SL envoy woos Chinese investment in solar, wind energy

August 29th, 2022

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Sri Lankan Ambassador to China Dr. Palitha Kohona said Sri Lanka is an ideal spot for solar energy development and also wind energy development and China can be a big help as we transition to clean energy.

We would be able to address a huge part of our energy crisis by relying on renewable energy,” he said, according to the Chinese media.

The 2022 World Conference on Clean Energy Equipment is underway in Southwest China’s Sichuan Province.

More than 18 hundred guests from 17 countries and regions are taking part in the event to discuss the development and future of the clean energy equipment industry, according to CGTN.

සිංහල භාෂාවේ පිරිහීම සිදුවන්නේ ප්‍රගතියේ නාමයෙන්ද?

August 29th, 2022

Geethanjana

සිංහල භාෂාවේ පිරිහීම සිදුවන්නේ ප්‍රගතියේ නාමයෙන්ද? ඇත්තටම එහෙම වෙන්නේ ඒ නිසාද?

සිංහල හරියට කතා කරගත නොහැකි රාජ්‍ය නායකයින් පත් කර ගන්නා රටේ දේශීය ජනයාගේ භාෂාව පිරිහීම අහඹු සිදුවීමක් නොවේ. සිංහල භාෂාව යනු නුදුරු අනාගතයේදී ලෝකයේ අතුරුදහන් වන භාෂාවන් අතරින් එකක් බව මානව විද්‍යාඥයින් මෙන්ම අදාල ජාත්‍යන්තර සංවිධාන විසින් හඳුනාගෙන ඇත. එය එසේ වීම යහපත් බව සිහලයා විසින්ම තීරණය කොට ඇත. එය එසේනම් ඒ පිළිබඳව අපට කල හැකි දෙයක්ද නොමැත.

මම අහම්බෙන්, ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම වැරදීමකින් ක්ලික් වීම නිසා අද පැරණි ගීතයක් ඇසුවෙමි. මට එක වරම සිතුනේ එම ගීතය ලියවුනු කාලයේ ලංකාව වෙනස්ම රටක් බවය. අධ්‍යාපනයද ඉහල තත්වයක පැවතිනි. එකල දේශපාලකයින් සොරකම් කලේ නැත. ඒ වෙනුවට සිරිමාවෝ වැනි නායිකාවන් තම දේපල රජයට භාරදුන්නාය. ලෝක ඉතිහාසයේ කිසි තැනෙක එවන් උදාහරණයක් හමු නොවේ. නමුත් JR ජයවර්ධන අයගේ ප්‍රජා අයිතිය අහෝසි කල විට ලංකාවේ අකෘතඥ ජනයා ගොළුවතින් නිහඬව සිටියහ. JR GO ගම් එදා ගෝල්ෆේස් පිටියේ බිහි නොවීය. ඩඩ්ලි සේනානායක මියයන විට ඔහුගේ ගිණුමේ තිබුනේ රුපිය 400 යයි ප්‍රකට කියමනක් තිබේ. මම එය විශ්වාස කරමි. DS සේනානායක වැනි නායකයින් මහා පරිමාන ගල් ඔය ව්‍යාපාරය මුළුමනින්ම ඉවර කලේ අපේ භාණ්ඩාගාරයේ සුද්ද තබා ගිය මුදල් වලිනි. ලෝකෙට නය වී නොවේ. සුද්ද අපේ රෙද්දන්ට වඩා හොඳට රට පාලනය කර තිබෙන බව ඉන් වැටහේ. අද අප මුහුණදෙන බොහොමයක් ප්‍රශ්න වලට වග කිව යුත්තේ 1977 පත් උණු රජයයි. මේ ණයකාර සංස්කෘතිය ඇතිකළේ ඔවුන්ය.

මම ඉහත සඳහන් කල ගීතය අසු විට මට දැනුනේ අද තිබෙන ලංකාව 1970 තිබුණු ලංකාවට වඩා පිරිහුණු රටක් බවය. පහත සඳහන් ගීතය ලියා තිබෙන්නේ අජන්තා රණසිංහ විසිනි. අජන්තා සුද්දා ලංකාවේ අධ්‍යාපනය හසුරුවන කාලයේ බිහිවූ කවියෙකි. චන්ද්‍රරත්න මානවසිංහ, එදිරිවීර සරත්චන්ද්‍ර, මහගමසේකර, කේයස්, ඩබ්.ඒ ද සිල්වා, මාටින් වික්‍රමසිංහ හා මෙකී නොකී මේ සියලුදෙනා සුද්ද බිහිකළ කවියෝ හා රචකයෝ වෙති. නිදහස් ලංකාවේ බිහිකළ කවියෝ හා රචකයෝ කොපපමන සිටීද? ඒ අතලොස්සක් දෙනා නොවේද? අප ආපස්සට ගොසින් නැද්ද? සුද්ද තරම්වත් අපේ රෙද්දා රටගැන සිතා නොමැති බව මෙයින් නොපෙනේද? JR. ජයවර්ධන නමැති නාකි නරියා (The Old Fox, [copyright – Basil Fernando]) විසින් ජාත්‍යන්තර පාසල් ඉඳි කිරීමෙන් පසු සිංහල දන්නා තරුණ පරපුරක් බිහි නොවීය. නිදහස් අධ්‍යාපනය අද බල්ලට යවා තිබේ, මන්ද සියලුම දේශපාලකයින්ගේ දරුවන් යන්නේද ජාත්‍යන්තර පාසල් වලට නිසාවෙනි. මෙය මම හොඳින්ම දන්නේ මගේ සමකාලින මිතුරන් ජාත්‍යන්තර පාසල්වල උගන්වන ගුරුවරුන් වන නිසාය. පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ වාම වාදී හඬවල් ඇති බොහොමයක් ඇමතිවරු හා මන්ත්‍රී වරුන්ගේ දරුවන් අවශ්‍ය වුවහොත් නම් සහිතව ඉදිරිපත් කල හැක.

අද තරුණ පරපුරට භාෂා ඥානයක් නොමැති නිසා පහතින් ඇති ගීත රචනාව වැනි රචනාවක් ඔවුනට තේරුම් ගත නොහැක. සුද්ද ලංකාවේ දරුවන්ට ඉංග්‍රීසි සහ සිංහල යන දෙකම හොඳින් ඉගැන්වීය. නමුත් රෙද්දා මේ සම්ප්‍රදාය කඩ කොට ඉංග්‍රීසි පමණක් ඉගැන්වීය. ඒකත් හරියට කෙරෙන්නේ ජාත්‍යන්තර පාසල් වල පමණි. සුද්දා ළමුන්ට සිංහල උගන්වන විට සංදේශ කාව්‍ය පවා ඉගැන්වීය. සිදත් සඟරාව ඉගැන්වීය. නමුත් රෙද්දා මේවා ගැන අසාවත් නොමැත. සියලුම දේශපාලකයන්ගේ දරුවන් ජාත්‍යන්තර පාසල්වල ඉගෙනුම ලබන නිසා, නුදුරු අනාගතයේ ලංකාව පාලනය කරනු ඇත්තේ ඔවුන් විසිනි. අන්න ඒ දිනයට මුහුණ දීමට අප සුදානම්ව සිටිය යුතුය.

පහත සඳහන් වන්නේ මා ඇසූ එම ගීතයයි. රචනය අති විශිෂ්ට ගීත රචක අජන්තා රණසිංහ විසිනි. ගායනය කරන්නේ අසහාය ගායක සනත් නන්දසිරි ය. දැන් අපි ගීතය අහමුකෝ….

පෙමාතුර හැඟුම් – ඇගේ නෙත් කැලුම්

හද සන්තානයේ සදා සරනා ආයාචනා සුසුම්

නුරාගික පැතුම් – පිපාසිත සිතුම් –

මන මන්ධිරයේ කළාලය මත මී අමා බඳුන්

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නියාලුව හදින් – පියා නෙතු පියන්

යොමා යුග සවන් තනි වෙමි ඇගේ ගී නදින්

මුදා නිදි දැහැන් – එබී ලෙන් දොරින්

අරාජික පාරාදීසය සොයා එමි සිතින්

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පෙමාතුර හැඟුම් ………

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අරා සිරි යහන් – නිදා වැතිරෙමින්

සරා සලෙල සිතිවිලි ගඟ ගිලී නැහැවෙමින්

සුරා මල් පැනින් – පොඟා යුග ලවන්

පිනා පසිඳුරන් සතපමි සොඳුරු සිහිනයෙන්

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පෙමාතුර හැඟුම් – ඇගේ නෙත් කැලුම්

හද සන්තානයේ සදා සරනා ආයාචනා සුසුම්

නුරාගික පැතුම් – පිපාසිත සිතුම් –

මන මන්ධිරයේ කළාලය මත මී අමා බඳුන්

මොන තරම් සුන්දර රචනාවක්ද? බලන්නකෝ මේ කොටස…

“මුදා නිදි දැහැන් – එබී ලෙන් දොරින්

අරාජික පාරාදීසය සොයා එමි සිතින්…”

ඇයි මේ කොටස… ඊට හපන්

“අරා සිරි යහන් – නිදා වැතිරෙමින්

සරා සලෙල සිතිවිලි ගඟ ගිලී නැහැවෙමින්….”

මගෙ අම්මෝ  මොන තරම් ලස්සනට, ශිෂ්ට ආකාරයට, ශාස්ත්‍රීය විධියට ඒ කැත අවලං කතාව කියල තියෙනවද?

මෙම ගීතයේ තේරුම ජනනය වනසේ ගීත රචනාවක් කිරීමට අද තරුණ පරපුර ගායනා කරන ගීත රචනා කර ඇති අයෙකුට භාරදුනහොත්  ඔහු හෝ ඇය මෙම ගීතයේ එන අරුත් ඔවුන් අනුදත් සිංහල භාෂාවට ආදේශ කරනු ඇත්තේ අමු කුනුහරුපයෙනි. ලෝකයේ පවත්නා සුන්දර භාෂා අතරින් එකක් වන සිංහල භාෂාවට සිංහල ජනතාව දක්වන කුඩම්මාගේ සැලකිල්ල හේතුවෙන් එය ළඟදීම මිය යනු ඇත.

ලෝකයේ තිබෙන බොහොමයක් භාෂා වලට අක්ෂර වින්‍යාස නොමැත. කොටින්ම ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාවටවත් තමන්ට කියා අක්ෂර වින්‍යාසයක් නොමැති බව දන්නේ කීයෙන් කී දෙනාද? ඉංග්‍රීසිය විසින් භාවිතා කරන්නේ රෝමන් අකුරුය. ප්‍රංශ, ජර්මන්, ඇතුළු සියලුම බටහිර යුරෝපිය භාෂා භාවිතා කරන්නේ රෝමානු අක්ෂර වින්‍යාසයයි. රුසියාව ඇතුළු සියලු නැගෙනහිර යුරෝපය භාවිතා කරන්නේ ග්‍රීක සිරිලික් අක්ෂරය. Cyrillic alphabet. නමුත් සිංහල භාෂාවට ලෝකයේ තිබෙන ඕනෑම ශබ්දයක් නිර්මානය කල හැකි අක්ෂර සහිත අක්ෂර වින්‍යාසයක් තිබේ. සිංහලයින් ඒ පිළිබඳව සතුටු වනවා වෙනුවට ලජ්ජා වන බව පෙනේ.

දේශපාලනය නමැති මහසෝන ගැහීම නිසා සිහිවිකල්ව කොක්ක ලෙඩේ සැදී තිබෙන ලංකාවට හතරවරං දෙයියන්ගේ පිහිට ලැබේවා!

ඔබගේ අදහස් comments වලින් දන්වන්න.

චීනය ලංකාවේ ණය කපා නොහැරි හේතුව කියයි..

August 29th, 2022

ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණ

‘චීනය පසුගියදා ප්‍රතිපත්තිමය තීරණයක් ගෙන තිබෙනවා, අප්‍රිකානු රටවල් 17කට ලබාදී ඇති පොලී රහිත ණය කපා හැරීමට. නමුත් ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජය පොලී සහිතව ලබා ගත් ණය ප්‍රතිව්‍යුහගත කරන ලෙස වත්මන් පාලනය කර ඇති ඉල්ලීමට චීනය කිසිදු ප්‍රතිචාරයක් දක්වා නැහැ. එමගින් පෙනෙන්නේ රාජ්‍යතාන්ත්‍රික වශයෙන් මතුව ඇති ගැටලුවයි’  යයි පෙන්වා දෙන ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණේ දේශපාලන මණ්ඩල සභික, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ගාමිණී වලේබොඩ මහතා, තවදුරටත් එම තත්ත්වය වර්ධනය වීමට ඉඩ නොදී නොබැඳි පිළිවෙත අනුගමනය කිරීමේ ප්‍රවේශයකට යන ලෙස වත්මන් පාලනයට බල කරන බව පැවසීය.

ඒ මහතා මෙසේ පැවසුවේ පිටකෝට්ටේ පිහිටි ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණේ ප්‍රධාන කාර්යාලයේදී පැවැති මාධ්‍ය හමුවකට එක් වෙමිනි.

වැඩිදුරටත් අදහස් දැක්වූ වලේබොඩ මන්ත්‍රීවරයා මෙසේද සඳහන් කළේය.

පසුගිය කාලය තුළ විදුලි බිල්පත 300%කින් පමණ ද ජල බිල්පත 90%කින් පමණ ද වැඩිවී තිබෙනවා. එසේම අත්‍යවශ්‍ය භාණ්ඩවල මිල ද අඛණ්ඩව වැඩිවෙමින් තිබෙනවා, අද ඇත්තේ ජනතාවට ජීවත්වීමට බැරි තත්ත්වයක්.

අපේ රටේ ආණ්ඩුවක් පත් කර ගන්නේ වසර පහකටයි. 2020දී බලයට පත් වූ ආණ්ඩුව ද එසේ බලයට පත්වූ එකක්. බලයට පත්වන ආණ්ඩු බොහෝ විට පස් අවුරුදු, දස අවුරුදු සැලසුම් ඉදිරිපත් කරනවා. 2020දී බලයට පත් වූ ආණ්ඩුව ද ‘සෞභාග්‍යයේ දැක්ම’ නමින් පස් අවුරුදු සැලැස්මක් ඉදිරිපත් කළා. ඊට පසුව පළමුව අවුරුද්දක සැලැස්මක් ඉදිරිපත් කළා. ඉන් පසු තවත් අවුරුද්දකට සැලසුමක් ඉදිරිපත් කරා. පස් අවුරුදු සැලැස්ම අවුරුද්දට බස්සලා, අවුරුද්දේ සැලැස්ම මාස 06ට, මාසයට අදාළව ඉදිරිපත් කළා. රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා වැඩ බලන ජනාධිපතිවරයා හැටියට පත් වෙලා ‘මම කතා කරන්නේ ඉදිරි සති තුන ගැන’ යැයි කියමින් මාසයේ සැලැස්ම සති තුනට කෙටි කළා.

ඉන්පසුව එසේ සති තුනක් ගැන කතා කරපු වත්මන් පාලනය සතියක් ගැන කතා කරන තත්ත්වයට පත්වුණා. ඊටත් පසුව දින කීපයක් ගැන කතා කරන පාලනයක් වුණා. අද වත්මන් පාලනය කතා කරන්නේ දිනයක් ගැන. ඒ නිසා අපට අකමැත්තෙන් හරි කීමට සිද්ධ වෙලා තිබෙනවා, අද බලයට පත්ව ඇත්තේ එක දිනයකට ආර්ථික සැලසුම් සකස් කරන පාලනයක් බව. අද දවසේ තෙල් ටික, අත්‍යවශ්‍ය ආහාර ටික, ඖෂධ ටික දෙන්නේ කොහොමද, කියා විතරයි මේ පාලනය සැලසුම් කරන්නේ. ඉදිරියේදී රටේ ආර්ථිකය පවත්වාගෙන යන්නේ කෙසේ ද? කියා අඛණ්ඩ, නිශ්චිත සැලැස්මක් නැති කැබිනට් මණ්ඩලයක් තමයි වත්මන් ජනාධිපතිවරයා පවත්වාගෙන යන්නේ.

ඒ නිසයි අපි 2022 අප්‍රේල් මාසයේදීම එවකට ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට යෝජනා කළේ, ‘එදා වේල ටුවර්ස්’ එකක් ලෙස රටේ ආර්ථිකය පවත්වාගෙන යන එකෙන් මිදෙන්න නම් ආර්ථිකයට කෙටිකාලීන, මධ්‍යකාලීන හා දිගුකාලීන වැඩපිළිවෙළක් ඉදිරිපත් කරන්න අවශ්‍යයි. අවම එකඟතා වැඩපිළිවෙළක් හදලා ඒක ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමට පාර්ලිමේන්තුව නියෝජනය කරන සියලු පක්ෂවලින් සමන්විත සර්වපාක්ෂික පාලනයක් හදන්න’ කියා. ඒ යෝජනාවේ වැදගත්කම, වටිනාකම කාටත් අද තේරෙන්න පටන් අරන් තිබෙනවා.

2020 කොවිඩ් වසංගත අවසන් වන විට ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ දරිද්‍රතාවෙන් පෙළෙන පිරිස 8.5%ක් ලෙසයි සටහන් වුණේ. එය අද 15% දක්වා වැඩි වී තිබෙනවා. යුනිසෙෆ් සංවිධානය කියනවා, ලංකාවේ දරුවන්ගෙන් 50%ක් මන්දපෝෂණයෙන් පෙළෙන බව. දරුවන්, මව්වරුන් මන්දපෝෂණයෙන් පෙළෙන විට අනාගත පරපුර කායික, මානසික ශ්‍රමය වැගිරීමට බැරි පිරිසක් වීමේ අවදානම අපට තිබෙනවා. උද්ධමනය අද 100%කින් වැඩි වී තිබෙනවා. පවුලක මාසික පරිභෝජන වියදම රුපියල් 47,500කින් වැඩිවී තිබෙනවා. එම වැඩිවීම ද 100%ක්. මේ සියල්ල පතිත වන්නේ කා මතද? ජාතික ආදායමෙන් 50%ක් භුක්ති විදින්නේ ජනගහනයෙන් 15% – 20%ක් අතර පිරිසක්. නමුත් ඉතිරි 50% තමයි ජනගහනයෙන් 80% – 85%ත් අතර පිරිස භුක්ති විදින්නේ. මේ 85%ක ජනතාවට තමයි මේ සමස්ත පීඩනය දැරීමට සිදුව ඇත්තේ. ඒ ජනතාව, ඒ ජනතාවගේ දූ දරුවන් මහා විපත්තිදායක තත්ත්වයකට දිනපතා ඇද වැටෙමින් තිබෙනවා. මේ සඳහා වහාම උත්තර අවශ්‍යයි, කියන එක සහ රට ගොඩගන්න දිගුකාලීන ඒකාබද්ධ වැඩපිළිවෙළක් අවශ්‍යයි කියන එක අපි නැවතත් වත්මන් පාලනයට අවධාරණය කරනවා.

‘දැන්වත් නොබැඳි පිළිවෙතට
ප්‍රවේශ වන්න’

චීනය පසුගියදා ප්‍රතිපත්තිමය තීරණයක් ගෙන තිබෙනවා, අප්‍රිකානු රටවල් 17කට ලබාදී ඇති පොලී රහිත ණය කපා හැරීමට. නමුත් ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජය පොලී සහිතව ලබා ගත් ණය ප්‍රතිව්‍යුහගත කරන ලෙස වත්මන් පාලනය කර ඇති ඉල්ලීමට චීනය කිසිදු ප්‍රතිචාරයක් දක්වා නැහැ. එමගින් පෙනෙන්නේ රාජ්‍යතාන්ත්‍රික වශයෙන් මතුව ඇති ගැටලුවයි. වත්මන් පාලකයන් නොබැඳි විදේශ ප්‍රතිපත්තියක් අනුගමනය නොකිරීමේ ප්‍රතිඵල අද අපේ රටට භුක්ති විඳිමට සිදුව තිබෙනවා.

