Courtesy AdaDerana

The rapid spread of an eye infection called ‘Conjunctivitis’ has been reported from several parts of the country, according to health officials.

The Ministry of Health, which informs the general public not to have undue fears of the matter, however, has outlined some necessary safety measures in a bid to minimize the infection.

It was further confirmed however, that the eye infection poses no health threat and is most likely to improve within a span of 3 to 4 days.

Conjunctivitis or the pink eye is a common eye disease which is currently seeing a spike within the country.

Doctors predict that the disease is often spread from one individual to the other by tears and related secretions of an infected person. 

Accordingly, redness in one or both eyes, itchiness in the eyes, increased tear production, headaches, sensitivity to light and dry eyes are some common symptoms of the aforementioned eye disease, according to health officials.

As a result, the general public are urged to follow the necessary safety measures in a bid to reduce the risk of infecting the disease.

Speaking in this regard, Chief Medical Officer of the Colombo Municipal Council Dr. Ruwan Wijayamuni emphasized that spread of the disease can be minimized by following necessary safety measures such as washing hands often with soap and water, using hand sanitizers especially when using public transport and avoiding intimate contact with people. The doctor also advised the people to avoid touching the eyes in order to avoid risk of infection.

Moreover, Dr.  Wijayamuni asserted that there is no serious health threat following the infection and that the condition will improve within a span of 3 to 4 days.

Meanwhile, Dr. Hiranya Abeysekara, the Paediatric Eye Surgeon at Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children, mentioned that this eye disease is linked to the respiratory system of children, adding that symptoms will gradually reduce within a week. 

However, in certain cases the disease is likely to affect the pupil of the eye, which can affect the vision of children. If so, we advise that you urgently meet an eye surgeon and receive necessary treatment if the condition lasts for more than 05 days”, the doctor noted.

In the meantime, warnings have been made that the risk of spreading the infection is greatly amplified due to the prevailing rainfall and wet weather.

Furthermore, several classes in Kotahena Central College have already been cancelled due to the spread of the disease among children.

However, Principal of the Kotahena Central College stated that based on the advices from officials of the regional educational services, it was decided to cancel the classes of grades 6,7 and 8 for four days since around 40 children in the school had reportedly been infected with the disease as of last Thursday. 

Further, another 30 students were reported as of last Friday and 35 on Monday”, he added.

As such, the Ministry of Health has requested the general public to avoid sending their children to schools if the aforementioned symptoms are observed.

Courtesy Hiru News

The Supreme Court issued an order today, mandating that all state universities in the country must provide a comprehensive report by November 10, 2023.

This report is expected to include details on any reported incidents of ragging that have occurred at these universities over the past three years.

Furthermore, the universities are required to outline the measures and actions they have taken to prevent and address ragging within their respective institutions.

This directive comes as part of ongoing efforts to eradicate the harmful practice of ragging from the country’s higher education institutions.

By Rohana R. Wasala

To fill a world with religion, or religions of the Abrahamic kind, is like littering the streets with loaded guns. Do not be surprised if they are used.

• Richard Dawkins, ‘Science in the Soul’, Penguin, Random House, UK, 2017. 

This is an expanded and updated version of an article that I wrote in 2020 under the above title, which nevertheless has remained unpublished to date for some reason, which has slipped my memory. My decision to publish it now was prompted, not by this grim reminder of Richard Dawkins’ bleak prophecy, the harrowing TV footages of the horrific atrocities committed in Israel on innocent unarmed civilians including children, men and women, old and young: cold blooded murder, rape and torture by Hamas members shouting God is Great and images of the eerie smokefilled skies over the Gaza Strip where ferocious retaliatory Israeli strikes are flattening human dwellings to the ground with countless innocents of all ages trapped and pulped within, but  by the news of Indika Thotawatta’s arrest by the CID on the basis of complaints filed against him by a number of certain religious groups. However, this is absolutely without prejudice to ongoing legal proceedings concerning Thotawatta. It’s only that the well known phenomenon of global religious fundamentalism that he raises in a number of his YouTube video discussions reminded me of this forgotten article of mine that I think still has topical relevance.    

The Sri Lanka based ‘News Centre’ YouTube channel reported that Astrologer Indika Thotawatte was arrested by the Computer Crimes Investigation Division of  Sri Lanka Police on October 6, 2023 and was remanded till October 10 (another source said till 20), allegedly for making statements on a YouTube Channel that were deemed harmful to social and religious harmony in the country. He had arrived at the Criminal Investigation Department in com[pliance with summons delivered on him previously. The arrest was in response to complaints made against Thotawatta by some twelve (presumably, Muslim) groups. Just before he went in, he spoke to the media and explained why he had to report to the CID that day: They wanted to question him about a video that he had made about the Islamic religion. Then he touched on what he believes to be forms of harmful extremism associated with all the island’s major religions with equal passion: doctrinal and ethical shortcomings of Theravada Buddhism, Christianity/Catholicism, Hinduism, and Islam. He said: Remember that Article 14.1 of our country’s Constitution gives the follower of one religion the ‘sacred right’ to speak about or criticise another religion. This, Thotawatta asserted, was confirmed by Judge Aditya Patabendi when he released Natasha (Edirisuriya, accused of insulting Buddhist beliefs through her stand-up comedy gig) on bail. He also recalled how he supported Ali Sabry’s appointment (by president Gotabaya Rajapaksa) as Justice Minister when certain Buddhist monks opposed it. His fight, Thotawatta insisted, was for pursuing truth and the protection of the democratic right of free speech.     

For Sri Lanka, it seems, it never rains, but it pours! Indika Thotawatta’s arrest and detention has made some stir particularly in the social media. For a considerable time now I have felt that Thotawatta was overdoing his outspokenness in his frank but relentless criticism of what he considers to be purblind religiosity and mindless extremism that, in his opinion, has lately begun afflicting all the major faiths in Sri Lanka, and that is impeding the forward march of the country in both political and economic terms; most of all, it will retard the intellectual growth of the young generation. I think that the assertion of the rule of law by the authorities in this instance is very welcome in these critical times. But it should not be forgotten that the Thotawatta case could be used as  a convenient red herring by hardpressed politicians to divert public attention from more pressing problems. It is up to the law enforcement agencies to decide whether there is a serious issue to be resolved here or not. In the present context, we may be hopeful that the responsible civil authorities, religious leaders and people’s representatives in parliament will do the needful to nip it in the bud if the episode harbingers a potentially dangerous trend affecting the prevailing religious harmony in the country. 

Thotawatta believes that he is fulfilling an essential obligation he owes to society by attacking the local manifestations of the global menace of religious fundamentalism (sometimes murderous) that is based on ideological fallacies. Good intentions alone are not  enough. Ends and means must form a blameless continuity. Thotawatta’s simplistic approach threatens to be a disservice to the global anti fundamentalist cause as well as to his own personal one man crusade.

Diminutive Indika Thotawatta, described in many social and several mainstream electronic media, as a professional astrologer, has in addition made a name for himself as a self-taught free thinker, especially active in the field of religious ideologies. Indika has been in the limelight from around 2015, as far as I can remember. He should be around 35 years of age, if not younger, but looks may be deceptive. Though almost totally blind from birth, he displays remarkable intellectual powers, including a good retentive memory and an incisive analytical faculty. Over the years, he has become increasingly provocative as a passionate critic of dangerous religious fundamentalism, which, he believes, is fast undermining the hitherto prevalent peaceful religious coexistence and social harmony in multicultural Sri Lanka. He also attacks not only what he thinks are ‘weak points’ in each of the four main religious doctrines followed in the island and, sometimes, even questions the morality of religious masters, which obviously doesn’t go down well with devout followers of those religions.  

What you are going to read from this point onwards is the updated version of my original essay composed in 2020.

Whatever religious faith we belong to, or whether or not we profess any such faith, we are all being threatened by a virulent kind of global religious fundamentalism that is undermining the very foundation of human civilization. The fount of this mindless religious extremism is America itself, the only superpower in the world today.  Neuroscientist Dr Sam Harris’s slim volume, New York Times bestseller, Letter to a Christian Nation” (Bantam Press/Transworld Publishers, London, 2007) dealt with what he described as a moral and intellectual emergency” facing  his nation (America) in the form of a potentially self-destructive and violent religious fanaticism resulting from blind faith in religious dogma. He was careful to tell us that though the book was addressed to Christians in the United States, it was intended for people of all faiths around the world. It presented a well argued case against all forms of doctrinaire religion. Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, well-known for his active involvement in an educational moral crusade against irrational religious faith, wrote a persuasive foreword to the book, which he ended by urging readers to read it: ‘Whether it stirs you to defensive or offensive action, it will not leave you unchanged. Read it if it is the last thing you do…’. Though published sixteen years ago, it still remains relevant to the world (and is still available as a classic). 

Harris identifies the respect we accord religious faith” as an impediment to any intellectually honest, rational discourse on morals, spirituality, and the problem of human suffering:

One of the greatest challenges facing civilization in the twenty-first century is for human beings to learn to speak about their deepest personal concerns – about ethics, spiritual experience, and the inevitability of human suffering – in ways that are not flagrantly irrational. We desperately need a public discourse that encourages critical thinking and intellectual honesty. Nothing stands in the way of this project more than the respect we accord religious faith.” (p.87)

We like to believe that all religions propagate the same message to humanity without contradiction: love your neighbour, avoid violence, don’t kill, don’t steal, practise sensual restraint, in short, live a moral life. But the truth is that strict adherence to the articles of faith found in one religion often alienates a person from fellow human beings who happen to profess a different religion. This estrangement can take a violent turn unless checked by what is known as religious tolerance. The problem is that tolerance could be incompatible with being faithful to one’s own religion if it insists on being fundamentalist” (in the sense in which the word was originally used in America around the beginning of the twentieth century). This once innocuous coinage shed its original harmless associations of scriptural authenticity, purity, etc at least some forty or fifty years ago (about the time of the Iranian Revolution of 1979 led by Ruhollah Khomeini, that overthrew the America-friendly Iranian monarchy) and has now acquired very negative connotations. Today ‘fundamentalism’ is a heavily loaded word in both religious and secular contexts. Any movement that is prone to violent ideologies and practices tends to be dubbed ‘fundamentalist’.

Yet religions are not usually accused of deliberately preaching violence even by the faithful of rival (i.e. other) religions. A discrete silence is always maintained on this point (as it has to be, because the same allegation can be levelled against any religion, in addition to the fact that respect for religious beliefs demands such silence). Sectarianism in the interpretation of the dogmas often divides people of the same faith against one another, and this leads to internecine conflicts. Examples would be redundant as this is an obvious fact often encountered in the Christian and Muslim worlds. Unprecedentedly, even the Sri Lankan Buddhist establishment is getting riven by non-traditional sectarian divisions based on new doctrinal interpretations of the accepted sacred texts, that are propagated by self-proclaimed Arhants, Buddha was born in Sri Lanka theorists, all religions preach the same message propagandists in yellow robes posing as Buddhist monks, and so on. One of the last mentioned category, one Somaloka Thera, was heard telling a congregation of Buddhists that Islam is the best religion in the world (showing his ignorance of the basic fact that Buddhism is not a deistic, but a Dharmic, religion) for which he drew a sharp response from Thotawatta.

Non-religionists like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins, who genuinely care for the future of humanity, for the survival of human civilization, and for general human wellbeing, have begun to speak out before it is too late. Though they are still in a minority, they are a compelling presence in the media including cyberspace, and they are making an impact on the collective conscience of humanity. Their passionate call for the exercise of rational thought in matters of the deepest personal concern for us must be heeded before we blindly allow ourselves to be devoured by the monster of irrationality in the guise of the sacred in religious ideology and practice. 

Sam Harris, an American born and bred in a Christian culture, argues that the central dogmas of its religion are nothing but meaningless fiction, finding evidence for his conclusions in core religious texts. As Richard Dawkins says in his foreword to the book, Sam Harris doesn’t mess about.” He is direct and blunt. He acknowledges his Christian reader as a serious believer, and puts himself on level ground with the latter at the beginning, and challenges them to prove him wrong if that is the case, but through rational debate. Obviously, this is not a face-to-face argument with the author. Christian (and other) believers are invited to take him on and try to survive his onslaught. Considering the gravity of the situation we are facing under the global hegemony of America whose government is being dominated by a narrow, virulent type of Christian orthodoxy as Harris explains, reading the book and taking follow-up action if necessary will not be a waste of time, to put it in the form of an understatement. It must be emphasised that this is not an attack on or a rejection of the truly valuable ethical content of the central Christian text, if the ethics is based on rational grounds. 

We have an exemplar of Christian morality in Mother Teresa. Following is what Harris says about her:

Mother Theresa is a perfect example of the way in which a good person, moved to help others, can have her moral institutions deranged by religious faith. British American columnist and author the late Christopher Hitchens put it with characteristic bluntness:

[Mother Teresa] was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction.”

Harris agrees with the substance of what Hitchens is saying here. But he doesn’t deny that

 Mother Teresa was a great force for compassion. Clearly, she was moved by the suffering of her fellow human beings, and she did much to awaken others to the reality of that suffering. The problem, however, was that her compassion was channelled within the rather steep walls of her religious dogmatism…”

Presumably, I need not remind the reader, Hitchens above is alluding  to Mother Teresa’s absolute opposition to abortion, regarding which Harris writes:

……. Mother Teresa’s compassion was very badly calibrated if the killing of first-trimester foetuses disturbed her more than all the other suffering she witnessed on this earth. While abortion is an ugly reality, and we should all hope for breakthroughs in contraception that reduce the need for it, one can reasonably wonder whether most aborted fetuses suffer their destruction on any level. One cannot reasonably wonder this about the millions of men, women, and children who must endure the torments of war, famine, political torture, or mental illness. At this very moment, millions of sentient people are suffering unimaginable physical and mental afflictions, in circumstances where the compassion of God is nowhere to be seen, and the compassion of human beings is often hobbled by preposterous ideas about sin and salvation. If you are worried about human suffering, abortion should rank very low on your list of concerns.”

(pp. 35-36)

 Incidentally, this quote about Mother Teresa is from an article by the aforementioned Christopher Hitchens in the magazine Vanity Fair in 2003. It is available on the internet. There are also many videos on YouTube that reveal the truth about ‘holy’ characters such as Mother Teresa and Sai Baba. No wonder it is said that religions come to the Internet to die. Of course, there are systems of spiritual belief such as Jainism and Buddhism that are not religions in the sense I am using the term here and are not prone to murderously violent fundamentalism, although they are also traditionally put under the category of religion.

Harris says that religion in fact is a biological phenomenon. It is a product of cognitive processes with deep roots in our evolutionary past. Religion probably served a useful purpose at a certain stage of our evolution by serving to create social cohesion among large groups of prehistoric humans. But it has outlived its usefulness in that sense. The normal belief among the religious is that there cannot be any morality without the existence of a law-giving God. And the believers of each particular religion are sure that no morality can exist outside their own faith. But this is a misconception as Dr Harris argues. (Here, I think, Harris is implicitly drawing on evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins’ concept of the ‘meme’ (a neologism that the latter coined). Dawkins elaborated what he meant by meme in his classic The Selfish Gene (1976). A meme refers to a notion, belief, tune, behaviour, or practice, etc that gets culturally transmitted down generations in the brains of individuals in a particular society (Ref. Chapter 11/ Memes: The New Replicators/pp 189-201/The Selfish Gene/30th anniversary edition/Oxford University Press/New Delhi/2006). The God idea is such a meme. This knowledge was not available to our classic euro-centric anthropologists, colonial clones of native origin, who could not do better than mislead and alienate, through their poorly educated blind followers, the present generation of the Sinhalese Buddhist community about the immanent Buddhist values that define their unique cultural identity, heritage, and predict the trajectory of their future as a nation with a civilised past. This may be seen as a digression, but I think it is relevant in the current context. (Incidentally, Sam Harris does not explicitly refer to Richard Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene” as a source, but he mentions the latter’s The God Delusion”.)

There is no agreement about ethics among different religious communities, which does not make for harmonious existence. But the truth is that there are objective sources of moral order that do not require any divine law-giver. As morality is about problems of human happiness and suffering, there need only be better and worse ways to secure the first and eliminate the second. There are psychological laws that govern human wellbeing, and a knowledge of these, according to Harris, would provide an enduring basis for an objective morality. Though we have not arrived at anything like a final scientific understanding of human morality we are sure that killing and rape cannot be part of it; we also know that love, rather than hate, is one of the greatest sources of our own happiness, and that it involves a deep concern for the happiness and suffering of those we love. Our own quest for happiness, therefore, provides a rationale for altruism and self-denial. The important thing is that we need not believe anything on insufficient evidence to lead a moral life.

What socially concerned people like Sam Harris look forward to is a religion-less society with good morals. They acknowledge that their wish for a complete elimination of religion (religious belief based on assumptions about reality unsupported by evidence) is not likely to be fulfilled in the foreseeable future. But Sam Harris draws an analogy between religion and slavery in America in this regard. Slavery was so entrenched in that society that it was a waste of time, a dangerous waste of time, to talk with confidence about eradicating it in the year 1775; but it was completely abolished some eighty years later. Religion is probably moving towards such a fate already, despite wishful claims to the contrary that we hear. We today are more confident of this trend than Dr Harris was in 2007.

As we have seen, Sam Harris includes all religions in his criticism. He warns against the spread of a very militant form of Islam in Europe, which he finds as obnoxious as Christian fundamentalism. Addressing his compatriot Christians (and by implication, people of all faiths everywhere) he says in conclusion:

Non-believers like myself stand beside you, dumbstruck by the Muslim hordes who chant death to whole nations of the living. But we are dumb struck by you as well – by your denial of tangible reality, by the suffering you create in service to your religious myths, and by your attachment to an imaginary God. This letter has been an expression of that amazement – and perhaps a little hope.”

The establishment of a nonreligious ethical system, essentially through secular moral education, which will replace harmful, divisive, and primitive beliefs in meeting a person’s social and emotional needs will be the answer. With proper guidance and education provided by the enlightened in every community, with their differing cultures, it is possible to usher in such a society. That the ethical teachings of major religions (in a neutral sense) have much in common is a source of hope and consolation for all humanity. That is the only hope against religious fundamentalism that exists today. However, education will not be able to banish religion overnight. It is likely to take several generations of intellectually emancipated parents for humanity to put an end to irrational  religious faith. The reason for this is that religious belief transmission down generations of human beings takes place usually through childhood indoctrination, which could  cause even the greatest scientist alive  to give up their science in favour of a false religion.

NY Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/30/world/europe/vatican-repudiates-doctrine-of-discovery-colonization.html

Joint Statement of the Dicasteries for Culture and Education and for Promoting Integral Human Development on the Doctrine of Discovery”, 30.03.2023

https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2023/03/30/230330b.html

1. In fidelity to the mandate received from Christ, the Catholic Church strives to promote universal fraternity and respect for the dignity of every human being.

2. For this reason, in the course of history the Popes have condemned acts of violence, oppression, social injustice, and slavery, including those committed against indigenous peoples. There have also been numerous examples of bishops, priests, women, and men religious and lay faithful who gave their lives in defense of the dignity of those peoples.

3. At the same time, respect for the facts of history demands an acknowledgment of the human weakness and failings of Christ’s disciples in every generation. Many Christianshave committed evil acts against indigenous peoples for which recent Popes have asked forgiveness on numerous occasions.

4. In our own day, a renewed dialogue with indigenous peoples, especially with those who profess the Catholic Faith, has helped the Church to understand better their values and cultures. With their help, the Church has acquired a greater awareness of their sufferings, past and present, due to the expropriation of their lands, which they consider a sacred gift from God and their ancestors, as well as the policies of forced assimilation, promoted by the governmental authorities of the time, intended to eliminate their indigenous cultures. As Pope Francis has emphasized, their sufferings constitute a powerful summons to abandon the colonizing mentality and to walk with them side by side, in mutual respect and dialogue, recognizing the rights and cultural values of all individuals and peoples. In this regard, the Church is committed to accompany indigenous peoples and to foster efforts aimed at promoting reconciliation and healing.

5. It is in this context of listening to indigenous peoples that the Church has heard the importance of addressing the concept referred to as the doctrine of discovery.” The legal concept of discovery” was debated by colonial powers from the sixteenth century onward and found particular expression in the nineteenth-century jurisprudence of courts in several countries, according to which the discovery of lands by settlers granted an exclusive right to extinguish, either by purchase or conquest, the title to or possession of those lands by indigenous peoples. Certain scholars have argued that the basis of the aforementioned doctrine” is to be found in several papal documents, such as the Bulls Dum Diversas (1452), Romanus Pontifex (1455), and Inter Caetera (1493).

6. The doctrine of discovery” is not part of the teaching of the Catholic Church. Historical research clearly demonstrates that the papal documents in question, written in a specific historical period and linked to political questions, have never been considered expressions of the Catholic faith. At the same time, the Church acknowledges that these papal bulls did not adequately reflectthe equal dignity and rights of indigenous peoples. The Church is also aware that the contents of these documents were manipulated for political purposes by competing colonial powers in order to justify immoral acts against indigenous peoples that were carried out, at times, without opposition from ecclesiastical authorities. It is only just to recognize these errors, acknowledge the terrible effects of the assimilation policies and the pain experienced by indigenous peoples, and ask for pardon. Furthermore, Pope Francis has urged: Never again can the Christian community allow itself to be infected by the idea that one culture is superior to others, or that it is legitimate to employ ways of coercing others.”

7. In no uncertain terms, the Church’s magisterium upholds the respect due to every human being. The Catholic Church therefore repudiates those concepts that fail to recognize the inherent human rights of indigenous peoples, including what has become known as the legal and political doctrine of discovery”.

8. Numerous and repeated statements by the Church and the Popes uphold the rights of indigenous peoples. For example, in the 1537 Bull Sublimis Deus, Pope Paul III wrote,We define and declare [ … ] that [, .. ] the said Indians and all other people who may later be discovered by Christians, are by no means to be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property, even though they be outside the Christian faith; and that they may and should, freely and legitimately, enjoy their liberty and possession of their property; nor should they be in any way enslaved; should the contrary happen, it shall be null and have no effect”.

9. More recently, the Church’s solidarity with indigenous peoples has given rise to the Holy See’s strong support for the principles contained in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The implementation of those principles would improve the living conditions and help protect the rights of indigenous peoples as well as facilitate their development in a way that respects their identity, language, and culture.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ආර්ථිකය ප්‍රකෘතිමත් කිරීමේ ක්‍රියාවලියට තම රට අඛණ්ඩව සහාය දෙන බව පැවසූ ජපාන පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ විදේශ කටයුතු පිළිබඳ නියෝජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය කොමුරා මසහිරෝ( Komura Masahiro)  මහතා කෙටි කාලයක් තුළ ආර්ථිකය ස්ථාවර කර තවදුරටත් ප්‍රගතිය අත්කර ගැනීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් රජයට ප්‍රශංසාව පළ කළේ ය. රජය විසින් සිදු කරන ලද ව්‍යුහාත්මක ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණ විදේශ ආයෝජන සඳහා හිතකර වාතාවරණය වැඩිදියුණු කරනු ඇති බවට ඔහු විශ්වාසය පළ කළේය.

