ALI SUKHANVER

‘Where do the stars disappear when the daylight arrives’, I used to ask my mother when I was a little boy of three or four years. And my mother would always smilingly reply, ‘The stars never disappear; they simply come down on the earth and convert into flowers; you are my flower; you are my star’. That was really a very beautiful answer; I realize it now when my mother herself has gone to heaven. After spending almost half a century here in this world of dreams and desires, I feel the most trust-worthy and the most confident relationship is that of a mother and a child. In love of their children, mothers sacrifice all that they have and all that they own; but sometimes mothers have to sacrifice their children too. In Islamic societies such type of sacrifice is known as ‘Shahadat’. In the history of humanity, the 16^th December 2014 would always narrate a strange story of the same type in which mothers of more than 134 innocent children had to bear the sacrifice of their children in the largest interest of their nation and their country. Their innocent children were brutally slaughtered as if they were animals, not human beings. And the most pathetic and unfortunate aspect of this story is that this slaughtering was done in the name of religion.

Sources reporting upon The Terrorist Attack on the Army Public School Peshawar say that the uniforms of school going innocent children ranging from seven to eighteen years of age were blood drenched and most of the dead bodies were unable to be identified after completion of the rescue operation. An eye-witness of the incident said talking to the media, ‘The terrorists did not intend to take any hostages but instead wanted to kill as many pupils as they could. As the terrorists opened fire, many of the pupils ran toward the two exits on the other side of the auditorium, but many of them were gunned down in the garden. The pupils were forced to watch killing of their teachers and their school principal.’ All the terrorists were foreign nationals, including one Chechen, three Arabs and two Afghans.

Some of the analysts are of opinion that the terrorist attack on the APS Peshawar had a great resemblance with the Beslan School Siege in Russia which started on 1st September 2004, lasted for three days and involved the capture of over 1,100 people as hostages including 777 children. The siege ended with the death of at least 385 people including 186 children. The hostage-takers were allegedly from the Riyadus-Salikhin Battalion, sent by the Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, who demanded recognition of the independence of Chechnya in UN and Russian withdrawal from Chechnya. But in the APS tragedy the terrorists did not present any demands; their only aim and objective was to murder as many children as they could. In short this horribly tragic incident was the ever-worst example of brutality and cruelty even in the history of terrorism.

Why were these innocent children treated with such callousness; so many people ask the question; what was their crime and what was their sin. The only sin of these innocent butchered ones was that they belonged to the families of the army-men, retired as well as in-service. The terrorists just wanted to punish the Army for its actions against the terrorists and for that purpose they opted for such a cowardly way. It is a tradition and it is a culture that throughout the world no one drags the children and the women in the war of revenge but in the APS Peshawar even this tradition was violated. Another important thing to be noted is that the date selected for this massacre was the same on which Pakistan was detached from it eastern part 43 years back in 1971. That separated part is now known as Bangladesh. Someone said commenting upon the APS tragedy, ‘The APS Tragedy was a gift to Pakistan on birthday of Bangladesh’. Everyone knows that the creation of Bangladesh was the result of a conspiracy hatched by India and during his visit to Bangladesh a few months back, Mr. Modi had also admitted his country’s involvement in that conspiracy; so it could be easily guessed who could be behind this tragedy.

Ruwan M Jayatunge M.D.

Cocaine, also known as benzoylmethylecgonine or coke, is a strong stimulant mostly used as a recreational drug (Pomara et al., 2012). It is a crystalline alkaloid found in the Erythroxylum cocacoca and Erythroxylumnovogranatense plant species ( Karila  et al.,2011).  Pure cocaine is originally extracted from the leaf of the Erythroxylon coca bush.

There are basically two chemical forms of cocaine: the hydrochloride salt and the freebase.” The hydrochloride salt, or powdered form of cocaine, dissolves in water and, when abused, can be taken intravenously (by vein) or intranasally (in the nose). Freebase refers to a compound that has not been neutralized by an acid to make the hydrochloride salt. The freebase form of cocaine is smokable (NIDA).

Cocaine   leads to the rapid accumulation of catecholamines and serotonin in the brain due to prevention of their re-uptake into the neuron that released the neurotransmitter (Shorter &, Kosten, 2011).  Cocaine is believed to work by blocking the dopamine transporter (DAT) and thereby increasing the availability of free dopamine within the brain (Ritz et al., 1987).

Cocaine addiction is an important public health problem worldwide (Haas et al., 2009).   According to the recent studies, 0.3–0.5% (or 14–21 million people) of the global population aged 15–64, are estimated to be cocaine users (Degenhardt & Hall, 2012).  Cocaine addiction is rapidly progressive and associated with severe medical, psychiatric, and psychosocial consequences (Dackis &, O’Brien, 2001).

The effects of chronic cocaine abuse have been widely described in the literature. The chronic use of cocaine is also associated with major medical, neurological, and neuropsychiatric complications (Bolla et al., 1998).  Common complications include nasal septal perforation, saddle-nose deformity, and palatal perforation (Vilela et al., 2002).  Cocaine snorting may cause significant local ischemic necrosis and the destruction of nasal and midfacial bones and soft tissues, leading to the development of a syndrome called cocaine-induced midline destructive lesion (Colletti et al., 2013).

 Cocaine abusers have specific dysfunction of executive functions (decision making, judgment) and that this behavior is associated with dysfunction of specific prefrontal brain regions, the orbitofrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate gyrus (Bolla et al.,1998). Cocaine produces its psychoactive and addictive effects primarily by acting on the brain’s limbic system, a set of interconnected regions that regulate pleasure and motivation (Nestler, 2005). Cocaine can induce anxiety and panic in humans (Goeders, 2002). Cocaine-induced paranoia is a common experience among chronic users (Brady et al., 1991). Chronic cocaine users have reported   cocaine withdrawal related depression, which may be a neurophysiologic response to the elimination of cocaine from the CNS. (Bolla et al., 1998).

Cocaine has cardiovascular effects, including disturbances in heart rhythm and heart attacks; such respiratory effects as chest pain and respiratory failure; neurological effects, including strokes, seizure, and headaches; and gastrointestinal complications, including abdominal pain and nausea.  Cocaine use in pregnancy can lead to spontaneous abortion, preterm births, placental abruption, and congenital anomalies (Malek, 2012)

 Development of effective treatments for cocaine dependence is necessary to reduce the impact of this illness upon both the individual and society (Shorter &, Kosten 2011). Some treatment approaches, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and medications have shown promise in successfully treating cocaine dependence (Penberthy et al., 2010).  CBT is focused on helping cocaine-addicted individuals abstain—and remain abstinent—from cocaine and other substances (NIH). Furthermore CBT has shown to be effective for decreasing cocaine use and preventing relapse.

Cocaine Detoxification (Medical Detoxification) also helps in treatment. Cocaine Detoxification is a process that systematically and safely withdraws people from addicting drugs, usually under the care of a physician. In addition Therapeutic communities (TCs), or residential programs, offer another alternative to persons in need of treatment for cocaine addiction. TCs usually require a 6- or 12- month stay and use the program’s entire “community” as active components of treatment.

Schierenberg and colleagues (2012) suggested Contingency Management (CM), a promising behavior therapy using operant conditioning, is evaluated for the treatment of cocaine dependence.

References

Bolla ,K.I., Cadet, J.L., London, E.D.(1998).The neuropsychiatry of chronic cocaine abuse. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci.  ;10(3):280-9.

Brady, K.T., Lydiard, R.B., Malcolm, R., Ballenger, J.C.(1991).Cocaine-induced psychosis.J Clin Psychiatry.  ;52(12):509-12.

Colletti, G., Allevi, F., Valassina, D., Bertossi, D., Biglioli, F.(2013).Repair of cocaine-related oronasal fistula with forearm radial free flap.J Craniofac Surg.  ;24(5):1734-8.

Dackis, C.A., O’Brien, C.P.(2001).Cocaine dependence: a disease of the brain’s reward centers.J Subst Abuse Treat. ;21(3):111-7.

Degenhardt, L., & Hall, W.(2012). Extent of illicit drug use and dependence, and their contribution to the global burden of disease. Lancet, 379(9810), 55–70.

Goeders, N.E.(2002).Stress and cocaine addiction.J Pharmacol Exp Ther. ;301(3):785-9.

Haas, C., Karila, L., Lowenstein, W.(2009).[Cocaine and crack addiction: a growing public health problem].Bull Acad Natl Med. ;193(4):947-62; discussion 962-3.

Karila, L. , Reynaud, M., Aubin, H.J., Rolland, B., Guardia, D., Cottencin, O, Benyamina, A.(2011).Pharmacological treatments for cocaine dependence: is there something new? Curr Pharm Des. ;17(14):1359-68.

Malek, A. (2012) Effects of Prenatal Cocaine Exposure on Human Pregnancy and Postpartum. Pharmaceut Anal Acta 3:191.

Nestler, E.J.(2005).The neurobiology of cocaine addiction.Sci Pract Perspect.  ;3(1):4-10.

Penberthy, J.K., Ait-Daoud, N., Vaughan, M., Fanning, T.(2010).Review of treatment for cocaine dependence. Curr Drug Abuse Rev.  ;3(1):49-62

Pomara, C., Cassano, T., D’Errico, S; Bello, S; Romano, AD; Riezzo, I; Serviddio, G (2012). “Data available on the extent of cocaine use and dependence: biochemistry, pharmacologic effects and global burden of disease of cocaine abusers.”. Current medicinal chemistry 19 (33): 5647–57.

Ritz, M.C., Lamb, R.J., Goldberg, S.R., Kuhar, MJ.(1987).Cocaine receptors on dopamine transporters are related to self-administration of cocaine.Science.  4;237(4819):1219-23.

Schierenberg, A., van Amsterdam, J., van den Brink, W., Goudriaan, A.E.(2012).Efficacy of contingency management for cocaine dependence treatment: a review of the evidence. Curr Drug Abuse Rev.  ;5(4):320-31.

Shorter, D., Kosten, T.R.(2011).Novel pharmacotherapeutic treatments for cocaine addiction.BMC Med.   3;9:119.

Vilela, R.J., Langford, C., McCullagh, L., Kass, E.S.(2002).Cocaine-induced oronasal fistulas with external nasal erosion but without palate involvement.Ear Nose Throat J.  ;81(8):562-3.

Editorial Courtesy Island

So, in the end the government did what it had to do in spite of its rhetoric. It granted some of the key demands of the warring trade unions which were all out to launch a strike. As a result, the public sector employees will have Rs. 10,000 each they were given by way of an allowance added to their basic salaries in stages. It was a case of Hobson’s choice for the government.

A 10,000–rupee increase in the public sector workers’ salaries is sure to result in serious salary anomalies, the rectification of which will lead to some categories getting much more than Rs. 10,000 each. The pension bill will also increase substantially, aggravating the country’s financial woes further.

The ruling party leaders must be regretting that they ever promised public sector employees such a huge election bribe before the last presidential polls. They were in cloud cuckoo land at that time, making all sorts of promises and claiming that if waste and corruption were eliminated enough funds could be saved to increase salaries and give relief to the general public. Now, they have to make good their promises.

The government decision to be flexible without playing chicken with trade unions and meet workers’ demands has helped avert a political disaster in the short run. If the strike scheduled for yesterday had been staged, it would have affected the ordinary people, especially tens of thousands students sitting the GCE O/L examination as private bus operators and some teachers’ unions had warned. Trade union action also tends to snowball and that is the last thing any government wants. However, the present administration’s problems are far from over. Now that it has buckled under pressure there is the possibility of trade unions making more demands.

The manner in which the present UNP-led administration is tackling labour disputes is in sharp contrast to how the JRJ government reacted to a general strike in July 1980; tens of thousands of strikers were sacked overnight. The incumbent government has offered Rs. 250,000 each to the surviving July strikers after a lapse of 35 years! Better late than never! Many July strikers committed suicide, unable to look after their families and their dependents must also be compensated.

The present-day trade unions are lucky that since 1977 no government has been able to secure a five-sixths majority in Parliament thanks to the proportional representation system.

The trade unions which threatened to strike on Wednesday should be ashamed of their callous disregard for schoolchildren sitting a vital examination. They may argue that they have to win their demands before the passage of the budget. But, we believe, no struggle is worth winning at the expense of children. The health sector trade unions, too, have a history of holding children to ransom. On Feb. 16, 2008, we pointed out in these columns that some nurses attached to the Peradeniya Teaching hospital had stooped so low as to remove the oxygen masks of ICU patients including a child during a trade union struggle to settle scores with some doctors.

Workers have a right to resort to trade union action to win their demands and protect their rights. However, it behoves them to act responsibly. Regrettably, they do not turn the searchlight inwards. The public sector is characterised by inefficiency, lethargy, waste and corruption. Trade unions have a pivotal role to play in enhancing national productivity as in countries like Japan. Instead, they are preoccupied with making demands. Let them be urged to ensure that their members earn their keep before asking for more.

The two main political parties had better abandon the deplorable practice of vying with each other to offer election bribes to woo the public in general and state employees in particular.

By Senaka Weeraratna (Dharma Voices for Animals, Colombo Chapter)

The greatest moral challenge faced at Christmas being a religion based festival is to make it slaughter free.

Violence towards innocent animals on a mass scale is not an ethically correct way to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of the founder of a religion world renowned as the ‘Prince of Peace’.

To the animals the end of the year celebrations by the human species at both Christmas and dawn of New Year is tantamount to an ‘animal holocaust’. A ‘day of infamy’ from the point of view of the preservation of animal life.

Any true celebration of peace and goodwill related to religion must be based on unimpeachable non – violence and respect for the lives of all living beings including non – human sentient beings.

