By Garvin Karunaratne former GA Matara

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Garvin Karunaratne

former GA Matara

250924

garvin_karunaratne@hotmail.com

Dr Sudath Gunasekara.  Mahanuwarara 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted on September 14th, 2024

I have stated it in the above letter as follows.

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

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

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

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

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

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

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

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

ඩොයිලි

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

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

කැප්පෙටිපොළ

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

සෝල්බරි

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

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

අනුර දිසානායක ජනාධිපතිවරයා

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ගැලවුම්කරු

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

KAMALIKA PIERIS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

තිස්ස ගුණතිලක

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

විපස්සනාව රසායනිකව, සෘද්ධිපාද, ඕභාශය සහ රූප දර්ශනය ධර්ම සාකච්ඡාව 6A 15 සැප් 2024 youtu.be

ඔබට තෙරුවන් සරණයි

තිස්ස ගුණතිලක

tgunite@tpg.com.au

2024 සැප් මස 26 වනදා

Sent from Tissa’s Phone

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

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

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

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake assumes duties

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A free and fair general election- first test in democracy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Private-public partnership 

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

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

A new political culture

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

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

Follow @RangaJayasuriya on X

By Shabiya Ali Ahlam Courtesy The Daily Mirror

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

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

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

Courtesy Adaderana

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

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

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

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

Courtesy Adaderana

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The statement by Fitch Ratings further stated:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Courtesy Adaderana

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

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

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

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

General Election 2024 – Election Commission Statement by Adaderana Online on

Courtesy Adaderana

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: Reuters

–Agencies

Courtesy Adaderana

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read the full speech below…

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s inaugural address to the nation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That is tomorrow will be better than today!”

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

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

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

•  President Anura Kumara’s inaugural address to the nation

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

ෆිච් රේටින්ස් ආයතනය නිකුත් කළ, ශ්‍රේණිගත කිරීම් දැක්වුණේ ජනපතිවරණයේ ප්‍රතිඵලය ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ප්‍රතිපත්තිමය දිශානතියට අවිනිශ්චිතතාවයක් එක් කරන අතර ණය ප්‍රතිව්‍යුහගතකීරීම හෝ ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය අරමුදලේ වැඩසටහන් නැවත සාකච්ඡා කිරීම ප්‍රමාද කිරීමටද හේතුවිය හැකි බවයි.

මේ අතර, කොළඹ කොටස් වෙළෙඳපොළ මිල දර්ශකවල අද දිනයේත් කැපී පෙනෙන ඉහළ යෑමක් දක්නට ලැබෙනවා.

සියලු‍ කොටස් මිල දර්ශකය ඒකක 325.59 කින් ඉහළ ගොස් දිනය නිමාවන විට සටහන් වූයේ ඒකක 11,659.71 ක් ලෙසයි.

එස් ඇන්ඩ් පී ටුවෙන්ටි මිල දර්ශකය ඒකක 132.23 කින් ඉහළ ගොස් ඒකක 3,367.45 ක් ලෙස සටහන් වුණා. සමස්ත පිරිවැටුම රුපියල් බිලියන 3.9ක්.

Dilrook Kannangara

When a new government is elected, doomsayers and losers say nothing will succeed. That is to vent their very own personal defeatist thoughts. That is not where I’m coming from. While wishing every success to the AKD government I wish to bring to the attention the challenges that are too steep for any regime to overcome. Superhuman effort is needed to salvage Sri Lanka as we know it.

Impossible to do Structural Changes

After 1977 the Sri Lankan legal framework has been crafted to allow corruption, waste and save wrongdoers from their obligation to accountability. This is well understood and many have promised to change it. However, in order to do it, the Constitution must be changed. NPP will not win even 110 seats whereas a constitutional change requires 150 seats. In other words, the NPP regime will be stuck in the same Constitution that is responsible for the present mess.

No Discretionary Funds Available

With a massive debt portfolio of $102 billion (including local rupee loans), debt servicing costs (repayment of interest, loans and loan administration fees) are huge. Once they are paid, and after paying ongoing expenses, mainly salaries, there’d be nothing left. In fact, it’s a deficit after paying these. Funds are needed to do the education and healthcare revolution the NPP promised. It cannot be done without funds.

NPP is unable to take bold decisions to default on loans as it will lack a clear parliamentary majority.

CEPA and Other Indian Challenges

CEPA agreement with India goes well beyond the existing FTA (Free Trade Agreement). It can wipe out local businesses and make local professional unemployed. NPP, UNP, SJB or SLPP, it has to be accepted in some shape or form to maintain a good relationship with India. A JVP-led regime may be the easiest regime in Sri Lanka for India to push this agenda. This is because the NPP is not made up of businessmen whose businesses will be directly affected by CEPA. In fact, if CEPA is signed that will weaken the UNP, SJB and SLPP further as their sponsors’ businesses will be wiped out by the flood of Indian businesses. However, CEPA will ruin the Lankan economy.

If the NPP regime decides not to go ahead with CEPA, India will destabilize the island nation.

Honesty, integrity and good intentions are pathetically insufficient to fix Sri Lanka. Large amounts of dollars are needed to salvage Sri Lanka. Fairy tales about bringing down stolen wealth stored in foreign countries will not materialize simply because they are not true. At least not at a tangible level.

All regimes in Sri Lanka since 2010 failed and could not last their full term with stability due to economic crises and resultant political discord. They included the Mahinda regime, Sirisena, Gotabaya and Ranil. The fate of the AKD regime will not be any different for the same reasons. Hopefully it will not be the case and Sri Lankans will get some respite after long suffering and this projection will prove false.

Insight By Sunil Kumar for Lankaweb

In a sudden and overwhelming sweep the recent past of turmoil and anguish seems to have been overcome as the JVP under Anura Kumara Dissanayaka from humble beginnings albeit a resolute campaigner who seems to have swayed the minds of an overwhelming majority has taken office as the new Executive President and his powerful language full of promise and hope for a struggling Nation has been responded to where many past demons appear to have been overcome  in the minds of many and a possible new dawn beckons the recently ailing Nation.

The results were tense and of a teetering nature as it shifted from Sajith Premadasa to Anura Kumara but never in doubt as who would be the winner and today a calming wind seems to have swept Sri Lanka with perhaps a sigh of relief for many whose former dashed hopes of a contented and normal existence had all but vanished now has a kind of respite where they can hope again.

Curiously the former President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has taken off on a “pilgrimage” to Nepal and many of the alleged perpetrators of Sri Lanka’s woes have all but quietened down, perhaps beaten into figurative submission through the enormity of the JVP win as the Nation to all intents and purposes begins rebuilding again with Dissanayake’s task an unenviable one albeit a possible one provided he charters the right course and receives the proper responses from all concerned  both internally and Globally where the forthcoming parliamentary elections will be a key and  decisive factor as the salutations and felicitations continue.

 Dissanayake’s foreign policy relations with world super powers, negotiations with the IMF and the implementation of strong local key issues which have been long neglected and outstanding towards the well being of the country, finances, security, interracial peace and harmony, availability of consumer goods at a reasonable price, a manageable cost of living and the appeasement of the ordinary man would be of prime importance towards his personal popularity as well as the keeping of many pledges made throughout his campaign which would test his mettle and increase his national popularity as well as the confidence the people have shown towards the huge mandate he has received as the old guard has changed like never before where confidence in a Marxist leader has never been the order of the day yet the circumstances within the Nation has so demanded it in a very unexpected and unprecedented manner. 

There has to be gratitude also to the outgoing President Ranil Wickremasinghe who weathered the worst economic storm in Sri Lanka’s history through his political, legal  and other expertise albeit his effort  perhaps not being recognized as sufficient for a second term which has its own interpretations towards the well being of the country which now rests firmly on the shoulders of the new President to whom many blessings and good wishes are extended towards the country’s future as the new beginning awaits her wearied people.

Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake

September 23, 2024

Update by Gospa News Editorial Staff

The leader of the opposition alliance National People’s Power, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, won Sri Lanka’s presidential election, the Lankan news portal Newsfirst reported. Dissanayake was supported by 5,740,179 voters after second ballot count. His closest rival, Sajith Premadasa, leader of United People’s Power, scored 4,530,902 votes. The presidential election in Sri Lanka was held on September 21. The president is elected in a direct general vote for the term of five years. The country held previous direct presidential election in 2019. Gotabaya Rajapaksa won the vote but had to resign in July 2022 amid protests. Sri Lanka has 17 million eligible voters. The voter turnout was around 80%.

In the run up to elections the post-Marxist National People’s Party (NPP), ran a high-gloss, election campaign to market its policies as a ‘new dawn’. Remarkably, the NPP and rival political parties alike had ignored wider geopolitical developments that may contribute to such a dawn given the globally networked nature of Sri Lanka’s ‘poly crisis’.

Re-orienting the economy toward the BRICS that is challenging the ‘exorbitant privilege’ of the US dollar as global reserve currency would be one such step.

The US dollar has been long used to debt colonize the Global South. However, all major political parties did little to educate voters about Sri Lanka’s wider geopolitical challenges, or the need to pivot away from the West’s tired debt trap, neocolonialism.

BRICS emerging economies constitute a New Beginning in a ‘multipolar currency world.’ The Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa block also represents hope and an alternative development path for many countries caught in International Sovereign Eurobond (ISB), US dollar debt traps and the related International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout business. There are 56 countries in Asia, Africa and South America that are in Covid-19 Lockdown induced debt traps, and Sri Lanka would need to work with them to counter the G-7 Paris Club creditor countries.

Sri Lanka in the Asian 21^st Century

At this time the BRICS block have beaten the G-7 economies. Indeed, the ‘American Century’ seems done and dusted in an increasingly ‘Asian 21^st Century’ although US Presidential contenders, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have both promised to claw it back. While the American Eagle may not be dead, the train heading east, shifting wealth and power across the world and back to Asia after a couple of centuries of Euro-American dominance, appears to have left the station.

Different regional currencies have emerged to form an alternative trade, technology and de facto reserve currency network, some using Central Bank digital currencies (CBDC), and other cross-border payment systems. The BRICS inter-bank system to counter the Western dominated SWIFT international banking and financial messaging system has just been unveiled.

The global trend away from the US dollar fiat currency (Petrodollar), which is no longer backed by Saudi Arabian oil, accelerated after sanctions on Russia, including the freezing of $300 billion Russian assets over the war in Ukraine.

Necessity is the mother of invention: Countries fearful of the Weaponized dollar and US financial hegemony have been de-dollarizing. Increasingly, the Indian Rupee (INR) and Chinese Renminbi (RMB), dominate intra-Asian and Indian Ocean world trade and currency exchange. Many countries are drawing down dollar reserves and investing in gold, while others like India have repatriated their gold reserves.

South Asia countries like Sri Lanka which are in Eurobond US dollar debt traps would benefit from de-dollarizing and recalibrating trade in regional currencies, while engaging markets closer to home.

