Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The Transport Ministry has decided to register unregistered motorcycles with high engine capacity under a legal framework.

Minister c instructed the ministry officials to prepare a proper system soon for the above matter.

The decision was taken following requests made by several sports clubs. Those associations had requested the minister provide a proper way to register the motorcycles that were brought to Sri Lanka and assembled with engine capacities above 450 cc. (Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama)

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The Inspector General of Police (IGP) has instructed the Special Investigation Division to immediately initiate an investigation against the HQI of the Bandarawela Police in connection with his action following the arrest of the mother of the infant who was abandoned at Fort Railway station on Friday.

Police said the investigations will be carried out over the conduct of the Chief Inspector of Police with regard to the arrest, questioning and inappropriate steps during the process, inconveniencing the mother.

Also,  it was revealed that the officer had not acted according to the circulars issued by the IGP on how to deal with children and women.

The couple who had abandoned a 13-day-old infant in the toilet of an express train was arrested by police on Friday.

Police said the 25-year-old father who had kept the baby in the toilet was a resident of Meeriyabadda area Koslanda and he was arrested by the area police while the 26-year-old mother was arrested by Bandarawela police.(DSB)

Courtesy Adaderana

Power & Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera says several international development agencies have communicated the assistance they can offer to restructure the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB).

In a tweet, the lawmaker mentioned that the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the World Bank, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have conveyed support for the process.

A meeting has been convened on Friday (March 10) to discuss the progress of restructuring the state-owned electricity utility.

Wijesekera said the roadmap and the timeline of the CEB restructuring process are expected to be duly submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers, highlighting that the reforms that can be implemented before the final Act would be initiated next week.

Courtesy Hiru News

Professor Aminda Methsila of the Faculty of Management and Finance of Wayamba University stated that the rupee will continue to strengthen due to the loan facility from the International Monetary Fund and other receipts.

He stated this while commenting on the opinion presented by Fitch Ratings that the value of the rupee may depreciate again by the end of this year.

Meanwhile, The Government of Japan has contributed an additional 6.6 million dollars to the United Nations World Food Programme to provide critical food and nutrition assistance to over one million Sri Lankans.

Through this funding, WFP will provide families with food baskets comprising rice, pulses and cooking oil, to meet half their monthly food needs for a period of two months.

The donation will also be used to procure maize and soybean for the production of Thriposha, a fortified food product, for a period of four months, which will be supplied to pregnant and breastfeeding mothers and young children at risk of malnutrition.

චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම, LL.B., Ph.D.

ගෝඨාභය ජනාධිපති මිලින්ද මොරගොඩට සර් කියා ඇමතුවාය යන කතාව අසා මගේ හිත බලවත් ලෙස සසල වූයේ, පුද්ගලයෙකු වශයෙන් ගෝඨාභය කෙරෙහි මා තුල පැවති ගෞරවය හා ආදරය නිසාය. විජේවීරගේ වෛද්‍යවරයා මෙන් ක්‍රියාකල වෛද්‍ය වසන්ත බණ්ඩාර සමඟ චමුදිත සමරවික්‍රම කල සාකච්චාව රටේ හැම සිංහල බෞද්ධයෙක් විසින්ම කියවිය යුතු වාර්තාවකි. (30) ගෝඨාභය මරලා මහින්ද ජනාධිපති කිරීමේ කුමන්ත්‍රණයක් තිබුණේ. රනිල් ප්ලැන් B @TruthwithChamuditha – YouTube

එක අතකින් සේපාල් අමරසිංහලා ඇතුළු පිරිසත් අනිත් පැත්තෙන් බෝන් අගේන් කල්ලිත්, දෙමළ බෙදුම්වාදීන්, ශාරියා කාරයින් හා න්ගො නඩ විසින් වටකරගෙන සිංහල බෞද්ධ ශිෂ්ටාචාරයට කරගෙන යන පහරදීම් ඉදිරියේ වසන්ත බණ්ඩාර, මාවරල් භද්දිය හිමියන් (දෙරණ චතුර අල්විස් සමඟ සාකච්චාව) යන අයගේ ජාතික මෙහෙවර අප අගය කල යුතුය. (30) අවුරුදු 60, 70ක් දේශපාලනය කරලා ලැජ්ජ වෙන්න ඕනෙද? | TALK WITH CHATHURA – YouTube

මීට කලින් මෙවැනි සර් කතාවක් ගැන මම ලිව්වේ මෛත්‍රීපාල ජනාධිපති වූ පසු ඔහු තවදුරටත් රනිල්ට සර් කියා දිගටම ඇමතීමට පුළුවන්දැයි රනිල්ගෙන් ඇසුවාය යන වාර්තාව දුටුවිටය. මට තිබූ කුහක මෙන්ම අහිංසක ප්‍රශ්ණය වූයේ ඉන් පසුව රනිලුත් මෛත්‍රීපාලට පෙරලා සර් කියා ආමන්ත්‍රණය කලාද යන්නය.  මිනිස් පංචස්කන්ධවල මෙම සිදුවීම් ඔවුන්ගේ චරිත පිළිඹඳ මිණුම් දඬු (මාපක, yardsticks, index)  වැනිය. ඇමෙරිකාවේ නම් ජැනිටර්ලාවත් අමතන්නේ සර් කියා වුවත් ලංකාවේ සර් කියන්නේ තමන්ගේ ගුරුවරුන්ට හා ගරුකලයුතු ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨ පුද්ගලයින්ට පමණක් යයි මම සිතමී.

LankaWeb – රනිල් මල්ලී සහ චන්ද්‍රිකා අක්කා සර් ටෙස්ට් එක පාස්ද? කමත ටෙස්ට් එක (2016)

වසන්ත බණ්ඩාර විසින් පෙන්වා දෙන්නේ මිලින්ද මොරගොඩ තිරයෙන් පිටුපස සිට චීනය කොටු කිරීමේ ඉන්දු-ඇමෙරිකන් යුද දේශපාලන ව්‍යාපාරයට මුක්කු ගසන ආකාරය පිළිඹඳවය. ලංකාවේ සිට  පී. බී. ජයසුන්දර, කුමාරස්වාමි, ජයනාත් කොළඹගේ ලා මෙන්ම, කැබිනට් ඇමතිකෙනෙකුගේ බලය සහිත එකම තානාපති ලෙස මොරගොඩ දිල්ලියේ සිට ජයටම සිය දේවකාරිය ඇමෙරිකාව වෙනුවෙන් ඉෂ්ටකරමින් සිටී. ඔහුත් බෝන් අගේන් දැයි මම නොදනිමි. නමුත් ඇමෙරිකන් තානාපති කාර්යාලයට අනුව ඇමෙරිකන් සුරතලෙක් බව ඔහු සම්බන්ධයෙන් යවා ඇති විකීලීක් විසින් එලිකල කේබල් පණිවුඩ 150 න් ඔප්පුවන බව වසන්ත බණ්ඩාරගේ කතාවෙන් පැහැදිලිවේ. අධික වැටුප්ගෙවා පාත් ෆයින්ඩර් ජාලයට අල්ලාගෙන සිටින පංචස්කන්ධ ප්‍රමාණය අති විශාලය. 2005-2008 කාලයේ ඇමෙරිකවේ ලංකා තානාපතිව සිටි, විදේශ අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ලේකම්ව සිටි, දැන් පාත් ෆයින්ඩර් පදනමේ සභාපතිව ඉන්නා බර්නාඩ් ගුණතිලක මා දන්නා එක උදාහරණයක් පමණය. මෙවැනි ලිපියක් පලකිරීමට ඉතිරිව ඇත්තේ ලංකාවෙබ් වෙබ් අඩවිය පමණක් බව බොහෝ අය දන්නේ නැත.

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පාත් ෆයින්ඩර් මිලින්ද මොරගොඩ ට්‍රෝජන් අශ්‌වයෙක්ද?
Posted on April 19th, 2020.

චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම, LL.B., Ph.D.

මෙහි පහතින් දැක්‌වෙන්නේ මිලින්ද මොරගොඩ ගැන අන්තර්‌ජාල විකිපීඩියාවේ සඳහන් වා‌ර්‌තාවකි. මෙහි ඇත්ත-නැත්ත මම නොදනිමි. එහෙත් ගින්නක් නැතුව දුමක් නඟින්නේද නැත. ඒ කාලයේ තමන්ට එල්ලවූ අල්ලස්-දූෂණ චෝදනා වෙනුවට අද රටේ විශාල ඩොලර් බලයක් සහිතව මහ ඉහළින් වැජඹෙන මිලින්ද ගෙන් ප්‍රවේශම් වන ලෙස හාමුදුරුවරු වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුවට ප්‍රසිද්‌ධියේම අනතුරු ඇඟවීමක් කලේය. නිදහස් සංවාද වැඩබිමේ චපා බණ්ඩාර විසින් මිලින්දව සළකන්නේ මිලේනියම් උගුලේ ඔත්තුකරුවෙකු ලෙසය. මෙහි පහතින් ඇති ඇමෙරිකන් තානාපති කාර්යාලයේ රහස් කේබල් පණිවුඩය අනුව මිලින්ද නියමම, කදිම ඇමෙරිකන් ඒජන්ත කෙනෙක් බවට විවාදයක් නැත. මිලින්ද ගැන තොරතුරු රට වැසියාට පෙන්වාදීමට වගකීමක්, යුතුකමක් ඒ ගැන යමක් දන්නා අයට ඇත. මිලින්දට කරුණු පැහැදිලි කිරීමට අචස්‌ථාවක් ලැබෙන්නේද මෙසේ ඔහු ගැන ලිව්වොත් පමණය.

ඇමෙරිකාව ඒජන්තලා සොයා ගන්නා ආකාරය විෂ්මය දණවයි. එය ඔවුන්ගේ දක්‍ෂතාවයයි. උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් 2010 රොබට් බ්ලේක් ගෙනා සරත් ෆොන්සේකා වෙනුවට 2019 දී හදිසියේම කඩාවැටුන මහේෂ් සේනානායක, ඇමෙරිකන් තානාපතිනියගේ ඉත්තෙක් බව දැනගන්නට ලැබුණේ චන්දයෙන් පසු මහේෂ් ඇමෙරිකා යුද කඳවුරක පරණ රක්‍ෂාවට පලාගිය පසුවය. සර්වෝදයේ වින්ද්‍යා ආරියරත්න හා තවත් ඉංජිනේරුවෙක් සමඟ මහේෂ් තානාපතිනිය මුණ ගැසී තුන්වන බලවේගයක් වශයෙන් නොමිනේෂන් දුන්නේය. සිදුවූයේ ඒ නිසා ගොඨාභයගේ චන්ද කැඩීයාම නොව තව තවත් වැඩිවීමය!

මිලින්ද උපන්නේ ඇමෙරිකාවේය. මිලින්ද විවාහ වුනේ ඇමෙරිකන් කාන්තාවක් සමඟය. ඒ කාලයේ කතාව වුනේ ඇය ජනාධිපති බුෂ් පවුලටද දුරින් සම්බන්‌ධ කෙකෙන් යනුය. මිලින්ද සුරතලෙක්‌වූයේ ඇමෙරිකන් රිපබ්ලිකන් පක්‍ෂයේ සෙනේට් සභිකයින් අතරය. ඔහු ප්‍රසිද්‌ධකල, විත් අ වෝම් හාර්ට්, අ කූල් හෙඩ් ඇන්ඩ් අ ඩීප් බ්‍රෙත්, නම් ලිපි එකතුවට (2003) පෙරවදනක් ලිව්වේ 2008 ජනාධිපති අපේක්‍ෂක‌වූ ජෝන් මැකේන්‌ය. සරත් ෆොන්සේකාට, රොබට් බ්ලේක් හෝ මාදුළුවාවේ සෝභිත හිමියන්ට මිචෙල් සෙසන් හෝ රංජන් රාමනායකට ඇලිනා ටෙප්ලිස් හෝ මෙන් නොව මෙවැනි මිලින්දගේ සම්බන්‌ධකම් හොඳින් අක් මුල් සහිතය. උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් සමන්තා පවර්ස්ගේ මුද්ද ඉම්බ මංගල සමරවීරව, ඇමෙරිකන් රහස් සංදේශයේ සඳහන් කර තිබෙන්නේ ජෝකර් කෙනෙක් කියාය.

