By Barbara O’Brien

Buddhism Expert
http://buddhism.about.com/od/throughasiaandbeyond/fl/Christian-Buddhist-Tension-in-South-Korea.htm

Buddhism has been practiced on the Korean peninsula for more than 16 centuries (see “Buddhism in Korea“). It survived long centuries of repression under a Confucian dynasty and also challenges to monastic rules during the Japanese occupation in the 20th century. But in recent decades it has faced its biggest challenge yet — militant Christianity.

South Korea is the only east Asian nation in which a “western” religion, Christianity, outnumbers the largest Asian religion, which is Buddhism.

According to the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs at Georgetown University, the population of South Korea is abut 29 percent Christian and 23 percent Buddhist. Most of the remaining South Koreans claim no particular religious affiliation.

Christianity in Korea: Background

Catholicism was introduced in Korea in the early 17th century but was subjected to waves of persecution — as was Buddhism — by the Confucian Joseon Dynasty. But in the late 19th century Korea began to open itself to the outside world, and religious pluralism in Korea was better tolerated. The first Protestant missionary, a Presbyterian, arrived in 1884.

By the end of the Japanese occupation in 1945, approximately 2 percent of Korea’s population was Christian. But by 1991, 25 percent of South Korea’s population was Christian. The reasons for this are complex, but ties forged between South Korea and the United States during the Korean War appear to have been a major factor.  Among other things, Christian chaplains somehow monopolized the South Korean military chaplaincy and converted many soldiers, especially young draftees.

Christian Oppression of Buddhism, 1980-1900

Chun Doo-hwan (b. 1931) was a military general and Christian who served as President of South Korea from 1980 to 1988. As President, he adopted anti-Buddhist policies. Historic temples were taken over by the government and turned into tourist attractions, for example.

When monks of the Jogye order of Soen (Zen) Buddhism, the largest Buddhist sect in Korea, criticized Chun, the government began to raid Buddhist temples, including the Jogye main temple in Seoul, and arrest monks. Fifty-five monks were sent to retention camps although none were ever convicted of anything.

Other monks were subjected to torture; the abbot of one Jogye temple died as a result. Throughout Chun’s administration, Buddhist monks and nuns were kept under surveillance and frequently accused of being Communist sympathizers.

During Chun’s administration conservative Protestants began to publicly denounce Buddhism and vandalize Buddhist temples and art. For example, in February 1984 red crosses and dirt were smeared on Buddhist wall paintings in a temple near Seoul. In 1985 a Protestant minister named Kim Jingyu and a layman named Kim Songhwa separately organized meetings to denounce Buddhism. That same year some men identified as Christians drove nails into tires of cars parked outside a Zen center and poured corrosive chemicals into the engines. They played gospel songs through a loudspeaker to disrupt the Buddhist service.

Then the temple burnings began. In 1986 an ancient Jogye ceremonial hall, listed as a national treasure, was burned to the ground. A local Christian man confessed to the crime, but police did not prosecute, citing “lack of evidence.” In 1987 a fundamentalist Christian was apprehended after setting fires that destroyed two temple buildings. In 1988 a fire at a Jogye training center destroyed altar paintings considered to be national treasures.

In the next few years, through the remaining 1980s and 1990s, several other arsonists destroyed or substantially damaged approximately 20 more Buddhist temple buildings.

During this time even more Buddhist temples and art were vandalized.. Vandals often painted red crosses on art and smashed or decapitated Buddha statues.In a few cases Christians, including clergy, were caught in the act but not charged.

In 1990 two men broke into the studios of a new Buddhist radio station two days before it was to begin broadcasting. They smashed all of the station’s recording and transmission equipment, using the head of a Buddha to break into recording booths and destroy the computers and equipment. No arrests were made.

For a timeline of incidents culled from South Korean news sources,

see South Korea:- A chronology of Christian attacks against Buddhism.

http://buddhism.about.com/od/throughasiaandbeyond/fl/Christian-Buddhist-Tension-in-South-Korea-Part-2.htm

As explained in Part 1 of “Christian-Buddhist Tension in South Korea” South Korea is the only nation in east Asia in which the largest religion is not Asian. The population of South Korea is about 29 percent Christian and 23 percent Buddhist. About 46 percent of South Koreans claim no specific religious affiliation.

As also explained in Part 1, the number of Christians in South Korea grew rapidly after World War II ended and Korea was divided.between North and South.

In 1945, approximately 2 percent of Korea’s population was Christian. But by 1991, 25 percent of South Korea’s population was Christian.

Beginning in1980 many of the newly converted Christians began to burn and vandalize Buddhist temples and art. More than 20 temple buildings were destroyed by arson; crosses were smeared on temple wall paintings; Buddha statues were smashed or decapitated.

In the 1980s the government also began to oppress Buddhism. Under Chun Doo-hwan (b. 1931) who served as President of South Korea from 1980 to 1988, monasteries were sometimes raided and monks arrested on various charges, although none were ever convicted.

1990 to 2000

Burning and vandalism of Buddhist temples continued through the 1990s. Buddhists and other non-Christians serving in the military were sometimes ordered to attend Christian services by their commanders. Some public school teachers were found teaching Bible lessons. One told the class that Buddhist children were “followers of Satan” and restricted their class activities.

In 1995 young fundamentalist Christians began a campaign of aggressive proselytizing on the campus of Dongguk University in Seoul, a Buddhist school, handing out anti-Buddhist literature in front of the school’s main Buddha statue..

An investigative report in the Korea Herald published in July 1998 quoted a Buddhist dharma teacher named Lee Chi-ran: “For them [the Christians], this is a war, Much of the mainstream media is dominated by Christians, and coverage of anti-Buddhist incidents is rare. Many people don’t understand what’s going on.”

Lee Myung-bak

After 2000, for a time, the incidents of aggression against Buddhists and Buddhist institutions became less frequent, although the over-representation of Christians in government positions sometimes posed problems for Buddhists.

The election of Lee Myung-bak as President of South Korea in 2008 began a new round of tension, however.

Lee, a Presbyterian, had raised alarms as Mayor of Seoul when he said he would “consecrate” his city to God. Then, as President, he chose an almost all-Christian cabinet — out of 16 cabinet seats, there were 12 Christians and one Buddhist.

Shortly after that, the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs published a map of Seoul on its website that omitted all Buddhist temples and shrines but gave the location of every Christian church. Then police stopped and searched the car of the head of the Jogye of Soen (Zen) Buddhism, looking for members of a faction protesting the importing of beef.

About this same time, videos began to circulate showing a Protestant minister leading his congregation in shouts calling for the collapse of Buddhist temples, and another in which a prominent Protestant minister said “Buddhist monks are wasting their time. They should convert to Jesus. Is there any Buddhist country in the world that is rich?”

In August 2008 an estimated 60,000 people, including about 7000 monks, rallied in front of the Seoul city hall to protest religious discrimination. Tensions subsided, to a point, when several high-level officials who had been accused of religious favoritism to Christians visited Buddhist temples to apologize.

More recently, people of South Korea generally — not just Buddhists — appear to be growing weary of the antics of the aggressive Christian proselytizers.

See “Buddhism in Korea” for a history of Buddhism before the end of World War II.

Buddhist Rally Against President in South Korea (in 2008)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dC1g8GHb-kk

See COMMENTS • 128

Tens of thousands of monks rally in Seoul against alleged discrimination ( 2008)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/27/world/asia/27iht-skorea.2.15683154.html?_r=0

Lee is not the first Christian to serve as South Korea’s president. Others include Syngman Rhee, Kim Young Sam and Kim Dae Jung.

Of the 15 members of Lee’s Cabinet, 12 are Christian and one is Buddhist while the affiliation of two others was not immediately available.

See

” Persecution of Buddhists”

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Buddhists#South_Korea

By NJ Thakuria

Guwahati: Activists across the world demand that no political prisoners should (must) be left behind in Burma’s jails. Burma Campaign UK, while carrying out its mission to support human rights in Myanmar, called the Burmese home minister Lt Gen Ko Ko for immediate release of high profile activist Nilar Thein, who is currently being detained in Insein Prison.

Ms Thein was arrested from Rangoon on 24 February 2016 for allegedly supporting student protests against the controversial National Education Bill last year. The said bill limits academic freedoms and prohibits the formation of student unions in educational institutions.

In January 2015, students began marching between Mandalay and Rangoon, demanding changes to a new education law which increases government control over how they are taught in Universities. They were supported by students protesting right across the country.

But the protesters were brutally beaten and arrested by the police.

There are more than 80 student protesters currently on trial while remaining in detention.

Ms Thein is one of the prominent leaders of the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society Group and a former political prisoner. She was previously arrested in 2008 and sentenced for 65 years in prison. She was released in 2012, and has continued her political activities.

Nilar Thein’s case shows how activists are continuing to get arrested under the repressive laws in Burma,” said Wai Hnin of Burma Campaign UK adding, It is absurd that a prominent leader like Nilar Thein has been arrested for her political activities. She should be released immediately

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa, son of the former president responded to the many allegations thrown against the Rajapaksa regime.

QIt’s a very  bad time for you, isn’t it?
It is the nature of politics. Politicians do not have power for ever; it comes intermittently.  When Mahinda Rajapaksa was in power there was not a trace of revenge on political  opponents. But today even the children of opposition members are subjected to revenge. This happened whenever the UNP came into power. They even  deprived Madam Sirimavo of her civic rights. But what is surprising is its continuance even under a consensus government.
QWhen  you were in power did you imagine the situation you are facing today?
We have to come to terms with volatile situations if we are to remain in politics. But we never expected them to take revenge on us, my mother and brother as they too have families.

Q You have recently asked the government to stop their acts of revenge saying that there are children of the leaders of Yahapalanaya as well. Was it a warning?
It was not a warning or a threat  but only an appeal.
Q      Have the investigations into frauds and corruption become an issue?  
We don’t have an issue regarding investigations. But the issue is how it is being done. Some politicians predict the imminent arrests of their political opponents without following any judicial procedure. How can the  Cabinet  spokesman predict the number of members of the Rajapaksa family who may be arrested on a particluar date? If there is a fair inquiry, could this happen?

Q   Are you are accusing a person who was one of your father’s  best friends a couple of months ago?
He  may have been my father’s best friend, but we also know his political history. Even President Maithripala Sirisena is a very good friend of my father. This is politics.

Q People say that the Rajapaksas are facing the repercussions of what they have done.
If saving the country from Prabhakaran and ushering in a period of peace are acts deserving repercussions, I agree that you are right.

QWhat is happening to Yoshitha Rajapaksa?
We have submitted an application for bail to the High Court and are confident we will get justice. Investigation being carried out without a  legal basis.  Yoshitha’s arrest was arranged. My father too served a jail term in a similar manner.

Q  Who is the owner of the CSN? Do you say Yoshitha Rajapaksa  has no connection whatsoever with it?
The girl whom Yoshitha intended to marry worked at the CSN. Some of her friends too worked there. Because of this connection Yoshitha and we frequently  visited the CSN. We helped them in their activities in the same way we helped others.

Q Doesn’t Yoshitha have any connection with the administration or financial activities of the CSN?
No; he doesn’t have any connection especially in financial matters. The owners are  two individuals- Dr. A. R. Fernando and Kavishan Dissanayaka–who set up CSN on loans.

Q  Your Tangalle house is called Carlton House.
Yes.

QThe Montessori network organised by your mother is also called Carlton pre-shools.
Yes.

Q But the Carlton Sports Network is not a part of Rajapaksa property?
When they asked if they could use the name Carlton we said we didn’t have any objection. We do not have patent rights over the name. I have seen kiosks under the same name.

Q What was Yoshitha’s former girl friend’s reaction?
We didn’t speak about this matter with her. The FCID has questioned her. She  is now married and we don’t want to get her involved  here. Everybody knows what happened.

QDo you think Yoshitha will be freed in this case?
Yes we are highly confident, because Yoshitha has not done anything against the law.

Q Some say you have qualified as a lawyer without following the formal procedure.
Those who sat for the law examination with me would know the truth. Some are critical about the educational progress of politicians’ children. And they criticise when their children pass examinations and when they fail they call them fools.

Q There is one person who has come forward to give details before any investigation as to how Namal sat for the law examinations.
I challenge him to do so. I would also like to debate on law matters with him.

Q Is the case against your mother’s  Siriliya account a false  one?
Siriliya is an organisation initiated with my mother playing a leading role to help poor people to meet medical needs. It has no connection with the government.Many individuals helped this organisation, but investigators questioned even those who got benefited by this service.

QSo how did the Siriliya account number get  star symbols?
When my mother’s passport was sent to open the bank account, a bank officer entered a different number in place of her identity number with  star symbols.  That was done by the  bank. We have no knowledge about it. We came to know about this only when the problem arose.

QMany ministers in the former government allege that Basil Rajapaksa is the main reason for the defeat of the former government? 
There are two sides to this. When the election is won, the election campaign organiser is praised and blamed if it is lost. Basil Rajapaksa played a major role in this campaign. He is not a person who has close connections  with people. That is his way. He worked efficiently. This may be the reason why  some were not happy with him. I also have criticisms about him.

Q But they complained that Basil didn’t allow them to work; 
Those who blame him on this matter are also in the present government.  You can ask them whether they are working now.

QDo you have  any disputes with Basil?
That is an old problem since 2005. We do not have any personal problems but do have problems in political matters. On some occasions I have criticised even my father.
QThere is a rumour that Yoshitha had attempted to shoot Basil. Is that true?
It’s absolutely false. That story was spread by a gossip group.

Q  There was a rumour that Basil was not happy about your progress in politics. Is it true?
Why should he be unhappy? Our age difference is great: besides he once told that he would remain in politics only while Mahinda Rajapaksa stays in politics.

QWhy is Chamal Rajapaksa silent when the Rajapaksa family is confronted with problems  after problems?
That is his character. He always remains non-committal in problematic situations.

QDid you have any competition with Sasheendra Rajapaksa in politics?
No; his politics is in Moneragala and my politics is in Hambanthota.

Q Your father’s friends in the past like SB today call him Kalawedda” .
His words are unpleasant and aggressive. He had to go to jail because of his mouth. Finally my father restored his civic rights. He spoke about Chandrika Madam and Maithripala Sirisena  in the same way.

QThere is much criticism about your Tharunyata Hetak”
Where there is work there is criticism. It is an organisation  to help youth in their activities

QWhat about Nil Balakaya?
That was formed as the youth organisation of the SLFP at the request of Maithripala Sirisena with the approval of the party’s central committee.

QAre there rowdies in this organisation?
No, but some call it an organisation of  thugs.

QDid members of the Nil Balakaya assault a group of artistes in Kumbukgete?
No, that’s not true.

Q How do you hope to return to power? Is it through coconut  dashing charms?
It is a custom of the people in the South. We have no opportunity to speak in Parliament  so we present our problems to the gods.

Q Basil Rajapaksa has said if there was any act of revenge taken by the former government it was only against  Sarath Fonseka.
What he might have intended to say was that  it was the only incident. However it was not  political revenge.

Q Those who benifitted by the Rajapaksas now do not allow him to live in peace even at home.
That is their right and independence.

Q When in power you closed the roads close to the Dalada Maligawa for motor races.
We had no connection with that motor race. We only helped the sport.

QWhat about the motor races in Colombo  held under flood lights?
That was by Carlton Sports. Electricity was provided by generators.

QDid you  punish rugger players who challenged your brother?
No,  but today we can see punishment meted out to players.

Q Is Wasim Thajudeen a friend of yours?
Yes, he was a friend.

QWhat happened to him?
This government used his death for their election campaign.They exhumed his body during the election period and buried it again.

Q Did you attend Thajudeen’s funeral?
Yes, we did.

Q Some say you are to be arrested soon. Are you afraid?
No I am ready  for any arrest.

QDo you think your father will come to power again?
Constitutionally he cannot be the president. But a government will be formed under his leadership.

– See more at: http://www.dailymirror.lk/105885/I-also-have-criticisms-about-basil-rajapaksa-Namal#sthash.IOXTi5no.dpuf

Courtesy RT

China will be helping out the Syrian government in the fight against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIL/ISIS) by sending military advisers,” media reports have claimed.

TrendsIslamic State

The Chinese will be arriving in the coming weeks,” a Syrian army official told the Lebanon-based news website Al-Masdar Al-‘Arabi.

The report claims that a Chinese naval vessel is on its way to Syria with dozens of military advisers” on board. They will reportedly be followed by troops.

The ship is said to have passed the Suez Canal in Egypt and be making its way through the Mediterranean Sea.

According to the website, the advisers will be joining Russian personnel in the Latakia region.

