Divaina Editorial
අද වනවිට තීරණාත්මක සන්ධි ස්‌ථානයකට රට පැමිණ තිබේ. එක පැත්තකින් තීරණාත්මක මැතිවරණයකි. අනෙක්‌ පැත්තෙන් ජාත්‍යන්තර බලපෑම්ය. ඒ සියල්ල අතරේ උතුරු පළාත හා නැගෙනහිර පළාත ඒකාබද්ධ කිරීම් ගැන විවිධ මත පළවෙමින් තිබේ. තවත් පිරිස්‌ ෆෙඩරල් – ස්‌වයංපාලන අයිතිය – ඉඩම් බලතල – පොලිස්‌ බලතල ආදිය ගැන විවිධ මතවාද පළ කරමින් සිටිනු දක්‌නට ලැබේ.
වෙනම රටක්‌ යුද්ධයෙන් දිනාගත නොහැකිවූ පිරිස්‌ අද වෙනත් මුහුණුවරකින් ජාත්‍යන්තරයද සම්බන්ධ කර ගනිමින් තම සටන ආරම්භ කර තිබේ. එක්‌සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සංවිධානයේ නිර්ණායකවලට අනුව එක්‌ රටක්‌ තවත් රටකින් වෙන්කර හඳුනා ගැනීම සඳහා අවශ්‍ය ප්‍රධානතම කොන්දේසිය වන්නේ නිශ්චිත භූමියක්‌ පැවතීමයි. එම භූමියේ නිශ්චිත ජනතාවක්‌ ජීවත්වීම, ආර්ථිකයක්‌ පැවතීම, ස්‌වාධිපත්‍යය පැවතීම යන කරුණු කාරණා එක්‌වූවිට එම රට අනෙකුත් රටවලින් අනන්‍ය වූ රටක්‌ ලෙස හඳුනාගත හැක. උතුරු හා නැගෙනහිර පළාත් දෙක වෙන වෙනම පවතින විට මේ කරුණු සම්පූර්ණ නොවුණද එම පළාත් ඒකාබද්ධ කළවිට වෙනම රටක්‌ ලෙස සැලකීමට අවශ්‍ය කරුණු සම්පූර්ණ වේ. මේ නිසා උතුරු නැගෙනහිර නැවත වරක්‌ ඒකාබද්ධ කිරීම යනු බරපතල කාරණයක්‌ බව රටේ ජනතාව හොඳින් මතකයේ තබාගත යුතුව තිබේ.
ජාතික ගැටලුවට විසඳුමක්‌ සෙවීමට නම් උතුර සහ නැගෙනහිර ඒකාබද්ධ කළ යුතු බව දෙමළ සන්ධානයේ ඉල්ලීම වී තිබේ. මේ බව ඔවුන් විසින් ඉන්දියානු අගමැති නරේන්ද්‍ර මෝඩි වෙතද පවසා තිබුණි. දෙමළ ජාතික සන්ධානය පමණක්‌ නොව ත්‍රස්‌තවාදයට හිතවත් කණ්‌ඩායම් රැසක්‌ම එම ඉල්ලීම කර තිබේ.

1987 දී ඉන්දු – ලංකා ගිවිසුම අත්සන් කිරීමෙන් පසු උතුර හා නැගෙනහිර එක්‌ පළාතක්‌ බවට පත්කරන ලදී. ත්‍රස්‌තවාදයෙන් මේ දෙපළාත ගලවා ගන්නා ලද්දේ යුද ජයග්‍රහණයෙන් පසුය. අනතුරුව අධිකරණයට ගොස්‌ නඩු කියා උතුර සහ නැගෙනහිර නැවත වතාවක්‌ පළාත් දෙකක්‌ බවට පත්කරගන්නා ලදී. ඉදිරියේදී නව ව්‍යවස්‌ථාවක්‌ ගෙන එන බවට විවිධ පාර්ශව මේ වනවිටත් ප්‍රකාශ කර තිබේ. එම නව ව්‍යවස්‌ථාවේ අඩංගු කරුණු කාරණා මොනවා දැයි එම පිරිස්‌ විසින් තවමත් රට හමුවේ ප්‍රකාශ කර නැත. මෙය බරපතල කාරණයකි. එම නිසා ප්‍රධාන පක්‌ෂ විසින් තමන් ගෙන ඒමට අපේක්‌ෂා කරන නව ව්‍යවස්‌ථාවේ අඩංගු කරුණු පිළිබඳව රට හමුවේ පැහැදිලි ප්‍රකාශයක්‌ කළ යුතුය. එසේ නොමැති වුවහොත් සිදුවන්නේ කවර හෝ වෙනයම් දේ කියා බලය ලබාගෙන විවිධ පාර්ශව වලට අවශ්‍ය පරීéණ, ව්‍යවස්‌ථාවන් ගෙන ඒමය. එවිට ජනතාව ඡන්දය දී අවසන් බැවින් ජනතාවට කළ හැකි දෙයක්‌ ද නොමැත.

පෙඩරල් ගුණාංග ලක්‌ෂණ සහිත ව්‍යවස්‌ථාවන් ගැන පසුගිය දිනවල ආණ්‌ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්‌ථා නිර්මාණය සඳහා මූලිකත්වය ගත් ආචාර්ය ජයම්පති වික්‍රමරත්න මහතා සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට පත්ව සිටින නව ඇමරිකානු තානාපති අතුල් කෙෂප්ගේ පසුගිය කාලයේ ප්‍රකාශවලින් ඉඟි පළවී තිබේ. ඉන්දීය අගමැති නරේන්ද්‍ර මෝදි පවා ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් විවිධ දේ පවසා තිබේ. නව ඇමරිකානු තානාපති අතුල් කෙෂොප් ඉන්දීය සම්භවයක්‌ සහිත ඇමරිකානු ජාතිකයෙක්‌ වන අතර ඇමරිකානු රාජ්‍ය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ ඉහළ නිලධාරියෙකි. ඔහු 2014 වසරේදී ඇමරිකානු රජයේ නියෝජිතයකු ලෙස මෙරටට පැමිණි මොහොතේ මෙරට පුවත්පත් සමඟ සම්මුඛ සාකච්ඡාවකදී ලංකාව ගැන සඳහන් කරමින් ඔහු ”පෙඩරල් ව්‍යවස්‌ථාව”යන යෙදුම පවා කීප වරක්‌ භාවිත කර තිබුණි. ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ජනවාර්ගික ගැටලුවට පෙඩරල් විසඳුමක්‌ අවශ්‍ය බවත් ඒ සඳහා සහය දීම ඇමරිකා එක්‌සත් ජනපදයේ අභිලාෂය බවත් එදා පැවසූ පුද්ගලයා අද ලංකාවේ ඇමරිකානු තානාපති ලෙස පත්වී සිටී. මේ කිසිවක්‌ අහඹු සිදුවීම් නොවන බව අපගේ අදහසය.

ඉන්දීය අගමැති නරේන්ද්‍ර මෝදි මහතා ලංකාවට පැමිණ මෙරට පාර්ලිමේන්තුව අමතමින් පවසා සිටියේද ශ්‍රී ලංකාව 13 වැනි සංශෝධනයෙන් ඔබ්බට යායුතු බවය. 

විසිපස්‌ වසරකට පෙර එනම් 1990 මාර්තු 1 දා උතුරු නැගෙනහිර පළාත් සභාවේ මහ ඇමැතිවූ අන්නාමලෙයි වර්ධරාජා පෙරුමාල් ස්‌වාධීන ස්‌වෛරි ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී ඊලම් ජනරජය යෑයි කියමින් ත්‍රිකුණාමලයේ සිට ඊලම් රාජ්‍යයක්‌ ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කළේය. 

අනතුරුව ඔහු එවකට පැවැති රජයට ඉල්ලීම් 19 ක්‌ යොමු කර එකී ඉල්ලීම් වහාම ඉටු කළ යුතු බව පළ කළේය. ඊ. පී. ආර්. එල්. එෆ්. නමැති සංවිධානය බිහිකිරීමේ පුරෝගාමියකු වූ වර්ධරාජා පෙරුමාල් ගේ සියලු ක්‍රියාදාමයන් පසුබිමේ සිටියේ ඉන්දීය ‘රෝ’ ඔත්තු සේවාවයි.

අදත් මේ සියලු කාරණා අතරේ ඉන්දීය රෝ ඔත්තු සේවා මෙරට මෙහෙයුම් ක්‍රියාත්මක කර ඇති බව රහසක්‌ නොවේ. වගකිවයුතු පාර්ශව සියල්ල මේ අවස්‌ථාවේ විමසිලිමත්ව කට යුතු කළ යුත්තේ කවුරුන් බලයට පත්වුවත් අපට රටක්‌ ඉතිරි විය යුතු නිසාය.

Chanaka Bandarage

It is estimated that closer to 200 elephants are being killed by humans in Sri Lanka each year. About the same number of elephants die from natural causes. At present the elephant birth rate is lower than the mortality rate, thus, it will be of no surprise if future generations are asked to identify an elephant from a carved wooden statue.

A census conducted by the Sri Lankan government few years ago (about six) recorded that there were about 5,000 wild elephants in Sri Lanka, but elephant conservationists who have grassroots level presence in Sri Lanka say that this is a vastly exaggerated number. It is stated that during the census the same elephant was sometimes recorded more than once, and that it did not happen accidently.

The advantage to the governments (central and provincial) by showing a higher elephant number is that it will then be subjected to less public critique about its treatment of the elephants. Though governments do not like to admit it, in Sri Lanka, the elephant is a threatened species. One reason for this is that they basically do not have solutions for the fast deteriorating elephant numbers (there are numerous other threatened wildlife species in the country including the bear, leopard, sāmbhar, crocodile and deer; to name just a few).

According to wildlife activists, the real number of elephants in the wild today is only a few thousands, definitely not in the 5000s that is boasted by the governments.

The elephant, especially the Sri Lanka elephant, is a unique species. They are exceptionally intelligent, generally friendly and kind to humans and playful when happy. It is believed that a mature elephant has an IQ of a five year old child. Similar to that of a human, an elephant is known to have a sharp memory. Elephants are extremely emotional; it is known that when a member of a clan dies, elephants engage in communal mourning for several days. A heartwarming thing is that when an elephant calf is born all young females in the clan start producing breast milk for the new offspring, out of love – a remarkable quality that even we humans cannot match!

In Sri Lanka elephants are getting killed indiscriminately on a regular basis. It is an exceptionally sad thing to view photos/videos of elephants that lie in pain for several days before they finally die. Being huge beasts, the sufferings that the elephants undergo as a result of the human-elephant conflict is enormous.

Elephants get shot dead by rural villagers, who fight for the same land that the elephants thrive. Some elephants are killed from ‘hakka patas’ (a ‘bomb’ like object). In Sri Lanka elephants also sustain death by human poisoning, or drowning in irrigation tanks (a phenomenon that has emerged recently). Every year elephants get killed by the Batticaloe – Colombo night train. Responsibility for these deaths squarely lay with the relevant governments – their inability to avoid such tragedies is a clear demonstration that the governments lack clear policy to safeguard this most precious, majestic animal.

Due to lack of habitation and scarcity of food, more and more elephants are compelled to leave jungles and venture into human habitation. There is no purpose in ‘blaming’ the elephants for this, though this is the position adopted by some. Newspaper photos/videos have appeared how elephants converge around human garbage piles, competing with stray cattle and dogs, to eat rubbish. For example, in Manampitiya wild elephants gather most days around a huge garbage dump to eat thrown away items from a nearby big hospital. That garbage includes used blood soaked bandages, used syringes and volumes of polythene. Many road users travelling in remote areas of the country get to see wild elephants roaming on busy national highways, most probably searching for food and water. This is also a new development, a sad eye opener that Sri Lanka’s elephants are in real trouble.

A veterinary surgeon friend of the writer stated to him that often in wild elephant post mortem examinations, they find polythene in the dead elephants’ intestines.

A new reason for the scarcity of food for the elephants is the ‘brave’ decision by milk producers (with the blessing of the politicians) to raise cattle inside national parks. These cattle eat the very same grass that the wild elephants eat.  This scenario can be seen by a visitor in certain sections of the Uda Walawe and Yala national parks.  Some of the grasses that the cattle in the wildlife parks eat are imperative for the survival of the baby elephants.

The recent phenomenon of stealing elephant calves (about 50 or more) from the wild (after killing the adult elephants that guard the offspring) has compounded the problem. This means there will be a void in healthy wild elephants to produce the future generations. The impact of this will be felt once the current fertile elephants are faded away. The fact that there had been political patronage for this illegal trade is a personification that the governments are not serious in preserving wild elephants. Making a quick income in whatever way they can, including stealing baby elephants from the wild, has become the norm of the day! Was this practice applied to other important wildlife species as well? Only the perpetrators would know.

One elephant conservationist stated this writer that there is hardly a single adult elephant in the wild that is not carrying a gunshot wound. This is something we as a nation should be ashamed of.

The human – elephant conflict took an adversely sharp turn with the advent of the accelerated Mahaveli scheme. Hundreds and thousands of virgin forests were cleared for new settlers (note Mahaveli B and H projects – Embilipiya/Uda Walave and Mahiyangana/Giranduru Kotte areas where virgin forests were cleared and thousands of new settlers were settled). The authorities in those projects did not allocate sufficient land for the elephants who lost large swathes of habitation. They built new reserves and tried to confine elephants to them. They were reckless in blocking ancient elephant corridors –routes that the elephants had used to cross from one area to another from time immemorial. It was ridiculous to expect the elephants to accustom to a brand new route made for them by the humans. The authorities should have considered that an elephant walks at least 50 – 60 miles a day, and they constantly venture into new areas for the purposes of finding water, salt, partners for mating, exercise and of course food.

The writer acknowledges that the governments have a duty to provide land for the increasing human population and also to do things to improve their living standards. But, these activities should not happen at the expense of the wild elephant. All development work has to be sustainable – so that all beings can live harmoniously in the small and beautiful Sri Lanka.

The authorities seem to believe that building electric fences will solve the human-elephant problem, and that this is the only solution available. This may be a good solution for the humans but not for the elephant. Electric fencing is another way of artificially restricting the elephants’ movements. Electric shocks have caused miscarriages in female elephants. Elephants have developed other ailments too, including psychological trauma.  Electric fencing is a way for the humans to further encroach into elephant areas.

Elephants (and other wildlife) need sufficient land to roam around in their own habitats. When Sri Lanka gained independence (in 1948) it had about 50% of land under forest cover. How much land remains as forest cover today is a big question; some say it is less than 20% of the total land mass. In such a scenario, it is not surprising that elephant numbers have dwindled to such a low level today.  When we gained independence there were in excess of  10,000 elephants in the country.

As emphasised before, due to expansion in human population, people do need new land. People clear forests to build houses and cut timber for their daily needs. It is the duty of the governments to do proper planning so that sufficient forest cover is preserved for the elephants and other wildlife.  Replanting trees for timber in forests is a must. It is stated that when the new airport was built thousands of acres of virgin forests were cleared – they were the former roaming grounds of the wild elephants. We hear reports frequently how important wildlife such as elephants, peacocks, monkeys etc are getting killed on a daily basis by various ways in this area, as those animals now have less space to roam. Elephants have died of electrocution as well.

Construction of new super highways may have contributed to the dwindling of wildlife numbers including elephants.  To the writer’s knowledge no study in this regard has yet been undertaken.

Clearly, the governments do not seem to have a solution to one of the major burning problems of Sri Lanka – stopping the human/elephant conflict; so that the lives of both humans and elephants can be saved (this article is only highlighting the adverse effects of the problem on elephants – the voiceless group).

The current problem simply cannot continue on. Elephants will continue to incur painful deaths until their numbers have dwindled irrecoverably.  Until they become extinct (quite a possibility), they, in smaller numbers may be confined to the major elephant parks such as Yala, Wilpattu, Minneriya and Uda Walawe; and the remaining jungles of the North (In China’s Yuan rainforest the elephant numbers have dwindled to a mere 250, several decades ago there were thousands of elephants there). Is this exactly the desire of the governments; if not why do they not come up with a feasible policy to curb this most important problem?

Due to the introduction of the provincial government system (in 1987), work done by governments have often become duplicated. Governments are confused as to who is responsible for certain work. There is a conflict in the powers held by the central government and provincial governments. To satisfy cronies – to give them cabinet positions, important ministries had been split into pieces. For example, today the elephant protection activities (wildlife) are managed by a number of ministries such as Land, Mahaveli, Environment, Wildlife Conservation, Forestry, Irrigation, Human Resettlement, Livestock Development etc. It does not appear that there is a close co-ordination between the ministries so that the elephants and other wildlife could be well protected. There are greater restrictions/impediments on the officials who do their normal work, under very trying conditions. For example, a wildlife department official who seeks to rescue an injured elephant may need permission from the forestry department to enter the forest. By the time the administrative red tape is removed, the injured elephant could die. Another big problem is that the government departments (central or provincial) do not have adequate budgets for the welfare and wellbeing of the elephants (they are even struggling to provide services to the public).

There is a saying that the elephants do not vote, but humans. Thus, it is very convenient for the politicians to neglect the welfare of the elephants (and other wild animals). This is a foolish and selfish way of looking at the problem, quite a contrast with how developed nations would handle a similar problem. Sri Lanka earns millions of dollars each year from tourism. Tourists want to see elephants and other wildlife in the wild; not in zoos and orphanages. If we lose our wild elephant population (and other wildlife), that will be a huge blow to the country’s lucrative tourist industry. The loss of revenue to the country will be extraordinary (in millions of dollars).

There is an enormous goodwill in the veterinary community to save the lives of the injured elephants. Though rural villagers kill and maim elephants (sometimes they have no other alternative but to deal with elephants in such a drastic way – elephants kill about 100 people every year), they still want to protect and safeguard the elephants that destroy their homes, crops and even their lives. It is part of the Buddhist culture to be a friend and a carer for the elephant.

The general goodwill that prevails among the people for the elephant is a good thing. But, the focus should be on preventing the elephants from getting injured or killed by humans. The responsibility herein well and truly lies with governments and sadly they have massively failed in this regard. Proper measures of planning must take place at central and provincial government levels to safeguard the wild elephant. It is of paramount importance to put a stop to the clear or illicit felling of forests. It may be appropriate to monitor the daily movement of wild elephants (the highly endangered ones) using GPS technology –such as being done in some African countries like Kenya and South Africa. There are international wildlife organisations that provide assistance in this sort of work. It is time for the central government to seek assistance from overseas experts as how best  to save the wild elephant, using the best available technology (satellite tracking (GPS), radio collaring (SIM chips) etc. Let’s hope that at least in the future there will be sufficient measures to protect the elephant numbers in Sri Lanka. Let’s hope that the country’s future generations will not be required identify an elephant relying on a carved, wooden elephant; but watching them in the wild.

By A. Abdul Aziz.

 (Given below is an excerpt of the Friday Sermon delivered by Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Supreme Head of the world-wide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Islam, on 10^th July, 2015, at ‘BaithulFuthuh’, London, U.K. gave a discourse on Allah’s Mercy, Forgiveness and Rewarding.)

Ahmadiyya Supreme Head said:

With the grace of Allah today we are going through the twenty second day of fasting and are in the third ashra (ten days) of Ramadan. According to a saying of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be on him) we have passed Ramadan’s ten days of God’s mercy and then ten days of God’s forgiveness and are now going through ten days of salvation from the fire of Hell. It is God’s favour on us that He has granted us the opportunity to experience this. However, a true believer has firm belief in God, tries to abide by righteousness and is filled with fear of God and is not merely joyous that the last ten days of Ramadan will be a source of his salvation. No doubt, these days of Ramadan are a source of mercy, forgiveness and salvation from the fire of Hell, but have we truly availed their beneficence? Their beneficence cannot be garnered without abiding by the commandments of God and His Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be on him). Indeed beneficence of these days has its requisites which we need to look out for in order to please God and attain His grace.

Commentators opine that God’s mercy is of two kinds. One that He dispenses as a favour and for which man does not have to make any attempt as it is stated: ‘…My mercy encompasses all things…’ (7:157)Mankind in general avails of this mercy. Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad – The Promised Messiah (on whom be peace) explained: ‘This verse indicates that God’s mercy is general and extensive whereas chastisement owing to Divine attribute of justice comes into operation after specific action is taken by man. That is, this attribute comes into play once Divine law is violated. This necessitates that there is Divine law and sin is committed by contravening it. It is then that this attribute comes into play and fulfils its requisite.’ (Tafseer Hazrat Masih e Maud, Vol. II, p. 566)

Indeed, God is Gracious but when man violates His law and is guilty of chastisement God’s attribute of justice comes into play. Generally God’s mercy encompasses everything but in places violation of Divine law requires punishment, yet God can have mercy and forgive. Such a situation is not becoming for a Muslim. A true believer has special status and his belief demands to keep his spiritual state in check and abide by God’s commandments to the best of his abilities. However, if owing to human frailties he happens to commit sin, God’s mercy covers him. Such a situation would be different to the one explained in an earlier sermon where one is brazen in committing sin on the pretext that God’s mercy is very extensive. This is tantamount to challenging God’s wrath.

The Promised Messiah (on whom be peace) said: ‘There is no promise in warning. It is only this that owing to His Holiness Allah the Exalted wills to punish the guilty person. Owing to this, at times He also informs those to whom He sends revelations/His Prophets about the matter. Yet, when the guilty person pays his dues by repenting and seeking God’s forgiveness through humble and meek entreaties, Divine mercy supersedes the requisite for chastisement and hides and conceals chastisement within itself. This is what is meant by the verse: ‘…I will inflict My punishment on whom I will; but my mercy encompasses all things…’. That is, mercy surpasses chastisement. If this principle is not accepted, all religious laws are negated.’ (Tafseer Hazrat Masih e Maud, Vol. II, p. 566)

Indeed, God saves and forgives the guilty owing to their repentance even those guilty for whom chastisement has been decreed can be forgiveness due to their humble entreaties. This is not a place a true believer should be at, that is, violate Divine law and then make entreaties and look for Divine mercy. The second kind of mercy is related to true believers, mercy which is conditional to good deeds as stated: ‘…Surely, the mercy of Allah is nigh unto those who do good.’(7:57). [The Arabic word used here for those who do good is mohsin] Mohsin محسن is one who is good to others, who abides by righteousness, has knowledge and fulfils God’s work with all its requisites. God’s mercy is for those who do not commit sin deliberately, who always call unto God and remember Him and fear committing sin. If they unknowingly commit some sin they call onto God with righteousness in heart and this is what attracts God’s mercy and their prayers are accepted. It is indeed God’s special grace that He accepts our prayers. God’s mercy is with the mohsin who spends a righteous life and who is good to others and fulfils their rights. Man does not come in the category of being a mohsin by doing ordinary good acts. This demands that one’s practices are of very high standard.

The Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be on him) defined mohsin in a way that gives rise to great cause for concern. He said a mohsin is a person who when doing anything good is conscious that he is watching God or at least that God is watching him. If one is conscious of this at all times one would simply not do any wrong and will not go astray from righteousness. In fact one could not even imagine harming anyone. Commandments of Islam are such that no matter how one practices them they end up comprising of paying rights of God and paying rights of mankind. Although we wish that our prayers are accepted and we receive God’s mercy but vast majority of us do not regularly make the efforts which a true believer needs to make in order to attain the status.

We are delighted to experience the first ten days of Ramadan which are days of mercy but do we also stop and ponder if we practiced during the days what we should have practiced to seek God’s mercy? Did we make short-term entreaties like a sinner or did we try to mould our life abiding by righteousness like those mohsins who make Ramadan a true source of bringing enduring pious changes in themselves? The Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be on him) gave a treasure of a modus operandi for life in this word ‘mercy’. He told us to seek this mercy in the first ten days of Ramadan and having sought it promise to make it an enduring part of our life. However, since Satan is ever on the outlook to lead people astray, once we have attained God’s mercy, in order to stay firm we need help. What is it that we need to do regarding this? Spend the next/following ten days of Ramadan seeking help and power from God and that power is of Istighfar (seeking forgiveness from God). A true believer makes God’s quality of covering faults and His mercy a part of his life, both in terms of worship of God as well as his practices. This results in Divine forgiveness wrapping and covering him and further doors to Divine mercy opening up.

The Promised Messiah (on whom be peace) explained: ‘The true meaning of Istighfar is to supplicate God that no human weakness should be manifested and that God might support nature with His strength and might enclose it in the circle of His help and protection. The root of Istighfar is ghafara, which means to cover up. Thus, the meaning of Istighfar is that God should cover up the natural weakness of the supplicant with His power. This meaning is then enlarged to include the covering up of a sin that has been committed, but the true meaning is that God should safeguard the supplicant against his natural weakness and should bestow upon him power from His power, and knowledge from His knowledge, and light from His light. Having created man, God has not become separated from him, but as He is man’s Creator and the Creator of all his external and internal faculties, He is also All-Sustaining, that is to say, He safeguards with His support everything that He has created. It is, therefore, necessary for man that as he has been created by God, he should seek to safeguard the features of his creation through the All-Sustaining attribute of the Divine….Thus this is a natural need of man for which he has been directed to carry out Istighfar.’ (Review of Religions—Urdu, vol. I, pp. 187 – Essence of Islam, Vol. II, pp. 241-242)

Drawing attention to Divine mercy during Ramadan signifies that God’s favours and grace specifically come into play during this month and during the ten days of mercy His special beneficence which is specific to forgiveness is dispensed. During this time one should seek power to do good and seek light from God’s light so that one does not turn to darkness again. Man is inherently weak and thus in order to safeguard against this weak state and to take power from God’s power, Istighfar is necessary. Attention is drawn to the Divine attribute of All-Sustaining because in order to establish something, like piety, one needs God’s help. God is Ever-Living and All-Sustaining and the most powerful support that there is. The middle ten days of Ramadan do not merely signify to do as much Istighfar as possible in order to attain the objective. The Holy Prophet (on whom be peace) drew our attention that when Ramadan comes, God comes closer to creation and we are greatly focussed on prayers. Therefore, in order to seek enduring measure of His forgiveness we engage in Istighfar to come in God’s refuge. May it be so that vast majority of us spent our Ramadan in this manner and have now entered the last ten days with the view to make the light and power we have attained take us onto attain God’s pleasure!

The Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be on him) told us that the last ten days of Ramadan are salvation from the fire of Hell. Once a person comes under Divine forgiveness, attains light and power from God, obviously he will be closer to God. God does not leave anyone without a reward. When man tries to do good for the sake of God, God does not simply save him from the fire of hell. By calling the last ten days of Ramadan days of salvation from the fire of hell the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be on him) in fact told us that God also gives glad-tidings of Paradise to those who fulfil the requisites. If we repent sincerely and seek Divine forgiveness and try and stay firm on virtues, the worship of the thirty days of Ramadan, fulfilment of rights and constant practice of repenting and Istighfar will permanently close the doors to Hell on us.

The Promised Messiah (on whom be peace) said: ‘The objective of religion is this alone that man has firm faith in the existence and perfect attributes of God Almighty and is delivered from selfish desires and instils personal love of God. In fact this is the paradise which will manifest itself in various guises in the Hereafter. Likewise, to be unaware and distant from the true God and have no love for Him is in fact the state of hell which will appear in various forms in the Hereafter.’ (Chashma e Masih, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 20, p. 352)

We should understand the fine point that salvation from Hell and attainment of Paradise begins in this world. With true connection with God, repentance and Istighfar one can experience paradise in this world greater rewards of which will be granted in the Hereafter. And not seeking true connection with God, His love, mercy and forgiveness at all times is deliberate violation of God’s commandments.

