by Garvin Karunaratne

මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

              සාමකාමී බල හුවමාරුවකින් පසු පත් වූ නව ජනපතිවරයා පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසිරුවා තිබේ.නොවැම්බර් මාසයේ මහ මැතිවරණයක් තැබීමටත් අනතුරුව පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණය පැවැත්වීමටත් සැලසුම් කරගෙන යන බව දැන ගන්නට ඇත.මැතිවරණ පෝළිමක් පැමිණෙන විට නැවතත් පෝළිම් යුගයක් ඇති වීමට යම් ඉඩකඩක් තිබේ දැයි විමසා බැලිය යුතුය.මන්ද පාර්ලි මේන්තු මැතිවරණයට පමණක් රැපියල් මිලියන එකොලහක් වැය කළ යුතු හෙයිනි. දැනට රටේ තිබෙන මුදල් සංචිතය ඩොලර් මිලියන හය දහසක් පමණකි. දේශීය ණය ප්‍රමාණය ද පසුගිය පාලන සමයේ දී විශාල වහයෙන් ඉහළ ගොස් තිබේ.

           2024 වර්ෂයේ පැවති ජනපතිවරණය ජනතා පරමාධිපත්‍ය පිළිබිඹු කළ අවස්ථාවකි.ඒ අවස්ථාව ලබා ගැනීමට විශාල දුෂ්කාතාවයන්ට මුහුණ දීමට සිදු විය.චන්දය භාවිත කල ජනගහනයෙන් සියයට හතලිස් තුනක ප්‍රතිශතයක් ලැබුණද අනුර කුමාර දිසානායක මහතා මේ වන විට රටේ ජනපතිවරයා බවට පත් වී තිබේ.ඒ පත්වීම රටේ මිනිසුන් ප්‍රාර්ථනා කරන ලද වෙනසක් මල් ඵල දැරීමක් විය.. මෙකී වෙනස 2015 දී ලැබුණේ ද නැත. 2019 දී ලැබුණේ ද නැත. 2022 දී  ලැබුණේ ද නැත.සියල්ලෝම පුරුදු පරිදි ජනතා පරමාධිතපතය නොසලකා හැර ජාතික සම්පත් මංකොල්ල කෑමේ නිරත වූහ. එසේම රට උගසට තබා බලය තහවුරු කර ගැනීමට උත්සුක වූහ.විශාල ණය කන්දක බර මුළු මහත් ජනතාව පිට පැටවී ඇත්තේ ඒ නිසාය.ජනපතිවරණය තුල ඉස්මතු වූයේ මෙයින් මිදීම සඳහා නව නායකත්වයක් රටට අවශ්‍ය කරන බවයි.

           රටේ ආර්ථිකය ඉතාම පහළ මට්ටමක පවතින අතර රටේ නිෂ්පාදන ධාරිතාවයන් වර්ධනය කර ගැනීමට ජනතාව  අභිප්‍රෙරණය කිරීමේ   උත්සාහයන් දැරීමට කිසිවෙක් සමත්ව නැත.ඒ වෙනුවට රටේ සොර උවදුර සහ පාතාලය හිස ඔසවා තිබේ.රටක පවතින සොරකම් නැති කරගත හැක්කේ කෙසේද යන්න චක්‍රවර්තී සීහනාද සූත්‍රයේ දක්වා ඇත්තේය. එනම් පාලකයා විසින් ගොවියාට බීජ දෙනු ලැබිය යුත්තේය කර්මාන්ත කරුවන්ට ද වෙළෙන්දන්ටද අවශ්‍ය සම්පත් දිය යුත්තේය. රාජකාරියෙහි නියුක්ත වූවවනට නියමිත පරිදි වැටුප් දිය යුත්තේය. එවිට රට සමෘද්ධ වන අතර වැසියන් නිරන්තරයෙන් කාර්යයන්හි නිරත වීම නිසා සොර උවදුරු නැතිවන්නේය. රාජ භාණ්ඩාගාරයද තරවන්නේ ය යන්නයි.මෙම ආදර්ශයන් කිසිවෙකු පිළිපදී නම් රට කරවීම පහසුය.ගැටළුව වන්නේ උසස් තනතුරකට පත් වූ පසු ඇති වන ප්‍රභූ මානසිකත්ව තුළ හරි වැරැද්ද දැකීමට අවස්ථාව නැති වීමයි.

      රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා පසුගිය කාලයේ රටේ ආර්ථිකය ගොඩ නැගුවා යැයි උදම් ඇනුවාට ඔහු කළ ලොකුම මෙහෙය නම් රටේ ඩොලර් සංචිත ඉහළ නන්වා ගැනීමට ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය අමුදලෙන් ණය ගැනීම පමණකි. මේ ණය ගැනීමත් සමග ජාත්‍යන්තර විශ්වාසය ඇතිවිය. ඒ වර්තමාන ලෝකයේ ආර්ථික ආධිපත්‍යයේ ස්වභාවයයි. පාලකයෙකු වෙනස් වන කල්හි කොටස් වෙළඳ පළ සීඝ්‍රයෙන් බිඳ වැටීමට ලක් වන්නේ නම් නව පාලකයෙකු පැමිණ පෙර පරිදිම කටයුතු කරන විට කොටස් වෙළඳ පළ යළි නගීනම්  ඉන් පෙනෙන්නේ මේ මිළ දර්ශකයන් සියල්ල පාලනය කිරීමට යම් කිසි අදිසි හස්තයක් ක්‍රියාත්මක වන බවයි. ඉලක්කම් හරඹය කෙසේ වෙතත් රටේ ජනතාවගේ බඩ කට පිරවා ලීම රටේ පාලකයා ගේ පරම යුතු කමයි. පාරිභෝගිකයාට සාධාරණ මිළකට බඩු ලබා ගැනීමට හැකි වන පරිදි වෙළඳාම සමබර කර ගැනීමටද ඔහු සමත් විය යුතුය. සංවර්ධනය යනු මහා මාවත් ගොඩනැගිලි සහ යටිතල පහසුකම් පමණක් සාදමින් රට ණය කිරීම නොවේ. එවැනි පහසුකම් ලබා ගැනීමට අවශ්‍ය ක්‍රය ශක්තිය රටේ ජනතාව තුළින්ම ලබා ගැනීමයි.

         ජනපතිවරණය අවසන් වූ වහාම ජනපතිවරයා සීමිත ඇමති මණ්ඩලයක් පිහිටුවා ලූහ.එයට අයත් වූයේ ජාතික ජන  බලවේගයේ සාමාජිකයන් පමණකි.ඒ පියවරෙන් අපට පෙනෙන්නේ රට නියෝජනය කරන අනෙක් මහජන නියෝජිතයන් නොසලකා හැරි ආකාරයයි.ආර්ථික අතින් ශක්තිමත් පසුබිමක රටේ විවිධ දේශපාලන කරණම් ගැසීමට කිසිම අවහිරතාවයක් නැත. එහෙත් ඉතාම අසීර අඩියක රට පවත්නා විට. රට නැවත සෙමෙහි පැවැත්වීමට අවශ්‍ය කටයුතු සූදානම් කළ යුතු වෙයි. ජනතා විශ්වාසය ගොඩ නගා ගැනීමට අපක්ෂපාතිව වැඩ කළ යුතුය.පාර්ලිමේන්තු නියෝජිත‌ෙයකුට වඩා ජනපති වූ පුද්ගලයාගේ  ප්‍රධාන වගකීම එයයි.රට තුළ ජීවත් වන සැම පුර වැසියෙකුම එනම් විවිධ පක්ෂ නියෝජනය කරන්නවුන් විවිධ ජනයින් නියෝජනය කරන්නවුන් සහ ආගම් නියෝජනය කරන්නවුන් සමග විශ්වාසය ගොඩ නගා ඊට නායකත්ව සැපයීම සිදු විය යුතුය.. පස්වන කාශ්‍යප රජු අනුරාධපුර යුගයේ රජකල ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨ රජ කෙනෙකි. ඔහු අනුරාධපුර නගරයේ විවිධ තැන් වල පිහිටුවා ලූ ශිලා ලේඛන මගින් ඔහු කල සේවයද ඔහුගේ රාජ්‍ය තාන්ත්‍රික භාවය ද මොනවට පැහැදිලි වෙයි. ජේතවනාරාමය අසළ ඇති රත්න ප්‍රාසාද භූමියේ ඔහු විසින් පිහිටු වා ලූ පුවරු ලිපිය එදාටත් අදටත් ඉතා වැදගත් පණිවුඩයක් පාලකයන්ට ලබා දී ඇත.අනුරාධපුර පසු භාගයේ රටට ඇති වූ විවීධ සතුරු ආක්‍රමණ නිසා රට අස්ථාවර වූවායින් පසු නැවත රට එක සේසත් කිරීමට රජවරු උත්සුක වූ අතර පස් වන කාශ්‍යප රජු මේ යුද්ධ නිසා රට තුළට පැමිණ පැලපදියම් වූ විවිධ ජනයින් සඳහා ඉතාමත් සාධාරණ යෝජනාවක් අණක් ලෙසින් ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කර තිබේ. රත්නප්‍රාසාද ලිපියේ නවවන පේළියේ එය සඳහන් වන්නේ ‘නන් සෙයින් නන් ජැයින් බුද් බන්ද කර’ යනුවෙනි. නානා ජාතීන් නානා ආකාරයට බුද්ධ ශාසනයට සම්බන්ධ කර යුතු වෙයි යන්න එහි තේරුමයි.

     මෙම උදාර පරමාර්ථය සාක්ෂ්‍යාත් කර ගැනීමට රටට නිවැරදි නායකත්වයක් අවශ්‍ය වෙයි. 2024 දී නව ජනපතිවරයෙකු රටට පත් කර ගන්නා ලද්දේ එහෙයිනි. ඔහු එම කාර්යය පසෙක තබා තමන්ගේ පක්ෂයේ බලය වර්ධනය කර ගැනීමට සහ අනෙකුත් ජනතා බලවේග ශූන්‍ය කරලීම සඳහා මහා මැතිවරණයකට  දින නියම කරගෙන ඇත. මෙයින් සිදු වනුයේ රටේ සාමය නැවත බිඳ වැටීමයි. දෙවනුව රටේ බෙදීම් වර්ධනය වීමයි. පක්ෂ රාශියක් මැතිවරණය තරඟ බිමට පැමිණීම නිසා එය එලෙස සිදු වනු ඇත. ඉන් පසු රටේ ආර්ථිකය තවදුරටත් බිඳ වැටෙනු ඇත.ආර්ථිකය බිඳ වැටීමෙන් පසු රටේ සම්පත් නැවත විකිණීමටත්  සිදු වනු ඇත. මෙය සිදු වන්නේ ‌නව චෞර වළල්ලක් නිර්මාණය වීමෙනි.පසුගිය කාලයේ සිදූ වූ අරගල නැවත ඇති වීම එවිට සිදු වුහොත් විදේශීය බලවේගයන්ට රටේ ස්වාධීනත්වය අහිමි කරලීමට පසුබිම සැකසෙනු ඇත.අප එයට ඉඩ නොතැබිය යුතුය. ඒ සඳහා දැන් රටේ නායකත්වයක් බිහි කර අවසින්ය. නමුත් ඒ නායකත්වය ද නොමග යන්නේ නම් ඒ නොමග යෑමට තව තවත්  උල්පන්දම් දෙන්නේ නම් කිසිවකුටත් උපකාරයක් කරලිය නොහැකි වනු ඇත.ගෝඨාභයගේ ආදර්ශය නැවත සිහිපත් කරලීම වටී.

මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

Chanaka Bandarage

The government has decided to rebuild the Talaimannar pier. Prima facie, this is good news.  

But, is this project a must at this stage? No.

The government is faced with a huge balance of payment crisis.  Since becoming elected, its revenue base has not increased by one iota. On the other hand, its expenditure has sky rocketed.

To fulfill its election promises, the government will have to increase the public servant wages, disband VAT from food and medicine, increase the monthly tax-free threshold for individuals from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakhs.  It made numerous other promises such as giving fertilizer and other farm subsidies, increase Aswesuma and reducing the diesel price.

Basically, the list of promises that the NPP gave is endless.

In such a scenario, the government should not have considered the building of a new pier in Talaimannar at this stage.

It is absolutely important that the government understands its priorities.

To build a new pier, it will cost the government in excess of Rs 2 Billion.

The previous government was going to build the pier at the cost of Rs 1.8 Billion. They were going to spend solely taxpayer’s money .  Fortunately, that project did not take off.

By introducing various taxes (as advised by IMF) the previous government managed to successfully increase its revenue base. But, it acted like a ‘drunken sailor’. There were absolutely no limits in their merry jaunts. That government needlessly wasted some of the surplus that it had built.

Now we have a prudent government. The new President is excellent.

Although announced, after this article, let’s hope that they will disband the project.

It is a gigantic project – it is like building of our ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’.

