Udaya Gammanpila

National Development Bank PLC

NDB Privilege Banking successfully hosted the Global Education Expo 2025, an exclusive event curated for Privilege customers and their families, in collaboration with ACH Education. The event was held at the NDB Privilege Havelock Centre Branch and brought together a distinguished audience of clients keen on exploring global education opportunities for their children.

The Expo provided participants with invaluable access to over 30 leading international universities, represented by their officials, who shared insights on academic programs, admission processes, scholarships, and pathways for higher education across destinations such as Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, and popular European countries.

For NDB, the event also highlighted the unique benefits of the NDB Student File proposition, designed to make overseas education seamless for students and their families. The Student File serves as a comprehensive financial solution for those pursuing education abroad, offering a trusted framework for fee payments, remittances, and value-added banking services tailored to the needs of students.

The Global Education Expo 2025 welcomed around 50 valued Privilege Banking clients, offering them not only expert guidance from international universities but also the personalised banking advisory of NDB Privilege Relationship Managers. The event underscored NDB’s continued commitment to supporting its clients in some of the most important milestones of their lives, particularly in shaping the educational and professional journeys of the next generation.

Through partnerships with reputed institutions such as ACH Education, NDB Privilege Banking remains at the forefront of empowering its customers with exclusive access, tailored solutions, and seamless financial services that extend far beyond traditional banking.

Top News Lk

Monara

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

1. Background

Sri Lanka’s strategic location in the Indian Ocean, along major East–West shipping routes, offers an unmatched opportunity to position the country as a regional hub for offshore, marine, and energy-related services.

The newly developed Colombo Port City, adjacent to the existing Colombo Harbour, provides a world-class urban and business environment ideal for attracting international companies in engineering design, project management, and consultancy sectors.

However, compared to regional centers such as Chennai and Singapore, Sri Lanka’s international investment inflow into knowledge-based and offshore-support services remains low. A focused strategy is required to attract high-value foreign participation and to integrate with the emerging offshore development hub in Trincomalee.

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2. Vision

To transform Colombo Port City into a Regional Offshore Industry Management and Consultancy Hub, supporting the growth of Sri Lanka’s marine and offshore engineering sector centered around Trincomalee Port.

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3. Objectives

1. Attract Global Players such as KBR (UK), Worley (Australia), Technip Energies (France), and other PMC/EPCM and design consultancy companies to establish satellite or regional offices in Port City.
2. Provide management and engineering support for offshore and onshore industrial projects in Sri Lanka and the wider Indian Ocean region.
3. Integrate Colombo Port City’s high-end business ecosystem with Trincomalee’s industrial infrastructure to create a seamless national platform for offshore development.
4. Enhance local capacity by linking these foreign offices with Sri Lankan universities, vocational institutes, and design centers.

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4. Strategic Rationale

• Colombo Port City offers a tax-efficient, investor-friendly environment under a separate Special Economic Zone framework, ensuring transparency and protection for foreign investors.
• Direct expressway connectivity between Port City and Bandaranaike International Airport facilitates efficient international access.
• High-quality living accommodation and social infrastructure in the Colombo hinterland support relocation of international experts and families.
• Trincomalee, with deep-water port facilities and large industrial land availability, can serve as the operational nucleus for offshore fabrication, assembly, and marine support services.
• Together, Colombo Port City (management and design) and Trincomalee (industrial operations) can create a dual-core blue economy growth model for Sri Lanka.

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5. Proposed Actions

1. Establish a Port City Offshore Industry Promotion Unit” (PCOIPU) under the Ministry of Industries / BOI to coordinate investor engagement.
2. Conduct targeted investor missions to major engineering and consultancy hubs (London, Dubai, Singapore, Chennai).
3. Offer incentives such as tax holidays, 100% repatriation of profits, and long-term business leases within Port City.
4. Promote Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs) linking international firms with local companies in design, fabrication, and training.
5. Develop a digital platform to showcase investment-ready projects in Trincomalee, Galle, and Colombo.

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6. Expected Outcomes

• Creation of high-value employment opportunities for engineers, planners, and project managers.
• Development of Sri Lankan expertise in offshore energy, marine engineering, and digital design.
• Attraction of foreign direct investment (FDI) into both Port City and Trincomalee.
• Positioning Sri Lanka as a regional blue economy hub in the Indian Ocean.

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7. Conclusion

This initiative aligns with the Government of Sri Lanka’s objective to expand the Blue Economy and promote export-oriented industrial growth.

By linking Colombo Port City’s global business environment with Trincomalee’s industrial and offshore capacity, Sri Lanka can establish itself as a strategic destination for marine, offshore, and energy service investments in South Asia.

Regards

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Courtesy The Independent (UK)

Exclusive: Asoka Jayaweera, a strict vegetarian, died after choking on a piece of food while attempting to ‘eat around’ the meat in the meal he was served instead of the meatless one he had requested, according to his family

A Southern California cardiologist flying Qatar Airways from Los Angeles to Sri Lanka was denied the vegetarian meal he had ordered, then died after choking on a piece of food while attempting to eat around” the meat in meal he was given instead, according to his grieving family.

The pilot couldn’t make an emergency landing to get 85-year-old Asoka Jayaweera to a doctor because the plane was traveling over the Arctic Circle/Ocean,” alleges a newly filed wrongful death lawsuit obtained by The Independent.

However, Jayaweera’s son Surya contends the aircraft was actually over the Midwest at the time and could have easily diverted, their complaint states.

When the flight eventually touched down in Edinburgh, Scotland, Jayaweera, a strict vegetarian,” had been unconscious for some three-and-a-half hours, according to the complaint. It says he was taken to the hospital – but that it was already too late.

In addition to standard options such as chicken biryani and couscous with beef, Qatar Airways, the flag carrier of the Emirate of Qatar, offers 19 special meals – of which seven are meat-free: a vegan meal completely devoid of meat, poultry, fish, honey, eggs, or dairy products; a raw vegetarian meal containing only uncooked fruits and vegetables; a vegetarian lacto-ovo meal, which does not contain any meat, poultry, or seafood, but does include egg and/or dairy products; a vegetarian Hindu meal; a vegetarian Jain meal; a vegetarian Oriental” meal; a children’s vegetarian meal; and a fruit platter.

Travelers with specific dietary restrictions have run into trouble before, midflight. Last year, British reality star Jack Fowler, who has a severe nut allergy, said he almost died aboard a Qatar Airways flight to Dubai being served a chicken curry containing nuts. The same thing reportedly happened to Fowler a year earlier when he was served ice cream with nuts, also aboard Qatar Airways.

Over the summer, a Singapore Airlines flight from Frankfurt to New York City was forced to land in Paris when a 41-year-old New York City woman allergic to shellfish became violently ill” after she said she was served a meal containing shrimp.

A Qatar Airways spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Monday. A message sent to the attorney representing the carrier in the suit brought by Surya Jayaweera – who told The Independent he was bogged down with errands and was unable to be interviewed – went unanswered.

On June 23, 2023, Asoka Jayaweera booked a trip from LA to Colombo, Sri Lanka on Qatar Airways, according to his son’s complaint, which was initially filed July 31 in California state court, and removed to Central California federal court on October 3.

A week later, Jayaweera boarded the flight at Los Angeles International Airport, with a connection in Doha, it states.

About two-and-a-half hours into the 15-and-a-half-hour flight, the onboard meal service began, the complaint continues.

Mr. Jayaweera was a strict vegetarian and requested a vegetarian meal,” the complaint goes on.

Instead, it says, the flight attendant informed him that there were no vegetarian meals left and that they could only provide him a regular meal with meat and instructed him to ‘eat around’ the meat.”

While attempting to ‘eat around’ the meat in the meal that he was provided, Asoka Jayaweera began choking shortly thereafter,” the complaint states, without specifying what exactly Jayaweera choked on.

Members of the flight crew stepped in to help, and got on the phone with MedAire, a Phoenix, Arizona-based service that has aviation-trained ER doctors available to remotely guide airline staff through in-flight medical emergencies, according to the complaint.

At approximately 02:46 UTC, Asoka Jayaweera was monitored with an oxygen saturation level of 69 percent,” the complaint says.

Oxygen saturation levels below 88 percent are considered dangerous.

Although the flight at that moment was passing over Wisconsin, the flight crew told Jayaweera’s travel companion, who is not identified in court filings, that the captain was unable to divert because they were already above the Arctic Circle and about to cross the Arctic Ocean, the complaint alleges.

Meanwhile, the crew administered oxygen to Jayaweera, to no avail – his saturation levels never again exceeded 85 percent, according to the complaint, which says Jayaweera lost consciousness at about 07:30 UTC and was administered drugs.”

It was not until approximately 11:00 UTC that the aircraft was brought down in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, and Asoka Jayaweera was transported to the hospital,” the complaint states. Asoka Jayaweera would die in Edinburgh on August 3, 2023, due to aspiration pneumonia,” an infection caused by inhaling food or liquid into the lungs, rather than swallowing it.

The lawsuit notes that Qatar and the United States are members of the Montreal Convention, the international treaty that governs airline liability. It sets a statutory payout limit of roughly $175,000, at current exchange rates, for onboard death and injury claims.

Surya Jayaweera is seeking damages for negligence and wrongful death, in excess of Montreal Convention guidelines, to be determined at trial, plus pre-judgment interest and court costs and attorneys’ fees.

Shenali D Waduge

Countries that once proudly promoted inclusivity” and gender diversity” in schools are now backtracking —the United Kingdom is leading that reversal after destroying lives of 500,000 British children. It began as a movement to end bullying” and quietly turned into a campaign that taught children to question their own sex, reject biology, and distrust parents & distance themselves from faiths. Between 2010 and 2020, the UK government allowed foreign-funded NGOs and activist groups to rewrite school policies under the banner of LGBTQIA rights.” Teachers were re-trained, curriculums rewritten, and children as young as five were told that being born in the wrong body” was normal. Sri Lanka’s Govt is trying to launch this same program.

The British government that once enforced these teachings has declared them harmful, unscientific, and inappropriate for children. Parents, teachers, and doctors have sounded the alarm on the psychological and physical damage caused to an entire generation of children. The Govt will reverse policy – but the damage done to 500,000 British kids is irreversible.

This is why we cannot allow this failed experiment to be launched in Sri Lanka.

As Sri Lanka faces growing pressure to adopt similar inclusivity” and gender education” under imported DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) models, we must pause and learn from the UK’s experience — before our own children are exposed to the same harm.

Between 2015 and 2022, over 9 million UK schoolchildren were taught gender ideology as part of inclusivity” lessons.

Within a few years, at least 20,000–25,000 were sent for medical gender referrals, while another half a million children showed signs of confusion, anxiety, or distress.

The UK government has since shut down the Tavistock Clinic, restricted teaching of gender ideology, and admitted that these lessons were not age-appropriate and caused harm.

1.                 How it Started

• Around 2010–2015, the UK government began promoting inclusivity and diversity”in schools under the banner of LGBTQIA rights and gender identity education.
• This came through new Relationships and Sex Education (RSE)
• It was heavily supported by NGOs, activist groups, and foreign-funded organisationswho said it would help reduce bullying” and make schools safe spaces.”
• By 2020, it became compulsoryin all English schools to teach about different kinds of relationships” — including same-sex relationships and gender identity — even to very young children.

2.                                         What these Policies meant in Practice

Schools were told to:

• Teach children as young as 5that they could be born in the wrong body.”
• Use cartoons like The Genderbread Person”(instead of Gingerbread Man) or The Gender Unicorn” to explain that gender is a spectrum.”
• Replace words like boy”and girl” with learners” or friends.”
• Allow children to choose new names or pronounswithout informing parents.
• Make teachers attend gender sensitivity” trainingand face complaints if they didn’t use preferred pronouns.
• Display Pride flags and gender postersin classrooms — even in nurseries.

What British Children were really taught

In Primary Schools (Ages 5–10):

• Children were told that you might have a boy’s body but a girl’s brain” — and that only you can know who you really are.”
• Pupils learned songs and stories saying that boys can have babies” and girls can have penises.”
• Teachers were instructed to replace he” or she”— with  they” or friends.”
• Classrooms displayed Pride flagsand gender symbols year-round, not just during June.
• Some schools used colouring books asking children to choose what gender they feel like today.”
• Storybooks like Introducing Teddy” (a teddy bear that changes gender) and Julian is a Mermaid” were made part of early literacy lessons.
• Children were told to try on different clothes and see what gender feels best.”
• Gender-free bathrooms” were introduced, causing distress and complaints from both parents and students.

In Secondary Schools (Ages 11–16):

• Teachers were told to treat a child’s declared gender identityas fact, without parental knowledge.
• Lessons taught that sex is assigned at birth”and gender is fluid.”
• Some schools asked students to list their pronouns”at the start of class (e.g., she/her,” they/them”).
• Videos shown in class explained how to bind your chest” or come out safely” to parents — without medical or parental guidance.
• Students who disagreed were called transphobic”or sent for inclusivity counselling.”
• Teachers faced disciplinary action for using the wrong pronoun.”
• Biology teachers had to say people who menstruate”instead of girls.”
• Some schools invited activist speakers who claimed gender is a feeling, not a fact.”

What British Parents and Teachers Said

• My daughter came home crying because her class was told that if she likes trucks, she might be a boy.”
• Our 7-year-old was told she could change her name and pronouns without telling us.”
• Teachers were warned that questioning the school material was discrimination.”
• Boys stopped joining sports teams because they were afraid of being called sexist.”
• Even science class became politicised — they told us biology is ‘socially constructed.’”

Outcome

By 2023–2024, even UK officials admitted these lessons were inappropriate, confusing, and ideologically driven — not based on science or child psychology.

The Cass Review called the system built on weak evidence, activist influence, and lack of clinical safeguards.”

3.                       What Went Wrong

Within less than 5 years, parents, teachers, and even doctors began to raise serious concerns:

• Children were confused— many thought normal childhood feelings meant they might be transgender.”
• Parents were not consultedabout what was being taught.
• Genuine Teachers were afraidto question or discuss the materials for fear of being labelled transphobic.”
• Hundreds of childrenwere referred to gender clinics like the Tavistock Centre, which later shut down after investigations found serious harm and lack of proper medical oversight.
• Mental health issues roseamong confused students.
• Faith-based schoolsfelt their values were being overridden.

4.                       Public Backlash and Investigations

• A major UK review (the Cass Review, 2024) found that gender identity services had rushed children into medical treatmentswithout proper evidence. Irreversible health issues for children.

Having to take lifelong expensive medication.

• The UK’s Education Departmentbegan investigating schools that taught gender ideology as fact instead of a belief or debate.
• Parents protestedacross the UK, demanding transparency and the right to withdraw their children.

5.                                         Why Policies are Now being Reversed

In 2024–2025, the UK government began reversing or restricting the LGBTQIA-DEI policies because:

1. The teachings were not age-appropriate.
2. They caused psychological confusionamong children.
3. They were based on ideology, not science.
4. Parents’ rights were ignored.
5. They divided schoolsand distracted from real education.

Today, many UK schools have removed gender identity” lessons, and new guidance says:

• Children under 9 must notbe taught about gender ideology.
• Schools must not teachthat gender can change or that people are born in the wrong body.”
• Any discussion on gender identity must be presented as a contested idea, not fact.

6.                       The Lesson for Sri Lanka

What started as inclusivity” in the UK has ended in confusion, regret, and reversal.
Sri Lanka must learn before it imitates the psychological-mental & even physical damage to children. Only a parent will understand the horrors.

• Our Constitutionalready guarantees human rights to all — there’s no need to create special categories.
• Our religions and cultureuphold respect and morality without promoting private lifestyles.
• Our childrendeserve protection from imported ideologies that even their creators are now rejecting.

Learn from the UK:

• Protect Our Children,
• Our Culture,
• Our Classrooms.

The Warning for Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka does not need to repeat the mistakes of the West.

Our Constitution already guarantees equality and human rights for every citizen — regardless of identity. What it does not do is grant special privileges based on private sexual behaviour or imported ideologies that contradict our culture, religion, and national values.

The UK’s reversal is proof that gender education” was not inclusion — it was a confusion.

It divided classrooms, silenced teachers, undermined parents, and left thousands of children with emotional scars and lifelong regret.

Let us protect our next generation from this same fate.

Let Sri Lanka remain a country that values family, faith, moral education, and biological truth — not imported theories that even their creators are now abandoning.

If Sri Lanka imports these programs, every one of our 4.2 million schoolchildren would be exposed — but even if just 2–3% experience confusion, that’s 80,000–120,000 children at risk of serious psychological harm.

Once such teaching begins, it is almost impossible to reverse without deep damage — as the UK discovered.

Shenali D Waduge

• https://apnews.com/article/uk-transgender-health-care-children-e3e94aad2994da7296880915f9b2e6ed

• https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/10/thousands-of-children-unsure-of-gender-identity-let-down-by-nhs-report-finds

• https://policyexchange.org.uk/publication/asleep-at-the-wheel/

• https://www.attitude.co.uk/news/schools-gender-identity-465555/

• https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/07/15/labour-clearing-way-gender-identity-lessons-schools-tories/

• https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/jan/31/school-defends-lgbt-lessons-after-religious-parents-complain

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cass_Review

By Raj Gonsalkorale

Sri Lanka GDP growth rate needs to rise above 8% over ten years to achieve a GDP of USD 200 million and a GDP per capita of USD 9000 to qualify as an upper middle-class status. A high-income status requires a per capita of $13,846 or more. Can Sri Lanka achieve these targets? It is noteworthy that Singapore GDP in 2024 was USD 547.4 billion and per capita 90,674.07 USD while Sri Lanka’s GDP was USD 98.96 billion with a per capita of 4,515.57 USD. Singapore’s projected GDP will be 900 billion USD in 10 years with a per capita of USD 130,000. Sri Lanka must decide where it wishes to be in ten years

Despite some economic progress in Sri Lanka over the years, the fact that the country was declared bankrupt in 2022 negates such achievements from the point of view of sustainability of the country’s economy and shows a structural weakness in economic fundamentals. Excessive borrowings for projects without a proper return on investment assessments, spending far in excess of actual costs for infrastructure projects, operational expenditure in excess of income, accumulating large foreign debts and using some such borrowings especially International Sovereign Bonds for consumption rather than for specific projects with a return on the borrowings in excess of the cost of borrowing, are but some of these structural shortcomings. Thanks to the often-criticized entry of the IMF, Sri Lanka has been able to instill some financial discipline in economic management and virtually compel the governments since 2022 to adhere to an economic framework in return for the USD 2.9 Billion bailout package negotiated with them. It is well for those who were and still are critical of the IMF to remember that their entry was a result of successive government’s financial indiscipline and politically influenced monetary policies, and had economic fundamentals been strategic and sustainable, there would not have been a necessity to seek IMF assistance to save the country and assist it to overcome its bankruptcy.  

Foreign reserves

Trading Economics (https://tradingeconomics.com/sri-lanka/foreign-exchange-reserves) states that foreign exchange reserves in Sri Lanka were 6.107 USD Billion in August 2025 and Singapore’s foreign exchange reserves were SGD 502.02 billion (approximately 390 billion USD) in August 2025 (https://tradingeconomics. com/singapore/foreign-exchange-reserves). The total reserves of Singapore based on publicly available data from Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), the Government of Singapore owned multinational investment firm Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and government’s Central Provident Fund (CPF), are conservatively estimated at S$2.5 trillion (2024) (US$1.87 trillion). Many analysts believe that the reserves are substantially larger than publicly acknowledged. The Ministry of Finance keeps the full details of the reserves private so as to prevent currency speculation attacks on the Singapore dollar.

Individually, besides the government foreign reserves of USD 390 Billion, GIC’s portfolio value was estimated at approximately US$800 billion as of May 2025 according to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute (SWFI), Temasek Holding portfolio S$434 billion (USD 287 Billion) as of 31 March 2025. (https://www.temasek.com.sg/en/news-and-resources/news-room/news/2025/temasek-net-portfolio-value-grows-to-record-high-of-434-billion), and as per Wikipedia, CPF managed a portfolio of US$463 billion (S$594 billion) for 4.2 million account holders.

Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves are woefully inadequate as it can only fund about 2 months of imports to the country. This period will be less when the debt capital and interest payments are considered. Singapore too has a substantial gross external debt, reportedly over S$2.4 trillion, but possesses zero net debt because its substantial financial assets—like foreign currency reserves far exceeds its liabilities. Unlike in Sri Lanka, the high gross external debt reflects Singapore’s status as a major global financial hub, attracting large amounts of international deposits and investments, primarily held by private corporations rather than the government.

If Sri Lanka is to move to a different and higher economic platform, its thinking, meaning peoples thinking, their attitudes, as well as those of politicians and officials, has to change and none should harbour a view that doing the same thing expecting different results, simply will work. While economic data is not easy to find in1948 when Sri Lanka became independent, Wikipedia reports that in 1960 Sri Lanka’s (then Ceylon) per capita GDP was 152 dollars, Korea 153, Malaysia 280, Thailand 95, Indonesia 62, Philippines 254, Taiwan 149. Singapore’s GDP per capita in 1960 was approximately $395 to $428 USD. The Monetary Authority of Singapore says that in 1965, when Singapore became an independent nation, its nominal GDP per capita was around US$500.

No doubt in 77 years since independence, Sri Lanka has moved along progressively to reach a per capita of USD 4515.57 by 2024. However, Singapore since its independence in 1965 has moved from USD 500 to USD 90,674.07 in 60 years.

The history, culture, politics, demographics, the geography, the country size, its agriculture and crop diversification and many other factors are vastly different in Sri Lanka and Singapore, and it is perhaps not a fair comparison to make when it comes to the economic status quo of the two countries. However, some fundamental comparisons can and should be made about the basic, logical economic management policies and outcomes irrespective of the differences mentioned earlier. In fact, some of these differences are advantages enjoyed by Sri Lanka over Singapore although the outcomes and returns from these advantages have been very much less than optimal. The population density of the two countries and the land areas illustrate a distinct advantage that Sri Lanka has, and not capitalised, and how Singapore has used less to make more within these two challenging realities.

Singapore’s population density is approximately 8,387 people per square kilometres (or 21,722 people per square mile) as of mid-2025, making it one of the most densely populated countries in the world. This high density is a result of careful long-term planning to manage land scarcity in the city-state of 700 square kilometres. Sri Lanka’s population density is approximately 370 people per square kilometres (959 people per square mile) as of 2025. This density is based on a total land area of 62,710 square kilometres

Future economic trajectory for Sri Lanka

While GDP and GDP per capita are arguably not the best measures to judge a country’s economic health, they are the measures used globally to do so at present. Some argue that these measures represent the thinking of international institutions like the World Bank and IMF, and that they represent the viewpoint of Western economies led by the USA.

Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics and University Professor at Columbia University,  former chief economist of the World Bank (1997-2000), former chair of the US President’s Council of Economic Advisers, former co-chair of the High-Level Commission on Carbon Prices, and lead author of the 1995 IPCC Climate Assessment and Co-Chair of the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation and the author, most recently, of The Road to Freedom: Economics and the Good Society (W. W. Norton & Company, Allen Lane, 2024) says in an article published in the Scientific American “GDP measures everything,” as Senator Robert Kennedy once said, “except that which makes life worthwhile.” The number does not measure health, education, equality of opportunity, the state of the environment or many other indicators of the quality of life. It does not even measure crucial aspects of the economy such as its sustainability: whether it is headed for a crash”. (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/gdp-is-the-wrong-tool-for-measuring-what-matters/). Readers are referred to an article written by this writer titled GDP and GDP growth: Are they measures that really matter?(https://www.ft.lk/opinion/GDP-and-GDP-growth-Are-they-measures-that-really-matter/14-774796),to get a brief idea about statistics on a range of underlying disparities, inequalities and inequities amongst its people despite developments” visible to the naked eye.

However, at the end of the day, there are some fundamentals to consider irrespective of arguments for or against the contention that GDP alone being a measure of the economic health of a country. Amongst some of them are affordability by the entire population of a quality, modern universal health care, a good education system, that widens and deepens knowledge and prepares the younger generation to be more self-reliant, technological advancements including Artificial Intelligence and access to them, efficient and affordable transportation, quality housing for all, food security, absence of poverty and malnutrition, and ability for all to live in a free and non-violent, equal and equitable society. Clearly achieving some of these ideals need substantial amounts of monetary investments and therefore strategic, out of the box, economic thinking, policies and effective and efficient economic management becomes paramount.

While Sri Lanka has achieved a high standard in many areas such in education and health in particular, its overall economic management has not been satisfactory and in fact, if the country and all its people are to achieve a higher, sustainable quality of life, the entire country, not just its politicians, need to move towards a substantial paradigm shift in economic thinking. Sri Lanka rising to a higher economic platform in effect means a rise in GDP, and in 10 years it will depend on its economic growth rate between 2025 and 2035. The GDP growth forecast for 2025 is 3-4%, and for 2026 is around 5%. With a starting point of $99 billion GDP in 2024, and assuming a sustained growth rate of around 4%, Sri Lanka’s GDP would be approximately $147 billion in 2035 and a per capita of USD 6300.00. 

The question has to be asked whether this is sufficient for people to enjoy a better-quality of life and whether it is sufficient to renew confidence in the country amongst its current and future generations.

If one were to consider the current per capita GDP of USD 97604.00 in Singapore, and if Sri Lanka is to achieve at least half of it (USD 45,000), Sri Lanka’s GDP would need to be approximately $990 billion This would require a tenfold increase from the 2024 GDP of $99 billion to achieve the desired per capita figure. Achieving such a figure would seem an impossibility based on where the country is placed now. However, the policy makers and the people should at least target to achieve the World Banks’s classification of a higher income country, which is a per capita in excess of USD 13,846, which is a tripling the country’s current per capita of USD 4515.00. This would require an increase in GDP to approximately USD 300 Billion from the current USD 99 Billion.