The Promised Messiah (on whom be peace) said that no other book has elucidated about Heaven and Hell as the Holy Qur’an has. Explaining the verse: ‘But for him who is awed by the lofty station of his Lord, there are two gardens.’(55:47) he said: ‘That is, one paradise is attained in this world alone because fear of God stops him from evil. Pursuing wickedness fills him with anxiety and unease which is a dangerous hell in itself. A person who fears God avoids evil and is promptly saved from the torment and pain that is created by pandering to carnal and selfish desires. He develops in faithfulness and turns to God which grants him delight and rapture and thus paradisiacal life starts for him in this world. Likewise, by going contrary to this, hellish life starts.’ (Tafseer Hazrat Masih e Maud, Vol. IV, p. 300)

The Islamic concept of Heaven and Hell is not limited to the Hereafter. There is also heaven and hell in this world. As the hadith of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be on him) explained if we think that we can see God or that God is seeing us at all times, it will stop us from going astray. Those who do wrong are always in fear of being caught and this in itself puts them in a hellish state. One who fears God attains paradise in this world and the Hereafter and one who is embroiled in evil selfish and base desires is embroiled in hell in this world and the Hereafter. Being faithful and sincere to God is paradise in itself and being distant from His commandments is hell in itself. This hadith mentions three things and draws our attention to God’s mercy, to engage in Istighfar to stay firm and that once these are attained one’s every word and deed is for God. Enduring beneficence of Ramadan becomes a part of his life and he attains God’s Paradise in this world and the Hereafter.

In order to attain God’s pleasure and to secure one’s faith, there is another aspect to the last ten days of Ramadan about which the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be on him) gave us glad-tiding and that is Lailatul Qadr (The Night of Decree). The Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be on him) said that the past sins of a person who fasts during Ramadan in a state of belief and while holding himself to account are forgiven. And the past sins of a person who experiences Lailatul Qadr in a state of belief and while holding himself to account are also forgiven. Lailatul Qadr has great significance but other days of Ramadan also hold similar significance. What is important are the factors of state of belief and holding oneself to account. If there were any inadequacies in the early days of Ramadan, efforts should be made in latter days to make good those shortcomings. The Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be on him) did not say sins will be forgiven of one who experiences Lailatul Qadr, rather he held it conditional to being in a state of belief and while holding oneself to account. Belief has been tied with good works and we should always keep this in view.

One of the many signs of true believers in the Holy Qur’an is: ‘Truebelievers are only those whose hearts tremble when the name of Allah is mentioned, and when His Signs are recited to them they increase their faith, and who put their trust in their Lord,’ (8:3). When our attention is repeatedly drawn to good works and paying dues of others with reference to God, we should keep them in view. When man is asked to fulfil these rights with reference to God but does not pay attention then, does man come under the classification of true believers in accordance with this verse? It is stated that if everyone fasts during Ramadan while holding themselves to account and experience Lailatul Qadr, then their sins are forgiven. Blessings of Ramadan and Lailatul Qadr are conditional just as commandments of God and His Messenger are conditional. For example, if a person has weak faith and usurps others but says he experienced Lailatul Qadr then either God granted him exceptional grace which demands that he stays firm on what is right and abides by commandments of God and if not then what he thought was Lailatul Qadr may be a figment of his imagination.

Explaining this point, the Promised Messiah (on whom be peace) has said that Lailatul Qadr is not only a specific night that falls during Ramadan. It has three forms: a night during Ramadan, time of a Prophet of God and Lailatul Qadr of an individual is also when he is purified and has firm faith and rids himself of all evil while holding himself accountable. If this Lailatul Qadr is experienced and we become sincerely God’s, abide by His commandments and elevate our standards of worship we have found the objective which is commanded by God. Following this each day and each night becomes an hour of acceptance of prayer. We, the followers of the true and ardent devotee of the Holy Prophet, the Promised Messiah need to bring about a revolutionary change in ourselves and elevate our state of faith to the level where our each word and deed is to attain pleasure of God and where we spend our lives holding ourselves accountable. May the blessings of Ramadan always remain with us! May Allah make many of us experience the Lailatul Qadr which is a special instance of acceptance of prayer and about which the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be on him) told us that it befalls one night during last days of Ramadan. May experiencing it keep us on piety and righteousness and enhance us. May all our past sins be forgiven and may with His grace God grant us special power to avoid sin in future!

නලින් ද සිල්වා

මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන විසින් කරන ලද විශේෂ ප්‍රකාශයෙහි කරුණු කිහිපයක් අඩංගු විණි. ඔහු මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂට අගමැති කම නොදෙන බව කීවේ ය. තමා මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂට ජනවාරි 8 වැනි දාට පෙර තිබූ විරුද්ධත්වය එසේ ම පවතින බව ප්‍රකාශ කෙළේ ය. ශ්‍රී ල නි ප (සංධානය) ජයග්‍රහණය කළහොත් අගමැතිකම දීමට පක්‍ෂයේ ජ්‍යෙෂ්ටයන් සිටින බව කීවේ ය. තමා මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂට අගමැති අපේක්‍ෂකත්වයවත් කණ්ඩායමේ නායකත්වයවත් දී නැති බව එකහෙළා කියා සිටියේ ය. තමා ජනවාරි 8 වැනි දා ජයග්‍රහණය ඉදිරියට ගෙන යෑමට බැඳී සිටින බව කීවේ ය. මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂට සංධානයෙන් තරග කිරීමට ඉඩ දුන්නේ සංධාන නායකයන් සියයට සියයක් ම එසේ කරන ලෙස ඉල්ලා සිටි නිසාත්, ශ්‍රී ල නි පක්‍ෂයේ සියයට අනුනවයක් ම ඉල්ලා සිටි නිසාත් යැයි කීවේ ය. එහෙත් තමා මහින්දට විරුද්ධ බවත් ජනවාරි 8 වැනි දා මෙන් ම මැතිවරණයේ දී ද මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ පරදින බවත් කීවේ ය. 

ඒ ඉතා පැහැදිලිව ම ද්වේශ සහගත ප්‍රකාශයක් විය. පක්‍ෂයේ සභාපති පක්‍ෂයෙන් තරග කරන අපේක්‍ෂකයකු අරභයා එවැනි ප්‍රකාශයක් මින් පෙර කිසිම සභාපතිවරයකු කර ඇතැයි සිතිය නො හැකි ය. මේ ප්‍රකාශය විජාතික බලවේගවල අවශ්‍යතාව පරිදි කරන ලද්දක් බව පැහැදිලි ය. එහෙත් ඒ ප්‍රකාශයෙහි පෞද්ගලික විරුද්ධතාව ද වෙයි. අද විජාතික බලවේගවලට අවශ්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂගේ දේශපාලන ජීවිතය අවසන් කිරීම ය. හැකිනම් පෞද්ගලික ජීවිතය ද අවසන් කිරීම ය. විශේෂයෙන් ම බටහිරයෝ තමන්ට අවනත නොවන ජාතික දේශපාලන නායකයන් පරළොව යැවීමට කටයුතු කරති. පසුගිය කාලයේ අරාබි රටවල අපි ඒ බව අත් දුටුවෙමු.  

ජනවාරි 8 වැනි දා මෙරට තාවකාලික ප්‍රතිවිප්ලවයක් ඇතිවිණි. එදින රටේ ජාතිකත්වය පික්පොකට් සොර මුළක් විසින් ගසා කන ලදී.  එහි දී බටහිරයෝ හා ඉන්දීයයෝ රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ හා මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන යොදා ගත්හ. මෛත්‍රිපාල අලිබබා විය. රනිල් හා එ ජා ප මන්ත්‍රීවරු හොරු හතළිහ වූහ. රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ දන්නා විප්ලවයක් නැත. ඔහු රට ජාතික මගින් ඉවතට දැමූ ප්‍රතිවිප්ලවය විප්ලවයක් ලෙස හඳුන්වයි. මේ ප්‍රතිවිප්ලවය අගොස්තු 17 වැනිදා පරාජයට පත්වන බව බටහිරයෝ ද ඉන්දීයයෝ ද දනිති. වෙන් ව තරග කිරීමට සිටි පක්‍ෂ කිහිපයක් එකතු වී අලියා ලකුණ යටතේ සංධානයක් පිහිටුවා ගත්තේ අගොස්තු 17 වැනි දා පරාජය බටහිරයන්ට හා ඉන්දියයන් හා අනෙක් විජාතික බලවේගවලට වැටහෙන බැවිනි. 

අගොස්තු 17 වැනි දා පරාජය විසින් ම මෛත්‍රිපාලට තම පක්‍ෂයට විරුද්ධව ද්‍රෝහී ප්‍රකාශය කිරීමට බල කෙරී ඇත. මෛත්‍රිපාල (බටහිරයන්) එමගින් බලාපොරෙත්තු වූයේ සංධානයට ඡන්දය දීමට සිටින ඡන්දදායකයන් තැතිගන්වා ඔවුන් ඡන්දය දීමෙන් වළක්වාලීම ය. එය ඉතා සුළු ප්‍රමාණයකින් නාගරික ප්‍රදේශවල සාර්ථක වී ඇත. ඉංගිරිසින්ට සිංහල ගැමි මනස නො තේරෙයි. මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේනගේ ප්‍රකාශය නාගරික නොවන ප්‍රදේශවල සංධානයට වාසි සහගත වී ඇත. අගමැතිකම මහින්දට නොදෙන බව කීමෙන් සිරිසේන ගැමි ඡන්දදායකයන් සංධානය වෙතට තල්ලු කිරීමට සමත් වී ඇත. අද ශ්‍රී ල නි පාක්‍ෂිකයන්ට ද වඩා සාමාන්‍ය ඡන්දදායකයන් කතා කරන්නේ මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ශ්‍රී ල නි පක්‍ෂයෙන් නෙරපීම ගැන ය. 

සෝලංගආරච්චි මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන වෙනුවෙන් අධිකරණයට ගොස් ශ්‍රී ල නි පක්‍ෂයේ මධ්‍යම කාරක සභා රැස්වීමක් පැවැත්වීමට විරුද්ධව වාරණ නියෝගයක් ගැනීමෙන් සාමාන්‍ය ඡන්දදායකයන් තවත් සංධානය දෙසට ගමන් කරවා ඇත. මෛත්‍රිපාල කෙසේ නමුත් තම ශ්‍රී ල නි ප සභාපතිත්වය රැක ගැනීමට කටයුතු කරන බව එමගින් පැහැදිලි වී ඇත. අගමැති කමට කෑදර වී පක්‍ෂයට විරුද්ධව කටයුතු කළ මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන අද පක්‍ෂ සභාපතිත්වය රැක ගැනීමට පක්‍ෂයට තව තවත් ද්‍රෝහි කම් කරයි.  මහින්ද ගෙදර යැවීමට කතා කළ මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ගෙදර යැවීමට අද ඡන්දදායකයෝ කතා කරති. 

සංධානයට තුනෙන් දෙකක බහුතරයක් ලබා දී මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේනට එරෙහිව දෝෂාභියෝගයක් ගෙනැවිත් ඡන්දදායකයන්ගේ බලාපොරොත්තුව ඉටු කළ හැකි ද යන්න අද සාකච්ඡා වෙමින් පවතියි. අගමැති කම යනු තමා යමකුට දෙන තෑග්ගක් නොවන බව මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන තේරුම් ගන්නේ කවදා ද? ඔහුට රිසි කෙනකුට අගමැති කම දිය හැකි නො වේ. විශේෂයෙන් ම සංධානයේ ජයග්‍රහණයකින් පසුව මෛත්‍රිපාලට තමන්ට රිසි ලෙස කටයුතු කිරීමට නොහැකි වනු ඇත. ප්‍රතිවිප්ලවය අවසන් වීමෙන් පසු මෛත්‍රිපාලට ගෙදර යෑමට සිදුවහොත් එය ඉතිහාසයේ දරුණු ම සරදමක් වනු ඇත. 

මෛත්‍රිපාල මහින්ද එකතුව ගැන ප්‍රීතියෙන් කතාකළ සංධානයට පක්‍ෂ ඊනියා විචාරකයන් ගැන අපි අමුතුවෙන් කතා නො කරමු. ඇතැමුනට අනුව ඔවුන් එකතු කරනු ලැබුවේ රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ විසිනි. ඒ ඊනියා විග්‍රහ අති විශිෂ්ට විශේලේ’ෂණ ලෙස බොහෝ අය විසින් හැඳින්විණි. අපි ඔවුන් ගැන අනුකම්පා කරමු. එහෙත් ඊනියා මෛත්‍රිපාල මහින්ද එකතුවට මුල සිට ම විරුද්ධ වූ අප ඔවුන් විසින් හඳුන්වනු ලැබුයේ යටත්විජිතවාදීන් ලෙස ය! 

නලින් ද සිල්වා

2015 ජූලි 15

Dr Sudath Gunasekara 15.7.2015

 Apropos the statement issued over the media yesterday by President Sirisena I am surprised and alarmed as well, over this highly vituperative and rather unwelcome speech he made as a Head of a Government of a democracy. Other than his saying that MR will lose (rather premature and Sumanadasa Abewickrama type forecast) at the forthcoming election there is nothing new in his speech. It is only a mere repetition of the same stale and old stuff he has been airing out from the day he came in to power.

Surprised first, because it doesn’t sounds a speech made by a responsible and a prudent head of a State. People expect much more magnanimity and decorum from their President. It only displays the anger and his personal dislike towards Mahinda Rajapaksa and his desire to take revenge for not making him the Prime Minister, which everybody in this country knows. Had MR made him the PM in time he would have been reciting hosanna even today with relish. Alarmed, because I suspect a broader plan under the carpet to deprive MR of his imminent victory and thereby to deprive the nation the services of a strong Sinhala Buddhist leader which is the need of the hour, than ever before.

I quote below the relevant Section of the Constitution regarding the appointment of the Prime Minister.

Sec 43 (3)

The President shall appoint as Prime Minister the Member of Parliament who in his opinion is most likely to command the confidence of Parliament.

This clearly shows that the President has no choice but to appoint the person who commands the majority in Parliament.  It is true that he appoints the PM as provided by law. But the fact remains that it is the voter who elects a person to be the PM. The Presidents opinion in this context has to be based on the actual situation in Parliament. It also has to be based on objective criteria. It can never be his imagination either as what happened when he appointed Ranil as PM in Jan. It is as simple as the majority support in the House. It could be shown either by taking a vote or an affidavit. His opinion cannot be a state of his mind only or personal. He cannot go against the Constitution.

Accordingly after all it is the people of the country who finally decide as to who should be appointed as the Prime Minister as they are the people who select and elect the person as to who should be the PM and not the President. His job is limited to fulfilling his duty by the country in terms of the will of the people as he is empowered by the Constitution of the country. He has no choice but to act according to the Constitution.  If he doesn’t, do that then he is answerable to the Parliament, the people and now to the court as well. I am still surprised as to why no one took up this matter in Parliament when Ranils was appointed and even subsequently in courts after the passage of the 19^th A.

As such if the people of this country elect Mahinda Rajapaksa on Jan 17^th with 113 MPP supporting him, the President has no choice but to appoint him as the Prime Minister. He cannot appoint Ranil or any other member of the UPFA merely because he dislikes MR personally. I am lost to understand as to on whose advice he makes this type of silly public statements.

100 day programme that he talks of fulfilling is a thing of the past. It becomes dead if Mahinda wins the August 17 election with a new manifesto. It is that manifesto that becomes the policy of this country thereafter as it is the wish of the people. Thereafter the 100 day programme will be left to rest along with Ranil and his ‘pina Government’

We all know Maitripla doesn’t want Mahinda Rajapaksa and we also know he hates him as he has said in his statement. But the majority of people, especially the patriotic Sinhala Buddhists masses want him.

Shenali D Waduge

Truth always has a way of coming out eventually. The LTTE propagandists in their over-enthusiasm to portray a fictitious ‘genocide’ is now attempting to compare Mullaivaikkal with Srebrenica little realizing that the Srebrenica ‘genocide’ has become a proven hoax. Yet, it has become a perfect opportunity to resurface the lies and show how the same players (media / Western countries & UN/UN entities & local stooges) are involved in the breakup of Sri Lanka in a bigger geopolitical gameplan being strategized.

Aspects relevant to Sri Lanka

• Srebrenica and Mullaivaikkal lies have continued for 5 years. Repeat a lie enough times and people believe it!
• Who were the real victims? In the case of Srebrenica it was the Serb women and children and not the male armed Bosnian-Muslims who died in combat similar to the armed conflict that took place where other than a parroting of figures none of these accusers have been able to come out with bodies or names of the supposed dead!
• If the Clinton government backed the Islamists (who were even given official jobs in the UN) we have to wonder if the foreign located LTTE fronts banned by Sri Lanka have connections to foreign governments as well!
• In the case of Srebrenica, western media turned what was 2000 combat deaths of Bosnian-Muslims to 8000 ‘executions of POWs) while in Sri Lanka’s case what was less between 2564 and 7721 while Sri Lankan soldiers also saved close to 300,000 among whom were LTTE cadres dressed as civilians while a further 11,000 LTTE cadres surrendered. More over the term POWs are not entitled for armed conflicts where the other party are rebel movements!
• Another glaring similiarity is the manner that western media and pro-West officials claim ‘missing Bosnian Muslim soldiers’ claiming they have been executed by the Serbs just as the demands to Sri Lanka to produce ‘missing’ LTTE cadres! Question is do they even exist!
• In Srebrenica after 5 years only 160 mass graves have been found but no one knows whose bodies they are. In the case of Sri Lanka, the satellite analyst report by the American Association for the Advancement of Science identified 3 graveyards of which one had 1346, and one of the 3 was a LTTE graveyard with 960 bodies
• ‘Never Forget’ slogan is associated with Nazi terror and when Richard Holbrooke US Ambassador to UN in 2000 said ‘Srebrenica must not be forgotten’ it is just like the present chorus about Mullaivaikkal not been forgotten. However, both being lies the game is to repeat the lie often enough for people to believe it. If it is crimes then the NATO/UN/US/UK crimes seem never to go on trial.
• Munira Subasic, President of the Bosnian Muslim Association of Srebrenica Women, who reported her son as one of Srebrenica Muslim victims. It was later discovered her son lives in United States under a new name – we continue to question how many of the LTTE ‘missing’ are enjoying hob nobbling with the very organizations and individuals accusing Sri Lanka. http://de-construct.net/e-zine/?p=756 shows how far lies used connects with the same lies the LTTE propagandists are presently using.
• Milivoje Ivanisevic’s booklet The Srebrenica Identity Card’ documents bodies buried at the Srebrenica Memorial that were not killed in July 1995 when alleged genocide took place (some of these died from natural deaths 13 years before 1995)!
• He also shows that in the 1996 elections in Bosnia 914 or 37% names that were on the voting list were of bodies that had been buried in the Memorial but these names had been approved by the Organization for Security & Cooperation in Europe which supervised the elections. This certainly raises the electoral registries of North Sri Lanka and questions the authenticity of the names being included.
• Ivanisevic also proves that ‘at least 100 people’ buried at the Memorial died of natural causes. The most astonishing charge made by Ivanisevic is that several hundred soldiers & civilians had been transferred to the Srebrenica Memorial from other cemeteries and reburied and gives example of Hamed Halilovic transferred from cemetery in Kazani who had died 13 years before the Srebrenica ‘genocide’. He gives the names of more than 10 such others. This clearly shows hypocrisy!
• Ivanisevic also provides names of Bosnian Muslim soldiers buried in the Srebrenica Memorial who had been implicated in numerous massacres of Serbian civilians in which 3000 Serbs were killed. This also reminds us of the manner in which post-LTTE defeat spouses of LTTE cadres are bemoaning their ‘missing LTTE cadre’ husband whom civilians that escaped having implicated in shooting at them while they were fleeing the LTTE!
• If we are highlighting the LTTE-Church connections, the fact that the West used Bosnian Muslims and watched as they destroyed Serbian Orthodox Churches should make ordinary Christians realize that the war profiteers are using religions for their own agendas.
• Equally poignant is the controversial verdicts of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia in The Hague to justify support for Muslim-dominated political movements in Bosnia and Macedonia and Serbia’s Kosovo region.
• Just as the Bosnian Serbs were international isolated and humiliated with the ‘Srebrenica genocide’ the same is being done to the Rajapakse Government via the ‘Mullaivaikkal genocide’ propaganda lies.
• If Srebrenica was used by Bosnian Muslims to arouse Muslims towards Jihad, the LTTE are using the same strategy to draw Tamils to continue Eelam.
• Ironically and not surprising it is the same western media that lied about Srebrenica that continues to spread the ‘genocide’ story in Sri Lanka – New York Times playing lead role!
• Henry Wieland head of the UN Human Rights Commission interviewing Srebrenica refugees in July 1995 said he could not find ‘anyone who’d seen any atrocity committed with their own eyes”. The question is who saw 40,000 to 200,000 being killed by the Sri Lanka Army or who can vouch that these supposed dead were actually even born!
• Edward S Herman, an American economist & media analyst and Professor Emeritus of Finance at Wharton School/University of Pennsylvania speaking to Voice of Russia on his views of the facts surrounding the Srebrenica Massacre and the ‘official’ version promoted of the West reveals that the killing in Srebrenia (an area declared as a safe zone by UN despite not disarming Islamic militants) where Serb army was accused of killing Bosnian-Muslim POWs (originally claiming 8000 to eventually being 2500) was in fact a retaliation for these Bosnian Muslim soldiers killing 2383 Serb civilians most of whom were women and children. This part of the story has been purposely kept hidden by western media. Thus Prof. Herman says that the 2383 Serb civilians killed between 1992-July 1995 has to be called the ‘first Srebrenica massacre’. He also discloses that 150 Serb villages had been totally wiped out and that a study gives the names of these 2383 civilians. Prof. Herman also highlights that the media also kept out the fact that before the Serb army took on the Bosnian-Muslims they had bussed 20,000 Srebrenica women and children to safety. His final estimate is that 500-1000 would have died from vengeance executions while the rest were all combat related deaths. The gist of all this is that it was the first massacre of 2383 civilians mostly women & children (Serbs) that instigated the 2^nd killing of combatant soldiers (Bosnian-Muslims). Who should we feel sorry for the civilians which included mostly women and children or male combatants?
• Sri Lanka has every right to question allegations being made without providing concrete evidence. What the UN/UNHRC is trying to do is to first arrest and put on trial Sri Lanka’s leaders and Armed Forces with war crimes and thereafter to look for the evidence or prepare the evidence to charge them. That is not how things should happen.
• The reasons why we are objecting is because the entire process of excavation and identification of bodies was controlled by an organization founded by late Bosnian Islamist leader Alija Izetbegovic. Star witnesses too mysteriously appeared claiming ranks in the Bosnian Serb army and claiming to have participated in the execution of 1200 Srebrenica Muslims but he had been exempted from cross-examination and deemed ‘mentally unstable’. These are things that Sri Lanka can expect to happen too!
• Though there are no international unbiased agencies to help Sri Lanka’s case the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation issued a report in 2002 Srebrenica a Safe Are’ declaring that though UN declared Srebrenica as a ‘safe zone’ the Bosnian-Muslims were not disarmed and the UN was well aware that these Muslims were carrying out lethal raids against Serb villages.

The Hague Tribunal

• Oric was tried for war crimes at The Hague – he had even publicly boasted he mass murdered Serbian civilians but the Tribunal set him free.
• Hague Tribunal’s evidence consisted of 3,568 autopsy reports (which means 3568 dead bodies) but half of the total number of the Hague’s Srebrenica post-mortem reports are based on only few bones — in many cases just a single bone or bone fragment — which, simply put, does not allow for any meaningful forensic conclusions to be drawn” (Dr. Ljubiša Simić, pathologist and forensic expert)
• Simić concluded that the total number of victims in all thirteen Srebrenica mass graves is well under 2,000 — woefully short of the magical number of 8,000, aggressively propagated by the State Department ever since 1995.
• 954 Bosnian Muslim Fighters Killed Before the End of 1994 Listed as Srebrenica Victims”

Lies also have a way of haunting the guilty. The UN will forever have to shoulder its lies and crocodile tears when it pushed for a UK drafted resolution to call Srebrenica as ‘genocide’ and charge for ‘genocide denial’ on the basis of that prostituted word ‘reconciliation’. Russia vetoed that saying supposed 8000 deaths were not grounds to call ‘genocide’. It emerges that the deaths are less than 2500! UN as expected acknowledged its ‘responsibility for failing to protect the people who sought shelter and relief in Srebrenica’ the same crocodile tears shed in Sri Lanka! Why is that the UN has absolutely no record of ever preventing conflicts except to enter to stop ongoing conflicts which continue nonetheless! What fancy words, speeches and tamashas cannot hide are a load of lies that have been dished out over the years.

• In 1995 the UK brought a resolution to declare ‘genocide’ against Bosnian-Serbs. Russia vetoed the UN resolution saying that it was “not constructive, confrontational and politically-motivated,” arguing that it unfairly singled out Bosnian Serbs for war crimes. The resolution was the first attempt to making an accusation of ‘genocide’ and charge for ‘genocidal denial’. Incidentally all these terminologies are crafted by the very nations that commit crimes against humanity with impunity to the stoic silence of the UN!
• Diego Arria, former Venezuelan ambassador to the UN and current special advisor to the UN Secretary General, testifies at the Milosevic trial that the UN Secretariat, Boutros-Ghali and UNPROFOR fed misinformation to the Security Council about the real situation in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995. Arria claims that Secretary General Boutros-Ghali and his Secretariat withheld information about the real situation in the field or fed the Security Council misinformation. As an example of the way in which information was withheld, he spoke about a letter in which Sadako Ogata, then UN High Commissioner for Refugees, warned the UN about the tragic situation in Srebrenica in March 1993. The letter seems to have become “misplaced” somewhere in the office of the Secretary-General, and Arria first saw it 11 years later in The Hague, when the Prosecution produced it.

• The UN has kept mum about bogus forms with only signatures and multiple signatures by the same person being sent to parties that have filled the forms with lies which the UNHRC investigators on Sri Lanka have accepted and only after a TNA-tasked LTTE cadre was caught with these forms did the expose come to light. Otherwise the UNHRC would have referred to these bogus witness accounts to charge Sri Lanka and we are yet to know whether these forms have been discarded!

What is poignant about the Srebrenica supposed ‘genocide’ and the Mullaivaikkal supposed ‘genocide’ is that the Clinton administration used the ‘Srebrenica genocide’ as excuse to enter Bosnia taking the side of the Bosnian Muslims and enforcing the Dayton Peace Agreement for Bosnia-Herzegovina in November 1995 which Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia had to agree to.

We now see that the Mullaivaikkal ‘genocide’ is likely to be a means of charging the war heroes and enabling the balkanization of Sri Lanka, a military base for the US, the presence of UN as a façade and the choking of Asian seas and trade routes for China while US/West build its way to China & Russia. 

Shenali D Waduge

Mahinda confers with UPFA leaders at SLFP hq

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy Island

The SLFP yesterday strongly denied President Maithripala Sirisena’s accusation that the party had conspired to appoint former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to Parliament through the National List by moving a no-faith motion against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

UPFA General Secretary Susil Premajayantha insisted that in accordance with the Parliamentary Elections Act of 1981, only a person named in the original National List submitted to the Elections Secretariat along with nominations for the last parliamentary election or an unsuccessful candidate at the same election could be appointed.

Premajayantha was addressing the media at SLFP headquarters at T. B. Jayah Mawatha, following consultations with senior representatives of the UPFA presided over by former President Rajapaksa. The UPFA General Secretary was flanked by SLFP General Secretary Anura Priyadarshana Yapa and other party seniors, John Seneviratne, Dullas Alahapperuma and Kumara Welgama.

Rajapaksa is leading the UPFA nomination list for the Kurunegala District.

President Maithripala Sirisena on Tuesday alleged that the party had conspired to make his predecessor Prime Minister after having brought him in through the National List. The President claimed that he had dissolved parliament to thwart the Rajapaksa’s effort.

