By A Special Correspondent Courtesy Ceylon Today

Last year, a Sri Lankan individual stood resolutely before the special Bench of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, enduring five days of intense scrutiny from the organisation’s officials. During this period, he revealed a trove of State secrets, all while his life hung perilously in the balance. His testimony, initially recorded in English, was later translated into Tamil by an individual residing in Europe and the explosive revelations were unleashed upon the world through the power of social media.

In that compelling statement, the significance of the matters discussed cannot be overstated. However, unfortunately, these revelations initially garnered attention only from a small number of Sri Lankans residing in European nations. Surprisingly, neither Sri Lankan missions abroad nor local authorities demonstrated the expected level of enthusiasm for what was presented, as a vital revelation. It was only when this revealing statement started circulating on social media that a specific group of individuals, motivated by an unwavering commitment to uncover the truth, came forward. However, the truth remains that this person is engaging in deceit and attempting to exploit a tragedy for personal benefit.

The self-proclaimed group, in collaboration with this individual, who seeks to deceive the public and the international community, has undertaken the task of falsely professing an unwavering pursuit of justice, while actively working to obscure the truth behind the brutal Easter 2019 bombings, perpetrated by Zaharan and his IS-inspired followers, all for their personal gain. They refute the malicious falsehood that Sri Lankan security forces are culpable for war crimes, a slanderous narrative propagated by a network with deep-rooted connections in media organisations worldwide, including the United Kingdom. Some members of this network have transitioned into running private public relations firms, where they carefully craft and choreograph the entire narrative.

The protagonist of our narrative, who divulged his testimony before the Special Committee of the United Nations Human Rights Council, over the course of five critical days, unwittingly became the catalyst for this concerted smear campaign against Sri Lanka. His narrative aligns seamlessly with the narrative propagated by the Catholic Church, including prominent figures like the Cardinal, who fail to comprehend the underlying realities of Islamic fundamentalism and the dire consequences it has wrought. They dismiss the Easter attack as mere political intrigue. This individual is introduced as Azad Maulana, yet his true identity remains Mohamed Hanseer, with ‘Azad Maulana’ being a moniker bestowed upon him by Karuna Amman, also known as Vinayagamurthi Muralidaran.

Remarkably, the Sri Lankan security forces, like many other Armies, strategically identified numerous individuals during the clashes between Karuna, the breakaway faction of the LTTE. Such strategic manoeuvring is a common tactic employed by all sides during times of war to suppress their adversaries. Sri Lanka bears a grim history where some Sinhalese individuals were radicalised by the LTTE’s ideology, conspiring to sabotage passenger planes in mid-flight — a largely overlooked and chilling chapter in our nation’s past. Tragically, when these suspects are apprehended, they promptly don the guise of human rights activists or social reformers. This tragicomic transformation is hailed as heroism in foreign lands, providing a haven for these disguised predators to thrive. In truth, those who thrive off the suffering of others are nothing less than ruthless criminals.

In this light, it is imperative to scrutinise Azad Maulana’s narrative and the calculated commercialisation of his fabricated tale. Maulana undoubtedly invested significant effort in crafting his script, likely with support from various clandestine quarters. Crucially, he chose to tether his activities to the alleged Easter attacks rather than his previous exploits, which included extortion and child soldier recruitment. He is, quite literally, a cunning and unscrupulous trickster.

Maulana keenly grasped that intelligence agencies would guarantee the notoriety of the Easter attack. He recognised that the crimes committed by the LTTE and its offshoots had diminished their marketability in the European sphere. However, there is a theory suggesting that the Easter attack was a conspiracy involving eight affluent Muslim youths from upper-middle-class families, with the aim of facilitating Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s takeover of the country. This itself is a matter of general knowledge. However, Maulana appeared to understand how to manipulate this dynamic all too well.

Born in 1983, Azad Maulana hails from the Maradamunei area of Ampara District. His father, a politician affiliated with Vardaraja Perumal, met a tragic end in India. Maulana’s adeptness in broadcasting his life on social media is nothing short of remarkable.

Following his graduation from the University of Peradeniya, Maulana served as the private secretary to Shankar, who held the esteemed position of Chairman of the Cashew Corporation, a subsidiary under the purview of Douglas Devananda’s Ministry. It was through Shankar’s guidance that Maulana found his way into Karuna’s fold, a fateful encounter that would ultimately alter the course of his life and the destiny of a nation.

Maulana’s journey is one fraught with deception and betrayal. When he first aligned himself with the Karuna faction, he was a married man residing in a rented house in Panadura. At the outset, his monthly salary amounted to a mere six thousand rupees, supplemented by a two-thousand-rupee transportation allowance courtesy of the Karuna faction. Six months down the line, his salary saw a generous bump to ten thousand rupees, and he was gifted a motorcycle for his transportation needs. However, as the power struggle between Karuna and Pillayan unfolded, Maulana switched allegiances, throwing his lot in with Pillayan’s camp. It was during this period that his focus veered sharply towards swindling money and pursuing romantic interests.

A litany of complaints against Maulana piled up in Police stations across Akkaraipattu, Valachchenai and Wellawatta, all echoing tales of his financial dupery and amorous escapades. He even dared to flout the country’s marriage laws by allegedly entering into a fraudulent double marriage with a teacher residing in the Sainthamaradu area. Furthermore, following Pillayan’s ascendancy to the position of Chief Minister in the Eastern Province, Maulana stands accused of deceitfully promising jobs to local residents, only to exploit their desperation for his own gain. Reports suggest that he even provided a sum of five million for Pillaiyan’s legal defence. It was only after this incident that Pillayan’s faction realised the extent of Maulana’s deception.

Yet, one particularly egregious allegation against Maulana involves defrauding a certain Valachchenai family of a staggering sum of Rs 10 million, promising them a life abroad. Instead, they were duped into purchasing refurbished bicycles from Japan, marking a large-scale fraud. A cursory examination of his assets would easily expose the true nature of this individual. After serving as Pillayan’s press secretary for several years, Maulana found himself cornered, facing impending legal proceedings for his financial misdeeds. His only recourse was to flee the country under the pretext of seeking political asylum, a ruse designed to mislead unsuspecting authorities. This cunning ploy is the very reason he purports a connection between the intelligence agencies and the Easter attack.