Meanwhile, an Israeli military news website, DEBKAfile, has cited military sources as saying that a Chinese aircraft carrier, the Liaoning-CV-16, has already been spotted at the Syrian port of Tartus on the Mediterranean coast. It was said to be accompanied by a guided missile cruiser.

The news comes after Russia, Iran, Iraq and Syria agreed to establish a joint information center in Baghdad to coordinate their operations against Islamic State militants, according to sources.

The main goal of the center will be gathering, processing and analyzing current information about the situation in the Middle East – primarily for fighting IS,” a military-diplomatic source told Russian news agencies on Saturday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was recently asked about Russia’s presence in Syria, to which he replied that Russia’s activities are limited to supplying weapons to the Syrian government, training personnel and providing humanitarian aid for the Syrian people.

We act based on the United Nations Charter, i.e. the fundamental principles of modern international law, according to which this or that type of aid, including military assistance, can and must be provided exclusively to the legitimate government of one country or another, upon its consent or request, or upon the decision of the United Nations Security Council,” Putin told CBS’s ‘60 Minutes’ show.

Putin reiterated his support for Syria’s regular army – the army of President Bashar Assad. He [Assad] is confronted with what some of our international partners interpret as an opposition. In reality, Assad’s army is fighting against terrorist organizations,” Putin said.

Russia’s president added that US attempts to train a Syrian opposition to take on Islamic State have failed. The US had aimed to prepare up to 12,000 fighters, but only 60 managed to complete the training and only four or five actually fought with the opposition, while others fled to IS with American weapons, Putin said, citing US Senate hearings.

In my opinion, provision of military support to illegal structures runs counter to the principles of modern international law and the United Nations Charter,” he said.

© Stringer / Reuters

Back in December, 2014, China offered to help Iraq in fighting Islamic State militants, volunteering to assist with airstrikes, but said it would not join the US-led coalition against ISIS.

In one of the latest atrocities committed by IS, the terror group used an online magazine to post pictures of two hostages, one Norwegian and one Chinese, putting the men up for sale.”

Yoshi karunarathna

This a about emerging discrimination against our own people by our own people ….

Today (19/2/2016) myself, my husband and his brother and wife, all Sri Lankans with latter two living in Canada, and all over 60 years of age and who have been civic-minded citizens holding professional and responsible jobs, went to the Thai Restaurant at the Grand Hotel, Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka.

This is the third time I went there and sure it would be the last time.

Five minutes into our sitting down and chit chatting a waiter walks up to our table and says we are too loud!! At first we did not realize what all that meant or the gravity of his accusation. Then the penny dropped!

So we called back the waiter and asked him what he said and he said that the white customers at another table had complained that we are loud!! !@#++***@@!!! Hah!

Before leaving the place we demanded that we speak to the manager and asked him what all this is about, and he said the same thing.

We asked the manager, Mr. Tyrone David, on what basis he determined that the complaint should be taken up? Would he have taken it up if it was vice versa? What his idea of loudness in his restaurant is?

We asked him to put up a notice at the entrance of the restaurant on the allowable decibel level of noise in this restaurant!! That would help many people whether they want to go into that fly-infested restaurant or not!

Fly-infested – yes!! We had three flies hovering over our food and settling on the food!! On being asked to do something about the flies, a waitress brought a candle, but the flies seem to be permanent residents of the Thai Restaurant!!

Finally we told the manager, that before his waiter and himself tell us on what voice decibel levels we should be speaking at, it would be in their interest to ensure that there are no flies in this Five-Star(??) Hotel/Restaurant.

And the people who are supposed to have complained should not be going to restaurants which are generally noisy (NOT rowdy) and lively anywhere in the world, but get themselves into hermitages or libraries.

Having come home back to Kandy, curious to find out about the reviews of the Grand Hotel, I Googled and found the following posted on 11 Jan 2016 by Sara S of USA at
http://www.agoda.com/grandhotel/hotel/nuwara-eliya-lk.html:

Perhaps this is a general issue with the hospitality industry in the region but as a Sri Lankan American, I felt the service was poor as the staff was “too busy” serving white guests with white glove service. I often had to wait a long time before staff arrived to take my order and attend to me. It was only when they realized I was a foreign passport holder when they bothered to attend to me. I noticed this was also an issue for any local Sri Lankan visiting as well. It’s an absolute shame and I hope the hotel will be in contact with me to discuss this less than pleasurable experience.

And this posted by Asif C on 30 Dec 2015:
We were in Sri Lanka for 7 days and had an amazing trip except the 2 nights at Grand Hotel which was very disappointing. Staff was inattentive, room furniture was falling apart, restaurants were of poor quality with extremely loud music and though not critical, no WiFi in rooms. The hotel now seems to cater more to budget group travelers and hence was crowded and staff did not pay attention to anybody. We went to Thai restaurant in the hotel for dinner and after waiting for more then an hour, walked out. The hotel was recommended by a Sri Lankan friend for its heritage but it clearly is a thing of the past and there are much better options in town.

NOLTE: We should have eaten at one of those quaint little eateries at the edge of Lake Gregory or anywhere else saving the joy enjoyed before this nasty encounter at the Grand Hotel’s fly-infested Thai Restaurant, and at a fraction of the cost!!

Unquote

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Shenali D Waduge

The OHCHR/UNHRC Head have used successive resolutions/reports and statements to claim that one Prageeth Ekneligoda a journalist and cartoonist had disappeared. A joint submission by NGO at the UPR in 2012 also claimed Prageeth to be a cartoonist and writer and many other human rights organizations have claimed the same. However, Daily Mirror’s News Editor Sandun Jayasekera says I have been serving as a journalist for 30 years now. As far as I know, this person being mentioned has never written any item of news or hosted a tv program or even attended a press conference. The question I have is how Prageeth Ekneligoda became a journalist”. Minister Dilan Perera answered that by saying the Free Media Movement was the first to come out with the claim. Now this is startling news. The UNHRC/OHCHR and all others who include Prageeth Ekneligoda as a missing ‘journalist’ has some serious explaining to do.

The name Ekneligoda is associated with the Kandyan Chieftan who led the capture of the last King of Sri Lanka Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe on 18 February 1815 that ending 2357 years of royal rule. He even killed Udupitiya Arachchi who was protecting the King in his house. Ekneligoda nilame is remembered as a traitor for siding with the British to capture and handover the King and going to the extent of kicking the King until the British had to stop him before body harm was done. Ekneligoda’s men grabbed the earrings of the Queen leaving her bleeding. Ekneligoda even went to the extent of tying the King with a creeper before delivering him proudly to the British.

The gang of Ekneligoda Nilame pulled the king out of the house and stole every valuable worn by the king and the queen”

The king had been stripped almost naked, abused in filthy language, kicked, spat upon and finally attempted to tie like a pig (all fours, hands and legs to be tied to a pole).”

The British arrived and STOPPED the Sinhala Barbarians from further humiliating her and provided her clothes to wear”

The STOLEN garments of the king Sri Vickrama Rajasinghe and the blood soaked garments of the queen Venkathi Rangammal was taken home by the Kiriporuwe Mohottala and hidden inside a wooden chest.”

 It is said that all those born with the Ekneligoda name carry a limp (karma for kicking a King) and it would be interesting to see if the present Ekneligoda also carries the same traits/genes.

Returning to the recent claim by Sandun Jayasekera, what we need to ask is

• Who turned Prageeth Ekneligoda into a journalist?
• If Prageeth Ekneligoda is not a journalist why was he turned into one?
• If he is not a journalist who is he, how did he earn his living and who was he working for?
• Can someone name a newspaper he was working for or produce a cartoon a newspaper has published. Google searches leave no result.
• Who informed UNHRC/OHCHR that Prageeth was a journalist and what mechanisms does the OHCHR/UNHRC have internally to vouch for the authenticity of these claims. If Sandun is correct, then OHCHR need to issue a statement regarding how they came to accept Prageeth as a journalist to include him into the allegations made against the State/Sri Lankan Army. This is a very grave faux pas if UNHRC/OHCHR is just quoting names and making allegations without verifying.
• If Prageeth is not a journalist and has been given international publicity because he was a ‘missing journalist’ a lot of people have a lot of explaining to do. UNHRC/OHCHR never gives the type of publicity it has given for any of the civilians killed by LTTE during the last 30 years but to appear on successive UNHRC/OHCHR reports/statements and even resolutions is a major hiccup on the part of the UN organization and we look forward to an official statement from them explaining this new position.
• Several military intelligence officers are in prison based on the allegation that Prageeth Ekneligoda is a journalist. But if that is not so, we are back to square one!

If Prageeth is not a journalist who is he? Who can answer?

 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

Dr Sudath Gunasekara Secretary to Former Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike and President Sinhala Bauddha Jestha Puravesiyange Sanvidhanaya Mahanuwara 24.02.2016.

I have never had any relationship with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, either political or personal. I have made only one personal request from him through Mr Lalith Weeratunga his Secretary, whom I came to know as a Committee Member of the Sri Lanka Administrative Services Association when I was its President from 1991 to 1994. The subject my request to MR was a road to my ancestral village Meemure, which was never done in spite of my repeated requests. As such I have no hosanna to praise him either.  Any way I am not hasty to blame him as I do not know whether Lalith had passed on my request to him. I also failed to get even an interview to discuss this matter with him. Finally rather desperately I invited him to visit my village in 2014 to witness the pathetic conditions of this historic village and its people. My personal experience tells me that if  I had made a similar request to President Premadasa or Lalith Atulathmudaly I am hundred percent sure both of them would have definitely come and taken prompt action on my request and today Meemure would have been an entirely a different village. Was it my misfortune or the bad luck of my village and its people I do not know. In 2004 sept I wrote an article from America supporting him under the caption Who are the real enemies of Bandaranaike Policies” In that article I supported him to the hilt and I was the first person to have predicted his victory in 1905 Presidential Election. It appeared in the Island and Prabath, Editor wrote back saying Sir your piece went down very well. I do not think any other person would have done better” I also sent a copy to MR with a congratulatory message after the Election. But he never had the courtesy even to say thank you.

Nevertheless even today I admire MR as the most outstanding President and national leader of Sri Lanka in contemporary history for the following highlights among his achievements as a Head of a so-called poor Third World State.

1. Winning the war against the LTTE terror, the most dangerous and savages terrorist outfit in the world acclaimed as undefeatable, and unifying the country after 30 years of terror, killing, mayhem and disaster. It is true that it was the three forces that fought the battle, died in thousands and won the war. But it was MR who gave the political leadership as the Commander. Had he hesitated, as all his predecessor Presidents, by this time Sri Lanka would have been definitely two countries? Not only he was determined to end it but he also openly declared his stance to the world as a real leader, thereby taking a very big risk.

2 He stood firm against India and the Western bullies in defense of this country and his people as a true leader and a patriot

3 He also kept the so-called Minorities in their places. He declared that there are no minorities and there is only one nation in this country, though he did not specify Sinahla as the nation

4 He adopted the correct and strategic foreign policy by aligning with China and Pakistan when there was none to help this country to fight the terrorist

5 He achieved a mission which even world powers like USA and Russia could not do

6 His achievements at Hambantota, the Harbour and the Airport

7 The vast network of infrastructure development all over the country, where the pride of place goes to the net work of super highways like Colombo-Katunayaka and the Southern highway he achieved while engaged in a massive an extremely arduous war

8 By defeating the LTTE he liberated the whole nation from terror, fear and death of hundreds of people occurring daily in every nook and corner of this country and brought peace and sanity and enabled a fear stricken populous to live freely after 30 long years of terror and uncertainty.

9 He never betrayed the country like those of the UNP in the ilk of JR and Ranil and even Chandrika

Even if he had done nothing other than winning the war against the LTTE and ending the 30 year war no one can dismiss him as a failed leader like Chandrika, a rainbow leader, who had done nothing for 11 years other than destroying all what her great and illustrious parents had done from 1956 to 1977. As such whatever his political enemies say, in my opinion he stands above all other Modern Heads of State in Sri Lanka as towering Himalaya. His place in Mahavamsa is already engraved in golden letters as a Great leader of this Island nation who followed the footsteps of Dutugemunu who defeated Elara in the 2^nd century BC and Vijayabahu 1^st who chased away Magha the intruder in the 11^th century.

What is more is the 2009 war was a much more difficult task than the historical and conventional wars of the Kings in every respect. For example the art of war, the scale and the parties involved were poles apart. The historical war was confined to the land and they were fought between two parties only, south Indian intruders vs the native forces. Even the Indian Government was not involved in those wars. But the 2009 war was three dimensional and it used much more sophisticated weapons; in addition to the local LTTE Tamil terrorist the Government also had to face the whole world on their side Headed by India and supported by UK, USA, Norway and the entire Western block and the so-called Tamil Diaspora spread all over the world who provided large sums of funds and military assistance; India provided the training, armory, money and military advice and assistance against the Sri Lankan Government; they also barred the supply of military equipment to the Sri Lanka Government while providing enough supplies to the LTTE; in addition most of these countries provided military advice as well. Meanwhile the western block as well as India exerted pressure on the President to stop the final battle and USA had even secretly made arrangements to rescue Prabhakaran and top LTTE leaders before which the Sri Lankan forces eliminated the enemy at Nandikadal. Immediately after the war he carried out a massive development programme, unprecedented in history, in the North and the East having allocated the largest sum of money for any area thereby recording the highest rate of growth in the Island.

The way how the masses rallied round him and visited him at Medamulana after the election from all over the country like no other leader defeated in election anywhere in the world alone sufficient to judge his popularity as a charismatic leader. Isn’t that an authentic barometer of this man as a national leader?

Then why he lost the Presidential election?

In spite of all these achievements why did MR lost the Presidential Election. Most people attribute his defeat to external factors like conspiracies by International community and Indian RAW manipulations. But if you carefully analyze the election results you will find that it was the Tamil and Muslim block vote which actually changed the balance. In addition the JVP and new votes blocks were also critical factors. All these vote bases together with the UNP block vote determined to come to power after long years of starving upset the balance. It was not the popularity of the Common candidate which mattered. Even Ranil himself would have won it. For that matter any common candidate would have won it. Because more than anything else it was the ungrateful and revenge full Tamil and Muslim vote base that mattered in that election.

Although these were the major factors that contributed there were other factors which I think were even more important for MRs defeat. MR alone is responsible for all this which he earned mostly in the post 2009 period. I put them in to two categories as follows.

1 Blunders MR did which he should never have done as an elected Head of a State

They are

1 The arrest and imprisonment of Sarath Fonseka, the acclaimed war hero, and the way he was treated for the wonderful job he did as Army Commander to win the war.

2 The way Sirani Bandaranayaka CJ was sent home and treated for not supporting the Divineguma Act in spite of her supporting the 18^th Amendment

3 The infamous 18^th Amendment seeking election for a third time as the President

4 Failure to take actions against people like Mervin, Duminda, Mtuhettigama and many others who had committed serious crimes under his Government

5 Rampant nepotism like appointing his close relation with no professional qualification as Ambassadors  Chairmen of Corporations etc

6  Appointment of Basil a novice to politics, as  a senior Minister who messed up and betrayed the Kandyan peasants by scrapping the Kandyan Peasantry Commission and the Upcountry Development Authority that cost loss of all the Kandyan areas.

7 Above all going for early elections while he could have waited the full period during which time he could have mended some of the mistakes he did. (In fact on 2^nd of Dec 2014 I wrote to him on this matter and advised not to go for early elections) But all that fell on deft years

8 His heavy dependence on occult science and believing people like Sumanadasa Abegunawardhana

9 Overestimated overconfidence and miscalculation of his vote strength and the mirage of trust he had on Tamil and Muslim opportunist politicians and inability to ascertain their hypocrisy in the correct perspective like all other Sinhala leaders in the post Independence period

10Holding the NPC and NEP council elections

2 Things which should have been done but he never did

1 Immediately after the war was over he should have scraped the 1987 Rajiv -JR Pact and also

abolished the Provincial Councils and all unconstitutional steps taken under the 13^th Amendment forthwith, such as

1. a) Giving unconditional Citizenship to all Indian Tamils on the Estates and
2. b)  Making Tamil an Official Language

2 A Failure to abolish not only the Provincial councils but also the very provinces carved out by the British to   perpetuate their divide and rule policy to meet their strategic, economic and political colonial agenda

3 Failure to abolish the Proportional electoral system and the District MP system and to restore the previous simple first-past-the –post system  which would have eneured every electorate to return a member to Parliament

4 Failure to RE-establish the Tun Rata, Ruhunu, Pihiti and Maya, the most appropriate geopolitical division to this country as that was the time tested political divisions for almost nearly 2500 years. That alone could have put an end to Communal and divisive politics in this country and paved the way for permanent ethnic reconciliation and also saved 2/3 the cost of governance in this country. This proposal I had brought to his notice several times for the past 10 years

5 Dismal failure to sack Maitripala Sirisena from the Party as soon as he left to contest as the Common Candidate. Had he done it immediately MR would have still continued as the President of the party and would have even won the August elections and got appointed as the Prime Minister of the people. That would also have put MS in a precarious situation with his feet neither in SLFP or UNP either.

