Lanka Lead News

යාපනයේ සිවිල් සංවිධාන කේන්ද්‍රයේ සභාපති අරුන් සිද්ධාර්ථ් මහතා දින කීපයකට පෙර අත්අඩංගුවට ගත් බව යාපනයෙන් රපෝර්තු වී තිබුනි. ඔහු රිජුව සම්බන්ද නැති, පවුල් දෙකක් අතර වෙච්ච ආරවුලක් මුල් කරගෙනයි ඔහුව අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන ඇත්තේ. පරීයේෂන තවම කරගෙන යනවායි පොලීසිය කියන බැවින්, සිද්ධාර්ථ් මහතාට මහේස්ත්‍රාත්තුමා බේල් දී නිදහස් නොකර, ඔහුව රිමාන්ඩ් බාරයේ තැබීමට තීරනය කර තිබෙන බවත් අපට දැනගන්නට ලැබී තිබේ. මෙය සිද්ධාර්ථ් මහතාගේ ජීවිත ආරක්ෂාවට විශාල තර්ජනයක් වන බවට කිසිම සැකයක් නැත. පසුගිය වසරක පමන කාලයක් තුල ඔහු උතුරේ ද්‍රවිඩ ජනතාවත්, දකුනේ සිංහල ජනතාවත් අතරත් විශ්වාසය සහ අන්නෝන්‍ය සුහද තාවයත් ගොඩනැගීම සදහා විශාල වශයෙන් වෙහෙස මහන්සි වූ කෙනෙක් බැවින්, ජාතිවාදය වපුරන ද්‍රවිඩ දේශපාලන පක්ෂවලට සහ බෙදුම්වාදී ඩයස්පෝරාවට ඔහු මහත් අහියෝගයක් වී ඇත.

සිද්ධාර්ථ් මහතාගේ ජීවිත ආරක්ෂාව ගැන තම අකලංක අවධානය යෙදී ඇති බව ඔස්ට්‍රේලියාවේ ප්‍රසිද්ධම මානව හිමිතම් සුරැකීමෙ සංවිධානය වන ‘SPUR‘ සංවිධානය ඉදිරිපත් වී ඇති බව අපට දැනගැනීවට ලැබී ඇත.

මේ වන විටත් අත්අඩංගුවේ පසුවන යාපනය සිවිල් සංවිධාන කේන්ද්‍රයේ සභාපති අරුන් සිද්ථාර්ථ් මහතාගේ ආරක්ෂාව වෙනුවෙන් හා ඔහුට සාධාරනයක් ඉටුකිරීම වෙනුවෙන් ඔස්ට්‍රේලියාවේ ‘ස්පර්‘(SPUR) සංවිධානය බිම් මට්ටමේ කටයුතු කීපයක් කර තිබේ.

අරුන් සිද්ධාර්ථන් මහතාට ජීවිත තර්ජනයක් ඇති බවත්, ඔහුගේ ආරක්ෂාව වෙනුවෙන් මෙරට මානව හිමිකම් කොමිසමේ සභාපතිනි රෝහිණී මාරසිංහ මහත්මියට හා මහජන ආරක්ෂක අමාත්‍ය ටිරාන් අලස් මහතාට ලිපි මගින් දන්වා ඇති බවත් SPUR සංවිධානයේ සභාපති ආචාර්ය දසරත් ජයසූරිය මහතා ලංකා ලීඩ් වෙත අදහස් දක්වමින් සඳහන් කළේය.

අරුන් සිද්ධාර්ථ් මහතා වෙනුවෙන් යාපනයේ කිසිඳු නීතිඳවරයකු මුලින් ඉදිරිපත් නොවූ බවද, ඒ නිසා නීතිඥ ප්‍රියන්ත දෙණියාය මහතා ඔහු වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටීමට යාපනයට ගිය බවද ඒ මහතා පැවසීය.

ජාතීන් අතර සංහිදියාව වෙනුවෙන් හා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ භෞමික අඛණ්ඩතාවය, ස්වෛරී භාවය හා ඒකීය භාවය වෙනුවෙන් ත්‍රස්තවාදී තර්ජන මැද නොබියව ඉදිරියට පැමිණි අරුන් සිද්ධාර්ථ් වැනි දේශප්‍රේමී නායකයන් ට සාධාරනයක් ඉටු විය යුතු බව තම සංවිධානය තරයේ විශ්වාස කරන බවද ඒ මහතා මෙහිදී පැවසීය.

මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරු කිහිප දෙනෙකුද මේ වන විට දැනුවත් කර ඇති බවත්, අරුන් සිද්ධාර්ථ් මහතාගේ ආරක්ෂාව වෙනුවෙන් සංවිධානයක් ලෙස අන්තර් ජාතිකවත්, ලංකාව තුලත් ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍ර වාදී රාමුවක් තුල, ශ්‍රී ලංකාවෙ නීතියට ගරුකරමින්, සිදුකළ හැකි සියල්ල සිදුකරන බව ආචාර්ය දසරත් ජයසූරිය මහතා වැඩිදුරටත් සඳහන් කළේය.

KAMALIKA PIERIS

There were several other rigged elections in JR’s time. The Referendum was not the only one.   JR had intervened in the Jaffna District Development Councils elections held on June 4, 1981.  This was the first election to take place under Proportional Representation. Officials selected by the Commissioner of Elections were replaced by nominees of the ruling party just before the poll. For the first time in the history of the country, the conduct of an election was wrested from the election authority and exercised by a political party, said Vittachi.

Vittachi also quoted S. Nadesan who said, on the day before the election, Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, on the order of the President had given instructions to the Returning Officer. 150 presiding officers at polling booths were removed and others substituted. Some were peons in government departments. They knew nothing of election procedure.    When it came to counting, 6 ballot boxes were missing.

Elections to the Jaffna DDC in 1981 were rigged, agreed Ranga Chandraratne. There were last minute instructions from Colombo to change the presiding officers at the polling booths. There was widespread booth capture and the stuffing of ballot boxes, he concluded.

UNP used the same tactics at the Mulkirigala by-election in 1985. There was thuggery and intimidation. But voters reacted.  They turned up in gangs with some carrying guns. UNP got 26,000 and SLFP got 24,000 votes at the election, reported Vittachi.

JR meddled with election laws.   Neville Fernando   UNP MP for Panadura was expelled from the party in 1982. Instead of a by election, government filled the seat with a new nominee.   There was no protest, reported Vittachi.  

The   Kalawana seat fell vacant due to the non attendance of UNP MP Pilapitiya, but Pilapitiya continued to sit in Parliament. To accommodate Pilapitiya, Parliament passed a law making Kalawana a two member seat. This was passed with two thirds of the votes. Kalawana became temporarily a multi member seat. At the election, Sarath Muttetuwegama was elected. However, Pilapitiya resigned and the matter ended, observed Vittachi.

JR had also wanted to alter the election laws. He wanted to shorten the period of time for nominations, manipulate the time allotted to media for election promotion, allow for a period time after elections for winning candidates to switch parties and allow political parties to nominate whom they liked to the winning seats, after the election was over. JR also wanted to change the defamatory laws. He wanted a law allowing the President to dissolve Parliament at his sole discretion at any time. There was a howl of protest over these suggestions, said Vittachi.

JR Jayewardene was the first head of state to engage in violence. This has not been sufficiently emphasized. JR had once been garlanded with flowers which had red ants hidden in it. JR endured the bites and when the meeting was over he had the guy who introduced the ants thrashed, said Sarath Amunugama.  

Political violence became institutionalized after 1977, observed Nira Wickremasighe. This was the start of an era of political thuggery, often perpetrated by member of the JSS union affiliated to the UNP.  Parliamentary MPs also engaged in Intimidation and violence, added Nira.

One highly disconcerting fact about JR’s administration was its condoning of violence, said Sarath Amunugama. When his plans met with organized resistance JR had no hesitation in bringing in thuggish trade unions for the purpose of attacking the protestors.  Until then the state   had not encouraged this.  Even Leftist parties like LSSP and Communist Party did not encourage its workers to attack others. But JR did, observed Sarath.

Much of the work was carried out by Cyril Mathew goons but there is no doubt that JR was behind these attacks, said Sarath Amunugama.  They attacked persons who were critical of the open economy. In 1982, Prof Ediriweera Sarachchandra started to give a talk at ACBC Hall on decline of Sinhala culture in recent years.  Gang of thugs rushed up and beat him and several others on the rostrum including monks,  one of whom was Maduluwawe Sobitha.   

The  settling of 40, 000 Sinhala colonists at Maduru Oya,  was to have been done unobtrusively,  with quiet support from the Ministry, but instead it was carried out clumsily by Ven. Dimbulagala Seelalankara,  who went to Maduru Oya openly  in a  large convoy, blaring pirit  and  shouting all the way.  40,000 Sinhalese were settled at Maduru Oya.

There were protests from the Tamil Separatist Movement and JR wanted this Sinhala settlement dismantled.  The task was entrusted to Paul Perera, MP for Kaduwela. He was appointed District minister of Polonnaruwa, for the purpose. Paul Perera and Col. Benedict Silva a volunteer soldier form Katana thoroughly dismantled the settlements. I do not like to state the methods used said Malinga Gunaratne in his book ‘For a Sovereign state’.  Malinga did not realize the value of placing such violence on record. Instead he said there are witnesses in Nikawewa, Padaviya, now lame, who can describe the atrocities committed 

JR strangled the General strike of 1980 using force. Cyril Mathew goons led by UNP trade union launched a murderous attack on striker near Lake House roundabout. They had come armed with clubs, knives and knuckle dusters. One worker was killed and others ran to escape. Lake House roundabout was like a war zone with placards, shoes, slippers, files strewn all over, recalled Sarath Amunugama.

Black July 1983 was of course, total violence. The first wave of rioting and looting was organized by Cyril Mathew, with the seeming concurrence of the President, said Sarath Amunugama.  Many of the looters at least on the first day were workers of state institutions like Electricity Board, and Port Corporation. They were going about in government vehicles.   

The signing of the Indo Lanka Accord in July 1987 was also associated with violence. When the news of the proposed Accord became public, there was a violent reaction amongst the public. The accord was met with violent protests n the south. Thousands of millions of rupees worth of damage was done to government owned buses, cars, buildings, telephone exchanges, electricity stations, said Vittachi.

Large number of state buses and other property were destroyed by protesting masses, said Bandaragoda. Posters saying kill the old man appeared began to appear all over the country said Sarath Amunugama.

Jayatissa Bandaragoda had gone to Katunayake airport to drop a friend at the airport. On his return he was stopped at more than 10 places. At Hendala there was a barrier of burning tires across the road. Jayatissa was recognized by someone and the barrier removed. On his way back from Pannipitiya, after dropping the driver, Jayatissa   saw people walking in thousands towards Borella.They were angry mobs who were prepared to attack anything, he said. There were reports of gangs of protestors approaching Colombo from the suburbs, confirmed Sarath.

 The government retaliated. A crowd had assembled at Parliament .A helicopter gunship had fired from the air and the crowd quickly dispersed.  UNP goons had been unleashed   against a protest by monks and about a dozen protestors had been killed.  Muruttetuwe Ananda said Maubima Surakeeme Sanvidhanaya had bombs thrown at them at the demonstration.  

There was one last   expression of violence. The first session of Parliament after the signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord was due to be held on August 18, 1987.  Before that JR held a meeting of the government  group on 7 august,  in Parliament premises.

 Ajith Kumara, recruited by JVP, was hiding behind the curtain in the room.  He  hurled two grenades at the head table where the President  was sitting.  Instead of   undoing the pin and waiting, he had hurled the grenades immediately after undoing the pin.   The grenades bounced off the table, and rolled  to where National Security Advisor Lalith Athulathmudali and Matara District Minister Keerthisena Abeywickrama were seated, and exploded in front of them.  Keerthisena was killed and others seriously wounded. JR escaped. (Continued)

Manusha Media

Minister of Labour and Foreign Employment Manusha Nanayakkara, today said that duty free allowance given to expatriate workers at the airport will be increased from May 01. He said a circular in this regard was issued.
The Minister was addressing the media at the Government Information Department.
Earlier a memorandum presented by the Minister of Labour and Foreign Employment Manusha Nanayakkara, to the cabinet of ministers seeking their approval to increase the duty free allowance given to expatriate workers at the airport was approved. Accordingly the Ministry of Labour and Foreign Employment has issued the relevant circular.
According to this circular, expatriate workers who legally send money to Sri Lanka through the banking system are eligible to receive an increased duty free allowance. The amount of money sent through the banking system since the first of May last year will be taken into account and this concession will be given under five categories.

Workers who have sent between USD 2400-4799 will get an additional duty free allowance of 600 USD and workers who have remitted between USD 4,800 – $7,199 will get an additional allowance of USD 960. Workers who have sent between USD 7,200 – USD 11,999 will receive an additional duty free allowance of USD 1,440. Expatriate workers who have remitted between USD 12,000 – USD 23,999 can get a USD 2,400 and workers who have sent USD 24,000 or more can get an additional USD 4,800 duty free allowance.

The Minister speaking further said;

It is very important to direct the workers for foreign jobs and it is equally important to bring the money they earn to the country through legal channels. We have worked hard for that in the past. At a time when the amount of remittances received from expatriate workers had dropped to 190 million dollars, when some went to other countries and told workers not to send money to the country and while some chose illegal methods such as undiyal to send money we implemented several measures to rectify these issues. After understanding how the people of our country were suffering, our expatriate workers once again started sending money to the country through the banking system. Several programmes were implemented to bring money to the country through safe and legal channels. Accordingly, an import license was introduced for migrant workers to import electric vehicles. We have also arranged to provide duty concessions to expatriate workers. Accordingly, the circular was issued yesterday to increase the duty free allowance for expatriate workers at the airport.
Accordingly, the increase in duty free allowance for expatriate workers at the airport will be implemented from the first of May. The facility is available through an App operated by the Central Bank. By registering through this App, it is possible to get the additional duty free allowance based on the amount of dollars sent to the country.

Also, last week, Cabinet approval was obtained to introduce a low interest loan system for expatriate workers. Accordingly, expatriate workers can get loan facilities up to two million rupees. Also, the President presented his observations to the Cabinet and informed the Cabinet that a programme should be implemented for the workers who have returned to this country after working abroad.

Some time back, expatriate workers were called heroes of our country. Then during the Corona period, they were treated as human bombs. False information were circulated that expatriate workers returning to the country will put the country in peril during the covid pandemic. They were mistreated and embezzled during quarantine.

In this backdrop the initiatives taken by the  new government gave the expatriate workers new hope and the foreign remittances started flowing again through legal channels.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  අරුණ පුවත්

නිකවැරටිය කොටවෙහෙර පොලිස් වසමට අයත් ඉහළ වීරදඩාන මෙත්සඳ විහාරස්ථානයේ වැඩ වාසය කළ 22 හැවිරිදි පූජ්‍ය කොස්ගොඩ සුදින්න නම් හිමිනමට ලිංගික අතවර කළ කාන්තාවන් අතුරින් කීපදෙ‌නෙකු අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන ඇති බව විහාරස්ථානයේ විහාරාධිපති කල්පිටිය ශාසනාරක්ෂක බල මණ්ඩලයේ ප්‍රධාන ලේඛකාධිකාරී අස්ගිරි පාර්ශ්වයේ ගාලු දිසාවේ ප්‍රධාන සංඝනායක පූජ්‍ය මිගෙට්ටුවත්තේ සුමිත්ත නා හිමියන් මීට සුළු මොහොතකට පෙර අරුණට දැනුම් දුන්නේය. 

පෙරේදා එනම් අප්‍රේල් 25 වෙනිදා උදෑසන10.30 පමණ විහාරස්ථානයට ඇතුළු වූ කාන්තාවන් 7 දෙනෙකු හිමි නමට අතවර කිරීමෙන් පසු උන්වහන්සේ පුත්තලම මහ රෝහලට ඇතුළත් කර තිබුණි. 

මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මකවීම අඩ පනව තිබුණු පසුබිමක අරුණ මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් රටටම හෙළි කළේය.

Courtesy CNA

NEW DELHI: Sri Lanka’s economy is expected to shrink by 2 per cent in 2023, its central bank said in an annual report on Thursday (Apr 27), as the country struggled to emerge from its worst financial crisis in decades.

The central bank projected Sri Lanka’s economy would grow by 3.3 per cent in 2024, according to the report.

The economy shrank by 7.8 per cent in 2022, in a year dominated by deep political instability, soaring inflation and steep currency depreciation as Sri Lanka struggled with a financial crisis triggered by record low foreign exchange reserves.

The central bank’s growth estimate for 2023 is more optimistic than the 3.1 per cent contraction projected by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which finalised a nearly US$3 billion bailout to the crisis-hit country last month. The World Bank estimates Sri Lanka’s economy will contract by 4.3 per cent in 2023.

“Sri Lanka’s economy has been gradually stabilising since mid-2022. The long fuel lines, severe shortages, and high inflation have gradually reversed,” said Udeeshan Jonas chief strategist at CAL Group.

“Recovery from sectors such as tourism could be better than expected and consumer demand is also picking up. That together with the low base could see better performance.”

Sri Lanka, which defaulted on its foreign debt a year ago, is currently negotiating its debt repayments with bondholders and bilateral creditors. The island expects to complete its debt restructuring process in time for the first IMF review in September.

By Dr. Imran Khalid Courtesy Ceylon Today

The Chinese economy is off to a roaring start this year, clocking in a 4.5 per cent year-on-year growth rate in the first quarter – A figure that has surpassed even the most-optimistic projections. With this sturdy start in the first quarter, China is poised for a full
-year economic rebound in 2023. The ripple effects of China’s strong economic performance are sure to reverberate across the globe, providing a much-needed impetus for the wider global economic recovery. On 18 April, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shared data revealing that China’s GDP for the first quarter of this year has reached a whopping 28.5 trillion yuan (USD 4.15 trillion), indicating a year
-on-year increase of 4.5 per cent. This is a significant uptick of 2.2 per cent compared to the previous quarter in 2022.

The statistics highlight China’s economic prowess and its ability to stay resilient despite the ongoing global turbulence. The most recent economic data for Q1 has highlighted impressive growth in various sectors. This economic growth pattern is exactly the same as what the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted. On 3 February, the IMF website published a report by Diego A. Cerdeiro and Sonali Jain-Chandra, which forecast very optimistic numbers of the Chinese economy in 2023. They predicted, China’s economy is set to rebound this year as mobility and activity pick up after the lifting of pandemic restrictions, providing a boost to the global economy. The economy will expand 5.2 per cent this year, according to our latest projections, versus 3 per cent last year. That’s good news for China and the world as the Chinese economy is now expected to contribute a third of global growth this year.” The first quarter data has corroborated this forecast.

Indeed, the data shows a month-on-month trend of growth, as businesses adapt and consumers gradually regain their confidence. One particularly notable positive factor is seen in the retail sector, which has far exceeded the expectations in the month of March. This is a clear indication that the consumer confidence, which had been shaken by the uncertainties of the past year, is gradually being restored. Retail sales, which serve as the ‘barometer for consumption,’ witnessed a remarkable 10.6 per cent growth in March, surpassing earlier expectations of 7.4 per cent growth. This figure also outpaced the growth rate observed in January and February, indicating a general upswing. The total retail sales have grown by an impressive 5.8 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of this year. This marks a significant reversal of the downward trend seen in the final quarter of 2022. Furthermore, the real estate sector displayed several positive signals of stabilisation and rebound, indicating an overall positive trend. The macroeconomic figures from the first quarter of this year suggest that China’s economy is undergoing a significant structural optimisation. In addition to 5.1 per cent annual growth in the fixed-asset investment, 7 per cent year-on
-year increase in investment in the manufacturing sector was witnessed, indicating a robust expansion.

The high-tech industries attracted 16 per cent more investment over the same period, while investment in e-commerce services surged by a remarkable 51.5 per cent. These numbers suggest that China’s economic transformation is accelerating, with a shift towards a more digital and high-tech economy taking hold. In the face of a global economic landscape marked by uncertainty and challenges, China has once again demonstrated its remarkable resilience and adaptability. Against the backdrop of skyrocketing inflation across the globe due to the pandemic and year-long Ukraine conflict, the country’s exports increased by an impressive 23.4 per cent year
-on-year in yuan-denominated terms during the month of March.

 This far exceeds market expectations, and is a testament to China’s robust rebound after the lifting of the zero-Covid restrictions last December. Across a range of key indicators, there are clear signs of stability and even growth. For example, production demand appears to have stabilised and rebounded, while the employment rate and consumer prices have remained generally stable. Personal income has continued its upward trend, and market expectations have improved significantly. These trends are indicative of a broader development pattern in the Chinese economy, which is generating a sense of optimism among market observers. As late as December 202, most of the Western economists were quite apprehensive about the performance of the Chinese economy in 2023 and they were hyping the deflation narrative.

