|
|
 |
The proposal to reduce the annual turnover threshold for Value Added Tax and Social Security Contribution Levy from Rs. 60 million to Rs. 36 million, which was proposed in this budget to be implemented from the upcoming 1st of July, will not be implemented.
Deputy Minister of Economic Development Nishantha Jayaweera stated this while addressing the parliamentary session held today (23).
Prioritising the protection of existing garment factories, which face severe risks amid the current economic crisis, must take precedence before the government considers manufacturing textiles from banana plant fibres, Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa said.
Addressing a public gathering, the Opposition Leader pointed out that Sri Lanka’s garment factories currently stand in an unstable position due to prevailing economic difficulties.
“Due to the current economic crisis, garment factories in Sri Lanka are at a very risky stage. Therefore, the most essential thing at this moment is to protect those factories. Before thinking about manufacturing textiles from banana fibres, the government must find solutions to this problem,” the Opposition Leader stated.
The Opposition Leader shared these views responding to a recent statement made by Deputy Minister of Agriculture Namal Karunaratne regarding a plan to manufacture textiles utilising banana plant fibres.
Posted byee ink.Posted inUncategorizedTags:history, India, law, malabar-games, Rice, sri-lanka, Steel, travel, WPNS
blog: https://eesrilanka.wordpress.com
‘Before you study the economics, study the economists!’
e-Con e-News 14-20 June 2026
In November 2020, 120 whales were run aground on Panadura beach, gasping for breath. There was widespread despair at the unfolding scene. Yet there was nary an exclamation from such environmental babblers as the Wildlife & Nature Protection Society (WNPS). These ecomaniacs daily dominate the media, with their chirpings & tweeting & wailings for diverse exotic animals, while groaning about the backwardness of rural cultivators – their subtextual sotto voce being: opposition to industrialization,
It is not that ee does not care for the health of workers & cultivators. But the WPNS’ eerie muffling on the whale strandings may be traced to the emission of submarine sonars during the ‘Malabar maritime war games’ in the same week, wherein for ‘the first time all 4 Quad nations – India, the USA, Japan, & Australia – were exercising their naval sinews in the waters nearby. The USA’s courts restrict sonar usage in such ‘marine sanctuaries,’ yet the WNPS, heavily funded by the US & EU, etc, exhaled not a hum.
‘Foreign plans involving Sri Lanka’s ports are progressing apace’, observes Foreign Ministry veteran Sarala Fernando (see ee Focus). Especially after the recent US attack on an unarmed Iranian ship near Galle, murdering over 100 sailors, she wonders if it is not time to declare Marine Mammal Protection areas especially around Mirissa & Trincomalee? The US, Australia, Japan & India have been ‘donating’ to Sri Lanka, secondhand sensors & ‘stores’ & sea buckets (minus the facilities to make any parts for their ageing equipment), which yet apparently cannot protect us from ‘marauding Indian trawlers’ and the endless seaborne & airborne drug smugglers…
Fernando wonders if the security largesse is an attempt to grab Trincomalee, the 5th deepest harbour in the world. She also points to the damning clause in the 1987 Indo-SL pact to limit Trincomalee’s use to India alone. The plan to involve the USA & UAE in creating an oil hub in Trinco also poses a threat. The UAE & Israel (both colonies of the USA) are waging war on Palestine, Iran & East Africa. She also points to the growing Israeli incursions into Sri Lanka’s East Coast. The local & foreign attacks on patriotic military officials are also a pressing issue, and she calls for a national conversation on the need to protect our sovereignty & phenomenal biodiversity.
It is therefore amusing if not intriguing that the USA embassy (and US & EU government-related NGOs) has been busy ‘training’ military and civilian personnel about ‘disasters & emergencies’ across Sri Lanka. Last week the US state department also summoned shipping officials to Washington, on the pretext of offering investment (and inducements to alleviate their economic strangulation of Sri Lanka & Asia’s economies) but, more apparently, to warn Sri Lanka to submit to US dictat to turn Sri Lanka into another node to harass navigation in the ocean called Indian (ee Sovereignty, 13 June 2026, USA facilitates 8 Lankans to participate in Indian Ocean Ports & Supply Chains Forum).
*
The USA has unleashed their ‘social media’ Gen Z poodles & pitbulls on Indonesia for refusing to base US aircraft there to harass China at the Straits of Malacca. Meanwhile, the influx of officials ‘bearing gifts’ & uttering anodynes on climate change & human rights may be linked to their quarterbacking of the attempt to jail former President Gotabhaya Rajapakse, who presumably refused their demands to park military hardware & belligerents on our soil. The intermittent popping up of shady characters during the so-called ‘aragalaya’, who hark back to the 1959 assassination of SWRD Bandaranaike (see ee 12 Oct 2019) and the 1962 coup attempt against Sirimavo Bandaranaike (ee 16 July 2022) in this current endeavour to isolate, neutralize & eliminate national leaders, augurs more than an astrological confluence (see ee Random Notes, Psycho’s Coup Daddy).
The origins of the diverse coalition that has been assembled by the USA & its acolytes to bring about so-called ‘regime change’ is recalled in review of the novelist Gunadasa Amarasekera’s Roopantharaya. ee continues Sena Thoradeniya’s 2013 keynote at its book launch, which fictionalizes the proceedings of the Criminal Justice Commission (CJC), aka Maha Naduwa – the Grand Trial – investigating the now-ruling JVP’s 1971 insurrection against the State.
Thoradeniya compares the real-life roles of Amarasekera’s characters. He feels Amarasekera’s ability to hold up a mirror to these actors brought upon him unparalleled vituperation, isolation and ostracism. A recent English anthology purporting to represent Sri Lankan poets, Out of Sri Lanka: Tamil, Sinhala & English Poetry from SL & its Diasporas (Blood Axe, England) leaves Amarasekera out, as do reviews purporting to represent those who were left out! Amarasekera’s novel tracks these masked pilgrims’ progressions from prison to NGOs and to advisors & policy makers, where the tragedy of July 1983 offers them a stepping stone. Provided with names barely disguised in the novel, the characters go on to occupy so-called ‘elite’ positions in universities & the foreign service. They have apparently come into their own now. But what a path of destruction they have left and will leave in their wake, heightens the drama. Thoradeniya feels Amarasekera in full bloom may only find resonance in the fictional exertions of famed African novelists such as Kenya’s Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o…
*
The USA’s War Department this week excised their ‘Indo-Pacific Command’ moniker into ‘Pacific Command’, dropping the ‘Indian’ allusion from their name, just after the USA attacked Indian ships in the Persian Gulf and killed several Indian seafarers, to which India apparently and unusually reacted ‘sharply’. And midst all natter about ceasefires & ‘freedom of navigation’, England also hijacked a ship bound for India, claiming it to be a Russian tanker. They then sent their top trade envoy, John Hannett (a Labour-Party Lord!), to presumably ‘talk shop’ in Colombo.
Hannett inspected English parasites like HSBC (famed opium smuggler), Unilever (which this week claimed marketers should not just promote consumption & monopolize markets but ‘guide transformation’), Coats Threads (supplying the rag fraud, which does not make a pin) and several auto ‘showrooms’ & ‘service centres’ (responsible for importing cars & parts to bulge the ever-widening trade deficit). Hannett avoided visiting English chemical importer CIC (ICI) & English cancer-spreader Ceylon Tobacco (CTC)…
‘Just won’t do, old chap to rattle them skeletons.’
*
One of their favourite politicians – who the English grease amply replenish – the footnote fetishist Harsha de Silva, MP, was heard this week warning the Central Bank, to ‘prevent non-technical interpretations’ for ‘becoming a narrative’. This de Silva is given electronic stuttering ample enough to disorient whales. The footnote fetishist’s accomplice in the 2015 bond scam and its coverup, Ravi Karunanayake, was even heard declaring, ‘CBSL has today become ‘the branch of the IMF in Sri Lanka.’Errrr…, so what else is new?
*
‘Corruption & abuse of the public’s Employment Provident Fund (EPF)
under the custody of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) represents
one of the largest financial integrity failures in the country’s history,
one that continues to this day with zero regulatory obstacles.’
The monopoly media splutters faux outrage about the US President’s petty efforts to insinuate toadies into strategic positions in the USA’s financial, regulatory as well as judicial bureaucracies. Accounts of his insider dealings to profit off his purportedly crazed & volatile pronouncements about the progress of the USA’s incessant warring, may make us mix laughter with any tears, as long as we are not recipients of his terror. Trump’s enablers claim he is giving the finger to his real handlers who have covertly massaged his entry into political power. And yet he is perhaps trying to do what he knows the ruling class already does.
In this ee Focus, Dhanusha Pathirana exposes how an ‘exclusive CBSL Staff Provident Fund (SPF)’ of senior employees, which controls the pensions of workers around the country, leaves it ‘wide open to the private gain of an exclusive group of rogue financiers, bureaucrats, and politicians.’ The SPF having access to insider information, possessing ‘a total monopoly over privileged market-altering macroeconomic information’, can manipulate the economy, while claiming to be independent, thanks to the new IMF-inspired Central Bank Act. Pathirana’s answer is to merge the CBSL Staff Provident Fund into the general public EPF. Yet, would this prevent so-called inside market manipulation? Will the ostensibly ruling class stop ruling?
*
• The media is in late pregnancy with advices on the economy from various experts (see ee Economists) but none dare call a mamoty a mamoty (nor ask why England that does not use mamoties still owns the IPR to their usage here!). The much-published economists keep hoping that matters will return to ‘normal’, and they can get back to playing their rentier games, of speculation, peculation & money-laundering. Yet they cannot openly admit that it is abundantly clear the USA & Europe & Japan are escalating war on Asia, Africa & the Americas, east, west, south, north & central. They cannot name the USA as the main perpetrator, the leader of the pack of jackals or hyenas or whatever quadrupeds one seeks to blame for capitalist proclivities. Israel (& the Jews) are convenient patsies, when Christian & Muslim & so-called Hindu egoists could very well compete for ranking in these ‘hunger games’. Egoism which drives capitalism, though rooted & well-versed in white supremacist patriarchy, honors no epidermis, genitalia or national boundary…
Sri Lanka spends Rs300bn a year on advertising in the media, much of it controlled & wielded by multinational banks & corporations (MNCs) such as Unilever, etc. At least this is what they say they spend. And how much of this is to avoid paying taxes, we do not know. USA’s Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, & Microsoft (GAFAM) control more than 7,000 companies, ‘giving them an extensive but largely underappreciated form of market power’ (see ee Quotes). It is no surprise therefore that the media, despite its claims to be ‘free’, ‘diverse’, inclusive’ and ‘equal’, saturates our eyes & ears.
It is equally no surprise therefore that we were harangued this week thus: ‘Today, large business giants such as Samsung, Apple & Microsoft began as small businesses and gradually developed into the global corporations they are today.’ Absolute nonsense! An old fairy tale. Apple & Microsoft & Samsung are linked to the US government’s largesse, the former coming out of Xerox. The author of this article in the Wijeya Group’s Financial Times, presumes to offer a headlined ‘Way Forward for SME Borrowers.’ His prolix bio proclaims himself ‘a senior banker who served in the corporate management of a leading private bank in Sri Lanka before retirement. He currently serves as a Non-Executive Independent Director of the Regional Development Bank of Sri Lanka. He is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka (FIB), an Associate Member of the International Professional Managers Association (UK), and holds a Diploma in Management from ICFAI University, India,’ etc, etc.
*
• The changes that have taken place in the world since VI Lenin wrote his classic Imperialism at the turn into the 20th century to this day at the beginning of the second quarter of the 21st century, is tracked in our latest excerpt of the Tricontinental Institute’s (TI) argument for calling the latest stage: Hyper-Imperialism (see ee Focus). Lenin tracked the growth of monopolies and cartels to the last quarter of the 19th century – something the much-decorated FT banker appears oblivious to.
This TI excerpt begins with describing the effects of the USA going off the ‘gold standard’ in 1971, forcing other central banks ‘to recycle their dollar surpluses into buying US Treasury bonds’. TI also recalls the pyrrhic defeat of the USA by the Vietnamese people, and the shift to new technologies midst the translation of Italian Communist leader’s concept of hegemony into ‘soft power’:: ‘culture, information, entertainment, non-profits (NGOs), academia, & thinktanks’.
They tabulate the 5 stages of communications technologies, commercialized and weaponized, between radio, telephone, internet, streaming, & smart phones. They describe the new methods of mass dissemination and blanket censorship. Alongside this is the rise of fictitious capital, its role in the 2007-8 financial meltdown, as well as the USA’s subordination of Europe & Japan, and the rise of China, is being met by rising hysteria. It concludes with a valuable ‘Periodization of Imperialism’.
*
It is no wonder that SBD de Silva, to whom this blog is dedicated, proclaimed, that he wrote for himself. He wrote to make sense and tease out what he was trying to say. He inscribed for himself alone. Such a media, ruled by petty merchants & moneylenders, on behalf of their colonial masters, would not be interested, let alone comprehend what he sought to explain, by traversing history and the world, in order to aid in the transformation of the society he knew best.
We wanted to tape our conversations with SBD de Silva, but he would adamantly refuse. He saw it as a means to supress his free flow of thoughts: ‘What if I change my mind!’ We even tried to secretly tape him, but strangely they never ever came out. Perhaps we should ask the US or English government who would surely have, having tried to prevent his policies being implemented, calling him a ‘commie’ etc, and eventually driving him out of the country.
Those who heard him, with no urging, voluntarily addressed him as ‘Doctor’ & ‘Professor’ & ‘Sir’, but most called him SB! February this year would have dated him 100 years old. Yet this week witnessed the 8th anniversary of the passing of SBD de Silva. His 100th year passed publicly uncommented in a media terrain known for its effusive & paid-for obituaries & eulogies, and yet he is remembered mostly by those who were aware of his unparalleled genius, where any RIP would demand of this unrepentant historical materialist: Return if Possible!
*
‘In a landscape that is intellectually sparse & monotonous,
any contribution to, or contact with scientific effort becomes
magnified. In such a wasteland collaboration including scrutiny
& comments on work in progress is hard to get, especially
when not directly related to one’s professional commitments.
However, the advancement of knowledge is not generally possible
without some degree of collaboration – preferably of an
interdisciplinary nature – & this means working together, not just
good fellowship. One carries out research as well as participates
in it, whether in formulating problems, in administering
questionnaires & obtaining data, or in subjecting to criticism
what one writes before publication. There are several reasons why
social scientists would want to publish their works. One of them is
that knowledge has to be tested & developed through a process of
confrontation. This need first found public expression in the scientific
journal & the device of the learned paper. ‘It is astonishing’, said
Keynes, ‘what foolish things one can temporarily believe in if one thinks
too long alone.’ Another reason for publication is that the development
of science is a process of interchange, & an individual’s work must be
adjusted to already existing work & also pave the way for others. In the
end there is inevitably a personal element – not just a ‘narcissistic instinct’
to see one’s ideas in print but the expression of one’s social involvement.
As Erich Fromm explained, every human being has a natural urge to
become related to society through ideas & moral values.
The social scientist cannot endure loneliness; for him communion is life.’
– SBD de Silva, The Political Economy of Underdevelopment (PEU)
*
• This week saw the celebration in the USA of Juneteenth, which recalls the supposed fall of the last stronghold of slavery in the USA’s state of Texas in 1865. The US army arrived to declare ‘absolute equality of personal rights & property rights between former masters & slaves’– though the enslaved owned no property! The US Army also demanded that ‘The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes & work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts…’ (see ee Quotes)
This ee continues Chapter 11 of SBD de Silva’s classic PEU, where he recounted how the new wage slavery, was more profitable to the capitalist than chattel slavery: ‘debt, became a substitute for the slave driver’s whip.’ This excerpt describes how plantation slavery blocked the use of technology, for ‘technology is the child of competition…’ Money was not to be invested in technology but in increasing the use of enslaved, low-paid, resident labor. The other reason was the expenses of absentee ownership. SB provides searing examples from Sri Lanka, the rest of Asia, Africa, & the Americas. The use of technology was prevented even if such inventions were available. Experiments were made that showed that mechanization of tea production was possible. but it was rejected.
*
‘The production monopolist must be distinguished from the trading monopolist.