6 His failure to tell the world that this is the only Sinhala Buddhist country in the world and Sinhalese are the nation. And Tamils and Muslims are only two ethnic minority groups. Since he came from Mgama in Ruhuna, the land of the nation’s hero Dutugamunu, he had the legacy to do so than any other. In fact when I predicted his victory in 1905 Presidential Election  in an article in the Island under the caption Who are the real enemies of Bandaranaike Policies” I expected him to be a Dutugemunu reborn.

• His failure to make Sirisena the Prime Minister at least on the second term
• 8 Not listening to well meant advice given in good faith by the Mahasangha and people like Nalin Silva and me

9 Neglecting the Kandyan areas and allowing Basil to abolish the Kandyan Peasantry dept and ountry Development Authority

10 His inability to build up a single popular regional leader of  stature from the Kndyan  region who would not have deserted him in adversity and be an asset to him and the country at large.

11 Put the minorities in their places and declared this land as the Sinhale that was ceded to British in 1815.

Had he been able to achieve this agenda he would have definitely ended up as the unassailable leader who retrieved the pristine Lanka that was lost in the 13 the century and continyed as the nation’s leader for many more years to come.

Postscript

I have never being SLFP or UNP though I have been associated with the SLFP in my student days from 1956 to 1962, mainly due to the Sinhala Buddhist nationalism that emerged in 1956 under S.W.R.D, The Veyangoda Central College where I did my UP and my colleagues at the University at Peradeniya most of whom were from Central Colleges have exerted a tremendous influence during these formative years. But since I joined public service in 1962 I have strictly adhered to public service rules and regulations as a public servant though alternatively both UNP and SLFP have labeled me as a SLFP man or a UNP man whenever they were in power. This was mainly due to my refusal to grant their requests which were inconsistent with rules and regulations and often went against public interest. I always thought though it is a duty a public servant to carry out the policies and programmes of the Government of the day it was more important to do the correct thing in the interest of the public in the ultimate analysis. So in this mental frame work I had the courage to say no to people like Tamara Ilangaratna, U.P.Y Jinadasa, Gaminij Disanayaka, W.M.P.B. Disanayaka Chief Minister CP, Dharmadasasa Banda, Lalith Atulathmudali, Renuka Herath, Luxman Jayakody and even President Wijetunga over the years. Some of them got angry with me. But I survived and finally ended up as the Secretary to Mrs Sirimavo Bdaranaike, the first woman Prime Minister in this world, maintaining the independence of Public Service and proved that a public servant. Of all these political p[ersonalitiesI had my best relationship with Ms Bandaranaike, Lalith Atulathmudali, Gamini Disanayaka and Tamara Ilangaratna.

Why I print these few words here is just to tell my readers that I am not a torch bearer to any politician. These are my personal views as an independent citizen who is concerned only over my motherland, my nation and my religion.

ALI SUKHANVER

World popular Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan is passing through the ever worst period of his life as an actor. His bad days started last November on his 50^th birthday. Those were the days when countless writers, actors, professors and students joined hands together in protest against repeated incidents of religious intolerance against the minorities in India. Talking at a press conference at Mumbai he had said, Religious intolerance and not being secular…is the worst kind of crime that you can do as a patriot”. When the media-men asked him if he was ready to give up his awards in protest much like those over the past month, Shah Rukh Khan said he would, in a symbolic gesture if asked to. Let me get a National Award, and then I will return it”, said he. The Hindu extremists expressed their worst reaction on this statement and started protesting all over India. On 14^th February 2016 around 04.30 in the morning some members of Vishva Hindu Parishad started pelting stones at Shah Rukh’s car which was parked at hotel Hyatt Regency on Ashram Road, Ahmadabad. Police arrested three of the VHP members booked in this connection. According to the Press Trust of India the Gujarat unit of VHP claimed responsibility for the incident. The most positive aspect of the story is that the government of India has yet not dragged Pakistan into this pelting episode on Shah Rukh’s car because it has become a tradition in India that all official investigative agencies of India do nothing but simply focus all their efforts on finding the traces of Pakistan behind every troublesome activity.

Recently same thing happened when Kanhaiya Kumar, a left-leaning student leader of Jawaharlal Nehru University was arrested for leading a demonstration which was held to mark the anniversary of the 2013 execution of Afzal Guru. According to Indian media, massive protests paralyzed one of India’s top universities after the arrest of the students’ union leader Kanhaiya Kumar. In response to the protest over Kanhaiya Kumar’s arrest, India’s Home Minister Rajnath Singh said talking to the media-men, I want to make it clear that the JNU incident has the support of LeT chief Hafiz Saeed. We should also understand this reality that Hafiz Saeed has supported this incident and it is extremely unfortunate.” This statement of Rajnath Singh is being taken as a stupid joke even in India. When the media-men asked him about his source of information regarding involvement of Hafiz Saeed, he foolishly referred to a post on Twitter in which ‘Hafeez’ Saeed invited the JNU students to continue their Pro-Kashmiri, Anti-India Propaganda in Universities. The fact of the matter is that the said Twitter account is of Hafeez Saeed not of Hafiz Saeed; and a very responsible authority of the government of India the Home Minister Rajnath Singh made this fake Twitter account the whole basis of his allegations against Hafiz Saeed and Pakistan. Hafiz Mohammad Saeed is a very learned scholar and has a vast range of his religious followers not only in Pakistan but also in the whole world. He took this allegation simply as a stupid joke and responded in a tweet in a very lighter tone. He said ‘Alleging me for JNU protest based on a Fake account in my name is a prime example of how Indian government fools its own people. Kashmiri youth are not acting on anyone’s orders. The oppression and atrocities they have faced is enough to make them resilient. All allegations put forward by India are based on hatred and enmity towards Pakistan.’

Even in India, people are astonished rather puzzled at this childish statement of Mr. Singh’s .The Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said commenting upon Mr. Singh’s allegation, The charge is very serious. The Government of India will have to give foolproof evidence. A mere statement dubbing the students as anti-national and having the support of Hafiz Saeed or LeT or any other foreign organization, without any basis or proof, will prove disastrous for the government and the student fraternity across the country.” The crux of the whole matter is that the BJP government is not happy over the F-16 deal between Pakistan and US and her dejection and disappointment over the deal could be very easily felt through different statements of the BJP leaders. Moreover according to the media reports the US envoy in New Delhi, Richard Verma was summoned by the Indian authorities to convey displeasure regarding US’ decision of finalizing the sale deal of the aircraft with Pakistan. The JNU episode is also an expression of disappointment over this decision.

Dr. Tilak S. Fernando

In the present political turmoil in Sri Lanka speculation is rife to suggest that some of the SLFP party members during the Rajapaksa regime campaigned vigorously to overthrow the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the Presidential elections held on 8^th January 2015, and also at general elections held on 17 August 2015. Reviewers say there are more questions than answers to resolve.

Was it basically a plot to destabilise the political macroclimate in this country with all the hallmarks of a CIA intervention with their fingerprints all over it….?  They question. Critics have always been maintaining that the CIA had twin ambitions in this involvement Vis a Vis – régime change and to destroy the SLFP, which was a Singhalese Buddhist majority political party based on SWRD Bandaranaike Policy incorporating ‘Sangha, Weda, Guru, Govi & Kamakaru’.

It is common knowledge what the US did to Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and Syria, the most scandalous and atrocious crimes committed on this planet with supreme inhumane demeanors. Prior to embarking on such destruction, US and its allies tactfully and discreetly ‘bought over’ influential citizens of those countries to propagate lies and fabrications whilst the victimised nations focused more on their own development programmes including the educational sectors for the benefit of their communities. Americans upon succeeding their inflexible plans  sponsored puppeteers using the CIA. The rest is history!

The US destroyed Iraq, its leaders and the very political foundation – the Bath Party, which was akin to SLFP in Sri Lanka with all the hallmarks of patriotism embedded towards their motherland. What they did next was a twin style operation targeting Sri Lanka, to completely destroy the SLFP with a regime change! For this purpose they clearly picked the ideal candidates, who appeared to be outrageously livid not only to change the regime but also to destroy the SLFP to smithereens.

Strategy 

The strategy to destroy the SLFP goes a long way back even prior to Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike was appointed as the leader of the party. The late S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike managed to escape opponent’s villainy, immorality, animosity, hatred and anger towards this noble political party, which was formed according to the country’s glorious history and its original ways, but became a victim to a ‘man clad in yellow robes’ (thus disgracing the whole of Buddhist clergy)! This heinous act immediately created a blanket mayhem across the entire Buddhist priesthood where in certain circles mistreatment was directed at certain innocent and spiritual monks with a brand label of ‘yellow robed men getting involved in politics completely forgetting the Lord Buddha’s words in Samyutta Nikaya 56:10’.

Samyutta Nikaya clearly prohibits and specifies thus: O monks! Do not give yourselves up to manifold vulgar talk (such as  – talk about kings, robbers, ministers armies, dangers, wars, food and drinks, clothes and dwellings, garlands and perfumes, relations, conveyances, women and heroes, Street-talk and talk about ghosts of ancestors, gossip, talk about land and sea, about gain and loss”.

Foreign Intervention 

Detractors say one does not need to have a degree in political philosophy to fathom how those ‘shady characters’ who manipulated in the last two elections were behind a spiteful CIA coup against Sri Lanka and the SLFP at a time the country had benefitted and gone through a period of development and peace in the annals of Sri Lanka’s history.

They also point a finger at a few groups such as the US, UK, EU, LTTE diaspora abroad and the Catholic Church who were totally against Sri Lanka’s galloping economy and the re-established peace as those elements were against the Sinhala/Buddhists and Sri Lanka’s awe-inspiring and unblemished civilization, hence a master plan-design by the CIA with the connivance of enemies of Rajapaksa.

Rumours were rife, like any other, in the present Yahapalana Administration too about major corruption, sleaze and bribery, quoting the biggest slice of this political cake dished out to defeat Mahinda Rajapaksa by the CIA as $50 million to one player and  $10 million to another in the immediate past, while the rest of the money, they claimed, had been spent on the election campaign in conforming to the CIA formula.

CIA 

Pointing a finger directly at the CIA, cynics state: This was not the first instance CIA had interfered with our county. It happened on several occasions in our political history.  But two recent historical instances were: First, a major influential business magnate became the CIA agent and backed the Catholic coup against the then Mrs. B’s government with the top army bras.  The second instance was grooming of a President in politics after bringing an unknown quantity at a time when Sri Lankan politics worked entirely dominated by caste system and helping him to be the President of the country. That became a paradox in Sri Lankan policymaking principles!”

It was also alleged that ‘Gam Udawa’ programme was designed and financed by the CIA to disintegrate the Sinhala/Buddhist culture by including a Mosque, Kovil and a Catholic church inside every 100% Sinhala/Buddhist village, township and city with the main intention of breaking the Sinhala/Buddhist cultural backbone, which had been running continuously over 2500 years! The US has adopted this same principle in countries like Philippines and South Korea!

The latest incident of the Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s first ‘sale’ of 8 JF-17 ‘Thunder jets to Sri Lanka’, which was welcomed with praise at first had to be cancelled even before the hot news was allowed to settle down according to a ‘ diplomatic missive from Delhi which came as a bolt from the blue stating ‘Sri Lankan defence requirement did not need fighters’! It was Pakistan, who had to come to Sri Lanka’s rescue during the LTTE terrorists’ war!  This is a clear-cut CIA intervention, opponents allege.

Has the incumbent President Maithripala Sirisena too become victimised by the actions of his closest working colleagues in the Yahapalana administration to become a helpless pawn of the CIA?  Critics question.

In such circumstances it is suggested to expose all those traitors resolutely and bring the guilty to the Galle Face Green and whip them with toxic stingray tails!

tilakfernando@gmail.com

Dilrook Kannangara

The attempt to legally ban animal sacrifice at places of religious worship is a welcome effort. The disgusting and uncivilised practice of sacrificing animals in religious rituals has no established history in Sri Lanka. It amounts to torture of animals. It is ridiculous to allow the torture and killing of animals in the name of religion when even butchers are subjected to a higher degree of care of animals. Torture of animals must be banned totally. Killing of animals must be done only at licenced abattoirs. No religious place of worship should be considered an abattoir.

Torture of humans must also be banned. It does not matter it is self-harm as other forms of self-harm is illegal. Body piercing, walking on hot surfaces and hanging from the skin are some disgusting and uncivilised practices found near the Kataragama shrine. These arouse disgust in onlookers and must be banned as in most countries. This practice has no historical roots in Lanka and relate to African and South Indian practices. Even these countries have banned such voluntary human torture.

Other forms of human torture found among Christian communities in the Philippines and Shia Muslims must not be allowed to be replicated in Sri Lanka. All forms of torture (animal and human) and killing must be banned from places of religious worship.

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග 

දැදිගම වී රුද්‍රිගු සම්භාව්‍ය රුසියන් ග්‍රන්ථ  සිංහලට පරිවර්තනය කල විශිෂ්ට පරිවර්තකයෙකි. මට එතුමාව හමුවී නැතත් මගේ පියා රුද්‍රිගු මහතාව දැන සිටියේය​. දැදිගම වී රුද්‍රිගු මහතා සෝවියට් දේශයේ වෛද්‍ය උපාධියක් හදාරා තිබුනද එතුමා වෛද්‍ය වෘත්තිය වෙනුවට තෝරා ගත්තේ සාහිත්‍යයි.   රුද්‍රිගු මහතා සාමාන්‍ය පරිවර්තකයෙකු නොවේ. එතුමා තුල විශිෂ්ඨ ගනයේ සාහිත්‍යධරයෙකු සිටියේය​. එම නිසා මූලකෘතියට ඉතා සමාන ආකාරයට මුල් කෘතියේ ජීව ගුණය එලෙසටම පාඨකයාට සමර්පණය  කිරීමේ අනර්ඝ හැකියාව එතුමා සතු විය​.

දැදිගම වී රුද්‍රිගු විසින් පරිවර්තනය කරන ලද කෘති බොහෝ ගනනකි. ඔහුගේ රුසියානු භාෂා දැණුම ප්‍රශස්තය​. එතුමා රුසියානු සාහිත්‍ය පරිශීලනය කලේ වෙනත් විදේශීය බසකින් නොව රුසියානු භාෂාවෙනි. එසේම රුසියානු සහ සෝවියට්  සංස්කෘතිය පිළිබඳවද එතුමාට උසස් දැණුමක් තිබුනේය​. එම නිසා තොල්ස්තෝයි, පුෂ්කින්, දොස්තයෙව්ස්කි , ගෝගොල් , නිකොලායි  ඔව්ස්ට්‍රොව්ස්කි යනාදී සාහිත්‍ය පතාකයන් ගේ  නිර්මාණ කිසිදු විකෘතියකට ලක් නොකොට  එලෙසින්ම සිංහල පාඨකයන්ට දීමට රුද්‍රිගු ශූරීන්ට හැකි විය​. එසේම ඔහුගේ සිංහල බස පිළිබඳ දැණුමද විශිෂ්ඨ විය​. මෙම භාෂා දෙකේ හැකියාවන් මත සංකලනයෙන් දැදිගම වී රුද්‍රිගු නම් සාහිත්‍යධර පරිවර්තකයා ඔපවත් වූයේය​.

දැදිගම වී රුද්‍රිගු මහතා විවහා වී සිටියේ රුසියානු කාන්තාවක් සමගය​. සෝවියට් දේශය ඔහුගේ දෙවන නිවහන විය​. ඔහුට පුතුන් දෙදෙනෙකු විය​. දැදිගම වී රුද්‍රිගු මහතා මිය ගියේ අනූව දශකයේදීය​. මොස්කව් වල තිබූ එතුමාගේ අවමගුලට සහභාගි වූ මා මිත්‍ර අනුර ඇතුලත්මුදලි  පසුව මට පැවසුවේ දැදිගම වී රුද්‍රිගු මහතා වෙනුවෙන් ලංකාවේ තානාපති කාර්‍යාලය මෙන්ම ලංකාවේ සාහිත්‍යධාරීන්ද හරවත් යමක් නොකල බවයි. ඇත්ත පුවත්පතේ පමණක් එතුමා පිළිබඳව සුළු විස්තරයක් පළ විය​.

