද? සිංහල අපි කොහොමටවත් මොංගොලොයිඞ් නෙවෙයිනේ. එහෙම නම් ඇයි අපි බුදුදහම ආරක්ෂා කර ව්‍යාප්තකරන වගකීම භාරගත්තේ? මේ ගැන අපි ඉදිරි ලිපියෙන් කතාකරමු.

 වරුණ චන්ද්‍රකීර්ති෴

Sudath Samarasinghe

This is a response to Dr. Carlo Fonseka’s rejoinder on 3^rd March in The Island, to a letter by Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekera earlier, the on the subject of singing the national anthem Tamil language. I believe matters such as national anthem are emotional issues where logic does not play much of a role both for and against the language of singing etc. This is why I pointed some time earlier that since the constitution stipulates what exactly the National Anthem is and how it should be sung,  in whatever other way at may be sung does not make it the National Anthem. Period. There is no question of anybody being forced to sing one’s own national anthem. I believe, if anyone does not want to sing it in the language it is, there could not be any problem if he did not sing it. That  would be his personal choice. Also I believe, when those Sri Lankans who had acquired British citizenship or Australian citizenship or even Italian citizenship, they would not demand that they be allowed to be singing the national anthem of those countries in either Sinhala, Tamil, Arabic or Malay because it is their respective mother tongues, and because those countries profess Multiculturism. If one were to make such a demand one would be laughed at, simply because their national anthem is that, and nothing else. Of course, one may be able to argue one’s case logically but it does not happen that way. That is why I say that there is no logic in such emotional matters. One would not sing it if, one could not identify oneself with it either for reason of language diction or the tune or any other. But I suppose one could not demand that he would sing it only if it he could sing it the way he wants.

Prof. Carlo also says that in Belgium their national anthem is sung in French and Flemish. We do not know the reason why. But it is interesting to note that closer home, in India, despite the fact that there are more Tamils there than in Sri Lanka, numbering over 60 million, there is no known demand there, to sing the Indian national anthem in Tamil, by the Tamils of Tamil Nadu, or for that matter anyoneone, in any other 28 odd states, despite all their racial and religious strife, none of them question why they are made to sing their national anthem in Bengali. They don’t even ask why Bengali is being forced down their throats either. Not even in the strife torn in Kashmir! Again, I do not understand any logic in all this.

Then the professor proceeds to let bad blood on the Sinhalese, rather unusual for the suave person that he is. He refers to ….people who insist that Tamil speaking people should be forced to sing our national anthem in Sinhala. They do so because being powerful, they enjoy demonstrating their superiority to numerically weaker Tamil speaking people” etc. That is the construction of Prof. Fonseka whether it is logical thinking or not. Does he attribute the same reason to the state of affairs in India referred to in the above paragraph? The reason why it is held that the Sri Lankan national anthem should be as it is, is explained in the above two paragraphs.

The Sinhala Buddhists want to have a say in these matters not merely because they happen to be the numerical majority, but also because it is their ancestors during the past 25 centuries who founded this nation, gave it a unique civilization, fashioned her culture and gave it an unique identity to be known in this world as Sihaladweepa from which came the nomenclatures ‘Serendib’, ‘Zeylan’, ‘Ceilo’ and eventually Ceylon, all originating from ‘Sinhale’. It is these people who fought relentless wars all by themselves down the ages against foreign powers like the Cholas, Cheras, Kalingas, Portuguese, Dutch and the British to maintain this civilization and identity against all odds, despite being a tiny island with a small population. Perhaps, it is the Sinhala Buddhists who held out longest against the Western Colonial Powers in this part of the world until they ceded the country due to internal squabbles like today. So they consider that it is the duty of the present day Sinhala Buddhists to safeguard this identity. Such effort is not because they enjoy demonstrating their superiority to numerically weaker Tamil speaking people.” As made out by the good professor.

Then the learned professor goes on to say further that ….the Sinhala nationalists who want Sinhala national anthem rammed down the throats of our Tamil-speaking brethren”. He speaks of a Sinhala national anthem”. As far as I know, there is no such song. I believe he is talking about the National Anthem of Sri Lanka written in a language which is spoken by at least over 85% of the people of this country? Similarly, when he refers to the Indian National Anthem, does he say it is the Bengali national anthem? Why does he make this subtle distinction here?

As stated above, nobody here want to ram down anything on the throat of anyone. They only stated, let the national anthem be as it is. If anybody finds it unacceptable, let them not sing it. Nobody insisted that they should or that if they did not, they would be punished. Now that the prof. referred to being rammed down the throats of our Tamil-speaking brethren”, When he speaks of ‘ramming down the throats:” I am reminded of such a thing happening when India rammed the 13^th Amendement to our constitution down our throats under duress in 1987. I do not recall any protests of Prof. Fonseka at that, which no Sri Lankan asked for and not even Prabhakaran. We recall that there were wide spread protests in this country where some 21 protestors were shot dead, followed by the JVP taking to armed insurgency in protest. Is trying to defend one’s country and its identity ‘Sinhala nationalism’or Sri Lankan nationalism? There was probably no problem here for Prof. Fonseka in this instance? I wonder where he was at that time?

