Dr. Sudath Gunasekara Mahanuwara 11.9.2015.

Continued Part 11

12.9.2015 Lannkaweb

In my previous article I have already discussed the blunders done by Mahinda Rajapaksa and his cohort before and even after the Presidential election. The purpose of this essay is to ask these people as to why they are sleeping while the present regime is violating the Constitution of the Republic with impunity. Now that after the 19^th A Presidents immunity is no more, I am surprised as to why they don’t take action against all those who have breached the Constitution with stark nude for political expediency and made democracy a big mockery in this country.

All that is now done and dusted.  As the famous Sinhala adage goes ‘giya nuwana alin lavawath addanta be’. Therefore it is their duty by the 4.7 million patriotic people who voted them, and now disfranchised by President Sirisena by appointing Sambandan as Opposition Leader, to tender an open apology to them and take remedial measures at least now to relieve their frustration and pain of mind, lest they revolt against you stupid people. As any prudent man or even an idiot with a wee bit of mind would see it the best way now open for you or someone who wishes to do so is, to invoke the courts against all those culprits who are responsible for the following blunders. That is the only way available to bring justice and fair play by the 4.7 m people of this country who voted you with such high hopes to get this Pinbima liberated from the anti-Sri Lankan and anti-Sinhala clutches of western imperial remnants and their domestic agents

The following 15 instances, in chronological order, could be cited as cases of violating the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka since 8^th Jan 2015. They need to be rectified firstly to seek justice by the aggrieved parties. Secondly, to prevent violators going scotch free with impunity. Thirdly, to arrest these type of illegal decisions being taken in future. Fourthly, to prevent them being ugly and irreversible precedents and finally, to prevent this country being reduced to a banana republic of ignoble and uncivilized idiots who doesn’t know the ABCD of the rule of Law.

1 Re appointing of Shirani Bandaranayaka as CJ

2 Removal of the CJ Mohan Pieris just with a letter from the President’s Office

3 Appointing a New Prime Minister without a vacancy in the post of PM on Janu 8^th 2015

4 Appointing Ranil Wickramasinha as the PM on 8^th Jan through the back door

5 Appointing Nimal Siripala de Silva as Leader of the Opposition violating the procedure

6 Allowing National Anthem to be sung in Tamil

7 Appointing 9 men rejected by the people at elections to Parliament via national list

8 Accepting TNA as the Opposition in Parliament when there is a bigger group other than the TNA

9 Accepting TNA as the Opposition when they have openly violated the 6^th A and asking for Federalism, agitating for a separate State, remerging North and East and calling for Self determination.

10 Accepting Sambandan an avowed Separatist, EELAMIST and a Federalist and an ardent Tamil communalist who does not command the majority in Parliament as the Leader of the Opposition

11 Appointing Sambandan a Tamil, as the Leader of the Opposition by passing the legitimate and democratic procedure and violating the Constitution without realizing the damage done by Amirtalingama as the Leader of Opposition last time (1977-)

12 Violating the Election Law by My3

1. Removing the Secretary Generals of SLFP and UPFA just before the election
2. Writing a letter to MR  at the 11^th hour that had a tremendous negative impact on the electorate by confusing public opinion

13 Appointing two new Sec General to UPFA and SLFP.

14 For betraying the SLFP and UPFA by publicly declaring that he will never appoint MR as PM (His own Party’s nominee) even if he wins the elections.

15 Appointing Sambandan and thereby disenfranchising 4.7 m voters who voted against the Common candidate.

MR should Leave the Chandrika-Maitri trap at least now

As a patriot who love my country and the Sinahala Nation I appeal to MR to leave this Chandrika/My3/ vicious political circle immediately at least now with all his followers elected (whatever left before more frogs could jump), with people like DEW, Vitarana, GLP, Dinesh, Weerawansa and Gammanpila before he is finally sent to the guillotine or to a sausages factory close by.

Had he listened to the advice to do so by my good friend Prof Nalin de Silva before elections the story of the present Parliament would have been entirely different. He dint listen to good counseling for which he is paying back now with compound interest. At least now he should try to be sensible to listen to good counseling because the nation needs a man or woman of his caliber either a man or an iron woman to rescue and protect this 2500 year old heritage and the victory of 2009, ere it is lost in the Indian Ocean forever.  Because reconciliation with this party will never work. I would like to remind him the story of the fox that followed a goat for days hoping that something will fall at any time but never happened. Finally you know what happened. Again I would like to remind you the advice given by Nalin not to trust My3. He will never change. He has proved by now beyond all reasonable doubt that he is more a Vaireepaala than a Maitreepala. MR and all his followers should have understood this long time ago, if they had closely followed what My3 had been saying ever since he won the elections. Just think of what happened to Ven Sobita Thera the ‘Nandimitra’ of Jan 8^th battle who strived so hard to bring the common man to power.

Dear MR you must at least now realize that no one in this world knows everything, except Lord Buddha and no Leader in world history had won a battle or a war without being advised by an eminent adviser. Those who know history will tell you that Kurushestra war would never have been won by Arjuna if not for Krishna; Vedeha would never have won over Miyumlunuwara if not for Mahushada. Chandragupta would never have defeated Dhana Nanda and installed Chandragupta Dynasty, the forerunner of the Mauriya Empire if not for Kautilya. This is why all Kings of yore always had a set of eminent Purohitas lead by an Agrapurohita, not to be confused with the present day Presidential advisors.

Episode  11

Main Actor Maitripala Sirisena the President.

Mr. President Your visiting Sampoor, releasing some lands to Tamils and even closing down Omanthe check point is not bad. But at the same time why don’t you resettle the Sinhalese and Muslims who were chase out from their villages in the North, NW and East with the same enthusiasm. Surely they too would have voted you had they been alive in those areas.  If you do it now definitely they will vote you in 2020.

Thanks to you and having crowned by default as the Leader of Opposition Sambandan and his communal gang will definitely work forward relentlessly day and night now, to get the government to commit to grant their demands in their election manifesto for making you the Presidident.

විරුද්ධ පක්‍ෂයේ නායකකමට පත්කර තිබෙන පක්‍ෂයේ චන්ද ප්‍රකාශනයේ තියෙන කරුණු 4  කුමක්ද?

(1) දෙමළ ජනතාවට ස්වයංපාලන අයිතිය ඇත  Right of self determination for Tamils

(2) උතුරු නැඟෙනහිර පලාත් දෙක එක් කල යුතුය North and Eastern Provinces should be merged

(3) ඒකීය වෙනුවට පෙඩරල් ක්‍රමයක් ඇතිකල යුතුය Federal system instead of unitary system

(4) යුද අපරාධ ගැන ජාත්‍යන්තර විමර්‍ශනයක් කල යුතුය.There should be an International inquiry on war crimes

That is the time where President is going to get bogged. If he doesn’t agree then Sambandan will go to India UK and USA and get them to give a direction to Ranil and President. They have only two options in this game. That is either agree or disagree’ If they disagree then they will have to face the consequences. I for one strongly believe both will agree and take the first option and continue to be the President and PM in the rest of the country until the Hill Country is also attached to the North-East EELAM as a consequence of the ongoing 10 year Tamil village development programme deployed by this government

Lankaweb Weekly Editorial
September 12th 2015

The dust has hardly settled but the The Tamil National Alliance (TNA)  once an open arm of the LTTE says” they will be sending a lawyers’ team to the forthcoming session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva” at which the UN Human Rights High Commissioner’s report on war crimes allegedly committed in Sri Lanka is to be presented and acted upon.

Given the fact that the TNA now heads the official opposition in Parliament ( something of an irony as well as controversial at best from a Sinhala perspective) to resort to such actions comprising of opposition to Sri Lankan Government policy is not a part of their mandate and neither is it in keeping with the allegiance they took making hollow sounds to the effect that they will make every endeavour to support the policies of the present government, yet at the first available opportunity are preparing to oppose the Government at the forthcomimg UNHRC summit in Geneva.
So what does this indicate beyond being a bunch of hypocrites who have always been panderers to their secessionist policies and its supportives where their main objective if one reads between the lines seems to point to that repulsive subject of Eelam and as long as they are around are bound to persist in attempting to acheive it which the present Government needs to be wary of.

These are times when both the UN as well as the USA amongst others appear to be leaning in favour of the issue of alleged war crimes being an internal domestic matter requiring an internal investigation and no more and the TNA in choosing to meddle in related matters has indicated their objectives of contributing in a very negative manner towards related proceedings which is a blatant attempt to contradict Government policy whilst pretending to want to co-operate with the present Government.

Here it needs to be said  somewhat whistfully and with gratitude that the previous Government of Mahinda Rajapaksa neither tolerated nor gave any leeway to TNA demands based on the cognizance of their collusion with the LTTE and now that scenario seems to have changed with the new government showing  tolerance of the TNA which could prove disastrous and have dire ramifications for the majority Sinhala Nation in the long term as the TNA could easily misuse this to their advantage in their inimitable style of attempting at every given opportunity to throw a spanner in the works of a smooth functioning Government having gained access to the opposition core of Parliament whether deservedly or not.

It seems high handed on the part of the TNA  to contemplate sending a  team headed by Supreme Court Senior Counsel, M.A.Sumanthiran, who is also a fellow MP from Jaffna, to the UNHCR proceeding which does not augur well for the Government  of Sri Lanka and as a matter of fact could hamper proceedings in disfavour of Sri Lanka as old skeletons from old closets will once again undoubtedly surface unnecxessarily and where the onus of the issue of war crimes rests heavily on the LTTE rather than the GOSL and the armed forces who realistically protected civilians during the LTTE onslaught.

Thus in essence the hogwash  proclaimed by the TNA in this respect that.

A TNA delegation, as such, might be sent after reading the High Commissioner’s report and the Sri Lankan government’s response to it. The task of Sumanthiran and his team of lawyers will be to examine the High Commissioner’s report and the Lankan government’s reply, and chalk out a line on which the TNA leadership will base its final decision,”  is neither in keeping with the porotocols of the UNHCR nor is it acceptable as the TNA have too many conflicts of interest as well as their blatant bias which shows against a Government which could easily have denied them the status of the leading opposition party as there are indications that proper procedure may not have been followed and may have been a mere conciliatory gesture to appease sources that may have demanded such a concession which is now turning out to be a Governmental faux pas.

It also seems an obstreperous statement  that TNA’ chief, R.Sampanthan,has said that his party’s stand on the UNHRC’s proceedings on Lanka will be based on the Tamils’ sentiments as well as the views of the International Community. with no consideration for Sinhala sentiment or the mood of the country while ramblng on that

While we have to go by the peoples’ sentiments, we cannot alienate the international community,” he said. and to use the international community towards the objectives of the TNA being somewhat of a joke.where he may have been better served had he cited the Tamil diaspora instead!

While he says that “there is an overwhelming demand from the Tamils that the TNA should reject the US-Lankan agreement to substitute the international investigation with a domestic probe” there is an equally intense or greater demand from the majority Sinhalese both locally and globally and their support from other minorities that an internal investigation not involving foreign adjudicators is sufficient and endorsed by sources that really matter beyond the TNA voices in the wilderness!

The Tamil sensationalism as usual continues where a certain. M.K.Shivajilingam, a TNA member of the Northern Provincial Council is currently leading a march from Kilinochchi to Jaffna seeking an international probe and an international judicial mechanism for the trial of the accused.

But the TNA’s leadership feels diffident about alienating the US and the Western world which also dominate the UNHRC which is what will surely be the only outcome of all the turbulence  the TNA are attempting to create and perhaps will be their undoing.They need to proceed with extreme caution in their best interests as well as that of Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka News

National Movement for Social Justice (NMSJ) Leader the Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera today reiterated his call to reduce the number of ministers in the new government calling it a massive burden on the tax paying public.

Appointing a large number of ministers is a payoff” and a farce, a visibly agitated Sobitha Thera who was in the forefront in galvanizing the civil society movement to bring down the former regime and usher social and economic reforms said .
Severely criticizing the move to appoint a large number of ministers for the purpose of accommodating a ‘National Government‘, the Thera said that those who criticised former President Mahinda Rajapaksa for appointing an unreasonable number of ministers was treading the same path in a shameless manner.
The so-called National Government” the Thera said had mastered the art of appointing ministers to such an extent in a short span of time even going on to eclipse Rajapaksa.

If this continues soon we will see all 225 parliamentarians become ministers” he added.
In the face of a large number of ministers been appointed the Thera said the 19th Amendment too has become a farce as it had specified that the government should not exceed 30 when it came to appointing cabinet ministers.

The case put forward by the present rulers that the 19A has not specified the exact number of ministers in case of a ‘National Government’ does not hold water as they cannot use the term National Government” as it does not have the support of all the parties in parliament” he added.
Meanwhile, according to government sources two more cabinet ministers and 5 deputy and state ministers will be appointed to further bolster the existing numbers.

So far the government has appointed 46 cabinet ministers and 40 deputy and state ministers.

Shenali D Waduge

Benjamin Dix has resurfaced in the newest anonymously funded C4 video prepared especially for the UNHRC sessions against Sri Lanka.

Benjamin Dix is the chief protagonist in promoting presumed wrongs committed by the armed forces of Sri Lanka and emerges every time there an international event using documentaries and films meant to devalue Sri Lanka’s military achievement – we have become accustomed to these theatrics just as we are well aware that the lady in charge of human rights impatiently awaits an incident to take place to issue a deregulatory statement against Sri Lanka. Dix spoke in 2012 as guest speaker on photographic journalism” at the Institute of Art and Ideas http://iai.tv/video/the-killing-fields and based on this presentation some lies and truths are now highlighted.

I went to Sri Lanka in 2004 as a photojournalist and managed to get up to the North of Sri Lanka which is the liberation of tamil tiger elam area in the North where I started working for the United Nations”

Benjamin Dix started as a Photographer for Berg Publishers (2002 – worked for 10months). He came to Sri Lanka from India in 2004 after the tsunami and went to Sri Lanka’s north. He joined Norwegian People’s Aid and worked as Project Manager from March 2005 to December 2006. NPA is an organization that is accused of links to Sudanese rebels. He joined the UN in January 2007 until December 2008. He is putting 22months of his knowledge to accuse Sri Lanka of war crimes.

I was based there for 4 years as the liason officer between the Tamil tigers and the Sri Lankan Government”.

Can the Government and the UN please confirm this statement because he does not appear in any of the names associated with the negotiations held between LTTE and GOSL and moreover many questions surfaces with regard to this role.

It’s a divided country. In the South you have the Buddhist Sinhalese who are also the Government of the country”

Perhaps Benjamin Dix is not aware that there are more Tamils living outside the North and amongst the Sinhalese.

Benjamin Dix should also look at Sri Lanka’s Government MPs and count the number of Tamil and Muslim MPs before making inaccurate statements.

North and the East predominantly Tamil”

Benjamin Dix is also unaware that the 2 provinces are now demerged and the Tamils no longer are the majority in the East.

It was the most impoverished district of the country”

The areas held by the LTTE were out of bounds for the GOSL and its military.

Inspite of LTTE making USD300m profits annually not a cent went towards uplifting the areas that they held within their control though that money was utilized to purchase arms and build sophisticated bunkers for the LTTE and homes for the LTTE families – this bit of information Benjamin Dix appears to leave out – which is confirmed by his statement. Kilinochchi where the UN was based and where LTTE had its political and military headquarters and by far the most built up area”

It was quite a vulnerable population” – at least he has said one thing right, because that was what LTTE tapped into and why the people feared to do anything against the LTTE for fear of their lives and that of their children. LTTE imposed taxes on all goods passing LTTE controlled areas, individual households were taxed and penalties were imposed on those who evaded payment. There was an LTTE ‘customs” located at Omanthai from which LTTE collected Rs.4-5m. Benjamin Dix was well aware of this – is his concern then for the Tamil people who were being illegally taxed? Tamil farmers had to pay taxes according to produce, even Tamil Government employees had to pay tax of 8% of their income. Then the fishermen that Benjamin Dix spoke of whose livelihoods were affected because of the conflict, well they had to pay Rs.5 per kill for transporting fish from Mannar to Colombo! Ltte had a more sophisticated network to collect money from Tamil businessmen based in Colombo and from the Diaspora.

 no electricity in the area”  

How can a Government take care of its people when LTTE was running a defacto state disallowing Government or troops to enter these areas.

Moreover, the LTTE did not want the people to have electricity or television because it would have meant the LTTE’s atrocities would have been exposed. The LTTE chose to keep the people blind to their atrocities. Moreover the LTTE had blown up the power grids. These are now being restored and Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu areas that had 0% electricity in May 2009 now have 29% and 23% respectively.

people had no links to the country”

Sri Lanka remains the only government that never stopped sending food, medical requirements and essential goods to the areas of the northern and eastern peninsula through the past 3 decades. If people had no links it was because the LTTE attempted to keep the people by force. The Tamil politicians have been fooling the people all through. The very MPs representing the TNA once claimed that LTTE was the sole representative of the Tamil people. The people with time will realize how the politicians have fooled the people just like the LTTE.

Today, the people of the North can freely travel throughout the country – there are no bombs. The former LTTE cadres are now employed and doing all that they were denied because the LTTE turned them into killers.

Ideally, the plight of these children whose formative years were held to ransom and women who could have done far more out of their lives than be turned into killers is what people like Benjamin Dix and Channel 4 should have made a documentary on – not the lies that are being relayed just to suit the sponsors.

from the beginning of 2007 a new President came into power, Mahinda Rajapakse a Sinhalese nationalist in the South in Colombo and he came on this wave of crushing tamil tigers and crushing terrorism”

Firstly Mahinda Rajapakse did not come into power in 2007, it was on 17 Nov 2005.

Mahinda Rajapakse was elected President of Sri Lanka and not the South only.

Benjamin Dix may have been a good friend of a terrorist organization but a terrorist organization is one that kills innocent people and after 30 years suffering and over 5 peace offerings and negotiations all of which the LTTE turned down, the decision to military take on the LTTE was when it closed the sluice gates in Mavil Aru.

The LTTE closed the sluice gates in July 2006 and only after numerous appeals did the army receive orders to open the sluice gates in August 2006.

Closure of the sluice gates meant that 9510 Muslims, 8013 Sinhalese and 4439 Tamils living in 20 villages did not have water for livelihood and domestic use.

Before the military operation the LTTE dominated an area of 15,000sq.km in the north and eastern provinces of Sri Lanka.

LTTE was controlling 6792sq km & manning 11km long FDL from Kilaly to Nagarkovil via Muhamallai in the North & a 140km long FDL from Mannar to Kokkuthuduwai via Omanthai in the South.

It was in March 2007 that the land operations commenced in the Northern province

on the border they started an almost badminton match….artillery going backwards and forwards”

Benjamin gives himself away in this statement because he confirms that the LTTE was firing artillery.

army would put wayside bombs called claymore”

Another fictitious statement, the majority of claymore mines used was by the LTTE

The army cleared all landmines with the assistance of foreign land mine teams.

they got international fame when they killed the Indian President in 1990”.

Benjamin Dix needs to update his general knowledge. Rajiv Gandhi at the time of his death was the FORMER Indian Prime Minister (not the President) and he was killed in 1991 May 21 to be precise not 1990.

the distinction between the Tamil tigers and the Tamil civilians were blurred and it was difficult for us as the UN and for the army to distinguish between who was a rebel and who was a civilian”

The LTTE when it suited them wore military attire and posed as civilians too

Many would recall how some LTTE mingled with civilians coming to Government controlled areas and blew themselves up killing not only military personnel attending Tamil civilians providing them food and medical aid but Tamil civilians too. (Vishwamadu – 9 Feb 2009)

the mother became a sympathizer for the rebels by having a daughter for a rebel”

This statement is poignant and leaving aside the laws of international laws related to non-international armed conflicts and role of civilians, the people must think how a military should act when the rebels not only pose as civilians when it suits them and use their knowledge of military codes against the soldiers. Whose conduct is morally wrong?

tiger girls in the bunkers doing their hair in the morning” – together with his description of Prabakaran showing his cadres Bollywood movies depicts that Benjamin Dix was privy to where LTTE had their bunkers, had close links with the LTTE female cadres which really goes to show where his allegiance was. LTTE was a terrorist organization. It is not the duty of humanitarian organizations to be taking sides but to take the side of the humanitarian disaster – in this light is it now the duty of these humanitarian workers to at least inform their head offices what the LTTE were doing in terms of how they recruited children and turned women to killers?

training behind the battlefields in the jungles….training with the artillery…this is tigers putting landmines into the ground on the front lines….and the claymores where someone will hide in the bush and pull ” – didn’t Dix say earlier that the army was responsible for putting landmines!!!

