Yahapalanaya News

The swearing in ceremony of State and Deputy Ministers of the National Government completed its second day a short while ago at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo making 19 new state ministers and 21 new deputy Ministers making altogether 85 out of 142 national government MPs either a minister or a deputy Ministers . Too many MPs want to be the Ministers and to be in charge, and not enough MPs are willing to follow to do parliamentary process. All chiefs and no Indians, that is yahapalanaya

State Ministers: 

1. A. H. M. Fowzie – National Integration and Reconciliation
   2. Dilan Perera – Highways
   3. T. B. Ekanayake – Lands
   4. Priyankara Jayaratne – Law and Order & Prison Reforms
   5. Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena – Finance
   6. Ravindra Samaraweera – Labour and Trade Union Relations
   7. V. Radhakrishnan – Education
   8. Palitha Range Bandara – Skills Development & Vocational Training
   9. Dilip Wedaarachchi – Fisheries & Aquatic Resources
   10. Niroshan Perera – National Policy and Economic Affairs
   11. Ruwan Wijewardene – Defence
   12. M.L.A.M. Hizbullah – Rehabilitation and Resettlement
   13. Mohan Lal Grero – University Education
   14. Sujeewa Senasinghe – International Trade
   15. Wasantha Senanayake – Irrigation and Water Resource Management
   16. Vijayakala Maheswaran – Child Affairs
   17. Wasantha Aluwihare – Agriculture
   18. Sudarshani Fernandopulle – City Planning and Water Supply
   19. Champika Premadasa – Industries and Commerce

 Deputy Ministers: 

1. Sumedha G. Jayasena – Sustainable Development & Wildlife
   2. Susantha Punchinilame – Public Administration and Management
   3. Ameer Ali – Rural Economy
   4. Lasantha Alagiyawanna – Megapolice and Western Development
   5. Indika Bandaranaike – Housing and Construction
   6. Dulip Wijesekara – Post, Postal Services and Muslim Affairs
   7. Lakshaman Wasantha Perera – Plantation Industries
   8. Nishantha Muthuhettigama – Ports and Shipping
   9. Faizal Kasim – Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine
   10. Dunesh Gankanda – Disaster Management
   11. Dr. Harsha de Silva – Foreign Affairs
   12. Ashoka Abeysinghe – Transport
   13. Arundika Fernando – Tourism Promotion and Christian Affairs
   14. Ranjan Ramanayake – Social Empowerment & Welfare
   15. Ajith P. Perera – Power and Renewable Energy
   16. Nimal Lansa – Home Affairs
   17. Anoma Gamage – Petroleum and Petroleum Gas
   18. Eran Wickramaratne – State Enterprise Development
   19. Tharanath Basnayake – Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure
   20. Karunarathna Paranawithana – Local Government and Provincial Councils
   21. Mohamed Haris – Sports

Ajit Randeniya

The country’s new maladministration typified by its farcical cabinet and other appointments has already become the butt of many a joke about its cynical deception of the public. Grand sounding slogans about Yahapalanaya and reconciliation together with clearly disingenuous promises about jobs creation and future prosperity have become meaningless drivel save their comical value. The palpable dissatisfaction of the general public, extending to serious concern on the defence front, is often expressed as disbelief of the deceptive behaviour of Maithripala Sirisena.

Sirisena’s misdeeds are matched by his partners-in-crimes (of January 8 and August 17), the ‘venom-pot queen’ Kumaratunga and the new prime minister who seems to be desperately trying to prove that he has suddenly found his backbone that has been missing for the last decade and a half!

The symbiosis between a character-less weakling Sirisena driven by crazy ambition – unmatched by ability – and vengeance, and the equally venomous Kumaratunga is likely to bring disaster to the country if this double-act is allowed to operate unabated for even a short period of time.

Kumaratunga in particular, appears to have decided to avenge the outright rejection of her by the people of Attanagalla and the nation as a whole, by setting herself an agenda of reversing the hard-won security gains in the North. It is unclear as to how she is going to achieve her aims; Judging by her role as Sirisena’s puppeteer so far, she may be expecting to use government resources, or may well have to form a fat INGO funded by her friends at MI6 and the CIA. But the rotten Horagolla woman she is, she will stop at nothing to avenge her lack of acceptance by the Sri Lankan people.

The prime minister in the meantime is attempting a bad caricature of the ‘worm that turned’! His ‘monkey’ remark at the first debate in parliament – in a freshly-pressed dark suite he seemed to have changed in to the minute the voting ended – shows the complete colonisation of his head by the colonial forces: one of the first ‘duties’ performed by him as prime minister involved stopping the renovation of colonial buildings in Colombo! Obviously he cherishes the memory of colonialism so much that he seems to be unable to accept the removal of the tokens of the darkest period of the history of the nation.

Ranil Wickremesinghe is a pathological case with a deeply internalised veneration for the colonial oppression of the local population. His obvious penchant for worshipping the imperialists – almost placing the body in a submissively prone prostrate position – is suggestive of a sadomasochistic psychological tendency that goes beyond the obvious ancestral gains made through subservience to colonial masters; His paternal grandfather for example, was the first ‘native’ to be appointed to the colonial civil service (CCS) and his uncle was the head of the local diocese of the so-called Church of England; But many people in the colonised world with such links to colonisers have turned anti-colonial and fought for independence.  Not this man! His total and obviously unconditional surrender to imperialists appears to be based on a pathological disposition towards them that goes far beyond the levels called-for by such influences.

Ranil Wickremesinghe’s subservience to imperialists is obviously and seriously affecting his ability to think or act like a 21st century Sri Lankan and the matter needs to be addressed sooner rather than later – before he drags us all back in to the colonial era.

Then we come to the hopper-thief himself: his cynical ways of operating are clearly proving to be substitutes for lack of management ability and confidence. He is clearly adopting the path Ranil Wickremesinghe used to stay leader of the UNP while losing election-after-election, by stacking the UNP’s executive committee. Sirisena in his dirty tricks-based campaign to wrestle the control of the SLFP has used the same modus-operandi of stacking the SLFP’s central committee and secretary positions.

Sirisena started his dirty manoeuvres in stealing the control of the SLFP by appointing the lead conspirator behind the January 8 conspiracy, Faisar Mustapha his ‘legal advisor’. All the dirty special announcements he made leading up to the August 17 elections were the evil brain-children of Mustapha and the Islamic fringe now calling the shots.

Sirisena’s worst economic crime will prove to be his disgraceful attempt to bribe anyone he suspected of being a Rajapakse loyalist with a ministerial post. The rogues including those who were ‘nominated’ by him through the national list and other non-deserving cases will be a blight on the national economy for years to come.

Sirisena’s lack of concern for the burden he is placing on the haplessly poor Sri Lankans in the form of politically corrupt ‘ministers’ earning ‘mega-bucks’ with access to fleets of vehicles and armies of staff tells of the man’s shamefully selfish desire to consolidate his own position without any concerns at all about the plight of the poor of the country. The nation is clearly finding the ‘performance’ so far, of the Sirisena-venom pot-Ranil trio disgusting.

There are others who should be held responsible for bringing this disaster upon the country. Among the top such individuals would be the Ven. Maduluwawe Sobhita Thera. In his naïve political mind, he seemed to have assumed that the country’s ‘politics’ could be ‘cleansed’ by simply re-writing the constitution; He screamed that  Mahinda Rajapakse was corrupt and in his political ignorance, campaigned for the new clique who promised a new constitution and abolishing the presidency. Sobhita, though not backed by a significant national movement, had his wish of removing Rajapakse fulfilled by the new clique aided by minorities with vested interests.

Now it seems, Rev. Sobhita is making noises of dissatisfaction about the new government’s direction including the appointment of the mega cabinet and worthlessness of largely cosmetic changes to the constitution introduced through the S19 amendments.

Rev. Sobhita Thero could count himself lucky if he learnt the DHAMMA that insincere and corrupt behaviour of politicians like Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremasinghe could not be corrected through constitutional amendments; All constitutions are implemented and operated by human beings and people like Sirisena are the worst among us.

The current situation proves that monks should best stay out of politics because they have not had experience in the mundane affair of politics. They should stay pursuing the path to salvation through renouncement of such worldly pursuits. Now is the time for Rev. Sobhita to renounce politics and limit his activities to the Naga Vihara, without venturing beyond its boundaries. He has brought enough disaster to the country through his raucous campaign for this clique of rogues.

Sri Lanka Patriot

There are many people who are now second guessing President Mahinda Rajapakse and saying he should have removed the 13A, he should not have had elections when he did, he should have turned to the West instead of China etc. His hands were tied in many ways. India would have not allowed him to remove the 13A easily. China helped Sri Lanka a great deal both monetarily and also by supporting Sri Lanka in the UN and also by supplying us with necessary arms during the war on LTTE terrorists. See http://www.adaderana.lk/news/32247/couldnt-win-the-war-without-chinas-help-sf

It is very easy to say President Mahinda Rajapakse should not have had elections. People have such short memories. There was a lot of foreign money flooding into Sri Lanka. There was a lot of pressure on him from the West on War crimes through UNHRC. Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranaiyake had 10 accounts which she was rotating with $ coming in to the accounts which she would transfer to another bank account  on the day the those particular accounts would be scrutinized by the Central Bank. Finally she got caught and MR sent the papers about her misdeeds to the Parliament. After due process Parliament decided to impeach her and brought a motion to remove her from office. See http://www.lankaweb.com/ews/items/2015/03/03/removal-of-a-chief-justice-from-office/.

Then there was the case of Maithripala’s son who was questioned by the police for having bundles of foreign currencies at his girl friend’s house. See http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=116619  and also http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=police-legal/daham-sirisenas-girl-friend-mother-allegedly-remove-currency-note-bundles

The Commonwealth Conference in Sri Lanka last year opened the eyes of all since UK PM David Cameron broke all protocol and went to the North to meet with the Tamil leaders on his own. He met with Vigneswaran and also Sampanthan. Similarly, the US Embassy people were regularly going to the North. Therefore all the indications were there that the West, meaning UK, USA and India seemed all too interested in the North, and paid no heed to GoSL.  MR realized that he was up against huge forces who wished to take over Sri Lanka. Under the circumstances he did the best thing he could which was to have elections to either strengthen his hand or retire to Medamulana.

The elections were cheated in January 2015, as has been pointed out by Dilrook Kanangara and Ajit Randeniya. See https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2015/02/01/astronomical-increase-in-number-of-voters-2010-vs-2015-in-tamil-areas-how-is-it-possible/  and also  https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2015/07/01/2014-electoral-roll-was-rigged/

In addition so many untruths were said against MR and his family and government in all the media, and on the platforms, which MR and others did not even bother to repudiate. It was as if he had given up and wanted to retire.

After a cheated election where MY3 ‘won’, President Mahinda Rajapakse did nothing on these reports and retired to Medamulana. Obviously he did not want to meet the same fate suffered by all those leaders toppled by the West.

However then something very unexpected which has not happened anywhere in the world happened. Hordes of people began coming to MR’s house and crying and begging him to come back to politics. When the famous Nugegoda meeting took off then the UPFA group who led the “bring back Mahinda” movement were energized and it really appeared that there was a good chance for MR to win. He would have won too had not MY3 stabbed MR in the back for the second time by announcing that he will not appoint MR to Prime Minister post two days before the election. He further cut the ground under the UPFA by preventing meetings of the party by a court injunction and also by sacking the General Secretaries of UPFA & SLFP, and 13 others on the eve of the election. All this was done because according to his own admittance he had got intelligence reports that UPFA will win 113 seats. When the leader of the party acts against his own party what chances does Democracy have in any country ? All his actions were against Election laws and also the party Constitutions and Sri Lanka Govt. Constitution I believe. In spite of his actions against UPFA they got 95 seats which is very creditable. See https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2015/08/25/i-wrote-that-letters-sacked-secretaries-because-i-received-intelligence-reports-that-upfa-is-on-the-verge-of-winning-president-%E0%B6%BD%E0%B7%92%E0%B6%BA%E0%B7%94%E0%B6%B8%E0%B7%8A-%E0%B6%BD/

Similar cheating of elections has taken place in the so called ‘Democratic West’. The people have to be always vigilant and be on guard against dictatorships and erosion of freedoms. Freedom is not Free and constant vigilance is the price to be paid for it.

MY3 is one of the worst politicians I have seen in my life. He back stabbed MR twice, then went against his own party, created a National Govt with UNP by forcing the SLFP to sign the MOU by appointing his own henchmen as General Secretaries after sacking the people who had been Gazetted by the Election Commissioner. He has broken the law in many many ways both morally and legally. In addition during an interview with the Election Commissioner it has been proven that the UNP could not have got so many votes in a normal way. See https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2015/08/30/%E0%B6%B8%E0%B6%B1%E0%B7%9C-%E0%B6%B8%E0%B7%90%E0%B6%AD%E0%B7%92%E0%B7%80%E0%B6%BB%E0%B6%AB-%E0%B6%9A%E0%B7%9C%E0%B6%B8%E0%B7%83%E0%B7%8F%E0%B6%BB%E0%B7%92%E0%B7%83%E0%B7%8A%E0%B6%AD%E0%B7%94%E0%B6%B8/

After the very close election he brought in people who had been rejected by the people into the National List making a mockery of Democracy. He completely ignored the National List which had been Gazetted by the Election Commissioner. See http://www.slguardian.org/national-list-appointments-outside-the-gazetted-list-is-a-deceitful-act/. He has become quite a dictator in the 6 months he has been in power. May be shaking the Queen’s ungloved hand has gone to his head. What will 5 years do to him? He seems to have gone bonkers.

In my personal opinion if MY3 has an iota of decency left he should remove himself as leader of UPFA and let the party appoint its own officers and leader and allow it to function as the opposition. The SLFP can become a separate party under his leadership. Those want to remain with him can remain and the others can leave and join UPFA. I must emphasize that I am not sure if that is what UPFA wants. I am just voicing my own sense of frustration at his actions.

He has done the same thing that JR did in 1987 when he asked for the letters resignation from all the MP’s to pass the 13A through the Parliament. I hope MY3 is not planning to give a Federal State in the same manner to the Tamils using JR’s strong arm tactics. We must not forget that nearly 50,000 JVP Sinhala youth died in the resulting uprising against 13A. If that happens the Tamil leaders will get what they have always wanted from 1940’s. Heaven help Sri Lanka if that happens.

ධර්මසිරි සෙනෙවිරත්න

                  එළාරට පෙර  සිංහලේ ආක්‍රමණය කල  ඉන්දියානු අස්  වෙළෙන්දා    ”සේන ”’ නම්වේ  එදත් සිංහල දේශ යේ විනාශයට කටයුතුකලේ  ඉන්දියාවේ වෙලෙ න්දන්ය  රටවල් ආක්‍රමණය කර ධනය කොල්ලකා තමන්ගේ මදි තර කර ගැනීම උන්ගේ සිරිත විය .  ඉන්දියානුවන් යනුවෙන්  වත්මන් වචනය මෙහි භාවිතා කර ඇත්තේ පහසුවටය .  එදා වුයේ කුඩා රා ජ්ජයන්ය . අදත් ඉන්දියාව කරන්නේ  එදා මෙන්ම  වානිජෝපායයන්  යොදා  ඉන්දියානු අධිරාජ්ජයක් ගොඩනැගීමට කටයුතු කිරීමය්  අද ජවිපෙට අමතක වුවාට විජේවීරට නම්  ඉන්දියානු ව්‍යාප්ත වාදය ගැන  පැහැදිලි අදහසක් විය .  අද ජවිපෙ  අනුර කුමාර්  යටතේ  ඉන්දියාවේ සහ බටහිර  ඉත්තෙකු වී ඇත .  පකිස්තානයත් සමග නොනවතින යුද්ධයක පැටලී ඇති  ඉන්දියාව  තව තවත් කැබලිවලට කදී යායුතුය නැතහොත්  ලංකාව ඔවුන් විසින් ගිල ගනු ඇත්තේ රනිල් සහ   ‘වත්මන්  ”’ ”””””සේන””’  ගේ සහායෙනි  මෝඩි ඇඳුමෙන් සැරසී   වත්මන්  සේන  එලියට එනවිට  නිතැතින්ම අප දෙය්යන් සිහිවී  ”අය්යෝ සිරි සෙන ”’ කියවුනේ  එදා සේන  ගුත්තික   එළාර සිහිවීමෙනි ..  දහසින් බැඳී පියලි වලට නොකළ හැකි දෙයක් නැත .  ශ්‍රීලනිපය දියවී ගියේ  උන්ට රට ජාතිය අමතක වුයේ  කහවනු ලෝබ ය  නිසාය  . මේ බල්ලෝ විශ්වාසනොකරුනු කියා  කීදෙනෙක් නම් මහින්දට  කිව්වාද ? එත් මහින්ද ට රටට වඩා පක්ෂය ලොකුවිය  . බන්දාරනායකලාගේ සියලු දේශ හිතය්ශී ප්‍රතිපත්ති  ඉවතට දමා  පක්ෂය පරගැති එකක් කලේ බන්දාරනායකලාගේ දුව  චන්ද්‍රිකාය  දුවටත් එපාවූ පක්ෂය හදා ගන්න මහින්ද උත්සාහ කල බ ව සැබැවි . එත් හදන්න බැරි තරමට එය විකුර්තිවී ඇති බව මහින්ද තේරුම් නොගත් තේ අපේ කරුමයටය .  චන්ද්‍රිකා ට අවශ්‍ය  එවෙලේ ”ජොලිය ” පමණි  එයාට  මොකා එක්ක වුනත්  කමක් නැත . අවශ්‍ය ” බලය  අල්ලන්ටටය ”………. මහින්ද නව පෙරමුනකි  මෙවර චන්දය ඉල්ලුවෙනම්  අඩුම ගන්නේ අද විරුද්ධ පක්ෂ නායකයාවී  බේ දුම්වාදීන්ට එරෙහිව  සටනක් දෙමින්  අවස්තාව එන තුරු  කල් මරන්නට ඉඩ තිබුනේය .  එහෙත් කිව්වා නාහන එකා  ඉවතටම විසිවී ගියේ     සේන  වෙළෙන්දාගේ ඉන්දියානු  කහවනු වලින් මහින්දගේ  සගයන් විශාල පිරිසක් බිලිබා ගැනීම නිසාය  .