Then, the leaned professor in his erudition takes us through socio-biology and tells us that this kind of conduct is nothing but ‘tribalism’. I am wondering whether an effort to defend the purity of one’s country’s National Anthem could justifiably be called ‘tribalism’ however misconstrued it may be? Standing up for the unity, integrity of one’s country is tribalism or patriotism?  What we were taught in school, was that it is patriotism. We do not stand for a part of the country but the whole country. That is what our ancestors did down the ages, defending their country. If they did not, saying that all that was tribalism, by now Sri Lanka would have been either another Tamilnadu or a little Goa or something like Philippines with its original Anglo-Saxon name Ceylon, and like the Filipinos, become Ceylonese. It reminds me that Buddhists’ resistance to unethical conversion of Buddhists and Hindus to Christianity. Is that too ‘religious intolerance’ on the part of the Buddhists? If the Sinhala Buddhists had followed this definition, by now what happened to Buddhism in India, Indonesia, Maldives and the latest in South Korea would have happened here too. And Theravada Buddhism would be confined to the internet.

Down our long history, it is the Sinhala Buddhists who defended this country, its civilization, language and culture. Did they all this at the sacrifice of so many lives, for mere tribalist reasons? Another interesting aspect is that, when the Sinhalese stand up to defend their country it is ‘tribalism’ and ‘chauvinism’ but when the LTTE terrorists take on the lawfully elected government asking for a separate state, killing people of all three communities, it is not tribalism but fighting for minority rights which should be given into. Isn’t that a strange configuration of ideas? Now where does logic stand in such circumstances?

Prof. Fonseka, like many others of that line of thinking, throws at the Sinhala Buddhists, Buddha’s preachings which he exhorts that they should observe. If all followers of the great religious teachers always followed their respective teachers’ preachings, this world would certainly be a beautiful place. Perhaps, the very reason why those great teachers taught so was precisely because the world was not a perfect place. When one reads the history of the different nations and religions it is full of activities and political ideologies that are quite the contrary to what their religious teachers upheld. Even in such circumstances, Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism are the only religions in the world that did not use aggression and violence to make non followers to convert to their religion. Placed amidst such an environment of adversity, how does one expect Buddhism and Buddhists to survive? One has only to look back how the Nalanda University was destroyed by the Moguls while thousands of Buddhist monks there looked on passively. This is the reality of the world. So what will happen if the Sinhala Buddhists kept mum in their own country in the face of the simlar aggression, now coming up in a different garb like what Prof. Fonseka preaches?

Sudath Samarasinghe

By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando

An amazing story of the former British Energy Minister Chris Huhne has been exposed to the world by the Western media for lying and getting an eight month jail sentence by the Southwark Crown Court in London last week.

This coincides with a controversial issue surrounding ‘lying’ by the Minister of Megapolis and Western Development Champika Ranawaka in Sri Lanka after getting involved in a ‘hit and run’ allegation. More and more information and eyewitness reports going viral in all the possible directions have led to a full scale police investigation, the latest being the Mirihana Superintendent of Police summoning the eye witnesses to the scene of the accident.

One of his own government ministerial colleagues, the Acting State Minister for International Trade, has been quoted in the press as commenting: ” If evidence proves his involvement, Champika will be arrested as law in the land is applicable to all.”

Convicted for speeding

 The former British Energy Minister was convicted for speeding, where he could have ended up being prosecuted, heavily fined (with penalty points added to his licence) and/or got his driving licence cancelled for committing the same offence for the second time. To get out of such a legal mess he had persuaded his ‘then-wife’ Vicky Pryce to admit to the Police as the driver at the time of committing the speeding offence. Vicky Pryce accepted the charge and absorbed penalty points on her licence for her husband’s speeding offence in 2003.

 Political hocus-pocus

 This kind of behaviour by some of the politicians, wherever they may be, appears to be very common, as most of them do not seem to have a backbone to come clean and face the music after any misdemeanor, but chicken out due to fear or cowardice. In such unfortunate circumstances either an innocent driver or a poor employee becomes a guineapig resulting the innocent man’s family to endure the shock and suffering by going through the ordeal while the master escapes strategically with suitable alibis.

The British politicians case is a clear-cut example where his ‘former-wife’ had come to his rescue and saved his skin from dishonour and public disgrace. By the same token it needs to be highlighted how on various occasions even Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana had been stopped by UK police and charged for over speeding, but they have always humbly admitted their mistake and given their credentials to the Police. In turn the Police executed their unbiased duty, finally ending up in Court hearings.

Fine paid

 When summons arrived at Buckingham Palace, a representative from the Royal Household has represented the victims at Courts and paid the appropriate fine as in the case of an ordinary citizen’s procedure.

This is British justice at its height. The Sri Lankan minister’s flat refusal to show his Identity to the two witnesses, once they blocked the fleeing jeep after a marathon chase, blocking it and demanded to identify the driver, makes one smell a rat, or could it be put down to downright smugness?

