Warner and Khawaja are of the age where their respective performances as opening batsmen for Australia are of paramount importance. They cannot afford to be dropped and selected again to the national team based on their respective ages at thirty six years of age respectively.
The Australian team has included Warner too long based on his past performances and Khawaja even if he keeps making the same mistakes again time after time. I will be more specific in regard to both Warner and Khawaja.
Warner in my view is past his best. He chases wide deliveries outside his off stump and drags some deliveries to his stumps from way outside off stump. He does not seem to know where his off stump is and at times nicks deliveries outside his off stump to the slips or wicket keeper. He plays the half pull, which is a non-effectual stoke which has also brought his demise on a few occasions. Round the wicket by a right arm pace men targeting him just on a fourth stump line is good enough to bring the downfall of Warner these days, which was not necessarily the case in the past when Warner was in good form and scoring runs consistently.
Khawaja is like David Gower in some ways as he is causal does not move his feet precisely forward or back and is front on rather than being side on when playing defensively off the back foot. He also plays away from his body on the back foot and does not get right to the pitch of the ball or delivery when playing off the front foot. He also does not have a traditional V Grip when holding the bat. His stance is also too much opened or two eyed stance rather than being side on when facing a bowler. Khawaja is not a quick runner of singles and does not look to get singles in order to rotate the strike regularly. He keeps making the same mistakes gain and again. He also likes to feel ball on bat and plays at deliveries outside his off stump when he should be leaving them alone as they are good deliveries bowled on a fourth stump line. He therefore is not sure like Warner where his off stump is. So in conclusion I feel Warner and Khawaja should be given their final opportunities or chances at the Oval in London in the upcoming fifth Test Match against England and if their performances are not good, drop them and look for young blood, as it is vitally required or needed in the Australian Men’s national team.
When baseless allegations were raised on the international platform, China remained a true friend, standing shoulder to shoulder with us, and providing us with the necessary understanding and backing’ said the Defence Secrtary General Kamal Gunaratne speaking at a ceremony held to celebrate the 96th Anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army of China, on Monday (Jul 24).
Recalling the long standing friendship between the two countries Gen. Gunaratne said that our countries have shared strong diplomatic ties and have cooperated in various fields, particularly in defence and security”.
Both Sri Lanka and China value peace and stability in the region and the world at large, he said the armed forces of both nations play a vital role in upholding this commitment, ensuring the safety of our people, and contributing to regional and global security.
Ambassador of China H. E. Qi Zhenhong received the Chief Guest of the occasion, Defence Secretary Gen. Gunaratne and Chithrani Gunaratne on their arrival at the Shangri La hotel, Colombo last evening.
The PLA’s remarkable journey from its inception to its current form as a modern and formidable force is a testament to China’s determination to safeguard its sovereignty and promote regional stability”, he went on saying.
He expressed gratitude to China for its solidarity and assistance during the conflict.
Their unwavering commitment to our nation’s well-being played a pivotal role in our journey towards peace and stability” he added.
Ministers, Parliamentarians, Chief of Defence Staff, Tri Forces Commanders, Chief of National Intelligence, former military Commanders, Military Liaison Officer of the MOD, Chinese Defence Attache Senior Col. Zhou Bo, members of the diplomatic community and senior tri forces officers were also present at the occasion.
I fully agree with PC Manohara.This kind of pardoning is something unheard and unseen in Statecraft anywhere in the world. Pardoning two convicted and sentenced criminals who waged war against the State, (one for life and the other for 200 years, thereby making the supreme court a mockery) in the public eye. It is crystal clear that this decision of the President is aimed at winning Tamil support at the next Presidential election. I am not a lawyer. But, even as a lay man, I think this type of decisions, that appears to be a gross abuse of supreme executive power and misuse of prerogative authority to gain highly personal benefits should be condemned by everybody who love the country and therefore warrants immediate withdrawal from constitutional or legal texts in the interests of the country and the general public, so that no future President will indulge in this type of abuses for personal gain. It is best therefore, that this type of judicial decisions should be left as an exceptional prerogative of the court.
Furthermore, it appears that the President has completely forgotten that he was elected by the Parliament for the vacancy created by the resignation of Gotabhaya prematurely only for the period left behind by him. Moreover, it was the same Parliament elected in 2020 on a specific election manifesto, in addition to the 2019 manifesto of Gotabhaya, both of which he has to strictly abide by until the next Presidential election in 2025.
As such he has no legal authority to bypass or exceed the unprecedented mandate given to Gotabhaya by 69 m voters in 2019 and the mandate given to SLPP in 2020. He also should not forget how he and his party were routed in the 2020 general election, even without a single seat in Parliament. It is external manipulation and sheer that luck brought from his previous birth and the miscalculations and lack of foresight on the part of the SLPP, which it has already realized by now. If the SLPP withdraws its support the match will be over.
Therefore, whatever he does as President, it has to be within the framework of the above mentioned two mandates. As far As I know he has no public mandate or ay constitutional provision take decisions like this. Any decision taken contrary to them will be unconstitutional, illegal, immoral and unethical. The entire Rajapaksa clan take the full responsibility for all these Jaathidroehi and Dhesadrohi decisions taken by their assumed guardian and savior.
This is not the only shady decision he has taken.To quote another such decision he has taken with an eye on the Tamil vote is the decision to take ministers Sentil Thondaman, a novice to politics to woo the estate Tamil vote and Douglas Devaananda as members of his Indian delegation to woo the Tamil vote in the north. In my view both these persons are utterly unsuitable to represent this country in any international forum.
Not only that, if you look at most of his decisions, they all point to two issues.The first is the minority vote at the next Presidential election and the second is the multiple support he expects to get from the West by winning them over by supporting their agenda.
As for me I do not know who his advisers are. Hope they are not the same type, who sent Gotabhaya to exile at midnight
Using cinnamon in your homebakes? You may be barking up the wrong tree.
Roll up! Roll up! For cozy vibes. Image credit: rsooll/shutterstock.com
Cinnamon is synonymous with the Christmas season – in pumpkin spice lattes, dense spice cake, and gooey cinnamon rolls, it is a key staple of the cozy aesthetic that many people fantasize about. So, it may be disappointing to know that the cinnamon that you make putting into your delicious homemade treats may not be “true” cinnamon at all.
True cinnamon spice (Cinnamomum verum/ Cinnamomum zeylanicum) comes from the bark of evergreen trees from the laurel family. It is called true cinnamon or Ceylon cinnamon, and is native to Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon, hence the name), Burma, and the Malabar coast of India, while also being cultivated in South America and West Indies.
The dried inner bark is delicate and sweet in flavor. It has been used for centuries in food and was once more valuable than gold, used in religious practices by different cultures. Cinnamon has also shown some medicinal properties, such as potentially acting as an insulin mimetic.
As always, when there is a product with a high commodity, a cheaper one will always be snapping at its heels.
Enter so-called fake” cinnamon, or cassia (Cinnamomum cassia), this spice is also made up from the bark of a tree from the same family as Ceylon cinnamon. However, cassia is more likely to whack you over the head with its fragrance — it is more pungent and less delicate in flavor. Like the party-girl cousin in the family.
Cassia is often used as it is cheaper, as it is more readily available due to it spanning over a larger territory. As such, if you buy cinnamon sticks, they are often cassia. This is allowed, as the FDA does not distinguish between cassia and Ceylon cinnamon, despite it having a different flavor, aroma, texture, and look.
Often, both of these cinnamon products come to us in little jars sitting on grocery store shelves. To the untrained eye, they may look very similar – however, Ceylon cinnamon is more tan-brown in color and cassia is more reddish brown in color. The differences are even more vast when it comes to the bark – cassia is darker in color, rolled in thicker sheets, and rougher in texture than Ceylon cinnamon.
To complicate matters even further, there are even three different types of cassia cinnamon – Chinese, Saigon, and Indonesian. All three have different flavor profiles. Chinese cassia is often strong and bitter and is often used medicinally in China, Saigon is very flavorful, fragrant, and almost spicy, while Indonesian is very sweet but mild and is the one that is most found in the American supermarkets.
All cinnamon has a compound called coumarin. This compound is found in higher levels in cassia and can cause health risks if consumed regularly in high quantities – sthe use of cassia cinnamon should be limited. One teaspoon of cassia contains 5.8-12.1 mg of coumarin which is above the Tolerable Daily Intake set by the European Food Safety Authority, whereas Ceylon cinnamon contains much less of this compound.
But, what do you do if you want to stick to the true cinnamon? Well, it is recommended that you buy Ceylon cinnamon sticks (where it says so on the packaging) and grind them yourself. At least then you know exactly what you are putting into your delicious cinnamon buns or your hot chocolates.
Analysis of telephone data revealed that Swiss embassy employee Garnier Banister Francis had been in touch with Chief Inspector Nishantha Silva before the latter left for Switzerland. She had also been in touch with several others. Had she really desired to migrate to Switzerland with her family, the Swiss mission here could have arranged it. They could have left the country without making an issue. Unfortunately, Sri Lanka seems still blind to the machinations of Western powers. That is the undeniable truth. However, the government response to the Swiss accusation can be considered an exception. The then Foreign Secretary Ravinatha Aryasinha and Defence Secretary Kamal Gunaratne on Dec 01, 2019 briefed Swiss Ambassador Hanspeter Mock and the Deputy Chief of Mission. They set the record straight. CCTV footage, Uber taxi and telephone records as well as GSP data proved Mock wrong (Alleged abduction: Swiss Ambassador’s claim not true-gov., The Island, Dec 02, 2019) It wouldn’t be wrong to say that the Swiss Ambassador lied. The issue is whether the local employee misled the Ambassador or she was part of a wider conspiracy
There hadn’t been a previous instance of a local employee of a diplomatic mission, based in Colombo, receiving international media attention before Garnier Banister Francis ended up in the New York Times in late Nov., 2019. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), as well as the Indian media, reported the alleged incident, following the New York Times (NYT) exclusive headlined ‘Sri Lanka critics fear a crackdown is underway, and some flee.’
The alleged abduction of a female Swiss Embassy employee, just a week after the swearing in of Gotabaya Rajapaksa as the seventh executive President, rattled the government. Even Anton Stanislaus Balasingham, 68, the late theoretician of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), hadn’t received such prominent media attention during the time he had served the British High Commission, in Colombo, as a translator. Balasingham captured media attention after he received the LTTE recognition as its spokesperson. That was years after he left the BHC, Colombo, and got married to Australian-born Adele, a nurse by profession, in 1978. British passport holder Balasingham passed away at his South London home on Dec. 14.
Francis received wide media coverage after she alleged being abducted by government agents on the evening of November 25, 2019, near St. Bridget’s Convent, sexually assaulted, and questioned regarding Sri Lankans who sought asylum in Switzerland. She claimed to have been abducted by five persons who arrived in a Toyota Corolla car soon after she left the Embassy at No 63, Gregory’s Avenue (Srimath R.G. Senanayake Mawatha), Colombo 07.
Both the UNP and the JVP immediately and blindly found fault with the government. They didn’t even bother to wait for a preliminary inquiry before accepting the Swiss Embassy employee’s claim. The NGO grouping, generally funded by the West, too, wholeheartedly backed her claim.
Maria Abi-Habib and Sameer Yasir reported the abduction in the NYT online edition on Nov. 27, the day the then Swiss Ambassador, in Colombo, complained to the then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, at his Wijerama Mawatha residence, about the abduction. They updated the story on Nov. 29, 2019.
By the time the NYT reported the alleged abduction, now admitted in the Colombo High Court as a lie by the accuser, the local police hadn’t been at least aware of the ‘incident.’ But, the Embassy had briefed the New York Times journalists of the incident. They quoted diplomatic officials in Colombo as having said that the men held the Embassy employee for several hours and then, before releasing her, threatened to kill her if she told anyone. For a country like Switzerland that maintains a lily white image, despite getting super wealthy by secretly handling black money, from around the world, under convenient banking secrecy laws, is capable of committing any heinous crime. Remember the country’s banks also stole funds of Jews burnt in Hitler’s gas chambers.
They were further quoted as having claimed the men appeared to be focused on finding information about a Sri Lankan detective who had been investigating President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. NYT refrained from naming the detective.
NYT was referring to Chief Inspector Nishantha Silva of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) who left for Switzerland with the blessings of the then Swiss Ambassador in Colombo Hanspeter Mock. The investigator with obvious stained hands was accompanied by his wife and three children.
NYT quoted Swiss Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pierre-Alain Eltschinger as having declared: We can confirm that a local employee of the Embassy was detained against her will on the street and threatened at length by unidentified men in order to force her to disclose Embassy-related information.”
Switzerland regards this incident as a very serious and unacceptable attack,” he said, adding that the Swiss government was demanding an immediate and complete investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident.”
Sri Lanka last week brought the high profile case to a conclusion. Colombo High Court Judge Namal Balalle on Friday (Nov. 14) sentenced Francis to two years RI suspended for five years. She was also ordered to pay Rs. 2 mn as compensation to the government and fined Rs. 5,000. She is now free to join her husband and two children in Switzerland.
