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SepalAmarasing

e-Con e-News

blog: eesrilanka.wordpress.com

‘Before you study the economics, study the economists!’

e-Con e-News 27 April – 03 May 2025

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‘This is why Harry Dexter White of the US Treasury

fought so hard at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference

to have the 2 institutions headquartered in Washington.’

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After the shutting down of USAID and the US withdrawal from the WHO (World Health Organization), there was much headlined chatter that the US government would move to shutter (or at least shut up) the IMF & World Bank. Well, there’s no such fire to such pipe-dreams – just smoke. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has declared that the ‘return on investment’ from their terrible twins, is unparalleled. Unlike in the UN and other such multilateral institutions, the US government has ‘effective veto power‘ over the WB & IMF, making them ‘efficient tools of US foreign & economic policy’, as Zambia’s Grieve Chelwa highlights (see ee Focus). And Bessent wants to ensure they keep promoting US interests ‘at the expense of the rest of the world’, with his boss Mr Trump cluck-cluck-clucking that we all pay even more for our own further entrapment.

     As for those who believe all of this gushes from the brains of Bessent & his darling US President Don Trump, we now are told that Mr Trump’s ‘change of mind’ on his tariffs – calling for a 90-day pause – was ‘prompted’ by the tweeting of Bill Ackman, CEO of hedgefund Pershing Square Capital Management. Ackman apparently moves markets with his statements… and rewrites politician’s policy statements. We learn that US policy is made by such bankers as Jamie Dimon (JP Morgan Chase), Ken Griffin (Citadel), and Ackman (see ee Quotes, Flattering Trump).

     These bankers are at least the more-public faces of those capitalists who decide economic shifts and shapes. They also own mega media conglomerates. Ackman owns Universal Music Group Inc, who for example wasted young people’s time by promoting a ‘feud’ between rappers Kendrick & Drake – both of whom are owned by Universal Music. The same goes for ‘feuding’ politicians & parties? Maybe the NPP should have met Bill, Jamie & Ken, instead of wasting time hankering after Don, JD or Kristalina at last week’s IMF & WB annual meeting in Washington? Instead, we’re told the NPP delegation met with a Mormon missionary & a fake blonde Texan queer (see ee Who’s Who).

     And speaking of ‘feuds’, see ee Random Notes for an excerpt of Sena Thoradeniya’s stalking of the itinerary of twisted sister Julie Chung, the US Envoy, as she sets about attempting to promote a highland Eelam aka Malayagam…

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• All such fragmenting fissiparousness is being turbo-charged by a backward multinational-corporation-run economy. Perhaps the media in Sri Lanka should be renamed The Import-Export Daily News, The Import-Export Sunday Times, The Import-Export Island, The I-E Morning, The I-E MTV… 99.99% of economic commentary in the media promotes the export game. And this is not new. The colonial economy was/is a classic import-export plantation economy, and see how it still runs, like the 3 Blind Mice of English rhyme. And even so-called ‘local’ companies should be prefixed with Import-Export: Import-Export Keells, Import-Export Hayleys, I-E Maharajah’s etc.

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‘Before the advent of the English, the economy of

the coastal districts & parts of the interior which

had passed under European rule, had already lost to a

great extent its old localized & self-sufficient character

& had become linked through extensive external trade

with European commercial capital.’

– ‘The Program for Ceylon’, 1946

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• The world is divided into at least three parts: the imperialist countries of Europe, the settler states of the genocidal colonies ‘of new settlement’ (USA, Canada, Australia, etc), and such expatriate-dominated non-settler colonies as Sri Lanka, according to ee‘s muse, SBD de Silva (see ee Focus). However, if you really wish to see the differences between countries, de Silva suggests, we should look at countries like South Africa & the Congo where there are/were both settlers & expatriates:

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‘In South Africa, the expatriate investors were confined

mainly to mining & foreign trade; but the shift to

agriculture & manufacturing which was to transform

the economy was brought about by the settlers.’

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Indeed, as de Silva eloquently asserted, ‘The metropolitan-based commercial bourgeoisie were wholly export oriented and concerned with already existing markets, whereas the settlers relied on the home market. The stimulus to industrialization came largely from the settlers.’ And now we are reminded again, why England’s Unilever & the USA’s Exxon & the Anglo-US CTC are still allowed to monopolize Sri Lanka’s home market. And how they enable the news to hide how they actually keep stealing from us – contrary to the prompted ravings of Mr Trump…

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• Ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Finance & Justice MUM Ali Sabry goes on & on in a prolix 5-part series in The Island newspaper, on the USA’s tariff hoopla. It is only at the very end that he struggles to say it is the US that is robbing Sri Lanka, not the other way around, but then only feebly:

‘Take Sri Lanka, while it may appear to run a surplus

in goods trade with the USA, that surplus is more than

offset by: Payments for US-based tech & streaming

services (Google, Netflix, Apple); Outbound tourism

& overseas education costs; Interest payments on

sovereign debt owed to institutions like the IMF &

World Bank, whose returns flow back to major

shareholders, including the USA… Sri Lanka is

taking part in a(n)… economic relationship that

is already tilted toward the US economy.’ – Ali Sabry,

see ee Economists, Trump tariffs, world trade, Parts I-V

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     Malaysian economist Jomo Kwame Sundaram (see ee Economists) is much more explicit than Sabry: Trump Wants the World to Subsidize US Empire. US President Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers chairman Stephen Miran’s A User’s Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System told the Hudson Institute, a thinktank funded by media czar Rupert Murdoch who controls Fox News, Wall Street Journal etc:

‘US military spending provides the world a ‘security umbrella’ that others should

also pay for. Second, the US issues the dollar & Treasury bonds, the main reserve

assets for the liquidity of the international monetary & financial system. Miran

seems blissfully unaware of longstanding complaints of the USA’s ‘exorbitant

privilege’. The dollar’s reserve currency status has provided seigniorage income to

the US while Treasury bond sales have long financed US debt at very low cost.’

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Indeed, Trump’s Rumpelstiltskin fussing & stamping about is not new. The English Chancellor of the Exchequer (later PM) Benjamin Disraeli in 1852 declared: These wretched colonies… are a millstone round our necks.” But he was referring to the North American settler colonies, who the English claimed should pay for wars, just as Trump now wants Europe & its settler colonies plus their non-settler colonies to do. But few explain as SBD de Silva has done that imperialist exploitation of our economies is much more pernicious than just taxes & terror:

‘The conglomerates can defend their interests abroad (without colonialism

based on conquest of territory), for the reason that they can control activities

by their monopoly of technology & markets. First, a good portion of their

income is in the form of technological rents, royalties, licensing rights,

technical assistance fees, etc. The technology is rarely transferred, and its

diffusion outside the orbit of such corporations is rigidly controlled. When

deprived of this technology & marketing know-how, the natural resources &

cheapened labour of the host countries become idle assets at least in the short run.’

– SBD de Silva, The Political Economy of Underdevelopment, 1982

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• With all this talk about corruption, we wonder why US-occupied Korea ‘granted’ US$8.5 million to ‘automate Colombo municipality revenue systems‘ while the country is just about to hold local elections? Meanwhile, Japan too has funded a 137million-yen ‘Project for Promoting Economic Governance through Anti-Corruption Policy Support’. Will the Japanese yen (JP¥) now investigate the Korean won (₩)? Keep smoking! ee continues therefore examining the US model of ‘the general prostitution of civic ideals’, through Gustave Myers’ 1917 History of Tammany Hall. This ee Focus records how by 1820, ‘manhood suffrage‘ had dominated Tammany’s political posturing. Another demand was the abolition of the law for imprisonment of debtors. Tammany claimed to represent ‘the farmer, the independent blacksmith, the shoemaker with an apprentice or 2’, who all had the vote if propertied, yet it remained an envious ‘middle-class’ institution. They coerced and bribed lawmakers into passing bank charters and franchises, even while publicly promoting the abolition of speculation and banks. See also how the bankers who had promoted the genocidal General Andrew Jackson (one of Mr Trump’s idols) for President, the banks then arrayed the ‘combined power of the propertied classes’ against the ‘laborers, mechanics, farmers & producing classes’ to bring him down.

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• May is a month of memories. There was May Day, which contrary to the perennial media bad-mouthing, is still heartily celebrated (even if only permitted in some hearts) around the world (as Labor Day, it’s a 5-day official holiday in China). May is indeed a month of action & memories. May 4^th recalls the youth movement in China in 1919 against the imperialist decision to cede former German concessions in Shandong province to Japan, which led to the formation of the Communist Party of China (CPC). May 5^th is the 50^th anniversary of the victory of Vietnam over the US-led imperialists (France, Japan, Canada, etc., were also actively complicit). May 9^th recalls the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany (who was backed at first by England, USA, France, etc.) in World War II. And since the USA always relies on its standard shystering ‘art of the deal’, threatening war, here & there & everywhere & all at once, we need to also recall the Communist Manifesto:

‘Bourgeois & Proletarians! –

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class

struggles. Freeman & slave, patrician & plebeian, lord & serf,

guild-master & journeyman, in a word, oppressor & oppressed,

stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an

uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time

ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large,

or in the common ruin of the contending classes.

– Karl Marx & Fredrick Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, 1848

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Contents:

How an Import Media in Sri Lanka Aggrandizes the Colonial Export Trap

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Sri Lanka will see Vietnam venturing into its business landscape, as the latter’s largest private conglomerate Vingroup has been invited to explore investment opportunities in the island’s tourism and real estate sectors.

The invitation was extended by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake during a high-level business engagement held at Vingroup’s headquarters in Hanoi, on May 4, as part of his official state visit to Vietnam. While congratulating the group on its growth and diversified global presence, Dissanayake shared that Sri Lanka is pleased to facilitate the creation of a smooth and enabling environment for its investments. 

He met with Vingroup Vice Chairman and CEO Nguyen Viet Quang and senior leadership, where he highlighted the country’s strategic geographic position and infrastructure advancements.

He also reaffirmed the government’s commitment to nurturing a favourable climate for foreign direct investment, especially in high-growth sectors such as tourism and real estate. Founded in 1993 in Ukraine, Vingroup Joint Stock Company has evolved into one of Vietnam’s most respected multisector enterprises. It operates across three core pillars: industrials and technology, real estate and services and social enterprises. The meeting also saw the participation of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism Minister Vijitha Herath.

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Sri Lanka-Vietnam ink 5 key agreements in Hanoi

Sri Lanka and Vietnam signed four memoranda of understanding (MoUs) and one agreement, in the presence of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Socialist Republic of Vietnam President Luong Cuong. 

The signing took place following the bilateral discussions held at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi yesterday morning, according to the President’s Media Division.

Among the agreements signed was a bilateral pact aimed at enhancing cooperation and mutual support in customs affairs between the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

The MoUs signed include an MoU between the Industry and Trade Ministry of Vietnam and Industry and Entrepreneurship Development Ministry of Sri Lanka on cooperation in machinery and equipment manufacturing, an MoU between the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Agriculture Department of Sri Lanka on cooperation in agriculture, an MoU between the Bandaranaike International Diplomatic Training Institute of Sri Lanka and Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam and an MoU between the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency and Sri Lanka Export Development Board on trade promotion cooperation. 

 By Shiran Illanperuma courtesy People’s world

An armed Sri Lankan soldier stands guard as a U.S. cargo plane carrying support troops and heavy vehicles lands at the Bandaranayake International Airport north of Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 2005. At the time, the U.S. was deploying Marines to assist in a tsunami aid effort. Now, the U.S. is once again active in the region, but it’s not for disaster relief this time. | Gemunu Amarasinghe / AP

In 1964, during the second summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Cairo, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) Sirimavo Bandaranaike proposed that the Indian Ocean be turned into a zone of peace” that was free of military bases and nuclear weapons. In the context of heightened militarization during the Cold War, this proposal was supported by Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Sixty-one years later, the two countries have entered into a memorandum of understanding on defense cooperation. This is against the backdrop of a new wave of militarization in the Indian Ocean, including India’s own participation in the Quad (a group that also includes the U.S., Australia, and Japan), which is a component of the U.S.’ Indo-Pacific Strategy to contain China in a new Cold War.