Premajayantha said that the UPFA was going ahead with its campaign with the inaugural meeting taking place in Anuradhapura tomorrow (July 17). Premajayantha said that the former President would lead the campaign. Responding to a query, Premajayantha said that he, on behalf of the UPFA, had requested the former President to function as the Chairman of the Elections Operations Unit on July 3, 2015. The SLFP also released copies of the letter sent by Premajayantha to Mahinda Rajapaksa consequent to an understanding reached at a meeting presided over by President Maithripala Sirisena.

Premajayantha and other SLFP seniors pointed out that the former President had been asked to lead the campaign nearly two weeks before President Maithripala Sirisena’s Tuesday’s declaration that he would remain impartial.

Alahapperuma pointed out that President Sirisena had expressed a similar opinion in the run-up to the January 8 presidential poll and after.

Referring to President Sirisena’s call for Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran’s resignation over his alleged involvement in Central Bank bond scam, Premajayantha said that the caretaker government couldn’t turn a blind eye to the President’s declaration. Premjayantha asserted that the President wouldn’t have requested Premier Wickremesinghe to get rid of Mahendran if he hadn’t been convinced that the Governor was at fault.

Premajayantha said that he was a member of the 13-member parliamentary group that had inquired into the alleged bond scam.

Premajayantha also condemned what he called Yahapalana government for calling for a national level election in the midst of GCE A/L examination in August. The UPFA General Secretary alleged thatYahapalana leaders had called for fresh elections to save the UNP at the expense of the student community.

Premajayantha said that the alliance would go flat out to secure a majority in next parliament under the leadership of former President Rajapaksa.

SLFP General Secretary Anura Priyadarshana Yapa spoke of efforts being made by seniors to iron out differences between the two warring factions since Maithripala Sirisena succeeded Mahinda Rajapaksa as the leader of the SLFP. Yapa stressed that their efforts were meant to unify the party to defeat the UNP at the next parliamentary elections. The top SLFP official expressed serious concern over some in the SLFP indirectly helping the UNP. When The Island asked whether he was commenting on President Maithripala Sirisena’s broadside at his predecessor, Yapa stressed the importance of preserving two-party system. Yapa said that one couldn’t undermine one’s own party to the benefit of the other.

SLFP seniors said that they would take up contentious matters with President Maithripala Sirisena at the relevant forum. They strongly denied claims that they were planning to remove Maithripala Sirisena in the immediate aftermath of his unprecedented attack. Yapa insisted that the SLFP wouldn’t discuss internal matters with the media. Instead take tangible actions to address issues, including disciplinary measures against party members contesting the parliamentary polls on the UNP ticket.

Asked whether the party had been troubled by President’s move, particularly his declaration that Mahinda Rajapaksa would lose again, SLFP seniors insisted that 99 per cent of supporters remained loyal to the former President. They pointed out that they were in the fray under the former President’s leadership because they had faith in him. Welgama said that they were party seniors and they believed the former President should be the Prime Minister in the next parliament.

Seneviratne pointed out that as President Maithripala Sirisena himself had declared that the next Premier would be selected after the election depending on the support he could muster from the parliamentary group, Rajapaksa wouldn’t have any difficulty. Welgama insisted that the party solidly stood behind the former leader.

The SLFP said that in fact the President’s statement had galvanized the party overnight and the largest group in last parliament was ready to take up the challenge.

Alahapperuma said that he was among those millions of supporters who had been shocked and shaken by President Maithripala Sirisena’s move. The former minister pointed out that the President had dissolved a parliament in which the UPFA had a clear majority in order to save the minority government. Alahapperuma said that the supporters were justified in suspecting whether the presidential statement was meant to give an advantage to the UNP.

President betrayed SLFP to benefit UNP: Prasanna

Daily Mirror
Western Province Chief Minister Prasanna Ranatunga charged today that President Maithripala Sirisena had indirectly acted to cover up corruption by dissolving Parliament before the no confidence motion against the government could be taken up.

He said the no confidence motion was to be brought against the government following the Central Bank bond scam, and there was no action taken regarding it since Parliament was disolved.

මෛත‍්‍රීගෙන් ලෝක වාර්තාවක්.. තම පක්‍ෂය පරදන්න තීරණය කල ලොව පලමු පක්‍ෂ නායකයා

තම පක්‍ෂය පරදවන්නට තීරණය ලොව පලමු නායකයා ලෙස ශ‍්‍රීලනිප නායක ජනාධිපති මෛත‍්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතා ලෝක ඉතිහාසයට එක්වන බව සන්ධානයේ මාතර දිස්ත‍්‍රික් අපේක්‍ෂක ඩලස් අලහප්පෙරුම මහතා පවසයි.

සන්ධාන, ශ‍්‍රිලනිප ලේකම්ලා මාධ්‍ය හමුවක… මෛත‍්‍රීගේ පළු අරී..

July 15, 2015 at 3:00 pm | lanka C news

සන්ධාන පක්‍ෂ නායක හමුවෙන් අනතුරුව සන්ධාන මහ ලේකම් සුසිල් පේ‍්‍රමජයන්ත මාදය වෙත මෙසේ අදහස් පල කලේය.

සන්ධානයේ මංගල රැලිය 17 වැනිදා අනුරාධපුරයේ පැවැත්වීමට ශ්‍රීලනිප සභාපතිද වන ජනපති එකඟවූ බවත් මැතිවරණ මෙහෙයුම් නායකයා ලෙස මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ පත් කිරීමටද ඔහු එකගවූ බවද ප්‍රේමජයන්ත මහතා කීවේය.

සන්ධානයෙන් අපේක්ෂකයෝ 260 දෙනෙක් තරග කරනවා. මීට දෙසතියකට පෙර මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතා, මම , දිනේෂ් අනුර ප්‍රියදර්ශන යාපා කැඳවා සන්ධානයේ තීරණය අනුව මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට නාමයෝජනා දීමට එකඟවුණා.

මැතිවරණ මෙහෙයුම් කමිටු නායකයා ලෙස රාජපක්ෂ මහතා පත් කිරීමටද ජනපති එදින එකඟවුණා. ඒ අනුව පසුගිය 3 වැනිදා ඒ බව මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට දැන්වූවා. මම ලිපිය නිකුත් කළේ සන්ධානයේ එකගතාවය මත. නාම යෝජනා සකසන්නේ සහ මැතිවරණ කොමසාරිස් සමග කටයුතු කරන්නේ පක්ෂයේ ලේකම්. කවුරුන් හෝ ජාතික ලැයිස්තුවේ නම නැති ඡන්දෙට ඉදිරිපත් නොවූ කිසිවෙක්ට ජාතික ලැයිස්තු පුරප්පාඩුවට පත් කළ නොහැකියි.

මහ බැංකු අධිපති වැරදි බව ජනපතිගේ කථාවෙන් පැහැදිලියි. ප්‍රසිද්ධ විභාග පැවැත්වෙද්දී මැතිවරණ තියන්නේ නෑ. නමුත් මෙවර උසස් පෙළ විභාග සමයේ මැතිවරණය තිබෙනවා. එක දශමයක් වුණත් දරුවන්ට වැදගත්.

අගමැති බේරාගැනීමේ පරම පවිත්‍ර චේතනාවෙන් දරුවන්ගේ අනාගතේ නොසලකා ඡන්දය දැම්මා. අගමැතිවරයෙක් බේරාගන්න දරුවන්ගේ අනාගතේ උකස් කරන ආණ්ඩුවකින් අනාගතේ ඇති පලේ මොකක්ද? අගෝස්තු 18 අපි නියත ලෙසම ආණ්ඩුවක් පිහිටුවනවා.

මාධ්‍ය හමුව ඇමතූ ශ්‍රීලනිප ලේකම් අනුර ප්‍රියදර්ශන යාපා මහතා මෙසේ පැවසීය.

‘අපේ ප්‍රධාන අරමුණ එජාපය පරාජය කිරීමයි. තරුණ සේවා සභාවේ වාහන 52ක් මේ ආණ්ඩුව ඡන්දෙට යොදාගෙන තියෙනවා. රාජ්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අද එක අන්තයක් අරගෙන. අපේ කාලයේ රජයේ වාහන ඡන්දෙට භාවිතා කළේ ඉතා අඩුවෙන්. ඩලස් කච්චේරියෙන් එළියට එද්දී තර්ජනය කළා. මන්ත්‍රීන්ගේ ආරක්ෂාව අඩු කළා. ඇමැතිවරු කිහිපදෙනෙක්ට විශේෂ කාර්ය බළකායේ ආරක්ෂාව යොදාගෙන තිබෙනවා. අද ශ්‍රීලනිපය එකමුතු වෙලා. ජනපතිගේ ප්‍රකාශය ගැන ඔහුගෙන් අහන්න. ජනපතිගේ ප්‍රකාශය ගැන පක්ෂයේ මධ්‍යම කාරක සභාවේදී තීරණය කරනවා. එළියේ කථා කරන්න කැමති නෑ‘

‘ජනපතිගේ ප්‍රකාශයෙන් මා කම්පාවට පත්වුණා.. ඔහු එජාප නායකයා බේරාගන්න පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසිරෙව්වා කිව්වා. ලෝක දේශපාලනයේ පළවැනි වතාවටයි එක පක්ෂ නායකයෙක් තවත පක්ෂෙක නායකයකු බේරාගැනීමට කටයුතු කළ බව කිව්වේ‘ යැයි මාධ්‍ය හමුව ඇමතූ ඩලස් අලහප්පෙරුම මහතා පැවසීය.

සන්ධාන නායකයා ඉවත් කිරීමට තීරණයක් ගෙන නැති බවත් මෙහිදී සුසිල් ප්‍රේමජයන්ත මහතා මාධ්‍යවේදීන් නැගූ පැනයකට පිළිතුරු දෙමින් පැවසීය. ‘මහින්ද පරදින බව ජනපති කිව්වත් අපි කියන්නේ ඔහු දිනන බවයි.‘

– Lankadeepa

Enjoining order issued against convening SLFP’s CC

The Colombo District Court on Wednesday (15) issued an enjoining order against convening of the Central Committee of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), without a prior permission from the President.

Urgent SLFP CC meeting today වහාම තීන්දුවක් ගන්න ශ‍්‍රිලනිප මධ්‍යම කාරක සභාව රැස් කෙරේ..

A special meeting of Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) Central Committee would be held today at party head office, sources said.     Following the speech made by President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday against giving nominations to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, SLFP Senior Vice President Janaka Bandara Tennakoon said the central committee should be summoned immediately to take a decision on the President’s speech. –

අද පස්වරුවේ වහාම ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්‍ෂ මධ්‍යම කාරක සභාව කැඳවන බව ශ‍්‍රිලනිප මහ ලේකම් අනුර ප‍්‍රියදර්ශණ යාපා මහතා පවසයි.ඉදිරි මැතිවණයේදී ශ‍්‍රිලනිප ජයග‍්‍රහණය වෙනුවෙන් කටයුතු නොකරන බවට ඊයේ පස්වරුවේ ජනාධිපති මෛත‍්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතා විසින් කරන ලද ප‍්‍රකාශය ප‍්‍රකාශය සම්බන්ධයෙන් මෙහිදී සාකච්චා කෙරනු ඇතැයි වාර්තා වෙයි.ශ‍්‍රිලනිප ව්‍යවස්ථාව අනුව මධ්‍යම කාරක සභාවෙන් 1/3ක ප‍්‍රමාණයක් ඉල්ලා සිටියහොත් මහ ලේකම්වරයා මධ්‍යම කාරක සභාව රැුස් කල යුතු අතර ඒ අනුව අද රාත‍්‍රී 08.00ට මෙම විශේෂ මධ්‍යම කාරක සභා හමුව කැඳවා ඇත.

SLFP to suspend defectors

The membership of SLFP defectors, including Ministers Rajitha Senaratne, M.K.D.S. Gunawardane and Hirunika Premachandra, contesting for general election from the UNP would be suspended today, SLFP Media Coordinator Thilanga Sumathipala said.

MR UPFA Election Operation Committee Leader: Dinesh  සන්ධානයේ මැතිවණය මෙහයවීම මහින්දට බාර කෙරේ.. නායකත්වය මහින්දට.. [Photo]

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa had assumed duties as the Leader of the UPFA Election Operation Committee at a special meeting of the UPFA Election Operation Committee today at the SLFP Headquarters, MEP Leader Dinesh Gunawardane said.ඉදිරි මැතිවරණය වෙනුවෙන් එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානයේ මෙහෙයුම් නායකයා හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා පත් කල බව හිටපු මන්ත්‍රී දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන මහතා පවසයි. අද පැවති සන්ධාන මෙහෙයුම් කමුටුවේදී ඔහු එම තනතුර භාරගත් බවත් නායකයා කවුදැයි ජනතාව තීන්දු කරනු ඇති බවත් ඔහු කියා සිටියේය.එහිදී අදහස් පල කල කුමාර වෙල්ගම මහතා කියා සිටියේ ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන සන්ධානයට දේවාශිර්වාදයක් වී ඇති බවත් ඔහුගේ ප‍්‍රකාශය නිසා ශ්‍රීලනිපයේ බෙදී සිටි අය එකතු වූ බවත්ය.

Reply to MS on August 17: MR- ‘ඒ ගැන අගෝස්තු 17 වැනිදාට බලාගමු’-මහින්ද

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa today said the reply to the speech made by President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday would be given on August 17.එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානයේ විධායක සභාවේ හදිසි හමුවක් මේ වන විට ඩාලි පාරේ පිහිටි ශ‍්‍රීලනිප මූලස්ථානයේදී පැවැත්වෙමින් තිබේ. මේ සඳහා හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාපජෂක්‍ මහතාද පැමිණ සිටී. ජනාධිපතිවරයගේ ප‍්‍රකාශය ගැන හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරය මාධ්‍යවේදීන්ට කියා සිටියේ ‘ඒ ගැන අගෝස්තු 17 වැනිදාට බලාගමු’ යනුවෙනි.

Courtesy The Daily  Mirror

President Maithripala Sirisena said he would remain neutral at the general election and won’t back former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

He said that he is against Mr. Rajapaksa and that there are many seniors he could appoint as Prime Minister in the event the SLFP wins at the general elections.

He said that irrespective of the party that comes to power, he wants those who could carry his pledges forward to be elected. President  Sirisena said that he was totally against the granting of nominations to Mahinda Rajapaksa, and said that Mr. Rajapaksa would lose the upcoming general elections similar to his loss on January 8.

He said that this is not the fault of Mahinda Rajapaksa but due to the system introduced by J.R. Jayawardena. Following a long and stony silence, President

Sirisena finally addressed the nation and said that he is aware of the ‘insults’ hurled at him during the past two weeks. There has not been a President who has been insulted like I have been” he said addressing the media.

He said that this was the vibrancy of the freedom enjoyed by Sri Lankans post January 8 and said that he is aware of what would have befallen those who had made such insults prior to the Presidential election.

He further defended his decision to take over the leadership of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) saying that the decision paved the way for constitutional reform which would not have been possible.

If Mahinda Rajapaksa was the leader, these reforms would not have been possible” he said. The speech which commenced a short while ago at the Presidential Secretariat is continuing.

Dr. Ruwan M Jayatunge

Cannabis sativa (Marijuana) has been used throughout the world medically, recreationally and spiritually for thousands of years (Maule, 2015). It is the most commonly used illicit drug in the world (Wittchen et al., 2009). Despite being illegal in many countries it is easily obtainable and even homegrown (Delisi te al., 2006). According to the Results from the 2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health the rate of marijuana use has had a steady increase since 2007. Cannabis use continues to constitute social and public health problem.

The cannabis plant (Cannabis sativa) has a long history of use both as a medicinal agent and intoxicant (ElSohly & Slade, 2005). There are over 400 chemicals in marijuana. Active compounds of cannabis, called cannabidols, have 64 active isomers. Only one metabolite, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is reported to be an active metabolite responsive for its effects (Morrison et al., 2009). THC usually refers to the naturally existing isomer of delta-9-THC, but also may include delta-8-THC. The delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol contains psychoactive properties. Marijuana produces a number of characteristic behaviors in humans and animals, including memory impairment, antinociception, and locomotor and psychoactive effects (Sim-Selley, 2003).

THC leads to increased activation in frontal and paralimbic regions and the cerebellum (Chang   & Chronicle, 2007). Cannabinoids act on a specific receptor that is widely distributed in the brain regions involved in cognition, memory reward, pain perception, and motor coordination (Adams & Martin, 1996). Cannabis produces euphoria and relaxation, perceptual alterations, time distortion, and the intensification of ordinary sensory experiences (Hall, Solowij & Lemon 1994).

Although most people who smoke cannabis will develop neither severe mental health problems nor dependence, regular use of cannabis may be associated with a range of health, emotional, behavioural, social, and legal problems, particularly in young, pregnant, and severely mentally ill people (Winstock, Ford & Witton, 2010). Cannabis users who also smoke tobacco are more dependent on cannabis, have more psychosocial problems and have poorer cessation outcomes than those who use cannabis but not tobacco (Peters, Budne &, Carroll  2012).

The epidemiological studies indicate that approximately 10% of lifetime cannabis users meet the criteria for cannabis abuse or dependence (Anthony et al., 1994; Cottler et al., 1995; Hall et al., 1999). The epidemiological literature shows that cannabis use increases the risk of accidents (Hall, 2015) and risk of motor vehicle crashes (Hall & Degenhardt, 2009). Cannabis is currently one of the leading substances reported in arrests (Dennis et al., 2002).

Tolerance and dependence to cannabinoids develops after chronic use, as demonstrated both clinically and in animal models (Sim-Selley, 2003). According to Levin and colleagues (2011) Cannabis dependence is a substantial public health problem. A large body of evidence now demonstrates that cannabis dependence both behavioral and physical, does occur in about 7-10% of regular users, and that early onset of use, and especially of weekly or daily use, is a strong predictor of future dependence (Kalant, 2004).  Cannabis dependence or cannabis use disorder is defined in the fifth revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) as a condition requiring treatment (Gordon   Conley & Gordon, 2013).

Cannabis withdrawal is an important component of cannabis dependence (Lee et al., 2014). As many as 85% of users experience withdrawal (Budney et al., 2004; Winstock et al., 2010). Cannabis withdrawal is characterized by craving, irritability, nervousness, depressed mood, restlessness, sleep difficulty, and anger. With the recent publication of the DSM-5, a cannabis withdrawal syndrome is now officially recognized with defined criteria (APA).

Studies show significant negative effects of smoking marijuana on physical and mental health as well as social and occupational functioning (Gazdek, 2014). Smoking marijuana is known to have hemodynamic consequences (Mittleman et al., 2001). Cannabis also has immunosuppressant and endocrine effects although the clinical significance of these is still not clear (Ashton, 2001). Cannabis smoking shows a dose-response relation with pulmonary risk in the same way that tobacco smoking does. Although problems of cannabis use can arise at any level of use, however low, cannabis use disorders and other problems are more likely to arise in long term, heavy daily users than in casual, infrequent users. (Winstock, et al., 2010).

Longitudinal association between cannabis use and mental health has been studied by the researchers. Cannabis use is a known risk factor for a range of mental health problems (van Gastel et al., 2014). Cannabis use has been associated with several adverse life outcomes including unemployment, legal problems, dependence and early school leaving (Serafini et al., 2013). Furthermore Monshouwer and colleagues (2006) specify that cannabis use is associated with aggression and delinquency. In addition Fergusson and Boden (2008) point out that greater welfare dependence and lower relationship and life satisfaction associated with cannabis abuse.

Majority of studies have suggested a significant cognitive decline in cannabis abusers compared to non-abusers and healthy controls (Shrivastava et al., 2011; Solowij, 1988). According to Kalant (2004) Cannabis use has been linked to a number of both short- and long-term health consequences, including depression, paranoia, learning problems, memory and attention deficits. In addition Cannabis use also causes symptoms of depersonalization, fear of dying and irrational panic ideas (Khan & Akella 2009). Also cannabis use significantly increase the risk for manic symptoms (Henquet, Krabbendam & Graaf, 2006) and mania (Leweke & Koethe, 2008). Evidence indicates that cannabis use is considerably associated with both attempted and completed suicides among healthy youths (Serafini et al., 2013; Price et al., 2009).

Cannabis intoxication can occur shortly after cannabis use. The intoxication by cannabis is associated with subjective symptoms of euphoria, perceptual distortion, continuous giggling, sedation, lethargy, impaired perception of time, difficulties in the performance of complex mental processes, impaired judgment and social withdrawal (Crippa et al. 2012). Some clinicians have noticed panic attacks with cannabis intoxication. Cannabis intoxication symptoms are usually gone after a maximum of one week abstinence (Lishman, 1988).

Heavy cannabis use could lead to an ‘amotivational syndrome which has been described as personality deterioration with loss of energy and drive to work (Tennant & Groesbeck, 1972; Johns, 2001). Cannabis-induced amotivational syndrome negatively impacts on volition, self care and social performance.

Cannabis-induced psychotic disorder (CIPD) refers to psychotic symptoms that arise in the context of cannabis intoxication (Morales-Muñoz et al., 2014). Cannabis use is a risk factor for the development of incident psychotic symptoms (Arendt et al, 2005; Kuepper et al., 2011) and exacerbates psychosis (Hall et al., 2004).  Hall and team (2004) state that cannabis use can precipitate schizophrenia in vulnerable individuals. Deficits in prepulse inhibition (PPI) and cannabis abuse are consistently found in schizophrenia (Morales-Muñoz et al., 2015).

Cannabis use in adolescence leads to a two- to threefold increase in relative risk for schizophrenia or schizophreniform disorder in adulthood (Arseneault et al., 2004). The abuse of cannabis by patients with psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and mood and anxious disorders has a negative impact both in the acute and advanced stages of these conditions (Diehl, Cordeiro &, Laranjeira, 2010).

Exposure to marijuana during a critical period of neural development may interrupt maturational processes (Jacobus et al., 2009). Adolescents appear more adversely affected by heavy use than adults (Schweinsburg, Brown & Tapert , 2008).

Chronic cannabis use may alter brain structure and function in adult and adolescent population (Batalla et al., 2013). Sami and colleagues (2015) suspect cannabis use may be associated with   dopamine signaling alterations. Fontes and team (2011) point out that cannabis use has been associated with prefrontal cortex (PFC) dysfunction.

Arseneault and colleagues (2004) were of the view that cases of psychotic disorder could be prevented by discouraging cannabis use among vulnerable youths. Consequently Moore and team (2007) emphasize that sufficient evidence to warn young people that using cannabis could increase their risk of developing a psychotic illness later in life.

According to El Marroun and team (2009) maternal cannabis use, even for a short period, may be associated with several adverse fetal growth trajectories. Cannabinoids have the ability to cross the placental barrier to the foetus and are detectable in the breast milk of mothers who use cannabis (Liebke, 2001). Current evidence indicates that cannabis use both during pregnancy and lactation, may adversely affect neurodevelopment, especially during periods of critical brain growth both in the developing fetal brain and during adolescent maturation, with impacts on neuropsychiatric, behavioural and executive functioning. Jaques (et al., 2014). Prenatal marijuana exposure is associated with adverse perinatal effects (Astley & Little, 1990).

The use of cannabis for medical purposes is a controversial but an important topic of public and scientific interest (Ware, Adams &Guy, 2005). According to Grotenhermen and Müller-Vahl  (2012) cannabinoids are useful for the treatment of various medical conditions. Medicinal marijuana has been prescribed in chronic pain management, antiepileptic treatment in partial epilepsy, symptomatic relief in multiple sclerosis and chronic neuropathic pain. However severe risks are associated with the non-medicinal use of cannabis. Hill (2015) emphasizes that physicians should educate patients about medical marijuana to ensure that it is used appropriately and that patients will benefit from its use.

Although cannabis has valid medical applications, it has addictive potential. Heavy cannabis use may contribute to the development of significant psychosocial and health-related problems (Budney,, Vandrey and  Stanger 2010 ). Cannabis use clearly has serious implications for young people who are particularly sensitive to its psychotogenic effects (Kolliakou et al., 2012). Early interventions are essential in treating cannabis related disorders.

The prevalence of marijuana abuse and dependence disorders has been increasing among adults and adolescents. They continue to smoke the drug despite social, psychological, and physical impairments, commonly citing consequences such as relationship and family problems, guilt associated with use of the drug, financial difficulties, low energy and self-esteem, dissatisfaction with productivity levels, sleep and memory problems, and low life satisfaction ( Gruber   et al , 2003 ; Budney et al, 2007).

Despite the fact that there are large numbers of people with cannabis dependence, relatively little attention has been paid to the treatment of this condition (Nordstrom & Levin, 2007) also the   preventative strategies are still limited (Deoganet al., 2015).

Pharmacological and psychological interventions are recommended for the cannabis use disorder. Allsop and team (2014) propose cannabis extract nabiximols (Sativex) as a medication for cannabis withdrawal. Levin and colleagues (2011) suggest Dronabinol for the treatment of cannabis dependence. Haney et al (2013) recommend the FDA-approved synthetic analog of THC nabilonewhich has higher bioavailability and clearer dose-linearity than dronabinol.

Steinberg and team (2002) suggest psychosocial treatment for cannabis dependence.  Among the psychological interventions Cognitive and behavioral therapies and motivational enhancement therapies have proven to be effective in cannabis withdrawal and dependence (Benyamina et al., 2008).

Motivational enhancement therapy is designed to help resolve ambivalence about quitting and strengthen motivation to change (Elkashef et al., 2008). Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has demonstrated efficacy as both a monotherapy and as part of combination treatment strategies (McHugh, Hearon & Otto, 2010).

CBT for marijuana dependence has typically been delivered in 45- to 60-minute individual or group counseling sessions. The overall focus is the teaching of coping skills relevant to quitting marijuana and coping with other related problems that might interfere with good outcome. Such coping skills include functional analysis of marijuana use and cravings, development of self-management plans to avoid or cope with drug-use triggers, drug refusal skills, problem-solving skills, and lifestyle management (Elkashef et al., 2008). In addition Litt and team (2008) highlight the efficacy of contingency management treatments for marijuana dependence.

Treatment of cannabis use among people with psychotic or depressive disorders is imperative. Available studies indicate that effectively treating the mental health disorder with standard pharmacotherapy may be associated with a reduction in cannabis use and that longer or more intensive psychological intervention rather than brief interventions may be required, particularly among heavier users of cannabis and those with more chronic mental disorders (Baker, Hides & Lubman 2010).

As safer alternative some propose cannabis substitution which is a method of harm reduction.  Harm reduction refers to policies and programmes that aim to reduce the harms associated with the use of drugs. Cannabis substitution can be an effective harm reduction method for those who are unable or unwilling to stop using drugs completely (Lau et al., 2015). Based on principles of public health, harm reduction offers a pragmatic yet compassionate set of strategies designed to reduce the harmful consequences of addictive behavior for both drug consumers and the communities in which they live (Marlatt, 1996).

Cannabis abuse can have a profound effect on the health of individuals, their families, and their communities. Prevention and intervention programs for marijuana abuse are highly essential. Early intervention initiatives and psycho education strategies are important in preventive actions.

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Book Review 

Understanding Earthquakes

M M Bajaj, Ibrahim and Vijayraj Singh H.B. Prakashan, Indore

A Plea to Stop Animal Slaughter, Via Science Now!

This book is a plea to stop slaughter of animals, birds, and (even) fish because it will avert earthquakes. It is difficult to say what prompted the authors – all physicists of fame and high learning – to enter the rough and tumble of geology and that, too, of earthquakes. But, then, science has its own angularities. After all, the high priest of modern science, Albert Einstein, also meddled with the science of geology by propagating EPW (Einsteinian Pain Waves) theory.