දැදිගම වී රුද්‍රිගු යන නාමය සිංහල පාඨකයන්ට අමතක කල නොහැකි නාමයකි. දැදිගම වී රුද්‍රිගු විසින් පරිවර්තනය කරන ලද නිකොලායි  ඔව්ස්ට්‍රොව්ස්කිගේ වානේ පන්නරය ලැබුණු හැටි , චිංගීස් අයිත්මාතව්ගේ පළමු ගුරුවරයා (ගුරු ගීතය​) ,අම්මා සහ මිහිකත ,  මැක්සීම් ගෝර්කි ගේ අම්මා ,බොරිස් පලවෝ‍යිගේ සැබෑ මිනිසෙකුගේ කතාවක් ,  වී. කරලෙන්කෝ ගේ  අඳ වාදකයා ,නේස්තුර්හ් ගේ මිනිසාගේ සම්භවය යන කෘතීන් සිංහල පාඨකයන් විසින් ඉමහත් සෙනෙහසින් වැළඳගත් කෘතීන් වෙති.

පහත දැක්වෙන්නේ දැදිගම වී. රුද්රිගු විසින් පරිවර්තනය කරන ලද චිංගීස් අයිත්මාතොව් ගේ අම්මා සහ මිහිකත” කෘතියේ ‘තල්ගනායී’ නම් අම්මා සමඟ පෘථිවි මාතාව කළ සංවාදය ඔහු විසින් සිංහලට පෙරලා තිබූ අපූර්ව ආකාරයයි.

මේ ලෝකයේ ජීවත්වන ජනයිනි. නුඹලාට ඕනෑ මොනවා ද? පෘථිවිය ද? මෙන්න මා තමයි පෘථිවිය. මම සියලු දෙනාට ම එක හා සමානයි. නුඹලා ගේ කලහවලින් මට පලක් නෑ. මට අවශ්‍ය වෙන්නේ නුඹලා‍ගේ මිත්‍රත්වයයි, නුඹලාගේ ශ්‍රමයයි. පෙරළුෑ බිමට එක ධාන්‍ය ඇටයක් දීපල්ලා. මම නුඹලාට ධාන්‍ය සියයක් ලබා ‍දෙන්නම්. කුඩා පැළයක් සිටුවාපල්ලා, මම නුඹලාට මහ ගොඩක් පලතුරු දෙන්නම්. සතුන් ඇතිකරපල්ලා, මම උන්ට තණ ආහාර සපයන්නම්, ගෙවල් හදාපල්ලා, මම තාප්ප හා බිත්ති වෙන්නම්. විවාහ වී දරුවන් ඇති කරපල්ලා, මම නුඹලා සියලු දෙනාට ම සුන්දර නිවහනක් වෙන්නම්. මම අනන්තය වෙමි. සීමා රහිත වෙමි. මා ගැඹුරුයි. උසයි. නුඹලා සියලු දෙනාට ම මගේ ඇකයේ ඉඩ තිබේ” 

සෝවියට් ළමා පොත්ද එතුමා පරිවර්තනය කලේ ළමා මනසට ගෝචර වන ලෙසටය​. ලස්සන වසීලිස්සා එක් නිදර්ශනයකි. එසේම දැදිගම වී රුද්‍රිගු රුසියානු සාහිත්‍යය සිංහල පාඨකයන්ට හඳුන්වාදීමේලා කරන ලද සේවය විශාලය​. නමුත් මෙම අසහාය සාහිත්‍යධර පරිවර්තකයා ජීවත්ව සිටි කාලයේ ඔහු  උපන් දේශයන් කිසිදු ඇගයීමක් නොලද්දේය​. 2002 වසරේදී මා විසින් ලියන ලද ඉවාන් ගේ ලෝකය (විජේසූරිය ග්‍රන්ථ කේන්ද්‍රය​) නම්  නවකතාව පිදෙන්නේ දිවංගත දැදිගම වී රුද්‍රිගු මහතාටය​.

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග 

By Shelton A. Gunaratne, PhD (Minn.)

Moorhead, Minn.–I reckon that The Island editorial titled ETCA and mandates” (Feb. 22, 2016), which has had 1575 hits by noon the following day, drew the attention of a large audience. This indicates the editor’s correct news sense in selecting timely topics to edify his potential readers.

I concur with the editor’s view that the attempt of the putative yahapalanaya” clique to endorse the Indo-Lanka Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) without giving adequate time for the press and the public to discuss the implications of its contents violates the democratic principles that they pledged to uphold in the 2015 presidential and parliamentary elections.

However, the editorial would have served a more useful purpose had the writer avoided his apparent petulance and restrained his predilection to humiliate the politicians he presumably despises.

The editorial asserts that the ETCA will certainly sound the death knell for Sri Lanka’s IT industry still in its infancy; it will prove to be the kiss of death for other sectors as well with the passage of time. Any average person with an iota of intelligence will see that ETCA is heavily loaded in favor of India. Else, New Delhi would not have evinced so keen an interest in it and pushed for inking it in such a hurry. The government says ETCA will help create employment opportunities.”

Had the writer documented these claims with facts and figures, he would have become much more convincing than by insinuating the country’s parliamentarians to be political blockheads bellowing rhetoric and subjugating the national interest to their political agendas.”

The editorial, therefore, has taken up cudgels for the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA), which is opposing the ETCA because the influx of Indian doctors has the potential of affecting the salaries and job opportunities of local doctors under the agreement. Thus, the editorial praises the 22,000 doctors in the GMOA as professionals who are protecting our national interest because they have courageously defended the public interest against commercial giants producing tobacco, alcohol and contaminated milk powder; it also threw its weight behind the national medicinal drug policy.”

This evidence is commendable. However, it skips the instances where the Island editorially criticized the GMOA for excessive greed when they demanded higher salaries (February 11, 2001). Also, the Island editorially criticized the trade unions, including the GMOA for feathering their nests much to the neglect of the public interest” (April 6, 2005). In yet another editorial, the Island blamed the GMOA doctors for having had to rely on medical reps to know their drugs” (February 19, 2008).

Omission of facts is a propagandist technique.

Editorial writers should balance the pros and cons of important issues of the day with relevant facts and figures and demonstrate why one side is better without disparaging the adversaries or excessively praising the protagonists.

My criticism of the Island editorial is not an endorsement of the ETCA. It’s an instructional piece for improving editorial writing by avoiding the hoity-toity propagandistic approach of hurling insults” (by intentionally skipping the Sila dimension of the Middle Path) at those who have opposing viewpoints. Because all living beings are composites of the Five Aggregates, we hurt” ourselves by trying to hurt” others.

I am also baffled by the apparent differences in the editorial policy toward India applied by the daily Island and the Sunday Island. A decade ago, the Sunday editorial (September 4, 2005) praised india for being the one country that chose not to close its eyes to this [LTTE terrorist] reality, and it asserted: India is the one country that can help us over this hurdle and she is morally obliged to do so, given the role she played in making the LTTE what it is today.” In another editorial one year later (September 10, 2006), the Sunday editor declared: Good relations with India must be the cornerstone of Sri Lanka’s foreign policy. Some facets of Indian assistance in military and security spheres must be left unpublicized for good and obvious reasons.”

Now, the daily Island editor appears to have reversed the Sunday editor’s India-pleasing policy.

(Dr. Gunaratne is a professor of communication emeritus living in Minnesota.)

ධර්මසිරි සෙනෙවිරත්න

ජනප්‍රිය  මුහුණු ඉදිරියට දමා දේශද්‍රෝහී වැඩවලට යොදවා සිංහල බෞද්ධ ශිෂ්ටාචාරය සුනු විසුනු කිරීමේ අපේක්ෂාවෙන් පෙලෙන එජාපයේ නායක රනිල් නම් අන්ග් ලි ගිකානුවා   දැන් ඇති දක්ෂ ඔපෙරා සොප්‍රානු ගායිකා කිශානී ලවා තම අපේක්ෂාවන් මුදුන් පමුණුවා ගැනීමට බලය . කිශානි බෞද්ධ පාසලක  උගත් බෞද්ධ  කාන්තාවකි  එහෙත් අවාසනාවකට ඔය කියන බෞද්ධ පාසල් වලත් උගන්වන්නේ  අනෙක් පාසල් වල මෙන්ම මිෂනාරී අධ්ධ්යාපනයට අදාළ දේමය . එහෙත් මේ දරුවෝ අඩුගනනේ ආගමට දහමට ලදිය . කිශානි  අතිදක්ෂ ගායිකාවක් බව දන ගත්හ් මොවුහු  නිදහස් දින උත්‍ සවයෙදී ව්‍යවස්ථාවට පටහැනි ලෙස දෙමලෙන් ජාතික ගීය ගායනා කරවා  ඒ පිටම කිශානි ලවාද දන්නෝ බුදුන්ගේ ගීතය සොප්‍රානු ක්‍රමයට ගායනා කරවුහ . මේ ප්රෝඩා වන් නොදත්ඇ  ය තම දක්ෂතා පෙන්වීමේ රිසියෙන්  ඉතා කැමැත්තෙන් ගායනය කලා ය .මෙවන් අවස්තාවක් පහර හරින්නේ කවුද .. එහෙත් දෙමලෙන් ජාතික ගීය ගායනය කරවීමේ වේදනාවෙන් සිටිඅ  ය  මෙයින් හොඳටම කුලප්පුවුනේ ය .දන්නෝ බුදුන්ගේ ගීය ජන හදවත්  නිවාලූ ගීතයකි . එවැන්නක්   මහා හඩි න් නුපුරුදු ක්‍රමයට  ඇසෙන විටඅනිල් ලාගේ තරම දන්නා බෞද්ධයෝ  බනින්න පටන් ගත්තේ කිශානිටය . පර්යේෂණ අත්  හදා බැලීම්  කල යුතු විදිහක් ඇත .ඒ   මෙවැනි අවස්ථාවල නොවේ
දැන් රනිල් කියන්නේ තමන් කිශානිගී අලුත් ගායන විලාශයත් එකතු කර රටට අලුත් දෙයක් කරන්න බලාපොරොත්තුවෙන බවය     කිශානි එන පොට හොඳ නැත .  බෞද්ධ පවුලක ඉපදී නමට හෝ ඇති බෞද්ධ පාසලක උගත් ඔබ මේ අන්ග්ලිකානුවන්ගේ ඩ්ස්හද්රෝහී වැඩ වලට එකතු නොවිය යුතුය .  මේ තාන්න මාන්න නැතිවත් පිටරටකදී වුවත් ඔබට හොඳ තැනක් ඇත.
නිකමට හිතන්න විමල් වීරවංශ කීවාක් මෙන් රාත්‍රී නිදන්නට යන විට ඔබේ දරුවන් ”’මාතු පාදන්  නමාමී ” යන්න සොප්‍රාණෝ ක්‍රමයට කිව්වොත් කොහොමට හිටීද .  ගයන්න ගිය යුතුදේ  තව හිතන්න අනුරාධ නගරය  හිතට
පෙනෙන පරිදිය් එදා ගීතය ගැයුනේ .
ඔබ විශිෂ්ට ගායිකාවකි බුදුදහම පාසලෙන් ඉවත් කරන්නට තත් කරන ද්‍රෝහීන් සමග ඔබට පෑ හීමක් නැත. ඔබට නැ න නුවන පහල වේවා

ධර්මසිරි සෙනෙවිරත්න

ඉංග්‍රීසින්ගෙන් පූර්ණ නිදහසක් අපට අවශ්‍ය නැ තය්  ද අර්ධ නිදහසක් ප්‍රමාණවත් යය ද කී  ඩී  එස්  ප්‍රමුඛ සිංහලයන් 1956 දී නොපරදුනානම්  මේ වන විට ලංකාවෙන් තුනෙන් දෙකක්ම දෙමලු අතේය . ඉංග්‍රීසින් සතුටු කිරීමත් උන් අනුව ජීවත් වීමත්  ජීවිතයේ   ”’අර්ථය ”’ වශයෙන් සලකු  තමන්ට කියා විශේෂ වූ  අරමුණක් නැති  ඒ එජාපය  ඉංග්‍රීසින් විසින් ගෙන ආ  වෙල්ලාලයන්ද  වතු කම්කරුවන්ද  ඉන්ග්රීසින්ටත් වඩා ආරක්ෂා කරමින් සිංහල දේශයේ  වසර දෙදහස් පන්සීයකටත් වැඩි ඉතිහාසය  නොසලකා  රටේ බුදු සසුනට තිබු විශේෂත්වයද ඉවත දා  භික්ෂුන්ගේ   අනුශාසකත්වයද ඉවත දැමුහ DS  නිදහස් අධ්ධ්යාපනයටත් විරුධ්ධාවිය  සිංහල දුප්පතුන් ඉගෙන ගැනීම ගැන විරුධ්ධවූ ද ඉර්ශාකලාවුද  DS  ඇතුළු පාක්ෂිකයෝ  වෙල්ලාලයන් ඉගෙන ගෙන උසස් තනතුරු ගැනීම ගැන විරුද්ධ නොවීමජාතියේ අවාසනාවකි .
බණ්ඩාරනායක කිතුනු පවුලක උපත ලදුවත් එංගලන්තයේ අධ්‍යාපනය ලැබුවත්  රටට ආපසු ටිකකලකින්ම රටේ තත්වය තේරුම් ගත්තේය  පියාටද එරෙහිවී තනි මගක ගමන් ගත මොහු  ජන හද ගැහෙන රාවය DS  ට වඩා තේරුම් ගත්තේය .දේශපාලකයා එය තෙරුන් ගත යුතුමය . ඒ අනුව හැඩ ගැසිය යුතුමයනැත්නම් උන් මොකටද . මොහු සිංහල ඉගෙන ගත්තේය සින්හල  අයිතිවාසිකම් හඳුනා ගත්තේය ..සිංහලයන් පරයන් යටතේ විඳි දුක් හඳුනා ගත්තේය  සිංහල රාජ්‍ය භාෂාව කලේ  සිංහලයාගේ නැතිවූ අයිතිය ලබා දීමටය .එසේ නොකලා නම් අදටත්   සිංහලයන්ට  සිංහල ගුරු වුර්තිය හැර වෙනත් රැකියාවක් නැත .අනෙක් සියලු රැකියා වලින් සීයට 95 ක් ම දෙමළුන්ටය .1956 බලය ලබා ගත්තත් 1959 වන විටම මරාදැමූ නිසා මොහුට හිතු පතු දේවල් කිරීමට අවස්තාවක් නොලැබුනේය . මේ වසර තුනේදීත් මාක්ස් වාදියෝ ඔහුව නොමරා මරුහ    කිසි වැඩක් හරියට කරන්නට ඉඩ දුන්නේ නැත . සත්‍යග්‍රහ කල දෙමලු  ඉන්දියාවෙන්ද සෙනග ගෙනවිත්    තව තවත් සත්‍යග්රග කරන බවට ත් රට පුරා කලබල කරන බවටත් තර්ජන කරන විටත් සමසමාජ කාරයෝ රටතුලම සිටිමින්  ඔහුගේ කකුලෙන් අදින විටත්  ඔහු විටෙක  බිය වන්නට ඇත . තමන්ට බලය අහිමි වුවහොත්  සිංහලයන් නැවත අනාත වන බව ඔහු දත්තේය . . එහෙත්  අපේරට කොල්ලකාපු ඉංග්‍රීසින්ගේ  වතු ජනසතු කිරීම    වැනි කාර්යයක් බිය ගුල්ලෙකුට කල නොහැක මේ ශ්‍රේෂ්ට කාර්යයම ඔහු දේවත්වයට පත් කරය් .එජාපයෝ ත රහෙන් පුපුරද්දී ඉංග්‍රීසින් ට එරෙහිව කල මෙසටන  එසේ මෙසේ එකක් නොවේ  මහින්ද ප්‍රභා වනසුවෙත් මෙවන් තත්වයක් ඇතිවිටය   අද බස් ගැමුණු ගේ අනසකට යටත් වන  මගියා   ට වඩා එදා බස් කොම්පැනි කාරයන්ගේ අනසක වැඩිය එහෙත් මොහු  බස් ජනසතුවටද ඇත ගැසුවේ  දුප්පතා ගැන හිතු නිසාය . සිංහලපමණක් රාජ්‍ය භාෂාව කිරීමට  හිතුවත් සමහර සිංහයන් සමග එකතුවූ දෙමලුන්ගේ තර්ජන නිසා  පසුව දෙමළට ”” සාධා රන තැන’  දුන්නේ කල ඇතිවෙන නිසාය .චෙල්වනායගම් ඇතුළු දෙමලු  බටහිරයන් හා ඉන්දියා සහයෝගයෙන්  තර්ජන කරන විට  එදා නොබියව හැම විටම සිටින්නට   ලේසි පුතෙකුට නොහැකිවිය . බන්ඩාට ට තම බලය ස්ථාවර කර ගැනීමටවත් කාලයක් නොවූ නිසා විටෙක ඔහු සැලුන බව  අපට වටහා ගැනීම අමාරු නැත . මොහු 1921  දී  සිංහල මහා සභාව පිහිටෙව්වේ  පාලන බලයක් ලබා ගැනීම ගැන  හෝඩුවාවක් වත් නැති කාලයේය එනිසා ඔහු කපටියෙකය් කියන්නේ අන්ත කපටි නරින්ය .
මොහු     ඉන්දියාවෙන් මුදල් ලබාගෙන  බලය ලබා  උන්ට රට පාවාදුන්නායය් සමහරු කියති  එසේ කියන ය අපටත්හ් දන ගැනීම සඳහා  ඒ විස්තර සඳහන් කරන්නේනම්  වැඩ දායකය . මේ වෙබ් අඩවියේ සටහන් තබන ක්‍රිස්ටි   මේ ගැන  විස්තර කරනු අතය් බලාපොරොත්තුවන්නේ රටේ යහපත සඳහාම බවකියමු . හැබය් බන්දා එදා  ඉන්දියාව දෙමලු ලවා අපට හිරිහැර කරවාවියය් බිය වෙන්නට ඇත . ඇමරිකාව ගජ මිතුරෙකය් සිතාගෙන සිටි ජේ ආර්   ඉන්දිය්යව ඉදිරියේ බියෙන් සැලෙමින්  වෙවුලමින් ඉන්දියාවට අවශ්ෂ්‍ය ගිවිසුම් අත්සන් කලානම් බන්ඩා  බිය වීම පුදුමයක්ද  එජාපයත් සමසමාජ කාරයොත් අකුල් නොහෙලුවානම්  හොර සිංහල ධනපතිය විසින් මොහු නොමරුවානම්  දෙමලුන්ගේනුත් බටහිරයන්ගේනුත්  රට නිදහස් කරගන්නට  බන්ඩාට  ගතවෙන්නේ වසර පහ හයකි
මහින්ද ට  කොටි සමුල ඝාතනය කරන්නට  ධහිරිය  අනුබල දුන්නේ 56 දරුවන්  ය  ඔවුන් ට සිංහලෙන් ඉගෙන ගන්නට අවස්තාව  ලබුන නිසා  යම් කිසි ආර්ථික බලයක් දලබුනේය  මෙනිසා රාජ්‍ය අංශයේ යම් බලයක් ඔවුහු සතුවුහ  මේ බලය නොතිබෙන්නට  ඔවුහු අසරණයෝ ලෙසින්ම  සිටින්නට ඉඩ තිබුනේය  එවිට දෙමලු ඉහල තලයේ ය   වාසනාවට සිංහල රාජ්‍ය භාෂාව විය සිංහලයෝ අලුගසා දමා නගීසිටියහ  .  swrd  සුවුශේශී පුද්ගලයකු ලෙස සැලකීමට ඒ කරුණම ප්‍රමාන වත්ය  සිරිමාවෝ  බලයට ආවේ ත් කල්ලතොනින් ආපසු යැවීමට උත්සාහයක් ගත්තෙත් බන්ඩා   56 දී බලයට පැමිණි නිසාය   එසේ නොවන්නට  අප සිතන්නේ උන් යැවීම කිසිසේත්ම කල නොහැක්කක් ව තිබුනේය  යය කියාය .. අදත් මහින්ද වටා නැවත සිංහලයන් පෙළ ගැසෙන්නේ   බණ්ඩාට ට ට පින්සිද්ද වෙන්නට සිංහලයන්ට මොකක් හෝ අධ්‍යාපනයක් ලබීමනිසා  ලැබූ බලයෙනි .  SWRD  වසර 3ක් තුල වුවද ඔබ අපට යායුතුමග පෙන්නීමට සමත්වී ඇත .ඔබ නොහිටියානම් අදත් අපි රැජිනට ස්තෝත්‍ර  ගී  ගයන්නන් වෙමු අද ගැතිකම් කරන්නේ පාලක දෙ පල පමණි   මැ තිදුනිබටහිර ගත්තෝ එදා ඔබ මරාදමුවෙහිය  අද උන් සකල සිංහල ජාතියම මරාදමන්නට වලිකති  එහෙත් ඔබෙන් ලැබූ පන්නරය ඇති ජාතික වාදීහු   උන් සමග සටන් කරනු ඇත .     

