Media Release Sri Lankan High Commission

High Commissioner Chitranganee Wagiswara paid a courtesy call on Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence of Australia Richard Marles on 11 September 2023 at his office in the Federal Parliament. She was accompanied by Deputy High Commissioner Chamari Rodrigo and Defence Counsellor Commodore S.P. Kathriarachchi.

The Deputy Prime Minister while welcoming the High Commissioner and the team highlighted the longstanding close relation maintained between Australia and Sri Lanka and stated that Australia is keen to promote closer links with Sri Lanka as Sri Lanka is seen as an important country in South Asia. Reference was made to the importance of enhancing people to people contacts, given the significant number of Sri Lankan expatriates that have been migrating to Australia over the years.

Sri Lanka’s relations with the neighbouring countries, especially on the trade links was of interest to the Deputy Prime Minister. The High Commissioner elaborated on the multifaceted relations maintained with the immediate neighbours and other regional countries. She also spoke of the current socio-economic developments and the measures taken towards economic recovery and stability in Sri Lanka and thanked the Australian Government for the support and assistance extended to       Sri Lanka especially during the economic crisis.

The close cooperation maintained between Australia and Sri Lanka on the defence sector including people smuggling issue and other transnational crimes was discussed and the High Commissioner thanked Australia for the assistance and support extended to the Sri Lanka Military in many fields.

It was noted that Australia will be represented at a high level at the forthcoming IORA Council of Ministers Meeting in October.

The two sides also exchanged views on the current developments in the region and the emerging geo political perspectives which are of interest to Australia and Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka High Commission

Canberra

13 September 2023

Courtesy Daily Mirror

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The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of Sri Lanka in its recent sanitised report of the 2021/22 National Risk Assessment (NRA) on Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (ML/TF) has assessed the overall risk for the country as medium. The report was developed based on the assessment conducted by the FIU of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) together with public and private sector stakeholders.

The assessment, which aimed at identifying the ML/TF risks in the country, highlights the most significant ML/TF threats, vulnerabilities, and risks faced by Sri Lanka. The NRA identified Drug Trafficking, Bribery and Corruption, Customs related Offences including Laundering of Trade-Based Proceeds, as the most prevalent predicate offences, where ML threat was rated as medium high. Fraud, Robbery, Environmental and Natural Resource Crimes recorded as having a medium level of ML threat. Human Smuggling/ Trafficking, Tax Offences, Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing related unlawful activities were assessed as having a medium low ML threat while lower ML threat was observed for Counterfeiting of Currency. Based on the NRA, the National Policy on Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) of Sri Lanka and comprehensive action plans for each stakeholder were prepared to address the gaps identified to effectively combat ML/TF in the country. The NRA 2021/22 is the second of such Assessments on Sri Lanka’s AML/CFT framework since the first Assessment in 2014.

The assessment covers the period from 2016-2022 and relevant data and statistics were sourced from all stakeholder agencies, some of which were represented in the core working groups. Sri Lanka received technical assistance and the tool kit from the World Bank to carry out the NRA. The present Assessment underscores the government’s commitment to protecting the country’s economy and the financial system from exploitation by a variety of criminal elements and national security threats, and to ensuring a safe and sound financial system by adopting measures to adequately address the threats posed by ML/TF.

The FIU asserted that a strong political commitment is critical to address the national AML/CFT plan and the government is committed to fostering a culture of accountability, transparency, integrity in tackling financial crimes, bribery, corruption, ML and TF in the country. Further, by better understanding the current risk environment, respective stakeholders, from now onwards can effectively allocate more resources to the high risk areas to safeguard the integrity of Sri Lanka’s financial system, the FIU said.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Sri Lanka has been listed as one of the 50 best islands in the world for travel for 2023 by Big 7 Travel. The island nation was ranked 13 in the annual round up of the world’s best islands. Sri Lanka has been off the tourism radar for a few years now due to protests, economic crises and the pandemic, but its doors are now wide open. There are a thousand reasons to visit the beguiling island, not least its friendly people, flavourful food, endless beaches and timeless ruins. Loop around the island and you’ll tick off tea plantations, elephantfilled wildlife parks, thousand-year-old ruins and endless strips of golden sand,” said Big 7 in its description of Sri Lanka.

The top 50 island by Big 7 features a diverse list. While Sri Lanka is placed between La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain, and São Jorge, the Azores Islands, Portugal, topping the list is The Bahamas.

To compile the list, Big 7 has used aggregated scores from our social audience and editorial contributions. It has also considered major 2023 events, hot new hotel and restaurant openings and special initiatives that are bound to make a trip to each destination even more special in 2023.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

With reference to the decision of the health Ministry to recall the retired medical specialists, medical specialists opined that it is neither a feasible nor a longstanding move to address the shortage of specialists.

Speaking to Daily Mirror, Senior Consultant Physician Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama told Daily Mirror, I don’t know how feasible the decision would be given a spate of reasons.

There is no guarantee that every specialist who is recalled is willing to continue to work. Some may opt to come whereas some don’t,”

When asked what the prompt step would be to address the migration of doctors, Dr. Wijewickrama said it is fitting to conduct a survey among the specialists who have already migrated and ask for the reasons which persuaded them to migrate, so that the health authorities can assess the conditions and take pertinent actions accordingly.

Meanwhile, speaking to Daily Mirror, Senior Cardiothoracic Surgeon Dr. Namal Gamage of the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital said, I will retire at the end of this month and the Health Ministry has requested me to continue as the Cardiothoracic Surgeon on contract basis and I have conveyed my willingness considering the conditions of the patients.

I will continue until somebody comes or until I wish. However, I may go or may not go,” he added.

Furthermore, another renowned specialist who wished to remain anonymous shared his views with Daily Mirror and stated that he had already retired last June but decided to continue taking note of the patients.

Meanwhile, Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne, President of the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA), told Daily Mirror that the decision is an interim measure but not a longstanding move.

Recalling doctors who have retired some years back is also not a rational decision. If retired specialists are to be recalled, the specialists who retired recently and those who are retiring should be recalled. Nevertheless, it’s a temporary solution for the exodus of specialists,” he added. (Sheain Fernandopulle)

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By Sheain Fernandopulle Courtesy The Daily Mirror

• Medical specialists migrate due to low salaries
• Foreign countries eye SL specialists for higher salaries   

With the migration of medical professionals from Sri Lanka reaching an alarming level, exacerbated by the low salaries offered to specialists, the health authorities are now admitting that the situation is beyond their control.   

According to a top source of the Health Ministry, the Ministry is disappointed with the lack of support from relevant stakeholders such as Medical Colleges, Public Service Commission, and the Ministry of Public Administration in addressing this issue.   

Immediate actions to tackle the exodus of doctors, particularly specialists, have become increasingly difficult,” the source said.   

Furthermore, a total of 274 specialists have migrated since last year with an additional 160 leaving the country without the ministry’s permission. Moreover, 785 specialists are set to go overseas for training, while approximately 600 doctors are expected to retire next year.   

Commenting on the matter, Dr Ashoka Gunaratne, the media spokesman for the Association of Medical Specialists (AMS), highlighted the significant role played by low salaries in the rising number of doctors migrating.   

He explained that the current salaries offered to medical specialists are insufficient to meet their critical needs, especially considering new taxation and a higher cost of living.

In contrast, foreign countries offer higher salaries and better accommodations, making them more attractive to Sri Lankan doctors.   

Gunaratne admitted that there is no concrete solution to address the migration issue at present, leaving the health sector on the verge of a major crisis.   

Meanwhile, informed sources reveal that Sri Lankan medical specialists receive an average salary of Rs 3.37 million in the UK, Rs 2.71 million in Australia, and Rs 1.6 million Oman and Rs 3.36 million in the UAE.   

In stark contrast, the salaries of medical specialists in Sri Lanka are alarmingly low. A senior specialist earns a monthly income of only Rs 201,000 after all deductions, while a junior specialist is paid a mere Rs 128,500.

This vast salary disparity has prompted an exodus of medical professionals seeking better financial opportunities elsewhere.   

As such, headhunters from the UK and Singapore are currently engaging in active efforts to target our doctors, with the purpose of recruiting them for opportunities in their respective countries.   

These headhunters are making the process of migrating exceptionally convenient for doctors.   

 Sudath Gunasekara.  B.A. PhD.  (S.L. A. S)

(First Posted on December 2nd, 2017)

The Central Hill Country: The ‘Hadabima’ (Heartland) of Sri Lanka A New Geographical Interpretation

(I pause the question to every man, woman and child in Sri Lanka as to what will happen to you, if your heart stops. Obviously, the answer is you will die. Similarly, one day, if the rivers that have their sources in the hill country, cease to flow, the curtain will fall on the survival of the entire life system in the Island due to lack of water, deforestation and land degradation on the central hills and finally on the civilization of this Island. It is in this logical perspective that we should try to understand the critical importance of protecting the central hill country as the country’s Geographical HADABIMA” (Heartland) with the same care and caution that we take to protect our own hearts.)

Abstract

The Central Hill Country of Sri Lanka is defined as the land above the 300 m (msl) contour that covers roughly about 20% of the total land area of the Island. It constitutes a heavily dissected terrain with spectacular scenic beauty providing the home for a unique biodiversity, both in flora and fauna, endemic and threatened. While serving as the main catalyst in rain making and a climatic regulator for the two Monsoon seasons it also serves as the major watershed that provides the source for almost all the rivers, the live fountains of life in Sri Lanka” with many beautiful waterfalls, in the Island. The World Heritage Convention 2010 also has declared the central Highlands of Sri Lanka as a World Natural Heritage.

In this essay the need for the preservation of this heritage has been highlighted in a broader perspective, both natural and cultural. Its unique geographical value and the critical role it plays in sustaining the watersheds that provide the source for almost all its rivers, which guarantees the survival of the entire life system and the civilization of this Island.

Virtually the hill country has determined and dictated the geographical and cultural landscape of this Island. The physical stability and the natural functions of this central land mass had been the bedrock of our life system and the different facets of civilization throughout history. The influence it has exerted on the Island’s geopolitical history as a hideout for Kings and Princes of yore too cannot be overlooked. Therefore, it is identified as the most important geographical sub-region that has fashioned both the natural and human landscape on this Island. This situation is a classic example of geographic determinism.  A brief reference is also made here to the Mackinder’s Heartland Theory and its evolution in the context of world geopolitics as he was the one who introduced the term ‘Heartland’ to geography.

The role the Central Hill country plays in the survival of the entire life system and the civilization in this country is as critical and important as the role played by the heart in a man’s life. It is primarily in this context that it is named as the ‘HADABIMA’, meaning The Heartland” of this Island.

Introduction

The central hill country of Sri Lanka, a roughly triangular mountainous area located at the south-centra0l part of the Island is defined as the land above the 300 m (msl) contour that covers roughly about 20% of the total area of the Island. Professor K. Kularatnam described it as a veritable palimpsest that displays many facets of geological evolution. With its highest peak at Pidurutalaga, 2,524 m rising above a high plain dotted by few more peaks like Hakgala, Kirigalpotha (2,389 m), Totupolakanda (2,357) m, and Adam’s Peak (2230 m), it constitutes a heavily dissected terrain of rugged mountain ranges, peaks and valleys, and steep escarpments with hundreds of beautiful waterfalls cascading down, the largest number for any given area of its size anywhere in the world. With its breathtaking scenic splendour the hill country has provided a multiplicity of habitats for many a unique fauna and flora both endemic and threatened. While serving as the major catalyst in rainmaking and a regulator for the two monsoon seasons, it also serves as the major watershed that provides the source for almost all the rivers (103) draining in all the directions in this Island.

The World Heritage Convention which met in Brazil in July 2010 also has declared the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka as a World Natural Heritage. Its unique biodiversity both in fauna and flora of which many species, that are endemic and some of them are threatened was the main criteria the Committee has adopted in making this decision. In this essay the case for the preservation of the Central Highlands in a broader perspective that covers the whole Island. Firstly, taking in to account the totality of its unique geography including the land, forests, fauna and flora and its natural beauty and secondly, the role it plays in preserving the survival of the entire life system and the civilization of this Island. A third, a cultural dimension is also included in view of the religious importance associated with the Adams Peak. All these three factors heavily support the claim for its preservation and to be declared a World Heritage.

The basic argument advanced here is that the Central Highland is a unique creation of nature, with its peculiar morphology, the drainage pattern, the climate, breathtaking scenery and bio-diversity which no other physiographic region of its size in any other country could claim.  Both functionally and analogically, it represents the ‘Geographical Heartland’ of this Island as discussed below.

Its south-central location within the Island and its relative position with regard to the global wind belts, the altitude, peculiar morphology and the alignment of the mountain ranges and its spatial size in relation to the total land area of the country have played a critical role in the scale and nature of the impact it has exerted on the Islands geography and life system. Virtually it has determined and dictated the geographical and cultural landscape of this country. The climate, drainage pattern, diversity of fauna and flora and the physical and cultural landscape of the entire Island has been decisively influenced by its location, altitude, geology and structure and the alignment of its morphology. The physical stability and the resulting functional role of these central hills had been the bedrock of our life system and the different facets of civilization. It is also the most important and critical factor that finally decides the survival of the entire life system in this country. Therefore, the making and the sustainability of both the geographical and the cultural landscape of this Island are critically dependent on the preservation of the physical stability of the high watersheds associated with this region. The influence it has exerted on the Islands geopolitical history by serving as a safe hideout for many Kings and Princes too, both from the Rajarata and the Kandyan Kingdom, cannot be easily overlooked Therefore it is identified as the most important geographical sub-region that has fashioned both the natural and human landscape in this Island. This situation could be cited as a classic example of geographic determinism.

The functional role the central hill country plays in the survival of the entire life system in this country including floral, faunal and human and the country’s civilization is as critical and important as the role played by the heart in the survival of a man. It is primarily in this context that it is cited as the HADABIMA (Hardabhumi) meaning The Heartland” of this Island

The need to protect and conserve this part of the country had been recognized from the earliest times. During the days of the Sinhalese Kings, it was declared as a Thanchikele (a protected forest). Eminent men on forestry like Douglus Hooker (1873) and FDA Vincent (1882) of the Indian Forestry Commission who was hired by the then Government to prepare a forestry policy for Sri Lanka (the father of modern forestry policy) also have strongly recommended the conservation of forest lands over 5000 feet. Even the forestry policy approved by the government in 1995 states that all the forest areas are to be managed in a sustainable manner, though no one has taken such advice seriously up to date.

According to the Report of the Land Utilization Committee 1968 the area > 5000 ft in the Island is 288 sq miles. Of these 187 square miles are found within the Nuwara Eliya district, Kandy district 47, Badulla dist 38 and Ratnapura and Kegalle 16. There are 120 sq miles > 6000 feet. Of this 94 sq miles are found in Nuwara Eliya and 8000 acres of tea are found on land > 6000 ft msl. This shows the magnitude of the devastation tea plantations have done to the central highlands.

Even Sir Henry Beresford, Director General of Forestry United Kingdom, giving evidence before the Land Utilization Committee has pointed out the need for preserving the forests of land above 5000 feet elevation where virtually all rivers have their origin as a matter of absolute necessity. This will enhance the dry weather flow of all rivers in the Island and also improve the ground water resources he said. The best way to restore the water resources and the ecological balance in the country, particularly the central highlands is to restore the original forest cover of the central hills above 5000 feet msl. As such the declaration of all lands over 5000 feet therefore is long overdue.

The origin of the Heartland Concept and its meaning

The concept of a ‘heartland’ had been in vogue in many countries from ancient time. It was usually associated with a core area in a given Kingdom where the capital was located It connotes many meanings such as central, most important, most prosperous and most powerful etc which are closely interlinked. Very often the capital city of a Kingdom was identified as the Heartland of that country. As such from the beginning of history the term heartland often implied a geopolitical meaning. In the modern context also it implies mainly a geopolitical notion. Geopolitics in its modern sense indicates the link and causal relationships between the centre of political power and geographic space in a given Kingdom. Therefore it could be surmised that even this ancient notion, the heartland had a geopolitical connotation

The term geopolitics was coined at the beginning of the 20th century by Rudolf Kjellén, a Swedish political scientist, inspired by the German geographer Friedrich Ratzel, whose book Politische Geographie (political geography) that was published in 1897. But the Heartland concept was first used by Sir Halford John Mackinder (1861-1947) in 1904 to conceptualize a geopolitical idea in an article named ‘The Geographical Pivot of History’ submitted to the Royal Geographical Society. Mackinder was an English geographer and one of the founding fathers of Political Geography and Geopolitics. He used the term ‘Heartland’ purely in a geopolitical context to designate a part of the Asian landmass what he described as the Pivot Area.

In his exposition he divided the world in to three parts

1 The world Island; Europe, Africa and Asia

2 The Offshore Islands; British Isles and the Island of Japan

3 The Outlying Islands; North America, South America and Australia. (Map1& 2)

                                                                   Map1

After Mackinder 1904

                                                                     Map 2

After Mackinder 1904

He named the land east of Volga to the Yangtze and from the Himalayas to the Arctic as the ‘Heartland’. This he also called the Pivot area.

He then summarized his theory as:

Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland;

Who rules the Heartland commands the World Island;

Who rules the World-Island controls the world”.

It is evident from this brief account that Mackinder’s Heartland theory was an outright geopolitical concept and was a very ambitious idea that covered the entire globe. It was also an abstract and sweeping generalization formulated by him based on the then prevailing global geopolitical situation and power structure.  He had not taken in to account possible changes that would occur in future in military, technological, the world economic and power politics. Therefore, it had the inherent weakness of non-congruence with changes in time and space. As such some people consider Mackinder’s theory as obsolete in the present context.

Inspired by this hypothesis Karl Haushofer and Hitler of the Third Reich attempted to take control of the Heartland, during the Second World War, with the idea of world domination. As we know they failed in their mission and today it is only a part of history now. Subsequent developments in technology, navel and air power and the art of war as well as the decline of political and economic supremacy of Europe and the emergence of new core areas of economic and political power, such as USA, Japan and China, have largely disproved the validity of this theory. Still later people like Samuel Huntington in his notion of the clash of civilization and Dimitri Kitsikis in his Intermediate Region” have given new dimensions to this concept.

Professor C.M.Meddumabandara in 1984 also attempted to replicate the Mackinder’s heartland theory to a section of the Kandyan Kingdom partly covered by the Mahaweli River in an article ‘Mahaweliya Saha Sinhale Hadabima’ published in Vol.1 Mahaweli Vansaya.  His approach seems to be more historical. According to him the area that afforded the Sinhalese to live as an independent                                                                                                                      nation before the advent of the British in 1815 is called Hadabima of the Sinhale. He argues that this land area was spread around the Mahaweli Basin. But firstly, the area named in his map as Hadabima (map 3) extents far outside the Mahaweli Basin even extending up to Kataragama in the South East. Thus there is a geographical overlap. Secondly it is also not identical with the Kadyan Kingdom as it was in 1815. Therefore his argument lacks consistency and appears to be irrelevant and not logical. Both these propositions therefore appear to be sweeping statements, imaginary and less realistic both in terms of time and space.

                                                          (Map 3)

Mahaweliya Saha Sinhale Hadabima

HADABIMA concept and the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka

The proposition discussed in this paper on the other hand is related to an actual situation on ground. The boundaries are clearly defined and not vague as in the previous two cases. Therefore, it is realistic and more logical. It also has not been conceived by anyone else before. Unlike Mackinders theory and the Maddumabandaras proposition the validity of my concept will also not change over time unless some major changes in the physical characteristics of the Hill Country take place due to tectonic movements resulting in an upliftment or a subsidence of the Central Highland or a shift of the global wind belts occur due to a change in the inclination of the earth’s axis in relation to the plane of its orbit. Therefore, its validity will remain as long as the present physical conditions [1] of the hill country and the position of the earth remain undisturbed.

Although the author too had been exposed to Mackinder’s Heartland Theory, this concept was not directly based on his proposition, though the term HADABIMA connotes heartland in English.  The term Hadabima is used to designate a definite unit of Land mass clearly positioned and marked on the map of Sri Lanka. Therefore, it is an independent notion conceived to interpret the Sri Lanka situation per se. Unlike in Mackinder and Maddumabandara the term Hadabima in this context is used in a much broader perspective to name the Hill Country without limiting it to a mere geopolitical or a historical interpretation, as already outlined in the opening paragraphs of this article

This concept is discussed under three perspectives

1 Location of the Hill Country at the centre of the country in relation to the spread of the land mass of the Island

2Close analogy between the morphology of the central Hill country and the blood circulatory system

3The affinity between the functions of the blood circulatory system and the physical functional process of the Central Hill Country

Morphological

Secondly, if you look at the physiographic map of the central hill country of Sri Lanka after turning it by about fifteen degrees clockwise until you position Rakwana hills on the west and Dumbara hills (Knuckles) on the east and, superimpose the blood circulatory system, you will notice that by way of analogy, broadly it resembles a sketch of a diagram of a ˜HEART. The Central massif flanked by the two ‘LUNGS’, Rakwana and Dumbara (Knuckles) hills on either side resembles a veritable ˜HEART” [2] (Map 5). To this extent the morphological outline of these three land masses together represents a veritable replica of a heart with two lungs on either side.

Map

                                                                          MAP4                                          

Source : Sudath Gunasekara  

                                                 MAP  5                                                 

Source: Sudath Gunasekara, 1991

Functional

Thereafter it is compared with the map showing the river basins of the Island. Within this broader perspective then one could visualize the rivers starting from the centre as a network of veins and arteries that carry the ˜blood” which is purified and returned back to the heart through the process that operates via the hydrological cycle. The analogy could be clearly verified and observed by superimposing the blood circulatory system of a human over the morphological map of the central highlands in this position along with the map showing the river basins of the whole Island (Map 5). This could be further verified by comparing this situation with the map depicting the hydrological cycle operating over Sri Lanka. (Map 7). In this position you will notice that by way of analogy the central hill country of Sri Lanka also resembles an important segment of the hydro-circulatory system that is very much similar to the heart in the blood circulatory system that we see in a human body. This adds a second dimension, a functional analogy to the physical process that is in action on these high lands.                                 

                                                              MAP6                                                             

  Source Hydrological Survey Department

                                                                    MAP 7  

     Source: Sudath Gunasekara

The Central Hill Country also provides the source for all the rivers in the Island. Out of a total of 103 rivers, nearly forty have their sources directly on these high watersheds. Even the other streams in the Island owe their origin and the courses to the broader foundation of land forms set by the underlying geological structure of the central high lands. Draining down the hills and the coastal lowlands all around sculpturing the landscape and feeding the whole country with their bountiful water resources, the rivers form the live ‘veins and arteries’ that keep the Islands entire life system alive.

The rivers transport the excess water that falls from the heavens together with the water released by the sub-surface in to the high seas. The forest cover and the sub-surface absorb part of the rainfall. The forest cover and the water bodies also transfer a part of the rainfall received by them back to the atmosphere by way of evapo-transpiration. Together with what is evaporated from the ocean the same rain water that falls from the heavens thus returns as rain through the process of evaporation and precipitation activated by solar radiation and atmospheric circulation. Once again, the excess water is transported back to the seas by the rivers. This we call the hydrological cycle. (Map 7)

       Source: Sudath Gunasekara. 1991

If you observe this process carefully you will see a close affinity between this circulation and the blood circulation in a human body. As much as the heart does the purification and pump out purified blood and receive unpurified blood via the veins and arteries and keeps the being alive the central hill country also technically does its ˜purification and ˜pumping out and in water with the help of rivers, vegetation, the ocean, and the hydrological cycle and keeps the ‘body Sri Lanka’ alive and thereby guarantee the entire life system in the Island. Thus, functionally too, it resembles a heart.

If these rivers cease to flow in their sources due to deforestation, land degradation or any other reason, they will also cease to flow in their entire lengths and as a result the above functional process will also come to an end. Then logically the country will turn in to a desert. Then the entire life system on this Island will disappear from its surface. This will draw the curtain on the Islands civilization as well.

Accordingly, just as the beat of the heart decides the fate of a being, even so, the proper functioning of the hill country that in turn depends on its physical and hydrological stability, will decide the fate of the entire life system in this country. The day the hill country stops its normal functioning, the beginning of the end of the Islands entire life system will firmly set in. Therefore, just as the heart is the most important life-giving organ in the human anatomy, in the same way, the Central Hill Country is the prime life-giving agent (Hadabima) of the body that is Sri Lanka.

The heart is the most crucial organ of a man. The beat of the heart decides his fate.  Similarly, the physical stability and the proper natural functioning of the Central Highlands are equally critical in deciding the survival of the entire life system in this Island. It is in this backdrop the central hill country is named as the Heartland” of Sri Lanka.

The approach adopted in this proposition is primarily geographical with emphasis on it as a watershed that decides the fate of the nation. However, it also embraces a broader field and takes in to account the impact of the hill country on other aspects like geopolitics, environment, history, climate, agriculture and fauna and flora in the Island as well.

Besides the Islands relatively small size and its geographical location in relation to the global wind belts and the upper atmospheric circulations, location of the hill country and its peculiar physiography as a watershed have heavily influenced the rainfall pattern and the drainage pattern that has a critical impact on the life system of the Island.

Biggest natural reservoir

It also acts as a giant natural reservoir or a mega sponge that retains millions of gallons of water both underground and over ground. The underground deposits recharge the rivers and make them perennial, besides sustaining the forest cover on the watersheds. The central hill country also plays a vital role in rainmaking and also functions as a climatic regulator. This is a unique situation for any country in the world. The central hill country with its forest cover in fact could, therefore, be described as the Islands biggest natural reservoir and the most important natural asset that sustains the water resources of this country.

If you consider the quantum of water that is stored by a grown-up tree, one can imagine the enormous volume of water that would be stored by the forest cover alone that envelopes these watersheds spanning over 20% of the Islands total area that is almost 13,000 square kilometers. These watersheds also store an enormous volume of water in its underground layers, which helps to recharge the entire drainage system of the Island. The springs, that spring up, right round the hill country, would not have been there, if not for these central hills. They also make the rivers perennial. Thus, the hill country maintains both the physical and hydrological stability of the central watersheds, the most crucial factor in sustaining the Islands life system. The physical stability of the Central Hill Country is particularly important in sustaining the perennial water resources of the Island

The forest cover on these watersheds acts as a protective umbrella for the hill country. Besides sustaining the physical and hydrological stability of the Island, they also protect and enrich the surface soil layer, biodiversity and maintain the ecological balance. More trees on the one hand mean less surface run-off, less erosion, less earth slips and less flashfloods and less siltation in riverbeds and downstream areas. On the other hand, more trees also mean more rain, more water, higher water table, a better soil layer, better irrigation and higher hydroelectricity potential, cheap power, more fauna and flora, optimum ecological balance, more crops, better agriculture, more industries, more employment, more people and finally better and higher standards of life for the people. An unprotected, degraded and barren hill country on the other hand will leave us with rivers without water, powerhouses without power and finally, a land without all these assets.

The day the forest cover is no more on these hills, the rain that falls on it will run down to the sea within few hours or even few minutes, churning up the soil layer and exposing the bed rock. The rivers will also cease to be perennial; their cascading beautiful waterfalls will disappear and the heartland will stop all its normal functions. The day the heartland stops its normal functions, water resources will get depleted and the curtain will fall on the survival of the entire life system and finally on the civilization of this Island. It is in this logical perspective that we should try to understand the critical importance of protecting the central hill country as the country’s Geographical HADABIMA” with the same care and caution that we take to protect our own hearts.

 Those who protect the forests that envelope the HADABIMA protect the Islands watersheds.

Those who protect the watersheds will protect the ‘fountains of the nation’s water resources’ along with the springs, streams and rivers arising there from, and also the soil and the entire life system thereon.

Those who protect the fountains of the nation’s water resources including its watersheds, springs, streams and rivers will also protect the totality of the life system and the civilization on this beautiful Island.”

Post script: The word HADABIMA” is commonly used today in Sri Lanka to designate the former NADSA project; which is now called the HADABIMA Authority of Sri Lanka. It is also widely and popularly used by geographers, nature lovers and journalists, to describe the central hill country. But unfortunately, very few people know the history behind the origin of this word. As such I must mention it here for record purposes that it was I who coined this word in 1991 to describe the Central Hill Country and renamed the National Agricultural Diversification and Settlement Authority (NADSA) Project. In respect of the NADSA project it means Haritha Danav Bim Sanvardhana Madhyama Adikariya; (Hadabima Authority: The Green Habitat Development Authority of Sri Lanka). But in respect of the Central Hill Country and the Island at large it simply means the Geographical Heartland” that decides our future survival on this Island Nation.

What motivated to look for a new name for this Project was also interesting. The NADSA Project, started in August 1978, dealt with Watershed Management, Settlement Development and Agricultural Diversification of marginal tea and rubber lands in the mid-country (300-900 feet msl). The people involved with this Project were landless poor rural peasants from the neighboring Kandyan villages. The word NADSA did not mean anything to them. It was also beyond their comprehension and alien to their emotions. In fact, when I took it over in April 1986 it was already dead and the government had decided to close it down. Therefore, it was difficult to get even the few settlers, who still had not left their allotments, motivated and inspired to give their best and total commitment to development. When I decided o give a new lease of life to this project, I strongly felt for the need to invent a new mechanism and strategy that could inspire and motivate people around it in order to make them active and vibrant partners of development. Among many other strategies developed, the search for a new name for the Project, was on the top of my priority list. The word HADABIMA was the result. The new emotional and psychological feeling thus generated with the magic word HADABIMA inspired the people to feel that the Project area was like their heart. It really worked like a miracle. The message given to the settlers through the new name Hadabima therefore was that they should protect the Central Hill Country as if they are protecting their own hearts, not only for their own benefit but for the benefit of the whole nation and also the salvation of the whole country from an imminent nemesis in the foreseeable future.

I felt this message was relevant then, only to those settlers involved with the HADABIMA Project. But today I am convinced that it is relevant, more than ever before, to every man, woman and child in this country including those who are yet to be born.