 හැබය් මෙසේ ගියවුන්  නිසා මහින්දට  මේ අවලමුන්ගී තරම දැන් තේරී ඇතුවා නිසැකය  ..  මහින්ද වෙනුවෙන් මහත් වෙහෙසක් ගෙන කටයුතුකළ   නලින් ද සිල්වා වැනියවුන් ගේ  අදහස් ගැන මහින්ද මීට පෙර තකුවානම්  මෙසේ අවංගු කාසිය  වෙන්නේ නැත .  කෙසේවුවත් තවත් සුපිරිසිදු   ජාතික වාදියෝ මහින්ද ගේ පැත්තේය . මහින්ද සටන අලුතෙන් පටන් ගතයුතුය . මැක්කන් සහිත ශ්‍රීලනිප බල්ලෝ නැවත වැද්ද නොගතයුතුය . පක්ෂ වල වැදගත් වන්නේ ප්‍රතිපත්ති මිස නාම පුවරු නොවේ   ගම්මන්පිල  විමල් යන  අ  ය  දිනේෂ් වැනි අවංක  හා වෙනස් නොවන ජාතික වාදියෙක් ප්‍රමුඛත්වයේ ලා සැලකිය යුතුය   මේ සියල්ලෝම  වඩා ජනප්‍රිය  වූ මහින්ද නායකත්වයට පත් කර නව   පෙරමුණක් වහාම   හදා  පෙරට ආයුතුය  . දැනට  ජනතාව  වඩාත් කැමති මහින්දටය එහෙත් මහින්දට  පිවිතුරු ජාතික වාදය නොතෙරෙය් .  දිනේෂ් ට ත්‍රස්ත වාදය අවසන් කිරීමට හැකියාවක් ලැබුනේ නම්  13අ  සහ පළාත් සභාත්  අහෝසි කිරීමට  කටයුතු කරන බවට  තව මත මට විශ්වාසය  . එහෙත් සිංහල බෞද්ධයෝ  බොහොමයක් රටේ ඉතිහාසයවත් බුදු දහම ගැනවත් සාෂණ ඉතිහාසය ගැනවත්   නොදන්නා විට    කුමක් කරමුද   නැවතත්  මහරජ ගැමුණු  එනතෙක් රට  බේරා ගැනීමට මහින්ද වත්  යොදා ගනිමු      

Shenali D Waduge

 3 successive UNHRC Resolutions crying ‘war crimes’ in 2012, 2013, 2014 calling for international investigation and for the first time UNHRC commencing an investigation after a conflict has ended cannot suddenly change to a ‘collaborative’ resolution if the accusers genuinely believed war crimes were committed. If the resolution drafters say war crimes were committed their stand can’t change just because Rajapakse was defeated and their favoured candidates are now in power. If the current push for a ‘collaborative’ resolution cum US-aided domestic inquiry is to be accepted it only highlights that we are heading for Part 2 of another malicious effort to hold a domestic inquiry and use allegations of war crimes as a means to throttle both Rajapakse’s and even the TNA lest they function out of line. All these sessions just go to show the hypocrisy of justice, the hypocrisy of the players and the systems and totally nullifies claims of truth or accountability.

Facts that have been ignored

• No truth or accountability can omit to name the nation that created armed militancy in Sri Lanka clandestinely in the 1970s – will India allow itself to be named as guilty party?
• No truth or accountability can omit to name the Church & Church-linked NGOs/foreign governments & officials that had direct contact with the LTTE even supplying equipment and technical assistance
• No truth or accountability can omit the Sri Lankans involved in providing material & other support to the LTTE whether they are political parties, politicians, people politically connected, media, NGOs, businessmen etc.
• What people have conveniently forgotten is that the military solution came after 30 years of unending bloodshed including political assassinations, suicide missions, bombs on public infrastructure, public transport. It was strange that none of the UNHRC member countries came forward to pass resolutions on behalf of these victims that were killed during ceasefires, peace talks.
• The Nordic Monitoring mission claimed LTTE was responsible for 1743 instances of child recruitment – why were these statistics not used
• The Nordic Monitoring mission claimed LTTE was responsible for 253 abductions of children and 579 abductions of adults during the CFA. Over 1000 civilians had been abducted by LTTE during the ceasefire.
• As per SLMM LTTE comprised 14,000 cadres in 2002 and by 2006 June, the LTTE cadres were 25,000.
• The Nordic monitors also recorded 3830 violations by LTTE (the violations by GOSL were 351 only). SLMM also records 1369 incidents of LTTE killing of Security Personnel, 247 cases of hoisting of LTTE Flag in public institutions, 800 cases of killing civilians – why have these records not been included to the Ban Ki Moon report, the UNHRC Resolutions, UNHRC head’s reports when non-conflict related items are being included?
• Following the liberation of the East, the liberation of the North commenced only after LTTE attacked Muhamalai entry/exit points on Kandy/Jaffna A9 road on 11 August 2006 killing unprepared military personnel & civilians.

The military option came after these failures and inaction of the international community

• LTTE assassinated 1 foreign leader, 1 President, 1 Opposition candidate, 10 leaders of political parties, 7 cabinet ministers, 37 MPs, 6 Provincial Council Members, 22 Pradeshiya Sabha members, 17 political party organizers, 4 Mayors including Alfred Duraiappah who was the 1^st to be killed in 1975.
• 4 Mayors including Alfred Duraiappah who became the LTTE’s first killing in 1975 outside a kovil in Jaffna. LTTE killed 82 Tamil politicians / 54 Tamil Government officials / 24 Tamil intellectuals & academics and thousands of civilians that included Sinhalese, Muslims and Tamils including LTTE cadres
• LTTE was banned in 32 countries except isolated arrests LTTE terror never ceased (LTTE was banned by India in 1994, banned by US in 1997, banned by UK in 2001, banned by EU in 2006) and UN and entities and foreign governments only insisted on talking to the tigers. Nothing was done to stop LTTE’s killing.
• Altogether 5 attempts were made – 3 direct talks between GOSL and LTTE and 2 foreign aided peace talks (1. 1987 Indo-Lanka Accord / 2. 2002 Norway brokered cease fire agreement). 1^st peace talk was in Bhutan (1985), 2^nd peace talk in Colombo 1989, 3^rd peace talk in Jaffna (1994 – 4 rounds), 4^th peace talk in September 2004 in Thailand, Norway, Germany & Japan, 5^th peace talk in 2006 in Geneva, Norway and Switzerland. All failures.
• On 2 January 2009 the Sri Lankan President asked LTTE to lay down arms and surrender. 2 other requests were made all of which refused by the LTTE claiming that all civilians were volunteering to be with them
• From the UNSG to foreign envoys appeals were made to release civilians, not to recruit children, to allow civilians to flee, not to shoot at fleeing civilians – these statements are evidence that LTTE were guilty of these offences.

Questions never answered

• The humanitarian operation started in 2006 when the LTTE closed the Mavil Aru sluice gates denying water to over 30,000 people in the East of Sri Lanka. After LTTE ignored warnings and in order to provide humanitarian assistance to water-deprived civilians the army was ordered to open the sluice gates. Liberating the East started on 24 August 2006 & ended on 4 September 2006 by gaining full control of the Sampoor area. Thousands of people were displaced in the East. Why didn’t the UNHRC and members bring resolutions against Sri Lanka following the liberation of the East citing civilian casualties/IDPs?
• When UN/UNHRC/the international community were mum throughout 30 years of killings by LTTE why are they only interested in the last 3 months of the conflict?
• When a conflict has lasted 30 years how fair is it for the victims to only insist on investigating the last 3 months of the conflict
• How fair is it also to concentrate only on Tamils as victims totally forgetting the crimes – cultural genocide, ethnic cleansing, civilian killings by LTTE upon innocent Sinhalese and Muslims?
• What is the excuse given by the UNSG to singularly pick out Sri Lanka after the conflict ended to set up a personal panel to appraise him of the last 3 months of the conflict after the GOSL had established the LLRC?
• Why has a panel report meant for only the UNSG’s personal appraisal ended up being the foundation for 3 successive resolutions and quoted by the UNHRC Head in her reports/statements on Sri Lanka?
• How can a non-UN General Assembly or UN Security Council mandated report become the basis for resolutions and investigations against a founder UN member country? How legal are these resolutions based on the illegality of using a report for the personal reading of the UNSG only?
• On what basis has the UNHRC exceeded the mandate when the original investigation was to cover the period mandated by the LLRC (2002 to 2009) with the UNHRC head extending the period to 2011 whereby nullifying the investigation of ‘both parties’ to only finding fault with the GOSL for the periods (2009 May to 2011).
• If the UNHRC resolution drafters and the UNHRC head is using the Ban Ki Moon report why was that never tabled officially at the UNHRC giving Sri Lanka right to response?
• Why has the UNHRC violated procedures by not tabling Sri Lanka’s response to her reports against Sri Lanka?
• If the claim that war crimes were committed holds true why have the accusers failed to provide even 100 names of the quoted dead. These supposed dead figures ranged from 40,000 to 225,000. For anyone to be dead they have to be born, there has to be relations, they must have a place of residence, an address – none of these details have been forthcoming except a barrage of propaganda and hype and insistence on an investigation. Shouldn’t an investigation start after claiming that x named person is dead and as such the names of all 40,000 or more must be given. What is being demanded instead is to hold an investigation to search for the dead! How long is this drama earmarked to last?
• Moreover, presuming that such a number was killed, they had to be buried. To be buried there needs to be graves. To have graves there needs to be people to dig the graves. Isn’t it curious that footage of soldiers ‘killing’ are shown by Channel 4 throughout the past few years but so far not a single clipping has been shown of soldiers digging graves and dumping dead bodies inside. Surely, it takes a lot of time to dig graves and dump 40,000 or more dead bodies while firing is taking place from both sides!
• More importantly the UNSG arrived in Sri Lanka on 23 May 2009 after 5 days of ending the conflict. He travelled via helicopter over the conflict areas and photographers clicked the entire area. Surely they would have photographed newly dug and visible mass graves? Where are these photos? They will provide evidence of graves or no graves and if no graves then the whole 40,000 dead story is a lie. If that is a lie then the whole WAR CRIMES allegations should rightly be thrown into the dustbin and the malicious campaign to tarnish Sri Lanka’s war effort should end.
• The whole war crimes allegations rests on the 40,000 or more dead figure. If no one can produce the names of the dead, find the skeletons or the mass graves the whole war crimes allegations become a farce.
• Those pointing fingers alleging war crimes must remember that
  • Laws of armed conflict finds civilians who have died while involved in hostilities having lost status of a civilian.
  • We do not know how many civilians were killed by LTTE, were taking part in hostilities voluntarily or by force – therefore no deaths can be attributed only to the SL army
  • We do not know how many LTTE cadres fought in uniform or civilian and died – if so they cannot claim to be civilians just because they wore civilian clothes.
  • The 11,000 cadres who surrendered were all in civilian clothes
  • If the army wanted to end the military operation gruesomely why would they take over 5 months to complete the liberation of the North and compromise over 2500 military lives, save close to 300,000 Tamils (some of whom were LTTE cadres) and not kill the 11,000 LTTE cadres who surrendered in civilian clothing? That close to 300,000 Tamils were saved and over 11,000 LTTE cadres in civilians were accepted nullifies the claims of a bogus 40,000 or more number without names or details when the Presidential Commission on Missing Persons has under 20,000 names of missing for a period covering 1983 to 2009 of which 5000 are named as missing soldiers. Why is the UNHRC not showing any interest in finding what happened to 5000 missing soldiers whose names and details are given but is more interested in going after a nameless and detail-less 40,000 or more number?

Therefore the present Sri Lankan delegation must remember that they are not going on a political mission. Politics against the Rajapakse’s need to be kept at home and part of internal politics only. In Geneva, the Sri Lankan delegation must heed to the facts and argue on the facts. Obviously the drafters of the successive Resolutions, the UNSG and the UNHRC are realizing that their lies are getting exposed and so given their close ties to the present Government they are trying to cover their tracks by entering to a collaborative agreement which the present Government will jump to accept given their reluctance to want to point fingers at the LTTE for wrong doings. It appears every party now going to Geneva wish to subtly cover themselves by buying more time with a foreign-collaborated domestic inquiry that would throttle any Rajapakse come back scenario.

We can safely say that none of the Resolutions /UNHRC reports, other reports were ever interested in delivering justice to the victims or holding the guilty accountable. Sadly that is the state of affairs globally….we are simply silent onlookers in a well-orchestrated and masterminded charade!

Shenali D Waduge

Sudath Gunasekara. Mahanuwara 7.9.2015 (Updated)

 The following list shows the list of Cabinet Ministers sworn in on 4^th Sept 2015

 Cabinet Ministers

1. Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe – Minister of National Policy & Economic Affairs
2. John Amaratunga – Minister of Tourism Development & Christian Affairs
3. Gamini Jayawickrama Perera – Minister of Sustainable Development & Wildlife
4. Nimal Siripala de Silva – Minister of Transport
5. S.B. Dissanayake – Minister of Social Empowerment & Welfare
6. W.D.J. Seneviratne – Minister of Labour and Trade Union Relations
7. Lakshman Kiriella – Minister of University Education & Highways
8. Anura Priyadharshana Yapa – Minister of Disaster Management
9. Susil Premajayantha – Technology, Technical Education & Employment
10. Thilak Janaka Marapana – Minister of Law and Order & Prison Reforms
11. Dr Rajitha Senaratne – Health, Nutrition & Indigenous Medicine
12. Ravi Karunanayake – Minister of Finance
13. Mahinda Samarasinghe – Minister of Skills Development & Vocational Training
14. Vajira Abeywardena – Minister of Home Affairs
15. S.B. Nawinne – Minister of Internal Affairs, Wayamba Development & Cultural Affairs
16. Patali Champika Ranawaka – Minister of Megapolice & Western Development
17. Mahinda Amaraweera – Minister of Fisheries & Water Resources
18. Naveen Dissanayake – Minister of Plantation Industries
19. Ranjith Siyambalapitiya – Minister of Power & Renewable Energy
20. Duminda Dissanayake – Minister of Agriculture
21. Wijedasa Rajapaksa – Minister of Buddha Sasana
22. P. Harrison – Minister of Rural Economic Affairs
23. Ranjith Maddumabandara – Minister of Public Administration & Management
24. Gayantha Karunathilake – Minister of Parliamentary Reforms & Media
25. Sajith Premadasa – Minister of Housing & Construction
26. Arjuna Ranatunga – Minister of Ports & Shipping
27. M. K. A. D. S. Gunawardana – Minister of Lands
28. P. Digambaram – Minister of Upcountry New Villages, Estate Infrastructure& Community Development
29. Chandrani Bandara – Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs
30. Thalatha Athukorala – Minister of Foreign Employment
31. Akila Viraj Kariyawasam – Minister of Education
32. D.M. Swaminathan – Minister of Resettlement & Hindu Affairs
33. Chandima Weerakkody – Petroleum & Petroleum Gas
34. Dayasiri Jayasekara – Minister of Sports
35. Sagala Ratnayake – Minister of Southern Development
36. Harin Fernando – Telecommunication & Digital Infrastructure
37. Mano Ganesan – Minister of National Dialog
38. Daya Gamage – Minister of Primary Industries
39. Rauff Hakeem – Minister of Urban Development & Water Supply
40. Rishad Bathiudeen – Minister of Industries & Commerce
41. Kabeer Hashim – Public Enterprise Development
42. Mohamed Hashim Abdul Haleem – Minister of Postal Service & Muslim Affairs

This list does not include the following three Ministries.

Minister of Finance, Justice and Resettlement who were sworn in earlier

This list also does not have Ministers for Local Government, Trade and Food

Probably they must be within the 4 or 5 to be appointed in few days as it goes increasing

45 State and Deputy Ministers are also yet to come

I do not want to make any comment on the quality or the capacity of individuals as everyone in this country knows who they are. So I will make few pertinent observations only with regard to its number, format and classification.

Those Ministries marked in red could be easily dropped without any problem and they could be combined with those marked in black on a rational basis.  For example like Agriculture and Irrigation, Youth and Sports and Transport and Roads but certainly not like Education and Highways. Thus the number of Ministries could have been easily reduced to about 20 if the Government is serious in economy, efficiency and good governance. Before elections there was much talk for the need for a smaller Cabinet and scientific classification of Ministries and duties to be assigned on a functional relationship basis. But this looks a classic hotchpotch. It is ridiculous and disgusting for any country to have a list of Ministers like this. The whole world will laugh its guts out at this Ranil-Sirisena invention. 

Highlights

Too many ministries

No scientific and rational classification of Ministries or assignment of duties

No Ministry for Kandyan Peasants numbering over 6 million natives who the poorest of the poor in this country

Multiplication of utterly ridiculous and meaningless Ministries

Too many Ministries to handle the Plantation sector and Estate Tamils

Following Ministries are utterly superfluous created just to satisfy the recipients for plain political expediency?

Sagala Ratnayake – Minister of Southern Development .

1. Digambaram – Minister of Upcountry New Villages Estate Infrastructure& Community Development
2. Gamini Jayawickrama Perera – Minister of Sustainable Development & Wildlife

S.B. Nawinne – Minister of Internal Affairs, Wayamba Development

Gayantha Karunathilake – Minister of Parliamentary Reforms & Media

Thalatha          Athukorala      Ministerof       Foreign            Employment
D.M. Swaminathan – Minister of Resettlement & Hindu Affairs

Mano Ganesan – Minister of National Dialog

Gayantha Karunathilake Minister of Parliamentary Reforms & Media ,

No Ministry for Kandyan Peasantry Development  

Isn’t it a national tragedy that this Government which has set up separate ministries for subjects like above including one even for wild life has completely ignored the Kandyan Peasants in this country and forgotten to have a Separate Ministry for the them who number over 6 million living in the entire Central, Sabaragamuwa, Uva and North Central Provinces and in parts of NWN, Southern and  Eastern Northern Provinces altogether living in 16 Districts out of the 25.They are the real Bhumiputras of this land and they have a birth right over this very territory from the dawn of history. This was their beloved land inherited from their ancestors that was taken over by force by the British since 1840; 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 and the irony is that while this Government treats the natives in this manner it has created a new Ministry called Ministry of Upcountry New Villages Estate Infrastructure & Community Development 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 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. How come the present Government is generously handing over to the Indian Tamils to create Tamil villages in the heart 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 distributing 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 Kandyans do not protest against this selective discrimination against them.

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 begins you think of its geopolitical and strategic importance. 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.

This 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 get displaced from the plantations along 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 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.

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

Therefore I request the Government to immediately stop creating these mono-Tamil settlements 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.

Before I wind up this note my advice on Ministries is

Have a minimum number not exceeding 25. Classify them scientifically and rationally. Let the subjects assigned to them have some linkage. Select the best men and women as Ministers. Select people like Luxman Kadiragamar, Lalith Atulathmudali, Gamini Dissanayaka and R Premadasa to be appointed as Ministers. If you don’t have enough such men chase out some useless fellows you have caged in the so-called National list and bring in few with brain, character, vision and talent. After all as you have 29 slots, even after taking in 10 such new persons you still have 19 political watch dogs places left in Parliament  to accommodate your favorites for personal reasons.

Jayantha Liyanage

No White Vans?

You are wrong, white van culture is still intact now taken over by the UNPers.

I was distributing leaflets in the Kurunegala city center on 12th August – on the same that UNP had its main rally.

Three UNP supporters dragged me across the street in front of hundreds people watching  and tried to forced me in to a van, that also happened to be white van – they were saying that I was distributing mud leaflets.

I fought back and as a result they could not get me into the van.

My leg was injured and several other places in the body was swollen . Still one of my finger is swollen

I was shouting to them when they were dragging me asking them to read but they did not listen. Even after I stopped them I asked them to read it but the main thug was an illiterate person. So many UNP supporters including candidates came to the nearest police post  and started threatening the police office who took me to that police post at the bus stand.