Innocent animals in their millions if they have not been slaughtered already are now virtually on death row awaiting their turn as we get closer to Christmas.

The vast majority of animals that are killed to sustain ‘feasts’ and celebrations on religious occasions are products of intense factory farming. On factory farms, baby animals are routinely subject to invasive surgical procedures without the mercy of pain relief. Millions of ‘meat’ chickens are concealed in industrial sheds, never to see daylight or feel the earth beneath their feet. In commercial hatcheries, economically ‘worthless’ day-old male chicks are crushed to death as ‘waste products’ of the egg industry. Even the dairy industry is not free from heinous cruelty towards new born male calves. They are dispatched for slaughter no sooner they are born while their mother cows weep for them.

Civilizational Values

Christmas is an apt time for reflection on our civilizational values because it is the season where hundreds of thousands of innocent animals undergo extreme suffering, exploitation, and death. Millions of turkeys are slaughtered for Christmas dinner, along with ducks, geese, pigs, lambs and chickens. In western countries, puppies and kittens are given away as presents, then often neglected or discarded by new owners when the novelty has worn off.  Rabbits and foxes have their fur stripped from them to be turned into clothing and accessories.

The undeclared war that is being waged everyday against countless millions of non – human animals all over the world takes on an aggravated turn during the Christmas season.

These practices are deeply unsettling to anyone that values compassion and respect for the life of others. We cannot remain silent.

Dharma Voices for Animals

The Dharma Voices for Animals (DVA) was formed to give voice to the suffering of animals, because they cannot articulate their suffering. We are opening Chapters of DVA around the world because we have arrived at a moment in history where the cause of animals has to be highlighted loud and clear not only for their sake but also for our sake because it reflects on ourselves. Our sense of justice, compassion and sharing the planet earth with all those who inhabit it.

Vesak – An invaluable precedent from Sri Lanka

There is an invaluable precedent  in Sri Lanka though drawn from another  religious tradition i.e. Vesak, where reverence and compassion for all forms of life is stressed and consequently on Vesak day an age old custom is legally enforced – closure of slaughter houses and ban on sale of meat.  A majority of the people abstain themselves from flesh food consumption as part of the Buddhist religious tradition and practice on that occasion.

We in Sri Lanka can set an example to the rest of the world by doing likewise on Christmas day. The biggest beneficiaries would be the innocent animals. It is time that we all give consideration to their paramount interest in living until their natural life span ends just as much we humans do to each other.

Sri Lankans who celebrate Christmas should strongly consider commencing a new tradition of kindness and goodwill to all living beings by leaving meat off their plate on Christmas day. Instead of blindly aping foreign traditions mired in killing and bloodshed during Christmas, why not follow a more distinctive Sri Lankan tradition of total non – violence when celebrating the anniversary of the birthday of the founder of a religion.

Environmental damage

Becoming a vegetarian or vegan has countless benefits.  Studies have shown that meat eating takes a heavy toll on the environment.  A person who consumes a diet high in meat is responsible for almost twice the climate-killing carbon dioxide emissions of a dedicated vegetarian.

In respect to the environmental cost per calorie, the effect of beef consumption, for example, is horrific. The rearing of beef cattle necessitates 160 times more land and leads to 11 times more greenhouse gas emissions vis a vis crops like wheat, rice or potatoes.

Perhaps the most compelling argument for choosing a vegetarian life style is that abundant studies have shown that vegetarians have lower incidences of heart disease, lower BMI and lower blood pressure than their meat-eating colleagues. Colon cancer is directly associated according to the latest medical research with eating red meat as much as cigarettes are with lung cancer.

It is never too late to start such a fresh endeavor this season. It will save lives.

What can be more holy and noble than that?

Extend the spirit of goodwill to animals this Christmas by avoiding meat altogether on Christmas Day.

That will be an unique and truly noble gesture.

Senaka Weeraratna

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග 

කෘෂිකර්ම සර් අවුස්සා සංක්‍ෂෝභයක් ලබා ගැනීමට 8 – ඩී පන්තියේ ළමුන් පුරුදුව සිටියහ​. මමද 8 – ඩී පන්තියේ සාමාජිකයෙකු වූ නිසා මේ ක්‍රියාවට සතුටින් සම්මාදම් වූයෙමි.  කෘෂිකර්ම සර් කුකුල් කේන්ති කාරයෙකි. එම නිසා පන්තියේදී උගුර පෑදීම​, අමුතු හඞකින් එකවර ශබ්ද නැගීම ප්‍රමාණවත් වේ. එවිට සර් ළඟම සිටින කොල්ලෙකු අල්ලාගෙන ඌට තඩිබායි. අවශේෂ ළමෝ ස්පාඤ්ඤ  ජාතිකයන් ගොනෙකු කුලප්පු කොට ලබනා තුෂ්ටිය මෙන් සතුට , බිය හා සන්ත්‍රාසය පිරි තුෂ්ටියක් ලබති.

කෘෂිකර්ම ගුරුතුමාට උපන් ගෙයි උච්චාරණ දෝෂයක් තිබුනේය​. එම නිසා සමහර වචන උච්චාරණ කලේ අමුතු විදියකටය​. ඒවාට සිනාසීමෙන් ද කොළුවන් සර්ව ප්‍රකෝප කලේය​. වරක් කෘෂිකර්ම ගුරුතුමා සෝගම් වගාවෙන් වැඩි එලදාවක් ලබා ගැනීමට නිකව් සහ සුපෆ් ෆොෆ්ෆේෆ් ගස් වලට දැමිය යුතු බව කීවේය​. නිකව් සහ සුපෆ් ෆොෆ්ෆේෆ් කුමන අන්දමේ රසායනිකයන් දැයි තේරුම් ගැනීමට අපහසු වූ අප ඒ පිළිබඳව දැනමුත්තන් ගෙන් විචාලෙමු. පසුව හෙලි වූයේ නිකව් යනු නිකල් සහ සුපෆ් ෆොෆ්ෆේෆ් යනු සුපර් ෆොස්ෆේට් බවයි.

මේ නිසා කොල්ලන් පස් වන මහලේ තිබූ අට -ඩී පන්තියට එ්මට පඩි නගින  කෘෂිකර්ම සර්ට උඩ තට්ටුවේ සිට බොහොඞා හෝ නිකව් කියා හෝ සුපෆ් ෆොෆ්ෆේෆ් කියා කෑගසා සැඟවුනහ​. නමුත් ඊතලයක් සේ පන්තියට එන කෘෂිකර්ම සර් ඉගැන්වීම පටන් ගන්නේ සැකකරුවෙකුට නෙලීමෙනි.

සමහර දින වලට අපට කෘෂිකර්ම පාඩමට ප්‍රායෝගික වැඩ තිබුනේය​. එවිට අප උදලු කරට ගෙන කොරටුවට ගියෙමු. මේ කොරටුව තිබුනේ නාලන්දාරාමයත්  ප්‍රභාත් කඩයත් අතරය​. අක්කර කාලක් පමණ වූ එම භූමිය ශුද්ධ කොට අප ලවා බටු, තක්කාලි වැනි භෝග වැවූ කෘෂිකර්ම ගුරුතුමා අස්වැන්න අපටම වික්කේය​.

මෙය ශ්‍රමය සූරාකෑමක් බව කියූ සීවලී පෙරේරා වරක් බ්ලේඩ් තලයක් සඟවාගෙන විත් කෘෂිකර්ම ගුරුතුමාට  නොපෙනෙන සේ පීදුණු වම්බොටු වල සිරස් ඉරි කැපුවේය​. තම එලදාව විනාශ කල කොළුවා අල්ලා ගැනීමට කෘෂිකර්ම ගුරුතුමාට නොහැකි විය​. කෘෂිකර්ම ගුරුතුමාගේ පෝරියල් එකෙන් බේරුනු  සීවලී   ඉන් මාස අටකට පමණ පසු පවුලේ උදවිය සමග එංගලන්තයට සංක්‍රමණය කලේය​

වම්බොටු කේස් එක නිසා උරණව සිටි කෘෂිකර්ම ගුරුතුමා තවත් ඇවිස්සීම සඳහා   හසිත කරුණාරත්න  ටිකි ටිකිස් ගාන කුඩා යකඩ සෙල්ලම්  භාන්ඩයක්   තම පාවහන් යට තබා සර් පන්තියේදී නිදි කිරන විට තම පාදය වරින් වර තද කොට ටිකි ටිකිස් හඞ නැංවූයේය​. නිදි කිරන ගුරුතුමා වරින් වර ටිකි ටිකිස් හඞට ගැස්සී ඇහැරෙයි මෙයින් කොල්ලන් අමුතුම වින්දනයක් ලබති.

මෙවර ගුරුතුමා නිදන බවක් පෙන්වා එක ඇසක් ඇර සෝදිසිව සිට ටිකි ටිකිස් හඞ නංවන හසිත කරුණාරත්නව බෙල්ල මුලින් අල්ලා ගත්තේය​. හසිත කරුණාරත්නට එදා ගුටි මල් හතක් ලැබුණු අතර භයානක ක්‍රීඩාවක් නරඹන්නාක් මෙන් සෙසු ළමෝ මේ උද්වේගජනක ක්‍රියාදාමය වින්දනය කලෝය​.  (හසිත කරුණාරත්න දැන් එංගලන්තයේ ජීවත් වේ)

වරක් කෘෂිකර්ම ගුරුතුමා පන්තියට ඒමට ප්‍රමාද විය​. මමත් ක්‍රිකට් ක්‍රීඩක කපිල විදාණරාළත් ඩෙස්ක් එකට ගසමින් සිංදු කීවෙමු. ඒ අතර දීපාල් ඔන්න බොහොඞා එනවෝ කියා කලබලයෙන් දිව විත් තම පුටුවේ වාඩිවී කෘෂිකර්ම පොත පෙරලාගෙන එදෙස නෙත් යොමාගෙන සිටියේය​. මෙවැනි බොරු බියවැද්දීම් දීපාල් නිතර කල හෙයින් එය ගනනකට නොගෙන අප දෙදෙනා තවත් හයියෙන් ගීතය කීවෙමු. ඒ අතරදී  කෘෂිකර්ම සර් පන්තියට පැමිණ මමත් කපිල විදාණරාළත් කළු ලෑල්ල ඉදිරියට ගෙන්වාගෙන පන්ති නායකයාට තිලකරත්න සර්ගේ වේවැල ගෙන එන ලෙස නියම කලේය​.

තිලකරත්න සර්ගේ වේවැල දිගු මහත වේවැලකි. එය ඇසීමෙන් අප දෙදෙනාට හීන් දාඩිය දැමීය​. එදින අප තිලකරත්න සර්ගේ වේවැලේ රස එපා වන තුරු වින්දෙමු. මේ ගුටිකෑමෙන් වසර 26 කට පසුව ශ්‍රී ලංකා යුද හමුදාවේ නිලධාරීන්ට යුද ආතතිය ගැන දේශනයක් කිරීම සඳහා 2006 වසරේදී මම පනාගොඩ කඳවුරට ගියෙමි. දේශනය අවසානයේදී මේජර්වරයෙකු වූ කපිල විදාණරාළ මට හමු විය​. අප දෙදෙනාම එක වරම එකිනෙකාගෙන් ඇසුවේ මතකද එදා බොහොඞා ගෙන් අපි දෙන්නා කාපු කෑම කියාය​. වසර 26 පසු එය රසවත් කෑමක්  බවට පරිවර්තනයව තිබුනේය​.

කෘෂිකර්ම ගුරුතුමා සබැඳිව තවත් යමක් මට මතක් වේ. වරක් කොල්ලන් වාර විභාගයට කෘෂිකර්ම විෂයට දුන් ලකුණු මදි බව කියා කෘෂිකර්ම සර් වෙත මැසිවිලි ඉදිරිපත් කළහ​. කොල්ලන් ගේ මැසිවිලි වලට සාවධානව සවන් දුන් කෘෂිකර්ම ගුරුතුමා කෘෂිකර්ම විශයට  ලකුණු අඩු ළමුන්ට කෘෂිකර්ම කාමරයට එන ලෙස කීවේය​. සතුටින් පිරී ගිය සිසුන් කෘෂිකර්ම උත්තර පත්තරද ගෙන තවත් වැඩිපුර ලකුණු ලබා ගැනීමට කෘෂිකර්ම කාමරයට රොක් වූහ​. කොල්ලන් ගෙන් කෘෂිකර්ම කාමරය පිරුණු විට කෘෂිකර්ම ගුරුතුමා කෙටි කොසු මිටකින් කොල්ලන්ට නොමසුරුව බෙදුවේය​. කොසු මිට පාරවල් කෑ කොල්ලලෝ හිස් ලුලූ අත දිව ගියහ.

පාසල් ළමුන්ට පහර දීම හොඳ නැත​. නමුත් මේ පහරදීම් අපගේ ගතට විනා මනසට හාණියක් නොකරේ අප තුල තිබූ  ස්පාඤ්ඤ  ගොන් පොර මානසිකත්වය නිසා බව සිතමි.

පෙරටුගාමී සමාජවාදී පක්ෂය

‘පැන්ෂන්, ETF-EPF, පොහොර – නිල ඇඳුම්, සහන කපන කොල්ලකාරී අයවැයට එරෙහි විරෝධතා රැලිය’ යන මැයෙන් රැලියක් පැවැත්වීමට කටයුතු සංවිධානය කර තිබේ. එම රැුළියේ අරමුණ වන්නේ මෙවර අයවැය මගින් ඉදිරිපත් කෙරුණු ජනතා විරෝධී යෝජනා ගණනාවකට විරෝධය දැක්වීම හා පසුගිය මැතිවරණ සමයේ ලබාදුන් පොරොන්දු ගණනාවක් ඉටු නොකිරීම සම්බන්ධ දේශපාලන පක්ෂවල සහ වෙනත් බහුජන සංවිධානවල විරෝධය ප‍්‍රකාශ කිරීමය.