බිම් බෝම්බ ඉවත් කිරීමේ, පාත් ෆයින්ඩර් ක්‍රියාවෙන්, ලංකාව හැදීමේ පාත් ෆයින්ඩර් කමට මිලින්ද ඉබේම පාත් විය. මිලින්ද හා කෙළින්ම සම්බන්‌ධ දෙන්නෙක්ම (ජෙනරාල් දයා රත්නායක හා අද්මිරාල් මහාචාර්ය ජයන්ත් කොළඹගේ) ගෝඨාභය පාලනයේ ඉහළම තනතුරු දෙකක් දරණ බව චාපා බණ්ඩාර එලිකලේය. හාමුදුරුවරු එකනමක් වත් (ඔහුගේ සංවිධානයේ පඩි ලබන?) මිලින්දට ස්ත්‍රොත්‍ර ගායනා කලත් (ලිට්‍රෝ ගෑස් සල්ලි ලබාගෙන දඹරාවේ අමිල හිමි යහපාලන වේදිකාවේ සිවුර ගැලවෙන තරමට යකා නැටුවා මතකද), 2019 නොවැම්බර් 18 දා ගෝඨාභය දිනවා රටේ හාමුදුරුවරුන් කල විප්ලවය බකල් කිරීමට, මිලේනියම් හුටපටය කෙසේ හෝ රටට රිංගවීමට ඇමෙරිකාව ගන්නා නොනවතින උත්සාහයට ජනාධිපති අසුවේද යන සාධාරණ බියක් රටේ සිංහල බෞද්‌ධයින්ට ඇත. මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතා නම් දැන් නැතත්, අතීතයේ නම් හොඳ මිලින්ද වාදියෙකි.

මිලින්දගැන ඇති බියට හේතුව නම් ඔහුගේ අතීත හා වත්මන් ක්‍රියා යුරෝපය උතුම්‌ය යන ආකෘතිය මත පදනම්‌ව තිබීමය. ඔහු යෝජනා කරණ පාත් එක (ප්‍රතික‌ර්‍ම) ලෝක බැංකු පාරය. කොරෝනාවට පෙර තිබූ දුප්පත් රටවල් සූරා කෑ කොම්පැනි ධනවාදයට, මොන අන්‌දමින් හෝ පැලැස්තර දමා කොරෝනාවට පසු ලෝකයේ ඒවා දිගටම ගෙන යාමේ ඇමෙරිකන් ප්ලෑනට අඩතැබීම මිලින්දගේ අළුත් ප්‍රොජෙක්ට් එකේ අරමුණ බව පැහැදිලි වන්නේ, දැන් ඒ අළුත් උපක්‍රමය සඳහා ඔහු පත් කල 20 දෙනාගේ කොමිටියේ සාමාජිකයින්ගේ වතගොත සොයා බලන විටය. ඉන් බොහෝ දෙනෙක් යහපාලන කාලයේ රනිල්-මංගල-මලික්-රවි ගැත්තන්‌විය. මේ අය ඇල්ලේ ගුණවංශ හාමුදුරුවන් කියන බුදු අම්මෝ අයද්, ඕ මයි ගෝඩ් අයද? පැහැදිලි එකම දේ නම් රටේ සිංහල බෞද්‌ධයින් වෙනුවෙන් ප්‍රසිද්‌ධියේ කතාකරණ එක් අයෙක්‌වත් මිලින්දගේ කොමිටිවල නොසිටීමය. එවැනි සුදුස්සන් නැද්ද, එවැනි අය ආරාධනාව ප්‍රතික්‍ෂේප කලාද,එසේත් නැත්නම් එවැනි අයවළුන් මේ වැදගත් කොමිටිවලට සහභාගි කරගන්නවාට විරුද්‌ධ බලවේගයක් යටින් තිබෙනවාද?

උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් සංවර්‍ධනය සඳහා, නාස්තිය, කුණු කසළ හා වස-විස කළමනාකරණය පිළිඹදව ධර්‌මපාල පරපුරේ නිර්‌මාතෘ ඉඳුරාගාරේ ධම්මරතන හිමිඳුන් හා, අතුරැලියේ රතන, බොදු බල සේනාවේ ඥානසාර යන හාමුදුරුවරුන් ඉදිරිපත් කරණ පාත් එකට මිලින්දගේ පාත් එකේ ඉඩක් තිබේද? ග්‍රාම රාජ්‍ය සංකල්පය ගැන මිලින්දගේ අදහස කුමක්ද? රට යායුතු මෙග ව්‍යාපෘති පාරේද, නැත්නම් කර්‌ක් පැට්‍රික් සේල් ගේ හියුමන් ස්කේල් නම් පරිසරවාදී තිරසර සංවර්‌ධන පාරේද? මේ සියල්ලටම වඩා වැදගත් වන්නේ මිලින්ද, ජනාධිපතිට දෙන සංදේශ ප්‍රසිද්‌ධ නොකරන්නේ මන්ද යන කරුණය. ඒවා රහස් ලියවිලි වන්නේ මොන ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රය යටතේද?

තවද මිලින්දගේ ඩී.එන්.ඒ (ජාන) වල මහාවංශ විරෝධී අංශු තිබිය හැකිය. ඔහුගේ සීයාගේ පියා රෙස්ට්‌හවුස් කීපර් කෙනෙකුගේ පුතෙකි. මේ පුතා (එන්. යූ. ජයවර්‌ධන) ඉගෙනගෙන අන්තිමේදී මහ බැංකුවේ අධිපති විය. ජේ. ආර්.මුදල් ඇමතිව සිටියදී නීති විරෝධි වැඩක් කරණ ලෙස ඔහුට කල ඉල්ලීම ඔහු ප්‍රතික්‍ෂේප කලේය (සර් ජෝන්ට එංගලන්තයේ වත්තක් ගන්නට විදේශ විනිමය දීමට). මේ නිසා ඔහුගේ රක්‍ෂාව අහිමි කලේය. ඔහු ලුනාව දේවාලයේ භාරයක් වෙමින් දේවාල මිදුල දිනපතාම අතුගෑවේය. පසුව බණ්ඩාරනායක අගමැති ඔහුව එම බොරු අල්ලස් චෝදනාවෙන් නිදොස් කලේය.

එහෙත් මේ දක්‍ෂ, අවංක සීයාගේ පුතා (ලාල්) හා ලේලි (විශාඛා කුමාරි සොයිසා) යුවල රට කැඩීමේ ඊළම් ව්‍යාපාරයට වක්‍රව හෝ දායක විය. තම්බයියාගේ (බොරු කරණාද ඇතුලත්) බුඩිසම් බිට්‍රේයිඩ් (1992) යන පොතේ පිටකවරයට තරුණ මාදුළුවාවේ සෝභිත හිමියන්ගේ යක්‍ෂාරූඪ වූවා වැනි පින්තූරය සැපයූවේ සුදු මවක් සමඟ එංගලන්තයේ හැදී වැඩුණු මේ විශාඛා තොමෝය. සමහරු හිතුවේ ආනන්ද තිස්ස ද අල්විස් ගේ නම මෙන් මැයද ඇගේ නම අනුව හොඳ සිංහල බෞද්‌ධ උපාසිකාවක් කියාය! බෞද්‌ධයින් කුහකයින්‌ය යන ලේබල් එක ගෙනා ආ ඈ උග්‍ර මාක්ස්වාදියෙකි (ඒ පොත ලංකාවේ තහනම් කිරීමට මේ පින්තූරයද හේතුවක් විය. ගණනාත් ඔබේසේකරලා පොත තහනම් කිරීමට විරුද්‌ධ ලිපි ලියුවේය). ලාල්, ඊට යූ. එන්. ඕ. සරසවියේ වයිඩර් ආයතනය හරහා අරමුදල් සපයා, දිග පෙරවදනක්‌ද ලිව්වේය.

ඇන්.යූ. ජයවර්‌ධනගේ දුවගේ සැමියා, පින්තු මොරගොඩ (මිලින්දගේ පියා) ලෝක වාර්‌තාවක්ද තැබු අයෙකි. ගුණපාල මලලසේකර මහතා යූ.එන්.ඕ. සභාපති ධූරයට චන්දය ඉල්ලූ අවස්ථාවේදී එවකට එහි සේවය කල පින්තු, මලලසේකරට චන්දය දෙන ලෙස ඉල්ලා, ඔහුට පක්‍ෂ යයි සිතූ රටවලට යැවීමට පිලියෙල කල සංදේශය, මලලසේකරට විරුද්‌ධව චන්දය දේය සිතූ රටවලට යවා, මලලසේකරට පක්‍ෂව චන්දය දේයයි සිතූ රටවලට, ඔහුට විරුද්‌ධව චන්දය දේ යයි සිතූ රටවලට යැවීමට පිලියෙල කල අනිත්, වෙනස් සංදේශය යැව්වේය! මෙසේ පින්තු සිදුකල බරපතල අකරතැබ්බය අත්වැරදීමක්ද නැද්ද යන්න ගැන මලලසේකර මහතා සිතුවේ කුමක්දැයි අපි නොදනිමු. දිණන්නට සිටි මලලසේකර පැරදුණේය. පින්තෝ තවමත් ජීවත්‌ව සිටින නිසා ඔහුට අවංකව මෙය පැහැදිලි කල හැකිය. යූ.එන්.ඕ. වනාහි ලෝක හොර ගුහාවකි. යම් රහසක් කතාකරන්න ඕනෑ නම් ඒ සඳහා බිල්ඩිමෙන් ඉවත්‌ව මිදුලට එන්නේ චරපුරුෂ සේවය ඒතරමටම උග්‍ර නිසාය!

Political career of Milinda Moragoda

United National Party
During his political career of almost 10 years, Moragoda has worked in a number of key areas. He was a principal Government negotiators in the peace talks of 2002–2004. He was Minister of Economic Reform. He also gave leadership to the development and implementation of Sri Lanka’s ICT policy, E-Sri Lanka.
Moragoda was first entered to Parliament as a National List Member in 2000 with the United National Party (UNP) and was re-elected in 2001 and in 2004 from the Colombo District.[6]

Sri Lanka Freedom Party
Upon crossing over the government Moragoda was appointed as the Minister of Tourism by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. During his tenure, he was able to successfully implement the Tourism Act of 2001. In July 2009 he was appointed as Minister of Justice and Law Reform. Even though he sat and voted with the government, he remained a member of the opposition UNP until 2010 when he started the Sri Lanka National Congress (SLNC). The SLNC was disbanded in 2011 when Milinda joined the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, the main party of UPFA led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. In the 2010 general election he lost his parliamentary seat.

In 2011 he became the UPFA’s mayoral candidate in the October 2011 municipal election in Colombo. He was elected to Colombo Municipal Council, becoming its opposition leader.

Allegations of Corruption
In 2007 Moragoda’s party was in the opposition having lost the 2005 elections to the UPFA. As the UPFA Government sought to expose corruption during the UNP regime the Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) released a report accusing Moragoda of widespread corruption and abuse of power.
Mercantile Credit Ltd, a subsidiary of Mercantile Merchant Bank, founded by Moragoda was found to defaulted on loans of 4.7 Billion Rupees (which had been obtained by providing false information) while Moragoda was Minister for Economic Reform. COPE conducted three inquiries into these loans and their defaulting but on each occasion the investigations were never allowed to reach the final stages due to political pressure.
In 2002 Lanka Marine Service (Pvt) Limited owned by state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation which sat on an 8.5-acre plot in the Colombo harbour was sold to the Sri Lankan conglomerate John Keells Holdings. The Supreme Court ruled that as then PERC chairman, Dr. P.B. Jayasundara and Executive Director of JKH Susantha Ratnayake had acted with dishonest intent in the sale of LMSL shares. The Bribery Commission also began investigations into criminal charges against Dr. Jayasundara, former Ministers Milinda Moragoda (PERC was under him) and Karu Jayasuriya (CPC was under him) on the charge of abusing public property in connection with this deal.
Before the investigation could reach conclude both Moragoda and Jayasriya crossed over to the government. Reporting on the privatisation of Lanka Marine Service COPE stated that by his actions Moragoda had at the very least incurred a loss of 1.7 Bn rupees for the government.

The COPE report also alleged severe irregularities in the privatisation of Sri Lanka Insurance which happened under the tenure of Moragoda. The report stated that Moragoda created a loss of over 3 Bn Rupees for the government solely through non-compliance with the 4th term of the contract. These investigations too were not concluded before Moragoda crossed over to the government.