Whatever one’s predilections, it has to be conceded that the idea is unique. And novelty is not the only argument in favour of the book which is actually based on paper(s) read by the authors. The BIS (Bajaj-Ibrahim-Singh) Theory is claimed to be a further development on EPW of Einstein. The book claims it is possible to forecast earthquakes which are caused by excessive killing of animals. Now either it is all based on ‘real’ correlations or is a set of spurious ones. The answer would depend upon whether, and a priori, one is willing to subscribe to the theory whose validity is all but proven so far. And to that extent, the book is truly novel and hence absolutely and eminently readable. After all, science still does not have even the modicum of an answer as to why the earthquakes happen and how they can be predicted with reasonable accuracy. The book certainly fills the gaps in the science of seismology which is still a nascent science.

The argument, otherwise highly technical and full of scientific jargon, given so lucidly and simply in the abstract of the book is quite unique to say the least. It is based on the, “reports received” from different parts of the world that several earthquakes have the history of millions of animals being butchered in or near the high risk seismic zones. Hence the suspicion and the scientific inquiry that organising the butchering of animals in the abattoirs worldwide has something to do with the quakes. The book claims to have studied the complex role of nociceptive waves (or the waves generated by the immense noise by the animals on the verge of being butchered) in shear-wave splitting which is related to seismic anisotropy. This splitting is associated with the cracks in the crust aligned by stress. The origin of earthquakes due to the interaction of nociception waves with gravity waves is critically examined in the book. An earthquake of 8 Richter occurs only when the resonant frequency is extremely high. Low frequency resonances lead to earthquakes of 0.1 to 0.2 Richter. Low frequency resonances are hardly felt or realised by the ordinary people. High frequency resonances (originating due to the slaughter of millions of animals daily for years together) lead to powerful singularities with the gravity waves.

Dying Animals Cause Acoustic Anisotropy

Now the point which the authors have tried to make is that acoustic anisotropy leads to a very strong anisotropic stress on a rock. The daily butchering of thousands of animals continually for several years generates acoustic anisotropy due to Einsteinian Pain Waves (EPW) emitted by dying animals. And the accumulated acoustic anisotropy is found to be related with the stress history of rocks.

The book claims that since the EPW travel a great distance with time, abattoirs of one country may lead to havoc in another country. But then comes a final “warning” from the scientists laced with spirituality: ‘…we should close down all the abattoirs (visible and hidden) of the world. Our environmental problems are responsible for the mega-event of earthquakes. ‘ If this had come from a religious saint, people would have taken it at face value. But, coming from scientists of some fame, the approach needs a careful analysis sans religiosity which is a tall order given the Indian context.

The central theme of the book that shear wave splitting occurs possibly due to aligned fluid-filled inclusions and abattoirs, is open to question, and needs a further in-depth study, which the authors claimed to have done with a promise that a fresh book of over 600 pages is coming out shortly on this very aspect. However, the authors have been fair to mention, if not examine in the introductary part, all existing hypotheses on the subject though finally, they settle down on their own hypothesis of large-scale abattoir activity being the causative agents for major earthquakes. In chapter 2 they move to the complex theory which is a set of mathematical formulae which may not be of much interest to a person not properly initiated in mathematical and statistical mumbo jumbo.

Latur Ealthquake Explained

It is “Experimental Aspects” in chapter 3 which is absolutely revolutionary and candid. After preliminary observation as to how the nociception waves (EPW) interact with the earth’s natural rhythmatic vibrations and lead to responses which are extremely powerful (of the order of 10 40 MW) causing crack density (CD) which is directly proportional to EPW – itself a result of ‘animals butchered daily’ the authors come straight to the most recent of the Indian calamities – the Latur (Khillari) earthquake. And from here it is a non-stop journey to earthquakes at various places. Indian earthquakes of Utterkashi, Assam follow the Latur tragedy. Then comes America where the earthquakes of Northridge (1994), Long Beach (California – 1933), Landers (California -1992), San Francisco (1906), New Madrid (Missouri – 1811-12) have been mentioned. Russia is next where Neftegorsk (1995) finds a major mention. Kanto (1923), Nobi (1891), Kita-Tango. (1927), Sankiru Tsunami (1933), Shizuoka (1935), Tonankal (1944), Nankai (1948), Fukui (1948), Off-Tokachi (1952), Kjta-Mino (1961), Nigata (1964), Off-Tokachi (1968), Kobe (1995) – all of Japan – have also been described not so much as a part of scientific inquiry but to demonstrate the pattern and familiarity of the authors with what they are talking about.

Some of the data accumulated from aforementioned places, juxtaposed with the famous study by Nemichand has been put to productive use by the authors to make a comprehensive table of strong earthquakes of the 20th century and the date from 3,937 ,,officially recognised major abbatoirs” in different parts of India to establish further the hypothesis proprounded that earthquakes are caused by large scale animal slaughter. Some of the obiter dicta by the authors are certainly open to serious question.

The “Theory” will be Tested

The hypothesis propounded in the book will be testable very shortly when in the wake of “Mad Cow” disease afflicting cows in England resulting in an overall ban on exports of beef from England to other European Union countries there is a proposal for the ‘destruction’ of an estimated 4.5 million to 11 million cows in England. Whatever the number of cows destroyed eventually it will surely be the first time in the world anywhere that so many animals will be killed at one go. And going by the BIS Theory it must (automatically) produce a major earthquake. And going by the same, BIS analysis, England or at least neighbouring Europe can hope to have the biggest jolt in history – not figuratively but literally – in the shape of an earthquake.

From the Book

In the words of Nils Bohr, ‘Prediction is difficult, especially of the future.’ Despite this, one of the objectives of the present investigation is to explore the possibility of earthquake prediction based on well defined hard core principles.

Mathematicians and scholars can predict the tides. Then, why do they have so much trouble in predicting earthquakes? Accurate tables of the time of high or low tide can be worked out months or even years ahead. Earthquake forecasts often go wrong within a few days, sometimes within a few hours. People are accustomed to the difference. They are not surprised when a heat wave turns out to be a blizzard. In contrast, if the tide table predicted low tide but the beach was under water, there would probably be a riot. Of course, the two systems are different. The mechanism of earthquakes is extremely complex. It involves following parameters: (1) air pressure, (2) tectonic plate movement, (3) Einsteinian pain wave intensity, (4) geographical location, (5) local rate of killing of animals, (6) underground nuclear testing, (7) faultlines in the rock, (8) volcanic activity, etc. Compared to earthquakes, tides are much simpler, because they can be easily predicted.

We speak of the unpredictable aspects of earthquakes just as if we were talking about rolling dice or letting an air balloon loose to observe its erratic path as the air is ejected. Since there is no clear relationship between cause and effect, such phenomenon are said to have random elements. Yet there was little reason to doubt that precise predictability could, in principle, be achieved. This fundamental randomness has come to be called chaos.

The Global Campaign to Stop Animal Sacrifice

INDIA

New Delhi  :  Indian corruption police on Tuesday raided the home andoffices of Teesta Setalvad, a prominent human rights activist and critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)official said a team had conducted early morning searches at Setalvad’s home, the offices of her charity, the Sabrang Trust, and a third site. A CBI spokeswoman Kanchan Prasad said the raids followed “allegations of criminal conspiracy for illegal acceptance of foreign contribution without registration and prior permission from Ministry of Home Affairs”.
Since Modi swept to power almost a year ago, his Government has tightened surveillance of foreign-funded charities.

By Rohana R. Wasala

We are familiar with the case of individuals who become obsessed with some project, plan or ambition and who devote themselves to it with great enthusiasm only to give up disheartened after a short period of focused engagement with it. I think it’s a fairly common experience among people. The Japanese have a special phrase to describe this problem: the Three Day Monk Syndrome. But it can be a blessing in disguise when the projects undertaken are either too impractical to pursue or are plainly ill conceived.  The plight of some Buddhist monks who found themselves drawn into the vortex of party politics some years ago provides an example: most of those monks developed this syndrome before long and quietly returned to their monasteries. But this was a fortunate turn of events for all Sri Lankans, including particularly the Sinhalese Buddhist majority.  Parliamentary politics nowadays  is a field where even laypersons with some sense of self-respect would think twice before entering, unless they are genuinely confident that they can get elected through fair means and serve the nation honestly, or feel obligated to do so in the national interest due to some special capacity or qualification that they possess. It is not an arena for Buddhist monks (or other religious personages, for that matter) to barge in.

The involvement of monks in Sri Lankan politics as MPs will take some time to gradually diminish and altogether disappear, leaving the field clear for lay politicians to run the rowdy business of politics. Though there still are a few monks in the thick of things in parliamentary politics, and still more are threatening to take the plunge, it is unlikely that many monks will be elected to parliament at the forthcoming election (even given that they might  contrive to surf the current groundswell of  patriotic nationalism, notwithstanding the damage they are bound to cause to it). The reason for this is that the average Sinhalese Buddhist voters are wise enough to understand that sending bhikkhus to parliament is no way to solve the country’s problems, the least of which are concerned with religion; and Theravada Buddhism is not a totalitarian political religion that invariably encourages xenophobia. Our monks are its principal protectors as one of humanity’s greatest spiritual traditions in a hostile world that paradoxically needs it for survival.

This is not to argue that Buddhist monks should not have anything to do with the task of ensuring that the country is well governed and the rulers are righteous or that instead they should remain in their monasteries and confine themselves to the task of attending to the spiritual needs of the congregation, oblivious of whatever harm is done to the people through bad governance by elected rulers or through aggressive interference in the country’s  internal affairs by anti-national foreign elements . Monks  do have a vital advisory role to play for the guidance of rulers in a strictly apolitical, non-partisan, and ethical way,  just as much as leaders of other religious communities do. The reason is that the Buddhist monks represent the majority Sinhalese Buddhist community and there cannot be any genuine democracy in the country without the participation of that majority in governance. My saying this should not be misconstrued as advocating the sort of religious racism implicit in the theory of Chosen People of Zionism.

Over the millennia, Buddhist bhikkhus have had nothing to do with wielding political power. Since the bhikkhus (literally,  religious mendicants) are devoted to a spiritual goal that is considered incomparably superior to the position of the highest secular authority, that is, the ruler of the country, the latter pays obeisance to the former. Yet, the Sangha do not occupy the status of a god-king. The Sinhala Buddhist state that the historical Mahinda Thera helped found was never a Buddhist theocracy like the (now virtually defunct) Tibet of the Dalai Lama.

The official beginning of the Sinhalese Buddhist state in Sri Lanka (that was) is better documented and is more certainly known than the advent of the Sinhalese or the origin of their evolution in the island. The Buddhist state began with the arrival of Thera Mahinda with his retinue, the conversion of the king and the courtiers, and the populace, and the subsequent establishment of the sacred city (of Anuradhapura).  With the characteristic zeal of a person who had embraced an attractive new doctrine, king Devanampiyatissa, when marking out the boundaries of the Mahavihara to be built shortly on the instructions of Thera Mahinda, said to him: I will steadfastly continue within the pale of the religion of Buddha: include therefore within it the capital itself: quickly define the boundaries of the consecrated ground.” The monk asked the king to do the demarcation himself. The latter holding the plough shaft, defined the line of boundary”. Thus began a Sinhalese Buddhist Kingdom in which the king, a Buddhist, became effectively the ‘defender of the faith’ with power to purify the sasana, a power often exercised by later kings, for example, by King Gothabhaya (249-262 CE) who seized sixty of the monks at Abhayagiri who had embraced the (Mahayana) Vetulya doctrine, and excommunicated and banished them from the country according to the Mahavansa. (It is a fact that the intended or original meaning of a text gets compromised in translation. In the fragments quoted above from Geiger’s Mahavamsa translation, formal or technical terms like conversion, religion, doctrine, defender of the faith, excommunicated, etc. mean different things from what they would usually indicate in a Christian religious text. Translations are also negatively affected if the translator does not share any cultural empathy with the people to whom the work intrinsically belongs.)

Historically, then, the monks had only the power of advising the monarch in spiritual matters though these were rated higher than the secular affairs of state, but they had nothing to do with the latter subject. Even the punishment of errant monks was done by the king. The reverse was true about the relationship between the king of England Henry II (1133-1189) and Pope Alexander III. As Robert Burton describes in Wonderful Prodigies of Judgement and Mercy” (1685) this formidable medieval English king was whipped in public with a rod by each of 80 monks in the Cathedral at Canterbury in July 1174 by the order of the Pope in Rome.  The king willingly submitted to this humiliating punishment because the church held him responsible for the murder of Thomas Becket, the archbishop of Canterbury, a crime which he strongly denied having anything to do with. It was an act of penance the king performed in order to get back into of the good graces of the priests. Nothing like this ever happened in the Sinhalese Buddhist kingdom.

The oncoming parliamentary election will be as decisive for Sri Lanka as the final stage of state military operations against separatist terrorism in May 2009. The influence of Buddhist  monks on public opinion did strengthen the morale of those who fought for the country in the latter instance. But this influence was not because of any political role that monks traditionally play in the country. It derives from the traditional recognition of Buddhism and the Sangha community as an integral part of Sinhalese ethnic identity. The targeting by the terrorists of  Buddhist monks (the Arantalawa massacre, June 2, 1987) and Buddhist places of worship (Sri Maha Bodhi in Anuradhapura, May 14, 1985, the Temple of the Tooth Relic in Kandy, January 25, 1998) etc. for attack was prompted  by the knowledge of this fact.

It is good that some politically active monks have submitted nominations for the election as independents as well as in groups. The results will show whether the Sinhalese Buddhists overwhelmingly support them as politicians. Their most likely poor electoral performance  will demonstrate the true extent of monk power in Lankan politics. The Sangha, divided and rudderless as it is, will not be able to influence the final outcome of the parliamentary election to any appreciable extent; but unfortunately, they will drive voters away from the candidates they’d probably align themselves with. The poor reception of monks at the election will be good, because it will help debunk the false allegation of a rising religious fanaticism among Sinhalese Buddhists.

As a Sri Lankan who cherishes the country’s valuable Sinhalese Buddhist cultural heritage I wish to propose that the Buddhist leaders, both the clergy and the laity, work towards creating a united Sangha devoid of sectarian divisions. Let the new parliament establish a second chamber of unelected members like the House of Lords in the British Parliament, where Christian bishops are given seats. In Sri Lanka, some of the seats may be reserved for a specified number of Buddhist monks and clergy from other religions; they must be without any political affiliations. These unelected religious figures, along with other members representing non-religious non-political interest groups, can be assigned an important consultative or ratifying role in the legislature. In the case of Buddhist monks, a committee of nayake theras, can nominate suitable monks for the new chamber.  Such an arrangement will enable strengthen good governance and also reinforce religious harmony in the country. It is up to politicians to consider whether this is a workable proposition. I am submitting here this proposal and the premises on which it is based with a view to generating discussion among the concerned. Evidence supported criticism is welcome.

(This article was published in The Island/July 15, 2015. Here it is being published again with some marginal corrections.)

By M D P DISSANAYAKE

With the continuation of Devadatta  Anugulimala Maithreepala Sirisena’s back stabbing  methods, the UPFA need to devise a simple method to educate the voters immediately to identify Pro MR candidates.   MR team need to publish a list of Pro MR nominees for each district.  This list need to be published in the main media, newspapers, websites, posters etc.   Those who are black listed  must also be published for each district.  There will be some vacant spots for pro MR team as a result.

We understand that MR team has a team of Independent Candidates for each electorate, these candidates can replace the vacant spots.   These Independent candidates should be invited to attend the UPFA meetings and MR should attend their meetings in support.   Of course their symbols will be different.  In order for the masses to be able to identify these Independent Candidates with the UPFA, their posters  could display their own allocated symbol, with the photos of both MR and the candidate.  A door-to-door campaign must be undertaken to distribute a list of  Pro MR candidates (including Independents and their symbols).

We have said repeatedly that MR should not trust MS.  Now it is too late to repent.  Absence of MS in attending meetings of MR is a blessing.  Maithreepala is a disgrace to the name given to him by his parents.  He is a disgrace to Buddhism.  Maithreepala is the modern Angulimalaya.

People of Sri Lanka must be alerted.  It is also important  that the leaders like Udaya Gammanpila refrain from making election predictions of pluses and minues, to arrive at 7.1 million votes for MR.

The simple message to UPFA is:   DO NOT TRUST PRESIDENT MAITHREEPALA SIRISENA, NEVER EVER.

Statment By Manusha Nanayakkara මාධ්‍ය සම්බන්ධීකාරක

ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතා කළේ අගොස්තු 18 වැනිදාට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට සූදානමින් සිටි ප්‍රකාශය බවත් මෙම ප්‍රකාශයෙන් පසුව මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා අගමැති කිරීමේ සටන ශක්තිමත්වී ඇති බවත් ගාල්ල දිස්ත්‍රික් එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධාන හිටපු පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී මනූෂ නානායක්කාර මහතා පවසයි.

ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ විශේෂ  ප්‍රකාශය සම්බන්ධයෙන් මාධ්‍ය වෙත අදහස් දක්වමින් මනූෂ නානායක්කාර මහතා මේ බව පැවසුවේය.

වැඩිදුරටත් අදහස් දැක්වූ ඒ මහතා මෙසේද කීවේය.

මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා ඊයේ කළේ මීට කලින් කරන්න තිබුණ ප්‍රකාශයක්. ඔහු මේ ප්‍රකාශය කිරීමට සූදානමින් සිටියේ අගෝස්තු 18 වැනිදායි. එහෙත් ඔහු කලින්ම තමන්ගේ ප්‍රකාශය ඉදිරිපත් කළා.

ජනාධිපතිවරයා තමන්ගේ ස්ථාවරය කලින්ම ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කිරීම නිසා මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා අගමැතිවධූරයට පත් කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය නිවරදි පියවර ගැනීමට දැන් අපිට අවස්ථාව උදාවී තිබෙනවා. ඒ සදහා ජනතාවට අවශ්‍ය මගපෙන්වීමට හැකියාව ලැබී තිබෙනවා.

පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ පැහැදිළි බහුතරය එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස්  සන්ධානයට අගොස්තු මාසයේ 18 වැනිදා වන විට ලැබෙනවා. එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානය ජයග්‍රහණය කරවීමේදී පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට තෝරා පත් කරන මන්ත්‍රීවරු කවුරුන්දැයි යන්න තීරණය කිරීමට ජනතාවට අවස්ථාව උදාවෙනවා. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා අගමැතිවරයා බවට පත් කිරීමට සහාය ලබාදෙන මන්ත්‍රීවරු පමණක් තෝරා පත් කරගැනීමට  ජනතාවට දැන් හැකියාව ලැබී තිබෙනවා.

පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරවාහැරියේ රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතාට එරෙහිව ඉදිරිපත්වූ විශ්වාස භංග යෝජනාව නිසා  බව ජනාධිපතිවරයා පැහැදිළිව පැවසුවා.  කෝප් කමිටුව හරහා රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහත්තයා හොරෙක්, දූෂිතයෙක් බව අනාවරණය වීම වලක්වා ඔහුට දණ්ඩ මුක්තිය ලබාදීම තමයි කර තිබෙන්නේ.

ඒ වගේම මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිතුමාගේ ප්‍රකාශයත් සමග විජාතික බලවේග වලට යටවී සිටින ආණ්ඩුව පරාජය කර ජනතා හිතවාදී ආණ්ඩුවක් පිහිටුවාගැනීමේ ජනතා අවශ්‍යතාවය යළිත් මතුවී තිබෙනවා. වෙනදාටත් වඩා වැඩි හයියකින් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ  මහතා අගමැතිධූරයට පත්කිරීමේ සටන තීවෘ වී තිබෙනවා.

දහ නම වැනි ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය අනුව අගමැතිකම තමන්ට උවමනා කෙනාට ලබාදීමට හැකියාව ලැබෙන්නේ නැහැ. පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ බහුතර මන්ත්‍රී සංඛ්‍යාවක් හිමිවන කණ්ඩායමේ නායකයාට අගමැතිධූරය ලබාදිය යුතුයි. එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානය පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ බහුතරය ලබාගන්නවා. එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානයේ බහුතර මන්ත්‍රීවරු මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහත්තයා ඉල්ලා සිටි බව ජනාධිපතිවරයාම පැවසුවා. ඒ  අනුව මේ මැතිවරණයෙන් පසුව පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ බහුතරය දිනාගන්නේත් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා සමග සිටින මන්ත්‍රීවරු කණ්ඩායමක්. රටේ ජනතාව එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානය ජයග්‍රහණය කරවීමෙන් පසුව ‍අගොස්තු 18 වැනිදාට රටේ අගමැතිවරයා බවට පත්වන්නේ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතායි.

මෙම පුවතට අදාල හඩ පටයද මේ සමග එවා ඇත. මේ සදහා ප්‍රමුඛතාවය ලබාදෙමින් ඔබ මාධ්‍ය ආයතනයේ පළ කර දෙන්නේනම් අතිශය කෘතඥ වෙමි.

 කසුන් රණසිංහ

මාධ්‍ය සම්බන්ධීකාරක

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තිස්ස ගුණතිලක, සිඞ්නි නුවර සිට

අගොස්තු දහහත්වනදා මැතිවරණයට සියල්ල සූදානම්ය. තීරණය ජනතාව සතුය.  මැතිවරණය සදහා ප්‍රධාන වශයෙන් රට ත්‍රස්තවාදයෙන් මුදාගත් නායකයාත් රට ත්‍රස්තවාදිනට පාවාදුන් නායකයාත් ඉදිරිපත්වී ඇත. ඒ නිසා ජනතාවට තම තීරණය පහසුවී ඇත.

වසර 2002 දී අත්සන්කල ‘සටන් විරාම ගිවිසුම’ මගින් රටේ භූමියෙන් තුනෙන් එකකුත් මුහුදු තීරයෙන් තුනෙන් දෙකකුත් ත්‍රස්තවාදින්ගේ පාලනයට නතුකලේ රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහයි. එමගින් ත්‍රස්තවාදින්ට ස්වයංපාලන රස විඳීමට සැලැස්වූ අතර අප උතුරට යනවිට බදුගෙවීමටද සිදුවිය. එසේ එකතුකල බදුමුදල් වලින් ත්‍රස්තවාදින් තවතවත් වෙඞි උන්ඞ හා බෝම්බ මිලදීගත් අතර ඒවාට බිලිවූ  සිංහල ජීවිත අපමනය. බුද්ධි අංශ පාවාදීමෙන් ත්‍රස්තයනට දකුණට බෝමබ ගෙන ඒමටත් ජනයා වැඞියෙන් ගැවසෙන ස්ථානවල ඒවා රිසිසේ ඇටවීමත් පහසුකර දෙනු ලැබින. මේ නිසා අම්මාට  හා තාත්තාට එකම වාහනයක යාම අවදානම්  වූයේ යන වාහනය බෝම්බකට ගොඳුරැවුවහොත් තම දරැවන්ට දෙමාපියන් දෙදෙනාම නැතිවන බැවිනි. ඒසේ සිදුවූ අවස්ථාද ඉතාමත් සුලබ විය. මේ රනිල්  වසර 2002  සිට 2004 කාලය තුල රට පාලනය කර රටට හිමිකල ‘ලෙගසිය’යි. වසර 2005 මැතිවරණයෙන් මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂයන් ජය නොලබන්නටත්, පැරදවිය නොහැකියයි රනිල් හා බටහිරයන් වහසිබස්  දෙඞූ ත්‍රස්තවාදය එතුමා වසර හතරක් තුල නිම නොකරන්නටත් අපි තවමත් පාරවල්වල බස්වල කෝච්චිවල ඥතීන්ගේ කෑලි ඇහිදිමින් මිහිදන් කරමින් සිටිනා ජාතියකි. අද තරැණයින්ට මේ ව්‍යාසනය ලෙහසියෙන් අමතක නොවන්නේ ඔවුන් ගිය පාසැල් අසල හිද ත්‍රස්තවාදි බෝමබවලින් ඔවුන් රැකගනු පිනිස තම දෙමාපියන්ටත් අපමන වෙහෙසක් විදින්නට සිදුවූ බව ඔවුන් හොදාකාරවම දන්නා බැවිනි. මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂයනුත් අපේ අභීත රණවිරැවනුත් එක්ව එදා අධිෂ්ඨාන කලේ මේ ත්‍රස්තවාදි උවදුර තවත් පරම්පරාවකට උරැම නොකරන බවයි. අප අද නිදහස්ව සාමයෙන් මේ දෙරණ මත අනෙකුත් ජාතින් සමග ජීවත්වන්නේ මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂයන් එදා ක්‍රියාවටනැන්වූ ඒ අභීත නොසැලෙන තීරණය නිසාය.

ත්‍රස්තවාදය තුරන් කිරීමෙන් පසුවද එතුමා බෙදුම්වාදය තුරන්කරනු රිසියෙන් උතුරැ නැගෙනහිර දෙපලාතේ කල සංවර්ධන කටයුතු නිසා අධ්‍යා‍පන හා සෙෳඛ්‍ය පහසුකම් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ අනෙකුත් පලාත්වල හා සමානවම ඇතිවූවා පමනක් නොව රැකියා අවස්ථාද නොඅඞුව  ත්‍රස්තවාදයෙන් බැට කෑ මුඵ රටටම උදාවූ බව නොරහසකි.

මුඵ ලෝකයේම එදා මෙදා තුර බිහිවූ දරැණුම ත්‍රස්තවාදයට එඞිතරව මුහුන දෙන අප හමුදාවේ මනසිකත්වය බිඳිනු පිනිස එදා රනිල් ප්‍රමුඛ බටහිර ගැත්තන් පැවසුවේ ‘ඕනෑම ගොනෙකුට යුද්ධ කලහැකි බව’ නොවේද?

අද සයිබර් අවකාශයෙත් වායු ගෝලයෙත් මුදා හැර ඇති මුසාවාද හමුවේ මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂයන් අපටත් රටටත් දිනාදුන් ජයග්‍රහණයන් අප නිතර නිතර සිහිකල යුතුව ඇත. එම ජයග්‍රහණයන් නොතිබුනේනම් අපි අද මැතිවරණයක් පවත්වනු ඇත්තේ රටෙන් තුනෙන් දෙකක හෝ ඊටත් අඞු ප්‍රදේශයක පමනය.

මැතිවරණය පවත්වන දින දක්වා ඉදිරි මාසයක පමන කාලය තුල ඔබට වායුගෝලය හරහා විකෘතිකල කතන්දරත්  සයිබර් අවකාශය හරහා අසත්‍ය දර්ශණත් නොඅඞුව මේ බටහිර ගැති රනිල් ප්‍රමුඛ නඞය මුදාහරිනු ඇත. එමගින් අප රට බටහිරටත් ත්‍රස්තවාදයටත් එරෙහිව මෙතෙක් දිනාගත් සියඵම ජයග්‍රහණයන් ආපසු හැරවීමට උත්සාහ ගන්නවා ඇත. පසුගිය ජනවාරි අටවනදා ජනාධිපතිවරණයේදිත් මොවුන් කලේ මෙයයි. රෑ වැටුන වලේ දවාලෙත් නොවැටීමට අපි වගබලා ගනිමු.

රටට ආදරය කරන අපගේ තිරණය ඉතාමත් සරලය. එය නොයෙකුත් නිර්ණායක මත පදනම්වී සංකීර්ණ කරගත යුතු නැත.  2009 වසරේ මැයිමස දහනමවනදා සිට අද වනතුරැ අප නිදහසේ සුලඟ විඳින්නේ මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂයන් තම දිවි නොතකා ගත් ඒ අභීත තිරණය නිසයි. එදිනට පසුවද අප රට ලෝකයේ අනෙකුත් රටවල් සමග ජයමාවතක ඉදිරියටම ගියාමිස රට හෝ ජාතිය අපහසුතාවයකට පත්වන කිසිවක් මහින්ද සමයේ සිදුනොවීය. සංවර්ධනය වන රටක්ව තිබූ අප රට සංවර්ධිත රටක තත්වයට උසස් වෙමින් තිබින. පසුගිය මාස හයතුල එම ගමන තරමක් අඞාල වූවත් නැවත එදෙසට අපට පියවර මැනීමට හැකිය. ඒ සඳහා අවශ්‍යවන්නේ ඔබගේ  සරල කැමැත්ත පමනි.