                     (The Talaimannar Pier – Picture by Chanaka Bandarage, March 2024)

The new pier will not bring in new immediate revenue.  In any case, it will take several years to complete.

We already have the fantastic harbor in Kankasanthurai (KKS), which is not too far from Talaimannar. The India (Rameshwaran)– Sri Lanka ferry service can operate from there. Last year and early this year, test passenger ferries ran between India and Sri Lanka.

We must not forget – it is the NPP leaders who attacked the Rajapakses for building Mattala Airport (a real White Elephant) when we have Katunayake.

Now that our 2024/25 tourist season is just beginning, the Rameshwaran – KKS ferry service must be re-commenced immediately.  Perhaps our President should talk to Mr Modi about this.

Tourists from India (not just Indians, Europeans also) will flock to our little island in very large numbers, using the ferries.

The writer outlined in a previous article (Lankaweb) that the Navy and the Immigration/Customs must be vigilant to catch bogus travelers from South India like LTTE sympathizers, Kallthonis, drug peddlers and smugglers.

India spent bulk of the money to build the KKS harbor. We can ask them to build the Talaimannar pier as well. They may agree, if we convince them well.

Otherwise, we can go into a 51/49 joint venture. A reputed foreign company is ideal, like P & A (Carnival) or Stena Line. They bring in real $. The government will provide the land, and the private investor will spend for the project.

Anyone who visits this British built magnificent jetty will agree that the pier is in total disarray now – it is corroded beyond repair.  It is a shame that it had not been well looked after. During the war, the pier was in the control of both Navy and the LTTE intermittently. In the late 80s and early 90s, the IPKF was in charge of it.  It seems none had looked after it well. Currently it is totally dilapidated. What is to be built is a total new pier.

Given that we have the KKS harbor, let’s hope that the authorities will be wise not to spend our precious money on this project at this stage. The government’s resources are very scarce, they should be used wisely in a prudent manner.  Again, if India or a private investor  is willing to foot the entire bill, it is ok to go ahead with the project.

The writer is an International Lawyer

Dr Sarath Obeysekera 

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය.

• ශිෂ්‍යත්ව ප්‍රශ්න පත්‍රයේ පිටවූ ප්‍රශ්න පිලිබඳ ස්වාධීන වාර්ථාවක් වහාම අවශ්‍යයි.
• මෙතෙක් ප්‍රමාද වූ සියළු විභාග ප්‍රතිඵල කඩිනමින් නිකුත් කරන්නැයි විභාග දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට අගමැතිනියගෙන් උපදෙස්.
• දේශපාලකයින් පාසල් උත්සව වලට ගෙන්වීම වහාම නතර කරන්න.
ශිෂ්‍යත්ව ප්‍රශ්නපත්‍ර පිටවීම හේතුවෙන් දරුවන්ට සිදු වූ අසාධාරණයට වහාම සාධාරණය ඉටුවිය යුතු බවත්, පිට වූ ප්‍රශ්න පිලිබඳ පුර්ණ විමර්ශන වාර්තාවක් ස්වාධීන විශේෂඥයින්ගේ දායකත්වයෙන් සිදු කර සිය අවධානයට යොමු කරන ලෙසත් අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය  ආචාර්ය හරිනි අමරසූරිය මෙනෙවිය පැවසීය.
අද (2024.09.26) පෙරවරුවේ අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යංශයේ සියළු අංශවල නිලධාරීන් සමග පැවති සාකච්ඡාවේදී අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරිය මේ බව සඳහන් කළාය.

මෙහිදී අදහස් දැක් වූ අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය  ආචාර්ය හරිනි අමරසූරිය මෙනෙවිය,
පාසල් අධ්‍යාපනය සංවර්ධනය කිරිම වත්මන් රජයේ පුමුඛ අරමුණක්. අපේ රජය යටතේ අධ්‍යාපනය සඳහා වැඩි ප්‍රතිපාදන ප්‍රමාණයක් වෙන් කිරීමට අපි තීරණය කර තිබෙනවා. අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යංශය සහ විභාග දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව සම්බන්ධයෙන් ජනතාව තුළ ඇතිවී තිබෙන අවිශ්වාසය නැති කිරීමට මේ ආයතන කටයුතු කළ යුතුයි.  විශේෂයෙන් විභාග පැවැත්වීම හා ප්‍රථිපල ලබාදීම කඩිනම්  කරන්න.
ගුරු පුරප්පාඩු පිරවීමේදී නිසි ක්‍රමවේදයක් මගින් සිදුවිය යුතුයි. ජනතාව තුල විශ්වාසය ඇති වන පරිදි විනිවිද භාවයෙන් පුරප්පාඩු පිරවීම සිදු කරන්න වෙනවා. පාසල් පැත්තෙන් මට පොඩි යෝජනාවක් තියෙනවා. ඒක එකපාර කරන්න බැරි උනත් පාසල් වලින් මට වාර්තා වෙනවා මානසික සෞඛ්‍ය මානසික අසහන පිළිබඳ ප්‍රශ්න. මේ ගැන  අපි මැදිහත් වෙන්නම ඕන. අපි තේරුම් ගන්න ඕන එකක් තියෙනවා. මේ පරපුර කොවිඩ් වලටත් මුහුණ දුන්නා.  ආර්ථිකය කඩා වැටීම නිසා ඇතිවුණු ගෘහස්ථ ගැටලු වලටත් මුහුණ දුන්නා. මේ ඔක්කොමත් එක්ක එන පරපුරක්. පවුල් වල තියෙන ප්‍රශ්න, ගුරුවරුත් එක්ක තියෙන බැඳීම අඩුවීම වගේ ගැටළු මේ පරපුරේ තියෙනවා.  
 පාසල් දරුවන්ගේ පෝෂණය වැඩිදියුණු කිරීම සඳහා දිවා ආහාර ලබා දීමේ වැඩසටහන් ක්‍රමවත් කිරීමත්, යටිතල පහසුකම් සංවර්ධනය කිරීමේදී ක්‍රමවත් සහ පිළිගත් ක්‍රමවේදයකට විනිවිදභාවයෙන් සිදු විය යුතු බවත්, මහජන නියෝජිතයින් පාසල් වලට ගෙන්වා ගැනීම නතර කරන ලෙසත් අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය  ආචාර්ය හරිනි අමරසූරිය මෙනෙවිය මෙහිදී පැවසීය.
 
අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ලේකම් ප්‍රදීප් සපුතන්ත්‍රි, අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යංශයේ ලේකම් තිලකා ජයසුන්දර යන මහත්ම මහත්මීන් සහ අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යංශයේ සියළු අංශ ප්‍රධානීන් මෙම අවස්ථාවට සහභාගී විය.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය.

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Sept 26 (NewsWire) – Former CID Director Shani Abeysekara has made explosive revelations about the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks and the investigation that followed. Speaking at the launch of a book written by journalist Sunanda Deshapriya, Abeysekara detailed how military intelligence allegedly misled the CID during critical stages of the investigation and raised serious concerns about potential financial ties between intelligence agencies and the attackers.

Abeysekara claimed the attacks, which killed over 250 people on April 21, 2019, were part of a well-orchestrated conspiracy rather than an isolated incident. Two significant cases of military intelligence provided false leads during the investigation, he said.

The first case Abeysekara said, was of the bomber who died in a suicide blast in Dehiwela, suggesting the bomber had connections with military intelligence, that were later concealed.

Secondly, Abeysekara addressed the 2018 Vavunathivu murders, prior to the Easter attacks, where military intelligence had allegedly framed the killings as being executed by the LTTE, even planting a military jacket to support their narrative. It was only after the CID arrested a suspect with weapons linked to the murders on April 25, did it become clear that the Zaharan Hashim group, responsible for the Easter attacks, was involved.

Abeysekara also claimed that a top military intelligence official had testified before the Presidential Commission investigating the Easter Sunday attacks, stating that some financial benefits had been provided to the group responsible by a Sri Lankan intelligence agency prior to attacks.

These financial ties need to be thoroughly investigated, Abeysekara stressed.

On four occasions, the head of military intelligence insisted that the Vavunathivu murders were done by the LTTE,” Abeysekara said, raising questions about the true motive behind these misleading actions.

He went on to question as to why both the CID and former President Maithripala Sirisena were misled about key details of the investigation and criticized the Rajapaksa administration for obstructing the inquiry, after Gotabaya Rajapaksa assumed the presidency.

Even before he (Gotabaya) appointed a Prime Minister, he transferred me from the investigation” Shani Abeysekara alleged.

Abeysekara expressed hope that the new government, led by the NPP, would prioritize a thorough investigation into these claims. That is why I supported the NPP,” he said, stating that will be continue to be committed to transparency and accountability despite having never been involved in politics before. 

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

ජනාධිපති අනුර කුමාර දිසානායක මහතාගේ පළමුවන පත්වීම විශ්වාසය බිඳින සුළු එකක් බව පිවිතුරු හෙළ උරුමය නායක නීතිඥ උදය ගම්මන්පිල මහතා පවසයි.

ඒ මහතා මේ බව සදහන් කර සිටියේ අද (26) පිටකෝට්ටේ පිවිතුරු හෙළ උරුමය පක්ෂ මූලස්ථානයේ පැවති මාධ්‍ය හමුවකට එක්වෙමිනි.

පිවිතුරු හෙළ උරුමය නායකයා එහිදී වැඩිදුරටත් මෙසේ අදහස් දැක්වීය.

අනුර කුමාර දිසානායක මැතිතුමාට ජනාධිපති තනතුරේ කටයුතු සාර්ථකව ඉටු කිරීමට හැකි වේවායි ප්‍රාර්ථනා කරමින් මම එතුමාට සුබ පතනවා. කිසිවෙක් මේ ආණ්ඩුවට සහය නොදුන් පමනින් මේ ආණ්ඩුව කඩා වැටිය යුතුයි කියලා හිතන්න නරකයි. ගෝඨාභය ආණ්ඩුව කඩා වැටෙද්දී කඩා වැඩුනේ ආණ්ඩුව විතරක් නෙවෙයි. රටත් කඩා වැටුනා. රට අපේ. ඒ නිසා මේ අභියෝගාත්මක මොහොතේ ජනතාව විසින් තෝරාගත් ජනපතිට එම අභියෝග ජයගත හැකිවේවායි ප්‍රාර්ථනා කිරීම රටට ආදරය කරන පුරවැසියන්ගේ යුතුකමක්. සුබ වේවා යැයි ප්‍රාර්ථනා කළ පමණින් සුබ වෙන්නේ නෑ. සුබ වෙන ආකාරයට කටයුතු කිරීමේ වගකීම තිබෙන්නේ එතුමාට. එතුමා ජාතිය අමතා කියා සිටියේ තමන් ගැන විශ්වාස නොකරන අයගේ විශ්වාසය දිනා ගත හැකි ආකාරයෙන් එතුමා කටයුතු කරනවා කියලා. නමුත් එතුමා මුල් දවසේ කළ පත්වීම් තුනෙන් දෙකක්ම ඒ විශ්වාසය බිඳෙන සුළුයි.

ජනාධිපති ලේකම් ආණ්ඩුවේ ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨතම නිලධාරියා. ලක්ෂ 15ක් පමණ වෙන රාජ්‍ය සේවකයින්ගේ ප්‍රධානියා. ඒ තනතුරට පත් කරන්නේ සමස්ත රාජ්‍ය සේවයේම ගෞරවය දිනා ගත හැකි නිලධාරියෙක්. එහෙම නොවුණොත් සමස්ත රාජ්‍ය සේවයම කඩා වැටිලා ආණ්ඩුව පිරිහෙනවා. ඒ නිසා පසුගිය ජනාධිපතිවරු තමන්ගේ ලේකම් හැටියට පත් කලේ කේ එච් ජේ විජේදාස, ලලිත් වීරතුංග, ඔස්ටින් ප්‍රනාන්දු වගේ කීර්තිමත් පරිපාලන නිලධාරින්. එහෙම නැතිනම් රාජ්‍ය සේවයෙන් බාහිරව සිටින කීර්තිමත් පුද්ගලයෙක්. නමුත් වත්මන් ජනාධිපතිතුමා මේ වැදගත් තනතුරට පත් කරන්නේ තමන්ගේ සරසවි සගයෙකු වුණු කණිෂ්ඨ නිලධාරියෙක්. එතකොට ජනාධිපතිතුමාට රාජ්‍ය යාන්ත්‍රණය ගැන උපදෙස් දෙන්න ලේකම්ට හැකියාවක් නෑ. විශේෂයෙන්ම ලේකම්වරු සහ දෙපාර්තමේන්තු ප්‍රධානින් වැනි ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ නිලධාරින් තමන්ගේ නායකයා විධියට මේ කණිෂ්ඨ නිලධාරියා පිලි ගන්නේ නැති වීමෙන් ගැටළු එනවා. මේක හරියට තමන්ගේ හිතමිත්‍ර එස්අයි කෙනෙක් පොලිසියේ පොලිස්පති විධියට පත් කළා වගේ වැඩක්.

