Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Ranil Wickremesinghe

June 23 – In a determined push to address Sri Lanka’s debt crisis and foster reconciliation, President Ranil Wickremesinghe outlined plans to finalize the debt restructuring process by September. Collaborating closely with parliament, the President aims to develop a comprehensive strategy for resolving the nation’s financial burdens.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe participated in the 40th anniversary event of the International Democrat Union (IDU) in London on the 19th and the 20th of June and joining the forum with former Canadian Prime Minister (Conservative Party) Chairman of the IDU, Mr Stephen Harper, he explained the circumstances that paved the way for his presidency and the country’s journey towards economic recovery.

While debt restructuring remains a key priority, President Wickremesinghe noted that his primary focus lies in completing vital structural reforms. Aiming to accelerate economic liberalization and attract increased investments, which are intended to bolster Sri Lanka’s financial prospects and drive a more favourable balance of trade in the long term.

Amidst questions regarding the duration of the process, the President expressed confidence that substantial headway will be achieved by 2024. Building on prior initiatives as the former Prime Minister, President Wickremesinghe continues the progress made and engages with members of Parliament representing Tamil areas. Significantly, agreements have been reached on crucial issues, including the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission, the drafting of legislation, and the presentation of a new anti-terrorist law to Parliament. Resolving the differences between the government and opposition on three major issues, one of them being the definition of terrorism, has been settled by a court ruling.

Furthermore, he said that efforts have been made to address land-related concerns in the North and East regions, with progress being made on settling these disputes. The Missing Persons Office has taken steps towards utilization, and discussions have yielded potential solutions, which have been shared with Tamil parties. President Wickremesinghe said he anticipates presenting a comprehensive process by the end of July, acknowledging the time required for the necessary legislative procedures.

Following are excerpts of the interview;

President Ranil Wickremesinghe;

If I look back to May-June last year, Sri Lanka was on the verge of chaos. No one seemed willing to take charge or show leadership. I found myself in a peculiar position. In the 2019 Presidential Election, our party wanted to adopt a populist approach, so they chose our deputy leader as their candidate. Unfortunately, as I had anticipated, he suffered a significant defeat.

Then the COVID pandemic struck, and in August 2020, we went ahead with the election. Personally, I believed that we should stick with the IMF program. This program, which we had initiated in 2016, required Sri Lanka to commit to a primary surplus and reduce subsidies. We diligently worked towards these goals, and by 2018, we managed to achieve a primary surplus of USD 300 million. While it was a modest amount, it gave us a starting point to build upon.

However, the new government that came into power subsequently decided to cancel the IMF agreement. It was at that point that I advocated for revisiting the IMF and requesting them to reinstate the agreement. Furthermore, I suggested that we explore other options to raise USD 5 billion.

During my tenure as Prime Minister, I had engaged in negotiations with the Japanese, Indians, and other parties for projects worth approximately USD 4 billion. Unfortunately, all those projects were ultimately cancelled. Despite this setback, some members of my own party believed that our approach was too narrow and opted for a populist stance, eventually breaking away from the party.

As a result, for the first time in history, my party was left with just one member in parliament, which happened to be me. Meanwhile, the breakaway faction had gathered 50 members.

On May 9 of the previous year, riots erupted, leading to the burning of the residences of 65 government members of parliament. Consequently, the Prime Minister at the time, Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa, was compelled to resign. That night, I engaged in discussions with a government member to explore how I could be of assistance. The following day, the President reached out to the leader of the opposition and the leader of the breakaway faction, asking them to assume the position of Prime Minister. However, the leader of the breakaway faction declined the offer.

During this period, I had been advising the President to seek assistance from the IMF and the World Bank. Subsequently, the government insisted that I should become Prime Minister and nominated me for the position with their support. I expressed my concern about being the only member of the party and questioned the feasibility of having a Prime Minister under such circumstances. However, they reassured me that they would support me and initiated negotiations with the IMF.

In the previous year, our debt services amounted to approximately $8 billion. By April 2022, our financial situation had deteriorated to the point where we had to declare ourselves bankrupt. However, as we began to recover and the government started functioning, a wave of protests emerged. On July 9, a group of organizers managed to gather a significant number of people in Colombo, something unprecedented in scale.

Shockingly, these protesters went on to invade the official residence of the President. Faced with this unexpected threat, the President had to flee to the harbour and board a ship belonging to the Sri Lankan Navy. Later that afternoon, party leaders convened a meeting, during which they demanded the President’s resignation and proposed that I assume the role of acting President. However, the opposition insisted that I should also resign. I stood firm and reminded them that according to the constitution, a person with a majority vote in parliament must be found before I could resign.

Meanwhile, urged by some media outlets, the protesters targeted my house and set it on fire, assuming I would be compelled to leave.

However, I remained steadfast and refused to back down.

The following day, I was asked to resign, while some others advocated for the Speaker to take over. However, both propositions were rejected. I maintained my position and refused to resign.

On Monday, with the cabinet assembled, we held a televised meeting, while the President had already left the country for the Maldives. Meanwhile, the protesters resolved to seize the Prime Minister’s office and take control of Parliament.

Two days later, a fierce battle ensued outside the Prime Minister’s office, lasting approximately six to five hours. Despite the escalating situation, I refrained from ordering the use of firearms. Eventually, the protesters managed to break into the Prime Minister’s office, with the military accompanying them. In the afternoon, they began marching towards Parliament. Recognizing the gravity of the situation, I instructed the Chief of Defence to issue a statement, emphasizing that the protesters must not take over Parliament. The opposition leader supported this stance.

I then directed the army commander, reminding him of his responsibility to protect the parliamentary building. I stressed that we could deploy the best battalion in Sri Lanka, even without arms, to confront the protesters. Remarkably, the unarmed battalion successfully managed to quell the protests, but unfortunately, 24 soldiers were injured in the process.

At that moment, I realized that it was time for me to step in and assume control. The President had already submitted his resignation, yet nobody was willing to allow me to be sworn in as the acting president within any official buildings. I made a conscious decision not to utilize Parliament or the Chief Justice’s residence, nor any of the other buildings occupied by ministers. Instead, I had to resort to a family temple near my house. Early in the morning, I went to the temple, accompanied by the Chief Justice, where I took my oath of office. In order to maintain secrecy, the priest requested that the location of the temple not be disclosed. There was a photograph capturing the moment I was being sworn in, but the temple’s whereabouts remained unknown.

Soon after, we had to proceed with the presidential election. In the meantime, I took necessary steps to restore law and order. I firmly stated that these were not mere protests, but actions intended to overthrow the government and disrupt the Sri Lankan parliament. I had a responsibility to put an end to it.

Although a number of protesters were initially arrested, they were later released, which only served to embolden them further. Even the presidents of the Bar Association stood in solidarity with them. Recognizing the gravity of the situation, I consulted with the Attorney General and realized that the protesters were attempting to attack Parliament. As a result, I issued detention orders and apprehended two or three individuals. It was the only viable approach to address the escalating crisis.

Eventually, the Prime Minister’s office was cleared as the army intervened, followed by the clearance of the President’s office and residence.

When it came time for the election, the circumstances were quite peculiar. On one side, there was the government party led by the Rajapaksa clan, whom we were opposed to, and on the other side, there was the opposition. Surprisingly, I discovered that I had support from both the government party and the opposition, and they urged me to contest the election. Responding to their call, I entered the race and emerged victorious, winning by a margin of 135 votes. Once I assumed the presidency of Sri Lanka, I promptly issued an order prohibiting any form of demonstrations in the country for one week, aiming to restore peace and stability.

As a result of these efforts, we successfully managed to restore order. We reached out to the large number of individuals who were attempting to disrupt peace and sent them a message, urging them to support the government in its endeavour to re-establish law and order. The silent majority, including businesses and individuals in the villages, stood behind this cause, even if they may not have specifically supported me personally. Their support was for the restoration of law and orders itself.

Having achieved stability, I proceeded to take additional measures to address the prevailing economic crisis. One of our key decisions was to initiate negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

I plan to finalize the debt restructuring after September. As I move forward, I will be working on Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring strategy with the parliament. However, my main focus is on completing the necessary structural reforms. I aim to promptly liberalize the economy and attract more investments to Sri Lanka. In the long run, it is crucial to have investments that will improve the balance of trade in our favour. So, why should this process take so much time? Nonetheless, I am confident that by 2024, we will have much greater control over the situation.

Mr Stephan Harper

And ultimately, what you’re conveying is, I believe, a message that applies to all of us. While the economic problems may vary in severity across our countries, challenges still exist. The only viable solution in the long run is a program driven by the private sector.

President Wickremesinghe

A market-oriented, credit-integrated growth strategy is the only available option. I genuinely believe there is no other solution, and this has been the case for thousands of years.

Mr Stephen Harper

Well, Winston Churchill famously remarked that all forms of government are dreadful, except for democracy. We observe that societies often experiment with socialism, protectionism, corporatism and populism until they ultimately realize that conservatism is the only path to economic growth. However, let’s shift gears because a significant portion of our discussion revolves around global affairs and foreign policy. While we represent a diverse group here, it is evident that we predominantly represent the Global North, whereas you hail from the Global South. Considering your geographical position, where do you envision Sri Lanka’s future foreign focus? Which countries serve as its strategic allies, and what risks do you anticipate in the upcoming phase?

President Wickremesinghe

Sri Lanka’s primary strategic allies in Asia are the Southern Asian region. Additionally, we maintain relationships with the Middle East, India, Japan, China, and Australia. Looking westward, we engage with Europe, the United Kingdom, Commonwealth countries, and South Africa.

Mr Stephen Harper

In a world where trade pressures, the on-going COVID pandemic, and especially the conflict in Ukraine, have contributed to a growing polarization or tension between the United States and its allies on one side, and China and its allies on the other, how does a country in your position, in terms of economic growth, position itself? Where do you see Sri Lanka fitting into this scenario, and how do you navigate the complexities that arise from such dynamics?

President Wickremesinghe

Essentially, our stance aligns with the Global South, and we emphasize sharing that perspective. Both the United States and China are crucial partners for us. Their involvements in the Pacific region and the Belt and Road Initiative, along with the ASEAN outlook on the Indo-Pacific, are all compatible. The rise of China has contributed to the rise of Asia, so it is vital for us to ensure China’s continued economic development. However, that alone is insufficient for our region. We also need ASEAN, India, and the Middle East to witness growth over the next 20 to 25 years. While we have managed to strike a balance by leveraging relationships with various countries, we also value our association with the United States. Sri Lanka’s foreign policy has consistently aimed to prevent the militarization of the Indian region, yet we have supported the United States from the very beginning. Currently, we are urging everyone to collaborate with us in Sri Lanka to assume the chairmanship of IORA (Indian Ocean Rim Association) to safeguard freedom of navigation in the Indian Ocean. Simultaneously, we advocate for freedom of navigation in the Pacific. The three main issues need to be addressed collectively rather than one dominating over the other. China must engage in constructive dialogue with African countries to resolve these matters and reduce tensions.

Mr Stephen Harper

I’d like to delve deeper into the China question. It is often emphasized that the United States is essential for our security while China’s support is critical for our economy. We have to navigate both relationships, and undoubtedly, Chinese investments and business have played a significant role in Sri Lanka. However, I’ve noticed substantial issues regarding the debt obligations left by China. Could you provide some insight into this matter?

President Wickremesinghe

China holds the position of being both the largest bilateral creditor and the largest debtor as a private investor. Initially, China was unsure about how to approach the debt restructuring. They took time, while the United States offered assistance, followed by Japan and India with a combined amount of 3.5 billion. We utilized approximately 2.5 billion, and the United States also provided support. This marked the beginning of our progress. We engaged with the Paris Club, excluding India and China initially, but later India joined. Meanwhile, we were engaged in discussions with China, which were complicated due to their party conference in November. Eventually, they decided to stand by us. Then, in Sri Lanka, we proposed the Common Platform and suggested India join the platform while China attended as an observer. They expressed their willingness to engage in bilateral discussions with us, but their primary focus seems to be on bilateral discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF ensures all parties are informed and involved. Currently, we are working on the platform for creditors and engaging with China, but I cannot predict how this will work out with other debtor nations.

Mr Stephen Harper

I have two more questions, but we are running a bit behind schedule. However, I must ask you about an important point of discussion here, considering your unique perspective from the Global South. Your country has significant trade relations with both Ukraine and Russia. Could you elaborate on how you envision the desired outcome in this context?

President Wickremesinghe

When it comes to the majority of the Global South, we have chosen to stay out of this conflict. Some countries within ASEAN have taken positions, with some working actively, while others remain neutral. A few have voted in favour of the revolution. From the beginning, it has been our belief that this issue could have been resolved through peaceful means. Our primary goal is to prevent the conflict from escalating and to ensure a peaceful settlement. As someone mentioned before, history has shown that major wars often originate in Europe. Our commitment lies in supporting a peaceful resolution in Ukraine. The question remains about how we can achieve this and bring Russia to the negotiating table. President Ramaphosa has led a delegation to both Russia and Ukraine in an effort to facilitate dialogue. However, we have yet to witness the conclusion of these negotiations, which will undoubtedly require time. The conflict has had significant repercussions on countries affected by disruptions in fuel and food supplies.