Links to the USA
US Embassy cables released by WikiLeaks show Moragoda to be a long time information source of the US Embassy in Colombo. The cables also state the US Government’s interest in Moragoda as their key partner in Sri Lanka. Writing to Washington in 2003, then US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Ashley Wills says of Moragoda:

[Regarding] the U.S., the intelligent, articulate Moragoda is a perfect fit. born in Washington, D.C, he is a dual national Amcit (please protect) married to an American, with plenty of Washington connections, many from his days as a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation and at Harvard. A big picture” person, Moragoda is also highly aware that the U.S. is the most powerful country in the world, and he feels that it is better that Sri Lanka recognize that fact and work within it.

Other work
Moragoda has served as a member of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, which was co-chaired by Madeleine Albright and Hernando de Soto.
He has founded a number of non-profit organisations. Among them is the Milinda Moragoda Institute for People’s Empowerment, under whose aegis operates a humanitarian de-mining programme in the North and East which has been in operation since 2002 and Apeksha, a free English Education Programme for children of low income families.

Honors….

One Response to පාත් ෆයින්ඩර් මිලින්ද මොරගොඩ ට්‍රෝජන් අශ්‌වයෙක්ද?”

1. Hiranthe Says:
   April 19th, 2020 at 11:07 pm

This Moragoda can not be considered as a son of the land and a true son of Mother Lanka.

I agree 100% with Chapa of Nidahas web programme. MM is a dangerous visus you should not associate closely. I also feel very uncomfortable to see this fellow with the President because his organisation is like Corona Virus, waiting to infect and grab the land of Mother Lanka for their masters in the US.

Path Finder are very clever in recruting Kolambage and Daya Ratnayaka. Who knows how many other patriots who have been recruited by them??? Traitors never rest.

Priyantha Hettige 

At present, President Putin is conducting what he calls a special operation” in Ukraine.  This is not a fully-fledged war. It is constrained and is limited in its objectives. He is fulfilling his well-known and often stated objectives of:

(1) Protecting the Russian speaking peoples of the Luhansk, Donbass, Kherson and Mariopol regions of eastern Ukraine from indiscriminate shelling. They were getting incoming shells fired by the Ukrainian far-right or Fascists who are to be found throughout the ranks of Ukrainian army, and even 20% or 30% of the population as a whole. Ever since the Maidan Square uprising and the toppling of the existing democratically elected government. (A US instigated affair) the US has fanned the embers of fascism that was already smoldering there. (It is suggested that the reader should familiarize himself about Fascism and what it stands for! It is an unsociable opposite to Communism!)

Russia has lost 26 million people fighting Fascism in World War II, so, having Fascism re-installed in so close a neighbor was highly provocative and irritating (cruel?) to those Russians who had lost so many relatives in the last war. It is worth noting that Russia has been invaded many times by ruthless thugs, armed to the teeth with the latest weapons, searching for gold, wealth and of course, pretty girls of which Russia of course, has in abundance!

(2) Challenging the Ukrainian army and preferably reduce their numbers by shelling and gunfire – just as they have done to the Russian-speaking residents in Eastern Ukraine by indiscriminate firing. Russians are returning the complement! This is the steady hand of Mr. Putin at work! This is why the Russian people cheer him on – not in national fervor but in a heart-felt sense of relief that something is being done to right a wrong – tit for tat, arriving on the heads of heartless Fascists!

FULL – SCALE WAR

President Zelenski is very much guided by the Americans. These US White house officials dislike Putin intensely. He has disrupted their plans for breaking up Russia and going in and robbing the riches that are to be found there – a familiar motive of invaders, well known and experienced by Russians over the Centuries. The fact is that the US Whitehouse has a narrative, a plan that is not realistic! Russia is not simply a gas (petrol) station with Nukes.

Mr. Putin has set in motion over the years the wheels of munitions and arms development, building on what was developed under Communism. They have been active and innovative in their development of weapons and are themselves armed to the teeth, unbeknown to the powerful but brash, careless, fake news believing US and the West. Unfortunately for the US plan, their narrative is unrealistic, it does not match with reality.  They are believing in their own fake news! They are fixated on their plan and have no other! But it is failing!

Because their plan is failing ill-advised measures may be taken which may cross Mr. Putin’s red line.

If Ukraine crosses this red line, by bombing Russia or Transnistria, considered a Russian territory close to Moldova, this will automatically trigger a full scale war against Ukraine and its leadership.

That entails deadly rockets raining down on the heads of Zelenski and his officials in a short time! No warnings given! This would leave Ukraine decapitated, leaderless and weak. – And this in turn will allow Russia to advance across all the country up to the Polish border in the west. But how to get a negotiated peace – with whom?

The great problem for Russia is that there is no-one in the west with any credibility after all the lies and false promises of the recent past. Who can Mr. Putin talk to who is reliable and be trusted to follow any agreement that is made? No-one, not the US, not NATO, nor Ukraine is known to be reliable enabling a legally binding peace agreement, is the answer. As nothing can be negotiated, so it must all be settled on the battlefield. A sad day for the majority of Ukrainians, who, by being Slavic in culture have close affinity, friendship with Russia. Ukrainians have lost terribly in this conflict.

Mr. Putin can order a deadly strike on the Ukrainian leadership at any time, but as a good (cunning) lawyer and head of state, his actions must correspond to the dangers faced by Russia, and be proportionate. Hitler was not highly trained, unlike Putin. Mr. Putin is a highly qualified lawyer and was also a top KGB officer. Hitler made fatal mistakes, hopefully Mr. Putin will not!

He knows the limits: actions must arise from just causes. For example, after the bombing of the Kersh Straight bridge leading to Crimea, Putin felt justified to unleash heavy fusillades of rockets on Ukrainian infrastructure as a just response; a reply in kind.

POLAND’S SUPPORT FOR UKRAINE

Many Polish men have joined the Ukrainian army to fight the Russians. Also Poland has sent many weapons to Ukraine, including Leopard Tanks – a definitely unfriendly act.

If Ukraine is fully occupied by Russia, the presence of the Russian army on the borders of Poland will make the Poles shiver in their shoes because of their past indiscretions! And there would be only the little, ill equipped and trained Polish army standing in the way of Russia invading Poland and clearing out the Fascists out from there, too!

NEW EAST EUROPEAN BLOCK

But Russia has to do its calculations first. He, Mr. Putin needs a just cause to invade Poland and also, how favourably or unfavourably would Russians be received? How many Poles would tolerate Poland joining in a new Warsaw Pact alliance -like in previous times? These are major questions for Mr. Putin.

Putin’s colleagues must be debating this very same thing even now – can they return and resurrect a new buffer alliance to act between them and NATO? – but of course, an alliance divorced from Communism.

A further great annoyance to Russia is that Russian speaking Latvians, Estonians, and Lithuanians are also being harassed and discriminated against in these three countries. These would easily fit back into a new eastern block to counter NATO.

But Putin is savvy enough to know about conquered people disliking their conquerors – He does not want such bad feelings to arise against Russian people who only fight for righteous causes, these days.

Putin is patriotic in that he wants the best for the people of the Federation (of Russian States) and including any Eastern European block. He wants to bring people out of suffering – to some kind of prosperity and happiness. It could be seen as a human right! To live without any dark threats hanging over their heads.

RUSSIAN TRUTH”: A WORD OF EXPLANATION

The West sees facts, news as extremely flexible these days. And so the term Fake News” has entered our lives. But notice that Russian news has a tendency to be to be a little more factual – but that is not a hard and fast rule.

As an example, progress in the military Special Operation” in Ukraine seems to be reported a little more accurately than in the West, amounting to be fairly, satisfactorily accurate, especially on the number of casualities on both sides.

Now, a possible explanation for this directness and honesty is that, because Russia has been obliged to fight off so many invaders, armed to the teeth with the latest weapons, seeking to rob Russian riches and its pretty children to enslave. This time Russians have armed themselves to the teeth with modern technology: drones, heat seeking missiles, smart bombs. They know what to do just to survive.

 Also, reporting in a war has to be accurate and report truthfully all successes and failures. This allows for corrective action to be taken, with successful results. Anything less than factual reporting can be (and must have been) leading to deadly failure and death.

So, you have two laws of consequences operating as a result of war:

Truth and honesty are the guardians of our own safety and well-being”, but also regarding weapons:  Science is the engine of prosperity.”   

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka needs institutional reforms in order to achieve long-term debt sustainability, said Steve Hanke, who played a key role in establishing new currency regimes in emerging markets like Argentina and Montenegro.

The South Asian country is grappling with its worst financial crisis in decades and needs to unlock a $2.9 billion IMF loan that was agreed to in September, to get its public finances in order.

Unless you change the institutions and the rules of the game governing these countries, they’re always going to remain in the same … situation that they’ve been in for a long time,” Hanke, who is now professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University, told CNBC’s Squawk Box Asia” on Thursday.

In fact, most of the personalities involved in Sri Lanka at the high level are exactly the same as they’ve been for years. So nothing has changed.”

Sri Lanka has struggled with severe shortages of food, medicine, fuel and electricity since last year. This has led to angry protests that forced then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee from the country and resign. The country’s lawmakers chose six-time Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as president last July as his successor.

Hanke, who was previously economic advisor to former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, was also skeptical whether the IMF bailouts will help Sri Lanka’s crisis-stricken economy in the long term. He pointed out that the country has gone to the fund several times cap in hand for relief.

You have to remember that we have a country that since 1965 has had 16 IMF programs and they’ve all failed,” he said. You get temporary relief in anticipation of a bailout. But in the long run … none of these IMF programs work.”

In September, the IMF outlined a series of steps that it wanted Sri Lanka’s government to implement prior to loan approval, which included major tax reforms.

Debt relief from Sri Lanka’s creditors and additional financing from multilateral partners will be required to help ensure debt sustainability and close financing gaps,” the fund said at the time.

The IMF declined to comment to CNBC.

China support

On Tuesday, Wickremesinghe said that China has given crucial debt restructuring assurances that could pave the way for final approval of the IMF’s $2.9 billion four-year bailout.

We received the letter of financial assurance from EXIM Bank of China last night. Accordingly, on the same night, I and the Governor of the Central Bank signed the letter of agreement and forwarded it to the IMF. Now our duties are done,” he told parliament, according to the transcript in local media.

I hope that before the end of this month, by the fourth week, the IMF will do its duty.”

In a follow up tweet, the president said he has spoken with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on this matter.

He also mentioned he expects financial assistance from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to start coming soon after the IMF deal is reached.

In its readout, the U.S. Treasury Department said: During their meeting, Secretary Yellen expressed support for Sri Lanka’s steps towards an IMF-supported program to advance economic reform and achieve a strong and durable recovery.”

The Secretary welcomed Sri Lanka’s commitments to transparency and comparable treatment for all bilateral official and private creditors.”

IMF’s Georgieva also commended Sri Lanka on its progress in resolving its financial situation.

I welcome the progress made by Sri Lankan authorities in taking decisive policy actions & obtaining financing assurances from all their major creditors, incl. China, India & the Paris Club,” she wrote in a tweet.

Look forward to presenting the IMF-supported program to our Exec. Board on March 20.”

Still, JHU’s Hanke said IMF programs do not tend to go down well with the Sri Lankan people.

You get the IMF in there trying to manage something,” said Hanke. The IMF tends to be … very unpopular because they’re going to try to introduce and ram through these old institutions that they have in Sri Lanka all kinds of things that the Sri Lankans won’t like.”

During his speech Tuesday, Sri Lanka’s president underlined there is no room for failure in completing every task agreed upon with the IMF, unlike the previous 16 occasions.”

The agreement with the IMF is of special importance to restore our economy, and there is no alternative path to be seen at present,” said Wickremesinghe.

Source: CNBC
-Agencies

Courtesy Adaderana

State Minister Shehan Semasinghe has requested the Deputy Speaker of Parliament to instruct relevant authorities not to act on the interim order issued by the Supreme Court regarding the 2023 Local Government polls until the inquiry carried out by the Parliamentary Committee on Privileges comes to an end.

Furthermore, he also asked the letter sent to the Finance Minister by the Election Commission Chairman, to be referred to the Parliamentary Committee on Privileges.

The state minister made these remarks referring to the issue of privilege raised by MP Premnath C. Dolawatte in parliament recently regarding the Supreme Court’s interim order pertaining to the Local Government election.

MP Dolawatte on Tuesday (March 07) told the House that the powers and privileges of the parliament have been violated by this interim order.