ඒ වගේම මහජන ආරක්ෂක අමාත්‍යාංශය ලේකම් ධූරය දුන්නේ දැනට පොලිස් විමර්ශනයකින් තමන්ව අත්අඩංගුවට ගන්න යනවා කියා අධිකරණය ඉදිරියේ මූලික අයිතිවාසිකම් නඩුවක් ගොනු කළ අයෙක්. ඔහුව අමාත්‍යාංශ ලේකම් තනතුරට පත් කළ යුතු නම් පොලිස් විමර්ශනය අවසන් වෙලා ඔහුට නඩු පැවරිය නොහැකි බවට නීතිපති නිගමනය කරන තුරු ඉවසිය යුතුව තිබුණා. අපි මේවා අත්දැකීමෙන් දැක්කා.

ගෝඨාභය ජනාධිපතිතුමා තමන්ගේ ලේකම් ධූරය පිරිනැමුවේ ලලිත් වීරතුංග මහත්තයාට. නමුත් වීරතුංග මහත්තයා කිව්වා මට විරුද්ධව උසාවියේ නඩුවක් විභාග වෙනවා. ජනාධිපති ලේකම් තමයි ජනාධිපති වෙනුවෙන් විනිශ්චයකාරවරුන් සමග ගනුදෙනු කරන්නේ. ඒ නිසා මට ඒ තනතුර භාර ගන්න බෑ කියලා. ඒ වගේම මාස කිහිපයකට උඩ දී බීමතින් රිය ධාවනය කරලා අනතුරක් කරගෙන රක්ෂිත බන්ධනාගාර ගත වුණු කෙනෙකුට පොලිසිය භාර දුන්නාම නීතියේ ආධිපත්‍ය පිහිටුවීමට දුන්නු මැතිවරණ පොරොන්දුවට මොකද වෙන්නේ කියලා අපට අහන්න වෙනවා.

– Media unit

By Arif Rafiq Courtesy Globely News

President Joe Biden congratulated President Dissanayake on taking office, reflecting Sri Lanka’s strategic importance in the competition between the U.S. and China.

President Joe Biden took to X, formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday to congratulate Sri Lanka’s new president Anura Kumara Dissanayake on his election to office.

Sri Lanka is a small island country with a population of 22 million. But it is very much at the center of the U.S.-China rivalry geographically and otherwise.

Why Sri Lanka Matters

Located in the northern Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka sits along a major maritime shipping route between Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. Due to its depth, location, and efficiency, Sri Lanka’s port of Colombo is a transshipment hub. Goods are offloaded from smaller ships from feeder ports and loaded onto larger ones destined for megaports like Dubai — and vice versa.

Sri Lanka is home to several Chinese-operated ports. One of those, located in the southern city of Hambantota, is seen as a white elephant. A vanity project pushed by a previous Sri Lankan president, it’s used as an example of China’s alleged debt-trap diplomacy.”

China’s detractors claim that it drowns developing countries in debt to gain strategic concessions, like basing rights, in exchange for debt forgiveness or restructuring.

Chinese-operated Sri Lankan ports in Colombo and Hambantota have long been rumored as potential sites for future People’s Liberation Army Navy bases.

Sri Lanka remains in economic distress after its default in 2022, which sent inflation through the roof and forced the resignation of its president. Reckless borrowing from China is part of that picture, but private bondholders are Sri Lanka’s largest creditors.

U.S. Aims in Sri Lanka

The United States wants to wean Sri Lanka off its dependence on China — and not just because of its strategic location. Washington seeks to demonstrate that it can be a better development partner for countries like Sri Lanka. It’s partnering with like-minded countries through initiatives such as the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) to offer what it says is a more transparent, less extractive, and non-corrupt alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

There are numerous problems with the China debt-trap narrative. For starters, it’s simplistic. China does indeed employ its financial largesse with dependent countries, but both as a carrot and a stick. Its approach isn’t always coherent. And the debt trap goes both ways. Chinese development banks are saddled with bad loans. Arrears are mounting. They’re not getting paid.

Secondly, China is not unique in using its pursestrings as geopolitical leverage. India too has done the same in countries like Sri Lanka. The U.S. is sullying its own reputation by partnering with the corrupt Indian conglomerate the Adani Group in Sri Lanka. Washington is financing the construction of an Adani container terminal in the Colombo port. That project is controversial for a number of reasons.

Biden’s very public show of support for Dissanayake is a smart move. The new Sri Lankan president is a leftist leader who some fear will tilt his country back to China. In all likelihood, he’ll seek some sort of balance between the great powers, focusing on economic reform and stability at home. Biden is demonstrating U.S. intent to partner with Dissanayake. Biden and his successor will have to walk the walk.

Courtesy Adaderana

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has directed relevant officials to allocate the luxury vehicles used by previous governments exclusively for essential services, according to the President’s Private Secretary, Ananda Wijepala.

Wijepala expressed regret over the misuse of public funds and emphasized that a full review will be conducted, with the public being informed of future actions. 

He made these remarks while speaking to the reporters today (26) at the Galle Face Grounds in Colombo, where updates on actions taken regarding the parked vehicles were shared, the President’s Media Division (PMD) stated.

He further explained that the public money wasted by previous governments is symbolically represented by these vehicles parked there, noting that the current parking spaces at the Presidential Secretariat are insufficient to accommodate the vehicles. 

A total of 107 vehicles are parked at Galle Face and other locations, which were provided to associates of past governments under various positions. Wijepala highlighted the unfortunate reality that over the past 76 years, successive governments have continued to waste public wealth while citizens struggled to meet basic needs.

He also revealed that while there is a shortage of ambulances for the healthcare sector and vehicles for public officials to perform their duties, vehicles worth millions of rupees were imported and distributed to political allies.

Wijepala reiterated the responsibility to safeguard public funds and assured that a comprehensive review of misused vehicles will be conducted. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has instructed that these vehicles be reassigned to essential services to ensure efficient use.

He further disclosed that 59 vehicles obtained from various institutions had been distributed through the Presidential Secretariat to political allies, and despite the vehicle importation ban, 16 vehicles had been bought in for the Presidential Secretariat, the PMD reported. 

Additionally, Wijepala mentioned that among the 833 vehicles currently owned by the Presidential Secretariat, 29 vehicles are missing. 

He further stated that the President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has instructed a systematic investigation into this matter through the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

–PMD–

Courtesy Adaderana

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has instructed the Treasury to provide a fertilizer subsidy of Rs. 25,000 per hectare to paddy farmers for the Maha season of 2024/25, the President’s Media Division (PMD) said.

According to this initiative, the fertilizer subsidy, which was previously set at Rs. 15,000 per hectare, will be increased to Rs. 25,000. This enhanced subsidy will take effect starting October 01.

To ensure efficient delivery of the subsidy to farmers, the funds will be directly transferred to their bank accounts. This approach aims to streamline the process and provide timely support to those in the agricultural sector, the PMD said.

The new government’s policy statement emphasizes the importance of effectively managing agricultural inputs. It outlines a commitment to providing fertilizer and other agricultural inputs at reasonable prices, along with subsidies for both chemical and organic fertilizer, all in line with good agricultural practices. This step has been implemented to support sustainable farming.”

In addition, the President has directed the Treasury to implement a fuel subsidy for the fishing community, effective from October 01. This measure is intended to boost the fishing industry and lower production costs for fishermen.

The fuel subsidy will be available on a monthly basis for both multi-day and one-day fishing vessels. Similar to the agricultural subsidy, this funding will also be directly deposited into the fishermen’s bank accounts.

The government’s policy statement underscores the goal of developing and managing the fishing industry in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner. This approach aims to enhance fish production, making it more accessible to consumers at fair prices, while also improving the quality of life for those involved in the industry.”

Furthermore, efforts will be made to provide financial and technical support for the recovery of marine fisheries, which are currently facing significant challenges, the statement said.

By Garvin Karunaratne former GA Matara

In 1978, Sri Lanka had a foreign debt of only $ 750 million and that was on projects where at the end there would be an income that would be more than what was borrowed. Sri Lanka never begged before President Jayawardena and Ronnie de Mel came to be our leaders. Then what we did was to carefully collect the inflow of every single dollar through exports etc. and managed our foreign expenses with those dollars. The entire country- all development work etc was run on local currency.

Ronniede Mel and President Jayawardena followed the IMF blindfolded and accepted the IMF teaching of neoliberal economics- the economics of living on borrowed funds. The IMF told us to allow anyone to spend dollars that came in on loans. The dollars were spent abroad- spent on foreign education, on luxury holidays , on luxury imports- in 2020 we even imported Norwegian salmon etc for sale in Colombo supermarkets and the dollars so spent ended in the Developed countries. The IMF’s process was to give us dollar loans and to get us to spend so that the dollars went back to the Developed Countries- to their banks. It went back with profits. It is this process that had gone on leading to our foreign debt of some $100 billion today, which has now strangled Sri Lanka’s economy.

It is a fact that the IMF even gave grace periods to President Jayawardena not to pay the yearly dues on the loans given for five to ten years in order to entice President Jayawardena and Finance Minister De Mel to follow neoliberal economics. It will be good for the IMF team of today to note how the IMF in 1978 enticed – rather bribed our leaders to follow the Structural Adjustment Programme.

It is by following the dictates of the IMF from 1978 to today that Sri Lanka got into the present abyss.

I happen to be a live partner handling senior administrative positions, managing Sri Lanka without falling into debt and can quote real instances of how we did it.

As the Additional Government Agent in Kegalla in 1968 and 1969 and as the GA at Matara in 1971-1973 I was in charge of some five powerlooms in each District which turned out textiles out of imported yarn. Yarn was imported dirt cheap -Sri Lanka had a major textile factory at Tulhiriya also working on imported yarn and we manufactured all our textiles. Then the suiting done by the Hakmana powerloom was in high demand even in London. The Tulhiriya Factory was privatized to Kabool of Pakistan who made hay while the sun shines, made money and decamped leaving unpaid loans to local banks. That was how privatization ruined our country. 

In 1970 to 1977 we had a special programme- the Divisional Development Councils Programme – the idea of Finance Minister NM Perera to fulfill the aspirations of thousands of young men and women for whom life will lose all meaning unless they can find a useful place in our society”(From; Karunaratne:Papers on the Economic Development of Sri Lanka:Godages). True to his word 33, 290 jobs were created. The Sirimavo Government head hunted the foremost economist of the day Professor HAdeS Gunasekera and he commenced work in days in a portion of the Central Bank. Let us look at some of the achievements. The Divisional Secretary at Kotmale made paper out of waste paper. It was a great success. Do we have a single unit making paper out of waste paper today. No. We instead collect the waste paper and sell to India and collect a few coppers and thereafter buy glazed paper paying full dollars. Do we not need to have our heads examined! We can have a few units making paper out of waste paper in weeks .Yet we are lingering in the dark like lost kitten not knowing what to do!

Take what my colleague the Divisional Secretary Wilson Perera at Baddegama did: He found a neglected farm and got hold of sixty youths- trained them to be farmers- and the result- 12 acres of neglected rubber rehabilitated, 40 acres of neglected tea rehabilitated, 20 acres planted with coconut, 50 acres of neglected paddy land brought under cultivation. At the end there were 60 scientifically trained farmers. Such work was done in many districts.

In Matara we fought battles with the Ministry of Plan Implementation and the Director of Fisheries and wrested approval to establish a mechanized boatyard making some 40 seaworthy boats a year. It was a great success. Then because the Ministry refused any more new industries, to teach the Ministry a lesson we found the art of making crayons by experimenting every night for three long months at the Science lab of Rahula College Matara and established a Crayon Factory in two weeks- a 24 hour operation. – a cooperative at Deniyaya, established by Sumanapala Dahanayake, the Member of Parliament. The work done by Sumanapala is an eye opener to our present days Ministers and Members of Parliament. Sumanapala developed Coop Crayon to have island wide sales. President Jayawardena wanted to send Sumanapala to the gallows at Welikada and sent a special squad led by a Deputy Director of Cooperatives AT Ariyaratne to find fault. They raked the files for days and had to report that the Crayon Factory was a great success and a national asset. But what did President Jayawardena do. He ordered it closed. Visiting Sri Lanka today my blood boils when I see Crayola Crayons on sale in Sri Lanka. Coop Crayon could have been developed to find employment and incomes for thousands of our youths. Coop Cryon was equal in quality to the Reeves Crayons of that time and to the Crayola Crayons of today. This encapsulated how our economy lost and how our country became poor.

In 1970 I was the Deputy Director of Small Industries that inspected all small industries and gave them dollars they needed to obtain essential ingredients to enable them to manufacture items. We supervised small industries goaded them to make what was required for the country and what could be exported.