Shortly Higher police officers came to the scene and read the leaflet and said it is not a mud leaflet as it was printed in reputable printer with my name, address and email address on it.

Yahapalanaya?  – bullshit. They were in heighten mood expecting an  outright victory.

Had UNP won an outright victory it could have been a repeat of 1977 giving police officers a holiday.

Do you think that UNP thugs have turned into saints.

I have lodged a complaint to the police and investigation is going on.

Jayantha Liyanage

 වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග 

සීගිරි චිත්‍ර වලින් දැක්වෙන රන්වන් කාන්තාවන් කාශ්‍යප රජුගේ අන්තඃපුර ස්ත්‍රීන් බවත් නිල්වන් කාන්තාවන් ඔවුන්ගේ සේවිකාවන් බවත්  එච්.සී.පී.බෙල් මහතා අනුමාන කලේය​. මහාචාර්‍ය සෙනරත් පරණවිතාන මහතා පැවසුවේ රන්වන් කාන්තාවන් තුළින් විජ්ජුලතා හෙවත් විදුලියත්,නිල්වන් කාන්තාවන් තුළින් මේඝලතා හෙවත් වළාකුළුත් නිරූපණය කෙරෙන බවයි.  

සීගිරි චිත්‍ර වලින් දැක්වෙන රන්වන් කාන්තාවන් දෙස බැලීමේදී ඔවුන් තුලින් යුරොපියොයිඩ් ලක්‍ෂණ පෙනෙන්නට තිබේ. නාසයේ හැඩය​, ශරීර වර්ණය ඇසේ හැඩය යන මානව රූපී ලක්‍ෂණ සලකා බැලීමේදී මේ ළඳුන්   යුරොපියොයිඩ් ලක්‍ෂණ කලවම් වූ පර්සියානු රූමතියන් බව සිතේ. අතීතයේ ලක් රජුන් වෙත උතුරු ඉන්දියාවෙන් , පර්සියාවෙන් (වර්තමාන ඉරානය​) පමණක් නොවේ ඊජිප්තුවෙන් ද අභිරූපිකාවන් අන්තඃපුර ස්ත්‍රීන් ලෙසට ගෙන ආ බවට සාධක ඇත​. මේ අනුව රන්වන් කාන්තාවන් කාශ්‍යප රජුගේ අන්තඃපුරයේ සිටි පර්සියානු ළඳුන් විය නොහැකිද ?  

මෙම චිත්‍රයේ පසු පස සිටින නිල්වන් කාන්තාව දෙස බලන්න, ඇය කෙරෙන් සිංහල කතකගේ වාර්ගික ලක්‍ෂණ පැහැදිලිව දැකිය හැක​. 

lanka C news

යහපාලනය කියාගෙන තමන් වහන්සේලාට පයින් ගැසීමක් සිදු කර ඇති බව කොට්ටේ ශ‍්‍රී නාග විහාරාධිපති පූජ්‍ය මාදුළුවාවේ සෝභිත හිමයෝ පවසති.

කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ/කැෆේ සංවිධානය

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් ලෙස තේරී පත් වූ පළාත් සභා සභිකයින් ගේ පුරප්පාඩු පිරවීම සදහා කටයුතු කිරීමේ දී අදාළ ලැයිස්තුවල ඉදිරියෙන්ම සිටින පුද්ගලයින් පත් කිරීමට පක්ෂ නායකයින් විසින් කටයුතු කළ යුතුව ඇතැයි කැෆේ සංවිධානයේ විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා පවසයි.

පළාත් සභා මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් ගණනාවක්ම මෙවර පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් ලෙස තේරීපත්වීම හේතුවෙන් පළාත් සභා ගණනාවක මන්ත්‍රී ධූ පුරප්පාඩු විය.   එම පුරප්පාඩු සදහා මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් පත් කිරීම ඉදිරියේ දී සිදු කිරීමට නියමිතය.  එජනිස, එජාපය, දෙමළ ජාතික පක්ෂය හා ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ විසින් මෙම මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් පත් කරනු ඇත.

දිස්ත්‍රික්ක ගණනාවක පළාත් සභා මන්ත්‍රී ධූර සදහා පුද්ගලයින් නම් කිරීමේ දී දේශපාලන පක්ෂ විසින් මනාප ලැයිස්තුව නොතකා කටයුතු කිරීමට උත්සහ දරමින් සිටී.  පළාත් සභා පනතේ විධිවිධාන වලට මෙම තත්වය අනුකූල වන නමුත් මෙම තත්වය පක්ෂ අභ්‍යන්තර ප්‍ර‍ජාතන්ත්‍ර‍වාදය බලවත් ලෙස ප්‍ර‍ශ්න කිරීමට ලක් කරයි.  ජනතා අපේක්ෂාවන් වෙනුවට පක්ෂ නායකත්වයේ අභිලාෂයන් මෙහි දී ක්‍රියාත්මක වීම නියෝජිත ප්‍ර‍ජාතන්ත්‍ර‍වාදය නොතකා හැරීමකි.

මනාප ලැයිස්තුවේ පහතින් සිටින ඕනෑම පුද්ගලයෙකු පළාත් සභා පුරප්පාඩු වූ මන්ත්‍රී ධූර සදහා පත් කිරීමට පක්ෂ ලේකම්වරුන්ට හැකියාව ඇත.  මෙම තත්වය වලක්වා ගැනීම සදහා අධිකරණයේ පිහිට පැතීමට අවස්ථා ගණනාවක දී මෙරට සිවිල් සංවිධානවලට සිදු විය.  පරාජයට පත් වූ පුද්ගලයින් ජාතික ලැයිස්තුවෙන් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට පත් කිරීමේ ක්‍රියාවලියේ පළාත් සභා ව්‍යවහාරය වන්නේ මනාප ලැයිස්තුවෙන් පිටත පුද්ගලයින් පුරප්පාඩු ඇතිවන අවස්ථාවන් හි දී මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් ලෙස පත් කිරීමයි.

පරාජයට පත් වන අපේක්ෂකියන් ජාතික ලැයිස්තුවෙන් පත් කිරීම මෙන්ම, මනාප ලැයිස්තුවෙන් පිටත පුද්ගලයින් පළාත් සභා මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් ලෙස පත් කිරීම වැලැක්වීමට නීති සැකසිය යුතු බව කැෆේ සංවිධානයේ විශ්වාසය යි.

කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන්

විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ/කැෆේ සංවිධානය

2015 සැප්. 8

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Dear Friends,

According to information received by the Asian Human Rights Commission, Mr. Anthony Kingsley, a casual labourer living in Hantana Estate, Kandy had been arrested by police officers attached to the Crime Branch of the Kandy Headquarters Police Station. This took place during a church procession in full view of the public. He was then threatened with torture. Realising that he was going to be taken away to a police torture chamber, he tried to commit suicide. Later that evening, he was granted bail. Presently Kingsley is in fear of further intimidation and is seeking protection for his life.

CASE NARRATIVE:

Anthony Kingsley (25), a casual labourer, was living with his mother, brother, sister and younger brother at Hantana Estate, Kandy. Kingsley and his friends accepted a contract to transport a machine belonging to Derena TV channel to the peak of Hantana mountain. The machine was heavy, so the group decided to end their contract. They informed the owner and were paid for a job half completed.

After 3 months the owner complained to the Kandy Headquarters Police Station that some parts of the machine were stolen. On 25 January 2015, at 1:30pm, Kandy police officers along with the owner, during a church feast of Hantana came and arrested, Mr. Benedict, a friend of Kingsley, who helped him to work on his contract.

Benedict escaped from the police after he was taken to the station and they were looking for him. At 3.30 pm they saw Anthony Kingsley and immediately arrested him before a huge crowd. He was handcuffed and made to walk to the police station in the public streets while thousands of people were looking on.

At the police station, he was slapped, assaulted and stripped naked. After a body search he was kept in police custody until evening. Kingsley tried to commit suicide for fear that he would be taken to another place and tortured. He was severely shamed due to publicly exhibiting him after his arrest. Fearing that he would commit suicide, he was given bail and released the same night. Kingsley was summoned to the police station on 28th January 2015. His statement was recorded that day. Kingsley was told that he would be called to the Kandy Magistrate’s Court. He denies all allegations and further states that he was subjected to torture and inhuman treatment as he was paraded in the streets of Kandy in handcuffs. His rights were denied.

Kingsley, who was illegally arrested, assaulted and publicly insulted without any evidence on a false charge of alleged theft, is now living in fear of his life and has left his home as a result.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please request the authorities to take disciplinary action against those police officers responsible for the, arbitrary arrest, assault and abuse meted out to Kingsley without any evidence or investigation. Request the National Police Commissioner and the Inspector General of Police to conduct an investigation into the actions of the police officers and the supervising OIC for his failure to administer his duties properly. Please call on the relevant authorities to provide adequate protection, relief, and justice to Anthony Kingsley, who lives in fear of further intimidation and threats from the police.

Kusal Perera

Director General,
Consumer Affairs Authority,
No 27, Vauxhall street,
Colombo 02.
dgcaa@sltnet.lk

Dear Sir,

Complaint & Request for information on labelling of Coca Cola bottles

 This complaint and request for information raised through querries raised herein is based on the Gazette Extraordinary of 19 January, 2005 bearing no.1376/9 issued under the Food Act No.26 of 1980.

This Gazette provides notification of regulations on labelling and advertising” of all goods and services sold or made available to consumers in Sri Lanka and is noticed as Food (Labelling and Advertising) Regulations 2005”.

The public as consumers are thus made aware,

1. No person shall sell, offer for sale, expose or keep for sale or advertise for sale, any food contained in a package or container unless such package or container is labelled in accordance with these regulations.
2. The package or container shall bear a label upon which declaration in respect of the food contained in such a package or container shall be clearly and conspicuously displayed.

What has to be declared on the label in respect of the food in a package or container is spelt out in the gazetted regulation(s) under Section 4(1) and (2), as, (i) common name of the contents (ii) brand or trade name if any (iii) net contents in international symbols; ‘g’ or ‘kg’ for solids and ‘ml’ or ‘l’ for liquids (iv) permitted food additives (v) instructions for storage (vi) name and adress of manufacturer, packer and distributor in Sri Lanka (vii) batch number or code marking (viii) manufactured and expiry date or date of packing and most importantly a complete list of ingredients used in such food by their common names in descending order of their proportions. All details have to be in at least 02 of the 03 languages used here in Sri Lanka and the font sizes are also clearly stated in the regulations.

In the case of Coca Cola either wholly manufactured here in Sri Lanka or brought in bulk, mixed and packed here in Sri Lanka, most important content details that should be provided on the main panel of the label under the above gazetted regulations are not provided in any form, thus violating the law of the land.

 My querry to you therefore is,

1)      While you have all the authority to institute legal action against Coca Cola under this regulation as per the Consumer Protection Act now in force, why had no action been taken to date?

2)      If my question above is not valid for any reason, why is it so ?

3)      If Coca Cola in fact is violating the above regulation that I am convinced they are, will you institute legal action immediately, taking this letter as a formal complaint of a consumer ?

4)      If not why?

Do please note the template provided for complaints in your official website is not designed for consumers, but for businessmen. This is therefore sent through my personal e-mail and the e-mail address could be used for contact.

Shall expect an early response for the querries raised.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely

Kusal Perera

Journalist

We creep where most don’t

I always take life with a grain of salt, plus a slice of lemon and a shot of old arrack…..!

For a decent e-mail ETIQUETTE:

Chairman

CAA

Dear Sir

The email letter below is self explanatory. It was sent today to your DG but was returned with the reason given as “over quota”. This means he is NOT using his official email account or does not check mail to see what has been addressed to him.

A very poor state of affairs, to say the least. Expect you to attend to both the letter sent by me and how the official email account of DG goes over quota.

I am attaching the screen shot of the mail delivery notification for your reference

Thank you

Kusal Perera

Journalist

Dr. Janaka Ratnasiri Nawala Courtesy:  The Island ( Opinion )

September 4, 2015

At the opening of the 8th session of the Parliament of Sri Lanka, the President said that Sri Lanka would lay a red carpet to welcome Sri Lankan intellectuals, if those presently working overseas decide to return to Sri Lanka. He further said that a special unit would be set up in the Presidential Secretariat to facilitate their return.

This offer made by the President is certainly laudable, which no other President had done before. It is very encouraging to find that the President has realized the importance of the role that intellectuals could play in the country’s development. I am sure he will receive applauds from every sector of the society for his decision. There are also many lessons he can learn if he could spare some time to study how the countries in the region have developed in recent years giving priority, particularly for science.

In this respect, what comes to my mind is the case of South Korea. Several decades of war in Korea with many foreign interventions resulted in the division of Korea into two countries, North Korea and South Korea, the former coming under a communist regime while the latter coming under a pro-American regime. At the end of the war, economies of both countries were in shambles with high poverty level. Most people used to live in shanties so much so that even in Sri Lanka, shanties were called Koreas. Hence, the Korean authorities sought assistance from USA to better their living conditions with a long term plans.

At a meeting between the President Lyndon B. Johnson of USA and President Chung-Hee Park of S. Korea held in 1965, the USA President had asked his counterpart, what assistance he needed from USA. His reply was that he needed a well-equipped modern institute to undertake research and development in science to uplift Korea’s industry. His request was promptly acceded to with a generous grant and the two countries signed an agreement to establish the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in 1966. Dr. Choi Hyung-sup, who happened to be the Minister of Science and Technology at that time, was appointed as the first President of KIST. A special law was passed to provide total independence to KIST even from normal government auditing though funding came solely from the government in its formative years.

Dr. Choi’s first task was to find people to run the institute. So, he made a visit to USA where a large number of Koreans were employed in various universities, institutes and industries, contacted them personally and offered them positions in KIST with better remuneration and research facilities than what they were already having. According to a USAID mission report, Dr. Choi’s”effort resulted in the recruitment of nearly 30 expatriate scientists, living and working abroad, all of whom had at least five years of relevant experience beyond the doctoral degree level. Because of its autonomous status, KIST is able to continue to attract outstanding scientists and engineers by offering salaries well above civil service levels, attractive working environments, paid sabbaticals, and generous benefit packages, including housing, transportation, etc”.

During its near 50-year existence, KIST which was later turned into a more advanced institute calling itself KAIST, was instrumental in converting S. Korea from a shanty-dwelling country to a country with a strong economy in Asia thanks to many innovations, particularly in electronics and material science, that KAIST helped to develop and later transferred to industry. They are world leaders not only in electronics products, but also in steel industry and ship building. The key character that enabled Korea’s success is the independence it gave scientists to work in a research-conducive environment with freedom to travel and purchase what they want without having to seek permission from bureaucrats and ministers at every stage as happening in Sri Lanka.

Now, the question is whether the Sri Lankan government could offer such independence and facilities to those scientists who respond to the President’s call and welcome on a red-carpet? After receiving on a red-carpet, where will they be assigned to work? Will the head of the institution or the department or university where they are accommodated give them the total independence to work? In Sri Lanka’s administrative set up, the key bane is the intervention of the minister at every stage. To cite one example, ministers take great pleasure in controlling foreign travel of public officers. Here too, there is no single set of guidelines. Some ministers are very strict in seeing that one officer does not travel more than a few occasions in a year, while others have more relaxed regulations. Cannot the approval process be handled within the organization following a set guidelines?

In Sri Lanka, every activity of a public organization needs the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers, be it holding a conference, signing an agreement with another organization, purchase of equipment, award of contracts for construction of buildings, recruiting senior staff etc., as evident in weekly Cabinet decisions published in newspapers. It appears only little time is spent on policy and national matters. To obtain the Cabinet approval, first a cabinet paper has to be submitted under the signature of the line minister, which could take from several weeks to several months which is at the discretion of the minister or his secretary. Under such an administrative set up, little could be achieved even if the individual officers or scientists have the necessary drive, but stalled by the ‘red’ light at the ministries.

The President will have an enormous task in getting the proposal to engage expatriate Sri Lankan intellectuals, successfully launched. It needs the understanding, cooperation and encouragement of officials in ministries and organizations where they are supposed to commence working.The mindset of everyone concerned needs to change. The President has provided the key ingredient; that is the political will. Let us hope and pray he will succeed in bringing his dream to fruition.

Dr. Janaka Ratnasiri

Nawala

Courtesy:  The Island ( Opinion ) Sept. 05, 2015

http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=131156

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s forex reserves had dropped 420 million US dollars to 6,466 million US dollars by end August 2015, down from 6,887.22 billion in July, amid continued sterilized forex sales, official data show.

Without 400 million US dollar swap from the Reserve Bank of India, foreign reserves are down 34 percent from a peak of 9,185 million US dollar in August 2014.

Last week Sri Lanka got another 1.1 billion US dollars from the Reserve Bank of India, which would could help boost reserves closed to 7.0 billion US dollars or above.

Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves dropped to 8.05 billion rupees in February 2012, after the Central Bank printed money to accommodate credit for oil subsidies and sterilize forex sales and keep interest rates down.

The current balance of payments crisis was generated by printing hundreds of billions of rupees to finance a budget deficit and sterilize foreign exchange sales to keep interest rates down.

Economists have pointed out that Sri Lanka’s central bank’s targeting of dual internal and external anchors are fundamentally flawed and needs urgent reform.

On Friday the rupee was interventions were reduced to try to abandon the external anchor, but analysts have warned that a rake hike is needed to correct domestic credit growth.

In the last monetary policy statement the Central Bank admitted that it was ‘concerned’ about credit growth pointing fingers at some sectors, though analysts say interest rates incompatible with the budget deficit in particular and credit generally is the key problem.

Sri Lanka failed to reform its Central Bank after the collapse of the similarly flawed neo-Mercantilist Bretton Woods system in the 1970s.

Swaps however are borrowings, which have to be repaid. (Colombo/Sept07/2015)

Sri Lanka bank borrowings by the state soar up to June, CB credit up 30-pct, SOEs up 38-pct

Sep 07, 2015 09:08 AM GMT+0530 | 0 Comment(s)

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s state brrowings from the banking system rose to 1,673 billion rupees in June 2015, up 21.5 percent from a year earlier, with central bank credit soaring 30 percent to 186.7 billion rupees, official data show.

Credit to state enterprises were up 38.2 percent to 482 billion rupees, from a year earlier.

The state started borrowing heavily from the banking system after a budget deficit expanded with state salary hikes and deceptive subsidies in January 2015, which was not followed up with a rate hike.

Rates were kept down with printed money or Central Bank credit. Sri Lanka has a policy rate corridor, where overnight rates should go to 7.5 percent when excess liquidity runs out, but market interest rate rises were blocked with liquidity release and later outright Treasury bill purchases.

Central Bank credit, or printed money soaring 30.8 percent to 186.7 billion rupees in June from a year earlier.

Printed money the most dangerous type of credit, which causes imbalances in the credit system and triggers a balance of payments crises and inflation.

Analysts say Central Bank credit to the banking system is understated during the current balance of payments crises, due to accounting conventions.