On March 03, upon considering a petition filed by SJB’s General Secretary Ranjith Madduma Bandara, a Supreme Court judge bench issued an interim order directing the Secretary to the Finance Ministry and the Attorney General, preventing them from withholding the funds allocated for elections in the budget 2023.

Delivering a statement in parliament today, State Minister Semasinghe further noted that the Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena has accepted the question of breach of privileges raised by MP Dolawatte and that the matter has been presented it to the Committee on Parliamentary Ethics and Privileges.

It is a serious offence to implement the interim order of the aforesaid case before hearing the said matter and making a decision,” the lawmaker stressed.

He added that by tabling the letter of the chairman of the Election Commission, he seeks the Deputy Speaker to refer the same matter to the Committee on Parliamentary Ethics and Privileges to conduct an inquiry. This letter has further breached the privileges of the members of this House.

Further, by raising this privilege matter, I request the Deputy Speaker to advise all relevant authorities not to proceed further or take any action on the interim order until the committee concludes its inquiry.”

Commenting on the privileges matter raised by the government MPs, the opposition raised deep concerns about attempts to pressurize the judiciary and further defer the Local Government election.

A heated debate ensued between the lawmakers of the ruling party and the opposition in parliament today over the privileges matter.

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

Many left politicians in Sri Lanka look at Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe as a capitalist agent but after Mr Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Mr Wickremasinghe became president giving hope for Sri Lankans to come out of economic backwardness. Mr Wickremasinghe is not a person like barking dog in stages expecting cheers and clapping from the crowd. The nature of left and Marxist politicians in Sri Lanka, they organize protest, rallies and various actions on the roads to attract people, not to show their capabilities of policy development and implementing. Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe who has a clear political history from King Parakramabahu 6, know how to invent policies to get out from miseries.

If any other person appointed after Mr Gotabaya Rajapaksa Sri Lanka other than Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe, the country would have gone to further dwindle than an improvement. Internationally, people acknowledged that the policy development capabilities of Mr Wickremasinghe and his competent to economically improve Sri Lanka, and this stewardship promote Sri Lankans to give more opportunities to Mr Wickremasinghe.  People were misled that Gotabaya was a capable person, but his actual behaviour did not demonstrate that Gotabaya Rajapaksa would be a feeble person of working for the expectation of common men. As political science books interpreted Mr Churchill was good for war period, but for the peace Clement Atlee was the choice. Mr Gotabaya well-coordinated during the war time despite that nature he failed to command the country during the most difficult situation.

The weak aspect in Ranil Wickremasinghe administration is, he has no policy men who are capable of assisting for policy development. Sri Lanka doesn’t want people like JVP who are shouting on the road while working in the office, they are feeble to policy development, when they were working as ministers, they proved incompetent vagabond nature. and other left parties to economic improvements could not trust as the intention of them is to exploiting the country. Economic growth should be increased to more than 7% while reducing the population growth to 0 5%, the combined total of all communities Sinhala, Tamil and Muslims. If people want to go overseas for migration, employment or any other reason, Mr Wickremasinghe should not concern about it but he needs to reduce the population of Sri Lanka between 15 million to 16 million as the population of the country is higher than the size of the country. If this situation be created the size of Sri Lanka’s economy would be sufficed to provide all services to 16 million population and the country will become a developed nation.

Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe needs to redesign the inter-industrial plan reviewing the changes in economy and some industries have become priority than in the past. Government policy makers have not identified the changing nature and many policy makers stuck in past mud field without changing. Mr Wickremasinghe must command his policy direction for radical changes and the beginning industry structure from basic four, Agriculture, Industrial, construction and services to a new structure. Because of policy makers hang on the past structure, they are impotent to identity changes and policy invention in new industry structure.

By Engr. Kanthar Balanathan DipEE (UK), GradCert (RelEng-Monash), DipBus&Adm (Finance-Massey), C.Eng., MIEE, Former Director of Power Engineering Solutions Pty Ltd, Consulting Electrical Engineers

1. Politics

The goal of human understanding is to enhance knowledge in political science to execute political action(s) to develop tools for a political meaningful phenomenon. Politics in governance is a science by which a country is governed to achieve effective and efficient order in economics, finance, defence, and resources.

Politics is a way in which people collectively make decisions so that they can live together in countries.

The basic type of political ideology is Democracy, Communism, and Socialism, however, a part of humanism should be incorporated into every ideology to be effective.

To be effective and operative the political behaviour shall include political skill, internal control, high investment, and expectations of success.

The different political parties shall be competent and competitive to provide the community’s requirements and shall not be eager for power and individual wealth accumulation. In Sri Lanka, politicians are eager for power and wealth. The parties concentrate on the disgraceful demise of the party in power so that they can conquer power.

• Prerequisites for politicians

The author’s view is that the Politicians to contest elections and enter parliament must have the following:

• Not involved in bribery & Corruption
• Must have a degree or recognised equivalent qualification in an appropriate discipline.
• To consider a cabinet portfolio, either a post-graduate qualification or a mixed degree (Arts & Science).
• For a state minister or Deputy Minister; a degree.
• These people should be able to deliver from the appreciation of their academic training and the subsequent training and experience positive products suitable to the citizens.

If SL wants to be listed as a third-world or a bush country, then the Election Commission can choose to accept any bush qualification and illiterates. SL does not need any more people like Dahanayake, Alidong Sirisena, or Mervin Silva.

We need are people like RW, GL Peris, Kanchana Wijesekera, CV Wigneswaran, Harsha de Silva etc.

They shall limit their racial talks but think reliably about economics, finance, and technology for the economic growth of SL.

• Demonstrated Knowledge, Ability and Personal Attributes

The MPs, Ministers and State Ministers shall have demonstrated knowledge to direct and manage following:

Strategic Management, Asset Operations, Financial management, HR management,

• Ability

The investigation, Communication, Budgetary Control and Teamwork.

• Personal Attributes

Flexibility, Innovative, Creative, Methodical, Initiative, Leadership, Decisive, Analytical skills and Self- Disciplined.

Just because the people are in the parliament, they shall not be people with no Attributes, Abilities and Demonstrated Knowledge. After all, they are the people who are governing the country and shall have some credible qualifications and experience. There are highly qualified engineers, doctors, and scientists depending on the parliamentarians. The top scientists shall not depend on donkeys who are not qualified and become ministers.

• Financial Situation

It is speculated in the media that SL has been approved for a loan with China being the guarantor. That’s good news for the people of SL but not for the cabinet ministers.

The issue in SL is that when adequate FOREX is owned in the CB, the ministers and the president, order to buy of luxury motor vehicles for the ministers and state ministers. They also order luxury items and equipment, for their bungalows etc. If the parliament portfolios need luxury items then how about the people?

Recently today the author viewed a marketing advert for a luxury vehicle (superdeluxe).

What is required now is the items: food, technology and spare parts that are required for the people and the industry. Any deviation from this will warrant people be back on the streets quite soon. It is hoped that SL has learnt a lesson from the 2020 and 2021 incidents and hopes that the present government will not be another bunch of Rajapaksas.

For good Economic & Financial management, a good accounting system is a must. SL has a good effective and efficient Central Bank TEAM now headed by Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe. (Free of the Rajapaksas)

• Obligation of Politicians to the Society

The obligation of a politician to his society is to deliver the requisites needed by the people, protect the borders, and make available the facilities required by the people to keep peace in the country and….. The different political parties shall be competent and competitive to provide the community’s requirements and shall not be eager for power and individual wealth accumulation. In Sri Lanka, politicians are eager for power and wealth. The parties concentrate on the disgraceful demise of the party in power so that they can conquer power.

Senaka Weeraratna

Sri Lanka is Multicultural, Multi-Religious, and Multi-Lingual. 

This is a fact.

Sri Lanka is predominantly Buddhist. About 70% of Sri Lanka’s population is Sinhala Buddhist.

This is a fact. 

Therefore taking into account these ground realities Sri Lanka’s identity can be defined as follows:

Sri Lanka is a predominantly Sinhala Buddhist country with a multi-religious, multi-lingual, and multi-cultural background.

Some hide the Sinhala Buddhist component in the identity of Sri Lanka. This is wrong. Sri Lanka has always been identified as a Buddhist country. 

Sri Lanka has the longest uninterrupted history of Buddhism in the world. 

Sri Lanka is a civilizational nation with a unique Buddhist Civilization that had won the admiration of the world even before the advent of the colonial period i.e. 1505 ( common era).

It is a cause for national pride.

Senaka Weeraratna 

see also

Sri Lanka’s debt to Buddhism 

Sri Lanka’s debt to Buddhism and the way forward in strengthening its Buddhist identity | sinhalanet.net

manusha media

තායිලන්තයේ රැකියා ලබාදෙන බව පවසමින් පුද්ගලයින් සංචාරක වීසා මත ලාඕසයට රැගෙන ගොස් අතරමං කර රුපියල් ලක්ෂ විස්සකට ආසන්න මුදලක්  වංචා කිරීමේ චෝදනාව මත විමර්ශන අංශ මගහරිමින් සිටි අම්බලන්තොට ප්‍රාදේශීය සභාවේ ජාතික ජන බලවේගයේ අපේක්ෂකයා අද (09) සවස අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන තිබේ.

මෙම පුද්ගලයා අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීම සදහා ශ්‍රී ලංකා විදේශ සේවා නියුක්ති කාර්යාංශයේ විමර්ශන අංශය විසින් විමර්ශන කටයුතු සිදුකරමින් සිටි අතර දිගින් දිගටම ඔහු විමර්ශන අංශ මගහරිමින් සිටියේය. ඔහු අද දිනයේදී නීතීඥයෙක් මාර්ගයෙන් ශ්‍රී ලංකා විදේශ සේවා නියුක්ති කාර්යාංශයේ විමර්ශන අංශය වෙත භාරවී තිබූ අතර ඉන් පසු ඔහු මෙසේ අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන ඇත.

තායිලන්තයේ සමාගමක රැකියා ලබාදෙන බව පවසමින් සංචාරක වීසා මත පුද්ගලයින් ලාඕසයට රැගෙන ගොස් අතරමං කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ශ්‍රී ලංකා විදේශ සේවා නියුක්ති කාර්යාංශයට පැමිණිලි ලැබීමෙන් පසුව, කාර්යාංශය විසින් විශේෂ විමර්ශනයක් ක්‍රියාත්මක කළේය. ඒ අනුව කාර්යාංශයේ වැටලීම් අංශයේ නිලධාරීන් විසින් ජාවාරමට සම්බන්ධ බවට සැකපිට එක් අයෙක් අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන හම්බන්තොට මහේස්‍රාත් අධිකරණයට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමෙන් පසුව රක්ෂිත බන්ධනාගාර ගත කර තිබුණි.

මේ සමග ජාතික ජන බලවේගයේ අම්බලන්තොට ප්‍රාදේශීය සභාවට තරග කරන අපේක්ෂකයාත් අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීම සදහා විමර්ශන ක්‍රියාත්මක කළ අතර ඔහු දිගින් දිගටම විමර්ශන අංශ මගහරිමින් සිටියේය.

මේ අතර කම්කරු සහ විදේශ රැකියා අමාත්‍ය මනුෂ නානායක්කාර මහතාද අද (09) උදෑසන පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් කරුණු දැක්වූවේය.

ඉන් පසුව මෙම සැකකරු මෙසේ විදේශ සේවා නියුක්ති කාර්යාංශයේ විමර්ශන අංශයට භාරවී ඇති අතර ඉන් පසුව අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන තිබේ.

අත්අඩංගුවට ගත් සැකකරු හෙට (10) දිනයේදී හම්බන්තොට මහේස්ත්‍රාත් අධිකරණයට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට නියමිතව ඇත.

Lanka Lead News

පසුගිය දා මෙරටට ඇමෙරිකානු ගුවන් හමුදා යානා 2කින් පෙන්ටගනයේ නිලධාරීන් 20 දෙනෙකු  පැමිණ ක්‍රියාත්මක කළ ටොප් සීක්‍රට් මිෂන්” එක කුමක්ද? ඔවුන්ගේ මෙරට පැමිණිමට පෙර ශ්‍රී ලංකා රාජ්‍යය ඔවුන් කළමනාකරණය කරනු ලැබූවේ කුමන ආකාරයෙන්ද? යන්න පිළිබදව දේශ හිතෛෂී ජාතික ව්‍යාපාරයේ ලේකම් වෛද්‍ය වසන්ත බණ්ඩාර මහතා ප්‍රබල හෙළිදරව්වක් සිදුකර තිබේ.