තවදුරටත් එම තත්ත්වය වර්ධනය වීමට ඉඩ නොදී නොබැඳි පිළිවෙත අනුගමනය කිරීමේ ප්‍රවේශයකට යන්න කියා අපි ආණ්ඩුවට බලකර කියා සිටිනවා.”

මෙම මාධ්‍ය හමුවට ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණේ බොරලැස්ගමුව නගර සභාවේ මන්ත්‍රී ජගත් කිත්සිරි, කැස්බෑව නගර සභාවේ මන්ත්‍රී රංජිත් පත්මසිරි යන මහත්වරු ද එක්ව සිටියහ.

අනුරුද්ධ බණ්ඩාර රණවාරණ,
මාධ්‍ය ලේකම්,
ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණ

Sri Lanka launches tender for 100 MW solar park

August 29th, 2022

Courtesy pv magazine

The Sri Lankan authorities are seeking a developer to build a 100 MW solar project on a build-own-operate basis, in addition to a new 132 kV transmission line. The facility will sell power to the Ceylon Electricity Board under a 20-year power purchase agreement.

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), Sri Lanka’s largest electricity supplier, has launched a tender for the development and construction of a 100 MW solar power plant in Siyambalanduwa, Uva province.

The selected developer will build the project on a build-own-operate (BOO) basis, in addition to installing a new 132 kV transmission line. The facility will sell power to CEB under a 20-year power purchase agreement. Interested developers have to submit their project proposals by Oct. 21.

According to a recent joint study by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Asian Development Bank, Sri Lanka has the potential to deploy 16 GW of solar power. It aims to cover its entire power demand with renewables by 2050.

By the end of 2021, the country had 434 MW of installed solar power, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Through its Soorya Bala Sangramaya program for solar energy, Sri Lanka hopes to add 1 GW by the end of 2025.

Twenty-four foreign firms interested in Sri Lankan petroleum business: Official

August 29th, 2022

Courtesy Peoples Gazette

The interested countries are the UAE, Saudi Arabia, U.S., China, India, Russia, Britain, Malaysia, Norway, and the Philippines.

At least 24 foreign companies are interested in the petroleum business in Sri Lanka, a government official said on Monday.

The companies are from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, the United States, China, India, Russia, Britain, Malaysia, Norway, and the Philippines.

Kanchana Wijesekera, Sri Lankan Minister of Power and Energy, said his ministry has appointed a committee to evaluate the expressions of interest (EOIs) submitted by the foreign firms”, which will finalise the process within six weeks.

Mr Wijesekera said companies in petroleum-producing countries were invited to import, distribute and sell petroleum products in Sri Lanka.

The minister added that 700 gas stations under the state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) could be given to selected companies for operation.

He said the selected companies could also use other CPC facilities commercially.

The CPC and the Lanka Indian Oil Corporation can distribute fuel to retail customers.

Mr Wijesekera said the CPC, which holds 80 per cent of the retail petroleum market, could not keep supplying fuel because of dollar shortages. 

In June, Sri Lanka’s cabinet of ministers approved a proposal to allow companies from oil-producing nations to import oil and start retail operations in the South Asian country.

US will support SL through IMF, if agreement reached: Julie Chung

August 29th, 2022

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The US will support Sri Lanka through International Monetary Fund (IMF), if Sri Lanka could reach an agreement with the IMF, US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung said.

She said in a twitter post that the US will redouble its endeavours to support Sri Lanka through ongoing efforts such as financing for SMEs, fertilizer and seeds for farmers, education exchange and training to strengthen public financial management.

In her tweet she also mentioned that she spoke with the US-SL Business Council on ways US and Sri Lanka businesses can collaborate to ensure Sri Lanka gets back on a path to prosperity.

“US-SL bilateral trade already supports more than 180,000 workers supplying exports to the US and contribute billions to the Sri Lanka’s economy,” she tweeted.

All-party govt. essential to defeat Intl. agendas

August 29th, 2022

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Whilst highlighting that some international forces might want to keep Sri Lanka as a weak state, UNP MP Vajira Abeywardene said an all-party government is essential to defeat these agendas.

Speaking during a UNP meeting in Galle, MP Abeywardene said all parties should get together to defeat the desires of some international forces.

These desires he said could be harmful to Sri Lanka.

All parties should get together to defeat the efforts of some international forces to harm Sri Lanka,” he said.

It is also essential to fulfill the needs of the youth who have led recent protests all over the nation. However they should be dealt with if they take up arms,” the MP said.

Referring to the mini budget which will be presented to Parliament, Mr. Abeywardene said it will mainly focus on tax reforms.

Mini budget will not focus on construction of roads or buildings bur will only focus on tax reforms,” he said. (Yohan Perera)

IMF rescue package could take six months after staff-level agreement

August 29th, 2022

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

  • Prof. Prema-chandra Athukorala says China’s position on SL’s debt could drag negotiations for at least six months
  • Cites Zambia as example where debt restructuring negotiations took about 7 months to conclude as a result of China’s initial hesitancy in debt restructuring 
  • After reaching staff-level agreement, debt restructuring advisors will approach creditors to obtain financial assurances from them to secure IMF facility 
  • However, former CB Governor Dr. Coomaraswamy and current Governor Dr. Weerasinghe hopeful of fund disbursement by end of this year 

After reaching a staff-level agreement, the full approval for the envisaged International Monetary Fund (IMF) Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement could take about six months considering challenges in the negotiations process with the country’s external creditors, particularly China, according to experts. 


An IMF staff team, which is currently in Sri Lanka, is holding discussions with the authorities with the intention of reaching a staff-level agreement on the envisaged IMF EFF facility. The mission is expected to conclude on Wednesday and the Central Bank expects to reach a staff-level agreement upon conclusion of negotiations.
Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe recently expressed confidence of the disbursement of the first tranche of the envisaged IMF programme by end of this year, with expectations of all external creditors including China cooperating with the government to secure the financial assurances in December.


After reaching a staff-level agreement with the IMF, Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring advisors are expected to officially approach the country’s bilateral and commercial creditors to obtain financial assurances from them to secure the IMF Executive Board approval for the envisaged EFF facility.


It’s usually a matter of weeks between a staff -level agreement and a full programme, but when your debt is unsustainable, you cannot move from a staff-level agreement to a full programme until you have demonstrated that you have sufficient financial assurances to move towards a sustainable debt dynamic. 


In our case, it’s happening parallely. While the policy discussions are going on, debt advisors are working with the austerities to achieve a path towards debt sustainability,” former Central Bank Governor Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy told a virtual conference organised by the Department of Business Economics of University Sri Jayewardenepura last week.

Australian National University Professor in Economics Prof. Prema-chandra Athukorala opined that it’s likely to take 6-7 more months for Sri Lanka to secure the approval for the envisaged IMF programme.
Zambia started negotiations with the IMF and they reached a staff-level agreement with the IMF in December 2020, however, it took until last week to get the debt restructuring completed, because the Chinese were reluctant to participate in debt restructuring initially.  Altogether, it took around 7 months,” he said.
However, marking a breakthrough, China who is not a member of the Paris Club, joined Zambia’s official creditor group as a co-chair in May this year supporting Zambia’s request for an IMF programme.


A lot of people are hopeful that China should be more sympathetic to the Sri Lankan case, given that China has changed its approach due to the agreement with G-20 countries (the G20’s Common Framework). If that happens, it will be finalised within six months. However, I don’t think it will happen in December,” he added.


However, Dr. Coomaraswamy remarked that there’s still a possibility for Sri Lanka to secure required financial assurances from the external creditors by December. Given there’s possible shift of China’s approach, it’s not impossible to secure first tranche by December,” he remarked.

Govt. decides to sell 49% stake in SriLankan Catering

August 29th, 2022

Courtesy Adaderana

Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva says that proposals are to be called for from desiring investors to invest in 49% shares and administration of SriLankan Catering and also 49% shares and administration in SrLankan Airlines’ Ground Handling. 

The minister stated this at a press conference held today at the ministry regarding the restructuring of SriLankan Airlines, the country’s national carrier.

He stated that currently the SriLankan Catering is making profits to a certain extent and that therefore they have decided to sell 49% stake and administration of the SriLankan Catering, while keeping 51% stake with the government. 

He said if an investor is seeking a higher stake in the company, based on the relevant requests by the investors, the government is prepared to sell a higher percentage of the shares and obtains some funding from that.

When we get that amount of money, we can use it to pay the 80 million dollars that we have mortgaged the shares of that company, and another amount of money and another loan.” 

Then the debt burden of SriLankan Airlines will be somewhat reduced,” he said.

The minister also said that currently they are forming a separate company for ground handling and it will be provided the relevant duties and movable and immovable properties related to that company.

From there we get an income of about Rs. 5,000 million per year. Therefore, we think that we will be able to get a lot of money in restructuring it,” de Silva said.

He said that they expect to be able to sell 49% stake in that company as well and that no investor will be willing to invest for only 49% shares and therefore, they will have to give them management of the company as well.  

Accordingly, he said the government intends to call for Expressions of Interest (EOIs) for this. 

The moneys received for both these, we don’t expect to use for any other work. It will be used to pay the debt of SriLankan Airlines and get rid of the debt as much as possible.”

During the briefing, the minister also revealed that the total debt of SriLankan Airlines is USD 1.126 billion which is equivalent to about Rs. 401 billion.

05 more Covid-19 deaths confirmed

August 29th, 2022

Courtesy Adaderana

The Director General of Health Services has confirmed 05 coronavirus related deaths for yesterday (28), the Department of Government Information reported today (29).

The new Covid-19 deaths include two males and three females while one of the patients is between the ages 30-59 years. The rest are aged 60 years and above. 

Why are India & China fighting over a colonial created artificial border line?

August 28th, 2022

Shenali D Waduge


China has a history of over 3500 years. India’s history dates back to the Indus Valley civilization. India was given its name by the British in 1947. Asia’s population is 4.5billion of which 2.7billion are Chinese or Indian. Both China and India are key players in Asia. Asian continent can be strengthened by the unity of India & China. Unity means power and power means the ability to meet challenges & threats. This is why divide & rule colonial policies were rolled out to divide invaded nations & people. It was colonial division that led to the Indo-Sino war in 1962. An artificial line drawn by a pencil keeps China & India from rebuilding ties. The situation is made worse as neocolonials have tasked local neoliberals to continue divide & rule policies and these locals create tensions to prevent cordial ties between India & China. India is powerful so is China. India is not going to become more powerful by trying to destroy China or by joining with enemies of China. If at all, the enemies of China will use India not only to balkanize China but eventually they will balkanize India. What cost is India’s bogus friendship with countries India cannot truly trust? When neighboring nations are made weak, will it not impact one’s own country?  Who seeks to weaken neighboring countries & why? When countries are made weak – who benefits in the end? The one’s who planned it all! It’s been 60 years since Indo-Sino war and that shows how caution has played a key role. Caution must now escalate to 60 more years of collaboration between India & China.

Is what makes China powerful, that threatens nations that thought they would remain powerful?

China has more vessels than Germany, India, Spain & UK navies. This makes China possess the ability to control the oceans. With this comes bases and logistics hubs. It is to prevent these that the anti-China camps are making alliances. Including India to alliance has been the icing on the cake. All their dirty work is now outsourced to India. But what is India gaining eventually? Does India think that India truly belongs to ‘their club’. India may like to watch the fate of Rishi Sunak to realize its own fate. At what cost is India’s allegiance to West joining with Japan who really had no choice given its subservient role post-World War where even Japans constitution was drafted by West. Japan’s inability to remove US troops from Okinawa shows how ‘independent’ Japan is.

Has it occurred to India, that the West’s use of the Church, LTTE Diaspora, UNHRC and the ‘Tamil minority’ card is a stepping towards this ultimate goal? The West has not minced its options about balkanizing India as it did to the Soviet Union & Yugoslavia. Already many of the UN goalposts and programs are in line with creating micro states while promoting corporate civil society governance abandoning the Westphalia system of governance. Much propaganda is being steered towards this end.

India has to way the threats. Who is a bigger threat to India realistically. India & China are key trading partners. Both have the worlds largest populations. People are power. Both have nuclear powers.

The world may think US abhors China – but isn’t it all a hoax? If US hated China so much, why does US encourage Chinese to study in US?

  • Majority of international students in US are Chinese.
  • 35% of all foreign students in the US are Chinese.
  • 914,095 foreign students (2020-2021) – this figure was 15% more in 2019-2020
  • In 2020 international students contributed $39billion to the US economy – of which $14.3billion or 36% came from Chinese students (Dept of Commerce/US)
  • In 2021, US embassy & consulates in China issued 85,000 student visas

Indian comprise 18.3% of international students in US

4million Indians live in US

Chinese Americans number 5.4million.

Together Indians & Chinese make up almost 10milion out of Americas 329.5million population. Many Indian-Chinese Americans are also holding top level Govt positions. Though they are from native-India or China, they think & act and function more than Americans.

Americans studying abroad for 2019-2020 numbered 162,633 choosing European countries.

Would US stop trading with China? Take a list of the US companies relocated to China – http://www.jiesworld.com/international_corporations_in_china.htm

Did you also know that

  • cinema company AMC’s majority stakeholder investing $2.8b is Beijing-based Dalian Wanda Group with power to decide at executive level?
  • General Motors relies on partnership with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp to stay profitable. They even set up a facility in Shanghai.
  • Swedish company Spotify headquartered in New York is also influenced by Chinese Tencent Holdings Limited
  • Snapchat shares have been bought by Chinese Tencent Holdings.
  • Hilton Hotels had 25% of its stake bought for $6.5b by Chinese aviation & shipping giant HNA Group allowing 2 Chinese directors to Hilton Board of 10.

There are many more such Chinese investors in US.

Similarly, though many think India-China relations are cold – it is quite contrary. 

China has become one of the top 10 education destinations for Indian students.

23,000 Indians were studying in China in 2021 out of 11.3 lakh students.

China offers Indian students scholarships in a variety of subjects & cost of living is far lower that US, UK & Europe. China is also offering jobs.

Politics end up dampening good relations as Indian authorities refused to accept degrees awarded by Pakistan no different to India banned Chinese apps.

In 2016 there were more Indian students in China than in UK (Times of India) 18,171 Indians in China against 18.015 to UK.

Indian students make up the 5th largest group of international students in China after South Korea / USA/Thailand & Pakistan

India-China trade bilateral trade was $125.66billion in 2021.

China’s exports to India have gone up to $57.51billion (increase by 34.5% from 2020)

Indian exports to China however has fallen to $9.57b (decline of 35.3% from 2020)

Top Chinese companies in India – https://www.jagranjosh.com/general-knowledge/list-of-top-chinese-companies-in-india-1591084327-1

What India imports from China – https://www.jagranjosh.com/general-knowledge/list-of-products-india-imports-from-china-1593509838-1

Culturally too India & China remain close – 1988 Cultural Cooperation Agreement ensures large-scale festivals, art shows, exhibitions, films are held in each other’s countries.

Why does media lie? Why do propagandists attempt to show a different picture to what is on the ground & what is proven statistically?

To whose advantage is it when India & China are at odds?

Where is the source of tension?

On 20 October 1962 Indo-Sino war started when Chinese army invaded Ladakh & crossed McMahon Line. The war ended a month later. India became a republic in 1947 and People’s Republic of China was formed in 1949. Tibet became the contentious subject denting ties and leading to the eventual war.

India & China may recall how India did not attend a conference because China was not invited. India even took pains to speak on behalf of China who had been isolated. Both countries cannot forget the 1954 Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence when India acknowledged Chinese rule in Tibet.

Thereafter came a steady flow of contentious incidents – issues with maps, reception given to Dalai Lama after fleeing Tibet by India in 1959, China attributing Lhasa rebellion to India and the most recent altercation in Galwan.

Sir Henry McMahon the foreign secretary of British India decided the 890km line dividing India & China after the 1914 Shimla Treaty between India & Tibet. China does not accept the line as China was not privy to the agreement & China is not bound by it.

India & China has been squabbling for 108 years over a line drawn by colonial Britain. Then British Foreign Secretary David Miliband apologized to China on 29 October 2008.

India carried all of the British territorial agreements after gaining independence in 1947. PM Nehru refused China’s proposal to negotiate a settlement in 1954 simply accepting British version.

It is now time for India to ask if it wishes to continue to adopt British colonial legacy or work out an amicable settlement with China. So long as issues prevail – external forces will be preying to stir the pot of conflict. This is what teams from India & China must realize.

It is in the interest of both nations to not allow third parties come between them.

Enemy initiatives in Asia is not going to take any Asian nation anywhere. India China & Japan are powerful in their own right – they do not require to be propped up by western alliances. It is time Asia and Asians realize their power and build themselves up on their terms and not those cunningly imported & articulated by forked tongues.

1794 – How India” looked before British conquered

India before independence: British held territory & Independent Princely States

Map of India prior to 1947

Partitioned Provinces

Division of States from 1947 – 2021

McMahon Line dividing India & China

Shenali D Waduge

The government is to appoint 30 state ministers before the formation of the next Cabinet, a political source said.-(Daily Mirror 25 August 2022 06:46 am)

August 28th, 2022

Dr Sudath Gunasekara

The news is given below

It will happen as per a request by Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) which is the main party that backs President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The SLPP MPs who served as state ministers in the previous government met the president recently to discuss the appointment of state ministers of the new government.

The SLPP has asked for the appointment of 40 of them. However, the president is keen to appoint only 30.

According to informed sources, the appointment of state ministers will take place either next week or during the first week of September.

A SLPP MP who attended the meeting said his party discussed the appointment of heads of district development coordinating committees. (Kelum Bandara)”

My Comments on the above crazy descision

By Dr Sudath Gunasekara Mhanuwara, from the last capital of the 2500 year old Sinhale Kingdom

28.8.2022.

First of all, before I respond to this crazy decision of the President, I must, categorically remind him, as my good friend, that appointing more Ministers (to appease SLPP MPP) is not the priority number 1  problem the country is facing today. There are many more burning issues that should be urgently prioritized and solved before you appoint another set of Ministers, whether they are Cabinet or State, popularly known as blood suckers” or the Boring worms” (kandha panuwo) of the nation, if the nations taken as a tree. Therefore, as an experienced officer of the SLAS coming from the country side, I strongly advise him to first solve the far more serious problems, the country is facing today before he is also ousted by the revolting mobs in no time. [S1] 

Just to mention few of the more serious problems the country is facing today.

*Daily sky rocketing cost of living

*Mass hunger and starving due to shortage of food

* complete brake down of the mainstay of the agricultural sector the mainstay of the economy due the ban of chemical fertilizer and other inputs such as insecticides and pesticides and support services like a vibrant extension service and marketing etc.

*Shortage of medicine healthcare facilities

*Shortage of fuel and even kerosine that has hampered transport and every aspect of people’s day to day life

*Complete brake down in law and order and the failure to eradicate drugs and narcotic menace

*Excessive public expenditure arising from too many politicians, state officers, extravagance, wastage and pilferages

*Brake down in State enterprises due to overall poor and mismanagement, over staffing, (highest in the world:1 public servant for every 16 people) unbearable number of politicians (again highest in the world approximately 1 politician for every 3200 people) lack of strict administrative and financial management and careful business-oriented management and finally, political interference everywhere and in everything. 

*Corruption, bribery, overspending, extravagance and wastage in the entire public sector

*Absence of discipline all over the entire society

*Above all absence of a strong and people friendly government of patriotic land honest statemen as leaders, who know their motherland, its civilization and culture and absence of patriotism in the hearts and heads of all from the president to the beggar in the street coupled with the absence of national and spiritual leaders who can guide the politicians.

President has already agreed to appoint 30 State Ministers

According to the above news item the President has already agreed to appoint 30 State Ministers.  Since the 3o Cabinet Ministers already appointed are also   Ministers of the State, I don’t think you need to have another category of Ministers as State Ministers in addition to the 30 Cabinet Ministers already we have. Few people will know that there are already 48 people, who hold Cabinet rank status and enjoy all those privileges in the country. This includes the 9 Governors and 9 chief Ministers as they are also paid the same salary and given all the privileges of Cabinet Ministers. In addition, you also have another 36 provincial Council Ministers who are also called Ministers who enjoy more or less equal benefits if not more, for no work done at all. This adds up to a total of 84. If Ranil agrees to appoint another 40 Deputies or State ministers the total number of Ministers in the country will go up to 124.

