Renowned British supermodel Naomi Campbell features a pack of Sri Lankan made “Samahan,” as an essential product she keeps with her for a strong immune system.
In a recent interview with Vogue India titled What does Naomi Campbell carry in her bag?,” she says ‘Samahan’ is a good tea for the immune system.
Samahan, is a trusted herbal drink by Link Natural Products Ltd., which is a leading manufacturer of herbal products. They recently announced the debut of its flagship brand and iconic herbal drink Link Samahan at Costco Wholesale stores in Japan.
Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Harsha de Silva has stated that although the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout Sri Lanka currently awaits is necessary, it is not, in fact, sufficient for the growth of the nation.
Taking to Twitter, Harsha warned that Sri Lanka’s current challenge is to create growth, adding that the number of jobs lost will also likely increase amidst the deteriorating demand.
He further emphasised that in order to create the growth needed, Sri Lanka needs to ‘breakdown walls and build bridges to the world’, as ‘internally driven non-tradable growth’ will no longer suffice.
Commenting on certain remarks made by politicians at recent political rallies in this regard, the SJB MP said promises made by certain groups at political rallies of creating growth without reforms is pure conjecture that a homegrown solution exists without the IMF is only an attempt to fool the people”.
Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe, the president of Sri Lanka, is a traceable person with a preeminent heritage in Sri Lanka his patrimony is traceable to king Parakramabahu six and he has rich knowledge, skills and experience in policy development and implementation. The major weakness in Sri Lanka since independence was the lack of capable people for policy guidance, development and implementation. Rajapaksa group was dishonest and concerned with gaining financial advantages from various members of the generation and compared to Mr Wickremasinghe they were fogs seen the sun.
Mr Wickramasing has long experience and after becoming the president of the country attracted support in Sri Lanka from all over the world and he won the support from all countries. However, many have not understood these capabilities and the country needs to allow him to work a further two presidential periods to change the entire policy framework of the country. Media in Sri Lanka seems very partially support incapable left parties, which have not expressed policies acceptable way to citizens and their prime motive of them is to go against Mr Wickramasinghe. Mr Wickramasinghe needs to call all political parties and develop workable policies for the country.
Former Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of the World Bank, Joseph Stiglitz, slammed the IMF for callously unleashing riots on nations the IMF is dealing with; he pointed out that the riots are written into the IMF plan to force Nations to agree with the average 111 conditions laid down by the IMF, that destroys a country’s democracy and independence.
Having captured political power in Sri Lanka on the back of a CIA instigated jockstrap-insurrection that delivered the country to the jaws of the IMF, there are ominous signs that the Americans are now hatching the classic IMF-riot to consolidate their triumph and create a climate to induct Quad military forces into the island; American occupation of Sri Lanka would then be a fait accompli.
The IMF (one of the two global money lenders purposefully favoured with the monopoly and authority to lend to world governments, from Bretton Wood days) controls Sri Lanka’s Executive, the Administration, and the Legislature.
The words attributed to Amschel Rothschild are perhaps relevant here; he reportedly said, I care not who makes a country’s laws; any fool can do it. Give me control of that country’s money supply and I shall rule that country.”
To give context to these words in today’s geopolitical situation, a watershed in history, during WW2, is briefly visited.
Completely overwhelmed by Heinz Guderian’s “blitzkrieg” approach to warfare, a dispirited British Army, routed in battle, fled in disarray abandoning their armaments and deserting their French allies on the beaches of Dunkirk in 1940.
With no munition to fight with, with no money to re-equip a weaponless Army, with an army left with no stomach to do battle, Britain faced the stark reality of being overrun by an unstoppable Wehrmacht.
A desperate Allied high command sought a meeting with Roosevelt.
At that secret meeting held on the seas of the Atlantic, the Allied forces begged of the US, which had artfully kept out of the war, to join them in their fight against the Nazis.
Resorting to patent blackmail the US responded that it would do so, on condition that Britain and France agree to decolonize all their colonies and release them from their respective jurisdictions at the end of WW2.
Churchill and De Gaulle capitulated to American blackmail; this was the basis of the ‘Atlantic Charter’ of 1941 and of the New ‘World Order’ that emerged, with the US at the helm.
So much for the tommyrot of many leaders in the former colonies who boast that it was their valour which won independence for their countries.
With the colonies now unshackled from European colonialism, American imperialism had a carte blanch to prey and devour these former colonies in Africa and Asia, in a manner and time appropriate to the US; a major impediment to US hegemony and ambitions were the Soviet Union and subsequently the NAM (Non-Aligned Movement).
To lure the former European colonies into their net, Washington adopted a long-term strategy; they set-up the ingenious debt-trap that Rothschild had previously alluded to.
At the Bretton Woods conference of 1944 that followed the Atlantic Charter, two institutionalised money lenders, the IMF, and the World Bank, were granted a right to lend to World Governments.
The IMF and the World Bank are governed by member-nations whose voting rights are not based on ‘one- country-one- vote,’ but rather on monies that each country has invested in these two organisations.
The Americans have the largest share of votes in both the IMF and the World Bank; consequently, the IMF and the World Bank operate as extensions of Washington foreign policy.
Bretton Woods established America as the money-lender to the world with a virtual monopoly to lend to World governments.
%22The IMF%27s Four Steps to Damnation%22 – Bing Intelligent search from Bing makes it easier to quickly find what you’re looking for and rewards you.
This economist, prolific writer, and Nobel Prize winner, does not mince his words when in a series of scathing and damning critiques of this American money-lender, accuses it of causing great damage to countries through the economic policies it has prescribed countries to follow, to qualify for IMF loans.
In his analyses, Stiglitz justifies the intermix in the use of terminology relating to the IMF, the World Bank, and the WTO; ‘they are interchangeable masks of a single governance system.’ (The IMF, the World Bank and the WTO are three of the five traps laid out by the Americans at Bretton Woods to re-ensnare the former European colonies, this time into the American pen. The two other snares laid by Washington were the ‘United Nations,’ in its present format, and the ‘non-governmental organisations’, a concept first propagated at Bretton Woods).
Stiglitz expressed grave concern that IMF plans, devised in secrecy and driven by an absolutist ideology, are never open for discourse or dissent. He confessed that the so-called ‘Poverty-Reduction- programs’ for the developing world, undermines democracy and the economy.
Often, IMF remedies made things worse for Nations” said a chastened Stiglitz, critically at odds with the IMF and who had the discernment only an insider could possess.
Stiglitz had the intestinal fortitude to rubbish the disinformation-lineoften parroted by Washington and their liegeman, when he said, It is not China, which has a large trade surplus, that makes “trade wars”; it is the United States, which has a large trade deficit.”
Stiglitz let the world in on a secret when he revealed that the IMF adopts a single template to destroy the sovereignty of the Nation States established after Bretton Woods; he traced out the deadly 4-phase strategy.
The IMF’s Four Steps to Damnation”
Stiglitz states that the IMF process begins with an ‘investigation’ that usually takes place in a 5-star hotel where a mendicant finance minister is handed a pre drafted ‘restructuring Agreement’ for his ‘voluntary’ signature.
The IMF hands every minister the same exact four-step program.
(In 2015, Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister at the time – Karunanayake –responding to summons from Washington, just days prior to the first bond-scam, reported to IMF’s Lagarde for a briefing. Following that briefingKarunanayake hurried back to Colombo and, on his tail, came a high-powered IMF team, led by Todd Schneider and Pacific Department Director, Changyong Rhee, charged with monitoring at first hand the goings-on atthe Central Bank; the bond- scam was done virtually under the watchful eyes of the IMF monitoring team).