(I suggest that this message be introduced to all the children in this country at school level, to be by hearted and observed as a sacrosanct ‘religion’, so that they will not make a mistake in their mission to preserve and leave the heritage they have inherited from mother nature and their forefathers, that is Sri Lanka for the benefit of the future generations)

References

    Professor Kularatnam K. (1954) The Face of Ceylon’ 9th Association of the Ceylon Advancement of Science\

    Mackinder, H.J. Democratic Ideals and Reality. Washington DC. National Defense University Press 1996 Pp175-194.

    Wikipedia, The True Encyclopedia-Jump to Navigation Search

    Huntington Samuel, Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of the World Order 1997.

    Gunasekara Sudath. The Central Hill Country; Geographical Heartland of Sri Lanka. Concept Paper. 1991

    Maddumabanda, C.M. (1984) ‘Mahaweliya Saha Sinhale Hadabima’ Vol.1 Mahaweli Vansaya

[1] Note:

Extreme caution has to be taken not to upset nature by constructing large reservoirs like Kotmale on these high watersheds. Because, as I have pointed out some time back to the President of this country, one day if there is going to be a dam breach at this level the resulting downstream devastations would be devastative and unimaginable.

[2] In fact this was accidentally discovered one day as the author was examining the physiographic map of the Central Hill country as a student of geography, since these two mountain zones, Rakwana and Dumbara had always appeared as two outliers flanking the central massif at the center as two guards resembling lungs.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය 

 ඉන්දීය ආයෝජන තවදුරටත් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ප්‍රවර්ධනය කිරීමට ඉන්දීය වෙළඳ හා කර්මාන්ත ව්‍යවසායකයින්ගෙන් සමන්විත ශ්‍රී ලංකා ඉන්දියා සංගමයේ සාමාජිකයෝ සහතික වෙති.   

 ශ්‍රී ලංකා ඉන්දියා සංගමයේ සාමාජිකයින් සහ අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන මහතා අතර හමුවක් අද (2023.09.13)  අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේ දී පැවති අතර වෙළෙඳ හා ආයෝජන ඇතුළු ද්විපාර්ශ්වික ආර්ථික සබඳතා පුළුල් කරගැනීමේ මාර්ග සහ උපක්‍රම පිළිබඳව මෙහිදී සාකච්ඡා කෙරිණි.

දෙරට අතර සංවර්ධන සහයෝගීතාවයේ වර්ධනය පෙන්වාදුන් අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා, පෞද්ගලික අංශයේ ඉන්දීය ආයෝජන ප්‍රවර්ධනය කිරීමට දරන ප්‍රයත්නය වෙනුවෙන් ඉන්දීය ප්‍රධාන විධායක නිලධාරීන්ට ස්තුතිය පළ කළේ ය.

ප්ලැටිනම් රියල්ටි ඉන්වෙස්ට්මන්ට්ස් හි කළමනාකාර අධ්‍යක්ෂ සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකා ඉන්දියා සංගමයේ සභාපති කිෂෝර් රෙඩ්ඩි පැවසුවේ කෘෂිකර්ම, සංචාරක, තොරතුරු තාක්ෂණ, පුනර්ජනනීය බලශක්ති සහ අධ්‍යාපන යන අංශවල ආයෝජන සඳහා බොහෝ අවස්ථාවන් පවතින බව යි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව මෑත කාලීන ආර්ථික අර්බුදයෙන් මිදී යළි ස්ථාවර තත්ත්වයට පත් වෙමින් ඇති බැවින්, තොරතුරු තාක්ෂණය, සංචාරක කර්මාන්තය සහ පුනර්ජනනීය බලශක්තියට අමතර ව, මෝටර් රථ උපාංග නිෂ්පාදනය, ඛනිජ වැලි සඳහා අගය එකතු කිරීම, ගොවි සමුපකාර ව්‍යාප්ත කිරීම මඟින් කිරි හා පශු සම්පත්,කර්මාන්තය නගා සිටුවීම, තක්කාලි යුෂ නිෂ්පාදනය වැනි කෘෂිකාර්මික නිෂ්පාදන සිදු කිරීම, වැනි ක්ෂේත්‍ර රාශියකට සෘජු විදේශ ආයෝජන සඳහා විශාල ඉඩකඩක් පවතින හෙයින් ආයෝජනය කිරීම සඳහා මෙය යහපත් කාලයක් බව ඒ මහතා වැඩිදුරටත් පෙන්වා දුන්නේය. දෙරට අතර සහයෝගීතාව ප්‍රවර්ධනය කිරීම සඳහා ඉන්දියා ශ්‍රී ලංකා සංගමයේ කටයුතුවලට ලබාදෙන අඛණ්ඩ සහයෝගය පිළිබඳව රෙඩ්ඩි මහතා අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයාට ස්තුතිය පළ කළේ ය.

ඉන්දියානු  සමාගම් සමූහයක මෙරට ප්‍රධානී  ටී.එස්. ප්‍රකාශ් පැවසුවේ කිරි නිෂ්පාදනය සහ එකතු කිරීම සඳහා ගොවි සමුපකාර භාවිතා කිරීම මඟින් ඉන්දියාවේ අමුල්ආයතනය සාර්ථකත්වයට පත්වීමේ ක්‍රමවේදයෙන් පාඩම් ඉගෙන ගනිමින් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට කිරි කර්මාන්තය පුළුල් කළ හැකි වනු ඇති බවයි.

දශක ගණනාවක් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ව්‍යාපාර කිරීමෙන් ලත් අත්දැකීම් පිළිබඳ සඳහන් කරමින් දැවැන්ත ඉන්දීය වෙළෙඳපොළ සඳහා නිෂ්පාදන සිදු කිරීම පිණිස ඉන්දීය ප්‍රාන්තවල සිටින ව්‍යවසායකයන් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ආයෝජනය කිරීමට කැමැත්තෙන් පසු වන බව ඉන්දීය නිලධාරීන් පෙන්වා දුන්නේය.

1949 දී පිහිටුවන ලද ශ්‍රී ලංකා ඉන්දියා සංගමය, ආර්ථික සහයෝගීතාව ශක්තිමත් කිරීම සඳහා කැප වූ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ඇති පැරණිතම සහ විශාලතම මිත්‍රත්ව සංගම්වලින් එකකි.

 අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය 

Courtesy the Leader

බොදුබල සේනා සංවිධානයේ මහ ලේකම් පුජ්‍ය ගලගොඩ අත්තේ ඥාණසාර හිමි ඝාතනය කිරීමේ සුදානමක් තිබු බව වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුවේ රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍යවරයකු වන පිල්ලෙයාන් හෙවත් සිවනේසතුරෙයි චන්ද්‍රකාන්තන් විසින් අනාවරණය කර තිබේ. 

පිල්ලෙයාන් අමාත්‍යවරයා තමන් වහන්සේට දුරකථන ඇමතුමක් ලබාදෙමින්, රිමාන්ඩ් භාරයේ සිටි සමයේ දැනගත් කරුණු කරනා රැසක් පසුගියදා අනාවරණය කරසිටි බවත්, ඒ අනුව තමන්වහන්සේ ඝාතනය කිරීමේ සුදානමක් තිබී ඇති බවත් ”බොදුබල සේනා සංවිධානයේ” මහ ලේකම් පුජ්‍ය ගලගොඩ අත්තේ ඥාණසාර හිමියන් පැවසුහ.

” පිල්ලෙයාන් ඇමතිතුමා කියපු විදියට මාව ඝාතනය කරන කුමන්ත්‍රණය තිබිලා තියන්නේ පාස්කු ඉරිදා ත්‍රස්ත ප්‍රහාරයට ඉස්සෙල්ල. ඒ ඝාතන තැත වෙනුවෙන් මාලදිවයිනෙන් පස්දෙනෙක් ඇවිත්. පිල්ලෙයාන් ඇමතිතුමා ඔය ගැන පාස්කු ඉරිදා කොමිසමකදීත් කීවට මාධ්‍යවලින් ඊට අදාල ප්‍රකශ අරගෙන නැ කියල ඇමතිතුමා කියනවා. ඒ දෙමලෙන් කියපු නිසා වෙන්නත් ඇති.. කොහොම වුනත් ඔය ගැන හොයන්න CID එකේ ගුණසේකර කියන නිලධාරියාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වෙන් විමර්ශනයකු පටන් අරගෙන අතරමැදදී නවත්තල. 

පිල්ලෙයාන් ඇමතිතුමා ඔය කුමන්ත්‍රණයට සම්බන්ධයි කියන කෙනා මාව හම්බවෙන්නත් ඇවිත් තියනවා. අපි වව්නියාවේදී හමුවෙන්නත් යොදාගෙන තිබුන. එත් මොකක්දෝ හදිසි වැඩක් වැටිලා මට එදා යන්න බැරි වුන. පස්සේ තමයි ආරන්චිවුනේ මාව වවුනියාවට ගෙනියන්න හදපු පුද්ගලයා පාස්කු ඉරිදා සිද්ධියට සම්බන්ධයි කියල සැකපිට අත්අඩංගුවට අරගෙන කියල..

 ඒ වෙනකොට බොදු බල සේනා සංවිධානයට තිබුන හයියත් එක්ක , ඔය වගේ කුමන්ත්‍රණයකින් මාව ඝාතනය කළා නම් රටම ගිනිගන්න තිබුන. රටම අරාජික වෙන්න තිබුනා. රටෙත් ජනතාවගේත් වාසනාවට එහෙම දෙයක් වුනේ නැ ..

” අන්තවාදීන්ගේ කඩු මුදේ ගිල්ලුවට මතවාදේ ගිල්ලුවේ නැ”

පාස්කු ඉරිදා ප්‍රහාරක ත්‍රස්තවාදීන්ගේ කඩු කිනිසි මහ මුහුදේ ගිල්ලු නමුත්, එම ඉස්ලාමයේ නාමයෙන් ඇතැම් අන්තවාදීන් පෝෂණය කළ මතවාදය ගිල්ලිමට මෙතෙක් කටයුතු කර නැතැයි ද බොදුබල සේනා සංවිධානයේ මහ ලේකම් හිමියන් කියා සිටියේය. 

පාස්කු ඉරුදින ත්‍රස්ත ප්‍රහාරයෙන් අනතුරුව ආරක්ෂක අංශ විසින් කොළඹ සහ තදාසන්න ප්‍රදේශවල සිදු කරන ලද වැටලීම්වලදී සොයා ගත් කඩු 1000කට අධික ප්‍රමාණයක් ඇතුළු රාජසන්තක කළ නඩු භාණ්ඩ රැසක් අධිකරණ නියෝග පරිදි පසුගියදා ගැඹුරු මුහුදේ ගිල්වනු ලැබිය. 

ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් වැඩිදුරටත් අදහස් දැක්වූ ඥාණසාර හිමි මෙසේද පැවසුහ.

” ඉස්ලාමිය නාමයෙන් ඇතැම් ත්‍රස්තවාදීන් මිනිසුන් සන්නද්ධ කරනවා. ආගමේ නාමයෙන් මරාගෙන මැරෙන මානසිකත්වයක් ගොඩනගනවා. අපි බොදුබල සේනා සංවිධානය විදියට මේවා හෙලිකරා. ඒවා ගණන්ගත්තෙ නැ . අපි අන්තවාදීන් නෙමෙයි.. උදාහරණයක් විදියට වඳ කොත්තු, වඳ බ්‍රෙසියර් වගේ අවිද්‍යාත්මක කතා අපි කවදාවත් කියල නැහැ. ඒ වුනාට ඒවා ගියේ අපේ පිටින්.. හැබැයි අපි වන්ද්‍යා කරණයට විරුද්ධව අදහස් දැක්වුවා. නමුත් දැනටත් රාජ්‍ය නොවන සංවිධාන දෙකක් ඒ වෙනුවෙන් ප්‍රසිද්ධියේම ක්‍රියාත්මක වෙනවා.” යයි ද උන්වහන්සේ පැවසුහ.

lanka C news

සිරස මාධ්‍ය ජාලයේ හාර්ඩ් ටෝක් වැඩසටහන සිදුකරන ෆරාෂ් ෂවුකද් අලි චැනල් ෆෝ නාළිකාව පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරය සම්බන්ධයෙන් සකස් කළ වැඩසටහන සඳහා සම්පත් දායකයන් ලබාදීම සම්බන්ධීකරණය කර ඇති බව හිටපු පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රි මෙන්ම හිටපු රාජ්‍යතාන්ත්‍රික නිලධාරියකු වන ජනාධිපති නීතිඥ සරත් කෝන්ගහගේ පැවසීය.

කොළඹදී මාධ්‍ය හමුවක් පවත්වමින් ඔහු මේ බව ඊයේ (12 වැනිදා) කියා සිටියේය.

මාධ්‍ය හමුවේදී වැඩිදුරටත් අදහස් දැක්වූ මන්ත්‍රිවරයා මෙසේද කීවේය.

මට මේ පුද්ගලයා කතා කරල කිව්වා මට ඔබතුමාගෙන් ලන්ඩනයේ අයි.ටී.එන්. නමැති නාළිකාවකට ඉන්ටවිව් එකක් ගන්න ඕන කියලා. එයා එංගලන්තයේ පුරවැසියෙක්. අරගලය පැවැති ගිය අවුරුද්දේ මාර්තු මාසයේ දී තමයි මට මෙයා කතා කළේ. මෙයා මගේ ගෙදරට ආවේ බොරු කියලා සුදු ජාතිකයන් දෙන්නෙක් අරගෙන ආවා. මම සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම කීවේ මේක අයි.එස් අයි.එස්. සංවිධානයේ සහ මුස්ලිම් අන්තවාදීන්ගේ වැඩක් කියලයි. මගෙන් ඇහුවා මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ 2005 සහ 2010 ජනාධිපතිවරණ දිනුවේ කොහොමද කියලා. මම කිව්වා ඔහු තමයි ඒ වෙලාවේ හිටිය ජනප්‍රියම නායකයා කියලා. ඒ කෑලි දෙක විතරයි මේ චැනල් එකේ පෙන්නුවේ

ඔවුන් ආවේ චැනල් ෆෝ කියලා නෙවෙයි. මේ විෂුවල් ගත්තේ කොහොමද කාගේ ආකල්පයකටද. මේවා දීලා තියෙන්නේ ලංකාවේ රූපවාහිනී නාළිකාවකින්. සුදුවෑන් අරවා මේවා ඒ ගොල්ලෝ ඇවිල්ලා ෂූට් කරේ නැහැ. චැනල් ෆෝ එක මගේ කතාව සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම විකෘති කරලා. එහෙනම් ඒ ගොල්ලෝ ඇවිල්ලා ගන්න ඕන දප්පුල ලිවේරාගෙන්. දප්පුලනේ මේක ඇවිළුවේ. විශ්‍රාම යන්න කලින් දවසේ වාර්තාවක් එළියට දාලා කාදිනල් උන්නාන්සේ මේක අරගෙන දුවන්න ගත්තේ. චැනල් ෆෝ එකේ සහරාන්ලා නැහැ. ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂයි තව කිහිප දෙනෙක් තමයි ඉන්නේ. මේක පුදුම දේශපාලනයක් යැයිද ඔහු කීවේය.

– Aruna

by A. Abdul Aziz Press Secretary, AMJSL.

On 12 September 2023 evening, the World Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, the Fifth Khalifa (Caliph), His Holiness, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad arrived in Islamabad, Tilford, United Kingdom, following a successful tour of Germany. 

Ahmadi ladies, children and men gathered to welcome their beloved Imam, and upon his arrival raised slogans praising Allah. Children recited choral poems and the atmosphere was full of jubilation and gratitude to Allah.

Soon after his arrival, His Holiness led everyone in Maghreb (after sunset) and Isha (night time) prayers at the Mubarak Mosque.

Source: Al Hakam, London.

Ministry of Defence  – Media Centre

Defence Secretary General Kamal Gunaratne paid homage to the sacred Omniscient Relics of Deegawapiya Stupa at the Pepiliyana Sunethra Devi Piriven Maha Viharaya, last evening (Sep 12).

The Chief Incumbent, Sri Sunethra Devi Raja Maha Viharaya, Prof. Medagoda Abhayatissa thero who facilitated the exposition of revered articles at the temple premises was also present during the session.

The charming religious evening saw an influx of a large gathering of devotees and maha sanga at the venue paying their homage during this rare occasion.

The relics unearthed from the Deegawapiya site during the excavations as well as the Crest Gem embedded with 2800 precious stones will be taken to Rathmalana Parama Dhamma Chethiya Pirivena according to the schedule on Sep 13.

Afterwards, the revered articles will move in a religious procession to Maharagama Siri Vajiragnana Dharmayathanaya tomorrow (14), for public veneration.

They will be on exposition at Kotte Rajamaha Viharaya on September 15, Pannipitiya Siri Damminda Viharaya on September 16 and Piliyandala Mampe Viharaya on September 17.

KAMALIKA PIERIS

ITEM 1

Speech delivered on December 18, 1949 at the Inaugural business meeting of Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) by S. J. V. Chelvanayakam KC

Chairman of the reception committee and delegates assembled here, I thank you most sincerely for the honour you have done me in electing me your Chairman for today’s proceedings. I am deeply conscious of the grave responsibility you have placed in me and of my personal limitations in discharging them. However it is my humble duty as a servant in the cause to accept whatever task is assigned to me. There is only one justification for your electing me on this occasion and that is that I realise as well as any of you the situation to which the Tamil speaking people of Ceylon have been reduced and the urgency of a movement to redeem them from that situation. 

We have met together with the common aim of creating an organisation to work for the attainment of freedom for the Tamil speaking people of Ceylon. It is our conviction that for the attainment of this freedom under existing con­ditions it is essential to form an autonomous Tamil speaking state. An examination of the historical background and an analysis of the existing conditions in which the Tamil speaking people live in this country today ought to be more than sufficient to show that no other solution is possible. 

Before the advent of the European nations to Ceylon on the 16th century, the people of this Island had their own governments. But a fact that must give rise to deep thought on our minds is that for a number of centuries preceding the advent of the Portuguese, the people of Ceylon had divided themselves into two nations; the Singhalese speaking nation and the Tamil speaking nation. 

Because of geographical and other reasons the population inhabiting the northern parts of the Island must for long have been predominantly Tamil and it must have been difficult for the Singhalese kingdoms in the south to hold sway over the northern areas with its preponderance of Tamil population. Ultimately a natural solution was reached and about the 9th or 10th century the Tamil areas of the north divided themselves and became a separate kingdom, whilst the south of Ceylon remained Singhalese though breaking up at times into two or three kingdoms. 

Though fortunes changed at times, this division into Tamil and Singhalese nations remained intact for many centuries till the arrival of the Europeans who first of all destroyed the Tamil kingdom and later, in stages, the Singhalese kingdoms. The great lesson to be learnt from this is that language is a great factor in the lives and politics of peoples. During the centuries when Ceylon was divided into Singhalese speaking and Tamil speaking nations, there must have lived amongst the Singhalese nation. Tamil people and vice-versa Singhalese amongst the Tamil nation Though there was in that manner a mixed population living throughout the country, yet it was for political purposes divisible into two; the majority of population in the north being Tamils, whilst in the south the majority was Singhalese. This division into two nations which had existed for many centuries was ultimately done away with by the British who in an unimaginative manner merely considered the convenience of their administration and brought the country under one Colonial Government. There was no natural fusion of the two nations into one. The bulk of the population still spoke two different languages and occupied separate territories. 

However in the upper stratum of society there grew a small minority community of English speaking people drawn from the various groups. But this community is small and is bound to disappear with the rise of the national languages to their proper place in the life of the country. 

When in course of time the colonial form Government was slowly and steadily giving way to popular Government, the architects of the new Government followed closely on the lines of the British Colonial system and modelled their constitutional drafts on the unitary type. There were many reasons for this. The British Colonial system has apparently reduced Ceylon into one nation and our own reformers had no experience of solving constitutional problems. 

Further, everybody was deceived into believing that the union of the English, Scotch and Welsh into one Government was an ideal model to be followed in Ceylon. Sufficient attention had not been drawn to the fact that in the union in Great Britain, the Scottish and Welsh languages had practically died out and that all the people of Great Britain had become English speaking. On the other hand more than 20 centuries of living together in Ceylon had not destroyed either the Tamil language or the Singhalese language. Each had its own natural forces and tendencies which prevent destruction. 

Constitution makers both British and Ceylonese copied the British unitary type and tried to adapt it to local conditions. The history of the reform movement in the past three decades deals with this adaption rather than with the fundamental question of what is the model that should be followed. The British for one could not imagine that anything but their own constitution should be taken as a model for Ceylon. To the Singhalese the British model had a special appeal; they were in a numerically overwhelming majority and the mere counting of heads would give them complete power. Moreover they dreamt of the return of the times when Ceylon contained one Singhalese Kingdom. The changes that had taken place during the past ten centuries they preferred to ignore. The Tamil speaking people however saw clearly and realised the danger of a unitary type of constitution for a heterogeneous population. 

It must be said to their credit that these people never lost sense of their danger. Their leaders however merely played with attempts to minimize the danger. They put their whole faith on weightage for the minorities; that was the only solution they thought of. It stands to their discredit that they failed to display sufficient foresight and vision.There were excuses for this failure. The Tamil speaking people were divided into three groups: Muslims, Indian Tamils and Ceylon Tamils. The Muslims and Ceylon Tamils occupy parts of the country which had been least developed during the British period and had actually undergone decay. With this decay the economic condition of their territory was in a parlous state. This territory had not produced a leisured class which while remaining attached to those areas could devote itself to political study and work. The Indian Tamil section of this linguistic group was incapable of throwing in its weight in constitution making. They were comparatively recent arrivals in the Island; they had come into Singhalese speaking areas and to territory separated from Tamil speaking areas. Though they were settled down in Ceylon, they were more deeply concerned in the problems affecting them as a working class than with constitutional theory. The result was that everybody worked on the uni­tary type of the British model. 

The Singhalese people opposed weightage as being undemocratic. It did not strike them that they might pay the price of weightage in order to retain a unitary type of government in which power would have been with them. The British masters of whom fair play and justice was expected completely failed in their duty. They found that political power in Ceylon was largely with the Singhalese and that it was more expedient to please them than to be just by the Tamil speaking group. It was not a courageous step but it appealed to them and a unitary type of Government without weightage was foisted on the Tamil speaking people of Ceylon as the Soulbury British solution of the constitutions problem of this Island. The problem became aggravated in that our elected representatives at that time forgot their mission and voted in 1945 for the Soulbury solution. With this the Tamil speaking people might have been considered dead and buried in the political life of Ceylon. But the masses refused to surrender. At the general election that followed in 1947 all but one of the Tamil representatives who vote for the acceptance of the White Paper of 1945 in the legislature were defeated. In the Tamil electorates the elections were fought on the issue as to whether Tamil representatives were to abandon the struggle or continue fight. The results were a clear verdict for a continuation of the fight. 

At the general ejections of 1947 the Muslim electorates adopted a different policy to that of the Tamil electorates. Up to 1945 the Muslims and the Tamils worked together in support of weightage for the minorities. When in 1945 the Soulbury constitution was accepted, the Muslims saw no way out of it. No plan like the one we are now advocating was presented for their consideration. Territorially they were placed in such a way that they could not by themselves ask for a separate autonomous state. The Tamils of the north and Trincomalee were better placed territorially and they displayed a spirit of independence. 

This spirit of independence was symbolized by the Tamil Congress which swept the polls in the Tamil areas. The result of the elections was a clear indication of the attitude of the Tamil masses as to their political future. The opponents of the Tamil Congress, i.e., the U. N. P. candidates promised material benefits to the Tamil areas in return for co-operation with the Singhalese majority who were expected to be in power. The Tamil Congress candidates on the other hand promised to the voters nothing by way of profits from the Government; they stood for resistance against encroachments on Tamil rights. The voters returned Tamil Congress Candidates by large majorities. But the unexpected happened in the next year 1948. The U. N. P. had in the meantime formed a Government ignoring the Tamil Congress and rejecting the verdict of the Tamil provinces at the polls. Thereafter the Tamil Congress leader weakened and finally succumbed to a policy of collaboration and joined the U. N. P. Government. In this he clearly went against the mandate of the Tamil people. But a large number of people thought that there was resistance yet left in the Tamil Congress leader and that he had retained freedom of action if and when the Government, of which he was a member, brought any legislation which went against the Tamil Congress policy. In December 1948 the Government introduced into the House of Representatives the Indian Citizenship Bill which was opposed by the Ceylon Indian Congress, the Government at New Delhi and was contrary to the avowed policy of the Tamil Congress as outlined in its constitution and decided upon by repeated resolutions passed at its general sessions. 

In addition the Tamil Congress leader had during election time given a signed pledge to the Ceylon Indian Congress to support and work for the rights of the Indians and for their citizenship on a five year residence qualification. The Bill in Parliament failed to grant what the Tamil Congress leader had pledged to work for. He along with some other Tamil Congress members of Parliament voted for this Bill. It then became crystal clear that the Tamil Congress leader and some of the Tamil Congress members of Parliament had completely abandoned the policy of resistance. The Tamil Congress group in Parliament thereupon split into two. One section, as already mentioned, had gone back on their election policy. The other section represented by those on us who are with you now decided to keep true to their election policy and carry on the fight for freedom. Where in 1947 and 1948 it became evident that the Singhalese people could carry on their Government under this constitution completely ignoring all the Tamil representatives put together and could pass legislation after legislation defying the wishes and feelings on the Tamil people, there was open one of two alternatives to the Tamil speaking people. One was abject surrender. The other was a campaign to free the Tamil speaking people from a constitution in which they were utterly powerless. The latter was a difficult path to tread, but it was the one for courageous people to choose. Moreover that was the one indicated by the Tamil people at the elections. The resistance group of the Tamil Congress decided on this path and has since been exhorting Tamil speaking people all over the country to follow the same. 

In fact on 20th November 1947 the President of the Tamil Congress sent through the Governor’s Office to the Secretary of State for the Colonies the following telegram:- 

The Tamil people of Ceylon have rejected the Soulbury Constitution in as much as at the general elections not one Tamil candidate of the U. N. P. was elected to Parliament and all but one of the Tamil Representatives who voted for the acceptance of the White Paper of 1945 in the defunct State Council were (sic) defeated. The All Ceylon Tamil Congress demands a free constitution for Ceylon conferring sovereignty on its people with equal freedom for all communities and calls for a constituent assembly to frame a constitution acceptable to all sections of the people. An Unitary Government with present composition of legislature and structure of executive totally unacceptable to the Tamils. In the absence of a satisfactory alternative we demand the right of self-determination for the Tamil people.”

When in December 1948 their trusted leader failed them and the Tamil Congress split into two, once more a spirit of despondency overtook the Tamil speaking people to a whole: they thought that there was no way out, although they were not happy in the state in which they found themselves in the body politic. The solution by way of a separate autonomus (sic) state for the Tamil speaking areas was a new idea to which people had not given much thought. They were not certain as to what support it would get in the country. But there were brave men among them and men of vision too who saw and believed in this auction. These men kept on insisting on their message to such an extent that today the ideal of an autonomous state for themselves in Ceylon has appealed to the Tamil speaking people as a whole. Your gathering here today in such numbers is one proof of it. 

Sight and vision is not enough, for the vision has to be reduced to reality. The realisation is the next phase of our campaign. Over this many are diffident. Unfortunately our recent political history gives room for that feeling of diffidence. Time after time leaders have failed us. Trusted men who appeared to be courageous stand up and fight one day only to desert the ranks the next Sir Mahadeva was a stalwart in the Tamil ranks from 1934 onwards; later his enthusiasm waned till he ultimately ended up in the opposite camp. Mr S. Nadesan, Mr J. Thiagrajah and others who were likewise champions of the Tamil cause ended up in 1945 by voting for the constitution which denied the Tamil people what they had been fighting for decades. Finally there is the case of Mr G. G Ponnambalam who at one stage was the most uncompromising fighter of all who has now not only given up the fight, but is vociferously uttering that all is well with the Tamil people of Ceylon. These repeated defections have not only cast a slur on Tamil character, but have undermined confidence in Tamil leaders present and future. People rightly ask how they could trust those who stand for and demand this autonomous Tamil State and what guarantee there is that these leaders would not fail them like their predecessors did. 

hIn contrast to this gloomy picture of want of steadiness exhibited by Tamil leaders we must look at the bright side represented by the persistent consistency in political attitude of the masses of our people. Let me trace this for you: Of all sections of the Tamil speaking people the one that was most advantageously placed to work for Tamil freedom was the people of the northern province. They were the largest single group living in easily separable territory and with the least admixture of Singhalese people living amongst them. They were also the section that had profited most by English education. Their responsibility therefore for serving the Tamil speaking nation in Ceylon was the greatest. Naturally most political agitation on behalf of the Tamil cause started from the northern province. The advantages they enjoyed cast this duty of them. The instances of political action that I shall now give refer mostly to them. But those instances depict the spirit of the Tamil speaking people as a whole. The Donoughmore award was the first measure of self-government that provided no safe guards (sic) for the minorities. At the first general election for the Donoughmore legislature people of Jaffna boycotted the election. For a period of about 4 years Jaffna was unrepresented in the legislature. It was a protest against that constitution. This was an unique event in the political history of this country. At the second general election to that legislature the Northern Province sent a team of members whose policy was to work for a revision of the constitution providing safeguards for the minorities. The next general election came in 1947 under the present Soulbury constitution and the general impression was that it would not be amended even to afford justice to the minorities. This was an occasion on which the Tamil electorates might have thrown up the sponge. A number of the political observers expected that to happen. As already mentioned by me in the earlier part of my speech the Tamil electorates gave an emphatic decision to the campaign for Tamil freedom. On this occasion Trincomalee joined the Northern Province. It would thus be seen that whenever the question was referred to them, the Tamil electorates consistently decided for a policy of resistance. The masses therefore have never let us down. We have great faith and confidence in them that they can never let us down in the future. Signs are forthcoming that show that the Tamil-speaking people of the Batticaloa district are of the same mind as their brethren of Trincomalee and the Northern Province. Thus the Tamil-speaking people of the Ceylon have a definite attitude regarding their present and future. They have a mind of their own. In short, they are politically conscious of being a separate nation. This is an encouraging sign and those who want to work for the good of their people must act. 

Now arises the necessity for organised work to release the aspirations of our people. We should therefore get together a body of those who desire to see the Tamil-speaking people free and who have faith in the future of this people. 