The former protects himself by reorganizing the production process or by putting
out new products (ie, differentiating his market). The latter resorts to extra-economic
restrictions & vested interests, including trade licences, royal charters, legal privileges
&, in the heyday of merchant capital in Europe, physical violence.’
*
This is one of the most amazing insights SBD offered: the difference between industrial producer capital which dominated in the imperialist countries and merchant capital, which depends on privileged access to the state and physical violence. Welcome then, to the whole merchant media game of ‘corruption’ which is promoted by the media as some kind of genetic flaw inherent in the darker peoples!
*
• ee therefore dedicates this bumper issue to SBD de Silva. This ee recalls rather cursorily, inadequately, and rather maddeningly, the history of the short-lived Steel Corporation of Ceylon (SPC): how it was built, how it was sabotaged & privatized, and how the merchant media has sought to justify its destruction & retardation. We also record how the exploitation of our abundant sources of energy & minerals are blocked. (see ee Focus, ee Random Notes).
The sabotage of the Steel Corporation follows a trajectory, very much resembling the history of the country after 1948 in particular. The attempt to sabotage the 1952 Ceylon-China Rubber-Rice Pact, the prevention of a development bank, the undermining of the Paddy Lands Act by a London court, the expulsion of ministers advocating industrialization, the tripping of the 10-Year plan, the assassination of SWRD Bandaranaike, the plan to set up a Steel Corporation, the setting up of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, the attempted coup d’etat against Sirimavo Bandaranaike, bribery to prevent the takeover of the private news monopolies, the splitting of the Sirimavo cabinet, and that government’s eventual defeat…
This week saw the crashing of 2 trains in England, whose train system is in the process of being renationalized, after being privatized & run into the ground. No matter that Europe is in a state of anarchy & renascent fascism, our merchant-media-promoted economists, prompted by the latest fads in Washington & London, and bribed to the hilt, have no use to examine the models offered by the East Wind.
The much-touted ‘failure’ of state corporations is their supposed inability to make profits. Not their inability to make steel or machines, clothes or paper. The question then arises of why something is made. ‘When it is done for profit, you get what happened to all the privatized industries… like US Steel.’
With real industry, one thing leads to another…and another…and another…and people are employed with dignity, unlike by private companies who monopolize the country’s resources and cannot or will not treat people well. More importantly:
‘Steel is the rice of industry’, reminded SBD de Silva, quoting an unnamed Japanese sage. He could have added….. ‘and our people are needlessly being kept hungry…’
*
_________
Contents:
Sri Lanka has historically financed large infrastructure projects through sovereign loans, bilateral financing, multilateral development banks, and foreign direct investment (FDI). While these mechanisms have delivered highways, ports, airports, and power plants, they have also contributed to high levels of external debt and fiscal vulnerability.
The emergence of tokenized digital asset markets presents an alternative financing mechanism that could fundamentally change how Sri Lanka mobilizes capital for strategic projects such as the development of Trincomalee as an offshore engineering and industrial hub.
If implemented with proper regulation, Sri Lanka could potentially become the first country in South Asia to finance large-scale strategic infrastructure through regulated tokenized securities and digital asset markets.
Infrastructure tokenization is the process of converting ownership rights or revenue streams from physical assets into digital tokens recorded on a blockchain.
Instead of raising capital entirely through:
the project issues digital tokens representing:
Investors worldwide can purchase these tokens in small or large denominations.
A retired engineer in Australia or UK , a Sri Lankan doctor in the UK, a sovereign wealth fund in the UAE, or a pension fund in Singapore can all invest in the same project through digital platforms.
Trincomalee possesses unique assets that generate predictable future revenues:
Trincomalee Harbour is one of the world’s finest natural deep-water harbours capable of accommodating large offshore structures and heavy engineering activities.
Potential revenues include:
Trincomalee can become a regional centre for:
These activities generate long-term lease and service revenues suitable for securitization.
Thousands of acres around Trincomalee could be developed for:
Lease rentals can provide stable cash flows over several decades.
Existing facilities such as Trincomalee Oil Tank Farm and future LNG and renewable energy projects create additional revenue streams that can be tokenized.
Ownership example:
Government of Sri Lanka – 25%
Strategic Investors – 35%
Tokenized Infrastructure Fund – 40%
The SPV owns:
Represent ownership shares.
Provide a percentage of annual income.
Finance renewable energy projects.
Allow Sri Lankans abroad to invest directly in national development.
Tokens could be listed through regulated digital asset platforms in:
Singapore
United Arab Emirates
Luxembourg
Bahrain
which already have legal frameworks for tokenized securities.
Such a capital base would be sufficient to transform Trincomalee into:
Sri Lanka would need:
The regulatory framework should be jointly developed by:
| Diaspora Infrastructure Tokens | 1 Billion |
| Strategic Investors | 1.5 Billion |
| Tokenized Green Bonds | 500 Million |
| Multilateral Institutions | 500 Million |
| Total Potential Capital | 3 Billion |
The world is moving toward the tokenization of real-world assets, including:
If Sri Lanka establishes an appropriate regulatory framework and launches a Trincomalee Infrastructure Tokenization Initiative, the country could position itself as:
The first South Asian nation to mobilize global and diaspora capital for strategic infrastructure development through regulated digital asset markets, reducing dependence on sovereign borrowing while creating a new model of participatory national development.
Trincomalee’s transformation from a natural harbour into a globally financed offshore engineering and industrial ecosystem may therefore become not only an infrastructure project but also a pioneering financial innovation for Sri Lanka
Dr Sarath Obeysekera
Investor Briefing for Policy Consideration
The Trincomalee Marine Industrial Hub Tokenized Fund (TMT Fund) is a pioneering initiative designed to mobilize private and diaspora capital for the development of Sri Lanka’s proposed Marine Industrial and Offshore Repair Hub in Trincomalee. Using blockchain-based tokenization, the fund allows fractional investment and transparent participation in a Public–Private Partnership (PPP) structure. The pilot model aims to attract USD 500 million in capital while ensuring traceability, liquidity, and compliance with national
financial regulations.
How the Tokenized Fund Works
1. A licensed fund manager establishes a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to own project equity.
2. The SPV issues digital tokens (TMT Tokens) on a regulated blockchain network (e.g. Polygon or
Ethereum).
3. Each token represents a fractional ownership share, with a proposed value of USD 10 per token.
4. Investors—local, institutional, and diaspora—purchase tokens through a compliant digital platform.
5. Capital raised funds marine infrastructure: dry docks, rig repair yards, and offshore mooring systems.
6. Revenues from dock fees, oil storage leases, and vessel conversion projects are distributed as automated
token dividends.
7. Tokens can be resold or redeemed, enhancing liquidity and secondary market access.
Key Benefits for Sri Lanka
Regulatory and Implementation Pathway
The project will operate under the supervision of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka
(SEC) and the Central Bank’s regulatory sandbox for digital assets. The fund manager will be a licensed
entity under the Unit Trust Code. All investor onboarding will comply with KYC/AML standards. A local
custodian bank and blockchain registry will jointly maintain records of ownership to ensure legal
enforceability of tokenized shares.
Simplified Fund Structure (Diagram Summary): Investor Wallets → Blockchain Registry (TMT Tokens) →
Fund SPV → Trincomalee Marine Industrial Project → Revenue Flow → Automated Dividends to Token
Holders
Benefit Description
Mobilizes Capital Attracts USD 500 million+ from private and diaspora investors through fractional participation.
Transparency Blockchain ledger ensures real-time visibility and auditability of fund transactions.
Liquidity Tokenized structure allows flexible secondary trading, unlike traditional bonds.
Foreign Investment Improves global investor confidence through digital access and SEC oversight.
Reduced Debt Reliance Shifts infrastructure financing from external loans to equity-based participation.
Next Steps for Consideration
• Endorsement by Ministry of Industries and SEC for regulatory sandbox inclusion.
• Formation of PPP Steering Committee for Fund establishment.
• Appointment of licensed fund manager and blockchain technology partner.
• Investor outreach program targeting diaspora and institutional partners.
• Launch of TMT Fund Pilot Issue (USD 500 million equivalent).Prepared by Sarath Obeysekera — Concept Note for Policy Re
Regards
Dr Sarath Obeysekera
ශ්රී ලංකාවේ මාතලේ දිස්ත්රික්කයේ දඹුල්ල, සීගිරිය බලකොටුවට උතුරු දෙසින් පිහිටි ඓතිහාසික, බෞද්ධ හා ස්වාභාවික සෞන්දර්යයෙන් අනූන පිදුරංගල රජමහා විහාරය නව ප්රතිසංස්කරණයන්ගෙන් අනතුරුව ඊයේ (20) දින සසුනට පූජා කරන ලදී.
දේශීය හා විදේශීය සංචාරකයන්ගේ සිත්ගන්නා සුලු ස්ථානයක් වන පිදුරංගල විහාරයේ පෞරාණිකත්වයට හානියක් නොවන සේ එහි දායක සභාව සහ පුරාවිද්යා දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව එක්ව මෙම ප්රතිසංස්කරණ කටයුතු සිදු කර තිබේ.
බුද්ධශාසන නියෝජ්ය අමාත්ය ගමගෙදර දිසානායක මහතාගේ ප්රධානත්වයෙන් පැවැති මෙම පුණ්ය මහෝත්සවයේදී නියෝජ්ය අමාත්යවරයා විසින් විහාරය පූජා කිරීමේ සන්නස් පත්රය විහාර බාරකාර ආචාර්ය දානියගම ආනන්ද නායක ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේ වෙත පිළිගන්වන ලදී. මෙහිදී අදහස් දැක්වූ නියෝජ්ය අමාත්යවරයා, භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේලාගේ දුෂ්කර ජීවිතය හා පන්සල රැකගැනීම වෙනුවෙන් වත්මන් සංඝරත්නය සිදු කරන කැපකිරීම් අගය කළ අතර, පෞරාණික විහාරස්ථාන රැකගැනීම සඳහා පවතින පැරණි නීතිරීති කඩිනමින් සංශෝධනය කරන බවද ප්රකාශ කළේය.
මෙම අවස්ථාවට සියම් මහා නිකායේ දඹුල්ල රාජමහාවිහාර පාර්ශවයේ අනුනායක, පිදුරංග විහාරයේ භාරකාර නායක හිමි ආචාර්ය දානියගම ආනන්ද නායක හිමිපාණන් වහන්සේ ප්රමුඛ ප්රාදේශීය මහා සංඝරත්නය වැඩම කර සිටි අතර, දානියගම ආනන්ද හිමියන් විසින් මෙහිදී විශේෂ අනුශාසනාවක් පවත්වන ලදී. පිදුරංගල විහාරයේ බාරකාර ලේකම් දඹුල්ලේ ධම්මරංසි හිමියන් සහ දායක සභාව එක්ව මෙම උත්සවය සංවිධානය කර තිබුණි.
මෙම ආගමික උත්සවය සඳහා මහනුවර ශ්රී දළදා මාලිගාවේ දියවඩන නිලමේතුමා, මාතලේ දිස්ත්රික් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්රී සුනිල් බියන්වල මහතා, දඹුල්ල ප්රාදේශීය සභාවේ සභාපති තිලකරත්න මහතා ඇතුළු මන්ත්රී මණ්ඩලය සහ දඹුල්ල නගරාධිපතිවරයා සහභාගි වූහ.
එමෙන්ම, මධ්යම පළාත් පුරාවිද්යා කොමසාරිස්තුමා, දඹුල්ල ප්රාදේශීය ලේකම්තුමිය, දඹුල්ල පොලිස් අධිකාරීතුමා, සීගිරිය පොලිස් ස්ථානාධිපතිතුමා ඇතුළු නිලධාරීන් සහ ප්රදේශයේ දායක දායිකාවන් විශාල පිරිසක් ද මේ සඳහා එක්ව සිටියහ.
කාශ්යප රජු සීගිරිය සිය රාජධානිය කර ගැනීමට පෙර, එහි වැඩසිටි බෞද්ධ භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේලාට වැඩසිටීම සඳහා පූජා කළ “පිදූ රන් ගල”, වත්මන් පිදුරංගල විහාරය ලෙස මෙලෙස නව මුහුණුවරකින් ( යළිත් සැදැහැවතුන්ගේ වන්දනාමානයට පහසුකම් සහිතව යලි විවෘත වී ඇත.
Quote
Sri Lanka opens Mattala Airport to local & foreign investors
The Ministry of Ports & Civil Aviation, through Airport & Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) (Private) Limited (AASL), has invited Expressions of Interest (EOI) from investors to utilize resources at Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) in Hambantota. Submissions are due by 09 June 2026, with a pre-proposal briefing on 22 May 2026.
The main objective is to attract investment for direct and indirect aviation-related business ventures, enhancing the commercial use of the airport. A Cabinet Appointed Negotiation Committee (CANC) is handling the evaluation of EOI submissions to select parties for the Request for Proposals (RFP) stage.
The initiative aims to revitalize MRIA, which was developed with substantial debt by attracting international investors, including interest from companies in the Middle East, India, and China. This move is part of a broader, renewed push to maximize the potential of the Hambantota region’s infrastructure, including the adjacent port. The calling of EOI consists of two segments, Airside/ Aerodrome Operations (Civil Airport Operations within the inner perimeter) and Landside Operations (within the outer and inner perimeter operations). The proponents are invited to submit their EOI demonstrating their qualifications and relevant experience to carry out the investments as described under the scope of the EOI. EOI is open to both domestic and international entities. The proposals shall remain valid for a minimum 120 days from the closing date of the EOI from 09 June 2026 to 06 October 2026, inclusive of both days.
Investment areas include Airport & Cargo Operations, Logistics & MRO Services, Aircraft Spares Manufacturing, Industrial Parks (manufacturing, packaging, warehousing), renewable energy and resort hotels and hospitality. MRIA’s strategic location near Hambantota Port and major shipping routes offers exceptional air-sea connectivity and a gateway for global trade and tourism.
Unquote
By Sarath Obeysekera
Despite its natural formation including its depth, historical economic use – the world has changed vastly since then, very limited modern economic current use and continuing military and fisheries utility, Trincomalee port and the region has no economic potential. All profitable ports are either on world’s largest shipping lanes or just adjacent to them. Trincomalee has neither, and that seals its fate.
But how about its heavy engineering potential, both as an enabler of other industries and as a heavy industrial hub itself?
There are successful offshore and onshore heavy industrial facilities around the world but they have other enablers that made them. One main industry is petroleum and chemical extraction. Trincomalee has zero potential in this regard. There are no known petroleum or other resources in the Bay in commercially useful quantities so no potential there. The other is developing Trincomalee as a heavy engineering hub. This has even less potential as Sri Lanka has no heavy industrial base on one hand and on the other deep draft ports far away from industrial bases offer no usefulness in modern engineering. All successful heavy industrial ports are in nations with a heavy industrial base. Sri Lanka is thousands of kilometers from them and has no industrial base at all. Colombo Dockyard is currently engaged in profitable commercial ventures and they may expand in operations if such expansion is profitable including Trinco if that is feasible. This is a commercial venture but is not worth any government investments. In addition, modern ship building and testing have changed from older methods. There is no utility of Trinco port in this regard whatsoever for the builders.
There are examples from North Korea to Zimbabwe of white elephants being built with just hope in sufficient supply. Wasting public funds to build cricket stadiums hoping for matches to come there in sustainable numbers, building ghost cities hoping for people to come and live there and building seven-lane highways hoping for traffic to come have been proven disasters across the world, particularly driven by a now outdated economic system. Instead, the right thing to do is to profitably enhance support for existing businesses helping them grow and branch out to new arenas where the investment amount can be recovered by the government within a short period of time. The government should never invest in any venture run commercially elsewhere if no commercial entity has invested in them in Sri Lanka. They have done their due diligence and found them to be duds; hence, they avoid it and save themselves from certain bankruptcy. With a continuing trade deficit since 1977, a continuing budget deficit since the 1980s and a looming 2027 end to temporary debt relief, Sri Lanka has no funds to waste. If commercial entities want to invest, that is great – let them subject to environmental concerns and national security concerns. This does not rule out foreign military or military-aligned investments; however, they will unfortunately drag Sri Lanka into their wars.