Though large volumes of liquidity, partially sterilized with borrowed securities under term repurchase deals were released to the banking system, they do not turn up as central bank credit to the state in the same way deals involving outright transactions of government securities appear.

Credit to the private sector was also up 20.1 percent to 2,722 billion rupees in June from a year earlier. Credit to private sector was up 51 billion rupees from a month earlier.

Though analysts have been warning about rising private credit, though private borrowers cannot cause any real damage as they are net savers. The damage comes from credit to state and SOEs, who are net spenders.

In the month of June itself, state borrowings from the domestic banking system eased somewhat with a 650 million dollars sovereign bond.

With oil prices falling and good rains, analysts say energy SOE’s should not be very cash negative. Cashflows of key energy SOE’s were generally positive in 2014. In June SOE’s paid back 14.3 billion rupees. (Colombo/Sept07/2015 – Update II 0-corrected opening para . Sri Lanka’s state borrowings from the banking system rose to 1,673 billion rupees in June 2015, up 21.5 percent from a year earlier, with central bank credit soaring 30 percent to 186.7 billion rupees, official data show.)

By Charles.S.Perera

It is interesting to investigate what this New Political Culture the Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe  keeps talking about..  From what one has observed so far it is a dictatorship of the President , a police state of the lowest sort with an extended  dictatorship of the Prime Minister within a frame work of  a damaged democracy .  An experiment perhaps of a new political culture  still in a very infantile state and lets hope it will not look to Videla’s Argentine, Salazar’s Portugal or Pinochet’s Chile.

The change of political culture began in January, 2015, with the appointment of Ranil Wickramasinghe unconstitutionally,  as there was already a Prime Minister and a Cabinet.  After the swearing in of the PM in January,2015, he immediately transferred the democratic Republic of Sri Lanka into a police state with a special police force taking orders from the Prime Minister himself to catch thieves,  to make real their hallucinations of thieves of the previous  government in every project, every profit making Companies, and even in every hotel in Dubai, and banks in Seychelles.

The Foreign Minister rolled his big eyes trying to get all foreign  experts to get the stolen loot hidden in various places by the former President, having accused him of having stolen  an enormous sum of money  equal to many times the  income of the Government of Sri Lanka. The new political culture is not a service for the people , but revenge against the former President Mahinda Rajapakse. All hands to the fore to catch thieves.

There was also an evident don’t care attitude, appointing as Finance Minister against whom a case for money laundering was pending, and strangely the presentation of the Budget was to be on the very day he had to appear in court !!

Weeks later the most scandalous  bond issue in the history of the Sri Lanka Banking System took place , and in keeping with the new political culture” all that was hushed up and the  falling dirt” swept under the state carpet.

There was again a display of the comedy of reappointing an impeached Chief Justice, making her retire and appointing another kicking out unceremoniously the Chief Justice in place. That is part of the new political culture a unique system in the world.

The new rulers chucked out our greatest friends China and Russia who defended us in the Security Council against USA and West, and have welcomed  our enemies USA and the West who presented resolutions after resolutions in the UNHRC in Geneva preparing to take our armed forces to be taken before a tribunal accused for war crime, and India that seconded the USA Resolutions as Sri Lanka’s new friends, to take over the countries development from China.

Ranil Wickramasinghe’s UNP Ministers each had to catch at least one thief of the previous regime. Even Company Directors  who held office during the previous  government were not spared. They   accused various people and the FCID of the Prime Minister  took  them for questioning and they never came back , as they were immediately arrested and put in remand. There was the JVP marching proudly with files in hand to be  handed over to the Bribery Commission. JVP was a part of  the new political culture of Ranil Wickramasinghe.

Another facet of  the new political culture was seen after the dissolution of the Parliament.  Maithripala Sirisena actively  contributing to shape the new political culture, proposed by his super intelligent  Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe. But Maithripala Sirisena’s behaviour  was some thing  beyond the recitation of the  daily Yahapalanaya Manthra, ordinary democracy as we know, or  even outside the corrupt regime they had vouched to replace.

There is no democratic country in the world where a President elected by the people does what Maithripala did from the day he was sworn in as the Presidenof Sri Lanka.

The democratic norm is that a President elected by the people belongs to all the people without discrimination against the political parties they belong to , the religion they profess or the language they speak.  But in the new political culture being shaped by the present Yahapalanaya government of Ranil Wickramasinghe under the Supervision of Maithripala Sirisena all those accepted  political and moral norms  have been ripped away. It is a new political culture.

The new political culture apart, it is a government set up to vilify the previous government,  and take as much revenge as possible from  the deposed President Mahinda Rajapakse his family, friends and those connected distantly  or those who pay respect to him for the life they owe to him,  who eliminated terrorism.

Maithripala Sirisena the President walked the length and  width of the country, saying to the people that if he had lost the election he and his family would have been six feet under ground. That was a most ridiculous, vicious, and unintelligent thing to have  been said by a man who occupies the most respected position of the country.  Stabbing a man’s back, to gain power is another thing , but to accuse him for what he is incapable of doing is base, low, distasteful  and foetid.

The attempt was of course to bring disrepute and make unpopular Mahinda Rajapakse, making people believe that he is a criminal not worthy of trust. Coming from a man who had known Mahinda Rajapakse for more than 47, years he may have thought that people would  believe that the Batalanda  torturers are angels  of sort under the new political culture, compared to Mahinda Rajapakse.

Fortunately the people –the Sinhala Buddhists would say that Mahinda Rajapakse is a man who will not harm even an insect let along burying people six feet under ground. The other woman Chandrika who is not worthy of being called a one time President of Sri Lanka speaks as if she is under the influence of liquor.  No wise person would go abroad and condemned a Presidents  who had been elected by the people of Sri Lanka  as a killer of Civilians who ran a police state.

Chandrika was incapable of stopping the terrorists even after she offered Prabhakaran north of Sri Lanka to be ruled by him for ten years, and therefore she is responsible to the very hilt” for all those deaths of terrorists, soldiers and civilians  from 19 August 1994 to 19 May, 2009. She cannot escape from that blame by putting it on Mahinda Rajapakse who saved Sri Lanka from terrorism.

Mahinda Rajapakse is unique. He is a man for all seasons,” how ever much the authors of the New Political Culture, try to portray him differently denigrating him, without thinking for an instance that, none of them are able to hold a candle to former President Mahinda Rajapakse.

People of Sri Lanka refuse to listen to Chandrika , and no one will trust her in Sri Lanka except Sirisena-Ranil duo. Therefore she is gleeful she has a foreign audience who knows nothing about her or her doings as the President of Sri Lanka, and may have not even read the book Queen of Thieves” by Victor Ivan. She is unfortunately a part of Ranil Wickramasinghe’s new political culture.

This Yahapalanaya Government is of course unlike any other government of the world, and what it is going to be with its sworn new political culture  is any ones guess.  Of what we have experienced  since 8^th January, 2015, it is not encouraging.  It became worse when the Parliamentary elections were to be held on the 17 August,2015.

At that election the former President was contesting to become the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. It was an ordinary Parliamentary election.  The difference was that the former  President was contesting as an ordinary citizen but sponsored by some political parties  to make him the Prime Minister if the UPFA wins with a majority number of seats.  Mahinda Rajapakse is very popular despite his defeat at the Presidential election of the 8^th January,2015, and all the who done it” stuff with which the yahapalanaya clique was trying to hoodwink the people.

Maithripala Sirisena the President was afraid that Mahinda would win and claim to be the Prime Minister. ( there was a question of an inferiority complex).Hence, under instruction from  Ranil and Chandrika or on his own,  he descended from his Constitutional and Democratic call to be independent and impartial in Parliamentary elections,  to make public announcement that he would not name  Mahinda Rajapakse the Prime Minister even if he were to win the election. Thereafter he started an election campaign of his own against Mahinda Rajapakse.

He announced that there are number of persons in the SLFP who deserve  to be named as Prime Minister and therefore he will not name Mahinda Rajapakse the Prime Minister even  if he wins the election.

These were all happening just a week or two before the election.  These were irregularities under the election law. But the Elections Commissioner had not proscribed the President’s actions. Then  the President sent an open letter of several pages to the former President Mahinda Rajapakse making lot of accusations and reiterating that he would not be made the Prime Minister as there are others suitable to be considered for the  office of Prime Minister.

Mahinda Rajapakse sent a short reply saying that when he lost the Presidential election he bowed to the wishes of the people and left peacefully; and that it is up to the President to bow to the wish of the people if he were to be  elected with a majority number of seats for the UPFA.

Then the President Sirisena just a day or two before the election sacked the General Secretaries of both SLFP and the UPFA and  replaced them with two of his henchmen.

These are all the part of the new political culture.  There was absolutely  no rhyme or reason for these show of vengeance against one man, who allowed people to live peacefully and breath freedom in a country without terrorism.

The result was the failure of the Party that sponsored the former President as a Prime Ministerial candidate failed to get the required number of seats.

But now the Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe who promises a new political culture and new country  in 60 months has taken over  from the President Sirisena to carry on the campaign of vengeance against  the former President Mahinda Rajapakse.  Corruption charges against the former President, his family and those connected to him closely or distantly continue with a promise to make the Prime Ministers police force FCID a permanent and a legal feature.

The Prime Minister has become a sort of a Dictator, rising to an Order in the Parliament to stop a Parliamentarian making his maiden speech from speaking about arms and armaments  in the Parliament.  Of course that can be understood , as when Ranil Wickramasinghe was the Prime Minister under Chandrika Bandar   anaike did not even present the CFA to the Parliament, probably because he did not want to speak about terrorism and arms and ammunitions in the House.

Ranil Wickramasinghe did not stop at that he also refused to recognise MPs Gamanpila and Weerawansa as leaders of political parties and denied them the priviledges that follow such recognition and even denied them the front seats allocated to them in the Parliament.

That is the New Political Culture that is being set up in Sri Lanka and it would be interesting to know what more is to follow.

Shenali D Waduge

to the greedy, nothing is of any consequence”

Did Syria threaten US/UK or NATO? No. So what business do these nations have in Syria? War on Terror, removal of a ‘dictator’ and delivering democracy are the oft used excuses given. ‘Dictator’ Assad did not destroy Syria nor did he create a country bombed, foreign mercenaries with arms and a refugee crisis. The situation was created by US/UK and NATO. So who should be responsible for the crisis is just as important as the offshoots of the crisis in the form of scores of people supposedly fleeing their native lands not because of ‘dictator’ Assad but simply for their own safety. The convenience of this situation enables the very nations attacking Syria to project themselves as guardian angels to these fleeing people. In such a scenario we have to wonder how the mass exodus of migrating people was engineered and why!

How beneficial are refugees

Germany’s population is dwindling. The birth rates are equally shocking. So too is the working-age population which is Europe’s biggest economy. Overall population of Germany is predicted to fall from 82miliion to 65million by 2060. Between 2000 and 2013, Germany’s birth rate dropped by 11 per cent

Europe’s Population Policy Acceptance Study found that 23 per cent of German men thought ‘zero’ was the ideal family size.

• Population in 2013 – 81.8 million
• Population in 2003 – 82.53 million
• Population in 2060 – 66 million (est.)
• Population growth rate in 2011 – 0%

Without immigrant families, the number of newly born children in Germany would reach only 400,000 in a country of 82 million

The fall of population means shortage of skills and that shortage of skills runs into billions a year. Adding to this is that workers lack the necessary qualifications giving rise to unemployed or part-time workers.

The immediate response has been to attract multinationals and lure them but perks have to be part of the deal. The alternate option of refugees has been on the minds of policy makers.

This situation is no different to other countries of Europe.

Low birth rate, few marriages, marriages without children, divorce, no marriage in view of gay trend and this extrapolated leave a very scary picture for the traditionalists. It also has raised alarm for policy makers who have lost confidence in outsourcing and are now looking at insourcing where they feel productivity can be better when things are within their turf and under their noses.

Enter the refugee – how useful are they?

• People smugglers are making profits with the plight of refugees
• According to European border security agency Frontex 107,500 migrants crossed the EU’s outer borders in the past few months alone.
• The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that the business of smuggling people into Europe is worth some 150 million euros annually
• Hundreds of thousands of euros pass hands via the informal Hawala system, leaving no paper trail (LTTE were experts at this)
• It is not only money taken to smuggle people – the detention centres, the meal providers, the cleaners, even the construction industry building centres, the lawyers representing both state and the refugee – all end up means of gaining profits.
• Case of money over morality – Hungary was first to claim objection to Muslim refugees flooding Europe and thus threatening Europe’s Christian identity https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/09/03/muslims-threaten-europes-christian-identity-hungarys-leader-says/. So much so for ‘multiculturalism’ & ‘multifaith’ notions that the EU pressurizes upon other countries trying to preserve their heritage and identity from Christianity/Islam. “We shouldn’t forget that the people who are coming here grew up in a different religion and represent a completely different culture. Most are not Christian, but Muslim…. That is an important question, because Europe and European culture have Christian roots,” (Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban)
• Germany has solved that problem http://www.timesofisrael.com/at-a-berlin-church-muslim-refugees-converting-in-droves/ where hundreds of Muslims are converting to Christianity in order to win asylum. An excellent case of increasing flocks and rebalancing the scales as all new converts naturally become better footsoldiers than those born into the Christian faith most of whom are now debating on how true Christianity, God and the myths and fairy tales are.
• According to the UN high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR), about half the million Syrian refugees currently living in Turkey are children – most of them have become excellent child labor! Almost 900,000 children are estimated to be working in Turkey, around 300,000 of them between the ages of six and 14 – this evil becomes excellent for the UN & NGOs to appeal for bigger funds to help these needy children and how far that help succeeds is another question though UN/NGOs will not complain about the additional funds that pour in.! A vicious world of creating or engineering demands to sustain the livelihoods of a handful though propaganda is paid to show otherwise!
• UN defends role of migrant workers in Europe. There are 50m migrant workers resident in Europe who sent $109.4bn abroad in 2014

Let’s put things in perspective. It was the EU/UK and US that began terrorizing the Middle East with staged coups in Libya, Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and now Syria because they want to take hold of the natural resources of these countries. Attacks on these nations created millions of refugees who have come to EU nations (Greece, Bulgaria, and Romania) but are being routed to different parts of Europe. The EU nations refusing to impose sanctions on Russia – Macedonia, Hungary and Serbia are projected as the bad-guys.

In 2013 Lord Mandelson made a stunning revelation. He confirmed that both the Tony Blair and Brown governments deliberately engineered mass immigration totally more than 2.2million. We sent out search parties to get them to come… and made it hard for Britons to get work”, says Mandelson. How different can that story be in 2015.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2324112/Lord-Mandelson-Immigrants-We-sent-search-parties-hard-Britons-work.html

Oceans away in US, there is news that the White House and George-Soros backed Open Borders Group are working out a scheme to bribe immigrants to naturalize before the 2016 elections in order to make the numbers for a Clinton victory. The New National Integration Plan: Making the Most of a Historic Opportunity.” has been set up to facilitate this. President Barack Obama is demanding American citizens welcome millions of undocumented immigrants and refugees into their neighborhoods in keeping to his “centralized” plan to “take care of their needs.” George Soros is planning to bribe up to 13.8 million legal immigrants to become citizens before the 2016 election.  It costs 680 million dollars to naturalize 1 million new voters.

On the one hand we have people desperately trying to flee for safety and then we have the people smugglers ever ready to help for a fee, then you get governments who project the notion that they are helping because of the mass public demand for empathy towards them when in reality the scenario is probably engineered making refugees feel they owe these governments for the good will – that return is cheap labor, child labor, abuse of labor, and no demands / no rights except feel grateful for the kindness in allowing them to live in better climes! Great deal isn’t it! Isn’t this the true scenario of the mass refugee exodus to Europe/UK/US?

Shenali D Waduge

නලින් ද සිල්වා

මේ ලිච්ඡවි රජදරුවන්ගේ යුගය නො වේ. මේ මෝදි යුගය යි. මෝදි යුගය ලිච්ඡවින්ට අවුරුදු දෙදහස් හයසියයකට පමණ පසුව ඉංගිරිසි යුගයක් නේරු යුගයක් හා ගාන්ධි යුගයක් පසුකර පැමිණ ඇත්තකි. ඉංගිරිසින්ට පෙර තවත් යුග ගණනාවක් චෝල, චේර පාණ්ඩ්‍ය, මූගල් ආදී වශයෙන් ද අපි පසුකර ඇත්තෙමු. එයට අමතර ව ධර්මාශෝක යුගයක් ද අපි පසු කෙළෙමු. මෝදිට නැති සම්මුතිවාදයක් මෝදි අපට ලබාදෙන්නේ කෙසේ ද? ධර්මාශෝක රජු අපට ඊනියා යථාර්ථවාදී ථෙරවාදී සංස්කෘතියක් ලබා දුන්නේ ය. ඒ ඔහුට තිබිණු සංස්කෘතියකි. යථාර්ථයක සම්මුතිවාදයක් තිබිය හැකි යැයි නො සිතමි. එය අවසානයේ දී අවුරුදු දහස් ගණනක් අපේ වාසියට හේතු විය!

අද ක්‍රියාත්මක වන සම්මුතිවාදී දේශපාලනය යන්න ම ලංකාවේ නිර්මාණයක් නොවන බව සිතාගත හැකි ය. ලිච්ඡවිහු යථාර්ථයක් ගැන විශ්වාස කළෝ ද? අප යථාර්ථයක් ගැන විශ්වාස කරන්නේ නම් අප දරණ මතය යථාර්ථය යැයි අප පිළිගන්නේ නම් අපට අනෙකා කියන දෙය සමග එකඟ විය හැකි ද? එය ඊනියා සත්‍යයක් ලෙස පිළිගත හැකි ද? සම්මුතිවාදී දේශපාලනයක් සඳහා අනිවාර්ය අවශ්‍යතාවක් වනුයේ යථාර්ථයක් නැති බව පිළිගැනීම යැයි සිතමි. දාර්ශනික අර්ථයකින් වුව ද සම්මුතිවාදී දේශපාලනය යන්න විකෘතියක් බව පැහැදිලි ය. 