The current trajectory of predicted GDP growth around 4-5% is not sufficient to give the people in the country anywhere near what is required to provide the economic and social ideals mentioned earlier. Whilst the government has outlined plans to increase exports, earnings from tourism, and foreign investments, all of which are very commendable, this article wishes to suggest that a more dramatic paradigm shift is needed in economic thinking, strategy and management if the country is to move towards a high-income country. A few key areas are mentioned for purpose of discussion

Industrialization and agriculture – Focussed on food security and exports

• Value adding industrialisation for local consumption but more importantly for exports.
• Further development of the fisheries industry, for local consumption and exports
• Moving from traditional approaches relating to the tea, coconut and rubber industry and venturing into research based higher yields using less land, maximisation of water resources and replacing unproductive plantations with alternate crops,
• Intercropping where two or more crops simultaneously in the same field to improve land use, increase yields, reduce risk, and enhance biodiversity. Coconut plantations are a good example where intercropping could be done with coffee, cocoa and other suitable crops between coconut trees.

Finance – Increased investments and foreign reserves

• Increase foreign reserves by providing incentives to exporters and those remitting foreign exchange by buying the foreign exchange from them at a higher premium over normal bank interest rates.
• Creating a government owned foreign reserve management entity (for a component of the government foreign reserves) on the lines of entities in Singapore, enabling it to invest in select fund management entities.
• Creating a National Investment Bank with private sector equity participation and dedicated exclusively to engage in investments both locally and overseas

Private sector – Greater role for the private sector as the engine of growth

• Consideration given to creating an exclusive ministry headed by a high-level cabinet minister to plan and promote growth of a sustainable private enterprise in the country.
• Community Service Responsibility activity – Providing tax benefits to companies engaging in priority projects of the government with a view to achieving long term sustainability of such projects.

Transforming diplomatic services to be commercially oriented to attract investments and promote exports

• Appoint commercially astute diplomats (High Commissioners, Ambassadors) to key overseas postings to coordinate investment interests amongst potential investors, both citizens of the respective countries as well as amongst Sri Lankan expatriates in such countries.

Conclusion

Sri Lanka has to develop its economy in order to provide a fair, equitable, healthy, knowledgeable and dignified lifestyle for its citizens and its future generations. It needs to provide enough opportunities to them and foster their confidence in the country. While the country’s long history and its rich colourful culture are important in shaping the identity of the country, it also needs to think of the future and how it will provide a safe, secure and healthy environment for its people in a sustainable manner. Sri Lanka does not have to emulate any other country as the uniqueness of Sri Lanka in terms of its natural beauty, history and culture provides an enviable environment for it to grow its economy to provide a more quality future for its people. However, it needs resources, both financial and capable human resources to provide a future for its emerging generations. The country has to earn more, save more and equip itself more to provide the outcomes that are desired. Its thinking therefore has to be futuristic and strategic and not confined to yesterday’s glory days. Economic policies have to look towards the future and not be focussed on the past.

by Garvin Karunaratne. Courtesy The Island/03.05.2023

The Sri Lankan government is finding it hard to fulfil the regulations agreed upon with the IMF in the Houses of Parliament on April 28, 2023. However, there was no other option but to agree. According to Professor Vasanta Atukorale, the increases in taxes amount to a staggering 441%. The IMF’s experts fail to understand that implementing these regulations will cause untold hardships to the public and may even lead to a severe recession. Perhaps, this is the ulterior motive of the IMF.

Sri Lanka was not a dollar in foreign debt in 1977. From 1948 to 1977, the country made strides in development, opening up land, colonisation schemes for people, building tanks, developing agriculture and industries, and implementing welfare measures. The country became self-sufficient in paddy production, its staple crop, and produced all its textiles. This development effort involved agricultural marketing, agricultural extension, small industry, and district administration. The golden era of Premier Dudley Senanayake’s rule, lasting 29 years, was where the people enjoyed freedom and development.

1977 – JR and IMF

The IMF abolished many development programmes in 1978. The problem began with the Structural Adjustment Programme imposed on Sri Lanka by the IMF when President J. R. Jayewardene sought assistance from the IMF, which gave loans freely on condition that Sri Lanka follow neoliberal economics and allowed the rich to spend foreign funds that the country had obtained as loans. This led to foreign debt. Worse still, President Jayewardene and his Minister of Finance Ronnie de Mel were made to believe that this path would lead to development.

In 1978, the IMF even gave grace periods, when Sri Lanka did not need to pay the interest and repayment instalments on loans so that the leaders would not be burdened with the repayment. The burden was shifted to future leaders.

IMF also responsible for  Sri Lanka crisis 

Many specialists have proposed alternative ways of dealing with the current crisis. The World Bank Country Director Fariz Hadad Zerous has said that the current crisis is not a temporary liquidity shock but the result of longstanding structural weaknesses, poor governance, and a public debt that is unsustainable. However, the World Bank Country Director needs to be told that it was the IMF itself that is to blame for taking Sri Lanka on this path of living on loans.

From Independence in 1948 to 1977, Sri Lanka’s development was done through various development programmes that involved people in production aimed at self-reliance. The IMF abolished all the developmental departmental activities and confined the administrators to the barracks while coming up with the ludicrous basis that the private sector was to be the engine of growth. It was this decision of the IMF imposed in 1978 that crippled the development of the country. The private sector has self-aggrandizement as its aim. The development of the country is not their concern.

 T. B. Illangaratne time

Until 1977, the country had import restrictions in place to ensure that it could manage with its earnings. The development of the country was entirely run with local currency – the rupee – collected by taxes supplemented by money printing, while the foreign exchange that came in through exports and services was precisely collected and used for the purchase of importing essentials. Very small allocations were made for imports. The total expenditure of Sri Lanka in 1961/62 was Rupees 2013 million, all local rupees. The 1963 Budget Speech of Minister T. B. Illangaratne tells how imports of textiles were reduced by a third, powerlooms were imported, but imports of cars were banned.

The Budget Speech outlines the strategy to manage imports within the available expenditure, highlighting its potential as a developmental exercise. Minister Illangaratne said, We stopped the import of coffee to increase coffee production” (p.1237). I met Minister Illangaratne in 1971, when I needed his approval for foreign exchange allocation to import dyes for my Crayon Factory in Morawaka. The Ministry of Industries refused to provide us with an import allocation because we were a cooperative. However, I learned that the Controller of Imports was about to allow an allocation of foreign exchange for the import of crayons. So, I intervened and convinced the Import Controller that by giving our Crayon Factory a foreign exchange allocation for the import of dyes, he could cancel all imports. I needed Minister Illangaratne’s approval as this procedure had never been done before. When I showed him the crayons we produced, I remember the gleam on his face. He insisted that I establish a Crayon Factory in Kolonnawa, his electorate, and ordered the total cancellation of all imports on crayons. That is how statesmen served the national interest.

Foreign aid could go either way 

Today’s economic meltdown, with foreign debt amounting to $56 billion, did not come without warning. In 1990, I began a series of lectures on Third World Studies at the Westminster Adult Education Institute, where I discussed how Sri Lanka’s foreign debt was increasing. By 1989, the foreign debt had increased to $5 billion. In 1992, the South Asian Forum of the University of London invited me to speak on Sri Lanka, and I commented that foreign aid could serve as an engine of growth if handled prudently. However, foreign aid could lead to chronic debt, poverty, high unemployment, and even uprisings if accepted in a non-developmental manner. I also mentioned that the healthy balance of payments achieved during the period of 1970-1976 turned into a nightmare of adverse deficits due to the governments that came into power since 1977 (From How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka & Alternative Programmes of Success, Godage, 2006).

The foreign debt ballooned to $9.5 billion by the end of the UNP rule, $11.5 billion by 2005, $42.9 billion at the end of 2014, and $56 billion by 2019. Initially, the IMF gave loans, but it later backed out, and the country had to raise funds through other sources on less attractive terms. International sovereign bonds were obtained at high interest, as much as $4 billion during the Rajapaksa Regime of 2008-2015 and $10 billion ISB loans during 2015-2019. It is important to note that President Gotabhaya did not create the foreign debt. However, he made wrong decisions, such as providing a massive tax break to large enterprises and his infamous agricultural extension programme of using compost and banning the use of inorganic fertilisers, which led to massive crop failure. It is difficult to imagine a successful military commander failing to act forcefully in the interests of the country, but it did happen. The cause of Sri Lanka’s total economic meltdown lies in the salient features of the Structural Adjustment Programme imposed on Sri Lanka since the end of 1977. We have not used the loans for any purpose in development but lived extravagantly on loans, as dictated by the IMF. Corruption and politics in decision-making also aggravated distress, but the salient factor is that Sri Lanka started living on loans and abandoned development programmes. The IMF even disbanded the Planning Department and confined all development workers to the barracks.

2023 IMF loan – No measures to increase the productivity

It is unfortunate to note that the IMF’s $3 billion loan provisions for Sri Lanka do not include any measures to increase the country’s productivity and boost people’s incomes. The IMF’s focus is primarily on increasing the tax base, restoring price stability, restructuring debt, rebuilding reserves, and enabling the country to purchase essential goods from abroad in order to put it on a growth path. The Central Bank is expected to purchase foreign exchange worth $1.4 billion to rebuild reserves. According to the Financial Times, the reforms also involve addressing corruption and inefficiency at state-owned enterprises, combating inflation, recapitalising the banking sector, and overhauling the tax system, which currently sees half of the country’s taxpayers paying less than 5% of their income to the state.

However, the IMF seems to overlook the fact that taxes are collected in local currency and do not have any direct impact on the repayment of foreign debts. Therefore, Sri Lanka’s only viable option is to implement import substitution programmes that will reduce the country’s dependence on imports and simultaneously generate incomes for the people. The IMF has not prohibited such productivity-enhancing measures, and it is up to Sri Lanka’s leaders to devise programmes that can increase production.

Sri Lanka has previous experience with successful development programmes such as the Divisional Development Councils Program (DDCP) implemented by the government from 1970-1977. The DDCP provided employment training to 33,200 youths, established agricultural farms, and set up small industries. Many Districts also established small agricultural farms and industries, such as the Mechanised Boatyard at Matara, which produced 35 seaworthy fishing inboard motor boats a year and a Cooperative Crayon Factory, which had country-wide sales. These were established in a short period, within two to three and a half months, respectively.

Employment creation programmes that can also boost production have proven successful, such as the Youth Self Employment Programme established by the author in Bangladesh, which has created three million entrepreneurs and is now recognised as the world’s most successful employment creation programme.

It is worth noting that since Sri Lanka started following the IMF’s policies in 1977, no new development programmes have been implemented to reduce poverty, develop the country’s resources, or train people to make what is imported. The author highlights the work of previous statesmen in implementing successful development programmes, which can serve as a model for current leaders.

In conclusion, it is crucial for Sri Lanka’s leaders to establish programmes that will produce what is currently imported and create incomes for the people while simultaneously reducing the country’s foreign exchange expenditure on imports.

(Dr. Karunaratne is a former Government Agent and Commonwealth Fund Advisor to the Ministry of Labour and Manpower, Bangladesh 1981-1983.)

The Island/03.05.2023

e-Con e-News

blog: eesrilanka.wordpress.com

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

e-Con e-News 28 September – 04 October 2025

‘Ranil Wickremesinghe had been a shrewd driver & just before he left the office, he got the parliament to enact special legislation binding future governments to uphold the goals set by him. That legislation, the Economic Transformation Act or ETA had nothing to do with transforming the economy but adding to the law books the goals & targets set by IMF for its EFF (Extended Fund Facility) … If AKD fails to attain these goals, his government is liable to be challenged in courts.’– WA Wijewardena (see ee Economists, 1^st year of AKD Govt: Is it RW in driving seat with a difference?)

‘Sri Lanka permits 100% foreign ownership

in most sectors, with constitutional guarantees for investment protection & unrestricted repatriation of earnings, fees, & capital.’– US State Department Report

Despite all the ‘driverless’ remote controls, leghold traps & capital giveaways that grip the Sri Lanka government in bosom bondage, many US investors supposedly ‘remain wary given the NPP leadership’s historically anti-Western, Marxist-influenced ideology’. So claims the US government’s 2025 Investment Climate Statement, even as former members & ardent critics of the present government claim, the JVP’s brandishing of hammers & sickles and red flags & slogans about workers are but crimson icing for cakes programmed, made & baked elsewhere. (The standard ‘Old Left’ critique describes the JVP as an ‘ultraleftist’ decoction of the CIA, which has always been used to undermine any nationalist endeavours).

     The US is nevertheless warning investors to plan ‘exit strategies’: ‘Some senior government officials regularly castigate private sector-led economic growth & publicly promote state-owned collectivism as the country’s preferred investment model.’ And while the US government is publicly asserting its wish to make their own country ‘great again’, while claiming to end wars, even as they wage both horrific proxy – on Russia (Ukraine), West Asia (Palestine), China (Myanmar, Taiwan, etc.) – & undeclared wars (see ee Random Notes, Somalia) their stated aim in Sri Lanka is to ‘reduce state dominance’, and to ‘simplify approvals’ to privatize national resources.

     The US report thus whines about ‘rigid labour rules’ – ‘Rigid dismissal rules make restructuring [i.e., privatization] costly, while emigration has intensified shortages in IT, apparel, tourism & engineering.’ Interestingly, they make no mention of the damage to our state health sector by emigration (aka brain drain). Yet they highlight, ‘garment industry reports turnover rates of 40%’ and somehow also lament that despite such ‘rigidity’, ‘weak social protections & limited coverage for informal workers contribute further to labour market inflexibility’. Inflexibility is a euphemism for sacking workers easily. In fact, most business news is reported via such euphemistic synonyms for privatization, such as ‘market access’ etc.

     Also groaning about ‘restrictions on foreign participation’, the same US report says it is busy ‘eyeing’ the ‘ICT (information & communications tech), energy, aviation & defence’ sectors, while demanding further privatization. The US claims, the current administration suspended the unelected Ranil Wickremesinghe government’s ‘privatisation efforts upon taking office’. ‘The Economic Transformation Act, which was intended to abolish the Board of Investment and replace it with 5 specialised agencies, has not been implemented, leaving approvals fragmented and slow… The stalled privatization of deficit-ridden State-owned enterprises, notably the Ceylon Electricity Board, hinders development of cost-effective energy supplies crucial for industrial operations.’

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‘For Sri Lanka, US energy offers lower prices, diversification away from Middle East dependency, & the potential to turn Hambantota into a regional hub.’DKW Wegapitiya (see ee Industry, Energy imports from US offer the most practical & strategic solution)

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The latest (US-controlled) World Bank team to visit Sri Lanka, met parliamentary ‘finance oversight committees’, and also added their 2 cents to US energy demands. They duly call for ‘urgent energy, public sector & PPP reforms.’ Meanwhile, WKH Wegapitiya, the founder of LAUGFS, which runs ‘South Asia’s largest LPG transshipment terminal in Hambantota’, and recently tied up (described in apropos Trumpian hyperbole as ‘a beautiful partnership’) with Vallibel’s Dhamikka Perera, is claiming, despite being far far away, that ‘US energy imports… offer the most practical & strategic solution’ (to the US imposition of high tariffs), ‘to not only secure better terms for apparel exports but also position Hambantota as a gateway for US energy into Asia’ Wegaptiya appears to be blissfully unaware that ‘Middle Eastern’ oil is still US (Exxon)-controlled. (Vallibel is linked to Hayleys, Delmege, etc, see ee Focus, for their historical role in the English underdevelopment of the country).

     The US meanwhile, adding to the general merchant siren song of privatization, claims Sri Lanka’s 527 national enterprises, ‘including 55 designated as strategic… remain a major burden on public finances’. The US report, nevertheless, offers ‘a comprehensive overview of the investment conditions in over 170, providing a crucial starting point for US companies’!

     The US report inevitably gets around to its favorite war mongering tropes: ‘The Government’s decision to impose new taxes on service export firms while granting exemptions for [China’s] Port City projects has reinforced perceptions of uneven treatment. Corruption in procurement persists despite legislation passed in 2023.’ And purportedly lament their allies’ misfortunes: ‘Confidence was dented when Adani Green Energy exited a $400mn wind farm after the Government sought to renegotiate an awarded contract.’ (‘Confidence’ is yet another euphemism for merchant control)

     Other areas the US is clearly eyeing are the ‘restrictions on land & ownership’: ‘Foreign companies with more than 50% equity are generally barred from purchasing land, with only narrow exceptions… Caps of 40% apply across sectors such as agriculture, natural resources, shipping & education, while retail under $5mn, pawnbroking & coastal fishing are entirely prohibited.’

     The report also reveals how the US is salivating over ‘the country’s large, government-controlled pension funds, the Employees’ Provident Fund & Employees’ Trust Fund’. This was recently enunciated by their favorite parliamentary proxies, for the ETF & EPF to provide long-term funding to small & medium enterprises (SMEs, another euphemism for fronts that vend foreign industrial products).

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Standard Chartered Bank, SL, reported a total profit of Rs44,002,000;

HSBC SL Branch reported Rs45,931,350; Citibank USA, SL Branch

reported: 21,199,660, 2020-24 – ChatGPT

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There are 19,000 private equity funds, &

14,000 McDonald’s food outlets in the US

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• ChatGPT apparently cannot divulge how much profits, different banks and companies operating within Sri Lanka, remit, officially and unofficially, outside the country…. Last week, ee noted the sale of England’s HSBC’s retail operations in Sri Lanka. However, HSBC is in fact not totally withdrawing, but is holding on to its ‘Corporate & Institutional Banking’ business, which ‘enables 2-way trade & investment flows between clients operating in Sri Lanka & around the world’. In March, Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), had already said it would ‘divest its wealth & retail business in Sri Lanka’ while retaining its ‘strong presence in the country through our Corporate & Institutional Banking (CIB) business, which will continue to connect Sri Lanka to global opportunities whilst helping international clients access the market here’. SCB claims to be ‘one of the oldest foreign banks’ in Sri Lanka, with ‘a network of 7 branches across 7 cities’ (see ee Focus, for SCB’s role in England’s opium trade in China & colonial apartheid in South Africa).

     Multinational banks claim: retail banking (checking/savings accounts, small loans, mortgages) offer low-margin of profits compared to investment banking, wealth management, or corporate lending. They claim: ‘Shifting demographics, accelerated technological advances (fintechs, digital payment) & rising consumer expectations – all in an increasingly crowded financial services ecosystem’, make maintaining branch networks, ATMs & customer service staff costly. They don’t mention that in a fraught economic climate, going after ‘non-performing loans’, court cases & seizing goods already sold are messy affairs, better left to local actors.

     The claim for withdrawal is that traditional retail banks are now charging depositors / clients / customers to keep their money, offering minus to zero or low interest rates, while people have more profitable alternatives now, investing in a variety of other schemes, from term deposits to finance companies to stocks & crypto, etc.

     For example, multinational banks are supposedly ‘retreating’ from Africa including South Africa because the domestic financial sector & new digital challengers dominate (so says, US credit rating agency Moody). The MNCs have ‘struggled’ to break into the country’s retail banking market, but ‘entrenched local players & fintech startups’ have strong footholds. In Sept 2025, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) gazetted the official closure of HSBC Private Bank in South Africa, ending 30 years of operations. HSBC’s South African client base is being transferred to FirstRand’s corporate & investment arm, Rand Merchant Bank (RMB). 5 major international finance groups have either closed their operations or scaled back in South Africa over the last 2 years. BNP Paribas shut down its corporate & investment banking business in May 2024. Barclays and Standard Chartered have ‘significantly reduced their presence; across Africa.  Moody’s claims the absence of standardized national identity (ID) systems in many countries, complicates compliance with strict ‘know your customer’ requirements. Foreign lenders are focusing on ‘large corporates & high-net-worth clients’ in urban centres, leaving vast segments of the population untouched.

     Yet, when we delve deeper into these investment ‘alternatives’, many of them, including so-called private commercial banks & finance companies are controlled by imperialist multilateral agencies operated by the World Bank, ADB, etc, or by so-called development banks, which themselves are only fronts for their industrial exporters’ associations. Last week’s World Bank team included the IFC Senior Country Officer Victor Anthonypillai. The IFC (International Finance Corporation) is the World Bank’s private lender, which has not only ‘lent’ money to private commercial banks (ComBank, etc.) but also to private companies like PickMe, Sunshine Holdings (which we suspect, with its palm-oil addictions, is either a Ceylon Tobacco Co or Unilever front) 

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In 2016, information was leaked to the Sunday Times (ST) that Englsand’s HSBC Sri Lanka branch allegedly passed ‘bogus’ loans to agriculture sector clients, to meet a Monetary Board (MB) stipulation that 10% of the loan portfolio of all commercial banks must go towards the agriculture sector. These loans were passed before the reporting date at the end of certain financial quarters, when the figures are officially conveyed to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL). The CBSL was ‘informally’ aware of what was going on but, former Governor Arjuna Mahendran’s connections with HSBC (as its former Wealth Manager in Singapore) had allegedly helped avert trouble.

     HSBC is predominantly a corporate bank. The loans – which amounted to short-term cash injections to the relevant corporate clients – were then reversed after the reporting date. The ST knew the names of at least 2 companies involved but did not divulge them. These bogus loans helped HSBC to avoid the ‘penalty’ & to hoodwink the regulator. The MB had stipulated that, in the event any banks do not comply with the minimum 10%, the percentage shortfall as an equivalent amount in Sri Lankan rupees should be transferred to the refinance fund operated by the CBSL. Former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Patrick Gallagher was implicated and transferred to HSBC London. The bank was also alleged protecting senior Risk Managers, with auditors ‘covering up the issue’. The Chief Risk Officer (CRO) was suspended in December 2015, but reinstated to protect Gallagher, compromising the compliance risk model. It is ‘always the local staff that suffer and have to pay the price’.

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• One of the merchant media’s favorite myths in still-colonized Sri Lanka is that the English created & maintained an uncorrupt civil service & police and companies, and Sinhala politicians ruined this ruling machinery. This ee Focus offers some ohay references from Krisantha Sri Bhaggiyadatta’s Very Personal Ingrisi History of the World, which endeavors to show the enduring link between the colonial state & top banks & companies in Sri Lanka today, such as Standard Chartered, HSBC, Keells, Hayleys, etc. These details date the rise of England’s merchants & agency houses, their forever-war-making state, which enabled the trade in chattel slavery of Africans, the indentured slavery of Indians & Chinese, and opium wars. Here then is the rule of a so-called aristocracy in England & their colony Scotland, which continues to this day in their colonial import-export plantation economy (especially Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co or P&O), whose corporate media has been one of the main architects of the charges of so-called ‘corruption’ in Sri Lanka, and the so-called promoters of the myth of the ‘Chinese Debt Trap’ via Hambantota.

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‘Societies that live closer to the equator are warmer.

Why are they also poorer?… People are not lazier,

they’re just less productive in higher temperatures.’

(see ee Economists)

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So insists a recent article headlined, Why Warm Countries Are Poorer. Yet, as SBD de Silva searingly argues, such climatic theories have always been ‘part of an ideology which rationalizes & naturalizes an existing social & economic order.’ This ee Focus continues Chapter 2 of SBD’s classic The Political Economy of Underdevelopment, where he details how at the ‘birth of capitalism’, the plantation colonies had first depended on white indentured labor, whose conditions were no better than the enslaved Africans they later came to depend on. SBD also suggested the various reasons why these white servants ‘precluded a uniform standard of treatment’, conditioning the ‘institutional basis of the plantation economy’, and giving rise to ‘absentee interests and enslaved labour’. He shows how ‘employment patterns & their economic roles’ determined the relations between workers, drawing from examples across the Americas (Canada, Puerto Rico, etc), Asia (Malaysia), Africa (East, South & West), and the Pacific (New Zealand), etc. The later division of the world between settler & non-settler colonies were also based on the ability of peoples to resist – security being a ‘a paramount concern’. There was also the strong economic competition from other merchants, peasants & workers. The promotion of a ‘structure of race relation… made manual labour degrading’ for whites in some non-settler colonies.

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ee Focus also continues Gustavus Myers’ History of Tammany Hall, about that infamous political machinery parading as a charity, as many NGOs do today. Myers here describes the inevitable concentration of power in one or a few individuals, and the art of ‘bossing’, recruiting compliant politicians, officials and workers while pretending to be honest and efficient. Denouncing ‘corruption, extravagance and waste’, while demanding kickbacks for contracts to supply municipal necessities such as water, roads & railways. Yet the age of kings is long over, as modern ‘princes’ operate through corporate boards or political vanguard parties, albeit through tight cadre networks…

Contents:

NPP Leaders are Anti-Western & Marxist: So says the USA

Darini Rajasingham Senanayake

Rithika Kodithuwakku as a Tamil Sakkili Woman in Asoka Handagama’s art house rape fantasy which effectively character assassinated Chile’s Poet Laureate, Pablo Neruda in a different sort of ‘Operation Colombo’ to that which followed the CIA backed coup against Democratic Socialist President Dr. Salvador Allende in September 1973

September saw anniversaries in the chilling deaths of two democratically elected Socialist heads of state during the United States’ led Cold War anti-communist crusade that unfolded across the world between 1948-91: The first assassination of concern here happened in Colombo, the capital of the geostrategic Indian Ocean island of Ceylon on September 25, 1959. 

The second death happened half way across the world fourteen years after the assassination of South Asia’s first Socialist Prime Minister S.W.R.D Bandaranaike. On September 11, 1973, President Salvador Allende, South America’s first Socialist head of state died during a US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), backed coup as military helicopters strafed the Presidential Palace in Santiago de Chile. The campaign of murder, suppression and disinformation against the Left that followed Allende’s death was  Code Named Operation Colombo”.

Both deaths of democratically elected Socialist heads of State were Cold War operations, which sent shock waves around the world at the time. Both Bandaranaike and Allende, had promised to fully de-colonize and nationalize their countries’ plantations, ports, minerals and mines to benefit their native peoples, rather than foreign corporations drawing profits from the resource wealth of Global South countries. Both Bandaranaike and Allende died three years into their terms in office before they were able to deliver on the promise of full Economic independence for their citizens.

Remarkably, Prime Minister Bandaranaike was killed minutes after the US Ambassador, Bernard Gufler, had visited him in Colombo. Details of Gufler’s brief visit to Bandaranaike and departure from the scene of the crime just minutes before the assassination were revealed in de-classified US State department documents, some published on Wikileaks and corroborated by British intelligence source reports.[i]

The narrative that a Buddhist monk had shot the Prime Minister compounded the shock, horror and grief that engulfed the British Dominion of Ceylon which had received faux independence just 9 years earlier in February 1948.

