Prof. N.A.de S. Amaratunga 

Absence of fuel and gas queues are often cited as signs of economic recovery by politicians on the election platforms. On the contrary there is nothing to boast about because our poor people are worse off than they were. How fuel could be imported ending the queues was due to the fact that the foreign loan payments had been stopped and friendly countries had chipped in with some dollars and the country was able to find foreign exchange to import fuel and gas. This cannot be boastfully claimed as a stroke of a genius, for that was the obvious thing anybody would have done. After the Covid pandemic was brought under control export earnings, foregn remittance and tourism returned to normal and this resulted in the improvement of foreign reserves. This is the normal course of events after a pandemic and it would have happened under any sensible government. As all of that happened after the country had come out of an acutly perilous dire straits caused by the blunders of the previous SLPP president the change appeares wonderous and the work of a genius! Know the track record of these geniuses!

Contrary to all claims, however, the middle class and the poor are facing unprecedented difficulties in trying to barely exist. They have cut down their meals from three to two and from two to one and are getting deeply into debt. This is reflected in the poverty level which has increased from 14% to 26%. Should this happen if the economy is recovering? Economic recovery at the expense of the poor is meaningless. Nutrition, health and education of the nation have been irreperably damaged. Disastrous repercussions of this catastrophy will be experienced in the future. The rich getting richer in a wierd economic recovery will not help to rectify this irreparable damage.  We may have in our hands a poorly nourished, unhealthy and uneducated population incapable of undertaking any development work and the country may be preyed upon by foreign powers.

Let me reproduce an extract from a World Bank report on Sri Lanka issued in April 2024 ; …poverty rates continued to rise for the fourth year in a row, with an estimated 25.9% of Sri Lankans living below the poverty line in 2023. Labor force participation has also seen a decline, particularly among women and in urban areas, exacerbated by the closure of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). Households are grappling with multiple pressures from high prices, income losses, and under employment. This has led to households taking on debt to meet food requirements and maintain spending on health and education”.

Let us look at the other major economic problems Sri Lanka is facing apart from the gigantic problem of increasing poverty mentioned above. Sri Lanka has an external debt of USD 55 billion in the first quarter of 2024 which has risen from 54 billion in the last quarter of 2023. We have time till 2028 to start servicing these foreign loans. According to the debt schedule of the Central Bank debt servicing would amount to about 4% of the GDP annually starting from 2028. We earned USD 15 billion in exports but spent USD 16 billion for exports in 2023. We spend more foreign exchange than we earn and this situation may not change by 2028. Our export earnings have been around 20 % of the GDP since 1977 and it has not improved despite all effort. We have borrowed to pay loans and this may be expected to continue after 2028 also. Will we have money for poverty alleviation? Most unlikely.

Most of the presidential candidates do not seem to have addressed this aspect of the problem. Their plan seems to be to attract foreign investers and increase production of export goods. This had been Sri Lanka’s strategy since 1977 but with little success. Most importantly the purchasing power of the middle class and lower strata has been declining over the years. When household incomes and expenditures are calculated on the basis of purchasing power parity it is seen that the poor has been getting poorer while the rich has got richer. This picture is the eternal and persistant feature of the present global economic model which is based on neo-liberalism. It is incapable of delivering any other result. Neo-liberalism is the worst form of capitalism. On the other hand Keynesian policies which inserted a human face into capitalism had been kinder to the poor during the period 1950 – 1970 in the western countries. In 1970s Margeret Thatcher under the guidance of Friedrich Hayek introduced neo-liberalism saying There is no alternative”.

There is no alternative if what is wanted is the continuation of the  present system geared to ensure the flow of wealth from the poor to the rich. There is no alternative if what is wanted is development of the already developed at the expense of the poor and the environment.

Sri Lanka may be able to come out of the debt-poverty trap if it follows a import substitution policy instead of an export led economy. Consider  that we spend more than 50 % of foreign exchange to import essential food items that can be locally produced. But we do not attempt to attain self-sufficiency perhaps because it is cheaper to import. This mentality of looking at everything from the money and profit angle must give way to a philosophy of self-sufficiency in all what we need to lead a healthy life. If 50 % of foreign exchange is saved we will have enough for poverty alleviation.

Prof. N.A.de S. Amaratunga 

By Sanjeewa Jayaweera Courtesy The Island

With less than three weeks left to choose a President who will lead our country for the next five years, the urgency of our decision is palpable. Many of us, including myself, are still weighing our options. We often chose the ‘lesser of two evils’ in past elections. However, this time, the issue of corruption seems to be taking precedence over economic stability for a significant number of voters.

Many I have spoken to, particularly among the working class, have stated, I am planning to vote for the NPP as the others have done nothing but steal when in power, and we feel that only the NPP will tackle the issue of corruption among those in power.”

It’s evident that Ranil Wickramasinghe (RW), the current President, is struggling to convince the public of his commitment to fighting corruption. This is particularly disheartening given the widespread public outcry, including from the corporate sector, expressed in the ‘Aragalaya.’ The economic crisis was a catalyst for this public demand for action. People were fed up with rampant corruption and how politicians have run the country since independence. This collective frustration is not just palpable, it’s a clear sign of the public’s dissatisfaction and the urgent need for change.

The depths to which corruption among politicians had taken root was demonstrated when the former auditor general Gamini Wijesinghe, leading up to the 2019 presidential election, publicly stated that the country would benefit even if the concerned minister were paid a 10% commission on projects promoted rather than allowing the project to go ahead, as the financial burden for the people would be significantly less if the project were not undertaken. Undoubtedly, his comments were based on what he had witnessed over several decades of public service.

Regrettably, this sentiment is shared by a majority of voters, and RW and his cabinet of ministers have not taken any substantial steps against corruption in the past two years. Despite the country’s dire economic situation, this prevailing belief only reinforces the notion that corruption continues to thrive and is a significant factor in our economic woes. This lack of action against corruption is not just a source of disappointment, it’s a cause for disillusionment for many.

The ongoing case against the former Minister of Health and several others involved in importing substandard medicines is a case in point. The concerned minister was allowed to retain the portfolio despite a motion of no confidence against him brought by the opposition in parliament and various other accusations being leveled against him. When the heat was too intense, he was relieved of his portfolio and made the minister of the environment! The fact that he was not banished from the cabinet only fortified the feeling that RW was not serious about tackling corruption.

The controversy surrounding the decision to outsource the visa-granting process to a foreign service provider at a significantly higher cost has deepened the public’s skepticism about corruption within the government. The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the cabinet’s ruling until the case is resolved only adds weight to the argument that the process was flawed. The recent cabinet decision to allow citizens of 38 countries to be granted a visa on arrival seems to confirm the government’s mistake in outsourcing the visa-granting process at a higher cost to the tourist.

RW has consistently failed to dispel the widely held belief that he was involved in the Central Bank Fraud.” In addition, the wholehearted support for him by several cabinet ministers perceived by the public as corrupt has further contributed to the public’s disillusionment with RW.

RW has publicly said that he is prepared to prosecute anyone against whom there is hard evidence of corruption. I presume he means that he will ensure that the Attorney General’s department prosecutes the case. It is a bit difficult to agree with him, given that during the last two years under his administration, no progress has been made in the case against a former CEO of Sri Lankan Airlines, who stands accused of having received payments of US $2 million to his wife’s bank account in Singapore.

RW based his campaign on the fact that he took up the Prime Minister’s post and then the President’s post when the country was in dire straits, and no one else was prepared to do so. He states in parrot fashion that Sajith Premadasa ran away from the responsibility and did not have the guts to take on the job. Whether he deserves any credit for that, given that it was a position that he drooled over for many decades but understood that he could not attain through a popular vote, is worthy of analysis outside this article.

His other claim is that he stabilized the economy and ensured it did not go the same way as Lebanon, which is undoubtedly correct. I was someone who supported an IMF programme to overcome the economic crisis. That was the only pragmatic solution then, and RW had no hesitation in accepting such a solution that involved enforcing some harsh measures, which is a credit to him.

In an insightful article titled The Hard Truth; Supporting Ranil Now Could Trigger the Next Crisis”, the author Ravi Ratnasabapathy states, It required substantial behind-the-scenes work, most of it quite invisible to the public, and this is not appreciated. It is notable for what was avoided, most critically a domestic banking crisis, for much as what transpired. A domestic banking crisis is frequently associated with a crisis of this nature, and its avoidance was a mean feat.”

In his article, the author argues for the continuity of RW’s economic policy. However, given his unpopularity with the voters, he proposes that RW withdraw from the election, following in Biden’s footsteps, and his votes be cast for Sajith. This strategy would prevent Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) from winning the election.

There is a valid concern that AKD and his party’s economic policies will trigger another financial crisis that might be worse than the one we endured in the first half of 2022. We must be mindful that the experiment of electing Gotabhaya Rajapaksa as President in 2019 was a disaster. His inexperience in governance and economics was a significant cause of the economic crisis. We must be mindful that a president with hardly any experience holding high office and an inexperienced cabinet (assuming NPP will win the general elections) will be a gamble.

The NPP and ADK have responded by saying that those who claim to have previous experience holding high office are responsible for the economic downfall, which is also valid.

As I write this article, the news that the cabinet has approved for public servants’ salaries to be increased by about 25% effective 01st January 2025 is yet another confirmation that nothing much has changed about how our politicians perceive the public and try to deceive them by making unrealistic promises. That this announcement was made a couple of days before the postal voting by public servants is deplorable. Come the 21st of September, it will undoubtedly be Hobson’s choice for most of the electorate.

මහජන එක්සත් පෙරමුණ

මහජන එක්සත් පෙරමුණේ කොට්ටාව කලාප සමුළුව එම පක්ෂයේ නායක, ගරු අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන මහතාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන්, මැති ඇමතිවරුන් ඇතුළු ආරාධිතයින් විශාල පිරිසකගේ සහභාගිත්වයෙන් කොට්ටාවේදී පැවැත්විණි.
එහිදී සමුළුව අමතමින් අදහස් දැක්වූ අමාත්‍ය ආචාර්ය බන්දුල ගුණවර්ධන මහතා,
“ඉතිහාසය පුරා අප ජනාධිපතිවරුන් පත් කර තිබෙන්නේ, ඊට සහාය දක්වා තිබෙන්නේ  යම්කිසි පක්ෂයක හෝ දේශපාලන බලවේගයක න්‍යාය පත්‍රයක් ක්‍රියාත්මක කරවීම සඳහායි. ඒ අනුව විවිධ පක්ෂවල න්‍යාය පත්‍ර හෝ වැඩපිළිවෙළ ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම සඳහා ජන වරමක් ඉල්ලා සිටීම සිදුකර තිබෙනවා. නමුත් මෙවර රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා ජනාධිපතිවරණයට ඉදිරිපත් වන්නේ පක්ෂයක න්‍යාය පත්‍රයක් හෝ වැඩපිළිවෙලක් ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම සඳහා නොවෙයි. ජාතික වැඩපිළිවෙළක් ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම සඳහා දේශපාලන පක්ෂයක් නොවන ස්වාධීන අපේක්ෂකයෙකු ලෙස එතුමා මෙවර ජනාධිපතිවරණයට ඉදිරිපත් වනවා. ඒ නිසා දීර්ඝ කාලයක් මෙරට පාලනය කළ එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය අලියා ලකුණින් මෙවර ජනාධිපතිවරණය සඳහා ඉදිරිපත් වන්නේ නැහැ. දීර්ඝ දේශපාලන ඉතිහාසයක් සහිත මහජන එක්සත් පෙරමුණ මෙවර ජනාධිපතිවරණය සඳහා අපේක්ෂකයෙකු ඉදිරිපත් කරන්නේ නැහැ. ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය ජනාධිපතිවරණය සඳහා ඉදිරිපත් වන්නේ නැහැ. මේ සියලු පක්ෂ සහාය ලබා දෙන්නේ ස්වාධීන අපේක්ෂක රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතාටයි.රටේ සුවිශාල දේශපාලන පරිවර්තනයක් සිදු කළ ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදු ජන එක්සත් පෙරමුණේ මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් අනූ හතර දෙනකු සහාය දෙන්නේ ස්වාධීන අපේක්ෂක රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතාටයි. කඳුකරයේ තොණ්ඩමන් මහතා ඇතුළු ද්‍රවිඩ නායකයින්, නැගෙනහිර පළාතේ හිටපු මහ ඇමති, රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය ශිවනේෂතුරෙයි චන්ද්‍රකාන්තන් මහතා ඇතුළු ද්‍රවිඩ නායකයින්, අතාඋල්ලා මහතා ප්‍රමුඛ මුස්ලිම් නායකයින්, සියලු දෙනාම සහාය දක්වන්නේ ද ස්වාධීන අපේක්ෂක රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතාටයි. කිසිදු දේශපාලන පක්ෂයක හෝ බලවේගයක න්‍යායපත්‍රයක් ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම වෙනුවට සියලු දෙනාගේම අපේක්ෂකයා ලෙස ජාතික න්‍යාය පත්‍රයක් ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම සඳහා මෙවර ජනාධිපතිවරණයට ඉදිරිපත් වන එකම අපේක්ෂකයා වන්නේ රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා පමණයි.
 රට මුහුණ දුන් අරගල තත්ත්වය, ප්‍රචණ්ඩත්වය  සහ දේශපාලන අභියෝග හමුවේ රට භාරගෙන, ලංකාවේ ව්‍යවස්ථාදායකයත් ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදයත් ආරක්ෂා කිරීමට කශේරුකාවක් තිබුණු එකම නායකයා රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා පමණයි. එදා එතුමන් එලෙස රටේ ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය ආරක්ෂා නොකළා නම් අද ශ්‍රී ලංකාවද බංග්ලාදේශයක තත්ත්වයට පත්වන්නට තිබුණා. එදා ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය ආරක්ෂා නොකළා නම් මෙලෙස ජනාධිපතිවරණයක් පැවැත්වීමට වාතාවරණයක් ඇති වන්නේ නැහැ. මැති ඇමතිවරුන් වශයෙන් අපට පාරට බැසීමට හෝ හැකියාවක් තිබුණේ නැහැ. එලෙස පාරට බැසීමට හෝ හැකියාවක් නොපැවති පොහොට්ටුවේ හැටනව ලක්ෂයක් ජනතාවට නිදහසේ මගට බසින්නට අවස්ථාවේ සලසා දුන්නේ රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතාගේ පාලනය බව අප මතක තබා ගත යුතුයි.
 එම නිසා රටේ ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී පාලන ක්‍රමය රැක ගැනීමත්, හැට නව ලක්ෂයක ජන වරමක් ලබා දුන් ජනතාවට බියෙන් හා සැකයෙන් තොරව මාර්ගයේ ගමන් කිරීමට හැකියාව ලබාදීමට කෘතවේදීත්වය ලබාදීමක්‌ වශයෙන් රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතාගේ ජයග්‍රහණය වෙනුවෙන් අප කැපවෙනවා.
2048 වන විට දුප්පත් කමින් තොර, ඒක පුද්ගල ආදායම ඇමරිකානු ඩොලර් විසිදහසකට වඩා වැඩි, සංවර්ධිත පොහොසත් රටක් ඇති කිරීම සඳහා වන නිශ්චිත වැඩපිළිවෙලක් සකස්කර ඒ වැඩපිළිවෙළ නීතියක් බවට පත් කර සම්මත කර  මෙවර ජනාධිපතිවරණයට ඉදිරිපත් වන එකම අපේක්ෂකයා රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා පමණයි. ඒ ඉලක්කය වෙනුවෙන් ආයුධ පහකින් සමන්විත පංචායුධයක් තිබෙනවා.
 ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකු පනත මගින් මුදල් මුද්‍රණය කිරීම තහනම් කර තිබෙනවා. හිතුමතේ ණය ගැනීම වැළැක්වීම සඳහා ණය පාලන පනත සම්මත කර තිබෙනවා. විකාර රූපී යෝජනා අයවැය වාර්තාවට ඇතුළත් කිරීම වැළැක්වීමට මූල්‍ය කළමනාකරණ පනත සම්මත කර තිබෙනවා. ප්‍රතිපත්ති වෙනස් නොකර ඉදිරියට යෑම සඳහා ආර්ථික පරිවර්තන පනත සම්මත කර තිබෙනවා.සොරකම වංචාව දූෂණය වැළැක්වීම සඳහා දූෂණ විරෝධී පනතක් සම්මත කර තිබෙනවා.
මෙවැනි වැඩපිළිවෙලක් ජාතියට ඉදිරිපත් කර ජාතික න්‍යායපත්‍රයක් ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම සඳහා අප සියලු දෙනා එක්ව කටයුතු කරනු ලබනවා. රටේ ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය ආරක්ෂා කරමින් පොහොට්ටුවට සහාය ලබා දුන් අප සියලු දෙනා රැක ගැනීම, වැටී තිබුණු රට යළි යථා තත්ත්වයට ගෙන ඒම, රටේ අනාගත සංවර්ධනය උදෙසා ජාතික වැඩපිළිවෙලක් ඉදිරිපත් කිරීම යන කරුණු තුන මත දේශපාලන පක්ෂ පාට භේදයකින් තොරව රටට ආදරය සියලු දෙනා එළඹෙන 21 වැනිදා රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතාගේ ජයග්‍රහණය වෙනුවෙන් අත්වැල් බැඳගනු ඇති බව මා විශ්වාස කරනවා.”
 පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී යදාමිනී ගුණවර්ධන මහතා, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී මධුර විතාන මහතා, මහජන එක්සත් පෙරමුණේ නිලධාරීන්, මහජන නියෝජිතයින් ඇතුළු ක්‍රියාකාරීන් විශාල පිරිසක් මෙම සමුළුව සඳහා එක්ව සිටියහ.

නීතීඥ අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන

2015 ගෙනා 19වන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනයේ අතපසුවීමක් ගැන ජනාධිපති සමාව ගත්තේ ඇයි? 1972ට කලින් ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයට නීතිය වැරදුනාට, 1972ට පස්සෙ ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයට නීතිය වරදින්නෙ නැද්ද?
නීතීඥ අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන සිය 11වන නීති කෘතිය එළිදවන අවස්ථාවේදී පැහැදිලි කරයි.

1972ට කලින් ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ නඩු තීන්දුවල නීතිමය දෝෂ නිවැරදි කරන්න රාජාධිකරණය තිබ්බට 1972ට පස්සෙ ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයට ඉහළින් අධිකරණයක් නැත්තෙ 1972ට පස්සෙ ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයට නීතිමය දෝෂ සිදුවන්නෙ නැති නිසාද? ඒක හරිද? වැරදිද?

එංගලන්තයේ රජු සහ රැජිණිගේ නීති වර්තමාන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව යටතේත් දිගටම ක්‍රියාත්මක කරගෙන යමින් නමුත් ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ තීන්දුවලට එරෙහිව එංගලන්තයේ රාජාධිකරණයේ අභියාචනා බලය ඉවත් කර ජනතාවගේ අභියාචනා අයිතියක් ඉවත් කිරීම ශ්‍රී ලංකා ජනතාවගේ පරමාධිපත්‍යය ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමක්ද?
මේවාට නෛතික විසඳුම් හෝ යෝජනා  නැද්ද?

වසර 2කට පෙර ඉදල ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය මුල් අවස්ථා අධිකරණය බලය ක්‍රියාත්මක කරමින් ලබා දෙන බන්ධනාගාරගත කිරීම්, දඩුවම්, දඩ, නඩු ගාස්තු නියෝග අභියාචනා කරන්න “විශේෂ අභියාචනා ව්‍යවස්ථා සභාව” පිහිටුවන්න කියල නීතිපතිට, අධිකරණ අමාත්‍යාංශය ලේකම්ට, ජනාධිපතිට මම යෝජනා කරල තියෙනව. එහි විභාගවන අභියාචනා අධිකරණ ඇමතිවරයා නියම කරන භාෂාවෙන් නොව ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 24වන ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ දැක්වෙන අධිකරණ භාෂාවෙන් විභාග කළ යුතු අතර නඩු විභාග සජීවීව ප්‍රචාරය කරමින් ජනතාවගේ පරමාධිපත්‍යය, ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ නඩු විභාග කිරීමේ අයිතිය අරක්ෂා කරන්න ඕනෑ.

සරණාගතයන් ලෙස විදෙස්ගතවී ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ අභිමානය සහ කීර්තිය අහිමි කිරීම, ජිනීවා මානව හිමිකම් චෝදනා මෙවැනි ව්‍යවස්ථා සභාව මගින් වළක්වා ගත හැකිද?

ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් වන කෙටුම්පතක් මා විසින් සකස්කරගෙන යන අතර එය අවසන් වූ විට අධිකරණ අමාත්‍යාංශයට, නීතිපතිට සහ ජනාධිපතිවරයාට එය නීතියක් කිරීමට ඉදිරි කටයුතු ස‍ඳහා ලබා දීමට අදහස් කරනවා.

2015 දී ගෙනා 19වන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනයේ අතපසුවීමක් වෙලා තියෙනවා ඒකට ජනතාවගෙන් සමාව ඉල්ලනවා කියා 2024 ජූලි 19 දින, ගාල්ල බෙලිගහ ප්‍රදේශයේ ඉදිකළ අධිකරණ සංකීර්ණය විවෘත කිරීමේ උත්සවයේදී අධිකරණ ඇමති විජයදාස රාජපක්ෂ මහතා, නීතිපති පාරින්ද රණසිංහ මහතා, අගවිනිසුරු ජයන්ත ජයසූරිය මහතා සහ විනිසුරුවරුන්, නීතීඥවරුන් සහ ඉහළ රජයේ නිලධාරීන් සහ ජනතාව සහභාගී වූ උත්සවයකදී  ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් අදහස් පළකිරීමත් එය නිවැරදි කිරීමට ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 78වන ව්‍යවස්ථාව යටතේ 2024.07.18 දින නිකුත් කළ ගැසට් පත්‍රයේ, 22වන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන පනත් කෙටුම්පත ගැසට් පත්‍රයේ පළ කිරීම ඉතා වැදගත් නෛතික සිදුවීම් වන අතර ඒ පිළිබඳ අවධානය යොමු කිරීම නීති විශාරදයන්, නීතීඥවරුන්ගේ වගකීමක් පමණක් නොව ජනතාවගේද අයිතියකි.

නීතිය සංවර්ධනය වන්නේ අවශ්‍යතාවය අනුව අලුත් නීති ඇති වීමෙන්. නීති හදන්නේ ජනතාව වෙනුවෙන්.

මෙම කෘතිය මාතෘකා 9 ක් යටතේ පරිච්චේද දක්වා තිබෙනවා. නීතිය පිළිබඳ යම් අවබෝධයක් ඇති අයට මෙම කෘතිය කියවා එහි ඇතුළත් සංකීර්ණ නීති කරුණු තේරුම් ගත හැකියි.

සිය 11වන නීති කෘතියවනආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 70 ව්‍යවස්ථාව සංශෝධනයට 2002 ජනමතවිචාරණයක් අවශ්‍ය වීම, 2015 ජනමතවිචාරණයක් අවශ්‍ය නොවීම, සර්ව සාධාරණත්වයේ අයිතිවාසිකම සහ අධිකරණ තිරණ අනුගම්‍ය පූර්වාදර්ශය” 
(ISBN 978-955-38965-6-8)
2024 සැප්තැම්බර් 07 වන සෙනසුරාදා එළිදැක්වීමේ අවස්ථාවේදී
නීතීඥ අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන විසින්
දැක්වූ අදහස්වලින්…..

මෙම කෘතියේ මුල් පිළිගැන්වීම විශ්ව විද්‍යාල කථිකාචාර්ය නෙම්සිරි ජයතිලක මහතා වෙත සිදු කළ අතර පැමිණ සිටි අය විසින් නීතිය පිළිබඳ ප්‍රශ්න විචාරීමක්ද සිදු කරන ලදී.

සංවාදයට විවෘතය…

http://neethiyalk.blogspot.com/2024/09/2015-1972-1972-11.html?m=1

මාධ්‍ය අංශය, වෛද්‍ය තිලක පද්මා සුබසිංහ අනුස්මරණ නීති අධ්‍යාපන වැඩසටහන.
දුරකථන 0712063394
(2024.09.08)

Manusha Media

ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ ගාල්ලේ කැන්වසින් කරන්න කැස්බෑවෙන් බස් විසි පහක්

බස් එකට හැටදාහයි – සංවිධානය කරනවාට විසිදාහයි

මාධ්‍යවේදීන් මරපු අයගෙන් මේරියන්ස් සංගීත කණ්ඩායමටත් තර්ජන

ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ ගැන පොතක් ලියපු මාධ්‍යවේදියාටත් තර්ජන

තර්ජන කරලා නැවත වරක් 88 – 89 වගේ තත්වයක් ඇති කර්න හදන්නේ

ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ රැස්වීමකට බව කියමින් කැස්බෑව ඩිපෝවෙන් පස් විසිපහක් වෙන් කරගෙන ගාල්ලේ ගෙයින් ගෙට ප්‍රචාරක කටයුතු කිරීම සදහා පිරිස් ගෙන්වාගෙන ඇති බවත්, ඔවුන්ට ගාල්ලේ ජනතාව නොමැති නිසා මේ ආකාරයට බස්වලින් පිරිස් ගෙන්වා ඇති බවත් මනුෂ නානායක්කාර මහතා පැවසීය.

මේ ගැන මාධ්‍යයෙන් වැඩිදුර සොයා බැලීම් කළ යුතු බවද ඔහු  අද උදෑසන මාධ්‍ය වෙත අදහස් දක්වමින් පැවසීය.

ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ සංගීත කණ්ඩායම්වලට, මාධ්‍යවේදීන්ට තර්ජනය කරමින් නැවත වරක් 88 – 89 දී පැවති තත්වයක් ඇති කිරීමට උත්සාහ ගන්නා බවද ඔහු කීය.

වැඩිදුරටත් අදහස් දැක්වූ මනුෂ නානායක්කාර මහතා මෙසේද පැවසුවේය.

ඊයේ ගාල්ලේ අය කැන්වසින් කළා. දාහතරදාහක් වන ඡන්ද මධ්‍යස්ථානවල ජනාධිපතිතුමා වෙනුවෙන් කැන්වසින් කළා. අද උදේ මට ප්‍රවෘත්තියක් ලැබුණා. ඒකේ ඇත්ත නැත්ත මාධ්‍යයෙන් හොයලා බලන්න. කැස්බෑව ඩිපෝවෙන් බස් විසිපහක් ගාල්ලට එන්න වෙන් කරගෙන තියෙනවා. ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ රැස්වීමක් කියලා තමයි මේ බස් වෙන් කරගෙන තියෙන්නේ. බැලුවම ගාල්ලේ ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ රැස්වීමක් නෑ. එක බස් එකකට හැට දාහක් වෙන් කරලා තියෙනවා. සංවිධානය කරන කෙනාට තව විසිදාහක් වෙන් කරලා. ගාල්ලේ රැස්වීමක් නෑ. හැබැයි මම කහදූවව්ත හරියෙන් එනකොට පාරේ දෙපැත්තේ කැන්වසින් යනවා. දන්න අදුනන මූනු එකක්වත් තිබුණේ නෑ. එක තැනක දෙකන විතරක් දන්න අය එක්කෙනෙක් හිටියා. රට වටෙන්ම ගාල්ලට ගෙනත් ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ කැන්වසින් එක කරන්න හදනවා. ගාල්ලේ කවුරුවත් ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ කැන්වසින් යන්න මෝඩ නෑ. ඒ නිසා බස් විසිපහකින් සෙනග ගෙනත් කැන්වසින් යනවා. මේක තමයි රටේ හදන්න හදන ව්‍යාජ රැල්ල. කැස්බෑව ඩිපෝවෙන් බස් විසිපහක් වෙන් කරලා තියෙවාද, ඒ බස් ගියේ කොහේටද, ඒ පිළිබද සොයා බලන්න කියලා මාධ්‍යයෙන් ඉල්ලනවා.

සාගරිකා ගෝමස් ප්‍රවෘත්ති කිව්වා කියලා මැරුවා. ප්‍රේමකීර්ති ද අල්විස් මැරුවා. රිචඩ් ද සොයිසා ඝාතනය කළා. ජනප්‍රිය සංගීත කණ්ඩාමක් වෙන මේරියන්ස් සංගීත කණ්ඩායමේ රෝසලා සිංදුවක් වෙනස් කරලා කිව්වා. උපහාසයට සිංදුවක් කිව්වා. සංගීත කණ්ඩායමට තර්ජන ආවා. සංගීත කණ්ඩායමට තර්ජන ආවා. අපේ අතින් වරදක් වුනේ, අපි හිතලා කළේ නෑ කියලා කියන්න සංගීත කණ්ඩායමට සිදුවුනා.

දැන් ළගදී දිවයින පත්තරේ එරික් ගාමිණී එන්.පී.පී. කතාව සහ ජේ.වී.පී. වැඩ කියලා පොතක් ලිව්වා. අද දිවයින පත්තෙරන් ඔහු එලවන තැනට වැඩ හදලා තියෙන්නේ. දුරකතන මාර්ග විසන්ධි කරන්න කටයුතු කරලා කියලා සමාජ මාධ්‍යයේ දැක්කා. ඇත්ත කියන්න මාධ්‍යවේදියෙක්ට අවස්ථාව දෙන්නේ නෑ.

උතුරට ගිහින් අනික් අතට තර්ජනය කරනවා. දකුණේ ජනතාව මෙහෙම එකගතාවයක් ඇති කරගෙන තියෙනවා, උතුර ඒක නොකළොත් දකුණේ අය මොන වගේ තීන්දු ගනීවිද කියලා දන්නේ නෑ කියලා තර්ජනය කරනවා

ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ රැළියකට ගියපු හමුදා නිලධාරියෙක් තර්ජනය කරන වීඩියෝ අපි දැක්කා. මේ තර්ජනි කරලා නැවත වතාවක් 88 -89 වගේ තත්වයක් ඇති කර්න හදන්නේ. නැවත වතාවක් රමට් භිෂණයක් ඇති කරන්න හදන්නේ. මේ පිළිබදව රටේ ජනතාව කල්පනා කර්න ඕන. මැතිවරණ කොමිසම අවධානය ලක් කර්න ඕන. 

Dr Anchita Borthakur, Research Associate, Courtesy

VIF

Introduction

Sri Lanka is gearing up for its first Presidential election after the Island nation was hit by massive economic/political turmoil in 2022. On July 26, the Independent Election Commission of Sri Lanka, after months of speculations, announced that the ninth Presidential election of the country is scheduled to be held on September 21. A record 38 candidates will compete in this month’s election, which will shape the nation’s political and economic future.

The primary contenders in the race are the incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, the leader of the opposition Sajith Premadasa, Anura Kumara Dissanayake of National People’s Power (NPP), and the Rajapaksa clan—Namal Rajapaksa of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP). In addition to these candidates, Nuwan Bopage has been designated as the Presidential candidate for the Alliance for People’s Struggle, which was established by the Aragalaya activists.^[1] Other prominent candidates are Former Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, ex-SJB (Samagi Jana Balawegaya) chairman/parliamentarian Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka and P. Ariyanethran— a common Tamil candidate” [although at the central committee meeting of Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK), held on 1 September, the main party of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) decided to back the opposition leader Sajith Premadasa. ^[2] However, a section of the party still insists on supporting the common Tamil candidate ^[3]]. It is expected that the economic crisis, policy decisions, and anti-incumbency sentiment to a certain extent will influence the upcoming presidential race. ^[4]

The Countdown Starts: Official Launch of Election Campaigns

The opposition leader Sajith Premadasa was the first to kick off his election campaign with an inaugural rally in Kurunegala on August 16, ^[5] pressing on building a resilient economy and empowering every citizen of the country. ^[6] On 17 August, President Ranil Wickremesinghe officially started his 2024 presidential election campaign with a rally in Anuradhapura^[7], the ancient capital of Sri Lanka. The President underscored his achievements over the past two years, emphasizing how he has restored economic stability ^[8] to the bankrupt nation, securing IMF bailout, and pledged to enhance this stability further through expected concessions from the creditor nations. ^[9] However, he often faces criticism for being a mere figurehead for the Rajapaksas, a family blamed for the island’s bankruptcy, nepotism, and corruption. ^[10] On the same day a rally in support of the presidential candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake was also held in Matara where he assured the public that a NPP led government will reform and purify the country’s political landscape. ^[11] SLPP candidate Namal held its maiden rally in the Kada Panaha area of Anuradhapura on 21 August where he tried to maintain a distance from the unpleasant legacy of the previous Rajapaksa regime^[12]; while at the same time intended to capitalize on the traditional support base of the Rajapaksas. ^[13]

Voter Insights: Analyzing the Latest Poll Survey Data

If estimates are to be believed it is unlikely that a single candidate will win a clear majority in the first round of the impending poll. The June report of the Institute of Health Policy’s Sri Lanka Opinion Tracker Survey (SLOTS) revealed that support for SJB leader Sajith Premadasa rose to 43% (+4) as compared to the month of May. ^[14] In contrast, support for NPP/JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake fell to 30% (-6), while support for President Ranil Wickremesinghe increased to 20% (+3), and a generic SLPP candidate, as Namal Rajapaksa’s name had not yet been disclosed by that time, garnered just 7% of votes. ^[15] However, the latest July estimates show Dissanayake and Premadasa leading neck to neck at 37% and 36% respectively with 23 % support for Ranil, a substantial surge, while support for a generic SLPP candidate remained unchanged at 4%.^[16] It was further estimated that support for Dissanayake was notably strong among the youth, with 54% of them backing him. ^[17] It was also significant among Sinhala voters, who supported him at a rate of 41%, and the wealthiest third of voters, where his support was 42%.^[18] In contrast, Sajith Premadasa garnered more support from the poorest third of voters, with 42%, and from minority groups, receiving 51% support from Sri Lankan Tamils and 65% from Muslims. ^[19] It is reported that President Wickremesinghe’s support grew with age, peaking at 38% among individuals aged 60 and older. ^[20] Additionally, he garnered more support from women (26%) compared to men (17%).^[21] However, in recent weeks, the Commissioner General of Elections had to warn voters about various election surveys leading up to the polls and urged them not to feel pressured to alter their opinions based on these surveys. ^[22] In addition, Sri Lanka has experienced the spread of false information related to the upcoming election, particularly on social media, deceitfully attributed to organizations like the United Nations and the European Union, underscoring the urgent need for voter awareness and political literacy. ^[23]

Revealing the Vision: Unveiling the Election Manifestos

On August 26, NPP led by Anura Kumara Dissanayaka released its Election Manifesto titled ‘A Thriving Nation, A Beautiful Life’^[24], focusing on several areas including addressing corruption-related matters, establishing a new National Development Bank and re-negotiating with the International Monetary Fund to alleviate the hardship of the poor.” ^[25] However, supporters of Ranil Wickremesinghe were quick to criticize the document for its lack of clarity regarding the financial requirements to fulfill its promises, suggesting that it resembles wishful thinking more than a practical plan. ^[26]

On 29 August, the incumbent President Wickremesinghe unveiled his election manifesto titled ‘Five years of winning the country with Ranil.’ The manifesto is built around five core principles consisting of; The Theravada Trade Economy (which flourished during Anuradhapura Kingdom), Operation – Beyond 2025, Towards a Prosperous Nation, A Win for the Motherland, and A United Sri Lanka was first presented to religious leaders, led by the Maha Sangha and then to the youth of the country by Wickremesinghe.” ^[27] Wickremesinghe highlighted that his plan focuses on lowering the cost of living, generating employment, offering tax relief, fostering economic growth, and introducing initiatives to guarantee that every citizen has the opportunity to own land and a home. ^[28] SLPP Presidential candidate Namal officially launched his election manifesto titled ‘Namal Dekma’ on 2 September focusing on four main thrust areas – state priorities, innovation, investment and independence. ^[29] On the other hand, opposition SJB leader Premadasa will reportedly release his election manifesto titled ‘Win For All’ on 04 September. It is anticipated that in the manifesto he primarily stressed on five key points – Building a resilient economy, empowering every citizen, enhancing government service, protecting the quality of life, and safeguarding the nation.” ^[30]

Political Loyalties Redefined: The Unprecedented Surge in Party Crossovers

However, the upcoming Presidential election is characterised by an unprecedented trend of party crossovers and changes in political loyalties. ^[31] It is reported that about 130 of SLPP’s 145 elected/appointed MPs have switched sides joining either the current President, SJB or Dilith Jayaweera’s Mawbima Janatha Party (MJP) ahead of the election. ^[32] As the single largest switching of allegiance in Sri Lanka’s political history,” a record nearly 100 SLPP MPs have pledged their support to the incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe. ^[33] Although, the repercussions of these defections will be revealed only after 21 September, yet it has definitely weakened the morale of the SLPP. Poll surveys conducted last year also stated a change in the voting pattern of Sri Lankans where it is estimated that an overwhelming majority of the SLPP voters have shifted their support to NPP or SJB with the maximum people preferred the former over the latter. ^[34] The reason behind this is that a large number of Sri Lankans held the wrong policies of the Rajapaksas responsible for the economic catastrophe in the country in 2022.

As a reminder to the economic crisis and the relative ease brought to the country by Wickremesinghe, the Election Commission has given the symbol ‘cooking Gas Cylinder’ to the current President who is fighting the poll as an independent candidate. In addition, President Wickremesinghe is endorsed by a grand coalition of more than 30 political parties and groups especially the breakaway factions of the Rajapaksa family^[35] in the forthcoming election. Earlier 13 ex-SJB Parliamentarians had backed the current President which has given new momentum to his campaign. ^[36] Scholars are of the opinion that although these defections have clearly impacted the SLPP/SJB and strengthened Wickremesinghe’s camp, they might not lead to substantial electoral advantages. ^[37] This skepticism is heightened by the widespread criticism on social media, where the electorate expresses their frustration with this kind of political manoeuvring. ^[38]

Conclusion

To conclude, Sri Lanka will go to the polls for a pivotal presidential election on 21 this month which is expected to have far-reaching implications for the country’s future. The initial group of European Union election observers, along with a delegation from the Commonwealth Observer Group, had already arrived in the island nation to oversee the upcoming presidential election. ^[39] Additional international representatives are anticipated to arrive in the country in the coming weeks. The forthcoming election will be critical for the country with approximately 17.1 million eligible voters, including a million first-time voters, and 56% of the electorate being women. ^[40] Given that all the presidential candidates are male, it will be intriguing to see if the aspirations and concerns of women, including the youth, the rural population, minorities, and all sections of society are adequately represented.

Amid economic challenges, political reform debates, and social changes, this election is poised to be one of the most consequential in Sri Lanka’s recent history. With a backdrop of multifaceted challenges, the new administration in the country will need to address immediate economic concerns while also establishing the foundation for long-term stability and prosperity. Eminent journalist Dilrukshi Handunnetti eloquently wrote, The next president inherits a thorny crown and will not have things easy. Voters have a key role to play, not only in selecting the next president but demanding accountability from him, demanding policy statements that are not figments of imaginations but are truly actionable .” ^[41] As Sri Lankans prepare to cast their votes, this election represents a crucial moment—an opportunity to shape the future of a nation standing at a crossroads.

References

^[1] https://www.dailymirror.lk/breaking-news/Nuwan-Bopage-named-Presidential-candidate-of-Aragalaya-activists/108-288277
^[2] https://www.deccanherald.com/world/main-tamil-party-to-back-sajith-premadasa-in-sri-lanka-presidential-polls-3172718
^[3] https://www.dailymirror.lk/breaking-news/Differences-brew-in-ITAK-over-decision-to-back-Sajith-Premadasa/108-290896
^[4] https://www.dailymirror.lk/opinion/Economic-crisis-policy-choices-anti-incumbency-shape-Lankas-presidential-race/231-289956
^[5] https://www.sundaytimes.lk/240818/news/candidates-step-up-presidential-campaign-with-rallies-and-blessings-568052.html
^[6] https://www.adaderana.lk/news/101594/sajith-premadasa-launches-election-manifesto
^[7] https://www.dailymirror.lk/caption-story/Ranil-launches-Presidential-campaign-from-Anuradhapura/110-289763
^[8] https://www.dailymirror.lk/opinion/Economic-crisis-policy-choices-anti-incumbency-shape-Lankas-presidential-race/231-289956
^[9] https://www.dailymirror.lk/opinion/Economic-crisis-policy-choices-anti-incumbency-shape-Lankas-presidential-race/231-289956
^[10] https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/2024/Sep/01/choosing-successor-for-sri-lankas-thorny-crown
^[11] https://www.newsfirst.lk/2024/08/18/election-campaigns-continue-candidates-present-pledges-and-policies
^[12] https://thediplomat.com/2024/08/why-is-namal-rajapaksa-contesting-the-sri-lankan-presidential-election-when-hes-likely-to-lose/
^[13] https://www.newsfirst.lk/2024/08/21/namal-s-maiden-rally-in-anuradhapura
^[14] https://www.ihp.lk/press-releases/sajith-premadasa-43-leads-presidential-election-kicks-june-2024-within-margin-error
^[15] https://www.ihp.lk/press-releases/sajith-premadasa-43-leads-presidential-election-kicks-june-2024-within-margin-error
^[16] https://www.ihp.lk/press-releases/ak-dissanayake-and-sajith-premadasa-lead-neck-and-neck-july-voting-intent-support
^[17] https://www.ihp.lk/press-releases/ak-dissanayake-and-sajith-premadasa-lead-neck-and-neck-july-voting-intent-support
^[18] https://www.ihp.lk/press-releases/ak-dissanayake-and-sajith-premadasa-lead-neck-and-neck-july-voting-intent-support
^[19] https://www.ihp.lk/press-releases/ak-dissanayake-and-sajith-premadasa-lead-neck-and-neck-july-voting-intent-support
^[20] https://www.ihp.lk/press-releases/ak-dissanayake-and-sajith-premadasa-lead-neck-and-neck-july-voting-intent-support
^[21] https://www.ihp.lk/press-releases/ak-dissanayake-and-sajith-premadasa-lead-neck-and-neck-july-voting-intent-support
^[22] https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/2024/Sep/01/choosing-successor-for-sri-lankas-thorny-crown
^[23] https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/2024/Sep/01/choosing-successor-for-sri-lankas-thorny-crown
^[24] https://www.adaderana.lk/news/101507/anura-kumara-unveils-election-manifesto
^[25] https://www.newsonair.gov.in/sri-lankas-npp-releases-election-manifesto/
^[26] https://www.newsonair.gov.in/sri-lankas-npp-releases-election-manifesto/
^[27] https://www.ft.lk/front-page/Ranil-unveils-manifesto-for-Five-triumphant-years-for-Sri-Lanka/44-766161
^[28] https://www.ft.lk/front-page/Ranil-unveils-manifesto-for-Five-triumphant-years-for-Sri-Lanka/44-766161
^[29] https://www.adaderana.lk/news/101663/namal-rajapaksas-election-manifesto-launched
^[30] https://www.adaderana.lk/news.php?nid=101594
^[31] https://thediplomat.com/2024/08/unprecedented-crossovers-in-sri-lankas-presidential-race/
^[32] https://thediplomat.com/2024/08/unprecedented-crossovers-in-sri-lankas-presidential-race/
^[33] https://www.dailymirror.lk/breaking-news/92-MPs-pledge-support-to-President-PMD/155-288364
^[34] https://groundviews.org/2023/02/22/survey-reveals-dramatic-shift-in-voting-patterns/
^[35] https://theprint.in/world/wickremesinghe-backed-by-grand-alliance-of-over-30-parties-in-sri-lankas-presidential-poll/2225901/
^[36] https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/rajapaksas-party-decides-against-backing-ranil-in-presidential-election/article68463561.ece
^[37] https://thediplomat.com/2024/08/unprecedented-crossovers-in-sri-lankas-presidential-race/
^[38] https://thediplomat.com/2024/08/unprecedented-crossovers-in-sri-lankas-presidential-race/
^[39] https://www.newsfirst.lk/2024/08/28/eu-election-observers-in-sri-lanka
^[40] https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/2024/Sep/01/choosing-successor-for-sri-lankas-thorny-crown
^[41] https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/2024/Sep/01/choosing-successor-for-sri-lankas-thorny-crown

AJITH SIRIWARDANA  Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Colombo, September 7 (Daily Mirror) The National People’s Power (NPP) is committed to ensure judicial supremacy and the concept of equality before the law under its government, NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said today.

Speaking at the NPP lawyers’ conference, he said judicial supremacy and the concept of equality before the law are at stake in Sri Lanka.

He said the Supreme Court rules that the President violates the Constitution and on the other hand the President fails to respect the Supreme Court verdict.

“So, Sri Lanka is no longer a country with judicial supremacy. Such a country is not accepted by the world,” he said.

Dissanayake said the NPP assures to re-establish the concept of equality before the law and judicial supremacy.

“We will ensure the independence of the judiciary. We do not need to regulate the judiciary for our personal objectives,” he said.

 YOHAN PERERA   Courtesy The Daily Mirror

He will question National Peoples Power (NPP) candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake at all rallies till he responds, President Ranil Wickremesinghe said today.

“I questioned Anura whether he will tender an apology to the people in the North for threatening them. I heard that he has responded to this remark of mine which I made in Jaffna. I have also heard that he has fallen ill. I wish him a speedy recovery,” Wickremesinghe told an election rally in Welimada today. 

“Sunil Handunetti has said an NPP government will set up export processing zones and will promote exports. However, Anura’s manifesto says an NPP government will abolish free trade agreements which Sri Lanka has already entered into. How can you develop exports without free trade agreements? I want Anura to respond to this question. I will raise these questions at all rallies till he responds to me,” he added.

Courtesy Adaderana

President Ranil Wickremesinghe announced his intention to abolish the line room system, expressing his hope to provide plantation workers with free land rights and the opportunity to live in modern villages equipped with advanced facilities. 

He made this statement while speaking at the Puluwan Sri Lanka” rally in Haputale earlier today (08), which was organized to support President Wickremesinghe’s bid for re-election. 

During his address, the President reflected on the hardships faced by the public during the country’s crisis, particularly the fear and uncertainty experienced by those standing in queues for fuel, gas, and medicine. 

He emphasized that he took on the presidency to correct those issues and is now seeking a mandate to continue the reforms initiated over the past two years.

He stated that rival candidates Sajith Premadasa and Anura Kumara Dissanayake propose to change the current program, but doing so would forfeit concessions received by Sri Lanka, potentially leading to a decline in the rupee once again. 

I believe the people of this country are not willing to take that risk. Their promises do not suit the economic needs of the country today,” he said. 

He said they have developed a plan to shift the country’s economy towards an export-driven model, similar to countries like Vietnam and Tailand, which will allow Sri Lanka to build a surplus of foreign reserves. 

We are also focused on raising wages for plantation workers, ending the line room system, and creating plantation villages where residents will receive free land rights, granting them the same privileges as other village dwellers.”

Courtesy Adaderana

IANS) Sri Lanka has earned over two billion US dollars from tourism in the first eight months of 2024, the latest data from the country’s Central Bank shows.

Sri Lanka earned 2.17 billion dollars in the above period, which is a 66.1 per cent increase from the same period in 2023, the Central Bank data shows.

Tourist arrivals also increased by 50.7 per cent in the same period, and 1.36 million tourists arrived in the first eight months of 2024, the central bank data shows, Xinhua news agency reported.

In August 2024, arrivals were 164,609, an around 20 per cent increase compared to August 2023, Central Bank data shows.

Tourism is one of Sri Lanka’s top foreign revenue generators.

Sri Lankan tourism authorities are expecting three million foreign tourists in 2025, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Managing Director Nalin Perera said recently.

Source: IANS

Courtesy Hiru News

Chairman of the Election Commission, R.M.A.L. Ratnayake, announced that only a maximum of five people will be allowed to visit the homes of presidential candidates for distributing election leaflets.

Ratnayake informed the media that all political parties have been notified of this regulation.

Professor Sunil J. Wimalawansa

Sri Lanka is at a critical junction in moving into the right recovery path or going down further to compete with other sunken countries. During economic crises, hunger becomes more prevalent, driven by the inability to afford basic needs like food due to unemployment, lack of savings, and limited resources like home gardening.

According to reports, recently, some families have increasingly turned to desperate income-generating activities such as pawning jewelry and prostitution to cover essential expenses and living. However, these measures offer only temporary relief, are unsustainable, and often deepen the vicious cycle of poverty, despair, and, tragically, suicide.

Blunders by Sri Lankan governments

Recent governments in Sri Lanka have repeatedly blundered in policies and decision-making, often favoring their personal interests while engaging in alleged corruption and malpractice. Misguided priorities, greed, and lavish lifestyles fueled by commission-based loans (technically considered as bribes) for unnecessary projects that failed to generate returns have inevitably led the country to bankruptcy. This was fueled by allocating lucrative contracts without official bids and cronies who advised successive presidents to gain what they wanted rather than benefiting the country.

Additionally, these administrations neglected ongoing crises—continued to take high-interest loans despite escalating debt, bloated the government structures (i.e., increasing its employees from 520,000  to 1.5 million over two decades, expanded for political gain), high unemployment rates, low productivity, and crop output, over-regulation, declining exports, and a series of manufactured financial scandals that drained the national treasury.

Successive recent governments in Sri Lanka made blunders in policies and decisions to favour themselves, compromising national assets and independence, and have engaged in alleged pilferage and many wrong-doings. Besides wrong priorities, greediness, and cushy lives based on (commission-based) borrowed money for unwarranted projects that failed to generate income to pay back loans, it is unsurprising that the country declared bankruptcy. In addition, governments failed to address ongoing crises, including over-blown governments (unnecessarily, excessive employment as political favours), printing money that increased inflation, high unemployment rates, over-regulation, subsequent dwindling exports, and multiple manufactured financial scandals draining the treasury.

Corrupt advisors and government failures

Beyond the government’s failures in economic and social policies, it abolished some key institutional structures, such as independent commissions and councils that were supposed to oversee government activities and contracts. The government continued to engage in poor and biased decision-making and failed to establish a safety net. Besides, it provided no incentives or encouragement for family self-sufficiency, including home gardening, worsening the hunger crisis.

Misguided policies, including the flawed fertilizer ban amid the pandemic, caused a significant drop in crop output and tea exports. Not only politicians (especially those handful of members of the parliament who misled the former president) but also entrenched bureaucrats have contributed to the prevailing food crisis. Through the independent judiciary system, the next president must make these perpetrators accountable for their wrongdoings. Ironically, those who advised the president on these disastrous decisions, including members of parliament, happily remain in government, a situation uniquely emblematic of Sri Lanka’s political landscape.

Governments in Sri Lanka failed to ask themselves if we have adequate plans and means of livelihood for the vulnerable population and have taken steps to protect vulnerable groups in a crisis. What happens to food security, access to medicine, energy, and sovereignty in a crisis, which the Constitution should uphold? Identifying root causes and implementing corrective actions are essential, yet transparency and public accountability are often lacking.

Poverty, hunger, and the lack of safety net

Moreover, it lacked intellect and a moral obligation to create a safety net for vulnerable populations. The question arises: do citizens, especially children, have the right not to be hungry? This is not just a moral claim but a critical question of policy priorities—deciding which institutional resources, like school meal programs, should be implemented to ensure feasible and cost-effective food security.

Does the government have a policy or threshold for public intervention in securing basic needs like affordable food, essential medicines, and healthcare for the public at large? The public must make politicians and bureaucrats accountable for failing to prevent bankruptcy, excessive unemployment, and starvation. What measures have been implemented to counteract malnutrition and famine, particularly affecting children and pregnant mothers? The forthcoming general election is the right place to remove dead wood and corrupt parliamentarians from the arena. Such folks should not have a place in any part of the government or private sector; they are unreformable.

Over-blown government wasting taxpayer funds

Despite the severity of the situation, the government continues to waste tremendous amounts of public funds on unnecessary ventures, including extravagant foreign trips with families and maintaining extensive security for officials and friends using public funds. No one has taken any actions to curtail this wastage.

If funds are scarce, why hasn’t the government reduced its size, curbed waste, or limited imports of non-essential luxury items, including high-end cars? The ongoing gross mismanagement under the unelected caretaker administration failed to implement laws to protect the public and reduce spending. Collectively, these have led to bankruptcy and exacerbated the ongoing crisis.

Notable failures of the president and the cabinet

Since taking over the leadership position after the abandonment by the former president, shockingly, no effective measures have been taken to reduce government expenses and prioritize essential needs like food, medicine, and fuel/energy. Like those students who participated in Model UN training programs, a group of intelligent high school students would have made more prudent decisions than the current government, proactively alleviating multiple problems.

Instead, the current government was pre-occupied with enacting laws to protect itself, increasing its perks, and engaging in free foreign trips rather than taking care of its economy and people. The current leadership’s incompetence underscores a profound failure, demonstrating that an intelligent and responsible approach could dramatically reduce government expenditure and prioritize essential needs to prevent hunger. After reviewing the policies and comments, it is striking that none in the current leadership, including the opposition, seems capable of doing so.

The catastrophic failures of recent governments do not absolve them from their moral responsibility to protect citizens from hunger. They must be made accountable through the court of law. The suffering of the majority in Sri Lanka is a direct consequence of governmental neglect and misguided policies, nepotism, and the stunning lack of meritocracy, highlighting the urgent need to change, starting after the presidential election and subsequent general elections.

Expectations from the New President 

We, the people, genuinely expect a few fundamental changes from the new president. He must dramatically reduce the government’s cost, especially the size and bloated military. He should ensure all government appointments are based on merit, ability, and proven productivity—not on nepotism, simply on seniority or duration of service. A system must be established for each government employee to provide a set of goals to achieve by the end of each year. Change of status— like promotion, salary increase, etc., must be based on this objective evaluation, which must be made at the end of the year through an annual evaluation.

It is critical to re-establish complete judicial independence, independent commissions and councils, and limit the number of ministers to 16. The next president must implement these through executive orders followed by gazetting them within the first four weeks. However, suppose he fails or refuses to implement these fundamental governance changes as the voters demand. In that case, he must be held accountable through the courts or face the abolition of the executive presidency. Moreover, his political party must also be made accountable (and defeated) at the next general election. The new president must also resolve to maintain a non-aligned foreign policy, reject any foreign military bases and occupancy in Sri Lanka, and ensure total independence, governing the country under one flag, one anthem, and one law for all citizens. 

By Sena Thoradeniya

(Continued from August 25, 2024)

Beginning from November I, 2023 we have posted 13 articles about the NPP, and now it is time to recapitulate what we have discussed.

We begin this two part article under the following sub-headings:

(1) NPP as the Largest and the Richest NGO in Sri Lanka: Its Funding Sources

(2) JVP/NPP is not a Marxist/ Socialist Party

(3) Rebranding and Repositioning of the JVP as NPP

(4 Presidential Election: The Impending Catastrophe” 

(1) NPP As the Largest and the Richest NGO in Sri Lanka: Its Funding Sources

Nobody has investigated how the NPP has become the largest and the richest NGO in Sri Lanka. Contributions of its supporters domiciled in the West and Australia and of Ethera Api” fraternity in the Middle East, Japan and South Korea respectively are very modest compared to what it gets from undisclosed local and foreign sources. It cannot be ruled out that the NPP is also benefitted by black money.

One predominant local source of purported funding is the corporates. Chambers and foreign funded so-called Think Tanks” which have close links with corporates know how the NPP trade unions extort money from the business oligarchy. But these paragons of virtue, who think that they are the guiding lights of the industry and economy and the corporatesthemselvesare tight-lippedabout theseunderhand transactions. What can you expect from the good guys in Chambers and Think Tank industry” when they are the people who advise governments to increase taxes on one hand and give advice to businessmen as tax consultants how to hide income and avoid taxes on the other? Can the NPP stop these games they play? Never. As they are the main beneficiaries.

Why for the last so many years there was no strike or any other industrial action (go slows, work to rule, sick note campaigns etc.) in the private sector?  It was teachers, principals, workers in the health sector, non-academic staff of universities and schools, Grama Sevakas, railway workers and employees in the power sector who resorted to industrial action. Were the workers and other employees in the private sector did not experience economic hardships as the employees in the public sector?  They are paid better than the employees in the public sector, are entitled to better benefits and services (welfare) and there is no reason for them to resort to industrial action as a result is not the correct answer to this query.Only theNPP trade union leadership and corporates know the reason behind this fallacious industrial peace”. The fact was that the trade unions attached to the NPP did not organize any strike or industrial action in the private sector for reasons better known to them and the corporates.

Both these parties know how the negotiation process goes on for higher wages at the table; SMS and WhatsApp messages are being exchanged continuously between the NPP Union leader and his handlers while the negotiation process is on; this continues until the handler satisfies with the ransom money paid by thecorporatesto maintain industrial peace” without any disruption in the manufacturing process. Second stage of successful bargaining and wage hikes is collecting the first month’s added emolument from the worker to the NPP kitty which amounts to millions of rupees in one month depending on the strength of the work force in the business establishment.

Another modus operandi is getting inside information from banks from their men planted insideand buying mortgaged land and property at auctions, placed as security by those mortgagers who are unable to redeem their land and property. This is a party which promises to grant loans without collaterals when it comes into power!

In this context the NPP seekinga mandate to govern is only an eyewash. Now it is in a far better position than governing; governing is like tying a millstonearound its neck; it is said that the single life you are familiar with is preferable than unfamiliar marriage; for the NPP disruption, destruction and destabilization are more familiar than unfamiliargovernance. However, election results will increase its bargaining power with business conglomerates and overseas funding respectively.

Industry sources reveal that the NPP men and women in the manufacturing organisations, are over confident of their victory, now do not work to their capacity and as a result production has contracted and productivity diminished. As wages are not linked to productivity indicators as the Union opposes such a measure, workers are not losing monetarily. Is the NPP, which borrowed as an election slogan, the hackneyed phrase that, private sector is theengine of growth” mimicked by successive governments since 1977, trying to govern with such a lot in the manufacturing sector?

NPP leader has publicly stated that the private sector should play the pivotal role in industrial development and his government will only act as a facilitator and will not start doing business. This is also a hackneyed phrase mimickedby successive governments which is far from original thinking. But in this situation the NPP is very careful to allay any fears of their benefactors – the business conglomerates, thinking about their future deals regardless of coming into power or not.

NPP’s position regarding private sector is not different from the latest report of USAID-aided Advocata, released in August, getting the state out of business: the compelling case for privatization of state-owned businesses”.  

During the protests against GR, leader of an NPP farmer organization led a demonstration of some farmers in Polonnaruwa in support of large-scale rice millers, dubbed as the rice mafia in Sri Lanka.

Sunday Times Political Editor statedon 25, September 2011, that JVP sold its VFM radio station for Rs. 100 million.  JVP obtained the frequency free of charge to run its own radio station when it was a constituent partner of the UPFA.

NPP gets vast amounts of funds from overseas benefactors, all unaccounted.

It was reported that some social media portals and pages have been bought by some unnamed candidates to run their election campaigns.

Election Commission has set up a ceiling on campaign expenditure at Rs. 109 per voter and the NPP is also permitted to spend nearly Rs. 1.8 billion. They have already spent millions of rupees for their propaganda meetings held before declaring the election.  Money spent for venues such as Courtyard Marriot, Monarch Imperial, SLFI and NYSC and other 5-star hotels in Kandy and elsewhere does not come under this. Can the NPP give an assurance that it will abide by the ceiling set up by the Election Commission and disclose its sources of funding?

2. JVP/NPP is not a Marxist/ Socialist Party

Ideology of NPP is neither Marxist, Socialist nor Social-democrat. It is not fighting for workers’ rights, emancipation of peasantry or for an egalitarian society. To what camp it belongs and serves now are not difficult to understand. It is only capitalist press in Sri Lanka and ill-informed correspondents in India colour it as a Marxist/ Socialist party. To understand different types of Socialism they do not bother at least to turn a few pages of the Manifesto of the Communist Party” which describes many types of Reactionary Socialism as Feudal Socialism, Petty-Bourgeois Socialism, Conservative or Bourgeois Socialism and Utopian Socialism.

NPP words and deeds do not conform with Marxist philosophy and political economy and any teaching of a Marxist theoretician from Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin to Mao Zedong.

Since the NPP does not quote any Marxist theory, does not admit that it is working according to such a theory, does not emulate any socialist country or distinguish how it differs from those and does not talk about a socialist economy, we should not worry ourselves whether it is Marxist or Socialist. It saves our time unnecessarily comparing their theory and practice with old and modern revisionists, turning the pages of Marx and Lenin if they claim that they are Marxists or Socialists. Only comparison we can make is with renegades of the Social-Democratic, Socialist and Communist Movements in different historical epochs.

What Marxist outlook we see in their utterances, policies and pledges? Nothing. Have they used Marxist political economy to analyse the current economic problems? Not at all. Have they adopted Marxist principles to Sri Lankan conditions as a guiding light to solve economic, political and cultural problems? No. Several times we have pinpointed that it professes a mixture of neo-liberal and Anarchist ideas.

In 1965 it began as a party of urban and rural petty bourgeoisie consisting of youth, students, unemployed graduates and urban white-collar workers. Rather than the peasantry and rural agricultural workers it worked amongst chena farmers in the Southern Dry Zone for the simple reason that they were owners of unregistered firearms, who defy government authorities as squatters in government owned reservations! Although it enlisted some workers from the industrial sector its emphasis was not on building a workers’ party. It did not have a nucleus of organised workers and from its embryonic stage rejected united front politics.

Thus, from its inception it was not a Marxist party although it paid lip service to socialism; what type of a socialism no one knew. Political education imparted to its recruits was not scientifically designed and with 5 classes it groomed a cadre to take up arms. The armed struggle and the line it followed to capture power did not conform to Bolshevik doctrine, again it was a hotchpotch of Zanzibar type capture in one night and adventurism of Che Guevara. It did not have any idea of what type of a government it will establish after capturing power.

During 1998/98 JVP and its military arm DJV targeted and killed its erstwhile comrades, Left party activists, Left trade union leaders, popular politicians, artists, journalists, professionals, academics, Buddhist monks and security personnel. In 1971 and 1998/98 it resorted to adventurism, pure militarism, killing,destruction of propertyrespectively, oscillating from Right Deviationist to Left Deviationist tendencies.

Now the NPP has become the party of upper segments of the middle class and technicians, technocrats, professionals and overseas Sri Lankans who are in the upper income bracket.

Nothing about imperialism, colonialism, capitalism or patriotism in their jargon. The predominant colour of their flagsand banners at all rallies and propaganda material have turned intopurple.This cannot be an accident.

Anura Kumara orbiting around Julie Chung and other Western diplomats and his trips to Western capitals and to India signify present JVP’s right deviation from ultra” Leftism in 1971 and killing spree in 1988/1989, capitulation to Indian regional hegemonism shedding its anti-Indian rhetoric. 

There are poodles who do not bark much. Rewards and recognition can be used to help the poodle to learn that there are better ways than barking.Julie Chungand India have done it!

As we have stated earlier it is only capitalist press in Sri Lanka still labelNPPers as Rathu Sahodarayas”. Enough for what they understand by Red. Its political philosophy is Anarchism. By any chance if it comes into power, anarchy, a reign of terror, internecine – fighting among its own ranks will become order of the day. They will call it the purple revolution” and all those who oppose it, will be hounded, arrested and summarily executed as counter-revolutionaries. In such circumstances NPP turning into the most oppressive, tyrannical, anti-people political formation and common enemy of all anti-imperialist, anti-colonial, anti-hegemonic, anti-neoliberal, national and patriotic forces cannot be dismissed.

It has become the party savored by Julie Chung and other Western diplomats, Indian hegemonists and their agents. If not how can NPP invite MohanMunasinghe, JRJ’s energy advisor to address the launch of its Energy Policy and Illeperuma, Professor of Chemistry to formulate its Science policy?

NPP mobilizing different segments of the society during the last two years and the pledges made at the Presidential election rallies have turned it to a populist party seeking refuge in welfarism. What the NPP pledges had been experimented in the last seven decades, Sri Lanka lagging even after 75 years of its Independence”.

3. Rebranding and Repositioning of the JVP as NPP

According to old timers of the JVP, old JVP had died a natural death after the Tsunami.According to them, a top leader currently holding high office is a person who surrendered with his T-56 in 1988/89 at Wadduwa.  Another high-ranking leader retreated with some of his fellow sympathizers to a mountainous hideout to escape arrest, began to cry as he could not undergo any hardship. Later he was handed over to his mother with Rs. 500. Some other present top leaders were billas” or goni billas” (cowards, betrayers and informants) who helped the security forces to identify their own cadres and sympathizers, who assisted to intensify suppression, for them to escape arrest, torture and death, either to live as rehabilitated” insurgents or to come back to the political arena when the things turn right. The former ended up in tire pyres.

Some of these billas” migrated to new areas far away from their localities. They established themselves in new localities and entered mainstream politics. Some of them were lucky enough to win parliamentary seats from their adopted districts.

Goni billas” who covered their faces with gunny bags having little eye holes were taken to playgrounds or other public places where the arrested suspects were kept surrounded by security forces. Goni billas” movingtheir heads up and down (confirmation to say ‘yes’) or shaking the head from side to side (denial) decided the fate of the suspects.  Most of the other leaders were arrested, tortured and killed; some decamped; some others formed their own political parties or joined mainstream political parties.

Except a handful of present JVP leadership the entire rank and file consists of those people who joined the JVP when it entered mainstream politics. JVP Oldtimers say that still the JVP maintains a set of underground sleeping cells for its anarchicalactivities. It was evident that this force used its might on May 9, 2022 as a helmet brigade and retreated immediately after engaging in arson and destruction. JVP sought arms and ammunition from Tamil Tigers; JVP/DJV obtained technology to detonate claymore mines in the South.

NPP is a different outfit, a haven for old Samasamajists who later became RW-Sirisena Yahapalana apologists, driftwood from old left parties, careerists, mediocrities, nobodies, unknowns, those who were attracted to NPP for personal gains and office, seekersof glory and ego-driven attention seekers.Ironically Tilvin Silva General Secretary of the JVP is not a member of the NPP National Executive Committee while all other leaders represent both JVP and the NPP. Anura Kumara keeps his position as the leader of both outfits.  Only about half of the 28 JVP Central Committee members, and only a handful of the 73 of the NPP National Executive Committee (most of them areJVP Central Committee members), are NPP public orators. This provides some interesting data to understand the façade of the NPP. Harini Amarasuriya, its Prime Ministerial aspirant is not a member of the JVP Central Committee. 

Some other upstarts are not in the NPP National Executive Committee.  We do not think that there is a membership drive in the NPP, party branches, political work and political and ideological education, party discipline, criticism and self-criticism among the members and any linking with the masses (mass line).  Most of these people and those who identify themselves as NPPers do not have any political line or political education, joined the NPP because of the favourable wave for them to paddle their individual boats. They will be the first people to run away when things go bad to NPPfrom current glory days. This will intensify as there is no party membership and party discipline.

Also, it is difficult to comprehend the power base of the NPP and the organic relationship between the JVP and the NPP. For its rallies it mobilises various segments of the society as a show of strength excluding working class and peasantry; today the NPP works closely with the capitalists, upper middle class, diaspora, cooperating with the Indians and the Western block.

In the capitalist world business conglomerates use rebrandingand repositioning as amarketing strategy; change their company names, logos or symbols, marketingstrategies and advertising themes; change the geographical areas of operation and market segmentation; create new designs for established brandswith the intention of developing a new identity in the minds of consumers and other stakeholders; such changes are needed to reposition the brand and to distance itself from any negative traces of previous branding,changing market’s  perceptions of a product or service whichwere detrimental to its business.

What the JVP has done is rebranding and repositioning of its business” is easy to understand. Rebranding the JVP as NPP removes thenegative connotations, the stigma ithad as the mother of notorious killer group Deshapremi Janatha Vyaparaya(DJV). Rebranding also helps it to reach upmarket consumers”; see the new classes, higher segments of the upper middle class the NPP was able to attract, how it changed its target market”. It is evident that the JVP has contracted a topnotch advertising agency in Sri Lanka or abroad to do this, paying the advertising agency a thumping amount.

For electoral purposes it has changed from bell (Seenuwa) to magnetic compass (Malimawa). The magnetic compass has not increased its electoral gains;but has increased its popular appeal.Noweverything is being done in the name of the NPP and Malimawa.The governmentthey are going to form is an NPP or a Malima government. This marketing strategy has helped them to obliteratetheir murderous past, past politics, ideology, strategy and tactics and appear as a metamorphosized creature, helping it to attract a wider segment of the society.

The party which encouraged university students to strike, protest and disrupt university education system concealing their past now talk of digital platforms and industrial parks. That is rebranding and repositioning in simple terms. The late Sunil Perera of Gypsies fame, becoming an NPPer signified not that Sunil Perera had embraced NPP politics; it signified that NPP had embraced Gypsies. That is rebranding and repositioning in simple terms.

Formation of the NPP is a vulgar representation of the Marxist United Front. Basically, a United Front is a political front of all oppressed classes, strata and social groups formed in different countries in different historical periods. Therefore, a United Front is not a coalition of heads of political parties formed for a short-term objective as for an election. One should study Manifesto of the Communist Party” (1848) of Marx and Engels, Lenin’s What the ‘ Friends of the People’ Are and How They Fight the Social-Democrats” (1994), Two Tactics of Social-Democracy in the Democratic Revolution” (1905), ’Left-Wing Communism’ an Infantile Disorder” , Mao’s On Tactics Against Japanese Imperialism” (1935) to understand what the United Front is and the necessity of organizing a broad National United Front.  It was Stalin who forged an international front between the Soviet Union, Britain, Unites States and other countries which were opposed to the fascist rulers of Germany, Italy and Japan. During this period the Communist party of China preserved Kuomintang-Communist cooperation to drive away the Japanese imperialists out of China. So Anura Kumara and his cabal should study these tried and tested experiences.    

JVP from its inception refused to seek out allies in the name of independence, total purity and opposition to any compromise” as Lenin stated in ’Left-Wing Communism’ an Infantile Disorder”. What the JVP did was and now the NPP does is, aiming not the principal enemies, but lesser enemies and would be allies. Both outfits failed to single out the principal enemy and to draw to their side those who would become their friends.

Unfortunately, these theories and practical experiences do not apply to the NPP as all groups affiliated to it are JVP proxies or JVP front organizations.  Many of the other organizations are NGOs. We have in detail described the relationship between the JVP and the NPP in our article posted on 30, January 2024, entitled The strange tale of NPP (Malimawa) and JVP (Seenuwa): Vulgar representation of Marxist united front politics”. There we have discussed the true features of the NPP and how it does not represent a united front.   We have stated that the JVP- NPP combine has become the largest and highly-funded, cash -rich NGO in Sri Lanka and asked whether the voters of Sri Lanka want to give power to an NGO. 

With the formation of the NPP, JVP got its Janus-face (the double face). NPP is not an independentgrouping or a partner in a JVP-led United Front. It is the dual face of the JVP, a platform to hold a few artists, writers, academics, so-called professionals including Black Coats, ex-leftists, ex-Revisionists and Trotskyites, and now ex-servicemen and police officers.

Metamorphosis of the JVP in its thinking, attitudes, behaviours, dress code and political work is the result of rebrandingand repositioning.

4. Presidential Election:  The Impending Catastrophe”  

We have stated in our article posted on 30, January, 2024 that the NPP is the neo-liberal arm of the JVP funded to be rabble-rousers and ground campaign contractors propped up by the US and India. When the NPP men and women come to the streets American and Indian forces will land here to bring normalcy” and install a puppet regime.

The dress rehearsal was on May 9, 2022, arson took place with the aid of drones and Molotov cocktails; nearly 100 private residences of government politicians were set ablaze; a set of underground sleeping cells was used for its anarchicalactivities.Kuragamage Don Lal Kantha called for storming theparliament in July 2022.

Now the helmet brigade is dormant, gone into hibernation. There is no guarantee that the JVP/NPP would not vacillate to resort to such acts of violence if they win with state power in their hands.

If they win a reign of terror will begin; those who were against JVP/NPP will be hounded, arrested, tortured and summarily executed without any trialbranded as traitors andcounter-revolutionaries. A repetition of 1988/89. The ex–servicemen, Tri Forces Collective” or Thrivida Hamuda Saamoohikaya” and retired police officers would provide them with tactical mastery and combat proficiency what they lacked in 1971 and 1988/89. Why the NPP mobilized ex-military officers and other ranks?  Is it a para-military force to engage the government forces? Or for training NPP’s stormy petrels?

According to a video going viral these days some NPP- attached ex-military officers wearing NPP tee shirts were seen threatening all other party men, retired Generals and Army Commanders with punitive action to end the 76 year- curse. Who are the members of the NPP Election Monitoring Centre? There are 5 retired police officers. 

Kuragamage Don Lal Kantha’s utterances about their readiness for an armed struggle should not be ignored in this context; he gave warning signals at public rallies that they will make the final judgement; ranaviruwas have joined the malimawa for the second war”.

Lal Kantha’s utterances suggest that there is a clandestine military wing in the JVP; the role of the ex-servicemen joining NPP should be questioned under these circumstances; Lal Kantha again asked his people to come to the streets and demonstrate if the government does not conduct presidential elections, knowing very well that the presidential elections cannot be postponed; he was silent when RW evaporated the local government elections.

OftenLal Kantha had said that his party is even ready for an armed struggle if the need arises and he will not shy away from such action. His statements should not be taken lightly as it comes from a person who was active in Polonnaruwa area in 1988/89, although he did not reveal to the journalist how he saved his skin. He bellowed that they will definitely unleash repression once they capture state power (Rajya balaya aawoth api anivaryayenma mardanya karanawa”).

Lal Kantha in a YouTube interview said that they will suppress those whooppose their government; they have marked them who they are; people give them a mandate not only to take decisions, but to implement those; they will use both state power and government power; if you do not use state power there is no point of getting power; when they come into power contradictions will grow thousand times he said;  all the big businesses will be taken over by them.

Furthermore, he said that they will empower each village with judicial authority to summarily hear cases and mete out immediate punishment to the guilty, to settle disputes at village level; he threatened a Kandy Municipal Council employee who carried out his duties according to the rule book that he will be rehabilitated”  when they come into power. Samarasinghe, JVP/NPP Trade Union boss threatened the media personnel that they would not be allowed to flee the country and even if they manage to flee the country in the event of their victory NPP cohorts abroad would look after them and only place safe for them is a lunar cave. Anura Kumara said their electoral committees will be turned into peace committees”.

A social media post goes viral these days that the NPP has threatened with death a mainstream journalist if not he burns every copy of the book authored by him recently.

NPP knows very well that it cannot come into power legally. They are funded not to take power but to create havoc, mayhem and instability in the country. The other side of the coin is that this is the most favourable opportunity NPP got to increase its voter base or perform well electorally as an aftermath of the Galle Face protest. If it fails this time its local and international funders, expatriate Sri Lankans will lose faith in it. NPP leaders know that this is the Gordian knot that remains tied until cut, either to come back or fade into oblivion.

As there are five strong candidates in the present scenario not a single candidate would not poll 50% and 1 vote to be elected as the President.  Result would be decided by counting of second preference or third preference. We don’t know how many days will be taken for the counting of 2^nd and 3^rdpreferential votes as we have never experienced a similar situation in the past.  

If there is no winner in the first round of counting, it will take a very long time to count the second preference and if needed the third preference. Until the end of this process RW will remain as the President. During this interregnum NPP will put their people into the streets, to clamour election malpractices and requesting people not to accept the results creating chaos and turmoil.

As the NPP is so confident of its victory as they have said that they will top sometimes 70-80% mark, andIf the election results are not favourable to NPP itwill refuse to accept the final verdictrefusing to concede defeat and accept the verdict and mobilise its men to come to the streets questioning the validity ofresults as Trump, Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil and Edmundo Gonzales  of Venezuela did in the recent times. Remember in 2010 when SF,the horse theyjockeyed wasdefeated, JVPcried computer jilmart but could not go any further. This time they have money and resources, external backers, ex-servicemen and policemen, have a digital platform” to tabulate their own results, and to run wild after the election as in Venezuela. The role of ex-servicemen at this time will be crucial to watch. Will there be clashes with government forces?

Why the Cabinet of Ministers authorized all MPs to acquire two 12 bore repeater guns each in addition to the firearms already in their possession? Government MPs had vowed that they would not permita repetition of May 9, 2022.

In Venezuelaopposition volunteers managed to collect copies of voting tallies from 80% of the 30,000polling booths nationwide showing opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzales had won the election; foreign observers including observers of American Carter Centre determined the results announced by the authorities lacked credibility as in Bangladesh.

Before conducting its press conference on 31, August EU Election ObservationMission (EU-EOM) headed by itsChief Observer Nachos Sanchez Amor, Deputy Chief Observer andEU Ambassador met Julie Chung on 29, August to discuss the vital role of free and fair elections in Sri Lanka”. No process is more essential to a democracy, ensuring that every citizen’s voice is heard in shaping their future”, so messaged Julie Chung.  

Commonwealth Observer Group (COG)led by former President of Seychelles Danny Faure declared in a statement that it will determine whether the upcoming elections conform to regional and international standards. These good guys should be taught that Sri Lanka has conducted many numbers of elections in the past successfully without any Observer Groups. Commonwealth Observer Group said that it will assess all factors impacting the credibility of the electoral process including counting and tabulation process. When they say credibility of the electoral process it is sure that they are prejudiced and file a report that there was no credibility of the electoral process, helping outsiders to intervene. 

It was reported that a cyber-attack staged by hackers from North Macedonia delayed the vote counting and release of results in Venezuela. It was reported on 12 August that a US based Google server mimicking the website of the Election Commission of Sri Lanka attempting to gather personal information. What plans the NPP digital brigade has is not certain.

India and US will allow their elements to run riot by claiming fraud as in Venezuelauntil India and US strike a deal. They will try by every means to bring normalcy”and install a puppet government as their protégé as they have installed Nguyen Cao-ky deposing Ngo Dinh Diem their own making in former South Vietnam, Lon Nol in Cambodia and very recently Yunus in Bangladesh. There is a likelihood to enthrone RW again (as he is the incumbent President until the release of final countdown) or install a puppet regimeheaded by eitherHarini Amarasuriya orSajith Premadasa, whoever theperson mostamenable to their geopolitical interests.  

NEXT: Obstacles for an Anura Kumara/ NPP victory; Outcome of the election: Impending Catastrophe and how to combat it”

Prof. N. A. de S. Amaratunga

In asking the  above question I do not refer only to us in Sri Lanka though that is high up in my mind as a matter of concern but to the whole world, particularly its economy and the environment for we are in this together and we are in it not because we want to be in it but because neo-liberalism has taken all of us in its grip. As Sri Lanka is our main concern it could be said that the IMF which is a tool of neo-liberalism has put in place a deal that would result in the tightening of the grip neo-liberalism has on Sri Lanka. Before we look at Sri Lanka’s plight in detail we shall see how neo-liberalism has faired so far in the rest of the world.

Neo-liberalism is charaterized by free market policy and least government intervention to the extent that human beings are treated as commodities and even art and culture being subject to market forces. Moreover public expenditure and welfarism are minimized. We experience the adverse effects of these policies in Sri Lanka at present with the purchasing power of the middle and lower classes undergoing rapid decline. While that is the lot of the not-so-poor and the poor the rich has significantly increased their wealth.

Let us now look at what is happening in Sri Lanka. After independence the country was benefitted from the Korean war in 1949 and was able to build up its foreign reserves by a fair amount but after the war ended this secter declined and again in 1955 due to a good tea market it could rise up. It is seen that the capacity to earn foreign exchange depended on external factors. Our export earnings had remained around 15 – 20% of the GDP since 1960s and has not improved despite all efforts. This is the story in most of the developing countries and it is a feature of  neo-liberalism which had caused relative stagnation of the economy when calculated on the purchasing power parity basis (PPP). It is the PPP that gives a true picture of an economy and its parameters, specially the true value of the household incomes. On this basis household incomes and expenditures of middle and lower classes in Sri Lanka  have drastically dropped in 2024 compared to 2021. Nutrition and health are badly affected and the repercussions of these dvelopments would be felt in the future unless corrected as soon as possible. This is due to the economic downturn in the aftermath of Covid pandemic and the subsequent strictures applied by the IMF which has made matters much worse for the less affluent. It is a case of from the frying pan into the fire” for these hapless categories of the population. A world Bank report on Sri Lanka issued in April 2024 states; …poverty rates continued to rise for the fourth year in a row, with an estimated 25.9% of Sri Lankans living below the poverty line in 2023, (ie. more than 6 million). Labor force participation has also seen a decline, particularly among women and in urban areas, exacerbated by the closure of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). Households are grappling with multiple pressures from high prices, income losses, and under employment. This has led to households taking on debt to meet food requirements and maintain spending on health and education”.

With regard to IMF programmes it has been found by several studies that under these programmes developing countries experience increased poverty, unemployement and cost of basic services (Biglaiser & McGauvran, 2022). These studies find that IMF policies are geared to help the big industry and as dictated by neo-liberal capitalist principles work in the expectation that the less affluent would benefit by the trickle-down effect which unfortunately keeps dwindling. There is very little that IMF can do to alleviate poverty in the developing countries except to bale them out at regular intervals. The cycle of events comprising economic stability followed by collapse and an IMF bale out would continue for ever. Capital accumulation and environment degradation would continue with devastating effect.

Some of the questions that pertains to the West but also relevant to us in Sri lanka could be as follows; why/how has inequality grown for the last several decades? Why have good jobs disappeared? Why have median wages stagnated for more than four decades in the US and since the 1970s in the UK. Why is housing unaffordable in England now? How has the debt regime at both sovereign and household levels surfaced in the US/UK and, regarding sovereign debt, in the Eurozone and Japan?  

These are the chronic ills of neo-liberal capitalism. Those phenomena are neither accidents nor totally unrelated incidents. Neoliberal deregulation policy has unleashed greed in the financial sector, causing these  financial crises. Scholars concerned about this problem mentioned above are focussing on alternatives to neo-liberalism. They look at three models in the main; (1) return to keynesianism, (2) return to real socialism, and (3) encourage new development experiences such as Mondragon, Kerala, and the so-called socialism of the 21st century.

Numbers (1) and (2) have been practised with a degree of success. As capitalism is entrenched globally return to real socialism may not be feasible as a sudden change. It may be possible to gradually bring about change, perhaps first try out a return to Keynesianism which was in practice in the West in 1950 to 1970 resulting in a Golden Age of economic performance.

Model number (3) focuses on Kerala in India, which is an experience of development with high people participation and administration through the state. It has been a successful case of public action to democratic means”. In spite of historically poor economic performance, Kerala has obtained good social indicators. In some of them, Kerala has achieved the same level of development as advanced countries ( Parayil, 2000, Franke and Chasin, 2000).

So called socialism in the 21^st century” was developed in Latin America mainly in countries like Venezuela with a degree of success in the face of incessant US intervention. The world if it is to avoid being completely devastated and made a barren planet may have to dismantle neo-liberalism and adopt a more human and environment friendly model.

Prof. N. A. de S. Amaratunga

චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම, LL,B.,Ph,D. 

True story of 76 years of political history. Read wisely over and over again.

Russia spokesperson

Rusiyawa Prakashakayo – දුයිෂෙන්ගේ පොත්හල

September 4, 2024

 හැඳින්වීම

මෙම කෘතිය, ලංකාව: කළු සුද්දන්ගේ පාලන සමය, 1948-2019 (නොහොත් මන්ත්‍රී ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍ර [නාස් ලණු] වාදය) යන ලිපි එකතුවේ දෙවන භාගයය.  ඒවා රටේ සිංහල බෞද්ධ ශිෂ්ටාචාරයේ පදනමට පහර දෙමින් කළු සුද්දන් විසින් 2015 වර්ෂයට පසු කාලයේදී ගෙනෙන ලද පුහු තර්ක හා අර්ධ සත්‍ය වලට ලබාදුන් පිළිතුරුය.  මෙහි ප්‍රථම භාගයෙන් ඉදිරිපත් කරණ ලද අදහස් පිළිඹඳව පාඨකයින් දැක්වූ යහපත් ප්‍රතිචාරය, මෙවැනි කෘති මඟින්  තමන් උපන් රටේ ඉතිහාසය, භූගෝල විද්‍යාව හා සාහිත්‍යය පිළිඹඳ දැනීම පාලකයින් විසින් උදුරා දමා ඇති සමාජයකට කලහැකි සේවයක් පිළිඹඳ ශාක්ෂියකි.

උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන්, ධර්ම ශ්‍රී කාරියවසම්ගේ, ‘කාරිගේ චැනල් 1’ යන යූටියුබ් වැඩ සටහන දැනටමත් මෙවැනි සේවයක් කරමින් සිටී. ‘ඇත්ත ඉතිහාසය, නොලියවුනු ඉතිහාසය හා ලියවුනු ඉතිහාසයේ නොලියවුනු තැන්’ යන තේමාව යටතේ ඔහු කරණ එලිදරව් විෂ්මය ජනකය. මෙවැනි දේ රටක සිදුවන්නට පුළුවන්ද කියා ප්‍රේක්ෂකයා ගේ සිත කම්පාවට පත්කරන්නේය, සසළ කරවන්නේය.  ඔහු වාර්තාකරන පරිදි, 1971 JVP කැරැල්ල පාවාදී ඇත්තේ භික්ෂුවක් විසින් ඊට සම්බන්ධ කල දඩබ්බර පාසැල් ශිෂ්‍යයෙකු විසින්  J.R. ජයවර්ධන හරහාය. මොහු පසු කලෙක ජේෂ්ඨ  DIG  කෙනෙක් වශයෙන් සිට පොලිසියෙන් විශ්‍රාම ගියේය!

රට ඇතුලේ ඉන්නා හා රටින් පිටට පැනගොස් සිටින යූටියුබ්කාරයින්  හා වෙබ් අඩවි කාරයින් විසින් ඩොලර් උපයා ගැනීමේ  යටිඅරමුණද සහිතව සිංහල බෞද්ධ සංස්කෘතියට කරණ දුෂ්ඨ පහරදීම, ඔවුන්ගේ රට කැබලිකිරීමේ ව්‍යාපාරයේම කොටසකි. ජාතික වාදය හා ජාතිවාදය  අතර ඇති වෙනස – තම ජාතිය හතුරන්ගෙන් ආරක්ෂා කර ගැනීම (අනාගාරික ධර්මපාල වාදය) හා තම වර්ගයා අති උතුම් යයි සිතා සෙසු ජනවර්ග හෙලා දකිමින් ඔවුන්ට හිරිහැර කිරීම (හිට්ලර්වාදය) – යන ක්‍රියාවලීන් දෙක මොවුන් විසින් පටලවා ගෙන සිටී. මෙම සිංහල බෞද්ධ සභ්‍යත්ව රාජ්‍ය සංකල්පයේ වටිනාකම සම්බන්ධයෙන් පිටකොන්දක් ඇතිව මේ වන විට ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ කතාකරන්නේ ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂක දිලිත් ජයවීර හා උවිඳු විජේවීර යන දෙන්නා පමණය.

දෙමළ චේ ගුවේරා කෙනෙක් මෙන් නැඟී එන අරුන් සිද්ධාර්ථ්, මෙම ජාතික වාදී අදහස (සංකල්පය) උතුරේ වෙල්ලාල ජනයාට එරෙහිව, එහි වසන කුලහීන යයි හිරිහැරයට ගොදුරුවී සිටිනා ජනකොටස් ඒකරාශී කර ඉන් මුදවා ගැනීම සඳහා යොදා ගනිමින් සිටින්නේ ඉන්දියාවේ ඩලිත් නායකව සිටි, හින්දු කුල ආධිපත්‍යයට විරුද්ධව නැඟීසිටි, බෞද්ධාගම වැළදගත් අම්බෙඩ්කාර් අනුගමණය කරමින්ය.

රට-ජාතිය-භාෂාව-ආගම ආරක්ෂා කරණා යම් අදෘෂ්‍යමාන බලවේගයක මැදිහත් වීමකින් මිස, මෙම කුඩා දිවයින ඉන්දියාවේ කොලනියක් විමේ නියත  ඉරණම අභියස, සමස්ත රටවැසි ජනයාම අන්ද මන්දව දිය සැලියේ ඉන්නා කකුළුවන් මෙන් හැසිරෙණු පෙනේ. සංවිධානාත්මකව  ක්‍රියාත්මක වන  දේශීය හා විදේශීය බලවේග විසින් රටේ ඓතිහාසික මුරදේවතාවුන් වුන සංඝ සංස්ථාව අඩපණ කිරීමට (නොමරා මරා දැමීමට) සමත්වී ඇත. ගම් මට්ටමින් බෞද්ධ සංස්කෘතික ජීවන රටාව (ජාතික උරුමය) මකා දැමීමට ජිනීවා මට්ටමින් ඩොලර් කුමන්ත්‍රණ ක්‍රියාත්මකය. මෙවන් පසුබිමක දියවන්නා ‘හෝටලයේ’ ඉන්නා සිංහල බෞද්ධයයි කියා ගන්නා පංචස්කන්ධ අතරින් මෙම අනතුර ගැන කතාකරන්නේ දෙතුන් දෙනෙක් පමණක් වීම ඛේදජනකය.

ලංකාවේ ව්‍යවස්ථාදායකය-විධායකය-අධිකරණය යන ආයතන තුනම දූෂිත යයි ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ නිර්භීතව කියා සිටින එකම පුද්ගලයා ඒ නිසාම අයුතු ලෙස ඔහුගේ ලංකාවේ නීතීඥ කළු කබායේ ගැලවීමකට ලක්වූ නාගානන්ද කොඩිතුවක්කු පමණය. මෙම කෘතියේ තේමාවද මුළු රටම දුෂ්ඨ ත්‍රිකෝණයකින් වසාගෙන ඇත යන්නය.  ලංකාවේ පමණක් නොව මුළු ලෝකයේම ජන මාධ්‍ය, සමාජ මාධ්‍යද මීට ඇතුලත් කල යුතුව ඇත. ඒවාට තිබෙනවායයි කියන නිදහස වඳුරන්ට දුන් දැලිපිහි වැනිය.  ඒ අස්සේ 2024  අංක 8 දරණ ‘අපහාස පාලන’ නීතියක් මඟින් උසාවී ක්‍රමයට අවශ්‍ය නම් රටේ ප්‍රභලම ‘මාෆියාව’ වීමට වුවද ඉඩ සළසා දී තිබේ.

මෙවන් පසුබිමක් යටතේ මෙහි ඇති රචනා කළු සුද්දන් විසින්  පසුගිය දශක වල රටට විනාශකාරී ලෙස හැසිරී ඇති අන්දම සරල බසින් වාර්තා කර ඇත. ඒවා, දෙමළ (ඊළම්), මුස්ලිම් (ශාරියා), ඉන්දියන් (එක්ටා පාලම), ඉංගිරිස් හිසරදය, උසාවි පරිහානිය, මුර දේවතා සංකල්පය හා, මාක්ස්වාදය හා බෞද්ධ මධ්‍යම ප්‍රතිපදාව අතර අතරමංව  සිටින JVP හෘදය ශාක්ෂිය පිළිඹඳ ප්‍රශ්ණය යනාදී වශයෙන් වර්ගකර ඇත. ක්‍රිස්තියානි මූලධර්මවාදී  (evangelist) ආක්‍රමණය, කොම්පැනි ධනවාදී සූරා කෑම (global corporate greed) මේවා යටින් දුවන යකඩ කම්බි දෙකක් වැනිය.

මන්ත්‍රී පංචකන්ධ 225, පැරදුන මන්ත්‍රීන් හා ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂකයින් කෙසේ හෝ යළි බලයට ඒම සඳහා නොයෙක් මාදිලියේ උප්පරවැට්ටි උපයෝගී කරගනිමින් සිටී. දිනපතාම රටේ දකින්නට ලැබෙන්නේ කොසොල් රජතුමා දුටු සීන දාසැයේ  ආදිනවය. යළිත් වරක් ගෝල්පේස් ගනයේ කුමන්ත්‍රණයකට රට වැසියා ගොඳුරු නොකර, රට ගොඩ ගැනීමේ මාර්ගයක් දැනට කලකට පෙරදී මෙන්ම මෙම කෘතියේ ප්‍රථම භාගයේදී හා මෙම දෙවන භාගයේදීත් අවධාරණය කර ඇත.

Table of Contents

1.කළු සුද්දන් නැටූ නාඩගම් හා ඒවාට මුහුණ දීම

1.ඊලම දමනය

2.පන්සල් අතරමංකල ලංකාවේ හා දකුණු ඉන්දියාවේ දෙමළ බෞද්‌ධයා

3.කළු සුද්දන් විසින් ලංකාව කැබලි කිරීමට ගත් උත්සාහ

4.13 වන සංශොධනයේ පොලිස් බලතල: ඉන්‌දියාවෙන් අපූරු පාඩමක්!

2.[නො]වරදින (ඉන්දියන්) කුරුමාණම?

5. කුවේණිගේ ශාපයද? ඉන්දියාවේ බලහත්කාරයද?

6. පාලම හා පාලම් පාරුව

3.මුජිබර් රහමන්ගේ කිඹුල් කොරහ හෙවත් දොස්තර ශාෆිගේ බැංකු ගිණුම

7.ලංකාවේ මුස්ලිම් වෙළෙන්ඳන් අරාබි ශාරියා මිණීමරුවන් කිරීම (1)

8. මැකියාවේලී සූත්‍රය අනුගමණය කල මුවර් නායකයින් (2)

9.ශාරියා/ඉකුවාන් ආක්‍රමණය: අගමැතිලා ජනාධිපතිලා නාස්ලණු දමා ගැනීම! (3)

10. සිංහලයා ශ්‍රී ලාංකික කිරීමේ ව්‍යාපාරය හා ගර්‌භාශ යුද්‌ධය

4. සිංහලයාට [සිංහල භාෂාවට] අබසරණයි: 16 වන ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය

11.ඉංගිරිස් පාරුව කරට ගැනීම – part 1

12. ඉංගිරිස් පාරුව කරට ගැනීම – part 2

13. ඉංගිරිස් පාරුව කරට ගැනීම – part 3

14. සුනේත්‍රා බණ්ඩාරනායක සිය පියාව පාවා දීම (Betrayal of her father by Miss Sunethra Bandaranayake)- Part I

5. හිරකාරයෝත් මනුෂ්‍යයෝය. නඩුකාරයෝත්  ක්ලේෂභරිත පංචස්කන්ධය!

15.නීති පොතේ ඇති, එහෙත් රටේ නැති, ආධිපත්‍ය දෙකකට නැසෙන සුප්‍රීම් උසාවිය
16. බල්ලට ගිය සුද්දගෙ නීතිය

17. කොසොල් රජතුමා දුටු සීන දාසැය හා ලංකාවේ සුප්‍රිම් උසාවිය

18. රටක සුප්‍රීම් උසාවියක්, අල්ලා ගත් කොටිවලිගයක්! (A Supreme Court’s nemesis: Nagananda Kodituwakku)

6. ලංකාව විදේශ ආක්‍රමණවලින් හා සිංහල කළු සුද්දන්ගෙන් බේරාගත් මුර දේවතා සංකල්පය

19. කාදිනල්තුමා – පැණිවරකා ගහට හෙණ වැදීම

20. ධර්මපාලතුමා ලොවට දුන් දායාදය

21. රට ගොඩගන්නට වෙහෙසුණු කළුකොඳයාවේ මහනාහිමි

7. හෘදය ශාක්ෂිය අනුභවකිරීම (මනෝ පුබ්බංගමා ධම්මා)

22.ලංකාවේ දුෂ්ඨ ත්‍රිකෝණය 

23. ගෝල්පේස් වනාන්තරය, ගෝඨාභයගේ දෙවන යුද්ධය හා බෞද්ධ මධ්‍යම ප්‍රතිපදා විසඳුම – (හැඳින්වීම)

24. ගෝල්පේස් අරගල කරුවන් ඉල්ලන සිස්ටම් චේන්ජ් එක හා ජන සභා සිස්ටම් එක – part 1

25. ගෝල්පේස් අරගලය: ජන සභා පාලන ක්‍රමයකට <සිස්ටම් එක චේන්ජ් කිරීම> (විප්ලවයක් රහිත) විප්ලවයකි – part 2
26. ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණට (JVP) යාහැකි මඟ – part 1

27. ජාතික විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ හා සිංහල බුද්ධාගම (JVP & Buddhism) – part 2

KAMALIKA PIERIS

The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland.

The Booker Prize is a high-profile literary award, it is greeted with much fanfare.  It is considered   a great honor  for authors to be nominated for the long list and selected for the  short list. The nomination   greatly helps the sale of the book as well.

 Shehan Karunatilaka won  the Booker Prize in 2022 with Seven Moons of Maali Almeida.   The  story is  set in Colombo, in 1990. Maali Almeida, war photographer, gambler,  closeted gay was  murdered. He now ‘wakes up’, in the afterworld   and observes what happens in the living world to those connected to him.

Maali Almeida was killed for taking photos of the 1983 anti- Tamil riots. The  main action, a hunt for a  few negatives of the 1983 riots is, in my view, too flimsy  for such a lengthy story, but Booker judges have thought otherwise.

The book was described as a whodunit, a  thriller, a metaphysical thriller  and also as a  South Asian epic. The judges said what set the book apart was the ambition of its scope, and the hilarious audacity of its narrative techniques.”  It was a serious romp that takes the reader to the murderous horrors of civil war in Sri Lanka,  they said

Was it important for you that such a violent story should also be funny  interviewers asked. I don’t know if that was intentional, replied Shehan, speaking  after the Booker win. There’s a Sri Lankan gallows humor. Even today, despite the uncertainty there’s a lot of people cracking jokes. Personally, I  enjoy and gravitate towards literature that has a bawdy sense of humor,  he said .

Critics noted the political orientation of the book. One critic said the book was razor sharp indictment of  Sri Lanka politics and society , morbidly funny. Another said Shehan Karunatilaka’s epic novel is a powerful evocation of Sri Lanka’s dark and brutal past.’

Shehan wanted to write a novel which had a political orientation. I wanted to write about 2009 and the end of the war, what if the dead could speak. But I was reluctant to engage there. 1989 seemed like a safe” period. It was far back and .most of the protagonists and antagonists from that time were dead,  said Shehan.

 Maali Almeida was a  war photographer, who  it appears, accepted commissions from all sides, from the government, the Tamils, the  NGOs. Maali had photographed scenes from the war zone.He had photographed the war in both north and  east. There are shots from Vavuniya, Batticaloa and Trincomalee, he recalled.

The novel  is full of references to the Sinhala-Tamil clashes starting from 1977. Maali Almeida  was killed for taking photos of the 1983 anti-Tamil riots and as a ghost he had plenty to say about these riots. 1983 was an atrocity. 8000 homes, 5000 shops ,150,000 homeless, said Maali Almeida. Who will speak for the many victims of 1983,  of men who burned Tamil homes in 1983, of the  Tamil lawyer killed by Sinhala mob in 1983, he asked.

Maali had taken black and white prints of  the 1983 attack. He had photographed rioters setting  people on fire, Sinhala men in sarong dancing outside burning shops, cops watching Tamil women dragged out of buses. He had photographed a  naked Tamil kicked to death, and another naked Tamil man being taunted by boys with sticks. He had also photographed  a boy and his mother beaten with sticks,  a toddler with broken arm, and man with cleaver hacking an old man.

The novel then  drops 1983 and moves to  the Eelam wars in the north and east. The book has many references to the Eelam war. Eelam war ended  12 years ago but books like this will help to keep the   war  fresh in the minds of  gullible ,  ignorant  western readers.

Maali  was there when the army shelled in Mullaitivu. He photographed a bunker stuffed with terrified parents and screaming children.  Maali focuses on  the plight of  civilians caught in the war. The photographs showed how people are dying in the war zone, explained Maali.  Tigers and army were killing civilians.  77 Tamil civilians were killed in the Omanthai massacre, he said.

His  emphasis was on family and children, on  burned homes, dead children. Maali recalled  four bodies baking in the Jaffna dust, a dog, man, mother and child. Maali  was there when the army shelled in Mullaitivu. He photographed a bunker stuffed with terrified parents and screaming children.

Maali recalls other photographs of a similar nature,  of mother and daughter buried under bricks in Kilinochchi, of family fleeing the shelling in Vavuniya  of smoldering remains of an infant in Akkaraipattu,  of dead children displayed on mats, women tied to poles , children in bunkers, tiny heads tucked under tiny   elbows ,eyes wide and empty,  of children bleeding in front of me.”

The novel  fleetingly takes up  an   anti-Eelam   position.  Only Lankans will have beauty pageants and cricket matches while the country burns, said the ghosts. Partying after beauty contests while our soldiers die,  they said.

 Then the novel  changes focus. It speaks ofInnocent Tamils” ,  Vanni refugee camp   and the plight  air raid survivors trapped in  camps. It speaks of Minister Cyril Wijeratne later referred to a Minister Cyril  and to Major Raja Udugampola.There are negative references to the army. They say STF are dumping bodies left and right in Labugama forest reserve, said a ghost.  The ghost Sena” stationed his  ghostly army with a precision  our military never had, observed Maali.

There are oblique  references to the Sinhala Buddhist culture. The ledger used in the afterworld had a  Bo leaf design on the cover,  there was a low caste  yaka called Narada and   blow jobs were available in Anuradhapura. One ghost had studied at Sri Bodhi College, another  had perched cross legged beside a stone Buddha.  The  novel speaks of the  ‘Sinhala script which the country claims is their only language. ( continued)

Ministry of Defence  – Media Centre

• Long Sinhala Collection: A poetic reflection experiences from Independence to the end of terrorism in Sri Lanka

‘Rajali Sandeshaya’, the longest Kavya Sandesha (Anthology of poems) in Sri Lanka’s literary history consisting of 2579 poems, authored by Defence Secretary General Kamal Gunaratne was launched at the Nelum Pokuna Theatre on his birthday on September 06.

This epic anthology serves as a poignant reflection of Sri Lanka’s harrowing battle against LTTE terrorism, intricately weaving together historical events and Gen. Gunaratne’s personal experiences as a military officer during the war.

The unveiling of this work marks a significant contribution to both Sri Lankan literature and the nation’s collective memory of a painful yet triumphant chapter in its modern history. Gen. Gunaratne is one of the pioneering writers who have enriched Sri Lankan literature with many masterpieces.

General Gunaratne and Mrs. Chithrani Gunaratne had the distinct honour of presenting the inaugural copy of the literary work to the Ven. Maha Sanga. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, Mrs. Lali Kobbekaduwa and Mrs. Manel Wimalarathne, the spouses of great war veterans Lt. Gen. Denzil Kobbekaduwa and Maj. Gen. Vijaya Wimalaratne and disabled war heroes from ‘Abimansala’ were presented with a copy of the book.

The event also featured insightful keynote addresses delivered by Prof. Praneeth Abeysundara and Ven. Induragare Dhammarathana Thero, who provided perspectives on the literary significance of the newly unveiled work.

Further underscoring the importance of these literary contributions, a copy of the book was generously donated to the library of Ananda College. The principal, Mr. Lal Dissanayake, graciously accepted this valuable contribution on behalf of the school.

‘Rajali Sandeshaya’ draws inspiration from Sri Lanka’s ancient Kavya Sandesha tradition, where messages are conveyed through poetic symbolism, often carried by birds. In this work, Gen. Gunaratne blends this traditional format with modern themes of poetry.

The poems focus on the brutal LTTE terrorist conflict, which engulfed the nation in death and destruction for three decades. Gen. Gunaratne, a decorated military officer who played a crucial role in the final stages of the civil war, employs this poetic form to narrate the brave actions, sacrifices, and courage of the Sri Lankan military as they fought to liberate the nation from terrorism.

Drawing from his own experiences, he paints vivid pictures of the battlefield, recounting both the horrors of war and the strength of the men and women who defended their homeland.

‘Rajali Sandeshaya’ serves as a tribute to those who fought against brutal terrorism and a somber reminder of the suffering endured by civilians caught in the crossfire. Gen. Gunaratne’s first-hand experiences lend authenticity and emotional depth to the poems, allowing readers to grasp the gravity of the war and the immense sacrifices made to preserve Sri Lanka’s sovereignty.

The event attracted a diverse and distinguished audience, including the Ven. Maha Sanga, the Chief of Defence Staff, Tri Forces Commanders, Academics, Artists and other notable guests.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Colombo, September 7 (Daily Mirror) The National People’s Power (NPP) is committed to ensure judicial supremacy and the concept of equality before the law under its government, NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said today.

Speaking at the NPP lawyers’ conference, he said judicial supremacy and the concept of equality before the law are at stake in Sri Lanka.

He said the Supreme Court rules that the President violates the Constitution and on the other hand the President fails to respect the Supreme Court verdict.

“So, Sri Lanka is no longer a country with judicial supremacy. Such a country is not accepted by the world,” he said.

Dissanayake said the NPP assures to re-establish the concept of equality before the law and judicial supremacy.

“We will ensure the independence of the judiciary. We do not need to regulate the judiciary for our personal objectives,” he said.

Courtesy Hiru News

President Ranil Wickremesinghe emphasized that those who cannot speak about the future of the country have no right to take responsibility for it. Only those who actively discuss the nation’s future should be entrusted with its leadership.

Referring to a statement made by Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who recently called for local businessmen and industrialists to focus on exports, President Wickremesinghe pointed out that Dissanayake&rsquo;s policy document also mentions the cancellation of Sri Lanka&rsquo;s free trade agreements. He questioned how an export-oriented economy could be developed without such agreements in place.

The President urged voters to carefully consider this matter and make informed decisions. He also stated that if the country is ready for change, then changes in other sectors are also possible.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe shared these remarks yesterday (6) while speaking at the conference on banking and finance organized under the theme “Bankers with Smart Leadership” by the National Bankers Association at the Galadari Hotel, Colombo.

During the event, Dr. R.H.S. Samaratunga, Senior Advisor to the President Economic Affairs delivered a special lecture on the economic progress Sri Lanka has achieved over the past two years. A large number of bankers participated, and the President addressed their questions in a constructive manner.

Further expanding on his views, the President Ranil Wickremesinghe said: “Your association was formed two years ago, during the economic crisis. Since then, I have had the opportunity to engage with you, and I am grateful for the support you have extended over this period.

As Dr. Samaratunga mentioned, we have now reached a decisive moment. In 2022, the economy collapsed, and our debt burden became unsustainable. From that point on, we had to start rebuilding our path forward. With the support of a majority of Parliamentarians who believed in this journey, we pushed ahead to face the challenges. No alternative proposals were presented by others, and even those who claimed to have alternatives had nothing substantial to offer.

We initiated debt restructuring and have successfully concluded negotiations with 18 creditor nations, including the IMF, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and China. Based on the agreements reached, we have introduced and passed the Economic Transformation Act in Parliament.

The “Puluwan Sri Lanka” concept is not limited to the economy. We aim to implement new initiatives that focus on economic growth. Our main foundation must be the debt sustainability agreement we reached with the IMF. There is no option to deviate from it. Low-income and middle-income countries each have specific conditions tied to their debt agreements. The structure of these agreements can be viewed on the IMF website. No matter which government is in power, these conditions must be adhered to. It is up to us to decide now whether to follow this path.

Under the ‘Puluwan Sri Lanka’ initiative, I have five key targets. First, to ease the cost of living, second, to create jobs, third, to reduce the tax burden while expanding the tax base, fourth, to transform our economy into an export-driven one and the fifth, to ensure the continuation of our “Aswesuma”and “Urumaya” programs. We are moving forward with these five priorities.

The depreciation of the rupee has increased our expenses, and purchasing power has declined. This is what happens when an economy collapses. Yet, some are now proposing tax cuts. However, reducing taxes will lead us back to the situation created by the previous government. It is not a viable solution. Our focus is on strengthening the rupee, and to do that, we must increase government revenue.

After my first year in office, we initiated “Aswesuma” programs, including the welfare program. We also worked to increase the salaries of public sector employees. The report of the Udaya R. Senewiratne Committee is expected to be implemented next year. We have reached an agreement with the IMF to revise the tax rates.

The only way to rebuild the country is by strengthening the rupee. Regardless of what others say, there is no other path forward. We must recognize this reality and act accordingly.”

Economic progress requires on-going development, which is why we must continue advancing our current programs. As a government, we are committed to this initiative, and if necessary, we can implement it starting September 22. No other party offers a comparable plan.

The “Puluwan Sri Lanka” program is set to begin on September 22. This is not about advocating for “Victory for Ranil” or “Country for Ranil.” Those calling for a departure from traditional politics are themselves entrenched in it, while those coming from traditional backgrounds are seeking to effect change. Our vision extends beyond economic reform; it encompasses numerous areas including the prevention of social violence, women’s empowerment, and expanding educational opportunities. We aim to modernize all these sectors.

Political transformation is also crucial. The nine provincial councils should function not merely as administrative bodies but as key drivers of development. We need to enhance the representation of women and youth within these councils. Additionally, we plan to establish the Jana Sabha system to involve those who are not currently engaged in politics. Furthermore, we propose that any proposal supported by 100, 000 citizens should be debated in Parliament.

After the “Aragalaya” of 2022, the political system of this country has changed. A new political system is merging. It takes time. But we are preparing the necessary background for that. You can’t catch thieves like a game. We have passed the necessary laws for that. Some other laws are being passed. For that, we are working to provide the necessary training to the people who need it. We are moving towards an economic, social and political transformation.

We have appointed the former Chief Justice Priyasad Dep’s commission on the electoral system. Eighty-seven proposals have been presented in that report. No political party talks about this. We have to decide today whether we will take these forward or not.

In addition, there are two alternative proposals. One is “Blueprint 3” It is really a suggestion about economics. There is a problem whether the common people understand it or not. But the problem is that one party has presented two policy statements. Two groups of the same party have submitted two election policy statements. The other alternative proposal is in the NPP. They are trying to create hatred there. The rulers from 1948 until now did nothing, declaring that they have exploited the country and they are the only ones doing things for the country. They have no suggestions for the country. I read both two hundred and thirty pages of their policy manifesto.

On September 4th, MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake emphasized the importance of focusing on exports for our country’s businessmen and industrialists. While this principle is commendable, there is a concern. Their policy statement suggests that Sri Lanka plans to cancel its free trade agreements. This raises a significant question: how can we develop an export industry without these agreements? Such contradictions pose challenges.

Additionally, Sunil Handunnetti and their economic expert, Harshana Suriyapperuma, have challenged the Economic Transformation Bill in court. They argue that the bill, which promotes an export-based economy, fails to provide opportunities for import-based businesses and is therefore unconstitutional. They also contend that treating foreign investors on par with local investors is unconstitutional. This situation is confusing: one side argues for necessary changes, while the other side disagrees. It’s worth questioning whether we can move forward with such a program and if this truly represents the change they envision.

I have asked Anura Kumara Dissanayake for clarification on this matter. Political solutions alone won’t suffice; to truly save our country, we must think critically and work collaboratively. Unlike other countries where programs are clearly presented, defended, and pursued, our politics have often been characterized by empty promises and evasions. We need to change this approach.

Spreading hatred and publishing lengthy, unsubstantiated reports won’t resolve our issues. We must focus on constructive progress. If we cannot discuss the future of our country, we forfeit our right to influence it. Only those who are committed to discussing and shaping the future are fit to lead. As voters, it is our responsibility to scrutinize these matters carefully and make informed decisions.

Professor Maitree Wickremasinghe, former Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake, Member of Parliament Premanath C. Dolawatta, Presidential Senior Adviser on Economic Affairs Dr. R. H. S. Samaratunga, Director General of Trade Unions to the President Saman Ratnapriya, National Bankers Association Anura Alahakoon, Secretary Asela Fernando and other officials, high-ranking bank officials and bankers attended the event.

VFM RADIO 107

බ්ලැක් මාර්කට් එක නැතුව රට හදන්න බෑ.. මාලිමාවේ ආචාර්ය මහාචාර්යවරුන් අහන ප්‍රශ්නවලට අනුර කොර වෙයි.. අනුරගේ උත්තරවලට ආචාර්ය මහාචාර්යවරුන් කොර වෙයි..

KAMALIKA PIERIS

In the novel ‘Song of the Sun God,’ at the end of the story, almost at the last page, there is a reference to an ancient   Indian kingdom called Lemuria. (p 394).   The novel said that there was a great Tamil civilization in Lemuria from as early as 50,000 BC .The South Asian civilization began from there. If not for the great flood that took place in Lemuria, the entire subcontinent would have been ruled by Tamils, said the novel. The novel also   quickly added that Lemuria predates any other ethnic group in the area. That was to stop the Sinhalese from also trying to   attach themselves to the Lemuria story.

‘Song of the Sun God” confirms that Lemuria and Kumari Kandam (which I discuss later)   had been accepted by the Tamil Separatist Movement in Sri Lanka, as a part of the greatness of the Tamil  civilization from which they came. It would have helped to boost the Tamil Separatist ego and encourage Tamil superiority.

This belief in Lemuria could be   dismissed as delusions of grandeur or the lunatic fringe but it is worth finding out about Lemuria. Wikipedia gives the following account. In 1864, an English zoologist, Philip Sclater suggested that there may be a submerged land between India, Madagascar and Africa. He named this submerged land Lemuria.  The discovery of plate tectonics and continental drift in the 20^th century put an end to this idea and   scientists forgot about Lemuria.

In 1885, Charles D. Maclean of the Indian Civil Service published The Manual of the Administration of the Madras Presidency, in which he suggested that Lemuria was the homeland of the proto-Dravidians. He suggested that Dravidian civilization started at Lemuria. This was mentioned in the Census reports of 1891 and 1901 and the matter was forgotten.

However, Tamil intellectuals liked the idea of a submerged pre-historic Tamil civilization. In 1898, J. Nallasami Pillai published an article in the journal Siddhanta Deepika about the theory of a lost continent in the Indian Ocean (i.e. Lemuria). But he said that this theory had “no serious historical or scientific footing”.

In 1912, Somasundara Bharati used the word “Tamilakam”   for the  first time, for  Lemuria  ,in his Tamil Classics and Tamilakam. Thereafter, Tamil revivalist writers claimed that Lemuria was the original Tamil homeland and birthplace of Tamil civilization. They maintained that an ancient Tamil civilization existed on Lemuria, before it was lost to the sea in a flood. Maclean’s Manual came to be cited as an authoritative work by these Tamil writers.

 In 1917, Abraham Pandithar wrote that Lemuria was the cradle of human race, and Tamil was the first language spoken by the humans. These claims were repeated in the school and college textbooks of Tamil Nadu throughout the 20th century.^[37]

 In 1953, R. Nedunceliyan, who later became the education minister of Tamil Nadu, insisted that the civilization spread from South India to the Indus Valley and   Sumer and subsequently, to “Arabia, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Spain and other places”.^[42] 

Ancient Tamil literature provided additional support for Lemuria. Ancient Tamil literature spoke of Kumari Kandam, a legendary sunken landmass that was supposedly located south of present-day India in the Indian Ocean.

Ancient Tamil literature said that Kumari Kandam was an ancient, but highly advanced civilization located in the Indian Ocean. It was the cradle of civilization, inhabited solely by the speakers of Tamil language.  The fact that the land had disappeared into the ocean helped to explain the lack of any present day evidence of this ancient civilization

The Tamil writers said that the culture of Kumari Kandam survived in Tamil Nadu. This meant that Tamil culture was the source of all civilized culture in the world, and Tamil is the mother language of all other languages in the world. Kumari Kandam proved the antiquity of the Tamil language and culture, they said.

Kumari Kandam, these writers said, was the place where the first two Tamil literary academies (sangams) were organized during the Pandean reign. the first Sangam flourished for 4,400 years in a city called Tenmadurai (South Madurai) attended by 549 poets (including Agastya) and presided over by gods like Shiva, Kubera and Murugan.

The second Sangam lasted for 3,700 years in a city called Kapatapuram, attended by 59 poets (including Agastya, again). Both the cities were “seized by the ocean”, resulting in loss of all the works created during the first two Sangams.

The third Sangam was established in Uttara (North) Madurai, where it is said to have lasted for 1,850 years. However, critics noted that the earliest extant Tamil writings, which are attributed to the third Sangam, contain Sanskrit vocabulary, and thus could not have been the creation of a purely Tamil civilization.

The Tamil revivalists insisted that the first two Tamil sangams  were not mythical, and happened in the Kumari Kandam era. While most Tamil revivalists did not enumerate or list the lost Sangam works, some came up with their names, and even listed their contents. In 1903, Suryanarayana Sastri named some of these works as Mutunarai, Mutukuruku, Mapuranam and Putupuranam.

In 1917, Abraham Pandithar listed three of these works as the world’s first treatises of music: Naratiyam, Perunarai and Perunkuruku. He also listed several rare musical instruments such as the thousand-stringed lute, which had been lost to the sea. 

Devaneya Pavanar printed an entire list of the submerged books. Others listed books on a wide range of topics, including medicine, martial arts, logic, painting, sculpture, yoga, philosophy, music, mathematics, alchemy, magic, architecture, poetry, and wealth. Since these works had been lost to the sea, the Kumari Kandam proponents insisted that no empirical proof could be provided for their claims.

The Tamil revivalists did not consider Kumari Kandam as a primitive society or a rural civilization. They described it as a utopia which had reached the zenith of human achievement. Suryanarayan Sastri, in 1903, described the population as expert cultivators, fine poets and far-traveling merchants, who lived in an egalitarian and democratic society. Modern Tamil was a pale remnant of the glorious ancient Tamil language spoken in Kumari Kandam.

In 1903, Suryanarayana Sastri, in his Tamilmoliyin Varalaru, insisted that all the humans were descendants of the ancient Tamils from Kumari Kandam. Such claims were repeated by several others, including M. S. Purnalingam Pillai and Maraimalai Adigal.^[39]

M. S. Purnalingam Pillai, writing in 1927, stated that Indus Valley civilization was established by the Tamil survivors from the flood-hit Kumari Nadu. In the 1940s, N. S. Kandiah Pillai published maps showing migration of the Kumari Kandam residents to other parts of the world.^[

 Books discussing the Kumari Kandam theory were first included in the college curriculum of the present-day Tamil Nadu in 1908. Suryanarayana Sastri’s book was prescribed for use in Madras University‘s Master’s degree courses in 1908-09. Over the next few decades, other such works were also included in the curriculum of Madras University and Annamalai University. These include Purnalingam Pillai’s A Primer of Tamil Literature (1904) and Tamil literature (1929), Kandiah Pillai’s Tamilakam (1934), and Srinivasa Pillai’s Tamil Varalaru (1927).^[26] In a 1940 Tamil language textbook for ninth-grade students, T. V. Kalyanasundaram wrote that Lemuria of the European scholars was Kumarinatu of the Tamil literature.^[27]

After the Dravidian parties came to power in  1967, the Kumari Kandam theory was disseminated more widely through school and college textbooks. In 1971, the Government of Tamil Nadu established a formal committee to write the history of Tamilakam (ancient Tamil territory). One of the objectives of the committee was to highlight “the great antiquity” of the Tamils, “from the time of Lemuria” .A 1975 textbook written by this committee detailed the Kumari Kandam theory. As late as 1981, the Tamil Nadu government’s history textbooks mentioned the Kumari Kandam theory.^[

In 1981, the Government of Tamil Nadu funded a documentary film on Kumari Kandam. The film, personally backed by the Chief Minister M. G. Ramachandran and directed by P. Neelakantan, was screened at the Fifth International Conference of Tamil Studies in Madurai. It combined the continental drift theory with the submerged continent theory to present Lemuria as a scientifically valid concept. It depicted Kumari Kandam cities resplendent with mansions, gardens, arts, crafts, music and dance.

Kumari Kandam is a mythical continent, not a real one. Therefore, the attempts to mix this myth with Tamil history met with criticism. M Seshagiri Sastri (1897),  described the claims of  ancient sangams as  fiction from the prolific imagination of Tamil poets.” In 1956, K. A. Nilakanta Sastri described the Kumari Kandam theory as “all bosh”, stating that geological theories about events happening millions of years ago should not be connected to the human history of a few thousand years back.  This concludes the review of ‘Song of the Sun God. ( Continued)

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Shankari Chandran’s first novel Song of the Sun God” (2017) is about a Ceylon Tamil family, caught in the Tamil Separatist Movement in Sri Lanka. Shankari feels strongly about what happened to the Tamils in Sri Lanka. For me, ‘Song of the Sun God’, more than any other novel I have written since, is a novel that really interrogates the injustices faced by the Tamil people, she said in an interview. [1]

So much of the Tamil story has been silenced – our people have been marginalized and silenced in their own country: their narrative has been manipulated, controlled and, in many places, hidden, continued Shankari. When you speak to people from Sri Lanka, there is a fear of telling the Tamil story and experience, and exploring justice for Tamil people. And when you speak to people outside the boundaries of Sri Lanka, so much information and disinformation exists.

I feel as a lawyer and a storyteller, and most importantly a Tamil person, it is part of my responsibility and duty to explore this – whilst bearing in mind the ethical framework around it. This is ultimately other people’s stories, that they have wanted me and other storytellers to write, said Shankari.

The history of Sri Lanka was appropriated by the Sinhalese people and the Sri Lankan government to create an identity of what it meant to be Sri Lankan that excluded the Tamil people. I researched the hell out of things, because I’m a lawyer, and I don’t want anyone to ever doubt the veracity of what I have said about the inhumanities that were affected against the Tamil people. If you can challenge the veracity of one part, people would want to dispute what happened to the Tamil people, and then try to challenge the rest of it, said Shankari in the course of the interview.

What was the initial seed of thought or emotion which triggered the writing process for ‘Song of the Sun God’, asked an interviewer. Shankari replied, I was very close to my grandparents. My grandmother recently passed away and my grandfather passed away a decade ago. The story seed was this couple based on my grandparents from their youth. As part of a diaspora (in particular, a diaspora that was unable to return to Sri Lanka for thirty years), so much of our understanding of Sri Lanka, Tamil history, politics and culture is through the memories and storytelling of our older generations. If you’re willing to listen, there’s such richness in those moments – and I have been listening my entire life.

When I finished my degree, I went travelling around the world. My mother gave me a list of every family member and told me to call them and they would feed me. I did call them, visit them and they fed me – but they would also tell me stories, and I would journal them in the evenings without realizing it. And then in London, I became very close to my extended family who would also tell me my own family history which I also wrote down. Years later, I found those papers and I realized I had unconsciously brought all of that into ‘Song of the Sun God.’

Shankari Chandran was born in London and grew up in Australia, but Sri Lanka was always a presence in our lives, she said. Her parents had a strong connection with north and east of Sri Lanka. We were constantly aware of what was happening with the war, she said. My family, particularly my father and his brothers really felt so much grief, anger, and guilt about having left and having survived and having gone on to create good lives for themselves.  And so there was always this pull, and though we weren’t coming back to Sri Lanka, it was still a daily part of our lives.[2] For us it is received memories of the older generation. But I do feel a very strong connection with Sri Lanka, she said. [3]

Song of the Sun God” (2017 is about Rajan and Nala,  their children, grand children and some relatives. Nala was a Vellala from the  land owning caste. They   hailed  from Allevaddy and Tellipali, two villages in Jaffna. In Jaffna the village was not just where you lived . It was about you,  your family, what they were. It told others your character, not just ancestral location. Your village matters,  enthused the novel. Yes, it  mattered. It indicated the caste a person belonged to. Caste was very important in Tamil society. The novel does not  discuss caste.

After marriage Rajan and Nala lived in Colombo, at  Cinnamon Gardens, a pleasant,  fictional neighborhood of diplomats and doctors.  The fictional hero, Rajan was the best general surgeon in Colombo. He was the youngest doctor to be promoted to chief consultant at the  General Hospital, Colombo and the first Tamil.  He was the doctor to  four  Prime Ministers including JR Jayewardene. They had many Sinhala friends and were happy in Colombo. But  after the  anti Tamil riots of  July 1983, they left for Sydney, Australia .

As a story, Song of the Sun God” lacks interest. There is no character development,  or significant events, but there is melodrama. Two daughters, in two succeeding generations , are  given away to their aunts, to be brought up. The aunts pretend to be their  mothers, resulting in  trauma later on.  One daughter found Now her brother is her second cousin and her grandmother was her great aunt,”  but even this melodrama falls flat. It is repetitive. There is also a Great Dane as the family dog ,but that does not help either.

The  novel is full of references to ice cream, both  vanilla and strawberry. Dhara  was licking ice cream off her wrist on one occasion. The focus is on enjoyment, but there is also a glimpse of the  financial austerity  Tamils are known for. Rajan suggested to the surprise of his family that they eat ice cream at  Galle Face. Its tenth of the price if you buy it by the pound or in bulk, or on sale,  But I thought you might like a treat, he said. While eating this ice cream, Nala recalled that when they were young, once a year their grandfather in Jaffna would buy them an ice cream for a treat from the restaurant next to the Dutch Fort in Jaffna town.

The main story is an excuse for the Tamil Separatist sub  story. The Tamil Separatist   sub story is placed inside the main story but not woven into it. It is  given in installments as reportage. The Tamil Separatist  story  is  tucked into a fictional story, because in fiction, readers are expected to  believe everything  they read and  even remember some of it afterwards.

The book has succeeded in influencing  two writers who were assigned to review the book. Song of the Sun God is a perfect rendition of the chaos in Sri Lanka that played with the lives of its residents, said one reviewer. If the Tamils didn’t learn Sinhalese, they would never be able to live as equals in Ceylon. And the rift between the two communities deepens as the years pass by. This divide is beautifully portrayed throughout the book and made me well up, the reviewer concluded. [4]

Alice Violett, reviewing the book said,  I didn’t even know there was a civil war in Sri Lanka before I read this book, let alone that it went on for 26 years and ended as recently as 2009. It was interesting to learn about both the country and the conflict, with many of the war scenes being  breath-takingly shocking.[5]

The novel gives information on  the many nasty things that were done to the innocent  Tamils of Sri Lanka . It  described the  first  Tamil Sinhala riot in the island, the Gal Oya riots of 1958. At Gal Oya, the government was  bringing in Sinhalese and giving them the best land,  said the novel. There were huge numbers of deaths at Gal Oya. Some had been burned to death.  Nala’s only brother , Mohan dies in the riots at Gal Oya[6]and this has a permanent impact on her. She is still thinking of Mohan twenty years later. His child Dhara was given to Nala to look after.

There is mention of Sinhala Only. Sinhala Only would change everything for the Tamils, said the novel. Children no longer studied in English, they were segregated and taught in  swabhasha. Sinhalese was now the language  of the civil service, the courts and the country. Tamils no longer had a language with which to communicate with the state .

The novel  records that the Jaffna Public Library was burned down on 2nd June 1981. The burning of the Jaffna Public library changed everything, it showed us our place, noted the characters in the  novel.

The Jaffna Public Library is described in glowing terms. It had one of the Asia’s greatest collections of Tamil literature. There were almost  hundred thousand books by Tamils about Tamils, said the novel.

 The  Jaffna community loved the library, said the novel. As children,  Rajan and Nala were taken to the Jaffna public library where they would read for hours. Nala recalled as a child she had poured through books about the Chola kings  who conquered India. They  rode  victoriously south to create new kingdoms and built temples all over south East Asia. She revelled in manuscripts and maps about a Tamil empire where her culture was celebrated. 

The library  was a useful source for those interested in  the Tamil culture that had come from south India and taken on a shape of its own  in Sri Lanka  . The library contained original documents which record the history of the Tamil people in Ceylon, said the novel.The collection represented how far they had come and  how far they could go. Much of this is nonsense, but  the aspirations of the Ceylon Tamils and their plans for domination in Sri Lanka is  significant.

The  July  1983  anti Tamil riots are recorded in the novel. Houses in Wellawatte were  burned down, people killed. A grandmother was  burned alive. Greatly to its credit, this novel records that when the anti Tamil riots of July 1983 took place in Colombo, Rajan and Nala’s  Sinhala friends  helped them.  The novel repeats  this  later on. Sinhala  neighbors helped protect Tamils in Colombo in 1983, the novel said. (p 89,344).  

Then the novel moves to the Eelam war, regarding which the author has no firsthand knowledge. The novel presents the war as a senseless, aggressive  military attack  by the Sri Lanka army on an  innocent Tamil population. LTTE is hardly mentioned. Eelam occasionally. I believe in Tamil Tigers and I believe in Eelam, said one character.

The government sent the army to the homeland of the Tamil people in Jaffna province, said the novel. Army was bombing those sheltering in churches,  such as St Peters at Navali. Almost a hundred Tamils died there, seeking refuge, the novel continued . In  the final stages of the war people died in hospital and school where they had taken refuge. LTTE who surrendered with white flags were killed.

In the book, there is considerable emphasis on the No Fire Zone . There were over 150,000 refugees in the No fire zone, said the novel .  Where did they go asked the novel. The more pertinent question is,  why they were there at all. They were  there because they were obeying LTTE orders. LTTE was engaged in high treason.

According to the novel, the state army was shooting into the No Fire Zone recklessly. The novel does not say the LTTE was firing from  the No Fire Zone. Army  said it had not used  heavy weapons,  and had not targeted civilians, UN satellite imagery showed that they  did. Army had set up mortar batteries that were  calibrated and re calibrated for the No fire Zones it had shepherded the civilians into, continued the novel.

Thousands died in the No Fire Zone  said the novel. Government  refused to allow medical supplies  in and the injured out of the No Fire Zone. Government also  refused to allow Red Cross into the No Fire Zone, to provide food and medication. The Army bombed  a  hospital  in  the No Fire Zone, though the location  has been given by the Red Cross to the army, said the novel.

The entire population depended on UN for food to eat. That was enough for two days, rest of the time they starved, said the novel. The novel is silent about the fact that throughout the Eelam war, food was sent  to the north by the government of Sri Lanka .The healthy appearance of the hostages as they arrived on the government side, after the hostage rescue, showed that they had not lacked food.

 In the novel there is much emphasis on mothers and children  .In the No Fire Zone children knew when and how to jump into  bunkers when the shelling started the  burst of sound that deafened for the moment, the beautiful silent moment followed by screaming, said the novel, poetically .

The novel continued, at Mullavaikkal  mothers on the beach  were digging bunkers in the sand. Mothers hiding their children using the own bodies as shells rained down. Mothers clung to their wasted children and placed their wasted bodies over them.  Later they lined the dead children in  lifeless rows, covered with flies. Mothers sat and wailed by them, said the novel.  However, the mothers and children rushing to the  government side, at the end of the war, shown on television, looked fit and healthy, they did not look wasted at all.

The novel records  the end of the Eelam war. They are our people and they were slaughtered on the beach like animals, declared  the novel. The army killed the hostages and stepped over a morass of bodies without a second thought.  One  hundred thousand  dead at  Mullavaikkal, mourned the novel.

Those sent to refugee camps,  never returned from them, said the novel. Soldiers had set up a section for themselves in the refugee camp and for the female refugees of their choice. The state army is shown in a very negative light. Dhara ,a character in the novel, who was working for the LTTE  was assaulted,  tortured and repeatedly raped by the army, on  a bed,  or tied down on a  table.    Her reactions  are described at length. There are more than one instance of rape by army, said the novel.[7]

After the war ended, people had returned to claim their lands, presenting faded deeds, continued the novel. But new Sinhala communities were constructed on top of old Tamils ones. New Sinhala districts were created  in old Tamil ones  making  Tamils a minority in their own homelands. Army appropriated land and businesses. Tamil  families were either in camps or living by the way side of their former homes, said the novel.

The novel   contains many contemptuous references to  the Sinhalese, Buddhism and  Mahavamsa. These carry a whiff of  the Tamil superiority shown by elite Tamils in the 1950s. The novel recalled that G.G. Ponnambalam had  said that most of the Sinhala kings are actually Tamil.

This island has never been a nation it was just three separate tribal kingdoms. Ceylon was forced together as one colony ,not a nation.  A zone really for administration convenience, run by one of the finest civil services of the world, said the novel. [8]

If the Buddhist monks and politicians want to use the Mahavamsa to take sole ownership of this country then we have a right to challenge the chronicle and them. We should talk about our ancient Tamil kingdom and the richness of Hinduism. We  should put forward our side of the history,  continued the  novel .[9]

The main target it in the novel, however, is  the Maha Sangha. Bhikkhus excelled at stirring trouble, said the novel.[10]  Monks are telling  people about the  greatness of Buddhism . Telling Sinhala-Buddhist who  ten years ago  barely cared about their own religion. [11] The Buddhist say the Mahavamsa gives them a historical claim to the country. It is their history of the Sinhala kings of Ceylon. [12] Sinhala only, the monks said was not just about language , it was  about Buddhism’s return to greatness. It was about racial superiority, hidden in the rhetoric of religion, said the novel.[13]  ( Continued)

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[1] https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/song-sun-god-novel-interrogates-injustices-faced-tamil-people-interview-shankari-chandran

[2] https://www.ft.lk/FT-Lite/An-afternoon-with-Shankari-Chandran/6-648177

[3] https://www.ft.lk/FT-Lite/An-afternoon-with-Shankari-Chandran/6-648177

[4] https://www.thebooksatchel.com/song-sun-god-shankari-chandran/

[5] https://www.draliceviolett.com/blog-tour-song-of-the-sun-god

[6] Shankari Chandran Song of the sun god p60

[7] Shankari Chandran Song of the sun god p 145

[8] Shankari Chandran Song of the sun god p 41

[9] Shankari Chandran Song of the sun god p 21

[10] Shankari Chandran Song of the sun god p 42

[11] Shankari Chandran Song of the sun god p 22

[12] Shankari Chandran Song of the sun god p 21

[13] Shankari Chandran Song of the sun god p 85

Priyantha Pradeep Ranasinghe

The experimental book තිස්පන් ලක්ෂයක රැකියා සුරැකි, ත්‍රෛපාර්ශ්වික එකඟතාවය” (The Tripartite Agreement that secured the employment of 3.5 million persons) which is published by ‘Desarasa’, and written on the historical process that secured all the jobs through a tripartite agreement among the trade unions, employers and the Ministry of Labour when 3.5 million employees of the private sector faced the risk of losing their jobs during the Corona epidemic in Sri Lanka, was presented to Deputy Speaker Ajith Rajapaksa by senior journalist Priyantha Pradeep Ranasinghe on 04.09.2024 at the Office of the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament. The first copy of this book was presented to Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, who provided leadership to this agreement and was the Minister of Labour during the Corona pandemic.

ප්‍රියන්ත ප්‍රදීප් රණසිංහ

පොදුජන එක්සත් නිදහස් පෙරමුණ, මෙරට බිහිවූ අලුත් ම දේශපාලන පෙරමුණයි. කුසලානය සිය ලකුණ කරගත් එම පෙරමුණේ සභාපතිත්වය සහ නායකත්වය දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධනටද, ලේකම් ධුරය වෛද්‍ය රමේෂ් පතිරණටද හිමිවී තිබේ. දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන යනු මෙරට වර්තමාන අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයායි. ඔහු මහජන එක්සත් පෙරමුණේ නායකයාද වේ. පොහොට්ටුව හෙවත් ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ, මෙවර ජනාධිපතිවරණයට වෙනම අපේක්ෂකයෙකු ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට තීරණය කිරීමත් සමග ඊට එකඟ නොවූ, රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ ජනාධිපතිවරයා සමග ආණ්ඩුව ගෙනගිය, පොහොට්ටුවේ මන්ත්‍රීවරු බහුතරය, ජනාධිපතිවරණයේදී ස්වාධීනව ඉදිරිපත්ව සිටින රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහට සහය දීමට තීරණය කළහ. එතෙක් පොහොට්ටුව සමග සිටි දිනේෂ් ප්‍රමුඛ ම.එ.පෙ.ද එම තීරණයේ සිටි අතර එහි ප්‍රතිඵලයක් ලෙස ‘කුසලානය’ නැතහොත් පොදුජන එක්සත් නිදහස් පෙරමුණ බිහි වී තිබේ.

මෙහි වැදගත් සිදුවීම් කිහිපයක් හඳුනාගත හැකිය. කුසලානය හෙවත් පොදුජන එක්සත් නිදහස් පෙරමුණ ඊළඟට එන ඇල්පිටිය ප්‍රාදේශීය සභාවට සිය ලකුණින් තරග වදින බව, එහි ලේකම් අමාත්‍ය රමේෂ් පතිරණ, පෙරමුණ බිහිවූ 2024.09.05 දින සිය කතාවේදී අනාවරණ කළේය. ඉන් අදහස් වන්නේ ජනාධිපතිවරණයෙන් පසු එන සියලු මැතිවරණ සඳහා කුසලානය වෙනම තරග වදින බවයි. ඒවගේම පොහොට්ටුව නියෝජනය කළ කිසිවෙකුත් අතරමං වීමට ඉඩ නොතබන බව නව පෙරමුණේ නායක දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන එහිදී අවධාරණය කළේය. අනෙක් පැත්තෙන් වැදගත් කාරණය වන්නේ,1983 අතුරු මැතිවරණයෙන් මහරගම ආසනය දිනා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට පැමිණි දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධනට කුසලානයේ නායකත්වය සහ සභාපතිත්වය හිමිවන විට එම අතුරු මැතිවරණයෙන් ම අක්මීමන ආසනය දිනා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට පැමිණි රිචඩ් පතිරණගේ පුතා එහි ලේකම්වීමය.

අන්ත දක්ෂිණාංශික හෝ අන්ත වාමාංශික හෝ නොවී, ජාතිකවාදය ඔස්සේ සමාජ ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදිව, නොබැඳි විදෙස් ප්‍රතිපත්තිය ඔස්සේ මැද මාවතේ ගමන් කිරීම ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය බිහිවී 1956 මහජන එක්සත් පෙරමුණේ ආණ්ඩුවේ සිට වාමවාදී පෙරමුණේ ආණ්ඩුවල ලක්ෂණය විය. එදා එස්. ඩබ්ලිව්. ආර්. ඩී. බණ්ඩාරනායක, පිලිප් ගුණවර්ධන ඇතුළු එකතුවත්, එවැන්නක් විය. සිරිමාවෝ බණ්ඩාරනායක ප්‍රමුඛ සභාග ආණ්ඩුවලද වමේ සහ ජාතිකවාදී පක්ෂ කටයුතු කළේ එවැනි පෙරමුණු ගොඩනගා ගෙනය. දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධනද අඛණ්ඩව සහය දුන්නේ ශ්‍රීලනිපය ප්‍රමුඛ එම පෙරමුණටය. මෙරට පළමු ජනාධිපතිවරණයට 1982 දී තරග කිරීමට ශ්‍රීලනිපයට ‘අත’ ලකුණ අහිමි වූ අවස්ථාවේ සිය පක්ෂය වූ ම.එ.පෙ. ලකුණ වන ‘රෝදය’ මැතිනිය වෙත පරිත්‍යාග කිරීමට දිනේෂ් ඉදිරිපත් විය. එමෙන්ම ඉතිහාසයේ පුළුල්තම ප්‍රගතිශීලි වාමාංශික දේශපාලන සන්ධානය වන 2004 දී ගොඩනැගුනු එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානය බිහි කිරීමට විශාල කැපකිරීමක් කර එහි ප්‍රථම උප සභාපතිවරයා වුයේද දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධනයි. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ පරාජය වූ 2015දී ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයේ නායකයා ලෙස දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන විශාල කාර්යභාරයක් ඉටු කළ අතර, මහින්ද වෙනුවෙන් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ කතා කිරීමට සිටි එකම මන්ත්‍රීවරයාද විය. ලංකා දේශපාලනය උඩුයටිකුරු කළ 2015.02.15 නුගේගොඩ පැවැත්වූ ඓතිහාසික මහා ජන රැළියටද නායකත්වය දුන් දිනේෂ්, විසිරුණු කඳවුරු යළි එක්සේසත් කළේය. අනෙක් පැත්තෙන් ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ හා මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ජනාධිපති ධුරයෙන් හා අගමැති ධුරයෙන් ඉල්ලා අස්වී රට අස්ථාවර වූ අවස්ථාවේ රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ සමග පොහොට්ටුවේ ආණ්ඩුව ඉදිරියට ගෙනගියේ දිනේෂ්‍ ය. කිසිදු බරපතළ ගැටුමකට යා නොදී ඒ නොපෑහෙනවා යැයි කී ආණ්ඩුව ඔස්සේ රට ආර්ථික ස්ථාවරත්වයක් කරා ගෙනයාමට රනිල්ට, දිනේෂ් ප්‍රමුඛ පාර්ලිමේන්තු කණ්ඩායම කොන්දේසි විරහිත සහයෝගයක් ලබා දුන්නේය.

කෙටියෙන් වුවද මෙවැනි කරුණු සලකා බලන කල, නව පෙරමුණ වන, කුසලානය ලකුණේ පොදුජන එක්සත් නිදහස් පෙරමුණ සිය නායකයා ලෙස දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා තෝරාගැනීම කලොචිත ම තීරණය ලෙස සැලකිය හැකිය. දේශීය වශයෙන් පමණක් නොව ජාත්‍යන්තර වශයෙන්ද කෘතහස්ත දේශපාලනඥයෙකු වන දිනේෂ්ට ඇත්තේ ඉහළ පිළිගැනීමකි. පාර්ලිමේන්තු ක්‍රමය පිළිබඳ ඔහුගේ පළපුරුද්ද සහ දැනුම සම කළ හැකි අයෙකු වර්තමාන පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ නැතැයි කිවහොත් එහි වරදක් නැත. ඒ වගේම පාර්ලිමේන්තු ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය පිළිබඳ ඔහුගේ ඇති විශ්වාසය අතිශය වැදගත්ය.

තවත් පැත්තකින් බලන කල, ශ්‍රීලනිප සහ පසු කලෙක පොහොට්ටුව සමග සිටි වාමාංශික සහ ජාතිකවාදී බලවේග සඳහාද දිනේෂ්ගේ පෙරමුණ, දේශපාලනය කිරීම සහ රට ගොඩනැගීම වෙනුවෙන් හොඳ තෝතැන්නකි. මෙවර 39 දෙනෙකු ඉදිරිපත් වුවත් ජනාධිපතිවරණයෙන් දිනන්නේ එක අයෙකි. ඉන්පසු පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට, පළාත් සභාවට, පළාත් පාලන ආයතන සඳහා තේරීපත් වීමට වමේ, ජාතිකවාදී කඳවුරට පොදු වේදිකාවක් අහිමි වී තිබිණි. දිනේෂ්ගේ පෙරමුණ ඒ වේදිකාව යළි ඉදිකර දී තිබේ.

-ප්‍රියන්ත ප්‍රදීප් රණසිංහ

Manusha Media

විදේශ රැකියා සදහා ශ්‍රමිකයින් පිටත් කර යැවීම සදහා මුදල් ලබාගත් බවට අසත්‍ය සහ පදනම් විරහිත ප්‍රකාශ නිකුත් කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණු හිටපු පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී වසන්ත සමරසිංහ මහතාට එරෙහිව, කම්කරු හා විදේශ රැකියා හිටපු අමාත්‍ය මනුෂ නානායක්කාර මහතා විසින් නීතිමය පියවර ගෙන තිබේ.

ඊශ්‍රායල් සහ කොරියානු රැකියා ලබාදීම සදහා අත්සන් යෙදීම සදහා මුදල් ලබාගන්නා බවට වසන්ත සමරසිංහ කර තිබෙන ප්‍රකාශ සම්පූර්ණ අසත්‍ය ප්‍රකාශ බවද එන්තරවාසියේ සදහන් වේ.

මනුෂ නානායක්කාර මහතා කම්කරු හා විදේශ රැකියා අමාත්‍යවරයා ලෙස අමාත්‍යාංශය භාරව කටයුතු කළ කාලයේදී විශාල පිරිසක් විදේශ රැකියා සදහා පිටත් කර යවා තිබෙන බවද, එසේ විශාල පිරිසක් විදේශ රැකියා සදහා යොමු කිරීම හේතුවෙන් ඔවුන්ගේ පවුල්වල සාමාජිකයින් අතර වෛරය ඇති කිරීම සදහා මෙම ප්‍රකාශය නිකුත් කර තිබෙන බවද එන්තරවාසියේ දැක්වේ.

අසත්‍ය ප්‍රකාශ කරමින් අපකීර්තියට ලක් කිරීම සමබන්ධයෙන් රුපියල් මිලියන 500ක වන්දි මුදලක් ඉල්ලා ඇති අතර එම වන්දි මුදල දින 14ක් ඇතුළත ලබාදීමට කටයුතු නොකරන්නේ නම් අධිකරණය හමුවේ නඩු පවරා වන්දි මුදල සහ නඩු ගාස්තු අය කරගැනීමට කටයතු කරන බවද වසන්ත සමරසිංහ වෙත යොමු කළ එන්තරවාසියේ දැක්වේ.

කම්කරු සහ විදේශ රැකියා අමාත්‍යවරයා ලෙස මනුෂ නානායක්කාර මහතා කටයුතු කළ අවස්ථාවේදී විදේශ රැකියා ජාවාරම් වැලැක්වීම සදහා දැඩිව කටයුතු කළ අයෙක් වන අතර එවැනි ජාවාරම්කරුවන්ට එරෙහිව දැඩි නීතිමය පියවර ගැනීම සදහාද අවශ්‍ය දායකත්වය ලබාදුන්නේය.

Courtesy https://finance.yahoo.com/

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka will hold its presidential election on Sept. 21 in a crucial vote that will decide the future of the South Asian nation still struggling to recover from its economic collapse in 2022, which provoked mass protests and forced the former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and later resign.

The election is seen as a referendum on President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s two-year-long rule that has overseen a fragile recovery of the country’s economy.

He faces a tough challenge from the leader of the opposition in parliament, as well as from a left-leaning politician with a powerful alliance, who is gaining popularity among young voters.

Almost 17 million of Sri Lanka’s 22 million people are eligible to vote, and 38 candidates are running for office.

Who are the main candidates?

Wickremesinghe, whose United National Party has been weakened by a split, is running as an independent candidate. Even though Wickremesinghe remains unpopular for carrying out austerity measures — including sharp tax hikes — in exchange for an International Monetary Fund bailout, he is hoping to gain votes from his success in largely abating the shortage of essentials such as fuel, cooking gas, medicines and food.

But Wickremesinghe — a six-time prime minister — is at a disadvantage because he belongs to the old guard, whom Sri Lankans blame for the economic collapse.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the leader of a Marxist-led coalition named National People’s Power, is fast emerging as a key challenger to Wickremesinghe due to his popularity among the young people fed up with corruption that they believe caused the economic crisis. He is also drawing support from some voters who participated in the 2022 protests demanding the resignation of the then-President Rajapaksa.

Although he has been a leftist in the past, Dissanayake now professes economic freedom and promises welfare measures to help the working class. Political analysts say he is a strong contender because, unlike his rivals, he is not linked with the business and political elites who ran the country in the past.

Wickremesinghe’s other challenger is Sajith Premadasa, the incumbent president’s former deputy and leader of his breakaway party, United People’s Power. Premadasa promises to continue with the IMF program but with changes to lessen the burden on poor people.

He has also promised a degree of power devolution to the minority Tamil community, who make up about 11% of the country’s population. In return, Premadasa has secured the support of a strong Tamil political bloc.

What about the Rajapaksa family?

Namal Rajapaksa, the heir apparent to the once-powerful Rajapaksa clan, is also contesting. Namal’s candidacy will test whether his powerful clan — which has produced two presidents — can retain its hold on the country after many of its members were pushed into the political wilderness. His father, Mahinda Rajapaksa, is credited with crushing the Tamil armed separatist movement in 2009.

Namal is promising to ease the tax burden on Sri Lankans and build a strong economy, saying its meltdown in 2022 was largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

How does the election work?

Votes will be cast throughout the day on Sept. 21, with results expected to be out by evening the following day.

Voters can select three candidates from the ballot paper in the order of their preference. The first preferences will be counted first and the candidate who secures more than 50% of the valid votes will be declared winner.

If there is no clear winner, the first two candidates will be retained in the race and ballot papers that chose other candidates for No. 1 will be checked to see if either of the top two contenders are their second or third preference. Those votes will be added to the tally of the remaining two candidates. The candidate who gets the highest number will be declared the winner.

Sri Lanka has a powerful executive presidential system with the President being the head of state, government, cabinet and the armed forces. The prime minister has some powers like recommending Cabinet ministers.

There are no reliable opinion polls to suggest which candidate is in the lead, but many observers say Dissanayake has been gaining popularity.

Veeragathy Thanabalasingham, a senior journalist and political observer, said while it appeared to be a two-horse race” between Premadasa and Dissanayake in early September, campaigning in the final weeks could place all three candidates on equal ground.

What are the big issues?

Sri Lanka’s economy is the key issue in the election.

Under Wickremesinghe, important economic figures have improved: Inflation dropped below 5% from 70% in 2022, interest rates were lowered, and foreign reserves grew. A 2% growth is predicted for 2024, the highest since the economic collapse, but financial benefits have not reached the common people, many of whom are affected by high living costs. Businesses and professionals are complaining of high taxes.

While Wickremesinghe says that the IMF agreement can’t be significantly changed, his rivals say they will try to renegotiate it to ease the burden on the public.

A large section of the population is also unhappy because it believes Wickremesinghe’s administration protected the Rajapaksa family, which has been accused of economic mismanagement and corruption. Many feel the family should be held accountable.

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතාගේ ඉංග්‍රීසි දැනුම සම්බන්ධයෙන් තමන් කිසිදු වාදයක් නොකරන බව ජනාධිපති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා සඳහන් කරයි.

විලියම් විලියම් ෂේක්ස්පියර් විනිසිය වෙළෙන්දා කෘතිය ලිවීමට පෙර සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතාගේ ටියුෂන් පන්තිවලට පැමිණි බවට කතාවක් ඇති බවද ඔහු පැවසුවේය.

ජනාධිපතිවරයා මේ බව කියා සිටියේ ජනාධිපතිවරණ ජන රැලියක් අමතමිනි.

සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහත්තයට හොදට ඉංග්‍රිසි කතාකරන්න පුළුවන් කියලා එයාලගේ අය කියනවා. මම ඒගැන වාද විවාද කරන්න යන්නේ නැහැ. මොකද එතුමගේ ටියුෂන් පංතිවලට විලියම් ෂේක්ස්පියර් කියන කවියා ආවා කියලා දන්නවද. වැනිසියේ වෙළෙන්දා ලියන්න කලින් එතුමා ඒ පංතියට ආවේ. අපි ඒගැන වාද කරන්න යන්නේ නැහැ.

ඒනිසා මම ටීම් එකක් ගැන කියන්නේ නැහැ. මාව හොදනම් අරගන්න එච්චරයි කියන්නේ. පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට තේරීලා එන අයගෙන් තමයි ටීම් එක තෝරගන්න වෙන්නේ. ඒක මට අවශ්‍ය විදිහට කරන්න බැහැ. ඒ නිසා මොන පක්ෂයේ උනත් හොද මිනිස්සු පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට දාන්න.

මේ සැරේ මම ජනාධිපතිවුණාම පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ හිටපු ටීම් එක මම ගත්තා. මම තෝරන්න ගියේ නැහැ. ඔනෙම ටීම් එකක් දෙන්න මම වැඩකරලා පෙන්නන්නම්. නායකයා කියන්නේ එහෙම කෙනෙක්.”

Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario ., K1J 6G1

5 September 2024

SENT BY SURFACE MAIL

Mayor Patrick Brown’
Mayor of the City of Brampton
Ontario,

cc Harkirat Singh, Deputy Mayor, City of Brampton, Ontario.

Dear Mayor Patrick Brown:

What’s all this Brampton Mayor, asking us during the Brampton Tamil ‘Genocide’ Memorial Monument Foundation stone laying ceremony, if there were anyone who does not believe in Tamil Genocide” during the Tamil Eelam ethnic war should go back home.’

Now…now..Patrick stop acting like Lord Hanuman for Brampton-Tamils, renowned for his power, even when the UN says that there was No ‘genocide’ in that Eelam war and Canada’s Federal Court rejected Tamil genocide after reviewing Prime Minister Justine Trudeau’s statement of Tamil Genocide you change gears to the power-play Bully Mode” to keep hanging on to the Tamil Tiger tails.  But I need that You show proof of Tamil Genocide” as did the Canadian Residential Schools genocide” acts showing proof that it did happen. You, Mayor Brown, will be suspected as a Hoaxer until you show proof.  It is that simple.   Show me the proof!

 Your narrative of Tamil Genocide” is one BIG HIMALAYAN TECTONIC HOAX.. Like the  Tamil Convention Refugees returning  home every October, November and December, which they shouldn’t, having run away from Sri Lanka due to alleged discrimination and persecution, having obtained  emergency travel documents from the Sri Lankan High Commission in Ottawa on compassionate grounds, to be with their dying parents.  COME HOME IMMEDIATELY, FATHER  DYING OF CANCER or MOTHER HAS ONE WEEK TO LIVE DYING OF CANCER, RETURN HOME IMMEDIATELY says the telegrams presented to the  Sri Lanka High Commission in Ottawa to get their travel documents to be with their dying parents.

But here is what is strange, Mayor Patrick Brown about this very innovative  Tamilian Hoax is that the Cancer pandemic is cyclical and affects only the Tamil parents every holiday months of October, November and December every year. 

And the parents of Sinhalese, Muslim and Burgher sons and daughters living in Canada, remain healthy and are not afflicted by this strange three-month Tamil-Cancer sickness.

How do I know, you may wonder!  I dealt with these hoaxer humanitarian cases when I was a senior staff officer at the Sri Lanka High Commission in Ottawa from June 1989 to June 1994.

Pssst…Mayor Patrick Brown here are some Consular numbers of the Refugee Tamils that came to the High Commission applying for emergency travel documents to travel home to Sri Lanka.  But don’t share them with any of your Tamil Genocide”: Memorial Monument activity friends, in case they have a hearty laugh at You saying to their Tamil buddies...”Hey! Thumby, got another Canadian in our Foolish Canadian Politician Sucker Net.”

Here are the numbers  in 1992 (8624 Tamils applied for emergency travel documents;. 1993 (5865 Tamil refugee applicants), and  in January, February and March 1994 (1133 Tamil applicants).    Mayor Brown, did I hear you say Good God, Holy, Moses is this true!”

That is easy  Mayor Brown, if you have qualitative proof of ‘Tamil Genocide’, for Pete-sake lay it on for us.   If you don’t, then for good-measure,  velcro your lips on this subject for good without dragging out this debate picking up strings of

Tamil votes for you to get another term in the Brampton Mayor’s Office with a handsome monthly pay cheque that will provide you the luxury of sirloin steaks for dinner than of a McDonald hamburger, or a plate of three thosai with sambar supplied as a favour by your Tamil constituents.

As  for your silly-arrogant God’s-speak asking me to go home because I will not believe that Tamil Genocide happened until you show me proof of that it did happen.  I tried it once wanting to go back to where I came from, London, 

England, in March 1971, but I was discouraged to do so..  I didn’t come to Canada in search of roads paved in gold, nor used a Haro hara mantra to get on a plane with a legitimate passport and use the Tamil Haro hara mantra to have it disappear when I got off the plane at the Old Ottawa airport and sing the melodramatic Karnatic song and verse saying that I am running away from persecution and discrimination who, once-upon-a-time enjoyed being a member of the privileged 10% minority Tamils for 131 British colonial years, compared to the 75% wronged Sinhalese majority,.

Here’s my story,  Mayor Patrick Brown,  how I landed in Canada.  I don’t take Canadian politician’s poppycock, the way you are laying it on me about Tamil Genocide in Sri Lanka.”

In June 1970, the Canadian National Museums Corporation in Ottawa was head-hunting for a Liberal research scientist to join the newly formed Design and Display Division Team to create 15 brand new exhibition Halls at the Victoria Memorial Museum at Argyll and Metcalfe Streets, a stone’s throw from Ottawa’s Parliament Buildings.  No doubt  you know the Victoria Memorial Museum.

The Job Description for the Head of Thematic Research Section of the Design and Display Division specified that they wanted a Liberal Research Scientist with an academic degree and experience in creative arts and design.

 Recommended by Professor Ward Neale, the Head of the Geology Department at Memorial University in Newfoundland, they found me, as a Research Scientist in Geology and Palaeontology, an award winning published poet (English) in England, , an award winning Sculptor and Artist in England, a music composer on the piano and an award winning competition Ballroom dancer in England. Luck was on my side as the Canadian National Museums Corporation invited me to get over to Ottawa and join the Exhibition Design team which included a Chief of the Division (Tom Wood, War Artist), Jacques Saint-Cyr the creator of the 11-point maple leaf of the Canadian Flag as the Head of Design, and a Retired Major in the Army, Charlie Jessop as the Head of Administration.

After clearing Immigration I started my job on 1 November 1970..  The Office was on 39 McArthur Road in Vanier,  On the third week in March 1971, all four of us received letters of confirmation from the Public Service Commission, requesting us to get over to sign the permanency papers.

Monday morning of the fourth week of March 1971, I got a call from the PSC

telling me, Mr. Weerasinghe, please ignore the letter you received  about the Permanency, as it was sent by error.”

What? Was there a problem?

Yes, Mr. Weerasinghe. We have decided to open the competition for your job across Canada.”   Oops, Canada you are not going to do this to me!

Let’s cut out this crap. (I was frothing by then)  You couldn’t find anyone in Canada competent enough to do the job,  You found me in London, England, and  invited me to get over.  I gave up a well paying job as a Geologist and  here I am four Months into designing the Dinosaur Hall (Life Through the Ages) with Alan Todd (later Chief Designer of the National Gallery); Canada Before Cartier (Archaeology Hall) with designer Robin Bush.”

Are the other three white” staff members coming to sign the papers?”

Yes, Mr. Weerasinghe”.
So what you are telling me is that there is an apartheid policy in hiring  Middle-Manager staff,”

If you’re white, you’re alright,

If you are black, stay back,

‘And if you are brown, stick around”    Right!.

I am aztec- brown and I will not stick around.,   You tell me by noon

Wednesday whether you want my services or not.”

If not, I will be on the first plane out of your Canada, to where I came from, London, England.   I am sorry  that I stepped on to your Canadian soil.”

Mayor Patrick Brown, ‘shxt’ hit the fan,  All the higher ups, the Directors of the Museum of Natural Sciences (Dr. Lemieux), Dr. William Taylor Jr. (Director of the Museum of Man), my Chief of Division (Tom Wood) and a few others were visibly

 upset.   They knew that I will not accept such undignified crap from you white” anyone.

Tuesday morning the Deputy Minister McKenzie came to my office. He apologized for the turn of events, and told me that the issue has been settled.

That they want my expertise, and someone from the PSC will call me sometime today to get my signature on the form,  Please don’t go” he said

That day I went to the PSC office and the staffer told me, Mr. Weerasinghe, I am Sorry about the confusion!”

What… there was no confusion.  You guys had difficulty seeing a newcomer to Canada with an Aztec brown face sitting at the Middle-Manager’s  desk. Don’t, I will not accept such atrocious BS.”  So I signed the permanent papers, and I became a permanent employee of Canada’s public service.

Just that you know, Mayor Patrick Brown

I am no simple Simon

Who met Brampton’s Mayor

Going to his Tamil Genocide Fair…

We exchanged some words

On honesty, truth and professional care. 

It mattered nought to me 

That he was holding onto a Tamil Tiger’s tail,

But when dealing with me don’t mock

 Let’s cut out the Canadian-poppycock

‘As I expect him to be fair”

Mayor Patrick Brown I will address you now in Poetic rhymes

and syllabics, as I think I can explain incidents in my life in Canada

 better as they are therapeutic.

SINHA (lion).  My name is WEERA-SINHA, which mean a

‘brave-lion’)

If I have taken the passion of a lion

Into my heart by pithy anger,

It is because your grenade

                   clutching fingers

Are entangled in my beard hurting me

With the poison darts of

                      half-truths and lies

Published in foreign newspapers.

And when the ketchup blood gushes out,

from the thumb-print on her forehead,

Severing a life for exposing the debt

of joy being a tenth generation native,’

this is when the lion-anger roars

                         a jungle war cry

propping a lifeless torso strung

            onto a Jaffna lamppost.

(from Tears for my Roots, Asoka Weerasinghe. p.29)

(in North Sri Lanka, the separatist Tamil Eelam terrorists came

looking for her brother.  Since he was away, his 24-year

old sister was  dragged out of the house, tied to a lamppost

 and shot through her ear.)

Here’s an atrocious act by your Tamil Tiger terrorists that you

fail to admit.

Dunugalpitiya Fisherfolk

 (19 September 1990)

Seeing the fisherfolk all Sinhalese

chopped to death by Northern separatists,

the seaspray heaved up to me

pungent with a taste of blood

like a blood coated night song

sung into the pale grey sobs of daylight.

Listening to the widowed

chest-thumping lamentations,

my anger becomes visceral

and is siphoned through the nostrils

like a puffing fire belching dragon.

Before I bury the assimilated

puzzle of hearts and limbs

and fingers and toes,

I want to make a fire wreath

with phoenician songs

to resurrect their snuffed spirits

to be echoed across the jungles of Jaffna,

as I want to win this war one day,

I want to win this Eelam war.

( from Tears for my Roots, Asoka Weerasinghe, p.21)

Mayor Patrick Brown, you were 5-years old, just out of your Huggies

escorted to your Kindergarten, when on August 4th, 1983, I, accompanied

by a young gutsy, bright, with a spine of steel, a well articulating  smart Sinhalese-Canadian, Asoka Yapa, were picking up our bloodied Mother Lanka from the ground, who had been dropped to the ground, slapped, kicked, bludgeoned and spat at, for seven long days by the ugly,  marauding Canadian Tamil-Eelam separatists through every media outlet in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto, for the want of their mono-ethnic, racist, separate State-Eelam carved out of the North-eastern rich Real estate in that beautiful island Sri Lanka.  The island had given every Tamil Separatist who”kicked her, a free education, and let the colonial British make them a 10% privileged minority for 131-years, compared to the wronged-majority of 75% of the  Sinhalease population.

‘You know what Mayor Patrick, that was the day when I vowed that no one

is going to hurt my Mother Lanka, who gave me a free education and nurtured

me for the first 19 years of my life.,   No one, I said,  Not even a single politician- Liberal, Conservative or a NDPier, with his or her unfair damn lies for the want of a Tamil vote.  That is not kosher…that is not cricket.     And that included young Patrick Brown who would become the Mayor of Brampton, 41 years later, a hypocrite of the first order.  The Tamils have heard my voice like the Kavadi 

dancing tom-toms, loud and clear and so would their Parliamentarians, like their curry-in-a-hurry buddy MPs, like the Church Bells of the Notre Dame Basilica in Ottawa.

Mayor Patrick Brown, let’s get this right, and let me be blunt with my observations. With your erecting a Tamil Genocide Memorial” in Brampton;”, about a war that happened  between 1973 and 2009,  13,720 km away is perpetuating  Canadian shameful hypocritical history not wanting to recognize for many, many moons our Native Indian Residential schools Genocidal deaths of 

our Native kids, as a violation of the United Nations Genocide Convention, in particular of Article 21e.  

Listen,  Mayor Brown, you are white” enough, and stop wanting to be more lily-white” by pointing your accusatory finger at Sri Lanka Saying We are Holier than Thou.”   That is a load of Canadian thuggish codswallop.  Cut it, Mayor… just cut it.

My anger is visceral shooting cartwheels of dragon breath at you, when you

had been disrespectful to our Indigenous children who were submitted to Genocidal Deaths in Kamloops, B.C.  just 3,984 km away from your City of Brampton, buried on the site of the Kamloops Indian Residential School on the Tk’emlups te Secawepen site, and you as the Mayor of Brampton not laying even a local Ivory Mix Travertine rock, as a Memorial for them in your City of Brampton, rubbishing the existence of of our Native Indian kids. And  yet,  gushing with your love-ins with the Tamils who arrived after May 2009’s, the Eelam separatist war, and not for the innocent Sinhlese who were chopped with machetes and shot with Kalashnikovs and claymore mined by the separatist Tamil Tigers.   And worst, plucking little infants who were sucking on young Sinhalese mothers’ breasts, and bashing their little skulls on charnockite granite rocks, and watching in glee the streaming ketchup blood rivulets.

That’s downright Canadian hypocrisy recognizing genocide around the world, except its own against indigenous people,  Patrick Brown you are a classic textbook example of this misdemeanour. What’s wrong with you Mayor Patrick Brown….answer me!  I want to know!

It was natural for me to respect and love our Native First Nation peoples from the time I began to research and write for the Native Indian (Iroquois, Plains Indians and West Coast cultures) and Inuit Exhibition Halls at the Victoria Memorial Museum in Ottawa, in the early 1970s

And my poetry became therapeutic wanting to share their pain when people like

Mayor Patrick Brown of Brampton ignored the Wendat (Huron), Haudenosaunee  people and the Anishinaabe.  I will not forgive this whiteman’s”  lofty arrogance.

Not even a  Local bed-rock placed as a memorial.   Shish,,,that’s brutal, Patrick. That’s shameful.

Let me share my pain with my therapeutic poetry. You will understand my disappointment in you, Mayor Patrick Brown.

                       Lolotea

                    I am Lolotea

                a blessing from God

                  and I am divine.

             I am green and tender

            like a young ear of corn

        and too young to be a mother.

                Yet, I will grow up

                  like my mother

           to be the mother of corn

              to feed your hunger,              

               and learn to dance

       stamping my moccasined feet

           on the yellow-red earth,

      and dress with turquoise beads

           and eagle tail-feathers

               that will speak to me

               every fresh morning

                 of my ancestors,

           and bless you to ward off

               famine and disaster.

                 (this is another verse

                  from Tewa selected poems,

                   Asoka Weerasinghe, p.74)

              Benjamin Chee Chee

               (an Ojibway artist who died

                    by suicide in an Ottawa Jail

                          in 1977 at age 32)

             Now I know how they failed.

          If there had been equipment

            with life-saving oxygen sent

                 to Ottawa’s City Jail

          that night you were put inside

           a racoon cage by policemen

         on the fourth floor’s Cell No.10

              I would have witnessed

           more of your Canada geese’

                   flying in formation

       with forward stretched arrow necks

             along my studio wall. I think

                 they are a reflection

            of your uncomplicated soul

                    drawn on paper

               with pen and black ink.

                        (verse 2 and 3)

           May be the warm weather’

        would have dissuaded you a lot

          to wear long sleeve shirts

       in case you wished to tie a knot

      with the sleeves to hang yourself.

            Maybe I would have seen

     Pacific salmon swimming up my wall

          in stylized one line renderings,

                 May be, just, may be!

                 (from Tewa Selected Poems

                         Asoka Weerasinghe p.42)

                   Shanawdithit: Nancy April

                         On 6th June 1829

                         You didn’t feel fine

                         and white as death

                          spitting blood onto

                     a white man’s bed sheet,

                  Doodebewshet, Mary Decker

                          your  mother gone,

                  your sister Easter Eve gone

                     and you are about to die

                  in St. John’s, Newfoundland,’               

                   the last of the Beothucks

                      of the red ochre people

                          their Red-Indians

                    from your harsh far away

                        snow-packed land,

                your home in Notre Dame Bay

                  coughing Beothuk syllables

                    I try to make you understand

                   I am part of you and affable

                      wanting to be understood

                              and be alive

                        as I am Shanawdithit.

                         (followed by verses 2 to 18)

                             Under this mound of earth

                       lie Shanawdithit the last

                     of the Red-Indian Beothuks

                 who coughed Beothuck syllables

                    wanting to to be understood

                         and affable to be alive,

                          who had a friend in              

                        William Epp Cormack,

                           a Newfoundlander

                                 who cried

                             when she died,

                     and left St. John’s in 1829

                   with a strong feeling in main

                     not wanting to return again.

                                 (Asoka Weerasinghe

                                     from CANADIAN STORIES,

                                       Volume 23,No.131  2020)

Well…well…well. I have presented my case as one

who fell in love with the First Nation peoples and

respected them with a wholesome heart.. 

Now, a John Q Public  Judge and Jurist, that you Patrick Brown,

the Conservative Lord Mayor of the City of Brampton, of

Ontario, I found you guilty of a nonsensical fraudulent exercise wanting to buy

Tamil votes by erecting a Tamil ‘Genocide’ Memorial monument for those Tamils who died during the ethnic war with the Sri Lankan Government Military- Forces 13,720 km away, for the want of their mono-ethnic, racist Tamil State, Eelam.

You Lord Mayor Patrick Brown, while ignoring the Indigenous First Nation  children who died in acts of Genocide at Residential schools, with no memorial for them sponsored by Brampton’s Mayor; while insulting the non-Tamil, Sri Lankan-Canadian population of Brampton with your senseless-act of erecting that Tamil ‘Genocide’ Memorial, equivalent to a Brampton’s Tamil-Blarney Gong Show, you owe an apology and a Peace-Offering to the Incumbent Sri Lankan Buddhist monks of the Brampton Buddhist  Mission temple, whose brother novice monks, 33 of them, were slaughtered inside a bus on the morning of 2 June, 1987, by the Tamil Tiger Terrorists on their way on a pilgrimage. They were brutally mutilated on a rampage, attacking the novice Buddhist monks with guns and swords and shooting them with machine guns,at Aranthalawa.   Did you hear me Mayor Patrick Brown of Brampton…let me repeat, 33-young novice monks in saffron Buddha robes were brutally mutilated by the Tamil Tiger terrorists with guns and swords and shooting them with machine guns, on the morning of 2 June, 1987.   And you have the gall and temerity wanting to erect a Tamil ‘Genocide’ Memorial Monument in your Brampton’s Native Indian’s sacred land. 

I propose that the Council of the City of Brampton pay a Peace-offering  by inviting the Chief monk of the  Brampton’s Buddhist Mission Temple requesting them to install a Replica of the diorama of the bus with the young monks having been mutilated’ on a City approved site.  

Let this Monument of Aranthalawa be the gathering place every 2nd of June  for Buddhist devotees to perform their Pattanumodana Pooja’ to transfer merits to the 33 Novice monks who were killed and mutilated by the Tamil Tiger terrorists of Sri Lanka.

The original ‘Monument of Aranthalawa’  is situated in the village of Aranthalawa in the Ampara District in Sri Lanka.

Mayor Patrick Brown, the final decision is entirely yours.  Either to act as

a responsible, intelligent politician, admitting that your decision had failed to create a wholesome, harmonious multi-cultural community in Brampton, having opened a can of Vaddukodai worms by wanting to erect a Tamil Genocide” Memorial Monument in the City, and erase from the City Planning Drawings, the existence of such a  Memorial Monument.  This thus erases my proposal of the installation of the Monument of Aranthalawa in the City of Brampton.

MayorPatrick Bown,  ff your final decision is to go ahead with erecting the Tamil ‘Genocide’ Memorial Monument, at least be honest to the world with the invitation to your City with a big welcoming  board at the Highway entering the City of Brampton which says

                                                                  WELCOME 

                                   TO OUR FAIR CITY OF BRAMP of a TON of lies.

Be Well, Happy, Wise and Peaceful

Asoka Weerasinghe(Mr.)

Ottawa

මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

 දිවයින පුවත්පතේ මාධ්‍යවේදී එරික් ගාමිණී ජිනප්‍රිය මහතා විසින් රචනා කළ එන්පීපී කතාව සහ ජේවීපී ක්‍රියාව නම් කෘතිය ජනගත කිරීමට යොදා ගෙන තිබුණේ සැප්තැම්බර් මස 04 බුද දිනයේ දීය.සාහිත්‍ය මාසය ඇරඹීමත් වර්තමාන ‌ෙද්ශපාලන තුළ සාකච්ඡා කල යුතු වැදගත් මාතෘකාවක් වීමත් නිසා ජනතාව අතර යම් සංවාදයක් ඇති කිරීම මෙම ජනගත කිරීමේ අරමුණ විය.නමුත් එම දිනයේ අචාර්ය එන්. එම්. පෙරේරා මධ්‍යස්ථානයට කඩා වැදුණු පොලිසිය මෙම උත්සවය පැවැත්වීම නතර කිරීමට උපෙදෙස් ලබා දී ඇත.මැතිවරණ සමය බැවින් මෙය වෙනදාට ක්‍රියාත්මක පොලිසිය නොව මැතිවරණ කොමිසමේ  පොලීසිය වී යැයි දැන ගන්නට ඇත.

         2023 අවුරුද්දේ අංක 03 දරණ මැතිවරණ වියදම් නියාමන පනත පාර්ලමේන්තුවේ දී සම්මත විය.ඊට අමතරව මැතිවරණ ප්‍රචාරක කටයුතු පාලනය කිරීම සඳහා වනවැදගත් නීතියක් මාධ්‍ය උපමාන නමින් ගැසට් කරන්නට යෙදී ඇත.අප දන්නා පරිදි මනාප චන්ද ක්‍රමය ප්‍රචලිත වීමත් සමගම මැතිවරණ අපේක්ෂකයන් විසින් වියදම් කරන මුදල කෝටි ගණනින් වැඩි විය.එම මුදල් හා පක්ෂ වල වත්කම් පිළිබඳ කිසිම තොරතුරක් ද සමාජ ගත නොවීය. එ නිසා මැතිවරණය සමය යනු එක්තරා ආකාරයකට කළු සල්ලි සුදු කරන සමයක් බවට පත් විය.මැතිවරණ නියාමන පනතක අවශ්‍යතාවය පැණ නැගී තිබුණේ මේ පසුබිම මතයි. මැතිවරණ කාල පරිඡේදය තුළ මැතිවරණ පනත අනුවත් මැතිවරණ නියාමන පනත අනුවත් ස්වාධින මැතිවරණ කොමිසමට කටයුතු කිරීමට බලය ලැබී ඇත. එම ක්‍රියාවන් දේශපාලන බලය යොදා නැවැත්වීමට නොහැකිය.මෙය හොඳ තත්වයති ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය තහවුරු කරලීම පිණිස ගන්නා ලද යහපත් තීරණ අතරට වැටෙයි.

         මෙවර පැවැත්වෙනුයේ ජනපතිවරණයකි. රටේ විධායක ජනපතිවරයෙකු සිටින කාලවකවානුවක ඔහුද අපේකෂකයෙකු වූ විට නිතැතින්ම යටකී මැතිවරණ නියාමන පාලන නීතියට ඔහුද යටත් වෙයි. ජනපතිවරයා රටේ සේනාධිනායකයා වන බැවින්  ජාතික ආරක්ෂාව ඉටු කරලීමේ ව්‍යවස්ථාමය   වගකීම ඔහු සතු බැවින්  යම් යම් ක්‍රියා මාර්ග ගැනීමට ඔහුට කටයුතු කළ හැකි විය යුතුය. එයට බාධා කිරීමට මැතිවරණ කොමිසමට නොහැකිය. නමුත් ඔහුගේ අපේක්ෂකත්වය තුළ ජනපතිවරයාගේ භූමිකාවතමන්ට වාසිදායක ලෙසට ඉස්මතුවන්‌ෙන් නම් මැතිවරණ නියාමන නීතියට පටහැනිය.පසුගියාදා ජනපතිවරයාගේ මූලිකත්වයෙන් පැවති රැස්වීම් වලදී නියමිතව තිබූ භෝජන  සංග්‍රහයන් නැවැත්වීමට මැතිවරණ කොමිසම ක්‍රියාකර තිබේ.එහෙත් තැපැල් චන්දය අභිමුව තිබිය දී රාජ්‍ය සේවක වැටුප් වැඩි කිරීමට කරන යෝජනා එළි දැක්වීමට කටයුතු කිරීම පිළිබඳව මැතිවරණ කොමිසමේ අවධානය යොමු වූයේ නැත. දෙසැම්බර් මාසය වන විට සකස් කළ යුතු අයවැය යොජනා මේ අවස්ථාවේ ප්‍රකාශ කිරීමට යෝජනා කිරීමම ජනපතිවරයාගේ බලය මත කරන චන්ද දූෂණයකි.එසේම ත්‍රීවීල් රියදුරන් ජනපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලය අසලට ගෙන්වා   අතට සන්තෝෂම් දී රථ වල ස්ටිකර් ඇලවීමට ක්‍රියාකිරීමද ජනපති තනතුර අවභාවිතා කිරීමකි. එයට වඩා බරපතල ප්‍රශ්ණයක් වූයේ ජනපතිවරණ සමයේ රටට පැමිණි ඉන්දීය විදේශ අමාත්‍ය අජිත් දෙවොල් සමග ගිවිසුම් අත්සන් කිරීමට ජනපතිවරයා  පෙළඹීමයි. මේ කාලය තුළ ඔහුද අපේක්ෂකයෙකු වන බැවින් ජාතික ආරක්ෂාව පිළිබඳ කටයුත්තේ දී හැර අනෙක් කටයුතු වලට රාජ්‍ය සම්පත් යොදා ගැනීම ඒවා අනිසි විදියකින් ප්‍රචාරය කිරීම නොකළ යුත්තකි.මෙවැනි තත්වයන් පාලනය කිරීමට මැතිවරණ කොමිසම අපොහොසත් වී ඇති බව කිව යුතුය.

      මැතිවරණ වියදම් පිළිබඳ සම්පූර්ණ ලේඛනයක් මැතිවරණය පවත්වා දින විසි එකකින් කොමිසමට ඉදිරිපත් කළ යුතු බවට නීතියකි.අප දන්නා පරිදි මේ ජනපතිවරණයේ දී කෝටි ප්‍රකෝටි ගණනින් මුදල් වියදම් කිරීම දක්නට ලැබේ. එක් අපේක්ෂකයෙකු විසින් එක් චන්ද දායකයෙකු වෙනුවෙන් වියදම් කළ යුතු මුදල වන්නේ රැපියල් 109 කි. එක් චන්ද දායකයෙකුට රුපියලක් වියදම් කළද එක් කෝටි හැත්තෑ එක් ලක්ෂයක් වියදම් කිරීමට හැකිය. මෙවැනි මුදල් කන්දරාවක් පක්ෂයකට ලැබෙන්නේ කෙලෙසකදැයි ජනතාව දැන ගත යුතුය. දිවයිනේ තබන සෑම රැස්වීමකටම බස් යොදා සෙනග අදින බව කවුරුත් දන්නා රහසකි.පිටස්තර දිස්ත්‍රික්ක වලින් බස් යොදා සෙනග ඇදීම පාලනය කිරීමට කොමිසම උත්සුක වී නොමැත.එවැනි රැස්වීම් වලින් ප්‍රකට වන්නේ කෘතිම ජන මතයකි. රැළි වලින් නොමග යන ජනතාවට ප්‍රතිපත්ති ගරුක අපේක්ෂකයෙකු තෝරා පත් කර ගැනීමට අවස්ථාවක් උදා නොවේ. රැස්වීමකට කූඩාරම් ගැසීමට පවා කෝටියක් පමණ වියදම් කරන අපේක්ෂකයන් සිටිති. පෝස්ටර් මුද්‍රණය පෝස්ටර් ගැසීම කූඩාරම් ගැසීම වැනි මැතිවරණ ප්‍රචාරක ක්‍රියා භාර ගෙන තිබෙන ප්‍රචාරක ආයතන රැසකි. පාක්ෂිකයන් දායකත්වය  ගනු වෙනුවට මැතිවරණ සමය මෙම ව්‍යාපාරිකයන්ගේ  ලාභය උපරිම කර ගැනීමේ අවස්ථාවක් බවට පත් කරගෙන තිබේ  මේ වියදම් කරන මුදල ලැබෙන්නේ දේශීයවද ඒවායේ මූලාශ්‍ර කෙබඳුද විදේශ රාජ්‍ය නොවන සංවිධාන වලින් ලැබෙන්නේ ද තානාපති අංශ වලින් වියදම් කරන්නේ ද යන්න දැන ගැනීමට ජනතාවට තිබෙන අයිතිය මේ මැතිවරණ පාලන නීතියෙන් සීමා කොට තිබේ. මන්ද මැතිවරණය අවසන් වී කරන ඉදිරිපත්   කිරිම් යොදා ගැනෙනුයේ නීති විරෝධී ප්‍රචාරක කටයුත්තක දී ලැබෙන දඬුවම් ගැන සළකා බැලීමට පමණක් වන නිසාය.අනෙක ඒ වන විට කොමිසමේ බලතල අවසන් වී ඇති බැවින් පත්ව සිටින ජනපතිවරයෙකුට විරුද්ධව කටයුතු කිරීමේ හැතියාක් නැතිබව ද දැක්විය යුතුය.

          මැතිවරණ වියදම් නියාමනය සහ මාධ්‍ය උපමාන සම්බන්ධව මෙවැනි අඩු ලුහුඬුකම් පවතින විට ඒවා පක්ෂ සමග සාකච්ඡා කොට යාවත්කාලීන කර ගැනීම මැතිවරණ කොමිසමේ වගකීමකි. එවැනි දෙයක් සිදු නොවන බව පෙනේ.පක්ෂයකින් ඉදිරිපත් වන අපේක්ෂකයෙකුට අනෙක් පක්ෂයක අපේක්ෂකයෙකුගේ ප්‍රතිපත්ති සහ හැසිරීම් විවේචනය කිරීමට ඉඩ තිබෙන්නේ වාචිකව පමණකි. ලිඛිතව ඉඩ නැති බව දැන ගන්නට ඇත. දිවයින මාධ්‍යවේදී එරික් ගාමිණී මහතා පක්ෂයකට ගැති පුද්ගලයෙකු නොවේ. ඔහු ස්වාධීන ජනමාධ්‍යවේදියෙකි. දේශපාල විචාරයකි. එවැනි පුද්ගලයෙකුට මැතිවරණ සමයේ වුවද සීමා මායිම් නැත.ගත් කතුවරයෙකුට සාහිත්‍ය මාසයේ දී ලැබෙන අවස්ථාව වෙනත් මාසවලදී ලැබෙන්නේ නැති බවද මතක් කළ යුතුය.

     සදය විවේචනයකට කවදත් පුවත්පත් වල  ඉඩකඩ විවර විය යුතුය. පෞද්ගලිකව මඩ ගසනවානම් පුවත්පත් කොමිසමට පැමිණිලි කිරීමට හැකියාව ඇත.එරික් ගාමිණී මහතාගේ දේශපාලන කෘතිය ජනගත කිරීම සහ සංවාදය නැවැත්වීමට විවේචනයට බඳුන් වූ පක්ෂය මුල් වූයේ ද එසේත් නැතිනම් ඒ පක්ෂයට සහාය දක්වන ඇමරිකානු තානාපතිනිය මුල් වූයේ ද යන්න අප නොදනිමු. පසුගිය කාලයේ දී තානාපතිනි ජූලි චන් තානාපතිවරුන්ගේ ආචාර ධර්මද නොසලකා හරිමින් මැතිවරණ කොමසාරිස් තුමා හමු වන්නට ගිය බව මාධ්‍ය වලින් දුටුවෙමි.මේ අතර හිරු මාධ්‍ය ජාලයේ විකාශනය වූ විමල් වීරවංහ මහාතා සාභාගි වූ සළකුණ වැඩසටහනද අතුරුදහන් කෙරී ඇත.ඒ සිද්දියෙන්ම අපට දැන ගත හැක්කේ කාටද රිදුණේ කවුරුද වාරණයට පෙළඹුණේ යන්න පමණි. අනාගතයේ දී මෙවැනි වාරණයන් තවදුරටත් බලාපොරොත්තු විය හැකිය.

ප්‍රියන්ත ප්‍රදීප් රණසිංහ

පොදුජන එක්සත් නිදහස් පෙරමුණ, මෙරට බිහිවූ අලුත් ම දේශපාලන පෙරමුණයි. කුසලානය සිය ලකුණ කරගත් එම පෙරමුණේ සභාපතිත්වය සහ නායකත්වය දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධනටද, ලේකම් ධුරය වෛද්‍ය රමේෂ් පතිරණටද හිමිවී තිබේ. දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන යනු මෙරට වර්තමාන අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයායි. ඔහු මහජන එක්සත් පෙරමුණේ නායකයාද වේ. පොහොට්ටුව හෙවත් ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ, මෙවර ජනාධිපතිවරණයට වෙනම අපේක්ෂකයෙකු ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට තීරණය කිරීමත් සමග ඊට එකඟ නොවූ, රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ ජනාධිපතිවරයා සමග ආණ්ඩුව ගෙනගිය, පොහොට්ටුවේ මන්ත්‍රීවරු බහුතරය, ජනාධිපතිවරණයේදී ස්වාධීනව ඉදිරිපත්ව සිටින රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහට සහය දීමට තීරණය කළහ. එතෙක් පොහොට්ටුව සමග සිටි දිනේෂ් ප්‍රමුඛ ම.එ.පෙ.ද එම තීරණයේ සිටි අතර එහි ප්‍රතිඵලයක් ලෙස ‘කුසලානය’ නැතහොත් පොදුජන එක්සත් නිදහස් පෙරමුණ බිහි වී තිබේ.

මෙහි වැදගත් සිදුවීම් කිහිපයක් හඳුනාගත හැකිය. කුසලානය හෙවත් පොදුජන එක්සත් නිදහස් පෙරමුණ ඊළඟට එන ඇල්පිටිය ප්‍රාදේශීය සභාවට සිය ලකුණින් තරග වදින බව, එහි ලේකම් අමාත්‍ය රමේෂ් පතිරණ, පෙරමුණ බිහිවූ 2024.09.05 දින සිය කතාවේදී අනාවරණ කළේය. ඉන් අදහස් වන්නේ ජනාධිපතිවරණයෙන් පසු එන සියලු මැතිවරණ සඳහා කුසලානය වෙනම තරග වදින බවයි. ඒවගේම පොහොට්ටුව නියෝජනය කළ කිසිවෙකුත් අතරමං වීමට ඉඩ නොතබන බව නව පෙරමුණේ නායක දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන එහිදී අවධාරණය කළේය. අනෙක් පැත්තෙන් වැදගත් කාරණය වන්නේ,1983 අතුරු මැතිවරණයෙන් මහරගම ආසනය දිනා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට පැමිණි දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධනට කුසලානයේ නායකත්වය සහ සභාපතිත්වය හිමිවන විට එම අතුරු මැතිවරණයෙන් ම අක්මීමන ආසනය දිනා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට පැමිණි රිචඩ් පතිරණගේ පුතා එහි ලේකම්වීමය.

අන්ත දක්ෂිණාංශික හෝ අන්ත වාමාංශික හෝ නොවී, ජාතිකවාදය ඔස්සේ සමාජ ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදිව, නොබැඳි විදෙස් ප්‍රතිපත්තිය ඔස්සේ මැද මාවතේ ගමන් කිරීම ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය බිහිවී 1956 මහජන එක්සත් පෙරමුණේ ආණ්ඩුවේ සිට වාමවාදී පෙරමුණේ ආණ්ඩුවල ලක්ෂණය විය. එදා එස්. ඩබ්ලිව්. ආර්. ඩී. බණ්ඩාරනායක, පිලිප් ගුණවර්ධන ඇතුළු එකතුවත්, එවැන්නක් විය. සිරිමාවෝ බණ්ඩාරනායක ප්‍රමුඛ සභාග ආණ්ඩුවලද වමේ සහ ජාතිකවාදී පක්ෂ කටයුතු කළේ එවැනි පෙරමුණු ගොඩනගා ගෙනය. දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධනද අඛණ්ඩව සහය දුන්නේ ශ්‍රීලනිපය ප්‍රමුඛ එම පෙරමුණටය. මෙරට පළමු ජනාධිපතිවරණයට 1982 දී තරග කිරීමට ශ්‍රීලනිපයට ‘අත’ ලකුණ අහිමි වූ අවස්ථාවේ සිය පක්ෂය වූ ම.එ.පෙ. ලකුණ වන ‘රෝදය’ මැතිනිය වෙත පරිත්‍යාග කිරීමට දිනේෂ් ඉදිරිපත් විය. එමෙන්ම ඉතිහාසයේ පුළුල්තම ප්‍රගතිශීලි වාමාංශික දේශපාලන සන්ධානය වන 2004 දී ගොඩනැගුනු එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානය බිහි කිරීමට විශාල කැපකිරීමක් කර එහි ප්‍රථම උප සභාපතිවරයා වුයේද දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධනයි. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ පරාජය වූ 2015දී ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයේ නායකයා ලෙස දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන විශාල කාර්යභාරයක් ඉටු කළ අතර, මහින්ද වෙනුවෙන් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ කතා කිරීමට සිටි එකම මන්ත්‍රීවරයාද විය. ලංකා දේශපාලනය උඩුයටිකුරු කළ 2015.02.15 නුගේගොඩ පැවැත්වූ ඓතිහාසික මහා ජන රැළියටද නායකත්වය දුන් දිනේෂ්, විසිරුණු කඳවුරු යළි එක්සේසත් කළේය. අනෙක් පැත්තෙන් ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ හා මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ජනාධිපති ධුරයෙන් හා අගමැති ධුරයෙන් ඉල්ලා අස්වී රට අස්ථාවර වූ අවස්ථාවේ රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ සමග පොහොට්ටුවේ ආණ්ඩුව ඉදිරියට ගෙනගියේ දිනේෂ්‍ ය. කිසිදු බරපතළ ගැටුමකට යා නොදී ඒ නොපෑහෙනවා යැයි කී ආණ්ඩුව ඔස්සේ රට ආර්ථික ස්ථාවරත්වයක් කරා ගෙනයාමට රනිල්ට, දිනේෂ් ප්‍රමුඛ පාර්ලිමේන්තු කණ්ඩායම කොන්දේසි විරහිත සහයෝගයක් ලබා දුන්නේය.

කෙටියෙන් වුවද මෙවැනි කරුණු සලකා බලන කල, නව පෙරමුණ වන, කුසලානය ලකුණේ පොදුජන එක්සත් නිදහස් පෙරමුණ සිය නායකයා ලෙස දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා තෝරාගැනීම කලොචිත ම තීරණය ලෙස සැලකිය හැකිය. දේශීය වශයෙන් පමණක් නොව ජාත්‍යන්තර වශයෙන්ද කෘතහස්ත දේශපාලනඥයෙකු වන දිනේෂ්ට ඇත්තේ ඉහළ පිළිගැනීමකි. පාර්ලිමේන්තු ක්‍රමය පිළිබඳ ඔහුගේ පළපුරුද්ද සහ දැනුම සම කළ හැකි අයෙකු වර්තමාන පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ නැතැයි කිවහොත් එහි වරදක් නැත. ඒ වගේම පාර්ලිමේන්තු ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය පිළිබඳ ඔහුගේ ඇති විශ්වාසය අතිශය වැදගත්ය.

තවත් පැත්තකින් බලන කල, ශ්‍රීලනිප සහ පසු කලෙක පොහොට්ටුව සමග සිටි වාමාංශික සහ ජාතිකවාදී බලවේග සඳහාද දිනේෂ්ගේ පෙරමුණ, දේශපාලනය කිරීම සහ රට ගොඩනැගීම වෙනුවෙන් හොඳ තෝතැන්නකි. මෙවර 39 දෙනෙකු ඉදිරිපත් වුවත් ජනාධිපතිවරණයෙන් දිනන්නේ එක අයෙකි. ඉන්පසු පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට, පළාත් සභාවට, පළාත් පාලන ආයතන සඳහා තේරීපත් වීමට වමේ, ජාතිකවාදී කඳවුරට පොදු වේදිකාවක් අහිමි වී තිබිණි. දිනේෂ්ගේ පෙරමුණ ඒ වේදිකාව යළි ඉදිකර දී තිබේ.

-ප්‍රියන්ත ප්‍රදීප් රණසිංහ