මම පසුගිය දිනවල සති කිහිපයක් අසනීපයෙන් පසුවූයෙමි. ඒ කාලයෙහි සෞඛ්‍ය තත්ත්වය වැඩි දියුණු කරගන්නා අතර එයටත් වඩා දැනුම පිළිබඳ මගේ දැනුම වර්ධනය කර ගත්තෙමි. ඇතැම් වර්ධනයන් වෙනත් පුවත්පත්වල ද, විශේෂයෙන් ම විදුසර පුවත්පතෙහි පළවනු ඇත. ඉතා කෙටියෙන් කියන්නේ නම් පෘථග්ජනයන්ගේ සියළු දැනුම් (මා ලියන දේ ද ඇතුළු ) බොරු බවට බුද්ධ දේශනාවෙහි සඳහන් ප්‍රකාශ පිළිබඳ විශ්වාසය ඒ කාලයෙහි තව තවත් තහවුරු විය. අපේ සියළු දැනුම් මනස විසින් නිර්මාණය කෙරෙන සංකල්ප, ප්‍රවාද, තර්ක ආදියට සීමා වෙයි. මනස විසින් නිර්මාණය නොකෙරෙන දැනුමක්, ඊනියා වාස්තවික යථාර්ථයක් අපට තිබිය හැක්කේ කෙසේ ද? තණ්හාව යන්න ද අපේ නිර්මාණයකි. තණ්හාව නමැති සංකල්පය නොමැතිව  තණ්හාවක් තිබිය හැක්කේ ඊනියා යථාර්ථවාදීන්ගේ මනසෙහි යැයි සිතමි. දේශපාලන බලය පිළිබඳ තණ්හාව ගැන කියනුම කවරේ ද? තණ්හාව නැති කර ගැනීම බුදුන් වහන්සේ පෘථග්ජනයන්ගේ මනසින් ග්‍රහණය කරගත හැකි සංකල්ප (දැනුම) දේශනා කළහ. දේශපාලන බල තණ්හාව නැති කර ගත හැකි දේශපාලනඥයෝ වෙත් ද? 

පෘථග්ජන අපේ සියළු දැනුම් බොරු බව බුදුන් වහන්සේ දේශනා කර ඇත. එසේ නම් අප ජීවත්වන්නේ, එදිනෙදා වැඩකටයුතු කරගෙන යන්නේ කෙසේ ද? අපි බොරු දැනුමෙන් වැඩ ගනිමු. ඒ දැනුම් සංගත වේ ද නැද්ද යන්නවත් ප්‍රශ්නයක් නොවන බව මට දැන් පැහැදිලි ය. බටහිර විද්‍යාව ද තවත් එවැනි පට්ටපල් බොරුවක් පමණකි. දේශපාලනයෙහි දී අපි එකිනෙකා විවිධාකාරයෙන් කරුණු ඉදිරිපත් කරමු, පැහැදිලි කරමු. අප එකිනෙකා අතර පමණක් නොව ඒ ඒ පක්‍ෂවල ද දේශපාලනඥයන්ගේ ද ඇත්තේ පරස්පර ය. අපට විද්‍යුත් නාලිකාවල වාද පැවැත්වීමට හැක්කේ මේ පරස්පර නිසා ම ය. 

කෙසේ වෙතත් දේශපාලනයේ ඊනියා සිද්ධි විවිධ වූ ආකාරයට විස්තර කෙරී ඇත. මා දැන් දකින ආකාරයට අද අපට මෝදි ඊනියා සම්මුතිවාදී දේශපාලනයක් පටවා ඇත. මගේ ප්‍රකාශය වැරදි විය හැකි ය. එහෙත් ඒ තවත් විස්තර කිරීමකි. මේ ඊනියා සම්මුතිවාදය ඉන්දීය ඔත්තු සේවා මගින් එ ජා පක්‍ෂයට හා ශී්‍ර ල නි ප කොටසකට පමණක් නොව දෙමළ ජාතික සංධානයට ද ජ වි පෙරමුණට ද ජා නි සංධානයට ද පටවා ඇත. තොණ්ඩමන් හා ඩග්ලස් දේවානන්ද ගැන කීමට දෙයක් නැත. අද යම්තමින් වුවත් ඉන්දීය ග්‍රහණයෙන් මිදී ඇත්තේ ශ්‍රී ල නි ප කොටසක් හා එ ජ නි සංධානයේ පක්‍ෂයක් දෙකක් පමණකි. එහෙත් ඔවුන්ට අද කළ හැකි දෙයක් නැත. ශ්‍රී ල නි පක්‍ෂයට ආණ්ඩුවේ මෙන් ම විපක්‍ෂයේ ද සිටිය නො හැකි ය. ඔවුන් රූපික බෙදීමක සිර වී ඇත. සංධානයේ ම එ පෙරමුණට ඇත්තේ මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් තිදෙනකු පමණ ය. සම්බන්ධන් විපක්‍ෂ නායක ලෙස පත්කිරීමට එරෙහිව තර්කයක් ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමටවත් නො හැකි ය.  සංධානයේ ඊනියා ජාතික ආණ්ඩුව සමග නොමැති කොටස් අදවත් වෙන ම දේශපාලන පක්‍ෂයක් ලෙස සංවිධානය විය යුතු ය. මෛත්‍රිපාලගේ නායකත්වයෙන් ඔවුන්ට දේශපාලන ගමනක් නොමැති බව අප කීවේ අද ඊයේ නො වේ.     

අප රටේ එ ජා ප හා ශ්‍රී ල නි ප එකඟ වන්නේ කුමක් සඳහා ද? සංවර්ධනය, ජාතික සමගිය, සංහිඳියාව ආදිය සම්බන්ධයෙන් යැයි යමකු කීමට ඉඩ ඇත. එහෙත් මේ පිළිබඳ විස්තරාත්මක සාකච්ඡා ඇති වන විට අර්බුදය කෙතරම් මහත් දැයි අපට තේරුම් ගත හැකි වනු ඇත. ඊනියා සම්මුතිවාදී පාර්ලිමේන්තුව රැස් වූ දින ම සම්මුතිවාදයක් නැති බවට අඩුම තරමින් කරුණු හතරකින්් කියැවිණි. පළමුව පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ විපක්‍ෂ නායකයකු නැත. (මේ ලියන මොහොතෙහි සම්බන්ධන් ඒ තනතුරට පත්කර ඇති බව වාර්තා වෙයි.) ඇමති මණ්ඩලය පත්කර ගැනීම පිළිබඳ මැතිවරණය නිමවා සති දෙකකට පසුවත් සම්මුතියක් නැත. 1948 සිට තිබූ එකඟතාවන්වත් දැන් ඇති කර ගත නො හැකි යැයි සිතමි. සමහර විට හතරවැනි දා වන විට කැබිනට් මණ්ඩලය පිළිබඳ එකඟතාවකට ඒමට ඉඩ ඇත.  

අද දැකිය හැක්කේ එකඟතා මත පදනම් වී රට කරවීමක් නොව විධාන හා නියෝග මත රට කරවීමට දරණ ප්‍රයත්නයකි. එදා පාර්ලිමේන්තුව රැස් වූ දින ඊනියා රාජාසන කතාවෙන් පසු උදය ගම්මන්පිළ මහතා තම ස්තුති කතාවේදී අනුචිත කතාවක් කෙළේ ය. එහෙත් ඔහු පාර්ලිමේන්තු සම්ප්‍රදායට එරෙහිව කිසිවක් නො කීවේ ය. ඔහු ඊනියා නිසග ආයුධ ගැනීමක් ගැන කතා නො කෙළේ ය. 

රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා එක්කෝ එදා ගම්මන්පිළ මහතා කී දේ සාවධානව අසා සිට නැත. එසේත් නැත්නම් ඇතැමුන් කතාකරන විට වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතාට ඉවසුමක් නැත. ගම්මන්පිළ මහතා වැනි ඒකනායක කෙනකුට කතාවක් දීමෙන් තමන් පරාජයට පත්විණි යැයි වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා සිතුවේ දැයි නො දනිමි. ඒ කුමක් වුවත් රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා කඩා පැන්නේ ගම්මන්පිළ මහතාට එවැනි කතා කිරීමට ඉඩක් නො දෙන බව කියමිනි. එහි ඇති සම්මුතිවාදය කුමක් ද? තමා හරි යැයි සිතන දේ පමණක් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ දී සිදුවනු දැකීම වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතාගේ අභිප්‍රාය බව පැහැදිලි ය. වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා පසුගිය පාර්ලිමේන්තුව අවසන් භාගයේ දී ද මේ දුර්වලතාව ප්‍රදර්ශනය කෙළේ ය. ඔහු තමන් අගමැති මිස කතානායක නොවන බව දැනගෙන කටයුතු කරන්නේ නම් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවෙන් පිටත සිටින අපට ද පහසුවකි. 

එදින ම මත්තල ගුවන්තොටුපළේ එක් ගොඩනැගිල්ලක් වී ගබඩාවක් ලෙස වෙන් කෙරිණි. ඒ ගොඩනැගිල්ලේ ඇති උපකරණ හා භාණ්ඩවලට ඒ නිසා සිදුවන හානිය ගණන් බලා ඇත් ද? මත්තල ගැන ආණ්ඩුව විපක්‍ෂය සමග සම්මුතියකට නො එළඹුණේ ඇයි? ආණ්ඩුවට, විශේෂයෙන් ම රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතාට අවශ්‍ය තව තවත් මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතාට පහර ගැසීම බව පැහැදිලි ය. සුද්දන් තම මිත්‍රයා යැයි කියමින් ප්‍රතිවාදීන්ට පහර ගැසීමට අපට උගන්වා ඇත. බටහිර සංස්කෘතිය අනුව හැදුණු වැඩුණු රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතාට ව්‍යාජ ස්තුති පුදකරන අතර ඒ මහතාට තව තවත් පහර දෙයි. මත්තල ගැන ගත් ක්‍රියා මාර්ගයෙන් ආණ්ඩුව අත්කරගෙන ඇත්තේ හොඳ හිතක් නො වේ.  ආණ්ඩුවට, විශේෂයෙන් ම එ ජා පක්‍ෂයට ඇත්තේ මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතාට පහර ගැසීමේ චේතනාව ය. 

අද අපි ඉන්දියාවේ ග්‍රහණයට හසු වී සිටින්නෙමු. අවුරුදු දෙදහස් හයසියයකට පසුව අපි පරාජය වී සිටිමු. මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතාට දඬුවම් කිරීම ඉන්දියාවේ අභිලා’ෂය නොවන බව පෙනී යයි. ඊනියා දේශීය හා ජාත්‍යන්තර පරීක්‍ෂණ ගැන අද අපට වෙනත් ආකාරයකට සිතන්නට බල කෙරී ඇත. අද කළ යුත්තේ ඉන්දියාවෙන් නිදහස් වන මගක් සෙවීම ය. එහෙත් ඒ පහසු නො වේ.  

අප මෙතරම් ඉක්මණින් ඉන්දියාවේ ග්‍රහණයට හසුවූයේ කෙසේ ද? ඉන්දීය ඔත්තු සේවයේ අය අද අප පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරු ලෙස කටයුතු කරති. ඉන්දිරා ගාන්ධිට පමණක් නොව ජවහර්ලාල් නේරුට ද ලංකාව ඉන්දියාවේ ප්‍රාන්තයක් කර ගැනීමේ අවශ්‍යතාව විය. ඉන්දිරා ගාන්ධිගෙන් පසුව ඉන්දීය පාලකයෝ ලංකාවේ දෙමළ ප්‍රශ්නය තම අභිමතාර්ථය සාක්‍ෂාත් කර ගැනීම සඳහා  යොදා ගත්හ. මෙයින් කියැවෙන්නේ දෙමළ ප්‍රශ්නය ඉන්දියාවේ නිර්මාණයක් බව නො වේ. එය ඉංගිරිසින්ගේ නිර්මාණයකි. අපට ඊනියා තිස් අවුරුදු යුද්ධය ගැන වෙනත් මනසකින් බැලීමට සිදු වී ඇත. ප්‍රභාකරන්ගේ මරණය පිළිබඳ කරුණා අම්මාන් කතාවක් කීමට පටන්ගෙන ඇත්තේ ඊනියා යුද්ධයේ ගෞරවය ඉන්දියාවට ලබා ගැනීමට ය. ඒ සඳහා ඉන්දීය ඔත්තු සේවය ක්‍රියා කෙළේ අද ඊයේ නො වේ. 

චීන පෝට් සිටි හෙවත් වරාය නගරයට ඉන්දියාව තරයේ විරුද්ධ විය. ඉන්දියන් සාගරය චීන ආධිපත්‍යයට යට කිරීමට විරුද්ධව ඔවුහු කටයුතු කළෝ ය. මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ පළවා හැරීමට ඉන්දියාව අවසානයේ දී තීරණය කළේ මේ ආධිපත්‍යය හේතුකොටගෙන ය. ඒ මිස ඊනියා පරිසර විනාශය නො වේ. අද ඉන්දියාව වරාය නගරය සාගරයේ ගිල්වා ඒ වෙනුවට ඊනියා මහාපතරංග නගර (මෙගාපෝලිස්) සංකල්පය ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇත. මහාපතරංග නගරය ඉන්දියාවෙන් මෙහෙයවනු ඇත. එයට අමතර ව සීපා ගිවිසුම හා පාලම ඇත. අපි විමසිල්ලෙන් සිටිමු         

නලින් ද සිල්වා

By Udaya Gammanpila Courtesy Ceylon Today

Prof. Hudson McLean

An apt parallel to analyse the politics in Sri Lanka in a Global Theatre.  However, this is No Situation Comedy, but a Real Global Control Exercise by One Player.

Are the Global powerhouses trying to make the Mixed Pickle into a Sweet & Sour, or Spicy & Hot, or a Mango Chutney, or even a Mind-boggling Sinhala Achcharu?  Such side dishes are meant to facilitate the appetite. Likewise, the current scenario is certainly creating Confusion & Control, whilst creating significant appetite and opportunity to a selected few.

The Players.

In this vast Board Game of Politics, revolves primarily in Middle East & in Asia, where there are only Three Players of any Significance.  ie: USA as the Key Player with  China – Russia as Supporting Actors.

The next rung are Pawns of minor Significance, ie: India-Singapore.

The Main Reason.

The Expanded & Widened Suez Canal gives Strategic Prominence and potential Commercial Bucks to Asia in general and to Sri Lanka in particular! And India would like a piece of the pie, at the expense of China.

Commercial & Military (Offensive – Defensive) Sea Lanes of Suez through Malacca Straits to Oriental Asia, where Singapore is the King of the Road.

Sri Lanka has always been “The Strategic Sparkle” of the Indian Ocean, now with higher importance due to US$8,5bn Expanded Suez Canal, funds raised  ‘independently’ through Investment Certificates issued by National Bank of Egypt, Banque Misr, Banque Du Caire, and Suez Canal Bank.

Financial Interests to Sri Lanka – Singapore – India. 

With the widening of Suez Canal means, the current Suez Canal revenues of US$5 billion would rocket to US$13.5 billion by 2023, as forecast (Reuters).

That revenue stream follows the Tuna Belt, off the Coast of Sri Lanka.

The low-IQ Gang of Three, currently enjoying the Governance of Sri Lanka, sadly have not realised the potential political-economic Bonanza, which they have kicked-under-the-Indian rug, simply for their own short-term, short-sighted personal gain.  Fools with No Horses!

Beneficiaries of the Dynamic Increase of Traffic.

An increase of US$8.5 bn in eight (8) years?

That’s a damn good Pie in any language!

The commercial sea-freight and strategic military flow will be a boon to the main geographical points, Sri Lanka & Singapore, where India has  now entered by applying brakes or breaks” on Sri Lankan-Chinese development & co-operatiion.

However, with the impending Indian entry, the loss of trade to Singapore is marginal with the super-efficiency and lack of corrupt practices of professional Singapore management talent.

Bunker Fuel sales will still keep Singapore as the Global Number One, for years to come. The current Sri Lankan government has already handed Indians, the Key to control of South Asia Maritime dominance, by thwarting the Chinese away from Colombo.

Uncle Sam is now in cosy comfort cuddling Aunty India in the South Asia region.

Furthermore, Singapore maintains its Balance tilted towards the West, through its strong connections with USA and a tacit friendly touch with China.

And Singapore Rules the Roost in the ASEAN pile.

Russian Move to Crimea & the Needling of BRICS.

The Russian Rapid Reaction to retake the absolute control of Crimea,  in order to keep the Peninsular away from NATO-USA axis, was thwarted by the financial stock-market crash of China, during August 2015, which would weaken the Russian dreams of gaining Chinese markets to balance its losses caused by the Western markets Trade Embargo.

The formation of BRICS, the Union of Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa, as a Trade-Political centre-piece which added a Regional Financial Dimension as an option to the World Bank dominance, did upset the pride of USA. The Chinese stock-market hick-up may slow-down several economic considerations with Russian Far East, and as well as, might slow-down the Russian Natural Gas sales to China. This is a triple whammy on Russian budget recovery.

In any case Russia, still suffering from a post Soviet-USSR hangover, has never demonstrated a Grand Visionary Strategy to counter the American Global Creativity. The Oligarchs are continuously draining the Russian economy, and enjoy the Sun-Sea-Sail in their billion dollar mega-yachts.

Now the Buckle which held the Pants in the BRICS Belt is Unbuckled!

Control of Sri Lanka by India.

In one fell-swoop, somehow the Western strategy crippled China & Russia, giving a leg-up to India, in her dreams of gaining points over China. Thus any Regime Change in Sri Lanka, to upset the current balance, might create serious possibility with India taking control of the Island, with the blessing of USA, by creating Civil Unrest and with reasons to Protect Minority Tamils, parallel to Russian take-over of Crimea. The Sinhala electorate was “hood-winked” by the Indian RAW using the Gang of Three, as Pawns.

With China, temporarily disabled, and blocked-out-of-Sri Lanka, the only possible options for Sri Lanka is to gain political & military co-operation of Russia & Pakistan.

However, with the current Sri Lankan Regime well under the control of  USA through its Indian-RAW, this is highly unlikely. Any moves by Russia, Pakistan, China to support opposing Sinhala factions might draw the Americans to move in their Naval Fleet to support India.

And the current ill-educated President of Sri Lanka, with a weak vertebral column, now being coached by the Indian RAW and heavily supported by USA-CIA, to continue to extend his Term, is the ideal Stooge,  It is rumoured that Erik Solheim and Rudrakumar have held telephone discussions on potential strategy.

The dream of the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesingha to sleeve-into” the Presidential Seat, during the next five years, in a democratic manner, will remain a distant probability. The tables have changed, the Controllers are now being Controlled by an American-Indian Stooge.

The ex-President CBK is classified more as a redundant kitchen help, will be left to enjoy her sunset years with her grandchildren.

The Will” of Indian RAW & USA shall Find-a Way” to maintain the status quo.

With more Indian Tamils carving into the Sri Lanka Government VVIP Slots, and hordes of potential Tamil supporters moving into the Sri Lankan Tamil North and the North East, the take-over of Sri Lanka by India, may be compared with the Russian take-over of Crimea, in a passive gentle manner.

Dismantle the Chinese Hold on Africa – The China Syndrome.

USA has been getting stomach cramps due to the Chinese control of Africa, with Chinese investments in the natural resources, mineral and a vast potential market.

The recent visit of the First African-American President Barack Obama with his family, to his native Kenya, created immense goodwill between Africa & USA.  However one trip by an outgoing Black President is no match for Permanent Missions grounded by the slinky Chinese industrial & financial might.

Hence an attempt by Invisible Powers exerted to weaken the Chinese financial clout, was a success, albeit, a short-term temporary one. The Chinese funding and lending trillions, depending on the trading currency and the TOC, might have differing effect on the borrowers.

European Union Control through Confusion.

The fighting of Cats & Dogs now Restrained.

