Shenali D Waduge

Where did it all begin & where will it all end? Not too many are able to piece the puzzle. To do so, requires us to go back in time to colonial divide & rule policies that sought to divide people while their territories were plundered. They also decided to clone people to carry forward the colonial agenda so their authority would prevail even without their presence. Thus, people were classified as majority-minorities, a pen drew new territorial boundaries, new states were christened, new systems of governance & laws were introduced & everyone had to fit into these terms & regulations. The western-church alliance held sway throughout colonial rule & it is likely they had an influence over other faiths too. This is why every form of extremism prevalent in other faiths find their roots back to the West-Church. This certainly explains the robes that backed the LTTE’s separatism & continues to do so.

Before addressing the key components it is important to realize that the nation that is called India today never existed until its creation in 1947. That same India is also earmarked to be balkanized by the very creators. Therefore, who is actually controlling the Arkhand Bharath quest, or is it an interim agenda to watch India secure all of the targeted Asian nations & thereafter balkanize them into newer territories as per wishes of those doing the balkanizing. 

Thus, India trained, armed & provided logistics support to LTTE & over 30 other Tamil youth in the 1970s – the question is did India do so of its own will or was it indirectly encouraged to do so?

Was India’s decision to train armed militancy & palm off its headache to Sri Lanka based on Tamil Nadu’s quest for a separate Tamil Homeland for Tamils in Tamil Nadu? Which means a problem between Tamils & Hindi unnecessarily or strategically became a new problem created between Tamils & Sinhalese. It is important to understand that the demand for a separate homeland in Tamil Nadu emerged as a result of anti-Hindi sentiments and based on the fact that Tamil Nadu was never part of India” prior to its formation in 1947 while Emperor Asoka (Maurya Empire) never ruled over Tamil Nadu.

It was the colonial missionaries who created the term Dravidian in 1838 & a fake history to match it.This certainly raises the question whether the same Church created the Eelam demand first in South India & thereafter in Sri Lanka? The Church has a heavy influence in both Tamil Nadu & Sri Lanka’s North. If Bishop Robert Caldwell & the Church separated Brahmins from non-Brahmins coining the term Brahmanical Aryans” connecting these with Europeans & terming low-caste Chanar people as Dravidian” did not the same happen turning Malabars” into Vellalas”?

Western coined self-determination terms that use language, culture, literature & history were all merged by the missionaries into the demands of people they had brainwashed over the years. It was Caldwell who plugged the South Indian languages Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada as Dravidian languages creating a previously non-existent language family. His own book Comparative Gramma of the Dravidian or South Indian Family of Languages” traces the beginning of Tamil literature to not earlier than 10^th century. It is the same Dravidian movement & Church that are promoting ethno-linguistic Eelam state with the Church even calling for a separate Cardinal for North Sri Lanka, proving the links beyond doubt.

If we wonder when or how the balkanizing will take place, we only have to look to the Church that is influencing both Tamil Nadu & Sri Lanka. Eelam quest in reality is not led by Tamil Hindus but by Tamil Christians/Catholics on behalf of the Church.

One may ask why or how Hindu extremism is entering the fray of late in particular the incursions into Buddhist archaeological sites in the North & East of Sri Lanka. It is more than possible these are crypto-Hindus or missionary Hindus working for the Church agenda no different to the crypto-Buddhists & missionary Theros doing the same damage.

Educationist Chithbayananda declared the Dravidian movement is a time bomb set by the Church. No doubt Eelam is the same. Notice how suddenly scores of US Congressmen are also raising the Tamil Eelam flag & even demanding a referendum. These are no coincidental calls.

The balkanizing experiments first began in 1939 with the Dravida Nadu for Dravidians” movement for a separate sovereign & federal state & in 1940 a Dravida Nadu map was released in Kanchipuram. In 1947 Tamil Nadu created the Dravida Nadu Secession Day” & then on 17 September 1960 Dravida Nadu Separation Day”. Between 1960 & 1963 the Dravida Nadu was replaced with Tamil Nadu for Tamils” & then the We Tamil Movement”. It was then that the Indian Govt passed legislation banning secessionism in 1963.

Poignant to note is that all secessionist movements were poodles of the Church. If the Dravida Nadu map was created by the Church so must be the Tamil Eelam map.

Was it because of the banning that the secessionist movement got transferred to Sri Lanka? Was Church behind this transfer & India was happy to pass its headache to Sri Lanka? No wonder it was the Christian Chelvanayagam who arrived from Malaysia & was tasked by the Church to stir the separatism pot in Sri Lanka using his party ITAK.

With this background clear, it becomes easy to understand that the demands for Dravida Nadu were virtually the same as that which LTTE & the Tamil leadership of Sri Lanka demanded in Thimpu in 1985. Were these demands also drafted by the Church? Coincidentally, a hashtag movement #DravidaNadu was relaunched in 2017 the same time that India became a partner of QUAD.

Modern evangelical movements have been designed in such a format that people pretend they are of the religion they are born into but get rewarded handsomely for working against that religion. So there are too many camouflaged missionaries” around us making it difficult to identify them or their agendas or who they are actually working for. Many of these are also tasked to sway people of their own faiths towards a newer version of Hinduism/Buddhism essentially distancing from their own faiths.

The Church cannot take offence. Its list of misadventures are many. Jesuit priest Father Miller claimed to the US embassy officers in Colombo that the orphanages that LTTE recruited child soldiers were run by churches – no wonder these were inside thick jungle locations. 600 children were in a Church in Walayarmadam when LTTE stormed it on 24 March 2009 & took the children! Lets not forget that the LTTE’s radio station Voice of Tigers” was also operating inside St. Sebastians Church in Mallavi in 1999 & inside Madhu Church too. Voice of Tigers even collaborated with Radio Veritas run by the Asian Catholic Bishops Conference.

So if the demands of the Dravida Nadu secessionist movement & the Thimpu Talk demands are the same, what is this new Himalayan Declaration? The Church is known to use its poodles to peddle secularism” it is a subtle method to bring down an elevated non-Church religion to a level the Church can control. Towards this end they have successfully tapped missionary theros” who are from within dividing the Buddhists.

The Himalayan Declaration too subtly peddles the ‘devolution’ theme & is part & parcel of the stepping stone to an autonomous state by first pushing for asymmetrical federalism. The Himalayan Declaration appears to be nothing but a wolf cloaked as a sheep and its timing is poignant as well.

India’s parliament displayed a new map that brought whole of South Asia under India calling it Akhand Bharath. If so, it means there is no Tamil Eelam, then why does India continue give eelam lobbyists hopes?

The Akhand Bharath is a creation of the RSS of which the BJP is its political wing & openly promotes Hindutva rule (home of the Hindus) The call is no different to Islamic rule or Christian rule where all other faiths have to bow down in defiance. 80% of Indians are Hindu while 14% are Muslim. In 2019, BJP revoked the semi-autonomous status of Muslim-majority Kashmir & brought it under direct control of New Delhi which was followed by India’s Home Minister claiming it achieved the dream of Akhand Bharat.

How does this greater India” or Akhand Bharat fit into the scheme of the West-Church’s eventual balkanizing of India where we view the Tamil Eelam promoted by the West-Church is part of a future plan to separate entire Tamil Nadu together with Sri Lanka as a new state not necessarily championing the demands of the Eelamists. 

With the American people prone to all types of neo-liberal experiments resulting in decline of their emotional-physical-economic-status, are the new global elite proposing to transfer their power arena to East where a rising number of Indians are already holding globally powerful positions at public & private levels. They may be Indian & Hindu but they are not necessarily practicing or have any of the Hindutva” sentiments in vogue, but may utilize these to gain the power base. Even the Church has diluted its original teachings and has created a cocktail plugging rituals and practices of other faiths & promoting them as theirs. They use religion to vest power for themselves.

Is the West-Church using Chanakyas Arthashastra & Akhand Bharat into their scheme of things while allowing India to do the leg work. This we can see happening in Sri Lanka where India is subtly taking economic-social-cultural-political control over Sri Lanka as a result of the stupidity of Sri Lanka’s politicians.

The West-Church will doubtless be following the developments of Akhand Bharath & maneuvering how it can overturn the developments to their ultimate advantage.

Sri Lankans need to seriously look back & understand the connections and links – who trained LTTE, why, who came into the scene, when did LTTE transfer allegiance from India to US & why & who were the main players involved. Let us not forget LTTE’s ideologue was a British agent while his white wife trained children as child soldiers and the Church helped open LTTE’s first international office in London. There are a string of fathers holding key positions in the LTTE fronts established after demise of Prabakaran and these are all operating from western shores with Western MPs unashamedly attending terrorist events while US Congressmen are passing resolutions calling for Tamil Eelam.

None of these demands are happening in isolation & behind all these demands are the same faces – its up to you to identify them.

Shenali D Waduge

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Tamil Separatist Movement is continuing to oppose what it calls Buddhistization”   of the north and east of Sri Lanka. They object to theBuddhistizing of sites that had not previously been exclusively linked with Buddhism.” They disrupted the work and the ceremonies at Kurundi. The direction to Kurundi name board at Nedunkerni-Tanduvan junction was destroyed twice in August 2022.

Even though not reported in much detail outside the north, people living in the north are disturbed at the increase in the number of new Buddhist structures and shrines coming up in the Northern Province, where Hindus form the largest religious group, followed by Christians and Muslims, Tamil Separatist Movement said. 

In 2019 Jaffna MP E. Saravanapavan stated in Parliament, a Buddhist statue has been erected near the Keerimalai, Nageswaran temple and the people in the area are not very happy about this. Many Buddhist statues and temples have been constructed in Tamil areas, in recent times, often replacing or damaging Tamil Hindu temples, said Tamilnet in July 2020. At least 23 new Buddhist shrines are coming up in Kuchchaveli, in villages where Sinhalese constitute y 1% of the population, Tamil Separatist Movement complained in 2023.

It is suggested that Sinhala-Buddhists were also vandalizing Hindu statues. In February 2020, it was claimed that a Pillaiyar statue located on the street of Chenkalady border in Batticaloa was vandalized and tossed on the side. The statue had recently been placed there by the Uthayasuryan Supporting Committee.

In 2023 Groundviews said, media personnel and activists are reporting several cases of Hindu religious sites being damaged, relics removed and Buddhist statues erected in their place with the collaboration of the Department of Archaeology. Hindu kovils are being re-named as Buddhist temples. There are reports of land grabs from Tamil villagers by the military and monks in the North and East in order to settle Sinhala villagers. Tamils and Muslims complain that they are not allowed to practice their religion freely in contravention of their fundamental rights guaranteed by Sri Lanka’s constitution and the international treaties it has ratified.

The government is using the guise of ‘archaeology’ to take over vast areas of lands in the North-East, and mark them as ‘Buddhist sites’ said Tamil Guardian in July 2020. Sinhala-Buddhist are engaging in Buddhistization under the cloak of identifying Archaeological sites (read Buddhist sites) said the Tamil Separatist Movement in 2021.

The problem arises when some overzealous Buddhist Theras want to construct Buddhist temples in state land under the ruse the land is a Buddhist archaeological site, said a commentator in 2019.

Tamil National Cultural Federation  said that for the last 10 years ,  the  Department of Archaeology has speeded up the destruction  of Tamil ancientness and evidences of Tamil ancientness and helped the Buddhistization of the [north and] Eastern Province.

The Department of Archaeology has become increasingly active and assertive in the Tamil-majority north and east and has restricted public access to some Hindu temples, such as Vedukkunarimalai archaeological site in the north, citing ongoing archaeological research” in the historic sites, said Eelamists in 2024.

 In the east too, Hindu worship at Mavadivembu has been curtailed saying it was an archaeological site. This has gone before the courts. There is concern that   these are attempts to plant Sinhalese settlers in their midst who will, at a later date, make claims to the land.

In the case of  Vedukkunarimalai the land is under the central government and so is the police, lamented the Tamil Separatist Movement . This central government control  was a serious impediment to their anti Buddhist activities.

Tamil Separatist Movement has used  several strategies to  obstruct Buddhistization”.  One is to argue that  the Tamils are the indigenous people in the north and east and the Sinhalese are intruders. The Buddhist temple is something new to the area. Buddhist are intruding 

.Another is to say that Buddhists are  setting up temples in areas without a single Sinhala-Buddhist civilian. A third argument is to ask ,when there are Buddhist ruins that need attention elsewhere in the island, why are they focusing on the   Buddhist ruins in north and east. Lastly, Tamil Separatist Movement says, with finality,   Buddhist talk is over. This is now ours.

There is foreign opposition to Buddhistization.US State Department Report on International Religious Freedom in 2016 stated that the construction of Buddhist statues in non-Buddhist areas of the North-East leave the perception of Buddhist Sinhalese religious and cultural imperialism.”

The ideological justification for the expansion of Siṃhala Buddhism into the Tamil region is based on a collective imagination of nationhood, informed by a belief in the perennial existence of a Siṃhala Buddhist state . The Eelam victory is a re-conquest” . The rightful Siṃhala Buddhist heritage  was secured through a military victory, said Jude Lal Fernando in Peter Schalk’s book. [1]

Buddhistization is opposed by several  groups   in the north and east. The  greatest opposition is from the Tamil politicians. It is the Tamil politicians who are making trouble, Said Santhabodhi. There has been trouble elsewhere  also. It is all done by one group, said Santhabodhi .  He said this repeatedly in You Tube chat shows. It is the same lot who are causing problems everywhere  in the north and east, not  the Tamil  public. They are good with us. Opposition is mostly from the politicians, agreed an archaeologist  who had worked in Kurundi.

Eelam talk is not over. It is still going on, said Santhabodhi .  Santhabodhi  made  two  other observations which are not usually emphasized in the ethnic issues debate. He said that   the Tamil MPs  were not the only persons working towards Eelam. The Tamil officers working in the government and provincial offices were also working toward Eelam and they were more tenacious. Secondly, the  Tamil  population in the north and east are  very scared of these officials.  

The  Kurundi issue showed that  the Tamil police were biased towards Tamil interests. The  Tamil magistrates  decided cases in favor of Tamils and Hindu temples. This was seen in Gurukanda  and Kurundi matters.

The University Teachers  Association  of University of Jaffna   is  also against Buddhist activity. They do not wish to see Sinahalizing and Buddhisizing  in this region where the Tamil and Muslim communities form the majority population.”

They have influenced their students. Undergraduates of  University of Jaffna  are  also anti-Buddhistization. Santhabodhi  stated on Iraj Show that  the University of Jaffna students were  aggressive and militant. They have come to  Buddhist temples and demonstrated. [2] Undergrads  had come to in masses to protest  at  Vadunagala. 

The Tamil magistrate in Mullaitivu had ordered that archaeology  work at Kurundi must be done  jointly with University of Jaffna.  Fortunately, long before that, the authorities had decided to give the work to   Rajarata University . This was a wise move.

 Maatram Mahendran Thiruvarangan, Senior Lecturer at the University of Jaffna  explained his view in an interview ( 2023) The Department of Archaeology claims that there were several places in the North which were of importance to Buddhism many centuries ago and that they had been destroyed over time. The department is now in the process of finding these places and rebuilding them.

The Department of Archaeology sees the country as a Sinhala-Buddhist one and is giving importance to archaeological aspects pertaining to Sinhala Buddhism.  Wildlife Department and the Mahaweli Authority are also being used by the government for this purpose.

There could have been Buddhist sites in some places 2,000 years ago but what is the need to look for them today? There are people who belong to other religions who now live in places which they claim to be Buddhist sites, and they are worshipping in these places. They have their own traditions, which also have a long history. When you are digging for information about a history which is over 2,000 years old, does it mean that another history that spans around 500 years is of less importance?

The [officials of the  Department come there out of the blue and claim that this site has some importance and therefore they are going to conduct research. They then declare it as a security zone, deprive people of their right to worship within the premises, bring in the military to start work, get military security and bring in monks and allow them to conduct religious activities.

There have been instances where they take over land and prevent people from doing agriculture activities. One such incident was reported from Kurunthurmalai. This is not only a cultural issue also affects people economically.

Implementing this agenda through a centralized body based in Colombo that too with the protection of the military, is an act of dominance.

When we think of archaeology, we think of something that is ancient. The important question is what does it have to do with the people living now?Are the views of the people taken into consideration when decisions are made?

We do not know the level of importance the Archaeological Department gives to the historical narratives of minority communities and the extent of contribution by experts who work on histories pertaining to minorities.I would say that the Archaeology Department is indulging in cultural violence in the North and East.

One response is to claim that the North and East is the homeland of the Tamils and that the region is being targeted with Sinhalisation and Buddhistization to reduce Tamil influence. There may have been some links to Buddhism, some may have followed Buddhism and there may have been Buddhist constructions in this region at some point of time. That may have changed and a different religion may have come into being. Today, this land belongs to the people who are living here.. We do not have to focus on who lived there before and who they were.

Lastly, Thiruvarangan  said, these panels looking into archaeology rarely have minorities. We must ask whose histories are fore grounded, whose cultural and religious identities are prioritized in these efforts. What we see in the north and east is that the recent archaeological initiatives not only lack credibility, but are polarizing our communities.( Continued)

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[1] Buddhism among Tamils in Tamilakam and Īlam Part 3 Extension and Conclusions Editor-in Chief: Peter Schalk https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:604163/FULLTEXT06.pdf Jude Lal Fernando jude  p 177

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kINVsvK7WRU&t=436s   

KAMALIKA PIERIS

The Tamil Separatist Movement focuses mainly on Buddhistization, but there are fleeting references to Christianization at well. The end of the Eelam war, led to the    arrival of Christian sects into the newly liberated north and east. This has not received publicity, because Tamil Separatist Movement is hospitable to Christian conversion. Many Tamil politicians are Christian.

Duleep de Chickera, Bishop of Colombo was told when he visited Jaffna after the war that churches also came up in the north and east after the war. Like Buddhist temples, they were brand new, both took land. Everyone shouts about Buddhist sites, as if they were the only ones, but churches also did the same thing, he was told.

Elizabeth Harris looked at the Christian angle of Buddhistization in the north and east. At Kallar, in the East, when a large camp closed, the Buddhist shrine that had stood outside it, opposite a modest Methodist church, was eventually removed. However, in 2012, a Buddha rūpa stood close to a Sinhala police checkpoint by the bridge leading north from the town, on an open stretch of beautifully tended land beside the water. It was the first or last thing a traveller saw on entering or leaving Kallar, a predominantly Hindu and Christian town, she observed.

Harris noted that churcheshave moved into the Vanni after the war. Churches have never had a presence there. Either they began as a relief organization and then setup a church or they used contacts they had in the IDP camps. So the very same criticism that is made of Buddhists can be made of Christians. Christianization is done by small groups that mainline churches have no control over. In principle it means that there are diverse groups exploiting the situation for religious expansion. Buddhism is very visible in most areas because it has military backing. Christians are more low profile but they are still exploiting, reported Harris.

 I was surprised at the unanimity between Hindus and Christians in Tamil majority areas in both 2012 and 2015. In 2012, anger and resentment was uppermost. In 2015, this had largely been replaced by helplessness and resignation, combined with the wish to reclaim space, concluded Harris.

Buddhist shrines were erected inside and sometimes outside army and navy camps, in the north and east. After May 2009, small camps were amalgamated with large ones. When a camp was closed, the Buddhist shrine sometimes remained,   said Harris.

In 2012, when I passed the larger amalgamated camps, Buddhist symbolism was only sometimes visible. North of Vakarai, for instance, on the east coast, the most visible element of an army camp was the Buddhist centre inside it. It was pristine, designed as a village vihāra with stūpa, Bodhi tree and Buddha rūpa. It was far larger than the one in a camp close to Habarana, in a more Sinhala area, where a fairly modest shrine was the first thing to meet the eye, although enhanced by the empty space surrounding it. In other army camps, no Buddhist

Symbols could be seen from the road.

Elizabeth Harris reports on a conflict between the Hindus and Buddhist in Trincomalee town in 2005.it shows the sort of nose –to-nose clashes that occurred. In May 2005 at Trincomalee, the Sinhala United Trishaw Association, backed by Ven. Dehiowita Piyatissa replaced a small Buddha rūpa close to their trishaw stand in the centre of the town with a much larger one. In many Sinhala areas, trishaw associations erected Buddha rūpas close to where they parked their vehicles. This, however, was not a totally Sinhala area, and tensions were already high due to PTOMs issue.

Trincomalee District Tamil People’s Forum, called a hartal demanding that the image be removed, since it was on Urban Council land. A grenade was thrown at the image injuring two. Attorney General, Kamalasabeysan, filed a plaint at the Trincomalee District Court seeking the court to declare the construction of the controversial statue unlawful’. National Bhikkhu Front marched in protest outside Kamalasabeysan’s office and threatened fasts-unto-death if the image was removed.

 Tamil group called for a hartal   and said that suicide attacks would be launched on the military. Sangha responded by threatening fasts-unto-death. The Trishaw Association filed a petition to curb the Council from carrying out a magistrate’s court order to remove unauthorized structures. The matter went to the Court of Appeal, but the statue stayed. It was not removed.

The intention is sinister, said Tamil Separatist Movement. They erected it in secret. They will now plant a Bo tree, build a temple and call it a Buddhist country’.Sure enough, by 2017, a Bodhi tree with a small glass-encased shrine in front, containing several small Buddha images   appeared near the fish market. There was a mural, sponsored by civil society organizations behind the tree. This had a dagoba prominently displayed in front. Behind it were a church, a mosque and a Hindu kovil, but a subtle foregrounding of Buddhism was still present, lamented Harris.

Elizabeth Harris was told that there had only been one Buddha rūpa on the A9 road between Vavuniya and Jaffna before the war, at Kilinochchi. The number had increased thereafter. Anjali ( pseud)  had told her that  on one journey to Jaffna before the ending of the war, she had followed a massive Buddha rūpa in the back of a lorry up the A9. For her, placing Buddha rūpas in non-Buddhist areas could be compared to the actions of a tomcat ‘pissing to mark its territory’.

Anjali  was fully aware that her simile was objectionable but insisted I should include it, declaring that asserting Sinhala Buddhist dominance in non-Buddhist areas was ‘a contradiction of Buddhism itself ’. ‘For this to be happening’, she added, ‘in a period of supposed reconciliation is a contradiction in terms’,  recorded Harris.

I am ending this essay with an account of some of the  Buddhist temples that  have  been destroyed, turned into kovils or had a narrow escape from that fate.

DGB de Silva recalled that the ruined Buddhist stupa in the Dighavapi jungle was on the verge of being converted to a Hindu shrine when his wife’s maternal grandfather, the late G. M. Simon de Silva, a prosperous entrepreneur from Kalmunai/Akkaraipattu, saved it by clearing up the place, erecting a flower altar , installing a stone Buddha statue, and getting a monk to reside there. The bhikkhu lived on a tree-top avasa until he was gunned down by a marksman.

 Okanda Devalaya in Ampara  has been converted to Ukanthamalai Murugan Kovil.  There was no Murugan or Valli Amman kovils in this area until very recently. That change took place when these lands were purchased by Tamils, said Dilrook Kannangara. Until April 27, 2002 the place was officially known as Okanda Devalaya. Since then it has been replaced by Murugan Kovil”. European Union  financed the construction of the Hindu temple.

The nearby Kottadamuhela Buddhist shrine remnants are evidence of Buddhist heritage. There are 20 cave inscriptions in Kottadamuhela caves The Buddhist shrine was in operation in a small way until 1978. Thereafter Tamil terrorists attacked Sinhalese in this area, hacking some to death while others fled. Tamils invaded this area subsequently and captured it, noted Dilrook.

Asst Commissioner of Archaeology , MH Sirisoma reported in 1971 that there was no wall around the Sri Maha Bodhi and  a kovil was being put up on the adjacent land.

When in the 1960s the archaeological Department went to Jaffna peninsula there were still remains of the Buddhist sites cited in the 16^th Nam pota. These have been gradually built over with Hindu Kovils.

Kokkadicholai is now completely Tamil, said Medhananda. They have encroached over most of the 22 acres.  Ruins have been destroyed.  The evidence is still there.  A kovil, named Kanakone Ishwara Kovil, has been built over the aramaya.  The   Kovil started small and is now enlarged. There is a Pullaiyar kovil too, said Medhananda. There had been a planned programmed to hinder Buddhists in Sembumalai, observed Medhananda. Ilankaturai was earlier Lankapatuna. Many non Buddhist have encroached and Hindu kovils have come up there. Samudragiri vihara, Illankathurai was destroyed. 

The dagoba at Sudaikuda in Sampur was razed and   its artifacts destroyed, before the dagoba could be labeled an archaeological site. But Archaeology Department said it intended to take over the site.

The Bodhi tree at Gokanna in Trincomalee  like the Bodhi tree at Killiveddi in Trincomalee district (Sansoni Commission Report) and in the Jaffna peninsula (Guruge), was destroyed between 1956 and 1964.

Materials from Buddhist ruins were used for the Oddusuddan kovil. Buddhist pillars  were seen beside the Sivapuram Sri Malai Kovil also stone edict dated to 8 to 10 AD which has been published. Buddhist items were taken for use at Mullavaikkal kovil.  ( Continued)

Dr. Sudath Gunasekara B.A. (Hons) PhD. Retired Permanent Secretary to   Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranayaka. 1994.

Posted on January 30th, 2022

A proposal to the Government of Sri Lanka to set up an International Museum cum Research Institute on Colonial rule in this country from1505-1948 in Kandy at the old Bogamabara Prison site in memory of the brave Kandyan who sacrificed their lives in battle against three ruthless European Invaders, Portuguese, Dutch and English to save their Motherland and the Sinhala Nation on which their ancestors had found and developed the civilization and the culture from 543 B.C. with special emphasis on the colonial crimes that were committed  by the British during the  two main freedom struggles namely  the Uva-Wellassa (1817-1818)  and the other in Matale in (1848). 

(Proposed name for the Institute)

I propose that it should be named as The Sekadagala International Museum and Research Institute on Colonial rule and Crimes Committed by Portuguese, Dutch and British from (1505-1948) in Sri Lanka: Museum premises should be planned as narrative historical and educational sequence from 1739-1948 within a tropical botanical garden rich in flush greenery and flamboyant verdure, ponds, sprinkles and water falls.