His description of how the LTTE suicide boats operate is also noteworthy and shows how well he knew of the details.

Kilinochchi the capital of the tigers. This is our UN office on the other side of the hedge… this was a civilian compound…but the tigers had moved the civilians out (unknown to us”UN”) and put one of their intelligence units in their office and that was bombed by the SL Govt”….”the tigers were using us (UN) as shields and under international law gives the Sri Lanka legitimate rights to bomb the area”

This is an absolute lie as crater investigation has revealed that it was the LTTE who was in Kilinochchi at the time that the UN was evacuating who had bombed not the UN compound but an area close to it.

Hypothetically if 10 to 15 air attacks per day as Dix mentions did not hit the UN office or injure any of its officers including Dix that shows that Sri Lanka’s air force was never involved in indiscriminate bombing

Dix also says that they knew that the LTTE would loot their generators and scaffolding, we know that 40 vehicles belonging to the Norwegian Peoples Aid fell” into LTTE hands as well similarly LTTE would have been privy to much more.

Casualties started to arise in early 2008….mass graves started to appear in the jungles”

Can Dix please tell us where these jungle mass graves are since he is so conversant in the jungle areas

Kilinochchi – came under GOSL control only 2^nd January 2009 (by that time Dix was no longer in Sri Lanka). Kilinochchi was under LTTE control when the UN was told to move to safer locations (not evacuate). Thus when the film of supposed children begging UN officers to remain was taken, LTTE was very much present. It is left for the reader to imagine how such a film would have taken place under LTTE presence!

 On 17^th August 2008 the tigers put out a letter to the population saying we now officially going out to war”

It was after the LTTE bombed close to the UN compound in Kilinochchi that the Government asked the UN and other international agencies to RELOCATE to safer areas and not EVACUATE

Govt stopped us from importing materials we needed to make the bunkers …like concrete..like railway tracks” – how on earth can bunkers be built with materials like railway tracks!!

Benjamin Dix’s implication that the Tamil civilians were not provided food and that supplies to hospitals were affected is negated by these facts.

* January 2008-May 2009 58,393 metric tons of essential items were sent to Killinochchi and Mullaithivu districts in addition to 33,383 metric tons supplied to co-operative outlets during 2008 up to January 2009

* Every month, five to 600,000 litres of fuel was sent to each district despite fear that it may fall into LTTE hands.

* 900 government health staff in Mullaithivu and Killinochchi alone

* More than 20 litres of water per person per day was delivered and used.

* 175,000 personnel of the SLA have undergone local & international training to effectively be mentally & physically prepared to handle hostage rescue operations alongside a military operation against terrorism.

Yet LTTE attacked even the UN convoy carrying food and thereafter the military continued the supplies by sea. The numbers were purposely inflated so that the LTTE could stock the foods and essential items sent. Therefore, Sri Lanka becomes the only nation that continued to supply food, medicine and essential items despite knowing it may fall into LTTE hands but upholding its duty towards the citizens.

one of the saddest pictures I took…became like many of the schools because of the children been taken by the tigers to fight”

If this is one of the saddest pictures why has Benjamin Dix not got Channel 4 to do a documentary of the LTTE’s forcible recruitment of children if as he says education is everything to these people” and knowing that the LTTE was turning them into killers and denying them education or the joy of being with their parents and siblings?

Children grabbed from their homes, while studying and forcibly turned into killers all of which Dix and his colleagues would have seen as Dix himself is aware of the training camps in the jungles and that schools are empty as was told by his friend Pillai. Young females turned into suicide bombers or ordered to carryout suicide missions did Dix and others not care about the futures of these women? So please, enough of these double standards and emotional pep talks.

UNICEF has recorded 5956 abductions carried out by the LTTE for forced recruitment between January 2002 and December 2006, with 1012 of these being children under the age of 15 years

education became impossible” – now that has changed not only are there over 900 schools now functioning there is a student population of 260,582 with 13.967 teachers. No one is kidnapping children to make into killers and suicide cadres now!

 my job was to work with the tigers and understand where they were going to do their fighting and where we could move 3-400,000 civilians”

– If the safety of the civilians was priority (not that of the LTTE) why did Benjamin Dix not secure their release from LTTE. The world cannot forget these civilians were being dragged from one end to the other not by the armed forces but the LTTE. Why did the LTTE not listen to these humanitarian agencies or did these agencies not insist on their release?

Yes the UN failed Sri Lanka’s 20m by siding with a terrorist movement and allowing Sri Lanka’s conflict to continue for 3 decades.

this lady’s husband had been taken by the tigers to fight… if your fighting age is anything between 17 and 40 you are going to the front line to fight” – so do we classify these civilian fighters as civilians” or civilian combatants”.

You’re our witness” – another poignant statement because Benjamin Dix alongside a host of other UN, INGO, NGO officers were working and living in Sri Lanka’s northern and eastern areas were witness to a host of crimes that the LTTE were committing all of which were not humanitarian” and we demand to know what they did about these crimes because they should be standing trial for diminishing their role as humanitarian workers taking the side of a militant group over the Tamil civilians who were used and abused by the LTTE.

people were barricading us in and begging us not to leave and through that 4 day period and tigers were moving their hard ware and artillery around….”

This clearly shows that the LTTE orchestrated these demonstrations because they were very much around the UN compound and amongst the UN officers

That there was no aerial bombing during the clipping of supposed demonstration outside the gates of the UN compound goes to show that on the 16^th September 2008 the UN and LTTE were very much in Kilinochchi

40,000” civililans were killed” – can Dix kindly prove this number…. It seems he is always talking in figures that somehow does not fit in with the actual total population of Tamils in Sri Lanka and that population is 2.4million of which 1million are overseas and if one spends a bit of time doing some calculations it is really impossible to believe the 400,000 or 500,000 figures that these former officers enjoy throwing into the air as if they personally counted them!

when you remove the witness, when you don’t allow journalism the depths of war … but Sri Lanka was so much worse than Libya… its really bad”.

We are happy to do without witnesses” who are one-sided and as for journalists we can say that numerous private tv stations including foreign were allowed to move with the troops to witness every stage of the conflict and none of them have said anything that remotely shows us that our soldiers were committing any crimes, Dix can summarize all his fictions in a book and sell like Weiss. The people of Sri Lanka will remain indebted to our forces no matter what

Dix is implying in the closing lines of his presentation that since the army did not know who was a civilian and who was LTTE, loosing thousands of civilians did not matter and that the army would not have to deal with them post-conflict – yet he forgets that 294,000 civilians were actually saved at the cost of 5000 military lives during the last stages of the war. If orders were clearly to fire at anything that moved as the US soldiers had been ordered to do in Vietnam then none in Sri Lanka’s military would have lost their lives nor would there be 11770 LTTE combatants. The GOSL has spent Rs.500million to rehabilitate and reintegrate to society – now save a handful they have either continued studied, engaged in a livelihood, taking to vocations like modeling and dressmaking, joined the security services, functioning as teachers and some are even playing for the national team in sports..…we are far more intelligent than to buy these lies.

A democratic Government has every right to protect the sovereignty of its country especially from terrorists and let’s not forget that having listened to the formulas provided by the West and its humanitarian agencies which could not stop the LTTE’s mission to kill civilians and only after 30 years of enduring terror that Sri Lanka’s military defeated the LTTE – that should be nothing Sri Lanka deserves to be punished for – especially when the very countries pushing for punishment have failed to deal with terrorism and their crimes against humanity goes unpunished or even investigated and the lady in charge of human rights cares not to waste a letterhead on them! We will not allow our soldiers to be humiliated with lies and fabrications because they remain the only military to have eliminated a terrorist movement while saving hundreds of thousands of civilians and thereafter designing an indigenous rehabilitation and reintegration program that no country can match. It may not be perfect but it still far superior to what other countries are unable to match because they are still battling terrorism.

Shenali D Waduge

By Shelton A. Gunaratne

(11 September 2015)

Professor of communication emeritus, MSUM, and lead author of Mindful Journalism and News Ethics in the Digital Era: A Buddhist Approach (New York: Routledge, 2015)

MOORHEAD, MN — Considering the rapid flux of political imponderables in Sri Lanka over the last few weeks, I shall strictly follow Buddha’s insight on the three marks of cyclic existence (samsara) — dukkha (unsatisfactoriness), anatta (no-selfness), and anicca (inconstancy) — implicit in his Four Noble Truths to assess the positives and negatives of the current situation to see whether the country is following the Buddhist Middle Path (magga).

The magga is consistent with the Confucian doctrine of the mean centered on cultivating human-heartedness judged in terms of a cluster of related moral terms including the Five Relationships, the principle of reciprocity (the Golden Rule), and various forms of virtue;

 and also with the Aristotelian golden mean or the desirable middle between two extremes, one of excess and the other of deficiency.

The power of Buddhist phenomenology lies in a person’s ability to verify the Four Noble Truths through his/her own psychophysical mechanism of concentration (samadhi) — a subjective approach in contrast to objective methods required by science. People who understand the nitty-gritty of Buddhism use samadhi to ascertain the truth of the three marks of cyclic existence, which form the vicious circle of feeding on one another to make samsara the equivalent of dukkha.

The most recent political events in Sri Lanka reinforce my suspicion that most politicians do not understand the crux of Buddhism though they claim to preserve it from the threats of Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. They do not appear to practice the principles of Buddhism. They use Buddhism as a convenient platform because of their craving and attachment for political power and material benefits. Such politicians invariably violate even the basic five precepts — not harming others, not lying, not stealing, non-adultery, and non-intoxication — let alone the other principles of the Middle Path. These are ethical/moral principles that Buddhism shares with other major world religions.

Buddhists believe that all sentient beings are composites of the Five Aggregates — physical form (kaya), feelings (vedana), perception (sanna), dispositions (sankhara), and consciousness (vinnana). The dependent co-origination (paticca samuppada) paradigm explains the dynamics of how these interdependent and interconnected aggregates continuously interact with one another to condition the level of dukkha as reflected in one’s becoming (bhava), birth (jati), decay and death (jaramarana) during each rotation of his/her bhavacakra  (wheel of becoming).  

Thus Buddhist phenomenology has convincingly proved that cyclic existence and unsatisfactoriness are one and the same — a truth that science is incapable of proving or disproving through its empirical methods. Both Buddhism and Hinduism agree that one has to extricate oneself from samsara to free oneself from unsatisfactoriness by attaining nibbana (the state of non-existence or non-becoming for Buddhists) or moksha (the state of one’s self/soul wit0h the Brahman’s). Both religions trace unsatisfactoriness to craving, attachment and related factors associated with ignorance.

However, most politicians in Sri Lanka apparently want to save Buddhism with no semblance of decreasing their craving and attachment. I have taken the trouble to acquaint the reader, as well as our politicians, on the crux of  Buddhism, which requires people to adopt its eightfold magga to discard the inevitable  state of unsatisfactoriness                                                              in cyclic existence until  they attain the supreme happiness of non-existence. In my view,                        Pope Francis, who wrote the 2015 encyclical on climate change, is a better practitioner of Buddhism than many monks and politicians in  Sri Lanka. In the light of the foregoing analysis, I have selected the following newsmakers in Sri Lanka for this week’s Prairie awards:
PRAIRIE ROSES: To President Sirisena for his inaugural address to parliament in which he reiterated his government’s  commitment to good governance, national reconciliation, eradication of corruption, a compassionate and egalitarian society and environment protection” (Sunday Times, 6    Sept. 2015).

The president has clarified that he is preparing the agenda of his government of consensus based on the foundation of his presidential election manifesto, ‘A compassionate governance, a stable country’ already approved by the people. Moreover, he has said that he will use that foundation to build on the plans and programs envisaged in the UNP’s manifesto ‘A New Country in 60 Months: Five Point Plan’; UPFA’s manifesto ‘A Certificate guaranteed for the future’; JVP’s manifesto ‘Accord of Conscientiousness’; and TNA’s election manifesto (Sri Lanka Guardian, 2 Sept. 2015). The president has promised to release the policy document of the government of consensus after finalizing comparative studies on those manifestos.

The placement of national integration and reconciliation as a high priority item is justified in terms of the moral/ethical codes of Buddhism and all other religions —  Hinduism, Christianity and Islam — practiced in the country. Perhaps the government should first appoint a ministerial committee comprising the following to draw up a plan, both short-term and long-term, to engender ethnic and religious amity and understanding through education and the mass media:

John Amaratunga – Minister of Tourism Development & Christian Affairs

Wijedasa Rajapakshe – Minister of Buddha Sasana

Gayantha Karunathilake – Minister of Parliamentary Reforms & Media

D.M. Swaminathan – Minister of Resettlement & Hindu Affairs

Mano Ganesan – Minister of National Dialog

Mohamed Hashim Abdul Haleem – Minister of Postal Service & Muslim Affairs  

This committee could pay special attention to implement an educational program emphasizing the similarities between religions and ethnic groups. An example would be a school textbook comparing the Dhammapada with the Bhagavad Gita.

 LEAFY SPURGE: To the National” Government of Sri Lanka headed by President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremasinghe for placing political expedience before good governance” by creating a bloated and unwieldy cabinet of 48 ministers. This is going to cost a tidy sum of public money rivaling the monster cabinet syndrome initiated by former President Rajapakse. The leadership of both UPFA and UNCGG violated Right Speech by lying to the electorate by promising  to limit the size of the Cabinet to 30. They violated the 19^th Amendment to accommodate defeated candidates to re-enter parliament by manipulating their National Lists, and rewarding former minsters known for wrong doing” with Cabinet portfolios. Instead of releasing dukkha, they have increased suffering by allowing these suspected culprits another opportunity to test their  tanha and upadana because they are ignorant of the operational dynamics of the three marks of cyclic existence.

Venerable Sobhita and associated civic groups should not allow the National” Government to get away with such blatant violations of the promised yahapalanaya. Other questions to ask:

• What size of entourage will accompany the president for his 30-minute speech to the United Nations?
• Will the president keep the promise of limiting his term to five years?

Courtesy The Nation

Nimal Lanza and Anura Yapa are both members of the spanking new Cabinet which is so large, it can only be convened at the Nelum Pokuna. But, Keheliya Rambukwella, Dullas Alahaperuma and Shashindra Rajapaksa have been brought before the Presidential Commission on financial crimes.

The size of the Cabinet is enormous and this is discounting the pleased as pink members of it, who find themselves being thus elevated, having been kicked out by the people at the elections
Join them, and yesterday’s scum transmogrifies into today’s poster boys. But dare oppose them, and you’ve bought your ticket to hell.

This is cynical slash and burn politics that reeks to the heavens, and makes anything that came before it look sublime by comparison.

Ask Ranjan Ramanayaka about Nimal Lanza. There is a video that is doing the rounds of Ramanayaka berating the drug barons who he said were granted impunity, when President Rajapaksa was ruling, and Ramanayaka was in the Opposition. Special mention was made of this man Nimal Lanza.

The Asipatha CutsI do not know if Nimal Lanza is a drug baron or not. But this much I can vouch for. Ranjan Ramanayaka was, with all cylinders firing, vouchsafing for the fact that Lanza is a drug running local mafia don, and from the then UNP opposition benches, loud cheers rang out in the House.

Now, this Lanza is a Deputy Minister.

Ranjan Ramanayake is also a Deputy Minister.

Lake House newspapers were on fire immediately after the General Elections on January 8, with all guns trained against Anura Yapa who was said to have been the mastermind behind the document produced by former UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake, attesting to the alleged pact between the UNP Leader, and R. Sampandan of the TNA.
Anura Yapa now holds senior cabinet rank. Muttuhettigama is a Deputy Minister, the latter constantly vilified as a lout by the then Opposition UNP.

The list of rouges gallery notables — as per the UNP — now holding high Cabinet rank, goes on and on, but Keheliya Rambukwella, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and others are brought before the Presidential Commission regarding alleged financial crimes.

The message is clear. If you are on the inside pissing out, you are as pure as the driven snow. But you dare so much as keep one foot outside of the comfort zone, and you are the devil incarnate, and will be chased to the ends of the earth, vilified, demonized, and destroyed.

Cynical politics, partisanship and unprincipled skulduggery has never been so brazen, and the country is now ruled with impunity by the lawless, cynical and degenerate. The size of the Cabinet is enormous and this is discounting the pleased as pink members of it, who find themselves being thus elevated, having been kicked out by the people at the elections.

Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera, the mascot of Yahapalana and Wickremesinghe’s darling, offered that he is shocked by the losing elements being smuggled into Parliament by the president, and the latter and his joined at the hip twin responded by kicking Sobitha’s rump, and making a few of this kind, top ranking Cabinet ministers to boot.

The fig leaf is now gone as well, and the president is cavorting around in the buff, being cheered on by his minions. Tissa Jayatilleka and the kultur gentlemen of the Friday Forum nor the NGO set in their echo chambers are saying a word these days. Mouths sewed shut, we suppose they are watching the naked President and his equally debauched Prime Minister unable to decide whose instructions they should take before they make their next move.

The opposition leader is a pretender, but when the prime minister is a pretender given how the election victory was achieved, and when the president pretends he is the leader of the SLFP, Sambandan’s pretense is all in a day’s work.

It bears mention that there are people such as Wimal Weerawansa who seem to take the president at his word!

Attaboy! There are the notably gullible, but fool me once and shame on you, fool me ten times and shame on me, and a seven generations that are to follow?

Has Weerawansa ever heard of that?

Where is Mahinda Rajapaksa by the way?

For the forty two lakhs or so who voted for him, the fact that his son is being persecuted and his wife is being summoned to the FCID is, by way of explanation for the relative silence, small comfort.

The people, particularly the majority of the Sinhala people who voted for the UPFA in vast numbers, have been kicked in the shin and then kicked hard in the vitals, and been shoved into Mangala Samaraweera’s dustbin for the unbowed and upright.

Anybody who is a moral degenerate today, is in power. However, if there was a single person who even tangentially thought of justice, equity, gratitude and probity before self, he or she is in Mangala Samaraweera’s dustbin for the brave.

Those who say the opposition leader necessarily has to be a person who is not in the national government, have forgotten how easy it is to disenfranchise 42 million people, and they have neglected to tell you about how the president carried out the daylight robbery of their ballot by refusing to forward the letter requesting the Speaker to make Welgama the Opposition Leader, to Karu Jayasuriya.

The majority of the UPFA now in Parliament chose not to be part of the so called National Government. Even if they did, they have no right to be part of that fiasco as National Government was not part of the UPFA manifesto, and not part of the granted mandate, ergo.

Mahinda Rajapaksa has to answer to this. Why are the people who voted for you abandoned, and is Wimal Weerawansa a complete idiot to say that he believed, actually believed the President when he said that the Opposition members can choose their own Opposition leader? What are we taken for? Cattle?

And what is the vote of the people who voted for you folk, taken for? Cattle feed?
This much is certain. People who gave you 95 seats would strike back and when they return, it will not only be a swift swipe at the president who prances about naked with his joined at hip twin, the puerile Prime Minister, but also at anybody who belittles or ignores the wishes of the 42 lakhs who supplied 95 seats to empower Mahinda Rajapaksa’s UPFA in Parliament.

Do not trifle with the wishes of the people who refuse to be herded around like cattle. The Emperor may be naked, the former President may be overwhelmed and cowed, but truth is not on a lien.

This travesty of the people’s rights, this ugly, unabashed squashing of democracy underfoot, all in the name of good governance, will be avenged.

 Dr. Sudath Gunasekara Mahanuwara

 The above Sinhala Adage came to my mind as I was watching what is going on in the political field around us. What this famous saying connotes is once you have given your coconut estate on an outright lease there is no point in looking for a coconut from that place because you have disowned all your rights to have any claims on any fruits there. This is exactly what has already happened to Mahinda Rajapaksa and what will happen to President Sirisena as well very soon, though he boasts just now that he will not allow anyone to topple ‘His Government” till 2020.

Episode 1

Main Actor Mahinda Rajapaksa

Now let us first see as to who paved the way for the present political instability and confusion that prevails in this country at the moment. It was none other than Mahinda Rajapaksa (probably who was in the same frame of mind as MS is just now) who started it, knowingly or unknowingly, I do not know, when he first decided to have early Presidential Elections. I wrote to the Secretary to the President on 1.12.2014 and my first advice was not to have early Presidential elections. I strongly argued against it firstly as there were two more years in hand and as the ‘bird in hand is worth more than ten in the bush.’ Secondly there is no guarantee that it could be easily won as MR and his advisors think, as there is growing displeasure and opposition right round the country. I said the Government is heading for serious trouble unless it takes immediate remedial measures to arrest this situation. I also sent him a memorandum consisting 100 suggestions called Siya Panatha prepared by ‘Mahanuwara Jesta Puravesi Sanvidhanaya’ for him to implement, at least what was highlighted, before the next election. I suggested a series of corrective measures among which I list few important ones below.