අද (2023.10.10)  අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේ දී අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන මහතා සමඟ පැවති සාකච්ඡාවේදී ජපාන විදේශ අමාත්‍යවරයා කියා සිටියේ ඉන්දියානු සාගර වටද්දර රටවල සංගමයට සහභාගී වීමට ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට පැමිණි සංචාරය අතරතුර ද්විපාර්ශ්වික සහයෝගීතාව සම්බන්ධයෙන් ශ්‍රී ලාංකික නායකයන් සමඟ කටයුතු කිරීමේ අවස්ථාව ලැබුණු බව යි. ඉන්දියානු සාගර වටද්දර රටවල සංගමයේ සභාපති වශයෙන් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ කටයුතු කරන වසර දෙකක ධුර කාලය අතරතුර ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට පූර්ණ සහයෝගය ලබා දෙන බවට ඔහු සහතික විය.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ඉන්දියන් සාගරයේ මුහුදු මාර්ගවල උපායමාර්ගික සන්ධිස්ථානයක පිහිටා ඇති අතර නිදහස් හා විවෘත ඉන්දු පැසිෆික් ප්‍රතිපත්තියක් සාක්ෂාත් කර ගැනීමේ වැදගත් හවුල්කරුවෙකු වන බව මෙහිදී සඳහන් කළ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා,පොදු ප්‍රතිපත්ති සමඟ දෙරට අතර සමීප සහයෝගීතාවයේ වැදගත්කම අවධාරණය කළේ ය.

ගාසා තීරයේ ගැටුම් උත්සන්න වීම පිළිබඳව දැඩි සැලකිල්ල පළ කළ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා, කියා සිටියේ කොවිඩ් වසංගතය ගෝලීය ආර්ථික පසුබෑමකට හේතු වූ බවත් ලෝකයට, විශේෂයෙන් සංවර්ධනය වෙමින් පවතින රටවලට යුද ගැටුමක් හේතුවෙන් තවත් එවැනි ව්‍යසනයකට මුහුණ දිය නොහැකි බවත් ය. ප්‍රචණ්ඩත්වය වහා නතර කරන ලෙස ඔහු ගැටුමට සම්බන්ධ දෙපාර්ශ්වයෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටියේ ය.

ණය ප්‍රතිව්‍යුහගත කිරීමේ ක්‍රියාවලිය සඳහා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ලබාදුන් සහයෝගය පිළිබඳව ජපාන අමාත්‍යවරයාට ස්තූතිය පළ කළ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා, විනිවිද පෙනෙන සහ  තුලනාත්මක ණය ප්‍රතිව්‍යුහගත කිරීමේ ක්‍රියාවලියක් සඳහා ශ්‍රී ලංකාව කැපවී සිටින බවට සහතික විය.

ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය අරමුදල සමඟ ඇති කර ගත් ගිවිසුමට අනුව ප්‍රතිපත්ති සම්පාදන ක්‍රියාවලිය ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමට ශ්‍රී ලංකාව දරන උත්සාහය අගය කළ ජපාන අමාත්‍ය කොමුරා මසහිරෝ, ශ්‍රී ලංකාව හැකි ඉක්මනින් පූර්ණ සංවර්ධනයේ නිවැරදි මාවතට අවතීර්ණ වනු ඇතැයි අපේක්ෂා කරන බව සදහන් කළේ ය.

ජපාන තානාපති මිසුකොෂි හිදෙයාකි,( Mizukoshi Hideaki) නියෝජ්‍ය අමාත්‍යවරයාගේ ලේකම් නනාවෝ එයිචිරෝ, (Nanao Eiichi) නිරිතදිග ආසියානු කටයුතු අංශයේ අධ්‍යක්ෂ ත්සුට්සුමි ටාරෝ, (Tsutsumi Taro) හා අධ්‍යක්ෂ ටොකිටා යුජි ( Tokita Yuji) නියෝජිත කණ්ඩායමට ඇතුළත් වූ හ.

අමාත්‍ය රොෂාන් රණසිංහ, රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍යවරුන් වන සිසිර ජයකොඩි, ජානක වක්කුඹුර, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී යදාමිණි ගුණවර්ධන, අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ලේකම් අනුර දිසානායක, හා කොළඹ විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ උපකුලපති මහාචාර්ය එච්. ඩී. කරුණාරත්න යන මහත්වරු ද මෙම හමුවට එක්ව සිටිය හ.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

Ministry of Defence  – Media Centre

The Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS) handed over a consignment of fifteen thousand (15,000) bottles of drinking water to State Minister of Defence Hon. Premitha Bandara Tennakoon today (Oct 10) at the Ministry of Disaster Management intended to be distributed among flood affected communities in the Galle and Matara districts.

The SLRCS had made the donation as flood affected communities in these areas were facing drinking water shortage due to floods contaminating wells and water drawing sources of the Water Supply Board.

SLRCS Senior Vice President Jagath Abeyasinghe said that the donation was made as an immediate relief measure to provide safe drinking water to the flood affected people. 

The day to day lives of these communities have been severely affected as the floods have caused widespread damages to houses and property including agricultural land and caused disruption to educational and business activities in these areas.

State Minister Tennakoon had also requested the SLRCS to appeal to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for support to assist the flood affected communities.

The SLRCS Executive Committee Member Dr. Amila Kankanamge, Additional Secretary Ministry of Disaster Management (Disaster Management Division) K.G. Darmathilake and a group of SLRCS officials were also present at the event.

LankaLeader

ඇමරිකා එක්සත් ජනපදයේ ස්ටැන්ෆර්ඩ් විශ්ව විද්‍යාලය සහ එල්සිවයර් ප්‍රකාශකයන් එක්ව කරන ලද නවතම ශ්‍රේණිගත කිරීම්වලට අනුව ශ්‍රී ලාංකික විද්‍යාඥයෝ 35 දෙනෙක් ලොව ප්‍රමුඛ පෙළේ විද්‍යාඥයන් 2% අතරට ඇතුලත්ව ඇත. වාර්ෂිකව මෙම ශ්‍රේණිගත කිරීම ඉදිරිපත් කරයි. මෙම වර්ෂය සඳහා එම ශ්‍රේණිගත කිරීම පසුගිය සතියේ එළිදැක්විණි.

මෙලෙස ඇගයීමට ලක් වූ ශ්‍රී ලාංකික විද්‍යාඥයන් අතර මෙත්තිකා විතානගේ, රනිල් ජයවර්ධන, ජනක ඒකනායක, සේනක රාජපක්ෂ, සරෝජ් ජයසිංහ, මොහාන් මුණසිංහ, එස්.ඒ.එම් කුලරත්න යන ශ්‍රී ලාංකික මහාචාර්ය මහාචාර්යවරියෝ ද වෙති. රජරට විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයේ ඖෂධ විද්‍යාව පිලිබඳ මහාචාර්යවරයා ලෙස කටයුතු කල අනුරාධපුර දිස්ත්‍රික් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී චන්න ජයසුමන මහතා අඛණ්ඩව තුන් වෙනි වරටත් මෙම ලයිස්තුවට ඇතුලත්ව තිබීම විශේෂත්වයකි. ලැයිස්තුවට ඇතුලත් ශ්‍රී ලංකික විද්‍යාඥයන්ගෙන් බහුතරය වෛද්‍ය විද්‍යා ක්ෂේත්‍රයට සම්බන්ධ විද්වතුන්ය.

By P.K.Balachandran/Daily Mirror

Buddhist monks protest on land issue

Colombo, October 10: Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province is again becoming a contested region between ethnic groups. This time round it is more between the Tamils and Sinhalese, with the Muslims in the periphery. This is because of the change in the balance of power between the three communities after the end of the war in May 2009.

When the war was raging, the LTTE had dominance and the contestation was between the Tamils and the Muslims over land. After the defeat of the LTTE, the balance of power shifted in favour of the Sinhalese and the Sinhalese-dominated State apparatus. The contestation is again over land, more typically, the historical title to land.

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The Tamils consider the Eastern Province as their Homeland” with a hoary past marked by continuous settlement. They demand devolution of power in matters of land and law and order. The Sinhalese challenge these claims, also on historical grounds and desire to expand territorially to reclaim their lost” rights.

In the early years of independence, the Sinhalese had claimed land in the Eastern province through government-sponsored settlement schemes. But now, lands are being appropriated by the various government departments for development, archaeology and forest preservation. The Buddhist monks have jumped into the fray by claiming lands for temples on the ground that these lands once housed Buddhist temples.

The Archaeology department, strengthened by a Presidential Task Force and under the direction of the Buddha Sasana Ministry, is conducting excavations to discover ancient Buddhist temples. Buddhist monks are building temples to lay claim to lands.

The State, the Buddhist clergy and the Sinhalese majority see this as a legitimate endeavour also on the grounds that no community can mark off any area of the island as an exclusive communal preserve. They point out that there is no bar on Tamils’ buying land in Sinhalese-majority areas in the island. On the Tamils’ objection to the building of Buddhist temples in Tamil-majority areas, the Sinhalese point out that Hindu temples abound in Sinhalese-majority areas.

The Tamils on the other hand, see a sinister design in acquiring lands in the Tamil-majority areas. It is a move to change the ethnic distribution with the ultimate aim of making the Tamils a minority in the Eastern province, thereby knocking the bottom out of the Tamil case that the Eastern Province is their Homeland”.

Tamils never tire of pointing out how, over the years, their proportion in the Eastern districts have been waning and the Sinhalese proportions are waxing

Tamils also fear a comprehensive loss of power on the island as a whole. They ask for provincial autonomy because they cannot share power at the Centre meaningfully given their permanent minority status. It is pointed out that they will always be a small minority in parliament given Sri Lanka’s population distribution.

On the issue of the building of Buddhist temples in the Tamil-majority areas, the Tamils’ case is that the building activity is not motivated by piety but by an agenda to claim and seize the land around the new shrines with the help of government departments and the police.  

The Tamils argue that there is no rationale for building Buddhist temples where there are hardly any Buddhists and point out that, in contrast, no Hindu temple is built where there are no Hindus.    

Recently, The Hindu newspaper reported an issue in which Sinhalese Buddhists had built a stupa near the Aadi Aiyanar temple in Kurunthurmalai in Mullaitivu district with the help of the Department of Archaeology; and the Sri Lanka Army and Civil Security Force for the excavation and conservation.” 

It is pointed out that the Sri Lankan archaeology is not communally neutral as the Department of Archaeology functions under the Ministry of Buddha Sasana. The Presidential Task Force on preserving archaeological evidence in the Eastern Province set up by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had no non-Buddhists and was put under the Defence Ministry to boot.   

The report in The Hindu said that in the three years since the Task Force panel was set up, at least 23 new Buddhist shrines had come  up in Kuchchaveli in Trincomalee district, in villages where Sinhalese constituted roughly 1% of the population, as per official sources.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe forbade Buddhist monks from ordering or carrying out archaeological excavations and to leave that to the Archaeology Department. But as pointed out earlier, the Archaeology Department is under the Ministry of the Buddha Sasana.

According to Fr. Rajan Rohaan of the Church Commission for Peace and Justice, there have been increasing instances where Buddhist monks have entered either state land or lands given to religious institutions and intimidated the occupants, expelling them from their properties and erecting new boundaries.

According to Fr.Rohaan, historically, land in the Eastern Province has been allocated on ethnicity basis. Lands are identified as either Tamil, Muslim or Sinhalese and allotted accordingly.

Historicity

Historical evidence is used both by the Sinhalese and the Tamils to make contradictory claims to spaces. It is not known when the Tamils first settled in Sri Lanka, but reputed historians agree that South Indian invasions from the First century BC to the 13th century AD resulted in Tamil migration. By the 11th and 12th centuries, the upper half of the eastern province had a large Tamil community even as per the Kokila Sandesa as the Mukkara Hatana.

The Tamils consider the Saivite temples in the Eastern Province to be very ancient. For example, the Koneswaran temple in Trincomalee is dated variously between 1580 BC and 205 BC.

On the other hand, the Sinhalese claim that Trincomalee is actually the ancient Sinhalese port of Gokarna. According to one source, the the conversion of Gokarna to Tirukonamalai (Tricomalee)  first appears in a Tamil inscription ascribed to the 10th or the 11th century A.D. The Buddhist Vihara at Gokarna called Sri Gokarna Vihara was built in the reign of King Mahasen (276-303 A.D). 

However, many renowned scholars say that it will be inaccurate to claim that only Sinhalese could be Buddhists and that all Buddhist archaeological remains necessarily indicate a Sinhalese connection. Dr.Nirmala Chandrahasan recalls that during Pallava rule in South India (400-650 A.D) Buddhism flourished there. The Chinese monk scholar Huan Tsang, who visited Kancheepuram in the 7th century AD, states that most of its population was Buddhist, with about 100 monasteries and thousands of monks, including monks from Sri Lanka.

Kanchipuram was also the native city of Dharmapala, the Rector of the famed Nalanda Buddhist University. During the Chola period from the mid 9th century to the early 13th century in Tamil Nadu Buddhism prevalent there. The Mahavamsa mentions that in the 13th Century, King Parakramabahu of Dambedeniya got down monks and scriptures from the Chola (Tamil) country to revive Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Chief among these monks was Dhammakitti who wrote the continuation of the Mahavamsa from the time of King Srimevan up to his time.

Among the learned Tamil Buddhist monks who came to Sri Lanka were Ven. Bhuddhadatta, Ven. Buddhagosha and Ven. Dharmapala. They lived and wrote their works such as the Visudhimagga at the Mahavihara in Anuradhapura.

However, this syncretic past has been forgotten or has been deliberately ignored by the Sinhalese Buddhists as well as the Tamil Hindus. In the present political context, zealots from both the communities want to stress their ethnic and religious separateness rather than the common elements which bind them.

The objective is to make claims either to establish exclusivist ghettos or to establish ethnic cum religious hegemony.

Among the Sinhalese, the fear of Tamil consolidation in one area evokes fears of secession because the only place in the world that the Sinhalese are native to is the island of Sri Lanka. But for the Tamils, loss of their traditional lands and the dilution of their proportion there amount to denying them a place they can legitimately call their Homeland.

This conflict appears to be insolvable in the absence of an over-arching political and moral leadership that can bridge the two.

Courtesy Adaderana

Japanese Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Komura Masahiro stated that his country would continue to support Sri Lanka’s economic recovery process and congratulated the government for stabilizing the economy during a short span of time and making further progress. 

He has also expressed confidence that structural reforms undertaken by the government would improve the conducive atmosphere for foreign investments.

During his discussion with Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena at the Temple Trees this morning (Oct 10), the Japanese Vice-Minister said that his visit to Sri Lanka to attend the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) has given him an opportunity to interact with Sri Lankan leadership regarding bilateral cooperation. He assured fullest support to Sri Lanka at IORA, during its 2-year tenure as Chairman. 

The Prime Minister, referring to the fact that Sri Lanka is situated at strategic juncture along the sea lanes of the Indian Ocean and an important partner in realizing a free and open Indo-Pacific policy, emphasized the importance of close cooperation between the two countries with common principles. 

Expressing deep concern over escalation of conflict in Gaza Stripe, he said that the Covid-19 pandemic had resulted in global economic downturn and the world, especially the developing countries could not face another such disaster over a military conflict. 

Furthermore, he urged the two sides involved in the conflict to cease violence immediately, the PM’s Office said in a statement. 

The Prime Minister thanked the Japanese Vice-Minister for the support extended to Sri Lanka for the debt restructuring process and assured that Sri Lanka is committed to a transparent and comparable debt restructuring process.

Masahiro commended Sri Lanka’s efforts in implementing the policy making process in accordance with the agreement with the IMF, and expressed his hope that Sri Lanka will bring itself back on track for development as soon as possible.

The delegation included Japanese Ambassador, Mizukoshi Hideaki, Secretary to the Vice Minister, Nanao Eiichiro, Southwest Asian Affairs Director Tsutsumi Taro Division and Director Tokita Yuji.

Minister Roshan Ranasinghe, State Ministers Sisira Jayakody and Janaka Wakkumbura, MP Yadamini Gunawardena, Secretary to the Prime Minister, Anura Dissanayake and Vice Chancellor of Colombo University Prof. H D Karunaratne were also present at this meeting.

Courtesy Adaderana

(Bloomberg) – China said one of its financial institutions has reached a preliminary agreement with Sri Lanka on resolving China-related debt, a potentially major step toward resolving the South Asian nation’s fiscal woes.

The deal involving Export-Import Bank of China was reached late last month, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Tuesday at a regular press briefing in Beijing. Wang didn’t give details on how the debt was resolved, and officials in Sri Lanka didn’t immediately respond to request for comment.

Chinese financial institutions have fully participated in creditors’ meetings as observers, maintain friendly communication with other creditors and have shared developments on debt disposal,” Wang said.

The deal puts Sri Lanka closer to completing its debt restructuring, as the nation boosts efforts to win agreements with other creditors such as Japan and India, as well as with holders of its foreign bonds. China accounts for about 52% of the bankrupt nation’s bilateral debt. Reaching a deal quickly will allow Sri Lanka to keep tapping funds from its $3 billion bailout program with the International Monetary Fund.

Sri Lankan dollar bonds due 2030 were steady at 45.8 cents on the dollar. The nation’s dollar bonds had returned more than 50% this year, according to a Bloomberg index.

Bloomberg News reported last month that some members on the committee of Sri Lanka’s official creditors were pushing to reach a deal to restructure the nation’s debt without China’s participation.

The members wanted the group of major creditors to sign a memorandum of understanding with Sri Lanka around the time of the IMF and World Bank meetings which are ongoing in Marrakesh, Morocco.

Separately, Sri Lanka may be able to draw the outlines of a deal with holders of its defaulted dollar bonds as early as this month, Bloomberg reported in September.

Sri Lanka in September agreed to restructure about $10 billion of local debt.

-Agencies

චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම, LL.B., Ph.D

(ඥානසාර හිමියන්ගේ මස් රාත්තල හා ලාල් කාන්තගේ පිරිත් නූල නිසා භීතියට පත්වූ සේපාල්)

JVP බිමල් රත්නායක  බොරුකාරයෙක්!

මෙම ලිපි මාලාවේ හතරවෙනි කොටස ලිවීමට පසු, බොදු බල සේනා සංවිධානයේ ඥානසාර හිමියන් විසින් පැවැත්වූ මාධ්‍ය සාකච්චාව දැකීමෙන් පසු, මෙම පස්වෙනි කොටසේ ලියන්නට සිතා සිටි දේ වෙනස් කිරීමට සිදුවිය. ඊට හේතුව බිමල් රත්නායක නම් JVP නායකයා බයිබල් බෙල්ට් එකේ වෙන්නප්පුවේදී කල අසත්‍ය (දුෂ්ඨ?) කතාවක් ඥානසාර හිමියන් විසින් එලිකල නිසාය. 

වල් බූරු  නිදහස

අනුර කුමාරට හා සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාසට හෘදය ශාක්ෂියක් නැතැයි යනුවෙන් උදාහරණ දෙමින් නාගානන්ද කොඩිතුවක්කු විසින් කරණ නිගමනය JVP නායක සෙට් එකටම  අදාල බව මේ බිමාල්  වැනියන්ගේ වංචනික හැසිරීමෙන් එලිවේ. මෙවැනි කතා නිසා කතෝලික ජනයාට ඥානසාර හිමියන් ගැන ද්වේෂයක් ඇතිවන බව මේ ගොනා දන්නේ නැද්ද? Face Book, You Tube යනාදිය මඟින් ලෝකයේ සෑම පුද්ගලයෙකුටම ලැබුණ තම අදහස් නිර්භය ලෙස  ප්‍රකාශ කිරීමේ නිදහස (self-empowerment) කියන්නේ වල් බූරු  නිදහසකටද?  තවත් රට ගොනෙක් වන පානදුරේ ලාල් පෙරේරා JVP ට ගෙන දෙන්නේ බලවත් අපකීර්තියකි. ලාල් කරණා  වනචාරී ප්‍රකාශවලට පිළිතුරු නොදිය යුත්තේ එක් ජාතකකතාවක එන බෝධිසත්ව සිංහයා අශූචි තැවරුණු ඌරන්ගේ අභියෝගය ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කලා මෙන්මය.

උසාවිය ගැන ගොන්කතා කීමෙන් තමන් කරන්නේ උසාවියට අපහාස කිරීමක් බව මේ  JVP පානදුරේ ලාල්ට කවුරුන්හෝ අවවාද කලයුතුය. කොලයක් බලාගෙන මේ කරගෙනයන අසත්‍ය ප්‍රකාශ වලට එරෙහිව ඥානසාර හිමියන් විසින් ඔහුගෙන් වන්දි ඉල්ලා එන්තරවාසියක් (letter of demand) එන දිනය ඈතක නොවේයයි මම සිතමි. එවිට ඔහුගේ වචන වලට අනුව සඳුන් ගසක් වන JVP පක්ෂය, ඔහුට සමන් වැලක් මෙන් එහි එතෙන්නට දේවියයි ඔහු දවල් හීන දකිනවා විය යුතුය. JVP වෙනුවෙන් දිවා රෑ කඩේ ගිය සේපාල්ව හිරභාරයට ගත් විට ඔහු අනාථවූ හැටි අපි දුටුවෙමු.

සුනිල් හඳුන්නෙත්ති

JVP නායකයින් අතර හඳුන්නෙත්ති වෙනස් පුදගලයෙකු විය. ඔහු පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සිටිය යුතු අයෙක් යැයි මතයක් පවා  ගොඩනැඟුනේ ඒ නිසාය. ආගම අබිං, දුටුගැමුණු රජතුමා ගඩොල් මෝඩයෙක්, සර් ඩී. බී ජයතිලක ඇබිත්තයෙක් යනාදී මාක්ස්වාදීන්ගේ කතා ඉදිරියේ ඊට වෙනස් ආකල්ප JVP සමහර නායකයින්ට තිබී ඇත. තම දරුවන් බෞතීස්ම නොකරන්නැයි විජේවීර සිය ක්‍රිස්තියානි බිරිඳට පැවසුවායයි කතාවක් ඇත. විමල් වීරවංශ මෙන්ම සෝමවංශ අමරසිංහද චතුරාර්ය සත්‍යය පිළිගත් අය ලෙස පක්ෂයෙන් වෙන්විය. JVP ධර්මසේකර පසුව අනාගාරික ධර්මසේකර නමින් බණ දේශනා කලේය. ඔහුගේ අවංක කම ගැන වාසුදේව නානායක්කාර පවා ගුණගැයුවේය. සමහර වාමාංශික නායකයින් වයසට ගිය විට දඹදිව වන්දනාවේද යන්නේය. කොමියුනිස්ට් පක්ෂයේ M. G. මෙන්ඩිස් නම් බෝන් අගේන් කාරයෙක් විය.

සුනිල් හඳුන්නෙත්ති විසින් <බුද්ධ දර්ශණයෙන් රාජ්‍ය පාලනයට මඟ> යනුවෙන් හාමුදුරුවරුන් සමඟ යූටියුබ් සාකව්චාවක්ද පසුගිය දිනක පවත්වන ලදී. JVP/NPP පිරිසට රාජ්‍ය බලයට මැදිහත් වීමට ලැබී ඇති අවස්ථාව, රනිල්-පොහොට්ටු පාලනයක් යටතේ රටම විනාශවී යෑමේ අනතුරකින් බේරා ගැනීම සඳහා හරවා ගත හැකි මඟ  එය බව අනිත් JVP නායකයින්ටත් අවභෝධ වන්නේ නම් එය රටේ වාසනාවය. මෙහිදී විජේවීරගේ පුතා උවිඳු, ඔවුන්ට ආඩම්බර වියහැකි ආදර්ශයකි.