I boldly say that none of these Ministers (with few rare exceptions in the whole history since 1948) has done his/her duty by the country, for the money tax payers spend on them and for the privileges they have enjoyed. That is why this country, the second richest country in per-capita in 1948 in asia has now become even worse than Ethiopia. As such why do we need all these pinpadikarayo whosyphon national resourceswithout any concern for the people or the country. Now that the Provincial councils have been not functioning nearly for 5 years without any brake down in governance, that alone justifies my call for the abolition of this system.

The concept of State Ministers in Sri Lanka

The concept of State Ministers was first introduced by JR Jayawardhana in 1977 to accommodate his chum Ananda Tissa De Alwis in the Cabinet as the Constitution has laid down the maximum number of Cabinet Ministers. Later starting from Premadasa all heads followed this practice and it was abused and misused to the maximum by Gotabhaya just to satisfy the vociferous backbenchers, eating in to the meager resources of  the country for which he had to pay a very high price by fleeing in the mid night from the country and resigning in asylum, now looking for a place for permanent political asylum on earth. Therefore, it is high time that Ranil Wickramasinha should also realize that his predicament would be even worse than that of Gotabhaya, if he also commits the same mistakes.

What the country needs today is a small Cabinet of new blood, who are honest, capable and efficient and who can deliver the services to the people.

What the country needs today is a small Cabinet of new blood, who are honest, capable and efficient and who can deliver the services for the people at these difficult times. President must also take care not to appoint those who have miserably failed in their jobs in the past.

He also has to be extra careful not to appoint his old friends discarded by the people. If you find it difficult to find the required talent from within you can get few suitable men and women from outside the Parliament through the so-called national list which has never served the purpose for which, it was set up, other than accommodating close friends of the party leaders for them to enjoy the luxuries of Parliamentary life for five years without facing the hassles of elections.

Meanwhile, if you can abolish the Provincial Councils also then you will have a Cabinet of 17 only. If you start with this bold decision without giving in to these crazy dirty politicians when you form the new Cabinet (it should not be a container any more) without appointing State Ministers just to appease another set of expensive creatures just to maintain the majority in Parliament. If you do that billions of rupees wasted at Provincial Council level to maintain a useless system for nothing will be saved as revenue for the central government

You will go down in history as a people’s President 

Mr. President since most of the MPP in Parliament and the people in the country are against you. The talk in the paddy field, village well or the spout or the village grocery stores or the street corner in towns and in the bus and train and in offices and factories is that you will allow asymmetric devolution to the North and East and might end up in signing the MMC and SOPA and betray and destroy this country and the Sinhala nation as your erstwhile uncle JR did by signing the Indo Sri Lanka Accord of 29 July 1987 as a revenge from the nation for not making him the leader of this country early in his life after Senanayakas were gone.

Therefore, this is the best time to introduce changes that benefit the people and that is not so and prove that you are a patriotic leader- stateman. Definitely you can do this if you change the current corrupt and dirty political culture that has plagued and destroyed the country, by adopting a completely different  people centered and people friendly approach of governance that is radically different from the politician centered corrupt and what is called The government by the politicians, for the politicians and of the politicians” model of government we have had in this country particularly since 1977 you will go down in history as a people’s President who resurrected a dead nation in the year 2022 of the Christian era.

If you do the right thing at the right time, you need not be scared of the SLPP who elected you as the President, or any other in the parliament as none will touch you, I repeat if you do the correct thing at the correct time”

In this backdrop, I lodge my strongest protest on behalf of all the starving and suffering people in my motherland on the above proposal to appoint 30 non- Cabinet Ministers at this critical moment. I also request the President not to appoint a single State Minister in the new Government.

Also, I strongly request him to limit the cabinet to a maximum of 17, as I have already requested him  in my first letter sent to him immediately after his appointment as the President as given below.

I also strongly condemn the silly and untimely requests made by the SLPP MPP as reported above as if they have forgotten why Gotabahya had to resign and even to leave the country. I put the blame for that unfortunate episode squarely on these so-called Ministers and the State Ministers of the Gotabhaya regime who took that poor man, a novice to politics, for a ride and paved the way for him to flee the country seeking political asylum in fear of even death, as a fable one finds in fairy tales.

I am confident that they want be able to play the fool with Ranil Wickramasinha the same way they did with Gota who was surrounded by kewatta advisors, who ruined his entire political career and still quarrel for portfolios.

Ranil will also have to face the same consequences of hiding in unknown lands  

On the other hand, if Ranil also gives in to these selfish requests together with them and his own acolytes, Ranil will also have to face the same consequences of hiding in unknown lands.

Therefore, Mr. President, as an elderly man first, I would like to request you not to give in for such pressures and to warn all these politicians suffering from Ministerial fever to get back to their senses before asking for ministries. You selfish politicians, first, think about the present economic situation in the country and the tens of thousands starving men, women and children and the future of at least your own children. If you have no brain to understand the sufferings of 22 million and the uncertain future of their children. I don’t think I need to elaborate any further.  

Stop appointing raw politicians as Chairmen of District Development[S2]  Coordinating committees

The present practice of appointing raw politicians as Chairmen of District Development Coordinating committees as the SLPP MPP requested should also be stopped forth with. I have found in many districts, in experienced Mpp who have entered for the first time also have been appointed as Chairmen of these Committees This has not only disgraced and demoralized the GAA the Heads of the Districts but also the entire district public service making district administration and development a bick mockery.  

Appointing ruling party politicians only make it utterly undemocratic. On the other hand, such inexperienced politicians fail in their jobs as they cannot win the regard and respect of the senior officers in the district

 Only GAA  as Heads of district Administration should be appointed as Chairmen of DACC and DCC

Only GAA should be appointed as Chairmen of DACC and DCC in order to make these Committees effective and successful in administration and development the government should get back to the 1965- 77 practice of appointing selected senior people who have wide experience not only in Divisional and District Administration but also at National level experience at least two years of Experience as heads of Departments then only the District Committee can sustain an effective job.

Mr. President, this is the biggest challenge you face in your life. But the whole nation will stand behind you and admire you forgetting all your past failures, if you implement the above plan.

 Message for the MPP who fight for Ministries

This is not the way you should behave, at a time when you people should be prepared to serve the people at your own expense even without a salary, at least for one year until the country’s situation come back to normal. Being politicians, you must first set an example for others. It is a shame you people behave irresponsibly like this when the people are starving and some dying on the road. If you continue to behave like this any further the day when the people will come and drag you out of the Parliament is not that far. 

Taking the present economic situation and social unrest into account, I make the following suggestions to the President and the Prime minister

1 Appoint only 17 Ministers selected from all the Political parties in the Parliament. Ministries should be allocated according to the ratio of each party has in the House. If the Party leaders are not willing to accept portfolios let them nominate their members to accept them.

All these Ministers should work without a salary for one year Their facilities should be reduced to the bare minimum. But each one should be given a target and their performance must be evaluated weekly

2. Don’t appoint a single State Minister as they have been square pegs in round holes.

All these Ministers should work without a salary for one year as stated above.

3 All the MPP should be appointed to 17 Committees under the Ministries and they have to actively take part in deliberating and implementing the programmes of the respective Ministries Attending Parliament and these Committees must be made compulsory.

Anyone who cannot fit in to this arrangement should immediately resign from his seat and go home and say good bye to politics.

The philosophy behind this proposal is sacrifice by all

The philosophy behind this proposal is sacrifice by all, from the President down to the beggar on the street, to take the country out of the present abyss in to which it has been put by none other than the policy makers and the so-called public servants who are responsible for their implementation. for which they alone are responsible.

Proposed Amaatya mandalaya in the new Government

1අග්‍රාමාත්ය, රාජ්‍ය ආරක්ශක,  බුද්ධසාශන හා සන්ස්කෘතික කටයුතු

2 මුදල් හා ක්‍රම සම්පාදන හා රජයේ වැඩ

3 ඉඩම්,  වාරිමාර්ග සහ පරිසර සන්රක්ශන

4 කෘෂිකර්මාන්ත, වැවිලිකර්මාන්ත සහ කුළුබඩු

5 කර්මාන්ත, බලශක්ති හා තාක්ශන 

6 අධ්‍යාපන සහ ක්‍රීඩා

7 අධිකරණ, නිතිය හා සාමය

8 සෞඛ්‍ය, ආයුර්වේද සහ සමාජසේවා

9 නිවාස, පලාත්පාලන හා ජලසම්පාදන

10 වෙළඳ හා නාවික කටයුතු

11 විදේශ සහ ජාත්‍යන්තර කටයුතු (මෙම ඇමති ධුරයට නිතරම පත්කළ යුත්තේ ශ්‍රි.ලන්.වි.සේ  විශිෂ්ඨතම නිලධාරියෙකි- ජාතික ළැයිස්තුවෙන්)

 12 ධීවර සහ සමුද්‍ර සම්පත් –

13 කම්කරු හා රැකිරක්ශා –

 14 ගමනාගමන, මහාමාර්ග හා ගුවන්සේවා 

 15 ප්‍රවෘර්ති, ගුවන්විදුලි, රූපවාහිනී සහ ජන මාධ්‍ය

16`උඩරට ගැමි පුනරුත්ථාපන සහ කන්ද උඩරට (ජාතියේ හදබිම ) සන් රක්ශනය 

17 ස්වදේශ කටයුතු රාජ්ය පරිපාලන හා ග්‍රාම සන්වර්ධන (මෙම ඇමති ධුරයට නිතරම පත්කල යුත්තේ ශ්‍රි.ලන්.ප.සේ විශිෂ්ඨතම නිලධාරියෙකි- ජාතික ළැයිස්තුවෙන්)

(ස්වදේශ කටයුතු, රාජ්‍ය පරිපාලන හා ග්‍රාම සන්වර්ධන අමාත්යාන්ශය මට භාර දෙන්නේනම් 1948 සිට නොකෙරුණු මේ රටට ගැලපෙන දිස්ත්‍රික්ක, ප්‍රාදේෂීය සහ ග්‍රාම පාලන ක්‍රමයක්  6 මසක් අතුලත මට මේරටට නිර්මාණය කොට දිය හැකි බව්ද ප්‍රකාශකරමි).

දැනට තිබෙන අමාත්‍යාශ, දෙපාර්තමේන්තු සහ අනෙකුත් රාජ්ය ආයතන සියල්ල (අනවශ්ය ඒවා වසාදැමීමෙන් පසු ඉතිරිවන) මෙම අමාත්‍යාශ යටතට විධිමත්ව අන්තග්‍රහණය  කළ යුතුය

ජාතික ලැයිස්තුවෙන් ඇමතිමන්ඩලයට  ගත යුතු කීපදනෙක්

සරත් නන්ද ද සිල්වා  හිටපු  අග්‍රවිනිශ්චයකාර ආචාර්ය

ආචාර්ය ගාර්වින් කරුනාරත්න

ගාමිනි විජේසින්හ හිටපු විඝණනාධිපති

නීතිඥ නාගානන්ද කොඩිතුවක්කු

ප්‍රභාත් මහනාම

වන්නියෑලෑ ඇත්තො

ආචාර්ය චන්ද්‍රේ ධර්මවර්ධන.

මෙම ළැයිස්තුවට ලක්ෂ්මන් කදිරගාම වැනි දෙමල නියෝජිතයෙක්ද ඇතුලත් කරගත යුතුය

                   (මොවුන් ඇමති තණතුරු භාරගැනීමට අසතුටුනම් යටත් පිරිසෙයින් ජාතික සැලසුම් මන්ඩලයේ උපදේශක වරුන් වශයෙන් හෝ පත්කොට ගතයුතුයයි මම යෝජනා කරමි)


 [S1]

 [S2]               

Privatization.

August 28th, 2022

Sugath Kulatunga

The Government has already met a few of the anticipated conditionalities of the IMF. Rupee has been devalued, subsidies reduced in essential services like electricity and water and cost reflective pricing has been imposed and interest rates increased. The next thing the IMF would insist is privatization of SOEs. We now hear the baying of the wolf pack of of many politicians and economic pundits urging the government to get on the job and privatize State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) to make them efficient and profitable and ease the burden of losses to the state. Majority of them think that a wave of the majic wand of privatization will turn the white elephants to cash cows. Historically in Sri Lanka, SOEs have made a significant contribution to industrial development, employment creation and providing essential services. Before 1977 many SOEs came into existence out of a nationalization wave born out of compulsions of state control or to fill a gap in the production of essential goods or services. Other than Corporations established under specific Acts, SOEs were formed underthe Government Sponsored Corporations Act No. 19 of 1955 and the State Industrial Corporations Act No. 49 of 1957. As of now it is estimated that there are 527 SOEs.

Economic analysts presently take a more balanced view of its effectiveness (of privatization). Few dispute the positive results of privatization of firms operating in competitive, or potentially competitive markets, but experience has yielded a deeper understanding of the complexities of implementing the policy, especially in infrastructure sectors such as electricity, railways or water and sewerage, and particularly in lower-income, less developed economies. There is a greater recognition that privatization needs to take place in a supportive institutional and policy framework if it is to live up to its potential; and there is a better realization of the socio-political challenges that inevitably accompany this always contentious activity. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1999098

Privatization should not lead to monopolies, and if it leads beyond the institutional and professional capacity of the private sector it will be counterproductive.

If some of the many SOEs which do not make an elemental contribution to the economy or provide an essential service, a selective and judicious privatization is justified. But when one looks at the past privatization episodes in Sri Lanka one shudder to think of the consequences. Privatization became a fetish during the JR regime on political grounds and more as an opportunity to enrich themselves and their henchman. A reputed economist and the head of the prestigious Institute of Policy Studies, late Dr. Saman Kelegama 2001 cites a case where in Sri Lanka an SOE valued at US $100 million was sold at only US $7 million on the ground that the government only wanted to get the privatization policy itself moving.” In many episodes the buyer of SOEs did not continue operating the SOE but sold the machinery for scrap like in the case of Kantale Sugar. A similar tragedy happened with the Werehara workshop of the CTB which was considered one of the best equipped and efficient workshops in South Asia. One cannot recall a single privatized SOE during this period operating more efficiently and profitably. Most of them are nonexistent. 

During the regime of Chandrika Bandaranayake Kumaratunga (CBK) selling of the family silver in the way of selling off SOEs was the easy way to balance the budget. Fortunately, the Supreme Court found that some of those deals in the sale of valuable national assets were illegal and restored them back to the State. In addition,CBK was fined and her accomplish the Secretary of Finance was banned from the public service. The bigger crime of the pair was the selling back to Prima Flour Mill for a pittance an asset that was to be handed over to Sri Lanka on the terms of the BOT agreement. As a result, the country has lost its grip on food security.

It cannot be denied that behind the economic rationale on privatization is a lurking ideological pollical obsessionwhich prevents these advocates to examine the issue in depth and consider alternate strategies. Firstly, it must be accepted that it is not the ownership but the management of an institution which is of paramount importance for its success. Secondly all SOEs cannot be put into one basket. Some deal with the ‘commanding heights’ of the economy and are of strategic importance, some are purely commercial and others noncommercial. It is also important to gain from the lessons of past experience of Sri Lanka and the knowledge of international insights in privatization.

 Even after several episodes of privatization it is reported that Sri Lanka as of now has 527 state-owned enterprises which could be categorized under: 55 Strategic SOEs, 287 SOEs with commercial interests, and 185 SOEs with non-commercial interests. (advocata)

 The typical criticism of SOEs is that they are not profitable as they are not free to determine the price of their products or services. While it is important to maintain a cost reflective pricing mechanism in SOEs it has to be conceded that SOEs have to strike a fine balance between helping the Government achieve its socioeconomic objectives while ensuring the enterprise’s financial viability. This challenge stems from the engagement of SOEs in the provisioning of essential products and services, which are sometimes not commercially viable; for instance, the provision of public transport to rural communities or electricity in geographically challenging areas such as in mountainous regions.” CBSL.

Without rushing into a frenzied bout of privatization it would be useful to learn from the experience of privatization in Sri Lanka and abroad. Before resorting to surgery, it is essential to diagnose the malady. The problems of SOEs arise from three sources i.e., political interference, poor systems, and bad management. Political interference can be curtailed by law that the Minister is made to issue instruction only on policy and that too made in writing through the secretary of the ministry who is the chief accounting officer. All other interventions should be considered as illegal. Political interference occurs mainly on recruitment where Ministers insist on their list of candidates. It would be necessary to introduce an institution parallel to the Public Service Commission vested with similar powers and functions. Even Provincial Councils have their independent Public Service Commissions.

With regard to systems, we need not invent new systems when we have a functional system in our public service tested over at least 74 years since independence. The Financial Regulations and Establishment code of the public service are updated only on rare occasions when necessary. Export Development Board at its first Board Meeting decided that the EDB will follow the Financial and Establishment rules of the government and any deviations necessary will be dealt with by the Board. The EDB deals with significant amount of funds in grants and financial assistance schemes and has had no deviations necessary and has had no audit queries. The critics of government rules are those who neglect forward planning or create emergencies with dishonest intentions. Deviations from FRs are allowed when reasons are adduced justifying the need for such deviation. In government departments even with ‘profit and loss’ accounts, annual accounts are finalized unfailingly on the 31st of December. But in the case of SOEs most of them do not even submit their accounts for several years.

Efficient management is the key to success of any enterprise in the public sector or in the private sector. A good management can set up a new organization and introduce an untested system effectively. A good example is the CTB where with nationalization a brand-new system had to be set up to operate a massive island wide organization. This was accomplished by a handful of administrators seconded from the civil service. Until the CTB became the employment exchange of politicians it was run efficiently providing an essential service and making profit. In fact, in 1964 the CTB paid a significant dividend to the Treasury.

Before privatization of an SOE it would be useful to examine the original objectives of establishing the particular entity. For instance, the CWE was for wholesale trade and to serve the cooperative sector. Now CWE is focusing on retail trade. CWE should compete with the import trade mafia controlling the price of major commodities like sugar. State Trading Company was mainly to deal with restricted imports. STC could become a center for information on import trade serving the private sector. There are small SOEs which can be merged. There are others which only act as middlemen or conduits. They can be eliminated.

Counting a chairman and a managing director for each SOE, the 573 SOEs would consist of over 1100 personnel. At present these individuals are picked on an ad hoc basis where political loyalty becomes the dominant criterion. Most of these henchmen have no long-term interest in the success of the enterprise and would only be keen to please the minister and would stoop to corrupt practices. With over 550 SOEs there is a need for a special cadre of around 1000 top managers to run these entities. This number exceeds the cadre in SLAS Special Class and Class 1 which at present is around 700. This cadre should be professionals seconded from the management cadres of the Public Service or selected out of present holders in the SOEs. Both officers on secondment and inservice personal should be absorbed through an examination and interview by the proposed SOE Service Commission. SOE service may  be structured in two or three grades. All holders of SOE posts should be given a high-level training in business management. Their salaries should not exceed the salaries of the parallel SLAS grades but they should be entitled to profit sharing. The posting of individuals into specific posts should be based on the needs of the job description of each post.

The feasibility of a forming a holding company for the say 10 of the most strategic SOEs on the model of Temasek of Singapore and SASAC of China should be considered. This should have the independence of business policy and operations similar to what is already enjoyed by the Port City.

Privatization decisions are of national importance and should be done carefully. All such decisions must be approved by the parliament to avoid CBK type scams.

POHOTTU AS USA’ S PROXY Part 8Ld

August 28th, 2022

KAMALIKA PIERIS

The IUSF starts its process of controlling the freshers, long before they arrive in the University.  IUSF made use of the one year gap between A Level and University to gain control over the future first year undergrad. IUSF does the work, but there is a political party behind this which provides the money, said analysts.