Step one – In this phase, Privatisation of State assets is the aim; Stiglitz says that it is better described as ‘Briberization’ of State assets. National leaders are bought off, to facilitate the sale of State assets
When a nation sells-off its national assets there is a discontinuation of revenues flowing into State coffers from that asset. It is one sure method of depleting a country’s financial reserves as would, the exercise of slashing taxes, spurring multiple scams in the commodity market, engendering new imports by deliberately destroying entire sectors of the economy such as agriculture and peculating directly from the country’s ‘vault,’ the Central Bank and Treasury.
With the promise of monies being deposited in off-shore bank accounts, leaders happily flog the National assets of the country.
Step two – The objective in this phase is to ultimately reduce a country’s financial reserves to zero; to this end, the ‘Capital Market Liberalization’ plan (popularly referred to as the Hot Money Cycle” plan) is often executed; capital is ‘steered’ into the country as speculative investments in real estate and currency; at the first whiff of trouble, an exodus of this investment takes place.
As was the experience in Indonesia and Brazil, the reserves were drained out within days. (In Sri Lanka, described later in more detail, the modus-operandi of emptying the coffers differed a trifle).
And when the investment flees, to seduce speculators into returning a nation’s own capital funds, the IMF demands that high interest rates be set, rates ranging from 30% to 80%.
“The results are predictable; the higher interest rates demolish property values, savage industrial production and drains out national treasuries”, said Stiglitz.
Simultaneously, the temperature of social unrest is brought closer to the boil.
Step Three – IMF initiated Riots.
Stiglitz says, without a degree of ambiguity, Riots are written into the IMF plan”. The IMF drags the gasping nation to ‘Market-Based Pricing;’ this, as Stiglitz explains, is a fancy term for raising prices of food, water, cooking gas, medicines, and all essentials necessary to sustain life.
This leads to the painfully predictableIMF riots. New flights of capital, resulting from the IMF riots, lead to even more pronounced social unrest and government bankruptcies.
The food and fuel riots in Indonesia, the water riots in Bolivia and cooking gas riots in Ecuador are examples.
Step 4 – “Poverty Reduction Strategy”
When this phase is reached, the country put through the wringer is all but done. The IMF has the country eating out of its hand, be it postponing elections, rolling-up Constitutions, turning a blind eye to dictatorial tendencies, interfering in, and obstructing the judicial process or selling strategic ports or be it anything.
When IMF-riots cause capital to flee the country, it gives the money-lender a further opportunity to add more conditions.
The IMF holds the key to life and death of the people in a country reduced to this phase; it controls the ‘money’ supply that buys the ‘essentials’ needed by the people; the money for these essentials will be forthcoming, only if that country were to do the IMF’s bidding.
Stiglitz states that on an average, the IMF imposes 111 conditions on National governments, dictating to the Executive, the Judiciary, and the Legislature in those countries the courses of action they should take, grossly violating in the process the sovereignty of the people, the essence of a democracy.
In this scenario, the IMF has replaced the National government as the sovereign authority; the sovereign power of a country is now vested with Washington.
When this phase is reached, America has successfully colonised that country.
When Stiglitz was asked whether any nation facing this dilemma was able to avoid this fate, he identified Botswana which had told the IMF To go packing.”
In comparison, Sri Lanka has a decided advantage; it has a friendly nation, China, which had proffered – even at the time of the bizarre conduct of Nandasena and Sabry to declare the country bankrupt when it was not so – to underwrite all of Sri Lanka’s external debts and gave the island nation the opportunity to negotiate with self-respect the repayment terms of the underwritten value, with no attached conditions.
This information is somehow deliberately kept out of the public domain.
And Sri Lanka has another friend too, India, which could match China’s benevolence.
To go the path of the IMF is self-destructive with the 111 plus conditions that the country is required to comply with; it is diabolical that the people’s transitory representatives refuse to divulge to the very people with whose sovereignty they reside in the legislature, the 111 conditions laid down by the IMF.
It is good to hear that the courts have recognized the right of information on the names of members of Parliament who have declared their assets. Some time back before the Right of Information law was introduced, the civil society organization CIMOGG made a similar request to the then Speaker who did not even acknowledge the receipt of the request. It is urged that this admirable precedent is extended to the payment of income tax as well.
If the names of taxpayers (who have tax files) of each electorate or Division is made available on a website, citizens can give information on tax evaders. As only the taxpayers’ names are to be displayed there should be no objection to this measure by current taxpayers. In fact, the expansion of the tax base could result in the reduction of taxes.
Secrecy in the payment of taxes is not tenable as taxpayers earn their money from citizens and most times by exploitation. When direct taxes are not collected the citizens are penalized with indirect taxes even on what they eat.
PS
Judging from the crowds demonstrating against tax proposals, one is encouraged to see that we have so many lakshapathiyas. We are not a poor nation.
Tourism, as it is well known, is a major industry in Sri Lanka. The foreign exchange it brings into the country and the hundreds and thousands of people who are directly and indirectly employed in this sector makes this industry a vital one for the country. It is one of the most effective windows to the world provided the country develops and displays an image that is both unique, culturally and geographically, and offers an interest based, value for money option for tourists.
It is evident that there is a renewed focus on tourism in Sri Lanka. Rightly so considering what it has to offer to potential tourists. Its ancient and more modern cultural history, geographical beauty, its rich flora and fauna habitats, unparalleled beaches and its trekking adventures are all part of a package of diverse interests that are offered to tourists. It needs to be noted that tourism is not limited and should not be limited to non-Sri Lankan overseas domiciled foreign nationals, but also to the ever-growing Sri Lankan Diaspora, many of whom still call Sri Lanka their home” and who would wish to enjoy the beauty of the country. One hopes that the potential arising from Sri Lankan origin foreign nationals are not overlooked when it comes to promoting tourism.
A news report appearing in the Daily FT notes that India, Russia, China, the UK, France, Germany, the Middle East, Nordic countries and Australia as focus markets for tourists according to Sri Lanka Tourism (https://www.ft.lk/top-story/Sri-Lanka-to-focus-on-9-key-markets-to-woo-tourists-in-2023/26-745624. Tourist arrivals in the first two months of 2023 have reportedly exceeded 100,000 each month.
However, tourism also brings in unwanted negatives such as crime, drugs and cultural degradation While genuine tourists need to be protected, equally importantly, the Sri Lankan people and its culture also needs to be protected.
Madison Mussio goes on to say Citizens of cities like Barcelona and Venice are now heavily protesting the development of tourism in their cities. They have seen prices for their homes increase due to the loss of housing to hotels. They have seen entire neighbourhoods bought up by real-estate investors, only to never use them. The thing is, the government of these cities want tourism, they provide many jobs to the local people and tax revenue for them. Barcelona alone has 1.6 million residencies (2016) but had close to 8 million tourists in 2014. Twenty years ago, they had less than 2 million, in 2000 a little over 3 million. At what point does a government look at the number of tourist to residence in a city and say they need their biggest industry to slow down? Barcelona has recently voted in an anti-tourism mayor. Her biggest claims were that the rising pricing of housing and loss of culture is due to the mass tourism that is unnecessary and that the city should focus on its citizens, not the tourists. Currently, the building permits for hotels have stopped for at least one year and she has now required all Airbnb properties to have tourist licences to operate. She was also the first person to fine Airbnb in history (30k). They are now increasing the fine to 600k for every illegal listing.
Venice on the other hand, is trying to separate from Italy. In 1866 it because part of Italy, before then it was an independent kingdom. It has seen massive tourism since it became part of Italy. Fishing and agriculture jobs have been replaced with tourism jobs. The culture of a great and powerful nation surrounded by water and farmland has been destroyed. In 2014 in an unofficial vote, 89% of citizens voted to leave Italy. One of the biggest reasons was because they claim the city has been lost to them in favour of tourists. To be fair, I am part of the tourism industry, and my job is provided by tourists. However, even I agree sometimes it can be too much and that governments need to plan for tourism and local sustainability, rather than just developing the tourism industry blindly”.