එහෙත් බිමාල්, නලින් හේවගේ වැනි JVPකාරයින් බෝගස් කපන්න, බුදු පිළිම කඩාදමන්න කතා කරද්දී, තව කෙනෙක් (විජිත හේරත්?) ගමේ වෙහෙරක කොත පැලඳවීමට සහභාගීවී තුවාල විය. මෙවැනි කෝලම් නාඩගම් අස්සේ හඳුන්නෙත්තිට බෞද්ධ රාජ්‍යපාලනයක් කල හැකිද?  මේ පරස්පර විරෝධී සිග්නල් නිසා මහජනයා JVP ගැන අන්දමන්ද වී සිටීම පුදුමයක් නොවේ. කලාවැව සැදූ භරණ නම් ශිල්පියා විසින් අව්කන බුදුපිලිමය නෙළුවේ <අව්ව කන්න> යයි මතක් කර දෙන්නට තරම් ටිල්වින් සිල්වා නිර්ලජ්ජී විය. මෙය පොසොන් කියන්නේ ලංකාවට ආ ප්‍රථම විදේශ ආක්‍රමණය යයි එක් බොරු බෞද්ධ නායකයෙක් කිව්වාට සමානය.

අනුර කුමාරත් වඳ කොත්තු අල්ලාගෙන තාමත් කතා කිරීම රටේ ජනාධිපති වෙන්නට යන අයෙකුට තරම් නොවන ලදරු හැසිරීමක් යයි ඥානසාර හිමියන් පෙන්වා දුන්නේ මේ බොරු හා වෛරී ප්‍රකාශ නතර කරණ ලෙස අනතුරු අඟවමින්ය. බොහෝ රහස් එලිකරණ කීර්ති රත්නායක පසුගියදා චමුදිතගේ  වැඩසටහනකදී කියා සිටියේ JVP එකට ඉන්දියන් මුදලාලිලා මුදල් සපයන බවත්, සෝමවංශ අමරසිංහ ඉන්දියාව හරහා ලන්ඩනයට පලාගියා මෙන් ඉන්දියාව අමනාපකර ගැනීමට JVP එකට නොහැකි බවත්ය. මේ බව නොදැන නලින්ද ජයතිස්ස විසින් පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරය ඉන්දියන් රෝ එකේ ජොබ් එකක් යයි කීම නිසා ඔහුට තහනමක් දමා ඇතැයි කීර්ති පැවසුවේය. මේ අනුව දේශපාලන වාසිය රටට හෝ සත්‍යයට වඩා වටිනා බව අනිකුත් පක්ෂ මෙන්ම JVP ටද පොදුය!

(648) ගනේමුල්ල සංජීව ඇල්ලුවා නෙමේ අහුවුණා. Airport කවුන්ටරය මාරුවෙලයි වැඩේ ලීක් උනේ.@TruthwithChamuditha – YouTube

ලාල් කාන්ත ඩබල්ගේම්කාරයෙක්ද?

ලාල් කාන්ත පිරිත් නූලක් බැඳගත් විට යූටියුබ්, ෆේස්බුක් <නිරාගමික රැළ> අන්දමන්ද වී ගියේය. ඔවුන් ගලේ පැහැරූ හොර බළලුන් බවට පත්විය. මෙහිදී බළලාගේ කරේ ගෙජ්ජියක් බඳින්නට ඉදිරිපත්වූයේ දළදා වංශයේ අයිතිකරුවූ සේපාල් අමරසිංහය. සේපාල් සිය අතීත <ඥානසාර මචං වෛරය>  හා සිංහල බෞද්ධ හීනමානය හරහා ලාල් කාන්තව කොටුකර ගන්නට සමත් විය. ලාල් කාන්ත වංචාකාරයෙක්සේ (බොරුවට පිරිත් නූලක් බැඳගෙන ඥානසාර හිමියන් රැවටූ) පෙන්වීමට ලාල් කාන්තට නොදැනෙන ලෙස ශූක්ෂම ලෙස ඔහු ක්‍රියාකලේය. ලාල් කාන්ත හැර අනිකුත් JVP නායකයින්  විශ්වාස කල නොහැකි යයි ඥානසාර හිමියන් විසින් කල ප්‍රකාශය සේපාල් විසින් කල්තියා අනුමාණ කරගෙන සිටියාද කියා  සිතෙන්නේ ඔහු විසින් අළුතින් ආරම්භකල JVP ඉතිහාස වැඩ සටහන නිසාය.

(638) ගලගොඩඅත්තේ ඥානසාර හිමි / bodu bala sena news / news today / media conference with bodu bala sena – YouTube

සේපාල්ගේ ඩබල්ගේම් එක

ලාල් කාන්තගේ පිරිත් නූල ගැන සේපාල් වීඩියෝ දෙකක් නිකුත් කලේය. ලාල් කාන්ත හාමුදුරුවන් සමඟ අඩියකුත් (සුරාපානය) ගැහුවාද කියා උපහාසයෙන් කතා කරණ මුල් වීඩියෝවේ ලාල් කාන්තගේ පිරිත් නූල් බැඳගැනීමේ ක්‍රියාව ගැන චෝදනා මුඛයෙන් කම්පාවන සේපාල්, දෙවෙනි වීඩියෝවේදී ගසන්නේ වෙනත් පදයකි. වෙනකක් තියා මීට පෙර ඔහුගේ වාග් විලාශයට වෙනස්ව ඔහු පුරුදු පරිදි නිකම්ම ඥානසාර යයි කියනවා වෙනුවට, හාමුදුරුවන්ට  <ඥානසාර හාමුදුරුවෝ> කියා පවා ආමන්ත්‍රණය කරයි!

ඔවුන් ඥානසාර හිමියන්ගේ සහජ දක්ෂකම, රටට ඇති වටිනාකම ගැන කතාකරණ ගමන්ම පිරිත් නූලේ ඇති දේශපාලන බලය සම්ච්චලයට ලක්කලේ ඕමාර් කය්යාම්ගේ අනුගාමිකයින් දෙන්නෙක් වගේය (හෙට මැරුණත් හිතට සැපයි අද ජොලි කරලා). රට පුරා රතන සූත්‍රය සජ්ජායනා කරණ ලෙස කාදිනල්තුමා විසින් කල ඉල්ලීම ඔවුන්ට අමතකවිය. සේපාල්ගේ ආච්චී සේපාල්ට පිරිත් නූල් බැන්ඳේ නැද්ද?  ඇමෙරිකාවේ ඔරිගන්වල සිටි රාජනීස් නම් දාර්ශනිකයා මෙන් තොප්පියක් දමාගෙන මේ දිනවල ක්‍රිකට් ක්‍රීඩක ධනුෂ්කගේ ඕස්ට්‍රේලියානු පෙම්  සයිකොලොජි හා සෙක්ස් ජෙලසි ගැන දේශනා දෙන සේපාල්ට (රාජනීස්ටද මෙවැනි සෙක්ස් චෝදනා එල්ලවිය) පිරිත් නූලෙන් හා පිරිත් වලින් තමාට යම් ආරක්ෂාවක් මානසික සහනයක් ලැබේයයි යන සිතුවිල්ල සිංහල බෞද්ධයෙක් සංස්කෘතියේ සයිකොලොජිය බව ඔහුගේ ආච්චී කියාදී නැතිසේය.

ලාල් කාන්තට දිරච්ච ලණුවක් දීමට අපොහොසත්වූ සේපාල් වාරණ ආනන්ද ජයකොඩි නම් අහිංසක පුද්ගලයා හරහා JVP ඉතිහාසය හාරා අවුස්සමින් සිටී. ඔහු මේ මඟින් JVP ට කරන්නේ කඩේ යාමක්ද, නැත්නම් හානියක්ද කියා වාරණට නොතේරෙනවා විය හැකිය. උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන්, D. I. G ධර්මසේකර (පසුව අනාගාරික ධර්මසේකර), පොඩි අතුල (වික්ටර් අයිවන්), ලොකු අතුල (නිමලසිරි ජයසිංහ), මහින්ද විජේසේකර, දැන් කාලයක සිට ජිනීවා නුවර හිරවී සිටින සුනන්ද දේශප්‍රිය, දැන් ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාවේ වසන ලයනල් බෝපගේ යන අයගේ කෙරුවාවල් පෙන්වා දෙන්නේ වර්තමාන නායකයින්ගේ එකිනෙකාට පටහැනි කතා හා ක්‍රියාවන් සමඟ ඇති සමානකම්ය. රනිල්, චන්ද්‍රිකා, මහින්ද හා ගෝඨාභයගේ පවා සුරතලෙක්වූ වික්ටර්  අයිවන් නම් දැන් කියන්නේ 1971 කැරැල්ල මෝඩ ක්‍රියාවක් බවය!

උපුල් ශාන්ත සන්නස්ගල

සේපාල් සමඟ තරඟයට මෙන් සන්නස්ගල ඔහුගේ JVP ඉතිහාස කතාව ආරම්භකරන්නේ කල්යානන්ද පෙරේරා සමඟය. එය සේපාල්ගේ වාරණ කතාවට වඩා වෙනස් වුවත් දෙන්නාම මතක් කර දෙන්නේ ලෝභ-ද්වේෂ-මෝහයෙන් පිරි මිනිස් පංචස්කන්ධවල හැසිරීමය. එහිදී JVP අය අනිකුත් දේශපාලක  අයගෙන් වෙනස් නැත. සුනිලා අබේසේකර හා කෙලී සේනානායක අතර තිබූ ප්‍රේම සම්බන්ධය ගැන විජේවීර දැක්වූ විරෝධය හා පසුව ඔවුන්ගේ මධ්‍යම පන්තික හැසිරීම නිසා ඔවුන් CIA ඒජන්තලා වශයෙන් හංවඩු ගැසීම දෙස වාරණ හා කල්යානන්ද යන දෙන්නාම බලන්නේ සානුකම්පික අන්තවාදී නොවන ආකල්පයකින්ය. යම් ස්ත්‍රියක් හා පුරුෂයෙක් එකට ඩාන්ස් කරනවා නම් එය පක්ෂයේ විනයට විරුද්ධවීමට හේතුව කුමක්ද? තම දරුවන් පිටරට යවා ඉගැන්වීම හැර, අන් හැම අංශයකින්ම අසාමාන්‍ය දිවිපැවැත්මක් රටට පෙන්වන JVP ක්‍රියාකාරීන් අතරින් සාමාන්‍ය මිනිසෙක් සේ එලිපිටම පෙනෙන්නේ ලාල් කාන්ත පමණය. සිගරැට් එකක්වත් නොබොනවා කියන JVP නායකයින් අතර අරක්කු අඩියක් ගසා විනෝද වන්නේ ලාල් කාන්ත පමණද?

(645) විජේවීර නටන්න එපා කිව්වට සකබර්ග් නටෝල ගත්තා! – YouTube

අසත්‍ය ප්‍රකාශ කිරීම නමැති නිරාගමික සමාජ මාධ්‍ය නිදහස

70 දාහක් පමණ පිරිසක් JVP වෙනුවෙන් අසත්‍ය ප්‍රචාර කිරීම සඳහා යොදවා ඇතැයි  කියැවේ. වඳුරන්ට දැලිපිහි දුන්නා මෙන් තමන්වම කපාගන්නවා වෙනුවට මේ නිරාගමික බලකාය ඉතාමත් වනචාරී ලෙස හසිරෙමින් සිටී. චමීර පෙරේරා, පානදුරේ ලාල් පමණක් නොව සමහර ලෝයර් කට්ටන් පවා කතාකරණ ආකාරය (වාග් විලාශය) අනුව සවුදි අරාබියේ නම් ඔවුන්ගේ දිවකපා දමන දඬුවම ලබන්නේය.

සමාජ මාධ්‍ය (youtube, facebook, websites) විසින්ම තමන්ට <කෙලවා ගෙන> දැන් කනවෝ, කනවෝ, ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය විනාශවෙනවා, යයි ලෝයර් සාලිය පීරිස්ලා, සිරස නිවෙස් ෆස්ට් පවා කරණ ඝෝෂාවට පිලිතුරක් දර්ශන හඳුන්ගොඩට පරිණත අපරාධ නීතීඥ තිරන්ත වලලියද්ද විසින් පසුගියදා ලබාදෙන ලදී. අළුතෙන් ගෙන එන නීතිය අනුව යමෙක් වරදකරුද යන්න තීරණය කරන්නේ මහෙස්ත්‍රාත් උසාවියෙන් බව ඔහු පැහැදිලි කලේය. මේ අනුව ටියුෂන් ගුරුවරයෙකුද වන සාලිය පීරිස් ඇතුළු ලෝයර් නඩය (සුමන්තිරන්, ජයම්පති වික්‍රමරත්න ඇතුළු) වලිගේ පාගාගෙන, මහජනයා උවමනාවෙන්ම නොමඟ යැවීම කාළකන්නි ක්‍රියාවකි. කුඩුකාරයින්ගේ හියුමන් රයිට්ස් වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටීම මේ ලෝයර්ලාට කෝටි ගණන් ලැබෙන රන් ආකරයක් බව කීර්ති රත්නායක පෙන්වා දෙන්නේය. පෙඩරල් පප්පෙක්වූ G.L. පීරිස් නීතී මහාචාර්යවරයා පවා මේ කරුණේදී  අන්ධයෙක් මෙන් හැසිරෙණු පෙනේ.

ඥානාසාර හිමියන් JVP නායකයින්ට කල විවෘත අභියෝග

ප්‍රසිද්ධ මාධ්‍ය සාකච්චාවක් පවත්වා JVP නායකයින්, අනුගාමිකයින් හා ඒ වෙනුවෙන් කඩේයන සේපාල්, භරත තෙන්නකෝන්, සුදත්ත තිලකසිරි, බෘනෝ-අභිෂේකා කෙලීලා යනාදීන්ට ඥානසාර හිමියන් විසින් අනතුරු ඇඟවීමක් කරණ ලදී.

1. මින් ඉදිරියට බොදු බල සේනා සංවිධානය හා එහි නායකයා සම්බන්ධයෙන් කරණ අසත්‍ය ප්‍රකාශ නතර කල යුතුය;
2. ඕනෑම චෝදනාවක් ඇත්නම් ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ප්‍රසිද්ධ විවාදයකට පැමිණ ඒවා ඔප්පු කල යුතුය. (ඉන්දික තොටවත්ත හිරේට ගැනීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් කතාකරණ සේපාල් අමරසිංහ විසිනුත් යෝජනා කරන්නේ පානදුරා වාදය (1873) මෙන් මෙසේ වාද කිරීම ආරම්භකල යුතු බවය);
3. එක රටක්-එක නීතියක් ජනාධිපති කාර්ය සාධක බලකායේ වාර්තාවේ නිර්දේශ වලට එකඟ වනවාද නැද්ද යන්න JVP විසින් රටට ප්‍රකාශ කලයුතුය.

1990 දශකයේ සිට 2023 අග දක්වාම එකම මතවාදයක සිටි, එම මතවාදය බෞද්ධ මාර්ගය අනුව ක්‍රියාවට නැංවීමට සටන් කල දැනට රටේ සමාජ දේශ-පාලන කරලියේ ඉතුරුව ඉන්නා එකම පංචස්කන්ධය ඥානසාර හිමියන් පමණය. උන්වහන්සේගේ දේශපාලන උපදේශකයින්වූ චම්පික රණවක, අතුරැලියේ රතන හිමි, ඔමල්පේ සෝභිත හිමි වැන්නන් නොයෙක් කරණම් ගසා ඇත. BBS සමඟ එක්වූ බොහෝ අනිකුත් තරුණ හාමුදුරුවරුද ඊට හානිවනසේ හැසිරෙමින්  ක්‍රියාකර වෙන්වී ගියේය.

රතන හිමියන් දළදා මාලිගාවේ කල උපවාසයෙන් අපවත්වීම වැලැක්වූයේ ඥානසාර හිමියන් වුවත්, පසුව රතන හිමි, ඥානසාර හිමියන්ට ලැබුණ මන්ත්‍රීධූරය පවා හොරකම් කර ගත්තේය. අරගලයේ පින්ඩපාතේ ගිය සෝභිත හිමිට අනුව රටේ සිංහල බෞද්ධ බලවේගය (බුරියානි හා ඩොලර් බත් පැකට් බලයෙන් පසු) විනාශ වී ගියේය. ඒකාලයේ රට බේරාගැනීමට උපවාසයක් පවා කල මේ හිමියන් දැන් කාදිනල් සරණං ගච්චාමීවී සිටී. අනිත් අතට,  බුදු දහමේ දුක කියන්නේ මෙම වෙනස්වන සුළු ස්වභාවයට නොවේද?

JVP පක්ෂයේ අනාගතය

වර්ෂ 75 පුරා කළු සුද්දන් විසින් රටට කල විනාශය නිසා දැන් බංකොලොත් වී ගොස් ඇති රටක, දේශපාලන පක්ෂ අතරින් අඩුම කැමැත්තක් නැති පක්ෂය JVP එකය (මෙය සමාන කල හැක්කේ නරක දේශපාලන දර්ශන අතරින් අඩුවෙන්ම නරක එක නියෝජිත ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය යයි චර්චිල් කල ප්‍රකාශය සමඟය), කළු සුද්දන් කල මේ විනාශයේදී 1930 දශකයේ සිට මාක්ස්වාදීන්ද හවුල්වී 1980 වන විට දියවී ගියේය. ඔවුන්ගේ බංගවේවා ක්‍රමයේ බලපෑම  හා පන්ති සටන නමැති මෙවලම නිසා රටේ දුප්පත් හා කුලභේදයෙන් පීඩා විඳි ජනයා 1971 සිට JVP අනුගාමිකයින් ලෙස වෛරී, ද්වේෂ සහගත විෂබීජ වලට ගොදුරු විය. මැයි දින පෙලපාලිය යූනියන් ප්ලේස් සාප්පු වලට ගල් ගසන දිනයක් වුනේ, ඉන්ගිරිස් කතාකරමින් විස්කි බොමින්, ඇල්ශේෂන් බල්ලන් සුරතල් කරමින් රැ කල් ගෙවු නායකයින්ගේ දෙබිඩි ජීවිතය නිසා නොවේද?

මුරදේවතා සංකල්පය

සුනිල් හඳුන්නෙත්ති හා ලාල් කාන්තගේ හැසිරීම් වලින් පෙනෙන්නේ ලංකාවේ මුරදේවතා සංකල්පය පිළිගැනීමට ඔවුන් සුදානම් බවය. ලංකාව සිංහල බෞද්ධ සංස්කෘතිය මත ගොඩ නැඟුණ ශිෂ්ටාචාරයක් බව කාදිනල්තුමාගේ සිට වී ආ වන් (we are one) යන ඉන්දික තොටවත්තට නඩුදාන මුස්ලිම් පිරිස පවා පිලිගනී. එසේ නම් අනුර කුමාරට, හරිනි අමරසූරිය, බිමාල්, ටිල්වින් වැන්නන්ට එය අවභෝධකර දෙන්නට නොහැකි කුමක් නිසාද?

ජන සභා සංකල්පය

ලංකාවේ දැනට තිබෙන අර්බුදයෙන් ගොඩ ඒමේ මාර්ග මොනවාද යන්න වටහා ගැනීම රොකට් සයන්ස් එකක් නොවේ. විශේෂයෙන් 1978 න් පසු රටට කල විනාශය නිසා මේ වන විට ගමක්, නගරයක්, ගෙයක් පාසාම ඉහවහා ගොස් ඇති ලොකු මාළුවා පොඩි මාළුවා ගිලා ගන්නා න්‍යායයෙන් ගොඩ ආ හැක්කේ බොදු බල සේනා සංවිධානය විසින්ද යෝජනා කල හැම පුරවැසියෙක්ම පොලිස්කාරයෙක් වියයුතුය යන අදහස අනුවය.

වංචාව, දුෂණ, අපරාධ නැතිකල හැක්කේ ගම් මට්ටමින් ජන සභා ක්‍රමයක් පිහිටුවීම මඟින්ය. ඒවා පක්ෂ දේශපාලනයෙන් තොර නියෝජන ක්‍රමයක් අනුව සංස්ථාපිත කලයුතුය [මේ පිලිඹඳ සවිස්තර විග්‍රහයක්, ලංකාව: කළුසුද්දන්ගේ පාලන සමය, 1948-2019, (රුසියා ප්‍රකාශකයෝ, 2023) යන පොතේ සටහන් කර ඇත. රට කැබලි නොකර සිස්ටම් චේන්ජ් කිරීම   (බුදු දහම හා ජන සභා සංකල්පය) යන කොටසේ එය  ආවරණය කර ඇත].

රටක භූගෝල විද්‍යාවට පටහැනි නීති පැනවිය නොහැක

රටේ ඇති ගංවතුර, නායයෑම්, පරිසර දූෂණය, කෘෂිකර්ම අර්බුද, අලි-මිනිස් ගැටුම්, ජන වර්ග අතර ගැටුම් යනාදී හැම දෙයක්ම ලංකාවේ භූගෝල විද්‍යාවට පක්ෂ දේශපාලකයින් ද්‍රෝහී වීමේ විපාකය. මුළු රටම ජල ද්‍රෝණි අනුව සීමා මායිම් කර බෙදා ජන සභා හා අනිකුත් සිවිල් පරිපාලන ඒකක හඳුනාගත යුතුය. නිව්සීලන්තය වැනි කුඩා රටක් මෙන්ම USA, Canada වැනි විශාල රටවල්ද මෙසේ ගංඟා හා භූගත ජල ද්‍රෝණි හඳුනාගෙන ඇත.

අරගලයේදීයෝජනාකලේදමෙවැණිජනසභාක්‍රමයකි. මේනිසාමෙමඅදහසක්‍රියාවටනැංවීමට JVP පෙනීසිටියයුතුය. බලයේ  සිටිආණ්ඩු, ගොඨාභයගේ  චන්දප්‍රකාශණයපමණක්නොවරනිල්ජනාධිපතිවිසින්දමේඅනුවයමින්ජනසභාකාර්යාලයක්පවාපිහිටුවාඇතත්එයජනතාවරවටනඇස්බැන්ඳුමක්පමණය. ඇත්තවශයෙන්මජනතාවබලගැන්වීමක්(empowerment of people at the village level) ඔවුන්ගේප්ලෑනටඅයත්නැත.

දැනටපවතිනමාක්ස්වාදීදෘෂ්ටිකෝණයවෙනුවටජනසභාසංකල්පයයටතේNPP යනඅදහසටවඩා  අර්ථවත්හාමහජනයාපිළිගන්නාසැලැස්මක්ඉදිරිපත්කිරීමටJVP ටඅවකාශයක්ලැබේ. සර්වෝදය, සණස, හිටපුගණකාධිපතිගාමිණීවිජේසිංහයනඅයදසහභාගීකරගැනීමටඉඩසලසාගතහැකිවන්නේය. මෙමක්‍රියාවලියආරම්භකිරීමේමුල්පියවරවශයෙන්ඥානසාරහිමියන්දේශපාලනඅභියෝගයක්සේනොසිතාඋන්වහන්සේසමඟමිත්‍රශීලීසංවාදයක්කලහැකිය. එයඩලස්ලාසමඟපැවැත්වූසාකච්චාමෙන්අතරමංවූදේශපාලකයින්ටතේපැන්සංග්‍රහයක්දීමක්වැන්නක්නොවේ. ඥානසාරහාමුදුරුවන්දේශය–පාලනයටඑන්නේහුදෙක්උපදේශකයෙකුවශයෙන්පමණය.