Mr Stephen Harper

Under your predecessor’s regime, you have talked about war, you had civil war in Sri Lanka, and we all know how the predecessor’s regime ended. Given all the challenges, how do you promote reconciliation between the Tamil community and the country as a whole?

President Wickremesinghe

When I was the Prime Minister, I started the process, so I am continuing from where I have ended. I am speaking with the members of Parliament representing the Tamil areas and we have come to agreements on many issues. On the truth and reconciliation commission, the legislation has been drafted. On the new anti-terrorist law has been presented to the Parliament. There were three major issues difference between the government and opposition two of which have been resolved. The third one finally has been resolved by court as to what the definition of terrorism is. They were looking for my views, I said let the court decide and we will go along with whatever the court says. There was a question of lands being inquiring from the Tamils in the North and East. The land issue is been settled and the missing persons office is taking step to resolve the issue. We have gone through half of the issues and come up with the solutions which I have given to the Tamil parties.

RANJITH SOYSA 

The President Ranil Wickremasinghe, recently at an interview boldly made a statement which is of historical significance. He said that Thiriyaya, Muhudu Maha Vihraya and one Aloka Viharya in the south were light houses and the Ven monks who lived in these temples were the light house keepers.

Many Sri Lankan Buddhists believe that Girihandu Seya the shrine in Thiriyaya is the first temple to be constructed in Sri Lanka to pay homage to the Lord Buddha. According to Vinaya pitaka books, Nidhana katha and Maha Vagga, two Indian merchants Tapassu and Balluka who visited Sri Lanka built the temple enshrining a handful of hair relics of the Lord Buddha. This is also etched in an inscription in an 8^th century epigraph found in the site stating that a shrine named Girikandicaitiya was built on the hilltop by a company of merchants led by Tapassu and Balluka. Therefore, at least from 8^th century the shrine in Thiriyaya was recognized as a Buddhist temple.

The second shrine named by the President as a lighthouse is Muhudu Maha Viharya in Pottuvil district. According to the historical chronicles, the temple was built by King Kavantissa who ruled the Ruhunu kingdom in 205-161 BC to commemorate the arrival point of Princess Vihara Maha Devi, whose boat was swept ashore close to the present day Muhudu Maha Viharya. There are Buddha statues and Bodhi Sattva statues in this viharya and has been identified as a temple built by the king to pay homage to the Lord Buddha

The third temple mentioned by the President cannot be identified as the statement was not clear.

And , the President referred to the resident Ven Monks who were at Girihandu Seya and Muhudu Maha Viharaya as light house keepers.

However, the two temples, Girihanduseya in Thriiyaya and Muhudu Maha Viharya, in Pottuvil were built to pay homage by the Buddhists to the Lord Buddha and to say that these places were light houses deserves the bauble.

But, when one attempts to promote the precarious version of Ven monks as light keepers contrary to the responsible role played by the Maha Sangha in the history of our nation, is indeed irrational is like ringing the bell backwards

RANJITH SOYSA 

උපුටා ගැන්ම Lanka Lead News

කොටුව මහෙස්ත්‍රාත් තිළිණ ගමගේ මහතා ඊයේ (21) ප්‍රකාශ කළේ නතාෂා එදිරිසූරිය නමැති කාන්තාව සිය ප්‍රකාශය මගින් බෞද්ධ චරිතය සහ බෞද්ධ සාහිත්‍ය අතිශයින් හෑල්ලුවට ලක්කර ඇති බවය.

නතාෂා ජූලි 05 දක්වා රක්ෂිත බන්ධනාගාරගත කළ මහෙස්ත්‍රාත්වරයා ප්‍රකාශ කළේ, භාෂණයේ සහ ප්‍රකාශනයේ නිදහස අන් අයට අපහාස කිරීමට දෙන බලපත්‍රයක් නොවන බවය.

අන්තර්ජාලය හරහා ආගමික සහජීවනයට බාධා කිරීම සහ වෛරය වැපිරවීමේ චෝදනා මත රක්ෂිත බන්ධනාගාරගතව සිටින නතෂා එදිරිසූරිය සහ ඊට ආධාර අනුබලදීමේ චෝදනා මත රක්ෂිත බන්ධනාගාර ගත කළ ප්‍රශ්නගත යූටියුබ් නාලිකාවේ හිමිකරු බෘෘනෝ දිවාකර සම්බන්ධයෙන් වූ නීති කෘත්‍යය කොටුව මහෙස්ත්‍රාත් අධිකරණයේදී ඊයේ යළි සලකා බැලුණි.

එහිදී කොටුව මහෙස්ත්‍රාත් තිළිණ ගමගේ මහතා, මීට පෙර නඩු දිනයේ සැකකරුවන්ගේ නීතිඥයින් කළ ඇප ඉල්ලීමට අදාළ නියෝගය ප්‍රකාශයට පත්කළේය.

ඇයගේ නීතිඥයින් කියාසිටියා ප්‍රශ්නගත ප්‍රකාශය සිදුකළ තැනැත්තිය තුළ බෞද්ධ දර්ශනයට අපහාස කිරීමේ චේතනාවක් තිබුනේ නැහැ.. එය හුදෙක් හාස්‍යය දැනවීම අරමුණු කරගත් ප්‍රකාශයක් කියලා. එමෙන්ම මෙම ප්‍රකාශයෙන් කියවෙන්නේ සිදුහත් චරිතය එසේත් නැතිනම් බුදුන් වහන්සේ බුද්ධත්වය ලැබීමට පෙර අවධිය බවත් සැකකාරිය වෙනුවෙන් සිදුකළ කරුණු දැක්වීම්වලදී කියවුණා. මම කියන්න කැමතියි, එම ප්‍රකාශයෙන් බුදුන් වහන්සේගේ ළමා කාලය ඉලක්කවූ බවට කීවත් එහි ගැබ්ව ඇති අපරාධ වරද සුළු කොට සැලකිය නොහැකියි. බුද්ධ චරිතාපදානය බුදුන් වහන්සේ බුදුවීමට සාර අසංඛ්‍ය කල්ප ලක්ෂයක් (සාරාසංඛ්‍ය කල්ප ලක්ෂයක්) පෙරුම් පිරීමේ සිට ධාතු පරිනිර්වානය දක්වා දිව යනවා. එබැවින් සිදුහත් චරිතය හුදු තවත් එක් ළමා කාලයක් ලෙස සැලකිය නොහැකියි. මෙම ප්‍රකාශය තුළින් පැහැදිලිව බුදුන් වහන්සේගේ ළමා කාලය හාස්‍යයට ලක්කර තිබෙනවා.”

මෙහිදී මහෙස්ත්‍රාත්වරයා සැකකාරිය සිදුකර ඇති වරදේ ස්වභාවය උත්තරීතර ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ වගන්ති ඔස්සේ ද පැහැදිලි කළේය.

ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 2 වැනි පරිච්ඡේදයේ 09 වැනි ව්‍යවස්ථාව තුළ බුද්ධාගමට ප්‍රමුඛස්ථානය පිරිනමා තිබෙනවා. එවැනි වටපිටාවක තමයි බුද්ධ චරිතයට නිගරු කර තිබෙන්නේ. බොහෝ දෙනෙක් භාෂණයේ අයිතිය පිළිබඳ කතා කරනවා. මම කියන්න කැමතියි.. ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 14 වැනි ව්‍යස්ථාව තුළ භාෂණයේ නිදහස තහවුරු කළ ද, 15 (2) ව්‍යවස්ථාව තුළින් ඊට සීමා පනවා තිබෙනවා. මලල්ගොඩ එරෙහි නීතිපති නඩුවේදී ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය ප්‍රකාශ කළා, ‘භාෂණයේ සහ ප්‍රකාශනයේ නිදහස අන් අයට අපහාස කිරීමට දෙන බලපත්‍රයක් නෙවෙයි’ කියලා.”

සැකකාරිය විසින් සිදුකර ඇති වරද 2007 අංක 56 දරන සිවිල් හා දේශපාලන අයිතිවාසිකම් පිළිබඳ ජාත්‍යන්තර සම්මුති පනත යටතට නොවැටෙන බවට නීතිඥයින් කළ කරුණු දැක්වීම සම්බන්ධයෙන්ද මහෙස්ත්‍රාත්වරයා අධිකරණයේ මතය පැහැදිලි කළේය.

ප්‍රශ්නගත ප්‍රකාශය තුළ බෞද්ධ චරිතය සහ බෞද්ධ සාහිත්‍ය අතිශයින් හෑල්ලුවට ලක්වී ඇති බව අධිකරණයේ මතයයි. අදාළ ප්‍රකාශය තුළින් බෞද්ධ ජනකොටස් අතෘප්තියට පත්වීම හා ඔවුන් තුළ නොසන්සුන්තාවයක් ඇතිවීම නිරායාසයෙන්ම.. අනික් ආගම් කෙරෙහි එදිරිවාදිකම්වලට පොළඹවනවා. ශ්‍රී ලංකා ඉතිහාසයේ මෙවැනි සුළු ප්‍රකාශ මත පදනම්ව ආගම් අතර ගැටුම් ඇතිවූ අවස්ථා දැකගන්නට පුළුවන්. එමෙන්ම මෙම වරද නතාෂා එදිරිසූරිය චේතනාන්විතව සිදුකර ඇති බව පෙනී යනවා. ප්‍රශ්නගත වැඩසටහනේ අනෙකුත් සියලු ඉදිරිපත් කිරීම්වල පිටපත් සඳහා ප්‍රසිද්ධ රැගුම් පාලක මණ්ඩලයෙන් අවසර ගෙන තිබුණත්, මෙම සැකකාරිය පමණක් නීති කෘත්‍යයට අදාළ ප්‍රශ්නගත කොටස ඇතුළත් පිටපතට අවසර ගෙන නැහැ. එමෙන්ම ඇය සිය ප්‍රකාශ තුළ පිළිගෙන තිබෙනවා.. පිටපත ලිව්වේ තමා බවත් ඇය විසින්ම පෙර පුහුණුවීම් සිදුකළ බවත්. එබැවින් තම පිටපත ඇය විසින් ප්‍රසිද්ධ රැගුම් පාලක මණ්ඩලයට ඉදිරිපත් නොකිරීම තුළ හිතාමතාම, දැන දැන මෙම වරද සිදුකර ඇති බව ගම්‍ය වෙනවා.”

අනතුරුව සැකකාරිය පිළිබඳ ඇප නියෝගය මහෙස්ත්‍රාත්වරයා ප්‍රකාශයට පත්කළේය.

කරුණු සියල්ල සලකාබැලීමේදී සැකකාරිය ICCPR පනතේ 3 (1) යටතට ගැනෙන වරදක් සිදුකර ඇති බව අධිකරණයේ මතයයි. එම පනත යටතේ සැකකරුවෙකු ලෙස නම් කරනු ලබන හෝ චෝදනා ලැබු තැනැත්තෙකුගේ ඇප සලකාබැලීය හැක්කේ මහාධිකරණයට පමණයි. ඇය විමර්ශන ඇරඹු අවස්ථාවේම අධිකරණය මඟහැර විදෙස්ගතවීමට උත්සාහ කිරීම තුළ ඇප පනතේ 14 (1) වගන්තිය උල්ලංඝනය වී තිබෙනවා. ඒ අනුව සැකකාරියගේ ඇප ඉල්ලීම ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කරන මෙම අධිකරණය ඇය රක්ෂිත බන්ධනාගාරගත කිරීමට නියෝග කරනවා.”

Media Centre – MOD

Acting Minister of Defence Hon. Premitha Bandara Tennakoon made a visit to the Indian Navy Submarine ‘INS Vagir’ at the Colombo port on Wednesday (Jun 21).

Minister Tennakoon was received by the Commander of the submarine, Commander Divakar S on his arrival at the jetty and later accompanied him to the Submarine.

During the hosted tour of the Submarine, the Minister was given a briefing on the technical and maritime capabilities of the vessel.

Commander of Western Naval Command Rear Admiral Suresh De Silva and Defence Advisor of the Indian High Commission in Colombo Captain Vikas Sood were also present during the tour.

Sunimal Perera Montreal, Canada

In retrospect, the sad and sudden demise of the OceanGate Titan submersible in the dangerous swells of the Atlantic Ocean off Nova Scotia, Canada has shaken the world and left many wondering after reading the intricate details of preparation and the safety factors which do appear to have been left wanting  and unprepared towards an imminent implosion, and for such a dangerous descent into the deepest ocean depths and whether it was worth the $ 250,000 per person and the multi billion dollar search and rescue that resulted all to no avail in the end beyond the folly of it all.

Will there be lessons learned ?

This is my testimony.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva has assured the institution’s commitment towards supporting Sri Lanka’s economic reforms. 

Following her meeting with President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Georgieva assured that the IMF is committed to supporting the island nation’s economic reforms, in a bid to improve the living standards of Sri Lankans. 

I warmly welcomed the strong ownership by the Sri Lankan government to address current economic challenges. We are committed to support Sri Lanka’s economic reforms to improve living standards for its people,” she said in a Twitter statement. 

President Wickremesinghe arrived in Paris on Wednesday (21 June), on the invitation of his  French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, to address the World Leader’s Summit for a New Global Financing Pact on 22 – 23 June, which endeavours to garner cross-regional consensus among the international community to build a more inclusive, a more equitable international financial architecture with strong deliverables.