Maulana’s narrative cunningly aligns with the broader agendas of groups, including certain members in the Catholic Church and self-proclaimed human rights activists. It finds reinforcement in the previous statements made by individuals like Inspector of Police (IP) Nishantha Silva, currently residing in Switzerland and formally involved in criminal investigations in Sri Lanka. This fabrication, concocted by Maulana, thus acquires a disturbing financial value. However, those who perpetuate these falsehoods do an immense disservice to the nation of their birth, for they are straying far from the path of ethics and morality.

Azad Maulana has masterfully manipulated this incident to serve his dual objectives. Firstly, it provided him the means to mask his myriad indiscretions as a womaniser and serial con artist. Secondly, this audacious lie he peddles has garnered international attention, affording him the crucial political cover he sought. Regrettably, it is Sri Lanka’s reputation that bears the brunt of these unscrupulous individuals. To exploit blatant falsehoods for personal vendettas, under the guise of truth, is a grievous transgression against all principles of morality and humanity.

Azad Maulana, in his statement, deliberately makes Major General Suresh Salley a pawn in his strategic game. This seems to be a calculated move, derived from an assessment of the socio-political dynamics surrounding the Catholic Church in the aftermath of the Easter attack. According to Maulana, Zaharan and Pillayan crossed paths while incarcerated in Batticaloa. It was there that Zaharan’s brother, Rilwan, allegedly cast doubt on Maulana’s adherence to true Islam, as per his statement. Subsequently, according to Maulana, Pillayan accompanied him to meet Major General Suresh Salley in Habarana, Kurunegala where Sallay gave certain instructions.

Notably, many of the events referenced by Maulana did indeed occur during that period. However, his accounts differ significantly from established facts, as he weaves a web of narratives to suit his ulterior motives. This consummate trickster has brazenly distorted the truth to serve his own interests.

Two glaring examples stand as evidence of his Machiavellian machinations. Firstly, Maulana confesses to a litany of murders, allegedly perpetrated by Pillaiyan’s political party, totalling a staggering 120 deaths, including prominent figures like Raviraj, Lasantha Wickramatunga and Pragith Eknaligoda. Yet, he fails to provide any credible evidence to substantiate these grave accusations, leaving any discerning listener to harbour doubts.

Equally dubious is Maulana’s claim of a meeting with Saharan and his associates in Puttalam. He alleges that he travelled to Puttalam with General Suresh Salley and witnessed the acquisition of land for training suicide bombers. However, it’s worth noting that during the time of the incident Maulana describes, Suresh Salley was stationed at the Sri Lankan High Commission in Malaysia. Curiously, Zaharan’s wife, Hadiya, has offered a parallel account of this incident on multiple occasions. According to her, Zaharan journeyed to Puttalam urgently to meet a Colombo-based lawyer named LLB. Despite the gravity of this statement, it has failed to capture the attention of the Catholic Church or any other responsible authority.

Azad Maulana has embarked on a path of deception and manipulation, exploiting falsehoods for personal gain, while tarnishing Sri Lanka’s reputation. His fabrications have found resonance with certain groups and individuals, who, in their quest for their own agendas, perpetuate these untruths at great cost to the nation. It is a transgression against the very essence of humanity to employ such blatant lies to settle personal scores, all the while masquerading as champions of truth and justice.

Furthermore, Maulana’s claim of meeting Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, when he was a candidate during the presidential election, in Mirihana, warrants scrutiny. While the axiom seeing is believing” often holds true, it’s essential to provide context. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, during his presidential election campaign, engaged with various groups as part of his political strategy. As one such step, representatives from the political party associated with Pillai also met Maithripala Sirisena. It remains unconfirmed whether there was any interaction with Zaharan or his associates during these meetings. However, it is factual that Maulana was present at one such meeting. As mentioned previously, Maulana has since exploited this encounter to his advantage in a distasteful manner, exemplifying how international entities, including the United Nations, leverage Sri Lanka to serve their interests, a pattern that has persisted for an extended period. Had this not been the case, individuals like Anton Balasingham, who served as the theoretician of the LTTE, would not have found employment at the United Kingdom High Commission in Sri Lanka.

This raises an important question for the residents of this country, regardless of their religious affiliation. Can we unequivocally assert that there is no risk of Islamic fundamentalism spreading within our nation? Are there no factions exploiting the Easter attack for political gain? Are you aware that certain groups are attempting, albeit unsuccessfully, to implicate individuals and organisations completely unrelated to the Easter attacks, while the true culprits continue to evade justice? Through channels like Channel 4 and others, they are merely engaging in a futile charade. None of these deceitful actors possess the genuine intent to deliver justice to the victims of the Easter attack. It would be unwise to expect anything more from Channel 4.

In the face of these challenges, it falls upon the citizens of this nation to remain vigilant, discerning fact from fiction, and demanding accountability from those entrusted with safeguarding our collective well-being.

To be continued…

By Special Correspondent Courtesy Ceylon Today

A few days ago, this writer posed a critical question to an Islamic scholar of Sri Lankan heritage, now residing in Australia, regarding the Easter attacks: Was it a sinister political conspiracy? The response was unequivocal—there was no political conspiracy lurking behind the gruesome event. However, what unfolded was the grotesque exploitation of this tragedy for political gain by various factions. What transpired was the transformation of extremist ideologies, systematically indoctrinated into segments of the Muslim society over an extended period, into a violent catastrophe. Regrettably, our society, as a whole, has failed to grasp the profound social realities illuminated by this grievous incident.

The professor’s identity remains undisclosed, safeguarding his safety. Yet, the urgency lies in disseminating his insights to society at large, for only then can the State and its citizens shield themselves from future perils by truly comprehending the depths of this assault.

While conspiracy theories involving the Catholic Church and self-proclaimed human rights champions have swirled and ensnared some politicians, the majority of political figures remain fixated on one thing: cheap publicity. Be it through positive or negative means, they thrive on the spotlight, exploiting any political vulnerability to fortify their own influence. Such is the norm in this morally decayed political landscape. However, none of this resonates with the nation as a whole or the victims of this tragedy. What matters to them is uncovering the unvarnished truth behind this incident and ensuring that such horrors never plague our homeland again. In this concluding segment of the series, we endeavor to dissect these pivotal issues and delve into our societal responsibilities.