The strong momentum presently exhibited by the Chinese economy effectively dispels any notions of deflation theories. Nonetheless, the Chinese Government skilfully harnessed the economy’s inherent fortitude and internal momentum by enacting tailored initiatives to enhance economic growth and cultivate a more favourable environment for businesses. Despite the United States’ protracted trade war with China, the global Covid-19 pandemic’s enduring impact for over three years, and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict for over a year, China has not lost its firm grip on the reins of its economic development. In fact, even after five years of economic brinkmanship with the US, China has remained resolute and unyielding in its pursuit of economic recovery. While the global landscape remains intricate and unpredictable, and domestic demand still falls short, the groundwork for a resilient economic recovery has been firmly established. Nevertheless, the impressive first quarter performance indicates that the Chinese economy is poised to achieve remarkable growth in the remainder of 2023, while the major economies – as well as the global economy as whole – are struggling with stagnation and corrosion.

By Imran Khalid

By Uditha Devapriya Courtesy Ceylon Today

By:Methmalie Dissanayake Courtesy Ceylon Today

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) yesterday (25) said the President and the Government should have tabled the complete report of the Easter Sunday Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI), in Parliament first before giving it to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Sri Lanka (CBCSL).

The full report was handed over to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Sri Lanka (CBCSL) by Minister of Public Security Tiran Alles.

Addressing a media briefing yesterday (25), SLFP Chairman former President Maithiripala Sirisena and SLFP General Secretary Dayasiri Jayasekara said the report would become a public document only when it is tabled in Parliament. I appointed this PCoI to probe the Easter Sunday attacks. Presenting this full report to Parliament was blocked by the former President. Now these people are chasing behind me. During my time, Zahran’s gang was completely destroyed within three weeks of Easter attacks. Many were arrested as well. The terrorists are now comfortably in prison

, but everyone wants me to suffer,” Sirisena stressed.

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

ප්‍රවාහන, මහාමාර්ග හා ජනමාධ්‍ය ඇමැති, ආචාර්ය බන්දුල ගුණවර්ධන මහතා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී පැවසුවේ මෙරට සියලු දේශපාලන නායකයන්ට ආර්ථික ලණු දුන්නේ මුදල් අමාත්‍යාංශ ලේකම්ව සිටි පී.බී. ජයසුන්දර මහතා බවය.

https://youtu.be/DbW1Xy4lmfo

ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය අරමුදලේ ගිවිසුම පිළිබඳ පාර්ලිමේන්තු විවාදයට ඇමැතිවරයා පැවසුවේ මෙම අර්බුදය සඳහා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවත් ප්‍රධාන වගඋත්තරකරුවකු බවයි. අවධානය යොමු කළ යුතු ප්‍රධාන කරුණු වෙනුවට එදිනෙදා සරල දේවල් පිළිබඳව පාර්ලිමේන්තුව අවධානය යොමුකරන බවද මෙහිදී ඇමතිවරයා චෝදනා කළේය.

මීට පෙර අවස්ථා ගණනාවකදී පක්ෂ විපක්ෂ මන්ත්‍රීවරු ගණනාවක් මුදල් අමාත්‍යාංශයේ හිටපු ලේකම්වරයා සම්බන්ධයෙන් බරපතළ චෝදනා එල්ල කළ අතර, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී විමල් වීරවංශ මහතා ද වරෙක සඳහන් කර සිටියේ පී.බී. ජයසුන්දර යනු ‘ආර්ථික ඝාතකයෙකු’ බවයි.

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

යම් සමාජයක් ආරක්ෂා කර ගත හැක්කේ එහි දේශපාලන සාක්ෂරතාව බලගැන්වීමෙන් බවත් ඒ අනුව යමින් විෂම රැලි – කුණාටුවලට ගොදුරුවීම වළක්වා” ලාංකේය සමාජයේ දේශපාලන සාක්ෂරතාව බලගැන්වීමේ අරමුණින් නවය; සැඟවුණු කතාව” කෘතිය ජනගත කළ බවත් ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණේ නායක, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී විමල් වීරවංශ මහතා පවසයි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා පදනම් ආයතනයේදී තමන් විසින් ගෝල්ෆේස් අරගලයේ ඇතුළාන්තය” පිළිබඳව පුළුල් අධ්‍යයනයකින් අනතුරුව රචනා කළ නවය; සැඟවුණු කතාව” පර්යේෂණාත්මක කෘතිය එළිදැක්වීමේ උත්සව සභාව අමතමින් ඒ මහතා මෙසේ පැවසීය.

ගාලුමුවදොර අරගල සුළියට හසුව” තම දිවිසැරිය අකාලයේ අහිමිව ගිය පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී අමරකීර්ති අතුකෝරල මහතාගේ පුතණුවන්ට, රඹුක්කන චමින්ද ලක්‍ෂාන් මහතාගේ බිරිඳට හා දියණියට කතුවරයා අතින් ප්‍රථමයෙන් කෘතිය පිළිගැන්විණි.

කෘතිය එළිදැක්වීමේ උත්සවයේ ආරාධිත දේශනය කොළඹ විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයේ ශ්‍රී පාලි මණ්ඩපයේ මහාචාර්ය ටියුඩර් වීරසිංහ මහතා විසින් සිදු කළ අතර පැමිණි පිරිස පිළිගැනීම ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණේ ජාතික සංවිධායක, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ජයන්ත සමරවීර මහතා විසින් සිදු කරන ලදී.

මෙම අවස්ථාවට සබරගමුව විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ කුලපති මහාචාර්ය පූජ්‍ය කඹුරුගමුවේ වජිර නාහිමි, මහාචාර්ය පූජ්‍ය ඉත්තදෙමලියේ ඉන්දසර නාහිමි, කැලණිය විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ සංස්කෘත අධ්‍යයන අංශයේ අංශාධිපති මහාචාර්ය පූජ්‍ය ඉඳුරාගාරේ ධම්මරතන නාහිමි, කැලණිය විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයේ සිංහල අධ්‍යනාංශයේ අංශාධිපති මහාචාර්ය පූජ්‍ය මල්වානේ චන්දරතන නාහිමි ප්‍රමුඛ මහා සංඝරත්නය, නිදහස ජනතා සභාවේ නායක, ඩලස් අලහප්පෙරුම, ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී වාමාංශික පෙරමුණේ නායක, වාසුදේව නානායක්කාර, පිවිතුරු හෙළ උරුමයේ නායක, උදය ගම්මන්පිල, ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයේ මහ ලේකම් දයාසිරි ජයසේකර, විජය ධරණී ජාතික සභාවේ නායක, පූජ්‍ය අතුරලියේ රතන හිමි, යුතුකම ජාතික සංවිධානයේ නායක, ගෙවිඳු කුමාරතුංග, ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ කොමියුනිස්ට් පක්ෂයේ දේශපාලන මණ්ඩල සභික වීරසුමන වීරසිංහ, ප්‍රියංකර ජයරත්න, ප්‍රේමනාත් දොලවත්ත, ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණේ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී කණ්ඩායම නියෝජනය කරමින් මොහොමඩ් මුසම්මිල්, නිමල් පියතිස්ස, උද්දික ප්‍රේමරත්න, ගාමිණී වලේබොඩ යන පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරු ද ජාතික සංවිධාන නියෝජනය කරමින් ජාතික සංවිධාන එකමුතුවේ කැඳවුම්කරු ආචාර්ය ගුණදාස අමරසේකර, ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ නීතිඥ කල්‍යානන්ද තිරාණගම, දේශහිතෛෂී ජාතික ව්‍යාපාරයේ මහලේකම් වෛද්‍ය වසන්ත බණ්ඩාර යන මහත්වරු ද ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ චීන තානාපති කාර්යාලයේ නියෝජ්‍ය මෙහෙයුම් ප්‍රධානී හූ වෙයි මහතා ඇතුළු සම්භාවනීය පිරිසක් ද මෙම අවස්ථාවට එක්ව සිටියහ.

මෙහිදී වැඩිදුරටත් අදහස් දැක්වූ ඒ මහතා මෙසේද සඳහන් කළේය.

පන්ති භාර ගුරුතුමිය

ගාලුමුවදොර අරගලයට හය සිට දහය දක්වා පන්තිවල මගේ පන්ති භාර ගුරුතුමිය වූ අප්සරා මිසුත් ගියා. මම ඒකමයි එතුමියට අද එන්න කිව්වේ. යන්න කලින් මට කිව්වේ නැහැ, ගිහිල්ලා ඉවර වෙලා මට කිව්වා, ‘මම ගියා පුතේ, මට දුකයි ඒ තරුණ දරුවෝ ගැන’ කියලා. හැබැයි සද්භාවයෙන් ආපු මැද පන්තික සමාජය එතැන හිටපු මුල් දවස්වල තමයි ඒක සිද්ධ වුණේ. මම ඒ වෙලාවේ ගිය එක හරිද වැරදිද කියලා මොකවත් කියන්න ගියේ නැහැ. ඒක හරි වැරදි කිව්වාට තේරෙන්නේ නැති වෙලාවක්. ගෝලයකුට වුවත් නිවැරදි යමක් ගුරුතුමියකට උගන්වන්න පුළුවන් නම් ඒකත් හොඳ දෙයක්නේ. දැන් මේ ඇවිල්ලා තියෙන්නේ ගෝලයාට, ගුරුතුමියට උගන්වන්න පුළුවන් වෙලාවක්. සමාවෙන්න මිස්, මම වරදක් කිව්වා නම්.

විෂම මනස බලවේගයක් බවට…

ඒ අවස්ථාවේ ආර්ථිකමය වශයෙන් මහා පීඩාකාරී තත්වයක් සමාජයේ ඇති වෙලා තිබුණා. අපි එදා පෙන්වා දුන්නා ‘මේ ආර්ථික අර්බුදය තීව්‍ර වන තෙක් බලාගෙන හිටියොත් සමාජයේ විෂම මනසක් ඇති වෙනවා’ කියා. ඒ විෂම මනසින් ගන්න තීරණ හරි තීරණ වෙන්නේ නැහැ. එදා සමාජය තුළ ඒ විෂම මනස ඇති වුණා. අවසානයේ ඒ විෂම මනස බලවේගයක් බවට පත්ව විනාශකාරී ලෙස හැසිරුණා. නමුත් ඒ විනාශකාරී අත්දැකීම සිදුව වසරක් ගත වෙලා තිබෙනවා. දැන් අපිට අවස්ථාව තිබෙනවා සිහිබුද්ධියෙන්, එම සිදුවීමේ, ප්‍රේක්ෂකයන්, චරිත බවට පත් නොවී, ඒ දිහා ආපහු හැරිලා බලන්න. ඒක දිහා ආපහු හැරිලා බලලා, නිවැරදි අවබෝධය ලබා නොගත්තොත් අපි විශාල විපත්තිදායක අනාගතයක ගොදුරු බවට පත්වෙනවා. ඒක වළක්වන්න බැහැ.

‘මයිදාන් – ගාලුමුවදොර’ සමානකම්

මගේ කතාවට පෙර පෙන්වන ලද වාර්තාමය වීඩියෝ දර්ශන මගින් තමුන්නාන්සේලා දැක්කා, යුක්රේනයේ සිදුවූ ‘මයිදාන් අරගලය’ කියලා එකක්. ඒ මයිදාන් අරගලයත් ගාලුමුවදොර අරගලයට බොහෝ සෙයින් සමානයි. සීත කාලයේ යුක්රේනයේ සමාජ මාධ්‍ය ක්‍රියාකාරී තරුණ තරුණියන් ‘මයිදාන් උද්‍යානයට’ ආවා. මුලින් මහා ගොඩක් ආවේ නැහැ. ඇවිල්ලා ‘යුරෝපා සංගමයට එක්වෙනු! කියන සටන් පාඨය ගෙනාවා. බලන්න, යුක්රේනය යුරෝපා සංගමයට එකතු කරන්න කාටද ඕනෙ වුණේ? යුක්රේනයේ සියයට හැට ගණනක් ඉන්නේ ඕතඩොක්ස් ආගම අදහන අය. රුසියාවෙත් අතිමහත් බහුතරය ඕතඩොක්ස් ආගම් අදහන අය. මේ දෙගොල්ලෝ අතර තියෙන බැඳීම ඓතිහාසිකව බැඳීමක්.

අපූරු ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය බලගැන්වීම

ඇමරිකා එක්සත් ජනපද රාජ්‍ය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ නියෝජ්‍ය ලේකම් වික්ටෝරියා නූලන්ඩ් මැතිනිය පහුකාලීනව කියනවා,’1991 සිට මයිදාන් අරගලය දක්වා වූ කාලය තුළ යුක්රේනයේ ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය බලගැන්වීම සඳහා අපි ඩොලර් බිලියන් පහක් වැය කළා.’ කියා. යුක්රේනය, රුසියාවට විරුද්ධ තත්වයකට පත්කර ගැනීමට තමයි එයා ‘ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය බලගන්වනවා’ කියන්නේ. ඒකට ඇය සමත් වුණා. පසුකාලීනව වික්ටෝරියා නූලන්ඩ් මැතිනිය සහ මයිදාන් අරගලය සිදු වන අවස්ථාවේ යුක්රේනයේ හිටපු ඇමරිකානු තානාපතිවරයා අතර සිදු වූ දුරකථන සංවාදයක් එළියට ආවා. ඒ සංවාදයේදී ඒ දෙන්නා කතා වෙනවා ‘රුසියාවට හිතවාදී ජනාධිපති පලා ගිහිල්ලා. දැන් අපි උඩට ගන්නේ මේ අයගෙන් කොයි කෙනාද?’ කියා. එදා යුක්රේනයේ කතා කළේත් කතානායකට. මෙහේ කතා කළේත් අපේ කතානායකට. දැන් හැමෝම සාක්ෂි ඉල්ලනවානේ. ඉතින් ඒක එක සාක්කියක්. මෙහෙත් දුරකථන ඇමතුම් එළියට එනකම් අපි මේක තේරුම් නොගෙන ඉන්න ඕනේ ද?

‘නොදැනුවත් ගොදුරු – දැනුවත් පාපතරයන්’

අපි ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ දේශපාලනය කරනවා නම් ගෝලීය බල දේශපාලනය සිද්ධ වෙන විදිහ තේරුම් ගන්නේ නැතුව, ඒක ඇතුළේ අපේ කතාව කියවා ගන්නේ නැතුව දේශපාලනය කරන්න ගියොත් එක්කෝ අපි නොදැනුවත් ගොදුරු බවට හෝ දැනුවත් පාපතරයන් බවට හෝ පත්වෙනවා. ඒ නිසාම තමයි අපි තීරණය කළේ ‘මේ ගෝල්ෆේස් අරගලය ඇතුළේ තියෙන කතාව හරියට එළියට දාන්න ඕනේ’ කියලා. ඒක ගෝල්ෆේස් අරගලයට සද්භාවයෙන්, මේ කිසිත් නොදැන දායක වූ මිනිස්සු කිසිම ලෙසකින් ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කිරීමක් නොවෙයි. අපි වලකට වැටුණොත් මොළයට ලාභයක් කරගන්න ඕනේ.

බහුධ්‍රැවීය ලෝකයක් බිහිවීමේ ප්‍රසව වේදනා…

මහාචාර්ය ටියුඩර් වීරසිංහ මැතිතුමන් බොහොම පැහැදිලිව තම දේශනයෙන් පෙන්වා දුන්නා ලෝකයේ අද පවතින බල දේශපාලන යථාර්ථය පිළිබඳව. ඒක හරියට තේරුම් ගත්තොත් තමයි අපිට මේ පොතේ තිබෙන කතාවත් හරියට තේරුම් ගන්න පුළුවන් වෙන්නේ. සෝවියට් සංගමය බිඳවැටීමෙන් පස්සේ අපි ජීවත් වන්නේ ඒකධ්‍රැවීය, ඒ කියන්නේ ඇමරිකා එක්සත් ජනපදය ඇතුළු බටහිර රටවල් අතේ කේන්ද්‍රීය බලය පවතින ලෝකයක. ඔබ දන්නවා, සෝවියට් සංගමය බිඳවැටීමෙන් පස්සේ තමයි ඔය ‘වර්ණ අරගල’ ආවේ. මුලින් අරාබිකරයට ආවා. පසුව තවත් රටවලට ආවා. ඒ ‘වර්ණ විප්ලවවලින්’ ඒගොල්ලොන්ට නටවන්න පුළුවන් පාලනතන්ත්‍ර අටවාගත්තා. සමහර වෙලාවට ජාතික රාජ්‍යයන් නැත්තටම නැති කළා. ඒ ගෙවුණු කාලය ඇතුළත ලෝකය පුරා යුද ගැටුම් 100කට වඩා ඇති වුණා. මේ අය ලෝකයේ රටවල් ඇතුළේ යුද්ධ අවුලුවනවා. දැන හෝ නොදැන ඒ රටවල ඇතමුන් ඒවා තුළ තම භූමිකාවන් ඉටු කරනවා. මෙන්න මේ තත්වය අභියෝගයට ලක්කරමින්, බහුධ්‍රැවීය ලෝකයක් නිර්මාණය වීමේ විලිරුදාවෙන් පෙළෙන අවස්ථාවකයි අපි මේ ජීවත් වෙන්නේ. ඒ ප්‍රසව වේදනාව විවිධ පැතිවලින් අපට ඇහෙමින් තිබෙනවා.

අප්‍රිකාවේ ‘බටහිර කලබලේ’

2023-04-16 වැනිදා ඇමරිකානු රාජ්‍ය ලේකම්වරයා බීජිංවලට එන්න ඉල්ලීමක් කළාම චීනය ඒක ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කළා. සාමාන්‍යයෙන් එහෙම වෙන්නේ නැහැ. නමුත් අපේ මාධ්‍යවලට ඒක ‘නිව්ස් එකක්’ නොවෙයි. ඒ නිසා අපි ඒවා දන්නේ නැහැ. සුඩානයේ මේ මොහොතේ සිද්ධ වෙමින් පවතින්නේ කුමක්ද? ප්‍රවෘත්ති යනවා හාරසිය ගණනක් මැරුණයි කියලා. මුලින්ම සුඩානය දෙකට කැඩුවා ඉස්ලාම් සහ කතෝලික හැටියට. ඊට පස්සේ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා ඒකාධිපතියකු යැයි කියා පන්නා දමා අලුත් කෙනෙකු පත් කළා. එයාව පන්නලා හමුදාවේ කෙනෙක් දැන් බලය ලබා ගෙන තිබෙනවා. එයා රුසියාව පැත්තට බරයි. එයාට විරුද්ධව තමයි RSF(Rapid Support Forces) කියන සන්නද්ධ කණ්ඩායම් හැදුවේ. දැන් ඒගොල්ලෝ බලනවා ජනාධිපති මන්දිරයයි, ගුවන් තොටුපළයි අල්ලලා එතැන බලය අතට ගන්න. බටහිර බලවතුන් දැන් කලබල වෙලා තිබෙනවා. ඒ අප්‍රිකානු කලාපයේ බොහෝ රටවල් අද බටහිරින් මිදිලා. චීනය සහ රුසියාව පැත්තට හැරීම නිසායි. එම රටවල් අලුත් ආර්ථික දියුණුවක් අත්පත් කර ගනිමින් නැඟිටිනවා.

සුඩානයෙන් ‘මැච් එක’ අරඹලා

දැන් බලන්න, රුවන්ඩාව කියන්නේ ගෝත්‍රික මරාගැනීම් තිබුණු රටක්. අද රුවන්ඩා ජනාධිපති සම්පූර්ණයෙන් බටහිරින් අත්මිදිලා චීනය සහ රුසියාවත් එක්ක අත්වැල් බැඳගෙන ඒ සමාජය දියුණු කරනවා; රාජ්‍යය බලගන්වනවා. දැන් බටහිර බලවතුන්ට අලුත් වටයකින් අප්‍රිකාව අස්ථාවර කරන්න ඕනේ . ඒකට එහෙනම් සුඩානයෙන් තමයි මැච් එක පටන් ගන්න ඕනේ. සුඩානයේ ඔය RSF එකේ ඉන්න අය දන්නවාද ඕක? ඒ නිසා අපි මේ තත්ත්වය ගැඹුරින් තේරුම් ගන්න ඕනේ. අනික අපේ රටේ ගවේෂණාත්මක මාධ්‍ය කලාවක් තිබෙනවාද? ඉන්දියාවේ නම් මොනවා වුණත් ගවේෂණාත්මක මාධ්‍ය කලාවක් තිබෙනවා. මෙහේ මොකද්ද කරන්නේ? මොකක් හරි ඕපාදූපයක් අරන් ඒක ‘පැකට් කරලා’ අපිට පොවන එක. ගවේෂණාත්මක මාධ්‍ය කලාවක් නැතිකම හින්දා මේ ලෝකේ සිද්ධ වෙන ගොඩක් දේවල් අපිට සන්නිවේදනය වෙන්නේ නැහැ. සන්නිවේදනය වුණත් අර බටහිරින් දීපු අර්ථකථනය ඇතුළේ තමයි ඒක එන්නේ.