‘බයික් – ත‍්‍රීවීල් වාහනවලට ගැසූ ජඩ බදු හකුලාගනිව්!’, ‘හවුල් ආණ්ඩුව පැන්ෂන් එකට කෙලී, ETF-EPF කොල්ලකයි!’, ‘පොහොර – නිල ඇඳුම් සහනාධාර ඉවරයි. ආණ්ඩුවේ ගුණ්ඩුවලට හසුනොවෙමු!’ යන ප‍්‍රධාන සටන්පාඨ මුල්කරගනිමින් පවත්වන මෙම රැුලිය, දෙසැම්බර් 17 (හෙට) දින සවස 3.00ට මහරගම පරණ පොල භූමියේදී පැවැත්වීමට කටයුතු සූදානම් කර තිබේ.

මේ අවස්ථාව සඳහා අන්තර් විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයීය ශිෂ්‍ය බලමණ්ඩලය, අන්තර් විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයීය භික්ෂු බලමණ්ඩලය, කම්කරු අරගල මධ්‍යස්ථානය, ලංකා ගුරු සංගමය, ඒකාබද්ධ ගුරු සේවා සංගමය, ස්වාධීන ලංකා ගුරු සංගමය, රැුකියා විරහිත උපාධිධාරී සංගමය, සෞඛ්‍ය සේවක මධ්‍යස්ථානය, රජයේ ලිපිකරු සේවා සංගමය, එකාබද්ධ ජනරජ සේවක සංගමය, එක්සත් කම්කරු සම්මේලනය, එක්සත් පොදු සේවක සංගමය, සමාජවාදී වතු සේවක සංගමය, වමේ හඬ සංවිධානය, එක්සත් සමාජවාදී පක්ෂය, සමාජවාදී පක්ෂය, පෙරටුගාමී සමාජවාදී පක්ෂය යන දේශපාලන පක්ෂ හා සංවිධාන සහභාගීවීමට නියමිතය.

මෙම අවස්ථාව ආවරණය කිරීම සඳහා ඔබ මාධ්‍ය ආයතනයේ මාධ්‍යවේදියකු සම්බන්ධ කරවන මෙන් හා මේ සඳහා ඔබ මාධ්‍ය ආයතනයේ පූර්ව ප‍්‍රචාරයක් ලබාදෙන මෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිමු. රැලියට අදාල ප්‍රචාරක පෝස්ටරය මේ සමඟ එවා ඇත.

මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය

2015.12.16

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පෙරටුගාමී සමාජවාදී පක්ෂය

Courtesy The Adaderana

The China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) says that according to the recently released Supplementary Environmental Impact Assessment (SEIA) report, the Colombo Port City (CPC), upon completion of reclamation works, will incorporate solutions for integrated management of energy, water and waste for long‐term environmental sustainability and for creating a comfortable environment for its occupants, according to an eco‐cycle concept.

dailymirror.lk

A total of 183 million litres of liquor, marketed under different brands, had been sold in Sri Lanka upto November 1 this year, Minister of Finance Ravi Karunanayake informed Parliament today.

Responding to an oral question raised by MP Dullas Alahapperuma in the House, the minister revealed the fact that 65.2 million litres of Arrack, 5.1 million litres of imported liquor, 100.4 million litres of alcoholic beverages made using different grains as well as 3.8 million litres of toddy were sold during the given period.

He said government revenue from liquor licenses had risen to Rs 84.1 billion in 2015 compared to Rs 69 million earned the previous year.

Responding to a supplementary question raised by Mr Alahapperuma as to why the revenue received from liquor licenses had increased, Minister Karunanayake said the increase in revenues from liquor was a direct result of the government’s decision to levy a fee of Rs 15 million when liquor shops were converted into supermarkets. (Yohan Perera)

– See more at: http://www.dailymirror.lk/99819/1-billion-from-liquor-in-2015#sthash.FSdbDokr.dpuf

By A. Abdul Aziz, Press Secretary,Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at – Sri Lanka.

 Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad delivers powerful response to false claims that Islam is linked to extremism. 

According to our Press department U.K., The World Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, the Fifth Khalifa (Caliph), His Holiness, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, has responded to critics of Islam who claim that the religion justifies terrorist or extremist acts. The Khalifa made the comments during his Friday Sermon on 11 December 2015.

During his address, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad cited the examples of certain Western politicians and commentators who have falsely alleged that Islam encourages Muslims to engage in extremism and violence.

His Holiness said that the evil acts perpetrated by a well-known terrorist group have not only increased fear amongst the general public, but have also created an opportunity for misinformed or anti-Islamic critics to level false allegations against the teachings of Islam.

His Holiness added that the media response to attacks conducted in the name of Islam was entirely different to attacks conducted by non-Muslims.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

Whenever a Muslim does something wrong people immediately blame Islam but if a person of another faith commits a similar act he is labelled as ‘mentally unstable’. We openly acknowledge that the horrific acts of certain Muslim groups can only be classed as barbaric, however to unfairly target the teachings of the Holy Quran is entirely wrong and unjustified.”

 His Holiness said the teachings of Islam offered no justification or licence to those who sought to spread Islam through violence.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

Islam has never taught that people should be converted by force. In the Holy Quran, God Almighty said to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) that ‘Had God so desired, all who are on the earth would have believed.’ However God said that it would never happen that all of mankind would become believers and so it is clear that there is no compulsion permitted by Islam.”

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad continued:

The Holy Quran categorically states that the sword must never be raised to force people to accept Islam, rather Muslims should attract people to Islam by presenting the beautiful teachings of the religion and through setting the very best moral standards.”

 Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad cited chapter 43, verse 90 of the Holy Quran that states: I swear by his repeated cry ‘O my Lord!’ that these are a people who will not believe. Therefore, turn aside from them, and say, ‘Peace’; and soon shall they know.”

Commenting on this verse, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

In this verse the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) was instructed that even after suffering countless wrongs at the hands of disbelievers, his response should only be to say ‘My only message to you is of peace and will continue to be so for the sake of establishing reconciliation.’ Therefore when the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) himself was instructed to act in this peaceful manner, it is incumbent on all Muslims to forever carry this message and spirit forward.”

 Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said that a lack of justice and fairness were the root causes of the many conflicts witnessed in the world today.

Highlighting the role of certain major powers in fuelling extremism, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

Several western media outlets and commentators are now accepting that their own governments played a role in the creation of the extremist Muslim groups due to the effects of the Iraq War or as a result of the Syrian crisis. The root cause of all of these issues is a lack of justice in the world.”

 Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad continued:

 Where on the one hand the major powers are attempting to defeat the extremists through air strikes, they are also seemingly ignoring those groups or individuals who are trading with the terrorists or providing them with deadly weapons. Thus the peace of the world is not only being destroyed by the Muslim groups who are acting against Islam but also by the major powers who prioritise their own interests above others.”

 Concluding, His Holiness said that it was the duty of every Ahmadi Muslim to spread the true and peaceful teachings of Islam and to work towards peace at all levels of society.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

Every Ahmadi Muslim must consider it his or her duty to spread the beautiful and peaceful teachings of Islam. The world at this moment in time is standing on the brink of disaster and so every single Ahmadi Muslim must make an effort to save the world from destruction.”.

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy Island

In a statement issued on Dec. 10 to commemorate the Human Rights Day, Foreign Minister, Mangala Samaraweera, proudly declared: “Sri Lanka’s commemorations will not only be symbolic – it will also be substantive. So, I am very pleased to announce that Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, will today, this morning in New York, in fact, will be signing the International Convention on Enforced Disappearances.”

In a hard hitting statement, Minister Samaraweera said that during the last decade or so, in Sri Lanka, human rights, were always spoken as an alien concept. The universal values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law, were made out to be alien concepts or western values, as the previous government called it, and they used to say it’s western values and infringing on our country’s sovereignty. Although, the previous Rajapaksa administration cannot absolve itself of some of its actions, since the end of the war, in May, 2009, it took tangible measures to eradicate terrorism. Sri Lanka resorted to desperate measures. The world’s solitary superpower, and its allies, did the same at the expense of accountability in the wake of the al-Qaeda challenge.

Devastating al-Qaeda suicide attacks, on four US landmarks, on the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 2011, prompted the then Bush administration to launch the War on Terror campaign. In accordance with its overall military objectives, the US adopted extraordinary offensive security measures against al-Qaeda. The strategy included extraordinary rendition. The clandestine project was meant to facilitate the transfer of terrorist suspects, arrested in various parts of the world, by the US, or at the behest of the US, to countries where they could be interrogated without any restrictions. Invariably, suspects were subjected to torture. Over 50 countries joined the project, coordinated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The exclusive club, included Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan government not only facilitated the transfer of al Qaeda suspects but arrested a person wanted by the US, hiding here and handed him over to the CIA, at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) in Aug. 2003. Could Sri Lanka be faulted for cooperating with the US and its allies battling al-Qaeda? Would the US have tolerated Sri Lanka’s refusal to assist the extraordinary rendition project against the backdrop of its support to successive Sri Lankan governments to fight the LTTE?

The Extraordinary al-Qaeda challenge forced the US to adopt unprecedented tactics. Nineteen al-Qaeda operatives crashed three seized passenger planes into the north and south towers of the World Trade Centre, New York, and Defence Department headquarters, aka, Pentagon. The fourth suicide attack went awry due to some passengers making an abortive attempt to overwhelm al-Qaeda operatives in control of the aircraft.

The New York – based Open Society Foundations, in a special report that dealt with the extraordinary rendition project, revealed Sri Lanka allowed the US to use its airspace and BIA. The NGO alleged that Sri Lanka had never inquired into its role in the US project.

Those who had been demanding Sri Lanka to explain its conduct, during the war against the LTTE, are silent on her role in the US project. The US wouldn’t have contemplated such a project if not for the al-Qaeda challenge. Sri Lanka should never be ashamed of cooperating with the US or extending support in case of future emergency. Unprecedented challenges require bold responses, regardless of consequences.

Let me reproduce the entire list of countries which had been involved in the worldwide abduction project. Among them are some of the leading human rights champions, demanding Sri Lanka be hauled up before a hybrid war crimes court. The extraordinary rendition had been just one part of the massive war, launched by the US and its allies, against Taliban, in Afghanistan. The following countries participated in the extraordinary rendition programme: Afghanistan, Albania (current member of the UNHRC), Algeria (current member of the UNHRC), Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, Gambia, Georgia, Germany (current member of the UNHRC), Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Libya, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malawi, Malaysia, Mauritania, Morocco, Pakistan (current member of the UNHRC), Poland, Portugal, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Africa (current member of the UNHRC), Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom (current member of the UNHRC), Uzbekistan, Yemen, and Zimbabwe. Among those countries involved in the extraordinary rendition project were European Union members. The EU and the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council turned a blind eye to what was going on, though the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muižnieks, called for a comprehensive investigation into the US project. In a statement issued to mark the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Nils Muižnieks said:”By allowing unlawful detentions and interrogation techniques amounting to torture, the US response caused further suffering and violated human rights law.”

He added that governments hadn’t establish the truth or “ensure accountability for their complicity in the unlawful program of ‘extraordinary renditions’ – involving abduction, detention and ill-treatment of suspected terrorists – carried out by the CIA, in Europe, between 2002 and 2006.” The bottom line is that European human rights champions had no misgivings in joining the US project.

Open Society Foundation in its report (page 109); “…at least one flight operated by Richmor Aviation (a company that operated flights for the CIA’s extraordinary rendition programme) landed in Sri Lanka in 2003. The documents show that between August 12 and 15, 2003, a Richmor flight, registered as N85VM, took off from Washington, D.C., and stopped in Bangkok before making another stop at Sri Lanka’s Bandaranaike International Airport, in Colombo, and then flying on to Kabul, Dubai, and Shannon airport in Ireland. That flight coincided in time with the capture of Riduan Isamuddin (Hambali) in Bangkok in 2003. Isamuddin spent the next three years, in secret CIA prisons, before ultimately being transferred as a “high value detainee” to Guantanamo Bay, in September, 2006, where he remains detained. There have been no known judicial cases, or investigations, in Sri Lanka, relating to its participation in CIA secret detention and extraordinary rendition operations.”

The US had no qualms about securing the expertise of those who had been widely accused of gross human rights violations. Iran, Syria, Libya and Saudi Arabia worked closely with the US. The CIA project underscored the US readiness to secure the assistance of those it publicly despised for its benefits. The enhanced interrogation methods, used on al-Qaeda, had been compared with those employed by Nazi Germany. Journalist, Ben Norton, in Dec. last year, in a report titled, ‘The anti-imperialist nations of Iran, Syria and Libya, participated in CIA torture programme, pointed out that whistle-blower, John Kiriakou, had been the only person to receive punishment for the CIA torture project. Kiriakou had been the first to confirm the existence of the clandestine operation, in 2007. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison for the worst crime of all: telling the truth.

The US cannot be faulted for securing the support of all countries for the implementation of a project which it considered necessary for its security. The US killed the mastermind of the humiliating al-Qaeda raid, Osama bin Laden, carried out on May 2, 2011. Although the US proudly declared that its special forces had hunted Osama, hiding in Pakistan, on its own, some asserted that Islamabad facilitated the raid. The US, or Pakistan, will never confirm what really happened, on May 2, 2011 or the circumstances leading to the raid. Whatever the circumstances, the US raid proved that a wanted terrorist could be taken out anywhere (with or without the cooperation of the government in control of the country giving refuge to him or her).