Let us now see whether the fears of the Tamil-speaking people in the past have been justified. The present constitution, unwanted by the Tamil people, had been working for just over two years. The government is indulging in a series of discriminatory legislative and administrative acts too numerous to recapitulate here. A few outstanding cases are enough for our purpose: the government has passed citizenship laws whose one purpose is to de-citizenize half the Tamil people of Ceylon. The outward plea put forward is that these laws are directed against foreigners. This is specious. The real purpose of this legislation is to deny citizenship to about 7 lakhs of Tamil workers settled in the Central portions of Ceylon. A large majority of these people know of no other home; they are not Indians; they are Ceylonese. Their one fault is that they belong to the Tamil speaking group. Political power rests in numbers. Even counting these upcountry Tamils, the Tamil group has little political power. Deprive the Tamil group of this upcountry section and the rest are small enough to die a natural political death. Further these Tamil workers have now been deprived of the franchise; this is a most cruel blow. All those who have eyes must see that the Government’s plans are either to drive these people out of Ceylon, though they have every right to be here, or to force them to become the chartered slaves of the Singhalese-speaking people. 

On the question of the National Flag the attitude of the Party in power is an utter disregard of the feeling and rights of the Tamil speaking people. The lion flag was the flag of the Singhalese Kings; it is today identified with Singhalese sovereignty. The flag is being used administratively as the national flag of Ceylon. I do not know of any other country with a composite population which has adopted as its national flag the flag of only one section of the people. The Government’s policy on the flag issued is symbolic of its attitude towards the Tamil-speaking people. The Government ignores their existence (sic) as a part of the body politics. 

Even more dangerous to the Tamil speaking people the Government’s colonisation policy. We have only the beginning of it in Gal-Oya. The land to be irrigated under the Gal-Oya scheme lies in the Eastern Province, a Tamil-speaking area. There is evidence that the Government intends planting Singhalese population in this Tamil-speaking a (sic) purely area. If this be true the Government is seeking to use its powers for the very unjust purpose of reducing the Tamil-speaking areas that now exist. If this policy is allowed to continue unchecked there will be no Tamil majority areas left in the course of a few decades. 

At the same time the Government’s language policy openly enunciated by the Minister of Finance is to separate the Tamil-speaking provinces from the point of view of language in administration, while making Singhalese the language of the administration of the other seven provinces. In two at least of these seven provinces there are very large concentrations of Tamil people forming a majority of the population in the districts they occupy. If the government were fatherly towards these people it ought to provide for the use of their language in the administrative machinery of other areas. But this is not to be the case. 

By many such acts of the Government it has lost the moral right to rule over the Tamil speaking people of Ceylon. It only does so now by the physical right of power. 

Over two years of internal self-government have reduced the Tamil-speaking people to an inferior status in their own country. They do not feel that the Government their own. In these circumstances what are we to do. Are we to bow to the inevitable and let things drift? Such an attitude is neither fair by ourselves nor by the country we are in. The manly thing to do is to face the situation and find a way out. What then is the way? Weightage in representation was sought after and has failed. Some other remedy has to be found. Let us look for guidance to other countries inhabited by more than one linguistic group. In those countries as in Ceylon the different linguistic groups have been jealous of their rights. The smaller linguistic groups have resisted against being absorbed by the larger ones. The conflict between smaller and larger linguistic groups has often resulted in wars which has at times drawn [them] into the vortex of powerful nations. 

There are two ways in which this conflict between linguistic groups could be solved. One is the division of linguistic groups into separate sovereign states. The other and the less drastic remedy is the formation of a federal state making each linguistic group an autonomous state and having a central Government. For both these solutions to be feasible the different linguistic groups must be capable of territorial separateness. Experience in other parts of the world has shown the federal solution to have succeeded in many cases. Well known examples are that of Canada which consists of English-speaking and French speaking peoples and Switzerland consisting of a number of German, French and Italian autonomous states. Then there is the classic example of Russia where each linguistic group occupying separate territory is an autonomous state and a distinct nation. We have the new Indian nation which is fast following the example of Russia in this respect and building up linguistic states. The India Congress and the Indian Government have accepted the creation of linguistic states in principle. A separate Telugu state is in the process of being built up. The Canerese have already started an agitation for the building up of a state of their own. All this is the outcome of the natural instinct of self-preservation which applies to a linguist group as much as it does to an individual. 

This is then the solution that we ask for: a Federal constitution for Ceylon consisting of an Autonomous Tamil speaking province and an autonomous Singhalese province with a Central Government common to both. This is the minimum provision necessary to prevent the smaller Tamil-speaking nation from extinction, or of being absorbed by the larger nation. In the main the Tamil-speaking areas are separable from the Singhalese-speaking areas. There are no doubt small areas with mixed population; though not to prevent the division of the larger area where there is a concentration of population speaking one language or the other. A federal constitution is an ideal worthy of being achieved and works no injustice to anybody and certainly not to the Sinhalese people. This is unlike weightage where the minorities had to be weighted at the expense of the majority. Division on a federal basis would be based on the strength of each language group of area. 

There are great reasons that urge the formation of an autonomous Tamil speaking State. The Tamil speaking people both Muslims and Tamils have already begun to develop a feeling of inferiority. For the fullest development of the personality of a man it is necessary for him to feel that the country he lives in his own and that the government of the country is his. This feeling is absent in the Tamil speaking people of Ceylon today. They must be given the right to govern their own territory and then fully realise that that Government (sic) is there (sic) is own. We can notice even now a difference in the spirit of Tamil speaking people inhabiting the Tamil areas and that of the Tamil speaking people living in the Singhalese areas. The latter have lost all hopes of any future. But in the former there is fight left yet. This very movement for an autonomous state draws its inspiration from people living in the Tamil speaking areas and from those who still maintain their contact in such areas. To the Muslims of the Eastern province this plan has as much of an appeal as it has to the Tamils of that Province. They are both Tamil speaking [and] they must both combine if they are to make the whole of the Eastern Province a part of the Tamil State. All our campaign however goes on (sic) the basis that the Muslims should be at complete liberty to decide for themselves whether the areas they occupy should be attached to the Tamil speaking provinces or to the Singhalese speaking provinces. It is for them to decide what they want. 

Some of the least developed parts of the Island are so-called Tamil provinces. These form about 30% of the area Ceylon and contain about 10% of the population. These provinces are capable of very high development. They are mostly flat land with sufficient water. Proper and just development of these areas cannot be expected excepting under a Government of the Tamil Speaking people. We must expect any large scale development these areas by the Singhalese Government to be accompanied by the planting of Singhalese colonies there. The people of the Eastern Province have already taken note what is happening in their province under Gal Oya development. 

Our one aim is therefore to achieve freedom for the Tamil speaking people by the creation of an autonomous state within the framework of a federal constitution in Ceylon. We have no misgivings about the difficulty of the task ahead of us. The task must be done and can be done. We have some factors against us and others in our favour. The greatest factor in our favour is, as I have already stated earlier in my speech, the consistent political attitude of our people towards their future. Provided we organise properly and get a team of trustworthy workers I feel sure that our people will back us. In the past our weakness lay in [the] want of consistency on the part of our leaders. Unless we remedy this in our organisation, we must expect to fail again. Like the Irish Nationalists we must get together workers who will pledge themselves to eschew office until a free Tamil State is attained. Let us not have one aim on our lips and another in our hearts. 

We are a poor people and have no powerful allies or friends. We have to make up for this by the strength of our charactor (sic), the steadfastness of our purpose and the purity of our motives. India’s freedom was won by such moral forces. 

Our campaign for freedom lies not only with external forces. If we are to deserve success, we must clean our society of the evil in our midst. Amongst the Tamil people there are under-privileged classes. They feel they are being oppressed by those above them. The normal law of retribution is that if we oppress another would get the same treatment from some other. If the Tamil people have to get political freedom they must grant social freedom to those amongst them who suffer from want of it. 

On a par with the above is the condition of the Tamil workers upcountry. They have become political untouchables. They have no full civil status; they are now almost a stateless people. The rest of Tamil speaking people must make these people’s case their own. It is not to India that they must look for help. The help must come from the rest of the people of Ceylon who are freedom loving. Both these are become a part of the policy of the organisation you have come to inaugurate. 

I thank you all for patience with which you have listened to me. There are many men amongst you of whose courage I am personally aware. I am inspired by that courage. I pray that you will overlook all my faults and accept my effort as my humble contribution towards our programme of service. I now move the main resolution for the day. 

– SJV Chelvanayagm KC[1]

ITEM 2

VADDUKKOADDAI RESOLUTION

 [TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 1997, 23:30 GMT]

THE RESOLUTION

Unanimously adopted at the First National Convention of the

TAMIL UNITED LIBERATION FRONT

held at Vaddukoddai

on May 14, 1976

Chairman S.J.V. Chelvanayakam Q.C., M.P. (K.K.S)

Whereas, throughout the centuries from the dawn of history, the Sinhalese and Tamil nations have divided between themselves the possession of Ceylon, the Sinhalese inhabiting the interior of the country in its Southern and Western parts from the river Walawe to that of Chilaw and the Tamils possessing the Northern and Eastern districts; And, Whereas, the Tamil Kingdom was overthrown in war and conquered by the Portuguese in 1619, and from them by the Dutch and the British in turn, independent of the Sinhalese Kingdoms; And,

Whereas, the British Colonists, who ruled the territories of the Sinhalese and Tamil Kingdoms separately, joined under compulsion the territories of the Sinhalese and the Tamil Kingdoms for purposes of administrative convenience on the recommendation of the Colebrooke Commission in 1833; And,

Whereas, the Tamil Leaders were in the forefront of the Freedom movement to rid Ceylon of colonial bondage which ultimately led to the grant of independence to Ceylon in 1948; And,

Whereas, the foregoing facts of history were completely overlooked, and power over the entire country was transferred to the Sinhalese nation on the basis of a numerical majority, thereby reducing the Tamil nation to the position of subject people; And,

Whereas, successive Sinhalese governments since independence have always encouraged and fostered the aggressive nationalism of the Sinhalese people and have used their political power to the detriment of the Tamils by-

1. Depriving one half of the Tamil people of their citizenship and franchise rights thereby reducing Tamil representation in Parliament,
2. Making serious inroads into the territories of the former Tamil Kingdom by a system of planned and state-aided Sinhalese colonization and large scale regularization of recently encouraged Sinhalese encroachments, calculated to make the Tamils a minority in their own homeland,
3. Making Sinhala the only official language throughout Ceylon thereby placing the stamp of inferiority on the Tamils and the Tamil Language,
4. Giving the foremost place to Buddhism under the Republican constitution thereby reducing the Hindus, Christians, and Muslims to second class status in this Country,
5. Denying to the Tamils equality of opportunity in the spheres of employment, education, land alienation and economic life in general and starving Tamil areas of large scale industries and development schemes thereby seriously endangering their very existence in Ceylon,
6. Systematically cutting them off from the main-stream of Tamil cultures in South India while denying them opportunities of developing their language and culture in Ceylon, thereby working inexorably towards the cultural genocide of the Tamils,
7. Permitting and unleashing communal violence and intimidation against the Tamil speaking people as happened in Amparai and Colombo in 1956; all over the country in 1958; army reign of terror in the Northern and Eastern Provinces in 1961; police violence at the International Tamil Research Conference in 1974 resulting in the death of nine persons in Jaffna; police and communal violence against Tamil speaking Muslims at Puttalam and various other parts of Ceylon in 1976 – all these calculated to instill terror in the minds of the Tamil speaking people, thereby breaking their spirit and the will to resist injustices heaped on them,
8. By terrorizing, torturing, and imprisoning Tamil youths without trial for long periods on the flimsiest grounds,
9. Capping it all by imposing on the Tamil Nation a constitution drafted, under conditions of emergency without opportunities for free discussion, by a Constituent Assembly elected on the basis of the Soulbury Constitution distorted by the Citizenship laws resulting in weightage in representation to the Sinhalese majority, thereby depriving the Tamils of even the remnants of safeguards they had under the earlier constitution, And,

Whereas, all attempts by the various Tamil political parties to win their rights, by co-operating with the governments, by parliamentary and extra-parliamentary agitations, by entering into pacts and understandings with successive Prime Ministers, in order to achieve the bare minimum of political rights consistent with the self-respect of the Tamil people have proved to be futile; And,

Whereas, the efforts of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress to ensure non-domination of the minorities by the majority by the adoption of a scheme of balanced representation in a Unitary Constitution have failed and even the meagre safeguards provided in article 29 of the Soulbury Constitution against discriminatory legislation have been removed by the Republican Constitution; And,

Whereas, the proposals submitted to the Constituent Assembly by the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi for maintaining the unity of the country while preserving the integrity of the Tamil people by the establishment of an autonomous Tamil State within the framework of a Federal Republic of Ceylon were summarily and totally rejected without even the courtesy of a consideration of its merits; And,

Whereas, the amendments to the basic resolutions, intended to ensure the minimum of safeguards to the Tamil people moved on the basis of the nine point demands formulated at the conference of all Tamil Political parties at Valvettithurai on 7th February 1971 and by individual parties and Tamil members of Parliament including those now in the government party, were rejected in toto by the government and Constituent Assembly; And,

Whereas, even amendments to the draft proposals relating to language, religion, and fundamental-rights including one calculated to ensure that at least the provisions of the Tamil Lanaguage (Special Provisions) Regulations of 1956 be included in the Constitution, were defeated, resulting in the boycott of the Constituent Assembly by a large majority of the Tamil members of Parliament; And,

Whereas, the Tamil United Liberation Front, after rejecting the Republican Constitution adopted on the 22nd of May, 1972, presented a six point demand to the Prime Minister and the Government on 25th June, 1972, and gave three months time within which the Government was called upon to take meaningful steps to amend the Constitution so as to meet the aspirations of the Tamil Nation on the basis of the six points, and informed the Government that if it failed to do so the Tamil United Liberation Front would launch a non-violent direct action against the Government in order to win the freedom and the rights of the Tamil Nation on the basis of the right of self-determination; And,

Whereas, this last attempt by the Tamil United Liberation Front to win Constitutional recognition of the rights of the Tamil Nation without jeopardizing the unity of the country was callously ignored by the Prime Minister and the Government; And,

Whereas, the opportunity provided by the Tamil United Liberation leader to vindicate the Government’s contention that their constitution had the backing of the Tamil people, by resigning from his membership of the National State Assembly and creating a by-election was deliberately put off for over two years in utter disregard of the democratic right of the Tamil voters of Kankesanthurai, and,

Whereas, in the by-election held on the 6th February 1975, the voters of Kankesanthurai by a preponderant majority not only rejected the Republican Constitution imposed on them by the Sinhalese Government, but also gave a mandate to Mr. S.J.V. Chelvanayakam, Q.C. and through him to the Tamil United Liberation Front for the restoration and reconstitution of the Free Sovereign, Secular, Socialist State of TAMIL EELAM.

The first National Convention of the Tamil United Liberation Front meeting at Pannakam (Vaddukoddai Constituency) on the 14th day of May, 1976, hereby declares that the Tamils of Ceylon by virtue of their great language, their religions, their separate culture and heritage, their history of independent existence as a separate state over a distinct territory for several centuries till they were conquered by the armed might of the European invaders and above all by their will to exist as a separate entity ruling themselves in their own territory, are a nation distinct and apart from Sinhalese and this Convention announces to the world that the Republican Constitution of 1972 has made the Tamils a slave nation ruled by the new colonial masters, the Sinhalese ,who are using the power they have wrongly usurped to deprive the Tamil Nation of its territory, language citizenship, economic life, opportunities of employment and education, thereby destroying all the attributes of nationhood of the Tamil people.

And, while taking note of the reservations in relation to its commitment to the setting up of a separated state of TAMIL EELAM expressed by the Ceylon Workers Congress as a Trade Union of the Plantation Workers, the majority of whom live and work outside the Northern and Eastern areas,

This convention resolves that restoration and reconstitution of the Free, Sovereign, Secular, Socialist State of TAMIL EELAM, based on the right of self determination inherent to every nation, has become inevitable in order to safeguard the very existence of the Tamil Nation in this Country.

This Convention further declares –

1. that the State of TAMIL EELAM shall consist of the people of the Northern and Eastern provinces and shall also ensure full and equal rights of citizenship of the State of TAMIL EELAM to all Tamil speaking people living in any part of Ceylon and to Tamils of EELAM origin living in any part of the world who may opt for citizenship of TAMIL EELAM.
2. that the constitution of TAMIL EELAM shall be based on the principle of democratic decentralization so as to ensure the non-domination of any religious or territorial community of TAMIL EELAM by any other section.
3. that in the state of Tamil Eelam caste shall be abolished and the observance of the pernicious practice of untouchability or inequality of any type based on birth shall be totally eradicated and its observance in any form punished by law.
4. that TAMIL EELAM shall be a secular state giving equal protection and assistance to all religions to which the people of the state may belong.
5. that Tamil shall be the language of the State, but the rights of Sinhalese speaking minorities in Tamil Eelam to education and transaction of business in their language shall be protected on a reciprocal basis with the Tamil speaking minorities in the Sinhala State.
6. that Tamil Eelam shall be a Socialist State wherein the exploitation of man by man shall be forbidden, the dignity of labor shall be recognized, the means of production and distribution shall be subject to public ownership and control while permitting private enterprise in these branches within limit prescribed by law, economic development shall be on the basis of socialist planning and there shall be a ceiling on the total wealth that any individual of family may acquire.

This Convention directs the Action Committee of the TAMIL UNITED LIBERATION FRONT to formulate a plan of action and launch without undue delay the struggle for winning the sovereignty and freedom of the Tamil Nation;

And this Convention calls upon the Tamil Nation in general and the Tamil youth in particular to come forward to throw themselves fully into the sacred fight for freedom and to flinch not till the goal of a sovereign state of TAMIL EELAM is reached.

(This is a translation of the Resolution Unanimously Adopted at the 1st National Convention of the Tamil United Liberation Front, held at Pannakam (Vaddukoddai Constituency) on May 15 1976, Presided over by Mr. Chelvanayakam, Q.C, M.P. The TULF went to polls in 1977 with this and received an overwhelming mandate from the Tamil electorate. This was the last time Tamils of Eelam were able to express their wish freely at a democratically conducted poll.) END.

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[1] https://sangam.org/1949-speech-by-s-j-v-chelvanayakam/

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Revised 12.9.23

The place names of the north and east indicate that the north and east were Sinhala before they became Tamil. The incoming Tamils, arriving from Tamilnadu, simply tamilised the existing Sinhala place names instead of inventing new names.

In 1886, the irrigation engineer, Henry Parker, presented a series of Sessional papers to the Legislative Council, on the subject of irrigation in the Northern Province. He commented, inter alia, on the available historical information relating to the tanks he was inspecting.

Parker found the following substitution of Tamil names for Sinhala names. Maha Iranpaikkulam was originally Rambewetiya. Iluppaikkadavai was originally Sallariya. Maha Kachchatkodi tank was originally Tittaveli. Kuruntur Malai was Piyangala. Kuruntankulam was Kurunegama ( SP 8 of 1886 p 4-5. S.P. 46 of 1886 p 11)

 In 1896, J. P. Lewis wrote on the ‘Place names in the Vanni”. He pointed out that many of the Tamil names in the Vanni have their exact equivalents in the names of the Sinhalese villages in these provinces. Former Sinhalese inhabitants were driven from the villages to Southern districts he said. The invaders then gave these names to the places.

 The Vanni was colonised by the Tamils only recently and therefore the Tamil place names were new, said Lewis in 1896. Some place names are Tamilised versions of the original Sinhala names. For example, Galkandamadu got Tamilised into Kallukondamadu. That is because in Tamil the letter ‘k’ is used for ‘ga’ and ‘ha’ as well. Lewis also pointed out that Mandukoddai was Mandukanda. And Okande was in Tamil Uhande. (Journal Royal Asiatic Society, Ceylon Branch. Vol 12(42) 1891 p lll. and vol. 23 (67) 1914.)

Lewis found heaps of ‘puliyankulams’ in the Vanni. ‘Kulam’ is ‘tank’ in Tamil. The original name of one such Puliyankulam was Siyambalagaswewa. Vilenkulam was earlier Diwulwewa. Lewis pointed out that the Sinhalese tended to name places after trees, plants or incidents relating to the place (Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, Ceylon Branch, Vol 14 (47) 1896. p 204, 207, 219, 220)

In 1916, B. Horsburgh wrote on “Sinhalese place names in the Jaffna Peninsula”. He suggested that at least thirty of the place names in Jaffna were Sinhala in origin. His argument was a simple one. He pointed out that Tamil place names which ended in ‘kam’ ‘pai’ ‘vil’ ‘kalappu’ ‘vattei’ ‘palai’ ‘pai’ were meaningless in Tamil. ‘Vil’ is ‘bow in Tamil. “Pai’ is ‘net’ or ‘sail’. However the names made sense when they were interpreted in Sinhala. “Valikamam’ had no meaning in Tamil. But it made sense as the Tamilicised version of “Weligama’. Thus Chunnakam was Hunugama, Kokkuvil was Kokavila, Uduvil as Uduvila, Tanankalapu was Tanankalapuwa, Saravattei was Sarawatte, and Manipai was Mampe. (Ceylon Antiquary and literary Register. Vol 2(1) 1916, p 55,56

Rev S. Gnanaprakasar, and S. W. Coomaraswamy wrote in to the  CALR journal, agreeing heartily with Horsburgh’s views and adding some more examples to support Horsburgh. Coomaraswamy suggested that Manipai was not “mampe’ but “Mampaya’ and that Sandiruppay was probably Sandurupaya. S. Sabaratnam partially agreed. J. P. Lewis supplied examples from Mannar and Mullaitivu, of Tamilised Sinhala place names. (CALR. Vol 2, 1916 p 167-174. and vol 3 (10) 1917 p 45,46. and vol 3 (13) 1918 p 159

 In 1921, S. O. Canagaratnam wrote a “Monograph on the Batticaloa District of the Eastern Province of Ceylon”. He said that some place names in Batticaloa were Tamilised versions of Sinhala names. Potivillu was Bodhivila, Sagamam was Chagama, Katirgam was Kadilagama, Irakamam was Ratgama, Vellai Arasu Nadu was Wellassa. (p 31, 34)

Researchers were interested in finding out the original name of the Jaffna Peninsula. Horsburgh, doing some guessing favoured “Yapane’ saying that “Yapa’ was a good old Sinhala word and ‘ne’ was used as an ending as in Habarane’.”Yalpanam’ he thought was a later elaboration.

 Paul. E Pieris, in his landmark article on the excavations at Kantarodai, Jaffna, declared that the original Sinhala name for Jaffna peninsula was ‘Nagadipa’. (Journal Royal Asiatic Society, Ceylon Branch. Vol 26(70) 1917.)

In 1968, C. E. Godakumbure confirmed  Pieris’ view.. The ancient name for Jaffna peninsula was Nagadipa, he said. Chunnakam, Godakumbure thought need not be Hunugama. It could also be Sulanagama from the Pali word Cullanagama. Kantarodai was originally known as Kadurugoda. (Journal Royal Asiatic Society, Ceylon Branch. Vol 12, n.s. 1968. p  67-68

in 1959, there appeared C. W. Nicholas’ ‘Historical topography of ancient and medieval Ceylon’ in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Ceylon Branch, Vol 6 n.s. 1959. Nicholas said that Kokkilai in Vavuniya was originally Kokela. Eravur was Erahulu. Malvattai, which lies between Ampara and Sammanturai, was originally Malavaththu. Kandiyankuttu. 6 miles west of Uhana was originally Mahakandiyawawa. Kaddukulam Pattu, in the Trincomalee district, was originally Kavudavulu. Kantalai was originally Gantalawa. (p 46, 45, 25 29, 30, 87)

 Once the basic principle of Tamilisation of place names is grasped, it is possible for us to  make our own interpretations. ‘Nilaveli’ would have been ‘Nilwella’ and ‘Oluvil’ would have been ‘Oluvila’.J.W.Bennet writing in 1843 refers to Nilaveli as Nilvelle. [1]  

The Sinhala name for Trincomalee was Gokanna and  the harbour  was known Gokannatiththa. K.N.O. Dharmadasa stated that  in the Tamil word, Tirukonamalai,  ‘tiru’ means sacred ‘kona’ comes from Gokanna and  ‘malai’ is hill.[2]  

The North and east ,especially the East is  today a jumble of Sinhala and Tamil place names. This is clearly visible in  Survey Department maps of the two provinces.

A cadastral survey of certain parts of Sri Lanka commenced in 1857, and Batticaloa Province was done in 1860. It has been suggested that surveyors and labourers used for this survey were Tamil, and that the Tamil names were entered because those were the names they knew. There was also a place named “Linemalai’ in the Eastern Province, so named because an old survey line ran by it. (C. W. Nicholas p 22)

Sessional paper 17 of 1931, on the  Railway Department, has a map attached to it. In this map too the Eastern Provinces is a jumble of Sinhala and Tamil names. All the tanks have Sinhala names such as Nikawewa, Migaswewa. So do the rivers, such as Yan Oya, Ma Oya. But the coast is fully Tamil when it comes to  names.

In this 1931 map, In the east there was  Indulpitiyawa near Kuchcheveli. Yalpotta next to Pottuvil. Galamitiyawewa has Tampalakaamam just below.  Ambalam Oya flows into Periya Kalapu.  In the north there was Padawiya-Ma Oya -Kiul Oya-Deiyannekanda- Moragoda -Mora Oya-Makunu Oya- Mee Oya leading to Kokkilai Lagoon and Pulmoddai. These names are still in use.

Ven. Ellawela Medhananda explored the north and east between 2003 and 2013, looking  at the   Buddhist  ruins there.  While    researching these areas, he came across   the original Sinhala names in those places.[3]

 He found that  In  ancient  times, in Trincomalee    district, Kuchchaveli maha vihara was Samudradevi vihara.   Verugal was originally Veheragala.  Kottiyar pattu was Kotthasara.  Periyakulam was Manamatta wewa.  

Batticaloa area  had  villages called  Kasaba nagara,  Giritisa gama, Karaginitisa gama, Vilagama  and  Malu gama. In Ampara district, a gama donated to an aramaya become ‘aramagam’ which became ‘Arugam’.  Rugam is the Tamilisation of this, said Medhananda .   

 A long list of place names of the north and east of Sri Lanka which have been changed from Sinhala to Tamil can be found at www.geocities.com/place.names . Analysts observed that some place names are historically documented, Such as Mantota for Mantai, Gokanna for Trincomalee.

 In others the derivation is clear. Gantale for Kantalai. Kanniyai for Kanniyava. Kokavil for Kokavila.  Mavil oya for mavilaru.Navadantalvu for Navadantalava. Nedunkerni, for Nedunkuruna. Nilaveli for Nilvella.  Oluvil for Oluvila.Omanda for Omantai. Pottuvil for Pothuvila. Sammanthurai for Samanthota.  Sompura for Sampur.Valikamam for Valukagama.

In some cases the Tamil name differed from the Sinhala name. Ranpariththa became  Pomparippu.  Siyambalaveva became Puliyankulam.( continued)

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[1] J.W Bennett  Ceylon and its capabilities. 1843. P 239,

[2] KNO Dharmadasa. Place name and ethnic interest the case of Tirukonmalai SLJ Humnaites. 2(2) 1976. P114

[3] Ellawela Medhananda. Pacina passsa, uttara passa, nagenahira palata  ha  uturu palate Sinhala bauddha urumaya. 2003 5  imp 2013

KAMALIKA PIERIS

There are four    documents which need to be studied before the discussion on Tamil colonization of Sinhala lands can proceed. They are, Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam Pact, Dudley Senanayake-Chelvanayagam Pact, the District Development Councils Act and the Provincial Councils Act. All four take positions on the subject of Lands and land settlement”.

BANDARANAIKE – CHELVANAYAGAM PACT 1957

Bandaranaike – Chelvanayakam Pact, given in full in  Appendix 1,  was signed on July 26, 1957 primarily to avoid a threatened mass satyagraha led by  ITAK against the “Sinhala Only’ Bill. The Bandaranaike – Chelvanayakam Pact was merely an agreement between the Prime Minister and S.J.V Chelvanayakam, head of Illankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi.  

Prime Minister Bandaranaike suggested that Chelvanayagam should look at the government’s Draft Regional Council Bill to see whether it could be adapted to suit the wishes of Chelvanayagam. That was possible and a joint statement was issued.

The Joint Statement by the Prime Minister and Representatives of the Federal Party [ITAK] on Regional Councils, which is one of the two joint statements issued on July 26, 1957 carries the following clauses: “

(B) That the Northern Province is to form one Regional area whilst the Eastern Province is to be divided into two or more Regional areas.

C) Provision is to be made in the Bill to enable two or more regions to amalgamate even beyond provincial limits: and for one region to divide itself subject to ratification by parliament. Further provision is to be made in the Bill for two or more regions to collaborate for specific purposes of common interest.

F) Colonization Schemes. It was agreed that in the matter of colonization schemes the powers of the Regional Council shall include the power to select allottees to whom lands within the areas of authority shall be alienated and also power to select personnel to be employed for work on such schemes. “

The Regional Councils Bill was published in draft form in the Gazette of 17. May 1957. The Bill   never came up in Parliament, and thus escaped public scrutiny. It disappeared with the disappearance of the Pact. But it has been reproduced in K.M de Silva” Devolution in Sri Lanka: S.W.R.D Bandaranaike and the debate on power sharing” (ICES, Kandy 1996) as Document VII, p 72 –

After the BC Pact was signed, the media reported that Bandaranaike gave a ‘long laboured statement’ on 12.8.57 with the terms of the agreement ‘tucked away inconspicuously at the end~ .Politicians said that now at long last they were able to see what the Pact was about.

Bandaranaike and Chelvanayagam met   again on 14.8.57 then they parted, reported the media.

Chelvanayakam to the North, to explain the Pact to the Tamils and Bandaranaike to the South to pacify the apprehensive Sinhalese, some of whom were already hopping mad regarding other matters pertaining to the ‘rightful position’ of the majority community.