වොෂින්ටන් පරදන බීජිං

එක කාලයක් තිබුණා, ලෝකයේ නායකයන් ඇමරිකාවට යනවා, එහේ රාජ්‍යතාන්ත්‍රික හමුවීම් වෙනවා, සාකච්ඡා වෙනවා. ඕවා තමයි ගොඩක් ප්‍රවෘත්ති හැටියට එන්නේ. දැන් මේ මෑත කාලයේ මොනවාද ප්‍රවෘත්ති? ප්‍රංශය ගිනි ගනිද්දී, ප්‍රංශ ජනාධිපති චීනයට යනවා. එයා බීජිංවලට ගිහිල්ලා එන ගමන් ඇමරිකාවට පොඩි ටොක්කකුත් අනිනවා මාධ්‍ය සාකච්ඡාවකදී. පසුගිය සති කිහිපය විතරක් ගත්තත් මැලේසියානු අගමැති චීනයට ගියා. බ්‍රසීල ජනාධිපති චීනයට ගියා. දැන් වොෂින්ටනයට යනවාට වඩා යන්නේ බීජිංවලට. ඒකට හේතුව මොකක්ද? ඒ නායකයන්ට පෙනෙනවා, අලුත් බහුධ්‍රැවීය බලයක් නිර්මාණය වෙනවා; ඒක ශක්තිමත්ව ඉදිරියට එනවා. ඒක හරියට තේරුම් ගත්තොත් විතරයි අපේ රාජ්යයන් ස්ථාවරව ආරක්ෂා කරගෙන, බලගන්වන්න පුළුවන් වෙන්නේ.

බ්‍රසීලය ඩොලරය මඟහැරලා

දැන් මේ වෙලාව වෙනකොට ඇමරිකානු ඩොලරය මගහැරලා බ්‍රසීලය තමන්ගේ රටේ ගනුදෙනු කරනවා චීනයත් එක්ක. බ්‍රසීලය කියන්නේ ලෝකයේ විශාල වෙළඳපොළක්. 2023 ලූලා ද සිල්වා යළි බ්‍රසීලයේ ජනාධිපති ධුරයට පත් වුණු ගමන්ම ලංකාවේ වගේම යම් පිරිසක් ගියා මන්දිර අත්පත් කරගන්න. නමුත් ලූලා ජනාධිපතිවරයා ගෝඨාභය ජනාධිපතිවරයා වගේ ඒක දිහා බැලුවේ නැහැ. ඒක වෙන විදිහකට කළමනාකරණය කළා.

BRICS සූදානම්

දැන් ලෝකයේ BRICS කියලා අලුත් අවුලක් හැදිලා තිබෙනවා .බ්‍රසීලය, රුසියාව, ඉන්දියාව, චීනය හා දකුණු අප්‍රිකාව යන රටවල් ඊට අයත්. ඒ BRICS හවුලෙන් ජාත්‍යන්තර ගනුදෙනු සඳහා අලුත් මුදල් ඒකකයක් නිර්මාණය කරමින් සිටිනවා. දැන් මැලේසියාව සහ චීනය ගනුදෙනු කරන්නේ තමන්ගේ මුදල් ඒකකවලින්. මැලේසියානු අගමැතිවරයා චීන ජනාධිපතිවරයා හමු වුණාම යෝජනා කරනවා, ‘ආසියානු මුල්‍ය අරමුදලක් හදමු!’ කියා. චීන ජනාධිපතිවරයා ඒකට එකඟ වෙනවා. මේ අලුත් වර්ධනයන්, මේ ගතිකත්වයන් තේරුම් නොගෙන, බටහිර ඒ පරණ වලව්ව, ඒ හොල්මන් මන්දිරය දිහා බලාගෙන, හතරගාතෙන් වැටීගෙන, මල් පහන් පූජා කළාට වැඩක් නැහැ. එතැනට මල් පහන් පිදුවයි කියලා නැගිටින්න දෙන්නෙත් නැහැ.

ගාමිණී සෙනරත්ගෙන් ලියුම් දෙකක්!

මම මේ පොතෙන් අනාවරණය කරනවා, ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා ඉල්ලා අස්වෙන්න තීරණය කරලා, පලා යමින් සිටි අවස්ථාවේදී ඉන්දියාවත් ඇමෙරිකාවත් ඔහුගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටියා කියා, ‘ඔයා ඉල්ලා අස්වෙන්න කලින් අගමැති රනිල්වත් අයින් කරන්න’ යනුවෙන්. එවකට ජනාධිපති ලේකම්වරයා වූ ගාමිණී සෙනරත් රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ අගමැති ධුරයෙන් අයින් කරන ලියුම සහ ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ ජනාධිපති ධුරයෙන් ඉල්ලා අස්වෙන ලියුම යන දෙකම හදලා මාලදිවයිනට යැව්වා. නමුත් ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ ජනාධිපතිවරයා අත්සන් කළේ එයාගේ ඉල්ලා අස්වෙන ලියුමට පමණයි. ඒ අතරතුර රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහගේ ගෙදරත් ගිනි ගන්නවානේ. සමහරවිට ඒ ගිනි තැබීම කරන්න ඇත්තේ රනිල් මානසිකව බිඳවැටිලා ගෝඨාභය අයින් නොකළත් ඉල්ලා අස්වෙන ලියුමක් දෙන විදිහේ තත්වයකට පත් කරගන්න විය හැකියි. මතක තබා ගන්න මේ වන විට රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ අයින් කරලාත් නැහැ; ඉල්ලා අස්වෙලාත් නැහැ.

කතානායක නිල නිවසට ආ ඇමරිකානු තානාපතිනිය…

එවැනි තත්වයක් තිබියදී ඔය වෙලාවේ කතානායක නිල නිවසට ඇමරිකානු තානාපතිනිය එනවා. සමහරවිට කතානායකතුමා හෙට ප්‍රකාශයක් කරයි, ‘එහෙම දෙයක් වුණේ නැහැ’ කියලා. එතුමාම එතුමාගේ සමීපතමයකුට කියපු කතාව මම මේ කියන්නේ. එතුමාට කිසිම හේතුවක් නැහැ එහෙම කතාවක් හදලා කියන්න. ඒ කතාව අනුව කථානායකතුමන් තමන්ගේ පවුලේ ඔක්කොම යවනවා මාතර පැත්තේ ගෙදරකට. එතුමාත් තරමක් තිගැස්මෙන් නිල නිවසේ ඉන්නේ. මොකද ඒ අර පාර්ලිමේන්තුව වට කළ වෙලාව. එහෙම ඉන්නකොට සේවකයකු ඇවිල්ලා කියනවා, ‘ඇමරිකානු තානාපතිතුමිය ඇවිල්ලා ඔබතුමා හම්බවෙන්න ඕනේ කියනවා.’ කියලා. ඉතින් ඒ ගමන කතානායකතුමන් කලබලෙන් පහළ මහලට එනවා. ඇවිත් එතුමියත් එක්ක කතා කරනකොට එතුමිය කියනවා, ‘දැන් ගෝඨාභය අයින් වෙනවා. ඔබ ජනාධිපති ධුරය භාර ගන්න’ කියා. එතකොට කතානායකතුමා කියනවා, ‘එහෙම කරන්නේ කොහොමද තානාපතිතුමියනි, ව්‍යවස්ථාව අනුව ජනාධිපති ඉවත් වුණොත් ඊළඟට වැඩබලන ජනාධිපති වෙන්නේ අගමැතිවරයා.මම කතානායක. එයා ඉන්දැද්දි මට ඒක කරන්න බැහැ.’ කියලා. අවසානයේ දී තානාපතිතුමිය කියන්නේ ‘ව්‍යවස්ථාව වැඩක් නැහැ .අපි ඒක බලාගන්නම්. ඔයා මේක ගන්න’ කියලයි. ඊට කලින් දවසේ කතානායකතුමාට ඔය යෝජනාවම අරගෙන එනවා අපේ රටේ තිබෙන යම්කිසි ආගමික සංස්ථාවක නායකතුමකු සහ විපක්ෂයේ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරයකු. ඔවුන් ඇවිල්ලා කතානායකතුමාත් එක්ක පැය දෙකක් විතර සාකච්ඡා කරලා ඔය යෝජනාවට එකඟ කර ගැනීම සඳහා උත්සාහයක් දරනවා.එතැනදීත් කතානායකතුමා දැරුවේ ඉහත ස්ථාවරය. ඒ අයට බැරි වුණා කතානායකතුමා ඒ වැඩේට එකඟ කරගන්න. ඔවුන්ට බැරි වුණු නිසා තමයි තානාපතිතුමිය, කතානායකතුමා ඉන්නවාද නැද්ද අහන්නෙත් නැතුව එක පාරට තමන්ම ඇවිල්ලා ඉහත කතාව කිව්වේ.

‘ප්ලෑන් ඒ’ මෙන්න

යුක්රේනයේත් මයිදාන් අරගලයෙන් පසු කතානායක තමයි වැඩබලන ජනාධිපති කළේ. ලිබියාවේත් ගඩාෆිවත් මරලා, ජාතික රාජ්‍යය විනාශ කළාම එතැන කථානායක මූලික කොටගත්තා වූ අන්තර්කාලීන පාලනයක් තමයි හැදුවේ. ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ ජනාධිපතිවරයා, හමුදාවේ ප්‍රධානීන් ඇතුළු ජනාධිපති මන්දිරය ඇතුළේ හිටපු ඔක්කොම මරලා අර බිහිසුණු තත්වය තව සතියක් දෙකක් ඇදගෙන ගිහිල්ලා, මරන්න ඕනේ ලැයිස්තුවක් තව තිබෙනවා නම් ඒ ඔක්කොමත් මරලා මෙහෙ ‘ප්ලෑන් ඒ’ අනුව තිබුණෙත් කථානායක මුල්කොට ගත්තු අන්තර්කාලීන පාලනයක් හදන්න.

අන්තර්කාලීන පාලනයට ෆොන්සේකා සහ ශවේන්ද්‍රත්

ලිබියාවේ වගේම ඒ අන්තර්කාලීන පාලනයේ සරත් ෆොන්සේකා ඉන්න පුළුවන්. දැන් ඉන්න යුද හමුදා මාණ්ඩලික ප්‍රධානී ශවේන්ද්‍ර සිල්වාත් අනිවාර්යෙන් එතැන ඉන්නවා. මේක අති බිහිසුණු මොහොතක් වුවත් ශවේන්ද්‍රට 2022 ජූලි 09 වැනිදාට කලින් හදිසියේම ඉන්දියාවෙන් ආරාධනා පත්‍රයක් එනවා, ඉන්දියාවේ මොකක්ද එහෙකට එන්න කියලා. ඒ හින්දා ඒ සිද්ධිය වන වෙලාවේ එයා හිටියේ ඉන්දියාවේ. හැබැයි අනෙක් ඔක්කොම හමුදා ප්‍රධානීන් ජූලි 09 වැනිදා ඒ බිහිසුණු පැයේ හිටියේ ජනාධිපති මන්දිරය ඇතුළේ. එයා එනකොට වැඩේ වෙලා ඉවරයි. ශවේන්ද්‍රත් එක්ක මට කිසිම පුද්ගලික ආරවුලක් නැහැ. ඒ මනුස්සයාට ජිනීවාවලිනුත් සෑහෙන චෝදනා මාලාවක් එල්ල කරලා තිබෙනවා. ඒ චෝදනා මාලාව එල්ල කරන්නේම මේ විදියට හසුරුවා ගන්න.

‘ගෝඨාභයවත් පාලනය කළා’

මේ හැමෝගෙම තියෙන ‘බොටම් ලයින් එක’ තමයි, ‘කොහොමහරි ඇමරිකාව ෂේප් කරගන්න ඕනේ’ කියන එක. ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂවත් හසුරුවන ලද්දේ ජුලී චන්ග් ඇමරිකානු තානාපතිවරියයි. ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂගේ හිත ඇතුළේ තිබු ප්‍රධාන වුවමනාව තමයි විශ්‍රාම ගියාට පස්සේ ඇමරිකාවට ගිහිල්ලා සුවෙන් ජීවත් වීම. ඒක නිසා ඔහු අනිවාර්යයෙන් ඇමරිකානු තානාපතිතුමිය කියන විදිහට ඉන්න ඕනේ. ඔබට මතක ඇති, එක පාරක් ගාලුමුවදොර කිට්ටුවට හමුදා ට්‍රක් රථ ගෙනල්ලා පෙළගස්සලා තිබුණා. ඒ වෙලාවේ ඔය ඇමරිකානු තානාපතිනිය, එක ඇමති කෙනෙකුට සහ ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ ජනාධිපතිට කතා කරලා කියනවා, ‘ඔය ගෝඨා ගෝ ගමේ කට්ටිය අරන් යන්නද හදන්නේ? ඒක කරන්න එපා! එහෙම වුණොත් IMF ප්‍රෝග්‍රෑම් එක නතර වෙයි.’ කියා. ඉන් පසුව අර ට්‍රැක් රථ පෙළ ආපසු ගියා. ඒ විදිහට ගෝඨාභයවත් පාලනය කළා. අරගලයත් පාලනය කළා

අරගලයත් පාලනය කළා

අරගලය පාලනය කළේ කොහොමද කියන එක මේ පොතේ කරුණු සහිතව තියෙනවා. මේකේ තිබෙනවා, ඇමරිකානු ආයතන මුදල් පොම්ප කරපු හැටි. අහවල් පුද්ගලයාට කියලා නැහැ. මේකේ තියෙන්නේ ‘නීතිඥ වෘත්තිය බලගැන්වීම සඳහා මෙච්චර මුදලක් අහවල් ආයතනයට’ ආදී වශයෙන්. හැබැයි ඉතින් දැන් අනෙක් අය විගණනය කරලා බලන්න ඕනේ, ‘මේ ආයතනවලට ලැබුණු සල්ලි ටික කාට කාටද බෙදිලා ගියේ?’ කියලා. අපිට මේ අවබෝධය නැති වුණොත් නැවත වතාවක් අපි නොදන්නා විදිහේ අරගලයක කොටස්කාරයෝ වෙන්න පුළුවන්.

‘පැතුම් කර්නර් – දමිතා අද කොතැනද?

බලන්න අරගලයේ හිටපු පැතුම් කර්නර් දැන් ඉන්නේ රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහත්තයා ගාව. එයා තමයි එදා ‘අරගලයේ ඩිජිටල් වීරයා.’ එයා දැන් කියනවා, ‘මගේ ආර්ථික දර්ශනය තමයි රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන්නේ. ඒ නිසා මං එයත් එක්කයි ඉන්නේ.’ කියලා. දැන් දමිත නෝනා ඉන්නවා සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහත්තයා ගාව. එදා එයා තමයි ‘විහාර මහා දේවිය.’ ඒ කාලයේ ‘විහාර මහා දේවීලා, දුටුගැමුණුලා’ ක්ෂණිකව හැදුණා. දැන් ඒ එක එක්කෙනා නියම චරිත රඟ දක්වනවා. එයාලා ඒ වෙලාවේ නිර්පාක්ෂිකයි. මුලින් ගාලුමුවදොර අරගලයට ‘ආදරයේ අරගලය’ කිව්වා. අන්තිමට ඉතාම බිහිසුණු ජවනිකා එක්ක තමයි ඒක අවසන් වුණේ.

ලෝක බලාධිපත්‍යයේ තියුණු පරිවර්තනයක්

දැන් අපි මේ කියාගෙන ආවේ ලෝකයේ සිදු වන නව පරිවර්තනය ගැනයි. අපි ඒක තේරුම් ගන්න ඕනේ. බටහිර බලවතුන් ඒ පරිවර්තනය වළක්වන්න උත්සාහ කරද්දී ලංකාව කියන්නේ පිහිටීම අතින් ඉතා වැදගත් තැනක්. මහාචාර්ය ටියුඩර් වීරසිංහ මැතිතුමන් කිව්වා වගේ දැන් ආසියාව තමයි ලෝකයේ ඊළඟ පරිච්ඡේදය ලියවෙන තැන. BRICS හවුලෙන් වෙනම මුදල් ඒකකයක් ආවාම දැන් ඒකට එකතු වෙන්න තව බලන් ඉන්නවා සෞදි අරාබියාවත්. BRICS හවුලේ දැනට ඉන්නවා ලෝක ජනගහනයෙන් භාගයක්. ඊට ලෝකයේ භූමි ප්‍රමාණයෙන් හතරෙන් එකක්, ලෝක ආර්ථිකයෙන් 60%ක්,
ලෝක දළ ජාතික නිෂ්පාදනයෙන් 31.5%ක් අයත්. දැන් බොහෝ රටවල් BRICS හවුල එක්ක එකතු වෙන්න අලුතෙන් ඉදිරිපත් වෙනවා. ඒ අතර වන මෙක්සිකෝව දකුණු ඇමරිකාවේ තිබෙන දෙවැනියට විශාල ආර්ථිකයට හිමිකම් කියන රටයි. ඊජිප්තු පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ යෝජනාවක් සම්මත වෙනවා BRICS එකත් එක්ක එකතු වෙන්න පූර්ණ එකඟතාව පළ කරලා. දකුණු අප්‍රිකානු විදේශ අමාත්‍යවරිය වන නලෙඩි පැන්ඩෝර්(Naledi Pandor) මහත්මිය කියනවා, ‘BRICS සමඟ එකතු වෙන්න දැනට රටවල් දොළහක ඉල්ලීම් ලිපි ලැබිලා තියෙනවා’ කියලා. සෞදි අරාබිය, එක්සත් අරාබි එමීර් රාජ්‍යය, ඊජිප්තුව, ඇල්ජීරියාව, ආජන්ටිනාව, මෙක්සිකෝව, නයිජීරියාව ඊට අමතරව ඉන්දුනීසියාව, ඉරානය, බංග්ලාදේශය, තායිලන්තය, සිරියාව හා සෙනෙනගාලයත් එතැන ඉන්නවා. එතකොට ඔබට පෙනෙන්නේ නැද්ද, දැන් ලෝකය කොතැනටද යමින් සිටින්නේ කියලා. අර පරණ වලව්වේ හාමුදුරුවරු දිහා බලාගෙන, පිඟාන දික් කරගෙන ඉන්න ඕනෙ වෙලාවක්ද මේ වෙලාව? මේක අලුත් මහා පරිවර්තනයක ප්‍රසව වේදනාවෙන් පෙළෙන වෙලාවක්. ඉදිරි අවුරුදු දහය කියන්නේ ලෝක බල ආධිපත්‍යය තියුණු ලෙස පරිවර්තනය කරන වකවානුවක්.

ගෝල්ෆේස් අරගලය සහ ලංකාවේ පිහිටීම

මදක් සිතන්න, මේ අරගලය ලංකාවට එන්නේ මෙතැන ආසියානු කලාපයේ පිහිටීම අතින් ඉතා වැදගත් ස්ථානයක් නිසයි. මං මේක මීට කලිනුත් කියලා තියෙනවා. නමුත් අදත් කියන්න ඕනෑ. 15 වන සියවස අවසානයේදී පෘතුගීසින් ලංකාවට ආවාම පෘතුගාලයේ එම්මානුවෙල් රජතුමන් තම ගෝවේ ප්‍රතිරාජයා වූ ෆ්‍රැන්සිස්කෝ ද අල්මේදාට ලිපියක් යොමු කරනවා. ඒ ලිපියෙන් ලංකාවේ පිහිටීමේ වැදගත්කම අවධාරණය කර ඇත්තේ මෙසේයි. ‘අපට ලැබී ඇති ආරංචිවලින් පෙනී යන්නේ නම්, පෙරළා එන ගමනේදී දෙවියන් වහන්සේගේ ආශිර්වාදය ලැබුණොත් යුෂ්මතාට ඉන්දියාවේ වැදගත් රාජ්‍යයක් වන ලංකාවට පැමිණිය හැකි බවය. එය ධනයෙන් ආඪ්‍ය වන්නා සේම එයින් අපට ලද හැකි ලාභ ප්‍රයෝජන ද අතිමහත්ය. එහෙයින් යුෂ්මතා එහි පැමිණ බලකොටුවක් ගොඩනගා එහි ආරක්ෂාවට සෑහෙන තරම් නැව් හා හේවායන් නැවැත්විය යුතුය. අපට පෙනී යන තවත් කරුණක් නම් දිවයිනේ ඉතා කදිම කුරුඳු හා නොයෙක් වර්ගයේ මුතු ද ඇතුන් ද අගනා වූත් ලාභගත හැකි වූත් වෙනත් වෙළඳ භාණ්ඩයන් ද ලැබෙන හෙයින් හා එය බෙංගාලයේ වරායට හා මලක්කාවට ද කයාල් නම් ස්ථානයට ද ඉතා ආසන්නව පිහිටා තිබෙන හෙයින් ද මලක්කා සමුද්‍ර සන්ධිය හා බෙංගාල වරාය හා යනෙන නෞකා මාර්ගයේ පිහිටා තිබෙන නිසා කිසිම නැවකට එය නොදැක හෝ ඊට නොදැනුවත්ව යා නොහැකි හෙයින් හා දූපත් දොළොස්දාහේ මුහුදට ඉතා ආසන්න හෙයින් ද එහි ගොඩනගන බලකොටුව ඉන්දියාවට ඉතා ආසන්න හෙයින් ද යුෂ්මතා අපේ නියෝගය පරිදි බලකොටුවක් තැනීමට සියලු පරිශ්‍රම දැරිය යුතු බවය. එපමණක් නොව, යුෂ්මතාගේ ප්‍රධාන වාසස්ථානය එය විය යුතු බව ද අපට පෙනේ. ඒ කරණ කොටගෙන යුෂ්මතා සියලු දෙයෙහි මධ්‍යස්ථානය වන්නාක් මෙන්ම එයින් අපගේ මෙහෙයත් පෞද්ගලික වශයෙන් යුෂ්මතාත් දැනට වඩා ආනුභාව සම්පන්න වේ. උක්ත ප්‍රකාර යුෂ්මතාගේ ප්‍රධාන මධ්‍යස්ථානය මෙකී දිවයින කොට ගත් කල යුෂ්මතා පෙරදිග අප සතු සියලු බලකොටුවලට ද සියලු දෙයෙහි ද මධ්‍යස්ථානය වන හෙයින් එතැන් සිට අන් කිසිම තැනක සිටිනවාට වඩා හොඳින් සියලු කාර්යයන් නිසි මග යොදවන්නට හා ඒවාට අවශ්‍ය කටයුතු සම්පාදනය කරන්නටත් යුෂ්මතාට අවස්ථාව ලැබේ. එහෙයින් අපේ අභිමතය වන්නේ ද අපගේ රාජ නියෝගය වන්නේ ද යුෂ්මතා මෙය මුදුන් පැමිණවීමට ව්‍යාවෘත විය යුතු බවයි.’