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංගගේ  Auschwitz නම් කවිය ඇසුරෙනි අනුවාදය – යසනාත් ධම්මික බණ්ඩාර

රිදුම් දෙයි මහද

පය ගැටෙන

වාරයක් වාරයක් පාසා

මේ ඔෂ්විට්ස් කඳවුරු බිම….

ගෙවී ඇති මුත් බෝ කල්

හැඟෙනුයේ තවමත්

ඊයේ පෙරේදා මෙනි…..

ගෙන ආවේ මා මෙහි

පවුලේ අන් අය ද සමගිනි…..

මව…….පියා……

සහ සිඟිති නැගණිය ද……

රාත්‍රී තුනක් දිගු

වෙහෙසකර ගමනක් වීය එය

හරක් පටවන

දුම්රියක

කිටි කිටියේ තද බදව

මරන්නට ගෙනි යන

හරකුන් සේ ම

තද බද ව…..

කොතරම් තද බද වී ද එය

අත පය බැඳ දැමුවාක් වැන්න

නොබැන්ද ද…..

මා සිඟිති නැගණිය

පිපාසිතව දිය උගුරක් ඉල්ලා හඬන විට

දිය උගුරක් ද

කුඩා පාන් කැබැල්ලක් ද ඈට දුනිමි

අනතුරුව ඈ

මා ඇලයේ හිස හොවා නින්දට වන්නීය…

නමුදු මම

මුළු ගමන පුරාවට ම

අවදියෙනි….

දුම්රිය තැනක නැවතුනි…..

හැරුනි දොරවල්…..

පිලිගැනීමක ලකුණකුදු නොමැති

නැවතුමක…..

භටයින් පැමිණියේ

අත

තුවක්කු පමණක් ගෙන නොව

බල්ලන්ද රැගෙන ය……

S S හමුදාවේ

මරණයේ හිස” නම් අනු ඛණ්ඩය……

සුබ නොපැතී කිසිවකුටත්

ඔවුන්……

වරක් දුටු සැනින්

අණ දෙන්නන්

කියවා ගත හැකි විය

මට

ඔවුනගේ ඇස්……..

මට ඔවුන්  පෙනුනේ

ජීවිත් වන මළ මිනී සේ ය

සිනහවක් තබා

වචනයකුදු නොදොඩන….

එය ශීත සමයයි….

මා ශීතලෙන් වෙවිළූ……

මා

ළය පුරා

ගැඹුරු හුස්මක් අරගතිමි

යටි සිත මට මිමිනුවේය…….

ඔබ

මරණයේ බිම්කඩට පැමිණි ඇත….

අණ දෙන්නා පැමිණ විට

වෙන් වන්නට සිදු විය අපට

සමහරුන් ට වැඩ කඳවුර…..

සමහරුන් ට ගෑස් කුටිය….

මවට ද පියාට ද

සිඟිති නැගණියන්ට ද

උරුම වූයේ ගෑස් කුටිය ය……

මට සදා වේදනාව ය……

අනුකම්පා විරහිතව…….

සිඟිති නැගණියට පවා……

ගෑස් කුටිය………!

සැනෙන් ඔවුනගේ අළු

කඳවුරේ සැම අත ම විසිරින…

ගණන ගැන හැඟිමක් නොමැතිව

මූසල දීර්ඝ රාත්‍රීන් පහන් කළෙමි……

ඒ හැම රැයක ම

මගෙන් උදුරා ගත්

මව පියා…

සිඟිති නැගණිය සිහි වින….

වැඩ… වැඩ… වැඩ….

සෑම දිනකම

නොනවත්වා එක දිගට

වැඩ… වැඩ… වැඩ….

හැම දවසම බොහෝ සේ දිගු විය…

කුසට

අවැසි අහරින්

අඩක් පමණක් ලබමින්

ඒ සෑම දිගු දිනකම තිබුණේ

වැඩ…

වැඩ…

වැඩ……

අහේනිය සහ ශීතල……..

පහරදීම් සහ භීතිය……..

නින්දා කිරීම් සහ වධ බන්ධන…….

සෑම දිනකම

අත් විඳි

මරණයේ භීතිය……

පැතුම්සහගත බවක

සලකුණක්වත් නොතිබුණි……..

ගැලවීමක සේයාවකුදු……

තිබුණේ නම් මගක්

නිදහස වෙත හැකි

ඒ මග වැටී තිබුණේ

විදුලිය කැවූ වැට මතිනි……

අවෑමෙන්

වසර ගණනක්

අසන්නට ලැබුණි කට කතා

යුද්ධය නිමාවන බව ගැන

රතු හමුදා

බර්ලිනය දෙසට එනයුරු ගැන

ප්‍රාර්ථනාවේ කට කතා…..

යුද්ධයේ අවසාන දින වල

නාසීන්

තව තවත් වියරු වැටින

ජෝෂුවා නම් කීවේ

උරුම කර දේවි යැයි සැමට ම

මරණය…….

හතලිස් පහේ

ජනවාරි විසි හත……

කඳවුර රතු හමුදාවන් අතට……

එහෙත් ඒ වන විට

අපි හැමෝම

ඇවිදින ඇටසැකිලි බඳු විය……

ඔවුන් අප වෙත සැපයීය…..

අහර ද……

පැන් ද……

සියල්ලට ම වැඩි වටිණ

නිදහස ද…..

ඒත් සමගම දුන්

යුද්ධයේ නිමාවේ පණිවිඩය…….

හැම දෙනම පාහේ

පුදුමෙනුත් පුදුමයට පත් වුණි….

එහෙත්මා සිතුවිලි පමණක්

හිරි වැට්ටවීය ඉන්…….

නිදහස ලැබුණු ඒ දින

මරණු බැරි වී

ඉතිරි කළ වුන්

වෙන්ව ගියහ දසත…….

බොහෝ අය සිය නිවෙස් වලට…….

එහෙත් මම

කොහි යම් ද…..?

මට පවුලක් නොවුනි……

ඔවුන් මගේ පවුල උදුරාගත් බැවිනි…….

ජෝෂුවා සමග මම ගියේ

ශාන්ත බාබරා වෙත ය……

යුද්ධයෙන් බොහෝ කලකට පසුව

බොහෝ කලකට පසුව

නැවත මම ඔෂ්විට්ස් වෙත ආමි

එහෙත් මෙවර ආවේ

සිරකරුවකු ලෙසින් නම් නොවේ……

සාක්ෂිකරුවකු වශයෙනි……

මේ භීම භූමිය……

ඔවුන් මා ළබැඳි සැමගේ

දිවි තොර කළ

භීම භූමිය……..

මා මගේ මවු පියන්

සහ සිඟිති නැගණියන්

සිහි කළෙමි

මේ බිමේ

ගෑස් කාමර චිමිනියේ කවුළු අතරින්

ස්වර්ගයට යන ලද්දාහුය ඔවුහු…….

මට ආයුබෝවන් වත්

නොකියාම

ස්වර්ගයට යන ලද්දාහුය ඔවුහු…….

සුන් බුන් නෙත ගැටුණු විට

ගෑස් කාමරයේ

ජෝෂුවාගේ අත

තදින් මිරිකුනේ නිතැතිනි…….

මේ මගේ ළබැඳියන්

මැරූ තැන…….

මට දැනුනේ නෂ්ටාපේක්ෂාවකි….

හැඬුමට නොවිනි කඳුළක්

මා නෙත….

මේ බිමේදී මට

විවිධ හඬවල් ඇසෙනු දැනුනි…..

මිලියනයකුත් භාගයක්

ගැහැණුන් හා පිරිමින් ගේ

හා

ළමා ලපටින්ගේ

නාසීන්ගෙන් මැරුම් කෑ…….

ඒ සියල් හඬ අතුරින්

මා සිඟිති නැගනියගේ හඬ ද

පැහැදිලිව මට ඇසින……

සාරා……

ස්තුතියි ආවාට……

අපිව බලන්නට……

මම

මගේ ඇස් තදින් වසා ගතිමි……

මට තනි වෙන්නට අවැසි විය…….

කිව හැකිද නුඹලාට……..

ඇයි නුඹලා අපිට මෙසේ කළේ…….

ඇයි…………..?

ඇයි…………..?

හැකි නම් හඬ නගන්නට

ලෝකෙට ම ඇසෙන්නට

ඇත්තේ වචන කිහිපයයි කීමට……

කිසි දිනක නැවතත් ඉඩ නොදෙනු

එවැන්නකට……

කිසි දිනක නැවත…….

කිසි දිනක නැවත…….

Sarath Wijesinghe – former Sri Lankan Ambassador to UAE and Israel

 RULER IS ONLY A TRUSTEE

Ruler is only a Trustee of a Nation and there is every reason to be cautious in dealing with the rest of the world on behalf of the country in trust- especially when the previous experiences have shown adverse results for not being cautious. Sri Lankan Kings did business with the rest of the world when the visitors voyaged this beautiful Island in the Indian Ocean via SEDA MAWATHA” the famous traditional naval route, from Mediterranean, Persia, China, East Asia, India and the west on the emergence of the naval power. Kings allowed Muslims to erect mosques, Christians to build Churches, but the biggest mistake committed by them was to permit Portuguese, Dutch to have a permanent trade opportunity which has led British to conquer Sri Lanka who bluntly violated the 1815 Convention entered into with the Sri Lankan chieftains surrendered the Independent Sri Lanka to British to be a British Colony. Had they been cautious we would remain a unique and independent Nation which is a lesson for the future.

INTERNAIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

International Agreements are binding, subject to decisions of the World Court, Arbitrations, Regional Organizations and more importantly the agreements   of the international community based on the reputation in the absence of a World Executive Body. Reality is the survival of the fittest who is powerful in the world community on the implementation. It is sad but true to state that Sri Lanka has been failures and at the receiving end in terms of entering into and implementing international agreements since flowed 1815 Convention which is still in force unimplemented, hurriedly signed , 2002 ceasefire Agreement when we had the opportunity for a less harmful document with the impact of 9/11, also hurriedly signed Indu Sri Lanka accord of 1987 that forced Sri Lanka for Provincial Councils which are white elephants today, clamping on us on a regional foreign policy and series of agreements since Independence with WTO, UN and connected institution including IMF, countries and international institutions on various fields. Successive governments and rulers have arbitrarily and hap-hazedly entered into arbitrary and incomplete agreements of no quality, except Sirima- Srisathi” Pact on stateless citizens of Indian origin that was amicably settled on equal terms due to the excellent relations Sri Lanka had with India due to excellent foreign policy and foreign relations then which are classic examples to the modern Trustees. Madam Sirima Bandaraneike maintained excellent relationships with Prime Minister Indra Gandi that led to many agreements on equal terms benefiting both countries. Mrs Bandaraneike – the first world women Prime Minister had a battery of excellent and dedicated foreign officers at the foreign Ministry then. These memorable events are merely pleasant memories for us and materials for historians. Today tables have turned and one wonders whether we in fact have a foreign policy, and who manages when three main leaders on Foreign Policy among the Trustees are giving different versions and views on the same subject on CEPA, ICTA and Foreign Policy. They do not speak with one word. Their public speeches are part of International Law in terms of the implementation of foreign policy.

Preparation of agreements should be given time, space, and vetting by groups of competent/committed intellectuals whilst conceding that we have few competent experienced and knowledgeable lawyers-/professionals/ government servants in the State, Ministry, and in private practice. We have educated and competent Sri Lankans round the Globe prepared/awaiting offering assistance and the Foreign Ministry will have to take the initiative to mobilize them for their Nation. There should be constitutional provisions for the preparation and implementation of International Instruments to study and approve before entering into agreements. It is time to revive and restructure the existing International Instruments not up to the standard. Drafters of the new constitution will consider introducing a system of grating approval by a committee or a body of international lawyers and government servants.

WHY SRI LANKANS FEAR INDIA ON THE PROPOSED ECTA?