Against the backdrop of the National Unity Government questioning the conduct of the military, during eelam war IV (Aug 2006-May 2009), it would be pertinent to examine a statement made by wartime US Ambassador in Sri Lanka, Robert O Blake, during a visit to Colombo, close on the heels of Osama killing (Blake unaware of UN raising accountability issues over Osama killing, with strap line, Denies U attempt at regime change in SL-The Island May 5, 2011)

Assistant Secretary of State, Robert Blake, told the media, at the US Embassy, in Colombo, on May 4, 2011, that al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, had been a ‘lawful target’ and the government of the United States of America stood by its actions.

However, he said as he had been travelling in Sri Lanka over the last few days, he wasn’t aware of specific allegations levelled against the US over the Osama killing. “Let me tell you, that Osama bin Laden was the leader of an armed group that was engaged in armed conflict against the government of the United States. He was, therefore, a lawful target. We certainly stand by our actions,” Blake said.

Osama’s killing was an important step in America’s fight against international terrorism, he said.

The Assistant Secretary was responding to a query by the writer at the press briefing held at the USIS, whether his country’s battle against international terrorism was likely to be undermined by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, and groups, such as the International Crisis Group, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, raising accountability issues on the grounds that bin Laden was unarmed at the time he was shot.

Pillay has urged the White House to make public the “precise facts surrounding Osama’s killing’ to ensure the operation adhered to international law.

The statement was made in the wake of President Obama’s Press Secretary, Jay Carney, acknowledging Osama hadn’t been armed at the time he was shot in his head and chest by the raiding party.

Responding to another query, Assistant Secretary Blake said that for want of a domestic mechanism to investigate issues of accountability, international mechanisms could become appropriate in case the state concerned was unable to meet its obligations (Blake was referring to Sri Lanka. Of course, he didn’t see anything wrong in Sri Lanka’s role in extraordinary rendition)

Blake served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. mission, in New Delhi, from 2003 – 2006, before moving here as Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives. At the conclusion of the war, in May 2009, he received the appointment as Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs.

Assistant Secretary Blake said that he had had the opportunity to meet Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and External Affairs Minister G. L. Peiris. Blake arrived in Colombo, on Monday (May 2), within 24 hours after heli-borne elite US team stormed Osama’s hideout outside Islamabad.

Blake said that he accepted congratulations of the Government of Sri Lanka on the killing of bin Laden.

The US resorted to unprecedented security measures in accordance with its overall security plan to meet the al-Qaeda challenge. The US went all out to apprehend those wanted for terrorism. The then US President, George W. Bush, personally intervened, in 2003, to have the wanted foreign al-Qaeda suspect extradited from Sri Lanka to an unknown destination. The then UNP-led UNP administration operated on the so-called need-to-know basis. Having received a request from the US for immediate cooperation to track down one of those high on the CIA’s wanted list, the government launched a countrywide hunt, quickly leading to the arrest of the fugitive taking refuge in the Puttalam police division. The arrest had been made by a special Criminal Investigation Department (CID) squad.

The Defence Ministry confirmed the arrest of the fugitive and handing him over to the CIA in Colombo. A senior New Delhi-based US official had arrived in Colombo, immediately after the arrest was made, to take charge of the suspect.

Later, a special private flight, hired by the CIA, had landed at the Bandaranaike International Airport to move the suspect to a secret interrogation facility. Sri Lanka never bothered at least to record a statement from the suspect.

When the then government explained the difficulty in handing over a non-Sri Lankan to the CIA in violation of the international law, the US Embassy had promptly issued a travel document identifying the suspect as a US national to facilitate the transfer.

Those involved in the operation had sedated the suspect before moving him to the special aircraft under guard. Airport authorities, too, were kept in the dark as regards the prisoner transfer.

During that time, Sri Lanka and the US agreed on non-surrender of ‘criminals’ to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Israel, Pakistan, Kuwait and Afghanistan were some of the countries which reached bi-lateral agreements with the US.

Under the agreement, the US and Sri Lanka will not surrender, or extradite people, including security forces and politicians of either party, present in the territory of the other, to the ICC, without the consent of the country concerned.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa joined the Acquisition and Cross Servicing Agreement (ACSA) in early 2007 to facilitate US military operations. The highpoint of US-Sri Lanka cooperation was the Sri Lanka Navy receiving intelligence to hunt down four LTTE ships in two separate confrontations in 2008. Both agreements remain in force.

No country should be criticized for adopting security measures which a particular government deemed is necessary for the protection of its citizens. Having experienced devastating ISIS attacks in Paris, France resorted to unprecedented security measures. France never realized the requirement for tangible security measures meant to face the threat of terrorism, until ISIS humiliated the French on their soil. The terror on French soil prompted the 28-country European Union to take unprecedented measures to tackle the growing domestic security threat posed by groups like the Islamic State.

France, for the first time, activated a special law that required its European neighbours to help them by all means possible, in light of “armed aggression” within its borders. But, the EU never took the threat posed by the LTTE to the Sri Lankan state though the EU proscribed the LTTE during Mrs. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga’s tenure as the President.

Dilrook Kannangara 

November 2015 brought South India one of the biggest natural disasters it faced in decades. Floods killed over 500 people, displaced over 2.5 million people and caused over $15 billion property damage. Mismanagement, corruption and callous disregard for human life, especially those considered low-caste” have pushed many South Indians into utter desperation. Another Tamil illegal migration to Sri Lanka is expected soon from South India as happened in 17^th, 18^th, 19^th and 20^th centuries. Sri Lankan government must prevent this calamity by denying them entry into the island nation.

In 1983, a similar flood inundated South India. However, Sri Lanka miraculously survived Tamil invasion thanks to the anti-Tamil riot that year. Given the security situation, Sri Lanka was the last destination of Tamils in South India then. However, today the atmosphere is more conducive to them and hundreds of thousands are expected to make the trip. Unfortunately, the Tamil language is given the official language status since 1987 and this acts as a powerful attraction to South Indian illegals. Most displaced people are from inundated farming areas who will find Sri Lanka an attractive destination to find work.

Sri Lanka with its own problems cannot host these south Indian scroungers. Locals need work, land, clean water, roads, medical facilities, foreign reserves and public service and cannot compromise accommodating illegals. Unless the Sri Lankan government prevents the possibility of illegals coming to Sri Lanka to live or work, the island nation is in for economic and social disaster. In terms of the economic impact, it is not too distant from a locust invasion.

It was reported in South Indian media that some Catholic and Hindu organisations with their presence in South India and Sri Lanka are facilitating the move of some of the affected unemployed people. This malicious plan must be defeated.

In the long run, Sri Lanka must remove Tamil as an official language (even India doesn’t recognise it as an official language) to prevent South Indians invading the island nation. In the medium term, a civil-military partly self-financing organisation must be set up to identify, capture, fine and deport South Indians illegally working in Sri Lanka.

Following his official meeting with Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera in Colombo 14 December, the U.S. Department of State Counselor (and onetime -2009/10 – counselor in Obama White House) who, early next year will assume the fourth-ranking position of Under Secretary (Political), Thomas Shannon addressing the media declared the following.U.S. Envoy Thomas Shannon 14 December at Sri Lanka Foreign Ministry

“Sri Lanka’s contributions to the development of a regional consciousness – one that promotes the values of democratic governance and respect for human rights, freedom of navigation, sustainable development, and environmental stewardship are noteworthy”.

The media, political analysts and watchers of ‘improving’ US-Sri Lanka relations are able to understand Washington’s desire to promote the values of democratic governance, human rights, sustainable development and environment stewardship. Even, reconciliation among ethnic groups and accountability.

There is one important issue that Washington seems to have got round with Sri Lanka that most political observers could miss in that Shannon-statement: “Sri Lanka’s contribution to freedom of navigation is noteworthy”.

United Stated Navy DestroyerIt is in this statement that Washington seems to have roped Sri Lanka to position this South Asian nation to the United States’ overall national security maneuver in the Asia-Pacific Region in which China has become a ‘headache’ in East as well as South Asia.

In his statement in the company of the foreign minister, Ambassador Shannon, a seasoned strategist in Washington, further said,

“I am pleased to announce with the Foreign Minister today that the first meeting of the U.S.-Sri Lanka Partnership Dialogue will take place in February 2016 in Washington, DC.

“This annual meeting will provide an opportunity to discuss all aspects of the relationship and ways in which the United States may be able to engage directly with the people of Sri Lanka and the Government”.

An allusion to the story of the wooden horse of Troy, used by the Greeks to trick their way into the city. It is recorded in Virgil’s Aeneid, Book 2, 19 BC:

“Do not trust the horse, Trojans. Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks even when they bring gifts.”

Savvy political observers are reminded of the above when they hear the following declaration made by Mr. Shannon in Colombo on December 14:

“These efforts will be wide ranging, to the benefit of both countries. Our cooperation benefits communities where returnees are facing hardship. We will assist reconciliation and broader transitional efforts at the household level, community level, and national levels. We will foster greater trade and investment to raise incomes, create jobs, and improve standards of living in both countries”.

What does freedom of navigation means to Sri Lanka, and why did Washington include the issue among other issues that are generally discussed since the defeat of the secessionist LTTE in May 2009?

In October, a U.S. guided-missile destroyer, the USS Lassen, challenged territorial limits around one of the man-made islands China claims in the Spratly archipelago with a so-called freedom-of-navigation patrol.

U.S. officials have been unwilling to publicly clarify the precise circumstances of the USS Lassen’s operation in the South China Sea, near Subi Reef, last October 27.

After more than two weeks of considering various public reports, experts have determined that the first U.S. freedom of navigation operation near Subi Reef was not an assertion of high seas freedom by the United States. Rather, the USS Lassen transited within 12 nautical miles of Subi Reef in compliance with the innocent passage provisions outlined in Part II, Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). In essence, the October 27 U.S. freedom of navigation patrol asserted that ships – both civil and military – had the right to sail near Subi Reef without notifying Chinese authorities as long as they complied with innocent passage regulations. The very geography of the South China Sea means that Subi Reef could likely qualify for the territorial waters under UNCLOS.

The U.S. recognizes that Subi Reef is inside a legal territorial sea. Contrary to the claims of many experts, theUSS LASSEN operation was not intended to assert that the U.S. challenges the existence of a territorial sea around Subi Reef. Rather, it was intended to exercise freedom of navigation consistent with international law and to demonstrate that China’s building of artificial islands will not change how the U.S. operates in the waters and airspace of the South China Sea. Additionally, contrary to international law, Chinese domestic law requires prior notification for warships to exercise innocent passage. The U.S. gave no formal prior notification to any of the claimants of the exercise by USS LASSEN f innocent passage in the vicinity of Subi Reef and Sandy Cay.

According to Washington, such innocent passage acted as a freedom of navigation operation because it challenged China’s attempt to put illegal restrictions on the movements of warships.

China said on November 22 that the United States is making political provocations with its patrols in the South China Sea, as tensions around the waterways mount.

Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin made the remarks at a briefing during a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders in Kuala Lumpur. He said the U.S. has gone beyond freedom of navigation to “test” China.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) enshrines the concept of innocent passage through a coastal state’s territorial sea. Passage is innocent so long as it is not prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of the coastal state. A vessel in innocent passage may traverse the coastal state’s territorial sea continuously and expeditiously, not stopping or anchoring except in force majeure (superior or irresistible power) situations.

It is in this context that Washington expects Sri Lanka to fall in line with its policy in Asia-Pacific Region. The visiting State Department official Thomas Shannon did not fail to underscore the “Sri Lanka’s contribution to freedom of navigation is noteworthy” giving the hint that the issue was discussed with the Government of Sri Lanka.

Which is why the Asian Tribune in its previous report titled ‘Seasoned U.S. strategist visits Sri Lanka:

Thomas Shannon’ noted the significance of this Washington official’s visit to Colombo highlighting the American interest in the Asia-Pacific Region and Obama’s 2012 declared policy of Pivot to Asia to challenge the Peoples Republic of China.

– Asian Tribune –

ජයසූරිය උඩුකුඹුර උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින
ඇවන්ගාඩ් සමාගමට අයත් පාවෙන අවි ගබඩාව හා ව්‍යාපාරික කටයුතු නාවික හමුදාවට බාර දී ඇතත් රජය හා ඇවන්ගාඩ් සමාගම අතර ඇති ගිවිසුම අවලංගු කර නැති බවත් එම ගිවිසුම ඒකපාර්ශ්වීයව අවලංගු කරන්නේ නම් රජය ඇවන්ගාඩ් සමාගමට ඩොලර් මිලියන 40,000 ක්‌ ගෙවිය යුතු බව එම සමාගමේ හිටපු වාණිජ්‍ය නෞකා මෙහෙයුම් ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ කළමනාකරු විශ්‍රාමික ලුතිනන් කර්නල් නිලන්ත ජයවීර මහතා සඳහන් කළේය.

“දිවයින” කළ විමසුමකට පිළිතුරු දෙමින් හෙතෙම වැඩිදුරටත් මෙසේද කීය.

ඇවන්ගාඩ් සමාගම රජය සමග ගිවිසුම් අත්සන් කරලා දෙපාර්ශ්වයටම එකඟ වී තිබෙනවා. යම් පාර්ශ්වයක්‌ තනි තීරණයකට එයින් ඉවත් වනවා නම් ඒ අය අනෙක්‌ පාර්ශ්වයට රුපියල් මිලියන 40,000 ක්‌ ගෙවන්න ඕනේ. අපි ගිවිසුම ප්‍රකාරව කටයුතු කළත් රජය ඒ ගිවිසුම කඩ කරලා තියෙනවා. නමුත් ඒ ගිවිසුම අහෝසි කරන්න රජය පියවර අරගෙන නෑ.