Furthermore, in a carefully spun strategy, USA has brought the entire European Union (EU) under a blanket of Terrorism, created due to Regime Change in the oil exporting countries, of  Iraq-Libya-Nigeria,  and severe unrest in Syria and Horn of Africa, with a multiple hit of initiating million Migrant Refugees exodus  stampeding into EU.

It is alleged that amongst the Migrant Refugees are serious contingents of ISIS trained terrorists, let loose into EU. Whilst keeping the EU governments under pressure with Humanitarian based publicity, ISIS  terror-cells may create distractions by initiating their lone-wolf” terrorist attacks in major capitals of Europe.

Hard hit by economic distress, surging unemployment, added to one million Migrant Refugees with a Dollop of Terror”, would keep the Circus Rolling.

The economic recovery of UK-Germany-France may take a few decades, with a surging Muslim population overpowering the Christian Europe.

It is relevant to Note that, the EU reluctance to allow the entry of Turkey into EU membership, was largely to keep a Muslim Turkey out-of Christian EU.

Ironically, due the influx of Muslim Refugee Migrants into EU, without Travel Restrictions within 27 Schengen countries, may enter the affluent Baltics & Nordic countries and create a Muslim majority, with a possible introduction of Sharia Law, in the foreseeable future.

Under the guise of the Russian threat to the Baltic States Poland & Ukraine, the USA Defense has moved in some of their ground troops and fighter jets to the region.

Has USA by Default, facilitated the entry of ISIS Terror into EU in order to Rule the Roost?

Thus the control of UK-Germany-France is complete.

The rest of Europe is insignificant & redundant.

Russia is kept in-check with severe economic discomfort from Moscow to Vladivostok.

USA Moves into GCC by Default.

The sheer fright of ISIS Terror has brought the Co-operation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC), comprising of  the dictatorial States of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, crawling on their knees, into the arms of USA.

Furthermore, most likely, under the influence of USA, the Entire Arab World, especially the GCC, have flatly refused to accommodate the Arab-Muslim-Islamic Migrant Refugees!

Thus increased pressure and control on both EU and GCC, under the auspices of the trigger-happy Uncle Sam!

With a Great Walls of Water, the Pacific & the Atlantic Oceans, a friendly stable Canada,  a possible Donald Trump gaining the Presidency and building a Wall-on-Mexican border, USA will be a safer country, except for the trigger-happy Police.

The morning Diabetic Blood Glucose Test with LankaWeb.

One of the Fasting Sugar Level” monitors is the Social Media such as FaceBook, Twitter, Google+ and the Heart-Rate Monitor – LankaWeb, and checks the Pulse in Sri Lanka.

LankaWeb has its main flow of excellent scribes, who give a reasonably accurate, yet slightly wire-balanced, view of the political ambiance of Sri Lanka.

The list published by LankaWeb on the right-hand column, gives the list of main Contributors, of which in my opinion, HLD Mahindapala ranks Number One, whose  publications are Factual, Current, Reader friendly, although slightly in favour, and correctly biased, towards ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa, whom I regard as the best Leader of Sri Lanka since Independence.

A high degree of Patriotism is generally visual in the content of Ms Shenali Waduge, with the odd prejudicial stab at the Christian-Catholic Sinhala.

Why LankaWeb? An Opinion!

During the past many years, LankaWeb has become an important medium to check the Pulse of Sri Lanka. The main contributors have chosen a Direct Drive into Patriotism, with some brickbats from the Tamil supported opposition.

The Gallery of Commentators are generally polite, driving their opinions in a civilised manner, whilst there are a few with a basic-to-low IQ (below 80), who do not comprehend what they read, and write off-course.  In this day & age, with Auto Correct facility, spelling should not occur, however the grammatical errors might be acceptable.

How a Tiny Little Drop of an Island Enters the Global Power Politics.

Compared to the global giants in Power Politics, Sri Lanka may be compared to the David” of Goliath fame.

As a David”, Sri Lanka could have been a non-aligned, non-aggressive, independent, peaceful  Asset to Global Power brokers, as a Services Provider.

An abundant enthusiastic educated low cost work force, strategic access to Middle East, Asia and Africa, is an ideal location.

The Island does not require any control from any major power, since the overall population is traditionally friendly, peaceful, non-violent and generally well educated.  Therefore the current alignment towards India, driven by the Gang of Three, is an unwanted liability.

The earlier relationship with the Chinese was more of an economic necessity, than a political bond. Furthermore, the Chinese were not a threat in any way or form.

Therefore, whilst the intelligent younger generation ponders into the global repercussions, might consider serious options on a possible change of the tracks which are now being used to Drive the Sri Lankan Train, in the wrong direction. Should the political options offer little hope, Sri Lanka must have one potential leader within the twenty million population to lead a People’s Revolution to Stop the Rot.

Hopefully, Sri Lankan politics have hidden talent and political leadership material, to balance the loss of ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa who ponders relaxed retirement.  Ideally, Heavens Forbid” this new leadership material should not be from the families of next-generations of ex-leaders, who plundered Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka needs a Clean New Sheet!

Never Mind the Quality – Just Feel the Width!

Express Your Opinion – Read What Others Say!

The Independent Interactive Voice of Sri Lanka on the Internet.

Please visit -: http://www.lankaweb.com/

Dr Sudath Gunasekara. Mahanuwara (SLAS) President Senior Citizens Movement Mahanuwara

5.9.2015.

Mr. President and Mr. Prime Minister please name and gazette all the 225 Members of Parliament, both elected (196) and selected by you under the so-called national list (29), immediately as Cabinet Ministers without wasting your valuable time and energy over such a tedious and haggling job for the good health, wealth, prosperity and happiness of all politicians in this country. I have the least doubt that both of you will have the Blessings of the Mahanayaka Theras of Malwatta and Asgiriya as well, even if you don’t pay your usual deceptive political courtesy call on them for this unique state of the art in state craft, adittha, asutha and apatisannkatha in the whole world, even to the envy of Kautilya and Machiavelli who might try to turn in their graves in shame.

That will make all 225 MPP in Parliament, Ministers overnight whether they are in the Government or not and will also make them happy and gay, fully satisfied so that no Government in future will ever have any opposition within Parliament. That will also have no semantic confusion as the term Minister could also be used for a man who is not in charge of a state department but still having Cabinet rank. That will also take away the generally perceived subordinate mentality of one not being a Cabinet Minister. Then you don’t have to differentiate between Cabinet and non-Cabinet, State and Deputy Ministers either.  The only assurance you need to give them is that they will get the same salary and privileges and benefits and perks to enjoy life whether serve the people or not. Regarding money to meet additional expenditure too you need not worry. After all it is not your money no. There is the Treasury and the Central Bank that will look after the problem. You yourself being financial wizards we need not try to bother you on that either. Public protest by any? What nonsense. ‘Public’ in this country is not a word worthy of discussing any more as it has been murdered and buried not feet but miles below long time ago.

Those who watch you from outside know that you have restored Democracy and good governance in this country. You know better than we do what form of democracy we have and also you may know it better than I do that it was an ‘American genius who has defined Democracy, to our delight, as a form of government where a pack of few cunning foxes rule over a large herd of Assess’ So gentlemen be rest assured that you will have neither international nor domestic interference in whatever you do under the current system.

Moreover why call one man Cabinet, another State and a third a Deputy and create unnecessary displeasure and heart burning among your colleagues, when each one is equally valuable for you to remain in power.

It is common sense that all politicians, particularly in this country, don’t do politics to serve the people, though they publicly pretend to do and actually say so. Everybody knows they do it purely for their own benefit. Political office is power, wealth and personal aggrandizement. Politics is so corrupt and become so personal to politicians, everyone knows that what we call Government in this country in recent times has pathetically got reduced to a system of ‘Government by the politicians, for the politicians and of the politicians’ only. This had been particularly so after 1977. For example look at the Act number 1 passed by the new Government in 1977. It was the Pension Act for Politicians, passed unanimously violating the provisions of the Govt Pension Act.  Mind you unlike the public servants they could get a full pension after five years. Thereafter the Dharmista Government increased their salaries and all perks, their powers and privileges and benefits like personal staff, official vehicles duty free vehicles every five years and their control over Government finance and control over the whole machinery of governance by completely politicizing the entire state apparatus both public and corporate sector. In addition to increasing the number of Ministers in the centre they also created 25 additional District Minister posts to the 25 Districts.

So today in this country politics has firmly settled down to plain and simple realpolitik’ (politics based on realities and material needs of political power rather than on morals or ideals) rather than an art and science of government. As such the stage for immoral and unethical politics is a readymade bullet proof jacket you have inherited from your predecessors. Therefore you don’t have to worry or care a damn for public opinion as you are not at fault. Today you are the final word on democracy, justice, fair play, yahapalanaya and every other thing under the sun in this country. You know the difference between what is right and what is wrong for the people of this country more than anyone else and you know how to rule for which you have already  got a mandate.

That is why honestly I thought of making this request from the two of you on behalf of the whole nation after much serious deliberations for the convenience and good health of everybody, including the lucky politicians, members of their families and the hapless and betrayed general public, of course in good faith, to do away with further heart burning, frustration and confusion for everybody.

But I have one big grievance. That is, as I could remember, if you can recall, one of the main allegations against the Rajapaksa regime, to use your pet word, was that it maintained a jumbo Cabinet at enormous cost to the country just to retain the required numbers for the survival of the Government. You promised to reduce it to win the elections. Not that you liked or you did not visualize the difficulties, but to win January elections you had to do it. Before the General elections under tremendous public pressure you had to agree to limit the Cabinet to 30 Ministries by the 19^th Amendment. But by a motion in Parliament last week you increased it to 48 Cabinet Ministers and 45 non-Cabinet Ministers making the total 93, that is three time + 3 bigger than the number promised to people before the elections, saying that Parliament has the power to do so. If that is so the same Parliament can definitely increase it further making it even 150 or more whenever you want to do so. Aren’t they the same men and women who sat on these chairs in Parliament who voted for 30 and no more? They might call it now parliamentary privilege. Whom are you trying to fool? This is my million Dollar question to you Hon MPP who jointly and singularly take this country to a no-return situation.

But again breaching promises or deceiving people should never be a problem for a Prince or a ruler because,

‘A prudent ruler cannot, and must not, honour his word when it places him at a disadvantage and when the reasons for which he made his promise no longer exist’, so said Machiavelli.

I think his words are more appropriate to the politicians of this country today than to the medieval Europe or any other country in this whole world.

Latest news in Saturday Island.  5. 9. 2015

Saturday   5th 

New MPs to get duty free vehicle permits shortly. Recipients entitled to USD 50,000 loan

Congratulations! Carry on Mr. President and Prime Minister. Why not make hay while the sun shines?

Let the dogs bark but the caravan will move on!

by S.R. Ramaswamy Courtesy:  Indiafacts

This is a translation of the original essay by S.R. Ramaswamy that appeared in the September 2015 issue of the Kannada monthly, Utthana. Translated by Sandeep Balakrishna.

Nalanda University was established as an university of eminence in Bihar during the period when both Sanatana Dharma and Buddhism were at their peak. It provided free accommodation and fee less ( free ) education to all those interested in pursuing knowledge.

Apart from the various corners of India, students from Tibet, China, Japan, Sri Lanka, Java, Sumatra, Korea, Indonesia, Iran, Turkey, and Greece had enrolled there. Chief among the subjects taught there included Grammar (Vyakarana), Logic (Tarkam), Astronomy, Astrology, Medicine, Mathematics, Vedas (including all the Vedangas, or limbs of the Veda”), Yoga and Philosophy.

Because the influence and power of Christianity had escalated hugely in Europe, the pursuit of knowledge retrogressed in proportion to this escalation. The burning down of the world class, mammoth library at Alexandria, the public humiliation and murder of the world-famous scholar, Hypatia is now common knowledge. Thanks to this Christianity-induced blind fanaticism, Europe was immersed in darkness for several centuries where knowledge and learning was concerned.

A Golden Era

However, from the perspective of scholarship and development of knowledge, this period was the Golden Era in India. Great centres of learning flourished across the vast spectrum of Bharata: Nalanda, Vikramashila, and Odantapuri in Bihar; Jagddala and Somapura in Bengal; Pushpagiri in Odisha; Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh; Nagarjunakonda in Andhra Pradesh; Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu; Manyakheta in Karnataka; Valabhi in Gujarat; Sharada in Kashmir; Takshashila (now in Pakistan).

The crown of such awe-inspiring centres of learning was undoubtedly the vast university complex established in the 5th Century at Nalanda, about 95 Kilometres to the Southeast of Patna. Since then, for about 600 years, it flourished in peak form.

Nalanda has a rich, glorious and elaborate history. There are stray evidences that tell us that it existed even before the time of Mahavira and Buddha. Mahavira had stayed there during the monsoon season for fourteen times. Even the Buddha, during the course of his mendicant-wandering (Parivraja), had stayed back there on several occasions. One of Buddha’s prominent disciples named Sariputra was born in a village called Nala, near Rajagriha (today’s Rajgir).

Some hold the view that the name Nalanda” was also known as Nala” and Nalaka.” The sprawling and expansive Nalanda Vihara was built by Ashoka in the Third Century BCE. In later years, the progenitor of the Mahayana School, Nagarjuna (2nd Century), the proponent of Madhyamika Prasthana,Aryadeva (4th Century), Vasubandhu (5th Century) and other towering Buddhists had made Nalanda their home for long periods.

In 1197, this grand educational complex became one of the most high-profile victims of the destructive Islamic iconoclast, Bhaktiyar Khilji who mercilessly razed it to the ground.

In its pristine days, the Nalanda University, which towered over the world of scholarship, was characterized by these features:

• Accommodation for 10,000 students and 3000 teachers at a time
• Numerous conference halls, study rooms, eight sprawling gardens, and 10 massive temples
• Boasted of having the most prestigious library in the whole world

A nine-storied library named Dharma Ganga contained a repository of lakhs of books on almost every conceivable branch of knowledge including specialist literature. It is now a fact of history that when Bhakhtiyar Khilji set fire to it, it burnt over several months.

That only the brightest would be admitted can be adduced by the fact that the university’s gatekeepers would test an aspirant’s knowledge of basic Sanskrit proficiency.

Equally, Vikramashila and Odantapuri universities also imparted knowledge to about four thousand students. Both these universities too, were destroyed by Muslim invaders.

Today, the entire notoriety for reducing this magnificent, ancient centre of learning to an object of derisive ridicule lies squarely at the door of the infamous Amartya Sen who headed its so-called revival.

Disillusionment Meets Expectation

The announcement of the project to revive the Nalanda University—which had once symbolized Indian culture as well as the world’s best traditions of excellence in learning—as a global centre of educational excellence naturally received enthusiastic response across the country.

Before it was destroyed at the end of the 12th Century, the fact that it attracted the best talent in droves from nations like China, Korea, and Japan is recorded by the Chinese traveler, Huien Tsang whose praise of Nalanda’s greatness is widely known.

The revival project was well-received by Australia, Japan, and Vietnam among other nations. However, it is tragic that this lofty and prestigious initiative was mired in controversies right from its inception.

The heart of the ancient Nalanda University lay in the study and the imparting of traditional learning in various subjects. Therefore, it caused immense public disappointment when the economist Amartya Sen, who has absolutely no knowledge of these traditional disciplines, was appointed to head the revival project.

The fact that Amartya Sen, throughout his long career, has heaped scorn on everything that is rooted in the Indian tradition, is self-evident. In this background, the widespread allegation that he has used the Nalanda revival project to further his own agenda is not baseless.

Amartya Sen has justified the inherent, barbaric violence and iconoclasm of Muslim invaders as but this nature is in their blood.” In the same vein, Amartya Sen’s wisdom-laden thesis denies Hindus the right to avenge this unprovoked violence. Indeed, Amartya Sen grants only Muslims the right to take pride in this nature is in their blood.”

In a letter dated 4 July 2011 to the then External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, former Indian President (late) Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam recommended that important positions like Chancellor and Vice Chancellors should be awarded to scholars who are renowned throughout the nation for their learning and scholarship. We can estimate the disappointment felt by Dr. Abdul Kalam over Amartya Sen’s antics from this letter. Indeed, the seed for reviving the Nalanda University was sown by Dr. Kalam in 2006. He had criticized the decision to appoint an economist like Amartya Sen who has no background in traditional scholarship as the Vice Chancellor despite the availability of several distinguished scholars who were definitely more qualified and suitable for the position.

Wanton Flouting of Rules

As early as May 2010, the Government had issued a set of guidelines and rules governing the university. This received the President’s seal of approval on 21st September of the same year.  Given this, can anybody justify the fact of Amartya Sen (or anybody) flouting these rules and guidelines?

The UPA government constituted an 11-member Committee, which included Amartya Sen, to study the feasibility and do the groundwork for the Nalanda University revival project. However, even after the Nalanda University was officially inaugurated, Amartya Sen continued to use his position as the member of the said Committee to decide on the new University’s syllabus and other programmes. This became controversial. He also ignored the rules governing the University, which the Government had by then issued.

Amartya Sen who was mandated to submit a detailed Project Report on the progress of the Nalanda University project within nine months failed to do so even after three years. Despite this, it’s pretty strange that his own Committee elevated him to the position of Chancellor of the University in 2011.

After this momentous appointment, a chain of rule-violations ensued. Gopa Sabharwal who was appointed as Vice Chancellor was unfit for the post on all counts. She was merely a Reader in Sociology in the Delhi-based Lady Shriram College and had no knowledge about the history or the details of the project to revive the Nalanda University. Neither did she possess any qualifications mandated by the UGC for those aspiring to become Vice Chancellors. Her salary at the Nalanda University was ₹ 5.6 Lakhs, twice that of the Vice Chancellor of Delhi University.

Neither did it stop there.

Gopa Sabharwal then appointed her counterpart at Delhi University, Associate Professor Anjana Sharma as Officer on Special Duty at Nalanda at a princely salary of ₹ 3.3 Lakhs, a sum that no central university anywhere in India offers to an Associate Professor.

Indeed, there’s no shortage of evidence to show the flagrant violations that occurred in appointments and proceedings at Nalanda.

Amartya Sen inducted the then Prime Minister’s daughter Upinder Singh in his pet Advisory Committee. Her colleague Nayanajyoti Lahiri was awarded the title of Expert.” Neither of these are renowned as experts in any discipline.

Even after the new university came into existence officially, Amartya Sen remotely continued his Nalanda durbar from Delhi.

Lack of Direction

The Manmohan Singh Government branded Nalanda as an International University in order to insure it from potential financial irregularities, by keeping finance-related rules out of its direct purview. However, in practice, the Government treated it as merely a national university. Its expenses, which exceeded ₹ 1000 crores were entirely borne by Indian taxpayers.

From the early days of Nalanda’s conception, the widely held expectation was this: as far as possible, it must revive, retain, preserve and perpetuate the vision, ideal, and framework of the original Nalanda (i.e. up to the 12th Century), which placed the greatest emphasis on Buddhist studies. In this backdrop, establishing a School of Information Technology only clarifies the directionlessness of Amartya Sen’s gang.