ඇමරිකාවේ ප්‍රබල භූමිකාව

2015දී ජෝන් කෙරී, එවකට ඇමරිකානු රාජ්‍ය ලේකම්වරයා ලංකාවට ආවා. ඔහු ලක්ෂ්මන් කදිරගාමර් මධ්‍යස්ථානයේදී දේශනයක් කළා. ඒ දේශනයේදී එතුමා කියනවා, අර 15 වැනි සියවසේ පෘතුගාලයේ රජු කියන ලද කතාව වෙන විදිහකට. ‘නුඹලාගේ රට පිහිටා ඇත්තේ අප්‍රිකාවේ, දකුණු ආසියාවේ සහ අග්නිදිග ආසියාවේ මධ්‍ය ලක්ෂ්‍යයකය. ඒ ඉන්දියානු සාගරයේ, ලෝකයේ වැදගත්ම වාණිජ ප්‍රවාහන මාර්ගයයි. ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට එහි ගැඹුරු වරායවල් සහ උපායමාර්ගික පිහිටීම නිසා නවීන ලෝකයේ වේගයෙන් නැඟී සිටින ඉන්දියානු ශාන්තිකර කලාපයේ නාභිය බවට පත්විය හැක. ශ්‍රී ලංකාව විසින් එම තත්වය අත්පත් කර ගැනීම සඳහා ඇමරිකාවට තමන් සතු ආර්ථික හා ආරක්ෂක හැකියාවන් යොදා ගනිමින් ප්‍රබල භූමිකාවක් ඉටු කළ හැක.’ යනුවෙන් ඔහු පැවසුවා. මෙහි යටිපෙළ අරුත ගත්තොත් ‘ප්‍රබල භූමිකාව ඉටු කිරීමට නම් ශ්‍රී ලංකාව නමැති රාජ්‍යය බිඳවැට්ටිය යුතුව ඇත. අඩපණ කළ යුතුව ඇත. අසාර්ථක කළ යුතුව ඇත. ආර්ථික හා දේශපාලන වශයෙන් පරඬැලක් බවට පත් කළ යුතුව ඇත. එසේ කරන ලද කල්හි අපේ වැඩේ කරගත හැකිය. ඒක කොරගන්න සාමාන්‍ය ක්‍රමයට බැරිය. අසාමාන්‍ය උපායඋපක්‍රම පාවිච්චි කළ යුතුය.’ යන්නයි. ඒකට බ්ලොග්කරුවන් අල්ලන්න ඕනේ. ඒගොල්ලොන්ට හොඳට ගෙවන්න ඕනේ. සෝෂල් මීඩියා වීරයෝ හදන්න ඕනේ. ඒගොල්ලොන්ට හොඳට ගෙවන්න ඕනේ. මම මේ හැම මිනිහෙක් ගැනම නොවෙයි කියන්නේ. ඒකට සංඝ සමාජයට ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ ගහන්න ඕනේ. ‘බඩ්ඩ’ කියන්න ඕනේ. දළදා හාමුදුරුවන්ට ‘ලබ්බ’ කියන්න ඕනේ. සමාජයේ පිළිගත් පුරුෂාර්ථ, පිළිගත් මත ඒවා ඔක්කොම බින්දුවට වට්ටන්න ඕනේ. ඒ කියන්නේ. සමාජ සංස්කෘතික වටිනාකම් හැම අතින්ම ඉවර කරලා දාන්න ඕනේ. අර ලස්සන ගෑණු ළමයින්ට කරදර වැඩියි වගේ මේ පිහිටීම අතින් තියෙන සුවිශේෂ ස්ථානය නිසා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට තිබෙන ඇල්ම බැල්ම වැඩියි.

‘ටොප් සීක්‍රට් මිෂන්’

පසුගිය පෙබරවාරි 14, ආදරවන්තයින්ගේ දිනයේදී ලංකාවට ආවා විශේෂ ඇමරිකානු කණ්ඩායමක්. ඒක ගැන සභාව කල් තබන අවස්ථාවේ විවාදයක් ඉල්ලා අපි පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ විපක්ෂ සංවිධායක කාර්යාලය මගින් යෝජනාවක් දුන්නා. එතැනදී යෝජනාවේ තිබූ වික්ටෝරියා නූලන්ඩ්ගේ නමත් මැකුවා. ඇමරිකාව යන රටේ නමක් කැපුවා. මෙතෙක් ඒ ගැන මත දැක්වූයේ උත්තර ලංකා සභාගයේ අපි නියෝජනය වන පක්ෂවල මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් පමණයි. වෙන කිසිම කෙනෙක් ඒ ගැන කටක් ඇරියේ නැහැ. ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ අනුර දිසානායක තෙමේ ද කිසිවක් කිව්වේ නැහැ. ඉස්සර නම් ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ තමයි ඔය වගේ ‘ටොප් සීක්‍රට් මිෂන්’ ආපු ගමන් ඒ අවධානම අරගෙන රටට මේවා කියන්නේ. නමුත් ඔවුන් ඒ ගැන මේ වෙනකන් කෙළ බිඳක් කටින් හෙළුවේ නැහැ. ඉහත දිනයේ ඇමරිකානු ගුවන් හමුදාවට අයිති භාණ්ඩ ප්‍රවාහන ගුවන් යාත්‍රා දෙකකින් 20 දෙනෙකුගේ කණ්ඩායමක් කටුනායකට ආවා. මේ විසිදෙනාගේ කණ්ඩායමේ හිටියා සීඅයිඒ ප්‍රධානියා විලියම් බර්න්ස්. ඊළඟට තව ඇමරිකානු රාජ්‍ය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ ප්‍රධානියකු ද හිටියා. මේ අය කවුරුත් පරීක්ෂා කරලා බැලුවේ නැහැ. ගුවන්තොටුපළ අධිකාරියේ සභාපතිතුමාමයි මේ අයව කෙලින්ම එළියට ගෙනාවේ ජනාධිපතිවරයා යන්න එන්න පාවිච්චි කරන වීවීඅයිපී පර්යන්තය හරහා. ඒ මොහොතේ කටුනායක – කොළඹ අධිවේගී මාර්ගය වැහුවා. එක වාහනයකට ඇතුළු වෙන්න දුන්නේ නැහැ. මේගොල්ලෝ කොළඹට ආවා. ඇවිල්ලා රටේ ජනාධිපතිව, ආරක්ෂක ලේකම්ව, රාජ්‍ය බුද්ධි අංශ ප්‍රධානියාව හමුවුණා.

ජනපති හතරෙන් තුනකටම එකඟයි

ජනාධිපතිවරයා සමග පැවති සාකච්ඡාවේදී ඔවුන් ප්‍රධාන ඉල්ලීම් හතරක් ඉදිරිපත් කළා. එක, අපේ රටට එන දුරකථන ඇමතුම් සම්බන්ධ වන මුහුද හරහා එන කේබලය ටැප් කරන්න ඒගොල්ලන්ට ඉඩ දෙන්න කියන එක. ඒ කියන්නේ පැමිණෙන ඇමතුම් සියල්ලට ඇහුම්කන් දෙන්න ඉඩ දෙන්න කියන එක. ඒකට එකඟ වුණා. දෙක, ගුවන්තොටුපළේ කුමක් හෝ මෘදුකාංගයක් සවි කරලා ඒ මෘදුකාංගය හරහා ගුවන්තොටුපළෙන් යන එන සියලුදෙනාගේ ජීව දත්ත ලබාගන්න ඔවුන්ට ඕනෑ කියන එක. ඒකටත් එකඟ වුණා. තුන, රාජ්‍ය බුද්ධි අංශයේ ප්‍රධානියාට උඩින් ඒගොල්ලන්ගේ කෙනෙක් තියන එක ඒකටත් එකඟ වුණා. හතර, ඒගොල්ලොන්ගේ ආරක්ෂක හමුදා සාමාජිකයන් ලංකාවට එනකොට, ඔවුන්ට පරීක්ෂා කර බැලීමකින් තොරව, අවි ආයුධ සහිතව, නිදහසේ රට තුළ සැරිසරන්න ඉඩ දෙන්න කියන එක. වික්‍රමසිංහ මහත්තයා කිව්වා, ඒක විතරක් පොඩ්ඩක් අපි තවදුරටත් සාකච්ඡා කරමු කියලා.

ඉන්දියාවටත් අනාරක්ෂිතභාවයක්

ඔවුන් රාජ්‍ය බුද්ධි අංශ ප්‍රධානියාගේ කාර්යාලයට යාමට පෙර කාර්යාලයේ හිටපු සියලුම නිලධාරීන්ගේ අවි අයින් කළා. හැබැයි ඒගොල්ලෝ අවි සහිතව ඇතුළට ගියා. කාර්යාලයේ කාපට් එක පස් පාරක් ගසලා බැලුවා. ඒවා ඉතින් මානසිකව බිඳවට්ටවන්න කරන ඒවා. දැන් බලන්න අර කේබලේ ටැප් කරනකොට ඒක ඉන්දියාවටත් ප්‍රශ්නයක් වෙන්නේ නැද්ද? මෙරට රාජ්‍ය බුද්ධි අංශයේ ප්‍රධානියාට උඩින් ඒගොල්ලන්ගේ එක්කෙනෙක් තියාගත්තාම ඒක ඉන්දියාවටත් බලපාන්නේ නැද්ද? එතකොට දැන් ලංකාවට විතරක් නොවෙයි මේකෙන් එක්තරා පරිමාණයකට අනාරක්ෂිතභාවයක් ඉන්දියාවටත් එනවා.

සියල්ල ඇමරිකාව අතට යන ගමනක්

දැන් මතුපිටින් බැලුවාම පෙනෙන්නේ චීනය ණය කළමනාකරණයට එකඟයි කියන ලියුම ලැබුණාට පස්සේ අයිඑම්එෆ් එක වැඩේ කළා කියලයි. මගේ නම් විශ්වාසය ඒක නොවෙයි, ඉහත කී ඇමරිකානු රජයේ ඉල්ලීම් හතරෙන් තුනකට එකඟ වීම තමයි අයිඑම්එෆ් ‘තුට්ටු දෙක’ ලැබෙන්න බලපෑවේ, කියන එකයි. ඒකනේ ඇමරිකානු තානාපතිනිය මහා භාණ්ඩාගාර ලේකම් හමුවෙලා ‘කොහොමද මේ සල්ලි වියදම් කරන්නේ?’ කියලා අහන්නේ. අයිඑම්එෆ් කියන්නේ ඇමරිකාවම තමයි කියලා ඒකෙන්ම පෙනෙනවානේ. දැන් ලංකාවේ ආර්ථිකයත් ඒගොල්ලෝ විසින් පාලනයට නතු කරගෙන ඉන්නවා.
දේශපාලනයත් දැන් ඒගොල්ලෝ බොහෝ දුරට පාලනය කරමින් ඉන්නවා. මොන පක්ෂ ද එකතු වෙන්නේ? මොන පක්ෂ ද ඉතුරු කරන්නේ? මොන පක්ෂ ද නැති කරන්නේ? කියලා තීරණය කරන්නේ එතැනින්. අපි හදන සමහර සභාග ගුප්ත හේතු මත එක පාරට නැති වෙනවා. ඒවා මේ දේශීය කාරණා නොවෙයි. එක්කෙනෙක් කියලා තිබෙනවා, ‘අපෝ මේගොල්ලෝ එක්ක හිටියොත් ඇමරිකානු තානාපතිනියගේ මූණ බලන්නත් බැරි වෙයි’ කියලා. ඉතින් ඒ මුහුණ බලන්න බැරි නම් මේ වැඩේ කෙරෙන්නේ නැහැ. මෙතැනට දේශපාලන පක්ෂ ඇද වැටී තිබෙනවා. මේක වැඩෙන්න ඉඩ දීලා බලන් ඉන්න ඕනෙ එකක් නොවෙයි.. මොන අවධානම මතු වුණත් මේක කඩන්න ඕනේ. මේක කඩන්නේ නැතුව ලංකාවට නැගිටින්නත් බැහැ.මහජනයා බලගන්වන්නත් බැහැ. සමාජයක් ඉතුරු කරගන්නත් බැහැ.

භික්ෂූන්වහන්සේට ගරහන්නේ ඇයි?

ටියුඩර් වීරසිංහ මහාචාර්යතුමා කිව්වා වගේ මානවීය ගුණාංගවලින් තොර තාක්ෂණික මිනිසකු හදන්න මේ අවසන් පැය කිහිපය තුළත් මේ බටහිර බලවතුන් උත්සාහ කරනවා. සමලිංගික හැසිරීම් අපරාධ වරදක් නොවන පනත් සංශෝධන එනවා. එතැනින් ඒක නතර වුණා නම් ප්‍රශ්නයක් නැහැ. හැබැයි ඉතින් ඊට පස්සේ ඒක ප්‍රවර්ධනය කරන්න පියවරෙන් පියවර යන්න පුළුවන්නේ. මේ වෙන්නේ අපේ රට සමාජ, සංස්කෘතික, දේශපාලන, ආර්ථික යන හැම අතින්ම වට්ටන එක. භික්ෂූන්වහන්සේට ගරහනවා.ඒ අතර භික්ෂු සංස්ථාව තුළට අලුත් භික්ෂූන් දාලා සංගීත සංදර්ශනවල නටවනවා. භික්ෂු ප්‍රතිරූපයට දිගටම හානි කරනවා. භික්ෂුව, භික්ෂු සංස්ථාව තමයි මේ සමාජය රැක්කේ. සමාජ මතවාදය තීරණය කළේ, පාලනය කළේ. දැන් භික්ෂු සංස්ථාවට සමාජ මතවාදයට බලපෑම් කිරීමට තියෙන හැකියාව උදුරලා දානවා. ඒක දැනුවත්ව, හිතාමතාම කරන්නේ.

ඇයි අර ගොල්ෆේස් අරගල භූමිය තුළ වෙසක් දවසේ හදපු වෙසක් කූඩු කළුපාට වුණේ? කළු පාට බුද්ධාගමේ පාටක් නොවෙයි ඒක අරාජිකත්වයේ පාට. ඇයි අරගලයේ හිටපු එක තරුණයෙක් මුල් කාලයේ ඇහුවේ ‘ගමේ පන්සලේ බුදු පිළිමෙට මුස්ලිම් තරුණයෙක් ගහලා පොඩිපට්ටම් කළොත් අපි ඒ තරුණයාට ගහන්නේ නැහැ නේද? කියලා. අනිත් අය ඔක්කොම ටික ඒකට ‘ඔව්’ කිව්වා. ‘ගෝඨා ගෝ හෝම්’ අරගලය සහ මේ අතර තියෙන සම්බන්ධය මොකක්ද? බුදු පිළිමෙට ගැහුවාට ගහන්න ඕනේ නැහැ. හැබැයි ඔහුව පොලිසියට අල්ලලා දෙන්න ඕනේ. කිසිම ආගමකට ගරහන්න කාටවත් අයිතියක් නැහැ. එතකොට ඇයි එතැන මියගිය එල්ටීටීඊ අයව, මහා වීරු සැමරුම් තියලා සැමරුවේ?

‘නම්බර් වන්’

රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ ජනාධිපතිතුමාගේ උපදේශක ආශු මාරසිංහ තමයි එදා ‘ගෝඨා ගෝ ගම’ පළමුවැනි කූඩාරම ගැහුවේ. ඒ දිනවල රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහත්තයා අගමැති ලෙස බීබීසී එකත් එක්ක සාකච්ඡාවක් කළා. එතැනදී ‘ඔබ මොකක්ද විදේශිකයන්ට දෙන පණිවිඩය?’ කියලා ඇහුවා. ‘මම කියනවා විදේශිකයන්ට එන්න ඇවිල්ලා ගෝඨා ගෝ හෝම් සටනට එකතු වෙන්න’ කියලයි එදා කිව්වේ.

ඒ අතරේ එයා ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ කිව්වා, ‘ගෝඨා ගෝ ගම පිරිස යවන්නේ නැහැ. ඒකට මං උදව් කරනවා. සනීපාරක්ෂක පහසුකම් ටිකක් සපයනවා’ කියලා. රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහත්තයා අගමැති වුණු ගමන්ම, යාලුවෙක් ඇහුවා,’ ඔයාට තේරෙන්නේ නැද්ද? ඒගොල්ලෝ සුරක්ෂිත වුණ ගමන් ආයේ ඔයාවත් පන්නලා දායි නේද?’ කියලා. රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ අගමැතිතුමා එවෙලේ යාළුවාට කියනවා, ‘මම දැනගන්න ඕනේ ඊට කලින් නම්බර් වන් වෙන්න’ කියලා. අවසානයේ එයා ‘නම්බර් වන්’ වුණා. අර ‘ප්ලෑන් ඒ’ එකට අනුව තිබුණේ ලිබියානු පන්නයේ අන්තර්කාලීන පාලනයක්. ‘ප්ලෑන් ඒ’ එකට ඉදිරියට යන්න බැරි වුණා, මෙයා මේක අතහැරියේ නැති හින්දා. දැන් මෙයා ජනාධිපති. වික්ටෝරියා නූලන්ඩ් ඊට පස්සෙත් ආවා. ඇවිල්ලා අතට අත දුන්නා. සාකච්ඡා කළා. අර ඇමරිකානු ඉල්ලීම් හතරෙන් තුනකට දැන් එකඟයි. මෙයාට වුණත් ඕනවට වඩා ස්ථාවර වෙන්න දෙන්නේ නැහැ. අස්ථාවරභාවය පවත්වාගෙන යමින් මෙයා ලව්වා කරගන්න බැරි වුණු ඔක්කොම වැඩ කරගන්න බැරි වුණත් කරගත හැකි ඉතුරු උපරිම ටික කරගන්න එක තමයි ඇමරිකාවේ බලාපොරොත්තුව.

අපේ වගකීම

මෙතැන ඒගොල්ලන්ට අත්‍යවශ්‍ය වන තිප්පොළක්, දඩබිමක්. මේ මාතෘකාවට අතවත් තියන්නේ නැතුව වෙන වෙන වීර කාව්‍ය කියමින් සිටින දේශපාලකයෝ දැන හෝ නොදැන, වක්‍රව හෝ සෘජුව සම්මාදම් වෙන්නේ මේ බල ව්‍යාපෘතිය දිගේලි කරන එකටයි. මේ රටට ආදරේ නම්, මේ රටේ නිදහස් අධ්‍යාපනයෙන් අපි හැදුනා වැඩුනා නම්, මේ භූමියේ ගහකොළ, ස්වභාවධර්මයා දීපු සම්පත් අපි භාවිතා කළා නම් අපට වගකීමක් තියෙනවා මොන අවදානම ආවත් මෙන්න මේ පරාධීනත්වය හෙළි කරන්න. ඊට එරෙහි මහජන කතිකාවක් බලගන්වන්න විතරක් නෙවෙයි ඊට නායකත්වය දෙන්න. මේ කෘතිය ජනගත කිරීම මගින් අපි ආරම්භක වශයෙන් පියවර තබන්නේ අන්න ඒ වගකීම බලගැන්වීමේ දිශාවට කියන එක මම ඔබට අවධාරණය කරනවා

‘එහි කොටසක් ඇත ඔබටත්’

මම ඊයේ ගියා රූපවාහිනී සාකච්ඡාවකට එක්තරා නාලිකාවක. එතැනදී මගෙන් අහනවා, ‘පොතෙහි සඳහන් සිදුවීම්වලට සාක්ෂි තියෙනවා ද? කියලා. සාක්ෂි හරියට එන්න තව අවුරුදු විස්සක් විතර බලන් ඉන්න ඕනේ. සාමාන්‍යයෙන් සීඅයිඒ එක, ඒගොල්ලන්ගේ ලේඛන අවුරුදු විස්සකට පස්සේ නම් මකලා එළියට දානවා. එහෙම නැත්නම් අර වික්ටෝරියා නූලන්ඩ් සහ යුක්රේනයේ හිටපු ඇමරිකානු තානාපති සිදු කළ දුරකථන සාකච්ඡාවේ හඬ පටය වගේ එකක් එළියට එන්න ඕනේ. හැමදේටම ඒ නිසා සාක්ෂි දෙන්න බැහැ. හැබැයි අපි දෙන්න පුළුවන් බොහෝ සාක්ෂි මේකේ දීලා තියෙනවා. ඉතුරු ටික අනාවරණය කරගන්න එක සෙසු වගකිවයුතු රටවැසියන්ගේ වගකීමක්. එහි කොටසක් ඇත ඔබටත්.