Probably the person who should be compensated is former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa whose administration was the target of this wholly staged drama to malign it no sooner he became the President with an overwhelming mandate.
The judgement was delivered four years after the alleged incident. Francis pleaded guilty to charges in open court. Judge Balalle lifted the travel ban imposed on Francis. She was represented by former President of the Bar Association Kalinga Indatissa, PC.
The Bar Association, during Indatissa’s tenure as its President, took offence over the high handed statement issued by the Swiss government on Dec. 30, 2019, as regards the proceedings pending in the Magistrate’s Court of Colombo over the purported abduction of Garnier Francis. The Bar Association issued a strongly worded statement that condemned the Swiss position and their motives. At the Magistrate Court, Upul Kumarapperuma appeared with Sudharshana Gunawardena. Once the case was moved to High Court, Indatissa led the defence team.
Manohara de Silva, PC, strongly criticized the Swiss mission here over the incident. The Island carried two statements issued by the lawyer. The then Chairperson of the HRCSL, Dr. Deepika Udugama, too, in respons to The Island query issued a statement that dealt with the issue. She stressed the need for investigators to have access to the Swiss Embassy employee.
The Swiss Embassy employee’s canard was exposed by our intrepid investigators who wasted no time in perusing CCTV and other evidence before interested parties could have tampered with them.
Swiss salvo
A few days after the alleged incident, the Swiss mission, in Colombo, issued the following statement: On 25 November 2019, a serious security incident, involving a local employee of the Embassy of Switzerland, in Colombo, occurred. The employee was detained against her will in the street, forced to get into a car, seriously threatened at length by unidentified men and forced in order to disclose Embassy-related information.
Several false pieces of information are circulating in the reporting of this incident. The Swiss Embassy in Colombo is issuing the following clarifications: (1) The Swiss Embassy immediately lodged a formal complaint and is fully cooperating with the Sri Lanka authorities in order to support police investigation and initiate an inquiry over the case, while duly considering the health condition of the victim and her relatives. (2) Due to a deteriorating health condition, the victim is currently not in a state to testify. (3) It has been alleged that the Swiss government rejected a request for the extradition of an employee of the Sri Lankan Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and his family. No such request has been submitted.
Having declared the Embassy was fully cooperating with authorities, Hanspeter Mock accommodated the local employee in the mission till Dec. 8, 2019. She reported to the CID on the afternoon of Dec. 08, 2019, but declined to undergo medical examination in the absence of a female doctor though two female nurses were present (Alleged abduction: Swiss embassy employee makes statement to CID, The Island of December 09, 2019 edition).
It would be pertinent to mention that Ambassador Mock handed over the local employee to the CID after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa rejected his proposal to evacuate the Embassy employee, along with her family, to Switzerland, in an air ambulance, they had managed to fly into BIA well in advance. No less a person than President Rajapaksa told the writer on the night of Nov. 29, 2019, about the Swiss bid (Swiss mystery takes a new turn: Air ambulance to move embassy employee, govt. insists on immigration formalities,The Sunday Island, Dec. 01, 2019 edition). Until then Hanspeter Mock hindered the investigation. While demanding a thorough inquiry, the Swiss Embassy initially declined to reveal the identity of the alleged victim. In hindsight, the Swiss planned to take her out of the country without she being subjected to any form of investigation (Alleged abduction: Swiss embassy denies SL access to employee, withstrapline FM asks embassy to follow established procedure to allow smooth probe, The Island, Nov. 29, 2019, edition)
The attempt to evacuate the group (Garnier Francis and her family) was made during President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s two-day visit to New Delhi. At the behest of the President, those who dealt with the Swiss authorities insisted that evacuation could be permitted only if the Embassy employee and her family underwent immigration formalities. Had the government gave in to diplomatic pressure and allowed her to go, the unsubstantiated allegations wouldn’t have been proved false. And the malicious claim against our country would have stuck for good across the world.
Interestingly, the Swiss Embassy statement conveniently failed to name the detective, though the local media identified the officer concerned. In fact, Sri Lanka never sought a clarification from the Swiss Embassy as regards the detective. Actually, it wouldn’t be fair to blame the Swiss Embassy for Sri Lanka’s inept response. Regardless of who held political power, Sri Lanka lacked the political will to face challenges, and external powers enjoyed manipulating the country to their hearts’ content. It would be a grave mistake on our part to blame external elements working through their agents here without taking remedial measures.
Those who planned the propaganda blitz over the Swiss Embassy employee ‘abduction’ case certainly took into consideration a spate of still unsolved cases – the disappearance of 11 youth at the hands of the Navy, mostly in 2007/2008, torturing of Deputy Editor of The Nation, Keith Noyahr, on May 22, 2008, assassination of the founding Editor of The Sunday Leader, Attorney-at-Law, Lasantha Wickrematunga, in the morning of January 08, 2009, on Attidiya Road, near Bakery Junction, attempt on the life of Rivira editor, Upali Tennakoon, on January 23, 2009, at Imbulgoda, Gampaha, abduction and assault on well-known journalist and civil society activist, Poddala Jayantha, on June 1, 2009, near Embuldeniya Junction, in Nugegoda, and disappearance of media personality, Prageeth Ekneligoda, on the eve of the January 26, 2010, presidential poll. Keith Noyahr and Upali Tennakoon secured political asylum overseas.
We are not saying the Rajapaksas were behind all of the above, but they and the succeeding UNP-led Yahapalana administration failed to get to the bottom of any of them.
Need for a wider inquiry
The incumbent Justice Minister Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakse, PC, was the first parliamentarian to raise a CID officer taking refuge in Switzerland. In conversation with the writer, the then UNP MP Wijeyadasa Rajapakse explained the responsibility on the part of the Foreign Ministry to seek the extradition of CI de Silva as the relatively junior officer and his family receiving political asylum in Switzerland should be examined against the backdrop of many senior military officers being denied visas. The MP also disclosed how the then senior officer in charge of the CID, DIG Ravi Seneviratne, defended the conduct of CI de Silva when Yahapalana President Maithripala Sirisena summoned the top man for a discussion in late 2018 following a complaint made by him. Lawmaker Wijeyadasa Rajapakse said that he felt the urgent need for President Sirisena’s intervention as the CID was making moves to arrest Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda and Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Admiral Ravi Wijegunaratne over the abduction of 11 persons and giving protection to Lieutenant Commander Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi falsely implicated in the abduction cases, respectively (Wijeyadasa reveals powwow between CID Chief and President MS: Govt. urged to seek Nishantha’s extradition, The Island, Nov. 27, 2019)
Police headquarters went to the extent of deliberately calling Lt. Commander Hettiarachchi ‘Navy Sampath’ in a bid to manipulate the case. The Swiss got involved when Lt. Commander G.G. Laksiri, who gave evidence against Admiral Wijegunaratne, was granted political asylum to the Volunteer Naval Force officer. Therefore, Laksiri had secured Swiss protection much before CI Silva and attempts to depict the detective as the first man from the security sector to do so are not fair.
Then there was the case of Lt. Commander Welagedara who secured political asylum in Australia claiming his life was at risk here. Welagedara migrated to Australia during the Yahapalana administration in spite of Admiral Karannagoda complaining to the then Defence Secretary over accusations made by the officer. The then President’s Office intervened on behalf of Welagedara who skipped a Tri-Services Board of Inquiry scheduled to begin hearings on January 07, 2017.
Other cases
Sri Lanka lacked political will to counter those who propagated lies in a deliberate attempt to tarnish the country’s image.
One-time Northern Province Chief Minister and ex-SC judge C.V. Wigneswaran (member of the current Parliament) couldn’t stomach the LTTE’s defeat. In August 2016, Wigneswaran accused the military of killing over 100 LTTE combatants, in custody, by poisoning them. The PTI and NDTV were among international media which reported unsubstantiated allegations.
Wigneswaran placed the number of such deaths at 104. Accusations were made while the U.S. Pacific Command’s ‘Pacific Angel’ exercise was underway in the Jaffna peninsula. Obviously, the politician took advantage of the US exercise to propagate war crimes accusations.
Wigneswaran boldly declared that the U.S. Air Force medical team, in Jaffna, could examine the former rehabilitated LTTE cadres, who, he alleged, had fallen sick because they were injected with poisonous substances at government detention centres. The government never bothered to seek an explanation from Wigneswaran.
The then State Defence Minister Ruwan Wijewardene and Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne dismissed the vicious accusations. Wijewardene offered the international community access to rehabilitation facilities. What the Ministers didn’t realize was that by Aug. 2018, the vast majority of ex-LTTE combatants had been released.
The US conveniently refrained from making its position clear on Wigneswaran’s claim when the writer raised the issue with the US Embassy in Colombo. There had never been such a claim before TNA’s Wigneswaran sought to humiliate Sri Lanka. It would be pertinent to mention that one-time LTTE subordinate, the TNA, backed common candidate Maithripala Sirisena at the 2015 presidential poll, having earlier supported Gen. Sarath Fonseka at the previous presidential poll.
On both occasions, the TNA delivered all northern and eastern electoral districts to Fonseka and Sirisena, who contested on the New Democratic Front (NDF) ticket with the ‘Swan’ as its symbol. The TNA did the same for Sajith Premadasa in the North and the East at the last presidential election, though the South overwhelmingly defeated the UNPer as was the case with Fonseka previously at the 2010 presidential poll.
Unfortunately Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who had been elected with a staggering 6.9 mn votes could not overcome the overwhelming economic-political-social crisis that was created by his predecessors while he, too, took some short-sighted disastrous decisions possibly on wrong advice.
The Swiss project against President Gotabaya Rajapaksa should be examined taking into consideration accusations made at a media briefing chaired by Dr. Rajitha Senaratne a week before the Nov. 16, 2019 presidential election. The briefing was held in support of UNP presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa.
The SLPP presidential candidate was accused of ordering the killing of people and throwing their bodies into a crocodile-infested tank in the Moneragala district during his tenure as the Defence Secretary. At the same media briefing, the Mahinda Rajapaksa government was also accused of secretly moving 700 tonnes of gold from the North during and after the conclusion of the war.
When the lie backfired, the UNP called a media briefing at Sirikotha on Dec. 26, 2019. in support of Dr. Senaratne who was in hiding. Guess who was there to defend Dr. Senaratne? TNA heavyweight M.A. Sumanthiran, whose party, in 2001, declared the LTTE as the sole representative of the Tamil-speaking people. A few hours after the briefing, Dr. Senaratne, who arrived at Lanka Hospital, Narahenpita, got himself admitted. That case is pending in the Colombo High Court.
Jawaharlal Nehru University facilitates talk on ‘structural genocide’
SLPP MP retired Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera yesterday (24) accused Canadian High Commissioner Eric Walsh of backing those propagating separatist sentiments.
The former Public Security Minister, who is also the Chairman of the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on National Security, claimed that the HC’s recent visit to the Northern Province was intended to further divide the communities.
The one-time Chief of Staff of the SLN was critical of what he called the Canadian interference in the continuing dispute over the Kurundi temple in former LTTE bastion Mullaitivu.
Weerasekera found fault with the Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa government for its failure to take up the issue at hand with the Canadian government. The Foreign Ministry had to explain how it intended to counter external interference with the country’s internal affairs, the MP said.
The Island raised the accusations directed at Canadian HC Eric Walsh with the HC spokesperson. We received the following response: Meeting people in different parts of the country, to better understand their priorities and perspectives, is a normal part of a High Commissioner’s role.”
Referring to the recent presidential pardon granted to two LTTE cadres, convicted of the 1996 suicide attack on the Central Bank, MP Weerasekera said the government was going out of its way to appease the LTTE rump and the pro-LTTE activists overseas while they continued their Western-backed campaign against Sri Lanka.
MP Weerasekera said that the government should be seriously concerned about the Canadian HC meeting former Northern Provincial Council Member T. Raviharan, who is spearheading the protest against the Kurundi temple. Pointing out that the matter was now before the Court of Appeal, the former Minister said that the whole issue should be reviewed against the backdrop of Canada’s shocking declaration of genocide against Tamil people here.
Canadian Parliament in 2022 declared May 18 as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day. Responding to The Island queries, MP Weerasekera pointed out that Canadians exploited the current political-economic-social crisis to the hilt. The statements issued by Canadian PM Justin Trudeau and HC Walsh to mark the Black July riots of 1983 showed how conveniently they forgot the origins of terrorism here,” an irate Weerasekera said, adding that as a nation Sri Lanka should be ashamed of its failure to set the record straight.
Sarath Weerasekera
HC Walsh tweeted on Sunday, July 23: Today, we remember the victims of anti-Tamil violence that spread across Sri Lanka forty years ago. The wounds from July 1983 have yet to heal. Acknowledging these terrible events and commemorating the victims are vital steps towards inclusivity and sustainable prosperity in Sri Lanka. We’ll continue to support the efforts of all who are working toward these goals.”
In his statement, PM Trudeau, having declared their intention to push for accountability for human rights violations in Sri Lanka, underscored that Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day was marked for the first time this year.