Accordingly, Wickremesinghe will speak at the Summit on Sri Lanka’s experience as a middle-income country and the challenges faced in dealing with international financial institutes with a severe economic crisis. 

Sri Lanka’s experience is considered to be of particular relevance to the outcome of the Summit, especially in the context of the country’s recent success in debt discussions with the IMF and in progressing on the path to economic stability and recovery.

The other leaders of the round table speaking under this particular theme are President of Tunisia Kaïs Saied, Prime Minister of Rwanda  Edouard Ngirente, Managing Director of the IMF Kristalina Georgieva, President of the African Development Bank Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, and the former President of Chad Mahamat Idriss Deby.

Heads of State and Heads of Government of countries across Europe, Asia, Africa and South America are scheduled to participate in the summit, in addition to heads of international organizations, multilateral financial institutions and other key stakeholders. 

The French President Emmanuel Macron, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the President of Brazil Lula da Silva, the Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley, and the President of Kenya William Ruto are among the world leaders scheduled to speak at the summit.

President Wickremesinghe is also due to meet several Heads of Government and Heads of Multilateral Institutions on the side-lines of the Summit to discuss issues of relevance. 

The President and the First Lady Prof. Maithree Wickramasinghe will also attend an official dinner hosted by President Macron for Heads of State and Government participating in the Summit, at the Elysee on 22 June. 

The First Lady Wickramasinghe is also scheduled to participate in an event hosted by the First Lady of the French Republic Brigitte Macron on 23 of June 2023.

Courtesy Adaderana

Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera has revealed that the Indian energy company Petronet LNG has presented short-term solutions to meet the Ceylon Electricity Board’s (CEB) requirement for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). 

Taking to Twitter, Wijesekera revealed that Petronet LNG presented immediate, albeit short-term, solutions for CEB’s LNG requirements this morning (22 June). 

Accordingly, options for short-term solutions to reduce the cost of generation in the next 24 months from the 600+ MW of the LNG power plants available will be pursued, while a long-term plan for LNG is being finalised, the Minister said.

 Wijesekera thanked the Indian High Commissioner Gopal Baglay for his efforts in this regard, and for organizing the discussion at which officials of the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka (IHSL), the CEB, Petronet LNG, the Petroleum Development Authority of Sri Lanka (PDASL) and the Ministry were present.

Courtesy Adaderana

Instructions have been issued to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and other senior police officers to take immediate and stern legal action against violent crimes committed in both the Western and Southern provinces. 

The relevant directive was issued by Public Security Minister Tiran Alles, during a special discussion with high-ranking police officers that took place on Wednesday (21 June). 

Accordingly, Alles ordered that expedited action be taken against those involved in murders and other violent crimes in the Western and Southern provinces, while highlighting that that no one will be allowed to exert undue influence over such operations, as per the confirmation received by President Ranil Wickremesinghe. 

Moreover, the Minister also in instructed to grant a grace period until 31 July to surrender all unauthorized and unlicensed firearms. 

Upon the expiry of this grace period, however, Minister Alles noted that raids will be conducted by the intelligence units of the police in order to seize such unauthorized and unlicensed firearms. 

During the discussion, IGP C. D. Wickramaratne attributed the recent spike in the number of murders and other violent crimes in the Western and Southern provinces to the inefficiency of certain senior police officers and the Officers-In-Charge (OIC) in these areas. 

Responding to this, Minister Alles ordered the immediate transfer of the relevant police personnel, and that suitable officers be appointed to those positions. 

Public Security Ministry’s Secretary Vyani Gunathilake, IGP C. D. Wickramaratne, Senior Deputy Inspector General (SDIG) of Police Deshabandu Tennakoon, Southern Province SDIG S.C Medawatta and Special Task Force (STF) Commander DIG Varuna Jayasundara were present at the discussion

Courtesy Adaderana

Minister of Labour and Foreign Employment Manusha Nanayakkara says that special approval has been received to include the Japanese language into the school curriculum from the primary grades.

Speaking in the parliament today (22), Nanayakkara mentioned that this decision has been taken targeting the future Japanese job market.

Accordingly, necessary arrangements are already being prepared together with the Ministry of Education, in order to begin the process of teaching the Japanese language to school children, the minister emphasized.

The minister further asserted that a program has been launched to create a pool of 5,000 Japanese language trainees targeting the Japanese job market.

Insight By Sunil Kumar 

Travelers have suddenly become aware of a painful reality that  the “Pearl of the Indian Ocean,” also known as Sri Lanka  has a sad reputation as a terror haven in the past four decades, a sinister cohort of despots, bloodthirsty separatists known as Tamil tigers, Che Guevarists and crooked and power-drunk politicians who have come and gone while desecrating the Beautifu Island of Sri Lanka appear to be the reason.

And they have tarnished grossly her image, natural geographic beauty and all her embellishments, treasures such sapphires, rubies, topaz – and tea, one of the best crops in the world  amongst other things typically and beautifully Sri Lankan by how some of them are given to violence at times over the pettiest of issues as an alarming spate of violence involving firearms and wanton murders as well as carefully orchestrated ones which are threatening to take over what many see as an idyllic getaway and need to be quelled towards posterity and the well being that draws multitudes of tourists before their enthusiasm to visit fades and with it the loss of vast sums of tourist income at a time when Sri Lanka needs it most.

Quoting from recent media reports aligned to the veritable truth”The country’s economic collapse, which has triggered an unprecedented popular movement and led to the flight of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, marks a new stage in a long series of upheavals. It comes just three years after Sri Lanka was stunned by terrorist attacks. On Easter Day 2019, eight members of a suicide commando of Sri Lankan jihadists blew themselves up in Christian minority churches. The attack killed 268 people and injured 500.

Before the civil war (1983-2009) between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority led Sri Lanka down the path of tragedy, this country of 22 million inhabitants was the envy of its South Asian neighbors for its relative prosperity and unspeakable beauty – Sri Lanka was nicknamed “the shining island.” Not to mention a system of parliamentary representation that has, throughout the country’s history since independence (1948), allowed for political alternation and so called real democratic interludes.” end quote

Categorically Sri Lanka has always been a historically turbulent country  which has seen three phases of Colonization and uprisings of territory related aggression but remarkably the colonial eras never produced the extent of violence seen in present times and rather curiously the more recent uprisings are probably to blame for the influx of firearms and other weapons that prevail in the violence of today as on a daily basis one reads about the  many murders, gang related violence and high crimes and misdemeanors worthy of any American crime hub where guns are out of control such as Chicago, Los Angeles, New York,Compton etc.and  alarmingly seems to be on the increase  and high time the Present Administration intervened towards quelling if not eradicating the problem which of course is a big ask where despite the many laws preventing weapons ownership, the illegal trade seems to dictate terms where many an ordinary individual as well as some higher ups including politicians and legislators also have easy access towards these weapons.

Hopefully Sri Lanka will not end up being a land of the armed and dangerous where  the build up towards a tranquil and violence free Nation is surely the responsibility of the hierarchy with emphasis on the President and the Law Enforcement Agencies.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා මෙම අදහස් පළකළේ  ලක්ෂ 420ක වියදමින් ඉදිකළ හොරණ, මධුරාවල ප්‍රාදේශීය සභා ගොඩනැගිල්ල 2023.06.21 දින ජනතා අයිතියට පත්කිරීම සහ  මදුරාවල, බදුරලිය, වලල්ලාවිට ඉඩම් හිමිකම් ඔප්පු 738 ක් ප්‍රධානය කිරීමේ අවස්ථාවන්ට එක්වෙමිනි.

එහිදී අදහස් දැක් වූ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා –

මේ අපේ පැරැණි ගම්වල උරුමයන් කියාපාන ප්‍රදේශයක්. අපනයනය කරන ලද රබර් ප්‍රමාණය සංඛ්‍යාලේඛන වලින් ගණන් හැදුවොත්  බුලත්සිංහලට ලැබිලා තියෙන රජයේ සහය ඉතාම අඩුයි. සංඛ්‍යා ලේඛන සකස් කිරීමේ දී සහ යළි ආයෝජනය කිරීමේදී ඇති වී තිබෙන පරතරය නිසා කේන්ද්‍රීය නගර පමණක් දියුණුවෙමින් ග්‍රාමීය ජනයාගේ ජන ජීවිතය හා පහසුකම් දියුණු කිරීම අවම වීම නිසා ඊට නිශ්චිත ආයෝජනයන් වැඩ කිරීමේ අවශ්‍යතාව ඇති වී තිබෙනවා. අද සිදුකෙරෙන ඉඩම්  අයිතිවාසිකම් ලබාදීම තවත් ජයග්‍රහණයක්.

 අප මුහුණ දුන්නු අමාරු කාලය ඔබ සැමගේ ශක්තියෙන් ජයගන්න පුළුවන් වුණා.  නීතියක් නැති රටක් තියෙන්න බැහැ. අරාජිකත්වය පදනම් කරගත් හිංසා වාදයට මුල් තැන දෙමින් රටක් පාලනය කරන්න බැහැ. ඒ නිසා හිංසා වාදය ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කොට අවිහිංසාවාදයේ මූලධර්ම මත යළිත් රටේ නීතිය හා සාමය ස්ථාපිත කරමින් ආර්ථික ගමන ශක්තිමත් කරන්නට අපට හැකියාව ඇති වී තිබෙනවා.

 අර්බුදයෙන් ගොඩ එන්න අපට ශක්තිය දුන්නු ග්‍රාමීය ජනතාව රට පුරා සිටිනවා.  අපේ ගම්බද ජනතාවගේ ගොවිතැන් කිරීම නිසා අතිරික්තයක් බිහිකරන්න පුළුවන් වුණා. එය ගම්බද ගොවි ජනතාව ඇති කරපු ජයග්‍රහණයක්. ඒ විශ්වාසය ඇති කරන්න පුළුවන් වීම නිසා ශ්‍රී ලංකාව කෙරෙහි ජාත්‍යන්තරව විශාල විශ්වාසයක් ඇති කරන්න පුළුවන් වුණා. අපේ රට ආර්ථිකව ගොඩනඟන්න පුළුවන් කියලා ජාත්‍යන්තර පිළිගැනීමක් ඇති වුණා.   හැම ක්ෂේත්‍රයක්ම යළි පණ ගන්වන්නට ඕනේ. අපි පිළිගන්නවා. පාසැල් හැර යන හැම තරුණ තරුණියකටම තමන්ගේ දැනුම වර්ධනය කරගෙන පුහුණුවකට පරිවර්තනය කිරීම සඳහා ජනාධිපතිතුමා ප්‍රධාන රජය සෑම ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කොට්ඨාශයකම වැඩසටහන් දියත් කොට තිබෙනවා.

හැම ගමක්ම ස්වයංපෝෂිත ගම්මාන බවට  පත්විය යුතුයි.  හැම හැමදේකින්ම අපට ස්වයංපෝෂිත වෙන්න බෑහැ. නමුත් යම්කිසි දෙයකින් අපට ස්වයංපෝෂිත වෙන්න පුළුවන් නම් හැම ගමක්ම  ඒකාබද්ධ කොට ස්වංපෝෂිත ගම්මාන සැලැස්ම සාර්ථක කරගන්නට පුළුවන්. රට ගොඩනැගීම සඳහා සැලසුම් ඇති කරගෙන යන මෙම කාල පරිච්ඡේදයේ ඒ පිළීබඳ දැඩි අවධානයක් යොමු කළ යුතුයි.

 රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය අශෝක ප්‍රියන්ත, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් වන රෝහිත අබේගුණවර්ධන, ලලිත් වර්ණකුමාර, සංජීව එදිරිමාන්න, කළුතර දිස්ත්‍රික් ලේකම්, ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම්වරු ඇතුළු නිළධාරීන් සහ ජනතාව මෙම අවස්ථාවට එක්වූහ.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය. 

මැලේසියාව සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකාව අතර ගුවන් ගමන් වාර සංඛ්‍යාව වැඩි කරන ලෙස අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන මහතා කළ ඉල්ලීමකට මැලේසියානු මහ කොමසාරිස් බද්ලි හිෂාම් එකඟ විය. මැලේසියානු ගුවන් සේවය අතිරේක ගුවන් ගමන් ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමට සැලසුම් කර ඇති අතර තවත් ගුවන් සමාගම් දෙකක් වන එයාර් ඒෂියා සහ බතික් එයාර්  ක්වාලාලාම්පූර් සහ කොළඹ අතර ගුවන් ගමන් හඳුන්වා දීමට එකඟත්වය පළකර ඇත.

මැලේසියානු මහ කොමසාරිස් බද්ලි හිෂාම් ඇඩම් මහතා  2023.06.20 දින අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේදී අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා හමුවූ අතර වෙළෙඳ සහ ආයෝජන සහයෝගීතාව ඉහළ නැංවීම කෙරෙහි විශේෂ අවධානයක් යොමු කරමින් දෙරට අතර ද්විපාර්ශ්වික සබඳතා පිළිබඳව සාකච්ඡා කෙරිණි.