අපි සිදු වූ සියල්ල නිවැරදිව තේරුම් ගන්න ඕනේ. නැත්නම් අපත් ගොදුරු බවට පත් වෙනවා. ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂත් මෙහි ගොදුරක් බවට පත් වුණා. ඇමරිකානු තානාපතිතුමිය ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂට දිගටම මානසික බාධක දැම්මා.අවසානයේ ඇමරිකාවට යන්න ඉන්දියාවෙන් ගුවන් යානාවක් එවන්න පොරොන්දු වෙලා හිටියා. එව්වේ නැහැ. හේතුව මොකක්ද? රනිල් අගමැති ධුරයෙන් අයින් කරන ලියුම දුන්නේ නැති හින්දා ඒක එව්වේ නැහැ. මේවා මේ සමාජය දැනගන්න ඕනේ.

යම් සමාජයක් දේශපාලන සාක්ෂරතාවයෙන් ඉහළ මට්ටමකට ආවොත් විතරයි ඒ සමාජය ආරක්ෂා කරගන්න පුළුවන්, පවත්වාගෙන යන්න පුළුවන්. දේශපාලන සාක්ෂරතාවයෙන් අපි මොට නම්, විෂම කුණාටු – රැලිවල ගොදුරු බවට පත්වෙන එක ඇරෙන්න සමාජයට වෙන ඉඩක් ඉතුරු වෙන්නේ නැහැ.

මෙන්න මේ දේශපාලන සාක්ෂරතාව බලගැන්වීම සඳහායි අපි මේ කෘතිය ජනගත කරන්නේ. හෙට සිට සමාජ මාධ්‍යවල අපට ගරහන එක වැඩිවේවි. හෙට සිට අපිව ඉලක්ක කොටගෙන එල්ල කරන ප්‍රහාරය වැඩිවේවි. ඒ කිසිවක් කිසිවිටෙක ප්‍රශ්නයක් කර නොගෙනයි අපි අපේ ඇත්ත අවංක දේශපාලන භාවිතාව ඉටු කරන්නේ. ඒ ක්‍රියාන්විතය සමඟ ඔබේ දායකත්වය ඔබේ හැකියාව, ඔබේ ශක්තිය ඒකාබද්ධ කරන්න කියා ඉල්ලනවා. අද අපේ ආරාධනාව පරිදි මේ අවස්ථාවට පැමිණි, ගෞරවනීය ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේලාට සියලුම ගරු පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීතුමන්ලාට, ඒ වගේම අපේ කලාකරුවන්, විද්වතුන් ඇතුළු සියලුමදෙනාට මගේ කෘතවේදීත්වය, ගෞරවය හා ප්‍රණාමය පුද කරමින්, මාතෘ භූමියට ජයවේවා! ඔබ සැමට ජයෙන් ජයම වේවා’යි කියා ප්‍රාර්ථනා කරමින් මගේ වචන ස්වල්පය අවසන් කරනවා.”

(අනුරුද්ධ බණ්ඩාර රණවාරණ)
මාධ්‍ය ලේකම්,
ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණ

By Daya Gamage Foreign Service National Political Specialist (ret) U.S. Department of State

Draconian Patriot Act exposed

Six weeks after the September 11 attacks on American soil, the U.S. Congress passed the USA/Patriot Act,” nation’s hurried surveillance laws that expanded the government’s authority to check on its own citizens, while simultaneously reducing checks and balances on those powers like judicial oversight, public accountability, and the ability to challenge government searches in court.

The Senate version of the Patriot Act was sent to the floor with no discussion, debate, or hearings. In the House, hearings were held, and a carefully constructed compromise bill emerged with no debate or consultation with rank-and-file members, the House leadership threw out the compromise bill and replaced it with legislation that mirrored the Senate version. Neither discussion nor amendments were permitted, and once again members barely had time to read the bill before they were forced to cast a vote on it.

It should be mentioned that all the obnoxious provisions of the USA PATRIOT ACT were in operation until the promulgation of the Freedom Act of 2015: long fifteen years. In fact, some provisions were preserved in the Freedom Act.

Before I present the draconian provisions of the USA/Patriot Act, it should be noted here how the U.S. Ambassador Julie Chung – when having a discourse with Justice Minister Wijayadasa Rajapakshe – had expressed her strong desire”, of course on behalf of Washington policymakers, to see extensive discussions, both public and parliamentary” on Sri Lanka’s proposed Anti-Terrorism Bill which is envisaged to replace the current Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

In a Twitter feed, Ms. Chung referring to what was discussed during that meeting with Minister Rajapakshe on 20 April, noted her concerns with regard to certain aspects of the proposed Bill which fall outside of international standards.

She further highlighted that it is important that all voices – including civil society, academia, and lawmakers – are considered to ensure the legislation serves as an effective tool for combating terrorism without restricting freedom of expression or assembly.”

These disgraceful double-standards of Washington policymakers and lawmakers – and of course their overseas diplomats – in dealing with Sri Lanka’s ‘national issues’ since the advent of the separatist war in the north and the insurrection in the south in the 1980s are now very broadly dealt with by two personnel who worked within the U.S. Department of State for thirty years in the area of foreign affairs: One is this writer who is a retired Foreign Service National Political Specialist once accredited to the Political Section of the U.S. Embassy in Colombo, and the other, Dr. Robert K. Boggs, a retired Senior Foreign Service (FS) and Intelligence Officer who served as Political Counselor at the Colombo Mission with a very broad knowledge of India’s ‘role’ in Sri Lanka. Their manuscript ‘Defending Democracy: Lessons in Strategic Diplomacy from U.S.-Sri Lankan Relations” is nearing completion with alarming disclosures, provocative analyses and interpretations based on their up-close and personal knowledge and understanding how Washington used ‘double standards’ in handling its foreign relations reducing Sri Lanka to some level of a client state. Sri Lanka’s own infantile behaviour dealing with her foreign relations since the 1980s contributed too to become a client state allowing ‘national issues’ to become ‘global’ ones.

When Ambassador Chung ‘advice’ the Sri Lanka government – through its Justice Minister – to undertake a wider and broad scrutiny of the proposed anti-terrorism legislation, Washington’s ‘double-standards’ are well exposed when our memory goes back to the manner in which it steamrolled the USA PATRIOT ACT in September 2001 documented above.

This writer doesn’t see any Sri Lankan lawmaker questioning Ambassador Julie Chung, purposely ignoring the manner in which the USA/Patriot Act came into America’s statute books with draconian features, enforced for fifteen years until the Freedom Act was brought in.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) had expressed that the Congress and the Administration acted without any careful or systematic effort to determine whether weaknesses in our surveillance laws had contributed to the attacks, or whether the changes they were making would help prevent further attacks. Indeed, many of the act’s provisions have nothing at all to do with terrorism”.

The USA PATRIOT ACT increased the government’s surveillance powers in four areas:

Records searches. It expands the government’s ability to look at records on an individual’s activity being held by third parties. (Section 215)

Secret searches. It expands the government’s ability to search private property without notice to the owner. (Section 213)

Intelligence searches. It expands a narrow exception to the Fourth Amendment that had been created for the collection of foreign intelligence information (Section 218).

Trap and trace” searches. It expands another Fourth Amendment exception for spying that collects addressing” information about the origin and destination of communications, as opposed to the content (Section 214).

It is frustrating to remind Ambassador Julie Chung, and Washington policymakers who guide her, the undemocratic features in the US anti-terrorism act when she uses ‘double standards’ – as Washington always engage dealing with international affairs of which very broadly analysed in Robert Boggs-Daya Gamage’s forthcoming book – to advocate that there exist certain provisions in the Sri Lanka-proposed Anti-Terrorism Bill ‘outside of international standards’.

When the Bush administration brought the Patriot Act, it had scant regard for ‘international standards’.

There are three overlying undemocratic aspects of the Patriot Act: torturing suspects, indefinite holding of suspects, and spying on citizens.

How did Washington round-up Sri Lanka government during Ranil Wickremasinghe’s premiership at the turn of this century to engage in torture in third-party countries” that were not part of the Geneva Convention? Do we have to remind Ambassador Julie Chung of this?

During the 2002-2004 peace negotiations, (between the Sri Lanka government and LTTE mediated by Norway and the U.S. directly involving in it) Washington did not scruple to use its influence to persuade the Wickremasinghe’s Government, which had foreign and defence portfolios under it, to help the U.S. avoid accountability before the International Criminal Court (ICC). In the fall of 2002 various State Department officials pressed Prime Minister Wickremesinghe repeatedly to sign a bilateral agreement under Article 98 of the Rome Statute, the treaty that in 1998 established the ICC. Under the treaty, such a bilateral agreement would immunise the citizens of each signatory state from being surrendered by the other to the jurisdiction of the (ICC) Court. The Wickremasinghe government did sign such an agreement in November 2002.

It was not coincidental that in October 2002 the U.S. and coalition partners launched a shock and awe” bombing campaign and invasion of Iraq as part of the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). At the same time, more than 9000 U.S. troops were battling Taliban militants in Afghanistan. The Bush administration clearly wanted to shield U.S. soldiers from ICC prosecution for inevitable charges of war crimes. In a report in 2016 the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor found a reasonable basis to believe” that since May 2003 at least 54 detained persons” in Afghanistan were subjected to grave crimes by U.S. armed forces, including the war crimes of torture and cruel treatment.” The same report further alleged that from 2003 to 2004 members of the CIA committed grave crimes, including rape and/or sexual violence” against at least 24 detained persons” in Afghanistan and other states. Measures taken by Washington to protect its combatants abroad from criminal accountability are particularly questionable in light of subsequent USG pressure on Sri Lanka–a signatory of an Article 98 agreement–to submit to international investigations for war crimes. U.S. hypocrisy and double-standards well displayed.

In August 2003 Prime Minister Wickremasinghe covertly authorized the USG’s use of Sri Lankan airspace and Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) for Washington’s so-called extraordinary rendition and detention programme.” This meant that the CIA could use the airport for the transfer of prisoners to the custody of other foreign governments or to secret CIA prisons outside the U.S. known as black sites.” Washington engaged in this practice when in fact, extraordinary rendition and detention is clearly prohibited by the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment.

There were at least two flights during June and August 2003 that used BIA to transport terrorist suspects. One flight operated by Richmor Aviation (a company that operated flights for the CIA for extraordinary rendition) is known to have landed in Sri Lanka during June 19-20, 2003 shortly after the apprehension in central Thailand of Mohammed Farik Bin Amin, alias Zubair Zaid, a Malaysian who is alleged to have been a senior member of Jemaah Islamiyah and al Qaeda. Documents inspected by this writer and his co-author Robert Boggs for their manuscript show that another Richmor aircraft flew from Washington, DC to Bangkok, and then transited BIA on August 13-14 before flying on to Afghanistan, Dubai and Europe. That flight coincided with the capture in Thailand of alleged Indonesian terrorist leader Riduan Isamuddin (a.k.a. Hambali) and Malaysian Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep, (a.k.a. Lillie). All three of these men reportedly were later detained and interrogated at CIA black sites and were later transferred to U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay. Also in August 2002, the Sri Lanka government arrested a person wanted by the U.S. who was hiding in Sri Lanka and handed him over to the CIA.

The above is to remind Ambassador Chung of the manner in which Washington executed the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) when she and her Washington-guided policymakers engage in ‘double-standards’ in ‘advising’ Sri Lanka how to draft ‘terrorism legislation’ to ‘keep with international standards’.

Section 802 of the USA PATRIOT ACT made domestic terrorists subject to the same punishments (torture) as international terrorists and defined domestic terrorism as: An act dangerous to human life” that is a violation of the criminal laws of a state or the United States, if the act appears to be intended to: (i) intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping.”

The Patriot Act allowed for spying by the United States government on everyday people without warrant, by means of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Courts and direct legislation.

The American Civil Liberties Union points out how judicial review or oversight lacked under the Patriot Act: Judicial oversight of these new powers is essentially non-existent. The government must only certify to a judge – with no need for evidence or proof – that such a search meets the statute’s broad criteria”.

Both domestically and internationally, the Patriot Act set a precedent of undemocratic legislation to prevent terrorism through violations of civil liberties. Through direct amendments and in conjunction with brother bills,” the Patriot Act allowed for, pushed, and resulted in more undemocratic legislation, ultimately resulting in the US Congress-ratified Freedom Act of 2015.

The first major direct modification was the USA PATRIOT Act Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005, which made 14 provisions permanent and extended several controversial sections until 2009, such sections as: 206, which allowed the National Security Agency (NSA) to access FISA Courts and to wiretap any communication of a suspect; the other is Section 215, which allowed the NSA to collect every phone call made to and from the United States; and provisions from the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, which permitted the FISA Court to authorize surveillance and physical searches aimed at foreign nationals who are ‘engaged in international terrorism or activities in preparation for international terrorism”‘.

The biggest specific precedent created by the Patriot Act was the direct transition to the USA Freedom Act of 2015, which corrected some of the abuses allowed by the Patriot Act, but left others unchecked. Many of the major provisions of the Patriot Act were set to expire that year and instead of renewing them, the government introduced a new bill with less controversy. Drafters of the bill claimed that the government could only access certain data after submitting public requests to the FISA Court, marking a big difference from the Patriot Act. In 2015, a few major sections of the Patriot Act were set to expire, including Sections 206 and 215 mentioned above. Even without the Freedom Act, the legality of Section 215 was headed to the Courts regardless, as the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that the Patriot Act was not enough justification to allow bulk metadata collection (Patriot Act 2017). Luckily, it never had to go farther because Congress scrapped the Patriot Act and got partially rid of that section, but the Freedom Act is by no means innocent of civil liberties violations.

Does Ambassador Julie Chung get it? And does Justice Minister Rajapaksha comprehend?

This clearly shows how the USA PATRIOT ACT of 2001 was in operation for a full fifteen years until certain changes were made in the Freedom Act of 2015.

As described recently by CNN International socio-political news presenter Fareed Zakaria:

America’s unipolar status has corrupted the country’s foreign policy elite. Our foreign policy is all too often an exercise in making demands and issuing threats and condemnations. There is very little effort made to understand the other side’s views or actually negotiate. . . . All this evokes the inertia of an aging empire. Today, our foreign policy is run by insular elite that operates by mouthing rhetoric to please domestic constituencies—and seems unable to sense that the world out there is changing, and fast.” (xA)

The study undertaken by this writer and his co-author Dr. Robert Boggs should help readers to decide to what extent Zakaria’s troubling diagnosis is accurate and, if so, whether the U.S.-Sri Lanka experience offers relevant lessons for remedial action.

This writer’s intention is to underscore Washington’s double standards – well reflected by its ambassador recently when in conversation with Justice Minister Wijayadasa Rajapakshe – to bring some sense to authorities in Colombo.

At the time that the United States was pressuring Colombo to accept national, international, and hybrid mechanisms to clarify the fate and whereabouts of the disappeared,” the USG had not itself ratified the UN convention of 2006 requiring state party to criminalize enforced disappearances and take steps to hold those responsible to account. Despite a resolution passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on November 19, 2020 calling on the USG to ratify the international convention, this still has not happened. The U.S.’ long history of rejecting accountability is strongly rooted in legislation.

The American Service-Members Protection Act (ASPA) was an amendment to the 2002 Supplemental Appropriations Act (H.R. 4775) passed in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the launch of the so-called Global War on Terror. The ASPA aims to protect U.S. military personnel and other elected and appointed officials of the Government against prosecution by an international criminal court to which the U.S. is not a party.” Among other defensive provisions the Act prohibits federal, state and local governments and agencies (including courts and law enforcement agencies) from assisting the International Criminal Court in The Hague. It even prohibits U.S. military aid to countries that are parties to the Court. As mentioned above, In 2002, during the administration of Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, the GSL signed with the U.S. an Article 98 Agreement,” agreeing not to hand over U.S. nationals to the Court.

Washington and its ambassador in Colombo continue to engage in hypocrisy and double-standards when all this evidence is available in the public domain.

(The writer is a retired Foreign Service National Political Specialist of the U.S. Department of State once accredited to the Political Section of the U.S. Embassy, Sri Lanka)

By Shamindra Ferdinando  Courtesy The Island

National Freedom Front (NFF) leader Wimal Weerawansa on Tuesday alleged that having failed to thwart Ranil Wickremesinghe’s ascent to presidency, the US was now working with the UNP leader to achieve its objectives.

MP Weerawansa, the Chairman of the Uththara Lanka Sabhagaya said that President Wickremesinghe already consented to three of the four US conditions at secret talks in Colombo with top level US delegation that included CIA director William Joseph Burns in February this year.

Addressing a gathering at Sri Lanka Foundation (SLF) at the launch of ‘Nine: The Hidden Story,’ the former Minister claimed that the US and Sri Lanka agreed on the former to access underwater communication cables, monitor passengers passing through the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) and positioning of US official above Head of State Intelligence Service (SIS).

The only condition President Wickremesinghe wanted to put off was for US forces personnel to move freely here while being armed, the lawmaker claimed. The former JVPer said that the US delegation separately met President Wickremesinghe, Defence Secretary Kamal Gunaratne and Maj. Gen. Suresh Sally, the head of SIS.

Both the government and the US embassy here declined either to confirm or deny the CIA Chief’s visit on Feb. 14.

Among those present at the book launch were MPs, General Secretary of the Democratic Left Front Vasudeva Nanayakkara, leader of Nidahas Janatha Sabhawa Dullas Alahapperuma, leader of Pivuthuru Hela Urumaya Udaya Gammanpila, leader of Yuthukama civil society group Gevindu Cumaratunga, SLFP General Secretary Dayasiri Jayasekera, Weerasumana Weerasinghe, Ven. Atureliye Rathana, Priyankara Jayaratne, Premanath Dolawatte, Jayantha Samaraweera, Mohamed Muzammil, Nimal Piyatissa, Uddika Premaratne and Gamini Waleboda. Convenor Jathika Sanwidhana Ekamuthuwa Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekera, Gen. Secy of Deshahitheshi Jathika Viyaparaya Dr. Wasantha Bandara, Attorney-at-law Kalyananda Thiranagama were also present along with ex-MPs, Dew Gunasekera and Thilanga Sumathipala.

MP Weerawansa questioned whether US-Sri Lanka understanding on the above mentioned conditions would be acceptable to India.

Declaring that the US dictated terms to Sri Lanka on a number of matters ranging from economy to political setup, Colombo District MP Weerawansa asserted that the US ensured the withholding of the IMF bailout package till Colombo agreed to above terms and not China’s letter to it as propagated by some.

People believe China facilitated the IMF package by throwing its weight behind it. However, the IMF facility seemed to be arranged by the US,” MP Weerawansa said, underscoring US Ambassador Julie Chung inquiring from Secretary to the Treasury Mahinda Siriwardena about how Sri Lanka intended to spend the money. The declaration was made in the presence of Hu Wei, Chargé d’affaires of the Chinese embassy here.

Immediately after finalisation of the agreement with the IMF, Sri Lanka received the first tranche.

Hu Wei, Chargé d’affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka (on right) pic courtesy NFF

Referring to US Under Secretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland’s meetings with the then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa (in March 2022) and his successor (Feb 2023 before CIA’s Chief’s Feb 14 visit), lawmaker Weerawansa said that the US was going ahead with its agenda (plan B) though it couldn’t implement the original strategy. MP Weerawansa named Nuland as the architect of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s ouster and its Ambassador here Julie Chung as its Director.

MP Weerawansa stressed that the US would ensure continuation of instability as part of its overall strategy to maintain an environment conducive for operations here.

The NFF leader said that he launched ‘Nine: The Hidden Story,’ to make the public aware as to how Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who secured a staggering 6.9 mn votes at the last presidential election in November 2019 was unconstitutionally removed. However, the US project here should be examined against the backdrop of global and regional changes in the wake of the growing Chinese challenge to the US hegemony.

Declaring that Wickremesinghe hadn’t been the original choice of the US, MP Weerawansa said, asserting that the US planned for an interim administration led by Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena. The parliamentarian compared the US strategy here with what they did in Libya in the run-up to the execution of Muammar Gaddafi in October 2011and after, and Ukraine where the US in 2019 installed Volodymyr Zelenskyy as President after ousting the legitimately elected President in 2014 in the Maidan uprising instigated by it after spending as much as five billion dollars as admitted by Nuland.

Pointing out that both interim administrations in Libya and Ukraine were led by respective Speakers, MP Weerawansa said that the US wanted the same here. However, the US couldn’t convince Speaker Abeywardena to accept the leadership after Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned under duress, the former minister said.