ECTA is to be introduced in place of CEPA which is a failed, inactive, and unsuccessful International Agreement with India entered into during Chandrika/Ranil regime 2003. Free Trade Agreement that was signed with India in 1998 operating for 15 years in favour of India where India exported USD4023 million worth goods to Sri Lanka when Sri Lanka exported only 625 USD million worth goods   India. Fortunately, no service sector is involved though now large number and sectors of Indian Labour is illegally employed in Colombo and superbs with a grave future threat. Government says ECTA is only a framework agreement for further negotiations. What we have left to negotiate and what we can offer is minimal and limited considering the ground situation. Why do we need the framework when BOI is functioning well is a matter one cannot understand? Once we sign the framework we are bound to be pressurized by India to mussel and implement the rest. We cannot export tea as there is a ban on tea to India. Coconut and Rubber is in short supply and any way Sri Lanka has a better market in Europe. We import red chilly in bulk from india without encouraging our own products learning from small but giant agriculturalists in the dry Middle East. We were exporting Karunka” imported from Indonesia and Vnaspathi” made out of Palm oil imported from Malaysia using the trade facility which is now banned. India is self-sufficient in garments and employment facilities in India is nil with their unemployment and underemployment exceeding twice the Sri Lankan population when 3 million applications receiving for 335 vacancies for office clerical jobs. Then what have we got to export to India rather than importing cars, buses, lorries, machinery, Medical drugs /equipment, and various items in bulk with the money generated by our earnings in the middle East. India is struggling with only 50% toilet facilities to citizens with low income low salaries and per capita income far below Sri Lanka. We have bitter memories of keeping a blind eye on using the Indian soil and the facilities given to world known separatist movement during our difficult era when the Giant Neighbour stepped in in full force to entered into the 1987 Indo Sri Lanka Accord with provisions for regional security favouring India in the international arena through the instrument. Therefore, there are reasons for Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans to be cautious. We expect foreigners to invest on products send export to India and other countries. What facilities we offer and are we prepared politically and streamlining the ground situation are questions to be answered with the time frame. Best is to harp on what we know and what we have historically experienced- AGROTCULTURE-

RAPING THE SRI LANKAN SEA

Illegal, fishing, poaching, bottle trawling, and raping the sea bed is rampant and uncontrolled. Indian Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers visiting Sri Lanka either evades the issue or our Trustees are not taking this matter serious due to reasons we cannot understand. Indi Sri Lanka Joint Commission (best opportunity) have not taken this issue which is important to Sri Lanka and not so to India as they are the beneficiaries of this ongoing international dispute. Iceland took the Superpower – UK and NATO to the International Court on illegal fishing in the common sea which is now under control. But it is doubtful whether Sri Lanka is willing or competence, considering the dead silence on PARIPPUE” issue when India forcibly dropped food items from the air threatening Sri Lanka to negotiate. Foreign Minister of Sri Lankans has stated not to be paranoid” on illegal fishing, pooching and raping the seabed when our fish is destroyed by armies of trawlers forcefully entering Sri Lankan territory for fishing.

WAY FOORWARD

Education agritcultire and Technology

It is true that we should not live in isolation and keep pace with the modern trends and fast developments in the world. But is advisable to think before you leap and be cautious based on previous bad and bitter experiences on entering into international agreements. Sri Lankans were no good traders historically cheated by many from time to time, but are world renewed agriculturists with a great history on irrigation systems unpatrolled. India seeks assistance from Israel on Agritcultire and Technology. We too have excellent relations with Israel – a world leader on agritcultire with 15 Nobel prizes and using agritcultire based technology based on 95% technology. India produces Bombay Onions, Potato, and number of agritcultire products at the lowest price to compete with Sri Lankan products even after paying heavy taxes. India has no fully fledged Education system but a mixture of English technology and information technology. Therefore, ideally we must have closer cooperation with Indi’s on agritcultire based items, technology and education which will help both countries equally, with Israel as a partner.

Protectionism and Economic Nationalism

There are continuous attacks of Sri Lankans being paranoid, on protectionism and Economic Nationalism which is practised even in the United Kingdom, Europe India and many parts of the world in protecting their industries business and citizens. Manchi” Biscuits and many other Sri Lankan enterprises attempted to set up industries in India and given up due to protectionism. India has banned tea and many other items and industries in their huge market and the economy is open to the world gradually/steadily and with grave/great caution. European Union has restrictions on investments by outsiders and United Kingdom too has severe restrictions on outside investors though international agreements that are in favour are in force. Therefore, we have all the reasons to be economically protected in dealing with the rest of the world including the immediate neighbour with many unresolved issues and unfair to call traitors who are genuinely voicing on genuine fears of future dangers which are irreparable and disastrous.

There is no hurry at all and do not give into pressure – Do not loose temper- be steady and yet Friendly-Do not pressurize the intelligent citizens, media and the national minded Business Community.

Please do not be in a hurry. Let us first settle the immediate issues on FTA, CEPA, SAFTA and the issue of Illegal fishing and poaching. We have all the time in the world left as we are doing much better than the ambitious giant neighbour struggling to maintain regional supremacy. We are still a welfare nation giving free education and health care to all with lowest mortality rates and less unemployment. We are grateful to the great neighbour for sharing great religions, culture and friendship from time immemorial and Let us support them to be a regional and a world power and help each other while maintaining our identity safety and integrity as a senior member in the world family. Be cautious and listen to the people concerned and media who are far above us in decision making. Attitude of the Trustees to bulldozing the proposed agreement in dispute will have a short and long irreparable impact will be disastrous and dangerous. This is not the theory of KING LICHCHIVE

Sarath7@hotmail.co.uk

Courtesy The Island

A group, comprising senior staff members of the Rajarata University Faculty of Medicine, has handed over a 14 proposals to the Committee on Constitutional Reforms at Anuradhpura district secretariat. Under the proposal number 13 they have requested a two-thirds majority of Parliament and a two-thirds majority at a referendum for governments to enter into agreements which are considered injurious to Sri Lanka’s sovereignty, unitary character, territorial integrity, and national security. This is the first time such a request has been forwarded to the committee. Prof Sisira Siribaddana, Prof Suneth Agampodi, Senior lecturer Dr. Channa Jayasumana, Senior lecturer Dr. Asantha Jayawadena, Consultant physician Prasanna Weerawansa, Consultant physician Senaka Pilapitiya, Consultant surgeon Sujeewa Thalgaspitiya were among signatories to this 14 point document.

Proposals are as follow,

1. Sri Lanka should remain a unitary state. Supporting, advocating, or encouraging the establishment of a separate state or a federal state should be prohibited by law.

2. The National Flag or the National Anthem should not be changed.

3. Article 9 of the present Constitution, which ensures that Buddhism be given the foremost place and also guarantees that it is the duty of the state to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana, should be included in the Constitution of Sri Lanka without any amendments

4. Since both Sinhala and Tamil languages have been recognized as official languages of the state, every citizen shall have the right to transact all business with the Government and the Judiciary in Sinhala or Tamil.

5. The Supremacy of Parliament should be safeguarded. There should be no restrictions or impediments placed on the legislative power of the People, when Parliament exercises such power. If there are any other institutions carrying out any legislative powers, such power should be exercised by them subject to the powers of Parliament. Parliament shall have the right to repeal or amend any legislation in the same manner as the Parliament may amend or repeal its legislation.

6. While Executive power of the People (including Defence) shall be vested with the President and/or the Cabinet as the case may be, any executive powers so exercised by anyone else or by any other institution, should be subject to the directions of the Government of Sri Lanka.

7. No Foreign Government or Foreign Institution should be allowed to exercise judicial power or to interfere in our Judiciary. Provisions should be included in the Constitution guaranteeing the same. There should be no special court or establish any other Constitutional Court above the Supreme Court.

8. No Political or Administrative Unit, based on Race, Religion, or Language should be established within Sri Lanka in as much as amalgamation of Provinces in such a manner is not conducive to peaceful co-existence of communities. The existing provisions provided for amalgamation of provinces should be removed from the Constitution. The boundaries of the territory of Sri Lanka or physically annexing Sri Lanka with a neighboring country should not be done for the reason that it is prejudicial to the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka.

9. The office of President, Minister, Member of Parliament, including any office in the Executive, Legislature, or the Judiciary, should be held only by a citizen of Sri Lanka who is not a citizen of any other country. Every such holder of office should be required to take the oath set out in the 7th Schedule to the present Constitution mutatis mutandis to prohibit the promotion or the establishment of a Federal State.

10. All appointments to high posts in Ministries, Departments, Commissions, Judiciary, or in any other institution should only be made on the recommendation of the Constitutional Council or similar institution created by law, consisting of nominees of recognized political parties proportionately represented therein. All nominations made to such Constitutional Council or institution should be approved by a majority of the Members of Parliament. The President shall not make any appointment to any high post recommended by the Constitutional Council or institution, unless the same is approved by a majority of Members of Parliament.

11. Police powers and powers relating to law and order of the Republic of Sri Lanka shall not be alienated to any provincial or regional organ. The Sri Lanka Police Force shall be under the Command and Control of the Inspector- General of Police of Sri Lanka who shall be the head of the Sri Lanka Police.

12. All State Land shall be vested in the Republic of Sri Lanka. Utilization, Administration, and distribution of State Land, shall only be done by the Government of Sri Lanka in accordance with the laws made by Parliament.

13. Entering into of all agreements which are injurious or which has a prejudicial effect on Sri Lanka’s sovereignty, unitary character, territorial integrity, and national security shall be prohibited, and any such agreement 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.

14. Remittance of funds to any Governmental or Non-Governmental institution in Sri Lanka, except through the Government of Sri Lanka made in accordance with the laws of the country, shall be prohibited. Provisions to this effect should be included in the Constitution.

H. L. D. Mahindapala

Chelvanayakam and Prabhakaran are two sides of the same Tamil coin : Chelvanayakam laid the ideological and the political foundations for  the Vadukoddai war and Prabhakaran executed it. Chelvanayakam was acclaimed as the father of the Tamils” (Thanthai”) and the separatist movement and Prabhakaran became the first born son of the Vadukoddai Resolution that took to violence with fiendish glee.  Chelvanayakam promised to give more  security to the Tamils by passing the Vadukoddai Resolution which was committed to a military solution. Prabhakaran too was committed to give security to the Tamils by killing more Tamils than anyone else. Chelvanayakam was garlanded by Tamil assassins  and even proudly accepted a pottu drawn from  the blood of an assassin who placed it on his forehead. Prabhakaran did  one better : he became  the assassin of Tamil people, particularly Chelvanayakam’s lieutenants, including his  deputy Appapillai Amirthalingam. Chelvanayakam participated  in satyagraha sit-ins which distributed wooden pistols. Prabhakaran had no qualms about using live  ones that killed fellow-Tamils. Chelvanayakam imitated Jinnah of Pakistan and Mujibir Rahman  of Bangladesh. Prabhakaran imitated Ciint Eastwood, the celluloid fixer of  Hollywood.

Both corralled the Tamil people and dragged them  to Nandikadal, promising the elusive Eelam all the way. Both failed to achieve their common objective of establishing Eelam. Both promised to liberate their people from the Sinhala oppression but both ended up, helping  each other in their separate ways, to establish the most oppressive fascist regime that imprisoned the Tamils under the jackboot of Prabhakaran. Both had the opportunities to sort out  their problems non-violently if they negotiated / bargained with the vulnerable Sinhala” governments like the Muslim and the Indian minority communities. But both opted for the military solution which ended in a futile war. The Tamils had no one to blame except  their foolish leaders who did not  know  what  they were doing. If they knew what they were doing  would  they have led their people to Nandikadal?

The failed Vadukoddai War remains as the last stand of the violent theories and brutal leaders, at least for the foreseeable future. It has disproved, once and for  all, the claim that only violence can achieve what democratic means fail to win. Besides, the future of organised  violence seems  dim in this post-9/11 era where international  opinion militates against terrorist attacks on democratically elected states. Even before 9/11, history has  taken the  side of non-violent politics. Whether it was the LTTE in the north or the JVP in the south, violence was doomed from the start. The  politics of violence, whether motivated by the lumpen Marxist  theories of the JVP, or the anti-democratic racist theories of the north, failed to achieve their goals. The state, with all its tardiness and infirmities, succeeded in defeating violence aimed at deposing the democratically elected governments.

The record of the post-independent period establishes that more political goals have been achieved through the non-violent democratic processes than through chaotic and fascist violence. In particular, the failure of the organised violence unleashed by the Tamil leadership in the north confirms, beyond doubt, that the Tamil people deserve a leadership far better than those who competed with each other to be the sole representatives” of the largest mass graves in the North. In the end, Chelvanayakam and Prabhakaran are bound to go down in history as the most successful undertakers in Sri Lankan politics. They were so successful as killers of  their own people that they even managed to be a peg or two above the evil fascist of south, Rohana Wijeweera, the brutal killer of the Sinhala  people. Tamil politics failed because they relied solely on intransigent violence in a country where violence was destined to fail.

The Vadukoddai violence endorsed by the Tamil leadership, without any consideration for the  consequences that would inevitably follow when the Tamils were thrown into the  fires  of hate politics, reveals the racist machinations of the cynical and manipulative leadership of Jaffna. They were as concerned about the morals of the violence they were unleashing as the prostitutes were about their virginity. The horror of the violence unleashed by the Chelva-Prabha duo – officially from May 14, 1976 in Vadukoddai to May 18, 2009 in Nandikadal – leads to the incontrovertible conclusion that both were two misguided missiles. The futility of their brutal violence seen  in the post-Nandikadal period make them look like a couple of political idiots who continued in their bloody path knowing  that it was not taking  them anywhere. Their mindless violence that led to the deaths of tens of  thousands does not elevate them to the status of being saviours of the Tamil people. Their failure to deliver the promised political political goal condemn them as evil and immoral political speculators gambling with the precious lives of the Tamils. They fought the longest running war in Asia to achieve nothing. The Tamils gave everything they had to Prabhakaran and his legacy to the Tamil people in the end were (1) his swimming pool and (2) acres of graveyards.

Drunk with the arrogance of imagined power they conceptualised the Eelamist goal and threw everything they had into it without realising that it was a risky gamble that could go either way. In the end it proved to be goal beyond their reach. Their intransigent arrogance was always far greater than their capacity to achieve their goal. Blinded by their inflated arrogance and hate politics they were determined  to fight to the last Tamil child, hoping  that either India or the West would come to their rescue. What is unforgiveable is that they were throwing  the innocent Tamils into frontlines knowing that their days were numbered. A leadership that had no respect for the lives of their people dying in a shrinking and indefensible frontline deserves only utter contempt. There is no heroism or glory in throwing away the lives of other people in the face of impending defeat. It is the dry bones of the trapped Tamils who were forced to stand as the human shield to protect the Thalaivar and his swimming pool that remain today as the legacy of the great Tamil culture of Jaffna.  When the Tamil Thalivar forcibly detains his helpless people at gun point to stand as a human shield to protect his back it reveals that he was not only a coward but a heartless exploiter of his people for his own self-centred gains. Tamil people were useful to him only in two main ways : 1. as a human shield to protect him and 2. as cat’s paw to be thrown to the frontline to pull his chestnuts out.

That was not all. In the dying days of the pseudo-state of Eelam, when  their politics of hate ran out of new recruits to man the shrinking frontline, the great Tamil leadership came up with the brilliant strategy that not even Napoleon / Clint Eastwood could have imagined : pluck Tamil children forcibly from their weeping mothers’ protective arms and throw them into the frontline where they would face certain death. This was the peak point of the great Tamil culture. A culture that engaged in the forcible recruitment of its helpless children and remained silent  while they were dying in a futile war must be either insane or barbaric. What is the quantum of morality left in a society that sends its children to fight the wars of their ageing and pot-bellied leaders? This subhuman  culture of Jaffna was even blessed by the Church which gave a helping hand to forcibly abduct the Tamil children who were kept in their care by the panic-stricken parents. The high-profile moral agents of Jaffna, in the Churches, in politics, in the media, and academia,  went along with the most obscene and oppressive regime that took the children away forcibly to fight a losing war. Today the pro-Prabhakaranistas are parading as high priests of morality in the corridors of the UNHRC and  pointing an accusing finger  at the government of Sri Lanka that put  an end to senseless killing.

In hindsight, it is apparent that the Tamil culture was based primarily on hate politics. It was the fuel that kept the Tamil politics burning. First, the Tamil leadership hated each other, sometimes more than their bete noir the Sinhalese. Like all Tamil leaders they were obsessed with the idea of being the sole representative of the Tamils.” G. G. Ponnambalam and Chelvanayakam hated each other and fought bitterly in public, hurling abusive names at each other (liar’, thief”” etc.,) and accusations of political betrayal. All Tamil leaders have tried to beat  each other in the Tamil electorates by raising the bogey of the Sinhala man”. After Ponnambalam went for 50 –50” it was politically logical for his rival, Chelvanayakam, to go for separatism, which was one step ahead of 50-50”. If Ponnambalam went for 50% why not go the whole hog and ask for 100% to beat his  rival? It  is primarily this competition for electoral votes that  drove the peninsular politics from  one racist extreme to the other.