 Bogambara Prison

The Bogambara prison was built by the British in 1874 as the second largest Prison in this country on the model of the famous Bastille Prison in Paris. Bastille was built to imprison and suppress those who rose against the French Monarchy. Similarly. Bogambara was built by the colonial invader British to imprisoned, suppress and hang the native Sinhala patriots who revolted and rose against the British colonial Government. Bogambara did the same job in Sri Lanka to Sinhalese, what the Bastilles did in France. There was very little difference between what happened in Bastille in France and Bogambara in Sri Lanka. Theo only difference was one happened in France and the other happened in Sri Lanka a, colony ceded to the United Kingdom by deception and intrigue in 1815.

No final Plan to develop Bogambara Prison complex even after 8 years of its closing in 2014.

Already 8 years have passed since this prison was closed down in 2014 and shifted to Pallekele, perhaps making room for future development of a fast-changing cultural city. Four Governments since then have been talking high and the Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinha and a number of Ministers, of these governments and officials of different institutions also have visited this site many a time. Much public funds have already being spent on these public shows and many a report have been published, spending millions of public funds without any substantial development to be seen, for 8 long years. Apart from commencing some real development isn’t it a tragedy that even after 8 years there is no unanimity among the political masters or the officials entrusted with the job, on what really, they are going to do here.

According to the UDA Final Report: Vol.2 (2019-2020) ‘the redevelopment plan is not finalized yet”

Looking at the long delay in converting this historic place, located right at the center of the historic world heritage city Mahanuwara (Kandy), The Great City /Capital, of the last Kingdom of Sinhale, a glistering jewel of the 2500 years old Sinhala Kingdom, to a useful purpose and more over lack of clarity in the minds of those who are in charge of the project as stated in the UDA report, which says ‘Currently, no decision has been made on who will redevelop the major part of the prison buildings” is really very puzzling. I wonder as to what 4 Governments have been doing for 8 years with so much of talking and public displays. Just like the governments, the management also has been going from hand to hand (Central Engineering Consultancy Services and UDA, the Prison Dept and dept of Archaeology) with different priorities and expertise that are far apart from the historical, cultural, political and strategic depth of this city and its environs.

In this state of confusion, I am convinced that this will be never converted to a functional level at least for anotherr10 years, as already 8 years have gone waste, under four Governments since 2014. Different Ministers, have come out with different, but stale utopian plans. Nevertheless, still it is at ground level after 8 years, as stated by the UDA. I remember once Minister Malik Samarawickrama of the Yahapaalanaya government said he will convert this place into a five-star Hotel to attract foreign tourists. His plan is now gone for good along with his own, fortunately.

PM Ranil has also declared to open a so-called Cultural Park outside the Prison wall included in the 2016 plan. This event was attended by 6 Ministers 2 Ambassadors, Thailand and Japan and about 10 officials. At that time, it was under the Central Engineering Service and UDA. But very little activity is seen around the place since then.  Surprisingly for a layman like me, it looks a ghost prison site now. But even Ranil has not thought of a master plan to develop the fast-dilapidating building.

At a later stage Champika Ranavaka, Minister of Megapolis visited the place and declared that he will develop this place as a major tourist attraction. This plan was dropped in 2021 May and the Department of Prison also declared it will open a five-star Prison Hotel (a crazy idea) here. Champika’s fairy plans were also disappeared in the air along with him and the Yahapalanaya Government.

Then Minister Keheliya Rambukwella (New Government) on a tour conducted on 21.7.2021 weekend declared that plans were afoot to develop the old Bogambara Prison buildings and its land as a prominent tourist attraction for both local and foreign visitors to see the heritage city of Kandy, the Minister said. Sri Lankans, particularly the Kandyan traditional craftsmen and artistes, would be given the opportunity to display their goods within the premises, the Minister said.

Meanwhile the State Minister Ministry of Heritage, Vidura Wickramanayake who visited the place on August 2. 2021, emphasized that a very special mixed project will be established in the premises of the Bogambara Prison and that priority will be given to artefacts of cultural and artistic value which have been protected up to now centered on the last kingdom of Kandy. He also has said the speculations that the old Prison building will be demolish is untrue.

State Minister Wickramanayake further has said that the environment required for artisans who engage in creations highlighting traditional arts which is hereditary to Kandy, will be set up within these premises. He said that the programme will be launched together with the Urban Development Authority, the Department of Archaeology and the Prisons Authority.

The UDA who are supposed to be in charge of this rehabilitation Project (as opposed to doing something novel) on the other hand in their GREATER KANDY URBAN PLAN, Final Report: Vol.2 says.

Main Text Plans ready to develop old Bogambara Prison Complex has said they are planning to convert it to a develop old Bogambara Prison Complex that will be turned into a mixed-use building with public open space in front as tourist attraction center (Details not given. Also, it looks very vague. As they say it will me a mixed project. The details of the composition of the mix are not reveled)

Scanning through all these Mixed stories” overall, it looks to me now, that it is like Alice in Wonderland. I wonder whether all the people who visited the site have fallen through a rabbit hole and are there, still in Alice’s Wonderland.

My observations

 Looking at all these news reports it is more than clear that even after 8 years there is no final plan or a final decision of development, rehabilitation, whatever they call it, on the proposed new Project.  All speakers have highlighted only the conventional, but rather stale, tourist promotion aspect and the service they have in their minds on Kandyan Arts and Crafts. None of them seems to be aware of the existence of the Laksala and the Department of Small Industries, with their Kundasale Sri Narendra Sinha Arts and Crafts Colony and a large number of private shops with a massive Kandyan Arts Center (Incidentally for which I laid the Foundation in 1972 as Assistant Director of the Department of Small Industries Kandy, at that time.) just in front of the Kings wood College, to take care of this sector from late 1970 s.

All these lose talks prove that even after 8 year none of them seems to has a clear idea as to what the overall plan of development for this site should be.  Therefore, it is still in the speculation stage most of them groping in the dark, politicians taking center stage, as a display of cheap political propaganda to attract the votes only. It has been a merry-go round for everybody at public expense.

In this back drop, as I see it, the Bogambara prison site has become a mere theater for politicians for regular cheap political media shows, to deceive the voters, just as they had done in all other fields for the past 73 years, by pretending that they are seriously interested in developing this place on a multifaceted development fairy tale, like the Midsummer Night Dream of Shakespeare, without a clear idea as to what they are going to do with this historically and economically valuable site. The fact that each politician who visited the site had a different approach and a different perception of future development on this site explains the confusion and lack of purpose and clarity as to what the Government is going to do here or in other words it does not have a concrete plan at all in hand and it has just boiled down to a dirty political game only. All of them are still groping in the dark, I think. To me it appears that only Heritage Minister had said something sensible, even though not comprehensive. Everybody appears to have fallen in to a rabbit hole as in Alice in wonderland.

However, no one has said anything sensible. Also no one has seen or thought of the historical, political and sociological importance of this prison site that has witnessed one of the darkest chapters of Sri Lankan history where many a conspiracy and crimes have been hatched and committed against the Sinhala Nation and similarly about the light it can throw on the atrocities of expansion of Colonialism and the spread of religion at gun point by the war minded hungry European invaders in the Middle Ages with no mercy on any human being outside their complexion.

Talking about the Prison per se, it is a pity none has taken in to account the importance of the historical and political role played by this prison during the time of repressive colonial administration in designing a plan that display the sacrifices made by the Kandyan peasants and their patriotic  leaders, the battles they fought and how valiantly they kept all the invaders locked up in a narrow coastal belt for 310 long years until the British succeeded in annexing the Island to the British empire  in1815.by a shrewd and cunning intrigue hatched and implemented by John Doily, supposed to be  the cleverest spy the British ever had.

 None of these politicians or the officials have had the slightest idea of the important role played by the Kandyan peasants, who suffered and died inside these walls helplessly, for fighting against the enemy, and their unique braveries in defending the motherland and the Sinhala nation for 310 years, not only in protecting the Kandyan Kingdom but also the whole country and the Sinhala nation surrounded by the mighty Indian Ocean by not allowing the invades to annex the Kandyan Kingdom

 In fact, in my view the new project that is to come up here should be dedicated to the memory of that great people, who are now completely forgotten and even their descendants criminally betrayed by everybody, including the politicians who are clueless about what their ancestors had done to save this land for them and moreover their own pristine heritage as a world class nation.  These politicians and officials who do not know that they had a glorious past today live and fly high in an empty European made air balloon,    taking this country and the Sinhala Nation to imminent disaster. So how can people like that ever conceive a meaningful plan to make the best use of this wonderful site?

The best example I can quote to prove the ignorance, disregard, the callousness and jealousy the present- day politicians have towards these great people (Kandyans) who saved the country and the Sinhala nation from Western Colonial invasions is the abolition of the Department of Kandyan Peasantry Rehabilitation Department and the Kandyan Area Development Authority in Jan 2014 by the present Minister of Finance Mr. Basil Rajapaksa, who still have double allegiance by being a dual citizen (1 America and 2 Sri Lanka)  to establish his pet Project  Divineguma in 2014. by closing down three important institutions started by previous governments namely, a) The Kandyan Peasantry Rehabilitation Dept and the Kandyan Area Development Authority and the Janasaviya.  

Therefore, any Development Project designed for this site should be a Master piece that could take the world by surprise on the darker side of Colonialism and also that could pave the way for the countries in Asia Africa and Latin America, for political, economic and cultural liberation from the neo-colonial suppressions and oppressions  

I also suggest that this memorial institute is divided in to three separate sections to demonstrate each colonial period separately vide; Portuguese Wing, Dutch Wing and the British Wing to enable the visitors to see the scales of crimes done by each colonial power to this country. Such a division will make it easy to compare and differentiate the crimes each power had done and also understand the commitments for liberation made by the Kandyan while some lowlanders 1815.and minority Tamils and Muslims betrayed the country during this period by assisting the enemy in different ways, especially against the natives of each period. Serving the invaders as mercenaries and cheap labour in the battle field (Tamils) and acting as spies (Muslims) were the two main roll they played. The  important thing to note here is the minorities always took the side of the invader/enemy  against the native Sinhalese.

As such any project designed to this site should be able to expose the darker side of the barbaric, inhuman and savages’ European colonialism that reflect the true colonial history on this tropical Island.

A multifaceted approach preserving the Kandyan architecture.

All other activities like public Parks, Libraries, tourist shops, cafeterias, Cinema Halls, Conference Halls, Exhibition Halls, lecture theaters should be cited separately nice landscaped. All the new buildings should be designed in the traditional Kandyan Architecture to preserve the indigenous Sinhala architectural designs.

 In my view the development of this place should expand beyond the stale and common tourist promotion mania of average men. I suggest that it must also encompass a broader academic scope. So that it could be a gold mine for researchers and students of different types of colonialism in one place, both medieval and the present times, so that it could turn out to be an academic center par excellence in the Indian ocean, -the path way to the East and the West from ancient times. So that it will attract thousands of researchers and scholars from all parts of the world both the West and the East, thereby opening a super highway for earning Foreign Exchange as well.

No one involved in this project so far seems to have noticed the potentials of developing this historic place, on these lines as a center of attracting academic interests like historians, sociologists, and military strategies of different people at different times in history, in studying how medieval colonial expansion has transformed and changed this modern world. How colonialism was responsible for the present day socio-political, economic and human mess and conundrums arisen from the ills of colonial policies to the victim nations and how to find workable solutions to such ailing white manmade problems due to the perpetuation of the same medieval colonialism in the modern world even today and arrest the neo-colonialism intruding in different forms like trade. Monetary strategies through agencies like the IMF and the World Bank into the affairs of the exploited countries like Sri Lanka.

As such the establishment of a museum of the model proposed here   could be a world famous research center for scholars the world over on colonialism and its impact on reshaping and transforming the old world  in to a new world and how colonialism has implanted the aggressor’s religion, language and culture at gun point and thereby destroying the native and  indigenous systems and replacing the local cultures that has disturbed and destroyed the global equilibrium that was brought about by environmental diversity where each nation respect the other man’s culture that might have far reaching effects on our co-existence on this planet  and WORLD peace, sans the present day global tension and unrest by practicing the ‘Matsya nyaaya as preached by Kautillya, where the stronger swallows UP THE WEAKER.

 In addition to what I have discussed above the proposed museum complex will also have separate sections to display

1 Visuals of brutalities committed by colonial invaders

Like murder, arson, vandalism, destruction of religious places slaughter of cattle, wanton destruction to the environment, large scale deforestation on the hill country, destruction of irrigation canals, village Tanks, destroying home gardens and paddy fields, economic bases social institutions removal of valuable books, ola leaves, artifacts, science and indigenous knowledge like Ayurveda

Instances of Destabilizing internal political harmony by discriminatory methods like giving minorities special privileges, discrimination against the Sinhala majority setting Tamils and Muslims against them, planting Indian nationals right at the centre of the country giving rise to a new Indian Tamil civilization to destroy the territorial integrity of this Sinhala country.

Introducing new laws for the minorities (such as Thesawalamei for Tamils and Muslim law for Muslims while denying the natives their own Sinhala law which they called Kandyan law and imposing Roman Dutch Law on them. Robing the native land by repressive legislation like Encroachment on Crown lands Ord of 1840, Temple Lands Ord of 1853 and the Wasteland Ordinance of 1897. They also destroyed the age old native political, legal, administrative and social institutions and replaced them with systems   completely alien and inappropriate to the traditions of the colonies. The proposed Museum should provide a store House of information on these subjects. Let all lost be documented and preserved for the present generation to know what wealth they had1815.teh British destroyed them. 

AI propose the appointment of special expert committee to study each of these aspects and prepare a comprehensive sectoral plan for each section, put together will serve as the master plan for the proposed project. That Committee can use this brief proposal as the background paper.

The Govt must set up a special committee to study each of these aspects and prepare sectoral plan for each section. Within this programme we also can have provisions for Hotels, Sale centers, Theaters, conference halls, craftsmen at work to demonstrate how medieval Sinhala Craftsmen work in their villages, Exhibition halls, libraries with research facilities. In fact, this museum should be developed as a museum complex.

This could be the first of its kind on studies on colonialism in the whole world. The entire site of 14 acres should be nicely landscaped and buildings should reflect Kandyan Architecture. I suggest the following statues should also be erected in prominent places to add colour, decor and pride of a nation that had a Great heritage.

Monaravila Kepetipola Disava, Ehelepola Disava, Pilimatalava Adhikaarama, Meegastenne Adikarama, Viira Madduma Banda  Wariyapola Sumangala and Kadahapola Thero and Welivita Sangharaja Thero,  Puran Appu.,Gongalegoda Banda Saradiyal Sirima Bandarnayaka and Tennakoon Wimlananda, Nittawela Gunaya and Thittapajjala Suramba, so that they will add colour, dignity and pride to a nations past. Keppetipola Disava walking with a hunch back looking downward when questioned by his guard said Man I am looking for the  freedom we lost tot e white man”of my Motherland

. When asked as to what the Adigar was looking for I am looking for the freedom of my motherland we lost to the White man”

1Use the traditional Temple painting technique in narrative form for Wall Paintings like how the medieval painters had done it in DegaldoruwaTempl.

2Miscellaneous items that could be incorporated to enhance the historical and cultural values.

3. All displays should be arranged in a way that pays the nation’s highest gratitude and honour to its heroes who fought against the enemies to defend the Motherland and the Sinhala nation and their religion and sacrificed their loved ones and everything they had and finally their lives in the name of the motherland and its people, during one of the darkest chapters of Sri Lanka’s history.

4.Exhibit Sinhala weaponry and war techniques they used in battle against the invader

5. A fully equipped library to House documents pertaining to the 1505-1848 period with a competent library staff.

6 A research unit in collaboration with the Peradeniya University 7.A Theatre for regular display of Kandyan Dancing and Folk Drama for tourists

Finally, I also propose to set up a Special Committee of experts in Sri Lankan and World Colonial History. Pertaining to the period mentioned (1505-1948) with a mixture of experts in History, Architecture of this country Art and Crafts musical instruments, State Craft and Kandyan Law, Sinhala Legal system and state craft, Indigenous Agriculture social system etc. This branch should fill the vacuume that exist in our universities.

Members

Few names I would like to suggest to this Committee. Emeritus Professor Gerald Peiris, Senaka Weeraratna, Asoka Badarage, Senali Waduge, Ariyawansa Jayakodi, Palitha Ariyaratna, Wansaratna Senaanayaka, Samantha Ratwatta PC.

Ex-Officio members

GA Kandy, Commissioner of Prisons, Mayor of Kandy MC or his Representative, Two scholarly Representatives from Malwatta and Asgiriya Sects, Someone to represent the VC of Peradeniya University, Diyawadana Nilame. a Representative from the UDA, A Rep from the Ministry of Heritage and Com of Archaeology and any other persons suggested by this Committee.

(The services of the writer are also available if they want it,

on request)

(This was published in LakaWeb.com. All Rights Reserved.  on Jn 30^th 2023)

Very IMP note

First it is important for the Govt at the highest level the President, Prime Minister and the Minister of Cultural Affairs and the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance Cultural Affairs and Education are there.

This Proposal should be presented for discussion at that meeting

 මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

               දුරාතීතේ දී ත්‍රිකුණාමලය හඳුන්වන ලද්දේ ගෝකර්ණය යනුවෙනි. ගෝණ කර්ණය යනු ගෝණ විසින් පාලනය කරන ලද ප්‍රදේශයයි.මෙහි තිබෙන වරාය එකල ලෝකයේ තිබූ හොඳම ස්වභාවික වරායන් අතරින් එකක් විය.මේ ගෝකණ්න වරායේ නෙරා ගිය තුඩුවක කඳු වැටි තුනක් නාවිකයන්ට දිස් විය. ඒ කඳු වැටි තුනේ ස්ථූපයන් තුනක් සෑදීම නිසා සාගරයේ යාත්‍රා කරන්නන් ඒ ස්ථානය විශේෂ කොට සැළකූහ.වර්තමාන නැගෙනහිර පළාතේ මුහුදට විවර වන සියලුම කඳු වැටි වල මෙලෙස බෞද්ධ ස්ථූපයන් සෑදිම එකල සිරිතක් විය. ඒවා ප්‍රදීපාගාර නොවේ.නැතිනම් නාවිකයන්ට මග පෙන්වන ස්ථාන නොවේ.ලොව පුරා සිටින බෞද්ධ ජනතාව ලංකාවට ආකර්ශණය කරවන වැදගත් සන්ධිස්ථානයන් විය.  මන්ද ඒ වන විට ලොව පුරා පැතර තිබූ බෞද්ධ  ශිෂ්ඨාචාරය ශක්තිමත්ව දිවමන්ව තිබූ බැවිනි.ඒ ශක්තිය ලංකාවේ ආර්ථිකයට අවශෝෂණය කර ගැනීමට මේ ස්ථාන අතිශයින් වැදගත් විය.ගෝකණ්න වරාය ඉස්මත්තේ මහසෙන් රජු විසින් ඉඳි කළ ගෝකණ්න විහාරය සිංහල බෞද්ධයන් ගේ ගෞරවාදාරයට පාත්‍ර වූ වැදගත් සිද්ධස්ථානයක් විය. මානවම්ම සහ පස්වන අග්බෝ රජවරුන් එම ස්ථානය වැඩි දියුණු කරමින් තපෝවනයක් ලෙසට සංවර්ධන කල බව පෙනේ. අග්බෝ රජු විසින් මෙම විහාරය අසල පධාන ඝරයක් සකස් කල ආකාරය මහාවංශයේ දැක්වෙයි.

       . පසු කාලයේ දී චෝල ආක්‍රමණ සමයේ ඉපැරණි වෙල්ගම් වෙහෙර මෙන්ම ත්‍රිකුණාමලයේ ගෝකණ්න විහාරයද හින්දු බලපෑමට නතු විය.ගෝකණ්න විහාරය අසබඩ හින්දු දේවාලයක් නිර්මාණය වන්නේ මේ යුගයේදීය.විදේශීය හින්දු සංකල්පය බෞද්ධ සංස්කෘතියට උකහා ගැනීම තුළින් විවිධ ජන වර්ග අතර ඒකාග්‍රතාවයක් ඇති කිරීම එහි අරමුණ විය.පරංගීන් ලංකාවට කඩා වැදුණු දහහතරවන සියවසේ දී ඔවුන්ගේ ආක්‍රමණයට ලක්වූ මුල්ම ස්ථානයක් ලෙසට ගෝකණ්නය සැලකේ.   පරංගීන් මෙම විහාරය සුණු විසුණු කර දැමූහ.බුදු පිළිම ගල් කණු කොරවක් ගල් සඳකඩ පහන් සියල්ල මුහුදට ඇද දැමූහ.ඉන්පසු වර්ෂ 1623 දී මෙම කඳු ගැටය ඔවුන් ගේ සුපුරුදු බල කඳවුරක් බවට පත් කරගත්හ.විහාරය සහ දේවාලය විනාශ කරලන්නට ප්‍රථම පරංගීන් විසින් මෙහි එකතු වන ධනයෙන් පණම් 1280 ක් කප්පම් ගත්හ.අනතුරුව දෙවන රාජසිංහයන් ලන්දේසීන් සමග එකතුවී ත්‍රිකුණාමල බලකොටුවට පහර දී අල්වා ගත්හ. බලේ බලේ රාසිං දෙවියන්ගේ බලේ -ගලේ කොටුව බැන්දයි තිරිකුණාමලේ යයි ජන කවියා සඳහන් කලේ මේ වික්‍රමය දැක්වීමටයි.

    වර්ෂ 1766 දී ලන්දේසීන් සමග කීර්ති ශ්‍රී රාජසිංහයන් ගිවිසුමක් ඇති කර ගෙන මුහුදු වෙරළේ සිට ගව්වක ප්‍රමාණයක් අත් හරින තෙක් මේ බල කොටුව උඩරට රාජධානිය සතු විය. ඉන්පසු ලන්දේසීන් ගේ යුධ මධ්‍යස්ථානයක්ව පැවත පැමිණ 1796 න් පසු මෙම බල කොටුව වැඩි දියුණු කරගත් ඉංග්‍රීසීන් නැගෙනහිර පළාතේ මර්මස්ථානය එය බවට පත් කරගත්හ. මෙම පේද්‍රික් බලකොටුවේ ඉහළ අන්තයේ පැරණි බෝධීන් වහන්සේ නිරුපද්‍රිතව පැවති අතර බෞද්ධයන් එයට වන්දනාමාන කළහ.ස්ථූපයේ නටබුන් පැවති බවට පැරණිපේද්‍රික් කොටුවේ සිතියමෙන් තහවුරු වේ. 1927 දී පමණ  මෙහි කෝවිලක් ගොඩ නැන්වෙන අතර  1964 වර්ෂයේ දී මෙහි පැවති ඉපැරණි බෝධින් වහන්සේ කෝවිල් කොමිටිය විසින් කපා දමා තිබේ.මුහුදට ආසන්න කඳු ගැටයේ පැවති ස්ථූපයේ නටබුන්ද විනාශ කර දැමෙන අතර කෝවිල ඒ මත සංවර්ධනය කර තිබේ. ඒ කාලයේ ත්‍රිකුණාමලයේ සිටි සිංහල බෞද්ධයන් නැවත බෝධි රෝපණයක් කරලීමට සැරසුනද ත්‍රිකුණාමලයේ හිටපු දිසාපති වරයෙක් වන එම්.බී.සේනානායක මහතා විසින් එය වළක්වා තිබේ.

     1980 වසරේ දී ගෝකණ්න විහාරය විනාශ කර ඉඳිකරන ලද පේද්‍රික් බල කොටුව පුරාවිද්‍යා ස්ථානයක් වශයෙන් ගැසට් කර ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කරතිබේ.එහෙත් ඉපැරණි ගෝකණ්න  විහාරය වශයෙන් හෝ පැරණි බෞද්ධ සිද්ධස්තානයක් වශයෙන් ගැසට් කිරීමට පුරාවිද්‍යාව අසමත් වී තිබේ. මෙහි ප්‍රතිඵලය වන්නේ වරින් වර වෙනස් වන දේශපාලන අධිකාරියේ තීන්දු තීරණ මත විහාරය අභිබවා කෝවිල සංවර්ධන ය වීමයි.අචාර්ය සෙනරත් දිසානාක මහතා පුරාවිද්‍යෘ අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල් වශයෙක් කටයුතු කරන සමයේ මෙම කොවිලේ නන්දි ගව ප්‍රතිමාවක් තැන්පත් කිරීමට අවසර ඉල්ලා කෝවිල් කොමිටිය පුරාවිද්‍යෘව දැනුම්වත් කළද එයට අවසර නොලැබුණි.නමුත් අනුර මනතුංග මහතා අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල් වශයෙන් පත් වූ පසු ඉහළ දේශපාලන අධිකාරියේ  බලපෑම් මත එයට අවසර දී ඇත. මෙම අවසරය ලබා ගැනීමේ දී එවකට සිටි පුරාවිද්‍යා සහකාර අධ්‍යක්ෂවරයා විසින් දිගින් දිගටම අධයක්ෂ ජනරාල් තුමාට ලිපි යොමු කළ ආකාරය නිරීක්ෂණය වෙයි.එහිදී ඔවුන් අවධාරණය කර තිබෙන්නේ හින්දු බැතිමතුන් ගේ අවශ්‍යතාවය පමණකි. ඉපැරණි ගෝකණ්න විහාරය පිළිබඳව හෝ ඒ ස්ථානයේ කල යුතු කළමනාකරණ සැලැස්මක් පිළිබඳව හෝ කල්පනා නොකොට කටයුතු කිරීමද නිරීක්ෂණය වෙයි. මෙහි ප්‍රතිඵලය ව ඇත්තේ මෙහි තිබූ  කෝනේශ්වරන් නමැති හින්දු කොවිල කඩා පරංගින් විසින් බලකොටුව ඇටවූ බවට ව්‍යාජ ඉතිහාසයක් දේශීයව සහ ජාත්‍යන්තරව සමාජ ගත වීමයි.නමුත් පුරාවිද්‍යා දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ හිටපු කොමසාරිස් වරයෙකු වූ එම්. එච්. සිරිසොම මහතා සන්සොනි කොමිසම ඉදිරියේ දුන් සාක්ෂි වලින් මේ බොරුව කුමක්දැයි පැහැදිලි ලෙසට ප්‍රකාශයට පත් වීතිබේ.