සමාජ මාධ්‍ය නාලිකාවක් හා සාම්මුඛ සාකච්ඡාවකට එක් වෙමින් වසන්ත බණ්ඩාර මහතා පවසන්නේ වික්ටෝරියා නූලන්ඩ්ගේ ආගමනයත් සමගම සිදුවූ මෙම ඇමරිකානු රහස් ඔත්තු සේවා නිලධාරීන්ගේ රහස් ගොඩබැසීම මෙරටට දැඩි තර්ජනයක් එල්ල කරන බවයි.

මෙම මෙහෙයුමේ සිටි ප්‍රබලම පුද්ගලයා වන්නේ නේටෝ සංවිධානයේ හිටපු ප්‍රතිපත්ති සහ සැලසුම් අධ්‍යක්ෂක මෙන්ම මේවන විට ඇමරිකානු රාජ්‍ය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ ඉන්දු පැසිෆික් ආරක්ෂාව බාර ලේකම් ගෙට් රෝයල් බවයි වෛද්‍ය වසන්ත බණ්ඩාර මහතා පවසන්නේ.

‘සෝෆා ගිවිසුම‘ මේ වනවිටත් අත්සන් කර ඇති බවද ඔවුන් විසින් මේ මෙහෙයුම හරහා සිදුකරනු ලැබුවේ එක්තරා පෙරහුරුවක් බවද ඒ මහතා පවසයි.

සවිස්තරාත්මක වීඩියෝව නරඹන්න…

Dimuthu Attanayakeand Agencies,Courtesy The South China Morning Post

• Sri Lanka has been waiting since September for the IMF loan, as the broke country seeks a desperate path to recovery
• People have been struggling to make ends meet and afford basic supplies, with sharp increases in electricity charges and income taxes taking a toll

A vendor waits for customers at his vegetable stall at a main market in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in February 2023. Photo: Reuters

The long-awaited IMF financing will not drastically change the trajectory of things” for Sri Lankans struggling with rising costs of living, but it could provide a much-needed confidence boost that the country’s economic recovery is on the right track, experts have said.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is expected to give final approval later this month for its US$2.9 billion, four-year bailout package after Sri Lanka had secured financing assurances from China, India and all its major bilateral creditors.

IMF money itself will not drastically change the trajectory of things. But, what is more important is the overall improvement of the sentiment and the confidence built about the programme,” said Chayu Damsinghe, product head of macroeconomic and thematic research at Frontier Research, a Sri Lanka-based macro advisory firm.

Approval would also help release the billions of dollars in bilateral aid and loans that could trigger processes to initiate gradual recovery, even if it did not offer direct help out of the crisis, Damsinghe added.

The sentiment was echoed by government spokesman Bandula Gunawardana, who said: Our problems can’t be solved with this US$2.9 billion, but what is really important for us is the endorsement of the IMF that our economy is now on the right path.”

Sri Lanka was plunged into a debilitating economic crisis last year amid depleting foreign currency reserves, resulting in its 22 million people struggling to access fuel, food and medicine, facing extended blackouts and suffering from soaring inflation.

The island nation has been waiting since September for a US$2.9 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as it struggled to secure adequate debt restructuring terms from China, its largest bilateral lender holding 19.6 per cent of the total government external debt, which was US$45.5 billion as of the end of 2022.

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Tuesday said he expected final approval from the IMF in the third or fourth week of this month after he revealed he had secured new support from China for its debt restructuring plans.

When asked about Wickremesinghe’s statement that Beijing had agreed to help, foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Wednesday: The Export-Import Bank of China, as the official bilateral creditor, issued a financial assurance letter to Sri Lanka on March 6.

China is ready to work with relevant countries and international financial institutions to play a positive role in helping Sri Lanka cope with its current difficulties, ease its debt burden and achieve sustainable development.”

Sri Lanka bakery forced to cut staff after country’s latest electricity price hike

The IMF programme would enable other important creditors, including the Asian Development and the World Bank, to restart lending, perhaps on better terms”, Damsinghe added, so that Sri Lanka could get a head start on critical reforms such as restructuring state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

According to the government’s 2023 budget speech, 52 major SOEs including Sri Lankan Airlines collectively made an annual loss of 86 billion Sri Lankan rupees (US$260 million) the previous year.

If there is funding for more welfare, then this would also help with the ground-level situation in the short term,” Damsinghe added, referring to the everyday struggles of the people amid rising costs of living.

Last year, funding from the World Bank and Asian Development bank went into buying fertiliser for farmers, and cooking gas for citizens.

Sri Lanka has been maintaining strict controls on imports to save foreign exchange. Fuel is still rationed and essential medicines are in short supply, and while inflation is down from its highs of 70 per cent in September, it is still around 50 per cent.

Professionals and workers in many other sectors have been protesting for months over sharp increases in electricity charges and income taxes to strengthen state revenue, a prerequisite for the IMF package.

Government statistics showed the Sri Lankan economy contracted by 11.8 per cent during the third quarter last year, with industries shrinking by 21.2 per cent.

A World Food Programme (WFP) report published in December 2022 said 36 per cent of Sri Lankan families were food insecure and had to reduce food intake to cope.

People protest over sharp increases in electricity charges and income taxes in Colombo in February 2023. Photo: AFP

Mala Ilukpitiya, a vendor from Hanwella about 30km from Colombo city, sells herbal porridge and other snacks to workers from a nearby garment factory. But she says her daily income of 1,500 rupees (US$4.30) is now under threat.

Now the factory is closed on some days, and also the workers have less money to spend on food, so fewer people buy from me,” Ilukpitiya, 61, said.

Others like Sudarshan Selvarathnam are struggling to cover medical expenses. The 44-year-old from Passara in Sri Lanka’s central hill country lost his job after suffering severe spinal injury that has left him confined to a wheelchair.

The family is now dependent on his wife’s salary of 25,000 rupees. But the increasing living costs mean the family has already exhausted its savings and can barely make ends meet. Selvarathnam is now unable to afford daily medical necessities, or the recommended treatments.

Customers buy plastic cutlery at a market in Colombo. Government statistics showed the Sri Lankan economy contracted by 11.8 per cent during the third quarter last year. Photo: AFP

I need about 60 diapers per month, [but] they are getting more and more expensive, and I cannot afford them,” he said, adding that he was looking for jobs that would allow him to work from home to ease the financial strain.

Ilukpitiya, the food vendor, said the increases in electricity bills would burden her even more, as her meagre earnings could barely cover essential expenses.

Things come one after another, it is hard to survive,” she said.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

While welcoming the progress made on debt restructuring, the European Union today said that reforms are essential to come out of the crisis stronger.

As the EU States gave early financing assurances to the Sri Lanka Government, the Delegation of the European Union to Sri Lanka welcomes the progress made on debt restructuring. Reforms are essential to come out of the crisis stronger. The EU will continue supporting Sri Lankans, including through renewed efforts on social protection,” the EU in Sri Lanka tweeted today.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Seventeen ships that arrived at Colombo Port turned back due to the recent protest by the port trade unions, Minister of Ports, Shipping and Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said today.

He told Parliament that he made a tremendous effort to bring them back to the port and said he only managed to bring only a few of them back.

“I discussed with shipping agencies to bring the ships back to the port. But, I only managed to bring only a few of them,” he said.

The Minister said the protests by the port employees will only result in deviating business of the Colombo port to nearby ports such as India, Dubai and Singapore. 

“If port employees continue to protest, our port will collapse while ports in countries close to us will flourish,” he said.

The Minister said port employees, unlike other state employees, earn a monthly salary or over Rs. 171,000, three meals free of charge, a huge bonus and other benefits. (Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera)

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

• Cabinet Spokesperson Bandula Gunawardana says new anti-corruption bill will be presented to Parliament soon
• Says Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe has already drafted bill
• Reducing corruption vulnerabilities remains a key objective of IMF-backed programme
• A stolen asset recovery initiative likely to be included in new law

The government will bring in an anti-corruption bill to Parliament shortly, as agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) when entering a staff-level agreement last September, Cabinet Spokesperson Minister Bandula Gunawardana said. 

Introducing new anti-corruption laws to reduce corruption vulnerabilities to unlock Sri Lanka’s growth potential was among the key objectives of the IMF-supported programme agreed with, last September. 

Gunawardana said Justice, Prison Affairs and Constitutional Reforms Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe has already drafted a bill in this regard and it would be shortly presented to Parliament for approval.

After fulfilling all ‘prior actions’, Sri Lanka has now received financing assurances from all its major bilateral creditors to seek the approval of the IMF’s Executive Board for the US $ 2.9 billion loan facility, via the Extended Fund Facility agreed under the staff-level pact.

China’s Exim Bank this Monday gave fresh written financing assurances, expressing its support for Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring efforts. Upon receiving the financing assurance, on the same day, President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe signed the Letter of Intent and had sent it to the IMF.  

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on Tuesday said she would be taking Sri Lanka’s staff-level agreement to the IMF Executive Board on March 20, for approval. 

The seal of approval from the IMF remains critical for the bankrupt nation to regain confidence from international investors, multilateral funds and other funding sources. It is expected that upon the IMF Executive Board approval, Sri Lanka would receive funds from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, which have already been lined up.

While the COVID pandemic and economic mismanagement are widely blamed for the current crisis in Sri Lanka, endemic corruption at all levels has also been identified as a key contributor to Sri Lanka’s social and economic turmoil.

Although Sri Lanka already has a substantial amount of anti-corruption laws, their implementation hasn’t been effective, largely due to the politicisation of the law enforcement agencies and anti-corruption bodies. 

Wickremesinghe recently told Parliament that his government, together with the World Bank and United Nations, would include a stolen asset recovery initiative into the new anti-corruption bill that is to be presented to Parliament soon.

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka aims to announce a debt-restructuring strategy in April and step up talks with commercial creditors ahead of an International Monetary Fund review of a bailout package in six months, the country’s central bank governor told Reuters on Thursday.

The crisis-hit island has secured financing assurances from all its major bilateral creditors, including India and China, and so had set the stage for the IMF to give its final approval for a $2.9 billion, four-year bailout package on March 20, the multilateral lender said on Tuesday.

The bailout is the culmination of months of negotiations as Sri Lanka looks to emerge from its worst economic crisis in more than seven decades.

When you see the staff level agreement published – that will contain our commitment to debt restructuring and that will also reveal medium-term debt targets for us to restore debt sustainability on a long-term basis,” central bank Governor Dr. P. Nandalal Weerasinghe said.

So somewhere in April we will announce … how we are going to meet those medium-to-long-term (debt) targets. That is the next step”.

Weerasinghe said the country would expedite negotiations with commercial creditors and announce the debt restructuring strategy in consultation with them, before finalising the debt restructuring terms.

We are trying to finalise this in about the next six months’ time, so before the next (IMF) review will be completed,” he said.

Source: Reuters
-Agencies

Courtesy Adaderana

The Government of Japan has contributed an additional US$6.6 million to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to provide critical food and nutrition assistance to over one million Sri Lankans.

Through this funding, WFP will provide families with food baskets comprising rice, pulses and cooking oil, to meet half their monthly food needs for a period of two months. The donation will also be used to procure maize and soybean for the production of Thriposha, a fortified food product, for a period of four months, which will be supplied to pregnant and breastfeeding mothers and young children at risk of malnutrition.

H.E. Mizukoshi Hideaki, Ambassador of Japan to Sri Lanka said, We are pleased to announce that the Government of Japan has decided to provide additional humanitarian support to Sri Lanka in this critical moment. Food aid through WFP by the Government of Japan has reached a total of USD10 million since the economic crisis began last year. This support is being used to provide essential food and nutrition to communities across the nation.”

WFP’s latest surveys indicate that food insecurity is still at a concerningly high level. Seven in every 10 households are adopting negative coping strategies such as cutting back on nutritious food like protein and dairy or skipping meals altogether.

Our biggest concern is for the women and children who are among those affected by the impacts of the economic crisis,” said Abdur Rahim Siddiqui, Representative and Country Director of WFP Sri Lanka. We are grateful for the continuous support from the Government of Japan which enables us to scale up our efforts so that vulnerable communities receive the food and nutrition they need.”

Japan has been a long-standing donor to the Government of Sri Lanka and WFP for over a decade, providing critical assistance in emergencies, while supporting longer-term recovery and development efforts to strengthen food and nutrition security in the country. Japan’s latest funding is an extension of its support to the people of Sri Lanka to help safeguard communities affected by the economic crisis.