Why not our newly  elected President Aruna Kumara Dassanayake commence immediately a programme to make everything we imported -all done with local rupees- in the manner we worked before 1977. If allowed to bat we can easily score- a programme making over 50,000 employed making everything we imported within a year. What we can make range from step ladders to motor spares to crayons, to paper and all our fruit drinks. Let us not forget that the Marketing Department Cannery made Sri Lanka self sufficient in all jam and fruit juice within the three years 1955 to 1958. We import over ninety percent of our step ladders- something which we can easily make. On my motor trip from Dhaka in Bangladesh to Khatmandu in Nepal my silencer broke down at Jessore on the Indian border. A local garage made a superb silencer within two hours. Today the UK and the USA make silencers for all foreign makes of cars and find employment and incomes for their people. We can make motorspares- silencers- radiators, oil filters- small factories can be set up within two to three weeks.

Such an employment creation programme is the need of the hour.

Garvin Karunaratne

former GA Matara

250924

garvin_karunaratne@hotmail.com

Dr Sudath Gunasekara.  Mahanuwarara 

The best news in Sri Lankan politics, I ever heard after the 2019 Presidential elections results (although it ended up in total disaster in 2022) is the dissolution of the Parliament on the 24^th.  

 I have been totally distressed and dissatisfied with the undemocratic and unethical way the affairs of the Parliament were conducted in recent the past, particularly after 20 July 2022.

I have been agitating for its immediate dissolution ever since the 6.9 m peoples mandate was nakedly betrayed by the SLPP on that day by electing a person against whom all that 6.9 m people had, not only voted against in both previous elections in 2019 and 2020  but also  a person rejected by the people ever since 2005 and subsequently crept in to Parliament through the so-called national list introduced by JR, which provided a back door, for a person to enter this august assembly. He was elected as the under the provisions of the Sec 40 of the Constitution, bad in law and bad in practice, in my view for he was not a person elected by the people. In my view he was not qualified even to be a member of Parliament as he lost his seat at the election in 2020. It was through clever and crafty manipulation only; he came to Parliament through the back door. The national list was a heavenly door for the Party leaders to bring their favorite chums or relatives who could have never come to Parliament by public vote. Most of them ended up as key Ministers and they are not answerable or responsible to the people but only to the man who put him there.  And in my view to elect such a person imported from the backdoor as the President under was a blatant betrayal of the 6.9 m popular mandate in the public eye. Because it goes against the 6.9 mandate given to the SLPP in 2019 and 2020. Ranil who was also rejected by the people at the presidential election and Parliamentary elections held in 2019 and 2020 respectively.  As such it was unethical and immoral too for the Parliament and the SLPP too to elect such a person to that post under the constitutional provision in Sec 40, that is both bad in law and bad in practice in my view That has nullified the supremacy of the Parliament as well as the supremacy of the Constitution, which is regarded as the supreme law of the nation.

 Evers since both the parliament and the Cabinet had been running as a private property of Ranil. The Cabinet had got reduced to the level of the famous world of Mahadanamutta and his 7 pupils.  Not only the Parliament but h entire government got reduced to the level of a one man show.

The Ministers and the Members of Parliament were only interested in their own wellbeing. The Madate given by to Parliament, both in 2019 and 2020 and the aspirations of the people got vaporized in the high air. Not only the overall performance of the Parliament even the attendance got reduced to zero. The dignity and the decorum prevailed in this august assembly in the olden days had vanished with no sing of returning. The Minsters and MPP were only interested in their private business. The dignified and quality debates we have seen in our school days were never to be seen. The parliament in short got reduced to a den of thieves and rowdies’ day by day. It got reduced to a level of a human Zoo and an asylum. It reminded me the famous saying by HL Mencken who once referred to the Canadian Parliament as a Monkey cage when he said Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage”.  It befits, I think, very well to our Parliament better than the Canadian counterpart. In this context gong by the behavior of our politicians I would call our Parliament a human Zoo, as they display the behavior of all predacious animals in the jungle

This why I call upon all voters at the just concluded Presidential election on the 21^st not to vote anyone who does not promises to fulfill a  long list of demands where I prioritize the dissolution of Parliament  as the item number one in that long list of subjects listed under the following article published  in the LANKAWEB.

 මේ රටේ ජන්ම උරුම කරුවන් වන සියළුම දේශප්‍රේමී, ජාති හිතෛෂී සිංහල බෞද්ධ චන්දදායකයින් වෙත විවුර්ථ සන්දේශයක් හා රට ජාතිය වෙණුවෙන් කරණුලබන ආයාචනයක්

Posted on September 14th, 2024

I have stated it in the above letter as follows.

1 ප්‍රථමයෙන් වර්තමාන පාර්ලිමෙන්තුව තුල රටේ ජනමතය කිසිසේත්ම නියෝජනය නොවන බැවින් හා ඒ තුළ, මේ සින්හල බෞද්ධ රටේ රාජ්‍ය විචාරණයට සුදුසු කිසිවෙකු නැති නිසාත් එසේම මොන ජගතෙකු ජනාධිපති වශයෙන් පත්වුවද, දැනට පවතින  අච්චාරු පාර්ලිමෙන්තුව හරහා මේ රට අද වැටී ඇති අඝාධයෙන් ගොඩහත නොහැකි නිසාත්, ප්‍රමුඛතා අන්ක එක වශයෙන් වහාම එය විසුරුවා හැර එම තත්වයට ප්‍රධාන හේතුව වූ 1978 ව්‍යවස්ථාවද අහෝසි කොට, 1972 ජනරජ ව්‍යවස්ථාව වහාම බල ගැන්වීමට සහ වසර 2566 ක දීර්ඝ ඉතිහාසයක් සහිත අපගේ ශිෂ්ඨාචාරය මත පදනම්වූ නව ආණ්ඩු ක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් සකස් කිරීමට ජන වරමක් ඉල්ලා සිටීම සහ මැතිවරණයෙන් ජයගත් පසු එය ඉටුකරණ බව රට ජාතිය ඉදිරියේ ප්‍රතිඥා දෙන අයෙකුට පමණක් ඔබේ වටිනා චන්දය දෙනු මැනවි

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

• නීතිය, රාජ්‍ය සේවය, දේශපාලන අධිකාරිය පිළිබඳ ජනතාව තුළ විශ්වාසයක් නැතුව  රටක් ගොඩ නගන්න බැහැ….
• ශක්තිමත් රාජ්‍ය සේවයක් ගොඩනැගීම අපේ අරමුණක්….
ජනතා සම්පත් භුක්ති විදිමින් නොසිට ජනතාවාදී රාජ්‍ය සේවයක් වෙනුවෙන් එක්ව කටයුතු කරමු යැයි අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය, ආචාර්ය හරිනි අමරසූරිය මෙනවිය පැවසුවාය.
අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරිය මෙසේ පැවසුවේ අද (25) පෙරවරුවේ  අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය කර්යාලයීය නිලධාරින් සමඟ කොළඹ මල් පාරේ පිහිටි අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය කාර්‍යලයේ පැවති සාකච්ඡාවකදීය.  
එහිදී වැඩිදුරටත් අදහස් දැක් වූ අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ආචාර්ය  හරිනි අමරසූරිය මෙනෙවිය,
ජනාධිපතිවරයා පත්වුණේ තවත් එක් ජනාධිපතිවරණයකින් නොවන බව අපි මේ මොහොතේ තේරුම්ගත යුතුයි. පැවැති රජයකට එරෙහිව පැවැති අරගලයකින් පසුව පැවැත්වූ ජනාධිපතිවරණයකදී බහුතර ජනතාවකගේ කැමැත්තෙන් ජනාධිපතිවරයා පත්වුණේ. ජනතාව තමන්ගේ තීරණය ප්‍රකාශ කළේ පසුගිය වසරවල ලැබුණු අත්දැකීම්  හා දුටු දේවල් අනුවයි.  මෙවර පැවැත්වුණු මැතිවරණය පක්ෂවලින් මෙහෙය වූ මැතිවරණයකටත් වඩා ජනතාව විසින් මෙහෙය වු මැතිවරණයක් කිව්වොත් නිවැරදියි.
ජනාධිපතිතුමා සිය ධුරයේ වැඩ භාරගැනීමෙන් පසු ජනතාව අමතමින් සඳහන් කළේ රටක දියුණුවට ජනතාව, පාලකයා සහ රාජ්‍ය සේවය අතර හොඳ විශ්වාසයක් තිබිය යුතු බවයි. ජනතාවට ඒ විශ්වාසය නැතිවෙලා. එය නැවත ඇතිවන ලෙස වැඩකිරීම අපේ යුතුකමක්. ජනතාව තනිවෙලා බවයි සිතන්නේ. නීතිය, රාජ්‍ය සේවය, දේශපාලන අධිකාරිය පිළිබඳ ජනතාව තුළ විශ්වාසයක් නැතුව  රටක් ගොඩ නගන්න බැහැ. ඒ විශ්වාසය ඇතිවන ලෙස වැඩ කරමින් අපිට රට ඉදිරියට ගෙනියන්න වෙනවා.
ශක්තිමත් රාජ්‍ය සේවයක් ගොඩ නැගීම අපේ අරමුණක්. රාජ්‍ය සේවකයින් ස්වාධීනව වැඩ කරමින් ජනතා විශ්වාසය දිනාගන්න කටයුතු කරන ලෙස ද මෙහිදී අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමිය පැවසුවාය.
අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ලේකම් ප්‍රදීප් සපුතන්ත්‍රි මහතා,
රාජ්‍ය සේවකයන් ලෙස අපිට තිබෙනවා විශේෂ කාර්යභාරයක්. සමහරු හිතන් හිටියේ ඔවුන් ජනතාවට වඩා ඉහළින් ඉන්න පිරිසක් කියලා. දැන් අපිට අවබෝධ කරගන්න වෙනවා අපි සැමට ඉහළින් ජනතාව සිටිනවා කියන කාරණය. පෞද්ගලිකව තමතමන්ට දේශපාලන මතයක් ඇති. ඒත් අපි හැමෝටම වගකීමක් තිබෙනවා පවතින රජයේ ප්‍රතිපත්ති ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන්න. ජනතාවට සේවය කිරීමට මීට වඩා කැපවෙන්න අවශ්‍යයයි අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ලේකම් ප්‍රදීප් සපුතන්ත්‍රි මහතා පැවසීය.

මෙම අවස්ථාවට අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය අතිරේක ලේකම්වරුන් වන  හර්ෂ විජේවර්ධන,  මහින්ද ගුණරත්න, ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ සහකාර ලේකම් ඩී. මාශංක එච් ලියනගේ මහතා අතුලු අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය කාර්‍යලයේ නිලධාරීන් පිරිසක් සහභාගි වුහ.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන B.Sc(Col), PGDC(Col), නීතීඥ.

1818 උඩරට මහ කැරැල්ලේ ප්‍රධානියකු ලෙස කටයුතු කළ මොනරවිල කැප්පෙටිපොළ  මහ දිසාව දිවි පිදුවේ 1818 නොවැම්බර් 26 වැනිදය.  2024 නොවැම්බර් 21 අලුත් පාර්ලිමේන්තු කැදවීමට නියමිතය. ඒ  අනුර දිසානායක අලුත් ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ 2024 සැප්තැම්බර් 24 දිනැති  2403/13 අංක දරන අතිවිශෙෂ ගැසට් පත්‍රයේ නියමය අනුවය. නොවැම්බර් 21 සහ 26 අතර ඇත්තේ දින කිහිපයක වෙනසකි.

1815 උඩරට ගිවිසුම, ජෝන් ඩොයිලි, කැප්පෙටිපොළ නිළමේ සහ සෝල්බරි සාමි ලංකාවට කළ බලපෑම පිළිබඳ කතිකාවකින් තොරව අනුර දිසානායක ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ භූමිකාව කුමක්විය හැකිද යන්න පිළිබඳ අදහස් දැක්වීම ඵලදායක නොවේ.

ඩොයිලි

ජෝන් ඩොයිලි ලංකාවට පැමිණි පසු පාලක පක්ෂයේ මෙන් ම රටවැසියාගේ ද සිත් දිනාගනිමින් තම සේවය ඉටු කළේ ය. ලංකාවට පැමිණීමෙන් පසු ඔහු සිංහල භාෂාව මැනවින් ඉගෙන ගැනීමට මහත් වෙහෙසක් දැරී ය. මාතර විසූ කාලයේ දී භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේගෙන් සිංහල භාෂාව පිළිබඳ හොඳ දැනුමක් ලබා ගත්තේය. රටවැසියන් අතර ඇති වූ වාද විවාද, අවුල්, වියවුල්, නඩුහබ ආදිය ඉතා හොදින් ඉතා අවංක ලෙසත් විසදීමෙන් ඔහු ජනතාවගේ හිත් ගත්තේය.

උඩරට රාජ්‍යය අත්පත් කර ගන්නට පෙර ඉන් පසු ද ඩොයිලි යටතේ චරපුරුෂ සේවයක් පැවතියේ ය. එමඟින් ඔහු රටේ නොයෙක් තොරතුරු හා වෙළෙඳ බඩුවල මිල ආදිය දැන ගත්තේ ය. රට ඉංග්‍රීසින්ට යටත්කරවීමේ 1815 උඩරට ගිවිසුමට නිළමෙලාගේ අත්සන් ලබා ගැනීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ජෝන් ඩොයිලි කළ සේවය විශිෂ්ටය.