US Ambassador Guffler’s profile is of interest here. He was a Special Ambassador and a veteran of GLADIO, the clandestine NATO and CIA ‘stay behind’ secret operations network in Europe, established after World War 2 in partnership with British intelligence.[ii] Gladio was set up to contain socialism and communists and the Soviet Union/ Russia. GLADIO operations included ‘false flag’ terror attacks staged by right-wing paramilitary cells with secret NATO weapons caches– in order to blame and discredit European Left organizations and networks. Gladio would later spill over into other containment strategies against Communist China in Indo-China and Southeast Asia, including Ceylon, where religion, particularly, Buddhism and Islam, were weaponized to combat God-less” communists and destabilize the region.

The story that Bandaranaike’s assassin was a home grown Buddhist monk and ipso facto the killing an internal affair served to bury the external finger prints and motives behind the assassination plot of South Asia’s first democratically elected Socialist head of state in a period of escalating Cold War killings and regime change operations against socialist leaders in de-colonizing Asia, Africa and South America. This was a time when retreating Anglo-European empires sought to retain their economic and security interests and influence in the post/colony.

 ‘Operation Colombo’ in Santiago De Chile

 Operation Colombo” was the Code Name of the dirty war killing spree and Disinformation Campaign against Chile’s leftists that followed the regime change coup against President Allende. Indeed, decades later in 2017, General Augusto Pinochet, Allende’s CIA-backed successor was tried for the Operation Colombo” case, including the disappearance of 119 leftists and other grave human rights violations by the Chilean Secret Police units or DINA.[iii]

‘Operation Colombo’, was followed by the notorious CIA networked clandestine ‘Operation Condor’, to track, trace and eliminate communists across South America in partnership with right wing regimes. The US’ Monroe Doctrine helped keep Socialists and Leftist regimes at bay during and indeed after the Cold War.

Was it an accident that ‘Operation Colombo’ was the Code Name for the bloody anti-left violence, disappearances and mutilation which included a particular Dirty War aesthetics of terror, torture and Disinformation, designed to spread fear and control society that engulfed Santiago de Chile September 1973 onwards? Why was the Psychological operation of murder, fear and disinformation against the Left in Santiago code named ‘Operation Colombo?

Who if anyone in General Pinochet’s inner circle was familiar with parallel events like the assassination of Prime Minister Bandaranaike halfway around the world in Ceylon? Or, the more recent purportedly leftist 1971 Janatha Vimukthi Peramnuna (JVP) uprising, ironically to overthrow the elected leftist Socialist government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike– the world’s first woman head of state.

At the time of the JVP student insurrection of 1971 there were widespread rumours in Colombo that the CIA was involved. Clearly, those who named code named the killing spree against Chilean Leftists Operation Colombo’ in Santiago de Chile in 1973, referenced these events in Ceylon. Retrospectively, the 1971 JVP student uprising in Ceylon that instrumentalized university students and rural discontent appears as a classic GLADIO-style false flag” event.  The JVP uprising served to delegitimize, divide and fragment the left in Ceylon, and derailed and delayed the country’s full de-colonization from British Dominion status that Bandaranaike had promised amidst Cold War headwinds.

WOKE film and Disinformation: Aborada as Character Assassination

Within two weeks of the death of President Allende in September 1973, Pablo Neruda, Chile’s Nobel Laureate and Allende’s friend and Foreign Minister also died under mysterious circumstances. Neruda had planned to escape to Mexico to tell the world the truth about the Coup in Chile and Allende’s death. As Neruda’s family members who sought repeated investigations into his death suggested, he was arguably another victim of ‘Operation Colombo’.

Remarkably, Neruda had spent time as a young diplomat and Chilean Consul in Colombo, Ceylon during 1929-30, just as in the early 70s, Russia’s now famous Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, was posted to Colombo and learned Sinhala as a young diplomat.

Was it a coincidence or a disinformation operation that years, nay decades later in 2021 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, a Woke feminist film titled Alborada was released about Pablo Neruda’s purported rape of a beautiful low caste maid?  Alborada directed by well-known art house film director Asoka Handagama, based on a poem that Neruda ‘never wrote” by Handagama’s, own admission, effectively served to character assassinate Neruda. May we in future expect similar salacious Woke Art House Disinformation about Lavrov’s sojourn in Colombo?

How, now, and why was the Socialist Neruda who had fallen prey of the anti-Left Operation Colombo carried out by the Chilean secret police DINA in Santago in 1973, subject to character assassination in Colombo Sri Lanka almost fifty years later?!

Alborada’s international release took place in Tokyo. It is not a secret that Japan is Washington’s closest Asian ally and a leading light of QUAD.  Handagama also worked at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), famous for bond scams leading to the country’s first Sovereign Default in 2022. His recent film Rani, about the 1989 State-JVP terror period and the killing of human rights and media activist Richard de Soyza purportedly by state aligned paramilitary groups has been also criticized for a lack of reserach. That film was also funded by USAID.

Released in 2024, Handagama’s Rani inexplicably glossed over the role of former President Ranil Wickramasinghe in the Dirty War terror and torture house violence of 1989-1992. This, despite the fact that US- backed Wickramasinghe was the main beneficiary of the string of political assassinations of leaders of the United National Party (UNP) – including Lalith Athulathmudali, Gamini Dissanaike, and President Ranasinghe Premadasa, around the time of the chilling killing of Richard de Soyza. This being the period of Batalanda terror and torture operations in which he, Wickramasinghe was implicated if the Batalanda Commission Report is accurate.

This period of State-JVP dirty war with both penetrated by external intelligence agencies occurred when Israel’s Mossad and the British SAS officers of the Keenie Meenie mercenaries trained and worked with the Sri Lankan Special Task Forces (STF) in the South of Sri Lanka during the second JVP uprising in 1989-1992. The STF, like the Chilean Secret Police DINA that were accused of paramilitary terror and disappearances, were also later accused of war crimes.

It would seem that Handagama’s Woke identity politics films like Alborada and Rani have served to promote Culture Wars, saturate the public sphere and distract from substantive truths– a form of art house disinformation?

Weaponizing Religion: An assassination by a Monk or a Psy Op?

Bandaranaike’s assassination purportedly by a Buddhist Monk compounded the shock, horror and grief that engulfed the island nation in September 1959. The campaign of disinformation that followed during the British Scotland Yard’s investigation into the Bandaranaike assassination also appeared to be a psychological operation to Gaslight the hapless natives of Paradise Lost. Oxford educated Bandaranaike was cast as an anti-minority ‘racist’ who had mobilized the Sinhala masses and blamed for his own death at the hands of a nationalist monk who purportedly converted to Christianity before he was hanged.

New research into declassified State Department and Asia Foundation documents indicate that the CIA with the Asia Foundation was weaponizing religion/s, including Buddhism seen as a conservative force to undermine leftist governments. This, to divide socialist and communist de-colonization, national liberation and independence movements sweeping across the Global South, against Euro-American Imperialism.

Weasponizing and fragmenting religion/s to counter ‘God-less Communists’ was a tried and tested strategy of Washington’s proxy and dirty war, Cold War playbook across South America, Africa and Asia as Dianne Kirby and other scholars have shown.[iv] Indeed, Kirby describing the politics of church and state in the Cold War era and the extent to which Evangelical churches played an anti-communist role,  affirmed that the ‘Cold War was one of history’s great religious wars.’ In the case of Socialist governments in the Global South, assassination of leaders and or regime change through application of the ‘Jakarta Method’ also to ‘Make the Economy Scream’ were standard operating procedure.

The history of the CIA’s weaponization of Theravada Buddhism as part of an anti-communist strategy is brilliantly documented in the book Cold War Monks: Buddhism and America’s Secret Strategy in South East Asia”, published by Yale University Press (2017). Southeast Asian Cold War Area Studies included Theravada Thailand, Burma/Myanmar, and Ceylon/ Sri Lanka.

The London Privy Council backstopped the court case against the accused monks, Thalduwe Somarama and Mapitigama Buddharakkita, his purported lover, Wimala Wijewardena who was a Cabinet Minister at the time, and a list of bit players. The British Scotland Yard’s investigation of the Bandaranaike assassination reads retrospectively like a classic disinformation and psychological operation: A cover up investigation worthy of the plot of Peter Greenaway’s classic film The Cook the Thief, his Wife, and her Lover”.

The accused Monk Buddharakita’s interest in recently nationalized geostrategic Colombo Port’s shipping lines were said have crossed a Norwegian Shipping line somewhere during the assassination plot! Meanwhile, the chief suspect, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Sidney de Zoysa seemingly escaped over the wall robe in hand; only to return to stage a Coup attempt three years later in November 1962, against Bandaranaike’s widow and the world’s first woman Prime Minister.

Much like the assassination of Buddhist Burma’s Socialist leader, General Aung San on the eve of that country’s independence in 1947, which effectively sabotaged Burma’s unity, or the murder of Congo’s Patrice Lumumba in 1961in a Belgian and CIA operation, Bandaranaike’s killing it appears was partly an ‘inside job’.[v] Arguably, so too the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, January 1948, on the eve of India’s Independence, after which India was partitioned.

The national police, armed forces and law and order institutions in the post/colony, like the investigative and judicial branches were penetrated and effectively controlled by Anglo imperial external powers working with segments within the State. Ceylon had only received faux independence from the British Raj in February 1948 when it morphed from a Crown Colony into a British Dominion. The assassination of Prime Minister Bandaranaike who had promised full de-colonization would delay Ceylon/ Sri Lanka’s full sovereignty and independence for another 13 years until his widow and world’s first woman Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike delivered on that promise on May 22, 1972 having faced down the JVP insurrection of 1971, an attempted Coup in 1962, huge Disinformation and ongoing attempts to Make the Economy Scream”.

PART 2

De-Colonizing Global South History: Operation Colombo to the Jakarta Method.

‘Operation Colombo’ in Santiago de Chile in 1972, reverberated with the same Disinformation that unfolded across Indonesia during the 1965 coup against President Sukarno, who was like Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike, a leader of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in the Global South, then called the Third World. President Sukarno had hosted the famous Afro-Asian Bandung Summit with the heads of state of 29 newly independent countries near the Indonesian capital Jakarta.

Ten years after the Bandung Conference the CIA’s Jakarta Method” Operation unfolded across Indonesia against Sukarno in 1965, and a decade later across Chile and Brazil during the Dirty wars escalating in South America. These events are brilliantly detailed in the award-winning book by Vincent Bevins, ‘The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anti-Communist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped our world” published in 2020. What later came to be termed the Jakarta Method” or ‘Jakarta Operation’ to destroy the world’s largest Communist Party outside of China, in Indonesia, was also unleashed in Brazil and Chile.

As Bevins wrote Operation Jakarta was the name of a secret part of an extermination plan… which was aimed at destroying the structure of the Brazilian Communist Party.. the goal was the physical elimination of communists. Operation Jakarta was a hidden plan to extend state terror to communist party members operating openly with civil society groups or the media (pg. 194). The Brazilian Public would not hear the words Operation Jakarta for another three years. But in Chile the word Jakarta” made a very public arrival”. The graffiti scrawled on walls in Santiago was a warning that Allende’s days were numbered.

Clearly, whoever code named the campaign against Chile’s Leftists in the wake of the Jakarta Operation leading to the death of President Allende, Operation Colombo”, was fully updated not just about Socialist Prime Minister Bandaranaike’s assassination in Colombo, Ceylon half way across the world in 1959.  Those who code named the Chilean Secret Police DINA’s ‘Operation Colombo’ to decimate the Left in Chile 1973 in the wake of the coup (until Operation Condor superseded Operation Colombo), were clearly fully cognisant of more recent developments in Ceylon. That is, the attempted 1971 Leftist youth insurrection by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), against Bandaranaike’s wife and successor, Sirimavo, to divide and de-legitimize the Left.

The code name Operation Colombo” in Santiago de Chile clearly referenced the more recent failed, so-called Marxist insurrection by the JVP in 1971, which resulted in numbers of youth killed and the Left delegitimized. It was another Gladio style false flag operation. The JVP uprising of 1971 ended with the quashing of leftist youth.  Colombo fought off the rebels with the help of neighbouring India, close to the Moscow, while it was widely rumoured that the CIA was involved in destabilizing the county to sabotage Ceylon’s push to full independence from British Dominion status.

Was the JVP youth uprising in early 1971 staged to disrupt and stymie the Socialist Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranike’s move to deliver on the promise to make Ceylon fully independent? At the time, Sirimavo in Colombo was close friend of Indira Gandhi in New Delhi. Both ladies were allies of Moscow.

Unsurprisingly, the JVP was virulently anti-Indian, projecting India as a neocolonial power during the Cold War. However, it has shifted its anti-India stance over time along with its principle foreign patron’s stance against India softening at the end of the Cold War. Indeed, in recent times the US and India have drawn closer in an apparent collaboration to contain the Chinese dragon and Belt and Road initiative (BRI) in the Indian Ocean region.

In any evert, in the following year, on May 22. 1972, the fully independent and Sovereign state of Sri Lanka came into existence under the First Republican Constitution. The county’s name changed from the British Dominion of Ceylon to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. The island’s courts became independent of London’s Privy Council.

At the time of the JVP uprising in 1971 a Minister expressed strong suspicion that the CIA was involved in the Bandaranaike assassination and the subsequent 1971 JVP insurrection to destabilize the Socialist Government of the world’s first woman head of state, a staunch leader of the Non-Aligned Movement. But so great was the disinformation campaign against Sirimavo Bandaranaike and the left amid the State-JVP Dirty war and the smear campaign of racism” against the Senior Bandaranaikes that Sri Lanka today barely recognizes May 22 or celebrates Republican Day unlike India where Republican Day celebrates Independence.

Decolonizing History: A Global South Historical Methodology of the Present

History repeats as Marx rightly said. Sri Lanka became a fully independent Sovereign State on May 22, 1972, officially rid of the British Monarchy, the JVP insurrection to derail and delay the push to full independence notwithstanding.

However, the county was precipitated into its first ever staged Sovereign Default in 2022 amid another regime change operation. This was another leaderless chaos operation against a no doubt unpopular regime by youth tired of two years of brutal Covid-19 Lockdowns and militarized mass injections. It was also a GAFAM social media remote platform-operated Gen-Z Aragalaya protest against local corruption that did not mention the global financial supply chain of corruption. The country has since effectively lost economic sovereignty to the Washington Twins (IMF and World Bank), BlackRock and other colonial Club de Paris Vulture Funds, and International Sovereign Bond or Eurobond holders whose names are secret, being caught in a neocolonial US dollar debt trap.

Clearly, British and US interference in the county’s domestic affairs and political outcomes remain in place, much as in Chile, which speaks to the importance of de-colonizing history with comparative global South studies across continents, Cold War Area Studies disciplinary partitions, and beyond the modern national state. Clearly, we need to rescue global south history from Orientalist tropes and Euro-centric grand narratives of the violence of ‘dark natives’ and disinformation campaigns like ‘Operation Colombo’.[vi]

Increasingly patterns in Cold War history and related dirty war violence are visible across continents, Asia, Africa South America and the Global South. This despite layers of accumulated disinformation, and years and decades of cover up investigations with deep penetration of investigation and law and order institutions of many countries in the Global South by neocolonial powers, often under the guise of Development Aid, expertise sharing and technical training. Increasingly, it makes sense for social scientists and historians to triangulate events across continents — to see patterns in a shared Global South Past.

As new scholarship and research based on recently de-classified US State Department documents and British Home office sources by brave scholars and journalists like Vincent Bevins and Phil Miller of Declassified UK circulates through open source channels, the space exists for countries in the Global South to brush history against the grain” and understand how apparently ‘internal’ conflicts and violence were often substantially contoured in Cold War regional proxy wars which roiled much of Asia, Africa and South America with a great deal of Operation Colombo-style disinformation.

Thus, events like the Bandaranaike assassination or the JVP insurrections of 1971 and 1989-91, read through a ‘hermeneutics of suspicion” may be better understood via Operation Colombo” in Santiago de Chile, or the ‘Jakarta Method’ in Brasilia’s favelas and elite neighbor hoods. Such reinterpretation of the historical record in Asia, Africa and South America is especially needed as decoding history and recovering what Walter Benjamin called the Oppressed Past” in the Global South from ‘history’s apparent victors’ (Euro-centric history), is further complicated by Artificial Intelligence (AI), algorithms designed to game our national history, archives and local memory, and divide us from ourselves.

De-colonizing History amid Distracting Culture Wars

Having failed to de-colonize history and pivot to the BRICS and Global South, Sri Lanka today continues to witness barely concealed regime change operations, system shocks, ethno-religious, gender LGBTQ.. xyz Culture Wars, that may be weaponized for social media remote platform coordinated Araglaya protest and regime change operations. The country’s intelligentsia, civil society and funded NGOs remain caught in Disinformation games as seen in the Woke film Alborada.  Thus the vast majority in,South Asia’s wealthiest country by all metrics bar the exorbitantly privileged US dollar believes the county to be ‘Bankrupt’ at this time!

Meanwhile, so-called anti-corruption, levelling crowds unleashed via social media for regime change chaos operations predominantly constitute by deluded youth now fashionable recast as Gen-Z protesters sabotaging their own futures, burning down courts and parliament seeking regime change as recently happened in Nepal and Bangladesh appears to be the new normal. All this of course advances the program to Make the Economy Scream” (as Nixon famously instructed the CIA to do to stymie and eventually take down President Salvador Allende in Chile in early 1970).

Simultaneously, woke disinformation amid endless Culture Wars helps the re-cycling and circulation of the same politicians like the Ranil Rajapakses and/ or Political Parties like the JVP, albeit with a puppet show of democratic elections. Meanwhile, the elected representatives of the people whether Right wing, Green or Left, all push the same Washington Consensus designed neoliberal policies. Such is the case of the current re-branded faux Leftist JVP National People’s Party (NPP), regime that implements with alacrity the dictate of the Washington Consensus! The rebranded JVP in the form of the NPP government having benefited from the Araglaya chaos operation for regime change and staged Default in 2022, thus rushed to sign the IMF’s International Sovereign Bond debt restructure once it came to power in December 2024. This was arguably, the biggest Central Bank bond scam yet!

Having turned its back on the BRICS, Shanghai Corporation Organization, greater integration with Asia and the Global South, the JVP-NPP regime in Colombo continues to dance to the tunes of Sri Lanka’s Anglo-European neo-colonizers.

The NPP is now in a rush to implement the IMF’s call to unbundle”, fragment and eventually privatize the Ceylon Electricity Board’s (CEB) national electricity grid system and supply chain. This under the guise of ‘reform’ and restructuring the CEB’s so-called legacy debt” concocted by IMF’s accountants. This in lieu of outright Debt Cancellation by the State of the state owned CEB’s debt– as national experts have recommended. Breaking up the CEB into 5 entities, under the jargon of unbundling’ would hollow out the CEB while restructuring dubious ‘legacy debt’ with private banks as a prelude to privatizing the national electricity system presents a clear and present danger to Sri Lanka’s energy and economic security.

Indeed, fragmenting and privatizing the electricity grid may presents a National Security threat in the context of planned Big Data Centers to benefit GAFAM data mining corporations that require huge amounts of electricity and water for cooling systems in an era of Digital Colonialism, which will see local electricity bills skyrocket.[vii]

The JVP’s newest face mask however seems to be slipping along with its IMF designed neo-liberal policies, despite a faux Left (red T-shirt?) veneer labelled pragmatism” in the legacy press and related social media echo chamber. We live in complex times in an apparently upside down world where social analysis has been rendered Woke memes.

But clearly, those who do not know their history like those who chose to forget it, are doomed to repeat it.

---

[i] LOWENSTEIN: Well, Bandaranaike was assassinated shortly after Gufler arrived. I went with

Gufler to the Prime Minister’s as a note taker. When we got there, he said, “I don’t think I will

take a note taker, stay in the car and wait for me.” He went in and came out and we left

Bandaranaike’s house. As we drove out the gate and down the street, there was a popping noise.

We got back to the Embassy and a friend of mine from the British Mission who was their

intelligence guy called me and said, “Chap’s been shot.” I said, “What chap?” He said, “The PM

old boy.” I said, “Really, that is impossible, we just saw him.” “Well,” he said, “He was shot

right after you saw him.” And indeed he was. I think Gufler was the last person who saw him

alive. I can’t imagine that anybody else could have gotten in there between Gufler’s departure and

the time.  https://adst.org/Readers/Sri-Lanka.pdf initially uploaded at Wikileaks Lowenstein’s interview is fascinating and provides insight into the wider geopolitical backdrop of Bandaranaike’s killing.

 Q: The previous governments had been pro-Western, but Bandaranaike was not.

LOWENSTEIN: He was very much in the non-aligned movement and saw himself as a sort of

junior Nehru, and so did all his successors. Non-alignment was a very big thing, but it was a

loaded non-alignment. It was much more anti-American non-alignment than it was pro-Russian

or pro-Chinese non-alignment. The Chinese had a rice/rubber agreement and were in there trying

to carve out a sphere of interest.. https://adst.org/Readers/Sri-Lanka.pdf

[ii] https://files.libcom.org/files/NATOs_secret_armies.pdf

[iii] See Peter Kornbluh of the National Security Archive https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/128985-operation-colombo and https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2024-06-18/pinochet-regime-declassified-dina-gestapo-type-police-force-chile;

[iv] https://www.scribd.com/doc/262246516/Dianne-Kirby-Religion-and-the-Cold-War

[v] Who killed General Aung San? https://www.irrawaddy.com/from-the-archive/who-killed-gen-aung-san.html

[vi] https://indepthnews.net/literary-prize-politics-cold-war-and-the-disinformation-game/

[vii] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kkre0dQCJRw

By Oscar Rickett

October 3, 2025

Aryeh Lightstone, Naguib Sawiris, Marc Rowan and Sigrid Kaag were named in the leaked Blair plan for Gaza

Earlier this week, a draft plan of what Gaza’s governance would look like under former British prime minister Tony Blair was leaked.

Blair, who took Britain into the war in Iraq and has spent his life since leaving office travelling around the world making money and building influence, is being considered to lead a transitional authority in the Palestinian enclave.

The plan for the Gaza International Transitonal Authority (Gita) reveals a hierarchy in which an international board of billionaires and businesspeople sit at the top, while highly vetted neutral” Palestinian administrators are at the bottom.

The administration would work closely with Israel, Egypt and the US, and, according to Israeli sources cited by Haartez, has the backing of the White House.

According to the draft, Gita will be run by an international board that has supreme political and legal authority for Gaza during the transitional period”.

There are four names mentioned in the document as potential candidates for this board. None of them are Palestinian. One is Sigrid Kaag, the UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process.

The others are referred to as leading international figures with executive and financial expertise”.

These are Marc Rowan, a billionaire who owns one of America’s largest private equity firms, Naguib Sawiris, an Egyptian billionaire in the telecommunications and technology sector, and Aryeh Lightstone, chief executive of the Abraham Accords Peace Institute.

There is no indication that any of these figures has been approached about such a role.

Middle East Eye takes a closer look at Blair’s would-be band for Gaza.

Aryeh Lightstone

A businessman and rabbi, Lightstone has been heavily involved in the creation and advancement of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the US- and Israeli-backed aid distribution mechanism at whose sites in Gaza more than 2,000 people have been killed and thousands more wounded.

Described by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) as a system of institutionalised starvation and dehumanisation” and as orchestrated killing”, the GHF took over from the UN as Gaza’s main distributor of aid earlier this year.

A senior adviser to David Friedman when the staunch defender of Israel’s settler movement was the US ambassador to Israel during President Donald Trump’s first term in office, Lightstone is now a close confidant and aide of Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.

The author of a book about the Middle East praised by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who is also involved in the Blair plan and has spoken often of the very valuable” potential of Gaza’s waterfront property”, Lightstone is officially the CEO of the Abraham Accords Peace Institute, a group describing itself as a non-partisan, non-profit US organisation dedicated to… these historic peace agreements”.

Lightstone was himself involved in the discussions around – and implementation of – the Abraham Accords, whereby Israel officially established relations with a handful of Arab states, including the UAE.

Earlier this year, the Jewish News Syndicate reported that The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing US think tank, had acquired the Abraham Accords Peace Institute, which was founded by Kushner and staffed by figures tied to the Kohelet Policy Forum, a right-wing effort to reshape Israel funded by American billionaires.

Lightstone is a sharp critic of the UN and has, according to documents obtained by Haaretz, participated in drafting Gaza day-after” scenarios in cooperation with the White House.

According to those documents, when the topic of a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine came up in discussions with the UN, Lightstone reportedly said that the timing was inappropriate for such a step and that the priority should be to remove Hamas from the scene”.

In 2018, when Lightstone was a senior adviser to Friedman, disclosure forms revealed that he had financial ties to entities involved in Israel policy or that could have business with the government.

One of these groups, the anonymously funded Shining City Community, which had given about $1m to Im Tirtzu, an organisation that says it is working hard to protect Zionism and the state of Israel”, owed Lightstone as much as $50,000.

In 2016, even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed Im Tirtzu for mounting a campaign that labelled hundreds of Israeli cultural figures as foreign agents” for their affiliation with supposed left-wing groups.

Lightstone served for a period as Shining City’s executive director, saying he was focused on developing education for state and federal officials regarding the dangers” of boycotts of Israel.

Naguib Sawiris

Worth close to $10bn, Sawiris is from a family of billionaires. His construction magnate father Onsi founded Orascom, which would go on to become Egypt’s first multinational conglomerate.

Now 71, Sawiris made most of his money in telecoms – he co-founded Egypt’s oldest mobile network operator, Mobinil, now Orange Egypt – and mining. He is heavily involved in the gold industry through his Luxembourg-based holding company La Mancha.

The Egyptian billionaire has a long-standing relationship with Blair, one that may even predate the latter’s tenure as prime minister.

Blair was on the guestlist for the wedding of Sawiris’s son, Ansi, which took place in 2020 at the foot of the Pyramids of Giza. In 2013, the two men were photographed together close to where Blair was staying at a villa owned by right-wing Italian media tycoon and former president Silvio Berlusconi.

Other meetings have reportedly taken place on board Sawiris’s luxury yacht in Saint Tropez, on his private plane, in Cairo and in South Africa.

Naguib Sawiris pictured in 2018 with Hollywood actor Sylvester Stallone (AFP)

The tycoon has developed a strong affinity for the Greek island Mykonos, buying up property and flying over his favourite Egyptian musicians and actors to perform and party there. In 2017, he and Blair were photographed in Mykonos at an upscale restaurant frequented by Tom Hanks and British businessman Philip Green.