Reduce the mega Cabinet to at least 25

If he cannot remove, at least distance all the bad eggs

Abolish the 13^th A and the Provincial Councils system and re-establish the Ruhunu, Pihiti and Maya Tun Rata so that not only the government can cut public expenditure and the number of politicians by 2/3 (from nearly 873 to 320 approx)

Abolish the Proportional Representation system and ensure a Mp for Every electorate System

Restore an independent Judiciary and Public service and meritocracy to be the hallmark of public service

Restore Law and order and Rule of Law

Abolish duty free Vehicle system for politician. Public servant and a selected few

Ban all ethnic & religious political parties

Ban religious dignitaries entering politics

Removal of Pensions for politicians and enormous privileges given to them and convert it to a service to people

Restore death penalty

Enactment of a strict code of ethics and discipline for politicians and state officers Going back to Traditional Village council system

Setting up a Senate of about 35Abolition of International Schools

Banning establishment of mono-ethnic settlement a n destabilizing mixed settlements under new schemes

Resettlement of all Sinahla and Muslim s displace by the LTTE  banning sending women slaves to Middle east and other countries and generating jobs within the country to save our women and the civilization

Implement the Recommendations of the Kandyan Peasantry Commission of 1951 by setting up the Special Development Authority recommended therein to ameliorate the problems of Kandyan Peasants. No one should forget that Kandyan areas have 1/3 the total voter strength of the country

Tax concession to development sector such as Agriculture, Industry, fisheries and tourism etc

Take corrective measures to build up a new image and people’s confidence before you go for the next election.

Take measures to reduce cost of living and measures for the people to feel this is a peoples Government and not a government of politicians and high officials.

But unfortunately I did not get even a reply

What you think would have happened if at least few of these major issues had been attended to?

This letter was re-published in the Lankaweb of 1^st Sept 2015. Anyone interested in details could read it there please.

I really do not know whether this was brought to the notice of MR in time. Anyway nothing happened as requested.THE Government decided to go ahead with the Election

Mahinda went ahead with his own plan

MR living in his own dream land did not care a cent. Unfortunately he miserably failed to make a proper assessment of the Sirisena factor. He ignored it as a subject not worth discussing at all Perhaps thanks to his intelligence network he didn’t know that a master conspiracy lead by Chandrika was going on in the background at least from 2012 to depose him and oust his government. Perhaps he may not have heard the saying Achintitampi Bhavati-Chintitampi vinassati”, which I included in my E mail of 1^st Dec 2014 to Lalith as well.

So in this backdrop he allowed My3 to contest Presidential elections as the common candidate while remaining as the General Secretary of the SLFP? MR being a Sinhala village based politician devoted to the SLFP may have had confidence in the majority rural electorate and may have thought like in 2010, MS also want be a threat. But if I were MR I would have never taken a chance and sacked MS immediately from the post of General Secretary and appointed someone else faithful to me and the Party to that post, not heeding to   Sumanadasa or any other sycophant Andare or Advisor around me, firstly for leaving and betraying the Party to contest under another Party and thus violating the Party Constitution and secondly as I know it for certain that he cannot be trusted for a Dime after that. Thirdly for he will be a bigger threat in future if he wins the elections and join with those who are against the SLFP and the UPFA. MR should also have been mindful of the Chandrika factor backed by her Western friends and India. But he did not do that either probably he thought he is invincible or trusted Ms as he sat with him at a now ‘famous and historic Hopper dinner’ at the Temple Trees the previous night as well. What I can’t understand is as to what the hell Rajapaksa’s private intelligence unit had been doing as now it been revealed that this coup had being going on for two long years.

Let bygones be bygones. Having failed to nip it in the bud he should have done it at least after elections to prevent the new President trying to take over the SLFP and the UPFA leadership as its leader and the SLFP Secretary. Then again when those acholites visited him at Medamulana after the elections and proposed that the leadership of the Party be given to Ms, he should have taken the stand that that can never be done and should not be done either as he has already ceased to be a SLFP or UPFA member the moment he left to be the common candidate. Further, he knows MS stands as the leader of a separate group. As such he has no claim at all under the SLFP Constitution to ask for it. Instead of that what did MR do? He went and handed over all that on a platter to the new President conferring him legitimacy to exercise full control over all matters under the Party Constitution. (This is like handing over the sword to the adversary in a battle whiles you hold on to the sheath).Had he not handed over the leadership of the Party President Sirisena would never have been able to touch anything within the SLFP or the UPFA.  Therefore things like appointing the two secretaries of UPFA and SLFP and taking control of their Central committees would have never happened. I am lost to understand as to in what part of their anatomy they have their brains, if they have one.

This in brief is how Mahinda Rajapaksa dug his own grave and paved the highway for the present disaster.

 They who persuaded MR to hand over the Leadership after the Election.

They were the next culprits who brought about this disaster.

Now not only MR but also all others who failed to see this danger in advance and advice MR in time or those who connived with that blunder, should take the whole responsibility for all what has happened to the Party since then and the damages and disasters that will befall this Nation in the near future. None will be excused and none will be spared. If they had an atom of brain they should have, using the majority in the CC, changed the Party Constitution and got MR appointed as the Leader of the Party and contested the elections under his Leadership. Had that been done they would have definitely got more than 115 or even more seats.

Looking at the whole episode    enacted               by           this         group    of politicians and advisers from the beginning up to now it remind me of the role                                                                                                     of Karataka and Damanaka who advised Pingalaka the Lion and Sanjeevala the righteous Bull, the two crafty foxes, in Mitrabhedaya coming in Pachatantaraya.

Then came the General election. Most SLFP and UPFA members again persuaded MR to contest for the Premiership, may be with good intensions, but for obvious reasons as well on their part.  Personally I do not see anything wrong in his decision to have agreed to their request particularly going by the massive crowds gathered at some of those meetings. But again he made a mistake by agreeing to contest under his arch rival and adversary. His love and devotion to the Party a may have convinced him to do so. But it was definitely the biggest blunder he made. As I remember there was only one solitary man. That is my good friend Prof Nalin Silva who said don’t do that. He also said never trust MS. Perhaps he knew better than the whole gang of SLFP and UPFA politicians some of whom included Professors as well.  Nalin has proved that he is a better intellectual and a genius when he refused to accept the slot offered to him in the UPFA National list.  Had MR contested from another Party the story of Government today would have been  entirely different.

Having watched the Speakers pronouncement last week on the Appointment of Sambandan that he is appointing Sambandan as the Leader of the Opposition as there is no request from the UPFA and Wimal Weerawansas grievance that 65 of them have requested the President in writing that they wanted Welgama to be appointed as Opposition leader one gets utterly confused. It also shows that there was a preplanned arrangement on the part of the anti-MR group, if you don’t call it a coup, firstly to settle a deal with the TNA for helping the President at the Presidential election by casting the entire North and East Tamil vote to him and secondly to stop any other person’s name been put forward as a division would have definitely prevented Sambandan getting elected. It looks a treacherous conspiracy than democracy to anyone having an atom of brain. I do not know as to why Weeravansa and group did not simultaneously hand over two more copies of the same letter given to the President to the Speaker and the Party secretary as well.’ Going even a little further they should have had a spare name in Anura Disanayaka or anyone else in their camp ready by mutual agreement submitted to all three persons. It is common sense that they should have known before hand what President is having in his mind and taken sufficient precautions to counter that mischief if they were smart.  In this context the President had out done all of them. What a shame?

To be continued: Episode 11; Why should we have a Constitution at all if that could be breached at will by one man with impunity, that is the head of the State?

By Uditha Devapriya Courtesy The Nation

Ideological orientation can divide those who preach the same thing. It is hence astounding how those who favor end bicker over process. It is also unbelievable that those who privilege certain (political) outcomes can debate with (and against) both colleague and foe. Federalists, hence, have a gripe with nationalists, but this does not preclude them from arguing with other federalists.

The likes of Wickramaratne hence, especially when tinkering with the Constitution, must note one point. Dayan Jayatilleka summed this up best: I stand for a nationalism that is compatible with internationalism. This is smart patriotism. Smart patriotism is perfectly compatible with cultural cosmopolitanism, though the latter is not a condition of the former

Jayampathy Wickramaratne authored the much praised and little understood 19th Amendment, along with two other experts. He claimed, rightly, that it would dilute the Executive Presidency, but not absolutely. So he offered a solution: Revamp the 1978 Constitution!” Puzzling, because if revamp” was what the doctor prescribed, then why on earth did he offer a painkiller” for the malady” through an amendment?

Among those who noted this was Dayan Jayatilleka. In a context where the likes of Wimal Weerawansa and Vasudeva Nanayakkara are together, never mind how strange that combination sounds, it is not surprising to see that both he and Wickramaratne are against one other here. Both are for the 13th Amendment. Both are for devolution. Logically therefore, that the one’s take on the 19th Amendment differs from the other must be owing more to disagreement over process than to differences over ideological bent.

Eight months before the Sirisena defection, Jayatilleka had this to say about Wickramaratne’s abolitionist-stance on the Executive Presidency:

Contrary to Dr Jayampathy Wickramaratne’s prognostication, President Rajapaksa will not abolish the Presidency in order to take the wind out of the sails of either a single issue common candidate or a rebellion in the UPFA ranks which has as its rallying cry the abolition of the Presidency. All he needs to do is to call a referendum on the issue, pitch it as a danger to the Sinhalese in the face of external and irredentist pressures, and he will win a crushing victory over the dissidents. He can then go into the presidential and parliamentary elections with an even stronger hand than he otherwise would.”

For Jayatilleka, the viability of a common candidate could be judged on whether or not that candidate pledged to do away with the Executive Presidency, a pledge Jayatilleka no doubt likened to political hara-kiri when he observed that no rational voter would support a candidate who promised to undo himself by un-strapping the presidency.

That was then though. Times have changed. The 19th Amendment was passed and it deliberately skewed clarity (as has been noted by political commentators), particularly to market appeal for a National Government (a perusal of Article 46, for instance, will leave one wondering why it limited a Cabinet to 30 or 40 when a coalition could double or triple that amount as per the parliament’s prerogative). It didn’t do away with the Executive Presidency, true. But that’s just one step away.

Wickramaratne is an ideologue. So is Jayatilleka. What differentiates the one from the other, when it comes to the Constitution that is, is the way each accounts for exogenous variables without which neither federalists nor nationalists can sustain ideology for long. That is why the latter, for the most, has been (more) able to critique not just federal-speak, but also attempts to dilute the Executive Presidency, even when that critique is at odds with his larger political stances, which are largely supportive of the 13th Amendment.
Nationalism. That’s another thing. Jayatilleka has shown again and again that, for all Wickramaratne’s political idealism, a get-your-pants-off approach to the J. R. Jayewardene Constitution cannot and will not work as long as it legitimises fears of the majority (social and ethnic), that is a stripping down of the security apparatus to a point where nationalist fears of outside intervention are realised.

The point is that without taking note of outside fears and addressing grievances, tinkering with the Constitution can yield fruit only at the cost of what Mahinda Rajapaksa implicitly instructed Maithripala Sirisena to improve on: a country rid of terrorism but not of the terrorist menace, one that is being manipulated by civil society in the name of plurality to affirm minoritarianism (which in no way justifies the Rajapaksa regime’s perceived majoritarianism, by the way).

Here’s why.No rational political democrat, unless s/he was Cartesian in outlook, would prefer democracy to security (or vice-versa, for that matter). This is where people like Wickramaratne have got it wrong. It must be said that even the likes of Jayatilleka and other likeminded liberals and moderates entertained this illusion. But that was long ago. They have since learnt their lesson and for this reason they have embraced pragmatism.
The likes of Wickramaratne hence, especially when tinkering with the Constitution, must note one point. Dayan Jayatilleka summed this up best: I stand for a nationalism that is compatible with internationalism. This is smart patriotism. Smart patriotism is perfectly compatible with cultural cosmopolitanism, though the latter is not a condition of the former.” What he meant by cultural cosmopolitanism is for another article.

For now, here’s what counts. Political reform, particularly with a National Government which robs legitimate opposition (barring the Tamil National Alliance) for the sake of consensual politicking, cannot privilege itself at the expense of weakening the centre and frilling the periphery.

This is not only because of nationalist concerns. This is also because, if experts and intellectuals like Jayampathy Wickramaratne are to get it right in one go, they MUST be aware of larger realities (geopolitical and otherwise) which implicitly determine the constitutional framework they are setting for this country.  Otherwise, to be quite frank, they’ll be building castles in the air. Not a very good start for a reformist era, you must admit.

By Sudat Pasqual  Courtesy The Nation

The August 17 election was called by President Maithripala Sirisena when it became obvious that the minority government imposed on the country as a result of an electoral pact between the President and the main opposition group UNP was no longer tenable.
The convoluted electoral arrangement between the President and Ranil Wickremasinhe had created a weird and dysfunctional political creature. At the time of dissolution, the majority of MPs in Parliament belonged to the President’s coalition, UPFA (not the UNP). Under normal circumstances, given the fact that the President was the Chairman of the UPFA, one would have expected the President to lead the UPFA at the election. Former President Rajapaksa’s decision to push the envelope by contesting the election under the UPFA banner forced President Sirisena to take a public stand on the issue. It is suffice to say that the President lost his sense of equanimity and became openly hostile to the candidacy of his predecessor.

President Sirisena was keen to get the ball rolling in a more definitive manner. Instead of settling for a simple majority to get through the day, Sirisena has forced his alliance to throw their support for a UNP led national government. We are starting to see the cost of this cohabitation

The election ended in a stalemate with the UNP ending up with 106 MP’s but short of a majority by 7. UPFA came in a close second with 95 seats.

Since the UNP was a mere 7 MPs shy of a majority, the easiest way forward (at least in the short term) would have been to get a commitment from 7 MPs from the other side of the aisle. The 19th amendment to the constitution prohibits the dissolution of the parliament till it has served a minimum of 4 ½ years. That is a fair amount of time to work the political angels. While technically the head of the UPFA, Sirisena had quite clearly indicated his preference to see the return of Ranil Wickramasinghe as Prime Minister prior to the vote on August 17.  Even if the overwhelming majority of the UPFA MPs were hostile to Sirisena, surely the President who is the Chairman of both the SLFP and the UPFA could count on the support of 7 out of the 95 to throw their lot with the UNP; the party of choice of their Chairman?

Well, it didn’t quite go that way. President Sirisena was keen to get the ball rolling in a more definitive manner. Instead of settling for a simple majority to get through the day, Sirisena has forced his alliance to throw their support for a UNP led national government. We are starting to see the cost of this cohabitation.

Sirisena who promised to do away with the cesspit of corrupt and undemocratic practices of the Rajapaksa regime has jumped headlong into that same cesspit. The man who got elected selling a deal made in heaven seems poised to take the country on a path of self-destruction and evil doing.

The cabinet is currently at 48, but the count is still on. That number does not include the State Ministers and Deputy Ministers. At this rate, we may have to rename the Parliament and call it the Assembly of Ministers and Deputies. Ranil Wickramasinghe is on course to becoming the Prime Minister of world’s first Dinosaur Cabinet.

The blame for this obnoxious state of affairs rests squarely at the feet of President Sirisena. Sirisena may have won the Presidential election in January, but has failed miserably at building a base to carry out his proclamations of good governance. Sirisena for all practical purposes is a man without a political party or more importantly, a loyal political base. Sirisena’s candidacy was manipulated into place by his political Dutch Aunt Chandrika Kumaratunga.  That was more than 7 months ago. A man of Sirisena’s experience should have realized the precariousness of his position when he took office. Sirisena must have known that he had to mend the political fences he had destroyed at the earliest.

Regrettably, that is not the path chosen by Sirisena. Instead of reaching out to his doubters, President Sirisena has chosen a path of subterfuge that was ill-thought out and ill executed.  Even worse, Sirisena seems to have handed the hatchet job to Kumaratunga; a woman consumed by her hatred of all things Rajapaksa and a person of dubious integrity and loyalties. Sirisena has given into the venal demands of political charlatans to prop up his Prime Minister and is getting dragged closer to the UNP vortex and his effectiveness is inextricably tied to a UNP led government.

Sirisena presidency has been marked by indecisions, poor decisions and the lack of personal courage. Sirisena has become a vassal of venality. Fortunately for Sirisena his Presidency is still in its infancy and he can reverse the downward spiral of his government if he finds the political and personal courage to take actions that are unpleasant, but are in the best interests of the country.

by Senaka Weeraratna

To a human being there is no greater treasure than freedom. The right to life and liberty are the most cherished fundamental rights guaranteed in our Constitution. In claiming our right to these freedoms we become morally obliged to recognize the rights to freedom in others: particularly in other non – human living beings. To do otherwise would be hypocritical and duplicitous. A two – faced morality that would be unsustainable despite our loud championing of human rights.

Unfortunately the structures we humans have created such as Zoos deny freedom to animals; in the most pitiless fashion.  To the extent that we allow Zoos to prevail we diminish ourselves morally and ethically.

In closing our eyes to the suffering of animals and disregarding their cries for help to gain freedom from man – made prisons called Zoos, we suppress some of the most noble impulses that human beings are capable of  cultivating and sharing  – that of sympathy and pity towards other living creatures—and by repressing our own feelings and even our children’s caring feelings towards animals in such fashion  we unwittingly become cruel and merciless and push our children to walk on that same  ignoble path.

In Zoos Animals are compelled to survive in unnatural, painful, and downright isolated conditions that are far removed from their natural habitats. They are forced  to occupy small, restrictive spaces that prevent them from being subject to any mental and physical stimulus. Though the management of zoos claim to be engaged in conservation, education, and entertainment, their primary goal is to exploit animals for profit with hardly any real concern for the animal’s true welfare.

It is time that people particularly in Sri Lanka take a strong stand against the establishment and maintenance of Zoos.

The news that a Rally and demonstration will be held in Colombo on Saturday September 12, 2015 to draw attention to the plight of the animals in the Dehiwala Zoo is most welcome news. A happening long overdue. Animals cannot articulate their suffering though they suffer continually due to man’s inhumanity. In taking up their cause not only are we doing the right thing but also joining some of the great figures in history such as the Buddha, Mahavira, Mahatma Gandhi, Leo Tolstoy, and Albert Schweitzer who were outspoken in the defense of animal rights. The Buddha in particular defined nobility (Arya) on the basis of a person’s compassion towards all living beings.

Phase out Zoos from Sri Lanka – What can you do? 

Avoid visiting zoos. We must not allow ourselves to be complicit in causing animal suffering.

Lobby and demand animal sanctuaries to be established in place of Zoos which should be non – exploitative and non – profit oriented.

Two countries Bhutan and Costa Rica have started an inspiring trend in phasing out Zoos. Bhutan has effectively closed down Zoos except for the protection of two endangered native species.Sri Lanka should join these two enlightened countries in following suit by phasing out Zoos.

Spread the word through newspaper articles, public talks, television programmes, internet YouTube, of the reality of Zoo life and the suffering of animals inside them.

Zoos belong to history not to the future. In fact it is a culturally inappropriate institution to Sri Lanka which had one of the finest Animal friendly cultural heritages in the world before the landing of foreigners in 1505.

Educate your children and others why Zoos are unnecessary and inhumane.

Reverence for life has been the foundation of SrI Lanka’s Buddhist civilization ever since that unique encounter between Arahant Mahinda and King Devanampiyatissa at Mihintale over 2300 years ago when Arahant Mahanda declared as follows:

Oh! Great King, the birds of the air and the beasts have an equal right to live and move about in any part of this land as thou. The land belongs to the peoples and all other beings and thou art only the guardian of it”

The establishment and maintenance of Zoos in Sri Lanka is incompatible and run counter to Arahant Mahinda’s words of wisdom.

Senaka Weeraratna

චන්ද්‍රසේන පණ්ඩිතගේ විසිනි.

සැබෑ ලෙසම මේ ගැටළුව මෙරට පැවතීම මහා විහිළුවකි. එලෙසම මෙවන් ගැටළුවක් මෙරට පැවතීමම මෙරට මුළු මහත් ජන සමාජයට බලවත් නින්දාවකි. 90% ක් බත් කන මිනිසුන් සිටින රටක වී ටික විකුණ ගන්න නොහැකිව ගොවියන් වහ බින්නේ නම්, තවත් තැනෙක සදහන් ආකාරයට කදුළු බොන්නේ නම්, ජාතියේ පරාධීනත්වය ඇත්තේ එතන බව සියළු දෙනාම අවබෝධ කරගත යුතුය.