Canada has conveniently forgotten that the public went on a rampage after a group of Indian-trained LTTE terrorists wiped out an Army patrol at Thinnaveli, Jaffna, killing 13 soldiers. Would Canada also demand accountability for thousands of deaths caused due to Indian intervention, and from the Tamil community, for assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi? MP Weerasekera asked. How could they raise this issue without referring to the deployment of the Indian Army here (July 1987-March 1990) in the Northern and Eastern Provinces where thousands perished at a time the Sri Lankan military was confined to barracks in terms of the Indo-Lanka Accord, the SLN veteran queried.
The Canadian PM couldn’t be unaware that India lost well over 1,000 men in Sri Lanka and nearly 3,000 wounded, the MP said. That would have been sufficient to understand the losses suffered by the Tamil community here.
The ex-Minister said that in his capacity as Chairman of the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on National Security he intended to raise the entire gamut of issues with the Foreign Ministry. Asked whether he was confident of securing the support of other political parties to pursue the accountability challenge, MP Weerasekera said that he was pushing for Parliament to adopt a resolution against Canada over the Canadian Parliament resolution claiming that genocide took place in Sri Lanka. The MP said: I handed over a Private member’s motion in this regard to the Secretary General of Parliament Kushani Rohanadeera.”
MP Weerasekera said that he didn’t talk about how Canada treated its indigenous people, including children.
The MP said that in Parliament last week he called for the expulsion of HC Walsh for meddling in domestic affairs. Canada was pursuing an extremely dangerous agenda, MP Weerasekera said, alleging that their declaration of genocide would influence anti-Sri Lanka sentiments the world over.
The former Minister pointed out the Black July 1983 Remembrance, titled ‘A structural genocide and ethnic cleansing of Tamil Hindus’ held at Jawaharlal Nehru University yesterday (Monday July 24) emphasized the growing danger. Such events gave credence to unsubstantiated allegations especially when a State University got involved, MP Weerasekera said. He pointed out this happened soon after President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s visit to New Delhi.
Then the Indian media recently quoted BJP State President K Annamalai as having said that he was concerned about the declining Hindu population in the north and eastern provinces of Sri Lanka, where Tamils form the majority, MP Weerasekera said.
This silly statement was made in a speech Annamalai made in a chamber of the House of Lords, the MP said, alleging that such declarations were meant to increase pressure on Sri Lanka. The BJP official should know a sizable Tamil population lived among the Sinhalese in the South and the LTTE was responsible for forcing the Muslim community out of the Northern Province in Oct./Nov. 1990, MP Weerasekera said.
The Court of Appeal today refused to further extend its interim order preventing Justice Ministry officials from deducting the Advance Personal Income Tax (APIT) from the monthly salaries of the High Court Judges, Magistrates, District Judges and Presidents of Labour Tribunals.
However, the Court of Appeal decided to issue notices on the respondents in three petitions filed by High Court Judges’ Association, Judicial Service Association and Presidents of Labour Tribunals.
The petitions were fixed for argument on September 22.
Claiming that Sri Lanka had outstanding foreign loans of USD 36 million to be settled until 2048, Cabinet Spokesman Minister Bandula Gunawardane said today anyone who wishes to come to power during that period is bound to pay the loans and must have plans to do so.
He told the weekly Cabinet briefing that if anyone came to power deceiving the people without having any plans in advance would only put the people in crisis again just as the country experienced in the recent past.
Sri Lanka has outstanding foreign loans amounting to USD 36 million. Only 37 percent of the total loan amount is maturing during the next five years. 51 percent of that is maturing between the next six years and twenty years. 12 percent is maturing even after 20 years. So, if anyone is planning to take over the country is bound to pay the loans due during their tenure,’ the Minister said.
He said those who were aspiring to take over the country must have a strategy to pay back the foreign loans which would be due during the period of their governance. If they deceive the people and take over the country. People will end up in another crisis of power, fuel, gas, fertilizer and other essentials, he said. (Ajith Siriwardana)
Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has rejected the reference to a ‘Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day’ in a recent statement by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Issuing a statement in this regard, the Ministry said it unreservedly rejects the reference to a Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day in the statement issued on 23 July 2023 by the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.”
They further accused that Canada’s continued reference to a false, distorted narrative” of the past conflict in Sri Lanka is aimed solely at achieving local vote-bank electoral gains”, and is not conducive to broader goals of communal harmony.
Thus, Sri Lanka has urged Canada and its leaders to support Sri Lanka in its efforts to ensure stability, progress, peace and reconciliation among all communities in all parts of the island, and amongst those Sri Lankans residing abroad.
The proposed Sri Lanka – Thailand Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is expected to be signed in March 2024, in accordance with the action plan concerning the proposed agreement, Sri Lanka’s cabinet spokesman said today.
Accordingly, negotiations pertaining to the proposed FTA are scheduled to conclude in February 2024, as per the information presented by the President on the progress of the fifth round of negotiations on the proposed trade agreement, during the cabinet meeting held yesterday (24 July).
The fifth round of negotiations on the proposed agreement was held in Colombo from 26 -28 June, during which discussions regarding customs cooperation and trade facilitation, economic cooperation as well as sanitary and phytosanitary chapters were completed.
The two nations restarted deal negotiations in January, months after a severe financial crisis engulfed Sri Lanka, as its foreign exchange reserves fell to a record low.
Sri Lanka and Thailand have held five rounds of talks on their trade agreement with the last in July.
When countries with records of unprecedented mass murders feel it politically fashionable to annually commemorate an incident which took place in Sri Lanka which is miniscule to the crimes they committed, when political correctness has silenced people & prevented them voicing the truth, at least this 40th year we need to produce some unpalatable facts for all to digest in particular the countries with murderous records.
The background to 1983
July 1975 Prabakaran committed his first assassination in killing Jaffna Mayor Alfred Duraiappah
May 1976 Vaddukoddai Resolution calling for a separate Tamil state & calling upon youth to take up arms.
1977 –A pro-US government J R Jayawardena came into power.He was, openly anti-Indian (at a time India was tilted to Russia) To secure Sri Lanka’s territory from illegal Indian immigrants, N Q Dias, the foreign minister to Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, set up military camps in the North. Why or on whose advise is unknown by these camps were removed by President JR after coming to power.
The Jain Commission Report following assassination of former Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi confirms that India began training Sri Lankan Tamil youth as armed militants, the camps where training was given was mentioned as well. These took place from mid 1970s. Affidavits presented further provided evidence of India helping armed militancy..
Ironically, the father of Tamil separatism S J V Chelvanayagam passed away in April 1977 a month after declaring My advice to the Sinhalese leaders is to allow us to go our way ..” (26 March 1977). His son-in-law A J Wilson was JRJ’s constitutional advisor.
1981 UNP accepts blame for the burning of the Jaffna library.
1982 JR Jayawardena instead of holding elections in 1983, decides to hold a referendum in 1982 & extended his term by another 6 years making a mockery of democracy.
Assassination of politicians – 1970 (attempted Deputy MP Chandrasiri) 1971 failed assassination attempt on Duraiappah succeeded in 1975, UNP leader R Balasundaram killed in Kilinochchi.
Making explosives – 1971, 1973
Bombs thrown at police – 1974 (visit to Jaffna by PM)
Shooting Police – armed youths begin attacks on Tamil police, 14 policemen killed in 1978 including Bastiampillai, 3 policemen in 1979, 2 policemen in 1981 (altogether 19 policemen had been killed from 1978-1981)
Arson & violence – 1975 (Thangathurai group, Tamil New Tigers)
Bank robberies – 1974, 1975 (Peoples Bank by LTTE), 1977, 1978. 1981
Bombing of plane – 1978 AVRO 748 Air Ceylon blasted.
In 1977 – 10% of Jaffna population were Sinhalese (bakers, traders, civil servants & businessmen)
The Aug-Sept 1977 riots is also noteworthy & the Sansoni Commission report will reveal much & negate the oft promoted narrative only against the Sinhalese. This commission report is critical to understand the bigger picture.
LTTE was proscribed in 1978.
What is clear is that by 1980s – India was training Sri Lankan Tamil youth in guerilla warfare, Tamil Nadu became a logistics hub and numerous killings were taking place in the North by these groups including bank robberies and India-trained Tamil militants had killed 19 Sri Lankan policemen by 1981. 19 policemen is 5 more than the 13 Sri Lankan soldiers killed on 21 July 1983 which is falsely used as a reason for the July 1983 riots as Paul Sieghart of International Commission of Jurists concluded.
The Foreign Newspapers on 1983
London Times on 8 Aug 1983 admitted that the rioters had a particularly detailed knowledge of who lived where & who owned what” – this clearly shows it was NOT a spontaneous riot. It was planned.
Foreign Reports on 1983
Paul Sieghart of the International Commission of Jurists in March 1984 too admitted it was not a spontaneous upsurge of communal hatred among the Sinhala people” and the most important part comes in his claim that it was also not a popular response to the killing of 13 soldiers”. He concludes that it was a series of deliberate acts, executed in accordance with a concerted plan,conceived and organized well in advance”. Crucial points – it was not communal hatred by Sinhalese nor revenge for killing of 13 soldiers but a series of deliberate acts with a concerted plan & organized well in advance.
So the natural question should be WHO devised the plan & WHY & WHAT was the end objective. So far no one has bothered to answer this.
A riot did take place – if it was spontaneous it should have occurred immediately after becoming aware of the deaths of 13 soldiers on 23 July 1983. Not many know that between 1981-1983 nearly 35 soldiers had been killed. The riots began only on 25 July 1983 by a gang from Wanathamulla (that should give a further clue)
How did the rioters know which homes were Tamil – they were given electoral lists by UNP MPs to their supporters. These supporters were from all ethnic groups, united by political affiliation & united in their common goal to loot. There were no SLFP, or other political party supporters involved in the riots. JVP however were blamed & banned. That UNP organized the riots was clear because their Tamil friends & Tamil shops were protected & guarded. Nothing happened to Sea Street the home of the Tamil jewelers.
Anyone who joined the riots, joined not because they were Sinhalese, Tamils or Muslims but because they saw the window of opportunity to loot & plunder. There was no ethnic element to the looting.
Incidentally, the IGP at the time was a Tamil & the 6 next in line senior officers were also Tamils. After a whole day of watching rioting, curfew was imposed & media was gagged. The official dead figure was 350 out of which 50 were Sinhalese. No one seems to be mourning them.
The International Commission of Jurists report also claims some homes/businesses of Tamils were self-inflicted (to facilitate application for refugee or collect insurance), some Tamils claimed themselves victims to get passage overseas.
The Sinhalese have been made to feel guilty, primarily because they have failed to explore the circumstances that led to the incident in 1983, read & appraised themselves of the background incidents leading to 1983 & have been happy to run with the popular politicized bogus narrative. When rioters/looters have voters lists, when UNP guard & protect their elite Tamil friends & businesses – where is the spontaneity of an attack?
Ultimately, close to 1million Tamils were able to live in Western climes, LTTE set up shop & a kitty with an annual profit of $350m & Sinhalese got the blame for an incident they did not commit.
It is against this injustice of branding the 1983 riots as a riot by the Sinhalese against the Tamils is what we are trying to clear even after 40 years. The injustice continues because countries who have blood on their hands, are happy to be commemorating & issuing statements shedding crocodile tears for an event that is wrongfully playing a guilt trip on the Sinhalese, when the crimes by these countries are yet to be accounted for.
Most Tamils who were saved by their Sinhalese friends have not forgotten that ugly day in 1983, but there is no outward proclamation to silence the false propaganda & for 40 years, the world has been made to falsely believe Sinhalese attacked Tamils in July 1983.
Sinhalese do not expect thanks after 40 years, but it would be nice if the Tamils finally admitted that the attacks that took place in July 1983 were a political riot by a political party with their party supporters who comprised looters of all ethnicities.
This 40th year – this is all that the Sinhalese are asking of the Tamils. Please set the story straight.
Merrill Fernando the pioneer of branded teas and the creator of the internationally recognized Dilmah Tea is no more. With his demise there has been a number of articles of appreciation in the media. In his path of triumph, he had to face many problems both in the market and on the domestic supply side. His unique success is more striking when one recalls the not very friendly local scenario on tea production and promotion.
The Export Development Board (EDB) was proud to have been associated with Merrill in the difficult journey he travelled.
The focus of the EDB was on value added forms of tea in packets and tea bags. At our request the ITC commissioned two experts in Tea marketing and promotion. If I remember Julian Hill had been the marketing manager of Brooke Bond in Europe. He made a comprehensive report stressing on the strategies to be adopted. His main thrust was that SL should have a target of converting 50 percent of tea exports to value added exports. The Tea Board was not happy with this recommendation and argued that the strength of our Tea is in the traditional form in bulk exports. Tea in bags is only for inferior teas. Hill pointed out that the growing market is in the tea bags and all major buyers demand for teas that can be used in tea bags i.e., C.T.C teas- Crush Tear and Curled. Even the private sector was not enamored in the new demand. Miss Thudugala, asst. director carried out a survey among exporters on their preference for CTC teas. I was amazed that the response was zero. When I discussed the tea industry response with Minister Athulathmudali he quipped ‘that is their Thottam mentality.