In the wake of the societal turmoil stemming from the Easter tragedy, fundamental questions beg answers. If the Easter suicide bombings were indeed the handiwork of Islamist radicals, then whose sinister plot unfolded in a Bolivarian village house in Sainthamaruthu merely five days after the aforementioned bombings? And what of the grisly torture of Mohamed Thasleem, who dared to oppose Islamic fundamentalists in the Mawanella area, just a few months prior to the Easter attacks? Why was he subjected to this brutal assault, which left him unable to walk properly even today? Was it the result of this alleged conspiracy or the culmination of prolonged violence by Islamic extremists? Has the fictional character, akin to Rip Van Winkle, reawakened four years after the Easter onslaught, woven these events into an exposé on the Easter attacks? Is this the narrative, weaved by Azad Maulana, presented before the Special Tribunal affiliated with the United Nations Human Rights Council, embraced as the unassailable truth and subsequently manipulated to tarnish an entire nation’s reputation? In simpler terms, is this a sale of political protection to an individual, ultimately besmirching the integrity of a State? These are the inevitable questions that demand answers, in accordance with one’s moral compass.

Notably, Ben de Pear, who served as a news editor at Channel 4 from 2012 to 2022 and later founded Basement Films, recently reached out to multiple sources, inquiring about the latest documentary he had produced. His questions regarding the documentary’s content were dispatched via email. Remarkably, one recipient of his email was the head of the State Intelligence Service, as confirmed by his legal representative. Both the head of the State Intelligence Service and his legal counsel furnished substantial responses to his inquiries. The four primary points raised in his email were as follows:

That you, in February of 2018, met with Mohamed Hashim Mohamed Zahran and Zainee Hashim along with other members of the National Tawheed Jamaath (hereafter NTJ) on a Coconut farm in Karadipuval, Puttulam for more than two hours, and that these same people would go on to carry out six simultaneous suicide bombings across Sri Lanka on the morning of the 21 April 2019.

That you, immediately following the meeting described above, said that if a Rajapaksa did not come back to power at the following election, both yourself and others would end up in prison. Furthermore, that you said the Rajapaksas required an unsafe situation in Sri Lanka in order for them to win said election.

That on the morning of the 21 April 2019, you placed a call to a TMVP operative asking him to travel to the Taj Samudra Hotel in Colombo as quickly as possible to pick up someone outside and take their phone from them.

That you played a large role in the orchestration of the Easter Bombings. That not only did you have prior knowledge of the plans of the suicide bombers but facilitated their actions.

Ben de Pear seemingly did not anticipate the swift response from the head of the State Intelligence Service. By that time, he had completed his ‘Investigative Documentary’ for Five and Channel 4 had already secured a date and time for its broadcast. Evidently, a substantial financial investment had been poured into this documentary, which encompasses numerous recordings captured in Sri Lanka over several days.

It is, undoubtedly, commendable to seek perspectives from individuals, including the head of the State Intelligence Service, who find themselves under scrutiny in Ben de Pear’s documentary. However, expending time and resources on the presumption that a meticulously fabricated falsehood is true, all in an effort to evade accountability for financial misconduct against the vulnerable citizens of our nation, with the intention of securing ‘political asylum’ in another country, amounts to a mockery of the ethical principles underpinning the art of journalism. For, at the core of any journalistic product, as in any other field, lies the bedrock of credibility. Credibility hinges not solely on the individuals commenting on an event but also on the integrity of the data associated with that event. Only through this rigorous adherence to facts can events be authentically substantiated.

The head of the State Intelligence Service, along with his legal counsel, promptly responded to the inquiries posed by Ben de Pear. It is also reported that Ben de Pear has affirmed the receipt of these pertinent responses. The extent to which these responses have been incorporated into the documentary cannot be definitively ascertained without a comprehensive viewing of the documentary itself.

One significant observation to be made is that Ben de Pear and his team subsequently opted to discreetly modify the title of the documentary in question. Initially slated for broadcast on 15 August, it bore the title ‘Special Documentary Investigating one of the biggest atrocities of recent years, featuring exclusive testimony of three whistle blowers and what they say about who was behind the huge attack’. However, two weeks later, it underwent another alteration, emerging as ‘Sri Lanka’s Easter… Bombings – Dispatches: Shocking new revelations about Sri Lanka’s deadly Easter bombings of 2019, as high-placed whistle blowers allege complicity by officials inside the Government’. This change raises questions regarding the documentary’s sources and underscores the doubts that have since arisen within its ownership.

Furthermore, providing direct and unequivocal answers to the queries posed by the head of the National Intelligence Service assumes paramount importance. Therefore, it is imperative to summarise his response as follows:

First and foremost, I extend my gratitude to you for reaching out to me prior to the telecast, broadcast, or publication of the purportedly false allegations provided by your ill-informed sources. It is indeed a fundamental principle of justice to allow the accused to present their response before any dissemination of potentially damaging information.

I wish to categorically state that I hold no involvement whatsoever in the events you have mentioned, nor do I have any association with the individuals referenced in your communication. It is important for the sake of accuracy and fairness that this fact is clarified for the record.

For the first and second points referred in your letter, I must register that the facts present therein are outright false. I must emphasise that during the specified period, I was not present in Sri Lanka. To be precise, I was entrusted with the position of Minister-Counsellor at Sri Lankan diplomatic mission in Malaysia during the specified timeframe. This can be readily verified with the Malaysian authorities, who can attest to my official presence in Malaysia during the entirety of that period. For the third point referred in your letter, I must reiterate that the facts present therein also are outright false. Likewise in above, during the specified period, I was not present in Sri Lanka. For the fourth point referred in your letter, I must re-reiterate that the facts present therein also are outright false and I have no connection whatsoever in the Easter Bombing.

I wish to bring to your kind notice that there is already a lawsuit filed by my lawyers pending in the Courts in Sri Lanka on defamation over the similar baseless allegations levelled against me by several other parties.    