වාර්ෂිකව සංචාරකයන් මිලියන 70ක් මැලේසියාවට පැමිණෙන බවත් අතිරේක ගුවන් ගමන් හඳුන්වා දීමෙන් ඔවුන්ගෙන් කොටසක් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ආකර්ෂණය කර ගත හැකි බවත් මැලේසියානු මහ කොමසාරිස්වරයා මෙහිදී පැවසීය. බටහිර සහ නැගෙනහිර අතර දැවැන්ත ගමනාගමන තදබදය අවමකිරීම සඳහා ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ප්‍රධාන ගුවන් සේවා මධ්‍යස්ථානයක් විය හැකි බවද ඔහු පෙන්වා දුන්නේය.

වර්ධනය වන හෝටල් කර්මාන්තයට අමතරව ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ නව ආයෝජන ක්ෂේත්‍රවලට පිවිසෙන ලෙස අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා මැලේසියානු ව්‍යවසායකයින්ගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටියේය. මැලේසියාව මෑත වසරවල ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ඉහළම 6 වැනි ආයෝජන හවුල්කරුවා අතර විය.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා රුපියල් බිලියනයක් පමණ වටිනා  ඖෂධ සහ වෛද්‍ය සැපයුම් පරිත්‍යාග කිරීම පිළිබඳව අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා මැලේසියානු රජයට සහ ජනතාවට ස්තූතිය පළ කළේය. මැලේසියාව විසින් පිළිකා රෝගීන් සඳහා අත්‍යවශ්‍ය ඖෂධ ඇතුළත් මැලේසියානු රිංගිට් 63,000 හෙවත් ඇමරිකානු ඩොලර් USD 14,645 (ආසන්න වශයෙන්) වටිනා වෛද්‍ය සැපයුම් පරිත්‍යාග කරන ලදී.

ඉහළ මට්ටමේ සම්බන්ධතා, ඓතිහාසික සම්බන්ධතා, අන්තර් පුද්ගල සම්බන්ධතා, භූගෝලීය සමීපත්වය සහ ජාතීන් දෙක අතර මිත්‍රත්වයේ ගැඹුරු වන බැඳීම් ගැන සඳහන් කරමින් මැලේසියානු මහ කොමසාරිස්වරයා පැවසුවේ ආර්ථික සහ වෙළඳ සහයෝගීතාව වැඩි කිරීමට තම රජය අපේක්ෂා කරන බවයි.

ශ්‍රී ලාංකික  ශ්‍රමිකයින්  මැලේසියාවේ රැකියා අවස්ථා  සඳහා  බඳවා ගැනීම, රැකියා නියුක්තිය සහ නැවත මෙරටට ගෙන්වා ගැනීම පිළිබඳ අවබෝධතා ගිවිසුමකට ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සහ මැලේසියාව  2016 වසරේදී අත්සන් තැබීය. ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයින් සඳහා වන මැලේසියානු රැකියා කෝටාව 10,000ක් දක්වා වැඩි කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් මැලේසියානු රජයට ස්තූතිය පළ කළ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා නිෂ්පාදන අංශය සහ හෙද ක්ෂේත්‍රය වැනි නව ක්ෂේත්‍ර රැකියා ලැයිස්තුවට ඇතුළත් කරන ලෙස ඉල්ලා සිටියේය.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ලේකම් අනුර දිසානායක සහ මැලේසියානු මහ කොමසාරිස් කාර්යාලයේ පළමු ලේකම් ඇනුයුරින් ඉශ්නේටියස් (Aneurin Ignatius ) යන මහත්වරු ද මෙම හමුවට සහභාගි වූහ.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය.  

Manusha Media

සිය පුද්ගලික කාර්ය මණ්ඩලයේ නිලධාරීන් බව පවසමින් විදේශ රැකියා ලබාදීම සදහා මුදල් එක් රැස්කරන ජාවාරම් සම්බන්ධයෙන් විශේෂ විමර්ශනයක් සිදුවන බවත් එවැනි පුද්ගලයින් සමග සිදුකරන ලබන කිසිදු ගනුදෙනුවකට හෝ පොරොන්දුවකට තමන් වග නොකියන බවත් කම්කරු සහ විදේශ රැකියා අමාත්‍ය මනුෂ නානායක්කාර මහතා අවධාරණය කර සිටී.

සිය කාර්ය මණ්ඩලයේ කිසිදු නිලධාරියෙක් විදේශ රැකියා ලබාදීම සදහා මුදල් එක් රැස් නොකරන බවත්, නීත්‍යානුකූල විදේශ රැකියා නියෝජිත ආයතනකයට හැර වෙනත් කිසිදු අයෙක්ට විදේශ රැකියා සදහා පුද්ගලයින් යොමු කිරීමට හැකියාවක් නොමැති බවත් අමාත්‍යවරයා සදහන් කරයි.

විදේශ රැකියා සදහා ශ්‍රමිකයින් යොමු කරනු ලණ්නේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා විදේශ සේවා නියුක්ති කාර්යාංශය සහ නිත්‍යානුකූල විදේශ රැකියා නියෝජිත ආයතන පමණි. ඊට බැහැරව කිසිදු පුද්ගලයෙක්ට විදේශ රැකියා සදහා ශ්‍රමිකයින් යොමු කළ නොහැකි අතර, එසේ විදේශ රැකියා ලබාදෙන බව පවසමින් මුදල් ලබාගැනීම නීති විරෝධී වේ.

අමාත්‍යවරයාගේ කාර්යමණ්ඩලයේ බව පවසමින් රැකියා සදහා මුදල් ලබාගන්නා බවට චෝදනා එල්ලවන කිසිදු පුද්ගලයෙක්, පුද්ගලික කාර්ය මණ්ඩලයේ නිලධාරීන් නොවන අතර අමාත්‍යවරයාගේ පුද්ගලික කාර්ය මණ්ඩලය පහත සදහන් නිලධාරීන්ගෙන් පමණක් සමන්විත වේ. 

ශාන් යහම්පත් මහතා – පුද්ගලික ලේකම්

සංජය නල්ලපෙරුම මහතා – මාධ්‍ය ලේකම්

දේශප්‍රිය ලියනගේ මහතා – සම්බන්ධීකරණ ලේකම්

භාග්‍ය කාරියවසම් මහතා – සම්බන්ධීකරණ ලේකම්

සුනෙත් අතුකෝරළ මහතා – මහජන සම්බන්ධතා නිලධාරී

උදයංග සූරිආරච්චි මහතා – පාර්ලිමේන්තු කටයුතු ලේකම්

ප්‍රියංකර විජේසේකර – සම්බන්ධීකරණ නිලධාරී (පාර්ලිමේන්තු කාර්ය මණ්ඩලය)

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka inflation, based on National Consumer Price Index (NCPI), for May 2023 was recorded at 22.1%, as measured by the year-on-year change, the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) revealed in its latest report.

This marks a slight drop in comparison to the headline inflation of 33.6% recorded in April 2023.

In comparison to 2022, the reported inflation for the month of May 2023 was mainly due to the higher price levels that prevailed in both food and non-food groups.

On a monthly basis, the year-on-year inflation of the food group dropped to 15.8% in May from 27.1% in April 2023. Meanwhile, the year-on-year inflation of the non-food group decreased to 27.6% in May 2023 from 39.0% in April 2023.

The contributions (year-on-year) to the inflation recorded in May 2023 from the food commodities and the non-food group stood at 7.27% and 14.88%, respectively in comparison to March 2022.

Courtesy Adaderana

දේශමාන්‍ය ආචාර්‍ය සුදත් ගුණසේකර. මහනුවර.

1505න් ආරම්භවී මේ දක්වා සින්හල ජාතියට අහිමිවීගොස් ඇති වසර 2500 කට අධික ඉතිහාසයේ ලාන්චනය වන සින්හල බෞද්ධ ජාතික උරුමයන් සහ අනන්‍යතාව රැකගැනීමටනම් වහාම ක්‍රියාත්මක වන පරිදි පහත දැක්වෙන පියවරයන් ගත යුතුයයි මම යෝජනා කරමි.

1505 සිට මේ රට පුරා වෙනස්කොට ඇති සහ අලුතෙන් තබා ඇති සියළුම විදේශීය පුද්ගල නාම ඇතුළ, ස්ථාන, ගන්ගා, මාර්ග,නගර, ආයතන,ජනපද සහ ගොඩනැගිලි ආදී සියළුම නාම 1505 න් පෙර තිබුණු නාම බවට වහාම හැරවිය යුතුය. මන්ද කඩිනමින් එසේ නොකළහොත් මේ රටේ ඉන්නේ පෘතුගිසි, ඉන්ග්‍රීසි, දකුණු ඉන්දීය සහ අරාබිකරයේ ජාතීන් සහ මේ රට සෑදී ඇත්තේ එකී රටවල කෑළිකීපයක්  එකතුකිරීමෙන් යයි ලෝකයා සිතිය හැකි බැවිනි.

පූර්ණ නිදහස්, නිවහල් සින්හල ජාතියේ පුනරුත්ථානය පටන්ගත යුත්තේ එතැනිණි.

මෙම ක්‍රියාවළියේ ආරම්භය මේ රටට පූර්ණ දේශපාලන නිදහස ලබාගත් 1972 සිදුකළ පරිදි පාර්ලිමේන්තුව, යළිත් ජාතික රාජ්‍ය සභාව නමින් නම්කොට ආරභ කරමු.

ඊ ලඟට එහි සියලු තනතුරු, ආයතන සහ අන්ශ යනාදිය සින්හලෙන් නම්කරමු. එහිදී ජනාධිපති ළකිසුරු නමින්ද කැබිනට එක අමාත්‍යමන්ඩලය ආදි වෂයෙන් නම්කළ යුතුයයි මම යෝජනා කරමි. මේ සඳහා විද්වත් මණ්ඩලයකින් උපදෙස් ලබාගත යුතුය.

එසේම දෙමළ සහ මුස්ලිම් සුළුජන කොටස් සහ ත්‍රස්ථවාදීන් විසින් විනාශකොට, වෙනස්කොට ඇති සියළුම පුරාවිද්‍යාත්මක ස්ථාන පුනරුත්ථාන කොට ඒවාට පෙර රජදවස දී තිබුණු භූමි ප්‍රමාණයන් සහ වරප්‍රසාධ සියල්ල ආපසු ලබාදිය යුතුය. ඒවා වෙනස්කොට ඇති පුද්ගලයින්ට එරෙහිව අදාල අනපනත් යටතේ දඬුවම් ලබාදියයුතුය. එසේම දෙමළකරණය සහ මුස්ලිම් කරණයකොට ඇති සියළුම ගම් ස්ථානනාම හා පූජා භූමීන්ද ඒවායේ පැරණි නම්වලින් හැඳින්විය යුතුය.

එසේ කිරීමෙන් පසු දෙමාපියන්විසින් දරුවන්ට තබන නම් හැර සෙසු සියළුම නම් කිසියම් විශේෂ හේතුවක් මත වෙනස් කිරීමට අවශ‍යනම් ජාතික රාජ්‍ය සභාවට ඒ ගැන යෝජනාවක් ඉදිරිපත්කොට ඒ සඳහා රාජ්‍යසභාවේ පූර්ණ අනුමැතිය ලබාගත යුතුය.

පිටරටක ආයතනයක් මෙහි පිහිටුවන සෑම අවස්ථාවකදීම ආයතනයේ නමට ඉදිරියෙන් – ශ්‍රී ලන්කා යනුවෙන් සඳහන් කළයුතුය.

මෙම ක්‍රියාවළිය අවසානයේ එම වෙනස්කම් ඇතුලත්කොට ඒවා භූමියේද, සිතියම් සහ සහ ලේඛණ වලද ඇතුලත් කළයුතුය.

මෙම කටයුත්තට උපදෙස් ලබාගැනීම සඳහා සඳහා පුරාවිද්‍යා චක්‍රවර්ති ගරු එල්ලාවල මේධානන්ද හිමියන්ගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් කමිටුවක් පිහිටවිය යුතුයයිද මම රජයට යෝජනා කරමි.

Manusha Media

දිගින් දිගටම ශ්‍රී ලංකන් ගුවන් සේවයේ ප්‍රමාදය කොරියානු රැකියා සදහා ශ්‍රමිකයින් යැවීමටත් ගැටලුවක් වෙනවා – කම්කරු හා විදේශ රැකියා අමාත්‍යවරයා අවධාරණය කරයි

කොරියානු රැකියා සදහා පිටත්ව යන ශ්‍රමිකයින් ගමන් ගන්නා ශ්‍රී ලංකන් ගුවන් සේවයට අයත් යූ එල් 470 දරණ ගුවන් යානය අද දිනයේදීත් පැය 12ක් පමණ ප්‍රමාදවීම නිසා එම ශ්‍රමිකයින් කණ්ඩායම අද දිනයේදී කොරියාව බලා පිටත් කර යැවීමට නොහැකිවූ අතර කොරියාව බලා ශ්‍රමිකයින් රැගෙන යන ශ්‍රී ලංකන් ගුවන් සේවයට අයත් ගුවන් යානා දිගින් දිගටම මේ ආකාරයට ප්‍රමාද වීම නිසා කොරියානු රැකියා සදහා ශ්‍රමිකයින් පිටත් කර යැවීම බරපතල ගැටලුවක් බවට පත්ව තිබෙන බව කම්කරු හා විදේශ රැකියා අමාත්‍ය මනුෂ නානායක්කාර මහතා පවසයි. 