සැබෑ ගැටළුවට අත නොගසා,
1 19 වෙනි සන්ශෝධ නය ඉදිරිපත් කිරීම,
2.විධායක ජනාධිපති බලතල ඉවත් කිරීම,
3.මැතිවරණ ක්රමය වෙනස් කිරීම,
4.ස්වාධීන කොමිෂන් සභා පත් කිරී‌ම වැනි
මෙරට ජනතාවට කිසිදු වැඩක් නැති දේ සම්බන්ධව නිතිපතා කථා කරන දේශපාලනය, අප නවතාලිය යුතුය. ජීවයේ මූලික පදනම වනුයේ, වාතය, ජලය හා ආහාරයි. ඕනෑම රජයක මූලික අරමුණ විය යුත්තේ, මේ ත්‍රිත්වය නොමිලයේ ලබාදීමේ ඉලක්කය වෙත ගමන් කිරීමයි. ගොවියා සිදුකරනුයේ, මිනිසාගේ පැවත්මට ඇවැසි වැදගත්ම දේ නිපදවීමයි. ඔහු මෙලොවටම සයනයිඩ් නිශ්පාදකයාට‌ වඩා පහල අඩියකට තල්ලු කිරීමට මේ සමාජයට කිසිදු අයිතියක් නැත. එබැවින් අන් සියළුම කරනු පසෙකලා  මේ කරුණ අගතැන්පත් කොට විසදාලීමට අරමුණු කර ගත යුතුය.

කෘෂිකර්මය යනු මෙලොව ඇති ඉතාම වටිනා විද්යාව වුවද එයට මෙරට තුල හිමිව ඇත්තේ කුඩම්මාගේ සැලකිල්ලකි. අගමැති ඩී.එස් සේනානායක ආරම්භ කොට, ඩඩ්ලි සේනානායක, එස්. ඩබ්ලිව්. ආර්.ඩී. බණ්ඩාරනායක, සිරිමා බණ්ඩාරනායකලා පෝෂණය කල එම විද්යාව, මහවැලිය තුලින් ජේ.ආර් ජයවර්ධන රජය තුලදී පණක් ලදද, ඒ කාලය තුලදීම; මීට වඩා හොදයි පිට රටින් හාල් ගෙනාවා නම් යන මතවාදයක්ද දියත් කර ගොවි ගෞරවයට හානිදායක දේ සිදු කරන ලදී.

මේ උපකාර‌ කිරීම් හා කෙනහිලිකම් මැද්දේ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ යුගයේදී‌ද ගොවිතැනට විශේෂත්වයක් ලැබිණි. ඒ සියල්ලේම ඵලය වන්නේ සරු අස්වැන්නක් ලැබීමයි. ඉතා වැදගත් වන්නේ ඵලයයි. ඵලය කරදරයක් ලෙස දකින සමාජයක් ඵලය ලබන විට නිර්මාණය වී ඇත්නම් එය 1948 සිට 2015 දක්වා මෙරට කෘෂිකර්මය දියුණු කිරීම සදහා සිදුකල මහා මෙහෙවරට දායකවූ අයට සිදු කරන අගෞරවයකි. ඵලයට මහා ගෞරවයක් පුදකල යුතුය. මේ  වනවිට තුන් වේලටම බත් කෑමට සූදානම් සමාජයක් අපට ඇත. එබැවින් වී මිලදී ගැනීමට විද්යාත්මක ක්රම වේදයක් නිර්මාණය කල යුතුමය.ඒ සදහා කල යුත්තේ කුමක්ද?

මේ සදහා ස්වාධීන කොමිෂන් සභාවක් නිර්මාණය කල යුතුයයි කිසිවෙක් නොපවසන්නේ ඇයි? මෙය එතරම් වැදගත් ප්රශ්නයක් ලෙස මේ දේශපාලකයින් නොසලකා හරින නිසාද? මේ ගැටළුවට කිසිදු රජයක්වත් නිසි පිළියම ඉදිරිපත් නොකල බව පමණක් අපි දනිමු.‌මෙම ගැටළුව විසදීමේදී අපිට,
1. විකිණීමට ඇති වී තොග,
2. ඒ හිමි වී ගොව‌ියා,
3. වී මිලදී ගන්නා ආයතනය හා එහි නිලධාරී මඩුල්ල

යන ත්‍රිත්වය මෙම ගැටළුව නිරාකරණය කිරීම‌ට අත පෙවීමේදී මුණ ගැසේ. ම‌ෙහිදී නිර්මාණය කරන වී මිලදී ගැනීමේ ක්රියාවලියේදී, ගොවියාගේ වී සියල්ලක්ම විකිණිය යුතුය. දෙවනුව ගොවියා යනු වර්තමානයේ සිටින දීනත්වයට වැටුණු පුද්ගලයකු නොව බලවත් චරිතයක් බවට පත්විය යුතුය. එක්තරා පුද්ගලයකු, මෙවන් ක්රියාවලියක්ද ඇතැතිව, කෘෂිකර්ම ඇමතිතුමා‌‌ු මුණ ගැසී ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට ගියේ මීට වසර 11ක කාලයකට පෙරදීය, ඇමතිතුමා නොමැති බැවින්, එතුමාගේම පක්ෂයේ නියෝජ්ය ඇමතිතුමා මුණ ගැසී ඇත. ක්රමවේදයද ඔහුට ඉදිපත් කර ඇත. මේ සියල්ලම ඔහුට විස්තර කල පසු, එයට සාවධානව ඇහුම් කන් දුන් නියෝජ්ය ඇමතිතුමා අසා ඇති ප්රෂ්ණය වන්නේ,
“හොදයි මේ වැඩේ කරන්න සල්ලි හොයාගන්න ඔයා යෝජනා කරන්නේ කුමක්ද?” යන්නයි.

කෙසේ හෝ මේ පනය වැද ගත් සේ සලකා කටයුතු කරන මෙන් ගෞරවයෙන් අප ඉල්ලා සිටිමු.

චන්ද්‍රසේන පණ්ඩිතගේ විසිනි.

Chandrasena Pandithage

සීපා ගිවිසුම අත්සන් තැබීමට ආසන්නව ඇත. අප එයට විරුද්ධ වුවද එහි පලයන් හා අපට ජීවත් වීමට වර්තමාන පාලකයින් අපට ඉඩ සලසනු ඇත. එබැවින් දැන්ම සිට මේ ගීතය ගැයීමට මුලු ජාතියම එකතු වෙමු. දැන්මම පුහුණුවීම අරඹමු.

Song of the era

One little, two little, three little Indians

Four little, five little, six little,  Indians

Seven little, eight little, nine little, Indians

Ten little, Indian boys.

Ten little, twenty little, thirty little, Indians

Forty little, fifty little, sixty little Indians

Seventy little, eighty little, Ninety little Indians

Hundred little Indian Boys

Hundred little, Two hundred little, Three hundred little Indians

Four hundred little, Five hundred little, Six hundred little Indians

Seven hundred little, Eight hundred little, Nine hundred little Indians

One thousand little Indian boys.

One thousand little Two thousand little Three thousand little Indians

Four thousand little, Five thousand little, Six thousand little Indians

Seven thousand little, Eight thousand little, Nine thousand little Indians

Ten thousand little Indian boys

Ten thousand little, Twenty thousand little, Thirty thousand little Indians

Forty thousand little, Fifty thousand little, Sixty thousand little Indians

Seventy thousand little, Eighty thousand little, Ninety thousand little Indians

Hundred thousand little Indian boys.
One Hundred thousand little Two Hundred thousand little, Three Hundred thousand little Indians

Four Hundred thousand little, Five Hundred thousand little, Six Hundred thousand little Indians

Seven Hundred thousand little, Eight Hundred thousand little, Nine Hundred thousand little Indian

One Million little Indian boys

One Million little, Nine hundred thousand little, Eight hundred thousand little Indians

Seven hundred thousand little, Six hundred thousand little, Five Hundred thousand little Indians

Four Hundred thousand little, Three  Hundred thousand little, Two Hundred thousand little Indians

One Hundred thousand little Indians girls.

One hundred thousand little,  Ninety thousand little, Eighty thousand little Indians

Seventy thousand little, Sixty thousand little, Fifty thousand little Indians

Forty thousand little, Thirty thousand little, Twenty thousand little

Ten thousand little Indian girls.

Ten thousand little, Nine thousand little eight thousand little Indians

Seven thousand little, Six thousand little, Five thousand little Indians

Four thousand little, Three thousand little, Two thousand little Indians

One thousand little little Indian girls.

One thousand little, Nine hundred little, Eight hundred little Indians

Seven hundred little, Six hundred little, Five hundred little Indians,

Four hundred little, Three hundred little, Two hundred little Indians,

One hundred little Indian girls.

Hundred little, Ninety little, Eighty little Indian

Seventy little, Sixty little, Fifty little Indians
Forty little Thirty little, Twenty little Indians

Ten little Indian girls.

Ten little, Nine little, Eight little Indian

Seven little, Six little, Five little Indians

Four little, three little, Two little Indians,

One little Indian girl.

Hip Hip Hurray

Chandrasena Pandithage

Ranjit Wickremeratne

I am a voter with a broken heart because of ungrateful people whom I have to live with in this cruel society. I never ever thought in my life time that Prabakaran could be defeated because of many countries involved and helped Prabakaran and his ruthless murderous organization with money and weapons to eliminate the Sinhala race. Thanks to you Sir for ending the cruel war which killed and maimed thousands of our innocent souls in my homeland. You never thought of Sinhalese,Tamils,Muslims separately but as a whole nation and stopped the bloodshed  without any help from outside forces. We greatly appreciate your service to the nation during and after the war with great respect. You gave the strength and will power to our wounded war heroes and looked after them well for the amazement of many people around the world. It was great to be freed from barbarian LTTE killers. I was abroad at that victorious day when you landed and kissed our Sinhala soil after the elimination of LTTE vicious,ruthless murderers outfit. It was a day to remember. All celebrated as one nation and I was very proud to be a Sri Lankan and enjoyed the happy moments with my colleagues and others who some were even non Sri Lankans. You closed the war chapter in 2009 and started to build our beautiful nation with a vision. Mahinda is a name no one can forget so easily.

I was watching the progress with great enthusiasm and pride how our little nation got build up little by little after thirty years of destruction. You had a great vision and love for my country. You had that charisma which other leaders lack in their human body. You walked with the ordinary people in this country. You didn’t waste your time inside an Air Conditioned room but went round the country to see with your own eyes the progress and talked to the ordinary people. You carried children in your arms and showed love to them.You build Buddhist temples,Mosques,churches like Sinhala kings in the olden days. You did so many good things which no one can erase it although the current Govt traitors were trying to put their name on it. You build parks for the people to relax and have fun,you build schools for the children to learn more about the current world affairs etc and move forward,build Airports for easy transport inside and outside,Harbors for cargo,fishing etc,play grounds to the International standard and made our country beautiful for all races to live in harmony and in peace. What more you need? You showed us how to lead a country with pride. We thank you for all that Mr.President but unfortunately for your bad time and mine you took a very wrong decision to have early Presidential election before two years of your time in office and that’s the reason my heart is broken today. If you didn’t took that bold decision we wouldn’t be in this position suffering and living like second class citizens because of our stupid treacherous current leaders . You should have listened to the patriots and specially your family circle who advised not to do so as I was aware. That decision of yours changed the whole system and we as a nation and as citizens suffer today more than anytime in the past. Do not repeat the same mistakes again my dear Mr.President.

Through an International coup a traitor was born to lead our country. He was a man who was with you for so many years. He left you after having B’Fast with you in your own home. That very moment you should have investigated how it happened as many knew it was a coup orchestrated by outsiders and insiders together but you didn’t do anything. Police found lots of foreign money at Ratmalana but never heard anything after that. Foreign Embassies were involved and foreigners were visiting our land on daily basis to do what no one knew or investigated. They moved freely and visited the North and East to make movies against our homeland to show to the world and some talked about the murderer Parbakaran openly and attended their ceremonies in the North and had discussions with them freely without any interference from our law and order personal or the Govt. Foreign and local traitors had a free hand to work against you with all their might and they succeeded very easily. Our Sinhala stupids believed in their fairy-tale stories and unbelievable lies and made the back stabber traitor the President of my country by a small margin in the Presidential elections. It was unbearable and a dark day for us in our history. The traitors won while the leader who brought us freedom,peace,love and harmony lost. How much we cried,how many homes were in the dark on that day,how many were weeping openly because of a gentle man who lost the battle against a coward and a traitor.
We appreciate how you handled everything after that moment. You showed the world how Democracy works in my land.Your leadership qualities were great and many of the young Parliamentarians  have many things to learn from you Sir. We have never seen before what we saw after an election.People young and old in thousands flocked to greet their loving leader  at his home at Medamulana. I am one of them. No words to explain except tears on the eyes of millions who voted for you. We failed to convince the people the truth. Money and lies won the battle. Saddest day in my life was the election night. I have never seen older people men and woman even children cry openly like the way they cried after the election.All was because of you Sir.The name Mahinda is  very much close to our hearts and it won’t fade away so easily.

After you retire to your home, people never allowed you to stay idle but tried to pull you back to lead us again in the General election and you accept it after very long discussions and debates with some very good personalities ,patriots,family friends,politicians and your family circle. They all succeeded in getting you back to the political stage somehow but you never learned to understand the real friend and an enemy after all what happened through out the past years and days. We thought you planned well in your comeback trail with other patriot leaders Wimal,Wasu,Dinesh and Gamampila who did an immense service to bring you back to the stage. They are the true patriots in this country.They never left you but some cowards did and they enjoy their lives win or lose joining this treacherous Govt of traitors. Anyhow you faced the election and lost again for the second time after all the lies,mudslinging, harassment,Intimidation etc but upto some extent we are happy of the outcome of the election results. I am 100% sure it was rigged as many pundits have shown after the election. Now my question is for you Sir “Why don’t you leave the S.L.F.P and form a new party? Why are you staying on with the man who has done immense damage to your unblemished record and for yourself? Why are you become a servant of these evil clique? Millions in this country has accepted you as their sole leader who only can save my Motherland. We need you more than any other time Mr.President.You cannot look behind and leave us now.We are in great danger although our ordinary people do not understand because of one sided information they receive through Media and T.V.channels. Tamils and Muslims are day dreaming about their dreamlands and the International community and the Indians cunningly planning with our Sinhala traitors how to accommodate their wishes and make them happy. This is the time we think of you our great leader who said once to the International community to mind their own business when they came to interfere in our affairs during war time. We need a strong leader with love to our Motherland not a puppet of anyone. You are the most popular and favorite leader we have today therefore please leave S.L.F.P. and the wicked gang of two Sira and Choura Regina as soon as possible for the good of the nation and it’s people. This is the demand of the people who voted for you so do not delay your decision and make us cry again dear MR.President Mahinda Rajapaksa our hero.

one last sentence to remind you sincerely that if you do not leave S.L.F.P in the near future do not expect our vote in the coming municipal elections because we cannot trust anyone in the party. If you form a new party with your loyal MP’s then we know they are genuine Mahinda supporters who will be there to serve the people in this country. People like to see Mahinda,Wimal,Wasu,Dinesh,Gamampila combined unity party who will stand with ordinary people to counter any threat to our homeland. Do not take any traitor who left you and joined UNP Govt or faithful to Sira or Choura the two wicked souls in this land of paradise. Make young die hard supporters of yours like Prasanna Ranatunga, Roshan,Namal and others to become leaders in the future. Move away from corrupt people,drug lords,pretenders and thugs and make a clean party to face any election in the future. Don’t stay in silence.It breaks our hearts. We need you to save our Motherland from foreign and local conspirators and traitors. May Triple Gem be upon you and the Sinhala nation S R I L A N K A.

Give us hope for a better future. Make the nation smile again.

Ranjit Wickremeratne

By mahinda karunaratne

My tribute to those who dies at site, until I learnt that it was a CIA & US Govt. conspiracy to escape bankruptcy blame at home and justify attacking Iraq! 

After both Aircrafts were broken in to the two towers (file photo)

Although nostalgia to me after 12 years, but the fear, uncertainty and pain I had to endure by me in particular in my own situations I was in New York that time will never be forgotten. In fact that incident was the main candidate that destroyed my ambitions of going there to get out of my woos and difficulties due to which I left Sri Lanka. Simply to say my American Dream was broken and shattered by 9/11.

That day like several other days earlier, I left Jersey City room where I was temporarily staying by a fellow Sri Lankan and I left the room and got in to metro bus from University Boulevard to come to Port Authority bus stand in Manhatton. As I alighted from the bus there was some this fishy about, people rushing with unusual attitude. Only after coming out of the Port Authority bus terminal, I got know from asking few people that there had been an accident where an Air craft had hit one of the tower of WTC and its smoking. The  NYPD and NYFD are all running in rampage like mad dogs with full of siren sounds from all over, which resembled me the 1991 Gulf war time when I was working in Saudi Arabia at the time.

I anyway rushed to the 9^th avenue and beyond towards the WTC to see what has happened and I was closer to the location in direct view I witnessed huge smoke and fleeing people in a rush, some women weeping with tears and it was a real rampage out there. A security officer of a nearby shop smiled at me and identified as from Asia, he is an Indian told me see what has happened, he was so sorry to see the incident although he commented s an accident. As we were talking I spotted another Aircraft coming closer too low unusual for such large Aircrafts and I quickly started to think would this be not an accident but some kind of sabotage, before I concluded my thoughts the second Aircraft in my clean view blasted on the west tower and it started to blow up, I said the security guard that this is a sabotage or some kind of an attack he did not believe or did not have sense to understand, so I told him watch news later on and turned quickly and started running towards the port authority bus station to get back as soon as I can to jersey City to where I was staying, the reason is that if entry points were closed I will be caged up in New York city without food and water and no place to sleep.

The second aircraft was approaching west tower

After west tower was attacked

Horror during fire, people jumping from upper floor of 90’ties and 100’s

A man jumping from upper top

New York City has three entry points namely the Hudson underpass, Holland Bridge and Verrazano Bridge where all three entry points can be closed when necessary so none can come in or go out.

Street scene after attack

I noticed there were hundreds of ambulances plying amok and taking injured in a rush to hospitals, on the road side I came across some fallen, aged and young alike but unfortunately I was not in a position to help them since it was not my home country, and situations under which I was terrible. With sad feelings, I had to pass them leaving the task to NYFD rescuers of their duty.

NYPD with collected bodies

I did not posses more than 5 dollar which I brought only as return bus fare and had only my water bottle in the bag, should I get late to go I have no food, no cash to buy food.

While I was coming to the NY bus terminal, there were scores of chaos on the streets as well as in side the port authority train / bus terminal,  no metro buses were available, I was shivering and in fear but noticed a private bus operated by Hispanic was about to leave which runs a bit far away from where I stay, but I decided to board although I will have to walk a long distance from where I will have to get off.

Debris dumped at Staten Island, mixed with human remains too!

I was one of the last few passengers they boarded to stand and travel, but I noticed there were many who were unable to board the bus and the bus I boarded was the last the driver said. That means I knew the Authorities had already given instructions without panicking the public much, as the bus passed the Hudson underpass, the entry gate was closed while we passengers were watching. I could not understand what others say as many were Hispanic people, but their moods gave me the feeling they were worried much.

When I reached the Jersey City where I was staying and it had direct view of New York City over the Hudson River when I came to the verandah. I came and changed my clothes, came out to see what is happening and around 2 pm local time I was watching the WTC was collapsing just as some as spreads, a scene very rare and shocking.

From that time my heart was also in shock as I knew that big disaster could be nearer and these incidents will shatter my dream and just as I thought in few weeks I had to move out of New York to Texas and from there to LA and finally to DC looking for survival and work to live.

What happened and being happened in USA is history and its glory is gone, which I noticed by rapid declining economy, miles long abandoned factories, shops just out of cities, empty streets, medium and small business that closed almost on daily basis were all catalysts to ever declining glory of the USA of yester years.

It economy entangled in misery, there were no jobs for migrants, no proper scope, migration laws tightened, visa status cannot be changed due to the newly imposed Homeland security law and exactly six and half years later I decided to get out of USA and forget the American dream. It can never be recovered for both Americans and me alike!

The rest you all know about USA now!   