The US Dollar Debt trap, LAWFARE and the Central Bank (CBSL)

Sri Lankan’s purchasing power plummeted with rapid local currency depreciation against the exorbitantly privileged dollar amid a staged default two years ago in 2022. This was after the shadowy, off-shore Hamilton Reserve Bank of St. Kitts and Nevis filed a court case in New York against South Asia’s wealthiest country, listed as an Upper Middle Income Country (MIC), purportedly for non-payment of a small amount of interest. As the dollars in State accounts dried up, coordinated Rating Agency messaging that the country was bankrupt’ saw the crash of the rupee against the dollar– instantly beggared citizens.

Retrospectively, Sri Lanka’s first ever Sovereign Default appears to be a Full Spectrum Dominance (FSD) operation amid LAWFARE and cyber operations, with coordinated fuel and food supply chain disruptions and NED-funded, faux democracy (Aragalaya) protests– to deliver the geostrategic Indian Ocean island to the lender of last resorts – the IMF.

Since the Default staged two year ago, Sri Lanka has effectively lost economic sovereignty and policy autonomy to the IMF and Paris Club creditors, that are engaged in mission and mandate creep into Domestic Debt Restructuring (DDR) ironically, in the name of ‘Good Governance’ reforms.

IMF mission creep into DDR along with currency exchange rate manipulation had inflated the county’s purported external debt listed at $ 26 billion at the time of default to a purported whopping $100 billion in the span of two years. This is according to the Governor of the Central Bank (CBSL), Nandalal Weerasinghe, who was appointed during the US-backed regime change putsch.

At this time calls are growing for the resignation of the CBSL Governor under whose 2-year watch the US dollar denominated debt trap had trebled– or is claimed to have increased massively. USD-denominated debt increasingly appears to be a numbers game in the absence of debt Data Security of the Sri Lanka Government Cloud Storage System.

The CBSL, famous for Eurobond Scams under successive Ranil Rajapakse Government was made ‘independent’ of the Parliament and citizens of Sri Lanka as part of the IMF’s anti-corruption Governance Reforms through legislation last year, is now effectively owned and operated by the IMF and related advisors and consultants!

A Conspiracy of Silence on BRICS? A Colonial Mindset and Foreign-Funding

There are no purely economic solutions to fundamentally geopolitical problems.

Sri Lanka urgently needs a comprehensive, long-term, exit-strategy from Western –ISB-IMF-CBSL debt neocolonialism, as well as, new thinking to achieve this.

However, a cross-party consensus appears to exist among all leading political parties, as well as, local think tanks, and the corporate media, to overlook the new dawn that the BRICS represents for debt-trapped citizens.

A colonial mindset has long dominated the national education system and political discourse in the island that was a British Dominion with faux independence until 1972, when the country achieved real independence and its first Republican Constitution.

In recent times, neo-imperial UK-US-EU and Japanese, or G7, interests and funding in the form of ‘development aid’ for research in universities, think tanks and related NGOs, has shaped and contained public discourse on genuine policy alternatives. The current election season saw increased foreign funding from the so-called ‘Diaspora’ to all major political parties, particularly, the NPP, as well as, to various think tanks conducting dubious surveys and polls. The latter outfits have made dubious predictions on election outcomes seemingly to game them –fronting social media and Artificial Intelligence (AI) data mining- while spreading disinformation.

The failure of all major opposition parties to address the geopolitical dimensions of the crisis and prioritize economic alternatives to endless talks with IMF, ISBs and a gravy train of legal and financial consultants, including Lazard, Clifford and Chance, raises serious questions about their external funding networks and policy agendas. This is particularly true of the NPP’s Anura Kumara Dissanayake who had portrayed his party as a break from the past and a new beginning for the country! In lieu of educating itself and its supporters on the wider issues, the pretender to the throne, the NPP which presented itself as an alternative to the existing corrupt political culture did not lift the bar on the national economic policy debate or explore GENUINE alternatives.

The Myth of TINA to the IMF

The election manifestos of US-backed and unelected President Wickramasinghe and the post-Marist opposition National Peoples’ Power (PPP) party, alike, were remarkably silent on the need for a new government to prioritize pivoting to the BRICS to bailout ISB debt-trapped citizens.

Since coming to power amid the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED) Aragalaya protest putsch, President Ranil Wickramasinghe has portrayed his government’s Debt Sustainability Agreement (DSA) with the IMF as a panacea. His Minister of Finance, Shehan Semasinghe, meanwhile, claimed that ‘there is no alternative’ (TINA) to the lender of last resorts. Amending the agreement as called for by some opposition parties would cause heavy losses to the country and amount to ‘suicide’ he noted.

The warning that Sri Lanka must stay the course on the ‘IMF’s ‘bitter medicine’ of borrowing from predatory International Sovereign or Eurobond (ISB) creditors—come 2028, ironically, in order to pay them off– regardless of who wins the election has been echoed by a host of ambassadors from Paris Club creditor countries, including a visiting Japanese Minister.

Clearly, warnings against ditching the IMF and its DSA must be contextualized in the growing challenge that the BRICS represents to Washington’s economic hegemony. In lieu of ISB Odious Debt Cancellation that international and local academics and debt justice activists have sought, IMF ‘solutions’ entail austerity measures and privatization of public assets to shrink the economy. These IMF measures are set to deepen the Eurobond debt trap and impoverish citizens in the not too distant future.

It is now quite evident that International Sovereign Eurobond (ISB) scams at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), under successive Ranil Rajapakse regime were the root cause for Sri Lanka’s odious debt pile up and staged default two years ago– in 2022. At the time, China was blamed for ‘debt-trap lending’ in a concerted global and local corporate media propaganda campaign as America’s economic proxy war on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) escalated.

Dollarizing Mother Nature: Green and Blue Bonds and Scams

With the wisdom of hindsight, Sri Lanka must look beyond the IMF’s pseudo solution of borrowing from predatory creditors in order to pay them off –come 2028: Only this time around the bonds and scams would be flavored, multi-coloured, and sweetened to make them more palatable to the economically gaslighted natives of a tropical Paradise Lost!

Under IMF and ISB ‘advisors’ tutelage, vanilla bonds would be issued to pay off predatory private creditors and loan sharks, the largest being BlackRock that debt trapped Sri Lanka in collusion with corrupt local politicians and their business cronies.

Strawberry pink macro-linked governance bonds are being designed with a USAID and EU-funded think tank, Verite Research, to monitor local corruption sans mention of ISB corruption or the fact that the bondholders’ names are kept secret.

Meanwhile, Green and blue debt bondage (or Debt for Nature Swaps also known as ESG or Environment, Social and Governance Bonds), are being designed to save Mother Nature in the faux Anthropocene. This, by financializing and dollarizing forests, fields and marine areas and sea-bed resources which would deprive indigenous fishers and famers of traditional livelihoods and access to forests, lands and marine areas, demarcated for ‘Environmental Conservation’– in violation of core principles of both Debt Justice and Climate Justice.

Sri Lanka’s business community and financial sector in which Eurobonds scams and derivatives are a growth opportunity, has been long colonized by the American Chamber of Commerce and solely lacking in innovation to leverage and industrialize the island’s extensive mineral and marine resources.

In the midst of elections fog, for the first time a green bond was issued in Sri Lanka by the DFCC Bank and the colonial Club de Paris predatory creditors announced an in Principle agreement on debt restructuring. This is in lieu of outright ISB debt cancellation that Academics and Debt justice activists had called for.

In a nut shell, green and blue bonds are designed by financializing, dollarizing and privatizing Mother Nature; tropical forests, marine areas, ocean resources, and the air we breathe with Artificial Intelligence generated science fiction carbon credit calculations. In the name of conservation local famers and fishers would be denied access to their livelihoods–  forests, fields and marine areas and resources. The UNDP’s, Sri Lanka Diaspora member, Kanni Wignaraja has been enlisted to market green and blue bondscams in Sri Lanka amid the faux Anthropocene climate catastrophe narrative. All this of course is part of the globalists new Green Deal’ to debt colonize Global South countries, and perhaps simultaneously save the exorbitantly privileged US dollar as the world de-dollarizes, also given America’s massive $ 35 trillion debt and counting.

Green Bondage and the new Green Deal: Militarism the Real Threat

The United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterrez has been talking up climate boiling” and generating fear psychosis, which may help sell green and blue bonds and scams. The faux Anthropocene is of course mainly caused by environmental pollution generated by the US-led NATO war machine, its war games, 800 plus military bases around the world, endless wars, not to mention Directed Energy Weapons (DEW) and HAARP. The latter enable staging climate disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, heat domes, flash floods, earth slips, forest fires etc. with glossy media footage of climate disasters for green and blue washed humanitarian Disaster Capitalism.

However, there are few UN conferences calling for shutdown of environment-polluting military bases and NATO’s endless wars, that now have the world tether on the brink of nuclear annihilation. Has the UN abandoned its primary mandate to keep the global peace in preference to hot air faux Anthropocene CoP Summits?

Are ongoing attempts at US dollar-based financialization of Mother Nature in Tropical Islands in the form of Green and Blue bonds also meant to help prolong the dollar’s life as global reserve currency in an increasingly multipolar currency system—as the world de-dollarizes? Back in Sri Lanka, the IMF-ISB pseudo solution of issuing green-washed bonds to deepen the debt trap and pay off predatory ISB creditors come 2028, is set to inflate the debt numbers. Regardlss, the UNDP’s Kanni Wignaraja has been marketing blue and green bonds and scams in Sri Lanka. This, with the usual IMF’s austerity measures and privatization of national assets to shrink the economy is a recipe for double disaster– a second default in very short order!

Finally, the conspiracy of silence among major political parties and their foreign advisors and policy drafters on the need to re-orient Sri Lanka’s economic policy to leverage new developments in her Asian neighborhood, such as, applying to join BRICS, is concerning. Pivoting to the BRICS and the global south would enable transfer of technology to industrialize and access new markets to leverage Sri Lanka’s largely untapped, and valuable marine and mineral resources. This would help a growth-led escape from Paris Club creditors and the USD-Eurobond debt neocolonialism encrypted in the IMF Extended Fund Facility (EFF) agreement.

There are no IMF solutions to Sri Lanka’s fundamentally geopolitical problems. In fact, the IMF is a big part of the geostrategic island’s poly crisis and Eurobond debt neo-colonialism. It is hence that the tropical island blessed with Mother Nature’s largess must ‘de-dollarize to de-colonize’!

Published at Veterans Today https://www.vtforeignpolicy.com/2024/09/de-dollarize-to-de-colonize-sri-lanka-as-asia-must-pivot-to-the-brics-after-elections-won-by-post-marxists/

Mohan D Mendis

The 2019 and 2024 presidential elections in Sri Lanka marked significant turning points in the country’s political landscape, reflecting shifts in voter preferences and growing dissatisfaction with the traditional political elite.

2019 Presidential Election

The 2019 election saw a pivotal contest between two major figures: Gotabaya Rajapaksa from the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and Sajith Premadasa from the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB). Rajapaksa won the election with 52.25% of the vote, defeating Premadasa, who secured 41.99%.