Long term strategic planning however is a must to maximise on the opportunities that are there now and may be there in the future. Such opportunities may be lost if planning is not done.
The Borgen Project, a nonprofit organization that is addressing poverty and hunger and working towards ending them, states that unless well planned, the disadvantages of tourism may greatly outweigh the advantages in a country (https://borgenproject.org/advantages-disadvantages-of-tourism/). It says that A major factor to take into consideration is environmental damage. Many countries with ancient ruins or natural attractions are also in danger of destruction or erosion with significant foot traffic and human interaction. Additionally, flora and fauna can decrease in areas or change their growth and migration patterns when there is an overflow of humans interact. Foot traffic and continuous touching can also slowly degrade the stability of ancient structures. As previously stated, the profit gained from tourism is often reinvested into the industry. However, with unequal infrastructure development, the tourism industry can inadvertently sustain itself without aiding a country’s other vital sectors. As such, many countries end up developing tourism hot spots while the rest of the country suffers. In these countries, there are visible socioeconomic gaps between the wealthy and the poor. Focusing mainly on the tourism industry and places of mass attraction could leave disadvantaged communities at risk of financial instability”.
Econsult solutions Inc (ESI), a US based consulting company, emphasises the importance of strategic tourism planning efforts that achieve comprehensive and successful results. They mention four critical ingredients for such planning (https://econsultsolutions.com/tourism-strategic-planning-the-tried-and-true/)
Attractions: Creating a compelling experience for visitors to enjoy
Determine gaps in the tourism products.
Enhancement and new product / event opportunities
Support for and partnerships with attractions
Tourism Infrastructure: Helping visitors successfully navigate their experience.
Availability, variety, quality, and competitiveness of accommodations, restaurants, transportation, signage, visitor centers, retail, and visitor domains
Marketing: Getting the right message to the right audience
Addressing the appropriate target audiences and ensuring that the destination’s marketing helps:
Attract new and repeat visitation; extends stays; increases tourist spending;
Reflects the destination so that the visitors’ expectations are met.
The right mix of paid, earned, owned and shared media for promoting the destination.
Organizational Structure: Effectively and efficiently improving local tourism
The most appropriate organizational structure to meet various responsibilities and achieve a strong return on investment.
Ensure that the tourism organization figures prominently in political, policy, and planning discussions.
The role to be played in determining and collecting public and private funding.
The value and opportunities of partnerships
ESI states that this framework is the starting point rather than the end point for the crucial discussion of the prioritization of opportunities, resources, and efforts to address gaps. Through collaborative discussions with key stakeholders, the most effective planning processes arrive not at a laundry list of recommendations, but at an identification of the most important priorities, and the initial implementation steps needed to address them”.
Sri Lanka Tourism is said to have developed a tourism policy. Presumably this will be in the public domain soon. Hopefully this policy is of strategic nature and is a long-term policy that addresses the positives of tourism and how to ensure tourism potential is matched to global trends in tourism, as well as its negatives and what measures can and will be taken to address such negatives.
If not already included, such a policy should include a promotional strategy based broadly on interest priorities of potential tourists. Is the emphasis of this policy about providing a composite package of everything the country has to offer say within a period of two weeks? Or are there interest-based packages such a sea and beach packages, cultural packages, wildlife experience packages, sports packages (for example, why not Golf tours that include Colombo, Digana, Nuwara Eliya, Trincomalee, and Hambantota?). If such interest-based packages are included, there will be a potential to improve the infrastructure associated with such interests through investments in these areas, and an overall benefit to tourism in general within the country.
While individual travel companies may undertake such interest assessments, it would benefit the country in the longer term if the national tourism policy, developed in consultation with all relevant stakeholders, includes this approach as a composite of such a policy.
It is also worth considering a zone based tourism approach from an interest and an infrastructure aspect. For example, a Southern zone with Hambantota as the centre of it, a Northern zone with perhaps Vavuniya as the centre of it, an Eastern zone with Trincomalee as the centre of it, and a Central zone including the cultural triangle with Kandy as the centre of it, could become the epicentres of an investment policy on tourism.
These zones are mentioned considering the proximity they have to various, current, and potential tourist interests. Hambantota has the advantage of having an international airport, a bustling port that could have the potential for cruise ships to call over, a network of roads that connects it to beach hotels in popular sea spots, wild life and bird sanctuaries, and the potential to link Hambantota to the East and places like Passekudah and Potuvil by extending the highway beyond Hambantota.
Unchecked, unplanned tourism could spell disaster for Sri Lanka from several aspects. The quality of tourists is as important or more important that the economic benefits they accrue to the country. Tourists will come and go, but the culture of the country, its environment, its fauna and flora and its natural beauty has to remain for the benefit of many generations to come.
The Quality-of-Life Index (QLI) is a metric used to assess individuals’ and communities’ overall well-being.
It considers a wide range of factors, such as health, education, income, the environment, social support, and political stability.
The QLI provides a comprehensive picture of a specific area’s quality of life and can be used to compare different regions or countries.
Policymakers, researchers, and social scientists frequently use the QLI to identify areas that need attention and improvement.
Policymakers can develop policies and programs that address the needs of the community and improve overall well-being by measuring the quality of life in a specific area.
Some of the factors that are commonly included in the QLI include:
1. Health: This factor considers life expectancy, the prevalence of diseases, access to healthcare, and other indicators of physical well-being.
2. Education: This factor measures the literacy rate, school enrollment, and other indicators of educational attainment.
3. Income: This factor considers the average income and the poverty rate.
4. Environment: This factor measures the quality of air and water, access to green spaces, and other indicators of environmental quality.
5.Social Support: This factor measures the level of social cohesion, social capital, and other indicators of social support.
6. Political Stability: This factor considers the level of political stability, freedom of speech, and other indicators of political stability.
The QLI is a useful tool for policymakers and researchers interested in improving individual and community well-being.
It can assist in identifying areas that require attention and resources, as well as measuring the effectiveness of policies and programs over time.
It should be noted, however, that the QLI is not a perfect measure and may not capture all aspects of quality of life. It is only one of many tools available for assessing the well-being of individuals and communities.
A massive Sinhala -English was out recently by Buddhadasa Hewage, marketed by the e-Lanka website in Australia at U.S. $50. The writer ordered the dictionary from them. It has 1,500,000 English words, similar to 95,000 Sinhala words, and contains 2432 pages. It is published after professor G.P. Malalasekera’s Sinhala-English dictionary, but Buddhadasa Heage’s dictionary has more words. It was the first time a professional or an institution published a Sinhala-English dictionary of this magnitude. It was available at the Book Exhibition, also held at the B.M.I C.H.
The author was born to a low-income family in a southern rural village in Sri Lanka. Buddhadasa Hewage prioritised his early life. He took on the frightening task of learning English on his accord. In late 1980, he managed to enter the Teachers’ Training College in Mirigama and started a distinguished teaching career. In 1977 he began teaching English at Ananda College in Elpitiya, where he served the college for twenty-one.
Author’s Literary Achievements
He has authored seventeen books, including six novels and five short-story books in Sinhala and English. His Sinhala novel Yathrawawaka Minissu” was selected as the best novel in 1992. Additionally, he won multiple awards in 2012. The Sri Lankan government recognised his literal talents and offered the Kalabushana” status.
The massive Sinhala-English dictionary is the product of Buddhadasa Sewage’s fifteen years of effort. His personal experience inspired him as a student and a teacher to embark on this project. The Sinhala-English dictionary will undoubtedly go a long way in simplifying the learning experience of students and journalists.
Ministry of Education.