The parallel need was a new promotional strategy. I do not remember the name of the expert we got for this task. Among others he gave us two specific proposals. One was to have a new symbol and the other was to use a new film. On the symbol, he pointed out that the present symbol spotted the lion is an insult to the lion and does not make a strong impression on the customer. He produced an attractive heraldic’ lion as a new symbol. His main task was to produce a promotional film. He was quite impressed with the GFU film Song of Ceylon” by William Blake. He wrote a storyboard which was more a new version of Blake but highlighting the Tea Industry.
The reports of the two experts were sent to the Tea Board and the Ministry of Plantations. The Ministry convened several meetings to discuss these, and other matters related to Tea Promotions. These meeting were attended by the Chairman but I had to attend a crucial meeting as acting Chairman. I mentioned that EDB had supported 3 exporters to promote their company brands in three specific markets and invited the support of the tea Bd.to make these new ventures a success. I asked the Secretary why the Tea Board is not undertaking Brand promotion. The secretary gave a long explanation of the objects of the Tea Board and said that Brand promotion is not one of their objects. I remarked if that is the problem then the law must be changed. At this the Secretary seemed to be annoyed and asked me whether laws can be changed like that. I replied meekly that the EDB law took only 3 months from the cabinet paper of first approval, to the debate in Parliament. He obviously had not experienced junior officers questioning his explanations.
But what he said about the Tea Bd law lacking provision on brand promotion is correct. Tea Bd has 18 objectives and the only objective at least with the term marketing is subsection i) where Tea Bd. may
e) assist and encourage the marketing of tea in and outside Sri Lanka and to promote the demand for and the consumption of tea in the world markets.
Unless a specific provision is made to enable promotion of selected firms, inclusive of brand marketing it seems that Tea Bd cannot go beyond the provision in the sub section (e) of the objectives.
It must be conceded that under Minister Ranjan Wijeratne the Tea Bd made use of sub section (i) of the Objectives i.e.
to provide financial, advisory or other assistance to persons engaged in the growing or manufacture of tea- the Tea Board assisted tea factories to manufacture CTC teas.
For brand promotion, the EDB selected 3 firms for promotion in three specific markets i.e. Dilmah in Australia, Ferntea in the Emirates and another firm in the Scandinavian countries. In Scandinavia the immediate target market was Sweden where our exporter linked up with the Cooperatives which had a strong network of shops. EDB met the shipping cost of a large first consignment. The product was on display in the shop shelves and consumer interest was noted within a few days but suddenly all the products on display disappeared. The exporter did not suspect any foul play and the EDB met the cost of airfreight of a further lot. The same fate of the previous experience was repeated. The exporter made some investigations of the events and found that a Multinational firm was responsible for the villainy. The Scandinavian promotion was given up.
The Ferntea in the the Emirates had a different kind of problem.The state agency Conselexpo also had a joiny venture in the Emirates. Both Ferntea and Conselexpo did not have staying power and faded out. By that time their most dynamic trader Harry Jayawardhane had left Conselexpo.
In contrast, Merrill was a toughie and prevailed against all obstacles. We admired his tenacity. He had unmatched expertise in both the product and the market. He was innovative, highly motivated and not averse to risks. Other than the competition in the market he had to install in the country CTC and tea bagging machinery which was again a challenge. EDB helped him with these investments. If there was a tea exporter who could break into the highly competitive tea market it was Merrill.
It has to be mentioned that Chairman EDB Victor Santiapllai took an abiding personal interest in Merrill’s endeavor.
Merrill has set an example of brand promotion which leaders of export of other products like garments and spices should emulate.
Other than his entrepreneurial excellence he was a charming friend full of wit and humor. While wishing Merrill rests in peace I wish Dilmah tea and other ventures initiated by him every success
In a statement issued on July 12,, Singapore’s Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) said, Singapore adopts a strict zero-tolerance approach towards corruption. The CPIB investigates all cases without fear or favour and will not hesitate to take action against all parties involved in corrupt practices.”
The statement was issued following the arrest of the senior member of the governing party and cabinet minister S Iswaran holding the Transport and Trade Relations portfolio. He is a 22-year veteran lawmaker for the ruling People’s Action Party, having held a long list of other leadership posts.
He is under investigation for unspecified corrupt acts, although the CPIB’s statement didn’t elaborate further, only saying that Iswaran is assisting” in the probe. Along with Iswaran, a high-profile business tycoon Ong Ben Seng, was also arrested, and it is believed that the arrests are interlinked.
Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong acted decisively by asking Minister S Iswaran to take a leave of absence until the investigations are completed. This he did no sooner than the CPIB informed him that the Minister was under investigation. According to news reports, the Prime Minister told the Minister to go on a leave of absence about a week before his arrest.
The last time a Minister in Singapore was investigated for corruption was in 1987 when the Minister for National Development, Teh Cheang Wan and a close associate of the then Prime Minster Lee Kuan Yew committed suicide rather than face corruption charges.
In June of this year, there was a further controversy involving Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan and Law Minister K Shanmugam regarding the circumstances and finances surrounding their rental of state-owned colonial bungalows in an exclusive area. The properties had been renovated at state expense. Competition to rent any property in land-scarce Singapore is enormous, raising public irritation and unprecedented questions about how two civil servants got into them. The CPIB investigated the transactions and cleared both Ministers of any wrongdoing.
It is pertinent that the Singapore government does not provide any official accommodation for the Ministers. How different to our policy, where Presidents, Prime Ministers, Cabinet Ministers and even former Presidents are provided with official accommodation at a great expense to the country’s taxpayers. It seems the poorer the nation, the greater the extravagance lavished upon those in power and even those who held power!
As I write, the Speaker of the Singapore Parliament and a female member of the Parliament have tendered their resignations due to a relationship deemed inappropriate. It is believed that the Speaker having a relationship with a Member of Parliament would result in a conflict of interest.
Over several decades, Singapore has cultivated an image of ruthless concentration on rooting out public corruption and scrupulous attention to governmental efficiency. The recent events would undoubtedly cause those in power a certain degree of embarrassment. However, to their credit, they have acted decisively and transparently with no effort to suppress the controversies nor spare those being investigated.
Thousands of Sri Lankans have visited Singapore or at least read about the country and admired how it is governed, the respect for law and order, and the country’s prosperity. Many videos of snippets of wisdom articulated by former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew are circulating on social media amongst Sri Lankans, lamenting how we have lacked politicians with such statesmen-like qualities. He is quoted to have once said, Sri Lankan elections are an auction of non-existing resources”. This simple fact has been consistently ignored for decades by our politicians in their pursuit and greed for power. We are now paying the ultimate prize for the folly of our politicians.
The commonsense approach of the Singapore government was well illustrated in an article of mine that was published on September 12, 2021 and titled SRI LANKA SHOULD CLOSE DOWN MOST OF OUR OVERSEAS MISSIONS AS A STEP TOWARDS REDUCING PUBLIC EXPENDITURE.” https://island.lk/sri-lanka-should-close-down-most-of-our-overseas-missions-as-a-step-towards-reducing-public-expenditure/. I highlighted how Sri Lanka maintains over 60 resident missions, including consulates as opposed to Singapore having only 36 overseas missions. Although former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa closed down three overseas missions, the current President and the Foreign Minister have not seen the need to close down any additional missions despite the country declaring itself bankrupt and subjecting the citizens to extremely high taxes. This failure just about sums up our politician’s lack of vision, common sense and empathy.
Sri Lanka has grappled with the ill effects of corruption for many decades. Undoubtedly, post-1977, when the economy was liberalized, corruption took off. In an article written by Victor Ivan in 2019, titled Roots of Corruption and Bribery”, he states, The magnitude of the growth of bribery and corruption in Sri Lanka can be considered as an ugly and destructive epidemic created and nurtured by the rulers of the country from 1977, rather than a phenomenon that occurred naturally and spontaneously. Even though the regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa can be considered a period in which bribery and corruption reached a maximum height, it was indeed President J.R. Jayewardene who introduced large-scale corruption to the country at the State level.”
Victor Ivan also stated in the article, Prior to 1977, parliamentarians weren’t allowed to do business with the government. That was the tradition that prevailed up to then. The MPs who had done business were deprived of their parliamentary seats. This is a prime principle being practiced in all countries where there is a democratic system of government. Accordingly, the MPs were prohibited to serve as Government contractors, Government suppliers, act as Government license holders, or become buyers of public properties or sellers of properties to the government.
The best illustration of this practice is Albert Silva, a UNP candidate elected to the Galle constituency in 1977. He lost his parliamentary seat by a Court ruling on the ground that he held a kerosene permit issued by the government in his name. President Jayewardene did not abolish the law pertaining to this. But, he disregarded the tradition and suppressed the imposition of the law, making it virtually inoperative. By doing that, he granted the MPs of the ruling party the freedom and the right to conduct business with the government without restrictions. So they were allowed to serve as Government contractors, Government suppliers, become Government license holders, and buyers of public properties and sellers of properties to the government.”
It is anybody’s guess when Sri Lanka’s Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) will take action similar to those taken by their counterparts in Singapore. The question is whether they have a similar mindset as The CPIB, whose declared policy is We investigate all cases without fear or favour and will not hesitate to take action against all parties involved in corrupt practices.” And, Importantly, does the President of Sri Lanka have the nerve to send a cabinet minister or a state minister on a leave of absence pending an investigation?
The decision to grant a further extension of service to the retired Inspector General of Police indicates that the President is unable to take decisive action. It seems that a compromise has been agreed upon to placate the subject Minister. How differently things are done in Sri Lanka when compared to Singapore?
The recent proposal by President Wickremasinghe to approve a land bridge between Sri Lanka and India may not be beneficial to Sri Lanka from many perspectives.It could open the floodgates to many issues that have been contentious towards Sri Lanka’s National Security in the past and have been conscientiously kept secure for very valid reasons.
It could also provide a foothold for Indians in Tamil Nadu as well as the Indian Government to gain access to Sri Lanka in a manner previously kept in control through the protocols of Territorial Integrity and subsequently cause a huge dilemma for Sri Lanka so the President is well advised to rescind this proposal regardless of how lucrative or superficially beneficial it may seem as compromising National Security with all that has transpired in the past needs to be viewed objectively overall.
Apparently there are sources in powerful places Internationally with intentions to put pressure on Colombo to accept the Asian Development Bank-funded Indian project which surfaced some years back to build a bridge between India and Sri Lanka across the Palk Strait but it could create vast incidental security issues and is more than likely to even compromise the Territorial Integrity and Sovereignity of the Island Nation to an incomprehensible degree where any plans to implement such an action needs to be nipped in the bud and viewed as a dangerous idea perhaps with sinister consequences overlooked by those trying to initiate such a plan namely the GOSL.
Such a bridge seems just what the doctor ordered for Tamil Nadu to get a foothold on Sri Lanka at a time when tensions between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka are rife over various issues and the plan unthinkable from the perspective of Sri Lanka’s National Security which could also imperil all Sri Lankans who have only just recovered from the evils of Tamil Tiger Terrorism that once threatened to destroy and disrupt the smooth functioning of the country where the administration and the armed forces had to wage a near three decade long defensive campaign to quell it.The Tigers are said to be mulling a recovery and awaiting an opportunity to re-emerge and the last thing Sri Lanka needs today.
It must also be remembered that the Tamil Tigers despite being defunct have always vowed to resume their activities within Sri Lanka given the slightest opportunity and such a move ( the bridge in
question) seems a golden opportunity for them to do just that, remembering that there are underground cells of the LTTE still circulating in the country. So this appears to be a case of playing with fire despite the so called economic benefits and the media hoopla and hype often initiated by the USA and others where China too must be watching with a wary eye.
Hopefully in hindsight the Sri Lanka Administration will not be baited into accepting the proposal of a land bridge at random and eventually face disastrous consequences unless there are strict measures to enforce who gains access to Sri Lanka from the South of India but even if such measures are implemented, the risk to National Security and the pouring in of undesirables and the like seems imminent and the
plan- if there is such a plan that will be ratified- with the Sri Lankan authorities mulling over its pros and cons is better off abandoned before things get complicated rather than face far reaching consequences in the long term.
If one reads between the lines it certainly points to India’s interest in annexing Sir Lankan territory fueled by the Presidents recent visit to India and Sri Lanka’s naivete to accede to such a move where Ranil Wickremasinghe and his partners in administration agree to go ahead with the proposal and could further accentuate the issue towards Sri Lanka’s detriment.
It certainly provides Sri Lanka citizens much food for thought about their well being and posterity.
All human progress has depended on ‘new questions’ rather than on ‘new answers’ to the old questions.” Alfred North Whitehead — Science and the Modern World, 1925
Sinhala [language]’s survival as a clearly Indo-Aryan language can be considered a minor miracle of linguistic and cultural history” –James W. Gair, Studies in South Asian Linguistics: Sinhala and other South Asian languages, 1998, Chapter 14: How Dravidanized was Sinhala phonology? Pages 185-199).