Once the intake into University was decided and the successful applicants are informed, the IUSF contacted those students over the phone and through social media. IUSF clearly has contacts in the administration, who are prepared to release this list to the JVP. The names and addresses of selected applicants are known only to the administration.

Weeramunda (2008)   in his 2007   survey of student violence in university confirmed that the IUSF got addresses of all new recruits from the university.    The officer in charge refused to give the list to the IUSF in 2007, said a respondent from Kelaniya, but they were given this information when X was the Chancellor.

IUSF then conducted unofficial meetings in each district,  and invited the future undergrads to join classes arranged by the IUSF, which conveniently took place in the nearest town.Weeramunda confirmed that IUSF contacted new entrants privately at the district level and ran an awareness programme for them.

 These ‘kuppi’ sessions took place every weekend, in their hometowns, in temples and in tuition classes. They were the first source of University information for these freshers, said Hettiarachchi.   These classes initially took the form of providing genuine assistance in teaching the difficult subject modules students would meet in the first year. Students with weak scores would have responded eagerly to this.

These sessions then gradually converted in to brainwashing sessions identified as ‘thela gaseeme’. Participants were sent for political classes, for 5 day classes, two week classes and also camps, added Hettiarachchi. 

Then came University. After our Advanced Level Examination we entered university with high hopes,  said one undergrad who had entered in 2011. We were soon disillusioned. We were subject to inhuman ragging by the seniors.

 IUSF is very welcoming when the freshers arrive. They meet the parents and undergrads and speak very encouragingly and comfortingly. They assure parents that they will look after their children. Parents leave happily, thinking that their children will be safe in the hands of the IUSF seniors.  

In 2017, at Rajarata parents had been told by the Student Council at a meeting that there was no ragging in the university.  They had later learned that this was far from the truth.  When we started university, the seniors spoke to us in a very loving manner and even our parents were surprised. But things changed thereafter, said one undergrad.

For the first week, the freshers are treated very kindly and well.   The seniors first used decent language. Then they started to call us, not nangi, malli but tho, thopi, yako, mehe varen. Thereafter they started scolding us using foul language.    The freshers were then given a protracted ragging,  which went on for three months,  and in some places extended over the whole of the first year. It was not a one-or-two-week event.

The ragging was master minded by the Student Union, which in turn was led by the Inter University Federation of Students (IUFS). The Students Union is permitted by university regulations to address the welfare needs of students. Using this, the Union obtains approval for a familiarization programme for freshers.  

They prepare a progamme and get University approval. This programme does not contain ragging; it consists of musical shows and other such activities..That is why we can’t catch them observed undergrads. They get their overt plan approved by the university. But the purpose underneath these activities is ragging, observed Hettiarachchi.

The description given by students in different universities and different years of study all corroborate each other and a pattern of systematic well planned ragging, common to all the Universities emerges . It is an organized rag, we only realized this later, saidRuhuna undergrad Dharsha Udayanga. This is a well organized scheme,  agreed the authorities

There are several teams involved  in the ragging  operation. The  actual ragging was done by the second year students under instruction from the third year students. In addition,  there is a first aid team to look after those who  become injured during the ragging. There is also a ‘security’ team,  which stays on the stairs to each floor of the hostel, while the ragging is going on.

Security  was also positioned  outside as look out, they are stationed  about half a kilometer away.  Using Whatsapp they will inform  those inside that a car is approaching. That is why it is difficult to catch them in the act, said undergrads.  Also freshers had to switch off their  mobile phones while the rag was on.

Before ragging starts, the IUSF acquires detailed information on each fresher.  The freshers have to fill in a form given by the raggers. This form includes address, financial position of family, political affiliation, likes and dislikes, boy friend, girl friend,  health issues , also caste.  Those with medical ailments are  not ragged.  Some seniors pretended to be freshers to get information on the  freshers, said informants.

Each fresher was given a card”, meaning a nickname unique to each student. He was known by that name for the rest of his stay at university. This helped to hide the true identity of the undergrad from the university administration. This is part of the JVP strategy of concealment, said authorities.

The real names of students are not known to us. They use nicknames and they do not have their ID  with them on campus,  authorities  said. At  Kelaniya  it took the university authorities more than one month to get  the real name of a student involved in an act of violence and that too by accident.

There was a dress code for the first three months.  The men could not wear watches. Denims were forbidden. Girls had to wear long cotton dresses, rubber slippers  and had to plait their hair. Analysts observed that the freshers  knewthis beforehand and  girls arrived wearing long dresses. Girls could not  wear necklaces.

Freshers  could not laugh or smile and  had to  speak in pure Sinhala. Freshers were     forbidden to  cry when spoken to roughly. Girls were not allowed to go anywhere alone. Freshers  had to carry a particular colored file wherever they went  during the first year. In one university it was  yellow for arts and green for science  faculty.   ( CONTINUED)

Balkanization of Sri Lanka & Victor Ivan’s plan (part 2)

August 28th, 2022

C. Wijeyawickrema, LL.B., Ph.D.

(Note: Editor@ft.lk – This essay is an explanation regarding Victor Ivan’s guest column. If you are unable to print it in your newspaper, kindly forward it to him.)

Who wants a ‘state religion’?

The Buddhists wish—and quite rightly—that in this country where they form 70 percent of the population, Buddhism should be recognized as the predominant religion of the people. In the rest of the world, Ceylon is regarded as essentially a Buddhist country, and they want this claim established here as well…They will not be content to remain in the position of inferiority to which they have been reduced by 450 years of foreign occupation… They have no desire to make Buddhism the State religion—in spite of the cry raised by self-seeking politicians— but they want the State to help them rehabilitate themselves and undo some, at least, of the injustices perpetrated against them during the days of their subjection.”

(quoted from a speech by Professor Gunapala Malalasekera, President of ACBC reproduced in Times of Ceylon, January 15, 1956, and referenced on page 196 of the book, Ceylon: Dilemmas of a New Nation, by W. H. Wriggins, Princeton Univ. Press,1960)

Map above shows the seven major river basins in Sri Lanka identified by geography professor M. C. Madduma Bandara. Thick red line delineates the Eelam boundary of the ‘Tamil homeland’. Short red lines in basin no. 4 indicates its potential MALAYANADU component, espoused more recently by ex-CM of NP, C. V. Vigneswaran and Indian PM Modi. It is currently buried by a 50-billion-dollar ISGA/P-TOM type trap.

1.Yalpanam, 2. Raja Rata, 3. Dambadeni, 4. Mahaveli, 5. Deegavaapi,   6. Kelani,  7. Ruhunu,

Introduction

In part 1of this discussion covered several matters: (1) the death of GF Aragalaya, a conspiracy against the Sinhala Buddhists resurgence in 2019 (like SWRD in 1956, Gotabhaya was its midwife, not owner). (2) failure of previous attempts for system change (3) Victor Ivan’s caste and Marxist approach to Sri Lankan mismanagement crises (4) Victor’s bias against the Buddhist Middle Path and the Jana Sabha concept, which must be followed to effect a change in an individual’s mind and his/her societal behavior and (5) Buddhists’ wish for a system change by evolution, not  r-evolution, the difference between the approaches of Gandhi and Mao.

Victor Ivan and Dayan Jayatilaka are twin ‘theoreticians’ living in a Judo Christian-Marxist world with an anti-Mahavamsa agenda. Accepting Sinhala Buddhist civilizational norms, like what Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith did in 2018, a long lapse of time from 1551 (when Don Juan Dharmapala was the one and only Christian king in the island), young Uvidu Wijeweera rejects this ideology, perhaps a direct result of his father’s last wish when the army captured him. He asked his wife not to baptize the children. Thus, they grew up knowing what Buddhism is. Uvidu’s mother could confirm or deny this story we hear. However, Elle Gunawansa Thero once said that Somawansa Amarasinghe wished to follow Buddhist way of living, including giving a පාංශකූල after his death.

In countries such as Korea, Vietnam there are dog farms for dog meat. Chinese eat cats.  But Sinhala Buddhists eat meat with much reluctance. Most of them face a dilemma. New generations run for KFC/MacDonald’s not knowing that in the USA new generations avoid beef. Besides, for them selling the cow that nourished them with milk as meat when the animal is old is not an easy business deal the way Victor Ivan sees it. For Victor, God created animals for the benefit of man/woman to kill and eat them. For a Buddhist an animal is part of his/her environment and Buddhist compassion extends to all beings, including trees and rocks. The science of how human body functions discourage excessive consumption of animal products. When Victor says that only 10% of animal should be allowed to live it conflicts with Victor’s other correct view that Sri Lankan society is so uncivilized that they have foul mouths. In no other country politicians and people insult presidents/PMs violating Samma Vacha (correct speech) of the Noble Eight-Fold Path as in Sri Lanka today.

As mouthpieces of black-whites, these two souls (පංචස්කන්ධ), Victor and Dayan, twist western ideas such as rule of law, interfaith fraud, pluralism/multi-ethnicity, non-majoritarian solutions, and R2P/IMF as tools to promote their target of balkanization of Sri Lanka. In this part of the essay, both are challenged to come and examine (not believe- එව අදහව නොව, එව බලව -ඒහි පස්සිකෝ) the Jana Sabha world, peoples’ councils (මහජන සභා), demanded by the more reasonable and pragmatic factions of the buried (but not dead) Aragalaya. Instead of the slogan Gota go home, if they demanded Gota to implement his own election manifesto of Jana muula Sabha, Aragalaya would have become a successful reform movement. Sadly, they did not receive wiser guidance. Jayadeva Uyangoda and Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri misled them by placating them stating they came to learn from the (bearded) boys!

If Ranil+225 do not act wisely, Libyan- Lebanon type anarchy is in store for the country. Instead of the 13-A+ path, politicians must go back to pre-1978 local government system strongly recommended by the Abhayawardena local government reforms commission report in 1999. If Ranil is genuine he could act swiftly to take simple steps which will make major changes. There are so many simple, straightforward, system-killing solutions proposed by so many other citizens such as ex-AG Gamini Wijesinghe, ex-civil servant Garvin Karunaratne, environmentalist Thilak Kandegama etc. before trying to please the minority MPs or the Geneva agency. Ranil needs to appoint a team to collect all these suggestions and examine them.

Victor’s Euro-centric world

In his lifetime of writing, Victor never tried to understand the internal decadence and external threats faced by Sri Lanka, especially the Sinhala Buddhists. Why he avoids or ignore them must be a strategy he follows copying the late Mangala Samaraweera. This kind of perspective is possible when one escapes from a Euro-centric, black-white mindset of looking at Sri Lankan history as periods of Portuguese, Dutch, English and independent (or Colombo Paradigm). As a Sinhala Buddhist following the Buddhist Middle Path, free of Judo-Christian influence, I was contemplating why Buddhist monks faced such harsh treatment in the hands of Sinhala politicians, after 1995, especially during the yahapalana days of 2015-19.  Anyone taking this out of the box approach could see country’s history after 1802 as a story of an unending conflict between white/ black-white rulers and the temple. There is clearly identifiable pattern of ideological conflict zones. I was able to identify 13 overlapping phases of this history.  I emailed this list to Pathum Kerner of Aragalaya on May 28th expecting him to come down from his utopian world of London to the real world of mismanaged in Sri Lanka. Listed below are interconnected phases with the names of the leading monks:

*1. Buddhism is falsehood (1798-1873) – Variyapola Sumangala/Migettuwatte Gunananda

*2.  Buddhism on deathbed (1840 —–à ) – Valane Siri Siddhartha

*3. Olcott-Anagarika Dharmapala (1880-1915) – Hikkaduwe Sumangala

*4. Donoughmore Era (1931-1948) -Vidyodaya social service (Kalukondayawe Pragnasekera)

*5. Vidyalankara national service (1946—à) – Vidyalankara Declaration, Heritage of the Bhikku – Yakkaduwe Pragnasara/Walpola Rahula

*6. Pancha Maha Balavegaya (1956-59) – Henapitagedara Gnanaseeha/Baddegama Wimalawansa/Kotagama Vachissara/Kalalelle Ananda Sagara

*7. The Dark period (1960-78) rise of federal/Eelam demand, destruction of country by Sinhala political parties

*8. The Unjust Society (1978-2005) -Maduliwave Sobhitha/ The Gatambe (Peradeniya) monk

*9.  Ven. Gangodavila Soma phenomenon (2000-2003)

*10. Pirith nuul ropes on wrists period begins (2004 —à) – Elle Gunawansa/Athureliye Rathana, JHU

*11. Meteoric rise of the Bodu Bala Sena (May 2012—à) Galaboda-atte Gnanasara

*12. Asgiri Declaration and Notice (June 20 & July 4, 2017

*13. Rise and fall of Sinhala Buddhist awakening (2019 presidential Election)

Some salient features gleaned from the historical stages mentioned above.

Each stage had a monk or several monks who played a catalytic role.

*1. Such monks faced threat of assassination (Ven. Velivita Sri Saranankara Sangha Raja [1698-1778] was the first target in this era).

*2. Buddhist monks did not oppose Christian missionary work; instead, they facilitated these pastors by hosting them (Juse Vaas was protected by temples from the Dutch).

*3. 1815 Convention was a fraud. Brownrigg had no intention of following it. The ruler secretly supported anti-Buddhist attacks by Christian pastors and sabotaged the temple education system then in vogue.

*4. The black-white class was an invention of McCaulay (Indian Education Minute of 1835). Governor North supported this idea of educating sons of local blck whites to serve as spies. This was officially implemented after Colebrooke’s recommendations in 1832, and Royal college, St Thomas college etc. started. When this was taking place Ven. Valane Siddhartha moved from Panadura to Ratmalana and started Parama Dhammachethiya Pirivena in 1842. Pupils of this pirivena established Vidyodaya and Vidyalankara. The learned monks of these institutions saved Sri Lanka from relentless white and black-white assault.

*5. Olcott came in 1880 and he was considered a Bodhisatva. But whether the school education system he created helped the country in the long run is now in doubt. It was a copy of Christian education. Leadbetter was a Christian priest before he came to Ananda college, he left it and lived as a Christian priest.

*6. The role played by monks in national affairs ended after Olcott’s interlude and the Buddhist Theosophical Society with English-speaking laymen eclipsed them. By 1911, the two-family model that the British used to facilitate civil control (Obeysekara- de Saram and Kumarasuriyar) had to be replaced by a new foreign educated sons of local black-whites.

*7. The 1915 Muslim-Sinhala clash paved way of a new crowd of nobodies to become somebodies in black-white politics. Anagarika Dharmapala understood this black-white phenomenon, but he was mercilessly attacked by new black-whites including D.B. Jayatilaka and D.S. Senanayaka aided and abetted by the white masters. What is happening to the monk Galabodaatte Gnanasara of BBS and to the Asgiriya monks today is reminiscent of what the establishment did then to Dharmapala.

*8. From 1910 to 1956 mostly Christian Sinhala black-whites and Christian Tamil black-whites handled and messed up affairs of the country. There was no place for monks in the system of politics. Instead, the role played by the Vidyalankara monks in the 1940s was branded as work of political monks by the Sinhala black-whites.

*9. From 1933 onwards Vidyodaya monks led by Ven. Kalukondayawe Pragnasekara implemented a national plan for crime control and rural reconstruction in Ceylon, which became a successful model for the country but it was sabotaged by the white and black-white ruling class. To destroy this movement, black-whites tried to bring in religious factor and went to the extent of throwing mud balls at the young ASP supporting it, digging into his private life. He later married the daughter of the IGP. This sabotage was like what government ministers did to kill the Gami Diriya, villager-centered rural development program, operated free from partisan politics. Instead, a Divi Neguma monster was imposed.

*10. By 1956, the Olcott-influenced Sinhala Buddhist laymen were in such helpless situation, they went begging to Dudley Senanayaka to come to their rescue who in turn told them to go to SWRD. Previously, DSSenanayaka with the Section 29 of the constitution, sarcastically rebuked them stating there is no Fourth Refuge called Anduwa Saranam Gachchami.

*11. From 1956-2002, what we saw was governments internally controlled by black-white Christians, projecting to outside world a picture of implementation of a program of Sinhala Buddhist affirmative action. Removing Sunday weekend, making the two pirivenas universities, making Buddhism government’s foster child, creating a Buddhist ministry while removing history and geography from school curriculum, these were all fake, un-Buddhist action to cheat the masses, generating fodder for anti-Buddhist forces.

*12. The silencing of Anagarika Dharmapala, sabotage of Vidyodaya monk Ven. Kalukondayawe’s program and branding of patriotic Vidyalankara monks as political monks, the use of robe in a coup to murder SWRD, all these had their negative affects until the rise of the Ven. Soma phenomenon in 2000. Then, in May 2012, Bodu Bala Sena came to point out how Sinhala Buddhist black-white politicians treat Sinhala Buddhists just the way some men treat kind-hearted women.

*13. From 2012-2017 Bodu Bala Sena monk Ven. Gnanasara became a target of attack for his Dharmapala method of exposing politicians’ game, and the government’s sinister attempts to kill the messenger came to an end with the Asgiriya Declaration in July 2017.

*14. The subject of this essay, the clash between black-whites and the temple has now come to a climax with Wigeswaran asking <federal> before the Asgiriya monks, Christian Marxist Dayan Jayatilaka promoting 13-A, and two ardent half-Christian Marxists Lal Wijenayaka and Jayampathi Wickremaratne re-submitting the 1995-2000 CBK Sri Lanka balkanization plan with titbits taken from the Tissa Vitharana APRC majority report of 2006. Asgiriya monks informed the government that there is no need for a new constitution at this time, but the government is not listening, most probably because of American pressure. Only clear voice against this propaganda comes from Nagananda Kodituwakku, who says he will abolish 13-A if he becomes the president.

(Reference: LankaWeb – අස්ගිරි විප්ලවය  (July 30, 2017)

Some aspects of the Internal Crisis that Victor ignores

*1. Divide and Rule of Sinhala people based on red, blue, yellow, and green colors by black-white party politicians. They did it better than the white masters.

*2. Assault on the village creating a society of beggars with inferiority complex. Voter became a slave of local politician.

*3. JRJ and RP giving birth to (මත්ස්‍ය න්‍යාය), big fish swallowing the small fish all in the name of free market, liberal economics. Money Is God’s younger brother (සල්ලි දෙයියන්ගෙ මල්ලි).

*4. Fear of death silently absorbed by people due to a 30-year war resulted in creating an atmosphere of men/women nakedly selfish and unashamed of their openly immoral conduct (හිරි-ඔත්තප්ප හිඳීයාම/වාෂ්පවී යෑම).

*5. The corrupt system of exploiting women by sending them to Arab homes to be used like slave labor. This often resulted in disrupted local families, children neglected and men going after other women. Dollars remitted after cleaning toilets etc. used to import chicken from Holland and export stupid children for overseas degrees.

*6. Garment factories, which provide no industrial base for a country’s development robbed village girls’ youth for a useless manual labour. Often, they became sex objects of cunning supervisors.

*7. Creation of a three-wheeled generation, lazy to learn any other vocation except dreaming to escape to Korea, Arabia etc. not knowing the hard life awaiting them.

*8. Use of university students as slaves/robots by Marxist politicians

*9. Unprofessional conduct of university teachers, lawyers, and doctors to name a few.

10* Ruination of young lives’ natural right to play and grow by competitive 5th grade scholarship race, OL-AL competition, and a country-wide tuition system

Victor is blind to External Threats

*1. World Christianization Movement (in SL-unethical religious conversion)

*2, World Islam Expansion Project (in SL- Arabianization, sharia-wahhabism, ගර්භාෂ යුද්ධය (promoted by Yasser Arafat & Gadhafi-when a Muslim child is taken out of the womb Dr. Shafi holds it up and thanks Allah!)

*3. Tamil country with a UN flag (Eelam Project)

*4. Multinational-Corporate invasion (creating conflicts and financing them)

*5. INGO-NGO agents (unlike in India, inability to monitor/regulate them)

*6. Foreign intelligence agents and dollar-paid local field agents  

*7. Open interference in local affairs by foreign embassies

*8. Interfaith invasion (monk eating with Islam Lebbes at the same table)

*9. Path Finder & MCC Trojan Horse.