While I acknowledge the importance of investigative journalism and the media’s role in informing the public about actual historical and political context of the Easter Bombings and the consequences for Sri Lanka, I earnestly hope that you will honour and respect my legal rights. Should you proceed with the telecast, broadcast, or publication of any material connected to Easter Bombings in the interest of investigative journalism but intentionally or unintentionally aimed at tarnishing my reputation without substantial evidence, I must regrettably inform you of my intention to take legal recourse. This would extend to jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom, where I am committed to seeking redress in order to protect my reputation from unwarranted defamation. I trust that the principles of fairness, accuracy and justice will guide your decision-making process in this matter. I believe in the importance of a transparent and just society, and I am confident that any responsible media entity would uphold these values.”

Suresh Sallay’s attorney has indeed confirmed that he provided written responses to the allegations. It’s a matter that even someone with basic knowledge would grasp: Offering such a clear and documented response in writing when there’s nothing to hide. However, due to the continuous propagation of the conspiracy theory surrounding the Easter attack, the truth has not only been suppressed but has also created an ideal environment for concealing the real forces behind this heinous event.

A telling example of this deception emerged when Zahran suddenly travelled to Puttalam to meet a lawyer living in Colombo, as mentioned by Zahran’s wife, Hadiya. Shortly thereafter, he acquired land in that area. Azad Maulana has strategically manipulated this incident for his personal benefit, but there is a concealed narrative concerning those who provided treatment to Saharan’s brother, Rilwan, injured while inspecting explosive materials on the same land a few days later. Curiously, this incident was not included in his statement to the United Nations Human Rights Office. Evidently, he crafts his statements meticulously to serve his personal agenda rather than to unveil the truth.

What social responsibility lies with Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith and those who have tirelessly sought justice for the victims of this attack through numerous domestic and international endeavours? Four years after the attack, an individual has come forward with a scripted account. However, for the past four years, such a step was not taken and he provides no admissible evidence when tailoring his narrative to suit himself.

The pressing question arises: Did he function as the intermediary for these shadowy figures, secretly engaging with Islamic fundamentalists and misappropriating the funds they received under false pretenses? If not, how can he account for a staggering sum of Rs 70 million deposited into one of his personal accounts? How did an individual who once resided in a rented house become the owner of three properties in the Colombo District in an astonishingly short span of time?

Given these facts, it becomes the responsibility of Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith and the Catholic Church to call for the immediate arrest of Azad Maulana, taking into consideration the information he has presented. Azad Maulana has publicly admitted to having close dealings with the suicide bombers responsible for the Easter attack, offering the strongest evidence for his prosecution. Even if a criminal is dubbed a whistleblower, it does not absolve him of the crimes committed.

In this context, Channel 4 must heed a critical legal note of its own, stating, Programme-makers should proceed with caution when filming with criminals or when filming criminal activity generally, and should seek legal advice before filming takes place if possible.” It further underscores that the person admitting the criminal behaviour could be prosecuted after transmission and the film, including rushes, could be obtained by the Police through a Court order and used as evidence. [https://www.channel 4.com/producers-handbook/media-law/programmes-involving-criminal-activity}

It is not solely the responsibility of the Government of Sri Lanka, but also that of the Catholic Church, human rights activists, and ethical media organisations to expeditiously fulfill their obligations in the name of the victims of the bombings. The purpose behind this entire drama, Maulana Azad’s involvement, must be clarified. Ultimately, one cannot help but wonder if this isn’t yet another tale akin to Gania Bastion’s. In the end, Ben de Pear may come to realise that he has much to learn from his colleagues, such as Paul McNamura, Guy Basnett, and other genuine investigative journalists. It may also become evident that Azad Maulana is just another minor character in the world’s extensive lineage of fraudsters, joining the ranks of William Thompson, Charles Ponzi, Victor Lustig, Sylvia Browne, Frank Abagnale.

Finally, a crucial point demands our attention — the significant societal impact on the Easter attack cannot be underestimated. This influence has eroded the effectiveness of the legal measures the State had aimed to implement against radicalisation. Consequently, the true culprits behind this attack have adeptly exploited their social connections to elude the grasp of the law.

Fortunately, however, like any other crime, a body of admissible evidence remains at our disposal, enabling us to attain a precise understanding of this reprehensible act. Foremost among these sources is Zaharan’s wife, Hadiya, who stands as the primary witness. Furthermore, individuals like Mohamed Thasleem offer invaluable insights into the depths of this harrowing social reality. In this context, Channel 4, masquerading as an investigative journalism entity, has effectively limited our ability to uncover the genuine truth. In simpler terms, it becomes apparent that Channel 4 has not only provided unchecked autonomy to an individual who spent a decade in their ranks, but has also allowed this individual to obscure the truth of a grave crime, all while pursuing personal ambitions as a shrewd manipulator. I invite anyone to challenge these contentions if they can be substantiated otherwise. True investigative journalism operates in stark contrast.

On the other hand, the shared responsibility of both the State and the people of Sri Lanka lies in offering discerning responses to these fabrications, rather than blindly accepting everything disseminated by foreign sources as absolute truth.

Concluded

By Special Correspondent

By Divya Chandrababu Courtesy The Hindustan Times

The Sri Lankan convicts have been lodged in the foreigners’ detention camp in Tamil Nadu’s Trichy until their deportation

Chennai: The Union government has informed the Madras high court that it has taken steps to deport all the four Sri Lankans, convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, to Sri Lanka.

Four of the 6 convicts in the case, who were released by the Supreme Court last November are Sri Lankan nationals.

Since all the four Sri Lankan nationals –Santan, Sriharan alias Murugan, Jayakumar and Rober Payas — arrived in India illegally by boat and do not possess valid Sri Lankan travel documents, passport…,” the Foreigners Regional Registration Office in Chennai said in his affidavit that they have been lodged in the foreigners detention camp in Tamil Nadu’s Trichy until their deportation.

It has been communicated to the Minister of External Affairs (MEA) to issue travel documents to the four Sri Lankans, the department submitted to the single bench of justice N Seshasayee on Thursday. The submissions were made based on the plea of one of the released convict’s S Nalini, seeking for her husband and fellow convict Sriharan alias Murugan to be released from the camp so they can apply for a passport to live with their daughter in Europe.

Since the communication from MEA (Consular division) is awaited, her representation was kept pending at our end,” stated the government’s affidavit.

Courtesy AdaDerana

President Ranil Wickremesinghe and his Cuban counterpart Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez engaged in a bilateral meeting in Havana this morning (15 Sep.), and the two leaders have reinforced the bonds of friendship and dialogue between the two nations.