පසුගිය ජනවාරි අටවනදා ජනතා තීරණයට හිස නමා ඉතාමත් නිහතමානි ලෙස රටේ නායකත්වයෙන් සමුගත්` මහින්දගේ මුවින් සෑමවිටම පිටවූයේ සෙෳම්‍යය මුදු මොලොක් වදන්මය. ඔහු කිසිවිටෙක කිසිවෙක් අපහසුතාවයට පත්කලේ නැත. අවශ්‍ය සෑමතැනකම අභීතව නැගීසිටි මහින්ද රටත් ජාතියත් රැකගත්තේ ඔහුගේම පන මෙනි. එවැන්නන් සිටිනා දෙසින් හමන සුලඟද සිහිල්ය.

ඔබට සුභ පැතුම්

තිස්ස ගුණතිලක, සිඞ්නි නුවර සිට

2015 ජූලි මස 15 වන දා

සන්ධානයේ මංගල රැලිය 17 වැනිදා අනුරාධපුරයේ පැවැත්වීමට ශ්‍රීලනිප සභාපතිද වන ජනපති එකඟවූ බවත් මැතිවරණ මෙහෙයුම් නායකයා ලෙස මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ පත් කිරීමටද ඔහු එකගවූ සන්ධාන නායකයා ඉවත් කිරීමට තීරණයක් ගෙන නැති බවද සුසිල් ප්‍රේමජයන්ත මහතා කීවේය.

සන්ධානයෙන් අපේක්ෂකයෝ 260 දෙනෙක් තරග කරනවා. මීට දෙසතියකට පෙර මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතා, මම , දිනේෂ් අනුර ප්‍රියදර්ශන යාපා කැඳවා සන්ධානයේ තීරණය අනුව මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට නාමයෝජනා දීමට එකඟවුණා.

මැතිවරණ මෙහෙයුම් කමිටු නායකයා ලෙස රාජපක්ෂ මහතා පත් කිරීමටද ජනපති එදින එකඟවුණා. ඒ අනුව පසුගිය 3 වැනිදා ඒ බව මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට දැන්වූවා. මම ලිපිය නිකුත් කළේ සන්ධානයේ එකගතාවය මත. නාම යෝජනා සකසන්නේ සහ මැතිවරණ කොමසාරිස් සමග කටයුතු කරන්නේ පක්ෂයේ ලේකම්. කවුරුන් හෝ ජාතික ලැයිස්තුවේ නම නැති ඡන්දෙට ඉදිරිපත් නොවූ කිසිවෙක්ට ජාතික ලැයිස්තු පුරප්පාඩුවට පත් කළ නොහැකියි. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ අගමැති කරවීමටඅගමැති කරවීමට තැත්කලායැයි කීම සම්පුර්ණයෙන්ම වගකීමෙන් තොර කරනලද අමු බොරුවක්.

මහ බැංකු අධිපති වැරදි බව ජනපතිගේ කථාවෙන් පැහැදිලියි. ප්‍රසිද්ධ විභාග පැවැත්වෙද්දී මැතිවරණ තියන්නේ නෑ. නමුත් මෙවර උසස් පෙළ විභාග සමයේ මැතිවරණය තිබෙනවා. එක දශමයක් වුණත් දරුවන්ට වැදගත්.

අගමැති බේරාගැනීමේ පරම පවිත්‍ර චේතනාවෙන් දරුවන්ගේ අනාගතේ නොසලකා ඡන්දය දැම්මා. අගමැතිවරයෙක් බේරාගන්න දරුවන්ගේ අනාගතේ උකස් කරන ආණ්ඩුවකින් අනාගතේ ඇති පලේ මොකක්ද? අගෝස්තු 18 අපි නියත ලෙසම ආණ්ඩුවක් පිහිටුවනවා.

මාධ්‍ය හමුව ඇමතූ ශ්‍රීලනිප ලේකම් අනුර ප්‍රියදර්ශන යාපා මහතා මෙසේ පැවසීය.

‘අපේ ප්‍රධාන අරමුණ එජාපය පරාජය කිරීමයි. තරුණ සේවා සභාවේ වාහන 52ක් මේ ආණ්ඩුව ඡන්දෙට යොදාගෙන තියෙනවා. රාජ්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අද එක අන්තයක් අරගෙන. අපේ කාලයේ රජයේ වාහන ඡන්දෙට භාවිතා කළේ ඉතා අඩුවෙන්. ඩලස් කච්චේරියෙන් එළියට එද්දී තර්ජනය කළා. මන්ත්‍රීන්ගේ ආරක්ෂාව අඩු කළා. ඇමැතිවරු කිහිපදෙනෙක්ට විශේෂ කාර්ය බළකායේ ආරක්ෂාව යොදාගෙන තිබෙනවා. අද ශ්‍රීලනිපය එකමුතු වෙලා. ජනපතිගේ ප්‍රකාශය ගැන ඔහුගෙන් අහන්න. ජනපතිගේ ප්‍රකාශය ගැන පක්ෂයේ මධ්‍යම කාරක සභාවේදී තීරණය කරනවා. එළියේ කථා කරන්න කැමති නෑ‘

‘ජනපතිගේ ප්‍රකාශයෙන් මා කම්පාවට පත්වුණා.. ඔහු එජාප නායකයා බේරාගන්න පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසිරෙව්වා කිව්වා. ලෝක දේශපාලනයේ පළවැනි වතාවටයි එක පක්ෂ නායකයෙක් තවත පක්ෂෙක නායකයකු බේරාගැනීමට කටයුතු කළ බව කිව්වේ‘ යැයි මාධ්‍ය හමුව ඇමතූ ඩලස් අලහප්පෙරුම මහතා පැවසීය.

‘මහින්ද පරදින බව ජනපති කිව්වත් අපි කියන්නේ ඔහු දිනන බවයි.‘ මෙහිදී සුසිල් ප්‍රේමජයන්ත මහතා මාධ්‍යවේදීන් නැගූ පැනයකට පිළිතුරු දෙමින් පැවසීය.

Courtesy Lankadveepa

ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂ සභාපති පදවිය භාර ගැනීමට ගත් තීරණය නිවැරදි බව ජනපති අද විශේෂ ප්‍රකාශය අරඹින් කීවේය.

ටෙලිෆ්‍රොම්ටර ආධාරකයක් නොමැතිව ජනපති කතා කළේය.

මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ සභාපති වූයේ නම් සුළුතර රජයේ දින සියයේ වැඩපිළිවෙළට සහාය නොදෙනු ඇතැයි ද, එමගින් මහජනයාට යහපතක් නොවනු ඇතැයි ද ජනපති කීවේය.

‘පසුගිය දෙසතියේ දී මා තරම් ප්‍රහාරයට ලක්වූ වෙනත් කිසිදු ජනපතිවරයකු නෑ. දුෂ්ඨයා, පාවාදෙන්නා යනුවෙන් මට චෝදනා කළා. මෙවැනි දේ පළ කිරීමට පුවත් පත් නිදහස අප රටේ තිබෙනවා. ද්‍රෝහියා යැයි මට චෝදනා කරන අයට මම කියන්නේ අද රටේ ඇති ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදයේ තරම කවරාකාරදැයි ප්‍රායෝගිකව සොයා බලන ලෙසයි.

මේ විදියට ජනවාරි අට වැනි දාට පෙර ජනපතිට කතා කළා නම් ඔවුනට සිදුවන දේ මා අමුතුවෙන් කිව යුතු නෑ.

මහ බැංකු අධිපති අර්ජුන් මහේන්ද්‍රන් අස් වුණොත් හොඳ නේදැයි මම අගමැති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතාගෙන් ඇසුවා. ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුවේ බැඳුම්කර ප්‍රශ්නය ගැන මතු වූ අවස්ථාවේ රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ අගමැතිට මම කිව්වේ ඔබට රටේ හොඳ නමක් තිබෙනවා. එහෙයින් බැංකු අධිපතිට ඉල්ලා අස්වෙන ලෙස කියන්න යනුවෙන්.

මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ අනාගතයේ දී දිගටම පරාජය වෙනවා. යළි පරදිනවා. ජනවාරිට අට වැනි දා පරාජය වුණා වගේ. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂට නාමයෝජනා දීම ගැන මම තදින්ම විරුද්ධ වුණා.‘

‘වැරැද්ද මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂගේ නොවෙයි. ජේ ආර් (ජයවර්ධන) ඇති කළ ක්‍රමයේ වරදයි. එක එක්කෙනාට බනින්න එපා. වැරැද්ද තියෙන්නේ මේ ක්‍රමයේයි.

2010 මැතිවරණයේ දී ජය ගැනීමට එජාපයට බැරි වුණා. ඊට පෙර දිනා ගත් ආසන රැක ගන්න බැරි වුණා.

මම අනාගත වත්‍රෘවරයෙක් නොවෙමි. එහෙත් ඉතිහාසය පදනම් කරගෙන අනාගතේ සිදුවන දේ මට කිව හැකියි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය කඩා බේද බින්න කිරීමට මට ඕනෑ කමක් තිබුණේ නෑ. පක්ෂ සභාපති කමෙන් අයින් වෙන්න පියවර ගත්තෙත් නෑ. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂට නාම යෝජනා දීමට එරෙහිව මම ලිඛිතව විරෝධය පළ කළා. මට ඕනෑ මගේ ප්‍රතිපත්ති ඉදිරියට ගෙන යන පාර්ලිමේන්තුවක්. ජනවාරි අට වැනි දා ඡන්දය ජය ගත්තේ ඒ පොරොන්දුව මතයි. එහි දී පක්ෂය කුමක්දැයි මම කල්පනා කළේ නෑ. රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතාගේ රජය ගිලී යනු දැකීමට මට ඕනෑ කමක් තිබුණේ නෑ. අගමැතිට එරෙහිව විශ්වාස භංග යෝජනාව ඉදිරිපත් වූ පසු පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසිරැවූයේ ඒ නිසයි.  ඔවුන්ගේ සැලසුම වූයේ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානයේ ජාතික ලැයිස්තුවෙන් මන්ත්‍රීවරයකු කර අගමැතිකම ඔහුට බාර දීමයි. ඒ සියලු උත්සාහයන් මා පරාජය කළා.

මම විවේචනයට විවෘතයි. විවේචනය මා අගය කරනවා.

මට ඕනෑ මහා මැතිවරණයක්. ඡන්දයක් දිගා ගැනීමට උත්සාහ කරන පක්ෂයක් නොවෙයි. ජනවාරි අට වැනි දා මම රටට දුන් ප්‍රතිපත්ති පළිපදින රජයක් මට ඕනෑ.

මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ සමඟ මගේ ඇයි හොඳයියක් නෑ. ඔහුට එරෙහි මගේ ස්ථාවරය එහෙමමයි. එහි වෙනසක් නෑ. මම මහින්ද රජපක්ෂට විරුද්ධයි. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ දැන් උත්සාහ කරන්නේ අගමැති වීමටයි. ශ්‍රීලනිපය ඡන්දයෙන් ජයගත්තොත් අගමැතිකමට පත් කිරීම සඳහා ඕනෑ තරම් ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨයන් ඉන්නවා.

මේ ඡන්දයේ දී මම මධ්‍යස්ථව ඉන්නවා.සාධාරණ හා නිදහස් මැතිවරණයක් පැවැත්වීමට බලධරයනට උදව් කරනවා.

ඔබ වෙනුවෙන් දිනා දුන් ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය නැති කර ගන්න එපා. ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය අපහරණය කරන්න එපා..‘

S . Akurugoda

The country’s electorates have been taken for rides  in the past by power hungry politicians who used  eye-catching  slogans  such as ‘Dharmister Samajaya‘ (A  just society’ ),  ‘Samaya‘ (Peace’)’ , ‘Pivithuru Hetak‘ (‘Just and Fair  society for better tomorrow’) , Yahapalanaya‘  (‘Good Governanace’) etc. and the  consequences were disastrous in some cases .

‘A just Society’ of J.R. Jayawardane  and R. Premadasa

The main slogan of the 1977 election was to establish a ‘Dharmister Samajaya‘. While preaching ‘Dharmister Samajaya‘, J.R. Jayawardane  (J.R.J) vowed to provide leave to policemen for one week, soon after the election. As a result, assaulting and destroying properties of families who voted for the SLFP were carried out by organised mobs soon after the election results were announced,  a situation which was not seen before during our lifetime.

J.R.J obtained undated resignation letters from his Party MPs, soon after the election, and used them as his ‘yes’ men throughout out his rule.  The only parliamentarian who escaped from that trap was Mr Gamini Jayasuriya who opposed J.R.-Rajiv Pact and had the guts to resign and go home when the government  presented the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in the parliament.

Political victimisation was at its highest level .  A typical example was the appointment of a so-called  special commission, instead of following the courtiers normal legal procedures for any wrong doings, , to deprive the civil rights of former Prime Minister Mrs Bandaranaike and her close associates.

In July 1980,  over 43,000 workers lost their jobs for taking part in a strike organised by their trade unions. In addition, beating opponents with bicycle chains was introduced to suppress the freedom of expression. One could ask the question, remembering how personalities like Prof. Ediriweera Sarachchandra were beaten up when participating in a protest rally, whether anyone had the freedom of expression when the ‘bicycle chain’ culture was at its peak? One could also ask how the Supreme Court judges were humiliated for exercising their judicial freedom by delivering a right judgement in favour of Mrs Vivienne Goonawardane.

Soon after the next Presidential election held in 1982,  Vijaya Kumarathunge  was jailed under the emergency regulations by J.R J for allegedly being a “Naxalite“, without  any evidences. The referendum held, soon after the Presidential election (instead of dissolving the Parliament) is one of the worst election held in since independence.

J.R.J government removed the security forces from the coastal areas of the Northern and Eastern provinces in order to please the Tamil politicians, disregarding the  importance of national security, as a result of underestimating the establishment  of routes of separatism  in those areas with the assassination of Alfred Duraiappah, a former MP and Mayor  of Jaffna in 1975.  The J.R.J turned a blind eye on the strengthening of the separatist movement until 13 soldiers were ambushed and killed by the LTTE in July 1983.

The LTTE commenced their attack on civilians in 1987 with the Pettah Bus Station bombing which killed 113 civilians and continued their massacres  until 2009. The evils of  terrorism continued for decades with loss of several thousand of lives (including those of innocent civilians), almost daily in addition to the loss of  billions worth of properties.

The country experienced  a ‘Bheesanaya‘ (rule of terror), the orgy of killings where around 65,000 lives were lost, disappearances that swept southern parts of the country in the late 80s when government-backed death squads put down the insurrection of the JVP  amidst  the evils terrorism of the Tamil separatist groups of the northern and eastern parts,   another situation which was not seen before  during our life time.  Youths were killed , either beheaded or burnet live  with tyres around their necks, almost daily during that time.

As per the report released on 12 April 1998 by the ‘Special Presidential Commission of Inquiry Act’ (a fact-finding mission and had no judicial powers) to investigate activities of Batalanda, recommended to the government to bring the guilty to book”. One of its findings was that Wickremesinghe and the SSP Nalin Delgoda, are indirectly responsible for the maintenance of places of unlawful detention and torture chambers in houses at the Batalanda Housing Scheme”. It further stated that Wickremesinghe held unauthorised meetings of police officers involved in counter-insurgency operations in the housing complex, and that as such, he had abused his authority”. However, no criminal proceedings took pace thereafter for some unknown reason.

A large quantity of military weapons were handed over to the LTTE by the Premadasa regime as part of a secret deal and the LTTE used weapons given by Premadasa to kill hundreds of police officers in the Eastern province in 1991.

‘Peace and Good Governance’ of Chandrika and Ranil

Chandrika Kumaratunga, who came to power hijacking SLFP in 1994,   was of no difference.  She attempted her best to give ‘self rule’ to the terrorist outfit under the guise of a ‘Peace Package’. She, having won the 1994 presidential election, offered the entire Northern Province to LTTE Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran for a period of ten years without elections in a bid to appease him.

The deteriorating national and the individual security invariably provided a greater room for the intervention of opportunistic foreign hands. The signing of P-TOMS  by Chandrika to share tsunami relief with Prabhakaran  and establishing so-called dubious Peace Facilitators and Co-Chairs to administer the country’s internal affairs etc were typical examples of  such  exploitation of the opportunities until 2005.

The signing of the so-called peace agreement of Ranil -Prabhakaran, allowed LTTE to have their own areas of administration, police, armed forces, court of law etc and the then government of Sri Lanka gave the terrorist outfit   an unprecedented recognition.

None of the above pacts or so-called solutions promoted by the interveners helped us to achieve the preached peace or security but enhanced routes of terrorism and separatism  leading to the creation of  ‘an unofficial state’ in the LTTE held areas. Had that so-called ‘Peace’ process continued, unopposed, the country would have been divided long ago with a formation of a country called Eelam under the rule of Prabhakaran and Sri Lanka under the rule of a puppet regime of the West.

The country was almost at the verge  of separation on racial basis until the Precedential election held in 2005.  The elected President of 2005, Mahinda Rajapaksa gave the necessary political leadership to defeat the decades long terrorism and to re-establish peace, national security and the unitary state of the country while preserving the national identity by leaving no room for those opportunistic foreign elements  for further involvement in the internal affairs of the  country.

‘Just and Fair  society for better tomorrow’ and ‘Good Governance’ of Maithripala and Ranil

Although the current regime’s main slogan before the Presidential election was to create ‘Yahapalanaya’ by prosecuting the culprits of corruption, it adopted ad-hoc measures to cover up its failure to furnish incriminating evidence it claimed to have in its possession against its opponents before the presidential election. The formation of the so-called Fraud & Corruption Investigation Division  (FCID ) under the instructions of Ranil Wickramasinghe, who was once found guilty of abusing his  authority  by the ‘Special Presidential Commission of Inquiry Act’ to investigate activities of Batalanda (as stated above), is highly questionable.

Worse, it had Parliament dissolved when it felt its interests were being threatened vis-à-vis corruption charges against its leaders including Ranil Wickramasinghe and Ravi Karunanayake!  All those who aborted the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) report on the Central Bank bond scam by dissolving Parliament  and not heeding  former COPE Chairmen’s   call for using his executive powers to initiate action thereon have no moral right to advocate good governance and campaign for the next election on an anti-corruption platform.

The Wele Suda circus has been suspended. The CID has, during the past few months, taken into custody suspects with bogus NICs etc, but nobody has been arrested on the basis of Wele Suda’s confessions. Is it that the police consider drug dealing a lesser offence than forging NICs?

With the change of government in last January, incidences of dismantling or reduction of several High Security Zones and Defence Establishments in the North and East of Sri Lanka have been reported, jeopardising the country’s national security.

The policy of reducing the high security zones, closure of defence forces camps, confining troops to barracks, the release of LTTE cadres suspected of criminal activities and proposal to remove the ban imposed on LTTE front organisations and individuals with LTTE links  functioning in foreign soils under the guise of so-called reconciliation  appear to be an attempt to appease the LTTE lobby and other assorted internal and external political forces, especially the opportunistic foreign hands  who were behind the regime change.

The current government’s proclamation that singing the  national Anthem  in both Sinhala and Tamil during national ceremonies is a gross violation of the country’s Constitution and its aim  to make a new National Flag to be used during national ceremonies is an another attempt to degrade the national identity.

Time to think and act wisely

Thus the basic question we have in front of us today is whether we are prepared to go back to the 1977-2005 era or to go ahead with the peace and prosperity achieved since then up to the January 8th of this year.

Henceforth, it is the duty of the peace-loving patriotic general public of Sri Lanka,  regardless of their party affiliations,  to cast their much valued vote to ensure in protecting the national security and identity, remembering those   heroic men and women of the Sri Lankan security forces who fought to re-establish peace, national security and the unitary state of the country.

S . Akurugoda

ශ්‍යාම් නුවන් ගනේවත්ත Devaina

මහ බැංකුවේ භාණ්‌ඩාගාර බැඳුම්කර වංචාව ලංකා ඉතිහාසයේ මෙතෙක්‌ සිදුවූ විශාලතම හොරකම බවත් ඒ පිටුපස සිටින මහ මොළකරු ඇතුළු වගකිව යුත්තන්ට, කෙතරම් ඉහළ තනතුරුවල සිටින අය වුවත් දඬුවම් කළ යුතුව ඇති බවත් ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුවේ හිටපු අධිපති අජිත් නිවාඩ් කබ්රාල් මහතා ඊයේ (14 දා) කොළඹ පැවැති ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවකදී කීවේය.

මෙහි පැහැදිලි සොරකමක්‌ සිදුවී තිබෙන බවද එය ඔප්පු කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය සියලු දත්ත තිබෙන බවද මහ බැංකු හිටපු අධිපතිවරයා කීවේය.

කොළඹ 05 ලොන්ඩන් පෙදෙසේ අංක 30/51A දරන ස්‌ථානයේදී ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවක්‌ පැවැත්විණි.

මේ රටේ මෙතෙක්‌ සිදුවූ දැවැන්තම මගඩිය මෙම භාණ්‌ඩාගාර බැඳුම්කර වංචාවයි. මේ වන විට එම අහිතකර බැඳුම්කර නිකුතුව නිසා රජයට සිදුව ඇති පාඩුව රු. කෝටි 5900 කට අධිකයි.

මීට අමතරව බැඳුම්කර නිකුතුව ඉතා ඉහළ වට්‌ටමකට යටත්ව සිදුකිරීම නිසා රු. මිලියන 291 ක අලාභයක්‌ දැරීමටත් රජයට සිදු වුණා. රජය මේ අලාභය පිළිබඳව කිසිදු සැලකීමකින් තොරව කටයුතු කරන අතර අදාළ බලධාරීන් මෙම වංචනික ගනුදෙනුව සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම නිවැරැදි එකක්‌ ලෙස නිරූපණය කිරීමට උත්සාහ ගනිමින් සිටින බවද අජිත් නිවාඩ් කබ්රාල් මහතා කීවේය.

මේ බැඳුම්කර මගඩිය නිසා මේ වන විට සිදුව ඇති පාඩුව, ගාල්ලේ සිට මාතර දක්‌වා අධිවේගී මාර්ග තුනක්‌ හැදීමට සමාන මුදලක්‌ බවත්, මෙය අධ්‍යාපන හා උසස්‌ අධ්‍යාපන යන අමාත්‍යංශ දෙකේම වැය ශීර්ෂයටත් වඩා අධික මුදලක්‌ බවත් හෙතෙම පැවසීය.

තවමත් මේ රටේ සිදුව ඇති ලොකුම පාඩුව පොලිස්‌ මූල්‍ය අපරාධ කොට්‌ඨාසයට යොමුව නැහැ.

එය නීති විරෝධී ආයතනයක්‌ බවට අධිකරණය ඉදිරියේ අභියෝගයට ලක්‌කර ඇති නිසා මේ බැඳුම්කර වංචාව ගැන පොලිස්‌ මූල්‍ය අපරාධ කොට්‌ඨාසයට පැමිණිලි කිරීමට අදහස්‌ නොකරන අතර ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ගත හැකි වෙනත් නීතිමය පියවර ගන්නා බවත් අජිත් නිවාඩ් කබ්රාල් මහතා තවදුරටත් කීවේය.

මෙම ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවට හිටපු අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ලේකම් එස්‌. අමරසේකර, ශ්‍රී ලංකා සුරැකුම්පත් හා විනිමය කොමිසමේ හිටපු සභාපති උදය ශ්‍රී කාරියවසම් සහ රාජ්‍ය උකස්‌ හා ආයෝජන බැංකුවේ හිටපු සභාපති ජගත් වැල්ලවත්ත යන මහත්වරුද සහභාගි වූහ.

Lankacnews

පසුගියදා ශ‍්‍රි ලංකා මහ බැංකුව විසින් සිදු කල බැඳුම්කර වෙන්දේසියේදී සිදුව ඇතැයි කියන අක‍්‍රමිකතාව සම්බන්ධයෙන් ගෙවිඳු කුමාරතුංග මහතා ගාල්ලේදී පැවති සම්මන්ත‍්‍රණයකදී අදහස් පල කලේ මෙසේය.

Courtesy LBO

July 14, 2015 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s GDP growth rate in the past two years have been disturbed by a sinister action of politicians, former Governor of the Central Bank charged.

Former Governor of the Central Bank Ajith Nivard Cabraal speaking at a special press briefing told reporters Tuesday that the new growth rate of 9.1 percent for 2012 is not a reasonable number.

2012 was a year where the economy was deliberately controlled to some extent; with the credit squeeze that we had as well as the rupee being allowed to depreciate further; So there were certain controls,” Cabraal said.

So that year the growth could have not gone up from 6.3 percent to 9.1 percent. It’s not reasonable. So the growth actually would have taken place in the latter years,”

The growth rate in 2013 and 2014 has now been disturbed. That is where I see some political action.”

The statistics department recently released new GDP figures after rebasing its estimates from 2002 to 2010.

The growth rate for last year has been reduced from 7.4 percent to 4.5 percent and the growth in 2013 has been reduced from 7.2 percent to 3.4 percent.

In 2013 and 2014 there is an economic activity that has not been captured. The totality of our GDP was understated by about 600 billion. Now it was captured and it’s fine,”

But when allocating this growth, I think it has all gone into 2012 instead of being taken some part into 2013 and 2014. I see a little bit of sinister action there,” Cabraal further said.

Former Deputy Minister of Policy Planning Harsha de Silva holding a press conference earlier stated that the significant reduction in growth rate numbers was the reason behind the delay of changing the base year in due time.

Usually the base year should be revised once in five years with the view of reflecting the changes in the economy.

Related Stories:

Sri Lanka’s growth rate numbers reduced in last two years with new base year change

Sri Lanka projects have to be reassessed to reflect realistic numbers with GDP change: Harsha

ධර්මසිරි සෙනෙවිරත්න

             පිලි කනු ගානේ  හැංගී රෑට රෑ.ට  සමහරු කහින්නේ හොර ගෑනි එලියට එන තුරුය .කසාද ගෑනිට කියන්නේ වත්තේ පිටියේ ඇවිදින්න යනවා කියාය .ශ්‍රීලනිප කසාදගෑ නිට එසේ  එදා  කොලේ වැ සු මයිත්ත්රී එජාප හොර ගෑනි සමග තමන්ට ඇති සම්බන්ධකම දැන් එළිපිටම කියය් .   නලින්ද සිල්වා  මහින්ද මයිත්ත්රී එකමුතුවට මේ තරම් විරුද්ධ වුනේ  මයිත්ත්හ්රී ගේ එම රහස් සම්බන්ධකම් ටක්කෙට    ම     ”’ප්‍රත්යක්ෂයෙන්ම   දනසිටිනිසාය  ” දැන් මහින්ද  අන්තිම අමාරුවේය . මහින්ද  චන්දයේ නායකයා කරන්නට ඉල්ලු බොහෝ ය එසේකලේ මහින්ද නැතුව තමන්ට මන්ත්‍රීකම ලබාගත නොහැකි නිසා මිස ම්මහින්ද අවශ්‍ය කමට නොවේ තමන්ට වෙනත් මගක් තිබුනේ නම් උන් එමග යනු ඇත .මාහින්ද මගින් දිනා මහින්ද අතරමන් කර උන් බොහෝ දෙනෙක්  වාසි පැත්තට යන බව සිකුරුය  මහින්දට ඉතුරුවෙන්නේ අතලොස්සකි .මහබැංකු ලෝල්ලයේ  කොටි ගණන් මුදල් මගින් මන්ත්‍රීවරු මිලට ගනු ඇත .  මිනිස්සු පාරට බස වීදි සටන් වල යෙදුනොත් බටලන්ද වාදක ගාරය වහාම විවුර්ත්කිරීමට ජනාධිපති රනිල් ට  කතා කරගෙන ඇත  මේ සදහා . සියලු බට හිරයොත් ඉන්දියාවත්  තවත් අමතර මුදල් පොම්ප කරනු ඇත . දැනටමත් එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සංගමය ඩොලර් මිලියන තුන්සියගනනක්  උතුරේවැඩට ටයය් කියා වෙන් කර ඇත .  සිංහල ජාතියත් බෞධ්ධයිනුත් වඳ කර දමා මිස  උන් නැවත ආපස්සට යන්නේ නැත මුන් සටන් කරන්නේ දුටු ගැමුණු මෙන් රි ජු සටන් නොවේ හැංගී සිටිමින් සේනාවට බොරුවලවල්  කපමින්.එකිනෙකා ඇද   වැටෙන හැටි බලමින් ඉතිරි වෙන උන්  ගේ  අන්ගචේදනය කරමින්  උන් අබ්බගාතයින් කරමින් ය .

