By Sena Thoradeniya

US Ambassador Julie Chung was very busy welcoming Liz Allen, US Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, (on February 17), Afreen Akter, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs (Feb. 21), Lindsey Ford, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of  Defense for South and South East Asia (Feb. 22) and Richard Verma, Senior American diplomat, Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources (Feb.23). Elizabeth Marie  Allen was the first Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy to visit Sri Lanka.

1. Public Diplomacy”

 Public Diplomacy”, is an euphemism for espionage, information gathering, psychological warfare, propaganda.  Public diplomacy refers to reaching out to targeted sectors of foreign publics using persuasion or soft power”, as opposed to hard power”,  coercion; Information and CommunicationTechnologies (ICT), digital infrastucture, scholarships and educational exchanges, establishing and maintaining personal contacts and alliances, diplomatic networks, advocating democracy, freedom, human rights and many more cultural interventions are regarded as weapons of advocacy”.

Julie Chung’s daily meetings with Sri Lankan civil soceity , media, business leaders, young leaders (in Julie’s words changemakers”), digital creators, women, minority groups, marginalized people, alumni of US  universities,Business English students  and her photo opportunities with them are a few examples for public diplomacy. Young people, mostly nobodies were brought to the table of high politics.  Top priority is given to public diplomacy now, which is distinct from working through formal diplomatic channels, improving tools of ideological warfare”. Max Kampelman, a Cold War diplomat and Counsellor of the US State Department under Reagan wrote: We need eloquent, effective, pro-American, pro-democratic spokespeople and organized groups of champions”. Greater social inclusion”, coalition building” are Chung’s beautiful words.

Covincing foreign audiences and garnering support for military campaigns, discrediting other powers (for example China’s Road and Belt Initiative, Chinese Debt Trap”, Chinese spy ships”), pressurizing foreign  leaders, encouraging people to revolt against their leaders aiming regime change are some other activities connected to public diplomacy.

Readers are invited to refer to my book Galle Face Protest: Systems Change or Anarchy? (2003), to understand how US public diplomacy” worked prior to and during the so-called Arab Spring” in Egypt (Genesis of Arab Spring”and Drawing Parallels With the Galle Face Protest”). What happened at the Galle Face was a repetition of events in Egypt and other Arabic countries. The article US Footprints at the Galle Face Protest Site” gives a detailed account of US interventions.

Julie Chung and Liz Allen

2. Liz Allen 

According to Chung’s X message posted on 17 february 2024, Liz Allen met with government and media representatives, business, civil soceity and climate change (a new type leaders; do they change climate?) leaders, digital content creators (a glorified term for gossipers, rumour-mongers, rabble – rousers), NextGen leaders. Reason: to discuss US – Sri Lanka partnership, safeguarding Sri Lanka’s information and media space. Liz Allen’s visit and the timing of her visit are important. She visited  Sri Lanka at a time the debate on Online Safety Bill was still in the agenda of local and foreign NGOs and American tech companies and all Sri Lankan major political parties were getting ready for an election. This is the time of forging new alliances and breaking existing ones. If one party is going ahead of other contenders a strategy to checkmate it should be offered.

On 18 February Chung and Liz Allen met with local journalists, alumni of US USG programme (study abroad programme) and discussed the vital role of media in promoting accountability and transparency ensuring the public has information to make informed decisions”. A robust media and social media space are essential components of any healthy democracy”. So says Chung. What type of information they prefer to disseminate and what are the informed decisions?

On the same day both of them met with US Embassy supported initiative for online influencers, of young content providers” (they are Ideal Hell Creators and Digital Turtles Creators) which fosters open space for freedom of expression and thriving democracy”. Who are these online influencers”? Whom do they influence and for what purpose? What is the open space for freedom of expression”? Do these ladies think that Sri Lanka is under a military regime which has suppressed freedom of expression? In 2022 Digital Turtles Ltd. launched Creator Incubator for content creators; online workshops were conducted in English, Sinhala and Tamil; a grant in US dollars were given to selected creators. Thus US has created a digital army” that can be mobilized at any time for any event.

On 19 February Liz Allen addressed the SLPI Press Club, emphasising the importance of press freedom as a cornerstone of a strong democracy  and acknowledging their vital work to keep Sri Lankan citizens informed. In our increasingly digital world press freedom and the free flow of information require perfect freedom. Tech companies agree that a growing economy relies on that freedom too” (Julie’s X message). Do these Americans think that there is no press freedom in Sri Lanka, no free flow of information?

Their aim is cultivating and pollinating here a set of young journalists who write to English dailies and weeklies and so-called digital creators, Youtubers, mobile journalists and mobilize them for the campaign they map out. We saw this during the Galle Face protest. For the forthcoming elections the regime changers need more of them. This is the reason for the influx of distinguished US visitors.

Their efforts bring instant results: we reproduce a post of a nobody whom Liz Allen had praised: Much appreciation for your dedication and thoughtful and uninterrupted service to the Tamil community (our emphasis). We are very proud of you. May god bless you and your family”. It’s a proud moment for me and (name withheld)…. creations (a digital creator in Jaffna), that Elizabeth Allen the United State’s Under Secretary of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs has quoted my name and (name withheld) creations at a creators’ gathering in Colombo”. Liz Allen was able to mention names of nobodies and their name boards”! How smart she was?

3.  Afreen Akter

On February 21 Chung had to welcome US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Afreen Akter. She was in Sri Lanka between May 13-16, 2023. In his meeting with Akter the State Minister for Defense in 2023 had told her that Sri Lanka military will be right-sized gradually, afterwards it will be set up for the classic role” responding to steps taken concerning defence reforms. We did not know what this amateur State Minister meant by  right-size” and classic role”.

This time she met with government officials, civil soceity representatives, parliamentarins and think tanks”.Why Akhter visiting Sri Lanka at this time? We should not forget that Imran Khanis using social media to try and thwart US fixing the elections in Pakistan and Akhter the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs that includes Pakistan.

4. Lindsey W. Ford

On 22 February, Julie Chung’s high visitor” was US Deputy Assistant Secretary of  Defense  for South and South East Asia, Lindsey W. Ford. Her area of responsibility includes bilateral relations with India and all other South Asian countries. She discussed US defense cooperation programme and Sri Lanka’s important role in the Indian Ocean Region”.

Akter’s and her visit coincides with Pakistan’s controversial elections. Imran Khan and his party allege that the national elections held on February 8, were rigged, candidates backed by Khan’s party won the most number of seats. It is no secret that Western powers are behind the alliance of Khan’s rival parties allowing it to form the next government.

5. Richard Rahul Verma

Next comes Richard Rahul Verma, Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources on February 23.  His visit represents the positive momentum in our US-Sri Lanka friendship as key partners in the Indo-Pacific”,  messaged Chung. Their intentions are clear, that they want to make Sri Lanka a partner  in their Indo-Pacific” war games. Funny names! Who amalgamated the Indian Ocean with the Pacific Ocean? We thought that the east of the Indian Ocean was bounded by the beaches of Western Australia!

Verma also had discussions with representaives of civil soceity, economic leaders” and Minister of Foreign Affairs. He stressed the vital need to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms including freedom of expression”  and explored opportunities to deepen defense and maritime cooperation between US and Sri Lanka”, apparently all these bigwigs warn against Online Safety Bill. 

On board SLNS Vijayabahu, one of the three former US Coast Guard cutters he said a fourth cutter would be transferred soon. Why? To increase Sri Lanka’s capability to patrol its Exclusive Economic Zone, monitor its search and rescue area and provide additional security for ships that transit the sea lane of Indian Ocean; Sri Lanka playing the role of the kangani at the command of US Sea Lord.   

Verma discussed with Ranil Wickremasinghe, Sri Lanka’s economic recovery and progress of its IMF Programme” including economic and governance reforms aimed at putting Sri Lanka on the path of sustainable economic growth.” We saw in the TV, RW like a subdued school boy presenting his report card to Verma. RW outlined the progress of the dedt restructuring , key economic reforms measures, agricultural modernisation programme. Important part of this discussion was Verma thanking RW for the assistance in the on-going naval operations in the Red Sea, Operation Prosperity Guardian”.

Finally Julie Chung interviewing  Verma on 26 February asks us to listen to Verma’s thoughts on Sri Lanka’s role in the Indo-Pacific and the importance of diverse voices in democracy”. Chung begins her interview saying, Sri Lanka at the heart of Indo-Pacific, gem in the region” . They all are trying to bleed this heart” and grab the gem”!

This week’s e-Con e-News (February 24) reported as its headline, US Sends Nordstream Bomber to Sri Lanka”. According to it, Verma a member of President’s Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB), came to Sri Lanka with unnamed senior officials from the White House National Security Council. PIAD planned the 26 September 2022 US bombing of the Nordstream pipeline.

PIAB provides advice to US President concerning the quality and adequacy of intellegence collection, analysis and estimates of counter intelligence and other intelligence activities. PIAB through its Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB) also advices the President on the legality of foreign intellegence activities.      

Verma was appointed to PIAB by Biden in May 2022. Do our digital turtles” , digital frogs”, digital fireflies” and others invited by Chung know whom they are meeting and what work they do in the US and what work they have in Sri Lanka?

Why this influx of high ranking US officials? Because India invited Anura Kumara of NPP to counter RW’s moves is a very simplistic suggestion.

6. New Developments

Some Pohottuwa dissidents including a rollling stone” Professor joining Sajith, Anura Kumara receiving an audience from Indian political and business leaders, campaigning by Lansa Group,  reemergence of CBK and Sirisena’s manipulations (recently he was invited to US), Champika Ranawaka’s  United  Republic Front” meeting RW and Sajith and presenting a document, United Step for the Country”, IUSF meeting JVP, FSP, the breakaway group of JVP alleging China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) obtaining sand from the Port City, another group of Pohottuwa dissidents including another Professor rallying around Roshan Ranasinghe, dividing ex-servicemen on party lines, imminent merger of SJB with RW are not isolated incidents, all orchestrated by hidden hands. These hidden hands will choose the right man at the right time.

7. Silence of Anura Kumara

We remember, Dudley Senanayake’s Government in 1965, establishing Ceylon Hotels Corporation and Hotels School to revitalise tourist industry. Several star-class hotels were opened in the seaside resorts including Bentota, Hikkaduwa, Ahungalla, Hendala. Nandasiri Wijeweera the then JVP leader created a  spectre, thathotels in the seaside are being constructed for the use of CIA and MI 5; at any time British and American soldiers can land to these seaside hotels and be used as military bases.   

With all these top US officials visiting Sri Lanka we don’t hear any comment from NPP or Anura Kumara although they organise public rallies at every corner of the Island waxing eloquence about their dream government. Already they have appointed their Cabinet of Ministers!

Now slogans such as, Adhirajyawadayata Vinasaya – Janathawata Vimukthiya” (Death to imperialism – Liberation to the masses); Dhanawadayata Vinasaya – Samajawadayata Jayagrahanaya” (Death to capitalism – Victory to Socialism); Anthima adhirajyawadiya anthima dhanapathiyage badawelin ella marana thuru janathawata vimukthiyak netha,” (until (we) hang the last imperialist by the intestines of the last capitalist there is no liberation to the masses), has no place in the JVP’s political armoury”.

JR Jayawardena released Wijeweera and other JVPers imprisoned by the  Criminal Justice Commission (CJC).  Wijeweera true to his murky politics started a campaign to vilify the Old Left  and SLFP after his release. A series of meetings were conducted with the theme,Gamanaka Avasanaya” (End of the Journey), borrowing the title of a documentary produced on SWRD’s funeral.

At a subsequent Left May Day Rally, a funny slogan chanted reverberates still:

Wijeweera honda lamaya-Katchal batchal nethi lamaya

UNP anduwata – Karadarayak nethi lamaya”

(loosely translated as Wijeweera is a good boy; he’s not a difficult boy; he is a good boy, who does not make any trouble to the UNP government).

The history of wheel of JVP had turned several rounds and now it is the phase of Anura Kumara. Very soon the disillusioned men and women who come to listen to NPP rhetorics and watch antics of its hotheads will chant:

Anura Kumar(a) honda lamaya – Modi – Chung ta honda lamaya”.

Ministry of Defence  – Media Centre

‘In acknowledging the role played by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in advancing global peace and security, we are proud to announce that Sri Lanka’s initiative to introduce a new Act and an online Chemical Monitoring and Regulatory System (CM&RS) dedicated to overseeing security-related chemicals’.

Defence Secretary General Kamal Gunaratne made these remarks while taking the stage as the Chief Guest of the Inauguration Ceremony of the OPCW Expert Workshop organized with the collaboration of National Authority for Implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (NACWC), Sri Lanka at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel, Colombo today (Feb 27).

The workshop focusing on Developing Indicative Guidelines on Know Your Customer (KYC) and Due Diligence Best Practices for the Chemical Supply Chain” is to be conducted from February 27 to March 01 with expert participants from the USA, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, China, India, Kenya, Nigeria and Sri Lanka.

The OPCW serves as the executive organization for the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), commonly referred to as the international treaty prohibiting the development, production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons, along with their systematic elimination. The CWC represents a global agreement designed to eliminate specific categories of weapons in a verifiable fashion, concentrating primarily on national initiatives and indirectly addressing the potential threat of chemical terrorism.

To fulfil its commitments under the CWC, Sri Lanka established the NACWC to serve as the national focal point for effective communication with the OPCW and other state parties. Sri Lanka signed the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) on 14th January 1993 and ratified on 19th August 1994. The CWC Act no.58 of 2007 for the implementation of the convention within Sri Lanka was passed by Parliament and it was amended as CWC Amended Act No. 1 of 2019.

Additional Secretary (Defence Services) to the Ministry of Defence Mr. Jayantha Edirisinghe, the Director of the NACWC and the Director General Engineering of Sri Lanka Navy Rear Admiral Ravi Ranasinghe, Senior Consultant in CBRNE Safety & Security Dr. Rohan P. Perera and the OPCW Senior Programme Officer Mr. Taoen Kim were the distinguished members at the Inauguration Ceremony Workshop.

By A. Abdul Aziz

Over 40000 attended this three day Convention.

 Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad,   Head of the Worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim (may Allah be his Helper), conducted the concluding session from the Masroor Hall, Islamabad, UK, for the Annual Convention (Jalsa Salana ) Ghana 2024 on last Saturday.

With the grace of Allah, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Ghana has been holding its Annual Convention (Jalsa Salana) over the past 3 days, and it has now reached its concluding session. This year’s Convention has a special significance as it is being held on the occasion of the centenary of the establishment of the Ghana Ahmadiyya Community .”

The blessed seed planted a century ago in Ghana attesting to the truth of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian – the Promised Messiah,  peace be on him, has flourished and borne countless fruits. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is now well-known in every part of Ghana. Every Ghanaian recognises the Ahmadiyya Community and holds it in high regard.

Ahmadiyya Khalifa said:

Where the Jamaat of Ghana is furthering the cause of Islam through preaching  ( tabligh), it has also established schools, colleges, hospitals and other vital services, which has long been a means of outstanding service to the people of your nation.” As we move forward, we should also focus on our responsibilities.”, His Holiness added.