*10. World Trade Organization and piracy of plant rights.

*11. Geneva HRC as an agent of new imperialism

Dayan’s Eurocentric mind = 13-A + Formula

Dayan is popularly known as the father of 13th Amendment plus formula, political advisor to Sajith P, is not exactly a replica of Victor. Instead, his Anti Mahavamsa logic is more in line with Tamil-Christian-Marxist Kumar David’s. They oppose monks doing politics. But Kumar David influenced the American Ambassador Sisson to visit Ven. Maduluwawe Sobhita with atapirikara!

DayanJ still believes that 13-A+ would end the hunger and anger for a Tamil Eelam. He thought there are Tamil moderates. His prime choice for the NP-CM post therefore, was Vigneswaran, who disappointed and betrayed him with many Tamil genocide resolutions passed by Vigs as CM. Previously Dayan was with Vartharaja Perumal, an affair ended with Dayan escaping to TamilNad when RPremadasa wanted to catch him. Later RP pardoned him, and Dayan became a loyal disciple of RP. That was long before he crept into MahindaR’s politics, until he was fired from UN Geneva job for betraying MR on the issue of 13-A+ which MR did not support. His attempt to get on to Gotabhaya’s Viyathmaga bandwagon failed, and the next move was touting Dinesh as presidential candidate. For some reason Ranil hates him, but Sajith adores him. Readers need to know this kind of chameleon-like gymnastics of souls.

Dayan blindly believes western game of solving ethnic disputes with what is called non-majoritarian solutions. His godfathers in this case are Donald Horowitz (Ethnic groups in conflict, 1985/2001) and Joseph Nye (Soft Power, 1990, two American professors. Nye popularized the term Soft Power in his book, Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power stating, “when one country gets other countries to want what it wants [it] might be called co-optive or soft power in contrast with the hard or command power of ordering others to do what it wants”. It is this <smart power> USAID deploys by giving dollars to the Sri Lanka Bar Association for genuine-looking projects or to nefarious NGOs to do the field assignments. In Pakistan even army generals are on dollar pay.

Thus, a combination of Horowitz-Nye formulas is a deadly cocktail that black-white types living in former colonies drink with mesmerizing effect. For example, SajithP once talk about this non-majoritarian path in the parliament as if it is a panacea for all ills the country is faced with, tutored without doubt, by his trusted advisor Dayan! 13-A is one such method where minority politicians, not minority people, are empowered. For the peace and good governess of their colonies white rulers adapted a policy of divide and rule. Now white professors want to unravel the mess these masters created in the past by giving the divided people separate countries via the R2P path. 13A is one such example. The end is Eelam whether by way of land and police powers or new ISGAs by way dollar bills after RanilW became the president.

Make majority, minority

White man after capturing Sinhale in 1815, followed a policy of favoring Tamils. In 1832 he made Sinhalese and Tamils equal in the Legislative Council. By 1921, when increasing voting rights made it unnatural or ludicrous to follow this undemocratic policy, Governor Manning in 1924 introduced a new plan to balance the Sinhala majority with a combined minority, stating that no one community should be allowed to impose its will on the other communities.

Our heritage

Sinhala Buddhist civilization survived in this island for over 2,500 years with an ecological model, a Trinity of village-tank-temple. Over 40,000 village names we find today is evidence of this Trinity with collections of such villages/hamlets. Gamsabhava from the times of king Pandukabhaya was this political unit. Unfortunately, American professors like Donald Horowitz, who write about nonmajoritarian solutions to minority human rights, never mention about the Gamsabha institution in Sri Lanka or the Panchyathi Raj in India. Even the new book, why nations Fail  Instead, those who implement western proposals soon end up splitting into separate countries at war. Best example is Sudan from which a South Sudan sprang up, now in total ruin and starving with no white expert to help. 13-A path will take Sri Lanka on this Sudan trap. Suffice it to say that so far, no country treated with this medicine escaped from the separation trap that Horwitz advocated.

The idea of two Tamil and Muslim Vice Presidents is in line with the new game called meaningful devolution” by way of unmajoritarian institutions.” This became so popular during GL-Neelan package deal days and CBK’s several versions of such deals. This method promoted by white Eurocentric writers like Donald Horowitz creates regional ethnic minority elites and slowly weakens the central governments in former colonies (it may take a decade or two or more), until a new Kosovo or South Sudan (or even a separate country of Scotland) is established splitting countries. Thus, the new policy of creating unmajoritarian institutions” is a sanitized” version of the old divide and rule policy, providing ladders to separatist monkeys to carve out separate countries at each other’s throat.  Already, South Sudan started an internal war. Rohan Gunaratne from Singapore University used to promote a quota system for different ethnic groups in the army, police, government jobs etc. These are sure methods of breaking up of Sri Lanka.

This portion of the essay is giving Victor a sufficient dose of facts to think anew free of the late MangalaS’ ghost. Next essay expects to take Victor and Dayan on a Jana Sabha trip, the Buddhist Middle Path.

සිස්ටම් චේන්ජ් කියන්නෙ අන්ධ සටන් පාඨයක්. Janaka Kumbukage interviews Rasika Jayakody

August 28th, 2022

Lines and Beyond

!. JVP එකට විෂන් එකක් නෑ-

2. සිස්ටම් චේන්ජ් ඉල්ලන අය අවශ්‍ය සිස්ටම් එක කුමක්දැයි ඉදිරිපත් කල යුතුය- රසික ජයකොඩි 

Source: Lines and Beyond August 26, 2022

Speaker unveils a portrait of Sir D.B. Jayatilaka at the High Commission of Sri Lanka in New Delhi

August 28th, 2022

Media Release High Commission of Sri Lanka in New Delhi

Speaker of the Sri Lanka Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena unveiled a portrait of Sir D.B. Jayatilaka, Sri Lanka’s first representative to India, today (28) at the High Commission of Sri Lanka in New Delhi, coinciding with the 80th anniversary of the establishment of modern Indo-Lanka relations.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) sending Sir D.B. Jayatilaka as its first Representative to India in 1942. Unveiling the portrait of Sir D.B. Jayatilaka at the Chancery Building comes as one of a series of activities organized by the High Commission of Sri Lanka in New Delhi this year to mark the important anniversary. Earlier, in February, the High Commission named its Chancery Building after Sir D.B. Jayatilaka.

Parliamentarians C.B. Rathnayake, Rohini Kumari Wijeratne and Secretary General of Parliament Dhammika Dasanayake also attended the simple ceremony organized to unveil the portrait. The Sri Lankan Parliamentary delegation led by the Speaker were in transit in Delhi on their way back to Sri Lanka from an international conference.

High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to India Milinda Moragoda and the staff of the High Commission were present on this occasion.  

Sir Don Baron Jayatilaka, Statesman, Buddhist Educationalist, Barrister, pioneering literary figure of his era and one time Home Minister of Ceylon, had graduated from the Universities of Calcutta and Oxford. Sir Baron had first come to India to negotiate food shipments to Ceylon by the Government of India, and was later appointed as the first Representative of the Government of Ceylon to New Delhi.

The appointment of Sir D.B. Jayatilaka as Ceylon’s Representative to India, which pre-dates the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between independent India and Sri Lanka in 1948, stands testimony to the very special bond and close relationship that the two countries have been enjoying since time immemorial.

What the Chinese envoy to Sri Lanka wrote that made India call out his behaviour

August 28th, 2022

Courtesy Ther Print

The Print is reproducing Qi Zhenhong’s article on the docking of Yuan Wang 5, which the Indian high commission in Colombo slammed as lacking ‘basic diplomatic etiquette’.

In recent days, two pieces of news related to China have widely caught the eyes in Sri Lanka. Early this month, after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s sneaky visit to China’s Taiwan region, the Chinese side responded with firm countermeasures immediately. Over 170 countries around the world have all expressed their firm support for the One-China Principle and strong objection against the US provocation. I’m grateful to see that H.E. President Ranil Wickremesinghe, many Sri Lanka’s political parties and social groups have also openly spoken up for justice in support of China.

Consequences of Pelosi’s sneaky visit to China’s Taiwan region

Meanwhile, in the middle of this month, with China and Sri Lanka having altogether resisted the rude and unreasonable interference from third parties, the Chinese scientific research vessel Yuan Wang 5” has successfully docked at the Hambantota Port for replenishment after receiving the latest approval from the Sri Lankan government. Those two matters may seem irrelevant and thousands of miles apart, but both share a same great significance between China and Sri Lanka, that is to jointly safeguard each other’s sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity. The two matters, both the process and results, have also fully shown a fine tradition in our bilateral relations, that is since the diplomatic ties was established 65 years ago, China and Sri Lanka have always been mutually understanding, respecting and supporting each other on issues of core interests and major concerns.

In October 1971, UN Resolution 2758, co-sponsored by Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) and 22 other countries, was adopted with an overwhelming majority of votes in the 26th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. The Resolution officially acknowledges the One-China Principle and the position that There is but one China in the world, Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory, and the Government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is the sole legal government representing the whole of China. It also recognizes PRC as the only legitimate representative of China to the United Nations. Since then, the One-China Principle has become a common understanding of the international society and a basic norm of international relations, and upon that principle, 181 countries including the US have established diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China.

Nancy Pelosi’s visit is a serious violation of the One-China Principle and the provisions of the three China-U.S. joint communiqués. It seriously infringes on China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity gravely undermines peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and sends a seriously wrong signal to the Taiwan independence” separatist forces. However, I noticed that some local newspapers have forwarded voices from western media, falsely claiming that China overreacts, escalates the tension and changes the Taiwan Strait status quo”, which are just their habitual tactics of standing facts on the heads and of a thief crying stop thief”. It is the US and the Taiwan separatists that committed irresponsible acts, and change and escalate the Taiwan Strait situation, not China. China has every reason to respond unhesitantly to the severe impacts caused by the Taiwan visit of Speaker Pelosi, second in line to the US presidency and the No. 3 official of the US government.

Voyage of China’s Scientific research vessel, Yuan Wang 5

Upholding the One-China Principle is not only about safeguarding China’s core interests, but also about safeguarding the UN Charter and the basic norms of international relations. If China and the international society had not resisted such extremely irresponsible and irrational acts by the US side, the general principle of Non-Interference, National Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity in international relations would have just become a mere scrap of paper. More seriously, the world might slide back to jungle rules and barbarian times. With separatists and extremists being encouraged, national sovereignty and territorial integrity of medium and small countries might be severely challenged. The peace and stability in the region and the world enjoyed by countries including Sri Lanka would also suffer serious damage.

Looking back at the great history of the island, Sri Lanka overcome aggression from its northern neighbour 17 times, colonization by the west for 450 years, and an anti-terrorism war for nearly 3 decades, is now still standing in the world bravely and proudly. Any infringement on the national sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka shall not be tolerated. Approving a foreign vessel’s port call at Hambantota or any other port for replenishment is a decision made by the Sri Lankan government completely within its sovereignty, not to mention all the scientific research activities of Yuan Wang 5” comply with the international law and common international practice. External obstruction based on so-called security concerns” but without any evidence from certain forces is de facto a thorough interference into Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and independence. Fortunately, with China and Sri Lanka’s joint efforts, the incident was resolved properly, which not only safeguards Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and independence but also defends international fairness and justice once again.

Just like Sri Lanka, China had suffered a hundred years of humiliation from 1840 to 1949. Because of a similar dark experience, China has always been supporting Sri Lanka in the international for protecting its sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity. We will continue to do that. In contrast, some countries, far or near, always make various groundless excuses to bully Sri Lanka and trample on Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and independence repeatedly. Next month, the the 51st session of the UN Human Rights Council will be held in Geneva where human rights issues in Sri Lanka might probably be stirred up again. As the Sri Lankan people are still grappling with severe economic and humanitarian difficulties, many might wonder what those countries who have been always preaching about human rights will actually do. Will they help Sri Lanka to ease its human rights crisis by providing concrete support? Or will they again use human rights as a cover-up tool to interfere into the island nation’s internal affairs and continue to rub salt into the wound of Sri Lankan people? Just let’s wait and see.

24 companies interested in petroleum business in SL: Minister.

August 28th, 2022

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Twenty-four companies from UAE, Saudi Arabia, USA, China, India, Russia, UK, Malaysia, Norway and Philippines have submitted proposals for the Expressions of Interest (EOI)s to engage in the petroleum business in Sri Lanka, Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera said.

He said the committee appointed by the ministry will evaluate proposals, issue Request for proposal (RFP)s and finalize the process in 6 weeks.

The Minister earlier said that they have called for Expressions of Interest for oil companies to import, distribute and sell petroleum products in Sri Lanka.(DSB)

Police to expand probe on illegal foreign currency traders, methods

August 28th, 2022

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

While urging the public that they should not receive and/or pay foreign remittances through informal methods such as ‘Hawala’ or ‘Undial’ sytems’, the police said it would expand its investigations on illegal foreign currency traders.

Police said the Central Bank of Sri Lanka has observed that the significant decrease in the amount of foreign exchange received by the country is a major factor for the intensification of the economic crisis that Sri Lanka is facing.

The CBSL has also learnt that exchanging foreign currency is taking place outside the legal banking system, such as ‘Hawala’ or ‘Undial sytems’.

In addition, foreign currency transactions to import various essential and non-essential goods by expat workers are taking place through informal channels.

Accordingly, the IGP has appointed a separate unit of the Police Illegal Assets and Property Investigation Division to conduct investigations regarding the above matters following the request by the CBSL Governor.

Police said the investigations into the matter will be further expanded and intensified while they would also coordinate with the officials of the Central Bank to conduct investigations to identify the source and the manner of acquisition of foreign currency, in order to curb illegal foreign exchange transactions.(Darshana Sanjeewa Balasuriya)

Covid-19: Sri Lanka confirms two more deaths, 56 new cases

August 28th, 2022

Courtesy Adaderana

The Director General of Health Services has confirmed another two Covid-19 related deaths for yesterday (Aug. 27).

Both deceased are males above the age of 60 years, according to the Government Information Department. 

Meanwhile 56 new cases of coronavirus have been detected within today (28), increasing the total number of confirmed cases reported in the country to 669,749.

චීනයේ සහයෝගය හැමදාමත් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට දෙනවා – ඉන්දීය මහකොමසාරිස්ගෙන් නෝක්කාඩුවක්

August 28th, 2022

Hiru News

Sri Lankan trained nurses to UK

August 28th, 2022

Courtesy Hiru News

Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry awarded letters of appointment to a group of Sri Lankan trained nurses who are scheduled to begin their employment at hospitals in the United Kingdom at a ceremony held on 25 August, 2022 at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute.

This was the first batch of trained nurses under the programme implemented by the International Institute of Health Sciences (IIHS), Welisara, Sri Lanka, with the facilitation of the Sri Lanka High Commission in London.

Police seek public help to identify 72 more suspects who damaged President’s Office

August 28th, 2022

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka Police has sought public assistance in identifying several more suspects who are accused of forcibly entering the premises of the Presidential Secretariat and damaging its properties.

In a communiqué, the Police Media Division stated that the relevant persons were identified from the videos and photographs taken during the investigations regarding the incident that took place on July 9.

As their identity has not yet been confirmed, the police also request the public to contact the following phone numbers or WhatsApp if they have any information about the suspects.

– 0112 083 049
– 0756 371 563
– 1997 (hotline)

The photographs of the 72 suspects, as released by Sri Lanka Police, are below:

GCE (A/L) 2021 – Students that topped the various streams to become Island’s number 1

August 28th, 2022

Courtesy Hiru News

GCE (A/L) 2021 – Island’s First ranked students

Biological Science stream- Thamilvannan Thuwaragesh of St. Michael’s College, Batticaloa

Maths stream- Sahan Samarakoon from Royal College Colombo – 7

Engineering Technology – Neranda Dilhara Kumarasinghe of Narammala Mayurapada Central

Commerce stream-Isini Neha Amararatne of Gampaha Rathnavali Balika Vidyalaya

Arts stream- Ishara Lakmal Heenkenda of Kendagolla Maha Vidyalaya, Badulla

13-A is Sri Lanka’s death trap

August 27th, 2022

C. Wijeyawickrema USA

Recent essays by Sudath Gunasekera and Garvin Karunaratna raise the old question again about getting rid of the curse called 13-A. Some time back, SPUR in Australia devoted lot of time and energy to demonstrate how cancerous this 13-A to the island of Sinhale. After that only the Lankaweb printed articles written against 13-A. Other media, newspapers, and websites did not print anything against 13-A. Lankaweb has archived hundreds of essays explaining why 13-A is a bad idea from all kinds of different angles.

Just yesterday Gajendra Kumar Ponnambalam said that Tamils (he) wanted Federal system not 13-A. Anandasangari, father of Canadian Eelam agent Gary Sangarai, was talking those days about the Indian FP system instead of 13-A. Dayan Jayatilaka came to know as the father of 13-A Plus. He wanted to give police and land powers to PCs. He thought Tamil moderates like Vigneswaran would end separatism with a 13-A+ solution. But Vignes after becoming CM-NP started passing resolution after resolution about Tamil genocide by the Colombo government.

It looks like the end-result of Galle Face Aragalaya is paving the path for balkanization of Sinhale into 10 or more pieces, first proposed under the Neelan-GL package deals by Mrs. Chandrika during 1995-2000. It narrowly lost as a constitution because of personal greed between President CBK and PM Ranil. Her draft was burnt inside the main chamber of the parliament. In 2018, it came back as Sumanthiran-Jayampathy-Ranil Orumitthanadu plan but met with an accidental death due to the marital dispute between President Sirisena and PM Ranil. Prior to that CBK was very happy that her 2000 plan was back again in 2018!

It is now clear Aragalaya was a conspiracy by local black whites and foreign hands not to make system change, but a regime change, and the ultimate target is creating anarchy and bring in UN forces under R2P to implement MCC kind of division of the island or an Eelam. Some genuine, brave but poor in experience or knowledge youth became cat’s paws of an anti-Mahawamsa project. Otherwise, how could they not demand people’s councils after they got Gotabhaya out? JVP, Peratugaami and Anthare, all wanted people’s councils (Jana Sabhas) but, instead of it they want an election! Elections must be under a new election law, otherwise old crowd will come back as new set of 225, old wine in old bottles.

These politicians, these black whites, do not want a system change such as abolishing 13-A and Pradeshiiya Sabhas and create a system of Jana Sabhas. We must get rid of partisan politics and begin to develop consensus politics at grass roots level as recommended by the LLRC report.

I am tired of writing about this subject. So far, I wrote more than 20 essays in Sinhala and English. Senali Waduge wrote more than that. I have a suggestion yo those reading this essay: we should write a small book on this matter in Sinhala and distribute it to Sinhala voters so that they would get a better idea about this 13-A cancer and the misguided behavior of the Aragalaya crowd.

An essay printed in the Lankaweb is copied below.

============================
The Vitharana proposal and the separatist paradigm (1918-2007) Part 2
Posted on January 6th, 2021

C. Wijeyawickrema USA

After two atapirikara-presenting meetings with the Asgiriya and Malwatta Mahanayakas minister Vitharana, Chairman of APRC, says the words federal and unitary have lost their meaning over the passage of time” (Daily News, 3/30/2007).

He gives two safeguards to prevent a secessionist move in Sri Lanka: (1) the president can deploy the army and (2) if that is inadequate president can dissolve the Province and take over administration.

Just like his uncles of LSSP preached parity of status” from 1935-1964, blindly following international Marxist dogmas of Trotsky and Stalin, the nephew, minister Vitharana, who is an appointed politician (not elected by people) is now trying to placate the IC, American ambassador and Tony Blair, thinking only of the next ten years or so of his political life. Colvin in 1972 prepared a constitution to please the Colombo crowd symbolized by Felix Dias, and JRJ in 1978 got A. J. Wilson to prepare a bahubootha vyawastawa.” Minister V, who is presently on a crusade has put the cart before the horse, thus endangering the 2500-year-old Sinhala-Buddhist heritage of Sri Lanka.

The following are a set of questions for minister V, based on his interview with the Daily News reporter.