The decision to make Sinhala official as language in 1956 was only one of the attempts to rectify a long list of injustices/discrimination/genocide Sinhala Buddhists faced since 1551. Sirasa TV News’ Paras Saukat Ali’s attempt to use Sunethra as a cat’s paw to place the blame on one individual, her father, SWRD, was part of an organized campaign to distort history and geography of Sri Lanka. If SWRD was guilty of this <sin>, then Dudley, JRJ, NM-Colvin and SJV Chelvanayagam were also equally responsible partners of this political <crime>. By trying to label one individual as the culprit for an outcome of a peaceful national social movement that began in the 1840s, Paras is adding his two cents worth <contribution> to the anti-Sinhala Buddhist dollar forces of <aragalaya> lurking in the dark, and to the goal of balkanization of Sri Lanka. This two-part essay has taken a holistic approach to <educate> Paras, his admirer Sepal, and Sunethra, the victim in this case.
(The All-Ceylon Buddhist Congress (ACBC) established a Buddhist Committee of Inquiry on April 2, 1954. It became popularly known as the `Buddhist Commission’. It held its sittings throughout the length and breadth of the country. In addition to Prof. Malalasekera and L.H. Mettananda, the Committee comprised the Ven. Abanwelle Siddhartha, Ven. Haliyale Sumanatissa, Ven. Balangoda Ananda Maitreya, Ven. Polonnaruwe Vimaladhamma, Ven. Madihe Pannaseeha, Ven. Henpitagedera Gnanaseeha, P.de S. Kularatne, Dr.Tennekoon Wimalananda and D.C. Wijewardena. The Report was finally presented to the Maha Sangha and the general public at a Meeting held at Ananda College on February 4, 1956).
Sri Lankan government spend on public health is not the same across the provinces. There is acute discrimination against some provinces. Healthcare cost is measured in per head (per capita) spend so it is a fair and comparable measure. When per head public healthcare cost is compared across the provinces, a terrifying and discriminatory practice comes to light. The following map is taken from an unrelated publication by the Institute of Health Policy. The original document can be downloaded from the following link.
Although it contains data from 2018 the trend has not changed as Sri Lanka follows incremental budgeting.
As the war ended in 2009 there is no earthly reason why some provinces should get more than the others in per capita healthcare spend. All districts must be allocated the same per capita healthcare cost by the government. Tax is collected from all and therefore it must be distributed uniformly.
But tragically, the northern province is allocated a whopping 10,095 rupees per person by the government in healthcare costs whereas the North Western Province was given only 6,494 rupees per capita! In other words, the government spent a person in the northern province over 55% of the cost the government spent on a person in the north western province in healthcare costs. This is unacceptable and discriminatory at the worst level.
Aren’t the lives of some as valuable as others!
Due to lower government spend on per capita public healthcare cost in some provinces those with means spend more on private healthcare. But it is only affordable to a very small percentage of the people.
Almost all public health related fatal and other disabling incidents happened in provinces where the government spent very low amounts in per capita healthcare costs. This includes Kurunegala, Kalutara, Colombo, Gampaha, Ratnapura, Kegalle, Galle and Kandy. Although Central province receives 9,063 rupees a person in healthcare costs, this is misleading as the allocation is not uniformly distributed across the 3 districts of Matale, Kandy and Nuwara Eliya. Matale and Kandy get a smaller per capita healthcare allocation than Nuwara Eliya.
There is a very strong ethnic and racist aspect to it when one considers the first three highest provinces and the last three provinces.
This discriminatory practice must be ended forthwith.
The relative high in the North Central province was due to a dedicated attempt to counter CKD in the province since 2015 and is not indicative of a long term trend.
The per capita public healthcare cost for each province in 2018.
While Western discussions have focused on sending sophisticated weapons to Kiev, Hal Brands, a Henry Kissinger Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, argues that what Ukraine needs the most, besides air-defense systems, is artillery ammunition. He describes the current conflict as an artillery-centric one: if Kiev can’t find enough artillery pieces and ammunition, especially 155mm shells, it will be at a dire firepower deficit along the conflict’s front lines.”
Already on March 29, Earle Mack, former US ambassador to Finland, writing in a piece for The Hill, described the current confrontation as proxy attrition warfare, that is one which seeks military victory by wearing down the enemy. He worried that Ukraine seemed bound to tire out first. Things have not gotten much better for Kiev, so far.
A July 23 New York Times story, by former Marine infantryman Thomas Gibbons-Neff, based on dozens of visits to the front line” quotes a Ukrainian commander: we’re trading our people for their people and they have more people and equipment.” According to the story, Ukraine has made marginal progress in its ability to coordinate directly between its troops closest to Russian forces on the so-called zero line and those assaulting forward.” Moreover, the country’s artillery is in short supply, and a mixture of munitions sent from different countries” is employed. The thing is that accuracy varies greatly between them and the Ukrainians need to use more ammunition. In addition, according to the same news report, some of the older shells and rockets sent from abroad are damaging their equipment and injuring soldiers.”
Rather than using the complex military communication equipment, Ukraine’s troops employ less sophisticated, but easier-to-use programs like smartphone messaging apps, private internet chat rooms.” Most of this system is dependent on Starlink satellite internet, and therefore it takes longer to communicate important military information when the units are assaulting and a Wi-Fi router is absent. In this case, unbelievably, attacking troops have to reach someone with an internet connection to call for support.”
Regarding ammo, the problem is that US authorities themselves estimate that Moscow is capable of producing 1 million rounds of 152mm artillery ammunition per year.” The US, in contrast, produces merely a seventh of that, according to Hal Brands.
Right now, the US itself needs to purchase conventional artillery ammunition from its South Korean ally. In what Brands describes as a desperate global scavenger hunt for munitions”, Washington has also been seeking ammo from Japan, as well as repositioning rounds stored in Israel to Ukraine.”
Europe’s stockpiles are in no better shape. According to the International Institute of Strategic Studies, NATO European states armed forces are hollowed out, plagued by unserviceable equipment and severely depleted ammunition stocks.” Bloomberg’s journalist and military historian Max Hastings writes that, over a year ago, Berlin had committed itself to €100 billion to rebuild its worn out forces. So far, however, only an estimated 1% of that has been spent. The German National Security Strategy, last month, stressed the weakness of Germany’s economy. According to Hastings, the political will” to strengthen their armed forces is absent” not only in Germany, but also in other European countries.
As I wrote before, the problem for Europe goes way beyond depleted weapons stockpiles: for it to rearm itself, re-industrialization is badly needed, something which, quite ironically, Washington itself has consistently opposed via its subsidy war against the European bloc. In addition, Europe, with its heavily diffused and fragmented defense, lacks a European Union common defense market and a legal and bureaucratic framework, as Sophia Besch (a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace fellow), and Max Bergmann (former member of the US Policy Planning Staff and Director of the Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies) write.
Britain’s industry today faces many difficulties, and the same thing happens with other European nations – manufacturers badly need funding expansion and governments are increasingly growing tired” of the conflict’s costs.
As for the US, lecturer in History at Yale Michael Brenes argues that America’s own war machine” is broken”, with privatizations and several problems. He paints a picture of shortages in production”, and interruptions in supply chains”, all of which have compromised Washington’s ability to deliver weapons to Ukraine.”
To sum it up, the current state of affairs, with a Western deindustrializations crisis, makes it very difficult for the political West to pursue its proxy attrition war. It simply cannot produce all the weapons it is pledging Ukraine. For the West, in fact, it is already a challenge to provide Kiev with enough ammunition.
Minister of Plantation Industries and Minister of Industries, Dr. Ramesh Pathirana stated that action will be taken to establish an Agriculture and Plantation Research University by merging all institutions connected to the plantation industry and agriculture sector, as per President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s concept.
The fundamental draft related to this has already been prepared, the Minister noted, and it is intended to complete the basic work this year.
He expressed these views today (24) during a press conference themed ‘Collective Path to a Stable Country’ held at the Presidential Media Centre (PMC).
Minister Ramesh Pathirana further commented;
A year ago, plantations and agricultural centers faced a severe crisis due to the shortage of fertilizers. Due to this, the tea industry and other plantations also suffered some collapse. Soon after taking office, President Ranil Wickremesinghe launched a program to provide fertilizers to the farmers.
Therefore, the farmers are getting the fertilizers they need in a systematic way. All the fertilizers required for tea, coconut, rubber and other crops are available in the market at competitive prices. Fertilizer prices, which have increased in the world market due to the war situation, are currently decreasing. As a country, the agricultural and plantation sectors are now showing some effectiveness due to timely availability of fertilizer to the farmers.
251 million kilos of finished tea was produced in 2022. As a result, it is expected that 280 million kilograms of finished tea would be ready by the end of this year. Last year, the price of tea increased drastically due to the decrease in production. Currently, the rupee is strengthening, which has resulted in a fall in tea prices. Tea exports have been adversely impacted by global conditions, the Russian-Ukrainian war situation, and civil wars in countries like Iran, Libya, and Syria, which are our top buyers.
An agreement was recently signed to supply tea for nearly 500 million dollars worth of crude oil purchases from Iran. Accordingly, arrangements are made to provide tea according to the value of the relevant amount. Arrangements have also been made to re-export Sri Lankan tea to the Iranian market under the concept of ‘Tea for fuel’. Due to this, we will be able to re-export more tea to the Iranian market, which was lost to some extent in the past.
Also, it has been possible to get an income of nearly one billion dollars last year through the export of rubber. Its biggest value was 1.1 billion dollars in 2021. During Covid, rubber-related products received high demand in the world market. Sri Lanka is considered to be the hub among the main tyre producing countries. It is believed that the export of rubber-related products will be able to reach between 900 million dollars and 1 billion dollars this year as well.
With the world economic deviation, the export of every product has experienced a decrease. Economists predict that normalcy will return after the third quarter. Due to this, it will be possible to reach the export targets of plantation crops again in the future.
In recent times, apart from tea and rubber, coconut-related products have seen the highest growth. Compared to 2020, the market has expanded by approximately 15%-20% in 2021 and 2022. Accordingly, in 2022, it was able to earn an export income of 836 million dollars. It can reach a value close to that this year as well. Within the next five years, there is a high probability of increasing the export income of coconut-related products to 1.5-2.00 billion dollars.
In order to improve the country’s coconut industry, a law will be brought in the near future that states that a special permission must be obtained to divide coconut lands of more than one acre. For that, we hope to follow up again on the instructions of President Ranil Wickremesinghe. Additionally, the law requiring the authorization of the Divisional Secretariat and the Grama Niladhari shall be enforced if more than two coconut trees are to be cut down.
In addition, it is believed that nearly 400 million dollars will be earned this year by exporting cinnamon and other spices.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe presented a new proposal to establish an Agriculture and Plantation Research University in Sri Lanka by integrating all research institutes related to the plantation industry and agriculture.
There are seven institutions related to the plantation industry in this country. Agricultural institutions are also to be integrated into this. The basic draft related to this has been prepared by now. This is a very complex project. But the basic work is expected to be completed this year.
However, through the available resources of the country, children are able to get better educational opportunities. Also, efforts are being made to focus on upgrading to university standards.
It is anticipated that the plantation industry’s backwardness will be reduced, allowing it to go forward more vigorously in the future. The government is prepared to offer the assistance required to expand the plantation industry’s value chains. It will step in as a Ministry in situations involving technological know-how and financial resources.
Sri Lanka is still reeling from the blows of economic meltdown and bowing down to continuous pressures from Western capitals, this time from Canada as well and India. Hopelessness for the future rather than an abstract theoretical construct has become ingrained in the minds of people as an irrefutable fact. Men and women who carry the label of intellectual” are still not satited with their absurd predictions and engage themselves in a never-ending game.
Continuity or Change? This question has been prominent among historians. This is a very simple question. Continuity and change are two opposite ends of a continuum. Change weakens continuity and vice versa.
To what extent what we experience after RW becoming the President of Sri Lanka as a result of many disruptive events, represent a departure from that which existed before? Do we experience a continuation of previous circumstances? Answer is also simple. Instead of change we witness continuity. Media reports confirm that continuity has taken roots everywhere and in every sphere of influence.
We begin with Julie Chung, the American Ambassador. In the month of July, she continued to meet groups of civil society” men and women, politicians, this time (1) Sampanthan of TNA ( discussed ‘issues facing Tamils and other minority communities in Sri Lanka” (who appointed Sampanthan to speak on other minority communities?), about the way forward”, questions around national identity, reforms and the community’s demands for accountability and justice”) (2) other Tamil politicians including Abraham Sumanthiran, Vigneshvaran, Siddharthan and two others, ahead of RW’s visit to India (discussed importance of devolution, land returns and finding answers for families of missing persons including investigations into mass graves as Sri Lanka still strives for truth, reconciliation and lasting peace”, as Head of Sri Lankan State and Government. Very soon she will stir a hornet’s nest regarding recently excavated mass graves with her BASL and OMP buddies.) (3) Sri Lankan women parliamentary caucus before their upcoming study tour to New Zealand funded by USAID (among them were Thalatha, Sudharshani, Geetha and Pavithradevi), Secretary General of Parliament to congratulate her (does Chung congratulates all other appointees?), Sri Lankan students heading to US on scholarship (first lesson in brainwashing), mobile journalists ( to showcase of the power of mobile journalism in Sri Lanka” : Chung knows well the role played by US trained mobile journalists in the ouster of GR) and issue a barrage of twitter messages. She joined the commemoration of the 56th anniversary of Sri Lanka’s Navy and Maritime Academy and visited the Diving Unit at the Naval Dockyard, Trincomalee and Malima Diving Club. As the Commander-in-Chief of the Sri Lankan armed forces she met instructors, cadets and midshipmen and discussed the importance of Sri Lanka’s maritime operations and bilateral security cooperation”. She met and congratulated the new Chairman of Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. She congratulated Sri Lanka Coast Guard Service members on completion of maritime law enforcement skills training” with US Coast Guard at Mirissa.