කොරියානු රැකියා සදහා පිටත්ව යන 800 වැනි කණ්ඩායම ලෙස මෙම කණ්ඩායම දකුණු කොරියාව බලා පිටත් කර යැවීමට අවශ්‍ය සියලුම කටයුතු ශ්‍රී ලංකා විදේශ සේවා නියුක්ති කාර්යාංශය විසින් සූදානම් කර තිබුණි. කොරියාවේ ධීවර ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ රැකියා සදහා ශ්‍රමිකයින් පනස් දෙදෙනෙක් මේ ආකාරයට පිටත්ව යාමට නියමිතව සිටි නමුත් ශ්‍රී ලංකන් ගුවන් සේවයේ ප්‍රමාදය නිසා ඔවුන් අද දිනයේදී කොරියාවට නොඑවන ලෙසට කොරියානු මානව සම්පත් දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව ශ්‍රී ලංකා විදේශ සේවා නියුක්ති කාර්යාංශයට දැනුම්දී ඇත. 

පසුගිය මැයි 23 වැනිදාද මේ ආකාරයට ශ්‍රී ලංකන් ගුවන් සේවයට අයත් ගුවන් යානයක් ප්‍රමාද වූ අතර එම ගුවන් යානයෙන් කොරියාව බලා පිටත්ව යාමට නියමිතව සිටි ශ්‍රී ලාංකික ්‍රශ්‍රමිකයින් කොරියාවට භාරගැනීම එරට මානව සම්පත් දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කළේය.  ශ්‍රී ලංකා විදේශ සේවා නියුක්ති කාර්යාංශයේ මැදිහත්වීම මත එම ශ්‍රමිකයින් ජුනි 4 වැනිදා කොරියාව බලා පිටත් යැවීමට කටයුතු කළ නමුත් එදිනද එම ගුවන් යානය පැය දෙකක් පමණ ප්‍රමාද වී තිබ්නි. 

මේ ආකාරයට කොරියානු රැකියා සදහා ශ්‍රමිකයින් රැගෙන යන ශ්‍රී ලංකන් ගුවන් සේවයට අයත් ගුවන් යානා ප්‍රමාදයට පත්වීම බරපතල තත්වයක් වන අතර මේ නිසා කොරියානු රැකියා සදහා ශ්‍රී ලාංකික ශ්‍රමිකයින් යොමු කිරීම බරපතල ප්‍රශ්නයක් බවට පත්ව තිබෙන බව අමාත්‍යවරයා අවධාරණය කරයි. 

මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් අවධානය යොමු කරමින් තීරණ ගැනීම සිදුවන බවද මනුෂ නානායක්කාර අමාත්‍යවරයා තරයේ අවධාරණය කර සිටී

Mohammad Abdullah

The universes (alamin) that are mentioned in the Quran are discussed below under the following headings:
i. Samawaat
ii. Jannaat

iii. Different Universes

iv. Super Space and Barzakh

 v. Araf, Channels, and Sidratul-Muntaha

vi. Illiyin and Sijjin

 vii. Arsh.

Only The Almighty , The All-Wise, The Omniscient Allah knows the real facts of the universes. We may estimate some little facts based on the islamic divine book Al Quran.  We may consider some facts from the Hadith of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

Samawaat

This universe, where we are living now, is called “Samawaat” in the Quran. Samawaat means Skies. The study of the Quran reveals that the space of the universe is shaped into seven spherical waves, one inside another—like the peels of onion. These waves of space are skies. Each sky contains innumerable galaxies. We are in the First (Innermost) Sky. The space though waved is continuous. One does not have to believe the existence of skies blindly. Several recent observations indicate that the skies should exist—though the theories have not been developed to harness the idea in the books of science [The skies are deliberately discussed in Section-7 of Chapter-2].

Jannaat

The Jannaat is a separate universe altogether. The hint of its location is given in the following verses: ―Be quick in the race for forgiveness from your Lord Allah and for a Jannaat whose width is that of the ‗Skies and Lands‘ (this universe), prepared for the righteous…‖ [Al Quran 3:133] ―Race to forgiveness from your Lord and the Jannaat, the width of which is as the width of the ‗Sky and Land‘ (this universe)‖ [Al Quran 57:21]  (https://quran.com/57/21?translations=48,84,17,101,20,85,18,41,95,19,22)

According to the above verses, the width of the Jannaat is equal to the width of this universe (Samawaat). If two entities are equal in width, one cannot remain inside another. So, the Jannaat and the Samawaat are two separate universes. Holy Bible gives similar indication: “Because only a few will be saved, God created two universes, instead of only one” – 2 ESDRAS 7:50, Holy Bible (GNB) (https://www.bible.com/bible/69/2ES.7.50.GNTD)

Some say that the Time began at the Big Bang, and that there is nothing beyond the Big Bang, and so on, because they do not know. Allah is ever living, and He has other creations at the outside of this universe.

Separate Universes

The following factors confirm that the Jannaat and the Samawaat are two separate universes: Factor 1: Separate by Origin From the Big Bang, ultimately from the Big Bounce, this universe (Samawaat) has been created, not the Jannaat. ―Do not the unbelievers see that the Skies and the Lands (this universe) were joined together before We clove them asunder‖ [Al Quran 21:30] According to the above verse, there were lands (dusts and asteroids) in the initial universe. So, the universe started from a Big Bounce; and in light of the Quran, we are living in the 2nd Cycle (figure below).

FIGURE 1.1: The Quran‘s Model of Cyclic Universe  (https://www.alqurantafsir.com/_files/ugd/185ca2_7f5703f8d041449193e0fa01e706ef46.pdf)

The cycles are described below: Only almighty Allah knows the real facts of the universes. We may just estimate.
1st Cycle: The universe started from the Big Bang-1. It produced hydrogen and helium (smoke) mainly. The space was uniform (single-sky-universe), and the smoke spread evenly throughout the space..
Allah infused gravitational force into the universe / smoke: ―Moreover, infused His force (thumma istawa) into the Sky (ila i-samai) while it had been smoke…‖ [Al Quran 41:11]
The gravitational force started contracting the universe. The contracting universe produced reasonable amounts of heavier elements, at least up to silicon. The heavier elements produced dusts and asteroids (lands).
2nd Cycle: Ultimately, the contracting universe had a Big Bounce, and the universe restarted as a seven-sky-universe (Present / 2nd Cycle). “The Big Bounce is a hypothesized cosmological model for the origin of the known universe. It was originally suggested as a phase of the cyclic model or oscillatory universe interpretation of the Big Bang, where the first cosmological event was the result of the collapse of a previous universe…” – WIKIPEDIA, The Free Encyclopedia
In the expanding seven-sky-universe, the galaxies could rapidly form. The long
lasting stars and planets formed in the galaxies directly from the elements up to silicon (elements heavier than silicon or so formed later in the stars). 3rd Cycle: This universe will collapse again into a Big Crunch and will restart (Big Bang-2) after the Judgment and Salvation: ―On the day when We will roll up the Skies (present universe) like the rolling up of the scroll for writings (Big Crunch); as We originated the first creation (Big Bang-1), We shall reproduce it (Big Bang-2)—a promise on Us; surely We will bring it about.‖ [Al Quran 81:104]. In the third cycle, the sinners will be scattered in the galaxies. The galaxies are objects of hell. [The matter is deliberately discussed in Sections 4 and 10 of Chapter-21.] A Creator is not essential for a cyclic universe. The cycles of expansion and contraction may be going on forever. So, a cyclic universe may be eternal. But, the Quran indicates that the universe is cyclic. However, it clearly mentions that Allah created the universe at the beginning of the previous cycle. So, the Samawaat and the Jannaat are separate creations by origin and evolution.

Only The Almighty , The All-Wise, The Omniscient Allah knows the real facts of the universes. We may estimate based on the islamic divine book Al Quran.  We may consider some facts from the Hadith of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

Factor 2: Different Destiny The Jannaat is everlasting according to the Quran and Hadith. So, the Jannaat cannot exist inside a universe that will collapse by rolling up its Skies: ―On the day when We will roll up the Skies (Samawaat / this universe) like the rolling up of the scroll for writings…‖ [Al Quran 21:104] ―All that on it will perish, but will abide the Face of thy Lord, full of Majesty and Honor.‖ [Al Quran 55: 26–27] The Jannaat cannot be a one-inside-another anti-universe as well, because if the universe collapses, the anti-universe too will collapse. So, the Jannaat is altogether a separate universe, existing beyond this universe (Samawaat). Factor 3: Different Nature We live in a protected planet. So, we do not understand how violent the universe (Samawaat) is! The fluctuating high-pitch sounds we hear while tuning a radio-set originate in gigantic explosions occurring in distant galaxies and quasars. The entire space is showered with harmful radiations. Nothing can remain unchanged. It is a dangerous place indeed. It cannot be a home of peace and eternal salvation. (https://www.alqurantafsir.com/_files/ugd/185ca2_7f5703f8d041449193e0fa01e706ef46.pdf)

The universe (Samawaat) is timed. Here aging and ultimate death / decay are inevitable. But, according to the Quran and Hadith, the Jannaat is evergreen by nature. So, these have to be separate universes. Factor 4: Homes of Jinns and Humans This universe (Samawaat) contains roughly six times more dark matter than matter. So, bulk of the universe is not sensible to us, and only a tiny Earth is useful. It is not our universe; it belongs to the anti-creatures like the jinns, created from anti-matter.

FIGURE 1.2: Matter and Dark Matter The jinns are intelligent anti-creatures. They are living in this universe from their inception. They are created suitable for this universe. They are sometimes called Sons of the Skies (Samawaat / this Universe). This universe (Samawaat) is their home universe.
Primarily, Allah settled Adam and Eve in the Jannaat. So, it is obvious that He created them suitable for the Jannaat. The Jannaat is our home universe. There are billions of peaceful planets, full of water. The Believers will be taken back to the Jannaat after the Judgment. The Disbelievers will be live in this universe (Samawaat) full of violent galaxies and fire. Before the creation of this universe (Samawaat), Allah created a huge quantity of water to produce the planets of the Jannaat mainly. [The Jannaat is deliberately discussed in Section 23 of Chapter 3] 

Arsh

The Arsh is beyond the Super Space, holding the universes.

FIGURE 1.3: Likely disposition of universes Allah has an exclusive domain in the Arsh. He comes out of the domain by extending His Kursi (Thorne): (https://www.alqurantafsir.com/_files/ugd/185ca2_7f5703f8d041449193e0fa01e706ef46.pdf)

Abu Dharr Al Ghifari narrates that the Prophet (pbuh) said, ‗By Him in whose hand is my soul, in comparison to the Kursi, the seven skies and lands (this universe) is nothing but like a ring thrown in a desert, and certainly the hugeness of the Arsh over the Kursi is like the desert over that ring.‘ [Tafsir Ibn Katheer]. There are many angels as well. They are commonly called the Angels of Arsh. The Pen, Disc, and related systems are in the Arsh. The Arsh is the Headquarters of Allah. [Arsh, Kursi, Pen, and Disc are deliberately discussed with references in Section-9 of Chapter-6] 1c-v. Super Space and Barzakh All creations, except the Arsh, are located in the Super Space. The Super Space is divided by a super barrier (Barzakh) into two parts: the Eastern Super Space and the Western Super Space. The Barzakh is a space with different nature where matter cannot survive. However, the light can pass through the Barzakh, as in the Night Journey, Prophet (pbuh) saw some planets of the Jannaat from an object of the Seventh Sky. Due to the Barzakh, one cannot go from one universe to the other except through special channels:

―O ye assembly of jinns and men, if it be ye can pass beyond the boundary of the ‘Skies and Lands’ (this universe), pass ye! Not without authority shall ye be able to pass!‖ [Al Quran 55:33] The Samawaat (this universe) is located in the Eastern Super Space and the Jannaat is located in the Western Super Space. 1c-vi. Araf, Channels, and Sidratul-Muntaha There is a huge land called Araf below the Arsh. ―Araf means ―Elevated Land.

The Araf may be considered as the third universe. It is the preliminary sanctuary of the universal angels. The Araf is divided by a Veil into two parts: the Eastern Araf and the Western Araf. The Eastern Araf is extended into the eastern Super Space, and the Western Araf is extended into the western Super Space. See figure 1.4. [The Araf is deliberately discussed in Section-9 of Chapter-6] https://www.alqurantafsir.com/_files/ugd/185ca2_7f5703f8d041449193e0fa01e706ef46.pdf

https://www.alqurantafsir.com/_files/ugd/185ca2_7f5703f8d041449193e0fa01e706ef46.pdf

FIGURE 1.4: Barzakh and Channel ―Lord of the two Easts and the two Wests. Then which of the favors of your Lord will ye deny?‖ [Al Quran 55:17-18] In above verse, two Easts are the Eastern Araf and the Samawaat that are located in the Eastern Super Space; two Wests are the Western Araf and the Jannaat that are located in the Western Super Space. The Eastern Araf connects the Samawaat (this universe) by a pair of channels, and the Western Araf connects the Jannaat by another pair of channels. In the Night Journey (Miraz), Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) saw these channels. The accompanying angel called the channels as the ―Channel of Light‖ and the ―Channel of Darkness‖. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) moved into the Eastern Araf through one of these channels. [The channels are deliberately discussed in Section-9 of Chapter-6]

(https://www.alqurantafsir.com/_files/ugd/185ca2_7f5703f8d041449193e0fa01e706ef46.pdf) The Sidratul-Muntaha is hanging over the Araf from the Arsh. It looks like an up-side-down plant with two main branches. One branch connects the Eastern Araf, and another branch connects the Western Araf. Thus, the Sidratul-Muntaha works as the communication hub of the universes. It controls the transfer of creatures, matter, and information. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) moved into the Arsh and later into the Jannaat through the Sidratul-Muntaha. The Sidratul-Muntaha does another important job. An angel cannot go out of the universe for which it is created. The instructions coming down from the Arsh are passed to the angels through Sidratul-Muntaha. An angel cannot learn at its own. Sidratul-Muntaha infuses information into the angels, and redesigns them to perform their tasks. The Sidratul-Muntaha is based on divine servers and has related systems to do these. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) saw that the angels were falling on the leaves of Sidratul-Muntaha for being designed and tasked. [The Sidratul-Muntaha is discussed with references in Section-9 of Chapter-6] The Arsh is connecting the universes by Sidratul-Muntaha and Channels. See figure 1.3. 1c-vii. Illiyin and Sijjin The Illiyin and the Sijjin are located inside the Barzakh. See figure 1.3. These are holographic worlds of the dead humans.

