by Liz Theoharis Courtesy Counterpunch.org

On September 19, 2001, eight days after 9/11, as the leaders of both parties were already pounding a frenzied drumbeat of war, a diverse group of concerned Americans released a warning about the long-term consequences of a military response. Among them were veteran civil rights activists, faith leaders, and public intellectuals, including Rosa Parks, Harry Belafonte, and Palestinian-American Edward Said. Rare public opponents of the drive to war at the time, they wrote with level-headed clarity:

We foresee that a military response would not end the terror. Rather, it would spark a cycle of escalating violence, the loss of innocent lives, and new acts of terrorism… Our best chance for preventing such devastating acts of terror is to act decisively and cooperatively as part of a community of nations within the framework of international law… and work for justice at home and abroad.”

Twenty-three years and more than two wars later, this statement reads as a tragic footnote to America’s Global War on Terror that left an entire region of the planet immiserated. It contributed to the direct and indirect deaths of close to 4.5 million people, while costing Americans almost $9 trillion and counting.

The situation is certainly different today. Still, over the last few weeks, those prophetic words, now 22 years old, have been haunting me, as the U.S. war machine kicks into ever higher gear following the horrific Hamas massacre of Israeli civilians and the brutal intensification of the decades-long Israeli siege of civilians in Gaza. Sadly, the words and actions of our nation’s leaders have revealed a staggering, even willful, historical amnesia about the disastrous repercussions of America’s twenty-first-century war-mongering.

Case in point: recently, the United States was the only nation to veto the U.N. Security Council resolution calling for humanitarian pauses” to deliver life-saving aid to Palestinians in Gaza. Instead, all but a few members of Congress are lining up to support billions more in military aid for Israel and the further mobilization of our armed forces in the Middle East. These moves, experts say, may only accelerate wider regional conflict (something we are already seeing glimmers of vis-à-vis Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen) at a time of increasingly profound global instability. In the last few weeks, the U.S. Navy has assembled one of the greatest concentrations of power in the Eastern Mediterranean in 40 years,” while the Department of Defense is readying thousands of troops for possible deployment. Meanwhile, college administrators are suggesting student-reservists be prepared in case they get called up in the coming weeks.

Amid this frenzy of American bluster and brawn, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees reports that Gaza is fast becoming a hell hole,” riddled with death, disease, starvation, thirst, and displacement. Hundreds of scholars of international law and conflict studies have warned that the Israeli military may already have launched a potential genocide” of Gazans. At the same time, within Israel, citizen-militias, armed by the far-right minister of national security, have escalated violent attacks on Palestinians, only worsened by the acts of armed Israeli settlers on the West Bank protected by that very military.

Finally allowing a tiny amount of aid across the Egypt-Gaza border, after shutting down all food, water, and fuel for Gaza, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant made it clear just how much power the United States wields over this unfolding humanitarian crisis. The Americans insisted,” he reported, and we are not in a place where we can refuse them. We rely on them for planes and military equipment. What are we supposed to do? Tell them no?”

As Gallant implied, the U.S. could use its influence not only to demand far more aid for Gazans, but to compel quite a different course of action. There should, after all, be no contradiction between condemning Hamas for its heinous slaughter in the south of Israel and denouncing Israel for its decades-old dispossession and oppression of the Palestinian people and its now-indiscriminate killing and destruction in Gaza. There need be no contradiction between decrying terrorism and demanding diplomacy over violence. In truth, the Biden administration could use every non-military tool at its disposal to pressure both Hamas and Israel to pursue an immediate ceasefire, the full release of all hostages, and whatever humanitarian assistance is now needed.

If only, rather than further militarizing the region or questioning the death toll in Gaza, the Biden administration were to focus on making this most recent and ever more ominous crisis a final turning point, not for yet more brutality, but for a long-term political solution focused on achieving real peace, human rights, and equality for everyone in the region. In this moment of grief and rage, when tensions are at a fever pitch and the wheel of history is turning around us, it’s time to demand peace above all else.

The Cruel Manipulation of the Poor

While the U.S. government refuses to use its considerable power as leverage for peace, ordinary Americans seem to know better. Unlike the days after 9/11, recent polls suggest that a majority of Americans oppose sending more weapons to Israel and support delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza, including a majority of people under the age of 44, as well as a majority of Democrats and independents and a significant minority of Republicans. While Representative Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American in Congress, was made a pariah and is in the process of being censured by some of her colleagues after her plea for a ceasefire, she actually represents the popular will of a significant portion of the public.

And that, in turn, represents a generational shift from even a decade or two ago. In the wake of this country’s disastrous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as dozens of other military conflicts globally, many Americans, especially Millennials and Gen Zers, see the U.S. military less as a defender of democracy than as a purveyor of death and chaos. Nearly second-by-second online coverage of the Israeli bombing campaign is offering Americans an unprecedented view into the collective punishment of more than two million Gazans, half of them 18 or younger. (Now, with limited Internet and communications, it’s unclear how word of what’s happening in Gaza will continue to get out.) Add to that the slow-burning pain that has marked life in the United States over the last 15 years — the Great Recession, the Covid-19 economic shock, the climate crisis, and the modern movement for racial justice — and the reasons for such a relatively widespread urge for peace become clearer.

Today, half of all Americans are either impoverished or one emergency away from economic ruin. As younger generations face what often feels like a dead-end future, there’s a growing sense among those I speak to (as well as older folks) that the government has abandoned them. At a moment when the Republicans (and some Democrats) argue that we can’t afford universal healthcare or genuine living wages, the military budget for 2023 is $858 billionand the Pentagon still maintains 750 military bases globally. Last week, without a touch of irony, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who claimed last year that student debt relief would hurt the economy, insistedthat the U.S. can certainly afford two wars.”

Millions of us tuned into President Biden’s Oval Office speech on his return from Israel, only the second of his presidency. There, he asked Congress to earmark yet another $100 billion mainly for American military aid to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan (a boon to the war-profiteering weapons makers whose CEOs will grow even richer thanks to those new contracts). Just a year after Congress killed the Expanded Child Tax Credit, which had cut official child poverty in half, Biden’s speech represented a further pivot away from socially beneficial policymaking and toward further strengthening of the ravenous engine of our war economy. After the speech, the Nation‘s Katrina vanden Heuvel offered this compelling instant commentary: Biden tonight rolled out a version of twenty-first-century military Keynesianism. Let’s call his policy just that. No more Bidenomics. And it consigns the U.S. to endless militarization of foreign policy.”

A decision to organize our economy yet more around war will also mean the further militarization of domestic policy, with dire consequences for poor and low-income people. Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., once called such steps the cruel manipulation of the poor,” a phrase he coined as part of his denunciation of the Vietnam War in the late 1960s. King was then thinking about the American soldiers fighting and dying in Vietnam on the side of the wealthy, and the secure, while we create a hell for the poor.”

Today, a similar cruel manipulation” is playing out. For years, our leaders have invoked the myth of scarcity to justify inaction when it comes to widespread poverty, growing debt, and rising inequality in the United States. Now, some of them are calling for the spending of billions of dollars to functionally fund the bombardment and occupation of impoverished Gaza and a violent Israeli clampdown in the West Bank, not to speak of the possibility of a wider set of Middle Eastern wars. However, polling numbers suggest that a surprising number of Americans have seen through the fog of war and are perhaps coming to believe that our nation’s abundance should be used not as a tool of death but as a lifeline for poor and struggling people at home and abroad.

Not in Our Name

In a time of stifling darkness, one bright light over the last weeks has been the eruption of non-violent, pro-peace protests across the world. In Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe, hundreds of thousands of people have hit the streets to demand a ceasefire, including possibly half a million people in London. Here in the U.S., tens of thousands of Americans have followed suit in dozens of cities, from New York to Washington, D.C., Chicago to San Francisco. No less important, those protest marches have been both multi-racial and multi-generational, much like the 2020 uprisings for Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and the countless other Black lives lost to police brutality.

Recently, close friends and colleagues sent me photos from a march in Washingtonwhere Jewish protesters demanded a ceasefire and held up signs with heartrending slogans like Not in My Name,” Ceasefire Now,” and My Grief Is Not Your Weapon.” Ultimately, close to 400 people, including numerous rabbis, were arrested as they peacefully sang and prayed in a congressional office building, while David Friedman, ambassador to Israel under President Trump, hatefully tweeted: Any American Jew attending this rally is not a Jew — yes I said it!” Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia ludicrously claimed that they were leading an insurrection.

Two days later, my organization, the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice, cosponsored a pro-peace march that drew a large crowd of Palestinians and Muslim-American families. At noon, about 500 protesters, a gorgeous, multicolored sea of humanity participated in the Jumma call to prayer in front of the U.S. Capitol. The following week, folks co-organized a pray-in at New York Representative Hakeem Jeffries’s office, using the phrase ceasefire is the moral choice.” Faith and movement leaders offered prayers from their various religious traditions and displayed the names of people killed so far.

On October 27th, as Israel expanded its ground invasion of Gaza, I joined thousands of people in Grand Central Station to call for a #CeasefireNow, one of the largest demonstrations in New York since this most recent conflict broke out. Protests continued all week. And on November 4th, there was a mass rally and march in Washington, D.C., to call for an end to war and support the rights of Palestinians, with hundreds of organizations bridging a diversity of views and voices to plead for peace.

Those marches were an inspiring indication of the broad coalition of Americans who desperately want to prevent genocide in Gaza and dream of lasting peace and freedom in Israel/Palestine. At the lead are Palestinians and Jews who refuse to be used as pawns and prop-pieces by military hawks. Alongside them are many Americans all too aware that, though they might not be directly affected by the nightmarish events now unfolding in the Middle East, they are still implicated in the growing violence there thanks to their tax dollars and the actions of our government. Together, we are collectively crying out: Not in Our Name.”

Such marches undoubtedly represent the largest antiwar mobilization since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and are weaving together diverse communities — young and old, Black, Brown, and White, Muslim, Jewish, and Christian, poor and working-class — in a way that should prove encouraging indeed for a growing peace movement. Right now, there are new alliances and relationships being forged that will undoubtedly endure for years to come.

Yes, this remains a small victory in what’s likely to prove a terrifying global crisis, but it is a victory nonetheless.

Roses Dressed in Black

The last few weeks have resurrected traumatic memories for many Jews and Palestinians globally — of the Holocaust, the Nakba, and the long history of Islamophobia, anti-Arab hate, anti-Jewish violence, and antisemitism. For many of us who are not Palestinian or Jewish, the recent mass death and violence have also triggered our own painful reckonings with the past.

I’m a descendant of Armenian genocide survivors. When I was a child growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I heard hushed tales of death marches, hunger, lack of water, barricaded roads, and harrowing escapes. Those stories remain etched into my consciousness, a mournful inheritance my dispossessed ancestors handed down.

My great-grandfather, Charles Ozun Artinian, fled his home in what is now Turkey’s Seyhan River valley after the 1909 Adana Massacre in which Ottoman militants killed 25,000 Armenian Christians. Part of his family escaped over the Caucasus Mountains into Western Europe. They then traveled halfway across the world to Argentina, because so many other nations, including the United States, had closed their borders to Armenian refugees and would only open them years later.

As he was fleeing Adana, Charles wrote a poem, one of the few surviving long-form poems from the region at the time. It begins:

In the Seyhan valley there rises a smoke

Roses dressed in black, month of April cried

Cries of sadness and mourning were heard everywhere

Broken hearted and sad, everybody cried…”

My family taught my siblings and me that although the genocide against our people was carried out by the Ottoman Empire, it was made possible by the complicity and indifference of the international community, including the world’s richest and most powerful nations. Right now, the smoke rising over Gaza is suffocating and every additional hour the U.S. enables more bombs to fall and tanks to rumble, more roses will be, as my great-grandfather put it, dressed in black. Not only that, but with the detonation of each new American-made bomb, the conditions for the long-term freedom and safety of both Israelis and Palestinians are blasted ever more into rubble.

Let us honor the memories of our ancestors and finally learn the lesson of their many stolen lives: Not In Our Name!,” Peace and Justice for All!” and the pleas from Gaza, including Ceasefire Now!,” End the Siege,” Protect Medical Facilities,” and Gaza is Home!”

This column is distributed by TomDispatch.

Sugath Kulatunga

The recent increase of VAT from 12 to 18 percent has become the target of severe criticism by the opposition particularly by the political economists and of course the leader of the opposition. The main plank of the criticism is that it will increase inflation and the cost of living and will be an unbearable burden on small and medium scale industries. A non-economist would believe that the converse would be true in the lowering of the VAT rate resulting in reduced inflation an lower cost of living. But on Gotabaya regime’s reduction of the VAT rate from 12 to 8 the critics said that it was the cause of the economic crisis.

 The argument for the reduction of the rate was to stimulate the economy which was stagnant.

It did not work as the Covid 19 played havoc in the economy. Production was slowed down and the makets collapsed. An International Labour Organisation (ILO) survey has found that the COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted the business operations of nearly 80 percent of surviving Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Sri Lanka.

But the Rajapaksa haters continue to disregard the impact of Covid pandemic just as they dismiss the economic and social ramifications of the war against the LTTE.

(A former National Security Adviser and Foreign Secretary, Shivshankar Menon has mentioned that the war cost the country around US$ 200 billion. https://www.newindianexpress.com/…/sri-lankas-internal.... )

Burden of any tax finally has to be borne by the consumer or the end user. Lower VAT benefits them, and any savings accrued will be invested or increase their consumption. Increase in consumption/ demand stimulates production. It is a home truth that private investment has a high positive ROI which in the public sector is often negative. A lower rate of tax tends to increase tax compliance. Tax policy should be for a broader tax base with lower tax rate.

All governments like to increase revenue but rarely consider reduction of costs of running the government. High costs are the result of corruption and inefficiency. At last the IMF has made the control of corruption as a fundamental conditionality.  The root of both corruption and inefficiency is at the political level. It has now spread into the bureaucratic henchmen. Politicians allow the private sector to exploit the revenue sources. Successive governments have made rules and regulations corruption friendly rather than business friendly.

Sugath Kulatunga

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

ජාත්‍යන්තර ක්‍රිකට් කවුන්සිලය විසින් අද (10) මෙරටට පැනවූ ක්‍රිකට් සාමාජිකත්වය අත්හිටුවීමට අදාල ඉල්ලීම සිදුකර ඇත්තේ ශම්මි සිල්වා ප්‍රමුඛ ශ්‍රී ලංකා ක්‍රිකට් ආයතනය බවට සුප්‍රසිද්ධ cricinfo වෙබ් අඩවිය වාර්තා කරනවා.

එමෙන්ම ICC මණ්ඩලය විසින් ශ්‍රී ලංකා ක්‍රිකට් නියෝජිතයින්ට නිරීක්ෂකයෙකු ලෙස සහභාගී වීමට අවසර දී ඇති බැවින් අහමදාබාද්හි පැවැත්වෙන ICC රැස්වීම් සඳහා ශම්මි සිල්වාද සහභාගී වීමට ඉඩ ඇති බවයි එම වෙබ් අඩවිය සඳහන් කරන්නේ.

දැනට ඉන්දියාවේ සිටින සහ සිකුරාදා රැස්වීමට සහභාගී වූ ශ්‍රී ලංකා ක්‍රිකට් සභාපති ශම්මි සිල්වා ශ්‍රී ලංකා ක්‍රිකට් ආයතනයෙන් තේරී පත් වූ නියෝජිතයා ලෙස ICC විසින් දිගටම පිළිගන්නා බවත් එම වෙඩ් අඩවිය වාර්තා කරනවා.

වහාම ක්‍රියාත්මක වන පරිදි නැවත දැනුම්දෙන තුරු ශ්‍රී ලංකා ක්‍රිකට් සාමාජිකත්වය අත්හිටුවීමට ජාත්‍යන්තර ක්‍රිකට් කවුන්සිලයේ අද රැස්වූ කමිටු රැස්වීමේදී තීරණය කරනු ලැබුවා.

ඒ ශ්‍රී ලංකා ක්‍රිකට් සාමාජිකයෙකු වශයෙන් එහි වගකීම්, විශේෂයෙන්ම එහි කටයුතු ස්වාධීනව කළමනාකරණය කිරීමේ අවශ්‍යතාවය සහ රාජ්‍ය පාලනය, නියාමනය සහ පරිපාලනය සම්බන්ධයෙන් රජයේ මැදිහත්වීමක් නොමැති බවට සහතික වීම බරපතල ලෙස උල්ලංඝනය කර ඇති බව හුවා දක්වමින්.

කෙසේ වෙතත් අත්හිටුවීමේ කොන්දේසි ICC මණ්ඩලය විසින් ඉදිරියේදී තීරණය කර දැනුම්දෙන බවයි ඔවුන් නිකුත්කළ නිවේදනයේ සඳහන්.

Nagraj Gollapudi and Andrew Fidel Fernando https://www.espncricinfo.com/

The decision was taken following a tumultuous week in the SLC after Sri Lanka’s poor performance at the World Cup

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has been suspended by the ICC with immediate effect because of extensive government interference in the board’s administration.

Though the ICC has termed the sanction a “suspension”, in reality it is a warning as the ICC seeks to prevent further government interference in the running of SLC. As it stands, the suspension will not have any immediate serious impact on Sri Lankan cricket. Sri Lanka’s World Cup campaign ended on Thursday and there is no cricket happening in the country until December. No ICC funds are due to go to SLC until January.

While the ICC’s quarterly meetings are scheduled for November 18-21 in Ahmedabad, the ICC board met online on Friday to address the SLC situation – government interference in all spheres from administration to finance and even matters concerning the national team. The next course of action will be decided when the ICC board meets on November 21.

RELATED

• Court issues stay order to prevent Ranatunga-led interim committee from taking over
• Sports minister looks to replace SLC officials with Ranatunga-led interim committee

The ICC’s decision might appear to have come out of the blue, but SLC may not have been surprised. It is understood that SLC asked the ICC board to take this extreme step. The ICC also continues to recognise SLC president Shammi Silva, who is currently in India and attended Friday’s meeting, as the elected representative. He is also likely to be present at the ICC meetings in Ahmedabad as the ICC Board has allowed SLC representatives to be present in an observer capacity.

“The ICC Board met today and determined that Sri Lanka Cricket is in serious breach of its obligations as a Member, in particular, the requirement to manage its affairs autonomously and ensure that there is no government interference in the governance, regulation and/or administration of cricket in Sri Lanka,” the ICC said in a statement. “The conditions of the suspension will be decided by the ICC Board in due course.”

On Monday, Sri Lanka’s sports minister Roshan Ranasinghe had sacked the SLC board and installed an interim committee headed by Arjuna Ranatunga, but Sri Lanka’s courts essentially reinstated the board a day later by issuing a 14-day stay order on the gazette that dissolved the board.

Since then, the affairs of Sri Lanka Cricket have been debated at length in the country’s parliament. But as of Friday, when the ICC suspension came, it was the elected SLC board headed by Silva that was running cricket in the country.

Even if the interim committee was in power, the appointment of such committees by the government had not prompted suspension by the ICC before. The previous occasion when an interim committee was in place, from 2014 to 2015, resulted in the ICC putting the funds due to SLC in escrow, and demoted SLC to observer status at board meetings. But they remained a member of the ICC officially.

Sri Lanka’s sports minister has also had the role of ratifying all Sri Lankan national teams, as per the nation’s sports law, which has been in place since 1973.

SLC chief executive Ashley de Silva refused to comment to the subject.

SLC is the second Full Member to be suspended by ICC in the last four years after Zimbabwe Cricket was suspended in 2019 for government interference. However, unlike in Zimbabwe’s case, where all cricket activities in the country were abruptly shut down, in addition to a freeze on funding, the ICC will tread carefully in Sri Lanka’s case.