1971 දෙසැම්බර්මාසයේදීජාතිකවිමුක්තිපෙරමුණවෙනුවෙන්සටන්වැදීඅත්අඩංගුවටපත්වූතරුණයින්ගේකතාවාර්තාකරගැනීමටරජයෙන්පත්කලනිලධාරීන් 200 න්එක්අයෙකුවශයෙන්හිරගෙවල්/කඳවුරුවලටයද්දී, එමව්‍යාපාරයවෙනුවෙන්අවංකවජීවිතයකැපකල  සියගණනක්මටහමුවිය.  ඔවුන්ගේනායකයින්ගේදුර්වලකම්නිසාඑයඅසාර්ථකවුවත්, ඔවුන්පෙනීසිටියේසිස්ටම්චෙන්ජ්එකක්වෙනුවෙනි. 1978 දීමාරටින්පිටවුයේදසිස්ටම්එකේ  වෙනසක්නොවෙනබවපෙනීගියනිසාය. 2023 දීඑයනියමාකාරයටකලහැක්කේහඳුන්නෙත්තිපවසනආකාරයේබෞද්ධරාජ්‍යප්‍රතිපත්තිඅනුගමණයකරමින්පමණය.

ගුණදාසඅමරසේකරමහතාසභ්‍යත්වරාජ්‍යයක්කරායනපොතේපවසන්නේදමෙවැනිඅදහසක්මය (ජනසභාසංකල්පය). ලංකාවේපැවතිගම–වැව–දාගැබයනසාමාජික–ආර්ථික–දේශපාලනත්‍රිත්වයද(Trinity) එයය. රාජාණ්ඩුවක්සමඟපැවතිමෙමමොඩලයනූතනනියෝජිතප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදයනමැතිබොරුවටවඩාමහජනහිතකාමීනීතිපද්ධතියක්සහිතවිය. යමෙකුටමරනදඬුවමදියහැකිවූයේරජුටපමණය. රජුගේඅත්තනෝමතිකබලයපන්සලෙන්හාජනයාගේබලයෙන්පාලනයවිය.

ග්ලෝබල්වෝමින් (global warming) ගැනකතාකරන්නටපෙරසිට E. F. Schumacher විසින්බුඩිස්ට්ඉකොනොමික්ස්, ඉස්මෝල්ඊස්බියුටිෆුල් (Small Is Beautiful, 1973) යනුවෙන්යෝජනාකලේදජනසභා/ගම්සභාවිසඳුමය. එයපසුකලෙකහියුමන්ස්කේල් (Human Scale, 1980/2017) යනුවෙන්කර්ක්පැට්‍රික්සේල්විසින්ඉදිරියටගෙනගොස්ඇත. වෙනකක්තබාමොන්ටෙස්කිවිසින්කියාසිටියේදආණ්ඩුබලය (governmental power) තුනකටබෙදාමධ්‍යම  පාලකපන්තිසංවිධානයකටභාරදීමක්නොව, ආණ්ඩුබලයරටපුරාකුඩාඒකකරාශියකටවිසුරුවාහැරීමය. මෙමඅළුත්සොයාගැනීමමොන්ටෙස්කිඔළුවෙන්හිටගැනීමක්(Montesquieu standing on his head) ලෙසදේශපාලනවිද්‍යාඥයින්විසින්හඳුන්වාදීතිබේ.

ක්‍රිස්තියානි පල්ලි සංවිධාන ක්‍රමය (වතිකන් හෝ වෙනත්) හා සසඳනවිට ගමේ පන්සලක නායක හාමුදුරුනමක් සිය දායක සභාවේ අනුදැණුම ඇතිව සර්වාධිපත්‍ය බලයක් භුක්තිවිඳීම (sovereignty) (මහානායකහිමියන්ගේ චක්‍රලේඛන නොමැතිව) මෙම අළුත් මොන්ටෙස්කි අර්ථ නිරූපණයට අනුකූල නොවේද?  ගමේ පන්සල්වල මෙම සර්වාධිපති බලය මඟින් (මුර දේවතා සංකල්පය) රජුන් තැනීම, රැකීම, මඟ පෙන්වීම හා ඉවත් කිරීම යන ඓතිහාසික වගකීම ඉටු කරන ලදී.

මෙය මෙම ලිපි මාලාවේ අවසාන ලිපියය

wijeychandra@gmail.com

Prime Minister’s Media Division

Malaysia will support Sri Lanka’s application to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. This was stated by Malaysian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dato Seri Diraja Dr Zambry Abd Kadir who held discussions with Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena at the Temple Trees in Colombo today (October 9).

The Prime Minister stated that Sri Lanka’s entry into RCEP would bolster its economic connectivity within the broader South East Asian region and the Malaysian Minister assured fullest support to Sri Lanka and said, Sri Lanka belongs to our region.” The Prime Minister affirmed the government’s alignment with the future vision of ASEAN for the Indo-Pacific area, pledging full support for the advancement of this economic perspective.

The Prime Minister and the visiting Minister discussed bilateral relations with special emphasis on cooperation in regional groupings such as Indian Ocean Rim Association for enhancing trade and investment cooperation. Premier Gunawardena invited Malaysian entrepreneurs to enter into new areas of investments in Sri Lanka in in the growing hospitality industry, education and pharmaceuticals industry. Malaysia was amongst the top 6th investment partner of Sri Lanka in recent years.

The Prime Minister thanked the Government and people of Malaysia for the support given during last year’s economic crisis.

Referring to the high-level contacts, historical links, people-to-people contacts, and geographical proximity and the deepening bonds of friendship with Sri Lanka, Minister Zambry Abd Kadir said his government was looking forward to increase the economic and trade cooperation.

High-level Malaysian delegation included Under Secretary Generals Dato Syed Mohamed Bakri Syed Abdul Rahman and Ahmed Kamrizamil Reza and High Commissioner Badli Hisham Adam.

State Minister Suren Raghavan, MP Yadamini Gunawardena and Secretary to the Prime Minister Anura Dissanayake also participated in this meeting.

Ministry of Defence  – Media Centre

State Minister of Defence Hon. Premitha Bandara Tennakoon made an observation tour to the disaster-affected areas following the prevailing adverse weather conditions yesterday (Oct 8) in Matara district.

Necessary measures have already been taken by the government to assist the disaster-affected community and relief teams including military forces have been dispatched to respective areas for disaster relief duties.

Minister Tennakoon visited the Army food processing centres established to supply food for disaster-affected people in Malimbada and Matara areas and he assessed existing challenges. He also motivated troops who continuously labour in those centres. The troops have already taken necessary steps to supply meals and other needs of the distressed people.

The Minister convened a meeting at Matara District Secretariat with the participation of the Speaker of Parliament Hon. Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana, Hon. Nipuna Ranawaka MP, Matara District Secretary, heads of government institutions and senior military officers from the area to discuss further disaster relief measures.

Minister Tennakoon on the same day inspected the sandbag embankment erected by Sri Lanka Army troops in Athtudawa area to avert flooding. Hon. Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana, Matara District Secretary, heads of government institutions, the General Officer Commanding of 61 Infantry Division, Major General R.A.J.N. Ranasinghe, senior military officers and senior police officers from the area also joined the Minister for the inspection.

පාලිත ආරියරත්න

මෙම මධ්‍යස්ථානය සකස් වන්නේ බොහෝ දුරට දැනට අවරුදු ගනනාවකට පෙරය එනම් යුද්ධයේදී එල් ටි ටි ය පරාජයවී යාමත් සමගමය. එසේ සිතීමට ආසන්නම හේතුව යුද්ධය පරාජය වූ පසු හමුදාවේ මානුෂිය මෙහෙයුම් ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කල කණ්ඩායම් මහනුවර ප්‍රදේශයෙන් පන්සලක් තැනීමට ඉඩමක් මිලදී ගැනීමට උත්සහා කරන බව නුවර මාධ්‍ය කරුවන්ගේ සවනට ඇසුණු බැවිනි.රකුස් භාවනා මධ්‍යස්ථානය ප්‍රධාන ඉලක්කය වන්නේ බුද්ධ ශාසනය විනාශ කිරීමය එය කොතෙක් දුරට සිදුවෙනවාද කිවහොත් ඔවුන් ඔවුන්ගේ භාවනා කණ්ඩායම වෙත පවසන්නේ තමන් බුදුවී ඇති බවත් ඔවුන්ගේ මධ්‍යස්ථානවලට පිටින් ඇති පන්සල් වෙහෙර විහාර ආදියේ තිබෙන්නේ වැරදි බුද්ධාගම බවත්ය. බුදුරජුන්ට කමටහන් දීම වැරදි රහතන් වහන්සේලා පවා පිහියකින් ගෙල සිදලගෙන මැරී ඇතිබව බවද පවසයි. මෙම මර් +මස් +තාන වෙත ගිය භෝ පිරිස් එදිනෙදා සමාජයේ පවසන්නේ අපේ ආචාර්ය වෙත යන් මල්ලි නියම තැනක් කියාය. තවද මෙම රකුස් ස්ථාන වෙත ගිය පිරිස් පවසන්නේ කඳු බෝඩ වෙනුවට කඳු උඩ ඇති මෙවන් තැන් වලින් නිවැරදි කමටහන් ලබදෙනබවය.

ඉතින් මෙම තැන්වල ඇති කරුණු කාරනා ගැන විමසීමේදී මාධ්‍ය කරුවන් වන අපහට දැනගත හැක්කේ. නිසල බාවය සහ වර්තමානයේ ජීවත්වීම හා අනිත්‍ය හිත් පිත්වල මැවීමට මෙම අලුත් ගනයේ ආචාර්යවරු දැඩි උත්සහයක් ගන්නේ බුදුරජාණන් වහන්සේටත් වඩා එහාගිය සත්‍යක් ඔවුන් දන්නා බවත් අඟවමින තවද නිවනේ නිවනේ කොටස් දෙකක් තිබෙන බව පුරසාරම් දොඩවමිනි ටිකක් අඩු සහ ටිකක් වැඩි නිවනක් තිබෙන බව පවසයි.

තරුණ කෙල්ලන් කොල්ලන් සමහරවිට විදේශිකයන් මෙම රකුස් ස්ථානවලට ගොස් ඉගෙන ගන්නේ ඇස් කන් ඇති බුද්ධිය ඇති මෙලෝ මිනිසෙක් පිළිගන්නා සත්‍ය නොවේ. ප්‍රභාකරන්ගේ පුතා ඔහුඉදිරියේ වෙඩි කා මියායමක් හුවා දක්වා කථා කරණ අතර මෙම භාවනා ආචාර්ය කරුවන් පවසන්නේ ඉදිරි අනාගත ආත්ම දහසකදිවත් ඔහුට එවන් ඉරණමක් ඇත නොවීමට හේතු වාසනා වේවා කියාය. ඔහුට භාවනා කරද්දී සියුම් දේව ආත්ම දහස් ගණනක් ඔහුවටා ඇවිත් සිටිනබවත් ඕනෑම කෙනෙකුගේ ශරීරරය හ‍රා ඇතුළු ආත්මය දැකීමේ බලයක්ද මේ අළුත් රකුස් භාවනා කරුවන් පවසයි. මෙම රකුස් ආචාර්යවරු බුදුරජුන්ගේ වැරදි හුවා දක්වනවිට එතනට ගොස් සිටින ”අමන රැල” නින්ද සහගත ලෙස උපසහයක් වශයෙන් බුදුරදුන් හට සිනාසෙයි.දළදා මාළිගාවට ගොස් ආශීර්වාදයක් ගනිමු යැයි කෙනෙකු පැවසුවහොත් මේ හිත් පිත්වල අනිත්‍ය මවන ආචාර්යවරු තිගැස්සීමක් ඇතිවෙන අතර ඔතන ඔහොම එකක් නැහැ ඕක බොරුවක්. කාලය නාස්ති කිරීමක් කියා පවසයි.

බුද්ධ ශාසන නීතියට පමණක් නොවේ සාමාන්‍ය නීතියද , අපරාධ නීතියද කඩවෙන විදියට ක්‍රියාකරන මෙම ස්ථාන මෙතුවක් කල් පවතින්නේ කොහොමද කියා ගම්මුනුගෙන් ඇසුවිට ”අපි දන්නේ නැහැ මහත්තයෝ කියා ගම්මුන් පවසයි”.ජාතියේ මළගම සකස් කරණ බුද්ධ ශාසනට විනකටින මෙවන් ස්ථාන පරික්ෂ කිරීමට රහස් බුද්ධි පරීක්ෂණ ක්‍රමයක් පන්සල හෝ සතු නොවීම ඉතා ගැටළු ගැටළු කාරී තත්වයක් වේ. අපහට එහියාමටද බැරිය නමුත් ඉදිරි වැඩසටහන් නිරීක්ෂණය කිරීමට කව්රු හෝ කණ්ඩයමක් යවන බවනම් අනිවාර්යවේ. නොයෙක් අභිධර්ම කල්ලි මවමින් තමා රහත් තමා බුදු වී ඇතිබව පවසන මේ කල්ලි හා තවත් උවදුරු රාශියක් බුද්ධ ශාසනයට එරෙහිව,එදිරිව තිබෙද්දී බොහෝ භික්ෂුන් වහන්සේලා තුෂ්ණීම්භූතව වැඩ සිටීම ඉතා කණගාටු කාරණයක් වන අතර ශාසනයේ මළගම උන්වහසේලා අතින්ම ඉටුවීම් පුදුම සහගතය.මෙවන් භාවනා පන්තිවල පිරිස් දෙස බලාසිටිම පමණක් කිරීම හා නීති කටයුතු කරනන් මෙවන් භාවනා විකුර්ති ප්‍රභේදයන් ගන සොයා බැලීමට මෙම මරමස්ථාන වෙත රිංගා කටයුතු නොකිරීම ඉතාම භයානක තත්වයකි.

මෙම භාවනා මධ්‍යස්ථාන වෙත වැඩියෙන්ම කැඳවන්නේ සිංහල බොදු පිරිස්ය. ඒ ඕලමොල සෝදා හැරීමටමය. පුදුම තත්වයනම් මෙවන් පන්තිවලට නිකන්ම ඇතුල්විය නොහැක මෙම පන්තිවලට ගොස් ඔල මොළ සෝදා ගත් උවස උවසියෙක් ”රෙක්මන්ඩ් ” කලයුතුය හඳුන්වා දිය යුතුය.

Picture Courtecy Googel

සමහරවිට වෙනම ශාලාවල උඩබුරලා ඇඬීමකල හැකිය,කුණුහරුප කි හැකිය,බදාගැනීමට හැකිය, ඒ විතරක් නොවේ අම්මට උනත් බැනිය හැකිය. ඕනෑම විකාරයක් හිතට එනවනම් එය කල හැකිය. මේ ආචාර්යා විසින්මේ පන්තියන මිනිසුන් ශාලාවකට දමා මෙසේ කිරීමට අරමුණු කිරීම අර ඉවෙන්ජෙලිකල් පල්ලිවල හා වෙනත් ඉරානය ආදී රවලට ගොස් අසුරා කාලය තුල පිරිස් විසින් කරගන්නා, වරක් සදහම් හුසේන් මහතා විසින් පවා නැවැත්වූ අශුරා චාරිත්‍ර පැවැත්වීම වාගෙය. අඩු කඩු හා පිහි තුඩවල් හා ළමයින් පමණි. දෙවන දිනයේ හොඳට කෑම වේලක් ලබාදී ශාලාවට දමා ඔය උඩ තිබෙන ආකාරයේ කැකෝ ගැසීම් , නන්දන වින්දන යත්දී වමනය හෝ බඩ එළියේ යෑමට, කක්කුසියකට යෑමට, කාට හෝ අබාදයක් ඇති වුවොහොත් මේ තක්කඩින් විසින් පවසන්නේ ඔය ”සුද්ධ වීමක් උනේ” භාවනාව වැඩය කියාය.

ඉතින් කාමරේදී සිදුවන්නේ කුමක්ද ඇයි ඔයාට කැහා ගන්න,කුණුහරුප කියන්න කිවේ කියා අපි මාධ්‍ය විසින් වැඩිපුර ඇසුවේ මේ ගැන වැඩිපුර දැනගැනීමටය. එවිට එම ස්ථානයට ගොස් ආතුරයන් වූ මිනිස්සු පැවසුවේ අපේ ආචාරීන් එකට කියන්නේ ” ශරීරය තුල තිබෙන ගැට කපාගෙන යන ක්‍රමයක් ” මේක කඳු බෝඩ ලොකු හාමුදුරුවන්ගේ කලේ ඉඳලා එන ක්‍රමයක් කියාය. අනේ අපෝ ”මේ මොකද්ද මේ” කියා අප කනගාටු වුයේ මෙවන් අපරාධ වලට දෙස් විදෙශ් සංචාරකයන්ද මැදිවෙන බවත්. භාවනාවෙන් බඩ සුද්ධිය හෝ අතවැනීමේ කාන්තාවන්ගේ මාසික චක්‍රය ක්‍රියාමක වන බව කියන මේ කුණු ආචාරයවරුන්ට සමාජයේ දඩුවමක් වශයෙන් ගහලා පැන්නුවත් මදීබවඅප මාධ්‍ය කණඩායමට සිතා ගත්තේය.

මෙම කරුණු විශ්ලේෂණය කරණ දිනය වැහි බර දිනයක් වූ හින්දා අහසෙන් ඇසුණු හෙන හඬ ඇසුනුපසු පැවසුවේ සමහර විට ඔයාලගේ අචාරියා මේක දැනගෙන සද්ධයක් දැම්මාද දන්නේ නැහැ නමුත් මේ පිස්සු කථා දැන් නවත්මු කියාය.

ඒවෙලාවේ එතනට ආ ” විජේනායක ” මෙම පිරිස් හොදින් දන්නා අය්යා කෙනෙකු කිවේ ඕක ඇත්තක් වෙන්න පුළුවන් මම අහලා තියෙනවා ඔයගැන මම වෙලාවක භාවනා කරන්න ඔතනට යනවා කියාය. එතන හිටි ගිහාන් මල්ලිද ඔවු මමත් යනවා කියා කිවේය. ඔහුටත් එහි අයටත් දෙයියන්ගේම පිහිටයි කියා අපිත් මේගැන කෝකටත් සටහනක් තබන්නම් මේ ස්ථානවලට ගිය මිනිස්සුන්ගේ බේරීම පිණිස කියා. විශේෂයෙන් ඒ ඇයි කිවහොත් මෙවන්
රකුස් භාවනා අත්දැකීම ලැබීමට ගිය කවුරු හෝ මෙම ස්ථාන ගැන කවදා හෝ ඇත්ත එලිපෙහෙළි කර සමාජය දැනුවත් කරාවි යන යහපත් සිතුවිල්ලක් අප කණ්ඩායම තුල පොදුවේ ඇති වූ බැවිනි.

රකුස් භාවනා මධ්‍යස්ථානවල ඇති සුවිශේෂ: කරණු කිහිපයක්….

1. බුදුරජාණන් වහන්සේලා මේ දැනුත් වැඩසිටි.
2. ඒ වැඩසිටීම පිළබඳ විදේශ හා දේශීය මිනිසුන් දැනුවත් කිරීම.
3. භාවනාව හා බඩයමක් හා සුද්ධ වීමක් කථා කිරීම
4. ඕනෑම ශරීර කෘතියක් කරගැනීමට ශාලාවේ අවසර දීම – හැසිරී පෙන්වීමට , හුහඬ , මරලතෝනි, ආදිය හා අනිකුත් දේ.
5. බුදුරජුන්ට අපහස කිරීම
6. ත්‍රස්තවාදී නායකයන් ගැන දුක්විම.
7. නියම බුද්ධාගම අප රටේ නැතිබව හඳුන්වා දීම
8. දවස් හතර පහේ වැඩසටහන් පටිගත කිරීමට ඉඩ නොදීම.
9. සුන්දර කාන්තාවන් ඔහුගේ පෙර ආත්මවල සගයන් බව පුන පුනා කීම.
10. බුදුරජාණන් වහන්සේගේ පින්තුර ආදිය මෙම ස්ථානවල මිනිසුන් ඇදගැනීමට දර්ශනය කර තැබීම.
11. සිවුරු දරන පැවිදි කෙනකු ආවත් ඔහුගේ යටතේ භාවනා කල යුතු අතර ඔහු කියූ පසු ශාලාවට ගොස් හු හඬ මරලොතොනි හෝ ඕනෑම දෙයක් සිවුරු පොරවා සිටියදීම කලයුතුවිම.
12. වැඩිය ප්‍රශ්න කලොත් එලියට පලවා හැරීම .
13. බුදුන් වදාල ධර්මයේ මුල මැද අග මානව දේශනා කර තිබුනත් මෙවන් තැන්වල එසේ නොවේ කියා පැවසීම.
14. හින්දු දහමේ හා යෝග කොටස් සම්මිශ්‍රනය කිරීම.
15. ත්‍රිපිටකය යනු සහිත්‍ය ග්‍රන්ථයක් පමණයි.

මෙවැනි නීති විරෝධී භාවනා ආගමික කඩ හරියට අර කතා පුවත් වල සදහන් වන ඩැන්ටේ සංස්කෘතිය වගේය. ඩැන්ටේ සංස්කෘතිය යනු ජුදා හිරෝකා සහ මරියා විසින් නායකත්වය දෙන බුද්ධිමත් යක්ෂයන්ගෙන් සමන්විත ආගමික ඇදහිල්ලකි. එහි ඉලක්කය වන්නේ ඩැන්ටේ හා රියෝගේ ගේ පුනරුත්පත්තිය හරහා නිරයේ ශීතලම ගැඹුර තුළ යක්ෂ රජු නැවත නැඟිවීමයි. ඉතින් මේ බුදුදහම හා සිංහල සංකෘතියට එරෙහිව ඇතිවුන යක්ෂ නැගිටීම පිටු දැකීමට එම ප්‍රදේශයේ සිටින ග්‍රාමසේවකගේ තැන සිට හිඳින යහපත් මිනිසුන් නැගිටීමක්,පිබිදීමක් තිබිය යුතුය. ඊටහේතුව මෙය කථාවක් තුල බිහිවුන සතුරු රාජ්‍යක්‌ නොවේ බුදුන් වහන්සේට එකසිය පනස්වතාවකට වඩා පුජාකළ මේ පින් බිමේම නීති විරෝධිව බිභිවු සතුරු රාජ්‍යක්‌ නිසාවෙනි.

අටවිසි බුදුරජාණන්වහන්සේලා නොව ඊට ඉහත කල්පවල පහලවී සිටි බුදුරජාණන්වහන්සේලාගේ ගුණ සුවඳ අපි ජාතියක් වශයෙන් දනිමු. අපහට ඒ ගැන අමුතුවෙන් කීම අනවශ්‍යය.

Picture Courtesy freepik

”යථාගාරං සුච්ඡුන්නං – වුට්ඨි න සමතිවිජ්ඣති
ඒවං සුභාවිතං චිත්තං – රාගෝ න සමතිවිජ්ඣති”

”ගේක වහලය සෙවිලි කරලා තියෙන්නෙ නියම පිළිවෙළට නම්, වැස්ස වහිනකොට එම වහලය තුළින් ගෙට වතුර ගලන්නේ නෑ. සමථ විදර්ශනා භාවනාවෙන් දියුණු කරපු සිතත් ඔය වගේම තමයි. ඒ සිත තුළට රාගය ඇතුල්වෙන්නෙ නෑ”.