 හරි හමන් සටන්කරුවෝ නම් රටේ අනාගතය  ගැන හිතන්නෝ නම්  කලයුත්තේ  ජනමතය නිවැරදිව ගණන් බලීමය් . මයිත්ත්රී කලේ මහින්ද ඇතුළු 58 ල ක්ෂයක් රවටීමට ලක් කල නොසන්ඩාල නො හොබිනා වැඩකිමෙහෙම වැඩ කරන ජනපති කෙනෙක් සිටීම රටකට අග්ව්රවයකි

                                        මහින්ද ට සාපේක්ෂව බලන විට රනිල් යනු ප්‍රසිද්ධ  ගාතකයෙකි  මිනිසුන් පමණක් නොව රටද කැබලි කල එකෙකි  අබෞධ්ධයෙකි සිංහලයන්ට විරුද්ධ එකෙකි . ඉතිහාසය දන්නෝ මේවා දනිත්. දැන් කල යුත්තේ මහින්ද  වාදීන්  හැර වෙනත් ස්රිලනිපයන්ට චන්දය නොදී මහින්ද වාදීන් පමණක්  දිනවීමට කටයුතු කිරීමය් .  මහින්ද නලින් ලාට ඇහුම්කන් නොදීමෙන්   අමාරුවේ වැටී ඇත .  එහෙත් අපි මහින්ද තනි නොකරමු .කෙසේ හෝ මහින්ද ගලවා ගනිමු වෙනත් දේශප්‍රේමියෙක් එනතුරු මහින්ද රක ගත යුතුය  එහෙත් දැන් නම් එ ය   ලේසි  වැඩක් නොවේ . උතුරට පුර්ණ බලති පාලනයක් දුන්නොත්  එදා සිට  මුළු ලංකාවම දෙමලුන්ගේය .රනිල් ඒ ද්‍රෝහී වැඩේ කරන වාමය . සිහලුනි  අසනිදිගට හැර බලවු
එසැන පුවත් ——-අගෝස්තු 15 දින ”බටලන්ද වදකාගාරය ”’යලි විවුර්ත කිරීමට තීරණය කෙරේ
ධර්මසි රි සෙනෙවිරත්න

             පිලි කනු ගානේ  හැංගී රෑට රෑ.ට  සමහරු කහින්නේ හොර ගෑනි එලියට එන තුරුය .කසාද ගෑනිට කියන්නේ වත්තේ පිටියේ ඇවිදින්න යනවා කියාය .ශ්‍රීලනිප කසාදගෑ නිට එසේ  එදා  කොලේ වැ සු මයිත්ත්රී එජාප හොර ගෑනි සමග තමන්ට ඇති සම්බන්ධකම දැන් එළිපිටම කියය් .   නලින්ද සිල්වා  මහින්ද මයිත්ත්රී එකමුතුවට මේ තරම් විරුද්ධ වුනේ  මයිත්ත්හ්රී ගේ එම රහස් සම්බන්ධකම් ටක්කෙට    ම     ”’ප්‍රත්යක්ෂයෙන්ම   දනසිටිනිසාය  ” දැන් මහින්ද  අන්තිම අමාරුවේය . මහින්ද  චන්දයේ නායකයා කරන්නට ඉල්ලු බොහෝ ය එසේකලේ මහින්ද නැතුව තමන්ට මන්ත්‍රීකම ලබාගත නොහැකි නිසා මිස ම්මහින්ද අවශ්‍ය කමට නොවේ තමන්ට වෙනත් මගක් තිබුනේ නම් උන් එමග යනු ඇත .මාහින්ද මගින් දිනා මහින්ද අතරමන් කර උන් බොහෝ දෙනෙක්  වාසි පැත්තට යන බව සිකුරුය  මහින්දට ඉතුරුවෙන්නේ අතලොස්සකි .මහබැංකු ලෝල්ලයේ  කොටි ගණන් මුදල් මගින් මන්ත්‍රීවරු මිලට ගනු ඇත .  මිනිස්සු පාරට බස වීදි සටන් වල යෙදුනොත් බටලන්ද වාදක ගාරය වහාම විවුර්ත්කිරීමට ජනාධිපති රනිල් ට  කතා කරගෙන ඇත  මේ සදහා . සියලු බට හිරයොත් ඉන්දියාවත්  තවත් අමතර මුදල් පොම්ප කරනු ඇත . දැනටමත් එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සංගමය ඩොලර් මිලියන තුන්සියගනනක්  උතුරේවැඩට ටයය් කියා වෙන් කර ඇත .  සිංහල ජාතියත් බෞධ්ධයිනුත් වඳ කර දමා මිස  උන් නැවත ආපස්සට යන්නේ නැත මුන් සටන් කරන්නේ දුටු ගැමුණු මෙන් රි ජු සටන් නොවේ හැංගී සිටිමින් සේනාවට බොරුවලවල්  කපමින්.එකිනෙකා ඇද   වැටෙන හැටි බලමින් ඉතිරි වෙන උන්  ගේ  අන්ගචේදනය කරමින්  උන් අබ්බගාතයින් කරමින් ය .

 හරි හමන් සටන්කරුවෝ නම් රටේ අනාගතය  ගැන හිතන්නෝ නම්  කලයුත්තේ  ජනමතය නිවැරදිව ගණන් බලීමය් . මයිත්ත්රී කලේ මහින්ද ඇතුළු 58 ල ක්ෂයක් රවටීමට ලක් කල නොසන්ඩාල නො හොබිනා වැඩකිමෙහෙම වැඩ කරන ජනපති කෙනෙක් සිටීම රටකට අග්ව්රවයකි

                                           මහින්ද ට සාපේක්ෂව බලන විට රනිල් යනු ප්‍රසිද්ධ  ගාතකයෙකි  මිනිසුන් පමණක් නොව රටද කැබලි කල එකෙකි  අබෞධ්ධයෙකි සිංහලයන්ට විරුද්ධ එකෙකි . ඉතිහාසය දන්නෝ මේවා දනිත්. දැන් කල යුත්තේ මහින්ද  වාදීන්  හැර වෙනත් ස්රිලනිපයන්ට චන්දය නොදී මහින්ද වාදීන් පමණක්  දිනවීමට කටයුතු කිරීමය් .  මහින්ද නලින් ලාට ඇහුම්කන් නොදීමෙන්   අමාරුවේ වැටී ඇත .  එහෙත් අපි මහින්ද තනි නොකරමු .කෙසේ හෝ මහින්ද ගලවා ගනිමු වෙනත් දේශප්‍රේමියෙක් එනතුරු මහින්ද රක ගත යුතුය  එහෙත් දැන් නම් එ ය   ලේසි  වැඩක් නොවේ . උතුරට පුර්ණ බලති පාලනයක් දුන්නොත්  එදා සිට  මුළු ලංකාවම දෙමලුන්ගේය .රනිල් ඒ ද්‍රෝහී වැඩේ කරන වාමය . සිහලුනි  අසනිදිගට හැර බලවු    

නලින් ද සිල්වා

මෙරට පැවැත්වෙන තීරණාත්මක ම මැතිවරණය ආරම්භ වී ඇත. රටේ ස්වෛරිභාවය ඒකීයත්වය ආදිය අගොස්තු 17 වැනි දා තීරණය වනු ඇත.සියළු දේශීය හා විදේශීය විජාතික බලවේග මහින්දට විරුද්ධ ව පෙළ ගැසී ඇත. රාජ්‍ය නොවන ගැත්තෝ මහින්දට විරුද්ධ ව කුරුණෑගල ගෙන් ගෙට යති. බටහිර හා ඉන්දීය ඔත්තුසේවා නිලධාරීහු සිය අමන කාර්යයන්හි යෙදී සිටිති. චම්පක වැන්නන්ගේ රෙදි පිළි ගැළවී අහසේ පාවී යයි. රතන හිමියන්ගේ හා ඕමල්පේ හිමියන්ගේ බොරු කතාවලින් උන්වහන්සේලාගේ පාවාදීම වසාගත නො හැකි ය. එක්සත් ජනතා සංධානයේ ලැයිස්තුවල දේශප්‍රේමීන්ට අමතරව ද්‍රෝහියෝ ද සිටිති. එක්සත් ජනතා සංධානයේ ජාතික ලැයිස්තුව අච්චාරුවකි. එහි ඉන්දීය ඔත්තු සේවාවේ අය ද චන්ද්‍රිකාගේ නියෝජිතයෝ ද මෛත්‍රිපාලගේ නියෝජිතයෝ ද මහින්දගේ නියෝතජියෝ ද වෙති. ඝාතනය කෙරුණු ශ්‍රී ල නි පක්‍ෂයට පැහැදිලි නායකත්වයක් නැත. 

මේ සියල්ලන්, ශ්‍රී ල නි පක්‍ෂයේ චන්ද්‍රිකා, එස් බී, මෛත්‍රිපාල ආදී ඇතැමුන් ද ඇතුළුව, මහින්දට විරුද්ධ වන්නේ ඊනියා දූෂණ, භීෂණ ආදිය නිසා නොවන බව කුඩා දරුවකුට වුවත් අවබෝධ විය යුතු ය. එ ජා පක්‍ෂයේ එක් දූෂිතයකුවත් සොයා ගැනීමට නොහැකි තරමට ඒ පක්‍ෂය පිරිසිදු ද? රනිල් කෙතරම් වෑයම් කළත් මහා බැංකු වංචාව වසන් කිරීමට නො හැකි ය. රනිල්ගේ මට්ටමේ වංචාවක් කළ අයකු මෙරට ඉතිහාසයේ නැත. අප කලින් ද කියා ඇති පරිදි සංධානයෙන් දූෂණ සිදු වී ඇතැයි උපකල්පනය කළ ද රටේ වටිනාකම අමිළ හෙයින් දෙමළ ත්‍රස්තවාදය පරාජය කීිරීමෙන් සංධානයෙන් සිදු වී ඇති සේවය සමග සැසඳීමේ දී ඒ ඊනියා දූෂණ නොගිණිය හැකි වෙයි. එහෙත් රනිල්ගේ පාවාදීම්, ප්‍රභාකරන් සමග ඇති කළ ඊනියා සටන් විරාම ගිවිසුමේ සිට ඊයේ පෙරේදා බලය බෙදීමට ඔහු එකඟත්වය පළකිරීම දක්වා, සැලකුවහොත් ඔහුගෙන් රටට සිදු වී ඇති අයහපත දහස් ගුණයකින් වැඩි වෙයි. 

සියළු විජාතික බලවේගවලට අවශ්‍ය මහින්ද පැරදවීම මිස ශ්‍රී ල නි ප හෝ සංධානය හෝ පැරදවීම නො වේ. මහින්ද නැති ශ්‍රි ල නි පක්‍ෂයක් නැති බව දහස් වරක් පෙනී ගොස් ඇත. අද ඇත්තේ ශ්‍රී ල නි ප හෝ එ ජ නි ස හෝ මැතිවරණ ව්‍යාපාරයක් නොව මහින්ද මැතිවරණ ව්‍යාපාරයකි. බටහිරයන්ට අවශ්‍ය ඊනියා මහින්ද රෙජිමය පැරදවීම ය. ඒ ඔවුන්ගේ ලංකා වසන්තය ය. ඔවුන්ට මහින්ද පැරදවීමට අවශ්‍ය වී ඇත්තේ තම අභිමතය පරිදි ක්‍රියා නොකර මහින්ද විසින් දෙමළ ත්‍රස්තවාදය පරාජය කරනු ලැබීම නිසා ය. බටහිරයන්ගේ සුවච කීකරු ගැත්තා වූ ද බටහිරයන්ට අවශ්‍ය ආකාරයට දෙමළ ජාතිවාදයට කප්පන් දී සිංහල ජාතිකත්වය හා රටේ ස්වෛරීභාවය නැති කිරීමට සැදී පැහැදී සිටින්නාවූ ද රනිල් කියන්නේ ජනතාවගේ අනාාගතය වෙනුවෙන් මහින්දගේ අනාගතය නැති කළ යුතු ය. චම්පක වැන්නෝ මහින්ද ගෙදර යැවීමෙන් සෑහීමකට පත් නොවෙති. 

එහෙත් මහින්ද පරාජය කිරීමේ දී ඔවුන් විසින් ශ්‍රී ල නි පක්‍ෂය ද ඝාතනය කෙරිණි. එහි ප්‍රතිඵලය වූයේ මහින්ද නැවත බලයට පත්කිරීමේ ව්‍යාපාරය ජනතාව විසින් මෙහෙයවනු ලැබීම ය. එව බලව වැනි සංවිධාන ජනමාධ්‍යවලින් ප්‍රසිද්ධියක් ලබා නොදුන්න ද මහින්ද නැති රට මැයෙන් සම්මන්ත්‍රණ සංවිධාන කෙළේ ය. නුගේගොඩ රැස්වීම විසින් මේ ජනතා බලය කරළියට ගෙනෙනු ලැබිණි. ඒ අතර භික්‍ෂූන් වහන්සේ පැරණි සිංහල සිරිත අනුව යමින් මහින්ද වෙනුවෙන් බෝධි පූජා පවත්වමින් ඔහු ආරක්‍ෂා කරගනිමින් ඉතිහාසය යළි නිර්මාණය කළහ. නූතන සෝමාරාමට හෙවත් මෛත්‍රිපාලට ඒ දරාගත නොහැකි විය.  ඔහුට මහින්දට මැතිවරණයේ දී ශ්‍රී ල නි ප අපේක්‍ෂකත්වය දීමට සිදු විය.

අනුර යාපා ප්‍රකාශ කළ අන්දමට මහින්ද කුරුණෑගල දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ සංධාන කණ්ඩායමේ නායකයා ලෙස තරග වදියි. නූතන බුද්ධරක්ඛිතලාට සෝමාරාමලාට ජනගඟ ආපසු හැරවීය නො හැකි ය. මහින්ද අගමැති වීම කාලය පිළිබඳ ප්‍රශ්නයක් පමණකි. එහෙත්  ශ්‍රී ල නි පක්‍ෂයේ යැයි කියන කණ්ඩායමක්, චම්පකලා ආදීන් සමග එකතු වී අද එ ජා පක්‍ෂයෙන් තරග වදියි. ඔවුන් ගොස් ඇත්තේ එස් බී දිසානායක, දුමින්ද දිසානායක වැනි පිරිසක් එස් බීගේ වචනවලින් ම යම් අවබෝධයක් සහිතව මෛත්‍රිපාල සමග තබා ය. එස් බී පැහැදිලිව ම කියන්නේ අනාගතයේ දී ඔවුන් සියල්ලන් එකතු වී ආණ්ඩුවක් පිහිටුවන බව ය. ඒ ආණ්ඩුවේ අගමැති රනිල් බව අමුතුවෙන් කිව යුතු නො වේ. පක්‍ෂය මාරු නොකර මන්ත්‍රීවරයකුට රනිල් හෝ වෙනත් අයකු හෝ අගමැති ලෙස පත්කිරීමට කැමැත්ත දිය හැකි ය. මෛත්‍රිපාල අර අඳින්නේ කුමකට ද යන්න අපට නම් පැහැදිලි වී බොහෝ කල් ය. එහෙත් ඇතැම් දේශපාලන විචාරකයන්ට ඇතා නො දැක ඇතා ඇතැයි කිව නො හැකි ය.  

මෛත්‍රිපාල ඊනියා විශේෂ ප්‍රකාශයක් කරමින් මහින්දට අගමැතිකම නොදෙන බව පැහැදිලිව ප්‍රකාශ කර ඇත. මෛත්‍රිපාල මහින්ද එකතුව ජයග්‍රහණයක් යැයි කී සංධාන නායකයන් දැන් කියන්නේ කුමක් ද? එසේ කී ඊනියා දේශපාලන විචාරකයන් ගැන කියන්නේ කුමක් ද? ජනමාධ්‍ය ඔවුන්ට මිිස අපට සවන් නොදෙන්නේ ඇයි? මට පැහැදිලිව කිව හැක්කේ ඊනියා සංධාන නායකයන් අතර මහින්දට විරුද්ධ, ශ්‍රී ල නි පක්‍ෂය නැත්තට ම නැති වී යනු දැකීමට කැමති කිහිප දෙනකු තවමත් මහින්ද ව්‍යාපාරය අවුල් කරන බව ය. අවාසනාවකට බොහෝ දෙනා සිතන්නේ ඔවුන් මහින්දගේ අව්‍යාජ ආධාරකරුවන් බව ය. ඔවුන් අවසානයේ දී චම්පක නැවති තැන ම නවතිනු ඇත. 

අද කළ යුතු කාර්යයන් දෙකක් වෙයි. ජනතා ව්‍යාපාරය ප්‍රධාන වශයෙන් ම මෙහෙයවනු ලැබුයේ භික්‍ෂූන් වහන්සේ ප්‍රමුඛ සිංහල බෞද්ධයන් විසිනි. ඒ ව්‍යාපාරය එසේ ම පවත්වාගෙන යා යුතු ය. ඒ මෙරට සංස්කෘතිය ය, මෙරට ඉතිහාසය ය, මෙරට සම්ප්‍රදාය ය. මහින්ද ව්‍යාපාරයේ එක් කොටසක් රැස්වීම් සම්මන්ත්‍රණ ආදී වශයෙන් බටහිර දේශපාලන සම්ප්‍රදාය අනුව කෙරී ගෙන යා යුතු අතර අනෙක් කොටස සිංහල බෞද්ධ සම්ප්‍රදාය අනුව භික්‍ෂූන් වහන්සේගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් පන්සල් ආශ්‍රිතව දිගට ම කෙරී ගෙන යා යුතු ය. මහින්ද ව්‍යාපාරය ප්‍රධාන වශයෙන් ම සිංහල බෞද්ධයනට ආමන්ත්‍රණය කළ යුතු ය. ජනාධිපතිවරණයේ දී ද මහින්දට වැඩි ඡන්ද ප්‍රමාණයක් ලැබුණේ සිංහල බෞද්ධයන්ගෙනි. පඬියන්ගේ ඔත්තු සේවා නියෝජිතයන්ගේ කියමන් අනුව ගොස් මහින්ද සිංහල බෞද්ධ ජනතාව කිසිසේත් අමතක නොකළ යුතු ය. එහෙත් අනෙක් ජන කොටස් විශේෂයෙන් ම සිංහල ක්‍රිස්තියානි/කතෝලික ජනතාව හා දෙමළ ඊනියා අඩු කුල ජනතාව අමතක කළ යුතු යැයි මෙයින් නො කියැවෙයි. මේ සියල්ලෝම අවුරුදු පන්සියයකට එපිට සිංහල බෞද්ධ වූහ. ඔවුන්ගේ සංස්කෘතියෙහි සිංහල බෞද්ධ නශ්ටාවශේෂ වෙයි. නියමිත වෙලාවෙහි ඔවුන්ගෙන් බහුතරය බටහිරයන්ට හා ඉන්දියයන්ට විරුද්ධව සිංහල බෞද්ධයන් සමග අත්වැල් බැඳ ගනු ඇත. 

අප දෙවනුව මතක තබාගත යුතු කරුණ නම් මහින්ද මතවාදීන්ට පමණක් මනාප ලබා දීම ය. එමගින් එස් බී ආදීන්ගේ අභිප්‍රාය පරිදි රනිල් හෝ මහින්ද නොවන වෙනත් අයකු අගමැති කර නැවතත් පික්පොකට් ආණ්ඩුවක් බලයට පත්කිරීමට මෛත්‍රිපාලට ඉඩක් නොදී සිටීමට හැකි ය. මනාප ලබා දිය යුත්තේ කාහට ද යන්න මැතිවරණ ව්‍යාපාරයේ දී හෙළිදරවු කෙරෙනු ඇත. අප අගමැති කළ යුත්තේ රට රැකි හා රට රකින මහින්ද මිස රට දෙමළ ජාතිවාදයට පාවා දෙන බටහිර ගැති රනිල් නො වේ. ඉන්දිය ඔත්තු සේවකයන් සංධානයේ ජාතික ලැයිස්තුවට නම් කළ මෛත්‍රිපාල හැකි ඉක්මණින් පන්නා දැමිය යූතු ය.  

නලින් ද සිල්වා

2015 ජූලි 14

රණවීර වීරභාහු Courtesy Lankanewsweb.info

වත්ත වටේ රීපු මෛත්‍රී ගෙට පැන රෙන්නට පෙර එළවා දමයි! මහින්ද බලය අල්ලයි

in Featured, LNW SPY July 15, 2015

Courtesy Helabima.lk

මෙතෙක් කළක් කිසිදු ප්‍රකාශයක් සිදු නොකර ජනතාවගේ අපවාදයට ලක්වෙමින් සිටි මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන ජනපතිවරයා අද සවස මාධ්‍ය හමුවේ විශේෂ ප්‍රකාශයක් සිදුකරමින් මෙතෙක්කළක් නිහඬව සිට මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා බලයට පැමිණීම වැලැක්වීම සඳහා ගත් ක්‍රියාමාර්ග පිළිබඳව කරුණු පැහැදිලි කළේය.

මෙහිදී ඔහු දැක්වූ අදහස්වලට අනුව ඔහුම නායකත්වය දරණ ශ්‍රීලනිපය ප්‍රමුඛ සංධානය පරාදවන බවත් දිනුවත් අගමැතිකම දෙන්න ශ්‍රීලනිපයේ ඕනතරම් ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨයන් සිටින බවත් පැවසීම මඟින් ඔහු දේශපාලන පක්ෂයක නායකත්වය දැරීමෙන් එම පක්ෂයට කිසිඳු වාසියක් නොවන අතර එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයට වක්‍රව සහාය දක්වන බව ප්‍රකාශ විණි.

මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට ඇති විරෝධය එලෙසම පවතින බවත් තමා නාමයෝජනා ලබාදීමට අකමැතිවූ බවත් පැවසූ ජනපතිවරයා විස්වාසභංගය හරහා නැවතත් බලයට පැමිණීමට දැරූ උත්සාහය ව්‍යර්ථ කිරීම සඳහා පාර්ළිමේන්තුව විසුරුවාහැරි බවත් සංධානයේ සහ ශ්‍රීලනිපයේ බලය ඇල්ලීමට තිබූ අවස්ථාව අහිමි කිරීම සඳහා සංධානයෙන් නාමයෝජනා ලබාදීමට එකඟවූ බවත් මෙහිදී හෙළිකෙරිණ.

කුමන පක්ෂය ජයග්‍රහණය කළද ජනවාරි 08 වනදා ජයග්‍රහණය ආපස්සට හැරවීමට ඉඩ නොදී ඉදිරියට ගෙනයන නායකයෙක් පමණක් අගමැති කරන බවද  මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතා පැවසුවාය.

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LankaCnews

හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාපජක්‍ෂ මහතාට නාමයෝජනා දීමට තමන් තදින්ම විරුද්ද වූ බව ජනාධිපති මෛත‍්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතා පවසයි.

අද විශේෂ ප‍්‍රකාශයක් කරමින් ඔහු කියා සිටියේ ජනාපතිවරණයෙන් පරාජය වූ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහ මැතිවරණයේදී යළිත් පරාජයට පත් වන බවයි.

තමනට දුෂ්ටයා, පාවා දෙන්නා යයි පසුලගිය දින කිහිපත තුල ඇමතුනු ඇසුනසු බවත් වෙනත් කිසිදු ජනපතිවරයකුට තමනට තරම් අපහාස එල්ල නොවූ බවද ඔහු කියා සිටියේය.

‘මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ අනාගතයේ දී දිගටම පරාජය වෙනවා. යළි පරදිනවා. ජනවාරි අට වැනි දා පරාජය වුණා වගේ. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂට නාමයෝජනා දීම ගැන මම තදින්ම විරුද්ධ වුණා’ යයිද ඔහු එහිදී කියා සිටියේය.

සන්ධානය දින්නොත් අගමැතිකමට  ඕනෑ තරම් ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨයන් පක්‍ෂයේ සිටින බවද ඔහු කීය. තමන් මේ මැතිවරණයේදී මධ්‍යස්ථව සිටිනා බවද ඔහු වැඩි දුරටත් පැවසීය.

By Neville Ladduwahetty  Courtesy Island

The conclusion of the conflict in Sri Lanka also presented opportunities for parties with geo-strategic interests to engage with Sri Lanka not only for a foot print in the Indian Ocean, but also to curb the growing involvement of China in Sri Lankan affairs. The opportunities in Sri Lanka merged with the US policy of “pivot to Asia” in order to curb China from regaining its past position of influence as the supreme power in the Asia Pacific Region; a position it enjoyed a few centuries ago. The pursuit of these global interests required the replacement of the Rajapaksa administration with one that was pliable enough to further their interests. The strategy initiated by seasoned strategists well versed in the art of regime change was to start a campaign to deceitfully discredit the Rajapaksa administration on charges of abuse of power and corruption in readiness for a future election.

The forthcoming election is between supporters of former President Rajapaksa and those who are upset with the very prospect of his return to politics.

The motivations of the two camps are driven by contrasting values.

The values of the first group are such that they are prepared to overlook whatever commissions and omissions that were committed during the Rajapaksa administration for the single most significant contribution made by him – the political will to restore the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka. For them the wholeness of the State and personal security are inseparable. For this, their gratitude is timeless and boundless.

On the other hand, the values of the second group are such that they do not see the conclusion of the conflict in terms of restoring the territorial integrity of the State, but in narrow personal terms of eliminating terrorism and making them safe. The safety provided was taken for granted and utilized to discredit and remove from office the very Government that had made them safe. The forthcoming election would essentially determine which value system would prevail.

The conclusion of the conflict in Sri Lanka also presented opportunities for parties with geo-strategic interests to engage with Sri Lanka not only for a foot print in the Indian Ocean, but also to curb the growing involvement of China in Sri Lankan affairs. The opportunities in Sri Lanka merged with the US policy of “pivot to Asia” in order to curb China from regaining its past position of influence as the supreme power in the Asia Pacific Region; a position it enjoyed a few centuries ago. The pursuit of these global interests required the replacement of the Rajapaksa administration with one that was pliable enough to further their interests. The strategy initiated by seasoned strategists well versed in the art of regime change was to start a campaign to deceitfully discredit the Rajapaksa administration on charges of abuse of power and corruption.

The campaign to vilify the Rajapaksa administration was run concurrently with the search for a candidate and an administration that would be sufficiently pliable to further their interests. With the election of Maithripala Sirisena as President and the appointment of Ranil Wickremasinghe as the Prime Minister in violation of the Constitution and tenets of femocracy, Stage I of Project Sri Lanka to dismantle the Rajapaksa administration through a campaign of deceit was completed.

CAMPAIGN of DECEIT

To establish the authenticity of the charges of alleged corruption several family members, relatives and loyalists associated with the former administration were investigated. The net result has been to humiliate and harass some, while others have been subjected to grueling investigations followed by incarceration. But, to date, absolutely no actionable evidence has been presented against anyone and not one person has been formally charged for corruption. Even claims by the President himself and other Cabinet Ministers that bribes running into billions were offered to them have failed to mention the sources leave along initiating appropriate action. Against such a background the public has come to question the credibility of the charges as to whether the Rajapaksa administration was in fact corrupt to the extent alleged, or were the alleged charges only a deceitful pre-election strategy to discredit the administration in the eyes of the voter.