1.Does he (minister V) reject the concept of a traditional Tamil homeland in the Eastern Province? If he rejects it then will he make that rejection the foundation stone of his proposals? Erection of a Vitharana constitution scheme, leaving the re-merger of N and P Provinces to a future date is placing the cart before the horse or closing the stable after the horses gotten out. Because, you cannot unscramble a scrambled egg. Once you take the path toward F”, there is no point of no return!

2.Does he know that the separatist paradigm in Sri Lanka began in 1918 (in Tamil Nad in 1917) and has continued in different faces and shapes to 2007?

3.Why is that there is a deadening silence by APRC with regard to the separatist movement in Tamil Nad which began in 1917, had a lull after 1963 Indian Constitutional Amendment prohibiting secession talks, revived again with official support in the 1980s, died down after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 and back again in full force with the era of coalition governments in Delhi? Does he know that the world Tamil federation has the goal of a Tamil state not possible in either the Fiji Islands or Malaysia? Does he know that in the Fiji Islands, the army removed the Indian-backed government just a month or so ago?

4.Why did he not think the PC system based on the 13th Amendment is a white elephant which has created a second tier of corrupt politicians? Was it a scientific way of applying science to administrative affairs? Was not the only purpose behind it to give support to the myth of Tamil homeland in the E Province?

5.Could you elaborate your statement that there are 27 states veered away from unitary status to F” states to prevent separation?” Do you not think Sri Lanka’s situation is unique because (1) Tamil politicians wanted a second homeland next to their Tamil homeland in Tamil Nad (2) Since 1917 the idea had been to united Ravana land with Tamil Nad (3) the border between the two areas is porous and difficult to monitor (Jaffna Tamils go by boat in the evening to see movies in Tamil Nad and return home in the night!) (4) in Tamil Nad itself the separatist agenda is a hot cake (the easy solution to economic and social problems is talk about separatism) (5) If F” is the way to stop separation then what about Indian Tamil and Muslim demands?

6.Why do you not think that the Prabakaran episode is no different from the 1971 and 1988 Wijeweera rebellions? The IC must be told that other than the ethnic twist given the problem in Sri Lanka is a problem of mismanagement by a group of Colombo families. Just like the Sinhala politicians tried to exploit the Sinhala youth during 1965-70, Colombo-living Tamil politicians (plus Indira Gandhi) tried to use the Tamil boys.” Why should you try to punish the country with your hurried V proposals because of the blunders of your Colombo class?

7.Are you telling us that your V proposals will solve Sri Lanka’s present mess? Why don’t you take a holistic approach to this mess rather than giving and F” proposal? This means the recognition of the following mismanagement topics which made the average Tamil, Sinhala and Muslim man (woman) to suffer.

a.Colombo ruling families of UNP, SLFP, PA, UNF, LSSP, CP, FP and TULF destroyed structural democracy of Sri Lanka introduced in 1931. The destruction of the separation of powers doctrine (independence of the judiciary/rule of law) that began in 1802 when North was the governor was the worst.

b.JRJ destroyed the territorial democracy in Sri Lanka introduced by the British in 1931. With his electoral systems and removal of VC, TC local governments the janayas lost what we call the representative democracy. The voter has no representative to go to.

c.In the 1980s civil administration was ruined or politicalized by increasing the number of GSNs from 4,000 to mind-boggling number of 14,000. Each GSN unit has a GSN, a samurdhi niladharee and a midwife!

d.Each AGA units (there are 319 of them) has 100-150 government servants excluding teachers. A corruption trinity of AGA-local politician-NGO agent (evangelists/peace mudalalis/professors) has an iron control over the janayas. 

Do you think your proposal of Jana Sabha unit of 100 families workable? What could happen with your Jana Sabha-based pyramid is that at the top those politicians who want F” will get it at the expense of the average Sinhala and Tamil janayas just like the 2002 CFA helped the terrorist leaders and not the average Tamil. Did you know that your plan is so similar to what Ayub Khan enacted for Pakistan in

Why is that you do not want to consider the New Zealand method?  That small country follows a river basin-based administrative system of regions. This method is race and language blind and empowers the janayas, ecologically sound and solves lot of man-made environmental hazards such as floods, droughts and land slides.

Would you postpone the IC-driven deadline date of within 60 days” and study the 800 or so proposals sent by the janayas if you are really concerned with empowering people?

Would obtain the help of geographers, historians and ecologists in the country to study how the trinity of gama-wewa-dagaba (kovil/mosque/church) functioned in Sri Lanka for thousands of years which is so similar to the Panchayathi Raj Institutions in India or the New Zealand approach? Rather than the unworkable Jana Sabha idea, is it not a simple step to get the Village Council system which the British governors resurrected in the 1860s, given its due place to empower the janayas and to let them achieve their aspirations that way?  The 14,006 GSN units could be rearraged to fit in with the VC boundaries. Read Abeyawardena report

The two maps are not aimed at creating fear against devolution. Devolution is different from the merchandize called Indian federal formula of NGO and INGO agents. Real, as opposed to fake devolution from the concentration of power in the Colombo crowd of politicians (and officers) is what people are waiting for. The political and economic power must be decentralized and given to the people. The PC system and the new election law did not create devolution. It created a new layer of corrupt politicians. After 1980 Colombo rulers destroyed the VC, TC, UC-based local government system. Rather than fostering a healthy local government system, each UNP and SLFP local govt. minister abused his powers and weakened local democracy and self-governance. The Abhayewardhana Report on Local Government Reforms (1999) provided in detail why the country needed to go back to the pre-1980 system to overcome the mess we are now in, especially the white elephant called PCs.

A. T. Ariyaratne of Sarvodaya proposed a system of national governance structure based on local building blocks in 1988 in his booklet, The Power Pyramid and the Dharmic Cycle.” From time to time Arjuna Hulugalle presents his CIMOGG proposal of devolution at the district level with a base which is similar to the Sarvodaya proposal (Island, July 31, 2006). Actually all these are so similar to what was presented by president of Pakistan Ayub Khan on October 26, 1959 as Pakistan’s new constitution. Under it the whole country was divided into very small constituencies of between 800 and 1000 people. This novel type of constituency was called the basic democracy.”  There were 80,000 such elected units as the first tier of the constitutional structure (Pakistan: old country/new nation by Ian Stephens (1964, page 315).

The geographer Madduma Bandara proposed a river basin-based Provincial Division of seven units in 1987 (Chapter 4 in Fifty years of Sri Lanka’s Independence: a socio economic review, edited by A.V. de S. Indraratna (1998, p.83). Actually this is the best scientific approach for a united” Sri Lanka where the term united really means unity. The AGA divisions and even the Grama Sevaka divisions should ideally be based on River-Oya-Ela basins. This way we will not have a mind-boggling number of 14,000 GS divisions in the island.

The Vitharana proposal and the separatist paradigm (1918-2007)

After two atapirikara-carrying trips to Malwatta and Asgiriya, minister Vitharana, Chairman, APRC, has given an outline of his power sharing mechanism” to a Daily News reporter (Daily News, 3/30/2007).

Lawyers and Janayas”

APRC center of gravity has now moved from, husband and wife lawyers, to a microbiology Marxist who is an appointed (not elected by people) politician. Just like his parity of status” Marxist uncles of the 1935-1964 era, who blindly followed the international dogmas of Trotsky and Stalin, minister Vitharana is on a hurried mission to placate the IC, American Ambassador, and Tony Blair. Colombo politicians gave us the 1987 Indo-SL agreement, 13th Amendment and the 2002 CFA. The Vitharana outline will give us an egg scrambled. Unlike the two previous blunders which resulted in loss of thousands of lives, the Vitharana path, if entered, will have no point of return. This was what G.L. Peiris, the legal eagle, said then. It is a one-way street to separatism. Janayas” (of the Jana Sabhas) could achieve their aspirations without APRC erecting, intentionally or unintentionally, a separatism ladder.

Upatissa Damanaya

Why did APRC ignore 800 or so people’s proposals? What is the reason for a hurried solution? Where is the home-grown solution? Does minister V believe in Buddhist economics discussed in Schumacher’s Small Is Beautiful (1973) or in Buddhist politics? One example was Buddha’s advice to Ajathashatru, the king of Magadha, when the latter had a war plan to capture the Lichchavi kingdom of Koshala. It was Buddhist democracy in 500 B.C. After all, the reasonableness doctrine, compromise in modern democracy, is the Middle Path in Buddhism.  Why cannot V use either the Nalagiri or Angulimala damanaya in dealing with Tony Blair, TNA or Prabakaran? 

The Mahinda Chintanaya is nothing but an application of our 2500-year-old traditions of living in harmony with other human beings (be they Helanic or Roman or Muslim traders, Tamil invaders or plantation coolies, Malay soldiers or Portuguese who came with Bible and sword, Burghers and NGO evangelists), which got twisted in the hands of Colombo black whites (since 1833) and Marxist preachers (since 1935).

Those who studied Shakespeare or Chaucer, and never heard of the Ummagga Jathakaya, could call this letter is from a Sinhala Buddhist Chauvinist or from a Sinhala extremist. But that mud ball cannot hide from any objective standard the fact that minister V is taking a suicidal path putting the cart before the horse. He has a duty to explain to his Janaya” why the following questions/statements are incorrect.

White man’s burden theory (1905)

1.Why is minister V in a hurry? Is it because more and more time means less and less time for the Prabakaran episode? The IC does not want a total removal of the cancer of terrorism. They want a second Vadamarachchi in 2007. They want him in a three-piece suit flanked by his western-educated children. Why? Is there any connection to the theory of the White man’s burden of 1905? Is there any influence from White evangelism of Blair or Bush as outlined by the Polish Pope John Paul II when he visited India in 1999 (evangelization of Asia)? Pope’s propaganda cabinet minister with a giant budget has his office located in Ratnapura. Or was it the clash of civilization” thesis of the Harvard professor Huntington (1993)? Balkanization of Sri Lanka is a short cut to India. The world federation of Tamils wants a separate state and Tamil Nad opposes Hindia’s intrusions. In the Trincomalee harbor even the submarines could be hidden in deep under sea troughs. Thus, there is great temptation that minister V probably cannot see.

India is a myth” theory and the Indian National Congress (1885)

2.What does V know about the separatist paradigm in Tamil Nad and Sri Lanka? It began in Tamil Nad in 1917 and one year later in 1918 it came to Ceylon. In India the colonial master openly promoted separatism stating that India is a myth.” They promoted a Pakistan. In Tamil Nad separatism grew to the extent that even the Ramayanaya story was changed stating that Ravana was a Tamil king who fought against the evil doers of Rama and Seetha (Adam and Eve?)! Prabakaran is thus a Ravana prince more than a new Chola king with a cyanide pill. In the past it was Sivaji Ganeshan or MG Ramachandran (born in Kandy) who acted as Ravana in popular Tamil Nad movies. Jaffna Tamil boys would go to Tamil Nad to see the opening show by boat in the afternoon and return home in the night!

Despite the total silence of Colombo NGO peace mudalalis with western Ph.Ds, and the Marga Institute not producing papers” on the impact of the Tamil Nad separatist agenda on Sri Lanka, from 1917 to 2007, there had been a continuous flowing of two parallel streams of separatism poisoning each other. Thus in 1949 SJV Chelvanayagam benefited from Tamil Nad’s Dravidasthan movement.” In the late 1950s it was the anti-Hindi movement.” When separatism was proscribed by the 1963 constitutional amendment, it came to the Kandyan areas as DMK and a Kallathoni problem (Tennakoon Vimalananda, Dravida Munethra Kasagam Movement and the future of the Sinhalayas, Anula Press, Colombo, 1970).  In the 1980s separatism went back to India, officially, with MGR and Indira Gandhi sponsoring it. After the murder of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 there was a set back but in the coalition government era of India, Tamil Nad voting block in Delhi has become more powerful than the power of Delhi, the power to use the presidential rule to discipline unruly regional states.

Tamil Nad is in such volatile state that Delhi is now surviving by capitalizing the rival demands of its present or former chief ministers to arrest or impose the presidential rule. At least two major caste groups are demanding two separate states within Tamil Nad. It is only a matter of time a future Prabakaran takes control of Tamil Nad politics which is driven by sex scandals and family affairs. The common criminal Veerappan incident (Saradeal or Robinson Crusoe) demonstrated how easily and quickly separatist sentiments could be utilized to overthrow the corrupt and inefficient political establishment in Tamil Nad. The Janatha Party leader Subramaniumswamy’s recent book (Sri Lanka in crisis: India’s options, 2006; (Island, 3/21/2007) should be an eye-opener to minister V.

Indian states as tiny parts before the Goliath Indian Goliath army

Does V provide an adequate mechanism to prevent secessionist attempts under the geopolitical conditions mentioned above? He says there are two safeguards: (1) the president can deploy the army and (2) he can dissolve the province and take over the administration. Minister V must be kidding. Even under the 13th amendment conditions chief minister declared UDI and fled to India. Where would be the IC if it happens again? Once V allowed the province to do everything it needed to take the separatist path, the province will appeal to IC for help or justice. It will say the president is not allocating sufficient volume of water from the Mahaveli River and the IC and UNO will intervene. Minister V would be no more there to answer. This is why, the next question is so important.

Myth of a traditional Tamil homeland in the Eastern Province

Does V reject the proposition that there is a traditional Tamil homeland in the Eastern Province? Is he willing to make that rejection the foundation stone of his proposal? V cannot first give his scheme and say that re-merger will be discussed later. Re-merger means acceptance of a homeland. Homeland theory is a colonial western idea. This was what the Neelan-GL package wanted. Neelan went even further and refused to accept the Pondicherry sub-model of the Indian F” model because the homeland would then look like a moth-eaten patch of land with Muslim and Sinhala Pondicherry units like in the Tamil Nad. V will be putting the cart before the horse if he does not clearly understand this issue. If V’s constitution is silent on homelands now and if later it comes up making a giant N-E unit, then the Trincomalee state will be as big as the Colombo state. With Malayanadu in between Colombo army will be no match to Trinco power. This is not a daydream. V should read what the retired geography professor G. H. Peiris and the Englishman Paul Harris has written on the subjects of Malayandu youth unrest and Oluvil Muslim radicals. If V accepts FP, TULF, TNA and Anandasangaree versions of a homeland then V cannot stop homelands for Muslims, Indian Tamils or even Christians in Negombo or Tmils in Wellawatta.

F” is a marriage contract

How can V say that F” and U” have lost their meaning?  Did V tell this to the Mahanayakes? F” is a political marriage. U” is Buddhist politics such as the King allowing persecuted coastal Catholics or Muslims to live in his kingdom or temple priest in remote areas giving food and lodging to Christian priests from Colombo or Galle who went on head hunting trips. Could V think of any example from anywhere in the world on the co-habitation of Sinhala, Tamil, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian and Muslim people living in harmony that took place in pre-colonial Ceylon? It was the Colombo ruling families who ruined this harmony after 1931. 

An F” marriage cannot work when one of the partners has a paramour. The IC solution to Sri Lanka is unique in that two parties living in one house is asked to go to two houses for the happiness of both. Unfortunately, a marriage cannot be saved that way. Therefore, even Lakshman Kadiragamar was wrong in proposing an F” solution. An F” solution based on language differences (as in India since 1956) is a slippery path with no end in sight. Indian F” model is the best example. Indian army is fighting against it all over India.

An F” creates two or more units which have some powers that cannot be taken back from them permanently for ever. The egg is scrambled. This is grade 9 civics lesson.

Discrimination against the majority (1505-1931)

V says there are about 27 other countries which have veered away from U status towards F states to prevent separation. Without a list of these countries, one cannot comment on this point. In the Fiji Islands or in Malaysia there were attempts of separation. In the Fiji case the army arrested the Indian-backed prime minister for anti-national work against the native Fijians. In Sri Lanka Tamils and Muslims enjoy more rights than any where else in the world. In Colombo, the richest are the Tamils and Muslims. Thus, when Karuna says in 2007 or when the JVP said in 1971 or 1988 give us what Colombo gets” (kolambata kiri apita kakiri Youth Commission Report, March,1990, p. xvii)) there is/was no ethnic discrimination. Instead, the truth is that the Colombo class has been controlling 95% of people, which became worse under the globalization game and the 1978 Dharmista samajaya.

Section 29(4) of the Soulbury Constitution did not allow the removal of five centuries discrimination against the majority community.

Colombo ruling families versus the Janayas

  1. V says if the minorities don’t get the power they need, the only solution is separation.” Can V say that the majority got power? Who got power after 1931 or after 1833? A group of Colombo white-kissing families who used Buddhist masks got power. A group of Colombo Tamils who used the language card to prevent the poor Tamil learn Sinhala but gave private tuition in Sinhala to their children got power. The question is will this Colombo control change under V’s proposal? Rather than re-inventing the Neelan-GL package V should ask a new set of questions. He has become a prisoner in trying to provide new answers to his old questions. Does he know that by sheer mismanagement the Colombo black whites ruined the country?
  2. they destroyed the structural democracy of the island since the early 1960s after the 1962 Coup (the separation of powers doctrine started in 1802 when North was the governor and the rule of law);
    1. JRJ killed territorial democracy after 1978 with a bahubootha Vyavastava,”  an electoral system that robbed people of their representative democracy, and by demolishing the VC-TC local government system;
    1. In the 1980s village level civil administration was politicalized by increasing the number of GSN units from 4,000 to a mind-boggling 14,006 (each GSN unit has a GSN, Samurdhi Niladharee and a mid-wife);
    1. A corruption trinity developed after 1978 with AGA-local MP-NGO agent (Colombo peace mudalalis or evangelists) in control. Each AGA unit (there are 319 of them) has between 100-150 officers excluding teachers;
    1. the gap between Colombo and villages increased under globalization and free trade;
    1. the divide between Colombo rich and village poor widened after 1978;
    1. Vakarai IDP welfare money stolen by corrupt officers!

Do we need a hurried devolution package, based on the same Neelan-GL formula? Or should we take a holistic approach to handle our antho-jata-bahi-jatas meta-problems? V proposal in its present form will deliver an F” to a group of Tamil politicians but will not solve the mismanagement problems of the average person Sinhala or Tamil. This is the aspiration issue that V should think of. Not the aspirations of IC or Tony Blair.

In India under the language-based state reorganization, a new tier of local/regional politician class developed who began to challenge the Delhi political class. That brought an end to Congress control and a sick Delhi center dependent on over 20 coalition partners. Indian poverty is still a major problem and politicians at all levels are thriving. Is this not happening in Sri Lanka after 1978?

Colebrook was not a bioscience graduate (1832)

  • V says Province is the devolution unit. Does he not accept that PC is a white elephant, and unwanted burden on people and the economy? Is there any scientific, ecological, social or economic justification for this unit other than Rajiv Gandhi and Dixit forcing it on JRJ, Sri Lanka’s kaputu bo tree? V is taking the path of least resistance to achieve his goal of paving way for a Tamil homeland.

Ayub Khan’s plan of October 26, 1959

  • V has proposed a 100-family Jana Sabha (JS) unit (ward) below Gam Sabha (GS). From GS comes Pradeshiya Sabha (PS). A GS will according to V cover about 2/3 of GSN unit. This is similar to what Ayub Khan proposed for Pakistan which was similar to the Soviet people’s councils (Pakistan: old country/new nation, Ian Stephens, Pelican, 1964, p. 314). Instead, if V reads the 600-page document of the Local Government Reforms Commission (Sessional Paper No. 1 of 1999, the Abhayewardhana report), it has covered all what Sri Lanka needs in this regard. A.T. Ariayaratne’s 1988 book, The Power Pyramid and the Dharmic Cycle” also gives a plan of action.