Sri Lankan President’s arrival in Cuba was marked by a warm welcome, as he received a Guard of Honour at the Palace of Revolution. President Díaz-Canel Bermudez expressed Cuba’s appreciation for the visit, emphasizing its significance during these challenging times globally.

He praised Sri Lanka’s commitment to friendship with Cuba and to the vital role played by the G77 and China in representing the global South.

In their discussions, President Wickremesinghe recalled the history of bilateral cooperation between Sri Lanka and Cuba, particularly in multilateral forums. Both nations have supported each other on issues like lifting sanctions against Cuba and human rights matters. They identified areas of future cooperation, including public health, agriculture and sports.

President Díaz-Canel accepted President Wickremesinghe’s invitation to visit Sri Lanka in 2024, underscoring Cuba’s continued support for Sri Lanka. He also highlighted Cuba’s role in addressing North-South gaps in Science, Technology and Innovation, expressing willingness to share expertise, particularly in vaccine development.

The two leaders emphasized the importance of bolstering the relationship between their countries, focusing on collaboration in medicine, healthcare, sports training and coconut cultivation. President Wickremesinghe expressed Sri Lanka’s commitment to supporting Cuba in international forums, while President Díaz-Canel assured support for Sri Lanka regarding human rights resolutions.

This meeting represents a significant step forward in strengthening diplomatic ties between Sri Lanka and Cuba, with far-reaching implications for both nations and the broader global community. President Wickremesinghe was accompanied by key officials, including Secretary Foreign Affairs Ms. Aruni Wijewardane, the Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Cuba Mr. Lakshitha Ratnayake, the Director General of the United Nations and Multilateral Affairs Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ms. Rekha Gunasekera and Private Secretary to the President Ms. Sandra Perera.

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Courtesy AdaDerana

President Ranil Wickremesinghe has appointed a three-member committee to investigate the allegations in the documentary aired by British television network Channel 4 on the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks in Sri Lanka.

The committee, chaired by retired Supreme Court Justice S.I. Imam, consists of retired Air Force Commander A.C.M. Jayalath Weerakkody and President’s Counsel Harsha A.J. Soza PC.

On September 06, Channel 4 aired a controversial documentary containing startling accusations relating to the bombings on Easter Sunday (April 21) in 2019 which targeted several Catholic churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka. The carnage claimed the lives of more than 260 people and left hundreds of others wounded.

Channel 4’s new ‘Dispatches’ investigation titled ‘Sri Lanka’s Easter Bombings’ is a nearly 50-minute-long videos with serious, yet straightforward allegations about the attacks. It was based on the testimonies of high-placed whistleblowers who alleged that senior governmental officials were complicit in this heinous act.

The main whistleblower Hanzeer Azad Maulana was a spokesman for LTTE’s breakaway group Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pullikal (TMVP) led by current State Minister of Rural Road Development Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan.

According to the documentary, Maulana, who has sought asylum overseas after facing fraud charges here, has witnessed a meeting in Puttalam in 2018, between the suicide bombers and a top Sri Lankan intelligence officer prior to the Easter Sunday attacks.

Claiming that he had, on the directives of Pillayan, arranged the said meeting between then-army intelligence chief Major General Suresh Sallay and the National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ) members including its leader Zahran Hashim, Maulana said the plot to create insecurity in the country to pave way for former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to win the presidential election later in 2019 was hatched over 2-3 years.

The documentary, which recapped the country’s political situation, also gave a lengthy commentary on former presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa and Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s time in power and their attempts to return to power after election defeats.

Recalling the 2009 disappearance of journalist Lasantha Wickrematunga who was a prominent critic of the then-government, the ‘Dispatches’ investigation video claimed that Mahinda Rajapaksa’s administration had formed a clandestine death squad called the ‘Tripoli Platoon’ with the support of Pillayan’s group to crack down on anti-government media persons.

It had interviewed former senior CID officer Nishantha Silva who was investigating the disappearance of Wickrematunga. He claimed that he found phone record evidence putting ‘Tripoli Platoon’ members at the scene and that Gotabaya Rajapaksa had ‘direct monitoring’ of this death squad.

The documentary also presented testimonies from His Eminence Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, journalist Frederica Jansz who was a witness in the ‘White Flag’ case, the brother of journalist Lasantha Wickrematunga, former commissioner of Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) Ambika Satkunanathan and former diplomat Sarath Kongahage.

However, Kongahage later accused the British television network of distorting his comments from the interview. Calling a media briefing on September 12, the former ambassador said Channel 4 had used his remarks out of context.

Meanwhile, former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa also hit out at the documentary, deeming it an anti-Rajapaksa tirade aimed at blackening the Rajapaksa legacy from 2005 onwards and is a tissue of lies just like the previous films broadcast by the same channel.”

The Defence Ministry and Major General Sallay went on to categorically deny the claims that the latter was complicit in orchestrating the bombings.

A statement from the ministry stressed that the terrorists involved in the suicide attacks had never been on the government’s payroll, and vowed to unequivocally hold Channel 4 accountable for any unforeseen actions or repercussions stemming from their unfounded, malevolent and poorly substantiated” claims in the video.

However, opposition members including Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa and Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith have called for an independent, transparent and broad international investigation into the alleged plot behind the Easter Sunday carnage.

Courtesy AdaDerana

The new Central Bank Act, aimed at bolstering the bank’s independence, accountability and price stability in the country, comes into effect today (15 Sep.), Acting Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said.

Accordingly, the Acting Minister explained that as per the new Act, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka’s (CBSL) ability to print money will be limited, as opposed to their manners of printing money, rather excessively, in the recent past.

He emphasised that such money printing would be allowed only under special circumstances, such as a concern of national security or a global health crisis, adding that only an amount not exceeding 5% of the value of the issued Treasury Bills can be printed.

Siyamabalapitiya further explained that the CBSL will now be required to work towards achieving the set inflation target, and in the event it fails to do so, it will be required to explain why.

Meanwhile, with regards to appointments to the General Board of Governors of CBSL, Siyambalapitiya emphasised that the Treasury Secretary will no longer be involved in this process. He added that the qualifications required for such appointments have also been listed in the new CBSL Act, while all such appointments will require approval from the Constitutional Council.