• Key Issues: The election was largely driven by concerns over national security and economic stability, with Rajapaksa capitalizing on these issues following the deadly Easter Sunday attacks earlier that year.
• Outcome: Voter turnout was high, at 83.72%, reflecting strong public engagement in the political process during a period of heightened concern over the country’s security and economy.

2024 Presidential Election

The 2024 election represented a dramatic shift in the political environment. Anura Kumara Dissanayake, leader of the National People’s Power (NPP), emerged victorious with 42.31% of the vote, defeating Sajith Premadasa, who garnered 32.76%.

• Key Issues: The election occurred in the aftermath of the 2022 economic crisis, which led to public discontent with established political figures like Rajapaksa and Premadasa. Dissanayake’s platform focused on anti-corruption and working-class representation, resonating with voters seeking change.
• Outcome: Voter turnout fell to 76%, signaling lower public engagement, driven in part by economic hardships and voter disillusionment. Dissanayake’s victory was a notable departure from Sri Lanka’s history of being dominated by the Rajapaksa and Premadasa families.

Comparison and Political Significance

The 2019 election was a victory for the traditional political establishment, while the 2024 election marked a shift towards anti-establishment sentiment, with voters seeking new leadership amidst economic recovery efforts. These two elections highlight the evolving political dynamics in Sri Lanka, where the electorate is increasingly prioritizing governance reform and economic stability over political legacies.

1. 2019 and 2024 Election Results:

• 2019 Presidential Election Results:
  • Winner: Gotabaya Rajapaksa (Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna – SLPP) won with 52.25% of the vote.
  • Runner-up: Sajith Premadasa (Samagi Jana Balawegaya – SJB) garnered 41.99%.
  • Voter Turnout: 83.72%.
  • Analysis: These figures are accurate and have been verified with official election data from the 2019 election.
• 2024 Presidential Election Results:
  • Winner: Anura Kumara Dissanayake (National People’s Power – NPP) won with 42.31% of the vote.
  • Runner-up: Sajith Premadasa (SJB) secured 32.76%.
  • Voter Turnout: 76%, indicating a decline from 2019.
• Key Observations:
  • The shift from Gotabaya Rajapaksa to Anura Kumara Dissanayake represents a significant political change, highlighting the public’s dissatisfaction with traditional political elites.
  • The 9.23% decrease in Premadasa’s vote share from 2019 to 2024 reflects his inability to capture the growing anti-establishment sentiment.

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2. Voter Turnout and Migration Impact

• Confirmed Drop in Voter Turnout:
  • 2019: Voter turnout was 83.72% during a time of heightened political and economic concern.
  • 2024: Voter turnout dropped to 76%, reflecting decreased political engagement amidst continued economic challenges and disillusionment with traditional parties.
• Factors Behind Turnout Decline:
  • Economic Crisis: The 2022 crisis led to widespread disillusionment with the political process, reducing enthusiasm for participation.
  • Large-Scale Migration: The confirmed emigration of 500,000 to 700,000 Sri Lankans after the 2022 crisis, particularly among professionals and middle-class voters, directly impacted voter participation. With no absentee voting system in place, many of these emigrants were excluded from the 2024 election.
• Implications: The voter base in 2024 was influenced by both economic instability and demographic shifts due to migration, leading to reduced turnout.

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3. Premadasa-Wickremesinghe Alliance: Confirmed Analysis

• Premadasa’s Performance:
  • Sajith Premadasa’s vote share dropped to 32.76% in 2024, down from 41.99% in 2019, signaling a failure to maintain momentum against the growing appeal of anti-establishment candidates like Dissanayake.
• Wickremesinghe’s Estimated Support:
  • Ranil Wickremesinghe’s support, though not explicitly confirmed by official data, is estimated to be 8-10% based on his long-time affiliation with the United National Party (UNP) and his recent governance.
• Potential Combined Vote Share:
  • A theoretical combination of Premadasa’s 32.76% and Wickremesinghe’s estimated 8-10% could have reached 40-43% of the total vote. This would have potentially allowed a joint candidacy to outperform Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s 42.31%.
• Challenges to an Alliance:
  • The document correctly identifies the difficulties in merging Wickremesinghe’s pro-market policies with Premadasa’s more populist stance. Additionally, voter behavior is complex, and not all of Wickremesinghe’s supporters would have automatically backed a Premadasa-Wickremesinghe alliance.

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4. Political and Economic Context: Impact on 2024 Election

• Economic Recovery Efforts:
  • Ranil Wickremesinghe’s IMF-driven austerity measures helped stabilize the economy post-2022, but these policies were deeply unpopular among many citizens. This contributed to his low support base in 2024, despite the technical success in controlling inflation and stabilizing foreign reserves.
• Public Sentiment:
  • Widespread dissatisfaction with traditional political families, including the Rajapaksas and Wickremesinghe’s UNP, fueled the rise of Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who positioned himself as an anti-establishment figure, appealing particularly to younger and working-class voters.
• Voter Apathy:
  • Many voters who remained in Sri Lanka after the 2022 crisis were more focused on economic survival than political engagement, contributing to the reduced turnout in 2024. The combination of economic hardship and disenchantment with political elites led to voter fatigue.

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5. Lessons for Political Candidates: Strategic Adjustments

Each of the key political figures in the 2024 election can draw crucial lessons from the results:

• Anura Kumara Dissanayake (NPP):
  • Success: His anti-corruption and anti-establishment platform resonated with voters frustrated by traditional elites, earning him 42.31% of the vote.
  • Challenge: To maintain his position and broaden his appeal, Dissanayake must find ways to moderate his Marxist economic policies to reassure the business community and middle-class voters.
• Sajith Premadasa (SJB):
  • Failure: Premadasa’s inability to build on his 2019 vote share and his failure to unite opposition forces, particularly with Wickremesinghe, cost him valuable support.
  • Lesson: Premadasa needs to reposition himself as a true alternative to the establishment, focusing on consolidating opposition votes and differentiating his policies from those of his rivals.
• Ranil Wickremesinghe (UNP):
  • Challenge: Despite stabilizing the economy, Wickremesinghe’s perceived alignment with the elite and his austerity measures left him with minimal voter support (estimated at 8-10%).
  • Lesson: Wickremesinghe must rebuild public trust by prioritizing social welfare and demonstrating empathy toward ordinary citizens. Transparency in governance and inclusivity in economic recovery efforts are key to reviving his political relevance.

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6. Broader Recommendations for Sri Lanka’s Governance

The confirmed election results and current political environment highlight several critical areas for reform in Sri Lanka’s governance:

• 1. Strengthen Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Measures:
  • Action: Enhance the independence and authority of anti-corruption bodies like the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC). Transparency in public contracts and government spending should be mandatory.
• 2. Promote Inclusive Economic Growth:
  • Action: Focus on equitable development that bridges the urban-rural divide, with particular attention to underdeveloped regions affected by the civil war. Investment in education, skills training, and support for local entrepreneurship will create more opportunities across all sectors of society.
• 3. Address Voter Disenchantment and Civic Engagement:
  • Action: Rebuild public trust in democratic institutions by promoting civic engagement. Decentralize governance to allow for more local-level decision-making. Electoral reforms should focus on reducing the influence of political dynasties and increasing citizen participation.
• 4. Strengthen National Unity:
  • Action: Deepen efforts to reconcile ethnic and religious tensions. Policies must focus on addressing the grievances of minority communities and promoting inclusive leadership that reflects Sri Lanka’s diversity.
• 5. Economic Transparency and Debt Management:
  • Action: Implement transparent debt management policies, ensuring the public has access to information on foreign loans and aid programs. Tax policies should be equitable, reducing the burden on the working class while ensuring higher contributions from wealthier citizens.

Conclusion

The confirmed data from the 2024 election signals a significant shift in Sri Lankan politics, with the public increasingly rejecting traditional political elites in favor of anti-establishment figures like Anura Kumara Dissanayake. While the challenges of economic recovery and political realignment persist, the lessons learned from this election can guide future governance strategies. Political leaders must adapt by promoting transparency, inclusivity, and equitable growth to rebuild trust and ensure long-term stability.

Recommendations for Improvement:

1. Focus on Voter Engagement: Political parties must prioritize rebuilding trust and engagement, particularly among younger and first-time voters.
2. Address Economic Inequality: Implement policies that reduce economic disparity and promote equal access to opportunities across the country.
3. Promote Unity and Reconciliation: Efforts to reconcile past conflicts and ensure fair representation of all ethnic groups in governance are crucial for long-term national unity.

Dr Sudath Gunasekara Mahanuwara 

Dear Mr. President,

        You are welcome and congratulations. This is something long overdue. This should have done by those who took over the country from the British in1948, by restoring the position that was there in 1815.Therefore, the whole country will welcome your bold step. However, I would like to add a proviso to what you already have said. That is, please, ensure that no one in this country, hereafter call himself or her as Tamil or Muslim.  Because, the nation in this country was known as Sinhala from 543 BC and Sinhala Buddhist ever since 307 BC, the time Buddhism was officially established on this soil. In addition, you can also call them Lankans or Sri Lankans as we have been called after 1972.  This is permissible since the country had also been known as both Lankadiipa /Sinhaladiipa and Sinhale from time immemorial.

        In fact, the country that was handed over to the British under the Kandyan Convention of March 2nd 1815 was Sinhale, even though the Kandayan Kingdom (the core Kingdom of this Island) was ruled by a South Indian Nayakkaar from 1739 onwards until its demise in 1815. The Kandyan Convention throughout has used this term Sinhale to call it. (see Kandyan Convention March 2^nd 1815)) The term Sinhale, means the land of the Sinha nation, that was handed over by the Kandyan Convention in 1815, which the British has translated as Ceylon in 1815, which simply meant The Land of the Sinhala people”. The permission given by all successive governments for those Malaba inhabitant who were either brought by the British as their slave labour coolies or the Tamil speaking south Indians who came by Marakkar (a kind of sea faring boats and therefore called Marakkala) came to be known as Muslims. as they professed Islam. In the same way those who came by Hamban and landed at Hambanthota were called Hamabaye. But in this country, both these parties came to be known as a nation called Muslims.

        I must point out it here that there is no nation called Muslim anywhere in the world other than in this country. The word Muslim means a person, who profess the religion of Islam. And as such it is only a term used to designate a religious group. For example, even in India there is no nation called Muslims. All Muslims living in India are called Indians. They are Muslim only by religion. What is more is there is no country in the whole word where those who profess the religion are called as Muslim nation other than this country. In Pakistan they are Pakistanis, Iran, Iranians and Saudi Arabia Arabians and so on. Knavery or ignorance on the part of those who ran this country since 1948 had allowed to perpetuate it. With regard to Tamil, although their traditional homeland is in India, for millennia, and there are 7 million in India, not a single Tamil can his nationality is Tamil. They are all called Indians by Law. Then again in this country calling them nations, both Muslims and Tamils, is a colonial invention and conspiracy to divide this country and destroy the Sinhala Buddhist nation.