The Illiyin is for the people destined to the Jannaat. It is in the high Barzakh closely below the Araf. The Sijjin is in the deep Barzakh. It is for the people destined to the hell. See figure 1.3. A dead human is recreated virtually with his soul (nafs), genome code, and memories that are collected and stored by the angels. The virtual human is then projected into a holographic world (Illiyin or Sijjin) where other dead humans are already living their virtual lives. They will remain in the Illiyin or Sijjin until the Day of Resurrection. The souls (nafses) are corrected and further developed in the virtual life. [The Illiyin and the Sijjin are deliberately discussed in Chapter-83] https://www.alqurantafsir.com/_files/ugd/185ca2_7f5703f8d041449193e0fa01e706ef46.pdf

By Zorawar Daulet Singh and posted on Money Control, June 3, 2023.Courtesy New Cold War

Fifteen months into the biggest land war in Eurasia since the Second World War, the tables have turned. US and NATO began with a confidence that a proxy war was the only way to roll back Russian influence in Europe. It was aimed to cut Russia down to size and snuff out the incipient multipolar order.

On paper it was an ingenious, if diabolical, strategy. Ukrainian blood and NATO weapons would be more than a match for Russia. At the very least, western policymakers surmised, Russia would be bogged down in another protracted ‘Afghanistan’ or ‘Vietnam’ for years, while America would swoop across the world as a rejuvenated superpower.

The opposite has occurred. On every front in this proxy war – it is more apt to classify the conflict as a limited great power war – US goals have fallen short.

The US’s Weak Hand

The international community has stayed scrupulously away from lining up behind the West. Other than its loyal G-6 states in tow, Washington has witnessed a resounding rejection of NATO’s plan to demonise and contain Russia.

The Global South has instead discovered an opportunity to advance their own interests and embrace a multipolar world order where weaker states can henceforth bargain for better deals with the major players. India’s foreign policy exemplifies this trend that can today be seen in South America, Africa, Middle East and even in parts of East Asia.

Great power geopolitical alignments have also shifted adversely. China – the swing power for the West – has barely budged its position. Since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, Washington has attempted to imagine cleavages between Moscow and Beijing that it could exploit for a new western rapprochement with China.

Senior US policymakers, including the President, along with a flurry of European leaders have attempted to court the Xi Jinping regime in an attempt to nudge China away from Russia. But to little avail. The Chinese seem unwilling to jeopardise their partnership with Russia. With their own potential flashpoint right under their nose in Taiwan, Beijing fears a similar fate for itself in the future.

Unanticipated Economic Blowback

The real trump card in Western hands has always been the economy: the legacy dominance of the US dollar, control over international supply chains, and the ability to arbitrarily impose collective sanctions and isolate a country. These are unique leverages that no other great power can claim to possess as of today. This is where the US truly felt it had the upper hand. It could not only destabilise Russia, perhaps even fatally, but also rewrite a new chapter on globalisation.

Yet shockingly again, and despite dramatically severing European energy and industrial linkages with Russia, the blowback to the West has been more severe than the intended impact on the Russian economy. European economies are reeling from inflation and the spectre of de-industrialisation, fueled by a supply side energy and commodity crisis caused by western sanctions.

Industrial giants like Germany have slumped into a recession. Economists can no longer deny just how critical the Russian commodity and energy link as well as market access was for European prosperity and industrial vitality.

How Russia Escaped, India Too

But how did Russia escape its own economic strangulation? Very simply, the non-western world did not commit hara-kiri. China and India along with several other developing economies quickly replaced western markets, providing not only a lifeline to Russian exports but also drew unusual growth benefits of their own from discounted crude oil.

Flushed with revenues, Moscow has been able to procure industrial components, machinery and consumer goods necessary for its basic economic stability. Trade with China is estimated to touch $200 billion in 2023, emulating a role played by Germany in the past.

As a consequence, Russia defied the double-digit recession forecast for it in 2022 by only contracting by 2.1 percent. Even the IMF projects positive GDP growth for the Russian economy in 2023 and 2024.

The War Theatre: Advantage Russia

Finally, it is in the war theatre itself where events have unfolded calling into question the entire geopolitical gamble of the West. After the initial phase when Russia received a rude shock about the full extent of NATO’s penetration and the systematic buildup of the Ukrainian armed forces since 2014, Moscow shifted to a strategy of attrition.

This meant occupying territory – usually the primary objective of a war – became less important (other than of course the ethnic-Russian dominated Donbass and Crimea) than degrading and destroying the NATO-built force inside Ukraine.

Classical war of manoeuvre with large tanks battles in vast open fields or direct assaults on entrenched Ukrainian positions – scenarios that NATO expected and trained the Ukrainian military for and for which it invested in major defence lines around the Donbass – were replaced by gruelling and bloody struggles for strategic cities and gateway towns.

Russia has prevailed in all these major urban battles that will help it secure eastern Ukraine. At the same time, Russia has used its offensive firepower to freely strike at military, logistic, high value infrastructure, and command and control targets across Ukraine including in Kyiv. Russia adapted to fight an intelligent and relatively low casualty war of its choosing and not the one NATO had planned to bog it down in.

Ukraine-NATO: Outmanned, Underprepared

A few themes are now increasingly clear. The bulk of the Ukrainian military force has been largely destroyed in the past 12 months of the war. The replacement units being inducted after the most recent round of NATO training in the UK and elsewhere cannot restore those massive losses.

The industrial capacity to wage a big and long war has been severely impaired, not just in Ukraine but in NATO. NATO countries have already sent over $70-80 billion worth of military equipment, with the lion’s share coming from the US. The real constraint now is western production capacity because NATO planners never anticipated a war with a peer competitor that might exceed a few weeks of intense combat.

To get a sense of the gap – Russia fires artillery rounds in an afternoon in Ukraine equivalent to at least two months of US production. NATO weapons systems that were fielded to alter the course of the war have come up short. The Russian military seems to be ahead of NATO on at least the following capabilities – air defence, electronic warfare, artillery/counter artillery, and hypersonic missiles.

The much-touted Ukrainian counter-offensive is likely to run into the famous monsoon season before it clashes with any Russian formations. What might follow after that is another gasp of NATO-fueled fighting before Russia inflicts its own counter-offensive.

The blowback in Ukraine is real and the most significant geopolitical trend of the past year.

Zorawar Daulet Singh is an award winning author and strategic affairs expert based in New Delhi. https://zorawardauletsingh.com/

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

It is required that primary and secondary education in Sri Lanka must be reformed to offer outcome-based education, if there is a problem with lack of resources, cluster schools, 5 to 10 clusters in an electorate should be built to give justice to rural schools and improve the educational quality in regional level. The idea was in education reforms were at the beginning from late 1990s. It was successfully not implemented as the consultants appointed to develop policies were lacking the knowledge of outcome and competency-based education and training. They were trained in the education system that had been effective before 1930s.

Education offering methods for primary and secondary education in all countries in the world has been changed since the 1930s and policymakers agreed with the decision to offer Outcome Based Education, but it was not implemented successfully in Sri Lanka because consultants did not understand the significant of outcomes as well as how to construct outcomes and determine the achievement and certification of the achievement.  

The tertiary education at TVET Technical Vocational Education and Training), and university levels need to offer competency-based training (CBT) and Research-Based Education in universities. How to offer a research-based education in universities, when there are conflicts in universities based on insignificant matters.  Secondary schools need to offer Certificate 1 and 2 on TVET in accession to the general education. Education reforms in a broader way support training students for demanding skills, knowledge, and values. Sri Lanka’s society stuck with an education which is based on theoretical understanding and in the modern society needs skills and values to perform tasks.

Since its political independence in 1948, Sri Lanka began many education reforms, however, the attitude of people has not changed to get away from missionary education and always attempted to maintain the consistency of reforms to the Western system. Under administration of the State Council, Kannangara reforms came in effective despite the reform objectives, rural schools were not funded enough to give justice to rural community and education consultants who educated in Missionary religious Schools attempted to destroy Kannangara reforms as they were focused to upgrade the quality of rural people.

Major reason for unsuccess of reforms has been the consultants and leaders of reforms who had stuck with irrelevant politics in education policy development and many consultants were lack of understanding the required reforms. Buddhist education in rural level has been making justice, however they were not support to offer education in English medium and this weakness created a gap between education in Missionary and Buddhist Education. In history, Sri Lanka had universities based on Buddhist education.

The inequality in fund allocation in the past has mainspring for creating school clusters and operation of clusters need resources such as methods of teaching and training, assessment of students, transporting teachers and students from schools to principal schools of the cluster. Mobile resources such science labs, libraries and computers are essential and it attracts a large sum of funds.

Recently, the president expressed a vital aspect regarding the education management taking an example from American Education, which is not based on competitive exams, but a demonstration of skills and knowledge. Education reforms in Sri Lanka need consistent methods for educating kids, and the school clusters would solve the lack of resources.  

Educating parents on the school clusters needs first, because they are stuck with knowledge-based education, and developing skills and values are vital to become good citizens and go overseas and work. Caste dictions in Sri Lanka have discouraged the achievements of skills in various fields. Skills, knowledge, values and experience in various trade areas would be factors for demanding reasons for people in overseas and educating these facts to parent will be supported to the improvement parent knowledge while effecting education reforms.

School clusters could be improved if the government supports to establish funds and allocate the financial resources to clusters.  

Mehjabin Bhanu  Bangladesh

India’s efforts in recent years to establish greater energy connectivity with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka have been successful.

India, Nepal and Bangladesh have finalized the draft of the Trilateral Power Trade Agreement. It is Delhi’s efforts to create more energy connectivity with neighboring countries.

The agreement, the first of its kind, has been agreed upon by the three countries and is expected to be signed in the coming months. The agreement is said to fulfill the long-standing demand of Nepal and Bangladesh.

When Nepali Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal visited Delhi in early June, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled India’s plans to export hydropower from Nepal to Bangladesh. It is reported that 50 megawatts of electricity will be the initial generation, with the potential to increase thereafter.

The deal is in line with India’s efforts in recent years to establish greater energy connectivity with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka through power transmission networks and petroleum pipelines.

It also has an unstated objective of reducing its neighbors’ dependence on China.  In the past India has shown more interest in power trade with neighboring countries under bilateral agreements.

The final form of new guidelines for cross-border trade in electricity in recent years have served as building blocks for new arrangements.

The project guidelines, developed after consultation with all stakeholders, also allow neighboring countries to participate in these power exchanges.

It enables a country like Nepal to transmit electricity from one region to another through India.  The scheme has been drafted in such a way that power from any Chinese-funded power plant in the neighboring country cannot be traded through the Indian link.

In addition to building electricity transmission infrastructure in Nepal and Bangladesh, India has also helped build cross-border pipelines with both countries.

South Asia’s first cross-border petroleum pipeline connects Motihari in Bihar to Amlekunj in Nepal. It was built at a cost of 324 crore rupees. Launched in 2019, the project has provided 2.8 million metric tonnes of diesel to Nepal.

Both sides have also approved the construction of the second phase of the pipeline. Based on this, a second pipeline connecting India to Jappa N region in Nepal is to be constructed.

In March this year, India and Bangladesh launched a Rs 377-crore cross-border petroleum pipeline project.

It is expected to supply one million metric tonnes of diesel annually from Assam’s Numaligar refinery to the northern parts of the neighboring country. The length of this pipeline is 132 km and 127 km in Bangladesh.

During the economic crisis in Sri Lanka, part of India’s support worth $4 billion was seen as a project to help meet Colombo’s fuel and gas needs.

When petrol stations in Sri Lanka went down in June last year, India supplied fuel through Indian petrol stations. Sri Lanka and India have agreed to jointly develop oil-bearing farms amid growing concerns about China’s influence in Trincomalee.

Energy cooperation between Nepal and Bangladesh is one of the most promising areas of cooperation. Plans to make power an exportable good are outlined in Nepal’s 15th Five-Year Development Plan (2019-2024). Nepal plans to grow its 1,250 MW of electricity production to more than 5,000 MW within the next five years, making it an energy-surplus country. The goal of Bangladesh is to invest, produce, and import surplus energy from Nepal. The fact that Bangladesh and India use more electricity during the summer months, which is their busiest time of year, must be emphasized.