The world is entangled with same conflicts that entangled in the 19^th century as we are coming closer to 100^th anniversary of WWI.   Throughout the history it has proved that whenever the Imperialists encounter economic and own failures they went in to war with others, the only way they could straighten faults and overcome economic bankruptcy. They very badly need a war, that’s the truth. For that matter Verbal attacks on Russia and China goes on, some armed vehicles and Aircrafts being moved to the NATO front in Europe. 

The time is very much apt now and be prepared for a war!!!  It’s quiet obvious history repeats though may be in different form of structure and outfit, but by same integrity.  Attack on Iran is nearing as I am writing this which will set fire to a long conflict. This time it’s not just bombs, but Nukes. Hah…..ha………………………………!

Anyway, let’s pay tribute to those unsuspecting innocent who died on 9/11 in New York. The federal news says only 3000 + dead but at the time in that early morning there should have been over 20000  people of all walks inside the WTC the workers, customers and visitors and also one Sri Lankan kiosk shop keeper on the ground also perished.

May you be well and happy?

A Special Lecture at RASSL

A lecture on “Indic (South Asian) contributions to global mathematics” by Prof C.K. Raju of the Centre for Studies in Civilizations in New Delhi will be held on Thursday 17^th September at 5.00 p.m. at the Gamini Dissanayake Auditorium, Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha, Colombo 07. He is author of 12 books and dozens of articles, mainly on the subjects of physics, mathematics, and the history and philosophy of science.

All are welcome.

කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ/කැෆේ සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍ර‍ය

වසර ගණනාවක් නඩු පැවරීමක් තොරව රැදවුම් භාරයේ සිටින දේශපාලන සිරකරුවන් සියලු දෙනා නිදහස් කිරීම කෙරෙහි සලකා බලන ලෙස කැෆේ සංවිධානය සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍ර‍ය නීතිපතිවරයාගෙන් සහ ජනාධිපතිවරයා ප්‍රමුඛ දේශපාලන නායකත්වයෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටී.

මේ වන විට විවිධ චෝදනා යටතේ නඩු පවරා හෝ නඩු පැවරීමකින් තොරව දීර්ඝ කාලයක් දේශපාලනික හේතු මත රදවා සිටින පුද්ගලයින් සංඛ්‍යාව 273 ක් හෝ එයට වැඩි සංඛ්‍යාවකි.  මෙම පුද්ගලයින් ත්‍ර‍ස්තවාදය වැලැක්වීමේ පනත සහ වෙනත් ප්‍රතිපාදන යටතේ රදවා සිටී.  වසර හය – හත දක්වා කාලයක් විමර්ශන සිදු කරන නමුත් නඩු පැවරීමක් පවා සිදු කර නොමැති පිරිස් ද මේ පිරිස අතර සිටී.

ත්‍ර‍ස්තවාදය වැලැක්වීමේ පනත යටතේ වසර 18 කට වැඩි කාලයක් රදවා සිටින පුද්ගලයින් සංඛ්‍යාව 5 කි. තමත් පුද්ගලයෙකුට එරෙහිව වසර 17 ක් මහාධිකරණයේ විභාග වේ.   නඩු පැවරීමට පෙර වසර 15 ක් සිරගතව සිටින පුද්ගලයෙකු ද දේශපාලන සිරකරුවන් අතර සිටී.   2006 වසරේ අත්අඩංගුවට පත් වූ තවත් පුද්ගයෙකු 2015 වසර දක්වා නඩු පැවරීමකින් තොරව රදවා ගෙන සිටී.

සාධාරණ නඩු විභාගයක් සදහා වන අයිතිය මේ පිරිස් වෙතින් උදුරාගෙන ඇති අතර මොවුන්ට එරෙහි යුක්තිය පසිදලීමේ ක්‍ර‍මවේදය සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම අසාර්ථක වී ඇත.  සාධාරණ නඩු විභාගයකින් තොරව අත්තනෝමතිකව රදවා ගැනීම සහ අධිකරණ ක්‍රියාවලියේ තාක්ෂණික දුබලතා අවසන් කිරීමට දේශපාලන නායකත්වයේ අවධානය යොමුවීම අනිවාර්ය වේ.

දේශපාලන කරුණු මත දිගු කාලීනව රදවා ගෙන සිටින බොහෝ පිරිස් තමන්ගේ ජීවිත කාලයේ සැලකිය යුතු කොටසක් මේ වන විටත් සිරගතව ගෙවා දමා ඇත.  තවත් පිරිසක් අධිකරණ ක්‍රියාදාමයකට යොමු කිරීම හෝ නිදහස් කිරීම වෙනුවට දිගින් දිගටම රදවා තබා ගැනීම සිදුවේ.  එපමණක් ද නොව චෝදනා ඉදිරිපත් කොට නඩු විභාග සදහා මුහුණ දී සිටි බහුතරයක් පිරිස් චෝදනා ඔප්පු නොවී අධිකරණය මගින් නිදහස් කිරීමේ තත්වයන් පසුගිය සමයේ දී වාර්තා විය.

දේශපාලන ක්‍රියාකාරකම් හේතුවෙන් මේ වන විටත් රදවා ගෙන සිටින පිරිස් සම්බන්ධයෙන් නීති මගින් කටයුතු කිරීම හෝ ඔවුන් පුනරුත්ථාපනය හෝ වෙනත් විශෝධන ක්‍රියාවලියක් මගින් සමාජගත කිරීම කෙරෙහි රජයේ අවධානය වහා යොමු විය යුතුය.

චෝදනා ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමකින් පවා තොරව විශාල කාලයක් ‘දේශපාලන සිරකරුවන් රදවා තබා ගැනීම තුළින් මේ පිරිසගේ මානව හිමිකම් දැඩි ලෙස උල්ලංඝනය වීම වැලැක්විය නොහැකිය.  ජාතීන් අතර සංහිදියාව ඇති කර ගැනීමටත්, නැවත වරක් සමාජගත ජීවිතයක් සදහා ඔවුනට ඇති අවස්ථාව අහිමි නොකිරීමත් අවශ්‍ය ය. 

මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් නීතිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව සහ රජයේ දේශපාලන නායකත්වයේ අවධානය වහා යොමු විය යුතුව ඇතැයි කැෆේ සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍ර‍ දැඩිව විශ්වාස කරයි.

කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන්

විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ/කැෆේ සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍ර‍ය

2015 සැප්තැම්බර් 11

Shenali D Waduge

The white tiger lives in London and none of her crimes ever gets even a word of mention in the halls of humanity. Adele Ann Wilby Balasingham is directly responsible for denying a child’s fundamental rights by turning children as young as 10 into child soldiers and ordering them to commit suicide by biting into a cyanide capsule which she gifted at the end of the training. We do not know how many children she trained, nor do we know how many of those children are alive to tell their tales of woe but we do know and sufficient evidence is at hand to prove she was culpable for turning innocent children into killers and making them commit suicide as well. Two crimes for which she needs to be indicted. The problem is why is she happily living in the UK and none of those claiming to fight for truth and justice are bothered to demand that charges be pressed against her?

International opinion on suicide bombing

• Suicide terrorism has no legitimacy under international or local laws. There is no ‘just cause’ in homicide.
• Suicide missions are all crimes against humanity. No suicide bomber or suicide commander/trainer can be more important than the life or lives they are intentionally planning to eliminate. Suicide attacks fall into the category of murder with a mens rea – willingness to kill and willingness to die. Adele must be proved guilty.
• Human Rights Watch declares suicide bombing a crime against humanity. HRW also declares that ‘political elites, commanders, and those that organize, facilitate, and encourage these suicide attacks are likewise guilty of conduct that offends against prevailing norms of international criminal law’. Thus, Kenneth Roth, the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, [t]he people who carry out suicide bombings are not martyrs, they’re war criminals, and so are the people who help to plan such attacks.”
• [Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Article 28(b), U.N.Doc. no. A/CONF. 183/9 (17 July, 1998), 37 I.L.M. 999].

Conscripting and enlisting children under the age of 15 is a war crime prohibited by

• Article 8 (2) (e) non-international armed conflict of the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court
• Article 77 (2) of the Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions
• Article 38 (2) of the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) as well as the
• Optional Protocol to the CRC prohibits compulsory conscription of children under 18 years as direct participants in hostilities.
• we would like to know why LTTE has not been punished for the crime of conscripting children.

Background

• Adele Ann Wilby born 30 January 1950
• nurse from Warrigal, Victoria,
• Presently living in a £500,000 house in New Malden, Surrey (purchased after the dead of husband Anton Balasingham 14 Dec 2006). LTTE hired the prestigious Alexandra Hall in London to keep the remains of Balasingham costing £40,000 for 7 hours!
• Born in Australia now a British citizen
• Married Anton Balasingham on 1st September 1978 at the registry office in Brixton, South London

The Evidence : What is Adele Balasingham guilty of

1. If suicide terrorism is treated as a crime, Adele Balasingham stands guilty for her role in mass murder, recruitment leading to death, destruction of life and intentional killing of others.
2. In 2002 TIME magazine was taken to a female LTTE tiger base. Foreign NGOs operating in the North held seminars in these LTTE training sites some of which were LTTE run ‘orphanages’ – Sencholai being one. If these foreign representatives/agencies were concerned about the welfare of children why did they not report to their principals the violations being committed by the LTTE?
3. Adele was advisor/trainer of the LTTE women’s wing, LTTE’s female military unit was headed by Adele Balasingham; she christened them Freedom Birds” – with no worries economically, socially or politically, all these girls were focused towards was to kill.
4. Adele was trained by Prabhakaran himself to fire weapons.
5. Recruited, mentored, trained child soldiers, as young as nine to kill, maim, disfigure and injure initially in Skandapuram camp, Anbu base.
6. Denying their rights – These trainee suicide killers could well have been talented individuals. They were neither psychologicall nor mentally imbalanced. They were however indoctrinated perhaps even drugged. 10,000 or more are estimated to have died and for each death Adele & LTTE have to stand accountable to both the world and in particular to their parents as most of these children were kidnapped and raised in ‘orphanages’. These parents never desired their children to turn into killers leave alone suicide killers. These parents do not have the means to file action against Adele or LTTE but poverty cannot come between justice so where are the lawyers coming forward to file charges on behalf of these parents against Adele and LTTE for what happened to their children?
7. Students at Kanishta vidyalaya were taken by the LTTE to Lima 06 Camp in Kanahapuram, Vallipunam
8. Adele went from school to school recruiting children and camp to camp providing guidance. She is referred to as Adel Aunty and her baby brigade”. What aunty would lead children as young as 10 to their deaths?
9. In Patrima school 543 students were indoctrinated by LTTE propagandists including Adele.
10. It was the Tamil Tigers who created, recruited several thousand child soldiers and put them in the frontline so they died first”, Lord Naseby Chairman of the All Party British Sri Lanka Parliamentary Group http://www.sriexpress.com/articles/item/311-adele-balasingham-is-living-comfortably-in-southern-england-lord-naseby.html
11. Adele is seen garlanding LTTE cadres mostly kids with a cyanide capsule with orders to commit suicide if caught by the Sri Lankan troops https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ien4dgqfdU
12. The oath taken at the passing out ceremony is

Our revolutionary organisation’s purified aim

is for a free society to achieve Tamil Eelam

My life and soul and all this I sacrifice to

our organisation’s leader, our brother, Mr Prabhakaran

We fully accept that for him we will be very faithful and trustworthy

The aim of the Tigers – Tamils’ freedom.”

13. Interview with Russel Skelton of The Age in April 1990 http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/in-the-eyes-of-the-tiger/2009/05/22/1242498922811.html
14. Suicide Killers, BBC documentary in 1991 shows Adele in Tiger striped uniform carrying an AK 47 and wearing a Cyanide capsule around her neck
15. Her book Will to Freedom released in 1993 Adele praises the role of the 3000 women Tiger cadres
16. Escapees were arrested assaulted and tortured and some died and others became mentally ill and imprisoned.
17. Tamil children who fled from the LTTE or freed by the Sri Lankan security forces implicated Adele in recruitment, indoctrination, training, and direction
18. The children speak of how the LTTE harmed them and parents speak of how they forced their children into marriage ensuring pregnancy to prevent recruitment.

Role in LTTE

• Adele introduced by the Norwegian peace facilitators as a member of LTTE delegation to peace talks in Thailand. Proof of Adele Balasingham being a LTTE key member is given in the Norwegian Government website (SL) where she is listed a member of the LTTE delegation during the 2002 round the world peace talk sessions held in Thailand (three sessions), Oslo, Germany and Japan. http://www.norway.lk/Embassy/Peace-Process/peace/
• Wikileaks cable from US embassy of 11 September 2002 brief on Adele by Lewis Amselem, Charge d’Affaires She is secretary of the LTTE team going to Thailand. Based on all reports, she came from a middle class background in Australia, and became involved in LTTE and radical politics only after her marriage. Adele Balasingham is considered extremely dogmatic and inflexible regarding LTTE issues. A “Marxist-feminist” (to use her term), she had for years been deeply involved in the LTTE women’s wing. Her key party duty now (ironically) is serving as assistant to her husband, who needs constant medical attention for his kidney ailment.” 

She even wrote about the LTTE women – 2001 book The Will To Freedom: An Inside View Of Tamil Resistance,

‘Accountability’ must start with charging Adele Balasingham for turning men, women and children into killers, kidnapping them from parents, giving them training in arms, placing suicide vests on them, drugging and brainwashing them into killing others and taking their own lives – can a nurse be proud of by adopting euthanasia into cyanide capsule and asking her trainees to kill and die at the same time? Adele called them ‘Freedom Birds’ and even wrote a book on them!

In 2014 Sinhala expatriate groups and individuals in Australia, Britain, Canada, the Middle East, New Zealand and the United States say that they have petitioned the Sri Lanka Government to seek the extradition of Adele Balasingham from the UK and put her on trial in Sri Lanka for her terrorist activity and crimes against humanity spanning three decades.”

No UN, foreign envoy, human rights organization can claim to seek justice for children and their rights if they omit to demand legal action against Adele Balasingham for her crimes which are beyond reasonable doubt. Why are they not taking legal action is the question we are all asking in particular the UK Government and leaders who deliver plenty of speeches and statements on justice and accountability while keeping silent about action against Adele! 

Shenali D Waduge

Additional Reading:

• Is Adele Balasingham a war criminal?  http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20090616_06
• ‘Aunty’ to female Tamil Tigers run London protests from New Malden http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20090601_06
• Sinhala Expatriates Seek Extradition From UK Of War Crime Suspect Adele Balasingham https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/sinhala-expatriates-seek-extradition-from-uk-of-war-crime-suspect-adele-balasingham/
• Extradite Adele before the investigationhttp://www.dailynews.lk/?q=features/extradite-adele-investigation

අභීත එදිරිසිංහ 

නළුවෙක් නෙවෙයි මොළයක් විසින් විසඳූ, වී ගොවියන්ගේ ගැටළුව…. අයියෝ යහපාලනේ….

වී අලෙවි මණ්ඩලේ සභාපති දින දෙකකට කලින් කියුවේ දැන් වී මිල දී ගෙන අවසන්ව ඇති බවයි… මගේ මතකය නිවැරදිනම් රජය වී ටොන් එක්ලශ දහදාහක් අරන් තිබෙන බවත් තවත් ටොන් දස දහසක් මිලදී ගන්නා බවත් ප්‍රකාශ කලේය….

ගොවීන් උද්ඝෝශණයට සූදානම්ය.. හේතුව අනෙක් වී තොග රුපියල් 25ට 30ට පෞද්ගලික අංශයට විකුණන්න සිදු වීම නිසාය. යහපාලකයො ජනවාරි 8ට කලින් දුන් පොරොන්දුව මාස 9ක් ගොසිනුත් ඉටු කරන්නට නොහැකි වීම ගැන ගලේ පැහැරූ බළලුන් මෙන් සිටිති. පහත තිබෙන සරල කරුනු බලන්න…

1. හිතුමතේ වී රුපියල් පණහට ගන්නවා කියා කීම…
   2. රටේ වී අස්වැන්නෙන් කොටසක් පමණක් මිළදී ගැනීම..
   3. ඒ තුල හාල් මිල වැඩිවීම
   4. පෞද්ගලික ව්‍යාපාරිකයා වී කුණු කොල්ලෙට ලබා ගැනීම
   5. පෞද්ගලික ව්‍යාපාරිකයාගේ හාල්ද අර වැඩි මිලටම විකිණීම
   6. මේ කාරණය තුලින් පෞද්ගලික හාල් මෝල් හිමියා අති විශාල ලාභයක් ලැබීම.

රජයට මෙයට මුහුණ දීමට තිබූ ක්‍රමය…

1. අස්වැන්න නෙලන්න කලින් තාවකාලික ගබඩා නිර්මාණය කිරීම තුලින් රටේ සමස්ත වී තොග මිළදී ගැනීමට කටයුතු කිරීම ( මෙය ප්‍රායෝගිකය ඉතා දුශ්කරම කාර්යයකි..)
2. අතිරික්ත වී තොග මෝල් හිමියාට විකිනීමේදී රජය මැදිහත් වීම. මෝල් හිමියා සහ ගොවියා එක්තැනට ගෙන රජයේ අධීක්ශණය යටතේ වී වෙළදාම සිදු කිරීම…

නමුත් මේවා කරන්න බැරි පොරොන්දු බව දැනටමත් ඔප්පු වී ඇත. ගොවීන් කිහිප දෙනෙක් ගේ වී වැඩි මිලටත් බහුතරයක් වී ගොවීන්ගේ වී අඩු මිලටත් මිලට ගැනීම තුල ගොවියා අධෛර්යමත් වීම නොවැලැක්විය හැක…

හාල් මිල පෙර ලෙසම පවතිනු ඇත…. මේ ගැන ඉතා කෙටියෙන් පැවසූ අතර, ඒ කෙටි දෙය මේ ගැටළුව තේරුම් ගැනීමට ප්‍රමාණවත් වීයැයි හඟිමි…

“එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ශ රජයක් ආවම ඔක්කොම හරියයි” කියපු අයටත්, “රනිල් කියන්නේ නලුවෙක් නෙවෙයි මොලයක්” කියපු අයටත් සිදුවෙන අපහසුතාවය ගැන සිතා මම ඔවුන්ගෙන් කිසිවක් අසන්නේ නැත.

Courtesy Adaderana

5 comments to මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාගෙන් ඡන්ද දායකයින්ට විශේෂ පණිවිඩයක්!

Prof. Hudson McLean

History has demonstrated that, Sinhala are their Own Worst Enemy.

The bird-brain” mentality of some of these ill-educated Sinhala ”pundits” (sic) migrated to USA & Europe, especially the ones who are stuck in mediocre jobs, not professions, gossiping in their own Ghettos, have nothing better to say, but to criticise even those who are trying to support the Sinhala cause.

The reason why Tamils have climbed-up the ladder in commerce in Colombo, and now in VVIP Government positions, is mainly due to the Total Inept, Incompetence and Blindness with jealousy, and Back-stabbing of the Lazy Sinhala!

One  very good example is the current President Maithipala Sirisena, stabbling the back of ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Saviour of the Sinhala Sri Lanka from Tamils & Indians, in a typical scenario of Brutus stabbing Julius Ceaser!

Et Tu Brutus” Thanks for the Knife!

I come to Bury Ceaser Not to Praise Him!

As a non-Sri Lankan foreign citizen, I have tried to help bring investment to Sri Lanka during the times of late President Ranasingha Premadasa.  The members of his Sinhala delegations including all but, with the exception of Paskaralingham, were corrupt to the core.

When I brought a potential US$ 5 million Foreign Investment Aid related project, into a Colombo project, the Sinhala Chairman, a close friend of late Gamini Dissanayake, prioritized and  requested that I guaranteed the costs of his personal Cardiac Surgery in London plus First Class Air Fare for him and his wife, plus luxury Hotel Accommodation in London for his wife. Recuperation costs to be included in London luxury Cumberland Hotel at Oxford Street, with easy access to Lords Cricket Grounds.

I have personally funded expenditure of various Ministers and their cohorts, during their visits to Europe, including some costs of ACS Hamid – Foreign Minister at Kensington Hilton, Ronnie de Mel – Minister of Finance, and had breakfast with Prime Minister Premadasa during which I handed a cheque for US$5000-; for his Housing Project, got photos to prove.  Must add that Hon. Premadasa invited me to attend the inauguration of one of his projects. No further details!

However, some of the Sri Lankan Sinhala clowns in LankaWeb in their tiny warped minds”  are more interested in insignificant bits and pieces, without engaging and focusing  themselves in the main problem, and the core issues.

And when following the Main Thread of Contributions, these jokers tend to run -off-track, indicating their lack of focus, and basic sense of logic or intelligence.