Courtesy AdaDerana

Sri Lanka bank ratings are unaffected by the downgrade of Sri Lanka’s Long-Term Local-Currency Issuer Default Rating to ‘RD’ from ‘C’, says Fitch Ratings.

On 14 September 2023, the global credit rating agency downgraded the sovereign’s Long-Term Local-Currency Issuer Default Rating following the completion of an exchange of treasury bonds for longer-dated ones, which forms a part of the broader domestic debt optimisation program. The exchange of treasury bills held by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) has yet to be completed.

In a statement, Fitch said: We do not believe the completion of the first phase of the restructuring of the sovereign’s local-currency obligations is likely to trigger a loss of depositor confidence in the banking system, leading to a widespread default within the financial system, including for non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs). As such, we expect the banks to continue to service their local-currency obligations, given their better funding and liquidity profiles relative to that of the sovereign.”

Fitch says it continues to maintain the Rating Watch Negative (RWN) on Sri Lanka banks and NBFI’s ratings to reflect the potential for deterioration in their creditworthiness relative to other entities on the Sri Lankan national ratings scale. This reflects near-term downside risks to credit profiles from spill-over effects from the remainder of the sovereign’s debt restructuring, while access to wholesale foreign-currency funding remains constrained.

Further clarity around the sovereign debt restructuring process, particularly on the foreign-currency debt, that points to a reduction in stresses that have affected the banking sector in the past several quarters, would result in a resolution of the RWN with affirmation of the bank ratings.

While the local banks have been spared from the rupee debt restructuring, we believe that the broader economic conditions remain challenging as reflected in the expected contraction of the economy and high volatility of economic variables. This may still place downward pressure on individual credit profiles, particularly for NBFIs, which tend to be more exposed to cyclically sensitive segments.

We believe that the re-assessment of the sovereign credit profile following the completion of the debt exchange with CBSL will influence the ratings of the banks and NBFIs, given the high interconnectedness.”

While the domestic debt optimisation programme is nearing completion, uncertainties prevail over the completion of the foreign-currency sovereign debt restructuring. Any doubts over this could weigh on the banking sector with spillover effects to the NBFIs, given the banks’ exposure to defaulted foreign-currency sovereign bonds, albeit they make up a small share of sector assets (3.6% of assets at end-1H23).

–Fitch Ratings

By Rohana R. Wasala

It would be obvious to the correctly informed impartial observer that Sri Lanka’s age-old Buddhist religious cultural establishment is under unprovoked attack both within the country and outside of it. The current controversy about Channel 4’s latest film on Sri Lanka concerning the Easter Sunday suicide bombings carried out by Islamic Jihadist terrorists four years ago is merely a smokescreen created to conceal a hoped-for critical final phase of that anti-Buddhist operation. This reference to the cacophonous Channel 4 prattle should not be regarded as something out of context. According to Lanka C News (September 12, 2023), the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) leader MP R. Sampanthan (90) has called for the immediate arrest of all those mentioned in that documentary. He may be trying to push home the potential propaganda advantage gained through the obviously fake Easter Sunday attack film incriminating Gotabaya Rajapaksa (about whose guilt or innocence I am not concerned here) in the long drawn anti-Sinhala Buddhist campaign. Sampanthan may not be aware of the fact that the Channel 4 documentary’s main “whistleblower” Azad Maulana has already been locally exposed as a former close associate of the Islamist suicide bombers, though later he was allegedly employed by the UNHRC as a Shelter Cluster Coordinator by its letter to him dated January 19, 2023 (Ref. Exclusive: Is Azad Maulana, Linked to Easter Sunday Suicide Bombers Employed by the UN?/Sri Lanka Guardian/September 12, 2023). The UNHRC personnel could have been victims of misinformation in this case. According to the Sri Lanka Guardian feature, Azad Maulana and a health professional by the name of Mohamed Safraz Mohamed Zufian had played a significant role in obtaining medical treatment for Rilvan Hashim, brother of Zaharan Hashim, at the Colombo General Hospital without revealing his true identity and the real circumstances in which he sustained his injuries, when he (Rilvan) got injured while experimenting with explosives in Kattankudy a few months before the Easter Sunday bombings that were carried out on April 21, 2019. 

The relentless onslaught on the Sinhala Buddhist cultural heritage of the country is seemingly justified by linking the latter, without rhyme or reason, to the chronic political instability and the still raging post-pandemic economic crisis. These baseless attacks are unprecedented in their subtleness and severity. Buddhism is exclusively targeted for assault as an ideological obstacle to the implementation of secular  principles of democratic governance. No one in their right mind, if equipped with even a smattering knowledge of Buddhism, would adopt such a negative view of the probably most secular as well as the most nonpolitical religion in the world. 

In this context, the term secularism means ‘the principle of separation of state from religious institutions’. But  this is not the sense in which it is used by Sinhala speaking critics of the Buddhist cultural establishment either through sheer ignorance or deliberate mischief. The Sinhala word they use for the neutral English adjective ‘secular’ is the negative ‘niragamika’, which means ‘without religion’ or even ‘against religion’. Those who are supposed to hold secular  views (secularists) are misleadingly termed ‘niragamikayo in Sinhala’ or ‘people who have no religion’. Most unsophisticated common people seem to think that niragamikayas are immoral people who have no religion. They have no knowledge of secularism in governance (the concept of governance that is free from constraints due to religious interference in policy making). This is made worse by the fact that, ironically, the so-called secularists seem to identify Buddhism as the only religion that challenges secularism (whereas the truth is the exact opposite).

The identity of the indigenous  ethnic majority (the Sinhalese) is culturally and spiritually rooted in the Buddhist civilisational foundation laid by Mahinda Thera who arrived from India/Bharata (or Jambudweepa as it is called in the Mahavamsa) in the 3rd century BCE. Sinhalese Buddhist culture is, at the same time, an exceptionally tolerant and perfectly inclusive one, that has accommodated within its friendly embrace non-Buddhist minorities and cultures for many centuries. Traditionally, over the millennia, the Buddhists monks have acted and have been recognized as the guardians of the dominant/majority Buddhist culture, the country and the people. Today’s aggrieved monks and the lay Buddhists that they minister to have no missionary, political or economic motives. What they expect and demand the government, whatever party or alliance is in power, to do is to help, through legal means, to protect the particularly vulnerable poverty-stricken Buddhists from unethical conversion by numerous  extremist Abrahamic religious groups lavishly funded by foreign donors; these subversive sects are usually disowned by  leaders of the corresponding mainstream religions.