When the Bandaranaike -Chelvanayakam Pact was announced it caused great consternation and also a few titters. It was pointed out that the two signatories ‘did not seem to have the same view of the clauses’. Bandaranaike was evasive about the whole thing, while Chelvanayakam was announcing that the colonization of the North and East by the Sinhalese had been effectively stopped.

Tamil Separatist Movement hoped for much with the BC Pact.  They said the Regional Councils will constitute the unit of devolution. The Regional Councils Bill will provide for Parliament to delegate powers to Regional Councils in relation to certain subjects such as agriculture, co-operatives, lands and land development, colonization, health, education, industries and fisheries, housing and social services, electricity, water schemes and roads.  Also thanks to the Pact, Colonization would not be used to convert the Northern and Eastern Provinces into Sinhalese majority areas.

Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi, declared, at a special session of its National Convention assembled at the Town Hall, Batticaloa, on 28th July 1957 that State aided Sinhalese colonization of the Northern and Eastern provinces will be effectively stopped forthwith.”   Also that there     would be a large measure of regional self-government’ under the proposed Regional Councils Act.

Chelvanayagam’s claim that Sinhala colonization had been stopped    caused ‘great public indignation’ elsewhere.   There was considerable opposition to the Bandaranaike -Chelvanyakam Pact in the rest of the country. The Sinhala Jathika Sangamaya opposed it flatly and unequivocally stating that there were no ‘Tamil lands’ all were ‘Sinhala lands’.

There was also opposition from three set of trade unions, Sri Lanka Independent Industries and Commercial Workers Union, Central Council of Ceylon Trade Unions and the Federation of Socialist trade Unions.

 At a public rally of the UNP at Victoria Park, Colombo, Dudley Senanayake opposed the ‘Regional division of Ceylon on racial grounds’ and the establishment of a ‘state within a state through Regional Councils’

Dudley Senanayake, speaking  before the UNP at Sri Kotha queried  Is it right to develop vast irrigation and colonization schemes and hand them over for the exclusive settlement of one race, the Tamils, under Regional Council scheme – when it should benefit the entire nation. The gravity of this concession will be felt when one realizes that most of the major irrigation and colonization schemes such as Heda Oya, Magalawaturan Aru, Yan Oya, Padaviya, Malvatu Oya and Mahaweli Ganga are situated mainly or wholly in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.”

However, the Sinhala community on the whole, failed to see the gravity of the colonization clauses in the BC Pact. Their concern was with Sinhala Only. Lankadipa of 26 July 1957 carried the following headline: Satyagraha Ne. bhasha prasnaya gana ekanga wei.’ But the Lands Ministry knew better and in October 1957, decided   to bring all state sponsored major colonization schemes directly under its control.

J.R. Jayawardene organized a march to Kandy to protest the B-C Pact. The march to Kandy and the subsequent Satyagraha launched by representatives of the Sinhala Jatika Sangamaya and Sri Lanka Sangha Sabhava, created a sea wave of opposition to the B-C Pact. In the face of mounting pressures, from the Sinhala public as well as the Buddhist clergy, on 9th April, 1958   Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike publicly disowned the agreement that he had entered into with Chelvanayagam and the agreement was publicly torn up.  

 Bandaranaike issued a statement regarding the B-C Pact and its abrogation on 15.4.58, where he said Another question that arises is the real intention of the Federal Party. Were they genuine in regard to the agreement they reached with me? Were they only looking upon it as a first step towards something else? If so what is that something else? ” The ‘something else’ was of course, the creation of a Tamil state.

The Tamil Separatist Movement never forgot the B-C Pact. They keep recalling it.

ITAK MINIMUM DEMANDS” 1960

Chelvanayakam submitted a set of ‘minimum demands’ to the UNP and SLFP when they both failed to get an absolute majority at the General Election of March 1960. UNP got 50 seats, SLFP 46 and ITAK 15. Chelvanayagam’s statement said that this was on invitation from the two parties. I think that this is unlikely, because the demands, it appears, were summarily rejected.

These ‘minimum demands’ included the cessation of planned colonization of the traditionally Tamil areas with Sinhalese people” and the creation of a separate Tamil region in Ceylon. These, it seems, were not accepted by either party.  see Appendix 3.         

DUDLEY-CHELVA PACT, 1965.

The Dudley Senanayake- Chelvanayagam Pact’, given in Appendix 2, was made in March 1965. The agreement which was between the UNP and the Federal Party was never officially released, but the agreement appeared in the newspapers later. The Pact was dismissed contemptuously   as a ‘horse deal’ to gain votes. 

The Dudley- Chelva Pact was the result of ITAK negotiations after the March 1965 General elections.  The initiative, it sees was taken by ITAK. At this election no party got a clear majority. UNP had      66 seats, SLFP had 41 and ITAK had 14. ITAK held the balance of power.

ITAK started to negotiate with both SLFP and UNP. The negotiator was Murugesu Thiruchelvam. Thiruchelvam conducted these parallel discussions secretively and reported only to Chelvanayagam, said DBS Jeyaraj. The other ITAK leaders were not informed.  UNP and SLFP we are told did not know that ITAK was talking to both.  I think that this was most unlikely.

A meeting was set up between Dudley Senanayake and S.J.V. Chelvanayagam at the Turret Road (now Dharmapala Mawatha) residence of Dr. M.V.P. Peiris. Dudley was accompanied by J.R. Jayewardene, V.A. Sugathadasa and Esmond Wickremesinghe. ITAK delegation was Chelvanayagam, Dr. E.M.V. Naganathan, S.M. Rasamanickam, V. Navaratnam and M. Thiruchelvam

UNP was agreeable to three of the ITAK demands, namely use of Tamil language in administration, use of Tamil in courts,  and de-centralization of power to the north and east, UNP  also  agreed to set  up District Councils.

But there was strong disagreement on the subject of land alienation and settlement. ITAK insisted that the demography of the north and east should not be altered by State aided colonization of Sinhala settlers. ITAK called it Sinhala colonization of the traditional Tamil homeland”. ITAK demanded that only Tamil speaking people should be settled in colonization schemes in the north and east. Dudley Senanayake vehemently objected to this. The discussion   stalled, but ITAK support was necessary for the UNP form a government.

Esmond Wickremesinghe suggested a compromise. It was suggested that when irrigation schemes were implemented in a district and agricultural settlers were given lands, priority should be given to people of the same province. Thereafter priority should be given to people from adjacent provinces. This compromise was acceptable to both sides. The DC Pact was signed.

The D-C Pact said that the Land Development Ordinance will be amended in the granting of land under colonization schemes.  The following will be observed in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. (a) Land in the Northern and Eastern Provinces should in the first instance be granted to landless persons in the District. (b) Secondly – to Tamil -speaking persons resident in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, and (c) Thirdly – to other citizens in Ceylon, preference being given to Tamil citizens in the rest of the Island.”

Dudley Senanayake became Prime Minister.  He kept the contents of the D-C Pact a secret. The marriage between ITAK and UNP did not last long. The District Councils Bill, was presented to Parliament in June 1968, and was rejected.

M. Thiruchelvam resigned from the government in November 1968 when Senanayake over-ruled Tiruchelvam’s decision to appoint a committee to look into declaring Fort Fredrick, where Koneswaram temple was located, into a Hindu sacred area. According to DBS Jeyaraj, the chief priest of Tammankaduwa had objected to such a declaration, stating that it would result in the area getting “into the hands of those who are neither Sinhalese nor Buddhists”. ITAK then left the UNP government and sat in the Opposition.

The D-C Pact was forgotten by everybody except the Tamil Separatist Movement which regularly referred to it.

DISTRICT DEVELOPMENT COUNCILS, 1980

District Councils   was revived in another form in 1980 when JR Jayewardene was President. The idea of setting up District Council would have been put to him by   A.J. Wilson and Neelan Thiruchelvam who were close advisers to JR. They would have told him exactly how they wanted it done as well, but JR remembering that District Councils were rejected in Parliament in 1965, would have decided not to publicize the District aspect and also not to act on it alone.

In August 1979, President JR Jayewardene appointed a ‘Commission of Inquiry” which was expected to report on how economic development could be achieved through, District Ministers and Development Councils.

The Commission was asked, inter alia, to determine the subjects that would come under the DDC, to look at the relationship between DDC and Central government, and suggest how DDC could supervise the work of the local authorizes.  Among the subjects to be supervised was village irrigation schemes” and settlement under major irrigation schemes”.

 The Commissioners   were Victor Tennekoon (Chairman) AJ .Wilson, Neelan Thiruchelvam, JAL Cooray, NGP Panditeratne, KM de Silva, A C.M. Ameer,,M R Thassim,, MA Azeez and  K. Navaretnarajah. The   inclusion of A.J. Wilson and Neelan Thiruchelvam was significant.

The public were suspicious of this sudden desire to create District Development Councils. They suspected that this was a move towards a separate Tamil state. The Commission   recognized this. The Commission said in its report, that that when they called for   contributions from the public, views had been expressed under the belief that our task is to find a direct solution to the  [Tamil]demand for a separate state.

The Development Councils Act No. 35 of 1980 was passed by Parliament. The Act was titled Development Council Act”, leaving out the word ‘District’ in the title, but the body created was known as District Development Council.

24 DDCs were created.  The DDCs consisted of elected members and local Members of Parliament. District Ministers were also created.  Legislation was passed to abolish the Town Councils and Village Committees and to transfer their functions to the new DDCs. The schedule of subjects which came under the DDC included Land use and land settlement.

 The 24 DDCs started functioning on 1 July 1981. 83 Town Councils and 549 Village Committees were abolished. The DDCs didn’t live up to expectations.[1]Tamil Separatist Movement blamed the government for not letting the DDCs go ahead at full speed. Development Councils Act was repealed in 1989 by Act No 14 of 1989.

APPENDIX 1 Bandaranaike – Chelvanayakam Pact 26 July 1957

Part A

Representatives of the Federal Party had a series of discussions with the Prime Minister in an effort to resolve the differences of opinion that had been growing and creating tension.

At the early stages of these conversations it became evident that it was not possible for the Prime Minister to accede to some of the demands of the Federal Party.

The Prime Minister stated that, from the point of view of the Government, he was not in a position to discuss the setting up of a Federal Constitution, or regional autonomy or any step which would abrogate the Official Language Act.

 The question then arose whether it was possible to explore the possibility of an adjustment without the Federal Party abandoning or surrendering any of its fundamental principles or objectives.

At this stage the Prime Minister suggested an examination of the government’s Draft Regional Council Bill to see whether provisions can be made under it to meet, reasonably, some of the matters in this regard which the Federal Party had in view. The agreements so reached are embodied in a separate document.

 Regarding the language the Federal Party reiterated its stand for parity but in view of the position of the Prime Minister in this matter they came to an agreement by way of an adjustment. They pointed out that it was important for them that there would be recognition of Tamil as a national language and that the administrative work in of the Northern and the Eastern Provinces should be done in Tamil.

 The Prime Minister stated that as mentioned by him earlier it was not possible for him to take any steps that would abrogate the Official Language Act.

 Use of Tamil

 After discussions it was agreed that the proposed legislation should contain recognition of Tamil as the language of a national minority of Ceylon and that the four points mentioned by Prime Minister should include provision that, without infringing on the position of the Official Language as such, the language of administration of the Northern And Eastern Provinces be Tamil, and any necessary provision be made for non-Tamil speaking minorities in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.

 Regarding the question of Ceylon citizenship for the people of Indian descent and the Citizenship Act, the representatives of the Federal Party forwarded their views to the Prime Minister and pressed for an early settlement.

The Prime Minister indicated that this problem would receive early consideration.

 In view of these conclusions the Federal Party stated that they were withdrawing their proposed satyagraha.

 Part B

 1. Regional areas to be defined in the Bill itself by embodying them in the Schedule thereto.

2. That the Northern Province is to form one regional area whilst the Eastern Province is to be divided into one or more regional areas.

3. Provision is to be made in the Bill to enable two or more regions to amalgamate even beyond provincial limit; and for one region to divide itself subject to ratification by Parliament. Further provision is to be made in the Bill for two or more regions to collaborate for specific purposes of common interests.

 DIRECT ELECTIONS

4. Provision is to be made for the direct election of Regional councillors.

Provision is to be made for a delimitation commission or commissions for carving out electorates. The question of MPs representing districts falling within regional areas to be eligible to function as chairman is to be considered. The question of Government Agents being Regional Commissioners is to be considered. The question of supervisory functions over larger towns, strategic towns and municipalities is to be looked into.

SPECIAL POWERS

 5. Parliament is to delegate powers and specify them in the Act. It was agreed that regional councils should have powers over specified subjects including agriculture, cooperatives, lands and land developments, colonisation, education, health, industries, fisheries, housing, social services, electricity, water schemes and roads. Requisite definition of powers be made in the Bill

COLONISATION SCHEMES

6. It was agreed that in the matter of colonisation schemes the powers of the regional councils shall include the powers to select allottees to whom land within their area of authority shall be alienated and also power to select personnel to be employed for work on such schemes. The position regarding the area at present administered by the Gal Oya Board in this matter requires consideration.

TAXATION AND BORROWING

 7. The powers in regard to the Regional councils vested in the Minister of Local Government in the draft bill to be revised with a view to vesting control in Parliament wherever necessary.

 8. The Central Government will provide block grants to the regional councils. The principles on which the grants will be computed will be gone into. The regional councils shall have powers of taxation and borrowing.  

APPENDIX 2. DUDLEY SENANAYAKE – CHELVANAYAKAM PACT 1965

Mr. Dudley Senanayake and Mr. S. J. V. Chelvanayakam met on the 24-3-1965 and discussed matters relating to some problems over which the Tamil-speaking people were concerned, and Mr. Senanayake agreed that action on the following lines would be taken by him to ensure a stable government:

(1) Action will be taken early under the Tamil Language Special Provisions Act to make provision of the Tamil Language to be the language of Administration and of Record in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. Mr. Senanayake explained that it was the policy of his party that a Tamil-speaking person should be entitled to transact business in Tamil throughout the island.

(2) Mr. Senanayake stated that it was the policy of his party to amend the Language of Courts Act to provide for legal proceedings in the Northern and Eastern Provinces to be conducted and recorded in Tamil.

(3) Action will be taken to establish District Councils in Ceylon vested with powers over subjects to be mutually agreed upon between two leaders. It was agreed, however, that the government should have power under the law to give directions to such councils under the national interest.

(4) The Land Development Ordinance will be amended to provide that citizens of Ceylon be entitled to the allotment of land under the Ordinance.

Mr. Senanayake further agreed that in the granting of land under colonisation schemes the following priorities be observed in the Northern and Eastern provinces (a) Land in the Northern and Eastern provinces should in the first instance be granted to landless persons in the district. (b) Secondly, to Tamil-speaking persons resident in the Northern and Eastern provinces. (c) Thirdly, to other citizens in Ceylon, preference being given to Tamil residents in the rest of the island. [2]

APPENDIX 3 ( edited)

 A statement obtaining the minimum demands submitted to the leaders of the UNP and SLFP on 30.3.1960 by SJV Chelvanayagam on behalf of the Federal Party when both parties failed to get an absolute majority after the 1960 March elections and sought the support of the FP to form a government.

The results of the General election have demonstrated that that the Tamil speaking people of Ceylon have endorsed in overwhelming numbers their acceptance of the policy and objective of my party, which can be briefly stated as follows

1. The replacement of the present unitary constitution by a federal constitution which recognizes the autonomy of the Tamil speaking areas.
2. The restoration of the Tamil language  to its rightful place enjoying  parity with  Sinhala as the official language of the country
3.  The granting of citizenship rights to  Tamil persons of Indian origin who are settled in Ceylon.[estate Tamils]
4. The cessation of planned colonization of the traditionally Tamil areas with Sinhalese people.

 Acceptance of the matters on which agreement is effected between ourselves should be indicated in the Throne Speech and there after implemented by legislative action which should be complete within three months

1. Granting of regional autonomy for the Northern and eastern provinces by the creation of one regional body for the Northern Province and one or more regional bodies for the eastern province with the right of these bodies to amalgamate. Power to be delegated on such regional bodies for specific subjects such as agriculture, cooperatives, land and land development , land alienation and colonization, irrigation,    education,  health, industries, and fisheries housing and social services, electivity , water schemes and road. Pending the           establishment of the regional bodies state  aided colonization referred to above  is to be suspended
2. Tamil to be recognized statutorily and administratively as the national language of the Tamil speaking peoples in Ceylon. Tamil is to be made the language of administration and of the courts of law in the northern and eastern provinces…. The right of Tamil spoken people throughout Ceylon to be educated in the Tamil language in all stages upto and including the university and the right of entry to the public services by competitive examination in Tamil to be statutorily recognized. Every Tamil person should be entitled in law to transact business and correspondence with the government in all parts of Ceylon in Tamil. All legislation, gazette notifications, government publications, notices and forms should be in Tamil also.
3. The citizenship act to be amended ……
4.  Till such time as the question of citizenship and franchise of the estate Tamil population is settled… representation in parliament to be provided by nomination …. [from] Ceylon Indian Congress.

 Points not covered by the foregoing paragraphs will be settled by negotiation between the government and the party. ( end)

 (Source.  KM de Silva. Managing ethnic tensions in multi-ethnic societies. p 400)  CONTINUED

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_government_in_Sri_Lanka

[2] https://peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/LK_650324_Dudley%20Senanayake%20-%20Chelvanayakam%20Pact.pdf

Prof. Hudson McLean

Since the philanthropist  Dhammika Perera is supporting the education of the Sri Lankan youth, may I suggest that DP Education considers an avenue of targeting the programmes towards revenue-generating employment overseas.

Currently many Western countries need and invite qualified Nurses to support their elders and the hospitals.

USA, UK, EU have vacancies for Health workers, with good English language skills.

Finland with an aging population needs over 20,000 Nurses and Eldercare workers.

The starting salaries are Euro 2000-, per month.

Finnish language skills will be given free.

Part of the salary could be repatriated to Sri Lanka.

Other high wage earners are in the IT field, earning between Euro 3000-; up to Euro 10,000++ / month.

Part of this income could be repatriated to Sri Lanka.

Prior to arrival in the West, it is essential that a pre-induction programme is given to the potential recruits in basic cross-culture, etiquette, and behavior.

I am able to offer some Guidance and Advice, Pro Bono, Totally Free to those who are interested in considering options in the EU.

Email me: hudmc@yahoo.co.uk

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By Garvin Karunaratne

The Colonial PeriodAs colonialism was gradually disbanded in the Forties and Fifties many colonial countries were bequeathed with independence, provided with democratic constitutions for governance and allowed to rule themselves. The fundamental aims of the colonial regimes was to maintain law and order, the collection of taxes and to restructure the economies so that the colony would make a contribution to the mother country. The economic system imposed was to produce raw materials for export to the mother country and other Developed Countries and purchase manufactured items from the mother country. This system enabled the mother country and other Developed Countries to sell their manufactures, helped to keep their people employed and also enabled the creation of wealth in manufacturing goods. The colonies were exploited to the maximum with wealth flowing to the mother Superpower.The Post Independence PeriodWhen the countries became independent they commenced various types of programs to enable its people to become productive, to manufacture all that they need, thereby to provide employment for their people. Land was distributed and irrigation schemes were constructed. Extension departments were established to offer advice to the people to become productive contributors to the economy by producing what was required. They followed a policy of import substitution aimed at self sufficiency. They built up administrative systems to control the foreign exchange they earned from exports and used it in the interests of their countries. They were all moving fast towards being developed-finding employment for their people and enabling production.To get into detail re Sri Lanka: A Department of Rural Development and Cottage Industries was commenced in the early Fifties and rural development societies were established in the rural areas. The people were collectively attending to the development of the rural areas and small grants were given to enable them to build their own roads, community centers etc.. Cooperatives were established and they attended to the sale of essential food. The aim was to compete with the traders who would otherwise jack up the prices. The cooperatives provided the necessities for handloomers to get involved in making textiles and also sold the products. Handloom Centres were established in rural areas where the womenfolk were provided training in handloom and other small industries. The cooperatives also provided micro finance.In the Sixties rural industries were developed further by the establishment of Trade Portalfind qualified exporters, suppliers & manufacturers worldwide. Free!www.mfgtrade.comExporters & ImportersBusiness Directory of 114 countries Over 150,000 companies worldwidego4worldbusiness.comCzech CompaniesOn-line Export/Import Directory Overview of Products and Serviceswww.inform.czImportersLarge directory of buyers & sellers Over 500,000 importers listedwww.toboc.comJust TeaA Quality breakfast tea Distributors wanted world-widewww.pungatrading.co.zacooperative powerlooms, which provided textiles of high quality to the people and simultaneously enabled employment to the people. Sri Lanka was self sufficient in textiles by 1970. To enable farmers to obtain quality seed, the Department of Agriculture established seed farms and sold certified seeds to the farmers.To enable the farmers to obtain a reasonable price for their produce a Marketing Department was established. This Marketing Department established a network of purchasing centers in the rural areas to compete with traders and buy produce at a reasonable rate. It was also charged with ensuring that the people in cities could obtain essential goods at reasonable prices and therefore retail centers were established in the cities where essential commodities like flour, sugar were sold at reasonable rates. The vegetables and fruits collected in the rural areas were brought to Colombo and other cities overnight and sold at these retail depots the very next day. The aim was a price check on the private sector retailers. When goods were available at the Marketing Department Depots the private sector merchants could not charge more. When eggs were imported a floor price was offered for eggs and eggs were purchased from producers. In a few years Sri Lanka became self sufficient in eggs. The Marketing Department also had a Canning Factory which experimented and was successful in producing jam, cordials etc.. A floor price was given for oranges and all oranges were purchased. The Canning Factory enabled the purchase of the total production of pineapples and red pumpkin which was manufactured into jam and even exported. The Marketing Department had a Bakery and this ensured that private bakeries had to sell quality bread. For the development of paddy cultivation a Department of Agrarian Services was established. It was charged with the purchase of paddy from producer farmers, providing them with credit and all necessary supplies like fertilizer. It also provided farmers with crop insurance, i.e. insurance for crop failure. Further all paddy was purchased at a guaranteed price which was well above the market price. The paddy was milled at Government owned Rice Mills and at private sector rice mills. The Food Commissioner had stores where rice was stored; food security was ensured by stocking food-rice and flour. Minor irrigation schemes were built and maintained at first by the Government Agents of the Districts and later by the Department of Agrarian Services. Land was distributed to the people. Ancient reservoirs (tanks) that were neglected were rebuilt and people settled. The Irrigation Department and the Land Development Department was in charge of this sector.Having served as an Assistant Commissioner of Marketing and Agrarian Services and later as Government Agent I can state that the work was very demanding. At Ratnapura as the Assistant Commissioner of Marketing my day started at four in the morning on at least three days a week- visiting producer fairs at Embilipitiya, Pallebedda, Godakawela, supervising the purchasing staff to ensure that they did the purchases correctly, studying the availability of produce and prices- details which I had to relay to the Tripoli Market in Colombo, the headquarters for vegetable and fruit purchases. I also had to visit all producer fairs and ensure that the traders offered reasonable prices. If I found that the prices offered were not reasonable I had the ability to arrange to purchase produce. This enabled us to control the prices offered by traders.I also worked as Assistant Commissioner of the Triploi Market for a year when I had to study the prices offered by traders and the availability of vegetables and fruits in Colombo, fix the prices at which the Departmental purchasing centers will buy the next day and also accept the vegetables and fruits that had been dispatched to Colombo and sell them at the Depots in the city. Another Assistant Commissioner was in charge of the Canning Factory. All this was demanding,

exacting but the cake was at the monthly conference of all Assistant Commissioners when the profit and loss of each center was looked into.Our aim was to buy from producers at the highest possible price and sell at the lowest possible price to the consumers in the city and if we had incurred a loss of over 10% or a profit of over 10% we were pulled up for not pricing properly. The ideal was not to incur a loss or get a profit. Many a time I succeeded and at times I failed. The authors of this scheme were Commissioners Basset and B.L.W.Fernando. This was a unique system which has no parallel in any other country. A small loss was incurred but the benefit lies in the infrastructure that was provided for production and how imports were thereby obviated. I can recall how as Deputy Director of Small Industries I was in charge of all private sector small industries. I registered the industries, provided them with allocations of foreign exchange to enable them to import the necessary goods to enable them to manufacture items that were required in the country. As the Government Agent I had a vast staff for development-of land, development of small industries and rural development. I was also held responsible for food security-had to have flour and rice in my stores and also check the prices of essential items under price control. Today many discount the work of the public sector. I can vouch for the fact that we officers did work hard and provided an efficient service. Public servants that erred were corrected while those that were corrupt were ruthlessly eliminated. This effort brought results and Sri Lanka was fast developing. It was almost reaching self sufficiency in rice production by 1970. We almost reached full employment. This was the case with other countries too. They were fast developing-through the policies of import substitution aimed at self sufficiency. The Governments controlled the inflow of foreign exchange and used it very carefully, regulating it in the countrys interest. The Mixed & Regulated Economy they followed brought results. Developed Countries resort to NeocolonialismThe Developed Countries were feeling the pinch. They could not sell their manufactures and could not obtain the raw materials to keep their factories going. They found that their people were unemployed. Let me quote the findings of The Report of the Independent South Asian Commission on Poverty Alleviation(1992):The industrial countries for the first time since World War II are in need of markets for their products and services just as their economies are made vulnerable by the international debt crisis. So they have put into effect the Structural Adjustment Programme.The Developed Countries had to find a definite method of selling their manufactures, keeping their people employed and enabling incomes for their economies and the Structural Adjustment Programme was their method. The economies of the Third World had to be opened up and for this purpose they had to gain control over the countries. They enforced the Open Economy on the Third World. This they did in a very devious manner by first making them indebted. The World Bank under Robert McNamara commenced issuing loans to the Third World Countries on a liberal basis. Before this loans were provided only for investment purposes-never for consumption purposes and a requirement of every loan was whether the income created by the loan will repay the loan. This requirement was dropped and funds were freely made available. Robert McNamara is no more and so are most of the politicians who drew the loans but the countries became indebted and the debts have come to stay.