Sri Lanka

 lanka C news

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ක්‍රිකට් තහනමක් පනවා ඇත්තේ ජාත්‍යන්තර ක්‍රිකට් කවුන්සලයෙන් ශ්‍රී ලංකා ක්‍රිකට් ආයතනය කර ඇති ඉල්ලීමක් අනුව යයි ක්‍රික් ඉන්ෆෝ වෙබ් අඩවිය වාර්තා කරයි.

ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා ක්‍රිකට් ආයතනයේ සභාපති ශම්මිද සිල්වා විසින් මෙම ඉල්ලීම කර ඇති බවද එම අඩවිය වාර්තා කරයි.

ජාත්‍යන්තර ක්‍රිකට් කවුන්සිලය විසින් සිකුරාදා දින පැවති රැස්වීමටද ක්‍රිකට් සභාපති ලෙස ශම්මිද සිල්වා සහභාගී වී ඇතැයි ද වාර්තාව කියා සිටී.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

ICC suspends Sri Lanka Cricket over political meddling

(Daily Mirror) – The International Cricket Council (ICC) suspended Sri Lanka’s crisis-ridden cricket board yesterday, saying it had failed to ensure there was no government interference in its affairs.

The game’s world governing body said Sri Lanka Cricket was “in serious breach of its obligations as a member, in particular, the requirement to manage its affairs autonomously and to ensure that there is no government interference.”

The suspension came a day after Sri Lanka’s parliament asked the board to resign over allegations made by sports minister Roshan Ranasinghe that it had syphoned off millions of dollars.

The conditions of the suspension will be decided by the ICC board later, as it said in a brief statement. It was not immediately clear if the indefinite suspension would affect Sri Lanka hosting the Under-19 World Cup in January.

There was no immediate comment from the board, but an official source said an emergency meeting of the executive committee had been scheduled today.

“They will try to work out the way forward,” the source said, asking not to be named. “The main concern is the upcoming 50-over Under-19 World Cup. Loss of hosting rights will be disastrous.”

Sri Lanka was preparing to host the 16-nation Under-19 World Cup, and the board had released large sums of money to refurbish four venues in the capital, Colombo.

The crisis involving the cricket board — the richest sporting organisation in the bankrupt island country — came to a head after Sri Lanka’s humiliating World Cup defeat by India last week.

The Sri Lankan parliament unanimously asked Sri Lanka Cricket’s elected board members to resign on Thursday, accusing them of unprecedented corruption. The board has not yet responded to the parliament’s non-binding resolution.

Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa said Thursday’s move was a “historic resolution that sends a message to the world that Sri Lankan legislators have united to defend cricket and restore the integrity of the game”.

The board is now locked in litigation after it was sacked by the sports minister on Monday, only to be restored the following day by the Court of Appeal pending a hearing in two weeks.

The ICC has rules against political interference and has suspended Sri Lanka before.

Ranasinghe said yesterday, before the suspension, that he was hopeful that there would be no ICC sanctions against the local board. “I am confident we can talk to the ICC and sort things out,” Ranasinghe said in parliament.

By Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana Courtesy The Daily Mirror

PARLIAMENT (Daily Mirror)- Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) will be handed over to former captain Arjuna Ranatunga for a brief period for the task of rebuilding if SLC is suspended by the ICC, Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe said today.

“We will hand over the task of rebuilding Sri Lanka Cricket to former captain Arjuna Ranatunga for six to eight months in the event Sri Lanka is suspended by the ICC. We will enact the Sports Act, go for an election and then we can go for other matches. We need the approval from parliament to proceed with that plan,” he told Parliament.

The Minister said this while responding to an allegation made by Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa that a conspiracy has been hatched to get Sri Lanka suspended by the ICC.

He also said the two million dollars which was withdrawn by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) from a bank in Colombo on Thursday had been transfered to another bank account.

The Minister said cheques are being issued by the SLC and SLC funds of are being spent hurriedly.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

ICC) – The International Cricket Council Board has suspended Sri Lanka Cricket’s membership of the ICC with immediate effect.

In a statement released on Friday night, the ICC said that the SLC had breached its obligations as a member, in particular the requirement to manage its affairs autonomously and without government interference. 

In its statement, the ICC said: “The conditions of the suspension will be decided by the ICC Board in due course.” 

The ICC Board is set to meet on November 21, after which the future course of action is expected to be clearer.

Sri Lanka is scheduled to host the ICC Under-19 Men’s Cricket World Cup across January and February 2024.  

The Sri Lanka men’s team have had a forgettable time at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, winning just two of their nine matches and finishing with four points. They sit at No.8 in the points table with three more matches to be played in the league phase.

By Latheef Farook

Israeli genocide of   Palestinian civilians and the destruction of  Gaza, blindly backed by United  States and Europe , exposed the  political and military bankruptcy of  secular Arab dictators. So far they refused to do anything substantial  to stop  genocide  of  Palestinians who were deprived of water,food,medicine, fuel and electricity for more than a month.

 Arab dictators  even refused to withdraw their ambassadors  from  Tel Aviv  and  Israeli flag continue  to fly  in  Jordan ,Egypt UAE,,Bahrain,Morocco and Sudan  while  Bolivia,followed by Chile and Columbia,  withdraw its ambassador from Tel Aviv  in protest against on going genocide of Palestinians.

 Only after three weeks of bombing  and killing more than 8500 Palestinians and flattening almost half of the buildings in Gaza, Bahrain and Jordan decided on 2 November, to withdraw their ambassadors from Tel Aviv demanding to stop the  genocide  of Palestinians in Gaza.

Ireland’s Sinn Fein has  also called for the envoy’s expulsion for as long as Israel ignores demands for a ceasefire. South Africa recalled all its diplomats  saying   Israel is threatening the stability of the global system  and US is  making a peaceful global order sit on tenterhooks.”

 Throughout the  Arab  world  it is  dictatorship.People in general and intellectuals in particular are treated as slaves. Most of the intellectuals migrated to countries where they enjoy  freedom and recognition.

This applies to secular Palestine Authority Chairman Mahmud Abbas who refused to hold elections and continue to implement the evil Israeli designs on  his people in return for the patronage and financial support.

These secular  dictators,carefully screened,selected and installed in power by their  US-Britain and  French masters were given one  message   that they  should not  allow Islamic forces to rise .The west in general will never allow  a political force aligned to Islam  in the Middle East-the birth place of Islam.

For example in the December 1991 elections in Algeria,  Islamic party FIS  won 188 seats  and won the elections  .However France  and its secular stooges   crushed  Islamic forces ,FIS ,and installed a secular military dictator in power.

In the free and fair elections held in the aftermath of the 2010/11 Arab Spring  in Egypt pro Islamic Brotherhood Mohamed Morsy won the elections.  US- Europe and Israel got Saudi Arabia,Kuwait and United Arab Emirates to spend eleven billion dollar to  overthrow Mohamed Morsy  and  install  military dictator Abdel Fattah Sisi   to serve their  interests.

 Former US President Donald Trump who signed a 100 billion dollar weapons  agreement with Saudi Arabia  said that  Saudi Arabia, cannot be in power for two weeks without US support.

 Saudi Arabia ,perhaps the largest importers of weapons from US,Britain and other European countries spending billions.However it is not going to use these weapons against Israel to save Palestinians  as it  depends on US and maintain secret ties  with Israel.

 Saudi regime   used these weapons to wage war on Yemen and  create  the worst ever humanitarian crisis  besides killing  innocent Yemenis and destroying the entire infrastructure.So far Saudi  had done nothing to protect the  Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

The UAE   has shown more sympathy toward Israel. A key signatory of the 2020 Abraham Accords, Abu Dhabi issued a statement on Oct. 8 which emphasized that attacks by Hamas against Israeli towns and villages near the Gaza Strip, including the firing of thousands of rockets at population centers, are a serious and grave escalation” and condemned Hamas for abducting Israeli civilians as hostages.

Of the  22 Arab   countries nine called on the UN Security Council for  immediate cease fire  in Gaza and West Bank.Egypt, the largest and most populous Arab country,is not going to lift a finger to help  as it  depends on US financial help.

However once again, the Arab street is the epicenter of peaceful demands for change. Apart  from worldwide protests  demonstrations have swept across the region—including notable demonstrations in Casablanca, Algiers, Tunis, Cairo, Amman, Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad, and Manama—in support of the Palestinians in Gaza and their basic human rights in the face of an ongoing Israeli military assault and horrifying living conditions.

 US-European governments care a damn for the Arab dictators  .For example the  day after  US   approved a $14.3 billion military aid package for Israel, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in his third visit to Israel spoke of the need to minimise, not stopping, the killing  of Palestinians.

The pathetic state of affairs in the Middle East is such that Aleida Guevara,  daughter of the legendary Che Guevara  , asked why the Arab dictators remain silent and what are they waiting for without acting to save the Palestinians in Gaza and West Bank.

Erenst “Che” Guevara was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist.  In a statement  Guevara’s sixty three year old daughter  Aleida Guevara  asked;

O Arabs.What are you waiting for? What is happening in Gaza  and when will this   end? Are you waiting until Israel achieve its dream? Isn’t it time you save your brothers and sisters, your blood,  people of your religion and culture. Isn’t it time for Arab rulers to   unite to save the Palestinians. I live   far away from you but  my heart is with   my Palestinian brothers and sisters.I am  a doctor.If I can enter Gaza I will  be with the Palestinians to help them.I am not worried about my life . Oh Palestinians continue your struggle. Move ahead thinking either freedom or death  until victory.

Israeli genocide in Gaza showed the whole world the evil and  cruel nature of Zionist Jews and their US,European supporters . Middle East remains  a burning volcano about to erupt  with unpredictable consequences for the region and the world.

Manusha Media

පුද්ගලික අංශයේ සේවකයාට අර්ථසාධක අරමුදල ලැබෙනවා. රාජ්‍ය සේවකයාට විශ්‍රාම වැටුප තියෙනවා. රක්ෂණ ලැබෙනවා. ත්‍රීරෝද රථ රියදුරන්ට මොනවාද ලැබෙන්නේ?

මුළු රටේම සමස්ත වෘත්තිකයින්ට සමාජ ආරක්ෂණ වැඩපිළිවෙලක් හදන්න කැබිනට් මණ්ඩලට මට විශේෂ අනුමැතියක් ලබාදී තිබෙනවා

වැරදි වැඩ කරලා අනතුරු සිදුවන්නේ ත්‍රිරෝද රථ විතරද? මේ අහිංසක මිනිස්සුන්ට චෝදනා කරලා හැමෝම නිදහස් වෙනවා

ත්‍රීරෝද රථ රියදුරන් කියන්නේ ඉගෙනගත්තේ නැති, සංයමයක් නැති ඉබාගාතේ යන කණ්ඩායමක් කියලා සමහරු කියනවා. ඒකට මම විරුද්ධයි. හැමෝම විශ්ව විද්‍යාලවලට ගිහිල්ලා නෙමෙයි රට දියුණු කරලා තියෙන්නේ

ත්‍රීරෝද රථ රියදුරන් පසුගිය කාලයේදී ඉල්ලුවේ තෙල් ටික විතරයි. ඒ අය බදු ගෙවන මිනිස්සුන්ට බරක් වෙන්නේ නෑ. ඒ අයට ගරුත්වයක් හිමිවිය යුතුයි


පුද්ගලික අංශයේ සේවකයින්ට අර්ථසාධකයත්, රාජ්‍ය සේවකයාට විශ්‍රාම වැටුපත් ලැබෙන නමුත් ත්‍රීරෝද රථ රියදුරන්ට අනතුරක් සිදුවුවහොත්, දෑතේ ශක්තිය නොමැතිවී බැරිවූ කාලයේදී බලාකියාගන්නේ කවුරුන්දැයි ප්‍රශ්න කළ කම්කරු හා විදේශ රැකියා අමාත්‍ය මනුෂ නානායක්කාර මහතා පසුගිය කාලයේදී බදු ගෙවන ජනතාවට බරක් නොවී, තෙල් ටික පමණක් ඉල්ලා සිටි ත්‍රීරෝද රථ රියදුරන්ට ගතරුත්වයක් ලබාදීමට කටයුතු කළ යුතු යැයි අද (08) පැවසුවේය.

අමාත්‍යවරයා මේ බව සදහන් කළේ අවිධිමත් අංශයේ ශ්‍රමිකයින්ට ගරුත්වයක් ලබාදීම සදහා ක්‍රියාත්මක ගරු සරු” වැඩසටහන යටතේ ත්‍රීරෝද රථ රියදුරන් සමග පැවති සාකච්ඡාවකදීය