I don’t think state involvement in the matter is legally possible or feasible, although the current republican constitution hints at such a possibility by virtue of Article 9; but that is a different aspect of the problem. Buddhists have no quarrel with voluntary conversion through personal conviction and Buddhism (which is virtually a secular spiritual doctrine that emphasises enlightenment through self-realisation as the supreme goal) has naturally no apostasy laws. This makes the Buddhist establishment vulnerable to displacement by faith based proselytising religions which have inbuilt safeguards against apostasy (something alien to Buddhism)  in a world where economic concerns take precedence over spiritual considerations. In better off secular democratic societies (e.g., Australia), however, people have now begun to treat coercive unsolicited conversion attempts directed at individuals or communities as violating their fundamental rights and freedoms as civilised humans. 

Another cogent demand of Buddhists is that government authorities stop the encroachment, vandalization, or destruction of the Buddhist archaeological heritage sites of the north and east provinces of the  country through the strict implementation of archaeological preservation acts already operative including the supposedly powerful Antiquity Ordinance No. 9 of 1940 (introduced in British times). This is something that can be done with the consent and cooperation of the minority Tamils and Muslims who form the majorities, respectively, of the northern and eastern parts. In fact, they can be easily convinced about the importance of these archaeological treasures which are the proud inheritance of inestimable value shared equally by all the communities inhabiting the island today. 

Latest discovered archeological evidence proves that, as we knew all along, the ancestors of the Sinhalese did not come to inhabit Sri Lanka from its big northern neighbour India/Bharata or elsewhere, but had evolved as the indigenous ruling tribe, the Yakkha people. The Sinhalese are descendants of these Yakkhas.  In September 2009, a research team including foreign experts led by archaeologist the late Dr Shiran Deraniyagala  unearthed significant evidence of a pre-Vijayan civilization in Anuradhapura in the form of potsherds with Brahmi inscriptions, fragments of gold jewellery, teeth of horses, remains of underground drains and brick walls and a muragala (guard stone), which, according to carbon-dating, were assigned to a period at least 300 years before the alleged arrival of the legendary prince Vijaya. This civilization belonged to the Yakkhas. 

I stated above that the majority Sinhalese Buddhist community are being subjected to cultural genocide. What is cultural genocide?

Article 2 of the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines genocide as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” (from the Legal Information Institute quoted in the Wikipedia) 

According to the Wikipedia again “The legal definition of genocide is unspecific about the exact way in which genocide is committed, only stating that it is destruction with the intent to destroy a racial, religious, ethnic or national group.

Among many other potential reasons, cultural genocide may be committed for religious motives (e.g., iconoclasm); as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing in order to remove the evidence of a people from a specific locale or history; as part of an effort to implement a Year Zero, in which the past and its associated culture is deleted and history is “reset”.”

About cultural genocide, we have this in the Wikipedia: “Cultural genocide or cultural cleansing is a concept which was proposed by lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944 as a component of genocide.^[1] Though the precise definition of cultural genocide remains contested, the Armenian Genocide Museum defines it as “acts and measures undertaken to destroy nations’ or ethnic groups’ culture through spiritual, national, and cultural destruction”.

The Google dictionary defines the word nation as “a large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory”. The Sinhalese are a fully fledged nation according to this definition. They are a large body of people united by a common descent,  with a hallowed history (longer than that recorded in the Mahavamsa and other chronicles),  a unique culture whose firm civilizational base came to be Theravada Buddhism, a locally evolved language that had a developed orthography that enabled the up to  then orally transmitted Pali language scriptures of Theravada Buddhism to be committed to writing at Matale in the middle part of the island in the first century BCE, and most of all, with a country of their own, their island home (The Sinhalese originated in their island, just as the Sinhala language did, which goes without saying). 

Isn’t ‘cultural genocide’ the right term to describe what the Sinhalese Buddhists, the majority community, have been constantly subjected to for the whole of the post-independence period in the form of religious subversion and ethnically divisive politics? 

To mention just a few instances suggestive of cultural genocide targeting Sinhalese Buddhists in the course of roughly the past five decades where they found cause for alarm:  ethically unacceptable conversion of poverty stricken Buddhists by many diverse foreign funded fundamentalist Abrahamic religious groups (avowedly unrelated to the mainstream Catholic/Christian and Muslim communities) mostly through persuasive verbal as well as more enticing economic blandishments. Of course, poor Tamil Hindus are subjected to the same aggressive religious conversion attempts. Instances of encroachment or vandalizing of ancient Buddhist archaeological sites in violation of the celebrated antiquities and archaeological ordinances established long ago in British times, deliberate state connivance at the growth of virulent fundamentalist groups (the Easter Sunday suicide bomb attacks of 2019 come to mind), alleged sterilization (highlighted in the social media) of Sinhalese mothers by a particular doctor without their consent during child delivery (which allegation, fortunately, was later declared, hopefully after due scrutiny, to be a mischievous fabrication by some troublemakers), persecuting well meaning whistleblowers such as Gnanasara Thera and young lay activist Amith Weerasinghe through the apparent manipulation or misleading of the law enforcement authorities, exploiting the the monk’s and the young lay activist’s ingenuousness and lack of sophistication (Had their various timely warnings been taken seriously and due investigations conducted, the Easter Sunday attacks that claimed about 270 {274 according to some} innocent lives and grievously injured over 500 could have been avoided). Can’t this planned discrimination and ill-treatment of one of the world’s oldest civilized races without the flimsiest justification in political, economic, social or religious terms be best described as a form of genocide (I call it cultural genocide)? I stop short of citing certain recent events which are too obvious to mention in this text. 

Meanwhile, our temporal and spiritual leaders, through their crazy doings and inane utterances, are proving themselves to be a set of perfect buffoons. They are facilitating the cultural genocide I am talking about.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය 

පළාත් සභා හා පළාත් පාලන නීති කාලයට ගැලපෙන සේ වෙනස් විය යුතුයි…-අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන මහතා

අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා මේ බව සඳහන් කළේ අද  (2023.09.14) පළාත් සභා හා පළාත් පාලන අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ප්‍රගති සමාලෝචනයට එක් වෙමිනි.