Cheryl Payer states of what happened to Tanzania: The IMF advised Tanzanian leaders that their reserves were embarrassingly large and might lead the countrys Aid donors to reduce their contribution.. They persuaded the Government to abolish the foreign exchange budgeting system and lift controls on imports. By the end of 1978 Tanzania had only reserves for ten days worth of imports. Then the IMF imposed its Structural Adjustment reforms( from Lent and Lost)Let me quote Professor Jeffery Sachs on Africa: Western Governments enforced draconian budget policies during the 1980s and 1990s. The IMF and the World Bank virtually ran the economic policies of the debt ridden continent recommending regimens of budgetary belt tightening known technically as structural adjustment programsBy the start of the Twenty First century Africa was poorer than in the late 1960s with disease, population growth and environmental degradation spiraling out of control.(from The End of Poverty)The result of the machinations of the Western Superpower through the IMF and the World Bank is best given in The Human Development Report of 1996:The stabilization measures of the IMF aimed at reducing budget deficits and usually involved cutting public spending, reducing wages and increasing interest rates.. Although these policies reduced deficits in some countries they often did so at the cost of inducing recession. In short, they often balanced budgets by unbalancing peopleslivesEnforcing the Open Economy on Sri LankaThe newly elected Government of J.R.Jayawardena in 1977 wholeheartedly accepted the advice of the IMF and implemented the provisions of Structural Adjustment as they thought that that was the method of developing Sri Lanka. Up to then the IMF and the World Bank had been very progressive and no one doubted their motives. The World Bank helped with loans for investment and consumption. The country was opened up for foreign investors; state ventures were sold-privatized. Foreign Exchange was deregulated and freely allowed irrespective of its availability. The shortfall was met with foreign loans at high interest readily made available and by the sale of paying assets.In detail re Sri Lanka: The Marketing Department which offered a floor price for vegetables and fruits was closed down. The Bakery was closed down and the Cannery was privatized. Shortages of vegetables and fruit became common. The Cannery was not concerned with offering floor prices for local produce. The Paddy Marketing Board that offered a guaranteed price for rice was closed down. Producers stopped producing for the market as they could not sell at a reasonable price. The Rice Mills of the Government-once the show pieces of development were sold for scrap.In the Nineties I once gazed in veneration at the ruins of the Rice Mill at Ambalantota, my home for a year, when that was one of three State of the Art Rice Mills in Sri Lanka. Then it was a guarded asset. The infrastructure that was in place for the sale of yarn to handloomers was stopped and 96,000 handloomers lost their incomes. The Powerlooms that turned out quality textiles were disbanded. Velona that provided infrastructural support to the powerlooms was closed down.While subsidies that were offered to the producers was stopped and scaled down more money was spent on providing incentives for foreigners to come, invest (exploit) and take the profits away. The import and milling of wheat into flour was handed over to a private Singaporean company, Prima. Henceforth food security for flour was in their hands. Earlier as Deputy Food Controller, if I had failed to have ample stocks of flour, rice and sugar I and my Assistant Food Controller would have been sacked. The newspapers have reported how Prima failed in having stocks of flour and also how they sold flour to the Maldives when there was a shortage in Sri Lanka.Under Structural Adjustment many Government ventures were privatized and in many cases the foreigners and locals that purchased them sold the machinery for scrap and sold the land and made money. Tulhiriya Textile Mills, once the showpiece of Asia was sold to Kabool of Pakistan who made money and left leaving behind unpaid loans and unpaid wages to employees. The Tyre Factory which was established with great effort with Aid from Russia was privatized first to a local and has now ended in the hands of a multinational. Seed Paddy Research Stations were leased out to foreign multinationals. Multinationals have come to control many areas of the economy. Instead of developing milk products ourselves and becoming self sufficient like India, we have scaled down our efforts and have handed over dairy development to Nestles and other Multinationals.In the past ten years attempts have been made to sell the Eppawela phosphate deposits to an American multinational that has a record of causing environmental degradation in Indonesia. The plan was to excavate and take away the phosphate paying around thirty dollars per ton to Sri Lanka when the world price was over three hundred pounds. It was to exploit the full deposit in 30 years, when the phosphate could supply our requirements for over a century. This could only be stopped by an order from the Supreme Court. This illustrates how the assets of Sri Lanka were planned to be handled in a manner that brought wealth to the investors of Developed Countries. The result of this Open Economy-Import and Sell cum Privatization of Assets cum Deregulation cum Free Trade Policy has left Sri Lanka in ruins. A country that was indebted only to the extent of $ 750 million in 1977 and that only on development projects (not on consumption) became indebted to the extent of $ ten billion. The sale of paying assets and the cost of servicing the debt ballooned to such an extent that our incomes could not meet our expenses. Sri Lanka last had a positive balance of payments in its foreign exchange budget only during the period 1970-1977- in 1976, $58 million and in 1977, $ 117 million. Now we are in deficit by around $ 1,000 million ($ 1 Billion) every year. The IMF answer is to privatize more assets and find the money or to obtain loans. This makes the country more indebted. The huge budget deficits have caused cuts in public spending on health services, on education; subsidies have had to be reduced or stopped. In health the hospitals are starved of funds while a booming private health system has emerged for the rich. In Education a two tier system of education has emerged- one for the rich-private education and education at foreign universities while the middle grades and the poor have to be educated in under funded schools and universities.This is what the open economy did to Sri Lanka.Currently the Developed Countries and the IMF are telling us that they will give $ 5 billion as loans to develop our country if we further economic reforms-privatize and that includes public utilities like the Electricity Board and the State banksthe two banks are running at a profit and are not allowing the foreign banks to rule the foreign exchange that comes in. Due to the fact that everything is imported there is high unemployment and the only method of finding employment is by creeping into the Developed Countries as asylum seekers. The Developed Countries fail to understand that they are economic migrants, caused by their own policies of Structural Adjustment which they do not follow but apply only on the Developing Countries.
The process of Structural Adjustment has reduced the value of the local rupee from Rs 15.50 in 1977 to around Rs 190.00 to the pound in 2005 marking a drop of around 1,000 %. As all goods are imported the prices of goods has increased while the incomes and wages of people are stagnant and this lack of purchasing power has caused poverty. Before 1977 a family could live with around Rs. 700.00 a month; in 2005 prices have spiraled and a family needs Rs. 20,000.00 or more in a country where the average income is around Rs 10,000.00. Inequalities in incomes have increased. The bottom 20% of the people by income have had their share of the total national income reduced from 7% in 1975 to 4% while the top 20% of the people by income have had their shares of total national income increased from 43% of total national income in 1975 to 55%. Poverty has been caused by implementing the Structural Adjustment policies of the IMF.Other countries have fared worse:Turkey: had its currency-the Lira trashed in value from 336 lira to the pound to 2,395,000 lira in the period 1983 to 2003 a drop of 712,000%. Poverty is endemic and people have no purchasing power with their earnings. There are vast motorways (like the ones proposed for Sri Lanka). Foreign companies built them and were paid with money borrowed on loans. They took the money and went leaving Turkey indebted. There are no cars on the roads. People cannot afford to travel. They suffer in silence. Ghana: Once an acclaimed showpiece of the IMF has had its currency trashed from 5.7 Cedi to the pound in 1983 to 15,711 Cedi to the pound in 2003 marking a drop of 275,000 %. All other countries like Nigeria, Indonesia, Chile that followed the IMF advice have all had their currencies trashed. The poverty that would be created in Sri Lanka if the IMF succeeds in taking us further on its path by enticing us with further loans is clear when one realizes that the value of the Rupee will dwindle to Rs. 1,352,800 to the pound if the value of the Rupee goes down to the extent of the Turkish Lira. I have traveled widely in Turkey. It is a great country with resources far more than Sri Lanka. But the economy of Turkey is ruined beyond repair by the IMF. Sri Lankas 2001 Budget, which was hailed by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank as the ideal model included provisions to reduce/abolish all subsidies, the reduction of tariffs on imports, the reduction of taxes levied on companies, offer of concessions and incentives to foreigners investing in Sri Lanka, privatization of all state assets, allow foreigners the freedom to buy assets in Sri Lanka without paying the 100% tax levied so far, etc. In short it was a total sale of Sri Lanka to the foreigners to enable them to exploit the country further. It was based on this that the $ 5 billion package of Aid was promised at the Oslo Conference of donors. According to my thinking, Sri Lanka owes a great debt to Ven. Atureliye Ratana for his speech at the 2005 Kandy Conference of Donors questioning the validity of giving Aid with strings resulting in the country getting more indebted.Do Developed Countries follow the Open or Closed Economy?It is also of interest to note that other than the countries that were compelled to follow the Structural Adjustment by the IMF, there are no countries that follow the Open Economy. The USA follows certain policies of the Open economy when it suits them. There is regulation of a high order which is not allowed in Open economy countries. Every petrol pump is checked annually to ensure that it pumps the correct amount of petrol. Regulations are strictly enforced to ensure that no consumers are hoodwinked by errant and profiteering private shops.

California deregulated and privatized its electricity supply companies only to find the companies profiteering unduly and re privatized the utilities that were privatized earlier. In order to save steel manufacturing President Bush clamped a 30% tariff on steel imports. USA pays heavy subsidies to its farmers.In the EU agriculture is heavily subsidized to enable farmers to enjoy high incomes. Japan pays three times the world market price to its rice farmers to maintain food security and to enable its people to be employed. Japan strictly controls imports. France controls imports and all essential utilities are done by State run companies. In Singapore too all essential utilities are run by the State. In fact there are regulations to ensure that sales and movements of residences are limited to the same ethnic community to ensure that like in the case of Colombo, the city is not taken over by ethnic minorities. All these Developed Countries are not following the Open economy. They are closed or open only when it suits their own national interest. The only Developed Country that is near an Open economy is the UK where the privatization of gas, water and electricity has sent prices skyrocketing, where the privatization of the national rail network has ruined the railways. The company to which the rail track was privatized bled the company to death, paying lavish salaries and high dividends, without using technologically advanced safety devices (used in Europe) resulting in rail crashes that took its toll in terms of flesh and blood. The UK reprivatized the rail track but the damage done is difficult to correct. The story of privatization in California and the UK proves that the road of privatization leads to disaster but this is the ruinous path that is imposed on the Third World countries by the IMF. The UKs open policies have meant that manufactures have had to close down. UK was easily, the premier car manufacturing company in the Fifties. Today it does not manufacture a single car. It is said that China and India have embraced the Open Economy. Far from it they like the Developed Countries have opened their economies when it suits their interests. Thus the Open economy has never brought any development to any country.What has to be done?Firstly all our leaders have to realize that the IMFs Structural Adjustment Policy-with its policies of Open Economy, Liberalization, Privatization of Assets, High Interest Rates, Opening the doors to foreign investment etc have not succeeded anywhere. It is only countries like India that have succeeded because they avoided the IMFs Structural Adjustment. India has succeeded in maintaining the value of its Rupee at Rs. 77 to the pound by 2003 from Rs. 15 to the pound in 1983, marking a drop of only 400%. Comparatively Sri Lanka that commenced following the IMF in 1977 has had its Rupee trashed in value from Rs. 15.5 in 1977 to Rs 190 to the pound by 2003 -a drop of 1046%.Our leaders stand mesmerized by the influx of money in loans that will enable them to continue on the supposed development path. This will only lead to further indebtedness.Our leaders have to understand that the IMF policy of deregulating the use of foreign exchange-allowing anyone to do anything with our foreign exchange using it freely and to find funds for this lavish spending spree by privatization and loans is nonsense and will only result in further indebtedness.Following the open economy dictates we have allowed foreigners to come in on tax holidays and make money. They do not pay any tax to Sri Lanka but they have to pay taxes when the profits are taken to their own countries. The open economy has meant that the Western Superpowers use our resources to create wealth for their companies and their people. We have to follow self reliant policies to produce what we need and keep our people employed and retain the wealth within our country. We must not forget that it was only Malaysia that The Ideal Economic Model for Third World Countries:

could emerge from the East Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 and that this was done by doing the opposite of the measures advocated by the IMF. The economies of all the other countries like Thailand were given massive doses of Aid-in billions and kept on track with a temporary reprieve leading to their becoming more indebted later. The IMF used the opportunity to open up their economies more and more for further exploitation by foreign multinationals.The public service needs a rude awakening to get back to work. This is not impossible. It is easier a task than begging for Aid. It is only an efficient public sector that can bring about the economic development of the country. The Public Sector and the Private Sector have to work together and incentives have to be offered by the Public Sector to enable the Private Sector to get moving.Our leaders tend to think that a regulated economy would mean to go back to the problems faced in 1970 to 1977. During that period the development that was brought about in production was marred by the nationalization of private estates over 50 acres in extent and the rental laws-which put off the private sector. The Divisional Development Councils Programme was a success and created employment for 33,000 persons and many new industries were created. These industries should have been developed upon. The government of 1970-1977 had to face massive increases(almost doubled) in the prices of essential foods-flour, sugar and rice and also find funds to meet the price of oil that doubled in the early Seventies. Yet the fact remains that that Government managed to limit the indebtedness of the country to $ 750 million. It also managed to keep the value of the Rupee intact at Rs 15.5 to the pound. The value of the Rupee got trashed only after the IMFs Open Economy policies were followed.Communist Russia and China were Command Economies. Ours in 1970 to 1977 was not a command economy. It was a mixed, regulated economy like what was followed by earlier governments from 1948 to 1970. The only difference was the policies of rental laws and take over of estates over 50 acres in extent.Let us remember that the IMF belongs to all countries and that the remedy lies in making the IMF realizing their mistakes. Professor Joseph Stiglitz the chief economist of the World Bank was forced to leave his job after he told the IMF that their Structural Adjustment policies in Indonesia would only be dousing the fires with gasoline. He was right. The country erupted in flames. The IMF has at some stage to realize its mistakes and change. The only path to development for the debt stricken countries of the Third World is to totally reject the IMFs Open Economy and instead follow a regulated economy like what the USA, France, the UK, Switzerland does. They all have regulations that look after the interests of their countries and their consumers. They all carefully look after the infrastructure for development and offer subsidies to their producers. The IMF got us to dismantle the infrastructure that we had carefully developed because that was the one method of ruining our industries and enabling the Developed Countries to sell their manufactures. If we are to go ahead we have to build up the lost infrastructure to enable our people to become productive, get away from the Open Economy, control our foreign exchange. And this is exactly what Mahatir Muhhamed did to get Malaysia out of the 1997 financial crisis. Sri Lanka earns sufficient foreign exchange to enable it to get cracking on a path to achieve self sufficiency. Luxury spending has to be stopped till the country can afford it. The Private Sector needs to be given a firm assurance that their ventures will not be nationalized. India has decided that foreign multinationals cannot open retail trading. For every hamburger or pizza sold at a KFC, a McDonald or a Pizza Hut, profits flow to the USA. This wealth has to be retained in the country. The Ideal Economic

If Sri Lanka gets down to provide all the necessities of its people there will be employment for all and prosperity. I can recall how the private rice millers rallied to get paddy milled in the Fifties. The Government called for investors (not foreigners) to open up rice mills. Advice was offered as to what mills had to be imported and how the mills should be constructed. The Government promised quotas of rice for milling for which the millers would be paid. I was one of the officers in the thick of this-inspecting and advising. Rice Mills sprang up overnight and we could mill our paddy. That was before 1977. After 1977 when we needed flour milling we contracted with a Singaporean company-Prima and gave it a monopoly. Its profits end up in Singapore. There is little difference between rice milling and milling wheat into flour. Our rice millers have shown that our private sector can stand up and attend to any task.If we continue on the path of accepting further foreign loans and accept the $ 5 billion offered by the Donors we will become further indebted. The Donors want us to step up economic reforms which will only enable foreigners to exploit us more. Then we are going on the path that Somalia took. Once Somalia was a country that had agriculture, dairy farming and industry. The decrepit leaders at first got loans from Russia and then enticed by the USAs loans they changed sides. This increased the debt but because money flowed in easily they gave up agriculture and industry and imported all requirements. When Russia was lost, the USA loans and Aid dried up. The Somalians were then helpless-the country disintegrated into bits. The rich migrated to the Developed Countries as asylum seekers while the poor keep fighting-half dead in malnutrition and poverty. Let Sri Lanka be spared this ordeal. Post your comments-Asian Tribune Garvin Karunaratne : was former Government Agent, Matara District, in Sri Lanka

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග 

ෆ්‍රෙඩ්රික් නීට්ෂේ විසින් 1882 දී  රචිත The Birth of Tragedy ( The Birth of Tragedy, Out of the Spirit of Music (Die Geburt der Tragödie aus dem Geiste der Musik) කෘතිය ග්‍රීක ඛේදවාචකයේ මූලාරම්භය තේරුම් කරයි. එසේම දර්ශනවාදය සහ කලාව තරණය කිරීමට ගත් උත්සාහය ඔහුගේ පළමු කෘතිය  මගින් පෙනී යයි.  එක් ආකාරයකින්  The Birth of Tragedy 5 වැනි සියවසේ ඇතීනියානු ජනතාව සඳහා ඛේදජනක නාට්‍ය නියෝජනය කළේ කුමක් ද යන්න පිළිබඳ න්‍යායකි. නීට්‍ෂේ විශ්වාස කළේ ඛේදවාචකය ඇතීනියානුවන්ට වැදගත් සංස්කෘතික කාර්‍යයක් ඉටු කළ බවය. නීට්‍ෂේට අනුව ඇතීනියානුවන් පරිණත වන්නේ පුද්ගලික වැදගත්කම සහ ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨත්වය පිළිබඳ පැහැදිලි ආදර්ශ ඇති ලෝකයක් සහ ජීවිතයක් පිළිබඳ මිත්‍යාවන් තුළ ය. 

ග්‍රීක මිථ්‍යාවන් මුලින් ප්‍රචාරණය කරන ලද්දේ බොහෝ විට මිනෝවන් සහ මයිසීනියානු ගායකයින් විසිනි. නීට්‍ෂේට අනුව මිථ්‍යාවකින් තොරව සෑම සංස්කෘතියකටම එහි නිර්මාණශීලීත්වයේ සෞඛ්‍ය සම්පන්න බලය අහිමි වේ. මිථ්‍යාවන් මගින් සමස්ත සංස්කෘතික ව්‍යාපාරයක්  පූර්ණ වශයෙන්  ඒකාබද්ධ කරයි. ඔහු පුරාණ මිථ්‍යාවන්හි අර්ථය සහ පදනම සෙවීමට උත්සහ ගත්තේය. මිනිසුන් යථාර්ථය සමඟ සහජීවනයෙන් පවතින මිථ්‍යාවකට ආශා කරයි.  

The Birth of Tragedy සෞන්දර්‍යය පිළිබඳ රචනයකි. මෙම කෘතිය  ඔස්සේ  නීට්ෂේ පුරාණ ග්‍රීක දෙවිවරුන් වන ඇපලෝ සහ ඩයොනිසස් විසින් පුද්ගලාරෝපණය කරන ලද තර්කයේ සහ හැඟීම්වල ද්වන්ධ බලවේග සමරනු ලැබීය.  නීට්ෂේ කලාව තුළ කලාත්මක මාර්ග දෙකක් ඇති බව සොයා ගනී. එනම් ඇපලෝනියන් (Apollonian) සහ ඩයොනිසියන්   (Dionysian) වෙයි. එසේම කලාත්මක නිර්මාණය රඳා පවතින්නේ මෙම ප්‍රතිවිරුද්ධ බලවේග දෙකක් අතරය. 

ඇපලෝනියන් සහ ඩයොනිසියානු ආවේග  පැන නගින්නේ ලෝකය පිළිබඳ මූලික සංජානන දෙකකිනි.  (ඇපලෝනියන් සහ ඩයොනිසියානු යනු  නීට්ෂේ විසින්  කලාවේ ප්‍රතිවිරුද්ධ ආතතීන් දෙකක් දැක්වීමට භාවිතා කරන යෙදුම් වේ). ඇපලෝ  සන්සුන්, තර්කානුකූල සහ ව්‍යුහගත කලා ආකෘතියක් නියෝජනය කරන අතර ඩයොනිසස්,  ගැඹුරු චිත්තවේගීය හා ප්‍රීතිමත් ආවේග නියෝජනය කරයි. නීට්‍ෂේ කෘතිය ආරම්භ කරන්නේ ඩයොනිසස්ගේ බලපෑමට පෙර ග්‍රීක කලාවේ තත්වය රැවටිලිකාර තත්වයක තිබූ බව කියමිනි.   

ඇපලෝනියන්  සහ ඩයොනිසියන්  යනු ග්‍රීක මිථ්‍යා කථා වල  නියෝජනය වන දාර්ශනික සහ සාහිත්‍ය සංකල්ප වේ. ග්‍රීක පුරාවෘත්තවල ඇපලෝ සහ ඩයොනිසස් යන දෙදෙනාම සියුස්ගේ පුත්‍රයෝ වෙති. නීට්ෂේ පවසන පරිදි ඇපලෝනියානු ලෝක දර්ශනය ඩයොනිසියානුවන් හමු වූ විට උපත ලැබීය. ග්‍රීක සම්භාව්‍ය ඛේදවාචකයේ කාච හරහා මිනිස්  ජීවිත අත්දැකීම් පරීක්‍ෂා කිරීම මෙමගින් සිදු කරයි. එසේම ග්‍රීක ආගමික අංග සංස්කෘතික / කලාත්මක අංග බවට පරිණාමය වීම පෙන්වා දෙයි.  මූලිකව පවසන්නේ නම් නීට්ෂේ සම්භාව්‍ය ඇතීනියානු ඛේදවාචකය තුළ අර්ථ විරහිත ලෝකයක අශුභවාදය සහ ශුන්‍යවාදය ඉක්මවා ගිය කලා ආකෘතියක් සොයා ගත්තේය. කෙසේ නමුත් අර්ථ විරහිත පැවැත්මකට අර්ථයක් ලබා දිය හැකි බව නීට්‍ෂේ විශ්වාස කරයි. 

නීට්‍ෂේට අනුව, ඇපලෝනියානු මූලද්‍රව්‍යය ඩයෝනිසියානුව අභිබවා ගිය විට ග්‍රීක කලාව පිරිහී යන්නට විය. ග්‍රීකයන් සහ විශේෂයෙන් ඇතීනියානුවන්, ඇපලෝ සහ අනෙකුත් ඔලිම්පික් දෙවිවරුන් මත පදනම් වූ පොහොසත් ලෝක දැක්මක් ගොඩනඟා ගෙන තිබුණද, ඔවුන් ඩයොනිසස් දෙවියන් තුළ නිරූපණය වන යථාර්ථයේ අඳුරු පැත්ත ගැන බොහෝ දුරට නොදැන සිටි බව නීට්‍ෂේ තර්ක කලේය.  

නීට්ෂේ  පුරාණ ග්‍රීක ඛේදවාචක නාට්‍යවල සෞන්දර්යය ගවේෂණය කළේය.  Apollonian සහ Dionysian යනු ග්‍රීක සංස්කෘතියේ කේන්ද්‍රීය මූලධර්ම දෙක නම් කිරීම සඳහා නීට්ෂේ විසින් The Birth of Tragedy හි භාවිතා කරන යෙදුම් වේ. නීට්ෂේ විශ්වාස කළේ ග්‍රීක ඛේදවාචකයේ බලවේග දෙකම පවතින බවත්, සැබෑ ඛේදවාචකය ඇති කළ හැක්කේ ඔවුන් අතර ආතතියෙන් පමණක් බවත්ය. පිරිසිදු ස්වරූපයක් ඇති කලාව, වඩාත්ම ඇපලෝනියානු කලාවයි.  තාර්කික ව්‍යුහයන් මත පදනම් වූ තාර්කික චින්තනය ද ඇපලෝනියානු ය. ඇපලෝ ආලෝකය, හේතුව, සංහිඳියාව, සමතුලිතතාවය සහ අනාවැකි කීමේ දෙවියා වූ අතර ඩයොනිසස් වයින්, විනෝදය, ප්‍රීතිමත් හැඟීම් සහ ඛේදවාචකයේ දෙවියා විය. සියලු ආකාරයේ උද්‍යෝගය සහ ප්‍රීතිය ඩයොනිසියානු වේ. ප්ලේටෝනවාදය පැහැදිලිවම ඇපලෝනියානු සාරධර්ම වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටියේය.    දෙවිවරුන් දෙදෙනාම සංගීතයේ සහ කලාවේ දිව්‍ය අනුග්‍රාහකයන් වන අතර, ඇපලෝනියානු චිත්‍ර මූර්ති මගින් සංකේතවත් කර ඇති අතර, ඩයොනීසියානු කලාව සංගීතයෙන් හොඳම උදාහරණ වේ.  ඩයොනිසස් වෘක්ෂලතා සහ ඵලදායිතාවයේ ස්වභාවධර්මයේ දෙවියෙකු ලෙසද නමස්කාර කරනු ලැබීය.

ග්‍රීක සංස්කෘතියේ උච්චතම අවස්ථාව උදා වූයේ සොක්‍රටීස් සහ ප්ලේටෝ සමඟ නොව සියවසකට පෙර බව ඔහු කීවේය. නීට්‍ෂේගේ විග්‍රහයේදී ග්‍රීක ඛේදවාචකය උපත ලැබුවේ සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම විරුද්ධ කලාවන් දෙකකිනි. එනම් ඇපොලිනියානු සහ ඩයොනිසියානු ආවේග මතිනි. ඇපොලිනියානු ආවේග  යනු මිත්‍යාවන් නිර්මාණය කිරීමට ඇති ආවේගයයි. ඇපොලිනියානු මූර්ති කලාව තුළ මිනිස් ස්වරූපය කිසිසේත්ම යථාර්ථවාදීව ඉදිරිපත් නොකරයි. ඩයොනීසියානු ආවේගය යනු වඩාත් තීව්‍ර උද්දීපනය හෝ ප්‍රමෝදයේ හැඟීමකි. ඩයොනිසියානු අත්දැකීම තුළ ඇපොලිනියානු ආවේග ඉරී ගොස් ඇත. ඩයෝනිසියානුවා ජයගත් සෑම තැනකම ඇපලෝනියානුවා විනාශ කරන ලදී.

මෙම ඛේදවාචකයේ ඇපොලිනියානු සහ ඩයොනිසියානු අන්තර් ක්‍රියාකාරිත්වන් දක්නට ලැබේ. ඛේදවාචකය ආරම්භ වන්නේ ග්‍රීක සම්භාව්‍ය නාට්‍යකරුවෙකු වූ යුරිපිඩීස් (ක්‍රි.පූ. 480 –  406) සමඟ ය. යුරිපිඩීස්ගේ ඛේදවාචකවලදී සොක්‍රටික් තාර්කිකත්වය සහ සදාචාරය භාවිතා කිරීමට විරුද්ධ වන අතර, ආචාර ධර්ම එහි පදනමේ ඛේදවාචකය සොරකම් කරන බව නීට්ෂේ ප්‍රකාශ කරයි.  නීට්ෂේ යුරිපිඩීස් දකින්නේ කලාවේ මිනීමරුවෙකු ලෙසය. යුරිපිඩීස් ඛේදවාචකය ප්රතිෂ්ඨාපනය කළ නොහැකි ලෙස දූෂිත කළ දුෂ්ටයා බව නීට්‍ෂේ කීවේය. 

ඊස්කිලස් සහ සොෆොක්ලීස්ගේ කාලයෙන් පසු ඛේදවාචකය මිය ගිය යුගයක් තිබුණි. නීට්‍ෂේ මෙය යුරිපිඩීස් වැනි ලේඛකයන්ගේ බලපෑම සහ සොක්‍රටීස් විසින් නියෝජනය කරන තාර්කිකත්වයේ පැමිණීම සමඟ සම්බන්ධ කරයි.  ග්‍රීක ප්‍රේක්‍ෂකයින්, මිනිස් දුක් විඳීමේ අගාධය දෙස බලා එය තහවුරු කරමින්, උද්‍යෝගයෙන් හා ප්‍රීතියෙන් තම පැවැත්මේ අර්ථය තහවුරු කළහ. නීට්ෂේ විශ්වාස කළේ ග්‍රීකයන් අශුභවාදය සමඟ පොරබදමින් සිටි  බවයි. නමුත්  ග්‍රීක ප්‍රේක්‍ෂකයා ඇපලෝනියානු වේදිකාවේ ඛේදවාචකයේ ආරක්‍ෂිත ආත්මය තුළ ඩයොනිසියානුවන්ගේ සෘජු අත්දැකීම් තුළින් නිරෝගී විය. මෙමගින් නීට්ෂේ   තර්ක කළේ දැවැන්ත කුරිරුකම් සහ දුක් වේදනා තිබියදීත් ජීවිතය වටින බවයි.

ඩයොනිසියානු සහ ඇපලෝනියානු සමතුලිතතාවය සොක්‍රටීස් තර්කය කෙතරම් දුරට අවධාරණය කළේද යත් ඔහු මිථ්‍යාවේ සහ දුක් වේදනාවල වටිනාකම මිනිස් දැනුමට බෙදා හැරියේය. නූතන ලෝකය ඇපලෝනියානු සහ ඩයොනිසියානු ද්විකෝටිකයේ ඇති කලාත්මක ආවේගයන් උරුම කර ගත්තේය. ඇපලෝනියන් නොමැතිව, ඩයොනිසියානුවාට සුසංයෝගී කලා කෘතියක් සෑදීමට ආකෘතියක් සහ ව්‍යුහයක් නොමැති බවත්, ඩයොනිසියානුවන් නොමැතිව ඇපලෝනියානුවාට අවශ්‍ය ජීව ශක්තිය හා ආශාව නොමැති බවත් නීට්ෂේ  සඳහන් කරයි. ග්‍රීක ඛේදවාචකයේ අග්‍ර එලය නියෝජනය කළේ කලාවක් ලෙස එකට එකතු වූ මෙම බලවේග දෙකේ සාරවත් අන්තර් ක්‍රියාකාරිත්වය පමණි.   නීට්ෂේ  ගේ නිර්ණායකයන් අනුව අපගේ පැවැත්ම තීරණය කරනු ලබන්නේ ඩයොනිසියානු/ඇපොලෝනියානු අපෝහකය මගිනි. 

ග්‍රීක ඛේදවාචකය සහ නූතන ජීවිතයේ ඛේදවාචකය අතර සමානකම් දැක්වීමට ඔහු උත්සුක විය. මෙම කෘතියේදී නීට්‍ෂේ බොහෝ ස්ථාන වලදී ෂොපෙන්හෝවර් උපුටා දක්වයි. (මුල් අවදියේදී, නීට්‍ෂේ හේගල්, කාන්ට් සහ ෂොපෙන්හෝවර් වැනි චින්තකයින් ගෙන් ආභාෂය ලැබූ අතර පසුව ඔහු මෙම චින්තකයින් හෙළා දුටුවේය). එසේම කලාව ගැන කතා කිරීමට හේගලියානු අදහස් භාවිතා කරයි.  රිචඩ් වැග්නර්ගේ ඔපෙරා හරහා ඇපලෝනියානු-ඩයෝනිසියානු සංගමය පුනර්ජීවනය කිරීමට ඔහු උත්සුක වෙයි. (රිචඩ් වැග්නර් යුදෙව් විරෝධියෙකු විය). නීට්ෂේ වැග්නේරියානු බලපෑමට ද යටත් විය. බොහෝ සමකාලීන ඔපෙරා මෙන් නොව, මිනිස් කැමැත්තේ ගැඹුරුම ආශාවන් ප්‍රකාශ කරන සංගීතය නිර්මාණය කළ පළමු නූතන නිර්මාපකයා වන රිචඩ් වැග්නර්ගේ දක්‍ෂතාවන් නීට්‍ෂේ අගයයි. නීට්‍ෂේට අනුව, ඩයොනිසියානු භාෂාව සංගීතය හා නැටුම් සමඟ සම්බන්ධ වී ඇත. එය වැග්නර් යළි සොයා ගත්තේය. එසේම වැග්නර්, නීට්ෂේ ඔහුගේ සංගීත විප්ලවය සැකසීමට සහ ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමට ප්‍රයෝජනවත් විය හැකි දක්ෂ ශාස්ත්‍රාලිකයෙකු ලෙස පිළිගත්තේය.

නීට්‍ෂේ තර්ක කරන්නේ ග්‍රීක ඛේදවාචකය ඇති වූයේ ඔහු ඇපලෝනියානු සහ ඩයොනිසියානු මූලද්‍රව්‍ය අතර සිදුවූ අන්තර් ක්‍රියාව මගිනි. එසේම සැබෑ කලාව නිර්මාණය වන්නේ ඇපලෝ සහ ඩයොනිසස්ගේ එකමුතුවෙන් පමණක් බව නීට්‍ෂේ අවධාරණය කරයි. ඩයොනිසස්ගේ බලපෑමට පෙර ග්‍රීක කලාව බොළඳ බව ඔහු කීවේය. එසේම මෙම කලා සංකල්පය තුළ, නිරීක්‍ෂකයා කිසි විටෙකත් කලාව සමඟ සැබවින්ම ඒකාබද්ධ වූයේ නැත. ඉන්පසුව ඩයෝනිසස් පැමිණියේය. ඩයෝනිසස් ඇපලෝනියානු මිනිසා කම්පනයට පත් කළේය. ඩයොනිසස්හිදී, මිනිසා තම පැවැත්ම ඔහුගේ තනි පුද්ගල අත්දැකීම් වලට පමණක් සීමා නොවන බව සොයා ගනියි. එමගින් සියලු මිනිසුන්ගේ ඉරණමෙන් මිදීමට මාර්ගයක් සොයා ගන්නා ලදී, එනම් මරණයයි. 

පුරාණ  ග්‍රීකයන්   “ඩයොනිසස්” මිනිසාට වයින් ලබා දුන් දෙවියා ලෙසට ප්‍රශංසා කළහ. කෙසේ වෙතත්, ඔහුව හැඳින්වූයේ මිනිසා පිස්සු වට්ටන සහ ම්ලේච්ඡත්වයට සහ රුධිරයට පවා තෘෂ්ණාවට පවා පොළඹවන රාගික දෙවියා ලෙසය.  ඩයොනිසස්ගේ උපත පිළිබඳ මිථ්‍යාව – දුක් වේදනා සහ මරණය ඔහුට “දුක් විඳින සහ මිය යන දෙවියන්” යන විරුදාවලිය ලබා දුන්නේය.