Second, the upper caste hated the dalits and vice versa. Saivite Jaffna Vellahlas wielded all the power they had to keep the marginalised dalit victims of  Saivite Hinduism suppressed. Third, when, in the post-Vadukoddai period, power slipped from  the traditional Vellahlas into the hands of the new leadership headed by Prabhakaran he first turned his guns on his political fathers. He slaughtered the entire Tamil leadership because the ambition of being the sole representative of the Tamils” has been the main driving  force  of peninsular  politics. The hate politics of Tamil rivals  is as great as  their hatred of the  Sinhalese or any other outsider who is seen as a threat to be the sole representative of  the Tamils”.

Hate politics of  the Tamils is encapsulated in the violence  of Prabhakaran. He began his career by assassinating Alfred Duraiappah, one of the finest, mild-mannered, reasonable, and peace-loving Tamil gentleman I’ve met. He also ended his career by killing the Tamils fleeing from his gulag into the arms of the Security Forces who gave them food, shelter, medicine and other existential essentials. The oppression and killing of  Tamils by the Tamil leadership has been the standard political culture of Jaffna. Jaffna was a glorious haven for the English-educated Saivite, Jaffna Vellahlas. It was hell for the non-Vellahla dalits who were not allowed even to step into the seventh outer court of their sacred temples to worship their  common God/s.

By the 70s Tamil ideology  had crystalized into pure hate politics. Those who were not with Chelvanayakam – Prabhakaran line of politics had to be eliminated. When Appapillai Amirthalingam, leader of the TULF, who was close to Prabhakaran, was questioned about  the killing of Duraiappah his response was to say : What else can you do with him?” (p. 44 —The Arrogance of Power, Myths, Decadence and Murder, University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna), Wasala Publication, July 2001). Commenting on this facet of Tamil politics Prof. Rajan Hoole wrote : However, the hate campaign against those who disagreed with the nationalist claims (of the Tamils) and the very act of usurping the right to Duraippah’s life, set the direction of the Tamil politics on the course of tragedy. Grief over Duraippah’s death brought forth an outpouring of tears. Today there are no tears left.”  (p.19 – Ibid).

Jaffna was dragged into a futile war by their own leaders that brought untold suffering particularly to the Tamil people. The decision to go to war until they achieve Eelam was taken solely by the Tamil leadership that met in Vadukoddai on May 14, 1976.  It was the Tamil leadership that declared war, financed the war, directed the war, recruited forcibly even children to the war, internationalised the war that was eventually waged by the cruel and fascist leader who was the first born child of the Vadukoddai Resolution : Velupillai Prabhakaran. The decision to go for a military solution, without knowing  which way it would go, was irresponsible, immoral and suicidal. In declaring war when negotiable  options were available, however tardy it may have been, was a crime against peace.  In passing the Vadukoddai Resolution  the arrogant and intransigent Tamil leadership was hoping  to hold a gun to the head of the democratically elected government. But it backfired. The militarised Tamil youth  recruited to fight the Vadukoddai War, turned their guns on the fathers of Vadukoddai Resolution first. The hypocritical and immoral Tamil leadership reaped the violence they sowed so arrogantly. The primary blame for the 33-year-old war that followed should go to the Tamil leadership that took  to doomed politics of  hate and violence.

If there is any trace of moral values left in Tamil politics in the post-Nandikadal phase then it is bounden duty of the Tamil leadership to abandon hate politics and lead the Tamil people down a  non-confrontational path. The Vadukoddai violence came out of cynical, expedient and immoral values inherent in hate politics. A culture that respects humane values cannot subscribe to immoral politics that drag their people violently to another Nandikadal. The abject failure of Vadukoddai violence and militarism condemns the Tamil leadership as deranged lemmings going over the cliff to commit mass suicide.

Looking back of what is left of Vadukoddai violence it is clear that the Tamil leaders were a  bunch of incurable mytho-maniacs defeated by the backlash of their own vicious fictions and hate politics.  The way forward is not to go back to failed politics.  The hero-worshipping of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the personality cult gathered around him, the rallying of Tamils behind his Tiger flag which has no civilised or redeeming symbols, and the expectations  of some of the Tamils for his second coming are indicators of the iconic status he enjoys among some, if not most, of the Tamils, both abroad and at home, either covertly or overtly. There is no other figure that towers above him in the Tamil political landscape. Not even S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, the father of the separatist ideology, can hold a candle to him. Chelvanayakam is in fact irrelevant as a model that can inspire the generation led by C.V. Wigneswaran, the Chief Minister of NPC, and  his hard-line extremists.

It is indeed  tragic to see that in the brief  history of Jaffna  there is nothing left  in the Tamil culture and in the collective psyche of the Tamils to hero-worship other than Prabhakaran — the wild beast that came out of the womb of Jaffna. This questions the fundamental values of the Jaffna Tamil political and moral culture.  If at the end of eight centuries of recorded history, starting from Jaffna’s first settlements in the 13th century, according to Prof. Sinappah Arasaratnam, the  history of the Sri Lankan Tamils has peaked in producing only Velupillai Prabhakaran – the biggest known persecutor and killer of Tamils, including its leaders, children and oldies – what does it say about the culture of Jaffna? When identical fascist leaders like Prabhakaran are rejected in other civilised cultures (examples : Germany (Hitler)  and Cambodia (Pol Pot))   why are the Jaffnaites hanging on to his brutal image and obscene flag? And why have the Jaffnaites  failed to find a more humane alternative to the sub-human  politics of Prabhakaran? Are Jaffnaites bereft of all human values to fall at the feet of the power-drunk, fascist Tamil leader who trampled them and kept them as slaves under his political jackboot? Or are they abject fools who are born to be sado-masochists ever willing to be kicked around by their leaders who treated their fellow-Tamils as dehumanised objects, fit only to fill empty graves?

Perhaps, a better way of comparing the Tamil fascist movement is with that of the JVP – the fascist movement of the so-called liberators of the south. They were not only wiped out also by the Sinhala government” but their failed politics, wrapped in brutal violence, have been erased from the political stage without leaving cult heroes. More than that, their leaders have apologised to the people for the crimes they committed against their own people. Nor is there a hero-worshipping cult thrown round Rohana Wijeweera to perpetuate or glorify his violence. And the left-overs have taken to democratic  politics.

It would have been conducive for the intractable politics of reconciliation for leaders of the north and the south to offer their apologies to the Tamil and Sinhala people. As far as I know the Sinhala leaders have apologised to the Tamil people. But I am yet to hear the apologies of the Tamil leaders to the Sinhala people. It has only a symbolic value, something like two opponents shaking hands over the net after a tennis match. But Tamil arrogance would dare not go that far thinking that it would be an admission of guilt on their part. So let’s leave it out. What would be admirable and meaningful would be apologies from the Tamil leaders to their own people for misleading them and dragging them all the way to Nandikadal and committing crimes against their own people en route. If the Sinhala leaders could apologise to the Tamil people, quite rightly in the spirit of reconciliation, why is it difficult for the Tamil leaders to apologise to their own people?

No they will not. They will continue to blame everyone else –the British, the Indians, and, of course, the Sinhalese — without ever accepting that the Tamil leaders have been the  perennial  oppressors and assassins of Tamils. The killing of Tamils by Tamils  began with Sankilli going down to Mannar  on the Christmas eve of 1544 and massacring  600 Tamil Catholics for owing allegiance  to the King of Portugal and ended (hopefully?) with Prabhakaran bombing and shooting the Tamils abandoning him and rushing into the safe arms of the Security Forces of the vilified Sinhala Government”. With all their faults and failures, the Sinhala  people  have consistently risen to give a  helping hand to the Tamils in times  of  crises, whether  it is the tsunami or providing security to the Tamils  hunted by Prabhakaran. There is always so much to be gained by helping each other. But how is it possible to get together  when the Tamils are led by a Chief Minister, Wigneswaran,  who begins by chanting  prayers in Sanskrit and ends by worshipping in English Swamy” Premanada, a murderer and a rapist of young girls? (Explanation: His lachrymose appeals to Prime Minister Modi to save Swamy” Premananda are in English).

What is the future of Tamils when the Tamils are led by worshippers of murderers, rapists and oppressors of Tamils, including  Prabhakaran —  Wigneswaran’s other Surya Devan”?

To be continued

Shenali D Waduge

 Some facts to think about

• Buddhism is the predominant religion in Sri Lanka. Yet there are other global religions with very powerful institutional backing like Christianity/Catholicism and Islam
• How can an unruly Parliament which is jumping from one party to another with no sense of ethics or morals change Theravada Vinaya rules that have been practiced for centuries?
• A constitution grants and guarantees equality, if so why only one religion and the representatives of that religion should be targeted while other religions and their representatives committing the same offences are not.  Why should only Buddhist priests be reprimanded, arrested and dismissed as Buddhist monks. This is a very dangerous future scenario.
• Vaticans wealth (disclosed and undisclosed) run into billions. Vatican as a religion has a country and member status in the UN. Powerful governments/countries ensure the Catholic faith is upheld and its beliefs and ideologies are spread.
• Islam’s wealth (disclosed and undisclosed) run into billions. Billions are allocated to spread Wahhabi ideology through mosques and madrasas. There are over 50 powerful Islamic majority countries which only give a place to Islam and the Islamic way of living (Shariah)
• Is it only Buddhist monks who are disobedient? It is a violation of the human rights of Buddhist monks when only they are being targeted by a Parliamentary bill when Christian/Catholic, Islamic and Hindu priests are not subject to any state laws and can do the very activities that Buddhist priests are being denied via a Bill.
• The Bill does not define occult practices. Therefore, Buddhist priests that do religious poojas can also be faulted and imprisoned for no reason whatsoever while other religions practicing the same continue regardless.
• Let us also remind that Pope Francis called upon Catholics to return to medieval traditions like ‘casting out devils’ and ‘evil spirits’ and Pentecostal Christians also practice ‘healing’ rituals which also belong to the category of occult practices. There have been instances that due to Pentecostal practices children have denied because the parents were forbidden from taking the child to hospital/medicines.
• The Vatican has recently announced that Catholic bishops not obliged to report clerical child abuse http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/10/catholic-bishops-not-obliged-report-clerical-child-abuse-vatican-says in other words paedophile monks will not be reported to police and abuse of children inside the Church will continue. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2690575/Pope-Francis-admits-two-cent-Roman-Catholic-priests-paedophiles-interview-Italian-newspaper.html (One in 50 priests is a paedophile: Pope Francis says child abuse is ‘leprosy’ infecting the Catholic Church)
• If the Parliament wants to protect the People from frauds and quacks why is Parliament stopping the priests of one religion only? If it is about frauds and quacks then all religions and their priests must be subject to the same laws equally. Only one religion and the representatives of that faith cannot be subject to laws by a Parliament elected by the People for a term.  
• If the Government is saying that the Bill empowers the Mahanayaka theros why should Parliament pass a Bill when the Mahanayake theros can come out with their own Bill. Parliament cannot target one faith or one group only. It is unparliamentary and not following democratic governance to which Parliament is bound.

   

  Questions for people to think about

   

• Can an unruly Parliament which cannot control itself or has yet to come up with a code of conduct for itself control only one religious sect ignoring other religious denominations?
• More importantly, the political party introducing the bill has never been exponents of upholding Article 9 of the Sri Lankan Constitution giving foremost place to Buddhism and the party has at all times favoured minority rights and minority religions over Buddhism.
• Is it only Buddhist monks whose behaviour has been wayward? What about instances of Church priests openly advocating separatism and having direct links with the internationally banned LTTE and collecting funds and helping promote LTTE and the division of the country? Are these behaviour not more harmful to the nation than the alleged wayward behaviour of a handful?
• Why should ancient customs carried out by Buddhist monks over centuries (Angulimala piritha etc) be categorized as occult practices?
• What about the other religions that are also practicing these occult activities openly – Evangelical churches healing people etc omitted ?
• Is it only Buddhist monks that pursue trade, business and obtain driving licenses etc? Is it not due to practical reasons that overseas the Bhikkus learn to drive because they cant expect people to drive so many miles to the temple to pick them up/drop them?
• Are these codes just another smokescreen to produce the red card against Buddhist monks and imprison them or derobe them/expel them from the temple with a long term intention of totally annihilating one of Buddhism’s key pillars?
• Shouldn’t the mahanayaka theros that had been playing a key role in the affairs of the country during the times of the Kings play a bigger role than just agreeing to politicians without realizing the deeper ramifications and long term plans against Buddhism. The Buddhist priests were advisors of the all the Kings of Sri Lanka and without the consent of the Buddhist priests none of the Kings took decisions. This historical fact cannot be changed due to new liberal slogans.
• Should the Buddhist Theravada practices and laws be allowed to be overridden by a Parliament that is only elected for a term?
• Moreover, the Buddhists also have a role to play. If they knew their religion properly they would not go to any Buddhist monk or encourage any Buddhist monk following what is not taught in Buddhism. Therefore, the dayaka committees of the temples have a bigger role to play by ensuring true Theravada Buddhism is practiced in the Temples and by the Buddhist worshippers too.
• All non-Buddhist religious make it compulsory to give a % of one’s earning to their religious institution, these religious institutions are rich. Vatican Bank (known as Institute of Works of Religion has $8 billion in assets and 33,400 accounts. A US Catholic priest says the Catholic Church must be the biggest corporation in the United States. We have a branch office in every neighborhood. Our assets and real estate holdings must exceed those of Standard Oil, A.T.&T., and U.S. Steel combined. And our roster of dues-paying members must be second only to the tax rolls of the United States Government.’” http://humansarefree.com/2012/03/christian-church-is-biggest-financial.html. Catholics are bound to give 10% of their earnings to the Church. Mormon church earns $7 billion a year from tithing http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/13/13262285-mormon-church-earns-7-billion-a-year-from-tithing-analysis-indicates. Let us also not forget that the bulk of NGOs operating world wide are Christian/Catholic missionaries and charities collected by showcasing humanitarian woes all are used to promote the Church faith globally.
• In 2015 Saudi allocated $32billion to spread Islam/Shariah globally. Muslims have to give a tithe(Zakat) of 2.5% of their annual income (Zakat is based on income and the value of all of one’s possessions) Calculate 2.5% into worlds 1.3billion Muslims to see the wealth of Islam. http://oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/i-just-found-out-that-a-quarter-of-the-global-population-already-pays-an-annual-wealth-tax-has-anyone-told-piketty/ ‘Data we have collected for Indonesia, Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, which make up 17% of the world’s estimated Muslim population, indicates that in these countries alone at least US$5.7 billion is currently collected in Zakat each year.
• 2013, faith-based organisations received and delivered between US$420 million and US$434 million (15–16%) of all international humanitarian assistance channelled through non-govermental organisations (NGOs). Between 2011 and 2013, international humanitarian assistance from governments within the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) grew from US$599 million to over US$2.2 billion. There is no such system for Buddhism.
• Buddhism/Buddhists have only the ‘pin kataya’ and the GOSL demands through the bill that half this earnings are given to the State if not the temples will be charged and priests punished.    

How many ‘wayward’ priests are we talking about to come to such rash generalizations? Can the behaviour of a handful result in gagging an entire religion while ignoring all others who also have wayward priests?

By drawing the attention of the people using media to direct attacks only on a handful of Buddhist monks showcasing a scenario that all Buddhist monks are similar a very dangerous Bill is attempted to be passed. Such generalization is totally unfair and uncalled for.

If Buddhist priests are behaving waywardly it is timely for the mahanayaka theros of all denominations to call for a conference and layout their own rules and regulations on how to preserve the pristine and prestige of Buddhism. They can call the Buddhist public to put forward their proposals which can be reviewed by a panel combing representatives of the nikayas and even Buddhist scholars.

A Parliament that represents the people for a term of office cannot bring legislation to target only one group (that too the predominant religion of Sri Lanka). This is unethical, unparliamentary and totally against all norms. Moreover, this same Parliament has yet to produce its own code of ethics and the manner its members behave inside Parliament does not warrant them to be laying out behavioural laws upon any group especially a religious sect.