WFP has reached over two million people since commencing its emergency operation in June last year and is moving closer to its target of reaching 3.4 million people with food and nutrition assistance.

–WFP–

Courtesy Adaderana

The International Monetary Fund’s anticipated endorsement of Sri Lanka’s reforms and debt restructuring is expected to unlock funding of about 220 billion yen ($1.6 billion) for projects suspended by Japan, people familiar with the matter said.

IMF board approval, when it arrives, should help convince the Japanese government to restart several projects that are in different stages of completion, the people said, asking not to be named as the information is not public. The projects involve a 74 billion yen upgrade to the South Asian island’s main international airport, and others including energy, water supply, rural infrastructure and waste management, the people said. 

Cabinet spokesman Bandula Gunawardana told reporters in Colombo Wednesday that Sri Lanka is expecting a restart of suspended loans, including from JICA. A spokesperson for JICA in Tokyo confirmed the importance of IMF decisions, while declining to elaborate on their effects on Japanese projects in Sri Lanka. 

Resumption of JICA funding will help bolster development financing for the crisis-ridden nation that is looking to turn a corner from its worst economic crisis. While countries such as India continued financing big infrastructure projects despite Sri Lanka defaulting on its overseas debt last year, Japan halted funding, and provided only humanitarian support. 

The IMF said this week that its board will vote on the $2.9 billion bailout on March 20. The approval could also pave the way for financing from other creditors, including the Japan International Co-operation Agency, World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. 

Sri Lanka in Talks With ADB, World Bank for Post-IMF Financing

Sri Lanka may have to sign new agreements, with revised timelines for the loans, the people said, without giving further details. 

Source – Bloomberg
-Agencies

Courtesy Adaderana

The revision application filed by the Attorney General seeking the nullification of the order issued by the Colombo Chief Magistrate pertaining to the release of the Inter-University Students’ Federation (IUSF) convenor Wasantha Mudalige from charges under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) has been fixed for hearing on 27 March. 

The decision was announced by the Colombo High Court today (09 March), while a summons has also been issued to Mudalige, requiring him to appear in court on the aforementioned date. 

Mudalige was arrested on 22 August 2022, on charges filed under the PTA, and was released from these charges on 31 January after being detained for 162 days under the PTA, by Colombo Chief Magistrate Prasanna Alwis, on the grounds that the accused was not found to have committed any offices under the PTA. 

The IUSF convener’s legal counsel had previously requested his release on the grounds that there were no sufficient levels of facts or evidence to remand him under the PTA, while many international human rights organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch had also been calling on the Sri Lankan government to end the arbitrary detention of Mudalige, who was under arrest for five months.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Local Government Elections (Amendment) Bill presented by MPs Premnath C. Dolawatta and Imthiaz Bakeer Markar as Private Members’ Bills along with Ministerial reports were considered by the Legislative Standing Committee in Parliament on 28 February.

The Legislative Standing Committee, which took into discussion the said Bill, was chaired by Ajith Rajapakse, Deputy Speaker of Parliament.

Standing Orders 53(4) dictates that No clause that is not in accordance with the basic desire of the Honorable Member presenting a Bill shall be allowed to be included in a Bill.” Accordingly, the committee directed that Bill No. 126 considering the youth representation be re-drafted.

The Committee also instructed the officials of Attorney-General’s Department and Legal Draftsman Department to re-draft Bill No. 160, by substituting the clause pertaining to the need for female representation with that of youth representation, as the former is already included in the Principal Enactment .

Accordingly, the Committee was of the view that 25% of the youth from the aggregate should be represented in the first and second nomination lists of the local government elections.

The Committee thereby directed the officials representing the Legal Draftsmen and the Attorney General’s Departments to re-submit the amended draft of the said Bill before the Committee. 

Ministers Nimal Siripala de Silva, M.U. M. Ali Sabry, State Ministers Janaka Wakkumbura, Sisira Jayakody, Dr. Rajitha Senarathne, Prof. Channa Jayasumana, Ajith Mannapperuma, Sarathi Dushmantha, Ms. Kokila Gunawardena, Milan Jayathilaka, Major Sudarshana Denipitiya, Premnath C. Dolawatte, M. W. D. Sahan Pradeep Withana, Madhura Withanage, Sagara Kariyawasam, Ms. Manjula Dissanayake were present at the Committee meeting held.

Courtesy Hiru News

Government Printer Gangani Liyanage has sent letters to the Finance Ministry Secretary and the IGP requesting for fuinds and security to print ballot papers.

She said that the relevant letters were taken to the Ministry of Finance and Police Headquarters and handed over.

It is stated in the letter sent by the Government Printer to the IGP that 35 police officers are needed during the day and 28 at night during the period of printing the ballot papers.

Also, it is reported that out of the 500 million rupees estimated by the Government Printing Department for the printing work related to the local government election, only 40 million rupees have been received in cash.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission announced yesterday that it has been proposed to conduct the postal voting for the local government election from the 28th to the 31st of March

By Rohana R. Wasala

I concluded a previous article published in Lankaweb on January 28, 2023 (Is recolonisation the final solution II) touching on the deplorable situation that innocent Sri Lankans have been plunged into not only by the current economic crisis but also by the so-called Tamil ethnic problem, both aggravated by unjust direct foreign intervention in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs, subversive NGO activities and various forms of imported religious fundamentalism, with the following words:

The solution is not to try to return to the alleged Utopia that the British are believed by some to have bequeathed to us at independence (for such wasn’t the reality), or to overlook the 1972 change as insignificant, but to make way for the young of the country today to make a correct assessment of what has been achieved and what has not been achieved by the previous generations since independence (who were no less patriotic, no less proactive than them) and forge ahead with new insights, new visions, and appropriate course corrections as our ancestors did during crises to ensure our survival for so long as one people in spite of manifold differences among us.”

Now a large proportion of the young of the country today”, unfortunately, are not aware of the unspoken truth behind the growing political instability and the artificial economic ruin that is engulfing the nation. The criticism often repeated these days that all post-independence governments mismanaged the economy, ruined everything through corruption and did nothing for nation building is not a valid one. It is deliberate disinformation chiefly peddled by anti-national political and religious extremists, that is, Tamil federalists/separatists, and Christian/Catholic and Islamist fundamentalist groups. Ordinary Tamils and Muslims have lived peacefully with the Sinhalese majority as equal citizens of one country for many centuries.  Although extremists are only a handful among the relevant mainstream minority communities, they are a power to reckon with in Sri Lanka’s current besieged condition.

The aforementioned misrepresentations and corresponding misconceptions are accepted as indisputable facts, particularly by the sadly uninformed credulous section of the young population today. They are largely ignorant of the origin of the alleged Tamil ethnic problem and its exploitation by the former colonial powers and their allies to destabilize our little island that is located in a geostrategically and geopolitically sensitive region. The future that the genuinely concerned young people envisage for the country could end up as a mere pipedream unless they make a serious study of what truly happened within the past seventy-five years of independence and shape their strategies, learning from the formidable challenges the older generations had to meet, and the admirable successes as well as the dismal failures that they had experienced in the course of the past three quarters of a century. 

Had these misguided young people including the yellow robed ones among them been properly instructed about the sharp political awareness and inspired activism that the brave youth of their parents’ generation involved in the second JVP insurrection of the 1986-1990 period displayed, they would be ashamed of themselves. Had they learned about the ideologically even more sophisticated fresh young men and women of their grandparents’ time who took to arms in the first JVP rebellion of 1971 against the popular, newly elected left-of-centre United Front government of Mrs Sirima R.D. Bandaranaike without any provocation except a self-denying

revolutionary zeal to force a real system change in the country’s politics, the strange bedfellows of the so-called Galle Face Aragalaya  would have died of self-loathing. 

Of course, it must be remembered that the majority of the Aragalaya protestors were genuine. I would not include among them the handful of religious extremists who staged an ‘Aadaraye Aragalaya’ (Struggle of Love). The authentic agitators were similar to, if not identical with, the countless groups of spontaneously inspired young boys and girls from diverse communities who volunteered to adorn the city walls across the country with beautiful paintings (some with historical themes) to celebrate what they thought was the dawn of a new era with the eagerly awaited ‘system change’ made possible by Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s election as president in 2019. The expectations of the youth of the country were dashed to the ground when president Gotabaya, earlier universally believed to be the iconic leader the country needed to salvage it from the mire of corrupt politics and the Yahapalanaya, Good Governance, misadventure (now conveniently forgotten), failed to deliver due to countervailing internal and external forces assisted, as suspected,  by the treachery of his family as well as his own lack of pragmatic political skills, in spite of his undoubted moral uprightness. These genuine protestors should be distinguished from the few political and religious extremists who wanted to hog media attention by making the loudest noises. 

Corruption among politicians is a fact. ‘Dealer politics’ is also a perennial issue. Mahinda Rajapaksa embodies a striking example of both. He, whose political leadership helped to rid the country of LTTE terrorism, has almost totally nullified the benign results of that success through his horse trading with extremists aimed at perpetuating his family’s ascendancy over Sri Lanka’s political landscape. Corruption charges against him remain yet to be substantiated. But the notoriety he has been already accorded in the media cannot be any worse if the allegations turn out to be true. These evils – corruption in high places and abuse of democracy for selfish gain – must be fixed by the enlightened youth of the country. But the present economic crisis and political instability cannot be totally attributed to these evils alone. Such simplistic generalization in itself is a grave error. It is a graver error, a crime against the nation in fact, to dismiss the history of the past seventy-five years since independence as one of unchecked thievery and erroneous policy making by unpatriotic politicians.   

Within the first two decades after severing ties with the British monarchy, thousands of pure-hearted idealistic young men and women (over 5000 in 1971 and over 60,000 in 1986-90, almost totally from the majority Sinhalese Buddhist community) paid the ultimate price, laid down their lives, in the name of their Motherland. They fought for the country, not for a particular race or community. Their battle cry was: mau bima naeththam maranaya” Motherland or Death”. The 1971 JVP rebellion provided a major stimulus for the government to introduce many progressive measures to build a self-reliant national economy through new state enterprises (such as the tyre and steel corporations, paper mills, sugar mills, and chemical fertilizer plants) as well as through increasing domestic food production. Similarly, the second JVP uprising of 1986-90 became a watershed for a profound change of course in Sri Lankan politics. The deluded, impractical modern day Aragalakarayas who are merely adding to the hardships of  the suffering masses by their exasperating antics must remember that they are by no means pioneers in the struggle for a system change in Lankan politics. (Of course, today’s JVP is not what it was then. Its new leaders do not seem to understand the meaning of simple concepts like nationalism, racism, secularism, religious fundamentalism, culture, and the rest.)

Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was known to the outside world before 1972) was under Christian European domination for roughly four and a half centuries from the beginning of the sixteenth to the middle of the nineteenth century. With the annexation (through conspiracy rather than conquest) of the Kandyan kingdom (or the Kingdom of Sinhale as it was called then) to the British empire in 1815, the whole of the country came under colonial rule. The British left in 1948 having granted Ceylon what was known as dominion status independence. That is, it became one of the “autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations”. It is clear from the Wikipedia definition quoted in the previous sentence that the ‘independence’ given in 1948 was subject to lingering colonial restraints. Full independence was achieved in 1972 through the promulgation of the first republican constitution under the United Front government headed by prime minister Sirima R.D. Bandaranaike.  

In talking about the eventful seventy-five years since 1948, we need to take a quick retrospective look at the immediate pre-independence years. The minority leaders, particularly, Tamil leaders, feared that the majority Sinhalese would dominate the government on the basis of their superior numerical strength to their disadvantage when the proposed Westminster type parliamentary system would come into operation with the departure of the colonial British. It was to avoid such potential Sinhalese dominance emerging that the Ceylon Tamil Congress leader and lawyer G.G. Ponnambalam demanded a 50-50 allocation of parliamentary seats for the Sihalese and all the minorities put together, which was grossly unfair by the former. The proposal was scornfully rejected by the Soulbury commissioners who drafted the independence constitution. Sinhalese leaders headed by D.S. Senanayake assured a government representative of all the communities without discrimination. The aim of his United National Party founded in 1946 was for the various communities in the country to evolve into one Ceylonese nation living in unity. But Tamil leaders always thought in communal terms. They wanted the privileged status that the Tamil elite of the time had enjoyed under the British to continue. But they knew this was going to change after 1948 when the native Sinhalese majority would try to restore their long lost rights. So, S.J.V. Chelvanayagam founded the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi or Lanka Tamil State Party in 1949. They popularized it as the Federal Party. The misleading English name was meant to conceal the ultimate goal of the party, a separate state for Tamils within the territory of Ceylon/Sinhalay (since this was not possible to achieve within the strong gigantic Union of India where Tamil Nadu, Tamils’ real homeland, lies). 