නීට්‍ෂේ, ඩයොනිසස් දෙවියන්ගේ  අනුවාදය වර්ධනය කරන්නේ මිනිස් පැවැත්මේ පදනම වන දුක් වේදනා, ඛේදවාචකය සහ ප්‍රාථමික අවුල් සහගත තත්ත්වයන්ට හඬක් දෙන දෙවියෙකු ලෙස ය.  ඔහු මෙසේ ප්‍රකාශ කලේය; ” කුරුසියේ සිටින දෙවියන් ජීවිතයට ශාපයකි, ජීවිතයෙන් මිදීම සඳහා මඟ පෙන්වන්නෙකි ; කැබලිවලට කපා දැමූ ඩයොනිසස් ජීවිතයේ පොරොන්දුවකි: එය සදාකාලිකව නැවත ඉපදී විනාශයෙන් නැවත පැමිණෙනු ඇත. ඩයොනිසස් විසින් නිර්මාණය කරන ලද අසාමාන්‍ය  වියරුවකින් තොරව, මිනිසා සම්පූර්ණ නොවනු ඇත”.  

ඩයොනිසියානු සාරය සදාකාලික වන බැවින්, මෙම සාරය සමඟ සම්බන්ධ වන කෙනෙකුට ජීවිතයේ හා බලාපොරොත්තුවේ නව මූලාශ්‍රයක් සොයා ගත හැක. ඩයොනිසස් ක්‍රිස්තියානි ධර්මය විසින් පිරිනමනු ලබන ගැලවීම සඳහා උසස් විකල්පයක් වන අතර එමඟින් මිනිසා පෘථිවියේ ජීවිතය සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම අත්හැර ස්වර්ගය කෙරෙහි පමණක් අවධානය යොමු කළ යුතුය. මක්නිසාද යත්, ඩයොනිසස් හරහා ගැලවීම ලබා ගැනීම සඳහා, යමෙකු වර්තමාන ජීවිතය අතහැරිය යුතුය. කෙසේ වෙතත්, මිනිසාට ගැලවීම සොයාගත හැක්කේ ඩයොනිසස් තුළ පමණක් වන අතර, ඔහුගේ පෙනුම තුළින් ඩයොනිසස්ගේ සාරය හෙළි කිරීමට ඇපලෝට අවශ්‍ය වේ. ඔවුන් තුළින් මිනිසාට ලෞකික දුක්ඛිත දුක්වලින් මිදීමේ සතුට අත්විඳීමට හැකි විය.  නීට්ෂේ තර්ක කරන්නේ ඩයෝනිසියානු න්‍යාය ගැලවීමේ ආගමික ආකෘතියට ශුභවාදී විකල්පයක් ලෙස ක්‍රියා කරන බවයි.  නීට්‍ෂේ අවධාරනය කරන්නේ සැබෑ ඛේදවාචක කලාව තුළ ඩයොනිසස් සහ ඇපලෝ යන අංගයන් වෙන් කළ නොහැකි ලෙස බැඳී ඇති බවයි. ඩයොනිසියානු සාරයේ ගැඹුරට ගැඹුරට යාමට සංගීතය භාෂාවක් වෙයි. මේ නිසා සංගීතය අනෙකුත් සියලුම කලාවන්ට වඩා උසස් වන්නේය.

නීට්‍ෂේ කියන පරිදි අඳුරුතම විශ්වීය යථාර්ථයන් විසින් පාලනය කරනු ලැබීම සහ මිථ්‍යාවන්ගේ සිහින ලෝකයක ජීවිතය ගත කිරීම මිනිස් ඉරණමයි. පුරාණ ග්‍රීසියේ මිනිසුන් අසාමාන්‍ය ලෙස සංවේදී සහ දුක් වේදනාවලට ගොදුරු වූ බවත්, ඔවුන් දුක් විඳීම වැළැක්වීම සඳහා ඔවුන්ගේ ස්වභාවයේ ඇපලෝනියානු අංගය ඉදිරිපත් කල බවත් නීට්‍ෂේ යෝජනා කරයි.  ග්‍රීක කලාවේ මුල්, ඩොරික් යුගය අඳුරු සහ ප්‍රමුඛ වේ, මන්ද ඇපලෝනියානු බලපෑම ඩයොනිසියානුවන්ට වඩා බෙහෙවින් වැඩි ය.  ග්‍රීක නාට්‍යයේ වීරයාගේ මරණය සෘණාත්මක, විනාශකාරී ක්‍රියාවක් නොව කලාව තුළින් ජීවිතය පිළිබඳ ධනාත්මක, නිර්මාණාත්මක තහවුරු කිරීමකි. අවාසනාවකට, ග්‍රීක ඛේදවාචකයේ ස්වර්ණමය යුගය සියවසකටත් අඩු කාලයක් පැවති අතර යුරිපිඩීස් සහ සොක්‍රටීස්ගේ ඒකාබද්ධ බලපෑමෙන් එය අවසන් විය. සොක්‍රටීස් කලාවට විරුද්ධ විය. සොක්‍රටීස් සහජ බුද්ධිය (intuition) සහ විඥානය (consciousness) අතර සම්බන්ධය හරවා යැවූ බව නීට්ෂේ ප්‍රකාශ කරයි. 

සෑම දෙයක්ම සාධාරණීකරණය කිරීමට හේතු තිබිය යුතු බව අවධාරනය කරමින් සොක්‍රටීස් බටහිර තාර්කිකත්වය ඵලදායී ලෙස නිර්මාණය කළේය. ඔහු සහජ බුද්ධිය තීක්‍ෂ්ණ බුද්ධියේ ඌනතාවයක් ලෙසත් වැරදි ක්‍රියාව දැනුමේ ඌනතාවයක් ලෙසත් අර්ථ දැක්වීය. ලෝකය දැනගත හැකි සහ සියලු සත්‍යයන් යුක්ති සහගත බව පෙන්වීමෙන් සොක්‍රටීස් විද්‍යාත්මක ලෝක දෘෂ්ටිය බිහි කළේය. සොක්‍රටීස්ගේ බලපෑම යටතේ ග්‍රීක ඛේදවාචකය තාර්කික සංවාදයක් බවට පරිවර්තනය කරන ලද අතර එය ප්ලේටෝගේ සංවාද තුළ එහි සම්පූර්ණ ප්‍රකාශනය සොයා ගනී. (ප්ලේටෝ  පවසන්නේ මිනිසුන් ජීවත් වන්නේ සිහිනයේ පමණක් බවයි; අවදියෙන් සිටීමට උත්සාහ කරන්නේ දාර්ශනිකයා පමණි ). එහෙත් නීට්‍ෂේ පැවසුවේ ග්‍රීක ඛේදවාචකය සොක්‍රටීස් වැනි චින්තකයින්ගේ තාර්කිකත්වය සහ ශුභවාදී බව නිසා විනාශ වී තිබුණු බවයි. නීට්ෂේ ග්‍රීක ඛේදවාචකයේ මරණය සම්බන්ධයෙන් සොක්‍රටීස්ට දොස් පැවරීය. (කෙසේ නමුත්  සොක්‍රටීස් යනු “න්‍යායික මිනිසාගේ” පියා ය).  

නීට්‍ෂේගේ අදහස් වල වඩාත්ම අභියෝගාත්මක අංගය වන්නේ දර්ශනය පිළිබඳ සංකල්පයයි. නීට්‍ෂේගේ පළමු පොත  ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කරන විට ඔහුට වයස අවුරුදු 28 කි. එවකට ඔහු බාසල් හි සම්භාව්‍ය භාෂා විද්‍යාව පිළිබඳ මහාචාර්‍යවරයෙකු විය. මෙම පොත නිසා  ශාස්ත්‍රීය ප්‍රජාව තුළ සතුරු පිළිගැනීමක් නීට්‍ෂේ කෙරෙහි ඇති   විය . බාසල් විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයේ ශාස්ත්‍රීය භාෂා විද්‍යාව පිළිබඳ මහාචාර්‍යවරයකු වූ නීට්‍ෂේට ඔහුගේ ක්‍ෂේත්‍රයේ සිසුන් සිටියේ නැත. ඔහුගේ දේශන ජර්මානු දාර්ශනික මහාචාර්‍යවරුන් විසින් කඩාකප්පල් කරන ලද අතර ඔවුන් තම සිසුන්ට නීට්‍ෂේගේ පාඨමාලා සඳහා නොපැමිණෙන ලෙස උපදෙස් දුන්නෝය.

ඇතැම් විද්වතුන් පවසන්නේ මෙම කෘතිය නීට්‍ෂේගේ සමස්ත ශාස්ත්‍රීය ජීවිතයම අවුල් කළ බවය. කෙසේ නමුත් පසුකාලීනව මෙම කෘතිය ලේඛකයෙකු සහ දාර්ශනිකයෙකු ලෙස ඔහුගේ වර්ධනයේ වැදගත් සංධිස්ථානයක් පෙන්වීය. ඔහුගේ ඛේදවාචකයේ උපත සුවිශේෂී සම්භාව්‍ය නිබන්ධනයක් ලෙස සැලකෙන්නේ දශක කිහිපයකට පසුවය. (නීට්‍ෂේ අවසානයේ තමා “ඛේදනීය දාර්ශනිකයෙකු” ලෙස හඳුන්වා ගත්තේය). මෙම කෘතිය බටහිර චින්තනයේ ඉතිහාසය කෙරෙහි, විශේෂයෙන් ග්‍රීක සංස්කෘතියේ අර්ථ නිරූපණය කෙරෙහි ඉතා වැදගත් බලපෑමක් ඇති කළේය මෙම කෘතිය සෞන්දර්‍ය ඉතිහාසයේ සම්භාව්‍ය කෘතියක් ලෙස පවතී. බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය දාර්ශනික ෆ්‍රැන්සිස් කොන්ෆෝඩ් කියන පරිදි ෆ්‍රෙඩ්රික් නීට්ෂේ විසින් රචිත The Birth of Tragedy යනු ගැඹුරු පරිකල්පනීය තීක්ෂ්ණ බුද්ධියේ කෘතියකි.

References

Allison, D.(2001). Reading the New Nietzsche: The Birth of Tragedy, The Gay Science, Thus Spoke Zarathustra and On the Genealogy of Morals. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. “The Birth of Tragedy.” In Basic Writings of Nietzsche, edited and translated by Walter Kaufmann, 1-144. New York: The Modern Library, 2000.

Geuss, R.(2012). “Nietzsche: The Birth of Tragedy.” In Introductions to Nietzsche, edited by Robert Pippin, 44-66. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

George, D.R. (2013). ‘Shooting at the sun god Apollo’: the Apollonian-Dionysian balance of the TimeSlips Storytelling Project.J Med Humanit. :399-403. doi: 10.1007/s10912-013-9232-x.  

Dilrook Kannangara

Easter Sunday terrorist attack must be investigated and all involved must be punished.

Due to the absence of a credible investigation and justice, various conspiracy theories have emerged. That is natural and the only way to silence them is through justice.

The allegation that the Easter Sunday terrorist attack was carried out with the full concurrence of an intelligence officer who was in turn connected to a political clan simply falls into pieces when considering the fate of Fatima Ibrahim – the wife of one of the suicide bombers.

She too had a suicide vest and did not plan to blast bombs anywhere. Instead, she used it to kill herself, the fetus she was carrying and her other two children. It was done to avoid capture. Several policemen also died in the suicide bomb attack.

Therefore, the plot doesn’t seem to be a political one. Instead, it is very clear the plot was a religious one. Adherents to that extreme version of a religion are in tens of thousands in the island and their numbers are growing very fast.

Justice to victims is the only way the island nation can be saved from a repeat massacre. Not political and tribal bickering.

by A. Abdul Aziz Press Secretary, Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at – Sri Lanka.

 “The Founder of every religion has taught its followers to love one another and so we should adopt this teaching” – Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad

On 5 September 2023, the World Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, the Fifth Khalifa (Caliph), His Holiness, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad delivered the keynote address at a special reception held to commemorate the opening of the Nasir Mosque in Waiblingen, Germany.

His Holiness officially inaugurated the Mosque prior to the reception by unveiling a commemorative plaque and offering a silent prayer in thanks to God Almighty.

Thereafter, His Holiness led the Zuhr (post noon) and Asr (evening) prayers at the Mosque and inspected the new premises before planting a tree outside the mosque.

Later, more than 110 guests, including dignitaries, politicians and local neighbours of the Mosque attended a special reception held in the Waiblingen Town Hall.

During his keynote address, His Holiness spoke of the way Mosques serve the purpose of creating a peaceful and harmonious society.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

“A Mosque is the place where men, women and children come together to take part in programmes and events which are not only beneficial for their moral and spiritual training, rather, they even draw their attention and encourage them towards excelling in secular education. They are encouraged to ensure that they follow the laws of the land and are good citizens and they are informed of the importance of taking care of their neighbours. Alongside the worship of God, these are the qualities that are taught to those who come to the mosque.”

His Holiness also spoke of the way Islam emphasises the equality of all people.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

“The fact that we have people of different races and ethnicities is all for the purpose of one’s identity. The Holy Quran states that the nations and people of different races are there in order to help you to recognise each other. Otherwise, you are all one in essence and so, being one human race, you should understand your value. Once you understand this value as a human being, many of the problems of society will die away.”      

Referring to the problems the world faces in this day and age, His Holiness mentioned that much of the suffering is a result of people’s actions.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

“Many of the problems we see are a result of our own actions which are creating disorder in the world. The reason for this is that we are forgetting our Creator and moving away from religion. If we recognise this and pay attention towards the true teaching of religion then we will realise that no religion teaches their followers to create disorder and usurp the rights of other people, be it Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism or any other faith. The Founder of every religion has taught its followers to love one another and so we should adopt this teaching.”

His Holiness also spoke of the way Islam emphasises the value of education in creating a peaceful society.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

“Our Prophet, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) has drawn our attention towards the pursuit of education with such emphasis that he said that a person should seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave. You should seek to increase your knowledge because by attaining greater knowledge you broaden your understanding and enlighten your mind and it enables you adopt

His Holiness clarified the Islamic stance on women’s education and referred to the saying of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) in which he said that a person who has three daughters and educates them well and gives them opportunities to

Prior to the address, the National President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Germany, Abdullah Wagishauser, introduced the Mosque, after which Mr Lorek, state secretary in the Baden-Wurttemberg Ministry, Mrs Haffner, Member of Provincial Assembly, Mr Zaar, First District Officer and Mr Paulowitsch, Mayor of Kernen spoke about their appreciation of the Mosque and the efforts of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community for the local community.

Source: Press Ahmadiyya

Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena

Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena discussed the possibility of early resumption of the Lower Malwathuoya hydro-solar-electricity-irrigation project as a Public-Private-Partnership Project with foreign investments.

The Chinese investors who built the Yan Oya Dam called on the Prime Minister at the Temple Trees today (September 11) to discuss the Prime Minister’s proposal to install solar panels on Yan Oya resorvir as well as the proposed Malwathu Oya reservoir to generate 100 megawatt electricity and irrigate 22,000 hectares of land in Anuradhapura and Trincoamelee districts.

The Chinse investment team headed by Senior Business Manager Andrew Yang said Yan Oya reservoir could be used as a mega solar power generation platform by installing floating solar panels. Such a project could generate electricity for the national grid and also earn funds for completion of the Lower Malwathuoya Project.

The proposed project cost will be US$ 160 million and in the first phase, floating solar panels will be placed on Yan Oya reservoir and generate 50 megawatt electricity that could be sold to the national grid. Once the Malwathu Oya reservoir is completed in two years solar panels could be installed to adder another 50 megawatts. In addition to that Malawathuoya mini hydro system will generate 1,6 megawatts.Former Minister S M Chandrasena said the first survey and feasibility study for Lower Malwathuoya Project was done more than a decade ago when he was Deputy Minister of irrigation. He thanked the Prime Minister for the steps taken to resume the project that would irrigate land in Anuradhapura and Trincomalee districts to boost rice and cash crop production. The Chinese investors would 

චානක බණ්ඩාරගේ

යුද්ධය අවසානයේ චැනල් 4 විශාල බොරු තොගයක් ඇද බෑය. ශ්‍රී ලංකා හමුදාව තරම් මානව හිතවාදීව යුද්ධ කල තවත් යුද හමුදාවක් මෑත අතීතයේ ලොව කොහේවත් නොවීය. නමුත් අපේ රණවිරුවන් අහිංසක දෙමළ වැසියන් 40,000 යුද්ධය අවසාන සමයේ කෲර ලෙස මරා දමනු ලැබිය යන බොරු බේගලය ලොව පුරා ව්‍යාප්ත කර හැරීමට මුළීක වුයේ චැනල් 4 නාලිකාවයි (ඒ සංඛ්‍යාව 70,000ක් යයි පසුව සුමන්තිරන් පාරම් බෑය).

ඒ වෙනුවෙන් චැනල් 4 වාර්ථා වැඩසටහන් කිහිපයක් ප්‍රචාරණය කළහ. ඒවා බොරු බව දේශප්‍රේමින් කිහිප දෙනෙක් උදාහරණ ගෙන හැර පාමීන් ලිපි ආදිය මඟින් කරුණු පැහැදිලි කළහ. නමුත් බටහිර ලෝකයේ බොහෝ දෙනෙක් අදත් විශ්වාස කරන්නේ එම චැනල් 4 බොරු වැඩසටහන් ඇත්ත කියාය  – ශ්‍රී ලංකාව විසින් අහිංසක දෙමළ වැසියන් 40,000ක් මරා දැමීය කියාය.

මෙයට ප්‍රධාන හේතුව එවකට තිබු රජයේ උකටලී භාවයයි. චැනල් 4ට එරෙහිව තදින්ම ජාත්‍යන්තරයට සත්‍යය හෙළිදරව් කිරීම, නිතී මඟින් බ්‍රිතාන්‍යයේ ඔවුනට එරෙහිව නඩු පවරා ජය ගනු වෙනුවට එවකට තිබු රජය ඔවුනට ඔනෑම බොරුවක් කීමට ඉඩ සලසා බලා සිටියහ. කොටින්ම 2013 වසරේ පැවතී ශෝගම් සමුළුවට සහභාගී වීම සඳහා චැනල් 4 මාධ්‍යවේදීන්ට ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට පැමිණීමට විසා නිකුත් කිරීමට තරම් එවකට වූ රජය දීන විය.

චැනල් 4 කලේ දැවැන්ත බොරුවක් බව සෙසු ලෝකය කෙසේ වෙතත් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ වාසය කරන අප හොඳටම දනිමු. චැනල් 4 හරි යයි කියන මාධ්‍යවේදීන් බොහෝ දෙනෙක්ද මෙහි වෙත්, විශේෂයෙන්ම සමාජ  මාධ්‍යවේදීන්.  

LTTE සමඟ පවා ‘ඩීල්’ දැමු ප්‍රබල දේශපාලනඥයන් සිටින මේ රටේ පෞද්ගලික ලාභ ප්‍රයෝජන සහ රටට ද්‍රෝහී වීම සඳහා වැඩ කරන අය සිටීම අප රටේ අවාසනාවකි.  ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ජාත්‍යාන්තරය හමුවේ ‘කුජීත’ වනු දැකීමට කැමති ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයෝ වෙත්.

සමාජමාධ්‍ය ක්‍රියාකාරීන් නිසා (විශේෂයෙන්ම යු ටියුබ්) රටට අනාදරය කරන සංඛ්‍යාව බෙහවින් ඉහළ යමින් සිටී. දරුවන්, තරුණ පෙළ රටට විරසකව සිතීමට පෙලභීම/ඉගැන්වීම ඉතා කණගාටුවට කරුණකි. අප හැදෙන කාලයේ අපට පාසැලෙන් සහ නිවසින් උගන්වනු ලැබුවේ ජාත්‍යානුරාග දේ පමණි. අප අද  දේශප්‍රේමින්ව ජීවත් වන්නේ ඒ නිසාය.

දැන් සමාජ මාධ්‍ය අපේ ගරුතර මහා සංඝරත්නය හඳුන්වන්නේ ‘යෙලෝ පෙට්ස් හෝ පෙස්ට්ස්’ යන නම් වලිනි. ඉදින් අනාගත දරුවන් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ බුදු සසුණ නොරකිවී කියා සිතීම වැරදි නොවේ.

නවතම චැනල් 4 බොරුව (සැප්තැම්බර් 2023) මේ අය ඉතා තදින් ප්‍රචලිත කරත්. 

එක් වරක් දැවැන්ත බොරු ඇද බා අසුවූ පසු සාධාරණ ලෙස සිතන අය කරන්නේ එවැනි බොරු කාරයන්ව මුලුමනින්ම ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කිරීමයි. ඔවුන් කියන දෙයක් කිසි ලෙසකින් විශ්වාස නොකිරීමයි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව පිළිබඳව කලින් බොරු කිවූ චැනල් 4 නාළිකාව අප රට ගැන තවත් බොරු වීඩියෝවක් ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට යන බව දැන ගත් කල්හිම (ඔවුන්ගේ පුර්ව වැඩසටහනක් ප්‍රචාරය කෙරිණි)  චැනල් 4හි නරක විශ්වාසනීයත්වය (bad credibility) පිළිබඳව අප විසින් ජාත්‍යාන්තරය දැනුවත් කළ යුතුව තිබුණි. චැනල් 4 වාර්ථා වැඩසටහන ප්‍රචාරය කරන දින දේශප්‍රේමි සංවිධානයක් විසින් බ්‍රිතාන්‍යයේ ප්‍රධාන පුවත්පතක චැනල් 4 නිරුවත හෙළිදරව් කරන සම්පුර්ණ පිටුවක (වෙළඳ) දන්වීමක් ප්‍රචාරය කළ යුතුව තිබුණි.  ද්‍රවිඩ ඩයස්පෝරා වැඩ කරන්නේ ඒ ලෙසිණි.

එවිට ඔවුන් බියවේ.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව පිළිබඳව ඕනෑම බොරුවක් ප්‍රචාරය කිරීමට චැනල් 4 බිය නැත. මන්ද, අප රජයන් කටයුතු කරන්නේ දත් රහිත කොටින් ලෙස බව ඔවුන් දන්නා හෙයිනි.

මෙම චැනල් 4 නවතම වීඩියෝව භාවිතා කර අප පිළිබඳව ලොව සනිටුහන් වී ඇති නරක විශ්වාසනීයත්වය හරි මඟට දමා ගැනීමට දැන්වත් අප කටයුතු කල යුතුයි. මේ සඳහා රජය (විදේශ අමාත්‍යාංශය) සහ දේශප්‍රේමින් කැපවීමෙන් වැඩ කළයුතුයි.  

චැනල් 4 යනු ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ එක් ප්‍රසිද්ධ දේශපාලන පවුලකට පහර ගැසීමට සැදී පැහැදී සිටින රුපවාහිනි නාලිකාවක් යයි කීම අසත්‍යයකි. චැනල් 4 වැඩ කරන්නේ දෙමළ බෙදුම්වාදයට ඉඩ දීමටය.

මේ නවතම වීඩියෝවෙන්ද ඔවුන් පහර දෙන්නේ රටේ වැඩිතරය වූ  සිංහල බෞද්ධයාටය. පාස්කු ඝාතන පිලිබඳ ව ඔවුනගේ වීඩියෝවෙන් 1983 දෙමළ ‘කළු’ ජුලීය, යුද්ධය අවසන් කාලයේ ද්‍රවිඩයන් සමුලඝාතනය පිලිබඳව ඉතා දැඩිව උලුප්පවා කරුණු දක්වයි. මේ පසුගිය සිද්ධීන්/ලසන්ත ඝාතනය පාස්කු ඝාතනයට සම්බන්ධ කිරීමට මොවුන් දරන අධික වෑයමෙන්ම  ඔවුන්ගේ ද්වේශසහගත බව විද්‍යාමාන වේ.

ද්‍රවිඩයනට මේ රටේ අසාධාරණ   සිදුවේය, ඒ නිසා ඔවුනට ඊළම ලබා දිය යුතුය යන ද්‍රවිඩ ඩයස්පෝරාවේ හඬයි චැනල් 4 නියෝජනය කරනුයේ.

අසාඩ් මව්ලානා නමැති කිසිදු විශ්වාසනීයත්වයක් නොමැති අයෙක් යොදවා පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරය ගැන වෙන කිසිදා නොනැගු කථාවක් චැනල් 4 එම ඛේධවාචකයෙන් වසර 4 1/2 ට පසු දැන් ගෙන හැර පායි. චැනල් 4 පාස්කු වාර්ථා වැඩසටහන මුළුමනින්ම ගොඩ නැගී ඇත්තේ අසාඩ් මවුලානා චැනල් 4 ඉදිරියේ (ඔහුගේ ප්‍රථම වරට) කරන පාපෝච්චාරණය මතය.

අසාඩ් මව්ලානා යනු පිල්ළේයාන්ගේ දීර්ඝ, ඉතාම කිට්ටු  සහචරයෙක් බව චැනල් 4 පැවසුවත්, පිල්ළේයාන් යනු අති දරුණු LTTE ත්‍රස්තවාදියෙක්ව සිටී බව චැනල් 4 තම ප්‍රේක්ෂකයන්ගෙන් සඟවයි. චැනල් 4 පුන පුනා පවසන්නේ පිල්ළේයාන් යනු ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ පිළිගත් දේශපාලනඥයෙක් බවයි. ඔහු ද්‍රවිඩ බවක්ද නොකියයි.  

අසාඩ් මව්ලානා වැන්නෙක් දැන් ඔවුන් ඉදිරියට පැමිණ ලබා දෙන සාක්ෂිය ලොව පිළිගත යුත්තේ මන්දැයි චැනල් 4 කියා නොසිටීයි. යුරෝපීය මානව හිමිකම් සංවිධානයකට දිවුරුම් ප්‍රකාශයක් දුන් පමණින් අසාඩ් මව්ලානාගේ ‘සාක්ෂ්‍යය’ සත්‍යය එකක් වන්නේ කෙසේද?

ඒ රටවල සරණාගතභාවය ලබා ගැනීම/මුදල් සඳහා මිනිසුන් ඔනෑම බොරුවක් කියන බව චැනල් 4 දන්නා කරුණකි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ උසස් රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරියෙකු කියා, මුහුණ නොපෙන්වා, යමෙක් වෙනස් කල කටහඬකින් ඉංග්‍රීසි බසින් පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරය ගැන (බොරු) පවසයි. මේ අයුරින් වාර්ථා චිත්‍රපට නිපදවීමට ඔනෑම කෙනෙකුට පුළුවන.

චැනල් 4 දැනුවත්ව කරන මේ අසත්‍ය ප්‍රචාරය  සහ ඒවා ලොව පුරා ඉමහත් ලෙස ප්‍රචාරය වීම පිළිබඳව රටට සැබවින්ම ආදරය කරන සැබෑ දේශප්‍රේමින් ශෝක /ලැජ්ජා වෙද්දී, අපේම සමහර ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයෝ සිටින්නේ ඒ ගැන  මහත් ඉහළ සතුටකිනි.  

පාස්කු ඛේධවාචකය ගැන සත්‍ය හෙළිදරව් කරගැනීම අත්‍යාවශ්‍යය. දැනටද බොහෝ දෙනෙක් අත්අඩංගුවේ පසුවේ. කාදිනල් තුමා පවසන්ණේ ජාත්‍යාන්තර මැදිහත් වීමක් මඟින් නව විමර්ශනයක් සිදු විය යුතු බවයි. එය පිළිගත හැකි ඉල්ලීමකි. නව විමර්ශනය මඟින් චැනල් 4 බොරුව හෙළි වුවහොත් රජය නිතී මඟින් චැනල් 4ට එරෙහිව කටයුතු කිරීමට පියවර ගත යුතුය.  

පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරය ජාත්‍යාන්තරකුමන්ත්‍රණයක් යයි හිටපු නිතීපති වරයා සිය සේවා කාලයේ අවසාන භාගයේ කිවා මතකය. ඔහු තරම් පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරය ගැන කරුණු දන්නා වෙනත් කෙනෙක් එකළ නොසිටියා විය හැක. නව විමර්ශනයට බඳුන් විය යුත්තේ මේවායි. ඔහුගෙන් දැනට කට උත්තරයක් ලබා ගෙන නොතිබේ?

සහරාන්ගේ බිරිඳ අදත් ජීවතුන් අතර සිටී, ඇය බොහෝ දේ දනු ඇත. නව විමර්ශනය ඉදිරියට ඇය කැඳ විය යුතුයි.

සාරා ජැස්මින් ඇත්තටම මැරීද?  නැතහොත් අදත් ජීවතුන් අතර ඉන්දියාවේද? එසේනම් ඉන්දියාව සමඟ සාකච්චා කර ඇයගෙන් මුළීක කටඋත්තරයක් ගැනීමට කටයුතු කල යුතුය.

පාස්කු සිද්ධියෙන් පසු ජාත්‍යාන්තර ISIS සංවිධානය එය තමන් විසින් මෙහෙයවන ලද්දක් බව (නැසීගිය අල් බග් ඩාඩි නායකයා) පවසන ලදී. එහි සත්‍යයක් තිබේද? ඒ පිළිබඳව සම්පුර්ණ විමර්ශනයක් කළේද?

2019 පාස්කු ඉරිදා රාත්‍රියේ කාත්තන්කුඩි හෝ ඒ අවට තරු පන්තියේ හෝටලයක රටේ ප්‍රසිද්ධ මුස්ලිම් දේශපාලනඥයෙක් සමඟ කථා බස් කර එදාම රටින් (රහසිගතව?) පිටව ගිය දිග ලෝගු හැඳි ඒ මැද පෙරදිග ජාතිකයන් කවුද? මේ ගැන කිසිවෙක් කථා නොකරන්නේ ඇයි?

මේ දේශපාලනඥයා නිදොස් කොට නිදහස්ද?

පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරයට පෙර කෝටි ගණන් විදෙස් මුදල් නැගෙනහිර මුස්ලිම් ප්‍රදේශ සංවර්ධනයට මැද පෙරදිග විදෙස් රටකින් ලබා දුණි. එහි නායකයන් පවා පුද්ගලික ගුවන් යානා මඟින් මේ ප්‍රදේශයට නිතර නිතර පැමිණ ගිය බව එකළ ආරංචි විය.