A trilateral energy sales and purchase agreement between Bangladesh, Nepal, and India are required for any Dhaka-Kathmandu power transaction to be implemented because Bangladesh and Nepal do not have a direct land link. Both parties have acknowledged that the trilateral agreement’s strategic component is vital; otherwise, electricity exports to Bangladesh would be only on paper.

Being a land-locked country, Nepal’s plan to export its electricity other than to India requires India’s close cooperation and partnership. According to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) of India, the Indian authority is allowed to do cross-border trade where India is involved. There is a specific provision of a tripartite agreement that allows the Indian authority to sign the framework of bilateral agreements between the government of India and the governments of the respective neighbouring countries. In other words, Bangladesh and Nepal need to sign bilateral agreements for cross-border electricity trade with India.

If India finally allows power corridor to Bangladesh to import electricity from Nepal, it will usher a new era of bilateral energy cooperation. Not only that, through Bangladesh, it can achieve its untapped opportunities of hydropower from the northeastern region. So, both Bangladesh and India should come forward to enhance their energy security based on reciprocity and enhance South Asian regional cooperation.

If the plan materialises, it will be Nepal’s first export of power to a third country other than India. Since November 2021, Nepal has been selling its excess power to the Indian market after the southern neighbour gave regulatory clearance.

In recent years, India has been prioritising regional integration among South Asian countries, excluding Pakistan. As per the joint vision statement on power sector cooperation between Nepal and India issued in April last year, the two countries agreed to expand sub-regional cooperation in the power sector among Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN).

India and Bangladesh are committed to collaborating on regional connectivity projects such as the BBIN Motor Vehicles Agreement and the Kolkata-Silchar-Imphal-Dhaka Bus Service, for mutual benefit.

Bangladesh has set a target of covering 40 percent of its power generation with clean energy by 2041 and to import around 9000MW under regional and sub-regional cooperation. Nepal, which is increasing its generation capacity rapidly lately, stands ready to fulfil the part of clean energy needs of Bangladesh.

By the end of the current fiscal year 2022-23 in mid-July, Nepal’s power generation capacity is expected to reach 2,853MW, 4,507 MW by mid-July 2024 and 5,251MW in mid-July 2025, according to NEA. But domestic consumption is expected to be half of the potential generation by 2025 which forces Nepal to sell electricity abroad, it said.

In July 2018, Nepali government issued a white paper targeting the growth in power generation. As per it, Nepal aimed to generate 15,000MW of power in 10 years and 5000MW will be exported.

Nepal has gross hydropower potential of 72,544 MW from three river basins: Koshi, Gandaki, and Karnali which covers 94 percent of the total gross potential of the country, according to a study carried out by Nepali government in 2019.

According to Nepal’s energy ministry, Nepal and Bangladesh also agreed to make joint efforts to create a high level trilateral administrative mechanism between Nepal, Bangladesh and India to forge partnership in the areas of power trade, building cross border transmission infrastructure and overall cooperation in the power sector.

The Joint Steering Committee meeting also instructed the Joint Technical Team (Transmission) under high level mechanism, to explore options of cross border transmission lines to enable trading of power between Nepal and India and submit a report within six months.

The Joint Technical Team had earlier identified two routes—Anarmari (Nepal)-Panchagarh (Bangladesh), and Anarmari (Nepal) to Thakurgaon (Bangladesh) for dedicated transmission lines.

The total length of the first route is 49km, of which a 24km section falls within the Indian territory. The second route has an 83km length, of which a 33km section falls in Indian territory.

Bhetuwal, who was also a delegation member of Nepal, said that two sides now would explore three options of transmission infrastructure to enable trading of power between the two countries in the short, medium and long run.

They include: using existing India-Bangladesh cross border link, enhancing the capacity of existing Baharampur-Bheramara link between India and Bangladesh and developing Duhabi (Nepal)-Purnia (India) and Barapukuria (Bangladesh) transmission link.

During the meeting, the Bangladeshi side also notified Nepal that the Bangladesh Power Development Board would soon sign power sale agreement with GMR, India to sell 500MW of electricity from 900MW Upper Karnali Hydropower Project based in Nepal, according to Nepal’s energy ministry.

The Indian company is working to generate resources to develop a Nepal-based hydropower project and securing power sale agreement would be important for the company to conclude financial closure.

In early May, the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court had paved the way for the Indian company to work towards financial closure of the project enabling it to sign power sale agreement with Bangladesh entity after the court vacated earlier interim order against the Indian company.

The two countries also decided that the NEA and BPDB would sign a   joint venture agreement within the next six months to develop the 683 MW Sunkoshi 3 hydropower project at the border of Ramachhap and Kavrepalanchowk districts of central Nepal, according to the energy ministry of Nepal.

Earlier, the two countries agreed to develop this project jointly but entities responsible for developing the project were not determined.

නීතීඥ අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන B.Sc(Col), PGDC(Col) 

1. ජනාධිපතිවරණයට ඉදිරිපත්වන අපේක්ෂකයා ජාත්‍යන්තර භාෂා 3ක් දැන සිටිය යුතු බව.

2. නීතිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ වසර 5කට වැඩි කාලයක් සේවය කළ නීතීඥවරයෙකු අගවිනිසුරු ලෙස පත් කළ නොහැකි බව. (දැනට සිටින විනිසුරුවරු හැර)

3. නීතිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ වසර 5කට වැඩි කාලයක් සේවය කර ඇති නීතීඥවරු 7කට වඩා ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ විනිසුරුවරු ලෙස වරකට පත් කිරීම කළ නොහැකි බව.

4. ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 105.4 ව්‍යවස්ථාව මගින් පිහිටුවා ඇති බුද්ධ ශාසන අධිකරණයට විනිශ්චයකාර භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේලා මසක් ඇතුළත පත් කළ යුතු බවට ජනාධිපතිවරයාට නියම කිරීම.

5. සිංහල ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 9 වන ව්‍යවස්ථාව වාක්‍ය 2කින් ඇති ආකාරයට ඉංග්‍රීසි ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 9 වන ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ වාක්‍ය 2කින් නොදැක්වෙන දෝෂය නිවැරදි කිරීම.

http://neethiyalk.blogspot.com/2023/06/5.html?m=1

අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන B.Sc(Col), PGDC(Col) නීතීඥ  නීති ග්‍රන්ථ කර්තෘ, මුද්‍රිත/විද්‍යුත් මාධ්‍ය ලේඛක සමායෝජක, වෛද්‍ය තිලක පද්මා සුබසිංහ අනුස්මරණ නීති අධ්‍යාපන වැඩසටහන.
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අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා මෙලෙස උපදෙස් දෙනු ලැබූයේ 2023.06.19 දින   මහරගම ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කාර්යාලයේ පැවති ප්‍රාදේශීය සංවර්ධන කමිටු රැස්වීම අවස්ථාවේදීය.

පාසැල් හැරයන දරුවන් පිළීබදව නිසි දත්ත වාර්තාවක් කඩිනමින් සකස් කර ඔවුන්  නොමිලේ පුහුණු පාඨමාලා සඳහා යොමු කරන ලෙස අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා මෙහිදී උපදෙස් දෙනු ලැබීය.

සාමාන්‍ය පෙළ සහ උසස් පෙළ අවසන්ව විවිධ හේතූන් මත පාසැල් හැරයන දරුවන්ට ඉදිරි අධ්‍යාපනයක් නොමැති  වුවහොත් ඔවුන්ගේ පෞද්ගලික දියුණුව මගහැරී යෑම මෙන්ම සාමාජීය ගැටලු නිර්මාණය විමටද හේතු විය හැක. සාමාන්‍ය පෙළ දක්වා හෝ උසස්පෙළ දක්වා පාසැලේ ලියාපදිංචි වී සිටි දරුවන් පාසල හැරයාමේදි ඒ පිළීබඳ  ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කාර්යාල මට්ටමින් වාර්තාගත වීම අත්‍යවශ්‍ය කරුණක් බව ද මෙම දරුවන් විභාගය නොකර හැරෙන මාර්ගය කුමක්ද, එසේ සිදුකරන්නේ කුමන හේතුවක් මතද යන්න සොයා බැලීම අනිවාර්ය බවද අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා පෙන්වා දුන්නේය. 

පාසල් හැරගිය දරුවන්  වෘත්තීය පුහුණුවට යොමු කරමින් ඔවුන්ට රැකියා අවස්ථා ලබාගැනීම සදහා මගපෑදීමත්,  නොමිලේ පුහුණු පාඨමාලා සඳහා යොමු කිරීම  තුලින් ඔවුන්ගේ ඉදිරි අනාගතය සාර්ථක කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය පියවර ගැනීම සියලුදෙනාගේ වගකීමක් බවද අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා මෙහිදී අවධාරණය කළේය.   

මහරගම අපේක්ෂා රෝහලේ භික්ෂු වාට්ටුව වසාදැමීම නිසා උද්ගතව ඇති තත්වය පිළිබඳවද මෙහිදී වැඩි අවධානයක් යොමු කරනු ලැබූ අතර කඩිනමින් එම භික්ෂු වාට්ටුව නැවත විවෘත කිරීමට පියවර ගන්නා ලෙස අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා මෙහිදී උපදෙස් දෙනු ලැබීය. මෙම අවස්ථාවට බස්නාහිර පළාත් හිටපු මහ ඇමති ඉසුර දේවප්‍රිය, බස්නාහිර පළාත් හිටපු මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් වන උපාලි කොඩිකාර, සලෝචන ගමගේ, මහරගම ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් දිල්රුක්ෂී වල්පොල ඇතුළු රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරීහූ සහභාගී වූහ.

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, June 19: The High Commissioner of India Gopal Baglay, and the Secretary, Ministry of Education, M.N Ranasinghe exchanged diplomatic notes on 19 June to fast-track the establishment of modern computer labs and smart Boards with Customized Curriculum Software in 200 Schools in Galle District.

Dr. Ramesh Pathirana, Minister of Industries and Plantation Industries was present on the occasion.  Deputy High Commissioner Vinod K. Jacob and officials from the High Commission of India and the Ministry of Education also participated.

The exchange of notes will further streamline and expedite the implementation of the project, by aligning the procurement processes in accordance with the framework prescribed by the Government of Sri Lanka.

The Project, which is being implemented through a Government of India grant assistance, aims to improve digital literacy among students attending schools in the lesser privileged areas. This is one among several grant projects undertaken by the  Government of India in the education sphere in Sri Lanka.

India’s overall development assistance to Sri Lanka currently stands at around USD 5 billion with nearly USD 600 million being in grants. Close to 65 grant projects have already been carried out across the 25 districts of the country and over 20 grant projects are at various stages of implementation.

The Indian Housing Project and the 1990 Suwaseriya ambulance service are among the flagship grant projects implemented by the Government of India in Sri Lanka.

 අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය. 

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සහ බ්‍රිතාන්‍යය අතර මිත්‍ර සබඳතා ශක්තිමත් කර ගැනීම සඳහා දරන අඛණ්ඩ උත්සාහය වෙනුවෙන් අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන මහතා ධුරයෙන් සමුගන්නා බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය මහ කොමසාරිස් සාරා හල්ටන් මහත්මියට ස්තූතිය පුද කළේය.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා මේ බව ප්‍රකාශ කළේ  2023.06.19  දින අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේ දී මහ කොමසාරිස්වරිය හමු වූ අවස්ථාවේදීය.  

ශ්‍රී ලංකා සහ බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය ද්විපාර්ශ්වික හවුල්කාරිත්වය තවදුරටත් ශක්තිමත් කරනුවස් මහ කොමසාරිස්වරිය ගත් නොපසුබට උත්සාහය ප්‍රශංසනීය බව අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා මෙහිදී සඳහන් කළේය.  2019 වසරේ සිට ඇය ගේ ධුර කාලය තුළ දී විවිධ ක්ෂේත්‍රවල නිරත වෙමින් එක්සත් රාජධානිය ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ලබාදුන් සුවිශේෂී දායකත්වය ද ඇගයිමට ලක් කෙරිණී. දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන මහතා, විදේශ කටයුතු අමාත්‍යවරයා සහ අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යවරයා ලෙස කටයුතු කරන සමයේ මෙන්ම වර්තමාන අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා වශයෙන් තම ධුර කාලය තුළ ලබාදුන් සහයෝගය දෙරට අතර ද්විපාර්ශ්වික සබඳතාවන්ට මහඟු ශක්තියක් වූ බව මහ කොමසාරිස් සාරා හල්ටන් මහත්මිය මෙම හමුවේ දී පැවසූවාය.

එක්සත් රාජධානිය මගින් ලබා දෙන සංවර්ධනය වෙමින් පවතින රටවල වෙළඳ යෝජනා ක්‍රමය (DCTS) යන තේමාව දරන GSP (වරණීය වෙළඳ) යෝජනා ක්‍රමයේ ප්‍රතිලාභී රටක් ලෙස ශ්‍රී ලංකාව නම් කිරීමට එක්සත් රාජධානිය විසින් ගන්නා ලද තීරණය පිළිබඳ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා සිය සතුට පළ කළ අතර එමගින් ශ්‍රී ලාංකේය අපනයන  92 % ක් සඳහා තීරු බදු සහන හිමි වීමට නියමිතය.