Trinity of gama-vawa –dagaba

  • V has a golden opportunity to link the Gama Naguma project under the Mahinda Chinthanaya with the mission of APRC if he comes out of his parity of status prison. Tamils have a homeland in Tamil Nad. Muslims have Mecca. Christians have Pope. Sinhala people and Sinhala Buddhist have this tiny island and the ocean. Trostsky or Vishaka Kumari Jayawardena did not know this. The 2500-year old civilization of Sri Lanka should really be a UNECO heritage site. Just think of the biso kotuwa or the Dambulla lamp?  Rather than running with ghosts of SJV Chelvanayagam or GG Ponnambalam minister V should think of using his Marxist energy to empower the Tamils, Sinhala and Muslim comrades at the trinity level. Because the dagaba was kovil, mosque or church at the grass roots level. Let aspirations grow at the family and village level and create language-blind developmental units. If in a given village the majority happens to be Tamil let them work on their aspirations. Do not impose Provincial level unit on them by a Colombo group to protect their aspirations. Because it never worked that way. Only a class of politicians exploited it to stay in power. Our trinity with upward representation will create a District level unit where Tamil identity will be protected without creating fear in the Sinhala mind.

Make a trip to New Zealand

  • Because our trinity is tank centered it fits very well with the modern concept of river basin-based administrative units. New Zealand, a tiny country like ours is using this concept. The geographer Maddumabandara has produced a river basin-based administrative system for Sri Lanka that V should get his APRC and the expert lawyers to read. Because, one cannot legislate against geography.

Move the capital city to Raja Rata

  • While developing the Southern Province get the APRC to think about moving the administrative capital to a location within the triangle of Anuradhapura-Vavuniya-Trincomalee on a 20 year plan. Let Tamil farmers in Jaffna meet with Sinhala farmers in Hambantota. Link that capital with Hambantota along the Mahaveli River with a railway line and a high way. Move the science and integration ministry to Raja Rata ASAP. This is the best way you can win the hearts and minds of the janayas.

For more factual content please read:

LankaWeb – The Geneva game and the 13th Amendment: a geographical analysis -Part- I

LankaWeb – The Geneva game and the 13th Amendment: a geographical analysis -Part- II-To: Expert Committee to draft a new constitutionLankaWeb – The Geneva game and the 13th Amendment: a geographical analysis -Part- III To: Expert Committee to draft a new constitution

Significance of promoting Eco-Tourism hotspots

August 27th, 2022

By Dr Tilak S. Fernando

The scenic Kanthale Wewa

An Australian-based premium company in healthcare named AusCeylon and PhytoMedica Pvt Ltd want to develop an Eco Resort and a medicinal Plant Garden at Agbopura 227/C in the Kanthale district. Kanthale is one of the most famous travel destinations worldwide for centuries due to its unique and pristine biodiversity and culture.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Sri Lanka remained the fourth most popular destination for tourism in 2020. The company believes vigour and health are vitally important to human beings as much as their culture and food. They believe that healthiness can be promoted through Natural Medicines found in Sri Lanka.

The Australian-based company commenced operations in mid-January 2021 in Ratnapura and initiated its second project in Pasikudah and third at Royal Beach Villas in Mankadawala, Anuradhapura. These were eco-resort and medicinal gardens. Their fourth project in Sri Lanka would also be an eco-resort and a medicinal plant garden in Kanthale.

Kanthale

Kanthale goes back to the era of King Agbo II. It is situated in the Trincomalee District, lies 38 km Southwest of Trincomalee, and the city is surrounded by the Kanthale reservoir (Wewa), which attracts travellers. Kanthale City is full of history and lies a few miles from Trincomalee with other attractive tourist sites such as Kaudulla National Park.

The new project will be implemented at the banks of Kanthale Wewa. The reservoir is majestic with a beautiful scenic view and covers an area of 23 square km and has a capacity of 140.6 million cubic metres. The dam is 16.75 metres high and 2.5 km long. Apart from the view, the reservoir provides a rich water resource for the growth of many valuable medicinal plants. The area is covered with green thickets of trees and shrubs, providing a promising natural beauty. The Kanthale Wewa can flood the area during monsoon rains, therefore, the risk is minimal since the land elevation for the project is above the overflow level. Crops will be strategically located to minimise the impact of potential floods. The project will be carefully designed with minimal disturbance to this rich ecosystem.

Eco-tourism and natural medicines

The project is a combination of eco-tourism and natural medicines. Eco-tourism can promote mental well-being and makes a soothing impact on the increasingly stressed lifestyle of the urban population. It blends with nature and simultaneously acts as prophylactic healthcare that augments the people. Eco-tourism will open up the heritage of natural medicines to the world, hence, the proposed project in Kanthale aims to take maximum advantage of the two world-class strengths thereby creating a direct and in-direct socio-economic opportunity for the local population as much as the tourists.

Ecotourism focuses on development and sustainability in the rich lands of Kanthale with carefully constructed conservation agreements and the cultivation of medicinal plants to be used as raw materials for Phytomedica Pvt Ltd. The project will engage in research, development, production and marketing of exports of varieties of natural plant extracts (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API)) used in herbal medicines and nutraceuticals. Further, eco-friendly residences will be constructed by the company to create an attractive ecotourism destination for tourists. It will provide a highly effective plan to minimize the impact on nature. Thus, the company strategy will be to follow the main intentions of the National Tourism Plan to gain an enhanced profit, while simultaneously sustaining the integrity and value of the natural, cultural, social and economic resources of Sri Lanka. The project will, directly and indirectly, create a variety of opportunities to improve the livelihood of local communities.

The collaborative project by AusCeylon Pty Ltd & PhytoMedica Pvt Ltd intends to develop eco-tourism and medicinal plant cultivation at Kanthale holds many valuable religious, cultural, historical and natural sites, which are vastly visited by many local and foreign tourists around the world.

AusCeylon & PhytoMedica Pvt Ltd believes that Sri Lanka holds a promising future for eco-tourism. The concept has the potential to attract both local and foreign travellers, including the millennials who seek a sustainable living and also traditional tourists who seek experiences to appreciate and enjoy nature. It is a highly strategic source of revenue to protect natural areas and boost the Sri Lankan economy. According to the mid-term strategic plan for Sri Lanka tourism, only 1% of eco-tourist visits or sites are due to the misuse of the concept. Thus, it is vital to reconsider the concept and put it into action to acquire important socio-economic goals.

The following are the strategic advancements toward eco-tourism at the Kanthale site:

By cultivating valuable medicinal plants to be used as authentic raw materials to manufacture patented products innovated by Phytomedica Pvt Ltd.

Enabling Sri Lankan indigenous medicines as a world-class premium healthcare management among locals and international tourists.

Provision of direct and indirect socio-economic benefits to the local community by creating direct and indirect opportunities for the maximum use of local human and material resources.

Product development and operation, including efficient waste management, thereby creating a minimal negative impact on the environment.

Quality and efficacy are to be maintained by establishing the herbal raw materialsupply chain by maintenance.

Reaching out to the local communities to advance their knowledge and skills in ecotourism.

Creating and enforcing a fair revenue model to allocate revenue to all stakeholders.

The AusCeylon project will provide an authentic, interactive, and educational nature-based experience with the historical value of Kanthale to create tours that will appeal to the target segments.

The financial feasibility of the project has a few considerations. AusCeylon expects a low revenue in the initial year due to the current situation in the country, and the time taken for the crops to grow. To mitigate such risks, short-harvest crops will be introduced and long-term crops would generate adequate revenue for continuous operations. Further, special packages will be offered to popularise the destination among local tourists.

Local community

Direct employment opportunities at the resort will enable the skill development of the local community. Rapid revenue generation for small businesses – particularly for housewives will be implemented. Cultivate medicinal plants within every household garden space on a small scale will be introduced, and sell them to the raw material collection centre established at the project site. Increased opportunities will be created to sell handcrafts and crops to local and foreign tourists and local tour guides. The company intends to introduce employment opportunities for the local community through tourism, which has plummeted since 2019 since the Easter bombing and the COVID-19 pandemic. The initial investment is estimated approximately at Rs. 20 million based on the outcome of phase one of the projects, further investment will be done to increase the number of lodges and facilities.

tilakfernando@gmail.com

Response to your “Dear Friend” letter of August 7, 2022 on Sri Lanka

August 27th, 2022

 Asoka (Weerasinghe)

Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . K1J 6G1

25 August 2022

Hon,. Pierre Poilievre MP

Conservative Party Leadership Candidate -2022

Dear Pierre.

I note that you are galloping to victory to lead the Conservative Party, the Party that put me  through emotional waves of highs and lows when you all dealt with Sri Lanka’s Tamil Eelam War and  supporting the Tamil Tiger terrorist cause. The end result was my decision to abandon your lot, give up my card carrying membership (Sustaining Donor-1544311255047), and not vote for the Conservatives ever, not even holding my nostrils closed keeping away the Conservative stench of hypocrisy.

  1.   Pierre, I told you in my first letter to you that when you were just out of your diapers, a 4-year old, holding on to your Mumma’s finger toddling along to Kindergarten in 1983, I was involved in this Tamil Eelam issue trying  to drum into the heads of your Canadian Parliamentarian colleagues to understand the TRUTH, when they began to clue into that the Tamils who were seeking refuge were possible banks of block voters.  You Conservatives were selling your bleeding hearts and souls to the Tamil separatist cause and became mindless suckers to win their Sinhala-blood soaked votes.   And I was no Johnny -come-lately in this file.  And I knew the direction the three major  political parties, Liberals, Conservatives and the NDP were heading.  So be it, I said, and then committed  to deal with it with my voice and pen.  You have heard me several times.
  • Pierre you were 21 and the assistant to Stockwell Day, then Leader of Canadian

Alliance, who was, quite rightly,  going after the Liberal Minister of Finance, Paul

Martin, who together with Maria Minna, the Minister of CIDA, and nine other

Liberal Party back-benchers, patronized the $60-a-plate Fundraising lunch

in Toronto by FACT in May 2000, to collect funds for the most ruthless Terrorists

in the world the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) aka, Tamil Tigers, and Stockwell lambasted them during the Question Period in Parliament..

And Paul Martin called  your boss, Stockwell Day a Racist” during Question Period in Parliament.  I watched it on CPAC.

You phoned me asking me to support Stockwell on his stance against Canada

supporting the  most ruthless terrorist group in the world, the LTTE.

And I did.  Two days later, early morning you phoned me and said –” Asoka,

your letter is in, in The Ottawa Citizen, and Thanks Asoka for supporting

Minister Stockwell Day.”;

  • You went through together with Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety, and MP Jason Kenny of the Conservative Party, who took the lead to Ban the Tamil Tigers in Canada on 10 April 2006.
  • And on Thursday, April 27, 2006, a small delegation consisting  of Mahinda Gunasekera, Ira de Silva, Daya Hettiarachchi and I met  Ministers Day and Kenny  in  Minister Day’s office to Thank” them for banning the Tamil Tigers

as promised us in May 2005, when the two of them gave us the assurance that all legal measures would be taken against the LTTE and its front organizations soon after your party assumes power.

     5.   Pierre, this is what I wrote to Conservative Foreign Minister, Lawrence

           Cannon on May 20, 2009, a day after the Tamil Tigers were annihilated by 

           the Sri Lankan Armed Forces, after reading his pathetic Press Release, the 

           worst that ever came out of Canada’s Foreign Ministry Office. 

           A war that every country including Canada  said it was an unwinnable war, and 

           wanted Sri Lanka to hand over to the Eelamists the land that  they claimed were 

           theirs. 

           And the separatist Tamils had been spoiling  for a fight, and finally they did for 30

            bloody years until Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his armed forces 

            of  brave, heroic  men and women got the Tamil Tiger leader, Velupillai

            Prabhakaran with a bullet through his forehead on the sands of the Nandikadal 

            Lagoon, on 18 May, 2009. And, of course, Pierre, we Canadians didn’t like it. 

            Shucks! That was too bad.

            But here is what is so despicable about it, and that includes you. No Canadian 

            parliamentarian has  given credit to Gotabaya’s heroic men and women in khaki 

           and surge, for their Classic Textbook, Human Rights Act for giving back the

            Right-to-Life to 20.5  million of their people which had been hijacked by the

           Tamil Tigers for 30-bloodying- years. 

           So much for the hypocritical-bleeding hearts of the world that was so concerned  

            about Human Rights violations during the Eelam terrorist war.  Pierre, what 

            Bull…what Hogwash…. what  a crotch full of cods-wallop…what strings of 

            baloney hanging in a stall at  the Byward Market…what  decorative strings of 

           Masala wade hanging at  the entrance of a Haro Hara  Eelam Curry Hut!

             Pierre, here is one more despicable act of insolence by yours and my Canada. 

             Who failed to acknowledge the  amazing  Classic Textbook example of a 

             Human Rights Act, when 295,873 Tamil refugees who were marched from 

             the west coast  to the east  coast of Sri Lanka for 60-months, like a herd of 

             unwashed cattle as a Human Shield by the Tamil Tigers under a scorching

             Jaffna-Killinochchi sun.

             It was Gotabaya’s heroic men and women in khaki and serge. that 

             rescued them’, and absolutely no one, including you talks about this amazing 

             Human Rights Act.  Pierre, and that is down right being ‘sick’.   Explain 

             Pierre…explain.  Why?  Do I smell a nasty rat here?

Dear Minister Lawrence Cannon:

You have failed me, a Sri Lankan-Canadian, and Sri Lanka with your Statement on Sri Lanka expressing your concern on civilian casualties and not recognizing the Sri Lanka Government defeating the most ruthless terrorist group in the world which you all banned on 10 April, 2006.  You ignored the euphoria among all Sri Lankans, including some Tamils,and the relief  they shared having had the Tamil Tigers eliminated which gave 20.5 million peoples their Right-to-Life which had been hijacked by the Tamil Tigers for 30-blood spilling years.

Your statement is proof positive that the Conservatives have now begun to pander to the Tamil Diaspora and have forgotten that  there were other communities, especially the majority Sinhalese who were affected by this unnecessary brutal, war with killings, assassinations and ethnic cleansing in the thousands of individuals by the Tamil Tigers………….”

         6.  By then Pierre, you certainly knew that Canada was supporting this Tamil 

         terrorist group, and were aiding and abetting the terrorist war in Sri Lanka, by 

         letting theTamil separatist diaspora collect  $2 million a month for 13 long Liberal

         years to  stuff the Tamil Tigers war chest, to buy  sophisticated military weapons 

         to kill my Sinhalese  people together with my Muslim brothers and sisters for the

         want of their  Mono-ethnic, separate, racist Tamil state of Eelam, carved out of 

         33% of the  sovereign Land of the island in the North and East of Sri Lanka,

          bordered by 66%  of the coastline for 12.6% of the Tamil population (then).  The 

          Tamil population may have dwindled to about 6% now, as almost all of them flew

          out of their Cuckoo’s-nests, thumbing their noses at their Mother India, searching

          for roads paved with gold and the lands  over  their fences that were greener than

          theirs. 

    7.  Pierre, you certainly knew that the Tamils cut a cheque from a Bank account of

B. Thambirajah, in Vancouver, for 7.5 million dollars on September 22, 1993,  to purchase 60 tonnes of RDX and 10 tonnes of TNT from the Rubezone Chemical

Factory in the Ukraine.

It were these  high explosives that were used in a truck bomb to bring down

the Central Bank Building in Colombo’s Financial District, on 31 January 1996,  killing 114 and maiming for life 1338 others.  Among  them was a Director of the Bank, who had a Masters from Waterloo U, and a PhD in Statistics from Ottawa U.  

A  few minutes before the truck bomb went off, he had  gone to the Library a few floors up.  Two stacks of books had fallen on his legs and both were amputated.

Pierre, turn your hands and look at your two palms.  That slight red stain on your palms are of the Sinhlese blood that we Canadians were responsible with the money that a Tamil cut a cheque from a Bank in Vancouver, to purchase those high explosives.  So we, Canada, aided and abetted the most ruthless Tamil Tiger terrorists to kill my people.  How do you feel now Pierre.  Do you admit that you are one helluva -sinner supporting the Tamil separatist cause.  Would you?

      8.  Canada’s support for the Tamil Tiger terrorists, the most ruthless terrorists 

           in the world according to the UN:

i. Ian Cotler, the Minister of Justice for the Liberal Government admitted to the

   Editorial Board of the National Post, that the Liberals were not willing to

   antagonize the Tamil community, and thus not willing to ban the Liberation

   Tigers of Tamil Eelam aka Tamil Tigers, the killer terrorists’. The Liberals did

   not want to lose their votes.  But didn’t mind sacrificing the lives of my

   Innocent  Sinhalese people.  That is how the Liberals selfish cookie crumbled,

   And I a Sinhalaee-Canadian will never, ever forget this nasty Canadian horror

   story.

        ii.    Pierre, the evening of November 5, 2007, was dark, cold, shivering  and wet 

              and nine Liberal MPs, stood in vigil with thousands of Tamils at Markham Fair

              Ground in memory of S.P. ThamilChelvan, the leader of the Political Wing of

               the Tamil Tigers who was killed by a bomb dropped on the building in 

               Kilinochchi where he was in a palaver with four other combatant Tamil Tiger

               Terrorists.. That evening all the Liberal MPs lambasted the Sri Lanka

               Government for that killing.

             One of the Liberal Parliamentary jokers, Borys Wrzesnewskyj (Etobicoke

             Center), having lambasted the Sri Lanka Government christened the

             Tamil Tigers as Doves of Peace”.  

             That was a sick joke, Pierre, hoping to pick up every Tamil vote of the

             thousands who stood in vigil with them.

             Holy Moses, Pierre, a few weeks later these Liberal parliamentary 

              Crap-shooters couldn’t find a place to hide their faces, not even in their kitchen 

              sinks, as their  Doves of Peace” mutated at a steady pace and turned  into 

              brutal ”Killer  Doves” and went on killing the unarmed innocent Sinhalese, 

              with sophisticated  war- weapons bought out of funds collected in Canada.  

              What a hoot!   What  nine sick Liberal jokers.  All for the want of the Tamil 

              votes. Haro..Hara!

             Pierre, at 8:05 in the morning of Wednesday, November 28, one of the Liberal 

             women Doves of Peace, a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber with a bomb hidden in

             her bra blew herself trying to assassinate Douglas Devananda, a Tamil, the

             Minister of Social Services, killing his Coordinating Secretary, and seriously

             injuring 10 others of the Public Relations Office, and a Sub-Inspector of

             Police, a personal bodyguard to the Minister.

             Pierre, this was the 279th suicide bombing by the Liberals ‘Doves of Peace’ 

             that you foolishly seem to be sucking up to.  Shame on you, grovelling at their 

             feet for their Tamil votes. Well.  Pierre, such is the Canadian Federal 

             Government Politics and their shameless politicians who have sold their souls

             for  the Tamil separatist cause,  If such action by you is going to hurt

             and destroy my dignity and others of my Sinhalese community.  I tell you

             quite candidly.  Don’t . Stop  it, right now!  I have already struck you off my list 

             of well wishers who will be getting my Christmas card this December. 

      9.    Dear Pierre, so that you know.  In your Dear Friend” communication of  

             August 7, 2022, you said…I will work hand in glove with our allies to 

             provide an economic partnership – prioritizing those most impacted by 

             these difficult times  and by opening permanent consulate services in 

             Jaffna”

             I only hope you won’t emulate the Judy Sgro, Liberal Minister of Immigation’s 

             arrogance,  who just after the Tsunami of Boxing Day of 2004, exposed her 

             arrogant shenanigan, when she told  in parliament, that it was not necessary 

             for Canada to get permission from the Sri Lanka Government to open a 

             Consulate Office in Jaffna.

             Pierre, this is what I told this foolish Canadian Cabinet Minister in a letter.   

             ‘Judy, it  Is time you get back to College and audit a course in Diplomacy 

            101,  so that You don’t try your belligerent arrogance, and get kicked out of

            Sri Lanka.  Be taken by your hand by a police officer, in case you slip away

             and hide in the Canadian High Commissioner’s residence, and put you on 

             the first plane out of Colombo to bring you back to Ottawa. Hope you 

             won’t embarrass  yourself, your political party and the Country you

             represent.  Just cut it, Judy.  Just cut it!

    10.    Pierre, in that same Dear Friend”  friendly note you say, I would restore

             Canadian leadership by standing with the human rights advocates, support

             the war crimes investigations they demand ….”

             For Pete’s sake Pierre, give me a break! There is a tinge of arrogance in that 

             Conservative stupidity.