Amartya Sen’s brazen flouting of rules counts as an act of unparalleled shamelessness with the result that the revival project has completely lost track from the original, noble vision with which it was conceived. After his term expired in July 2015, when the Government didn’t express any interest in his continuance at the University, he took to the media to shamelessly claim political interference in education” (for e.g. Indian Express article dated 20 May 2015).

One can spot the irony here: when the Manmohan Singh Government appointed Amartya Sen as the head of the revival project despite his being totally unqualified for the task, why didn’t it occur to this eminence that there was political interference in education?”

Ideally, Amartya Sen should have been independent. However, by opting to become both the handmaiden and beneficiary of the UPA Government’s largesse, he has openly advertised his pettiness. He would frequently talk about my friend, Manmohan Singh.” Ever the one to find some or the other fault, Amartya Sen never managed to find a single fault throughout the UPA’s decade-long tenure.

Indeed, it is open knowledge that the sole qualification of Amartya Sen to head the Nalanda University was his proximity with Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi.

What compels Amartya Sen who has crossed 81 years in age to still insist on doling out guidance?

In the end, it is a profound tragedy of our times that a lofty project like the revival of the ancient Nalanda University continues to suffer under the foot of stumblebums.

Courtesy:  Indiafacts

Courtesy Adaderana

Abdul Qadir, Courtesy:  Times of India

GAYA: At least 40 Mahadalit families on Thursday converted to Christianity at a special baptism ceremony at Atia village near Bihar’s Bodh Gaya.

Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, who is a Mahadalit as well, was busy in foundation laying and inauguration ceremonies at his village Mahkar in Gaya district when the baptism ceremony took place.

Mahadalits or Musahars are considered one of the lowest in caste hierarchy.

Dalits and a section of OBCs have been embracing Buddhism for sometime, but this is perhaps for the first time that conversion to Christianity has taken place in the area.

Raymanti Devi and SK Das, two new converts, told reporters dignity and social acceptance were more important for them than anything else and they have changed their faith for that reason.

Earlier, Shiv Shankar Manjhi had embraced Christianity in Atia six years back. He was instrumental in persuading his co-villagers to change faith for better future and less demeaning life.

Gaya SSP Nishant Kumar Tiwari said the conversion was not something new as these families have been visiting the church for the last several years.

Jitan Ram Manjhi said there was nothing wrong with conversion as long as it was not coercive.

Gaya BJP chief Jainendra Kumar said it was for the CM to explain why such things were happening at a time when he was at the helm of affairs. Kumar reiterated the BJP’s stated position for a total ban on conversions.

Christian missionaries have been running a leprosy hospital in the area and working among the disadvantaged sections through educational institutions. Locals are appreciative of their work.

Courtesy:  Times of India

TNN | Dec 26, 2014
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/40-Mahadalit-families-convert-to-Christianity-in-Bodh-Gaya/articleshow/45645223.cms

Comments ( selected)

USING LEPERS TO PROMOTE CHRISTIANITY? HELP A FEW CONVERT MANY, GET POWER EXPLOIT THE COUNTRY! I REMIND YOU OF JUMO KENNYETTA’S WORDS: When the Missionaries arrived, the Africans had the land and the Missionaries had the Bible. They taught how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible.” WE ALL KNOW HOW CHRISTIANS HELPED AFRICA! WE ALL KNOW HOW THEY HELP AFRICA! WE ALL KNOW WHAT THEY HELPED AND WHO BENEFITED! OFFER SERVICE, TAKE TRUCKLOADS OF GOLD! WHEN WILL YOU AWAKEN? LEPROSY IS NOT WHERE INDIA NEEDS HELP!

By NJ Thakuria

Guwahati:  Eminent educationist Professor Srinath Baruah on 5 September 2015 urged the media outlets of Assam to use accurate Assamese words and correct sentences in various items, which are made available to the reader-audience-viewers. Interacting with the scribes at Guwahati Press Club, Prof Baruah also emphasized on maintaining the beauty of Assamese language at any cost for the future generation.

Attending the first ‘Prangon the emfa’s courtyard’ program, organized by Electronic Media Forum Assam, the former vice-chancellor of Krishna Kanta Handique State Open University also highlighted many wrong words, often used in the media that might confuse the audience.

Prof Baruah also observed that many news channels have been using the ‘Breaking’ or ‘Big Breaking’ category for wrong news. Moreover, repeated use of unhealthy visuals by most of the news channels was also pointed out by him.

He asserted that some news channels have emphasized more on entertaining rather than educating the viewers. Nonetheless he appreciated the role played by Assam based news channels in the time of crisis.

Prof Baruah, while highlighting many ethical guidelines for the television reporters from his personal point of views, also emphasized on self-regulation to be adopted by the news channels. He expressed optimism that the visual media would engage more energy on investigative journalism.

He also advocates for more space to various northeast India related issues in Guwahati based news channels and urged the media outlets to highlight the international affairs as well for the benefit of their viewers. Prof Baruah also appealed to the news channels to run at last one English news bulletin daily to cater the need of non-Assamese viewers in the region.

චන්ද්‍රසේන පණ්ඩිතගේ විසිනි.

(පැරණි ලිපියක් යලි ඉදිරිපත් කරන්නේ, ඒ අවශඅයතාවය තදින්ම දැනෙන බැවණි)
Posted on January 22nd, 2011

අපි කාලාන්තරයක් මුළුල්ලේ විශාල අරගලයක් නිරතවූවෝ වෙමු. ඒ අරගලය ජයග්‍රහහීව නිමව, මේ වනවිට අවුරුද්දකුත් මාස හයක කාලයක් ගතවී ඇත. මේ වනවිට ජයග්‍රහණය උදෙසා යුද්ධය මෙහෙය වූ නායකයා රටේ පාලන බලය මෙහෙයවමින් සිටියි. නමුත් ස්වභාවයේ ධර්මතාවන්ට අනුකූලව, සෑම ක්‍රියාවකටම ඊට සමාන වූද ප්‍රතිවිරුද්ධ දිසාවට ක්‍රියාකරන්නාවූද ප්‍රතික්‍රියාවක් තිබේ. ඒ අනුව මේ පවතින රජයටද, එම ධර්මතාවයන් බලපාන බැවින්, එම ප්‍රතිවිරුද්ධ ප්‍රති ක්‍රියාවන් හදුනා ගෙන පිහිටුවා ගත් මේ රජය, මෙරට දේශප්‍රේමීන්ගේ අභිලාෂයන් ඉටුවෙන ආකාරයට මෙහෙයවීම, මුළු ලොව පුරා විසිරී සිටින ශ්‍රී ලාංකීය දේශප්‍රේමීන් සතු භාරදූර කර්තව්‍යයක් බවට පත්ව තිබේ.

අඛණ්ඩව වසර 30ක දේශප්‍රේමී අරගලය හා බද්ධව මුළු මහත් ලෝකය පුරා විසිරී පැතිරී විවිධ තල වලින් මෙම සටනට දායක වූ ලක්මෑණියන්ගේ ආදරණීය දූ දරුවන් වන අපට, මේ වනවිට විශාල වගකීමක් අපගේ මාතෘභූමිය අපහැමට පවරා ඇත. ඒ දිනාගත් නිදහස රැකගැනීමේ වගකීමයි. මෙම වගකීම ඉටුකිරීමට මේ ලෝකය පුරා විසිරී මෙතෙක් කල් දේශප්‍රේමී අරගලයට දායකවූ සියළුම, උගත් බුද්ධිමත් දේශප්‍රේමීන්ගේ මධ්‍යස්ථානයක් ගොඩනැංවිය යුතුය. මෙම මධ්‍යස්ථානය පුළුල් ලෙස මෙරට පවතින නිදන්ගත ගැටළුද, ක්ෂණිකවද හටගන්නා ජාතික ප්‍රශ්න සම්බන්ධයෙන් පුළුල්ව සාකච්ඡා කොට, මෙරට දේශප්‍රේමී උගතුන්ගේ හා බුද්ධිමතුන් ඒ ඒ ප්‍රශ්නයන්ට ඉදිරිපත් කරන, විසඳුම් රජයට හා ජනතාවට ඉදිරිපත් කල යුතුය.

මෙම කාර්ය කිරීමේදී ජාතික තලයේ සිටින දේශප්‍රේමී උගතුන් හා බුද්ධිමතුන් හා විදේශ ගතව සිටින ශ්‍රී ලාංකීය දේශප්‍රේමී උගතුන්ට හා බුද්ධිමතුන්ට, ඒ ඒ ගැටළුව සාකච්ඡා කරණ මධ්‍යස්ථානයක් ගොඩනැංවීමට සිඳුවෙන අතර, එය කල හැකි එකම මාධ්‍ය අන්තර් ජාලයයි. මෙය මෙරට ප්‍රශ්න හා ගැටළු වලට විසදුම් ඉදිරිපත් කරණ මෙරට ඉහලම දේශප්‍රේමී උගතුන් හා බුද්ධිමතුන්ගෙන් සමන්විත ආයතනයක් බැවින් මෙය
ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ අන්තර්ජාලීය පාර්ලිමේන්තුව වශයෙන් නම් කර ගොඩනැංවීමට කටයුතු කරණ මෙන් යොජනා කරමි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව තුල, වචනයේ පරිසමාප්ථයෙන්, ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදීව නියෝජිතයින් පත්කරගන්නා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවක් ස්ථාපිතව පවතී. වර්තමානයේදී අප සමාජය පාර්ලිමේන්තුවෙන් සියල්ල යදින සමාජයක් බවට පත් කරන ලද්දේ මෙරට දේශපාලඥයින් විසිනි. මෙම පරිවර්තනය සඳහා වසර 62ක කාලයක් ගතවී ඇති අතර, මෙම ස්ථාපිත පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසින් මෙම රට අර්බූද ගනනාවකින් යුත් මහා අගාධයකට තල්ලු කිරීම අඛණ්ඩව සිඳු කරගෙන ආ කාර්යභාරයකි. අප එසේ කියන විට මෙම පාර්ලිමේන්තුව මගින් මේ රටේ සංවර්ධනය උදෙසා කිසිඳු කාර්යභාරයක් සිදුකර නැතැයි යන්නක් ගම්‍යවේ. නමුත් සැබෑව එය නොව, මෙම පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසින් මේ රට විද්‍යාත්මක සැලසුමකට අනුව සංවර්ධන ඉලක්කයන් කරා මෙහෙයවීම සිඳු නොකල බවයි. මෙම රට විදේශීය කොල්ලකරුවන්ගේ දේශපාලන පරීක්ෂණාගාරයක්ව පවත්වා ගෙන ආ රාජ්‍යයක් වන අතර, විවිධ ආකාරයේ අධිරාජ්‍යවාදී පරීක්ෂණයන් ගනනාවක් මේ ජන සමාජය හා සත්ව ශාක ප්‍රජාව අතරද සිඳු කරන හා සිඳු කරමින් යන පරීක්ෂණ තෝතැන්නක් බවට පත්ව ඇත. පාර්ලිමේනතුවට පත්වෙන හා ඉවත්ව යන මන්ත්‍රීන් ඇමතිවරුන්, අගමැතිවරුන් ගනනාවක් මෙම පාර්ලිමේන්තු ද්වාරය අතරින් එහා මෙහා ගියද එසේ ගිය අයගෙන් ඉතා අල්පයක් පමණක් සැබෑ විසඳුම් හඳුනාගෙන කටයුතු කලද, ඔවුනට සැබෑ විසඳුම ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමට ඉඩ ලබා නොදෙන මහා බලවේගයක් මේ පවතින පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට පිටින් හිඳගෙන ක්‍රියාකාරීව සෑම සැලසුමක්ම ඉතා සියුම්ව විනාශ කොට දැමූහ.

මෙම විනාශකාරීන්ගේ ක්‍රියාවන්ගේ ප්‍රතිඵලයක් වශයෙන් මහාමාන්‍ය ඩී. එස්. සේනානායක මහතා අකාලයේ මියගිය අතර, 1953දී, අගමැති ඩඩ්ලි සේනානායක මහතාව බලයෙන් පහකිරීමේ කුමන්ත්‍රණයක්ද, 1959 දී අගමැති එස්. ඩබ්ලිව්. ආර්. ඩී. බණ්ඩාරනායක මහතාව ඝාතනය කිරීමද, 1962දී සිරිමා බණ්ඩාරායක මහත්මියගේ රජය පෙරලීමේ හමුදා කුමන්ත්‍රණයද, 1964දී සිරිමා බණ්ඩාරනායක මැතිනියගේ රජය අකාලයේ බිඳ දැමීම, 1966 ජනවාරි මස ඩඩ්ලි සේනානායක මහතාගේ රජයට එරෙහිව දියත් කර හරින ජනතා විරෝධතා අරගලයද, 1971 අප්‍රේල් අරගලයද, හරහා ප්‍රතිගාමීන් 1977 දී පූර්ණ ජයග්‍රහණයක් ලබා ගත්හ. එම ප්‍රතිගාමී බලවේග අඛණ්ඩව වසර ගනනාවක් පාලනය කලේ නීතියක් යුක්තියක් නැති දේශයක් වන අතර එයට නායකත්වය සපයන ලද්දේ ජනාධිපති ජේ ආර්. ජයවර්ධන මහතා විසිනි. ඒ මහතා විශ්‍රාම ගැනීමෙන් පසු මෙම අදිසි හස්තයට එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය පවිත්‍රකරණයකට භාජනය කිරීමකට භාජනය කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය වූ අතර, එහි ප්‍රතිඵලයක් වශයෙන්, ජනාධිපති ආර්. ප්‍රේමදාස මහතා, ලලිත් ඇතුලත්මුදලි මහතා, ගාමිණී දිසානායක මහතා ඇතුළු ප්‍රබල දෑ හිතකාමී එක්සත් ජාතික පාක්ෂිකයින් රාශියක් බටහිර අධිරාජ්‍යවාදීන්ගේ නියමයෙන් විනාශ කරදමා යලිත් ජේ. ආර්. ජයවර්ධන යුගයේ එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයක් නිර්මාණය කිරීමට වෙර දරණ අතර, තමන්ගේ අළුත්ම නිර්මාණය වූ චන්ද්‍රිකා කුමාරතුංග මහත්මියව බලයට පත්කර වැඩි චන්ද එකක් එතුමියට තිබූ පාර්ලිමේන්තුව බිඳවට්ටන්නේ නැතිව අඛණ්ඩව පවත්වා ගෙන ගියහ.

එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය තමන්ට ඇවැසි පරිදි නිර්මාණය කර ගත් පසුව 1964දී, සිරිමා බණ්ඩාරනායක රජය පෙරලා දැමූ ආකාරයටම, ඇයගේ රජය පෙරලා දමා, එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂ රජයක් බිහිකර, තමන්ගේ නවතම පරීකෂණය සාර්ථක කර ගැනීම හෙවත් දකුණු ආසියාව ගිල ගැනීමේ කුමන්ත්‍රණය හෙවත් ද්‍රවිඬ ඊලම ස්තාපිත කිරීම සිය සගයා වූ රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ ලවා, චන්ද්‍රිකා කුමාරණතුංග විධායක ජනාධිපති ධූරය දරද්දීම ඉටුකලේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා ව්‍යාවස්තාව හා නීතිය සමච්චලයට ලක්කරමිණි.

ලෝකය පුරා විසිරී පැතිරී සිටි ශ්‍රී ලාංකීය දේශප්‍රේමී පරපුර හා මෙරට සිටි දේශප්‍රේමී පරපුර සිය අරගලය අත් නොහල අතර, සතුරාව මනාව හදුනාගෙනද සිටියහ. අවසන ආයුධ සන්නද්ධ බටහිර කුලී හමුදාව වූ ප්‍රභාකරන්ගේ කොටි හමුදාව අන්ත පරාජයකට පත්ව සන්නද්ධ සටන හෙවත් සුද්දාගේ දකුණු ආසියාවේ නවතම පරීක්ෂණය ජයග්‍රහණයේ අභිමුවට පැමිණ තිබියදී සුන්නද් දූවිලිව ගියහ.

මෙම ක්‍රියාදාමයත් සමග විය යුතු වඩාත්ම වැදගත්වූ දේ සිදු නොවිණ. එනම් කාලාන්තරයක් මුළුල්ලේ මෙරට දේශප්‍රේමී අරගලයට බද්ධව විවිධ තලයන්හි සටන කල හා සටන් මෙහෙයවූ දේශප්‍රේමීන් සෘජුවම මේ රට ගොඩනැංවීමේ කාර්යයට දායක වීමට යාන්ත්‍රණයක් නොමැති කම ඉදිරියේ, එම කාර්යෙන් වියෝව හිදීමට සිදුවීමය. මෙය කිසියම් පුද්ගලයකුගේ වරදක් නොව මෙරට ස්ථාපිත ව්‍යාවස්ථාවට අනුව එවැනි යාන්ත්‍රණයක් පිහිටුවීමට අනුගමනය කලයුතු කරුණු කාරනා දෙස බැලූවිට, මෙය දිගු කලක් ගත වන්නකි. එබැවින් ව්‍යාවස්ථාමය කොටුවකට ගාල්වී නොසිටින මෙරට දේශප්‍රේමීන්ට එවැනි යාන්ත්‍රණයක් ගොඩනැංවීමට සිදුව ඇත. එය තරමක් අසීරු කටයුත්තක් වුවද මෙම කටයුත්ත කිරීමට සිදුව ඇත්තේ මෙරට දේශප්‍රේමී, උගතුන් හා බුද්ධිමතුන් සමග වීම, මෙම කාර්යය පහසු කරවන්නකි.

අප කලයුත්තේ කුමක්ද? ජාත්‍යන්තරය පුරා හා රට පුරා සිටින දේශප්‍රේමී ජනතාව නියෝජනය කරන, එම ජනතාවගේ සිතුම් පැතුම් වලට හා අදහස් සාකච්ඡාවට බාජනය කරන මධ්‍යස්ථානයක් ගොඩනැංවීමයි. ඉන් නොනැවතී එම සාකච්ඡාවට බදුන්වූ කරුනු අතරේ ඇති රටට වැඩදායක අදහස් හා යෝජනා ක්‍රියාවට නැංවීමේ ක්‍රම වේදයන්ද, මෙම මධ්‍යස්ථානය විසින් සාකච්ඡා කල යුතුය. මෙම මධ්‍යස්ථානය මෙරට පාර්ලිමේන්තුව තුල නියෝජනයක් නැති දේශප්‍රේමී උගතුන්තේ හා බුද්ධිමතුන්ගේ හඬ මේ දෙරණ මත මුදාහරින මධ්‍යස්ළුානයයි.