Sawiris was involved in rebuilding Afghanistan” in the wake of the US- and UK-led invasion of the country, and it was at this time that he also worked with Blair.

Sawiris has advised Blair before. And his main expertise is in setting up mobile networks, so he’ll be more of the infrastructure or rebuilding guy, I think,” Nihal El Aasar, an Egyptian writer and researcher, told MEE.

He’s the richest man in Egypt but he also likes being involved politically. He’s on Twitter [X] all the time but he’s not as bad as Elon Musk politically,” she said, adding that Sawiris has criticised the administration of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and likes to project an image of balance”.

But he still thinks the problem with Egypt is that the military is too involved in the economy and doesn’t let the free market reign,” El Aasar said. He’s a free market purist.”

Given the UAE’s vast investment and involvement in Egypt, Sawiris, who keeps his money out of the country, has developed close ties to the Emiratis, who share Blair’s vision for Gaza as a free capital zone modelled on Dubai.

In 2024, Sawiris set up a media platform called Moniify as a kind of money-oriented CNBC for millennials. It was based in Dubai and launched there earlier this year with a lavish party at which the Egyptian DJed.

But just weeks later, the firm was gutted, with staff losing their jobs and left with nowhere to go.

A strong critic of the Muslim Brotherhood, setting up the centre-right Free Egyptians Party in the wake of the Arab Spring, Sawiris is an ardent believer in western capitalism who has nevertheless criticised Israel and the US – and met with North Korean President Kim Jong Un.

Israel does not wish good for Egypt, nor does the US. No one wants good for Egypt except the Egyptians themselves,” Sawiris said in an interview earlier this year.

Marc Rowan

One of the wealthiest financiers on Wall Street, Marc Rowan is worth an estimated $10.2bn, according to Bloomberg.

The 63-year-old Jewish American is the CEO of Apollo Global Management, described by CNN as a behemoth in private equity, an industry notorious for its cutthroat, profit-at-all-costs standards”.

Private equity firms, along with hedge funds and venture capitalists, make up the shadowy world of private capital”, a market worth more than $24 trillion.

Apollo has $840bn in assets under management, including a significant amount on behalf of Saudi Arabian and Emirati investors. Abu Dhabi and the Emirates are by far the largest investors in Apollo,” Rowan said during an interview in Israel last year.

In that interview, conducted by Israeli venture capitalist Michael Eisenberg, Rowan described himself as a proud supporter of Israel” and its military, called the country our refuge”, and said it was a unique and special place, and we are the chosen people”.

He said he was probably in Abu Dhabi” on the day of the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel. Now there’s an opportunity to change the equation,” Rowan said, in reference to what he thought after the attack, and the equation is Iran”.

In May 2024, he said in relation to Israel’s genocide in Gaza: What I see is a just war.” But he added that the idea that we have lost the narrative is just insane”.

Marc Rowan pictured in 2025 (AFP)

In 2020, Rowan and his wife Carolyn contributed $1m to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. In 2024, he interviewed to be Trump’s treasury secretary, with the president said to be impressed by him.

Rowan is on the board of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton business school and is one of the university’s major donors.

In the latter half of 2023, he led a campaign to get the president and chairman of the university sacked after it hosted a festival called Palestine Writes, which featured Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, whom Rowan considered to be among a group of well known antisemites and fermenters of hate and racism”.

After 7 October 2023, Rowan was enraged by what he perceived to be the university’s failure to acknowledge the pain caused by the attack on Israel.

Mounting what one academic called a hostile Republican takeover of a distressed institution”, Rowan succeeded in having university president Liz Magill resign.

As pro-Palestine protests spread across US college campuses, Rowan denounced them: It’s not antisemitism. It is anti-Americanism.”

Sigrid Kaag

By far the least controversial name on this list, Sigrid Kaag is a respected European technocrat who served as the UN’s senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza from late 2023 to mid-2025.

Before that, Kaag was a UN official in Beirut, Damascus and Jerusalem, as well as a minister in her home country, the Netherlands.

Kaag, who belongs to a liberal Dutch party, said in a recent interview that she, among other diplomats and humanitarian workers, never expected the conflict [in Gaza] to last this long”.

Sigrid Kaag pictured in Gaza in 2024 (AFP)

Gaza has been destroyed to the point of visually seeing a moon landscape,” Kaag said.

In a reference that would be unlikely to please Blair’s collaborator Kushner, Kaag said of Israel’s genocide in Gaza: Life has been made unlivable to the extent you suddenly hear proposals such as, ‘well we can turn Gaza into the Riviera’ and people should so-called voluntarily migrate.”

The Dutch politician has said that what is happening in Gaza will haunt all of us”, and that it is a stain on our collective conscience”.

Talking about her work administering aid in Gaza, she said that Israel had severely traumatised and deprived” the population of basically everything that amounts to human dignity”.

Political will is everything. The rest is technicalities, it can be arranged,” she said of aid distribution. Kaag said that forcing relief to be delivered through the GHF instead of the UN had seen the weaponisation of aid” and that accusations that Hamas had been taking aid before were not proven”.

We remind our readers that publication of articles on our site does not mean that we agree with what is written. Our policy is to publish anything which we consider of interest, so as to assist our readers in forming their opinions. Sometimes we even publish articles with which we totally disagree, since we believe it is important for our readers to be informed on as wide a spectrum of views as possible.

Ceehalé World Heritage Foundation

Ceehalé World Heritage Foundation (CWHF) announces that a formal complaint has been filed with the
United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) concerning the Sri Lanka Accountabilit
Project (SLAP).
The complaint has been submitted in public interest by Venerable Kassapa of Great Britain, the Founder
of CWHF, Anuradha Yahampath, former Governor of the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka, Rear Admiral Dr.
Sarath Weerasekera, former Cabinet Minister and Member of Parliament, and Dharshan Weerasekera,
Attorney-at-Law.
The OIOS is UN’s own watchdog body, created to ensure that the organization complies with its rules
and uses contributions of Member States with integrity and prudence. It functions as an independent
oversight and investigative arm of the UN, with authority to audit projects, review procedures, and
examine possible misuse of resources. By directing their complaint to this specialized unit, the
complainants have ensured that their concerns will be considered by the very body mandated to hold the
UN to account to its own operations and funtions.
The complaint calls for an urgent investigation into the administrative, financial, and procedural conduct
of SLAP, which has cost UN Member States nearly USD 16 million since its establishment in 2021. Despite
the vast sums expended, the project has provided almost no transparency in how funds are used, how
evidence is collected, or how information is shared with foreign governments and courts.
SLAP was created under UN Human Rights Council Resolution 46/1 to gather and preserve evidence of
alleged violations committed during Sri Lanka’s armed conflict. Yet successive reports from the Office of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights have devoted at the end of four years, no more than one or
two pages to the SLAP project. It has failed to to explain the sources of evidence for the SLAP’s
repository, the credibility of those sources, or the procedures for collaboration with external actors. Fouryears on, there have been no prosecutions, no verified evidence disclosed, and no assurance that the
mechanism meets even basic standards of impartiality.
The complainants emphasize that they are not challenging the authority of the Human Rights Council
itself, nor the principle of reconciliation, but instead seek to ensure that UN mechanisms adhere to the
same standards of accountability that the UN expects of its Member States. They argue that without
corrective oversight, SLAP risks becoming a politicized and wasteful exercise that undermines both Sri
Lanka’s sovereignty and the credibility of international human rights work.
With SLAP’s mandate scheduled for renewal, the complaint urges OIOS to conduct a full investigation
before any extension is approved. Ceehalé World Heritage Foundation based in the UK, calls on Sri
Lankans, the Sri Lankan diaspora, and concerned international allies to join in pressing the Human Rights
Council not to extend SLAP’s mandate until transparency and accountability are guaranteed.
After four years and USD 16 million spent, the world deserves answers.
Ceehalé World Heritage Foundation

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

ඝාතනයට ලක්වූ අරුණු විධානගමගේ හෙවත් කජ්ජාගේ පවුලෙන් ඥාතීන් සමඟ මාධ්‍යවේදී චමුදිත සමරවික්‍රම මහතා සාකච්ඡාවක් සිදුකර තිබේ.

මියගිය කජ්ජාගේ මවත් සහෝදරයන් තිදෙනකුත් සමග මෙම සාකච්ඡාව ඔහු මෙහෙයවයි.

පවුලේ සාමාජිකයන් හත් දෙනෙකු සිටිනා බවත් ඉන් තුන්දෙනෙකු පමණක් එම සාකච්ඡාවට සහභාගී වීමට හැකියාව ලැබූ බවත් ඔවුන් එහිදී සඳහන් කළහ.

ඔවුනට අමතරව කජ්ජාගේ මවද මාධ්‍ය එම සාකච්ඡාවට එක්ව සිටියහ.

අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව නිලධාරීන් විසින් තාජුඩීන් ඝාතනයට අදාළ සීසීටීවී දර්ශනයේ පින්තූර තමන් සියලු දෙනාටම පෙන්වූ බවත් තමන් සියලු දෙනාම ඒ සිටින්නේ තම සහෝදරයා නොවන බව පැහැදිලිවම පෙන්වා දුන් බවද ඔවුන් එහිදී සඳහන් කළහ.

අදාල පින්තූරවල සිටින පුද්ගලයා හැද සිටින්නේ ටී ෂර්ටයක් බවත් තම සහෝදරයා කිසි දිනෙක ටී ෂර්ට් අදින්නේ නැති බවත් ඔවුහු පැවසූහ.

කජ්ජාගේ බිරිඳ වන අනීෂාත් ඔහුගේ රියදුරු සමග අනියම් සම්බන්ධතාවයක් තිබූ බවත් ඇය කජ්ජා එම දර්ශන හරහා හඳුනා ගත් බව පවසන්නේ අසත්‍ය බවත් ඔවුන් එහිදී කියා සිටියහ.

තම සහෝදරයාගේ ඝාතනයට සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම වගකිව යුත්තේ ඔහුගේ බිරිඳ බව තම විශ්වාසය බවත් ඒ සඳහා කපිල දිසානායක ද සම්බන්ධ බව විශ්වාස කරන වුවත් පැවසූ ඔවුන් රාජපක්ෂලා ඊට සම්බන්ධතාවයක් ඇත්තේද නැත්තේ ද යන්න තමන් නොදන්නා බවත් තව දුරටත් කියා සිටියහ.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Reuters – The U.S. Supreme Court is set to wade back into the nation’s culture wars during its new nine-month term that begins on Monday with a series of contentious cases on issues including transgender athletes, gay conversion therapy, guns and race.

The first of these goes before the court on the second day of its term. Arguments are slated for Tuesday over the legality of a Democratic-backed Colorado law banning “conversion therapy” aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Republican President Donald Trump’s administration is supporting the Christian professional counselor who challenged the law.

“Like last year, this term the Supreme Court again will face issues that arise from the culture wars and the Trump presidency that deeply divide our country,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.

The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, during its last term that ended in June upheld Tennessee’s Republican-backed ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors and let parents keep their children out of classes when storybooks with LGBT characters are read. Acting on an emergency basis, it also allowed Trump’s ban on transgender people in the military.

The Colorado case plaintiff challenged the state’s law as a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protections against government abridgment of free speech, saying it unlawfully censors her communications with clients. While lower courts upheld the measure, the First Amendment argument is expected to find a receptive audience in the Supreme Court’s conservative justices.

“I predict a 6-3 vote in favor of the counselor,” Georgetown University law professor Stephanie Barclay said at an event sponsored by the Federalist Society legal group.

Barclay said the case centers on client-led talk therapy, not coercive methods.

“There is no evidence that the state has marshaled that this type of talk therapy, with client-directed goals, would be harmful,” Barclay said. “Colorado might be continuing its losing streak when it comes to these First Amendment cases.”

The Supreme Court in recent years has ruled in favor of Christian plaintiffs who challenged state anti-discrimination measures in Colorado – a website designer who did not want to provide custom web designs for same-sex weddings and a baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. It backed the website designer on First Amendment free speech grounds and the baker on First Amendment religious freedom grounds.

Colorado’s law subjects mental health professionals to discipline if they perform on children any treatment that “attempts or purports to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity,” even when the client seeks out treatment and desires that change.

Democratic Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a court filing that conversion therapy is associated with increased depression and suicide attempts, and “the First Amendment allows states to reasonably regulate professional conduct to protect patients from substandard treatment, even when that regulation incidentally burdens speech.”

Twenty-two other states also have banned conversion therapy.

In another case, Idaho and West Virginia are seeking to enforce Republican-backed state laws banning transgender athletes from female sports teams at public schools. Federal appeals courts ruled against the two states. The Trump administration is supporting the states in the litigation.

“Nothing is more central to the culture wars than transgender athletes participating in sports,” Chemerinsky said.

The litigation implicates the Constitution’s 14th Amendment promise of equal protection, a provision that often has been invoked in combating discrimination based on race, gender and other traits.

U.S. District Judge David Nye ruled that Idaho’s treatment of transgender athletes likely violated the equal protection provision.

The “incredibly small percentage of transgender women athletes in general,” coupled with weak evidence that they actually have physiological advantages, “suggest the act’s categorical exclusion of transgender women athletes has no relationship to ensuring equality and opportunities for female athletes in Idaho,” Nye wrote.

A federal appeals court upheld Nye’s decision.

The Supreme Court seems likely to give states broad leeway to regulate the participation of transgender athletes in school sports, much as it did in its landmark 2022 ruling in the case called Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that returned the authority to regulate or ban abortion to the states, Bradley University law professor Taraleigh Davis said.

“They’re continuing this post-Dobbs federalism framework of returning any type of contested moral social issues back to the democratic process at the state level,” Davis said.

A case from Hawaii gives the conservative justices a chance to further expand gun rights. The court will hear a challenge to a Hawaii law restricting the carrying of handguns on private property that is open to the public such as most businesses. A lower court found that Hawaii’s measure likely complies with the Constitution’s Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

The issue of race also returns to the court, which in 2023 rejected race-conscious collegiate admissions policies. The justices on October 15 will hear arguments in a dispute over a Louisiana electoral map that raised the number of Black-majority congressional districts in the state from one to two – out of a total of six districts in the state – after a judicial ruling that an earlier map violated the Voting Rights Act.

The case gives the conservative justices an opportunity to gut a key provision of this landmark 1965 law that bars racial discrimination in voting. The plaintiffs in the case are 12 Louisiana voters who identify themselves in court papers as “non-African American.” They claimed the map violated their equal protection rights.

Black people comprise nearly a third of Louisiana’s population.

The case “could very well affect the drawing of districts” when electoral maps around the United States are reconfigured, according to Widener University Commonwealth Law School professor Michael Dimino Sr.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Colombo, Oct. 5 (Daily Mirror) – Chairman of the Committee on Public Finance (CoPF) Harsha De Silva raised concerns on the new contract for the construction of the Central Expressway, claiming that negotiations with neither the contractor (MCC) on their claims nor with China EXIM Bank on terms and conditions on the reduced USD 500 million facility have been completed. 

He said the CoPF reviewed the Rs. 226 billion Central Expressway project driven by delays and mounting interests. 

He said in a post on X that “Even though President Anura Kumara Dissanayake restarted the project with much fanfare, we learnt at the committee that negotiations with neither the contractor (MCC) on their claims, nor with China EXIM on terms and conditions on the reduced USD 500M facility have been completed.”

The Chair said they were puzzled why the Highways Ministry wants to switch from the current 15 year fixed rate of 2.5% rate to a variable rate with current fixed rate of 2.5% as the floor and 3.5% as the cap. 

“The CoPF urged a fair, symmetric deal where both sides have equal upside in case of movement of the long term Chinese rates,” he said in the post.

Courtesy Hiru News

The Deputy Chief Prelate of the Malwatta Chapter, Venerable Dimbulkumbure Sri Wimaladhamma Thera, stated that economic development achieved by disregarding religion, morality, culture, civilisation, and history is of no use to a country.

The Venerable Thera expressed these views today (October 5) when the leader of the Janasetha Peramuna, Venerable Battaramulle Silarathana Thera, paid a visit to the Malwatta Maha Viharaya.

During the discussion, the Malwatta Chapter Deputy Chief Prelate warned that if laws are introduced that prevent parents or teachers from even hitting a child who has committed a wrong, the country will inevitably be headed for destruction.

Venerable Wimaladhamma Thera further remarked:

“There is talk now that there are attempts to legalise things like homosexual practices and even prostitution to develop tourism. Furthermore, some Members of Parliament are reportedly saying that children should be allowed to do whatever they want after the age of 16. They are trying to amend the laws for children in the Penal Code. There are attempts to bring in laws that prevent parents and teachers from admonishing, advising, or even giving a hit to a child for a mistake. If this continues, this country will definitely be ruined. This also affects our monastic society. A novice monk studying in a Pirivena will not be able to be reprimanded for a mistake. If the teacher-monk does that, they will end up in prison”

The Deputy Chief Prelate questioned whether the legal practices of some European countries, which show no regard for civilisation, culture, or parents, are needed in a developing country like Sri Lanka.

“If a child makes a mistake, you cannot point it out. A child in a school once cracked a teacher’s head after being corrected, hospitalising the teacher. We also hear that a group of children brought alcohol and cannabis-laced food to school to celebrate World Children’s Day. Now, older children are reportedly taunting teachers, telling them not to dare hit, scold, or reprimand them. That is the situation. If this Act is passed in this manner, it will be the destruction of this country”

Venerable Wimaladhamma Thera concluded by reiterating his belief that the President, being a man of the village, would not consent to bringing in laws that are unnecessary for the country.

However, he noted that a group within the government appears to believe these laws are necessary.

He stressed that the Chief Prelates have already issued statements opposing these situations and that the Sangha community is voicing their concerns before the laws are passed.

“A country is pointless, no matter how developed it becomes, if it forgets culture, morality, religion, and history,” he asserted.

Public Statement

His Excellency the President has given solemn assurances to the Maha Nayaka Theros that Sri Lanka’s national heritage, culture, and religious values will be protected and safeguarded in all state policy. He has also publicly praised our heritage as the foundation of tourism and development.

Yet, in complete contradiction, the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) formally endorsed an NGO-led initiative to promote and develop LGBTQIA tourism in Sri Lanka. His letter dated 9th September 2025 grants authority to liaise with hotels, tour operators, training institutes, guides, and drivers to conduct DE&I training and awareness programs, while positioning Sri Lanka as a safe and inclusive” LGBTQIA destination.

This endorsement is not only outside SLTDA’s mandate, but also directly contradicts the assurances made by the President to the Maha Nayaka Theros and is against the moral position taken by the Catholic Cardinal. Both the Sangha and the Church have clearly called on the government not to permit such cultural distortions. 

Moreover, training tourism officials in DEI would force them to cater to LGBTQIA-specific demands — including gender-neutral toilets and facilities (at taxpayer expense), LGBTQIA-focused promotional campaigns, staff pronoun training, sensitivity workshops, certification of hotels as LGBTQIA-friendly, and even coordination of same-sex weddings — all entirely outside SLTDA’s traditional mandate. This amounts to institutional capture of a state body by a private NGO.

The President must therefore:

1.    Instruct the SLTDA Chairman to immediately retract this endorsement issued to EQUAL GROUND on 9 September 2025

2.    Instruct the SLTDA Chairman to re-issue formal letters to all stakeholders named in the letter, withdrawing the LGBTQIA tourism endorsement.

3.    Reaffirm the government’s commitment to protect Sri Lanka’s heritage, culture, and religious values in tourism policy and ensure no Tourism official violate this in future and take necessary actions against officials who do so.

The people of Sri Lanka expect the President to follow through on the demand of the Maha Nayaka Theros and the Cardinal. 

The public will be alert on DEI training & awareness taking place, LGBTQIA promotional material in brochures and inclusivity” branding being pushed into Sri Lanka Tourism by some officials at the cost of eroding our cultural and spiritual foundation inspite of the public assurance given to the Maha Sangha by the President. 

Failure to act will be interpreted as silent approval. It will not only erode public trust, but also violate the President’s constitutional mandate to protect the heritage, culture, and values of Sri Lanka.

චානක බණ්ඩාරගේ

ඉස්සර දැව සංස්ථාවෙන් වනාන්තර අක්කරයක් කපනවා නම් කැලෑ  දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවෙන් ඒ ගමන්ම අක්කර 2ක් වත් කැලේ වවනවා. අද එය එසේ සිදුවන්නේ නැහැ.

අපේ කැලෑ කපා ස්වාභාවික පරිසරය සහ කාලගුණය වෙනස් කරගැනීම සහ වන ජීවී ගහනය අඩු කර ගැනීමට වඩා හොඳයි අපට අවශ්‍ය ලී වැඩි ප්‍රමාණයක් පිටරටින් ගෙන්වීම. මැලේසියාව, ඉන්දුනීසියාව රටවලින් අඩුවට ගන්න පුළුවන්.

සමහර රජයේ කාර්යාල තවමත් වැඩ කරන්නේ අතින් ලියන පොත්/ලෙජර්/ටය්ප් රයිටර් වලින්.  මේවාත් එක්ක දුර යන්න බැහැ – 20 වැනි ශත වර්ෂයේ තාක්ෂණය දැන් හරියන්නේ නැහැ. බොහෝ නිලධාරින් නව තාක්ෂණය දන්නේ නැහැ.

පොලිසියේ පැමිණිලි තවමත් ලියන්නේ අතින්, ලොකු පොතේ.

තවමත් දුම්රිය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවෙන් නිකුත් කරන්නේ දැනට වසර 100 පමණ සිට ඕලන්දයේ සිට ගෙන්වන දුම්රිය ටිකත් පතයි. අධික මිලක් ගෙවා මේ ටිකට් පත් කඩදාසි ඕලන්දයෙන් ගෙන්වා ගන්නේ. මේ පරිගණක අවධියේ ටිකට්පතක් කොම්පියුටරය මඟින් එවලේම නිකුත් කරන වැඩ පිළිවෙලක් සැකසුවොත් නරකද, මුදල් විශාල ප්‍රමාණයක් (විදේශ විනීමය) මේ රටේ ඉතිරි වෙනවා නේද?

හොඳ පරිගණක දැනුමක් ඇති පාසැල් සිසුවෙක් උනත් අවශ්‍ය සොෆ්ට්වෙයාර් එක නිපදවලා දෙයි, දැන් එච්චර අමාරු නැහැ.

හැබැයි මේ සඳහන් කල වෙනස්කම් ඉතා ප්‍රවේශමෙන් කරන්න ඕන, දැනට කෙරෙන වැඩත් කඩාකප්පල් කර ගන්නේ නැතිව.  

දැන් වසර 40ක් විතර ඉඳලා කියනවා අපේ රටේ කෝච්චි විදුලිබලය මඟින් ක්‍රියා කරන්න හදනවා කියලා. මේ අතින් ඉන්දියාව අපට වඩා බොහෝ දීර්ඝ දුරක්  ගිහින්.

කෝච්චි විදුලි බලයෙන් දුවන්න යෙදෙව්වා නම් ඩීසල් සඳහා යන විශාල වියදම ඉතිරිකර ගන්න ලැබෙනවා  පමණක් නොවෙයි පරිසර දුෂණය අඩු, මීට වඩා බොහෝ වේගයෙන් යන දුම්රිය සේවයක් අපට ලබා ගන්න තිබුනා.

සමහර අය රජයේ විශ්‍රාම වැටුප් දෙකක් ගන්නවා, නැතිවූ ස්වාමියා හෝ බිරිඳගේ එකත් සමඟ. මෙය අසාධාරණයි.

එකවර රජයේ විශ්‍රාම වැටුප් 2,3 ගත්ත ඉතා බලවත් දේශපාලනඥයෝ හිටියලූ.  මෑතකදීත් අරං.

කොහොමද දී ඇති  දේශප්‍රේමී ආදර්ශය.

 ‘මට මගේ ආධාර කරුවන්ට රක්ෂා දෙන්න පුළුවන් ඇමතිකමක් නෙවෙයි හම්බ වූනේ’ කියා එක් පසුගිය රජයක හිටපු ඇමතිවරයෙක් අඩාපාලි කීවවා. මේකෙන් මේ අය කියන්නේ රජයේ රැකියාවක් ලබා ගැනීමට නම් චන්ද කාලයේදී දේශපාලනඥයයෝ  පස්සේ ගිහින් ඒ අයට වැඩ කිරීමයි අවශ්‍ය  යයි කියන එක. උසස් අධ්‍යාපනික සහ වෘත්තිය සුදුසකම් වෙනුවට දේශපාලනඥයට පෝස්ටර් ඇලවුවා නම් ඇති.

සුදුස්සාට සුදුසු තැන්, රජයේ රැකියාවන් දීමේදී දිය යුතුයි. තවමත් (2025) මේ දේ සිද්ධ වෙන්නේ නැහැ හරියට.

රජයේ රැකියා 60,000 ළඟදීම දෙන්න යනවා, බලා ඉඳිමු දෙන හැටි.

උගතුන් කොන් කරනා සමාජයකට අනාගතයක් නොමැත.

රටේ ජනාධිපතිතුමා කොටුවේ ජනාධිපති මන්දිරයේ වාසය කල යුතුයි.  රටේ අගමැතිතුමා අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේ වාසය කල යුතුයි.  රාජ්‍ය ප්‍රධානී නිළ නිවෙස් තමන්ට ඕන ඕන විදියට හිතු මතේ වෙනස් කරන්න ගියොත් රාජ්‍ය යාන්ත්‍රණය පිළිබඳව ජනතාව තුල ඇති විශ්වාසය සහ ගෞරවය පළුදු විය හැකියි. 

දියුණු රටවල මේ දේවල් ව්‍යවස්ථාගත කරලා තියෙන්නේ.

ට්‍රම්ප් වයිට් හවුස් හි නොසිටියොත් දේශාභියෝගයක් ගෙනේවි ඔහුව ජනාධිපති ධුරයෙන් ඉවත් කරන්න.

රටේ ඕනෑම තැනක ඕනෑම කෙනෙකුට ජීවත්වීමේ අයිතිය අපේ ආන්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවෙන් ලබාදී තිබෙනවා.

මේ රටේ මහ ජාතිය හිතන්නේ මේ රටේ පළාත් 7යි කියලා?