නාවික හමුදාවට මෙම සමාගමේ කටයුතු පවරලා පෙරේදාට (14දා) මාසයක්‌ ගත වෙනවා. මේ නිසා 6754 ක ගේ රැකියා අහිමි වෙලා. ඒ වාගේම සෘජු හා වක්‍ර ආදායම් බොහොමයක්‌ නැවතිලා. මේ නිසා විශාල පිරිසක්‌ අසරණ තත්ත්වයට පත් වෙලා.

කීර්ති වර්ණකුලසූරිය උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින

රටවල් 12 ක්‌ සහ විදෙස්‌ රාජ්‍ය නොවන සංවිධාන 26 ක්‌ කොටි සංවිධානයට රුපියල් කෝටි 133 ක අති විශාල මුදල් සම්භාරයක්‌ ලබා දී ඇත.

මේ බව මුලතිව්හිදී පසුගියදා හමු වූ රහස්‌ ගිණුම් වාර්තාවකින් හෙළි වී තිබේ.

ටී. ආර්. ඕ සංවිධානය හරහා මෙලෙස කොටින්ට අරමුදල් සපයා ඇත්තේ ඕස්‌ටේ්‍රලියාව බොස්‌ට්‌වානා, ඇමරිකාව, කැනඩාව, ඩෙන්මාර්කය, ප්‍රංශය ජර්මනිය, ඉතාලිය, නවසීලන්තය, නෝර්වේ ස්‌විඩනය සහ බ්‍රිතාන්‍යයයි.

මෙකී මුදල් ටී. ආර්. ඕ. සංවිධානය විසින් අවි ලබාගැනීමට කොටින්ට ලබා දී ඇත.

ටී. ආර්. ඕ. සංවිධානයේ ප්‍රධානී ප්‍රේම රජිට බ්‍රිතාන්‍යය දේශපාලන රැකවරණ සපයා තිබේ.

https://www.facebook.com/chanaka.chanaka.142/videos/1642302532706075/

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග

ලක්බිම පුවත්පතේ සතිපතා හෙදියකගේ අනුවේදනීය දිනපොත නමින් ළිපි මාලාවක් පළ විය​. මෙම ළිපි ලියන ලද්දේ  කොළඹ ජාතික රෝහලේ  පුහුණු කිරීමේ හෙද නිලධාරිනී පුෂ්පා රම්‍යානි සොයිසාය​. මේ කතාව  හෙද නිලධාරිනී පුෂ්පා රම්‍යානි සොයිසා ගැන නොවේ. වෙනත් හෙද නිලධාරිනියක වූ අසෝකා මිස් ගැනය. 

හලාවත රෝහලේ ශල්‍යාගාරයේ හෙද නිලධාරිනියක වූ අසෝකා මිස් සැරය . නමුත් හදවතින් කරුණාවන්ත අයෙකි. එකල ඇය අවිවාහකය​. ඇය නිතරම බිසිය.​

අසෝකා මිස් ශල්‍යකර්ම වලට ලක් කරන ලද රෝගීන් හා ඔවුනට  ශල්‍යාගාරයේ ලබා දුන් ඖෂධ පිළිබඳව විස්තර සටහන් පොතක් තියාගෙන සිටියාය​. එය විශාල ප්‍රමාණයේ සී ආර් පොතකි. එය නිතරම ශල්‍යාගාරයේ  මේසයක් මත තිබුණි. දිනපතා මේ පොතේ ලිවීම සටහන් තැබීම ඇය කළාය​. 

වරක් මම ලක්බිම පුවත් පතෙන් හෙදියකගේ අනුවේදනීය දිනපොත යන ලිපියේ හෙඩිම කපා ගම් ගා අසෝකා මිස් ගේ සී ආර් පොතේ ඇලවූයෙමි.  ශල්‍යාගාරයට ආ ගිය වෛද්‍යවරු එය දැක සිනාසුනෝය​. මේ බව නොදත් අසෝකා මිස් දිගටම  සී ආර් පොතේ තම රාජකාරිය කළාය​. නමුත්  හදිසියේ ඇය එය​ දුටු අතර තමන් ගේ පොත හෙදියකගේ අනුවේදනීය දිනපොත යනුවෙන් නම් කරන ලද තැනැත්තාට පොදුවේ බැණ වැදුනාය​. මම කට වසාගෙන සිටියෙමි. නමුත් ස්වල්ප මොහොතකින් ඇයගේ තරහව නිවී යන ලදි. 

අසෝකා මිස් අපට තේ හදන්නීය​. ඇය සාදන ඉඟුරු තේ ඉතා රසවත්‍ ය​. අසෝකා මිස් කොහොම රසට ඉඟුරු තේ හදනවාද මන්දා යැයි වරක් තරුණ වෛද්‍යවරියක් ඇසුවාය​මම ඇයට (කොලොප්පමක් ලෙස)  පැවසුවේ අසෝකා මිස් ඉඟුරු හපා (කටින් විකා) තේ එකට දමන නිසා රස එන බවයි. ඉන් පසුව ඇය ඉඟුරු තේ බීම නැවැත්තුවාය​. පසුව අප කරන ලද්දේ විහිලුවක් බව පැවසීමෙන් පසු ඇය යලිත් ඉඟුරු තේ බීම  ඇරඹුවාය​. 

පසු කාලයක මට අසෝකා මිස් හලාවත රෝහලේදී හමු වූ අතර ඒ වන විට ඇය හෙද සොහොයුරියක  ලෙස උසස්වීමක් ලබා සිටියාය​. 

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග 

By A SEVERELY AFFECTED MOTORIST Courtesy Island

December 14, 2015, 12:00 pm

I brought to the notice of your readers that I have a nagging suspicion that increasing the taxes on electric vehicles could be an act of corruption committed by big time car importers and certain ministers of the Yahapalanaya government (The Island of 27/11/15). My suspicion was proven beyond doubt that when the Minister of Finance came on the TV yesterday and mentioned that the taxes wouldn’t be reduced under any circumstance.He was infact overriding his own Prime Minister who mentioned in the Parliament that the taxes would be reduced.This news item was followed by a news clip that the President of the Car Importers Association( who had a meeting a few minutes back with the Minister) providing a tongue in cheek reply that the minister would not reduce the taxes any further and advised to sell whatever the existing stocks.The President of Car Importers Association from his facial expression did not show any remorse or sympathy for the potential car buyers. The traders were given the green light to import as many vehicles as possible before the budget and no one would believe that they would sell them for the prebudget prices!.These importers still would not sell these vehicles for some time and wait patiently until all the heat dies down and start selling for the current prices and make a windfall.

One wonders how the present Minister of Finance was offered this post when there are better qualified MPs some with PhDs in the parliament.As far as I know there is no good word for him from any quarter except perhaps the bigtime businessmen and ofcourse the foreigners who are allowed to lease land for tourism purposes.Thanks to such ministers the days of the Yahapalanaya government are numbered if Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse(MR) gets his act together,float a different political party and get the cooperation of the minorities. He never hurt the middle class the way the present day rulers do and infact this class,the majority of whom including the professionals, are impatiently waiting for MR to return to power.

A SEVERELY AFFECTED

MOTORIST

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE

As Vithanage documents, the two women are raped by a judge presiding over cases involving their husbands as accused parties.  There’s no one to entertain their grievances.  Those institutions which shut the door on them include the Judiciary Services Commission and the Bar Association of Sri Lanka.  It is in desperation that one of the women comes to Victor Ivan.  Those who do not know Victor Ivan, former Editor of the ‘Ravaya’ newspaper would learn from Prasanna Vithanage’s documentary ‘Silence in the Courts’ that Ivan is an exceptional journalist.  His efforts to go the proverbial extra mile to obtain justice are legendary, one would conclude, after digesting the story of two citizens who clearly belong to what Fyodor Dostoyevsky might have called ‘The Insulted and Humiliated’.

Ivan not only publishes her story, but goes on to write a series of articles exposing the judge.  The then Attorney General refuses to take action.  Undeterred, Ivan exposes the cover up forcing the Judicial Services Commission to appoint a tribunal to investigate.  The judge is found guilty but gets off with the light ‘punishment’ of ‘compulsory leave with pay’.  Later, when moves to make the Attorney-General the Chief Justice came to be known, Ivan wrote a book about the failure of the justice system.  He insisted then that it was wrong and unethical to appoint as Chief Justice a man who was accused of wrongdoing, was being investigated and as at that point yet to be cleared.

Victor played a brilliant role in this case

One doesn’t need to watch this documentary to know of Victor Ivan’s efforts to champion the cause of justice.  There have been occasions when he got it all wrong, once even leading to the suicide of a police officer falsely accused.  The intention, however, was not malicious.  By and large Victor has been the voice for the voiceless, he has given space for those denied proper representation and has consistently argued for transformation of structures and procedures to ensure justice, accountability and transparency.

Perhaps it is all this that prompted Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) to give Victor Ivan an ‘Integrity Award’ as part of the celebrations to mark the World Anti-Corruption Day.   The other recipient, posthumously of course, was ardent good governance advocate the late Ven Maduluwawe Sobitha Thero.

Now TISL has its own ‘transparency’ issues, particularly with respect to donor funds requested, obtained and used for ‘election monitoring’.

“The CPA, NPC and TI received Rs. 272.31 million, Rs. 171.23 million and 174.79 million respectively, it was reported in ‘The Island’ of March 5, 2011.  This is peace-time bucks, folks.  If they got Rs. 618.33 million in three peace-years or roughly over Rs 200 million a year, one can only imagine how much money they wallowed in during the height of the war! ” For more details, read “CPA, NPC and TISL are about bucks (BIG bucks)”

‘Integrity’ and these two don’t go together

There’s also an issue about the ‘giver’ of the award.  If anyone still believes that President Maithripala Sirisena and the word ‘integrity’ can legitimately go together, then a quick look-back at how he fiddled with ‘democracy’, championed nepotism and wrecked corporate good governance, not to mention the abuse of presidential powers, would set the record straight.  Let’s leave all that aside.

Does Victor Ivan deserve this award?  If we knew only what has been mentioned above, the answer is a clear ‘yes’.  However, there is damning evidence to impeach Ivan on questionable (we are being generous here) financial transactions.

There is the issue of his involvement in Ravaya’s non-payment of taxes where the former President nudged state agencies to advertise in that paper so that monies owed the Department of Inland Revenue could be paid.  More seriously is the issue of Ivan demanding (and being given) millions of rupees from a fund made of donations solicited and obtained from the general public by Ravaya Solidarity.  The would-be donors were not informed that the money collected would be used to purchase shares from Ivan. Indeed, as a Limited Guarantee company, there can be no ‘shares’, although the word has been used (loosely) by those defending the transaction.

What is most damning is that Ivan has agreed to pay back the money clearly indicating that what was done was wrong. While Ivan should be applauded for this act of ‘penitence’, it does not exonerate him.  Ivan knew what he was about.  Ravaya Solidarity knew what was happening.  The public was deceived.  Neither Ivan nor spokespersons for Ravaya have offered clarification that clears either party.  Instead what we’ve seen is vilification of the whistle-blowers, a course of action that detracts from Ivan’s considerable contributions towards building a just and democratic society.

An investigation into all this is currently being conducted by the Registrar of Companies, who, we are told, keeps all documents under lock and key, as should be of course.  The documents out in the public domain clearly warrant a ‘second look’ at Ivan by those who are passing around integrity-awards, one would think.  TISL obviously thought otherwise.  That’s their business.

In Ivan’s case, it would have been much better had he followed his own advocacy with respect to the Attorney General he ‘exposed’ in the case that Vithanage made a documentary on, i.e. had he said ‘There’s an ongoing investigation and until and unless my name is cleared, I shall not accept this or any other award.’   He did not do that.

He was under a cloud and that cloud has got darker.  As things stand and as was pointed to Prasanna Vithanage just after his documentary premiered at the Liberty Lite Cinema some months ago, he has to at least consider a second documentary.  This time on Victor Ivan.

 නලින් ද සිල්වා

උදය ගම්මන්පිල යුතුකම සංවාද කවය www.yuthukama.com

-ලසන්ත වික්‍රමසිංහ යුතුකම සංවාද කවය www.yuthukama.com

චන්ද්‍රිකා මහත්මිය සිටින්නේ පාසල් යන වයසක නොවේ. නමුත් ළඟදී චන්ද්‍රිකා මහත්මියට පාසල් පෙළ පොත් මතක් විය. අපටත් ඇතැම් විට කුඩා කළ බැලූ ඒ පොත පත  කිසියම් අතීතාශ්වාදජක හැඟීමක් මුසුව මතකයට නැගෙන අවස්ථා ඇත. නමුත් චන්ද්‍රිකා මහත්මියට පාසල් පෙළ පොත් මතක් වූයේ එවැනි හැඟීමක් ඇතිව නොවේ. බටහිරයන් විසින් ඇයට පැවරූ ප්‍රධාන වගකීමක ආරම්භක පියවර තැබීමටය. ඇය ළඟදී පාසල් විෂය නිර්දේශයෙන් බුද්ධාගම පොත ඉවත් කර සියළු ආගම් ඇතුළත් සර්ව ආගමික පොතක් ළමුනට ලබා දිය යුතු බවට අදහස් පළ කළාය.වරෙක ඇය තම පුතණුවන් සිංහලයකු වීම පිලිබඳ ඔහු අතිශයින් ලැජ්ජා වන වග තමා සමඟ පැවසු බව ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ පැවසුවාය. ඇයද තමා සිංහලයකු වීම පිලිබඳ ලැජ්ජා වන ස්ත්‍රියකි. නොඑසේ නම් සිය පුතා සිංහලයකු වීම පිලිබඳ ලැජ්ජා වන බව ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ කියන්නේ නැත. ඇය මේ රටේ සිංහලයන්ට සහ බෞද්ධයන්ට හිමි තැන නොපිලිගන්නා ස්ත්‍රියකි.