The question should be, If or not, Prof. Hudson McLean is Scottish or Nigerian, or if Hudson is related to Lorenzo, possibly be a cousin of Prabhakaran, but whether  McLean is making any contribution to the Sinhala Cause?

Get a Life and Grow-up!

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By Neville Ladduwahetty

The bizarre political collusion between the two major coalitions the UNFGG and the UPFA has caused the UPFA to become a constituent of the UNFGG-led Government.  The unintended consequence has been for the TNA to claim leadership of the Opposition on the grounds that it has the third largest majority in Parliament.  This, despite its stated claim in the TNA Manifesto that the Tamils are a distinct people in a contiguous predominantly Tamil speaking Northern and Eastern province but with the right of self-determination to the Tamil people (not to the Tamil speaking and non-Tamil speaking) and for a power sharing arrangement within a federal structure.  The TNA, having sought a mandate from the Tamil people on the above basis, to claim and to accept leadership of the Opposition of a Parliament, and take an oath to uphold the constitution of a unitary state reflects a serious moral deficit.

Notwithstanding the conduct of the TNA the focus should be on the circumstances that brought about the current situation.  The implications of the unusual and hitherto unprecedented understanding between the UNFGG and the UPFA are set out below.  They are premised on the inviolability of the franchise of the People and the violation of the Will of the People that forms the basis for the authority of a Government.

• The majority of the People voted either for the UNFGG or the UPFA. They represent contrasting constituencies.  They did not vote for any of the constituent parties of either coalition.  Consequently, the People’s franchise has to be honoured accordingly.
• Since the understanding is between ONLY two of several recognized political parties that contested the August 17^th Election it is not a National Government. Instead, it is a Government formed by the UNFGG with the participation of the UPFA albeit as a junior partner.  This arrangement does not meet the threshold for a National Government as stated in Article 46 (5) of the 19^th Amendment because the arrangement is not between the UNFGG with the highest number of seats in Parliament together with other recognized political parties”.  Therefore, the number of Cabinet ministers has to be limited to 30 as per the 19^th  Those who voted for a cabinet larger than 30 should be held accountable for violating the 19^th Amendment to the Constitution and the oath they took to uphold the Constitution.
• Since the current arrangement is NOT a National Government as defined by the 19^th Amendment, the allocation of cabinet posts in a Government made up of UNFGG and the UPFA should be based on the ratio of their respective representation in Parliament, meaning firstly in the ratio of 95 (UPFA) to 106 (UNFGG) and secondly in the ratio of 82 (SLFP) to 95 within the UPFA, if the franchise of the People are to be honoured and not violated. This means that out of the 30 cabinet posts 14 (95/201times 30=14) should be assigned to the UPFA and 16 (106/201times 30=16) to the UNFGG.  And within the UPFA it should be 12 to the SLFP (82/95 times 14=12) with the remaining 2 to the other constituents of the UPFA.   This is what the voters expect.  Any variation is to discredit and dishonor the franchise of the People.
• Any arrangements with constituent political parties in the UNFGG and UPFA coalitions are illegal because no voter cast his/her vote for a constituent party in either of the 2 coalitions, but to the coalitions themselves.
• Since the UNFGG has the largest majority it could legitimately form a Government with individual members of constituent parties of the UPFA, or any other political party that opts to cross over. However, individuals who do not cross over should be in the Opposition.  However, the UPFA leadership has denied its members to be in the Opposition and exercise their due responsibilities as members of a legitimate Opposition in order to protect the interests of the People who voted for them.  This amounts to a violation of the People’s franchise because their interests are unrepresented; a violation that should be legally challenged.  It is the abdication of a key tenet of democracy by the UPFA leadership that has enabled the TNA leader to be the leader of the Opposition.  In permitting such an outcome, the UPFA leadership has violated the trust and devalued the franchise of the voters who voted for them.

CURRENT ARRANGEMENT

The UNFGG with its 106 members and the UPFA with its 95 members in Parliament represent contrasting political constituencies.  The choice for them is either to govern jointly or be separate.  There is no in-between. If the two major coalitions decide to govern jointly then it must follow that they are not only represented proportionately in the Cabinet but also that they reflect proportionately, the composition of the constituent members of each coalition.  Furthermore, it is imperative that a joint agenda that reflects the aspirations of both constituencies is formulated for implementation.  No other arrangements would reflect a Unity Government.

The current arrangement is flawed because it is skewed in favour of the UNFGG, compelling the UPFA to settle for a disproportionately small representation in the Cabinet with the rest functioning as a silent majority.  This violates the concept of a Unity Government.  Furthermore, it constitutes a serious dereliction of duty and abdication of responsibility by the leadership of the UPFA for which they should be held accountable because they have abused, devalued and disenfranchised the electorate that voted for the UPFA, thereby leaving the interests of the latter unrepresented.

If on the other hand, the UNFGG is to form a Government by arranging the cross-over of hand-picked individuals from other political parties/coalitions such as the UPFA, the rest of the UPFA should be free to be part of the Opposition.  The current arrangement where hand-picked individuals from a constituent party of the UPFA – the SLFP – are with the Government and the rest are NOT with the Opposition has made the majority of the UPFA impotent because their only function appears to be silent enablers in the furtherance of the UNFGG agenda.  This devalues the franchise of the People who voted for the UPFA. Therefore, the majority of the members of the UPFA have an obligation to the millions who voted for them to free themselves of the straight-jacket they have been subjected to so that they are free to exercise the Will of the People they represent.  The right of the representatives of the UPFA to act free of constraints should be legally enforced in the name of the People.

CONCLUSION

The state of the Sri Lankan Republic today reflects a very poor understanding of the fundamentals of governance leave alone what constitutes good governance.  The current arrangement denies the UPFA elected representatives the freedom to choose whether to be true partners of a UNFGG-led Government or to lead the Opposition.  If this denial is because of restrictions imposed either by UPFA or SLFP Party Constitutions, they should be legally declared as subordinate to the sovereign rights of the People’s franchise. If this violation of fundamental rights is not legally corrected, the franchise of millions would be devalued by being relegated to a status lower than the rest.  The only avenue open for the People to regain their dignity and self-respect is to seek refuge in the halls of justice, via a Fundamental Rights case.

Neville Ladduwahetty

September 4, 2015.

මහේෂ් සමරසේකර තාක්ෂණ, තාක්ෂණ අධ්‍යාපන හා රැකියා අමාත්‍යතුමාගේ මාධ්‍ය ලේකම්

සියයට හයක ප්‍රතිශතයක පවතින විරැකියා ගැටළුවට විසඳුම් සෙවීමට නව අමාත්‍යංශය තුළින් කටයුතු කරන බව අමාත්‍ය සුසිල් ප්‍රේමජයන්ත මහතා පැවසීයග   අමාත්‍යතුමා මේ බව ප්‍රකාශ කළේ අද පෙරවරුවේ තාක්ෂණ, තාක්ෂණ අධ්‍යාපන හා රැකියා අමාත්‍ය ධූරයේ රාජකාරි ආරම්භ කිරීමේ අවස්ථාවට එක්වෙමිනි.මෙහි දී වැඩිදුරටත් අදහස් දැක් වූ අමාත්‍යතුමා  මෙසේද පැවසීය.

”රැකීරක්ෂා පිළිබඳ කතාබහ අප රටේ ප්‍රමුඛතම මාතෘකාවක් බවට අද පත්ව තිබෙනවාග සමස්ත ජනගහනයෙන් 6‍% ක ප්‍රතිශතයක් වන එයල අවුරුදු 20- 30 ත් අතර වයස් කාණ්ඩ වලට අදාලව ගත්විට 20‍% ක තරම් ප්‍රතිශතයක් වෙනවාග ඒ නිසා සංවර්ධිත රටක් ගොඩනැගීමට නම් ඒ අභියෝගය ජය ගැනීමට අපට සිදුවෙනවාග  ඒ සඳහා තාක්ෂණ විද්‍යාල සහ පර්යේෂණ ආයතනයන් සම්බන්ධ කර ගනිමින් දේශීය හා විදේශීය රැකියා වෙළඳපලට අවශ්‍ය කරන ශ්‍රමිකයින් මෙන්ම මානව සම්පත නිර්මාණය කිරීමට නව අමාත්‍යංශය හරහා කටයුතු කරනවාග නව අමාත්‍යංශයේ කටයුතු වෙනුවෙන් සංකල්ප පත්‍රිකාවක් සකස්කොට පස් අවුරුදු සැලැස්මක් යටතේ ක්‍රියාත්මක වෙමින් වර්ෂයෙන් වර්ෂය ඉලක්කගත වැඩපිළිවෙලක් ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමට මා බලාපොරොත්තු වෙනවා” යනුවෙන් පැවසීය.

කොල්ලුපිටියේ  පිහිටි තාක්ෂණ, තාක්ෂණ අධ්‍යාපන හා රැකියා අමාත්‍යාංශයේ පැවති මෙම අවස්ථාවට ආපදා කළමනාකරණ අමාත්‍ය අනුර ප්‍රියදර්ශන යාපා, බස්නාහිර පළාත් සභා මන්ත්‍රී හෙක්ටර් බෙත්මගේ, අමාත්‍යංශ ලේකම් ආර්.විජයලක්ෂ්මි, අතිරේක ලේකම් අනුරාධා ඉලේපෙරුම යන මහත්ම මහත්මීන්ද අමාත්‍යංශයට අනුබද්ධ ආයතන වල ප්‍රධානීන්ද ඇතුළු විශාල පිරිසක් සහභාගී වූහ.

මහේෂ් සමරසේකර

තාක්ෂණ, තාක්ෂණ අධ්‍යාපන හා රැකියා අමාත්‍යතුමාගේ

මාධ්‍ය ලේකම්

077 – 2974167

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R&D Media

Ministry of Technology,Technical Education & Empoyment

Michael Roberts

An outhouse at a local talaivar’s property in Kayts —Pic by Roberts in June 2010

දයා විජේසිංහ ප්‍රධාන ලේකම් දැ දම් රක්නෝ

ගෞරවනීය ස්වාමීන්වහන්ස, හිතවත් දෑ හිතකාමී මිත්‍රවරුනී.

අති ගරු ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතා සාම්පූර් ට ගොස් දමිළ අවතැන්වූවන්ට ඉඩම් ඔප්පු ලබා දීමේ උත්සවයේ දී කළ කතාව සහ සිංහල අවතැන් වූවන්ගේ දුක්බර තත්ත්වය මෙන්ම ඒ හා සම්බන්ධ ඇතැම් කරුණු අළලා අප සංවිධානයේ දැක්ම අනුව සකස් වූ ලිපියක් පහත දැක්වේ.

එම ලිපිය ඉංග්‍රීසියෙන් සහ සිංහලයෙන් පසුගිය සතියේ දී සිංහල ජාතික පුවත් පත් 6ට සහ ඉංග්‍රීසි පුවත් පත් 5ට යවන ලදී.  පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ දී පවා සිංහලයින්ගේ ප්‍රශ්න ගැන කතා කිරීමට සීමා බාධක වැටෙමින් පවතින වටපිටාවක මෙම ලිපි පුවත්පත්වල පළවේ යැයි බලාපොරොත්තු තැබීම අපහසු ය.  එමනිසා මෙම ලිපිය ඔබ දන්නා අයට ඉදිරිපත් කරන්නේ නම් මැනවි.

ලිපියෙහි අඩංගු කරණු කාරණා සම්බන්ධව ඔබගේ අදහස්, යෝජනා හා විවේචන අපි අගයමු.

An article reflecting the thinking of our organization on the speech of His Excellency the President, Mr. Maithripala Sirisena, at the ceremony giving title deeds to Tamil IDPs at Sampur and the sad plight of Sinhala IDPs, as well as on connected issues, is given below.

This letter was sent to 6 Sinhala national newspapers and 5 English newspapers.  In a developing situation where the right to speak on problems faced by the Sinhalese would be obstructed even in the Parliament, it is a bit far fetched to expect the letters to be published.  We therefore would appreciate if you could forward same to your contacts please.

We would appreciate your views and criticism on the contents of the letter.

යහපතක්ම වේවා.

දයා විජේසිංහ

ප්‍රධාන ලේකම්

දැ දම් රක්නෝ

​

By Major General (Retd.) Lalin Fernando  Courtesy Asian Tribune

SL’s Foreign Minister (FM) is taking giant strides to make a good impression with the West that looks for weaknesses in ‘unfriendly’ (to the Western ‘World’) governments like SL’s last one. He seems to be succeeding. After the Presidential Election (Jan 2015) he together with the Justice Minister said there had been an attempted Coup. Large numbers believed them. The PM said nothing. Nothing happened.

Then speaking about Foreign Policy (Mirror; 24 Apr 15) the FM said SL was connecting with the main power centers of the world being New Delhi, (naturally first now) Brussels, Washington (slightly hidden) London and China-4 cities and one huge country. That China too had a capital city Beijing may have skipped him. Somehow he forgot Russia the biggest country in the world, with its capital named Moscow. The friendly West SL’s latest good friends that until very recently were determined to hang and quarter it in Geneva must have been elated. Good boy old chap” they must have said of SL’ FM. China and Russia were always SL’s very good friend but not now. How very odd.

When the US Assistant Secretary Nisha Biswal of American East Indian origin arrived in SL she had another really rousing and warm experience. We did it” must have been the ‘battle cry for freedom’. USA and tiny SL were suddenly great friends. Up Yahapalana. The Chinese string of pearls is damned. Chennai got another periodical fit and protested that an Indian (Gujarati) born American was promoting SL.

Kiss me quick before I shoot” (Anon-song)
‘This kiss, this kiss, its criminal” (Faith Hill-song)

The FM galloped up to her and – ooh, ooh, ooh, kissed her gallantly, ardently and fervently on both cheeks. Onlookers on TV included, noted this was without the slightest ‘by your leave’. Maybe he was trying to impress whoever is impressed by a man making the first move in polite society, not just to shake hands but to kiss a woman in public. And this when on state duty. Biswal was diplomatic. With aplomb that may pass at St James, (who knows) she rose to the occasion. She had experienced these SL photo catching forays by people who have not played cricket- the gentleman’s game, before. Diplomats must not only lie for their country. After all sending a BEAH (Brown East Asian Hindu pron: BEAR) instead of a white eyed WASP was a canny move when trapping LIONs.

If SL’s President still talks about shaking hands with the ungloved hands of the Queen of England, whatever must our FM be boasting about. Lucky him. Imagine if it was the other way round.

Some SL ministers are going full steam ahead trying to outdo each other to show their familiarity with what they consider the heights of western sophistication. They should be told that there was a time when the Japanese who had worn Confucian garb for hundreds of years, and were called upstarts by China, discarded it for coat and tails. The first time they did so, the story goes, and they wore the coat with the tails in front! China, considered for centuries as the center of the world in the Far East including Korea, was horrified. The Japanese had become the obedient ally of the USA but were called dwarfs by China. Pearl Harbour, ‘comfort’ women and the A bomb were followed by the Korean War. Why?

Biswal’s visit was followed by Blair’s speech at the Lakshman Kadirigamar (LK) Memorial lecture on 25 Aug 15. Few knew he was already in SL on holiday with his wife and their child with a friend. She promotes her business when she is not falling into ponds in hotels. Many would have liked to know who spent on them.
Some say it was the Brit tax payer, some say not. The irrepressible FM then out did the Queen. He ‘knighted’ Tony Blair during his welcome speech.

Many in UK are calling for Blair’s blood. He was PM and ordered British troops to take part in a widely alleged criminal war on a cooked up WMD charge against Saddam’s Iraq on the insistence of the USA’s Bush. Blair by supporting Bush’s fibs is held responsible by several retired Generals of the Brit army for the deaths of 179 British troops. Blair, an expert spin doctor, is referred to in Dublin’s famous O’Connell street, (where about 100 years ago British Army elements called Black and Tans massacred the Irish Catholics by machine gunning them) as ‘war criminal‘. It was exactly 200 years ago that Blair’s countrymen attempted genocide in Uva Wellasa. Was this knowledge foreign to the FM when the call went out to Blair to speak about one of SL’s contemporary heroes?

Why then was he called to deliver the guest speech? Why was he ‘knighted’ by the FM? Blair himself must have wondered why he had even been invited when he was a being ‘accused’ by his own people of war crimes.

Obviously the FM thought Blair was a fit person to do so when he called Blair ‘Sir’? There a contradiction when the FM who urged ‘democracies should fight this scourge’ (terrorism) less we lose those values, principles and freedoms we cherish most” still invited Blair to be guest speaker to honour LK, knowing his reputation regarding the criminal war against Iraq.

Blair’s successor Cameron too is being held responsible by his former Army Chief, General Sir David Richards and his MI 6 Chief John Sawyers for the rise of ISIL. Experts blamed the migrant crisis to UK attacking Libya, leading to the fall of Gaddafi. Will Cameron, who abused his guest status in SL in 2013 be invited next-just because he too is a ‘friendly Westerner’ who will also not hesitate to wage war on non Westerners?

Is there any clue as to why Blair was invited in the FM’s speech? He said: He (LK) always believed in a political solution and the importance of addressing the grievances of the Tamil community. Had he been alive in 2009… he would have prevailed on the government not to squander away the opportunity for durable peace by adopting a triumphalist (sic) approach. He urged that the democracies of the world must stand to fight this scourge, lest we lose the values, principles and freedom that we cherish most ….It was during his (Blair’s) tenure as FM that the funding for the LTTE in western countries including in the UK when you were PM Sir”, was stopped through effective legislation. That in fact was the beginning of the end for the LTTE”.

Why does this shameless colonial attitude of calling any western VIP ‘Sir’, persist after nearly 70 years of Independence, following 500 years of evil and often brutal colonization by the formidable ‘friendly’ West? Or does the FM call every Tom, David and Tony ‘Sir’? Did he call the Gujarati American Biswal ‘ma’am’ after kissing her?

The beginning of the end, Blair ‘Sir’ (arise), was definitely not when the UK stopped Diaspora funding for the LTTE. This is utter and blatant hypocrisy. It was 7 years after, at Mavil Aru, in the East. The peace accord was deservedly thrown into the canal waters that had been denied the farmers by the terrorists.

This was a futile and also reprehensible way of taking away the recognition and honour due to the victorious forces that made it happen.

The FM in praise of Blair made out that UK with the USA banned the LTTE but he failed to mention that while the USA did so in 1997, the UK under Blair kicked its heels until 2001. He did not ask what delayed Tony ‘Sir’ who was UK PM from 1994 (to 2007). Was it not Diaspora support for the UK elections that made Blair take his time?

Yet the FM even ‘knighted’ Blair.
The FM tied himself in knots trying to impress Blair ‘Sir’ and the others about what should have been the solution to the SL conflict. He attempted to award an accolade to LK on an inspiration that had taken 10 silent years to develop.

The FM, profoundly no doubt, said that LK, (who died in Aug 2005),”never believed in a military solution to the national problem. However at times he has been misunderstood by some who claim that he believed in a military solution. This is far from the truth……. In fact he was the first person in the world in 1963 to conduct an Amnesty International (AI) investigation in a country, which was Vietnam”.

Now what’s all this about Amnesty International (AI) and LK going to Vietnam in 1963? Is it a bit of ’koheda yanne, malle pol’ or ‘spinning around the mulberry bush’ story? Vietnam had just overthrown Diem a dictator who being a Catholic had suppressed by force, the majority Buddhists. The relevance is difficult to understand unless the FM thought that mention of Vietnam would serve as a red herring. The USA had not yet come to the aid of South Vietnam at the time. When it did General Giap did not seek political solutions. He won decisively on the battle field. Maybe if he did as the FM promotes, the conflict would still have been raging with Giap, like LK in SL, among millions more, dead, buried and forgotten.
The FM opines that LK who died in Aug 2005 really wanted a political solution as though it remained solution after 26 years of bitter and brutal conflict. In that case LK, like the FM, CBK and the present PM and SL would have been the losers. In fact if SL had followed that path, the conflict would have been raging yet. Tens of thousands of innocents on both sides would have been dying. Does the FM want LK to join him in that VVIP sin bin, but posthumously? Had LK been as accommodative and naïve if not foolish as the FM vouches, would he have been assassinated by the terrorists?

LK was never ‘misunderstood’ on this issue except possibly by the FM himself. LK risked his life bring in peace with honour to SL. Some racists, green with envy at the accolades he received worldwide, called him names and even rejoiced in Colombo 7 when he was murdered by a terrorist assassin. He carried no private agenda or ‘friendly countries’ baggage to serve his country.