On April 5, a defense MOU was exchanged between Sri Lankan Defense Secretary H.S. Sampath Thuyacontha and Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri during an official visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Sri Lanka. Thuyacontha said that the agreement, which was not discussed in the Sri Lankan Parliament, will be valid for five years.

During a joint press statement with Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Modi said that he welcomed the important agreements made in the area of defense cooperation,” without elaborating further on their contents. Meanwhile, Misri asserted that the security interests of India and Sri Lanka are interlinked.”

News of the intent to sign a defense agreement first broke in Indian media on March 28, with the Press Trust of India framing it as a move that comes amid China’s relentless attempts to increase its military influence over Colombo.” While official statements from both parties do not echo this anti-China framing, it nonetheless raises concerns over the prospect of the two nations being drawn further into a new Cold War.

India and the Quad

India is a founding member of the Quad, a group first established in 2007, suspended in 2008 following the withdrawal of Australia, and re-established in 2017. The group exhibits strong security dimensions, as the member countries have engaged in joint military exercises, such as the Malabar Naval Exercise, which India hosted in 2024.

India is set to host the Quad summit this year, the first to be held since Donald Trump was elected president for a second term. In July 2024, Republican Senator Marco Rubio—currently Trump’s secretary of state—tabled a bill in Congress to grant India status on par with NATO members with regard to arms exports. While the bill has not made much headway in Congress, its basic agenda appears to be moving forward in other forms.

In February 2025, following a meeting between Modi and Trump in Washington, the two leaders announced an initiative called the U.S.-India COMPACT (Catalyzing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce and Technology) for the 21st Century.” This includes a 10-year defense framework to facilitate the transfer of technology, expand the co-production of arms, strengthen military interoperability, and support and sustain the overseas deployments of the U.S. and Indian militaries in the Indo-Pacific.”

India’s drift into the U.S. military-industrial complex and the new Cold War on China risks exacerbating tensions in Asia. However, India has at times also displayed what it terms strategic autonomy” by taking an independent stance on issues such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict. In 2024, Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar also rejected calls by Japan for establishing an Asian NATO,” arguing that India has a different history and a different way of approaching” foreign affairs.

Sri Lanka and the Indo-Pacific Strategy

Since the end of its civil war in 2009, Sri Lanka has increasingly been drawn into the U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy. According to the U.S. State Department’s 2022 Integrated Country Strategy for the country, the top mission objective is to increase Sri Lanka’s interoperability with the United States and like-minded strategic partners.”

This has manifested in greater military cooperation between the two countries, as well as arms sales from the U.S. to Sri Lanka. According to data from Stockholm-based research institute SIPRI, some 36% of arms transfers to Sri Lanka between 2009 and 2024 were from the United States. These transfers included mainly helicopters and patrol ships.

In 2024, Sri Lanka played a role in the U.S.-led Operation Prosperity Vanguard against the Ansar Allah government in Yemen. The latter has been attacking Israeli-affiliated ships in the Red Sea in retaliation for the genocide in Gaza. The Sri Lankan navy ship SLNS Gajabahu, which was deployed for the operation, was originally a U.S. Coast Guard vessel commissioned in 1966 and donated to Sri Lanka in 2018.

More recently, a visit by U.S. Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel J. Paparo in March indicates the continued importance of Sri Lanka to the U.S. strategy in the region. During his visit to the country, Paparo met with President Dissanayake and Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath. In a speech delivered at the National Defense College in Colombo, Paparo said that increased military cooperation among authoritarian nations” was creating challenges that necessitated strengthening democratic partnerships.”

Less than 2,000 kilometers south of Sri Lanka, the U.S. has parked at least six B-2 stealth bombers at its base in Diego Garcia, in the occupied Chagos Islands. These bombers are used to attack targets in Yemen and also present an existential threat for Iran. For the U.S., control over the Indian Ocean is key for power projection onto both East and West Asia.

Zone of peace

The Indian Ocean peace proposal was pushed onto the agenda of the 26th session of the U.N. General Assembly in 1971 by Sri Lanka, with the support of the United Republic of Tanzania (then led by Julius Nyerere). This led to the adoption of U.N. Resolution 2832—the Declaration of the Indian Ocean as a Zone of Peace.” The declaration sought to ensure:

1. Warships and military aircraft would not use the Indian Ocean for any threat or use of force against any littoral or hinterland state.
2. The right to free and unimpeded use of the zone by the vessels of all nations would be ensured.
3. International agreement would be reached for the maintenance of the Indian Ocean as a zone of peace.

As the second Trump administration continues to intensify a new Cold War against China, peace in the Indian Ocean is once again at stake. India’s engagement with the Quad and Sri Lanka’s entrapment in the Indo-Pacific Strategy threaten to fan the flames of war in the region. However, history has shown that with social mobilization and principled leadership on either side, Sri Lanka and India could instead fight for peaceful development and cooperation in the Global South.

Courtesy The Daily Ausaf

LONDON: The government authorities of the United Kingdom have planned to restrict visa applications of students who might claim asylum in Britain, according to reports.

The asylum claimant students are mostly from Pakistan, Srilanka and Nigeria, according to reports

The action follows last week’s local elections in England, when voters enraged over issues including illegal immigration punished Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.

Next week, the government is anticipated to release a white paper, a policy document that outlines its goals to lower net migration, which touched 728,000 in the year ending in June of last year.

According to a statement from the Home Office, our next Immigration White Paper will lay out a comprehensive plan to restore order to our broken immigration system.”

The Brexit referendum in 2016 was largely influenced by the high levels of legal migration that have long dominated British politics.

According to official figures, 16,000 of the 108,000 asylum seekers in Britain last year held student visas. The nationalities of people with student visas who later filed asylum claims are not broken down by the government.

However, the government said that after entering the country on a work, student, or visiting visa, individuals from Pakistan, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka were the most likely to apply for asylum in Britain.

Following the party’s dismal local election performance last week, a few Labour lawmakers encouraged the government to do more to adopt a more forceful stance on matters like reducing net migration.

SEPAL – short clip

Shenali D Waduge

The persistence of ragging in Sri Lankan universities is a multifaceted issue that intertwines socio-economic backgrounds & political affiliations resulting in an institutional culture. Understanding this complex cycle is crucial to formulating a plan to eradicate ragging from the university system.

Student unions

These ideologically tilted unions have played a pivotal role in shaping university student behavior & has impacted politics as well.

The Socialist Students Union was formed in 1965 by Rohana Wijeweera. The SSU became the student wing of the JVP who refer to themselves as Marxist-Leninist. They promoted an ideology of anti-imperial revolutionary socialism. These students became a significant force both within university & thereafter in society.

In 1969 the Inter-University Students Federation (IUSF) was established to consolidate student activism. IUSF today has 2 splinter groups one associated with the JVP & the other Frontline Socialist Party (FSP).

It is important to analyze how, why & who is responsible for turning university student politics to shift from a value-oriented movement (focusing on student welfare, opposing privatization, national issues) to be transformed into a more violent & volatile movement. How much of their time has gone into demanding fulfilling student welfare as against their time spent alongside political affiliations?

Institutionalized inhuman ragging has become a tool of ideological & power control, breaking new students into bowing to the dictates of the Student Unions that unleash ragging.

Ragging is nothing but a body & mind control program, indoctrination through fear, submission to the political ideology of those that carry out the ragging.

Ragging is psychological & physical torture to break the spirit of new entrants & force them into submission. This is the so-called tradition they boast about. It is a ritual of dominance, control & exertion of their political will & power.

Ragging is a tool of control, a method of social stratification within the university system where seniors dominate juniors & juniors fear the seniors. Ragging is a form of transferred trauma – it is an inherent side of inequality.

Ragging is used to intimidate students to join their union activities (against their will) Anyone who resists faces social isolation or worse. These students are targeted until they conform”.

Freshers ragging is all about coercion into silence, subordination & submission, weakening their individuality & capacity to resist union politics

Imagine how 4 plus years of such drilling can do to people’s natural individuality? They eventually come out a demon suffering psychologically & physically

An outlet of their suffering ends in more violence as that is what they have seen & gone through. Their university life has been a culture of fear”.

The human cost of ragging is unbearable for any parent & mother who has carried her child for 9 months with great dreams for their future. These lives were lost to systematic abuse enabled by a toxic mix of student unions linked to political parties, as a result of silence from authorities & normalizing violence within the university system.

Universities have become a breeding ground for organized student thugs.

Who are these raggers?

Majority of Sri Lanka’s university entrants come from marginalized socioeconomic & educational backgrounds. They are from rural & economically disadvantaged homes. Their parents toil to send them an allowance to live. Their limitations are a breeding ground for feelings of inferiority & asserting dominance over others is the only way they feel they can become superior.

They come from schools that have provided fewer resources, though they have sufficient z score to enter university, they realize their shortcomings. This gap contributes to a frustration & anger with society at large. This manifests in aggression & aggressive behavior upon juniors to assert their authority & control. Belittling others is the only way they find an outlet to showcase their superiority when inherently they are aware of their shortcomings.

Many of the raggers come from broken or dysfunctional homes. They have suffered neglect or abuse & these adverse experiences they want to replicate feeling others should also suffer what they have gone through.

Ironically, both the ragger & the ragged suffer anxiety, depression some form of mental issue & these have long-lasting effects when they come out of university, enter the working world or lead personal lives.

Power & control & dominance are the behavioral patterns of raggers to make themselves feel superior after subjugating others into meekly accepting the will of their seniors within university & politically too.

Sadly, the cycle of abuse continues.

Thus, the perpetrators of ragging are themselves victims as they would have themselves undergone the same ragging when they entered. After being humiliated & broken, they internalize the abuse and justify repeating it on new entrants. It is a reclaiming of power that they lost when they entered – doing to others what was done to them. Their past helplessness & subjugation becomes their present control & domination.

These are all inferiority complexes combined with assertion of power/ authority/ control.

Those from marginalized communities who enter university gain confidence by forcing their will on others. Their insecurities are temporarily compensated by inflicting fear. A survivalist mindset prevails – the strong survive & weak perish.

After breaking the will & backbone of students they are inducted & molded into the ideology as obedient followers. The hierarchical nature of the JVP continues this obedient” trend one in which they cannot & do not out of fear think for themselves. They become obedient sheep following the leaders.

The Govt nor the University system cannot ignore the moral & legal failure

What is the use of the Prohibition of Ragging & Other Forms of violence in Educational Institutions Act No. 20 of 1998 if the Act is not enforced upon the culprits? Can we expect non-enforcement due to political influence as an excuse?

University administrations turn a blind eye fearing backlash or are they on the side of the raggers having gone through the drill themselves & determine new entrants should suffer same fate?

No parent raises a child to be humiliated, terrorized or placed on slow motion death.

The state has betrayed the trust & that is a national disgrace.

Most of those who are subject to ragging experience insecurity, are irritable & prone to anger outbursts outside of the university community. They all have upsetting memories most of which they keep suppressed. They are reclusive as their self-confidence has been dashed. They also suffer academically, unable to concentrate on studies to which the expectations from their parents & family add to their mental status.

The recent suicide of a young & promising student from the Sabaragamuwa University has raised the topic

What needs to be done?

Educational Reform – implement programs addressing root causes of ragging.

Psychological Support – Provide counseling to both victims & raggers from experts who are capable of providing a holistic & indigenous solution rather than the cut & paste unsuited alien options of the West.

Policy Enforcement – implement anti-ragging laws, punish the culprits, hold those ragging accountable & make them realize the consequences.

Criminalize organized ragging – this is no tradition

Expose & depoliticize student unions – all universities must be liberated of politicized radical groups

Ban raggers from future public employment or university positions – make raggers aware of repercussions to themselves

Support whistleblowers – create more open platforms to report abuse anonymously

Launch awareness programs that ragging is not a culture but a crime.

With the latest death by suicide due to ragging, this epidemic has to be addressed before more students end up in coffins instead of graduation robes.

We need to understand that traumatized individuals whether they are victims or perpetrators end up in society – amongst the workforce, in politics & society. They are carrying forward with them a vengeance, violent behavior, evil mentality & so forth. Their behaviors will be continued on society, leading to the collapse of society’s values & well-being. Therefore, we cannot ignore these incidents as isolated cases.