බ්‍රිතාන්‍යයන් විසින් අත්සන් තැබූ උඩරට ගිවිසුමේ පවා බෞද්ධාගම රැක ගැනීම උදෙසා ඔවුන් සතු වගකීම අවධාරණය වී ඇත්තේ එය මේ රටේ ඓතිහාසිකව පැවත ආ සම්ප්‍රදාය වූවා සේම එය රජවරුන් සතු යුතුකමක් සහ රාජ්‍යත්වයට ඇති හිමිකමද නිර්ණය වන සාධකයක් වි තිබුන බැවිනි. රටක ව්‍යවස්ථාව සහ නීති බවට පත් වන්නේ එම රටේ සම්ප්‍රදායයි. නමුත් බ්‍රිතාන්‍යය යටත් විජිතයක් වූ අප සතුව ඇත්තේ බ්‍රිතාන්‍යයේ සම්ප්‍රදාය මත සැකසූ ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් විනා අපගේ සම්ප්‍රදාය මත සැකසූ ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් නොවේ. කෙසේ නමුත් උඩරට ගිවිසුමට ද ඇතුලත් කර ඇති පරිදිම වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ දෙවන පරිච්ඡේදයට අයත් වන නව වන වගන්තියට අනුව ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජය බුද්ධාගමට ප්‍රමුඛස්ථානය පිරිනැමිය යුතුය. එසේම බුද්ධ ශාසනය සුරක්ෂිත කොට පෝෂණය කිරීම රජයේ වගකීම විය යුතුය යනුවෙන්ද එහි ඇතුළත්ය.

දැන් මේ චන්ද්‍රිකා නෝනා එන්නේ මොකාටදැයි වටහා ගැනීමට අමුතු බුද්ධියක් අවශ්‍යය නොවේ. ස්වාභාවික මිනිස් ඉව ඒ සඳහා හොඳටම ප්‍රමාණවත්ය. ලංකා රජය නව ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් සකසන්නට කැස පට ගසමින් සිටියි. සැබැවින්ම එය ලංකා රජය විසින් සදන්නට යන ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් යැයි කියනවාට වඩා ගැලපෙන්නේ බටහිරයන් විසින් අප ලවා සාදවන අපේ නොවන අපේ ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් බව පැවසීමයි. මෙම ව්‍යවස්ථාව සැකසෙන්නේ නෝර්වීජියානු විශේෂඥ කෙවන් වොලන්ගේ උපදෙස් මතය. ආර් සම්බන්ධන් විපක්ෂ නායකතුමා ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ තමනට ඇති ගැටළු දන්වා යවන්නේ මේ නෝර්වේ රටේ කෙවන් වොලන්ටය. මේ ව්‍යවස්ථාව කෙබඳුදැයි තවම අප දන්නේ නැත.

නමුත් චන්ද්‍රිකා පෙළ පොත සර්ව ආගමික කිරීම හරහා නිකුත් කරන්නේ සංඥාවකි. පැහැඳිලි සංඥාවකි. නැතිනම් චන්ද්‍රිකාට ඉස්කෝලේ පොත් මතක් වෙන වයසක් නොවේ මේ. මුලින්ම එන්නේ සර්ව ආගමික පාසල් පෙළ පොතක්, බුද්ධාගමට ප්‍රමුඛස්ථානය ලබා දී නැති පාසල් පෙළ පොතක්. ඉන් පසුව එන්නේ බුද්ධාගමට ප්‍රමුඛස්ථානය නැති ව්‍යවස්ථාවක්. බුද්ධාගමට ප්‍රමුඛස්ථානය නැති රටක්.පෙළ පොත හරහා කාර්යයන් දෙකක් සාක්ෂාත් කර ගත හැකිය. එකක් මුලින් මුට්ටිය දමා බැලීමය. මේ මුට්ටියට කුඩු වෙන්න ගැහුවද හොරා පසුබසිනු ඇත්තේ තාවකාලිකවය. මේ හොරා මෙහය වන්නේ බටහිර අධිරාජ්‍යවාදී බලවතුන් විසිනි. ව්‍යවස්ථාව සදන්නේ නෝර්වේ රටින් උපදෙස් ගනිමිනි. එනිසා හොරාටද හොරකමේ යනවා හැරෙන්න වෙන විකල්පයක් නැත. ඉන් සාක්ෂාත් කර ගන්නා දෙවන කාරණය ඊටත් වඩා අතිශය භයානකය. එනම් මතවාදීව බුද්ධාගමට ප්‍රමුඛස්ථානයක් හිමි විය යුතු නැතැයි තහවුරු කර ගැනීමයි. පෙළ පොතට මේ වෙනස කරන විට බොහෝ දෙනෙකු ඒ ගැන එතරම් උනන්දු නොවන, බිය නොවන හේතුවක් තිබේ. ඒ ළමුන්ට අන් ආගම් ගැනද වැටහීමක් ලැබීමේ කිසියම් සාධනීය පැත්තක්ද ඇති බැවිනි. එහි සත්‍යයක්ද තිබේ. නමුත් චන්ද්‍රිකා…. ඇය දැන් කල්පනා කරන්නේ ළමුන්ගේ අධ්‍යාපනය ගැනද? අපි ඇය ගැන දනිමු. ගොනා හැරෙන්නේ පොල් පැළයට වැඩේ දීමට බව අපට පෙනී යා යුතුය.

මුලින් පෙළ පොත සර්ව ආගමික කළ පසු සියළු ආගම් මේ රට තුළ සමස්ථානයේ ලා සැලකිය යුතු බවට මතයක් පසුව තහවුරු කර ගැනීම පහසු වේ. කිසිදු ආගමකට ප්‍රමුඛස්ථානයක් අවැසි නැති බව පවසනු ඇත. අවශ්‍ය නම් බුද්ධාගමට ප්‍රමුඛස්ථානය ලබා දීම බෞද්ධ ධර්මයට පවා පටහැණි යැයි උගන්වන ඊනියා උගතුන් කිහිප දෙනෙකුද කළ එළි බසිනු ඇත. අඥාන සිංහලයාට මෙය වැටහෙන කොට පෙරහැර ගිහින්ය. බුද්ධාගමට හිමි ප්‍රමුඛස්ථානය ඉවත් කිරීම සඳහා චන්ද්‍රිකාලා රනිල්ලා හරහා බටහිරයන් ඉතා දක්ෂ අයුරින් මානසික පරිවර්තනයක් සැලසුම් කර ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන බව අපට දැන් පෙනී යා යුතුය. එය මෙරට මහා සංඝයා වහන්සේ ඇතුළු බෞද්ධ දායක දායිකාවන්ගේ අප්‍රමාදි අවධානයටවත් ලක් විය යුතුය. හොරා අල්ලා ගැනීම කෙසේ වෙතත් මුට්ටිය බිද දැමීමටවත් මේ සියළු දෙනා නින්දෙන් අවදි විය යුතුය. නැතිනම් අපට වසර දෙදහස් පන්සියයකට වඩා පැවත ආ සම්ප්‍රදායට, අලිඛිත ව්‍යවස්ථාවට සහ ලිඛිත ව්‍යවස්ථාවට පටහැණි රටක් බිහි වීමට ඇත්තේ තවත් වසර දෙකකට අඩු කාලයක් බව සිහි කැඳවා ගත යුතුය. යළි යටත්විජිතකරණයට ලක් වූ මේ දේශයේ අප ගත කරන්නේ ඉතිහාසය වෙනස් කරවන සන්ධියක් පසු කරන ඉතාම තීරණාත්මක අවධියකි. නිදිගෙන සිටියහොත් සොරා ගෙයි වටිනා කියන කිසිවක් ඉතිරි නොකරනු නිසැකය.

-ලසන්ත වික්‍රමසිංහ
යුතුකම සංවාද කවය
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 By Our Correspondent

Guwahati: Assam’s well-known  Dispur Hospitals in association with Siliguri Journalists’ Club has organized a free Hepatitis-B vaccination camp for the benefit of local scribes on 21 December 2015.

The second dose of Hepatitis B vaccine will be administered on 21 January to complete the vaccination process.

It may be mentioned that Hepatitis-B is an infectious and deadly disease that primarily affects the human liver. Caused by the Hepatitis-B virus, the disease may show no symptom during the initial infection. Statistics reveal that over 750,000 people die of Hepatitis-B every year across the globe.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) over 40 million Indians are living with the chronic Hepatitis-B infection. As the infection of Hepatitis-B virus can be prevented by the vaccine, the WHO recommends better detection and prevention facilities across the globe. Lately Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan has started campaigning for the massive Hepatitis-B vaccination program.

Guwahati based Dispur Hospitals private limited, had earlier extended medical support to over 150 scribes of Guwahati and around 50 journalists of Dimapur for the Hepatitis-B vaccination camps. Various other media organizations including Shillong Press Club and Press Club of Sikkim have also shown interest in organizing such camps for the benefit of their member-journalists.

S. Akurugoda

 The foreign funded NGOs  who were in the driver’s seat during the Chandrika-Ranil failed regimes, campaigning  vigorously  to brainwash the country from top political hierarchy to grass roots level, spending billions of rupees are back in the driver’s seat once again.

The penetration of  NGOs into the country began in the 1980s. Manipulation of public opinion by making use of the media and the so-called ‘think-tanks’ , who were none other than paid agents of the spy agencies, is one of the usual methods adopted by  the West to create distrust among communities leading to the loss of faith on the country’s rulers and thereby to achieve ‘regime changes’ .

It is now a well known fact that the West were totally unhappy over the elimination of terrorism of the LTTE from our soil and was determined to have a ‘regime change’ by hook or crook and to install ‘a puppet regime’ as they do in the rest of the world.  Finally, they succeeded in achieving their goal in  January this year and their task of exploitation  was easier due to the local support extended by some of the most treacherous politicians who run to them seeking intervention for almost every domestic political issue without exceptions.

If we are to find out who are these foreign funded NGOs are and what they have said and done, since their inception, the easiest way is to go through any of the pro-LTTE websites.  Almost all their media releases, statements, activities etc  were of immense value to the terrorists .  These notorious NGOs were almost the only voices, apart from the separatist groups (both armed and un-armed) , to welcome foreign intervention in the country.  They  promoted the LTTE as an integral part of their so-called solutions and denounced the Government’s effort to eradicate terrorism, placing the military capacity of the GOSL on an equal footing with the LTTE and tried to project the LTTE as invincible.

These so-called ‘Think Tanks’, depending entirely on foreign governments and agencies,  carry on the White Man’s Burden and have a function similar to Christian missionaries during the high colonial era.

Media reports  revealed how a section of the international community was pouring money into Sri Lankan NGOs, in spite of the conclusion of war against terrorism in May, 2009.

These NGOs were busy justifying war crime charges against our heroes (who prevented continuance of loss of innocent lives by eliminating their Mr” Prabhakaran) at a cost of Rs 600mn (in just three years), as the media  revealed, since May 2009.

The Norwegian Embassy was the largest single donor. The European Commission and the Swedish International Development Agency) were the second and the third major contributors during the same period.

On 28th August 2009, soon after the elimination of  LTTE terrorism, the two kingpins of NPC and CPA were reported addressing a close-door meeting convened by the US Institute of Peace (USIP). Another notable participant of this discussion was Teresita Schaffer of The Centre for Strategic and international Studies, one of the former US Ambassadors to Sri Lanka, who was very critical of the Sri Lankan government during her tenure of office in Sri Lanka. As per media reports, the duos from the two NGOs basically said at a meeting, in Washington D.C. with former Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Mr. Robert Blake, was what Blake wanted them to say.

After few months of these meetings, Ban Ki-moon appointed a panel to advice him (i.e the UNSG) on Sri Lanka’s alleged war crime charges and European Union gave conditional ultimatum on GSP Plus. Soon after the appointment of Ban Ki-moon panel, these NGO kingpins  were back in the business by issuing statements one after the other to the foreign and local press supporting the Ban KI-moon’s panel and the EU’s conditions and condemning the actions of the Sri Lankan Government and its people as was usually done by them during the past and the rest of their deeds leading to the ‘regime change’  are now part of the history.

It is leant that a well-known  foreign funded NGO ,  who questioned need for the country’s sovereignty,  advocated vigorously foreign intervention, created disharmony and distrust  among communities towards each other  since its inception in 1993,    has written to some individuals advocating solutions including a new Constitution for the country.   Although  the so-called ‘think tanks’  were said to be ‘most heartening to know that the current government is considering creating a new constitution for this country ‘, in one of their statements, they maintained numb when the regime they managed to install in January continued to violate the country’s Constitution  on many occasions, commencing from the  replacements of  the country’s PM  and the Chief Justice, soon after  a Presidential election.

The solutions they sought in the past were from outside and the solutions they seek now are also from outside. Pumping billions of Rupees to brainwash the people of a nation to achieve the goals of outside elements is a clear-cut interference on its sovereignty. Who will pump billions for nothing in return?

As per a news item appeared in Irida Divayana, the government is seeking Norway’s support to draft a new Constitution for the country and a special envoy from that country was expected to come the 7th of this month. As noted above, Norwegian Embassy was the largest single funding agency of the lobbyist NGOs in our country/  These lobbyist NGOs are to fulfil the needs of their funding agencies whose ultimate aim is none other than creating a new form of colonization around the world.  Thus one can imagined the contents and the status of the new Constitution  for the country,  being prepared by these NGOs and   to be enforced  through their puppet regime , considering what they have preached  as solutions and the anti- Sinhala  anti-Buddhist stance  adopted since their inceptions.