කැප්පෙටිපොළ

මොණරවිල කැප්පෙටිපොළ ලෙස ප්‍රසිද්ධව හඳුන්වන මොහු ශ්‍රී වික්‍රම රාජසිංහ රජුගේ සහ පසුව බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය පරිපාලනය යටතේ මහ දිසාව තනතුර දැරූවෙකි. 1815 උඩරට ගිවිසුමට අත්සන් කළ නිළමේ කෙනෙකි. 1815 උඩරට ගිවිසුමෙන් පසු රට පාලනය කරගෙන යාමේදී ආරම්භ වූ 1818 ඌව නිදහස් අරගලය මැඩපැවැත්වීමට බ්‍රිතාන්‍යයන් විසින් යවනු ලැබූ කැප්පෙටිපොළ බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය පිළ හැරදා අරගලකරුවන් හා එකතු වූ අතර එහි ප්‍රධාන පෙළේ නායකයෙකු බවටද පත්විය.බ්‍රිතාන්‍යයන් විසින් අරගලය පරාජය කළ අතර කැප්පෙටිපොළ දිසාව ඇතුළු අනෙක් අරගල නායකයන් ‍රැසක් අත් අඩංගුවට ගෙන රාජද්‍රෝහී වීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් චෝදනා එල්ල කර වර්ෂ 1818 නොවැම්බර් මස 26 වැනි දින කන්ද උඩරට බෝගම්බර දී රාජද්‍රෝහියකු වශයෙන් මරණ දණ්ඩනය පනවන ලදී.

සෝල්බරි

ලංකාවට පූර්ණ වගකීම් සහිත පාලනයක් ලබාදීමට අපේක්ෂා කරන බවට බි‍්‍රතාන්‍යයන් තීරණය කිරීමෙන් පසු
සොයාබැලීම සඳහා 1944 දී සෝල්බරි සාමි ප‍්‍රමුඛ කොමිසමක් මෙරටට එවන ලදී.

සොල්බරි කොමිසම ලංකාවේ සමාජ, ආර්ථික, දේශපාලනික දේහය පිළිබඳව අධ්‍යනය කොට නැවතත් බි‍්‍රතාන්‍ය වෙත ගොස් පසුව ඔවුහු තම යෝජනාවන් බි‍්‍රතාන්‍ය රජයට ඉදිරිපත් කළ අතර එයට අනුව සෝල්බරි ව්‍යවස්ථාව නමින් ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් පැනවි 1972 පළමු ජනරජ ව්‍යවස්ථාව දක්වා එය ක්‍රියාත්මක විය.

අනුර දිසානායක ජනාධිපතිවරයා

අනුර දිසානායක මහතා ජනාධිපති ධූරයට පත්වන්නේ පවතින ආර්ථික, සමාජ, දේශපාලනික, නෛතික තත්ත්වයන් වෙනසකට ලක්කිරීමටය.

රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ ජනාධිපතිවරයාද 2015 ගෙනා 19වන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනයේ පවතින අතපසුවීමක් ගැන ගාල්ල අධිකරණ සංකීර්ණය විවෘත කරන අවස්ථාවේදී නීති ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ ප්‍රධානීන් ඉදිරිපිට 2024 ජූලි 19 දින ජනතාවගෙන් ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ සමාවද ඉල්ලා සිටි පසුඹිමකය. එසේම ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 83 ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ පවතින දෝෂයක් නිවැරදි කිරීමට ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 78වන ව්‍යවස්ථාව යටතේ නීතිපතිවරයාගේ අනුමැතියෙන් 22වන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන පනත් කෙටුම්පත 2024 ජූලි 18 දින ගැසට් පත්‍රයේ පළ කිරීකිරීමද 1978 ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ අතපසුවීම් ඇති බව පැහැදිලි කරයි.

1815 සිට බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය කිරීටයේ නෛතික බලයට යටත්ව සිටිමින් 1970 සමඟි පෙරමුණු ආණ්ඩුව බලයට පැමිණ, 1815 සිට පවතින බ්‍රිතාන්‍යය කිරීටයේ පාලනයෙන් මිදී එවකට පැවති සෝල්බරි ව්‍යවස්ථාවට බැහැරව ජනරජ ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් බිහිකිරීමට කතිකාවක් ඇරඹෙද්දී 1971 කැරල්ල අරම්භ විය. එම කැරැල්ල අසාර්ථක වූ අතර 1972 පළමු ජනරජ ව්‍යවස්ථාව සහ ඉන් පසු 1978 දෙවන ජනරජ ව්‍යවස්ථාවද පැනවිණ.

1972 පළමු ජනරජ ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම  ව්‍යවස්ථාව බිහිකර ගැනීමට යන අවස්ථාවේදී 1971 දී කැරැල්ලක් ඇති වූ අතර එයට අනුර දිසානායක ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ දේශපාලන යාන්ත්‍රණයේ ආරම්භකයෝ මුල් විය.

1978 දෙවන ජනරජ ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම  ව්‍යවස්ථාව ක්‍රියාත්මක කරගෙන යන අවථාවේදීද 83 ජූලියේ සහ 1988 සමයේ නැවත භීෂණ තත්ත්වයක් පැවතිනි. එසේම වසර 30ක බෙදුම්වාදී සන්නද්ධ ගැටුමක්ද එම ජනරජ ව්‍යවස්ථාව ක්‍රියාත්මක වෙද්දී පැවතිණි.

2022 දී එවකට බලයේ සිටි ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ ජනාධිපතිවරයා අරගලයක් මගින් ඉල්ලා අස්කරවූයේද 1978 ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව ක්‍රියාත්මක වෙද්දීය.

එම ගැටුම් සියල්ල පැවතුනේ ස්වාධීන ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී රාජ්‍යක් තුළය. 1972ට පෙර එවැනි ගැටුම් අතිවීම බ්‍රිතාන්‍යන් විසින් පාලනය කර තිබුණි.

ගැලවුම්කරු

ඉන්ද්‍රජාලිකයෙකු, මැජික්කරුවෙකු නොවන බවත් සාමාන්‍ය පුරවැසියෙකු බවත් ජනාධිපති ලෙස ප්‍රතිඥා දුන් අවස්ථාවේ අනුර දිසානායක ජනාධිපතිවරයා ජනතාව හමුවේ ප්‍රකාශ කළ අතර එසේ වුවත් ඔහුට රටේ ගැලවුම්කරු වීමේ අවස්ථාව විවෘතව ඇත.

ඒ කෙසේද යන්න පිළිබඳ දැනුවත් වීමට විදෙස් උදාහරණවලට වඩා රටේ උදාහරණ ඇසුරෙන් විමසීම වැදගත් වේ.

1815 උඩරට ගිවිසුමත්, ඩොයිලිගේ, කැප්පෙටිපොළ නිළමේගේ සහ සෝල්බරි සාමිගේ භූමිකාවන් හැදෑරීමෙන් වැදගත් තොරතුරු ලබා ගත හැකිය.

අනුර දිසානායක ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ භාවිතය විසින් ඔහු ඩොයිලිද, කැප්පෙටිපොළද, සෝල්බරිද, ගැලවුම්කරුද, සාමාන්‍ය පුරවැසියෙකුද යන්න ජනතාවට පැහැදිලි වන අවස්ථාවක් ඇත. ඒ අලුත් ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් කෙටුම්පත්වන අවස්ථාවේදී සහ එය සම්මත කරගන්නා අවස්ථාවේය.

(ඉදිරියේදී 1978 ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවට නැවත ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන ගෙන එනු ඇතැයි මෙම ලියුම්කරු අපේක්ෂා නොකරන අතර, 2015 ගෙනා 19වන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනයේ පවතින අතපසුවීමක් ගැන ගාල්ල අධිකරණ සංකීර්ණය විවෘත කරන අවස්ථාවේදී රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ ජනාධිපතිවරයා 2024 ජූලි 19 දින ජනතාවගෙන් ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ සමාව ඉල්ලා සිටිමත්, ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 83 ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ පවතින දෝෂයක් නිවැරදි කිරීමට ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 78වන ව්‍යවස්ථාව යටතේ නීතිපතිවරයාගේ අනුමැතියෙන් 22වන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන පනත් කෙටුම්පත 2024 ජූලි 18 දින ගැසට් පත්‍රයේ පළ කිරීමත් හේතුවෙන් ඉදිරියේදී ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා ස‍ංශෝධනයක් ඉදිරිපත් කළහොත් ඒ සම්බන්ධ කාරණා නැවත මතුවීම එයට හේතුවයි.)

http://neethiyalk.blogspot.com/2024/09/blog-post.html?m=1

අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන B.Sc(Col), PGDC(Col), නීතීඥ.
සමායෝජක,
වෛද්‍ය තිලක පද්මා සුබසිංහ අනුස්මරණ නීති අධ්‍යාපන වැඩසටහන.
දුරකථන 0712063394.
(2024.09.24)

KAMALIKA PIERIS

 ‘Dear Children, Sincerely is   an English language   play presented by Stages Theatre Group,    directed by Ruwanthie de Chickera. It was first shown in 2016 and had been in the Stages Theatre repertoire ever since. The most recent performance was in Colombo in September 2024, just before the Presidential election, in the hope that the play would influence the thinking of young first time voters.

Stages Theatre Group said it wished to create a piece of theatre that would   preserve the memories of an older generation. The Group reported that under the direction of its artistic director Ruwanthie de Chickera, they had conducted artist-led research into the lives of the generation who had memories of colonization, Independence and had lived through the entire turbulent history of the nation-state of Sri Lanka. This was a way to capture their voices, to ensure that their experiences and insights weren’t lost. [1] .

The project conducted in-depth interviews of almost 80 senior citizens within Sri Lanka and within the Diaspora as well,  specifically the generation born in the 1930s. We spoke to them and we tried to understand how the country changed from decade to decade; what happened, what went wrong, what were the mistakes they made.

By interviewing a cross-section of seniors across ethnicity, class, political affiliation, gender, and geography about their memories and experiences of the same key historical events, the project hoped it could obtain different historical narratives. [2] The names provided however, indicate that they have interviewed likeminded persons who would have said the same things.

The material of these conversations were then used to create short performance pieces for young audiences on the journey of Sri Lanka since Independence. ‘This developed into ‘Dear Children, Sincerely’

The play Dear Children, Sincerely’ puts together seven stories based on these interviews, strung together to identify a singular event per decade which was a turning point for the country. Some stories are presented as monologues, which will see old people telling their story.  Others are re-enactments. All stories are interpretations of what was shared by the interviewees, said the Group.

There are also plans to look at more recent events in what would act as a sequel to ‘Dear Children Sincerely’, focusing on interviews with those born in the 1940s. They could see the transition from colonialism to self-rule. We won’t go beyond the 1940s, but we do think that there are a lot of really interesting people born in the 1940s that we want to interview and try and transform those interviews into something dramatic that we can share with young audiences, said Stages.

This method calls for comment. It is rarely that such a large number are interviewed for a project , specially for a theatre script. But in this case, the researchers seem to have had a very cooperative group of aged respondents, with failing memory, interviewed at the very stage when they should not be interviewed at all. Further, memories cannot be preserved thorugh theatre, which is an ephemeral art form. This method therefore   is clearly a strategy.

Dear Children, Sincerely is a play with an agenda.  We are told that the idea for such a play originated in 2015 as a project to help young audiences understand events which took place in Sri Lanka after Independence and the impact of these events on their lives today. 

The play acts out seven episodes from Sri Lanka’s post independence history, using stylized movement and commentary. ‘An ensemble performance that takes the audience through seventy years of Sri Lankan history in seven gripping scenes, said critics.

The seven episodes selectedare Independence, (1940s) Sinhala Only, (1950s) Coup d’état (1962), JVP insurrection, (1970s) Black July, (1983) Eelam war (1990s) and Menik Farm (2000s). Stages Group explained that   the play explores the shifts in politics and the spirit of the Sri Lankan people over the last seventy years, throwing the spotlight on pivotal moments in each decade, such as Independence, the controversial Sinhala-Only bill, the dramatic fall of the English-speaking elite, the devastation of an entire generation through two youth insurrections, the sinister inciting of the 30-year civil war and horrific end to the same.

The play shows the trauma this country has faced through seven decades and where the country has had ended up after 400 years of colonization.   The play is intended to give audiences the chance to reflect intelligently on our past and learn about the mistakes we have made, concluded Stages Group.

Our schools do not teach the country’s post-colonial history, said Ruwanthie. Her teen age daughters   learn the same history she did in school. But Ruwanthie was fortunate to have parents who taught her the country’s recent history.

 The school history syllabus in Sri Lanka stops at Independence, (1948), said Ruwanthie, creating a generation of youth who have not been taught what happened after that.  Those who are not taught these events at home grow up not knowing about the past 70 years. This play is an attempt to update their knowledge. When we performed in schools and University they asked us did these things really happen in our country.