It must not be that having reached this milestone, you now sit back and relax; rather, as Ghanian Jamaat enters its second centenary, it is the duty of every Ahmadi to strive earnestly to ensure its continued progress and prosperity.

You must endeavour to convey the message of Islam to every single person of the country, seek to win the hearts and minds of your people through love and compassion. Inform your compatriots, that in this era, in servitude to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) the Messiah and Mahdi who was destined to come has arrived in person of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian.”

His Holiness explained that only by associating ourselves with the Promised Messiah, peace be on him, can we in this era truly understand the teachings of Islam. Only by attaching ourselves to him can we comprehend the rights of Allah and the rights of His creation. Only then can we do justice to these twin principles that lie at the heart of Islamic teachings. Only then can we become the grantors of peace in the world at every level of society. Only then can humanity bring an end to the incessant warfare and disorder that are increasingly plaguing the modern world.

Ahmadiyya Khalifa said that geopolitical conflicts are escalating and hatreds are becoming deeply entrenched both within nations and at the global level. As Ahamdis, we believe that only through the teachings of the Holy Quran, can the hostilities and conflicts destroying the world’s peace and security can be transformed into bonds of mutual love and unity. His Holiness said, So, as Ahmadi Muslims, never forget who you are and what you represent.”

Hazrat Amirul Momineen^aa added, that people may ask what distinguishes you from other individuals. They will question whether you yourself reflect those teachings that you call others to accept.

Ahmadiyya Head said, said it is our great fortune that the Promised Messiah has illuminated the path of the code of conduct in the form of the Conditions of Bai‘at (Oath of Allegiance) We can only progress if we follow these conditions.

 Today I wish to present the essence of Islamic teachings by reminding you all of the conditions of the Oath of Allegiance (bai‘at ) which, as I have said must always remain the means of governing all elements of our life.”

If we can achieve this, we will not only safeguard our own future, but save others as well, and they will come under the protective spiritual shade of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

The first condition of bai‘at requires Ahmadis to abstain from shirk. The Founder of the Ahmadiyya Community – Promised Messiah explains that idols are not only those made of gold, copper, or silver; rather, any entity that is given such reverence that it is only due to God, is an idol. Tawhid (Oneness of God)  requires a firm conviction that God Almighty is beholden to no one and is All-Powerful and the Supreme Being. 

The second condition of bai‘at requires Ahmadis to keep away from falsehood, cruelty, adultery, dishonesty, disorder, rebellion and every kind of evil.

The Promised Messiah further instructed us to avoid all paths that carry even the slightest risk of becoming involved in adultery. It is a very dangerous sin and it takes a person far away from Allah the Almighty.

The Promised Messiah said that a person who is unable to marry should curb his urges through other means, for example, by fasting or doing extraneous exercise.

The Promised Messiah said:

The prayer of the wicked tyrant is not accepted because he is unmindful of Allah, and thus Allah cares not for him. If a son is unmindful of his obligations to his father, the father does not care about him, because of his disobedience. Why should Allah care for such people?”

The Promised Messiah advised Ahmadis that, They should perform the five daily prayers regularly, should not utter falsehood and should not hurt anyone by their tongues. They should be guilty of no vice and should not let even a thought of any mischief, wrong, disorderliness, or turmoil pass through their minds.”

The Promised Messiah also instructed his followers to stay away from every form of rebellion against the government. Moreover, they should keep away from all forms of carnal passions and illicit things

Ahmadiyya Khalifa  said, In today’s world, new means and technology are constantly developing that are pulling people away from morality and pushing them towards vulgarity and depravity.” For example, the internet, television and media are all proving the gateways to vice and corrupting the old and the young. So, every Ahmadi must recite istighfar (seeking forgiveness ).

The Promised Messiah said:

So all ye people who count yourselves as members of my Jamaat, in heaven you shall be counted members of my following only when you truly begin to advance on the paths of righteousness. Offer your five daily obligatory prayers with such concentration and awe of mind as though you were seeing God in front of you. Observe the days of fasting for the sake of God in full sincerity. All among you who are liable for Zakat should never fail to discharge this important obligation.”

The Promised Messiah also emphasised invoking blessings on the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

Ahmadiyya Khalifa said that another attribute an Ahmadi must inculcate is to praise and show gratitude to Allah the Almighty in all circumstances.

Ahmadiyya Khalifa  said that the Promised Messiah instructed us not to inflict injury on any of Allah’s creatures. We should not cause harm with our hands or words to anyone.

Ahmadiyya Head said:

All of you participating in the Convention should sincerely pray for an end to oppression and injustice and for true peace to prevail in the world.”

As Ahmadi Muslims, we must not permit any type of innovation or corruption of our religion and consider the Holy Quran as our guiding light. Only then can we claim to be true Ahmadi religio, Ahmadiyya Khalifa added.

Ahmadiyya Head said:

Now and before concluding, I also wish to remind you that the Promised Messiah has taken a solemn pledge from us in our bai‘at (Oath of Allegiance ) that, after accepting of Ahmadiyyat, we will remain entirely obedient to him purely for the sake of Allah and will hold our bond of love with him higher than any worldly relationship.

Ahmadiyya Head ssid:

I say to all of you that now is that time to come forward and pledge with absolute determination and resoluteness that you will forever seek to bring about all the pure changes required to fulfil the conditions of the oath you have taken with the Promised Messiah^as.” If you do so, you will be a means of conveying the message of Islam to the corners of the world. May it be that by following the teachings of the Islam, you become the people to bring about a moral revolution in the world.

Ahmadiyya Head prayed:

May the world come to look towards Ghana and the African nations as the beacons of justice, truth and morality based, insha-Allah.”

Source : Al Hakam -London.

tomdispatch.com/

Imagine for a moment that I told you Congress was suddenly teetering at the edge of passing a $95-billion bill to give many more Americans reasonable health care. No, it really doesn’t sound likely, does it? Okay, then, how about Congress teetering at the edge of passing just such a bill to further arm Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan with American weaponry of all sorts? Oh wait, it may be to arm those countries further, but it’s also to fund the giant all-American arms-makers, those key components of the military-industrial-congressional complex, since money for weaponry meant for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan will actually go directly to them, as TomDispatch regular and Pentagon expert William Hartung explains today.

Oh, and just imagine for a moment that, should those arms companies get such near-record funding anytime soon, some of that money — count on it — will be poured into endless cost overruns and distinctly dysfunctional weapons systems. You want an example? Take Boeing, which should be considered the poster child for such a reality right now. If you’ve been watching the nightly news, I’m sure you’ve noticed those Boeing 737 Max 9 commercial jets that were discovered to be missing door bolts after a door plug from one of them fell 16,000 feet into an Oregon backyard.

Full Report

තිස්ස ගුණතිලක

පසුගිය ලිපි දෙකෙන්ම උත්සාහකලේ ප්‍රස්තූත පැනයට පිලිතුර සාකච්චාකරන අතරම සමාජය තුලත් අප සියළු දෙනා තුලත් නිදන් ගතවී ඇති නිවන වසනා (මිත්‍යා) දෘෂ්ඨීන් හඳුනාගෙන ඒවා දුරුකිරීමය.

1. උදාහරනයක් ලෙස ස්වභාවධර්මය තුලවූ සියල්ලම අසංඛතය බවත් ඒ සියල්ලේම එකතුව නිවනේ ස්වභාවය නැතහොත් නිවනම බවත් පලමුව දත යුතුය. එනම් ස්වභාවධර්මය යනු නිවනයි. නිවන් දැකීම යනු ස්වභාවධර්මගත වීමයි, ස්වභාවධර්මයම වීමයි.

2. අනිච්ච හා අනිත්‍ය – දෙවනුව ස්වභාවධර්මය තුල පවතින සියල්ලම අනාත්මීය ස්වභාවයෙන් එනම් දෙයක් යමක් කෙනෙක් නැති, වටිනාකමක් නැති, ගින්නක් ඇති නොවන, ශුණ්‍ය ස්වභාවයෙන් පවතින බව පසක්කල යුතුය. බුදුන්වහන්සේ දේසනාකල ‘අනිච්ච’ ස්වභාවය මෙයයි. අනිච්ච අනිත්‍ය සමග පටලවා ගැනීමෙන් නිවන ඔබෙන් ඈත්වෙයි. සෑම දෙයක්ම වෙනස්වන විපරිනාමවන ස්වභාවයෙන් පවත්නාබව (අනිත්‍ය බව) පාසැල් වයසේ දරුවන් පවා දනියි. එම දරුවාගේ දෙමාපියන් ඇතුළු වැඩිහිටි අය මහළුවන බව, ලෙඩ රෝගවලට ගොදුරුවනබව, අවසන සම්මත මරණයට පත්වනබව කුඩා දරුවන් පවා දකියි. ගහකොල වැඩී විශාල ගස් වන අයුරුත්  ඒවා අවසන දිරීමකට ලක්වී පොලවට එකතුවන ක්‍රියාවලිය පොඩි දරුවා දකින ස්වභාවධර්ම සංසිද්ධීන්ය. ස්වභාවධර්මගත සෑම වස්තූවක්ම වෙනස්වන, විපරිනාමවන ස්වභාවය ඔහුට පසක්වීමට අමතර ඉගැන්වීමක් අවශ්‍ය නොවෙයි. එම ස්වභාවධර්මතාවය ඔහුට තනිවම ග්‍රහනය කරගත හැකි වෙයි.

බුදුන්වහන්සේ බොහෝ සූත්‍ර දේශනාවල යමක් ‘… නිච්චං වා අනිච්චං වා ති”? යනුවෙන් ප්‍රශ්න කරයි. එවිට භික්ෂූන් ‘අනිච්චං භන්තෙ’ ලෙස පිලිතුරු දෙයි. මෙයින් ගම්‍යවන්නේ බුදුනුවහන්සේ පෙන්වා දෙන ප්‍රස්තූතය භික්ෂුන් එහි ඇති ‘අනාත්මීය’ ‘ශුන්‍ය’ නැතහොත් ‘මෙලෝ රසයක් නැති’, වටිනාකමක් නැති’, ගිනිනොගන්නා ස්වභාවයෙන් ගත්බව මිස එහි ඇති ‘වෙනස්වන, විපරිනාමවන, අනිත්‍ය’ ගුණය ප්‍රකට කල බව නොවෙයි. තවද අනාත්මීයව පවතින ස්වභාවගත වස්තූන්වල ශුණ්‍ය ස්වභාවය ‘දුක්ඛ’ ලෙස තිලක්ෂණය තුල අඩංගුව ඇතිබවත් එවිට ‘අනිච්ච’ හා දුක්ඛ’ යන දෙකම ස්වභාවධර්මය අර්ථවත් කරනා සංකල්ප ලෙස දැකීමට බාදාවක් නොවනු ඇත.

3. ඉපදීම දුකක්ද? – තෙවනුව, ඉපදීම දුකක් ලෙස බොහෝ ගිහි පැවිදි දේශකයින් අපට මිත්‍යා දේසනාවක් ඉදිරිපත් කරයි. බුදුන්වහන්සේ දේසනා කලේ මනුසත්භාවයක් ලැබීම අති දුර්ලභ බවත් එහි ප්‍රතිපල නොපමාවම ලබාගතයුතු බවත්ය (දුර්ලභං මනුස්සත්තං, දුර්ලභං දම්මසවනං ……). එසේනම් ස්වභාවධර්ම ක්‍රියාවලියක්වන දෙදෙනෙකුගේ සුසංයෝජනයෙන් ‘තවත් නිවන් මාර්ගස්ථ ජිවියෙක්‘ බිහිකරයි. නිවන් දැකිය හැකි ජීවියෙකුගේ බිහිවීම දුකක්වන්නේ තථාගත ධර්මය පටලවාගත් තවත් දේශකයෙකුහට පමනි.

බුදුන්වහන්සේ දුකක් ලෙස හදුන්වන්නේ ‘ජාතිපි දුක්ඛා’ ලෙස පෙන්වාදෙන ආත්මීය ස්වභාවය තුල ජනිතවන ‘ආත්ම දෘෂ්ඨියයි’. එයද ආත්ම දෘෂ්ඨියම නොව භවය සකස් කරන ආත්ම දෘෂ්ඨිය ඇතිවී මම ඇතිවේය යන බියයි, තැතිගැනීමයි. අගට ඇති ‘පි’ අක්ෂරය (ජාතිපි, ජරාපි, ව්‍යාධිපි, මරණම්පි ආදි වශයෙන්) යම් සංකල්පයක් තුල අන්තර්ගත ‘භීතිය, තැතිගැනීම’ හඳුන්වා දීමට යෙදෙයි. ‘මම’ ඇතිවීම සියළු දුකට පාදකවන නිසා එහි තුල අන්තර්ගත ‘භීතිය’ සත්‍ය වශයෙන්ම දුකකි – මූලපරියාය (සියල්ලටම මුල) සූත්‍රය බලන්න. සම්මත මරණයද එසේම දුකක් නොවන ස්වභාවධර්ම සංසිද්ධියකි. මරණයට පත්වීමට වත් කෙනෙක් නැති ස්වභාවය තුල මරණයෙන් පසුව දුක දැනෙන්නේ කාටද? නමුත් මරණය යන සංකල්පය දැක ඇති, එහි ගැබ්වී ඇති වේදනාව (ප්‍රියයන්ගෙන් වෙන්වීමේ වේදනාවද ඇතුළුව) දන්නා අයෙකුට මරණයේ භීතිය දැනෙයි, මරණය යන සංකල්පයම ඔහු හෝ ඇය තුල තැතිගැනීමක් ඇතිකරයි. භීතිය හා තැතිගැනීම (නිවන වසනා) ආතතියක් ඇතිකරන චෛතසිකයකි, ඒ නිසා දුකකි. මරණංපි දුක්ඛා යනු ‘මම’ යන ආත්ම දෘෂ්ඨිය නිසා හටගන්නා දුකයි.

4. සිව්වනුව කර්ම–විපාක දෘෂ්ඨිය. මෙය බුදුසමයටත් පෙර දඹදිව පැවති දෘෂ්ඨියකි. එක් අයෙක් තවත් අයෙකුගෙන් වෙනස් වන්නේ ඇයි? යන ප්‍රශ්ණය එදා දඹදිව වැසියන් විවිධ ශාෂ්තෘන්ගෙන් පිළිතුරු බලාපොරොත්තුවු පැනයක්විය. කෙනෙක් දීර්ඝ ආයුෂ විදියි. තවකෙක් අඩුවයසින් මරණය කරා ලඟාවෙයි. කෙනෙක් රාජ රාජ මහාමාන්‍ය සැපවිඳියි. තවකෙක් දුගී දුප්පත්ව අඹුදරුවන් රකිමින් දුක්ඛිත ජිවිතයක් ගතකරයි. කෙනෙක් ලෙඩ රෝගවලට ගොදුරුවී දුක්-වේදනා විදියි. තවකෙක් කිසිම අසනීපයකට ලක්නොවී දිවිගෙවයි. මෙසේ වන්නේ කුමන හේතුවක් නිසාද? යන පැනය එදා දඹදිව වැසියන්තුල විය. එයට පිළිතුරක් සැපයීමට අසමත්වූ ශාෂ්තෘන් ලඟින් බොහෝ ස්‍රාවකයින් ඉවත්විය. ඒ ශාෂ්තෘන්ට දානය පවා නොලැබෙන තත්වයක් එදා උදාවිය. නිඝණ්ඨනාථපුත්‍ර හෙවත් මහාවීර මෙම තත්වයට තමන්ද පත්විය හැකිබව දැක පැනයට පිළිතුරක් ලෙය ‘කර්මය හා විපාකය’ යන ‘භූත සංකල්පය’ ඉදිරිපත්කල (‘Karmaya’ coined by Mahaweera) අතර නිවන් මාර්ගයක් අසා නොදැන සිටි ජනසමාජය එම පිළිතුරෙන් සෑහීමකට පත්වූබවක් පෙනේ. බුදුන්වහන්සේ එදා සමාජගත සියළුම විශ්වාසයන් ‘පුබ්බේ අනනුස්සතේසු ධම්මේසු’ ලෙස ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කරනාතුරු දඹදිව සමාජය තුල ‘කර්ම-පල’ දෘෂ්ඨිය විය.

ලොකුම හා භයානකම සතුරා

ඔබට සතුරු සියළුදෙනාම හෝ සියළුදෙයම ඔබට යම්කිසි දිනක තනිවම හෝ භාහිර ආධාරයක් සහිතව හෝ පරාජය කල හැකිය. පරාජය කිරීමට ඉතාමත් අපහසු ඔබේම සතුරා වන්නේ ‘ඔබයි’ නැතහොත් ඔබතුල වසනා ‘මමයි’. ඔබ තුල ‘මම’ නැමති සතුරා, ‘ආත්ම දෘෂ්ඨිය’ ලෙස සහ ‘ආත්ම සංඥාව’ ලෙස පවතියි. තථාගත ධර්මය තුල බුදුන්වහන්සේ ‘මම‘ නැමති සතුරා හැදින්වූයේ ‘මාරයා‘ ලෙසයි. ගයාවේ බෝධිමූලයේදී බුදුවීමට එරෙහිව නැගී සිටි එකම සතුරාවූයේ තමන්වහන්සේතුල සිටි ‘මමයි’ නැතහොත් ‘ආත්ම සංඥාව’යි. බුදුවීමට අවශ්‍ය සියළුම අතහැරීම (detachment) ඇතුළු පාරමිතා (pre-conditions) සම්පූර්ණ කර සිටි සිද්ධාර්ථ තවුසානන්ට බුදුවීමේදී සටන්කිරීමට සිඳුවූ එකම සතුරාවූයේ මෙම ‘මම’ නැමති ‘මාරයා’යි. බුද්ධත්වයට පත්වනවිට කල මාර පරාජය නම් මෙම ‘මම’ නැමති සතුරා හෙවත් ආත්ම සංඥාව පරාජය කිරීමයි.

නිවන් දකින මාර්ගය අහුරා සිටින මෙම ‘මම’ නැමනි සතුරා, කොයි මොහොතේ පැමිනෙන්නේදැයි නොදන්නා බවත් මාරයා මහා සේනාවක් සමඟ පැමිනෙන බවත් මාරයා සමඟ ගිවිසුම් නැතිබවත් ‘භද්දේකරත්න සූත්‍රය’ තුල බුදුන්වහන්සේ විස්තරකලේ මෙම ‘මම’ නැමති නිවන වසනා මාරයා ගැනයි.

අජ්ජෙව කිච්චමාතප්පං, කො ජඤ්ඤා මරණං සුවෙ;

න හි නො සඞ්ගරං තෙන, මහාසෙනෙන මච්චුනා

අදම කෙළෙස් තවන වීර්‍ය්‍යය කළ යුත්තේය හෙට මරණය සිදුවේදැයි (ආත්ම සංඥාව කුමන මොහොතක හෝ දෘෂ්‍යමානවී නිවන වසයිදැයි) කවරෙක් දන්නේද, මහා සේනාවක් ඇති, ඒ මාරයා සමග ගිවිසුමක් අපට නැත්තේය.

5. සමත භාවනාව – පස්වනුව, සිත දමනය, පාලනයකිරීම තුලින් නිවන් දැකිය හැකිය යන මිත්‍යා දෘෂ්‍ඨියද පහකල යුතුය. සිත පාලනය දමනය කරන ප්‍රතිපදාව නිවන්මග නොවේ එය බුදුන්වහන්සේටත් පෙර දඹදිව පැවති මිත්‍යා විශ්වාසයකි. සමත භාවනාව ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම නිවන වසයි. සමතය තුල ධ්‍යානපල ලබනා කෙනෙක් සිටී ඒ නිසා සමත භාවනාව ‘යමක් දෙයක් කෙනෙක්’ නැති අනාත්ම දහම සමඟ ගැලපීමක් නැත. 

නිවන් දකින ප්‍රතිපදාව පවතින්නේ ‘අතහැරීම’ හෙවත් අල්පේච්චතාවය ප්‍රගුණකිරීම තුලයි. අතහැරීම (චෛතසික හා භෞතික අතහැරීම) සම්පූර්ණකල යෝගාවචරයා තුල ආතතිය නැතිවී, පස්සද්දිය tranquity ඇතිවී එනම් බොජ්ජංග වැඩී ඉබේම (auto) නිවන කරා පැමිනෙයි. අවසානභාගයේදි නිවන පසක්වන්නේ ආයාසයකින් තොරවය. ඔබද භෞතිකව සියල්ල අතහැර විපස්සනාවෙන් චෛතසික අතහැරීමත් පුරුදු පුහුනු කල අයෙකුනම් (pre-conditions – පාරමිතා) ඔබවෙත නිවන ආයාසයකින් තොරව ලඟාවෙයි.

මම (ආත්ම දෘෂ්ඨිය හා ආත්ම සංඥාව) නැතිකරන පෘතග්ජනයා (හෝ ශෘතවත් ආර්ය ස්‍රාවකයා) නිවන්දකී. මම සිටිනාතාක් කල් දුක ඇතිවෙයි. මම පිටුදකිනා, දුක නැතිකරන මාර්ගයේ ගමන් කරන්නේ යෝගාවචරයායි. නිවන යනු ස්වභාවධර්මගතවීමයි. භාහිරයේ ඇති, අරමුනට විශයවන සියල්ලම අනාත්මීය (දෙයක් යමක් මමෙක් නැති ශුන්‍ය) ස්වභාවයෙන් ග්‍රහනය කිරීම නිවන් දකිනා ප්‍රතිපදාව වන ‘විපස්සනාවයි’. භාහිරයේ සිටිනා රූපාගේ හෝ උපාලිගේ ආශ්වාදයක් (හෝ වෛරී – ඇලෙන ගැටෙන ස්වභාවයක්) නැති බවත් එවැනි ස්වභාවක් ඇතිවන්නේ ඔබේම විඤ්ඤාණ මායාව තුල බවත් දැකිය හැකිනම් භාහිරයේ සිටිනා රූපා හෝ උපාලි ‘විඳිනා ඔබ’ (මම) ඔබ තුල ඇති නොවෙයි. එනම් භාහිර රූපය ආත්මීයව, ශුණ්‍යව දකිනා නිසා ඔබ තුල ‘භවය’ (උපාදාන පච්චයා භව) ඇති නොවෙයි. ඒ නිසාම ඔබ තුල භාහිරය විදිනා මම ඇති නොවෙයි (භව පච්චයා ජාති). මෙම ක්‍රියාවලිය ක්‍රමයෙන් සිඳුවන්නකි – ක්ෂය ධම්මා වය ධම්මා.

ස්වභාවධර්මය හා පෘතග්ජන ස්වභාවය

රහතන්වහන්සේ ස්වභාවධර්මයමවී, ස්වභාවය හා බද්ධවී එනම් ස්වභාවධර්මගතවී දුකක් නැති ස්වභාවයෙන් තම දිවිය ගෙවයි. 

පෘතග්ජනයාද වාසය කරන්නේ රහතන්වහන්සේ වැඩවසනා ස්වභාවධර්මය තුලමය. නමුත්‍ හෙතෙමේ විඤ්ඤාණමායාවෙන් තමා අවට පරිසරය ආත්මීය ස්වභාවයෙන් අල්ලාගැනියි. ඒ හේතුවෙන් සියල්ලම ‘මම’ දකින විදින ස්වභාවයෙන් ගනියි. මේ නිසා හෙතෙමේ රහතන්වහන්සේ මෙන් දුක නැති ස්වභාවය අත්නොවිදියි. 

නිවනේ ඇති පලය – නිවන තුල දුකක් නැත. නිවය යනු දුකෙන් නිදහස් ස්වභාවයකි. දුක හා වේදනාව යනු සංසිද්ධීන් දෙකකි. දුක චෛතසිකයක් වන අතර වේදනාව යනු භ්‍යෙතික ශරීරයට දැනෙන සංසිද්ධියකි. සද්ධර්මයට අනුව මම නැති තැන (රහත් ස්වභාවය) ශරීරයට හිමිකරුවෙක් හමුනොවෙයි. වේදනාව ‘විදීමක්’ වන්නේ පෘතග්ජනයාටයි. රහතන්වහන්සේට වේදනාව විදීමක් නොව එය ස්කන්ධ මට්ටමේ ඇතිවන ප්‍රාථමික දැනීමක් වන අතර එය රාග ද්වේශ නැති ස්වභාවයෙන් ‘විසංකාර’ වී දුකක් නැති ස්වභාවයෙන් අත්විඳියි. දුකක් සමග ඇතිවන වේදනාව හා දුකක් රහිත වේදනාව යනු දෙකකි. හිමිකරුවෙක් ඇති ශරීරයකට දැනෙන වේදනාව හා හිමිකරුවෙක් නැති ශරීරයකට දැනෙනා වේදනාව ආකාර දෙකක්විය යුතුමය.

මීලඟ ලිපියෙන් දුකක් නැති ස්වභාවයට අමතරව නිවන තුල ඇති වෙනත් ප්‍රතිලාභ ගැන සාකච්චා කරමු.

ඔබට තෙරුවන් සරණයි

තිස්ස ගුණතිලක

eMail:  tgunite@tpg.com.au

2024 පෙබරවාරි මස 28 වනදා

By KELUM BANDARA Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Colombo, Feb 27 (Daily Mirror) – Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena is reported to have used his decisive vote as the chairman of the Constitutional Council (CC) to affirm the appointment of Mr. Deshabandu Tennakoon as the Inspector General of Police (IGP) permanently.

The other eight members of the CC were divided in a tie on the appointment. An informed source said four members voted for the appointment and two others against . Besides, two others abstained but their decisions were challenged. It was argued that any member should vote for or against rather than abstaining .

Also , abstentions in this instance were considered as votes cast against the appointment. Therefore the members were divided in a tie resulting in the Speaker using his vote in favour of the appointment .

The CC is a ten member body . Seven of them are from Parliament and three others from civil society . The Speaker , the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader are its members by virtue of their office . Besides , there are three other MPs nominated by the President, the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader . The tenth member representing the minor parties has not yet been appointed .

 By KELUM BANDARA Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Colombo, Feb 27 (Daily Mirror) – In the wake of reports that President Ranil Wickremesinghe ordering an immediate investigation into the circular asking overstaying Russian and Ukrainian tourists to leave within 14 days, the Russian Embassy in Colombo said it awaits the results of the probe directed by the President.

Asserting that there is no official information as of now, an embassy spokesman said it is an internal affair of Sri Lanka and Russia, unlike other countries, will not interfere in them.

In the meantime, the embassy, in one of its press releases issued earlier, said it requests all its citizens staying in Sri Lanka for tourism or residing permanently to strictly follow Sri Lankan laws and customs.

Earlier, the circular was issued by the Department of Immigration and Emigration saying that Ukrainian and Russian nations living in Sri Lanka for a long term should leave within 14 days.

The circular said that Ukrainians and Russians who were affected by the stoppage of flights to their home countries after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war were allowed to remain in Sri Lanka since February 28, 2022, a full two years, based on free visa extensions and without the imposition of penalties for expired tourist visas.

However, the President ordered to revoke it. He also ordered a probe into it. Sri Lanka currently depends on Russia as one of its source markets for tourism. There are direct flights operating from Russia bringing in tourists.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Colombo, Feb. 27 (Daily Mirror)- The legality of the no confidence motion which is being brought against Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardene is questionable, Minister of Justice Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe said today.

The opposition claims that the Speaker got the Online Safety Bill enacted violating the constitution. It is not the Speaker who enacts a Bill. It is done by the MPs in Parliament. Speaker is not even allowed to participate in parliamentary debates. Also the Supreme Courts never force the legislature to amend any Bill. It only looks into whether a Bill violates any section of the constitution or not. How can one accuse the Speaker of violating the constitution in such a scenario? Therefore the legality of the no faith motion that is being brought against the Speaker is questionable,” the Minister said.

Ruling party MPs will decide on their stance on the no faith motion on the basis of its legality,” he added.

Minister Rajapakshe also denounced the claim made by the opposition that appointing of Deshabandu Thennekoon as the new IGP by the constitutional council was illegal. If the constitutional council vote to decide on the appointment of IGP is illegal most of the Bills that have been approved by Parliament in the Sri Lankan history become illegal as well. Most of the bills that have been enacted by Parliament by a simple majority out of the number of MPs present during the voting time throughout the history. Some have abstained during few occasions. Is the opposition saying that all legislations passed by Parliament in the past are illegal? The Minister questioned.

He said four members of the constitutional council had voted in favor of Thennekoon while two had voted against while two members abstained. A majority in the constitutional council have clearly approved the appointment of IGP,” he said.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Indian government is working on operationalizing Rupee investments in Sri Lanka in a move to boost Indian investments in its southern neighbour, two people aware of the matter told Mint.

Rupee investments will ease the way for Indian firms to enter the Sri Lankan markets, the people mentioned above said, speaking under the condition of anonymity.

During FY 2023, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed invoicing and payments for international trade in the Indian Rupee.

This allowed exports and imports to be denominated and invoiced in Indian rupees, with the settlement of trade transactions taking place in the currency.

The RBI’s decision is aimed at promoting the growth of global trade, especially Indian exports, apart from systematically internationalizing the currency. India wants the Indian Rupee to be a hard currency in the future, the second person mentioned above said.

Last year, Sri Lanka notified the Indian Rupee as a designated currency, which enabled trade between the two countries to be settled in the currency and also allowed tourists visiting the island-nation to use the currency for transactions.

India now hopes to work with Sri Lankan to make it easier for Indian firms to invest in the island nation.

At present, Indian investors invest in the country through international currencies like the dollar, which is more cumbersome and involves conversion costs,” said one of the persons cited above.

Rupee investments will ease the way for Indian firms to enter the Sri Lankan markets. The ministry of external affairs (MEA), in particular, is learnt to be pushing for this change,” the person added.

Spokespersons of India’s MEA, finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) didn’t respond to emailed queries.

India has built a closer economic relationship with Sri Lanka in recent years.

India is a key partner of Sri Lanka, playing a pivotal role in its recovery from the economic crisis that started in 2019 and threatened to derail the economy of the South Asian nation.

The crisis that peaked in 2022-23 saw spiralling inflation, emptying of foreign exchange reserves, and shortages of basic commodities.

While the IMF extended assistance of $3 billion, India gave an assistance of over $4 billion to Sri Lanka aiding its economic recovery.

India’s financial assistance included credit lines, a currency swap arrangement and deferred import payments.

India and Sri Lanka also unveiled a slew of connectivity initiatives during President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s visit to India last July. These include proposals for a petroleum pipeline, power grid linkages, a land bridge and a comprehensive Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA).

On 19 February, Mint reported that the ETCA deal is expected to be finalized in FY25, with negotiations in advanced stages.

Pushing for rupee investments will also aid Indian firms, which have made high-profile investments in Sri Lanka,” the person mentioned above said.

Major Indian corporate houses have invested in Sri Lanka. For instance, the Adani Group is developing the West Container Terminal in Colombo Port, for which it received $553 million from the US government’s Development Finance Corporation (DFC).

The group is also considering a $750 million initial investment in Sri Lanka’s power sector, according to reports.

There is a vision to make Indian currency into a hard currency in the coming years, which will enable it to become a part of the IMF’s SDR (special drawing rights) basket, and allow it to be held as a foreign exchange reserve, the second person said.

Source: Mint

–Agencies

Courtesy Adaderana

The Cabinet of Ministers has given the go-ahead to a proposal seeking to upgrade the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) in Katunayake and the Colombo Port to be on par with the international practices, recommendations and standards under a grant provided by Japan.

As Sri Lanka’s economy is mainly dependent on the income generated from international tourism and business travel, the government says this requires smooth operation of entry points into the country, building confidence among travellers and arranging cross-border entry points to comply with international health regulations on movement.

Government of Japan has provided a grant of Yen 1.17 billion through the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to further strengthen border-related health preparedness at points of entry, direct contribution to the control of infectious diseases and the overall security of all passengers, staff and staff at points of entry during health emergencies.

Under the grant, the facilities of BIA, Colombo Port and the Maldives International Airport are planned to be upgraded.

As such the Cabinet of Ministers approved the proposal presented by the Minister of Ports, Shipping and Aviation to implement the relevant project in tandem with the Ministry of Health, Department of Immigration, Airports and Air Services Company and Sri Lanka Port Authority

Courtesy Adaderana

All political parties will be informed of the Regulation of Election Expenditure Act on Tuesday (27 Feb.) and 06 March, as per a decision made by the Election Commission of Sri Lanka.

Chairman of the Commission R. M. A. L. Ratnayake explained that the discussion will be held in light of the fact the upcoming elections will be the first to be held following the passage of the Regulation of Election Expenditure Act, in a bid to provide all parties and politicians with a proper understanding of the Act.

According to the Regulation of Election Expenditure Act, all expenses incurred for elections and campaigns must be limited, he noted.

As such, Ranjith Maddumabandara, Sisira Jayakody, Uvindu Wijeweera, and other representatives of their relevant parties were seen at today’s discussion.

e-Con e-News

Contents:

Ministry of Defence  – Media Centre

ආරක්‍ෂක රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය ගරු. ප්‍රමිත බණ්ඩාර තෙන්නකෝන් මැතිතුමා, එක්සත් ජනපද රාජ්‍ය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ කළමනාකරණ සහ සම්පත් පිළිබඳ නියෝජ්‍ය රාජ්‍ය ලේකම් සහ ප්‍රධාන මෙහෙයුම් නිලධාරී රිචඩ් ආර්. වර්මා මහතා, ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ එක්සත් ජනපද තානාපති අතිගරු ජූලි චන්ග් මැතිනිය ඇතුළු එරට නියෝජිත පිරිසක් පසුගිය සිකුරාදා (පෙබ 23) ශ්‍රී ලංකා නාවික නෞකා විජයබාහු නෞකාවට පැමිණි අවස්ථාවේදී හමු වූ අතර, මෙම අවස්ථාවට නාවික හමුදාපති වයිස් අද්මිරාල් ප්‍රියන්ත පෙරේරා ද අමාත්‍යවරයා සමඟ එක්විය.

මෙහිදී අදහස් දැක්වූ ආරක්‍ෂක රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍යවරයා, ඇමරිකා එක්සත් ජනපදය සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකාව අතර පවතින දිගුකාලීන රාජ්‍ය තාන්ත්‍රික සබඳතා ඔස්සේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ජාතික ආරක්‍ෂාව තහවුරු කිරීම සඳහා එක්සත් ජනපද රජය විසින් උපායමාර්ගික වශයෙන් සහ මෙරට හමුදාවන්ගේ හැකියාවන් වැඩිදියුණු කිරීම සඳහා විශේෂයෙන් නාවික ක්ෂේත්‍රය තුළ සැලකිය යුතු සහයෝගයක් දක්වා ඇති බව අවධාරණය කළේය. මෙම සබඳතාවල ප්‍රතිඵලයක් ලෙස පසුකාලීනව බලපා ඇති සමුද්‍රීය අභියෝගවලට පවා සාර්ථකව මුහුණදීමට මෙන්ම ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ සාගර කලාපය තුළ විපතට පත් සමුද්‍ර සහ ධීවර නෞකා ආවේක්‍ෂණ සහ මුදාගැනීමේ මෙහෙයුම් වඩාත් ඵලදායි ලෙස සිදුකිරීමට නාවික හමුදාවට හැකි වූ බව ද ඔහු පැවසීය. මෙරටට අඛණ්ඩව ලබා දෙන සහයෝගය සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සමඟ පවතින දීර්ඝකාලීන හවුල්කාරිත්වය පිළිබඳව අමාත්‍යවරයා මෙහිදී එක්සත් ජනපද රජයට සිය කෘතඥතාව පුද කරන ලදි.

එක්සත් ජනපද රජය මෙරටේ සමුද්‍රීය ආරක්‍ෂක වැඩ පිළිවෙල ශක්තිමත් කිරීමට සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකා නාවික හමුදාවේ හැකියාවන් වර්ධනයට සහාය වීමට කැපවී සිටින බව  වර්මා මහතා මෙහිදී අදහස් දක්වමින් ප්‍රකාශ කරන ලද අතර,, ශ්‍රී ලංකා නාවික හමුදාවට තවත් ගැඹුරු මුහුදු ආවේක්‍ෂණ නෞකාවක් (O P V) ලබාදීමට මේ වන විට කටයුතු කරමින් සිටින බව ද ඔහු වැඩිදුරටත් ප්‍රකාශ කරන ලදි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා නාවික හමුදාවට ඇමෙරිකා එක්සත් ජනපදයෙන් ලැබුණු නෞකා මගින් නාවික හමුදාවේ හැකියාවන් ඉහළ නැංවීමටත් සමුද්‍රීය ආරක්‍ෂාව සහ නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමේ මෙහෙයුම් වලදී වඩාත් ඵලදායි ලෙස යොදා ගැනීමට හැකි වූ බවත් නාවික හමුදාපතිවරයා මෙහිදී ප්‍රකාශ කරන ලද අතර, එමෙන්ම නාවික හමුදාව සතු නැව් මුළුව සහ අනෙකුත් සම්පත් යොදා ගනිමින් මෙරට සාගර කලාපයේ මෙන්ම ඉන්දියන් සාගර කලාපයේ (I O R) සහ ගැඹුරු මුහුදු කලාපයේ ආරක්‍ෂාව සුරක්‍ෂිත කිරීම සඳහා අවශ්‍ය කටයුතු ඉදිරියටත් සිදුකරන බව ඔහු වැඩිදුරටත් ප්‍රකාශ කරන ලදි.

ඇමරිකා එක්සත් ජනපද රාජ්‍ය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ එක්සත් ජනපද තානාපති කාර්යාලයේ රාජ්‍ය තාන්ත්‍රික නිලධාරීන්, ශ්‍රී ලංකා නාවික හමුදා මාණ්ඩලික ප්‍රධානී රියර් අද්මිරාල් ප්‍රදීප් රත්නායක, බටහිර නාවික විධානයේ නියෝජ්‍ය ආඥාපති කොමදෝරු දම්මික විජේවර්ධන, නාවික හමුදා මූලස්ථානයේ ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ නිලධාරීන් පිරිසක් මෙන්ම බටහිර නාවික විධාන සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකා නාවික නෞකා විජයබාහු නෞකාවේ අණදෙන නිලධාරී කැප්ටන් නලින් ගෝනගල ද මෙම අවස්ථාවට සහභාගී වූහ.

Dr Sarath obeysekera 

During a recent meeting held by the president, he mentioned the need for developing more comprehensive  vocational Training in Sri Lanka

We need to seriously discuss and implement the following plan

The state of welding training and employment opportunities for welders from Sri Lanka 

We  are discussing the state of welding training and employment opportunities for welders from Sri Lanka 

1. numerous training centers in Sri Lanka offer basic welding instruction to young individuals, typically those under 25 years old with at least a GCE O level education. These centers include the Ceylon German Technical Training Institute, Mahapola Ports and Marine Academy, and many others.

2. The training provided by these institutions is often basic and lacks in-depth theoretical knowledge and communication skills. This can result in graduates being ill-prepared for high-quality welding positions, particularly in international contexts.

3. Sri Lankan welders often seek employment abroad in countries such as South Korea, Romania, Singapore, and various Middle Eastern nations. However, the lack of advanced training can limit their job opportunities to lower-skilled positions.

4. Some Sri Lankan welders with more extensive training and experience, such as those from the Ports Authority and Colombo Dockyard, are able to secure better-paying jobs, particularly in the shipbuilding sector.

5. Recruitment agencies in Sri Lanka play a role in qualifying welders and facilitating their employment abroad. These agencies are accredited by a testing agency recognized by the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.

6. There is a significant demand for well-trained welders with strong skills, theoretical knowledge, and communication abilities. Such welders could potentially earn much higher salaries abroad – in the range of $4,000 to $6,000 per month, compared to the current range of $800 to $2,000 for those with lower levels of training.

7. To address this demand and improve employment opportunities for Sri Lankan welders, there is a need for more comprehensive training programs that go beyond basic welding skills and include advanced techniques, theoretical knowledge, and language skills.

It’s clear that there is an opportunity for Sri Lanka to improve its vocational training programs to better prepare welders for the global job market. This could significantly enhance their earning potential and contribute to the country’s economy by providing a more skilled workforce for international employment.

Dr Sarath obeysekera 

Prime Minister’s Media Division

Rumanian Ambassador Doamna Steluța Arhire called on Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena at the Temple Trees today (February 26).

Prime Minister Gunawardena and Romanian Ambassador held discussions on the long standing bilateral relations between the two countries and the steps to be taken to enter into economic cooperation and investment in new spheres. The Prime Minister urged Romania to consider investments and cooperation in education, agriculture, railways, IT, cyber security and tourism sectors.

Ambassador Arhire, expressing happiness over the four fold growth of bilateral trade to US$ 127 million last year added that her country would sign an agreement with Sri Lanka to avoid double taxation so that trade process could be smoothened. She added that another Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation on education, culture, sports and media could be signed once the draft is approved by both sides.

Romanian Ambassador said 40,000 Sri Lankans are employed in Romania and their contribution to the economy is highly appreciative and they also contribute to Sri Lanka with their remittances. The Prime Minister thanked the government of Romania providing employment to a large number of Sri Lankans in recent years.

The Prime Minister said that he is thankful for Romania’s support to Sri Lanka in the past and made a special mention about the Romanian oil supplies when there was a blockade to Sri Lanka due to nationalization of foreign companies in 1960s and the supply of railway compartments and rails to Sri Lanka.

Minister Vidura Wickremanayake. MP Yadamini Gunawardena and Secretary to the Prime Minister Anura Dissanayake were present on this occasion.

Ranjith Soysa Courtesy The Island

The Sri Lankan government is getting ready to sign ETCA (Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement) with India amidst stiff resistance from the members of the professional groups who consider it as an open invitation to India to exploit the weak Sri Lankan economy as well as the Sri Lankans who are in an unenviable situation.

At a recent discussion on the deliberations on international trade agreements, one professional pointed out that the subject of trade agreements in Sri Lanka was managed only by one senior official of the Sri Lankan government. In all other countries, the subject of international trade agreements is discussed and determined by a group of highly skilled professionals, who look into many aspects such as international trading practices, local imports and exports, the impact on the local population, employment, other local resources, and economic trends. Social mobility of the local population and social aspirations of the population are some areas that should receive clinical evaluation from the professionals who investigate the subject of international trade agreements. Do we conduct such in-depth studies before committing ourselves to vital pacts with powerful nations like India, indefinitely? If so, Sri Lankans would be eager to get feedback from the Sri Lankan government about the feasibility of ETCA.

The CEPA (Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement), which was rejected by many of the professional bodies as well as trade unions, was withdrawn by the then government. It was a step in the right direction. But ETCA, which we expect to be more comprehensive in all aspects and have a bigger impact, is going to be approved and implemented by the present government. When facing India’s rulers and formidable officialdom, Sri Lanka, as a country that has burrowed substantial amounts of money on account of the recent crisis, has little bargaining power.

It is morally wrong for the government to place the country in such a perilous situation. How can a small nation be expected to stand firm and make the right decisions unfavorable to powerful and strong India even regarding matters which will have destructive repercussions on the economy and the people of Sri Lanka?

Sri Lankan government led by President Ranil Wickremasinghe and the SLPP MPs should postpone the signing of the ECTA and open discussions with the professional groups, trade unions, and interested political and social organisations about the details of the ETCA in the month of March and listen and amend the agreement suitably or reject it.

Ranjith Soysa 

Courtesy Adaderana

Senior DIG and Acting IGP Deshabandu Tennakoon has been appointed as the 36th Inspector General of Police (IGP) of Sri Lanka.

This appointment, in compliance with the stipulations outlined in Articles 41C.(1) and 61E.(b) of the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, has been made pursuant to the authority vested on President Ranil Wickremesinghe, the PMD reported.

Secretary to the President Mr. Saman Ekanayake presented the official appointment letter to Mr. Deshabandu Tennakoon this afternoon (26) at the Presidential Secretariat.

Tennakoon had been appointed as the Acting IGP on November 29, 2023.

Dilrook Kannangara

Contrary to popular views, China is set to lose a war against USA and its proxies. Despite having the largest arsenal of weapons of war, they are untested in battlefield making them fail in a real war as China has not engaged in any serious war. This is one main reason why USA, UK, France, Russia, Israel constantly engage in war. War gives them an opportunity to learn from it, refine their weapons and tactics. China has not had that opportunity.

The least China can do is to send their weapons to Ukraine to face off against the best weapons NATO has. China must supply its weapons to Russia to be used in Ukraine so that their actual performance (not just lab performance) can be assessed, their weaknesses can be identified and rectified, their strengths can be identified and enhanced and duplicated, the optimum command and control structures in their use can be learnt and their complementarity with other weapons systems can be gauged. None of these benefits come to China without actually sending their weapons to fight against Ukraine. The amount of circumstantial evidence China can gather from desktop research is next to nothing.

If China plays the role of a cowardly ostrich in the Ukraine war fearing US sanctions and revenge, then China is a weak third world army with no chance of defending against Taiwan, USA or any other who regularly challenges China’s territorial claims. And Ukraine will be the last opportunity China gets to test their weapons from a safe distance from harm before it will be dragged into a US-led war close to home.

Courtesy OpportunitySrilanka

A senior Sri Lankan expert in the maritime industry has reportedly said that Sri Lanka’s marine and offshore engineering industry can be developed to be on par with global players in shipbuilding, marine engineering and offshore construction.

Dr. Sarath Obeysekera, Chairman of Sri Lanka Export Development Board’s (EDB) Advisory Forum on Marine and Offshore Engineering and CEO of Walkers Colombo Shipyard owned by MTD Walkers has been quoted as saying in the state owned Daily News that this would require collective action and support from the industry stakeholders and the Sri Lankan government and Sri Lankan missions overseas.

Addressing a webinar organised by the EDB under the theme ‘Marine and Offshore Engineering Sector,’ Obeysekera has pointed out the strategic location of Sri Lanka and the absence of a marine hub between Dubai and Singapore as a decisive and enticing factor, the news report stated.

He has further urged that Sri Lanka needs to utilise its unique position to take this emerging, timely business to showcase Sri Lanka as one of the best and reliable Marine and Offshore Engineering Services in the world.

He has noted that Sri Lanka possesses some key criteria to win the lay-up business opportunities from international vessel owners for short, mid and long-term lay-ups as well.

According to Obeysekera, Sri Lankan service providers are equipped with all critical engineering, vessel husbandry, crew management, bunkering, repairs, servicing, inspection and certification, etc to cater all kinds of lay-ups.

Sri Lanka already has 100% Sri Lankan owned companies able to provide all the lay-up services to international marine assets with experience and good track record, he has said.

Sri Lanka is sheltered from open seas such as Trincomalee Port and Inner Anchorage and Hambantota. Moreover, other key criteria to win the lay up businesses are minimal tidal currents, good holding grounds for anchors, easy access to airports for crew change and 5 and 4 star hotel facilities. Sri Lankan lay-up locations such as Trincomalee, Hambantota, etc are located closer to major shipping routes enabling quick reactivation when business commences,” Obeysekera has further observed.

The marine and offshore engineering Industry focuses on catering to the demand for oil rig repair, modifications, maintenance, conversion of tankers and ships to FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading), oil field equipment supply, manufacturing and servicing.

OSL take:

Sri Lanka’s marine and offshore engineering industry is on a growth path along with the growth recorded by the country’s ports and maritime sectors. Sri Lanka’s geographical positioning in the Indian Ocean and the prominence given to the island in China’s Belt and Road Initiative have helped Sri Lanka reach maritime hub status in the South Asian region. Therefore, the development of the marine and offshore engineering industry would yield definite results to the respective investor. Foreign businesses/investors could confidently explore business/investment opportunities in Sri Lanka’s marine and offshore engineering industry. 

Sri Lanka’s marine and offshore engineering industry shows potential of being on par with global leaders (opportunitysrilanka.com)

චාමලී මදනායක සමග චමුදිත සමරවික්‍රම. Chamali Madanayake On Truth with Chamuditha

Courtesy The Intercept

In 2018, shortly after U.S. Congress woman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), ousted incumbent Democrat Joe Crowley in New York’s 14th Congressional District, her office got an unexpected phone call.

It was the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerful pro-Israel lobbying group, offering an unsolicited donation of $100,000.

AOC declined the money and has emerged as one of the few voices in Congress willing to oppose Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Now, AIPAC is spending tens of millions of dollars to target progressives aligned with AOC in Democratic primaries.

This AOC story, first reported by The Intercept’s Ryan Grim in his book The Squad,” illustrates how AIPAC leverages its financial might into U.S. policy.

With the death toll in Gaza now approaching 30,000 and Israel preparing a catastrophic ground attack on the 1.4 million displaced Palestinians huddled in Rafah, The Intercept is doubling down on our efforts to expose the power of the pro-Israel lobby in Congress.

You simply cannot understand U.S. policy toward Israel without understanding the power of AIPAC in Washington.

For years, AIPAC has used its deep pockets to reward its friends and punish those who don’t get behind its demand for unquestioning blank-check support for Israel. Often those punishments come in the form of attack ads that don’t say a word about Israel or Palestine, instead hammering Democrats with dubious attacks on issues like immigration or defund the police.”

In 2022, AIPAC spent $30 million targeting progressive Democrats. This year, it’s the #1 funder behind a major primary challenge to Squad member Jamaal Bowman, while Reps. Summer Lee, Cori Bush, and Ilhan Omar are all facing pro-Israel primary challenges.

The Intercept has been closely tracking AIPAC lobbying activity for years. Now, with 30,000 Palestinians dead and hopes for peaceful settlement more remote than ever, it is vital that the public understands the influence of AIPAC.

Courtesy Livemint

Here are top seven things the judges said

The Supreme Court has scrapped the Electoral Bond Scheme that allowed anonymous funding to political parties, stating that it violates the right to information (RTI) and can lead to quid pro quo.

The Supreme Court on February 15 scrapped the Electoral Bond Scheme that allowed anonymous funding to political parties.

Supreme Court’s five-judge CJI DY Chandrachud, and Justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, JB Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra pronounced the judgement.  

The apex court said that the Scheme violates the right to information (RTI), and can lead to quid pro quo. Electoral bonds scheme is not the only scheme to curb black money. There are other alternatives,” the top court added.

Track LIVE | Electoral Bonds Scheme verdict LIVE updates: SC strikes down EBS, calls it ‘unconstitutional’

Here are the top 7 things the judges said

Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on the Electoral Bond Scheme said:

– Financial support via electoral bonds to political parties can lead to a quid pro quo arrangement.

– The electoral bonds scheme is not the only scheme to curb black money. There are other alternatives.

– Infringement to the right to information is not justified by the purpose of curbing black money.

– Not all political contributions are made with the intent to alter public policy. Students, daily wagers etc also contribute. To not grant an umbrella of privacy to political contributions only because some contributions are made for other purposes is not impermissible.

– This court recognised the right to information about social, cultural, political and economic issues, and that it is not limited to state affairs but to further participatory democracy principle.

– There are two opinions, one by myself and another by Justice Sanjiv Khanna. Both arrive at the same conclusion. There is a slight variance in the reasoning.

– Issuing bank shall forthwith stop the issue of electoral bonds. “The State Bank of India shall furnish the details of donations through electoral bonds and the details of the political parties which received the contributions,” CJII added.

Reactions Pour In

Commenting on the SC’s judgement, advocate Prashant Bhushan called the SC’s judgement significant” and likely to have a long-term effect on our electoral democracy”.

“In a very significant judgement which will have a long-term effect on our electoral democracy, the Supreme Court has struck down the Electoral Bond Scheme and all the provisions that were made to bring it into effect in the income tax act, in the Companies Act etc. everything has been struck down. They have held that this violates the fundamental right to information of citizens to know about who is contributing this much money to political parties,” Bhushan told PTI.

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also welcomed the Supreme Court’s verdict on the Electoral Bonds Scheme. The Congress leader wrote on the X platform, “The Supreme Court has held the much-touted Electoral Bonds scheme of the Modi Sarkar as violative of both laws passed by Parliament as well as the Constitution of India. The long-awaited verdict is hugely welcome and will reinforce the power of votes over notes”.

Electoral Bonds | Petitioners argue that the Scheme is a vehicle for foreign political funding

Electoral Bonds

| 10th Apr 2019

The Court heard Mr. Prashant Bhushan and Mr. Raju Ramchandran for the petitioners and Mr. Rakesh Dwivedi for the Election Commission oppose the electoral bonds scheme for promoting anonymous political funding. It also heard the Attorney General defend the scheme for protecting donor privacy, while at the same time reducing the amount of black money in political funding.

Mr. Prashant Bhushan appearing for ADR began arguments. Mr. Bhushan argued that the scheme in its current form stifles all prior efforts to bring transparency to political funding. He sought an immediate stay on the Electoral Bond Scheme on the ground that 95% of purchased bonds have gone to the ruling party.

Next, he argued how the scheme and the corresponding amendments made to various statutes like the RBI Act, the Income Tax Act and the Representation of Peoples Act promote donor anonymity. He submitted that Electoral Bonds do not bear the name nor identity of the donor. Further, he submitted that the political party encashing bonds neither have to disclose the worth of electoral bonds in a Contribution Report to the Election Commission nor in their audit reports. He further said that electoral bonds are primarily meant to benefit corporates, citing that out of 3000 crore donated through bonds, most have been in the denominations of 10 lakhs or 1 crore.

The Bench enquired about the exact relief sought by the petitioner. Expressing their inability to scrap the entire Finance Act, 2017, the Bench asked about the specific amendments which are against the law. Mr. Bhushan submitted that the electoral bonds is a non-transparent instrument for funding political parties and violates the principles of democracy. Secondly, he said that the Electoral Bond Scheme has wrongly been passed as a Money Bill under the Finance Act 2017, emphasising the Scheme has no bearing on the Consolidated Fund of India.  Mr. Bhushan urged the Bench to either stay the scheme or issue directions that the name of persons purchasing and political parties receiving the donations are to be disclosed.

Next, Mr. Bhushan tried to establish how Amendments to various statutes – the Companies Act, the Income Tax, the FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act), the RBI Act, the Representation of Peoples Act – have been carried out to protect  donors’ identity from scrutiny and hide the amount received through electoral bonds.  He referred to the amendment brought to the Income Tax Act through Finance Act 2017, which does not require political parties to disclose donor details for the amount received through electoral bonds , even when they claim the Income Tax Rebates on those contributions.

Similarly, under the Amendment to the Companies Act, any Company can donate through electoral bonds. The Amendment removed an earlier cap which prohibited companies from donating beyond a certain percentage of profits. After the Companies Act Amendment, any company even if it is loss making, can donate through electoral bonds and it does not have to show it in their profit/loss balance account.

Next, Mr. Raju Ramchandran appearing for the petitioner CPI (Marxist) began arguments. He said that the electoral bond scheme is made to favour anonymous corporate funding into elections as mostly, it is the larger denominations of 1o lakh or 1 crore which have been purchased.

Next, Mr. Rakesh Dwivedi spoke on behalf of the Election Commission (EC). On being enquired about the stand of the Election Commission, he submitted that they are not opposed to electoral bonds in general, but rather only in their current form. He submitted that the bonds in their current form promote anonymity and non-transparency. He emphasised that this must be rectified. Mr. Dwivedi added that right to know of a voter is not limited to knowing about political candidates, but also extends to political parties.

Mr. Dwivedi argued that in its current form, electoral bonds can become a vehicle for foreign funding of political parties. Hence, bonds must become more transparent and contributions made through them to political parties should be disclosed to the EC.

Further, Mr. Dwivedi said that the insertion of the Proviso to Section 29C of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951 (via the Finance Act  2017) must be reviewed. The Proviso exempts disclosure of donations received from electoral bonds to Election Commission. He reiterated that the electoral bond scheme should be reformed to bring transparency in its functioning.

Next, Attorney General KK Venugopal appearing for the Union began arguments in defence of the scheme. He argued that electoral bonds have been introduced so that the privacy of donors is protected and that they are not victimised by other political parties. He argued that making disclosures about names and identities of the donors under electoral bond scheme would be in violation of their right to privacy.

AG KK Venugopal further added that the scheme falls within the realm of economic policy decisions, in which the Court must not ordinarily interfere. He said that in a situation where there is no State funding of elections, protection of a donors identity must be allowed.

The Attorney General resumed his arguments by stating that the scheme will help in eliminating black money from elections. He said that the objective of fighting black money is being achieved without compromising on transparency, as the donors have to adhere to Know Your Customer (KYC) banking norms when purchasing electoral bonds.  He stated that a fly-by-person who is not known cannot buy these bonds”.

Further, he said that the bonds are valid only for 15 days after purchase, so it cannot be used for purposes other than political funding. He submitted that though the Bond itself neither has the party’s name nor does it have a donor’s name, but the funded political party may know the identity of the donor by checking with the Bank.  He concluded by saying that he will file a separate affidavit tomorrow.

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

මාර්තුවේ දී එට්කා ගිවිසුම අත්සන් කිරීමෙන් පසු ඕනෑම ඉන්දියානුවකුට රැකියාවකට, වෙළඳාමකට ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට නිදහසේ පැමිණිය හැකි බවත් කලක් ගත වන විට ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ඉන්දියානුවන්ගෙන් පිරී යාම සහ ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයන් මේ රටේ සුළුතරය බවට පත්වීම නොවැළැක්විය හැකි බවත් ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණේ නායක, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී විමල් වීරවංශ මහතා පෙන්වා දෙයි.

එතැන් සිට අපේ රටට ස්වෛරීත්වය අහිමි වන බවත් රට ආර්ථිකමය වශයෙන් හතරගාතයෙන්” වැටුණු මේ මොහොතේ රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ ජනාධිපතිවරයා සිදුකරමින් සිටින්නේ රටේ ස්වෛරීත්වය බිල්ලට දීම බවත් දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධනලා සහ රාජපක්ෂලා එම පාපතර මෙහෙයුමට පහන” අල්ලන බවත් ඒ මහතා වැඩිදුරටත් පෙන්වා දෙයි.

පසුගියදා කඩුවෙල කොස්වත්තේ දී පැවති 9න් පසුව : ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ඉරණම?” යන මැයෙන් පැවති ජන හමුවක් අමතමින් ඒ මහතා මෙසේ පෙන්වා දුන්නේය.

එහිදී වැඩිදුරටත් අදහස් දැක්වූ ඒ මහතා මෙසේ ද සඳහන් කළේය.

කවුද මේ IMF කොන්ත්‍රාත්කාරයා?

පාකිස්ථානයත් අපි වගේම අර්බුදයක ඉන්නේ. ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය අරමුදල පාකිස්ථානයටත් කිව්වා, ‘ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ආදර්ශයට අරන් විදේශ ණය ගෙවන්න බැහැ කියා ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කරන්න’ කියලා. නමුත් පාකිස්ථානයේ හිටියේ මේ වගේ මැට්ටෝ ටිකක් නොවෙයි. ඔවුන් කිව්වා, ‘එහෙම කළොත් අපි ඉවරයි. ලංකාව නොවෙයි මොකා කළත් අපි ඒක කරන්නේ නැහැ’ කියා. චීනය සහ මැද පෙරදිග රටවල් කිහිපයකින් ණය ආධාර අරගෙන පාකිස්ථානය ඒ අර්බුදයෙන් දැන් ගොඩඑමින් තිබෙනවා. එයාලා කිව්වේ නැහැ, ‘ණය ගෙවන්න බැහැ’ කියලා. නමුත් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ මහ බැංකු අධිපති, ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය අරමුදලේ කොන්ත්‍රාත්කාරයෙක්. ඔහු මහ බැංකු අධිපති ධුරයට පත් වී දවස් දෙකෙන්, ‘ණය ගෙවන්න බැහැ’ කියන කතාව කිව්වා. එයා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවෙන් හෝ කැබිනට් මණ්ඩලයෙන් නොවිමසා එවකට ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂට පමණක් දැනුම් දීලා තමන්ගේ මතය ක්‍රියාවට නැංවූවා. ඊට පස්සේ ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය අරමුදල ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ බෙල්ල මුලින්ම අල්ලා ගත්තා.

මහ බැංකුවේ ස්වාධීනත්වයේ තරම මෙන්න!

පනතක් ගෙනත් මහ බැංකුව ස්වාධීන කළාට පසුව සිදුවන දේ බලන්න. මහ බැංකුවේ උන්දැලා තමන්ට සියයට 70කින් පඩි වැඩි කරගෙන තිබෙනවා. ප්‍රශ්න කළාම, ‘අපි පඩි වැඩි කරගත්තේ ඒකාබද්ධ අරමුදලින් නොවෙයි’ කියා කියනවා. නමුත් පඩි වැඩි කරගෙන ඇත්තේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සතු මුදල්වලින්නේ. සමහරුන්ට ලක්ෂ හතඅටකින් පඩි වැඩි වී තිබෙනවා. ස්වාධීන කළේ ඔය විදියට පඩි වැඩි කරගන්නද?

‘පාලු ගෙයි වලන් බිඳපු’ හරීන්ට…

අද වන විට මේ පාලකයන් මේ ආර්ථික අර්බුදයෙන් ගොඩඑනවා වෙනුවට මේ අර්බුදය යොදාගන්නවා අපේ රටේ ස්වෛරීත්වය බිල්ලට දෙන්න. ඔබ දන්නවා මොළය නියමිත තැන පිහිටා නොමැති හරීන් ප්‍රනාන්දු කියා ඇමතිවරයකු මේ රටේ ඉන්නා බව. එයා ඉන්දියාවට ගිහින් කියනවා, ‘ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ඉන්දියාවේ කොටසක්’ කියා. එහෙම කියලා ඒ ගොන් ඇමතියා පල් හිනාවකුත් දානවා. මේ ප්‍රකාශයට එරෙහිව මම පාර්ලිමේන්තුව තුළ ප්‍රහාරයක් එල්ල කළාට පස්සෙ පාලු ගෙයි වලන් බිඳිමින් හරීන් ප්‍රනාන්දු කියනවා, ‘බුද්ධාගම ආවේ ඉන්දියාවෙන්. ඒ නිසා අපි ඉන්දියාවේ කොටසක්’ කියා. එහෙමනම් මේ රටට කතෝලික ආගම ආවේ පෘතුගාලයෙන් හෝ ඕලන්දයෙන් හෝ බ්‍රිතාන්‍යයෙන් හෝ විය හැකියි. නමුත් අපි කියනවාද, ‘ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ජෙරුසලමේ – ඊශ්‍රායලයේ කොටසක්’ කියා. දැන් මේ රටේ ඉස්ලාම් දහම අදහන පිරිසක් ද ඉන්නවා. එතකොට මේ රට මැදපෙරදිග කොටසක් ද? එයා ඒ පාලු ගෙයි වලන් බිඳිමින් කළ කතාවේදී කියනවා, ‘අපිත් ඉන්දියාව වගේම ඉඳිඅප්පම්, ආප්ප කියන වචන පාවිච්චි කරනවානේ’ කියා. එහෙමනම් ‘ජනේලය, අල්මාරිය’ වැනි වචන පෘතුගීසිනේ. එතකොට අපි පෘතුගාලයේ කොටසක් ද? මේ වගේ ගොන් ඇමතිවරුන් රටක් කරනකොට රටකට හරි යයිද?

ඉන්දියාවේ ආදරයේ ‘තරම’

හරීන් ප්‍රනාන්දුගේ කටින් ‘ලංකාව ඉන්දියාවේ කොටසක්’ කියන එක එළියට ආවේ ඇයි? මේ පාලකයන් ඒ වැඩේ කරන්න යන නිසයි. තෙල් හිඟ අවස්ථාවේ අපට බිලියන් කිහිපයක ණයක් දුන්නු නිසා, ඉන්දියාවේ විදේශ අමාත්‍යවරයා ඔවුන්ගේ සංචාරකයන්ට ලංකාවට යන්න කියන නිසා සමහරුන් හිතන් ඉන්නවා, ‘ඉන්දියාව අපට උදව් කරනවා’ කියලා. නැහැ, ඇත්ත කතාව ඒක නොවෙයි. ඉන්දියානු සංචාරකයන්ට එරට විදේශ අමාත්‍යවරයා ලංකාවට එන්න කිව්වේ අපට ආදරේට නොවෙයි; මාලදිවයින් නව ජනාධිපතිවරයා චීන හිතවාදී පිළිවෙතක් අනුගමනය කරන නිසයි; ඉන්දියාව තුළ ‘Boycott Maldives'(මාලදිවයින වර්ජනය කරනු!) නමින් දැවැන්ත විරෝධතා ව්‍යාපාරයක් ද දියත් වන නිසයි. දැන් බලන්න, ඉන්දියාව තමයි එවකට ඉන්දියාවේ හිටපු ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ කොමසාරිස් මිලින්ද මොරගොඩ ලවා එවකට ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂට ලණුව කැව්වේ, ‘රුපියල නිදහසේ පා කර හරින්න’ කියා. ඒ වන විට ඩොලරය තිබුණේ රුපියල් 200ක සීමාවේ. නමුත් පා කරලා හැරියාට පසුව නතර වුණේ රුපියල් 400කට කිට්ටු කරලයි. ඔන්න එතකොට එකවරම අපේ ණය බර රුපියල්වලින් දෙගුණ වුණා. ඒ නිසා ඩොලර් අර්බුදයක හිටපු ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට රුපියල් අර්බුදයකුත් ආවා.

‘අමුල් බිබී වැනීයන්’

දැන් බලන්න, ලාභ ලබන ටෙලිකොම් දෙන්න හදන්නේ ඉන්දියානු සමාගමකට. විදුලි බල මණ්ඩලය අටකට කඩලා දෙන්න හදන්නේ ඉන්දියානු සමාගම්වලට. මිල්කෝ සමාගම ඇතුළු පශුසම්පත් සංවර්ධන මණ්ඩලයට අයත් ගොවිපළවල් 31ක් සහ ඉඩම් අක්කර 28,000ක් දෙන්න යන්නෙත් ඉන්දියාවේ අමුල් සමාගමට. ‘මිල්කෝ එක’ විකුණන්නම ඕනේ නම් ඒක ඒ ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ වැඩක් කරලා පෙන්නපු ආරියශීල වික්‍රමනායක වැනි දේශීය ව්‍යවසායකයෙකුට දෙන්න බැරි ඇයි? ඉන්දියාව විවේචනය කරපු අය දැන් කියනවානේ, ‘ඉන්දියාවත් වෙනස් වෙලා – අපිත් වෙනස් වෙලා’ කියලා. දැන් ඒගොල්ලෝ හරි හොඳ වෙලා. ‘වැනියන් අමුල් වැනීයන් – අමුල් බිබී වැනීයන්’ කියලයි අපට කියන්න තියෙන්නේ. මතක තබාගන්න, මේ තමයි ඉන්දියාව විසින් ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ගිලගන්නා තීරණාත්මකම වෙලාව.

ඊළඟට ඉන්දියානු හාල් එනවා!

අපි දන්නවා, ඉන්දියාවේ ගොවියාගෙන් විදුලියට මිලක් අය කරන්නේ නැහැ; විදුලිය නොමිලේ දෙනවා. ඒ නිසා ඉන්දියාවේ කෘෂිකාර්මික නිෂ්පාදන පිරිවැය අඩුයි. නමුත් ලංකාවේ ගොවියාගේ උදැල්ල ඇතුළු කෘෂි ආම්පන්නවලටත් සියයට දහඅටක වැට් බද්දක් එකතු වුණා. මේකත් වක්‍රව බලපාලා මේ කන්නයේ හාල් මිල ඉහළ යනවා. ඊට පස්සේ මේ පාලකයෝ ‘අපි ඉන්දියාවෙන් හාල් ගෙනෙන්නම්’ කියලා අපට ඉන්දියානු හාල් කවයි. බිත්තර මිල වැඩි වුණාම ගාණක් තියාගෙන ඉන්දියානු බිත්තර ගෙනවිත් අපිට කවනවා වගේ ඉදිරියේදී ඉන්දියානු හාලුත් ගෙනවිත් අපට කවාවි.

‘එට්කා’ ඇවිත් කරන වැඩේ…

මේක මෙතැනින් නතර වෙයිද? නැහැ. අපේ ආර්ථික මර්මස්ථාන ටික ගිලගන්න ගමන් ඔන්න දැන් එට්කා ගිවිසුමත් මාර්තු මාසයේ අත්සන් කරන්න ඉන්දියාව සූදානම් වෙනවා. එට්කා ගිවිසුම අත්සන් කළාට පසුව ඕනෑම ඉන්දියානුවකුට රැකියාවකට, වෙළඳාමකට නිදහසේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට එන්න පුළුවන්. කුඩාම රැකියාවේ සිට ඉහළම රැකියාව දක්වා වන පුරප්පාඩුවලට ඉන්දියානුවන් එනකොට, පෙට්ටිකඩේ සිට මහා පරිමාණ ව්‍යාපාරය දක්වා පවත්වාගෙන ගන්න ඉන්දියානුවන් එනකොට ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ඉන්දියානුවන්ගෙන් පිරෙන එක වළක්වන්න බැහැ. නොදැනුවත්වම අපි මේ රටේ සුළුතර ජනගහනයක් බවට පත්වෙන එක වළක්වන්න බැහැ.

රනිල්ට පහන” අල්ලන කට්ටිය

එතැන් සිට මොකද වෙන්නේ? එතැන් සිට ශ්‍රී ලාංකික අපිට අපේ ස්වෛරීත්වය අහිමි වෙනවා. ශ්‍රී ලංකාව තුළ තීරණාත්මක බලවේගය බවට ඉන්දියාව පත් වෙනවා. ආර්ථිකමය වශයෙන් හතරගාතයෙන් වැටුණු වෙලාව, රටේ ස්වෛරීභාවය බිල්ලට දෙන වෙලාව බවට පත් කරන එකයි රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ ඇතුළු මේ ආණ්ඩුව කරන්නේ. දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධනලා, රාජපක්ෂලා අද ‘පහන’ අල්ලන්නේ ඒ පාපතර මෙහෙයුමට. ජනවරමට කිසිම සම්බන්ධයක් නැති කෙනෙකුට පුටුව දීලා ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ එදා පැනලා දිව්වා. ගෝඨාභය දාලා යනවා නම් අගමැති ධුරය දිය යුතුව තිබුණේ ජනවරමට සම්බන්ධ මිනිහෙකුට. රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ ජනවරමක් තියා පාර්ලිමේන්තු ආවෙත් ජාතික ලැයිස්තුවෙන්.

අර්බුදයේ ‘පීතෲවරයාටම’ පුටුව දුන්නා

රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ කියන්නේ මේ අර්බුදයේ පීතෲවරයා. එයා තමයි 2018 එක රැයින් ඩොලර් බිලියන 12.5ක් ලෝකයේ පොලී මුදලාලිලාගෙන් ණයට ගත්තේ. ඒ ණය පොලිය ගෙවාගන්න බැරුව තමයි රට හතරගාතයෙන් ඇදවැටුණේ. ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ පලා ගියේ මේ අර්බුදයේ පිතෲවරයාටම රට භාර දීලයි. දැන් ජනවරමට කිසිදු සම්බන්ධයක් නැති මිනිහෙක් රටට කරන්න පුළුවන් විශාලතම අගතිය අඛණ්ඩව කරගෙන යනවා.

කීර්ති විජයබාහු – දුටුගැමුණු ආදර්ශයන්

බඩගින්නේ හිටියත් රට ගැන හිතපු මිනිස්සු තමයි මේ පොළොවේ ජීවත් වුණේ. අපේ මුතුන්මිත්තන් කවර දුෂ්කරතා තිබුණත් ආක්‍රමණිකයා ඉදිරියේ දණින් වැටුණේ නැහැ. එදා කීර්ති කුමාරයා කැලේට ගිහින්, ගඩාගෙඩි කමින්, අනේකවිද දුෂ්කරතා මධ්‍යයේ සේනා සංවිධානය කරගෙන ඇවිත් තමයි ඒ සොලී ආක්‍රමණික බලය සහමුලින්ම පරාජය කළේ. දුටුගැමුණු කුමාරයා ඒ මහා චෝල බලය පරාජය කරන්න තමයි එදා සේනා සංවිධානය කරගෙන ආවේ. ඒ නිසා හතරගාතයෙන් වට්ටලා තියෙන වෙලාවෙ, ලක්මෑණියන්ගේ ස්වෛරීත්වය උදුරා ගන්න හදන ලෝකයේ කවර බලවතෙකු හෝ ඉදිරියේ දණ ගහන්න අපි සූදානම් නැහැ. අපි කියන්නෙ නැහැ, ‘ඉන්දියාව සමඟ යුද්ධ කරන්න ඕනේ’ කියලා. නමුත් අපි යටත් විය යුතු නැහැ. ඔහු අපේ අසල්වැසියා නම් උදව් කරගෙන, සාමකාමීව, මිත්‍රශීලීව ඉන්න ඕනේ.

ජනාධිපතිවරණයේ දී ‘කළ හැකි – කළ යුතු’ දේ

වෙන කිසිදු වේදිකාවක මේ අනතුර පෙන්වා දෙන්නේ නැහැ. ‘ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ඉන්දියාවේ කොටසක්’ කියා ලැජ්ජා නැතුව හරීන් ප්‍රනාන්දු ඇමතිවරයා කිව්වාම, මමත් උදය ගම්මන්පිල මැතිතුමා ඇතුළු කිහිපදෙනා හැරුණාම වෙනත් කිසිදු දේශපාලන පක්ෂයක් ඒ පිළිබඳව විරෝධයක් තියා ‘හීන් කෙඳිරියක්වත්’ නැඟුවේ නැහැ. හරීන් හෙට ඉන්දියාවට ගිහින් ‘ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ඉන්දියාවේ ප්‍රාන්තයක්’ කියා කිව්වත් ඔය එක චණ්ඩියෙක්වත් කටක් අරින්නේ නැහැ. එයාලා දැන් ඉන්නේ ඉන්දියාවේ ‘අමුල්’ බීලයි. ඉදිරි ජනාධිපතිවරණයේදී මේ අනතුරෙන් මේ රට බේරාගන්න පුළුවන් දෑහිතකාමී නායකත්වයක් ජයග්‍රහණය කරවලා මේ කඩඉම අපි පනින්න ඕනෙ. ඒක අමාරුයි කියලා පෙනුණාට, ‘කළ හැකි – කළ යුතු’ දෙයක්. ඒ හැර අපට කළ හැකි නිවැරදි වෙනත් දෙයක් නැහැ. ඒ නිසා අපි ඒ මහා අභියෝගය භාර ගනිමු! මේ රට ආර්ථිකමය වශයෙන් වැටිලා තියෙන වෙලාවේ ස්වෛරීත්වය බිල්ලට ගැනීමට ඉඩ නොදී ආර්ථිකයත් රටත් ගොඩගන්න පුළුවන් දිශාවට මේ රට හරවමු!”

ඉහත ජන හමුව අමතා ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණේ කඩුවෙල මහ නගර සභාවේ හිටපු මන්ත්‍රී ශෂී පෙරේරා මහතා ද අදහස් දැක්වීය.

(අනුරුද්ධ බණ්ඩාර රණවාරණ)
මාධ්‍ය ලේකම්,
ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණ

උපුටා ගැන්ම  ලංකා ලීඩර්

නැගෙනහිර පළාතේ මහ ඇමැති සෙන්දිල් තොණ්ඩමන් තම බලය පාවිච්චි කරමින් නැගෙනහිර පළාතේ ඉඩම් මහා පරිමාණයෙන් හිතවතුන් අතර බෙදාදෙන බව සහ මුදලට විකුණන බවට පළාතේ මහජනයා පැමිණිලි කරති.

ඊට අදාළව විස්තර සහිතව සහ මහජන අත්සන් සහිතව පෙත්සමක් එම ජනතාව විසින් ජනාධිපතිවරයාට යොමුකර ඇත.

එම ඉඩම් කොල්ලය නිසා මහාපරිමාණ වන සංහාරයක් සහ පරිසර විනාශයක් ද සිදුවන බව ද වාර්තා වේ.

ඒ අනුව මහජනයා උද්ඝෝෂණය කරන්නේ වහාම සෙන්දිල් තොණ්ඩමන් ආණ්ඩුකාර තනතුරෙන් ඉවත් කරන ලෙසය. (LANKA LEADER )

Courtesy Adaderana

President Ranil Wickremesinghe has ordered an investigation into the notification issued to Russian and Ukrainian tourists, requiring them to leave the country within 14 days.

According to the President’s Media Division (PMD), the relevant notification was issued by the Department of Immigration and Emigration without prior approval from the Cabinet of Ministers.

As such, the Government of Sri Lanka has not officially decided to revoke the visa extensions previously granted to these tourists who have been staying in the country since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, the PMD reported.

The Department of Immigration and Emigration recently issued a notice, granting a period of 14 days from 23 February for all Russian and Ukrainian tourists residing long-term in Sri Lanka to leave the country.

The department had stated that it would no longer keep extending tourist visas free of charge for Russians and Ukrainians who had started staying back in Sri Lanka two years ago, owing to the war.

The decision had reportedly been taken owing to concerns over certain foreign tourists running illegal businesses in the country.

by Garvin Karunaratne

Thanks to Cabinet Spokesman, Minister Bandula Gunawardena for revealing that the Sri Lankan Government is running a shortfall of Rs 10 trillion to meet its expenditure with its revenue…We collect only Rs 3 trillion while the expenses are Rs 13 trillion”(The Morning20​/02/2024)

This reveals a situation of sheer bankruptcy, a situation out of which we can perhaps, never recover.

What has happened is that since 1978 we have been overspending- living far beyond our means.

Professor Charita Herath has aptly stated in the Lankadeepa of 9/2/24 that we are tatu nodena nayata ka satutuvima” – that we are living happily in sheer debt. He discloses that our foreign debt is now as much as $ 91 billion. When Gotabhaya handed over Sri Lanka to President Ranil the foreign debt was only $ 56 billion. It follows that President Ranil has during 2023 has increased the foreign debt by as much as $ 35 billion- all within one year 2023. This is an alarming increase that shows how the present Government is spending foreign money obtained on loans in an unprecedented manner.

Further, today’s Daily Mirror states that Sri Lanka is within the list of 22 heavily indebted countries, facing strictures by the IMF.

We are doing this spending while poverty is terribly increasing. Poverty has doubled from 13% to 25% between 2021 and 2022(Lanka Web: 19/2/2024). With increases in taxes over half the population live within the bounds of poverty.

Our economy is in serious straits and the present Government is actually spending- adding loans and creating debt, which deserves to be avoided. It is true that we have avoided petrol queues and acute shortages of food, but the phenomenal increase in our foreign debt tells me that our country has merely borrowed more- for instance the petrol queues were stopped by inviting foreign petrol giants to come in and we are now in debt to those international petrol companies. Our book shops are replete with unnecessary novels and our shops are full of unnecessary wares all brought on our foreign exchange!

We have even miserably failed to grab the dollars that come in- the bulk is taken in by private currency dealers, who are not accountable for the dollars they take in- mind you even the foreign banks that collect foreign exchange hold on to the foreign exchange and bid the value upwards when the State Banks have to face a big oil bill as happened on 25 th January 2001, causing an immediate devaluation of 20%!(Page 53 of my book How the IMF’s Structural Adjustment Destroyed Sri Lanka(2022)

Mind you even today foreign passport holders need not pay hotel charges in dollars, while in India, Thailand and all other countries all foreigners have to pay in dollars. Even Multinational hotel booking companies advise the clients to pay our hotels in Rupees, but send their charges- 15% to he hotelier and the hotelier takes that invoice to his bank and it gets paid from our reserves. We have not done our arithmetic right re foreign dollars that comes in.

That is how we have increased our foreign debt. It is sheer misadventure.

A note of warning may be useful for the politicians and mandarins who are responsible – There is Minister Keheliya Rambukwella and the Secretary of his Ministry a very high ranking officer , incarcerated for financial mischief at the moment and the day may dawn for all politicians and officials who are responsible and have resorted to spend unnecessarily to be held behind bars. Generally it is believed that this may happen if the JVP comes into power. However this holding officials and politicians responsible for financial misadventure is happening right now.

Mind mind goes back to my time in the Administrative Service when we had to close the books and ensure that we did not spend what we did not have. All Government expenditure was done with local printed rupees and the incoming dollars were carefully collected and spent on imports-essentials first. That to us was a sacred task and we did it well while also bringing about development, till in 1977 President Jayawardena decided to live on loans as advised by the IMF and commenced the rot. Sri Lanka did not owe a cent to anyone when Premier Sirimavo handed over the country to President Jayawardena at the end of 1977.

It is time for our President Ranil and our elected leader, our Prime Minister Mr Dinesh Gunawardena to think and act to make an immediate change by developing programmes to get our unemployed to make items that are being imported. This is poverty alleviation and will reduce imports. This can be done without spending any foreign exchange. We, have only to follow the last real development programme we had- the Divisional Development Councils Programme directed by Professor HAdeS Gunasekera the eminent professor of economics, which created employment for 33,000 youths. .It would have been far more if not for the JVP Insurrection of 1971 and the JVP Kangaroo Courts that chased all wealthy entrepreneurs out of rural areas.

We in the Administrative Service did work fast.

The Divisional Secretary at Kotmale collected all the waste paper he could find from all the Government Offices in Nuwara Eliya and rolled up his sleeves and worked with the youths in Kotmale to make paper and cardboard. Greetings for this 2024 New Year came to me from the Prime Minister’s Office with a Diary and a GreetingCard made from illuk by the Divisional Secretary at Hewaheta. Instead of following in the footstepps of the Kotmale Divisional Secretary we have since 1978 till today- for almost fifty years exported 8000 tons of waste cardboard to India a month collecting a few coppers and buying the paper and cardboard India make out of it paying dollars. Truly we must have our heads examined!. We do not use waste paper to make paper today.

I may submit for kind consideration two major industries I established in Matara where I was in charge, implementing the DDCP Programme. One was the Mechanized Boatyard that employed around twenty youths who made some 40 seagoing boats a year, which became the flagship industry established by the DDCProgramme. This Boatyard was established by my Divisional Secretary Ran Ariyadasa and his Development Assistant within three months.

Another major industry I established was Coop Crayon- it took three long months of experiments to find the art of making a crayon. This happened within the four walls of the science lab at Rahula College Matara and the key person who found that art of making crayons was no other than Vetus Fernando, my Planning Officer. We fine tuned the crayons to be equal in quality to Reeves Crayons, the best of the day. I entrusted the task of establishing the Crayon Factory to Sumanapala Dahanayake, the Member of Parliament for Deniyaya, who happened to be the President of the Morawak Korale Coop Union. I had only to handover a letter signed by me authorizing him to use Cooperative Union funds, purchase the ingredients the cookers, pots and pans where the liquid was to be boiled and put into glass tubes manually, allowed to rest and each crayon stick handcrafted. In two days time, Planning Officer Vetus, Development Assistant Paliakkara, The Assistant Govt Agent Ranjith, the District Land Officer Chandra Silva moved to Morawaka. It had to be a non stop twenty four hours a day operation, with Vetus and my officers supervising the lads at work . In the second week Sumane got the labels and packets printed and in two weeks time we filled two large rooms with crayons. I was there for the first three nights and on many more nights.

The only problem was that we did all this with the greatest secrecy, The boss of the DDCP Programme Professor HAdeS Guanasekera was unaware. I was certain that he would not approve it. We moved differently. Sumane and I took the crayons and showed them to the Minister for Industries Mr Subasinghe. He was surprised at the quality and agreed to open sales. We rushed back and within that week end got him to open sales, and the sales youths from Morawaka were on the streets selling coop crayon in Matara and Colombo. We faced the problem of having to buy imported dyes in the open market at high prices. I got info that the Ministry of Imports was about to authorize imports of crayons and Sumane and I moved in to meet the Minister Mr Ilangaratne. We first met the Import Controller Harry Guneratne and convinced him that we only needed a fraction of the foreign exchange he was going to spend on imports for us to import some dyes. He was convinced but he wanted us to get the Minister’s approval as this cross allocation had never been done earlier. The moment we showed the crayons we made to Minister Illangaratne he started scribbling on paper and found that his hands were not soiled with colour. He not only gave us an allocation but also shouted for the Controller of Imports to ban the import of crayons altogether. In weeks Morawaka lads were selling coop crayon at both Alimankada and Pamankada.

These two are true stories of how our administrators did work.

My message to the highest elected person in Sri Lanka, His Excellency Mr Dinesh Gunawardena. Please read the Lankadeepa article by Professor Charitha Herath Tatu Nodena, Nayata Ka Satutu Veema” to the effect that our foreign debt has increased to as much as $ 91 billion. Professor Chatitha Herath is a learned professional who can be relied upon.

My message to the Excellency is clear. We do have the ability to tackle our economy and make things ourselves, training the unemployed youths to get cracking. We did it once earlier and dear Excellency we can do it again if only our leaders and the Central Bank approve it.

Let us live in hope

Garvin Karunaratne

former GA Matara

24/2/2024 garvin_karunaratne@hotmail.com

Ama H. Vanniarachchy Courtesy Ceylon Today

By Ama H. Vanniarachchy

The recently-discovered Dimbulagala Rock Inscription became immensely popular in the country due to many reasons. It was instantly labelled by media as the, ‘largest inscription found in Sri Lanka’, and, ‘difficult to read and interpret’. 

Accepting many of these ‘lucrative’ claims at face value social as well as mainstream media jumped into conclusions labelling it as, ‘difficult to read’, ‘full of mysteries’, and ‘an inscription that will be turning the history of Sri Lanka upside down’. Mainstream and social media also fuelled the spread of rumours that claimed the Department of Archaeology (DoA) is hiding the truth and the mysteries this inscription unveils, and thereby giving birth to many conspiracy theories. Some media reports even claimed that the DoA has failed to read the Dimbulagala Rock Inscription as the Department lacks expertise. Some reports even claimed that the likes of Jayantha Pathiraarachchi – social-media-popular individuals with no professional background in reading inscriptions and the ones who are responsible for misleading the public and severely distorting the Sri Lankan history – should be ‘consulted’ to read and interpret the Dimbulagala Rock Inscription. 

The task of reading, copying, and interpreting the inscription in question takes a great amount of time as it is a very large rock inscription and is located in a difficult-to-reach spot on a rock. Also, no inscription has been read, copied, and interpreted overnight, and the results weren’t published within a week or two. It is a painstaking task that should be performed carefully by experts in archaeology and history. 

To know the truth about the Dimbulagala Rock Inscription Ceylon Today contacted Prof. Karunasena Hettiarachchi who is on the committee that was appointed to read and interpret the inscription. Prof. Hettiarachchi is an eminent Sri Lankan scholar in archaeology and history. He is attached to the Department of History and Archaeology of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, and has conducted extensive research on the history of Sri Lanka. He is known as an expert in reading inscriptions and is the author of a large number of research publications. 

An accomplished academic for the job 

Prof. Hettiarachchi has been working with the DoA as an expert in reading ancient inscriptions since 1991. It was in the year 1991 that the then Director General of Archaeology late Dr. Siran Deraniyagala handed over the responsibility of copying and reading the pottery pieces unearthed at the Anuradhapura Salgahawatta (Citadel) excavations. This pottery is known as the first pottery pieces discovered in Sri Lanka that has letters on them. Prof. Hettiarachchi who was a final-year university student during that time, took estampage of the letters and read them. He also has read and interpreted all the inscriptions at Rajagala. Prof. Hettiarachchi has also re-read all the inscriptions at Mihintale and has compiled the findings in a book, which will be published soon. 

Location

The recently-discovered inscription is located close to the Dimbulagala Aranya Senasanya, approximately about 2.5 kilometres away from the monastery. The inscription is on the face of a rock slope. Prof. Hettiarachchi said that it is a difficult journey to reach the inscription and that the inscription is located about 1672 feet above the ground level. The inscription is carved on one of the many rocky hills located in the area. 

He said that the inscription is carved on the flat, slopy face of a rock that has been naturally cracked which is approximately 52 feet wide and 20 feet tall.

The discovery of the inscription occurred in July 2023 when two villagers went to the forest to collect bee honey and saw the large inscription which was half covered in vegetation. Following the discovery, the regional archaeology office was informed, which conducted the basic survey and confined the information. Then, the DoA was informed and as a result, in August 2023, T.D.A. Dayananda, an officer at the DoA, visited the site to do the initial survey on the inscription. 

There are about 10 lines in the inscription, about 1000 letters written in Brahmi script, and about five symbols. The committee that was appointed to read and interpret the inscription collectively decided on the date of the inscription after the research work we did. We carefully studied the letters on the inscription and did a comparative study to decide upon the dates of this inscription. Accordingly, we concluded that the inscription belongs to the 2nd century BCE, which in other words is about 2,200 years old. The inscription could be even older than the 2nd century BCE,” Prof. Hettiarachchi said.

The then Director General of DoA Pradeepa Serasinghe visited the place in September 2023 and as a result, taking estampage of the inscription started in October 2023. By November 2023, the estampage work was completed. 

The stamping process

Prof. Hettiarachchi explained that since it is a large inscription, taking estampage and then pasting the paper sheets together is a time-consuming task and also a task that should be done with extra care. He said that the entire inscription was copied on about 300 paper sheets.

Also, he said that the location of the inscription is inside the dense forest among rocky hills; thus, there are no water facilities or places to stay. Also, as the inscription is carved on a slopy rock face, it is not an easy task to take estampage, he revealed. 

Once the estampages were taken, the sheets were brought to Colombo and then the pasting task was done, which should be done with great care. 

Meanwhile, while the DoA was busy taking estampage of the large inscription, media, and social media were busy creating distorted stories and misleading masses about the inscription. 

It was during this time, that an acting Director General was appointed to the DoA. The Acting Director General Nishanthi Jayasinghe was concerned about these rumours and advised to appoint a committee and submit a basic study report about the inscription, within two weeks. Accordingly, a committee of experts was appointed with Dr. Malini Dias as the co-chair of the committee. 

Other members of the committee are;

Ven. Kanthale Sumitta Thera (Msc)

Buddhi Nagodavithana (Mphil)

Dhammika Priyadarshani (Mphil)

Panura Dayananda (Msc)

Dr. Dahammi Bandara (PhD in inscriptions)

Ajith Athukorala (Mphil)

Champa Wickramaarachchi (Msc)

Namalee Kannangara (Msc)

Nishantha (serves in the estampage section)

Prof. Hettiarachchi also remembered the service of Douglas Bandara who laboured to take estampages of the inscription and coordinated the work during the early days. 

We were called to the DoA on 17 January 2024 to study the estampage of the inscription. Digital photographs of the estampage were taken and we studied them.”

Only 40 per cent of the inscription could be read through the estampages. Most of the letters are decayed. Prof. Hettiarachchi also said that there could be mistakes in the estampage during the process of copying it. It is only through visiting the site, reading it in situ, and studying the surrounding environment (natural and man-made) one can come to a conclusion about an inscription.

However, as we have to submit a report within two weeks, we read the estampage. We also suggested that we need to visit the site and also we need to take a second estampage. Normally, we take two estampage of an inscription to avoid mistakes. Then we compare the two,” the professor revealed. 

What does the inscription say?

Talking about the content of the inscription Prof. Hettiarachchi said that the inscription says about an offering to Buddhist monks. Offerings of caves, and the construction and offering of a stupa is mentioned here. Also, there it mentions the construction of a road and supply of water.

The professor also said that   names of historical figures are mentioned in the inscription. There are male and female names mentioned in the inscription and some of them could be historical figures we all know such as King Devanampiyathissa, his brother Surathissa, or his father Mutasiva. We need more studies and the expert knowledge of historians to find out who these characters are. Names such as Aya Thisa, Aya Sura Thisa, and Aya Siva could be members of the Anuradhapura Royal Family.”

Answering a question the professor said that there is no evidence to link the inscription to Gautama Buddha nor does it say that the Buddha or his relatives lived in Sri Lanka. 

We cannot give instant results when we are reading and interpreting an ancient inscription. It takes time to analyse the words. We consider this as a sacred ancient inscription and a fascinating discovery considering its size,” Prof. Hettiarachchi said.  

Prof. Hettiarachchi also said that the inscription looks very neat compared to many other early Brahmi inscriptions in Sri Lanka. The lines seem to be neat and the letters are neat too and carved in similar sizes. In other early Brahmi inscriptions (in Sri Lanka), the letters are of different sizes and also the lines are not on a straight manner (We have explained this in one of our previous heritage articles).

Also, there can be seen many ‘Upper Case’ letters in this inscription which is unique and rare in Brahmi inscriptions in Sri Lanka. Considering all these facts, we can say that an expert in inscriptions and language has written and carved this inscription and also learned people must have lived in this area during that time, Prof. Hettiarachchi elaborated. 

He also explained that the inscription could be narrating about a banking system that was in use in ancient Sri Lanka. He compared this inscription with the famous Perimiyankulama Inscription, Labuatabendigala Inscription, and Vavuniya – Thonigala Inscription which mention details about Sri Lanka’s ancient banking system. 

He also said that considering the surrounding ancient landscape of the vicinity, this inscription must have been a part of a vast spread of ancient settlements including monasteries, and human settlements. 

The history of Dimbulagala 

The history of Dimbulagala dates back to the earliest days of Sri Lankan history. According to the Mahavamsa, the Great Chronicle, Dimbulagala is referred to as ‘Dumrak Gala’. The chronicle says that Dumrak Gala was an important fortress during the battle of King Pandukabhaya against his uncles. 

Later, it became a Buddhist monastery. 

The Late Professor Anuradha Seneviratna writes in Polonnaruwa; Medieval Capital of Sri Lanka (1998), Dimbulagala is a cave temple dating back to the early centuries of Sri Lankan history. A fair number of inscriptions in Brahmi were discovered from Maravidiya, Kosgoda Ulpota, Namalpokuna, and Pulligoda – Galge giving details about the early cave residences of the hermit monks of Sri Lanka. The traditions of these early monks continue even today at Dimbulagala.”

He further writes, Dimbulagala, in early times, was known differently as Dhumarakkhababbata or Udumbarapabbata or Udumbarasalapabbata. During the Anuradhapura Period, there was an important vihara and the Pali commentaries too refer to this sacred place.

The most remarkable contribution came from Parakramabahu the Great in the 12th century. He carried out a purification of the Buddhist order with the help of Maha Kassapa Maha Thera then residing in Udumbaragiri or Dimbulagala.”

Prof. Seneviratna says that the Bhikkus at Dimbulagala were always assiduous in contemplation and study and in training their pupils to lead a religious life. The learned monks at Dimbulagala gave all possible assistance to King Parakramabahu in his religious undertakings. 

Dimbulagala (caves in Maravidiya and Pulligoda) is also famous for the exquisite wall paintings found at the place that have been dated to the Polonnaruwa Period, by art historians. 

Prof. Hettiarachchi said that during his stay at Dimbulagala, Prince Pandukabhya (5th century BCE) was preparing for a great battle. According to the Vansaththappakasini, a Yakshi named Chethiya, who was the wife of Juthindhara Yakkha helped the prince. The Mahavamsa says that she was a horse-mare. The professor said that by calling her a horse mare, the chroniclers must have meant that Chethiya was a strong and powerful woman.

Pandukabhaya would not have settled here and prepared for war if this area was an abandoned, isolated area. We understand that this was a part of the early urban civilisation of Rajarata and that iron production was done in this area. Prof. Nimal Silva says that Yaksha is the people who were engaged in iron production (Yakada). Pandukabhaya needed strong weapons and armour for the battle and thus, he must have settled in Dimbulagala and worked with Yakshas (those who were engaged in iron production and were strong people) to make his weapons and armour. A large amount of iron production sites were discovered in this area during a survey conducted by the DoA. 

Prof. Hettiarachchi also explained that great monks who were renowned all over the country for their wisdom, Dhamma knowledge, and discipline lived in Dimbulagala since the earliest times of history. He stated evidence from ancient literature sources such as the Asgiri Thalpatha, Mahavamsa, Saddharmarathnakaraya and Rasavahini. 

We are doing research about the Dimbulagala Rock Inscription and the surrounding area. We have presented our suggestions and requirements to the DoA,” Prof. Hettiarachchi concluded.

By Katherine J. Cramer and Jonathan D. Cohen Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Plight of the American poor

New York, February 21 (New York Times): When asked what drives the economy, many Americans have a simple, single answer that comes to mind immediately: greed.” They believe the rich and powerful have designed the economy to benefit themselves and have left others with too little or with nothing at all.

We know Americans feel this way because we asked them. Over the past two years, as part of a project with the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, we and a team of people conducted over 30 small-group conversations with Americans from almost every corner of the country. While national indicators may suggest that the economy is strong, the Americans we listened to are mostly not thriving. They do not see the economy as nourishing or supporting them. Instead, they tend to see it as an obstacle, a set of external forces out of their control that nonetheless seems to hold sway over their lives.

Take the perceived prevalence of greed. This is hardly a new feeling, but it has been exacerbated recently by inflation and higher housing costs. Americans experience these phenomena not as abstract concepts or political talking points but rather as grocery stores and landlords demanding more money.

Income inequality has been in decline over the last few years. But try explaining that to someone struggling to pay the rent. I just feel like the underdog can’t get ahead, and it’s all about greed and profit,” one Kentucky participant noted. It is not necessarily the actual distribution of wealth that troubles people. It is the feeling that the economy is rigged against them.

There is a clear disconnect between the macroeconomic story and the micro-American experience. While a tight job market has produced historic gains for lower-income workers, many of the low-income workers we spoke with are unable to accumulate enough money to build a safety net for themselves. I like the feeling of not living on the edge of disaster,” a special-education teacher in rural Tennessee said. [I am] at my fullest potential economically” right now, but I’m still one doctor’s visit away from not being there, and pretty much most people I know are.”

If there is a singular explanation for dissatisfaction with the economy, it is a lack of financial certainty. While direct government assistance early in the pandemic certainly helped many in 2020 and 2021, millions of households still struggled to get food, and many millions fell behind on rent. These feelings of instability do not dissipate quickly, especially when rising prices make trips to the store adventures in budgetary arithmetic and the threat of an accident or a surprise medical bill looms around every corner. Uncertainty really affects your well-being. It affects what you do. It affects how you behave,” said a unionized airport worker in Virginia who tutors in the evenings.

An absence of economic resilience prevents people from spending time with family, from getting involved in their community and from finding ways to build a safety net. The way the economy is going right now, you don’t know where it’s going to be tomorrow, next week,” a human resources employee in Indiana said. Well-being is about being financially stable. It’s not about being rich, but it’s about being able to take care of your everyday needs without stressing.”

Stress is a rampant part of American life, much of it caused by financial insecurity. Some people aspire for the mansion on the hill. Many others are looking just to get their feet on solid ground.

One does not need to look hard beyond traditional metrics to see the prevalence of insecurity. In June an industry report found that auto loan delinquencies were higher than they were at the peak of the Great Recession. Credit card use has swelled, and delinquencies are at among their highest rates in a decade. After hitting a historic low in 2021 thanks to the expansion of the child tax credit, child poverty more than doubled in 2022 after the tax credit’s expansion expired. Also in 2022, rates of food insecurity reached their highest levels since 2015.

Major role, too. In some parts of the country — particularly rural areas — many people feel they have been left out of the progress and promise of the high-tech economy. Even if their finances remain in good health, they seem to fear for the future of their community, and they blame the economy.

The political system is supposed to make all this better. Instead, even as both major parties have vied to cast themselves as the standard-bearer of the working class, many Americans see politicians as unable or unwilling to do anything to help them. In my democracy, I’d like to see us get rid of Republicans, Democrats,” one Kentucky participant told us. Just stand up there, tell me what you can do. If you can do it, I don’t have to care what you are.” Many Americans seem to see Washington as awash in partisan squabbles over things that have little effect on their lives. Many believe that politicians are looking out for their political party, not the American people.

It should not be surprising, then, that so many are so pessimistic about a seemingly strong economy. A rising gross domestic product lifts lots of boats, but many Americans feel as if they are drowning.

What would make the people we talked to less stressed? The ability to accumulate savings. Low-wage workers have seen their incomes rise only for many of these gains to be wiped out by inflation. And the costs of housing, health care and child care can quickly absorb even a very robust rainy-day fund. Without a safety net that can propel people into security, the threat of these costs will continue to make many Americans feel unstable, uncertain and decidedly unhappy about the economy.

A helpful starting point would be to address benefit cliffs — income eligibility cutoffs built into certain benefits programs. As households earn more money, they can make themselves suddenly ineligible for benefits that would let them build up enough wealth to no longer need any government support. In Kansas, for example, a family of four remains eligible for Medicaid as long as it earns under $39,900. A single dollar in additional income results in the loss of health care coverage — and an alternative will certainly not cost only a buck.

forming these types of cliffs for health care, child care, housing and food assistance programs would allow the millions of households receiving state aid to achieve a sense of stability. Take this mother in Chicago who told us that her income is just above the eligibility cutoffs. The cliff knocks me out of a lot of the opportunity to qualify for a lot of the programs that could assist in benefiting myself and my child,” she said.

The Americans we listened to want resiliency so they can feel that they are in control of their lives and that they have a say in the direction of their community and their nation. They want a system focused less on how the economy is doing and more on how Americans are doing. As one Houston man observed: We’re so far down on the economic chain that we don’t have nothing. It seems like our voices don’t matter.” But they do matter. The rest of us just need to listen.

END

Ms. Cramer is a co-chair of the Commission on Reimagining Our Economy at the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Mr. Cohen is a senior program officer at the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Kandy, Feb. 24 (Daily Mirror)- Renewing his pledge made during the 2019 Presidential election, Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa today said he will focus on the maximum on women’s health if elected as President of this country. 

“I was called ‘Pad Man’ during the last Presidential election when I spoke of women’s health. Talking of women’s health is taboo only in Sri Lanka. However, Scotland and New Zealand provide sanitary pads to women free of charge. I will follow these countries and will do the same. You can call me Pad Man,” Premadasa told a women’s convention organized by SJB in Kandy.

Courtesy Adaderana

The United Republic Front presented the proposal titled A United Step for the Country” to President Ranil Wickremesinghe this morning (Feb.24), at ‘Sirikotha, the United National Party (UNP) headquarters in Colombo.

After engaging in discussions with the President, the leader of the United Republic Front, MP Patali Champika Ranawaka, along with the delegation, presented the relevant proposal to the President.

Speaking at the event President Ranil Wickremesinghe, highlighted the government’s concerted efforts over the past two years to stabilize the country’s economy, which had faced significant challenges.

Stressing the government’s commitment to steering the economy towards recovery through strategic reforms, the President expressed his determination to continue these initiatives with the collective support of everyone.

Recalling his open invitation to all political parties to unite under a common agenda for the country, regardless of political differences, the President reiterated his willingness to embrace constructive proposals from all political parties as part of the nation-building efforts.

The President responded positively to the request made by Member of Parliament Mr. Patali Champika Ranawaka to allow other political parties to participate in the upcoming negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) next month concerning the restructuring of foreign debt.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe, responding queries about the scheduling of elections, affirmed that the Presidential Election will proceed as scheduled, with the General Election anticipated to take place early next year.

UNP Deputy Leader and President’s Senior Adviser on Climate Change, Ruwan Wijewardena, along with UNP Secretary General Palitha Rangebandara were also in attendance at the event. Representing the United Republic Front were Karu Paranavithana, Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe and Attorney at Law, Shiral Lakthilaka.

–PMD