එහිදී අමාත්‍යරයා මෙසේද පැවසීය.
මෙි රටෙි සෑම වෘත්තියකම නිරත වෙලා පිරිසට විශේෂයෙන්ම අවිධිමත් අංශයේ වෘත්තීන් වල නිරත වෙලා ඉන්න පිරිසට ගරුත්වය ලබා දීමත් සාරවත්භාවයක් ලබාදීම තමයි මේ වැඩසටහනේ අරමුණ වෙන්නේ. ඒකට අවශ්‍ය පසුබිම හදන්නයි අපි කටයුතු කරන්නේ. එහිදී හැම වෘත්තකයෙක්ම වයසට ගියාම බලාගන්න වැඩ පිළිවෙලක් තියෙන්න ඕනේ.  
ඒ අනුව ඕනෑම වෘත්තියක් කරන කෙනෙක්ට අභිමානවත්ව ඒ වෘත්තියේ නියැලෙන්න පුළුවන් සමාජ වටපිටාවක් සහ වෘත්තීභාවයක් ඇති කිරීමට මෙම ගරු සරු වැඩසටහනේ ගරු කියන කොටසින් අදහස් වෙනනේ. ඒ වගේ සරු කියන කොටසින් අදහස් වෙන්නේ, අවිධිමත් අංශයේ පිරිසත් මේ රටේ ඊ.පී.එෆ්.  ඊ.ටී.එෆ් වගේ සමාජ ආරක්ෂණ වැඩසහන් වලට දායක කරගනිමින් ඒ අයගේ විශ්‍රාම දිවය සුරක්ෂිත කිරීමටත් ඒ වගේම අයට රැකියාව කරන අවස්ථාවේදී යම් අනතුරක් වුනොත් ඒ අවස්ථාවේදී ඔවුන්ට අවශ්‍ය ආරක්ෂණ වැඩපිලිවෙලක් සකස් කිරීමත් තමයි සරැ කියන කොටසින් අදහස් වෙන්නේ.
මේ රටේ ඉන්නවා ප්‍රශ්ණ ඇති කරන අය. ඒ වගේම රටේ ප්‍රශ්න හැමතිස්සේම විචේනය කරන අයත් ඉන්නවා. මේ අය  කරන්නේ ‍ලොකුවට කියවන එක විතරයි. අපි මේ අයට කයිය නායකලා කියලත් කියනවා.
හැබැයි අපි ඒකෙන් එහාට ගිහිල්ලා ප්‍රශ්න වලට උත්තර හොයන්නයි මේ සූදානම් වෙන්නේ. මොකද අපි ප්‍රශ්න වලට උත්තර හොයන පිරිසක්. ඒ නිසාමයි ජනාධිපතිතුමාත් රටේ ප්‍රශ්නයක් ඇති වුන වෙලාවේ රට භාරගෙන පිළිතුරු හොයන්නයි කටයුතු කළේ.
ජනාධිපතිතුමා සියලු දෙනා එකට එකතු කරගෙන රටේ ප්‍රශ්න විසදන්න ගත්තේ විවේචනය කර කර ඉදලා හරියන්නේ නැති නිසයි. ප්‍රශ්න වලට බයවෙලා ඉදලා හරියන්නේ නැහැ. ඒකයි අපිත් මේ වැඩේට එකතු වුනේ.
මේ රටේ අවිදිමත් කෂේත්‍රයේ ඉන්න ලක්ෂ හැටක විතර පිරිසක් ආර්ථිකයට සුවිශේෂී දායත්වයක් දක්වනවා. එහිදී මේ විදිමත් සහ අවිදිමත් කියන අංශ දෙක මොකක්ද කියලා අපි අවබෝද කරගතයුතුයි. ඇත්තමට විදිමත් කියන්නේ හාම්පුතෙක් සහ සේවකයෙන් ඉන්න ඒ අය අතර ගිවිසුමක් තියෙන සහ ඒ අනුව නියමිත විදිහට රැකියාවක් කරනවා කියලා කම්කරු දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ  ලියාපදිංචි වෙලා, ඊ.පී.එෆ්. ඊ.ටී.එෆ්. ගෙවීම් සිදුවන  වෘත්තින් වලටයි.
ඒ වගේම අවිදිමත් කියන්නේ මේ විදිහට හාම්පුතෙක් නැති ගිවිසුමක් නැති තමන් තනියෙන් තමන්ගේ ජිවිකාව කරගෙන ඉන්න අයයි. හැබැයි මේ අයයි ආර්ථිකටය සුවිශේෂී දායක්තවයක් දෙන්නේ. මේ අය තමයි එළියට නොපෙනුනාට රටේ ආර්ථිකය ගොඩ නගන්න ශක්තිය ලබා දෙන්නේ.
පේමන්ට් එකේ බඩු විකුණන වෙළෙන්දා, ත්‍රීරෝද රථ රියැදුරන්, වෑද්දුම් ශිල්පීන්, පින්තාරු ශිල්පීන්, විදුලි කාර්මිකයින්, ඇතුලු හැම ක්ෂේත්‍රයේම ඉන්න අය ආර්ථිකයට දෙන්නේ විශාල හයියක්. ඒත් මේ අයගේ වෘත්තියට ගරුත්වයක් නැහැ. ඒක අපි අවංකව පිළිගන්න ඕනේ.  
මේ අයගේ ජිවිති නිසි ආරක්ෂාවක්වත් වෘත්තියට ආරක්ෂාවක්වත් නැහැ. මේ අයට වැඩ කරන්න බැරි කාලෙට ඒ අයගේ විශ්‍රම දිවියට ආරක්ෂාවක් නැහැ.  
වයස අවුරුද 55, 60 වුනාම පුද්ගලික අංශයේ අයට අර්ථසාදක අරමුදල ලැබෙනවා. රාජ්‍ය සේවකයාට විශ්‍රාම වැටුප ලැබෙනවා. ඒ වගේම පුද්ගලික සහ රාජ්‍ය අංශයේ අයට රැකියාව කරන කාලයේදී රක්ෂණ ක්‍රම තියෙනවා. ඒත් අපේ ත්‍රී රෝද රථ අයට, අනතුරක් වුනොත් ගෙදර අයව කවුද බලාගන්නේ? තමන්ගේ දෑතේ ශක්තිය නැති වුනාම මොකද කරන්නේ ?  ඒ අයට බැරිවුන කාලේදී ඒ අයව කවුද  බලාගන්නේ කවුද?  මේක කාලාන්තරයක් තිස්සේ තියෙන ප්‍රශ්නයක්.
ඒ නිසා මුලු රටේම සමස්ථ වෘත්තිකයින්ට සමාජ ආරක්ෂණ වැඩපිලිවෙලක් ලබා දෙන්න  කැබිනට් මණ්ඩලය විසින් මට විශේෂ අනුමැතියක් ලබා දීලා තියෙනවා.
ඒත් කයිය ගහන අය කෑගහන්නේ ඊ.පී.එෆ්. ඊ.ටී.එෆ්. කප්පාදු කරන්න එපා කියලයි. ඒත් ඇත්තමට වෙන්නේ මේවා කප්පාදු කරන එක නෙමෙයි. දැනට මේ සමාජ ආර්කෂණ වැඩපිළිවෙලවල් වල ඉන්න මිලියන දෙකයි දශම තුනක පිරිසට අතිරේකව මේ රටේ සමස්ථ වැඩකරන ජනතාවම සමාජ ආරක්ෂණ වැඩපිළිවෙලකට ගෙන එ්මටයි අපි මේ අලුත් වැඩකටයුතු ටික කරගෙන යන්නේ.
පිටරටවල් වලට වැඩිය ගිහිල්ලා නැති අය ඒ රටවල් වල රැස්වීම් වලට ගිහිල්ලා ඇවිත් කියනවා,  එ් රටවල තණකොළ කපන කෙනත් එන්නෙත් වාහනෙන් කියලා. ඒ අය අනිත් අය  කන්න බොන්නත් අනිත් අය යන තැනටමයි  කියලත් කියනවා.
කතා කියන්න පුළුවන් වුනාට අපේ රටේ සියලුදෙනාගේම වෘත්තීය ගරුත්ව ලබාදෙන්න අවශ්‍ය කරන වැඩපිළිවෙලක් ලබා දෙන්න කටයුතු කරලා නැහැ.
මේ සියලුදෙනාට ගරුත්වය දෙන්න හදන වැඩපිළිවෙලේදී ආර්ථික වශයෙන්ම මෙන්ම සමාජීය වශයෙනුත් වෘත්තිය වටිනාකමක් දියයුතුයි.  මේ වටිනාකම දෙද්දී ප්‍රමිති කරණයක් කරලා  ඒ අයගේ ගරුත්වය වැඩි කරන්න විවිධ වැඩ කරන්න හැකියාව තියෙනවා.
ඒ නිසාමයි අපි කිව්වේ සෑම වෘත්තියක් කරන්නම  ඒ අය නිර්මාණය කරන සංගම් හරහා බලපත්‍රයක් ලබා ගන්න පුළුවන් ක්‍රමයක් ක්‍රියාත්මක කලාම ඒ වෘත්තිය ඉතාම විදිමත් වෙනව බව. එතකොට ඕනෑම කෙනෙක්ට පින්තාරු කරන්න යන්න බැහැ. ඒකට නිසි බලපත්‍රයක් තියෙන කෙනෙක්ට විතරයි කරන්න පුළුවන් කම ලැබෙන්නේ. අනිත් ක්ෂේත්‍රත් ඒ විදිහමයි.
ඒ වගේම මේ අයගේ විශ්‍රම දිවය ශක්තිමත් කිරීමටත් ඔවුන්ට යම් අනතුරක් වුනොත් එයින් ආරක්ෂාවක් ලැබෙන්නත් ක්‍රමවේදයක් තිබිය යුතුයි. ඒ සඳහා අවශ්‍ය වැඩපිළිවෙල සකස් කිරීම තමයි ගරු සරු වැඩසටහන මගින් ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන්න යන්නේ.
අද ත්‍රීරෝද රථ වෘත්තිකයින් තමයි කතාවේ මාතෘකාව වන්නේ. සාමන්‍යයෙන් එකවුන්ටන්ලට නම් එකවුන්ටන් සර්විස් එක තියෙනවා. රාජ්‍ය පරිපාලන නිලධාරීන්ට නම් ඒකට අදාල වෙනම සර්විස් එකක් තියෙනවා. ගෘහ නිර්මාණ ශිල්පීන්ට වෙනම සේවයක් විදිහට තියෙනවා. නීතිඥයින් තියෙනවා නීතීඥ සංගමය, ඒත් අනිත විෂයන්ට එහෙම ආයතන හෝ සංගම් නැහැ.
ඉතින් අද කතා කරන ත්‍රීරෝද රථ වෘත්තිකයින්ටත් එහෙම එකක් නැහැ. කාලයක් තිස්සේ ඒ ගැන කතා කළා. ඒත් තවමත් ක්‍රියාත්මක වෙන්න බැරිවෙලා තියෙනවා. මේ රටේ මිලියන ගණනාවක් එක්ක සම්බන්ධ වෙන උපතේ සිට මරණය දක්වා නැතිව බැරි සේවාවක් තමයි ත්‍රීරෝද රථ සේවාව. මේ රටේ ත්‍රීරෝද රථ සේවාව ලබා නොගත්තු කෙනෙක් හොයන එක හරියට නොමල ගෙයකින් අබමිටක් හොයනවා වගේ වැඩක්.  
ඒකයි අපි තීන්දු කළේ, අනෙක් වෘත්තීන්ට අතහන්න කලින්, මේ මුළු සමාජයම වෙනස් කරන්න පුළුවන් ක්ෂේත්‍රයක් වන ත්‍රීරෝද රථ රියැදුරන්ගේ වෘත්තීයභාවය ඇති කිරීම වැදගත් කියලා. ඒත් සමාජයේ ත්‍රීරෝද රථ කිව්ව ගමන්ම තියෙන්නේ චෝදනාවක්. පාරේ විනය කඩකිරීම් සම්බන්ධයෙන් වගේම විවිධ ජාවාරම් වලට ත්‍රිරෝද රථ සම්බන්ධ වෙනවා කියලා චෝදනා කරනවා.
හැබැයි මම කියන්නේ ඒක පහත් තැනින් ජලය ගලා බහිනවා වගේ දෙයක් කියලයි. ගුවන් තොටුපොල හරහාත් මත්ද්‍රව්‍ය එනවා ඒත් කවුරුවත් කියනවාද අර ගුවන් සේවය තමයි හොරු කියලා. ලොකු ලොකු කාර් වල තමයි මත්ද්‍රව්‍ය එහාට මෙහාට අදින්නේ. හැබැයි කියනවාද කාර් කාරයෝ තමයි  මත්ද්‍රව්‍ය වලට සම්බන්ධ වෙන්නේ කියලා.
එතකොට වැරදි වැඩ කරලා හැප්පෙන්නේ ත්‍රිරෝද රථ විතරද ? සමස්ථයම වෙනස් කරන් ඕනිකම තියෙද්දී තමන්ගේ හයියෙන් ජීවිතය ගෙන යන අහිංසක මනුස්සයින්ට චෝදනා කරලා හැමෝම නිදහස් වෙනවා.
කළයුත්තේ පාරේ විනය හදන එකයි. ඒකට අදාල වැඩපිලිවෙල හදන්නේ නැතිව බොරුවට චෝදනා කරලා හරියන්නේ නැහැ.
හැබැයි මෙතනදී හේතුවක් විදිහට කියනවා ත්‍රීරෝද රථවලට එන්නේ ඉගෙනගත්ත නැති කණ්ඩායමක් කියලා.  ඒ වගේම මේ අයට සංයමයක් නැහැ ඉබාගාතේ ගිහිල්ලා තියෙන්නේ කියලයත් කියනවා. මම ඒකට විරුද්දයි. මේ රටේ හැමෝම විශ්ව විද්‍යාල වලට ගිහිල්ලා, නෙමෙයි රට දියුණු කරලා තියෙන්නේ.
සමාජ අධ්‍යාපනයෙන් සහ උපතින් ලැබුණු බුද්ධිය වර්ධනය කරගෙන ගොඩක් අයත් ඉස්සරහට ගිහිල්ලා තියෙනවා. ඒ අය ඉගෙන ගන්න නොහැකි වෙලා ඇත්තේ ඒ අයට ඒකට අවශ්‍ය කරන පරිසරය නැති වීම නිසයි. ඒකට වැරැද්ද ඒ අය නෙමෙයි නේද ?
ඒ නිසා සමස්ථයක වැරැද්ද මේ අය පිට පටවලා කටයුතු කරන එක වැරදියි. අද ත්‍රීරෝද රථ හිමියන් තමන්ගේ දරුවන්ට හොද අධ්‍යාපනයක් දෙන්න ගොඩක් මහන්සි වෙනවා. ඒ අය දවසට කීයක් හරි හොයාගන්න එකට එහා ගිහිල්ලා තමන්ගේ දරුවන්ට හොඳ අධ්‍යාපනයක් දෙන්න ගොඩක් කැපවෙනවා.  ඒ අය ඊලඟ පරම්පරාව හොද තැනකට ගෙනියන්න උත්සහ කරනවා. ත්‍රී රෝද රථ රියැදුරන්ගේ දරුවන් උසස්  වෘත්තීන්ගේ නියැලෙනවා.
රටට පදක්කම් ගරුත්වයක් ගේන අය බලන්න ඒ අයගේ දෙමාපියන්  ත්‍රී රෝදර රථ වෘත්තිය වගේ වෘත්තීන් වල නියැලෙන අයයි.  මේ අය රටට බරක් නෙමෙයි.  ඒ අය පහුගිය කාලයේ ඉල්ලුවේ තෙල් ටික විතරයි. ඒත් රස්සාව කරගෙන යන්නයි. ඒ අය බදු ගෙවන මිනිස්සුනට බරක් වෙන්නේ නැහැ. ඒ අයත් බදුගෙනවා. ඉතින් මේ අයට ගරුත්වක් හිමිවියයුතුයි.

අද කාන්තාව විදේශගත වෙන්නේ, සැමියා ගෙදරට වෙලා අත්දෙක බැඳගෙන ඉන්න නිසයි. එතකොට තමයි මනුස්සයා ඇවිල්ලා කාන්තාව පිටරටක යවන්න කියලා  ඒජන්සිකරුවෙකුට භාරදෙන්නේ.  ඒත් ත්‍රීරෝද රථ රියැදුරන් එහෙම නැහැ.  
මේ වෘත්තිය ගැන අපි සුවිශේෂි පුද්ගලයෝ නෙමෙයි. මෙතන තියෙන ප්‍රශන ගැන දන්නේ ත්‍රීරෝද රථ වෘත්තිකයින්ම තමයි.  ඒකයි මම තින්දු කළේ ඒ ඒ ක්ෂේත්‍රයට ඒ අයගෙන් සමන්විත කණ්ඩායමක් හදන්න. අලුත් රැකී රක්ෂා පනත යටතේ අපි සෑම වෘත්තියකටම ගරුත්වයක් දෙන්න ඉඩක් හදනවා.  එහිදී  අමාත්‍යවරයාට විටින් විට රෙගුලාසි පනවන්න පුළුවන් වෙන විදහට ඉඩ හදලා තියෙනවා.  
අපි ප්‍රවාහන අමාත්‍යාශංයවත් පළාත් සභාව වත් නෙමෙයි. අපිට බලාගන්න තියෙන්නේ මේ අයගේ ගරුත්වය වර්ධන කිරීමයි. ඒත් ඒකට මූලික වගකීම තියෙන්නේ පළාත් සභාව සහ ප්‍රවාහන අංශ වලටයි. ඒකයි මෙතන ඉදන් මේ අයගේ වෘත්තීය ගරුත්වය වර්ධනය කරගැනීමට කටයුත කරන්න පියවරගන්නේ.
මට දැනගන්න ලැබිලා තියෙනවා බස්නාහිර පළාත් සභාව මූලික කටයුතු සකස්කරලා අවසන් කියලා. ඒ වගේම ප්‍රවාහන අමාත්‍යංශයෙත් මේ සඳහා වූ පනත සංශෝධනය කරන්න කටයුතු කරලා තියෙන්නේ කියලා දැනගන්න ලැබුනා. ඒ අනුව අපිට මූලික වැඩටික ඉවර කරලා කවුද  ත්‍රීරෝද රථ රියැදුරන්, කවුද නිකම් පාරේ යන ත්‍රිරෝද රථ කියලා අදුරගන්න පුළුවන් වෙයි.
එහිදී වෘත්තීය කරන අය ලියාපදිංචි කරලා අපිට වෘත්තී ආයතනය බිහි කරලා ඒ අයගේ යෝජනා අදහස් ඇතිව නිසි ගරුත්තව සහ විශ්‍රම ගියාම අවශ්‍ය සුරක්ෂිත බව හදන්න පුළුවන් කම ලැබෙනවා.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන මහතා සහ පෘතුගාල තානාපති  Joao Manuel Mendes de Almeida මහතා අතර හමුවක් (2023.11.06) අරලිය ගහ මන්දිරයේ දී පැවැත්විණි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව හිතකර සංචාරක ගමනාන්තයක් ලෙස පෘතුගාල ජනතාව අතර ප්‍රවර්ධනය කිරීම සඳහා පුළුල් ප්‍රචාරණ වැඩසටහනක් ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම කෙරෙහි අවධානය යොමු කරන ලෙස අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන මහතා එහිදී යෝජනා කළේය.

පෘතුගාල සංචාරකයින් ඉන්දියාවට ආකර්ශනය කර ගැනීමට ක්‍රියාත්මක කළ ‘ලිස්බන් සිට ගෝවා දක්වා 19 වැනි සියවසේ නැඟෙනහිර ගමන’ වැනි වැඩසටහනක් හඳුන්වා දෙමින් ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ද පෘතුගාලයේ හිතකර සංචාරක ගමනාන්තයක් ලෙස ප්‍රවර්ධනය කිරීමේ හැකියාව ඇති හෙයින්, පෘතුගාලයේ ලිස්බන් සිට ගාල්ල දක්වා එවැනි වැඩසටහනක් ක්‍රියාත්මක කළ හැකි බවද  පෙන්වා දුන්නේය.

මීට විසි වසරකට පෙර තමන් ද සංචාරකයෙකු ලෙස ගාල්ලට පැමිණි බව සිහිපත් කළ තානාපතිවරයා, පෘතුගාල සංචාරකයින් ආකර්ශනය කර ගැනීමට අවශ්‍ය සියලු සාධක ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සතු බවද කීවේය.

දෙරට අතර සබඳතා තවදුරටත් ශක්තිමත් කරගැනීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් මෙහිදී දීර්ඝ ලෙස සාකච්ඡා වූ අතර කුළු බඩු වැනි ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ නිෂ්පාදන සදහා පෘතුගාලයේ වැඩි වෙළෙඳපොළ  අවස්ථාවක් ලබාදීමට අවබෝධතා ගිවිසුමක් අත්සන් කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ද සාකච්ඡා කෙරිණි.

මෙම හමුවට පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී යදාමිණි ගුණවර්ධන සහ අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ලේකම් අනුර දිසානායක යන මහත්වරු ද එක්ව සිටියහ.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

VFM RADIO 107

ක්‍රිකට් සම්බන්ධ අභියාචනාධිකරණ තීන්දුවේ විනිසුරුගේ සබඳතා අතර ගැටුම ගැන පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ කරුණු ඉදිරිපත් වෙයි….අධිකරණ තීන්දුව දෙන්න කලින් මම හැමදේම දැනං හිටියා

මෙන්න ඇත්ත.. මෙන්න යථාර්තය.. අධිකරණ තීන්දුව දෙන්න කලින් මම හැමදේම දැනං හිටියා ඉතිහාසයේ දැකපු සුපිරිම ක්‍රීඩා ඇමති රොෂාන්ද..?

Courtesy Ceylon Today

Let me start by congratulating the Governor, Deputy Governors, members of the former Monetary Board and members of the current Monetary Policy Board. Since April 2022 they have taken bold decisions and led the demanding technical work to stabilise the economy after the deepest economic crisis that Sri Lanka has suffered since independence. It is easy perhaps to take for granted the progress so far. But let us not forget that barely 20 months ago, Sri Lanka’s inflation rate was unanchored, the exchange rate was depreciating uncontrollably, foreign reserves were depleted, and the economy was collapsing with shortages of food, fuel, and essential medicine. Declaring an orderly foreign currency debt moratorium, raising interest rates sharply, and curtailing the monetisation of fiscal deficits were essential first steps to stabilise the economy and avoid a disorderly default. It is no mean feat to have brought inflation down from a peak of almost 74 per cent last September to less than 2 per cent a year later, over-performing the IMF’s projections. To have accomplished this while maintaining financial stability is all the more impressive given the deep economic contraction that, together with the preceding pandemic, has weakened financial sector balance sheets. Monetary policy was also responsive in lowering the policy rate when clear evidence emerged that monthly inflation was stabilising. Let me say, based on my years of experience at the IMF working with countries around the world, often during economic stress, that these are by any standard impressive accomplishments. Without skilled leadership and decision-making, it could very easily have been much worse.

These monetary policy actions were successful also because of the support from the Government’s fiscal policies and the leeway given to the CBSL to conduct monetary policy according to its best judgment. Tax cuts during the previous government had reduced our tax ratio from almost 11 per cent of GDP in 2019 to a mere 7.5 per cent of GDP on average in 2020-21, one of the lowest in the world—lower even than the tax ratios of very poor countries like the Central African Republic and Burkina Faso. With interest payments taking up 73 per cent of government revenue and an overall fiscal deficit of almost 12 per cent of GDP on average in 2020-21, the fiscal position was simply not sustainable. The Government took decisive and necessary action to increase tax rates, bolster tax collections, and implement cost-recovery pricing in energy. It has tightened spending to generate the needed improvement in the primary fiscal balance in line with the IMF-supported programme. These were difficult decisions and politically unpopular. But they were necessary.

Unfortunately, the ship that is the national economy cannot be turned around quickly. So people tend to blame the corrective policies and the policymakers who are doing the right thing, rather than the reckless policies of the past that are the fundamental cause. Such is the unenviable position of policymakers who step in to rescue their countries from crises. You have my sympathies!

So what now? Significant progress has been achieved but we are in a low-level equilibrium with output well below potential. This crisis is not yet over. The only way out is to grow, at a rate of about 5-6 per cent a year, in a sustainable, inclusive way. Without such growth, we cannot escape our high debt burden even after a successful restructuring. And because the debt burden lies with the public sector, the public sector will need to contract not just this year, but also in the decade ahead. So growth will need to come from the private sector and be export-oriented given our foreign exchange needs. There is simply no other option.

Much remains to be done to get the economy on such a dynamic growth trajectory. Nor should we take for granted, having achieved low inflation, that inflation will always stay within the CBSL’s target of 5 per cent or that progress in the fiscal area will continue. Our post-independence economic history is full of stop-and-go policies and brief victories over instability that are not sustained. We cannot afford yet another replay of that familiar script.

Why not? Well, this time really is different for three reasons:

– First, in all our previous bouts of macroeconomic instability, our public debt ratios have stayed below 80 per cent of GDP, tax revenues have never been as low as they were in 2020-21 and we had never defaulted on our debt. According to the IMF’s Debt Sustainability Analysis, even if we successfully restructure our debt and adhere to tight policies that generate primary fiscal surpluses of 2.3 per cent of GDP from 2025 to at least 2032, our public debt will decline to only about 95 per cent of GDP by 2032. To put this debt level in perspective, in 2022, government debt to GDP averaged 65 per cent in emerging and developing economies and—looking at our neighbors—55 per cent in India; 40 per cent in Indonesia; and 54 per cent in Thailand. So unlike in the past where we muddled through with debt to GDP ratios around 60-80 per cent, the baseline debt ratio will now be much higher. We will beat a high risk of debt distress even after a successful debt restructuring. If we become complacent and go slow on reforms, we can easily be back in a crisis where we are unable to pay our debts. Except next time, the adjustment will be far more painful because we would have already restructured domestic and external debt. More of the adjustment therefore will fall on our citizens and less on external creditors. This point needs to be widely understood.

– The second reason this time is different in that many people are now in poverty or very close to poverty and have little or no cushion left. The World Bank estimates that the poverty rate doubled to 25 per cent of the population in 2022 while the UNDP estimates that over half the population remains ‘multi -dimensionally vulnerable.’ The World Food Programme finds that almost a third of children under five are malnourished with 20 per cent suffering from wasting. Nearly two-thirds of the population are borrowing or dipping into their savings to feed their families. Many people are foregoing basic needs such as healthcare, and progress in education has been severely hampered by both the pandemic and the economic crisis. The impact on people of another debt default, crisis, and adjustment would be disastrous and raises the likelihood of social unrest.

– And third, Sri Lanka is suffering from a damaging outflow of skilled professionals who are the backbone of economic recovery and growth. These professionals are not leaving merely because of taxes as is often said. They have lost hope that the poor governance and pervasive corruption that Sri Lanka has been mired in for decades will be effectively addressed. They don’t see a future in a country where the state interferes with practically every aspect of economic life, and politicians and public officials who engage in gross corruption are never punished. Another crisis will turn this outflow into an exodus.