Ruwanthi said that in 2016 when they started to rehearse this play, her cast did not know about Black July 1983, did not know what JVP was, and did not know what Sinhala Only was. She had to teach history to her first cast. Ruwanthi herself is not a historian, her first degree is in English Literature, but she is deeply concerned about the matter.

The history curriculum in secondary schools usually does not include recent events. There are reasons for this. Historical events need a period of gestation before they come under historical scrutiny.  Also it takes time for historians to fully analyze the impact of an event. Schools prefer to wait till a clear historical narrative emerges, with consensus before teaching the event. But schools are expected to   teach the past history, in such a way that it will equip students with the skill of analyzing later events.

I recall that when I was studying history in 1960, for my University Entrance exam, I was advised not to answer questions on World War II, though it was in the syllabus, because this event had not yet come under historical review. It was only in 1992 that Germany made it compulsory for all secondary schools to teach the Holocaust.

The play Dear Children, Sincerely, lets off howlers and blunders on its way to educating the audience. The first sentence that appears on the screen is itself a howler. The sentence said that the two communities Tamil and Sinhala had been living in the island for a long time. They were brought together for the first time by the British administration. (These are my words. The sentence   on the screen was much shorter).One critic called this an extraordinary observation, that the British brought the Sinhalese and the Tamils together. Historical texts tell us a different story, the critic said. [3]

the Tamils of the north and east are a settler group of recent origin, not an indigenous community.   The Pandyas had left behind a military post in the north when they departed. This became   the so-called Kingdom of Jaffna. Thereafter in the 17 and 18 century Tamils were brought in by the Dutch as laborers to work on the tobacco plantations in the north. In the 19 century the British   brought Tamils in as settlers to colonize the East. The East at the time was occupied by Sinhala villages.

The first episode in the play was on Independence. The play mocked our Independence, saying we got it as a gift. This too is incorrect. Sri Lanka got its independence due to the sustained effort of the local political elite, who watched events and maneuvered carefully towards their goal, independence.  They specifically asked for independence.

The public were not indifferent to independence either. There was always simmering objection to British rule. Valesca Reimann in her History of Trinity College, Kandy, (1922) says that the Trinity schoolboys greeted the Principal at assembly with   shouts of Good morning”, Salam alaikum” and ‘Palayan yako’. When the Temperance Movement started, the public supported it.

The play admiringly mentions India’s independence struggle. There is a fleeting reference to Nehru and Gandhi. Therefore let us look at how independence came to these two colonies. At Independence Sri Lanka effortlessly regained its traditional borders and control over its total population, who all rejoiced together on Independence Day.

Peninsular India, on the other hand was divided into three sovereign states,   India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and independence was celebrated with much bloodshed. In all three states, soon as independence was declared Muslims and Hindus killed each other.  The Indus valley with its  Harappa civilization went to Pakistan, a brand new country, not to India which contained  the   historical kingdoms.

In the next episode in the play, it was said that  there was no national flag. There was play on the words Kodiyak, Kadayak.  It is however well known that there were  flags in plenty in Udarata kingdom. Each disawani and disawa had  an  official flag, even the Maha lekam in the Kings Palace had a flag. There was the coveted  ira-handa-kodiya as well. So why not a flag for the king. The royal flag was  found in London  and brought to Sri Lanka before independence.

The choice of subject for the  next episode,  the 1960s, is  interesting. Instead of the Takeover of Schools, which had a very significant impact on  education and  seriously affected Christian influence,  the  topic selected was the failed coup d’état of 1962.This coup planned to overthrow the  SLFP government on the night of 27 January 1962.

The coup was  planned by a set of high ranking army  persons. They were all Christian”, shouted the play. .  The tone as far as I could gather, was one of regret that the coup was not allowed to take place. The coup hoped to return Sri Lanka to what it was under British rule, a country dominated by the Christian elite, by the  English language and  by western thinking. The elite would regain lost privileges .

The play then turns on Sinhala Only. SWRD Bandaranaike is mocked and ridiculed. The play shows open contempt towards the Sinhala language,  vomiting it out as See- Haa- Laa and spitting it out as SihalaSihalaSihalaSihala[4]

The play implied  Sinhala and Tamil  carry equal status as the vernaculars and  that it was wrong of Sinhala to squash Tamil. The clash between Sinhala and Tamil are shown by clever stylized movements, very effective.  Later on in the play, there is a contemptuous reference to a Sinhala medium  teacher who, the play said,   did not know that eggs were laid by hens. The tone of the play is one of utter contempt towards Sinhala language and those who spoke it.

Sinhala Only was  not wrong. Sinhala Only  was right and timely. There is much that can be said in support of Sinhala only. Until Sinhala Only came  the state administration was  in English which the majority of the public could not understand.  Telegrams were sent  in English,  law courts worked in English. University education was in English.  

Sinhala Only changed this.  When the University  started to teach in Sinhala,   and the country started to work in Sinhala, social mobility took place on a grand scale. The young  actors in this play, mocking Sinhala Only, are unaware that they are able to   enjoy  their acting experience, to  perform at the Lionel Wendt and develop acting careers only  because of Sinhala Only. If not for Sinhala Only, the main career available to the Sinhala speaking public up to 1956, and even later,   was to   work as a servants in  English speaking homes.

The play selects four violent episodes to mark  the last four  decades. JVP insurrection, (1970s) Black July, (1983) Eelam war (1990s) and Menik Farm (2000s).  

JVP is treated with sympathy. When writing about the JVP, we took one line that Iranganie Serasinghe told me, said Ruwanthie She said that when she thinks of the JVP time, she thinks of the young people of the country being on one side and the old people of the country on the other side, and what a tragedy, ‘How sad that they took to arms.’

The play  therefore created a scene about the young people of this country wanting to do something but not being able to do it and then being destroyed.   This is  a rather odd approach to the JVP, a movement  which killed many innocent persons and was committed to the overthrow of a popular and duly elected government  by violent means.

Black July was not  given much emphasis, if my recall is correct , but the performers  were able to show the aggression and  the fear  very well. The piece  included the surprising query, when did we start to use the word demela.

The Eelam war was presented as a  high level cricket match, Premadasa versus Prabhakaran,  with all the  cheerful excitement that went with such a match. The number of those killed were presented as the runs scored. There were even commercial breaks and the advertisers were the countries that helped the government win the war.

This insensitive attitude to the Eelam war should be  condemned. Colombo showed a callous indifference to the Eelam war  while the war was on and  this play reflects that  attitude.  The play treats the  two warring parties as equal,  like the teams in a cricket match.  The government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE are not equal.  LTTE was engaged in high treason.

Critics   did not like this either.  The nineties, with all its carnage, is presented as a cricket match, with the scores representing the murdered, said one critic. [5]Another observed that the episode about the Eelam war should not have evoked the  laughter that it did.[6]

The last episode was Menik Farm. When the war ended, the government decided to rehabilitate those who survived. The government opened the 700-hectare Menik Farm in Vavuniya  as an IDP site in 2009 and, at its peak,  it held 225,000 people. The play  gave  Menik Farm a good bashing. One inmate delivered a lengthy monologue on the horrors in Menik Farm and the play came to an end.

The play indicates certain prejudices, Eelam war was  unimportant,  Sinhala only was a disaster, the 1962 coup  should have been allowed to take place. Independent Sri Lanka  was unable to  look after itself properly and today it is a total mess. it was better under the  British , when the local  English speaking Christian elite was dominant. This class got displaced after Independence.This play  indicates  the deep resentment of this displaced class, 

The  play says ”With this objective of educating, ‘Dear Children, Sincerely’ aims to be accessible to a wide audience. The play is being performed in Sinhala, Tamil, and English, with subtitles to ensure that language is not a barrier to understanding. [7]That is not correct. This is an English  language play. The two monologues are in English. Better keep it at that. The  audience who  go to see Sinhala plays will not welcome a play which ridicules  the  Sinhala  language and Sinhala medium  teachers.

[1] https://www.empathyandrisk.com/work/dear-children-sincerely/

[2] https://www.empathyandrisk.com/work/dear-children-sincerely/

[3] https://fragmenteyes.blogspot.com/2017/07/dear-children-sincerely-reflections-on.html

[4] https://youtu.be/QZwVc23KeQk at 2.14

[5] Written for: Daily Mirror, July 11 2017https://fragmenteyes.blogspot.com/2017/07/dear-children-sincerely-reflections-on.html

[6] https://youtu.be/QZwVc23KeQk

[7] https://www.themorning.lk/articles/NuR8WjjmYMT7NPI72ted  8.9.2024

තිස්ස ගුණතිලක

අපිට ධර්මය තේරූම්ගන්න තියෙන්නෙ බුද්ධ වචනය තුලින්ම පමනයි, එක එක දේශකයින්ගේ හිතළුතුලින්‍ නොවෙයි.

බුද්ධ දේශනාව නම් අවිද්‍යාව හා තන්හාව නිසා දුක ඇතිවන බවයි. භාහිරයේ සියල්ලම පවතින්නේ ආශ්වාදයක් හෝ වෛරයක් නොමැති ආතතියක් ඇති නොකරන ස්වභාවයකිනි: සබ්බේ සංකාරා අනිච්චාති. නමුත් උපන්නාට පසුව අප සංකාර කිරීමට පටන්ගත්‍ දා සිට අප කලේ භාහිරයේ ඇති සියළුම දේ එක්කෝ සංතෝෂයකින් හෝ අසංතෝෂයකින් එනම් ආශාවකින් හෝ වෛරයකින් ග්‍රහනය කිරීමයි. අපි වෙනත් ආකාරයකින් භාහිරය ග්‍රහනය කිරීමට දැන සිටියේ නැත. ඉතා කුඩා අවදියේදී මෙම ක්‍රියාව නොදැන කිරීමට පටන්ගත් අතර අපි පසුකලකදී දැන දැනම භාහිරයට ආශාවක් හෝ ආශාවක් නැති වෛරී ස්වභාවයෙන්‍ ග්‍රහනය කලේය. අවසානයේදී සිඳුවුනේ භාහිරයේ ඇති සියල්ලම ආශාවකින් හෝ වෛරී ස්වභාවයකින් ග්‍රහනය කිරීම පුරුද්දක් බවට පත්වීමයි. අද අපි මෙම පුරුද්දට අනුව භාහිරය අරමුනු කර භාහිරයේ ඇති සියල්ලම තන්හාවකින් අල්ලා ගනී.

මෙසේ තන්හාවකින් අරමුනු කරගත් භාහිරයේ පවතින කිසිම දෙයක එවැනි තන්හාව උපදවන ගුණයක් නොපවතියි. ඉහත පරිදි භාහිරය තන්හාවකින් ගැනීම අවිද්‍යාවයි. 

බුදුන්වහන්සේ ධම්මචක්කපවත්වන සූත්‍රයේ මුලම ජේදයේ දේශනාකලේ ‘කාමසුඛල්ලිකානු’ දිවිපෙවෙතිනුත් ‘අත්තකිලමතානු’ දිවිපෙවෙතත් යන දෙකෙන්‍ම මීදිය යුතු බවයි. මෙම දෙකම ‘හීනො ගම්මො පොථුජ්ජනිකො අනරියො අනත්ථසංහිතො’ නීච හීන, ග්‍රාම්‍ය, පෘතග්ජනයින්ට අයත්, අනාර්ය,  අනර්ථය, අවැඩ, විපත්ගෙන දෙන දිවිපෙවතක්‍ බව බුදුන්වහන්සේ දේශනාකල සේක. 

මේ අන්තදෙක ඇතුළුව එම අන්ත දෙක අතර පවතින සියළුම දිවිපෙවෙත් (whole spectrum) නිසා අපගේ සිහිය පමා කරනාබව (උභො අන්තෙ අනුපගම්ම මජ්ඣි) ධම්මචක්කපවත්වන සූත්‍ර දේශනාවේ පටන් ගැනීමේදීම බුදුන්වහන්සේ පෙන්වා දෙයි.

සිහිය පමාවීම යනු අපගේ මොලයේ ඇති යමක් හඳුනාගැනීමේ අංශ cognitive faculties – the modules where inherent cognitive (ප්‍රජානන පීඨ) or perceptual powers of the mind exists, 100% කාර්යක්ෂමතාවයකින් ක්‍රියා නොකිරීමයි. 

සංජානති, විජානාති (understand, perceive, recognize) හා පජානාති (knows clearly, distinguish විශේෂයෙන් දැනගැනීම, ටක්කෙටම දැනගැනීම) – නැතහොත් හඳුනාගැනීමේ හැකියාව (cognitive) හා යමක් ප්‍රත්‍යක්ෂයෙන් දැනගන්නා (perceptual) මොලයේ ඇති අංශ.