මේ මගින්, මෙරට උඩුදුවා ඇති ප්‍රශ්න වලට විසදුම් සාකච්ඡා කොට අනුමැතියකට ලක්කොට එම යෝජනා සංවාදයන් සඳහා සමාජ ගත කරන මධ්‍යස්ථානයක් පමණක් නොව පවතින රජයන්ට ඉදිරිපත් කොට ඒවා ක්‍රියාත්මක කරවීම සදහා අවධානයන්ට ලක් කරවන මධ්‍යස්ථානයක්ද විය යුතුය. මෙම කටයුත්ත සිදුකල හැකි හා සිදුකල යුතු ප්‍රධානම කර්තව්‍යයක් බවට මේ වනවිට පත්ව ඇත. මෙම කටයුත්ත ඉටුකිරීමේ ඉතාම පහසුම ක්‍රම වේදය අන්තර්ජාලය බැවින්ද, ලෝකය පුරාම විසිරී සිටින ශ්‍රී ලාංකික දේශප්‍රේමී උගතුන්ට හා බුද්ධිමතුන්ට ඉතා පහසුවෙන්ම ගොනුවිය හැකි මධ්‍යස්ථානය අන්තර්ජාලය බැවින්ද මෙම ශ්‍රී ලාංකික දේශප්‍රේමී උගතුන් හා බුද්ධිමතුන් මේ රටේ සංවර්ධන කාර්යයන් සදහා කරන සියළුම යෝජනාවන් සමාජගත කරන මධ්‍යාස්ථානය මෙය විය යුතුය. මෙය තුල ගොනුවී සිටින දේශප්‍රේමී උගතුන්ගේ හා බුද්ධිමතුන්ගේ මතයන් පුරාන ලංකාවේ හා ඉන්දියාවේ රජුට ඉහලින් සිට උපදෙස් දෙන පුරෝහිත බමුණු පරම්පරාවගේ කාර්යය සෘජුව ඉටු කල යුතුය. මෙය අප ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ අන්තර්ජාලිය පාර්ලිමේන්තුව වශයෙන් නම් කල යුතු අතර, එම නාමය මගින් ලෝකයේ ප්‍රථම අන්තර්ජාලීය පාර්ලිමේන්තුව බිහි කිරීමේ ගෞරවය අපට හිමිවෙන අතර, මේ මගින් අති දැවන්ත කාර්යභාරයක් අපට ඉටුකල හැක. අප පිහිටුවන ලබන අන්තර් ජාලීය පාර්ලිමේනතුව සඳහා වසර ගනනාවක් ලංකා වෙබ් අඩවිය හා බද්ධව දේශප්‍රේමී විමුක්ති අරගලයට දායකත්වය සැපයූ සියලූම උගතුන් බුද්ධිමතුන් හා දේශප්‍රේමීන්ගේ අන්තර්ගතය වැදගත් වේ. අප ඒ සඳහා පෙල ගැසෙමු.

Chanaka Bandarage

No one would disagree that Hong Kong rode to its prosperity on the back of China (after the Chinese Revolution, Hong Kong underwent a rapid and successful process of industrialization, from the late 1940s, and became a rich nation).

After the liberalisation of China’s trade (Chairman Deng’s Open Door Policy’ in the late 1970s), Hong Kong grabbed the opportunity and increased its trade with China by tenfold.  Within few years, the tiny Hong Kong’s exports to China surpassed its imports from China.

When it comes to India, Sri Lanka is today placed in a similar position as that of Hong Kong.

India is a significant global player and it is estimated that economically it may surpass China (given China’s fast ageing population and the gender imbalance), and it has the ability to become the world’s biggest economy.

Unlike how Hong Kong prospered thanks to China (Hong Kong is located in very close proximity to China); Sri Lanka (located in very close proximity to India), has thus far been unable to grab the opportunity and capitalise on India’s growth.

India had closer to a double digit GDP growth in the past decade, but, as stated before, Sri Lanka failed to capitalise on this.

In the past ten years Sri Lanka ‘put all its eggs only in the China basket’.  After the war, it sadly developed a relationship of mistrust and annoyance with India (true, Thamilnadu created the problem, but, Sri Lanka diplomatically failed to secure New Delhi’s support).

Sri Lanka failed to relaise that it cannot rise to prosperity solely on the back of China, but, it could comfortably do so on the back of India.

Indeed, China is an excellent friend for Sri Lanka. This has been the case historically. Sri Lanka should be ever grateful for China’s help afforded to Sri Lanka during many difficult times. But, China is too far away from Sri Lanka and it is very ‘different’ than that of Sri Lanka.  On the other hand, Sri Lanka and India are very similar when it comes to many things such as the culture, food, attire, language (English is well spoken in both countries; also, Sinhala (a Sanskrit) and Tamil, an Indian language), sports, religion, values and traditions and physical characteristics of the people.  The fact that Sri Lanka’s first King (Prince Vijaya) was an Indian (from Bengal) and that Sri Lanka’s third King, Panduwasdewa, was married to a blood relative of Lord Buddha (Princess Bhaddha Kachchayana of the ‘Shakya Wangsha’), are notable and significant features of the relationship.

Furthermore, Sri Lanka and India are separated only by a short stretch of the sea and apart from the examples in the preceding paragraph, excellent, brotherly relations have existed between the two nations from time immemorial (of course, despite animosities between Sri Lanka and Thamilnadu).  India as a nation has never invaded Sri Lanka in a war like manner.  Sri Lanka’s Anagarika Dharmapala was a person who recently brought the two countries closer.  Another was Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike.

In the past decade, India’s exports to Sri Lanka almost doubled, Sri Lanka failed to keep pace with the growth of its exports to India.

The recent Sri Lankan governments (in the past 20 years), rather than building a manufacturing and productivity based economy, focussed on a service based economy (it was the ‘easy way out’).  Thus, such unproductive and non-manufacturing ventures like communication centres, beauty palours, trishaw taxis (there are over one million of them in the country), importation and distribution of illicit drugs such as heroin and ecstasy, betting centres, lottery sales centres, small-scale casinos, massage parlours in the guise of Ayurveda centres, private tuition centres (even Sinhala, Buddhism and History are taught for school children in these centres), variety of international schools and tourism based industries (the latter is somewhat good) mushroomed in the country.  They became the wholemark of the country’s economy.  These ventures, though created jobs, generated no or less GDP for the economy.  The governments by trying to reduce the country’s unemployment, gave jobs as public servants to thousands of people who supported them politically during elections (these were not merit based appointments, hence the lethargic and corrupt public service that we have today).

The governments not knowing how to create employment for its citizens (both skilled and unskilled workers) encouraged them to leave the country in search of the ‘greener pastures’.  Lots of women ended up working as domestic maids in Middle Eastern countries (stories have emerged that some of them have been treated like slaves) and lots of men were found jobs in South Korea. The governments were unconcerned in paying attention to the adverse socio, cultural and psychological effects of the family members that were left in the country, caused as a result of the mass migration of people to overseas countries.  Drastic stories have emerged about the plight of children and elderly who were left in their respective homes helpless.  The governments liked the idea that its citizens left its shores as their remittance became the biggest source of revenue for them.  The rulers plundered and mismanaged the public wealth from the left, right and the centre.

The governments borrowed heavily, especially in the past 10 years, the injection of such monies to the economy created somewhat an artificial growth in the GDP (of 6%).  Today, Sri Lanka is a hugely debt ridden country, its foreign debt alone has exceeded US$25 billion (?), which is far too much for a country of the size of Sri Lanka.  The country owes money to other sources too, including local banks and various employee trust funds.

Unlike in the 1960s and 70s, where governments helped to build a strong manufacturing/productivity base economy, in the last 35+ years, large numbers of small factories, textile mills and small businesses were compelled to be closed down.  Local businesses were unable to compete with the influx of cheap Chinese, Taiwanese and Indian exports to the country.  Like few third world countries have done in the past 20 years, Sri Lanka failed to become a newly developed country (apart from corruption, mismanagement and maladministration, the effects of the war was a major impediment for the country’s development).

Today in Sri Lanka, almost everything is imported, including the country’s main staple diet, rice.  Basically Sri Lanka today has very few items available to export to India (or to any other any country); except things like fish harvested from the sea, some agricultural/horticultural products and a few value added items imported from other countries for the sole purpose of re-export.  The irony is that this is a country that once produced fine electrical and electronic items, textiles, furniture, handicraft, confectionaries, tyres, bicycles, batteries, razor blades, perfumes and even motor cars.

During 2011/12, India’s exports to Sri Lanka amounted to $4.3 billion, Sri Lanka’s exports to India during the same period amounted to only $721 million.   The total bilateral trade is earmarked to reach $10 billion in the near future; the trade balance will continue to be very much in favour of India.

Since of late, India has been pressurising Sri Lanka to sign CEPA – ‘Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement’.  No doubt that such an agreement would provide Sri Lanka preferential access to the very large Indian market, but due to CEPA, the country could be flooded with cheap Indian exports.  They can destroy the country’s remaining, very small scale production/manufacturing based economy.  The writer does not say that Sri Lanka should flatly say ‘no’ to CEPA, he states Sri Lanka should use CEPA as a bargaining tool to obtain more favourable trade advantages from India.  For example, Sri Lanka should ask India to rectify the anomalies (several) in the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that both countries signed in 1998.  Sri Lanka should demand that it should be given export access to the entire Indian market, with zero tariffs (1.2 billion people!).  If the latter could be achieved (a difficult task, but a possibility), Sri Lanka should be able to sign CEPA.

Furthermore, prior to signing CEPA, Sri Lanka should implement adequate measures to protect its local industries from the possible massive scale intrusion of Indian products into the country.  An intelligent and a tactful Sri Lankan leadership should be able to successfully achieve this.

This is the time for Sri Lanka to negotiate with India on trade and obtain the best economic outcome for itself. Sri Lanka should seriously ask India to stop poaching on her waters which causes US$1 billion loss to Sri Lanka per year (this could be a pre-condition to signing CEPA).

If Sri Lanka foolishly enters into trade agreements, international contracts etc with overseas countries (including that of India), without obtaining competent legal counsel (some of the past foolish examples are the Hedging deal, Air Lanka agreement, Cairns oil contract, Shell gas deal, IOC deal etc), it is the innocent public who will pay the ultimate price for the huge misdeeds of the politicians.  The few examples cited herein brought forth billions of dollars of losses to Sri Lanka.

Now that Sri Lanka has a new government and India’s Mr Modi has extended the true hand of friendship to Sri Lanka, if wise and intelligent, this is the opportunity for Sri Lanka to grab and try to become the ‘Hong Kong of India’ (note the remarkable turnaround in the relationship between the two nations – in 2013 India even boycotted CHOGM; the year prior to that it co-sponsored a resolution against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC in Geneva).

If Sri Lanka (still, very much a third world country), wants to become rich capitalising on India’s massive economic growth (the Indian middle class alone is more than 250 million, by 2025, this number is likely to increase to 550 million); it should evaluate (before signing CEPA) what goods it could and should produce for the Indian market.  For example, if properly planned, Sri Lanka can be a large scale food and agro business supplier for India (notably, things like tea, spices, fresh fruits, vegetables and flowers (true, India is the world’s largest tea producer, but, there is a scarcity of tea in India, and there is the tremendous potential to introduce ‘Ceylon Tea’ (the world’s finest) in India, in a very big scale).

If Sri Lanka is to sign CEPA, Sri Lanka should ask as a precondition that India should assist Sri Lanka to become the logistic hub to various production chains in India.  Few industry examples that come to the writer’s mind are automobile and IT components, manufacturing of pharmaceutical products, electrical machinery and parts and food processing products.

In this regard, the new Sri Lankan government must work hard in creating these opportunities for Sri Lankan companies.  Creating new economic zones solely for the purpose of manufacturing products for India is a good idea.  Since land is in scarcity in most parts of Sri Lanka and they being closely located to India, such economic zones can be established (with Indian aid) in the North, South and East of Sri Lanka (for example, in Kilinochchi, Hambanthota port area and Trincomalee respectively), but, all Sri Lankans should be able to work in those ventures.

India has agreed to spend money on Sri Lanka’s Railway projects, massive scale housing developments in the North and the Sampur Power plant project.  It has offered millions of dollars as lines of credit to Sri Lanka, also a massive currency swap agreement that is currently in place. Sri Lanka should accept these gifts with gratitude.  This is in addition to the US$5 billion (or more) that India’s private sector is earmarked to invest in Sri Lanka in the coming years. India is Sri Lanka’s largest source of foreign tourists.

But, it is still too early for Sri Lanka to say ‘yes’ to the rail and road link that India wants to build at its own cost (an ADB loan project) over the Palk Strait from Dhanushkodi to Talaimannar.  Naturally, due to Thamilnadu hostility, the people in Sri Lanka has a strong reservation about this proposed mega-project; despite the fact that it could bring huge and unprecedented level of economic benefits to Sri Lanka, including a tenfold increase in tourist numbers, especially thousands of new European and US tourists that will travel from India to Sri Lanka by rail or road.  It is up to the new Sri Lankan government to convince its people as to why this new rail/road bridge is necessary and that it is not harmful to Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.  For this, the new government will have a lot of explaining to do to its people.

srilankasupportgroup@bigpond.com

By Shelton A. Gunaratne

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–As a mindful journalism practitioner and educator, I wish                    to show my thumbs up” approval to the selection of the Tamil National Alliance leader Rajavarothian Sampanthan, 82, as the Leader of the Opposition in Sri Lanka by the Speaker of the national Parliament.

Sampanthan was not in the Parliament at the time I was a Parliamentary reporter in the mid 1960s. He served as MP for Trincomalee from 1988 to 1993, and again from 2003, when he became the leader of the TNA. That no other politician procedurally challenged him (in spite of unofficial reports of support for UPA firebrand Kumar Welgama) for the position of Leader of the Opposition, although his alliance has only 16 seats in parliament, shows the confidence that most of the country’s politicians have in his ability restore ethnic amity and sanity in Sri Lanka.

I believe that my professional and academic qualifications and expertise permit me to express my views on public affairs without the editorial and political pressures that local journalists” have to suffer through.

I started mycareer in Ceylon as a journalist at Lake House from 1962 to 1966, after graduating from the University of Ceylon. I was the Ceylon Daily News reporter who covered Prime Minister Sirimavo Bndaranaike’s 1965 election campaign to take over Lake House. I left Ceylon after winning a one-year World Press Institute Fellowship. I changed my career and became a college professor in1972, when the University of Minnesota awarded me a doctorate in mass communication. I was the first Ceylonese/ Sri Lankan to get a PhD in this esoteric” field then unknown to universities in Sri Lanka.

Now, as a professor emeritus living in the United States in retirement, I reckon I have more time to pay back my debt to the people of my mother country for investing in my education that enabled me to become a global citizen. (See my book From Village Boy to Global Citizen,” 2012).

I hope the editors of the press in Sri Lanka will set aside whatever prejudices they may have against my perceived intrusion to their territory and allow me to express my views as a non-partisan mindful observer of events and newsmakers in Sri Lanka. I do so in response to President Sirisena’s call for Sri Lankan expatriates to contribute their expertise for the wellbeing of their mother country.

My intention is to practice mindful journalism by drawing attention to the positive as well asnegative aspects of the action of newsmakers in Sri Lanka. I will make my selections based on the three dimensions of the Buddhist middle path, the moral and ethical aspect of which is remarkably similar to the path of the Hindu dharma, Christian-Islamic Ten Commandments and the basic Confucian moral principles.

Now, back to my commentary.

Sampanthan is the second Tamil political leader to become the Leader of the Opposition in SriLanka. The first was Appapillai Amirthalingam of the Tamil United Liberation Front, the principal component of which was the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (Federal Party) formed by S. J. V. Chelvanayakam. Amirthalingam was Leader of the Opposition from 1977 to 1983. The Tigers assassinated him in 1989 together with two other TULF leaders.

Amirthalingam became the Leader of the Opposition during the initial period of Tiger terrorism in the island. He had to succumb to the wishes of the Tigers to push for a separate Eelam–a splitting of the country based on exaggerated grievances and claims. Sampanthan, a lawyer from the Trincomalee district, has become the national Leader of the Opposition under completely different political circumstances. Thanks to former President Rajapakse, peace has returned to the country.

The presidential and parliamentary elections of this year put a stop to the dictatorial tendencies of the Rajapakse regime, which has been replaced by the benevolent rule of a national government under the guidance of President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremasinghe representing the two main national political parties. A much milder TNA has assumed the role of the constructive opposition.

Thus, all the propitious circumstances are in place for initiating the implementation of a strong program with national reconciliation and reconstruction as its highest priority.

To make that happen, the TNA must now begin to discard its Tamil exclusivity and transform itself to a national party and approach all roadblocks for social and economic problems in terms of how they might impinge on every Lankan irrespective of ethnicity, religion, class orcaste. They must follow the advice that Lord Krishna, in the guise of a charioteer, gave warrior Arjuna as described in the Hindu sacred text Bhagavad Gita, which shows the path to liberation: freeing oneself from desires, from attachment, and from egoism.This is very similar to Buddha’s magga that requires one to control one’s craving and clinging–the root causes of suffering in the samsara (cyclic existence).

Krishna’s advice calls on the Hindu Tamils, who complain about discrimination by the Sinhalese, to discard their egoism and not put forth unrealistic demands based on their clinging on to past historical glory and rights. Nothing is static because of the law of karma, cardinal to both Buddhists and Hindus.  National reconciliation and integration is possible only by grasping the ground reality now–the present political, social, demographic and economic conditions.

Demanding the amalgamation of North and Eastern provinces (approximating one-third of theisland’s land mass, including most of its coastal belt) for the self-rule of the Sri Lanka Tamils (who constitute 12.3 percent of the island’s population), excluding the 850,000 Hill Country/Indian Tamils, will not bring about national integration, but rather provoke the Sinhalese, who understand federalism ascoterminous with separatism, to react negatively. Moreover, Tamil-speakers in Sri Lanka are themselves a hodgepodge of three distinct groups comprising the Northern, Eastern, and Negombo communities. Thus, the demand for an Eelam is a far-fetched ideal that the Tamils should not pursue at present.

The best course of action for Sampanthan to take should be to persuade the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (Federal Party), the main component of the TNA, to change its name to emphasize its commitment to national integration and create a consensus among the new coalition/national government about engendering unity in diversity.

The Tamils must grab this unexpected convergence of propitious political events to discard their divisive pursuit of a federal Eelam and go national for an inclusive government signifying diversity in unity.

The new government should educate all the ethnic groups in Sri Lanka on the positive aspects of diversity in unity. Sampanthan has the experience and the backing of the Hindu dharma and the Buddhist dhamma to begin this task by egging on the government with constructive criticism from the opposition.

Sampanthan also has the responsibility to calm down the unnecessary hoopla that the Northern Provincial council and its maverick chief minister are creating to bring down the credibility of the Sri Lanka government’s ability to conduct a domestic inquiry on the accusations relating to human rights violations.

It is not in the interest of the Tamil community at large to allow the Northern Provincial Council to pass resolutions inviting foreign powers to intervene in domestic matters by blatantly pretending itself to be independent of the country’s own democratically elected central government.

The current electoral system has already favored the TNA to become the largest minority party with 16 seats in the current parliament with the backing of a mere 514,963 voters in the North and the East whereas 543,944 voters outside this area enabled the Jatika Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) to get only six seats.

Sampanthan has to mull over all these matters as he tries torestore ethnic amity and sanity in a united Sri Lanka on the basis of Hindu and Buddhist principles that are quite pertinent to the modern world.