What can the Govt do?

For starters, the Govt needs to strengthen the law & policy. Laws in place must be enforced. Weak laws must be strengthened. Prosecute offenders with zero political interference.

Set up a National Anti-Ragging Authority under the Ministry of Education/UGC with investigative, disciplinary & monitoring powers aligned to the Police. Mandate regular updating & reporting into a national register with police action.

Have a National Helpline (anonymous hotline) to report ragging guarantee protection. The Govt cannot outsource these to foreign funded NGOs.

What can the Universities do?

Ban student unions or political fronts who have been complicit in ragging.

Included psychological screening as admission criteria & open file for each new entrant.

Create on-campus anti-ragging task forces comprising students, academia & legal representation

Deploy CCTV surveillance in all hostels & public areas

Conduct compulsory ethics training & non-violent leadership

Rehabilitate first time raggers by counselling – if they do not change, expel them as a policy (make it clear)

What can Sri Lanka’s Corporate sector do?

Black-list known raggers

Build a ragging offender database where all corporates can access information before recruiting (Chamber of Commerce & similar associations)

Create zero-ragging policies as a hiring pledge.

Hold a national pledge signing ceremony to get all companies on board.

Corporate HR must include background vetting on conduct of candidate’s university record.

Fund anti-ragging programs into corporate CSR programs & support trauma survivors through scholarships & internships.

What can social media & civil society do?

The suicide of Charith from the Sabaragamuwa University, gained public uproar & even pressured the President into claiming ragging was not a tradition inspite of his party’s student wing heavily involved in ragging inside universities, due to the power of social media.

The disdain for the raggers, the sympathy for the victim & the demand for justice is forcing all stakeholders into action from their lethargy. The pressure from social media must continue until the much-needed solutions are put in place to ensure another promising student doesn’t end up in a coffin.

The raggers may think they are the kings/queens inside universities because the campus is off limits to others, but social media is now telling them that their days of bullying is over & when they come out they cannot expect to bully their way through life as they have done in campus. With the registered names of documented offenders, they will soon realize they are only getting themselves isolated & should think twice about the offences they commit. Make raggers realize their bullying is likely to cost them a job & being isolated from society.

Raggers must be given a powerful message – ragging is not showing their power, ragging is only displaying their cowardice. If they think they can dominate freshers, break their spirits, shame them, humiliate them under banner of tradition”, this is nothing but cowardice continuing the cycle of vengeance.

Raggers must be made to realize that every student they rag, every humiliation they inflict, every scar they leave, these wounds will one day echo back – in shame.

Raggers must be shown that the inhuman treatment they inflict in campus is not forgotten when they graduate it becomes a blueprint of what they are in work, in family, in society. No workplace, no family, no society should have a place for sadists & torturers.

Raggers must be given a choice – break the cycle, be remembered not as a tormenter but as one who said enough”.

This should be the goal – to break the cycle of ragging.

Shenali D Waduge

By Dimitris Konstantakopoulos

It’s unprecedented. In two European countries—both EU and NATO members—electricity was suddenly cut off. Two more countries, France and Morocco, were also affected by the blackout. Life came to a standstill in the two countries most heavily impacted: passengers were trapped in trains, airports plunged into chaos, and in Spain alone, the estimated damages could reach 800 million euros.

This is no small matter, nor has anything like it ever happened before—a total blackout in two countries and partial outages in two others. To this day, no one has offered a satisfactory explanation of what happened—or even a plausible hypothesis as to how such an accident” could occur, if it was indeed an accident. Of course, as always, some are quick to use the incident to promote their own narratives. The left blames privatization—and indeed, new private owners are more interested in boosting profits than in raising costs by investing in network security. Nuclear energy advocates seized the moment to argue that the reduced share of nuclear power in the national energy mix is to blame. The far-right points fingers at renewable energy—that’s their go-to grievance. But none of them are offering strong arguments.

After all, we live in an age of irrationality, fanaticism, and Manichaeism—where loud voices abound, but evidence and reasoning are in short supply.

But if it wasn’t a mysterious accident, then it was a cyberattack, carried out with a shock and awe” strategy. If such a scenario is accurate, then welcome to the brave new world of cyberwarfare.

The Spanish leadership has, of course, categorically denied this possibility—so categorically that it seems unwilling to even begin the search for a culprit, possibly fearing the complications that might arise. After all, how can one categorically deny such a possibility when the exact cause of the incident remains unknown? Still, the government failed to convince even the country’s Supreme Court, which ordered an investigation into the possibility of a cyberattack, leaving nothing off the table. This is also the approach taken by Spain’s intelligence agencies, including the National Cryptology Center and the National Intelligence Center.

The possibility of a cyberattack was taken seriously enough to make headlines in major international media outlets. No evidence of cyberattack,” was the title chosen by The Guardian. But that could just as well be read in reverse: No evidence that it wasn’t a cyberattack.” If the possibility was not serious, it wouldn’t have been discussed—let alone featured on front pages.

The most likely scenario is that we’ll never know with certainty what really happened. And if we never find out, that may be precisely because what happened is too important to be disclosed.

Two suspects

If it was a cyberattack, then who might have been responsible? Politico, a thoroughly mainstream and well-informed media outlet with major influence in the West, identifies two possible culprits: Israel and Russia. As it wrote: Spain’s opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza and its support for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion have made it a major target for cyberattacks.” https://www.politico.eu/article/spain-portugal-power-blackouts-energy-electricity/

The reference to Israel is bold and unusual by current Western standards, where even the slightest criticism of this country often leads to swift accusations of antisemitism and public condemnation. On the other hand, while it can’t be ruled out entirely, the scenario of a Russian cyberattack seems unlikely. It is true that Spain has followed NATO’s general anti-Russian stance, but its role in the Ukraine conflict has been secondary. It is not among the countries most aggressively pushing now for the continuation of the NATO war. It is governed by a coalition of Socialists and the radical left—the latter having many reservations about Ursula von der Leyen’s program of mass European rearmament. If Moscow wanted and was able to strike, one might wonder what it would gain by targeting Spain — why not attack the UK, France, Germany, the Baltics or Ukraine itself?

Moreover, if there were even the slightest solid indication that Russia was behind the blackout, wouldn’t Europe have erupted in condemnation of Moscow?

Some colleagues in Spain we spoke suggest that probably Politico’s reference to Russia was included so that the mention of Israel wouldn’t stand alone. And they add: if a media outlet like Politico made such a suggestion about Israel, it likely had a very serious reason to do so. After all, media of Politico’s stature often maintain some level of connection with major Western intelligence services. Clearly, if a major European country like Spain truly suffered such a cyberattack, it would not go unnoticed by its intelligence agencies—nor likely by those of other EU states or the US. The article, therefore, might also be read as a kind of warning, our colleagues underline.

Possible Motives and Preconditions

The probable reason that could lead Israel to take such an action is Spain’s highly active stance in favor of Palestine, which has greatly strained its relations with Tel – Aviv. Madrid recognized the Palestinian state a year ago, along with three other European countries. A few days ago, under pressure from the radical left faction within its ranks, the Sánchez government was forced to cancel a major ammunition purchase contract from Israel, citing the latter’s genocidal actions.

At the same time, Spanish authorities have reopened the case and are conducting investigations, in collaboration with France, regarding the alleged surveillance of Prime Minister Sánchez and other Spanish politicians using the Israeli Pegasus spyware. It is worth noting that this same system was reportedly used to spy on French President Macron, a fact that says much about the correlation of power between France and Israel https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/spain-reopens-israeli-spyware-probe-sharing-information-with-france-2024-04-23/! Pegasus was also used, alongside the Kandiru software, to monitor dozens of Catalan politicians in the Katalangate scandal. The human rights group Irídia and Amnesty International concluded that those responsible for this case were the heads of the Israeli company NSO, who later attempted to cover their tracks by appearing as heads of various companies in Luxembourg.

Already since last year, top Israeli hackers have settled in Barcelona, from where they coordinate their operations across the European Union https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/security-aviation/2024-12-26/ty-article/.premium/israeli-hackers-flock-to-barcelona-as-spyware-industry-shifts/00000193-fec4-df5b-a9b3-fec5d9dc0000.

The fact that Israel is now under the control of an extreme, fanatical leadership that seeks to immediately expel or eliminate the Palestinian population—and has every reason not to care about the formalities of Western democracies”—is certainly a factor that would facilitate undertaking such international actions, which under normal circumstances would be considered extreme adventurism, especially against two EU and NATO member states. Israel also appears to have become one of the most powerful global forces in surveillance and all forms of information warfare.” Together with the Americans, it has likely organized cyberattacks against Iran’s nuclear reactors, the pager attack in Lebanon, while officers from the Israeli armed forces have been placed in key positions at all major internet giants such as Google.

(As revealed by the Greek editor Mr. Vaxevanis https://www.ieidiseis.gr/politiki/351413/vaxevanis-toylachiston-15-anthropoi-ekanan-tis-synakroaseis-gia-na-min-akoyei-oli-mera-o-k-mitsotakis/ —without being denied by anyone—Israeli officers also organized the infamous surveillance scandal in Greece. We can’t rule out that the revelations about this scandal came from US agencies, who thought the Israelis had gone too far.)

Everything we wrote so far remain of course speculative and analytical reasoning at best—indications rather than conclusions. But we have written them because we consider important that the public and those still interested  for the security of European nations are informed about what is being discussed in the more serious circles of the West itself.

The Role of Jorge

This is a good opportunity to recall that the infamous Tal Hanan, or Jorge,” an Israeli entrepreneur” and former (?) special forces officer in the Israeli army, who was linked to Cambridge Analytica—a company accused of manipulating millions of Facebook users to vote for Trump — has claimed responsibility for cyberattacks during the lead-up to the (non-binding) 2014 Catalonia independence referendum. These attacks targeted the local government and various websites that encouraged people to vote in the referendum. Cyberattacks were also carried out against the emergency medical services website, the Catalan police, and the internal website of the Catalan judicial system.

It’s worth noting that the role of Jorge and his team in cyber warfare and public opinion manipulation—using millions of personal data points and other methods—was exposed in an investigation by some of the world’s biggest newspapers. His team engaged in disinformation, hacking, and espionage methods and allegedly influenced 33 elections worldwide www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/15/revealed-disinformation-team-jorge-claim-meddling-elections-tal-hanan

The commotion about Jorge and his team, however, was short-lived. Someone” ensured the issue would quickly fade from public debate. As for journalists, nowadays the vast majority are paid not to uncover or investigate— but rather to remain silent, to cover not to uncover. And if something does get revealed, it’s usually when powerful forces within our increasingly totalitarian West clash between themselves.

At the Heart of the Rising Global Authoritarianism

Regardless of what did or did not happen in Spain with the blackout, what is certain is that Israel’s intelligence services and armed forces—along with US agencies—have privileged access to the oligopolies controlling more and more our Internet world and representing the avantguarde of the emerging Western authoritarianism. And perhaps, the Israelis have an even stronger sense of purpose” or mission” than the Americans themselves and can often leverage the latter for their own goals.

The Israeli military’s privileged relationship with Google is believed to give them access to data from hundreds of millions of users. Google collaborates closely—and will collaborate even more closely—with the Israeli military, which will thus gain even greater access to user data. The same applies to Meta and Facebook.Wiz Acquisition Puts Israeli Intelligence In Charge of Your Google Data Veterans” of Israel’s Unit 8200 have taken key leadership positions at the biggest tech companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon https://www.defenddemocracy.press/the-former-israeli-spies-working-in-top-jobs-at-google-facebook-and-microsoft/

Unit 8200 specializes in surveillance and the collection of incriminating data, and its officers designed and installed Pegasus spyware, which has been used to monitor tens of thousands of politicians worldwide and was probably used in the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

These four tech giants, along with Peter Thiel’s Palantir—Thiel being a dark cardinal” of Trump and of the masterminds of his authoritarian plans—collaborate closely and contribute significantly to the crimes taking place in Palestine.
https://www.defenddemocracy.press/tag/thiel-peter/

Translated from Greek by Christian Haccuria

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

සමාජයේ විවිධ අංශ නවකවදය නතර කරන ආකාරය ගැන වසර ගණනාවක සිට කතා කළද එය නතර වී නැත. නවකවදය හේතුවෙන් වන මරණද නතර වී නැත. නවකවදය නිදහස් අධ්‍යාපනය පවත්වාගෙන යාමේදී අහිතකර බලපෑම් ඇතිකරන බවටද සමාජයේ විවිධ අංශ අතර කතිකාවක් පවතී.

නවකවදය දෙන සිසුන්ට ද‍ඬුවම් කිරීමෙන් හෝ සරසවියෙන් නෙරපීමෙන් හෝ නීති පැනවීමෙන් පමණක් නවකවදය සරසවියෙන් ඉවත් කළ නොහැකිය.

ආණ්ඩුවට හෝ සරසවි පරිපාලනයට හෝ පොලීසියට පමණක් නවකවදය නතර කිරීමේ පියවර ගැනීමද ප්‍රායෝගික නොවේ.
නවකවදය නතර කරවීම සරසවි සිසුන්ට, සරසවි සිසුන්ගේ දෙමාපියන්ට, සරසවි ආචාර්ය මහාචාර්යවරුන්ට, උපකුලපතිවරුන්ට, රජයට  සහ පුරවැසියන්‍ට අයත් වගකීමක් සහ යුතුකමක් වෙයි.

තම තමන්ගේ සරසවිවල සිසු දරුවන්ගේ ජීවිත නවකවදයෙන් ආරක්ෂා කරදීම සරසවි උපකුලපතිවරුන්ගේ, පීඨාධිපතිවරුන්ගේ, නේවාසිකාගාර පාලකයන්ගේ සහ සරසවි ආරක්ෂක අංශයේ ව්‍යවස්ථාපිත යුතුකමකි. ජනතාවගේ බදු මුදලින් වැටුප් ගන්නා ඔවුන්ට දණ්ඩ නීති සංග්‍රහයේ 289 වගන්තිය අදාල වෙයි.

දණ්ඩ නීති සංග්‍රහයේ 289 වගන්තිය මෙසේ දක්වා ඇත.

“මෙතෙක් හෝ මීට පසු පනවනු ලබන යම් ආඥාපනතකින් හෝ නීතියකින් තමා වෙත පැවරුණු යම් යුතුකමක් ඕනෑවට නොසලකා හරින හෝ නොකර හරින නැතහොත් එබඳු ආඥාපනතක හෝ නීතියක විධිවිධාන ඕනෑවටම නොපිළිපදින හෝ කඩකරන තැනැත්තෙකුට, එබඳු නොසලකා හැරීමකට නොකර හැරීමකට, නොපිළිපැදීමකට හෝ කඩකිරීමකට මේ සංග්‍රහයෙන් හෝ වෙනත් ආඥාපනතකින් හෝ නීතියකින් දඬුවමක් විශේෂයෙන් සඳහන් කොට නොමැති විටකදී දඩයකින් දඬුවම් කළ යුතුය.”

1994 අංක 22 දරන වධ දීමට සහ අනිකුත් කෲර අමානුෂික හෝ නින්දිත සැළකීමට හෝ දඩුවම්වලට එරෙහි වූ සම්මුතිය පනත, 1998 අංක 20 දරන අධ්‍යාපන ආයතනවල නවක වදය සහ වෙතත් ස්වරූපයේ සාහසික ක්‍රියා තහනම් කිරීමේ පනත ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ පවතින නීතිය. නීති ආරක්ෂා කිරීම සහ අනුගතවීම පුරවැසියන්ගේ යුතුකමකි.

සරසවිවල හෝ සරසවි ශිෂ්‍යයන්ට නවකවදය සිදුකරන බවට සාක්ෂි තිබෙන අවස්ථාවක අදාල සරසවියේ උපකුලපති, අදාල පීඨාධිපති, අදාල නේවාසිකාගාර පාලක සහ සරසවි ආරක්ෂක අංශයේ අදාල නිලධාරීන්ට එරෙහිව 1994 අංක 22 දරන වධ දීමට සහ අනිකුත් කෲර අමානුෂික හෝ නින්දිත සැළකීමට හෝ දඩුවම්වලට එරෙහි වූ සම්මුතිය පනත, 1998 අංක 20 දරන අධ්‍යාපන ආයතනවල නවක වදය සහ වෙතත් ස්වරූපයේ සාහසික ක්‍රියා තහනම් කිරීමේ පනත ඇතුලු වෙනත් නීති සමඟ කියවිය යුතු දණ්ඩ නීති සංග්‍රහයේ 289 වගන්තිය යටතේ අපරාධ නඩු පැවරිය හැකිය. 

අපරාධ නඩු පැවරීමේ කාර්ය පටිපාටිය 1979 අංක 15 අපරාධ නඩු විධාන සංග්‍රහ පනතේ 136 වගන්තියේ දැක්වෙයි. ඒ යටතේ පොලීසිය විසින් අපරාධ නඩු පවරන්නේ නම් 1979 අංක 15 අපරාධ නඩු විධාන සංග්‍රහ පනතේ 136.1.ආ. වගන්තිය යටතේද නීතීඥවරයෙකු මගින් අපරාධ නඩු පවරන්නේ නම් 1979 අංක 15 අපරාධ නඩු විධාන සංග්‍රහ පනතේ 136.1.අ. වගන්තිය යටතේද සිදුකළ හැකිය. 

යම් අපරාධයක් සිදුවූ විට නීතිය අතට ගැනීම නොව නිසි ක්‍රියාපටිපාටිය අනුගමනය කරමින් අපරාධයට දඬුවම් ලබා දීම සහ අපරාධ වළක්වා ගැනිම කළ යුතුය.

ආසන්නතම සිදුවීමක් වන සබරගමුව සරසවියේ සියදිවි නසාගත් ශිෂ්‍යයාගේ මරණයට නවකවදය හේතුවී ඇති බවට ලිඛිත, වාචික හෝ පරිගණක සාක්ෂි තිබේනම් සබරගමුව සරසවියේ අදාල බලධාරීන්ට එරෙහිව ව්‍යවස්ථාපිත යුතුකම ඉටුනොකිරීමේ වරද දක්වා ඇති දණ්ඩ නීති සංග්‍රහයේ 289 වගන්තිය සහ 1979 අංක 15 අපරාධ නඩු විධාන සංග්‍රහ පනතේ 136.1.ආ. වගන්තිය යටතේ මහේස්ත්‍රාත් අධිකරණයේ අපරාධ නඩු පැවරිය හැකි අතර පොලීසිය විසින් නඩු නොපවරන්නේ නම් දණ්ඩ නීති සංග්‍රහයේ 289 වගන්තිය සහ 1979 අංක 15 අපරාධ නඩු විධාන සංග්‍රහ පනතේ 136.1.අ. වගන්තිය යටතේ නීතීඥවරයෙකු මගින් යම් පුරවැසියෙකුට මහේස්ත්‍රාත් අධිකරණයේ අපරාධ නඩු පැවරිය හැකිය.

අධිකරණයේ පවරන නඩුවකදී සරසවි පරිපාලනයට එයට මුහුණදී ඔවුන්ගේ ක්‍රියාවන් නීතියට අනුකූලව කර ගැනීමට සිඳුවෙයි.

නවකවදය නතර කිරීමට ගත හැකි අනෙක් විසඳුම වන්නේ මූලික නීතිය විෂය නමින් පොදු විෂයක් හඳුන්වා දී උසස් පෙළට පෙනි සිටින සිසුන් එම විභාගයෙන් 40% කට වඩා ලබා ගැනීම සරසවි ප්‍රවේශයට අනිවාර්යය කිරීමය. එවිට නීතියට අනුකූල වීමේ වැදගත්කම, ඉන් ලැබෙන ආරක්ෂාව, තමන්ගේ නෛතික අයිතිවාසිකම්, යුතුකම්, වගකීම් දන්නා නෛතික බලවන්ත  ප්‍රජාවක් බිහිකර ගත හැකිය. එමගින් නීතිය නොදැනීම සමාවට කරුණක් නොවේ Ignorantia juris non excusat) යන්න ප්‍රායෝගික තත්ත්වයක් බවටද පත් වෙයි.

මෙවැනි විසඳුම් ක්‍රියාවට පත් නොකළහොත් නවකවදය හේතුවෙන් සරසවි සිසුන් මියයාම පුරුද්දක් ලෙසද, සරසවියෙන් නිදහස් චින්තනයක් සහිත උපාධිධාරීන් බිහි නොවීමද, රටේ සංවර්ධනය අඩාල වීමද, අවිචාරවත්, අවිචාරශීලී,අනුකාරක සහ නීතිය ආගන්තුක ප්‍රජාවක් බිහිවීමද දිගටම සිඳුවනු ඇත.

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නීතීඥ අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන B.Sc(Col), PGDC(Col), සමායෝජක, වෛද්‍ය තිලක පද්මා සුබසිංහ අනුස්මරණ නීති අධ්‍යයන වැඩසටහන. දුරකථන 0712063394 (2025.05.02)

Senaka Weeraratna

It is with great sadness I am sharing the news received a few hours ago that our colleague W. S. de Silva is no more. 

His leg was amputated because of severe diabetes just a few days ago. He has succumbed finally to the complications arising from the amputation of his leg. He was 76 years old at the time of his passing.

WS entered Royal College in 1960. He came from Maris Stella Primary School. Very soon became a live wire in class. He was good in his studies. He used to be in the top layer of the class in studies alongside Sunil Bastian, Kekulawela and Ajita Wijesundere, among others. 

In retrospect it must be said that Ajita Wijesundere carried all the Class 

Prizes from the Lower kindergarten class under Ms. Peiris to the final year class in the RPS under Mr. H. P.  Jayewardene (1959). The only other student who matched that excellent record was the redoubtable Diyanath Samarasinghe, later Professor of Psychiatry. 

In 1961, I befriended WS in the Sinhala Medium class, which had the likes of Anura Bandaranaike, Ranil Wickremasinghe, C.R. de Silva ( Bulla),Malik Samarawickreme, R. J. de Silva, R.S.I. de Silva, Pemraj Gonsalkorale, Vijitha Kuruwita, Neraj Perera, among others.  Our teachers were TDSA Dissanayake, Upali Attanayake, Rev. Kahaduwe Chandrajoti, and M.B.H. Wariyapola ( Geography teacher). I was appointed as the Class Monitor by T. D.S.A. Dissanayake after coming first in a General Knowledge contest. 

The best two students in that class were W.S. de Silva and Vijitha Kuruwita. Both were seated next to each other. I have a  photo memory of the seating arrangements of that class and thereby able to recall to this day who was seated where in the class.

It was in that year 1961 in the Class 2E ( Class Master was RIT Alles) next to the Little Theatre ( which was managed by Mr. E. F. C. Pereira) that a famous debate took place. The topic of the debate was ‘Which system was more suitable – Socialism or Capitalism for Sri Lanka’.

The Moderator was Mr. Upali Attanayake. The participants in the debate were as follows:

Capitalism 

Vijitha Kuruwita ( leader)

Anura Bandaranaike 

Ranil Wickremesinghe

Socialism 

W.S. de Silva (leader)

C.R. de Silva 

Senaka Weeraratna 

It attracted a fair amount of interest from other batches as well. Rev. Chandrajoti also attended the debate as a guest. W. S.de Silva delivered a memorable speech on the merits of Socialism. Anura Bandaranaike tilted for capitalism despite her mother Mrs. Srima Bandaranaike( being the Prime Minister) pursuing a policy of Socialism for the country.

W.S. had a famous brother called W.P. (Padmal) de Silva, (22nd August, 1944–25th November, 2007) who later became a Professor of Psychology at the University of Peradeniya. He also taught at King’s College, London. He won many prizes at the school prize giving.

Our paths went in different directions after 1961. W.S. also played in House Cricket . He was a fast bowler. Played in Lunch Interval Cricket with Gusto. He was a terror with his fast bowling.

WS was a member of the Senior School Sinhala Debating team.

WS became the Hostel Head Prefect in the third term of 1967 succeeding  KK Amaradasa.  He was also appointed a  School Prefect the following year in 1968. School prefectship was a honour bestowed on only about 10 students per year and WS had that honour . A title which resonated in mercantile firms at the time. They preferred the high achievers in school including perfects 

when recruiting junior executives immediately after school. 

In adult life W.S. de Silva became a teacher of English and the Principal, while based in Sri Lanka, of an International School i.e., York international Schools.

He was also an Editor of several volumes of a book carrying biographical sketches of notable people in Sri Lanka’s history.

May he attain the Supreme Bliss of Nirvana.

Senaka Weeraratna

By Dr Upul Wijayawardhana Courtesy Island

Sri Lankan voters have excelled in the art of changing governments in executioner style, which they did in many elections including that of 1977,1994, 2015, 2019 and, of course, 2024. They did so, giving massive majorities to parties in opposition that had only a few seats, because the preceding governments were so unpopular. It invariably was a negative vote, not a positive vote-endorsing policies, if any, of the incoming governments, the last election being no exception. NPP, contesting under the compass symbol, was essentially a revamp of the JVP and their main strategy, devoid of any specific policies, was throwing mud at opponents and promising a transparent, corruption free government. They made numerous promises on the hoof. Have they stood up to the challenges?

What the vast majority of the public wanted was a significant reduction in the cost of living, which has spiralled out of control due to the misdeeds of the many preceding regimes, resulting in near starvation for many. The NPP promised to renegotiate the deal with the IMF to give relief to the masses but soon found, to their dismay, that it was a non-starter. Of course, the supporters portrayed it as a display of pragmatism! They promised that the price of fuel could be slashed overnight as it was jacked up by the commission earned by the previous minister who was accused of earning over Rs 100 for every litre! It has not happened and the previous minister has not received the apology he deserves. The cost of living remains unbearable and all that the government continues to do effectively is slinging mud at opponents.

To the credit of the NPP government, financial corruption has not set in, but it cannot be forgotten that most previous governments, too, started this way, corruption setting in later in the cycle of government. However, corruption in other forms persist contrary to the promises made. Had the government sacked the former speaker, the moment he could not justify the claimed PhD, it could have claimed high ground and demonstrated that it would not tolerate corruption in any form. For some reason, unknown to the public, he seems to have a strong hold on the party and he seems indispensable!

As for bringing to justice those previously corrupt, only baby steps have been taken. During the election campaigns AKD promised to get Arjun Mahendran from Singapore within 24 hours of his election and now they are blaming the Singapore government! It looks as if promises were made without any idea as to the practicality of implementation. According to social media posts circulated, the list of assets held by Rajapaksas would have made them richer than Elon Musk! A lady lawyer who described in detail, during the election campaign, the wealth amassed in Uganda by Rajapaksas admitted, after her election, that there was no basis. Her justification was that the NPP government ensured free speech; even to tell lies as the truth.” Government media spokesman has just admitted that she lied about the cost of new year text messages sent by previous presidents and she remains an ‘honourable’ MP!

As far as transparency is concerned, Compass is directionless. MoUs/Pacts signed with India, during the recent visit of PM Modi shines bright with opaqueness! After giving various excuses previously, including that those interested could obtain details by making requests under the Right to Information Act, the official cabinet spokesman’s latest is that it needs the permission of India to release details. This makes one wonder whether there is a lot to hide or it may be that, de facto, we are already under the central government of India and that AKD is just the Chief Minister of the 29th state!

Whilst accusing the predecessors of misuse of power, the NPP does the same thing. AKD’s statements that he would be scrutinizing allocation of funds to local bodies, if opposition parties are elected, surely is an indirect threat to voters. Perhaps, it is not an election offence as the Elections Commission has not taken any action despite complaints!

Whether the exposition of the Tooth Relic, which was done in a mighty hurry, to coincide with the mini-election campaign would backfire remains to be seen. As it was done in a hurry, there was no proper planning and even the basic amenities were not provided to the thousands who queued for days. AKD, as usual, was quick with a political gesture by the unplanned visit meeting those in the queue. What he and his government should have done is proper planning but, instead, government supporters are inundating social media blaming the public for bad behaviour!

To cap this all is the biggest faux pas of all; naming the mastermind of the Easter Sunday attack. AKD built up expectations, and the nation was waiting for the exposure on 21 April, which never materialised. His acolytes are doling out excuses. Dr Nalinda Jayatissa was as evasive as possible during his post-cabinet meeting briefing. Perhaps, there is no mastermind other than those identified by all previous investigations including that by the FBI. All that the president did was handing over the Presidential Commission of Inquiry report to the CID. The acting IGP appointed a committee of three to study, but the next day a fourth person was added, a person who is named as one of those who did not act on intelligence received!

Perhaps, as an attempt to give credence to the allegations made in the Channel 4 programme, Pillayan was arrested. Though it was on a different offence, the alleged abduction of the former chancellor of the Eastern University, Minister Wijepala had the audacity to state in the parliament otherwise. Pillayan has been detained under the PTA, which the NPP promised to abolish! The worst is the campaign of character assassination of Udaya Gammanpila who has decided to represent Pillayan. Dr Jayatissa, who has never practised his profession, took exception that Gammanpila, who has not practiced as a lawyer, is representing Pillayan. Gammanpila has corrected him by listing the cases he had been involved in. In any case, Gammanpila need not be in court but get a set of lawyers to defend, if and when, a case is filed. It begs clarification, the ministerial comment that Gammanpila should be ashamed to represent Pillayan! Has the government already decided the guilt of Pillayan?

Compass has lost direction, indeed, and far too soon!

By Dr Upul Wijayawardhana

Courtesy Daily Mirror

Colombo, May 5 (Daily Mirror) – Sri Lanka’s main election monitoring body, the People’s Action for Free and Fair Election (PAFFREL), has requested the Election Commission to inquire into the complaint that Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya violated election laws by asking her party’s supporters to campaign even during the silent period.

PAFFREL has written to Election Commission Chairman R.M.A.L. Ratnayake in this regard.

We have monitored that Prime Minister Amarasuriya has made a remark which could be seen as encouraging her supporters to engage in campaign even after the silent period from May 3 2025. The Premier’s remark is an act of encouraging her supporters to violate electoral law while she has neglected the law herself,” PAFFREL Executive Director Rohana Hetiarachchi said in his letter.

Courtesy AdaDerana

The academic activities of 11 students of Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka have been suspended over the death of a student allegedly due to ragging, the police said.

It was reported that the students include the four third year students arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department on Sunday (04).

Meanwhile, four more students of the Sabaragamuwa University have surrendered to the Samanalawewa Police and have been handed over to the CID for questioning, Sri Lanka Police added.

Lanka C Voice

Darini Rajasingham Senanayake

There have been several geopolitical developments in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region. These include United States Vice President J.D Vance’s visit with his Indian origin wife, Usha and their children to India in April and the staging of terror attacks on tourists in Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which were instantly blamed on Pakistan. The same week there was a huge blast in Iran’s port Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf that opens into the Indian Ocean.

Earlier in the month there were reports of the return of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), operatives to the Bangram Air Base in Afghanistan. This was reportedly in consultation with erstwhile proxy, the Taliban.

President Trump had stated that former President Biden made a mistake abandoning Bangram Base during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan given its infrastructure investments and proximity to China’s missile sites, not to mention Russia.

The Easter week attacks in Kashmir were similar to those of the Easter Sunday attacks in 2019 in Sri Lanka, mysteriously claimed by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). These also targeted tourists, as well as, churches and a Chinese research mission in the Seas of Sri Lanka– in a Hybrid operation.

 Following, the attacks in Kashmir which killed 26 people, the global corporate media propaganda machine echoed the moment of America’s Global War on Terror”.

BlackRock partner, India’s Adani owned NDTV was full of India’s War on Terror” moment, echoing rhetoric after the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks; cheerleading a hard military response and possible war with Pakistan. This would of course destabilize South Asia, one of the world’s most impoverished regions, despite the Indian growth story economic hype. A war between the nuclear armed neighbors would moreover further weaponize religious diaspora networks and destabilize historically multi-religious South Asia.

What of India’s Push to be a Peace-Maker drawing on Spiritual Traditions?

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent push to be a global peace-maker in the Russia-Ukraine war, leveraging India’s spiritual traditions of Ahimsa (non-violence) in the Buddhist, Jain and Hindu Yogic and Ghandian legacies, appeared forgotten. Rather, there was rush to deliver collective punishment to Pakistan’s farmers by withholding Indus Valley Waters, affecting food security, by putting on hold the treaty for sharing of water resources. India and Pakistan were in any case a single country until the retreating British Raj Partitioned India in 1947, as it did Cyprus, Ireland, Palestine and other places as part of its Exit Strategy. Was this in order to retain British imperial and corporate economic and security interests, a different kind of GLADIO-style stay behind operation in the Jewel of the Crown” of a lost Empire?

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the Indian State’s response to the attack in Pahalgam has been the metering out of collective punishment in lieu of a measured, calibrated and targeted response. In addition to holding in abeyance the Indus Water treaty there has been a destruction of the homes of purported terrorists for the collective punishment of their kin. Is India drawn into the I2U2 mimicking the Israeli barbarism of collective punishment in the occupied Palestine’s West Bank and Gaza Strip and forgetting Ahimsa?

Diaspora Wags the Dog”: Weaponizing Religion for a new Cold War

The no doubt heinous false flag attacks on tourists in Pahalgam were clearly staged to elicit an over-reaction from the Modi regime and lock the two neighbours into a downward spiral, and de-stabilize the South Asian region. There was an out pouring of sympathy from Western capitals to support India’s ‘war on terror’ and promote ‘intelligence sharing’ and arms sales.

It is now clear that Indian Diaspora groups in North America are being harnessed to wag the dog” so to speak and lure India into the US military business industrial complex and NATO War Machine. This, along with the QUAD (the collective of Australia, Japan USA, India) and I2U2 (the collective of Israel, India, United Arab Emirates and USA), in the Western Indian Ocean, set up to target China.

Although the Indian Ocean was declared a Zone of Peace on the initiative of the third world at the United Nations in 1971 at the height of the first Cold War it has become highly militarized. Nuclear armed US planes were recently sent to the Diego Garcia military base.

Bringing India into America’s new Cold War on China would also break the BRICS and Global South unity, perceived as a threat to the hegemony of the US dollar and the existing global trade and financial system.

Working with the Indian Diaspora in North America to draw India seems to be a bi-partisan agreement for Washington’s Republican and Democrat Uni-party.

Was the visit of US Vice President J.D. Vance with his Indian origin wife and children dressed in Desi garb just days before the Kashmir, Pahalgam attacks a coincidence?  Tulsi Gabbard, head of US National Security Agency is a Hindu as is Kash Patel who is the head of the FBI. Kamala Harris the Former Vice President, and Presidential hopeful also had some South Indian roots.

Is the Indian diaspora being used to draw Mother India which had stood with Palestine during the hey days of Non-Alignment, to partner with Zionist Israel, which ironically, also works with Saudi Arabian Petrodollars to promote the Muslim Fundamentalist (Muslim Zionist?) Wahabi- Salafi- Islamist –ISIS, ISIL, Al Qaida, Al Nusra, Boko Haram, Al Shabab, Tariq Islam, Towheed Jamat, Lashkar-e-Taiba, their off-shoots and Islamist terror networks around the world?

Fighting ‘God-less Communists’ and Independence Movements with Religion

Claiming to fight God-less Communists” during the Cold War against the Soviet Union the United States and its European allies weaponized religion, seen as a conservative force in the Third World. This to buffer against de-colonization and national Independence movements sweeping across Asia and Africa after the end of World War 2. National Independence and liberation movements were often Communist or Socialist in nature.

Simultaneously, ethno-religious proxy wars were promoted to deflect full independence for colonized peoples, and retain the economic and security interests of retreating European empires, or transfer them to the rising American empire. This was clearly evident in the so-called ethic conflict” in geostrategic Sri Lanka.

All ‘world religions’ are politically constituted and hence more or less weaponized. Islam is by far the Most Weaponized religion on the planet. That is, excepting Southeast Asian Islam, which is softer and culturally diverse, given proximity to polytheistic Buddhist and Hindu cultural traditions. This is demonstrated in the Indonesian State’s Constitutional commitment to Pancha Sila.

During the Cold War, Muslim networks were used at the handmaiden and cat’s paw of the Evangelical Christian Zionist empire to stage violence and destabilize multi-religious countries in Asia and Africa. There was also a concerted attempt to weaponize Buddhism as documented in an excellent book Cold War Monks: Buddhism and America’s Secret Strategy in Southeast Asia”, albeit with less than spectacular results.

As academics like Dianne Kirby have shown, in Cold War USA, evangelical Christian and the Jewish diaspora networks, particularly, Zionism and the Chabad movement helped fund and underwrite settler colonialism in Palestine. Simultaneously, Muslims were used as the handmaiden and cat’s paw to stage violence in the interest of the US Empire and Israel around the world, with the support of Evangelical Christian Zionist groups. This included the radicalization of minority Muslim Chechens in Russia and the Uyghurs in China.

There is of course a long tradition of Israeli security agencies, Shin Bet and MOSSAD working to weaponized religions in Palestine in order to promote settler colonialism. The Arab dominated Middle East and North Africa (MENA region) is the most violent place on the planet. At this time, there appears to be a staging of the long promised Biblical End times prophesy in Palestine, a blood soaked passion play replete with famine, disease and fire for Evangelical Christian Zionists and the return of the (anti)Christ? Or, is it just the End Times of an Empire?

The Head of the Snake of Islamist Terror and the US Military Business Industrial Complex

The head of the snake of Islamist Terror around the world was Saudi Arabia that during the Cold War spread Wahabi-Salafi fundamentalist Islam in cooperation with the CIA and Mossad also targeting Persian/ Iranian Shia Islam which had a more spiritual orientation. The Ayatollahs in Teheran had after all thrown out the US-backed Shah of Iran and nationalized its oil wells.

Saudi Arabia’s pole position in Islam as the county of the holy site of Mecca, the birthplace of the Prophet, and its Petrodollars enabled the spread of Wahabi-Salafi fundamentalist Islam throughout the Muslim world. This was in exchange for regime protection for the house of Saud. The US has massive bases in the Kingdom.

Of course NATO’s Turkey and other neighbors of Palestine which are complicit in the on-going genocide there, along with the UAE, Qatar, Egypt etc. helped. Some were subject to blowback from the Muslim Brotherhood.

Once the Soviet Union, Red Peril and the Cold War ended in 1991, Islamist Terror became America’s official new enemy. The’ Global war on terror” after the World Trade Center attacks were staged purportedly by Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaida enabled perpetuating the US military business industrial complex with a new Islamist enemy.

It is worth recalling here that President Dwight Eisenhower had warned the American people about the threat posed by the US military business industrial complex in his farewell address to the nation. And sure enough, President John F. Kennedy who wanted to draw down the US war machine in Vietnam was assassinated a couple of years later in 1963 reportedly in an internal covert operation.

The covert links between Zionist-Evangelical Christianity and Islamist Wahabi groups that go back to the Cold War weaponization of Islam also to fight Russia in Afghanistan may partly explain why the Arab dominated Middle East and North Africa (MENA Region), is the most violent part of world at this time.  Muslim communities and networks around the world were weaponized and used for terror while, others turned a blind eye, to on-going radicalization particularly via the internet, social media and On-line religiosity. As Yasha Levine has detailed in his book, the Internet was a military invention for surveillance and control rather than to promote Democracy.[i]

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[i] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1US6sxgKrc

Darini Rajasingham Senanayake

Ironically, Prime Minister Modi was in Saudi Arabia when the attacks happened in Pahalagam, Kashmir, and he cut short his visit to the Kingdom to return to Delhi.

In the wake of the attacks, the global corporate media echo chamber seemed taken with the prospect of a war between nuclear armed India and Pakistan. Although Pakistan had long been a ‘Garrison State’ with its powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), being well oiled by the CIA and funded by Saudi Arabia, it was painted as a proxy of China in the media.

Soon after the British Partition of India in 1948 as part of its Exit Strategy to continue to dominate the South Asia region, Pakistan was turned into a CIA Garrison State while India allied with the Soviet Union/Russia. The region has been kept in turmoil ever since– as a Cold War proxy war site. This also explains the lack of progress in the SAARC in contrast with Southeast Asia’s ASEAN.

It is increasingly clear that under Trump, the US is now focusing on China and trying to isolate it from Russia (Ukraine Peace deal), and correct the mistake that Biden made of pushing Russia into China’s arms, while trying to break BRICS by courting India. After the Pahalgam attacks, there were Hollywood inspired dreams voiced on Social media of India’s Akand Barath, breaking up Pakistan, and partitioning Baluchistan given the new Chinese built Gwadar Port. The CIA had deemed the latter one of the String of Pearls” in the Indian Ocean, along with Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port which was hit by the Indian Ocean post-Christmas day Tsunami in 2004.

If the US, its European Union partners and their proxies in Asia and Africa succeed though a strategy of hybrid maritime and staged terror attacks in drawing India into its security architecture, this would challenge the rise of the BRICS. Global South cooperation threatens US dollar hegemony and the global financial system at this time. Fragmenting BRICS would also put an end to the Rise of Asia and the Asian Century.

At this time a new ‘Clash of Civilizations’ between the two dominant religions of Asia– Buddhism and Islam in order to crash the Asian Century seems to be in the making, amid the staging of Evangelical Christian End Times’ in Palestine.

The new Clash of Civilizations” between Islam and the polytheistic Hindu and Buddhist religious formations of Asia, was signaled back in 2001 when the Taliban destroyed the 6^th century giant Buddha statues of Bamiyan on the ancient Silk Route in Afghanistan, in time for the 9/11 attacks on the WTC. These events inaugurated and legitimized America’s ‘Global War on Islamist Terror’ and resonated in Myanmar. Rohingya refugee trafficking across the Indian Ocean Theravada Buddhist world has been ongoing to ferment tensions.

Whither India’s ‘Neighborhood First” policy?

Over the past three years there were US-backed regime change operations in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. In 2022 when the popular democratically elected Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted and imprisoned and Pakistan de-stabilized, India, the South Asian regional hegemon, looked on. Khan accused Donald Lu then Secretary of South Asia of spearheading the regime change in collusion with elements in the Pakistani establishment.

The same year, India capitalized on the US National Endowment for Democracy and Soros Foundation-funded, social media coordinated Aragalaya protest chaos operation to stage regime change and Sovereign Default in Sri Lanka. As South Asia’s wealthiest country was implausibly declared Bankrupt’ overnight due to a purported lack of US dollars to enable the IMF to upend its economic sovereignty, India played the supporting role of good neighbor to the rescue.

However, last year in August India lost a close ally who had just won the national elections, in Prime Minister Sheik Hasina in Bangladesh to another US-back regime change in South Asia.

Indeed, the Modi government’s policy of self-interest sans principled Foreign Policy seem to belie proclamations of the ‘neighbourhood first”, and have paid diminishing returns in the face of America’s over the horizon (OTH), operations and aspiration for Full Spectrum Dominance in South Asia.

Is it becoming increasingly difficult for India to ‘run with the hare and hunt with the hounds’? The destabilization that OTH protests curated via remote social media platforms for regime change and staged economic crises have rendered South Asia including India poorer. The case of ASEAN shows clearly that countries develop only when their neighbors are stable and developing too.

Increasingly, India’s growth story hype is belied by the reality of poverty due to external destabilization and staged OTH crises across South Asia. It may be time to fully embrace the BRICS and Global South in the Asian 21^st Century. Otherwise, India may help normalize the Abraham Accords and the ethnic cleansing of Gaza that would legitimize a brutal new world order” across the Indian Ocean World, which is entirely contrary to Hindu-Buddhist-Jain traditions of Ahimsa and peace-making.

Finally, it is high time for a global movement to shut down the 750 environment-polluting US military bases around the world, particularly those in the Indian Ocean, which should be again declared a ‘Zone of Peace’ in keeping with Principles of Non-Alignment.

e-Con e-News

blog: eesrilanka.wordpress.com

‘Before you study the economics, study the economists!’

e-Con e-News 27 April – 03 May 2025

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‘This is why Harry Dexter White of the US Treasury

fought so hard at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference

to have the 2 institutions headquartered in Washington.’

*

After the shutting down of USAID and the US withdrawal from the WHO (World Health Organization), there was much headlined chatter that the US government would move to shutter (or at least shut up) the IMF & World Bank. Well, there’s no such fire to such pipe-dreams – just smoke. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has declared that the ‘return on investment’ from their terrible twins, is unparalleled. Unlike in the UN and other such multilateral institutions, the US government has ‘effective veto power‘ over the WB & IMF, making them ‘efficient tools of US foreign & economic policy’, as Zambia’s Grieve Chelwa highlights (see ee Focus). And Bessent wants to ensure they keep promoting US interests ‘at the expense of the rest of the world’, with his boss Mr Trump cluck-cluck-clucking that we all pay even more for our own further entrapment.

     As for those who believe all of this gushes from the brains of Bessent & his darling US President Don Trump, we now are told that Mr Trump’s ‘change of mind’ on his tariffs – calling for a 90-day pause – was ‘prompted’ by the tweeting of Bill Ackman, CEO of hedgefund Pershing Square Capital Management. Ackman apparently moves markets with his statements… and rewrites politician’s policy statements. We learn that US policy is made by such bankers as Jamie Dimon (JP Morgan Chase), Ken Griffin (Citadel), and Ackman (see ee Quotes, Flattering Trump).

     These bankers are at least the more-public faces of those capitalists who decide economic shifts and shapes. They also own mega media conglomerates. Ackman owns Universal Music Group Inc, who for example wasted young people’s time by promoting a ‘feud’ between rappers Kendrick & Drake – both of whom are owned by Universal Music. The same goes for ‘feuding’ politicians & parties? Maybe the NPP should have met Bill, Jamie & Ken, instead of wasting time hankering after Don, JD or Kristalina at last week’s IMF & WB annual meeting in Washington? Instead, we’re told the NPP delegation met with a Mormon missionary & a fake blonde Texan queer (see ee Who’s Who).

     And speaking of ‘feuds’, see ee Random Notes for an excerpt of Sena Thoradeniya’s stalking of the itinerary of twisted sister Julie Chung, the US Envoy, as she sets about attempting to promote a highland Eelam aka Malayagam…

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• All such fragmenting fissiparousness is being turbo-charged by a backward multinational-corporation-run economy. Perhaps the media in Sri Lanka should be renamed The Import-Export Daily News, The Import-Export Sunday Times, The Import-Export Island, The I-E Morning, The I-E MTV… 99.99% of economic commentary in the media promotes the export game. And this is not new. The colonial economy was/is a classic import-export plantation economy, and see how it still runs, like the 3 Blind Mice of English rhyme. And even so-called ‘local’ companies should be prefixed with Import-Export: Import-Export Keells, Import-Export Hayleys, I-E Maharajah’s etc.

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‘Before the advent of the English, the economy of

the coastal districts & parts of the interior which

had passed under European rule, had already lost to a

great extent its old localized & self-sufficient character

& had become linked through extensive external trade

with European commercial capital.’

– ‘The Program for Ceylon’, 1946

*

• The world is divided into at least three parts: the imperialist countries of Europe, the settler states of the genocidal colonies ‘of new settlement’ (USA, Canada, Australia, etc), and such expatriate-dominated non-settler colonies as Sri Lanka, according to ee‘s muse, SBD de Silva (see ee Focus). However, if you really wish to see the differences between countries, de Silva suggests, we should look at countries like South Africa & the Congo where there are/were both settlers & expatriates:

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‘In South Africa, the expatriate investors were confined

mainly to mining & foreign trade; but the shift to

agriculture & manufacturing which was to transform

the economy was brought about by the settlers.’

*

Indeed, as de Silva eloquently asserted, ‘The metropolitan-based commercial bourgeoisie were wholly export oriented and concerned with already existing markets, whereas the settlers relied on the home market. The stimulus to industrialization came largely from the settlers.’ And now we are reminded again, why England’s Unilever & the USA’s Exxon & the Anglo-US CTC are still allowed to monopolize Sri Lanka’s home market. And how they enable the news to hide how they actually keep stealing from us – contrary to the prompted ravings of Mr Trump…

*

• Ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Finance & Justice MUM Ali Sabry goes on & on in a prolix 5-part series in The Island newspaper, on the USA’s tariff hoopla. It is only at the very end that he struggles to say it is the US that is robbing Sri Lanka, not the other way around, but then only feebly:

‘Take Sri Lanka, while it may appear to run a surplus

in goods trade with the USA, that surplus is more than

offset by: Payments for US-based tech & streaming

services (Google, Netflix, Apple); Outbound tourism

& overseas education costs; Interest payments on

sovereign debt owed to institutions like the IMF &

World Bank, whose returns flow back to major

shareholders, including the USA… Sri Lanka is

taking part in a(n)… economic relationship that

is already tilted toward the US economy.’ – Ali Sabry,

see ee Economists, Trump tariffs, world trade, Parts I-V

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     Malaysian economist Jomo Kwame Sundaram (see ee Economists) is much more explicit than Sabry: Trump Wants the World to Subsidize US Empire. US President Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers chairman Stephen Miran’s A User’s Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System told the Hudson Institute, a thinktank funded by media czar Rupert Murdoch who controls Fox News, Wall Street Journal etc:

‘US military spending provides the world a ‘security umbrella’ that others should

also pay for. Second, the US issues the dollar & Treasury bonds, the main reserve

assets for the liquidity of the international monetary & financial system. Miran

seems blissfully unaware of longstanding complaints of the USA’s ‘exorbitant

privilege’. The dollar’s reserve currency status has provided seigniorage income to

the US while Treasury bond sales have long financed US debt at very low cost.’

*

Indeed, Trump’s Rumpelstiltskin fussing & stamping about is not new. The English Chancellor of the Exchequer (later PM) Benjamin Disraeli in 1852 declared: These wretched colonies… are a millstone round our necks.” But he was referring to the North American settler colonies, who the English claimed should pay for wars, just as Trump now wants Europe & its settler colonies plus their non-settler colonies to do. But few explain as SBD de Silva has done that imperialist exploitation of our economies is much more pernicious than just taxes & terror:

‘The conglomerates can defend their interests abroad (without colonialism

based on conquest of territory), for the reason that they can control activities

by their monopoly of technology & markets. First, a good portion of their

income is in the form of technological rents, royalties, licensing rights,

technical assistance fees, etc. The technology is rarely transferred, and its

diffusion outside the orbit of such corporations is rigidly controlled. When

deprived of this technology & marketing know-how, the natural resources &

cheapened labour of the host countries become idle assets at least in the short run.’

– SBD de Silva, The Political Economy of Underdevelopment, 1982

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• With all this talk about corruption, we wonder why US-occupied Korea ‘granted’ US$8.5 million to ‘automate Colombo municipality revenue systems‘ while the country is just about to hold local elections? Meanwhile, Japan too has funded a 137million-yen ‘Project for Promoting Economic Governance through Anti-Corruption Policy Support’. Will the Japanese yen (JP¥) now investigate the Korean won (₩)? Keep smoking! ee continues therefore examining the US model of ‘the general prostitution of civic ideals’, through Gustave Myers’ 1917 History of Tammany Hall. This ee Focus records how by 1820, ‘manhood suffrage‘ had dominated Tammany’s political posturing. Another demand was the abolition of the law for imprisonment of debtors. Tammany claimed to represent ‘the farmer, the independent blacksmith, the shoemaker with an apprentice or 2’, who all had the vote if propertied, yet it remained an envious ‘middle-class’ institution. They coerced and bribed lawmakers into passing bank charters and franchises, even while publicly promoting the abolition of speculation and banks. See also how the bankers who had promoted the genocidal General Andrew Jackson (one of Mr Trump’s idols) for President, the banks then arrayed the ‘combined power of the propertied classes’ against the ‘laborers, mechanics, farmers & producing classes’ to bring him down.

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• May is a month of memories. There was May Day, which contrary to the perennial media bad-mouthing, is still heartily celebrated (even if only permitted in some hearts) around the world (as Labor Day, it’s a 5-day official holiday in China). May is indeed a month of action & memories. May 4^th recalls the youth movement in China in 1919 against the imperialist decision to cede former German concessions in Shandong province to Japan, which led to the formation of the Communist Party of China (CPC). May 5^th is the 50^th anniversary of the victory of Vietnam over the US-led imperialists (France, Japan, Canada, etc., were also actively complicit). May 9^th recalls the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany (who was backed at first by England, USA, France, etc.) in World War II. And since the USA always relies on its standard shystering ‘art of the deal’, threatening war, here & there & everywhere & all at once, we need to also recall the Communist Manifesto:

‘Bourgeois & Proletarians! –

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class

struggles. Freeman & slave, patrician & plebeian, lord & serf,

guild-master & journeyman, in a word, oppressor & oppressed,

stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an

uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time

ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large,

or in the common ruin of the contending classes.

– Karl Marx & Fredrick Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, 1848

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Contents:

How an Import Media in Sri Lanka Aggrandizes the Colonial Export Trap

LankacNews

ජනාධිපති අනුර දිසානායක මහතා ග්‍රීසියේ නැව් ව්‍යාපාරයකට මුදල් ආයෝජනය කර ඇති බවට තුසිත හල් ඔලුව මහතා විසින් සිදු කරන ලද චෝදනාව පිළිබඳව හිටපු පළාත් සභා මන්ත්‍රී වරුණ රාජපක්ෂ මහතා අදහස් පළ කරයි.

කලකට පෙර ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ මධ්‍යම කාරක සභිකයෙක්ද වූ වරුන රාජපක්ෂ මහතා එම පක්ෂය නියෝජනය කරමින් බස්නාහිර පළාත් සභාවටද තේරී පත්විය.

තම සමාජ ජල ගිණුමේ අදාළ සිදුවීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් දිගු පැහැදිලි කිරීමක් ඔහු විසින් නිකුත් කර ඇති වීඩියෝව මෙසේය.

kelum jayasumana

Divaina Online

Pathfinder Foundation

Pathfinder Foundation hosted a high-level delegation from the China Centre for South Asian Studies of Sichuan University at its headquarters in Peliyagoda. The Foundation’s association with Sichuan University dates back to 2017, when the two institutions signed a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation and joint studies. Both parties met once again to evaluate the progress of the MoU renewed in November 2023 and discuss opportunities for enhanced collaboration between the two institutions.

The delegation was led by Prof. DING Zhongyi, Dean of the School of International Studies and Director of the Institute of South Asian Studies. Chief Expert and Vice Director of the Center, Prof. (Ms.) QIU Yonghui, Associate Professors Ms. XIAO Jianmei and Ms. LIU Siwei comprised the delegation that attended the meeting with the Pathfinder team of experts.

During the meeting, both sides discussed several important proposals, including strengthening relations between the two institutions, leveraging China’s economic power, critically exploring the successes and failures of the BRI, and the idea to hold a series of events in Colombo, bringing in scholars from the region. Development, economic empowerment, and maritime trade were three subject areas identified for further consideration in conferences and joint publications.

Pathfinder Foundation also briefed the delegation on its continued relationship with China vis-à-vis joint programs, visits by Chinese organisations, and close association with the Chinese Embassy in Colombo. The Foundation will host another delegation from Shanghai this month, representing the Office of the Counsellor of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government.

ආචාර්‍ය සුදත් ගුණසේකර

1987 අන්ක 15 දරණ ප්‍රාදේශීය සභා පනතේ 3 වන වගන්තියේ දැක්වෙන පරිදි ප්‍රාදේශීය සභාවල කර්තව්‍ය මෙසේ දක්වා ඇත.

                එක් එක් ප්‍රාදේශීය සභා ප්‍රාදේශය සඳහා සන්ස්ථාපනය කරණ ලද ප්‍රාදේශීය සභාව, එම ප්‍රදේශය ඇතුලත පලාත් පාලන ආයතන විය යුතු අතර, මහජන සෞක්‍යට,පොදු උපයෝගිතා සේවාවන්ට සහ පොදු මන්මාවත් වලටද සාමාන්‍යයෙන් එම ප්‍රදේශය ඇතුලත ජනතාවගේ සුඛ විහරණය, පහසුව සහ සුභසාධනය සහ සියළු පහසුකම් ආරක්ෂා කිරීමට සහ ප්‍රවර්ධනය කිරිරීමට ද අදාල සියළු කරුණු විධ්මත් කිරීම, පාලනය කිරීම සහ පරිපාලනය කිරීම ඊට භාර විය යුතුය”.

මා මේ රටේ රජයෙන්,සියළුම ප්‍රාදේශීය සභා වලින් සහ සමස්ත ජනතාවගෙන්ම අසා සිටින පළමු ප්‍රස්නය නම් මේ වගන්තියේ සඳහන් කුමන සේවාවක් මෙම ආයතනය විසින් තම කොට්ටාශය තුල ඉටු කරන්නේද යන්නය.                          

අපගේ ප්‍රද්ශයේ නම් සතියකට වරක් හෝ දෙවරක්, ඒත් අක්‍රමත්ව, කුණු ගෙනයාමට ට්‍රක්ටරයක් ඒම හැර ඉහතින් දකවනලද වෙනත් කිසිම මහජන සේවාවක් නම් සිදු නොවන බව ඉඳුරාම කිව යුතුය. විදුලිය, විදුලිබල මණ්ඩලයෙන්ද, 

 ජලය, ජල සම්පාදන මන්ඩලයෙන්ද සිදුකෙරෙන අතර ප්‍රදේශයේ ප්‍රාදේසීය සභාවෙන් සිදුවන එකම මහජන සේවය වනුයේ” නොවරදවාම ජනවාරි මාසයේ පලමු සතියේම පැමිනිණ වරිපනම් එකතු කිරීම පමණි. එම සේවයද” සිදු කෙරෙන ස්ථානය සහ වේලාද දින කීපයකට පෙර ශබ්ද විකාශන මගින් කොට්ඨාශය පුරාම ප්‍රචාරය කිරීමටද ඔවුහු අමතක නොකරති. වසරකට වරක් ජනවාරි මාසයේ සිදු කෙරෙන එම රාජකාරියෙන්”පසු අප ප්‍රදෙශයේද ප්‍රාදේශීය සභාවක් තිබෙන බව දන්නේ වසරකට වසරක් අවුර්දු පතා නොවැ මසයේ පමණ ලැබෙන වරිපනම් දැන්වීමෙන් සහ වසර 5 කට වරක් චන්දයක් තිබෙන බවට දන්වමින් සිද්හුකෙරෙන දැන්වීම් සහ අපේක්ශකයින්, චන්දය ඉල්ලා බෙදා හරින චන්ද පත්‍රිකා වලින් පමණි.

 ඒ අපගේ මුදලින් මිලගත් අපගේ ඉඩම්වලට සහ අප විසින් අමාරුවෙන් ණය තුරුස්වී  සාදගෙන ඈති නිවාස ආදිය වරිපනම් එකතු කිරීම පමණි, මා දන්නා තරමින් දිවයිනපුරාම  ප්‍රාදේශීය සභාවලන් අදාල කොට්ඨාශ සිටින ජනතාවට සිදුවන සේවය එපමණි.  ඔවුන්ට අයත්යයි කියන අප නිවාසවල මන්මාවත් අපම සුද්ද කරගත යුතුය.  කුනු එකතු කිරීමට සතියකට දෙවරක් එනවා කිවද ඒත් නිසි පරිදි එයද සිදු නොවේ.එහෙත් අප ඉඩමක්  මිලදී ගතහොත්  ඊට අදාල  මුද්දර ගාස්තුවද ලක්ශගනනින් ඔවුන්ගේ ගිනුමට බැර කෙරේ.මෙ අනුව මධ්‍යම රජයේ භාණාගාරයට  වර්ශිකව කෝටි ගණනක ආදායමද අහිමි වෙයි

එම මුදල් ප්‍රදේශයේ මහජන සේවාවන් සඳහා වැය කලයුතු වුවද ඒවා වැය කරණුයේ ඔවුන්ට යානවාහන ආදි සැප පහසු කම් සහ ඔවුන්ගේ සුඛවිහරණය සඳහා  පමණි  1987 වන් විට අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය සහ පලාත්පාලන ඇමති වරයා වූ ප්‍රේමදාස අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය වරයා ගේ ඊනියා සන්කල්පයක් අනුව මෙම ප්‍රාදේෂීය සාභා පිහිටුවන ලද්දේ ඊට පෙර පැවති ගම්සභා ක්‍රමය වෙනුවට  පරිපාලනය විමධ්‍යගත කිරීම යන සටන් පාටය අනුවය. ඒ අනුව ඊට පෙර එක කෝරලයකට එකක් වෂයෙන් පැවති ගම්සභා කීපයක් ඒකාබඩ්ධකොට එක් ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කොට්ඨාශයකට එක බැගින් ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කොට්ඨාසහ්ස්යකට එක බැගින් දේශපාලන අධිකාරියක් වෂයෙන් මේවා පිහිටුවන ලදී. ප්‍රේමදාශ අගමැතිවරයාගේ අදහසක් අනුව සිදුකෙරුණු මින් සිදු වූයේ වසර ගනනාවක් තිස්සේ එක් කෝරලයකට එක බැගින් තිබුණු ගම්සභා ජාලය  අහෝසිකොට ඒ වෙනුවට ප්‍රාදේසීය ලේකකම් කොට්ඨාසයකට එක බැගින් සුපිරි ප්‍රාදේශීය සභා ජාලයක් රටපුරා පිහිටුවීම පමණි.

මෙම ක්‍රමයේ අරමුණ වශයෙන් ප්‍රකාශිතවූයේ   රජයේ සේවාවන් ගම්මට්ටමට විමධ්‍ය ගත කිරීමය. වියමධ්‍ය ගත කිරීමෙන් ගමට්ටමේ වඩා හොඳ සේවයක් ජනතාවට ලබා දීම වශයෙන් ප්‍රකාශ වින.එහෙත් ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම සිදුවූයේ පන්ඩුකාභය් රජු කාලයේ සිට මේ රටේ පවති අපූරු ගම්ස්සභා නැතිවීම පමණි.

1.         1987 ට පෙර එක් කෝරලයකට එක්. ගම්සභාවක් බැගින් තිබුණි.ගම්සභා පරදේශය  කොට්ඨාශවලට බෙදා තිබුණි.එක් ගම්සබා කොට්ඨාෂයක් නියෝජනයට එක් ගම් සභිකයෙක් සිටියේය. එකී ගමේ ගම්සභාවෙන් සිදු කළයුතු සියළුම කටයුතු එම ගම නියෝජනය කරන නියෝජිතයා හරහා සිදු කෙරින.සියළුම  ගම්සභිකයින් පදින්චිව සිටියේ ඒ ඒ ගමේමය. සභිකයින් අතරින් එක් අයෙකු එම ගම්සභාවේ සභාපතිවර්යා වශයෙන් සබ්භිකයින්ගේ ච්නදයෙන් පත් වෙයි.

                2.එම ක්‍රමය යටතේ ගම්වැසියන්ට තම ගමේදීම පාගමනින් හෝ බයිසිකලයකින් ගොස්  ජනතාවට ලබාගත හැකිව තිබුණු සියළුම සේවාවන් ප්‍රාදේශීය මට්ටමට ගෙනගොස් රාජ්‍ය සේවය මද්‍යගත වීම නිසා පාගමනින් හෝ බයිසිකයකින් ගම්සභාවට ගොස් ලබාගැනීමට තිබුණු සේවාවන් ඇතැම්විට සැතපුම් 25-30 බස්වලින් ගොස් මුළු දවසක්ම ඒ වෙනුවෙන්  නාස්ති කිරීමට සිදුවෙයි. එම තත්වය යටතේ ගම්සභාවට ගොස් අදාල කාර්‍ය ඉටුකරගෙන නිවසට පැමිණ තමන්ගේ කුඹුරේ හෝ හේනේ වැඩක් කර ගැනීමට ද හැකිවිය.

               3. ඒසඳහා නව ක්‍රමය යටතේ බස්ගාස්තු ආදිය නිසා අධික වියදමක්ද දැරීමට සිදුවීම

               4 මුලු දවසම ඒ වෙනුවෙන් කාලය නාස්ති වීම

               5.පරන ක්‍රමය යටතේ ගම්සභාපති ගමේම කෙනෙක් නිසා ගැමිගෙදරට කිට්ටු මෙන්ම සුහද සම්භන්න්ධයක් ද තිබින.

               6 අලුත් ක්‍රමය යටතේ සභාපති තම ගමේ කෙනෙක් නොවීම නිසා සේවා දායකයා සහ  ප්‍රාදේශීය සභාවේ සභාපති වරයා සමඟ එවැනි කිට්ටු හෝ සුහද සම්භන්ධයක්ද නැතිවිය

               7. නව තත්ව්ය යටතේ ප්‍රාදේශීය සභාව තවත් එක් රාජ්‍ය කාර්‍යාලයක් පමණි ගම්සභාවේ මෙන් ප්‍රාදේශීය සභා සමඟ කිට්ටු සම්බහන්ධතාවක්ද නැත.

               8 .තවද ගම්සභාවක සභාපති වරයා , නියෝජිතයින් මෙන්ම  එහි නිලධාරින්ද  ගමේ වැසියන් සියලු දෙනාම ඉතා හොඳින් දන්නා නිසා රාජකාරි කටයුතු     කරගැනීමද ඉතා පහසුය.

               ඒ වෙනුවට නව ක්‍රමය යටතේ  ගම්වැසියන්ගේ සහ ප්‍රාදේශීය සභාපතිවරුන් අතර කිසිදු දැන හැඳුනුමක් හෝ සුහද තාවයක්ද නැත.

               මේ අනුව මෙම නව ක්‍රමයෙන් සිදුවූයේ පාර්ලිමෙන්තු ආසන මට්ටමේ නවපන්නයේ දේශපාලන අධිකාරියක් බිහිවීම පමණි. ඔවුන්ගේ ප්‍රධාන කටයුත්ත වූයේ තම පක්ෂයට ප්‍රදේශයේ ගමට්ටමින් චන්ද එකතු කිරීම මිස මහජන සේවයක් කිරිම නොවේ. ප්‍රාදේශීය මට්ටමේ සියලුම රජයේ කොන්ත්‍රාක් ගත්තේද ඔවුන්මය. තමන් අයත් දේශපාලන පක්ශයේ බලය නිසා නිතරම මෙන් සිදුකල තැනීම් ආදියද කෙටි කලකින් විනාශවන ගුනාත්මක බවින් අඩු ඒවාම විය.

                1992 දි මේ අතරම ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් වරුන්ද ප්‍රාදේශීය සභාපතිවරුන්ගේ ලේකම්වරුන් වශයෙන් පත්කිරීම සඳහාද වැඩපිලිවෙලක් අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය වරයා විසින්ම සකස්කොට තිබින.  ශ්‍රී ලන්කා පරිපාලන සේවයේ වාසනාවට එම යෝජනාව අඩන්ගු අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩ්ල සන්දේශය මා අතට පත්වූ නිසා පරිපාලන සේවා සන්ගමයෙ එවකට සභාපති වශයෙන් මා ඊට විරුද්ධව 1992 දී බන්ඩාරනායක සම්මන්ත්‍රණ සාලාවේ පැවති විරෝධතා රැස්වීමක දී එම තීරනයට විරුද්ධව කරුණු දැක්වීමෙන් පසුව එය පිළිගත් ප්‍රේම දාස ජනාධිපති වරයා එම තීරණය ඉල්ලා අස්කරගත් නිසා අදටත් ශ්‍රී ලන්ලන්කා පරිපාලන සේවය ප්‍රාදේශීය මට්ටමේ දේශපාලන ග්‍රහනයෙන් නිදහස්කර ගැනීමට මට හැකිවිය.  මවිසින් එදා එසේ නොකළේනම් දිවයිනේ සියළුම ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම්වරුන් අද ප්‍රාදේශීය සභාවල සභාපතිවරුන්ගේ ලේකම් වරුන්ය. ෂ්‍රී ලන්කා පරිපාලනසේවයෙ අවශානාය්ද එය වීමට ඉඩ තිබිණ.

               මහනුවර යුගය වනවිටත් මේ රටේ ගම් මට්ටමේ ගම්සභා මීටත් වඩා දියුණු තත්වයක පැවති බව පෙනේ, බ්‍රතාන්න්‍ය ජාතික සිවිල් සේවකයෙකු වූ ඩී. ඇෆ්. ඩික්සන් නමැති මධ්‍යම පලාතේ සිටි ආණ්ඩුවේ ඒජන්තගේ මේ සටහනින් ඒ බව මනාව පැහැදිළික්වේ.

A remarkable system of self-government strikingly developed in the village administration of the East”

 තවදුරටත් පැරැනි ඉතිහාශය දෙස බැලීමේදී පැහැදිලිවන කරුණක් නම් මේ රටේ ගම්සභා ක්‍රමය  ක්‍රිස්තු පූර්ව 394-307 රජකම් කළ පණ්ඩුකාබය රජුගේ නිර්මාණයක් බවය. එසේම පණ්ඩුකාභය රජු විසින් සමස්ථ ලන්කාවම ගම්වලට බෙදා, ගම් මායිම් සලකුණු කොට ගම් පාලනය කෙරුණ ක්‍රමයක් මේ රටේ තිබුණ බව පහත සඳහන් උපුටා ගැනීමෙන් පැහැදිළි වෙයි.

                දසවස්සාභි සිත්තෝ සො පන්ඩු කාභ නරින්දජෝ

                 ලන්කා දීපම්හි සකලේ ගාමසීමා නිවේසයි මහවම්ස (10 පරිච්චේදය :103)

 මෙවැනි ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨ ඉතිහාසයක් ඇති ජාතියක් වන අපි අද සියළු දෙයටම  බටහිර පාලන ක්‍රම පසුපසම යමින් දෑසපියාගෙන අන්ධකාරයේ අතපත ගාන ජාතියක් බවට පත්ව තිබීම කොපමණන නම්  අභාග්‍යක් ද.   

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Colombo, May 3 (Daily Mirror) – The government is facing a dilemma as it must either increase the power tariff or face a delay in receiving the fifth tranche under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) agreement signed with the IMF, United National Party (UNP) National Organiser Sagala Ratnayake said yesterday.

He said Sri Lanka breached the EFF agreement it signed with the IMF by reducing the power tariff in February this year, creating a problematic situation.

Mr. Ratnayake told a media briefing that Sri Lanka has reached a staff-level agreement on the fourth review under the EFF agreement, but approval from the IMF’s Executive Board is still pending. The staff-level agreement is subject to IMF Executive Board approval, contingent on (i) the implementation of prior actions relating to restoring electricity cost-recovery pricing and ensuring the proper function of the automatic electricity price adjustment mechanism, and (ii) the completion of the financing assurances review,” Mr. Ratnayake said, quoting the release issued by the IMF.

The economic reforms programme during the tenure of former President Ranil Wickremesinghe was based on two key factors. One was the set of conditions Sri Lanka agreed to under the EFF agreement, and the other was the set of reforms undertaken independently by the Sri Lankan government. Sri Lanka agreed to implement a power tariff mechanism, under which a cost-reflective power tariff review must be undertaken every six months,” he added. However, the Sri Lankan government reduced the power tariff in February this year, resulting in the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) incurring a loss of Rs. 11.3 billion.

The government will have to increase the power tariff to obtain the fifth tranche under the EFF agreement, as per the IMF release. Industries will be affected if the government increases power tariffs to recover costs,” he said. Mr. Ratnayake added that the Sri Lankan government should issue a clear statement on this situation.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Colombo, May 2 (Daily Mirror) – President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has urged trade unions not to take to the streets, in protest for petty demands and has called on them to change their old attitudes.

In his May Day speech, President Dissanatake said that the NPP as a political force, has given up perks and privileges entitled to them through the constitution, gazettes and circulars.

“We urge trade unions to shed their old attitudes. Do not fight even for petty things. We, as a political force, have given up perks and privileges entitled to us through the constitution, gazettes and circulars. Let us have some time. You don’t have to take to the street and force us. We are a political force that feel your heartbeat and aspirations,” he said.