Opposition parliamentarians still relish on writing to Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) and Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) seeking their intervention to prevent Speaker from conducting parliamentary proceedings in a manner politically beneficial for government”.
The Speaker has appointed a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to investigate the crisis and probe into country’s bankruptcy, reminding past Select Committees (probing bond scam, Easter Sunday carnage etc.). It is well known that the present crisis is not of recent origin and all of the ruling parties were responsible for the crisis. It started with JRJ’s heavy borrowings and neo-liberal policies, CBK blindly following neo-liberal policies hoodwinking the masses that her regime had a human face” and disastrous policies of Yahapalana government of Sirisena and Wickremasinghe.
One Pohottuwa dissident declared that he would lead a thorough inquiry into economic crisis. Where were they when the government implemented a massive tax cut, reducing sugar tax to 25 cents and interest rates, stopping import of chemical fertilizer and agrochemicals and taking other disastrous moves? Not to be outdone by others leader of the opposition vowed that he would finalise his investigation on finding reasons for bankruptcy of the country and who were responsible for it within three months.
Bringing no-confidence motions against ministers is also part of this game of deceiving masses. For the present crisis in the health sector only the Health Minister was made the scapegoat. Nobody criticises RW for these wrongdoings.
Attempt to reconvene the dissolved local government bodies through a private member’s motion reminds the attempt made by the UNP to reconvene the dissolved Parliament during Covid-19 pandemic. It was yahapalana government which postponed Provincial Councils Elections in 2017; all including UNP (including breakaway SJB), SLFP, JVP and TNA supported the postponement. UNP in 1982 instead of holding a General Election, rolling the electoral map”, held a referendum which was heavily rigged.
Canadian High Commissioner and the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka who is perceived at least by his constituency as a national – minded politician, inaugurated a symposium to encourage the implementation of the official language policy, that Tamil shall be the language of administration and courts in the North and East.
TNA politicians bring hordes of rabble rousers to perform Hindu rites at the Buddhist Kurundee Vihare at Mullaitivu in the wake of government releasing state land around the Viharaya and removing its boundary stones.
Meeting Tamil party leaders which coincided with RW’s visit to India and Chung’s meeting with Tamil politicians, RW showed his willingness to full enforcement of 13 th Amendment if the Parliament agrees to do so. Stressing that he was Ranil Wickremasinghe, not Ranil Rajapaksa was a stern warning to the Pohottuwa MPs. True nature of Ranil Wickremasinghe is displayed day in and day out. He cannot free himself from his legacy which he was carrying from 1977. Time has come to implement all the treacherous deeds what he could not fulfill being the Prime Minister on several occasions under powerful executive Presidents.
RW addressing the Colombo-based Indian CEO Forum said that Indian currency would soon be accepted within Sri Lanka and it is expected to boost trade and tourism. It was said that designating Indian Rupee (INR) in foreign currency system in Sri Lanka will enable trade settlements between the two countries in INR and Indian tourists visiting Sri Lanka can use INR for their transactions. This will bring disastrous consequences, tying Sri Lanka’s economy to India. What guarantee the government has that Indian tourists will bring here Indian Rupees as there are many avenues to procure Indian Rupees locally through Indian agents? This will aggravate the dollar crunch as it was reported that at present majority of tourists arrive from India.
Meeting the Indian Prime Minister Modi in the Indian capital a few days ago, RW was lured by Modi’s Neighborhood First Policy” and SAGAR” (Security and Growth for All in the Region) Vision to take Sri Lanka into India’s orbit. RW’s MOUs and declarations exchanged with the Indian government during his recent visit to India, (1) high capacity power grid connectivity between the two countries to enable bidirectional electricity trade between Sri Lanka and India (proponents of Accelerated Mahaveli Scheme under RW’s uncle JRJ, said their aim was to export electricity to Southern India!) (2) increasing air connectivity between Chennai and Jaffna, Trinco, Batticaloa and other destinations in Sri Lanka (3) petroleum distribution pipeline connecting southern part of India and Colombo and Trincomalee (4) land connectivity between Sri Lanka and India (land bridge) for developing land access to ports of Colombo and Trincomalee (5) maritime connectivity (already operating cruise liner, a normal ferry service to begin between KKS and Nagapattinum and resumption of ferry service between Talaimannar and Rameswaram (6) development of Trincomalee as a national and regional hub (7) designating INR as a currency for trade settlement and tourism (8) popularising Ramayana Trail” will be the stepping stones in making Sri Lanka the newest State of India.
A dissident Phottuwa MP, who was very close to GR, handpicked by him for high office, now in the Helicopter” party telephoned the writer and said that he had opposed GR’s move switching over to organic manure, he had never said that Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Etiology (CKD) was caused by excess usage of chemical fertilizer and he was never a Viyathmaga member. What is important is not that. He said that he, along with his Ministerial colleagues had vehemently criticised the way GR carried out Covid vaccination programme and GR was not of sound mind – in other words mad – after his bypass operation. His medical opinion was some chemical goes to the brain from heart and makes a person insane. I consulted some medics regarding this but it is better to stop here without making this discourse a lesson by a clinician. It should be left to medical experts.
Does this vilification need any comment from us? Now there are no people left to take responsibility to mismanagement, bungling of affairs and ill-conceived decisions taken.
Experts” wash their hands saying that they have not advised GR to cancel the Light Rail Transit (LRT) project.
A political analyst revealed recently that there is news in the grapevine that SOFA will be signed soon. RW has appointed a committee that has endorsed signing of it, including articles previously considered controversial. Our academics will say that they have not advised GR not to sign SOFA. In such a situation the Pohottuwa MPs will hide their faces like ostriches; no opposition MP will dare to present a no-confidence motion in the Parliament against this.
Pandu karanda (Crudia Zeylanica) tree that stood in the way of Central Highway tested GR’s mettle signifying what was in store for him in facing unforeseen events. In 2021, print and electronic media made a local level junior officer a heroine who wove a story that it was the only tree of its kind remaining in the Island. Some Buddhist monks chanting pirith performed an un-Buddhistic drama by ordaining it (as a Buddhist monk) draping it with a saffron robe. Environmentalists, media, Buddhist monks and opposition politicians surrounded it opposing its removal. GR had to divert the expressway incurring heavy expenses. In hindsight we conclude that this was a part of the grand conspiracy hatched by interested parties against GR. Nobody understood the warning signals.
Sudden disappearance of it in the first week of July 2023, gave a stern warning to environmentalists and those who opposed not only the removal of it but also RW’s moves. Bandula Gunawardena who served as a Cabinet Minister under GR fully acceded to the decision to change the route of the Highway incurring a cost of Rupees 15 billion more was the man who was responsible for removing the tree this time as a cabinet Minister under RW.
Removing a tree that stood obstructing a planned highway was only a trial run. A week later the Chairman of Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) was expelled; two directors representing the government had voted to support his expulsion. It is said that the ousted Chairman opposed privatisation of Telecom.
The Tamil Separatist Movement complained loudly that Buddhist temples were being built in the north where there were no Buddhists. They are built on state land and in many instances by the army.
In 2011 TNA politicians from Mullaitivu protested against the construction of a Buddhist temple at Bogaswewa near the Sapumalgaskada archaeological site. They claimed that the area traditionally belongs to the Tamil people. TNA’s T. Raviharan said that the area belongs to Tamil people traditionally and it was known as Kachchcalsamalankulam. Tamil people have been given paddy fields and they are cultivating them with water from the Kachchalsamalankulam tank. It is wrong for Buddhist monks to come there to construct a temple in an area which is predominantly Tamil, said Raviharan.
The chief monk had secured the help of the army to make bricks using clay from the shrubs in the jungle, continued Raviharan. Trees were being felled in nearby jungle to fire the bricks. However, a spokesman for the temple said that Sapumalgaskada area had been identified as a site of archaeological importance and there were ruins of Buddhist shrines, which were some thousands of years old and it was wrong to claim it was not a Buddhist site. The bhikkhus had only revived a temple close to the archaeological site, he said.
In 2015 there was objection to the building of Sambodhi Vihara in Kokilai, Mullaitivu. .Tamilnet said that Ven.Tissapura Gunaratana had in 2012 got a surveyor from Maharagama to survey three acres, with the ‘approval’ of the Divisional Secretary C Dayananda, and started to construct a temple, with the help of the army.
However, the property was private land owned by local Tamils, said Tamilnet and the project has displaced at least five families.(Tamilnet is not sure how many). The owners demonstrated, in June 2015, demanding back their lands. Land Registry officials inspected their land deeds and instructed the Divisional Secretary to issue an interim ban on the construction activities of the vihara. Mullaitivu District Secretariat issued an interim order not to proceed with the construction of the ‘Sri Sambodhi Vihara’ until the dispute is solved. There is also a court case pending verdict on the land dispute, added Tamilnet.
The interim order was ignored. Tissapura thero said that TNA Provincial Councilor Raviharan had threatened him, stop developing the temple and vacate the area. The monk is adamant that he will build the temple here in our land. He has offered money to buy the premises but the owners do not want to sell, reported the media.
Ven. Tissapura had other plans for Sambodhi. A tube well was dug at Sambodhi premises and the public come there for fresh water. A pinthaliya was provided for them .Tamilnet says that this pinthaliya was thereafter transformed into a memorial site for two Sinhala soldiers who had died in the Eelam war.
The vihara premises will contain a Buddha statue, dharmasala, poya Ge, a two-storied Sangharamaya, a lotus pond and a 10 meter high stupa. A welfare area’, is also planned with a multi-purpose building, a vocational training centre and a 100 perch model farm to introduce agriculture to fisheries-dependent settlers.
The five floor multi-purpose building will have a nursery, refectory, library and other facilities. The vocational training centre is to cater the adult women and men. It will be housing a sewing centre for the settling women, a yoghurt production unit, Diveneguma-assisted carpentry and welding workshop and a fertilizer manufacturing plant. The monk is planning to convert the Sinhala Catholics into Buddhism and raise a new generation of the Sinhala occupiers of the north, warned Tamilnet.
Another version of the Sambodhi story by Adaalayam Centre for Policy Research in Jaffna, said that a temple is being illegally constructed on land that is partially owned by a Tamil living in the Kokilai region of Mullaitivu District.Security forces arrested this Tamil landowner in 2015 for protesting against the military land grab.
Tamilnet complained that Ven. Tissapura was also building another Buddhist temple nearby. Land belonging to the post office, the base hospital, a Hindu temple and a public road have been taken for that temple, said Tamilnet.
In 2018 there were 131 sites of Buddhist religious worship in the North, of which 67 were in Mullaitivu said Tamil Separatist Movement. . Buddha viharas are also coming up are Omanthai, Semmadu, Kanakarayankulam, Kilinochchi, Mankulam, Paranthan and Pooneryn. They are built on state and private lands. they were constructed after the armed conflict ended. There are no Sinhalese living in those areas. They must be removed immediately, said MP Raviharan.
In some areas, such as Vavuniya, Kilinochchi, and Point Pedro, the military has built Buddha statues within or in close proximity to Hindu temples. Buddha statues have come up in front of the 2500 year old Thirukoneswara Hindu temple in Trincomalee and the Thiruketheeswaram temple. A 67 foot Buddha statue is coming up in front of the Nainai Nagabhooshani Amman Hindu temple, complained Tamil Separatist Movement.
The military’s construction of Buddhist viharas in traditionally Tamil areas with no Buddhist population is a preliminary step to the Sinhala-Buddhist colonization of these areas and a re-assertion of Sinhala Buddhist dominance, said Adaalayam Centre for Policy Research , Jaffna.
Sinhala colonies, Buddhist temples and Buddha statues are being aggressively constructed with military sponsorship with the sole purpose of Sinhala Buddhisation of the North eastern Tamil homeland, said Tamil Peoples Council.
Ever since the end of the war, consecutive governments have accelerated the Sinhalization” of the north and east said Gajan Ponnambalam.
Buddha viharas are sprouting like mushrooms in areas where there are no Buddhists said C.V.Wigneswaran. Wigneswaran issued a statement saying stop erecting Buddha statues and Buddhist temples illegally on private lands and in places where there are no Buddhists.
Why build a Buddhist vihara where no Buddhists live?” asked MP Nirmalanathan.Hindus form the largest religious group, followed by Christians and Muslims, with Buddhists in the fourth place.