US Ambassador Julie Chung went to the extent of rushing to the Speaker’s official residence as protesters declared plans to take control of parliament in a last ditch attempt to persuade the SLPP MP. Ambassador Chung made this unprecedented move in the wake of a religious leader and an Opposition MP’s failure on the previous day to win over the Speaker, MP Weerawansa said.

When the Speaker pointed out to Ambassador Chung that in terms of the Constitution, in the event of the President’s resignation under whatever the circumstances, the Prime Minister succeeded the President, Ambassador Chung assured the Speaker he should assume the presidency and they would look after other issues,” MP Weerawansa said.

Commenting on the Indian role in the US project, MP Weerawansa said that both countries asked President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign after sacking the then Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe. President Rajapaksa who was overseas at that time though receiving both letters from his Secretary Gamini Senarath declined to sack Wickremesinghe, MP Weerawansa said.

India declined to provide an aircraft for President Rajapaksa to leave the country as he refused to sack Premier Wickremesinghe.

Lawmaker Weerawansa said that the UNP leader consolidated his position before those who spearheaded the campaign against his predecessor moved against him.

Within hours after parliament elected him as the President on July 20, 2022, President Wickremesinghe ordered the military to clear the Presidential Secretariat and took measures to bring the situation under control.

The US interest in strategically located Sri Lanka should be examined taking into consideration its Indo-Pacific strategy and the China-Russia entering into new relationships with major countries as well as the developments taking place in Africa.

The ongoing bloodshed in Sudan following the eruption of fighting between Sudanese armed forces and Rapid Support Forces was caused by Western powers seeking to undermine the government, MP Weerawansa said. The US couldn’t stomach any country moving away from its orbit and seeking closer relations with China or Russia.

The US marshaled all elements and brought them under one umbrella to destabilize a government, MP Weerawansa said. The fall of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government is a case in point, the NFF leader said, questioning the commemoration of LTTE at the Galle Face protest site and ongoing attempts to legalize same sex marriage et al. Such strategies should be studied against the backdrop of intense attacks on the Buddhist clergy, the former minister said.

The MP warned of dire consequences unless political parties represented in Parliament, civil society and the media take up a clear stand on the US intervention. The NFF leader found fault with the media for failing in its duty to educate the public of the developments taking place outside Sri Lanka impacted on the country.

The MP alleged that if the US move to install Speaker Abeywardena as the President succeeded, perhaps Sarath Fonseka could have been accommodated in that administration. Chief of Defence Staff General Shavendra Silva would have definitely been in that, he said. Questioning the senior most serving officer being away in India on the invitation of New Delhi, MP Weerawansa said that the US had exerted pressure on General Silva over the human rights issue in a bid to win him over. The US, MP Weerawansa said dictated terms to both President Rajapaksa and protesters as well simultaneously as it realised all wanted to be in the good books of the superpower.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The Anti-Corruption Bill which was presented to Parliament by Minister of Justice Wijedasa Rajapakshe provides provisions for the Commission for Investigation of Bribery and Corruption powers to engage in joint investigations with foreign countries and other foreign parties.

As per the Bill, the Bribery Commission is given powers as stated above when it comes to matters falling under agreements or arrangements to Sri Lanka and other foreign countries. The commission therefore is given the power to enter into agreements or arrangements with an institution of a foreign nation or with an international organization or body of persons established by an overseas government or a state or with a foreign law enforcement agency.

The commission is also given power to arrest and file legal action against any person whom it believes have committed an offence in line with the Bill.

The members of the Bribery Commission are to be appointed by the President on the recommendation of the constitutional council under the Bill.

The other salient feature is that the President, Prime Minister, Cabinet of Ministers, MPs, provincial council members, members of local bodies, state officials including the senior officers of Central Bank and even the members of Constitutional Council are made liable to declare their assets and liabilities and assets and liabilities of their spouses and children.

The government claimed that the objective of the new legislation is to give effect to certain provisions of the United Nations Convention against Corruption and other internationally recognized norms, standards and best practices.(Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana)

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Parliamentarian Wimal Weerawansa, in response to US Ambassador Julie Chung calling his book a work of ‘fiction’ said he was happy the US Ambassador had taken time to translate his book into English and read his work within a day.

https://youtu.be/ksqMsptdvVM

“Ambassador Julie had tweeted about my book, with no mention of my name. I’m happy to see her interest to translate the book to English and read it in just a day,” he said.

Further, MP Field Marshall Sarath Fonseka attacked MP Wimal Weerawansa in Parliament today over the allegations against Fonseka published in the book by Weerawansa. 

“Don’t sling mud at Army Commanders. He’s attempting to switch sides and secure a ministerial portfolio,” Fonseka said. 

In response Weerawansa charged that Fonseka feels hurt as the truth of the conspiracy was revealed through his publication. “Army Commander Shavendra Silva was controlled by the US Ambassador and Sarath Fonseka,” Weerawansa said.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Sri Lankan government has denounced the United States’ move to blacklist the Governor of North Western Province in Sri Lanka, Wasantha Karannagoda.

Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Sabry has expressed grave concerns associated with the decision to US Ambassador Julie Chung today (April 27).

The Sri Lankan government says such unilateral move by the United States without following the due process is counter-productive” to the holistic approach” that the island nation has taken on addressing national unity and reconciliation.

It is also unfortunate that the announcement emanates against the backdrop of tangible progress made by the Government in strengthening the country’s democratic governance and reconciliation structures.”

The Sri Lankan government notes that, despite these challenges, it will continue its ongoing efforts to achieve reconciliation, economic recovery and socio-economic development.

The United States, on Thursday (April 27), banned Karannagoda and his family from entering the country over alleged gross violation of human rights.

Karannagoda was designated pursuant to Section 7031(c) of the US Department of State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations Act 2023, due to his involvement in a gross violation of human rights during his tenure as Naval Commander.”

As a result of the move, Karannagoda and his wife, Srimathi Ashoka Karannagoda, are ineligible for entry into the United States,” the statement read further.

According to the US State Department, the allegation that Karannagoda committed a gross violation of human rights, documented by NGOs and independent investigations, is serious and credible”.

It says the move to designate Karannagoda reaffirms the United States’ commitment to upholding human rights, ending impunity for human rights violators, acknowledging the suffering of victims and survivors and promoting accountability for perpetrators in Sri Lanka.

The bilateral relationship between the United States and the Government of Sri Lanka is based on 75 years of shared history, values, and a commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.  As we continue to build our bilateral relationship, we are committed to working with the Sri Lankan government on advancing justice, accountability, and reconciliation, including promoting security reform that maintains human rights at the forefront while ensuring Sri Lanka has the resources and training to properly address emerging security concerns,” the statement concluded.

Meanwhile, State Secretary Antony Blinken tweeted that the United States continues to seek truth and justice for the victims of the Sri Lankan civil war.

Courtesy Adaderana

Welisara Magistrate Thusitha Dhammika has deemed the deaths of the 11 inmates at the Mahara Prison, who were shot dead during a riot that erupted in 2020, a ‘crime’.

The magistrate mentioned this on Thursday, delivering the verdict of the magisterial inquest on the incident.

He, thereby, ordered the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to immediately arrest the prison officers who were involved in the shooting and to produce them before the court without delay.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Department of Examinations announced that applications for Examiners to evaluate G.C.E. Advanced Level answer scripts will be accepted online from today (27) until May 02, 2023.

Accordingly, applications are called from teachers, including those who have not applied earlier and those who have retired after December 31, 2022.

Moreover, the Examinations Department applications have been called for 12 subjects including Physics, Chemistry, Agri Science, Biology, Combined Mathematics, Communication and Media Studies, Business Studies, Engineering Technology, Bio-systems Technology, Science for Technology and English

Courtesy Adaderana

A discussion regarding the import of maize to be used for the production of poultry feed was held at the Presidential Secretariat under the patronage of the Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Amaraweera and the President’s Senior Adviser on National Security and Chief of Presidential Staff Sagala Ratnayake.

During the meeting yesterday (26), special emphasis was placed on regulating the poultry and egg industry to ensure an uninterrupted supply of poultry and eggs to consumers at a reasonable rate, the President’s Media Division (PMD) reported.

The Ministry of Agriculture officials were instructed by Sagala Ratnayake to determine the quantity of locally produced maize used for animal feed, estimate the future production, and create a report on the amount of maize that would require importation, according to the PMD.

He also said that the report will be submitted to President Ranil Wickremesinghe as soon as possible.

The production of maize used as animal feed and its pricing was extensively reviewed, and Sagala Ratnayake assured that the licenses necessary to import the yearly maize requirement would be issued immediately, it added.

It was also pointed out that by importing maize when the price of maize in the world market is low, the domestic maize supply could be met without a crisis.

Additionally, as the current local rice production surpassed the immediate need for rice, discussions were held regarding the possibility of using some of the surplus rice as animal feed, which prompted consideration of relaxing the government-imposed restrictions on the use of rice for this purpose, the PMD added.

In light of this, Sagala Ratnayake instructed officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Trade to conduct a thorough analysis of the nation’s rice consumption needs and current rice production, determine the surplus rice reserves, and promptly deliver a report.

Sagala Ratnayake emphasized that utilizing excess rice reserves for animal feed could stabilize rice prices for farmers and lessen the requirement for maize imports, resulting in savings on foreign exchange expenditures.

Dr. Suren Batagoda, President’s Adviser on Food Security, Trade Ministry Secretary A.M.P.M.B. Atapattu Senior officials of line Institutions of the Ministries, Ministry of Agriculture, Finance and the representatives of Poultry and Egg Producers’ Associations participated in the discussion, according to the PMD.

Courtesy Adaderana

The USAID’s Sri Lanka Energy Project and the Asia Development Bank (ADB) have collaborated to launch the Sri Lanka National Chapter WePOWER to promote the advancement of women working in the country’s local energy sector.

The national chapter is affiliated with the regional South Asia WePOWER Network.

In addition to promoting women in energy, this World Bank initiative also increases women’s participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education, the US Embassy in Colombo said in a statement.

The launch featured a panel discussion and engaged power sector stakeholders including utilities, academia, and professional networks to raise awareness about the national chapter WePOWER and to encourage high-level officials’ support to ensure its sustainability and success. 

Recent World Bank statistics show women represent only about 13 percent of Sri Lanka’s power sector employment, the embassy said further.

The power sector in Sri Lanka will greatly benefit from workplace diversity and increased participation by women, including in leadership positions,” said Christopher Powers, Director of the USAID’s (US Agency for International Development) Economic Growth Office.  Women will be needed to meet the growing talent demand in this sector.  Their participation in technical and professional roles can greatly enhance the sector’s effectiveness.”

The launch of the WePOWER national chapter in Sri Lanka is a timely and exciting development for the country, as well as for its energy sector,” said ADB Country Director Chen Chen.  As we witness a global shift towards sustainable and environmentally friendly sources of energy, Sri Lanka may capitalize on the trend in its economic recovery course.  With more women joining the energy sector, we will create a more diverse and better equipped workforce to address the global and local challenges.”

It is important to think outside the box and challenge ways of doing things in the power and energy sector.  But to do so, we should cultivate a culture that celebrates and promotes innovation, critical thinking, and diversity in the energy sector in general,” said Mapa Pathirana, the Secretary Ministry of Power and Energy.

Among its first efforts, Sri Lanka WePOWER plans to conduct training in gender equality and social inclusion and a workshop in May to develop an action plan to create and monitor gender activities with targets and goals under its five pillars:  STEM education, recruitment, development, retention, and policy and institutional change.

USAID’s Sri Lanka Energy Program is helping Sri Lanka transform its power sector into a market-based, secure, reliable, and sustainable system by mobilizing investment to deploy advanced technologies, increase flexibility, and enhance competitiveness.  The U.S. commitment to help build a power sector for tomorrow is one of many elements of America’s long, strong, and enduring partnership in Sri Lanka, a partnership that has been the foundation of 75 years of close relations and effective work together.

Shenali D Waduge

The LGBTQ movement are welcome to live as gays, lesbians, bi-sexuals or even transgender but when they attempt to fiddle with the sexuality of children, we must all rise & object. The LGBTQ movement exists due to funding & support that comes from a handful of people who serve to benefit by turning people into LGBTQ. It is for this purpose that US became the launchpad to roll out LGBTQ via public school syllabus. The domino effect of this was to have clueless kids identify themselves as gender disoriented and agree to seek medication & move on to sex change, becoming patients for life. Is it a surprise that those that fund LGBTQ promotion have stakes in big pharma & profit from changing children from boys to girls & girls to boys!

This globally-promoted new agenda has multiple goals in mind

• Remove the womanhood in females / Remove the manhood in males
• Discourage heterosexual marriage & birth (depopulation agenda)
• Break the concept of traditional family. Distance children from parents (this process begins by drilling into minds of little children to question their birth sex & lure them to think they are the opposite sex, infest their minds with sex & even teach them techniques – behavior questioned by parents are next used to demonize parents in the minds of the child & subtly distance them from their parents & home, where they become prey & lose their childhood altogether) – the LGBTQ school curriculums that advance these objectives will shock all.
• Break the concept of shyness/embarrassment – allowing boys to use girls bathrooms simply because a boy says he feels like a girl!
• Destroy traditional values, religious beliefs & create a new generation of youth who have no attachments to family, culture, history, religion or even nation (a nation with citizens not interested to defend & protect the nation is left vulnerable to the enemy)
• Teaching sexuality to children before their minds are ready will have lasting effect on the child. No child is the same & many children are likely to be subconsciously traumatized by the type of teachings imparted especially when schools are told to keep these secret from parents. (undermining the rights of the parents & even child) Why should normal children be subject to learning LGBTQ concepts. LGBTQ are funding Teachers to create the ailment & pave way for the medications too. How did LGBTQ curriculum become the Bible of global studies when schools should be teaching love for animals, warning about narcotics & other vices. Just because LGBTQ comes with heavy funding & propaganda can normal children be made victims?
• LGBTQ movement tapping psychologists are manipulating the child (via books, drawings, LGBTQ fairytales etc), molding them into accepting what the movement & the brains behind the movement want.
• The movement is full of contradictions but decked up in fancy language – Winsconsin ‘equity, diversity, inclusion’ teacher training advises to keep parents in the dark about their children. parents are not entitled to know their kid’s identities”.
• This dangerous trend in denying parental rights is being allowed simply because of the power of funding & funded activists & pressure groups who are paid to carry out propaganda in support of LGBTQ.
• Having initially promoting men to become gays & women to become lesbians & thereafter encourage bisexual relations, the next stage is the transgender movement. The program behind this is to create boys wanting to be girls & girls wanting to be boys. They’ve even come up with a new word for it – gender dysphoria. This is the latest medical new kid on the block & enough & more doctors are happy to declare girls/boys gender dysphoric & kick start medication. Biologically, this can never happen. Transgenders are increasing, but not naturally. Transgenders are increasing after indoctrination inside schools.
• Children below 18 prescribed PrEP (a drug given to male-male sex to prevent HIV) side-effects include osteoporosis
• Stage 1: Children put on puberty-blockers to suppress puberty. For girls it can be given as early as 8years old & boys at 10 years. Males taking puberty blockers will stop/limit facial & body hair, deepening voice & growth of Adam’s apple, broadening shoulders, growth of testes & erectile tissue (penis) – removing the manhood from a boy. In US, males wanting to be females are more than females wanting to be males. This has a major long term impact on procreation. Girls taking puberty blockers will stop/limit breast tissue development, broadening hips, monthly bleeding – removing the womanhood from a girl. Puberty blockers for both males & females will stop/limit growth in height, development of sex drive, accumulation of calcium in bones, fertility. In 2008 the Endocrine Society approved puberty blockers for transgender adolescents as young as 12 years old. (Is it a surprise that the Society receives funding from billionaires promoting LGBTQ global movement)
• Stage 2: Children diagnosed as gender dysphoric” being put on hormone therapy – leads to fertility & long term physical & psychological health problems.
• Stage 3: The World Professional Association for Transgender Health said hormones could be started at age 14 (2022) Currently over 3000 doctors, social scientists & others are involved in this sex change project. Gender affirmation surgery is the last step in the medical transition & is irreversible as your genitals have been removed.
• Children are not given time to develop, school curriculum kept secret from parents encouraging children to change sex & then put on puberty blockers with risk to bones, or put on sex hormones naturally produce mental distress in children bordering suicide (which is credited to bullying by the LGBTQ lobbyists instead of considering the physical distress the child maybe going through having to keep changes secret from parents) but quickly encouraged to undergo transgender surgery having 24×7 being drilled LGBTQ propaganda only. How reliable are the data? These internationally renowned agencies too are given grants & funds by the very promoters of LGBTQ & leaves much to our imagination about its findings!

While adult men & women can decide to be gays or homosexuals or bisexuals or even transgender, this concept cannot be put into minds of children via school syllabus, where teachers are being trained to hide indoctrination programs from parents. This is a violation of the child’s rights as well as parents rights & this is what we find fault with the LGBTQ movement & all of its supporters in particular the bogus child rights activists who are unashamedly promoting LGBTQ in Sri Lanka.

Shenali D Waduge

Shenali D Waduge

Sex education in public schools: Sexualization of children & LGBT indoctrination” by Cathy Ruse needs to be read by all to understand what parents are up against. It’s a far more dangerous agenda than groups of LGBTQ or their paid activists appearing in public & appealing for rights & drawing attention to discriminations. How can their way of life” be imposed by force on kindergarten children upwards? Is this not a violation of the child’s rights? How can parents be omitted from deciding fate of their children’s education? Is this not a violation of parents rights? How can LGBTQ primarily due to those that fund their movement, pressure governments & schools to impose their way of life curricula on innocent children? What stops the same template from being imposed on Sri Lanka. The first hurdles being removed are the calls to decriminalize LGBTQ, repeal Penal Code 365, 365A and 399 as well as kickstart the school program by introducing gender neutral/gender equality textbooks (all funded by obviously the same parties)

Cathy Ruse has taken examples of schools across US & the sex-education being indoctrinated to American children via well funded international groups aiming to ‘sexualize children’. This is the new norm. Who decides what is appropriate for the children? Foreign funding lobbies, schools pressurized by funding lobbies, govts pressurized by funding lobbies or parents?

Cathy Ruse says studies reveal school sex education is a failure.

Well-paid campaign is to teach LGBTQ history – courtesy of Southern Poverty Law Centre under campaign Teaching Tolerance”.

All public schools in California, New Jersey & Illinois are legally required to teach children LGBTQ history. Teachers are trained to put a queer” spin to every event that has occurred in US history.

US Courts are providing no relief to parents:

US Courts allow legal abortion for teens & schools are promoting such in school lessons even without informing parents. There are even organizations set up to provide even lawyers for free (who is funding such initiatives)

Health impact (physical & mental) to Children

PrEP – Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis is a prescription drug taken daily to reduce risk of contracting HIV,given initially to men having unprotected anal sex with multiple/anonymous sex partners. PrEP is called a ‘party drug’ by Michael Weinstein the founder & director of AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

PrEP is being promoted by school boards. Fairfax County school board voted to promote this daily sex drug to high schoolers though it was not legal for minors.

Schools are being pressurized by well-funded pressure groups like Human Rights Campaign & GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network) and demanding policy changes.

The situation has gone to such extreme levels that Mary Hasson & Theresa Farnan have written a well researched book Get Out Now: Why you should pull your child from public schools before its too late” – but where can parents put their children & why are these campaigns targeting public schools?

https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/the-human-rights-campaign-honors-human-rights-day-with-grants-to-global-lgbtq-advocates

In 2020 – Human Rights Campaign gave grants to LGBTQ advocates in Sri Lanka,

• Equal Ground – founded in 2004 https://www.equal-ground.org
• Community Welfare & Development Fund – https://www.facebook.com/CWDFLanka

The damage to children

The minds of children has been indoctrinated to embrace LGBTQ form of sexuality. This is what those funding LGBTQ movement want & are funding schools to teach.

New LGBTQ vocabulary is being forced down people & the education system. 

sex assigned at birth” is the transgender activist language to support view that one can change one’s sex. That a male-bodied person can have a female brain. Psychologists are also been paid to push this view & influencing the minds of innocent patients coming to them for advice. Some have even undergone sex change surgery as a result & face a lifetime of regret.

Thankfully the American College of Pediatricians calls this psychological child abuse. However, when entities like Planned Parenthood are part of the problem, who can parents trust with their children. It is definitely alarming news to parents.

This was how funding turned the gay movement & transgender into a ‘new normal’ in public schools & to society at large.

It is not the LGBTQ that are being bullied or being subject to psychological torture but straight children who are being forced to study subjects that aim to confuse their young minds & indoctrinate them into becoming what they are not simply by tweaking their brains & flooding them with LGBTQ material. Forcing LGBTQ on children who are not LGBTQ is a human right violation.

You should now be able to understand how children have been incrementally programmed towards sexuality. The American ordinary citizens are just as victims as the rest of us.