උතුරු මැද පලාතෙන් පහළට පමණක් මෙන් මේ මහ ජන කොට්ටාශයේ පදිංචිය සීමා වීම නිසා ඒ  පළාත් 7 අද බොහෝ ජනාකීර්ණ වෙලා.  ඉඩම් හිඟ වීම නිසා අද බොහෝ විට  පවුලකට පර්චස් 7-10 වැනි ඉඩමක සිය නිවස හදා ගන්න වෙලා, ඉස්සර තිබු පර්චස් 25 -30න් නිවසක් සදා ගැනීමේ පුරුද්දට එරෙහිව.   පර්චස් 2න් ගෙයක් කොම්පඥවිදියේත්, පර්චස් 1න් ගෙයක් බම්බලපිටියේත්  හදා ගත් මහත්තයෙක් සහ නෝනා කෙනෙක්ව දන්නවා.

මහා නගර වැසියන්ට නල මඟින් ගැස්, ෆය්බර් ඔප්ටික් තාක්ෂණයෙන් ඉතා අධි වේගී ඉන්ටර්නෙට් පහසුකම් දිය හැකි නම් ඉතා අගෙයි, එහෙත් මේවා කරන්න නම් රට ගොඩාක් පොහොසත් වෙන්න ඕනා.

අප කළින් ලිපියකින් පෙන්වා දුන්නා මහ නගරවලට මළාපවාහන පද්ධතීන් (drainage systems) ඇති කිරීමෙන් වෙන විශාල වාසිය. දැනට මේ පද්ධතීන් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ තියෙන්නේ කොළඹ සහ යාපනයේ පමණයි.

මේ සෑම අවස්ථාවක්ම ඉදිරියේදී අපට සපල කරගැනීමේ හැකියාව තියෙනවා.

රජයන්ට කාලය, අවකාශය සහ සහයෝගය ලබා දිය යුතුයි.

රට දියුණු වෙනවා දැකීමේ ඊර්ශ්‍යාකාරයෝ (දේශීයව) බොහෝයි.

ගුවන් පථයේ මුල්ලක බොහෝ කාලයක් ගාල් කර තිබු ශ්‍රී ලංකාව නමැති යානය දැන් ටේක් ඕෆ් කරලා,

ඉහලටම ක්‍රමයෙන් නැඟ යන්න තමා තියෙන්නේ; උග්‍ර වායු කම්පන, ඝන සුළි කුණාටු, තද වැසි පරයා.

යානය තුල ගමන් කරන සියළු වැසියන් සීට් බෙල්ට් පැළඳ මේ සත් ක්‍රියාවට සහාය දිය යතුයි.  යානයේ ගමන් කරන්නන් අතර එහි දොර හැර සියළු දෙනා ප්‍රපාතයට ඇද දැමීමට මාන බලන අය සිටින බව සියල්ලෝ වටහා ගත යුතුයි.

බස්නාහිර පළාතේ ඉඩම් වලට නොර්වේ ආධාර මත පරිගණකයෙන් රජයෙන් නව ඉඩම් ඔප්පු නිකුත් කිරීමක් සිදු වුනා. හොඳ වැඩක්.  මෙය නැවත පටන් ගත යුතුයි.

MCC භීතිකාවක් මවලා යහපාලන යුගයේ ඇමරිකාවෙන් රටට හම්බ වෙන්න ගිය ඩොලර් බිලියන ½  මහඟු ත්‍යාගය අපට නැතිව ගියා. ඒ මුදලෙන් වැඩි කොටසක් කොළඹ ට්‍රැෆික් අර්බූදය විසඳන්නයි වෙන් කරලා තිබුනේ.

අපේ ඒ මුදල අරගත් නේපාලය සැහැල්ලු දුම්රිය සේවයක් ආරම්භ කළා.

දැන් බලයේ ඉන්න අයත් මේ බොරු භීතිකාව ඇති කරන්න එදා කටයුතු කළා (පොහොට්ටුවට අමතරව).

ඒ අයට දැන් තේරෙනේවා ඇති මොන තරම් විනාශයක්ද ඔවුන් මේ රටට කලේ, විපක්ෂයේ සිටින කාලයේ සෑම දේටම විරුද්ධ වෙමින්.

නිවාස ප්‍රශ්නය විසඳීමේ වැඩි බර පෞද්ගලික අංශය කරගහන්න ඕන. මේ සඳහා දැනට වඩා අඩු පොලියට නිවාස ණය නිවාස ඉදිකරන අයට ලබාදෙන්න ඕන. සිමෙන්ති, ලි, වානේ කම්බි,  වැනි නිවාස සැදීමට අවශ්‍යම ගොඩනැගිලි ද්‍රව්‍යවල මිල ඉතා අධිකයි, මේවායේ මිල අඩු කල යුතුයි.

ගංගා වැලි දැන් ඉතා මිළ අධිකයි, මිනිසුන්ට දරාගන්න බැහැ. අනෙක ඒවා ගොඩ කිරීමේදී වන පරිසර හානි අති මහත්.

ගංගා වැලි ප්‍රශ්ණය විසඳීමට – මනා පාලනයක් යටතේ විද්‍යාත්මකව, නිත්‍යානුකූලව  රටේ සුදුසු ප්‍රදේශවලින් පමණක් (එවැනි ප්‍රදේශ සීමීතයි) ඉතා ප්‍රවේශමෙන්  මුහුදේ වැලි ලබා ගෙන ඒවා ගොඩනැගිලි ඉදිකිරීමේ කර්මාන්තයට ලබා දිය යුතුයි. සාමාන්‍ය ජලයෙන් සෝදා ගත් පසු මුහුදේ වැලි ගඟේ වැලි වලටත් වඩා හොඳයි.

වැල්ලෙන් වැලි ලබා ගන්නවා නම් ගත යුත්තේ තදින් වැලි මුහුදෙන් වැල්ලට ගොඩ ගහන කාලයට පමණයි. මේවා ගත්තට කමක් නැහැ කියන්නේ ගොඩ ගැසූ මේ විශාල වැලි කඳු රැල්ල සමඟ වාරකන් සමයේදී  ආපසු මුහුදටම ගසා ගෙන යන නිසා. ඊට පෙර අපට ප්‍රයෝජනයට ගත හැකියි.

පෝට් සිටියට යයි කියා උස්වැටකෙයියාව, පමුණුගම, සරක්කුව  පලාත්වල මහ මුහුදෙන් විශාල ලෙස වැලි ගන්නවා නැව් පැමිණ. පුදුමාකාර මුහුදු කෑමක්, පරිසර විනාශයක් ඒ ඉතා ලස්සණ ප්‍රදේශවලට  වෙලා තියෙන්නේ. මේ, කිසිසේත් මුහුදේ වැලි නොගත යුතු ප්‍රදේශවලින් වැලි ගැනීමක්.

මේ රජය රාජ්‍ය උකස් සහ ආයෝජන බැංකුව වහන්න යනවා යයි කියන්නේ ඇත්තක්ද? හේතුව?

සාමාන්‍ය ජනතාවට ගෙයක් හදා ගන්න මොන තරම් සේවයක් කරපු බැංකුවක්ද, වසර ගණනාවක් පැරණි.

විදේශිකයන්ට සින්නක්කර ඉඩම් මිලදී ගැනීමට ඉඩ දුනහොත් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවාසීන්ට කොළඹ, ගාල්ල, මහනුවර, මීගමුව, යාපනය, ත්‍රිකුණාමලය වැනි මහ නගර ප්‍රදේශවලින් ඉඩමක් මිලදී ගන්න තියා ඒ ගැන හිතන්නවත් බැරි වේවි. මේවා ලෝකයේ බොහෝ රටවල නොකරන වැඩ.

කලින් හැදු රජයේ ෆ්ලැට්වල තීන්ත ටිකක් තවරා තමන්ගේ රුව සමඟ ලොකු බෝඩ් ගහගෙන, අළුත් නිවාස සංකීර්ණයක් විවෘත  කළා කියලා පෙන්වීම හුදු ජනතාව රැවටීමක් පමණයි. 2010 – 2015 රජය මෙය බොහෝ සෙයින් කළා.

කළින් රජයන් කාලේ සමහර, නැවත ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණය කල රජයේ ෆ්ලැට් වල එක ෆ්ලැට් එකකට වියදම් කරලා තියෙන්නේ ලක්ෂ 2ක් නැත්නම් 3ක්ලු , ඒත් ලක්ෂ 6 කට විතර  බිල දාලා පෙන්නලා තියෙනවා.

නගර සභා, මහා නගර සභා සහ රජයේ ආයතන උනත් පෝසත්, ධනවත් අය ඉන්න ප්‍රදේශවලට තමා වැඩියෙන් කරන්නේ. ඒවායේ පේමන්ට් ‘පේව්’ කරනවා, දවසකට දෙවරක්  සමහර පැතිවල පාරවල් අතු ගානවා, කැඩිච්ච පාරවල් ඉක්මනට හදනවා, දිනපතා ලොරි වලින් කුණු එකතු කරනවා. දුප්පත් ප්‍රදේශවලට කුඩම්මාගේ සැලකිලි. හැමෝම වරිපනම් බදු ගෙවන්නෝ නොවේම්ද?

ගස් කොළන් බොහෝ සෙයින්  අඩු වුනත්, කොළඹ නගරය දැන් ඉස්සරට (1990/2000 ගණන් වලට) වඩා ලස්සනයි, ඒක බොහොම හොඳ දෙයක්. ඒත් කොළඹ දිළිඳු ප්‍රදේශ – තොටළඟ, මට්ටක්කුලිය, කොටහේන, ග්‍රෑන්ඩ්පාස්, දෙමටගොඩ, වනාතමුල්ල  ගිහින් බලන්න අන්තිමයි. කොළඹින් පිටත ඔබේසේකරපුර, IDH, කොලොන්නාව, වැල්ලම්පිටියත් එහෙමයි.

මේවායේ  සමහර ප්‍රදේශවල  කිසි දියුණුවක් වෙලා නැහැ. කාණු ජරාවලින් පිරිලා, කුණු ගඳ ගහනවා. තැන තැන කුණු ගොඩ ගහලා. කාක්කෝ මේ කුණු අනිත් ප්‍රදේශවලට අරං යනවා. කුණු කන ඌරෝ පවා පාරේ ඉන්න ප්‍රදේශ තියෙනවා.

අද කොළඹ නගරය පිරිසිඳුව තබා ගැනීමට අබාන්ස් සේවකයෝ ඉතා හොඳින් මහන්සිවී තම රාජකාරිය කරනවා. ඒ අයට අපගේ සදා ප්‍රණාමය.

සුවෙන්, සතුටින් සිය පවුල සමඟ ජීවත්වීමට කැමති කවුරුත් බලන්නේ ඉඩ කඩ තිබෙන ඉඩමක ගෙයක් හදා ගෙන, ගස් වැල්, පලතුරු ටිකක් එහි වවාගෙන, බල්ලෙක් පුසෙක් ඇතිකරගෙන, නිහඬ, නිසල, පරිසර හිතකාමී  ජීවතයක් ගෙවීමටයි.  මෙවැනි තත්ත්වයන් උදා කරදීම උදෙසා රාජ්‍ය ආයතන තම ප්‍රතිපත්ති සකස් කර ගත යුතුයි.

තමන්ගේ ජීවිතය පර්චස් 6 වගේ සුළු වපසරියකට කොටු වුනහම ‘පුංචි පවුල රත්තරං’ සංකල්පයත් ඉබේටම ක්‍රියාත්මක වෙලා.

අපේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ  දේශපාලනඥයෝ වැඩි කාලයක් යෙදෙව්වේ තමන්ගේ පුද්ගලික අයිතිවාසිකම්/ලැබීම් ගැන,  තම පක්ෂයේ තත්ත්වය නඟා සිටුවා ගැනීම වැනි වැඩ සඳහායි.  පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ  අඳුරු මුළු වල, කොරිඩෝර් වල, ඒ සමහරක් අය දැමු  ඩීල් වලින් රටට නම් කිසිම සෙතක් වුනේ නැහැ; දේශපාලනඥයන්ට බොහෝ වුනා.

අන්තිමට, 2022දී,  මුළු රටම කඩා වැටුනා.

හරියට කලොත් අවුරුදු 30ක් ඇතුලත ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ධනවත් රටක් බවට පත් කරන්න හැකියි – සිංගප්පුරුව, දකුණු කොරියාව, තායිවානය වැනි සම තත්ත්වයේ ධනවත් රටක් (මැලේසියාවට එහා). 

අද රජයේ ඉන්න සමහර ඇමතිවරුන් දිගටම ඒ තනතුරුවල සිටියොත් නම් ඒ දේ කරන්න බැරි වේවි.

වැඩ නොපෙන්වූ ඒ සමහර ඇමතිවරු හොඳ, දක්ෂ අතට වෙනස් වෙන්න පුළුවන් තමන්ගේ වැරදි අවබෝධ කරගෙන.

ජ්‍යෙෂ්ට යයි කියා ගන්නා කට හැකර, වැඩ බැරි, බොරු ‘ෂෝ’ දාන  ඇමතිවරු අයින් කරලා දක්ෂ පසු පෙළ නවකයන් පුළුවන් තරම් ඉදිරියට ගෙන්න ඕන. නැත්නම් ලබන වර මෙම රජය පෙරළෙනවා නිසැකයි.

නැවත, ලබන වාරයේ,  දිනන්න ඕන නම් 75%ක වත් කාර්යක්ෂමතාවයක් රජයට නොනවත්වා පෙන්වන්න වෙනවා.  මේ තියෙන දැඩි විවේචනත් එක්ක.

ජනතාවත් ඉතා ලොකු මිම්මකින් දේශපාලනඥයන්ව දැන් මනින්නේ.

අපි කවදාවත් අහල නැති වුනත් ඉතා දක්ෂ, කැප වීමෙන් වැඩ කරන නවකයෝ මේ රජයේ පසු පෙලේ ඉන්න බව පේනවා.

වයස ප්‍රශ්නයක් නොවෙයි – තරුණ හෝ මුහුකරා ගිය  දෙගොල්ලම උනාට කමක් නැහැ.

අධ්‍යාපන, සෞඛ්‍ය, කෘෂිකර්ම (වනජීවීද ඇතුළු), ප්‍රවාහන/වරාය ආදී අමාත්‍යංශ හොඳ ප්‍රගතියක් පෙන්විය යුතුයි. අවශ්‍යම අධිකරණ ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණ තියෙනවා.

ප්‍රවාහන දැන් පන ඇවිත්, යම් තරමකින් ‘වැඩ’ පෙන්වමින් යනවා.

අද තියෙන කැබිනෙට්ටුවේ සමහරු ඉතා හොඳ බව කිය යුතුයි; ඉතා මහන්සියෙන් දිවා රෑ නොබලා වැඩ කරනවා.

මුදල් ඇමති හොඳින් කලර්ස් දක්වා තිබෙනවා.

නාමල් කරුණාරත්න කෘෂිකර්ම ඇමති ලෙස පත් කල යුතුයි. 

දේශපාලඥයින්ට පමණක් බැනලා වැඩක් නැහැ. නිලධාරීන්, ජනතාවද වෙනස් වෙන්න ඕන.

අපි තවමත්: පරිසරය අපවිත්‍ර කරනවා, පගාව දෙනවා, පාරේ හෝන් ගහනවා, පාරේ බුලත් කෙළ ගසනවා, කාර්යාලයේදී වැඩ කරන්නේ නැහැ. පසුව, හැම දේටම  දේශපාලඥයන්ට බනිනවා.

පරාජය වූ දේශපාලනඥයන් චිට්  ක්‍රමයෙන් නැවත පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට පැමිණ ඇමතිකම්/මන්ත්‍රීකම්  දැරීම ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍ර විරෝධී ක්‍රියාවක්.

ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍ර විරෝධී චිට් මන්ත්‍රි ක්‍රමය මුළුමනින්ම අහෝසි කරලා නොදමන්නේ මන්ද, දැන් 2/3ටත් වඩා බලය තියෙනවානේ එය කරන්න.

එදා සමහර දේශපාලනඥයන් හැමදාම ඇමතිලා වෙලා සිටියා, මොන පක්ෂය බලයට ආවත්. මහ පුදුම සහගත තත්ත්වයක්. යම්තම් ඒ අය දැන් නැහැ.

අලුත් අදහස් ඇති, නැවුම්, තරුණ මාණ්ඩලික රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරින්  ඉන්නවා, ඒ අයට අතිරේක/සහකාර  ලේකම් වැනි උසස් තලයේ දොරවල් විවෘත  කර දිය යුතුයි. වෙනස් වන ලෝකයේ තාක්ෂනය/ගෝලීයකරණය ආදිය පිළිබඳව හොඳින්  දැනුම තිබෙන, නව පරපුරේ සිතුම් පැතුම් හඳුනන, වැඩිහිටියන්ට ගරු කරන, විනයවයත්, අල්ලස්/දුෂණ විරෝධීන් උසස්, වැදගත් තනතුරු සඳහා පත් කල යුතුයි.

සාර්ථක  ආණ්ඩුවක් සඳහා නම්  ආණ්ඩුවේ තනතුරු සඳහා පත් කරන අය ඉස්තරම්ම, වඩාත්ම සුදුසු, උගත් අය විය යුතුයි.

වැඩක් කරන්න හරියට බැරි වුවත් ඒ අයගේ වන්ධිභට්ටකම ප්‍රධාන තේරීම් සාධකය ලෙස පත්වීම් සඳහා සලකයි නම් ඒ රජයේ කටයුතු අසාර්ථක වීම නිසා  අයහපත් ප්‍රතිපල, විපාක විඳින්නේ අහිංසක ජනතාවයි.

නුසුදුස්සන් රජයේ සේවයට පත් කලහොත් (තරඟ විභාග සමත් නොවූ, හුදු දේශපාලනඥයන්ගේ ලැයිස්තුවට/උවමනාවට අනුව), අපට ලැබෙන්නේ අදක්ෂ, අකාර්යක්ෂම, බොහෝ විට දුෂීත, උකටලී රාජ්‍ය සේවයක්.

මේ රජයේත් ඉතාම වැදගත් අමාත්‍යංශ කිහිපයකම ස්ථිර ලේකම්වරු පරිපාලන සේවා විභාග සමත්ව  තම දක්ෂකම් සිවිල් සේවයේ පෙන්වා ඉහලට ආ නිලධාරින් නොවේ. පැරෂූට් කාරයෝ.

දේශපාලනඥයන් තම කාර්ය මණ්ඩලයට පවුලේ අය පත් කරගැනීම, තමන් යටතේ ඇති අමාත්‍යංශවලට එවැනි පත්වීම් කරගැනීම  බොහෝ දුරට 1977 පසු බිහිවූ නව සංකල්පයක්, මෙය ඉතා වැරදි දෙයක්. හොරකමට තෝතැන්නක්.

1970 – 1977 දක්වා රට පාලනය කල මැතිණියගේ කාලයේ තරම් පවුල් වාදය මේ රටේ රජ කල සමයක් තවත් නොතිබුණි. එතුමියගේ පවුලට අයත් විශාල පිරිසක්, කිසිදු ලෙසකින් සුදුසුකම් නොලබා,  රටේ ආණ්ඩුවේ ඉහළම තනතුරුවලට පත් කලා. ‘හත් අවුරුදු සාපය’ පොතෙන් දැක්වුයේ රටේ ගුවන් තොටුපොළ/ජාත්‍යාන්තර සම්මන්ත්‍රණ ශාලාවේ  සිට මහජන වැසිකිලිය/නාන ලිඳ/ගමේ අඩි පාර දක්වා සිය පවුලේ නම දා ගත් බවයි.

සාමාන්‍ය වැසියන්ට තබා ගත හැකි ඉඩම් ප්‍රමාණය අක්කර 50 සීමා කර, ඒ පවුලත් යම් ඉඩම් ප්‍රමාණයක්  අත් හැර දැමුවත්, ‘ෆැමිලි ට්‍රස්ට්ස්’,  ‘චැරිටබල් ට්‍රස්ට්ස්’ නම් කූට නිතී උපායන් සහ වෙනත් දේ මඟින් ඔවුන් සතුව තිබු ඉතාම වටිනා, සශ්‍රීක පොල්, වී සහ වෙනත් ඉඩම් අක්කර ගණනාවක් පවුල තුලම (හොරෙන්) රඳවා ගත් බවට ප්‍රබල චෝදනා එල්ල වුනා.

ඊ.එල්. සේනානායක මතු කල ‘බිංදුමතී’ චෝදනාව මතකද?

එවක රජයේ සිටී ඉඩම් ඇමති – ඉතා නිහතමානි සහ අවංක,  හෙක්ටර් කොබ්බෑකඩුව මහතා ස්වෙච්චාවෙන් සිය පවුල සතු ඉඩම් රජයට පවරා දුන්නා.

චන්දයකට පස්සේ විරුද්ධ පක්ෂයෙන් ‘ගෙම්බෝ’ වාගේ ආණ්ඩු පක්ෂයට පනින නව ප්‍රවනතාවක් ශ්‍රී ලංකා දේශපාලනයේ ඇත. මෙයට  ‘සැලුන් දොර’ කියාද කියත්.

ඒසේ පනින්නේ තමන්ට ආවේනික වූ පැහැදිලි දේශපාලන ප්‍රත්පත්තියක් නොමැති අයයි.  මැති, ඇමති, තානාන්තර බලාගෙන; පුද්ගලික ලාභ ප්‍රයෝජනයට.  තමන්ට චන්ද දීපු චන්දදායකයන්ට ගෞරව නොකිරීමක්.

හැබැයි පනින කෙනා නොයෙක් නිදහසට කාරණා දෙනවා – දෑත් ශක්තිමත් කරන්න පැන්නා  වැනි.

කිතුලට නැග්ග මිනිහටත් නිදහසට කියන්න කරුණක් තිබුනාලූ.

මේ පැනිලි පනින අය පමණක් නොව ඒවාට අනුබල දෙන අයත් වැරදියි.  ජනතාව තුල පක්ෂ දේශපාලනය, දේශපාලනඥයන් පිළිබඳව විශ්වාසය නැතිවී යනවා.

ජාජබ රජයක් යටතේ මේ පැනිලි ක්‍රමය අහෝසි කරනවා කීවා නේද?

ශක්තිමත් ආණ්ඩුවක් තිබීම හොඳයි; නමුත්, ඒකට, සුළු බහුතරයක් තිබ්බත් ඇති.  20 – 30 ගණන් මන්ත්‍රීවරු ‘බා ගන්න’ ඕන නැහැ.  ආණ්ඩුවක් කරන්න 2/3 බලය අවශ්‍යම නැහැ.

නාගරිකව ජීවත්වෙන දුප්පත් මිනිසුන්ගේ ගෙවල්, කඩ කඩලා මිනිස්සුන්ව ගහලා පන්නලා නව ව්‍යාපෘති කරනවා නම් ඒ මිනිස්සුන්ට ඒ නගරය තුලින්ම සාධාරණ වාසස්ථාන, කඩ කාමර ආදිය ලබා දිය යුතුයි.  2014දී බැස්ටියන් පාරේ මිනිස්සුන්ගේ කඩ කඩලා එලවපු හැටි දැක්කාහම දුක හිතුනා, සමහර මිනිස්සු අවුරුදු 20ට වැඩිය එක ස්ථානයේ හිටපු අය.  සමහර මිනිස්සු පාර මැද ඉඳලා ඒ තීරණ ගත් අයට සාප කළා.

චීනය නමැති කූඩයට පමණක් සියලු බිජු (බිත්තර) දමාගෙන රට දියුණු කිරීමට තැත් කිරීම අනුවන කමක්. චීනය ඓතිහාසිකව අපට සිටින ඉතාම හොඳ කළණ මිතුරෙක්.  අද ලෝක බලවතා, සමහරවිට ඇමරිකාවටත් වැඩිය.

චීනය ඉදිරියේදීත් අපේ හොඳම මිතුරෙක්.  එහි කිසි සැකයක් නැහැ.

නමුත්, සෑම රටකින්ම උපරිම සහය ගන්න ඕන, අඩුම තරමින් අමනාපකම් ඇති නොකර සිටීමට තරම් ප්‍රවේශම් වෙන්න ඕන. පසුගිය කාලවල එවැන්නක් (අමනාපකම්) නම් සිදු වුනේ නැහැ.

ඉන්දියාවේ ඉන්න බිලියන 1.4 ජනගහනයට භාණ්ඩ සහ සේවා සපයලාම  අපට ධනවත් රටක් වෙන්න පුළුවන්; මේක ඉන්දියාවට අප රට පාවාදීමක් හෝ අවනත වීමක්  නොවේ, අපේ රට පෝසත් කරන බුද්ධිමත් ආර්ථික වැඩපිලිවලේ කොටසක්. මේකට කියන්නේ ‘ලංකාව ඉන්දියාවේ හොංකොං’ විය යුතුයි කියලයි. ඉන්දියාව පාවිච්චි කරලා අපි පෝසත් වෙනවා, හරියට චීනය පාවිච්චි කරලා හොංකොං පෝසත් උනා වගේ. එහි කිසි වරදක් නැහැ.

ඉන්දියාවේ බිලියන 1.4  ජනගහනයක් ඉන්නවා. මේ අය තදින්ම තේ බොන අය. ඒ වගේම, අපේ රටේ වගේ නොවේ,  ඉන්දියාවේ හොඳ, විශිෂ්ට තත්ත්වයේ තේ නිෂ්පාදනය වෙන්නේ නැහැ. හරියට කථා කරලා ඉන්දියාවට අපේ රටෙන් තේ සපයන්න අවස්ථා උදා කරගත්තොත් එය ඩොලර් මිලියන් ගණනක ව්‍යාපාරයක්  ඇති කරගන්න පුළුවන්.

ඉන්දියාව අපේ රට  තුල ඒ අයගේ භාණ්ඩ වලින් ‘ෆ්ලඩ් කරාවි, ඒක නතර කරන්න අමාරුයි. දැනටමත් ඒ දේ වෙනවා. අපිත් අපට පුළුවන් භාණ්ඩ වලින් ඉන්දියාව ‘ෆ්ලඩ්’ කරන්න ඕන. අපට අපනයන භාණ්ඩ වර්ග නැතිකමයි/අඩුකමයි  තියෙන ලොකුම ප්‍රශ්නය. අපෙන් ඉන්දියාවට යවන අපනයන භාණ්ඩ වැඩි කරගන්න ඕන. දැනට යවන ප්‍රධාන භාණ්ඩය ප්‍රති අපනයන කල ඉන්දුනීසියා පුවක් නේද?