This dictionary has accepted been accepted by the Ministry of Education as a library book. He started working on the dictionary in 1998 when he was working as an English teacher. He noted every word in a notebook as a habit but never considered using it in the dictionary. In his attempts, he noticed that he had to deal with many English and Sinhala words and found out that there are many similarities between Sinhala and English words. It was the basic foundation. Furthermore, it helped to compile the dictionary as he wrote many Sinhala and English novels and short story books.
If you are an English journalist, you must know the relevant Sinhala words in English. For instance, the Malalasekera dictionary deals with English words to Sinhala, but it is only possible to use the English language if, to a certain extent, use the Malalasekera dictionary. Buddhadasa Hewage’s dictionary contains pages of 1,500,000 English words. His primary intention was to help the Sinhala native people to find English synonyms for Sinhala.
History of Dictionaries
The author has categorised words in the dictionary into nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, idioms, abbreviations, and prepositions so that sophisticated individuals benefit from the dictionary. Ceylon’s history of dictionaries goes back to the British rulers, especially the British Civil Servants who needed to learn Sinhala to understand the locals’ thoughts. Once they conquered Ceylon, they wanted to know the local language, so it made them learn Sinhala – English vitally. It is on record as the first governor to Ceylon, Sir Fredrick North, between 1798 and 1805, compiled the first dictionary of English to Sinhala with the aid of another British civil servant, John Wine, but they could not finish the job. Later the task fell on another British civil servant, but suddenly, he died. Later compilation of the dictionary was handed over to a Christian Father, Benjamin Clough, who ultimately printed the dictionary in 1821. It became the first Sinhala-English dictionary comprising 628 pages and was published in 1830. Buddhadasa Hewage said it was the best Sinhala-English dictionary ever published in Sri Lanka (Ceylon) up to date.
After Father Carter’s dictionary, several dictionaries were published. The first was by Mudliyar Gunasekera in 1915. The English Dharma Samaya published another dictionary in 1948. There was a line of Sinhala-English dictionaries published ever since. Somapala Jayawardene published the most contemporary dictionary in 1994 and Somapala Dematapiya in 1995. Buddhadasa Hewage consulted seven Sinhala English dictionaries and linked the recent authors.
Publishers.
There is a funny story about publishers. Buddhadasa Hewage had consulted a publisher, and the publisher promised to give only a 10% royalty, which meant if they published 1000 (one thousand copies). The dictionary’s author would get only Rs.10,000.00, whereas the publisher could earn Rs.90,000.00. Buddhadasa Hewage thought it was unfair because the author had put in so much energy and effort to compile 2,500 pages.
The. Buddhadasa Hewage’s dictionary was published for the third edition. He has donated 100 copies to the University students who entered the University from rural villages and were bright and poor. To achieve this, he has contacted the universities constantly to fathom the brightness and to find out about students’ financial status.
The author faces a fatal situation.
Before launching the dictionary, Buddhadasa Hewage faced a critical problem. A good friend of the author suddenly disappeared with all the type-setting and the pen drive. The culprit was desperate for money as he had a police complaint for stealing a woman servant’s three months’ wages. The author visited his home in Kurunegala and sought lawyers’ advice. The lawyer advised the dictionary’s author that his friend could sell the pen drive and the entire work on the dictionary for money. The author was left with no option but to report to the police. He listened to his lawyer and went ahead with the publication.
Another journalist once asked why the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary includes versions appearing in other countries in various languages, including Tamil. Still, only it is available in Sinhala to English in Sri Lanka? The dictionary’s author replied, Yes, you are correct. We cannot see such a version, and it is up to the Sri Lanka government, or the relevant authorities must look into this matter. In my case, I only focussed on Sinhala because it became difficult. After all, there are many meanings for each Sinhala word. It is why we need a dictionary with example sentences like in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary.’
Compiling a dictionary is a challenging job. Invariably dictionary compilers end their lives before they see the final output. When considered, only the publishers take advantage of the dictionary compilers, as royalty is limited to only 2 or 3%. In Sri Lanka, book publishing is a field that exploits authors, especially in compiling dictionaries which are precise for compilers.
The author says he is also ready to add Tamil words to the dictionary. It will be a complete dictionary of Sinhala, English and Tamil words.
ඉංද්රිය පහේ ප්රසාදය සමග ඊට අනුකූලව සිදුවන පස් ආකාර ස්කන්ධ ක්රියාවලිය ‘පංච ස්කන්ධ’ ක්රියාවලිය වන අතර එය (ප්රසාදය + ස්කන්ධය) sensory experience ලෙස හැදින්විය හැකිය. According to Buddhist teachings, The ‘sensory experience’ is define what a human being is.
A video clip doing the rounds on web-based media platforms shows a former secretary of the agriculture ministry stating at a JJB (Malimawa) press conference that when Anura Kumara Dissanayake was the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Lands and Irrigation in the Chandrika Kumaratunga government in 2004, there was a surplus of paddy in the country and that on the instructions of the minister, a part of this surplus was sold to the World Food Programme and that this was akin to exporting rice during the time of King Parakramabahu.
This was sycophancy at its worst, targeting a gullible audience made up mainly of young people with very little awareness of history and whose opinions are formed by whatever comes to them via the internet. We all know that AKD was never a member of any government before April 2004. Hence if there was a surplus of paddy in the year that he assumed ministerial office for the first time, that can only be the result of development projects implemented by preceding governments. It should be obvious to anyone that AKD could not have done anything to deserve any credit for a paddy surplus in 2004.
The Mahaweli Project is the main reason for Sri Lanka becoming more or less self-sufficient in rice. Hence the full credit for any paddy surplus in the year 2004 should go entirely to the UNP government of 1977-94. The JVP vehemently opposed the Accelerated Mahaweli Project of the J.R.Jayewardene government in the 1980s. If the then UNP government had heeded what the JVP said at that time about the Accelerated Mahaweli Project, AKD would not have had a paddy surplus to sell to the WFP in 2004. It is indeed strange to see parties that opposed the Accelerated Mahaweli Project in the 1980s claiming credit for its results today.
Throughout its history, the JVP has only opposed or sabotaged development projects. A phase of the Udawalawe Project was being implemented in the late 1980s during the JVP’s second insurrection and a report of the International Water Management Institute has described how JVP death squads extorted money from the contractors and murdered workers on the project thus causing a delay in its implementation.
Opposition to all and sundry
The JVP has a history of opposing all development projects initiated by all governments. In the 1980s, they opposed the Accelerated Mahaweli Project. When the Colombo Port City was being built, the JVP claimed that there wasn’t enough sand and metal in the country to complete a project of that magnitude, and opposed it. They opposed the construction of highways during the Rajapaksa government. The anti-development project mentality of the JVP can best be illustrated by their opposition to the Uma Oya Project which commenced construction in November 2011. The aim of the project was to construct a dam and a reservoir in the central highlands across the Uma Oya and to carry water from this reservoir through a system of tunnels into yet another reservoir and then onwards to a hydro-power project and finally into the Kirindi Oya to supply water to the Moneragala and Hambantota districts.
Around 2015-2017, water started seeping into one of the tunnels being constructed in the Uma Oya project. In drilling a tunnel, it is natural for ground water above it to seep into the tunnel and it would be necessary to seal the tunnel to prevent such seepage as the machine drills further. However, the German machine used to drill this tunnel had not been equipped with the accessories necessary to seal the tunnel. It was revealed later that this was due to some error on the part of the project consultants. Be that as it may, in 2017 on the advice of some Norwegian experts, the accessories necessary to seal the tunnel as the machine moved forward were obtained and the water seepage issue ceased to exist. The Uma Oya Project is now nearing completion and is due to be commissioned some time during this year.