        Therefore, the government should, at least after 76 years of blind governance, make legislation disallowing both Malabars and the Muslims. They should not be allowed to call themselves Tamils and Muslims as nations in this country any longer. It should be banned by law. The nationality of all conventional countries in the world like Japan, Korea, Japan, China, Russia, Burma, Thailand India Bangladesh, Pakistan, Russi, Arabia, Iran or even European countries like England, Germany Poland, France, Italy   and have been named after the Language of the natives.  The only exceptions are the newly created countries by Western colonial invaders such as America, South Africa, Australia and New Zeeland (where the conquer has annihilated all natives and named those countries after some invaders name. The only exception is New Zealand which means the the land of the long white cloud” ( Aotearoa)  in Māori, the language of the original settlers migrated from Polynesia and settled down there as the founders of that country)

        Therefore, I call upon all the Sinhala politicians of this country, at least now to restore the original nationality of this country that existed up to 1815 and demand the intruders, both Tamils and Muslims to accept the status quo and integrate with the native Sinhalese Buddhists who are the de facto and de jure owners of this country who found this land in 543 BC, developed the civilization and protected it from all invasions from India from the  2^nd century BC up to the 12^th c AD the  and  the Europeans  thereafter starting from 1505 up to date. All those immigrants who are not prepared to concede with this reality, also should leave the shores of this country to their historical motherlands from where they have come, either as colonial slaves or on their own in search of greener pastures

       Anyone who does not accept this all-time reality are not fit to rule this country. All the Sinhala politician must go back to the school or the village temple and first learn the history of this country as a pre requisite qualification before he decides to enter do politics. If in fact I would suggest, there should be compulsory list of qualifications laid down for all aspirants to enter politics in this country. Besides being a citizen of a certain age, above and below, things such as education, character, economic and social standing, it should be made compulsory him/her to pass a test in Sinhala, Buddhism, geography and history of this country. Because as we have been taught in school and the University in our days, no person who does not know his country, hi people and his work should enter public service or politics.

Dr Sudath Gunasekara. Secretary Prime Miniter Sirimavo Bandaranayaka and President Sri Lanka State Administrative Services Association (1991-1994)

I am making this statement as the first and the only person who predicted that Gotabhaya will poll over 6.9 million + at the 2019 Presidential Election.

This was how I worded it in my personal email to him. Two days before the election day. I said Gota your victory is a forgone conclusion. You should not have any doubts about it. You should also not get surprised even if you get 7 million” But this man did not have even the courtesy to thank me. That was Gotabaya Rajapaksha.

That observation was not based on any field survey using statistical methodology. It was purely based on my personal observation based on the polling of the previous Local Government elections they had just before the Presidential elections and my common sense formed after talking to a cross section of voters representing different social strata.

This time too, I am using the same methodology to forecast the outcome of the Presidential Election. But of cause, I must apologize to my readers this time that I can’t be so specific in my conclusions as the intricacies and complications in the electorate are so confused and the electoral behavior is so unpredictable as the majority, nearly 40% are said to be undecided till the last moment.

 However, I would like to give my readers the following picture of the election results as I see it.

1.The contest for the first place is between Sajith and Anura. Sajith has a solid UNP block vote supported by the 50 odd S. J. B. V. , in spite of people like Thalatha leaving at the last moment The next + point is the Ranasingha Premadasa factor which is still prevailing among a substantial section of the not so privileged class, who form the majority in our society, who have benefitted under his regime. A third factor is the TNA support and the upcountry plantation sector led by the less sophisticated more Sri Lankanized, Digambaran and his cohorts, unlike the arrogant and Indianized young Thondamanan (who does not speak a single Sinhala word and behaves like an Indian mogul completely forgetting the fact that he was only a grandson of Samyamurthi Thondaman another south Indian slave labourer  who came with his father as an 11 year boy in 1924 and who amazed enormous wealth on the sweat of poor labourers as a trade union leader  a). I also see a fourth factor in the Muslim support lead by Badurdheen and Rauf Hakeem. Assuming that a majority of traditional UNP voters will prefer him to Ranil, I think he has better chance to garner the UNP electorate than Ranil.

2.Anura’s rise from the ashes seems to be remarkable. He will definitely get a majority of the new votes mainly because they don’t know the darker side of JVP of 1971 and 1989. But it is very unlikely that those who know the JVP pasts will ever vote him. Also, repeated public utterances made by characters like Laal Kantha and their public appearances still haunt the minds of the average village voter of their past. lack of consistency between what they have in their hand outs and contradictory statements made by the leader and some top notch like Harini Amarasuriya and their stand on the place of Buddhism and culture, their silence on the 13^th A and Provincial Councils and the lack of clarity on subjects like Sri Lanka the nationality, ignorance of the identity of our past and the apparent silence on many public aspirations make his stand weaker. Though they have put on a new garb as the Jaathika Janathaa Party, that has definitely made some people blind. still the term JVP and the terror they committed haunts the minds of the majority public.  

In this backdrop the contest for the first place is definitely between these two. Nevertheless, on the overall I thin. Sajith will have an edge and he will come first at the end.

Now let us see who will come 3^rd and 4^th

Going by the analysis of the ground situation, the contest for these two places is definitely between Ranil and Namal.

Namal in the public eye is no leader. The Gotabhaya tragedy and the betrayal he committed definitely stand on his way. But Mahinda Rajapaksha factor is still alive in the public eye and mind. Although well-organized anti Rajapaksha campaign dethroned Mahinda, his unique achievements like the War victory, (Which all his predecessors failed to do) the completion of the all-Island carpeted road network, construction of the superhighways, Hambanthota Port and the Airport, the Uma Oya Project, the Lotus Tower and the Port City in Colombo still blazes the minds and the hearts of the grateful people as his achievements. This perhaps is the strongest factor that pushes Namal up the ladder.

Therefore, when one weighs the pros and cons of the Rajapaksha regime, that is still living in the minds of the rural masses, the Mahinda Rajapaksha factor sometimes can fix him up in the 3rd place in spite of Namal’s immaturity and weaknesses.

Ranil the incumbent President on the other hand has many advantages over Namal the baby politician. His maturity, the advantages of being the current President, appeal to the Colombian elite professionals, international image, political experience and his pleasant disposition, the unreserved support from the defiant SLPP politicians (depending on how the voters will look at their betrayal of the SLPP   as an offshoot of the SLFP, the traditional opposition of the UNP). He too has plus point. But the general mistrust the people of the country have had on his past pro-Western biases and his neoliberal economic policies inherited from his uncle JR   are all are

negative factors that push him down. The fact that he had been rejected by the UNP as it’s leader from 2005- until 2022 is a strong point in his disfavor. Hi miraculous ascendency to power suddenly in 2022 and his dubious but prominent role in the CB scam in 2015 and 2016 are still debated in political circles. 

Nevertheless, the third slot, I keep mum. But in any case, when one of the becomes the third the other automatically will become the 4^th in this marathon. Thereafter obviously the other front runner, Dilith will end up as the 5^th closing the door for all other 33 candidates forfeiting their deposits and thereby entering the, also ran list, making history in Sri Lanka politics.

One last point I would like to mention here. Going by the general dissatisfaction and frustration prevailing on Sri Lanka politics, firstly, this election will go down in history as the election which recorded the lowest percentage of polling. I am expecting around 13,500,000 to14,000.000. people to turn up at the polling booths, Secondly, it will also go down in history as the election with the largest number of candidates will forfeit their deposits. Fourthly none will get the 50%+ required to win in the first round. Assuming that if 14.000.000 cast their vote, one has to get 7 million at least to get the 50%. Even if Sajith gets all that 5,564,239 he got in 2019, it is very unlikely that he will get 7,000 000 this time. The situation gets even more complicated when you see that he has got only 2,771,984 at the 2020 General election. That is 2,793, 255 less than what he polled in 2019. Even if he gets the 5,564,239, he polled in2019, he has to get another 1.500.000 get the 50%. A such it looks a miracle for him to get 7,000,000.

Anura to hit this target it is still more the difficult as he has got only 445,958 in 2020 and 418,553 in 2019. But going by the extremely wonderful and effective grass root level organization all over the country he has set up, he might come up with come up with a result that nobody ever expected.  But I am confident that even then he will not get 50%.   

 If no one gets 50+ the law provides for counting the second and third preferences. The procedure here is first to eliminate all others except the first and the second. Then go for counting the preferences and add them to the first and the second. The one who gets the higher number thereafter is then declared the winner. In this exercise if the number 2 candidate overtake the total number of votes and preferences of the1st then he will be declared the President.  The chances of this scenario are higher in this election for the following two reasons.

In the first place the probability of those who vote Ranil, marking their 2^nd preference to Sajith is higher as both of them belong to the same camp. On the other hand, it is very unlikely that a voter casting his vote to any other candidate will ever cast his or her preference to Aruna. Under that scenario the possibility of Sajith overtaking Anura is higher.

So let us cross our fingers and wait to see what miracle is going to happen on the 21st of Sept 2024. under this situation

.

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

රට මේ වන විට දැඩි ණය අර්බුදයකට පත්ව සිටින බව පේරාදෙණිය විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයේ ආර්ථික විද්‍යා හා සංඛ්‍යාන විද්‍යා අංශයේ මහාචාර්ය වසන්ත අතුකෝරල මහතා සඳහන් කරයි.

ඔහු පවසන්නේ පසුගිය මාස විසි හයක කාලයකදී ලබාගන්න ලද දේශීය ණය ප‍්‍රමාණය සැලකීමේදී දෛනිකව රුපියල් බිලියන 6.5ක පමණ මුදලකින් ජනතාව ණයකරුවන් කර ඇති බවයි.

මෙම තත්ත්වය මත නව ආර්ථික ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණ මාලාවක් කඩිනමින් සිදු කළ යුතු බවද හෙතෙම කියා සිටියි.

සෑම මාසයක් තුළම මේ රටේ ජනතාව රුපියල් බිලියන 196ක වගේ ප්‍රමාණයකින් ණයකරුවන් බවට පත්කරනවා. සෑම දිනකම ගත්තහම රුපියල් බිලියන 6.5ක වගේ අපි ණය වෙනවා. මේ වගේ ණය සම්බන්ධව දැඩි අර්බුදකාරී තත්ත්වයක තමයි ලංකාව මේ වෙද්දි පත්වෙලා තියෙන්නේ.

ඒත් එක්කම රටේ උද්ධමනය 2021ට සාපේක්ෂව භාණ්ඩ හා සේවා මිල ගණන් 106%කින් පමණ වැඩිවෙලා. අපේ ආහාර කාණ්ඩයේ භාණ්ඩ හා සේවාවන් හි මිල ගණන් 138%කින් පමණ වැඩිවෙලා. ඒ අනුව ඉතාම ඉහළ මිල තලයක තමා අපි ජීවත් වෙන්නේ.

මේ පසුබිම තුළ පවතින ආර්ථික තත්ත්වය ගැන අපිට කිසි‍සේත් සෑහීමකට පත්වෙන්න පුළුවන් කමක් නෑ. බලයට පත්වූ ජනාධිපතිවරයාට සිද්ධ වෙනවා මේ කියන තත්ත්වයන් නිවැරදිව තේරුම් ගෙන යම් ආකාරයකට ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණ මාලාවක් ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන්න ඕනේ.