• ජේතවනාරාමයේදී නන්ද තෙරුන් අරභයා වදාළ ගාථාවකි.
  ධම්ම පදය ඇසුරෙන්

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අවසාන වශයෙන් මෙම රකුස් මධ්‍යස්ථාන වෙත ගිය කාට හෝ මෙවැනි අත්දැකීම් ලැබී ඇත්නම් ඒගැන කාටහෝ කියන්න.ඔබේ දුවාදරුවා , දයාබර බිරිඳ, අනෙකුත් පවුලේ ඥාතින් රැකගන්න. අපට තොරතරු දුන් අය අප කණ්ඩායම් එහි යාමට ප්‍රතිෂේප කිරීම නිසා එම පුද්ගලයන්ගේ සැබෑ තතු එළිපෙහෙළි නොකිරීම නිසාත් එහෙන් මෙහෙන් මෙම ලිපිය කාගේත් ආරක්ෂාවට ලියන්න සිදුවිය.

”ගින්නක් නැතිව දුමක් නගින්නේ නැති නිසාත්” සමාජයට වෙන නපුරක්, කරදරයක්, බුද්ධ ශාසන නීතියට පටහැනි ක්‍රියාවක් මෙහි අනිවාර් යෙන් සිදුවන නිසාත්මෙම සිද්ධිය සමාජ ගතකලයේය.

ඒවගේම යම්කිසි කෙනෙකුට මෙය ලිපිය විකාරයක් හැල්ලක් වශයෙන්ද ගත හැකිය, නමුත් අප පවසන්නේ කඳු බෝඩ වෙනුවට කඳු උඩ භාවනා මර්+ මස්+ තාන + රකුස් භාවනා මධ්‍යස්ථාන දුම්බර කඳු වැටි උඩ අදත් ඔබ එනතුරු නිසොල්මනේ බලා සිටින වගයි.

රාගාධි කෙලෙස් වලින් පිරි මෙවැනි ආචාරයන් පසුපස ඔබ සියල්ල නොගොස් සැබෑ බුදුමග ඔස්සේ යාමට සිත් ඇතිවේවා.

බෞද්ධ ධජය ඔසවමූ …

ඔබ සැමට තෙරුවන් සරණයි!
බෞද්ධ කටයුතු පිලිබඳ විශ්ලේෂක දේශබන්දු දෙශාඅභිමානී සුර්ය වංශ රත්න විභූෂණ පාලිත ආරියරත්න ‘ජාතික බෞද්ධ බලවේගය කැදවුම් කරු හා සභාපති,TCFBI PEC සභාපති සදාචාර විරෝධී බෞද්ධ ආගමට හැරවීම සොයා බැලීම හා පර්යේෂණ,TCFBI ජාත්‍යන්තර සම්බන්ධීකාරක, සෙන්කඩගල සිංහ ද්වාරයේ සිට

BY MEERA SRINIVASAN Courtesy The Hindu business line

16 foreign dignitaries, including External Affairs Minister Jaishankar, expected to attend Council of Ministers meeting on October 11

Several Foreign Ministers, including those of India, Bangladesh, Mauritius, Iran, Malaysia and South Africa, will participate in the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) Council of Minister’s meeting in Colombo on October 11, 2023, according to the Sri Lankan government, which is preparing to take over as Chair of the regional grouping this week.

The Council of Ministers meeting in Colombo will see the participation of 16 ministers, including the Foreign Ministers of Bangladesh, India, Iran, Mauritius, Malaysia and South Africa, as well as ministerial and senior-level participation from Australia, the Comoros, France, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Maldives, Mozambique, Oman, Seychelles, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Somalia, Tanzania, Thailand, the UAE, and Yemen (member countries) and from China, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Russia, Turkey, the UK and the US (dialogue partners), a statement from President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office said. 

Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Ali Sabry will chair the Council, the highest decision-making body of IORA, taking over from the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh, the current Chair, for the next two years. The Council will be preceded by the 25th meeting of the Committee of IORA Senior Officials on October 9 and 10.

Established in 1997 as an intergovernmental organisation of states on the rim of the Indian Ocean, the IORA has members from Africa, West Asia, South Asia, South-East Asia and the Oceania. The Association’s membership has expanded to 23 member states and 11 dialogue partners.

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The regional meet of countries on the rim of the Indian Ocean comes exactly a year after the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA), the country’s top development aid agency, convened the first ‘China-Indian Ocean Region Forum’ in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming.

Explained | China’s moves in the Indian Ocean

Significantly, Sri Lanka — which is frequently confronted with competing strategic interests of India and China in the Indian Ocean Region — participated in the forum, along with others from the region, including Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Afghanistan.

The IORA forum also coincides with reports with a possible visit of Chinese research vessel Shi Yan 6 to Sri Lanka. India and the US have reportedly raised the matter with Sri Lanka, while Foreign Minister Sabry in a recent interview said the government was yet to clear the Chinese vessel’s visit.

Meanwhile, on October 11, India and Sri Lanka will launch a long-pending ferry service connecting Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu with Kankesanthurai in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka this week, as part of the countries’ decision to enhance connectivity.

e-Con e-News

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

e-Con e-News 01-07 October 2023

Yet another Anglo-Amerikan settler-timebomb is exploded once more in West Asia, as the USA’s IMF & World Bank traveling-circus out of Washington, gathers on Monday for their annual diwan, this time in al-Mamlakah al-Maghribiyyah aka the Western Kingdom aka Morocco at a strategic mouth of the Mediterranean.

     Morocco was the USA’s first diplomatic outpost, set up in 1786, to lubricate US smuggling of opium from Turkey to China (see ee Focus). Sri Lanka is now put on stage there to play the reluctant but contrite schoolboy (yes, bwoy!) before a pleasantly glowering principal wielding a NATO-cane in hand, who has signed onto the wrong guidance report card 16 times before.

     Here Colombo’s Harvard-house-trained ‘bankers’ will stand, at a northwest African crossways where the war drum took Europe by surprise. These dollar economists gravely shake their heads at the unteachable slave. Bitter medicines they themselves don’t imbibe, they prescribe to others. Somewhere along the way to Seville and to Havana and then to Wall Street, the war drum began to play rock-n-roll for its supper. Hence, the IMF – is the only way – is their song.

     Those who have brought Sri Lanka to this pass are running for cover, or posing pusillanimous. Not a squeak from the US stinktank Advocata & slimy Singapore Salleys. Oh, US Advocata did this week remind that their partner agency, the Canada-based Fraser Institute rates Sri Lanka’s ‘economic freedom below Burkina Faso, Haiti’ (as, the Colombo US embassy’s lipstick, EconomyNext headlined this ‘revelation’).

     Why Burkina Faso? Why Haiti? Both are about to be invaded again by the whites. The US has placed Rwanda & Kenya to front the invasion of Haiti. Canada’s Foreign Minister says they are invading Haiti to prevent sexual and gender-based violence”! Advocata knows which side of freedom, their dollars are buttered on. Rwanda’s envoy in London however accidentally divulged: it’s a hypocritical hopelessness machine.

     The US NGO Human Rights Watch, Great Worrier & Cold-Warrior, has made a video featuring Sri Lanka to tug at the heartstrings of the IMF in Marrakesh. Painting the Sri Lankan crow on a tripwire as the canary in a mine, the HRW’s underlookers say the IMF is not fair, is disequalizing. Lovely. They want the IMF castor oil to conform to the US’s Human Rights Watchmen, who can’t see the Guantanamo from all that Guantanamera in their ears and Guacamole in their deep throats. The East is indeed a career for these human rightists!

     The US & India are trying to pull a Ukraine on Sri Lanka. Having been pushed into becoming a bloodiable Slavic pawn of NATO, a sizeable chunk (at least 28%) of Ukraine’s famed breadbasket is now owned by US agribusinesses (see last ee). Helping to manufacture the hopeless (renamed refugees), the salaries & pensions of conniving Ukrainian officials, civilian & military, are paid by the US. Is this the US plan for Sri Lanka? Certain ‘permanent’ Sri Lankan officials surely act as if only dollars pay their salaries.

     Under the pretext of giving title to forest lands tilled by cultivators for generations, the IMF is grabbing forest reserves for multinational agribiz & mining corporations. 80 national assets, including the misled Bank of Ceylon & People’s Bank – long prevented from investment in rural industrialization – are also under the hammer of an ‘independent’ god wearing a fake blindfold. Here is the price to pay to be paid after all the prizegivings. (see ee Random Notes, Put on Hold)

     The President at the same time seeks to capture a slice of the nationalist vote to extend the economic plans of his backers. But what plans do he & they have? The fire carelessly sparked, that even started to burn the future President’s home, will now consume the firemen & arsonists, amateur & professional. Some hope North Amerika’s prairie Midwest will beat us to the bonfire.

     The President is looking at making a withdrawal from this particular vote bank for the next election, to build a firewall around the popular demand for true nidhahasa. It’s all public relations. He’s saying basic things that shouldn’t have to be even said. Who is the US or England or EU to judge debt or human rights or corruption? A real accounting of ‘debt or human rights or corruption’ would put those torquing Torquemadas in the dock of Mara.

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Black Agenda Report‘s web hosts are having technical difficulties.

We will post this week’s issue as soon as we can. Thank you for your support of BAR.

– Black Agenda Report (USA)

United States of Amnesia – This week finds the USA escalating censorship over their internet, even as they deplore any attempt by Sri Lanka to assert sovereignty over its land, air or cyberspace. A white Asia Internet Coalition, whose members include Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta, X, LinkedIn, etc, deplore the SL government’s ‘draconian’ Online Safety Bill. None of the usual NGO-dollared suspects (CPA, NMSJ, etc) criticizing the Bill, even mention the need for a media truly independent from such imperialist monopolies & agencies from AP to BBC to CNN to Reuters, etc.

     Certain websites ee depends on for certain news have been blocked this week by the US. Black Agenda Report has been put down. Many rely on BAR for crucial news on Africans, Africa (especially East Africa) and the non-blanco Americas. One the last BAR articles we read, told former US President Barack Obama to please ‘shut up’. Obama was supposedly seeking donations recently to ‘help’ flood victims in Libya, a country he and his deplorable foreign secretary delighted in invading, openly murdering their leader. Obama, supposedly the real coherent in a doddering White House, is pushing the Presidential candidature of his George-Bush-hugging spouse Michele. Obama, let us recall, is the son of a white mother who was a CIA ‘economic anthropologist’ collecting names of nationalists to impale in the great genocide of 1965 in Indonesia. So Obama knows when & whom to shut up.

     USA’s Twitter is blocking popular blog Indian Punchline’s author, former diplomat MK Bhadrakumar, from being streamed. India has also arrested NewsClick editors, after a redbaiting New York Times hit out at a Sri-Lankan -linked tech entrepreneur. We do not always agree with NewsClick editorial policy (like their link to Germany’s DW) but have depended on them for news on India’s workers & cultivators available nowhere else.

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• Sri Lanka is being gamed, being played. Who is playing the game and who is gaming the play is easy to see. In New York, the US, English & French governments have ‘delayed’ a Hamilton Reserve Bank lawsuit against Sri Lanka. This ‘delay’ too is a source of speculatory profit, burgeoning Sri Lanka’s so-called debt, which is mostly interest payments anyway!

     Need here to remind that the ancient Sinhala system of loans & debts was always based on ability to pay when possible. Compound interest was imposed by English & Christian-controlled colonial courts on behalf of Muslim merchants & landowners, which resulted in massive landlessness, and the assemblage of large fertile holdings in Eastern Province.

     Media has focused on HRB’s ‘Chinese-American’ owner. A few weeks ago, Sunday Times or some such Anglo-marooned media, published an article by the Nikkei-owned London Financial Times, editing out the part that said HRB was founded by ‘prominent bankers & lawyers from London’, including chair Sir Tony Baldry (former aide to Margaret Thatcher). FT too did not mention that HRB CEO Prabhakar Kaza, an Anglo-Telegu town councillor outside London, was a former Chief Executive Officer of the State Bank of India, London (2002-5). Who is Nikkei anyway? As we remind, Japan remains a US-occupied colony.

     This reminds of ee’s muse – SBD de Silva understood the endearing links between Sri Lanka’s & India’s oligarchy and English (& Yankee) colonial power. The alliance of merchants & moneylenders to multinationals & their banks. There were and are elements in Sri Lanka whose interests were and are very much hewn by hooves of imported steel from and to London. And speaking of steel…

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• The much applauded and awarded ‘apparel industry’ in Sri Lanka ran out of needles in 2020. Three years later, they have yet no plan to make a needle or a pin in Sri Lanka!

     ‘Apparel manufacture being a strategic industry, filling this hiatus should have been a number one priority,’ figures Vinod Moonesinghe. His compelling glimpse – more than an undressing, of what ee likes to call the ‘garment’ fraud – offers what Moonesinghe calls a ‘vital asset’, dominated by 3 companies – Brandix, Hirdaramani & MAS.(see ee Focus)

     Are they really Sri Lankan companies? – their principals belong to regional Indian merchant clans who have long been local agents of colonialism – or fronts for larger multinationals. And are they an ‘industry’ if they insistently refuse to make a pin? Indeed, others note:

     ‘Apparel exports cannot contribute to industrialisation unless there is a significant amount of localisation: local firms, local supply chains & linkages to other industries in the domestic economy. The apparel export sector may have been ‘the first manufacturing industry in most countries’, but ‘the stronger industrialising potential came from textile production & not apparel assembly’.(see ee Random notes)

     Moonesinghe speaks of a ‘limited’ yet ‘fair degree’ of vertical integration, yet it’s unclear how much of the textiles & clothes, the tools & machinery that make up this ‘industry’, are sourced in Sri Lanka.

     Further, the foreign firms they are linked to for supplies & markets have no interest in sourcing locally. Worse, their foreign principals actively sabotage the emergence of competitive local firms. Indeed the Big 3 arose on the graves of the local textile industry – they destroyed the Thulhiriya textile manufacturing complex, and turned it into warehouses for the Gujerati-owned MAS.

     The destruction of national assets (called by capitalists when it suits them, as state-owned enterprises – SoEs – is the BBC an SoE?) and deindustrialization, is a tried-&-true science. A ‘Korean investor’ in the Thulhiriya Textile Mill vanished leaving a multi$bn loan unsettled for a local bank. The skilled workers were chased away by goons.

     Modern industrial capitalism is not about collecting gold & gems but the means of making machines, and the accumulation of such means of production, physical & mental skills. This is the real test. The real capital accumulation.

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• The capitalist media loves to wail, ‘The people (electorate, public, sheep, etc) have such short memories’. But it is not people but the capitalist media itself who promote amnesia. How long must we tag along, lemming-like, and steadfastly refuse to learn from the nearest & best examples of renaissance? – China. The so-called middle-class are not just children of 1977, they are spawn of 1815 intrigue & massacres and not just of 1818… For just as the sun & moon rise & fall, wax & wane:

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‘Here begins our tale.

The empire, long divided, must unite;

Long united, must divide.

Thus it has ever been…’

– Romance of the Three Kingdoms (14^thC Chinese classic)

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‘China understands the lesson of history –

that hegemony preludes decline’

– A Global Community of Shared Future: China’s Proposals & Actions

The US, its European forebears, its settler cousins in Australia & Canada, & all their house-trained suddha scholars of kolor, in Colombo as in Delhi & London and New York, have been spreading lively & deadly paranoia around the world against China. And not only. Denying the existence of ‘colonialism’ & imperialism’ (to the extent of removing books from libraries, let alone preventing the teaching of such history! – & by the way this is their statist prerogative), they are yet quick to sling at their enemies such phrases – ‘Colonialist!’ ‘Imperialist’ ‘Despot’ – emptied of all content.

     Indeed, the favored white mode of attack is to accuse others of their own transgressions. Projection, it is called. There’s no better example than Canada’s expertise on all genocides except their own, which they claim is a thing of the past. All one has to do is to speak to one un-salaried de-feathered ‘Indian’ in Canada, to have history clatter (& rise) about your feet.

     On September 26, just before celebrating its 74^th anniversary of liberation on October 1, China released a rather compelling 22,000 words, A Global Community of Shared Future: China’s Proposals & Actions. While the white West menaces & rages preparing for another round of mass cannibalism (aka world wars), threatening to drag Sri Lanka down with them, China is offering a recipe for a just, equal & peaceful world of many cultures & thoughts.

     Sri Lanka’s Tamara Kunanayakam was in Beijing during their festivities to the autumnal moon, meditating on ‘Humanity in Crisis – Will Sri Lanka Accept the Challenge to Build a Maritime Community with a Shared Future?’ She begins by noting that Sri Lanka ‘has had to pay a heavy price for resisting pressures to become a camp-follower of an increasingly aggressive global hegemon (the US) in decline…’

     Indeed, as Kunanayakam notes, the USA’s ‘Free & Open Indo-Pacific strategy is no different from the logic that propelled Western colonial expansion’. ee therefore offers a very short history of the US Pacific Fleet beginning with The Last of the Mohicans author Fenimore Cooper’s speculations on the first US ships to the ‘Chinese seas.’ Ships whose opium cargos would make the first millionaires in the US. And it is opium & the English wars to sell it, with the US demanding ‘equal opportunity’ to do so as well, that indeed quite literally awakens somnolent Asia to the machine reality of modernity (see ee Focus). Will Sri Lanka awake and open its eyes wider to its own history and the real world?

Our Forests & Banks on the IMF Slave Block: Outa Colombo On to Marrakesh

Aloysius Hettiarachchi

  It appears that my previous article questioning the useful lifespan and the stability of Victoria Dam (designed by a company named Sir Alexander Gibb and Partners that has been sold or responsibility transferred to a US consultancy), has received world-wide attention. According to an article by one Maddie Burakoff titled ‘How are ancient Roman and Mayan Buildings still standing? Scientists are unlocking their secrets’ (AP) in Yahoo (on 3^rd October, 2023), it would appear to be so. I have mentioned the problems associated with the use of concrete in my LinkedIn account also when some Indian engineers started talking big about their skyscrapers that are coming up in their cities. I am happy if I was able to bring these designers to rethink about their assumptions on various kinds of Portland Cements originally patented by the English mason long time ago, via this forum. Have we put a stop to skyscraper madness?. Time will tell.

Strength of existing concrete can be tested superficially using various techniques like Schmidt’s Hammer test, Frequency analysis etc. I have found in one case that the frequency analysis of driven concrete piles giving wrong results. Testing the bond between reinforcement steel and concrete is an important aspect which cannot be done for an existing building without destroying it, to my understanding.  

The BoTree:

As for the following video by a researcher the power of Bo tree (Pipal or Ashwada tree which has been brought to India from Central Asia by Mohenjo Daro Harappan people) has been known long before Lord Buddha’s time. A reasonable account can be gleaned from the following video:

Since I am not a historian, I would not add any comment here on its reliability or otherwise. But we can use common sense to think about various aspects that he presents.

This is quite a long video. Those who are not much interested in world history may skip this.

Mohenjo Daro when translated means, mound of the dead, the narrator/author does not mention about this important fact.

So, protecting the dead bodies (and perhaps venerating them) inside big structures constructed using baked clay and lime mortar had been a practice, in Mohenjo Daro, too. That civilization has lasted about seven centuries while Anuradhapura kingdom of ours has lasted 1400 years with its very similar advance infrastructure (only in some localities). The 4000 year old Maduru Oya ancient structures, of the same period  constructed, using bricks near the modern day dam constructed under Mahaweli Scheme is also an engineering marvel. The researchers can find out what materials have been used for its construction. Looking at the images in the video people of Mohenjo Daro have lived in large numbers in small brick walled buildings just like today’s city dwellers do. They selected clay with some quantity of iron compounds in them that becomes red when burnt due to alignment of electron spin (as per current quantum mechanics model). They may be emitting EM waves of infrared (in the region of 300 GHz to 400 THz.) together with reflected red light from the sun. Those waves may be riding on other harmful wave in the region of 200 MHz as demonstrated by the engineer in the video that was give in my article mentioned at the beginning. We have read in history books that quite often armies that lived in great cities are no match for tribal nomadic armies of half that number. This may have happened three times in that Indian region: first wave from Central Asia, then the so-called Aryan invasion, and the last, Turkic invasions.

I have watched a video by an ex-IPKF officer explaining how difficult they found it to defeat the Tiger guerrilla force as they lived in the jungles (and smelled like jungle, too). Perhaps that may be the reason our jungles are being cleared in a hurry. This means when you live in organized cities, your system (logics in the brain) becomes weak and unfit to give a fight. People using gut feeling like those in our border areas can do much better.

Fourier Transform and the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT):

I give below a video from Dr. Derek Muller who is running a video series called Veritasium (meaning element of truth) on science, education and anything else. He has a PhD in Physics. He explains beautifully how lots of things that we use toady are based on an algorithm (FFT) discovered 200 or so years ago and the credit for it really should go to someone else (Federick Gauss) not Fourier. We seem to have started using this most important algorithm about 150 years after its discovery. For those without a maths knowledge it is better to watch the video from the beginning to 7:50 and then from 18:52 to the end.

He explains clearly how an image is formatted using FFT, transmitted via network digitally and reassembled in our devices to give us a beautiful picture in colour. Sounds are the same from 20 Hz to 20 KHz which is human hearing range. Female voice has a fundamental frequency between 350 to 3 KHz and other waves or harmonics up to 17 KHz.  Male voice has 100 Hz to 900 Hz for fundamental waves and harmonics up to 8 KHz. So, a person’s voice can be reproduced artificially by knowing his or her fundamental frequency and a few harmonics. This means that music can be synthesize using and Arduino Nano board or even an ATtiny chip which present day school children use. It would appear from the above that lower the fundamental frequency the more manly a person sounds. 

Dr. Derek (an Australian) is a musician as well and think videos are a great way for education. I too find that even the comments given by viewers are important and sometimes give important insights into what the narrator or author does not say.

I give below a beautiful guitar play by a popular artist recorded more than ten years ago and a French version of the song also nicely sung by a popular singer. These come to us via FFT. Please enjoy!.

Aloysius Hettiarachchi

Courtesy News24

• The Green Connection is lobbying members of the French and European Parliaments about TotalEnergies’ offshore oil and gas projects in South African oceans.
• French NGO Bloom supported their visit to Paris and Brussels this month.
• Bloom has urged 78 financial institutions to stop investing in TotalEnergies’ oil and gas projects in Africa.
• For climate change news and analysis, go to News24 Climate Future.

 Environmental group Green Connection is lobbying French MPs and members of the European Parliament to hold French corporation TotalEnergies to account for its “ocean grab” in South African waters.

Total Energies has applied for environmental approval for oil and gas exploration drilling in several areas offshore along the West Coast, Cape Agulhas, and Mossel Bay.

Environmental group Green Connection is lobbying French MPs and members of the European Parliament to hold French corporation TotalEnergies to account for its “ocean grab” in South African waters.

Total Energies has applied for environmental approval for oil and gas exploration drilling in several areas offshore along the West Coast, Cape Agulhas, and Mossel Bay.

During Tuesday’s briefing, Swann Bommier, Bloom’s advocacy and campaigns director, said that about 100 members of the European Parliament, French Parliament, and mayors had shown support for the campaign against TotalEnergies.

“It’s heartening to know we have that support in Europe,” said small-scale fisher Christian Adams who was part of the delegation. He said he had been “honoured” to speak to MPs about the impact the TotalEnergies projects would have on the livelihoods of fishers.

Bloom has contacted 78 key banks and asset managers, including JP Morgan, Black Rock, Barclays, and Goldman Sachs, urging them not to invest in TotalEnergies’ fossil fuel projects in Africa. Only four of these had committed to stop supporting the projects, Bommier said. The financial sector is “addicted to TotalEnergy’s profits,” he said. TotalEnergies reported a profit of about $20.5 billion for 2022.

READ | Turtles, whales and more at risk: Alarm over Total Energies’ Mossel Bay plans

TotalEnergies did not respond to GroundUp’s queries by the time of publication.