The empirical evidence clearly shows that crises cause permanent losses, both in terms of GDP and human welfare. Countries that undergo multiple crises—think Argentina—stagnate compared with countries that have steady growth over prolonged periods. Boom-bust cycles leave countries worse off. We should not try to get out of our current low-level equilibrium through fiscal policies that give a short-term boost but will land us in another debt crisis a few years down the road. We will also be vulnerable for many years to exogenous shocks, such as a rise in global food and energy prices, particularly from the ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East; higher world interest rates; a poor agricultural harvest; or a natural disaster. In addition, we will need to invest considerable resources in adapting to climate change and preserving biodiversity. We are on a knife edge, and there is simply no room for slacking off or policy reversals. But, with focus and effort, we can set ourselves on a road to sustained growth and inclusive prosperity.

So what is the way forward? How can we avoid repeating our history of inconsistent, stop-and-go policymaking? We have discussed for years what is needed for sustained growth—fiscal discipline, an open trade regime that encourages exports, competitive markets, modernised labour laws, and adequate infrastructure such as efficient electricity, transport, and ports. It’s no mystery, so why don’t these things get done?

I believe that our fundamental problem is poor governance and that, unless we address governance problems head-on, we will never durably overcome our economic problems and prosper. My thesis today is that when we discuss economic policies, we should focus more squarely on the governance around those policies and not only on the policies themselves.

So what do we mean by ‘good governance’?

There is no standard definition, but people know bad governance when they see it. Certainly, not a day goes by in Sri Lanka without the newspapers reporting some instance of bad governance.

Let me, for today’s purposes, use the definition by UNESCAP. They define governance as [quote] the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented”. And the principles of good governance include accountability, transparency, adherence to the rule of law, responsiveness, effectiveness, and efficiency.

My point today is that we need to be more explicit not just about economic policies—for instance, whether an interest rate or a tax rate should be raised or lowered or a particular public enterprise privatised or not. We also need to be explicit about the process by which those policies are decided and implemented. It is very likely that if we improve the process—that is, we make policymaking and implementation more accountable, transparent, adhere to the rule of law and so on—the resulting policies will improve as well. It is also likely that if we have good policymaking processes and strong institutions, good policies will continue even if the politics turn difficult.

I do want to acknowledge that getting to good governance is no simple task. It requires sustained social pressure and political will to take on the vested interests that are served by poor governance. People sometimes complain that nothing works in Sri Lanka. That’s not quite true. Actually, things work very well—for a small group of people. The challenge, if we are to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, is to ensure that our policymaking and implementation processes and institutions obey the principles of good governance so that policies serve the interests not just of a small group, but of all members of society.

Three policy objectives

I would like to focus today on good governance for three policy objectives that are—in my view—the most important to get us out of this crisis and lay the basis for inclusive prosperity.

– First, maintaining durable price stability through sound monetary policy

– Second, achieving fiscal sustainability through better taxation

– Third, enabling market-oriented growth by reducing the size and role of the public sector.

For the last two—mainly fiscal—topics, I draw extensively on three sources published in September: the IMF’s Governance Diagnostic Assessment of Sri Lanka—or GDA for short; Sri Lanka Civil Society’s Governance Diagnostic Report; and the World Bank’s Country Update on Sri Lanka. These reports are based on thorough research; extensive interviews with officials and other stakeholders; and written or guided by experts with international experience in their respective fields.

Since this occasion marks the 73rd anniversary of the CBSL, let me start with strengthening the governance to maintain durable price stability through sound monetary policy.

The economics literature and central banking practice have convincingly established for decades the need for central bank independence and a sound monetary policy decision-making process to achieve low and stable inflation. Most major countries’ laws safeguard central bank independence and aim to insulate monetary policy from political interference. Indeed, one of the oldest such laws, the US Federal Reserve Act of 1913 recognises this need explicitly. It specifies, to that end, that the Federal Reserve may buy and sell US Treasury securities only in the open” or secondary market. It was recognised then—over a hundred years ago—as it is now, that direct financing of the Government would leave decisions over monetary policy open to political interference and undermine the goal of low inflation while creating risks to economic and financial stability.

This year’s passage of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Act is a very significant milestone on the path to achieving good governance in the conduct of monetary policy. The Act explicitly recognises the CBSL’s independence. There is now a clear mandate that price stability is the primary objective of the CBSL with financial stability as a secondary objective. Inflation-targeting with a flexible exchange rate is established as the monetary policy regime. A critical feature is that there are no longer any government officials in the monetary policy decision-making body—the Monetary Policy Board—nor on the Governing Board, which oversees everything else. There is also an appropriate balancing of central bank independence with accountability and transparency. The inflation objective is specified by the Minister of Finance, who would be an elected representative. The Monetary Policy Board is accountable to Parliament through the Minister to deliver on the inflation objective and provide a public explanation if inflation falls outside the agreed range for two consecutive quarters. The Board is also mandated to issue a public statement after each policy meeting to explain the monetary policy decision in the context of economic developments and forecasts. In addition, the CBSL has to issue a public inflation report every six months, explaining its inflation projection and key risks to the projection. Contrary to the concerns that emerged during the parliamentary debate, these features of the law provide for much greater accountability than in the past. The operational independence that the central bank has been given to achieve the target assigned to it should not be confused with being unaccountable. Quite the opposite.

The strong legal framework is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for sound monetary policy. Legislation must be reinforced by practice and the creation of a strong culture. An important responsibility for the newly-constituted Boards—the distinguished members of which are here today—will be to create the practice and culture of good governance under the new legal framework. In particular, given Sri Lanka’s past, it will be important to ensure that the Monetary Policy Board takes policy decisions on solid technical grounds with a clear focus on the price stability mandate. The technical grounds would be based on the CBSL staff’s economic modelling and analyses combined with the Board’s collective judgment on the likely evolution of inflation. Insulating the conduct of monetary policy from fiscal and political pressures will be the hallmark of a good decision-making process—especially in the upcoming election year. And this is not only the responsibility of the CBSL. Everyone, including political actors, will need to create a culture of respecting the CBSL’s operational independence and the integrity of its decision-making. Central Bank independence needs to be supported by our social and political culture.

The newly-independent CBSL will also need to promote a culture of transparency. The new Law includes key features such as post-meeting public statements, regular inflation reports, statements in anticipation of significant shocks, and answering to parliament. While many central banks publish inflation reports and post-meeting statements, they are not all equally illuminating. Some statements are anodyne and avoid addressing substantive issues the decision-making body grappled with. Others, such as those by the Nordic central banks, the Bank of England, and the Fed inform the public about the substance of the issues the policy committee discussed. They give a sense not only of the balance of risks to inflation, but also of how the committee sees the likely stance of its policy rate looking forward. Transparency is a ‘must have’—not simply a ‘nice to have’—in an inflation-targeting regime. Clear explanations of how the Monetary Policy Board sees inflation risks and how its actions will keep future inflation within the target range are needed to anchor inflation expectations of financial markets and the public so that actual inflation stays within the target range. Transparent communication may initially be met with confusion and misinterpretation. But over time, both financial markets and the public will learn how the Monetary Policy Board assesses inflation risks and how it is likely to react to shocks. This will help the CBSL keep inflation within its target range even when the economy is subjected to significant shocks.

(To be continued)

Courtesy Ceylon Today

As the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Law, gets established and the Bank’s practices evolve, a further strengthening of the legislation could be considered to safeguard the CBSL’s independence. In my view, three features of the law could be re-examined in that context, the last of which is the most important:

(i) First, we need to reconsider the description of the powers, duties, and functions of the Central Bank. Article 7 (j) states the CBSL will [quote] act as financial advisor and banker to the government” while Article 7 (k) states it will act as fiscal agent of the Government”.  Given the context in Sri Lanka where the government has relied on the Central Bank for expertise, the reference to financial adviser” is understandable, but not desirable. To safeguard more securely the CBSL’s independence, there needs to be a sharper line between its activities and the activities of the government. Also, given Sri Lanka’s history of money-financed deficits, it is best to avoid describing the CBSL as a Banker to the Government”. In common understanding, a banker” gives credit and liquidity to its clients. However, the main point of the CBSL Law is to ensure that the CBSL does neither! In my view therefore, Article 7 (j) should be eliminated altogether, and Article 7(k) amended to describe the CBSL as a fiscal agent and depository” of the government, so that it can carry out normal central banking functions, such as holding government deposits and effecting payments through government accounts held at the Bank. Eliminating this reference would also help people understand that the primary function of the Central Bank is to serve the public by protecting the value of the currency —that is the amount of goods and services they can buy with their money — which is what price stability achieves. Let me make clear that protecting the value of the currency shouldn’t be misunderstood to mean keeping the nominal exchange rate constant. A flexible exchange rate is essential to absorb shocks to the economy and facilitate adjustment of relative prices — the so-called real exchange rate. The focus of the Central Bank needs to be on the price level as a whole, not just the traded component of it.

(ii) A second strengthening given Sri Lanka’s history is to consider ring-fencing even more tightly the requirement imposed by the Supreme Court that the government should have access to direct Central Bank financing in emergency circumstances. The Central Bank’s job, including in emergency situations, is to provide liquidity to the market as a whole, not to the government in particular. For instance, the US Federal Reserve intervened in financial markets during the ‘September 11’ terrorist attacks in 2001, the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 and when the Covid-19 pandemic hit in early 2020. If the government has an emergency financing need it can and should issue short-term Treasury Bills in the market. If the market is short of liquidity, the Central Bank can provide liquidity to the market through various means such as Reverse Repo Operations with the banking system and/or the Liquidity Support Facility to stabilise financial conditions. This is different from providing direct financing to the government.

(iii) Third, and most importantly, the size of the Monetary Policy Board should be reduced, in my view, to five or seven members and not include members of the Governing Board. Let me hasten to add that this has nothing to do with the current members of these Boards, all of whom are enormously qualified and distinguished. My point is about the structure of the decision-making bodies from a good governance point of view.  Why do I say this? First, the conduct of monetary policy should be seen as a mainly technical function carried out by people with specific expertise in economics and finance. With the exception of the Governor, having the same membership across the two Boards mixes this very specific function with oversight functions, which belong to the Governing Board and require a broader range of expertise including banking, legal, accounting and audit, and risk management. Second, it is important to isolate the monetary policy decision, which affects the entire country, from the governance function which is specific to the Central Bank. To give an example, monetary policy decisions should not be influenced — or even appear to be influenced — by how they might impact the Balance Sheet or Profitability of the Central Bank, which comes under the purview of the Governing Board. Third, a large monetary policy-making body dilutes the transparency and accountability that is critical for an effective inflation-targeting regime. It is difficult, in my view, to
hold a group as large as eleven people accountable for a policy decision.
A five-member Board headed by the Governor and comprising two Deputy Governors and two independent experts from outside the Central Bank would be more nimble and cohesive. Finally, and most critically, it is highly unusual for the externally appointed members of a monetary policymaking body to outnumber members of the Central Bank staff. In fact, I couldn’t find a single example of such a structure in a major central bank. This feature potentially opens the CBSL to political interference. A more common structure where the number of Central Bank staff is matched by outside members allows the Governor to cast the deciding vote if there is an even split between insiders and outsiders on a monetary policy decision. It thus places a greater degree of accountability on the Governor when reporting to the Parliament and the Public. The current structure of the Monetary Policy Board where, other than the Governor, there are two Central Bank staff members and as many as eight outside members is in my view problematic given that policy decisions are taken by a majority vote. A future government could exert political influence over monetary policy decisions by swamping the Board with political appointees. This, in my view, seriously threatens the independence of the CBSL and needs to be rectified.

Let me now turn to Good Governance to meet the second policy objective that I said I would address — namely, achieving Fiscal Sustainability.

Prof. Lawrence Summers of Harvard University likes to say that IMF stands for It’s Mostly Fiscal.” That could certainly be said of Sri Lanka. The source of almost all of our economic problems is our collective inability to impose fiscal discipline and adequate standards of governance on both the central government and the larger public sector. Our successful Asian neighbours who have had IMF-supported programmes — India, Korea, Thailand, and Malaysia — have avoided resorting repeatedly to the IMF. We, on the other hand, have gone 17 times to the world’s lender of last resort. They say cats have nine lives, Sri Lanka seems to have at least 17!

The bottom line is that we need to stop relying on the lender of last resort. We are like a diabetic patient who refuses to give up their sugar-laden diet and repeatedly ends up in the emergency room. And then some people even blame the emergency room doctor, the IMF, for the severity of the treatment needed to save us. Having achieved some semblance of macro stability, the biggest danger now is that we will do what we have often done in the
past — that is, as soon as some stabilisation is achieved, abandon or drag our feet on the serious restructuring needed to address the underlying fiscal and governance problems. Many of the reforms promised under the current programme are similar to what we have promised before but never consistently implemented. We need to change our diet by strengthening governance to achieve fiscal sustainability — not because the IMF or external creditors require it, but because if we don’t, we will be in crisis again.

To achieve Fiscal Sustainability, we need Better Taxation

Adam Smith in his treatise on the Wealth of Nations wrote that tax policy should adhere to four principles: fairness, certainty, convenience, and efficiency
— principles that are consistent with the principles of good governance. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has established similar criteria, with the added criterion of neutrality — meaning a tax system should raise revenue without distorting incentives vis-à-vis any particular economic activity or choice. Although Sri Lanka’s tax regime was improved by the 2022 tax reforms, it is fair to say that it still violates all five of these principles. Let me provide three examples to illustrate the point:

(i) First example, Sri Lanka relies excessively on indirect taxes rather than direct taxes and on taxing labour rather than capital. Both aspects violate the principle of fairness as indirect taxes shift the tax burden towards the poor who spend more of their income on goods and services, while capital income accrues mainly to the rich. In 2021, Sri Lanka collected 77 per cent of its taxes through indirect taxes such as VAT, excise, and trade taxes, which is notably more than the regional average of 66 per cent and the global average of 53 per cent. The recent increases in personal and corporate taxes, which are direct taxes, are a step in the right direction, but indirect taxes still account for 11 per cent of pre-tax income for households in the bottom income
decile — more than the 8 per cent share for households in the top decile. Personal tax collections rely on the PAYE system which ensures many professionals pay taxes, but most income from business profits remains outside the tax net because IRD has only a very small number of personal tax files. Capital income from capital gains, interest, and dividends is subject to lower flat tax rates, instead of progressive rates. And capital gains on property other than stocks are taxed at a very low rate of 10 per cent.

(ii) Second example, Corporations have for decades enjoyed extensive tax holidays, which violate all five principles of good taxation. Commendably, with the tax reform of October 2022, most companies are now subject to a standard 30 per cent corporate tax rate. However, projects continue to receive wide-ranging tax exemptions under the Strategic Development Projects Act. Under this Act, based on vague criteria, projects can negotiate exemptions from eight different tax laws, including corporate, personal, VAT, excise, and customs for as long as 25 years. The 17 beneficiary projects so far enjoy corporate income tax exemptions for 10 to 25 years, typically followed by time-bound reduced rates and exemptions from many other taxes and fees. Moreover, tax concessions can be granted to companies operating in three zones — Colombo Port City, a pharmaceutical manufacturing zone, and a textile manufacturing zone. The Port City Act allows exemptions from 13 different tax acts, covering casinos, the betting and gaming levy, and practically all other taxes, for up to 40 years without the approval of parliament, which raises the question of the constitutionality of these exemptions.

Such extensive tax holidays cannot be justified. Let’s be perfectly clear that tax exemptions are the equivalent of a cash payment from the government to special interests. It’s as if the corporation paid the standard tax and the government gave an equivalent amount to the corporation instead of spending it on social needs or repaying public debt. Tax exemptions mainly benefit the shareholders of corporations who I would guess are not merely rich, but super rich. So in Sri Lanka, we have welfare for the rich and the super-rich that far outweighs the small amounts the government transfers to the poor through programs like Aswesuma. Although tax concessions are often claimed to be necessary to encourage investment, particularly foreign direct investment, there is plenty of survey evidence to show that foreign companies do not choose their location based mainly on tax considerations. Factors that truly matter include a stable macroeconomic environment, reliable electricity and physical infrastructure, the rule of law, an efficient dispute resolution system, secure access to land, and a high-quality labour force. As the IMF’s GDA points out, tax exemptions also create opportunities for corruption — after all, someone has to grant them and the selection criteria, amounts, and beneficiaries are not transparent.

(iii) A third example of poor governance in taxation is the reliance on Gazette Notifications for implementing major policy changes. This makes the tax system uncertain and increases opportunities for corruption. In principle, the primary tax laws that Parliament enacts should contain all the necessary provisions to ensure taxes can be calculated and collected fairly and efficiently. All subsidiary instruments, such as Ordinances, Gazette Notifications and other regulations, should merely provide technical details to ensure the effective administration of the law. In Sri Lanka, however, tax rates, the scope of existing taxes, and the granting of tax concessions can be implemented through Gazette Notifications. Take, for instance, the Special Commodity Levy. A Minister can change this levy arbitrarily with immediate effect without parliamentary approval — which one would think is a violation of the Constitution which vests the power of taxation exclusively with the Parliament. Customs duties can also be changed without parliamentary approval. Such arbitrary changes in the Special Commodity Levy and import duties — not to mention quantitative restrictions on imports — not only create uncertainty but also opportunities for corruption, for instance through temporary reductions that create rents for connected individuals.

(To be continued)

Courtesy Ceylon Today

So how can we have better Governance around Taxation?

Transparency and simplicity of the tax system are critical for ensuring good governance. Complex tax systems with multiple rates, exemptions, and scope for arbitrary decision-making open room for the abuse of power and mainly serve vested interests. By contrast, a tax system that is uniform, rules-based, and grounded in clear, simple principles promotes not only fairness but also fiscal sustainability through higher tax revenues because of limited leakages and increased compliance. Two aspects of the tax system—tax policy and tax administration—need to be considered. But generalizations are not enough, we need specifics. So here are 10 proposals! 6 on tax policy and 4 on tax administration.

To improve Governance on Tax Policy, we should:

(i) First, pass an overarching tax law requiring tax rates to be set in a uniform, non-distortionary manner. Any deviations or exemptions from standard schedules would need to be justified through an impartial cost-benefit analysis by the Ministry of Finance that is published and presented to Parliament for approval. All Corporations—foreign and domestic—including those operating in special zones such as Port City, should be subject to the internationally agreed Global Minimum Tax rate of 15 per cent. It is time to end Sri Lanka’s misguided and irrational addiction to tax holidays. The legislation should eliminate the ministerial authority to introduce tax changes, including customs and commodity levies, through Gazettes and other regulations without prior Parliamentary approval. It should require revenue losses from tax changes to be matched by offsetting fiscal measures. The legislation should also mandate a single tax policy department within the Ministry of Finance. This department should be the unique tax policy arm of the Government with the responsibility to recommend rates of taxation and any exemptions or deviations from standard tax schedules. Bodies such as the BoI and the Port City Commission should not be given power over tax or tariff exemptions.

Until such legislation is passed, in the immediate term:

(ii) And this is the second proposal—sunset existing tax exemptions to end in 3-5 years. If performance criteria—in terms of investment and job creation—had been set at the time the exemption was granted, discontinue the exemption until the corporation has proved it has met all criteria.

(iii) Third, abolish the Strategic Development Projects Act and the Special Commodity Levy Act. They are both terrible pieces of legislation.

(iv) Fourth, suspend granting tax concessions under the Colombo Port City Act and bring any proposals for new tax concessions under the Ministry of Finance. Amend the Port City Act to make this a permanent feature.

(v) Fifth, create a single Tax Policy Department within the Ministry of Finance even before formal legislation is passed. Transfer authority to that department to design and evaluate customs duties, excise taxes, and any new tax concessions, including in Port City, based on clearly defined criteria. Require the department’s prior approval for any tax change implemented through Gazettes or other regulations until the overarching tax law is passed. Also publish on a public website the department’s impartial cost-benefit assessment of every tax law amendment, concession, or new tax Act.