            පසුගිය කාලයේ දී නැගෙනහිර පළාත් ආණ්ඩුකාර ධූරය වෙනස් විය. ඉන්දියාවට හිතැති පුද්ගලයෙකු ආණ්ඩුකාර ධූරයට පත් කරන ලද්දේය.ඔහු පත්වීමෙන් පසු මෙම ස්ථානය පුරාවිද්‍යා නීතියට පටහැනි ලෙසට කළමානකරණයට උත්සාහ ගනු ලැබීය.ඉන්දියාවේ ආධාරය සහිතව පේදුරු කොටුවේ හින්දු දාන ශාලාවක් සෑදීම අවසර ඉල්වා සිටියේය. නමුත් පුරාවිද්‍යා සහකාර අධ්‍යක්ෂවරියෙගෙන් ඊට අවසර නොලැබුණි.එසේම මෙ කොවිල හින්දු පූජා භූමියක් ලෙසට ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කරන්නයැයි ඉල්වා සිටියේය. එයද වැලකුණේ සිරිසෝම මහතා ගේ සන්සොනි කොසමිසම් වර්තාව උපුටා දක්වමින් සකස් කළ පුරාවිද්‍යා වාර්තාව නිසාවෙනි.මෙකී කටයුතු වලදී පුරාවිද්‍යා නීතිරීති ද නොසලකා හරිමින් කටයුතු කිරීමට වාචිකව උපදෙස්  ඉහළින් ලැබේ. කන්නියා උණුවතුර ළිං පරිශ්‍රය සඳහා සංචාරකයන්ගෙන් ගාස්තු අය කර එය බෞද්ධ පරිසරයක පිහිටි නාන ළිං සමූහයක් බවට හැඟවෙන අවසර පත්‍රයක් නිකුත් කර තිබූ අතර ඒ බෞද්ධ පරිශ්‍රය යන වචන ඉවත් කිරීමට දැඩිව බලපෑම් කර ඇති ආකාරයද නිරීක්ෂණය වෙයි.

       මේ තත්වය අද වන විට බෙහෙවින් ඔඩු දුවා ඇත. ඉන්දීය අඛණ්ඩ භාරත් සංකල්පය යටතේ ලංකාවේ හින්දු කෝවිල් සවර්ධනය කර ඒවා සඳහා සංචාරකයන් ගෙන්වා ගැනීමේ රාමායණ මංපෙත වැඩ සටහන් යටතේ කෝනේශ්වරම ද සංවර්ධනය සඳහා ඉලක්ක ගත කර තිබේ. ඒ කටයුතු ඒලෙස සිදුවුවහොත් පෙර දුන් පුරාවිද්‍යා නියෝග සහ නිර්දේශ ආපස්සට හැරවීමට පුරාවිද්‍යා දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට සිදු වීමයි. ජනපතිවරණයක් හෝ මහා මැතිවරණයක් ආසන්නව තිබෙන මොහොතක අන්තවාදීන් සතුටු කිරීම ඉන්දීය භූ දේශපාලනය සමබරව තබා ගැනීම ආදී ක්‍රියා මාර්ග ගැනීමට වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුවට සිදු වන්නේ ඔවුහු බලය උරගා බැලීමේ තරඟයක යෙදී සිටින බැවිනි.දේශපාලන බල පොරය අතරේ අපේ අතීත උරුමය  වැනසී යෑම වලක්වාලිය නොහැකිය.ඒ මතුද නොව ඒ අතීත බෞද්ධ උරුමය අකා මතා ව්‍යාජ ඉතිහාසයක නව පරිඡේදයක් ආරම්භ කිරීමද සිදු වනු නියතය. උතුර සහ නැගෙනහිරවෙන් කර ගැනීමට මාන බලමින් සිටින බෙදුම්වාදීන්ට මෙය සුභදායී කාලවකවානුවක් විය හැකිය.

 මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

Palitha Ariyarathna

Communist regimes, particularly in countries like China, have had a complex relationship with Buddhism. They often view it through the lens of Marxist ideology, which prioritizes materialism and atheism. In China, the communist government’s historical suppression of Buddhism has deep roots, dating back to the mid-20th century Cultural Revolution.

During the Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong’s regime targeted Buddhist temples, monasteries, and practitioners as part of its broader campaign to eradicate what it deemed as old customs, old culture, old habits, and old ideas.” Buddhist monks and nuns were persecuted, temples were destroyed or repurposed for secular use, and religious rituals were banned.

This systematic suppression of Buddhism during the Cultural Revolution had a profound impact on the practice and observance of Vesak and other Buddhist festivals in China. Vesak, which traditionally involves public rituals and ceremonies at temples, faced severe restrictions, if not outright prohibition, during this period of intense ideological crackdown.

Even after the end of the Cultural Revolution, communist governments in China and other countries with significant Buddhist populations continued to exert control over religious practices. They often promoted secularism and discouraged public displays of religious devotion. While Vesak may still be observed by Buddhist communities in these countries, it is often under the watchful eye of government authorities, who seek to monitor and regulate religious activities.

Moreover, communist regimes have attempted to reinterpret Buddhist teachings through a Marxist framework. They emphasize social justice and collective welfare while downplaying or even dismissing the spiritual and metaphysical aspects of Buddhism. This ideological reimagining of Buddhism has led to tensions between communist authorities and Buddhist practitioners, particularly those who seek to preserve traditional religious practices and teachings.

In contemporary Asia, where communist governments coexist alongside vibrant Buddhist traditions, Vesak celebrations can be seen as a battleground between competing ideologies. While Buddhist communities strive to uphold their religious heritage and commemorate the life and teachings of the Buddha, communist authorities may seek to control or manipulate these celebrations to fit their own political agendas.

How Ever in Sri Lanka Despite these challenges, Vesak remains a poignant reminder of the enduring resilience of Buddhism and its ability to adapt and evolve in the face of adversity. As Buddhists across  Sri Lanka gather to celebrate Vesak, they not only honor the Buddha’s profound insights into the nature of existence but also affirm their commitment to preserving and transmitting the rich cultural and spiritual heritage of Buddhism for future generations.

Quote:

The only thing that I understood from this year’s Vesak festival was that the miracle of Vesak was not buried by the communist murgasam rain that hit through recent political years.” – By Dr. Lage

Dr. Lage’s quote highlights the resilience of Vesak and the enduring spirit of Buddhist traditions in the face of challenges, particularly those posed by political ideologies such as communism. Despite attempts to suppress or undermine Vesak celebrations, the festival continues to thrive, symbolizing the indomitable spirit of Buddhism and its teachings.

In  Sri Lanka, where Buddhism holds significant cultural and religious importance, Vesak celebrations have faced their share of challenges over the years. From colonial restrictions to modern-day criticisms and communist perspectives, the festival has endured various attempts to diminish its significance. However, as Dr. Lage suggests, the essence of Vesak cannot be extinguished by political storms or ideological conflicts.

This year’s Vesak celebrations in  Sri Lanka stand as a testament to the enduring strength of Buddhist traditions, particularly in rural village areas where the spirit of the festival shines brightest. Despite the pressures of modernization and secularization, communities across the country come together to honor the Buddha’s teachings and celebrate the wisdom of enlightenment.

In village areas, Vesak celebrations often involve vibrant processions, illuminated streets, and colorful decorations adorning temples and homes. The air is filled with the sound of chanting and the aroma of incense as devotees gather to chanting and pay homage to the Buddha. Traditional rituals, such as bathing the Buddha statue and offering flowers and lamps, are observed with reverence and devotion.

Despite the challenges posed by critics and social media campaigns questioning the relevance of certain rituals, Vesak remains a time for reflection, renewal, and spiritual rejuvenation. It serves as a reminder of the timeless truths taught by the Buddha compassion, wisdom, and inner transformation which continue to inspire and guide Buddhist communities around the world.

In the midst of these challenges, it’s evident that both young and old crowds, influenced by political ideologies that may underestimate Buddhism, exist. However, it’s wise to recognize that even those with radical, liberal, and communist leanings find themselves drawn to the magnificence of Vesak celebrations in village areas. People in these rural regions celebrate Vesak not because of their political leaders, but because of their deep-rooted reverence for Buddhist traditions and the profound significance of the festival in their lives.

In village areas, Vesak transcends political divides and ideological differences. It serves as a unifying force that brings communities together in a spirit of harmony and collective celebration. Regardless of their political affiliations, villagers join hands to illuminate their surroundings with the light of Vesak, symbolizing the triumph of compassion, wisdom, and inner transformation over the darkness of ignorance and division.

As Vesak illuminates village landscapes across  Sri Lanka, it serves as a powerful reminder of the universal appeal of Buddhist teachings and the enduring legacy of the Buddha’s wisdom. In the humble settings of rural villages, amidst the sounds of chanting and the glow of lanterns, the essence of Vesak shines brightly, inspiring all who witness its beauty to reflect on the timeless truths it embodies.

As  Sri Lanka celebrates Vesak with joy and devotion, it reaffirms the country’s deep-rooted connection to Buddhist traditions and its commitment to preserving the rich cultural heritage passed down through generations. In the face of adversity, Vesak shines as a beacon of hope, reminding believers of the enduring power of faith and the timeless message of peace and enlightenment.

Today’s world of the growing significance of cultural diplomacy and soft power has led to the revival of Buddhism, and both India, as well as China, are reclaiming their rights on the centrality of Buddhist core values to connect with the Buddhist world, to propagate an impression of its peaceful, harmonious rise promoting global peace and harmony.” – Quoted by Palitha Ariyarathna

Note: In previous years, former U.S. President Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and the United Nations, which formally decided to observe the day at its offices in 1999, have all offered words of recognition to the larger Buddhist community in honor of Vesak.

Note:Geopolitical – This Article Based on rigorous journalistic research, this article delves into the intricate relationship between communism and Buddhism, particularly exploring its impact on Vesak celebrations in Asia & Sri Lanka.

By Palitha Ariyarathna

Analyst of Buddhist affairs, Desha Abhimani Surya Vansa Ratna Vibhushan Palitha Ariyarathna from Senkadagala Sinha Dwaraya
TCFBI PEC President Unethical Conversion of Buddhist
TCFBI International Co-ordinator
JBB Convenor and President and Founder Sinhala Buddhst Policy Centre
Hela Abimani National Foundation-Secretary
Author Publisher and Journalist

Dilrook Kannangara

As elections draw near political jokers are coming out of the woodwork. Jokes require no logic. Add to that most Sri Lankans have short memories. Using both, shameless and highly corrupt politicians try to fool the people yet again.

On April 12, 2022 Sri Lanka declared bankruptcy.

By then Gotabaya was the president and defense minister, Mahinda was Prime Minister and Finance Minister and Basil was the Economic Affairs Minister.

In November 2023 Sri Lanka Supreme Court found that the trio (along with some key appointees of them) responsible for the economic disaster of Sri Lanka and for the total breakdown of law and order. Actions and inaction of Mahinda, Gotabaya and Basil directly contributed to Sri Lanka’s bankruptcy and they violated a number of key safeguards in the Constitution too.

The fire-sale or auction that Sri Lanka is about to undergo is a direct consequence of bankruptcy these created.

No company, individual or nation can come out of bankruptcy without auctioning some of its rights, assets, privileges and inheritance. As explained in hethu pala wadaya” (the logic of actions and their consequences) every action has consequences. Having taken the action, one cannot deny its consequences!

Unfortunately, this is exactly what Mahinda and Namal are doing right now. Having bankrupted the nation, they now oppose auctioning some assets of Sri Lanka. They should have considered this inevitable consequence of their actions before bankrupting the nation. It also proves they are politicians who cannot take responsibility for their own actions.

It is true that national assets should not be auctioned to pay for the sins and crimes of politicians who bankrupted the nation. Instead, auctioneers should auction the assets of these politicians. However, these very same politicians have blocked that using their parliamentary power forcing Sri Lanka to sell its assets to come out of bankruptcy. That shows their duplicity.

The next government has a responsibility to take action to protect national assets. Instead of selling off national assets they should auction the assets of the politicians the Supreme Court found guilty of bankrupting Sri Lanka. They and their close relatives have assets around the world and a sizable chunk of Sri Lanka’s loans can be repaid using them.

Someone got to pay for Sri Lanka’s bankruptcy and that someone is none other than the trio who bankrupted the nation according to the Supreme Court.

Ministry of Defence  – Media Centre

Diyawanna Vesak Zone 2024, organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Defence and Independent Television Network (ITN) was held for three days from May 23 and concluded last evening (May 25).

Defence Secretary General Kamal Gunaratne and Chairman of ITN Mr. Sudarshana Gunawardana, inaugurated the ‘Diyawanna Vesak Zone 2024’ and it managed to attract a large number of devotees for consecutive three days, irrespective of religion.

Decorative Vesak lanterns and colourful lights illuminating Denzil Kobbekaduwa Mawatha and the Ministry of Defence road in Battaramulla were ceremonially switched on by the two distinguished guests last Thursday (May 23) and the live telecast of ‘Diyawanna Vesak Zone 2024’ on ITN channel also began simultaneously.

The significance of the Diyawanna Vesak Zone was heightened by the Bakthi Gee (songs of religious devotion) recitals performed by cultural troupes from the Sri Lanka Army, Navy, Air Force and Civil Security Department (CSD).

Chief of Defence Staff General Shavendra Silva and Commander of the Army Lt. Gen. Vikum Liyanage who graced the second day (May 24) event, illuminated the Vesak zone ceremonially.

Commander of the Navy Vice Admiral Priyantha Perera ceremonially illuminated the third day (May 25) Vesak Zone as the chief guest and awarded the cash prize for the most creative Vesak lantern in Diyawanna Vesak Zone 2024.

ITN conducted a live telecast for the three-day ceremony which benefitted the island-wide devotees and Nestlé Lanka Limited sponsored the prizes awarded for the most creative Vesak lantern in Diyawanna Vesak Zone 2024.

Accordingly, the lantern designed by Sri Lanka Army Engineers Corps secured first prize, while Sri Lanka Army Ordnance Corps came in second. Sri Lanka Air Force Station Palavi won the third place.

Under the theme Attano wa avekkhyeya kathani akatani cha” (Let’s be aware of what we have done, not what others have done), Diyawanna Vesak Zone featured Vesak Lantern Exhibition, Bakthi Gee, Vesak Dhansal stalls, herbal tea stalls, light decorations, a decorated mobile Bakthi Gee platform and various other cultural events.

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

ශ්‍රී ලංකා නීතීඥ සංගමයට ජපානයේ “ජයිකා” ආයතනය විසින් දූෂණ විරෝධය සඳහා ලබා දුන් රු.කෝටි 2ක මුදලකින් කොටසක් විනිවිද බාවයකින් තොරව, අවිධිමත් ලෙස ජනාධිපති නීතීඥවරුන් 3ක් සහ තවත් නීතීඥවරුන් 2ක් විසින් ලබා ගෙන ඇති බවට වන සාකච්ඡාවක් පසුගිය සති 2ක පමණ කාලයක සිට ඇරඹී ඇත.

එකී ලබා ගත් මුදල් කිහිප දෙනෙකු විසින් නැවත ආපසු ලබා දීමෙන් මෙම ප්‍රශ්නය අවසන් නොවන අතර, ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් විමර්ශනයට  ජනාධිපති නීතීඥවරුන් වන ආචාර්ය කන්න්ඊශ්වරන් මහතා, ආචාර්ය ෆයිස් මුස්තාෆා මහතා,ඉක්‍රම් මොහොමඩ් මහතා, අර්සකුලරත්න මහතා සහ අලගරත්නම් මහතා යන පංච පුද්ගල කමිටුවක්ද මේ වන විට පත්කර ඇත.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා නීතීඥ සංගමය යනු නීතීඥවරුන්ගේ, විනිසුරුවරුන්ගේ පමණක් නොව ජනතාවගේද අයිතිවාසිකම් වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටින ජනතාවගේ පරමාධිපත්‍යය බලය ආරක්ෂා කරන නීතියේ පාලනය සුරකින ආයතනයකි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා නීතීඥ සංගමයට විශාල වශයෙන් ජාත්‍යන්තර ආධාර ලැබෙන බවත් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ පවතින මූල්‍ය නීති, රෙගුලසි, 2006 අංක 5 දරන මුදල් විශුද්ධිකරණය වැළැක්වීමේ පනත, 2006 අංක 6 දරන මුදල් ගනුදෙනු වාර්තා කිරීමේ පනත,2023 අංක 9 දරන දූෂණ විරෝධී පනත ඇතුලු පනත් මගින්ද, ජාත්‍යන්තර මුදල් ගනුදෙනු කිරීමේ චාරිත්‍ර සහ නීති අනුවද ශ්‍රී ලංකා නීතීඥ සංගමයේ සම්ප්‍රදායන් අනුවද ඒවා පාලනය වෙයි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව මේ වන විට බරපතල ලෙස මූල්‍ය අර්බුදයලයකට ලක්වී සිටින අතර ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී ලෙස තෝරා පත්කරගත් ජනාධිපතිවරයෙකු ජනතවගේ විශාල කණ්ඩායමකගේ විරෝධතා මත ධූර අත් හරිනු ලැබූ අතර, අගමැතිවරයෙකු ඉවත් කරවනුද ලැබීය.

එවන් තත්ත්වයක් යටතේ සහ නීතියේ පාලනයේ මූලිකාංගයක් වන සහ ස්වභාවික යුක්ති මූලධර්මයක් වන “යුක්තිය ඉටුවීම පමණක් නොව යුක්තිය ඉටුවන බව පෙනෙන්නට පැවතිය යුතුය” යන්නට ශ්‍රී ලංකා නීතීඥ සංගමයට ජපානයේ “ජයිකා” ආයතනය විසින් දූෂණ විරෝධය සඳහා ලබා දුන් රු.කෝටි 2ක මුදලකින් කොටසක් විනිවිද බාවයකින් තොරව, අවිධිමත් ලෙස ලබා ගැනීම සම්බන්ධ අදාල කාරණාවේදී ප්‍රමුඛත්වය ලබා දීම අවශ්‍ය වේ.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා නීතීඥ සංගමයේ
සභපති ජනාධිපති නීතීඥ  කෞෂල්‍ය නවරත්න,  සභාපති ධූරයට තරග වැදීමට නියමිත ජනාධිපති නීතීඥ  නලින්ද ඉන්දතිස්ස, ජනාධිපති නීතීඥ  ශවින්ද්‍ර ප්‍රනාන්දු, නීතීඥ  නුවන් ද අල්විස් සහ නීතීඥ රශ්මි ඉන්දතිස්ස විසින් ජපානයේ ‘ජයිකා’ ආයතනය විසින් දූෂණ විරෝධය සඳහා ශ්‍රී ලංකා නීතීඥ සංගමයට ලබා දුන් කෝටි 2ක මුදලෙන් කොටසක් සැකසහිතව ලබාගෙන ඇති අය බවට පුවත්පත් පවා වාර්තා කර ඇති අතර, ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් මේ වන විට අගවිනිසුරුවරයාටද, අදාල නෛතික ආයතනවලටද පැමිණිලි ලැබි තිබිය හැකිය.

මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් විමර්ශනයට ශ්‍රී ලංකා නීතීඥ සංගමය විසින් පත්කර ඇති ආචාර්ය කන්න්ඊශ්වරන් මහතා, ආචාර්ය ෆයිස් මුස්තාෆා මහතා,ඉක්‍රම් මොහොමඩ් මහතා, අර්සකුලරත්න මහතා, අලගරත්නම් මහතා සහ විමර්ශනයට ලක්වන ශ්‍රී ලංකා නීතීඥ සංගමයේ
සභපති ජනාධිපති නීතීඥ  කෞෂල්‍ය නවරත්න, ජනාධිපති නීතීඥ  නලින්ද ඉන්දතිස්ස, ජනාධිපති නීතීඥ  ශවින්ද්‍ර ප්‍රනාන්දු, නීතීඥ  නුවන් ද අල්විස්, නීතීඥ රශ්මි ඉන්දතිස්ස අතර කාලයක් තිස්සේ සුවිශේෂී පුද්ගලික සම්බන්ධතා නොපවතින බවට පිළිගත හැකි නොවේ.

මෙම ගනුදෙනුව දූෂණ විරෝධයට අදාල ජාත්‍යන්තර මුදල් ගනුදෙනුවකට සම්බන්ධ සහ ජනතාවට සෘජුව බලපාන හෙයින්, දීර්ඝ කාලයක් සුවිශේෂී පුද්ගලික සම්බන්ධතා පවතින තැනැත්තන් විමර්ශන කමිටුවලට පත්වීමෙන් සහ එහි ස්වභාවය අනුව එකි විමර්ශනයම සැකයට ලක්වන, අපක්ෂපාතී නොවන තත්ත්වයට පත්වන අතර එකී විමර්ශන කමිටුවේ සාමාජිකයන් වන ආචාර්ය කන්න්ඊශ්වරන් මහතාගේ, ආචාර්ය ෆයිස් මුස්තාෆා මහතාගේ,ඉක්‍රම් මොහොමඩ් මහතාගේ, අර්සකුලරත්න මහතාගේ සහ අලගරත්නම් මහතාගේ ස්වාධීනත්වයට, කීර්තියට සහ ගෞරවයටද අහිතකර තත්ත්වයක් ඇති වෙයි. එවන් තත්ත්වයක් ඇතිවීම වැළැක්වීම පුරවැසියන්ගේ යුතුකමකි. මෙවැනි විමර්ශනයක් කිරීමට සූදුසු ස්වාධීන, කුසලතා ඇති තැනැත්තන් මෙරට ඇත.

ඉහත කාරණා සැලකීමේදී ශ්‍රී ලංකා නීතීඥ සංගමයේ ජයිකා” මුදල් ගැන හොයන පංච පුද්ගල ජනාධිපති නීතීඥ කමිටුව යුක්තිය ඉටු වීම මෙන්ම යුක්තිය ඉටුවන බවත් සිය සාමාජිකයන්ට සහ ජනතාවට පෙනෙන්නට සළස්වා ඉල්ලා අස්වීම යුතුකමක් වෙයි.

http://neethiyalk.blogspot.com/2024/05/blog-post_25.html?m=1

නීතීඥ අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන B.Sc(Col), PGDC(Col), සමායෝජක, වෛද්‍ය තිලක පද්මා සුබසිංහ අනුස්මරණ නීති අධ්‍යාපන වැඩසටහන
දුරකථන 0712063394 (2024.05.24)

By A. Abdul Aziz, Press Secretary, Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at, Sri Lanka.

At the death of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), the Muslims lost not only their Prophet but also their spiritual, religious and political leader. The Holy Prophet (PBUH) had not designated any successor during his own lifetime and the young Muslim community could not possibly survive without one. A Leader, therefore, had to be selected who would not only be acceptable to the people but also worthy of the Holy Prophet’s ideals and objectives. The choice of the Muslims fell on elected Hazrat Abu Bakr who was then elected as the first Khalifah or Successor of the Holy Prophet. This electionor nomination of leaders in the Muslim community grew into an institution called the Khilafat or Caliphate.

The period of the four successors of the Holy Prophet, Hazrat Abu  Bakr , Hazrat ‘Umar , Hazrat ‘Uthman , and Hazrat ‘Ali , is known as the Khilafat-i-Rashida (The Pious Caliphate). The promise of Khilafat-i-Rashida is linked to the following four conditions which the Ummat-i-Muslimah (Muslim Community) must fulfill:

1.    Should have strong belief (Iman ) in the Promise of God Almighty regarding the establishment of Khilafat-i-Rashida .

2.    Should act righteously, as is desired of subjects of the Khilafat-i-Rashida .

3.    Be willing to make all sacrifices for the establishment of the Oneness of God.

4.    Under all circumstances, gives precedence to obedience to the Khalifah of the time, while keeping in mind the end of the proud people, which always results in disobedience and sinfulness.

The history of Islam clearly shows that as long as the Ummat-i-Muslimah (Muslim Community) kept taking care of the above four responsibilities, God Almighty kept providing them the blessings of the Khilafat . When the Muslim Community stopped fulfilling the above requirements of the Khilafat, obedience and righteousness disappeared, and they started fighting each other. Thus, God Almighty took away the blessings of Khilafat from Muslims, and a long period of unjust and cruel leadership started. However, in this age, by the grace of God, once again through the Promised Messiah and Mahdi , the spiritual son of the Holy Prophet of Islam, a  Jama’at has been established, which fulfills the above four conditions of the Khilafat-i-Rashida.

Hence, once again the institution of Khilafat in the tradition of Khilafat-i-Rashida has begun in Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at upon the demise of its Founder – Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad – the Promised Messiah and Mahdi . This is continuation as Khilafat of the Khilafat-i-Rashida , which began 1400 years ago after the demise of the Holy Prophet of Islam, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.

The Promised Messiah and Mahdi said about this Khilafat as Second Manifestation of the Power of God: Allah’s Divine Power is manifested twice. I appeared from God as a manifestation; and after me there shall come other persons who will be the second manifestation of Divine Power—And the coming of that manifestation would be better for you because it would be everlasting, of which the link shall not break until the end of the world.” (Al-Wasiyyat, pp 6-7, Ruhani Khazain vol. 20, pp 304-305)

The Ahmadiyya Khilafat is the second manifestation and Allah has assured Ahmadi Muslims that this Khilafat will endure to the end of time. Khilafat provides unity, security and progress for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at.  No other sect in Islam has such a strong leadership, nor enjoys such unity and devotion among its followers.

Allah says in the H oly Qurán:

Allah has promised to those among you who believe and do good works that He will surely make them successors in the earth, as He made successors from among those who were before them; and that He will surely establish for them their religion which he has chosen for them; and that He will surely give them in exchange security and peace after their fear; they will worship Me, and they will not associate anything with Me. Then whose is ungrateful after that, they are the rebellious.” (Holy Quran: 24; 56)

To manage the affairs of mankind and to enable it to achieve its noble aims and objectives, there have been various types of institutions in the world. These institutions being man-made have not been of much benefit to man.  Some of them if not all, turned out to be a form of exploitation of man by man. But Allah being most merciful did not leave man to wander in confusion and darkness. He sends His prophets from time to time for the guidance of mankind.

As a prophet is not to live forever, after he has sown the seed of faith and it has germinated into a tender plant, he passes on to his creator. At this stage of confusion and agitation of mind of the believers, the opponents of the prophet rejoice and think that the mission of the prophet will come to an end. At this time, Allah through the believers appoints another person as the representatives of the Prophet.  A Caliph (Khalifa) to a prophet acting as a magnetic force brings all the believers together, consoles their hearts and unites them.

As mentioned, the system of Caliphate (Khilafat) was established by God Almighty after the demise of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) when Allah appointed Hazrat Abubakr to be the first Caliph (Khilafa). After many centuries, Muslims lost the blessings of (Caliphate) Khilafat, as was prophesied by no less a person than the Holy Prophet himself.

The Holy Prophet said: O Muslims, Prophethood will remain with you as long as Allah wishes it to remain. Then it would come to an end, to be replaced with Khilafat (system of Caliphate), which would be on the pattern of prophethood and would remain as long as Allah wills. Then this Khilafat would also come to and.  The cruel rulers will replace it. It will then remain for as long as Allah wills. Then this period will also come to an end. Then there will be the rule of dictatorship, and that period too will come to an end. After that Khilafat, on the pattern of prophethood, would re-emerge.” After saying this, the Holy Prophet did not add any further comment. (Masnad Ahmad Vol. p. 273).

There is always wisdom, far sightedness, good reason and logic behind whatever Allah does. According to the laws of nature, man has only a limited life span, but the task of reformation and training of society requires a much longer time.  So, Allah has established the system of Caliphate (Khilafat) after the system of prophethood. The Khalifat continues and carries on the task of the prophet. The seed sown by the prophet is protected and is nurtured by the Khilafat till it becomes a strong tree.  It is a fact that when the believers stopped fulfilling the above requirement of the institution of Khilafat, obedience and righteousness disappeared, and they started fighting each other, Allah took away the blessings of Khilafat from the Muslims, and long period of unjust and cruel leadership ensued.

However in this age by Allah’s grace, once again through the Promised Messiah and Mahdi a Jama’at has been established, and the institution of Khilafat has once again been revived in May 27, 1908, (in the tradition of Khilafat-I-Rashida), after the demise of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad – the Promised Messiah and Mahdi. Every year Ahmadi Muslims celebrate May 27^th as Khilafath Day.

It may not be out place to mention here that, as the case in the early days of Islam, the Ahmadiyya Muslim community is guided and governed by a spiritual Head, who is elected by the community. Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad is the 5th Caliph of the Promised Messiah and the present Head of the world-wide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Islam. The Ahmadiyya Khilafat is the second manifestation and Allah has assured Ahmadi Muslims that this Khilafat (system of caliphate) will remain with them till the end of time provided the rules of conduct are taken care of.

Therefore, entering into covenant of allegiance to the Khilafat becomes imperative, because it provide unity, security, solidarity and progress. The fact is that, whenever the believers split into several sects, such that none has a link with the unifying institution of Khilafat, then in accordance with the teachings of Islam, their link with Allah is nullified.

It is a fact that, apart from the institution of Khilafat, there is no other system in the world that can guarantee unity. You can observe many sects but no sect shows the unity, which is the hallmark of Khilafat.

Muslims who should have been united and be in harmony, are divided in countless sects and divisions. By discord and disharmony the power of the Muslim world has not only disintegrated, but also they are using this broken strength against one another. When such are the conditions, the result will be zero.

Therefore, Muslims are obligated to unite at the hand of one Imam (leader) throughout the world. But without Khilafat, it is just impossible.

You see when a person goes to the mosque for prayers five times a day, there must be an Imam. Standing behind an Imam is a demonstration of unity, and discipline among people.  Imam is given so much importance that if the Imam falters, the entire congregation must follow his mistake if even they know that a mistake has been committed. What better instance can be presented for the need of an Imam and unity in his following? If Imam is mandatory in a small mosque, then how can the whole Muslim community survive without an Imam?

The word ‘Jama’at’ means a community that is under an Imam. Those who do not have an Imam are not a Jama’at. Divine blessings cannot descend on those who are not a Jama’at.

To mark the event, Khilafat Day functions were held in the Ahmadiyya Mosques in the country on 27^th May 2024.

By P.K.Balachandran/Sunday Observer

Colombo, May 26: The tragic death of the Iranian President Dr.Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in his country on May 19, will be mourned in Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan as he had built strong economic ties with Sri Lanka and India and wanted to have better ties with Pakistan despite quarrels over terrorism.

Asia formed the core of the Raisi government’s foreign policy. Raisi had criticized the western-oriented” foreign policy of his predecessor Hassan Rouhani (2013-21). Raisi administration which began in August 2021 promised to be Asia-centred” in its foreign policy.

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Ties with Sri Lanka

Raisi visited Sri Lanka in April this year despite the growing tensions in the Middle East and Western sanctions against Iran. He came to Sri Lanka to sign five MoUs and participate in a public ceremony to mark the inauguration of the Uma Oya Multipurpose Development Project (UOMDP), a joint Lanka-Iran venture.

Since 2013, Iran has also been using its economic ties with Sri Lanka to build a strategic partnership with the island nation. According to Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), Iranian outreach to Sri Lanka took advantage of Sri Lanka’s frustration with the West.

Between 1983 and 2009 when Sri Lankan forces fought a war against the Tamil Tiger separatists, a war which the West opposed, Iran supported the Sri Lankan government.  When the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon agreed to appoint a special panel to investigate human rights violations by Sri Lanka during its final military drive to eradicate the Tamil Tigers, Iranian Minister of Transportation Ali Nikzad lambasted the UN panel, describing it as a pet of the Western nations.”

If any organization or country takes action that will harm Sri Lanka, Iran will always very strongly oppose such a move, Nikzad added.

The then Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called his Sri Lankan counterpart to congratulate him on successfully ending the war sand remind him that Iran had always supported Sri Lanka’s unity. Mottakki also said: Iran is sincerely committed to the development of Sri Lanka, whom we consider to be a true friend.”

According to Rubin, in 2005, during the war, Iran supplied USD 150 million worth of weaponry to Sri Lanka.

Iran’s Foreign Minister, the late Hossein Amir-Abdollahian (he also died in the helicopter crash along with Raisi on May 19) had held talks with the Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe in April this year and stated that Iran’s economic and industrial sectors, including the Ministry of Energy, were prepared to develop projects in Sri Lanka.

The Iranian-Lankan Uma Oya Multipurpose Development Project (UOMDP) which was inaugurated by Dr.Raisi and the Sri Lankan President last month is one of the largest irrigation projects in Sri Lanka and the largest Iranian-Lankan project in the island. 

UOMPD’s primary objective is to alleviate water scarcity in the south-eastern dry region by redirecting an annual average of 145 million cubic meters (MCM) of excess water from the Uma Oya basin to the Kirindi Oya basin. About 4,500 hectares of new land and 1,500 hectares of existing agricultural land in the dry Monaragala District will receive irrigation water.

Parts of Badulla, Monaragala, and Hambantota districts will also benefit from 39 million cubic meters (MCM) of water for drinking and industrial purposes, while generating and adding 290 GWh of electrical energy annually to the National Grid.

In 2007, the then Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa made an epoch-making visit to Iran and signed MoUs on development projects worth more than US$ 1.9 billion. The following year Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Sri Lanka and inaugurated a US$ 750 million project to upgrade Sri Lanka’s Sapugaskanda petroleum refinery. 

Iran had agreed to provide no interest credit terms for petroleum purchases (approximately USD 700 million) and stated that it would finance the Uma Oya Project (USD 450Mn).

Iran’s Deputy Oil Minister Roknoddin Javadi had said that Iran was prepared to provide 40,000 to 45,000 barrels per day, enough oil to supply Sri Lanka’s main oil refinery.

The Sri Lanka and Iran epoch-making ‘tea-for-oil’ barter agreement is now making strong progress and Sri Lanka has already settled payments to the tune of over USD 20 million to Iran.

This agreement was to settle a total of USD 250 million for purchases made by Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) for oil imported from Iran in 2012”, said Chairman Sri Lanka Tea Board (SLTB) Niraj de Mel in a special interview with ‘Daily News Business’.

Since then we have made very strong progress and up to December 2023 we have settled around USD 20 million,” de Mel said.

In 2016 Iran used some of its hard currency windfall to lease Sri Lankan Airlines airplanes, effectively helping Sri Lanka’s national carrier to reduce its US$ 1 billion debt, Rubin said in his article. Institute.

Relations with India

President Raisi had very strong ties with India too. The Indian shipping minister Sarbananda Sonowal went to Tehran on May 13 for the inking of a 10-year contract between India Ports Global Ltd with the Maritime Organisation of Iran. Under the pact, India will invest around U$120 million to develop and operate the Shahid Beheshti Port in Chabahar besides offering a credit of US$ 250 million for infrastructure upgrading.

The new contract replaces the initial pact signed in 2016 to  keep India’s operations at the Shahid Beheshti terminal of Chabahar port going. The deal is extremely critical to India as it opens up a faster route to lucrative world markets. The overall investment by India in the Chabahar port was expected to be US$ 500 million.

The Chabahar port’s unique location, just about 550 nautical miles from Kandla port in Gujarat, gives India easy access to Afghanistan, the Central Asian countries and Europe.

Chabahar is also part of the proposed multimodal transport route also known as the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC). This corridor will link the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea via Iran and to northern Europe via Saint Petersburg. According to industry estimates, shipments through the INSTC route will take 15 days less compared to the Suez Canal route.

India is already operating the Chabahar port under the existing limited-scope agreement.

India has so far avoided being caught in the US-Iran crossfire over the US sanctions by convincing the Americans about the strategic importance of its bilateral pacts and got a waiver. The Biden administration has, however, said on record that the latest deal is not exempt from sanctions.

India-Iran bilateral trade stood at US$17 billion in 2018-19. However, following the Donald Trump administration’s May 2018 withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal and re-imposition of sanctions on Iran, trade was badly hit. The value of commercial exchanges between Iran and India declined to US$ 4.8 billion in 2019-2020 and US$2.1 billion in 2020-2021.

Relations with Pakistan

President Raisi visited Pakistan also in April this year for three days, though the two countries had attacked each other militarily in January. 

The border tensions escalated when Iran carried out air attacks across the border in Pakistan killing two children. The Iranian state media said the attack was targeting two bases of the armed group Jaish al-Adl. Pakistan retaliated by firing a missile into Iranian territory and recalling its ambassador from Tehran.

But the two neighbours decided to de-escalate tensions, with Tehran rushing its top diplomat to Islamabad to mend ties. They agreed to confront the menace of terrorism” together, especially in the border region.

Islamabad and Tehran have been aiming to boost bilateral trade, which currently stands at US$2 billion. Raisi had set a target of US$ 5 billion.   

However, there is a sizable informal trade between the two countries, including Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) and crude oil. Iran also provides electricity to Balochistan province and other border areas in Pakistan.

A plan to build a pipeline to export Iranian natural gas to Pakistan was stalled amid opposition from the United States over Iran’s nuclear programme.

By Sena Thoradeniya

(Continued from May 18, 2024)

1.Personal Attributes of GR

Though he failed as a President due to various factors and had to abdicate his presidency, there were many personal attributes favourable to GR. These personal attributes profoundly augmented his victory at the Presidential Elections. He was hailed and acclaimed as a hero and a leader who rescued Mother Lanka from the clutches of separatists as the Secretary of Defense, brother of MR who gave political leadership to the war efforts. He was responsible for urban development and beautification of the city as the Secretary of Urban Development, much-admired as a worker who showed results, a straightforward, simple, no-nonsense man, feared as a person who cleaned the underworld, not a showman who did not don the Rajapaksa trademark satakaya.

Even though this aspect was not brought to the winning equation, he was the son of D.A. Rajapaksa, nephew of D. M. Rajapaksa and cousin of George Rajapaksa, formidable persona in national and local politics. Although vilified by the Galle Face protesters later for the comparison, labelling him as a Lee Kuan Yu, a Mahathir Mohamed and a Putin, added more vigor to his election campaign and the resultant victory.

Does Malimawa and Anura Kumara have such advantages as GR? None.

Above all else, it was the last chance the Sri Lankans got to free themselves from US and Indian meddling and their lackeys as the disintegration of the national state and the recolonization of the country under a different guise were imminent. Full implementation of the 13^th Amendment, inking ETCA, SOFA, ACSA and other agreements detrimental to Sri Lankan State, granting whatever possible rewards to Tamil Eaalamists and Tamil diaspora were in the offing. Magnitude of these issues were exhibited at the Galle Face Protest that resulted in ousting him, less than three years after coming into power.

The handlers of Galle Face protesters succeeded in disintegrating the nationalist forces and making the national movement weakened and leaderless. Some of those who were in the forefront of GR’s campaign had gone to the camp of the enemy.

Can Anura Kumara, Sajith Premadasa, Ranil Wickremasinghe or any other dissident of SLPP who bellow rhetoric from rooftops, substitute the leadership of the nationalist forces. Highly unlikely. Mainly for the simple reason that their foreign masters and local allies will not allow them for such an alignment.    

2. Leadership Qualities of Anura Kumara

Without going into a detailed account of leadership theories, briefly we state that leadership is simply described as the ability to influence others. Hallmark of leadership is power coupled with influence. Anura Kumara may have power as the leader of the JVP/NPP; but it is doubtful whether he has influence over all his members. Gaining power as the elected President and influencing most of the countrymen are herculean tasks.   He has gained legitimate power because at present he is the leader of his party; but again, it is doubtful whether he has expert power (power through expertise) and referent power (initiation, power through personal identification, inspirational appeal and charisma), two vital sources of leadership, power and influence. The leaders were told to be wise, bold, willing to compromise and well-advised.

What we observe in Anura Kumara is that he is very good at information distortion or twisting facts and providing absurd interpretations to known facts, events and persona, a dubious method used by him to remain as the leader or a main contender for the top post.

3. Great” Man Theory and Trait Approach

Although it appears archaic and feudalistic and despite major criticisms levelled against Great Man” Theory and Trait Approach, they are still adopted to predict leadership behaviours and abilities of leaders/politicians.  Great Man” theory of leadership implied that some persons are born with certain traits that allow them to emerge out of a situation or history to become leaders. How great leaders shaped the destiny of their countries or world? Were there something extraordinary in their personalities, attitudes, behaviours and perceptions that enabled them to have a profound impact on history?

This evolved into Trait Theory of leadership. The underlying assumption of the trait approach is the existence of some basic traits or a set of traits that differentiate leaders from non-leaders. They are physical, personality, personaland social traits that distinguish leaders from non-leaders.  This list is very long. Personal appearance, attractiveness, above-average height; self-esteem, integrity, confidence;speaking skills (speaking ability is not verbosity or pomposity, occupying the rostrum for hours and hours, blastingmicrophones;the speaker should be able to speak to different types of audiences, adopting his theme and style to suit the specific audience; listen to what Sajith Premadasa utters in his  many encounters with school children), power to influence others,  the art of providing solutions to identified problems, intelligence or ability to process information and analyse alternatives, will to translate words into deeds, good vocabulary, self-confidence, non-verbal communication (there are many); judgement, intelligence, intellectual capacity, empathy, patience; are some of these traits.

Some people become leaders because leadership is thrust upon them. We have experienced that catastrophe in 2005 electing a Grama Sevaka as the President.

4. Trait Approach Applied to Anura Kumara

General perception of the people outside JVP/NPP circles about Anura Kumar is not so positive; some of his adversaries say that his inability to converse in English is his biggest drawback; this is the reason why right liberals and NGO cabal who support NPP promote Harini Amarasuriya above him. We do not think that this as a disadvantage as he can get the services of whispering interpreters or simultaneous interpreters (using headphones) if he is elected as the Head of State when he meets with foreign leaders. But his adversaries argue that being a citizen of an English colony his position is quite different from a leader who speaks either Spanish, Chinese or Korean. Leaders of Anglophone” Africa of western, eastern and southern parts of Africa do not encounter this problem.

Anura Kumara is timid in his appearance with foreign envoys. He cut a sorry figure in his meetings with Julie Chung, kowtowing as her baggage boy on the eve of his departure to the US; but this man in his meetings denigrates Pohottuwa supporters as a set of serfs who bend as arecanut trees before Basil.

Many questions are raised about his personal life (his marriage, children, how his children got employment etc.). In Sri Lanka personal life plays a major role in national politics. Against this backdrop how could Anura Kumara poll exceeding 50% (or as some say 70 lakhs of votes) of the total votes cast and Malimawaobtaining 113 or 2/3 as some say at the next parliamentary elections?

Somavansa Amarasinghe the late leader of JVP, who succeeded Wijeweera, writing a book titled Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna Vandaneeyayi- Hathara Denage Kalliya Nindaneeyayi” (Glory to the JVP- Down with the Gang of Four) in 2015 discloses reasons for his leaving the JVP. He branded Anura Kumara, Tilvin Silva, Lal Kantha and Vijitha Herath as the Gang of Four. Condemning them as the people who ruined the JVP he adds that all these are conceited mutts, ethically corrupt, degenerated to the core who are averse to self-criticism.  Amarasinghe says that Anura Kumara became conceited after becoming the leader, he is suffering from both inferiority complex as well as superiority complex; feeling inferior because he is a short person.  He says Lal Kantha after the demise of Wijeweera thought JVP was over and began to sell ice cream and yoghurt. Our informants say that he was a small-scale chicken farmer.

There is no correlation between height and effectiveness of leadership although height is considered as an integral part of physical traits of a leader. Queen Victoria, Napoleon, Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Deng Xiaoping, Churchill, Hitler, Mussolini, Gandhi and many more were short people. They were effective leaders as well. It is ludicrous bringing above – mentioned leaders for a comparison with Anura Kumara.  But in Sri Lanka among the villagers there is a saying, not to trust short men and tiny anthills (miti minihai- miti humbahai visvasa karanta epa”).

Without any sizable votes from North, East and the Hill Country, Anura Kumara does not have any favourable political, socio-cultural factors to boost his campaign in the South. He does not have any special personal attributes except rhetoric and arrogance, scaring his opponents with harsh treatment once he comes into power. Platform oratory does not bring votes. Now JVPers have become an elitist group in Sri Lanka with a penchant for high end designer ware.

Can JVP/ NPP reveal the amount they receive as funds, their funding sources? Can they fool the people anymore that they wear high end designer ware given to them by others? Not a single JVP/NPP bigwig wears the same dress any other day or for any other occasion. Even the old Tilvin matches with the young mavericks.

5. Anura Kumara’s Shallowness and Ignorance

Integrity, intellectual capacity, sound theoretical background, at least a fundamental knowledge of historical, cultural and sociological factors are essential ingredients needed to be an effective leader. We observe that Anura Kumara lacks these rudiments except bellowing and thunder at public meetings and You Tube interviews, shouting in a deep voice. This is not a good trait of a leader. It is said that ignorance is the enemy of its owner.

In a You Tube interview we heard Anura Kumara marketing his childhood poverty; being impoverished he was forced to sell mangoes, cigarettes, toffees and lozenges in train during school vacations; did earthwork earning 20 rupees a day. But he vilifies parliamentarians who have humble beginnings. At the pensioners’ meeting held recently he scoffed at a Southern politician as Canter Piyasena”. Was he referring to a person who operated Canter excavator?

He said that he wore old broken slippers to school; is that the reason JVP and its offshoot FSP forcing freshers to wear bathroom slippers and hand sewn cheetta (chintz) frocks and carry silisili bags? 

 He said that his family did not have a postal address; that their postal address was deke signal kanuwa” (second signal post).

In villages we did not have house numbers until recently. As postal addresses we had person’s name, village name and postal town without house numbers. Postmen knew villagers by their names and in which hamlet of the village they lived as a very few people of the village received letters. Sometimes letters were kept at the village co-op store. Villagers were identified by Walawwas, Gedera Names (for example Batagalle Gedera, Viyannala Gedera) or the hamlet they lived (for example Giradeniya Gammadda, Puwakgahadeniya Gammadda ) or by the profession of the addressee (as iskole mahattaya, p(f)iscal mahattaya, op(ff)icer(a) mahattaya, veda mahattaya) or by a watta (highland- for example Gurugalwala Watta) or a locus (or loci)- place/s of residence (concentrations of kinsmen) identified with certain castes,a natural or man-made landmark (for example a tree as in nagahamula, galambalama, iskole langa or deke ela” (channel no. 2-  in colonization schemes), deke signal kanuwa” as in Anura Kumara’s case). Having no house number did not signify poverty. To understand this one should not be an expert in Rural Sociology.

To dispel criticisms leveled against top members of his team, Anura Kumara said that Vijitha Herath’s wife owned a row of houses and boutiques at Narahenpita including Mahinda’s Abayaramaya; Lal kantha’s father was a landlord at Mihintale (what land at Mihintale except jungles and shrubs? Somavansa Amarasinghe wrote that Lal Kantha was selling ice cream and yoghurt); further Anura Kumara stated that Wasantha Samarasinghe belonged to a Gambhara family in Tambuttegama in the NCP (earlier dense jungle area, cultivated from Mahaveli waters). What Anura Kumara wanted to drive home was that his people are not poor beggars”.

Tracing origins of Samarasinghe to Gambharaya System in Tambuttegama showed Anura Kumara’s poor knowledge of sociological factors. Who were Gambharayas? Were there Gambharayas in NCP? Refer any source from earliest times from – R.W. Ivers, English Government Agent of NCP, who wrote Manual of the North Central Province” (1899), to Prof. Ralph Peiris or Prof. Ukku Banda Karunananda.

Gambharaya System now defunct, existed in the Hambantota District since 1880s when new lands were bought by rich people who lived outside the district. All of them were absentee-landlords. They wanted managers-agents to supervise cultivation activities of their fields. This manager-agent was known as gambharaya, an intermediary between the absentee – landlord and landless tenant farmers and hired migrant laborers respectively. Gambaraya provided working capital, seed paddy, farm utensils and buffaloes to the cultivators and collected the harvest. Since large tracts of paddy needed many buffaloes for ploughing and threshing gambharayas became owners of large herds of cattle. Landless tenant farmers and hired migrant laborers were dependent on him. Gambaraya was an exploiter, oppressor and a ruthless money-lender, all in one. They were able to control the personal and familial lives of the tenant cultivators. Paddy Lands Act of 1958 and Land Reforms in 1972 brought changes in the Gambaraya System.

Anura Kumara who worked in Hambantota District as a novice political activist should have studied its socio-economic conditions before mobilizing youth as cannon fodder. Still he has time to read what the late Prof. Hiran Dias (1976) had wrote about Gambaraya System. The term Gambaraya was loosely used to descendants of old Gambarayas or cattle owners who have large herds of cattle grazing together, sometimes exceeding 1000 animals, especially in areas such as Suriyawewa, Badagiriya and Angunukolapelessa.

These peasant producers did not possess the means of production – land etc.  To my knowledge our researchers have not investigated whether the Gambharaya System, an example for agrarian capitalism or shows agrarian origins of capitalism. Servile forms of dependence of the peasants were retained by this system. We are unaware whether Anura Kumara extols this archaic system connecting it to his labour aristocrat Samarasinghe.

Marketing his childhood poverty, Anura Kumara warns us not to treat JVP/NPP as a party of the poor; according to him they are not a party of the poor but a party that works for the poor. Judging by their life styles and their sartorial elegance nobody doubts that JVP/NPP is a party of the poor.

This statement has a profound significance as it shows the right deviationist politics of the JVP/NPP, how they have metamorphosized into a party of upper segments of the middle class.

Although the old left- LSSP and CP had many weaknesses they never said that their parties were not the parties of workers and peasants. Although a corrupted version of L’Internationale (Arise ye workers from your slumbers- Arise ye prisoners of want”) they still sing, sadukin pelenawun den ithin nagitiyaw”. Did the Bolshevik Party or CPC say that theirs were not parties of workers, peasants and exploited and oppressed people?

At a meeting held in a foreign country Anura Kumara was asked by a member of the audience his views about multilingualism, multiculturalism and LGBTQIA+ rights. Instead of giving a straightforward answer he digressed and talked about customs, traditions and norms associated with different religions. The person who raised the question may have forgotten what he had asked in the process. What he wanted to drive home was that Buddhist politicians are using so-called purity of Theravada Buddhism to come into power. He did not mention how Christians, Hindus and Muslims using their own religions to come into power and ISIS terrorists who used religion to carryout Easter Sunday massacre (sons of his National List man) or how Tamil Hindu politicians placing sivalingams and performing Pongal in ancient Buddhist Viharas in the North and the East for political expediency.

In this instance also he showed his ignorance saying Hindus have Geethavaliya as their Holy Book (instead of Bhagavat Geetha).  Geethavaliya is the Sinhala word for Psalms, a book in the Old Testament. Should we pardon the Born-Again cosmopolitan person Anura Kumara for these lapses, who made graphite from miniran addressing an audience in the US?

It was reported that the Indians are ready to acquire our graphite mines; so far, no word from the JVP/NPP leader who wanted to make graphene from graphite when he comes into power.

Anura Kumara’s ignorance of mineral resources of Sri Lanka was revealed when he said in America that he will turn our miniran (plumbago/graphite) into graphite to earn more foreign exchange and resuscitate the economy. If he meant graphene by graphite, in our article posted on November 1^st, 2023, we described what is meant by graphene and questioned how he is going to isolategraphene and obtain the knowhow, expertise, infrastructure and investment to isolategraphene.

Marketing childhood poverty is a ruse used by many who rose from downstairs to take control of the affairs upstairs. Another NPP central committee academic attached to Peradeniya in his formative years used to announce that his father was an illiterate carpenter and he as an undergrad broke metal and mixed concrete at construction sites around Colombo. Another NPP academic from Rajarata now bellows that his father was a bothal paththara karaya” (a collector of old bottles and newspapers) who fed 9 children with his daily earnings. All these bitter memories evaporate into thin air when they marry (mostly their undergraduate- students) and send their children either to Trinity or Kandy Girls’ High School!  

6. The myth that JVP/NPP did not participate in governance

The JVP/NPP show themselves to the gullible voters as a set of paragons of virtue, an unspoiled, uncorrupted lot who preserve their purity. But the history of JVP reveals something else.

JVP supported the Coalition at the 1970 elections, and within less than a year took arms against it. Getting an amnesty from JRJ, Wijeweera started a campaign against SLFP Gamanaka Avasanaya” (End of a Journey) to weaken JRJ’s main rival Sirimavo; supported JRJ in 1980, working against the General Strike.

JVP mooteda Parivasa Anduwa” supporting CBK; four JVP bigwigs received Ministerial appointments under CBK.Anura Kumara in 2004 was CBK’s Minister of Agriculture, Livestock Development, Lands and Irrigation, lifeblood of millions of peasants. His deputy was Bimal Ratnayaka, husband of NPP Central Committee member who proposed legalizing prostitution in Sri Lanka.

What did Anura Kumara do with this important portfolio to the country in general and peasants in particular? At least he was not able to enlarge his voter base. Failing miserably as a minister he had to abandon Kurunegala District (one of the largest agricultural areas in Sri Lanka) and find refuge in Colombo District which has the strongest middle class backing to him.

Can such a person rescue a country from this political, economic and social turmoil?

Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, another vital area that can be utilized to mobilize people in support of their cause was given to Chandrasena Wijesinghe; Nihal Galappaththi who hails from a fisher family was made his deputy.

The next vital Ministry which has a bigger impact to rural artisans, craftsmen, small scale industrialists- Rural Industries became the domain of bigmouthed Lal Kantha; his Deputy was Sunil Handunnetti, who talks much about economy, tipped to be Anura Kumara’s Finance Minister in his fairy-tale cabinet. Cultural and National Heritages, responsible for art, literature, culture including the most important National Film Corporation were in the hands of Vijitha Herath; his deputy was know-it-all man, Samantha Vidyaratna who attempted to sabotage Uma Oya hydroelectricity project. Where were these environmental crusaders when JR Government devastated Dumbara Valley under Accelerated Mahaveli Project?

As we have expressed in our earlier writings these four Ministries should have been used as a pedestal to mobilize masses- peasants, fishermen, artisans, artists, most of our population. All were in their young age; graduates except Lal Kantha. It was a plain sailing without any turbulent winds. But all failed like a broken compass without the magnetic needle.

JVP supported MR without accepting any portfolios; some have argued that it was against coalition politics as the JVP had entered into an agreement with MR. But at the crucial stage in the war against the Tamil Tigers, the JVP attempted to wreck the war efforts defeating the budget.

JVP supported SF along with TNA and other Tamil and Muslim parties. The then leader of the JVP, Somavansa Amarasinghe wearing a three- piece suit embraced RW at a meeting held in support of SF. It may be true what Somavansa Amarasinghe writes in his above-mentioned booklet, that he taught all his young buddies table manners and how to use cutlery and crockery and etiquettes to follow while meeting foreign dignitaries. Thanks to Somavansa Amarasinghe, now all have mastered this craft.  

JVP supported MS with TNA and other Tamil and Muslim parties again andpropped up Yahahapalana government without allowing it to collapse. It was said that Anura Kumara had a special office at Temple Trees; JVP cannot absolve itself from yahapalana blunders.

All agree that the marriage between NPP and yahapalanagovernment brought calamitous consequences to the so-called purity”, perfection” and acceptability” of JVP/NPP. Their efforts in chasing after rogues” became nothing and as a result they lost credibility and became a laughing stock and was treated as an appendage of Yahapalana government and a partner of its sins. They had to defend the bond racketeers, shield them and tolerate the bond scam.

JVP could not retain Tissamaharama PS, touted as a model to all PSs; sold frequencies got free to V FM radio. How can they assume a much more responsibility governing a country is the biggest question?

NEXT – PART IV

Palitha Ariyarathna

The Dark Knight Rises,” directed by Christopher Nolan, is a cinematic masterpiece that transcends cultural boundaries, exploring complex themes of ideological conflict and moral ambiguity. This article offers a dual perspective, examining the film’s universal themes through a global lens while also delving into its resonance within the context of Sri Lankan culture and the pursuit of spiritual liberation.

The Ideological Spectrum: Globally, The Dark Knight Rises” presents a nuanced portrayal of ideological conflict, with characters representing diverse philosophical positions. Batman embodies the ideals of liberalism, advocating for individual freedoms, justice, and the rule of law. Conversely, Bane emerges as a symbol of radical communism, espousing notions of class struggle, equality, and revolutionary upheaval.

In Sri Lanka, the film’s exploration of ideological conflict resonates with the cultural context of Sinhala Buddhist liberalism, which encompasses principles of individual freedom, moral responsibility, and the quest for spiritual liberation. Rooted in Buddhist teachings, this ideology emphasizes the attainment of Nirvana, the ultimate state of enlightenment and liberation from suffering.

Interpreting Characters Through Global and Sri Lankan Perspectives: Batman’s struggle against Bane reflects the eternal battle between light and darkness, justice and tyranny, echoing universal themes of heroism and villainy. However, when viewed through the prism of Sinhala Buddhist liberalism, Batman’s quest for justice parallels the archetype of the Bodhisattva, embodying principles of righteousness and moral duty in the pursuit of collective well-being.

Bane’s descent into darkness symbolizes the pitfalls of ignorance and attachment, reminiscent of the Buddhist concept of Tanha (craving) and Dukkha (suffering). His quest for power and revolution serves as a cautionary tale against the illusions of materialism and egoism, resonating with the broader themes of ideological extremism and the corrupting influence of power.

The Pursuit of Nirvana: While globally, the characters’ struggles reflect ideological conflicts and moral dilemmas, in  Sri Lanka, the ultimate goal of liberation transcends earthly power and political ideologies. Sinhala Buddhist liberalism seeks to achieve Nirvana, the cessation of suffering and the attainment of spiritual enlightenment. The Dark Knight Rises” serves as a metaphorical journey towards this higher state of consciousness, where the battle between good and evil culminates in the triumph of wisdom and compassion.

The Dark Knight Rises” offers a compelling narrative that resonates with audiences worldwide, exploring universal themes of ideological conflict, moral ambiguity, and the eternal struggle between good and evil. Through a dual perspective, we can appreciate the film’s resonance within the global context of liberalism and communism while also exploring its deeper significance within the cultural framework of Sinhala Buddhist liberalism and the pursuit of spiritual liberation. In doing so, we gain insight into the complexities of human nature, the universality of moral principles, and the enduring quest for enlightenment and collective well-being.

Film Review by Palitha Ariyarathna

Bodhisattva: In Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is an enlightened being who delays entering Nirvana to assist others in achieving enlightenment. They embody boundless compassion and guide beings towards liberation from suffering. Batman: Batman, a fictional character, is the alter ego of Bruce Wayne, driven by the trauma of his parents’ murder to fight crime in Gotham City. His mission is rooted in personal justice and protecting the innocent within his city.

Enjoy watching the film on Dialog TV at 8 PM today!

KAMALIKA PIERIS

The Hindu religion has been given a visible boost in Sri Lanka in the past two decades. It received state patronage. Hindu festivals were   celebrated at President’s House and Temple Trees.

In 2003 Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had for the first time directed that a National Deepavali celebration be held. It was held at New Kathiresan Hall.   Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister and Mahinda Rajapaksa as Leader of Opposition   attended.

In 2021 Maha sivarathri was celebrated at Tirukeethesvaram temple in Mannar with the support of the government of Sri Lanka, High commission of India and All Ceylon Hindu Congress

In 2023 a special Deepavali celebration was held at the Presidential Secretariat and   the     Chariot festival of the Sammanakodu Kataragama Temple started from Temple Trees. Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena made   offerings.  Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, Minister Douglas Devananda, MPs Mano Ganesan, Suresh Vadivel, Aravinda Kumar, also took part at the event. In 2024 Sri Lanka’s Embassy in Rome celebrated Thai Pongal at the Embassy premises.

Other institutions also followed this policy. In 2003, People Bank celebrated Deepavali by organizing a series of island wide ceremonies with it main function at Wellawatte bank.  In 2022 People’s Bank conducted Thai Pongal celebrations at its Wellawatte and Kotahena branches.

The Hindu community has been elevated in other ways too. All Ceylon Hindu Congress celebrated its Diamond Jubilee with an International Hindu Research conference at Nallur, Jaffna in July, 2015.

In 2019 Jaffna MP E. Saravanapavan stated in Parliament that Sri Lanka should have a Hindu University for Hindus to research and learn about the religion. Like the Buddhist University, there should be a Hindu University.

In 2021 the newly edited 12 volume Hindu Encyclopedia was launched on Maha Sivaratri Day at Temple Trees with Mahinda Rajapaksa, then Prime Minister as well as Buddha Sasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs Minister, as the Chief Guest. The Hindu Religious and Cultural Affairs Department had edited the Encyclopedia. The Encyclopedia had begun in 1988. At this event 50 Kovils were given Rs 50,000 each to celebrate the Maha Sivaratri Day.

 As usual, there were complaints.  Liquor shops functioned during the Hindu festivals, while it was closed during Buddhist religious festivals and activities. When liquor shops are instructed to close during Poya Days, then it should follow same pattern during other religious festivals, especially in areas which have a majority Hindu population, complained an MP in 2019. Hindus who live in the Wellawatte area, who want to conduct their funerals according to Hindu rites should be allocated a place with the required facilities, he added.

There was exaggeration as well. Chelvathamby Maniccavasagar writing to the Hindu section of the Daily News refers to myths about Hinduism in Sri Lanka.  These say Vijaya promoted Hinduism in Sri Lanka and ordered five Shiva temples to be built in the four corners of Sri Lanka.  They are Tirukeethesvaram and Koneswaram in the east, Munneswaram in west, Naguleswaram in the north and Chandraprakasam in south. Also Vijaya had   established Maviddapuram temple in Jaffna.

There was a visible spate of Kovil  building  starting in the 1990s  Kovils were built in order to establish Sri Lanka as  place of substantial Hindu worship. Between 1999 and 2002 the following were built.  Kovil was constructed over night in Trincomalee on Orrs Hill, constructed in one day. Another kovil was built at Akkaraipattu. Hanuman temple was constructed in Nuwara Eliya, facing Sri Pada and overlooking Kotmale.

The small inconsequential Sita Eliya (actually Sitala Eliya”) temple of yore has been developed into a conspicuous edifice patronized by persons going along the N’Eliya- Badulla road. This is now presented as a tourist attraction. The idea is to create a Hindu base for N’Eliya and the up country, with emphasis on Ravana in Bandarawela. The construction of this temple was assisted by the army, in order to promote good relations between Tamils and Sinhala. It was done by workmen from Tamilnadu on visas reported the media.

In 1997 Rs 22 million had been released to rehabilitate three Hindu religious sites on order of President Chandrika. All the small Hindu temples that are being reconstructed in North today have large gopurams, said a commentator in 2014.

The government and the media are helping to reinforce the notion of a Tamil-Hindu north and east. The Vattrappali Kannakai Amman is an ancient and historical temple in Mullaitivu. It is a miraculous one where lamps are lit by using the salt from the sea, the media said.

 Hindu festivals in lesser known places in the east were also given a mention.  In 2016, the media carried a photograph of the  Maha kumbakeshekam of Sri Weeramakaliamman temple in Vavunativu, Batticaloa   and a photo of the water cutting ceremony of Pillaiyar temple, Kaluthavalai, Batticaloa.

The major kovils such as Tirukeethesvaram, Nallur and Trikoneswaram   are given much publicity in the media. In 2011 it was said that Tirukeethesvaram kovil was being considered for recognition as a world heritage site  (Daily News 19.4.11 p 1).

 From 1954 onwards the Hindu authorities were asking that Thirukoneshwaran Eeshwaran Kovil area in Trincomalee   be declared a sacred city. In 2017 this request was repeated. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had said he would consider granting land extension of 378 acres around the Thirukoneshwaran Kovil and Hindus asked that the area could be declared a sacred site as well. MP Devananda said the Kovil had been situated at the same place since 1300 BC even before King Vijaya arrived in the country.

Nallur kovil got much publicity in the media.  For instance Nallur temple is featured in Explore Sri Lanka August 2021 in flattering terms.  Its second court is described as a breathtaking sight.  In 2023, Sunday Times had a photo of the huge crowds at the Nallur Kovil annual festival (Sunday times 17.9.23 p 2).  Mahaviddarpuram temple is also considered to be a significant temple .

Nainativu (Nagadipa) which  Buddhists consider to be Buddhist, is Hindu as well. The Nagapooshani Amman Kovil in Nainativu has been visited by people from all Northern islands as well as faithful devotees from across Sri Lanka, said journalist Dishan Joseph, writing in Daily News in 2021.

 The origins of the ancient kovil can be traced up to the 16th century it is believed the present structure was built during the 1720–1790 period after the ancient structure was destroyed by the invading Portuguese around 1620. The grand kovil attracts around 1,000 visitors a day. The annual 16-day Mahostavam (Thiruvizha) festival celebrated during the Tamil month of Aani (June/July) attracts over 100,000 pilgrims. There is an estimated 10,000 sculptures in this newly-renovated temple ,concluded Dishan. There was no kovil when I visited Nainativu in the 1950s as a school girl with my parents.

Jaffna is shown as a Hindu city. In 2010, Mahinda Rajapaksa when electioneering was taken bare bodied to Nallur. Biz Pact group were also taken there on a visit. The German Ambassador participated in the Thai Pongal festival at Nallur, bare bodied.

Trincomalee is vital for Eelam, even more than Jaffna. Tamil Separatist Movement  is  therefore anxious to  make Trincomalee  fully       Hindu,  to  further  strengthen the  Eelam claim.    The streets in Trincomalee town when I was last there, sometime before Covid, was simply bursting with   gaudy kovils.  Some were just a few feet apart along the same road  in Trincomalee town.

Hinduism in Sri Lanka has now got tangled up with extremist Indian politics. In 2016 the media reported that Shiva Sena in Mumbai has extended its support to a new Sri Lankan Tamil outfit called Siva Senai consisting of a group of Hindus in Vavuniya led by Maravanapulavi Sachithananthan. This is Sri Lanka’s first right wing Hindu organization said the media.  It accuses the Sri Lanka government of supporting Sinhala Buddhist colonization to undermine the importance of Hindus. It also charges Christians and Muslims of getting huge foreign funds to spread their religion. [1]  

In April 2024, the administrators of Adi Lingeswarar Hindu temple, (a contested site”, located at Vedukkunari/ Vadunagala in Nedunkerni in the Vavuniya district) and devotees in the area had met at Olumadu Community Hall to appoint an administrative board for the Kovil, for 2024-2025.

Five members of Shiva Senai, led by its leader, Maravanpulavu Kanapathipillai Sachithanandan entered the hall uninvited and demanded that  one post in the kovil’s administrative board be given to their organization. The administrators refused to do so and asked the group vacate the premises.  The administrators   would leave the premises if Shiva Senai did not do so. Shiv Senai  stayed put so the kovil’s administrative board and the devotees left. The five Siva Senai members  left the premises an hour  later.[2]( Continued)

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[1] Island 15.10. 16 p 3.

[2] https://english.theleader.lk/news/8393-vanni-hindus-reject-extremist-hindutva-organization

Dr.Sudath Gunasekara.Mahanuwara

(First published on 14.9.2023).

I call upon all patriotic Sinhala sons and daughters of our beloved motherland to draw their prompt and serious attention to the arrogant and irresponsible political thuggery publicly and repeatedly displayed by some Tamil politicians in the plantation sector who are trying to make hay while the political uncertainties of this Island nation shine in high heavens as the elections are at our door steps next year. (See attachment)

This army of South Indian Tamil labour presently occupying the plantations lands right at the center of the country on the hills. They represent a sad legacy we inherited from the dark British colonial era. They were imported from South India by the British invaders in the post 1838 period as cheap indentured slave labour to work on their newly opened up coffee and tea plantations on land formally owned by native Kandyan Sinhala people. The virgin high forests above the villages at higher levels were protected as the Kings Forest, which the natives loved with an idolatry equal to their veneration of Buddha”, as John. F. Hurst said in 1890. (The Enchanted Road to Kandy 1890) were uprooted and burned to make room for their new coffee and tea plantations

The entire hill country formed the nation’s prime watershed for millennia that provided the main source for all the rivers in the Island. In short it was the physical stability of this hill country jealously guarded by our ancestors that determined and dictated the survival of the entire life system and the civilization of this Island nation from the dawn of history, just as the heart decides the fate of a being. It was the patriotic Kandyan Sinhala people of this hill country supported by its natural strategic assets who defended the independence of the motherland and a nation for 310 years (1505-1815) against three powerful European invasions.

With the opening up of plantations this Geographical Heartland” of the nation was raped and converted to an enclave of an army of South Indian Tamil labourers nearing 1.2 million labouring for the British from 1838 onwards and it was often kept out of bound for the local sons of the soil by the British. 

These South Indian Tamils who occupy the hill country at present were brought to this country by the British only after 1838.

First, to get cheap labour to fill their colonial treasuries and

Second, to colonize native Kandyan territory permanently with south Indian Tamils to form a British friendly anti Kandyan South Indian enclave right at the center of the country to use them as mercenaries against the local Sinhalese in case they rise against them.

The British also knew that these South Indian Tamils were the arch enemies of the Sinhala nation right throughout history who had unsuccessfully invaded this island nation throughout history starting from the 2nd century BC, the time of Sena Guttika brothers horse traders.

The British thought that the settlement of South Indian labour on the heartland of the Sinhale was the best strategic measure to take revenge from the Kandyan people who successfully resisted their occupation of the Kandyan Kingdom from 1797 and massacred thousands of their men in 1803,1818 and 1848.

 As such settling a permanent South Indian Tamil enclave right at the centre of the Island on its geographical heartland, they thought was the best way to weaken the native Sinhalese by depriving them of all their ancestral lands they owned for millennia. The British also knew that it was from these hills the brave Kandyan Sinhalese successfully defended the sovereignty of the Sinhale for 310 years (1505-1815). 

Third, to change the Islands demographic map to reduce the political strength of the Sinhala majority, of the Island as they miserably failed to colonize the North and the East with Indian Tamils.

Over 1.3 million acres of land owned by native Sinhalese were taken over by force. This land of the native Sinhala people owned by them over the entire hill country from the beginning of history, were taken by force by killing all mails over 16 years, on the orders of murderer Brown wrigg, leaving those spared by the gun and sword to die of starvation and disease introduced by the invaders and chasing out all others en masse to the eastern jungles.

These Tamils were brought to this country by the British to colonize native Kandyan territory permanently with south Indian Tamils, the arch enemies of the Sinhala nation who had unsuccessfully invaded this island nation throughout history starting from the 2nd century BC, the Sena Guttika brothers. The British thought that the settlement of South Indian labour on the heartland of the Sinhale   was the best way to take revenge from the Kandyan people who resisted their occupation of the Kandyan Kingdom from 1797 and massacred thousands of their men in 1803,1818 and 1848. Creating a permanent South Indian Tamil enclave right at the centre of the Island on its geographical heartland they thought was the best strategy to take revenge from them, thereby depriving the native Sinhalese of their mother land. They have been subjected to exodus of all their ancestral lands owned by them for millennia. It was from these hills they successfully defended the sovereignty of the Sinhale for 310 years (1505-1815). 

This most dangerous trend has to be arrested immediately before the whole hill country gets caught up in high communal flames. I attribute the present unfortunate and despicable situation wholly to the political miscalculations of brainless, unpatriotic and opportunistic self-seeking politicians who have appointed these rowdies to high political positions just to woo their vote, even though they never reciprocate. Ranil misuses these appointments as a bait to woo the Estate Tamil votes.  In the 2005 Presidential election they voted for him as they wanted to defeat the SB candidate Mahinda and in the 2019 Presidential election, they voted Premadasa for the same purpose, that is to defeat the Sinhaal Buddhist candidate. But even if Ranil makes all the 250 000 estate Tamils ministers and governors, I can assure he will not get a single vote there, as he is backed by the SLPP, being the decisive factor. It is very unfortunate that Ranil cannot understand this reality.

This Ranil drama is the second episode where such naked political thuggery is being used by these estate labour led by Thondamans on the natives blatantly violating the law of the country by taking the law into his hands as if they are already Indian Maharajas swaying the Indian power of Indian expansionism over the whole of this country. Last week it was Matale (CP). This week it is Ratnapura (SB), Both locations are right at the center of the Sinhale heartland. Meanwhile Ranil has appointed another Thondaman, a mediocre Tamil politician form the hill country,  as the Governor of the Eastern Province, by chasing out a Sinala Buddhist Governor to lure the Tamils in that province as well.

Look at the language these British slave labor leaders use against the sons of the soil, the gestures they cast on the native management and the , and the illegal orders they give demanding the minister of Plantations and the Superintendent of the Estate to resign.  Look at the way they break the law with impunity. The behaviour of some of the puppet Ministers of this government in carrying out the illegal orders” given by these Indian ghosts is even more deplorable and shameful. In both incidents the makeshifts were illegally constructed on estate land illegally encroached by force using political and racial clouts.

Why don’t we, as a proud nation, call upon the President of this country to put an end immediately before it escalates to the whole hill country with political patronage to this Estate Tamil communal thuggery and Indian manipulation and restore law and order in this part of the country telling them that this is Sri Lanka, an independent country and not yet a suzerainty of India as they think. 

We call upon this spineless government to take the following steps in the name of law and order and justice to the sons of the soil, in the name of good governance, if they dream to come before the electorate at any subsequent election. We demand the Government also to take the following steps to curb this illegal intervention by an unlawful group of Indian backed Tamil Politicians, in the name of the native Sinhala nation, the sons of this soil, still commanding 75% of the population of this country.

1.Sack the arrogant Minister and dismantle him of all parliamentary privileges immediately for bringing disrepute to this government by creating uncalled for scenes like this.

2 Also take stern and immediate action against the other MP as well, who aided and abetted the main actor in this incident of breach of law and creating public disorder as well.

3 We request you to direct the relevant Authorities immediately to stop all illegal constructions on State or Private properties by these Indian laborers or any other party and take prompt legal action against them for violating the law and resorting to creating provocative public scenes like this that might lead to ethnic clashes and public disorder in the whole country.

4 To arrest all illicit encroachers on crown lands not only on these estates but also all over the country and take stern legal action against them, restore law and order within the estate sector and reinstate all estate management personnel already sacked on the orders of these Rudy and irresponsible politicians and declare all the estates out of bound for trouble makers.5 Give full legal power for the private companies to run the estate as efficiently as possible to increase production.

6 Cancel the citizenship of all those who violate the law of the land and deport them to India as soon as possible.

If the government does not take immediate action on these mad petty communal politicians  the day these India laborers erect illegal huts, not only on all plantations but all over the country and invade the whole country, like what Rajiv the arrogant did in 1987  in Jaffna, probably with the support of the Indian Government and Modis intervention supported by the so-called  International community  lead by US, UK and the rest of the colonial club with the support of the local Roman Catholic Church all, of whom are determined to wipe out the Sinhala Buddhist from the surface of this land and make this the 29th Indian State under an Indian viceroy stationed in Colombo. (It is surprising that the US Embassy has so far not issued a statement justifying this thuggery)

It was we the Sinhala Buddhists of this country who elected this government and even your predecessor in 2019 to whose mandate you owe public responsibility and not these rowdies of the plantations or the eelaamists of the North as such it is your prime responsibility to honor that mandate and, on our part, we also have a legitimate claim to request you to take action against these rowdy politicians in the name of good governance. IN the event of your failure to bring this unlawful and disorderly behavior of these petty communal politicians we are afraid that the whole hill country might end up in uncontrollable communal flames. Obviously, the question arises as to why should we have a government elected by us if it cannot govern the country properly.

Also, why should we have a government elected by 75 % of its native population, the sons of the soil, if it cannot take these steps to protect this land of the Sinhalese nation, their religion and their civilization that had been governed by our ancestors at very high cost for 2600 years with no interruption.

Let law and order be restored first, and governance follow, or depart. If they don’t listen, the disgruntled masses will rise against this failed government to send it home at the first opportunity they get tomorrow and elect a government that will fulfill their aspirations to save this land of the Sinhala nation for prosperity. The people of this country also should ask this government as to what it is doing by keeping deaf, dumb and blind on the breach of law by these extremist communal rowdies. In this backdrop what justification on earth does the President Wickramsinha elected by the SLPP votes, representing predominantly Sinhala Buddhist votes has to appoint this foreign labour leaders hostile to Sinhala Buddhist and who had never voted the SLPP or SLFP and who never even treat this country as their motherland and worship only their Mother India to high posts as Ministers and Governors to govern the Sinhala people.  At the same time, we also should demand that the Eastern Province Governor should be sacked, who has already committed many violations such as illegally banning the construction of a temple on archaeological ancient Sinhala Buddhist site Boralukanda Rajamaha Viharaya. The Sinhala Buddhist demand that he should be removed from the post of Governor EP and Sinhala Buddhist be appointed as the new Governor. removed forthwith and appoint a Sinhala man or woman of repute as governor there. Governor of the Eastern Province. Senthil Thondaman, has ordered the Divisional Secretary of the Area to issue a letter to the head priest of Boralukanda Rajamaha Viharaya whereas he has no power to do so, said a high official of the EP when inquired that the Div Sec has already been transferred for issuing an illegal order. The Question is why didn’t the President remove the Governor. Definitely because he’s a Tamil from the hill country where Ranil is expecting to get their votes at the next election. What is more surprising is that this is the type of men this government appoint as Governors and Ministers.

 This trend has to be arrested immediately.

This incident again makes a strong case to abolish the PCC and remove all these mad Governors forthwith, thereby saving billions, at a time we are going round the world begging

 Ruwan M Jayatunge M.D. PhD 

Sex is a basic human need, common to all people at all times (Shokeir &, Hussein, 2004) and exclusively a biological function, defined based on that individual’s individuality and socio-cultural background (Kumarasinghe et al., 2022).

Ancient Sri Lankans had varied sexual lives. The ancient folklore and texts unveil the traditions of sexual behaviors among the ancient Sri Lankans. In ancient Sri Lanka, sexual desire was considered a vivacious force, and sexuality was redefined as a personal right. These conditions existed until the colonization of indigenous sexualities.

Culture is a drastic factor that affects the sexual lives of people. The ancient sexual behaviors and practices were affected by sociocultural, psychological and, biological factors. Ancient Sri Lanka was a male-centered society. In this society, sex was not considered sinful. Virginity was not viewed as a virtue; there were no practices of veneration of the Virgin.

According to Singh (1999) Sexual perversions are often a product of civilized life and most societies permit some degree of deviant sexual behavior as a relief from stress of routine life.  Sri Lankan culture has its own folklore and myths, and some describe incest, which in today’s world is considered taboo. Incest is sexual intercourse between family members and close relatives. The mythological Story of Sinhabahu describes the origins of the ‘Sinhala’ race testifies to the existence of incest. According to the Sinhabahu legend, the prince Sinhabahu married his own sister Sinha Seewali committing incest. Sontakke (2017) indicates that during prehistoric times, it appears that there was no such restriction on mating in close blood relations.

Buddhism was first brought to Sri Lanka during Mauryan Emperor Ashoka’s period (Sangharakshita, 1975) highlights that Buddhism had no direct concern with the collective life of man on the social and political level. The ancient Sri Lankans lived according to strict hierarchical social organization and kings had unquestionable power. Many kings enjoyed extremely active sex lives. They had harems and used to engage in various sexual activities. The Mahavamsa, the ancient chronicle of Sri Lankan history, describes elegant and extravagant harems owned by powerful kings in ancient Sri Lanka. The kings had the practice of marrying multiple spouses. Polygamy was a vital political aspect of the king. They used servants who had been castrated to work in harems.

There was no rigid gender system in society. The ancient Sri Lankans never had a binary gender system, and there was room for a third gender. The third gender in ancient Sri Lanka were known as pandaka. The people had compassionate attitudes toward the third gender. Although they were identified as seductive, pandakas were inclusive of society. Notably, there was no persecution against them. The third gender has been traditionally perceived and accepted.

Tantric influence on Sri Lankan Buddhism was significant, and Tantric attributes can be seen in ancient Sri Lanka. Many centuries before Sigmund Freud, Richard Freiherr von Kraft-Ebing, Albert Moll or D.H. Laurence, the Tantric Buddhist monks discussed the wider aspects of human sexuality. Tantric practice emphasizes the importance of sexual intimacy and spirituality. The practice intertwines spirituality, sexuality, and a state of mindfulness.

The ancient Sri Lankan women of nobility enjoyed certain individual liberties and sexual freedom. Anula (aka Anuladevi) was the first known queen regnant in Sri Lankan history. The queen Anuladevi of Sri Lanka reigned from 47 BC –to 42 BC had an uncontrollable and excessive desire for sex. She became famous for her promiscuous behavior and had an infamous reputation as a nymphomaniac.

King Kashyapa who ruled the country from 473 AD to 495 AD had his harem in Sigiriya citadel and had Persian beauties as lesser wives. Some of these pretty Persian women were depicted on the Sigiriya Frescoes.

There is evidence that social prostitution existed during ancient times. King Kumaradasa (6th century A.D.)  was highly influenced by the Indian poet Kalidasa and the king invited Kalidasa to live in his royal palace. During his stay the poet Kalidasa was poisoned by a prostitute and his death devastated the king and eventually, the king committed suicide over the poet’s death.

Some kings and noblemen in ancient Sri Lanka enjoy orgies. They practiced unrestrained sexual activity. A stone carving at the Nalanda Gedige, believed to have been built between the 8th and 10th centuries, depicts erotic allure and sexually explicit sculpture on orgies.

Robert Knox who lived as a prisoner for 20 years reported existing abortions and infanticides in the Kandyan Kingdom. He further describes polyandrous union in Kandyan society. Furthermore, he describes customs of hospitality that involved offering guests food, shelter, with one’s own wife or daughter. This tradition was known as Bulath Hiraya. During this period, genetic disorders were emerging due to inbreeding, and this practice was intended to accumulate new genes in the common genetic pool. 

Rukule Padima (intercrural sex, which is also known as coitus interfemoris) was another mode of sexual behavior that was practiced by some aristocrats. They used underage girls for their sexual gratification. Even Pederasty (sexual relationship between an adult man and a pubescent boy) was a common practice among the noblemen. There was no taboo nature, and these practices were accepted in high society. However, there are no historical documents to prove that female pederasty existed in ancient Sri Lanka.

The institution of marriage occupied a unique place and the marriage of cross cousins was an accepted form, and it never fell under incest taboos. However, caste equality was strongly taken into consideration.

Homosexuality was not considered as a deviant behavior in ancient Sri Lanka. There were no legal restrictions on homosexuality.  Some kings enjoyed homosexual unions. The King Sri Vira Parakrama Narendra Singha (1707–1739 AD) was fond of being with young boys with embodiment of feminine traits.

Sexual beliefs and behaviors in ancient Sri Lanka indicate that the islanders relished a greater extent of sexual freedom compared to medieval Europe. There was no concept of sexual sin or sexual persecution that affected the population. The sexual repression carried out by the Inquisition In medieval Europe affected a great number of people. Between the 15th and 18th centuries, some 50,000 women were executed as witches in Europe, and most victims were burned at the stake. Most of these female victims were charged with sexual sins. Sexual attitudes and practices in ancient Sri Lanka indicate that the society had sexual tolerance and compassion. 

References

Kumarasinghe, M., De Silva, W.I., de Silva, R. et al. Unmarried Sri Lankan youth: sexual behaviour and contraceptive use. Contracept Reprod Med 7, 19 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40834-022-00185.

Sangharakshita Bikshu. 1975. Buddhism. In A.L. Basham (ed.). A Cultural History of India. Oxford University Press: 83‐99.

Shokeir AA, Hussein MI. Sexual life in Pharaonic Egypt: towards a urological view. Int J Impot Res. 2004 Oct;16(5):385-8. doi: 10.1038/sj.ijir.3901195. PMID: 15475944.

Singh A. Regulation of human sexual behaviour, sex revolution and emergence of AIDS: a historical perspective. Bull Indian Inst Hist Med Hyderabad. 1997 Jan;27(1):63-74. PMID: 12575704.

Singh A. Social basis of deviant sexual behaviour: a historical perspective. Bull Indian Inst Hist Med Hyderabad. 1999 Jan;29(1):51-62. PMID: 12585287.

Ministry of Defence  – Media Centre

The Diyawanna Vesak Zone 2024, organized by the Ministry of Defence in collaboration with the Independent Television Network (ITN) will conclude tonight (May 25).

Defence Secretary General Kamal Gunaratne and Chairman of ITN Mr Sudarshana Gunawardana, inaugurated the ‘Diyawanna Vesak Zone 2024’ last Thursday (May 23). This is organized in line with the ‘Buddha Rashmi’ national Vesak festival celebrations.

The live telecast of ‘Diyawanna Vesak Zone 2024’ through the ITN channel also began simultaneously in the opening day.

The Vesak Zone consists of decorative Vesak lanterns and colourful light displays illuminating Denzil Kobbekaduwa Mawatha and the Ministry of Defence road in Battaramulla.

Today will be the final day of one of the most colourful Vesak celebratory events of this year and the organizers invite all to visit the Diyavanna Vesak Zone in Battaramulla and witness the dazzling display of Vesak lanterns and decorative illumination.

By Julia Conley

Defense lawyers for Israel did not convince the International Court of Justice that the ongoing evacuation operation in the southern Gaza city had enhanced the security of civilians.”

Emphasizing that Israel had not convinced the International Court of Justice that sufficient efforts have been made to protect civilian life from harm, the ICJ on Friday ordered the Israel Defense Forces to end its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah at once and to open the southern border crossing from Egypt to humanitarian aid.

Israel must immediately halt its military offensive or any other action in the Rafah governorate which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,” said Judge Nawaf Salam, president of the court, which is the United Nations’ top judicial panel.

He added that the court was not convinced that the evacuation efforts and the related measures that Israel affirms to have undertaken to enhance the security of civilians in the Gaza Strip and in particular those recently displaced from Rafah governorate [are] sufficient to alleviate the immense risk, which the Palestinian population is exposed to as a result of the military offensive in Rafah.”

Salam said that in examining South Africa’s case focusing on the Rafah offensive, which has forced more than 800,000 people to flee Rafah following the displacement of more than 1 million people to the city since October, the court had found the humanitarian situation in Rafah is now disastrous” and has deteriorated further” since the ICJ issued its last order to Israel in March.

That order demanded that Israel allow desperately needed humanitarian aid into Gaza, as dozens of deaths from starvation were reported, including among children.

But on May 6, Israel seized control of the Rafah crossing, leaving local hospitals with a rapidly depleting supply of medical equipment and fuel and intensifying the starvation crisis in the city and across Gaza.

The court ordered Israel to open the Rafah crossing for unhindered provision at scale of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance.”

It also said Israel must ensure the unimpeded access to the Gaza Strip of any commission of inquiry, fact-finding mission, or investigative body mandated by the competent organs of the U.N. to investigate allegations of genocide.”

The ICJ’s rulings are legally binding but Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who in April called for the total annihilation” of Rafah and other Gaza cities, said Friday that the government will not agree” to stopping its military assault.

Al Jazeera reported that Israel is not planning to respond to the decision of the court, both politically or militarily.”

Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), said countries—including the U.S.—that have continued to fund the Israel Defense Forces as the civilian death toll in Gaza has skyrocketed must halt their support in light of the ruling.

The court’s clear and unequivocal ruling ordering a halt to Israel’s military offensive in Rafah leaves no ambiguity about what should follow: an arms embargo on Israel,” said Whitson. Continued U.S. arms transfers to Israel would constitute deliberate defiance of the court’s orders and make our government complicit in genocide.”

While Israel will not hold itself accountable and will not voluntarily end its crimes,” said DAWN advocacy director Raed Jarrar, the ruling confirmed that international action is needed.”

The international community has an obligation to use pressure and sanctions to force Israel to end its atrocities, just as it used pressure and sanctions to force South Africa to end apartheid,” said Jarrar.

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Senaka Weeraratna

I want to place on record information concerning the beginnings of the Unit Trust Industry of Sri Lanka and my pioneering involvement in the promotion of the Unit Trust as a Vehicle of Investment in Sri Lanka. 

It begins in Australia. I joined a boutique law firm, Wilder Moses Bengasino in Melbourne, as an Associate in April 1987.

It handled Unit Trust related work among other commercial law work.

The senior partner, Mr. Joseph Bengasino, had earlier worked in the Corporate Affairs Office of Victoria, Australia where he had examined applications for registration of Companies and had gained a thorough practical knowledge of the subject.

Mr. Bengasino was a specialist in TimeShares. 

I worked with Mr. Joseph Bengasino and several other lawyers, in his law firm and gained good exposure to Unit Trust work.

I was drafting documents for creating public and private unit trusts and amendment of Trust Deeds.

I returned to Sri Lanka in December 1987 for the holidays and I made it known to the Banking Industry that I was prepared to share my knowledge on the subject of Unit Trust gained in Australia and to help launch the Unit Trust industry in Sri Lanka as an alternate form of investment.  

In January 1988, senior officials of the Bank of Ceylon contacted me. They invited me to lunch at Hotel Lanka Oberoi.

I remember the late Mr. K.Sivagananathan who came in the company of Mr. Direndra Abeyratne and another gentleman from the Bank of Ceylon for lunch.

We discussed the Unit Trust concept and how it could be launched in Sri Lanka.

Once these gentlemen from the Bank of Ceylon were convinced that I knew the subject, I was invited to deliver a talk at the Bank of Ceylon on the topic ‘ The Unit Trust as a Vehicle of Investment’.

It was in January 1988. I delivered the talk at the Bank of Ceylon premises. Mr. Robin Talwatte, then Manager of the Bank of Ceylon, presided at the meeting.

It had a distinguished audience. Dr. P.B. Jayasundera, Mrs. Rohini Nanayakkara, Mr. K. Sivagananathan, Mr. Direndra Abeyratne,  Mr. Tiru Vallar (lawyer), Ms. Sunetha de Silva (lawyer and wife of Neville de Silva) were in the audience.

The very next day I was invited by Mr. N.U.Jayawardena, to meet him and explain to him how Unit Trust works.

I met Mr. N.U. Jayawardena at his Mercantile Investments office. His grandson Mr. Milinda Moragoda also joined the meeting.

Between 1988 – 1990 nothing happened.

I kept in touch nevertheless, with Mr. Sivagananathan over the phone from Australia.  

I returned to Sri Lanka in December 1990 for a short break from my work.

I spoke to several people and convinced them that the time was opportune for the launch of the Unit Trust industry in Sri Lanka.

We decided to have a Public workshop and the Bar Association of Sri Lanka ( with the help of Mr. K. Neelakandan, Mr. J.M. Swaminathan, and Mr. Hemantha Warnakulasuriya) undertook to sponsor it. Mr. G.F. Sethukavalar, P.C. agreed to chair the workshop. Mr. R. Senathi Rajah, Senior Partner, Julius & Creasy, was appointed to be the Moderator.

I was made the Course Director. The half-day workshop was held at the Galadari Meridien Hotel on January 19, 1991. 

The Guest Lecturers and Panelists were:

1)    Mr. L. Namasivayam (Secretary–General, Colombo Securities Council)

2)    Mr. A.B.T. Wijeratne (Investments & Capital Markets) Manager, Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka Ltd.

An expert from the Unit Trust Industry of India also spoke at the workshop and shared his experience. He encouraged Sri Lanka to be bold take steps forward and venture into this field.

The audience comprised Lawyers, Accountants, Bankers, Investors, Businessmen, Insurance groups, and the public.

Altogether there were about 60 participants. The workshop was successful. It acted as a catalyst for the commencement of the Unit Trust industry in Sri Lanka.

The media covered the workshop and the ‘Daily News’ carried my paper ‘ The Unit Trust: Its Place in Sri Lanka’s Financial System’ on the editorial page of the newspaper on January 28, 1991 

Until the holding of this workshop, there were no Unit Trusts in Sri Lanka.

Within two months of this public seminar, 4 ( four) Unit Trusts were established in Sri Lanka heralding a new dawn for new investment vehicles in the country.

That was a great step forward.  

Senaka Weeraratna

Gangsters’ Paradise (2024) It might sound strange, but the crime capital of Australia is currently Dubai. That’s because this glitzy mega city in the Persian Gulf has become home to nearly all of our biggest organised crime bosses. Their thinking in moving offshore is that they’re out of reach of federal and state policing authorities, but they might want to think again. As Nick McKenzie reports, an enormous leak of Dubai property records has revealed not only their residential addresses, but also how the city has become the perfect destination for crooks, and suspected criminals, from all around the world to do their dirty business.

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

Minister Sabry, PC, meets Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard at his Ministry on Monday (20) after she called for Sri Lanka to be referred to the UN Security Council and subjected to international war crimes inquiry. The Tamil Guardian quoted her as having said at Mullivaikkal where she paid floral tributes to those who perished there 15 years ago: “The international community must use their own courts of justice to deliver justice whenever those war criminals are travelling abroad. There is a principle called universal jurisdiction. It must be implemented, including for Sri Lankan war criminals.” Following the meeting at the Foreign Ministry, Sabry tweeted: Whilst assuring continued commitment to upholding Human Rights commitments, I outlined the objectives of the humanitarian operations carried out by government of Sri Lanka to free Sri Lankans belonging to all communities from scourge of one of the most ruthless terrorist organizations in the world, and further recalled that more than 26,000 members of the Sri Lankan armed forces laid their lives, and thousands more sacrificed their limbs to reclaim our nation’s freedom and peace. I further expressed our displeasure on outside influence being brought in to the internal affairs of Sri Lanka by those engaged in vote bank politics to appease a small domestic audience.” Callamard was here for five days, her first visit as the AI Chief.

Fifteen years after the eradication of the LTTE, unsubstantiated allegations regarding the number of dead civilians, LTTEers and missing persons persist. Forced disappearances, as alleged by the UN, remains a major issue, with the concerned demanding accountability on the part of Sri Lanka. How many of those who had been categorized as missing are living overseas, under different identities, with passports issued from various countries. Unfortunately, the powers that be seemed to be wholly incapable of building Sri Lanka’s defence. For one and half decades, they shirked their responsibilities. Shame on this lot.

Parliamentarian Akilan Manoharan Ganesan found fault with the US-led Western powers, successive post-war governments and one-time LTTE mouthpiece, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) for what he terms the continuing predicament of the Tamil community.

In a statement tweeted on the eve of the 15th anniversary of the conclusion of the war, the former Yahapalana Minister alleged (1) the international community gave Sri Lanka the go ahead for all-out war against the LTTE (2) Sri Lanka ordered the closure of the Vanni Office of the UN to pave the way for war without witnesses (3) international community failed to ensure a political solution nor address accountability issues, as promised (4) Western powers arranged ‘honeymoon’ between Sri Lanka and TNA (5) Tamil community not allowed to commemorate the war dead (6) President Ranil Wickremesinghe response to Tamils’ concerns and grievances questionable (7) UN failed to ensure the Tamils’ right to commemorate war dead and (8) the failure on the part of the US to convince/compel Sri Lanka to address Tamils’ grievances.

MP Ganesan shared the tweet with his leader Sajith Premadasa and Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the leader of the JVP-led Jathika Jana Balawegaya (JJB). Interestingly, when the UNP backed retired war-winning General Sarath Fonseka’s candidature at the 2010 presidential poll, Mano Ganesan’s party was in that coalition, consisting of the UNP, TNA, JVP and SLMC.

Lawmaker Ganesan chided outgoing US Ambassador Julie Chung for the US inaction, despite all of her interferences here, especially in regard to the success of the violent protest movement that ousted the duly elected President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. She conveniently called them peaceful protesters and prevailed on the military and police not to take any action against them. Chung’s successor Elizabeth Horst has already caused controversy by declaring that Sri Lanka imposed a one-year-ban on the entry of foreign research vessels into our waters at their behest. Appearing before the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Horst has stressed the need for the ban that came into effect on January 1, 2024. The US move, made in consultation with New Delhi, is meant to block visits by Chinese naval vessels.

Let us get back to the issue of post-war consensus among the communities on political solutions, the status of the accountability process and foreign interventions.

Sometimes foreign interventions made for strategic reasons (US interventions here are meant to counter Chinese influence, appease India and influence Tamil community) can be quite devastating. So-called bipartisan US resolution that had been introduced to the US Congress calling on the United States to work towards an independence referendum for Eelam Tamils and recognize the ‘genocide committed against them’ by the Sri Lankan state revealed the superpower’s evil machinations here not having learnt any lessons from their vicious plots executed almost world over. They should at least now open their eyes to the calamity they have created in Palestine by their imperialist plots.

If the US is so sincere in its intentions why not it first create an independent nation for the natives of that country, virtually wiped out by numerous acts of genocide committed by white settlers to grab their land. The few natives who survived such pogroms are still more or less confined to reservations created by white colonialists in most hostile environments. As retribution, the world must demand that the US creates native independent states right across the country for each surviving decimated native tribe.

The same goes for Canada which had been found guilty of killing more than 2000 native children, forcefully boarded at Church run schools there, till themid-1990s to make them assimilate into the white man’s world. The victims’ bodies were found buried in unmarked graves in the precincts of those schools.

The circumstances the resolution compared the Sri Lankan situation to that of South Sudan, Montenegro, East Timor, Bosnia, Eritrea, and Kosovo where independence referendums had been held with support from the United States and other countries are a mystery

Parliamentarians, who represent the Tamil community, not only in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, but the Up country region as well, should state their position on the US proposal. The UNP reduced to just one National List seat in Parliament, the main Opposition party the SJB, largest single group in Parliament, the SLPP, and the new darlings of the West, the JVP, too, should reveal their position.

The US-based Tamil Diaspora seems to be working overtime and appeared to have taken the lead in a high profile campaign to carve out a separate state in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. Their task has been made easier by an utterly corrupt and treacherous political party system, hell-bent on advancing personal agendas even at the expense of the country’s unitary status.

Lawmaker Ganesan’s hard-hitting tweet must have surprised Western embassies. Or did Ganesan just fire the first shot for a fresh round of ethnic chaos here with a wink from the evil West, whose hands are tainted with so much innocent blood from across the globe. However, the not so young politician conveniently left out any reference to India, whose leadership cannot absolve itself of responsibility for the consequences of the war here that she laid the foundation for. The death and destruction caused by India, in Sri Lanka, in the ’80s, and the revenge assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, in May 1991, by an LTTE suicide bomber, underscored their overall involvement here.

Perhaps, MP Ganesan should consider commenting on the origins of the war as well. The accountability issue cannot be discussed, leaving out India, as she lost nearly 1,500 military personnel fighting the LTTE (July 1987-March 1990).

Having entered the Colombo Municipal Council, in 1999, on the People’s Front ticket, Ganesan successfully contested the Colombo District at the 2001 General Election on the UNP ticket. He was re-elected at the 2004 General Election on the UNP-led UNF ticket. At the 2010 General Election, he moved from Colombo to Kandy but failed to retain his seat. In the following year, he was back at the CMC after successfully contesting the 2011 Local Government polls on the Democratic People’s Front (DPF) ticket. At the Provincial Council polls held in 2014, he was elected to the Western Provincial Council as a DPF member.

The 2015 General Election marked a significant change in Ganesan’s political life when the Yahapalana leadership granted him a newly created National Dialogue portfolio. In the wake of the UNP split in 2019/2020, following the 2019 presidential election, Ganesan switched his allegiance to the Leader of the breakaway UNP faction, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, Sajith Premadasa. The outspoken politician contested the last parliamentary poll on the Premadasa–led SJB ticket and was elected from the Colombo district. The war-winning Army Chief is the Chairman of the SJB.

Ganesan leads the DPF (Democratic People’s Front, originally Western People’s Front founded in 2000 to represent the interests of Tamils of Indian origin living in Colombo and its suburbs).

At the onset of the Yahapalana administration, Ganesan played a significant role in establishing the Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA). In his capacity as the DPF leader, Mano heads the TPA, comprising the National Union of Workers and the Up-country People’s Front.

However, the TPA seems to be sharply divided over political strategy as the country heads for the next presidential poll. At the recently concluded May Day celebrations, TPA’s Palani Digambaram appeared on stage with Sajith Premadasa, at Thalawakelle, whereas Ganesan joined the TNA May Day show in Kilinochchi.

War without witness

It was nothing but a blatant lie that Colombo District lawmaker Ganesan uttered in his statement that Sri Lanka received the blessings of the international community to conduct a war without witnesses. Let me discuss the MP’s allegation, taking into consideration the Report of the UNSG’s Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka.

During high intensity battles in the Vanni east, the only permanent hospital functioning in that region was at Puthukkudiyiruppu. Regardless of government denials, that hospital had been hit repeatedly by SLA artillery, including Multi Barrel Rocket Launchers (MBRLs) during the January 29-Feb 04, 2009 period. There is absolutely no point in denying that fact.

According to the UNSG’s report that had been officially released on March 31, 2011, the SLA granted UN international staff access to the hospital damaged due to attacks during January 29-Feb 4, 2009. The report also disclosed that there had been two ICRC international members at the hospital when it was hit on February 04 (Paragraph 91).

Therefore, there is no basis for MP Ganesan’s malicious claim that Sri Lanka conducted a war without witnesses. The UNSG’s report also acknowledged that LTTE cadres who had been wounded in fighting in nearby frontline were brought to Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital where the organization maintained a ward for them. (Paragraph 94).

As the SLA further advanced into LTTE-held territory, the ICRC international staff that had been in Puthumathalan throughout the offensive were evacuated by ship flying the ICRC flag on February 10, 2009. Although Sri Lanka didn’t allow UN international staff on that vessel. ICRC ships evacuated thousands of wounded civilians, beginning February 10, 2009 till May 09, 2009, the last voyage before the conclusion of the war. But on 16 occasions, ICRC flagged ships arrived at Puthumathalan during this period, ICRC international staff were allowed to return to Puthumathalan each time the vessels came.

The writer was one of the few journalists allowed to observe the movement from a SLN Fast Attack Craft (FAC) positioned off the Puthumathalan coast in the last week of April 2009 and then visited Pulmoddai where the wounded were handed over to the Indian medical team, based there.

The UNSG report admitted that altogether 2,350 metric tons of food had been delivered to Mullivaikkal, from February 10, 2009 to May 09, 2009 and 14,000 wounded civilians and their relatives evacuated during this period (Paragraph 108).

The ICRC made a bid to bring in supplies and evacuate the wounded on May 15, 2009, but couldn’t do so due to heavy fighting. The bottom line is that the ICRC had access to Puthumathalan till May 09, 2009, just 10 days before the SLA killed LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

The bottom line is that the ICRC remained in Vanni east till late January,though the UN pulled out of Kilinochchi in Sept 2008. However, UNSG report admitted that UN international staff were allowed entry to the Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital, following the January 29-Feb 4, 2009 ,artillery barrage.

The international community never gave Sri Lanka the go ahead for an all-out war in 2006. In fact, Western powers constantly put pressure on Sri Lanka to continue negotiations, regardless of grave provocations by LTTE terrorists. There couldn’t be a better example than the assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, at his Bullers Lane residence, in August 2005. The assassination had been carried out just four months before the presidential poll, regardless of the Norway arranged Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) that was meant to destabilize the country.

Western powers, Japan and the UNSC asked the government to continue with the CFA. In April 2006 an abortive bid was made to assassinate Army Commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka. In early Oct, the same year, another abortive suicide attack was mounted on Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa. In January, 2007, the LTTE blasted FAC, off Trincomalee, killing the SLN crew on board. When the LTTE was behaving as if it was on top of the world, none of those shedding crocodile tears bothered at least to issue a statement requesting the LTTE not to escalate chaos. Then in late July 2006, the LTTE closed down the sluice gates of Mavil-aru, depriving the people downstream of water. In the second week of August 2006, the LTTE declared Eelam War IV with simultaneous attacks on the SLA’s northern frontline and in the East. The rest is history.

Western powers and India never believed that the Sri Lankan military had the wherewithal to bring the war to a successful conclusion. In the wake of a relentless ground offensive, backed by strategic air and naval strikes, in addition to operations carried out in support of the advancing troops, the LTTE retreated on all fronts until they were trapped in Mullaithivu. Once considered to be invincible, the LTTE collapsed within two years and 10 months 15 years ago.

Turning a blind eye to post-war developments

Those who couldn’t stomach eradication of conventional fighting capability of the LTTE continued to find fault with Sri Lanka for various post-war shortcomings. Unfortunately, successive governments haven’t done enough to convince the people and the global community of successful handling of post-war developments.

Sri Lanka can quite rightly be proud of the way over 12,000 LTTE combatants at all levels, including hardcore cadres, were integrated back into the society. The International Organization for Migration (IOM), with the support of the international community, including the UK, the US, Norway, Japan and Australia, implemented quite a successful project to reintegrate them to civilian life, following rehabilitation under military supervision.

The Tamil Diaspora, or Tamil political parties represented in Parliament, never wanted to support that project. They played politics until the government and the IOM brought that project to a successful completion. Tamil Diaspora and Tamil political parties never acknowledged that over 12,000 terrorists were released without being produced in court. They never appreciated the gradual release of land held by the military during the war. Instead, they propagated lies. One of the most blatant lies was the declaration that 104 LTTE cadres, held by the SLA, were poisoned to death. The claim was made by the then Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran, his TNA colleagues and a section of the Tamil media.

Retired justice Wigneswaran had no qualms in involving the US by requesting their intervention to conduct medical examination whereas international media gave ample coverage to the TNA lie.

Headline in the Madras-based Hindu online edition of August 18, 2016, updated on Nov 17, 2021, screamed ‘104 LTTE cadres poisoned to death at Sri Lanka rehab centres’ with strap line ‘Startling accusation by Tamil politicians who say the surviving ex-combatants had claimed physical disability as a result’

Wigneswaran went to the extent of seeking the then US Ambassador Atul Keshap’s intervention. Finally, Wigneswaran ended up with egg on his face but that didn’t prevent him from entering Parliament on Thamil Makkal Theshiya Kutani (TMTK), a newly formed political party.

Obviously, Tamil political parties and the Tamil Diaspora never expected Sri Lanka to reintegrate thousands of LTTE cadres, detained during the final offensive, to be rehabilitated and released within a few years.

Then they unleashed a far bigger lie when the SLA was accused of killing and burying thousands in Manner mass graves. The then UN human rights Chief Michelle Bachelet held Sri Lanka accountable. But a US lab revealed that the bones found therein were several centuries old and belonged to the colonial period.

The radiocarbon dating analysis by the Beta Analytic Testing Laboratory in Florida, US, in respect of six skeletal samples sent there in January 2019 determined scientifically that the skeletons belonged to a period that covered the Portuguese and the Dutch rule here. The UN never bothered to verify facts. The global body was in an indecent hurry to heap up pressure on war-winning Sri Lanka.

The following is the relevant section bearing No 23 from Bachelet’s report: On May 29, 2018, human skeletal remains were discovered at a construction site in Mannar (Northern Province), Excavations conducted in support of the Office on Missing Persons, revealed a mass grave from which more than 300 skeletons were discovered. It was the second mass grave found in Mannar following the discovery of a site in 2014. Given that other mass graves might be expected to be found in the future, systematic access to grave sites by the Office as an observer is crucial for it to fully discharge its mandate, particularly with regard to the investigation and identification of remains, it is imperative that the proposed reforms on the law relating to inquests, and relevant protocols to operationalize the law be adopted. The capacity of the forensic sector must also be strengthened, including in areas of forensic anthropology, forensic archeology and genetics, and its coordination with the Office of Missing Persons must be ensured.” The Bachelet report dealt with the situation here from Oct 2015 to January 2019.

If the LTTE hadn’t been eradicated 15 years ago how many more children could have perished in the war? The LTTE mercilessly used child soldiers in high intensity battles in the northern theatre until the very end. Had Sri Lanka been allowed to finish off the LTTE at an earlier stage lives of thousands could have been saved. Had that happened, the war could have been fought to a finish somewhere else not at Nanthikadal from where Prabhakaran was sent to the netherworld.

අජිත් සී. හේරත්  විමර්ශන

  ලෝක සෞඛ්‍ය සංවිධානයේ යෝජිත වසංගත ගිවිසුම: එක් සෞඛ්‍යයක් ප්‍රවේශය”, දේශගුණ විපර්යාස භීෂණය සහ ගොවි ජනතාවට හා ආහාරවලට එරෙහි යුද්ධය

අජිත් සී. හේරත්

මෙම මැයි මාසයේ අවසානයේදී ‌ජිනිවාහිදී පැවැත්වෙන ලෝක සෞඛ්‍ය සම්මේලනයෙදී සම්මත කර ගැනීම සඳහා ලෝක සෞඛ්‍ය සංවිධානය විසින් 2005 ජාත්‍යන්තර සෞඛ්‍ය රෙගුලාසි සඳහා සංශෝධන යෝජනාද, නව වසංගත ගිවිසුමක් පිළිබඳ ‌යෝජනා ඇතුළත් කෙටුම්පතක් ද ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට නියමිතව ඇති අතර එහි සාමාජික රටවල් 194 ක ඡන්දයෙන් එය සම්මත කරගැනීමට අපේක්ෂා කෙරේ. ලෝක සෞඛ්‍ය සංවිධානයේ මෙම උත්සාහය තිරයෙන්  පිටුපසින් සිට එය හසුරුවන ගෝලීයකරණවාදි බලවේගවල සහ ඖෂධ සමාගම්වල දුෂ්ට ඒකාධිපතිවාදි අරමුණුද, කෑදර වාණිජ අවශ්‍යතාවන්ද ඉටුකිරීම සඳහා යැයි ලෝකයේ බොහෝ  රටවල විද්‍යාඥයන්,වෛද්‍ය විශේෂඥයන්, නීතිඥයන් ජනමාධ්‍යවේදින්,සිවිල් සංවිධාන සහ  දේශපාලන පක්ෂ වෙතින් චෝදනා එල්ල වී ඇති අතර එමගින් මූලික මානව හිමිකම්, සිවිල් සහ දේශපාලන නිදහස, ජාතින්ගේ ස්වාධිපත්‍යය සහ ජනතා පරමාධිපත්‍ය අහෝසි වන බවට පෙන්වා දී තිබේ.

ප්‍රෝඩාකාරි වසංගත කුමන්ත්‍රණය තුළ ලොක්ඩවුන් වැනි ක්‍රියාමාර්ග හරහා, ගෝලීය සැපයුම් මාර්ග අඩාල කිරීම, වෙළඳපොළ වසා දැමීම සහ නිෂ්පාදනය බිඳ දැමීම ආදිය සිදු කරමින් ශ්‍රි ලංකාව වැනි සංවර්ධනය වෙමින් පවතින රටවල ආර්ථිකයන් බිඳ දමා ඒවා ලෝක බැංකුවේ සහ ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය අරමුදලේ මෙහෙයවීම යටතේ බ්ලැක්රොක්, වෑන්ගාඩ්, ජේපී මොර්ගන්‌ චේස් වැනි බටහිර කොල්ලකාරි මූල්‍ය සමාගම්වල ග්‍රහණයට ගත් ආකාරය මෙම වෙබ් අඩවියේ මෙයට පෙර පළ වූ ලිපි මගින්  අප විසින් පැහැදිලි කර ඇත.

මෙම ලිපිය තුළ දී අප විසින් අවධානය යොමු කිරීමට උත්සාහ කරන්නේ ලෝක සෞඛ්‍ය සංවිධානයේ යෝජිත වසංගත ගිවිසුමේ අන්තර්ගත එක් සෞඛ්‍යයක් සඳහා වන ප්‍රවේශය” සහ වසංගත ඇතිකිරීමට  හේතුවන එක් සාධකයක් ලෙස දේශගුණික විපර්යාසය යන්න ඇතුළත් කිරීම මගින් ලෝක සෞඛ්‍ය සංවිධානය පිටුපසින් සිට එය මෙහෙයවන බලවේග විසින් ඉටුකරගැනීමට අපේක්ෂා කරන ඉලක්ක මොනවාදැයි යන කරුණ  වෙතය.

මෙම ගිවිසුමේ වගන්ති තුළ ඔවුන් විසින් ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇති යෝජනා හුදු වාච්‍යාර්ථයෙන් ගත් කළ එහි කිසිදු වරදක් දැකීමට අපහසු , මානව යහපතම පෙරදැරි කර ගත්, සුන්දර වදන්මාලාවකින් සමන්විත  යෝජනා මාලාවක් බව පෙනී යයි. නමුත් මෙම ‌යෝජනාවන් පිටුපස සිටින බලවේග, ඔවුන්ගේ අතීත ක්‍රියාකාරිත්වයන්, සහ අභිලාෂයන් සහ සැලසුම් තුළ තබා විමසීමට ලක් කරන විට පෙනී යන්නේ  ඒවා මතුපිටින් දිස්වන තරම්  තරම් අහිංසක ඒවා නොවන බව පමණක් නොව සිතාගැනීමටත් නොහැකි තරම් මානව විරෝධී, සාපරාධී සැලසුම් ඒවා තුළ අන්තර්ගතව ඇති බවත්ය.

මෙම ගිවිසුම විසින් සියලුම රටවලට බලපාන පරිදි ගෝලීය වසංගත තත්ත්වයක් හෝ  වෙනත් අවධානයට යොමුවිය යුතු මහජන සෞඛ්‍ය පිළිබඳ හදිසි තත්ත්වයක්”   ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කිරීමේ ඒකාධිකාරි බලය ලෝක සෞඛ්‍ය සංවිධානයේ අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජෙනරාල්වරයා වෙත පවරා දෙනු ලබයි.  එමෙන්ම ඒවා වැළැක්වීම, ඒවා සඳහා සුදානම්වීම සහ ප්‍රතිචාර දැක්වීමේ සියලු කටයුතු පාලනය කිරීමේ බලයද ඔහු සතුවේ. මෙම ගිවිසුමේ ඇති වගන්ති අනුව අනාගතයේ ඇති විය හැකි වසංගත ” සඳහා සුදානම් වීමේ පියවරක් ලෙස එවැනි තත්ත්වයකදී අවශ්‍ය කරන එන්නත්,  PCR  රෝග නිර්ණයන කට්ටල  වැනි වසංගත ආශ්‍රිත සෞඛ්‍ය නිෂ්පාදන” මිලදී ගැනීම සඳහා අදාළ ඖෂධ සමාගම් සමග ගිවිසුම් අත්සන් කරමින්  කල් තබා ඒවා ඇණවුම් කළ යුතුය. මේ සඳහා ජාතික ආදායමෙන් විශාල ප්‍රතිශතයක් වාර්ෂිකව වෙන් කළ යුතුවේ. ලෝක සෞඛ්‍ය සංවිධානයේ අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජෙනරාල්වරයා තමන් වෙත ලැබෙන තොරතුරු සහ දත්ත” අනුව වසංගත තත්ත්වයක් ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කළ විට ඖෂධ සමාගම් සහ ආණ්ඩු විසින් අත්සන් කරන ලද එම ගිවිසුම් බලාත්මක වන අතර ඒවාට ගෙවිය  යුතු මුදල් අදාළ රාජ්‍යයන් විසින් බැර කළ යුතුය. ඔවුන්ට ඒ සඳහා මුදල් ඒ අවස්ථාවේ නොමැති නම් ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය සමාගම්වලින් මුදල් ණයට ගෙන හෝ එය ගෙවිය යුතුය. මෙහි දී සිදුවන්නේ එකී මූල්‍ය සමාගම් හෝ ආයතන විසින් එම මුදල කෙලින්ම ඖෂධ සමාගම්වල ගිණුම්වලට බැරකිරීමය. නමුත් අදාළ රටවල ජනතාව එම ණය සහ පොලී ගෙවීමට බැඳී සිටිති. මෙම ” වසංගත කර්මාන්තයේ ”  සශ්‍රීක  ප්‍රතිලාභවල රස දැනී ඇති ඖෂධ සමාගම් මෙන්ම ලෝක සෞඛ්‍ය සංවිධානයද, ජාතික රාජ්‍යයන්හි දූෂිත සෞඛ්‍ය බලධාරින්ද, ඇතැම් වෛද්‍යවරුන් ඇතුළු සෞඛ්‍ය වෘත්තිකයන්ද වසංගත ආඛ්‍යානයන් ” වටා රොද බැඳ සිටින්නේ අසූචි ගොඩක් වටා ගැවසෙන නිල මැස්සන් රැසක් මෙනි..‌  දේශගුණික විපර්යාස කර්මාන්තයටද”  අදාළව පවතින්නේ මෙවැනිම දූෂිත තත්ත්වයකි.

මෙවැනි ඊනියා වසංගත හෝ වෙනත් එවැනි  මහජන සෞඛ්‍යයට බලපාන හදිසි තත්ත්වයන් පිළිබඳව ලෝක සෞඛ්‍ය සංවිධානය හරහා ඖෂධ සමාගම් සහ වෙනත් පුද්ගලයන් සහ ආයතන විසින් පෙරට දමන ආඛ්‍යානය ප්‍රශ්න කෙරෙන කිසිවක් ජනමාධ්‍ය හෝ සමාජ මාධ්‍ය ජාලාවල පළවීම වැළැක්වීමට බලය පැවැරෙන වගන්තිද ඉහත වසංගත ගිවිසුමේ සහ 2005 ජාත්‍යන්තර සෞඛ්‍ය රෙගුලාසි සඳහා වන සංශෝධන තුළට ඇතුළත් කෙරී ඇත. සිය බල ප්‍රදේශය තුළ  සාවද්‍ය තොරතුරු, සහ වැරදි තොරතුරු ප්‍රචාර වීම වැළැක්වීම සඳහා ක්‍රියාමාර්ග ගැනීමට ආණ්ඩු වෙත බලකෙරෙන අතර අන්තර්ජාලය තුළ සිදු කරන වාරණය කටයුතු සඳහා ලෝක සෞඛ්‍ය සංවිධානය වෙතම  බලය පවරාගැනීමට සැලසුම් කර තිබේ. අනිවාර්ය එන්නත්කරණය සහ බලහත්කාරි පරීක්ෂාවන්ට ලක්කිරිම, නිරෝධායන කඳවුරු තුළ ගාල් කිරීම, රටවල් වසා දමමින් ඇදිරි නීති පැනවීම ආදි කටයුතුවලට සෘජුවම මැදිහත්වීමට ද ඔවුන් මේ යටතේ බලය පවරා ගනු ඇත.

මේ දක්වා ලෝක සෞඛ්‍ය සංවිධානය විසින් ජාත්‍යන්තර සෞඛ්‍ය ක්ෂේත්‍රය තුළ ඉටුකරන ලද්දේ මාර්ගෝපදේශන සැපයීමේත් ඒ ඒ රාජ්‍යයන්ගේ ජාතික සෞඛ්‍ය පද්ධතින් අතර සම්පත් සහ විශේෂඥ උපදෙස් හුවමාරුව සම්බන්ධීකරණ ආයතනයක් ලෙසය. නමුත් එය විසින් සපයන කිසිදු උපදේශයක් අනිවාර්යෙන්ම පිළිපැදීමට එහි සාමාජිකයන් නීතිමය වශයෙන් බැඳී නැත. නමුත් මෙම යෝජිත වසංගත ගිවිසුම සහ 2005 ජාත්‍යන්තර සෞඛ්‍ය රෙගුලාසි සඳහා වන යෝජිත සං‌ශෝධන සඳහා සාමාජික රාජ්‍යයන් විසින් මෙම මැයි මසදී අත්සන් තැබුවහොත් ඒවා පිළිපැදීමට ඔවුහු නීතිමය වශයෙන් බැඳී සිටිති. යම් හේතුවක් නිසා ඒවා විසින් තම රටේ ජාතික අවශ්‍යතාවන්, හෝ එහි පුරවැසියන්ගේ මානව, සිවිල් සහ දේශපාලන අයිතීන් උල්ලංඝණය කෙරෙන අවස්ථාවලදී ඒ බව පවසමින් ඒවා ඉටු නොකර සිටීමේ අයිතියක් සාමාජික රටවලට නැත. යම් රටක්  එසේ සිදු කළහොත් ඔවුන්ට සෘජුවම දඬුවම් පැමිණවීමේ බලයක් ලෝක සෞඛ්‍ය සංවිධානයට නොමැති වුවද ලෝක බැංකුව,ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය අරමුදල,ලෝක වෙළඳ සංවිධානය, එක්සත් ජාතින්ගේ සංවිධානය සහ වෙනත් රටවල් හරහා සම්බාධක පැනවීම මගින් වක්‍රව දඬුවම් පැමිණවීමේ ක්‍රියාවලියක් ස්ථාපිත ජාත්‍යන්තර ආර්ථික සහ දේශපාලන ව්‍යුහය තුළ පවතී.

ප්‍රෝඩාකාරි කොවිඩ්-19 ආඛ්‍යානය හරහා ඔවුහු ලෝකයේ වෙනත් බොහෝ රටවල මෙන්ම  ලංකාවේ ද ආර්ථිකය බිඳ දමන ලදි. ජාතික සෞඛ්‍ය පද්ධතිය විනාශ කරන ලද්දේ ඒ සඳහා වෙන්කිරීම තිබූ අරමුදල් නොපැවැති වසංගතයක් ඇතිබවට මවාපෑම සඳහා යොදාගත් පරීක්ෂණ කට්ටල මිලියන ගණන් මිලදී ගැනීම සඳහාත්, කිසිදිනෙක සෞඛ්‍යමය අවශ්‍යතාවක් ලෙස නොපැවැති එන්නත් වර්ග මිලදී ගැනීම සඳහා ඩොලර් බිලියන ගණන් ගෙවීමත් හේතුවෙනි. ජාතික සෞඛ්‍ය පද්ධතියේ මේ බිඳ දැමීම සැලසුම් සහගතවම සිදු කරන ලද්දක් විය.එහි අරමුණ වූයේ එය නැවැත ප්‍රකෘතිමත් කිරීමේ මුවාවෙන් ශ්‍රි ලංකාවේ සමස්ත සෞඛ්‍ය ක්ෂේත්‍රයම ආක්‍රමණය කර එහි තම බලය පිහිටුවීමය. දැන් ජාතික ඖෂධ නියාමක අධිකාරිය සහ ජාතික එන්නත්කරණ ව්‍යාපාරය පාලනය කරන්නේ බිල්ගේට්ස්ගේ GAVI පදනමේ සහ ඖෂධ සමාගම්වල ඒජන්තයන් විසිනි.

ලෝක සෞඛ්‍ය සංවිධානයේ වසංගත ගිවිසුමට එක් සෞඛ්‍යයක් සඳහා වන ප්‍රවේශය” සහ වසංගත අවදානම වැඩි කරන සාධකයක් ලෙස දේශගුණ විපර්යාස” යන්න ඇතුළත් කිරීමේ අරමුණ ඒ මගින් ලෝකයේ ආහාර නිෂ්පාදනය සියතට ගැනීමට අවශ්‍ය නීතිමය පදනම සකස් කරගැනීමය. මෙම ගිවිසුමට ශ්‍රී ලංකාව නිල වශයෙන් අත්සන් තැබීමටත් පෙර සිටම ‌එහි ඇති වගන්ති බොහෝමයක් රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ ආණ්ඩුව මෙන්ම ඊට පෙර පැවැති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ ආණ්ඩුවද  විසින්ය ක්‍රියාත්මක කරවා ඇති බව පෙනී යයි.

ලෝක සෞඛ්‍ය සංවිධානයේ යෝජිත වසංගත ගිවිසුම: එක් සෞඛ්‍යයක් ප්‍රවේශය”, දේශගුණ විපර්යාස භීෂණය සහ ගොවි ජනතාවට හා ආහාරවලට එරෙහි යුද්ධය – විමර්ශන (vimarshana.org)

Prensa Latina

Colombo, May 23 (Prensa Latina) The Joint Committee of Democratic Unions of Sri Lanka confirmed its support for Cuba’s declaration demanding its fair elimination from the list of states sponsors of terrorism created by the United States.

The organization confirmed in a statement that adding Cuba to the arbitrary list has political purposes and causes serious economic problems for the Cuban people, despite which Cuba resists and is an example for the people who fight against imperialism.

The Committee agreed with the Cuban Foreign Ministry that it is not enough for the United States to recognize Cuba’s full collaboration in the fight against terrorism; they must go further and remove Cuba from the unjust list.

In recent days, various Sri Lankan organizations joined the global demand against the aggressive policy of the United States against Cuba and demanded the removal of Cuba from the unjust list once and for all.

The Left Democratic Front of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka-Cuba Parliamentary Friendship Association also urged the current US government to eliminate the inhumane measures it maintains against Cuba, of proven international rejection.

By Ben Norton Courtesy defenddemocracy.press

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash, sought to unite the Global South against Western imperialism, joined BRICS, advocated dedollarization, and strongly supported Palestine.

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash on May 19, left behind a legacy of working to build a more multipolar world.

Under Raisi, Iran joined BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Global South-led institutions that he noted could challenge US unilateralism and hegemony.

The late Iranian leader advocated a Look East” strategy, strengthening relations with China, Russia, and other countries in Asia.

Raisi represented a more nationalist wing of the political class in Tehran, which sees the futility of trying to win Western approval, and instead recognizes that Iran’s political and economic future lies in deepening integration with the Global South.

We will not … tie the country’s economy and people’s lives to [the West’s] will”, Raisi declared.

Accordingly, he pursued closer ties with Latin America and Africa, emphasizing the common struggle against Western imperialism.

In 2023, Raisi visited Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. Despite his political differences, he showed solidarity with the socialist governments of these Latin American nations – which, like Iran, suffer from illegal unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States.

In La Habana, Raisi stated, One of the serious commonalities between the two countries is standing against the voracity of the colonial system. Cuba has been standing against American hegemony and voracity for many years, and this resistance of the Cuban people and government is commendable”.

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Iran’s Foreign Ministry wrote in its diplomatic readout that, when he was in Caracas, Ayatollah Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi praised the years of resistance of the Venezuelan people against imperialism”

In Managua, Raisi declared, America wanted to stop our nation with sanctions and threats, but our nation not only did not stop, but instead, it used the threats and sanctions to build and progress”.

We are certain that Nicaragua too can overcome the US’s threats and sanctions since today the US is in decline and is growing weaker day by day”, the late Iranian leader told President Daniel Ortega.

While meeting with the foreign minister of Burkina Faso’s revolutionary government, Raisi praised the standing and resistance of African countries against colonialism and terrorism, describing it a sign of awakening”.

Africa is the main driver of the development of the Global South”, Raisi said at the BRICS summit in August 2023. Fortunately, the political and economic weight of Africa, which is an inseparable part of the developing world, is growing constantly”.

The late Iranian leader likewise was a vocal advocate for de-dollarization, promoting the use of local currencies in bilateral trade, to bolster economic sovereignty and undermine the dominance of the US dollar.

The hegemony of the Western world contributes to the hegemony of the dollar”, Raisi said in a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. In order to create a new economic order, it is necessary to remove this instrument of hegemony in world practice, to use national currencies in settlements between countries”.

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In a visit to Jakarta in 2023, Raisi signed an agreement for Iran and Indonesia to de-dollarize and use their own currencies in bilateral trade.

While accepting Tehran’s invitation to join BRICS, the late leader stated, The Islamic Republic of Iran decisively supports the successful efforts of BRICS in the direction of de-dollarization of economic relations between members, as well as the use of national currencies and the strengthening of BRICS mechanisms for payment and financial settlement”.

Speaking before BRICS, he also emphasized that one of the challenges in the ‘Southern World’ is the continuation of racist policies, insecurities arising from oppression, occupation, hegemony and state terrorism, especially from the Zionist regime; which not only prevented the Palestinian people from exercising their right to self-determination, but also deprived them of the right to development”.

Above all, Raisi demonstrated Tehran’s unflinching support for the Palestinian national-liberation struggle against Israeli colonialism.

In December, Raisi organized a global conference to support Palestine, which was attended by representatives from more than 50 countries.

At the international meeting, the late Iranian leader condemned the United States as the first and biggest violator of democracy in the world”. He recognized that Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza was only possible because of the substantial support it receives from the US empire, which he condemned as a global hegemonic system” based on imperial oppression.

We remind our readers that publication of articles on our site does not mean that we agree with what is written. Our policy is to publish anything which we consider of interest, so as to assist our readers  in forming their opinions. Sometimes we even publish articles with which we totally disagree, since we believe it is important for our readers to be informed on as wide a spectrum of views as possible.

http://www.defenddemocracy.press/irans-president-raisi-joined-brics-called-to-drop-us-dollar-pushed-for-multipolar-world/

උපුල් ගලප්පත්ති – අරුණ 

ශ්‍රී ලංකා විදේශ සේවයේ දැනට පවතින තෙවැනි ලේකම් පුරප්පාඩුවලින් හරි අඩක් මැති ඇමැතිවරුන්ගේ දූ දරුවන්ගෙන් සැපිරීමට විදේශ කටයුතු අමාත්‍යාංශය කැබිනට් අනුමැතියක් අපේක්ෂාවෙන් පසුවන බව සති අග අරුණ  වාර්තා කර තිබේ.

කිසිදු තරග විභාගයක් හෝ සම්මුඛ පරීක්ෂණයකින් තොරව මෙසේ රජයේ මැති ඇමැතිවරුන්ගේ දරුවන් බඳවා ගැනීමට යන්නේ විවෘත තරග විභාගයකින් ඉහළ සාමාර්ථ ලබාගත් අයැදුම්කරුවන් 117 දෙනෙක් සිටියදීය.

2021 .04. 09 දින රජයේ ගැසට් පත්‍රයේ පළ කළ දැන්වීමකට අනුව ශ්‍රී ලංකා විදේශ සේවයේ iii වැනි ශ්‍රේණියට බඳවා ගැනීම සඳහා පිළිගත් විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයකින් උපාධිය හිමිකරගත් අයැදුම්කරුවන්ට අවස්ථාව ලබාදුන් අතර, අදියර දෙකකින් පැවති ලිඛිත පරීක්ෂණයකට මෙන්ම සම්මුඛ පරීක්ෂණයකටද මුහුණදීමට ඔවුන්ට සිදුවුහ. විභාගයේ දෙවැනි කොටසට මුහුණදීමට අවස්ථාව හිමිව තිබුණේ පළමු අදියර සමත්වූ විභාග අපේක්ෂකයන්ට පමණි. ශ්‍රී ලංකා විභාග දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව විසින් පැවැත්වූ මෙකී තරග විභාගයේදී පළමු අදියර ලෙස බුද්ධි පරීක්ෂණය සහ අවබෝධය ප්‍රශ්න පත්‍රයක්ද, දෙවැනි අදියර යටතේ ලෝක තතු 1 සහ 2 ද, සාරාංශකරණය මෙන්ම ඉහළ ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂා පරිචයක් මැන බලන භාෂා ප්‍රවීණතා ප්‍රශ්න පත්‍රයකටද මුහුණදීමට එම අපේක්ෂකයන්ට සිදුවිය.

මෙම තරග විභාග ප්‍රතිථල මත 40 ක පිරිසක් බඳවා ගැනීමට රාජ්‍ය සේවා කොමිෂන් සභාව සහ කළමනාකරණ සේවා දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව අවසර දී තිබියදීත් විදේශ කටයුතු අමාත්‍යාංශය සම්මුඛ පරීක්ෂණයෙන් තෝරා ගෙන ඇත්තේ 20 ක පිරිසක් පමණි.

දැනටමත් විදේශ සේවයේ තුන්වැනි ශ්‍රේණියේ පුරප්පාඩු 106 ක් තිබේ. සේවක හිඟය හේතුවෙන් ලොව පුරා මහ කොමසාරිස් කාර්යාල, තානාපති කාර්යාල, හා කොන්සල් ජනරාල් කාර්යාලවල සේවා සැපයීම ගැටලුවක්ව ඇති බවද එම ආරංචි මාර්ග සඳහන් කරයි. එවැනි වාතාවරණයක් පවතිද්දී විභාගය සමත්වූ 117 කින් 20 දෙනකුට පමණක් පත්වීම් ලබාදීමට යන්නේ, සෙසු ප්‍රමාණයම අප්‍රකට මාර්ග ඔස්සේ සැපිරීමට දැයි සැක සහිත බවද විභාගය සමත් වූවෝ පවසති.

මැති ඇමැතිවරුන් තම දරුවන් විදේශ සේවයට යොමුකරන්නේ ඒ සඳහා ලැබෙන විශාල වැටුප ඇතුළු තවත් ආකර්ෂණීය දීමනා රැසක් නිසා බවත්, නවාතැන්, ප්‍රවාහන පහසුකම්, වීසා රහිතව ලෝකයේ ඕනෑම රටක සංචාරය කළ හැකි රාජ්‍ය තාන්ත්‍රික ගමන් බලපත්‍රයක හිමිකම මෙන්ම විවිධ වරප්‍රසාද රැසක්ද හේතුවෙන්ය. මෙවැනි වරප්‍රසාද ලැබ විදේශ සේවයට එක්වන ඇමැති දූ පුතුන් එම රටවලදී විදේශ සරසවි අධ්‍යාපනයේ නියැළීම, පෞද්ගලික ව්‍යාපාරික කටයුතු සිදුකිරීම සහ විනෝද වීම මිස රට වෙනුවෙන් රාජ්‍ය තාන්ත්‍රික මෙහෙවරේ නොයෙදෙන බවද ප්‍රකටය.

– උපුල් ගලප්පත්ති
– අරුණ 

උපුටා ගැන්ම  ලංකා ලීඩර්

මේ වන විට විවිධ පුද්ගලයන් විශේෂයෙන්ම චීවරධාරීන් යොදාගනිමින් සමාජය බිඳවැට්ටවීම සඳහා සිදුකරන මහා ප්‍රහාරයේ පසුබිම සහ ඊට අදාළ න්‍යායාත්මක විග්‍රහය පිළිබඳව මහජනයා දැනුම්වත් කිරීම සඳහා ජාතික සංවිධාන එකමුතුව විසින් පත්‍රිකා ව්‍යාපාරයක් ආරම්භකර තිබේ.

එම පත්‍රිකාව නම්කර ඇත්තේ “සමාජය බිඳ වට්ටවා රාජ්‍යය යටත් කිරීමේ මෙහෙයුම” නමිනි.

පත්‍රිකාව පහළින්…

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Kurundi vihara’s troubles are not over. First it was the stupa, now it is the pilimage. Work on the stupa at Kurundi vihara is complete.  The relics have been deposited and Kurundi stupa is ready for worship. The next step is renovation of the pilimage.

 The Archaeology Department said that they could reconstruct the pilimage exactly as it originally existed, right up to the roof. They had the necessary evidence from the ruins itself. We can fully    create it. We have all the evidence, including evidence on how to do the roof,” they said. Kurundi had a wooden roof. That can be inferred from the pillars.  The carved beam found at the pilimage is also considered to be very special.

However, work on the pilimage has stalled. In January 2024, Ama H. Vanniarachchy investigated for Ceylon Today[1] . The delay was not due to lack of money. The money was there, Bauddhaloka Foundation was funding the project, said Ven. Santhabodhi .

Ama was told that the conservation work of the  pilimage is being delayed, deliberately, for political reasons. Santhabodhi said he thought the  authorities feared that the Tamil Separatist Movement   may oppose the conservation work of  the pilimage. Nevertheless, there are some archaeology officers who are willing to go ahead with the conservation work of the image house, despite  the anticipated conflict, Santhabodhi said.

With the conservation work of the image house  being delayed, the excavated area of the image house, including the  soil layers and unearthed stone objects, is exposed to heavy rains, heat, and soil erosion. The ruins are getting destroyed. The wall around the image house has started to collapse in certain places. Some of the stone pillars are tilted to the side due to soil erosion, as a result of heavy rains. We have fixed props to prevent those pillars from falling,  Ama was told.

Archaeologist Chandima Ambanwala  when interviewed said the main issue is that no measures are taken to conserve the unearthed architectural structures during a given timeframe. This causes severe damage to the unearthed architectural structures. This is extremely serious.

We must understand the gravity of this, he said. Excavating an ancient architectural structure, exposing it and abandoning it  accelerate the decaying process by a hundred times. These ancient structures were under the soil for many centuries, sometimes even thousands of years and during this time the decaying process is under control and stable. Once these structures are unearthed and exposed to natural conditions such as rain, atmosphere, sunlight, heat, humidity and so on, it is open to speedy decay.

 We have many examples of such situations in recent times. The Kawudagala Stupa in Welikanda was excavated but was not followed up by a conservation process. The stupa was destroyed by treasure hunters. Another example is the image house at Kurundi Buddhist monastery. If anyone visits this place now, they can witness the damage caused to the image house after it was abandoned after excavations,”  said Ambanwela.

When asked who should be responsible for the prevailing issue at Kurundi, Ambanwela said   Director General of the  Department of Archaeology (DoA) is to be blamed for this damage because the Department is the institute that is responsible for protecting Sri Lanka’s ancient heritage and it is also the institute that has all the authority to take action for the safeguarding of the heritage. It is the duty and responsibility of the Department to safeguard the ancient heritage sites and monuments in Sri Lanka.”

These architectural structures are getting decayed day by day, at a great speed. Therefore, the Director General and the Department of Archaeology  cannot wipe their hands off of the responsibility of protecting Sri Lanka’s heritage of the people on behalf of the people,” concluded Ambanwala. 

Archaeologist  Gamini Wijesuriya blamed the Ministry of Buddha Sasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs. I have been asked to comment on is the status of the excavated image house at Kurundi and why it has been abandoned by the authorities,  said  Wijesuriya. A competent team from the Department of Archaeology has excavated the site, and the next task is the conservation and (interpretation) presentation.

The exposed image house, is being destroyed due to the absence of any action. In my view, such neglect is tantamount to a crime. The remains should be consolidated without further delay. Ven. Santhabodhi  has said that  the  money allocated for the excavation as well as conservation of the site is  readily available.

the DoA has an excellent professional and technical team, together with the accumulated knowledge of 130 years on the subject, and is capable of conserving the remains of the image house, Wijesuriya continued.

The current Director of Conservation, Prasanna Ratnayake, is the  third of a generation of internationally-renowned conservation professionals to hold the position as the Head of Conservation in the DoA. Ratnayake possesses 25 years of experience in the Department as the Head of the Conservation Division with international training and experience. He and his team in the Department can conserve the exposed remains of the image house to the highest international standards within a short period of time”  Wijesuriya said.

 Wijesuriya attributes the  delay in conservation of the excavated Kurundi image  house, to the interference by the Ministry of Buddha Sasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs over the last decade. The current Minister of Buddha Sasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs has no clue  about the history and the role of the DoA, which has existed for 133 years.

The Ministry has failed to appoint a competent  head of  the DoA among those serving with experience. Over the last five years, the Ministry has appointed five incompetent and unqualified persons as the Director General of Archaeology, who have miserably failed to provide the required leadership to the competent staff of the Department and disrupted all the normal work. 

The Ministry and those appointed at Director General, Archaeology cover up their incompetency, claiming it is political interference that prevents the conservation of the abandoned image house in Kurundi, continued Wijesuriya.

The latest saga of the series of disruptions done to the DoA is the scheme of recruitment hastily drafted and published by the Ministry, which prevents    members of the DoA from applying for the position! It is clear that provisions have been made for those without any experience in the task performed by the DoA, to apply.  To me, (Kamalika Pieris), this  sounds like sabotage.

It is questionable how those in the Ministry of Public Administration and the Public Service Commission allow such schemes of recruitment to be approved, breaking all accepted norms in the public service.  they owe the public explanations, concluded Dr. Wijesuriya. 

Kamalika Pieris  (that’s me)  spoke to a lawyer who was interested in the Kurundi matter. He said bluntly, that the pilimage conservation was getting delayed because the  cases against Kurundi in the courts of law  were  dragging on.  The Magistrate who heard  the cases has run away. These cases should be concluded as soon as possible.

He  told me that experts warn that that the exposed pilimage ruins  are now starting to deteriorate, and with a few more heavy rains, the pilimage ruins will disappear. The next heavy rain will probably finish it off.

This lawyer also referred to the appointment of the DG of  Archaeology . He said that when   they met the authorities, on behalf of Kurundi , they were told that the pilimage work would be started once the new  DG, Archaeology . But they are delaying the appointment, he said angrily.

My view, (Kamalika Pieris), is that  the Buddhist lobby  must take action to get the conservation work of the pilimage started as soon as possible. I would also add that  even if all the ancient pillars fell down, it  will not be the end of the  Kurundi pilimage.  If the original ruins vanish, the Archaeology Department will be able to   build  a new pilimage modeled on the old one. They have the design and the expertise.  Any ancient pillars still available could perhaps be placed ‘in situ’. Those who  support  ‘Venice Principles’ will be told to shut up. ( Continued)

 LANKAWEB PHOTOS ARE GIVEN BELOW.

Source for photos.  Bauddhaloka Foundation 

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[1] https://ceylontoday.lk/2024/01/13/exposed-to-decay-part-i/

Palitha Ariyarathna Writer, Journalist, Author Publisher

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=FPNz-wKLoqw&si=5lf3sp-hekynifs7

ආචාර්‍ය සුදත් ගුණසේකර

*මේ රටේ නිදහස් දිනය විය යුත්තේ මැයි 22 දා මිස 1948 පෙබ 4 දා නොවේ.

* ජාතික දිනය වියයුත්තේ සින්හල බෞද්ධ ජාතිය උපන් පොසොන් දෙපෝදා මිස1948 පෙබ 4 දා සුද්දාගේ මේසය පල්ලේ වැටුණු  මස්කට්ට නොවේ                     

    අද මැයි මස 22 දා සුද්දන්ගේ ග්‍රහණයෙන් රට නිදහස් වූ දාය. එහෙත් එම අඓතිහාසික දිනය, ජනතාව තුල ජාතිකාභිමානය සහ දේශ ප්‍රේමය වඩවන පරිදි උත්සවාකාරයෙන් සැමරීම පසෙක තබා, ජනාධිපති, අගමැති සහ විපක්ෂ නායකයාගෙන් ඒ ගැන පනිවිඩයක් හෝ නිකුත්කොට නැත. එවැනි දෙයක් 1972 මැයි 22 දා සිදු වූ බවවත් මොවුන් දන්නවාදැයි මම නොදනිමි.අතිෂයින්ම සෝචනීයය.නින්දා සහගතය.

මේ රටට පූර්ණ ව්‍යවස්ථාදායක, විධායක සහ අධිකරණ බලතල සහිත පූර්ණ නිදහස ලබාගත්තේ සිරිමාවෝ බණ්ඩරනායක මැතිනිගේ ආණ්ඩුව යටතේ 1972 මැයි 22දාය. 1972 සිට 77 දක්වා එය ජාතික අභිමානයෙන් පැවැත්වූවා. ඒත් 1977න් පසු බලයට පැමිණි ජේ. ආර්. ගේ.එ.ජා පක්ෂය එක් පුද්ගලයකුගේ ද්වේෂ සහගත සිතුවිළි නිසා, නතර කොට යළිත්, 1948  සුද්දා, දුන් සුද්දාගේම දිනයම වූ සැබෑ නිදහසක් නොලැබුණු පෙබ 4 ම මේ රටේ නිදහස් දිනය වෂයෙන්  යළිත් ප්‍රකාශ කලා පමණක් නොව පෙබ 4 වනදා ජාතික දිනය වෂයෙන්ද 1978 ජනරජ ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ  8 වගන්තිය යටතේ ඇතුලත් කොට එය මේ රටේ නීතියක් බවටද පත් කළා.

1948 දි ඉහතින් දැක්වූ මූලික අවශ්‍යතාවන් සහ භූමියේ පූර්ණ අයිතිය (විශේෂයෙන්ම මැදරට කඳුකරයේ) ඇතුළු කිසිවක් ලැබුණේ නැත. ඒවා ලබාගත්තේ 1972 මැයි 22දාය. 1978 සිට ජේ.ආර්  එය සැමරීම අත්හැර නැවතත් පෙබ් 4ම නිදහස් දිනයකොට රටත්, ජාතියත් 1972 දී උපන් දේශයික, ජාතික සහ සාශනික පිබිදීමත් ඒ සියල්ලටම වඩා සින්හලයින්ගේ ජාතික පිබිදීම,නිවහල් බව  සහ දේශානුරාගය මරා දමා නැවතත් සුද්දාගේ වහලුන් බවට මානසික වශයෙන් ජනතාව පත් කළා. ඉන් නොනැවතුණු මේ අධිරාජ්‍යගැති දුෂ්ඨ මිනිසා 1972 දී මේ රට නිවහල් නිදහස් ස්වාධීන ජනරයක් කළ මැතිනියගේ ප්‍රජා අයිතියද අනීතිකව හත් වසරකට අහිමිකලා.

මේ රටේ සිංහල ජාතිය උපන්නේ ක්‍රි පූ.543.

සිංහල බෞද්ධ ජාතිය උපන්නේ ක්‍රි.පූ 307.

1815 න් පසු යටත් විජිත පාලනයෙන් පූර්ණ නිදස ලබාගත්තේ 1972 මැයි 22. ඒ අනුව නිදහස් දින පැවැත්විය යුතු නියම දින මැයි 22ය. ජාතික දිනය නම්කළ යුත්තේද, පැවැත්විය යුත්තේද ජාතිය පිළිබඳ සුවිශේ දිනයක් කේන්ද්‍ර කරගෙනය. ක්‍රි. පූ. 307 දී මහින්දාගමනයත් සමඟ පොසොන් දෙපෝය දින මේ රටේ සින්හල බෞද්ධ ජාතිය බිහිවීමේ ඒ ආශ්චර්‍යමත් සිද්ධිය සිදුවූ බැවින්, මේ රටේ ජාතික දිනය වෂයෙන් පිළිගත යුතු එකම දිනය එය බව මම නිගමනය කරමි.තවදුරටත් මේරට පලමුව බුදුන් වැඩි ක්‍රි.පූ.588 සිට මේ රටේ බුද්ධාගම තිබුණත් රාජ්‍ය  අනුග්‍රහයෙන් රටේ ජාතික ආගම බුද්ධාගාම් වශයෙන් පිළිගනු ලැබුවේ 307 පොසොන් දෙපෝය දින බැවින්, මේ රටෙ ජාතික දිනය වශයෙන් පිළිගැනීමට සුදුසුම දිනය එය වණුයේ එම නිසාය.

එමනිසා සෑම වසරකම මැයි මස 22 නිදහස් දිනය වශයෙන්ද පොසොන් පෝය දිනය ජාතික දිනය ව්ශයෙන්ද ව්‍යවස්ථාගතකොට  මින් පසුව හෝ සෑම රජයක්ම එකී ජාතික දින සැමරීමට පියවර  ගත යුතුයයි මම යෝජනා  කරමි.

මේ වසරේත් එය සැමරීම පසෙක තබා එහෙම එකක් තියෙනවාද කියාවත් නොදන්නා රාජ්‍ය නායකයින් රජ කරණ රට,මේ ශ්‍රී ලන්කාව. තම රටේ නිදහස දිනය වත් නොදන්නා රාජ්‍ය නායකින් සිටින ලෝකයේ එකම රට ශ්‍රී ලන්කාව. ඒ වගේම ඒ ගැන හඬක් නොනගන, විරෝධතාවක් නොපාන මිනිසුන් ද සිටින ලෝකයේ එකම රටද මේ රටය. මෙවැනි නායකයින් සහ මිනිසුන් සිටින රටක් ඉතින් දියුණු  වන්නේ කෙසේදැයි ඇසීම ප්‍රස්නයක් නොවේ.

වෙසක් දා ජනාධිපති යාපනයේ  (ප්‍රවුර්තියක්))

 ඒ මඳිවාට ලෝ පුරා සිටින බෞධයින්ගේ අසම සම දිනය වූ බුදුන් වහන්සේගේ උපත, බුදුබවට පත්වීම මෙන්ම පිරිනිවන් පෑම යන  ත්‍රිවිධ මන්ගල්‍යයම සිදුවූ දින මේ සින්හල බෞද්ධ රාජ්‍යයේ ජනාධිපති රනිල් වික්‍රමසින්හ හෙට සහ අනිද්දා යාපනයේ  හින්දු කෝවිලක, චන්ද වන්දනාවේ සහ මනාප හිඟමනේ. මට පුදුම, බරට බර රත්‍රන් පූජාවකට තිරුපති නොගිය එකයි. එහෙම කලානම් තිරුපති දෙයියෝ මෙන්ම තමිල් නාඩුවේ දෙමළුන්ද, ලන්කාවේ සිටින සියළුම දෙමළුන්ට, රනිල්ට චන්දේ දෙන්ට කියල කියයි. මෝඩිත් කියයි. ඒ වගේම වෙන්කත නාරායනුත් කියයි. එහෙම කළානම් එක ගලෙන් කුරුල්ලෝ දෙන්නයි.චන්ද ලක්ෂ 10 යි.   

ඉස්සර කාලයේ වෙසක් පමණක් නොවෙයි අනෙකුත් පෝයටද සින්හලේ රජු සිටියේ ශ්‍රී දළදා මාලිගාවේ. එසේ කළේ ශ්‍රී දළදා වහන් සේ ආරක්ෂා කිරීම, ඒ කියන්නෙ රටේ බුද්ධ සාශනය  ආරක්ෂා කිරීම, රජ කමෙහි දිවුරුම් දෙන විටම පොරුන්දුවන නිසයි. ඒ ඔහුගේ පළමු වගකීමයි. ඊලඟට රටේ ආරක්ෂාව, පාලනය සහ ජනතාවගේ සුභසෙතට අවෂය කටයුතු කිරීම. එසේ කිරීමෙන් සාශනයාගේ චිරස්තිථිය ඉටුකරණවා.

ඒ වෙනුවට වර්තමාන නායකයින් කියාගන්නා සියළු දෙනාම වෙසක් පෝයදාටත් කරන්නේ ක්‍රි.පූ. 2 වන සියවසේ සිටම රටත්,ජාතියත් සාශනයත් විනාශකළ දෙමළුන්ගේ චන්දේ හිඟාගෙන හින්දු කෝවිල්වලට බඩ ගෑමයි.

හැබැයි මම එකක් කියන්නම්. නළලේ කොපමණ අලුගෑවත්, කොපමණ සළු පෙරෙව්වත් ඔය එකෙක් වත් සින්හල මිනිහෙකුට චන්දෙ දෙන්නේ නෑ. මන්ද,ඔවුන් මේ රටේ ජාතියක් නොවුනත්, ජන වර්ගයක් වෂයෙන් ජාතික හැඟීමක් ඇති පිරිසක් නිසා.  ඔවුන් දෙමළු. සින්හලයෝ නොවේ. දෙමළ දේශපාලකයින් ඔවුන්ගේ මනස් සෝදා තිබෙන්නේ ඒ අන්දමටයි. දෙමළ අපේක්ෂකයෙක් ඉදිරිපත් වූවහොත් දෙමළ 10 ලක්ෂයම ඔහුට. නැතිනම් චන්දය දිනයි කියලා හිතන සින්හලයාට දෙනවා. දීල අසීමිත වාසි ලබාගන්නවා.1948 සිටම මේ සෙල්ලම තමා මේ රටේ සිදු උනේ.

අනිවාර්යෙන්ම ඊළඟට රනිල්, සමහරවිට ලබන සුමානේ, යන්නේ වතුකරයට.එහෙ ගිහින් වසර දහස් ගානක් මේ රටේ භූමිපුත්‍රයින් වූ සින්හයින්ට අයිති ඉඩම්,  වතුකර ඉන්දියානු දෙමලුන්ට දෙන්නම් කියා පොරුන්දුවෙනව හරියෙට ඔහුගේ තාත්තාගෙන් ලැබුණු  ඉඩම් වගේ. නිවාසත් දෙන්නම් කියනව. මෝදි සහ වෙන්කත නාරායන් උඩපැනලා සල්ලි දෙනව. හැබැයි ඒ සල්ලි දෙන්නේ කෙලින්ම දෙමලුන්ට. සින්හලයාට ඔවුන්ගේ ජන්මභූමිය අහිමි වනවා. හැබැයි වතුකරයේ දෙමළු චන්දෙ දෙන්නේ දිනන මිනිහාට.

ඒ නිසා රනිල්ගේ මෙන්ම සජිත්ගේ මොන ඇම දුන්නත් වතුකරයේ දෙමළුන් චන්දේ දෙන්නේ බුද් ධිමත්ව මොකද ඔවුන්ට නායකයෝ ඉන්නවා.  සින්හලයින්ට එවැනි එකෙක්වත් නැත. මේ අතරේ මේ ඉඩම්වල මුල් අයිත්ජිකාරයෝ රනිල්ට, සජිත්ට ඕනෑම දෙයක් කරගන්ට ඉඩ දීලා උඩ බලාගෙන ඉන්නවා. ඔවුන්ට දෙමලුන්ට මෙන්  දේශපාලන නායකයොත් නෑ. ආධ්‍යාත්මක නායකයොත් නැත.

Dr. Sarath Obeysekera Chief Executive Officer Walkers Colombo Shipyard (Pvt) Ltd.

30th December 2020
Honourable Prime Minister Prime Minister’s Office No: 58, Sir Ernest De Silva Mawatha Colombo 07.

Honourable Sir,

High Handed Action by Ceylon Fishery Harbours Corporation Chairman.
Walkers Colombo Shipyard (Pvt) Ltd. was established in early 2015 with an investment from the Mother Company MTD Walkers PLC to develop and lease the abandoned Mutwal Fishery Harbour for 25 years belonging to Ceylon Fishery Harbours Corporation (CFHC).
After the successful establishment, the shipyard was functioning well with small to medium scale Sri Lankan vessels and foreign vessels coming in for repair services.
In the supplementary agreement signed with CFHC, there was a clause which stated that we are to obtain a fresh valuation from a government valuer to justify the lease payment already agreed upon which was Rs. 125,000 for the land. The new valuation issued on 25th Of February 2016 came to Rs. 1.7 Million which was based on the entire shipyard premises for a land extent of 3 Acres and 1.86 Perch. However, we at the shipyard only utilize 1 Acre and 30.56 Perch.
This error in valuation was appealed and contested by us via multiple meetings and letters. However, CFHC continued to bill us with the erroneous lease amount for which our lawyers advised not to pay. Since then, the outstanding land lease accumulated to Nearly Rs. 70 Million for which CFHC issued a letter of demand and referred the case to the Attorney General’s Department. Despite our constant efforts of requesting to obtain a fresh valuation, to date, CFHC has not made any effort to obtain the correct valuation from the Valuation Department based on the actual land area for over 3 years.
On the 21st of December, the chairman of CFHC forcibly invaded our functioning shipyard in order to show the premises to a prominent businessman with an ulterior motive to hand over the Mutwal project and our shipyard in Trincomalee illegally to this said businessman. We believe that this delay of obtaining a fresh valuation is intentional and is a rouse to constrict our shipyard financially to eventually kick us out and hand over the business to this new businessman.
Therefore we kindly request to look into this matter to advise Ceylon Fishery Harbours Corporation to obtain the fresh valuation from the valuation department and resolve this land lease matter in line with the land area shipyard utilizes and help us continue with our services as the second shipyard of Sri Lanka.
Yours truly, ………………………………………………………… Dr. Sarath Obeysekera Chief Executive Officer Walkers Colombo Shipyard (Pvt) Ltd.
Cc: 1. Hon. Douglas Devananda, Minister of Fisheries