ඉන්දීය සේවකයන් මෙහි ගෙනැවිත් ඔවුනට රැකියා ලබා දීම, විශේෂයෙන්ම කම්කරු රැකියා,  අප රටේ අයට රැකියා අවස්ථා අහිමි වීමක්.

දකුණු ඉන්දියාවෙන් මෙහි එන අය ආපසු නොයාමේ සිරිත අවුරුදු සිය දහස් ගණනක් තිස්සේ සිදු වෙන්නක්.

ඉතා කදිම කොස්ගම අවි ගබඩාව වත් රැක ගන්න අපට බැරි වුනා. අපේ නොසලිකිල්මත් බව නිසා වටිනා අවි ගබඩාව, එහි ගබඩා කර තිබු  වටිනා අවි සමඟ අළු දුවිලි බවට පත් වුනා.

සාලාව ගින්නෙන් විනාශවුනු උණ්‌ඩ හා පතරොම් වල වටිනාකම රුපියල් බිලියන 18 කට අධික බව  කියනවා. කිසි උසස් නිලධාරියෙක් ඉල්ලා අස් වුනෙත් නැහැ.

පසුගිය වසර කිහිපයක සිට වෙසක් දන්සැල් ලියාපදිංචි කල යුතුයි කියා රජයෙන් නීතියක් පනවා තිබෙනවා. මෙයින් වෙසක්/පොසොන් සමයේ දන්සැල් සංඛ්‍යාව අඩු වෙනවා.

ආහාරවල පිරිසිඳුබව සහ සෞඛ්‍යසම්පන්න භාවය වැදගත් තමයි, නමුත්, වෙසක්/පොසොන් දන්සැල් කරන අය ඒ වැඩ කරන්නේ ඉතාම සද්භාවයන්, ආහාර/පාන වල පිරිසිඳු බව සහ සෞඛ්‍යායාරක්ෂිත භාවය පිලිබඳව ඒ අය කැප වෙලා වැඩ කරන්නේ.

බොහෝ දන්සැල් කරන්නේ පාසැල්/දහම් පාසැල්  සිසුන්, වෙනත් ගැටවරයන්, ත්‍රීවිල් රියදුරන් ආදීන්. මේ අයට රජයේ නිලධාරින් හමුවී දන්සැල් ලියාපදිංචි කරන්න අවශ්‍ය යයි කීවිට, ඒ  අදහස අත්හැරලා දානවා. ඇරත් කවුද කැමති සද්භාවයෙන් කරන වැඩක් උනත් ගිහින් දඩ කන්න, දන්සැල ලියාපදිංචි කලේ නැහැ කියලා.

බොහෝ දෙනෙක් දන්සැල් දමන තීරණය ගන්නේ අනිතිම මොහොතේ. එවිට ලියාපදිංචියට වටේ දුවන්න කාලයක් නැහැ.

වෙසක්/පොසොන් දන්සැල් අපේ සංස්කෘතියේ වැදගත් අංගයක්. මේවාට තද නීති දාලා හානි කරන්න/නැති කරලා දාන්න ඉඩ දෙන්න බැහැ.

කරන්න තියෙන්නේ නව ලය්සන් ක්‍රමයක් හඳුන්වා දීම නොවෙයි,  දන්සැල් සඳහා අදාළ නීති රීති (සාධාරණ) පැහැදිලිව හඳුන්වා දුන් පත්‍රිකා ග්‍රාම සේවක කාර්යාල වල ප්‍රදර්ශනය කිරීමයි. පසුව මහජන සෞඛ්‍ය පරීක්ෂකවරු ලවා දන්සැල් අහඹු ලෙස  පරීක්‍ෂාවට යොමු කරවීමයි.

දැන් වෙසක් තොරණ හදන එකත් බෙහෙවින්ම අඩු වෙලා. පන්සල් වල පෙරහැර වලට අලි, ඇතුන්  නැහැ. ඥානාන්විතව මේ ප්‍රශ්න දෙස බලා රජයන් අපේ මේ මගඟු සංස්කෘතිකමය දායාද රැක ගැනීමට ඉදිරියට ආ යුතුයි, විශේෂයෙන්ම, වෙසක්/පොසොන් තොරන්, දන්සැල්, බෞද්ධ පෙරහැරවල්.

චන්දයට කළින් මේ අය අපට ප්‍රබලව හැගෙව්වේ – අපි වමේ සහ දක්ෂිණාංශික ලිබරල්; සම්ප්‍රදාය, සභ්‍යත්වය, සංස්කෘතිය, චාරිත්‍ර වාරිත්‍ර, සාරධර්ම, ඉතිහාසය, ආගම  මේ රටට වැඩක් නැහැ, ඒවා යල් පැන ගිය ඒවා. මෙවැනි භයානයක  ප්‍රකාශ ඔවුන් කළා.  අදත් එවැනි මතයන් දරනවානම්,  – එවැනි රජයකට මේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ වැඩි පැවැත්මක් නොමැති බව ඔවුන් වටහා ගැනීම වටී.

උග්‍ර  වාමවාදී සහ කොමියුනිස්ට්, සාම්ප්‍රදා විරෝධීන් වූ ස්ටාලින්, මාඕ, පොල් පොට්, කිම් ඉල් සුං, කැස්ත්‍රෝ වැන්නන් සහ ඔවුන් නිසා එම රටවල සිදුවූ මහා ජන/ආගම් සංහාර මතක් වෙනවා.

මෙහි ඒවා සිදු නොවේවා!

වසර දහස් ගණනක් පැරණි සිංහළ අවුරුද්ද වගේමයි,  වෙසක් උත්සවයත්.  සිංහළ, බෞද්ධ සංස්කෘතිය, අපේ උරුමය ඉහලින්ම විද්‍යාමාන කරන එකක්.

රොබර්ට් නොක්ස්ගේ පොත කියවන්න (ඕලන්ද/ඉංග්‍රීසී  කාලයෙහි වූ  ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ගැන). එහි අපේ උසස්, උතුම් සිංහල අළුත් අවුරුදු චාරිත්‍ර ගැන කියනවා. ඒවා ඔහු මහ ඉහළින් වර්ණනා කරනවා.

ඒ කාලේ, සිංහල සහ හින්දු අවුරුද්දක් කියා එකක් තිබි නැහැ.  

මෑතකදී, සිංහල සහ හින්දු අවුරුද්ද, සිංහල සහ දෙමළ අළුත් අවුරුද්ද වශයෙන් නම වෙනස් වුනා.

දෙමළ තෛය්පොන්ගල් උත්සවය ලංකාවෙත් (ද්‍රවිඩ), තමිල්නාඩුවෙත්, කේරලයේත්  මහ ඉහළින් ජනවාරි මාසයේ පැවැත්වෙනවා. සිංහල අවුරද්ද හා සමානයි; කිරිබත් උයනවා.

තමිල්නාඩුවේ/කේරලයේ අප්‍රේල් මාසේ අළුත් අවුරුද්දක් ගන්නේ නැහැ.

සිංහල අවුරුදු චාරිත්‍ර/වාරිත්‍ර, කෑම/කැවිලි, ක්‍රීඩා/උත්සව ඉතා උසස් ගණයේ. 1වෙනි ලෝකයේ දියුණු රටවල් වලවත් නැහැ. ඒ සමහර අයට ඊර්ශ්‍යායි අපත් සමඟ. මනුෂ්‍යත්වයේ උච්චතම බව නිරූපණය කරන මහා උළෙලක් එය.

පහුගිය සමහර වසරවල මහා බ්‍රිතාන්‍යයේ, කැනඩාවේ අගමැති වරු ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ අප්‍රේල් අවුරුද්දට සුභ පතන විට එය සිංහල අයගෙත් අවුරුද්ද බව කියන්න බැරි වුනා. දෙමළ අයට පමණයි සුභ පැතුවේ.

මේ අතපසු වීම් ගැන, එතකොට කැනඩාවේ පසුගියදා බිහිකළ දෙමළ සංහාර    ස්මාරක ගැන, ඒ රටවල සිටින අපේ සිංහල අය කිසිම විරෝධයක් දැක්වුයේ නැහැ. ලක්ෂ සංඛ්‍යාත සිංහලයෝ ඒ රටවල ඉන්නවා. මික් කියන්නේ නැතුව ගෙවල් තුලට වී  සිටියා.  

සිය දහස් ගණනින් පාරට බහින්න ඕන දැවැන්ත අසාධාරණයි ඒ.

පන්සලේ බෞද්ධ වැඩක් නම් දහස් ගණනින් එනවා; සිංහල අයිතීන් ගැන රැස්වීමක් නම් අතේ ඇඟිලි ගණනට තමා එන්නේ. ඕස්ත්‍රේලියාවෙත් තියෙන්නේ ඔය තත්ත්වයමයි.

අනගාරික ධර්මපාල තුමා සිය සටන ගෙන ගියේ තට්ට තනියමයි. ඔහුව පාවා දුන්නේ අපේම අයයි.

ලෝක දෙමළ ඩයස්පෝරාවේ කොටසක් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ වාර්ගික ප්‍රශ්ණය පිළිබඳව බොහෝ බොරු ප්‍රචාරණ කරනවා. නමුත්, ඔවුන් එය ඉතා හොඳින්, කැප වීමෙන් කරන නිසා සැම විටම වගේ ජය ගන්නවා.

එක මවකගේ දරුවන් මෙන් තම ඊලාම් සිහිනය සාක්ෂාත් කර ගැනීම වෙනුවෙන් දිවි හිමියෙන් ඔවුන් කැපවී වැඩ කරනවා (ලෝක දෙමළ ඩයස්පෝරාවේ කොටසක්). යහමින් මුදල් පරිත්‍යාග කරනවා.

මෙහෙන් ගිය බටහිර රටවල සිටින සිංහලයෝ මර නින්දේය.  ඔවුන් බොහෝමයකට  අවශ්‍ය  තමන්ගේ සහ තම පවුලේ දියුණුව පමණයි. සෑම විටම උපරිමව සතුටුව සිටීමට බලත්. නිවසේ සතිපතා වැනි  වූ ඩිනර් පාර්ටි, මාසික ෆූඩ් ෆෙයාර්, නිරන්තර සංගීත සංධර්ෂණ/සාද, ඩිනර් ඩාන්ස්, බය්ලා සැන්දෑ, බිග් මැච් පාර්ටි, 31^st night dance; ඕවා තමයි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ තම  දුක්විඳින සිංහල සගයන් ගැන, අපේ සිංහල උරුමය, සභ්‍යත්වය, බෞද්ධත්වය රැක ගැනීම, සිංහලයාට  මෙහි පළාත් 2ක වාසය බොහෝ සෙයින් අහිමිව තිබීම, උතුරු පළාතේ 2වෙනි පන්තියේ පුරවැසියන් මෙන් වෙසෙන අපේ සිංහලයෝ – මෙවැනි දේ ගැන ඒ බොහෝ අයට  වගේ වගක් නැත.

හැකිතරම් බටහිරකරණය වීම  තමා අපේ  බොහෝ අයගේ  ආසව – තරුණයෝ පමණක් නොව වැඩිහිටියෝද.

ඒ රටවල සිටින අපේ හින්දූන්, මුස්ලිමානුවන්, ලක්ෂණට ඔවුන්ගේ සංස්කෘතිය, සභ්‍යත්වය ආවේනිකත්වය  රැකගෙන ඉන්නවා.

අද වෙසක් දවසේට ඉස්සරින්දා කූඩු ටිකක් කඩෙන් අරං කඩදාසි අලවලා එල්ලනවා.  ඒ කූඩුත් බොහෝ විට ඇවිත් තියෙන්නේ චීනයෙන්. එදා  වෙසක් කූඩු හැදුවේ ගෙවල් වල. 

වෙසක් කුඩු හදන්න පටන් ගන්නේ වෙසක් එකට මාසයකට විතර කලින් ඉඳන්. මුළු පවුලම සහභාගි  වෙනවා. පුදුම ආදරයක්, සෙනෙහසක්, බැම්මක්  වෙසක් කූඩු හැදීම තුලින් ඇතිවුනා; පවුලේ සෑම සියලු දෙනාම  එකතු වෙලා ‘පැටවූ 6/8/10  අට පට්ටම් කුඩුවක් හදන වැඩෙන්; ලස්සණ තාරකා කූඩු. 

සමහර පැතිවල  අහල පහල නිවෙස් සමඟ මිත්‍රශීලී තරගෙට වෙසක් කූඩු හදනවා.

අරුම පුදුම කූඩු පුද්ගලයන් අතින් නිර්මාණය වුනා. සමහරක් ඒවායේ නිර්මානශිලී භාවය, යොදා ගත් තාක්ෂණ හිතාගන්නවත් බැරි තරමට ඉහලයි.

අද වගේ වෙසක් කළාපවල ප්‍රදර්ශණය කරන එකම  වාගේ, යන්ත්‍රානුසාරයෙන් හැදු, විශාල අඳුරු කූඩු එදා තිබුනේ නැහැ.

එදා මුළු මැයි මාසයම හැමෝගෙම වගේ  ජිවිත වෙසක් කාඩ් වලින් වෙලා ගත්තා. වෙසක් කාඩ් එකක් ඇරිය කෙනෙක් නොමැති තරම්.  පාරවල පෙව්මන්ට් වෙසක් කාඩ් අලෙවි කරන තාවකාලික කඩ මඩු වලින් වැසී යනවා.  ඒ තරමට වෙසක් කාඩ් ජනප්‍රියයි. අද වෙසක් කාඩ් එකක් යවපු හෝ ලැබිච්ච කෙනෙක් ‘බෙහෙතකටවත්’ හොයා ගන්න අමාරුයි.  වෙසක් කාඩ් සංස්කෘතිය මුලුමනින්ම වාගේ ‘මැරී’ ගොස්. 

අද ඊමේල්, ‘ෆේස් බූක්’, ‘ඉන්ස්ටර්ග්‍රෑම්’ වලට වහල් වූ, තදින්ම  ‘යාන්ත්‍රිකරණය’ වූ සමාජයක මෙවැන්නක් බලාපොරොත්තු වෙන්න අමාරුයි. 

වෙසක් කූඩු, වෙසක් කාඩ්, වෙසක් භක්ති ගී  සම්ප්‍රදායන් නැති/අඩු වීම තුලින් අප  නැති කරගන්නේ ඒ දේවල්  පමණක් නොවෙයි, අපේ අධ්‍යාත්මයයි, ගුණගරුක කමයි. අපේ වටිනා ගති සිරිත් සහ අප විශ්වාස කරන හෝ අදහන දේයි.

වෙසක් තොරන්, දන්සැල්, වෙසක් භක්ති ගී අපේ ජිවිත කාලය තුලම ක්‍රම ක්‍රමයෙන් අභාවයට යනවා අපට ඉදිරියේදී දක්නට ලැබේවි.

දැන් වෙසක් පමණක් නොව සියළු පොහෝ දින සිල් ඇත්තන් ඉස්සරට වඩා ඉතා අඩුයි.

අද තැන තැන තියෙන වෙසක් කළාප හොඳ සංකල්පයක් වෙන්නත් පුළුවන්. හැබැයි, එදා මුළු කොළඹ නගරයම එකම වෙසක් කළාපයක්.  වෙනත් ප්‍රධාන නගරද එසේම වුනා.

කොළඹට වෙසක් බලන්න එන  අය අද තිබෙන  වෙසක් කළාප කිහිපය (5 හෝ 6 ) නරඹලා ගෙදර යනවා. නමුත් කළින් කීවාක් මෙන්,  එදා, වෙසක් කළාපය යනු  මුළු නගරයමයි. කොළඹ නම් මුළු කොළඹම 1 – 15 දක්වා.

එදා වෙසක් සිරියෙන් නගර උතුරා ගියා.  

අද වෙසක් කළාප කරන්නේ මහ ජනතාව නොවෙයි. හමුදාව (යුධ, ගුවන්, නාවික), පොලිසිය, සිවිල් ආරක්ෂක, විශාල කොම්පැනි, TV ආයතන ආදියයි.

හමුදාවේ වෙසක් කටයුතු සඳහා වියදම් කරන්නේ රජයේ මුදල්. මෙයින් ජනතාවට ලැබෙන බුද්ධාලම්භන ප්‍රීතිය අඩුයි. කොම්පැනි සිය අලෙවි ව්‍යාප්ත කටයුතුද ඒ තුලින් කර ගන්නවා.

එදා ගෙවල්වල  පොඩිම පොඩි  කූඩු, ලොකු ඉතාම නිර්මාණශීලී කුඩු,  එළිය පෙට්ටි හැදුවා, අද නැහැ හෝ ඉතා අඩුයි.

ඔලු බක්කෝ,  තහනම් කිරීම මෝඩ, අනවශ්‍ය දෙයක්. යම් හෙයකින් සමාජ විරෝධී ඒවා නම්, පොලිසියට නියාමනය කරන්න පුළුවන්.

මහා සැණකෙළියක් වූ වෙසක් දිනවල රෑ වෙසක් සිරි නරඹන්නන් විවිධ ආකරයෙන්, අහිංසක ලෙස සතුට, විනෝදය ලබා ගත්තා. එහි වරදක් නැහැ.

ගොඩාක් අය වෙසක් කියා මධ්‍යම රාත්‍රී චිත්‍රපට නැරඹුවා, සර්කර්ස් බැලුවා. මුළු කොළඹම ෂඩ් වර්ණයෙන් බැබැලුනා, ශබ්ධ විකාශන යන්ත්‍ර වලින් බුදු ගුණ රැව් පිලිරෙව් වුනා.

වෙසක් දවස්වල රෑ නගරවල විදී අළුයම පහන් වනතුරු  වෙසක් සිරි නරඹන ජනයාගෙන් පිරි ඉතිරී තිබිය යුතුයි. අවාසනාවකට අද එහෙම නැහැ.

දැන් ගොඩක් දුරට තියෙන්නේ‘හේදිලා ගිය’ වෙසක් සහ පොසොන් උත්සව. තොරන් ඉතාම අඩුයි. ගෙවල්වල සරසිළි ඇත්තෙම නැහැ වගේ, වැඩිම උනොත් බෞද්ධ කොඩියක්. 2026 කෙසේ වේවිද?

සමහර දන්සැල් වලට හිඟන්නන්ව  ගන්නේ නැතිලු, ඔවුන් ළඟ ගඳයි කියා.

දන්සැලක ප්‍රධානතම පරමාර්ථය කුමක්ද – දානය. කුසගින්න නිවීම.

අද බෙන්ස්/BMW කාරයේ ඇතුලේ සිටම අයිස්ක්‍රීම් ඉලල්ලා, කාලා, සමහරවිට එක්කෙනා 10 විතර   කාලා යනවා.

දන්සැල් පවත්වන්නේ ඇයි, එහි ශික්ෂණය කුමක්ද යන්න දන්සැල් කරන්නන් දැන ගත යුතුයි.

අපේ හෙළ කළාව, හෙළ බස, හෙළ දැය, හෙළ සමය අපි නොරැක්කොත් ඒවා වැනසී යනවාමයි.

ඒවා රැක ගන්න ජනයාට තනිව බැහැ, රජය උදව් කල යුතුයි, මැදිහත් විය යුතුයි.

‘අපි රජය, අපිට ඕවා කරන්න/රකින්න බැහැ, ජනතාව ඕන නම් කරගන්න’ කියා රජයට ඕන වුනත් කියන්න බැහැ. ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 9වෙනි වගන්තියෙන් රජය බැඳී සිටිනවා බුදු සසුනට ප්‍රමුඛත්වය දීමට සහ පෝෂණය කිරීමට.

අපේ දේශීය සංස්කෘතියේ උසස් කළා නිධානයක් වන පහත රට නැටුම අද අභාවයටම වගේ ගිහිං.

මෙයට මූළික හේතුවක් සියළු රාජ්‍ය  සහ පුද්ගලික අංශයේ සැළකිලි අප දේශීය කළාවේ මුදුන් මල්කඩ සේ සලකන උඩරට නැටුම් උදෙසා පමණක් වෙන් කිරීම.  

පෙරහැරවල අන් සියළු නැටුම් අභිභවා අද කාවඩි නැටුම් පෙරමුණ අරං. සමහර පෙරහැරවල කාවඩි කණ්ඩායම් 2, 3.

කාවඩි නැටුම් පසු කාලයේ කන්ද උඩ රට වඩුග රජුන්ගේ ආභාෂය නිසා නුවර පෙරහැරට එක්වූ අංගයක් විය හැකියි, පිරිසිඳු සිංහල බෞද්ධ සංස්කෘතික අංගයක් නොවේ.

මිනිසුන් බීගෙන නටන බවක්ද පෙනෙන්න තිබෙනවා සමහර කාවඩි පෙරහැර නැටුම් වල – විවිධ බයිලා තාල වලට.

ඉදින්, එසේ සිදුවන පෙරහර වල, එම පෙරහරේ  මුළින් පවත්වාගෙන ගිය වැදගත්, ශිෂ්ටසම්පන්න භාවයට එය අභියෝගයක්/තර්ජනයක්.

අද පාරට බැස්සහම පෙනෙනවා අපේ රටේ මොනතරම් ආබාධිතයින් සංඛ්‍යාවක් ඉන්නවද කියලා.  යුද්ධයට අමතරව හදිසි අනතුරු (වැඩියෙන්ම රිය අනතුරු) වලින් පිඩා විඳින අබාධිතයින් බොහෝයි. ඉඩක් ලැබුනොත් ඔවුනට කථා කරන්න, ඔවුන්ගේ කථා ශ්‍රවනය කරන්න.

අද කාලයේ ගෙදරින් එලියට බැස ගමනක් යන්න බය හිතෙනවා; ආපසු අනතුරක් නොවී ගෙදර එන්න ලැබේවීද කියා. ඔබ හෝ මම සදාකල් අබාධිතයෙකු වී දුක් විඳීමේ සම්භාවිතාව, දියුණු රටවල් හා සැසදීමේදී අපේ රටේ වැඩියි.

ශ්‍රමදාන කොච්චර හොඳ දෙයක්ද. ලංකාව ශ්‍රමදාන ලොවට හඳුවන්වා දුන් රටක්. මොන තරම් වැඩ කොටසක් ශ්‍රමදානෙන් කරන්න පුලුවන්ද. සෑම මසකම පලවෙනි හෝ අන්තිම ඉරිදා එම ගමේ/ නගරයේ ‘ශ්‍රමදාන ඉරිදා’ කරගන්න පුලුවන් නම්.

සූනාමි ඇවිත් විනාශ වෙච්ච බස්නැවතුම් පොළවල්, කෝච්චි පාරවල්, ගෙවල් දොරවල් එහෙම අපි  පොදුවේ වැඩ කරලා ඉතා ඉක්මනින් සෑහෙන දුරට  යථා තත්වයට පත්කර ගත්තා. ඉතාම හොඳ කර්තව්‍යයක්.  එදා ජවිපෙ සහෝදරවරු ඉදිරියෙන්ම සිටියා.

සුනාමි අවධියේ පුදුමාකාර ජවයකින්, රටට ආදරයකින් මුළු රටේම වගේ අය කටයුතු කලේ – උතුරේ ප්‍රභාකරන් පවා.

සුනාමියෙන් මුළු රටේ සියළු ජාතීන්ට අයත් ජනතාව එකසේ මිය ගියා. සුනාමි උපයෝගී කරගෙන  සියළු ජාතින් එක් සේසත් කරන්න එදා හිටපු රටේ පාලකයින්ට බැරි වුනා; යුද්ධය නැවත පටන් ගත්තා.

කෙනෙක්, එකතු වෙච්ච සුනාමි ආධාර පවා ගසා කෑවා.

1994 – 2005 කාලය තුල තමා වැඩිම ගණනක් රණ විරුවෝ LTTE නිසා මැරුනේ. සමහර එක් සටනකින් ඔවුන් 1,000කට වඩා ජිවිතක්ෂයට පත් වුනා. 750 – 800 එකවර මැරුණු අවස්ථා අපට මතකයි. ඉතා මෝඩ තීරණ ගත් අකාර්යක්ෂම, අධූරධර්ශි  පාලනාධිකාරිය ඒ ඛේධනීය මරණ වලට ඍජුව හෝ වක්‍රව වගකිව යුතුයි.

දේශපාලනයට අති ප්‍රසිද්ධ, කීර්තිමත්  නළුවෝ, ක්‍රීඩකයෝ, ගායකයෝ වැනි අයව  ගේනවා. මේවා දේශපාලනඥයන් චන්ද දිනන්න කරන වැඩ.

ඒ දේශපාලනඥයෝ රටට ආදරේ නැති ආත්මාර්ථකාමීන්.

ඒ අහිංසක මිනිස්සු දේශපාලනයෙන් සමුගන්නේ තමා ගොඩ නගාගත් හොඳ  නම පළුදු කරගෙන.

ඒ ඒ අංශ වලට දක්ෂ අය ඒවයින් ඉවත් වුනාට පසුවත් ඒ අංශම දියුණු කරන වැඩවල දිගටම යෙදෙන්න ඕන. ඒ ගොල්ලන්ට ඒ සඳහා දෙන්න පුළුවන් සහාය අති විශාලයි.  පුහු දේශපාලනයම බදා ගන්න ඕන නැහැ.

චියාන් කයි ෂෙක් තායිවානයට 1949 යනකොට ඒ රට පැල්පත් ගුහාවක්. අද තාය්වානය?

ඒ කාලේ කොල්ලුපිටියේ ලිබර්ටි හෝල්  එක පිටිපස්සේ පැල්පත් වත්තට කිවුවේ ‘කොරියාව’ කියලා. අද (දකුණු) කොරියාව කොහොමද? අපි ලක්ෂ ගණනින් එහේ වැඩට යනවා.

‘ආ ඒ ඕස්ත්‍රේලියාව, සිංගප්පුරුව නැත්නම් කොරියාව, අපි  ඒ රටවල් තරම් දියුණු නැතත්, දකුණු ආසියාවේ සහ අප්‍රිකාවේ ගොඩක් රටවල් වලට වැඩිය අපි ගොඩක් හොඳයි’ කියලා කොයි දේටත් නිදහසට කරුණු ඉදිරිපත් කරන අය ඉන්නවා.’   මේවා මෝඩ නිදහසට කරුණු.