The terrorists protected themselves with a human shield of 300,000 Tamil hostages. They knew and wanted little else other than bloodletting right up to their very last day on earth. What sort of political solution could have been given?

This is what the USA DOD released in its Law of War manual in June 2015.It states The party that employs human shields in an attempt to shield military objectives from attack assumes responsibility for their injury”. It goes on to clarify ”If a proportionality rule were interpreted to permit use of hostages to prohibit attacks such an interpretation could perversely encourage the use of human shields”. This is what SL has been saying for the last 5 years. Who ‘encouraged’ it before? It took a long time for the USA that can control the UN, to wake up after making uninvited guest appearances at Geneva.

Blair himself emphasized that for reconciliation to work there must be peace first. That is what happened after the collapse of the terrorists at Puthukkudirippu on the banks of the Nandikadal lagoon in May 2009. There was complete peace, for ever, everywhere in SL.
So why is the FM harping about political solutions? The world has acknowledged and in many places rejoiced that a military solution did bring peace to SL in May 2009.
Is the FM decrying SL’s victory over the terrorists that brought peace, after 26 years of bitter conflict, 21,000 troop deaths and possibly another 80,000 civilians killed in the North and South?

What will the horse deal for US support be this time? SL had some time between 2001 and 2004 permitted rendition flights for captured Islamist terrorists who were allowed to transit Colombo. This time the price may be higher.

Maybe the FM does not want to know how many times political solutions were offered to the terrorists from the Timpu talks in 1987, to the sell out PTOMS and notorious CFA (2001) – that has no known originator.

The FM could tell Blair, Blake and Biswal with Cameron seeking refuge thrown in how the political party he is in now, won the 1989/90 insurgent battle with the JVP. Was it a ‘political solution’ that destroyed 60,000 youth in about a year? Was the political solution then to torture without compunction, remorse or pity, defence lawyers like Liyanaarachchi and journalists like Richard de Soyza among thousands of others and kill them after? Was there freedom of expression in 1998/9? Was the murder of captured leader of the JVP, Wijeweera, a political solution? He was shot but did not die. He was then tossed alive into the incinerator at the Borella crematorium after being grilled by politicians and on their orders. Most of the youth who were murdered were from Southern families eking out a desperate living. Is there a time bar to such crimes that could have led to genocide of the Sinhalese? Reconciliation needs to come to the South too. Who will head that ‘Commission’?

Who in the ‘friendly’ West and in the then ruling party cried for them and talked of ‘white flags’, reconciliation and political solutions then? The Southern youth were just taken from their homes at night. They did not have bed sheets white or green to hang out. They slept on mats on the floor and were shot and burned and put into unknown graves or left on the streets to drive fear into the people.

Did NATO have a political solution for Iraq (reportedly over one million killed) and Afghanistan? Does the FM believe the USA, NATO or its ally the UN have a political solution for the ISIL which is seriously threatening Europe?

It is very true and clear that the last government lost its morality and its way after hostilities ended. Its greatest failure was its loss of integrity and credibility. Finally even its legitimacy was challenged.
But it did not squander” opportunities to bring about reconciliation. After all 12,000 former cadres, something from 30% to 50% of the terrorist battle strength, after capture or having surrendered, were rehabilitated and released. It did however squander the national wealth in an unparalleled and shocking way.
If LK was alive his character and personality would surely have influenced the former President to respond to the post conflict challenges better. But those who enjoyed life with him for 5-10 years and kept their mouths well corked are also to blame for the reckless and greedy ‘squandering’ of the true benefits of peace.
LK’s memorial lecture should however not have been taken as an opportunity to publicize rejected theories on how to ‘fight scourges’ in ‘democracies’ in order to criticize SL’s unique and stunning victory against the world’s most ruthless terror group. Especially after inviting Blair. This was simply to camouflage and conceal rejected policies supported by appeasers who would have divided the country if they had power.

Meanwhile beware Greeks bearing goods who ‘come to do well but stay to do well’. And watch out for incorrigibles who wanted political solutions that never existed for a problem that was so well solved by an extraordinary display of military effort that won the confidence of the 300,000 ‘human shield’ Tamil hostages. If saving 300,000 Tamil lives means anything it is best to dump ‘political solutions’ into the Walawe and watch how the Mahaveli, Kelani, Kalu gangas flow peacefully today

Let the kissing however continue, more Blairs be invited and knighted and Camerons be blighted. If that is what inspires FMs and traps SL into the sly Imperial web of ‘friendly’ western countries, let the people be warned.

A one year budget of the USA of $ 330 billion. This has now (2014) gone past a trillion dollars, equal to more than $50,000 an hour for every citizen for every hour since Jesus Christ was born, enough to provide every American with completely free medical care no matter the ailment, and completely free education all the way to their PhDs (this would allow the US to reach the level of Cuba.) Think of the numerous kinds of suffering the American people have to bear their entire life which could be avoided if the military budget were used for peaceful purposes”.(Preface- ‘The Rouge State’ -William Blum – 2014 edition)

– Asian Tribune –

Dr Sudath Gunasekara President Senior Citizens Movement Mahanuwara 10.9.2015

That may be why the present Government has not set up a Ministry to rehabilitate the Kandyan Peasants who number over 6 million in 16 Districts. I ask this question from the Government that talk so high of good governance to alleviate people’s problems within a high sounding frame work of Yahapalanaya. The subject of Kandyan Peasant Rehabilitation has been much debated ever since 1949 when a Commission was appointed to address the question of alleviating their problems. In spite of releasing one of the most comprehensive and authentic reports on Kandyan matters in 1951 by a group of an extremely eminent men, I must state with much regret that nothing substantial has happened to attend to their problems up to date. The only lukewarm and toothless organization set up in late 1980s was also closed down in Jan 2014.

 Isn’t it a national tragedy that this Government which has set up separate ministries for 48 loosely connected subjects  and appointed 48 (so far) Cabinet ministers, some of which are utterly ridiculous and meaningless  like one even for wild life has completely ignored the Kandyan Peasants as they are not worth a wild animal in this country to this Government. That may be why it has forgotten to have a Separate Ministry for them who number over 6 million living in the Central, Sabaragamuwa, Uva and North Central Provinces and in parts of NWN, Southern, Eastern and Northern Provinces living in 16 Districts out of the 25 Districts.

 In this essay I am particularly querying regarding the fate of the Kandyans who are living in the Hill country. They are the real and undisputed Bhumiputras of this land more specifically the Central Hills and who have a birth right over this very territory from the dawn of history. It was uninhabited thick jungle, except few spots, declared as Thanachi kele by Kings and it formed the master watershed of the nation that guaranteed the entire life system and the civilization in this country. This was their beloved land inherited from their ancestors that was taken over by force by the British since 1840 under draconian and repressive laws, opened up for plantations and where nearly 1 million south Indian Tamils labourers brought by them were settled; this was the land their ancestors lost for the British and on which they died in battle in thousands; this is the only land in the world where they have to fall back and pray and get buried when they die.

 According to the latest reports they are the most neglected and betrayed people in this country and they are among the poorest of the poor and the most neglected and betrayed by all Governments since independence. But this is how their own government treats the Kandyan Peasants, the descendants of those millions who have died between1505-1948 to protect the motherland and leave behind their heritage for the present generation.

What is worse is that while this Government treats the natives in this manner the same government has created a new Ministry called Ministry of Upcountry New Villages, Estate Infrastructure & Community Development only for estate Tamils and appointed P. Digambaram as its Minister, introducing a new type of Villages to this country called ‘Upcountry New Villages’ unheard in the annals of history in this country since the dawn of history. I also would like to point out at this stage that these were the very lands denied to the native Sinhala people who were evacuated in thousands from Kotmale and other landslide affected areas in the past to satisfy Thondaman. They were sent to the LTTE infested Dry Zone then. How come the present Government is generously handing over land denied to the sons of the soil to the Indian Tamils who should have been sent to India in order to create Tamil villages in the heart land of the Sinhale.

I am sure these Villages will be the future mono-Tamil villages referred to by Ra nil Wickramasingha and Kiriella during the pre-election period when they were handing over outright ownership of lands to estate Tamils. The ultimate result of this programme is the establishment of a separate Tamil country on the central Sri Lanka comprising Kandy, Matale, Nuwara Eliya and Badulla which will be extended to parts of Kegalla, Ratnapura and Monaragala districts in the near future. This is travesty and blatant violation and betrayal of the birth rights of the native Kandyan peasants. I am lost to understand as to why the Kandyan politicians and leaders, if there are any, do not protest against this selective discrimination against their own people.

Apart from the importance of the Central hill country as the ‘Geographical Heartland’ (Major watershed of the nation) as the area from where the Islands entire river system of the Island begins when you think of its geopolitical and strategic importance, I am sure, no man or woman who loves his/her motherland can approve this treacherous political betrayal. Putting this region under the control of South Indian Tamils whose allegiance is still with India will be the end of the Sinhala Buddhist civilization in this country. From an Indian perspective I don’t think God could bestow a better deal on them than this as this will complete the age old Indian hegemonic dream over this Island. In fact this is exactly what they have been dreaming from the days of Ramayana. In other word what Rama and the whole chain of invaders like Sena Guttika, Elara (2n C BC) and Kalinga Magha( 12^th C AD) failed to do for 5000 years will be done by the  Ranil and Maitripala Sirisena government in the next few years.

In reality these estate Tamils should have been sent back to India or taken to Briton by their owners when they left the shores of this country. Anyway now that has not happened in time and also as these people have no place to go let them be here. But of course not as South Indians, but as people of this country, mixed up with the natives without trying to create another Tamilnadu here.

But the tragedy is they are not prepared to do so. They want to have a little India inside this Sinhala land. That is why we have been against Tamilizing this part of the country right from the beginning. That is why we suggested creating Sinhala-Tamil mixed villages for those who get displaced from the plantations together with landless peasants from the neighboring Kandyan villages as mixed village settlements so that there will be permanent  ethnic and social harmony in this part of the country.

Now look at the following news item that appeared in the Daily FT of 5^th May 2015 on a 10-year National Plan of Action for Plantation Infrastructure Development.

 The Ministry of Plantation Infrastructure Development has initiated an action to formulate a 10-year National Plan of Action 2015-2025 for social development of the plantation community with the technical assistance of the United Nations            Development   Progrogramme UNDP 

The key objectives of the National Plan of Action (NPA) are to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the plantation areas, especially in the estate sector.

The comprehensive 10-year NPA is expected to be finalized by end of July 2015.
Given the national importance of this”

The 10-year National Plan of Action for Plantation Infrastructure Development is intended for social development of the plantation community with UNDP assistance to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the plantation areas, especially in the estate sector. This is also classed as a Top Development Project of the present Government. The short period of completion stipulated, broad areas of development covered and the tight time frame and the national importance given to it clearly show the high degree of priority the present  Government has assigned to the estate Tamil votes, while criminally neglecting and betraying shamefully all the Sinhala people particularly living in the Central, Sabargamuwa and Uva Provinces

I am only happy to see the subject of plantation has now being taken out from Kiriella an dgiven to Naveen Dissanayaka and I sincerely hope he being the son of Gamini will not be a party to this vote hunting political treason deployed by his predecessor.

I request the government not to take this type of short sighted policy decisions for narrow political expediencies without thinking of the future of the country. Our politicians should be ashamed for playing with the destiny of a great nation like this. None of them have the brain, vision or the political will to sit down with knowledgeable and patriotic people and work out a long lasting reconciliatory solution to this problem. The same is true of both Sinhala and Tamil politicians.

I can assure you with hundred percent certainty that if you go ahead with this programme without heeding to my observations, definitely you will be guilty for creating another Israel right at the centre of this country in five years.

Therefore I request the Government to immediately stop creating these mono-Tamil settlements at least now in the hill country for short term political gains. Then create the Ministry of Kandyan Peasantry Development to implement the rehabilitation programme outlined in the KPC report of 1951 and start a vigorous settlement programme under a village expansion project as Sinhala Tamil mixed villages with your eyes projected to the future where one can see Sri Lankan (not Indian) villages where ethnic and socio-cultural harmony reigns without any distinction as Sinhalese and Tamils. Once that is done both Sinhalese and Tamils in the hill country could be called Kandyan peasants, all sons and daughters of mother Lanka with no one having any allegiance to South India thereafter. This in my opinion is the best solution one could think of to bring about a permanent solution to this vexed problem.

BY GOMIN DAYASRI

India’s refusal to take DRS [Decision Review System] on board is just not cricket. Call it adulterated cricket.

ICC has a queer boardroom. If respected journalist Scyld Berry’s [Telegraph-UK] description of the last CEO’s meeting in Singapore, is credible – is ICC Indo-centric after suffering from a bout of Anglo Australian hangovers where the two countries formed a regal club over their former colonies to hold a veto power till 1996: stunted the growth of the game. India never attempted to democratize cricket instead joined the big boys to make it a triumvirate. Cricket administrators are like politicians: currency takes precedent over cricket. If Australia and England played duopoly, India upended playing monopoly without a partner.

Scyld Berry moans: Before the afternoon, all the chief executives except India’s were in favor of the new umpires Decision Review System (DRS) for all international matches. After the tea break, the chief executives … voted to give … India-the veto power”. What happened over tea and cucumber sandwiches is a story untold? Let’s open the landscape.

Every test playing nation [9 in number] excluding India – make calls for DRS inspection, where errors made by umpires are subject to an appeal that is tested by a verified scrutiny. That rule is presently in operation where all Test playing nations compete at multi-polar contests – India included [World Cup 20/50 & Champions Trophy]. When India plays against another at an international fixture under a bi-lateral arrangement [Test match or 50/20 internationals] it is the Indian Board of Control for Cricket [BCCI] that calls the shots, which leads to double standards with DRS extracted.

If India opts out of the World Cup on refusing DRS, it would have to twiddle its thumbs away from the boundary ropes while other nations hog the limelight in the center pitch.  India relents and participates: prudently without getting pick-pocketed. Otherwise in India, occult would be in business, media channels would turn chatter- box, suicide rate will increase, public premises would be gutted and premiums paid to insurance companies to protect homes of administrators.

As much, no nation will dare refuse to play India – just because India refuses to adopt DRS, the prime consideration takes precedent: filthy lucre fills the coffers of the host nation – when India enters the field. ICC, if it’s writ runs, should lay down the rule of uniformity, as it does in other cricketing matters. ICC is lax: eyeing the treasury.

In DRS, the umpire’s decision made at ground level is rightfully upheld unless it is palpably bad. A ruling by an umpire in a controversial leg before wicket decision (lbw) is revised, when the prime pointers are against his decision. That’s a tough hurdle to overcome but is frequently overturned to reveal the extent of the fault element is in the making of decisions by umpires. Mind you its two unsuccessful appeals per 80 overs, giving umpires a comfort zone to reign supreme. If there is a slightest element of doubt, the decision stays with the umpire. An umpire is always right, is a myth that existed before cricket came under the sway of television and technology to make them almost infallible. There lived one Don Bradman, in the days of faulty decisions; if DRS were available his average will rise further than the late nineties where it finally rested on retirement.

It appears India prefers faulty umpiring carrying the warts of human error to tested impassionate technological advancements that are degrees more reliable. Array in the armory of the DRS are Hawk Eye/Virtual Eye, Hot Spot. Snicko’ Meter, Freeze Pic, Slow Motion, Frame to Frame pics and Tracking Devices yet India prefers the sight and sound of one man upfront and of another in the square counting marbles. They doubt the veracity of the tracking device, because of pitch condition, forgetting other support instruments.

Why more reliable? Records reveal umpires make more judgmental errors than the technical know-how in usage. Does India prefer a determination made in a split second by an umpire, who can, due to a momentary lapse be subject to an human error as against a decision after observing several re runs of a camera in slow motion with the required freezes with the help of tracking devices observed from several angles by a third umpire.  If so, there is more to it and India does so intentionally to include the possibility of an error in umpiring determinations. Forget sportsmanship and let’s take a step further to the target area – Cricket India wants to play the game in the spirit where error remains without minimizing its possibilities. Deep within, India knows but is too guilty to admit, error is to its advantage. Greed to Win takes over. Like the rest of the cricket administration, umpires too are vulnerable.

If the call is advantageous to India, what lies beyond? Presumption is – more of incorrect decisions, incapable of rectification, is to the advantage of the party declining to take on DRS. Undoubtedly technology is not perfect – that is India’s grievance and carries an element of truth. India had its share of hard decisions with DRS in operation (as much as others) but had more in its favor after DRS was omitted (more than others). Is there an iota of evidence that umpires’ decisions are more accurate than DRS? Umpires being human do make genuine human errors. Hopefully not contrived errors; India knows it and wants it either way. When ICCs’ top administrators bow in obedience to India, what makes a richly paid umpire per match not to make a call in favor when it’s a decision too close to call – takes cover under the rule when in doubt do nothing. Revert back to the Sycld Berry point where officialdom sipped tea and nibbled cucumber sandwiches in Singapore: collectively varied decision to fall in line with India under command or for comfort?

In other sports too, technological assistance is sought and adhered to and participating India raises no objection since the erratic Indian rupee carries no clout in those orbits. If an umpire fouls a decision the Indian press howls at umpires, more so, if the loss is to India. Otherwise it is glossed over. It happened in Galle a few weeks ago when India lost a test where errors counted. No choice-India has to accept it, in months or years to come, if that is their selected choice after hard talk and iron fist. It happened to Sri Lanka too when it lost a test to India. That received a feint squeak from the Indian media. Sri Lanka, like the rest of the world of cricket goes back to the DRS understanding the vagaries of cricket. Howlers cannot be erased. Give it to India, if they can, will take the best of both worlds.

Cricket, a great social leveler in India, percolates across social barriers to capture 80% of the worldwide viewers (live/television) and brings corresponding revenues to ICC: makes ICC a grumpy dwarf to India’s disfigured Snow White. India rules the waves from the Indian Ocean and the ICC waive the rules, bending to the Indian monetary juggernaut.

Judge of every court of law except the Supreme Court is subject to a check by a higher court by way of an appeal or revision: for the sake of maintaining the purity of a decision. Remember in cricket the decision is instantaneous and needs prompt rectification if it to be meaningful. If a judgment of the Supreme Court is mistakenly made it could be overturned and replaced by a rectified restitution process.   It is, so in Justice India: but not so, in Cricket India.

Is an umpire at cricket more sacrosanct than a judge: who is lesser paid for a better mind? A judge has to give reasons in writing for every decision made by him but an umpire merely chews gum, if inclined, after making the decision and look nonchalant. Importance is in purifying the purity of the decision – otherwise cricket can be handed over to gaming gentleman with a dice instead of a stump mike.

India lives on its cricketing public especially the diaspora abroad. They turn the turnstiles and for that the decision matters. Look, as India comes close to losing, crowds take to the exit. In India cricket is more than a mere sport –national pride requires a win manipulated or otherwise. India can kill cricket by overdoing it. More on India, ask any neighbor?

චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම

(ලංකාවේ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීන්/මන්ත්‍රිණීන්ගේ අවධානය පිණිස ලියනු ලබන ශාස්ත්‍රීය ලිපි පෙළක 1 කොටස)

ඉහතින් උපුටා දැක්‌වෙන්නේ ආර් සම්බන්‌ධන් මහතා විපක්‍ෂනායක ධූරය ලැබුණු වහාම බීබීසී සිංහල සේවයට සිංහලෙන් කල ප්‍රකාශයේ කොටසකි. 1921 දී පොන්නම්බලම් අරුණාචලම් මහතා විසින් මැඩ්‍රාස් ප්‍රොවින්ස් එකේ හින්දු විරෝධී කොටස් ලන්ඩන් වලින් වෙනම රටක් ඉල්ලා සිටි කාලයේම, දෙමළ බෙදුම්වාදය නමැති විෂ බීජය, සුදු පාලකයින්ගේ ව්‍යංග හා රහස් අනුමැතිය ඇතිව ලංකාවේ රෝපණය කලායින් පසු, “රට බෙදන එකට අපි විරුද්ධයි, රට බෙදන්න දෙන්නේ නෑ” යයි ලොකු දෙමළ දේශපාලන නායකයෙක් සිංහලෙන්ම කිව්වේ 2015 සැප්තැම්බර් මාසයේය. අවුරුදු 82 ක් වයසැති ඔහු මේ කියන කතාව සද්භාවයෙන් භාර ගැනීම හෝ නොගැනීම නිල්, කොළ හෝ රතු පක්‍ෂ කණ්ණාඩියකින් තොරව කලයුතු දෙයකි.