එහිදී අදහස් දැක්වූ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා –   

බස්නාහිර පළාතේ ඝන අපද්‍රව්‍ය කළමණාකරණය හරියට කෙරෙන්නේ නැහැ කියලා  ජනතාවගෙන් දැඩි විරෝධයක් තියෙනවා. විශේෂයෙන් ගම්පහ හා කොළඹ දිස්ත්‍රික්කවල අපද්‍රව්‍ය වැඩියි. බස්නාහිර පළාතේකුණු ප්‍රශ්නය සම්බන්ධයෙන් මෙගා පොලිස් සැලැස්මෙන් හදුනාගෙන තිබෙනවා. මීතොටමුල්ල කුණු කන්ද කඩා වැටුණා. තවමත් කුණු කසල කළමණාකරණයට නිසි පියවර අරන් නැහැ. හදිසි ගංවතුර තත්ත්වයක් ඇති වුණොත් මුළු කොළඹ දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේම යට වෙනවා. ගම්පහ යටවෙනවා. මේ වගේ දේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් මහජනයාගේ පැත්තෙන් සිතන්න. ‍

වසර කිහිපයක සිට තිබෙන සේවකයින් ස්ථීර කිරීමේ ගැටලුව ඉදිරි අයවැයෙන් විසඳන්න උත්සහ කරනවා. එහිදී පුමුඛත්වය දිය යුතු තැන් සම්බන්ධයෙන් තවමත් වාර්තාවක් නැහැ. කොළඹ දිස්ත්‍රික්කය තුළ වරිපනම් අයකිරිම් තවමත් නිසි පරිදි සිදු වෙන්නේ නැහැ. කොළඹ, ගම්පහ, කළුතර දිස්ත්‍රික්ක ඇතුළත් බස්නාහිර පළාත කියන්නේ ලංකාවේ පෝසත්ම පළාත. පොහොසත්ම පළාතේ වරිපනම් අයකිරීම් නිසිපරිදි සිදුවෙන්නේ නැත්නම් අමාත්‍යංශයක් විදියට දෝෂාරෝපණ චෝදනා එල්ල වෙනවා.   

ඈත ගම්වල ආදාහනාගාරයක් නැහැ. ඒ වගේ ව්‍යාපෘතියකට මහා භාණ්ඩාගාරයට මුදල් දෙන්න බෑ කියන්න බැහැ. සමහර නගර සභාවල දෙක තුන තියෙනවා. වැඩ කරන්නේ එකයි. ඈත පළාත් වලට ආදාහනාගාරයක් නැත්නම් මොකක්ද තත්වය. නාගරික ප්‍රදේශවල ආදාහනය කරන්න යන වියදම  සහ ක්‍රමවේදය ගැන විශේෂ අවධානය යොමු කළ යුතුයි.  

පළාත් සභාවටත් පළාත් පාලන ආයතනවලට සහ  අනුබුද්ධ සහයෝගය දක්වන මූල්‍යමය ආයතනයන් එකතු කරගෙන අළුත් ප්‍රවේශයකට ගමන් කිරීම අවශ්‍යයි. පුනර්ජනනීය බලශක්තිය, අපද්‍රව්‍ය ක්ෂේත්‍රය ඒ වගේම තොරතුරු තාක්ෂණය වඩාත් උපයෝගී කරගෙන ඩිජිටල් තාක්ෂණය ප්‍රයෝජනයට ගැනීම සඳහා කටයුතු කිරීමේ අවශ්‍යතාවය ගැන විශේෂයෙන් සාකච්ඡා කොට අවධානය යොමු කළ යුතු වෙනවා. මහ නගර සභා ආඥා පනත අරගෙන බැලුවොත් කොපමණ දේවල් කරන්න පුළුවන්ද? නමුත් කොයි තරම් දේවල් කරන්නෙ නැද්ද? මේ දේවල් තෝරා බේරාගන්න විශේෂ සම්මන්ත්‍රණයක්   නිලධාරීන්ට පැවැත්විය යුතුයි. සභා වල ඉන්න බොහෝ දෙනෙක් මේ ආඥා පනත වත් කියවල නැහැ.

අපේ පළාත් පාලන ආයතන බිහි වී තිබෙන්නේ අපේ ප්‍රදේශවල ජනතාවගේ පහසුකම් සහ සන්තෘෂ්ටිය ඇති කරන්නයි. බදු ගෙවන්න කියලා බල කරත් ඒ අය බදු ගෙවන්නේ යමක් බලාපොරොත්තුවෙන්. සේවාවන්, ආරක්ෂාව, දරුවන්ගේ දියුණුව, හොඳ පරිසරයක් ආදී දේවල් රාශියක් එයට අන්තර්ගතයි. පළාත් සභාවන් නොමැති අවස්ථාවක ආණ්ඩුකාරතුමාට බලතල ප්‍රමාණයක් ඒකරාශී වී තිබෙනවා. මේවා ක්‍රියාත්මක කර ගැනීමට මැදිහත් වී හෝ උපදෙස් දීමේ හැකියාව මෙම අමාත්‍යංශයට තිබෙනවා. පළාත් සභා නවයයි තියෙන්නේ. නිලධාරීන් හැටියට පළාත් සභා නවය සමඟ නිරන්තර සංවාදයක් සිදු විය යුතුමයි.  අඩු ආදායම් ලබන ජනතාව වෙනුවෙන් සේවය කරන්න. අපිට ආධාර ලැබෙනවා. ඒ ආධාර වල එක කොටසක් අඩුම ආධාර ලබන ජනතාවගේ ජීවන තත්වය  ඉහලනැංවීම සඳහා යොමුකරන්න කියලා තමයි ආධාර දෙන්නේ. ඒ ගැන අපට වැඩ පිළිවෙළක් තිබිය යුතුයි. පළාත් සභා හා පළාත් පාලන ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ විවිධ නීති රීති වෙනස්කම් වලට භාජනය කළ යුතුයි.

රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය ජානක වක්කුඹුර සහ රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරීහූ මෙම අවස්ථාවට සහභාගි වූහ.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය 

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