Here are some examples of the behaviour of Sri Lanka’s Parliament

‘UNP MPs engaged in incessant table thumping, tearing, burning and throwing of order books towards the government benches, hurling unprintable abuse and vile epithets when the President presented the draft Constitution in Parliament, reported the Daily News of 4/8/2000” http://www.island.lk/2002/08/06/opinio09.html

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAJEoThK0-g
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wErCiMhEQrI
• Some videos are not shared in view of the language used by MPs.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V5On2HhIh0 (we can take heart… other foreign politicians are no better)

   

   

   

  Shenali D Waduge

Editorial Courtesy The Island

February 21, 2016, 7:41 pm

The Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) has annoyed many a government leader by opposing the controversial Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) to be signed with India. Hardly a day passes without some self-important ruling party potentate venting his spleen on doctors.

Minister Lakshman Kiriella has told our sister paper, the Sunday Divaina, that the government does not care about those who are without a popular mandate and is planning to make a public display of its strength by holding a rally next month. The previous government also resorted to such muscle flexing in a bid to frighten its opponents into submission, but could not perpetuate its hold on power.

Demonstrations to be staged by government backers, blinded by party politics and intoxicated with free rotgut, won’t help legitimize ETCA or any other pact inimical to the country’s interests. On the other hand, the course of action the government is contemplating is tantamount to throwing down the gauntlet which its opponents are sure to pick up. Street protests have a snowballing effect and it is a mistake for any government to trigger them.

The Rajapaksa government unflinchingly used a two-thirds majority it secured through a process of despicable political manoeuvring to change the Constitution. The present administration, claiming to uphold good governance, is using a similarly obtained parliamentary majority to ram ETCA down the people’s throats.

The present government which speaks so highly of popular mandates has within its ranks some defeated candidates appointed to Parliament against the people’s will and made ministers! It is led by a bunch of politicians who grovelled before Prabhakaran, who did not have representation even in a Pradeshiya Sabha! They entered into a ceasefire agreement with the LTTE, gave it parity of status at ‘peace talks’ and recognized it as the sole representative of the Tamil people. The Sri Lanka Air Force choppers were placed at the disposal of the LTTE leaders who were also given right royal treatment at the BIA, which they had attacked. Terrorists were allowed to operate freely in the North and the East and consolidate their power in those parts of the country. Minister Kiriella, during his Opposition days, derided military action against the LTTE and went so far as to claim that any idiot could wage war. Those who had their tails between their shivering legs and granted the wishes of the LTTE sans any popular mandate are today puffing themselves up and threatening doctors and other professionals!

Interestingly, the present government which accuses professional associations of engaging in politics and threatens action against them enlisted the support of trade unions including that of bus mudalalis before the last two elections. Several trade unions threw in their lot with the so-called good governance camp and publicly campaigned against the then government. This newspaper has carried pictures of the leaders of those bootlicking trade union leaders receiving awards from Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne for services rendered to the UNP-led coalition!

Trade unions have social responsibilities. The GMOA has, to its credit, courageously defended the public interest against commercial giants producing tobacco, alcohol and contaminated milk powder; it also threw its weight behind the national medicinal drug policy. It has, in the process, made very powerful enemies who are all out to destroy it with the help of some local quislings.

One need not be a doctor or an engineer to realise the danger of ETCA, the signing of which will certainly sound the death knell for Sri Lanka’s IT industry still in its infancy; it will prove to be the kiss of death for other sectors as well with the passage of time. Any average person with an iota of intelligence will see that ETCA is heavily loaded in favour of India. Else, New Delhi would not have evinced so keen an interest in it and pushed for inking it in such a hurry. The government says ETCA will help create employment opportunities. That may be so, but the beneficiaries won’t be Sri Lankans!

Politicians have no moral right to use mandates as bludgeons against professionals who defend the national interest. If the present-day doctors had dropped out of school before passing Grade Five and taken to cattle rustling, chain snatching, drug peddling, armed robbery and frauds, they would have been successful politicians today with popular mandates and instead of 22,000 physicians we would have had an equal number of political blockheads bellowing rhetoric and subjugating the national interest to their political agendas.

Politicians’ boastful claims of having mandates remind us of the Fuhrer. After the 1932 German election, Hitler also flaunted a popular mandate which he used to bulldoze his way through. What happened to Germany and the rest of the world thereafter because of his mandate is now history. So much for power hungry politicians and popular mandates! Champions of democracy, including trade unions, must join forces to form a countervailing force against such lunatics.

The GMOA and other professional outfits opposed to ETCA deserve the unstinted backing of all right-thinking Sri Lankans.

නලින් ද සිල්වා

by P. Krishnaswamy Courtesy:  Sunday Observer

Minister Swaminathan to present Bill in Parliament:

Significant milestone in promoting Hindu religious concepts:

Animal sacrifice in all Hindu shrines in the island will be banned under a new law that is to be introduced soon, Resettlement, Reconstruction, Hindu Religious Affairs and Prison Reforms Minister D.M. Swaminathan told the Sunday Observer.

He said he will present the Bill in Parliament at the end of this month. The ‘Prevention of Animal Sacrifice in Hindu Shrines’ Bill is now being drafted by the Legal Draftsman’s Department, he said.

This would be a significant milestone in promoting Hindu religious concepts, since animals sacrifice in Hindu shrines and temples was a controversial issue, disliked by a majority of Hindus, he said.

The practice has been in existence in many Hindu shrines and temples throughout the island but the Munneswaram Badra Kali Amman temple became the focus of the issue in recent years. 

Bhikkhus and animal rights activists repeatedly protested against animal sacrifice in the temple and also a minister in the former regime forcibly took away animals kept near the temple premises for sacrifice.

Defaulters will be charged under the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code, he said.

Courtesy:  Sunday Observer

http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2016/02/21/new01.asp

Dr Hector Perera     London

Eating a lot of saturated fat can increase the levels of cholesterol in your blood. Having high cholesterol can increase your risk of heart disease, which includes heart attack and narrowed arteries also called atherosclerosis. Cholesterol is a fatty substance made by your liver and carried around the body in the blood. The fats in your food you eat can affect the levels of cholesterol in your blood. Another way to phrase this, is that saturated fatty acids have all their carbon (C) atoms fully added with hydrogen (H) atoms. A carbon atom has four bunds when all four bonds are taken up by hydrogen atoms then it becomes a saturated molecule. Usually any fat has more than one carbon atom in the chain. First the carbon to carbon gets attached then other bonds are taken up by either hydrogen atoms or oxygen atoms. When C=C carbon to carbon bond is double then it is un saturated carbon bond.

Foods that are high in saturated fat include fatty meats, lard, full-fat dairy products like butter and cream, coconuts, coconut oil, palm oil and dark chocolate.

Actually, fats” contain a combination of different fatty acids. No fat is pure saturated fat, or pure mono- or polyunsaturated.

Many health organizations advise against the consumption of coconut oil due to its high levels of saturated fat, including the United States Food and Drug Administration, World Health Organization, International College of Nutrition, the United States Department of Health and Human Services, American Dietetic Association, American Heart Association, British National Health Service, and Dietitians of Canada.

What’s in coconut oil?

Coconut oil contains a large proportion of lauric acid, a saturated fat that raises total blood cholesterol levels by increasing both the amount of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. Although this may create a more favorable total blood cholesterol profile, this does not exclude the possibility that persistent consumption of coconut oil may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease through other mechanisms, particularly via the marked increase on blood cholesterol by lauric acid. Because the majority of saturated fat in coconut oil is lauric acid, coconut oil may be preferred over partially hydrogenated vegetable oil when solid fats are used in the diet.

Coconut oil is really healthy

Medium-Chain Fatty Acids: These saturated fats are the best things that coconut oil has to offer. I know, many of you will raise your eyebrows at the very notion of saturated fats, but believe me, not all saturated fats are bad. These saturated fats in coconut oils are actually medium-chain fatty acids like capric acid, caprylic acid, caproic acid, and lauric acid which can do wonders for you. This is an oily, colourless or yellow liquid, C ₆ H ₁₂ O ₂, with an odor likelimburger cheese, usually obtained from fatty animal tissue or coconutoil, or synthesized: used chiefly in the manufacture of flavoring agentsThey increase the rate of metabolism in your body, thereby aiding in weight loss, increase the level of good cholesterol (high density lipoproteins) and lower the level of bad cholesterol (low density lipoproteins). They are also great sources of energy.

Though coconut oil has a high saturated fat content, it is said to be good for weight loss. What are the properties of coconut oil that make it so special?

For the proper utilization of anything, it is essential to have complete knowledge regarding that substance. The case is obviously the same with Coconut oil. Before you use coconut oil, it will be quite beneficial if you get yourself acquainted with the properties of coconut oil first. Broadly, the properties of coconut oil can be classified in the following ways.

Physical Properties

These properties of coconut oil are known to almost everyone. That being said, there is nothing wrong with refreshing your memory.

Colour: Coconut oil is colourless at or above 30o C. It is white when in its solid form.

Melting Point: Coconut oil melts at 25o C (76o Fahrenheit). It is solid below this temperature.

Smoking Point: 1770 C (3500 Fahrenheit).

Solubility in Water: Coconut oil forms a white homogenous mixture when beaten well in a little water. Otherwise, it is insoluble in water at room temperature.

Chemical Properties

Coconut Oil is predominantly composed of saturated fatty acids (about 94%), with a good percentage (above 62%) of Medium Chain Fatty Acids among them. The table showing the types of fatty acid in it is displayed below

Chemical Composition: Among the chief constituents, coconut oil also has;

1. Vitamin-E:The thing which you always wanted for silky hair and smooth, younger looking skin.
   II. Moisture:The amount of moisture present in Coconut oil varies greatly depending upon the moisture content of the source, such as Copra or Fresh Coconut; including the method of extraction and also on the processing done on it. But obviously, coconut derived from well-dried copra will have less moisture than that from less dried copra or from fresh coconuts (virgin coconut oil). Similarly, the oil subjected to heat will have less moisture than that which was not exposed to heat.
   III. Fatty Acids:

Reactivity: Coconut oil shows oxidation and reactivity with acids and bases.

The proportion of various fatty acids, vitamins, moisture and other nutrients may vary with the quality of coconuts, the method of extraction, the presence of heat, as well as pre-processing and post-processing.

Medicinal Properties

Coconut oil is useful in the treatment of a number of medical conditions, some of which are explained in greater detail below.

Cures fatigue: The saturated fats present in coconut oil, being great source of energy, effectively cure fatigue and energy malnutrition.

Antioxidant and Anti-Aging Properties: The antioxidant properties of Coconut oil come from its saturated fats like Capric Acid, Caprylic Acid, Caproic Acid, and Myristic Acid. They counter adverse effects of ageing, macular degeneration, whitening of hair, and sagging of the skin.

Antimicrobial Properties: The acids discussed above convert themselves into great antimicrobial and anti-fungal agents like mono-caprine and monolaurin when acted upon by certain enzymes. These derivatives protect our body, both internally and externally, from conditions like Athlete’s Foot, rashes, itches, ringworm, and dermatitis.

Reduces Hair Loss: This property of Coconut oil is the most famous, at least in India and on the Indian Subcontinent. It keeps hair black, prevents it from whitening and hair loss. Have you seen the beautiful long black hair of some Sri Lankan village beauties? The parasites or thadi” on hair are combed out easily.

Candida: The antimicrobial properties of Coconut oil, discussed above, have been found to be effective against Candida.

Vermifuge: Coconut oil can be used against intestinal round worms and tape worms.

Dandruff: It prevents peeling away of the skin on the scalp and conditions like dandruff by keeping the skin moist and smooth.

Digestive Disorders: This oil, taken regularly in proper quantity, can help cure chronic digestive problems.

Cancer: The saturated fatty acids, discussed above, help protect against many types of cancer. These are the same fatty acids that are found in Mother’s milk.

HIV: Quite recently, some rays of hope have been seen while using Coconut oil against the HIV infection, again due to the presence of those fatty acids.

Blockage in the Arteries: The Medium-chain triglycerides present in Coconut oil lower the level of bad cholesterol and help clear blockages, thereby reducing the risk of heart attacks. Thus, despite all the negative comments against Coconut oil due to its saturated fats, it is actually cardiac friendly.

Cracking of Skin: Coconut oil is undoubtedly the best skin care agent you can use. That being said, a small amount of people are allergic to coconut oil, and can show irritation. Its stability, antimicrobial properties, moisture retaining capacity, and ability to solidify below 240 C makes it an ideal protective agent against cracking of the skin. Vitamin-E adds to this property immensely.

Obesity: Coconut oil speeds up the metabolic activities and thus burning of fats in the body, resulting in weight loss.

Other properties: Coconut oil is found to help absorption of fat-soluble vitamins and glucose in the body, aid proper secretion of insulin, improve circulation and fight tumours, colitis, ulcers in the stomach and food pipe, correct renal infections, reduce inflammation due to rashes or contact with foreign substances. It is also very effective in curing and relieving bruises and small cuts.

That was an overview of the properties of coconut oil which are useful in day-to-day life of the common man.

Most Sri Lankans use coconut oil for various types of cooking and frying so many things such as fish, dry fish, making seeni sambol” and cutlets and many more things. These takeaways are still quite new to Sri Lanka because most of the time they cook their food at home. Of course they eat from restaurant and hotels when they go out but quick takeaways are fairly new. Your comments are welcomed perera6@hotmail.co.uk

Janaka Wansapura

Gravitational waves were first predicted by Albert Einsteina century ago. A group of physicists (LIGO) based in the USA built a fine instrument to detect them and they recently found what they had believed to exist. A Canadian technical college teacher, Bodhi Dhanapala, enrolling the dead scientist’s involuntary aid, implies (Island 13/2/16) that this discovery falsifies Nalin de Silva’s claim that the theory of gravitation is a blatant lie (patta pal boru). Clearly there is a mismatch in what we and Bodhi Dhanapala understand as patta pal boru.

Nalin de Silva’s, thesis work was on relativistic gravitational effects in Astrophysics for which he earned his PhD from the University of Sussex in 1970. Years later, scientists were able to confirm Dr. Nalin de Silva’s predictions on dragging of inertial frames through observations and his results had been published in the prestigious Nature magazine. Therefore it should be clear that when Nalin de Silva says that the theory of gravitation is a blatant lie, he means it in a philosophical context. It seems that Dhanapala failed to grasp the idea.

Theravadin Bhuddhists believe in the idea of there being no self or that I” is a lie (boru, musa, maya, unreal, etc.). If I” is a lie then all experiences of I” must be lies as well. If this I” then goes on to create abstract stories about its experiences (which happened to be lies) then those stories ought to be called blatant lies (patta pal boru). In this sense if some story is a patta pal boruwa then it cannot claim to be about an absolute reality (patta aththa). Both Newton and Einstein created abstract stories about things falling to the ground. They are both patta pal boru in the above sense.

If I” is a lie and that I’s experiences are lies, it is not problematic to use blatant lies to explain I” or its experiences, provided they work. It should be emphasized that the boruwa I” works very well. Therefore Newton’s law, since they work, can be used to send rockets even though it is patta pal boruwa, and Einstein’s space-time does not have to be absolutely real for scientists to observe gravitational waves.

Newton’s story imagined gravity as a force; Einstein’s story did not have such forces. In Newton’s story space and time were given. In Einstein’s story space-time was determined by objects and radiation. Einstein’s story was not an extension of Newton’s story it is paradigmatically a different story. Most western Physicists agree on this.

Newton’s theory cannot explain the gravitational waves found in Einstein’s general relativity. Trying to explain gravitational waves with Newton’s theory would be like asking a blind man to describe color of an object while agreeing on the shape. But the question is if both theories were about the same absolute reality why it is not possible to work within Newton’s theoretical frame work and come up with gravitational waves? In other words, if there is an absolute reality can there be two conceptually incompatible stories about it? Most western Physicists avoid this question hence people like Bodhi Dhanapala do not know what to say in this regard.

However Theravadin Buddhists have an answer to this question. Both stories are patta pal boru; meaning that they are figments of the respective author’s imaginations and has nothing to do with a so called absolute reality. These stories do agree with themselves and certain human observations, which are themselves boru, only because they were designed to be so. But they do not correspond to an absolute reality. This is what Bodhi Dhanapala seems to have a problem with. He wants to think that both Newton and Einstein theorized about gravitational force that exist in an absolute sense and that Einstein was closer to reality than Newton. However, in another 50 years or so there will be a another story about gravitation and it will explain gravitational waves plus much more than we know at present, if people like Bodhi are around they will be the first to claim that space-time is no longer the reality but something else is; this can go on forever.

Unfortunately scientists who claim to be Theravadin Buddhists do not ask themselves whether I” exist in the same sense that space-time exists.

Janaka Wansapura