නැගෙනහිර ශරියා විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයක් ඉදිකිරීම, එහි පාරවල දෙපස රට ඉඳි ගස් පවා වැවීමට ඉඩ දුන් මැදපෙරදිග ධනවත් කණ්ඩායම් වෙත්.

අද, පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරයෙන් පසු එවැනි කිසිදු වැඩක් නැගෙනහිර සිදු නොවේ. එකවර, ඒ මන්ද?

මේ රටේ එකතරා භික්ෂුවක් විසින් මුස්ලිමානුවන්ට විරුද්ධව දැඩි වාග් ප්‍රහාර එල්ල කල බව අප දන්නා සත්‍යයකි.   

ඒවා නිසාද අලුත්ගම, ගිංතොට, දිගන, පුජාපිටිය වැනි ප්‍රදේශවළ අහිංසක මුස්ලිමානුවනට නොකඩවා ජාති වාදී ප්‍රහාර වලට ලක් වීමට සිදු විය.එවන් පසුබිමක් තුල සහරාන් වැනි ත්‍රස්තවාදීන් බිහිවීම අරුමයක් නොවේ. මහ මොලකරු සහරාන්ම වී, ඔහුට මුදලින්/ද්‍රව්‍යමය ආධාර කල අය ඔහු අසලින් සිටියාද විය හැක. මනා, විධිමත්  විමර්ශනයක් අවශ්‍ය වන්නේ ඒ නිසාය. පාර්ලිමේන්තු කාරක සභාවකින් මේ දෙය කිසිසේත් කළ නොහැක.

අපට අවශ්‍ය පරම සත්‍ය දැන ගැනීමටය.

එදා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ මුස්ලිමානුවනට එදිරිව කරන ලද ජාතිවාදී ප්‍රහාර පිළිබඳව මුළු ඊස්ලාම් ලෝකයම සිටියේ ඉතා  නොසතුටිනි.

පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරයේ මහ මොළ කරුවෙකු සොයන්නේ නම් එකී කරුණට අදාළ සියළුම කරුණු පදනම් කර එය සිදු කල යුතුය. මෙය හොර/බොරු/වංචා, බිය/සැකයෙන් තොරව එඩිතරව කල යුතු විමර්ශනයකි. එයට Scotland Yard හෝ/සහ තවත් ජාත්‍යාන්තර අපරාධ විමර්ෂණ කණ්යම්වල සහාය ලබා ගැනීම, එකතු කර ගැනීමේ වරදක් නැත.  

යම් මහ මොලකරුවෙක්/මොළකරුවන් හෙළිවුවහොත් ඔවුනගේ තරාතිරම කුමක් වුවත්, ලෝකයේ කොහේ සිටියත් ඒ පිළිබඳව ලොවම දැනුවත් කළ යුතුය. ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිතීය යටතට ඔවුන් හසුවන්නේ නම් නඩු පවරා ගරු අධිකරණයන් මඟින් වැරදි කරුවනට දැඩි දඬුවම් පැමිණ විය යුතුය.

අවසානයට – 1994 බලයට පැමිණි ජනාධිපතිනිය  තම සැමියා මරා දමන ලද්දේ 88/89 ජවිපෙ ත්‍රස්තවාදීන් විසින් බව දැන දැනත් එය R ප්‍රේමදාස මහතා නමින් ලගු කිරීමට උත්සාහයක නිරත විය. තමන් විශේෂ කොම්ෂන් සභාවක් පත් කලේ ඒ නිසා යයි ඇය එවකට පැවසීය. තමන්ගේ සැමියා මරා දමන ලද්දේ 88/89 ජවිපෙ ත්‍රස්තවාදීන් විසින් යයි  දැන් දේශපාලනය නොකරන ඇය පවසයි.

යමක් බොරුවක් බව දැන දැනත් එය, තම පුද්ගලික ප්‍රයෝජනයට, ආත්මලාභයට සහ පලිගැනීම උදෙසා  ප්‍රචලිත කරන අය නැත්තේ නොවේ. ද්‍රවිඩ බෙදුම්වාදී උවමනා මත රට දෙකඩ කිරීමට සුක්ෂමව වැඩ කරන චැනල් 4 වැනි වැනි ජාත්‍යාන්තර මාධ්‍ය ආයතන බලා සිටින්නේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා මාතාවට කෙළෙසින් හෝ පහර ගැසීමටය. මොවුනට ආවඩන බටහිර රටවල්/NGO, ඔවුන්ගේ මෙහි බළල් අත්, බෙදුම්වාදීන්, දේශද්‍රෝහීන් ශ්‍රී ලංකාව තුල අඩු නැතුව ඇත. ඒ බව දැන ගෙන වැඩ කිරීම, රටට ආදරය කරන අප සැමගේ වගකීමයි/කාර්ය භාරයයි.

Courtesy Newsin.Asia

Hanoi, September 12 (BBC):  US President Joe Biden has said that he raised issues of human rights in India and the importance of a free press with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi.

Mr Biden made the remark at a press conference in Hanoi, where he said he had substantial discussions” with Mr Modi about continuing to strengthen the India-US relationship.

India’s statement issued after the meeting said that the two leaders pledged co-operation on a number of issues, and did not mention a conversation about human rights.

Mr Biden travelled to India on Friday for the G20 summit. After his arrival, he and Mr Modi held bilateral talks which was then followed by a dinner at Mr Modi’s official residence.

Mr Modi has not held a solo press conference since he became prime minister, and journalists were not invited to ask questions to the leaders after the talks or the dinner.

Activists and rights groups have questioned India’s deteriorating human rights track record under Mr Modi.

His government has denied allegations that attacks on minorities, especially Muslims, have risen since his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014.

And, as I always do, I raised the important [subject] of respecting human rights and the vital role that civil society and a free press have in building a strong and prosperous country with Mr Modi,” he added.

According to the latest World Press Freedom index released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in May, India’s spot has dropped 11 places from last year to 161 out of 180 countries.

Campaigners have often called on Western leaders including Mr Biden to raise these issues with Mr Modi. But experts say the US will tread carefully as India is seen as a crucial ally in attempts to stem China’s rise.

In May, the US laid out the red carpet for Mr Modi, who travelled there on a state visit. Before the visit, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that while the US would make its views known” when it sees challenges to freedoms, we do so in a way where we don’t seek to lecture or assert that we don’t have challenges ourselves”.

Mr Biden was in the Indian capital to attend the G20 summit. He also held a bilateral meeting with Mr Modi.

The US president left India on Sunday before the summit ended to travel to Vietnam.

In Hanoi, Mr Biden also spoke about the India-Middle East-Europe economic corridor deal which was announced during the summit and called it a ground-breaking partnership”.

The corridor aims at linking countries in the Middle East by rail and connecting them to India by port and analysts see it as a counter to China’s Belt and Road project.

Courtesy The Daily News

Three renowned Bollywood film producers have selected Sri Lanka to shoot eight of their films soon giving a tremendous destination mileage for Sri Lanka.

Film Producer and Head of Film Content at Jio Studios of Reliance Group, Shobha Sant revealed that 8 scripts are already in hand to begin work in Sri Lanka and emphasized that she was amazed by the beauty of Sri Lanka and touched by the hospitality, the warmth and personal attention of the people.

She further said the food, culture and the environment is very similar to India and with the right support from the local film industry and government, they will be able to build a mutually sustainable industry.

I will make a very sincere effort for a film shoot here very soon” added Sant.

She said this to the local media last Saturday when for the first time Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) invited these three renowned Bollywood film producers: Shobha Sant was joined by Angad Dev Singh, Film Producer and CEO of Tiger Baby Production House and Karan Joshi, Film Producer and CEO of Emmy Entertainment to Sri Lanka.

The trio was accompanied by Sri Lankan film legend Chandran Rathnam, Chairman Film Location Services. The trio subsequently visited film locations in Colombo, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Ella, Hambantota and Kalutara. Chalaka Gajabahu, Chairman SLTPB said one of their new key focus areas is to project Sri Lanka as a film location venue to the Indian movie market as it could generate high foreign revenue as an average budget for a Bollywood film is about INR 35Crores (over one billion Lankan rupees).

When shooting a movie in Sri Lanka, the country could get a considerable portion of that revenue via providing food, accommodation, transport and many other logistics.”

Gajabahu pointed out that in addition to gaining foreign exchange, when such Bollywood films are screened world over Sri Lankan locations too get the world’s attention particularly among the Indians. This will help us to further attract them more visitors to Sri Lanka.”

Courtesy AdaDerana

Responding to the oral report on Sri Lanka at the first meeting of the 54th Regular Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, Sri Lanka has rejected the report and its recommendations, claiming that is does not reflect the actual situation in Sri Lanka, and instead gravely distorted and misinterpreted the ground situation within the country.

Speaking further in this regard, the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva, Himalee Arunatilaka noted that it is regrettable” that the Office of the Human Commissioner of Human Rights (OCHCR) has chosen to ignore the democratic resilience of the country and its institutions demonstrated in the past year”.

She stated that Sri Lanka remains deeply concerned about the ever-increasing mandate of the OCHCR, in making sweeping and intrusive comments on all aspects of economic, financial, political, electoral, domestic, budgetary and development policies, adding that the nation strongly objects to pronouncements on policy matters that are essentially domestic for any sovereign country and are outside the framework of this council”.

Albeit the UN report’s claims that Sri Lanka’s economic recovery is yet to materialize one year after the country’s turbulent anti-government protests and its most severe economic crisis, Arunatilaka highlighted that those who are mandated and possess the required expertise, both domestically and internationally, remain confident in Sri Lanka’s prospects.

Commenting on the report’s references to targeted sanctions, the diplomat stated that Sri Lanka rejects all such references, which are based on incorrect and unsubstantiated sources, contravening the process of natural justice of universality, impartiality objectivity and non-selectivity”, emphasising Sri Lanka’s commitment towards pursuing tangible mechanisms on human rights through our domestic institutions, having made significant progress in this regard.

Speaking further on these said mechanisms, she pointed out that certain independent domestic mechanisms have made tangible progress, citing the Office on Missing Persons, Office for Repatriations and the Office for National Unity and Reconciliation as examples of this said progress.

Moreover, the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka highlighted other such examples, including the Anti-Corruption Act which strengthened the financial and functional independence of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Corruption or Bribery (CIABOC), and the ongoing deliberations pertaining to the Anti-Terrorism Bill with the aim of bringing it in line with international standards. 

Thus, rejecting all recommendations and conclusions put forward by the UN report in concern, Sri Lanka urged that the written observations submitted countering the report also be given equal visibility” as the OHCHR report.

Meanwhile, commenting on UN Resolutions 46/1 and 51/1, which have repeatedly been rejected by Sri Lanka, Arunatilaka asserted that the nation vehemently refuses to cooperate with the resolution in question, deeming them ‘intrusive and polarising’.

We recall that the majority of member states either opposed or abstained from voting on these resolutions in fundamental disagreement with their unacceptable content, in particular the so-called evidence gathering mechanism, the establishment of which remains unprecedented”, the diplomat said in this regard.

Speaking further on Resolutions 46/1 and 51/1, Arunatilaka characterized them to be ‘intrusive and polarizing’, adding that they are upheld only by a handful of countries for reasons unrelated to human rights and based on their vote-bank domestic politics”.

Highlighting that Sri Lanka has repeatedly pointed out that this is an unproductive and unhelpful drain on the resources of the council and its member,” she stated that Sri Lanka will not cooperate with it.

Arunatilaka noted, however, that the nation will continue to engage constructively with other mechanisms of the council which have proved productive to the people of Sri Lanka, such as the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process.

By Sena Thoradeniya

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith has become a celebrity newsmaker, a prominent object of media attention, like a Cardinal Superstar! (No comparison with 1973- American film Jesus Christ Superstar”). Oftentimes he gets an opportunity to create news and get media attention. These opportunities are made for him by either local politicians and bureaucrats or foreign media channels, this time by the notorious Channel 4.

There are many unanswered questions, only Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith could answer. 

On 13, September 2007 at the height of the Ealam War (then) Bishop Malcolm Ranjith had a meeting with LTTE political head Thamil Chelvan. What have they discussed? We remember how another Bishop cried on behalf of Velupillai Prabhakaran that he was a human being” and he kills because of his love to his people”; it is a fact that when fighting for liberation of his people invariably atrocities take place”, and he ( Prabhakaran) regrets for the killings and destruction”, what he wants is peace”.

During the peace honeymoon with the Tamil Tigers who uttered the following statements in favour of Tamil Tigers? Police force of the Tamil Ealam, their courts, taxation and extortion have been recognised even by the international community.  We decide what Prabhakaran wants; that is the crux of the whole problem which is wrong; we have preconceived ideas of what he wants which is wrong again; the regions which remained hitherto as parts of a separate state need courts, a police force and an administrative structure; it is not a Tiger Police; it is a Tamil Police. That administration was established as an outcome of war; to administer liberated areas an administrative structure is required; what we should consider now is how this police force, courts and administrative structure could absorb into ISGA or Interim Self Governing Authority of North and East and how that structure adjusted with the national structure; while adjusting if there are weaknesses in the national structure, national structure should be changed.

Saying so these paragons of virtue gave credence to LTTE – proposed ISGA (in 2023) covering eight districts of Sri Lanka and advocated changing the national structure to suit the demands of the Ealamists.

Government should lift the ban imposed on LTTE; we must pray, invoke the blessings of the Almighty and His intervention for this was their call.  

Why did the Cardinal play the Godfather role to Galle Face Protesters ganging up with Omalpe Sobitha and sending hundreds of Catholic priests and nuns to remain in the protest site? Did he know that the LTTE rump provided Rs. 500 million rupees to the protesters and drug barons operating from overseas sent millions through Muslim Undiyal and Havala systems?  

Now he believes Hamsa Azad Moulana’s (alias M. Mohammed Hanzeer Azad Moulana) allegations, the newest Channel 4 star, against Major General Suresh Sallay. Before coming into conclusions has the Cardinal checked the integrity of Hanzeer Azad Moulana when there is ample literature regarding his nefarious activities? It was alleged that in 2008 Maulana with Pillaiyan and another had met some top-level Indian experts at the Indian High commission. It is believed that Maulana first went to India in 2021 and then to France. The biggest question is why he fled Sri Lanka in 2021 two years after the Easter Sunday massacre?

Does the Cardinal know that a close associate of Pillaiyan, President of Pillaiyan’s   TMVP (Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal) and Media Secretary, Kumaraswamy Nandagopan alias Raghu was assassinated at Oruwala, Athurugiriya in November 2008 when he was travelling in his Volvo? He was succeeded by Azad Moulana as Pillaiyan’s Media Secretary. When Pillaiyan was incarcerated in Batticaloa prison Azad Moulana had full authority to utilise TMVP funds. Conflicts arose when Pillaiyan came out of prison. Moulana did not have any alternative except fleeing the country, first to India and then to France. But he failed to enter UK. Now he will get permanent residence in UK with many more rewards. It is astonishing that the Cardinal believing Azad Moulana’s untruths as the new found Gospel Truth.

There are many reasons for the so-called international community and foreign-funded NGOs to fabricate stories against Major General Sallay. One major reason was the splendid role he played as the Director of Military Intelligence. International players know very well about his prowess as an intel officer which contributed immensely to the elimination of Tamil Tiger terrorists. That is the reason for selecting him as the sacrificial lamb this time. I was told by an expert that he was a master in tactical intelligence, strategic intelligence and above all else in operational intelligence, all combined in one, a feat rare in other intelligence officers. This had helped to debilitate LTTE operations in land, sea and in urban cells.   

Does the Cardinal believe that a Muslim can persuade 8 other Muslims to blow themselves up for a Buddhist to become the President of Sri Lanka and for him to flee the country in less than 3 years after his ascendency in fear of Biriyani eating protesters?

Does the Cardinal believe that the Local Government Elections held on 10 February 2018, in which 15.7 million voters voted to elect 8327 Pohottuwa councilors to 340 local bodies, a manipulation by Maulana and Salley?

Why GR had contracted a new Islamic outfit to carry out the bombing?

Why does the Cardinal call to remove security officers like the Final Judgement of the God? If the government accedes to all his calls the government will have to remove all officers creating another anarchic period in Sri Lanka (what he created at the Galle Face in early 2022). Is his intention to destabilise Sri Lanka, paving way for a foreign intervention? Does the Cardinal know that Salley was removed by Yahapalana Government in 2016 and his intel units were disbanded making an easy passage to Easter Sunday bombing?

If the Cardinal had studied the personal histories of Azad Moulana, Nisantha Silva Candappa (in January 2020 this writer wrote an article to The Island” demanding to take stern action against the then ambassador of Norway Hans Peter Mock, to declare him persona non grata, and demand extradition of Nishantha Silva Candappa who sought asylum in Norway with his wife and family, fleeing the country with vital government documents which were in his custody: but the weak President and equally weak the then Foreign Relations Minister did not take any action), Frederica Janz (who invented the story that at the final stages of the war army shot at those civilians who came with white flags),  Ambkika Sathgunathasan (the LTTE propagandist), Lasantha Wickrematunga’s brother, Kongahage (who benefitted from the generosity of MR and Sirisena), the main cast of the newest Channel 4 video, he will never issue his Press Release’ dated 6 September 2023.

Unashamedly he expresses his gratitude to Channel 4”. His concern is not to find fault with this Channel on its past relationship with this country”. This country”! Not his country! He is not concerned about tarnishing the image of the country by producing videos such as Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields” (2011), Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished” (2012) and No fire Zone: In the Killing Fields of Sri Lanka (2013), by this channel in the past. He calls for an independent international investigation team”, again to internationalise domestic affairs. He calls for suspension of all officers named in the video, to ensure the independence of the inquiry”.

The Cardinal cannot deny that investigators from CIA, FBI, Scotland Yard and many more intel officers from several other countries carried out investigations soon after the bomb blasts.

The Cardinal and his fellow agitator Father Cyril Gamini now should be happy that they were able to take the Easter Sunday attack to the international arena; soon after the telecast of the video UNHRC head responded to it positively. No doubtthatthis will feature prominently at the oncoming 54^th UNHRC sessions.

The Carinal repeats what Sajith Premadasa stated making a special statement in Parliament on 6 September, 2023. Premadasa renewed his call for an international probe into Easter Sunday bombing. The Cardinal should not forget that his fellow chorister (member of the same choir or chorus) Premadasa was a Cabinet Minister under yahapalana government when the Easter Sunday attacks took place.

All are attempting to internationalise domestic issues. Not to be outdone by others and under the cover of Parliamentary privileges, Sarath Fonseka also called for an international probe; going further he alleged that Major General Sallay with Boniface Perera was engaged in countrywide bomb explosions in 2010. As the former Army Commander, he is well aware that bomb explosions never took place after the successful conclusion of the Ealam war until Easter Sunday attacks. Then why does Fonseka engage in a malicious campaign against senior officers in the army? He swims inside a cesspool saying that Sallay cleaned toilets of Rajapaksas. Fonseka was referring to a one-time General Officer Commander of Batticaloa, and Vanni Commander, a retired Major General, battle-hardened gentleman officer whom Fonseka hated like a venomous viper, the very first army officer who earned a Ph.D. by examination.

Did the Cardinal make any attempt to focus attention worldwide” for Truth and justice through a clear and transparent investigation” into Anuradhapura Sri Maha Bodhi massacre, Arantalawa massacre, bombing and destruction of Dalada Maligawa, massacres at Palliyagodella, Kathankudi, Eravur and killings of unarmed peasants, infants and pregnant mothers in the so-called border villages by LTTE? Is he aware that no legal action was instituted in favour of these poor victims even after more than a decade after the successful conclusion of the war? Why doesn’t he come out with the invention that Rajapaksas did not allow such a legal process as they were in league with the perpetrators of those heinous crimes?

Can the Cardinal deny that trading all sorts of allegations is tantamount to playing politics with Easter Sunday massacre?

Can the Cardinal answer at least a single question posed to him by Shenali Waduge in her post Questions for Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith” dated 2^nd August 2022? There are 47 questions, each question begins addressing Cardinal Malcom”. These questions are shocking, painful, dreadful, alarming and frightful, no divine power can save the person who is in the dock. 

Can the Cardinal Ranjith remember his own words that on July 21, 2019 he said at Katuwapitiya that Easter Sunday attack was an international conspiracy and not merely the work of Islamic extremists” to destabilise Sri Lanka, to weaken and demoralize the intelligence services to please international partners and international NGOs?” He declared that the suicide bombers were misguided Muslim youth” used by international conspirators” and head of the IS group is being sheltered by US. He did not forget to attack the UN representatives too. Why he is playing a different tune now?

Why does the Cardinal have no qualm with Ibrahim, JVP funding agent and its national list nominee, father of two suicide bombers? Can the Cardinal remember that Nalin Jayatissa, JVP MP sat in the Parliamentary Select Committee probing Easter Sunday massacre?

Yahapalana Minister Rajitha Senaratne at a Api UNP” press conference said that Sirisena’s Media Director Bharatha Tennakone (now domiciled in France and  carrying out a malicious social media campaign) who was a very close ally of the then Secretary Defense Hemasiri Fernando had posted a post on April 16 th April that something horrible (hada kakiyawana, mayil kelin wana, thrasthawadee kriyawak”) was going to happen and soon after the Easter Sunday attack he not only removed the said post but closed his FB account. Did the Cardinal pay attention to this press conference and take appropriate action?

When former Bishop of Mannar Rayappu Joseph openly supporting LTTE terrorists stating that I became a Tamil before becoming a Catholic” this Cardinal kept mum. 

Our Catholic friends are perturbed by RW’s political speech made at the Madu shrine on 15 August; more than his political speech they are shocked and distressed by the speech made by the Papal Nuncio. The latter’s speech based on 13^th amendment supportive of Tamil secessionists was deplored by them.  The Papal Nuncio blessed RW’s attempts of reconciliation. These Catholics are of the opinion that it was an attempt of intervening in the internal affairs of the country by the Pope’s representative in Sri Lanka as done by Julie Chung. Papal Nuncio in his speech did not mention about Easter Sunday victims. But he had enough words to praise RW’s attempt to full implementation of 13A.

They are unhappy about commemorations held every year in memory of Easter Sunday victims spending a lot of money. They allege that monthly commemorations were held only by Negombians (at Katuwapitiya). No commemorations are being held at either in Kochchikade or Batticaloa; the reason is that they are Tamils or non-Catholics.

Bishop of Mannar was independent enough to invite RW, a person who is despised by the Cardinal, who refuses to give him an audience. RW in front of two other Bishops from the South was allowed by the Bishop of Mannar to make a speech at the altar of the main shrine of the Catholics. This was seen by our Catholic friends as an attempt to harm the brotherhood of Catholic Bishops’ Conference. The Cardinal addressing the Catholic patients at Tewatta, Ragama, vehemently criticised RW’s speech at Madu shrine. Gnanrtha Pradeepaya” the Sinhala organ of the Catholic Church too attacked RW’s Madu speech. The present custodian of Kithudana Pubuduwa” joined the crusade in attacking the Bishop of Mannar for giving RW a speech.

Catholics opine that RW is trying to divide Catholics into two segments as North and South as he divided the country into two by signing a CFA. Against this backdrop Bishops of Northern and Eastern Provinces had demanded the Pope to appoint a separate Cardinal to North and East. Father Joseph Pathinather Jebaratnum has said in a public meeting that they are making this demand because they feel that the Tamil Catholic minority is being betrayed by Catholic Bishops’ Conference. He alleged that the Catholic Bishops’ Conference did nothing for the victims of war in the North and East.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith should dowse the flames inside his House – his House of Prayer before going international.

On September 7, 2023 former President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa issued a media release, first of its kind after relinquishing his duties as the President of Sri Lanka, on latest Channel 4 video. All Sri Lankans are aware that the government of 2015-2019 persecuted the intelligence and particularly the Military Intelligence and that a quite a few of its members spent months and years in remand and in police custody during that period. Hence any claim that the Military Intelligence could sabotage police work during the 2015-2019 government is plain nonsense.” The first few paragraphs of this media release are a clear indictment of the incumbent President, the man chosen to succeed him by GR himself.

A new question arises: why GR handed over State power to such a person?

GR’s comment on former Director of the CID Shani Abeysekera is very forceful. Leaked telephone recordings had revealed that he had conspired with a politician to influence the outcome of an ongoing criminal case in the High Court and he could not be kept in a position of responsibility in the CID under any circumstances by any government”.

Had GR shown this courage when dealing with corrupt officials, MPs and Ministers of his government and protesters he would have remained as the President.  

GR’s assertions that he had instructed Ambassador Mahinda Samarasinghe in Washington to explore the possibility of obtaining FBI/CIA assistance in investigations into the Easter Sunday bombings” and the reply the ambassador received from Christopher A. Landsberg of the Bureau of Counterterrorism, US Department of State on 7 April 2022 should have made public long before, not now. The response was dated 7 days after March 31, 2022. There was no wonder US who was engineering a coup to oust GR responding in such a manner that it would not make sense for the United States to conduct an additional investigation into the attacks” describing all what they have done with regard to the bombings.

The media release of US Department of Justice issued on 8 January 2021 quoted by GR should be an eye opener to the Cardinal. It says that the men were part of a group of ISIS supporters which called itself ‘ISIS in Sri Lanka’. That group responsible for the 2019 Easter attacks in the South Asian nation of Sri Lanka… …Two days after the attacks ISIS claimed credit for the terrorist acts.”

Earlier there were allegations that the FBI/CIA who came to Sri Lanka to assist local investigators had removed all the forensic evidence. Now how the Cardinal and his fellow travelers ask for a fresh international probe? In this context Landsberg of the Bureau of Counterterrorism, US Department of State has stated that it would not make sense for the United States to conduct an additional investigation into the attacks”. Does the Cardinal and his hurrah boys consisting of opposition MPs think that any other international team would initiate a fresh probe? It is only wishful thinking.

We will not be surprised if the Cardinal and Cyril Gamini cook up another story now that GR had released the report of Landsberg after the telecast of newest Channel 4 video just to avoid an international probe. Another interesting aspect of this whole episode good for conspiracy theorists is whether Mahinda Samarasinghe, GR’s nominee as the Ambassador to Washington had truly conveyed Landsberg’s observations to GR when the country was in turmoil.

But one thing is clear. GR has awakened from a deep slumber. Why he awoke at this juncture? We have to wait and see whether this herald his second coming”?  In a way, if that happens it is good for the country, rather than elevating a Basil, Namal, Premadasa, Ranil, Sirisena, Anura Kumara, Alahapperuma, Fonska, Ranawaka or any other aspirant for the top post.

By Raj Gonsalkorale

On the night of April 14, 1912, though, only a few days into the Titanic’s maiden voyage, its Achilles’ heel was exposed. The ship wasn’t nimble enough to avoid an iceberg that lookouts spotted (the only way to detect icebergs at the time) at the last minute in the darkness. As the ice bumped along its starboard side, it punched holes in the ship’s steel plates, flooding six compartments. In a little over two hours, the Titanic filled with water and sank- The Secret of How the Titanic Sank by Justin Ewers

Although the mystery surrounding the sinking of the Titanic is yet to be fully unraveled, logically, the fact that the extent of the iceberg below the water and which was not visible, compared to what was above the surface, and the underestimation of the extent below the surface was the primary cause for the sinking cannot be denied or disputed. 

This article attempts to present a point of view that the current drug shortages arising from possible shortfalls in funding maybe likened to the tip of an iceberg, where in fact underlying medical supply chain issues, the part of the iceberg below the surface, could be a very significant contributor to the shortages.

Health outcomes will get affected whenever critical drugs are out of stock or in short supply. However, even prior to the COVID invasion and the global economic and health destabilization it caused, medicine and medical supply shortages have been a common occurrence in most developing countries. Sri Lanka was no exception and no doubt experienced this although such situations did not attract headlines in the media and politicians did not raise this as a critical issue that affects health outcomes, except when it suited them do so for political gain.

International agencies including the WHO, ADB, Global Fund, World Bank, and development entities like USAID, UK AID, Australian AID, spend considerable amounts of funds to address this issue in developing countries.  The emphasis of such donor funded programs is to strengthen health systems while in some instances, material assistance is provided for some commodities to overcome acute situations that would otherwise exacerbate health outcomes.

For example, the Global Fund is a leading international entity that supports health systems strengthening while providing financial assistance for procuring drugs needed for Malaria, TB and HIV AIDS patients. Other agencies also provide similar support to a lesser or greater degree and based on country needs and their willingness to address common reasons that result in drug and medical supply shortages.  Such reasons are manyfold. Systemic, structural, shortfalls in funding and capacity issues are commonplace in many countries, and the lack of a strategic approach arising from SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) is often not considered as a necessity as it is not understood or misunderstood or ignored in favour of short term stop gap measures.

A common thread also weaves around the system and its shortcomings, that being the corruption element prevalent in these countries. Perversely, the opportunities” component in a SWOT analysis becomes the opportunity that a systemic failure provides for corrupt activity. In this context, one does not have to be an Einstein to understand that corruption feeds on systemic shortcomings and therefore addressing such shortcomings would be counterproductive and detrimental to those engaged in corruption. This is one of the reasons why some influential figures within many dysfunctional country systems do not want shortcomings addressed as they benefit personally within such dysfunctional systems through corrupt activity.

Fundamentally, shortages are often the creation of those who stand to benefit from them, such as emergency procurement at exorbitant prices by doing away with standard procurement procedures on account of the emergency”.  Contrary to the belief that these activities are in the domain of relative small timers in the system, the long arm of corruption extends very far, and to senior officials and ministers or even more highly placed politicians.

Development partners naturally would not go into these areas and to act as spies or policemen and policewomen to expose corruption.  Their task would be to carry out SWOT analysis of existing systems, structures, capacity issues, resource issues, and to submit their assessments and findings and submit recommendations as to how gaps identified may be addressed.

No doubt such assessments may have been carried out in Sri Lanka, and efforts taken to address gaps that may have been identified. However, some doubts exist whether adequate attention has been given to the overall systemic, structural, and capacity issues considering the misconception that the current headline grabbing publicity about drugs and medical supply shortages have all been entirely consequential to the current economic crisis and the resulting lack of funds to procure these items. 