At independence, the British colonialists left a country that was able to flaunt relatively high economic indices due to volatile external factors associated with the end of World War II in 1945 (such as the increase in the price of rubber exports from Ceylon). A 1948 UN report described the Sri Lankan economy as agricultural and industrially underdeveloped; low productivity and unavailability of resources relative to the country’s population hampered its economic development. The people were socially and communally divided as a result of the imperial policy of ‘divide and rule’. A minuscule minority of citizens that emerged as an English speaking, Westernized and generally Christian elite was privileged over the rest of the downtrodden population. (Today some members of the same class are looking forward to a return to the good old days.) The vast majority of the people lived in grinding poverty then. The reality was a far cry from what (probably the majority of) today’s young people have been brainwashed to believe through propaganda, a pre-independence Utopia of sorts.

The seventy-five year post-independence history of Sri Lanka is the  record of one long national struggle conducted according to democratic norms from the very beginning for the historic goal of building a Sri Lankan nation that stands on its own feet as a single sovereign state that is second to none in the world. In my opinion, six iconic leaders gave leadership to this struggle, whose approaches were different, though the goal remained the same. Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake (1947-52) regarded all citizens as ‘Ceylonese’, not as Sinhalese, Tamils, Burghers, etc who were at loggerheads with each other. He began his national service decades before independence. As minister for agriculture and lands in the State Council in the 1930s, he brought in legislation to bring bare lands into cultivation through irrigation schemes. Under his multipurpose Gal Oya Development project, 250,000 landless peasants were settled in uninhabited areas in the eastern province. Some communal-minded Tamil politicians objected to this to no avail. It was Senanayake who proposed the use of hydroelectricity, as Sri Lanka had no coal or gas for energy production. He was popular among ordinary people of all communities as well as among the British who were leaving. His unexpected death in 1952 removed his sound leadership. Like D.S. before him, S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike (1956-59) was elected at a parliamentary election to lead the nation as prime minister in 1956. He was a true nationalist like Senanayake. As such, he took steps to redress the harsh discrimination that the majority Sinhalese were subjected to under the colonial British. Communalist Tamil leaders vehemently opposed him. Tamil MPs opposed him even when he had the Prevention of Social Disabilities Act No. 21, 1957 passed. The particular act was  meant as a check on caste discrimination, a social evil that was especially severe among their own community. (Some hooligans among the Aragalakarayas at Galle Face wanted to pull down the Bandaranaike statue there for obvious reasons.) It was his widowed wife Sirimavo Bandaranaike (1961-65, 1970-77, 1994-2000) who was able to turn the Dominion of Ceylon into the fully independent Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, which was the most profound system change that any post-independence leader ever achieved in the name of the Sri Lankan people (nation). She pioneered certain economic policies, that harked back to the D.S. Senanayake era of agricultural development just as well as they looked forward to a future of local industrial advancement. The austerity measures her government introduced were too much for the people. The opposition made use of the spreading public disaffection with her administration and the emergence of a streak of authoritarianism on her part in undemocratically prolonging the government’s term of office by two years. J.R. Jayawardane (1977-89), who was himself a staunch nationalist like his predecessors, had the second republican constitution promulgated by which he instituted the all powerful executive presidency. The institution of the executive presidency has to date protected the unitary status of the Sri Lankan state. J.R. saw to it that it survived even the Indian imposed 13A, at least tenuously. He introduced the open market economy model for national development. He implemented the Accelerated Mahaweli Programme, the largest multipurpose development project ever undertaken in the history of the country. It was the fruition of an plan proposed by Sirima Bandaranaike as (the world’s first female) prime minister in 1961. Following J.R. Jayawardane, R. Premadasa (1989-93) made history as the first ‘commoner’ to become head of state of Sri Lanka. He got elected as president at a time when the country was literally being torn apart by civil strife by the JVP in the South and by the LTTE in the North. The JVP violently opposed the UNP government of JRJ for giving into Indian expansionist intervention in Sri Lanka). Premadasa himself, though prime minister under Jayawardane, had demonstrated his angry disapproval of the Indo-Lanka accord by absenting himself from the signing ceremony between JR and Rajiv Gandhi. Premadasa put an end to the JVP insurgency in1989 through ruthless violence. The LTTE was mounting terrorist attacks on civilian as well as military targets in pursuit of their dream of establishing a separate state on Sri Lankan territory. On becoming president, Premadasa flatly asked India at a public rally to withdraw the Indian Peace Keeping Force. He was determined to resolve the Tamil problem peacefully as an internal matter. He made peace overtures to the LTTE. He was said to have given arms to the LTTE to fight the IPKF. But finally, Premadasa was assassinated by an LTTE suicide bomber. Mahinda Rajapaksa was able to militarily defeat the LTTE terrorism through his political management skills. But he gravely mismanaged the aftermath through personal hybris as well as family bandyism. Even his nationalist credentials are in doubt now. But his past achievements cannot be forgotten.

The great nationalist achievements of the past seventy-five years, which belong to all the communities that make Sri Lanka their home, are a memorable part of the country’s history, whatever its future is going to be. This truth must be revealed to the global powers – the America-led West, India, and China – who have remained our friends throughout the last seventy-five years and helped us generously in their different ways in spite of their own conflicting national interests. Sri Lanka is indispensable for each of them because of its geostrategic location. The highly cultured peaceful Sri Lankans of diverse ethnicities have been living in peace and harmony for centuries. Disinformation by the few separatists and the handful of religious extremists who are exploiting the misplaced generosity of charitable international donors should not be allowed to prolong the suffering of these innocent people, who pose no threat to any of those powers. All Sri Lankans want the geostrategic location of their island to be a blessing for them, not a curse.

Sugath Kulatunga

In a recent media article with the title’ Govt’s amazing death wish for nuclear plant on Lankan soil’ was typical of selective reporting. It would have been fair by the reading public if the scales of the Chernobyl plant and the proposed Sri Lanka plant were indicated. Chernobyl was of 720 MW capacity. I understand that the proposed units in Sri Lanka would be only of 100 MW. It is noted that the present nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers have 194 MW power units. To complete the picture the information on the current status of our neighbor India could be of relevance.

India currently has 22 operational nuclear reactors in 7 nuclear power plants with an installed capacity of 6780 MW and plans to build more nuclear power plants to increase the production of clean energy. The government has approved five new sites for nuclear power plants to build 10 700-MW pressurized heavy water reactors.

The major nuclear disasters were Fukushima in (2011) and Chernobyl disaster (1986), Since then technology and safety measures have vastly improved. It has been estimated that over a 25 year period in an average town of 150,000 people number of deaths by energy source due to pollution would be as follows:

• Coal: 25 people would die prematurely every year;
• Oil: 18 people would die prematurely every year;
• Gas: 3 people would die prematurely every year;
• Nuclear: In an average year nobody would die – only every 33 years would someone die.

Let there be a proper cost benefit and risk analysis before rejecting any proposal. There is no need to create a bias.

රජිත් කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන්

ලංකාව මෙයට පෙර අවස්ථා 16 ක ජාත්‍යන්තර මුල්‍ය අරමුදල සමඟ ගිවිසුම්ගත වී ඇත.  නමුත්, එයින් අවස්ථා 10 ක දී සම්පූර්ණ ණය මුදල් ලැබුණු අතර, 6 ක දී මුළු ණය මුදල රටට ලැබුණේ නැත. කොන්දේස ඉටු නොකිරීම, දේශපාලන බලපෙරළි, රට තුල ඇතිවූ අස්ථාවරත්වය ණය ගිවිසුම අතරමඟ කඩාකප්පල් කළේය.

උන්ඩියල් සහ මනී එක්ස්චෙන්ජ් මිල බැංකුවේ මිලට වඩා අඩු වී ඇති නිසා ඩොලර් ලැබෙන්නේ බැංකු පද්ධතිය හරහා ය.  අපනයනකරුවන් සිය ඩොලර් වහා රුපියල්වලට හරවා සිය පාඩුව අවම කර ගනී. අර්බුදයත් සමඟම ඩොලර් මිලදී ගෙන අර්බුදය තීව්ර කළ ලංකාවේ මධ්‍යම පන්තිය ඩොලර් විකුණමින් සිටී. පිටරට සැඟවූ මුදල් රටට එමින් ඇත.  

මීගමුවේ ක්‍රියාත්මක මෙරට ලොකුම මනී එක්ස්චේන්ජ් කඩ අද (මාර්තු 8) තවත් රු. 8 සිට 10 කින් ඩොලරය පහත වැටිය හැකි බව අනුමාන කරයි. මෙරට විදේශ මුදල් මිල තීරණය කිරීමේ හෘර්ද ස්පන්ධනය තියෙන්නේ මීගමුවේ ය.  කිසිවෙකු නොසිතු ලෙස මීගමුවේ මිල රු. 310 – 300 අතර විචලනය වූවේ වසර 15 කට පසුවය.  ශුර ව්‍යාපාරිකයින්ට පවා පූර්ව කථනය කළ නොහැකි ලෙස මුදල් හුවමාරු අගය වෙනස් වෙමින් ඇත. හෙට මැදපෙරදිග අලුයම රැල්ල ‘Middle East sun rising  effect‘ අද ලෙසම ඒක දිශානතියක් ගන්නේ නම්, අන්තර් බැංකු හුවමාරුවේ ඩොලරයේ මිල රු. 300 දක්වා පහත වැටීම නොවැලැක්විය හැකි වනු ඇත.  

මාර්තු 7 (ඊයේ) පමණක් ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුව, වානිජ්‍ය බැංකු පද්ධතියෙන් ඩොලර් මිලියන 140 ක් මිලදී ගෙන ඇත.  (පසුගිය සතියේ මිලියන 308 ක් මිලදී ගෙන තිබුණි)  මේ සතියට ඩොලර්  මිලියන 500 ක් පමණ මිලදී ගෙන ඩොලරය ස්ථාවර කිරීමට මහ බැංකුව උත්සහ දරයි.  සඟවා ගෙන සිටි ඩොලර් එකවරම පැමිණීම නිසා එය පහසු වන්නේ නැත.

ජාත්‍යන්තර මුල්‍ය අරමුදල, ලෝක බැංකුව, පැරිස් ක්ලබ් සහ ජපානය වෙතින් මෙරටට මුදල් ලැබීම දැන් කාලය පිළිබඳ ප්‍රශ්නයක් පමණක් බවට පත්ව ඇත. ඒ අනුව, ඉදිරි සතියේ දී ඩොලරය පහත වැටීම සිදු වනු ඇත. එය වලක්වා ගැනීමට මහ බැංකුව අඛණ්ඩව ඩොලර් මිලදී ගැනීම සිදු කරනු ඇත. දෙසැම්බර් මාසයේ මිලදී ගත් මුළු ඩොලර් ප්‍රමාණය එක් දිනක දී අඛණ්ඩව දිගටම මිලදී ගැනීම මහ බැංකුවට හැකියාවක් පවතී ද යන්න සැක සහිතය.

මේ ඩොලර් අතිරික්තය තවත් සති දෙකක් හෝ පවතිනු ඇති බවත් ඉන් පසු ඩොලරය  ස්ථාවර වනු ඇති බවත් මුල්‍ය විශේෂඥයින්ගේ තාර්කික පූර්වකථනය යි.  මහ බැංකුවට ඇති අභියෝග නම් ඩොලරය රු. 275  සීමාව ඉක්මවා වඩා පහත වැටීම වලක්වා ගැනීමයි.   ඩොලරය රු. 300 ට ස්ථාවර වී වෙළඳපොල සාධක මත තීරණය වන ක්‍රමික උද්ධමනයකට ලක්වීම සිදු වනු ඇත.

‘ලංකාව ණය ගෙවන්නේ නැති නිසා රුපියල ශක්තිමත් වෙනවා. ණය ගෙවීම ආරම්භ කළ වහාම ආය අර්බුදය ඇති වෙනවා‘‘ කියන මිත්‍යාව දේශපාලනයෙන් ඇස් අන්ධ කර ගෙන සිටින පිරිස මිස බහුතරයක්  විශ්වාස කරන්නේ නැත.  