(vi) Sixth, the Ministry of Finance should independently quantify all existing and new tax expenditures under the various tax acts every year, including revenue foregone in each Port City or other project, and report them in a transparent, disaggregated format on a public website.

Turning to tax administration

Sri Lanka will never achieve fiscal sustainability and inclusive prosperity without a much better tax administration, including tackling tax evasion. Like better tax policies, better tax administration is largely a matter of political will to take on vested interests.

To quote the Governance Diagnostic Assessment (GDA): Sri Lankan revenue administration has a reputation of being highly prone to corruption and rent-seeking… Both Customs and IRD officials acknowledge the rampant state of corruption in their institutions with little risk or consequence of exposure, and similarly few if any consequences when corruption allegations are made.” The report goes on to say [quote] There is virtually no culture of integrity observed, with corruption allegedly found at every level. The revenue departments—that is, IRD, Excise, and Customs— are predominantly closed institutions with little, if any, employment mobility into and out…(they) are reluctant to change, particularly given strong union influences…. (and) hamstrung from building skills and expertise needed for the modern economy, with IRD unable to recruit specialist information technology staff and data analysts needed to move away from the corruption-prone embedded work practices.” Given that IRD and Customs together employ more than 4,000 staff, it is not a matter of staffing levels, but a question of modernising skill and expertise levels. This Assessment is probably hard for some to hear, but it is critical for the nation’s future that corrective action is not postponed.

Such corrective action should include—continuing with the 10 proposals: 

(vii) Seven, strengthening the management of the Revenue Departments and oversight by the Treasury Secretary and the Auditor General. The three Revenue Departments—IRD, Customs, and Excise—are after all departments within the Ministry of Finance. It is, ultimately, the responsibility of the Minister of Finance and the Secretary to the Treasury to supervise them properly.

(viii) Eight, prioritising the Large Taxpayer’s Unit. Staffing and empowering this unit with the skills needed to track and minimise tax evasion by the super-rich is essential. Sri Lanka is not short of the skilled Accountants, Auditors, IT and Finance professionals that are needed, but successive governments have for years dragged their feet on this matter.

(ix)   Nine, reducing opportunities for corruption by digitising tax collections by Customs, Excise, and IRD, including by fully operationalising the RAMIS system. Tax audits should be required to be based on transparent compliance risk criteria.

—And, finally, passing a Tax Administration Act that applies to all taxes and contains provisions to effectively deter corruption by imposing strict penalties, including criminal charges, on taxpayers as well as tax officials for offering or taking bribes or aiding tax evasion.

Let’s move on to Good Governance on the third policy objective of enabling market-oriented growth by reducing the size and role of the public sector.

Sri Lanka’s public sector is large and two areas in particular—public procurement and State-owned enterprises—hinder growth by distorting relative prices and obstructing market competition. They also divert fiscal resources from social and anti-poverty needs.

The Government is the largest purchaser of goods and services in the domestic market and public procurement affects the pricing and availability of key items, such as fuel, electricity, and medicines. It also accounts for a significant part of government spending, estimated at over 5 per cent of GDP. Yet, shockingly, Sri Lanka has no public procurement law. Instead, in principle, allGovernment procurement needs to be carried out in line with the Cabinet-approved 2006 Procurement Guidelines. However, given ad hoc and frequent revisions, there is no unified, updated version of the Guidelines and Manual. The National Procurement Commission is mandated to formulate effective procedures and monitor their implementation, but it has started to function only recently after being reinstated last year. Procurement processes are complex, but in the end, the Cabinet essentially has unconstrained discretion on procurement.

The practice of accepting unsolicited Private-Public Partnership (PPP) proposals for large infrastructure projects also contributes to poor governance. These are often approved outside the budget process without assessing the fiscal implications and outside the four-year Public Investment Programme that is supposed to reflect the Government’s policy priorities. Unsolicited proposals typically involve a single bidder while the Procurement Guidelines do not cover PPPs.

The GDA notes that procurement irregularities include [quote] (the) lack of procurement planning, not using relevant procurement procedures stipulated by the Procurement Guidelines, inadequate competitiveness in the selection procedure, accepting unsolicited proposals for high-value projects, poor contract management, lack of knowledge and capacity of the officials in procurement, poor monitoring and weak external oversight, and the incomplete coverage of independent complaints mechanisms.” [unquote] Procurement irregularities by State-owned enterprises have also been identified by COPE.

All these Governance Deficiencies not only create significant corruption opportunities but also thwart the development of competitive markets and firms.

Some steps to improve Governance in Procurement would be to:

1. Most importantly, enact a Public Procurement Law that reflects international good practice.

2. Move all public procurement transactions to an e-Government Procurement System by end-2024.

3. Empower the National Procurement Commission with a clear mandate, authority, and responsibilities, including oversight of unsolicited PPP proposals.

4. And finally, increase transparency by publishing information—updated every 6 months—on public procurement contracts above a certain threshold, identifying those that were assigned without a competitive tendering process.

Turning to Restructuring State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs)

There are over 400 SOEs that engage—some would say interfere— in practically every sphere of economic life, employ a sizable part of the labour force, constitute a significant drain on public finances, and pose risks to the financial system because of non-performing loans. Four SOEs in particular, the CPC, the CEB, Sri Lankan Airlines, and the Road Authority, have required large subsidies from the budget. About 130 SOEs are engaged in commercial activities that are likely better done in the private sector.

There is general agreement that the large SOE sector inhibits the development of competitive private markets and the proper allocation of public resources. Quoting the National Transformation Road Map of June 2023 Many of these enterprises have garnered a monopolistic position in the market, hindering private investment. Price fixing, inefficient management, and poor entrepreneurship have weakened public finances, turning these institutions into national burdens that are dependent on the taxpayer.” [unquote] And as the Secretary to the Treasury said in a recent public speech, [quote] SOEs are vulnerable to mismanagement and corruption as well because of potential conflicts of interest between the ownership and policy-making functions of the government, and the undue political influence on their policies, appointments, and business practices. It is observed that their internal control, monitoring and governance frameworks are inadequate to deal with these problems.”

 The GDA also notes [quote] (e)xtensive government regulation in core sectors, such as agriculture, electricity, and construction, restricts market-based accountability and generates extensive opportunities for top officials to direct State resources to privileged private parties.” [unquote]

Fundamental reform of the governance of SOEs is urgently needed to durably address these problems. The SOE Reform Policy that the Cabinet approved earlier this year establishes a sound basis to improve SOE governance. It envisages a two-prong approach to divest majority shares in commercially oriented SOEs while operating those that need to remain in government ownership under a holding company on a fully commercial basis. The key priority now is to implement this reform policy without delay, including by enacting the corresponding SOE Law. The proposed reforms should not be diluted as they go through the Parliamentary process.

Some areas of the envisaged SOE Law are worth close consideration:

(i) The first is to define very strictly when the Government would retain a majority stake in an SOE. Objective and specific criteria will need to be developed to determine whether there is a national security interest. It might also be better to use the criterion of an economic externality”—which can be clearly defined—rather than whether a product or service is deemed essential,” which could be interpreted too broadly.

(ii) Second, the expected norm should be that SOEs that engage in commercial activities are fully divested so that the Government doesn’t end up holding minority stakes in companies without a strong reason.

(iii) Third and most critically, the SOE law should ensure the political independence, professional competence, and personal integrity of the Holding Company Board and the Advisory Committee that would oversee the Board. It would also be important to ensure that line Ministries cannot be involved in managing and influencing SOEs or in any privatisation process. Requiring SOEs to float at least some shares in the Colombo Stock Exchange, or even stock exchanges abroad, may be an effective way to ensure that they conform to the governance and financial reporting norms required of listed private companies.

In conclusion, I have discussed today the Importance of Good Governance to achieve durable price stability and prosperity, which is an aspiration of all Sri Lankans. A main point I want to make is that this crisis really is different. The path ahead is narrow because our debt will remain high for many years. It is fraught with risks of political backsliding, resistance from vested interests, reform fatigue, and exogenous shocks. There is no room for complacency and slacking off on reforms if we are to avoid another, potentially more devastating crisis. As we mark the 73rd anniversary of the CBSL, we can be encouraged by the progress made in achieving price stability and good governance over the conduct of Monetary Policy. But the Central Bank Law and fostering an independent transparent CBSL culture do not guarantee that the CBSL’s independence will be safeguarded in the future. It needs to be supported by a sustainable fiscal position and a market-oriented economy that delivers strong inclusive growth. I have focused today on three areas where I believe progress is critical. I have suggested 17 practical actions to strengthen governance—3 on Central Bank independence, 10 on the Tax System, and 4 on Public Procurement—in addition to implementing the 2023 SOE Reform Policy. That might seem like a lot. Well, think of it as only one action for each time we have resorted to the world’s lender of last resort.

I do believe though, that this crisis is also an opportunity. It is an opportunity to take on vested interests that have blocked good governance for so long and to undertake the Reforms needed to achieve inclusive prosperity. The challenge is to strengthen our economic institutions and governance so that economic policies will remain sound even when the country is subject to exogenous and political shocks. Other countries—like India, Thailand, and Korea—have suffered crises and emerged stronger and more resilient by strengthening their institutions and governance. We must do so as well!

Mehjabin Bhanu – A Bangladeshi columnist, security, and strategic affairs analyst, teacher

The nation is experiencing to some extent an economic crisis. In between, political upheaval has begun. The blockade-strike has begun. The misery of regular people will intensify as a result. All items, especially consumer goods, have seen price increases in recent days. There’s a fresh justification for the strike-blockade by traders. The political climate suggests that the issue will probably get more complex.

The effects of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine have already caused havoc on the nation’s economy. The dollar issue is clearly visible, reserves are depleting, and everyday commodity prices are rising. The nation’s economy is now unclear because to some political parties’ obstinate platforms, such as the hartal-blockade, surrounding the forthcoming twelfth national parliament election. After the one-day hartal and two phases of three-day and two-day blockade before the announcement of the schedule for the 12th National Assembly elections, the BNP has again given a two-day blockade program. The blockade has been announced again from today Wednesday. BNP’s movement has now practically become a virtual declaration. The party knows very well that their goals will not be achieved through these programs. However, they are doing this for several reasons. Those reasons have become clear to the countrymen. However, due to continuous agitation, on one hand, there has been an increase in public suffering due to various reasons such as risk of transport and increase in commodity prices.

The merchants would have to shut down if the politically motivated intolerance programme is allowed to continue. Paying wages will provide challenges. Individuals’ earnings will decline. The market’s supply of everyday goods will decline if the cars are unable to travel. The cost of items will go up. It will increase inflation even further. The state of the economy will remain unpredictable. A necessity for economic progress is political stability. It is impossible for investors to feel secure in an unstable economy. Take no action at all. Therefore, there won’t be any new employment creation.

Organizations won’t be able to pay workers appropriately if their firm isn’t functioning correctly. Smaller businesses will have to fire employees. The jobless rate will rise. Values ought to be the foundation of politics. There is nothing more to say if some politicians are incapable of doing that. Holding the populace and the economy in contempt is not a legitimate way for anybody to advance politically. Why should the general public foot the bill for politicians’ conflicting stance? Nobody wants to steer clear of disagreement and reach a consensus via dialogue. It is concerning that, after 52 years of independence, we still live in an anarchic society. These political parties must understand the facts।

It goes without saying that a strike-blockade will make people’s misery worse. The market’s daily commodity prices have been high for a while now. The agony of Hartal-blockade patients is becoming worse. There is a disruption in the market’s supply chain. This is being used as a justification by dishonest businessmen. This calls for agreement amongst the political parties. A mutual agreement might prevent this kind of circumstance. Political parties need to make sure that things continue as they are.

Prior to the budget, the nation’s everyday commodity costs were steadily rising. Under such circumstances, the government set mid-September prices for eggs, sugar, soybean oil, potatoes, and onions; these prices have not yet been put into effect. Instead, some other things now cost as much as fifty takas more. The market’s ineffectiveness of government-fixed pricing is caused by a shortage of supply. The commodity’s price would have decreased on the market if the supply had been adequate. The Competition Commission and the Consumer Rights are not in charge of keeping the costs of common goods high. Prices set by the government cannot be enforced unless there is a sufficient supply.

Due to the worldwide economic downturn, buyers are already placing fewer purchase orders. Political provocations like strike-blockades will impede both the timely delivery of cargo to ports and the shipment of products. The export lead time will rise as a result. Buyers will further decrease their purchase orders at this chance. Will take longer to confirm purchase orders that have already been made. These political initiatives are of little use to anybody. Everyone, including the opposition parties and the administration, need to comprehend this. These initiatives ought to be dropped for the sake of the nation and the economy.

Maintaining political and social stability is crucial to preventing economic crises. The current state of politics is unstable due to some so-called political parties’ activities, which will have a negative impact on the economy in many ways. However, we rely heavily on imports and exports, or international commerce. Goods for import and export are moved from the port to the manufacturing site or from the port to the port. Political unrest will cause things to deteriorate. Consequently, there’s a chance that manufacturing may be interrupted. That will have an impact on jobs.

There won’t be an increase in employment; instead, employment will decline. It might result in a rise in the unemployment rate. Overall, the state of the economy is not favourable. The situation has to have a solution identified right now. There will be uncertainty about the course of the days ahead if there is political turmoil. Future worries are what traders worry about when there is uncertainty. Entrepreneurs will begin to consider if their investment will be repaid, whether their product will be sold, and whether they will be able to manage the industry. More to the point, consider that investing carries some risk.

Insider traders will also be concerned about this uncertainty. If there’s political unrest, foreign investors will not make investments. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is declining. The import and export of commodities would suffer if one or two sectors are affected. In this scenario, there will be more uncertainty over the state of the economy and foreign investment. This has left the nation’s economy beset by several difficulties.

Bandaranaike Video Archive Tube

By P.K.Balachandran/Daily Mirror Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Call for Gaza ceasefire in London streets

Colombo, November 8: With the war in Gaza entering the second month, and the killings taking the shape of a genocide, Western governments are coming under mounting pressure from their people to revise their pro-Israel stand and enforce a ceasefire or at least a humanitarian pause”.

Last week, pro-Palestinian demonstrators staged protests in London, Berlin, Paris, Ankara, Istanbul and Washington demanding that their governments press Israel to declare a ceasefire. They castigated Israel for its grossly disproportionate counter to the Hamas’ attack on October 7.

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For the 1400 Israelis the Hamas killed on October 7, the Israelis have so far killed nearly 10,000 Gazans. In the guise of hunting Hamas terrorists, the Israelis intend to clear Gaza of all Gazans and planting Israelis there instead. Many protesters have had no hesitation in describing this as genocide”.

In London’s Trafalgar Square, protesters held placards which said Freedom for Palestine” and chanted In our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians”. Police arrested 29 for inciting racial hatred” and two women were arrested under terrorism laws for holding a model of a paraglider used by Hamas on October 7.

Like US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has called for a humanitarian pause” for the delivery of relief. But again like Biden, he has been unable to get the Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a pause as Netanyahu is adamant that Hamas should release the 240 hostages first.

Meanwhile, rejecting the Arab leaders’ calls for a ceasefire, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that a ceasefire would only allow Hamas to regroup and attack again. His efforts to get the Arab leaders to back the US stand, failed miserably. There is a deadlock.

Meanwhile, thousands of protesters marched down the streets of Washington waving Palestinian flags, some chanting Biden, Biden you cannot hide, you signed up for genocide.” Speakers at the demonstrations denounced Biden saying: You have blood on your hands.”

In Paris, thousands marched with placards reading Stop the cycle of violence” and To do nothing, to say nothing, is to be complicit.” Responding to the public mood, the French government is to hold an international humanitarian conference on Gaza on November 9.

In Berlin, demonstrators waved Palestinian flags, demanding a ceasefire. In Istanbul’s Sarachane park, protesters held banners saying Blinken, the accomplice of the massacre, go away from Turkey.” Some posters read: Israel bombs hospitals, Biden pays for it.”

Public Opinion Shift

The Israeli daily Haaretz reported from Washington that opinion polls in the US showed a lowering of support for Israel among young Americans, who are wary of being drawn into a Middle-East war.

A poll by Quinnipiac demonstrated the stark age divide. Respondents were asked: Do you approve or disapprove of the way Israel is responding to the October 7th Hamas terrorist attack?”. Only 32% of respondents aged 18-34 approved of Israel’s response, as opposed to about 58% of those aged 50 and older. The age divide is clear.

The Quinnipiac poll was conducted on October 26. Polls taken closer to the Hamas invasion on October 7 had found greater support for Israel.

A poll from October 18 and 19 by the left-leaning Data for Progress found that 66% of all respondents, and majorities of Republicans, Democrats and independents, agreed with the statement: The US should call for a ceasefire and a de-escalation of violence in Gaza.”

A group of Jewish American writers, artists and academics have written an open letter to Biden opposing Israeli attacks on the civilians in Gaza with US assistance.

We believe it is possible and necessary to condemn Hamas’ attack and take a stand against the collective punishment of Gazans that is unfolding and accelerating as we write. Cutting off resources to more than 2 million people, demanding families flee their homes in the north, indiscriminately bombing a trapped population – these are war crimes and indefensible actions.”

And yet the United States government is offering moral and material support for the dehumanization and murder of innocent Gazans. We write to publicly declare our opposition to what the Israeli government is doing with American assistance.”

We call on the US government to seek an immediate ceasefire and to use our resources towards providing aid ensuring the safe return of hostages and building a diplomatic path towards peace.”

As Jews, as Americans, we will be made to feel a sense of safety in our communities, and in the world, not by unequivocal US support for Israel, but by our government’s insistence on the universal human rights that so many of us take for granted.”

Students have held hundreds of protests and counter-protests on universities in the US since the October 7 against Hamas attacks and Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza in response.

Europe

UK’s leaders are with Israel, but Scottish and Irish leaders are sympathetic to the Palestinians.   

In England, two council leaders belonging to the opposition Labour Party, Afrasiab Anwar and Asjad Mahmood, demanded that the party chief and Leader of the Opposition Sir Keir Starmer step down from the party leadership for refusing to back a Gaza ceasefire.

Starmer should resign to allow someone to lead our party who has compassion and who speaks out against injustice and indiscriminate killing of innocent human beings,” Asjad Mahmood said.

Sobia Malik, who represents Burnley Central East on Lancashire County Councillor, announced her resignation from the Labour party saying: Starmer’s profound inability to demonstrate empathy or compassion, let alone challenge war crimes, has made my membership untenable.”

The MP for Middlesbrough Andy McDonald was suspended as a Labour MP, for his strong stand against Israeli ethnic cleansing in Gaza and his support for a Palestinian State.

Scotland

The Scottish daily The National, reported that amidst a sea of politicians offering unconditional support to Israel in the current conflict, Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf stood out as far more supportive of peace and human rights than others.” Yousaf had called for a ceasefire and condemned the collective punishment” of Palestinians by Israel.

Scottish voters are far more supportive of the Palestinian cause and favour a peaceful resolution to the conflict than English voters, The National said.

When asked in a poll last Thursday if they favoured an immediate ceasefire, 73% of Scottish voters rallied behind the idea – while a mere 11% opposed it.

Scottish scepticism about Israel’s military tactics is again evident in a recent poll on Israel’s use of air strikes in Gaza. When asked if they thought that Israel made an effort to minimise civilian casualties in such strikes, 49% of Scottish voters said No” – and a mere 17% said Yes”.

In England, only London had a higher share of respondents who were critical of Israel’s strikes (51%).

About 57% of Scots support a Two-State solution” (which would see the creation of a Palestinian State in addition to Israel) with a mere 5% opposed to the idea. And finally, on the issue of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, a mere 6% of Scots thought such settlements were acceptable.

Ireland

BBC reported that in Ireland, the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party called for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador. Its leader, Mary Lou McDonald, said that Israel was not acting in self-defence. She also called for sanctions against Israel.