අපගතකරනා සියළුම දිවිපෙවෙත් තුල සිඳුවන්නේ භාහිරය තන්හාවකින් (ආශ්වාදයකින් හෝ වෛරයකින්) ග්‍රහනය වීමයි. ඒනිසා සිඳුවන උපාදානය හේතුකොට ගෙන ශරීරය තුල සමතුලිතතාවයක තිබූ රසායනික සංයුතිය උද්දීපනයකට නැතහොත් ආරෝපනයකට ලක්වෙයි. මෙම රසායනික උද්දීපනය නිසා ආතතියක් ඇතිවන බවක් දැනෙයි. ‘මම’ නැතහොත් ඉන්නවා සේ දැනෙන්නේ (ඉත්ථභාවය, සක්කාය) මෙම රසායනික ක්‍රියාවලිය නිසා දැනෙන ආතතියයි. ආතතිය යනු දුකයි. දුක නැති කිරීම යනු ආතතිය ඇති නොවන ස්වභාවයයි. එනම් රසායනික ක්‍රියාවලියේ ඇතිවන උද්දීපනය/ආරෝපනය උදාසීන/මධ්‍යස්ථ (neutral) තත්වයට ගෙන ඒමයි. විපස්සනාව මගින් අත්කරගන්නේ මෙම රසායනික උදාසිනත්වයයි (neutrality).

මෙම ලිපියේ අඩංගු කරුනු හා එම කරුනුවල දිගුවකට ඔබට ‘විපස්සනාව රසායනිකව, සෘද්ධිපාද, ඕභාශය සහ රූප දර්ශනය’ යන මැයෙන් ඇති YouTube ධර්ම සාකච්ඡාව තුලින් සවන්දිය හැකිය. එයට පිවිසීමට පහත සඳහන් link එක භාවිතා කරන්න.

ඔබට තෙරුවන් සරණයි

තිස්ස ගුණතිලක

tgunite@tpg.com.au

2024 සැප් මස 26 වනදා

Sent from Tissa’s Phone

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

During the last couple of days, Sri Lanka elected a left-leaning outsider as its 9th Executive President and then went on to win a test match in Galle.

No one challenged the election results; Protesters did not storm Parliament, arsonists did not torch the houses and shops, and the army did not try to usurp power. 

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake assumes duties

Whether you voted for him or not, this is a victory for democracy. This extent of peaceful power transfer from the traditional establishment to its polar opposite would not have been possible in more than half of the countries in the world. One can safely bet on Polymarket that the upcoming presidential election in America would be much less peaceful than ours. 

President Dissanayake took a swipe at the salary hike in the public sector just before the postal voting, which is a fair criticism of the political culture. But, these concerns pale in comparison to the resistance his election would have faced in most places. Leave aside leftist autocracies in Latin America and the Middle Eastern authoritarian states. Even the progressive Thailand – which is way ahead of Sri Lanka in progressive legislation and became the second Asian country to legalise gay marriage- annulled an overwhelming election victory of an anti-establishment party and then proceeded to ban it.

Funny enough, there is a vocal minority of self-proclaimed activists often associated with the left and N.G.O. captains who make a living trash-talking Sri Lanka and the perceived dearth of democracy.

A good starting point would probably be to agree that there is a lot of good in this country, including its democracy. 
I hold strong reservations about President Dissanayake’s economic policies and the JVP’s political culture, which I have aired in these columns. 

However, differences should not lead to a desire for collective nihilism, a very common ailment in South Asian politics, which has thrived in undermining each other. 

I extend all my best wishes to the new president and his party in their endeavour to uplift the living standard of the people of this country. After all, as China’s grand reformer, Deng Xiaoping, famously said, it does not matter whether the cat is black or white as long as it catches mice.

As long as President Dissanayake and his party deliver economic growth on par with high-growth emerging market economies, the rest of the differences are immaterial. 

A free and fair general election- first test in democracy

The starting point for the new president would probably be to defend the democratic culture he was bestowed with. If the monopolistic and violent subculture in the Sri Lankan universities comes to replace the country at large, we will be back to the dreaded days of the 80s in no time. President Dissanayake has said all the right things and promised to govern to build trust with the people, those who voted and those who did not and eschewed usual antics such as traffic-inducing sycophantic celebrations. However, he will have to rein in the potential excesses of his party cadres, which should not be difficult, given the top-down party structure. 

His first test in democracy would be how free the upcoming general election would be. One would expect it would be as free and democratic as the one he got elected to the office of presidency. 

The second major concern would be the economy. He faces both immediate and medium-term economic challenges.

The immediate concerns are associated with the IMF programme, which he said he would not scrap but would renegotiate.

Any decision to walk back on the IMF commitments unilaterally will unleash a chain of events that would lead to the repetition of the hapless days of Gotabaya’s last throes. It is known that some of the economic advisors of the new president think they could reinvent the wheel without the IMF. He should not give in to that temptation. Gotabaya did, and the result was a complete economic collapse. It would always help to listen to people with real experience at the competitive level in international financial institutions rather than vernacularly educated pedagogic pundits at home. 

Here again, the starting point would be to agree with the obvious—that the IMF-mandated measures have greatly stabilised the economy, curbed inflation from 70% to lower single digits, and the economy has grown at 5 per cent during the first half of this year.

Mr. Dissanayake should build on these gains. He should not let ideology or sound bites of economic populism to blind himself.

The medium-term economic challenges are wide-ranging, but one stands out of all. That is Sri Lanka’s continuous failure to provide quality jobs and a matching professional education for its dwindling workforce. Every year, 300,000 students sit for the G.C.E. Advanced Level examination, and nearly two-thirds qualify for university. However, only 40,000 students get admitted to public universities, another 20-25,000 economically better off students go to private universities, and equal numbers go to various forms of vocational training institutes. What about two-thirds of students left ashtrays by the system? Sri Lanka’s sub-par economic performance broadly correlates with the missed opportunities of its youth. Sri Lanka should build a network of universities and vocational training institutions that could provide all its children with a tertiary, university and professional education and retrain a vast majority of its unskilled workforce, which we now send overseas as migrant workers.

Even with the best intentions, that cannot be achieved with the government alone. Nor can it be done through a purely market forces-dominated initiative. 

Private-public partnership 

Any future government should allocate a substantial portion of its funds to a private-public partnership to create a skilled workforce. The outgoing Ranil Wickremesinghe administration introduced a pilot programme to provide funding for vocational training opportunities for 50,000 youths a year, which should be the starting point for a future initiative with a greater scale.

Aspiring states emulate and improvise from the successful strategies of the lead states. Taiwan, which largely relied on low-end manufacturing until the 1980s, set up industrial parks and technical colleges to feed them. These institutions may not rank high in international tables today, but they are a far more important pillar in global supply chains than probably better-positioned Singaporean universities. Sri Lanka does not need to reinvent the wheel; it should improvise and emulate the already established successful practices of the other states. 

A new political culture

President Dissanayake promises to usher in a new political culture. Probably, that is what he and NPP could do, considering that they are much less rent-seeking than the traditional political establishment. However, what is termed a political culture is a civilisational process which is often tied firmly to prosperity. Richer liberal democracies are also more peaceful, tolerant, less corrupt and law-abiding. Therefore, no social engineering process should be undertaken in isolation from economic progress. Emphasis on good governance without clear economic policies of Yahapalanya ended in a colossal failure, leading to the election of an alleged war criminal as the president in the following election.  

One would hope the new president would prevail in his challenges and usher in an era of prosperity and freedom -because his failure would inevitably translate into the failure of the country and its people.

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By Shabiya Ali Ahlam Courtesy The Daily Mirror

• Asserts achieving confidence in current economy crucial
•  Says to advance debt restructuring programme, negotiations are underway with relevant creditors to expedite process and secure necessary debt relief
•  Fitch in its commentary notes uncertainty to country’s policy direction
•  Rating agency says there could be a delay in completion of foreign currency debt restructuring and renegotiation of IMF programme
•  Global rating agency Moody’s says it does not expect any significant shifts in Sri Lanka’s reform trajectory or policies, although some reprioritisation is likely
•  IMF MD Georgieva says IMF looks forward to working together with new president

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake in his inaugural address to the nation last evening pledged to prioritise economic stability and restore confidence in the country’s recovery.
Dissanayake announced that his government would immediately initiate negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to proceed with the activities under the extended credit facility programme. As the island nation continues to recover from the severe economic crisis that triggered widespread hardships, the president emphasised that regaining stability is crucial.
Additionally, to advance our debt restructuring programme, we are negotiating with the relevant creditors to expedite the process and secure the necessary debt relief. We are confident that we can gain the support of both the people of this country and international community and we believe that through this collective support, we can achieve success,” he said.
Earlier yesterday, Fitch Ratings, in its latest commentary, noted that one of the opposition leaders winning the September 2024 presidential election adds uncertainty to the country’s policy direction.

According to Fitch, the change in leadership could lead to a delay in the completion of the foreign currency debt restructuring and renegotiation of the IMF programme. 
The upcoming 2025 budget, to be adopted by November 2024, could offer clarity on the new government’s policies, it said.
The rating agency yesterday affirmed Sri Lanka’s Long-Term Foreign Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘RD’ (Restricted Default) and Long-Term Local Currency IDR at ‘CCC-’.
The Long-Term Foreign Currency IDR has been on ‘RD’ since May 2022, once the grace period expired.
The sovereign remains in default on its foreign currency obligations, while restructuring negotiations are ongoing with Sri Lanka’s private external creditors. 
The authorities’ recent announcement that a preliminary debt restructuring agreement has been reached, in principle, with the members of the steering committee of the Ad Hoc Group of Bondholders (representing foreign holders of Sri Lanka’s international sovereign bonds) and China Development Bank (A+/Negative) suggests progress is being made,” the rating agency said in its latest commentary.
The agreement comes after the April 12, 2022 announcement suspending debt servicing on several categories of external debt, including bonds issued in international capital markets, foreign currency-denominated loans and credit facilities with commercial banks and institutional lenders. 
Sri Lanka completed the local currency portion of its domestic debt optimisation in September 2023. This followed the exchange of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka’s Treasury bills and provisional advance into new Treasury bonds and bills. 
This led us to upgrade the Local Currency IDR to ‘CCC-’. The rating is being affirmed at this level,” Fitch said.
Earlier this week, global rating agency Moody’s said it does not expect any significant shifts in Sri Lanka’s reform trajectory or policies, although some reprioritisation is likely. 
Crucially, former president Ranil Wickremesinghe had pushed through an economic transformation act in Parliament in May. The act – in the absence of a new act or changes approved by Parliament – will oblige future governments to the current set of economic and fiscal reforms, including adhering to fiscal and debt targets set under the IMF programme,” it said.
Moody’s acknowledged that the act also requires any government to present to Parliament the steps and measures being taken to achieve specific targets stipulated in the act by March 31 each year, to maintain the reform momentum.
The commentary highlighted that the new president has not opposed Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring deals and has said any changes to policy and reform measures would be in consultation with the IMF. However, he has opposed the privatisation of state-owned enterprises in important sectors.
As any negotiation of potentially revised targets or changes in specific measures will take time, there could be delays in disbursements or finalisation of external debt restructuring with private sector creditors,” the agency said.
It went on to note that the possibility of early parliamentary elections could also add to the delay.
We expect some period of political uncertainty until a new Parliament is formed,” Moody’s said.
Meanwhile, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, in a letter to President Dissanayake congratulating his win, gave assurance that the IMF remains a steadfast partner and stands ready to assist Sri Lanka to achieve its development and reform goals, including under the ongoing IMF-supported programme.
She stated that the IMF looks forward to working together with the new Sri Lankan president and his team towards building on the hard-won gains that have helped put Sri Lanka on a path to recovery” since entering one of its worst economic crises.

Courtesy Adaderana

A discussion has taken place between President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe.

The Department of Government Information reported that the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, Mahinda Siriwardene, also participated in the discussion.

The current economic situation of the country was discussed at length during the meeting, which was held last evening (24) at the Presidential Secretariat, the statement said.

The Department of Government Information also stated that measures to stabilize the economy and several issues affecting the country’s economy were discussed.

Courtesy Adaderana

Fitch Ratings has affirmed Sri Lanka’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘RD’ (Restricted Default) and Long-Term Local-Currency IDR at ‘CCC-’. 

Fitch typically does not assign Outlooks to issuers with a rating of ‘CCC+’ or below.

The rating agency said sovereign remains in default on Sri Lanka’s foreign-currency obligations, while restructuring negotiations are ongoing with Sri Lanka’s private external creditors. 

The authorities’ recent announcement that a preliminary debt restructuring agreement has been reached, in principle, with members of the steering committee of the Ad Hoc Group of Bondholders (representing foreign holders of Sri Lanka’s international sovereign bonds) and China Development Bank (A+/Negative) suggests progress is being made.”

The agreement comes after the 12 April 2022 announcement suspending debt servicing on several categories of external debt, including bonds issued in international capital markets, foreign currency-denominated loans and credit facilities with commercial banks and institutional lenders. 

Sri Lanka’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency IDR has been on ‘RD’ since May 2022, once the grace period expired.