Clearly, a global program is in place to target children & teens & lure them to becoming LGBTQ by impressing upon their vulnerable minds to question their sexual orientation & encouraging them to explore sexuality by sexualizing them with porn and psychological reconditioning techniques & statements like I used to think but now I know”. A well-calculated psychological game is being played on preyed children/teens.

Sri Lanka is in an envious situation – we must look at the situation as a result of allowing a carte blanche to the international-politicized LGBTQ movement & strengthen the laws to protect Sri Lanka’s citizens in particular the children, not weaken them.

Shenali D Waduge

KAMALIKA PIERIS

This essay contains observations, on the rule of President JR Jayewardene, many of them first hand, made by V.P. Vittachi and Sarath Amunugama with additional information from Jayatissa Bandaragoda. All three had served in the Ceylon Civil Service and held high positions in the state administration.

V.P. Vittachi joined the Ceylon Civil Service in the closing years of British rule. In the early sixties he was Government Agent in Jaffna. His last position, in the 1970s, was as the Head of Sri Lanka Customs. Sarath and Jayatissa were GAs when JR Jayewardene was head of state.

 Vittachi   was so disgusted with JR that he felt compelled to write a book of 150 pages specifically on JR Jayewardene’s period of rule. He titled it, ‘Sri Lanka what went wrong; JR Jayewardene’s Free and Righteous Society”, (Navrang, New Delhi, 1995).  When the book appeared, Vittachi had taken the precaution of spending each night at a different hotel.

Vittachi’s observations are supported by comments from Sarath Amunugama in his book To Paris and back” (2022) and contributions from Jayatissa Bandaragoda in his book, Path of destiny (2011) 

 Vittachi’s book is a contemptuous account of the reign of President JR Jayewardene. Vittachi examines specific events during JR’s rule very closely and places them on record. Vittachi starts by laughing at JR’s statement made at a Commonwealth Summit meeting in 1985 that he was following a long line of heads of state in Sri Lanka, starting from Vijaya.

At Biyagama Export Processing Zone speech in 1987, JR had said that from 1815 the King of England was our king as well. ‘I am the successor to that monarchy’.Vittachi also pointed out that  the state controlled media referred to the President’s address to Parliament as ‘ throne speech’ and referred to JR’s  wife as consort ‘ariyawa’.

From the beginning JR’s actions were near dictatorial even monarchical said Vittachi . His main preoccupation  at the time when taking over power was  silencing all dissent and criticism from whatever source,   crippling his foes, silencing Mrs. Bandaranaike, who was his most dangerous opponent,  and enacting a new constitution which would make him an all powerful ruler.

Within days of becoming Prime Minister JR took over the pro SLFP Times group of newspapers said Vittachi. In 1981 he   took control of SLFP headquarters, using the Public Security Ordinance.

 JR  when President,  summoned  Edgar Gunatunga who headed  Commercial Bank and was also President of the Bankers  Association  of Sri Lanka ,  and asked him to withhold loans from the Upali Group of Newspapers which was relentlessly attacking JR and his government. Edgar had refused and JR had threatened to sack him, reported Island.

 JR removed Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s civil rights in a carefully thought out step by step way, said Vittachi. .he first set up the Special Presidential Commission Law no 7 of 1978 which had the power to subject a person to civic disability if found guilty of corruption.  They were asked to inquire into vents in 1970- 1977. The judges were Weeraratne and Sharvananda from Supreme Court, and one from the minor judiciary KCE de Alwis.

The two Supreme Court judges were elevated in seniority when Supreme Court was reconstructed soon after. Justice Weeraratne went up to 5^th place from 11th place and Sharvananda   to 6^th place from 14. Later, Weeratne became acting Chief Justice and Sharvananda became Chief Justice.   De Alwis was pushed up over 18 judges of the High Court to Appeal court.

 This Commission found Mrs. Bandaranaike guilty of misusing power.  Two resolutions were pushed through Parliament on the same day, one took away Mrs. Bandaranaike   civic rights and the other expelled her from Parliament. Amendments were made to the Parliament Election Act and Presidential Elections Act so that she could not appear at either election.

Vittachi has provided a blow by blow account of how JR led the country into the 1982 referendum, which put a stop to the Parliamentary elections of 1983. There was deep resentment in the country over this Referendum. Voters were urged not to vote “Yes” at the Referendum. The Referendum issue went to the law courts, but the court was divided on the matter.

Vittachi records the    utterances of JR,   and the strategies he tried out.    JR obtained undated letters of resignation from the MPs before the Referendum. SLFP press was sealed and SLFP workers taken into custody. Aththa” had supported Hector Kobbekaduwa in the Presidential election. Aththa office and printing press were sealed.

 It was against the law to display posters, but the government party did so. IGP took no action to get them removed and Vittachi observed that the IGP, Rajasingham on retirement was given a diplomatic posting with ambassadorial rank.

JR’s Referendum was Sri Lanka‘s first corrupt general election.  For fifty years, since 1931, Sri Lanka had clean elections, observed Vittachi. This was the first dirty election. Vittachi stated that there was open thuggery and lawlessness not excluding murder on referendum day. UNP toughs gathered at early in the morning at the entrance to every polling station. There was impersonation, intimidation of voters, polling staff with guns and the police looked the other way. One polling agent died of a heart attack.

 When the Presiding officer at Ladies College polling station looked into a case of impersonation, he was threatened by thugs, continued Vittachi. Unauthorized persons stationed themselves near the voting enclosure and observed the marking of the ballot, and in some places the voters had to show them the ballot paper before dropping it into the box. Organized gangs of persons were observed at the entrance to the polling stations with list and bundles of polling cards, they distributed these and gave instructions to others brought in vehicles. Analysts estimated that about 3 to 4 lakhs of voters had been impersonated..But  clearly there was resistance. The votes were 3 ,141,223 for( 38% of the total registered votes) and 2,605,983    against. .

Vittachi praise the Commissioner of Elections, Chandrananda de Silva, for his courageous reporting on the  Referendum. Chandrananda  said in his report  that there was intimidation of voters, to make them keep away from voting,  official observers  were forced to leave polling stations, voters were seen displaying their vote. He said that the voters appeared to be under someone’s command to display their vote, they were under threat to do so.  The secrecy of the ballot had been respected  at all former elections, but not this election, concluded the Commissioner of Elections.

Violence was used to prevent the opposition from garnering a No vote, said Sarath  Amunugama. There were Illegal acts at polling stations, there was  abuse of police powers, intimidation of voters by threats, violence , deadly weapons, and  impersonation on mass scale, he  added.

JR did not stop at that .Superintendant of Police Udugampola had sealed the press of Pavidi Handa.  Supreme Court held that the SP had acted unlawfully, and must pay compensation. Instated,  Udugampola was promoted to senior superintendent and the money would be paid by from state funds.

Vivienne Goonewardene was  arrested. Supreme Court declared the arrest unlawful. The   sub inspector who had arrested Vivienne was promoted on the order of the President. JR openly admitted that he had personally ordered the promotion of the two police officers and that the cost be paid by the state.   In addition, mobs  arrived at the houses of the judges and shouted threats and obscenities.  JR was  trying to teach the judges a lesson, to make them more pliable, said Vittachi. ( Continued)

Shenali Waduge

Transgenders are people diagnosed as gender dysphoria”. Without treating those showing signs of transgender qualities, all children are being encouraged to wonder if they are a boy or girl. In a world where adults are also confused – how can anyone expect a child of 3 to decide if she wants to be a girl or boy and thereafter put the child on puberty blockers & hormone treatment even without the parents consent? Some girls never liked playing with dolls but they never questioned being a girl. Some boys never liked playing football but that didn’t make them less of a boy. However, with all these questions and bizarre thinking drilled into the minds of young minds, no wonder they are going to be as confused as those asking the questions. Is this the state that those promoting these new ideology filled with new pronouns & definitions are aspiring to do?

Below are excerpts from an article titled Yes, Schools Are Secretly Trying to ‘Gender Transition’ Kids, and It Must Be Stopped” – it highlights on video the story of a mother who lost her daughter to the transgender movement & an educational system that took her daughter away & put her on hormone treatment which eventually resulted in her suicide.

Yes, Schools Are Secretly Trying to ‘Gender Transition’ Kids, and It Must Be Stopped

• California began paying for gender transitions” for minors who are not in their parents’ custody(decriminalizing LGBTQ means these new trends” will be implemented in Sri Lanka & sex-change” operations will be paid for by the tax payers adding to the already debt-ridden Sri Lankan society who have to foot the bill for all the mistakes by governments)
• School officials told social services that Abigail’s daughter would be better off out of the house.” Yaeli was put into foster care, and despite Abigail’s persistent attempts to get mental health treatment for her daughter, the system stonewalled her.(this will become another new business venture where foreign-run centres may open & remove children from their homes & children will be given puberty-blockers & hormone treatments)
• Gender transition is a perilous path.  Stephen Levinedescribes childhood transitions as experimental … with highly unpredictable effects on mental and physical health, suicidality, and life expectancy.” (the dangers of experimenting with the natural is going to be the start of more problems for Sri Lanka which already had enough and more problems to deal with)
• Why would a school adopt a policy that so blatantly undermines the role of parents? LGBT activist groups likeGender Spectrum and Equality Federationhave aggressively pushed legislatures in states like Virginia to adopt them. And school districts have become emboldened to deceive parents. (we are looking at a new scenario especially when anything foreign is happily embraced in Sri Lanka without public debate or looking at the repercussions)
• In May 2016, the Department of Education issued aDear Colleague Letter on the 1972 Title IX Education Amendments that directed schools to use pronouns and names that align with a student’s gender identity. Footnote 3 of the letter linked to the department’s Examples of Policies and Emerging Practices for Supporting Transgender Students.” (notice how UN/WB funding is being sent to Sri Lanka’s Education system to introduce gender equality” lessons – this is going to be the start of our problem – if we do not stop it now itself. No funding should make mental patients out of our children, deny parents their right to decide the future of their child)
• The examples included faculty and staff asking older” transgender identifying students what amount of information they wanted to disclose to parents. There is no definition of older” in the guidance, and some transgender advocacy groups say that a3-year-old can know they are trapped in the wrong body.”
• The policy has resulted in parents across the country being left without a clue as to what is happening with their children on a day-to-day basis.
• Since schools across the country may face loss of funding if they don’t comply with the reinterpretation of sex” under Title IX, parents can expect even more schools to adopt gender support plans. The foreseeable result is that schools will socially transition more students without their parents’ knowledge, much less their consent. (reading this & listening to the sad story of Yaeli’s mother should make Sri Lankan parents worry about the future of their child(children)

• Parentsand teachers are going to court to protect children from a radical ideology that can destroy their minds and bodies.
• Lawmakers can, and should, also put parents back in the driver’s seat. They can require schools to notify parents if their child is struggling with their gender identity and prohibit schools from engaging in unauthorized treatment of a student’s mental health.(unfortunately some lawyers makers put profit first)

The story of Yaeli who was made to feel she was a boy at 13 years, removed from her home, given hormone treatment, suffered mental anxiety & committed suicide in 2019 at the age of 19years.

While in foster care and on cross-sex hormones, Yaeli’s mental health further declined. In 2019, she committed suicide at only 19 years old.

A girl of 13 she was using social media & started getting depressed.

She claimed she was not a girl & started going out with LGBTQ friends

She started telling everyone she was a transgender

The school psychology department said the daughter should move out of home & she left home at 16years.

The mother had to go to courts to visit her own daughter

She changed her name to Andrew & began hormone treatment

In 2019 the mother received a call from the coroners office.

She had committed suicide on the railway tracks at 19 years.

The system is taking our children away. This is all political.  There are many parents & moms struggling. They are not allowing us to be with our kids.

I don’t want any parent to go through this – as this pain will never go away.

Sasanka De Silva Pannipitiya

The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people with limited knowledge or skill overestimate their own competence and ability.

This phenomenon was named after social psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger, who described it for the first time in 1999.

According to the Dunning-Kruger effect, people who lack knowledge or skills in a certain area are often unable to identify their own limitations and exaggerate their own talents.

This can lead to poor decision-making and performance of tasks relating to that subject.

Individuals with high levels of knowledge and competence in a certain sector, on the other hand, may underestimate their abilities and expertise due to the presumption that others have similar qualities.

Overall, the Dunning-Kruger effect emphasizes the importance of self-awareness and the necessity of acknowledging one’s own limitations in order to progress and flourish in a certain subject.

Dunning-Kruger බලපෑම යනු යම් වසමක අඩු හැකියාවක් හෝ දැනුමක් ඇති පුද්ගලයන් තමන්ගේ නිපුණතාවය සහ හැකියාව අධිතක්සේරු කරන සංජානන නැඹුරුවකි.

මෙම සංසිද්ධිය 1999 දී මුලින්ම විස්තර කළ සමාජ මනෝවිද්යාඥයින් වන ඩේවිඩ් ඩනින්ග් සහ ජස්ටින් කෘගර් විසින් නම් කර ඇත.

Dunning-Kruger බලපෑමෙන් ඇඟවෙන්නේ යම් ප්‍රදේශයක දැනුම හෝ කුසලතා නොමැති පුද්ගලයින්ට බොහෝ විට තමන්ගේම අඩුපාඩු හඳුනා ගැනීමට සහ ඔවුන්ගේ හැකියාවන් අධිතක්සේරු කිරීමට නොහැකි බවයි.

මෙමගින් වැරදි තීරණ ගැනීමට සහ එම ක්ෂේත්‍රයට අදාළ කාර්යයන්හි දුර්වල ක්‍රියාකාරිත්වයට හේතු විය හැක.

අනෙක් අතට, නිශ්චිත ක්ෂේත්‍රයක ඉහළ මට්ටමේ දැනුමක් සහ නිපුණතාවයක් ඇති පුද්ගලයින් අනෙක් අයට සමාන හැකියාවන් ඇතැයි උපකල්පනය කිරීම හේතුවෙන් ඔවුන්ගේ හැකියාවන් සහ දැනුම අවතක්සේරු කළ හැකිය.

සමස්තයක් වශයෙන්, Dunning-Kruger ආචරණය ස්වයං දැනුවත්භාවයේ වැදගත්කම සහ දී ඇති වසම වැඩිදියුණු කිරීමට සහ සාර්ථක වීමට තමාගේම සීමාවන් හඳුනා ගැනීමේ අවශ්‍යතාවය ඉස්මතු කරයි.

සසංක ද සිල්වා 

පන්නිපිටිය

Shenali D Waduge

A bunch of ultra-rich old men & women, who are more powerful than national governments by virtue of the power they yield as a result of the money they throw to governments, organizations, universities, media, even UN & associates are forcing an immoral ideology tied to the grants they give. Having funded lesbian, gay, bisexual movements over the past few decades, they are now venturing to transgenderism. Now they are using their money to even influence children to become transgender & legally enabling them to decide to change their sex without parental consent. Much of the legal & cultural traditional bindings have been thrown out the window to accept these new notions primarily as a result of the power of the funding & influence exerted via the companies & entities that are owned by those that are championing transgenderism. However, before the world falls victim to this new ideology, it is good to look at how painful these operations are & the post-trauma that is associated with them.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/celebrity/kellie-maloney-surgery-nearly-killed-4678341

More painful than the surgery is the reality that anyone undergoing male-to-female or female-to-male surgery CANNOT REVERSE OR UNDO THE OPERATION & return to what they were in their natural format. In giving up what was natural to undergo surgery to change what one was born with naturally, one is denied returning to that original natural format. However, most of the options in the form of solutions are highly questionable & is unlikely to result in delivering what a person desired.

How much does it cost for sex-reassignment?

https://health.costhelper.com/sex-reassignment-surgery.html

The taxpayers are also questioning why they should fund sex changes. 

https://www.bgdailynews.com/opinion/our_opinion/taxpayers-shouldnt-pay-for-sex-changes/article_29c4ee3c-efc6-5c3a-ac02-4cb9ff9a12a3.html…  if someone chooses to have sex reassignment, that is their choice. No one is forcing them to do the procedure. Therefore, the cost should solely be on them, not the American taxpayers, especially many who might disagree with trying to change the sexual organs they were born with”

Indiana lawmakers move bill to prevent spending on sex reassignment surgery for inmates

Indiana lawmakers move bill to prevent spending on sex reassignment surgery for inmates

(there are LGBTQ lobbies urging prisons for sex-changes)

https://lamalfa.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/lamalfa-introduces-legislation-to-protect-children-and-taxpayers-fromCongressman Doug LaMalfa introduced two pieces of legislation in response to the growing push to normalize early and aggressive medical interventions ranging from puberty-blocking drugs to surgeries for children who identify as transgender. Both the Protecting Children from Experimentation Act and the End Taxpayer Funding of Gender Experimentation Act aim to protect children and conscience rights. (at least there are some Congressman who are straight)

The Protecting Children from Experimentation Act would prohibit doctors from performing experimental gender reassignment treatments on children. Puberty-blocking hormones followed by cross-sex hormones can cause irreversible damage to children’s bodies, including an increased risk of cancer and permanent sterilization. 

LaMalfa said: Our society has quickly ‘normalized’ gender experimentation under the guise of an ‘accepting’ political ideology rather than biological reality. Even more troubling, children are undergoing experimental treatments, like being injected with puberty-blocking hormones and cross-sex hormones, which have irreversible consequences, such as permanent sterility. Both the Protecting Children from Experimentation Act and the End Taxpayer Funding of Gender Experimentation Act aim to protect children and taxpayers from paying the high price of these unethical medical interventions. As minors, children cannot vote, join the military, or open a bank account; it’s our job as society, and especially parents, to protect them from making life altering gender experimentation decisions that they may likely later regret.”

SRI LANKA MUST BE ALERT BEFORE THESE EXPERIMENTS GET IMPORTED TO SRI LANKA IN THE GUISE OF GENDER-EQUALITY” TEXTBOOKS & CURRICULUM TO BRAINWASH OUR CHILDREN TO CHANGE THEIR SEX. 

Types of sex-reassignment surgeries:

TOP SURGERIES:

• Reconstructing chest & breast tissue to match a person’s gender identity: male-to-female surgeries silicone implants inserted. female-to-male surgeries breast tissue is removed
• Male to Female surgery – complications: 
  • Formation of scar tissue that may distort shape of breasts
  • Fluid accumulation beneath implants
  • Blood clots
  • Breast pain
  • Implant displacement or leakage
  • Dissatisfaction with appearance after surgery – but cannot be reversed
• Female to Male surgery – complications
  • Slow wound healing
  • Fluid accumulation beneath skin
  • Blood clots
  • Scarring
  • Dead tissue in nipples
  • Increased chances of pneumonia

OTHER RELATED SURGERIES:

• Changing facial structure – likely to result in fluid build-up beneath skin / facial nerve injury / scarring / frontal sinus problems / nasal septal perforations
• Reconstructing Adam’s apple
• Reshaping jaw

BOTTOM SURGERIES (COMPLICATED SURGERIES)

• Removing reproductive organs
• Altering sex organs to resemble one’s desired gender – these require several micro-surgeries to construct/de-construct sex organs
• In surgeries for gender dysphoria & transgender body dysmorphia, if skin grafts fail part of the large intestine is used to graft the vagina or penis. This can lead to an increase in infections & leakage of secretions.
• Bottom surgeries involve not only removal of sexual organs but redefining path of urinary tract. In male-to-female surgery gone wrong, the vaginal opening is not deep enough or is too dense. Female-to-male surgery is even more complicated, as it is very risky to create a penis, testicles & scrotum. This has to be done by grafting from thighs & hands. Several microsurgeries are required to attach blood vessels & nerve endings to the penis.
• Male to Female Bottom surgery – complications
  • Skin or clitoral necrosis
  • Suture line dehiscence
  • Urinary retention
  • Vaginal prolapse
  • Fistulas in the rectum or bladder
  • Acute bleeding
• Female to Male Bottom Surgery – complications
  • Hematoma
  • Nerve injury
  • Failure of skin grafts
  • Injury to urinary tract
  • Abnormal connections between urethra & skin
  • Painful sexual intercourse

Transgender surgery can go wrong for several reasons

• Bleeding – as most gender-affirming surgeries are complicated dealing with minute blood vessels & nerves. Even facial feminization surgeries like reshaping cheekbones/jaw bones/rhinoplasty, involve recontouring critical part of body. As skull has several nerves running through it, the chances of NERVE DAMAGE are HIGH.
• Infection
• Side effects of anesthesia

The fact of the matter is

• simply because a sex surgery is done – people do not become the opposite sex. They are only masculinizing or feminizing their OUTWARD appearance.
• Gender dysphoria is very painful.
• Gender transition is unlikely to make things better, if at all, it may become worse – hormone medication is for life, this excludes aftereffects as well as daily trauma
• Best studies do not report improvement after sex-change surgery (why would people want to undergo amputations & radical surgeries)
• Suicide risk – from lifelong hormone medication surfacing not within initial
• The place of medical practitioners have been reduced to being hired to do a service – that former relationship of guiding & advising the patient is not existent primarily due to the monetary aspect & the decline in professionalism by those in the profession. (doctors, teachers, lawyers must devout themselves to their profession not to provide a paid service)

‘I will never be able to have sex again. Ever’ https://www.smh.com.au/national/i-will-never-be-able-to-have-sex-again-ever-20090530-br41.html He was to be operated into a she because ‘psychiatrists said he had a female brain in a male body’ & gender reassignment surgery was the only way to ease the mental torment. On his way to operating table he told the surgeon I think I’m doing the wrong thing. I think we’ve got to stop it”…. But the surgery was done. The romantic tales he’d read of transsexuals who awoke post-surgery feeling reborn”  ….”Then I remember lifting up the sheets and putting my hand down and feeling it all bandaged and packed. I just started bawling my eyes out and screaming … I remember saying to myself, you f–king idiot, Andrew, how could you be so bloody stupid?” Twenty years after surgery that left him feeling like a desexed dog”, the grief can still overwhelm him. Now 42, Andrew tells The Sunday Age the operation he had as a confused 21-year-old has shattered him”

Botched overseas surgery leaves trans woman mutilated, facing lifetime of pain (an operation done at the cost of taxpayers) https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/90412433/botched-overseas-sex-change-leaves-auckland-woman-mutilated-and-facing-lifetime-of-chronic-pain

Even the statistical data as well as research is manipulated as a results of the grants given to them by those promoting transgender ideology who also have shares or investments in those that carry out the sex-change operations.