Fifty years after the Vaddukoddai Resolution and seventeen years after the defeat of the LTTE, it is time for an honest assessment. While separatist politicians, their supporters, promoters and beneficiaries continue to commemorate Vaddukoddai, it is ordinary Tamil families who paid the real price—through death, displacement, lost opportunities, economic hardship and generations of suffering. The Tamil people were promised security, prosperity, dignity and a separate state. Instead, they endured decades of war, destruction and the silencing of dissenting voices. Who benefited from fifty years of separatist politics? Who paid the price? Why are the same failed narratives still being promoted today? Fifty years after Vaddukoddai, the Tamil people deserve honest answers.
Political Outcomes
Was Tamil Eelam achieved in Sri Lanka or even in Tamil Nadu where the idea was first birthed?
Human Cost
How many Tamil youth died in the conflict? What would they have become if they had not been sent to the jungles holding guns
How many Tamil families lost loved ones? Where would they be if alive
How many Tamils live with injuries?
How many children grew up without parents because of the war?
Economic Impact
How many decades of development were lost in the North and East? Inspite of making millions of profits did LTTE spend on its people?
How many businesses were destroyed?
How many educated Tamils emigrated permanently?
Social Impact
Did separatist politics strengthen Tamil society or fragment it?
What happened to dissenting Tamil voices? How many Tamils did LTTE kill
What happened to Tamil politicians who disagreed with militancy? Entire moderate Tamil politicians were wiped away.
Future Generations
What lessons should Tamil youth learn from the past?
Should the next generation inherit unresolved grievances or opportunities for advancement?
Fifty years after Vaddukoddai and seventeen years after the defeat of the LTTE, are ordinary Tamils better served by continuing to pursue separatist narratives, or by focusing on economic development, education, investment, and equal citizenship within a united Sri Lanka?
It is a good time to look back on how they lived under LTTE iron rule and how they are now living without LTTE.
The Tamils were promised:
| Promise | Outcome |
| Separate state | Not achieved |
| Security | Decades of war |
| Prosperity | Economic destruction |
| Political empowerment | Reduced leverage |
| Youth advancement | Thousands of deaths |
| International recognition | Continued uncertainty |
Why were the voices of the following forgotten:
Tamil political moderates.
Tamil intellectuals who opposed violence.
Tamil public servants.
Tamil religious leaders.
Tamil civilians caught between the LTTE and the state.
Many international audiences are told about abuses committed during the conflict, but fewer know about Tamils who were victims of LTTE actions.
What happened to Tamil politicians who opposed the LTTE?
What happened to Tamil academics who disagreed?
What happened to Tamil villagers who resisted recruitment?
What happened to children recruited into the movement?
The first victims of extremism & terrorism were Tamils themselves.”
What might the North and East look like today if a different path had been chosen?”
Have Tamils themselves wondered where the following would have left the North & East if 3 decades of LTTE terror did not prevail?
Education.
Infrastructure.
Tourism.
Ports.
Fisheries.
Technology.
Foreign investment.
What responsibility do political leaders bear for the consequences of the path they advocated?
If the strategy failed to achieve its stated goal, why is the same political narrative still being promoted 50 years later?”
What new outcome is expected?
What evidence suggests a different result?
What practical pathway exists today?
From Eelam to Excellence”
Education.
Entrepreneurship.
Technology.
Global Tamil success.
Economic empowerment.
Regional development.
The next generation deserves opportunities, not inherited conflicts.”
Democracy.
Human rights.
Protection of civilians.
Rejection of terrorism.
Equitable citizenship.
Population movement.
Youth migration.
Economic indicators.
Political influence.
Social well-being.
Educational outcomes.
What was promised?
What happened?
Who paid the price?
Who benefited?
What lessons were learned?
What future should Tamil youth choose?
While much attention is given to the grievances that led to the Vaddukoddai Resolution, far less attention is given to those who suffered because of the separatist project itself.
Who remembers:
If Tamil political leaders claim to speak for the Tamil people, who speaks for these victims? The above crimes were committed by LTTE & no other.
The Vaddukoddai Resolution was presented as a democratic aspiration.
But what followed?
If democracy was the objective, why did democracy disappear from areas under LTTE control?
A tragic consequence of militancy was the destruction of Tamil moderate leadership.
How many Tamil leaders who sought democratic solutions were assassinated?
How many Tamil intellectuals, academics, journalists, religious leaders and public servants were silenced by LTTE?
What would Tamil politics look like today had those voices survived?
Did Tamil society lose its best minds to extremism?
Who gained politically from keeping the conflict alive?
Who gained financially?
Who built political careers from the conflict?
Who raised funds internationally in the name of Tamil suffering?
Who became influential while ordinary Tamil families buried their children?
While the ordinary Tamil family paid the price, who collected the dividends?
Many who advocate separatism today do not live in the areas where the conflict occurred.
Therefore:
Should Tamil youth in Sri Lanka carry burdens that Tamil youth advocate from a safe distance overseas? Why should they outsource to Tamil youth in Sri Lanka?
Many foreign actors condemned terrorism elsewhere while remaining silent when Tamil civilians suffered at the hands of the LTTE.
Questions for international forums:
Why should Sri Lanka be judged by standards different from those applied elsewhere?
What lessons were learned from the expulsion of Northern Sinhalese and Muslims?
For fifty years, each generation has inherited the grievances of the previous generation.
But what has this inheritance produced?
Or has it produced continued political stagnation?
At what point does remembrance become a barrier to progress?
The most important question is not what happened in 1976.
The most important question is:
What future do Tamil youth want in 2076?
Will the next fifty years be spent pursuing the same unresolved political project?
Or will they be spent building:
The next generation deserves a future larger than the conflicts of the past.
Fifty years after Vaddukoddai, the Tamil people deserve honest answers.
What was promised?
What was delivered?
Who paid the price?
Who benefited?
Who was silenced?
Who was forgotten?
What lessons were learned?
And most importantly:
Should the next generation repeat the journey—or choose a different path?
Who Owns the Tamil Mandate Today?
Who elected current politicians to pursue the objectives of 1976?
Is there a modern democratic mandate for separatism?
Have Tamil youth been consulted?
Have Tamil women been consulted?
Have Tamil professionals been consulted?
Have Northern and Eastern Tamils been asked whether they want another fifty years centered on the politics of grievance?
50 Years After Vaddukoddai: The Tamil People Deserve an Honest Audit.
History must be judged by outcomes, not promises.
Fifty years after Vaddukoddai, the Tamil people have a right to ask whether separatist politics delivered what it promised or whether ordinary Tamils paid the price for a failed project.
Fifty years after Vaddukoddai, the time has come for an honest audit and an end to Tamil politicians & cohorts fooling the Tamil people.
The next generation deserves opportunities, not inherited conflicts; progress, not division; and a future built on education, prosperity and peace.
Shenali D Waduge
“ඇය තමන්ගේ ස්වාමිපුරුෂයා වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටින්නේ යුක්තිය ඉටුකර ගැනීම සඳහා මිස ඇයගේ ස්වාමියා යම්කිසි අපරාධයකින් මුදවා ගැනීමට හෝ කිසිම අයෙකුට අගතියක් කිරීමට හෝ කිසිම අපහාසයක් කිරීමට නොවේ. නීත්යානුකූල පරීක්ෂණ සිදුවන අවස්ථාවකදී මින්සුන් කියාගන්නා මිනිසුන් මෙම කාන්තාවට කෘතඥතාවක් නොපෙන්වන්නේ නම්, එය යුක්තිය ඉටු වීමක් නොව, සාධාරණත්වය බිඳ වැටීමකි. විවිධ අය මෙම කාන්තාවට කොතරම් චෝදනා කළත් ඒ හැම දෝෂාරෝපණයක්ම එරෙහිව ඇය නැගී සිටින්නේ ජිවිතයේ අඹු සැමි යුවලක් ලෙස දුක සැප දෙකම එකම ආකාරයෙන් බෙදා හද ගතයුතු මෙන්ම වර්තමානයේ ප්රසිද්ධ භාවිතාවක්වන විවාහ පොරුන්දුව සමාජයට මතක් කර දෙමින්ය. විවාහ පොරොන්දුවද නොමිනුසුන් හට මතක් කර දෙමින් නීති කටයුතු අන්සවල ආධාර උපකාර ඇතුව කරට කර ඇයට එරෙහිවන් හට ඇය නීති පිලතුරු තබමින් සිටි. ඇය දිනපතා පෙන්නුම් කර සිට්ටින්නේ විශේෂයෙන් තම අසරණ දරුවන් හට ඇය පෙන්වා දෙන්න්නේ, මෙවැනි අවස්ථාවල නිතිය බලාත්මක කිරීමට අප සිටගතයුතුය යන කාරණයත් පොලු, මුගුරු, යදම් මඟින් පෙන්නුම් කරණ මිලේචත්ව්ය හඹා යාම නොව මාතෘ ප්රේමයය ඊට වඩා වටිනා යන කාරණයය. තම සැමියාටද මෙත්තා ,කරුණා ,මුදිතා ,උපේක්ෂා වඩමින් ඇය මාතෘ භාර්යාවක් වශයෙන් තම සිටගත යුතු ස්ථානයේම ඉන්ද්ර කිලයක් සේ නොසැලී සිටි. තම සැමියා ආරක්ෂා කරන ඇයට බණින මිනිසුන් මේ කුමක්ද කරන්නේ? ඔවුන් නීතියට ගරු නොකරන්නේද ?,ඒ කෙසේවෙතත් මේ නොමිසුන් සියල්ල හට හා තම තමන්ගේ දෙමවුපියන්ගේ සිට තමන්ගේ පැවතෙන හෝ ඉදිරියේදී පැවැත්වීමට නියමිත ඔවුන් ඔවුන්ගේ සැබෑ පවුල් ජීවිතයකට ගත යුතු ආදර්ශ, උපමා, සිද්ධි, අත්පොදේශ රාශියක් මෙම යකඩ ගැහැණිය, දිරිය කාන්තාව, දිරිය මව සටහන් කරමිනි සිටි. ඇය රටට පරමාදර්ශයකි.
මිලේචත්වයේන් යුතු මිනිසා සටනක් දිනන්ට බැරිවිට අධෝ මුඛය පෙන්වන්නා මෙන් ඔවුන් ඔවුන්ගේ අධෝ මුඛය පෙරට ගෙන තවද එය ඔවුන්ගේ මුකරි කම හා පටලවා හා වචාලා කටවල් වලින් විවිධ ප්රසිද්ධ ප්රකාශ කරමින් උන්මන්තයකින් ලෙස සමාජයේ බොරු වීරයන් සේ රඟපාමින් සිටි. අපි මෙය ඔබට මතක් කර දෙන්නෙමු කවදා හෝ තම පවුල් ජීවිතය තුල දුකේදී සැපේදී නියම අඹු සැමි යුවලක් ලෙස එකිනෙකා රැකගන්නේ කෙසේද කියා ඉගෙන ගැනීමට අද මැයට බැනවදින ඔබට කවදා හෝ මැයගේන් ඉගෙනගැනීමට ඔබට සිදුවේවි, එය ඔබට ආදර්ශයක් උපකාර වේවි එදාට ඔබ ඔය පුහු මායාවන් මිදී මෙවන් අග්රගණයේ කාන්තාවන් තම මව පුතු රකින්නා සේ ඇය තුල රැඳී චිත්ත ශක්තිය මෙයයයි නිබදව සිතනවා අනිවාර්යයි.
මැය විසින් ගත් ඒ ගමන් මග එනම් අනෙකා කුමණ දෙයක් කරත් අඹු සැමි යුවලක් ලෙස ජිවිතයේ දුක්,කරදර,කම්කටොළු පැමිණ විට තමන්ගේ ජීවිතයට මැයගේ ජීවිතය ආදර්ශයක් කරගනු ඇත.නීතියේ සාධාරණත්වය තීරණය වෙන්නේ මිනිසුන්ගේ හිත්වල ඇති වන කේන්තිය හෝ චෝදනා මත නොව, තර්කානුකූල භාවය මතය.යමෙක් වැරදි වුවත්, නිවැරදි වුවත් යුක්තිය මැනිය යුත්තේ කෘතඥතාව සහ සත්යයේ ඇති අභිමානය සහ නීතියේ සාධාරණත්වය ඔප්පුකරමිනි. මිනිසුන් තිර්සනුන් මෙන් තම අගම දහම ලොව තුල පින්බවිමට,දේශපාලනය ඔප්නවන්වා ගැනීමට නිවැරදි මිනිසුන් පවා පස්කඳු යට ගිල්වමින් මඩ ප්රචාරයන් හා බොරු,බේගල් ,කෙප්ප, පච, මුසාවාද , මුහුණ පොත් මාධ්ය පඩි වදන් පවසමිනි සිටින බොහෝ දෙනෙක් සිතුවේ නිතිය ඉදිරියේ චුදිතයෙකු වී අසරණවන නිදහසට කාරනා කියන්න නොමැති විට යුක්තිය වෙනුවෙන් ස්ථාවරව පෙනී සිටිමින් මැය කට කාටත් උදාර කාන්තාවකට ලෙස කදිම ආදර්ශයක් දැනටම සපයා ඇත. සිංහල බෞද්ධයන් විදිහට අප මතක තබා ගත යුත්තේ, ඉතාම කුරිරු ත්රස්තවාදියෙකුගේ බිරිඳක් වුවත් ඇය තමන්ගේ සැමියා වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටි පලියට අප කිසිම දිනක කිනම් හෝ කාන්තාවකට බන වැදී ඇයට චෝදනා කර නැති බවයි. එළාරගේ අම්ම හෝ බිරිඳ, රමාණයේ අපට එරෙහිව සිටි කෙනකුට හෝ සංකර සිරිත් විරිත් විශ්වාශ බලෙන් පතුරා අප දේශය සදාකලික අඳුරකට ඇද දැමු පර සුද්දන්ටද අප ඔවුන්ගේ අම්මාට හෝ බිරින්දෑ වරුන්ට බල්ලන් මෙන් බුරා නැත. එය අප ජාතිය සතු අනුලන්ඝනිය සිරිතකි. මන්ද, සැබෑ යුක්තිය කියන්නේ මිනිසුන් හෙළා දැකීමට නොව, කරුණාව සහ අපක්ෂපාතීත්වය අගය කිරීම මෙම නීති කෘතයේදී ඉතා වටිනා බැවිනි. දේවවාදීන් තම දෙවියන් උදෙසා ලොව රජ තාන්ත්රික මෙන්ම, දේශපාලනය තුලින් කරන්නාවූ මිනීමැරීම් හෝ කිසිම ප්රාණගාතකයකට අප පවුද්ගලිකව මෙන්ම ප්රසිද්ධියේ විරුද්ධ වන්නෙමු! .”
The “Player-Referral” concept—which serves as the operational foundation for Cricket’s Decision Review System (DRS) and has influenced global officiating frameworks like football’s VAR and tennis’s Hawk-Eye challenges—presents a fascinating case study of a Sri Lankan innovation reshaping global sports jurisprudence. [1, 2, 3]
However, labeling it the country’s “biggest Intellectual Property (IP) export” is a point of significant domestic pride and ongoing legal debate, rather than a formalized commercial reality. [1, 2]
The Genesis and Global Impact
The core argument for Sri Lanka’s ownership of this concept rests on the pioneering work of Colombo-based lawyer Senaka Weeraratna: [1, 2]
The Intellectual Property Dilemma
While the conceptual design is undeniably linked to Sri Lanka, calling it a successful “IP export” faces steep hurdles under international intellectual property law: [1, 2]
| IP Element [1, 2, 3] | The Reality of the “Player Referral” Claim |
| Patent Protection | No formal patent was registered globally or locally by the creator before the concept was shared. Under the National Intellectual Property Office of Sri Lanka (NIPO) guidelines, a concept must be kept strictly confidential prior to filing a patent. |
| Copyright Limits | Under international standards and WIPO frameworks, copyright protection only applies to the form of expression (the exact text written), not the underlying idea, system, or method of operation. |
| The Public Domain Defense | The International Cricket Council (ICC) and its legal representatives have historically argued that because the idea was published widely in mainstream newspapers, it entered the public domain, freeing them from financial obligations or royalties. |
The Fight for Recognition
Because of these legal technicalities, Sri Lanka has not reaped the economic windfall or royalty streams that a protected IP export would traditionally generate. Instead, companies supplying the physical hardware and ball-tracking software capture the multi-million dollar contracts. [1, 2]
Nevertheless, there is a strong ongoing push by local sports historians and legal groups urging Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) to diplomatically petition the ICC. They advocate for official authorship recognition, aiming to have the framework formally acknowledged as the “Weeraratna Decision Review System” (WDRS). [1, 2]
If you would like to explore this topic further, tell me:
මේ රටේ පලාත්සභා ඡන්දය වහාම පවත්වන්මෙන් කෑමොර දෙන දේශපාලකයින් ඇතුලු සියලුම පිස්සන් ජීවිතාන්තය දක්වා යැවිය යුත්තේ අන්ගොඩටය, එසේත් නැතිනම් ඔවුන් දේශද්රෝහීන්, ජාතිද්රෝහීන් සහ බෞද්ධ විරෝධීන් වශයෙන් වහාම මේ පින් බිමෙන් යළි කිසිදාක ආපසු ආ නොහැකි පිට සක්වලකටම පිටුවහල් කළ යුතුය.