However, the Irish government said there are no plans to expel the Israeli Ambassador.  Leo Varadkar, the Irish PM, said that it was important to have some line of communication open”.

But he too said that what is happening in Gaza is not just self-defence on the part of Israel, but it resembles something more approaching revenge”.

By Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama Courtesy The Daily Mirror

COLOMBO (Daily Mirror) – According to reports, the Power and Energy Ministry is expediting the signing of documents for a Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs) with India’s Adani Group to establish a new wind power plant in the Mannar basin with a capacity of 250 MW, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) MP Prof. Charitha Herath said.

Addressing the media, he said the Ministry is ready to complete the signing of all agreements before November 25.

According to the 2009 Electricity Act, a bit of a process should be followed for local generation of electricity by any private company. But this process was not followed for projects conducted between two governments (government to government – G to G).

MP Herath said the current government is trying to sign all agreements while putting India’s Adani Group into the act to pretend that the project is run between Sri Lanka and India.

He said the groups, including the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) chairman and General Managers, are in a hurry to complete all agreements before passing the new Electricity Act. These people are trying to give this project an unsolicited proposal.

After completing the project, the responsible groups are trying to sell one unit of wind power-generated electricity for Rs. 46, and these people are trying to sign this agreement for 30 years.

Meanwhile, fixing three new transformers at the Nadukuda Grid Substation was attached to the said project.

The agreement signing process has been boosted these days, other than those mentioned in the agreements.

It has been estimated to sell one unit of electricity, which is currently being generating from Pooneryn Wind-Solar Hybrid Energy Park, at Rs.46. A total of 234 MW of electricity is generated from the Pooneryn wind-solar power plant.

The agreements on all other electricity generation projects were signed for twenty years, but the projects under India’s Adani Group were signed for thirty years.

The officials at the Power and Energy Ministry and the CEB were requested to make a note that they were forced to make this agreement with any of the higher officials, such as ministers, because there would be a definitive investigation over this issue by the next incoming government, Prof. Herath claimed.

By Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana Courtesy The Daily Mirror

COLOMBO (Daily Mirror) – President Ranil Wickremesinghe has to decide whether he wants me or ‘Betting’ Shammi, Minister of Sports Roshan Ranasinghe told Parliament while dropping bomb shells on Sri Lanka Cricket ( SLC).

“Some interested persons are out to mislead the President by giving him false information on cricket. Some in the President’s Media Unit are also involved in this conspiracy. The president’s security was breeched when he went to wach the LPL finals as some underworld figures who happened to be body guards of SLC chief Shammi Silva were also there. Can this be approved?” he questioned. 

“The President should decide whether he wants Roshan Ranasinghe or betting Shammi against such a backdrop,” he said. 

“It is not the players who are involved in match-fixing but those in SLC,” the minister charged, while making a special statement on cricket in Parliament. 

Also, he called for the passports of SLC officials to be impounded. 

“Passports of the SLC officials should be impounded in order to prevent them from leaving the country,” the Minister stressed. 

Further, he stressed for a forensic audit on all transactions of SLC since 2017.

“The Auditor General’s report and the Kusala Sarojini Weerasinghe Commitee had disclosed many malpractices in SLC. Tickets have been purchased for the recent T20 World Cup without calling for tenders. A sum of USD 20,000 has been deposited in a bank in Australia while another sum of USD 300,000 due to the players have not been paid to date,” Minister Ranasinghe added.

Coming up with more reasons for the debacle at this year’s World Cup, the Minister said having the LPL before the World Cup was a huge mistake.” 

Sri Lanka has not earned a single cent out of LPL,” he said. 

“I have informed the ICC and Asian Cricket Conference but no action has been taken so far,” the Minister also alledged.

Courtesy Adaderana

රොෂාන් රණසිංහගෙන් ආන්දෝලනාත්මක හෙළිදරව්වක් “එළියට ගියානම් කරන්න වෙන්නේ නෑ”

Courtesy Adaderana

The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) today announced it has committed more than half a billion dollars to support the development of a deepawater shipping container terminal in the Port of Colombo, Sri Lanka, that will provide critical infrastructure for the South Asian region. 

The new terminal reflects DFC’s commitment to financing high-quality infrastructure that supports its partner’s development needs, invests in local communities, and is respectful of local financial conditions.” 

The investment further demonstrates the United States’ enduring commitment to Sri Lanka’s economic growth and its regional economic integration, including with India, the US Embassy said in a statement.

DFC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Scott Nathan traveled to Sri Lanka to launch $553 million in financing to Colombo West International Terminal Private Limited to support the development of the deepwater West Container Terminal located within the Port of Colombo. Foreign Minister Ali Sabry, Chief of Staff to the President and National Security Advisor (NSA) Sagala Ratnayaka and U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung joined CEO Nathan for the ceremonial launch of the new terminal.

DFC works to drive private-sector investments that advance development and economic growth while strengthening the strategic positions of our partners. That’s what we’re delivering with this infrastructure investment in the Port of Colombo,” said DFC CEO Scott Nathan. 

Sri Lanka is one of the world’s key transit hubs, with half of all container ships transiting through its waters. DFC’s commitment of $553 million in private-sector loans for the West Container Terminal will expand its shipping capacity, creating greater prosperity for Sri Lanka – without adding to sovereign debt – while at the same time strengthening the position of our allies across the region.”

U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung said, The $553 million investment by DFC for the long-term development of the Port of Colombo’s West Container Terminal will facilitate private- sector-led growth in Sri Lanka and attract crucial foreign exchange inflows during its economic recovery. This financing is symbolic of the United States’ long-standing commitment to the development and well-being of the people of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka regaining its economic footing will further our shared vision for a free and prosperous Indo-Pacific.”

This investment models how DFC operates, supporting projects that are strategic, economically sound, and led by the private sector. DFC is working with world-class sponsors John Keells Holdings and Adani Ports & Special Economic Zones Limited (APSEZ). These companies’ local experience and high-quality standards will help support local jobs and make this project a long-term, sustained success for the Indo-Pacific. 

The Port of Colombo is the largest and busiest transshipment port in the Indian Ocean. It has been operating at more than 90 percent utilization since 2021, signaling its need for additional capacity. The new terminal will cater to growing economies in the Bay of Bengal, taking advantage of Sri Lanka’s prime position on major shipping routes and its proximity to these expanding markets.

Dr Sudath Gunasekara

As it is not clear whether this 12 hrs decision is meant for both the public sector and the private sector, I limit this discussion only to the public sector.

At present, keeping with universally accepted international labour laws in almost all countries the 8-hour working day rule has come to satay as the standard rule. It has been accepted both for public servants and factory workers. The same rule prevails in this country. At present it is said to be from 8.30 to 4.15 in government offices. Actually, it is only 7hrs and 45 minutes. Since it also includes a 1 hr lunch time, in reality the number of working hours in both sectors are even less and it actually comes down to 6 hr. and 45 working hours minutes.  

However, it is interesting to find out whether all public servants really work for even that full time. My personal experience is no, not at all.  If you take in to account things like late coming, which is the standard norm, (partly due to transport problems), gossiping, (this is the norm of the day as majority in offices are women, more than 75%), lack of proper supervision, Strick work norms  and discipline due to poor management or frequent absence of staff officers from office.  If they take 1 hour for lunch the real figure for working left for a public servant or a factory worker at present is actually 6hrs.45 mts. a day. However, although the law is that, in actual practice in the public sector it never happens. In the private sector it varies from place to place according to each employer.

Any attempt to increase this rule and increase it to 12 hrs will create more problems than solutions sought, leading even to political unrest and upheaval. 

In the days gone by, the standard office hour system was 8 to 4 with 1 hour lunch interval. I do not know as to why the government has made it 8.30.-4.15 now. (may be making allowance for transport problems, which in any case that should not be a problem for one’s punctuality) Providing an efficient transport system is also the responsibility of the government. In practice nowadays this time schedule is never adhered to the letter. The circular is one thing. but the practice is different. It varies from office to office depending on the managerial ability of each head of that department. I have seen people coming in staggering from 8.30 to sometime even 10 without being questioned by the head of the branch. Most of them start leaving offices by 3 pm. It is the prevailing practice in almost all offices. The fact that majority are women, it goes on like this. Before one try meddle with existing system, I think it is more advisable to correct its short comings without running in to new problems.

If you look at how a government office works at present, it is something like this. As soon as they come, they run to the bathroom to get their hair style and facial outlook etc adjusted perhaps. After coming back to their seats, they usually exchange pleasantries and go on chatting with those seated in adjoining seats for some time, on subjects like what happened in the previous day at home and neighboring houses etc. Then take the office telephone (as they are free) or the hand phone and hang on for some time leisurely chitchatting unless the boss calls you. When these days formalities are over, comes the tea time. Thereafter, rather lazily pull one or to drawers and files pretending to get down to work. By the time they get ready to work comes the lunch time. It takes about another hour or so.  By the time one gets ready to settle down after lunch comes the time to pick up the child from school, if you work in a town. There after each one starts to leave one by one and by about 3.45 or 4 Pm the whole office is empty.  This is how the so-called public service is functioning today.

This pattern varies from place to place, depending on the administrative and managerial quality of the head of the institution. So, under this pathetic situation very often today actually no work at all is done in a public office. One cannot get anything done unless you know someone in any office. You never get a reply to a letter.  In the olden days there was 3day rule. That is, you have to send a reply to any letter within 3 days. If unable to do so at least you have to send an interim reply.  But today very often, with the exception of very rare case one does not get a reply at all. Although these people are called public servants, majority have ceased to be public servants at all. The name public servants suit them only to the extend they are being paid by the public. But everybody enjoys their privileges including their salaries, over time and leave etc even if they don’t do any work. Supervision and annual confidential reports to monitor and evaluate their work are things of the past.

The situation may be different in the private sector. Because there, you have discipline where as in public service it is only a thing of the past. No wonder public service has now adays become a zero productive entity and got itself converted to a self-service paid by the public. Norms like punctuality, efficiency were strictly followed during the colonial time. Those days everybody had to come to office before the red line is marked in the attendant register kept on the table of the Head of the branch. Late commers have to sign below the red line, drawn after the grace time. No one could leave the office before the office time is over, without the permission of the Head of the branch.

What was more was, those days there was a circular prescribing a minimum quantum of work for per day for a person, whereby everyone had to complete a given quantum of work per day and submit it to the head of the branch as he/she leaves office for the day. Any incomplete wok had to be done first, next morning before he/she starts the day’s work. I still remember how I implemented this system successfully as DRO Yatikinda, my first appointment in CAS, as I had learned it in my previous job as the Principal of Sangabodhi Mahaa Vidyaalaya, Morayaaya, Minipe.

Of cause, there was one who protested and handed over a long protest singed by all in the office. I summoned all to my room first, one by one, and asked them as to why they protest. They all said, one man had asked them to sing but they are not against it. Thereafter, I summoned the whole office including the Chief clerk. The leader who got all to signed the protest said Sir, you are trying to implement a rule that is not practiced in any office in the Badulla district. Then I asked the chief clerk whether that circular has been withdrawn by the government at any time. He said no. Thereafter I told them, even if it is not being implemented in the whole country it will come into effect from that day in my office. If there is anyone who cannot carry out my orders such person can go to another office where this rule in not implemented. From that day my office staff followed that rule and office work that had been dormant for 15 years, was updated within 2 weeks, as the GA who was invited by me to come and see the office told me.

This is how public administration has badly deteriorated since 1948, more particularly after 1956. It became still worse after political rights were given to public servants below a certain salary point to contest elections in 1978. This created a situation where the tail started to wag the dog, instead of the dog wagging the tail.  Obviously, one cannot blame the supervisory staff for this deterioration.  As the fault is with the system due to political interference in administration.

For example, today how can a District Secretary impose strict discipline over his subordinates, who enjoy political rights if he/she wins an election, he/she can come even come as his own boss as the Minister of Public administration. As a result, discipline in public service has deteriorated beyond recovery. With political rights being given to certain lower categories to contest elections the heads of department completely lost their supervisory and administrative control over their subordinates. Under this pathetic situation the proposed changes, if implemented, will make it even worse. With the result productivity in offices can become even zero.

I this country where rights always take precedent over duties the outcome of the proposed change could be even worse.

Therefore, these problems have to be carefully addressed before you introduce new things like increasing the working hours to 12 from the present 8 hrs. This is going to be utterly impracticable and the whole public service will end up in chaos and confusion with a tremendous increase in cost. Therefore, I suggest the government to first work out a system where all public servants to do some productive work for a minimum of 1 hr. a day within the conventional 8 hr framework?

Instead of pursuing with this new proposal, I strongly recommend the government to drop this idea for the following reasons.

1. This decision contravenes the accepted international labour laws. First workers will protest and there will be more strikes that will affect administration and production. It will affect production and the economy will fall from the prying pan to the hearth.
2.   Sri Lanka Government adds a new problem in the international sphere with more complications losing the credibility and legitimacy of the government. Beside this it also violates the internationally accepted 8 hour per day and 48 hours a week rule.

One could argue, under the present economic situation, a 12-hour working day is proposed to increase production that could be a plus factor for quick economic recovery. But in a situation where people are finding it difficult to meet their daily needs and people are leaving the country to other countries for survival and where majority never think of the country, with daily increasing and unbearable cost of living and decreasing job opportunities, this might even increase emigration of the work force.  As such it will end up as a negative factor in economic growth.

Generally, all men and women at least need 8 hours of sleep 8hrs recreation and 8hrs work rule is the generally accepted formula for a healthy society all over the world.

Therefore, in sum the decision to increase the number of hours of work from 8 to 12, I opine is illegal, illogical, unrealistic and impracticable and non-productive. It is a dead rope given by someone to create more problems and confusion, to make the government more unpopular and to bring down the government earlier than scheduled time. It is therefore a first-class political blunder if they do it at this moment of economic social and political instability and tension. It will only multiply the current problems and worsen the existing situation.

Instead why doesn’t the government take the following steps if it wants to increase productivity of the labour force and production in the country.

First, streamline public service and restore discipline among all government servants by reinstalling the line of authority free from political intervention.

Second, abolish the act no 58 of 1992 (Transfer of Powers to Divisions) and withdraw the PA circular 21 /92 and restore the Kachcheri system under the GAA, with full authority over the Divisional Secretaries Graama Sevakas and on all other government departments as it had been in 1970s.

Third, Abolish the 13 A and the Provincial councils forthwith thereby saving billions going down the drain.

Fourth, Increase the number of working days from day 5 to 6 days a week, making Saturday also a working day   

Fifth, Reduce the number of public holidays to 12 being the average accepted the world over using the following formula given in Annex 1.  

Sixth, Restore Strict discipline in public service Give promotions only on merit based on annual evaluation

Seventh, Restore the old Daily targets for all public servant as it was practiced during colonial time

Eighth, Stop all political appointments to public Service and limit cadre to a minimum after a scientific work load analysis

Ninth, withdraw political rights to contest elections limiting only the right to vote for public servants making it compulsory to resign if anyone wants to contest elections.

Tenth, restrict right of trade union action only to their professional rights and ban political agitations and  ban resorting to sick leave  without a medical certificate from a Government docter.

Eleventh, start a nationwide campaign Duty and country first Rights later” coupled with an action programme to inculcate patriotism in our people like what is found among the Japanese, Chinese, Indians, and Israelites, to increased output.

Twelfth, work out an incentives and reward system including monetary, promotional prospects and honorary awards for men and women who exceed the targets.

Annex

 මේ රටේ ආර්ථිකය බිඳවැටීමට ප්‍රධාන හේතුවක් වන දැනට පවතින අධික රජයේ නිවාඩු දින ගණන ජාත්‍යන්ත්‍ර සාමන්‍ය ගණන වන 12 හෝ ඊට ආසන්න සන්ක්‍යාවකට  අඩුකොට  වසරකට අපතේ යන මිනිස් දින ගණන රටේ සන්වර්ධනයට යොදාගතයුතුය. එය පහත සඳහන් පරිදි විය යුතුයයි යෝජනා කරමි.

.

. නම                                   මාසය                    දින ගණන

අනිවාර්‍යෙන්ම  ප්‍රකාශකළයුතු රජයේ නිවාඩු 

1 සින්හල අලුත් අවුරුද්ද  අප්‍රේල්  13 &14               2

2 වෙසක්                             මැයි    වෙසක්  පෝය    2

3 ජනරජ දිනය                          මැයි  22                   1

4  ජාතික ගොවි කම්කරු දිනය    මැයි 1                   1

5  සින්හලේ ජාතික දිනය (පොසොන් පෝය)          1                                               

රජය විසින් තීරණය කලයුතු නිවාඩු දින

6    ජාතික වීර දිනය                                                 1

7   පරිසර දිනය                                                         1

8 ජාතික ළමා  දිනය                                                 1

9 ජාතික මව්වරුන්ගේ දිනය                                    1

10 ජාතික වැඩිහිටි දිනය                                           1

මුළු ගණන                                                              12

මෙම නව ක්‍රමය යටතේ ඉරිදා සෙනසුරාදා නිවාඩු අහෝසි කෙරේ.මීට අමතරව ඉතිරි සෑම පසොලොක්වක් පෝය දිනයක්ම (10) රජයේ නිවාඩු දිනයක් කිරීමෙන් තවත් නිවාඩු දින 10 ක් රජයේ සේවකයින්ට එක්වෙයි. ඒ අනුව වසරකට මුළු නිවාඩු දින ගණන 22 ක් වන අතර. මේ අනුව රටේ සින්හල බෞද්ධ අන්‍යතාවද නැවතත් ස්ථාපිතවී ආරක්ශා වනු ඇත.ඒ අනුව අපගේ රටටම ආවේනික පාසල් සතියක්ද සකස්කරගත හැක. දැනට රජයේ නිවාඩු දින ව්ශයෙන් ප්‍රකාශකොට ඇති ක්‍රිස්තියානි, හින්දු සහ මුස්ලිම් ආගමික නිවාඩු දින එම ලබ්ධිකයින් සඳහා පම්ණක් නිවාඩු දින කළයුතුය. මන්ද එම ආගමික දින සින්හල බෞද්ධයින්ට රජයේ නිවාඩු දින කිරීමේ කිසිදු අර්ථයක් නැති බැවිනි. එසේ කිරීමෙන් දැනට පවතින රජයේ නිවාඩු දින අටක් අඩුවණු ඇත.

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Dilrook Kannangara

Dismal performance of Sri Lankan cricketers in Asia Cup 2023 and ICC CW 2023 can be attributed to many things. However, what is most intriguing is the bizarre circumstances they have put themselves in. Getting all out for 50 odd runs in both last encounters with India is a very strange fluke as the matches were played in two different countries. Getting out by most unusual circumstances is another. Dropping easy catches is yet another. It is reasonable to question if they are involved in spot-fixing.

Other aggravating circumstances include continuous economic slide of the country for the past 4 years which has made everyone poorer. Lucrative IPL contracts are not available to most cricketers in the team. Domestic and other international tournaments haven’t provided them enough for the luxurious lifestyle they lead. Given the ICC ODI ranking in September 2023 (before the World Cup) it was obvious Sri Lanka will not make it to the Semis. For most players this is their final World Cup. Under those circumstances it’s now or never for them to make a quick buck. It is only human to exploit any business opportunity to make money if they can avoid repercussions. Spot fixing is not uncommon in the Indian subcontinent. A number of Pakistani and Indian players were found to have done it and it is only reasonable to have a suspicion that Sri Lankan players are not too far. They are under similar economic difficulties and peer and societal pressure.

Spot-fixing is nearly impossible to prove as no party divulges it for their own protection. Therefore, it is a very safe way to circumnavigate the laws. Match fixing on the other hand is easier to prove and players avoid it.

The best long-term approach to avoid or reduce spot fixing is to improve the game so that players will believe in performance and resultant higher earnings, allow players to make money by any and all legitimate means, vet players based on performance and psychological assessment, assess players’ commitment to the team, provide counseling where needed and investigate suspected match fixing and spot fixing events.