In a press statement last November responding to an open letter from the Green Connection and Bloom, CEO Patrick Pouyanné said that the exploration projects would supply gas to the South African domestic market as part of a contribution to the country’s move away from coal and use of gas as a transition fuel. Pouyanné noted that South Africa was still heavily reliant on coal for electricity generation and that access to energy was a major concern in the country.

He said TotalEnergies was also developing a portfolio of solar and wind renewable energy generation.

The Green Connection is taking the Presidency and the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) to court for not implementing Section 6 of the National Energy Act through the development of an Integrated Energy Plan.

https://www.news24.com/fin24/climate_future/news/south-african-activists-urge-french-parliament-to-stop-totalenergies-ocean-grab-20230223

Press conference Indonesia Focal Point for Corporate Accountability

As the Indonesian Civil Society Coalition Criticizes UN Ocean Conference 2022, the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), meeting in Colombo October 12-14 must take note of the need to protect Indian Ocean Fisheries from Distant Water States plundering Indian Ocean resources and ban trawlers from non-Indian Ocean littoral States– to alleviate poverty and enable conservation, as well as, recovery of fish stock.

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The Indonesia Focal Point for Corporate Accountability (IFP Coalition) reminds us that the Global Blue Economy Governance agenda, discussed at the UN Global Oceans Conference, encourages ocean grabbing and threatens the sustainability of the people’s lives, especially coastal communities and indigenous peoples.

The discussions of world ocean governance are dominated by the intervention of the multinational corporations’ interest to monopolise in the context of extracting marine resources as widely as possible. The commercialisation by transnational corporations also indicates that the state does not have a role in monitoring and taking action against this agenda. The IFP Coalition urges all state parties in the international field to immediately push for corporate liability on the commercialisation of the global blue economy agenda.

The UN Global Ocean Conference meeting from 27 June to 1 July 2022 in Lisbon, Portugal, carried the theme Scaling up ocean action based on science and innovation for implementing Goal 14”. However, can we expect the UN Oceanic Conference to address the issue equitably?

Progress From the Global Ocean Conference

Carsten Pedersen, Researcher at the Transnational Institute, explained that the political wheelhouse of the global marine economy is currently strongly controlled by 100 transnational companies (TNCs), which account for 60% of the accumulated capital in the ocean economy, of which 86% comes from offshore oil and gas companies and the shipping industry. Read more about this here. 

The strong co-optation of multinational corporations in decision-making within the UN system has exacerbated the practice of ocean grabbing. They talked a lot about investing and financing in the blue economy. In one side event on the 30 by 30 agenda [Marine Protected Areas] donors, including philanthropic foundations and the Blue Action Fund [money from the French, German and Swedish governments] mobilised 1 billion US Dollars for advancing the conservation agenda. But this money will not go to the government  nor to fisher organisations. A significant part of it, if not most, will go to the big international conservation organisations [e.g. WFF, Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy] and in some cases their budget to operate exceeds those of Ministries of Fisheries. Recent history has shown that the conservation agenda leads to expropriation of people dependent on the territories and resources for their livelihoods and in many cases led to violence with the worst examples including killing of fishers by park rangers. What we witness in Lisbon is a fanfare of philanthropic foundations, corporations, governments and international conservation organisations walking down a path of Blue-Washing” said Pedersen conveying the report from Lisbon.

The discussion process that took place in Lisbon was very disappointing. Jesu Rathinam, from the National Fishworkers Forum, India, explained that the discussion on marine governance in this forum has shifted from the issue of protecting traditional fishers and coastal communities to extracting the blue economy.

The issue of investment and financing of the blue economy dominates in order to pump up profits. Most of the companies from wind energy, solar energy, and even offshore oil and gas companies. In fact, the Declaration of Marine Protected Areas ignores where these companies can carry out oil and gas exploration activities in marine protected areas. Meanwhile, in marine protected areas, fisherfolks are not allowed to catch fish there,” said Rathinam.

Indonesia’s Blue Economy Strategy Doesn’t Side with Coastal Communities.

Parid Ridwanudin, National Executive Manager for Coastal and Marine Campaigns at WALHI, emphasised that marine governance in Indonesia is also structured to serve the interests of large-scale corporations. The agenda for Indonesia’s blue economy strategy presented by the Government of Indonesia at the UN Global Ocean Conference forum is far from protecting coastal communities. One of them is a policy under the blue economy umbrella that is very profitable for corporations, namely scalable fishing. This policy is a derivative of the Job Creation Law which will provide a red carpet for large-scale corporations to exploit marine and fishery resources.

In fact, when referring to the status of fish resource utilisation, the status is red and yellow. This means that Indonesia’s fish resources are fully exploited and over exploited. Policies pushed by the government should restore, not encourage exploitation. In this forum, the Indonesian government should evaluate Indonesia’s marine governance, which has prioritized corporate interests, but at the same time does not improve the welfare of coastal communities,” added Ridwanudin.

Assessing this area will be easily converted for the benefit of extractive projects such as mining and also converted for neo-extractive areas such as large-scale tourism projects. This has been clearly stated in Law no. 11 of 2020 concerning Job Creation, Presidential Regulation no. 109 of 2020 concerning the Third Amendment to Presidential Regulation Number 3 of 2016 concerning the Acceleration of the Implementation of National Strategic Projects, and Government Regulation No. 27 of 2021 concerning the Implementation of the Marine and Fisheries Sector.

This is a form of planned ocean grabbing carried out by the government. Ocean grabbing is the deprivation of control and access to marine and fishery resources which are the community’s rights, carried out through inappropriate governance processes and destroying the socio-ecological welfare of the community.

Susan Herawati, Secretary-General of KIARA, explained that the UN Global Ocean Conference meeting is one of the various meetings to invite developed countries to invest in Indonesia, especially in coastal, marine and small islands based on corporate interest.”

This can be seen from the regulations drawn up, such as the Regional Regulation (Perda) on the Zoning Plan for Coastal Areas and Small Islands (RZWP-3-K), which is a legal affirmative for the control of coastal, marine and small islands space for the benefit of capital and forms. Legal marginalisation of local communities through regulations. This is in line with the commitment of the Government of Indonesia to encourage Marine Protected Areas as well as the development of conservation areas, coastal and marine rehabilitation, development of SKPT on seven islands and reduction of waste. These five (5) commitments can be used as a cover for the expulsion of coastal and island communities from living spaces that have been managed for generations,” explained Herawati.

Rahmat Maulana Sidik, Executive Director of Indonesia for Global Justice (IGJ), said that what was discussed at the UN Global Ocean Conference meeting further strengthened corporate control on global and national marine resource control, and this was in line with the WTO’s failure to produce a decision on the elimination of fisheries subsidies, especially those given by advanced industrial countries, at the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference meeting in Geneva on 13-17 June.

This means that these two international meetings have legitimised marine ownership from public ownership to closed ownership. In fact, the main actors whose rights and sovereignty must be protected are small fishermen and traditional fishermen,” said Maulana.

For information, the Indonesia Focal Point Coalition for Binding Treaty and Corporate Accountability was formed in 2015 to implement the mandate of UNHRC Resolution 26/9 regarding the negotiation of binding international instruments to regulate transnational companies. This instrument is important to urge the mechanism for corporate legal accountability that commits various human rights violations and environmental damage, as well as to urge the responsibility of the State, both the host country and home country, which has given legitimacy to the business crimes of multinational corporations.

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Members of the IFP (Indonesia Focal Point for Corporate Accountability) Coalition:
WALHI, IGJ, KRuHA, IHCS, KIARA, FIAN Indonesia, Solidaritas Perempuan, KontraS, ELSAM, Lokataru, IILH-apintlaw

For more information contact:
Parid Ridwanuddin, WALHI Coastal and Marine Campaign Manager, at parid.ridwanuddin@walhi.or.id

Ministry of Defence  – Media Centre

The camp for the National Cadet Corps, Cadet Eastern Band Championship – 2023 concluded at the National Cadet Corps Training Center in Rantembe recently (Oct 05).

Forty male cadet bands and eighteen female cadet bands from all over the island participated in this camp for the national championships.

For the year 2023, the Boys Oriental Band Championship was won by Bandaranaike College, Gampaha, and the runner-up was won by St. Sylvester College, Kandy.

The girls’ championship was won by Gampaha Ratnavali Balika Vidyalaya, while the runner-up was won by Maliyadewa Girls’ School, Kurunegala.

National Cadets Corps eastern band championship camp was continued for eight days and the passing out parade was also held on 05 October. The Director of National Cadet Corps Brigadier Sudantha Fonseka participated as the chief guest and a large number of senior officers of Defence Forces, Directors of Education, Principals and Teachers along with parents participated to witness this glamorous parade.

Arrangements have been made to conduct the Herman Luce, the National Championship camp for School Cadets platoons and De Soysa camp to be conducted on the 20th of this month at the National Cadet Corps Training Center, Rantambe and the passing out parade is scheduled to be held at the end of this camp on the 29th in a splendid manner.

Prime Minister’s Media

·        Cotton industry can get access to the world of fashion …         – Ms. Azusa Kubota, UNDP Resident Representative

The Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena said that we need to enact new rules instead of relying on old regulations to get out of the prevailing  crisis. He expressed  this  view  while addressing the Sankathana Mandapaya held at Temple Trees  on 2023.10.07 to mark the World Cotton Day.

Speaking on this occasion The Prime Minister stated that;

World Cotton Day is a special day declared by the United Nations. It is declared as a special day because it is useful for the people of the world. We dedicate ourselves to make this day meaningful for the cotton industry.

In every district all over the country, we encounter with thousands of acres of uncultivated lands belonging to the government. There is a possibility of using these lands for a useful purpose like cotton cultivation. We are ready to extend our support and commitment in this regard.

By expanding cotton cultivation through a continuous national program, the income of the rural people can be increased and foreign exchange of the country can be saved. I appreciate the attempts of the private sector for that. Farmers and entrepreneurs need confidence to engage in this kind of cultivation. It is necessary to cooperate with our universities and other research institutes to expand this industry.

An innovative system should be introduced to cultivate cotton in small gardens as an additional income. It has been almost a hundred years have elapsed since we started creating agriculture colonies with the belief that we have the ability to raise our heads through agriculture. In those colonies, there is the possibility of cultivating on every piece of land. People need to be directed to that. We are ready to have discussions on this matter with relevant institutions.

 Imported weaving machinery was available in certain buildings . Some were gifted to our country. These resources should be given to universities or entrepreneurs to focus on achieving goals. We must undergo such a change if we want to recover from the crisis. It’s necessary to enact  new rules instead of relying on old rules. Countries such as the United Kingdom, U.S.A, India, China, and Egypt are still engaged in cotton production.

We have to explain to the people about the production of seeds and the many benefits that can be achieved by seeds. By opening the doors of working generation of villages with universities, the children can be trained and those who leave the university will be benefited to the nation in the future. We also import pieces of gauze from abroad.

Life index has decreased. But the prices of goods are not cheap. Even if the farmers produce surplus, the price is determined by the purchasing power of the people. Farmers need a satisfactory purchase  price. An agreement should be existed between the private sector and the government sector on the prices.

Ms. Azusa Kubota, Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Program, said;

Support of UNDP will be rendered to the government’s efforts to develop cotton industry of Sri Lanka with the active participation of the private sector and farmers. This industry with a history of more than 2500 years can be used to boost the economy of rural farming families. In addition to the production of cotton cloth, there is the possibility of starting various industries related to the cotton industry, which generates valuable products such as cotton oil and animal feed. Especially this is a gateway to the world of fashion from the cotton industry and I call it ‘Farm to Fashion’.

Perseverance of Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena’s to uplift the rural people including small farm owners and small and medium scale entrepreneurs, especially women is highly appreciated.

Speaking on this occasion Mr Buddika  Marasinghe stated that

It is possible to start this cultivation on  large scale as well as  a home garden. Although it is a project that brings foreign exchange  to the country which the government should be  actively intervened, the support of the government is not sufficient. The government should implement a speedy program to encourage the private sector, the farmer as well as the young entrepreneur to expand this cultivation

At this function, Polonnaruwa Welikanda cotton farmers presented a casket containing cotton seeds and products to the Prime Minister.

Minister Douglas Devananda, State Ministers Sita Arambepola, Ashoka Priyantha, Vijitha Berugoda, Kader Mastan, MPs Jagath Samarawickrama, Yadamini Gunawardena, Secretaries to the Ministries, University Vice Chancellors, heads of government and non-government institutions, young entrepreneurs, farmers were present on this occasion

Prime Minister’s Media

Ministry of Defence  – Media Centre

There was a risk of breaking the stone embankment which was built under the project ‘Nilwala’ in the Matara Atthudawa area to prevent floods in the city of Matara, due to the bad weather conditions affecting the island. Therefore a constant operation was launched with the participation of more than 100 soldiers from the 61st Brigade of the Sri Lanka Army yesterday (Oct 06) from last night until this morning, to fortify the embankment.

More than 2500 families are currently displaced in the Matara district in the areas of Malimbada, Akurassa, Kamburupitiya, Thihagoda, Atthuduwa, Matara Fort and Gal Bamma and the Sri Lanka Army, Navy and disaster relief teams are working to provide immediate assistance to them under the supervision of Army Commander.

The Sri Lanka Army has established four food processing centres at Malimbada, Akurassa, Thihagoda and Matara Fort to provide food and water to the displaced people, which has been the main challenge in the disaster relief process and Army WMZ armoured vehicles, Unicorn APCs and heavy vehicles are being used to distribute food and drink to people in flooded areas.

In the meantime, Sri Lanka Army medical teams have been prepared to provide necessary support to every regional secretariat with disaster risk in Galle, Matara and Kalutara districts and 2 army battalions of over 500 soldiers have been assigned to Matara and Galle districts.

Additional 58 Division and Gemunu watch have been prepared for disaster relief operations in Kalutara district and 3 WMZ vehicles and 6 motor boats belonging to the Sri Lanka Army have been prepared for deployment when necessary.

Also arrangements have been made to call the diving teams of the Sri Lanka Army Special Forces and Commandos for the operations at a short notice.

Residents along other rivers in the southern province including the rivers such as Kalu, Nilwala and Ging are informed to be aware of flash floods or flood situations.

Under the leadership of the 61st Brigade of the Sri Lanka Army, disaster relief operations will be launched in conjunction with the Regional Secretariat Divisions of the Southern Province and other responsible government agencies, and if necessary, the soldiers of the 58th Brigade have also been prepared for deployment. Also, naval troops and boats as well as air force troops have been prepared for deployment if necessary. His Excellency the President Ranil Wickramasinghe, the Presidential Adviser on National Security, Hon. Sagala Rathnayake, the State Minister of Defence the Hon. Pramitha Bandara Tennakoon, Secretary to the President Mr. Saman Ekanayake, Defence Secretary General Kamal Gunaratne along with the Chief of the Defence Staff General Shavendra Silva regularly render necessary instructions to the Army Commanders and the heads of the local government bodies. These relief planning activities are ongoing under their full supervision

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

New Delhi, October 4 (Reuters): India’s external intelligence service is a feared foe in its neighbourhood: Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal have all accused it of political meddling and involvement with outlawed groups that have perpetrated acts of violence.

Now, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegation last month that Indian government agents were involved in the June killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in a Vancouver suburb has thrust Delhi’s secretive Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) into the global spotlight.

India angrily denied the allegations and demanded that Canada — which expelled RAW’s station chief — furnish evidence. Ottawa said it shared proof with allies, but will not release it publicly.

Reuters spoke to four retired and two serving Indian security and intelligence officials familiar with RAW who said the agency was galvanised to play a more assertive international role after the 2008 Mumbai attacks that left 166 people dead. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

Four officials said that RAW expanded its reach in Western nations gradually after 2008. One current official cited India’s failure to secure the extradition of a US citizen convicted of involvement in the Mumbai attack as a key motivation for RAW to increase its sway in the West.

While in its immediate neighbourhood, RAW has advanced signal and technical intelligence capabilities, in the West the agency remains largely dependent on human intelligence for its operations, according to one serving and one former official.

RAW, like other arms of India’s national security apparatus, has been emboldened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has bolstered India’s defence capabilities since his 2014 election and built a strongman image, five of the officials said.

Modi’s office did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

RAW Chief Ravi Sinha, the only serving official publicly affiliated with the agency, did not return messages seeking comment. Sinha reports to Modi’s office through the powerful National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, who also did not return a request for comment.

All six officials denied that RAW engages in targeted killings, noting that the agency has no mandate for such operations.

The fallout from the Vancouver incident has also raised concerns that RAW will come under greater global monitoring, Indian intelligence officials and analysts said.

The current developments have undoubtedly increased global curiosity about RAW,” said Dheeraj Paramesha Chaya, an expert on Indian intelligence at Britain’s Hull University. He said that greater Western scrutiny of RAW’s activities might also bring a closer understanding of Delhi’s security concerns.

The West has expanded military and intelligence cooperation with Delhi as tensions with China have grown, with Washington agreeing in 2020 to share sensitive mapping and satellite data with India.

In the short term, Canada’s assertion might make it harder for Western countries to trust RAW, one of the officials said.

Ottawa and Delhi have been in a diplomatic standoff since Trudeau made his allegations in public. India has suspended the issuance of new visas to Canadian citizens and demanded that Ottawa reduce its diplomatic presence.

Canada had unsuccessfully pushed allies such as the US to issue a joint statement condemning India, the Washington Post reported.

Expanding presence post-Mumbai

RAW has long been identified as an arch-rival by Pakistani security leaders. Most recently, Islamabad — without providing evidence — blamed RAW for a suicide blast near a mosque on Friday that killed over 50 people. An Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson did not return a request for comment on the accusation.

The Indian government publicly blamed Islamabad for the 2008 Mumbai attacks — widely seen by policymakers in Delhi as RAW’s most recent major failure — which Delhi says were carried out by Pakistan-based militants.

Islamabad denied that its agents were involved.

The agency enhanced its intelligence gathering operations in the West, including North America, due to the role of US citizen David Headley, now serving a 35-year prison sentence in Chicago on charges that included scouting locations for the Mumbai attacks, one of the officials said.

American law enforcement was warned before the attack that Headley had terrorism ties, according to US media reports. Top Indian policymakers have publicly suggested that he was a US double agent,” and Delhi’s failure to secure his extradition frustrated RAW, the official said.

The United States, which gave India access to Headley, has denied he was a double agent. The American Embassy in Delhi did not return a request for comment.

RAW has had a small Western presence since its inception in the 1960s, when it inherited the London station of the Intelligence Bureau, a colonial-era agency that now focuses on domestic security, according to Chaya, the Hull professor.

The large Indian diaspora in countries like the United States, Canada, Britain and Australia is an asset, two officials said.

But the risk of Indian agents coming under surveillance in their host nations means they are used for political influence campaigns rather than security operations, they said.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported in 2020, citing government and intelligence sources, that the country’s security services were monitoring the possibility of India and China using their diaspora to influence candidates in that year’s federal election.

Our footprint is growing in parts of the world which were not important earlier,” a recently retired senior RAW official said, without providing specifics.

RAW has long been associated with direct action … including targeted killings and disappearances” in its immediate neighbourhood, said Adrian Levy, co-author of a book on South Asian spy agencies, adding that such actions were arranged via proxies, which gave India deniability.

Delhi has generally not seen a need for covert operations outside South Asia because it has friendly relations with many countries that enable it to secure aims such as extradition and getting access to people of interest, one official said.

The agency has been super careful” about its operations in the West, said Levy. While RAW has arranged the movement of cash, weapons and men to other locations from Europe, direct action was reserved for South Asia and Southeast Asia,” he said.

Political support

RAW operates from a drab office complex with no signage in central Delhi. Reuters was unable to determine specifics about the agency’s operations, such as its budget and its size.

It split off from the Intelligence Bureau in 1968 and was initially tasked with keeping a keen eye on China after Delhi’s humiliation in their brief 1962 war. RAW had close links to Israel’s Mossad and the CIA since its inception, according to a 2008 report by the US Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank that tracks Indian foreign and security policies.

One serving and one retired official told Reuters that RAW’s political masters in the Modi government demanded that it expand its presence, significance and capabilities.”

What they have done is to give confidence to the organisation,” one of the officials said.

Two serving and one retired RAW agents told Reuters that some previous governments did not offer sufficient resources and political support.

Under Modi, India’s national security community has become far more proactive, in terms of diplomacy (and) deal making but also direct action, analogue and digital,” said Levy, the intelligence writer.

But as Indian intelligence services have gained more capabilities and far greater reach, the legal framework they operate in has not kept pace with how modern democracies manage espionage operations, he said.

RAW was created under a government order with no formal parliamentary or constitutional backing and is exempt from legislative oversight, according to PRS, a research group that studies India’s federal and state legislatures.

This means there is less oversight and fewer legal hurdles … as real command and control is centralized” with the prime minister, Levy said.

Dimuthu Attanayake  Courtesy The South China Morning Post

• Austerity measures such as tax reforms have taken a toll on Sri Lankans struggling with inflation and rising living costs
• As Sri Lankan professionals consider emigration, analysts warn further tough measures could hasten outflow of talent and hurt short-term stability

Rajitha Wickramasinghe, 33, was living a comfortable life as a product development and innovation engineer, but as Sri Lanka reels from bankruptcy, he is among a growing number of professionals looking to emigrate.

Disposable incomes of professionals like Wickramasinghe shrivelled as Sri Lanka was thrust into a deep economic crisis last year, crippling the country with severe shortages of essentials such as medicine and fuel. The crisis triggered a regime change amid mass protests as the country’s foreign reserves dwindled.

As Sri Lanka reached a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) following its historic debt default in May 2022, and began negotiating a bailout, a number of conditions aimed at restoring its macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability had to be met. This included major tax reforms, cost recovery electricity pricing, rebuilding the country’s foreign reserves, and improving social safety nets.

By September 2023, the year-on-year inflation marked 1.3 per cent, compared to a staggering 69.8 per cent in September 2022.

Despite this, austerity measures such as tax reforms have only added to the pressures on household incomes already hit by inflation and rising living costs.

Wickramasinghe said the reforms meant his income tax payment spiked from around 6,000 to 70,000 Sri Lankan rupees. This has become a key reason” for those used to a more comfortable lifestyle to think about emigrating, he added.

[For example] it is very difficult to think of buying a new vehicle because vehicle prices are higher, and even though my office provides a vehicle allowance [to pay the lease], that too gets taxed, eating into my salary,” said Wickramasinghe, who added that both he and his wife were thinking of leaving.

Sri Lanka received US$2.9 billion in IMF financing early this year and secured the first tranche of funds. Last week, an IMF review concluded without reaching a staff-level agreement needed to release the second tranche of funds. The IMF delegation viewed the country’s growth momentum” as subdued”.

The gap between Sri Lanka’s expenditure to revenue – standing at around 19 per cent and 9 per cent of GDP – needed to be bridged with appropriate” tax policies and reforms, senior IMF mission chief for Sri Lanka Peter Breuer said last week.

Revenue mobilisation gains (tax revenue) for Sri Lanka are expected to fall around 15 per cent below initial projections by end 2023.

To increase revenues and signal better governance, it is important to strengthen tax administration, remove tax exemptions, and actively eliminate tax evasion,” Breuer said.

A clear path” towards restoring debt sustainability with the creditors was also needed before the second tranche could be dispersed, Breuer added, noting that there was no fixed timeline” regarding the release of the second round of financing.

IMF bailout ‘endorsement’ for Sri Lanka economic recovery: analysts9 Mar 2023

The feedback from the IMF review should not be taken lightly, warned Dhananath Fernando, CEO of Advocata Institute, a public policy think tank based in Colombo.

[Sri Lanka] is in a tricky spot. We have to be very cautious because we are on a tightrope,” Fernando said.