Fitch said it believes the result of Sri Lanka’s 2024 Presidential election add uncertainty to the country’s policy direction and could lead to a delay in the completion of the foreign-currency debt restructuring or renegotiation of the IMF programme.”

The upcoming 2025 budget, to be adopted by November 2024, could offer clarity on the new government’s policies, the statement said.

The statement by Fitch Ratings further stated:

Policy Uncertainty Following Elections: Sri Lanka’s September 2024 Presidential election was won by one of the opposition leaders. Fitch believes the result add uncertainty to the country’s policy direction and could lead to a delay in the completion of the foreign-currency debt restructuring or renegotiation of the IMF programme. The upcoming 2025 budget, to be adopted by November 2024, could offer clarity on the new government’s policies.

Local-Currency Debt Exchange Complete: Sri Lanka completed the local-currency portion of its domestic debt optimisation in September 2023. This followed the exchange of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka’s treasury bills and provisional advance into new treasury bonds and bills. This led us to upgrade the Local-Currency IDR to ‘CCC-’. The rating is being affirmed at this level.

Government Debt to Stay High: The IMF forecasts Sri Lanka’s gross general government debt/GDP ratio to decline only gradually to about 103% of GDP by 2028, from about 116% in 2022. This forecast incorporates a local- and foreign-currency debt restructuring scenario. However, this level of debt would still be elevated, even after the restructuring.

External Metrics Improving: Foreign-currency (FX) reserves have been improving, with gross FX reserves reaching around USD6.0 billion in August 2024, against USD4.4 billion at end-2023, partly due to the suspension of external debt service. Other supporting factors include an uptick in tourism and overseas worker remittances. The current account was in a surplus in 2023 and we expect a surplus in 2024. The sovereign, however, remains dependent on official financing sources without access to international capital markets.

Stronger Revenue Generation: Weak IMF program implementation, in particular of fiscal measures, remains a risk to achieving debt sustainability. Sri Lanka has a weak longer-term revenue raising record, but the authorities have implemented several major tax measures since May 2022 to boost revenue collection and achieve debt sustainability. These included raising the corporate income tax rate, hikes to the value-added tax rate and raising fuel excise taxes. This saw revenue collection improve by 42% yoy in 1H24.

Additional fiscal measures in the pipeline include an increase in the corporate income tax to 45%, from 40%, for certain types of economic activity, an additional value-added tax rate on the supply of digital services, further tax administration reforms as well as limiting tax exemptions and making them more transparent.

Economy on a Recovering Trend: We expect economic growth to recover to 3.9% in 2024 and average at 3.6% over 2025-2026. Real GDP growth, in seasonally adjusted terms, recovered to about 5.0% yoy in 1H24 after contracting by 7.0% during 1H23, driven by a pick-up in industrial growth to 11.3% after a contraction of about 18.0% in 1H23. Services also recovered by about 2.7% during the same period after a contraction in 1H23.

Inflation in Check: We expect further easing of monetary policy over 2024-2026, after the Central Bank of Sri Lanka reduced the standing deposit facility rate by a cumulative 725bp since June 2023, as underlying inflationary pressure remains muted. Inflation was about 0.6% in August 2024, in seasonally adjusted terms, and has been in the single digits for over a year. A surge in inflation, peaking in September 2022 at around 67%, was successfully curtailed by the central bank.

Banking Sector Stabilising: The banking sector’s non-performing loans remain high, partly owing to the economic stress associated with the sovereign default. However, the domestic bank operating environment continues to show signs of stabilisation, in line with improved economic indicators. This supports the recovery in banks’ operational flexibility. The completion of the local-currency portion of Sri Lanka’s domestic debt optimisation was a major step towards reducing the impact of the sovereign’s debt restructuring on the banking sector.

ESG – Governance: Sri Lanka has an ESG Relevance Score of ‘5’ for Political Stability and Rights as well as for the Rule of Law, Institutional and Regulatory Quality and Control of Corruption. These scores reflect the high weight that the World Bank Governance Indicators (WBGI) have in our proprietary Sovereign Rating Model (SRM). Sri Lanka has a medium WBGI ranking in the 36th percentile, reflecting a recent record of peaceful political transitions, a moderate level of rights for participation in the political process, moderate institutional capacity, established rule of law and a moderate level of corruption.

ESG – Creditor Rights: Sri Lanka has an ESG Relevance Score of ‘5’ for Creditor Rights, as willingness to service and repay debt is highly relevant to the rating and is a key rating driver with a high weight. The affirmation of Sri Lanka’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency IDR at ‘RD’ reflects a default event.”

Courtesy Adaderana

The Election Commission of Sri Lanka has issued a statement mentioning the number of Members of Parliament (MPs) to be elected from each electoral district and the number of candidates in a nomination paper in the 2024 General Election. 

The highest number of MPs will be elected from the Gampaha District with a total of 19 members to be elected.

In a statement issued in relation to the 2024 parliamentary elections, the Election Commission has also announced information regarding the deposits required to be placed by independent groups and the number of candidates to be nominated by political parties or independent groups for each district.

It also includes information about the number of members to be elected for the respective electoral district, the number of candidates to be nominated by a nomination paper and the security deposit to be deposited by an independent group.

General Election 2024 – Election Commission Statement by Adaderana Online on

Courtesy Adaderana

Pledges by Sri Lanka’s new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to cut taxes and make changes to the country’s International Monetary Fund bailout could keep the country’s credit risks elevated for some time, rating agency Moody’s has said.

We do not expect significant disruption to the country’s reform agenda or macroeconomic policies, which include the ongoing debt restructuring and structural adjustments under its programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF),” Moody’s said,

However, some policies are likely to be reprioritised amid challenges in maintaining fiscal consolidation that could keep credit risks elevated for some time.”

Since its default in 2022, Sri Lanka has implemented various steps to restore fiscal sustainability, such as raising VAT and corporate tax rates and lowering personal tax-free allowances.

Moody’s, which rates Sri Lanka just above default at Ca, said the measures helped lift government revenues to just over 11% of GDP in 2023 from 8.3% in 2021 and narrowed its fiscal deficit to 8.3% of GDP from 11.7%.

That is still an gaping deficit and debt affordability is expected to remain weak” too with its interest payments alone likely to soak up 40%-50% of revenues over the next two to three years.

That is still among the weakest across sovereigns we rate, albeit an improvement from more than 70% in 2021”, Moody’s said.

Source: Reuters

–Agencies

Courtesy Adaderana

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake says that his government firmly believes that Sri Lanka’s economy needs to be stabilized before making structural changes to all sectors.

Before implementing long-term and medium-term plans for that purpose, we will work to create a short-term stability through the immediate economic measures that are required,” he said, delivering his inaugural address to the nation on Wednesday (25). 

President Dissanayake says all steps needed for the expected change depend on building stability and trust in the economy. Therefore, discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will resume soon and the process of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) will be advanced, he said.

The change we seek involves many steps that will take time. However, achieving stability and confidence in the current economy is crucial.” 

We plan to begin negotiations with the International Monetary Fund immediately and proceed with activities related to the extended credit facility,” Dissanayake said. 

He further said that the debt restructuring process will continue, and steps will be taken to bring about debt relief as soon as possible through discussions with relevant parties.

Additionally, to advance our debt restructuring program, we are negotiating with relevant creditors to expedite the process and secure necessary debt relief.” 

We are confident that we can gain the support of both the people of this country and the international community, and we believe that through this collective support, we can achieve success.”

He stated that they have already taken significant steps to appoint efficient and honest officials to oversee these initiatives. We are advancing steadily toward the desired changes, ensuring that public service remains intact and citizens are not adversely affected.”

The President said their goal is to improve the standard of living for the people of this country. We are implementing practical programs to alleviate the heavy burdens faced by our citizens.

Read the full speech below…

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s inaugural address to the nation

Esteemed Maha Sangha and Religious Leaders, Parents, Brothers, Sisters and Children;

I extend my heartfelt gratitude to all the people of this country who have listened to our voices over the decades and breathed life into the programs we proposed.

We believe that the victory you have given us will be even more strengthened if it brings joy to those who may not have agreed with our vision. Therefore, I want to dedicate this victory to all citizens of our nation.

We honour and remember the courageous men and women of previous generations who made sacrifices, some with their lives, for this victory. I see this victory and the prosperous nation we aim to build as a tribute to their legacy.

We believe that all people, including those who trusted us despite slander, falsehoods, and misinformation, and elected our political movement with great determination have the strength to shoulder the responsibility of building this nation together.

We are capable of fulfilling this role as a united team, and we have a talented team dedicated to this mission. Our determination is unwavering.

The change we seek involves many steps that will take time. However, achieving stability and confidence in the current economy is crucial. We plan to begin negotiations with the International Monetary Fund immediately and proceed with activities related to the extended credit facility. Additionally, to advance our debt restructuring program, we are negotiating with relevant creditors to expedite the process and secure necessary debt relief. We are confident that we can gain the support of both the people of this country and the international community, and we believe that through this collective support, we can achieve success.

A key concept that resonates with the public is our commitment to making a difference.” One of the primary changes citizens expect is to eliminate the negative traits in our political culture. Our track record thus far supports this commitment. Notably, we succeeded in making the presidential election the only one in Sri Lanka without reports of post-election violence, which reflects the trust the people have placed in us. Our aim is to confirm and stabilize this positive situation.

At this moment, I want to highlight the importance of engaging in politics with a collective focus on building our country. We are committed to providing that leadership.

Regardless of whether one identifies as Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, Burgher, or Malay, our nation will not thrive until we create a practical environment where everyone can proudly say, We are Sri Lankan citizens.” We will not hesitate to implement the necessary constitutional, economic, and political reforms.

We are launching a permanent program to build a unified Sri Lankan nation that respects diversity, fully ending the era of division based on race, religion, class, and caste.

We have already taken significant steps to appoint efficient and honest officials to oversee these initiatives. We are advancing steadily toward the desired changes, ensuring that public service remains intact and citizens are not adversely affected.

We are committed to creating a law-abiding nation and fostering a disciplined society while ensuring the social security of all citizens. This revives the principle that everyone is equal before the law.

We believe that public service plays a crucial role in nation-building. To that end, we will establish a public service that instills pride in the community and aligns with the government’s goals. Our commitment is to create an efficient, honest, and people-focused public service.

Our goal is to improve the standard of living for the people of this country. We are implementing practical programs to alleviate the heavy burdens faced by our citizens.

No parent in this country should have to worry about their child’s future. Every parent deserves the right to provide their child with access to quality schools and education. We are fully committed to securing the future of the next generation by ensuring excellent education for all children. By fostering knowledge, attitudes, and skills, we are building a promising future for the young generation of our country.

When we visit a country, the airport often offers a first impression, reflecting its order, the behaviour of its people, their work ethic, and cultural practices. 

It also reveals the country’s cleanliness, how vehicles are driven, how the elderly are treated, the hospitality shown, and even how animals are cared for. We have developed clear plans to enhance Sri Lanka’s image in these areas, with short-term, medium-term, and long-term initiatives already underway.

Our goal is to create a nation where the world respects our passport, and where every citizen can proudly say, I am a Sri Lankan.” We aim to build a country where citizenship is a source of pride for all. Achieving this vision will require the collective effort of every citizen.

We are committed to creating a system that upholds social justice for all, and we will do so with the highest sense of responsibility.

We are building a secure future for our children and youth through a program that promotes knowledge, skills, education, and entrepreneurship.

The women in our community, who make up over 52% of our population, play a vital role in both the economy and the social fabric of our country. We are actively working to enhance women’s representation across all institutions. As a testament to our commitment, we have already appointed a woman as Prime Minister.

A significant portion of our population consists of individuals with disabilities who require special social protection. To support this group, we have proposed a robust social safety net and are implementing short-term measures to address their needs.

We ensure that no group within our society is overlooked on our journey forward. By respecting each other’s identities and harnessing them positively for the country’s progress, we make our collective contribution.

We hold a strong belief in the sovereignty of the people and are committed to safeguarding their democratic rights.

I understand that some may feel uncertain due to doubts about us, but I am determined to earn your trust through my actions. I welcome your constructive criticism and encourage you to join us in building the future together. If we can set aside our differences, I believe you will see that we share the same goals. Together, we can confront the challenges facing our country and develop the necessary strategies to move forward. Our doors are open to all who are genuinely and positively committed to the progress of our nation.

We require a Parliament that accurately reflects the will of the people. The existing Parliament does not represent that will. Therefore, I took the step yesterday to dissolve it. A cabinet was appointed in line with our parliamentary representation to guide the country in accordance with the constitution.
There is one dream our people see every new day the sun rises.

That is tomorrow will be better than today!”

However, You and I both learn for many years, this has remained merely a dream.

Opportunism, the greed of power, and authoritarianism has hindered our country’s progress.

But now we have our final opportunity which cannot be missed. Let us unite to create a thriving and beautiful country that embraces diversity.”

•  President Anura Kumara’s inaugural address to the nation