ජාත්‍යන්තර මුල්‍ය අරමුදලට සමඟ ලංකා රජයට මුලික එකඟතාවයන් 15 කි.  වහා ණය ගෙවීම එහි කොන්දේසියක් නොවේ.  නමුත්, ලංකා රජය විසින්, අපගේ රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරීන් විසින්ම යෝජනා කළ කරුණු 8 ක් නිසා රටට, එහි ජනතාවට කෙටි කාලීන පීඩාවක් දැරීමට සිදු වීම අනිවාර්ය ය.  (වෙන විකල්පයක් ද නැති බව අවධාරණය කළ යුතුයි)    මේ වසර තුල ගෙවිය යුතු විදේශ ණය හා පොලිය (ප්‍රතිව්‍යුහකරණයෙන් පසුව) ඩොලර් බිලියන 1.2  නොඉක්මවනු ඇත. කඩාගෙන බිඳගෙන ඩොලරය ඉහළ යාමට ඒ අනුව අවස්ථාවක් නැත.

අද දින පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කරන නව මුදල් පනත නිසා මුදල් අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ලේකම් හා මහ බැංකු අධිපතිවරයා (ලක්ෂමන් කබ්රාල් යුගය මෙන්) හිතෙන හිතෙන විදිහට සල්ලි අච්චු ගැසීමට අද තියෙන හැකියාව නැති වී යන්නේය. කුමන දේශපාලන ප්‍රතිපත්තියක්, ජනාධිපතිවරයෙකු, මුදල් අමාත්‍යවරයෙකු, මුදල් ලේකම්වරයෙකු යටතේ වුව ද, ජාත්‍යන්තර මුල්‍ය අරමුදලේ වාරික සියල්ලම ලබන්නට නම් මේ මුල්‍ය විනය පවත්වා ගැනීම අනිවාර්ය වනු ඇත. එසේ නොවන්නේ නම්, මෙයට පෙර අවස්ථා 6  ක දී සිදුවී ඇති අයුරින්ම, ජාත්‍යන්තර මුල්‍ය අරමුදල් ණය අතර මඟ අඩාල විය හැකිය.  1965 ඩඩ්ලි ට, 1970 සිරිමා ආණ්ඩුවේ ඇන්.එම්. – ෆීලික්ස් ගැටුම නිසා, 1983 ජේ.ආර්. රජයට, 1991 ගිවිසුම් ගත වූ කරුණු චන්ද්‍රිකා රජය විසින් 1994 අත හැර දැමීම නිසා, මේ තත්වය උදාවිය.  2002 රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා ගේ රජයේ ඇමති ධූර 3 පැහැර ගැනීම නිසා එදා චන්ද්‍රිකා – මහින්ද – ජවිපෙ රජයට මුල්‍ය අරමුදලින් ලබාගත හැකි වූවේ 14% ක්  වැනි සොච්චමක් පමණී.  

අද වන විට මේ රටේ පවතින මුල්‍ය විනය දිගටම පවත්වා ගත නොහැකි නම්, අනිවාර්යයෙන්ම 1965, 1970, 1983, 1991, 2002 රජයන් මුහුණ දුන් මුල්‍ය අර්බුදය, දේශපාලන වියවුලට රට පත්වීම නොවැලැක්විය හැකි වනු ඇත.

2021 බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ පස්සා දොරින් ජාත්‍යන්තර මුල්‍ය අරමුදලට ලිපි යොමු කර වසර දෙකකට පසු අරගලයේ පිහිටෙන් රටේ මුල්‍ය අර්බුදය යම් පමණකින් සමනය වෙමින් ඇත.  මේ ණය වළෙන් ආර්ථිකය ගොඩ ගැනීමේ අවස්ථාව පැමිණ ඇත. රටක් ලෙස අප එම අවස්ථාව ජය ගත යුතුව ඇත. නැතිනම්, රටක් ලෙස අපට ආර්ථික විනාශය කරා අපගේ ගමන නොවැලැක්විය හැකිය.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය.

විදිමත් අයුරින් ක්‍රියාත්මක බැංකු සේවාව සඳහා කාන්තාවන් ආකර්ශනය කර ගැනීමට නව දිරිගැන්වීම් අවශ්‍ය බව අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා ප්‍රකාශ කළේ 2023.03.07 දින

අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේදී ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුව, සියලුම රාජ්‍ය හා පෞද්ගලික බැංකු ප්‍රධානීන්,  විධායක නිලධාරීන් අමතමිනි.

“මෙම ක්‍රමවේදය ඔස්සේ ආර්ථිකයේ නාගරික, ග්‍රාමීය, වතු, කාන්තා භූමිකාව ශක්තිමත් කිරීමට හැකියි. එමෙන්ම අධික පොලි අනුපාත අයකර කාන්තාවන් සූරා කන අවිධිමත් ණය දෙන්නන් ගෙන් ඔවුන් ආරක්ෂා කර ගැනීමට ද මෙය ඉවහල් වේ. සුළු හා මධ්‍ය පරිමාණ ව්‍යවසායකයින් මෙන්ම වතුකරයේ කාන්තාවන් සඳහා සහන ණය යෝජනා ක්‍රම පුළුල් කළ යුතුයි. බැංකු ක්‍රමය තුල විධිමත් ලෙස නව තාක්ෂණික පහසුකම් සලසමින්

ග්‍රාම නිලධාරි වසම් දාහතර දහසකට වැඩි  සංඛ්‍යාවක ක්‍රියාත්මක ආහාර සුරක්ෂිතතාව හා ග්‍රාමීය පුනර්ජීවන යෝජනා ක්‍රමයට බැංකු ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ සහයෝගය හිමි විය යුතුය. මෙම වැඩසටහන සඳහා මාර්ග සිතියමක් සකස් අත්‍යවශ්‍යයි.

ආර්ථික අර්බුදය පැවති සමයේ ඉටුකරන ලද කාර්යභාරය පිළිබඳව අප සියලු බැංකුවලට ස්තුතිවන්ත වෙනවා.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුවේ ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ නිලධාරීන් මෙහිදී පැවසුවේ නව ආකර්ෂණීය යෝජනා ක්‍රම ප්‍රකාශයට පත්වීමෙන් පසු එය කඩිනමින් ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම සඳහා මූල්‍ය ආරක්ෂාව සහ ඇපකර අවශ්‍යතා පිළිබඳ ගැටළු විසදීමට මහ බැංකුවට හැකි බවයි.

ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය සංස්ථාව (IFC) අඩු ආදායම්ලාභී පවුල් ඉලක්ක කරමින් ග්‍රාමීය ප්‍රදේශවලට බැංකු කටයුතු ව්‍යාප්ත කිරීම අරමුණු කරගත් දැනුවත් කිරීමේ වැඩසටහන් සඳහා දායකත්වය ලබාදී තිබේ. දිවයින පුරා ඇති බැංකු ශාඛා දහස් ගණනකට මෙම ඉලක්ක ගත කාන්තාවන් මිලියන කීපයක් ගිණුම් හිමියන් ලෙස එක් කර ගැනීමෙන් එම බැංකුවල කාර්යක්ෂමතාව ද පුළුල් වේ.

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී      යදාමිණි ගුණවර්ධන මහතා මෙහිදී සඳහන් කළේ සමුර්දි සහන ,විශ්‍රාම වැටුප් ඇතුළු රජයේ සුභසාධන පහසුකම් ජනතාවට කඩිනමින් ළඟා කිරීමට බැංකු සිය ජාල කටයුතු භාවිතා කළ යුතු බවයි. පවතින විදුලි සන්දේශ අවකාශය digital  මාර්ගගත බැංකුකරණය පුළුල් කිරීමට භාවිතා කළ හැකි බවද  ඒ මහතා කීවේය.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ලේකම් අනුර දිසානායක, අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ආර්ථික උපදේශක තෙන්නකෝන් රුසිරිපාල, මුදල් අමාත්‍යාංශය,මහ බැංකුව, රාජ්‍ය බැංකු සහ පෞද්ගලික බැංකු නිලධාරිහු මෙම අවස්ථාවට එක්වූහ.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය.

Prime Minister’s Media Division

The Prime Minister mentioned that the woman who makes use of new technology can efficiently
contribute to the national produce. He said at a function International Women’s Day held in
appreciation of the women working in the Prime Minister’s Office today (08) .
The following are excerpts from the speech delivered by the Prime Minister.
A large number of women hold many responsibilities in the Prime Minister’s Office in various
capacities.
The Prime Minister’s office implements various programs for the benefit of the country and the
people.
At this time, it is special to come together as the Prime Minister’s Office to strengthen the main
theme of International Women’s Day 2023 DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender
equality”. This program can be made more successful by adding digital technology to the process
to include women in the banking sector.
Women are playing an exceptional role for the national development in different parts of our
country. Today, when women around the world announced their rights and commitments to
international conventions, the government lead by President Ranil Wickramesinghe has taken
measures to further improve existing charters in order to ensure women’s welfare.
At present we are facing the most difficult period in the recent history after independence. But in
the belief that the challenge can be overcome, the women are fulfilling a special responsibility.
In this difficult time, it is the woman who takes the lead in providing the foreign exchange
needed by the country. They are providing a major contribution in the plantation sector, apparel
industry and foreign employment.
Further, they can play a considerable role moving towards new technologies in the process of
national production. It should be highlighted that our women are committed themselves to time
management and reduce the waste in the economy.
Prime Minister’s Secretary Mr. Anura Dissanayake, Additional Secretary Mrs. Deepa Liyanage
were among the participants at this occasion.
Prime Minister’s Media Division

Courtesy Africa News

French-Cameroonian commission to turn light on colonial era | Africanews

A joint French-Cameroonian commission started Friday (Mar. 3rd) work on delving into France’s role in the nation’s colonial past and post-independence years.

It is jointly headed by a Cameroonian artist Blick Bassy and a French historian Karine Ramondy.

The composition of the team tasked with digging into a chapter of the central African country’s history clouded by bloodshed and silence has stirred controversy.

“We only have 14 seats, or 14 selected if I may borrow football’s metaphor. Some people were lucky enough to be able to work on this commission, but instead they chose to criticize it, even though they had agreed to join it in principle. Well, It’s their choice, I can only regret it,” Ramondy said.

Ramondy will spearhead a team of 15 historians from both countries, while artist Bassy will oversee collection of oral testimony in Cameroon. Where some are still haunted by the past according to a university professor.

“You can imagine, there are deep wounds that have never healed. this commission is supposed to, not to creating resentment, not demands, no, there are no claims, there is the recognition of historical facts. I’m waiting for France to say ‘we’re sorry’,”  Soh Charles explained.

France ruled a part of Cameroon first under a League of Nations mandate from 1919 to 1960, brutally repressing independence fighters.

The French president promised during is visit to Cameroon last year that historians will be given access to state archives to investigate the past and establish “responsibilities”.

The commission is due to submit its findings by the end of 2024.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

President Ranil Wickremesinghe today said that three women were instrumental in helping Sri Lanka during its troubled period.

When reflecting upon those who contributed to freeing the people from the sufferings experienced during the past, I think it is important to mention the names of three women who played a significant role,” the President said addressing the International Women’s Day National celebration in Colombo.

He said that the three women the Finance Minister of India Nirmala Sitharaman, the US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva – were instrumental in helping Sri Lanka during its turbulent period.

I would like to acknowledge Nirmala Sitharaman, the Finance Minister of India, who played a vital role in providing a US$3 billion loan to Sri Lanka after the country was declared bankrupt last April. 

Her decision to discuss the matter with the Prime Minister and the Cabinet and to provide the loan to a country in such a dire financial state was a remarkably courageous act. 

Without the availability of those funds during those three to four months, the current situation in the country would be far more challenging and for that we must express our gratitude to her.

Additionally, a crucial role was played by several key countries in supporting us during this challenging time.

Notably, our talks with the US, led by Janet Yellen, the Treasury Secretary were instrumental in securing aid for our country. 

I extend my sincere gratitude to her for her efforts in this matter.

I must also mention that Kristalina Georgieva, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, made a personal sacrifice for Sri Lanka by taking the lead to negotiate with the countries, the Paris Club, the World Bank and others. 

If these three women had not supported us, we would have been in a dire situation, the President added.