ණය ප්‍රතිව්‍යුහගත කිරීමේ ක්‍රියාවලිය සහ  IMF අරමුදල් පහසුකම  ලබාදීමෙන්  පසු එක්සත් රාජධානිය විසින් නව ආයෝජන ව්‍යාපෘති ආරම්භ කරනු ඇතැයි ශ්‍රී ලංකාව බලාපොරොත්තු වන බව පැවසූ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා  අධ්‍යාපන, බැංකු සහ මූල්‍ය සේවා, තොරතුරු තාක්ෂණ/ව්‍යාපාර කළමනාකරණය, සෞඛ්‍ය සේවා, හෝටල් සහ සංචාරක ව්‍යාපාරය වැනි අංශවල  සිදුකරන එක්සත් රාජධානි ආයෝජන වැඩිකරන ලෙස මෙහිදී ආරාධනා කළේය.

මහ කොමසාරිස් ධුරයට සමුදෙන හුල්ටන් මහත්මියගේ ඉදිරි කටයුතු සර්වප්‍රකාරයෙන් සාර්ථක වේවායි අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා සුභාශිංසන එක් කළේය.

මෙම අවස්ථාවට අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ලේකම් අනුර දිසානායක මහතා ද සහභාගී විය.

 අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය.  

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Former Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama has been appointed as Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to the UK with effect from 01 August 2023, sources said.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The anaesthetic drug suspected to have been the cause of two deaths that occurred at the Peradeniya Teaching Hospital has been received through the Indian Credit Line, Sri Lanka’s top drug regulatory body said.

According to Dr. Vijith Gunasekera from National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA), drugs that were received through the Indian Credit Line had to be approved despite several of them not having been registered under the NMRA.

Given the foreign exchange crisis triggered by the economic crisis, Sri Lanka was in dire need of essential items including drugs. In that context, we were desperately dependent on loans given by various countries and organizations,” he explained.

As such, the relevant drug linked to the issue at the Peradeniya Hospital has been received through the Indian Credit Line,” he added.

Commenting on the quality failures on drugs, Dr. Gunasekera said quality failures could occur in any medicine as Sri Lanka is not equipped with the potential to test every batch of imported drugs.

Meanwhile, Peradeniya Teaching Hospital Director Arjuna Thilakarathna also confirmed to Daily Mirror that the relevant drug had been received through the Indian Credit Line and two deaths were reported after the use of the drug. However, the Health Ministry is conducting an inquiry into the incident to ascertain the cause of deaths.

On June 16 a patient undergoing treatment at the Peradeniya Teaching Hospital in the Kandy district had passed away after receiving the Indian-manufactured anaesthetic Bupivacaine. This news raised concerns as a pregnant woman had died at the same hospital just two months prior after being given a different Indian-made anaesthetic drug. As a precautionary measure, the Health Ministry had previously suspended the use of the latter drug in April.

In May 2023, Indian-made drugs once again made headlines when doctors at the general hospital in Nuwara Eliya, reported that several patients who had received Indian medicines after eye surgery had complained of visual impairment.

These incidents have brought the quality of imported drugs, as well as the responsibility of Sri Lanka’s national drug regulator, back to the national headlines.

India has been Sri Lanka’s largest supplier of medical supplies for several years, with nearly half of its pharmaceutical imports in 2022 coming from India.. This trading relationship has become increasingly crucial in the aftermath of Sri Lanka’s unprecedented economic collapse last year, which resulted in critical shortages, including medicines. Despite the country’s crisis, it has continued to procure essential medical supplies from India through the credit line offered by the Indian government as part of a nearly $4 billion assistance package. (Sheain Fernandopulle)

Courtesy Adaderana

The World Bank is likely to approve $700 million in budgetary and welfare support for Sri Lanka at its next board meeting on June 28, sources told Reuters, the biggest funding tranche for the crisis-hit island nation since an IMF deal in March.

The economy of the country of 22 million is expected to shrink 2% this year before returning to growth next year, the government estimates, following last year’s record contraction of 7.8% after foreign exchange reserves hit record lows.

The International Monetary Fund approved a bailout of nearly $3 billion in March, which Sri Lanka expects will bring additional funding of up to $4 billion from the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and other multilateral agencies.

Of the proposed World Bank funding, $500 million will be for budgetary support and is likely to come in two tranches of $250 million each, one of the sources, from the World Bank, said.

All four sources, from the World Bank and the Sri Lankan finance ministry, sought anonymity as they were not authorised to talk to the media.

The first tranche is likely to be disbursed immediately after board approval with the next possibly in October, as the bank watches the progress of Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring and the first review of the IMF programme, due in September, the World Bank source added.

The remaining $200 million will be earmarked for programmes to assist the poor, whose numbers have doubled to 25% of the population since the onset of the Indian Ocean nation’s worst economic crisis early last year, another World Bank source said.

Households that have registered for support will be ranked … and the lowest 2 million will be eligible for support,” the source added.

The World Bank and the finance ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Source – Reuters
-Agencies

Courtesy Adaderana

The Sri Lankan Rupee has marginally appreciated today, based on the latest data regarding the buying and selling rates of the US Dollar released by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL).

Accordingly, today’s (June 19) buying rate of the US Dollar has been reported at Rs. 297.53, while the selling rate of the US Dollar was recorded at Rs. 315.12, according to the CBSL.

On Friday (16), the buying rate of the US Dollar was registered at Rs. 300.51, while the selling rate was recorded at Rs. 319.66.

e-Con e-News

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

e-Con e-News June 2023 Part 3

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The economist’s role became to ‘explore & explain’,

not to ‘uphold or condemn’– SBD de Silva, The Political Economy of Underdevelopment

*

‘We could export heroin and prostitutes’, wisecracked SBD de Silva, ‘to obtain foreign exchange. If it’s a dearth of foreign exchange that is the problem.’

     Could such chambered commerce achieve much-touted ‘development’ goals?

     SB was reacting to the media’s perennial persistence, that it is Dollars we desperately need most of all: Blah-blah-blah bleats the humdrum for FDI – foreign direct investment – to resolve Balance of Payments, Deficits, Debts. Blah-blah-blah…

     ‘Dollars for what?’ SB would ask, ‘To import more cars? For joyrides? Investment in what? In highways for joyrides? What about roads & highways to connect rural supplier & factory & distributor & research institute?’

     SB made the transition on 15 June 2018. It is now 5 years. He was well aware we were speeding to this dead end. Long before we got here. Now the oligarchy wishes to extend the dead end, and even carpet it – with more Wall Street ‘infrastructure’ loans via the IMF. The import-export colonial plantation system, long dead, still rules. We are dead end too. Yet SB’s words still haunt and stir.

     SB was not responding to the still-continuing aragala ululation that it is dollars that we lack, that we need more loans, preferably from the US Treasury’s IMF. SB has long turned into the corporeal dust that mingles twixt the monoxides that blow through Kalubovila.

     Curiously, the private ‘fund managers’ who clogged the flow of Dollars last year, now tell us that the remittances of workers have increased. And yet, all we hear are prophecies of doom. Ominously, the (UNP-SJB) dispensers of the IMF’s explosive elixirs, keep repeating they are going to ‘look after’ the ‘poor’. And we know well what this means… So, there it is. ‘The poor will always be with us.’ Amen!

     Rather than groan and grind teeth, what exactly do we need do of what needs to be done? This ee therefore points to the Communist Party of Sri Lanka’s Economic Strategy being rolled out on 03 July:

‘In 1957, the Provident Fund was given purely due

to a 3-month struggle conducted by the Communist Party.

Today the EPF has become the biggest fund in the whole of South Asia.’

– see ee Focus, The Communist Party’s Economic Strategy: DEW Gunasekara

*

• Not knowing the difference between the sex trade and modern industrial production is not just a perpetual pestilence afflicting the Sri Lankan media and intellectuals. SB, in the introduction to his classic, points to the ‘eminent’ English economist, Professor, ‘Baron’, Lionel Robbins, who in invoking ‘‘the economics of hired love’… blurred the social & moral differences between different types of productive activity, as for example, a brothel and a manufacturing enterprise’ (see ee Focus).

     Robbins indeed profited, at least indirectly, from retail prostitution. SB recalled that the ‘Baron’ published an English state survey on the matter, whose title, Sitting on a Fortune, Robbins purchased after he interviewed the first ‘subject’ he ran into on a street corner. She told him, she had been working as a typist clerk for many years before she realized, ‘I was sitting on a fortune’.

     Robbins’ hindsight haunts us more, for he was chair of the Economics Department at the London School of Economics (where SB acquired his PhD, whose thesis he soon recanted as fundamentally flawed!). Robbins’ Malthusian reduction of economics to ‘scarcity’ is reinforced in Sri Lanka’s high school curricula – O-Level & A-Level. In 1931, Robbins hired Austrian economist Friedrich von Hayek. Hayek’s utopian ideas of laissez faire and free trade are now pimped in Sri Lanka by all the empire’s thinktanks, economists and other hitmen. Apparently ‘Britannia rule[d] the waves,’ but permitted a ‘free and open’ Indian Ocean. 1796. 1815. 1818. 1848. 1878, 1915. 1948. 1971. 1980. 1983. 1987. All had no bloody ‘state’ behind its conspiracies and bloodlust…. or so the media proclaims. The colonialist Hayek – no doubt aching for a recently dismantled Austro-Hungarian empire – clearly had no need to state the obvious about the bellicose state of Europe’s states.

     Underdevelopment, through its control of the ‘commanding heights’ of the economy, of technology and markets, had acquired an ‘automaticity’ (SB’s lovely word) in our world, that does not always require direct military occupation (unless you’re an upstartish Korea, Japan, Taiwan & Germany!), though there would be, and are, sporadic annihilations…

     This ee reproduces some of the recent, though scant, recall about the legacy of SBD de Silva by other Sri Lankan scholars. This weekly ee itself was first prompted in 2018 due to our dedication to SB’s insights, which locate and examine Sri Lanka midst the colonial deindustrialization of much of the world.

     Sri Lanka’s role as a drug entrepot (linked very much to the US wars on Afghanistan & Southeast Asia), and seller of unprotected workers abroad, has been accelerated since 1977. Yet deindustrialization certainly didn’t just begin in 1977. A proper political, economic and military plan and strategy for modern industrialization, like in the USSR or China, would never be willingly allowed. This ee records some of SB’s contributions to disassembling this state of Sri Lanka’s underdevelopment.

*

Before the [Dominion Status] Bill was introduced in the Imperial Parliament,

it was necessary that Ceylon should sign certain agreements with London.

– see ee Focus, Independence, the First Cabinet

Most accounts of the ‘independence’ London afforded (or ‘granted’) us, fail to reveal in clear language what these ‘certain agreements’ actually amounted to. The ‘certain agreements’ that ensured the continuation of the underdevelopment of a non-settler colonial state. Can the supernumerary English classes and departments (facilitated by the US World Bank & Brutish Council) tell us what the English of ‘Dominion Status’ and ‘Fully Responsible Government’ has really meant; tell us in condescending mathematics, beyond Oxford’s limited dictionaries?

     In his classic (or should we mimic, ‘Epic, dude!’), SB recalls how England’s agency houses were allowed to flush capital from Sri Lanka even after 1948, even as they continued to exercise economic control over us.

*

• SBD de Silva had rejected the rushed attempt by Oxford University to publish his PhD thesis. In the Introduction to his book, eventually published (by Cambridge), he explains why he rejected his own PhD thesis (see ee Focus). ee mentions Oxford and Cambridge not to call down Anglo accolades on SB’s head. He was always quick to point out that Oxford and Cambridge had little to do with England’s industrial revolution. SB instead pointed to the mechanics’ institutes, etc.

As is said about SB: he saw it was better to know than to be known. And he wrote in order to express his thoughts best. For himself first. And then to ask another, if they too saw what he saw. And what he had seen was an import-export plantation economy, monopolized by merchants and moneylenders, that was underdeveloping the country. And this is what ee now sees too.

*

• In the end, SB saw that without an organized movement, no plan would be allowed or enforced that aims to invest and accumulate capital through modern industrial production. Firstly, most of our intellectuals, Left, Right and Neutered, have no idea what machine capitalism means. See how the pitiful media praises every other trader, who makes nothing, as an ‘entrepreneur’. Our scholars have even less idea about what machine socialism means. Our imported rock&rollers ‘rage against the machine’ – Luddite-like – even as they use the latest technology to broadcast their nihilistic & anarchistic nostrums.

     No ‘independent researcher’ (Independent of what, we are tempted to ask? Independent like a Wall-Street addicted Central Bank?) has archived the experience and indispensability of socialist industrial strategies, both the splendid advances and bitter lessons. Nor will they be funded to do so. The preclusion of the role of Marx & Engels, let alone of the 20^th century’s Lenin, Stalin & Mao in industrial development, have turned a hole in the head into a modern fashion statement in the Anglomanic hemispheres.

     (When unable to avoid Marx, they turn him into an atheistic romantic anarchist, not as the incisive observer of machine capitalism, the promethean who sought to harness industrialization to serve human need).

     Having bade ‘goodbye to the working class’, we are sold the latest of pre-used liberal panaceas, which may ultimately form the epitaph for a middle-class aragalaya:

Everything is allowed

Nothing is possible