ආචාර්ය සුද ත් ගුණසේකර අග්රාමාත්ය සිරිමාවෝ බණ්ඩාරනායක මැතිනියගේ හිටපු ලේකම් සහ ශ්රී ලන්කා පරිපාලනසේවා සන්ගමයේ සභාපති (1991-94))
2026. 6.20
11 වන කොට
ක්රි.ව. 1799 දී මේ රටේ රාෂ්ඨ්රපාලනයට පලාත් සන්කළ්පය ප්රථමයෙන්ම හන්ඳුන්වා දීම සහ ඒ වන විටත් මේ රටේ මුල්බැස තිබුණු වසර 2000 කට වැඩි විෂ්මිත සිංහල බෞද්ධ ශිෂ්ඨාචාරය සහ සිංහලේ රාජ්ය, විනාශ කිරිමේ බටහිර අධිරාජ්යවාදීන්ගේ සහ අමෙරිකාණු වෙස්ලේයන් කතෝලික පල්ලියේ ඒකාබද්ධ කුමන්ත්රණය සහ එහි යටි අරමුණු.
වසර 2500 ක මේ හ බෞද්ධ රටේ ඉතිහාසයේ ප්රථම වරට සිංහල, දෙමල වශයෙන් ජාතීන් දෙකක් සහ රටවල් දෙකක් තිබෙන බවට 1799 දී නෝත් ආණ්ඩුකාරයාට සංදේශයකින් ප්රකාශකළේ එවකට යටත් විජිතභාර ලේකම් වූ ක්ලෙග්හෝන් නැමැති බ්රතාන්ය ජාතික සුද්දාය. එම ලිපියෙන් මේ රටේ සිංහලයින් මුල් පදින්චි කාරයින් බව කීවද ඔවුන් මේ රටට පැමිනියේ සියමෙන් බව කියා ඇත. මලබා වරුන් පසුව පැමිණි අය බවත් එසේම ඔවුන් දිවයිනේ උතුරු සහ බස්නාහිර දිස්ත්රික්කවල සිටින බවද කියා ඇත. එහෙත් මලබාවරුන් නැගෙනහිර පාලාතේ සිටින බවක් ඔහු කියා නැත.ඉන් පෙනීයනුයේ නැගෙනහිර පලාතේ එවකට මාලබාවරුන් නොසිටි බවය. ඒ වනවිට,1505 න් පෘතුගීසීන්ගෙන් ආරම්භවූ, ඕලන්ද සහ බ්රතාන්ය ආක්රමනිකයින් සතුව තිබුණේ මුළුරටේ වර්ගප්රමාණයෙන්, 10% පමණවූ පටු මූදුබඩ බිම් තීරුවක් පමණි. ඉතිරි 90 % වම සිංහල (උඩරට) රාජධානියවූ බව පහත දැක්වෙන හෙන්රි මාෂල්ගේ සිතියමෙන්ම (සිතියම 1) පැහැදිලි වෙයි. 1815 වන සිංහල රාජධානිය එසේ වීනම් ක්ලෙග්හෝන්ගේ 1799 ප්රකාශය මොන තරම් ප්රභන්ධනාත්මක මුසාවක්දැයි දැන් ඔබට පැහැදිළි වණු ඇතැයි සිතමි.
සිතියම (1)
ඔහු මෙම මනහ්කල්පිත ලියවිල්ල ආණ්ඩුකාර නෝත්ට ඉදිරිපත කළේ මේ සිංහල රට, සිංහල- දෙමළ වශයෙන් ජාතීන් දෙකකට සහ රටවල් දෙකකට බෙදීමේ පළමු කුමන්ත්රණය වශයෙනි.
මීට සමගාමීව එවකට දකුණු ආසියාව පුරා ක්රියාත්මක වූ ඇමරිකාණු වෙස්ට්පේලියන් මිෂනාරි සන්විධානය විසින්ද 1818 දී ගාල්ලේ සම්මෙලනයක් පවත්වා මෙම අදහසම ඉතා ප්රභලලෙස ප්රකාශකොට ඇත. එම ගාළු සම්මේලනයේ ප්රධාන අරමුන වශයෙන් ඔවුන් ප්රකාශකොට ඇත්තේද මේ දි රට, සිංහල දෙමළ වෂයෙන් ජාතීන් දෙකකකට අයත් රටවල් දෙකකට බෙදීම බවය. තව්දුරටත් ක්ලෙග්හෝන්ගේ සන්දේශයේ මෙන්ම මෙම කතෝලික මිෂනාරින්ගේ වාර්තාවලද දෙමළ රට හලාවත සිට මන්නාරම-යාපනය-ත්රිකුණාමලය-මඩකලපුව හරහා වලවේ ගඟ දක්වාද, සිංහල රට වලවේ ගඟේ සිට හලාවත දක්වාද, රට අභ්යන්ත්රයේ ද පැවති බව සඳහන් කොට ඇත. මොවුන්ගේ මෙම ප්රභන්ධ වාර්තා හෙන්රි මාශල්ගේ 1815 සිතියම සමඟ සැසඳීමෙන්ම, ක්ලෙග්හෝන්ගේ සහ වෙලෙෂියන් පල්ලි වාර්තා කොතරම් බොරු වර්තාදැයි අපට සිතාගත හැක. (සිතියම 1)
අනෙක් අතින් අධිනීතිඥ එල්.කේ. න්. පෙරේරා ඔහුගේ ඊලම් මිත්යාවේ හෙලිදරව්ව (2020) නැමති ග්රන්ථයේ පෙන්වා දී ඇති පරිදි මෙ රටේ මලබා ජාතිකයින්ට ඇත්තේ වසර 250 කටත් අඩු ඉතිහාශයක් පමණි. සුද්දන් විසින් 1799 පසු යාපනයේ තල් රා මැදීමට සහ විවිධ කුළී වැඩ සඳහා ඔවුන්ගේ වහළුන්වශයෙන් මෙහි ගෙන ආ මලබා ජාතිකයින්ට ද මේ රටේ වසර 1000 ගානක ඉතිහාශයක් ඇතැයි සුද්දන් මෙන්ම මේ රටේ බෙදුම්වාදි දෙමළ වර්ගයා කීම, මොනතරම් සාපරාධී බොරුවක් දැයි පැහැදිළිය.එසේම සුද්දන්ගේ මෙම් වයිරී සහ දුෂ්ඨ ප්රභන්ධය වූ කළී මේ සාපරාධී බෞද්ධ රට විනාෂ කිරීමට ගොතනලද අති දුෂ්ඨ අධිරා්යවාදි බොරුවක් බව දැන් ඔබට මනාව පැහැදිළි වනු ඇත
ඔවුන්ගේ අවසාන අරමුණ වූයේ, එසේ කොට මේ රට සිංහල සහ දෙමළ වශයෙන් භූමිය දෙකට කඩා ඒ දෙපාර්ශවය උනුණුන් කුළල්කාගන්නා සදාකාලික සතුරන් බවට පත්කොට වසර 2500 ක් පුරා මේ පින්බර රටේ මුල්බැස තිබෙන දි සිංහල බෞද්ධ ශිෂ්ඨාචාරය විනාශකොට, මේ රට ආසියාව පාලනය කිරීමේ ඔවුන්ගේ අනාගත වානිජ සහ යුද්ධෝපාය කේන්ද්රස්ථානය සහ බලකොටුව බවට පත්කොට ගැනීමේ දුෂ්ඨ අදහසින් මේ දිවයින තම ගොදුරක් බවට පත්කොට ගැනීමය. නැපෝලියන් කී He who controls Trincomalee controls the Indian Ocean”. සහ මවුන්ට් බැටන් සාමිවරයාගේ කී Trincomalee is the most valuable colonial possession on the globe”. යන ප්රකාශ ගුරු තන්හි තබාගෙන මේ රට ඔවුන්ගේ ලෝක අධිරාජ්යයේ බලකොටුව කොටගැනීමේ සිහිනයෙන් මේ අන්දමින් හැසුරුණු බව පැහැදිලිය.
අදටත් සරනාගතයින් යයි කියමින් බටහිර රටවල් පුරා, විශේෂයෙන්ම කැනඩාව, එක්සත් රාජධානිය සහ නෝවේ වැනි රටවල සිටින දෙමල ජනයාට මෙන්ම අධිරාජ්යවාදීන්ගේ Human rights Watch’ වැනි ඊනියා ජාත්යන්තර සන්විධාන මඟින් මේ රට තුළ සිටින දෙමළ වර්ගයාටද , ඔවුන් කරන විශේෂ සැලකිළි සහ ලබාදෙන මුදල් ආධාර,මෙන්ම ඒ සියල්ල හරහා මේ රටේ භූමිපුත්රයින්වන සිංහලයින්ට, ඔවුන්ගේ පරම ජන්ම අයිතිවාසිකම් පිළිබඳ මුළුමනින්ම අමතක කොට, මේ රටතුල ක්රියාත්මකවූ රාජ්යවිරෝධී එල්ටීටී ත්රස්ථවාදය පරාජය කළ හමුදා ප්රධානීන්ට පනවා ඇති සම්භාධක ආදියෙන්, කෙරෙන අපමණ චෝදනා සහ වෙනස්කම් දෙස බලනවිට, තවමත් එකී සිංහල බෞද්ධ විරෝධී අධිරාජ්යවාදි කුමන්ත්රණ එදාටත් වඩා ප්රබලව අදටත් ක්රියාත්මක වන බව ඉතාමත් පැහැදිලිය.
ඔවුන්ගේ වහළුන් වශයෙන් මෙහි ගෙන විත් ඔවුන් ආපසු යනවිට මෙහි අතරමන්කොට මෙහි පැළකොට ගිය මලබා කාරයින්, බටහිර ගැති අක්මුල් සිඳගත් සිංහල යින්, සිංහල බෞද්ධ විරෝධී සන්විධාන, බටහිරකෝවේම වැක්කෙරුන කලු සුද්දන් සහ එම කෝවේම වැක්කෙරෙණු සිංහල යයි කියාගන්නා, තම රට, ජාතිය, ආගම හෝ ශිෂ්ඨාචාරය ගැන මෙලෝ දෙයක් නොදන්නා රටට ජාතියට සහ තම ආගමට කිසිදු ආදරයක් නැති,තම පාරම්පරික ආගමවූ බුද්ධාගමද අමතක්කොට, වස්තු තන්හාව සහ හුදු ආත්මර්ථය ගැන පමණක් සිතන දේශ පාලකයින්, කිතුණුවන්, විශේෂයෙන්ම දෙමළ කිතුණු පූජකයින් යන මේ දසබිම්බරක් සිංහල බෞද්ධ විරෝධි මාර සේනාවන් යන සියළු දෙනාම එක් රොත්තට එක්වී මේ සිංහල ජාතියත්, බුදු සසුනත් මේ මිහිතලෙන් අහ්තුරුදන් කිරිමට, දරණ වෙහෙස සහ කෙරෙණ කුමනන්ත්රණ දෙස බලන විට බටහිර අධිරාජ්යවාදීන්ගේ, සිංහල බෞධයින් විනාශකිරිමේ ඒ නොනවතින කුමන්ත්රණාවළිය ඉතාමත් පැහැදිළියය. මේ දිනවල ඊනියා පාස්කු ප්රහාරයක් පිළිබඳ කිතුණු පූජකයින් වීසින් කෙළවරක් නොමැතිව සිදුකෙරෙන ඊනියා උද්ඝෝෂන, අධිකරණ භූමි වන්දනා සහ ප්රවුර්ති ප්රකාශ මාලාවන්ද මෙම සිංහල බෞද්ධ කුමන්ත්රණයේම කොටසකි. එසේම සිංහල බෞද්ධ ජනාධිතිවරයෙක් වූ ගෝඨාභය එලවීම සඳහා දියත් කරනළද ගෝල්පේස් අරගලයද මෙම නොනවතින සිංහල බෞද්ධ විරෝධි මහා කුමන්ත්රණයේම දිගුවක් නොවේද?
The argument that Trincomalee lacks economic potential because it is not directly on the main East-West shipping route is an overly narrow interpretation of port development.
The world’s most successful heavy engineering and offshore industrial ports did not necessarily become successful because of their immediate proximity to shipping lanes.
They succeeded because they possessed a combination of deep water, sheltered harbours, available land, and the ability to accommodate large industrial projects.
Trincomalee possesses all these attributes.
A Natural Harbour Built for Heavy Industry
Trincomalee is one of the finest natural deep-water harbours in the world. Its sheltered bay and significant water depths make it ideal for handling very large marine structures such as:
• Offshore oil rigs and drilling platforms
• Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) units
• Offshore wind turbine components
• Heavy fabrication modules for the oil and gas industry
• Offshore support vessels and large marine equipment
The harbour’s natural depth reduces the need for extensive dredging and provides a safe environment for long-term mooring and repair operations.
Distance from Sea Routes is Not Decisive
An FPSO, semi-submersible drilling rig, or jack-up platform does not require a port to be located directly on a container shipping route.
These units move infrequently and often remain at one location for years. When they require repairs, refurbishment, module integration, or conversion, operators seek:
• Deep sheltered waters
• Availability of heavy lifting facilities
• Engineering expertise
• Large assembly areas
• Competitive costs
Many successful offshore engineering bases around the world are located away from major shipping routes because the economics of offshore engineering depend on industrial capability rather than container traffic.
The Opportunity: An Offshore Engineering Cluster
Trincomalee can become South Asia’s offshore engineering cluster by attracting:
• Oil rig repair and refurbishment projects
• FPSO assembly and conversion work
• Offshore platform module fabrication
• Offshore wind component assembly
• Ship lay-up and preservation services
• Offshore support vessel maintenance
Such industries generate far greater value addition than merely handling cargo.
Infrastructure Requirements Are Modest
Contrary to perceptions that billions of dollars are immediately required, the first phase can begin with relatively limited investments:
1. Installation of one or two heavy-lift cranes capable of handling offshore modules and heavy equipment.
2. Development of deep-water berths and offshore mooring buoys for rigs and FPSOs.
3. Establishment of fabrication yards and assembly areas adjacent to the harbour.
4. Provision of utilities and industrial land through Public-Private Partnerships.
Once these facilities are available, global offshore engineering companies from Singapore, Korea, India, the UAE and Europe can be invited to establish satellite operations in Trincomalee.
Strategic Benefits to Sri Lanka
The development of Trincomalee as a heavy engineering base would:
• Attract billions of dollars in Foreign Direct Investment.
• Create thousands of high-skilled jobs for engineers, welders, fabricators and technicians.
• Generate technology transfer to local industries.
• Position Sri Lanka in the global offshore energy supply chain.
• Create long-term foreign exchange earnings independent of tourism.
Conclusion
The future of Trincomalee should not be judged solely by conventional port throughput statistics or its distance from shipping lanes. Its real economic potential lies in becoming an offshore engineering, repair and assembly hub for the Indian Ocean region.
One or two heavy-lift cranes, deep-water berths and strategically positioned mooring buoys can unlock opportunities in oil rig repairs, FPSO assembly and offshore renewable energy infrastructure.
Trincomalee’s greatest asset is not merely being a port—it is being one of the few natural harbours in the world capable of supporting a world-class heavy offshore industrial ecosystem.