අපට ඕස්ත්‍රේලියාව, සිංගප්පුරුව, කොරියාවටත් වඩා දියුණු වෙන්න බැරි මන්දැයි කියා හිතන්න/අහන්න පුළුවන් පිට කොන්දක් හදා ගන්න ඕන.

සිංගප්පුරුව, අපි වගේ නොවේ, කිසිම ස්වාභාවික් සම්පතක් නැති රටක්. දියුණු වීමට ප්‍රධාන හේතු: හොඳ නායකත්වය, දුෂණ/වංචා නොමැති වීම, රාජ්‍ය පාලනයට දේශපාලන ඇඟිලිගැසීම් නොමැතිවීම, හොඳ අධ්‍යාපන ක්‍රමය, සුදුස්සාට සුදුසු තැන් ලැබීම, මනා ආදායම් බදු ක්‍රමයක් තිබීම, වෙහෙස මහන්සි වී වැඩකරන මිනිසුන් සිටීම සහ රටේ පිරිසිඳු කම.

අපි සිංගප්පුරුව තරමට දියුණු වෙන්න ඉස්සෙල්ලා, මලයාසියාව තරමටවත් දියුණු වෙන්න ඕන. ඉනිමගේ ඉහලටම නගින්නේ පල්ලෙහා පඩි පසු කරලා. 

දත් 32 මැද දිව වගේ තමා ඊශ්‍රායලය තිබෙන්නේ. කිසිම ස්වභාවික සම්පතක් නැහැ, තෙල් ඇතුළුව. අද 1වෙනි ලෝකයේ ධනවත්ම රටක්.  මේ තරම් දියුණු වුනේ ඒ ජනතාවගේ ආත්ම ධෛර්යය, කැපවීම අධිෂ්ටානය සහ නොපසුබස්නා වීර්යය නිසා.

ඔවුන්ගේ වර්ගවාදී, ගෝත්‍රවාදී ආකල්ප අප ඉතා පිළිකුලෙන් බැහැර කල යුතුයි.

ඉඩම් නඩුවක් නම් අවසානයේ තීන්දුව එනකොට නඩුව දාපු කෙනා සමහරවිට මියගිහින්.

තව ඉතා සිමීත කාලයක් ඇතුලත එහි චන්දයක් පවත්වෙනවා යන්න දැන දැන, විශාල මහජන මුදලක් වියදම් කර,  මහත් ප්‍රසිද්ධියක් දී ජනාධිපතිතුමාට ජපානයට යාම සුදුසු යයි කියා උපදෙස් දුන්නේ කවුද?

ගිය සතියේ ජනාධිපතිවරයාව මහ ඉහළින් පිළිගත් ජපන් අගමැතිතුමා දැන් නැහැ. ළඟදීම එහි අළුත් ආණ්ඩුවක්, නව අගමැතිවරියක්.

ආයි යන්න වේවිද?

සමහර පුද්ගලික සහ ලංගම බස් කොන්දොස්තරවරු ඉන්නවා උවමනාවෙන්ම මගීන්ගෙන් සල්ලි ගන්නේ නැහැ. මේ  අය කාටවත්ම වැඩක් නැති කොටසක්.

1/10/25 සිට ක්‍රියාත්මක වන අළුත් බස් ටිකට් නිතීය යටතේ මේ අයට වැඩ වරදීවි.

ඇතැම් රූට් වල, ප්‍රය්වෙට් බස් වල මඟින් උතුරා යාමටත්, ලංගම බස් වල බොහෝ විට එසේ නොවීමටත් හේතුවක් තියෙන්න ඕන.

141 රූට් එකේ ලංගම බසයක් යනවා, ප්‍රය්වෙට් බස් වලට පිටුපස්සෙන්මයි යන්නේ, ඕවර්ටේක් කරලා යන්නේ නැහැ.  ලංගම බස් එකේ සෙනග නැහැ, ඊට ඉදිරියෙන් යන ප්‍රය්වෙට් බස් එකේ උතුරන්න සෙනග, තවත් සෙනග පටවා ගන්නවා.

ප්‍රය්වෙට් බස් එකේ ‘කොන්දා’ ලංගම බස් එකට අතින් මොනවද සඥ්යා කරනවා දැක්කා කියලා කියපු මල්ලියෙක් ඉන්නවා. ඇත්තද දන්නේ නැහැ.

ඔය දේශපාලන වැඩ වලට, මැයි දිනේ ද ඇතුළුව, බස් වෙන්කරනවානම් මහජන ගමනාගමනය කඩාකප්පල් නොවෙන අයුරින් එය සිදු කල යුතුයි.

මිනිස්සු පිරෙන්න ඉන්නවනම් පමණක් බසයක්  ධාවනය විය යුතුය යන සංකල්පයෙන් සිටින බස් මුදලාලිලා අතට මගී ප්‍රවාහන යාන්ත්‍රනය  භාර දී, ඔවුනට ඕන විදියට කාල සටහන් හදා, බස් ධාවනයට ඉඩ දීම නිසා පසුගිය කාලයේ බස් මගීන් වැටුනේ කබලෙන් ලිපටය.

පුද්ගලික බස් අයිතිකාරයන්ගෙන් බස් සේවය යනු ලාභ ලබන නොව මහජන සේවයක් බව බලාපොරොත්තුවීම කළු ගලෙන් වතුර ලබා ගන්නවා වැනි වූ නිෂ්පල වැඩක්. ඒ අයට බැනලා වැඩක් නැහැ, රජය බලවත් විය යුතුයි. ප්‍රධානම දෙයක් ලංගම ශක්තිමත් කිරීම.

රෑ 7න් පස්සේ කොල්ලුපිටියේ ඉඳලා බොරැල්ලට කෙළින්ම යන්න බස් එකක් නැහැ, ආයි රෑ  9ට කොල්ලුපිටිය දුම්රිය පොළ ලඟින් තියෙන 177 ලංගම බස් එක හැර. ඉතා ශෝචනීය තත්ත්වයක්.

රැ 7න් පස්සේත් ඉතා කාර්යබහුලව දිගටම තිබිය යුතු පිටකොටුව, නුගේගොඩ, බොරැල්ල, මහරගම, පිළියන්දල  ටවුන් ඉතා ඉක්මනින් ජන ශූන්‍ය බවට පත් වෙනවා. මන්ද, ඉන් පසු, මගී ප්‍රවාහන සේවයක් නැතිම තරම් නිසා; ත්‍රී වීල් හැර.

රෑට කොළඹ සහ සෙසු මහ නගරවල ප්‍රධාන අභ්‍යන්තර රූට් වල රැ 12 වෙන තුරු  පැයෙන් පැයට වත් බස් ධාවනය කල යුතුයි, සෙනග අඩුකම වෙනම ප්‍රශ්නයක්.

මෙසේ දුවන්නේ නැති ප්‍රයිවෙට් බස් ධාවකයන්ට කිසියම් දඬුවම් ක්‍රමයක් ලබා දිය යුතුයි.

එදා, 1979 JRගේ ප්‍රයිවෙට් බස් එන්න ඉස්සර,  මිනිස්සු රැ 930 චිත්‍රපටය බලලා, එය ඉවර වෙලා ගෙදර ගියේ ලංගම  බස් එකෙන්; එතකොට් රැ 12ත් පැනලා.

මීගමුව බස් ස්ටෑන්ඩ් එක ඉතා හොඳට හදා තියෙනවා. කොපමන කලක් අද තියෙන පිරිසිඳු කම රැකේද?

දුර ඉඳන් කොළඹ යන බොහෝ බස් මිගමුව බස් ස්ටෑන්ඩ් එකට නොපැමිණ තෙල්වත්ත හන්දියේ නවත්වා යනවා. මේ නිසා මීගමුව බස් ස්ටෑන්ඩ් එකේ අගය පහල වැටෙනවා; මීගමුවේ මගීන්ට ඒ බස් ‘මිස්’ වෙනවා. සමහර අර්ධ-සීග්‍රගාමි බස්වත්  මිගමුව බස් ස්ටෑන්ඩ් එක හරහා ගියොත් මගීන්ට හොඳයි.

කුරුනෑගල, නුවර බෝගම්බර, අක්කරෙයිපත්තු, ත්‍රීකුනාමළය, මන්නාරම බස් ස්ටෑන්ඩ් ඉතා හොඳයි.

මඩකලපුව, කැකිරාව, අනුරාධපුරය (දිගු ගමන්), යාපනය බස් ස්ටෑන්ඩ් හොඳ මදි; පිරිසිඳු කමින් බාලයි.

බස් රියදුරු මහත්තුරු තේ බොන්න බස්‌ එක නවත්තන්නේ එයාලාට ‘සම්තිං’ එකක්‌ දෙන, ‘ගතම්’ එකක්‌ ගෙවන හෝටලයක්‌ ගාව විතරයි.  එතන කෑම කොහොමද, ටොයිලට් කොහොමද කියල එයාලට අදාල නැහැ.  එයාලාගේ ගාන දෙනවනං ඒ ඇති. 

සමහර බස්‌ කොන්දොස්‌තරවරුන් සහ රියදුරන්ට දහසින් බැඳි පියලි හෙවත් මුදල් තෑගි ලැබෙනවා. තවත් අයට ඇති වෙන්න කෑම බීම සමග රැගෙන යන්නටද කෑම මුලක්‌ ලැබෙයි.  තවත් තැන් වල සන්තෝසම බයිට්‌ පාර්සලයක්‌ සමග අරක්‌කු බාගයක්‌ හෝ බෝතලයකි.

බස් මගින් සඳහා වූ හෝටලයක  වැසිකිලයට යාමට එලියට බැස්‌සවිට එම හෝටලයේ  පිටුපැත්තේ වැසිකිලි පේලි දෙකක් තිබුනා. ඉන් දෙකක්‌ කාන්තාවන් සඳහා වන අතර ඉතිරි දෙක පිරිමින් සඳහාය. දිනකට සිය/දහස්‌ ගනනක්‌ පරිහරණය කරන නිසා ඒවායෙන් හමන දුර්ගන්දය ගැන කතා කරන්නට වචන නැත.

එම බස් මගීන් සඳහා වූ හෝටල් වල ප්‍රශ්න විසදන්න පුළුවන් අදාළ වූ රජයේ ආයතනවලට පමණයි. නමුත්, එවැන්නක් නොකෙරෙන්නේ බොහෝ අදාළ දේශපාලනඥයන්/උසස් නිලධාරින් බස් වල ගමන් නොගන්නා නිසාත්, මෙවන් ප්‍රශ්ණ තිබෙන බවක් ඔවුන් නොදන්නා විය හැකි නිසාත්ය.

කොළඹ සිට හිඟුරක්ගොඩ දක්වා නව නවීන මහජන වැසිකිලි පද්ධතියක් සාදන බව රජය පසුගිය දා ප්‍රකාශ කළා. හොඳ වැඩක්. හැබැයි කිමි 5න් 5ට අවශ්‍ය නැහැ. කිමි 40න් 40 වාගේ, ප්‍රධාන නගරවල  තිබුනා නම් ඇති.

එතකොට අනිත් පළාත්වලට?

පොලිසිය විසින් තදින් විමර්ශනය කරමින් යන, තවමත් නඩුව අසා අවසන් වී නැති, රටේ නමගිය අපරාධ පිළිබඳව ඇතැම් යු ටියුබ් කරුවන් හුදු විව්ස් ගැනීමේ හෝ වෙනයම් සදාචාර විරෝධී අරමුණින් යු ටියුබ් වැඩසටහන් කර මහජන ප්‍රදර්ශනයට දානවා. සමහරවිට අපරාධ චූදිතයන්, අපරාධයට සම්බන්ධ සාක්ෂිකරුවන් පවා මේ යු ටියුබ් කරුවන් බිය, සැක නැතුව ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ ස්වකීය වැඩසටහන් තුලින් ප්‍රශ්ණ කරනවා. මෙය සිදු කරගෙන යන  පොලිස් අපරාධ විමර්ශනයට බලවත් හානියක්, බාධා කිරීමක්.

ඇත්තටම, පොලිසියට ඉස්සෙල්ලා යු ටියුබ් කරුවා  විසින් අපරාධය ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ විමර්ශනය කරනවා පමණක් නොවෙයි අපරාධය පිළිබඳව නොමඟ යවන ප්‍රකාශ පවා ඔවුන්  කරනවා. ජනතාව  තුල ත්‍රාසය, කුතුහලය අවුස්සා ඔවුන් තම යු ටියුබ් ගිණුම් මාර්ගයෙන් උපරිම ලෙස මුදල් හම්බ කරගන්නවා.

දියුණු රටවල මෙසේ කරන අයව අපරාධ නිතීය යටතේ අත් අඩංගුවට ගෙන වසර ගණනාවකට සිර ගෙදර යවනවා.

මෙම ලිපිය ලියන ලියුම්කරු මෙවැනි වූ චූදිතයෙක් හට විදේශයකදී නීතිඥ සහාය ලබා දී තිබෙනවා (ඒ තැනැත්තා යු ටියුබ් කරුවෙක් නොවීය). මෙම බලවත් අපරාධයට ඇමරිකාව, එංගලන්තය, ඕස්ත්‍රේලියාව වැනි රටවල  හඳුන්වන්නේ ‘perverting the course of justice’ යන දරුණු අපරාධ චෝදනාවෙන්.  

කොළඹ සහ තදාසන්න ප්‍රදේශවල තියෙන මේ තරම් අමාරු, දුෂ්කර, අවහිර බාධා සහිත මාර්ගවල, අනතුරු වළක්වමින් රිය පදවන අපේ රියැදුරෝ, විශේෂයෙන්ම බස්, බර වාහන රියැදුරෝ ලෝකයේ  ඉන්න හොඳම  රියැදුරෝ ගොඩට වැටෙනවා.

මගී ප්‍රවාහන අධිකාරියෙන්, පළාත් අනුව (TV නාළිකා හවුල් කර ගෙන),  මගී ජනතා චන්දයෙන්  හොඳම බස් ඩ්‍රයිවර්, හොඳම කොන්දොස්තර,  හොඳම  බස් සේවය, හොඳම ටිකට් පරීක්ෂකවරු  තෝරන වැඩ සටහන් ඇති කරන්න ඕන. ඒ දිනන සෑම අයට තෑගි/සහතික  දෙන්න ඕන.

සෑම මාර්ගයකම අපේ දුම්රිය සේවය උපරිම කාර්යක්ෂමතාවයෙන් වැඩ කෙරෙන්නේ නැහැ. උදා:

ඉතාමත් ජනාකීර්ණ වෙලාවල පවා (උදේ වැඩට පැමිණෙන සහ සවස වැඩ අරුණු)  දුම්රියයන්  අදාළ මාර්ගවල ධාවනය කරන්නේ පැය ½ට  එකක් වගේ. ඉතිං, උදේට වැඩට එන සහ වැඩ  ඇරිලා ගෙදර යන මිනිස්සු යන්නේ බාගෙට මැරිලා.

විනාඩි 5 හෝ 10 වරක් වත් එවැනි දුම්රියක් ධාවනය කරන්න බැරි ඇයි, දහස් ගණනක් මගීන් මේ මාර්ග භාවිතා කරන කාර්යබහුල වෙලාවල?

කොළඹ කොටුව සිට:

පොල්ගහවෙල/රඹුක්කන සහ මුහුදුබඩ (පානදුර/කළුතර සහ මීගමුව/හලාවත) සහ කැළණිවැලි

මාර්ගවල දුම්රිය කාළ සටහන් අරං බලන්න; මොන තරම් අඩු දුම්රිය ප්‍රමාණයක්ද දිනකට ධාවනය කරන්නේ කියා, උපරිමව මගීන් සිටින වෙලාවන්වල පවා. විනාඩි 25 – 30 මිනිස්සු සිය ගණන්, දුම්රිය වේදිකා වලට වී බලා සිටිනවා අදාළ දුම්රිය එනතුරු. ඉන්පසු, පසුව මිරිකිලා, තෙරපිලා යනවා.

නැවතත්, ඇයි විනාඩි 5න් 10ට මේවායේ දුම්රියන් ධාවනය නොකරන්නේ?

මිනිසුන් දුම්රිය භාවිතා කිරීම අවම කිරීමටද? සැප පහසුව, ලස්සණට මිනිසුන් හිඳ ගෙන යනවා දැකීමට දුම්රිය බලධාරීන්ගේ අසතුටුද?

කරන්න පුළුවන් දෙයක්:

දුම්රිය සේවයට අවශ්‍ය නම් ඉතා පහසුවෙන්, ධාවනය කරන දුම්රිය සංඛ්‍යාව වැඩි කරන්න පුළුවන් පවත්නා කාළසටහන් සංශෝධනය කරලා; හැබැයි කරන්නේ නැහැ. මගීන්ගේ දුක ඔවුන්ට වැඩක් නැහැ.

ඉතා ජනාකීර්ණ වෙලාවට සිඩ්නි, මෙල්බර්න් මෙට්‍රෝ සෑම විනාඩි 5ට වරක් වත් දුම්රියක් එහි සෑම   ජනාකීර්ණ මාර්ගයක ධාවනය කරනවා.  සියළු මගීන් ඉතා සතුටින් හිඳ ගෙන යනවා.

පැරිස්, ලන්ඩන්, නිව් යෝර්ක්, ටෝකියෝ  ඉතා ජනාකීර්ණ වෙලාවල මිනිත්තු 2න් 2ට වත් දුම්රියක් අධි ජානාකීර්ණ මාර්ගවල ධාවනය කරවනවා මගී තෙරපුම අවම කිරීමට.

නව දිල්ලිය, මුම්බායි දැන් දුම්රිය සේවා ඉතා හොඳයි. කාන්තාවන්ට වෙනම මැදිරි සලසා තියෙනවා. ඔවුන් හිඳ ගෙන යනවා.

කිසිදා අපට හොඳ ප්‍රවාහන ඇමති කෙනෙක් ලැබුනේ නැහැ, ඩලස් තරමක් හොඳයි.

දැන් ඉන්න කෙනා ගැන තව බලන්න ඕන. පසුව වාර්ථා කරමු.

 ත්‍රී රෝද රථ රියදුරු මහතුන් ඉතා දක්ෂ ලෙස අස්සෙන් රිංගා කොහොම හරි ගමන ඉදිරියටම  යනවා, මගියාව ඉක්මනට ගෙන යනවා.

අස්සෙන් රිංගා යාම නිසා සිදුවිය හැකි වාහන අනතුරුද බහුලයි. ඒ  අය හිතන්නේ ඉස්සරහ රෝදේ කොහොමහරි දාගත්තම, පිටිපස්සේ රෝද දෙකත් එම ඉඩෙන්ම  දාගන්න පුළුවන් කියලා.

සැමවිටම මීටර් ත්‍රීවිල් ටැක්සියක්ම පාවිච්චි කරන්න.

දුෂිත ත්‍රීවිල් රියදුරන් ඉන්නවා මීටරය තිබිද්දී එය නොදා පදවන්න බලන අය.

රෑට මීටර් නැතුව එලවන බොහෝ ත්‍රිවිල් රියදුරන් ඉන්නවා. ඇහුවහම බොරුවට කියනවා මීටරය කැඩිලා කියලා.

පොලිසියට හෝ අදාළ අධිකාරියට මේ වගේ අයව කෙලින්ම පැමිණිලි කල හැකි ක්‍රමයක් සැකසිය යුතුයි – එවලේම ගත හැකි හොට් ලයින් නොම්බරයක් වැනි.

නිර්මානශිලී නව අදහස් නොමැතිව මෙය දියුණු, පොහොසත් රටක් කල නොහැකියි (ජාජබ අභිලාශය මෙයනේ).

ත්‍රීවිල් ලියාපදිංචි කර රියදුරාගේ විස්තර ත්‍රිවිලයේ යන මගියාට දකින්නට පුළුවන් ලෙස සකස් කරන වැඩපිළිවෙලක් අවශ්‍යයි. ත්‍රීවිල් මිටරත් නිතර නිතර පරීක්ෂණයට ලක් කල යුතුයි, විශේෂයෙන්ම තමන්ගේම මීටර යොදා ගන්න අයගේ.

ලින්ක් මීටරය හොඳයි.

ඉදිරියේදී ත්‍රීවිල් ක්‍රමානුකුලව පාරවලින් ඉවත් කර නැනෝ, ඇල්ටෝ වැනි පොඩි කාර් ඒ වෙනුවට යෙදවිය හැකියි. දෙකේම ගාස්තුව බොහෝවිට එකයි. ත්‍රීවිල් හොඳ සේවයක් කළා, නමුත් දැන් යන්න කාලය ඇවිත්?

ත්‍රිවිල් නිසා පරිසර දුෂණය වැඩියි.  සමහරවිට ලොකු බස්/ට්‍රක්  වලින් පිටවෙන කාබන් මොනොක්සයිඩ් වායුව මගියාගේ/රියදුරාගේ පෙනහළුවලට කෙලින්ම යන්න පුළුවන්.

මේවා තදබල පිළිකා කාරක. අනතුරක් සිදු වූ විට වෙන ආපදාවේ  තරමත් වැඩියි. . අනික රටේ  දුප්පත් භාවයක් නිරුපනය කර පෙන්වනවා. 

ජපානයේ නිපදවන ඉලෙක්ට්‍රික් ත්‍රී වීල් එහි ප්‍රදර්ශනාගාර වල තිබෙනවා; හරිම පිරිසිඳුයි, පරිසර හිතකාමියි. නමුත්, බොහෝ ගණන්.

මේ මෑතක් වනතුරුම අපට වඩා ‘පහලින්’ සිටි,  මලයාසියාවේ අදත් ත්‍රීවිල් නැහැ, කවදාවත් හඳුන්වා දෙන්නේ  නැහැයි කියා ඒ අය  කියනවා. සිංගප්පුරුවේ ටැක්සි හැටියට දුවන්න පුළුවන් සැප වාහන පමණයි.

මතු සම්බන්ධයි …….

Sri Lanka and Iran solidarity

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has appealed to his Sri Lankan counterpart, Vijitha Herath, for solidarity following the United Nations’ reimposition of sweeping economic and military sanctions on Tehran, foreign media reports said yesterday.

A report published by REGTECHTIMES said: Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, has sent urgent messages to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, urging both nations to oppose sanctions imposed by the United States and its Western allies. According to Iran’s Ambassador in Colombo, Alireza Delkhosh, the letters highlighted concerns that these sanctions could weaken international law and set a dangerous precedent for other countries.

Araghchi’s messages emphasised that the issue is not only about Iran. They stated that today it is Iran facing restrictions, but tomorrow it could be other countries, including those in South Asia and Africa. The letters suggested that allowing sanctions to continue without resistance could make international rules appear fragile and ineffective.

The letters described the sanctions as a challenge to the credibility of global law. Araghchi called on Sri Lanka and the Maldives to resist pressure from Western countries and defend the dignity of international Law. He warned that treating international law as a political tool is dangerous and could have long-term consequences for countries around the world.

Recent Sanctions and International Response

The letters come after the United Nations reimposed sanctions on Iran through a mechanism called snapback.” The process was triggered by Britain, France, and Germany, who argued that Iran had failed to meet its commitments under the 2015 nuclear agreement. These sanctions targeted Iran’s nuclear and ballistic programmes and included measures that had previously been lifted, such as bans on oil exports, banking, transport, and energy trade.

Following the UN actions, the European Union reinstated strict sanctions. The EU said that Iran had breached the terms of the nuclear deal and that its stockpile of enriched uranium had exceeded agreed limits. These measures are intended to prevent Iran from advancing its nuclear and missile programmes.

EU unleashes historic crypto crackdown—digital currency ban hits Russia’s war chest

Meanwhile, the United States also increased pressure by imposing sanctions on 38 individuals and companies in Iran and China. According to the US Treasury Department, these groups supplied Iran’s military with missiles, helicopter parts, and other technologies. The US described these sanctions as a way to enforce international restrictions and stop Iran from acquiring advanced military technologies.

Iran has strongly rejected the return of UN sanctions. The country described these measures as illegal and said they carry no obligations for other nations. According to the Iranian Foreign Ministry, any attempt to reapply old resolutions that ended in 2015 is invalid and has no legal effect.

Iran’s Call to Other Nations

In the letters, Araghchi stressed that the situation is a test for global law and the fairness of international rules. He urged Sri Lanka and the Maldives to resist pressure from Western powers and take a stand. Araghchi warned that ignoring this moment could make international rules appear weak and allow stronger countries to impose restrictions without accountability.

Iran nuclear deal crisis deepens as UN Security Council blocks sanctions relief extension

According to Ambassador Alireza Delkhosh, supporting Iran’s position is not only about helping one nation but also about protecting the credibility of international law. The letters suggested that smaller countries could play an important role in defending global fairness and preventing powerful countries from acting without consequences.

The messages were delivered as part of Iran’s broader diplomatic efforts to rally international support against what it calls unjust sanctions.” By reaching out to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Iran is seeking to show that its opposition has global backing and is not Limited to just a few nations.

The situation highlights ongoing tensions between Iran and Western countries over nuclear programmes, sanctions, and international rules. It also highlights the role that smaller nations can play in influencing global decisions and defending international Law.

Senaka Weeraratna 

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) as a governing body registered under the Ministry of Sports is tasked with upholding the country’s cricketing heritage and promoting the sport from the grassroots to the international level. They also have responsibilities related to protecting the integrity of Sri Lankan cricket through disciplinary protocols and ensuring fair play.  The question of recognizing the DRS as a Sri Lankan innovation is a matter that falls squarely under their mandate to serve the nation and potentially contribute to national pride and the recognition of Sri Lankan ingenuity in world cricket. SLC as a state instrument of a sovereign nation has a fundamental duty to formally acknowledge Senaka Weeraratna’s contribution and not wait for ICC approval.

SLC must show solidarity with Sri Lanka first and not shamefully behave like a lackey of the ICC acting against the best interests of Sri Lanka with respect to DRS. 

by A. Abdul Aziz.

Lajna Imaillah (Ahmadiyya Muslim Women Association) Sri Lanka held its Annual Gathering (Ijtima) on 20^th and 21^st of September at Fazl Mosque premises, Negombo. The event was chaired by the President of the Association.