Cecil Atukorale ( LLB, Col. Uni)

Constitution making is not all about law for it has its links with political science as well.In any Democratic society political rights and freedom ought to express the idea that state sovereignty belongs to the people who are the source of all authority of the State. The idea of sovereignty of the people has existed for a long time. It embodies humanitarian desire for a just political system ensuring development of all members of society and excluding the abuse of power by those who have access to it as a result of their economic and social status.  Now there is a move afoot now to abolish the present Executive Presidency with a Parliamentary Executive.

Constitutionally we all stand for a new constitituition framed with the approval of the people that will give full effect to the people’s sovereignty in the best and true sense of that term with unitary character of the state being preserved. Here, the Crux of the matter is this; nowhere the people have been told as to what the model of this parliamentary Executive be like. Anyway this phrase parliamentary sovereignty is no synonym for people’s sovereignty. This phrase parliamentary sovereignty is phrase full of ambiguity and it calls for a clear and proper interpretation. If not we would be in a helpless position later to object and take up a strong attitude on a mere question of interpretation. It is now or never? Where the parliamentary sovereignty prevails, the will of the people have no role to play.

Today, various blatantly undemocratic theories justifying the estrangement of Parliament from the people are in wide use. The trouble with our politicians is that they with, its colonial mentality, have not yet been able to break away from the traditional pattern of British West-Minister parliamentary politics. And, there still remains in our midst a coterie of politicians who prefer British Westminster model parliament to any other progressive model. They seem to believe Westminster Model; in all respect is the most satisfactory form of parliament suited to our country. Even the cabinet subcommittee has not yet been able to make any clarification of facts, despite its political significance. In Britain, parliament is sovereign in the sense that once elected it is not subordinate to anybody or organ until the expiry of its five year period.  British ruling circles believe that for democracy to exist the government of the People is necessary, Government for the people is possible, but the Government by the People is a patent impossibility. Thus, under the British concept of Parliamentary sovereignty, there is no role for the will of the people to play. There parliamentary sovereignty is democratic in theory and dictatorial in practise.

It is fallacious to treat the parliamentary sovereignty as an equivalent to people’s sovereignty. There parliamentary sovereignty is a phrase that conveys limitation. People are kept away from the participation of the political decision making and in the governing of the state and society. Therefore for the sake of ‘efficiency’ voters are recommended not to interfere in the activity of members of parliament and only to evaluate at a subsequent election either by re-electing the Member of Parliament or turning down his candidature. On the whole the theory and practise of parliamentary sovereignty ascribes the people the passive role of outside observer or mere onlooker. Montesquieu (French Political writer) once said the English people were free only at election time; at all other times, he said, the Government was their master.

It is not for nothing that Montesquieu made that foregoing remark. Judges in Britain, unlike in the USA cannot entertain any question as to the competence of Legislature to enact a given law. Supposing Parliament passes a Law Englishmen may be imprisoned without trial, Judge may dislike it and even consider it as being against the spirit of the Constitution, but has no right to question the validity or declare it inconsistent or unconstitutional. On the other hand Legislature can by an amendment of the law virtually override the decision of the court. From 1948 up until 1977 Sri Lanka was governed by a Parliamentary Executive based on the English Westminster model. In the late 1970’s this was what the late Mr.J.R.Jayawardena had to say referring to the power of that parliament; Our Parliament could do anything except making a man a woman and a woman a man. By a resolution passed in parliament itself in 197 Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranayake was able to extend the duration of parliament by another 2 years with no mandate from the people.  Similarly by a resolution passed in parliament late Mr. J.R. Jayawardena was able to implant in our midst the present Executive Presidency by crushing all opposition views.  What were all these acts if not usurpation of power?

Here, what is most important is that we must return, so to speak to the main stream of democratic politics and realise that the shortcut we tried in the past to build a “Dharmishta society “only led into a blind alley. Under this sovereign parliament the will of the people was suppressed. Both in the present constitution (1978) as well as in the previous constitution (1972) we found these words written; Sovereignty is in the people; it is inalienable. Nevertheless, it was never a reality in our politics. Here usurpation of power is rather the rule than the exception. Our ruling elements are least of all concerned about its real content and used it as a fiction, a screen to hide its political intrigue and ideological deception of the masses. In the absence of Direct Democratic checks like popular initiative & Recall the ruling elements have been able to usurp the power with no mandate from the people.  It all happened under a sovereign parliament.

Under the sovereignty of parliament what will the ‘Will of the People’ be like? In the first place what does it directly determine?  Apart from the exceptional use of the Referendum people act through representatives? At once their choice is limited. They normally choose between candidates whom they do not nominate; the great endeavour is not to elicit public opinion but to make it, to control it to use it. The will of the people is directed to objects which are seen through high colours of interest which may not be their own. And democracy demand far more than Universal franchise. Abraham Lincoln a past president of the USA defined Democracy in in his famous Gettysburg Speech in following terms. ‘Democracy is government by the people, of the people and for the people.’

US constitution’s greatness lies in its socio-political thoughts. It is set forth in a language intelligible to the citizen. This is what it says We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute new Government laying its foundation as such on principles and organising its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness .”

Though the socio-politic part is short it expresses three fundamental doctrines of the enlightenment: equal natural rights among Men; the social contract as the foundation for political power; the right to overthrow a despotic government by Revolution (the latter two doctrines are logically connected with the first and ensue from it, for enlighten thinkers considered the social contract and rebellion.

Switzerland is another European country that provides a better of example for Democracy. It respects its citizens. There the people have a greater say in Government. The Initiative (constitutional device) is in wide use in Switzerland. Accordingly a petition from 50000 voters is need about to bring about a national Referendum which can accept or reject any legislation which has been passed by parliament and the like of which is not possible under West-Minister model of Parliament. The Initiative gives voters in many cantons the right to propose constitutional or legislative amendments and to demand a popular vote on it. A petition by 100000 voters is needed to initiate a vote on amendment to the Constitution. Initiative is also used by the political opposition to bring about changes in Government. Under the Westminster form of sovereign parliament no such things are permitted and the ruling class govern the country by keeping its citizens at its arm’s length. Constitution is not touchable by the people. In the present context of things, democracy as obtaining in this country has no meaning to the people and the government by the people is a mere phrase only.

Let not Divinity be attached to Parliament..!

By Bandula Jayasekara  Courtesy Island

So many people came forward in Canada to help Sri Lanka. They faced the wrath of LTTE terrorists long before I went to Toronto. They were harassed, threatened. They fear for their lives. Some of them continue to fear for their lives , I am told. They never gave up. I like to refer to them as the real Sri Lankan Canadians. Among them were Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Malays and Burgher Sri Lankan Canadians. The names that come to my mind are of Ira de Silva, Asoka Weerasinghe, Mahinda Gunasekara, Daya Hettiarchchi, Noor Nizam, Hasaka Ratnamalala, Asoka Yapa, Lenin Benedict, Mithran, Menaka Karunanayake, Sivam, young Prathap Perera and Kamlesh Karunanayake and several others. We dedicated three columns to tell the world about Asoka Weerasinghe. I will write about others as I go down my Toronto Memory Lane to give them the credit and praise they deserve for standing up for Sri Lanka.

Noor Nizam contacted me from Canada soon after he had heard of my appointment and the email came to the Foreign Ministry if I remember right. He offered to help me and had even worked out a plan for me in his electorate Hamilton. He was one of the first to visit me at the Consulate Generals Office. Noor had a package to offer his motherland to build bridges. He introduced me to Conservative MP David Sweet, who went out of his way to support me and the cause of Sri Lanka. David was a gentle understanding Canadian politician. Noor helped me to arrange a very fruitful luncheon meeting with over eight politicians when foreign secretary Kohona made an official visit to Canada.

I remember how a MacMaster International Liaison Officer Ni Jadon tried to boycott my visit to the university and tarnish the image of Noor. He called it a conspiracy after Noor arranged a very good programme for me and to meet important people at the university. It failed and there was an inquiry into the conduct of Jadon. I supported Noor all the way since I had emails sent by Jadon. Noor’s name was cleared. I also heard that Ni Jadon was propped by some LTTE backers.

Noor also introduced me to a professor by the name of Alison who he had arranged to visit Sri Lanka to show the real situation. When Alison met me with Noor she spoke glowingly of her visit to Sri Lanka. However, I had certain doubts about her which was proved right no sooner one of my articles appeared in The National Post. It was in response to a side kick of the LTTE mouthpiece, Canadian Tamil Congress, David Poopalapillai. Alison was quick to send a email to Noor and another person named Rob which was forwarded to me by Noor. It read “Dear Noor and Bob, I am not sure if you are both on the Consul Generals mailing list- but, this is an article he just wrote to the Toronto Star (she had mistaken the paper) This kind of writing in Canada will inflame the Canadian Diaspora-and cause problems HERE. This is a serious problem. BJ has outright denied any human rights violations on the part of the government -then why won’t the government allow the UN to speak to the leaders of the Tamil parties? (she had mistaken leaders of Tamil parties to the LTTE) I think we need to distance ourselves from this guy. He is NOT in ANYWAY a moderate. And he is not interested in Peace for Sri Lanka. He is supporting the government’s mandate to eliminate the LTTE – and will then systematically trample the rights of Tamils in Sri Lanka. I am VERY worried about this guy and his position. – Alison”

I was right about Alison who was some sort of a she wolf in a sheep’s clothing, though Noor had trusted her. That man Noor as I like to call him was quick to hit back. He was very angry and he saw the true colours of Prof Alison. Here are excerpts of Noor’s very long email to Alison which explains it all.

I am really at a loss to understand why you have made such a hasty conclusion about BJ. I feel it is wrong for you to say that ‘He is not in any way a moderate. The most important thing is that he has shared his views/stand with us too. On the other hand you have NOT read the full article written by Manjula Selvarajah.

The fact seems very clear to me now please. The world opinion about the atrocities of the LTTE is taken for granted by world opinion the similar way in which you have concluded please. My wife’s uncle, a Minister was killed with a 5 year old child on his lap along five other extended family members in Errakkakandy. I myself had the experience of being hunted down in many instances due to my political engagements and you are aware of it as I have told you some of them. OUR VOICE HAS NEVER BEEN HEARD IN THE “NOISE” MADE TO THE WORLD MEDIA of the likes of Manjula Selvarajah over the years.

I am happy that – when a person like Bandula Jayasekara writes, the Canadian Media, for that matter, the World Press “LISTENS” and publishes the comments/REBUTTALS.

If I had read the article before BJ, I would have written a much stronger “comment” and also drawn a lot of reference to the LTTE violence that have been perpetrated against the “minority of minority TAMIL SPEAKING Muslim community in the North, and Eastern provinces since 1973. BUT THE NATIONAL POST WOULD HAVE NEVER PUBLISHED MY COMMENTS/REBUTTALS. That is how the Canadian press has been. I had written many comments in the past and they have never been published.

The BJ I know about BJ is not what you have concluded please. BJ is a journalist and knows how to “play in the playing field of Media and Journalism”. What he is – he is a great asset to Sri Lanka and the Peace Process. It is only fair to call a “spade an spade” and NOT call it something else just to please some people.

The ISSUE here is NOT who is violating HR – rather it is the violations HR done by the LTTE which is swept under the carpet by the so-called International Community and NGO’s.

Your statement –

“He is supporting the government’s mandate to eliminate the LTTE – and will then systematically trample the rights of Tamils in Sri Lanka”. is totally UNACCEPTABLE .

I know that you have a close attachment to the Canadian Tamil Congress and the article has been written by a office bearer of the CTC. But I had warned you many times of how certain Tamil Organizations within the Tamil diaspora work as “FRONT ORGANIZATION” of the LTTE. I had also made many requests to you to keep the CSIS, RCMP and the Canadian POLICE informed of any “Peace Round Table” engagements RAI is planning to organize, so that RAI and those involved should not be for a moment – doubted as supporting a “BANNED TERRORIST ORGANIZATION”. Ms. Manjula Selverajaha’s article clearly shows that the Canadian Tamil Congress is a “front organization” of the LTTE. In my opinion, BJ has responded very correctly .

But when you say “I think we need to distance ourselves from this guy” (BJ) who is the head of the Diplomatic Mission for Sri Lanka in Toronto, then I have enough room to suspect that you are also very biased to the LTTE cause. I am shocked to learn that now please.

As such, it is my opinion that RAI as a humanitarian assistance organization should NOT indulge in any “Peace Promotional” activity concerning Sri Lanka. This does not mean that you – as a person cannot do so and you are free to do what you wish to do and you have a right to your opinion too . I respect that very much indeed. In my opinion, BJ is tracking the most effective path of “Diplomacy” in respect to expose the LTTE’s violations of HR and Fundamental Rights of the Tamil Speaking Minority Community and the Nation of Sri Lanka”

Noor like many others stood by me till the end and even later came to Sri Lanka and worked here.

There was a good response to last week’s article ‘SF makes uproar . Enter, Stewart Bell’ it was based on the interview given by the then Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka to journalist of the National Post , Stewart Bell. First to respond was retired Major General, Udaya Nanayakkara, who was the military Spokesperson at the time. After I sent the link to him, Stewart Bell wrote back ” Hi, Thanks. But, You didn’t send me to Sri Lanka. That kind of wording will be used by some to attack me. Your Consulate processed my visa application and you helped with contacts in Sri Lanka. And neither did I hold anything back from my reporting on Fonseka because it would have caused a bigger uproar. I don’t know where you got that impression.”