Regards
Dr Sarath Obeysekera
https://share.google/aimode/53JlW3bD2ytPXYo5j
නීතිඥ සේනක වීරරත්න
ශ්රී ලාංකික නීතිඥ සේනක වීරරත්න මහතා “ක්රීඩක යොමු කිරීමේ” ක්රමය හඳුන්වා දීමෙන් ගෝලීය ක්රීඩා නීති විද්යාව මූලික වශයෙන් විප්ලවීය වෙනසක් සිදු කළේය, එය සියවස් ගණනාවක් පැරණි පිටියේ විනිසුරුවරයාගේ නිරපේක්ෂ අධිකාරිය බිඳ දැමූ සංකල්පයක් වන අතර නවීන තීරණ සමාලෝචන පද්ධතිය (DRS) සඳහා ව්යුහාත්මක පදනම දැමීය. [1, 2]
ක්රීඩා නීතිවලට නීතිමය මූලධර්ම සෘජුවම යෙදීමෙන්, වීරරත්න මහතා ක්ෂේත්ර දෝෂ අභියෝග කිරීමේ අයිතිය නිලධාරීන්ගෙන් තරඟකරුවන්ටම මාරු කරන ලද සුසමාදර්ශී වෙනසක් හඳුන්වා දුන්නේය. [1, 2, 3]
ක්රීඩා නීතිය සහ විනිශ්චය සඳහා ඔහුගේ සංකල්පීය දායකත්වය මූලික ක්ෂේත්ර කිහිපයකට කැඩී යයි: 1. ක්රීඩා සඳහා නීති අභියාචනා අධිකරණ බලය හඳුන්වාදීම වීරරත්න මහතාගේ සංකල්පයට පෙර, පිටියේ විනිසුරුවරයාගේ වචනය නිරපේක්ෂ, අභියෝග කළ නොහැකි නීතියක් විය. 1992 සිට “තුන්වන විනිසුරු” ක්රමයක් පැවතුනද, එම ක්රමය ආරම්භ කළ හැක්කේ පිටියේ සිටින නිලධාරියාට නිශ්චිත රේඛීය ඇමතුම් සඳහා පමණි. [1, 2, 3]
සාදෘශ්යය: මොනෑෂ් විශ්ව විද්යාලයේ ඔහුගේ නීති පුහුණුවෙන් සෘජුවම උපුටා ගත් වීරරත්න, 1997 මාර්තු 25 වන දින ද ඕස්ට්රේලියානු පුවත්පතේ මූලික ලිපියක් ප්රකාශයට පත් කළේය. අතෘප්තිමත් ක්රීඩකයෙකුට අභියාචනා කිරීමේ සහජ අයිතියක් තිබිය යුතු බව ඔහු තර්ක කළේය. ව්යුහාත්මක මාරුව: ඔහුගේ ආකෘතිය යටතේ, ක්රීඩකයා අතෘප්තිමත් නඩුකාරයෙකු ලෙස ක්රියා කරයි, ක්ෂේත්ර විනිසුරු පහළ අධිකරණයක් ලෙස ක්රියා කරයි, සහ තුන්වන විනිසුරු ව්යුහාත්මක දෝෂ නිවැරදි කිරීම සඳහා සාක්ෂි ඇගයීමට ලක් කරන අභියාචනාධිකරණ විනිසුරුවරයෙකුගේ භූමිකාවට පිවිසෙයි. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
2. ස්වාභාවික යුක්තිය සහ තාක්ෂණය පිළිබඳ මූලධර්මය “සම්ප්රදාය” නාමයෙන් දෘශ්යමාන, විකාශනය වූ දෝෂයක් පැවතීමට ඉඩ දීම ස්වාභාවික යුක්තිය උල්ලංඝනය කිරීමක් බව වීරරත්න තර්ක කළේය. ඔහුගේ මූලික දර්ශනය පැහැදිලි විය: විනිසුරුවරයෙකුගේ දෝෂයක් හඳුනා ගැනීමට ඔබට තාක්ෂණය තිබේ නම්, එය නිවැරදි කිරීමට එම තාක්ෂණයම භාවිතා කළ යුතුය.” ක්රීඩා අඛණ්ඩතාව සහ සත්යය ලුහුබැඳීම නිලධාරියෙකුගේ ඓතිහාසික වැරදිසහගතභාවයට වඩා ප්රමුඛත්වය ගන්නා බව ඔහු තහවුරු කළේය. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
3. නූතන DRS හි සැලැස්ම ඉංජිනේරුකරණය වීරරත්න හුදෙක් නොපැහැදිලි අදහසක් යෝජනා කළේ නැත; ඔහුගේ 1997 සැලැස්ම ජාත්යන්තර ක්රිකට් කවුන්සිලය (ICC) විසින් පසුව අනුවර්තනය කරන ලද නිශ්චිත මෙහෙයුම් පරාමිතීන් සිතියම්ගත කළේය: [1, 2, 3, 4]
ක්රීඩක බලගැන්වීම: වීඩියෝ බේරුම්කරණය සක්රිය කිරීමේ බලය නිලධාරියාගෙන් ක්රීඩකයින් වෙත මාරු විය. ද්වි-ස්ථර පද්ධතිය: ආරම්භක “අත්හදා බැලීමේ” තීරණයක් සහ උසස් තාක්ෂණික “නිවැරදි කිරීමේ” සමාලෝචනයක්. උපායමාර්ගික සීමාවන්: ක්රීඩාවේ ප්රවාහය ආරක්ෂා කර ගැනීමට සහ උපායශීලී සූරාකෑම වැළැක්වීමට, කණ්ඩායමකට අවසර දී ඇති අසාර්ථක සමාලෝචන ගණන සීමා කිරීමට ඔහු අද්විතීය ලෙස යෝජනා කළේය. [1, 3, 4, 5]
4. හරස්-ක්රීඩා නීතිමය පූර්වාදර්ශය වීරරත්නගේ ව්යුහාත්මක යාන්ත්රණය ලොව පුරා නූතන ක්රීඩා විනිශ්චයේ පාලන තර්කනය බවට පත්විය. නිල නායකත්වයෙන් යුත් සමාලෝචනවල සිට තරඟකරුවන් විසින් මෙහෙයවනු ලබන අභියෝග දක්වා සංක්රමණය වීම ක්රිකට් (DRS) සිට අනෙකුත් බහු-මිලියන ඩොලර් ක්රීඩා කර්මාන්ත දක්වා ව්යාප්ත විය. NBA/NFL හි පුහුණුකරුගේ අභියෝගය, ටෙනිස් හි හෝක්-අයි අභියෝග සහ පාපන්දු හි වීඩියෝ සහකාර විනිසුරු (VAR) සමාලෝචන වැනි නවීන රාමු සියල්ලම ඔහු විසින් ස්ථාපිත කරන ලද ක්රීඩක කේන්ද්රීය නීති විද්යාව දක්වා දිව යයි. [1, 2, 3]
නීතිමය සහ ඓතිහාසික ගෞරවය සඳහා පවතින සටන ඔහුගේ මූලික අංග විශ්වීයව අනුගමනය කළද, ජාත්යන්තර ක්රිකට් කවුන්සිලය (ICC) 2008 දී වීරරත්නට නම් කිරීමේ ගෞරවය ලබා නොදී පද්ධතිය ක්රියාත්මක කළේය (ඩක්වර්ත්-ලුවිස්-ස්ටර්න් ක්රමය මෙන් නොව). ඔහු 1997 දී ක්රීඩාව පේටන්ට් බලපත්රය ලබා ගැනීමට වඩා වැඩිදියුණු කිරීම සඳහා ඔහුගේ රාමුව විවෘතව ප්රකාශයට පත් කළ නිසා, ICC හි නීති ප්රධානීන් සඳහන් කළේ සංකල්පය තාක්ෂණිකව පොදු වසමට ඇතුළු වී ඇති බවයි. වසර ගණනාවක් පුරා, ප්රමුඛ ජාත්යන්තර නීති සහ ක්රීඩා ආයතන ඔහුගේ බුද්ධිමය උරුමය ගෝලීය වශයෙන් පිළිගැනීම සඳහා පෙනී සිට ඇත. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
ඔබ මෙම මාතෘකාව තවදුරටත් ගවේෂණය කිරීමට කැමති නම්, ඔබට පරීක්ෂා කිරීමට අවශ්ය නම් මට දන්වන්න:
ICC වෙතින් ඔහුගේ සදාචාරාත්මක සහ බුද්ධිමය දේපළ පිළිගැනීම ලබා ගැනීම සඳහා ජාත්යන්තර නීති සමාගම් විසින් සිදු කරනු ලබන නීතිමය උත්සාහයන්. ජාත්යන්තර ක්රිකට් ක්රීඩාවේ විනිසුරු නිරවද්යතාවය වැඩිදියුණු කිරීම සඳහා ඔහුගේ පද්ධතියේ සංඛ්යානමය බලපෑම. [1, 2, 3]
https://share.google/aimode/53JlW3bD2ytPXYo5j
AI දළ විශ්ලේෂණය
Trinco port is a natural port; it had its place in ancient times along with the Mannar port when the island’s main goods trading partners were to its east and when it traded in grains and it was and still is militarily useful. However, it has no (zero) economic potential. No major shipping lane goes near it as it lies hundreds of nautical miles away from the large shipping lane that traverses the island. It is uneconomical for a ship to make a call at the Trinco port by leaving large shipping lanes. Colombo, Galle and to an extent Hambantota port have commercial utility. For over seventy years no local or foreign investor has invested in Trinco port for this reason. It has a very low current economic use but beyond that it has zero economic potential.
Fortunes for the Trinco port can change if China builds a road connecting it with the Bay of Bengal. However, that requires slitting India’s chicken neck or Siliguri Corridor thus breaking up India which is unlikely to happen anytime soon. India has shut itself out of the new silk road (Belt and Road Initiative). Goods trading with India is more economically handled at the Colombo port facing India’s large ports along its western coast.
No state investments should be wasted on Trinco port as such a project will be a massive white elephant. Fisheries around the area, limited current port operations and military use of the port should continue.
Trinco oil tank farm is also economically useless beyond the very limited current use. The main reason is it is a distant outlier from petroleum transit routes – it costs millions to divert tankers to take fuel there. It also costs too much to take fuel from Trinco to large consumers hundreds of kilometers away. The IOC deal that provided some usefulness to a very few tanks is itself an economic disaster for Sri Lanka. This is a commercially viable business that Sri Lanka’s private and public sector were able to manage profitably. Foreign players are not required here.
Colombo port is the only commercially viable port today but its operations are severely affected due to lack of expansion space. Its surrounding areas are densely populated that seals the fate of the port. Support services for transshipment are located outside the port, at times over 10 to 20 kilometers away linked by roads that are always congested. Large scale storage, repair, value added service operations, back-up and fallback facilities for other ports cannot be provided by Colombo due to severe lack of space. Without radical relocation of people there is no hope for meaningful expansion. Trying to replace Colombo with another port is a waste of time and money as large shipping companies will simply bypass both. For them time and scale translate to money.
Wasting money on dud projects contributed in a big way to bankrupting the nation. No more. If commercially astute investors avoid an investment proposal, it is for good reasons.
News
Tuesday June 16, 2026 2:51 pm
The Government’s decision to invite international investors to develop 108 acres of land near the Hambantota International Port (HIP) through a 50-year lease is both timely and significant. With global shipping patterns being reshaped by geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and increased vessel movements through the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka has an opportunity to position Hambantota as a major industrial and logistics hub.
However, the country should avoid the mistake of simply offering land and waiting for any investor to propose projects. Instead, the Government must identify and actively promote a set of strategic industries that can leverage Hambantota’s unique geographical advantages and generate long-term economic value.
Among the industries that deserve priority consideration are:
• Petroleum and energy storage tank farms
• Petrochemical and lubricant blending facilities
• Bunkering and marine fuel services
• Container freight stations and logistics parks
•
Ship repair and offshore engineering services where Middleeastern base Industires are nor searching to move out due to uncertainty in Middle East
Renewable energy and green hydrogen projects can be attracted to carry out assembly of modules
Mineral processing and value-added exports • Warehousing and regional distribution centres
A particularly noteworthy missed opportunity was the proposal made several years ago to establish a one-million-ton petroleum tank farm in Hambantota.
A leading tank farm operator Star Tanks from Jebel Ali had reportedly submitted a comprehensive proposal to develop such a facility. Unfortunately, the project did not proceed, partly due to a lack of institutional support and resistance from stakeholders within the petroleum sector.
Had Sri Lanka pursued this investment, the country today could have possessed a substantial strategic petroleum reserve capable of cushioning domestic supply disruptions and price volatility. Beyond energy security, such a facility would have generated employment, foreign exchange earnings, and positioned Hambantota as an important regional energy trading and bunkering hub serving South Asia and East Africa.
The present call for investors should therefore be accompanied by a clear master plan identifying the industries Sri Lanka wishes to attract and the incentives required to secure world-class investors. Strategic investments should be pursued proactively rather than reactively.
Hambantota’s location at the crossroads of major east-west shipping routes gives Sri Lanka an opportunity that few countries possess. The challenge is not merely leasing land but ensuring that the right industries are established to create enduring economic value, strengthen national resilience, and transform Hambantota into a globally competitive industrial and maritime hub.
Dr Sarath Obeysekera
Sri Lankan lawyer Senaka Weeraratna fundamentally revolutionized global sports jurisprudence by introducing the “Player Referral” system, a concept that dismantled the centuries-old absolute authority of the on-field umpire and laid the structural foundation for the modern Decision Review System (DRS). [1, 2]
By applying legal principles directly to sports rules, Weeraratna introduced a paradigm shift that transferred the right to challenge field errors from the officials to the competitors themselves. [1, 2, 3]
His conceptual contribution to sports law and adjudication breaks down into several core areas:
1. Introduction of Legal Appellate Jurisdiction to Sports
Before Weeraratna’s concept, the on-field umpire’s word was an absolute, unchallengeable law. While a “Third Umpire” existed since 1992, that system could only be initiated by the on-field official for specific line-calls. [1, 2, 3]
2. The Doctrine of Natural Justice and Technology
Weeraratna argued that allowing a visible, broadcasted error to stand in the name of “tradition” was a violation of natural justice. His foundational philosophy was clear: If you have the technology to detect an error of an umpire, then the same technology must be used to correct it.” He established that sports integrity and the pursuit of truth take precedence over the historical infallibility of an official. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
3. Engineering the Blueprint of Modern DRS
Weeraratna did not just propose a vague idea; his 1997 blueprint mapped out the exact operational parameters later adapted by the International Cricket Council (ICC): [1, 2, 3, 4]
4. Cross-Sport Legal Precedent
Weeraratna’s structural mechanism became the governing logic of modern sports adjudication worldwide. The transition from official-led reviews to competitor-driven challenges spread from cricket (DRS) to other multi-million dollar sports industries. Modern frameworks like the Coach’s Challenge in the NBA/NFL, Hawk-Eye challenges in tennis, and Video Assistant Referee (VAR) reviews in football all trace back to the player-centric jurisprudence he established. [1, 2, 3]
The Ongoing Battle for Legal and Historical Credit
Despite the universal adoption of his core elements, the International Cricket Council (ICC) implemented the system in 2008 without giving Weeraratna naming credit (unlike the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method). Because he published his framework openly in 1997 to improve the game rather than patenting it, the ICC’s legal heads noted the concept technically entered the public domain. Over the years, prominent international legal and sports bodies have advocated for the global recognition of his intellectual legacy. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
If you would like to explore this topic further, let me know if you want to examine:
https://share.google/aimode/53JlW3bD2ytPXYo5j
AI Overview
Suresh Sallay
By Kamanthi Wickramasinghe
Former Director of the State Intelligence Service (SIS), Retired Major General Suresh Sallay has been detained for over 105 days under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) due to allegations of direct connections to the 2019 Easter Sunday carnage. While in Criminal Investigation Department (CID) custody, Sallay started a fast-unto-death in protest of his confinement conditions while demanding amendments to the PTA. He was later transferred to the Colombo National Hospital and has been kept under medical supervision since. However, his family has raised concerns regarding his deteriorating health condition and has urged the government to intervene and to stop treating him in an inhumane manner. In a candid interview with the Daily Mirror, his spouse Manori Sallay spoke about his health condition, his service to the country, why he doesn’t deserve to be treated in this manner and why the allegations leveled against him are baseless.
QYour husband started a fast-unto-death with a demand to amend the PTA to safeguard the rights of the detainees. Following his deteriorating health condition he was transferred to the Colombo National Hospital. How is his health condition as of today?
I visited him on Saturday (June 13th), and his health condition continues to deteriorate by the day. He appears extremely frail, and in addition to the other complications he is facing, he has developed an infection and a fever. There is a risk that the infection could become septic. As a result, the medical staff discontinued treatment through cannulas yesterday and inserted a nasogastric tube today to provide the necessary sustenance.
It has now been nine days since he commenced his fast, and he continues to refuse both food and water. He is experiencing slight breathing difficulties and is also finding it increasingly difficult to speak.
QWhat is the family going through at this moment?
As a result of these deeply distressing circumstances, our family is going through severe psychological trauma and emotional distress. They arrested a man who was physically and mentally healthy. Today, he has developed high blood sugar, elevated cholesterol levels, and a skin rash after being compelled to sleep on the floor.
When a person abstains from food and water for an extended period, there is a significant risk of electrolyte imbalance, which could result in a stroke or heart attack. At present, we are all fearful for his life. He is an innocent man who is suffering for no reason.
QA panel of psychiatrists has been appointed to investigate on allegations of mental torture while he was kept in CID custody. Have you observed any signs of torture?
My husband was continuously subjected to inhumane conditions and degrading physical and psychological treatment while in the custody of the Criminal Investigation Department.
At the time of his arrest, we requested permission for food to be provided by the family. That request was refused by the Director of the CID on purported security grounds. Thereafter, he was not properly fed, and the food provided was often inedible. He was even made to eat food served on paper placed on the floor.
Today, he is not the same man who left home on the day of his arrest. He has lost a substantial amount of weight, his eyes have become sunken, and he is mentally traumatized and has lost hope.
While at the CID, he was confined to a rat-infested 6×4-foot cell. The lights remained switched on 24 hours a day, resulting in sleep deprivation, and the cell lacked proper ventilation. He was strictly prohibited from using bathroom facilities between 10.00 p.m. and 6.00 a.m., causing constipation and other related medical issues.
The Judicial Medical Officer’s report clearly recommended that he be exposed to sunlight due to Vitamin D deficiency, but this recommendation was never implemented. The report also directed the Director of the CID to permit him 30 minutes of physical exercise outside the cell each day. In addition, a nutritionist prescribed a specific meal plan to improve his condition. None of these recommendations were adhered to.
The issue of torture has reportedly been highlighted in more than seven separate sections of the JMO report. It is unfortunate that he is being subjected to such treatment when there is, in our view, no credible evidence establishing any wrongdoing on his part.
He was arrested based on allegations made by an individual who is an asylum seeker residing overseas, and is subject to a travel ban, has an outstanding arrest warrant in relation to a rape allegation, and is himself facing criminal proceedings. It appears that certain CID officers are attempting to alter aspects of that individual’s previous statements to fit my husband’s geographical whereabouts and timeline. In doing so, however, that individual’s credibility has suffered irreparable damage.
QAlthough he’s now demanding to amend the PTA he has used this law to detain certain people in relation to the Easter Sunday attacks some time ago. What are your thoughts?
At the time the Easter Sunday attacks occurred, my husband was not even in Sri Lanka. He was in India. He did not use the PTA to detain any individuals in relation to those incidents.
He is not calling for the abolition of the PTA. Rather, he is requesting that it be amended to ensure that detainees are not subjected to the kind of inhumane treatment that he has experienced.
He has also requested that the ongoing investigation be transferred from the purview of the incumbent Director of the CID to another investigative unit within the Police Department, as it is our position that the investigation has become highly subjective. In addition, my husband has requested that he be transferred from CID custody to prison custody.
QDo you think this is some kind of political revenge?
I believe this is more a matter of personal revenge than political revenge. Shani appears to have a personal vendetta against Suresh.
The audio recordings circulating on social media, together with submissions made on behalf of the State in court, create that impression. Counsel appearing for the State reportedly stated in open court, If Shani could remain in remand custody for ten months, why can’t he?” In our view, that statement clearly reflects a personal grievance against my husband.
It is also noteworthy that while in CID custody, Suresh has not been questioned regularly. Instead, he has remained in detention while being subjected to continuous harassment and ill-treatment, perhaps in an attempt to compel him to make a confession that conforms to a predetermined narrative.
The intervals between questioning sessions were often as long as three weeks. He has now been detained for approximately 105 days. During this period, I have written to the President on two occasions requesting the cancellation of the extended detention order due to his deteriorating health condition.
QYour husband was detained due to his alleged involvement in the Easter Sunday attacks. How do these allegations make you feel?
When the attacks took place, my husband was not even in the country; he was in India.
The President Dissanayaka came to power on a promise to identify and prosecute those responsible for the Easter Sunday attacks. At the time of the attacks, Shani Abeysekara and Ravi Seneviratne held office as Director and SDIG of the CID respectively.
Investigations conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Australian Federal Police, and several Presidential Commissions did not mention Suresh’s name.
However, one of the inquiry panels appointed by the State reportedly found fault with Shani Abeysekara and Ravi Seneviratne for failing to take action to prevent the attacks and recommended that legal action be considered against them.
Therefore, the very individuals who were criticized in relation to the handling of those events have now been entrusted with conducting the investigation. In our view, this is unprecedented.
Why would the Director of the CID travel overseas to obtain a statement from an asylum seeker who is facing a rape allegation and is the subject of an outstanding arrest warrant? That is the irony of the situation.
We are not opposed to any lawful investigation. Our position is simply that Suresh should be treated humanely and afforded the protections guaranteed by law.
QBut President Dissanayake said that an independent probe would be launched to investigate the Easter Sunday attacks…
In our view, this does not appear to be an independent investigation. Rather, it appears politically driven.
The Director of the CID, who is heading the investigation, is perceived by many to be politically influenced. Furthermore, the investigating officer assigned to the case is reportedly a former cellmate of the Director.
The President has made commitments regarding the Easter Sunday investigations, and there are widespread rumours concerning external influences and expectations. Consequently, there appears to be pressure to identify someone as being responsible for the attacks rather than focusing solely on uncovering the truth.
QDoes that mean that he’s hoodwinking families of victims and survivors of the Easter Sunday attacks?
That is certainly how it appears to us. There are many rumours and public discussions suggesting as much.
In our opinion, the families of the victims and survivors are being misled. Questions have also been raised regarding the assistance and aid that flowed into the country following the attacks and how those resources were utilized. Certain proposed investigations in that regard never materialized.
As a result, it appears that the Easter Sunday tragedy is being used as a political tool rather than being investigated solely for the purpose of establishing the truth.
QThere are claims that he was close to former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and that he carried out operations under his instructions. How do you respond to these claims?
Suresh served under five different Presidents. He was a trusted and dedicated officer who devoted his career to serving the country. He was widely regarded as one of the most experienced officers within Sri Lanka’s intelligence apparatus.
He earned recognition through his work, professionalism, and analytical capabilities. Between 2006 and 2009, we lived in France. During that period, he played a significant role in bringing several former LTTE cadres before the courts, which was a landmark achievement in a European jurisdiction.
He was always recognised for his professional accomplishments and was never anyone’s henchman. He is not afraid of investigations. What concerns us is the inhumane treatment he is being subjected to and the subjective manner in which the investigation is being conducted.
QSeveral prominent Opposition politicians staged a satyagraha demanding the release of Suresh Salley and to remove Shani Abeysekara as the investigating officer. Don’t you think that they are taking some political mileage out of his detention?
If one examines the matter objectively, those politicians represent a broad cross-section of political parties and ideologies. Many of them are familiar with the service Suresh rendered to this country over several decades.
He worked tirelessly in the national interest without seeking recognition or reward. Throughout his military career, he maintained an unblemished record of service.
Today, however, there appears to be an effort to construct and promote allegations against him that we believe are entirely baseless.
QThe family made an appeal to visit him regularly. Has the government responded?
We have not received a written response. However, I was verbally informed that the family would be permitted to visit him for fifteen minutes each day.
His lawyer, however, is allowed access only on Wednesdays. We believe this is unfair because he requires regular legal advice and support in order to prepare his defence and protect his rights.
QWhat is your message to the government and the general public?
There appears to be a systematic campaign aimed at creating the public perception that Suresh is the mastermind behind the Easter Sunday attacks.
When one examines the profiles and affiliations of many of the individuals involved in promoting this narrative, it becomes apparent that a significant number of them appear to be aligned with the present political establishment. We find this deeply troubling.
Many social media users have already convicted him in the court of public opinion despite the fact that no court of law has done so.
If the government genuinely wishes to uncover the truth, it could request further assistance from the FBI or revisit the findings of the Presidential Commission reports.
We urge the authorities to stop subjecting an innocent man to what we believe is inhumane treatment and to transfer the investigation to a different investigative unit. Suresh remains a detainee against whom allegations have been made; he has not been convicted of any offence.
The government must establish the truth before reaching conclusions. In most parts of the world, a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Unfortunately, in Sri Lanka today, it often appears that a person’s guilt or innocence depends on what those in power wish the public to believe.
The government is misleading the public over fuel pricing by claiming that fuel prices cannot be reduced because existing stocks were purchased at higher rates, former Member of Parliament Patali Champika Ranawaka accused.
Speaking to the media, Patali Champika Ranawaka questioned the explanation from authorities, pointing out that fuel prices went up shortly after Middle East tensions escalated despite those stocks being bought earlier at lower prices. The price hike applied to fuel already purchased at lower rates, even though stocks bought in February came at old prices.
The government earned more than 6 billion rupees through that price increase, but the same logic is missing now that global oil prices fell, Patali Champika Ranawaka alleged. International oil prices returned to pre-conflict levels, meaning fuel imports can currently happen at significantly lower rates. Petrol can now be imported at around 225 rupees per litre and diesel at around 240 rupees per litre.
The government, the Central Bank, and relevant authorities must disclose details of the fuel pricing formula, including import costs, selling prices, and taxes, similar to practices followed in 2023 and 2024, Patali Champika Ranawaka demanded. Furthermore, irregularities took place in fuel procurement, where diesel purchases from companies including Trafigura and Aditya Birla resulted in excessive costs. Complaints regarding the matter were already lodged, and a full investigation is required. These costs are now passed on to the public, and a diesel procurement fraud took place in addition to the coal procurement controversy.
Minister of Health and Mass Media Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa has warned that if the number of dengue patients continues to increase, the country’s hospital system could struggle to cope.
He made these remarks while attending the Beruwala Divisional Coordination Committee meeting.
The Minister stressed that public and institutional responsibility is crucial in controlling the spread of dengue, noting that maintaining cleanliness in homes, government institutions, and other places is essential to prevent mosquito breeding.
He further stated that the increase in the number of dengue patients could put severe pressure on the health system.
Speaking further, he said, No matter what we do in the long term, the only short-term solution to controlling the increase in dengue patients is to destroy mosquito breeding grounds. All we have to do is keep our surroundings clean. If more patients start being reported than this, our hospital system will not be able to handle it. That is what happens when a problem like this continues. If that happens, patient care will collapse. This can still be controlled.”
The United National Party (UNP) has issued a special statement saying that following the Easter Sunday attacks on April 21, 2019, Sri Lanka’s investigative institutions lacked sufficient expertise at the time, and therefore, then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe requested the United States Government to conduct a full investigation into the attacks and provide a report.
The party says the then Prime Minister also assured full cooperation from Sri Lankan authorities, and later made a similar request during a telephone conversation with US President Donald Trump on April 22.
Following that call, US President Donald Trump posted on X (formerly Twitter) stating that the United States stood with Sri Lanka and its Prime Minister in the fight against terrorism, and expressed deep condolences on behalf of the American people.
In response to the request, the FBI conducted a full investigation in coordination with Sri Lankan authorities, including the CID, military intelligence, and the State Intelligence Service. Based on all collected evidence and findings, the FBI submitted a report to the Sri Lankan government, which was accepted by all relevant authorities in Sri Lanka, the UNP said.
The party further notes that on November 12, 2020, FBI Special Agent Merrilee R. Godwin filed a 71-page affidavit before the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
After a two-year investigation, US authorities filed a criminal case on December 11, 2020, in the United States District Court in Los Angeles.
The defendants named in the case were Mohamed Naufar, Mohamed Anwar Mohamed Riskaan, and Ahmed Milhan Hayath Mohamed. At the time of filing, they, along with other suspects linked to the attacks, were already in custody in Sri Lanka.
The statement adds that all information and evidence related to the US investigation are currently in the possession of the FBI or the US Department of Justice.
The UNP has questioned whether the current government has officially requested these materials from the US government, given that a fresh investigation into the Easter attacks has been launched.
It further asks what response, if any, was received, and if no request has been made, the government should explain why.
The party emphasises that these critical findings and evidence should be urgently made available to Sri Lanka’s judicial authorities, and issued a statement from the UNP headquarters, Sirikotha.
හදිසි මිලදී ගැනීමක් ලෙස මෙ.ටො. එකකට ඩොලර් 142 ක් බැගින් ගෙවීමේ පොරොන්දුව මත ගෙන්වා ගත්, ගල් (අළු) අඟුරු නැවක් ගොඩබෑමකින් තොරව ජූනි 16 (ඊයේ) ඉන්දියාවේ විශාකාපට්ටම් බලා පිටත්ව ගොස් ඇත. Ana Ocean නැව නොරොච්චෝලේ වෙත ගල් අඟුරු රැගෙන විත් ගොඩබෑම් සිදු නොකළ දෙවන නැව යි. මෙයට පෙර 2026 මැයි 2 දින පුත්තලමට පැමිණි YASA SUN නැව ද, ගල් අඟුරු ගොඩබෑමකින් තොරව මේ දක්වා නැරංගුරම් ලා ඇත.
MV JOSCO YONGZHOU සහ Ana Ocean ගල් (අළු) අඟුරු නැව්වල ප්රමිතිය ප්රතිකේෂ කළ යුතු මට්ටමක පවතින බව අප සංවිධානය විසින් අනාවරණය කරනු ලැබීය. ප්රතිකේෂ කළ යුතු මට්ටමක අළු තිබු MV JOSCO YONGZHOU නැව වෙසක් පෝය සති අන්තයේ දී ගොඩබානු ලැබීය. Ana Ocean ගල් (අළු) නැවේ ගල්අඟුරු ද සාධක ප්රමිති සාධක ගණනාවකට ලඟාවී නොතිබුණි. රාජ්ය නිලධාරීන් නැව බාරගැනීම ප්රතිකේෂප කළ පසුව දඩයකට යටත් කර ගල් අඟුරු ගොඩබැම සඳහා වන ඉල්ලීමක් Taranjot Resources Pvt. Ltd. ආයතනය විසින් 2026 ජූනි 9 වන දින අතිගරු ජනාධිපතිතුමන් වෙත ඉදිරිපත් වී තිබුණි. Ana Ocean ගල් (අළු) අඟුරු නැව ට ප්රතිකේෂ්ප කළ නමුත්, මේ වන විටත් ගොඩබා ඇති MV JOSCO YONGZHOU නැවට මුදල් ගෙවීම අපරාධයක්/වංචාවක්/දුෂණයකි.
සමාගම් දෙකකින් නැව් 25 ක් මිලදී ගැනීමට ටෙන්ඩර් ප්රදානය කර තිබූ නමුත්, රජය ප්රධාන ටෙන්ඩරයේ එක් නැවක් අවලංගු කර දැමීය. නියමිත පරිදි නැව් පැමිනෙන්නේ නම් 2026 සැප්. 2 දින දක්වා ප්රමාණවත් ගල් අඟුරු පවතින බව බලධාරීන් ප්රකාශ කර තිබුණි. ගල් අඟුරු නැවත් ප්රමාණවත්වන්නේ දින 8 ක අවශ්යතාවයකට ය. ඒ අනුව, මේ වන විට සැප්. 2 දින සිට දින 16 ක ට පෙර පවතින තොග අවසන් විය හැකිය. ඒ අනුව නැව් 24 ක් ගොඩබෑමට නියමිතව තිබූ නමුත් මේ වන විට ගොඩ බා ඇත්තේ නැව් 22 ක් පමණී. සැප්. 2 දින දක්වා අඛණ්ඩව යන්ත්ර ක්රියාත්මක කිරීමට නම් තවත් නැව් තුනක් අනිවාර්යයෙන්ම ගොඩ බෑ යුතුය. මේ වන විට ලංකා මුහුදු සීමාවේ පවතින YASA SUN නැව ගොඩබෑම පිළිබඳ අවසන් තීරණයක් තවමත් ගෙන නැත.
ගල් අඟුරු සඳහා මුදල් ගෙවීමේ කටයුතු ද මේ වන විට නවතා දමා ඇත. රටේ බලශක්ති අර්බුදයක් මතුවෙමින් පවතින අවස්ථාවක, සැපයුම්කරුවන්ට මුදල් නොගෙවන්නේ රටේ ඩොලර් හිඟ නිසාද? භාණ්ඩාගාරය සිදෙමින් පවතින නිසා ද යන්න බලධාරීන් හෙළි කළ යුතුය. ගල් අඟුරු සමාගමේ ප්රධාන නිලධාරීන් තිදෙනාම දෛනිකව ගල්අඟුරු කොමිසමට වාර්තා කරමින් සිටින බැවින් සමාගමේ තීරණ ගැනීමක් සිදුවන්නේ නැත.
මෙම ගල් අඟුරු තොගය අහිමි වන්නේ නම් තාප විදුලි ජනනයෙන් එය කිසි ලෙසකින් හෝ උත්පාදනය කළ නොහැකි වන අතර, ගල් අඟුරු වෙනුවට ඩීසල් යොදා ජනනය කරන විදුලි ඒකකය මිල තුන් ගුණයකින් ඉහළ මට්ටමක පවතී. බාල ගල් අඟුරු හේතුවෙන් මේ වන විට අප රටේ ඉන්ධන ආනයන විදයම තුන් ගුණයකින් ඉහළ ගොස් ඇත්තේ රටේ අනෙකුත් කටයුතු සඳහා භාවිත කරන ඉන්ධන ප්රමාණය කෝටා ක්රමයක් තුල 1/3 කින් සීමා කර ඇති පසුබිමක් යටතේ ය.
ජනාධිපති නීතිඥ මෛත්රී ගුණරත්න
නීතිඥ අතුල ද සිල්වා
සම කැඳවුම්කරු – ෆ්රී ලෝයර්ස් සංවිධානය
Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon
Former Governor of Uva, Southern and Central Provinces
Former Executive Director of Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) and Center for Human Rights and Research – CHR Sri Lanka
https://www.srilankabusiness.com/ebooks/national-export-strategy-of-sri-lanka.pdf
Sri Lanka’s National Export Development Plan (NEDP) rightly focuses on transforming the country into a competitive logistics and export hub and prioritises marine-based industries and high-value manufacturing. However, the strategy does not adequately address one of Sri Lanka’s most significant untapped opportunities—the development of an offshore and heavy industrial hub in Trincomalee.
Trincomalee possesses one of the world’s finest natural deep-water harbours, vast land availability, and a strategic location at the crossroads of major Indian Ocean shipping routes. These attributes make it an ideal nucleus for developing offshore engineering, shipbuilding and repair, oil and gas support services, renewable energy fabrication, and other heavy industries.
Several advisory bodies and industry experts have previously recommended positioning Trincomalee as a regional offshore industrial centre capable of serving South Asia, the Middle East, and East Africa. Yet, the NEDP lacks a focused investment roadmap to attract global investors in these sectors.
Sri Lanka should actively market Trincomalee to major investors from India, Dubai, Singapore, and South Korea, all of whom possess extensive expertise and capital in offshore infrastructure and marine engineering. Establishing special industrial zones, streamlined approvals, public-private partnerships, and targeted fiscal incentives could transform Trincomalee into a major foreign direct investment (FDI) destination.
At a time when Sri Lanka seeks export diversification and higher-value industrial growth, developing Trincomalee as an offshore industrial hub is not merely an option—it is a strategic necessity. A dedicated offshore development strategy integrated into the NEDP could generate employment, technology transfer, export earnings, and position Sri Lanka as a leading maritime industrial centre in the Indian Ocean region.
Dr Sarath Obeysekera
Whether it’s a new year or a milestone, it usually brings with it a longing for peace, a hope that the world and our lives will somehow grow calmer, kinder and more stable. Yet year after year, that peace seems to slip through our fingers. The turmoil that engulfs us is not just political or economic, but deeply spiritual and existential. Our modern age, with its advances and conveniences, has also brought a fatigue of spirit, a condition where moral clarity fades, cynicism hardens and the sense of sacred purpose is lost in the noise of daily survival.
What we suffer today is spiritual entropy: the gradual decline of meaning and connectedness both with God and with each other. Behaviours once widely condemned are now normalised, while genuine self-examination and communal accountability appear outmoded. The rise of moral relativism (i.e., morals are not absolute or universally set) and the collapse of shared values have been amplified by unprecedented global challenges, war, inequality, environmental degradation and the numbing onslaught of information. This collective weariness is not merely the outcome of political failures, but a symptom of hearts becoming distant from the true source of peace itself: Allah.
The Quran outlines this historical pattern. When societies forget God and begin relying solely on their own wit and turning away from the pursuit of righteousness, they drift toward calamity. (Surah Bani Isra‘il, Ch.17: V.17) This truth was echoed by Abraham Lincoln, who lamented a nation too proud to pray to the God that made us.” (Proclamation 97) Laws and government, while necessary, cannot legislate virtue or ensure justice for all, especially when interior conviction has eroded.
Religion is not immune to this crisis. Hypocrisy and self-righteousness frequently infect spiritual communities, substituting empty ritual for deep transformation. Yet, authentic faith at its core asserts a radical idea: real peace comes not from the absence of hardship, but from God’s presence within the struggle. As the Promised Messiah (as) explained, spiritual maturity is forged in adversity; trials are not punishments, but opportunities for growth. He reminds us that perfection comes through trials. (Malfuzat, 2022, Vol. 3, p. 2)
Salat (prayer), when invested with inward truth, becomes the heart’s awakening, not just a bodily action or empty recitation. Its purpose is to anchor each moment in the remembrance of God, so that the sacred is woven into the mundane, from work and family to facing adversity with patience and gratitude.
But none of us completes this journey alone. The power of transformation begins with recognising our need for divine help, seeking istighfar and taubah (forgiveness and repentance) and strength from God before attempting to reform ourselves. Gratitude and humility return us to what matters: every breath, every small act of honesty or kindness is meaningful.
If we wish to shift society, this inward renewal must ripple outward. Each act of private goodness, each moment of self-restraint or truthfulness, helps preserve the world around us. Spiritual consciousness, as traditions teach, can protect and uplift whole families and communities, gradually strengthening the fabric of society. True peace only arises when dignity, equity and respect are extended to all, regardless of societal trends or fleeting public opinion.
The role of genuine leadership becomes crucial in such times and matters greatly. We need leaders who lead by example with honesty, integrity and high morals. Leaders who control the narrative and challenge the self-destructive and dehumanising drift of our society by speaking out clearly, creating awareness and emphasising mindfulness of the consequences of our words and actions. Prophet Muhammad (sa) was one such leader and history demonstrates how he revived the world through his prayers and pleadings in the dark of night.
Today, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Khalifatul Masih V (aa), is calling us all to come to God and to adopt a life of prayer, love and compassion. His guidance calls us to reject complacency and embrace lives of service and justice.
In practical terms, that means defining success in spiritual and ethical terms rather than financial or superficial ones; disciplining ourselves in daily habits of prayer, gratitude and learning; curating our environments and relationships for goodness; and confronting injustice even when it is not popular to do so. We remember that happiness is fleeting, but contentment is found in gratitude, the realisation that hearts can truly find peace only in the remembrance of God.
As the world grows ever more interconnected and complex, the call to spiritual awakening is not a retreat from life’s messiness but an urgent summons to engage it with integrity and faith. Now more than ever, our work must be to bridge the sacred and the contemporary, bringing compassion, justice and humility into each private and public act.
In 2016, during the first Trump campaign, I wrote an article asking whether American democracy could survive the reduction of politics to entertainment. At the time, the question seemed exaggerated to some readers. Politics had always contained theatrical elements. Presidents cultivated images. Campaigns relied on slogans and symbolism. The boundary between politics and spectacle was hardly new.
Yet something different appeared to be emerging. Entertainment was no longer merely a tool of politics. Politics itself was becoming a branch of entertainment. A decade later, the consequences are increasingly difficult to ignore.
Recently, Donald Trump referred to immigrants using imagery drawn from science fiction, playing upon the double meaning of the word alien.” The term has a legal meaning, of course. But Trump’s rhetoric deliberately invokes a second image as well: the extraterrestrial invader, the creature from another world, the threatening presence familiar from countless films, television shows, and conspiracy theories.
The reference is revealing. It is tempting to dismiss such language as merely another example of political hyperbole. That would be a mistake. What makes the rhetoric disturbing is not simply its hostility toward immigrants. It is the way it transforms political reality into a form of entertainment.
Immigrants cease to appear as human beings with histories, families, aspirations, and vulnerabilities. They become characters in a spectacle. The border becomes a movie plot. Political judgment gives way to narrative identification. Citizens are invited not to deliberate but to consume. The language is grotesque precisely because it collapses the distinction between governing and performing.
More than eighty years ago, Walter Benjamin recognized the danger. In his influential essay, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Benjamin argued that fascism aestheticizes politics. Rather than enabling genuine democratic participation, fascist movements transform politics into a spectacle. Social conflicts become dramas. Economic contradictions become myths. Citizens become spectators. Politics ceases to be something people do together. It becomes something they watch.
Benjamin’s insight has acquired renewed relevance in the age of social media, reality television, and algorithmic attention. The modern political leader increasingly resembles a content creator. Success depends less upon governing than upon maintaining visibility. Attention becomes more important than truth. Emotional engagement becomes more important than judgment. The result is a politics of permanent performance.
Trump did not invent this condition. He merely mastered it. The deeper problem is that contemporary ideology no longer requires belief. As Žižek has repeatedly argued, modern power often functions through cynical participation rather than genuine conviction. People do not need to believe that immigrants are literally invaders from another world. They need only enjoy the fantasy. The spectacle works even when everyone knows it is a spectacle. Indeed, its effectiveness may depend precisely upon that fact. Politics becomes a game in which reality matters less than the pleasure of performance, outrage, and identification.
The deeper danger is not misinformation but derecognition. Democratic life depends upon the capacity to encounter others as participants in a shared world. Spectacle interrupts that encounter. The immigrant no longer appears as a person but as an image. The neighbor becomes a symbol. Recognition gives way to projection. Once human beings are transformed into aesthetic objects, cruelty becomes easier because the relation between self and other has already been broken.
Trump’s genius—if that is the word—is his intuitive understanding that contemporary media culture rewards spectacle over substance. He understands that outrage generates engagement, that provocation dominates news cycles, and that symbolic gestures often matter more politically than concrete achievements. The immigrant as “alien” is effective for the same reason a Hollywood villain is effective. The image is immediate. It bypasses reflection. It operates directly on fear.
Fear is uniquely suited to aestheticization because it thrives on images rather than arguments. One does not reason oneself into panic. Fear abolishes complexity. It transforms social problems into visible enemies. It offers emotional certainty where political reality presents ambiguity. The attraction of fear lies partly in its promise of clarity. A world of economic dislocation, demographic change, and political uncertainty becomes easier to navigate when these anxieties can be projected onto a recognizable figure: the outsider, the invader, the alien. Fear is aesthetically powerful because it transforms ambiguity into imagery.
The threatening outsider, the invader, the contaminant, the alien—these figures operate less as political concepts than as emotional triggers. Their power lies precisely in their ability to transform uncertainty into a vivid and compelling narrative. Fear becomes enjoyable. Anxiety becomes entertainment. Trump’s rhetoric works because it exploits a reservoir of images already accumulated by popular culture. Decades of films, television series, and conspiracy narratives have prepared audiences to associate the alien with invasion, infiltration, replacement, and existential threat. Politics no longer needs to invent new fears. It can recycle images already circulating within entertainment culture.
Contemporary forms of domination often operate through entertainment itself. Citizens are not necessarily commanded. They are distracted. They are not always censored. They are overwhelmed. Politics becomes another stream of consumable content. Žižek’s deeper insight is that ideological fear rarely attaches itself to its true object. Social anxieties generated by economic insecurity, cultural dislocation, political distrust, or technological change are difficult to represent directly. They are diffuse, abstract, and often resistant to clear explanation.
Ideology resolves this problem by concentrating those anxieties upon a visible figure. The immigrant, the outsider, the alien becomes a kind of screen onto which broader uncertainties are projected. What makes such figures politically effective is not that they explain social problems but that they make them appear intelligible. Complexity is condensed into an image. The object of fear acquires a significance far exceeding anything it actually possesses because it has become the symbolic bearer of anxieties that originate elsewhere.
The result is not active citizenship but passive spectatorship. In this respect, Trump’s rhetoric should not be understood as a break from contemporary media culture. It is its logical culmination. The significance of Trump’s rhetoric is not that it represents the opposite of liberal society. It emerges from tendencies already present within it. A culture organized around consumption, branding, entertainment, and attention inevitably rewards those most skilled at transforming politics into spectacle.
The immigrant becomes an alien. The political opponent becomes a villain. The election becomes a season finale. Government becomes content. The distinction between reality and representation steadily erodes. One need not exaggerate the comparison to recognize its dangers. Fascism has historically depended upon dehumanization. Human beings become symbols. Neighbors become threats. Complex social realities are reduced to emotionally charged images that eliminate the need for thought.
The immigrant is no longer a worker, a parent, a refugee, or a person seeking opportunity. He becomes an invader. A contaminant. An alien. The rhetorical move is ancient. What is new is the medium through which it operates. The twentieth century witnessed the rise of mass propaganda. The twenty-first century has witnessed the rise of algorithmic spectacle. The old political rally has been supplemented by viral clips, memes, social-media feeds, and endless cycles of outrage. Politics increasingly resembles an entertainment ecosystem whose primary purpose is to maintain attention.
This is why Trump’s science-fiction rhetoric matters. The issue is not that a politician made a tasteless joke. The issue is that political discourse itself increasingly speaks in the language of entertainment. When citizens become audiences, democracy begins to weaken. When governing becomes performance, accountability becomes difficult. When human beings become characters in a spectacle, cruelty becomes easier. And when politics becomes television, television eventually becomes politics.
The danger confronting American democracy today is not merely authoritarianism in its traditional form. It is the fusion of politics and entertainment into a single cultural apparatus in which attention replaces judgment and spectacle replaces reality.
Benjamin saw the danger in the age of radio and film. We are living through its digital sequel. Benjamin feared a society in which politics would become artifice, spectacle, and myth. What he could not have foreseen was a culture in which the distinction between politics and entertainment would disappear almost entirely. The danger is no longer simply that citizens are manipulated. It is that they increasingly experience manipulation as entertainment. Democracy cannot survive indefinitely when its citizens cease to act as participants in a common world and come to understand themselves primarily as fans, consumers, and spectators.
The first casualty of spectacle is not truth. It is the ability to recognize another human being.
Sam Ben-Meir teaches philosophy at the City University of New York, College of Technology. He is the author of Ethical Interanimality: Toward a Relational Philosophy of Nature (Westphalia Press, 2026).
There are numerous online betting websites accessible in Sri Lanka, such as platforms branded for local users like Mostbet, MelBet, 1xBet, and others. Most operate under offshore licenses, mainly from Curaçao, and offer deposits and withdrawals in Sri Lankan Rupees.
Regarding Chinese operators, there have been reports and public discussions suggesting that some online gambling platforms targeting Sri Lanka have links to Chinese businesses or cater to Chinese-speaking communities. There have also been concerns about Chinese-language gambling advertisements appearing in Colombo. However, it is difficult to conclusively state that all such operations are run by Chinese entities, as many betting platforms use complex international ownership structures and offshore registrations. L
Opinion
From an economic and social perspective:
Positive aspects
Negative aspects
For Sri Lanka, the key issue is not whether Chinese or other foreign investors are involved. The more important questions are:
If aonline betting is allowed to operate, it should be under a strong regulatory framework with taxation and consumer protection measures. Otherwise, the social costs can outweigh the economic benefits.
Dr Sarath Obeysekera
උතුරු පළාතේ සිංහල ජනාවාසවල අවසන් සීමාව සනිටුහන් කරන පදවි ගොවි ජනපදයේ බෝගස්වැව ඇතුළු ගම්මාන රැසක බෞද්ධ ජනතාව ඉලක්ක කරගනිමින් ඉතා සූක්ෂම බෞද්ධහරණ වැඩපිළිවෙළක් ක්රියාත්මක වන බව ආචාර්ය චන්න ජයසුමන මහතා පවසයි.
පසුගිය මාස කිහිපය තුළ පමණක් එහි පවුල් 300කට වැඩි පිරිසක් ආගමික පරිවර්තනයට ලක්ව ඇති බව ද ඔහු අනාවරණය කරයි.
මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඒ මහතා සිය මුහුණු පොතේ තබා ඇති සටහන මෙසේය,
වැඩේ හෙමිහිට යටින් යනවා..
මට පදවි ගොවි ජනපදය හා ඇත්තේ අවියෝජනීය බැඳීමකි. කෘෂිකාර්මික වකුගඩු රෝගය පිළිබඳ මාගේ පර්යේෂණ සියල්ලක්ම පාහේ සිදු කෙරැණේ ඒ ආශ්රිතව ය. වසර ගණනාවක් මම ඒ ප්රදේශයේ කරක් ගැසුවෙමි. ගොවිතැන හා රජරට ජන ජීවිතය පිළිබඳ මගේ අත්දැකීම් බොහොමයක් පදවි ගොවි ජනපද ව්යාපාරය සහ ප්රත්යන්ත ප්රදේශ හා බැඳී ඇත.
පදවි ගොවි ජනපදයේ ඇතැම් ප්රදේශ කොටි ත්රස්තවාදී ප්රහාරවලටද ලක් විය. පදවි-පරාක්රමපුර සිට වවුනියාව හොරෙව්පොතාන මාර්ගයේ වෙලික්කුලම මංසන්ධිය දක්වා වෙහෙරතැන්න, බෝගස්වැව, සැළලිහිණිගම, නාමල්ගම, මාමඩුව, ඇටඹගස්කඩ ඔස්සේ කිලෝමීටර් 48 ක් පමණ දිවෙන මාර්ගය මෙරට සිංහල ජනාවාසවල අවසන් ඉම සටහන් කරයි. මේ මාර්ගය දෙපස උතුරේ පුරාවිද්යාත්මක ස්ථාන ගණනාවක් පිහිටා ඇත.
කොටි පැරදවීමෙන් පසු කැලෑ බෝගස්වැව ගම්මානයේ පදිංචිව සිටි ජනයා නැවත පදිංචි කෙරිණි. බෝගස්වැව 1 සහ 2, සැළලිහිණිගම, නාමල්ගම, නන්දිමිත්රගම (නන්දිමිත්ර යෝධයාගේ උපන්ගමයි. ජායාරූපයේ දක්වා ඇත්තේ එම ගම්මානයේ ඉදිකර ඇති යෝධයාගේ පිළිරැවයි) ගම්මාන ද ජනතාවට විවෘත විය.
එම ගම්මාන කිහිපයේ මේ වන විට පවුල් 3000 කට ආසන්න පිරිසක් පදිංචිව සිටිති. ආරම්භයේ ඒ සියලු දෙනා පාහේ බෞද්ධයෝ වූහ.
එම ජනතාවගේ එකම ජීවනෝපාය ගොවිතැනයි. නමුත් ඔවුන්ට වැසි ජලය හැර ගොවිතැනට ජලය ලබා ගැනීමේ ස්ථිර මූලාශ්රයක් නොමැත (මා රාජ්ය අමාත්යවරයෙක් ව සිටි කාලයේ මේ සඳහා පිළියමක් යෙදීමට කිහිප වරක් උත්සාහ දැරුවද රටේ පැවති තත්ත්වය නිසා එය සාර්ථක කර ගැනීමට නොහැකි විය).
අද ගොවිතැනට උදා වී ඇති අභාග්යසම්පන්න තත්ත්වය නිසා මෙම පවුල් 3000 දැඩි අසරණ බවට පත්ව ඇත. මීට පෙර නියඟය සහ විවිධ හේතු නිසා මෙම ජනතාව දුෂ්කරතාවට පත් සෑම අවස්ථාවකදීම මහවැලි සංවර්ධන අධිකාරිය සහ රජයේ විවිධ ආයතන මැදිහත්ව ඔවුන්ට උපකාර කළද අද එවැන්නක් දක්නට නොමැත.
මේ අවස්ථාවෙන් ප්රයෝජන ගෙන ඇති මිෂනාරි කණ්ඩායම් කිහිපයක් මෙම ගම්මානවලට පැමිණ ජනතාවට ඉතා අඩු පොලියට ණය ලබා දී ඔවුන් යාඥා මධ්යස්ථාන කරා ගෙන්වාගෙන සූක්ෂම ලෙස බෞද්ධහරණ වැඩපිළිවෙළක් දියත් කර ඇත. මා පසුගිය දින කිහිපයේ එම ප්රදේශවල සංචාරය කළ අතර එහි වැඩවසන ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේලා පැවසුවේ සැලකියයුතු ජනතාවකට සහනයක් ලබාගැනීමේ, ජීවත් වීමට ඇති එකම විකල්පය යාඥාට සහභාගී විම හෙයින් මේ ප්රවනතාව නතර කර ගැනීමේ ක්රමයක් තමන් වහන්සේලාට ද නොමැති බවයි. පසුගිය මාස කිහිපයේ පමණක් පවුල් 300කට වැඩි පිරිසක් බෞද්ධහරණයට ලක්ව ඇත.
තත්ත්වය කෙතරම් දරුණුද කිවහොත් සපුමල්කඩ විහාරස්ථානයේ වැඩ සිටි අප කල්යාණ මිත්ර ගල්ගමුවේ සන්තබෝධි හිමියෝ ද බෝගස්වැව ගම්මානයට වැඩම කර සිය ශක්ති ප්රමාණයෙන් මේ ව්යාපෘතිය නතර කර ගැනීමට දායක වෙමින් සිටිති. උන්වහන්සේ මා සමඟ පැවැසූවේ එවන් පවුල් කිහිපයකට කරුණු පහදා දී තම හැකි පමණින් උදව් උපකාර කර රඳවා ගත්තද සමස්ත ප්රවණතාව නතර කිරීම අපහසු බවයි.
මිෂනාරිහු සෑම පවුල් සියයකට පමණ තම නියෝජිතයෙක් පත්කර ඔවුන්ට මාසිකව වැටුපක් ගෙවති. අලුතෙන් බෞද්ධ පවුලක් යාඥා මධ්යස්ථානයක් කරා රැගෙන ආ විට ඔවුන්ට මුදලක් හිමි වෙයි. මේ නිසා හැකිතාක් බෞද්ධ පවුල් බෞද්ධහරණය කිරීම සඳහා ඔවුහු යුහුසුළුව තරඟයට මෙන් වැඩ කරති.
මීට පෙර ද කිහිප විටක් මෙවැනි කණ්ඩායම් මේ ප්රදේශයේ බෞද්ධහරණ වැඩපිළිවෙළට පැමිණියද රාජ්යයේ අනුග්රහය මත ජනතාවට සහන දීමේ වැඩපිළිවෙල දියත් වූ එයින් එය නතර කර ගැනීමට ප්රදේශයේ ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේලාට හැකි වූ බවත් මෙවර එවන් තත්ත්වයක් නොමැති බව තවත් ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේනමක් මා සමඟ පැවසූහ.
කාපට් යොදා මනාව සකසා තිබූ බෝගස්වැව-මාමඩුව මාර්ගයේ අද වාහන සේදිය හැකි තරමේ මහ වලවල්ය. උතුරේ සිංහල ජනතාව ගැන සොයා බැලීමට, රැකවරණය දීමට උතුරැ පළාත් සභාවට කිසිදු උවමනාවක් නැත. මධ්යම රජයට ද වගේ වගක් නැත.
මේ කියවන ඔබගෙන් මා ඉල්ලා සිටින්නේ තම හැකි පමණින් එම ප්රදේශවලට ගොස් තත්වය සියැසින් බලා ජනතාවට උදව් උපකාර කිරීමට දායක වන ලෙසයි; උතුරැ පළාතේ ජීවත්වන සීමිත බෞද්ධ ජනතාව බෞද්ධහරණ වැඩපිළිවෙළින් ගලවා ගැනීමට දායක වන ලෙසයි.
– චන්න ජයසුමන
The media plays a vital role in shaping public opinion and influencing national priorities. In a democratic society, television channels and newspapers are expected to educate, inform and inspire the public. Unfortunately, much of Sri Lanka’s electronic media has become trapped in an endless cycle of political mudslinging, sensationalism and personality-driven controversies.
Every evening, viewers are presented with round-table discussions where government and opposition politicians exchange accusations and counter-accusations. Hours are spent debating political rivalries, privileges granted to remanded officials, and allegations against individuals. While accountability and investigative journalism are important, excessive focus on these issues often overshadows matters of far greater significance to the country’s future.
Progressive Sri Lankans expect more from their media and from their lawmakers. The country is passing through a crucial period of economic recovery and development. Major projects involving foreign direct investment (FDI), infrastructure development, renewable energy, ports, logistics, tourism, industrial zones and technology parks deserve serious public discussion.
The media should ask constructive questions:
● What major projects are being undertaken to develop the country?
● How much foreign investment has been attracted?
● What are the expected economic and social returns?
● How many jobs will be created?
● How will these projects improve the lives of ordinary citizens?
● What safeguards are in place to ensure transparency and environmental protection?
● What lessons can be learnt from successful projects in other countries?
Television debates should move beyond political theatre and focus on national development. Experts in economics, engineering, education, agriculture and industry should be invited to explain the benefits and challenges of major investments. The public deserves informed discussions on how Sri Lanka can become more competitive, attract quality investments and create opportunities for future generations.
A responsible and progressive media should not merely amplify conflicts; it should act as a partner in national development by encouraging informed debate, scrutinising public investments objectively and holding decision-makers accountable for results.
Sri Lanka needs a media culture that inspires hope, encourages innovation and keeps the nation’s attention fixed on long-term development rather than daily political quarrels. The country cannot progress if national discourse is dominated by sensational headlines and partisan narratives.
The time has come for our media institutions to become more balanced, forward-looking and development-oriented. By focusing on issues that genuinely matter to the people—employment, investment, infrastructure, education and economic growth—the media can become a powerful force in building a prosperous and progressive Sri Lanka.
Regards
Dr Sarath Obeysekera
Majority of government MPs threatened to remove COPF chairman Harsha de Silva from his post if video footage of investigations into internal hackers released to the media, former Parliamentarian Ajith P. Perera said. Replying to journalists on the “Hiru Salakuna” political programme yesterday on the 15th, he noted that severe pressure from government MPs halted the release of video footage from the last two parliamentary COPF meetings where the Treasury Secretary and Central Bank Governor discussed financial frauds and the dollar crisis.
The former MP mentioned that a majority group of government MPs exerted heavy pressure to block these tapes despite COPF discussions usually allowing public transparency. He stated that steps were similarly taken to abolish the chairmanship of Harsha de Silva in 2023 when recommendations exposed a coal scam. Harsha de Silva directly challenged them to remove him, while opposition MPs insisted on the immediate release of the tapes as citizens have a right to know who is responsible for national financial management problems, he said.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank Governor recently stated in parliament that while the current foreign exchange amount of 6.8 billion US dollars is somewhat sufficient, the government must improve these funds to achieve future targets, he mentioned. The Sri Lanka Police and Customs uncovered a large-scale racket where companies illegally transferred dollars out of the country under the guise of importing goods, he stated.
A company named ‘Next Gen’ alone transferred 12,890 million rupees to 26 foreign countries on 953 occasions, sending 42.7 million dollars out of the country, he said. Furthermore, money from a 13.2 billion rupee financial fraud at the National Development Bank went to foreign countries through this method, sending out another 43 million dollars. Although the Central Bank Governor said fraudsters deceived officials, the supervisory process of the Central Bank remains weak due to the inability to prevent these long-running multi-billion rupee frauds, the former MP alleged.
අපාරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව විසින් විමල් වීරවංශ, උදය ගම්මන්පිල, දිලිත් ජයවීර, මහින්ද පතිරණ, අසංක නවරත්න සහ සුගීශ්වර බණ්ඩාර යන පක්ෂ නායකයින් හා දේශපාලන ක්රියාකාරීන්ගේ අදහස් ප්රකාශ කිරීමේ නිදහසට භාධා කිරීම ෆ්රී ලෝයර්ස් සංවිධානය දැඩිව හෙළාදකී. ඉතිහාසයේ පක්ෂ නායකයින් පස් දෙනෙකුට එරෙහිව අදහස් ප්රකාශ කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් එකම නඩුවකදී මහෙස්ත්රාත් අධිකරණයකට කරුණු වාර්තා කිරීමේ සිදුවීම් අති දුර්ලභය. එය පැහැදිලිවම මර්ධන උත්සාහයකි.
2024 අංක 8 දරණ අධිකරණයට, විනිශ්චය සභාවකට හෝ ආයතනයකට අපහාස කිරීමේ පනත යටතේ පොලීසියට, ස්වාධීන අධිකරණයට අපහාස කිරීමේ නඩුවක් පැවරීමට හෝ පවත්වාගෙන යාමට කිසිදු නීතිමය ප්රතිපාදනයක් නොමැත. එසේ තිබිය දී, දේශපාලනඥයින් නිහඬ කිරීමට පොලිස් බලය යොදාගැනීම ශිෂ්ඨ සමාජය සිදු නොවිය යුතු තත්වයකි.
පාලක පක්ෂය බලයට පත් කිරීම සඳහා ක්රියාකාරීව දායක වූ බවට ශ්රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයෙහි ගොණු කර ඇති දිවුරුම් පෙත්සමක් මගින් පිළිගෙන ඇති විශ්රාමික පොලිස් නිලධාරියෙකු කොන්ත්රාත් පදනම මත සේවයට බඳවා ගෙන, ඔහු අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ අධ්යක්ෂ ධුරයට පත් කොට ඇත. එපමණක් නොව අතීතයට බලපාන පරිදි නියෝජ්ය පොලිස්පති ධුරයට උසස් කරන ලදී. එවැනි දේශපාලනික සහ විශ්රාමික පොලිස් නිලධාරියෙකු විසින් රජය විවේචනය කරන සෑම තරාතිරමකම පුද්ගලයින් අපහසුතාවය පත් කොට මෙල්ල කර ගැනීම සඳහා රජය විවිධ උපක්රමය යොදාගනිමින් ඇත.
අදහස් ප්රකාශ කිරීමේ හා භාෂණයේ නිදහස ශ්රී ලංකා ආණ්ඩුක්රම ව්යවස්ථාවේ 14 (1) (a) කොටස මඟින් සහතික කර ඇත්තකි. දේශපාලන පක්ෂ නායකයින් හා ක්රියාකාරීන් දේශපාලන අදහස් ප්රකාශ කිරිම වැලැක්වීමට අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට හැකියාවක් නැත. 10 වැනි ව්යවස්ථාව මගින් තහවුරු කර ඇති සිතීමේ, විමසීමේ සහ හෘද සාක්ෂියේ නිදහස දේශපාලනීකරණය වූ පොලිස් සේවයේ පක්ෂග්රාහී ක්රියාකාරකම් මගින් විනාශ කළ නොහැකිය.
දේශපාලන පක්ෂ නායකයින්, ක්රියාකාරීන්ගේ නිදහස් අදහස් දැක්වීම් වැලැක්වීමට පොලිස් දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව දරණ උත්සාහය පරාජය කළ යුතු බව ෆ්රී ලෝයර්ස් සංවිධානය දැඩීව අවධාරණය කරයි.
නීතිඥ අතුල ද සිල්වා රජිත් කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන්
සම කැඳවුම්කරු ප්රධාන විධායක නිලධාරි
ෆ්රී ලෝයර්ස් සංවිධානය
Copyright © 2026 LankaWeb.com. All Rights Reserved. Powered by Wordpress