If Sri Lanka was unable to stick to the IMF programme, then market competence would be lower and the country could lose its grip on the short-term stability it had achieved so far, which could result in social unrest, Fernando said.

The country needed a more neutral tax policy, without tax holidays, to widen the tax base instead of increasing the existing taxes, he noted.

The government also needed to accelerate reforms on loss-making state-owned enterprises – making around 86 billion rupees worth of losses per year – as well as talks with bilateral creditors such as China, India and Japan, to move forward with the IMF programme, he said.

Austerity measures

But economist Sumanasiri Liyanage disagreed, saying the IMF was acting as a manager of international financial capital, protecting and preserving” the creditors’ interest instead of the debtor state.

Liyanage, a former professor of economics at the University of Peradeniya, said policymakers would introduce more taxes now and cut down on government expenditure on healthcare, education and social welfare to bridge the gap between expenditure and revenue.

An increase in austerity measures would hasten the outflow of professionals from the country, he added.

Anecdotal trends already show increasing outward migration of healthcare staff, university teachers and engineers. According to government data, 14,307 professionals had registered to migrate by the end of 2022, compared to an average of 9,000 in 2018-2019.

This would adversely affect the quality of services in areas such as education, healthcare and construction, Liyanage said.

Official statistics showed that by the second quarter of 2023, industrial and services activities had contracted by 11.5 per cent and 0.8 per cent respectively.

Despite the IMF recommending that cost recovery electricity pricing be maintained, electricity tariffs have gone up twice since August 2022, with a further 22 per cent increase proposed in September.

The hikes have crippled many small businesses. Hansini Nisansala, 28, had to close the small tailor shop she ran in Sri Lanka’s North Central Province, after her shop’s monthly bill increased to 6,000 rupees from 500 rupees in August 2022.

In January, I closed the shop. Since then, I get very few orders, because nobody comes to the [house] to get clothes stitched. Now, I have no way to pay back the loans I took to run the business in the first place. The finance company might take legal action against me,” Nisansala said.

Sri Lanka garment workers brace for lay-offs as demand slumps amid downturn14 May 2023

A UNDP report released in September states 55.7 per cent of Sri Lankans are vulnerable in education, health, adaptive capacity to disasters, and living standards. Many of the needy have fallen out of social safety nets as local policies changed to accommodate the IMF recommendations, despite the call for wider” social safety nets.

Jeewani Apsara, 35, from Weli Oya in the North Central Province, is one example. Although her family received benefits under the previous social security scheme, they did not qualify for the new scheme. Apsara has two school-going children, and her day labourer husband has no work now, she said.

Our paddy fields did not yield enough harvest even to eat. We have even mortgaged the house to feed ourselves and to send the children to school,” she said.

Written by Arun Janardhanan  Courtesy The Indian Express

The ferry will operate between Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu and Kankesanthurai in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. The transit time is expected to be three hours.

The vessel to be used as the ferry is called Cheriyapani and it can accommodate 150 passengers. (Twitter/@KRD_forum)

The much-awaited passenger ferry service between India and Sri Lanka is scheduled to commence operations on Tuesday (October 10), around 12 years after the plan was first mooted and a memorandum of understanding was signed between the two countries.

The ferry will operate between Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu and Kankesanthurai in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. The transit time is expected to be three hours.

The Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) will operate the ferry service. The service would offer an excellent opportunity for the people of India and Sri Lanka to make a low-cost trip to Jaffna and Tamil Nadu,” an SCI document said.

The vessel to be used as the ferry is called Cheriyapani. The price of a ticket is yet to be revealed, but passengers will be allowed to take luggage weighing up to 40 kg for free. The ferry can accommodate 150 passengers, said Tamil Nadu Minister for Public Works E V Velu, who added that the state government was closely associated with the service.

The initiative is a revival of maritime connections that trace back to the early 1900s. The Indo-Ceylon Express or Board Mail, which operated between Chennai and Colombo via the Thoothukudi port, was halted in 1982 due to the civil war in Sri Lanka. The resumption of ferry services follows the signing of an MoU on passenger transportation by sea, signed by the two countries in 2011.

The plan was first mooted after the war in 2011, during a period when Sri Lanka was earnestly attempting to shed its image as a refugee-producing” country. At the time, two services were on the cards – one between Thoothukudi and Colombo, and the other between Rameswaram and Talaimannar.

One of the most successful ferry services that existed before the Sri Lankan civil war ran between Dhanushkodi, near Rameshwaram, and Talaimannar. People from Chennai would board the Boat Mail Express at the Egmore railway station to go to Rameshwaram and board the ferry. The journey from there to Talaimannar, on a coal-powered steam ferry, used to take approximately two hours.

The new ferry service is anticipated to boost religious tourism, commerce, and trade in the coastal areas of both countries. With the ferry service positioned as a cost-effective mode of travel, tour operators are also expected to jump in. Budget travellers from Tamil Nadu and other parts of India can explore prominent places of worship in Colombo and the southern regions of Sri Lanka. Also, pilgrims from Sri Lanka will find easier access to pilgrimage sites such as Nagapattinam, Nagore, Velankanni, Thirunallar, and beyond, including the historical sites of the temple cities of Thanjavur, Madurai and Tiruchi.

Courtesy AsiaOne

BEIJING, Oct 7, 2023 – (ACN Newswire) – Major infrastructure projects undertaken by China Communications Construction Company Limited(CCCC) have received widespread praise from global officials in charge of transportation at two side events of the recently concluded 2023 Global Sustainable Transport Forum (GSTF).

The 2023 GSTF and the 15th International Exhibition on Transport Technology and Equipment, hosted by China’s Ministry of Transport, were held from Sept. 25 to 26 in Beijing. CCCC has actively participated in the forum and organized the forum’s two side events themed “effectively  advancing high-quality international infrastructure connectivity for coordinated regional economic development” and “smart, green and sustainable transportation infrastructure”, respectively.

During riveting discussions on the sustainable development of global transportation at the side events, ministers of transport and experts in transportation from many countries lauded landmark infrastructure projects built by CCCC, such as the Mombasa – Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) in Kenya, the Colombo Port City of Sri Lanka, and the China-Laos Railway.

“I was there at the inauguration ceremony,” said Kipchumba Murkomen, the Kenyan Cabinet Secretary for Roads, Transport and Public Works, pointing to a photo showing the inauguration ceremony of the Mombasa – Nairobi SGR with excitement.

“Companies like CCCC have done a fantastic job in our country in modernizing our railway system. Now we have an SGR system of almost 600 kilometers, and we believe that system will be further extended,” said Murkomen.

He also pointed out that CCCC has made great efforts to ensure ecological conservation during the construction of the railway. By transforming some technologies and building wildlife crossings, among many other measures, CCCC has managed to minimize the environmental impact of the project, according to Murkomen.

Calling the China-Laos Railway one of the models of green transportation system, Ngampasong Muongmany, the Lao Minister of Public Works and Transport, underscored the importance of realizing “green, low-carbon and sustainable transportation”, and noted that various countries should work together to achieve the goal.

Participants in the events also recognized the rich fruits of international cooperation in the transportation sector under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative over the past 10 years and shared their views on green development in the future.

“Because Sri Lanka highly values international exchanges in transportation construction, the Belt and Road Initiative is very important for us,” said Bandula Gunawardhana, Sri Lanka’s Minister of Transport, Highways, and Mass Media.

“It (the Belt and Road Initiative) is an excellent initiative, as all initiatives that are promoting connectivity in transport, just to connect better the world,” said Francisco Esteban Lefler, President of the World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure (PIANC).

Media Contact
Wang Yueran, huanqiu.com
Email: wangyueran@huanqiu.com
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Tel: 13002252096

Courtesy Adaderana

The President’s Media Division (PMD) says Sri Lanka cannot endorse the idea of international investigations into the island’s internal matters.

The Constitution of Sri Lanka and all other existing laws do not provide for conducting international investigations, the PMD said further, explaining that carrying out such investigations would be in violation of the law.

These remarks were made in a statement on Friday (Oct. 06) in which the PMD raised concerns about the editorial published in the local Catholic newspaper ‘Gnanartha Pradeepaya’ dated October 08 (Sunday), as well as the article titled An international investigation team is needed for an independent, transparent, and thorough investigation and monitoring.”

The PMD says Public Security Minister Tiran Alles, on April 20, 2023, had delivered 88 volumes and 48,909 pages of the presidential commission report on the Easter attack to Most Rev. Bishop Harold Anthony, following a request made by him.

Additionally, during a recent telephone conversation with Minister Tiran Alles, the President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Harold Anthony had mentioned that he was personally reviewing the report.

In light of this, the PMD said President Ranil Wickremesinghe is preparing to engage in discussions with representatives of the Bishops Conference.

The statement read that the idea of international investigations into Sri Lanka’s internal matters cannot be endorsed, explaining that the Constitution of Sri Lanka and all other existing laws do not provide for conducting international investigations.

The PMD said a committee, led by a retired Supreme Court judge, has been established to conduct an inquiry and produce a report regarding the Channel 4 television program.

The government also intends to engage in further discussions on this issue once the Bishops’ Conference have thoroughly reviewed the report from the Presidential Commission.”

By Sena Thoradeniya

(Contd. From 26 September 2023)

Government Agent’s and Assistant Agent’s Circuits in the Provinces/Districts

1.Official Diaries:

The activities of Government Agents and Assistant Agents were not limited to office work in kachcheris. They travelled throughout the Provinces and Districts respectively under their authority every month, sometimes several weeks continuously reviewing the work carried out in the districts by government institutions and checking whether the Headmen were implementing the work allotted to them. Official Diaries maintained by Government Agents, Assistant Government Agents and Office Assistants (OAs, third in the hierarchy of kachcheri administration) provide valuable information with regard to their office work in the kachcheris and circuits, how provincial and district administration was carried out by intermediaries Rate Mahattayas, Korale Mahattayas and Village Headmen (V.H. or Arachchis) in the latter.

The information contains in these Diaries illustrate Colonial administrator – native chief – ordinary villager relations in each district. It is the opinion of this writer that attention given to the information contains in these diaries by historians, sociologists and anthropologists is negligible, fragmentary and restricted to the chosen fields of study of their own and no Researcher or a group of Researchers or an Institute had done an in- depth study of these diaries. It is sad to say that thousands of documents deposited at the Sri Lanka National Archives (SLNA) in Colombo and Kandy remain untouched.

                                                                *

It was the duty of the Rate Mahattaya to receive, entertain and provide accommodation for the top official of the Province/District when he was on circuit. Native Headmen erected pandals, decorated bazars to welcome them and they were taken in procession accompanied with a large number of Kandyan dancers and tom – tom beaters. 

In plantation districts colonial administrators stayed the nights with British planters. In places where Rest Houses were available administrators found lodgings there. In remote areas temporary bungalows were erected by Headmen, village washer man providing linen.

Ponies, carts, bicycles and sometimes canoes were used for transportation in the North Central Province. In rugged mountain terrain in the Central Province where horse riding was a nightmare, Colonial administrators were carried by two villagers forming a ‘chair’ (ath putu) with their folded arms upon orders by Chieftains. (The dignitary ‘sat’ on the folded arms of the two carriers, his arms put around their necks. Even in early sixties politicians were carried like this to meeting places). Once Saxton the Government Agent of Central Province in his circuit to Eladetta in Udunuwara, was taken on an elephant arranged by the Diyawadana Nilame.

While the Government Agent/ Assistant Agent were on circuit, Rate Mahattayas in charge of divisions, Korale Mahattayas in charge of Korales and Village Headmen were in attendance. When Government Agent/Assistant Agent punishing villagers and minor village level officers (sometimes Koralas and Arachchis) severely there is not a single entry to denote that the Rate Mahattayas or Presidents of Village Tribunals had arbitrated on behalf of the wrongdoer, pleaded for clemency or mitigate the punishment.

2. Peculiarity of the North Central Province:

For this essay we have taken the Diaries of North Central Province only for obvious reasons. More than any other Province this writer opines that the Diaries of Assistant Government Agents (when it was attached to the Northern Province) and Government Agents of the North Central Province provide a microcosm of how provincial and district administration was carried out by the colonial administrators with their local hirelings  and shocking revelations about the plight of the Kandyan Sinhalayas.

There is evidence to show that colonial administrators had visited every nook and corner of the district/province inspecting irrigation works (tanks, sluices, anicuts, earth work and masonry work, canals), schools, and archeological excavations carried out at the time. In the Central Province, dispensaries, hospitals, local boards and sanitary boards, roads of different types, bridges, major and minor irrigation works, wells, ambalams, edandas and cocoa cultivation were under the scrutiny of GAs and AGAs. 

Inspection of official diaries of minor headmen took place while on circuit and those who made incomplete or false entries were punished varying from fines, interdiction or summarily dismissal.

The question arises why dismissing from service, prosecuting, punishing, suspending, fining of minor officials took place in such a magnitude. We may attribute many reasons, but all are inferences that need more evidence and detailed analysis. Colonial provincial administration opened up new avenues and opportunities for minor village level officials hitherto unknown prior to Colebrook-Cameron Reforms, to engage in cheat, fraud and other malpractices and misuse, consequences of a superimposed money economy over feudal economic relations. History of present-day fraud, malpractices, misuse of resources and abuse of power is embedded in this colonial administration.     

3. Appointments:

Appointing Arachchis and Vel Vidanes, renewal of Acts of Appointment of Arachchis and Korale Mahattayas, suspending or temporarily suspending Acts of Appointment took place while Government Agent was on circuit. We come across a Government Agent transferring a hospital orderly for sending a post card to a prisoner (for prisoner’s use) which was intercepted by the gaol keeper.

4. Suspensions:

Suspending Arachchis for issuing cattle vouchers after an outbreak of rinderpest in the Thulana, Police Vidanes for defrauding chena payments of villagers, Korale Mahattayas who were retaining the money collected as cattle branding fee and payees complaining their cattle not still branded was a common occurrence.

5. Dismissals:

Dismissing Arachchis for giving false evidence; delaying to write crime reports (on the same day he was informed) or not making any enquiry into alleged charges of robbery and arresting offenders; for possessing illicit salt; Korale Mahattayas and  Arachchis for accusing Rate Mahattaya of extortions and gratifications (Government Agents always shared the same opinion with Rate Mahattayas); Irrigation Sub Inspectors for receiving bribes; caretakers of badly kept Circuit Bungalows; Rest House keepers who sold arrack to coolies; sentencing to Rigorous Imprisonment or dismissing Arachchis and Vidiye Arachchis for falsifying Road Tax Accounts; examining crime report books of Arachchis  they were dismissed for irregularities detected; dismissed minor employees for using old cart licenses (old stamps); Vel Vidanes for illicit chening. 

B. Constantine, the Government Agent wrote in 1913: I do not want to dismiss more headmen than necessary”.

Sometimes Vel Vidanes were offered the choice of being dismissed or paying a fine of Rs. 10/=.  Some Koralas and Arachchis resigned before removing from office as they were allowed to resign for misdeeds.

In a rare occurrence the punishment meted out took the form of severe warning: warning Korale Mahattayas and Arachchis for spill blocks; slackness in chena matters”; ordering Wev Lekams to carry out the work assigned to them by Irrigation Sub-Inspectors.

6. Rewarding:

 It will be incomplete if we do not record that in certain instances Korale Mahattayas and Arachchis were rewarded for detecting illicit chenas, who got offenders punished and those who instituted more crime convictions, in other words for punishing the unfortunate villagers. The only encouraging feature for the wellbeing of the peasantry was rewarding minor officials for measures taken for controlling rinderpest and anthrax.

7. Fining Minor Officials:

Fining formed the most predominant mode of punishment. Mostly minor headmen and sometimes Korale Mahattaya were fined varied amounts for careless diary entries and interpolations; neglect of duty; disobedience and failure to comply with Rate Mahattaya’s orders; general insubordination; careless work; not reporting vital matters; irregular execution of cattle vouchers (regarding sales  of cattle) and cattle voucher forgeries; for cattle untethered and wallowing in the tank; connivance at illicit possession of toddy; complicity in illicit clearing of Crown” land; not remitting Crown land rent collections; exaggerating cattle trespass damages; absenting from court cases; those Arachchis who had forgotten to bring their Crime Report Books when GA was in circuit; delays in reporting cases of theft;  timber extraction or possession of timber or under valuing timber extracted by permit holders or permitting excess extraction; failure to inquire into complaints;  delaying to send reports;  irregularities in cattle branding receipts;  neglecting to report to Chena Muhandiram  illicit chenas and  exact acreage or excess chenas than permitted. (when a permit had been granted Arachchi was bound to measure the acreage allowed and cleared).Once an Arachchi was fined Rs. 7.50 for increasing his fees for a chena report from 50 cents to 1 rupee without permission.

Vel Vidanes were fined for laziness; breeching of irrigation tanks due to blocking of the spill; not clearing the spills full of weeds and sand; not carrying out the work assigned to them by Irrigation Sub-Inspectors.

Fining Rest House Keepers for not looking after the earth closet properly”.

Koralas were fined for allowing to clear more than 2 acres for chenas; keeping cattle branding money with them without handing over to Rate Mahattayas.

Minor Headmen were the worst lot to suffer from the rule of higher native officers and British Colonial officers. The eventual vanquished was the hapless peasants as the village Arachchi exerted power and ruthless oppression over them.

7. Fining Villagers:

Fines were imposed upon villagers too by the Government Agent: owners of cattle were fined for cattle untethered and wallowing in the tank; for not getting permits for keep timber;  for false petitions; purchasing cattle without a cattle voucher; damaging irrigation bunds;  defaulting earth work; keeping unlicensed guns or those who had not renewed their gun licenses; for shooting sambhur; fining road tax defaulters; prosecuting and fining those who cultivate the bed of abandoned tanks and for illicit chena cultivation.

Often Rate Mahattayas complained to the GA that villagers do not do any earth work on tanks.

When the GA observed that the tank bund and ‘tisbambe’ (30 fathoms) around gangoda (cluster of houses) not properly cleared he ordered Korale Mahattaya to prosecute villagers if not cleared at once.

If the GA found that fining by magistrate was insufficient in illicit chena clearings, calculating illicit profits earned (sometimes 95% and 80%) submitted those cases to the Attorney General under General Order 655 and asked him to move for enhancement of sentences.

Official Circuit was a circus of punishing minor headmen and villagers. The Government Agent himself had realised after punishing minor headmen and villagers the cruel nature of his own work. W. L. Kindersley wrote in 1912: I fear my progress has been of a somewhat devastating character, but there is no other way to convince the Village Headman that I will not tolerate the destruction of their tanks by him and his fellow villagers”. Again In 1913 he wrote: people suspicious that government exists only to fine them”.

8. Village Tribunals and Police Courts:

GAs examined Gamsabhava records; heard divorce cases; instructed the Presidents of Village Tribunals to fine heavily if he found the fines imposed by the latter were insufficient. All the pangukarayas who were guilty of allowing cattle to stray on tank bunds and damaging them, who blocked up spills to get extra water causing breach of bunds in the rainy season were severely punished in this manner.

Villagers were punished for not paying any heed to summons and deadlines to warrants to attend Village Tribunals. In such a case a VT President under GA’s instructions searched villages, rounded up defaulters and punished 99 offenders. GA was happy: a much-needed lesson that the arm of the law is long enough to reach them in distant villages and strong enough to punish them”. 

GA attended Police Courts and presented cases for neglecting to obey rinderpest regulations; offenders were fined heavily. He ordered lashes to prisoners; in 1912 GA ordered 15 lashes to a prisoner; Medical Officer pronounced that the prisoner was unfit for corporal punishment and asked for a revision of sentence.  GA intending that lashes to form the main component of the sentence ordered the prisoner 9 months additional imprisonment instead.

9. School Inspection:

Another task performed by the Government Agent on circuit was inspecting schools; at Manampitiya he gave 10 cent prizes to those who have topped in their classes and wrote: I generally give a prize or two of this nature.” 

At Tambuttegama the school was being conducted by a monitor about 13 years old in 1911; the Government Agent was satisfied that he filled the log book and seemed to be able to maintain order.” In some schools the GA ordered the monitor to give a lesson in front of him. He warned teachers of gansabhawa schools that they will be dismissed if their work found unsatisfactory at the next examination.

10. Chena Cultivation:

G.A.s in the North Central Province in their circuits, devoted much time to check whether peasants were engaged in illegal chena cultivation. For clearing land for chenas he ordered to pay double or thrice the assessed damage. Illicit chena cultivators were prosecuted and sentenced to 3 months or 6 months imprisonment; GA wrote that it was an exemplary punishment”.

Rate Mahattayas complained about illicit chenas and the GA went with him to inspect jungle clearings and punished the offenders then and there.

The conception the GAs had about NCP villager was a devil with nothing between him and starvation, but chena cultivation.” Kindersley wrote (1912) that the object of his circuit was not to make grants of land to beggars”; I fear I must look too benignant”. 

Most people wanted an extension of their previous year’s chena permits; but the GA was shrewd enough to getting to know that as the tanks were full the villagers had abandoned their chenas to work their paddy fields and refused their applications. Always the GA was rude enough to report that the villagers were apathetic about their cultivation, reluctant to utilise rainy season to sow large areas. This same opinion was shared by the GAs in the Central Province when prosecuting Grain Tax defaulters saying that the Kandyan farmers were lazy.

GA allowed chena permits when he came to know that there had been a 3-year failure of paddy crops in some areas and that their chena crops were mortgaged before they were reaped.

He instructed Rate Mahattayas not to issue chena permits where the tanks were full and the paddy fields cultivated were sufficient for the wants of villagers; chenas should be given only if the tank bund had been breached or fields under-cultivated owing to lack of cattle.

In 1913 Baxandall Constantine who succeeded William Loving Kindersley, instead of chena permits issued to individuals, issued communal chena permits for a number of small chenas. These permits were issued at the rate of ½ an acre for each individual; each tract granted to have its boundaries defined and cultivators were not allowed to clear outside the tract given to him. Government did this not because of its love to people but to ease the work of Chena Muhandirams as it was easy to inspect large communal chenas rather than inspecting too many chenas. Chena farming was not allowed if the villager was an owner of paddy lands sufficient enough to provide him and his family with food; vagaries of climatic conditions not taken into consideration.

Villagers cleared more chenas not knowing how much an acre represents; if excess land cleared on permits, accepted by Arachchi, without reporting to kachcheri the Arachchi was fined; GA thought that it was merely a polite way of admitting the offence”. In such situations GA asked to pay compensation (sometimes Rs.250/=) and fined the Arachchis and Vel Vidanes if their names were included in the communal lists.

But what happened exactly was the impossibility of supervising properly chena clearings. GA himself had admitted that knowledge of Arithmetic of the Arachchi was generally confined to addition and subtraction and did not extend further to multiplication and they were unable to measure an acre of land on the ground.

11. Rinderpest Control:

Rinderpest Control also took a prominent place in their circuits. GAs checked whether farmers adhered to stipulated methods of controlling rinderpest; if not the Government Agent instructed Rate Mahattayas to impose heavy fines; if an outbreak occurred again Aarachchis were removed from office; at the same time some GAs wrote that Rate Mahattayas’ method of eradicating it was drastic and made him unpopular”. Rate Mahattayas reported to the GA the slackness of Koralas in rinderpest control and general insubordination; GA ordered to shoot and kill cattle suspected of rinderpest.