ඒක සමහර විට ඉතාම කෙටි කාලයක් තුළ යම් යම් ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණ ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන්න ට ඕනේ. ඒ තුළින් ජනතාවට ආර්ථික වශයෙන් නැඟී සිටින්න අවශ්‍ය පසුතලය නිර්මාණය කරන්නට පුළුවන්කම තියෙන්නට ඕනේ.”

බීබීසී සිංහල

Article information

• Author,සම්පත් දිසානායක සහ කුමුදු ජයවර්ධන
• Role,බීබීසී සිංහල
• 24 සැප්තැම්බර් 2024, 07:39 GMT

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ නව ජනාධිපති අනුර කුමාර දිසානායක සහ ඔහුගේ කණ්ඩායම සමග කටයුතු කිරීමට අපේක්ෂාවෙන් පසු වන බව ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය අරමුදල (IMF) පවසයි.

එහි ප්‍රකාශකයෙකු සඳහන් කළේ, ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය අරමුදලේ අනුග්‍රහය ලබන වැඩසටහනේ තුන් වන සමාලෝචනය සඳහා කාල වේලාවන් පිළිබඳව ප්‍රායෝගිකව හැකි ඉක්මනින් නව පරිපාලනය සමග සාකච්ඡා කරන,” බව ය.

එම ප්‍රකාශයේ මෙසේ ද සඳහන් විය.

2022 දී ශ්‍රී ලංකාව එහි දරුණුතම ආර්ථික අර්බුදයකට පිවිසීමෙන් පසු ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ආර්ථික ප්‍රකෘතිමත් වීමේ මාවතකට ගෙන ඒමට ඉවහල් වූ දුෂ්කර ජයග්‍රහණ මතින් යළි ගොඩනැගීම සඳහා ජනාධිපති දිසානායක සහ ඔහුගේ කණ්ඩායම සමග එක්ව කටයුතු කිරීමට අපි බලාපොරොත්තු වෙමු.”

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ නිල ණය හිමියන්ගේ කමිටුවේ ප්‍රතිකාර සංසන්දනාත්මක බව තහවුරු කිරීමට යටත්ව, ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සහ ජාත්‍යන්තර බැඳුම්කර හිමියන්ගේ නියෝජිතයන් අතර ප්‍රතිපත්තිමය වශයෙන් ගිවිසුමක් ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කිරීම අපි සාදරයෙන් පිළිගනිමු. මෙය ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ණය ප්‍රතිව්‍යුහගත කිරීමේ ක්‍රියාවලියේ සැලකිය යුතු ප්‍රගතියක් නියෝජනය කරයි.”

ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය අරමුදල සමග සාකච්ඡා කර ඉදිරි ක්‍රියාමාර්ග ගැනීම නව ජනපති අනුර කුමාර දිසානායක ඉදිරියේ ඇති දැවැන්ත අභියෝගයකි.

එම අභියෝගය ඇතුළු නව ජනාධිපතිවරයාට ඉදිරි පස් අවුරුදු කාල සීමාවේදී ජය ගත යුතු අභියෝග 7ක් පිළිබඳ විශ්ලේෂණයක් මෙම ලිපියෙහි අන්තර්ගත වේ.

ආර්ථික අභියෝගය

නව ජනාධිපතිවරයාට ඇති අභියෝගවලින් ප්‍රධානතම අභියෝගය ස්ථාවර ආර්ථිකයක් ගොඩනැගීමේ අභියෝගය බව බොහෝ විශ්ලේෂකයින්ගේ අදහස වී තිබේ.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා විවෘත විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ දේශපාලන විද්‍යාව සහ ජාත්‍යන්තර අධ්‍යයනය පිළිබඳ ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ කථිකාචාර්ය ආචාර්ය අතුලසිරි සමරකෝන් බීබීසී සිංහල සේවයට පැවසුවේ, රාජ්‍ය වියදම් කළමනාකරණය කර ගැනීම සහ රාජ්‍ය ආදායම් උත්පාදනය ඉහළ නංවා ගැනීම ඉදිරියේදී පත්වන ජනාධිපතිවරයා මුහුණ දෙන ප්‍රධානතම අභියෝගය වන බව ය.

“බරපතළ ම අභියෝගය තමයි, මේ ආර්ථිකය කොහොම ද යථා තත්ත්වයට පත් කරන්නෙ කියන කාරණය,” ඔහු පැවසීය.

ඔහු පෙන්වා දුන්නේ, ජනාධිපතිවරයාට ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය අරමුදල සමග ගනුදෙනු කිරීම අභියෝගයක් වනු ඇති බව ය.

මේ අතර, වයඹ විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයේ කළමනාකරණ හා මූල්‍ය පීඨයේ මහාචාර්ය අමින්ද මෙත්සිල පෙරේරා කියා සිටියේ, බංකොලොත්භාවයෙන් මිදීම, IMF වැඩසටහන ඉදිරියට ගෙන යාම, රාජ්‍ය ආදායම වැඩි කිරීම, ජීවන වියදම අඩු කිරීම යන අභියෝග ජය ගැනීම ජනාධිපතිවරයාට මුහුණ දීමට සිදුවන ප්‍රධාන ආර්ථික අභියෝග වනු ඇති බව ය.

• බංකොලොත්භාවයෙන් මිදීම

ලංකාව මොන තීන්දු තීරණ ගනු ලැබුවත් ජාත්‍යන්තර වශයෙන් අපිට තියෙන ශ්‍රේණිගත කිරීම්වලින් ඉහළට ගේන්න ඕනේ. ඒ සඳහා කරන්න තියෙන මැදිහත් වීම තමා මම දකින පළමු අභියෝගය. කොහොම ද ලංකාව නැවත වතාවක් බංකොලොත් නැති තැනකට ගේන්නේ කියලා.” මහාචාර්ය අමින්ද මෙත්සිල පෙරේරා පැවසීය.

• IMF වැඩසටහන ඉදිරියට ගෙන යාම

මහාචාර්ය අමින්ද මෙත්සිල පෙරේරා පැවසුවේ, කැමැති වුණත් අකමැති වුණත් අපිට සිද්ධ වෙනවා ජාත්‍යන්තර මුල්‍ය අරමුදලත් එක්ක යන්න. ඔවුන් 2027 දක්වා ගිවිසුම දික්වෙනවා. ඒක තුළ එකඟතාවන් කොන්දේසි එවාට කොහොම ද අනුගත වෙන්නේ. මේ තියෙන විවේචනත් එක්ක ඉදිරියට අරගෙන යන්නේ කොහොමද කියන එක තමා දෙවන අභියෝගය,” බව ය.

• රජයේ ආදායම් වැඩි කර ගැනීම

මේවන විට රජයේ ආදයම වැඩිවී ඇත්තේ 23% – 24%කි. දළ දේශීය නිෂ්පාදිතයෙන් 11% විතර තමා දැනට බදු ආදයම තියන්නේ. තව 4%කින් වැඩි විය යුතු යි. IMF කොන්දේසි අපි ඉටු කරපු එක ගැන ගැටලුවක් අපිට තියෙනවා,” මහාචාර්යවරයා පෙන්වා දුන්නේ ය.

ඔවුන් කිව්වේ ආදායම් වැඩි කරගන්න. ආදායම වැඩි කර ගන්නවා කියන්නේ ඉන්න මිනිස්සුන්ට බදු ගහන එක නෙමේ. ඉන්න මිනිස්සුන්ට බදු ගහලා අපි බිලියන 100ක් බලාපොරොත්තු වුණා. එකෙන් බිලියන 144ක් හම්බ කළා. ඉලක්කයට වඩා අපි ගිහිල්ලා තියෙනවා. එැබැයි ඒක නෙමේ අපි කරන්න තියෙන්නේ, මේ බදු පදනම පුළුල් කරන්න ඕනේ. ලංකාවේ තාම ලක්ෂ 4ක්වත් ටැක්ස් ගෙවන්නේ නැහැ.”

දේශීය ආදායම් දෙපාර්තෙම්න්තුවේ පැහැර හැරපු බදු ප්‍රමාණය බිලියන 934ක් විතර. අපි ඉලක්ක කරන්නේ බිලියන 100. රේගු වේ තියෙනවා බිලියන 60 ක විතර පැහැර හැරපු බදු.

අලුතින් බදු ගහනව ද? බදු පදනම පුළුල් කරනවා ද කොහොම ද රාජ්‍ය අදායම වැඩි කර ගන්නේ මේක තමා මම දකින අභියෝගය.” මහාචාර්යවරයා පැවසීය.

• ජීවන වියදම අඩු කිරීම

ජනතාව විශාල පීඩාවක ඉන්නේ. ජීවන වියදම ගොඩක් වැඩියි. ජීවන වියදම වැඩි නිසා සෑම පක්ෂයක් ම යෝජනා කරනවා ජීවන වියදම් දීමනාව වැඩි කරන්න. හැබැයි ඒ රාජ්‍ය සේවයට. හැබැයි පෞද්ගලික අංශයේ විශාල ප්‍රමාණයක් ඉන්නවා සහ සමාන්‍ය ජනතාව විශාල ප්‍රමාණයක් ඉන්නවා. 2019 පස්සේ ගත්තොත් අපේ බඩු මිල 90%කින් විතර වැඩි වෙලා තියනවා. ඒකට දෙන පිළියම මොකද්ද? අපි කොහොමද අපේ ජීවන වියදම අඩු කරන්නේ.” මහාචාර්ය අමින්ද මෙත්සිල පෙරේරා සඳහන් කළේය.

දේශපාලන අස්ථාවරභාවය පිළිබඳ අභියෝගය

“රටේ මේ වෙනකොට තියෙන ප්‍රධාන ම ප්‍රශ්නය තමයි, දේශපාලනික අවිනිශ්චිතභාවය පිළිබඳ ගැටලුව. ආර්ථික ගැටලුව ගැන ගොඩක් අය කතා කළාට ඒක විසඳන්නත් දේශපාලනික ස්ථාවරභාවයක් අවශ්‍ය වෙනවා,” මහාචාර්ය නිර්මාල් රංජිත් දේවසිරි පවසයි.

ඔහු පෙන්වා දුන්නේ, මේ වන විට පක්ෂවල බලය මත පදනම් වී පැවති දේශපාලන ක්‍රමය වෙනස් වී ඇති අතර, ඒ හේතුවෙන්, රාජ්‍යය සහ ජනතාව අතර සම්මුතියක් ඇති කර ගැනීමට අභියෝගයක් එල්ල වී ඇති බව ය.

“දේශපාලන පක්ෂවලට සමාජයේ තිබුණ ආධිපත්‍යය ගොඩක් දුර්වල වෙලා තියෙනවා. 2022 මහජන නැගිටීමත් එක්ක ඒ තත්ත්වය තවත් තීව්‍ර වෙලා තියෙනවා. දැන් සාම්ප්‍රදායික පක්ෂ නෙවෙයි, ගොඩක් වෙලාවට ජනප්‍රිය වෙලා තියෙන්නේ. පක්ෂ කිහිපයක් එක් වෙලා හදපු සන්ධාන තමයි තියෙන්නේ.”

සමාජ අතෘප්තිකරභාවය

සමාජයේ පවත්නා අතෘප්තිකරභාවයට මුහුණ දීම ජනාධිපතිවරයා හමුවේ ඇති තවත් අභියෝගයක් බව ආචාර්ය අතුලසිරි සමරකෝන් පවසයි.

ඔහු පෙන්වා දෙන්නේ, ආර්ථිකය ශක්තිමත් කිරීම සඳහා රනිල් වික්‍රමසිහගේ ආණ්ඩුව ගත් ඇතැම් ක්‍රියාමාර්ග හේතුවෙන් සමාජයේ බොහෝ දෙනෙකු අතෘප්තියකින් පසු වන බව ය.

“සමාජයේ පවතින අතෘප්තිකරභාවයත් දැන් තියෙන ලොකු ප්‍රශ්නයක්. ආර්ථික යුක්තිය හිමි නොවුණ ජනතාව අතර පවතින අතෘප්තිකරභාවයට විසඳුම් දෙන බවක් පේන්නෙ නෑ. ආණ්ඩුව කරන්නෙ ජාත්‍යන්ත මූල්‍ය අරමුදලේ දැඩි ප්‍රතිපත්ති අනුගමනය කිරීම විතර යි. එහෙම නැතුව සමාජ සාධාරණත්වය ගැන ගැඹුරින් සොයා බලා විසඳුම් ලබා දීම දැවැන්ත අභියෝගයක්.”

දරිද්‍රතා රේඛාව තුන් ගුණයකට ආසන්න අගයකින් ඉහළ යාම හේතුවෙන් රට තුළ වෙසෙන සෑම තරාතිරමක ම ජනතාව දැඩි අතෘප්තිකරභාවයකින් පසු වන බව ද ඔහු පෙන්වා දුන්නේ ය.

විදේශ ප්‍රතිපත්තිය

නව ජනාධිපතිවරයා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ආර්ථික සහ දේශපාලනික තත්ත්වය වර්ධනය කර ගැනීමේ අදහස පෙරදැරිව සිය විදේශ ප්‍රතිපත්තිය හසුරුවා ගත යුතු බව ආචාර්ය අතුලසිරි සමරකෝන් පවසයි.

“ඉන්දියාව, චීනය සහ ඇමෙරිකාව යන බලවතුන් තුන් දෙනා ඉදිරියේ හැසිරෙන්න ඕන කොහොම ද කියන එක අලුත් ජනාධිපතිවරයා තීරණය කළ යුතු යි. ඔහුට සිද්ධ වෙනවා, අනිවාර්යයෙන් ම ඉන්දියාව සමග සමීපව කටයුතු කරන්න. ඒ අතරේ, චීනය අමනාප කර ගන්නත් බැහැ. ඇමෙරිකාවත් වැදගත්. මධ්‍යස්ථභාවයකින් යුතුව රටවල් ඇසුරු කිරීමේදී සමදුර පවත්වා ගන්න එක අභියෝගයක්.”

මේ අතර, මහාචාර්ය නලින් අබේසේකර ප්‍රකාශ කළේ, ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ අපනයන ආදායම් වැඩි වන ආකාරයට විදෙස් රටවල් සමග ගනුදෙනු කළ යුතු බව ය.

අධ්‍යාපනය

නව ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ පාලනය යටතේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ අධ්‍යාපනය දැවැන්ත පරිවර්තනයකට ලක් විය යුතු බව මෙහිදී අප කරුණු විමසූ විද්වතුන් සියල්ලගේම අදහස විය.

පවත්නා අධ්‍යාපන ක්‍රමය මුළුමනින් ම වෙනස් විය යුතු බව මහාචාර්ය නලින් ද අබේසේකර පැවසීය.

ව්‍යවසායකත්වය කේන්ද්‍ර කර ගත් ආර්ථිකයක් වෙනුවෙන් අධ්‍යාපනය සකස් විය යුතු බව ඔහුගේ අදහස යි.

“අපේ රටේ අධ්‍යාපන ක්‍රමය නිර්මාණශීලී නැහැ. ඒ නිසා අධ්‍යාපනය ලබපු ජනතාව ගොඩක් රටේ හිටියට රටේ ප්‍රගමනයට ඒකෙන් ප්‍රයෝජනයක් ලැබෙන්නෙ නෑ. ඒ නිසා කටපාඩම් ක්‍රමය වෙනුවට නිර්මාණශීලී අධ්‍යාපන ක්‍රමයක් හඳුන්වා දිය යුතුයි.”

එමෙන් ම, රාජ්‍ය සේවකයින්ගේ කාර්යක්ෂමතාව ඉහළ නැංවීමටත්, දූෂණ අවම කිරීමටත් පියවර ගත යුතු බව මහාචාර්යවරයා ප්‍රකාශ කළේ ය.

“මේ ගැටලු ටික විසඳ ගත්තොත් අපට පුළුවන් ලෝකයේ හොඳ ම පාස්පෝට් එක තියෙන රටවල් 10 අතරට යන්න.”

ජාත්‍යන්තර ව්‍යවසායකත්වය

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ආර්ථික අර්බුදයෙන් ගොඩගැනීමට සාම්ප්‍රදායික අපනයන භාණ්ඩ වෙළෙඳාම පමණක් ප්‍රමාණවත් නොවන බව මහාචාර්ය නලින් අබේසේකර පවසයි.

“දැන් ඉස්සර වගේ තේ, පොල්, රබර් අපනයනය කරලා ආර්ථිකය ගොඩ ගන්න අමාරු යි. ඒ වෙනුවට අපි කළ යුත්තේ, සිනමාව, ගේමිං, සංගීතය ආදිය ජාත්‍යන්තර තත්ත්වයකට ඔසවා තැබීම යි.”

දැන් ලෝකයේ රටවල් මුදල් උපයන්නේ, ඉහත කී ක්‍රම ඔස්සේ බව මහාචාර්යවරයා පැවසීය.

“ව්‍යවසායකත්වය ගැන පාසල් අධ්‍යාපනයේ සිට ම ඉගැන්විය යුතුයි. මේ රට ගොඩගන්න නම් ව්‍යවසායකයන් අවශය යි. මේකත් අලුත් ජනපති ජය ගත යුතු අභියෝගයක්.”

මානව හිමිකම් අභියෝගය

අනුර කුමාර දිසානායක මුහුණ දෙන තවත් ප්‍රධාන අභියෝගයක් වන්නේ, මානව හිමිකම් සම්බන්ධයෙන් ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ජාත්‍යන්තර වශයෙන් විශ්වාසයක් ඇති කර ගැනීම ය.

කොළඹ විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ නීති පීඨයේ ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ කථිකාචාර්ය ආචාර්ය ප්‍රතිභා මහානාමහේවා පෙන්වා දෙන්නේ, මානව හිමිකම් ගැටලුව ජය ගැනීම ඉදිරි ජනාධිපතිවරයා ඉදිරියේ ඇති බරපතළ ම අභියෝගයක් බව ය.

ඔහු එම අභියෝග ජාත්‍යන්තර සහ දේශීය වශයෙන් කොටස් දෙකකට බෙදා දක්වයි.

ආචාර්ය ප්‍රතිභා මහානාම පැවසූ පරිදි ජාත්‍යන්තර මානව හිමිකම් අභියෝග මෙසේ ය.

• 51/5 යෝජනාවලිය යටතේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාව තුළ සංහිඳියාව, ප්‍රතිසන්ධානය සහ නැවත ගොඩනැගීම යන කරුණු සම්බන්ධයෙන් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ මානව හිමිකම් සැලැස්ම ඉදිරිපත් කිරීම.
• ආර්ථික අපරාධ චෝදනා සම්බන්ධයෙන් ක්‍රියාත්මක වීම.
• ළමා හා කාන්තා අපයෝජන වැළැක්වීමේ ආයතනවල ක්‍රියාකාරීත්වය සක්‍රීය කිරීම.
• සිවිල් යුද්ධයේ අවසන් අවධියේදී සිදුවූ බව කියන මානව හිමිකම් කඩවීම් සම්බන්ධයෙන් දෙමුහුන් අධිකරණයක් හරහා විමර්ශනය කිරීම.
• පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරය සම්බන්ධයෙන් නිසි විමර්ශනයක් සිදු කිරීම.
• ඉහත කී සියලු කරුණු සම්බන්ධයෙන් ගන්නා ක්‍රියාමාර්ග පිළිබඳව වසර 4කට වරක් ඉදිරිපත් කරන මානව හිමිකම් පිළිබඳ විශ්ව ප්‍රකාශනයට ඇතුළත් කිරීම.

ඊට අමතරව, මානව හිමිකම් උල්ලංඝණය වීම අවම කිරීම සඳහා දේශීය වශයෙන් ගත යුතු පියවර රැසක් ද ඇතැයි ආචාර්ය ප්‍රතිභා මහානාමහේවා පැවසීය.

• 1978 වසරෙන් පසු සංශෝධනය නොවූ ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ මානව හිමිකම් පිළිබඳ පරිච්ඡේදය සංශෝධනය කිරීම.
• මානව හිමිකම් සම්බන්ධයෙන් පනතක් සම්මත කර ගැනීම.
• මානව හිමිකම් වෙනුවෙන් අමාත්‍යංශයක් පිහිටුවීම.
• සෑම රාජ්‍ය ආයතනයකට ම මානව හිමිකම් නිලධාරියෙකු පත් කිරීම.

“ජනාධිපතිවරයාට මේ සියලු අභියෝග ජය ගන්න සිද්ධ වෙනවා. එහෙම නැති වුණොත් අනාගතයේදී ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ආර්ථික සම්බාධක වගේ බරපතළ ප්‍රශ්න රැසකට මුහුණ දෙන්න සිද්ධ වෙන්න පුළුවන්,” ආචාර්ය ප්‍රතිභා මහානාමහේවා වැඩිදුරටත් පැවසීය.

සබැඳි විෂයයන්

• ආර්ථිකය
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• ජනාධිපතිවරණය 2024

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ නව ජනාධිපති අනුර කුමාර දිසානායක සහ ඔහුගේ කණ්ඩායම සමග කටයුතු කිරීමට අපේක්ෂාවෙන් පසු වන බව ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය අරමුදල (IMF) පවසයි.

එහි ප්‍රකාශකයෙකු සඳහන් කළේ, ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය අරමුදලේ අනුග්‍රහය ලබන වැඩසටහනේ තුන් වන සමාලෝචනය සඳහා කාල වේලාවන් පිළිබඳව ප්‍රායෝගිකව හැකි ඉක්මනින් නව පරිපාලනය සමග සාකච්ඡා කරන,” බව ය.

එම ප්‍රකාශයේ මෙසේ ද සඳහන් විය.

2022 දී ශ්‍රී ලංකාව එහි දරුණුතම ආර්ථික අර්බුදයකට පිවිසීමෙන් පසු ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ආර්ථික ප්‍රකෘතිමත් වීමේ මාවතකට ගෙන ඒමට ඉවහල් වූ දුෂ්කර ජයග්‍රහණ මතින් යළි ගොඩනැගීම සඳහා ජනාධිපති දිසානායක සහ ඔහුගේ කණ්ඩායම සමග එක්ව කටයුතු කිරීමට අපි බලාපොරොත්තු වෙමු.”

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ නිල ණය හිමියන්ගේ කමිටුවේ ප්‍රතිකාර සංසන්දනාත්මක බව තහවුරු කිරීමට යටත්ව, ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සහ ජාත්‍යන්තර බැඳුම්කර හිමියන්ගේ නියෝජිතයන් අතර ප්‍රතිපත්තිමය වශයෙන් ගිවිසුමක් ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කිරීම අපි සාදරයෙන් පිළිගනිමු. මෙය ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ණය ප්‍රතිව්‍යුහගත කිරීමේ ක්‍රියාවලියේ සැලකිය යුතු ප්‍රගතියක් නියෝජනය කරයි.”

ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය අරමුදල සමග සාකච්ඡා කර ඉදිරි ක්‍රියාමාර්ග ගැනීම නව ජනපති අනුර කුමාර දිසානායක ඉදිරියේ ඇති දැවැන්ත අභියෝගයකි.

එම අභියෝගය ඇතුළු නව ජනාධිපතිවරයාට ඉදිරි පස් අවුරුදු කාල සීමාවේදී ජය ගත යුතු අභියෝග 7ක් පිළිබඳ විශ්ලේෂණයක් මෙම ලිපියෙහි අන්තර්ගත වේ.

ආර්ථික අභියෝගය

නව ජනාධිපතිවරයාට ඇති අභියෝගවලින් ප්‍රධානතම අභියෝගය ස්ථාවර ආර්ථිකයක් ගොඩනැගීමේ අභියෝගය බව බොහෝ විශ්ලේෂකයින්ගේ අදහස වී තිබේ.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා විවෘත විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ දේශපාලන විද්‍යාව සහ ජාත්‍යන්තර අධ්‍යයනය පිළිබඳ ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ කථිකාචාර්ය ආචාර්ය අතුලසිරි සමරකෝන් බීබීසී සිංහල සේවයට පැවසුවේ, රාජ්‍ය වියදම් කළමනාකරණය කර ගැනීම සහ රාජ්‍ය ආදායම් උත්පාදනය ඉහළ නංවා ගැනීම ඉදිරියේදී පත්වන ජනාධිපතිවරයා මුහුණ දෙන ප්‍රධානතම අභියෝගය වන බව ය.

බරපතළ ම අභියෝගය තමයි, මේ ආර්ථිකය කොහොම ද යථා තත්ත්වයට පත් කරන්නෙ කියන කාරණය,” ඔහු පැවසීය.

ඔහු පෙන්වා දුන්නේ, ජනාධිපතිවරයාට ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය අරමුදල සමග ගනුදෙනු කිරීම අභියෝගයක් වනු ඇති බව ය.

මේ අතර, වයඹ විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයේ කළමනාකරණ හා මූල්‍ය පීඨයේ මහාචාර්ය අමින්ද මෙත්සිල පෙරේරා කියා සිටියේ, බංකොලොත්භාවයෙන් මිදීම, IMF වැඩසටහන ඉදිරියට ගෙන යාම, රාජ්‍ය ආදායම වැඩි කිරීම, ජීවන වියදම අඩු කිරීම යන අභියෝග ජය ගැනීම ජනාධිපතිවරයාට මුහුණ දීමට සිදුවන ප්‍රධාන ආර්ථික අභියෝග වනු ඇති බව ය.

• බංකොලොත්භාවයෙන් මිදීම

ලංකාව මොන තීන්දු තීරණ ගනු ලැබුවත් ජාත්‍යන්තර වශයෙන් අපිට තියෙන ශ්‍රේණිගත කිරීම්වලින් ඉහළට ගේන්න ඕනේ. ඒ සඳහා කරන්න තියෙන මැදිහත් වීම තමා මම දකින පළමු අභියෝගය. කොහොම ද ලංකාව නැවත වතාවක් බංකොලොත් නැති තැනකට ගේන්නේ කියලා.” මහාචාර්ය අමින්ද මෙත්සිල පෙරේරා පැවසීය.

• IMF වැඩසටහන ඉදිරියට ගෙන යාම

මහාචාර්ය අමින්ද මෙත්සිල පෙරේරා පැවසුවේ, කැමැති වුණත් අකමැති වුණත් අපිට සිද්ධ වෙනවා ජාත්‍යන්තර මුල්‍ය අරමුදලත් එක්ක යන්න. ඔවුන් 2027 දක්වා ගිවිසුම දික්වෙනවා. ඒක තුළ එකඟතාවන් කොන්දේසි එවාට කොහොම ද අනුගත වෙන්නේ. මේ තියෙන විවේචනත් එක්ක ඉදිරියට අරගෙන යන්නේ කොහොමද කියන එක තමා දෙවන අභියෝගය,” බව ය.

• රජයේ ආදායම් වැඩි කර ගැනීම

මේවන විට රජයේ ආදයම වැඩිවී ඇත්තේ 23% – 24%කි. දළ දේශීය නිෂ්පාදිතයෙන් 11% විතර තමා දැනට බදු ආදයම තියන්නේ. තව 4%කින් වැඩි විය යුතු යි. IMF කොන්දේසි අපි ඉටු කරපු එක ගැන ගැටලුවක් අපිට තියෙනවා,” මහාචාර්යවරයා පෙන්වා දුන්නේ ය.

ඔවුන් කිව්වේ ආදායම් වැඩි කරගන්න. ආදායම වැඩි කර ගන්නවා කියන්නේ ඉන්න මිනිස්සුන්ට බදු ගහන එක නෙමේ. ඉන්න මිනිස්සුන්ට බදු ගහලා අපි බිලියන 100ක් බලාපොරොත්තු වුණා. එකෙන් බිලියන 144ක් හම්බ කළා. ඉලක්කයට වඩා අපි ගිහිල්ලා තියෙනවා. එැබැයි ඒක නෙමේ අපි කරන්න තියෙන්නේ, මේ බදු පදනම පුළුල් කරන්න ඕනේ. ලංකාවේ තාම ලක්ෂ 4ක්වත් ටැක්ස් ගෙවන්නේ නැහැ.”

දේශීය ආදායම් දෙපාර්තෙම්න්තුවේ පැහැර හැරපු බදු ප්‍රමාණය බිලියන 934ක් විතර. අපි ඉලක්ක කරන්නේ බිලියන 100. රේගු වේ තියෙනවා බිලියන 60 ක විතර පැහැර හැරපු බදු.

අලුතින් බදු ගහනව ද? බදු පදනම පුළුල් කරනවා ද කොහොම ද රාජ්‍ය අදායම වැඩි කර ගන්නේ මේක තමා මම දකින අභියෝගය.” මහාචාර්යවරයා පැවසීය.

• ජීවන වියදම අඩු කිරීම

ජනතාව විශාල පීඩාවක ඉන්නේ. ජීවන වියදම ගොඩක් වැඩියි. ජීවන වියදම වැඩි නිසා සෑම පක්ෂයක් ම යෝජනා කරනවා ජීවන වියදම් දීමනාව වැඩි කරන්න. හැබැයි ඒ රාජ්‍ය සේවයට. හැබැයි පෞද්ගලික අංශයේ විශාල ප්‍රමාණයක් ඉන්නවා සහ සමාන්‍ය ජනතාව විශාල ප්‍රමාණයක් ඉන්නවා. 2019 පස්සේ ගත්තොත් අපේ බඩු මිල 90%කින් විතර වැඩි වෙලා තියනවා. ඒකට දෙන පිළියම මොකද්ද? අපි කොහොමද අපේ ජීවන වියදම අඩු කරන්නේ.” මහාචාර්ය අමින්ද මෙත්සිල පෙරේරා සඳහන් කළේය.

දේශපාලන අස්ථාවරභාවය පිළිබඳ අභියෝගය

රටේ මේ වෙනකොට තියෙන ප්‍රධාන ම ප්‍රශ්නය තමයි, දේශපාලනික අවිනිශ්චිතභාවය පිළිබඳ ගැටලුව. ආර්ථික ගැටලුව ගැන ගොඩක් අය කතා කළාට ඒක විසඳන්නත් දේශපාලනික ස්ථාවරභාවයක් අවශ්‍ය වෙනවා,” මහාචාර්ය නිර්මාල් රංජිත් දේවසිරි පවසයි.

ඔහු පෙන්වා දුන්නේ, මේ වන විට පක්ෂවල බලය මත පදනම් වී පැවති දේශපාලන ක්‍රමය වෙනස් වී ඇති අතර, ඒ හේතුවෙන්, රාජ්‍යය සහ ජනතාව අතර සම්මුතියක් ඇති කර ගැනීමට අභියෝගයක් එල්ල වී ඇති බව ය.

දේශපාලන පක්ෂවලට සමාජයේ තිබුණ ආධිපත්‍යය ගොඩක් දුර්වල වෙලා තියෙනවා. 2022 මහජන නැගිටීමත් එක්ක ඒ තත්ත්වය තවත් තීව්‍ර වෙලා තියෙනවා. දැන් සාම්ප්‍රදායික පක්ෂ නෙවෙයි, ගොඩක් වෙලාවට ජනප්‍රිය වෙලා තියෙන්නේ. පක්ෂ කිහිපයක් එක් වෙලා හදපු සන්ධාන තමයි තියෙන්නේ.”

සමාජ අතෘප්තිකරභාවය

සමාජයේ පවත්නා අතෘප්තිකරභාවයට මුහුණ දීම ජනාධිපතිවරයා හමුවේ ඇති තවත් අභියෝගයක් බව ආචාර්ය අතුලසිරි සමරකෝන් පවසයි.

ඔහු පෙන්වා දෙන්නේ, ආර්ථිකය ශක්තිමත් කිරීම සඳහා රනිල් වික්‍රමසිහගේ ආණ්ඩුව ගත් ඇතැම් ක්‍රියාමාර්ග හේතුවෙන් සමාජයේ බොහෝ දෙනෙකු අතෘප්තියකින් පසු වන බව ය.

සමාජයේ පවතින අතෘප්තිකරභාවයත් දැන් තියෙන ලොකු ප්‍රශ්නයක්. ආර්ථික යුක්තිය හිමි නොවුණ ජනතාව අතර පවතින අතෘප්තිකරභාවයට විසඳුම් දෙන බවක් පේන්නෙ නෑ. ආණ්ඩුව කරන්නෙ ජාත්‍යන්ත මූල්‍ය අරමුදලේ දැඩි ප්‍රතිපත්ති අනුගමනය කිරීම විතර යි. එහෙම නැතුව සමාජ සාධාරණත්වය ගැන ගැඹුරින් සොයා බලා විසඳුම් ලබා දීම දැවැන්ත අභියෝගයක්.”