The Tamil political parties have been complaining about the Archaeological Department, Mahaweli Authority, Forest Department, Wildlife Department, Tourist Board and the Defence/Internal Security Ministry dabbling in ethno-territorial politics and impacting the livelihood of Tamil and Muslim people in the northern and eastern provinces, said Kumar David.
It is alleged that the Department of Archaeology has been declaring vast extents of land surrounding Buddhist Temples in Mullaitivu and Trincomalee as heritage sites and prohibiting even subsistence economic activities being undertaken on these lands.
The Tamil Separatist Movement said it had strongly opposed the construction of Buddhist structures in areas with no Buddhists. These protests increased during the time of the Yahapalana government of 2016. In 2016, after the Yahapalana government came to power, there were numerous demands for the removal of Buddhist temples, statues, and shrines built in the Northern Province, reported the media.
The Tamil Peoples’ Council invited people to join a mass protest in Jaffna on September 24, 2016 to demand a stop to the construction of Buddha statues and Buddhist temples in areas in the Northern Province where there are no Buddhists. In August 2016 TNA MPs met Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe and raised concerns about Buddhist temples and statues being built in the area.
The Northern Provincial Council passed a resolution in 2016 prohibiting the construction of Buddhist temples in the north. It had no legal standing, said lawyers and D.M. Swaminathan, Minister for Hindu Affairs, said that no one will be allowed to remove Buddhist temples or statues in the north. Buddhist monks and devotees had the right to built temples and statues in any part of the Northern Province.
In 2017 in London, British Tamil Forum under the auspices of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils launched a book, Proliferation of Buddhist structures in Tamil Homeland-sowing the seeds of disharmony.”
In 2023, Tamils found that there was an increase in the number of new Buddhist structures and shrines coming up in the Northern Province. MP Selvarasa Gajendran led a demonstration demanding the removal of the Vihara illegally set up by the army in the Thahiti area of Jaffna. The demonstrators were arrested by the Palali police.
In 2023, The Tamil Separatist Movement had, it is reported, approached the Indian High Commission on the matter. But their own group has advised them to steer clear of the BJP which they said was not a progressive force. (Continued)
The Tamil Separatist Movement has tried to dislodge Sinhala settlements and the accompanying Buddhist temples introduced to the north after the war. In 2009 57 Buddhist families were brought in and settled in Navatkuli. Navatkuli is located 6 km from Jaffna. They were Sinhala families that had been driven out of Jaffna in 1984 and 1990.
There was a fairly large Sinhalese community in Jaffna at the time. The Jaffna Sinhala Vidyalaya had 250 students. Life was pleasant with the Tamils and Sinhalese getting along like one family. Our family had roots in Maniyamthottam and Kankesanthurai and I knew Jaffna district like the back of my hand,” said one returnee, Malkanthi. Eight generations of her family had lived in Jaffna.
We are now granted this land and 57 families received around 20 perches each,” said Malkanthi. We came here in 2010. We gathered all Sinhalese who once lived in Jaffna and those who wanted to live here once again by placing a newspaper advertisement. For three months we stayed at the Jaffna railway station. We then occupied this land, she said.
There were a hundred people with me. I lived in a hut for almost a year. Thereafter we received a donation from a Sinhala philanthropist. Later, with the support of the Buddhist priest, who also took up residence here, we started to construct our houses. We live here now without any problem. I have got a 15-perch plot for my son and I am now in the process of applying for assistance to construct a toilet,” says Malkanthi. Sharma, her sister-in-law, who had come for a visit from Anuradhapura, agrees and says she, too, wants to apply for land in Jaffna.
But the Tamil public turned against this community. Demonstrations were organized against the settlers, led by Tamil politicians S.Sritharan and Suresh Premachandran, who said this was government-sponsored Sinhala colonization. Navatkuliya Sri Samiddhi Sumana Viharaya was constructed in 2013. It was promptly bombed.
In 2017 the residents wanted to start work on a new stupa.The Chavakachcheri Pradeshiya Sabha refused permission. The Chavakachcheri Pradeshiya Sabha filed the case against the construction of the Chaitya. It was taken up for hearing at the Chavakachcheri Magistrate’s Court. Chavakachcheri Magistrate S. Chandrasekeran ordered the Chavakachcheri Pradeshiya Sabha to permit the construction of the temple’s stupa without any hindrance. Her verdict was publicly applauded by the Sangha. The Magistrate has said that she respects Buddhism even though she is a Hindu devotee, reported Ven. Sooriyawewa Sumedha.
We next turn to Gurukanda Raja Maha Viharaya, located in the village of Chemmalai, Mullativu near the Nayaru lagoon. Archaeological Department had found ruins of a monastery. They found remains of a stupa, bricks, roof tiles and pot shards. They dated the temple to Anuradhapura period.
Gurukanda had been vandalized. .A new road had been constructed through the middle of the monastery grounds. One stupa had been deliberately bulldozed. It had a diameter of 10 meters and bricks of varying size. However, a new Buddhist temple has been built on the site on top of an ancient stupa.
On 14 January 2019 a group of a group of 200 protestors led by TNA’s T. Raviharan stormed the Gurukanda Raja Maha Viharaya,claiming that the temple had been built on a land belonging to Hindu devotees. They shouted abuse at the Chief monk Ven. Mihindupura Ratanadevakitti.
They demanded the deeds of the temple. The Buddhists could complain to any one they liked but they would not allow the Gurukanda temple to function, they said . They began digging to construct a Hindu temple inside the temple premises.The mob threatened to cause bodily harm to Ven. Ratanadevakitti. If the chief priest disturbed the day to day affairs of the kovil, he would be killed, together with all present there.
The mob was so strong that the police found it extremely difficult to bring the situation under control. The intruders attempted to snatch the mobile phones of those who were videoing the scene.
The police filed action against both parties for disturbing peace. The police had informed the magistrate that a group had forcibly entered the temple on 14 January 2019 & attempted to lay a foundation stone to construct a kovil inside the temple premises.
Mullaitivu magistrate ordered the construction work on Gurukanda vihara to be temporarily stopped. Mullaitivu police were deployed round the premises.The Mullaitivu police dismantled the CCTV cameras installed at the Viharaya .the CCTV system had been installed by a private company as a security measure since the Chief monk did not live in the temple.
Director General of Archeology, A B Mandawela summoned before the Magistrate, told court that Gurukanda Raja Maha Viharaya had a history of over 2,000 years with many Buddhist artifacts and an ancient monastery. It definitely was a Buddhist temple. The land on either side of the Kokilai-Mullaitivu road are Buddhist sacred archaeological sites including the Gurukanda Raja Maha Viharaya..The Commissioner of Archaeology explicitly told the Magistrate it was against the law to build a Hindu place of worship in a place where there was an ancient Buddhist temple.
Suren Raghavan had this to say . The boundary of the temple was under dispute. Though the Gazette notification of 2016 said the temple was an archaeological site, the boundary was not mentioned. A problem arose when new measurements were taken to mark the boundary. While the measuring was going on, ‘both parties had a debate regarding their historical heritages.” There was an army camp there during the war. They had a set of buildings which they had handed over to the chief priest, added Raghavan.
Gurukande Viharaya had been forcibly constructed between 2004 and 2009 when no civilian was permitted to visit the area, said TNA MP Sampanthan in Parliament. More recently an attempt was made to restore that temple. This led to unrest in that area between the people who are all non-Buddhists and the monks who had come there. Upon this matter being reported to the relevant Magistrate, an order was made prohibiting the reconstruction of the temple. Ven. Ratanadevakitti has filed an application in the Provincial High Court in Vavuniya, Sampanthan said.
Buddhist monks headed by Ven.Ahungalle Jinananda are proceeding to file criminal charges against TNA’s Raviharan & others too under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) said Shenali Waduge.
The modus operandi of the Tamil Separatist Movement in the matter of new Buddhist temples is now clear. Place a rival kovil beside any Buddhist temple, ancient or new, which is under expansion in the north. Then rapidly expand the Kovil so that the Buddhist structures get dwarfed. These kovils will be quickly accepted by Buddhists. They will visit these new kovils very readily and emerge happily with ash on their foreheads. ( continued)
The opposition to Buddhist temples has extended also to cremation of chief priests on the temple premises in the north. Two such protests are on record.
The first was in 2017. In 2017, a group of 12 Jaffna-based lawyers had gone to courts to prevent the last rites of the late chief incumbent of the Naga Vihara, Ven. Meegahajandure Gnanaratana, being performed at the Jaffna Fort Sports Ground. The restraining order had been sought on two grounds. Permission had not been obtained from Jaffna Municipal Council and secondly, the cremation of bodies could damage the environment. Jaffna Magistrate Katheeswaran did not agree. He refused to issue a restraining order. Last rites were conducted with the participation of the armed forces and the police.
Hindu Religious Affairs Minister D. M. Swaminathan strongly condemned the bid to prevent the last rites of the late chief incumbent of the Jaffna Sri Naga Vihara, Ven. Meegahajandure Gnanaratana being performed at the Jaffna Fort Sports Ground.Such a move cannot be justified under any circumstances, Minister Swaminathan said, adding that he regretted the latest development. Jaffna Magistrate S. Katheeswaran had averted a major crisis quite rightly turning down a group of lawyers’ plea to prohibit the conducting of the late monk’s last rites at the Jaffna Fort Sports Ground.
The second protest was at Gurukanda Raja Maha Vihara in September 2019. The chief priest of Gurukanda, Ven. Colomba Medhalankara, passed away in Colombo. Neeraavi Pillaiyar Temple promptly filed a police complaint that that if the body of the priest is brought to the Gurukanda temple, while a court case is going on, there will be trouble.
Mullaitivu Police informed Magistrate’s Court. The magistrate ordered that the body of the deceased priest should not be cremated or buried in Gurukanda temple, until a final order was granted in the court matter.
Court was informed that the Buddhist temple was willing to conduct the cremation ceremony at another location and that the Hindu temple was agreeable to this. Court then ordered that the cremation be conducted at the second location. Maritimepattu Predeshiya Sabha intervened to say that arrangements were made for the cremation at that location without obtaining permission in terms of the Cemeteries and Burial grounds Ordinance.
However, a group of monks led by Ven. Galagodatte Gnanasara of Colombo took the body of the deceased chief priest to the Gurukanda temple premises and cremated the body there. The cremation was attended by several monks and took place amidst sadukara from a large crowd.
An equally large or possibly larger crowd were there to oppose the cremation, observed the media. Television cameras showed heated arguments. Police were there.A clash occurred and the priest of the Hindu temple was severely injured. A lawyer appearing for the Hindu Temple was assaulted.
Several monks spoke to Derana television after the cremation. It is a Buddhist tradition to cremate a monk in the temple premises. If Gnanasara did not go this cremation would not have taken place, they said.
Regarding the ownership dispute, the monks told Derana, that Gurukanda is on protected territory. Three acres at Gurukanda belong to the Archaeological Department. Court should be told this. Ven. Polonnaruwe Thilnakara said there was no kovil there earlier.
TNA is behind this the monks said. They scolded Yahapalana as well. We sacrificed ourselves to establish these temples. We went into jungles. It is we who looked after Buddhism in the north, the monks told Derana, with emotion.
After the cremation Former Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran, led a protest opposite the Mullaitivu Divisional Secretariat against the cremation in the temple premises while a court decision was pending. Several politicians, both national and localas well as lawyers, civil society activists and the public in Mullaitivu joined the protest. Some, including lawyers, wore black arm bands.
The protestors demanded legal action against the cremation. It was violation of a court ruling. Violating a court ruling constitutes Contempt of Court. They demanded the immediate arrest of Galagodaatte Gnanasara and others responsible for cremation. They were extremely critical of Gnanasara thera’s involvement in the matter, and wanted to know whether the country has a separate law for Buddhist monks. They burnt an effigy of Ven.Gnanasara.
The Attorney General should take legal action within three days against all those who are involved in the incident including Ven.Galagoda Aththe Gananasara along with the other Buddhist monk who had openly protested against the court order. Attorney General must assure them in writing that he will do so. Unless swift action was taken, the protest would continue.
The demonstrators then marched from Mullaitivu Divisional Secretariat to Mullaitivu District Secretariat and handed over a memorandum to the District Secretary to be forwarded to the UN envoy in Sri Lanka. They also protested opposite the Mullaitivu Magistrate’s court.
All the lawyers of Northern and Eastern provinces led by Batticaloa Bar Association President K.Narayanapillai boycotted court duties in a black arm band protest outside the Batticaloa court premises. The Mullaitivu Trade Association closed shops and carried out a hartal in support of the demonstration.
TNA’s R. Sampanthan wrote to the President Sirisena, saying, the corpse was cremated in close proximity to the “Theerthakerni” tank in the Hindu temple premises containing holy water for use by the Deity. The temple and the premises were thus desecrated. He urged President Sirisena to ensure that those who cremated a Buddhist prelate’s remains at Chemmalai, Mullaitivu in violation of a court order are brought to justice. (continued)
Before you study the economics, study the economists!”
e-Con e-News July 2023 Part 4
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With the US & India fertilizing chaos in Sri Lanka, while threatening division and invasion – the US Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), to allow troops on Lanka’s soil, has apparently been ‘unanimously’ endorsed – Sri Lanka’s President is now summoned to pose at Delhi’s Red Fort – final citadel of the Mughal invasion, of England’s East India Company(EIC) and of the current Brown-Sahib Raj – to embrace the role of the coolie’s coolie.