What I have to say is Stewart is right that we processed the visa and of course I did more than helping to make contacts in Sri Lanka. Let me say went out of my way because of my respect to Stewart as a good journalist. As for the last line of his email I recall that morning when Lalith Weeratunga called me and how I called Stewart from my Young and Sheppard residence. Lalith said what I wrote last week. That is my memory though Stewart says otherwise. I would say it is a clash of memories!

by Rajan Philips Courtesy Island

December 12, 2015, 12:00 pm
It looks more like capitulation than compromise. Rather than downsizing Port City as a compromise, let alone scrapping it as it vowed it would in the now-forgotten 100-Day Program, the government has all but approved the restarting of the suspended project at its bloated 450+/- hectares off-shore footprint. News of the approval appeared almost simultaneously in Beijing and in Colombo. The Chinese authorities are pleased, and the Sri Lankan government has spelt out the ‘next steps’ in the approval process. Before long contractors will resume dredging, blasting and digging operations in the Gampaha District that would ultimately remove nearly 70 million cubic meters of sand and rock (equivalent to: one mile by one mile by 85 feet deep hole) and dump it off-shore across from the Galle Face Green. What Prime Minister Wickremesinghe deadpanned as “few landfills” is a massive dig and fill operation undertaken in one fell swoop, but for the interruption following the January 8 election.

This is rape of nature, and nature will unleash its fury in one form or another. For now, the monsoons are having fun in Colombo while devastating Chennai and Tamil Nadu. A few showers are enough to inundate Colombo’s streets and make it look like Venice in a flash. While Singapore planners are labouring to create the outlines for a future megapolis in Colombo, the rain gods are turning it into a mega-flood-polis, as Lucien Rajakarunanayake inimitably lampooned in yesterday’s Island. The impacts to marine life, the shoreline, and the dredged and excavated areas in the Gampaha District should be of huge concern. Those who highlighted these issues during the presidential election have now gone quiet under cover of their new ministerial portfolios.

Things could be done differently, a whole lot differently. Truth be told, there isn’t a whole lot difference between how things were done under the Rajapaksas and how they are being done now. Port City is prime example, but not the only example. The ratification process for Port City, as reported in the media, is no more than political window-dressing: a 1000-page Environmental Impact Assessment tome has been placed for 30-day public review ending on January 13, 2016; the public can make comments (what will come of them no one knows); the so called Technical Committee (is this the same cover-our-backsides bureaucratic contraption started in the 1980s to give collective kumbaya approval to Prime Minister Premadasa’s urban development schemes bypassing the ARs & FRs of old?) will ‘evaluate the proposal’ (so what has the EIA done?) and make recommendation to the Committee of Secretaries; from there, for the final lap of the ratification relay, Minister Champika Ranawaka will take the Final Agreement to the cabinet for approval.

“Where does the Final Agreement come from?” you ask. Oh, the Attorney General’s Department is already drafting the final lease agreement to be sent to the cabinet (no room for reservations here for the AGD, unlike in the Avant-Garde case where it needed multi-layered in-house and out-house consultations to make the ultimate non-decision). The lease agreement is reportedly expected to provide for a 99-year lease over 446 hectares of Port City. The apparently redeeming omission from the Rajapaksa deal is that the Chinese developer will not get the 20 ha freehold land he was given earlier. Politically this is quite a somersault, a wholesale betrayal of the grand promise made in the 100-day Programme one year ago. Now that the Prime Minister, sounding like Lee Kuan Yew, has started to threateningly identify sections of the population who in his view did not “contribute to the January 8 revolution”, those who know they did contribute should ask the PM as to who will take care of those who betray the promises of the January 8 revolution.

The more serious question is how will the people, the City and even the country deal with the fallouts from the Port City development and the unfolding of the future megapolis? Last week, I alluded to transportation and underground services as two major challenges that the megapolis project will have to deal with. Drainage and flooding will have to be added as a third challenge. Colombo’s flooding after rains has now become a recurrent reality of city living. What are now passing inconveniences could become major disasters if concerted preventive measures are not taken. Chennai’s recent flood disaster has been attributed to both human (reservoir management) failure to balance storage and water release and structural drawbacks (overbuilding in floodplains and destroying drainage systems). Structural drawbacks are already aplenty in Colombo and onshore and offshore developments will only multiply them.

Inspiration and Lessons from Singapore

Inasmuch as Prime Minister Wickremesinghe’s megapolis vision draws its inspiration and its planners from Singapore, there are also practical lessons that could be drawn from Singapore’s experience. Singapore learnt by trial and error in dealing with land reclamation and inland flooding. Extensive land reclamation (25% increase in total area from 581 square kilometres in 1960 to the current size of 723 square kilometres) and shoreline building led to chronic flooding in the city that became particularly significant given the island’s equatorial location and propensity for heavy convectional rainfall throughout the year. Singapore had the resources to hire experts, including expatriate Sri Lankan engineers, to identify and implement flood control solutions. Sri Lanka is in a precarious situation having abandoned the time honoured urban drainage practices that had begun during Dutch and British rules, and now aggravating it by overbuilding with no consideration for drainage management. Port City construction and other development projects will only worsen Colombo’s drainage problems. Without a drainage master plan, megapolis development will eventuate into frequent mega-flood-polis disasters.

Singapore was the role model when Sri Lanka opened its economy to free market and global trade. But in the critical area of urban transportation the Jayewardene government, instead of following Singapore’s example of public transportation, embarked on a disastrous journey of privatisation egged on by World Bank experts, who wanted to showcase Sri Lanka as a success story in privatising transport. In 1977, Sri Lanka had a reasonably good public transport system. What it needed was ‘unbundling’ and decentralization to make it more efficient and locally responsive, and not its dismantling by an uncontrolled and un-coordinated system of private buses. In 1976, one year before privatisation began in Sri Lanka, Singapore began the world’s first Area Licensing Scheme (ALS) for road pricing, charging single occupancy vehicles entering or leaving a six square kilometre area of the Central Business District. The scheme was operated by traffic watchers taking position in 34 overhead gantries. Now electronic tolling has become common practice in many countries. Within 10 years of introducing the ALS, Singapore completed the first phase of its Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system. Today, Singapore has one of the most state-of-the-art, efficient, reliable and convenient public transportation systems in the world. A key component of Singapore’s transport policy is the discouragement of private car travel especially from home to work and back. The imposition of high car registration fees and other disincentives are not a budgetary exercise but components of a transport policy regime.

It is one thing to develop a Megapolis Plan using Singaporean planners, but it is quite a different and more difficult matter to introduce and implement a public transportation system in the Western Megapolis. Implementing individual Megapolis development projects, without first launching a public transportation system will only lead to traffic congestion and gridlock. A first step would be to identify the agency who will be responsible for transportation in the Western Megapolis. Who will it be? The new Ministry of Western Megapolis? The Ministry of Transportation? The UDA? The Western Provincial Government? The Colombo Municipality or other municipal and local bodies in the Western Province? Singapore is an island City State, 100 times smaller than Sri Lanka, where national governance and municipal governance are virtually congruent. Not so in Sri Lanka, and not even in the Western Province. According to Provincial Chief Ministers, the government’s new budget did not make any allocations for the Provinces. Will the new Megapolis Ministry smother over the existing provincial and local government institutions in the Western Province? What will be their role, if any, in the unfolding of the new Megapolis?

Another key area where the Jayewardene and later Premadasa governments failed to learn from Singapore, while emulating its open economy, was in the area of housing. Publicly provided, privately owned housing is another key component of Singapore’s economic success story. As an entrepôt economy from British times, housing has been a constant problem in Singapore. From its inception in 1959, the People’s Action Party government set out to address this problem in a creative way. The Housing and Development Board (no private developer) took over the business of planning and building public housing, not for renting but ownership. Homeownership was not merely facilitated but enforced by directing employees to draw from the Central Provident Fund to pay their down payment. What began as low cost, low income housing development later evolved into upscale condominiums, but all under the auspices of the HDB. Of course, there is a private housing market in Singapore, but the PAP government knew that market by itself could not solve Singapore’s housing problem. Is there an opportunity to channel EPF/ETF funding and overseas employee remittances into homeownership development in Sri Lanka? It might be 40 years late, but still worth exploring.

Funnily enough, even today the labour strikes of the 1950s are blamed as the main reason why Sri Lanka did not become a success story the way Singapore did. But the real failure at least in the areas of urban transportation and housing began after 1977, when Sri Lankan governments, while imitating its open economy, failed to emulate the exemplary experience of Singapore in public housing and public transportation. Sri Lanka blundered in creating state corporations for industrial production, but Singapore played smart in leaving industrial production to the market while keeping housing and transportation in the public sector. What will happen in the Megapolis?

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග

මාතලේ රෝහලේදී සීමාවාසික වෛද්‍යවරු සාදයක් සූදානම් කලහ. මේ සඳහා ඩිස්කෝ ලයිට් අවශ්‍ය බව සමහර වෛද්‍යවරියන් කී නිසා ලයිට් බාස් කෙනෙකුට කියා පාට බල්බ් වැලක්ද එල්ලුවෙමු. ලයිට් බාස් රෝහලේ ලයිට් වැඩද කලේය​. ඔහු කඩුගන්නාව පැත්තේ අයෙකි. මැදි වයසේ සිටි බොනපාට් කෙනෙකි. ඔහු නිතරම සිටියේ බීමත්වය.

ඔහු සාදය ආරම්භ වන තෙක් ලයිට් වැල් අදිමින් අපට උදව් කල නිසා වෛද්‍ය සුජීව දහනායක විස්කි ටිකක් අසෝක වීදුරුවකට වත් කොට  ඔහුට දුන්නේය​. කලින්ම බඩේ තිබූ හැලි අරක්කු උඩට විස්කි ඉතා හොඳ බව සිතූ ඔහු එය එක පහරින් ගිල දමා කෙල පාරක් ගසා සර් තව ශොට් එකක් යැයි කීය​. මේ නිසා සුජීව ඔහුට තවත් විස්කි වීදුරු භාගයක් දුන්නේය​. ඉන් පැය භාගයකට පමණ පසු ඔහු යලිත් යාප්පු වී වෙනත් සීමාවාසී වෛද්‍යවරයෙකුගෙන් තවත් කාලක් ලබා ගන්නා ලදි.

මේ වන විට මඳක් අඳුර වැටී සාදය පටන් ගෙන තිබුනි. රිද්මය සහිත ඩිස්කෝ සංගීතයට වෛද්‍යවරියන් කිහිප දෙනෙකු ඩාන්ස් කරමින් සිටියහ​. මේ අස්සේ පදමට වැදී සිටි ලයිට් බාස් ඔවුන් අතරට වැදී තම සරම මඳක් දණහිස ලඟට ගෙන අමුතු අන්දමේ ඩිස්කෝ නැටුමක් දමමින් සිටියේය​. සාදයට පැමිණ සිටි විශේසඥ වෛද්‍යවරු අන්දමන්ද වී සිටියහ​.

මේ විකාර බලමින් ලයිට් බාස් ගෙන් මිදෙන්නේ කෙසේද යැයි අප දහ අතේ කල්පනා කරමින්   සිටින විට පේරාදෙනිය වෛද්‍ය පීඨයේ දුලිප් මෙන්ඩිස් ලෙස හඳුන්වන ධම්මික රත්නායක ආවේය.​අප ධම්මිකට අපේ ගැටළුව කීවෙමු. හරි අපි මේකට වැඩක් කරමු ඔහු කීවේය​.

ධම්මික ලයිට් බාස්ට බෝතල පෙන්වා අතින් සන් කලේය. නටමින් සිටි ලයිට් බාස් වහාම ධම්මික වෙත දිව ආවේ තවත් විස්කි පාරක් අපේක්‍ෂාවෙනි.

” බාසුන්නැහැ”  ධම්මික ඔහුව ඇමතුවේය​. “අපිට බෝතල් ටිකක් මදි පොඩ්ඩක් මේ මහත්තයෙක් එක්ක වාහනේ ගිහිල්ලා බෝතල් ටිකක් ගේනවද ?”

ඔහු එක පයින් එයට එකඟ විය​. අපගේ වෛද්‍යවරු දෙදෙනෙක් ලයිට් බාස්ව වාහනයක දමාගෙන මාතලේ අලුවිහාරේ පැත්තට ගියහ​. ඉන් පසු එක් නිවසක් පෙන්වා එම නිවසට යන ලෙසත් එම නිවසට ගිය විට විස්කි බෝතල් තුනක් ලැබෙනු ඇති බවත් ඒවා වාහනය වෙත ගෙන එන ලෙසත් කීවේය​.

ලයිට් බාස් වෙරි මරගාතෙන් අදාල නිවස දෙසට ගියේය​. ඒ අතරවාරයේ දොස්තරලා දෙන්නා වාහනය පණ ගන්වාගෙන හිමින් සීරුවේ යළි රෝහල වෙත පැමිණ සාදයට එක් වූහ​. ඉන්පසු ලයිට් බාස්ගේ කරච්චලයෙන් තොරව සාදය මධ්‍යම රාත්‍රිය වෙන තෙක් පවත්වන ලදි.

පසුදා මටත් සුජීවටත් ලයිට් බාස් ඕවසියර් කාමරය අසල මුණ ගැසුනි.

“අර මහත්තුරු දෙන්නා මට කොලොප්පමක් නේ කරලා තියෙන්නෙ “ඔහු කීවේය​.

“ඇයි බාසුන්නැහැ මොකද උනේ ? අපි අැසුවෙමු.

“මට විස්කි බෝතල් ගේන්න කියලා මාව යවලා තියෙන්නෙ ඇලික් අලුවිහාරේ මහත්තයගෙ බංගලාවටනේ” ලයිට් බාස් කීවේය.

අප දෙදෙනා සිනහ තද කර ගනිමින් වාට්ටුවට ගියෙමු.

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග