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The Colombian head of state has been consistently speaking out in support of Palestine amid Israel’s genocidal attacks. At the COP 28 summit, he pointed out that the devastation wreaked on Gaza was a harbinger of what might happen to those fleeing from climate catastrophes

December 03, 2023

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) began on November 30 in Dubai. Around 70,000 delegates are participating in the nearly two- week conference, including member states, business leaders, young people, climate scientists, Indigenous Peoples, journalists, and other experts and stakeholders.

The conference seeks to bring together these diverse sectors in order to build serious, global solutions that can address the pressing climate crisis and accelerate collective climate action. It is taking place amid Israel’s genocidal war against the Gaza Strip, which world leaders have brought up in their addresses to the conference and in other events.

In his opening remarks to the conference, Colombian President Gustavo Petro condemned the actions of rich countries which have yet to fulfill their key responsibilities and commitments. He also linked the issue of climate change and the devastation in Gaza and highlighted the latter as a harbinger of what is to come.

CO2 emissions can also be measured in terms of social inequality. Those who most emit CO2 and most consume carbon are rich. The poor pollute the environment the least.

This social inequality in today’s world is the reason why the Paris COP goals have failed.

Today, 12% more CO2 is emitted in the world than in 2010. That means, the richest sectors of humanity have expanded their carbon consumption and therefore CO2 emissions, leading humanity and life to crisis.

In addition to such aberration, the Climate Fund was not financed as promised to protect non-CO2 emitting populations, which means poor populations.

Rich countries’ capitalism resists devaluing the wealth of their societies based on carbon production and consumption. These states cannot and do not wish to devalue their fossil capital, capital based on oil, coal and gas. That would radically diminish and disrupt the structure of wealth.

Fossil energy has been essential in the enormous growth of work productivity, therefore, in the profits of the richest people on the planet. Those who dominate political power do not allow the very basis of their wealth to be extinguished.

The American dream, the European comfort, the rich syndrome from China or India are based on plenty carbon consumption. The consumption of the richest part of humanity on the planet, based on carbon, is a consumption based on the death of others.

Hence the enormous capacity for destruction that is the basis of sustaining fossil capital.

On the other hand, the transfer of wealth from the North to the South to adapt non-CO2-emitting populations to the increasingly deadly contingencies of climate impacts are seen outside the market. In the South, in their tropical areas, the availability of water is decreasing, causing an exodus.

The emptying of populations from the South to the North and the march of entire populations to the North is underway. The enormous social inequality regarding carbon consumption and the rising increase in carbon in the wealthy North population causes the exodus from the south to the north.

There are tens of million people today; tomorrow they will be hundreds of millions. What will happen with this exodus? What will happen to democracy? What will happen to international law? What will happen to humanity?

I invite all of you to imagine a combination of facts — the projection of the climate crisis in five or ten years and the current genocide of the Palestinian people. Are these facts disconnected? Or can we look at there [Gaza] as a mirror of the immediate future? The unleashing of genocide and barbarism on the Palestinian people is what awaits the exodus of the peoples of the South unleashed by the climate crisis.

If the wealth bearers from the North, with intensive carbon consumption, do not allow the emitting chimneys to be turned off, that means they do not stop consuming oil, coal, and gas, [and then] the supporting pillars of human existence in the planet will be irreversibly broken. That breakdown will be uneven.

Most of the climate victims, whose number will increase in billions, will be in countries that do not emit at all or emit very little CO2. Without transfers of wealth from the North to the South, climate victims will have less water in their habitats and will move towards the North, where melting ice will allow fresh water. The exodus will involve billions.

​This immense exodus will have a response in the North. We are already seeing it in the anti-immigration policies of rich countries and the rise of the extreme right within them. Hitler is knocking on the European and American middle-class homes’ doors and many are letting him in. The exodus will be responded to with a lot of violence and barbarism. What we are seeing in Gaza is a rehearsal of the future.

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Why have large carbon-consuming countries allowed the systematic murder of thousands of children in Gaza? Because Hitler has already entered their homes and they are getting ready to defend their high levels of carbon consumption and reject the exodus it causes.

We can then see the future: the breakdown of democracy and the barbarism unleashed against our people, the people who do not emit CO2, the poor people.

Is this future of a generalized Gaza against the growing exodus of our people avoidable?

The votes at the United Nations on the barbarism against Palestine mark a global political fragmentation. There are still countries that, on the verge of sinking, like the islands of Vanuatu and other islands, vote against Palestine, but the vast majority of the world’s poor people have united to stop the barbarism.

Only a few countries in Europe and North America, the largest consumers of carbon, vote in favor of genocide.

There is no other alternative than the usual path, the path of unity of the poor and their struggle.

Colombia has proposed overcoming the climate crisis through multilateralism, through international law, making the COP plans binding on all parties, and creating a space of global public powers that plans the transition to a decarbonized economy.

Colombia has proposed the restructuring of the global financial system, the debt-for-nature swaps and the issuance of Special Drawing Rights to finance climate crisis mitigation, and adaptation plans [and] the strengthening and reform of the United Nations.

Colombia has stopped signing coal, oil and gas exploration contracts. Colombia has dismantled the gasoline subsidies and we are encouraging the world [to implement] a global ban on fracking.

Colombia has tapped 70% of its clean energy sources. Colombia has contributed by 70% the reduction of deforestation of the Amazon rainforest with its own resources.

Colombia hopes for the unity of the entire Southern countries around saving life on the planet and human existence.

Perhaps if we see a free Palestine reemerging among their remains today, we will be able to see a living humanity re-emerge tomorrow in the midst of the remains of the climate crisis. Thank you.

by Vijay Prashad

On December 3, 2023, a large number of registered voters in Venezuela voted in a referendum over the Essequibo region that is disputed with neighboring Guyana. Nearly all those who voted answered yes to the five questions. These questions asked the Venezuelan people to affirm the sovereignty of their country over Essequibo. Today,” said Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, there are no winners or losers.” The only winner, he said, is Venezuela’s sovereignty. The principal loser, Maduro said, is ExxonMobil.

In 2022, ExxonMobil made a profit of $55.7 billion, making it one of the world’s richest and most powerful oil companies. Companies such as ExxonMobil, exercise an inordinate power over the world economy and over countries that have oil reserves. It has tentacles across the world, from Malaysia to Argentina. In his Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power (2012), Steve Coll describes how the company is a corporate state within the American state.” Leaders of ExxonMobil have always had an intimate relationship with the U.S. government: Lee Iron Ass” Raymond (Chief Executive Officer from 1993 to 2005) was a close personal friend of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and helped shape the U.S. government policy on climate change; Rex Tillerson (Raymond’s successor in 2006) left the company in 2017 to become the U.S. Secretary of State under President Donald Trump. Coll describes how ExxonMobil uses U.S. state power to find more and more oil reserves and to ensure that ExxonMobil becomes the beneficiary of those finds.

Walking through the various polling centers in Caracas on the day of the election, it was clear that the people who voted knew exactly what they were voting for: not so much against the people of Guyana, a country with a population of just over 800,000, but they were voting for Venezuelan sovereignty against companies such as ExxonMobil. The atmosphere in this vote—although sometimes inflected with Venezuelan patriotism—was more about the desire to remove the influence of multinational corporations and to allow the peoples of South America to solve their disputes and divide their riches among themselves.

When Venezuela Ejected ExxonMobil

When Hugo Chávez won the election to the presidency of Venezuela in 1998, he said almost immediately that the resources of the country—mostly the oil, which finances the country’s social development—must be in the hands of the people and not oil companies such as ExxonMobil. El petroleo es nuestro” (the oil is ours), was the slogan of the day. From 2006, Chávez’s government began a cycle of nationalizations, with oil at the center (oil had been nationalized in the 1970s, then privatized again two decades later). Most multinational oil companies accepted the new laws for the regulation of the oil industry, but two refused: ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil. Both companies demanded tens of billions of dollars in compensation, although the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) found in 2014 that Venezuela only needed to pay ExxonMobile $1.6 billion.

Rex Tillerson was furious, according to people who worked at ExxonMobil at that time. In 2017, the Washington Post ran a story that captured Tillerson’s sentiment: Rex Tillerson got burned in Venezuela. Then he got revenge.” ExxonMobil signed a deal with Guyana to explore for off-shore oil in 1999 but did not start to explore the coastline till March 2015—after the negative verdict came in from the ICSID. ExxonMobil used the full force of a U.S. maximum pressure campaign against Venezuela both to cement its projects in the disputed territory and to undermine Venezuela’s claim to the Essequibo region. This was Tillerson’s revenge.

ExxonMobil’s Bad Deal for Guyana

In 2015, ExxonMobil announced that it had found 295 feet of high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs”; this is one of the largest oil finds in recent years. The giant oil company began regular consultation with the Guyanese government, including pledges to finance any and every upfront cost for the oil exploration. When the Production Sharing Agreement between Guyana’s government and ExxonMobil was leaked, it revealed how poorly Guyana fared in the negotiations. ExxonMobil was given 75 percent of the oil revenue toward cost recovery, with the rest shared 50-50 with Guyana; the oil company, in turn, is exempt from any taxes. Article 32 (Stability of Agreement”) says that the government shall not amend, modify, rescind, terminate, declare invalid or unenforceable, require renegotiation of, compel replacement or substitution, or otherwise seek to avoid, alter, or limit this Agreement” without the consent of ExxonMobil. This agreement traps all future Guyanese governments in a very poor deal.

Even worse for Guyana is that the deal is made in waters disputed with Venezuela since the 19th century. Mendacity by the British and then the United States created the conditions for a border dispute in the region that had limited problems before the discovery of oil. During the 2000s, Guyana had close fraternal ties with the government of Venezuela. In 2009, under the PetroCaribe scheme, Guyana bought cut-price oil from Venezuela in exchange for rice, a boon for Guyana’s rice industry. The oil-for-rice scheme ended in November 2015, partly due to lower global oil prices. It was clear to observers in both Georgetown and Caracas that the scheme suffered from the rising tensions between the countries over the disputed Essequibo region.

ExxonMobil’s Divide and Rule

The December 3 referendum in Venezuela and the circles of unity” protest in Guyana suggest a hardening of the stance of both countries. Meanwhile, at the sidelines of the COP-28 meeting, Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali met with Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel and the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves to talk about the situation. Ali urged Díaz-Canel to urge Venezuela to maintain a zone of peace.”

War does not seem to be on the horizon. The United States has withdrawn part of its blockade on Venezuela’s oil industry, allowing Chevron to restart several oil projects in the Orinoco Belt and in Lake Maracaibo. Washington does not have the appetite to deepen its conflict with Venezuela. But ExxonMobil does. Neither the Venezuelan nor the Guyanese people will benefit from ExxonMobil’s political intervention in the region. That is why so many Venezuelans who came to cast their vote on December 3 saw this less as a conflict between Venezuela and Guyana and more as a conflict between ExxonMobil and the people of these two South American countries.

This article was produced by Globetrotter.

Vijay Prashad’s most recent book (with Noam Chomsky) is The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and the Fragility of US Power (New Press, August 2022).

මහජන ආරක්ෂක  අමාත්‍යංශ

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සහ රුසියාව අතර ද්වීපාර්ශවික ආරක්ෂක සබඳතා ශක්තිමත් කර ගැනීමේ අරමුණින්, මහජන ආරක්ෂක අමාත්‍ය ටිරාන් අලස් මහතාගේ ආරාධනයෙන් මෙරට සංචාරයක නිරත ඉහල පෙලේ රුසියානු ආරක්ෂක කවුන්සිල නියෝජිත පිරිසක් සමඟ  විශේෂ සාකච්ඡාවක්  අමාත්‍යංශ කාර්යාලයේදී පැවැත්විණි. රුසියානු ආරක්ෂක කවුන්සිලයේ නියෝජ්‍ය ලේකම් ඕලෙග් ව්ලඩ්මිරොවිච් මහතාගේ  ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් සාකච්ඡාව සඳහා රුසියානු නියෝජිත පිරිස එක්වූ අතර  අධිකරණ අමාත්‍ය විජයදාස රාජපක්ෂ මහතාද ඒ සඳහා සහභාගි විය.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ආරක්ෂක කටයුතු ශක්තිමත් කරගැනීම සඳහා රුසියාවේ සහයෝගය අඛණ්ඩව ලබාදීමටත්, ජාත්‍යන්තර තොරතුරු ආරක්ෂාව ඇතුළු කරුණු රැසක් පිළිබඳ මෙහිදී දෙපාර්ශවයේ නියෝජිතයින් අතර අදහස් හුවමාරු විය.

රුසියාව නියෝජනය කරමින් රුසියානු ආරක්ෂක කවුන්සිලයේ නියෝජ්‍ය ලේකම් වරුන් ඇතුළු ඉහළ පෙලේ නියෝජිත පිරිසක් මෙම සාකච්ඡාව සඳහා එක් වූ අතර වැඩ බලන පොලිස්පති දේශබන්දු තෙන්නේකෝන් මහතා ඇතුළු අමාත්‍යංශ නිලධාරීන් පිරිසක්ද ඊට එක්ව සිටියහ.

Manusha Media

සිවිල් ගුවන් සේවා ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ ජපන් රැකියා අවස්ථා ලබන මාර්තුවේදී විවෘත වෙයි

ගම්වල විගමණික ශ්‍රමික කමිටු 2850ක් හදලා තියෙනවා

විදේශ රැකියා ජාවාරම්වලට – විසිට් වීසා ජාවාරම්වලට අහුවෙන්න එපා කියලා කොච්චර කිව්වත් අහුවෙනවා

ඕනෑම අවශ්‍යතාවයකට සේවක අර්ථසාධක අරමුදලින් සියයට 30 ගන්න පුළුවන් විදියට පනත වෙනස් කරනවා

2025 වන විට ළමා ශ්‍රමයෙන් තොර රටක් බවට පත් කරනවා

ගරු සරු හරහා ශ්‍රමයට ගරුත්වයක් – සෑම අයෙක්ටම සමාජ ආරක්ෂණයක්

මිනිස් ජාවාරම් වැලැක්වීමට – උන්ඩියල් ජාවාරම් වැලැක්වීමට රාජ්‍ය පුද්ගලික හවුල්කාරීත්වයක් විදේශ සේවා නියුක්ති කාර්යාංශය ඩිජිටල්කරණයට ලක් කරනවා


විදේශ ගත ශ්‍රමිකයින් නීත්‍යානුකූල ක්‍රමයට මෙරටට එවූ මුදල් ප්‍රමාණය මත ඉලෙට්‍රික් වාහන ආනයනය කිරීම සදහා බලපත්‍ර 900ක්  නිකුත් කර ඇති බවත්, ඒ හරහා ඩොලර් මිලියන 100ක මුදලක් ගෙන්වා ගැනීමට හැකියාව ලැබී ඇති බවත් කම්කරු හා විදේශ රැකියා අමාත්‍ය මනුෂ නානායක්කාර මහතා පැවසුවේය

මෙම වාහන ගෙන්වීමට අදාල ණයවර ලිපි නිකුත් කිරීමට ලබාදී ඇති කාලය දීර්ඝ කරන ලෙසට ජනාධිපතිතුමා අවස්ථා තුනකදී දැනුම්දී ඇති නමුත් උපන්දා සිට මුදල් අමාත්‍යාංශයේ සිටින ඇතැම් නිලධාරීන් එයට අවශ්‍ය පියවර ගෙන නොමැති බවත් අමාත්‍යවරයා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී අමාත්‍යාංශයේ වැය ශීර්ශ විවාදයට එක්වෙමින් පැවසුවේය.

අපි රටක් විදිහට තිබුනේ පුලුවන් එකා පුලු පුලුවන් හැටියට ජීවත් වෙන බැරි එකා බැරි බැරි ගාතේ හුස්ම ඉහල පහල දාන රටක් බවට අපි පත්වුනා. මේක හැමදාම තියෙන්න ඕනෙද? බැරි බැරි ගානේ හුස්මගන්න මනුස්සයාට බොරු කියලා දේශපාලනය කරන එකද නැත්තම් හරියට වැඩ කරන කෙනාට හූමිට තියෙන එකද කළ යුත්තේ.
 අපි කරන්න ඕනේ රටේ ඇත්ත තත්ත්වය පහදල දීලා තමන්ගේ වැඩ කරන එක පටන් ගෙන මේ වෙනස කරන එක පටන් ගැනීමයි කළයුත්තේ.   මේ අයවැයෙනුත් අපි කළේ ඒ වෙනස කරන්න පටන් අරගෙන ඒ වෙනස ආරම්භ කරලා ඒ ගමනේ දෙවැන අයවැය තමයි අද සාකච්ඡාවට බදුන් කරන්නේ.

විපක්ෂනායකතුමා ප්‍රතිපත්ති සම්බන්ධයෙන් කිව්වා. එතුමා කිව්වා මුස්ලිම් ජාතිකයින්ට සිදුවන අසාධාරණය සම්බන්ධයෙන්. අපි එදත් ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් විරුද්ධව සිටියා. අලි සබ්‍රි ඇමතිතුමා ඇතුළු මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් ගණනාවක් ඊට විරුද්ධව සිටියා.

අපි එදා විපක්ෂයේ ඉඳගෙන ඒ මතයට විරුද්ධව හිටියා. අද අණ්ඩු පක්ෂයේ හිටියත් අපි අපේ හෘද සාක්ෂියට එකඟව මුස්ලිම් ජනතාවට කරපු හානිය අපි හෙළාදකිනවා. ඉදිරියටත් එය එසේම වෙනවා. ඒ වගේ දේවල් යලිත් ඇති වීම වැලැක්වීමට අදාල නීති හැදීමටයි අපි කටයුතු කරන්නේ.

ඔන්ලයින් සේෆ්ටි බිල් එක ගැන බොරු බිල්ලො මවනකොට මේ වගේ ජාතීන් අතර අර්බුද නිර්මාණය කිරීම, බොරුවට මිනිසුන්නට චෝදනා කිරීම, කුණු හරප කීම, අබූත චෝදනා කිරීමට අයිතියක් වගවීමක් තියෙන්න ඕනේ නැද්ද?
මේ  ඔන්ලයින් සේෆ්ටි බිල් එක ක්‍රියාත්මක වෙන්නේ මම කිව්ව දේවල වලට විතරයි. ඉතින් ඇයි ඒකට බය? බොරු කියනවාට, මිනිස්සුන්ට අපහාස කරනවා, ආගම් අතර ප්‍රශ්න ඇති කරනවාට, සම්බන්ධයෙන් වගකීම ගන්න කියන එක විතරයි මේකේ තියෙන්නේ.

රටක් වෙනස් වෙනවා නම් මිනිස්සු වගකිම් ගන්න නීතියට ගරු කරන පිරිසක් බවට පත්විය යුතුයි. ඒ නිසාමයි මේ වගේ නීතියක් ගෙන එන්න කටයුතු කරන්නේ.
අපි මේ රට භාරගත්තේ රටේ ඩොලර් සංචිත පහල්ලෙහාටම වැටිල තිබුණ අවස්ථාවකයි. දේශපාලන පක්ෂ වල නායකයෝ රටට සල්ලි එවන්න එපා කියලා ව්‍යංගයෙක් කියලා ඒ වගේම සල්ලි එව්වේ නැත්තම් මේ රට වට්ටන්න පුළුවන් කියන කාරණය පැහැදිලිව කියලා සල්ලි රටට එවන එක නවත්වලා උන්ඩියල් හරහා සල්ලි ගෙන්වන්න ලෑස්ති කරලා රට වට්ටපු වෙලාවක අපි කිව්වා ඩොලර් එවන්න කියලා.

එහිදී අපි කිව්වා ඩොලර් මිලියන 500ක පංගු කාරයෙක් වෙන්න කියලා විදේශගත ශ්‍රමිකයින්ගෙන් ඉල්ලපු වෙලාවේ අපේ විදේශගත ශ්‍රමකියන් ඉතාම ධනාත්මක විදිහට ප්‍රතිචාර දැක්වූවා.

අපිට මුලින්ම සල්ලි බැංකු හරහා එවන්න කියලා කියන්න දැන්වීමක් හදන්නවත් රාජ්‍ය භාණ්ඩාගාරයෙන් මුදල් ගන්න ක්‍රමයක් තිබ්බේ නැහැ. ඒ වෙලාවේ අපේ හිතවතුන්ගේ පුද්ගලිකව සල්ලි ටිකක් එකතු කරගෙනයි පළමුවෙන් දැන්වීම් ටික හදලා ඒ වඩා පළකරලා රටට බෙහෙත් ටික ගන්න, තෙල් ගහන්න, දරුවට කිරිපිටි එක ගන්න පුළුවන් වෙන්න සල්ලි එවන්න කියලා ඉල්ලුවා.

ඒ වෙලාවේ අපේ විදේශගත ශ්‍රමකියෝ අර දේශපාලන මතවාද වලට අහුවෙන්නේ නැතිව රට ඇතුලතට සල්ලි එව්වා.   එහිදී රට ඇතුලට සල්ලි එවීමේදී විදේශගත ශ්‍රමිකයින්ට නිසි ගෞරවයක් ලබාදීම සිදුකරන්න වුනා. ඒකට විශාල වැඩපිළිවෙලක් දියත් කරන්නත් වුනා.

මේ ව්‍යපෘති සඳහා අපිට සහය ලබා දුන්න අමාත්‍යංශයේ නිලධාරීන්, විදේශ කටයුතු අමාත්‍යංශය, රට මේ තැනට ගෙන එන්න විශාල සහයක් ලබා දුන්නා. එහිදී තානාපති සේවයේ ඉන්න අපේ නිලධාරීන් විශේෂ වැඩපිලිවෙලක් ක්‍රියාත්මක කළා. බැංකුත් ඒ සඳහා අපිට උදව් කළා.  

විදේශ රටවලුත් අපිට සහයක් දුන්නා. එහිදී අපේ ශ්‍රමිකයින් ඔවුන් ගත්තා. අපේ ශ්‍රමිකයින්ට ඉඩකඩ හදලා දුන්නා. ඒ ඔස්සේ අපිට හිමි අවස්ථා පුළුල් කරලා දෙන්නත් කටයුතු කලා. ඒ නිසාම මැදපෙරදිග ඇතුළු සියලුම රටවලට අපේ ස්තූතිය පුද්කරන්න කැමතියි. ජාත්‍යන්තර කම්කරු සංවිධාන්‍ය ඒ වගේම අයි ඕ එම් ආයතනය ඇතුළු ආයතනය වලටත් අපි අපේ ස්තූතිය පළකරනවා.

විදේශ විනිමය ලැබීම් වර්ධනය කරගන්න අපි ඉලෙක්ට්‍රික් වාහන බලපත්‍රක්‍රමයක් හදුන්වාදුන්නා. එතනදි අපි දළ වශයෙන් විද්‍යුත් වාහන නවසීයකට ආසන්න සංඛ්‍යාවකට බලපත්‍ර නිකුත් කරලා තියෙනවා. ඒ හරහා ඇමරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 100කට වඩා වැඩි මුදලක් රට තුලට ඇවිල්ලා තියෙනවා.
 ඒ වගේම ණයවර නිකුත් කිරීම දීර්ඝ කරන්න තියෙනවා ඒත් ජනාධිපතිතුමා ඉල්ලීම් කරලත්  මහා භාණ්ඩාගාරය තවමත් ප්‍රතිචාර දක්වලා නැහැ. ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ, මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහත්වරුන්ගෙ කාලයෙත් මහා භාණ්ඩාගාරය ඇතුලේ හිටියෙ එකම නිලධාරීන් පිරිසක්.
උපන්දා සිට මහා භාණ්ඩාගාරයේ ඉන්න නිලධාරීන් ඉන්නවා. විශේෂයෙන්ම ආචාර්ය කපිල සේනානායක කියන කෙනා. ඇත්තටම ඔය ආර්ථිකය වැටුනා කියන කාලයෙත් හිටියේ මේ අයමයි. ඒ අය තවමත් රටට අත්‍යාවශ්‍ය වෙලාවේ රටට ඩොලර් මිලියන ගණනක් ගෙන්ලා තියෙන මිනිස්සුන්ට දීපු මේ ප්‍රතිලාභය විශේෂයෙන් මේ වාහනය ගෙන ඒමට අදාල ණයවර ලිපිය විවෘත කරන එකේ දිනය දීර්ඝ කිරීමට කල් අරගන්නවා.

අපි දන්නේ නැහැ මේ අයගේ දේශපාලන මත මොනවාද කියලා. අර රටට සල්ලි එවන්න එපා කියපු අය වගේම රට වට්ටන්න උවමනාවක් තියෙන අයද කියලත් ජනාධිපතිතුමාත් අපි සියලුදෙනාමත් අපි අවධානය යොමු කළයුතුයි.

මේ වගේ නිලධාරින් එක්ක රට අමාරු තත්ත්වයකට වැටිල ඉන්න අවස්ථාවක ඉදිරියට ගෙනියන්නේ කොහොමද කියලත් අවධානය යොමු කළයුතුයි.
ගුවන්තොටු පොලේ දී  අපි විදේශගත ශ්‍රමිකයින් එවල ලද මුල් ප්‍රමාණය අනුව තීරු බදු සහන ලබා දෙන්න කැබිනට් මණ්ඩලය අනුමත කළා. එහිදී වැඩියෙන් මුදල් එව්වා නම් වැඩියෙන් තීරු බදු සහන ලබාදෙන්නත් එහිදී තීරණය කළා. හැබැයි මේවා කැබිනට් එක අනුමත කරලා කැබිනට් එක් ගැසට් එකත් ගහල තියෙද්දිත් තවමත් රේගුවට මේ බදු සහනය ලබා දෙන්න බැරිවෙලා තියෙනවා.

කැබිනට් එක, ජනාධිපතිතුමා මේ සියල්ල තීරණය කරලා තියෙද්දිත් නිලධාරීන් තවමත් මේ සඳහා සහය ලබා දී නැහැ.

ලංකාවෙන් යන සෑම ශ්‍රමිකයෙකුගෙන්ම නීත්‍යානුකූලව මුදල් එවන බවට සෑම ශ්‍රමිකයෙකුගෙන්ම දිව්රුම් ප්‍රකාශයක් ලබා ගත්තා.  ඒ විදහට තමයි අපි රටතුලට විදේශ මුදල් ගෙන්වා ගන්න කටයුතු කළේ.

මීට අමතරව විදේශ රැකියා නියෝජිත ආයතන වලට ලැබෙන කොමිස් මුදල් පවා බැංකු හරහා ගෙන්වා ගතයුතුයි කියලා කිව්වා. ඒ වගේම ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් පරීක්ෂණ පවා සිදුකළා. මනුසිව බහුකාර්ය ණය යෝජනා ක්‍රමය ඔස්සේ විදේශ ගත ශ්‍රමිකයින්ට සියයට 8ක පොලියට මිලියන දෙකක මුදලක් ලබා ගන්න පුළුවන්.

නිවාස සංවර්ධන අධිකාරිය සමඟ එකතුවෙලා නිවසා ව්‍යාපෘතියක් ආරම්භ කළා. එහි මුල් අදියර මේවන විටත් ක්‍රියාත්මකයි.

ගුවන්තොටුපොලේදී විදේශගත ශ්‍රමිකයින්ට නිසි ගරුත්වය ලබාදෙන්න හෝප් ගේට් නමින් විශේෂ ද්වාරයක් විවෘත කළා. එතනදි එහිදී අපේ විදේශගත ශ්‍රමිකයින් හට වැඩියෙන් සලකන්න සහවෙන්න වෙනම කණ්ඩායමක් යොදවලා විදේශගත වෙන්න අවශ්‍ය වැඩපිලිවෙලත් අපි සකස් කළා.

සමහර වෙලාවට ආගමන විගමන එකෙන් මේ සඳහා පොඩි පොඩි කුඩම්මාගේ සැලකිලි ලැබෙනවා කියලත් අපිට වාර්තා වෙනවා.  මීට අමතරව පළමුවරට විදේශ රැකියා සඳහා පිටත්ව යන කාන්තාවන්ගේ පවුල් වලට වවුචර්පත් නිකුත් කරලා තියෙනවා.

ඒ වැඩපිළිවෙල යටතේ රට යනකොට අපි සතොසෙන් වවුචරයක් දෙනවා. ඒ සඳහා ලක්ෂ තුන්දහස් අටසිහ හැත්තෑ හයක් අපි වෙන් කරලා තියෙනවා. විශ්‍රම වැටුපත් අපි ආරම්භ කරලා තියෙනවා. ඒක විශාල කාලයක පටන් කථා කරපු දෙයක් දැන් ඒක ක්‍රියාත්මකයි. දැන් ඕනෑම කෙනෙකුට මෙම දායකත්ව විශ්‍රාම වැටුපට දායක වෙන්න අවස්ථාව ලැබෙනවා.

රටගිය අම්මලාගේ තාත්තලාගේ දරුවන් බලාගන්න  දිවා සුරැකුම් මධ්‍යස්ථාන රටපුරාම ආරම්භ කරණ වැඩසටහන යටතේ පළමු දිවා සුරැකුම් මධ්‍යස්ථාන දෙක කුරුණෑගලත් කරන්දෙනියෙත් ආරම්භ කළා.  විග්‍රමනික ශ්‍රමිකයින්ගේ දරුවන්ට විදේශ සේවා නියුක්ති කාර්යාශය විසින් කාලයක පටන්ම ශිෂ්‍යත්ව ලබා දීම සිදුරනවා, ඒ අනුව එහිදී ලබාදෙන මුදල වැඩි කරන්න පියවර අරගෙන තිබෙනවා.

අවස්ථා හයකට වැඩි සංඛ්‍යාවකදී ලියාපදිංචි වෙලා විදේශගත වුනු ශ්‍රමිකියන් විසින් රටට කරපු සේවය වෙනුවෙන් ඔවුන්ව ඇගයීමට වවුචර්පත් ලබාදීමට කටයුතු කළා ඒ  සඳහා රුපියල් ලක්ෂ පන්සීයක මුදලක් යොදවලා තිබෙනවා.

ග්ලෝකල් ෆෙයා ඔස්සේ ගාල්ලට යාපනයට ගියා. මොනරාගලට කුරුණෑගලට යන්න බලාපොරොත්තුවෙනවා. දැනටමමත් දැවන්තට රැකියා වෙළෙඳපොලක් ආරම්භ කරල අවසන්. එහිදී කම්කරු අමාත්‍යාංශයේ සියලුම දෙවල් වගේම අගාමන විමගමණ, පාස්පොට් කන්තොරුව, මහ බැංකුව, ඊ.පී.එෆ්, ඊ.ටී.එෆ් ඇතුළු සියලුම දේවල් එකතු කරගෙන යාපනයට ගියා.  එමගින් සංහිඳියාව වර්ධනය කරන්නත් අපි බලාපොරොත්තු වුනා.

කොතලාවල ආරක්ෂක විශ්ව විද්‍යාලය සමඟ එකතුවෙලා විදේශගත ශ්‍රමිකයන්ගේ දරුවන්ට උසස් අධ්‍යාපනය ලබාදෙන්න කටයුතු කරලා තියෙනවා. එමගින් යම් සහනයක් ලබාදෙන්නත් කටයුතු කරලා තියෙනවා.

2022 වර්ෂයේදී කොරියාවට රැකියා සඳහා යොමු කිරීම් නතරවෙලයි තිබුනේ ඒත් ගිය අවුරුද්දේ මැයි මාසය ඉඳන්  කොරියා රැකියා සඳහා 6636ක් යොමු කිරීම හැකියාව ලැබුනා. මේ වර්ෂයේ මුල් මාස 10දි විතරක් කොරියානු රැකියා සඳහා 5414ක් යොමුකරන්න හැකිවෙලා තියෙනවා. කොරියානු නැව් ඉදිකිරීම් ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ නව රැකියා සඳහා ශ්‍රී ලංකිකයින් යොමුකරලා තියෙනවා.

මීට අමතරව කෘෂි ක්ෂේත්‍රය අපේ ශ්‍රමිකයින් යොමු කිරීමට ඇති හැකියාව සම්බන්ධයෙනුත් අධ්‍යනය කරමින් ඉන්නවා.  ඊශ්‍රායලයේ සාක්තු සේවකයින් ලෙස 500ක නියමු ව්‍යාපෘතිය මේවන විට අවසන් කරලා තියෙනවා. ඒ අයටතේ ශ්‍රමිකයින් 536ක් යොමුකරලා තියෙනවා. තවත් පිරිසක් ඒ සඳහා යොමුකරන්න බලාපොරොත්තුවෙනවා.

ඊශ්‍රායලයේ කෘෂි ක්ෂේත්‍රය සඳහා රැකියා දසදහසක අවස්ථාවක් අපිට ලැබී තියෙනවා. ඉදිකිරීම් ක්ෂේත්‍රයට තවත් විසිදහසක් අපිට ලැබිලා තියෙනවා.
ජපානයේ රැකියා අවස්ථාවන් විවර වෙලා තියෙනවා. එහිදී ජපන් භාෂාව සහ වෘත්තිය පුහුණුව සඳහා වැයකරන මුදල ප්‍රතිපූර්ණය කිරීමටත් පියවර අරගෙන තිබෙනවා. ජපානයේ තානාපති කාර්යලායේ කම්කරු අංශයක් ස්ථාපිත කිරීමටත් පියවර අරගෙන තිබෙනවා.

මීට අමතරව ජපානයේ එස්.එස්.ඩබ්ලිව් කියන නව වීසා ක්‍රමය ඔස්සේ ශ්‍රමිකයින් යැවීමටත් පියවර අරගෙන තිබෙනවා. ඒ යටටෙත් දැන තිබුණු සාත්තු සේවක, ආහාර සැකසුම් හා නිෂ්පාදන යන අංශ වලට අතිරේකව ඉදිකිරීම් කියන අංශයටත් නව අවස්ථා විවර කරදීමට අදාල විභාග කටයුතු ආරම්භ කරන්න ගිය සතියේදී හැකියාව ලැබුනා.  ලබන වසරේ මාර්තු මාසයේ සිට සිවිල් ගුවන් සේවා සඳහාත් අපේ ශ්‍රමිකයින් යැවීමේ කටයුතුත් අපි ආරම්භ කරනවා.

විදේශ රැකියා නියෝජිතයින් ගැන චෝදනා රැසක් තිබුනා. ඒ නිසාම ඔවුන්ගේ වෘත්තිය භාවය වර්ධනය කිරීමට ලක්ෂ හතහාමාරට තිබුණ බැදුම්කරය ලක්ෂ 30 දක්වා වැඩි කළා. එය මේ වසරේදී  ලක්ෂ 50 දක්වා වැඩි කරන්න කටයුතු කරලා තියෙනවා.
එමගින් මේ පිරිස අතින් වැරැද්දක් වුනොත් ඒවා යලිත් අයකරගන්න අපිට පහසුකම් ලැබෙනවා. එමන්ම කොළඹ විශ්ව විද්‍යාලය සමඟ එකතු වෙලා ශ්‍රම සංක්‍රමනය පිළිබඳව ඩිප්ලෝමාවක් ආරම්භ කරලා තියෙනවා.
ඒ අනුව බලපත්‍රලාභියෙක් බවට පත්වෙන්න නම් මේ ඩිප්ලෝමාව තිබීම අනිවාර්ය කිරීමට කටයුතු කරනවා. එහිදී අවම අධ්‍යාන සුදුසුකම් පවා හදුන්වාදීමට කටයුතු කරලා තියෙනවා. ඊට අදාලව නයිල්ස් ආයතනය සමඟ එක්ව පාඨමාලාවන් පවා හදුන්වා දී තිබෙනවා.
විදේශ රැකියා ජාවාරම්කරුවන්ට හසුවෙන්න එපා කියලා අපි දැනුවත් කිරීමේ වැඩසටහන් කළා. කොච්චර අහුවෙන්න එපා කිව්වාත අහුවෙනවා. මොකද පැනියටත් අහුවුනා, නායටත් අහුවුනා අවසානයේ තවමත් විවිධාකාරයේ ජාවාරම්කාරයින්ට හසුවෙනවා.

දැනුත් කයියනාකයලට අහුවෙන්නයි යන්නේ. අපි කොච්චර අහුවෙන්න එපා කිව්වත් මිනිස්සු අහුවෙනවා. හැබැයි ඒත් අපි වැටලීම් කරලා නඩු 151ක් ගොනු කරලා තියෙනවා.  මුල් කාර්තුවේදී වැටලීම් අඩුවෙලා තියෙනවා. ඒ වගේ අදවන විට ලැබෙන පැමිණිලි සංඛ්‍යාව අඩුවෙලා තියෙනවා.

මේ අතර මිනිස් ජාවාරම වැලැක්වීමට පියවර අරගෙන තියෙනවා. ගුවන්තොට පෙලේ විශේෂ ඒකකයක් පිහිටුවලා තියෙනවා. එහිදී විදේශ කටයුතු අමාත්‍යංශය, ආරක්ෂක අමාත්‍යංශය මූලිකත්වය අරගනෙ ඇන්ටි ට්‍රැෆිකින් ටාස්ක් ෆෝස් එකක් විදිහට ක්‍රියාත්මක වෙනවා. එමගින් මිනිස්ජාවාරම් අඩු කරගන්න අවස්ථාව ලැබී තියෙනවා.
ටිප් රිපෝට් එකේදිත් අපිට තිබුණ තැන ආරක්ෂා කරගෙන ඉදිරියට යන්නත් පුළුවන්කම ලැබිලා තියෙනවා.

ඇන ගිල්වනවා, පහර දෙනවා, මරණයට පත්වෙනවා වගේ චෝදනා එල්ලවෙනවා. ඒත් අපිට ලැබිලා තියෙන්නේ පැමිණි 5454 යි. ඒක රැකියා සඳහා ලියාපදිංචි වුන සංඛ්‍යාවෙන් සියයට දෙකයි දශම එකයි. මේවා එන්නේ විදේශගත ඉන්න සියලුම ශ්‍රමිකයන්ගෙන්.
විසින් වීසා වලින් ඕමාන් ගියපු එක සම්බන්ධයෙන් කැබිනට් මණ්ඩලයේ විශේෂ අනුමැතියක් ඇතිව ලංකාවට 193ක් ගෙන එන්න කටයුතු කළා. එතැනින් 59ක් ගෙන්ව ගන්න ලක්ෂ 23ක් වැයකරන්නත් වුනා.අපි අහුවෙන්න එපා කියලා දැන්වීම් පවා කැබිනට් අනුමැති යටතේ පළ කළා.

ඉතිහාසයේ වැඩිම පිරිසක් රට රැකියා වලට ගියගේ ගිය අවුරුද්දෙයි. එ් වගේම මේ අවුරුද්දෙත් ලක්ෂ තුනේ සීමාවට යයි කියලා අපි හිතනවා ඊයේ වෙනකොට දෙලක්ෂ හැත්තෑ අටදහසක් විදේශගත වෙලා තියෙනවා.
ඉන්න් සියයට 56ක් පිරිම අය ඒත් ගෘහස්ථ අංශයට ගිහින් තියෙන්නේ සියයට 27යි ඒක ඉතාම සාධනීය තත්ත්වයක්. ගෘහ සේවයට යෑම අපි පුලුවන් තරම් අධෛර්යමත් කරනවා. අපි අප්‍රේල් මාසයේ සිට යවන්නේ පුහුණු සහිත ගෘහ පාලිකාවන් විදිහටයි.
රක්ෂණ වාරික ගෙවන්න ලක්ෂ තුන්දාස් පන්සිය අනුදෙකක් වැයකරලා තියෙනවා. දුෂ්කරතා වලට ලක්වුන ශ්‍රමිකයන්ට ලක්ෂ එක්දහස් අසූහතක් වැයකරලා තියෙනවා.
සාත්තුසේවක පුුහුණු කිරීම් දැන් රොහල්වලටත් ලබාදී තියෙනවා. පුද්ගලික අංශයටත් ඉඩ දී තියෙනවා.
පවුල් පසුබිම් වාර්තාව වෙනුවට පවුල් රැකවරණය හදලා නිලධාරියෙක් යොමුකරලා දරුවාගේ තත්ත්වය ගැනත් සෙයාබලන්න සැලස්මක් ක්‍රියත්මක කරනවා.

ගම්වල විගමනික ශ්‍රමික කමිටු හැදුවා. කමිටු 2850ක් හදලා තියෙනවා. ඒ වගේම ජනවාරි වෙනකොට විගමනික ශ්‍රමකියින්ගේ පවුල්වලට ගිහින් පූර්ණ සමීක්ෂණයක් කරන්නත් බලාපොරෙත්තුවෙනවා.
රාජ්‍ය සේවකයින්ට විදේශ රැකියා සුදුසුකම් ලබාගත හැකි වැඩසටහනක් ක්‍රියාත්මක කරනවා. නව රැකී රක්ෂා පනත හදුන්වා දෙන්නත් කටයුතු කරනවා. ට්‍රිලියන තුනක් වුන ඊ.පී.එෆ්. වත්කම තවදුරටත් වර්ධනය කරගන්න වගේම අය කර නොගත්ත බිලයන 9ක මුදල අයකරගන්නත් කටයුතු කරනවා.
අර්ථ සාධක අරමුදලට දායකත්වය දක්වන්නේ ආයතන හැත්තෑ අටදාහක් විතර සංඛ්‍යාවක්. අර්ථ සාධක අරමුදලට දායකත්වය දක්වන සේවකයින් ඉන්නේ මිලියන 2.6ක් වගේ සංඛ්‍යාවක් ඒත් ශ්‍රම බලකාය මිලියන 8.5ක්. මේක වර්ධනය කරගන්නත් කටයුතු කරනවා. ශ්‍රම බලකායෙන් තුනෙන් දෙකක් සමාජ ආරක්ෂක ක්‍රමයකට සම්බන්ධ වෙලා නැහැ.
මේ සමාජ ආරක්ෂණය රටේ ව්‍යවස්ථාවෙන්ම හදුන්වා දියයුතුයි.

මුල් මාස‍ 9දී අර්ථ සාධක අරමුදලට රුපියල් බිලියන 156.58ක මුදලක් එකතු කරගන්නත් හැකියාව ලැබුනා. ප්‍රතිලාභීන් එක්ලක්ෂ දෙලොස් දහස් පන්සිය හැට දෙකකට බිලියන 144.42ක් ලබාදීමටත් හැකියාව ලැබිලා තියෙනවා.

වෙනදා කම්කරු අමාත්‍යංශ්‍ය ඉස්සරහා හිටිය පෝලිම දැන් නැතිවෙලා තියෙනවා. දැන් මර්ගතව කටයුතු කරන්න පහසුකම් සලසා දී තියෙනවා. අර්ථ සාධක අරමුදලින් සියයට 30ක් ලබාගන්න දැනට පුළුවන්කම තියෙනවා. ඒක ගන්න ලේසි නැහැ ඒත් අපි බලාපොරොත්තු වෙනවා පනත වෙනස් කරලා තමන්ට කැමති අවශ්‍යතාව වෙනුවෙන් ලබාගන්න හැකිවෙන විදිහිට නීති ලිහිල් කරන්න.
ළමා ශ්‍රමයෙන් තොර කළාප බවට මහනුවර, නුවර එළිය, පුත්තලම, මඩකලපුව, මාතර දිස්ත්‍රික්ක පත්කරන්න කටයුතු කරලා තියෙනවා. ඒ වගේම 2025 වෙනකොට අනික් දිස්ත්‍රක්කත් ළමා ශ්‍රමයෙන් තොර කළාප බවට පත්කරන්නත් අපි කටයුතු කරලා තියෙනවා.

කම්කරු පැමිණිලි දොපාර්තමේන්තුවට එන්නේ නැතිව ඉදිරිපත් කරන්න ක්‍රමවේදයක් හදුන්වා දී තිබෙනවා. වතු සේවකයින්ගේ අවම වැටුප වෙනුවෙන් නව සාකච්ඡා ආරම්භ කරලා තියෙනවා. නියෝෂ් ආයතනය  මගින් ගෙනසේවා ස්ථානයේ ආරක්ෂාව වෙනුවෙන් ආරක්ෂිත සංස්කෘතියක් ඇතිකරනවා. ඒකට අදාල පරිච්චේදයක් නව රැකීරක්ෂා පනත යටතේ හදුන්වා දී තියෙනවා. සෑම අයාතනයකටම වෘත්තීය සුරක්ෂිතතා නිලධාරියෙක් අනිවාර්ය කරන්නත් කටයුතු කරනවා.
මිනිස්බල හා රැකී රක්ෂා දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව හරහා ගරු සරු හරහා ශ්‍රමයට ගරුත්වයක් සහ සමාජ ආරක්ෂණයක් සෑම අයෙකුටම ලබාදෙන්න කටයුතු කරනවා. ඒ අනුව සාකච්ඡා රැසක් සමඟ පත්වලා තියෙනවා. සෑම බදාදාවකම අපි සාකච්ඡා තියෙනවා. ඒ අනුව වෘත්තීය මණඩල හදලා හැම වෘත්තියකටම බලපත්‍ර ක්‍රමයක් හදුන්වා දෙන්නත් කටයුතු කරනවා.

පාසලේ සිටම වෘත්තීය මාර්ගෝපදේශය දෙන්නත් කටයුතු කරලා තියෙනවා. ශ්‍රම වාසනා වෙනුවෙන් දරුවන්ගේ අධ්‍යාපනය වෙනුවෙන්ම වෙන් කරලා තියෙනවා.
කුඩා කර්මාන්ත වල ඵලදායීතාවය වර්ධනය කරන්න හැම ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කොට්ඨාසයකම ව්‍යවසාකයෙක් ගොඩන්නත් කටයුතු කරලා තියෙනවා.

ආයතන රැසක් ලාබ ලබන ආයතන කරලා තියෙනවා. විදේශ රැකියා නියුක්ති කාර්යාශයේ මෙහෙයුම් ලාබෙන් බිලියන 7ක් මහා භාණ්ඩාගාරයට දීලා තියෙනවා. ශ්‍රම අධ්‍යනය ආයතනය බරක් නොවන ආයතනයක් කරන්නත් කටයුතු කළා. ගිය අවුරුද්දේ දුන්න මිලියන 10ත් නැවත භාණ්ඩාගාරයට දෙන්න කටයුතු කලා.මේ අවුරද්දෙදි ලබන ලාභය මහා භාණ්ඩාගාරයට දෙන්නත් බලාපොරාත්තුවෙනවා.
නියෝෂ් ආයතනයක් මේ වසරේ ලාභ ලැබුවා. විදේශ රැකියා ඒජනිසිය ස්ථාවර තැන්පත් වර්ධනය කරගෙන තිබුනා. 2022දී වහන්න තිබුණ ආයතනයක් මේක.
මම කිව්වා මේක දෙසැම්බර් වෙනකොට පාඩු නොලබන තත්ත්වයට ගෙනාවේ නැත්තම් වහල දානවා කියලා. ඒත් අපිට ඒ තත්ත්වය වෙනස් කරන්න හැකියා ලැබිලා තියෙනවා.

ජාත්‍යන්තර කම්කරු සංවිධානය සමඟ එකතුවෙලා වෘත්තීය ද්වීපාර්ශවීය වෘත්තීය සුරක්ෂිතතා උපදේශන පාඨමාලා හැදුවා.  විදේශ වෙළෙදපෙලේ විදේශ රැකියා සඳහා ඇති ඉල්ලුම ගැනත් අපි අධ්‍යනයක් කළා. ඉදිරි වසර 10 ගැනත් අපි මෙරට ශ්‍රම වෙළෙඳ පොල ගැනත් අධ්‍යනය කළා.

ලබන වසරේ නව රැකීරක්ෂා පනත හදුන්වා දෙනවා. අනාගත ලෝකය ගැලපෙන නීතී හදන්නයි මේවා ඇති කරන්නේ. පනත් 13ක එකතුවක් තියෙන්නේ. අපි සැසිවාර රැසක් තියලයි මේවා කලේ. මේ පනත මගින් ජාත්‍යත්ර කම්කරු සංවිධානයේ ප්‍රඥප්ති බලාත්මක කරන්නත් හැකියාව ලැබෙනවා.

විදේශ සේවා නියුක්ති කාර්යාංශයේ පනතත් සංශෝධනය කරලා අවසන් අධියරේ තියෙන්නේ. ජාතික ශ්‍රම සංක්‍රමණ ප්‍රතිපත්තිය යාවත්කාලීන කළා. ශ්‍රම වෙළෙඳපොල සංවර්ධන ප්‍රතිපත්තියක් හදලා තියෙනවා. දෙසැම්බර් අවසන් වෙනකොට ඒක ජනාධිපතිතුමට ලබාදෙන්නත් අපි බලාපොරොත්තුවෙනවා.
කම්කරු දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව ඩිජිටලර්කරනය හදුනවා දෙනවා. නව තොරතුරු පද්ධතියක් හදුන්වා දීලා සියලුම ආයතන සම්බන්ධකරපු ජාතික තොරතුරු පද්ධතිය මේ වසරේදී පටන් ගන්න පුළුවන්. ඒකට අදාල ටෙන්ඩර් කටයුතු තමයි මේ දවස්වල ක්‍රියත්මක වෙන්නේ.
විදේශ සේවා නියුක්ති කාර්යාංශය ඩිජිටල්කරනය කරනවා. එමගින් මිනිස් ජවාරම් වැලැක්වීමට, උණ්ඩියල් නවත්වන්න, ශ්‍රමිකයින් ඉන්න තැන් බලාගන්න හැකිවෙන විදිහට ඒක සකස්වෙනවා.

රටේම ශ්‍රමිකයිනගේ සමාජ ආරක්ෂාව සහ සුබාසාධනය ඇතිකරන්න කටයුතු කරනවා. එහිදී වන්දි ගෙවීම් වගේ දෙවල් ඇතුලත් වෙනවා.

උතුරට විදේශ සේවා නියුක්ති කාර්යාංශයේ කාර්යාලයක් ඇති කරන්න යනවා. නැගෙනහිරටත් ඇතිකරන්න කටයයුතු කරනවා.

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka has won the respect of its international partners for maintaining neutrality in practising foreign policy and this helped the country in striking a much-needed bailout package with the IMF, the island nation’s Foreign Minister Ali Sabry told Parliament on Thursday.

Sri Lanka had succeeded in pursuing a policy of friendship to all and enmity to none”, Sabry said.

The challenge we faced was that we should not be drawn into any particular camp and seen as an extension of any particular country or any region or a particular alliance,” the minister said, without naming any country.

Sabry said President Ranil Wickremesinghe was able to communicate with many world leaders to articulate Sri Lanka’s vision.

He visited India, he visited China, he visited Japan twice, he visited Germany, France, and went to the UN.” I think because we have done that without getting entangled into any pro-country strategy and standing together as an independent sovereign state we have got the respect Sri Lanka richly deserves,” Sabry said.

Sabry said Sri Lanka remains committed to the Palestine cause. We have maintained our solidarity with Palestine.” He said Sri Lanka is the current chair of the UN committee on Israeli practices in Palestine.

Sri Lanka’s success in foreign policy was proved in many UN assembly votes where the island nation’s candidates had received favour of support in voting, the minister said.

The non-aligned foreign policy was the key to Sri Lanka striking the bailout with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he said.

Many powerful countries had assisted in the ongoing talks for external debt restructuring, he added.

Sabry said Sri Lanka would be formally out of its bankrupt status by later this month when the IMF will likely release its second tranche of the USD 2.9 billion facility.

Sri Lanka declared bankruptcy in April 2022 which saw the ouster of the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government mid-year. The island nation announced its first-ever sovereign default since gaining independence from Britain in 1948.

The Rajapaksas and their fiscal hierarchy were found responsible for the economic downturn by Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court under a fundamental rights petition.

මඩකලපුවේ මංගලාරාම විහාරයේ විහාරාධිපති පූජ්‍ය අම්පිටියේ සුමනරතන හිමි ප්‍රංශයට වැඩම කොට එහි වැඩ වසන පූජ්‍ය පරවාහැර චන්දරතන හිමියන් සමග පැවැත්වූ සාකච්ඡාවකි…

මඩකලපුවේ මංගලාරාම විහාරස්ථානයේ නායක හාමුදුරුවන් වන පූජ්‍ය අම්පිටියෙ සුමනරතන හිමි රට තුළ ආන්දෝලනාත්මක භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේ නමක්.. පසුගිය දිනක බෝන් අගේන් නැමැති ආගමක් ප්‍රචාරය කරන පාදිලි වරයෙක්ට කන හරහා පහර දී ආන්දෝලනාත්මක ප්‍රකාශ සිදු කළ උන්වහන්සේ සංවේදී ලෙස අඬා වැටෙන දුර්ලභ වීඩියෝවකි මෙය.. අනිවාර්යයෙන්ම නරඹා තව කෙනෙකුට නරඹන්න ශෙයා කරන්න .. අඬන එක බලන්න නෙවෙයි . මේ සිංහල බෞද්ධ රටේ සිංහලයාට වෙලා තියන නස්පැත්තිය බලන්න

LankaPropertyWeb 

LankaPropertyWeb (LPW), Sri Lanka’s leading property platform, is excited to announce its new partnership with eMediaLinks, the exclusive partner with Weibo North America and house.sina.com. This collaboration enables the promotion of Sri Lankan property investment opportunities to Weibo’s extensive audience in China, as well as the real estate platform’s audiences in the USA and Canada. Weibo (weibo.com), China’s second-largest social media platform with an impressive 600 million monthly active users, will be a key focus for showcasing Sri Lankan properties to Chinese overseas buyers through this strategic partnership.

This collaboration opens a tremendous opportunity to showcase Sri Lankan properties to an expansive and promising audience. It signifies a transformative moment for Sri Lanka’s real estate industry, positioning it prominently in the burgeoning Chinese and American markets where demand for overseas properties is escalating. For Sri Lankan property developers, agents, and sellers, this alliance presents an exceptional chance to highlight their properties on the Weibo platforms, attracting potential buyers from China and North America. Furthermore, this partnership propels LPW onto the global stage, providing its customers with access to explore properties in the United States. Simultaneously, it empowers investors and agents from the U.S. to market their properties to potential buyers in Sri Lanka.

This advantage materialized as LPW entered into an agreement with eMediaLinks, a global real estate marketing company based in Bellevue, Washington. eMediaLinks holds an exclusive partnership with the North America division of Weibo. This groundbreaking collaboration empowers LPW to present properties and investment opportunities in Sri Lanka to a vast audience of prospective buyers through house.sina.com and weibo.com.

Daham Gunaratna, Founder and Managing Director of LankaPropertyWeb, expressed, LPW is excited to announce its partnership with eMediaLinks, which opens opportunities to promote Sri Lankan properties to Chinese overseas property buyers. Additionally, visitors to Weibo’s global real estate site, house.sina.com, will be able to view Sri Lankan properties. With the country recovering from the economic crisis faster than expected and a growing interest from international buyers in Sri Lankan real estate, this presents an excellent opportunity for the country to showcase its properties and investment opportunities to a global audience.”

Matt Bonds, Founder and CEO of eMediaLinks, shared, As South Asia continues to be a hotspot for business and investment, we are proud to partner with LankaPropertyWeb, the leading property platform in Sri Lanka, to accelerate property demand in North America and China. Our customers interested in properties in Sri Lanka can now be serviced by an experienced and dedicated company from the start to the end of their property purchase and investments.”

This partnership is more than just a business venture; it is a bridge between cultures, creating opportunities that were once distant and unattainable. The LPW-eMediaLinks partnership stands as a testament to the dynamic potential of Sri Lankan real estate, heralding a new era of global connectivity and opportunities for both buyers and sellers. As LPW forges ahead, the future of the Sri Lankan real estate market looks brighter than ever, offering a captivating opportunity for those looking to invest, sell, or buy property in this island paradise.

About LankaPropertyWeb: Established in 2007, LankaPropertyWeb (LPW) stands as Sri Lanka’s pioneering real estate platform committed to simplifying and digitizing property discovery and transactions in the country. LPW provides a comprehensive range of solutions and services, including buying and selling advisory, market research, project sales and marketing, and investment advisory and facilitation.

For more information about LPW and to explore the property portal, please visit: https://www.lankapropertyweb.com

Senaka Weeraratna

In 1939 there were only there were only two countries in Asia that were not under direct Western occupation, namely Japan and Thailand. 

The rest of the hate speech was directed towards the losers i.e., Axis powers, Germany, and Japan, and demonizing one of them i.e.Japanese, as cannibals and savages that characterized the WW2 narrative. 

The people of Asia no longer accept the Western-sponsored narratives on the Gospel truth. There is increasing resistance to propaganda masquerading as historical fact.

The Society for Dissemination of Historical Fact based in Japan is a striking illustration of such resistance. 

People of several former European colonies are now demanding accountability for rapacious colonialism.  

India had calculated its total losses resulting from the British occupation of India i.e., from 1765 -1938, as  $ 45 trillion.

Unfortunately, the conversation in Asia having an international impact is an echo of conversations that are manufactured and manipulated in the West.

It is being corrected however slowly. The most dramatic correction is the recent elevation of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose to the No. 1 position in India’s narrative on how freedom was won. The highly revered Mahatma Gandhi has been demoted to the No. 2 rank. 

While the West glorifies their military commanders as national heroes their admiration for Asians and Africans is limited more or less to the likes of Gandhi, Mandela, and Martin Luther King of the non-violent creed. These are people who have never won a single battle on the battlefield. 

If non-violence is the right way to settle the conflict, why that is not promoted to douse the fire raging in Ukraine Russia, Israel, and Hamas remains a mystery. Those who wanted a ceasefire and return to the negotiating table during the 30-year civil war in Sri Lanka are the very countries that are now pouring fuel to the raging fires in Eastern Europe, Israel, and Hamas at the expense of the innocent lives of both countries. 

Acknowledging Japan

Japan helped Subash Chandra Bose and his Indian National Army(INA) to attack British military bases and occupation of India.

The battles for India’s independence fought by INA with the support of the Japanese 15th Army at Kohima and Imphal are part of the National Story of India today. Though the combined liberation forces comprising Japanese soldiers and INA lost to superior enemy forces in numbers and military equipment, the ramifications of the daring war efforts led eventually to the grant of independence beginning with India and later other South Asian countries like Burma and Ceylon. 

Indian Children learn the valour

of their Netaji at their mother’s knee.

But that is another story.

Japan was the only non-European country that defeated imperial Western countries in battle by sea, land, and air. That itself was inspiring for those who could only stand and watch in dismay at their nations being conquered and occupied for centuries by Western imperial nations.

Japan awakened the enslaved people of Asia and Africa and bewildered them with daring military exploits. 

That is the true legacy of the Japanese during WW2 in respect of which expression of gratitude is long overdue from Asian countries that benefited unmistakably from the former’s efforts. 

Senaka Weeraratna

 lanka C news

තම පුද්ගලික ව්‍යාපාර හෝ පරිහරණය සඳහා මහජන මුදල් යොදාගෙන ඇතැයි ඔප්පු කළොත් තමන් ඉල්ලා අස්වීමට සූදානම් බව විපක්ෂ නායක සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතා සඳහන් කරයි.

මධ්‍යම සංස්කෘතික අරමුදලේ මුදල් සම්බන්ධයෙන් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී ඇති වූ විවාදාත්මක තත්ත්වයකදී ඔහු මේ බව කියා සිටියේය.

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී මහින්දානන්ද අලුත්ගමගේ මහතා සහ සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතා අතර උණුසුම් වචන හුවමාරුවක් ද එහිදී සිදුවිය.

මහින්දානන්ද අලුත්ගමගේ මහතා කියා සිටියේ විගණන වාර්තාව අනුව සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතා මුදල් අවභාවිතා කර ඇති බවට ඔප්පු වන බවයි.

එනිසා පැවසූ පරිදි වහාම ඔහු ධුරයෙන් ඉල්ලා අස්විය යුතු බවද මන්ත්‍රීවරයා කියා සිටියේය.

Courtesy Adaderana

Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa has declared that he stands ready to resign immediately, in the event there is proof that he has utilised state funds for personal reasons.

The Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) leader said this during the parliamentary debate on the Central Cultural Fund (CCF) today (06 Dec.), responding to a claim made by MP Mahindananda Aluthgamage.

Although not directly accusing Premadasa of any wrongdoing, MP Aluthgamage stated that as per the audit reports on the CCF, nearly Rs. 10 billion in funds have been misused.

Our Opposition Leader is also present here today. He was in the Ministry of Cultural Affairs. I am not going to personally sling any mud at him, I will not go to that extent, I am just going to talk about what [the reports] we received at COPE, as part of my duty. A three-judge panel was appointed for audit-related investigations, and they revealed that nearly Rs. 10 billion has been misused, while 1,300 employees outside of the cadre of the Cultural Department were hired, and were paid salaries”, Aluthgamage said.

Rebutting these claims, Premadasa challenged that is there is any written proof that he had misused any state funds for his own private use or for that of his party, he is ready to resign.

The day that there is any proof that I used funds from the Central Cultural Fund, or any other state institution, by way of a written order, for the Rs. 16 million used to renovate the Sirikotha building, I will resign then”, he vowed.

Courtesy Adaderana

Minister of Education Susil Premajayantha, announced that the commencement of the pilot program for the implementation of the new educational reforms across all grades is scheduled for the upcoming year.

Efforts will be made to digitize the entire education system, receiving support from both local and foreign sponsors.

During a press conference at the Presidential Media Centre (PMC) today (06), themed ‘Collective Path to a Stable Country,’ Minister Premajayantha also outlined future plans to conduct the GCE O/L Examination in Grade 10 and the GCE A/L Examination in Grade 12.

Expressing his views further the Minister said;

In the 2024 budget, the Ministry of Education has been allocated Rs. 237 billion, while an additional Rs. 280 billion has been designated for education at the provincial level. This totals to approximately Rs. 517 billion dedicated to education in this year’s budget.

Special programs have been devised for the educational advancement of children with special needs. Looking ahead, an inclusive education system will be introduced, aiming to integrate them into classrooms alongside their peers.

Recognizing the significance of STEAM education in building human resources, as observed in many developed nations, efforts are being directed towards giving formal access to students in the fields of science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. The goal is to bring about positive changes in the country’s school system by prioritizing these areas.

The digitalization of the entire education system is underway, with support from both local and foreign assistance. A pilot program is set to launch next year, introducing new educational reforms spanning grades 1-5, 6-9 and 10-13.

Plans are in motion to revise the grades for student exams, aiming for students to complete university before the age of 21. Consequently, the proposal is to conduct the GCE O/L Examination in Grade 10 and the GCE A/L Examination in Grade 12.

Looking ahead to the coming year, 2,535 teachers will be recruited for the development of estate schools and training opportunities will be extended to them.

The Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the Children’s Secretariat, National Institute of Education, and UNICEF, has devised a special program for early childhood development targeted at children between the ages of 3-5.

Additionally, proactive measures have been implemented to address existing vacancies within the education service, encompassing teacher education service, teacher consultant service and general teacher vacancies. These steps are being taken to ensure that all positions are filled before the commencement of the next school year.

Courtesy Adaderana

President, Ranil Wickremesinghe, addressing the centenary celebration of the Government Valuation Department held at Solis Hotel in Pitakotte, declared the initiation of a ground-breaking economic program today (06 Dec.). 

Set to kick off on January 1, this transformative initiative is designed to modernize various sectors and propel the nation towards progress.

The President underscored the imperative nature of adopting new economic reforms, emphasizing that the nation cannot afford to persist with out-dated systems. He highlighted that the hardships endured over the past years should not be passed down to the next generation, asserting that the only viable course of action is to embrace the proposed economic changes, urging collective participation.

Reflecting on the recent economic challenges, President Wickremesinghe acknowledged the concerted efforts that rescued the country from financial distress over the past 18 months and commended the heads of public institutions and the workforce for their dedication. He cautioned against complacency, warning that without prudent management of the current economic stability, the nation might face another crisis within the next decade. The President advocated for a shift towards a digital economy, citing the necessity of employing modern economic methodologies.

President Wickremesinghe additionally emphasized that global financial entities have acknowledged Sri Lanka’s remarkable and swift recovery from economic challenges, particularly in comparison to countries facing bankruptcy amid the global economic recession.

Expressing gratitude to the employees of the Government Valuation Department for their dedicated service, the President presented awards and issued a commemorative stamp worth Rs. 25 and a first day cover to mark the centenary celebration. He unveiled the song and flag of the department and introduced the e Valuation” system to digitize its operations.

President Wickremesinghe, in his additional remarks, highlighted the historical evolution of the Valuation Department, tracing its origins back to the Portuguese period and noting significant developments during the British era, including the establishment of the Assessor position in 1923.

Underlining the continued evolution, the President pointed out that the role of the Valuation Department experienced further expansion with the introduction of the land policy in 1972, ushering in a new era.

The President stressed the critical importance of digitization in this context, emphasizing the necessity for a skilled workforce in assessment within the framework of the digital economy. To achieve this, he proposed an increase in university enrolment to nurture future Valuers.

Looking ahead, President Wickremesinghe advocated for a regular property valuation cycle, suggesting that assessments should be conducted every five years. He underscored the vital contribution of the assessment process to the tax collection system, expressing high regard for the initiation of digitalization within the Valuation Department starting from the current year.

Reflecting on the challenges of the past year, during which the nation confronted a significant economic crisis, it is essential to acknowledge the substantial sacrifices made by both government officials and the broader population in steering the country towards recovery. Gratitude is due to all those who played a part in this collective effort, he said.

In the upcoming weeks, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is poised to issue a statement signalling the country’s exit from bankruptcy. However, President Ranil Wickremesinghe underscored that, for sustained economic stability, a departure from out-dated economic methods is imperative. He cautioned against the implementation of conventional economic strategies, emphasizing that without adopting innovative approaches, the risk of a recurrent economic crisis looms over the nation within the next decade.

Key measures have already been implemented to reinforce fiscal prudence. The Central Bank has ceased the practice of printing money and loans from state banks earmarked for development, have been halted. President Wickremesinghe emphasized that adherence to these conditions is indispensable for fostering economic growth. 

The President emphasized the crucial need for financial discipline, asserting that effective management of the economy in alignment with disciplined financial practices will pave the way for providing greater relief to the citizens in the future.

The prevailing economic crisis in the country, stemming from the disparity between imports and exports coupled with a budget deficit, necessitates strategic interventions. To address these challenges, comprehensive plans have been formulated to augment export earnings, curtail government expenditure and enhance government income.

Recognizing the potential of the tourism industry to generate substantial foreign exchange, a targeted initiative has been set in motion with the aim of attracting 2.5 million tourists to Sri Lanka next year. The government is optimistic that by further doubling this figure to 5 million, a rapid alleviation of the country’s economic woes can be achieved.

As part of this year’s budget proposal, a significant allocation of 300,000 acres has been earmarked for cultivation, representing a key component of the economic revitalization strategy.
The Valuation Department is poised to play a pivotal role in realizing this agricultural objective. Acknowledging the importance of efficiency in this process, the digitization of the Valuation Department has been prioritized, foreseeing enhanced effectiveness in its operations.

In addressing the pressing needs of the energy sector, a paradigm shift towards renewable energy is imperative. The emphasis should be placed on harnessing wind and solar power resources, with the potential to generate 35GW and 200GW, respectively. Given that the national consumption requirement is less than 50GW, this surplus capacity positions the energy sector as a potential foreign exchange earner.

In addition to prioritizing renewable energy, due attention must be accorded to the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the energy sector and broader digital economy. The strategic deployment of AI has the potential to rapidly bolster the nation’s economic prowess.

The event was attended by, State Minister for Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, State Minister for Mass Media Shanta Bandara, Chief Government Valuer Pushpa Muthukumarana, Post Master General Ruwan Satkumara and employees of the Government Valuation Department.

Courtesy Hiru News

Colombo High Court has handed down a sentence of 12 years imprisonment with hard labour to a private bus driver found guilty of causing a fatal accident through reckless and high-speed driving. The tragic incident resulted in the death of three individuals and severe injuries to another.

The case, stemming from the January 10, 2007 accident in the Mirihana area, was presented before Colombo High Court Judge Namal Bandara Balalle. The judge, in delivering the verdict, emphasized the gravity of the offense and the devastating consequences it had on the victims and their families.

Additionally, the owner of the bus involved in the incident received a 15-month suspended prison sentence.

KAMALIKA PIERIS

The Tamil Separatist Movement inspected the Buddhist ruins in the north and east during the 30 year Eelam war when the north and east were not accessible to the Buddhists.  Tamil Separatist Movement wanted to wipe out all signs of a Buddhist civilization in the north and east. But it was not possible to get rid of all the Buddhist ruins, there were too many. Therefore Tamil Separatist Movement   decided to convert the Buddhist ruins into Hindu kovils.

Most Buddhist ruins in the north and east were converted to   Hindu kovils by the simple process of installing a trident among the Buddhist ruins.  The trident is a   symbol of Hinduism and in this case was considered a substitute for a whole Hindu temple.  Ellawela Medhananda found the trident planted in many of the Buddhist ruins he looked at in the north and east.

In Kurundi, due to its importance, the Tamil Separatist Movement decided to penetrate deep into the heart of the monastery. They climbed the hill, removed the Buddha statue and turned the Pilimage into a Hindu shrine, with the Korawkgala substituting for a lingam. They gave the bogus kovil a name Adhi Sivan Ayyanar Kovil. They said that there had never been a Buddhist stupa at Kurundi.  Kurundi only had a Hindu temple. When a yupa gala was found, they said that it was a lingam.

However, Kurundi   continued to be regarded as a Buddhist monastery. The bogus Hindu kovil was ignored.  It was necessary therefore to draw attention to the bogus Kovil. That is why the Tamil protestors barged into Kurundi, with a media team and performed Pongal and recited Hindu chants.

The next move was to get Kurundi declared a ‘contested site’. A contested site” is one which is claimed by two rival religions. The aggressive demonstrations at the Kurundi stupa, and the lawsuits in Mullaitivu Magistrate courts were intended to create a situation where Kurundi emerged as a contested site”.

Neighboring India has successfully dealt with two such contested sites, Thalaivetti Muniyappan temple in Madras and the Babri Mosque in Ayodhaya.

In 2022 The Madras High Court ruled that Thalaivetti Muniyappan temple in Periyeri Village of Salem District in Tamil Nadu was a Buddhist temple. . The case was filed in 2011 by P. Ranganathan and the Buddha Trust. They wanted the Archaeological Survey of India to inspect the statue in the    temple.

 In 2017, the court directed the Tamil Nadu Archaeological Department to inspect the temple and file a report. The Archaeological Department reported back that the statue in the temple was a Buddha statue. Accordingly, Madras High Court ruled that the site was a Buddhist temple.

Court banned pooja and other Hindu rituals in the temple. Archaeology Department was ordered to put up a notice saying it was a Buddhist temple .Court allowed the public to continue visiting the place, but no Hindu prayers and rituals will be allowed there.

In Ayodhaya, both Muslims and Hindus claimed the 16th-century Babri Mosque. The matter went to court and Supreme Court decided in 2019 that it was a Hindu site, not a Muslim one. Hindus were jubilant. The Muslim litigant, the Sunni Waqf Board, refused to appeal, saying it respected the verdict.

In Sri Lanka the Tamil Separatist Movement faced two obstacles. Tamil Separatist Movement had to first establish that there actually was an ancient kovil at Kurundi and then announce that this ancient kovil” was now under attack.

They arranged for the foreign media to carry articles on the subject. The Madras based Hindu” newspaper carried the following account by Meera Srinivasan on September 9th, 2023. Meera said that Kurundi has now turned into a site of fierce contestation.

Certainly a Buddhist stupa had been found at Kurundi, and the place was an archaeology reserve since 1833, but the place had an ancient Hindu kovil as well. Tamils in the area   had been worshippin the trident in the kovil as their ancestors had done.

  Meera said, when the Kurundi excavation started, Tamils from the surrounding Thannimurippu area ,  who  had for years gone to offer prayers to Aadi Aiyanar (their local Siva deity), have been prevented from doing so by Sinhalese mobs led by Buddhist monks,.  The latest episode was in August 2023, during a special Pongal prayer ceremony.

Bhaskaran Susilathevi, a resident of Thannimurippu, intimately familiar with the terrain around the Siva temple, found that a Buddhist vihara has been built there.  We are not allowed to go to our temple She said. They wish to pray again at their favourite hilltop temple, concluded Meera.

World Socialist Website has hosted an essay on Kurundi by Wasantha Rupasinghe  and P.T.Sampanthar. The  Head quarters of the World Socialist Website  is in Oak Park, Michigan, USA.  Rupasinghe  and Sampanthar said that in 2018 a group of Buddhist monks visited the site claiming it was the location of an ancient Buddhist shrine. Their actions were backed by the government’s heavily-politicized Archaeological Department, the media and the security forces stationed in the area.

In 2018, they began construction of a Buddhist temple at the site, and continued to do so in defiance of a court order ordering an end to the construction. Buddhist monks and a large number of devotees” held a religious ceremony at the Kurundi site, continued  Rupasinghe  and Sampanthar.  

Scores of Buddhist devotees were transported in buses to the site where a group of Hindus were holding the Pongal festival at the adjacent Hindu temple. Galgamuwe Santhabodhi, the so-called chief prelate of the Buddhist temple at the site, attempted to stop the Hindu event, provoking a heated argument, with violent clashes only prevented by police intervention.

Santhabodhi had issued the highly provocative claim that Tamil extremists are planning to establish a Hindu Kovil” at the site and getting ready to start a separatist struggle in this country based on Kurundi Buddhist temple, concluded Rupasinghe and Sampanthar.

The next pair of writers, Harindra B. Dassanayake and Rajni Gamage looked to see whether Kurundi was actually Kurundi. Was it really the one built by Kallatanaga as mentioned in the Mahavamsa, they asked, because there is a lack of a clear, uncomplicated historical narrative on Kurundi. No archaeological evidence has yet proven that the Kurundi vihara discussed in the historical texts is the current location, they said. This can be easily dismissed. Kurundi excavations brought up an inscription which showed that Kurundi was Kurundi.

Tamil Separatist Movement decided to solve the problem of Kurundi by moving Kurundi out of Mullaitivu. The Tamil north and east meet at Mullaitivu and Kurundi is in a strategic location there. Better remove Kurundi stupa to Vavuniya.  The area in which Kurundi vihara is sited, need not be the ancient Kurundi, said the obliging Dassanayake and Gamage.According to the Tamil Separatist Movement,    the real Kurundi is found at Karikattumulai in Vavuniya district, they said.

Dassanayake and Gamage allege that Kurundi has not received proper archaeological examination. It is important to conduct proper archaeological surveys first, they said… Reconstruction work in the guise of ‘restoration’ in the absence of proper archaeological knowledge of the site cannot be accepted, they preached. Excavations and conservation are needed before so-called ‘restoration’ without sufficient evidence.

The various names of Sinhala and Tamil origin with which the monastery and the surrounding area are referred to  show that this is not exclusively Sinhala,   continued Dassanayake and Gamage. The names used at Kurundi are Kurundi vihara, Kurunthoor, Kurunthumalai, Kurundavásoka-vihára, Piyankallu, and Piyangala. This is a howler. The Tamil names are Tamilised versions of the Sinhala name. These writers do not seem to know that Piyankallu, and Piyangala are Sinhala names.

Dassanayake and Gamage hint at possible ethnic riots over Kurundi. For power-hungry extremists, ‘Buddhists awake! – Save Kurundi!’ may suddenly become a launching pad, they warned. Unless carefully handled, that day would not be far away concluded Dassanayake and Gamage.

Other agencies also joined in on the matter. University Teachers Association of University of Jaffna said in a media statement in 2023 that it openly condemned the illegal nature of the archaeological excavation carried out in Kurunthurmalai with the Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist agenda and issued rulings that are considered fair.

Another lot said that the Department of Archeology has been trying to build a Buddhist Temple in Kurunthoormalai allegedly in violation of the court order. The Archaeology Department Director had repeatedly violated three court orders previously issued and tried to build a Buddhist vihara illegally.

Virakesari newspaper   discussed Kurundi at least twice. It published pieces on January 25, 2021 and March 2^nd 2021. In addition to the basic information on the Kurundi matter, they added a few howlers. The paper said that Kurundi had a Pallava style temple during Chola period!! Kalinga Magha had also set up a kovil at   Kurundi. Since there are Buddhist ruins also there, we can treat this as a Hindu Buddhist religious site said Virakesari generously.

Pulendran Nesan   interviewed Kurundi residents and wrote a piece which was translated into Sinhala and  published in Kurundi Vihara vamsaya ( p 249-).Nesan said there were no permanent Tamil  settlements near Kurundi, but there were Tamil settlements nearby  at Kumalamunai and Mulliyavala.

He had conducted interviews with a few inhabitants there. They had complained against Kurundi stupa.  It had not been there before. .Baskaran Susila Devi (56 yrs) said that from the time she was small they had worshipped at    Kurundi kovil. Baskaran Divyaraja, her son, said they visited the temple before going hunting.  He said there was only a foot path to get  there.    (Continued)

Namal Perera

Catholic action movement; groups found in government institutions and mercantile organisations, directed and guided by the Catholic hierarchy to promote the interests of Catholics through the use of their positions. Although the norm during colonial occupation, one would have expected the influence of the Catholic church to die out post independence given that the majority of the local population are of Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic faiths. However, instead of showing signs of weakening, from the S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike assassination conspiracy; the military coup against Sirimavo Bandaranaike; and to the most recent people’s struggle” (Aragalaya”), which ousted and send into exile the majority Sinhala/Buddhist elected president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the Catholic action movement, one might argue, has become stronger and more apparent than ever before. However, the crux of this article is not to discuss how the tentacles of the Catholic church are wrapped around our political, state and judicial intuitions, but instead to highlight how these tentacles have reached our beloved game; Cricket.

Being a sport introduced by our former colonisers, it is not surprising that Cricket is popular in missionary schools. In fact, missionary (or former missionary) schools have produced some talented cricketers in the past. However, with the mass popularity of the game, it is no longer an elite sport played in missionary schools, but has spilled over to the National schools. The missionary schools may have started playing the game, but it is the National schools that ended up mastering it. The culmination of this is the historic ‘96 World Cup win, where the majority of the team consisted of players from leading National schools with a few exceptions. This is also not surprising considering the number of students at National schools and hence a larger pool of talent compared to the much smaller missionary schools.

However, after winning the ‘96 World Cup the allure of Cricket and playing for the National team gained interest from all corners, including the missionary schools and unfortunately, this is when the influence of the Catholic church over cricket started to resurface. Unknown and unnoticed to the cricket loving public who at the time were revelling in the victories of the team, the Catholic church was gradually spreading its tentacles around the administration, selectors, clubs and players. The article below (which is referenced) is public acknowledgment of this.

The missionary schools were once again buoyant as their ranks in the National side increased. However, by no coincidence, this was the time when the National team’s performance started to decline. When you stop selecting the best team based on talent and instead on some extraneous reasons, such as the players’ religious affiliations, this is bound to happen.

But, exactly how far have the tentacles of the Church spread? Is it just the National cricket team or does it go beyond? Towards the end of the Mahela and Sanga era, the author was in the company of a friend, an old boy from a leading National school, when the friend met with a talented young cricketer from his former school. The friend inquired from this young cricketer about his cricketing pursuits and the prospects of playing for the first XI of his Club, and his response was a quick negative followed by a cautious (cautious probably because he didn’t know the author or his faith) you had to be of a particular faith (making a sign of the cross) to be given such a chance”. At the time, this seemed a random statement and did not hold the author’s attention until, of course, the story of the purported Pastor and his influence over cricket blew up in the media along with his big endorsement by Sanga’s wife.  What had until then seemed like a totally random statement started to make a lot of sense and to think the author had these snippets of information about what was going on behind the scenes of cricket in Sri Lanka before it came to the public domain. Thus, the influence of the Church has spread beyond the National cricket team and even influences selections at Club cricket level.

What other evidence of the Catholic action movement in cricket is needed than the current players contracted by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC). If you follow this link (https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricketers/team/sri-lanka-8) to find the respective schools of the current contracted players, you will be shocked to realise that of the 28 players contracted to play ODIs 21 (75%) are from missionary or Church-run schools and only 7 (25%) are from the National schools. The contrast from the ‘96 World Cup winning squad is stark. This is not limited to the National squad; the article below (see reference) refers to an emerging side selected by SLC.

If you look at the school composition of this emerging side out of the 26 player squad 16 are from missionary or Church-run schools and only 10 from the National schools.

Have the National schools that produced the likes of the great Aravinda, Arjuna, Mahanama, Gurusinghe, Hashan, Dharmasena, Mahela etc. all stopped playing cricket!?

It is now certain that the Catholic action movement in cricket is an undeniable fact and that the decline of the National cricket team started around the time the Catholic church wrapped its tentacles around Sri Lanka’s cricket administration, selectors, Clubs and players.

The question is; what is going to be done about this? If the Catholic action movement in far more important institutions of the country is dismissed, ignored or covered up and swept under the rug, will it be the same with cricket? But this is cricket; a sport enjoyed and loved by all Sri Lankans irrespective of race, religion, caste, creed or divisive politics. Wouldn’t the Catholics and Christians want to see the National cricket team win rather than see a losing team consisting of their kin?

It is obvious that this accusation will always be levelled as long as the officials making the decisions regarding cricket in Sri Lanka are of that particular faith. Therefore, until public confidence is restored, all SLC board members and selectors of that faith should voluntarily step down. Further, when drafting players from Clubs, every Club should be required to disclose to SLC its selection criteria and the personnel involved in the selections.

No one should be prevented from doing their job because of their faith but with the proportion that this problem has reached to prevent public backlash it is something that must be done, albeit, temporarily. Once the SLC board and selection committee are constituted with personnel devoid of the concerned faith, the stage will be set for unprejudiced non faith based selections.

I fear that if the Catholic action movement in cricket is not addressed, even though there have not been any repercussions in other institutions where the Church has wrapped its tentacles, it will be different with cricket as there is a lot of passion riding on the game and hence there would be severe public backlash.

References:

Union of Catholic Asian News. (2011, March 14). Sri Lanka draws on Christians for cricket. Ucanews.com. https://www.ucanews.com/news/cricket-sri-lanka/6917

Newswire. (2021, August 25). 26 players from 14 schools picked for Under-19 national training squad. Newswire.lk. https://www.newswire.lk/2021/08/25/26-players-from-14-schools-picked-for-under-19-national-training-squad/

ESPN Cricinfo. (n.d.). Cricketers. ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved November 24, 2023, from https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricketers

By Anuradha Chenoy*

For the Global South, Kissinger could well be called Dr. Death. He insured that whichever country raised a voice or could potentially show opposition to the US would have their head bashed in. This was Kissinger- grand strategist for the US empire, enforcer of imperialism, godfather of the current Neocons (Neo Conservatives) steadfast theorist and practitioner of Realism in international relations.

For Kissinger people of the Global South were just abstractions because he presented the world as a 3D chessboard where he, national security advisor and secretary of state – to President Richard Nixon had a free hand to knock down and take out pieces.  For him, as manager of US policy, lives, livelihoods of people in the ‘darker continents’ did not matter.

From 1969 to 1973 Kissinger sanctioned intensive bombings of North Vietnam, simultaneously directed the carpet bombing of large parts of Cambodia that US intelligence claimed sheltered  insurgents from South and North Vietnam.  At the same time, he assisted in organizing a ‘secret war’ on Laos. In all these wars, Kissinger approved the dropping of millions of tons of bombs killing millions of civilians in nations mired in poverty.

Vietnam. Laos and Cambodia remain littered with US landmines, victims of the chemical warfare like Agent Orange never got reparations. These wars led to brutal regimes like the Khmer rouge in Cambodia. Kissinger negotiated with North Vietnam in the Paris Peace talks 1969-73, where recent documents show that he purposefully prolonged the war in US interests. The direct interventions of Kissinger qualify as war crimes under international humanitarian law.

Kissinger had a bloodied hand along with Pakistan’s General Yahya Khan, giving support to Pakistan even while aware of the genocide unleashed on Bangla nationalists in East Pakistan’s Mujibur Rehman led liberation struggle. Three million people became victims. India intervened in what became Bangladesh. Kissinger had the US 7^th Fleet come into the Indian Ocean to threaten India at a period of poor India-US relations.

Latin America felt the Nixon-Kissinger hand, as they invested millions of dollars to foment a coup against the progressive democratically elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende in 1970. The US then supported the military coup by General Augusto Pinochet a dictator who curbed any dissent and under whom over 3,000 people were disappeared or killed. Kissinger supported the overthrow of the Argentinian government of President Isabel Peron by a neo-fascists dictatorship that disappeared 30,000 and killed 10,000 leftist and other opponents, in a rule that lasted till 1983. There was no recrimination or apology. As for the US they do not believe in accountability for these mass murders.

Kissinger pushed the Greek junta he was controlling to make a coup in Cyprus against Makarios, in order to provide Turkey with the pretext it needed to invade the island. US, Britain and Israel have never accepted a sovereign state in Cyprus which occupies one of the most important strategic locations on Earth and has been one of the pioneers of the Non – Aligned Movement. The 1974 coup in Nicosia was the exact copy of the 1973 Santiago coup.

In 1975 he gave the green signal to President Suharto of Indonesia to invade East Timor; had a big hand in West Asia when the 1973 war broke out when Arab countries led by Egypt and Syria attacked Israel, Kissinger’s policy was to ‘isolate the Palestinians’ and arm the Israelis. No doubt the current Neocons have studies these doctrines with care.

Of course Kissinger was involved in using the split between the Soviet Union and China to wing a deal and détente between the US and China, opening the way for Chinese globalization. He also crafted arms limitations treaties with the Russians, now undone. In his later years he saw China as the biggest threat to USA and so argued that Ukraine be neutral, only to change his mind towards the end.

To fuel the US’s endless wars, Kissinger- Nixon in 1973 created a deal between the US and Saudi Arabia by which the Saudis and later other oil exporting Arab countries agreed to price and trade oil in US dollars. This petrodollar meant every oil sale would go through US banks, contributing significantly to dollar hegemony.

Kissinger, known to care less for international law and legalities wrote: our relations with Europeans are better founded  on developing a community of interests than on the elaboration of formal legal obligations.” (Kissinger, 1969). He obviously approved of this rules based order coined by Biden and West that favor rules that suit their exceptionalism.

It will be worthwhile for countries of the Global South to reflect on Kissinger’s words where he wrote that as far as the newly independent countries  are concerned, the option for the West is, the deliberate exploitation of their weak domestic structure. In many areas the ability to foment domestic unrest is a more potent weapon than traditional arms.” (Kissinger, Domestic Structure and Foreign Policy, 1969).

These formulae by Kissinger, continue to be used by the US in different ways and the Global South needs to be vary of these continuities as recent wars and interventions reveal. So, if the Global South wants to make its own sovereign choice in national or foreign policy, there is plenty of history to learn from, so as not to repeat it.

*I am grateful to the Transnational Institute (The Netherlands)

Anuradha Chenoy is writer, Associate Fellow of the Transnational Institute, Professor, former Dean of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, former chairperson and director of the Centre for Russian and Central Asian Studies, India

Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . Canada

4 December 2023

Hon. Patrick Brown
The Mayor of the City of Brampton
Ontario.

Dear Mayor Patrick Brown:

I have just read the concerned letter by the President of  the Sri Lanka Canada Association of Markham (SLCAM), Jaliya Wickremarachchi, on your Tin-God-of-Brampton stunt, “Raising the flag of a banned terrorist organization – The Liberation Tiger of Eelam (LTTE), of November 29th, 2023″.

Wow! Patrick, that letter proves positive, of my identifying You as “Patryk Broun, you are a foolish Tamil Tiger Clown.” of many moons ago, when You and Paul Calandra lambasted the  Sri Lankan Government for not giving you visas to enter Sri Lanka to visit the Tamil refugee camps up north of Sri Lanka, after the Tamil Tigers buttocks were kicked and were annihilated on 19 May 2009,

they who started the Tamil Separatist  Eelam War. which lasted 30-bloodying years  I asked you two in a letter “Patrick and Paul, who the hell are you to demand visas, when the Canadian Government had refused entry visas to Canada to several Sri Lankan parliamentarians.  Some were Cabinet Ministers”   Remember?

That letter from Jaliya gives me another opportunity to regurgitate my challenge to you of many moons ago for a Public Debate on your love-ins with Tamil Tiger terrorists’..

My sweeteners for you to accept my challenge still stands with slight modifications

1.  That I am prepared to pay you a debating fee of Cdn$500 from my wallet  But this time I will up it         with an extra dollar making the debating fee $501.00;

2.  If you felt that the fee was not adequate, I told you that I would send a hat around the audience to        collect  the additional fee and you can have every cent that was dropped into the hat;

3.  That at the end of the debate, I will give you the privilege and luxury to let every Council Member of yours who gave you a thumbs-up for your foolishness that I don’t trust, stand 30 feet away from me to pelt me with rotten tomatoes and eggs for 20 seconds.   But I will need to wear a helmet in case there will be  sneaky lapidary-granite eggs thrown at me;

4.  I will let you be sandwiched by two Tamil separatist-activists,  now preferably Vijay Thanigasalam and Rathika Sitsabaiesan as prompter’s and I will stand on my own facing you;    

5.  You can have the moderator of the debate of your choice;

6.  And I will be at your venue of your choice for the Public Debate, preferably the City of Brampton       Council chambers with festoons of singing- Jaffna cowbells and whistles.

Well, Patrick, are you going to accept my challenge?  Come on, show me that you are a true lover of Tamil separatism, and I will try to blow that persona of yours asunder. and that you are the “Patryk Broun and a Tamil Tiger Clown,”  as Asoka thinks you are.  And that you know sweet-bugger-all about the 12% Tamils who were the privileged minority for 131 years of colonial rule, compared to the 75%  of the Sinhalese wronged majority for 131 years of colonial rule, and that you are a Canadian political Humbug of the first order, swinging-high and swinging-low like strings of Masala-Wade from a Jaffna-Tamil Kanji-boutique along the Main Street of Valvettithurai, Your Tamil Tiger terrorist leader Velupillai Prabhakaran’s hometown..

Let me make you feel good to accept my challenge and that you are at a strong handicap as I am no political debater like You. I am just a simple Geologist, Palaeontologist and Museologist,, who is still romancing his Mother Lanka who nurtured me for the first 19 formative years of my life,  and on a Mission, that no one, and that includes Patrick Brown who wants to hurt her. by silking and spinning the words of lying separatist Tamils in Canada.

Come on Patrick.   Take me on!  It’s OK  if you want to intimidate me by wanting to meet me with symbols of a  Bare bodied Snow-Tiger, with a Janai string tied diagonally across your bare upper-torso, three horizontal Tripundra stripes of Ponds talcum powder across your forehead and the Hindu crimson sandalwood paste moon between your eyebrows, Go ahead as nothing intimidates me.  

Make Yourself comfortable, even if you wish to  arrive  for the Public Debate walking with a plate of Tamil-rice, spooning it into your mouth wanting to insinuate

“I am the Tamil Tiger’s clown

 Patrick  Brown

 eating  Tamil curry in a hurry,

I am the White Snow-Tiger from Barrie.”

Go ahead.   But let’s get on with the Public Debate.

Sincerely,

Asoka (Weerasinghe), Mr.

Ministry of Defence  – Media Centre

The relics unearthed from the Deegawapiya site during the excavations and the Crest-Gem which are in exposition around the island to provide the devotees with an opportunity to pay their homage were brought to the ancient Buddhist shrines in the Rathnapura area.

The public veneration of the Sacred Omniscient Relics of Deegawapiya Stupa and the Crest-Gem commenced from Kelaniya Raja Maha Viharaya on August 30, 2023 and it has been scheduled for the 150-day-long exposition for veneration of the island-wide devotees.

Accordingly, arrangements have been made for the exposition of these revered articles at the Kawanthissa Rajamaha Viharaya, Embilipitiya from December 05 morning to 07 December morning, at Nawaneliya Sri Bodhirajaramaya, Kolonna from 07 to 10 morning, at Sankapala Viharaya from the morning on 10 to the morning on 13 and at Sri Mahinda Maha Vihara Tampita Viharaya, Godakawela from morning on December 13 to morning on December 16. Hence, the devotees have the opportunity to worship the Sacred Omniscient Relics and Crest-Gem of the Deegawapiya Stupa and support this meritorious act by making financial contributions to the restoration project.

Xinhua

COLOMBO, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) — Sri Lanka’s State Minister of Defense Premitha Bandara Tennakoon said on Monday that the government is planning to enable women to head the army, navy and air force in the South Asian country.

He told the parliament that currently, a woman can only reach the rank of major, especially in the army, in Sri Lanka.

However, the government is planning to change military laws to allow women to get promoted and in time head the three forces, Tennakoon said.

He added that in the Sri Lankan history, women have played prominent roles and Sri Lanka needs to do more to ensure equal status for women.

Courtesy The Economic Times

Synopsis

Adani-Hindenburg: The Hindenburg Research allegations of corporate fraud against Gautam Adani didn’t impact the US decision to grant up to $553 million for a Sri Lankan terminal. The US agency, DFC, found the accusations were not relevant to Adani’s specific project.

The US government concluded that short-seller Hindenburg Research’s allegations of corporate fraud against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani weren’t relevant before extending his conglomerate as much as $553 million for a container terminal in Sri Lanka, a senior US official said.

Allegations in a scathing report by US-based Hindenburg Research, which erased around $100 billion from the Adani Group’s market value earlier this year, were front and center as the International Development Finance Corp., or DFC, conducted a due diligence investigation of the conglomerate, an official from the US agency told Bloomberg.

The DFC was satisfied that the accusations in the short-seller’s repo ..

Read more at:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/us-examined-hindenburg-allegations-before-giving-loan-to-adani/articleshow/105741857.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Courtesy Hiru News

COLOMBO, Dec 5 – Sri Lanka will get about $600 million, on a staggered basis, from the Asian Development Bank after the International Monetary Fund releases the second tranche of a $2.9 billion bailout for the crisis-hit country, an official said on Tuesday.

Sri Lanka is inching out of its worst financial crisis in decades, triggered by record-low foreign exchange reserves last year that saw its economy contract 7.8% in 2022.

The island’s economy has been gradually stabilising after locking down a four-year programme with the IMF in March. Its first review is expected to be approved by the global lender next week, which will release a second tranche of about $334 million in funding.

Alongside the IMF programme the Asian Development Bank is likely to provide total budget support of $2 billion over the next four years, said ADB, Sri Lanka Resident Mission, Country Director Takafumi Kadono.

“I would say $500 million to $600 million budget support is what is planned (for 2024) but, again, it is subject to attainment, satisfying the policy actions, so its not free money,” Kadono said in an interview with Reuters.

The bulk of the support will likely be extended next year in a combination of policy-based loans and project lending.

The first instalment of $200 million is tabled for ADB board support on Dec. 8 but will only be given to Sri Lanka after the IMF approves its first review on Dec. 12.

Another $200 million for power sector reforms is expected in 2024, along with $100 million to the water sector and $50-$70 million for the tourism sector.

An additional $100 million is earmarked in ADB support to improve access to financing for small and medium-sized enterprises, along with another $100 million to improve public finance and debt management.

Sri Lanka has to remain committed to pushing forward reforms pledged under the IMF programme, Kadono said, which include restructuring its loss-making state enterprises, reducing budget deficits and improving governance.

“These are not bandage measures. I think Sri Lanka has done a lot of that in the past so, I think it’s really time to fix the fundamentals of the economy and to address these latent weaknesses in the economy and the institutions,” Kadono said.

Courtesy Adaderana

Following a milestone in international relations and provenance research, six priceless Kandyan artifacts seized during the Dutch colonial occupation of Sri Lanka have now been returned from the Netherlands.

Accordingly, these Kandyan artifacts will be on public display at the Colombo National Museum from today (Dec.05) until further notice, the President’s Media Division (PMD) said.

A commemorative postage stamp issued during the event serves as a symbolic marker, celebrating the milestone in international relations and provenance research.

The event took place at the National Museum today, presided over by the Minister of Buddha Sasana and Cultural Affairs, Vidura Wickramanayake, and the President’s Senior Adviser on National Security and Chief of Presidential Staff, Sagala Ratnayaka. This marked a significant step in cultural collaboration between the two nations, the PMD added.

The exhibits – the Lewke’s cannon, a Golden Kasthane, a Silver Kasthane, a Sinhalese Knife, and two Guns – had originally been taken as war booty by the Dutch East India Company in 1765, during the siege of the Palace of Kandy.

In attendance at this distinguished occasion was the Minister of Shantha Bandara, the State for Media; Ms. Bonnie Horbach, the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Sri Lanka; Ms. Dewi van de Weerd, the Ambassador for International Cultural Cooperation at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Maged Mosleh, the Ambassador of Egypt in Sri Lanka; Somaratne Vidanapathirana, the Secretary to the Ministry of Buddha Sasana and Cultural Affairs; Sajani Kasturiarachchi, the Director General of the National Museum Department and several distinguished officials from both the Netherlands and Sri Lanka.

Dilrook Kannangara

In a recent statement by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, he alleges that the former Yahapalanaya regime (2015-19) was responsible for the economic crisis. This begs the question, then why was the prime minister of the Yahapalanaya regime, Ranil, appointed to the post of Prime Minister by Gotabaya Rajapaksa in May 2022 and just 3 months from then Mahinda-led parliamentary majority elected Ranil as the president!

That’s not all, Yahapalanaya president, Sirisena was also given nominations by Basil Rajapaksa from his SLPP political party which Sirisena won.

Surely the statement does not match up to their action.

The crux of Mahinda’s statement, written by someone else, is that $10 billion was borrowed in International Sovereign Bonds (ISBs) from 2015 to 2019 and that landed the nation in a debt trap. That is manifestly false. Sri Lanka was in a debt trap by 2014. The following report published in July 2015 based on economic data until December 2014 (the latest available data then) clearly shows Sri Lanka was in a debt trap by 2014. Please refer to Page 13 where Sri Lanka is listed as a country already in debt trap by then.

Jubilee Debt Campaign is an organization that has relieved developing countries over $150 billion of their debt over the years and is a credible campaigner against debt burden on third world countries.

Sri Lanka first borrowed International Sovereign Bonds in 2007 an amount of $500 million for a period of five years at very high commercial interest rates. However, when it matured in 2012 (5 years), Sri Lanka was unable to repay it without borrowing more from ISBs. This is the debt trap.

There is a reason why no Sri Lankan government until 2007 obtained ISB debt despite it was an easy way to get a loan. That was because ISBs are commercial debt with commercial (market) interest rates which are very high. Once a nation falls into the ISB debt, it is nearly impossible to come out of it. That is their business model – to trap any borrower who borrows ISBs and load them with more and more debt. Sri Lanka fell into the ISB trap in 2007 and the trap’s grip tightened in 2012. Since then, the island nation is in a debt trap.

ISBs worth $10 billion were borrowed from 2015 to 2019. They were used to repay 2010 to 2014 ISB debts ($2 billion), the $2.6 billion IMF loan facility Sri Lanka obtained from 2010 to 2012, their interest and bilateral foreign loans, particularly loans from India. The interest total of all foreign loans in 2014 was $890 million. They relate to all loans that existed on 31 December 2014. Five years of that equates to $4.5 billion. These repayments alone total $9.1 billion out of $10 billion. The rest (and more) were used to repay bilateral loans, particularly loans from India that were obtained from 2009 to 2013 for reconstruction purposes in war affected areas.

The Supreme Court identified the persons responsible for economic ruin. Trying to negate or challenge the Supreme Court verdict is unwise and is also an offence referred to as contempt of court. There is no higher court than the Supreme Court in the country and its decision is final and binding. The Supreme Court arrived at its decision after considering all defences presented by legal counsel of the persons it found guilty of economic mismanagement. They have nothing more to say.

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

EDB wants to hold a Global Maritime Forum in the same line as Indians who held their forum last October 23

Our minister of ports with a delegation took part in that forum

China is also holding such forums and taking the liberty to pressure Sri Lanka to allow them to deploy their surveying vessels presumably to explore our mineral deposits under the sea bed

Indians are promoting Sagar Mala and the Chinese are promoting the Silk Route concept to trap Sri Lanka via diplomatic manuring

Both countries have set foot in Trinco and Hambantota 

We should generate completion by holding our Global Marine Forum with the participation of India and China We can also invite QUAD ( Australia and Japan, together with the United States and India, are members of the Quadrilateral Strategic Dialogue or Quad. The Quad has a positive practical agenda focused on supporting an open, inclusive, and resilient Indo-Pacific region.)

Middle East should join with their team with COP 28 resolutions 

I am sure that such a move will benefit our country 

The problem is that financial wizards and politicians  have not understood the significance of such a move  

Ministry of Defence  – Media Centre

The Ministry of Defence emphasizes that there is no truth behind media reports published recently giving a wrong interpretation that a lot of money has been spent in the year 2022 for entertaining military heads who periodically arrive on inspection visits to the Defence Services Command and Staff College (DSCSC).

The DSCSC plays a unique role in imparting military officers of both Sri Lankan and foreign nations with combat tactics and advanced knowledge.

Accordingly, 148 military officers including 25 military officers from foreign countries and 123 military officers from Sri Lanka participated in the DSCSC course held in 2022.

In accordance with any other Defence Staff College in the Commonwealth Nations, the Secretary of Defence, Chief of the Defence Staff and Tri Forces Commanders conduct lectures every year on national security to student officers which is an integral part of this DSCSC course. These lectures are done on separate occasions due to the nature of the duties and the practical issues of conducting the lectures on one occasion. Thus, such lectures were conducted on 5 separate occasions.

It is a military norm for the Defence Secretary, Chief of Defence Staff or the Commanders of the Armed Forces to have refreshments at the conclusion of their lecture with the participants of about 200 personnel which may include student officers, directing and permanent staff members providing an opportunity to expand their knowledge.  

Thus, it shall be noted that such expenditures are not incurred only to host the Secretary of Defence, Chief of Defence Staff or the Tri Forces Commanders and such media reports may mislead public perception.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Defence expresses its regret on such actions of certain media organizations working with the aim of damaging the public’s trust in the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces by irresponsibly expressing opinions about this incident without proper verification of facts.

Gamini Sarath Godakanda

Mahavihara Vanshika Sri Kalyani Smagri Maha Sanga Sabawa which consists of nearly 700 temples, 3000 monks, has appointed Milinda Moragoda as the Chairman of their Sanrakshana Sabawa.

The Most Venerable Ithepana Dharmalankara Mahanayake Thero formally presented Mr. Moragoda with the letter of appointment in the presence of Anunayake Ven Prof Kotupitiye Rahula Thero and other Senior Buddhist Clergy during the formal meeting of the Sangha Sabawa within the precincts of the historical Uposhtharaya at the Kotte Raja Maha Viharaya.

Mahavihara Vanshika Sri Kalyani Smagri Maha Sanga Sabawa founded in 1855 when its first ordination ceremony was held on the banks of the Kelaniya River. Many illustrious and erudite monks including the late Ven Belanvila Wimalarathana and the late Madulawe Sobitha were members of this Chapter.

Courtesy Adaderana

Minister of Sports Harin Fernando has appointed a 15-member National Sports Council, replacing its former chairman Arjuna Ranatunga with Dr. Maiya Gunasekara.

The members of the new National Sports Council are as follows:

1. Dr. Maiya Gunasekara – Chairman

2. Mr. I.U. Wickramasuriya – Secretary

3. Mrs. Sriyani Kulawansa

4. Major General (Retired) Rajitha Ampemohotti

5. Prof. Arjuna de Silva

6. Mr. Panduka Keerthinada

7. Mr. Ana G. G. Punchihewa

8. Mr. Malik Kader

9. Dr. S.V.D. Nanayakkara

10. Mr. Hafeez Marso

11. Mr. Sidath Wettimuny

12. General (Retired) Jagath Jayasuriya 

13. Mrs. Anuradha Illeperuma

14. Prof. Shemal Fernando

15. Mr. Kamal Deshapriya

Meanwhile, the Sports Minister has also appointed the National Sports Selection Committee.

The committee comprises of;

1. General Shavendra Silva – Chairman

2. Mr. Arjun Rishaya Fernando – Secretary

3. Dr. Maiya Gunasekara

4. Mr. Suresh Subramaniyam

5. Mr. Nalinda Sampath Ilangakoon

Courtesy Adaderana

Minister of Justice, Prison Affairs and Constitutional Reform, Wijayadasa Rajapakse, unveiled plans to introduce a new legislative framework aimed at regulating microfinance institutions operating within the country.

Expressing deep concern regarding the unregulated status of certain microfinance entities, Minister Rajapakse emphasized the necessity for decisive measures. He underscored the intention to establish an independent regulatory institution, distinct from the Central Bank, dedicated to the oversight and effective regulation of microfinance entities.

Minister Rajapakse made these remarks on Monday (04) during a press briefing at the President’s Media Centre (PMC), under the under the theme ‘Collective path to a stable Country’.

The Minister further commented that the Ministry of Justice presently oversees the operational responsibilities of 21 institutions, encompassing a diverse range of subjects, including law enforcement and law reform. With a caseload exceeding 1.1 million cases within the courts in the country, concerted efforts have been undertaken in recent times to mitigate delays in case adjudication. 

Substantial measures have been implemented to address the backlog and streamline the judicial process, with a particular focus on the establishment and operation of conciliation boards aimed at facilitating the expeditious resolution of select cases, he said.

The Minister further stated that globally recognized expedited methods for resolving criminal cases stand in contrast to our nation’s outdate legal framework, resulting in prolonged durations for case resolutions. This delay in criminal proceedings represents a substantial issue, jeopardizing the administration of justice and leaving all parties involved without timely recourse.

To address this challenge, a draft law aimed at expediting the resolution of criminal cases is currently under development and is slated for submission to Parliament in January. In advanced jurisdictions, there is a paradigm shift towards non-custodial measures for individuals involved in minor offenses. Recognizing that incarceration, in many instances, is not the most suitable recourse, the new legal framework being proposed aims to explore alternatives. Notably, some individuals find themselves incarcerated due to societal oversights, and the proposed legislation acknowledges this by providing avenues for release on bail conditions. This approach aims to strike a balance between societal concerns and individual liberties, fostering a more nuanced and equitable criminal justice system.

The Office of Missing Persons currently manages a caseload of approximately 14,000 complaints. Upon assuming duties of this Ministry, only 62 complaints had undergone investigation. Presently, we have successfully concluded investigations for 4,795 complaints, reflecting a substantial improvement in case resolution. It is noteworthy that all outstanding complaints lodged with the Office of Missing Persons are slated for resolution by the coming year.

Furthermore, to fortify and enhance the efficiency of the judicial process, a comprehensive set of eight new bills is set to be submitted to Parliament.

Efforts are underway to establish a reconciliation society within each village, where government officials and politicians do not play a direct role. The activities of these societal initiatives, referred to as reconciliation societies, are guided by the preferences of elders and religious leaders within the respective villages. The responsibilities encompass the independent execution of tasks such as infrastructure development, including road construction and provision of electricity, rendering political involvement unnecessary.

The villagers take charge of organizing religious festivals, sports events and cultural celebrations, fostering a sense of community ownership and participation. The overarching vision is to seamlessly integrate each Grama Seva Division into a unified network, operating independently from external interference. The reconciliation society is entrusted with safeguarding the welfare and interests of the village, thereby ensuring the preservation and well-being of the community.

Presently, widespread discourse revolves around the state of the country’s economy, which has been adversely affected by various factors. The extensive toll on lives and property incurred during Prabhakaran’s war and the destructive actions of the JVP, including the burning of buses, transformers and over 25 courts, have significantly impacted the economic landscape. The repercussions of these incidents continue to reverberate, influencing the nation’s economic trajectory.

One pressing issue contributing to economic challenges is the unregulated proliferation of microfinance institutions, perceived as a substantial concern in the country. The absence of legal frameworks and regulatory oversight, coupled with the lack of registration with the Central Bank, has created an environment where individuals find it challenging to secure loans through conventional financial institutions due to their stringent rules. Consequently, many turn to microfinance institutions, exacerbating the existing economic predicament.

To address this concern, there is a pressing need to establish a dedicated regulatory body, separate from the Central Bank, to oversee and govern microfinance institutions. Efforts are underway to introduce comprehensive laws aimed at regulating these entities and mitigating the potential adverse effects they pose to the country’s economic stability. The goal is to instate a regulatory framework that ensures responsible and accountable practices within the microfinance sector, thereby contributing to the overall economic well-being of the nation.

–PMD

Courtesy Hiru News

Galle, December 4, 2023

In a disturbing incident that unfolded on the night of December 2nd, an Australian hotel owner in the picturesque Ahangama area of Galle was viciously attacked by a group of individuals. The victim, identified as 57-year-old Mark Williams, had recently acquired the hotel, which had been closed for three and a half years. The attack occurred during the reopening ceremony of the hotel, attended by a sizable number of foreign tourists.

Reports suggest that approximately 15 individuals from a party at a neighbouring venue confronted the hotel’s management, threatening to disrupt the event. The situation escalated when Mark Williams personally intervened to inquire about the matter. Regrettably, he was met with physical violence from the group.

He sustained injuries in the assault and was promptly rushed to Karapitiya Teaching Hospital, where he is currently undergoing treatment.

Ahangama Police responded to the incident, apprehending three individuals believed to be involved in the attack. However, perplexingly, the police later decided to release the suspects, raising concerns about the efficacy of the investigation and the pursuit of justice in this case.

The motive behind the attack remains unclear, but tensions between the hotel and the group from the adjacent party seem to have triggered the violent confrontation. The incident has sent shockwaves through the local community, particularly given the potential impact on the region’s tourism industry.