Last ee reported that Washington assigned India to a subordinate industrial caste during Indian President N Modi’s recent overhyped junket there. India has accepted this industrial harijan status – they will labor-intensively assemble & test semiconductors within the US supply chain. Sri Lanka thus has to learn to conjure kotthu from broken chips that fall off their table, just as we have creatively concocted kotthu from discarded Chennai roti, while the IMF hands over our national enterprises to the World Bank and other dubious ‘international accounting firms’ like Deloitte to sell (see ee Quotes).
The origins of the word ‘coolie’ are gps-ed in the Chinese characters for ‘bitter strength’ and turned into the word for ‘wages’ in South Asia – kuli.
China rejects such a bitter world-ordering, and seeks to design the latest chip-making machines. This ee looks at the belligerent extents the USA is deploying to prevent China from achieving such modern industrial autonomy. Such industrial retardation is finally aimed at all our countries (see ee Random Notes)
The Sri Lankan President’s beckoning to Delhi – unleashed over-the-top promises to physically lash Sri Lanka to India at that hip joint called Trincomalee, with an oil pipeline running through, offering a common currency, dividing Sri Lanka via a 13th Amendment wrought from India’s arming of terrorists. The President has also rammed through a ‘new’ Central Bank Act, which will further enthrall Sri Lanka’s economy to Wall Street’s croupiers. The US thinktank Verite, severe school master, keeps count of the government’s failures to adhere to the IMF dictat (see ee Economy). Yet there is no thinktank to recount the failures to fulfil a so-called independent state’s sacred covenant with its own people.
Gone are the days when this President’s uncle, then-President JR Jayawardene, with Margaret Thatcher highkicking chorus, promised their over-priced and destructive caricature of the CPSL’s Mahaveli Project would electrify India as well! And where be all the daily wielders of ornery orientalisms as despotism, chaos and corruption of just last year, now? Let there be light! The Wickremesinghe offshoot of the oligarchy outdistances all in their obeisance to a dire anglomania, despite exhalations resounding non-alignment.
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• Then there are the Indo-Saxons atop us. India seeks to kettle economic & international policy by preventing Sri Lanka from pursuing a direct Free Trade Agreement with China. India wants Lanka’s engagement with China only through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)’s Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). Critics wonder if Sri Lanka is being asked to play again the same Bandung-Buru spoiler role it was assigned to play in Indonesia in 1955, to undermine the 1st conference of the historic Non-Aligned Movement (NAM, see Bandung Buruvo, Bailouts & Giveaways, ee 23 May 2020).
A senior Sri Lanka government delegation was dispatched to Jakarta, Indonesia, from 12-14 June 2023. Their PR hailed the occasion as the ‘First-ever Fact-Finding Mission to RCEP by any country after it entered into force on 01 January 2022’ The US, it turns out, is openly attempting to sabotage ASEAN. NATO’s Jens Stoltenberg recently stated, ‘security is not a regional, but a global task’. Hence concealing their iron Euro-Atlantic priorities within their silky ‘Indo-Pacific Strategies’.
To this end, India pushed Sri Lanka’s envoy there, Milinda Moragoda, to get President Ranil Wickremesinghe to appoint Jayanath Colombage as the Ambassador to Indonesia. Indonesia is the current headquarters for ASEAN. Colombage, belonging to Moragoda’s Exxon-funded Pathfinder NGO, is held culpable for misleading former Gotabhaya Rajapakse into major foreign policy faux pas (see Random Notes, Politics of Hedging in the Indo-Pacific).
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ee has been examining the US sabotage of China’s participation in building & laying the latest submarine internet cabling in the ocean (see ee July 2023, Parts 2 & 3). SLTelecom is fighting shy about being lubricated by US ‘compensations’ to deny Sri Lankans access to the latest technology.
Reader indulgence is requested therefore, as ee seeks to trace the US imposition of its ‘Euro-Atlantic’ (NATO) architecture of war on the Indian Ocean. To track first sightings of the US in the Indian & Pacific Ocean, just after its ‘war of independence’ from England, and enthusiastic involvement in the English-dominated opium trade imposed on China, leading to the USA’s 1st millionaires, the ‘Boston Brahmin Bankers’ etc.
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Last ee quoted Eric Williams’ classic Capitalism & Slavery. Williams points out that some of the most philanthropic English ‘humanitarians’ of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries made their glittering lucre from the Atlantic slave trade in kidnapped Africans. Let’s not forget that ‘father of English liberalism’ John Locke was a slave trader.
Rivers of ink were emptied in denouncing this horrific trade. Some proclaimed, such ‘humanitarians’ would change their investment options if they saw the choked holds within slave ships, or a plantation’s whip-in-hand human-resource policies. Williams said none of this curtailed English investment in the chattel slave trade. Vast profits overcame any shyness. Williams points out that many abolitionists were directors of the East India Company, which turned to the indentured slavery of predominantly Chinese and Indian people, of coolies and opium, etc. (Williams as Prime Minister of Trinidad was inspired to ban his own book! Also: see EIC history below, ee Focus)
Meanwhile, the USA’s 1st envoy to China, a former pirate himself, noted how the slave trade required an apropos joy in the horrific suffering of other humans. He also recorded how the English were already resorting in the 18th century to armed thuggery to extend their attempts to rob China. ee here recalls that the ‘liberal’ expression ‘equal opportunity’ originates in the US demand to also do what other European imperialists were doing in China!
ee has also extensively quoted former Ceylon Central Bank official Michael Greenberg’s 1969 classic British Trade & the Opening of China 1800-42. Both Greenberg and Williams appear to subscribe to the theory that our ‘non-settler colonized economies’ were crafted to absorb the surplus output necessary to keep the imperialists’‘new machines running when the home market sagged’.
Storm Sewer! Runway Truck Ramp! Coolies indeed! Those constantly craving capricious export markets – even as the US & EU raise their own ‘walls’ and blatantly weaponize access, GSP+ etc – to develop the economy, should take careful note. ee here marks, too, the curious and total silencing about our own home market.
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PS: Last ee had some egregious ee errors. We have corrected and reposted a complete Harnessing the Mahaveli – our excerpt of Chapter V’s ‘Relief of Ceylon’ in CPSL leader SA Wickramasinghe’s 1955 classic, The Way Ahead. And the entry on Paris is Burning, etc.
Colombo, July 23: In his book on the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka, internationally known terrorism expert Dr.Rohan Gunaratna says that de-radicalization of Islamic ideology is the best way to tackle Islamic terrorism.
In Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday Massacre: Lessons for the International community (Penguin 2023), Gunaratna says that Islamic terrorism is but an outgrowth of Wahhabism or Salafism, which is spreading rapidly across the world using modern tools of communication. It will be futile to try combating Islamic terrorism if nothing is done to destroy its ideological roots.
Gunaratna, who is Professor of Security Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technology University, Singapore, says that the April 21, 2019 bomb blasts which claimed more than 200 lives, could recur if Sri Lanka continues to lack a legal and policy framework to curb radicalization and promote moderation, tolerance, and coexistence in its place.
Typically, governments look to arresting the perpetrators after blasts but do not take steps to prevent the blasts, the researcher says.
Governments should also build and constantly maintain capabilities in the military, law enforcement, and the intelligence agencies to prevent and pre-empt terrorist attacks, he adds.
For a de-radicalization process to succeed, Sri Lanka has to develop a common approach by eschewing confrontational politics and forging consensus on a national security agenda. Security lies in social and religious harmony. Therefore, there should be no partisanship in these matters.
Religious extremism fostered by the Wahhabist and Salafist Islam and their institutions is reflected in religious exclusivism” Gunaratna points out. Therefore, any tendency towards religious exclusivism should be combated both by State and community action.
The exclusivist tendency is manifested in the Wahhabists’ avoidance of the company of moderate Sufi Muslims and those following other religions. Such avoidance reinforces negative feelings about persons following other religions. Gunaratna says that Sufi Muslims did not get radicalized partly because they abhorred extremism and violence and partly because the Wahhabists avoided them.
The Easter Sunday attack demonstrated a number of gaps, loopholes and weaknesses in the national security framework. On whether there could be similar attacks in the future, Gunaratna says that it would be suicidal to ignore the potential for a repetition. With enhanced globalization, ease of travel, migration, and advances in communication technology, ideas travel fast, with few restrictions. And action follows.
The Easter Sunday attacks were inspired by events in the Middle East and the ISIS’s counter actions there. Inspiration from Islamic extremists in South India such as P.Jainulabdeen (PJ) also contributed to the radicalisation of Zahran Hashim and his bunch of desperados.
Although terrorism is not new to Sri Lanka, the emergence of Islamic religious exclusivism, extremism, and terrorism presents a new set of problems. Islamic radicalism had been growing without being noticed by the powers-that-be, Gunaratna points out.
Three decades preceding the Easter massacre, radical Salafi-Wahhabi and Jamaat-e-Islami ideologies separated Muslims from non-Muslims. Foreign ideologies supplanted the inclusive Sri Lankan Muslim heritage. These virulent ideologies crystallized in operational cells, networks, and groups that gravely damaged national unity.”
The political and intelligence community noticed this development but did not see them as a threat. Even after the Easter blasts, the appreciation of the threat is weak, Gunaratna says. Many of the banned Wahhabi groups continued to operate either clandestinely or by infiltrating like-minded entities.
Although the ring leader of the terrorists Zahran Hashim committed suicide, his ideology endues. And as long as the ideology of hatred against traditional Muslims and other faiths persists, it is likely that Sri Lanka will suffer other copycat fanatics. Dismantling the ideological foundation is the apex challenge,” Gunaratna says.
But that was not done during the Yahapalnaya (Good Governance) regime headed by President Sirisena between 2015 and 2019. According to Gunaratna the security and intelligence platforms were systematically dismantled. The architect of the security structure Brig.Suresh Salley was posted to Malaysia and politicians were allegedly under pressure from the human rights lobby to direct the police to arrest and imprison intelligence officers.
The very effective Operation Blind Eye” of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) in the Western Province was called off. Sgt.Khaleel, who was familiar with Zahran’s activities in the Eastern Province was in jail from 2016 to 2021. Intelligence personnel knew all the Easter Sunday attackers but they lacked political patronage and legal support to keep the threat under check, Gunaratna says.
Dr..Rohan Gunaratna’ book
However, under the Mahinda Rajapaksa Presidency, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa had raised the radicalism issue with the President of the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU) Mufthi MCM Rizwe. Rizwe promised to address it but failed. Harmony Centres” were to be set up to reduce the animosity between the Wahhabis and the Sufis. But few came up. This was the situation even after the 2019 blasts, Gunaratna points out.
A number reports had come out after the blasts which had valuable suggestions. Among the suggestions were: screening and certifying local and foreign clerics; blacklisting hate speakers; developing a wholesome curriculum for clerics to bring out the commonalities among various religions and not just the differences; regularly reviewing what is taught to the clerics to remove objectionable material like justification of violence; setting up a Council of Religious Harmony at the national level as in Singapore.
There has been no effort to work out a political consensus on the national security threat from fundamentalism. When Justice Minister Wijedasa Rajapakshe told parliament that more than 30 Sri Lankans had gone to Syria to fight for the ISIS, he came in for heavy flak though he was only basing his statement on intelligence reports.
Gunaratna regrets that there is no awareness of the security dimension among political leaders across the board. Awareness needs to be created. Intelligence agencies must keep their political bosses informed and updated. Intelligence agencies must acquire greater competences by recruiting specialists in a variety of fields from various technologies to the social sciences.
There should be inter-agency collaboration. One way of doing this will be to interchange personnel. The head of the Directorate of Military Intelligence and State Intelligence Service (SIS) must be equal in rank with the chiefs of the three armed forces. There should be a National Security Council and a National Security Advisor of cabinet rank. To back up security-related action, there should be a National Security Act, Gunartana suggests.
A Foreign Interference Act has also been suggested to prevent interference from geopolitical actors operating under the pretext of achieving human rights, democracy and religious freedom.” Foreign actors reportedly give grants to destabilize cultures, promote divisive ideologies and break up countries.”
Opposes Lifting of Ban
Against this background, Gunaratna disapproved of the Sri Lankan government’s latest decision to de-list five of 11 Islamic organizations which had been banned following the Easter Sunday blasts.
In a note to this writer, he said: After Muslim radical clerics and politicians lobbied the government, the government has decided to delist a number of Salafi Wahhabi groups. Like other governments, the Sri Lankan government too has compromised national security for personal and political gain. To secure votes and donations and remain in power, politicians weaken the nation’s long term national interests.”
Although politicians believe that giving into such political demands by ethnic and religious entrepreneurs will benefit them, it does not. It erodes national unity and social cohesion and eventually results in ethnic and religious hatred culminating in violence. Instead of pursuing narrow political interests, national leaders should integrate ethnic and religious leaders into mainstream national politics.”