A similar deceitful strategy was that Sri Lanka’s war was ‘unwinnable’. Even the Rajapaksa and sections of the top brass of the military believed this lie at first. These beliefs led successive governments to engage in peace negotiations. Fortunately for Sri Lanka the ambitions of the LTTE leadership were not for compromise. They were deluded by their own invincibility and went for broke to create a separate State. Had they been prepared to settle for less, Sri Lanka would be a divided country today because the country was made to believe that the war was unwinnable and therefore there was no option other than to settle for a divided country.

Despite the mirage of the Sirisena/Wickremasinghe government being squeaky clean it is a matter of extreme irony that the biggest fraud in the history of Sri Lanka was committed under its watch during its 100-day programme. The Central Bank bond scam actually took place and attempts to cover it up were pedestrian. Notwithstanding all of the above, no attempt has even been initiated by this administration against perpetrators of the crime. What is even more hypocritical is that all of this happened under the watch of an administration that was voted in to replace an administration that was alleged to be corrupt. And what is more, there is no outcry from those who vigorously campaigned for good governance and rule of law calling for the resignation of those in charge on grounds of command responsibility.

STAGE 2 OF PROJECT SRI LANKA

Stage I of Project Sri Lanka was to replace the Rajapaksa administration on grounds of abuse of power and corruption. This has been accomplished. What is yet to be accomplished is Stage 2 of Project Sri Lanka. This is a two-step process. The first step is to weaken the centre and the second to restructure the territory in a manner that it could be dismantled. The first step was accomplished partially by the 19th Amendment. The second and final step is to replace the existing Executive Presidential system with a parliamentary system.

The campaign for a parliamentary system was initiated on the presumed premise of some that vesting executive power in an individual leads to abuse of power. Others consider the vesting of executive powers in a Prime Minister and a Cabinet of Ministers as being less conducive to abuse of power. Whether there is merit in these presumptions or not, historically, both Presidents and Prime Ministers have abused power.

The second step is territorial. The 1978 Constitution was based on the district as the operating peripheral unit. However, the 13th Amendment that was introduced in 1987 replaced the district with the province as the operating peripheral unit. The change from the district to a province was to facilitate the Tamil leaderships’ demand to merge the Northern and Eastern Provinces on grounds of a mythical ‘Tamil homeland’ proof of which does not exist. The change from district to province also paved the way to merge two provinces encompassing 1/3 the land mass and 2/3 of the coast line of Sri Lanka. Devolving power bordering on expanded autonomy/federalism to such a formidable unit would be the beginning of the process to dismantle the Sri Lankan state. The inevitability of such possibilities was conveyed by Nordlinger. According to him “…the combination of territorially distinctive segments of federalism’s grant of partial autonomy sometimes provides additional impetus to demands for greater autonomy, when the centrally-situated or centrally-oriented conflict group refuses these demands, secession and civil war may follow” (Nordlinger, Conflict Regulation in Divided Societies, 1972). Since the size of the territorial unit has a direct bearing on the impetus for incremental demand and eventual secession, downsizing the unit of devolution would deter such tendencies. The downsized unit suitable for devolution in the case of Sri Lanka would be the district.

The forthcoming election presents an ideal opportunity to seek a mandate from the people to revert to the district as the operating peripheral unit.

FORTHCOMING ELECTION

The upcoming election is crucial because it would determine the future trajectory of the Sri Lankan State as to whether it would be stay unitary or not. The Tamil leadership has stated unequivocally that Sri Lanka’s national question cannot be solved within a unitary framework. US spokespersons have stated that a federal arrangement could be an answer to resolve Sri Lanka’s national question. India’s Prime Minister has also stated the need to go beyond the powers devolved under the 13thAmendment. In short, forces are gathering to dismantle the Sri Lankan State.

Thus, Stage II of Project Sri Lanka is to dismantle the unitary character of Sri Lanka.

The success or failure of Stage II of Project Sri Lanka would depend on whether a SLFP/UNP coalition or another coalition would be returned to power. Both would campaign to replace the existing presidential system with a parliamentary system and introduce electoral reform by way of the 20thAmendment. If the SLFP/UNP coalition is elected to power at the forthcoming election there is a strong possibility that the powers devolved would border on federalism without calling it so. On the other hand, if another coalition is returned to power chances are that the status quo as to the unitary character would remain. However, neither would be fulfilling the unfinished task of ensuring the territorial integrity since both coalitions hope to retain the Province as the devolved unit thereby leaving the integrity of the State open ended to unintended possibilities.

CONCLUSION

The strategy of deceit was deployed to achieve ‘regime change’ on charges of abuse of power and allegations of corruption. Abuse of power was used to convince the public of the need to abolish the executive presidential system and replace it with a Parliamentary system notwithstanding historical evidence that power has been abused under both systems.

Despite the energy and resources deployed to establish corruption amounting to billions during the Rajapaksa administration, no actionable evidence has emerged nor has anyone been formally prosecuted on charges of corruption. On the other hand, the image of the current administration as being incorruptible has been severely tarnished by the biggest fraud in Sri Lanka’s history committed under its watch – the Central Bank Bond scam – for which no prosecutorial action has been taken to date.

The other national demand is for electoral reform. Therefore, since the electoral platform of most parties/coalitions would be similar, the contest would primarily be on image and personality. However, if any coalition has the imagination and the boldness to introduce a fresh dimension that would bring closure to the unfinished task of guaranteeing the political integrity of the state that was militarily secured by the security forces, through a replacement of the Province by the District as the peripheral unit, the electorate is bound to back it.

The campaign of such a party/coalition would then be to seek a mandate from the People for the following:

1. To replace the current executive presidential system with a parliamentary system

2. To replace the province with the district as the devolved unit.

3. To implement electoral reform.

If the people grant the mandate sought the pledge should be to appoint a committee within one month of being elected to develop the necessary instruments to fulfil all undertakings within one year.

Any coalition that contests the forthcoming election on such a platform would be displaying the same boldness and courage that was evident in the decision to prosecute the war to a conclusion notwithstanding external pressures. Several decades earlier a former administration also was bold and courageous enough to sign a rubber/rice deal with China despite warnings of dire consequences. While in the above instances the decision to defy internal and external pressures was undertaken by elected representatives the difference this time is that the mandate sought would be based on the will of the people – the ultimate authority in a democracy. That authority should be sufficient to bring closure to Sri Lanka’s unfinished task.

ධර්මන් වික්‍රමරත්න විසින් ලංකාදීප පුවත්පතේ 2015 ජුලි 11 සෙනසුරාදා 12වැනි පිටුවේ පළවූ ශනිදා දැක්ම දේශපාලන තීරු ලිපිය

මහා ගෝරනාඩුය. තර්ජනය කිරීම්ය. දෙස් දෙවොල් තැබීම්ය. බල කිරීම්ය. පිකට්ය. බකට්ය. මේ සියළු වහසි බස් හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂට එරෙහිවය. ඔහුගේ යළි දේශපාලන පුනරාගමනයට විරුද්ධවය. තර්ජනය කවරෙකුටද? ශ‍්‍රිලනිප සභාපතිවරයා වන ජනාධිපති මෛත‍්‍රීපාල සිරිසේනටය. එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානයෙන් ඉදිරි මැතිවරණය සඳහා නාමයෝජනා ලබාදීමට එකඟවීමට එරෙහිවය. මුල් යුගයේ එම විරෝධතා කරුවන්ගේ ප‍්‍රධාන අරමුණ වූයේ වෙනත් කරුණුය. එනම් නීතියේ ආධිපත්‍යය රැකගැනීම, ජාත්‍යන්තරවාදය තහවුරු කිරීම, මානව හිමිකම් ස්ථාපිත කිරීම, හොරු ඇල්ලීම වැනිදෑය. මෛත‍්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන යනු දශක 4ක් දේශපාලන පොර පිටියේ සිටින ග‍්‍රාමීය බුද්ධිමතෙකි. ජනහද ගැස්මේ රිද්මය දන්නා ජනාධිපති සිරිසේන ඇන්දවීම ලෙහෙසි පහසු වැඩක් නොවේ. 

ඔවුන් ජනාධිපති සිරිසේනට, මහින්ද එක්ක බෑ කියන්නේ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ජනතාව ප‍්‍රතික්ෂේප කල පුද්ගලයෙකු නිසාලූ. මෙවැනි දේශපාලන සම්ප‍්‍රාප්තියන්ට නිදසුන් ලොව  ඕනෑ තරම් ඇත. ඉන්දියානු අගමැතිනි ඉන්දිරා ගාන්ධි 1977 පරාජයට පත්වී නැවත 1981දී ජයගනු ලැබුවාය. පකිස්ථානයේ නවාස් ෂෙරීෆ් වර්තමානයේ යළි පත්වී තිබෙන්නේ පරාජය වී වසර ගණනාවකට  පසුවය. රුසියානු ජනාධිපති පූටින් නැවතත් ජනාධිපති වූයේ අගමැති තනතුරට පහළ බැසීමෙනි. මහින්දට එරෙහිව බකට් අදින සහ පිකට් කරන අයගේ නොදැනුවත්කම වන්නේ නාමයෝජනා ලබාදීම යනු අගමැතිකම ලබාදීම යැයි උපකල්පනය කිරීමය. ප‍්‍රජාතන්ත‍්‍රවාදී රාමුවක අධිකරණයෙන් වැරදිකරුවන් නොවූ  ඕනෑම අයෙකුට ජනතාවගේ ඡුන්දයෙන් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට පත්විය හැකිය. බහුතර මන්ත‍්‍රී කණ්ඩායමේ සහාය ඇතිව අගමැති ධූරයට අවශ්‍යනම් යෝජනා කල හැකිය.  

         මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ යනු මැතිසබයට පමණක් සීමාවූ පොත් පෙරළන ප‍්‍රාඥයෙක් නොවේ. ඔහු බිම්ගත දේශපාලනය උරුම කරගත් මව්බිමට නිදහස ගෙනආ ජන නායකයෙකි. මහින්දට නාමයෝජනා ලබාදෙන බවට සන්ධාන මහලේකම්වරයා කල ප‍්‍රකාශයත් සමඟම එජාපයත් එන්.ජී. ඕ සංවිධානත් දැවැන්ත කැළඹීමකට පත්විය. එජාපයේ මහලේකම් ඇමති කබීර් හසීම් කියා සිටියේ රාජපක්ෂ රෙජිමය කලක් තිස්සේ විළිලා වැදුවේ කුරුමිණි පැටවකු බව මැදමූලන විලාපයෙන් පැහැදිලි වන බවය. එහෙත් එජාප සභාපතිවරයා නොදන්නා කරුණ වන්නේ කුරුමිණියන් දමන්නේ පැටවුන් නොව බිත්තර බවය. පැටව් ඉපදෙන්නේ දින 4කට පමණ පසුවය. මේවා සියල්ලම වට්ටක්කා චින්තනය මත පදනම්ව කියනු ලබන කරුණු කාරණාය.

මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ආගමනයට එරෙහිවූවන් හැසිරුණේ කුණකටුවන් පරිද්දෙනි. ඉණිකුණන් මෙනි. දැන් ඒ සියල්ල හිරු දුටු පිනි මෙන් වියකී ගොසිනි. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ කුරුණෑගලින් තරඟ කිරීම සදහා ඊයේ නාමයෝජනාවලට අත්සන් කළේය. සන්ධානයේ හිටපු මන්ත‍්‍රීවරුන් ගෙන් නාම යොජනා නොලැබෙනු ඇත්තේ දෙදෙනෙකුට පමණි. මෛත‍්‍රී සහ  මහින්ද සුසංයෝගයෙන් නව උපතකට විළිලන හෝරාව එළැඹ ඇත. ශ‍්‍රිලනිපය යනු ලාංකේය මොඩලය හඳුනාගත් ගමේ දේශපාලනයකි. එය කාලයේ තාලයට ගොඩනැගුණු සමාජ ප‍්‍රජාතන්තවාදී දේශපාලනයකි. 

ඉදිරි මහ මැතිවරණයේදී ශ‍්‍රිලනිප දැන් අන් කවරදාකටත් වඩා ශක්තිමත් වෙමින් පවතී. එය නව ජවයකි. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂට එරෙහිව කල සියළු දෙඩවීම් වල්පල් බවට පත්වී තිබේ.  ඕපාදූප සහ හිස් කථා බවට පත්ව ඉතිහාසයට එක්වී ඇත. සන්ධානයේ නව ප‍්‍රවේශය පිළිබඳව ප‍්‍රතිගාමී සියළු බලවේගයන්ට දැන් නන්නත්තාරවීම හැර වෙනත් විකල්පයක් නැත. 

මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂට ඇත්තේ ජන්මයෙන්ම ශ‍්‍රීලනිප උරුමයකි. එස්.ඩබ්ලිව්.ආර්.ඞී. බණ්ඩාරනායක එජාපයෙන් වෙන්ව ශ‍්‍රීලනිප 1951 පිහිටුවා ගත්තද එජාප නායකත්වය සමඟ කාලයක් මුළුල්ලේ අරගල කළේය. මෙම අරගලය වඩාත් ඉස්මතුව පෙනෙන්නේ 1947 මහා මැතිවරණයේදීය. එම මැතිවරණයේදී බෙලිඅත්ත ආසනයෙන් පක්ෂයේ අපෙක්ෂකයින් දෙදෙනෙක් ඉදිරිපත් විය. එදා ඞී. එස්. සේනානායක පාර්ශවය වෙනුවෙන් ඞී.පී. අතපත්තුද බණ්ඩාරනායක පාර්ශවය වෙනුවෙන් ඞී.ඒ. රාජපක්ෂද ඉදිරිපත් විය. අධිරාජ්‍ය විරෝධී සමාජ ප‍්‍රජාත‍්‍රන්තවාදය නියෝජනය කල ඞී.ඒ. රාජපක්ෂ අතපත්තු පරදා වැඩි ඡුන්ද 8,022කින් ජය ගත්තේය. බණ්ඩාරනායක 1951 ඇමති පදවියෙන් ඉල්ලා අස්වි විපක්ෂයට එක්වූ විට ඔහු සමඟ විපක්ෂයට ගිය අනිකුත් මන්ත‍්‍රීවරුන් වූයේ බෙලිඅත්තේ ඞී.ඒ. රාජපක්ෂ, හොරණ ඒ.පී. ජයසූරිය, බලංගොඩ ජයවීර කුරුප්පු, උතුරු කොළඹ ජෝජ් ආර්. ද සිල්වා සහ උඩුගම ඞී.එස්. ගුණසේකරය. 

ඉකුත් ජනවාරි 8වැනිදා පැවති ජනාධිපතිවරණයේ ප‍්‍රතිිඵලවලින් පසු කුමන කෙනෙහෙලිකම්වලට ලක්වූවද මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ශ‍්‍රීලනිප හැරගියේ නැත. දේශපාලනයෙන් විශ‍්‍රාම ගියේද නැත. ඔහු යළි ජනතාව  අතරට ආවේය. ඒ මහින්ද නැතිව බෑ කියූ ලක්ෂ සංඛ්‍යාතික ජන බලවේගයක්ද සමඟිනි. පන්සලේ විප්ලවයෙන් පියවර දස දහසකින් මහින්ද ඔසවා තැබීමට ජාතික බලවේගයන්ට හැකිවිය. දැන් මහින්ද සන්ධානයෙන් එන්නේ කුරුණෑගලිනි. එහි මැතිවරණ ආසන 15 ඡුන්ද දායකයින් ගේ සංඛ්‍යාව 1,266,443කි.

 කම්කරු ඇමති සහ ශ‍්‍රීලනිප භාණ්ඩාගාරික වශයෙන් සිට පැදුරටත් නොකියා ගිය එස්.බී. නාවින්න කියා ඇත්තේ කුරුණෑගල දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කයේ ජනතාව පිටගම්කාරයින්ට ඡුන්දය නොදෙන බවය. ඉතිහාසයට අනුව සත්කෝරලේ ජනතාවට එවැනි පටු අදහස් නැත. පිලියන්දල සර් ජෝන් කොතලාවල දොඩම්ගස්ලන්ද ආසනයටද බලපිටියේ ශ‍්‍රී නිශ්ශංක කුරුණෑගල ආසනයටද මීරිගම ආර්. ජී. සේනානායක නාරම්මල ආසනයටද වත්තල අයිවන් දසනායක වාරියපොල ආසනයටද මන්ත‍්‍රීවරුන් වශයෙන් සත්කෝරලේ ජනතාව ඉහළින්ම පිළිගෙන පත්කර ගන්නා ලදී. ඉදිරියේදී මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ සාධකය අතහැර කුරුණෑගල දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කයට තරග කරන සන්ධාන අපේක්ෂකයෙකුට පවා ජයග‍්‍රහණය ලබාගැනීම උගහටය. 

ශ‍්‍රී, ලංකාවේ වර්තමාන දේශපාලනය දැන් අතිශයින් සංකීර්ණය. වරෙක උණුසුම්ය. දැන් එම දේශපාලන ක‍්‍රීයාදාමයේ උත්කර්ෂ අවස්ථාවට එළැඹ ඇත්තේ මෛත‍්‍රී-මහින්ද දීගය සිදු කෙරෙන බැවිනි. දේශපාලන දෘෂ්ඨි කෝණයෙන් බැලූ විට ජනාධිපති මෛත‍්‍රීපාලට ශ‍්‍රීලනිප නායකයා වශයෙන් බහුතරයේ හඬ පිළිගැනීම හැර වෙනත් විකල්පයක් නොවූ බව සත්‍යයකි. මහින්ද විරෝධීන් ගේ අතිශය දුක් දොම්නසට මෙම තීරණය හේතු වූවද මෛත‍්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මෙහිදී ක‍්‍රියාකළේ පිරුණු කළේ දිය නොසැලේ යන න්‍යායට අනුවය.  ඉදිරි පියවර වන්නේ ජනතාවාදී ආණ්ඩුවක් බිහිකර ගැනීමය. ඒ වෙනුවෙන් සියළු දෙනා කැපවිය යුතුය. වගකීමෙන් හැසිරිම මෙහිදී වඩාත් වැදගත් වේ. 

ජනාධිපති මෛත‍්‍රීපාල හිරවී සිටියේ අවුලකය. ‘යහපාලන‘ ආණ්ඩුවේ දින 168 පාලන කාලය තුළ සිදුවූයේ අකල් වැස්සකි. මහ බැංකුවේ බැදුම්කර මගඩියේ පාඩුව මේ වන විට රුපියල් කෝටි 5,920ක් බවට චෝදනාවකි. මහ මැතිවරණයට තව ඇත්තේ සති 6කි. ජනාධිපතිවරණයේ මෛත‍්‍රීට ලැබුණු ඡුන්ද ලක්ෂ 62කට අයිතිය කියන්නට එජාපයට බැරිය. එජාපයට ලැබෙනු ඇත්තේ ඉන් අඩකට වැඩි ප‍්‍රමාණයකි. සන්ධානයේ නව උපාය උපක‍්‍රමයන් නිසා බහුතරයෙන් සමන්විත සන්ධාන ආණ්ඩුවක් පිහිටුවීම දැන් ඒකන්තය. 

මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මෙතෙක් ඉදිරියට ගෙනආ හවුල අවුල්ද? නැත. මහින්ද සහ මෛත‍්‍රී සුසංයෝගයෙන් බිහිවන හවුල ඉදිරියේදි අවුල්ද? නැත. එහෙත් මේ දෙකේම යම් යම් ගැටලූ ප‍්‍රායෝගිකරණයේදී ඇතිවීම ස්භාවිකය. ඒවාට විසදුම්ද මෙම යාන්ත‍්‍රණය තුළින් ලැබෙනු ඇත. ඇමතිවරුන් වන සන්ධාන ලේකම් සුසිල් ප්‍රේම්ජයන්ත සහ ශ‍්‍රීලනිප ලේකම් අනුර ප‍්‍රියදර්ශන තැනේ හැටියට ඇනේ ගැසීමට දක්ෂයින් බව ඔප්පු කර ඇත. හොද ඔළුවක් සහ හොද හදවතක් සැමවිටම පැරදිය නොහැකි සවිමත් සබඳතාවයකි. 

     මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ යළි කරළියට ගෙන ආ විමල්, දිනේෂ්, ගම්මන්පිල, වාසු කණ්ඩායමේ හතර දෙනාම සූරයින්ය. එහිදී ඔවුන් කල කැපවීමට යුතුකමේ මනාපය හිමිවනු ඇත. තිරය පිටුපස සිටි පළාත් සභා මන්ත‍්‍රීන්ගේ සංඛ්‍යාවද විශාලය. ඉන් නාම යෝජනා ලැබී ඇත්තේ කොළඹ ජගත් කුමාර ඇතුළු කිහිප දෙනෙකුට පමණි. ගම්පහ දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කයේ දිවුලපිටියේ සමන්මලී සකලසූරිය, සීදූව ආනන්ද හරිස්චන්ද්‍ර, මහර සහන් ප‍්‍රදීප් ඇතුළු මහින්ද කණ්ඩායමට කැපවීමෙන් කටයුතු කල පිරිසකට නාම යෝජනා නැත. එහෙත් ඔවුන් සිතිය යුත්තේ එය ශ‍්‍රිලනිප ආණ්ඩුවක් පිහිටුවීම සදහා කල පරිත්‍යාගයක් බවය. 

සන්ධානයේ නාම යෝජනා ඉල්ලූ ඇතැම් අයට අවශ්‍ය වූයේ පක්ෂය දිනවන්නට නොව පරදන්නටදැයි සැකයකි. නවත්තේගම නවෝද්‍යා පාසැල් ගුරුවරියක පාසැල් භූමියේ දණ ගැස්වීම නිසා 2013 ජුනි 14වැනිදා අධිකරණයෙන් දඩුවම් ලැබූ හිටපු පළාත් සභා මන්ත‍්‍රීවරයෙක්ද ළමා අපචාර සම්බන්ධයෙන් බරපතල චෝදනා ලැබූ අකුරැස්ස ප‍්‍රාදේශීය සභාවේ සභාපතිවරයාද නාමයෝජනා ඉල්ලා සිටීම එයට නිදසුන්ය. ශ‍්‍රිලනිප එය ප‍්‍රතික්ෂේප කළේය. එහෙත් චෝදනාවලට වැරදිකරුවන් නොවූ ජනපදනමක් සහිත හිටපු පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත‍්‍රීවරුන් නැවත පත්කර ගැනීම පිළිබදව විනිශ්චය ලබාදීමේ අයිතිය තිබිය යුත්තේ මහ මැතිවරණය හරහා ජනතාවටය. 

බස්නාහිර මහඇමති සහ මිනුවන්ගොඩ ශ‍්‍රීලනිප සංවිධායක ප‍්‍රසන්න රණතුංගද පළාත් ඇමති සහ වත්තල ශ‍්‍රිලනිප සංවිධායක නිමල් ලන්සාද මෙවර මහ මැතිවරණයට තරග කරන හෙයින් උණුසුම් තරගයක් මෙවර ගම්පහින් දැකගත හැකිය. අර්ජුන රණතුංග එයට එක්වී ඇති බැවින් ගම්පහ දේශපාලන පොර පිටිය උණුසුම්ය. විශේෂයින් ඉකුත් ජනාධිපතිවරණයේදී පරාජයට පත්වූ ගම්පහ දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කයේ මුහුදුබඩ ආසන වන මීගමුව, කටාන, ජාඇල, වත්තල, පළාත් ඇමති නිමල් ලන්සාගේ ඉදිරිපත්වීම තුළ සන්ධානයට ඉහළින්ම දිනාගැනීමටද හැකිවනු ඇත.

ශ‍්‍රිලනිප 1977 මැතිවරණයේදී ආසන 7කට බැස්සේය. ඉන් 3ක්ම මැදකොළඹ, බේරුවල සහ හාරිස්පත්තුවය. ඉකුත් ජනාධිපතිවරණයේදී දිස්ත‍්‍රික් අනුපාතය අනුව ආසන සංඛ්‍යාව මට්ටමින් ගත්කල සන්ධානය ලැබුවේ පරාජයක් නොවේ. මෙවර මැතිවරණයේදී ගාල්ල, මාතලේ, සහ කෑගල්ල යන දිස්ත‍්‍රික්ක වලට වැඩි බරක් දැමිය යුතුය. 

ඉදිරි මැතිවරණයේදී සන්ධානයේ නායකයින්ද මැතිවරණයට මුහුණ දිය යුත්තේ මං පොර න්‍යායෙන් නොවේ. මැතිවරණ මෙහෙයුම් කමිටුවල තාමත් මුල්පුටුවල අරක්ගෙන සිටින බොහෝ දෙනා 2005 සිට 2015 ජනවාරි දක්වා දැක පුරුදු එකම මුහුණුය. මෙය මෙවර හෝ වෙනස් විය යුතුය. අත්දැකීම් ඇති වැඩකාරයින් පැමිණි විට ඔවුනට හිමිවන්නේ තෙවන පෙළය. ජනමාධ්‍ය අමාතාංශයේ ලේකම් තනතුරට පත් කරුණාරත්න පරණවිතාන ජනාධිපතිවරණයේදී මුලින් වැඩකළේ මහින්දටය. ජාතික දේශපාලනය ඔහු ඇරඹුවේ දශක දෙකකට පෙරවූවද මහින්දගේ පිලේ හිමිවූයේ තෙවන පෙළය. මෛත‍්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරණයට ප‍්‍රවේශවීමත් සමග පරණවිතාන මහත්තයෙකු ලෙසින් සියළු දෙනාට දැනුම්දී සමුගත් අතර අවසානයේදී ඔහුගෙන් සුවිශේෂි වැඩකොටසක් ගැනීමට මෛත‍්‍රී සමත් විය. ජනාධිපති මෛත‍්‍රීගෙන් එවැනි පාඩම් දැන්වත් ඉගෙන ගත යුතුය. 

අල බහිනකම් සිටිය හැකි වූවද අල තම්බනකම් සිටින්නට බැරිය. මහ මැතිවරණය ප‍්‍රකාශයට පත්කරන තෙක් කල් බලා සිටියද දැන් අවසන් මොහොත දක්වා නොවිසිල්ලෙන් සිටි අයට හොද තරගයක් බලාගත හැකිය. ඉර හද පවතින තාක්කල් කිසිවෙකුට ආණ්ඩු බලය තබාගත නොහැක. ඉතිහාසය පවසන සත්‍යය එයයි. (The writer is a senior journalist who could be reached at ejournalists@gmail.com @ Phone : 0712733986)   

By Afshain Afzal

The US is facing tough resistance from Afghan authorities and the politicians in Kabul to continue its unchecked combat mission in Afghanistan. Washington is exerting all sorts of pressures including self-engineered terrorist attacks, threats to discontinue aid and dishonouring its previously announced pledges, but so far all efforts are in vain. Washington’s created ISIS (Daesh) is aimed to crush masses loyal to Shaheed Sadam Hussain in Iraq, orthodox Muslims in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Palestine, Somalia and other self-declared potential threats to the West. In order to build world’s consensus on eliminating any individual, group or association directly or otherwise linked with ISIS, the members of the outfit are projecting themselves worse than Nazis and Khmer Rouge. One of the missions assigned to this heavily Western funded notorious ISIS is to track persons on whom bounty has been announced by US including Mullah Mohammad Omar, who is widely recognized as Ameer-ul-Momineen (Caliph) by Muslims, especially in Afghanistan and to destroy Muslim heritage.