12. Cattle Branding and Stray Cattle:

Checking the lists of branded cattle with the Rate Mahattayas the GA ordered to shoot unbranded buffaloes and identified the offenders for meting out punishment.Constables were sent by the Government Agent to shoot stray cattle and gypsies’ dogs: In order to control anthrax, the Government Agent ordered to shoot all animals not tethered. Licenses were issued to shoot stray cattle.

in 1912 the Government Agent sent the Kachcheri Mudliyar and a constable with a rifle to a gypsy camp to shoot all dogs not claimed by definite persons or take the names of all those who do claim dogs with the view to prosecute under Rabies and Dog Registration Ordinance and collect evidence with regard to killing of game. The constable killed 19 unclaimed dogs and brought a man who killed a sambhur and sold its meat.

13. Petitions:

GAs accepted petitions, listened to verbal requests and entertained complaints, mostly demanding land for chena cultivation, reporting lack of irrigation facilities and asking to restore tanks, to raise spill and change irrigation rates.

Sometimes petitioners were prosecuted and sentenced to 6 months R.I. for presenting him false petitions against headmen.

People claimed land on the famous Kiralawa Sannasa and Kirindiwatte Sannasa. GA found that it was impossible to check their validity. He wrote that their validity was not tested in Courts. Bell proved many sannases were forged.

14.  Detecting Misdeeds:

Circuits helped the Colonial administrators to get to know misdeeds of Arachchis. In 1912 Dematawewa Arachchi was found encouraging a gang of gypsies with a pack of dogs hunting deer to get skins and horns. Rate Mahattaya produced the gypsies with 5 dogs and sambhur skin. The dogs were shot on the spot and gypsies and Arachchi were fined. While searching the Arachchi’s house for hide and horns the Korala had discovered illicit salt and the Aracchiwas prosecuted for another offence.

On the spot solutions were given to villagers’ demand for restoration of minor irrigation tanks, excess irrigation rates and for defaulting earth work of past years.

In 1912 at Mahagalkulama terms offered by the GA to the villagers were somewhat weird: abandon the tank; sign a document for renunciation of land and give back ownership to Crown; no more irrigation rates; all cases for defaulting earth work will be dropped; no more work will be called for from the villagers. All hapless cultivators had no other alternative other than agreeing to GA’s terms.

There were no black coated saviours, civil society” boys and girls. GA wrote triumphantly: their readiness to give up the land is a fair proof of hopelessness of the scheme”.  

15. Some Other Work:

GAs held sales of land for default of irrigation rates and labour rates and collected all arrears. They decided whether taverns should be opened or not; checked inside taverns and investigated connivance of police officers with renters and tavern keepers: renewed gun licenses (this saved the journey to the kachcheri); identified sufferers from parangi. Inspection of official diaries of minor headmen took place while on circuit.

16. Hunting:

Once a Korale Mahattaya was fined Rs. 5/= for not detecting slaughter of game. But the GA issued game licenses to foreigners to shoot bears, elephants, leopards and buffaloes.

When Government Agents and royal dignitaries went on hunting, facilities were provided by Chieftains. The Government Agent of NCP used his circuits to engage in hunting deer, mouse deer, snipe, plover, pigeons and pigs. (numbers shot were given in the diaries; some days 130 snipe in one session). GA recorded that he spotted tracks of spotted deer and other game; all animals have adopted to the habits of the hunter; peafowls at a distance of 200 yards either fly or runaway.

Assistant Agent in Nuwara Eliya found pleasure in elk hunting in Bopaththalawa. Blossoming of nilu flowers in jungles of Pundaluoya, Ramboda, Pedro, Horton Plains and Bogawantalawa attracted jungle fowl and doves; thereafter shooting commenced.

On one occasion the GA ordered the Rate Mahattaya to kill an elephant at Tirappane proclaimed by him as a rogue elephant: if no one else will take on the job I suppose I will have to kill it when I return from Tamankaduwa”.

17. Herbert Rayner Freeman:

We will be failing in our duty if we do not mention about famous Government Agent of NCP Herbert Rayner Freeman, who took over from Constantine in March 1915. Only other Civil Servant who was sympathetic to the villagers, who represented their problems to his superior officers for defaulting Grain Tax payments and problems associated with peasant cultivation was C. J. R. Le Mesurier, Assistant Government Agent of Nuwara Eliya (1881 and 1886-1891). (See: LankaWeb : March 12, 2023).

In his official diaries we never find instances Freeman fining and dismissing Arachchis and other minor officials. His observations are very important in understanding a sympathetic administrator: There appears to be a system of over prosecution by the Kachcheri in the courts here and I think it should be possible to settle more with the villagers in the patriarchal way of the somewhat distant past”.

It is a dreary job visiting North Central Province villages, where the prevailing feature is prosecution; here they are being prosecuted for (not doing) spill clearing work, sluice earthwork, weeding village roads”, what we have discussed in earlier paragraphs.

He reported food scarcities in villages owing to failure of rains, villagers selling cattle to get food and was unhappy Arachchis charging 50 cents per acre for clearing boundaries of chenas and proposed a nominal fee in such years. He exempted parangi patients from doing earthwork. It was a pathetic sight parangi patients applying sand on the sores to cover them from flies he wrote.

He observes that in some villages cultivation of food crops had not taken place in 3 to 6 years.  For the hapless villagers he gave plenty of chenas. 

In March Freeman received a cable from his son that he had obtained a commission in the Regular Army. In May the news comes that his son who was in the Northumberland Fusiliers (soldiers armed with fusils or light muskets) was going to France immediately. As any other pseudo- theorist or psycho-analyst, this writer would not come out with an absurd theory that Freeman was sympathetic to the peasantry of Nuwara Kalaviya and Tamankaduwa  because he was psychologically concerned about his son’s safety who joined the British Army. (His son having recovered from his wounds went back to France to rejoin his regiment).

Freeman was very critical about the behavior of Punjabi soldiers who came to NCP without any notice to the GA under martial law in 1915 (molesting people, plundering). He attributes arson of some Muslim boutiques at Nochchiagama to Muslims themselves.

It seems that he was the only Government Agent who had visited isolated villages hidden in the jungle. What he had observed was pitiable. Crop damage due to drought and floods, scarcity of food, no food except jungle food or living on bulbous roots grown in tanks like nelum ala (But oneGA wrote in 1913: The people seem well nourished though they have not too much paddy, seem to thrive on their diet of lotus seeds which they have in plenty”; living on olu rice and lotus seeds but look well nourished”),  elephants and monkeys destroying crops, diseases like malaria, parangi and other skin diseases, worm diseases of all types, some villages have been wiped out completely by sickness, penury and deaths; only 2 or 3  houses left; in some villages only one man lives;  empty kurakkan barns; starvation; buffaloes run over by trains (one Arachchi reports that during the three years he held office 160 cattle have been run over by train); loss of cattle owing to ravages of rinderpest; attacks of wild animals; tanks turned into puddles of dirty water; houses without roofs; males migrating to estates in Matale and Kurunegala and also to Puttalam to clear land  for coconut cultivation or moving from villages to Anuradhapura  as coolies in the town; indebtedness to creditors in bazars; people becoming nomads selling their land.

The only want of these people is something to eat”, he wrote. Where there is food practically no sickness”. Not a grain of kurakkan seen in a march of 6 hours”. These personages probably had not a much worse time than this.” They are still suffering from having been fined heavily (300%) for clearing outside the chena reserve about 4 years ago. Their fields submerged by Nachchaduwa and the irrigation department is unwilling to give them water for the exchange of land from Nuwara Wewa”. 

After observing the misery of the villagers he writes: It would be useful if some land and health commissioners could see villages where drought had prevailed for a year or two and chenas are restricted and all the barns are empty: then visualize one’s own premises devoid of supplies for 12 months and the occupants living on bazar credit”.

It should be noted that Afghans came from Colombo to give credit and collect debts from villagers of NCP.

Even after a century present day peasant of NCP share the same problems as their forefathers and some more new problems had been created by the new capitalist class like the rice millers, traders and middlemen.

At his retirement he had the option of returning to England or remaining in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); he decided to remain to work for the improvement of villagers’ lot in NCP, the province he loved most. In 1924 he contested for the NCP seat in the Legislative Council. He defeated the incumbent native member by a majority of 7423 votes. The incumbent member polled only 888 votes. In 1931 he was elected to the first State Council from the Anuradhapura Seat with a majority of 7423 votes and was reelected in 1936 unopposed and served in the Executive Committee for Communications and Works.

Grateful people of Anuradhapura named a road in Anuradhapura town as Freeman Mawatha.

18. Disrespect to Our Culture:

British administrators advocated individualism, individual emancipation as against communal cooperative work when dealing with peasants as they did in the Central Province. in most villages the communal method of tackling all work appear to have eradicated the individualistic interest and no man improves his own land by any individual effort but content to till it with and like his neighbor”. This was the spirit and consciousness the colonial administrators wanted to kill and eradicate.

In a circuit to Tamankaduwa in 1912 the dhoby had demanded Rs. 1/= from the GA for providing clothes; the GA refused to pay saying that it was an old custom and dhobies should provide this service; to pay for clothes put up in one’s honour is to my mind ridiculous. In no other province dhobies expected payments”. This had happened in a time when the British pontificated that they had abolished rajakariya system, feudal relations based on caste, that every service provided should be paid in cash.

GA Constantine in 1915 had an ethnically biased opinion about Kandyan Sinhalayas:  Referring to work at Minneriya he said fields are owned by Tamils, Kandyan and low country Sinhalese. The average Kandyan does object to outsiders and will cheerfully lose Rs. 10/= if he can damage the outsider Rs. 5/=”.

In an earlier article posted on 12, March,2023, we had stated how Matale AGA S. M. Burrows ridiculed Sgiriya frescoes and buddha statues.  Hodson who succeeded Codrington as GA, Central Province, who had his official quarters in the old palace wrote: the religious exercises next door made day and night hideous.  At all festival times old palace is uninhabitable.” Hodson was referring to thewava at Dalada Maligawa.

GA, NCP in 1914 had a peculiar way of naming ancient shrines at Anuradhpura, as Bo-tree temple”, Mahinda’s bath” at Mihintle.

In 1929 a dispute occurred with regard to the route of Hanguranketha perahera. One section wanted to take the perahera passing R.E.S. Soysa’ bungalow (tea estate owner whose forefathers were the topmost arrack renters in CP who provided arrack to 1848 British troops who massacred Kandyan freedom fighters; converted as a Buddhist from being a Roman Catholic). Others refused it as it was not the ancient custom.  But the Rate Mahattaya took the perahera past Soysa’s bungalow. Disgusted acting Basnayaka Nilame Nugawela went straight to the temple. Rate Mahattaya gave a lunch to British planters in the area.

The Colonial AGA Hobday witnessing the drumming in the perahera insulted it: As for music goes, I prefer the noise of a heavy bombardment”.

Meda Wahala, the queens’ palace was occupied by the Fiscal Office. Palle Wahala, the abode of the other members of the Royal household housed the military hospital. (Later this was converted into Kandy Museum by Wace). Britishers built St. Pauls’ Cathedral (and St. Pauls’ College) inside the Maligawa square.

19. Passive Resistance of Peasantry:

From these Diaries occasionally, we gather information with regard to passive resistance of villagers while the Colonial administrators were on circuit. Government Agents were not shy enough to record how they were deceived by ordinary villagers. But we have never come across a native office holder defying orders of colonial administrators, subverting policies” of the British or expressing resistance to British Colonialism”.

Petitioning was the most common and popular method adopted in airing grievances of peasants and their resistance; petitions were presented to GA, AGA or OA at kachcheris or while these top officials were in circuit; petitions were mostly related to their economic problems, land and water; sometimes used to show how they were oppressed by Arachchis, Koralas or even Rate Mahattayas and powerful people in the villages.

There were professional petition writers in towns who wrote petitions either in English or Sinhala. Petition writers used a unique language, a language peculiar to them, full of praise of the recipient, his virtues and showing the slavishness of the petitioners. In some petitions, petitioners were presented as Memoralists” in the petitions.

Slavishness of the petitioner (or rather petition writer) was specifically exhibited in the petitions written in Sinhala, sometimes in Sanskriticised Sinhala used to address Kandyan Kings in ancient documents or language of the lower strata of the society used while addressing the nobility.  

GAs thought that some Koralas in NCP encouraged villagers to defy orders of Rate Mahattayas whom they had feelings of undisguised hostility”. GA allowed such Korale Mahattayas to resign but later regretted, allowing them to resign instead of dismissing them.

This shows us an important aspect of regional administration; i.e. that GAs extolling the services of Rate Mahattayas, the highest ranker in the division and the lesser headmen as Korale Mahattayas and Village Headmen were suspected by them.    

Hearing that the GA was coming, villagers driving their cattle to the jungle to hide them for fear of rinderpest checking was a common way of passive resistance; but on the following day the GA visited the village again; villagers professed ignorance of ownership of cattle when asked. 

An old man related a heart-rending story to the Government Agent of NCP in 1911 while he was on circuit. If our crops fail and we have nothing to eat we clear jungle; we are fined. If we have small children hardly able to walk within three miles and owing to bears and elephants, we are afraid to send them to school and we are fined; if we don’t satisfy the Irrigation Sub- Inspector in regard to earth work on tanks, we are fined. If we don’t please the Arachchi we are charged with not clearing the tis bambe” and we are fined. We don’t keep cattle now. If we do, it is said we allow them to stray and they are shot and we are fined. How can we live like this?”

The Government Agent writes: I was capitulating to the old man over chenas”.

The most important part of this story begins later when the Rate Mahattaya and the Kachcheri Mudliyar arrived at the scene. They hardened my heart” was his conclusion! Native officers knew how to harden the heart” of the Colonial administrator! According to the Government Agent it was Rate Mahattayas who had told him that chenas were not necessary.

It should not be interpreted that the Government Agent did not understand Sinhala spoken by an ordinary villager or an interpreter had interpreted the words of the villager wrongly. Earlier the same Government Agent had written that all the Chief Headmen speak English: I get to know headmen better talking to them in the vernacular than English”.  

In 1912 at Sangilikandarawa an old man volunteerd to lead the GA to a snipe field” where he could shoot snipe, teal and deer. But the old man takes the GA to his paddy field which had not been given water from the irrigation channel. GA wrote: his ingenuity deserved a reward”.

Aelian King, Assistant Government of Badulla (when Badulla District was a part of Central Province) in 1884 went on a circuit to Buttala, lectured” the assembled villagers on the proposed Road Ordinance (people were paying Rs.1/50, while the new Ordinance contemplated to increase it Rs. 2/=). He wrote: Here somewhat disheartening account of the road which I pass in my march to Wellawaya. The Rate Mahattaya and other headmen take leave of me and I proceed on my journey accompanied by 4 men with axes. After going a mile or 2 these men one by one find excuse for dropping behind and finally disappear altogether”.  King does not continue from there how he went to Wellawaya or whether he went back to Buttala finding his own way.

In 1912 at Talawa a villager was due to pay Rs.124/= for 3 lots of land. He elected to pay for only one lot on which Rs. 94/76 was due. He paid Rs. 48/= in one-rupee notes; then he produced a heap of 10 cents coins amounting to Rs. 43/=; paid 1 rupee in 1 cent coins and the balance Rs. 2.76 in fifty-five (55) 5   cent coins and 1 cent. This transaction had taken 25 minutes and there were 50 more similar payments. GA says that this reminded him the proverb milking the bull”. Then the villager argued that he deserved to have the rest free of charge.

In a Gansabhawa school at Mutugalla in Tamankaduwa the Government Agent was received by some boys, one with a small tom tom and another three singing a welcome song. The Government Agent was fair enough to describe their lamentation. After some verses they changed into the same tune in the minor and bewailed the hardships the villagers had to contend with”, that they changed the song of welcome in the major into a kind of lament in the minor. Hardships the villagers encountered were easily observable: drought, floods, devastation of crops by wild animals, food scarcity, diseases and fines. This was how the ordinary villagers, not the Chieftains, defied the dictates of colonialists in a subtle way. 

In 1912 GA NCP looking for Road Tax defaulters found, to spite village Arachchi some villagers pay to some other Arachchi, so as to reduce the commission their adversary got. But the Arachchi reported them as defaulters and the Committee had to issue warrants on such men who were reported as defaulters and GA warned the Arachchis not to accept the tax from anyone who was not in his list.

 In 1912 at Tamankaduwa in a Muslim dominated area the GA shot a pig around 5.45 p.m. As only Muslims were with him, he sent the Muslims to the village to bring some Tamils. GA mounted guard over the pig till 7.30 p.m.” Moors returned with only one Tamil. GA was able to take off only hind legs! 

A much more serious thing happened in Mihintale in 1912. People disregarded summons and refused to pay any heed to warrants issued to them by Village Tribunal in tank cases as they overlooked the authority of its President and Headmen. GA instructed the President to deal very severely with these recalcitrant people and Rate Mahattaya to produce them for trial and propose to stop chena cultivation in villages that are in default.

When pangukarayas were sked to pay Rs. 250/= as the cost of raising the spill they protested: they said: there is not a single 5 copper cent in the village; it should be done free; but the GA did not agree: he suggested to spread the payment to 2 or 3 years.

Tamankaduwa Village Headmen were reluctant to report cases as they had to go to Anuradhapura Police Courts and the batta given to them was hardly sufficient to cover their expenses.

In 1903 it was estimated to repair Wahala Ela in Patha Dumbara at a cost of Rs.391/=. Beneficiaries held a meeting and decided that the work was unnecessary as they could not pay a portion of the total cost. Same thing happened at Siyambalagastenna Ela in Uda Dumbara as farmers refused to bear any portion of the expenses estimated to repair a breach in the canal with an iron trough. In 1905 farmers cultivating fields with water from Udugoda Bandara Ela in Patha Dumbara refused to pay for improvements and repairs of the canal citing that they were not adequately compensated for the land lost due to earlier improvements.

In 1930 Mahajana Sabhawa of Kaikawela, Matale East requested the GA, famous historian H. W. Codrington to remove Rate Mahattaya of Matale, Udugama as he was overage. Codrington could not find his birth certificate; Secretary of the Sabhawa requested GA to obtain it from Udugama. 

END OF PART VII

NEXT: Durbars, Empire Day Celebrations, King’s Birthday, Victory Day Celebrations, Celebrating occupation of other lands and the Peace Treaty (Armistice), Abolition of the post of Chief Headman.

Sugath Kulatunga

Lessons from History

Let us revisit that historic conjuncture of the early 1980s. The military dictatorships were collapsing not only because of internal resistance but also because key external actors such as the United States, European Union, the World Bank, and International Monetary Fund (IMF) withdrew their support from them. Now, one of the major reasons for this about face was that the dictatorships had lost the credibility, legitimacy, and minimum support to impose the economic reform programs, better known as “structural adjustment,” that these influential forces demanded. Promoted as necessary for economic efficiency, these programs were designed to more widely open these economies to foreign capital and foreign trade and to enable countries to pay off their enormous foreign debts.

The democratic governments which displaced authoritarian regimes soon confronted their own dilemma. On the one hand, redistributive policies were blocked by elites that had joined the anti-dictatorship coalition, a development that we have already discussed. At the same time, expansionary fiscal policies were discouraged by the World Bank and the IMF. It soon became clear that what the multilateral agencies wanted them to do was to use their democratic legitimacy to impose structural adjustment programs. In Argentina, for instance, the international financial institutions pressured the new government of Raul Alfonsin to abandon neo- Keynesian policies, implement tax reforms, liberalize trade, and privatize public enterprises. When the regime quailed, the World Bank “concluded that the government had not made sufficient progress toward its reform goals and suspended disbursements on a structural adjustment loan.”

Electoral democracy became the prime mechanism for the imposition of stabilization or structural adjustment programs in Jamaica, Haiti. the Philippines, Peru, and Pakistan. In Jamaica, the progressive Manley government suffered a devastating loss of legitimacy when it caved in to pressure to impose an IMF stabilization program blessed by Washington. The program eroded living standards. It led to Manley’s crushing defeat in the 1980 elections by a successor who proceeded to continue the same policies at the behest of the IMF. In Peru, the government of Alberto Fujimori was elected on a populist, anti-IMF platform, but proceeded to impose a neoliberal “shock” programs that included steep price increases in the rates charged by state enterprises as well as radical trade liberalization. These measures provoked a deep recession, leading to popular discontent that in turn provoked Fujimori to suspend the constitution, close Congress, and rule as a strongman with little respect for constitutional restraints.

In the Philippines, the US and the multilateral agencies abandoned Marcos. Not only was his political position untenable owing to massive popular resistance, but his government’s lack of legitimacy had made it an ineffective instrument for repaying the massive $28 billion foreign debt and for implementing IMF stabilization policies. An economic crisis accompanied the end of the old regime, but that did not stop the World Bank and the IMF from demanding that the fledgling democratic government of President Corazon Aquino make debt repayment its top national economic priority. People were shocked, and some of Aquino’s economic advisers protested, but the government submitted, issuing a decree that affirmed the “automatic appropriation” of the full amount needed to service the foreign debt from the budget of the national government. With some 40 to 50 per cent of the budget going to service the debt, this practically precluded national development, since all that was left went to salaries and operational expenses, with little left over for capital expenditures. In some years, 10 per cent of the country’s GDP was spent servicing its foreign debt. Thus, it is hardly surprising then that the Philippines registered average growth of below 1.5 per cent per annum between 1983 and 1993.

As in Peru, Argentina, and the Philippines, the return of democracy to Brazil was accompanied by scarcely veiled warnings from the IMF and the US that the first order of business for the new regime was to accomplish what the exiting military regime had failed to do, that is, to impose stabilization programs raising interest rates, cutting back government expenditures, devaluing the currency, and liberalizing trade. From the mid -eighties to the 2002, a series of governments eroded the credibility of democracy by undertaking unsuccessful efforts to impose on a recalcitrant population the economic stabilization desired by Washington and the IMF.(8)

The latest victim is the government of “Lula” or Luis Inacio da Silva of the Brazilian Workers’ Party, one of the most committed anti-neoliberal parties on the continent. Before he even won the presidential elections in the fall of 2002, Lula did the unprecedented in Latin America: he promised the IMF that he would honor the high- interest, expenditure-restrictive conditions of a stabilization loan negotiated with the outgoing President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Lula acted under duress. The Fund made it clear it would not release the remaining $24 billion of the stabilization loan unless he behaved.

Lula was true to his word. Consequently, in 2003 Brazilian GDP contracted by 0.2 per cent in Lula’s first year; unemployment surged to a record 13 per cent.

Reversal of the third wave of democratization now looms as a threat throughout Latin America, where a poll conducted by the United Nations Development Program in 2004 that showed that 54.7 per cent of Latin Americans polled said they would support authoritarian regimes over democracy if the shift would resolve their economic woes. 

Post-mortems of Pakistan’s parliamentary democracy tend to focus on corruption, collapse of the rule of law, ethnic and religious polarization, and economic failure. Certainly, all this played a part. But also crucial was the role played by the IMF and World Bank, which pushed the democratic regimes of both Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif to impose stabilization and structural adjustment programs that contributed significantly to the rise of poverty and inequality as well as fall in the growth rate. Noted one eminent Pakistani economist: “The almost obsessive concern with short-term macroeconomic stabilization has with it the danger…that some of our basic social programs might be affected, and this would have inter-generational consequences on development in Pakistan.” 

Since democracy became associated with a rise in poverty and economic stagnation, it is not surprising that the coup was viewed with relief by most Pakistanis, from both the middle classes and the working masses.

Extracted from the Global Policy Forum file:///Volumes/Data%20Backup%20HDD/Data%20Backup%20New%202021/Sugath/Desktop/Files%20From%20e.localized/Development/Legitimacy%20Of%20Capitalism.htm

Sugath Kulatunga