Dheshamaanya Dr. Sudath Gunasekara Ex-Secretary to Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranayaka and President Mahanuwara Sinhala Baudhdha Jesta Purawesiyange  Sanvidhanaya.

EELAM concept is a vicious colonial invention of the West to entice the Tamils in Sri Lanka to destroy the only Sinhala Buddhist nation on this planet, to realize their long term strategic and geopolitical goals in the Indo Pacific region.

The idea of EELAM in this country is a Western colonial invention, although that word was never mentioned in their earlier correspondence. Destroying the Sinhala nation and dividing Sri Lanka between Sinhalese and Tamils was the most important strategic intrigue of British colonial policy of divide and rule that was adopted by them from the time they ceded this country, to the United Kingdom in 1815. In this search

First, they discovered a captive word in the word Eelam and a cat’s paw in the Malabar community introduced to this country by them, to achieve these global objectives. This was also the time south India Tamils were dreaming of a land to establish their dream land of Eelam as they have no place Hindu dominated India.  Suddenly the Tamils found another dream land Kumari Kandam a mythical continent to the south of India extending from Madagascar to Australia which also included Sri Lanka according to them, the land of the present-day Sinhalese, lost due to large scale oceanic submergence in geological times, as their mythological writings of yesterday have propagated.

Probably they must have developed this myth based on the Lemura concept (now discarded as a myth) and the Continental Drift Concept developed by Alfred Wegener’s 1915 publication, where he postulated that continents were drifting over time and the present 5 continents originally had been one called Pangea, billions of years ago. At one time it splitted and the Americas drifted west while Australia and India together with Sri Lanka drifted east and Antartica Southward, leaving Africa in the center. Kumari Kandam myth was developed on this.   So, they selected Sri Lanka to re-create the lost mythical Tamil land called EELAM on this Island and started to write fairy tales digging in to Puraanas and Tamil mythological literature with the collaboration of the Western colonial powers, who are still day dreaming to dominate the world.

In this hunt the Western invaders found a place to locate their project. But none of these eelaamists admit that the word eelam was a word used by the South Indians to call Sinhale the land of the Sinahla people – from 543, which the South Indians pronounced it as Siihalam meaning the land of the Sinhala people. Prior to that this land was called Lanka in epics like Ramaayana, Mahabharatha and ancient Purana literature like Agni purana and Skandha purana. Lanka in that context was used to mean beautiful or resplendent. But in one Puraana it says that it is called Lanka as it is situated at the center of the world. (Bhuu Madhyaye ankiyathithi Lanka”. Mahavamsa, the Great Epic of the Sinhala nation and most ancient literary sources called it Lankadeepa, meaning the Island of Lanka. The fact that all these pre-historical, historical, Epigraphical, Archaeological and literary sources had called it either Lanka or Sinhale, has proved beyond all reasonable doubt that this Island had been called by either Lankaa or Sinhale throughout, both in historic and pre-historic times. Even all south Indian sources also had called it Sihalam (meaning the land of the Sinhala People) or Ilankai (a corrupted version of Lanka)

 Second, they also found a suitable ally to use as the cat’s paw in this malignant operation. In view of the longstanding animosity between the South Indian Tamils and the Sri Lankan Sinhalese they found the correct ally, as they think, to setup against the Sinhalese to divide this country. So, first they flooded the Island with Malabar coolies in tens of thousands to be settled all over the country.  At the same an army of nearly 1.2 million indentured Malabar slaves were also settled in the central hill country, on 1.3 million acres formally owned by the 2600-year-old Sinhala Buddhist civilization State, after ceding it to the United Kingdom by the Kandyan Convention in 1815. They did so by murdering all native Sinhala males over 18 years on orders of Brownrigg, that murderer English man, and making those spared by their guns, swords and those died of deprivation to run in to the eastern jungles after implementing their scorched land policies and taking over their lands by draconian laws. Thereafter they initiated action to create two independent adversary States, one Sinhala and the other, Tamil with the following long-term objectives as their dream.        

First, to consolidate the invader’s immediate hold on the colony

Second, to take revenge from the Sinhala Buddhists of this country for the valiant resistance they displayed, never seen in any other country, in the 1803, 1817-1918 and 1848 rebellions and the humiliations they suffered at the hands of the brave Sinhala forces and the damages caused to their so-called invincible troops.

Third, to prevent this Island becoming the future geo-political, geo- strategic and geo-economic hub of the Indian ocean in the 21st century in view of its central geographical location right at the center of the Indian Ocean and around with enormous resources at a hub where all the 21st century aviation and marine routes meet and

Fourth, to enable them to use this divided Island, to meet their future dream true of commanding the Indo Pacific zone competitively, even without India, by having two adversary states within this Island, side by side , holding its land, strategic ports and Airports equally divided between them.

This concept was a joint invention of British Civil servants and American missionaries. At the same time Tamil extremists harboring millennia old animosity towards the Sinhalese, picked up this idea tacitly supported by the invader to work on it, hoping to fulfil a dream they had failed to achieve from the 2nd century BC of capturing this beautiful Island on this planet, which they have miserably failed for millennia in spite of nearly 20 invasions carried out by them over time. The Westerners at the same time realized the best bait to catch the Tamil fish was the Eelam. That is why they supported it and continue to do so even at present.

Tamil Eelam (which literarily means Tamil-Sinhala Land ,  which the Tamils don’t understand ) according to them is the name first, referring to the northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka that the Tamil movement regards as the national land of the Tamil people(sadly forgetting that it is found in South India only) and later to  be extended to cover the whole Island and thereafter to move across to South India and ending up after capturing the entire Indian Subcontinent as they have said long time ago. According to the name EELAM literally means Tamil Sri Lanka”, where as it does not, as it really means only Tamil-Sinhala Land) Their second step is to use it to refer to the whole island (the present Tamil name for it is Ilankai -as they write it. That also actually confirms that the name of this country is Lanaka. The Tamil lexicons (Nika’ndu), Thivaakaram, Pingkalam and Choodaama’ni, dating from c. 8th century CE, equate the word Eezham with Chingka’lam (the Sinhala country). Sri Lankan historian Karthigesu Indrapala in his thesis released in 1965 suggested that the people from whose named Eelam is derived were Sinhalese. The confusion and the struggle Tamils make here frequently using words like Lanka and Chingka ‘lam in this chess game clearly shows their desperate effort to prove an unwinnable   game. Further if you read chapters 2 to 8 of Sinhalese of Ceylon and the Ariyan Theory by Samuel Livingston, you will find as to how may yarns, they have invented trying to impress the world that Sri Lanka had been a Tamil country. (the date deliberately not given. But I have found that it was published in Landon in1970) 

All these are mere fanatic speculations only, not substantiated by historical or other evidence. Also connected with other speculations like Lemuria and Kumari kandam and Continental Drift Theory by Alfred Wegener 1915. These Tamil lunatics turn the sun and moon to prove something they can never do.  Where is the Archaeological, epigraphical architectural, historical and literary evidence to prove these mad speculations. I invite those interested in finding a permanent answer to this riddle to read EELAM EXPOSED by L.K.N. Perera (LLB Cey) 2020.

The Cleghorn report (1799) the first attempt to divide Sri Lanka on Sinhala Tamil basis

The first recorded attempt on this proposed mythical Tamil state (although the name EELAM is not mentioned there) is found in the Cleghorn report (1799) submitted to the first Governor Fredric North (1798-1805).

I quote Cleghorn report.

Native Inhabitants’ Two different nations, from very ancient period, have divided between them the possessions of the Island. First the Singalese inhabiting the interior of the country, in its Southern and Western parts, from the river Wallouwe, to that of Chilow and secondly, the Malabars. Who possess the northern and eastern districts. These two nations differ entirely in their religion, language and manners. The former who are allowed to be the earlier settlers, drive their origin from Siam, professing the ancient religion of that country” No 1799. June 1. Hugh Cleghorn. Colonial Secretary.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

 It was this false quote, a blatant lie, the TULF quoted as a divine statement in their Vadukkodei Resolution May 14th 1976. Now you see how for long this vicious colonial intrigue was in action and also the history of British-Tamil colonial collaboration in this diabolical coup to divide this country had been in operation

Similarly, a Wesleyan Church Report called ‘Missionary conference of South India and Ceylon” in their report says. In Jan. 1819 the Missionaries met together again in Galle to hold their 5th annual conference. The most important resolution of this meeting was the division of Ceylon in to two districts, to be designated the Singhalese and Tamil districts.”  

It is important to note here the timing of the date of ceding this country to the UK as Sinhale, by the Kandyan Convention (2nd March 1815), the dates of uprisings in1817.1818 Uva Wellassa native Sinhala Rebellion sand the date of the Royal Declaration no 1 issued by Brown Wrigg on Nov 21. 1818, unilaterally breaking the covenants of the 1815 Kandyan Convention and the timing of the above Missionary conference Jan. 1819, have taken place within a matter of 4 years. This coincidence clearly shows the vicious intension of the British to split this country right from the beginning of their taking over.

The Island  of Sinhale-Ceylon as they called it, meaning the land of the Sinhalese was governed, rather misgoverned, by the British since then, up to 1948 by royal Proclamations and legislative enactments made under British Royalty to tighten their grip over the colony, completely ignoring and violating the Kandyan Convention of March 2nd 1815, which was an International Agreement entered upon, between two sovereign States in 1815, that is legally valid even today.  as it had never been legally invalidated up to date.

The 1818 Nov. Proclamation was followed by the Colebrook Commission 1832.That recommended the division of the Island in to 5 provinces Namely, North, East, South, West and Central among many other landmarks such as the abolition of traditional Rajakariya system, the foundation on which the democratic social system in this country rested and the mechanism that mobilized the village level development all over the country, like irrigation, roads and overall development of the Sinhale Kingdom.

Probably they must have thought of assigning the North, East and the Central Province to Malabar Tamils in future under the name Eelam, leaving only the Western and the Southern Provinces for Sinhalese as Cleghorn, the rogue,  conspired in 1799.  Ever since the governance of this Island nation had been replete with tragic stories of oppression, repression, exploitation and discriminations against the Sinhalese while conferring special privileges to minorities. In 1852 after killing tens of thousands native Sinhalese they declared Roman Dutch law as the law of the land again openly and blatantly violating the provisions of the Kandyan Convention. Thus, although the native Sinhalese were deprived of the native legal system, Tamils in the Jaffna district were allowed to use their law Thesavalamei, a new law invented by the Dutch for Malabar Tamils coolies with 300-year history on this land brought by them to work on their tobacco plantations and even Muslims were given the privilege of enjoying the Muslim Law.

Isn’t it a historical tragedy that none of the native Sinhala leaders had insisted that all administrative division should confirm to the pattern that existed in 1815 and the name of the country and the administrative divisions together with place name should never be changed and no new divisions under new names that might endanger age old traditions and customs as agreed upon by the Kandyan Convention 1815. Probably they were powerless as the ruling hierarchy was fully controlled the agents of the Brtish government, and there were no Sinhala leaders left after the inhuman massacres carried out by the British in 1818 and 1848 freedom struggles till about the late 1860s when we saw the beginning of the birth of a new generation of the genre of Anagarika Dharmapala, the first among them and the re -immergence of Sinhala Buddhist nationalism.   

As soon as the British conquered the maritime province in 1796, they made 300 kovils on ancient Buddhist archaeological Buddhist sites destroyed jointly by the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British successively in the Jaffa district. Again in 1833 when the Colebrook Commission divided the country in to 5 provinces, they attached Anuradhapura district to the Northern province to be administered by Jaffna and Polonnaruwa to the Eastern province to be administered by Trincomalee.

 In addition, they put up Christiana schools mainly in Tamil dominated coastal areas making it 45 in the Jaffna district out of a total 105 for the whole country by 1845. These 105 were mainly located in coastal areas where there was a significant Tamil population, making the Sinhala dominated rest of the country comprising[S1]  over 90 % of the area of the Island almost empty with the exception of Kandy town where there was a few as there was a converted Christian Sinhala and Tamil population in addition to the plantation sector dominated by British. There by the majority Sinhala population comprising almost 90 % of the total population were grossly discriminated and left neglected. Local education system centered around the Pirivena was completely neglected.

Thereby the British built up an English educated social group who catered to the needs of the colonial administration making the schools in Jaffna and Colombo, the factories that turned out the man power to run the system. Since education was not free only the rich in Jaffna, Colombo and towns could afford English education making the majority Sinhalese uneducated, poor and helpless. By and large this system prevailed until free education was introduce under the Kannangara reforms were introduced in 1945 that opened the doors to the majority Sinhala people

Meanwhile the British also built up an elite Tamil class, in Jaffna and few in Colombo mostly converted, like Ponnamabalans, Arunachalam, Coomaraswamis and Mahadevans some of whom were even married to English women. British also provided special privileges to Tamils making them Doctors, Lawyers engineers and Accountants to raise them above the Sinhalese. The Sinhala educated class in Colombo and the interior were also divided as Kandyans and Lowcountry and also caste wise setting each caste and group against the other making every possible trick to divide the Lankan Nation particularly the Sinhala Buddhistese and Tamil giving the impression that Tamils are intellectually superior to Sinhalese.  The worse was the division of Sinhalese in to two antagonistic groups as  Kandyan’s and Low country Sinhalese. This was how the British ruled the country paving the way for the Tamils to feal superior to Sinhalese and they are the people who are fit to rule Sri Lanka.

This was a well-conceived divide and rule policy adopted by the British all over the world that gave them high dividends and while the natives suffered. This was also the primary objective of introducing the Eelam concept to this country. Even at present they follow the same policy. For example, that is why all these countries like the UK Canda and USA support Tamil Diaspora in different way to destabilize and ruin this country. Although presently, they belong to many countries, the hard fact remains, that they all are decedents of the old Britain and other European countries like France Spain, Portugal and Poland and thus far birds of the same feather flocked together.

For all these colonial invaders in this country, their common enemy was the Sinhala Buddhists, as they fear the extinction of their religion and their Abrahamic civilization by 2050 and the emergence of Buddhism as the only surviving religion in the world as predicted in The Deep Range in 1957, a science fiction novel by the celebrated British writer Arthur C. Clarke.

So, in this backdrop I conclude, by requesting the misguided Tamil brothers and sisters the world over, to give up this mythical path of disaster at least now, as EELAM is a vicious colonial invention of the West to entice the Tamils in Sri Lanka and set them against the Sinhala Buddhist nation to destroy them on this planet, to meet their vicious private ends. We Sinhalese request you not become a cat’s paw of the Western colonial for they are the common enemy of not only you and us, but of the whole world as it is happening in the middle east just now.

Please remember! Sri Lankadeepa or Sinhale is the promised land of the Sinhala nation, thrice blessed by the Lord Buddha where the Sinhala nation will protect his doctrine for 5000 years to come as they value it more than their lives. If you want an Eelam, please go back to where it is, in South India, from where you have come under economic compulsion or you were brought   or brought by your white masters to labour for them, under trying conditions for a penny, to make their coffers in London rich and for them to build empires where the sun never set, as they boast and left behind high and dry on someone else land as destitute, after sucking your blood nearly for 170 years and now they entice you to fight with us gleefully watching from London having created problems for us as well as you.  As a labour force that had laboured for them to build their Empire either they should have returned to your former mother land with adequate compensation or taken you to their country as you were also British citizens at that time. Under these circumstances it is with the you have to fight for human rights. We have never asked you to come. It was they who herded you here. It is for them for whom you laboured and not for us. Therefore, it is their bounden duty to take you back either to their home or to your own homeland.  As such we are not duty bound to look after you or give you, our land. This just like a tenant leaving behind his servants in our house when he leaves and asking the owner of the house to look after him/her or the servant so left behind demanding the owner of the house to keep the servant in his house and demanding the house owner to look after the rights of their servant.  

On the other hand, if you want to enjoy the luxuries of this blessed Island of our, then accept it as our land, the motherland of the Sinhala nation for the last 2600years, who have found and developed  its civilization and culture and protected it  for the last 2600 years in war against your own ancestors who had invaded it unsuccessfully and attempted to conquer over20 times  starting from the 2^nd century BC up to savages destructions by Maga invasions in the 12^th century,  and again defended it for 500 years against the three brutal European invaders, the Portuguese, Dutch and the English from 1505 to date  and protected that 2600 year old civilization and culture in spite of the fact even during that period your ancestor took the enemy’s side against us and our motherland. Therefore, we not duty bound to look after you interests and you have no right either to ask for it from us.

 We, as a Sinhala Buddhist nation we are prepared to accommodate you provided you give up all your crazy divisive ambitions and integrate with native Sinhalese and resolve to live together in peace and tranquility as brothers and sisters of one great human, family until you breathe your last breath without day dreaming for a mythical Eelam on this land of the Sinhala race.

But there are few compulsory conditions you have to agree to be bound by.

1 You have to renounce all your attachments to India, mental economic cultural and political and you have to breath as Sri Lankans and not as Indians as you all do now

2. You have to learn the language of the country and get fully integrate with the culture of the land.

3. you have sign a legal agreement with the Government of the country that you will be faithful to this country only on usual conditions normally agreed upon when you become a citizen of any country

 In the event you cannot abide by these conditions then there is no other alternative but to return to your former motherland

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 [S1]

Vijay Prasad

From 9 to 15 October, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank held their annual joint meeting in Marrakech (Morocco). The last time that these two Bretton Woods institutions met on African soil was in 1973, when the IMF-World Bank meeting was held in Nairobi (Kenya). Kenya’s then President Jomo Kenyatta (1897–1978) urged those gathered to find ‘an early cure to the monetary sickness of inflation and instability that has afflicted the world’. Kenyatta, who became Kenya’s first president in 1964, noted that, ‘[o]ver the last fifteen years, many developing countries have been losing, every year, a significant proportion of their annual income through deterioration of their terms of trade’. Developing countries could not overcome the negative terms of trade in a situation where they sold raw materials or barely processed goods on the world market while being reliant on the import of expensive finished commodities and energy, even if they raised their volumes of export. ‘Recently’, Kenyatta added, ‘inflation in the industrial countries has led to further and important losses to the developing countries’.

‘The whole world is watching’, Kenyatta said. ‘This is not because many people understand the details of what you are discussing, but because the world looks to you to find urgent solutions to problems affecting their daily lives’. Kenyatta’s warnings went unheeded. Six decades after the meeting in Nairobi, the loss of national income to debt and inflation remains a serious problem for developing countries. But, in our time, the whole world is not watching. Most people do not even know that the IMF and World Bank met in Morocco, and few expect them to solve the world’s problems. That is because, across the globe, people know that these institutions are, in fact, the authors of pain and are simply not capable of solving the problems that they have created and exacerbated.

Ahead of the meeting in Morocco, Oxfam issued a statement that strongly criticised the IMF and World Bank for ‘returning to Africa for the first time in decades with the same old failed message: cut your spending, sack public service workers, and pay your debts despite the huge human costs’. Oxfam highlighted the economic crisis facing the Global South, pointing out that ‘more than half (57 percent) of the world’s poorest countries, home to 2.4 billion people, are having to cut public spending by a combined $229 billion over the next five years’. On top of this, they showed that ‘low- and low-middle income countries will be forced to pay nearly half a billion dollars every day in interest and debt repayments between now and 2029’. Though the IMF has said that it plans to create ‘social spending floors’ to prevent cuts in government spending on public services, Oxfam’s analysis of 27 IMF loan programmes found that ‘these floors are a smokescreen for more austerity: for every $1 the IMF encouraged governments to spend on public services, it has told them to cut six times more than that through austerity measures’. The fallacy of ‘social spending floors’ has also been demonstrated by Human Rights Watch in its recent report, Bandage on a Bullet Wound: IMF Social Spending Floors and the COVID-19 Pandemic.

At Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, we continue to monitor the IMF’s impact on developing economies, including in our new dossier, How the International Monetary Fund Is Squeezing Pakistan (October 2023). Written and researched by Taimur Rahman and his colleagues at the Research and Publications Centre (Lahore, Pakistan), the dossier lays out the structural problems facing Pakistan’s economy, such as low productivity in its export-oriented industry and the high costs of imported luxury goods. Because of the lack of investment in industry, Pakistan’s labour productivity is low, and so its exports are priced out by other countries (as is the case with the textile industry in Bangladesh, China, and Vietnam). Meanwhile, the import of luxury goods would be far more devastating for the economy if not for the dollars earned by remittances from hard-working but ignored Pakistani workers, mainly in the Gulf states. Pakistan’s ballooning deficit, the dossier explains, is ‘driven by the fact that Pakistan is no longer competitive in the international market and has continued to import goods and services at a rate that it simply cannot afford’. Furthermore, ‘IMF-imposed conditions have further dried up the investment that Pakistan sorely needs to upgrade its infrastructure and accelerate industrialisation’. Not only does the IMF prevent investment for industrialisation, but it enforces cuts on public services (importantly, for health and education).

In July, the IMF approved a $3 billion stand-by agreement with Pakistan that it claimed would create ‘the space for social and development spending to help the people of Pakistan’. However, the IMF is simply feeding Pakistan the same tired neoliberal package, calling for ‘greater fiscal discipline, a market-determined exchange rate to absorb external pressures, and further progress on reforms related to the energy sector, climate resilience, and the business climate’ – all measures that will exacerbate the crisis. To ensure the permanency of these policies, the IMF spoke not only with the government of Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, but also with former Prime Minister Imran Khan (who was removed from office in 2022 in a move that was encouraged by the United States due to his neutrality on the war in Ukraine). As if this were not enough, through its role facilitating the agreement, the US government pressured the Pakistani government to supply weapons to Ukraine in secret through the disreputable arms dealer Global Ordnance. This makes an already bad deal even worse.

Similar deals have been made with countries such as Argentina, Sri Lanka, and Zambia. In the case of Sri Lanka, for instance, the institution’s senior mission chief for the country, Peter Breuer, described the IMF agreement as a ‘brutal experiment’. The social consequences of this experiment will, of course, be borne by the Sri Lankan people, whose frustrations have been stifled by the police and military forces.

This dynamic was also on display in February in Suriname, where large numbers of people who took to the streets to protest against the IMF-imposed austerity regime were met with tear gas and rubber bullets. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Suriname has defaulted three times on its foreign debt, which is largely owed to wealthy bondholders in the West, and in December 2021 the government of President Chan Santokhi told the IMF that it would cut subsidies for energy. We zijn Moe (‘We Are Tired’), a movement against austerity, protested for years but could not move an agenda against the IMF-imposed starvation politics. ‘A hungry mob is an angry mob’, Maggie Schmeitz wrote of the protests.

These protests – from Suriname to Sri Lanka – are the latest cycle in a long history of IMF riots, such as those that began in Lima (Peru) in 1976 and sprung up in Jamaica, Bolivia, Indonesia, and Venezuela in the years that followed. When the IMF riots unfolded Indonesia in 1985, long-time CEO of the Bank of America Tom Clausen was presiding over the World Bank (1981–1986). In remarks that he made five years prior, Clausen encapsulated the attitude of the Bretton Woods institutions towards such popular uprisings, stating that ‘When people are desperate, you have revolutions. It’s in our own evident self-interest to see that they are not forced into that. You must keep the patient alive, because otherwise you can’t effect the cure’.

 Clausen’s ‘cure’ – privatisation, commodification, and liberalisation – is no longer credible. Popular protests, such as those in Suriname, reflect the broad awareness of the failures of the neoliberal agenda. New agendas are needed that will build upon the following ideas, such as:

1. Cancelling odious debts, namely those taken by undemocratic governments and used against the well-being of the people.
2. Restructuring debt and forcing wealthy bondholders to share the burden of debts that cannot be fully repaid (without wreaking devastating and fatal social consequences) but from which they benefited for decades.
3. Investigating the failure of multinational corporations to pay their fair share of taxes to poorer nations and establishing laws that prevent forms of theft such as transfer mispricing.
4. Investigating the role of illicit tax havens in allowing elites in the poorer nations to ferret away the social wealth of their countries in these places and procedures to return that money for public usage.
5. Encouraging the poorer nations to take advantage of new lenders that are not committed to austerity-debt forms of lending, such as the Peoples Bank of China and the New Development Bank.
6. Developing industrial policies that are geared toward creating jobs, lessening the destruction of nature, and progressively adopting renewable energy sources.
7. Implementing progressive taxation (especially on profit) and a living wage in order to ensure fair income for workers as well as wealth distribution.

This list is not comprehensive. If you have other ideas for a credible ‘cure’, do write to me.

Sugath Kulatunga.

Cricket has today become virtually the national game of Sri Lanka. It is played in different forms of hard ball to soft ball games in the urban playgrounds and in the village fields. It is watched and enjoyed by spectators of all ages and means. The brilliant performance of our women’s team has enhanced the popularity and the glamour of the game. Cricket has been a unifying influence in our fractured communities. The game has brought both fame and funds to the country. Our international performance in the game gave the populace a solace in these hard times.

The Auditor General has in recent reports revealed grave irregularities in the conduct of the affairs of the SLBDC. The recent fiasco suffered by our team at the World Cup has made the public infuriated with the Cricket Administration i.e., the Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLCB). The maladministration, alleged corruption and the impunity of the Board have outraged all cricket lovers and the general public. In this background the Minister of Sports urged by the public and acting under his powers in the Sports Law suspended the SLBDC and appointed an Interim Committee consisting of retired Judicial Officials and Arjuna Ranatunga as its Chairman. The response of the public at this well-meant action of the Minister has been commended and celebrated by cricket lovers as well as the public supporting clean management of Sport Bodies.

The action of the Minister of disbanding the SLBDC and his attempt to amend the Sports Law has today become a hot potato in the hands of the President. He appears to be peeved that the Minister did not consult him before appointing the Interim Committee. The Minister very rightly points out the Sports Law does not require him to consult the Cabinet or the President before using his powers under the Sports Law. The President in turn has appointed a Cabinet Sub Committee report on the issue. The Minister insists that he will give up his Ministry but not revoke his decision. Bravo Minister-hold a straight bat. Appointing a Cabinet subcommittee to report on an issue is acceptable although it is an act already done. (stare decisis). But on the draft bill on the Sports Law the cabinet paper has been referred to a non-cabinet VIP for report. This is unusual and a slight on the Minister and even the Cabinet.

On the disbanding of the SLBDC the Court of Appeal has issued a 14-day stay order preventing the operation of the interim Committee. The details of the complaint and the interim order are not yet known. But the three basic principles in granting an interim order are said to be- prima facie case; balance of convenience; and irreparable injury. The balance of convenience test weighs the benefits to the plaintiff and the public against the burden on the defendant.

The interim injunction could lead to irreparable repercussions unless the order has preventive instructions to safeguard the evidence which the Interim Committee was required to look into. The 14 days of return to office of the SLBDC to their haunts would be more than adequate to destroy and conceal vital evidence of their misdeeds. The Minister of Sports disclosed in Parliament on November 7, 2023, that in anticipation of the suspension  SLBDC has written a large number of cheques to shift funds. The only way to prevent destruction of evidence the Minister could act as in the Soviet Aeroflot case to get the Attorney General to advance the case on interim order. The cricket loving public could keep a vigil in the vicinity of the SLBDC to discourage removal of files.

The President does not seem to feel the heat of the potato in his hands. It could become a political boomerang as bad as the CEB price hikes. President’s action is certainly not cricket!!

Sugath Kulatunga.

By Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama Courtesy The Daily Mirror

COLOMBO (Daily Mirror) – There is a slight increase in the roaming of the highly poisonous fish species called ‘Gonmaha-Stone Fish’ in the sea areas these days with the changing of the monsoon, Parasitology Department Senior Lecturer Dr. Janaka Ruben said.

He told the media that even though the fish species are highly poisonous, they do not attack people or any living being in the sea. This fish is a reef fish.

However, it was reported that several people were admitted to the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital recently after they had accidentally touched or stepped on these fishes. The venom of this fish can cause serious injuries when touched or stepped on.

This most widespread stonefish is found on sandy or rubble areas of reef flats and shallow lagoons and in small pools during low tide, well camouflaged among the substrate and sometimes even covered with algae due to the slow movement of this aquatic animal.

Dr. Reuben says that this stonefish used to roam in the sea in many parts of Sri Lanka. This fish species can be found in many countries, such as Australia, Indonesia and India.

As usual, these fishes come close to the shore for breeding purposes, Dr. Reuben said.

He said this fish has little ability to swim, and it is very slow-moving. It swims but does not sting.

The doctor pointed out that the stone fish has several spines on its back, and the poison is ingested by stepping on these spines. It is also said that severe pain is caused by stepping on the fishs’ spines.

Therefore, the doctor informed the people to be cautious when bathing in the sea these days and request that they wear slippers while bathing.

If someone gets stung by this fish in the sea, they should immediately come out of the sea, take immediate measures, and go to the hospital for treatment, the doctor added.

Also, the doctor requested the public not to kill this fish and not to bathe in the sea or walk barefoot along the coast.

Manusha Media

සීනි බද්ද වෙනස්වන බවට තොරතුරු කැබිනට් මණ්ඩලයට ඉදිරිපත් වීමටත් පෙරම ව්‍යාපාරිකයින් අතට පත්වූයේ කෙසේ දැයි ප්‍රශ්ණ කර සිටින බවත්, බදු සංශෝධනය පිළිබඳ දැන සිටියේ රේගු නිලධාරීන් බවත් කම්කරු හා විදේශ රැකියා අමාත්‍ය මනූෂ නානායක්කාර මහතා පැවසීය.

සීනි බදු වැඩි කිරීම ගැන දැන සිටියේ කවුරුන්ද. කිසිවෙක් මේ පිළිබඳ තොරතුරු එළියට ලබා දුන්නේද යන්න පිළිබඳ අනිවාර්යෙන්ම පරීක්ෂණයක් පැවැත්විය යුතු බවද අමාත්‍යවරයා අවධාරණය කළේය.

අමාත්‍යවරයා මේ බව සඳහන් කර සිටියේ මාධ්‍යවේදීන් නැගූ ප්‍රශ්න වලට පිළිතුරු ලබා දෙමින්ය.
එහිදී අමාත්‍යවරයා  මෙසේද අදහස් දැක්වීය,  
සීනි වංචාව ගැන අපි එදා හඬ නැගුවා වගේම අදත් වංචාවක් වෙනවා නම් හඬ නගන්න කටයුතු කරනවා.  අපි වංචාවක්, වැරැද්දක් වෙන තැනක කට වහගෙන ඉන්නේ නැහැ. මෙතනදී මොකක්ද වෙලා තියෙන්නේ කියන කාරණය අපි හොයලා බැලිය යුතුයි.
සීනි ලංකාවට ගොඩ බාන්න සූදානම් කරලා තියෙද්දී හෝ ගොඩ බෑවට පස්සේ බද්ද වැඩි කළාද කියන ප්‍රශ්නය තියෙනවා.
ඒත් මෙතන තියෙන සෑබෑම ප්‍රශ්නය වෙන්නේ සීනි බදු වැඩි කරනවා කියන ආරංචිය ව්‍යාපාරිකයින්ට යන්නේ කොහොමද කියන කාරණයයි. මේ බද්ද වෙනස් වෙනවා කියන කාරණය කැබිනට් එක්ටවත් ඇවිල්ලා තිබුණේ නැහැ. මේක දන්නේ රේගුවේ අයයි. එතකොටම මේක කොහෙන්ද එළියට ගිහින් තියෙන්නේ ?
අපි අයවැවෙන් පඩි වැඩිකරන් සූදානම් වෙනකෙට ඒ තොරතුරු එළියට යනවා. ඊට පස්සේ උද්ඝෝෂණ කරනවා පඩි වැඩි කරන්න කියලා.

ඒ වගේම බද්ද පනවන්න යනවා කියන කොටම ටක්ගාලා බඩු ටික ගේනවා.  බද්දක් අඩුකරන්න සූදානම් වෙනකොට බඩු ටික හංගා ගන්නවා. එතකොට මේ සේරම තොරතුරු යන්නේ කොහෙන්ද ? මේවා කැබිනට් මණ්ඩලයෙන් නෙමෙයි එළියට යන්නේ.  

මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් අනිවාර්යෙන්ම පරීක්ෂණයක් කළයුතුයි. එහිදී මේ සීනි බදු වැඩි කිරීම ගැන කවුරු හරි දැනන් හටියාද?  මේ තොරතුරු එළියට කිව්වාද ? කියන කාරණා ගැන අනිවාර්යෙන්ම පරීක්ෂණයක් කළයුතුයි. කණ්ඩායමක් මේ බදුවල සිදුවෙන වෙනස්කම් වලින් ආදායම් හොයන්න කටයුතු කරනවා. ඒ නිසාමයි ජනාධිපතිතුමා සීනි වලට උපරිම සිල්ලර මිලක් දැම්මේ. ඒ තීරණයත් එක්ක මේ බදු වැඩි කිරීමෙන් අයුතු ලාභ ලබන්න බැරිවෙනවා.

අද මේ රටේ තිබෙන්නේ සර්ව පාක්ෂික ආණ්ඩුවක්. මේ ආණ්ඩුවේ හැමෝම ඉන්නවා. කාටවත් මේ ආණ්ඩුව පොදු ජන පෙරමුනේද,  එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේද සමගි ජන බලවේගයේද ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයේද කියලා කියන්න බැහැ මොකද මේ හැමෝම වර්තමාන ආණ්ඩුවේ ඉන්නවා.

මේ ආණ්ඩුව හැදුනේ රටේ මිනිස්සු අමාරුවේ වැටුන වෙලාවෙයි. මේ ආණ්ඩුව තමයි රටේ මිනිස්සු අමාරුවේ වැටිලා ඉන්න වෙලාවේ ඔවුන්ව ගොඩගත්තේ.

බඩු මිල වැඩි වෙලා තියෙනවා, ගෑස් මිල වැඩි වෙලා තියෙනවා, විදුලි බිල වැඩි වෙලා තියෙනවා. හැබැයි මේ වැඩි කරලා තියෙන්නේ මේ විදිහට හරි තෙල් ටික, ගෑස් ටික දීලා ණය ප්‍රතිව්‍යුහගතකරණයට යන්නයි. අපි ණය ප්‍රතිව්‍යුහගතකරණය කළේ නැත්තම් අපිට දිගටම බංකොලොත් රටක් විදිහටයි ඉන්න වෙන්නේ.

එහෙම වුනොත් තවදුරටත් අපේ රටට සල්ලි කීයක්වත් ගේන්න ලැබෙන්නේ නැහැ. තව මාස තුන හතරකට පස්සේ රටේ ප්‍රතිව්‍යුහගතකරණය වුනාට පස්සේ, ලංකාවට ආයෝජකයින් එන්න පටන් ගන්නවා, ව්‍යාපාර දියුණු වෙනවා. එතකොට මිල අඩු කිරීම කෙසේ වෙතත් හැම දෙනාගේම අතේ සල්ලි ගැවසීම වැඩි වෙනවා.

අපි රාජ්‍ය ආයතන කිසිවක් පාඩුවට දුවන්න ඉඩ දෙන්නේ නැහැ. සියලුම ආයතන පාඩු නොලබන ආයතන බවට පත්විය යුතුයි. ඒ වගේම ජනතාවගේ අතේ සල්ලි වැඩි වෙන නිසා ලොකු ගැටලුවක් ඇති වෙන්නේ නැහැ. දැන් රාජ්‍ය සේවකයින්ගේ වැටුප් වැඩිවෙනවා. ඒ වගේම අස්වැසුම ඔස්සේ සුබසාධන කටයුතු ලෙස රුපියල් පහලොස් දාහක් ලැබෙනවා.  ඒ වැඩි කටයුතු නිසා සියලුම පාර්ශවයන් සමබර වෙනවා.  

අද වෙනකොට පොලී අගය අඩුවෙලා තියෙනවා. එයින් පොඩි ව්‍යාපාරිකයාට වාසියක් වෙලා තියෙනවා. අපි කළයුත්තේ ජනතාවගේ ආදායම වැඩි කිරීමයි. ලබන අවුරුද්දේ පෙබරවාරි මාර්තු වෙනකොට තත්ත්වය ගොඩක් යහපත් අතට හැරෙයි කියලා මට කියන්න පුළුවන්.

තානාපතිවරු  තමන්ගේ නිල රාජකාරිය ගැන හරි අවබෝධයකින් වැඩ කරන්න ඕනේ. බහුතරයක් තානාපතිවරුන් ඉතාම හොදින් සේවය කරනවා. හැබැයි ඇතැම් අය තමන්ගේ තනතුරු ඔළුවට අරගෙන පුටු රත් කරමින් ඉන්න අවස්ථාත් තියෙනවා.”

Courtesy The Times of Israel

After working in Israel for a decade with families who considered her one of their own, she was murdered in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7

Anula Ratnayaka (Facebook)

Anula Ratnayaka, 49, spent 10 years as a caregiver in Israel before she was murdered by Hamas terrorists in the October 7 assault on Kibbutz Be’eri.

The Sri Lanka Daily News reported that Anula was shot dead after managing to hide Ettie Morado, the Israeli woman she was taking care of.

The report stated that the elderly woman of the house who was rescued has said, ‘I am blind. Anula was my eyes. She hid me under the bed and went forward to see what was happening.’”

On October 28, Anula’s body was repatriated to Sri Lanka and was buried in the north Colombo suburb of Kelaniya, India Today reported.

In a Facebook post, Nimisha K Varghese wrote: We have been 5 years of friendship. You are my best friend who I can run to and talk to without an introduction… language or country was not a barrier… you have been my best friend since I came to Kibutz Be’eri… I will never forget you… thank you for everything, for loving me, For all the support and everything.”

In the Facebook post, Anula can be seen in photos hanging out with friends at a branch of the Golda” ice cream chain in Israel, and in what appears to be the very familiar surroundings of a kibbutz assembly hall.

The news site BNN Breaking wrote that Anula was a resident of the town of Eriyawetiya whose hopes for a better life were tragically cut short miles away from home on foreign soil.”

The article referred to Anula as an island daughter in the heart of the conflict.” It stated that Anula was not merely a statistic” in the bloodshed of an intractable conflict, but rather, she was a 49-year-old mother of two who worked tirelessly for a decade in Israel, far from the familiar landscapes of her hometown, Eriyawetiya.”

The article added, in the grand scheme of war, Ratnayake may represent a single life lost, but she also stands as a poignant emblem of the cost of conflict.”

On October 25, a memorial was held in Petach Tikva for Anula. Friends and loved ones — Israelis, Sri Lankans and others from points beyond — came to pay their respects.

In a Facebook post, Israeli Efrat Vaknin spoke of her love for Anula, who took care of her late mother-in-law Aliza before her death a few years ago. Efrat wrote that even after Aliza died they would drive down to Be’eri to visit Anula and Etti, the elderly woman she took care of. Efrat wrote that Anula is the one who set up the WhatsApp group Family” and that we were a family in every way.”

Efrat wrote of a woman who loved people and life and always put others before herself. She also wrote that she misses the messages from Anula on Fridays wishing her Shabbat Shalom” and the sweetness she spread to all who crossed her path.

We can’t send you pictures and videos of [Efrat’s child] Cleo, and you won’t send me pictures of your trips around the kibbutz and kibbutz events, and we won’t be able to drink your tea or the delicious cookies you made. We can’t hug you anymore… Anula, we miss you so much.”

Yael Gilboa, Aliza’s niece, also eulogized Anula as devoted and with a heart of gold, she also took care of the cats in the yard, and probably also birds and other creatures… We grieve with Anula’s family and friends and send them our condolences. She will not be forgotten.”