ඔහු විසින් පමණක් නොව දැන් රටේ බලය ලබාගෙන ඉන්නා ජනාධිපති හා අගමැති විසින් කරණ කතාද ඔවුන්ගේ ක්‍රියා සමඟ සසඳා කිරා බැලිය යුතුය. ඔවුන් විසින් (1) සම්මුතිවාදී දේශපාලනය, (2) ලිච්චවි ක්‍රමය, (3) ග්‍රාම රාජ්‍ය පාලන ක්‍රමය මෙන්ම (4) ඒකීය රාජ්‍ය සංකල්පය ගැනද ප්‍රකාශ නිකුත් කර ඇත. ට්‍ර‌ැත් නතින් බට් ද හෝල් ට්‍ර‌ැත් එසේත් නැත්නම් ද ගුඩ්, ද බෑඩ් ඇන්ඩ් ද අග්ලි යන ආකාරයේ හැසිරීමක් නූතන කුහක හා වංක දේශපාලන ක්‍රමය තුල බලාපොරොත්තු විය නොහැකි වුවත්, සම්‍යක් ප්‍රයෝග නැතිව නහයට උඩින් වතුර ගලා ඒම වළක්වා ගත නොහැකි වුවත්, බලයේ ඉන්නා අනිත් පහල දේශපාලකයින් කෙසේ වෙතත් ජනාධිපතිගේ හා අගමැතිගේ ක්‍රියාකලාපය ගැන මාළු ටැංකියේ ඉන්නා මාළුන් දෙස මෙන් මහජනයා ඇස් ඇරගෙන බලා ඉන්නා බව නම් නිසැකය.

විශේෂයෙන්ම අමතක නොකළයුතු කැරුණක් වන්නේ පෙඩරල් ක්‍රමයට ප්‍රසිද්ධියේම ආවඩන හා “මේ යුද්ධය නම් කවදාවත්ම දිනන්නට බෑ” කියූ නිලධාරීන්, මන්ත්‍රීන්, ඇමතිවරු, පැරදුන දේශපාලකයින් හා සෙසු පිරිස් අද නැවත මෙම රජයේ වැදගත්, බලවත් තනතුරු වලට දමා තිබෙන බවය. උදාහරණ දෙකක් පමණක් දෙනවා නම්, මාක්ස්වාදී ලැයිස්තු මන්ත්‍රී ජයම්පති වික්‍රමරත්න හා ලංකාවට නැවත ඇවිත් ඉන්නා ප්‍රේමදාස ජනාධිපති යුගයේ පාස්කරලිංගම් යන නම් සඳහන් කල හැකිය. රාජිත සේනාරත්න ඇමති ලංකාවේ පෙඩරල් සීයා නම් මෙම රජයේ තිරය පිටුපසින් ඉන්නා චන්ද්‍රිකා මැතිණිය පෙඩරල් ආච්චීය. ඇගේ පසුගිය චෙල්වනායගම් අනුස්මරණ කතාව ඇත්තවශයෙන්ම ඇය ඇගේ පියාට දුන් දේශනයක් වැනිය.

එකම තැනැත්තාම වරින් වර කරණ එකිනෙකට පටහැනි කතාත්, යමෙකුගේ කතාව හා ක්‍රියාව අතර තිබිය හැකි පරස්පරයත් සම්බන්දයෙන් සිතන විට ඒ ගැන විශාල වගකීමක් සම්බන්‌ධන් මහතා මත පැටවේ. මෙය කැපී පෙනෙන්නේ මඩකලපුවේ අරුන් තම්බිමුත්තු වැනි පිරිසිදු, සිංහල-දෙමළ සම්බන්ධතා ගැන අව්‍යාජ අදහස් ඍජුව ප්‍රකාශ කරණ තරුණ දෙමළ දේශපාලකයෙකු සමඟ සසඳනවිටය. සම්බන්‌ධන් මහතාගේ පක්‍ෂයේත්, ඊට සම්බන්ද ඒබ්‍රහම් සුමන්තිරන් වැනි අය කරණ කතාවල උඩින් පෙනෙන හා යටින් සැඟවෙන අර්‍ථ නිසාත්, විග්නේෂ්වරන් භුමිකාව නිසාත්, අපක්‍ෂපාතී හා රටට ආදරය ඇති අයෙකුගේ සිතේ යම් ආතතියක් ඇතිවීම වැළැක්‌විය නොහැකිය. මීට එක් හේතුවක් නම් ලිට්ල් නව් ඇන්ඩ් මෝර් ලේටර් යන උපක්‍රමය රේල් පාරේ හෙමින් පහළට ඇදී යන කෝච්චියක් මෙන් පෙඩරල් පක්‍ෂය 1949 සිටම ප්‍රසිද්ධියේම ප්‍රකාශකර දියත්කල නිසාය. අඩු තරමින් පක්‍ෂයේ නමේ දෙමළ තේරුම හා ඉංග්‍රීසි තේරුම වත් එකම තේරුම නොවීය!

සම්බන්‌ධන් මහතා විසින් පැහැදිලි කලයුතු, මුහුණ දියයුතු හෝ ජය ගතයුතු අභියෝග රැසක්ම ඇත. එකක් නම් අයි.ටී.ඒ.කේ යන පක්‍ෂයේ නමය. දෙවන කරුණ නම් සිවාජිලිංගම් නම් පලාත් සභා මන්ත්‍රී කියන ඒකීය රාජ්‍යයකට නොව, ප්‍රාන්ත 3-5 ක් සහිත එක්සත් ලංකාවකට පමණක් ටී එන් ඒ එකට එකඟවිය හැකිය යන කරුණය. ලෝකයේ දෙමළ ජනතාවට වෙනම රටක් ලෝක සිතියමේ තිබිය යුතුය යන්න සාධාරණ ඉල්ලීමකි. එය ෆිජි දූපතේ, මැලේසියාවේ හෝ සිංගප්පුරුවේ හෝ ඉන්දියාවේ පිහිටුවා ගැනීමේ උත්සාහ ව්‍යාර්‍ථ විය. ෆිජි දූපතේ යුද හමුදා කුමන්ත්‍රණයක්ද සිදුවිය. උගන්ඩාවේ ඉඩි අමින් දැඩි තීරණයක් ගෙන හැම ඉන්දියානු ජාතිකයෙක්ම රටින් පිට කලේය.

ලංකාවේ නිල්-කොළ-රතු එකිනෙකා මරාගන්නා සිංහල දේශපාලනය ඉදිරියේ, ලංකාවේ එය පිහිටුවා ගත හැකිද යන බලාපොරොත්තුව වැඩිවී තිබීම ගැන සම්බන්‌ධන් මහතාට කෙළින්ම කළහැකි දෙයක් නැත. ඒ සඳහා ලංකාණ්ඩුවටද කෙළින්ම කළ හැකි දෙයක් නැත. නමුත් ඉන්දියාව විසින් චීන-ඉන්දියා යුද්ධයෙන් මතුවුන බලවත් දේශානුරාගය ඉදිරියේ දී කලාමෙන් (16 වන සංශොධනය, 1963), ඔහුටත්, ලංකාණ්ඩුවටත් මේ ලංකා ඊළම් සිහිනය බොඳකර දැමීමට හවුලේ කලහැකි බොහෝදේ ඇත.  එනම් එවැනි සිහිනයකට ඔක්සිජන් සපයන කාරණා ඉවත්කර දැමීමය. මෙයට එකඟ වනවාද නැද්ද යන්න උඩ සම්බන්‌ධන් මහතාගේ රටට ඇති ආදරය කරුණාව ප්‍රත්‍යක්‍ෂ වනු ඇත. ඔහු දෙමළ ජනයාගේ විපක්‍ෂනායකයාද නැත්නම් රටේ විපක්‍ෂනායකයාද යන්න මින් තීරණයවනු ඇත.  ඔහු තවත් අමිර්‌තලිංගම් කෙනෙක් නොවනු ඇත යන්න දැන් මුළු රටේම පැතුමය.

ඉතාම සරලව බලනවා නම් සිංහල හා දෙමළ භාෂා දෙක පාසැල් ළමයින්ට ඉගැන්වීමෙන් එක පරම්පරාවක් ඇතුලත (අවුරුදු 10-15 ක් තුල) මේ දෙවර්‍ගයේ සැක සංකා, පූර්‍වනිගමන (ප්‍රිජුඩිසස්) බොහෝසෙයින්ම ඉවත්‌වෙනු නිසැකය. මේ වෙනුවට ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාව මැදට දමන්නට අවශ්‍ය නැත. කුඩා කාලයේ සිටම සිංහල ජනයා සමඟ ජීවත්‌වූ, තමන්ගේ දුවලා දෙන්නාටම සිංහල බෑණාලා සිටින, බොහෝ ධනවත් සිංහලයින්ට හිමිනොවන වරප්‍රසාද භුක්තිවිඳි, සිංහල නොව දෙමළ විත්තිකරුවන් ඔහු ඉදිරියේ පෙනී සිටීමට පවා අධික භීතියකින් සිටියා කියා පැවසෙන ව්ග්නේශ්වරන් මහතා, දැන් රෑට කොළඹට එමින් දවල්ට යාපනයට යන ගමන් කියන, 1949 සිටම ලංකාවේ දෙමළ වාර්ගිකයින් සමූලඝාතනය කෙරෙමින් යනවා යන කතාවෙන් පෙනීයන්නේ යමෙක් සිංහල හා දෙමළ ඉගෙනගත්තාට පමණක් නොසෑහෙන බවය.

මේ හැමදේටම වඩා බලවත් බාධකයක් වන්නේ 1976 වඩුක්කෝඩෙයි ප්‍රකාශය හෝ තිම්පු ප්‍රකාශය හෝ ඔස්ලෝ සම්මුතිය, ෂුනාමි යාන්ත්‍රණය හෝ නොව 2015 පාර්ලිමේන්තු මැතිවරණය සඳහා සම්බන්‌ධන් මහතාගේ පක්‍ෂය ඉදිරිපත්කල චන්ද මැනිෆෙස්ටෝ එකේ කියා ඇති මූලික කරුණු හතරය.  ඒවා නම් (1) දෙමළ ජනතාවට ස්වයංපාලන අයිතිය ඇත (2) උතුරු නැඟෙනහිර පලාත් දෙක එක් කල යුතුය (3) ඒකීය වෙනුවට පෙඩරල් ක්‍රමයක් ඇතිකල යුතුය (4) යුද අපරාධ ගැන ජාත්‍යන්තර විමර්‍ශනයක් කල යුතුය යන කුළුණු හතරය. මවායි සේනාධිරාජා විසින් ඉහත අංක 4 පැහැදිලි කලේ දැන් විමර්‍ශන අවසාන නිසා දැන් අවශ්‍ය ජාත්‍යන්තර උසාවියක් ස්ථාපනය කිරීමය යනුවෙනි.  මෙවැනි දේට අමතරව සුමන්තිරන් මහතා ඉල්ලන්නේ ආපසු ගන්නට බැරි දේවල් දෙන ලෙසය. මෙවැනි පසුබිමක් යටතේ රටේ ජනාධිපති හා අගමැති විශාල අමාරුවකට වැටෙන්නේ, ආණ්ඩුවෙන් ගන්නා සෑම සාම පියවරක්ම ටූ වේ නොව වන් වේ ගමනක් සේ සිංහල ජනයාට පෙනී යාමය. අත් දෙකම නැතිව අත්පුඩි ගැසිය නොහැක යන කියමනට වඩා බැරෑරුම් තත්වයක් මෙහි ඇත්තේ ලංකා ව්‍යවස්ථාව තමන් පිලි නොගන්නා බව උතුරු පලාත් සභාවේ විග්නේශ්වරන් මහතා ඔහුගේ වින්නඹුව වූ මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ ජනාධිපතිට ඒ කාලයේම කියා තිබෙන නිසාය.

මෙම ලිපියේ ඉතාමත් කෙටියෙන් මෙවැනි කරුණු කීපයක් සඳහන් කලේ අතීතය හාරා අවුස්සා ප්‍රශ්න මතුකිරීමට නොව මේ දීගය කනවානම් කන්නට පුළුවන් වන්නේ වචන හරඹ, කෙස් පැලෙන හෝ නොපැලෙන අර්‍ථ නිරූපණ ආදිය දීමෙන් නොව සද්භාවයෙන් තමන්ගේ වැරදි, අඩුපාඩු හා නොමගයෑම් නිවැරදි කර ගැනීමෙනි. වෙනත් වචන වලින් කියනවානම් යථාර්‍ථය වටහා ගැනීමෙනි.

විපක්‍ෂ නායක, අගමැති හා ජනාධිපති යන තුන් දෙනා විසින් තේරුම් ගතයුතු දෙයක් නම් ලංකාවේ උතුරු හා නැඟෙනහිර පළාත් දෙක නැවත එකතු කිරීමට තැත්කිරීම රට පුරා ඉතා අමිහිරි ක්‍රියාවලට හේතුවිය හැකි බවය. මේ නිසා ඒකීය රාජ්‍යය, ලිච්චවි පාලනය හෝ දස රාජ ධර්‍මය ගැන කියමින් මහජනයාට ජේ ආර් යුගයේ ධර්මිෂ්ඨ සමාජය යළි යළිත් මතක් කර දෙනවා වෙනුවට, ලංකාවේ වෙන කිසිවෙකු නොව මේ තුන් දෙනා විසින් කලයුතු දේ නම් සම්මුති දේශපාලනය නම් සංකල්පයට විද්‍යාත්මක පදනමක් දී මේ දිවයින කැබළිකිරීමට හැකියයි යම් කොටසකට සිතීමට රුකුල් දෙන සාධක මකා ඉවත් කර දැමීමය. මෙහිදී උපකාර වන්නේ භූගෝල විද්‍යාත්මක, ස්වභාවික පරිසරය (ඉකොලොජි) හා බුද්ධාගමේ මූලික හරය වන මධ්‍යම ප්‍රතිපදාවය. මෙම හරය, නූතන බටහිර ලෝකයේ ප්‍රචලිත රීසනබල්නස් නමැති සංකල්පයමය. මෙම සංකල්පය ඉන්දියාවේ, ඇමෙරිකා එක්සත් ජනපදයේ හා මැලේසියාවේ ක්‍රියාත්මක වන අන්දම ඩිස්ක්‍රිමිනේෂන් විත් රීසන් (1997) යනුවෙන් ආචාර්ය උපාධි නිබන්ධනයක් ලියූ දැන් ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාවේ ජීවත්වන දේවනේසන් නේසයියා විසින් පෙන්වාදී ඇත.

මෙම විද්‍යාත්මක පදනමක් ලබාදීමේදී අදට ඉතාමත් වැදගත් කරුණක් නම් 1832 දී යුදමය හා යටත් විජිතය ගසා කෑමේ අරමුණින් 1832 දී කෝල්බ්‍ර‌ැක් සාමි විසින් කල පලාත් බෙදීමේ  අනිසි යෝජනාවය. ඒ අනුව කඳුකරයේ සිට රට වටේට ගලා බසිනා මේ දූපත කෘතිම කොටස් පහකට කඩන ලදී. එහි මූලිකම අරමුණවූයේ කන්ද උඩරට නිලමේලාගේ කොන්ද කැඩීමය. මධ්‍යම පලාත හීන් කෙට්ටු පඹයෙක් වැනි ස්වරූපයක් ගත්තේය.  ඉන්පසුව දුරස්ථභාවය සළකා තවත් පලාත් හරක් එකතු කරණ ලදී.

මෙම බෙදීම වෙනස් කලයුතුය කියා සිතීමටවත් කෙනෙකු 1948 න් පසුව වත් ලංකාවේ සිටියේ නැත. ඒ ගැන පර්යේෂණ කිරීමේ වගකීම සහජයෙන්ම භාරවන පේරාදෙණිය විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයේ භූගෝල විද්‍යා දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ මහාචාර්ය කේ කුලරත්නම් හෝ ඔහුට පසුව ආ තම්බයියාපිලේ ක්‍රියා කලේ නැත. අවසානයේ 1990 දශකයේදී මහාචාර්ය මද්දුමබණ්ඩාර විසින් පලාත් නවය වෙනුවට රට ගංඟා ද්‍රෝණි හතකට බෙදීමේ අවශ්‍යතාවය පෙන්වා දුන්නේය. ගංඟා ද්‍රෝණි 103 ක් ඇති මේ කුඩා දිවයින ඒ අනුව දේශපාලන ඒකකවලට බෙදීම ලංකාව මුහුණපා සිටින දේශපාලන මෙන්ම පරිසර, දේශගුණික හා ආපදා අර්බුද වලටද විසඳුමක් වන්නේය.

1948 න් පසුව ලංකාවේ නිල්, කොළ, රතු දේශපාලකයින් රටට කර ඇති හානි විවිධ පැතිකඩ සහිතය. පහත දැක්වෙන කෙටි ලැයිස්තුව දෙස බලන්න.

(1) ඔවුන් ලංකාවේ ව්‍යුහාත්මක ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය විනාශ කලේය. 1947 ව්‍යවස්ථාව හොඳම එක වුනත් එහි අංග කොටස් කපා දමා එය විහිළුවක් කලේය. උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් සෙනේට් සභාවේ අරමුණට පටහැනිව යමින් චන්දෙන් පැරදුන අය ඊට පත් කලේය. අන්තිමේ කනවෝ කනවෝ කියමින් එය අහෝසි කර දැම්මේය. පත් කල මන්ත්‍රීන් හය දෙනා ගැනද වුනේ මේ දේය. එය රටට සේවයක් කල හා සුළු ජනවාර්ගික කොටස් සඳහා වුවත් එම අරමුණ ඉටු නොවීය.

(2) ඔවුන් ලංකාවේ අධිකරණ ස්වාධීනත්වය විනාශ කලේය. ජයා පතිරණ නම් කුරුණෑගල දේශපාලකයාව ෆිලික්ත් ඩයස් විසින් උසාවියට පත් කලේය.

(3) ඔවුන් ලංකාවේ රාජ්‍ය සේවය මන්ත්‍රීන්ලාගේ සේවයක් බවට පෙරළුවේය. රාජ්‍ය සේවය බල්ලාටම ගියේය.

(4) ඔවුන් ලංකාවේ භූමිමය නියෝජන ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය විනාශකලා පමණක් නොව එය බලු මනාප පොරයක් බවට පෙරළුවේය. මිනිසුන්ට තම චන්ද කොට්ඨාශයට නියෝජිතයෙක් තෝරා ගැනීමට ඇති අයිතිය නැතිකර, කොළඹ පක්‍ෂ කාර්‍ය්‍යාලයේ ලැයිස්තුවකට තම චන්දය දීමට බල කලේය. මේ නිසා ඇතිව ඇති බලවත් හානිය කියා නිමකල නොහැකිය.

(5) ඔවුන් ලංකාවේ පහලම සිවිල් පාලන ඒකකය වන ග්‍රාම සේවක වසම 4,000 සිට 14,000 දක්වා වැඩිකර රාජ්‍ය බලය චරපුරුෂ සේවයක් කරගත හැකි මට්ටමට ඔසවා ගත්තේය. මෙසේ නිලධාරීන් සංඛ්‍යාව වැඩිකරගත් රටක් ලෝකයේ වෙන නැත. මේ නිසා මහජනයාට ලැබෙන සේවයේ ගුණාත්මක වැඩිවීමක් තිබේද යන්න වෙනම කරුණකි.

(6) කිසි ජාතික සැලැස්මක් නැතිව හා හිතුමතේට ඇරඹූ මහා පරිමාන ව්‍යාපාර හරහා පරිසරයට හානි කලේය. මේ නිසා අද ගංවතුර, නායයාම්, කිඳා බැසීම්, නියං, සැඬ සුළං, අධික රස්ණය යානාදී ආපදාවලින් ලංකාව පිරිලාය.

(7) 1948 සිට සිදුවූ මේ විනාශකාරී ක්‍රියානිසා අද ඇත්තේ විනයක් නැති, සදාචාරයක් නැති, දූෂණයෙන් පිරුණු තමන් දුක් විඳින බව දන්නා හා නොදන්නා විශාල සමාජයක් හා  විශේෂයෙන් 1978 න් පසු ධනය හා බලය ලබාගත් කුඩා කොටසකුත් ය.

මේ සඳහා විසඳුමක් ඇත.  අළුත් කැබිනට් මණ්ඩයේ විෂය පථ බලන විට සිතා හෝ නොසිතා මේ ආණ්ඩුව 1832 සිට එන කෝල්බ්‍ර‌ැක් ක්‍රමය නැතිකරන්නට හදනවා සේ පෙනේ. මීලඟ කොටසින් එය සළකා බලමු.

චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම