By Uditha Devapriya, Omar Rajarathnam, and Mandana Ismail Courtesy The Diplomat

The confusion surrounding the Arugam Bay incident underscores the complexities of Sri Lanka’s tourism industry and the geopolitics that have engulfed the island in recent years.

November 05, 2024

On Wednesday, October 23, barely a month after Sri Lanka elected a new president, the U.S. Embassy in Colombo issued a travel advisory warning U.S. citizens to avoid” Arugam Bay, a tourist hotspot located in the southeastern coast of the island. The advisory noted a credible” threat of an attack targeting popular tourist locations” and directed people to report any suspicious activity to the local emergency hotline.

The advisory sent shockwaves immediately. Within hours, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Russia issued similar warnings to their citizens in the country. 

Sri Lanka Police Spokesperson Nihal Thalduwa, convening a press conference, said that security had been beefed up in the region and other tourist hotspots. The police clarified that two arrests had been made – with several others made over the next few weeks – and that the detained were being questioned. Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) reassured tourists that all necessary steps were being taken.

While the warnings came as a shock to most Sri Lankans, many suspected the reason almost immediately. Officials confirmed that these terror threats had involved a confrontation with Israeli tourists that had been brewing for some time. The threats had centered on a building that had been turned into a Jewish community center.

Not long after the initial warnings, the Israeli National Security Council (NSC) called on citizens to leave Sri Lanka’s select coastal areas. Subsequent reports noted that Indian intelligence had supplied information to the government, though this was later denied by Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath.

For many Sri Lankans, the incident raked up painful memories of the 2019 Easter bombings. Hours after the advisory, social media was abuzz with speculation about a security lapse in the country, especially after the government dismissed Sri Lanka’s intelligence chief Suresh Sally, a close ally of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Rajapaksa had announced his presidential candidacy days after the bombings on April 21, 2019.

The then-administration had been given warnings about a possible terrorist threat in the months prior to the Easter attacks, but these had been ignored largely due to political developments in the country. Now, with another intel report on a terror attack, Sri Lankans were wondering why it took a foreign embassy advisory to get the Sri Lankan security forces to wake up – even though social media users had noted a noticeable beefing up of security forces at Arugam Bay a day before the advisory.

Complicating matters further, a newspaper reported that no firearms or explosives had been found on the three suspects. 

In a press conference, Herath, who is also in charge of the country’s Public Security Ministry, noted that the government needed time to verify information on the terror threat, and added that precautionary measures had been swiftly taken in light of the ongoing situation in Gaza and the Middle East. 

Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives Julie Chung stated that a travel advisory did not mean a travel ban, adding that similar advisories are imposed on other popular destinations such as Italy and France, before praising Sri Lankan authorities for acting swiftly.

Tourism in Sri Lanka

In a way, the confusion surrounding the Arugam Bay incident underscores the complexities of Sri Lanka’s tourism industry and the geopolitics that have engulfed the island in recent years. While it is easy to fault the government for not acting promptly, there is a lack of clarity on whether the U.S. advisory was issued arbitrarily, without prior consultation with Sri Lankan authorities – especially since the U.S. embassy, as Chung reiterated, acts on a Duty to Warn” principle regarding potential attacks.

That local authorities were taken by surprise has raised more questions than answers. According to one report, officials had already been aware of the threat. Moreover, the reporting on the targets of these attacks – Israeli tourists – overlooks how tourism has affected local communities and how successive governments have turned a blind eye to such developments.

Along with foreign remittances and commodity exports, tourism is a big foreign exchange earner in Sri Lanka. Prior to 2019, the sector earned more than $3 billion annually. The Easter attacks placed it on a downward trajectory, while the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic crisis only worsened matters. 

Since 2022, the government’s aim has been to restore tourism to what it was before 2019. Its response to the advisory revealed how crucial the sector has become for the country’s recovery efforts. Moreover, Sri Lanka is approaching its peak holiday season. Last December, for instance, 65 percent of all visits to the island were for vacation and leisure purposes.

On the face of it, the latest incident reveals how tourism has gotten entangled in geopolitics in the country. Sri Lanka has a significant Muslim population, at almost 10 percent. For the most part, they have been vocal about Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and Palestine, an issue that has, over the years, gained bipartisan support in the island: Both the governing party, the National People’s Power (NPP) alliance, and the main opposition party, the Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB), have expressed support for Palestine. This has been in addition to other communities, including local Christians, displaying solidarity with Gaza.

Unsurprisingly, the activities of tourists in areas like Arugam Bay have led to confrontations with locals, some of whom accuse them of occupying” their areas. Complicating matters further, many have overstayed their visas, contravening local laws.

A Complex Relationship

In a way, this dovetails into the complex history of the country’s relations with Israel. While certain accounts hold that Jewish engagements on the island date back to Biblical times, scholars agree that by the turn of the 20th century, there was only a sparse Jewish presence in Sri Lanka. After gaining independence in 1948, Sri Lanka became one of few postcolonial societies to recognize Israel as an independent state

According to Punsara Amarasinghe, a security and foreign policy scholar, it was at this point that Israel’s military ties with Sri Lanka began, when the government purchased a gunship from Israel and obtained Israeli technical assistance in the digging of tube wells in the island’s north.

As Sri Lanka entered and became a leading face of the Non-Aligned Movement, however, these engagements broke off. In 1956, then-Prime Minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike stated that while Sri Lanka essentially respected Israel’s claims to statehood, this should not be at the expense of the rights and security concerns of its Arab neighbors. Nevertheless, he said that the island’s ties with Israel would remain.

His widow, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, cut those ties in the 1970s, on the grounds that the Israeli government had refused to recognize the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) as the authentic representative of the Palestinian people.” By now, as a key member of the Non-Aligned Movement, Sri Lanka had solidified relations with the Arab world.

In the 1980s, a new government, led by the pro-Western United National Party (UNP) under the hawkish and right-wing President J. R. Jayewardene, restored relations with Israel by allowing the U.S. Embassy to set up an Israeli Special Interests Section. After disclosures were made about Mossad’s links with the island’s military, however, Jayewardene’s successor, Ranasinghe Premadasa, shut the door on the agency.

According to Jayewardene’s biographers K. M. de Silva and Howard Wriggins, Jayewardene disapproved of Premadasa’s decision, largely since Israel had assisted in the country’s military buildup against separatist Tamil movements in the 1980s. Nevertheless, when a prominent U.S. congressman, Stephen Solarz, threatened Premadasa that there would be consequences for his actions, Premadasa stood his ground and icily replied that Sri Lanka was not unaware that actions had consequences.

After Premadasa’s assassination in 1993, the country began yet again normalizing relations with Israel. Under President Chandrika Kumaratunga, Israel set up an Embassy in Colombo. In 2000, Sri Lanka opened an Embassy in Tel Aviv. As of today, bilateral engagements have centered on areas like immigrant labor and technical support in agriculture. Clearly, these have taken on a new dimension in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and Israel’s subsequent razing of Gaza and Lebanon.

A Geopolitical Confrontation

At one level, the Gotabaya Rajapaksa (2019-2022) and Ranil Wickremesinghe (2022-2024) administrations pushed Sri Lanka into the center of these tensions. In February 2020, for instance, the two countries signed an agreement in Jerusalem on the employment of Sri Lankan workers. The deal streamlined the selection and recruitment of Sri Lankan caregivers in Israel. In 2023, the Ministry of Labor expedited the expatriation of 10,000 Sri Lankan workers to Israel to fill construction sector jobs previously held by Palestinians.

The latter move came under criticism, but was defended by the government as necessary. Sri Lankan workers continue to migrate to Israel. This may be one reason why the government, regardless of the party in power, has avoided explicitly condemning the country.

Then, earlier in 2024, Wickremesinghe announced that a Sri Lankan vessel would be dispatched to the Red Sea to help U.S. naval forces ensure freedom of navigation” from Houthi rebels. The decision was questioned by those who felt it would endanger Sri Lanka and strain the country’s already meager finances.

It would be tempting to draw a line from these developments to the incident in Arugam Bay. Yet it must also be acknowledged that the previous government did not go all the way to appease Israel or appear as an ally. The Wickremesinghe administration did make gestures on behalf of Palestine, including donating funds to orphans in Gaza and voting in support of the country at U.N. resolutions. 

By contrast, the present administration, led by a party that mobilized widespread disaffection against Wickremesinghe, delayed issuing a response to the Israeli government’s declaration of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as persona non grata,” even though it has elsewhere expressed support for Palestine.

Tourist Traps

Several analyses, including by Western media outlets, have turned the Arugam Bay incident into another example of the Middle East crisis expanding into other regions. While this in itself is obviously true, it tends to overlook the complexities of Sri Lanka’s situation, including its reliance on tourism and the many contradictions this has propped up. 

The economic crisis of 2022 has made the country more vulnerable, and in light of a debt restructuring deal, it sees tourism, and foreign remittances, as pathways to recovery. However, while the previous administration pursued these avenues at full speed, little to no attention seems to have been paid to the tensions they have generated in Sri Lankan society.

It is undeniable that geopolitics has impacted the country’s tourist trade. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, for instance, the country witnessed a series of incidents involving Russians and Ukrainians, both of whom hold a significant presence in the tourism sector. Last year the country made headlines when complaints were made about a whites-only” party, organized by a group of Russian tourists in a coastal area in the Southern Province. The situation got so serious that the Russian Embassy had to issue a statement condemning all forms of racial discrimination and nationalism.”

Similar stories have been reported of other nationalities clashing with locals. Tourists in turn often complain of being hoodwinked, if not robbed, by locals disguised as guides. Complicating matters further, reports have emerged of foreign nationals passing off as unofficial tour operators in Sri Lanka.

Side effects are felt in other ways as well. For instance, in the days following the advisory, Sri Lankans on social media dug up reports on an Israeli film that had been shot in the region. Literally titled Arugam Bay,” the plot focuses on three Israeli surfers and former Israeli Defense Force members who travel to the island after losing a friend during a mission in Beirut. The film, which features a popular Sri Lankan actor as well, came under much censure, with some wondering why the government had granted the cast and crew permission when Israel has been accused of causing a humanitarian crisis in the region.

The Arugam Bay incident itself had been brewing for over a year. Sri Lankans had, for a long time, been taking to social media to comment on Israeli tourists intruding on local communities. While Israelis themselves have written about Sri Lanka in glowing terms, some of the tourists appear to have touched more than a nerve. Following the advisory, several Sri Lankans critical of Israel’s activities in Gaza questioned why authorities had allowed a Jewish cultural center to be set up in a discernibly Muslim-populated site. While the present government has taken steps to ramp up security, it is clear that the previous administration had turned a blind eye to these developments.

The incident also underscored the disproportionate impact of foreign travel advisories on countries in the Global South, in particular those reliant on tourism. Hours after the U.S. Embassy advisory, a senior official connected to the country’s tourism industry released a statement on social media criticizing Western countries for ignoring the effects of negative advisories on developing economies. The statement observed that with the sector reaching peak season in December, such warnings can discourage travelers. It added that while powerful countries can afford advisories on their territories, Sri Lanka is at a point where the slightest hint of bad news can cripple its recovery.

This raises another issue: Given that tourism is affected by external shocks, is it a viable economic pillar for vulnerable countries like Sri Lanka? Shiran Illanperuma, a researcher at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, argued that it is not. 

We have peak and off-peak seasons. What happens is that we have huge amounts of land, labor, and capital utilized in peak season but underutilized in the rest of the year,” Illanperuma wrote. For countries like ours, those resources would be better used in sectors like manufacturing.” 

He added that tourism constitutes 25 percent of the country’s exports, an unhealthy figure,” and observed that even popular destinations like Thailand are not as dependent on tourism as we” are.

On the other hand, Rathindra Kuruwita, an international relations analyst, said the advisory has less to do with tourism or security threats than with the government in power. The NPP has never been a governing party before. Foreign embassies and governments are now getting used to interacting with them,” he pointed out. 

In that sense, I see the advisory as a thinly veiled threat, the message being that powerful countries can cripple us at any time, and that we must expect to stick to their narratives, scripts, and agenda.”  

Whatever the causes of and solutions for these issues may be, it is clear that the Arugam Bay incident shows how fragile countries like Sri Lanka are in the face of external shocks vis-à-vis sectors like tourism – regardless of the party in power. With the Middle East and Eurasia embroiled in conflict, even the NPP seems eager to maintain security and stability. 

Barely a week after the travel advisory, the Sri Lanka Police announced it would prioritize protecting foreign nationals over cracking down on overstays. Yet firm action from the Sri Lankan government is needed if it is to prevent future problems – a point relevant not just to Israelis but to other nationalities arriving and staying in the country.

by Arundathie Abeysinghe Courtesy PIME Asia News

Several samples of a free, ready-to-eat, cereal- and legume-based food meant to “eradicate malnutrition” in Sri Lanka have been recalled. The Health Sciences Institute in Kalutara detected the mycotoxins above permitted levels last August. The lack of suitable storage is among the main causes.

Colombo (AsiaNews) – Aflatoxins exceeding permitted levels were detected by the Health Sciences Institute in Kalutara, Western Province, in some samples of Thriposha, a highly nutritious food provided for free in Sri Lanka.

The cancer-causing mycotoxins, which are produced by fungi, can cause liver cancer, and develop before and after harvest, especially in cereals like corn.

Thriposha is a triple nutrient that provides energy, protein and micronutrients. The pre-cooked “ready-to-eat” cereal- and legume-based supplement is provided to children and pregnant women from low-income groups.

The Public Health Inspectors (PHI) union raised the alarm after samples of Thriposha contaminated with aflatoxins were tested on 20 August, with a report on August 24.

The union informed the relevant authorities on 27 August, and the distribution was halted on 6 September. The recall concerns four districts – Colombo, Gampaha, Puttalam and Kegalle – with  “near-expiry-date” Thriposha.

About 245 master bags” out of 451 were recalled in Colombo, 202 out of 239 were rejected in Kegalle, and 99 out of 250 were collected in Puttalam, while a stock of 150 packs was not distributed.

According to the Family Health Bureau (FHB), Thriposha is helpful to cater to nutritional deficiencies that cannot be fulfilled by the main diet.” For this reason, pregnant females or infants with nutritional deficiencies are provided two 750g packets of Thriposha each per month free of charge through the national nutritional programme.”

Consuming three table spoons of Thriposha daily, in addition to the three main meals is adequate as a combination of energy, protein and micronutrients as a ready-to-eat cereal-based food provided to foster a healthier nation and to eradicate malnutrition.”

As Deepthi Kularathna, chairman of Thriposha Limited, noted at a press briefing in Colombo, last week, There was a small amount with a high level of aflatoxin in some Thriposha packets.’’

The main causes of their presence were the lack in polythene packaging for some products, lack of suitable storage at distribution sites such as the Medical Officer of Health offices, and the lack of modern silos at the factory, as well as some other, small flaws in the “system”.

According to sources in the Auditor General Department, operating inefficiencies at the factory, lower production, including, the procurement plan and procurement time schedule had not been prepared properly.’’

Currently, 1.6 million packets are produced every month amid corn sourcing (importing and domestic supply) constraints.

It is necessary to alert people considering that the fungus puts the lives of mothers, the unborn, and children under five years old at grave risk,” said nutritionists Kanishka Bandara and Achala Samarasekara speaking to AsiaNews.

For pregnant females and mothers, the aflatoxin contamination level should not exceed 30 parts per billion. A small black dot in the grain of corn causes aflatoxins.

According to literature from the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA), aflatoxins are mycotoxins produced by two species of Aspergillus, a fungus, known to be genotoxic and carcinogenic.

For corn, to be subjected to sorting or other physical treatment, before human consumption or use as an ingredient in foodstuffs, the European Commission has set a maximum level of 10 µg/kg for the sum of B1, B2, G1 and G2 aflatoxins,” Kanishka and Achala said.

Aflatoxin B1 is absorbed in the small intestine and distributed to the liver. B1, G1 and M1 are cancer-causing when delivered orally through the diet. Aflatoxins can be present in foods such as groundnuts, corn, rice, figs and cocoa beans due to fungal infection before and after harvest.”

ANI News

Asian Buddhist Summit 2024 delves into spread of Dhamma and the lasting importance of Pali
Read more At:
https://www.aninews.in/news/world/asia/asian-buddhist-summit-2024-delves-into-spread-of-dhamma-and-the-lasting-importance-of-pali20241106144321/

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Colombo, November 6 (Daily Mirror) – Two individuals were arrested by the Wildlife Conservation Department’s Emergency Raid Unit while attempting to sell ten rare Rath-Dothalu flowers in the Moragahayata area of Ratnapura. According to wildlife officials, these flowers are often used as offerings to the Buddha.

The suspects, who were apprehended on November 4 for damaging Rath-Dothalu trees, were presented before the Ratnapura Magistrate’s Court and have been remanded until November 11. Further investigations are underway by the Ratnapura Police.

The Rath-Dothalu plant, scientifically named Loxococcus rupicola, is a species of palm and the only species in the genus Loxococcus. Endemic to Sri Lanka, it is protected under the Wildlife and Flora Protection Ordinance and faces threats due to habitat loss.

In recognition of its endangered status, a postage stamp featuring Rath-Dothalu flowers was issued on World Wildlife Day 2020 as part of a series highlighting threatened plants and animals, jointly released by the Wildlife Conservation Department and the Philatelic Bureau.

Wildlife officials are urging the public to protect this rare plant, which is under severe threat. The Wildlife Department requests that anyone with information on damage to the Rath-Dothalu plant call the wildlife emergency hotline at 1992.

Courtesy Adaderana

The British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Andrew Patrick has expressed eagerness to further strengthen the strong bilateral ties between Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom. 

During a meeting with Secretary to the President Dr. Nandika Sanath Kumanayake today (6), the British High Commissioner has proposed that steps be taken to educate Sri Lankan parliamentarians about the British parliamentary system to further enhance governance in Sri Lanka, while emphasizing the significance of the British local government system, noting its potential to reduce fraud and corruption. 

Mr. Patrick has also highlighted the British Government’s appreciation for Sri Lanka’s ongoing partnership with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and expressed readiness to support the government’s efforts to combat fraud and corruption while boosting state revenue.

By Shiran Illanperuma

On the 23rd of October, the United States embassy in Sri Lanka issued a travel advisory warning of a potential attack targeting tourist sites in Arugam Bay, a popular surfing destination in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. The embassies of the United Kingdom and Russia soon followed suit. Given the mysterious circumstances of the 2018 Easter Attacks that occurred following a warning by Indian intelligence services, this has understandably stirred much anxiety and speculation among Sri Lankans.

What the recent travel advisories did not mention is the operation of illegal businesses by Israeli tourists in the Arugam Bay area, and the opening of Jewish places of worship in close proximity to local Muslim mosques. To make matters worse, it is reported that many of these tourists are possibly IDF soldiers engaging in the proliferation of Zionist propaganda.

While there is much to be said about these developments, there is also an opportunity here to discuss the more general shortcomings of tourism as an economic sector and Sri Lanka’s toxic dependence on it.

Integrated development

In a 1975 essay on class contradiction in Tanzania, the Guyanese historian and political activist Walter Rodney wrote about how university students in the newly independent United Republic of Tanzania debated the place of tourism in economic development. Rodney summarised the views of the opposing camp thus:

They were saying that our workers and our peasants are not concerned with those who want to come and watch the lions and gazelle and to watch the Masai and so on, and call themselves tourists: that this will not do anything for the mass of our population. On the contrary it will inhibit a development of serious economic options which could lead to real integrated development.”

Rodney’s use of the words integrated development” is key. Tourism is at best a stop-gap measure in conditions of serious economic and technical backwardness to raise foreign currency. The barriers to entry in tourism, in terms of skills and technology, are fairly low. While tourism can raise revenue, it historically has been incapable of re-investing resources into more dynamic economic activities.

Like agriculture, tourism is subject to diminishing returns. It is a classic rentier activity dependent on natural endowments like land and its proximity to ‘attractions’. The scope for value-addition in tourism is also fairly low. Tourism lacks the economies of scale, division of labour, and capital deepening that are characteristic of manufacturing and large-scale industry. At best, it may help augment the home market for domestically produced goods. However, this in turn requires activist policies to improve local content.

The lobbies and interest groups surrounding the tourism sector have congealed to such an extent that it seems impossible to have a productive conversation on the place of tourism in a national development strategy. A whole public-private institutional nexus exists to support the tourism sector. Every political party, left or right, must pay heed to the sector.

There is a case to be made that Sri Lanka’s overreliance on tourism diverts productive resources such as land, labour, and even state capacity (if we wish to view it as a precious resource) away from productive economic activities that could have a more long-term impact on developing the country. Revenues from tourism, rather than being invested in new industries, tend to perpetuate a speculative cycle of underdevelopment.

The missed wake-up call

The pandemic should have been a wake-up to Sri Lankan policymakers that non-tradable services such as tourism, are no foundation on which to build a modern economy. It is instructive that the economies of our regional competitors in tourism, such as Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand, did not collapse the same way Sri Lanka did during the pandemic. This is because they are rising manufacturing powers first and tourist attractions a distant second or third.

One measure of dependence on tourism is the share of international tourism receipts in exports. In 2019, on the eve of the pandemic, tourism receipts accounted for nearly a quarter of Sri Lanka’s exports (24%). By contrast, the figure was 20% for Thailand, 9.3% for Malaysia, and only 4.2% for Vietnam. While the Sri Lankan economy imploded during the pandemic, Vietnam boomed, as its dynamic industrial sector was able to adapt to shifts in global demand for manufactured goods. Vietnam was also agriculturally self-sufficient enough to feed its own population.

Aside from the economic case to be made against tourism as a core component of development strategy, there are also social and cultural arguments that warrant consideration. Is tourism a dignified way to rebuild a country after the ravages of 500 years of colonialism? Should we not have the clear-eyed and sober goal of developing our productive and technological capabilities so that our people can partake in world trade as equals, and not just beggars and debtors?

I am reminded of a quote by the freedom fighter Philip Gunawardena, who said that the need to industrialise was not simply to attain power but to get rid of poverty, improve living standards, and to give our people, when they are free from the pursuit of inadequate food and shameful housing, the leisure and serenity to enjoy our beautiful country; to develop their culture in their own way.”

Our collective dependence on tourism amounts to a perverse inversion of this dream. Foreigners enjoy our beautiful country, and our culture debases itself in order to entertain them. Yet the majority of our people remain in poverty and in search of food, housing, and, most shamefully, better countries in which to raise their children.

(Shiran Illanperuma is a researcher at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He holds an MSc in Economic Policy from SOAS University of London. He can be reached at shiran.illanperuma@gmail.com)

Figure 1:  International tourism receipts as a percentage of total exports of goods and services (Source: World Bank)

By Garvin Karunaratne , former G.A.Matara

This is one of my early papers published four years ago. It is hoped that the new Government may find interesting ideas to follow to enable Sri Lanka’s economy to develop.

A Story from Coffee. Ideas for our economic revival.

Posted on September 14th, 2020. Republished in November 2024 to waken our new giants

The other day, locked down in Sri Lanka because of the Corona,  I ran out of the Starbucks Coffee I had brought with me. Being a coffee connoisseur,  the tastes of Island, Hariischandra and Wijeya Coffee did not satisfy me. I have yet to find Soul Coffee.  They are all the same- the same taste as half a century ago. They were all pure coffee, not blended to different tastes. I went to Coffe Bean, the leading coffee maker in Colombo that has a countless number of coffee outlets in Colombo  . Most of those joints only sold the coffee as a drink and ultimately they directed me to go to their headquarter store on Ward Place .  At Ward Place they offered me a pack of coffee beans imported from the USA-    at Rs 2400. That was a pack of 8 ozs. That size of  packet is sold at around  five pounds at Starbucks in London and Island Coffee sells this quantity  for around five hundred rupees

They ground the coffee and it tasted good.. I made inquiries.. The coffee beans, all roasted to taste,  had been imported from the USA- California, Camarillo CA 93012. California does not produce coffee. So the coffee comes from a non producing country to us, a coffee producer!  Coffee beans come mainly from African countries. the pack is sold in Califorrnia  for around seven dollars come to us and gets sold to us at Rs 2400 the equal of some ten pounds.

Sri Lanka instead of growing coffee has been importing from China, Malaysia, Thailand all countries visited by me where I have been struck with how they organize their agriculture. We also import from Mid East countries that do not grow coffee.

That is where our foreign exchange has been going since 1977. Once we did produce the best  coffee in the world. On my irrigation inspections in Kitulgala long ago I have seen coffee bushes full of coffee beans, bright red in colour. I have not seen that much of luscious growth anywhere else. I have also seen similar coffee in coffee bushes at Kotmale when I worked in Nuwara Eliya. But now Kotmale has been axed  by the Kotmale Dam- all to produce some  200 MW of power- some power that we could have easily produced from some 70    wind turbines scattered in Kotmale itself and the luscious productive  land in Kotmale and the charming people would have been saved. But that is another story. See   my Paper: Sitawaka Hydro Project:  in Lanka Web11/8/19. to understand the nuances in our development order where we sacrifice what development and production we have and more we justify doing it. I am sad that Sri Lanka had no leaders who could avoid getting bluffed by interested influentials and I hope that our new President will tackle problems efficiently. That brain that tackled the LTTE will I am dead cert will stand up to that task.

Kitulgala  is our coffee belt.  We do need to ban the import of coffee which  our President has done, I think. Simultaneously we have to encourage the picking of coffee pods from the existing coffee bushes, immediately get going with encouraging the coffee growers to put some manure and cow dung, and wear a mask and additional clothes when plucking because coffee bushes are also full of mosquitoes . There has to be a village organization to activize the coffee growers and also the Government must offer   a guaranteed price to buy coffee-like what we did in the Marketing Department in the Fifties when we offered guaranteed prices for many items that  we imported- that was in the Fifties and when production increased we ended that scheme. But now we have no organization to buy the produce.  Both the Marketing Department and the worthwhile sections of the Agrarian Services have been axed at the dictate of the International Monetary Fund that the Government should not attend to any commerce.

We do talk big about having guaranteed prices but the IMF axed the organization that we had built to implement that scheme. Motoring around Sri Lanka today I often spot the Agrarian Services stores- now overgrown with shrubs, neglected. Then they were  places vibrant with life, where the multipurpose cooperatives that purchased produce from producers and handed over. It is easy to talk of guaranteed prices but we should know that we do not now have the officialdom to purchase the produce. Take paddy we talk big about what we collect every season, but we forget that the benefit of the premium price has fattened the trader. The paddy producers have no cooperative stores to hand it over and sell to the traders for a song who hands it over to the government stores and benefit from the premium price. And our economic sleuths in our Ministries fail to grasp that the producer is left in the lurch while the traders benefit. The main aim of a  guaranteed premium price is to help the producer gain a premium price so that he will be encouraged to grow more.

Once in the Fifties working in the Agrarian Services in charge of the Anuradhapura District I had ten smart and able, very vibrant divisional officers, who could even sell ice to the Eskimoes. Under them I had some fifty trained overseers and they manned two hundred and ninety eight cultivation committees- where farmers would meet very often and get coaxed by me and my team to use fertilizer, improved seed and that was how the Green Revolution brought Sri Lanka to the brink of self sufficiency in paddy- all while implementing a scheme to offer rice at reduced rates to the needy- a target that had never been achieved in any country. Then I had the organization,. In fact then I remember we did import maize and I offered to produce all the maize that was imported in one season. One word from me and my giants- they were real giants and I was proud of them, would have mobilized the people through the vibrant cultivation committees.. The Government did not approve my suggestion and we worked only on paddy. Now we talk. The Government has to bring back the Marketing Department and the sections of the Agrarian Services that were axed. There is no other way.

Let us use our expertise to see what can be done for coffee. To start with   sad to say the Department of Agriculture is dead at the village level today. They have no organization at the village level and no men.  This happened some twenty eight years ago in 1992 when President Premadasa in one of his unguarded moments  promoted all Agricultural Overseers, some 2400 of them to the rank of Grama Niladhari. The specialists in agriculture the trained overseers all became white collar workers as Grama Niladharis, pushing pens on paper instead of working in the villages.

Sad to say till today there is no field level overseer trained in agriculture. Today the closest trained agricultural officer works at the divisional level. This officer  has a few thousands of farmers to cater to =  the needs of some 3500 farmers in Ranorawa and as much as 13,000 farmers in Yodakandiya, (From patriot Ranith Mulleriyawa : The Island 04/06/2013) In short today our specialist agriculture department has no base and as far as organizing be it coffee or any other crop our officers can plan on paper and send it to the divisional level. After that there can be no action whatsoever other than the Agricultural Instructor at the divisional level  meeting a few farmers and writing something back to the District Agricultural Officer. Then the statistics get transformed to documents on glazed paper and  ably documented. The Department of Agriculture,  figuratively is a monster  with provincial ministers, secretaries and directors with no legs, producing only reams of reports without a base!

So ends anything in agriculture, be it coffee, potatoes, maize or any other crop.

What we need immediately for Coffee is a guaranteed price and an organization to help the producer to produce more. There has also to be subsidies offered to get people to plant more coffee bushes. Further it is necessary that  some government organization gets cracking  to the task of finding how coffee can be blended to taste. Therein comes what I directed in Matara as the Government Agent in 1971. Our President has got the State Ministers on the move. It is necessary to get the mass of Government Agents and their vast staffs amounting to thousands cracking. Perhaps what I did at Matara may offer ideas.

I wanted to find the art of making a crayon to establish an industry. We requisitioned the science lab at Rahula Collage every evening from six to midnight and  we- my Planning Officer, a chemistry graduate and katcheri  officers were hard at work helped by the science teachers of Rahula to find the art of making crayons. It took a myriad of experimental trials and we did find the art of making crayons in three months. Then we dragged in the cooperatives  to establish Coop Crayon, which was a great success.  Sumanapala Dhanayake the Member of Parliament for Deniyaya happened to be the President of the Coop Union at Morawaka  and I can in nostalgia recall getting down to make crayons. It was done in double quick time-in three weeks working on a 24 hour basis- on most days I too broke rest.  It was hailed as great success by the Minister of Industries Mr Subasingfhe and crayons were sold islandwide. That is what we immediately require for coffee- someone to experiment. Recently I stayed a few nights in a leading star resort in Anuradhapura and got to know the chief chef. I had a chat with him trying to entice him to blend coffee with a flash of vanilla and the likes to get different tastes. I can do no more- only talk. The Government has to take the lead to find the blends and get cracking in production  so that we can chase away Nescafe from our shores and save our valuable foreign exchange and also creating employment for our own people..

 In the days of Sirimavo we did have that organization – the Divisional Development Councils, the brain of Dr NM at work.  Dr NM is no more. . Our President is kindly requested to get cracking with a programme like the DDCP, a better one which will get down to work in producing what we need and thereby save foreign exchange as well as finding employment for our people. Stopping imports is the first step. This has to be supplemented  with a production base which we do not have.  My own work the Youth Self Employment Programme does flash in my mind. Then  I was marching with the Youth Officers in the villages and marshes of Bangladesh, guiding vocationally trained youths to establish ventures and they did succeed. Today the Ministry of Youth Development has  reformed to a  role of guiding youth to establish enterprises and mind you by now three million of them are at work- the largest employment creation programme the world has known. . My Paper Youth Employment: A Prime Necessity” in Lanka Web: 11/10/2019   tells it all. . (www..lankaweb.com/news/items/2019/10/11/youth-employment-a-prime-necessity)

We need new thinking for Sri Lanka to emerge under our new President.

I hope this paper will somehow reach the eyes of our new leaders.

Garvin Karunaratne, , Ph.D in Non Formal Education and Agricultural Economics (Michigan State University) garvin_karunaratne@ hotmail.com

Former Senior Assistant Commissioner of Agrarian Services and G.A. Matara

13/09/2020

One Response to A Story from Coffee. Ideas for our economic revival.”

1. Nimal Says:
   September 15th, 2020 at 7:57 am

4 decades ago one of my American friends told me that they enhance the taste of packed coffee with peanut powder developed by an ethnic scientist named George Washington Cavo.(sounds like that)

Viraj Fernando    – virajfernando03@gmailcom

1. Procedural Irregularities in Awarding the Project

The best argument we have to counter the arbitrary award of this project to Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL), is to ask the question, whether AGEL would have been awarded such a project and at a PPA price of $0.0826 in India under Indian regulations and to insist in consideration of the justification of the project from the perspective of Indian regulations.

Under the usual standards applied by India’s own energy regulatory bodies, the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), projects of this scale would require strict procedural compliance and competitive bidding by tender. This is especially true for projects expected to secure government land or investment or impact national energy infrastructure. In this case, however, Adani was granted the Mannar wind energy project on government owned land without adhering to such a transparent process.

2. Excessive PPA Price Setting a Risky Precedent

A core concern with the Adani Mannar project is the high PPA rate of $0.0826 per kWh, which significantly exceeds standard wind project tariffs.

In renewable energy projects, the PPA price is bench marked to the Levellised cost of energy” LCOE. In the determination, of the LCOE wind energy availability is a significant factor along with the capacity utilization factor CUP. Wind energy is determined by the following formula:

 Wind power = ½ x wind density x (wind speed)³.  Upon applying this formula wind energy is availability for Gujarat is found to be 43,905 units which is significantly lower than that in Mannar which is 149,776 units. Yet as the following table will show when in wind poor Gujarat AGEL gets PPA rates of the range $0.029 -0.034, AGEL has been awarded a PPA rate of $ 0.0826. One of the ways this price has been manipulated is by getting the Public Utilities Commission to carry out a fake study to get a capacity utilization factor CUP much lower than the actual, by misaligning the anemometers. This fraud has been pointed out in CEB reports on this project.

To illustrate:

From the above table for an altitude of 100m, it will be evident that the wind energy conditions in Mannar are highly favorable, with energy availability estimated to be 3.4 times higher than that of wind conditions in Gujarat, yet the project’s PPA rate does not reflect this advantage.

In India the PPA rates given to wind power projects vary between $0.029 -0.034. Whereas Adani has been awarded a PPA rate of $0.0826, and the projected annual income at this rate is                   $ 211,500,000 ($ 211.5 million per year). If we assume the same rates as in India would apply for the Mannar project, the following table shows the pricing and the potential excess costs from a PPA set at $0.0826 awarded to Adani for the Mannar project compared to typical rates.

The excess payment (if we consider PPA rate of $ 0.034 to be fair for Mannar) is $ 121.59 million. This excess payment (even after considering the higher PPA rate of $0.034, over a 25-year project lifetime will be $ 3.039 billion!!  

Such a pillage would be detrimental to Sri Lanka’s economy, in many ways – not only the by the drain of our money by itself. The more damaging aspect of such a PPA rate would to discourage foreign investors, as higher energy prices lead to uncompetitive manufacturing costs and make it difficult for new industries to thrive.

3. Comparison with Global Standards and LCOE Trends

The Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) is a key benchmark for pricing PPAs globally. LCOE for wind projects worldwide has declined steadily over the years, a trend documented by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Below are global LCOE averages for onshore wind energy in recent years:

If the LCOE of $0.046 was valid for Mannar’s smaller CEB-funded project in 2018, it is reasonable to expect that current rates would be lower due to increased efficiency and economies of scale. Adani’s 250 MW project is over 240% larger than the CEB’s 103.5 MW project, which should lead to an even lower LCOE, than $0.034. The fact that Adani’s PPA is priced at $0.0826 raises questions, especially since no recent Indian project awarded to Adani has exceeded $0.034 per kWh.

4. Environmental Concerns and Site Alternatives

Beyond the financial issues, the Mannar project site is problematic due to environmental concerns. The area is a crucial habitat for migratory birds, making it sensitive to large-scale developments. Bird migration routes could be severely affected, harming local biodiversity and eco-tourism, an important aspect of Mannar’s economy.

Alternative sites such as those in Anuradhapura have been identified as wind-rich areas with fewer environmental constraints. This region, which also shows promise according to Danish Technical University’s Global Wind Atlas studies, could serve as a suitable alternative if the Mannar project is reconsidered.

5. The Larger Implication for Sri Lanka’s Economic Development

The future economic growth of Sri Lanka hinges on affordable, abundant energy. A central factor in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) is the availability of low-cost electricity to support industries and boost economic growth. For example, Vietnam, with its low electricity prices, attracted $36 billion in FDI in 2023 alone. It is clear that competitive electricity rates are essential to industrialize and create jobs. An artificially high PPA, such as Adani’s, would definitely hinder Sri Lanka from realizing its economic potential.

To further illustrate, let’s look at electricity prices for industries in the region:

If Adani’s high PPA becomes a standard, Sri Lanka’s industrial electricity rates could soar, undermining competitiveness against neighboring countries and discouraging investment in local industry. If Sri Lanka continues with such high-priced agreements, it will lose a critical edge in attracting FDIs needed for economic growth.

Conclusion

The Mannar wind energy project granted to Adani must be reconsidered in light of its procedural irregularities, inflated PPA rate, environmental impact, and potential to stifle Sri Lanka’s economic prospects. By re-evaluating this project and adopting a fair, transparent approach to awarding energy projects, Sri Lanka can position itself as a competitive, investment-friendly nation. A fair and economically viable approach to energy pricing is essential if Sri Lanka is to realize its vision of industrial growth and long-term prosperity.

1. Procedural Irregularities in Awarding the Project
   The best argument we have to counter the arbitrary award of this project to Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL), is to ask the question, whether AGEL would have been awarded such a project and at a PPA price of $0.0826 in India under Indian regulations and to insist in consideration of the justification of the project from the perspective of Indian regulations.
   Under the usual standards applied by India’s own energy regulatory bodies, the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), projects of this scale would require strict procedural compliance and competitive bidding by tender. This is especially true for projects expected to secure government land or investment or impact national energy infrastructure. In this case, however, Adani was granted the Mannar wind energy project on government owned land without adhering to such a transparent process.
   
2. A: Fact – No procedural irregularities in awarding the Project:
   •CAMCI approval under Fast tracking of Investments” – Adani’s proposal was considered as part of this process too. Thereafter, Cabinet Approval was granted to enter into MOU with Adani Green.
   •Ministry of Finance’s notification states that in cases where CAMCI’s decision prevails, there is no need for tendering process.
   •The Project complies with the provisions of Electricity Act –
   oCabinet of Ministers have also approved the project as G-2-G.
   oPUCSL has granted approval to procure power from Adani under Section 43 (4) and its other provisions.
   oProjects form part of the LTGEP 2023-2042 approved by PUCSL.
   •The Govt. has in the recent time has received single bidder with single location based RE proposals and the Govt. has approved them too. The procurement process followed for these projects i.e., Technical Evaluation by Project Committee (PC) and Tariff Negotiations by CANC, is also followed for Adani’s projects.
   •Proposal also complies with the recent MOU between India-Sri Lanka on Renewable Energy Co-operation” allowing both private & public sector participation from both Countries.
   B: The argument to evaluate projects in Sri Lanka basis the Indian or other Country Regulations, seems illogical!
   •First of all, unlike Sri Lankan Electricity sector, the Indian Electricity sector provides lot of incentives to private developers in implementing the RE projects. (e.g. All RE projects are termed as Green” projects under EIA and don’t have to undergo the EIA process and its associated costs, this reduces the implementation timeline by 1-2 years, as compared to that of SL. However, the Financial Institutions/Lenders conduct the EIA in parallel)
   •Second, India as a stable economy has an Investment Grade rating thereby making the external funds easily available at competitive borrowing rates.
   •Thirdly, government owned land is also made available to private players on sub-lease basis without having constraints of mortgaging to foreign lenders & without any restriction on mortgaging for initial 5 years.
   •All the above reduce implementation time for the project coupled with standard Project Agreements (e.g. PPA), enable faster approval of Projects.
   •Having said that, the regulatory bodies of India (which are CERC & SERC i.e. Central Electricity Regulatory Commission & State Electricity Regulatory Commission) are empowered to adopt the tariffs discovered by SECI. So, if the tariff discovered is

Senaka Weeraratna

DRS is a gift from Sri Lanka to the world of cricket. Its impact is bigger than Sri Lanka winning the world cup in 1996. Why ?

Because this innovation of Sri Lankan lawyer Senaka Weeraratna has completely transformed the game. It is the biggest change in the Rules of the Game since its birth. Today Cricket is more transparent, accurate and fair.  Thanks to DRS. 

The colossal mistake that Umpire Steve Bucknor made in the Sydney Test 2008 when he gave out Master Batsman Sachin Tendulkar wrongly and changed the course of the direction of the game and its final outcome, is no longer possible.  The days of the ‘ Hora’ Umpire ( ‘Hora’ in the Sinhala language means Cheat) are gone.

We must cherish these changes for the betterment of the game of Cricket. DRS has also influenced other major sports including Soccer, which now uses Goal 

line technology to determine the accuracy of a Referee’s decision by use of Video Replay technology as in Cricket.

DRS is a huge achievement for Sri Lanka in the field of Cricket. Any other cricket playing country would go to town with it. Broadcast it and highlight it like England did when it honoured the inventor of the World Wide Web (WWW) Sir Tim Berners-Lee at the London Olympics held in 2012.

But not Sri Lanka unfortunately. Always falling short of maintaining ethical standards and allowing Jealousy to heavily influence decision making, Sri Lanka’s Govt. in the past had let down  the cricket loving public who have always wanted a clean, transparent, and accountable body to govern Cricket. 

Neither the Govt of Sri Lanka nor Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has so far shown any interest in gaining recognition from the ICC for Sri Lanka for the invention of DRS.

SLC has singularly failed to lobby the rest of the cricket world particularly  South Asian countries to  support Sri Lanka’s claim for recognition of inventing DRS.

Sri Lanka has much to gain in terms of revenue. The intellectual property of DRS belongs to a Sri Lankan not the ICC. 

The ICC is unable to disclose a single name as coming from its stables as the author of DRS.

But it is using DRS without the consent and licence of the Sri Lankan owner Senaka Weeraratna, who has both the economic and moral copyright to DRS.

Neither the ICC nor SLC has paid one red cent to the author of DRS for unauthorized use of this facility.

Millions can be gained from the ICC as revenue for Sri Lanka for use of DRS.

Despite Sri Lanka being a visibly Bankrupt nation always begging other countries for help, yet nobody from Sri Lanka is pushing the ICC to pay Royalties for use of the DRS. ICC had admitted that it has no copyright over DRS.

Both the SLC and the Govt. of Sri Lanka are guilty of betrayal of the country vis a vis the ICC.

We are as a country always short of money. But when money is available on a platter (if we demand from the ICC) on ground of ownership of  DRS, we tend  to back down or retreat. What cowardice.

In such a context of abandonment of the nation for purely petty reasons, jealousy and spite, one can only hope that the popularly elected new President  of Sri Lanka Mr. Anura Kumara Dissanayake and his fresh team would render Justice and support their own countryman to gain recognition for inventing DRS and obtain due compensation from the ICC for illegal use of DRS by the ICC and the SLC without consent of the true owner.

https://odishatv.in/news/sports/sachin-tendulkar-vs-steve-bucknor-worst-decisions-that-world-can-never-forget-watch-205754

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

තම සැමියා වූ විජය කුමාරතුංග මහතා දේශපාලන හේතූන් නිසා ඝාතනය කරන ලද ආකාරයෙන්ම තමන්වද ඝාතනය කිරීමේ කුමන්ත්‍රණයක් ඇත්දැයි සැකයක් පහළ වී ඇතැයි හිටපු ජනාධිපතිනි චන්ද‍්‍රිකා කුමාරතුංග මහත්මිය සදහන් කරයි.

ඇය මේ බව සඳහන් කරන්නේ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරුන්ගේ ආරක්ෂක නිලධාරීන් අඩු කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් මහජන ආරක්ෂක අමාත්‍යංශ ලේකම්වරයාට ලිපියක් යොමු කරමිනි.

විශ්‍රාමික ජනාධිපතිවරුන්ගේ ආරක්ෂාව සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඇතිව තිබෙන සාකච්චාව ගැන ඇය විසින් මේ බව දැනුම් දී තිබේ.

ඇය පෙන්වා දෙන්නේ විශ්‍රාමික ජනාධිපතිවරුන් අතරින් වැඩිම තර්ජන ඇත්තේ තමාට බවත් ඝාතන උත්සාහයකට ලක්ව තුවාල ලැබූ එකම ජනාධිපතිනිය තමන් බවත් ඇය කියයි.

විශ්‍රාම ගියද කෙසේ හෝ ඝාතනය කරන බවට කොටි සංවිධානය විසින් ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ ප්‍රකාශ නිකුත් කර ඇති පසුබිමක ආරක්ෂක නිලධාරීන් ප‍්‍රමාණය අඩුකර ඇති බවටද ඇය චෝදනා කරයි.

ජනාධිපතිවරණ සමයේදී බලයට පැමිණියහොත් ප්‍රභූ ආරක්ෂක ලබාගන්නේ නැතැයි ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ නායකයන් ප්‍රකාශ කළත් දැන් ඔවුන් සිය ගණනින් සමන්විත ආරක්ෂක බලමුළු සපයාගෙන ඇති බවද පවසන ඇය ඒ මෙරට ප්‍රභූවරුන්ට යම් ආරක්ෂාවක් තිබිය යුතු බව පිළිගැනීමක් දැයි ප්‍රශ්න කරයි.

Courtesy The Telegraph Online (India)

The government reversed the Electricity Act, approved in June this year under then-president Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government

The new National People’s Power (NPP) government in Sri Lanka on Tuesday announced its first reversal of a key element in the ongoing IMF bailout programme concerning the loss-making state-owned enterprises.

The government reversed the Electricity Act, approved in June this year under then-president Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government, introducing major reforms to the state power entity Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB).

The Marxist NPP trade unions had then agitated against the bill.

A CEB trade union leader who led the agitation is an NPP candidate in the parliamentary election scheduled for November 14.

A CEB statement on Monday said the entity’s privatisation programme would be scrapped and vowed to amend the CEB Reforms Act of 2024.

It said there would be no privatisation of state-owned power plants, transmission and distribution processes.

The CEB Reforms Act of 2024 paved the way for private sector competition in power generation. The move was aimed at easing the burden on public finances and increasing the share of renewable energy to 70 per cent by 2030.

The CEB reforms aimed at minimising losses to the treasury was a key commitment made by Sri Lanka to the IMF in the near USD 3 billion bailout sealed in 2023.

The news on the CEB Act comes as the IMF had been delaying its third review until the conclusion of elections on the island.

The fourth tranche of the facility would not be released until the completion of the third review.

The government of NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who won the September presidential election narrowly with just 42 per cent of the vote, claims the CEB privatisation was against the mandate of the new president.

This was the second reform policy reversal indicated by the NPP government following the announcement not to privatise the national carrier Sri Lankan Airlines.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.

By Rathindra Kuruwita Courtesy The Island

Easter Sunday Carnage:

Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security, retired SDIG Ravi Seneviratne, had transferred a senior police officer who was conducting a probe into his alleged failure to act on an intelligence warning to prevent the Easter Sunday carnage (2019), former MP Udaya Gammanpila, said yesterday.

Addressing a media conference, Pivithuru Hela Urumaya Leader Gammanpila said former DIG Palitha Siriwardena had complained to the then IGP C. D. Wickramaratne that the Easter Sunday attacks had resulted from the dereliction of duty on the part of SDIG Seneviratne, and called for legal action against him (Seneviratne).

IGP Wickramaratne had assigned Chief Inspector (CI) Induka de Silva to investigate the complaint against Seneviratne, Gammanpila added.

Gammanpila said: In March 2022, Seneviratne submitted a petition seeking a court order to prevent the CID from arresting him. In his statement, he claimed that on 10 Feb. 2022, he had become aware that Chief Inspector Lalitha Dissanayake had filed a ‘B’ report, alleging that ‘serious omissions by Seneviratne and former CID Director SSP Shani Abeysekara had led to the Easter Sunday attacks’. Seneviratne claimed that respondents were attempting to falsely implicate him by initiating a biased, unlawful, and unreasonable investigation, based on an anonymous petition that accused him of neglecting his duties in respect of investigations into the National Thowheed Jama’ath.”

Regardless of the ongoing investigation and legal issue, the JVP/NPP government had appointed Seneviratne the Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security, said Gammanpila. CI Induka de Silva continued his investigation and Seneviratne transferred him to the police HQ,” Gammanpila said, noting that Seneviratne was now in a position to suppress the probe against him.

Gammanpila challenged Minister Vijitha Herath to a debate on national security and public debt.

Our attempts to contact Seneviratne for comment yesterday were in vain as he did not answer his telephone.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  ලංකා ලීඩර්

2022 දී රට අරාජික කිරීම සඳහා ක්‍රියාත්මක වූ අරගලය වෙනුවෙන් ප්‍රකට ව්‍යාපාරිකයකු වන සුභාෂ්කරන් අලිරාජා මුදල් ලබාදුන් ආකාරය සම්බන්ධයෙන් තොරතුරු තමන් සතු බවත්, රට නිවැරැදි මාවතට අවතීර්ණ කර ගැනීමේ අවස්ථාව ඔහුගේ මැදිහත්වීම හරහා වැළකී ගිය බවත් සිංහ එෆ්.එම් නාලිකාවේ හිටපු හිමිකරු නිරංග ඉන්ද්‍රජිත් හෙට්ටිආරච්චි මහතා පවසයි.

මාධ්‍ය හමුවක් පවත්වමින් ඔහු සුභාෂ්කරන් අලිරාජා පිළිබඳව හෙළිදරව් රාශියක්ම සිදුකරයි.

මෙරට රූපවාහිනී සහ ගුවන් විදුලි නාලිකා කිහිපයක හිමිකරුවන් බවට පත්වී සිටින සුභාෂ්කරන් අලිරාජා ඇතුළු ඔහුගේ හිතවතුන් කිහිප දෙනෙකු මෙරට තුළ දැවැන්ත මෙහෙයුමක් දියත්කර ඇති බවත්, රන්ජන් රාමනායක  නායකත්වයෙන් යුතු පක්ෂයේ ප්‍රධාන ලේකම් වන්නේ ද සුභාෂ්කරන් අලිරාජා ගේ සමීප මිතුරකු බවත් ඔහු සඳහන් කරයි.

සවිස්තරාත්මක වීඩියෝව නරඹන්න…

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Colombo, November 05 (Daily Mirror) –  A tense situation arose between the security officers of Pastor Jerome Fernando and villagers of Nawalapitiya when Jerome arrived in the area to oversee the construction of a rehabilitation centre for children. 

Villagers claimed that he was planning to build a religious facility instead.

The police had to intervene to bring the situation under control. Amid massive protests, Pastor Jerome left the scene.

SL Vision

Madyawediya

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Sri Lanka’s development policy included state-sponsored colonization schemes which transferred people from the densely populated wet zone to the sparsely populated areas of the dry zone. The places best suited to such colonization schemes were located in the north and east of the island. These provinces were the least populated, the land was suitable for   agriculture   and there were rivers than could be dammed.

These colonization schemes had a dual purpose. They helped ease the acute land hunger of an expanding population, now well beyond the carriage rate for the island. They also opened up vacant land   for agriculture.  The first colonization schemes concentrated exclusively on paddy cultivation, but the later schemes included agro industries .The reservoirs were used to generate hydro-electricity as well as provide water for irrigation.

Sri Lanka was very proud of its state-sponsored colonization schemes. They were intended for national development. The first  colonization scheme was at  Kantale in 1948   (Trincomalee district),  then Gal Oya in 1949 ( Batticaloa )  Allai  1953 ( Trincomalee ) Padaviya  1958, ( Anuradhapura )  Morawewa  1960( Trincomalee ),   Weli Oya  1984 ( Mullaitivu )   and   Yan Oya2012  in progress  ( Trincomalee).

Tamil Separatist Movement vehemently objected to   state aided colonization schemes. Tamil settlers considered the north and east to be exclusively theirs. They feared the arrival of the Sinhalese and saw these   colonization schemes as a threat to Settler Colonization.

The main strategy of Settler colonialism is   to somehow get exclusive possession of sovereign territory, usually by   chasing away its original occupants, then sit down on that land and refuse to budge. State aided colonization schemes were a threat to this strategy. Settler colonialism is not interested in national development, only in consolidating its own position.

The Tamil separatist movement has opposed the Sinhala colonization of ‘Tamil lands’ at every opportunity. At the 4th annual convention, 1956, the Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) resolved that “colonization, policies pursued by successive governments since 1947 of planting Sinhalese population in the traditional homeland of the Tamil speaking people is calculated to overwhelm and crush the Tamil speaking people in their own national areas.’

The Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam Pact of 1957 had a specific Clause that the Regional Councils shall have the power to select allottees for colonization schemes in the Region. And the Resolution passed at the 5th National Convention of the Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi, in 1957 declared: State aided Sinhalese colonization of the Northern and Eastern provinces will be effectively stopped forthwith.”

 TULF Manifesto, 1977, stated that the territory from Chilaw through Puttalam to Mannar, up to the Jaffna Peninsula and then     past     Trincomalee and Batticaloa down to Kumana, and the Kumbukkan Oya, were ‘firmly established as the exclusive homeland of    the Tamils. This is the territory of Tamil Eelam.”

Tamil Separatist Movement knows that its position in Sri Lanka is very shaky. The Tamil settlers do not have   their own declared state in Sri Lanka. Nor do they have a long history of settler residence in Sri Lanka .They only came in the  late 19^th  century and they are settled in two   artificial provinces created by the British, the Northern and Eastern provinces, with arbitrary boundaries.

The homeland” assertion of the Tamil Separatist Movement has been laughed at and dismissed.Critics wanted to know whether any other ethnic group has two homelands, one in India and another in Sri Lanka.  KM de Silva in his ‘Traditional homelands of the Tamils’ has squashed the historical claims of the Tamils. G. H. Peiris has demolished the demographical claims. 

The government took no notice of the Tamil protests. It continued with its colonization schemes. It is the duty of a government to utilize the resources of a country, including land, in the greater interest of the total population, the government said.  The government also said that does not recognize the division of land on an ethnic basis   and there can be no restrictions on internal migration in a democratic society.

The UN supports this view. UN repeatedly affirms the right to freedom of movement and residence within the border of the state. Article 13 of the UN Declaration of Human rights, (1948) says everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.

UN resolution 1803(XVII) of 14.12.1962, to which Sri Lanka is a signatory states that the ‘right of peoples and nations to permanent sovereignty over their natural wealth and resources must   be exercised in the interest of their national development”

Article 12 of the International covenant on Civil and Political rights (1966) says Everyone lawfully within the territory of a State shall, within that territory, have the liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence.  .

Article 5d (i) of the International convention on the Elimination of all forms of racial discrimination (1969) said signatories undertake to guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to ethnic origin, the right to freedom of movement and residence within the border of the State.

Population density also had to be considered when selecting lands for Colonisation schemes.  The government found that the Northern Province had the most space. It was the least populated. Census 2012 showed that Mullaitivu, Mannar, Killinochchi, Vavuniya, had low populations. The population density of 38 persons per square kilometer in Mullaitivu is the lowest density recorded in 2012. Populating density in Eastern Province was also low, 60 persons per square kilometer.  Therefore the colonization schemes were located in the north and east.

Census of Sri Lanka 2012 showed that 5% (1,061,315) of the total population of Sri Lanka live in the Northern Province. Vavuniya had a total population of 171,511, of which 82% were Tamil, 10.2% were Sinhala. Kilinochchi had total population of 113,510 of which 97% Tamil, 0.85 Sinhala. Mullaitivu had had total population of 91,947 of which 86% Tamil, 9.63% Sinhala.

The outrageous notion of an ‘ethnic compact’ was invoked on behalf of the Tamil settlers. It was suggested that land settlement should not disturb the existing ethnic ratio. A Marga Institute study, Inter racial  equity and national unity” (Marga 1985) suggested that ‘settlement policies should take into account the ethnic balance of the region in which settlements are taking place. New settlements should not significantly alter the ethnic balance in that district. There should be agreement on the ‘tolerance limits’ of any changes in ethnic balance.[1]

Critics responded. There is no such thing as an ethnic compact regarding land, they said. Land is a national resource.  The request is outrageous.  It should not be entertained.  Agreeing to ethnic quotas would mean accepting that   ethnic priorities must be respected in all land settlement projects.

It is reported, from a Tamil source, not an official one, that the Mahaweli Development   Scheme used the national ethnic ratio. Mahaweli land, it said is distributed according to the   all island ethnic ratio.  The Provincial Councils have no say and 96% of the beneficiaries have been Sinhalese, moaned    Tamilnet. [2] 

However, in the 1980s, the   Mahadiulwewa colonisation scheme, Morawewa recognised the ethnic ratio of the district. The Mahadiulwewa project was historic because   it was decided that for a medium scale project, settlement should reflect the ethnic ratio in the district in which the project was located. This was the first time such a policy had been enunciated, said Jayatissa Bandaragoda. A land Kachcheri was held, the selection made and the selected allottees informed. Most were landless chena cultivators, who had been living in the project area for a long time. [3](Continued)

[1]  ‘Inter-racial equity and national unity in Sri Lanka’ p 14,  41

[2] https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?artid=38864&catid=79

[3]  Jayatissa Bandaragoda, Path of destiny  p 161

C. Wijeyawickrema, LL.B., Ph.D.

බුද්ධාගම කියන්නේ බොරුවක්!

1505 දී පෘතුගීසීන් කොලොම් තොටට ගසාගෙන ආවේ එක අතකින් කඩුව හා අනිත් අතින් බයිබලයද රැගෙන යයි කියැවේ. 1096/1204 කාලයේ පෝප් මූලිකව මෙහෙයවු කුරුස යුද්ධ වලින් මුස්ලිම්වරු දිගටම පැරදවිය නොහැකිවිය. මේ නිසා යුරෝපයේ පොහොසත් පන්තියට ඉන්දියාවෙන් (චීනයෙන්?) ගොඩමින් ගෙනා කුළුබඩු යනාදිය ලබාගැනීම සඳහා වෙනත් මුහුදු මඟක් සොයා ගැනීමට අවශ්‍යය විය. මෙම දුෂ්කර ගමනට නාවික කම්කරුවන් සොයාගත්තේ එය යුරෝපයෙන් පිට වසන වනචාරී මිථ්‍යාදෘෂ්ටිකයින් ගලවා ගැනීම සඳහා  කරණ දේවකාරියක් යයි  යයි කියමින් රවටාදය.

පෘතුගීසින්ට පසුව ආ ලන්දේසීන් කතෝලිකයින් මරද්දී උඩරට බෞද්ධ රජු ඔවුන්ට රැකවරණය දුන්නේය (ඊට පෙර පෘතුගීසීන් මුස්ලිම්වරු මරද්දීද සිදුවූයේද මෙයය). මේවා ලෝකයේ ප්‍රථම සනාගත කඳවුරුවිය. සිය යටත් විජිතවල වැසියා සමඟ ලන්දේසීන් අනුගමනය කලේ ඉංග්‍රීසි හෝ ප්‍රංශ ක්‍රමයට වෙනස් ක්‍රියා පිලිවෙලකි. උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් ලන්දේසීන් උඩරට රජුට  සියමෙන්/බුරුමයෙන් උපසම්පදා භික්ෂුන් ලබා ගැනීමේ කාර්යයේදී උදව් කලේය.

1798/1802 සිට නෝත් ආණ්ඩුකාරයාගෙන් ආරම්භවුණු ඉංග්‍රීසි පාලන සමයේදී ගමේ  සිංහල පන්සල ඔවුන්ට බලවත් අභියෝගයක් විය. මේ නිසා (සිංහල?) ක්‍රිස්තියානි පාදිලිවරුන් විසින් ගෙනගිය බුද්ධාගම කියන්නේ බොරුවක් යන කතාවට සුදු පාලකයින් විසින් තිරයෙන් පිටුපසින් සිට සිය අනුබලදීම දිගටම කරගෙන ගියේය. මෙය කෙතරම් බලවත් වූවාදයත් 1848 කැරැල්ලට පසුව වනවිට පලවු කළු සුදු ක්‍රිස්තියානි මතය වූයේ තව දශක දෙක තුනකින් බුද්ධාගම රටෙන් අතුරුදහන් වනවා යන්නය (ඔබේසේකර-බණ්ඩාරනායක පවුල්වලට අයත් ජේම්ස් ද අල්විස්ගේ ප්‍රකාශය).

1842 දී පමණ සිට පානදුරේ වලානේ සිරි සිද්ධාර්ථාරාමයේ සිට රත්මලානට වැඩමකර රත්මලානේ පරම ධම්ම් චේතිය පිරිවෙන ආරම්භකර, විද්යෝදය හා විද්‍යාලංකාර මහපිරිවෙන් දෙකක් සඳහා මඟ පාදාදුන් වලානේ සිරි සිද්ධාර්ථ හිමිපාණන් ප්‍රමුඛව ඇතිවූ බෞද්ධ පුනර්ජීවනය හරහා බෞද්ධ-ක්‍රිස්තියානි වාද හතරකින් පසු පස්වන වාදයවූ 1873 පානදුරා මහා වාදයෙන්  මිගෙට්ටුවත්තේ ගුණානන්ද හිමිඳුන් පාදිලිවරුන්ව පරාජය කලත් ක්‍රිස්තියානි බලවේගය තාවකාලිකව වැලලීගියා මිස මැරුණේ නැත.  මීට හේතුව වූයේ ක්‍රිස්තියානි සුදු පාලකයින් හා සිංහල ක්‍රිස්තියානි කළුසුද්දන්ගේ බෞද්ධ විරෝධී යටිකූට්ටු වැඩ පිලිවෙලය. උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් 1883 කොටහේනේ බෞද්ධ-ක්‍රිස්තියානි කෝලාහලයේදී සුද්දා ගත්තේ ක්‍රිස්තියානි පැත්තය.

මීට සමානම දෙයක් 1915 සිංහල මුස්ලිම් කෝලාහලයේදීද සිදුවිය. එහෙත් කිසිවෙක් මෙතෙක් එය සිංහල බෞද්ධ විරෝධී ඉතිහාස කතාවේ කොටසක් වශයෙන් විමසා බලා නැත. එය 1971 JVP කැරැල්ල, 1988/89 JVP-UNP භීෂණ සමය, 2019 ජූලි 13 දා සමූහ කාණ්ඩ 21 ක් සමඟින් JVP මූලිකව ගොඩනැඟූ මාලිමා පක්ෂය (NPP), 2024 සැප්තැම්බර් 21 අනුර කුමාර ජනාධිපති ලෙස චන්දය දිනීම හා, 2024 නොවැම්බර් 14 දා පැවැත්වීමට නියමිත පාර්ලිමේන්තු චන්දය  දක්වා ඈඳෙන කතාවකි.

සිංහල බෞද්ධ ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ (2019-22) හා සුදු (බෞද්ධ?) ආණ්ඩුකාර රොබට් චර්මර්ස් (1913-16)

2022 දී ගෝඨාභය ජනාධිපති ගොඳුරුවුණ කුමන්ත්‍රනය වැන්නකට 1915 දී චාර්මර්ස් ආණ්ඩුකාරයාද ගොඳුරුවුනා යයි මට සිතේ. පාදිලි පවුල් සම්භවයක් තිබු ඔහු, 1881 දී පාලි පොත් සංගමය ඇරඹූ රීස් ඩේවිඩ්ස් ගේ ගෝලයෙකු විය (Pali Text Society – T. W. Rhys Davids).  1894 දී මජ්ජිම නිකායේ මධුර සූත්‍රය (කුල භේදය) පිළිඹඳව රචනාවක් ලියූ ඔහු, රීස් ඩේවිඩ්ස් ආරම්භකල ජාතක කතා ඉංග්‍රීසියට පෙරලීමේ සෑහෙන කොටසක් 1895 වනවිට නිම කලේය. 1897 දී පැරිස් (ආගමික) සමුළුවට සහභාගිවූ ඔහු තථාගත- සම්මා සම්බුද්ධ යන සංකල්ප පිළිඹඳව රචනාවක් 1898 දී පලකලේය. ආණඩුකාරයා වශයෙන් ඔහු කල එක් ප්‍රථම නිල රාජකාරියක් වූයේ විද්යෝදය පිරිවෙනේ උපාධි-තෑගි ප්‍රධාන උත්සවයට එක්වීමය.

රීස් ඩේවිඩ්ස්ද පාදිලි පවුලකින් ආ බුද්ධාගම බොරුවක්ද යන්න ගැන සැකකරමින් සිටි, 1864 දී සිවිල් සේවකයෙකු වශයෙන් ලංකාවට පැමිණි පංචස්කන්ධයකි. 1864-72 කාලයේදී ඔහු යත්තරමුල්ලේ ශ්‍රී ධර්මාරාම, හික්කඩුවේ ශ්‍රී සුමංගල, වස්කඩුවේ ශ්‍රී සුභූති යන හිමිවරුන්ගේ ඇසුරෙන් බුදුදහම අවභෝධ කරගත්තේය. ඔහුගේ <බෞද්ධ-පාක්ෂික හැසිරීම> නොරිස්සූ යටත් විජිත පාලකයින් යම් හේතුවක් අල්ලාගෙන ඔහුව සේවයෙන් පහකරණ ලදී. ආපසු ලන්ඩන් බලා ගිය ඔහු පාලි සංස්කෘත අධ්‍යයන කටයුතුවල නියැලී (ලන්ඩන් හා මැංචැස්ටර් සරසවි වල, 1882-1905) ලෝකය පුරා ථේරවාද බුදුදහම  පැතිරවීමේලා (පසුව ඔහුගේ බිරිඳද)  මහඟු සේවයක් ඉටු කලේය.

ධර්ගා ටවුන්, අළුත්ගම (2014)- මහනුවර කාසල් වීදිය (1915)

මහනුවර කාසල් වීදියේ මුස්ලිම් පල්ලිය ඉදිරියෙන් නීත්‍යානුකූල ලෙස වෙසක් දා (මැයි 29 දා) අළුයම 1 ට ගිය පෙරහැරකට නීති විරෝධී ලෙස ගල් ගැසීම නිසා 1915 දී මධ්‍යම හා බස්නාහිර පලාත් දෙකේ ඇතිවු සිංහල-මුස්ලිම් ගැටුමේදී ජර්මන් ආක්‍රමණයකට බියෙන් ලංකාවේ නතරකර සිටි බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය පන්ජාබි-මුස්ලිම් රෙජිමේන්තුව යෙදවීමෙන් සිදුවූ  සිංහල සංහාරය සමාන කල හැක්කේ 2014 ජූනි මාසයේදී අළුත්ගම ආසන්නයේ ධර්ගාටවුන් මුස්ලිම් පල්ලියෙන් ගම්බලා යන සිංහල බෞද්ධ ජනයාට එල්ලවූ ගල් ප්‍රහාරයටය. තමන්ට මොහමඩ් රාජිත යයි කියනවාට කැමතියයි බොස්ටන් TV එකට ප්‍රකාශකල රාජිත සේනාරත්නගේ හයිය 2014 දී මුස්ලිම් තරුණයින්ට තිබුණි. චාර්මර්ස් ආණ්ඩුකාරයා වැරදි උපදෙස් මත නොමඟ ගොස් ජූනි 2 දා කෲර ලෙස යුද නීතිය (මාෂල් ලෝ) ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමට ඉඩ දුන්නේය. මෙය සමානකල හැක්කේ 2018-22 කාලයේ ගෝඨාභයට සිදුවූ අකරතැබ්බටය. චාර්මර්ස්ව අමාරුවේ දැමීමේදී ඒ කාලයේ ශීඝ්‍රයෙන් ලංකාවේ බෝවෙමින් සිටි සිංහල ක්‍රිස්තියානි කළු සුද්දන් මෙන්ම 1880 න් පසු කාලයේ <ඕල්කොට් බෞද්ධයින්> යයි හැඳින්වූ කළු සුද්දන්ද  අඩුවැඩි වශයෙන් දායක විය. මේ කළු සුද්දන් දෙවර්ගයම 1931 දී සුද්දන් විසින් සර්ව ජන චන්ද බලය දීමත් සමඟ <ඩොනමෝර් බෞද්ධයින්> වශයෙන් වෙස් මුහුණු දා ගත්තේ පන්සල් හරහා ගමේ චන්ද ලබා ගැනීමටය. ගෝටාව කොට උඩ යැවීමේදී නම් වශයෙන් හඳුනා ගත හැකි පංචස්කන්ධ වන්නේ, පී. බී. ජයසුන්දර, ජුලී චුං, ඥානක්කා, ලලිත් වීරතුංග, ජයනාත් කොළඹගේ, මිලින්ද මොරගොඩ යනාදී තිරයේ ඉදිරියෙන් හා පිටුපසින් සිටියවුන්ය.

ගෝටා ගෝ හෝම් කුමණ්ත්‍රනය

2019 දී ගෝඨාභය බලයට ආ අවස්ථාවේදී මෙන් 1913 දී ආණ්ඩුකාරයා වශයෙන් චාර්මර්ස් ආ විටද දිවයිනේ පන්සල් හා අවංක සිංහල බෞද්ධ නායකයින් බලවත්සේ අමන්දානන්දයට පත්විය. මෙය ලෝක යටත් විජිත ඉතිහාසයේ සිදුවූ පුදුමාකාරයේ පත්වීමක් විය. ක්‍රිස්තියානි සුදු පාලකයින් විසින් සුදු බෞද්ධයෙකු සිය යටත් විජිතයට යැවුවේ බෞද්ධ ප්‍රභෝධයක් රටේ මතුවී තිබූ අවධියකය. අනාගාරික ධර්මපාලතුමා සිංහල බෞද්ධයින් තුල දේශාණුරාගය නැංවීමට කල උත්සාහය සුද්දන්ට හා කළු සුද්දන්ට විරුද්ධව කල විප්ලවකාරී සටනක් විය. සුද්දන්ට දරදිය ඇද, ඔත්තු සපයා, ආගම වෙනස්කරගෙන, ධනවත්වූ, වලව්කාරයින්ට ධර්මපාලතුමා තර්ජනයක් විය. ලන්ඩන් ගොස් අධ්‍යාපනය ලබා ආ ඔවුන්ගේ දරුවන් තමන්ටද රජයේ රක්ෂා අවස්ථා ඉල්ලා සිටියේය. සුද්දන් විසින් ජාතිය, භාෂාව, ආගම, කුලය  නම් කරණවා වෙනුවට ප්‍රදේශ අනුව චන්දයෙන් ව්‍යවස්ථාදායක සභාවට  ඒමේ ඉඩප්‍රස්ථා ලබා දෙන ලෙස මොවුන් තර්ක කලේය,  උද්ඝෝෂණ කලේය.

මුඩු බිම් පණත් යටතේ සුද්දාගෙන් කුණුකොල්ලයට ඉඩම් ලබාගත් වලව්කාරයින් බවට පත්වූ කළු සුද්දන් හා අළුතින් කරලියට ඒමට හදන කළු සුද්දන් අතර ඇතිවු ගැටුම, සිය සුදු මව සමඟ ලන්ඩනයේ හැඳී ලංකාවට ආ විශාඛා කුමාරි සොයිසා මෙනෙවිය (පසුව ජයවර්ධන මැතිණිය) සිය මාක්ස්වාදී හා බෞද්ධ විරෝධී කණ්නාඩියෙන් බලා විස්තර කලේ සුද්දන්ගෙන් යැපුණ ක්‍රිස්තියානි කළු සුද්දන්ගේ වචන උපුටා දක්වමින්, නෝ බොඩීස්, සම්බොඩීස් වෙන්නට හදනවා යනුවෙනි (තැනක් නැති පිරිසක් තැනක් හදා ගන්නට හදනවා).

මෙම අළුත් පිරිසට කරාවේ, දුරාවේ හා සලාගම කුලවල අයත් ඩී. එස්. සේනානායක, ඩි. බී. ජයතිලක, ආටිගල යන අයත් ඇතුලත් විය. විශාකාටත් වඩ හොඳින් දැනට ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාවේ වාසය කරණ ගාල්ලේ උපන් මයිකල් රොබට්ස් මේ කාරණා විස්තර කර තිබේ. මෙහිදී අපගේ මාතෘකාවට වැදගත් වන්නේ මේ හැම කොටසක්ම ධර්මපාලතුමා රටින් එලවා ගන්නට ක්‍රියාකල බවය. මේ කරුණේදී තෙම්පරාදු ඕල්කොට් බෞද්ධයින් හා ක්‍රිස්තියානි සිංහලයින් අතර වෙනසක් නොවීය.  ඕල්කොට් ආගමණයෙන් පසුව එතෙක් ඉදිරියෙන් සිටි පන්සල් පිළිකන්නට තල්ලුවී ගියේය. ඒ වෙනුවට සිදුවූයේ අමද්‍යප ව්‍යාපාරය හරහා සුද්දාව කොනිත්තීම පමණය. මෙම ඕල්කොට් බෞද්ධ කළු සුද්දන්ට 1915 චාර්මර්ස්ගේ මාෂල් ලෝ නිසා හිරේට ගොස් කෙසේ හෝ වෙඩි කෑමෙන් බේරී ජාතික වීරයින් ලෙස සිංහල බෞද්ධ ජනයා අතරට ඒමට හැකිවිය.

මෙම ව්‍යාකූල පසුබිම අස්සේ චාර්මර්ස් ආණ්ඩුකාරයා සුද්දන්ගේ හා කළු සුද්දන්ගේ කුමණ්ත්‍රනයක් යයි සිතෙන වැරදි උපදෙස් අනුව ක්‍රියාකර, සේවයෙන් පහකිරීමකට ලක්විය. අමාරුවේ වැටුන ඔහුට විරුද්ධව උද්ඝෝෂණ කිරීමට පොන්නම්බලම් රාමනාදන්, සර් ජේම්ස් පීරිස් යන කළු සුද්දන් මූලිකවූ අතර, E. W. පෙරේරා හා D. B.  ජයතිලක යන දෙන්නා ලන්ඩන් ගොස් විනය පරීක්ෂණයක් ඉල්ලා සිටියේය (ජයතිලක හා සේනානායක යන දෙන්නා උග්‍ර ධර්මපාල විරෝධීන් වූ බව බොහෝ ඉතිහාසකාරයින් විසින් සඟවා ඇත).

LankaWeb – Governor Robert Chalmers was a Pali-Buddhist scholar

මැනිං මැනිං ආණ්ඩුකාරයාගේ බෙදා පාලනය කිරීමේ සෙල්ලම අසාර්ථක වීම 1921-1931

හොරස් පෙරේරාගේ ලංකාව: බටහිර ජාතීන්ගේ පාලන සමය (1961) යන පොතේ 229-234 යන පිටුවල දැක්වෙන පරිදි මෙම කාලයේදී තමන්ට ව්‍යවථාදායක සභාවේ බලය ඉල්ලා සිටීමට චාර්මර්ස් ආණ්ඩුකාරයාගේ මාෂල් ලෝ ක්‍රියාව හොඳ උදාහරණයක් විය. මෙහිදී මැනිං ආණ්ඩුකාරයා සිංහල-දෙමළ ජාතීන් බෙදීමට හා සිංහල මහජාතියට බලයක් නොලැබෙන ආකාරයේ නියෝජන සූත්‍රයක් සැදීමට කූට ලෙස උත්සාහ කලේය. අන්තිමේදී මෙම ප්ලෑන් ආපසු කැරකී ව්‍යවස්ථාදායක සභාවේ නිල නොලත් මන්ත්‍රීන්ට බලය හිමිවීමේ අවදානමක් ඇතිවිය. සර් හියු ක්ලිෆර්ඩ් ආණ්ඩුකාරයා මෙය ලන්ඩන්වලට වාර්තා කිරීමේ ප්‍රතිපලය වූයේ 1927 දී ඩොනමෝර් කොමිෂම ලංකාවට පැමිණ 1931 සිට සර්ව ජන චන්ද බලය ලබාදීමත්, 1832 සිට පැවත ආ ජාතිවාදී නියෝජන ක්‍රමය වෙනුවට ප්‍රදේශ අනුව මන්ත්‍රීන් තේරීමත්ය.

වඳුරන්ට දැලි පිහි දීම

දේපල හෝ අධ්‍යාපන සුදුසු කමකින් තොරව සැම දෙනාටම චන්ද බලය දිම එංගලන්තයේ හා ඇමෙරිකාවේ සිදුවුයේ විශාල කාන්තා අරගලයකට පසුව 1931 ට දශකයකට පමණ පෙරය. 1832 සිට ජාතීන් අනුව නියෝජන ක්‍රමයකින් කළු සුද්දන්ව බෙදා පාලනය කල සුද්දා ලංකා කොලනියට  මෙසේ මන්ත්‍රී ආසන ක්‍රමයක් ඇති කිරිම විෂ්මය දනවයි.  එහෙත් 1931-1948 කාලය ලංකාවේ ජාතිවාදය උත්සන්නවූ අන්දම ජේන් රසල් ඇගේ ආචාර්ය උපාධි නිබන්ධනයේ පෙන්වා දී ඇත.

ලංකාවේ සිංහල හා දෙමළ කළු සුද්දන් ජාතිවාදය උඩ ගැටුණු අතර සර්ව ජන චන්ද බලය දීමට යාම ගැන ඔවුන් සිය විරෝධය පලකලේ එය වඳුරන්ට දැලි පිහි දීමක් යයි පවසමින්ය. ඊට පක්ෂව කතා කල එකම පුද්ගලයාවූයේ කම්කරු පක්ෂයේ නායක A. E. ගුණසිංහ මහතා පමණය. ඔහු මාක්ස්වාදියෙක් නොවීය. දැන් 2024 වන විට මුන් 225 ම එපා කියන තත්වයකට රට වැටී ඇති අන්දම ගැන සිතන විට වඳුරන් වූයේ  මෙම පක්ෂ දේශපාලක කළු සුද්දන් පරම්පරා මිස අසරණවූ චන්ද දායකයින් නොවන බව අවුරුදු 76 ක් පුරාම  සනාථවී ඇත.

මෙතෙක් මෙම දීර්ග විස්තරය ලිවීමේ අරමුණ වූයේ 1861-65 කාලයේ ඒබ්‍රහම් ලින්කන් මුහුණ දී ජයගත් අන්දමටම සමානවන මානසික හා භෞතික අභියෝගයක් 2024 දී සිට අනුර කුමාර ජනාධිපති ඉදිරියේ ඇති පැහැදිලිකර දීමය. 1948 න් පසුව නොව, ලංකා ඉතිහාසය පුරාම, දුප්පත් ගොවි පවුලකින් පැමිණ දශක කීපයක්ම එක් මතවාදයක් වෙනුවෙන් ජීවිතය කැපකර මහජන චන්ද බලයෙන් රටේ රාජ්‍ය නායකයා වුන එකම පංචස්කන්ධය ඔහුය.

මාක්ස්වාදයද සමඟින්ම ඔහු විද්‍යාලංකාර බෞද්ධ ශිෂ්‍ය සංගමයේ සභාපති ලෙස ක්‍රියාකලා නම් සියේට 3 ක් වූ JVP මාක්ස්වාදීන් හා NPP මාලිමා නිරාගමිකයින් කොටස්, සිංහල බෞද්ධ සංස්කෘතිය කෙරෙහි දක්වන විරෝධය මතවාදයෙන්ම නිෂ්ප්‍රභාකර දැමීමේ හැකියාවක් ඔහුට තිබෙනවා නිසැකය.

ලංකා කම්කරු පක්ෂයේ නායක A. E. ගුණසිංහව කොළඹ නගරසභා චන්දයෙන් පැරදවූයේ මහමුදලි සර් සොලමන්ගේ පුත් SWRD ය. මෙම කම්කරු නායකයා රටේ බෝරා, සින්ධි වෙළඳ ආධිපත්‍යයට විරුද්ධව කතා කිරීම මාක්ස්වාදී විශාඛා කුමාරි විසින් විග්‍රහකලේ සිංහල කුහක කමක් ලෙසය (Sinahala Buddhsit chauvinist). ලංකාවට පැමිණි අවස්ථාවේ ගාන්ධි පවා මෙම ඉන්දියන් වෙළඳුන්ට අවවාද කලේය. මෙම පදය සිංහල බෞද්ධ සභ්‍යත්වයට විරුද්ධව මුල්වරට එල්ල කලේ ඇයය. ජාතිවාදය හා ජාතික වාදය යන අදහස් දෙකේ වෙනස නොදැන අදටත් ගිරවුන් මෙන් සිංහල බෞද්ධ ජාතිවාදයක්, අන්තවාදයක් (Buddhist extremists!) ගැන කතා කරන්නේ බටහිරට ගැති කළු සුද්දන් රංචුය.

1964 සිට මාක්ස්වාදීන් සිය පන්ති සටනෙන් අඩියක් පස්සට ගත්තේය. රුවන් වැලි මහාසෑය සැදූ නිසාවෙන් දුටුගැමුණු රජතුමාව ගඩොල් මෝඩයෙක් ලෙස හැඳින්වීම නතර කලේය. එහෙත් සමහර JVP අරටු සැප්තැම්බර් 21 චන්දයට පෙර සිය මෝඩකම නිසාම බුදුහාමුදුරුවන් ගොස් ගසක්, දෙල්ගසක් වෙනුවට බෝගස තෝරා ගැනීම ගැන වේදිකාවල විකාරකතා කියමින් සිටියේය. බුද්ධාගම කන්නද කියා අසණ බුද්ධාගම කන්නද කියා අසණ JVP/NPP අයද සිටී.

1964 සිට 2019 NPP පිහිටුවීම හා 2024 සැප්තැම්බර් ජයග්‍රහණය දක්වා අනුර කුමාර පරිණාමයවූ අන්දම මෙම ලිපියේ මීලඟ කොටසින් සලකා බැලේ. එහිදී මෙහි පහතින් දැක්වෙන නන්දන වීරරත්න නම් මාක්ස්වාදියාගේ අදහස්ද  විග්‍රහ කෙරේ.

Sexual Crisis in Radical Movements in Sri Lanka – Nandana Weerarathna reveals

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KAMALIKA PIERIS

Tamil Separatist Movement was highly critical of the state colonization schemes of the 1950s. They were not in the least interested in the development aspect of the schemes, only on   the impact of Sinhala settlements on their precious Eelam.

Tamil Separatist Movement charged that the colonization schemes, from the very beginning, were intended to Sinhalise the north and east, not develop the country. Ever since independence it has been the policy of both the UNP and the SLFP to undertake state aided Sinhala colonization schemes with the sole aim of altering the demographic profile of Northeast, said V. Thangavelu. [1]

 Irrigation schemes such as Allai, Kantale and others in 1950s and 60s saw old tanks restored, new tanks constructed, and forests cleared to give land to landless peasants. These became instruments used for Sinhalisation of the district, said Oakland Institute, repeating what it was told.[2]

The objective of the government   is to break the continuity between the Northern and Eastern Provinces. . That is why the Padaviya and Allai schemes were started on the northern and southern sides of their districts observed   UTHR.[3]

 There was a  substantial increase of Sinhalese population in Tamil districts, especially in the Eastern Province,  due to the aggressive policy of settling thousands of Sinhalese in Tamil districts by the government, said C. Manogaran.[4]

It is estimated that almost a quarter of the island’s population was moved from the Wet Zone to the Dry Zone between 1946 and 1971, under peasant colonization schemes. These colonization schemes drastically altered the ethnic composition of Tamil provinces, Manogaran continued.

Comparison of the ethnic composition of the administrative districts for the census years 1881 and 1981 indicates that, Sinhalese population had increased substantially in the Ampara, Trincomalee, and Vavuniya districts. In the Amparai District, Sinhalese population increased from 7.0% to 38%, while the Tamil population declined from 37.0% to 20.0% between 1911 and 1981, said Manogaran

The rise in Sinhalese population between 1953 & 1963 was due mainly to the Allai and Kantale schemes and from 1963-1971 to Morawewa scheme. Padavi Siripura brought in a further 14, OOO in 1981.

The Kantale and Morawewa schemes become dangerous during periods of ethnic tension. They are located on the Trincomalee – Vavuniya and Trincomalee -Kandy roads. The Allai and the Padaviya schemes   cause problems on the Trincomalee-Batticaloa and Trincomalee – Mullaitivu roads said UTHR.

Kantale was a Village Headman’s division in Thampalaka­mam AGA’s division, in the early 190O’s. The Kantale tank irrigated the paddy fields belonging to the Thampalakam­am and Kinniya farmers, said UTHR. Farmers who had worked the land for more than 30 years and cultivated about 4,000 acres of paddy were chased away without compensation, and their lands were awarded to the Sinhalese in 1954, said Oakland institute.

It is estimated that about 40,000 of the present Sinhalese population of 86,000 in the district came in as a result of the Kantale colonization scheme. The intake was 77% Sinhalese and 23% Thamil speaking. After colonization, Kantale became a separate AGA’s division with 23 Grama Sevaka divisions, said   UTHR.

The Allai Scheme began by constructing an amicus across the Verugal river, a tributary of the Mahaweli Ganga. Under Allai colonization scheme 65% of the allotments were given to Sinhalese, 35% to Muslims and Thamils none, said V Thangavelu. Thangavelu was working in Trincomalee Kachcheri (1957-59) during this time.

 The Koddiyar AGAs division to which Allai belonged was replaced by three divisions, Muthur, Seruvila, and a Verugal AGA’s division. Seruvila was created in the late 196O‘s and Verugal division centered on Ichchilampattai was created in the mid 198O’s.

Names were changed. Serunuvara was originally Arippu. Kallar is Somapura today. Neelapalai is now Neelapola. A part of Poonagar is called Mahindapura and Thirumangalai is now Srimangalagama.

Seruvila AGA division contained new Sinhala villages such as Dehiwatte, Lankapatuna and Pulasthigama. This division has a population of 20,187 with 17 Grama Sevaka officers divisions. 99% of the 11,665 Sinhalese living in this division were brought from the south by the government, said Thangavelu.

The restoration of Padaviya tank led to the creation of Padaviya, Padavi Parakramapura and Padavi Sripura colonization schemes. Padavi SIripura, located in Trincomalee district had a population of 11,804, almost all of them Sinhalese said UTHR in 1993.

 Padaviya colonization   scheme extended into Trincomalee but was administered by Anuradhapura. Land which came under Trincomalee districts was also given to the Sinhalese said Oakland Institute .

Padaviya scheme played a key role in the 1958 riots and the activities of the Land Development Department employees during the riots has been vividly described in the book Emergency ‘58 by Tarzie Vittachi.

Morawewa is the Sinhalese translation of the Tamil word Mudalikulam, said UTHR.  Morawewa tank was earlier under Katukulampattu East, which included the present Kuchaveli division.  In 1961 a colonization scheme was started at Morawewa tank, 24 km west of the Trincomalee town. This scheme included Tamils as beneficiaries, said UTHR. Allotments were made on a proportionate basis, confirmed Thangavelu, but subsequent violence directed against Thamil settlers on a regular basis by Sinhalese forced many Thamils to evacuate.

A new AGA’s division was created in the early 1970s for Morawewa.  Morawewa AGA’s Division has a population of 9271 and 10 Grama Sevaka officers divisions. The Sinhalese constitute 56% of the total population while the Tamils constitute 37%. A considerable percentage of the present population of 5101 Sinhalese in the Morawewa are outsiders, said UTHR in 1992.

In the late 60s the government started an Air Force farm near the headworks at Morawewa. Tamils became subject to small scale attacks by air force men and Sinhalese hooligans. The largest number of killings of Tamils took place along the Anuradhapura Road and the matter was raised in Parliament. This was the first instance in the island of the forces being stationed permanently in the middle of an agricultural scheme. The proportion of Tamils kept falling, said UTHR. With the violence of the 8Os the gradual displacement of Thamils became a total retreat said Thangavelu.

In the 1980s, the Mahadiulwewa colonisation scheme was begun in the Morawewa AGA’s Division. More Sinhalese were brought in under this scheme and their proportion rose to 56%, said UTHR.

The Mahadiulwewa project was historic because it was decided that settlement should reflect the ethnic ratio in the district where the project was located. [5]  This was the first time such a policy had been enunciated. A land Kachcheri was held, the selection made and the selected allottees informed. Most were landless chena cultivators, who had been living in the project area for a long time.

Then an objection was raised by MP for Trincomalee that   persons from Trincomalee should also have been selected. However, the selection already made could not be altered for legal reasons. It was suggested that the blocking out plan could be redrawn to increase the number of allotments by reducing the area allocated to an allotment. 

Gamini Dissanayake, Minster for Mahaweli, accompanied by   NGP Panditeratne and Gamini Iriyagolle, came to investigate. Amirthalingam and Sampanthan were present. I also participated at this unprecedented meeting, said Jayatissa Bandaragoda. It was agreed that applicants from Trincomalee should also be interviewed and selected and the final list should reflect the district’s ethnic ratio. The plan would be redrawn to include more allotments by reducing the extent of land per allotment   (Continued)

[1] V Thangavelu https://tamilnation.co/forum/thangavelu/chauvinism.htm .

[2] https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/sites/oaklandinstitute.org/files/OI_The_Long_Shadow_of_War_0.pdf

[3] https://www.uthr.org/Reports/Report11/appendix2.htm 1992 april

[4]  C Manogaran https://sangam.org/sinhalese-settlements-and-forced-evictions-of-tamils-in-the-north-east-province/

[5]  Jayatissa Bandaragoda, Path of destiny  (Godage 2011)  p 161

Royal Thai Embassy in Berlin

On Sunday, August 4, 2024, H.E. Mr. Nadhavathna Krishnamra, Ambassador of Thailand, along with his spouse, Ms.Viphawan Benniman, Minister and embassy officials, participated in the International Buddhist Conference Academic to make the occasion of the 100th Anniversary of Das Buddhistische Haus, the first Buddhist House in Europe, at the Zehlendorf Community Hall, Berlin. The event was organized by the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Germany and the German Dharmaduta Society with the participation of by ambassadors and representatives from embassies of countries practicing Buddhism, including Cambodia, India, Pakistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand, as well as over 40 Buddhist monks from various countries, including Thailand and 50 participants from relevant academia and general public.

The Conference involved presentations and discussions on a wide range of topics, including the profound contributions of Buddhism to global peace and unity, the motivations that led Dr. Paul Dahlke to establish Das Buddhistische Haus and his tireless efforts to spread the teachings of Buddhism in Europe, and the relevance and application of Buddhist teachings in the modern world. The Royal Thai Embassy also supported the activity with a Thai traditional dance performed by Members of the Thai community in Berlin.

Das Buddhistische Haus was established in 1924 by Dr. Paul Dahlke, a German physician who purchased land in Berlin-Frohnau to establish the “Buddhist House” to spread Buddhist teachings and purify the mind. It combined the Buddhist way of life within a Western environment. Later, Mr. Asoka Weeraratna, the founder of the Lanka Dhammaduta Society (now known as the German Dharmaduta Society), purchased the property from the heirs of Dr. Paul Dahlke in 1957. He transformed it into a Buddhist vihara with monks from Sri Lanka and other countries, including Thailand.

Kamil Kerimov

Prof. Hudson McLean

Education Minister Anders Adlercreutz (SPP) told Yle News he wants to take that step. If his legislation is approved by parliament, high schools would be in a position to begin offering a curriculum in English by the autumn of 2026

https://yle.fi/a/74-20121822

Education minister “confident” Finland will introduce English-language matriculation exam by 2028

The upper secondary exam is currently only available in Finnish or Swedish, but there has been growing demand to offer some high school students the option of taking it in English.

Ronan Browne

4.11. 6:02

Could some high school seniors don their white graduation caps in the future after taking the matriculation exam in English?

If it comes to fruition, a proposal now going through parliament could see an expansion in English-language high school provision by 2026 in some cities.

That would resolve a key issue in the education of kids from mixed or foreign backgrounds, who can go through the Finnish schooling system in English up until the age of 16 — but face drastically reduced options at that stage.

The first step in expanding that range of options is making sure they will be allowed to take the matriculation exam from Upper Secondary school in English.

Education Minister Anders Adlercreutz (SPP) told Yle News he wants to take that step. If his legislation is approved by parliament, high schools would be in a position to begin offering a curriculum in English by the autumn of 2026, and the first-ever matriculation exam in English would be available two years later — by the autumn of 2028.

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India’s central bank – the RBI – has announced that it secretly repatriated around 102 tonnes of gold stored in the Bank of England vaults. The gold, which is part of the RBI’s reserves, had been pledged in London during the 1990s financial crisis. Why did the RBI decide to bring it back? Palki Sharma tells you.

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

ඉල්ලන්නේවත් නැතිව ලෝක බැංකුවෙන් ඩොලර් මිලියන 200ක් ලබාදුන් බව ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ ප්‍රධාන ලේකම් ටිල්වින් සිල්වා මහතා සඳහන් කරයි.

මිරිහාන ප්‍රදේශයේ පැවැති ජාතික ජන බලවේග මහ මැතිවරණ ජන හමුවක් අමතමින් ඒ මහතා මේ බව පැවසුවේය.

අද වන විට මෙරට ආණ්ඩුවකට ලැබුණු වැඩිම ජාත්‍යන්තර සහයෝගය හිමි ආණ්ඩුව බවට මෙම ආණ්ඩුව පත්ව ඇති බවද හෙතෙම පැවසීය.

‘ලෝක බැංකුව අපි ඉල්ලන්නෙත් නැතුව පහුගිය දවස්වල අපේ ආණ්ඩුවට ඩොලර් මිලියන 200ක් දුන්නා සංවර්ධන වැඩවලට පාවිච්චි කරගන්න කියලා’

උපුටා ගැන්ම  ලංකා ලීඩර්

මැතිවරණ කොමිසමේත් කනෙන් රිංගා රාජකාරි අවශ්‍යතා මත යනුවෙන් සඳහන් කර සී අයිද්ධියේ ප්‍රධාන පොලිස් පරීක්ෂක ඉන්දුක ද සිල්වා මහතාව සීඅයිඩියෙන් පොලිස් මුලස්ථානයට මාරු කිරීමට රවි සෙනෙවිරත්න මහතා ක්‍රියාකළ බවත්,  රාජකාරි අවශ්‍යතා මත යැයි පැවසූවද කිසිම රාජකාරියක් ඔහුට පවරා නැති බවත් සර්වජන බලය කොළඹ දිස්ත්‍රික් අපේක්ෂක සහ පිවිතුරු හෙළ උරුමය නායක නීතිඥ උදය ගම්මන්පිල මහතා පවසයි.

ඒ මහතා මේ බව සදහන් කර සිටියේ අද දින (04) පිවිතුරු හෙළ උරුමය පක්ෂ මූලස්ථානයේ පැවති මාධ්‍ය හමුව හා එක් වෙමිනි.

එහිදී තවදුරටත් අදහස් දැක්වූ ඒ මහතා,

“රවි සෙනෙවිරත්න මහතාගේ නොසැලකිල්ල නිසා පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරය සිදු වුණු බවත් ඔහු තනතුරේ සිටිය නිසා මීට පෙර පැවැති කොමිෂන් සභා ඉදිරියේ මේ කාරණය නිසි අයුරින් මතු නොවුණු බවත් විශ්‍රාමික නියෝජ්‍ය පොලිස්පති පාලිත සිරිවර්ධන මහතා පොලිසියට පැමිණිල්ලක් කරමින් සඳහන් කළා. මේ පිළිබඳ පොලිස් විමර්ශනයක් සිදු කර ඔහුගෙන් සිදුවුණු සාපරාධි නොසැලකිල්ලට දඬුවම් කරන මෙන් පොලිස්පතිතුමාගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටියා. මේ පැමිණිල්ල විමර්ශනය කරන්න භාර වුණේ සී අයිද්ධියේ ප්‍රධාන පොලිස් පරීක්ෂක ඉන්දුක ද සිල්වා මහතාට, තමන් කළ වරද තමන් දන්න නිසා බොහොම කලබල වුණු රවි සෙනෙවිරත්න මහතා මූලික අයිතිවාසිකම් නඩුවක් ගොනු කරලා තමන්ව අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීමේ සුදානමක් තිබෙනවා ඒක වලක්වන්න කියා ඉල්ලීමක් කළා. ඒ නඩුව තවම විභාග වෙනවා. ඒ අතරේ තමයි රවි සෙනෙවිරත්න මහතා පොලිසිය භාර අමාත්‍යාංශ ලේකම් වෙන්නේ.

රවි සෙනෙවිරත්න මහතා පොලිසිය භාර ලේකම් වුණත් පොලිස් විමර්ශනය දිගටම කරගෙන යන්න තරම් ඉන්දුක ද සිල්වා මහතා නිර්භීත වුණා. රවි සෙනෙවිරත්න මහතා මොකද කලේ? මැතිවරණ කොමිසමෙත් කනෙන් රිංගලා රාජකාරි අවශ්‍යතා මත කියලා ඉන්දුක ද සිල්වා මහතාව සීඅයිඩියෙන් පොලිස් මුලස්ථානයට මාරු කළා. රාජකාරි අවශ්‍යතා මත කියලා කිව්වාට කිසිම රාජකාරියක් පවරලා නෑ කියලා තමයි අපට නම් ආරංචි.

ජයවර්ධන ජනාධිපතිතුමා කෙතරම් හිතවතෙක් වුණත් ගෝනවල සුනිල්ව පොලිසිය භාර ලේකම් කලේ නෑ. ප්‍රේමදාස ජනාධිපතිතුමා කෙතරම් හිතවතෙක් වුණත් සොන්ති උපාලිව පොලිසිය භාර ලේකම් කලේ නෑ. චන්ද්‍රිකා බණ්ඩාරනායක ජනපතිතුමිය තමන්ගේ කොතරම් හිතවතෙක් වුනත් බැද්දගානේ සංජීව පොලිසිය භාර ලේකම් කලේ නෑ. මොකද ඒ අය පොලිස් විමර්ශන වල සැකකරුවන් නිසා. නමුත් ඉතිහාසයේ ප්‍රථම වතාවට පොලිස් විමර්ශනයක සැකකරුවෙකුව පොලිසිය භාර ලේකම් බවට පත් කලේ වත්මන් ජනාධිපතිතුමා. ඉතින් අපි සැක කළ අයුරින්ම දැන් තමන්ට එරෙහිව තිබෙන විමර්ශනය කඩාකප්පල් කරන්න රවි සෙනෙවිරත්න මහතා තමන්ගේ ලේකම් ධූරය භාවිතා කරනවා.”

By Dr Upul Wijayawardhana Courtesy The Island

When I wrote Will SL govt. do better than the UK Labour administration?” (The Island, 18 October), I never imagined that there would be the need for a follow-up anytime soon but, as it happens, a downward spiral seems to have started already and cracks are appearing in the new administration of Sri Lanka. On top of the fracas about the Easter Sunday bomb attack probes, the pretty mask of the NPP, which won votes from even those sceptical about the JVP, seems to be coming off revealing the real JVP underneath.

Many who supported Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) to win the presidency, in the belief that he was a true democrat committed to changing the political culture of Sri Lanka, would have been surprised and felt let down when AKD said at a public rally that there was no need for an Opposition and Parliament should be filled with only NPP members. For sceptics, that call came as no surprise at all, as the JVP is showing its true colours as a Marxist party. Afterall, they believe in the dictatorship of the proletariat!

Worse still is the fracas about the two committees set up by the then President Ranil Wickremesinghe to investigate two aspects of the Easter Sunday bomb attacks. The reports have cast doubts about the judgement of the president and his two ministers responsible for appointing to high positions two retired senior police officers, who are found to have neglected their duties by one of the committees. These two police officers—one arrested last October after crashing his jeep on to a tourist bus and a car, presumably due to inebriation and the other exposed by Ranjan Ramanayake’s audio recordings of telephone conversations—actively campaigned for the NPP.

We do not know what motivated them to play such a prominent role in the AKD presidential campaign; maybe it was because they were convinced by the policies of AKD or maybe they joined the winning side to get into positions of power or may be even avoid being charged with dereliction of duty while they were in the CID. Whatever it is, they got more than adequately rewarded and seem well protected as Minister Vijitha Herath has declared that they would not be removed under any circumstances. His skewed logic is well exposed and heavily criticized in the editorial Probe reports, skewed logic and emerging threats” (The Island, 24 October)

Salvos fired by the veteran politician, Udaya Gammanpila, and the awkward responses, not only from the government but also from the Catholic Church are well analysed in two previous Island editorials; ‘Mastermind at large; Udaya in crosshairs’ on 21st October and ‘Of that damning report’ on 22nd October. Gammanpila claimed that he was in possession of two reports; one headed by former Justice S. A. Imam, who was tasked with probing some allegations UK Channel-4 levelled against Sri Lanka’s military intelligence in respect of the Easter Sunday carnage and the other, chaired by former judge A. N. J. de Alwis, whose purview was to inquire into intelligence coordination and investigative processes related to the Easter Sunday bombings. Gammanpila challenged the government to release these reports and Minister Herath threw a counter-challenge and issued a veiled threat of legal action.

When Gammanpila released the Alwis committee report, as he said he would, on 21 October, Minister Herath’s response was that they rejected the report, which is puzzling. What one would have expected a government that came to power on the promises of transparency and elimination of corruption to publish the report in keeping with their demand whilst being in the Opposition. Interestingly, initially it was the spokesman of the Catholic church, Father C G Fernando, who gave the reason: that Justice Alwis had conflict of interest as her brother had been disciplined by the two police officers concerned and, subsequently Minister Herath carried out a personal attack on her. Why weren’t those objections raised, if valid, when she was appointed? And, why did her critics wait until they found the committee report was critical of their two favourite ex-cops! Is this good governance that was promised?

Gammanpila released the Imam report 28 October, and one wonders what Father Fernando, who lamented about the loss of that report at a book launch on 01 October, has got to say? Meanwhile, JVP supporters have mounted a massive social media campaign ridiculing Gammanpila. Perhaps, it is the shape of things to come!

Interestingly, at a ceremony held at one of the affected sites, St. Sebastian’s church in Katuwapitiya, conducted by Cardinal Ranjith, President AKD was questioned emotionally by a bereaved mother/wife what action the government was planning to take. His response was that as he was not a judicial officer, he would leave it to the judiciary to take action. As there is an element of doubt, for the sake of the promised transparency and eradication of corruption, he should get the Attorney General to file action against these two officers, as recommended in the Alwis report. If they are cleared by the judiciary, then they can resume their jobs. This would help prevent embarrassment for the government. It looks as if the new government is unaware of the dictum Justice must not only be done, but must also be seen to be done”.

Then came the sudden issue of the US travel advisory. The government’s response that it had been aware of the threat and had already taken action, seemed an excuse. Had the government liaised with the foreign diplomats, a less damaging advisory could have been issued as the way they had been issued is likely to damage the tourist sector which is reviving. Of course, it is quite possible that this was done purposely, as it was issued the day after the government announced that it had signed the resolution, spearheaded by Chile, supporting the UN Secretary General who had been declared a persona non grata by Israel. If so, the government is heading for a very turbulent period engineered by foreign viceroys!

The credibility of the government is falling fast as they seem to be doing just the opposite of what its leaders preached while they were in the opposition.

by Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

The Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) yesterday (03) dismissed Sarvajana Balaya claim that it had reached a post-general election understanding with the NPP government on the setting up of a federal structure in the Northern and Eastern Provinces and the inclusion of ITAK frontliner M. A. Sumanthiran, PC, in President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s cabinet as the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

A senior party spokesperson said so when The Island sought the ITAK response to Sarvajana Balaya Colombo District candidate Udaya Gammanpila’s recent accusations regarding a clandestine agreement between the two parties. We wouldn’t have responded to Gammanpila’s baseless claim on our own,” the official said, alleging that this was nothing but the former Minister’s figment of imagination.

Sumanthiran is contesting Jaffna on the ITAK list under the ‘House’ symbol.

Attorney-at-law Gammanpila also alleged that the government had reinstated SSP Shani Abeysekera and brought in retired Senior DIG Ravi Seneviratne as Secretary to the Public Security Ministry to kick-start investigations in terms of the Geneva accountability resolution adopted in 2015.

Another ITAK source pointed out that they had not accepted ministerial portfolios during the Yahapalanaya administration (2015-2019) though it backed the government. Obviously, a blatant lie was being propagated ahead of the General Election scheduled to be held in less than two weeks,”

he said. In fact, at every national election since the end of the war in May 2009, various interested parties alleged secret agreements between the ITAK and the party in power, the ITAK source said.ITAK is contesting on its own in Jaffna, Vanni, Batticaloa and Digamadulla districts whereas ITAK and Democratic Tamil National Alliance (DTNA) fielded a joint team in Trincomalee. The DTNA consists of former ITAK-led TNA members EPRLF, TELO and PLOTE. DTNA is in the fray under the Conch’ symbol.

ITAK sources said such unsubstantiated allegations wouldn’t have a negative impact on their election

Parliament consists of 196 elected and 29 appointed members. ITAK sources said they were confident of securing the majority of seats from the five northern and eastern electoral districts. Of the 29 elected from Jaffna (07), Vanni (06), Batticaloa (5), Digamadulla (07) and Trincomalee (04), we would definitely have the majority, they said.

In the last Parliament, five Tamil political parties shared 16 seats, including National List slots with the ITAK-led TNA having 10 seats.

Gammanpila accused the NPP of having reached a secret understanding with the ITAK in the wake of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake meeting S. Sritharan of the ITAK and EPDP’s Douglas Devananda.

President Dissanayake is on record as having said that after the NPP’s triumph in the presidential election Tamil political parties were under pressure from voters to work with the government.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Colombo, November 04 (Daily Mirror)-  NPP member Tilvin Silva refuted making any allegations of hidden money in Uganda, while saying that such claims were made by the SJBers.

He told a news conference that it was the NPP which said the so-called containers of US Dollars were printed here and taken to Uganda.

“We did not say any Uganda story. It was the SJBers who said that. We said those days that there could be hidden money in Uganda and other countries. We said the alleged containers full of dollars were printed here and taken to Uganda. Their policy is that they themselves utter lies and say those lies were uttered by us,” he said.

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