 The event started with flag hoisting by the President of the Association followed by silent prayer. The main event began with the recitation of Holy Quran followed the Association pledge was read out and the audience repeated.

The two days gathering (Ijtema) was enriched with a variety of spiritual, academic, and engaging activities:

Annual Ijtima of Nasirath (Ahmadi girls between 7 years to 15) was also held on the previous day (20 September 2025) at the same premises.

A special session by Ahmadiyya Montessori students to highlight their talents was also part of the event and the yearly publication of the magazine AN NISA (the woman) was launched at the event.

Academic Competitions such as Holy Qurán recitation, Urdu Poem (nazm), quiz, and speech competition were held and prizes with certificates distributed to all the winners. Educational Excellence Awards were presented to students who achieved outstanding results in their academic studies.

An inspirational discussion programme was held on the topic of Obedience to Khilafat (Spiritual Leadership), strengthening the bond of members with the blessed institution of Khilafat.

In conclusion, President, Ahmadiyya Muslim Women Association, Sri Lanka addressed:

As the ladies who have accepted the Imam of the age, the Promised Messiah Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (peace be on him,) we should live our lives according to the true teachings of Islam and to spread them far and wide. Promised messiah (peace be on him) said that Allah desires for the Jamaat of Promised Messiah to be an example to all others, and says that, to be a example means that when others see or hear you, they are influenced and seek to imitate what they have witnessed; Promised Messiah (peace be on him) has said that every Ahmadi should read his book kishti e nuh (Ark of Noah) repeatedly as this book contains a lot of guidance for Ahmadi women, because Promised Messiah (peace be on him) has written about the qualities and virtues that woman should seek and how they should live their lives.

President Sri Lanka Ahmadiyya Women Association continued to say, it is the mother who is responsible for the moral training of the children. If the mothers are religiously educated, they will raise the children with spiritual inclination.

Ahmadi girls and ladies from all the Chapters of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in the country attended.

Lajna Ima’illah – (committee for the maids of Allah) is the women’s auxiliary organization of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. It is for women above the age of 15. The organization was established in 1922 by Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmood Ahmad, the Second Khalifa (Caliph) of the Community to give women a voice in the administrative affairs of the Community and a degree of independence. It is the largest of the auxiliary organizations within the Community.

Motto

No nation can progress without educating their women.

 Aims and Objectives

This Axillary organization places a particular emphasis upon education and the moral upbringing of children. Among its aims are:

• To improve and enhance knowledge, whilst being focused on achieving high morals and spirituality.
• To serve the Community using pre-existing skills, including fundraising for local charities.
• To focus on upbringing of children, training and preparing them to spend their lives in accordance with the teachings of Islam.
• To promote unity and work together with patience and forbearance, overlooking each other’s shortcomings.
• To strive hard in the face of difficulties and challenges with fortitude and bravery.
• To plan to help the poor in a practical manner.

 Source: President, Ahmadiyya Muslim Women Association, Sri Lanka.

Udaya Gammanpila

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

බස්නාහිර පලාත් පෙරපාසල් ඒ්කකය කිසි දිනක ඉතිහාසයේ මෙතරම් දේශපාලනීකරණය වී නොමැති බව පෙර පාසල් ගුරු වෘත්තිකයන්ගේ සංගමයේ සභාපති අසංක ශ‍්‍රීනාත් මහතා පවසයි.

වර්තමාන අධ්‍යක්ෂකවරිය පුටුවේ වාඩි කරවන්නේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුව නියෝජනය කරන මන්ත‍්‍රීවරියක්, එනම් ආණ්ඩු පක්ෂයේ සංවිධායකතුමාගේ නෝනා බව හෙතෙම පෙන්වා දෙයි.

එමෙන්ම, මන්ත‍්‍රීවරිය මහරගමට, කොළඹට හෝ හෝමාගමට පැමිණ පෙර පාසල් ගුරුවරුන්ට දේශන පවත්වන බවට තමා මෑත දිනවල දුටු බව ද සභාපතිවරයා සඳහන් කළේය.

වර්තමානයේ දී මෙම මන්ත‍්‍රීවරියක් විසින් බස්සාර පළාතේ වැඩසටහන් කරගෙන යන බවත්, ඇය විසින්ම වැඩසටහන් දාන බවත් ශ‍්‍රීනාත් මහතා වැඩිදුරටත් චෝදනා කරයි.

බස්සාර පළාතේ වැඩසටහන දැන් අධ්‍යක්ෂක වෙලා තියෙන්නේ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී සමන්මලී ගුණසිංහ බව හෙතෙම කියා සිටියේය.

කෙසේ වෙතත්, අද ආණ්ඩුව කරනු ලබන්නේ සමාජය ඉල්ලූ දේවල් නොව, ඉල්ලා නැති දේවල් බව ද අසංක ශ‍්‍රීනාත් මහතා අවධාරණය කළේය.

by Melani Manel Perera, Courtesy PIME Asia News

Faced with 22,000 deaths a year linked to alcohol consumption, the Sri Lankan government has made a symbolic gesture on World Temperance Day. Former alcoholic entrepreneurs tell AsiaNews: “A scourge that leaves the poorest defenceless. Politicians must choose whether they want the revenue from excise duties or these victims.”

Colombo (AsiaNews) – Sri Lanka also celebrated World Temperance Day yesterday, 3 October, established by the World Health Organisation in 1988 to focus attention on the effects of alcohol on health and society. Every year, there are still around 22,000 deaths in the country linked to alcohol consumption.

This anniversary is always an opportunity for a series of nationwide programmes to educate communities about the risks associated with this social scourge.

According to Dr Ananda Ratnayake, chairman of the National Tobacco and Alcohol Authority, 21% of Sri Lanka’s population consumes alcohol, a percentage that continues to be a major public health concern.

For this reason, the Sri Lankan Excise Department has decided to close all wine and spirits shops from the evening of 2 October until the morning of 4 October to mark World Temperance Day. However, many believe that limiting alcohol consumption requires more than just one awareness day a year.

‘Under good government supervision, there should be a concrete state programme to keep liquor lovers away from liquor stores,’ say some citizens.

People like Methsiri Cooray, Kanchan Silva and Roxy Rowel, former entrepreneurs addicted to alcohol, told AsiaNews that ‘you cannot achieve both temperance in consumption and increased tax revenue from alcohol sales.’

‘The government should take the initiative to close all liquor stores to save the lives of the poor,’ they add. ‘Because rich people know how to drink without damaging their lives. But middle-class people don’t, and they’re not even rich enough to afford more expensive alcohol. We need a new path,’ conclude Methsiri Coray and Roxy Royal, ‘to ensure that neither the rich nor the poor will pursue alcohol anymore, and that their lives will be safe.’

MOHAMED AYUB  Courtesy The Daily Mirror

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The proposed promotion of LGBTQIA tourism as well as abolishing the caning of children has stirred fierce debate 

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The LGBTQ issue has been a controversy following a letter sent by Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority Chairman Buddhika Hewawasam to Equal Ground Executive Director Ms. Rosanna Flamer-Caldera, commending an initiative to promote and develop LGBTIQ tourism in the country

It is not clear whether it is due to a mix up of priorities or ideological obsession of certain ministers,  or genuine intentions,  that the government has created controversies on the so-called LGBTQ tourism and the action against corporal punishment of children, at this stage.

Already the government has presented a Bill seeking to amend the Penal Code of Sri Lanka to prohibit corporal punishment for children in all spheres, including homes, schools, and other care settings,  and the Bill has been debated over a day during the last week of last month. 

The LGBTQ issue has been a controversy following a letter sent by Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority Chairman Buddhika Hewawasam to Equal Ground Executive Director Ms. Rosanna Flamer-Caldera, commending an initiative to promote and develop LGBTIQ tourism in the country. 

Hewawasam in his letter had recognised the potential of LGBTQ tourism to diversify tourism markets and position Sri Lanka as a safe, inclusive, and welcoming destination for all travellers.” Equal Ground is an advocacy organisation based in Colombo, that campaigns for political, social and civilian rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) individuals.

The letter opened a can of worms for the government with nationalist groups protesting and religious leaders such as the Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith and the Mahanayakes of main Buddhist chapters in the country criticising the move. Cardinal said a strange culture” is emerging in Sri Lanka, not as a result of government policy but through the actions of certain institutions. 

 He questioned if they realise our children, our greatest resource which must be protected, are being influenced in this way,  stressing that people born homosexual should be respected and their rights safeguarded, Cardinal Ranjith cautioned against normalising homosexuality as a lifestyle.

The Mahanayaka Theras of the Malwathu, Asgiriya, Amarapura, and Ramanna Chapters on their part had written to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake expressing strong opposition to what they described as efforts to promote LGBTQ lifestyles and amend the Penal Code to outlaw corporal punishment.

In the letter, the chief prelates  said certain groups were attempting to normalise homosexual conduct and related practices and warned that such moves undermine Sinhala Buddhist cultural values. They  argue that despite these actions being portrayed as human rights initiatives, they threaten to erode the ethical foundation of Sri Lankan society. The prelates stated that promoting and legalising homosexual behaviour under the pretext of modern rights and freedoms, especially in a predominantly Buddhist country, will cause irreversible social harm.

Responding to the apprehensions of the religious leaders, the Tourism Ministry had issued a statement denying the purported moves to run a specific tourism promotion campaign targetting LGBTQ+ foreign tourists. The statement said that although Sri Lanka is a country that respects all genders and communities, along with their individual identities, this respect should not be misinterpreted as an endorsement or promotion of any particular type of sexual behaviour or activities.

It is true that the government or the Tourism Development Authority has not decided to run a specific tourism promotion campaign targeting overseas LGBTQ communities. Yet, the Tourism Authority endorsing such a promotion campaign is no different. In fact, what does LGBTQ tourism mean? It cannot be something other than persuading members of the overseas LGBTQ communities, especially the homosexuals,  to visit Sri Lanka showing that the country has ample opportunity to enjoy their rights. Respecting the members of such communities, locals or visitors, and not engaging in humiliation of them is one thing while promoting their activities is another. 

There is a growing trend in the world to recognise the LGBTQ communities and their rights,  while there is also an increasing number of NGOs in many countries, working in this field. Same sex marriage has been legalised in some countries. The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has recognised LGBT rights as human rights. It is against this backdrop that proposals are being made to conduct tourism promotion campaigns targeting LGBTQ communities.

Although the National People’s Power (NPP) government enjoys over a two thirds power in Parliament, its vote base is too vulnerable as a majority of people voted for the party at the last Presidential and Parliamentary elections out of impulsive emotion created by the 2021/2022 economic crisis,  and not out of political literacy. It was evident during the last local government elections;  and hence the government’s backtracking or denial of moves to LGBTQ tourism is comprehensible.

Similarly, the government has incensed certain sections of the society by bringing in the ban on corporal punishment of children without a proper awareness programme, despite however much good faith being attached to the move. The protests and apprehensions of the teachers who are one of the major stakeholders of this issue is a manifestation of it. The ban is to be introduced by an amendment to the Penal Code.

The Bill on the amendment cites several examples to explain the offences under it. A father who hits his child with a belt for not obeying his advice to study, a caregiver in a children’s home who delays a child’s food for several hours for bullying another child, and a school prefect who slaps a student for wearing a dress which violates the school dresscode would be offenders under this law, in spite of those actions deemed punishments for misconduct. 

Similarly, a teacher or principal who summons a student to the stage at a school assembly and introduce that child as a thief,  and humiliates him as he believes that the child had committed theft of another child’s property would also face the same fate, though his action does not cause any physical pain to the child.

Those who commit such offences could be sentenced to imprisonment for up to six months or fined an amount up to Rs. 100,000,  or both sentences could be imposed on the offender. The authorities have not answered the question raised by the teachers as to how they could discipline an erring child without landing in jail, if every action they would possibly take to that end is deemed to be an offence under the new law.

Unlike a whip or a slap, however much it is deplorable, a breadwinner father ending up in jail might ruin the entire life of a child. Hence, those genuine concerns must be addressed through a healthy dialogue with  teachers and other stakeholders before the Bill is passed in Parliament.

by Canishka G Witharana ATTORNEY-AT-LAW Courtesy The Island

On 9 September 2025, the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) and the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) formally endorsed a project spearheaded by EQUAL GROUND (apparently an NGO) to promote and develop LGBTIQ tourism in Sri Lanka. In this letter, titled Endorsement of the Project on Promoting and Developing LGBTIQ Tourism in Sri Lanka, the Chairman not only recognised this initiative, but also granted authority to coordinate with the tourism industry of the country.

This endorsement reflects the first state-backed initiative explicitly positioning Sri Lanka as an LGBTIQ-inclusive destination. It sends a strong signal to both domestic and international stakeholders that Sri Lanka is seeking to capture the global Pink Tourism” market.

Commitments

In his letter, the Chairman endorsed the initiative of EQUAL GROUND and acknowledged the purported value of promoting LGBTQ tourism through Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) programs.

He granted authority to coordinate with tour operators, hotels, training institutes, guides, and drivers to implement the proposed training and awareness programmes. The Chairman further recognised the project as having the potential to diversify Sri Lanka’s tourism markets and to contribute to the expansion of the country’s global tourism footprint.

He has expressed willingness to facilitate and present the programme to the President, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Minister of Tourism and Foreign Employment in order to ensure state-level recognition.

Government Policy

This letter cannot be viewed in isolation. It is a policy pronouncement of the Government, since the SLTDA and SLTPB are state entities under the Ministry of Tourism and Foreign Employment. By empowering EQUAL GROUND to lead on LGBTIQ tourism engagement, the letter reflects an official policy stance that LGBTIQ recognition and promotion are part of Sri Lanka’s tourism development strategy.

The Constitutional Barrier

However, this policy shift and the endorsement of an LGBTIQ initiative is unconstitutional and therefore unlawful. This constitutional inconsistency was proclaimed by the Supreme Court (comprising P. Padman Surasena J (CJ), Yasantha Kodagoda PC J, and Kumudini Wickremasinghe J) in the Special Determination on the Gender Equality Bill (2024). In that case, the Court explicitly held that the Constitution recognises equality only on the basis of sex” (male and female), and not on gender” or gender identity.”

Supreme Court Determination

The Bill titled Gender Equality Act, No. of 2024” was gazetted on 10 April 2024 and placed on the Order Paper of Parliament on 7 May 2024. Two petitions were filed under Article 120 read with 121 of the Constitution challenging the Bill’s constitutionality.

Intervenient Petitioners (activists and NGOs) later sought to support the Bill, but their petition was dismissed as time-barred.

Key Constitutional Issues Considered Article 12 – Equality:

The Court distinguished between sex” (biological male/female) and gender identity” (socially constructed roles/identities). The following passages are cited from the judgment, which illustrate the reasons for the decision:

In the course of the hearing, it was common ground between the learned President’s Counsel for the Petitioners and the learned Deputy Solicitor General that the word ‘sex’ appearing in Article 12(2) of the Constitution and the word ‘gender’ appearing in many places in the Bill are not the same. Mr. Canishka Witharana, appearing for the Petitioners in SC SD 55/2024, relied on the definitions of those two words contained in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary and Thesaurus to show this difference. It is worthwhile reproducing those definitions from the said source. The definition for ‘sex’ is given below.

Sex

– either of the two major forms of individuals that occur in many species and that are distinguished respectively as female or male, especially on the basis of their reproductive organs and structures.

The learned Deputy Solicitor General similarly cited a definition for ‘sex’ from Black’s Law Dictionary (2nd Edn):

Sex

– ‘The distinction between male and female; or the property or character by which an animal is male or female.’

Thus, the above definitions provided by both the Petitioners as well as the learned Deputy Solicitor General convince us that any person’s sex has to be either male or female and not any other. Moreover, since the definition refers to the reproductive organs and structures as a basis of distinction, I am also convinced that this categorisation of persons is based upon a biological criterion.

On the other hand, the phrase gender identity, according to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, refers to a person’s internal sense of being male, female, some combination of male and female, or neither male nor female. The same source has expressed the view that gender expression refers to the physical and behavioral manifestations of one’s gender identity.”

The Court also held:

Therefore, I am also convinced that the phrase gender identity is a category different from the categories of male or female. Therefore, I am also convinced that there can be only two components under the term ‘sex’. Those components are firstly the category of male and secondly the category of female. I, therefore, hold that gender identity is a phrase that denotes a distinct standalone category that is different to the category identified as sex in Article 12(2) of the Constitution.”

Gender identity – a new category:

Gender or gender identity denotes persons who identify with categories other than male or female. Such categories are commonly represented under the acronym LGBTQ+, referring to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, and other related identities. However, under the Constitution, no recognition can be accorded to these categories beyond the constitutionally recognised classifications of persons as either male or female.

Gender equality:

The Chairman’s letter was very specific in supporting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I)” programs. Taken literally, such programs may be structured to promote and assure gender equality.” Clause 3 of the Gender Equality Bill stated that every person shall have the right to gender equality and no person shall be denied such right.”

However, the Court held that:

…our Constitution does not recognize the presence of gender equality. The Constitution only recognizes that no person can be discriminated against on the basis of sex. The framers of the Constitution, in their wisdom, deliberately left out recognizing gender equality.”

National Policy:

The Bill referred to a National Policy on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. The Court held that, without incorporating it into the Bill or specifying its content, the policy remained uncertain and external. Such policies cannot be given the force of law, and reliance on them amounts to arbitrariness. In this light, the Chairman’s letter appears to have created a similar unlawful policy framework, which cannot be validly implemented.

Buddhism – Religion:

Tourism in the country must be promoted without tarnishing traditions, culture, and religious practices and beliefs. State and state officials are bound to adhere to Article 9 of the Constitution, which requires the protection and fostering of the Buddha Sasana.

The Court held that a Gender Equality law would compel religious institutions such as Pirivenas, Buddhist Universities, Churches, Mosques, and Convents to admit persons regardless of sex/gender identity. Promoting LGBTQ practices would also undermine Buddhism’s foremost place and the freedom of religion and practice (Articles 10 and 14(1)(e)).

Same-Sex Marriages and Cultural Impact:

The Court warned that giving recognition to gender equality could open the door for same-sex marriage claims, which are contrary to existing marriage laws (Marriage Registration Ordinance, Kandyan Marriage & Divorce Act, Muslim Marriages Act, Tesawalamai), Sri Lanka’s culture, and Penal Code provisions criminalising homosexual acts (Sections 365 and 365A).

Legitimacy Questionable

Every state official, including the Chairman of the SLTDA, assumes office under an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of Sri Lanka. This oath imposes both a legal and moral duty to ensure that all actions, policies, and endorsements remain within constitutional boundaries. When an official acts in contravention of the Constitution, it raises serious questions of accountability and constitutes a potential breach of constitutional duty. By formally endorsing LGBTQ tourism and granting authority for its promotion, the Chairman has acted in deliberate violation of those constitutional limits. Consequently, the legitimacy of the Chairman’s official acts from the moment of such breach of oath becomes open to serious doubt.

Legal Requirements for LGBTQ Recognition

No policy, law, or regulation promoting LGBTQ rights or recognition can be made under the current Constitution without first amending it. Intended laws need a two-thirds majority in Parliament plus approval by the people at a referendum to become valid and enforceable.

by CaniShka
G Witharana
ATToRneY-AT-LAw

N. A. de S. Amaratunga  Courtesy The Island

The IMF claims success in helping poor countries to recover from economic crises.  This may be true to some extent in terms of economic parameters like GDP, interest rates, revenue, debt/GDP ratio, etc. But it has, by and large, failed to bring about a positive change in the lives of poor people, particularly in Asian and African countries. For example, Sri Lanka faced an acute economic collapse and the IMF helped it to recover from the immediate contingency,

but the poor people have not benefited. Whether they would ever recover is uncertain, going by what has happened and is happening in the world. Poverty rate which was 14% before the crisis is 24.5% now and although the World Bank is all praise about the economic upturn there is no improvement in the poverty statistics or the perceptible living standards of the poor. In the world the rich are getting richer while the poor are left behind, despite the IMF.

IMF was formed in 1945 at the Bretton Wood conference and has a membership of 191 countries. The US is the biggest donor to the IMF and therefore holds the whip hand which it uses to further its own interests and also to maintain the status quo with regard to the global economic system which is in the grip of neoliberalism. The IMF cannot deviate from these neo-liberal policies which disallow government intervention and welfarism. Leading economists like Joseph Stiglitz, who was once the head of the World Bank, had severely criticized these policies.

The economic situation in African countries bears witness to the ineffectiveness of the IMF to lift the people out of poverty. The continent has suffered from neoliberal economic policies that have undermined development. The IMF continues to advocate for austerity despite mounting evidence that it has stifled economic development and human development across Africa. IMF’s insistence that countries prioritise debt repayments, rather than seeking a systemic solution to debt, is a major obstacle to spending on health, education and climate action. Globally, six billion people are now facing austerity, largely owing to the IMF’s reluctance to accept that its economic model has failed.

Even governments with a powerful democratic mandate find themselves with no other choice but to follow the IMF’s outdated advice – pursuing narrow measures of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and austerity policies. According to the IMF’s own debt data, 19 of the region’s 35 low-income countries are already in debt distress or facing high risk of debt distress. UNCTAD recently found that the amount African governments are forced to spend on interest payments on debt is often higher than spending on either education or health (Roos Saalbrink David Archer, Rick Rowden, 2023).

Another research report says that ” Of 763 programmes between 1980 and 2015, 512 were interrupted, of which 291 did not resume – as our data from the IMF Monitor Database shows.” (Bernhard Reinsberg, et. al. 2023). The researchers say this high failure rate is due to the fact that the programmes are  unimplementable by design.

What has happened in Asia is no better. Sri Lanka went bankrupt due to debt and even in India, with a very impressive GDP, 30 million have gone below the poverty line in the last 15 years. Pakistan has had 23 IMF programmes and despite all that 11 million have gone below poverty line in the recent past.

While this was going on the billionaires of the world have doubled their wealth. The new wealth produced by the world since 2020 has been USD 42 trillion. Two thirds of this huge amount of wealth has gone into the pockets of 1% of  the world population which comprises the billionaires of the world. The whole of the rest of the world population, i.e. 99%, will have to do with one third of this wealth, which was largely produced by them (Andrea Barolini 28 Jun 2018).

To illustrate the inherent contradiction in IMF policies, we could consider the IMF dictum for all Third World countries ‘live within your means’ which is good advice, yet IMF’s own conditions preclude the implementation of this policy. The IMF does not allow control of imports and advocates that the free market must decide on imports. Invariably  all developing countries import more than they export forcing them into ever increasing debt. If its intentions are genuine, why cannot the IMF be more flexible and allow the highly qualified economists in these countries to decide on such matters?

Another aspect of the problem is the government’s inability to regulate the dollar. For instance, if the rupee value of the dollar rises by 10%, debt obligations also would rise by 10%. Could Sri Lanka cope with such a situation? Debt servicing, starting in 2028, would entail a significant increase in exports and paradoxically imports, which also would have gone up in price, also will have to be increased to supply the necessary inputs for export production. This situation would lead to more borrowing and a vicious cycle.

In the Global South, several groups and organisations have come together reflecting the dire need to break away from the tethering neo-liberalist global economic system. They have realized that the dollar has been turned into an exploitative instrument and almost weaponised. BRICS, SCO, ASEAN, AU are fledgling and floundering as yet.  They have to find common ground and iron out their differences if they are to survive. China seems to be very keen to develop an alternate currency to the dollar but India is not, however it has announced its willingness to trade in Indian rupees which virtually is a challenge to the dollar. Why cannot other countries emulate India and set up systems of exchange between each other.

The export-led economy cannot work for the benefit of the poor. It is designed to serve the interests of the rich. Free market, manipulable trade and aid, dollar dominance, export orientation, and debt are the components of the present global economic system and the IMF is its main instrument.

The Global South has no choice but to develop together, help each other, and try and create a new world order. What it must do is leave aside vexed issues, and help each other to achieve self sufficiency in essential requirements of food, medicine, textile, and renewable energy. By this means more than 75% of the battle would be won. These countries must gradually move away from an export-led economy and move towards self-sufficiency. They must realise that time is running out for them. Self-reliance of the Global South is the alternative to IMF.

N. A. de S. Amaratunga 

Courtesy Hiru News

Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Member of Parliament, Mujibur Rahman, has announced that a resolution requesting a Parliamentary Select Committee to investigate the transfer and promotion of judicial officers will be handed over to Speaker Jagath Wickramaratne during the next parliamentary sitting week.

Rahman stated that the proposal, signed by representatives of all parties in the Joint Opposition, will seek the establishment of the Select Committee to look into numerous complaints received by the Opposition regarding the promotion and transfer of judges over the past period.

He noted that the issue has also generated significant discussion within the judicial sector.

The MP explained that the Opposition decided to request the Select Committee to thoroughly investigate these matters, given the severity of the situation.

He further stated that such a scenario within the judiciary could affect public confidence in the judicial system and called on the Judicial Service Commission to pay close attention to the issue.

Rahman concluded that a Parliamentary Select Committee would be able to conduct a comprehensive and accurate study of all related concerns.

Courtesy Hru News

The withdrawal of all state-provided vehicles for former President, the fifth Executive President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, and his security detail has created a serious security concern, according to his media spokesperson, Manoj Gamage.

Gamage stated that the bulletproof vehicle provided by the government to Rajapaksa was handed back to the state yesterday (3 October).

He added that all vehicles allocated for the security personnel have also been recalled, leaving the guards with no transport.

Gamage pointed out that the security personnel, who are armed, cannot travel in private vehicles.

 This situation, he claimed, places Rajapaksa’s life in a dangerous position.

He noted that large numbers of people visit Rajapaksa at his Carlton Residence in Tangalle, and he frequently receives invitations to various public events.

Considering these factors, Gamage emphasised the importance of security authorities paying strict attention to Rajapaksa’s safety.

Gamage described it as “very regrettable” that a former President who led the defeat of the world’s most brutal terrorism faces such a predicament, stressing that ensuring his security is the duty and responsibility of everyone.

He raised a question: “Whose agenda is being fulfilled by reducing Mahinda Rajapaksa’s security in this manner?”

Gamage confirmed that they plan to discuss the matter with security authorities and will formally inform the Inspector-General of Police and the Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security in writing next week.