A good example is the US psychological association with over 118,000 members which is also focusing on LGB/gender issues is recipient of grants by the foundation that is heavily funding & lobbying the promotion of transgenderism across the world https://www.arcusfoundation.org/latest-round-of-social-justice-grants-seek-to-support-worldis-at-risk-lgbt-communities/

https://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/arcus-foundation APA was notified by the Arcus Foundation of the approval of a grant for $100,000 to support the work of the International Psychology Network for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Issues (IPsyNet). The APA Office on Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity is the Secretariat for IPsyNet. The grant runs from July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2018.

It is one thing to make society accept people who are different” by choice though born biologically normal, however, when tampering with the natural the resulting outcomes are not only complicated but unlikely to meet the expectations desired & this resultant situation is worse than what they would have gone through in their normal state. As in the above example of a 21 year old male changing sex to a female discovered, he/she could not have sex for life.

This issue has no easy answer & no parliamentarian should think that by presenting a private members bill they can quickly pass Bills into Acts after 3 readings without proper public debate. There are so many conflict of interests at play webbed with so much of corruptions & deceit. Elders can decide but children cannot be made victims & pawns for a new industry attempting to make profits from changing sex of children.

Shenali D Waduge

Manusha Media

ඊ 9 වීසා කාණ්ඩය යටතේ මේ වසරේදී නැව් ඉදිකිරීම් ක්ෂේත්‍රෙය් රැකියා 600ක් – ලබන වසරේදී 900ක්
කොරියානු රැකියා සඳහා 6500ක රැකියා කෝටාවක් මේ මෙරටට ලබා දී තිබුණත්, එම සංඛ්‍යාව ඉක්මවා යමින් මේ වසරේදී ශ්‍රමිකයන් 8000ක් කොරියානු රැකියා සඳහා බඳවා ගන්නා බවට අමාත්‍ය මනූෂ නානායක්කාර මහතා සමග අද (26) උදෑසන කළ සාකච්ඡාවකදී කොරියානු මානව සම්පත් දෙපර්තමේන්තුවේ මෙරට අධ්‍යක්ෂවරයා එකගතාවය දක්වා ඇත.

කොරියානු මානව සම්පත් දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ මෙරට අධ්‍යක්ෂ ලී මහතා සහ අමාත්‍යවරයා අතර අද උදෑසන පැවැති   සාකච්ඡාවේදී මේ එකගතාවය පලකර තිබේ.

කොරියානු භාෂා ප්‍රවීණතාවය සමත්ව දැනට වෙබ් අඩවිවියේ රැකියා අපේක්ෂාවෙන් සිටින, මේ වසරේ දෙසැම්බර් 31 දිනෙන් වෙබ් අඩවියේ කල් ඉකුත්වීමට නියමිත නිෂ්පාදන අංශයේ රැකියා අපේක්ෂිතයින් අතරින් 600 දෙනෙක් නැව් ඉදිකිරීම් ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ රැකියා සදහා යොමු කිරීමට ද මෙහිදී එකගතාවය පලකර තිබේ. ඒ අනුව වෙබ් අඩවියේ කර්මාන්ත අංශයේ සිට නැව් ඉදිකිරීම් අංශය දක්වා රැකියා අංශය මාරු කිරීමෙන් මෙම රැකියා සදහා යොමු කිරීමට නියමිතය. එසේ නැව් ඉදිකරීම්  ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ රැකියා සදහා මාරුවීමට කැමති රැකියා අපේක්ෂකයින් ඉක්මනින් ඒ සදහා අයදුම් කළ යුතුවේ.

ලබන වසරේ සිට ඊ 9 වීසා කාණ්ඩය යටතේ නැව් ඉදිකිරීම් ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ රැකියා සදහා විභාග පවත්වා වෑද්දුම්කරුවන් සහ පින්තාරුකරුවන් 900ක් බඳවා ගැනීමට ද කොරියානු මානව සම්පත් දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව එකගතාවය දක්වා තිබේ.
           
ලබන වසරේ සිට කොරියානු භාෂා ප්‍රවීණතා විභාගය, දැනට පවත්වන පරිඝනක පදනම්කරගත් CBT ක්‍රමය වෙනුවට UBT ක්‍රමය ඔස්සේ පවත්වන බවට ද  කොරියානු මානව සම්පත් දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ අධ්‍යක්ෂවරයා අමාත්‍යවරයා වෙත දැනුම්දී ඇත.

by Kooi F. Lim, The Buddhist Channel

New Delhi, India — The recently concluded International Buddhist Summit (IBS) held in New Delhi from 20-21 April 2023 was probably one of the biggest in terms of high profile attendance. IBS was organised by the International Buddhist Confederation (IBC) with the support of the government of India.

From HH the 14th Dalai Lama to Tai Situpa Rinpoche and prominent meditation teachers such as Mingyur Rinpoche, the Supreme Partriach of Vietnam Thich Tri Quang, Ven. Sitagu Sayadaw of Myanmar, Pomnyun Sunim of South Korea, Supreme Head of Mongolian Buddhists Khamba Lama Choijamts, Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo and famous Tibetologist Prof Robert Thurman, these luminaries were there together with almost 500 participants in attendance. Out of these, close to 180 were foreign dignitaries.

The scale and breadth of such illuminating Buddhist leaders all gathered in one place was something no other global conferences have pulled off recently. Even the World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB), the so called de facto international umbrella of all Buddhist organizations is seen to be falling way short of having the pull factor. None have the energy and zest that the IBS exuded.

This then raised a pertinent question: Is the IBS the dawn of a truly global meeting place where the best Buddhist minds can gather, discuss and forge meaningful resolutions? The key here is meaningful and effective aspirations, rather than proclaiming a list of things to do which are then forgotten once the conference ends. So what did India do that got things so right?

Whether by choice of design or just a fortunate random planning that got things falling into place, the success of the IBS boils down to some important factors.


IBS, Truly Global
The word “global” in many so called Buddhist conferences is sadly just a misnomer. Getting 2 or 3 famous names to be keynote presentors and inviting a bunch of countries to attend may signify its international feel, but as an impact generator, it always end in a whimper. “Global” means it must have that outreach clout, where participants feel that they have a role in making an impact.

Aside from the big names gracing the IBS, a hidden statistic bear some interesting analysis. The biggest country delegation to the event apart from the host was Vietnam, with 30 delegates. While Vietnam has a sizeable Buddhist population, its influence goes way beyond its shores in the form of its exiled teacher, the late Ven. Thich Nhat Hahn. The Buddhism of Thich Nhat Hahn reaches to all parts of the world, with the west being its most ardent adherents. When such a delegation participates in a conference, its followers tend to have interest in the proceedings. The interest is international. The same goes for famous Tibetan teachers, such as HH the 14th Dalai Lama. Their voices reverbrates far beyond the walls where they emanate.


Clout of the host
<< Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi greeting, Khamba Lama Choijamts, Supreme Head of Mongolian Buddhists

Global Buddhism never had a united voice. Even when issues occur that threatens the interest of Buddhists, consensus are rarely obtained to face them with a common front. An example would be the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas in 2001 by the Taliban. The whimpering protests from Buddhist governments pales with the direct rebuke from Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Buddhists did not protest as a collective voice.

Why so? Because generally speaking countries with Buddhist majority are considered small. But what if an up and coming superpower, in the likes of India would now take the mantle and offer leadership to champion Buddhist issues, would that make a difference? Of course, with power comes responsibility. But with power coming from a superpower, no one can ignore the roar.

Some may wonder why leave the fate of Buddhists in Hindu hands, like what has happened to the management trust of Mahabodhi at Bodhgaya? Should India wishes to play the lead role, will other Buddhist majority countries support it, since the alternative is status quo and offer no meaningful impact? While some may have reservations on India’s move to consolidate its “soft power” through using the Buddhist faith, Buddhism as a whole may benefit from a more consolidated approach. With better financing, more interest in scientific based research to understand Buddhist philosophy, the adoption for consensus building and clearer policy formulations to face existing challenges using Buddhist teachings, this could be a game changer, and one that is overdue.


International Buddhist Confederation (IBC) and the Scientific Approach
In one of the topics of discussion at the IBS, it focused on environmental crisis, health and sustainability.

A climate change presentation by Dr Sarah Kim Gruetzmacher, combining scientific research with an appeal to use Buddhist approaches for problem resolution >>

Attending this particular forum was an eye opening experience because the content of the discussions was typically those involved in scientific research one gets to hear and see at biodiversity and environment meetings.

An example would be the presentation of Dr Sarah Kim Gruetzmacher, who delivered an excellent fact based report on how irresponsible land use are decimating biodiversity, leading to the rise of zoonotic diseases which causes pandemics such as Covid-19 and bird flu. She not only outlined the issues and problems, but also suggested steps to prevent future pandemics, all with sound scientific arguments and facts. What’s refreshing was the way she argued for using Buddhist compassion so that we learn to treat animals with respect and kindness. By doing so, “… we can drastically reduce the risk of future pandemics”.

The International Buddhist Confederation (IBC), organizer of the IBS, can certainly upgrade the quality of its organization by ensuring that its advisory committee are not made up of just monks or nuns comfortable with Buddhist knowledge and traditions. Its management needs to be bold and draft a strategic approach which will have Buddhists engage in discussions with scientists. This was alluded to by Prof Robert Thurman in his speech on the second day of the conference. As Buddhism requires one to examine and rigorously test its teachings, as embodied in the Kalama Sutta, there is no reason why the marriage of philosophy and scientific research cannot be done. If the IBC were to embark on this, India would be acknowledged as the driver that made Buddhism relevant in this time and age.


Land of the Buddha, Respecting Tradition
There is one thing no country can claim apart from India, and that is it was the land of the Buddha. With this association, comes with the link to religious institutions, from its texts (Tipitaka) to famous schools and traditions.

<< Keeping the Nalanda Tradition alive is critical to maintain Buddhist scholarly excellence

One of this is the renowned Nalanda tradition, which was once a fount of creativity and scholarly excellence. The Nalanda tradition is credited for the birth of Tibetan Buddhism, or Vajrayana, which has since given us brilliant Dharma masters such as Padmasambhava, Nagarjuna and Atisa. Today the Nalanda tradition can be seen to expand to mainly Christian Brazil, through the dedication of Bro. Ricardo Sasaki.

India and the IBC specifically, should play a more active role in ensuring that this tradition continues to thrive, both within and outside of India. It should be made as an export agenda. If the findings of Yi Jing can show that the Nalanda of old can exert influence as far as Korea and Sumatra in Indonesia, with today’s fast internet connecton and efficient communication, there is no reason why this spirit of scholarship and research excellence cannot be replicated and revived.


Smart Associations, Clever Networks
Brains attract brains. Network that are build with intelligence spawns even more ground breaking innovations. This has been the basis for the establishment of Silicon Valley in California. At the IBS, there was a forum dedicated to pilgrimage and living heritage. Perhaps the IBS should consider expanding this to become a fixed point to develop Buddhist Tourism. In 2020, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) published a landmark study on “Buddhist Tourism in Asia: Towards Sustenable Development”. There are some excellent suggestions listed there in the India report. IBC could play a role and push for the development of a specialty network that include tour operators, heritage administrators, airline companies and tourism consultants on how to leverage on its rich Buddhist tradition.

An interesting development which very much happened by chance was the seeding of a Buddhist news syndication. Since 2016, the IBC had been inviting non South Asian based Buddhist independent news agencies to cover its activities. Starting with SAMVAD, the Buddhist Channel (Malaysia), Lotus News Network and IDN (Australia), Buddhist Door (Hong Kong) and Buddhist Television Network (BTN) of Korea have become familiar names covering these events. Through the mindful communication programme for journalism initiated by Lotus News, these outfits have established friendship and trust over the years. At this IBS, an effort was made to share news generated amongst themselves, thus establishing the basic framework of a dedicated Buddhist news syndicate.

What these two examples illustrate is that when the platform is allowed for freedom of association and creativity to thrive, new products and services are produced. This is the working of democracy at its best. IBC should encourage this, which reflects well on the image of India as the world’s largest functioning democracy.


Where to now, IBS?
What happens after the IBS 2023 will very much depend on what the government of India wants to do with it. In his speech at the conference, Prime Minister Narendhra Modi showed his dedication and keeness in sharing India’s ongoing efforts towards preserving Buddhist heritage sites in the country and establishing centers of Buddhist learning and research. He also emphasized the importance of promoting values such as compassion, non-violence, and peaceful co-existence, which are at the core of Buddhism, to address global challenges and create a better world for future generations.

The IBC is certain to play a more active role in regional Buddhist affairs, given the government’s support. Whether other Buddhist countries or its people embrace this new geo-political alignment, is still up for debate. As the saying goes, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Should the IBC play its role well and effectively, and be seen as superior to what the current status quo has to offer, there is no reason why Buddhism wil not be better off for it.

Samina Akhter

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said Bangladesh and Japan have successfully elevated the bilateral relations to a “Strategic Partnership” from the existing “Comprehensive Partnership”.

“Prime minister Kishida and I have discussed today the entire gamut of our bilateral relations. We are happy that Bangladesh and Japan have successfully elevated the bilateral relations to a “Strategic Partnership” from the existing “Comprehensive Partnership”, she said.

The prime minister made the remarks in a joint statement after the exchanging of several instruments signed between the two sides following bilateral talks with her Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida at the Prime Minister’s Office in Tokyo.

She added: “Today, prime minister Kishida and I concluded the Joint Statement on “Strategic Partnership”. I am confident that the excellent understanding, friendship and cooperation that exist between our two peoples and our governments will grow even stronger in the years ahead.”

“Our two sides have signed – agreements and memorandums which will further institutionalize our future cooperation in the areas of agriculture, customs matters, defense, ICT and cyber-security, industrial upgrading, intellectual property, ship recycling and metro rail,” she said.

Dhaka and Tokyo on Wednesday signed eight instruments on the second day of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s four-day state visit to Japan at the invitation of her Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida.

Those were signed on agriculture, metro rail, industrial upgrade, ship recycling, customs matters, intellectual properties, defence cooperation, ICT and cyber security cooperation by the concerned persons of the two friendly countries.

On the other hand,

Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio on Wednesday said Bangladesh and Japan have upgraded their relationship to a strategic partnership.

We have upgraded our bilateral relationship to strategic partnership,” he said in a press statement just after concluding a summit meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at his office.

In the meeting, both have affirmed their commitment to uphold the free and open international order based on the rule of law as strategic partners at a time when the international order is at a historic turning point, he said.

Also,  based on new plans for a free and open Indo-Pacific point announced last month, two countries have agreed to further strengthen the bilateral relations in various areas, he added.

Japan rolled out the red carpet to welcome Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday in a four-day official visit which experts said would be more significant” than her previous five visits to Tokyo. It comes at a time when Japan has declared a free and open Indo-Pacific giving importance to the ‘global south’ and showed interest to develop the relations with Bangladesh to strategic level” from the present comprehensive partnership”. We hope that the bilateral trade between Bangladesh and Japan will be enhanced further. Also, we appreciate Japan’s support in implementing our mega projects such as Matarbari deep sea port, third terminal of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka and Dhaka Metro Rail. The relationships between Dhaka  and Tokyo are going from  strength to strength

Japan is one of the most powerful industrialized nations in the world. The country not only took part in our independence movement but also at the post-independence time of Bangladesh. The role Japan has played in Bangladesh’s nation building strategy is a concrete instance of selfless friendship. The friendship that Japan and Bangladesh have been enjoying over the last four decades is rare in today’s world. Friendship between the two countrues was tested in the terror attack in Dhaka in July 2016, which led to the tragic death of seven Japanese nationals. It was during that moment of national anguish and mourning that yet again, the Japanese people and government stood by us and reassured us of Japan’s continued support to Bangladesh’s development.

Japanese entrepreneurs are demonstrating more enthusiasm about business and investment opportunities in Bangladesh. We believe our time-tested friend Japan and its people will be with us on our transformative journey to development and prosperity. We hope that in our efforts to cross the threshold from a developing to a developed country, we will have Japan by our side as facilitator in the manner that they have been so far.

The relationships between Dhaka and Tokyo are going from strength to strength. The latter is likely to continue to play a crucial role as the single largest bilateral donor and a trusted friend and development partner. It is essential that Tokyo remains actively engaged with Bangladesh in its journey to become a developed nation.

It comes at a time when Japan has declared a free and open Indo-Pacific giving importance to the ‘global south’ and showed interest to develop the relations with Bangladesh to strategic level” from the present comprehensive partnership”.

Just before the visit, Bangladesh on Monday also revealed its 15-point Indo-Pacific outlook envisioning a free, open, peaceful, secure, and inclusive” Indo-Pacific as the country is set to be graduated from the LDC.

For five reasons this visit is more significant than other visits as the Prime Minister has previously visited Japan in 1997, 2010, 2014, 2016 and 2019.

First, with its new free and open Indo-Pacific strategy, Tokyo considers Bangladesh as an important country which is something beyond the donor recipient” relationship.

Secondly, Japan is implementing a large infrastructure project in south Chattogram, Cox’s Bazar districts under its ‘Bay of Bengal Industrial Growth Belt’ (BIG-B) concept. Japan is looking for an alternative to its present production hub in ASEAN and other countries due to rising costs. And Bangladesh’s economic transformation gives the Japanese companies confidence that they can invest here and make products in low-cost and then export to other countries using the deep-sea port in Matarbari which is also being built by Japan,” Prof Mamun said.

 Third, Japan wants to develop relations with Bangladesh into a ‘strategic’ one, where security and military cooperation will be added.

 Fourth, in the new context of graduation from the LDC, Bangladesh will lose GSP in the Japan market. So, both countries are in talk to negotiate an ‘Economic Partnership Agreement’.

 Fifth, Japan is also planning to connect northeast India with the Matarbari deep sea port which will give a new dimension to regional connectivity. This was announced recently during the Japanese Prime Minister’s visit to India.”

 We think this connectivity issue will also come up in the discussion between the two Prime Ministers..

 Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen earlier said around eight deals would be signed with Tokyo during the visit.

 Those include the deals on agriculture, metro rail, industrial upgrade, ship recycling, customs matters, intellectual properties; defence cooperation, ICT and cyber security cooperation.

 The Prime Minister will also attend an investment summit during her visit.

 The visit is very significant” as Japan is looking at its relations with Bangladesh in a way that has geopolitical importance”.

 Through this visit, both the countries reiterated their commitment to each other,” she said, adding that the existing bilateral comprehensive” partnership needs to be transformed into a strategic” one.

 With the strategic partnership, the two countries will determine the long-term relationship based on their goals and objectives towards each other.

Bangladesh’s prime minister left on a trip on Tuesday to Japan, the U.S. and the U.K. to build defense cooperation with Tokyo and explore new partnerships with the two major Western powers.

 The visit to Japan was significant as Tokyo looks to expand regional partnerships to counter Beijing’s influence in the Indo-Pacific. Meanwhile, the trip to the U.S, was a chance for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to demonstrate that all is well between Dhaka and Washington despite an impression to the contrary.

PRESS STATEMENT ANTONY J. BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE

The United States is designating Wasantha Karannagoda, Governor of North Western Province in Sri Lanka, pursuant to Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2023, due to his involvement in a gross violation of human rights during his tenure as a Naval Commander.  As a result of today’s action, Karannagoda and his wife, Srimathi Ashoka Karannagoda, are ineligible for entry into the United States.

The allegation that Wasantha Karannagoda committed a gross human rights violation, documented by NGOs and independent investigations, is serious and credible.  By designating Wasantha Karannagoda, the United States reaffirms its commitment to upholding human rights, ending impunity for human rights violators, acknowledging the suffering of victims and survivors, and promoting accountability for perpetrators in Sri Lanka.

The bilateral relationship between the United States and the Government of Sri Lanka is based on 75 years of shared history, values, and a commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.  As we continue to build our bilateral relationship, we are committed to working with the Sri Lankan government on advancing justice, accountability, and reconciliation, including promoting security reform that maintains human rights at the forefront while ensuring Sri Lanka has the resources and training to properly address emerging security concerns.