When the water seepage issue gained media attention, the main political force in the country that rose up against the Uma Oya Project was the JVP. Anura Kumara Dissnayake made impassioned speeches in Parliament describing how thousands of wells, streams and springs in the Bandarawela area had dried up and how thousands of agricultural land had been abandoned due to the lack of ground water as a result of the seepage into the Uma Oya tunnel. He described how the walls of thousands of houses and other buildings in the area had cracks appearing as a result of the change in the ground conditions. He stated that construction work on the Uma Oya Project had commenced despite objections by environmentalists and other experts and that water was to be diverted through this project to the Hambantota port and airport to fulfill the desires of the Rajapaksa government.
The ground level campaign against the Uma Oya Project was led by the Badulla district JVP stalwart and ex-Parliamentarian Samantha Vidyaratne. He described this project not as a multi-purpose project but as a ‘bahu vinashakaree’ project and stated that this project has been planned by those willing to even ‘give their mothers for money’ and that all this was the doing of ‘rulers who did not think about the country’. He called for an immediate halt to the Uma Oya Project and gave examples from France, Thailand and South Korea where large scale development projects had been halted half way.
Uma Oya is a project that had been under discussion since the Bandaranaike era in the 1950s. The Dudley Senanayake government of the late 1960s, the Premadasa government in the early 1990s, the Chandrilka Kumaratunga government of 2000, and the UNP government of 2001, all carried out studies regarding this project. After all those studies and discussions, cabinet approval was obtained to commence the project on 26 January 2005. This was on the basis of cabinet paper No. 05/0036/039/002 which was presented to cabinet by Anura Kumara Dissanayake who was the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Lands and Irrigation at that time. AKD had stated as follows in that cabinet paper:
For the development of the South East Dry Zone in Sri Lanka, particularly the Hambantota and Moneragala districts, there is no other alternative unless water is diverted from Uma Oya to the South East Dry Zone.”
Strategy for economic development of both Hambantota and Moneragala districts changed during the recent past and diversion of Uma Oya to Kirindi Oya is now seen in the perspective of recently conceived Ruhunupura development. The infrastructure of Ruhunupura development consists of the development of the Hambantota harbour into one of the modern harbours in the region, international airport in the Moneragala district, and an oil refinery…For all these new developments, projected water requirement has been estimated as 100 MCM in the year 2030. In the absence of a reliable source of water in the area, water from Uma Oya is seen as the only alternative to supplement this requirement.”
Therefore high priority should be given for this project.”
A party of protest
Even though AKD claimed in parliament that the Uma Oya Project had been inaugurated to fulfil the desires of the Rajapaksas, the cabinet paper presented to the CBK led cabinet by AKD himself, in January 2005, many months before Mahinda Rajapaksa became President in November 2005, has explained very well, the reasons for commencing the Uma Oya Project. In 2017, JVP activists had actually opposed a project that they themselves had initiated through a cabinet paper! This illustrates the mentality of the JVP. This is a party that has opposed every development project brought forward by every political party in power. Ultimately, they opposed the only development project that they themselves had initiated in their six decade long history.
Let us for a moment forget that it was AKD himself who had presented the initial cabinet paper on Uma Oya. Even if some problem emerges in the implementation of a development project initiated by someone else, the immediate reaction of a responsible political party should be to seek ways and means of solving the issue and moving forward rather than demanding that the project be abandoned. Problems do emerge in the implementation of large scale development projects. If the JVP reacted the way they did in 2017 to a minor issue which was easily resolved by procuring a few pieces of additional machinery, one can only imagine how they would have reacted in a case of a more serious issue.
The JVP is essentially a party of protest. When an opportunity to oppose something presents itself, they tend to quite literally, forget themselves. They do not possess the attitude of mind necessary to be able build or develop anything. A political party that seeks to rule the country should have the capacity to look rationally at problems that emerge in the day to day running of the country as well as in implementing major development projects. A party that sees demonstrations and agitation against all and sundry as the solution to all problems will never be able to make a positive contribution to the country.
IRCTC will start the ‘Shri Ramayana Yatra’ through a special tourist train on 7 April 2023. The Shri Ramayana Yatra is a theme based pilgrimage tour by Bharat Gaurav Deluxe AC Tourist train on Ramayana circuit which covers the prominent sacred places associated with the life of Lord Rama.
Apart form this, the IRCTC is also offering an extended optional trip of the Ramayana trail to Sri Lanka.
The Bharat Gaurav Tourist Train launch is in line with the Government of India initiative Dekho Apna Desh” to promote special interest circuits in domestic tourism.
The train will depart from Delhi Safdarjung will cover places including Ayodhya, Janakpur, Sitamadhi, Buxar, Varanasi, Manikpur Jn, Nashik Road Hospate, Rameshwaram, Bhadrachalam Road, Nagpur and then back to Delhi.
COLOMBO, March 3 (Reuters) – Sri Lanka will relax its currency band from next week, its central bank said on Friday, as part of efforts to move towards a market-determined exchange rate as it seeks to secure a $2.9 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund.
The central bank also raised interest rates by 100 basis points to tackle inflation now running at 50% as the country endures its worst financial crisis since independence from Britain in 1948.
The Director of the US Intelligence Agency CIA William Burns arrived in Sri Lanka on February 14, as a part of a top secret visit to the island, MP Udaya Gammanpila charged.
For over three weeks we have been questioning as to who visited the island, but the government and the US have maintained their silence,” he said.
Four proposals compromising the national security of Sri Lanka during this meeting, Gammanpila said.
The first proposal discussed during the meeting is the setting up of an Intelligence Analysis Centre for the purpose of intelligence sharing with the US, he said.
This proposal first came in 2002 when the current President was Prime Minister. The then government attempted to implement this project amidst strongest objections from the local intelligence community,” he said.
The second proposal is the gifting of a biometric immigration control system to Sri Lanka, for which US will retain access to, Gammanpila alleged, warning that such a move will discourage Chinese and Indian investors from doing business in Sri Lanka.
The third proposal includes access to submarine telecommunications cables and data, for which the US is willing to provide prior intel on terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka. This is the biggest joke of the year,” he said.
The final proposal was the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the two countries, Gammanpila said. Except for the final proposal, it appears that the President has not agreed to the other proposals. If our national security is compromised in this manner, Sri Lanka will soon follow the fate of Panama,” he said. (Kalani Kumarasinghe)
Taking everyone by surprise, the Monetary Board of the Central Bank today raised policy interest rates by 100 basis points, though many predicted the monetary authority to either maintain the status quo or signal a dovish tilt by cutting rates.
Inflation, which peaked almost at 70 percent, has been steadily coming down and the Central Bank is hopeful that it will come down to the desired 4-6 percent band by end of this year as the island nation appears to have firmly embarked on a disinflation path.
However, today’s monetary policy decision showed differences of opinion between the Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) when it comes to inflation projections and expectations.
There have been some differences between the CBSL and IMF staff on the inflation outlook,” the Central Bank said in its monetary policy review document.
In this backdrop, the Central Bank Governor Dr.Nandalal Weerasinghe said the Central Bank and the IMF reached a consensus to increase the policy interest rates by 100 basis points, though what was agreed with the IMF at the time of entering the staff level agreement in last September was 250 basis points.
Projections are projections. When we move forward, we would know whose projections are right,” Governor Weerasinghe said referring to the clear difference of opinion between the Central Bank and the IMF about inflation projections.
Accordingly, it was decided today to raise both Standing Deposit Facility Rate (SDFR) and the Standing Lending Facility Rate (SLFR) of the Central Bank by 100 basis points to 15.50 percent and 16.50 percent.
The monetary policy review was originally scheduled to be announced on Thursday morning, but was postponed to Friday afternoon. The reason for the delay could be that the Central Bank and the IMF wanted more time to reach a consensus on the policy action.
However, Governor Weerasinghe said the increase in policy rates is unlikely to have an impact on the market interest rates, though he said the rate hike would narrow the spread between the policy rates and the market interest rates, which have stayed stubbornly high, largely due to the uncertainties stemming from delay in IMF bailout and the worries pertaining to debt restructuring.
The most important thing is that with this rate hike, we have completed all the ‘prior actions’ that will facilitate the unlocking of IMF financing,” Governor Weerasinghe said.
This decision demonstrates Sri Lanka’s commitment to the IMF-EFF arrangement, which has been pursued by the Government in order to ensure stability in the economy on multiple fronts. The finalisation of the IMF-EFF arrangement is expected to benefit all stakeholders and bolster confidence, which would help restore stability in the economy on a sustained basis.
This will incentivise more foreign exchange flows in the period ahead that would aid the economy to overcome the prevailing economic crisis. The Board was of the view that the economy has already traversed through the most difficult and unprecedented times with tremendous resilience and strongly believes that today’s decision would pave way for a faster-than-expected deceleration of inflation,” the monetary policy review document stated.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe, stated that Sri Lanka stands ready to unlock the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme this month.
Speaking at a press conference held this afternoon (03 March), Dr. Weerasinghe assured that all required prior actions with the IMF have been completed.
We have now completed all the required prior actions with the IMF and stand ready to unlock the IMF programme, hopefully, this month”, he said in this regard.
Meanwhile, the CBSL has decided to increase the Standing Deposit Facility Rate (SDFR) and the Standing Lending Facility Rate (SLFR) by 100 basis points to 15.50% and 16.50%, respectively, with effect from the close of business today.
The decision was taken at a meeting held this afternoon, in an attempt to fulfill the pre-requisites required to move forward with the finalisation of the IMF Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement Sri Lanka currently awaits.
The Department of Motor Traffic has approved the use of ‘Vega’ cars – not only Sri Lanka’s, but also South Asia’s first all-electric supercar.
Accordingly the number plate for the first Vega car registered in Sri Lanka was handed over today (03 March) to the President and CEO of CodeGen and the designer of the car, Harsha Subasinghe.
The number plate was handed over by the Commissioner General of the Department of Motor Traffic, in the presence of Transport Minister Bandula Gunawardena and Minister of Industries Dr. Ramesh Pathirana.
Vega Innovations, a subsidiary of CodeGen International (Pvt) Ltd., created history in 2020 as the Vega EVX, Sri Lanka’s and South Asia’s first fully Electric Supercar was shipped out to Switzerland, to be unveiled at the 90th Geneva International Motor Show, 5-15 March 2020.
Vega EVX was the first-ever vehicle in history, entirely designed and engineered in Sri Lanka to be showcased at a premier international motor show.
The all electric two-seater Supercar is powered by a dual-motor all-wheel-drive drivetrain delivering 804HP and 720NM of torque. With a 40kWh battery-pack, recent test drives confirm a staggering 0 to 100 kmph acceleration in 3.1 seconds, an estimated range of 250 kilometres and a top speed of 240 kmph denotes the overall performance of the Vega EVX Supercar.
The supercar showcases advanced multidisciplinary technology applications and a skilfully fabricated lightweight carbon fiber body.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe has emphasised that the only way a change of government can be brought about is through a Parliamentary election.
Accordingly, he noted that a Parliamentary election is the only way through which change can be implemented, emphasising that taking to the streets is not an option for the Parliament.
Speaking at the Passing Out Parade of Air Force cadets and other officers held at the Trincomalee Air Force Base this morning (03 March), the Head of State highlighted that a nation can become anarchic due to an economic collapse, and thereby urged everyone to prioritise safeguarding both the economy and the constitution of the country.
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who arrived at Trincomalee Air Force Base, was received with air force honours.
Meanwhile, 40 Officer Cadets including three females were commissioned as Officers of the Sri Lanka Air Force by the Chief Guest, and received their ceremonial swords, which symbolizes their status as Commissioned Officers.
Thereafter, flying brevets were pinned on 13 pilot officers and 07 trophies were awarded for special achievements.
Two Officer Cadets who have shown exceptional performance were awarded the Sword of Eagle for the best student of General Duties Pilot Branch and the Sword of honour for the overall best student among all branches.
The President also posed for a group photograph with the newly commissioned officers and senior officers.
The Sri Lanka Air Force Band rendered a special performance and the parachute display adding colour to the event.
Attached below is an excerpt of the speech delivered by the President at the event:
“In order to move forward as a united and prosperous country, all individuals regardless of their ethnicity, religion, or cultural background must work together. Whether Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, Burgher, Buddhist, Catholic, Hindu or Muslim, it is essential that all citizens come together to work towards the greater good of the nation. Only by working together can we build a stronger, more prosperous future for our country and its people.
The legitimacy of Sri Lanka’s government is established by the executive, legislature, and judiciary. The judiciary plays a crucial role in upholding and enforcing the laws enacted by the legislature. All three institutions are focused on safeguarding Sri Lanka’s constitution and ensuring that the country functions in accordance with its laws and regulations.
It is the responsibility of every citizen to help protect these institutions, which are essential to the proper functioning of the government and the preservation of Sri Lanka’s democracy. Without these institutions, there can be no assurance that the country will remain stable and secure.
It is important to note that any changes to the government must be made through the proper channels, such as a parliamentary election. The streets are not an option for the parliament, and any attempt to subvert the established process would be a violation of Sri Lanka’s constitution and the rule of law.
I am deeply grateful to the armed forces for their role in protecting the Parliament last June. As we have seen in other countries, when a parliament is not safeguarded, chaos and anarchy can quickly ensue. Similarly, a country without a strong economy is also at risk of devolving into chaos.
It is therefore the responsibility of all of us to work together to protect both the constitution and the economy of our country. In recent days, I have met with various organizations to discuss strategies for boosting the economy, and I am confident that our efforts will yield positive results in the near future.
By protecting our country and upholding its constitution, we can ensure that our democracy remains strong and vibrant”.
Lt Col Anil Amarasekera. (Rtd.) Co-President National Joint Committee
01st March 2023.
His Excellency, President Ranil Wickremasinghe,
The Presidential Secretariat, Colombo 1.
Your Excellency,
You have made a public statement that you intend to fully implement the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The National Joint Committee (NJC) intends to caution you against implementing such a decision which would amount to opening a Pandora’s Box. The Ven.Mahanayake Theros too have in a joint statement requested you not to do so.
The Indo Lanka accord signed on 27th July 1987 that was forced on Sri Lanka by India through gunboat diplomacy is illegal according to articles 51 and 52 of the Vienna Convention on the law of Treaties. India also failed to implement some of the provisions therein such as disarming the terrorists and as such the Indo Lanka Accord can be considered as repudiated. Therefore do you consider the 13th Amendment enacted on 14th November 1987 in accordance with the Indo Lanka Accord to have any validity?
When the 13th Amendment was challenged in the Supreme Court, while Chief Justice Sharvananda, Justice E.A.D Athukorale, Justice Percy Colin-Thome and Justice H.D. Thambiah in their determination said that a referendum was not necessary for its enactment, Justice R.S.Wanasundara, Justice O.S.M Seneviratne, Justice L.H.De Alwis and Justice H.A.G de Silva in their determination said that this Amendment cannot be enacted sans a referendum. Though Justice Parinda Ranasinghe in a separate verdict conceptually agreed with the Chief Justice Sharvananda, he dissented on article 154G (2) (b) and (3) (b) which he said should be approved at a referendum. He refused to suggest any amendment to the said articles 154G (2) (b) and (3) (b). The subsequent amendment made to the said articles at the committee stage was not subjected to the scrutiny of the Supreme Court. Therefore putting together Justice Parinda Ranasinghe’s verdict with that of Chief Justice Sharvananda can be interpreted as incorrect and if so the 13th Amendment has been enacted sans the approval of the Supreme Court that makes it controversial if not illegal.
The ruling given by Chief Justice Sharvananda that the Provincial Council bill be passed after the 13th Amendment became law was also ignored by the then government which took a vote on the Provincial Council bill two days before the 13th Amendment received the speaker’s certification on 14th November 1987. Therefore the Provincial Council bill too has been enacted illegally.
On or about 1995 the Chandrika Kumaratunga Government introduced the devolution proposals that was commonly known as the Package. It was to campaign against the package and to educate the masses regarding the danger of devolving political and administrative power from the centre to the periphery that the NJC was established by Retired Supreme Court Judge Mr. R.S. Wanasundera. The NJC also established the Sinhala Commission to inquire into the grievances of the Sinhala majority. Two reports were published by the Sinhala Commission to educate the international community in this regard.
The NJC advocated the view that political and administrative power should be decentralised from the centre to the periphery but should never be devolved. Many organizations including political parties such as the UNP and the JVP joined with the NJC and when these devolution proposals were tabled in the National State Assembly on 8th of August 2000 all approach roads to the parliament was blocked by protesting masses and President Chandrika Kumaratunga had to use helicopters to fly her MP’S to parliament. It was Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa who walked from the parliament to the Batheramulla junction to inform the people that the devolution proposals had been postponed indefinitely and for the protesting people to disperse which they did peacefully.
The English meaning of decentralization and devolution of power seem very similar when looked at superficially. However the important fact that needs to be realized when it comes to the governing power of a country is that decentralization amounts to the transfer of that power from the central government to a local authority be it a region, a province or a district while devolution is on the other hand the removal of central government power and handing that power over to a region, a province or a district. Therefore decentralized power if misused by a region, a province or a district could be recalled by the central government while devolved power cannot be recalled by the central government if misused by a region, a province or a district. Taking into consideration the difficulty or virtual impossibility for a central government to recall devolved power to a region, a province or a district let us consider the possible repercussions of such an eventuality in this country with several simple examples.
Firstly let us consider irrigation which is the life blood of the farming community in the northern and eastern provinces. Once this subject is devolved to a province, if the provincial administration fails to maintain the reservoirs (Wewas) and irrigation canals in the Sinhala villages, there is nothing the central government can do to help the Sinhala cultivators in distress. The only alternative left for them would be to leave those villages in the northern and eastern provinces and migrate to some other province.
Secondly let us consider the subject of health. Once this subject is devolved to a province, if the provincial administration fails to provide adequate funds to maintain the rural hospital buildings serving the Sinhala community or fails to provide adequate doctors, nurses and other staff or even medical supplies to rural hospitals in their area, the Sinhala villagers will have no other alternative left other than to leave the province and to migrate to some other province where these facilities are available.
Thirdly let us consider the subject of education. Once this subject is devolved to a province, if the provincial administration fails to appoint the teachers needed to schools in Sinhala villages and also does not allocate adequate funds to maintain and repair school buildings in the Sinhala villages, there is nothing that the central government can do in this regard. The Sinhala population will therefore leave the province and migrate to some other province where good education facilities are available for their children.
These are only three simple examples that I have provided to bring to your attention the danger of devolving power to the provinces. However the situation would be the same with regard to distribution of electricity, repair of roads, purchase of agricultural produce and many other such subjects, if there is devolution of power to a province where the Sinhala population is a minority. Therefore while devolution will only hasten the division of the country by creating administrative avenues to encourage the migration of the Sinhala population from the northern and eastern provinces of the country to other provinces, decentralization of power will not encourage such action as these powers can be withdrawn by the central government if found to be misused by any provincial council.
Mr. C.V.Wigneswaran M.P said recently that the full implementation of the 13Th Amendment is good but that he will not look back until a federal constitution is promulgated. He is trying to apply Samuel James Veluppillai Chelvanayakam’s policy of ‘little now more later’ with an intention to first federate a unitary state through the full implementation of the 13th amendment. The federated state will subsequently be divided to establish Eelam, which is the final objective of the separatists. If Wigneswaran and likeminded separatists succeed to achieve during peace what they failed to achieve through three decades of war, all the sweat, blood, tears and toil expended by the security forces sometimes even by sacrificing their very life and limb to defeat the separatists would have been in vain.
This ‘little now more later’ policy has been applied with great success by racist Tamil politicians since independence. They first succeeded in making Tamil a language of the minority community an official language in par with Sinhala which is the language of the majority community in this country. Tamil incidentally is not an official language even in India where the majority of the Tamil population live in this world. Through the enactment of the controversial 13th Amendment the racist Tamil politicians succeeded in devolving much of political and administrative power to the northern and eastern provinces that can be utilised to create an exodus of the minority Sinhala population from these two provinces as pointed out previously in this letter.
Through the enactment of the 16th Amendment these racist Tamil politicians succeeded in making Tamil the language of administration in the northern and eastern provinces for the maintenance of public records and transactions of all business by public institutions. The majority Sinhala population not being racists had little or no objection while such discriminatory legislation was enacted for political expediency but can the Sinhala majority continue to allow this ‘little now more later’ policy to continue?
Therefore in the interest of the Sinhala minority that is living in the northern and eastern provinces, the NJC kindly request you to promulgate a new Constitution for which the majority of the people in this country gave a mandate both at the last presidential and general elections so that the people living in any part of this country are not discriminated based on their ethnic, caste or religious identity.
Why a constitution needs a country may be a complex and broad question, but it involves many points to consider. The answer to this question would be analytical that should cogitate various points relating to modern democratic aspects which concern with rights and responsibilities of citizens. It invites views and discusses many points without relegating to lower quality people without values.
In a country like Sri Lanka which consists of small populations, land area and limited assets, resources may not need to consider complex points of view but, constitutional lawyers and experts may present an ocean of various reasons or views favouring having a constitution. John Doily in his publication wrote about the sketch of the constitution of the Kandyan Kingdom of Sri Lanka and broadly explained the nature of the constitution of Sri Lanka when the British rulers took over the country. The views in the books were collected from the field when he was working in Sri Lanka.
In the beginning, John D’Oyly explained the nature of the state in Sri Lanka, “the power of the King is supreme and absolute. The minister advises, but cannot control his will….” The other significant point is the authority of the King is exercised through many officers of the state, which means in history the power of the state was not divided into provinces the power entire country was exercised by the officers of the country appointed by the King. Provincial authorities like Wanniyar were officers like village headmen or village service officers in current Sri Lanka. Some people interpret that Wanniyar was a provincial king but in terms of John Doily’s book it is not true and the details could find in the book of John O’Doily.
When it refers to experts in political theory, we cannot ignore the views of Harold Laski and the author of the originally written constitution of Sri Lanka, Sir Ivor Jennings. In general view, a constitution indicates that it needs to determine the power distribution of the country, explain the nature of the state and many points as indicated by Doily. The uniting people of the country would give equal rights to all citizens of the country and ascertain the rights of people. It also needs to note that while a constitution is directing the rule, despite constitutional rules many countries encountered revolutions and destroyed the constitutions.
Sri Lanka gained a constitution as the result of the implementation of Saulsbury reforms in 1947 and the majority of people in the country gave consent to the content of the constitution by the general election in 1947. After the political changes in 1956, many experts critically evaluated the contents of the constitution and the election held in 1970 gave the required authority of the parliament to either change the constitution or to introduce a new constitution. In addition, a revolutionary political group of Janata Vimukthi Peramuna pushed for political reforms through a bloodletting revolution and a new constitution in a democratic way came into effect in 1972. After introducing the second written constitution in Sri Lanka the constitution and related activities politized and without a real solution, the concept of constitution and related activities seems a dogma continuing without a clear solution and neighbouring powerful countries use this situation for political advantages rather the than honestly helping to poor communities in Sri Lanka
The 1972 constitution was abolished by the government elected in 1977 which introduced a new constitution allowing free investments and an economic system in 1978. The constitutional issues became the rights of citizens who suffer people of a grave issue that goes beyond Sri Lanka. 12% of the Tamil population was unhappy about the contents of the constitution which has defined the country as a unitary state and the Tamil population originated from the links of South Indian Tamils being associated with a conflict demanding for the country to a federal status from the unitary system. Sri Lanka had been managed as a unitary state before the era of King Anawas, at that time there was no country called India. This idea was expressed by Indian historians and the political manuring promoted India to influence on this issue India wanted to introduce the 13th Amendment to the constitution allowing the country to convert as a federal state. What was the secret agenda behind the reform could not determine and less than 12 per cent of the population stuck implementing this reform.
Converting Sri Lanka which is a small country to a federal administration would be a Boeotian decision and it is a major reason to increase government spending and increasing inflation. The Indian concern was to control the possible repercussion resulting from Tamil unrest. Sri Lanka is not a country viable for a constitutionally federal state, and the contents of the 13th amendment might support disuniting people current Sri Lanka needs sophisticated economic strategies to attract investment and the management of investment to increase the general productivity of the country. The rule of God is to allow land to use by everyone without limiting the humans of the country. May common assets such as water, lands, education and all other assets should not be limited to selected groups and the assets created by God must be available to every citizen of the country despite racial and religious limits.
The 13th amendment is just a piece of paper, sometime, it could be used to make toilet paper in the country when critically considering the contents of the 13th amendment. Every person born in Sri Lanka has the right to enjoy the benefits of land and languages. Since the colonial era, the major disadvantage that has been encountered by people of the country could be considered as the division of rights of people without differentiation on the races and religious beliefs. Colonialists used differences to their advantage and ethnic issues were the major point. Forcing or insisting on fully implementing the 13th amendment by an outside force is not acceptable and Sri Lanka’s people should have the right to implement or not the 13th amendment.
In the meantime, the majority Sinhala community also seems to fuel to fire widening ethnic and religious gaps. Sinhala community should wisely act and should not use the 13th amendment for political purposes.
It was announced that our country is to go for nuclear energy with the help of Russia according to a news item on Sirasa this evening.. As a country we always start late. Color TV was one. But then we do it in style. Radio Ceylon that captured the hearts of Indians was one.
We must thank Russian Prez Putin for that. This was a long felt need Patali and them have been planning for a long time. However this does not mean that as a nation we are anti-west. We are more western oriented than most countries in the region. And we want peace in the world as most Russians do as seen in the comments to the video given below. Mr. Putin here is singing for an American delegation here, I believe.
The term ‘cloud’ in cyber space refers to a server farm in large box type buildings constructed in remote areas in the US or cold Western countries like UK, Iceland, Norway etc. Sometimes they immersed the servers in water to dissipate the heat they generate or send water through the servers to keep them under optimum temperature . The people who once lived harsh lives in those countries now do so comfortably by circulating that hot water to keep their dwellings warm thus saving electricity and generating revenue by ‘taxing’ the cloud companies and also doing highly skilled high-tech jobs. But ultimately who get taxed?. It is us who keep our many useless photo of many mega-bytes (or eight times that of bits) and other ‘data’ in the form of bits in those servers for ever. Finer the image more the number of bits required to define a pixel or a dot that makes up the image on our device.
How many of us know what those innovative companies like Nvidia (a name coined from Latin to give a twist to NV or envy) process and keep those images in their ware?. They have billions of tiny units called capacitors stacked in their graphics processing units (GPUs) that will send back the pictures to us at the press of a button!. Each capacitor retain a charge (or 1 bit) or no charge (ie. 0 bit). So a sequence of 0s and 1s are used to define a picture or our data. But these capacitors have a problem; the electrical charge slowly leaks there by heating up the processor and to retain that data the system has to pump electricity or energy continuously. So we have to burn more and more fossil fuels thereby causing environment pollution and perhaps catastrophic consequences like floods, droughts etc. The Norwegian girl Greta Thunberg who makes a huge din everywhere these days does not know that her country is one of the problem creators. In fact the US or the west does not mind as they benefit from this technology.
Perhaps a body like UN should intervene to stop this madness. They should have a panel like the one they had to formulate the law of the sea to either regulate how much data each country is entitled to keep in servers or to find a new method to store 0s and 1s and retrieve them instantaneously, in order to save the humanity. At the moment 18-20% of world’s energy is used for this purpose it seems. And it is these Nordic countries hosting these server farms that benefit to the detriment of others.
As late singer Don William sang us say “Send down the cloud (thunder) and send down the rain”
The Temple of the Tooth –Relic which was built near the Palace of King Parakramabahu VI in the kingdom of Kotte, had been ruined due to foreign invasions, relocation of the Relics and thus the administration to Kandy. Reconstruction of the Temple of the Tooth Relic Kotte has been commenced with the patronage of Kotte Raja Maha Viharadhipati Ven. Aluthnuwara Anuruddha Thera. Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena visited Kotte Rajamaha Vihara today (02) to observe the plans of the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic to be estorted. Yadamini Gunawardena MP, Isura Devapriya former Chief Minister of Western Province, Upali Kodikara and Salochana Gamage former municipamo council members and a large gathering including Urban Council members were present on this occasion.
Government officials in Sri Lanka said they will work with Russia to bring nuclear power to the country as part of its effort to increase the supply of electricity for the island nation.
Professor S.R.D. Rosa, chairman of the Sri Lanka Atomic Energy Board, told local media the country is looking at offshore and onshore installation of small modular reactors, or floating nuclear installations, that would have generation capacity of 100 MW per unit. The Daily Mirror newspaper on March 1 reported that Rosa said, The government has sought to implement the project in collaboration with the Russian government. The required technology will be provided by them, and they had also agreed to take back the nuclear waste. The Russian government has the technology to reprocess the nuclear waste.”
Bandula Gunawardana, a Sri Lanka Cabinet spokesperson and minister, said the country wants to diversify its power supply and considers nuclear a low-carbon option. Officials in 2021 made a pledge for Sri Lanka to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The island receives most of its electricity from hydropower, followed by the burning of coal and fuel oil.
Russia has said it could provide the island of Sri Lanka with nuclear power. The technology could include a floating nuclear power plant. The Akademic Lomonosov, pictured here, is a pioneering floating nuclear facility that was fully commissioned in the Pevek, Chukotka region in the Russian Far East in May 2020. The plant includes coastal infrastructure and a floating power unit equipped with two KLT-40S reactors of 35 MWe each. Courtesy: Rosatom
Sri Lankan officials last year submitted a self-evaluation report to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), asking for approval to establish an independent nuclear regulatory body and also develop training programs for nuclear power personnel.
Russia is active in its support for nuclear power in Asia. It is notably building the two-reactor, 2.4-GW Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, the first nuclear power facility in Bangladesh, which is expected to enter commercial operation next year. The Rooppur plant will feature VVER-1200 reactors from Rosatom, the Russian state-owned nuclear power group.
Levan Dzhagaryan, Russia’s new ambassador to Sri Lanka, last month met with members of the Sri Lanka Atomic Energy Board to discuss Russia’s support for nuclear power on the island. The talks included a meeting with Kanchana Wijesekera, Sri Lanka’s minister of Power and Energy. Dzhagaryan told local media that Russia is ready to support construction of two 55-MW nuclear power stations.
To begin with, it could be two plants, then four plants, and finally six plants. This suggestion was critical from several perspectives. First and foremost, this would save oil and coal. Second, because there will be no coal, it will be environmentally friendly, and the ecology will be safe and secure. It is also less expensive,” said Dzhagaryan in an interview with Ceylon Today.
Dzhagaryan previously was Russia’s ambassador to Iran and oversaw completion of that country’s first commercial reactor at Bushehr in 2011.
—Darrell Proctor is a senior associate editor for POWER (@POWERmagazine).