Humiliation

The British politician’s suppressed guilty conscience for two years which managed to hoodwink the Police and authorities about his crime resurfaced in an amazing development once again giving rise to a sensational scandal on his personal life too, which has been exposed worldwide. The case was taken up once gain at Southwark Crown Court in London recently.

It started with a humiliating exposure at the second trial with his marriage to Vicky Pryce in 1984, followed by a spiteful separation in June 2010 when Chris Huhne sought solace, contentment and gratification out of his mistress and Media Adviser, Carina Tringham, and walked out of his legal wife.

After the breakdown of her marriage, and as an act of vendetta, Vicky Pryce decided to leak out details of Chris Huhne’s deception to a journalist in 2011, which finally led to the resumption of a new Police investigation and a re-trial.

Pleading guilty

 At the new trial, the prosecution alleged that Huhne had asked Pryce to accept the responsibility and the fault for his speeding with the fear of his losing his driving licence as he had been prosecuted before. It was certain that on the second occasion he was sure to lose his licence for the ‘repeated offence.’

After two years of continuous denials, former energy secretary Chris Huhne had to plead guilty finally to perverting the course of justice, stating that he “persuaded his then-wife, Vicky Pryce, to accept penalty points on her licence for his own speeding offense in 2003.”

Added to such evidence, SMS conversations between Chris Huhne and his youngest son Peter produced before the Magistrate said it all.

Pressure

 Young Peter to his father Chris Huhne: “We all know that you were driving and you put pressure on mum. Accept it or face the consequences. You’ve told me that was the case. Or will this be another lie?”

Chris Huhne to Peter: “I have no intention of sending Mum to Holloway Prison for three months- Dad.”

Peter to his father: “Are you going to accept your responsibility or do I have to contact the police and tell them what you told me?”

On Christmas Day 2011, Chris Huhne sent a text to his son Peter saying “Happy Christmas. Love you, Dad.” Peter replied: “Well I hate you, so f*** off.”

Pricking conscience

 Chris Huhne was sentenced to eight month’s jail to perverting the course of justice, saying he persuaded his then-wife, Vicky Pryce to accept penalty points on her licence for his own speeding offense in 2003.

Vicky Pryce denied the charges against her, citing marital coercion in defence but she was also convicted at the retrial, resulting in the eight-month jail sentence for accepting penalty points.

So Chris Huhne has now joined a small but notorious band of former UK Cabinet Ministers who have served time in government and in Jail. In Sri Lanka people are eagerly waiting to see justice prevailing in Minister Champika’s “hit and run case.”

“Neither in the sky, nor deep in the ocean, nor in mountain cave, nor anywhere, can a man be free from the evil he has done.” – Dhamma Pada Verse 127

tilakfernando@gmail.com

 P.A.Samaraweera, Melbourne

According to a media report the govt and the opposition had approved a range of allowances for MP´s. Based on this,  MP´s are to be paid Rs. 75,000 to maintain an office, Rs. 50,000 for calls, and Rs. 50,000 as a housing allowance. They are also to be paid Rs 2500 for attending meetings and Rs 4000 for being present at committees of Parliament.  Both the govt and the JT opposition had unanimously agreed to a range of allowances for MP´s and they work hand in glove when it comes to getting funds to their pockets.

In addition to these they are also entitled to stationery, security, car permits, 5 star meals from the Parliamentary Restaurant etc.  Of course they argue that they  are ´dedicated to serve the nation´ and therefore entitled to these benefits. It is common knowledge that  as long as the ladle is in their hands they will serve themselves !

Then it appears that Ministers have other perks as well. Because, recently when a Minister went to Singapore for medical treatment the report was that it´s costs were to be paid by the govt.  The irony is that the surgery he went for could have been done easily in Sri Lanka. So it is not known whether there is a ´Govt Health Fund´ for Ministers.

With regard to use of public funds, there was an interesting story in the media. A spa had been opened by a Minister, from Ministry funds.  May be because he thought hardworking Ministers have to rest their mind and body ! According to the report, the spa was under the guise of a Physical Exercise Centre  for therapeutic treatment. It had been managed by his wife and young females as therapists from his electorate , paid by his Ministry. And he is of the opinion that there should be one in every electorate.

Minister´s and MP´s may claim that they are   ´dedicated to serve the people ´. But the burden of funding additional allowances fall on the taxpayers. And people are complaining about the rising cost of living. Farmers are going on protest marches to get fertilisers. These are swept under the carpet.

By, Professor Nishan Wijesinha ( Ethul Kotte, Kotte. )

It was my great grandfather Mudaliya Louis Corneille Wijesinha; who was an Imperial British Colonial Genius Scholar who translated the first original manuscripts of the Great Mahavamsa from Pali to English who inspired the need and wrote down the following diagram and highlighted the borders with a rectangular snake black outline to map exactly the area which has to be utilized as the most gigantic Elephant pass reservoir.

This reservoir was most likely to be the largest possible reservoir in the world which could be utilized to generate ample electricity and abundance of water to national consumption.

This was later idealized by former president Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa on his January 2015 election pledges; but fell to disarray as he lost the elections.

And on the other hand it is a closed chapter to the present government which is on a personal attack outlook without heeding to what is needed to the people and the development of the nation.