දරිද්‍රතා රේඛාව තුන් ගුණයකට ආසන්න අගයකින් ඉහළ යාම හේතුවෙන් රට තුළ වෙසෙන සෑම තරාතිරමක ම ජනතාව දැඩි අතෘප්තිකරභාවයකින් පසු වන බව ද ඔහු පෙන්වා දුන්නේ ය.

විදේශ ප්‍රතිපත්තිය

නව ජනාධිපතිවරයා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ආර්ථික සහ දේශපාලනික තත්ත්වය වර්ධනය කර ගැනීමේ අදහස පෙරදැරිව සිය විදේශ ප්‍රතිපත්තිය හසුරුවා ගත යුතු බව ආචාර්ය අතුලසිරි සමරකෝන් පවසයි.

ඉන්දියාව, චීනය සහ ඇමෙරිකාව යන බලවතුන් තුන් දෙනා ඉදිරියේ හැසිරෙන්න ඕන කොහොම ද කියන එක අලුත් ජනාධිපතිවරයා තීරණය කළ යුතු යි. ඔහුට සිද්ධ වෙනවා, අනිවාර්යයෙන් ම ඉන්දියාව සමග සමීපව කටයුතු කරන්න. ඒ අතරේ, චීනය අමනාප කර ගන්නත් බැහැ. ඇමෙරිකාවත් වැදගත්. මධ්‍යස්ථභාවයකින් යුතුව රටවල් ඇසුරු කිරීමේදී සමදුර පවත්වා ගන්න එක අභියෝගයක්.”

මේ අතර, මහාචාර්ය නලින් අබේසේකර ප්‍රකාශ කළේ, ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ අපනයන ආදායම් වැඩි වන ආකාරයට විදෙස් රටවල් සමග ගනුදෙනු කළ යුතු බව ය.

අධ්‍යාපනය

නව ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ පාලනය යටතේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ අධ්‍යාපනය දැවැන්ත පරිවර්තනයකට ලක් විය යුතු බව මෙහිදී අප කරුණු විමසූ විද්වතුන් සියල්ලගේම අදහස විය.

පවත්නා අධ්‍යාපන ක්‍රමය මුළුමනින් ම වෙනස් විය යුතු බව මහාචාර්ය නලින් ද අබේසේකර පැවසීය.

ව්‍යවසායකත්වය කේන්ද්‍ර කර ගත් ආර්ථිකයක් වෙනුවෙන් අධ්‍යාපනය සකස් විය යුතු බව ඔහුගේ අදහස යි.

අපේ රටේ අධ්‍යාපන ක්‍රමය නිර්මාණශීලී නැහැ. ඒ නිසා අධ්‍යාපනය ලබපු ජනතාව ගොඩක් රටේ හිටියට රටේ ප්‍රගමනයට ඒකෙන් ප්‍රයෝජනයක් ලැබෙන්නෙ නෑ. ඒ නිසා කටපාඩම් ක්‍රමය වෙනුවට නිර්මාණශීලී අධ්‍යාපන ක්‍රමයක් හඳුන්වා දිය යුතුයි.”

එමෙන් ම, රාජ්‍ය සේවකයින්ගේ කාර්යක්ෂමතාව ඉහළ නැංවීමටත්, දූෂණ අවම කිරීමටත් පියවර ගත යුතු බව මහාචාර්යවරයා ප්‍රකාශ කළේ ය.

මේ ගැටලු ටික විසඳ ගත්තොත් අපට පුළුවන් ලෝකයේ හොඳ ම පාස්පෝට් එක තියෙන රටවල් 10 අතරට යන්න.”

ජාත්‍යන්තර ව්‍යවසායකත්වය

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ආර්ථික අර්බුදයෙන් ගොඩගැනීමට සාම්ප්‍රදායික අපනයන භාණ්ඩ වෙළෙඳාම පමණක් ප්‍රමාණවත් නොවන බව මහාචාර්ය නලින් අබේසේකර පවසයි.

දැන් ඉස්සර වගේ තේ, පොල්, රබර් අපනයනය කරලා ආර්ථිකය ගොඩ ගන්න අමාරු යි. ඒ වෙනුවට අපි කළ යුත්තේ, සිනමාව, ගේමිං, සංගීතය ආදිය ජාත්‍යන්තර තත්ත්වයකට ඔසවා තැබීම යි.”

දැන් ලෝකයේ රටවල් මුදල් උපයන්නේ, ඉහත කී ක්‍රම ඔස්සේ බව මහාචාර්යවරයා පැවසීය.

ව්‍යවසායකත්වය ගැන පාසල් අධ්‍යාපනයේ සිට ම ඉගැන්විය යුතුයි. මේ රට ගොඩගන්න නම් ව්‍යවසායකයන් අවශය යි. මේකත් අලුත් ජනපති ජය ගත යුතු අභියෝගයක්.”

මානව හිමිකම් අභියෝගය

අනුර කුමාර දිසානායක මුහුණ දෙන තවත් ප්‍රධාන අභියෝගයක් වන්නේ, මානව හිමිකම් සම්බන්ධයෙන් ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ජාත්‍යන්තර වශයෙන් විශ්වාසයක් ඇති කර ගැනීම ය.

කොළඹ විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ නීති පීඨයේ ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ කථිකාචාර්ය ආචාර්ය ප්‍රතිභා මහානාමහේවා පෙන්වා දෙන්නේ, මානව හිමිකම් ගැටලුව ජය ගැනීම ඉදිරි ජනාධිපතිවරයා ඉදිරියේ ඇති බරපතළ ම අභියෝගයක් බව ය.

ඔහු එම අභියෝග ජාත්‍යන්තර සහ දේශීය වශයෙන් කොටස් දෙකකට බෙදා දක්වයි.

ආචාර්ය ප්‍රතිභා මහානාම පැවසූ පරිදි ජාත්‍යන්තර මානව හිමිකම් අභියෝග මෙසේ ය.

• 51/5 යෝජනාවලිය යටතේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාව තුළ සංහිඳියාව, ප්‍රතිසන්ධානය සහ නැවත ගොඩනැගීම යන කරුණු සම්බන්ධයෙන් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ මානව හිමිකම් සැලැස්ම ඉදිරිපත් කිරීම.
• ආර්ථික අපරාධ චෝදනා සම්බන්ධයෙන් ක්‍රියාත්මක වීම.
• ළමා හා කාන්තා අපයෝජන වැළැක්වීමේ ආයතනවල ක්‍රියාකාරීත්වය සක්‍රීය කිරීම.
• සිවිල් යුද්ධයේ අවසන් අවධියේදී සිදුවූ බව කියන මානව හිමිකම් කඩවීම් සම්බන්ධයෙන් දෙමුහුන් අධිකරණයක් හරහා විමර්ශනය කිරීම.
• පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරය සම්බන්ධයෙන් නිසි විමර්ශනයක් සිදු කිරීම.
• ඉහත කී සියලු කරුණු සම්බන්ධයෙන් ගන්නා ක්‍රියාමාර්ග පිළිබඳව වසර 4කට වරක් ඉදිරිපත් කරන මානව හිමිකම් පිළිබඳ විශ්ව ප්‍රකාශනයට ඇතුළත් කිරීම.

ඊට අමතරව, මානව හිමිකම් උල්ලංඝණය වීම අවම කිරීම සඳහා දේශීය වශයෙන් ගත යුතු පියවර රැසක් ද ඇතැයි ආචාර්ය ප්‍රතිභා මහානාමහේවා පැවසීය.

• 1978 වසරෙන් පසු සංශෝධනය නොවූ ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ මානව හිමිකම් පිළිබඳ පරිච්ඡේදය සංශෝධනය කිරීම.
• මානව හිමිකම් සම්බන්ධයෙන් පනතක් සම්මත කර ගැනීම.
• මානව හිමිකම් වෙනුවෙන් අමාත්‍යංශයක් පිහිටුවීම.
• සෑම රාජ්‍ය ආයතනයකට ම මානව හිමිකම් නිලධාරියෙකු පත් කිරීම.

ජනාධිපතිවරයාට මේ සියලු අභියෝග ජය ගන්න සිද්ධ වෙනවා. එහෙම නැති වුණොත් අනාගතයේදී ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ආර්ථික සම්බාධක වගේ බරපතළ ප්‍රශ්න රැසකට මුහුණ දෙන්න සිද්ධ වෙන්න පුළුවන්,” ආචාර්ය ප්‍රතිභා මහානාමහේවා වැඩිදුරටත් පැවසීය.

සම්පත් දිසානායක / කුමුදු ජයවර්ධන
– BBC

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

2024 වසරේදී පාර්ලිමේන්තු මැතිවරණයට කිසිදු මුදලක් වෙන් කිරීමක් සිදුකර නැති මැතිවරණ කොමිසම සඳහන් කරයි.

මැතිවරණ කොමිසමේ අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල් සමන් ශ්‍රී රත්නායක මහතා පෙන්වා දෙන්නේ නමුත් ජනාධිපතිවරයා පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවා හැරියහොත් මැතිවරණයට අවශ්‍ය මුදල් භාණ්ඩාගාරයෙන් නිදහස් කිරීමටත් ඔහු බැඳී සිටින බවය.

පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවා හැරින ඕනෑම අවස්ථාවකදී එම දිනයේ සිට දින 52ත් 66ත් අතර කාලය තුළදී මැතිවරණයක් පැවැත්වීමට මැතිවරණ කොමිසම බැඳී සිටිනවා. පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවාහැරීමේ නිවේදනය ජනපති ලේකම්ගේ අත්සනින් නිවේදනය කරාට පසුව ඒ අනුව එම ගැසට් නිවේදනයේ සඳහන් වෙනවා නාමයෝජනා භාරගන්නා දින කවදා ද?, මැතිවරණය පැවත්වීමේ දිනය කවදා ද ? සහ පාර්ලිමේන්තුව නැවත රැස්වන දිනය කවදා ද ? කියලා.

මේ කරුණු තුන ඇතුළත් ගැසට් නිවේදනයක් ජනාධිපති ලේකම්වරයාගේ අත්සනින් යුතුව නිකුත් වුණාට පසුව තමයි පාර්ලිමේන්තු මැතිවරණය ගැන නීත්‍යාණුකූලව කතා කරන්න පුළුවන් වෙන්නේ.

2024දී පාර්ලිමේන්තු මැතිවරණයකට කිසිදු ආකාරයක මුදල් වෙන්වීමක් වෙලා නෑ. 2025 වසරට තමයි නියම වශයෙන් තියෙන්නේ. නමුත් යම් ලෙසකින් ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් ඔහුට තිබෙන බලතල අනුව පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවා හරින්නේනම් එම විසුරුවාහැරීමේ නිවේදනයත් සමගම ඔහු බැඳිලා ඉන්නවා මැතිවරණයට මුදල් භාණ්ඩාගාරයෙන් දෙන්න. 2025 සඳහා අයවැය පුරෝකථනය කිරීමේදී රුපියල් බිලියන 11ක් මැතිවරණයකට අවශ්‍ය බව කියා තිබෙනවා.”