Although, there is no presence of ISIS in Pakistan or Afghanistan but reports of contacts by few CIA sponsored Afghans, who also spend reasonable period in India, Middle East and Western countries was made in last few months. These elements had been claiming to be former Taliban and that they have joined ISIS in the absence of evidence of life of Mullah Mohammad Omar. Reports of telephonic contacts with various journalists and lower ranks of Taliban were confirmed. However, evidence of physical contacts has so far not been reported. Wall chalking in favour of ISIS was observed in Pakistani cities of Karachi, Gujranwala, Lahore, Multan, Sailkot, Peshawar etc but Police arrests and investigations confirmed that it was handiwork of few students of schools and college for fun.  In nutshell, ISIS is only alive in the papers of intelligence agencies otherwise on ground there is no evidence of presence in Pakistan or Afghanistan.

In a latest development, Pakistan broke peace talks between Taliban and government of President Ashraf Ghani in scenic hill station of Murree from 7-8 July 2015. Kabul expressed its willing to negotiate with Taliban on all issues including the release of prisoners and the future of American military presence in Afghanistan. Observers from the US and China also attended the talks. Where Afghan deputy foreign minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai, who attended the talks, was more than hopeful about the success of talks, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif requested Afghanistan’s neighbors and the international community to ensure that nobody tries to derail this process otherwise talks would be difficult. White House spokesman Josh Earnest welcomed the talks and claimed that the talks are an important step toward advancing prospects for a credible peace. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying backed the peace process and claimed that Beijing was in touch with all sides.

The peace talks seems to be a success story as beside understanding of peace initiative, holding of next round of talks in Qatar, in the third week of August 2015, has also been discussed. However, ironically, Qatar is claiming that Pakistani officials had brokered a meeting with unauthorized Taliban representatives which included Mawlawi Abdul Latif Mansoor, Haji Ibrahim, brother of Mawlawi Jalaluddin Haqqani and Mullah Abbas Akhund. On the other hand, Islamabad claims that Mullah Abbas Akhund, who attended the meeting had blessing of the Taliban’s deputy leader, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour. The fact cannot be denied that Taliban commander Abdul Qayum Zakir and other Taliban leaders distanced from talks and objected to sending the delegation for talks.

Many critics believe that US has invested millions of dollars just to get whereabouts of Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, who is untraceable since long. If located, the West has well chalked out plan to eliminate him in a similar fashion as they plotted against Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi, who is said to have been killed by own people. CIA-funded impersonated Taliban group in Qatar, which has handful of elements in Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India, have been alerted. Although, these elements have no connection with Taliban but to authenticate defections in Taliban files, it is being projected in media that some disgruntled Taliban commanders are questioning whether Omar is alive or otherwise and several have switched their loyalty to ISIS.

Interestingly, at the time when peace talks were being held in Murree, media propaganda was aired that top commanders of ISIS were killed in US drone attacks. Abdul Hassib Sediqi, a spokesman for Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) claimed that as a result of an airstrike in Achin district on 30 ISIS members including top ISIS commander Hafiz Saeed Khan were killed. Earlier, it was reported that another ISIS commander Shahid Ullah Shahid was killed in a drone attack. Ironically, Washington is hesitant in admitting the killing of ISIS commanders while Pentagon claims that it is working on intelligence provided by the Afghan government. Some militant commanders linked with Northern Alliance misinformed foreign media on telephone that they were present when the drone strike happened and killed ISIS top commander. One wonders how it is possible that CIA and Indian RAW’s own created characters including Hafiz Saeed Khan and Shahid Ullah Shahid can be off casted from drama of ISIS in Middle East and Asia.

Interestingly, as soon as talks were over, Afghan President, Ashraf Ghani held emergency meeting with Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani, on 10 July to convey that ISIS is a threat for security of the region. If we recall, Tehran supported the invasion of Afghanistan in Bonn Conference by US and NATO allies on 5 December 2001 that resulted in the formation of an Interim Authority under President Hamid Kazai. The involvement of Iran in anti-Taliban moves can be judged from planned seizure of 48 rocked in March 2011, which were to be delivered to a group which was impersonating as Taliban. Though far from reality, an attempt was made to reflect that Tehran is supporting Taliban. NATO forces in Afghanistan analyzed that the seized rockets, although, did not bear Iranian marking but the specifications matched Iranian version. One wonders if these special Taliban who participated in peace talks are linked with Iran.

Government of Pakistan has opened a new chapter by initiating peace talks with Taliban for a longer lasting peace in the region. However, Western sponsored dummy Taliban and ISIS groups, who are posing themselves as Mujahideen but are actually involved in terrorism, are real enemies. Irrespective of their bases in Qatar, New Delhi, Khost or Peshawar, till the time such bogy elements are identified and eliminated, the situation in Afghanistan would continue to remain tense and fragile. It is high time that genie of Western created ISIS or Daesh, in which India is equally party, should be brought to a logical end. One would like to draw the attention of world community toward state sponsored terrorism in the shape of ISIS by sponsoring countries including US, India and Israel. afshainafzal@yahoo.com

Gearóid Ó Colmáin Global Research
November 29, 2011

Unknown snipers played a pivotal role throughout the  so-called  Arab Spring Revolutions” yet, in spite of reports of their presence in the mainstream media, surprisingly little attention has been paid to  to their purpose and role.

The Russian investigative journalist Nikolay Starikov has written a book which discusses the role of unknown snipers in the destabilization of countries targeted for regime change by the United States and its allies. The following article attempts to elucidate some historical examples of this technique with a view to providing a background within which to understand the current cover war on the people of Syria by death squads in the service of Western intelligence.[1]

Romania 1989.

In Susanne Brandstätter’s documentary ‘Checkmate: Strategy of a Revolution’ aired on Arte television station some years ago,  Western intelligence officials revealed how  death squads were used to destabilize Romania and turn its people against the head of state Nicolai Ceaucescu.

Brandstätter’s film is a must see for anyone interested in how Western intelligence agencies, human rights groups and the corporate press collude in the systematic destruction of countries whose leadership conflicts with the interests of big capital and empire.

Former secret agent with the French secret service, the DGSE(La Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure) Dominique Fonvielle, spoke candidly about the role of Western intelligence operatives in destabilizing the Romanian population.

how do you organize a revolution? I believe the first step is to locate oppositional forces in a given country. It is sufficient to have a highly developed intelligence service in order to determine which people are credible enough to have influence at their hands to destabilize the people to the disadvantage of the ruling regime”[2]

This open and rare admission of Western sponsorship of terrorism was justified on the grounds of the greater good” brought to Romania by free-market capitalism. It was necessary, according to the strategists of Romania’s revolution”, for some people to die.

Today, Romania remains one of the poorest countries in Europe. A report on Euractiv reads:

Most Romanians associate the last two decades with a continuous process of impoverishment and deteriorating living standards, according to Romania’s Life Quality Research Institute, quoted by the Financiarul daily.” [3]

The western intelligence officials interviewed in the documentary also revealed how the Western press played a central role in disinformation. For example, the victims of Western-backed snipers were photographed by presented to the world as evidence of a crazed dictator who was killing his own people”.

To this day, there is a Museum in the back streets of Timisoara Romania which promotes the myth of the Romanian Revolution”.  The Arte documentary was one of the rare occasions when the mainstream press revealed some of  the dark secrets of Western liberal democracy. The documentary caused a scandal when it was aired in France, with the prestigious Le Monde Diplomatique discussing the moral dilemma of the West’s support of terror in its desire to spread ‘democracy’.

Since the destruction of Libya and the ongoing cover war on Syria, Le Monde Diplomatique has stood safely on the side of political correction, condemning Bachar Al Assad for the crimes of the DGSE and the CIA. In its current edition, the front page article reads Ou est la gauche? Where is the left ? Certainly not in the pages of Le Monde Diplomatique !

Russia 1993

During Boris Yeltsin’s counter-revolution in Russia in 1993, when the Russian parliament was bombed resulting in the deaths of thousands of people, Yeltsin’s counter-revolutionaries made extensive use of snipers.  According to many eye witness reports, snipers were seen shooting civilians from the building opposite the US embassy in Moscow.  The snipers were attributed to the Soviet government by the international media.[4]

Venezuela 2002

In 2002, the CIA attempted to overthrow Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, in a military coup. On the 11th of April 2002, an opposition March towards the presidential palace was organized by the US backed Venezuelan opposition. Snipers hidden in buildings near the palace opened fire on protestors killing 18. The Venezuelan and international media claimed that Chavez was killing his own people” thereby justifying the military coup presented as a humanitarian intervention.  It was subsequently proved that the coup had been organized by the CIA but the identity of the snipers was never established.

Thailand April 2010

On April 12th 2010, Christian Science Monitor published a detailed report of the riots in Thailand between red-shirt” activists and the Thai government. The article headline read: ‘Thailand’s red shirt protests darken with unknown snipers, parade of coffins’.

Like their counterparts in Tunisia, Thailand’s red shirts were calling for the resignation of the Thai prime minister. While a heavy-handed response by the Thai security forces to the protestors was indicated in the report, the government’s version of events was also reported:

Mr. Abhisit has used solemn televised addresses to tell his story. He has blamed rogue gunmen, or terrorists,” for the intense violence (at least 21 people died and 800 were injured) and emphasized the need for a full investigation into the killings of both soldiers and protesters. State television has broadcast repeated images of soldiers coming under fire from bullets and explosives.”

The CSM report went on to quote Thai military officials and unnamed Western diplomats:

military observers say Thai troops stumbled into a trap set by agents provocateurs with military expertise. By pinning down soldiers after dark and sparking chaotic battles with unarmed protesters, the unknown gunmen ensured heavy casualties on both sides.

Some were caught on camera and seen by reporters, including this one. Snipers targeted military ground commanders, indicating a degree of advance planning and knowledge of Army movements, say Western diplomats briefed by Thai officials. While leaders of the demonstrations have disowned the use of firearms and say their struggle is nonviolent, it is unclear whether radicals in the movement knew of the trap.

You can’t claim to be a peaceful political movement and have an arsenal of weapons out the back if needed. You can’t have it both ways,” says a Western diplomat in regular contact with protest leaders [5]

The CSM article also explores the possibility that the snipers could be rogue elements in the Thai military, agents provocateurs used to justify a crack down on democratic opposition. Thailand’s ruling elite is currently coming under pressure from a group called the Red Shirts.[6]

Kyrgystan June 2010

Ethnic violence broke out in the Central Asian republic of  Kirgystan  in June 2010. It was widely reported that unknown snipers opened fire on members of the Uzbek minority in Kyrgystan. Eurasia.net reports:

In many Uzbek mahallas, inhabitants offer convincing testimony of gunmen targeting their neighborhoods from vantage points. Men barricaded into the Arygali Niyazov neighborhood, for example, testified to seeing gunmen on the upper floors of a nearby medical institute hostel with a view over the district’s narrow streets. They said that during the height of the violence these gunmen were covering attackers and looters, assaulting their area with sniper fire. Men in other Uzbek neighborhoods tell similar stories

. « Among the rumours and unconfirmed reports circulating in Kyrgyzstan after the 2010 violence were claims that water supplies to Uzbek areas were about to be  poisoned. Such rumours had also been spread against the Ceaucescu regime in Romania during the CIA- backed coup in 1989. Eurasia.net goes on to claim that:

Many people are convinced that they’ve seen foreign mercenaries acting as snipers. These alleged foreign combatants are distinguished by their appearance – inhabitants report seeing black snipers and tall, blonde, female snipers from the Baltic states. The idea that English snipers have been roaming the streets of Osh shooting at Uzbeks is also popular. There’ve been no independent corroborations of such sightings by foreign journalists or representatives of international organizations.” [7]

None of these reports have been independently investigated or corroborated. It is therefore impossible to draw any hard conclusions from these stories.

Ethnic violence against Uzbek citizens in Kyrgyzstan occurred pari pasu with a popular revolt against the US-backed regime, which many analysts have attributed to the machinations of Moscow.

The Bakiyev régime came to power in a CIA-backed people-power coup known to the world as the Tulip Revolution in 2005.

Located to the West of China and bordering Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan hosts one of America’s biggest and most important military bases in Central Asia, the Manas Air Base, which is vital for the NATO occupation of neighbouring Afghanistan.

Despite initial worries, US/Kyrgyz relations have remained good under the regime of President Roza Otunbayeva. This is not surprising as Otunbayeva had previously participated in the US-created Tulip Revolution in 2004, taking power as foreign minister.

To date no proper investigation has been conducted into the origins of the ethnic violence that spread throughout  the south of Kyryzstan in 2010, nor have the marauding gangs of unknown snipers been identified and apprehended.

Given the geostrategic and geopolitical importance of Kyrgyzstan to both the United States and Russia, and the formers track-record of using death squads to divide and weaken countries so as to maintain US domination, US involvement in the dissemination of terrorism in Kyrgyzstan cannot be ruled out. One effective way of maintaining a grip on Central Asian countries would be to exacerbate ethnic tensions.

In August 6th 2008, the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that a US arms cache had been found in a house in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, which was being rented by two American citizens. The US embassy claimed the arms were being used for anti-terrorism” exercises. However, this was not confirmed by Kyrgyz authorities. [8]
humanitarian” bombing in 1999. An effective means of  keeping the government in Bishkek firmly on America’s side would be to insist on a US and European presence in the country to help protect” the Uzbek minority.

Military intervention similar to that in the former Yugoslavia by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe  has already been advocated by the New York Times, whose misleading article on the riots on June 24th 2010 has the headline Kyrgyzstan asks European Security Body for Police Teams”. The article is misleading as the headline contradicts the actual report which cites a Kyrgyz official stating:

A government spokesman said officials had discussed an outside police presence with the O.S.C.E., but said he could not confirm that a request for a deployment had been made.”

There is no evidence in the article of any request by the Kyrgyz government for military intervention. In fact, the article presents much evidence to the contrary. However, before the reader has a chance to read the explanation of the Kyrgyz government, the New York Times’ writer presents the now all too horribly familiar narrative of oppressed peoples begging the West to come and bomb or occupy their country:

Ethnic Uzbeks in the south have clamored for international intervention. Many Uzbeks said they were attacked in their neighborhoods not only by civilian mobs, but also by the Kyrgyz military and police officers”[9]

Only towards the end of the article do we find out that the Kyrgyz authorities blamed the US-backed dictator for fomenting ethnic violence in the country, through the use of Islamic jihadists in Uzbekistan. This policy of using ethnic tension to create an environment of fear in order to prop up an extremely unpopular dictatorship, the policy of using Islamic Jihadism as a political tool to create what former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Bzrezinski called an arc of crisis”, ties in well with the history of US involvement in Central Asia from the creation of Al Qaida in Afghanistan in 1978 to the present day.

Again, the question persists, who were the unknown snipers” terrorizing the Uzbek population, where did their weapons come from and who would benefit from ethnic conflict in Central Asia’s geopolitical hotspot?

Tunisia January 2011

On January 16th 2011, CNN reported that ‘’armed gangs’’ were fighting Tunisian security forces. [10] Many of the murders committed throughout the Tunisian uprising were by unknown snipers”. There were also videos posted on the internet showing Swedish nationals detained by Tunisian security forces. The men were clearly armed with sniper rifles. Russia Today aired the dramatic pictures.[11]

In spite of articles by professor Michel Chossudovsky, William Engdahl and  others showing how the uprisings in North Africa were following the patterns of US backed people-power coups rather than genuinely popular revolutions, left wing parties and organizations continued to believe the version of events presented to them by Al Jazeera and the mainstream press. Had the left taken a left from old Lenin’s book they would have transposed his comments on the February/March revolution in Russia thus:

The  whole course of events in the January/February Revolution clearly shows that the British, French and American embassies, with their agents and connections”,… directly organized a plot.. in conjunction with a section of the generals and army and Tunisian garrison officers, with the express object of deposing Ben Ali”

What the left did not understand is that sometimes it is necessary for imperialism to overthrow some of its clients. A suitable successor to Ben Ali could always be found among the feudalists of the Muslim Brotherhood who now look likely to take power.

In their revolutionary sloganeering and arrogant insistence that the events in Tunisia and Egypt were spontaneous and popular uprisings” they committed what Lenin identified as the most dangerous sins in a revolution, namely, the substitution of the abstract for the concrete. In other words, left wing groups were simply fooled by the sophistication of the Western backed Arab Spring” events.

That is why the violence of the demonstrators and in particular the widespread use of snipers possibly linked to Western intelligence was the great unthought of the Tunisian uprising. The same techniques would be used in Libya a few weeks later, forcing the left to back track and modifiy its initial enthusiasm for the CIA’s Arab Spring”.

When we are talking about the” left” here, we are referring to genuine left wing parties, that is to say, parties who supported the Great People’s Socialist Libyan Arab Jamahirya in their long and brave fight against Western imperialism, not the infantile petty bourgeois dupes who supported NATO’s Benghazi terrorists.  The blatant idiocy of such a stance should be crystal clear to anyone who understands global politics and class struggle.

Egypt 2011

On October 20th 2011, the Telegraph newspaper published an article entitled, Our brother died for a better Egypt”. According to the Telegraph, Mina Daniel, an anti-government activist in Cairo, had been ‘shot from an unknown sniper, wounding him fatally in the chest”

Inexplicably, the article is no longer available on the Telegraph’s website for online perusal. But a google search for ‘Egypt, unknown sniper, Telegraph’ clearly shows the above quoted explanation for Mina Daniel’s death. So, who could these unknown snipers’’ be?

On February 6th Al Jazeera reported that Egyptian journalist Ahmad Mahmoud was shot by snipers as he attempted to cover classes between Egyptian security forces and protestors. Referring to statements made by Mahmoud’s wife Enas Abdel-Alim, the Al Jazeera article insinuates that Mahmoud may have been killed by Egyptian security forces:

Abdel-Alim said several eyewitnesses told her a uniformed police captain with Egypt’s notorious Central Security forces yelled at her husband to stop filming.

Before Mahmoud even had a chance to react, she said, a sniper shot him.” [12]

While the Al Jazeera article advances the theory that the snipers were agents of the Mubarak regime, their role in the uprising still remains a mystery. Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based television stations owned by the Emir Hamid Bin Khalifa Al Thani, played a key role in provoking protests in Tunisia and Egypt before launching a campaign of unmitigated pro-NATO war propaganda and lies during the destruction of Libya.

The Qatari channel been a central participant in the current covert war waged by NATO agencies and their clients against the Republic of Syria. Al Jazeera’s incessant disinformation against Libya and Syria resulted in the resignation of several prominent journalists such as Beirut station chief Ghassan Bin Jeddo[13]  and senior Al Jazeera executive Wadah Khanfar who was forced to resign after a wikileaks cable revealed he was a co-operating with the Central Intelligence Agency.[14]

Many people were killed during the US-backed colour revolution in Egypt. Although, the killings have been attributed to former US semi-client Hosni Mubarak, the involvement of Western intelligence cannot be ruled out. However, it should be pointed out that the role of unknown snipers in mass demonstrations remains complex and multi-faceted and therefore one should not jump to conclusions. For example, after the Bloody Sunday massacre(Domhnach na Fola) in Derry, Ireland 1972, where peaceful demonstrators were shot dead by the British army, British officials claimed that they had come under fire from snipers. But the 30 year long Bloody Sunday  inquiry subsequently proved this to be false.  But the question persists once more,  who were the snipers in Egypt and whose purposes did they serve?

Libya  2011

During the destabilization of Libya, a video was aired by Al Jazeera purporting to show peaceful pro-democracy” demonstrators being fired upon by Gaddafi’s forces”. The video was edited to convince the viewer that anti-Gaddafi demonstrators were being murdered by the security forces. However, the unedited version of the video is available on utube. It clearly shows pro-Gaddafi demonstrators with Green flags being fired upon by unknown snipers. The attribution of NATO-linked crimes to the security forces of the Libyan Jamahirya was a constant feature of the brutal media war waged against the Libyan people. [15]

Syria 2011

The people of Syria have been beset by death squads and snipers since the outbreak of violence there in March. Hundreds of Syrian soldiers and security personnel have been murdered, tortured and mutilated by Salafist and Muslim Brotherhood militants. Yet the international media corporations continue to spread the pathetic lie that the deaths are the result Bachar Al Assad’s dictatorship.

When I visited Syria in April of this year, I personally encountered merchants and citizens in Hama who told me they had seen armed terrorists roaming the streets of that once peaceful city, terrorizing the neighbourhood. I recall speaking to a fruit seller in the city of Hama who  spoke about the horror he had witnessed that day. As he described the scenes of violence to me, my attention was arrested by a newspaper headline in English from the Washington Post  shown on Syrian television: CIA backs Syrian opposition”. The Central Intelligence Agency provides training and funding for groups who do the bidding of US imperialist interests. The history of the CIA shows that backing opposition forces means providing them with arms and finance, actions illegal under international law.

A few days later, while at a hostel in the ancient, cultured city of Aleppo, I spoke to a Syrian business man and his family. The business man ran many hotels in the city and was pro-Assad. He told me that he used to watch Al Jazeera television but now had doubts about their honesty. As we conversed, the Al Jazeera television in the background showed scenes of Syrian soldiers beating and torturing protestors. Now if that is true, it is simply unacceptable” he said. It is sometimes impossible to verify whether the images shown on television are true or not. Many of the crimes attributed to the Syrian army have been committed by the armed gangs, such as the dumping of mutilated bodies into the river in Hama, presented to the world as more proof of the crimes of the Assad regime.

There is a minority of innocent opponents of the Assad regime who believe everything they see and hear on Al Jazeera and the other pro-Western satellite stations. These people simply do not understand the intricacies of international politics.

But the facts on the ground show that most people in Syria support the government. Syrians have access to all internet websites and international TV channels. They can watch BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, read the New York Times online or Le Monde before tuning into their own state media. In this respect, many Syrians are more informed about international politics than the average European or American. Most Europeans and American believe their own media. Few are capable of reading the Syrian press in original Arabic or watching Syrian television. The Western powers are the masters of discourse, who own the means of communication. The Arab Spring has been the most horrifying example of the wanton abuse of this power.

Disinformation is effective in sowing the seeds of doubt among those who are seduced by Western propaganda. Syrian state media has disproved hundreds of Al Jazeera lies since the beginning of this conflict.  Yet the western media has refused to even report the Syrian government’s position lest fair coverage of the other side of this story encourage a modicum of critical thought in the public mind.

Conclusion.

The use of mercenaries, death squads and snipers by Western intelligence agencies is well documented.  No rational government attempting to stay in power would resort to unknown snipers to intimidate its opponents. Shooting at innocent protestors would be counterproductive in the face of unmitigated pressure from Western governments determined to install a client regime in Damascus. Shooting of unarmed protestors is only acceptable in dictatorships that enjoy the unconditional support of Western governments such as Bahrain, Honduras or Colombia.

A government which is so massively supported by the population of Syria would not sabotage its own survival by setting snipers against the protests of a small minority.

The opposition to the Syrian regime is, in fact, miniscule. Tear gas, mass arrests and other non lethal methods would be perfectly sufficient for a government wishing to control unarmed demonstrators.

Snipers are used to create terror, fear and anti-regime propaganda. They are an integral feature of Western sponsored regime change.
If one were to make a serious criticism of the Syrian government over the past few months, it is that they have failed to implement effective anti-terrorism measures in the country.
The Syrian people want troops on the streets and the roofs of public buildings. In the weeks and months ahead, the Syrian armed forces will probably rely more and more on their Russian military specialists to strengthen the country’s defenses as the Western crusade begun in Libya in March spreads to the Levant.
There is no conclusive proof that the snipers murdering men, women and children in Syria are the agents of Western imperialism. But there is overwhelming proof that Western imperialism is attempting to destroy the Syrian state. As in Libya, they have never once mentioned the possibility of negotiations between the so-called opposition and the Syrian government. The West wants regime change and is determined to repeat the slaughter in Libya to achieve this geopolitical objective.

It now looks likely that the cradle of civilization and science will be overrun by semi-literate barbarians as the terminal decline of the West plays itself out in the deserts of the East.
Notes

[1] http://nstarikov.ru/en/

[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l8qjX4SzBY&feature=related

[3]http://www.euractiv.com/enlargement/romania-says-poverty-reduction-impossible-target-news-468172

[4]http://www.truthinmedia.org/Bulletins/tim98-3-10.html

[5].http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2010/0412/Thailand-s-red-shirt-protests-darken-with-unknown-snipers-parade-of-coffins

[6] http://www.activistpost.com/2010/12/thailand-stage-set-for-another-color.html

[7]  http://www.eurasianet.org/taxonomy/term/2813?page=6

[8http://kommersant.com/p1008364/r_500/U.S.-Kyrgyzstan_relations/

[9] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/world/asia/25kyrgyz.html

[10]http://articles.cnn.com/2011-01-16/world/tunisia.protests_1_troops-battle-unity-government-tunisia?_s=PM:WORLD

[11]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIFxqXPQEQU&feature=related

[12]http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/spotlight/anger-in-egypt/2011/02/201126201341479784.html

[13] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4060180,00.html

[14] http://intelligencenews.wordpress.com/2011/09/21/01-828/

[15] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQtM-59jDAo&feature=player_embedded#!

Press Release

Rising demand in India for tea from Sri Lanka spurs Sri Lanka Tea Board to set up anexclusive Pavilion at India’s only trade show dedicated to the Tea & Coffee sectors

With Indian consumption of Sri Lankan tea rising rapidly, the Sri Lanka Tea Board has reserved a special pavilion at the 3^rd edition of World Tea & Coffee Expo (WTCE) 2015 being held at Mumbai, India’s commercial capital, from 1^st Oct 2015 to 3^rd Oct 2015. Under the aegis of the Sri Lanka Tea Board, a number of companies shall be showcasingvarious kinds of bulk and packet Teawith a view to increase bilateral trade with India. During the current year itself (i.e. 2015), Sri Lanka has exported more than 300 tonnes of Tea to India. Sri Lankan companies shall be displaying Ceylon Super Pekoe black tea, Ceylon green tea, White Tea, Ceylon Silver tip tea, Instant Tea and specialtytypes of tea for which Sri Lanka is famous.

According to Mr. Y.G.Wijeratne, Chairman,Sri Lanka Tea Board, India has a large and growing consumer base with varied levels of income,making it a great market for all kinds of Tea. Our participation in WTCE 2015 will enable us to promote Sri Lankan companies in India at a dedicated trade fair which provides an opportunity to directly interact with Indian buyers, potential partners and government officials”

Although India is the second largest producer of tea in the world – because of its population size – it is also the 2^ndlargest consumer of Tea. With changing lifestyles, large-scale urbanization and mushrooming of upscale cafes for both Tea & Coffee, demand for non traditional tea like Premium tea, green tea, white tea etc is growing at a whopping 20% annually. Due to shortage of high quality premium tea supply in India, Indian branded tea companies buy premium tea from Kenya and Sri Lanka

The 3rd World Tea & Coffee Expo 2015 offers a platform, which promises to not only boost the Indian Tea and Coffee industry; but also strengthen relationships between India and the participating nations. In addition to a display of products, Vending Solutions, machineries, technologies and certifications from the entire gamut of the Hot beverage sector, additional activities at the Expo include: B2B match-making, Workshops & Championships, a High Level 2-day Conference by Industry leaders, academicians and policy makers, export/import guidance kiosks, Knowledge zone etc. The WTCE platform is utilized by many companies as alaunching pad for new products.

Defining the vision behind the Expo, Ms Priti M Kapadia, Director, Sentinel Exhibitions Asia P Ltd, organizers of the expo, states, The World Tea & Coffee Expo was launched in 2013 to offer an organized avenue for all the industry stakeholders to come together under a single roof for networking, business expansion and ideas exchange. The Expo shall emphasize the prospects of the HotBeverage sector as also showcase technological innovations in this important sector.”

WTCE is supported by many eminent trade bodies including Tea Board of India (Govt. of India) and fulfils the need for an organized event for Tea & Coffee Companies in India to come together. For further information please log onto www.worldteacoffeeexpo.com or call on +91 22 28625131 or email to info@worldteacoffeeexpo.com.