Sri Lanka has a mixed system of public and private sector stakeholder participation in the drugs and medical supplies importation and local manufacture to serve the needs of the public.

Going back in history, in 1972, the government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike entrusted the task of reforming the pharmaceutical policy of Sri Lanka to Pharmacologist Professor Senaka Bibile and Parliamentarian Dr S A Wickremasinghe, and consequently, far reaching reforms were introduced including the rationalization of the drug formulary from some 3000 plus items (many brands of the same item) to less than 700, introduction of the ABC classification to identify essential items (lifesaving and mostly without alternatives), important items (with availability of at least a few alternatives) and less important drugs (with several alternative formulations), the formation of the State Pharmaceuticals Corporation (SPC) and assigning the task of undertaking all imports of pharmaceuticals, both for the State and private sector, to the SPC and a quality assurance process under an institution for all imports of drugs.  A State sponsored local manufacturing program was commenced by the SPC, and this was the precursor to the State Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing Corporation in (SPMC) in later years.

Professor Bibile died under mysterious circumstances in 1977 while on a mission to introduce his policies in the Caribbean through UNCTAD. Despite this setback, his policies however internationalized and over the years, and institutions like the WHO have adopted many of his policies.

In Sri Lanka much of Professor Bibile’s policies have been reversed or diluted since the advent of the open economy policies of the government elected in 1977, and once again, the private sector has become a large scale of importer of drugs today with questionable drug quality assurance processes, and a proliferation of brands of the same generic drug. Although the State sector is supplied primarily by the SPC and the SPMC, it is no secret that it has had funding issues to procure its requirements, and it has, time and again, resorted to directing patients who patronize public hospitals to obtain their drug requirements from the private sector.

Clearly, besides policy dilution over the years, structural issues, logistics issues, capacity issues, forecasting & quantification issues and of course corrupt activities have impacted on the overall system. While the economic factor has contributed significantly to the shortages being experienced now, underlying factors that were there prior to the economic downturn and which are still there, contributes to shortages of drugs and medical supplies. This is particularly so in the public sector.

While urgent funding is required to source drugs, particularly the A and B types of items, pouring more money into a system that is dysfunctional to lesser or greater extents in different State institutions, will not address a recurrence of shortages, and an avoidance of shortages, in a consistent manner.

Globally, the pharmaceutical industry (or as some refer to it, the pharmaceutical mafia”), is a very powerful industry and a very powerful lobby group. Internationally, the pharmaceutical industry is rated as the second biggest one in the world next to the arms industry, and it wields considerable power and influence over governance issues. (Note; as per the link noted here, the world pharmaceutical market was worth an estimated $1.2 trillion at ex-factory prices in 2020 (https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220314005621/en/Global-Pharmaceuticals-Industry-2021-2022-and-Beyond—Huge-Opportunities-in-Precision-and-Genomic-Medicine—ResearchAndMarkets.com)

Sri Lanka is not immune to the power of this industry considering the reversal of far-reaching policy and process reforms introduced during the time of Professor Senaka Bibile.

Essential drug shortages will have an impact on health outcomes, and it is therefore important to address such shortages with an adequate supply of such items. However, this could be just a short-term band aid solution unless a thorough assessment is done of the medical supply chain in Sri Lanka to identify gaps in it, and then find effective and efficient mechanisms to address any such gaps.

Firstly, as a structural issue, pharmaceutical policy settings related to rational use, importation and manufacture will have to be reviewed. While health outcomes of the public should be key objective in determining policy settings, the efficacy and efficiency of the existing policy in the context of Sri Lanka’s economy also needs to be a priority consideration in any assessment of the medical supply chain.   

One of the factors that drove Professor Bibile’s policy perspective on drug rationalization would have been the questionable need for a plethora of brands of the same drug, and the need for several pharmacologically similar drugs to be in the drug formulary in relation to the objective of health outcomes.

Perhaps a relook at drug rationalization and the drug formulary maybe timely to assess the efficacy of the current policy in a general sense, and specifically on account of the economic challenges faced by the country. Considering that some 9 million people are reportedly in poverty now, with more likely on the edge of poverty, coupled with an increasing malnutrition rate, it is very likely that health outcomes will get adversely affected if those in poverty or at the edge of it are unable to obtain their drug requirements from public hospitals, and they are forced go to private pharmacies where they may either forego buying the drugs prescribed or buy half or one third of a prescription due to the very high prices of drugs and medical supplies.

Secondly, a study will have to assess the accuracy of the quantification and forecasting of demand for drugs as this one single factor that perhaps maybe identified as the commencement point of a medical supply chain although such a point does not exist in a chain. Quantification requires reliable usage data that should be supported by morbidity data. Accurate quantification is a major factor for a medical supply chain to function without interruption.

Thirdly, the methodology used to assess the quality of drugs imported, and the credentials of the suppliers will have to be assessed as substandard drugs could have adverse effects on health outcomes. It is not certain how the private sector as well as the public sector assesses the quality of drugs imported and what quality assurance processes are in place.

Fourthly, the prices paid for drugs imported, and raw materials imported for the local manufacture of drugs, are also key factors that effect the budgets allocated for imports. Whether procurement procedures are adequately competitive in the State sector, and whether large scale emergency procurement has been done at high prices are factors that will have to be investigated. It is unclear whether private sector imports are subject to a pricing mechanism such as a pricing formula or whether they are free to determine their market prices. The high retail prices of many drugs are perhaps indicative of the latter.

Last but not least, the environmental impact on drugs during transportation and storage is a key area that needs to be looked at as adverse environmental conditions could affect the efficacy of drugs and therefore health outcomes.

In some countries, waste that occurs due to some of the above-mentioned factors has amounted to anything between 20-30 % of the annual expenditure on drugs. Hopefully, this has been minimal in Sri Lanka. However, this and all above mentioned areas should be investigated as the immediate drug shortage issue and possible impact on health outcomes could be just the tip of an iceberg and underlying factors mentioned above could be the hidden part of the iceberg that has been creating shortages and an impact on health outcomes for a long time.

Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake

We have what’s called over-the-horizon capabilities, which means we can strike terrorists and targets without American boots on the ground – Joe Biden[i]

Disinformation is ramping up in preparation for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) visit this month to review Sri Lanka’s progress on ‘debt restructuring’ ahead of the required Firesale of coastal and highland lands in the strategic island so that interested parties may monitor and surveil the Indian Ocean trade and Submarine Data Cable Routes.

Sri Lanka was once called ‘valuable real estate’ by Alice G. Wells, former US Under Secretary for South Asia, and has long been described as an unsinkable aircraft carrier’ at the center of the Indian Ocean.

Remarkably, the IMF assets sale of Sri Lanka also to benefit major bondholders like BlackRock and partner Adani, targets the same sectors that Washington’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), Compact program did back in 2019 when the Easter attacks happened– Energy, Telecom, Transport Infrastructure, in addition to land, land, land.

The MCC compact was however rejected by the people of Lanka and so too will the IMF agenda eventually be rejected in Sri Lanka in the Asian 21st Century as the world de-dollarizes in order to de-colonize.

Right now, it’s Déjà vu with Channel 4 ‘whistleblowers” and the Minister of Parliament, Harin Fernando’s story about ‘Sonic-Sonic’, the hedgehog Chat Bot Mastermind of the Easter Sunday 2019 carnage curtsey the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), to lead us up the garden path. What is clear that that the Easter Sunday carnage was an Over the Horizon (OTH), that combined remote cyber non-kinetic and kinetic operations and foreign and local intelligence and investigative agencies.

A Religious Smokescreen Masks Geopolitical Economic Interests

The Easter Attacks that were claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), are back in the news at this time and echoing in the global and local corporate and social media echo chamber for several reasons: 

The release of the British Channel 4 story based on accounts of ‘whistleblowers’ who were seeking asylum in UK, has been well timed to flay the Sri Lanka at the Human Rights show in Geneva and to distract and weaken its defenses against the IMF debt restructuring onslaught.

Another submerged dimension of the return of Easter Sunday 2019 at this time, is China’s Shi Yan 6, Ocean and weather Research vessel that is due to visit Sri Lanka in October.

Previously, in 2019 when the Shi Yan 3 was docked in the Colombo Port for Oceanic Research, with National Aquatic Research Agency (NARA) researchers, the Easter Attacks were staged.

Suicide bombers killed 4 Chinese Ocean research scientists among other guests who were staying at the Kingsbury Hotel prior to embarking on the research expedition. The Kingbury overlooks the Colombo harbor – the busiest port of South Asia which has been targeted in other hybrid war operations like the M.V Pearl ship that burnt and sank spewing pollution and impacting livelihoods of fishers.

Remarkably, the leader of the Easter suicide bombers, Zaharan, died at another, luxury hotel – the Shangri La– along with a second suicide bomber, which tells us that Chinese-owned Shangri La was an important target, second only to Kingsbury where the Chinese researches were killed.

What the Channel 4 and other smokescreen narratives about Easter Sunday 2019 ignore is the fact that the leader Zaharan died at a luxury hotel and NOT at a church or religious site.

This begs the question: was religion used as a smokescreen for a hybrid cyber economic war operation? Moreover, are the Geopolitical Economic interests evident in the selected targets including the Shangri La hotel where the Leader of the NTJ Zaharan died and the killing of the Chinese ocean researchers in the Easter attacks being covered over?

Since neither Shangri La Hotel or the Kingbury Hotel are religious sites fundamental questions arise: Were the Easter attacks part of a hybrid economic and cyber war operation against Sri Lanka’s already Eurobond debt trapped tourism-dependent economy that used religion as a smokescreen?

The fisheries harbours of the country were also locked down for months after the attacks destroying the livelihoods of coastal communities and further debilitating the economy, while Sri Lankan’s valuable fisheries resources were plundered by Distant Water Fishing States (DWFS); France, EU, Japan, Taiwan Republic of China. There are good arguments for a ban  on DWFS from fishing in the Indian Ocean at this time to enable impoverished littoral communities to harvest their resources.

All of this of course begs the questions: Who were the MASTERMINDS of the attacks claimed by ISIS, which were funded by Saudi Arabia, the embassy of which had advanced notice of the attacks, and why did Israel’s Whitestream News Agency make the absurd claim that Bitcoin had funded Zaharan et al.?

History Repeats, both as farce and tragedy as Marx said

At this time, the smoke screen around the Easter attacks that have been endlessly investigated by local and foreign intelligence’ agencies, experts, and commissions of inquiry with reports and chapters about the external actors who were involved being redacted is thickening– around Minister of Parliament Harin Fernando.

Two years after the attacks Fernando, whose father co-incidentally had advanced warning of the attacks, claimed in Parliament that a Hedgehog Chat Bot code named Sonic Sonic’ (alias Suresh Salley?), was the mastermind of the Easter attacks.

Fernando had sourced the story about Sonic Sonic from the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), that had removed the cell phones of the Easter bombers either to retrieve of delete incriminating information. Now the question remains who were the Over the Horizon Masterminds behind Sonic-Sonic and the ISIS video claiming the attacks? Or, is it turtles all the way down in cyber world infinite regress?

Was SS who is now the head of the Sri Lanka State Intelligence Services (SIS), working for other foreign Intelligence services that often conduct ‘training programs’ for the Sri Lankan armed forces and intelligence agencies, particularly, those with a deep interest in the Eastern Province and getting the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), signed along with the MCC compact?

The Eastern Province as a Theater of OTH operations

The Eastern Province of Sri Lanka has long been a theater of foreign intelligence and counter-terrorism operations: These include India’s Research and Analysis Wing, the British Keenie Meenie KMS-RAF Mercenaries group who trained and set up the Special Task Force there an provided security to J.R. Jayawardena after the 1983 Pogrom, and later the Israel’s Mossad operated there, in the eighties and nineties, while working out of the US embassy in Colombo to break the bonds among Tamil and Muslim communities and weaken the Indian-backed Tamil militancy, when the Kathankudi Mosque massacre was staged..

Was ‘Sonic Sonic’ set up by the same remote Over the Horizon Deep State operators who manipulated the deluded band of Zaharan’s National Thowheed Jamat (NTJ) suicide bombers also headquatered in Kathankudi with ties to M.L.M Hizbulla who was building a Sharia University and had been both with the SLFP and UNP governments?

After all, various Disinformation experts have claimed that the ISIS planned to set up a Caliphate in tropical Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province somewhere between Kathankudi and the much coverted deep sea natural habour, Trinocmallee.

M.P Harin Fernando and US Ambassador Julie Chung

The Blue, Green, Pink Bond scams: Hybrid economic war to make the economy scream”

The British Channel 4 Smokescreen seems designed to distract from the same Cold War Geopolitical Economic interests evident in the Easter attacks and the current IMF-colonial Club de Paris debt restructuring operations to Make the Economy Scream”, as President Nixon famously instructed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to do in Chile in 1973 prior to the ouster of leftist President Dr. Salvador Allende.

Meanwhile in preparation for the IMF and Eagle to Land in Lanka this month, the Transport Minister, Bandulla Gunawardena has become a salesman of expensive Electric Buses, EV Cars and EV tuk-tuks, which need electric service station etc. This expensive ‘green transition’ would certainly further deepen the US dollar Eurobond debt trap using the Green Transition theme song that Sri Lanka does not need and cannot afford and benefit Green technology corporations.

The island’s Carbon footprint is minute to non-existent and the country should not be paying for the G7 NATO Global War machine’s greenhouse pollution. The Debt trap rush to EVs will also ensure PRIVATIZATION of the Ceylon Transport Board (CTB ) also Sri Lanka Railways (SLR), as trains are sabotaged with various mysterious accidents on a daily basis.

History Repeats as Farce & Tragedy: OF BONDS, BOMBS and Predators

While civil society activists are calling for a BAN on BOND TRADING which is the primary source of ODIOUS Debt accumulated by corrupt politicians in league with predatory bond traders who caused the Default, President Ranil Rajapakse is promoting Green and Blue Bond scams now GREEN-WASHED and called ‘Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), Bonds or Debt for Nature Swaps (DFNS). 

This is an Environmental Greenwash of corrupt bond trading. Meanwhile, attempts are also ongoing to ‘Pinkwash’ bondscams with a Social credits component. This would ensure hand-outs and dependency for women and children victims of the Rupee depreciation against the exorbitantly privileged US dollar which is the source of all the misery and impoverishment in this otherwise well-endowed land.

Recall that Ranil Rajapakse was the Bondscam Prime Minister with Singaporean Arjuna Mahendran as Fovernor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) in 2015. Mahendran was beloved of IMF’s Christine BlackGuard, and  was followed by Indrajith Coomaraswamy, another Economic Hit Man at the CBSL who buried the Forensic Audit reports of the Ranil Rajapakse Bondscams that debilitated the reputation of the CBSL and announced to predatory hedge funds that Sri Lanka was open for any and all bondscams.

Dinesh Shaffter who knew all of this and was a primary witness in the Bondscam Court Case against Ranil  Rajapakse and his bond mafia, was assassinated last December in broad daylight in Colombo.

History will be repeating itself at the IMF and colonial Club de Paris will be marketing Green, Blue and Pinkwash Green Bonds also called Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), Bonds or Debt for Nature Swaps (DFNS), again to BONDTRAP Sri Lanka and deepen the debt. 

This is a part of the quantification, datafication and financialization of Mother Nature through dubious and opaque Carbon Credit and Social Credit calculations with Net Zero Jargon by various experts” in Big Data Games.

Mother Nature Fights Back

It has been raining heavily for the past week in Sri Lanka, where the models indicate that country stands to benefit from climate change, but the Anthropocene climate crisis chorus refuse to release the maps of climate warming hotspots, COLDSPOTS and SWEETSPOTS!

Rather, there was a lot of hot air in the corporate media echo chamber about drought a week ago to ramp up the climate emergency fear psychosis and smoothen the path of the up-coming Green Blue ESG Bond scam to placate BlackRock and other predatory bond holders in IMF’s External Debt Restructuring operation. But we know that August, which is my birthday month, has always been a dry month except at the end when the sky opens up as the South West Monsoon blasts off.

Thus, it has been pouring lately in Mother Lanka where Mother Nature is fighting back against those who want to stage an ‘Anthropocene Climate Catastrophe’ to ensure Famine, and 15-hour power-cuts, as President Ranil Rajapakse promised on taking office last year to spread fear and enable a smooth IMF Firesale of assets claiming that Sri Lanka was banckrupt because it lacked US dollars. This was also the case when economically devastating Covid-19 panicdemic lockdowns were staged in order to hack supply chains and stymie the rise of the BRICS economies that have now surpassed the G7.

Finally, you don’t need to be a Rocket Scientist to figure out the ‘Over the Horizon’ (OTH), Masterminds behind the 2019 Easter Sunday carnage staged in Sri Lanka and claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).  You just need to know some history and have some lateral and critical thinking skills a la the hermeneutics of suspicion”.

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ALSO NOTE

Graham Watson: Time to rethink how the World bank operates,” 20 February 2023, https://www.tutor2u.net/economics/blog/time-to-rethink-how-the-world-bank-operates#:~:text=Critics%20argue%20that%20the%20Bank,ecosystems%2C%20and%20human%20rights%20violations.

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[i] https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/08/31/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-end-of-the-war-in-afghanistan/

Dialogue works

Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he taught economics from 1973 to 2008. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University, New York City. Earlier he taught economics at Yale University (1967-1969) and at the City College of the City University of New York (1969-1973). In 1994, he was a Visiting Professor of Economics at the University of Paris (France), I (Sorbonne). Wolff was also a regular lecturer at the Brecht Forum in New York City.

e-Con e-News

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

e-Con e-News September 2023 Part 2

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‘Without concrete, copper & fibre optics

there would be no data centres, no electricity, no internet…

The world would not end if Twitter or Instagram suddenly

ceased to exist; if we suddenly ran out of steel or natural gas,

however, that would be a very different story.

In 2019, the world mined, dug & blasted

more than everything extracted from the dawn

of humanity all the way through to 1950…

For every ton of fossil fuels, the world mines 6 tons of other materials

– mostly sand & stone, but also metals, salts & chemicals…

6 key materials… drive the world economy in the 21^st century:

sand, salt, iron, copper, oil & lithium.

They are the most widely used & the very hardest to replace…’

– see ee Focus, Stuff Matters

Midst all the hip & hype of the virtual & the artificial – the human & the material still rule. The proletariat & its promise still real. 50 years ago, the USA with several million dollars from the International Telephone & Telegraph Corporation (ITT) launched a coup d’état to prevent the nationalization of the copper mines of Chile (world’s largest producer of raw copper), and massacre 10,000s of supporters. Ironically, that popularly elected government was a pioneer in the socialization of an early internet to plan the national economy – Project Cybersyn.

     This September 2023 also marks ee’s oncoming 6^th year of weekly collection & analysis of the English news, seeking to keep our eyes on what is called ‘the real economy’. Sand & steel is the basis of concrete & glass, and industry, so it is no surprise that all eyes turn to that delta of the great sands of the River Mahaveli – Trincomalee.

     Three years ago, ee wrote: ‘An economic tsunami (blamed on – but more insidious than – the pandemic) thunders towards us from the horizon, already swirling around our feet. The crying need of the hour is for a cultural revolution to mobilize all the people to defeat all imperialist conspiracies being sprung as we write.’

     That was in the flush of a national election ‘landslide’, which ee hoped signaled ‘another moment for a national renaissance’. ee urged: ‘Not a second should be wasted.’ And ee evoked ‘The Ghost of Philip Gunawardena & the Cry for a Cultural Revolution’ (ee 08 August 2020). A real ‘cultural revolution’ turns out to be not just about culture, as machine-brain ChatGPT inadvertently admits (see ee Focus):

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‘Gifford Pinchot, a eugenicist, first coined the term ‘conservation’, deriving it from a term used by the English in their colonial management of India! The eugenicists sought not only to ‘scientifically prove’ the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race, and thus its right & responsibility to rule the Earth, but also the incapacity of the ‘lesser races’ to utilize technology or govern themselves.

   The English were in full agreement with Hitler on most issues, including the threat posed by Asian development. When Hitler met with Lord Lothian on Jan 29, 1935, Lothian had recently completed a term as Undersecretary of State for India, directing the repression of India’s nationalist leaders, Gandhi & Nehru, just after Lothian’s close collaborator Lord Halifax had been Viceroy. Hitler knew he was speaking to a member of the inner circle of the Empire when he suggested to Lothian: ‘Germany, England, France, Italy, America & Scandinavia… should arrive at some agreement whereby they would prevent their nationals from assisting in the industrializing of countries such as China, and India. It is suicidal to promote the establishment in the agricultural countries of Asia of manufacturing industries’.’ (Sir James RM Butler, Lord Lothian) – ee Sovereignty, Cecil Rhodes, the Roundtable Movement & Eugenics

The US & India, ‘taking over’ as it were, threatening to invade & carve up the land (what else is new?) – this tsunami threatens to knock us off our feet. They will of course be defeated. It is therefore fitting to recall the lessons from the turn to this 21^st century, and what we are up against:

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‘The USA is the dominant capitalist power in the world

and they want to dominate the world’s resources & finances.

If they cannot do it through peaceful means & bribes, they will do it through war.

And that’s what they’ve been doing since they were founded in 1776.

The attack on Yugoslavia was to deliberately break it up. Why?

Because Yugoslav leader Milosevich refused to accept the diktats given to him

in Rambouillet, France, a few months before.

US Foreign Secretary Madeleine Albright gave him a list of 40 demands:

Yugoslavia had to be converted from a socialist into a capitalist society.

Instantly. They had to agree to its occupation by NATO troops, etc… Basically:

‘You surrender & we will occupy you. He refused. That is when they began bombing…

My 1^st question to my client (Milosevich) was why the US wished to go after him.

He replied, ‘I am a communist, and I told the Americans to go fuck themselves.’

Milosevich warned the Russians he was being poisoned.

They eventually murdered him in the Hague’s International Criminal Court jail.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, they wanted to break up the last socialist state in Europe,

the capitalists didn’t want it there as an example. And there were economic reasons:

They wanted to destroy Yugoslav industries. They used to produce their own cars.

The Zastava car manufacturing plant was bombed 4 times.

So now they don’t make cars anymore. They have to buy Peugeots and

Mercedes Benzes & Volkswagens from Germany & France, who make their own vehicles.

So like mafioso you go & destroy their stuff and tell them you have to buy our stuff.

With the breakup of the USSR, they began moving into the Balkans

and the Great Lakes in Africa (Rwanda, Congo), to control the world.

They said, ‘We don’t have the Russians intervening to help anybody,

so we’re going to move…’ That is what they keep doing.

They keep getting defeated, but they create a lot of pain & suffering…’

– Chris Black, Threatened by the CIA, Are You a Lawyer or a Devil?

‘There is always something new out of Africa’ – early learners of Latin are taught – ‘Semper aliquid novi Africam adferre’ – so records Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79) in his Historia Naturalis. By the way, this is the same Pliny who recorded the ‘first trade mission’ from Taprobane of 4 Buddhist monks to the Roman court. Pliny interviewed one Lankan Ambassador, noting the envoy’s father had been ambassador to China. Lanka’s Roman trade soon increased. As did Rome’s trade with Nanjing, China. Rome had deciphered the monsoons. So what else is new? Yet our relations with Africa are much older than with Rome.

     These days all the new things out of Africa appear to be the latest imperialist strategies (or so this ‘global’ media makes out) arising out of the spread of US military bases in Africa – accelerated under that white man with a tan, B Obama.

     Eritreans living in Europe & Europe’s settler states (US, Canada; Israel, now threatening to deport all Africans!) have been subjected to violent attacks in recent weeks. These ‘incidents’ are coordinated by English & US ‘conflict entrepreneurs’, NGOS, etc, who make a living off creating turmoil, cliques bearing great similarity to Sri Lanka, and how ‘diasporas’ & ‘refugees’ etc, are manipulated. In 2018, Eritrea, Ethiopia & Somalia pledged unity & peace. This upset US & EU plans for the Horn of Africa & the Nile Basin (see ee Sovereignty, Eritrean Festivals under Attack & Integrating the Horn of Africa).

     This ee carries excerpts about what recently transpired in Rwanda (gateway to the Congo), and before that in Yugoslavia (‘the last socialist state in Europe’). In Serbia, how one of the oldest automobile factories in Europe was bombed 4 times by NATO. As for Rwanda, it is ruled by a minority, and the English call it a ‘model democracy’:

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• ‘The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a Tutsi militia from Uganda, invaded Rwanda in 1990. All these ‘rebel’ RPF forces were part of the Uganda National Army.

     Under the pressure of RPF invasion in 1992, the Rwandan government at that time was forced by the US & France to give up their one-party semi-socialist state (ruled by MRND: National Revolutionary Movement for Development) and turn the country into a multiparty state in 1992. The government now became a mixed government of the minority Tutsi & majority Hutu people, with top Tutsi ministers linked to the invading forces….

     The French left Rwanda in 1993. The RPF did not like the French. In 1993 there was a ceasefire. The UN sent in forces to protect that ceasefire. They then had elections. But the invading forces, and the US, Canadian & Belgian forces, knew the RPF could never win the elections. So they decided to attack.

     In April 1994, the RPF shot down the planes of 2 Presidents, of Rwanda & Burundi. The English media blamed the Hutu. Yet, the RPF had the help of the Belgians, and the Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, who helped them shoot down the planes. The missiles were assembled in a hangar rented out by the CIA. All these NATO countries were involved: To make the government look bad, they broadcast that Hutu extremists shot down their own Presidents. It was a false-flag operation. The day after the planes were shot down, Paul Kagame, leader of RPF, sent out a broadcast in Swahili to his forces in the field saying, ‘We killed the president, we are going to win the war. We have the help of the Belgians & the Canadians.’ Kagame, who led the RPF invasion, was Deputy Head of Intelligence for the Ugandan National Army (later installed as Rwanda President in 2000).

     The trial had investigators like Australian lawyer Michael Hourigan, an investigator for the Canadian prosecutor Louise Arbour to investigate the shootdown. He found out it was the RPF. He spoke to the people involved. He had documents, had proof. He told Louise Arbour it was the RPF. She invited him to the Hague to deliver the information. It was on a disk. He was told to kill the investigation. Louise Arbour covered up that the RPF shot down that plane. She is an accomplice to mass murder. 25 people: the first massacre of 1994.

     That same night the planes were shot down there were attacks across the country. US C130 Hercules dropped men & supplies to the RPF. The Belgians & other units had taken control of the hills around Kigali, and now gave them over to the RPF (as well as water, medicine, logistics, supplies, ammunition) to dominate the city from above. They walked away, then the RPF walked in. The Rwandan army had simply run out of ammunition and had to surrender.

     Paul Kagame took over as Rwanda President. Kagame told their troops they had the help of the English, US & Belgian intelligence services, who will help enable an invasion of the Congo. Two months later, they attacked the Congo. Rwanda is the doorway to the Congo. The US wants to break up the Congo into 3 pieces. They wanted to take Katanga, full of minerals, away from the Congo. Get their mining companies in & minerals out without paying royalties. Mobotu had been put in by the US after the assassination of Lumumba. In the few years preceding this, Mobotu had begun making deals with China. The US did not like that. So they wanted him gone. They wanted to use Rwanda as a base to kick Mobutu out. The Hutu Rwanda government said no… It was a war for the Congo’s immense wealth (used for all the latest modern gadgetry) which has not been allowed to enrich the 50 million Congo people, though could be done easily. The war was also a war between the US & France for the control of Central Africa. The US succeeded in kicking the French out of Central Africa. Belgium was the colonial power in Rwanda. Most of those killed were Hutu. But the world was told the opposite…’ (Continued in ee Quotes, Chris Black, lawyer who represented Hutu officials accused of ‘genocide’, & Milosevic. Above excerpts from 2017 video, see ee Sovereignty)

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• A gaggle of Dutch ladies led by a Dutch Minister, also a lady, arrived in Sri Lanka, carrying an ornate Sinhala cannon, and some swords & knives. They said the Dutch had stolen them. They call it an ‘involuntary loss of objects’ – in 1765. ee checked on 1765 and – o mijn god (OMG) – they sure stole a lot that year! And not just in 1765… So what brings these penitent Burgher grand dames here at this hour? (see Random Notes). The Hague is where Black criminals who fail to follow IMF (Washington) & UNHRC (Geneva) diktat, are tried, and murdered.

     By the way, ee asked ChatGPT: How much have the Dutch stolen from Sri Lanka?

     & replying in their best yankee double-de-gook of apologia – ChatGPT replied: ‘The interaction between the Dutch colonial presence in Sri Lanka and the concept of ‘stealing’ is a complex historical matter. During the period of Dutch colonial rule in Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon), which lasted from 1640-1796, there were undoubtedly economic & resource-related exchanges… However, it’s essential to understand that the dynamics of colonialism encompass a range of interactions beyond a simple notion of theft.

     Assessing the exact value of what might be considered ‘stolen’ can be challenging due to the historical context, the passage of time, and varying perspectives… attributing a specific monetary value to what was taken or gained is a complex endeavor.’

     ee: But we wish to know how much wealth they extracted from Sri Lanka?

     ChatGPT: ‘Determining an exact figure for the wealth extracted by the Dutch colonial administration from Sri Lanka is a challenging task… Lack of Comprehensive Records… Complex Economic Activities…Changing Values over Time…Varying Perspectives…Local & Colonial Factors…’

     ee: OK, tell us how much they extracted in value in just trade alone.

     ChatGPT: ‘Pinpointing an exact value for the wealth extracted from Sri Lanka through trade during the Dutch colonial period is a difficult task…’

     So you get the drift? ChatGPT is a stinky running dog… bowwow GPT!

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This ee continues our battle with fake AI – humans dressed up as machines – transborgs. An avid ee critic asked ee to do battle with AI, and reveal its ideological underpinnings as a capitalist (chat-i-palist? chapati-list?) running dog. We therefore began with Sri Lanka’s need to capture our home market from Unilever, etc.

Export-oriented industrialization (EOI) remains the capitalist gospel of the day. While imperialist countries are closing their markets down, reshoring & friend-shoring, etc, the gospel for EOI screeches even higher. And AI is no different. Yet no matter the AI hype, no matter the ups & down, China & Russia & other socialist countries have lessons to offer us, teach us of how to really rebuild a country. What matters. All other development ‘narratives’ are pure white lies.

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