             The Godfather of Tamil Tiger terrorism, Canada, falls flat on its face. 

             Canada who had a penchant to paint itself lilly-white, and at the bat of its 

             eyelids point its finger at other world cultures to say, Hey, baby…We are 

             holier than Thou!  

             Pierre, first look at the beam in your own eyes before you come to poke your 

             finger at the mote of Sri Lanka’s eyes.

             Whoopee doo Pierre!  Sweet Mother of Jesus!   I knew all along this wasn’t

             true the way that Canada’s ‘Whitemen’ shot and killed the native First

             Nation peoples, like the Newfoundland Beothuks.

  Pierre, this what the last Beothuck, Shanawdithit (Nancy April), who died on

  6th June 1829, said  to our White-Canadians’ then:

‘Coughing Beothuk syllables

I try to make you understand

as I am part of you and affable

wanting to be understood

and be alive,

as I am Shanawdithit.

You have hurt me enough

having shot me twice

by Noel Boss a Mi’kmaq

hunter and a rough

trapper to paint

the earth red with my blood,

killed my people for the fun of it,

stole our furs and slyly crept

to burn the mamateeks when we slept.

And I still want to be understood and be alive

For I am Shanawdithit.

We tore our cassocks

to reveal our bogmoots (breasts) to prove

we were women begging for your mercy.

Shooting and cutting our throats

Killing the nits from lice,

and I still want to be understood

And be alive

for I am Shanawdithit….”

(from Canadian Stories, Vol.23 No.131, 2020)

Pierre Poilievre, that is your heritage, being maestros  of Genocide”.  Unfortunately it’s mine too now, although I am not ‘white’,   I am of the colour 

of the best of the 50 shades of brown, which is the colour of the crown of hair

on your head,  since I have adopted  Canada as my home.  I will happily sing her National Anthem with You saying

          O Canada….I will stand on guard for thee..” with a lot of absolute honesty, 

          truth and pride.

11   Pierre, whether you like it or not, you are part of Canada’s Genocidal heritage”.

       Here’s the despicable story well related on a wall at the Wabano Centre  on

       Montreal Road in East Ottawa, serving the Indigenous and First Nation peoples.

       Pierre, if you haven’t been there, then go..  That wall will be the litmus test to know

       whether you have an honest and a compassionate heart, as you will come out

       with tears welled in your eyes, the way the ‘white-Canadians treated the First  

        Nation peoples. Not like the present ‘white’  crap-shooters who are lying their way

        to win recent Asian immigrant votes.  I cried!

12.  Pierre, your ‘Dear Friend” note said …For decades, we have demanded 

       reparations for war widows….”.  

       Shish! Pierre, don’t be so  damn cocky and demanding, as I Asoka Weerasinghe

      who has poured his heart with sympathy for the Canadian First Nation Peoples,

      having interpreted their rich and sometimes painful cultures in the early 1970s

      while creating Ottawa’s Victoria Memorial Museum  Halls of People of the Long 

      House  (Iroquois), The Buffalo Hunters (Plains Indians), Children of the Raven 

      (West Coast Culture), and the Inuit (Inuit/Eskimo), tell you bluntly  and with some

       crass authority.   Hey, Pierre, you are now being a cunning joker.  Surly what

       was good for the Goose surely should be good for Gander. Here is what did 

       happen in recent Canadian history, and you have nothing to complain about poking

       your Conservative blue-finger in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs. It is none of your  

       Business.  Here is a Canadian Truth……

      Survivors of St. Anne’s residential school have spent decades in court, 

       fighting for compensation for the years of abuse and torture they experienced 

       as children.  The Canadian federal government has spent over $3.2 million in 

       legal fees Fighting them,” 

      This bit of news gives me the incentive to ask you Pierre don’t be a fool to rush 

       in  where angels fear to tread”  Be careful as your honesty” in your credibility as 

       a Good politician” is on pretty shaky grounds.  All this arrogant stupidity  just to 

       garner Tamil votes. What bullish, foolishness!.  Is it worth it? 

13.  Pierre, now I gather that at age 43, you have promoted yourself as the Saviour of 

       the Sri Lankan Tamils, who you believed were persecuted. 

       Persecuted” you say.  Pierre, I am sorry  to say that with that accusation of guilt,  

       I have come to the conclusion that you know sweet-nothing of the ground situation

       in Sri Lanka.  The Tamils have  massaged your mind and brain to make you look an 

       absolute Dunce-capped fool.  They have figured out your vulnerability, ready to kiss 

       their feet for the  promise of 1000 Tamil votes.  What a way to be a politician.  When

       the Tamils ask you to jump, so you jump; in case you lose 500 Tamil votes if you 

       Don’t.  This is a belly-aching Hoot!

       ,

        Here is what it was on the ground,when July 1983 riots took place.

        The predominantly Tamil Jaffna District had 555 government schools for the

        Tamil student population of 207,524, and the capital City of Colombo  had

        only 251 such schools for 231,609 students.  This is not a tricky question as even

        a Grade 5 student will come up with the right answer. Pierre, with this TRUTH

        were the Tamils persecuted?;

        Jaffna Tamil District had 41%  of their schools equipped with  government 

        approved science laboratories,  compared to the all island average of 19.6% 

        Government approved Science laboratories.  Pierre, with this TRUTH were the 

        Tamils persecuted? ‘

c   . When the Black July riots happened on 24 July of 1983, the Chief Justice of the

         The Supreme Court was a Tamil (Justice S. Sharvadanda);  The Inspector 

         General of Police was a Tamil (Rudra Rajasingham); and the Attorney General  

          was a Tamil (S. Pasupati). Pierre, with this TRUTH were the Tamils 

          persecuted? You can be Judge and Jury in this  Canadian-Tamil-Conservative 

          Blarney Gong Show.

  d.     When Sri Lanka’s Black July riots happened on 24 July, 1983,  the Sri Lankan

          Diplomats  serving as the High Commissioner in Britain, and Ambassadors in 

          China, France and Germany were Tamils.  Pierre, with this TRUTH were the

          Tamils  Persecuted?  Be truthful.  Do you feel that you have been taken

          down a Tamil Tiger  garden path with treacherous slippery slopes with 

          numbing rose bushes with idiot-thorns!

  14.    In your Dear Friend”  epistle of August 7, 2022,  you said, You don’t

            need a soldier every five meters on the streets of Toronto – and yet the 

            peaceful Sri Lankan northeast now constitutes one of the most militarized 

            non-conflict regions  in the world.”

            Pierre, that statement shows that you are a naive politician, nor are you a leader

            of a country, trying to save your country and its peoples from terrorists who 

            want to take over, who are been provided with cylinders of oxygen to survive by

            Foreign  Do-gooder desk-mercenaries whose Kalashnikovs are government 

            supplied pens and computers.  These desk-mercenaries have no business to

            aid and abet to revive the Eelam War by  extending their Voices in support

            of the Tamil separatist cause. 

            .

            Pierre, have you not come across such incidents where Leaders of countries 

            adapt extraordinary measures to deal with extraordinary  situations.  If you

            haven’t  Pierre, look no further. Roll back 52-years of Canada’s modern-history

            until you come across the words  Canada’s 1970 October Crisis,”  For Pete’s 

            sake Pierre, what is Good for the goose surely should be Good for the 

            gander.

            You were certainly not sharp in your mind were you when you made that snarky 

            comment : You don’t  need a soldier every five meters on the streets of 

           Toronto – and yet the peaceful Sri Lankan northeast now constitutes one of 

           the most  militarized non-conflict regions in the world.”

           Pierre, so that you know this is what happened.  The October Crisis took place

           in Quebec in the autumn of 1970.. The Crisis was the culmination of terrorist

           attacks perpetrated by the Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ), a Quebec

           Independence Movement.

           On 5 October 1970, the FLQ kidnapped the British Trade  Commissioner

            James Cross in Montreal.  Within the next two weeks the FLQ also kidnapped

           and killed Quebec’s Minister of Immigration and Labour Pierre Laporte.

           Quebec’s Premier Robert Boroussa and Montreal’s Mayor Jean Drapeau

           asked for Federal Government help.

           Pierre, this is how the Liberal Party Prime Minister,  Pierre Trudeau ‘s Federal

           Government helped.

           For one kidnapping and one killing of a Provincial Government  Minister, Prime 

           Minister Pierre Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act to nip in the bud of the 

           FLQ terrorist movement.  That decision flooded the Ottawa Streets with army

           fatigued soldiers cradling assault-rifles like babies.  And  at every street corner

           there were soldiers with assault rifles with a finger on the trigger ready to shoot.

           Pierre, you were still not born then, but I witnessed it all as I was landing at

           Ottawa’s old airport around 4:00 in the afternoon on October 16.         

           I witnessed from the plane’s window, at least 50 helicopters buzzing in the sky 

           like monster mosquitoes.   That was my introduction and welcome to Canada. 

          The following day  I learnt that it was a real Military drill and not a film set for a 

           Walt Disney film Aliens coming to take Canadians away.

            And you, Mister Piere Poilievre, had the gall and the temerity  to make that 

           snarky comment about Sri Lanka – You don’t need a soldier every five meters

           on the streets of Toronto – and yet the peaceful Sri Lankan northeast now 

           constitutes one of the most militarized  non-conflict regions in the world.”    

           Pierre, the more you try to win the Tamill votes, the more You are getting 

           entangled badly in the Canadian Political Web of Deceit.     My humble advice

           to you Pierre, is to snip your umbilical cord which is still attached to the 

           Separatist-Tamils and get down from your High Horse and renew your faith 

           in Honesty and Truth which will take you a long way as a politician. 

 15Pierre, under such a background where Canada aided and abetted the most 

 ruthless terrorist outfit in the world,, the Tamil Tigers, and prolonged that war

in Sri Lanka, to carry on for 30-bloody years, I felt a bit distraught  that you had demanded the arrest of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the former President of Sri Lanka who  also was the Defense Secretary, who kicked the butts of yours and India’s prodigies , the Tamil Tiger terrorists, who were annhilated on 19 May 2009,

by Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s team of heroic  men and women soldiers still living

and dead.

I see that the penalty for annihilating the Tamil Tigers, and  giving back the most paramount Human Rights the Right-to-Life  to 20.5 million of their peoples, which includes the Tamils too;  to having rescued 295,873 Tamil refugees from the clutches of the Tamill Tigers who were used as a Human Shield  for 6 months; and sustaining them in a temporary tent city preparing 1 (one) million breakfasts, lunches and dinners every day, you want the leader to be arrested and brought to an International  Human Rights Court.  What sordid crap…not worth two dead capelin washed on the shores of Newfoundland’s Middle Cove, or two prairie straws waving in desperation in the  chilling cold wind… what ratty tosh! 

Are you insane Pierre.  You are too young to suffer from dementia., I see that you are also Hallucinating that you will be the first Viceroy of the Tamil sovereign Kingdom of Ellam-Makkam in Canada,  been sponsored by these Canadian separtist Tamils, Dream on,  Mr. Pierre  Poilievre, MP…dream on!

Get off that train to the dreamland of yours, and cut your umbilical cord with the  Canadian Tamil separatists who have made a fool of you,  are certainly not doing you any good.

 16.   In Conclusion, you have been lucky that you heard from three top veteran 

         Sinhala-Canadian activists, Mahinda Gunasekera, Ira de Silva and Jaliya 

         Wickramarachchi, who have been working on this file since  24 July 1983, who 

          had advised you, who had questions for you on your involvement in 

         lambasting the Sri Lanka Government in support of the Tamil separatists, as a 

          favour to gain their votes at a federal election. The choice is yours to heed to

          what they said, and shut your gob on this file without getting entangled in the

          Canadian Political web of deceit any further.,  Failing you will remain at the

          bottom of my heap of the arrogant and foolish Canadian Conservatives, and

          twinned with Brampton’s Mayor Patrick Brown, who thinks he is God and wants

         to change what is Sri Lanka today,  and hand it over to the Tamils.  What a clown!

       Let me repeat what one veteran activist told you.  Ira de Silva said – I suggest 

         that you get Your facts correct and not merely parrot what you are told by 

         the very people who funded and supported terrorism in Sri Lanka.  It is 

          obvious that you are ignorant of the situation in Sri Lanka both past and

          present.  Please educate yourself and not merely repeat the inaccurate

          biased information given to you by your LTTE constituents in Canada who

         are the very people who for decades funded terrorism in Sri Lanka.  

         Canadian politicians who just want Votes in Canada and have no concern 

         for the people who live in Sri Lanka are willing to say and do whatever it 

         takes hoping that they will get votes in Canada.   That is a damning

         indictment on you.  Have you any confirmation that they will vote for you 

         after you debase yourself?

        The people of Sri Lanka do not know you nor do they care to know you and

        should not have to suffer because of your myopic action.”

        Hallelujah!  You have heard from one veteran on the issue .  She is the best there

        was since July 24, 1983…the Best there is Today…and the Best there ever will be

        after today, to take on the dumb Canadian politicians who have sold their souls to 

        the proxy- Tamil Tigers to garner their votes.

         Pierre Poilievre,  before you go to the closest mirror and ask – Mirror…mirror..

         on the Wall, who is the liar of them all,”. have a cloth with you to wipe your face, 

         as You have got rotten eggs all over it..

         It is your call Pierre to get off that high horse of yours and stop being so arrogant 

         and  foolish. All I  will say is …Good luck Pierre.  I know and my Crystal Ball 

         reading  says that one day Pierre Poilievre will say under his breath I wish I 

         listened to Asoka Weerasinghe on the 27th of August, 2022.  He was so 

        damn right!” Pierre, my Crystal Ball has never failed me.

         Be well.

         Asoka (Weerasinghe)

අපේ හුළං ටිකත් ඉන්දියාවට

August 27th, 2022

සමීර කන්නන්ගර Lanka Lead News

අපගේ මාතෘ භූමියේ සියලු අයිතීන් දිනෙන් දින විදේශිකයන් අතට පත්වෙමින් තිබේ. මෙතෙක් කලක් විකුණනු ලැබුවේ භූමිය පමණි. දැන් එම තත්ත්වය වෙනස් කරමින් අපගේ හිරු එළිය, සුළඟ, මුහුද පවා විදේශිකයන්ට විකිණීමට පටන් ගෙන තිබේ. එහි එක් පියවරක් ලෙස පසුගියදා මෙරට සුළං විදුලි බලාගාර දෙකක් ඉදිකිරීමට අදානි ග්‍රීන් එනර්ජි සමූහයට තාවකාලික අනුමැතිය ලබා දෙනු ලැබීය. මේ ආකාරයෙන් නොරටුන්ට විකුණනු ලබන්නේ ලක් මවගේ ප්‍රාණ වායුවයි. මෙරට අනාගත පරපුරේ උරුමයයි.

මෙම බලාගාර දෙක ඉදිකරනු ලබන්නේ මන්නාරමේ හා පුනරීන්වලය. මන්නාරමේ ඉදිකරන බලාගාරය මෙගාවොට් 286 ක්ද, පුනරීන් බලාගාරය මෙගාවොට් 234 ක්ද වශයෙන් ඉදිකිරීමට නියමිතය. මෙම ව්‍යාපෘතිය සඳහා ආයෝජනය කරන මුදල ඇමෙරිකන් ඩොලර් මිලියන 500 ඉක්මවයි. රටට විදේශ ආයෝජන පැමිණීම හොඳ දෙයකි. අඩු මිලට විදුලිය ලැබිය හැකිනම් එයද හොඳ දෙයකි. නමුත් මෙරට සම්පත් නිසි ඇගයීමකින්, ටෙන්ඩර් කැඳවීමකින් තොරව ඒ සඳහා ඉදිරිපත් විය හැකි මෙරට ආයතන තිබියදී විදේශිකයන්ට විකිණීම නම් කිසිසේත් අනුමත කළ නොහැක.

රට තුළ ආන්දෝලනයක් ඇතිවීම
මෙම සුළං බලාගාර සම්බන්ධයෙන් පසුගිය කාලයේ රට තුළ මහත් ආන්දෝලනයක් ඇතිවිය. ඒ විදුලිබල මණ්ඩල හිටපු සභාපතිවරයා සිදුකළ ප්‍රකාශයක් නිසාය. එහිදී ඔහු පැවසුවේ ජනාධිපතිවරයා (ගෝඨාභය) සාකච්ඡාවකින් පසු ඔහුව ගෙන්වා පුනර්ජනනීය සුළං බලශක්ති ව්‍යාපෘති දෙක අදානි සමාගමට දෙන ලෙස පැවසීමයි. ඒ සඳහා ඉන්දීය අගමැති මෝදි මහතා බලපෑම් කළ බවද පැවසීය. එහිදී ඔහු බොහොම සිනාමුසු මුහුණින් එය පැවසුවද පසුව පැවසුවේ එම ප්‍රකාශය ඉල්ලා අස්කර ගන්නා බවත්, ඒ අවස්ථාවේ තමා ආතතියෙන් එම කරුණු පැවසූ බවත්ය. එමෙන්ම විදුලිබල පනත් කෙටුම්පත පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමේ කාර්යබහුලත්වය නිසා එසේ ප්‍රකාශ කළ බවද පැවසීය.

වෘත්තිය සමිති විරෝධය
මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් අදහස් දැක්වූ සමගි ඒකාබද්ධ වෘත්තීය සමිති සන්ධානයේ කැඳවුම්කරු ආනන්ද පාලිත මහතා පැවසුවේ ආණ්ඩුව ලහි ලහියේ මෙම පනත සම්මත කර ගත්තේ ටෙන්ඩර් පටිපාටියෙන් තොරව මෙම ව්‍යාපෘති දෙක අදානි සමූහයට දීමට බවය. ටෙන්ඩර් පටිපාටියට අනුව ගැනුම්කරුවන් සොයා ගන්නවා වෙනුවට ඇමැතිවරයාට අභිමත පරිදි ඊට අනුමැතිය දීමට හැකි පරිසරය මෙම පනත සම්මත කිරීමෙන් ලැබෙන බවත් මෙම ව්‍යාපෘතිය අදානි සමූහයට ලබාදුන් ගිවිසුම හරහා වෙනත් සමාගමකට නැවත සුළං විදුලි බලාගාර හැදීමට නොහැකි ලෙස තනි අයිතිය එම සමාගමට හිමිවන බවත් පවසයි. එහිදී ඔහු වැඩිදුරටත් පැවසුවේ දැන් අපට නොමිලේ ලැබෙන සුළඟත් නෑ, හිරු එළියත් නැහැ, භූමියත් නැහැ යනුවෙනි. පසුගිය දිනක ලංකාවට පැමිණි ඉන්දීය නියෝජිතයන් පිරිස අලුත් යෝජනා කීපයක් දුන් බවත් ඉන් මෙරට ඛනිජ තෙල්, හිරු එළිය, සුළං ආදී සෑම ක්‍ෂේත්‍රයකම අයිතිය ඔවුන් සතුකර ගැනීමට පිඹුරුපත් සකසා ඇති බවත් ඔහු පවසයි.

මෙම පුනර්ජනනීය බලශක්ති සුළං විදුලි බලාගාර හැදීමෙන් බලාපොරොත්තු වන්නේ අඩු මිලට ජනතාවට විදුලිය ලබාදීමයි. නමුත් මේ වන විට ලැබෙන තොරතුරු අනුව එම බලාපොරොත්තුව ඉෂ්ට වේ දැයි සැක සහිතය. එයට හේතුව මෙයින් නිපදවන විදුලිය මණ්ඩලයට ලැබෙනුයේ ඩොලර් ශත 0.75 කටය. නමුත් දැනට පවතින තම්බපවනි බලාගාරයෙන් විදුලිය ලබා දෙනුයේ ඩොලර් ශත 0.4 කටය.

මේ සම්බන්ධව අදහස් දැක්වූ විදුලිබල මණ්ඩල ඉංජිනේරු සංගමයේ සභාපති අනිල් රංජිත් මහතා පවසා තිබුණේ මුලින් අදානි සමාගම විදුලි ඒකකයක් ඩොලර් ශත 0.65 කට දීමට එකඟ වී සිටි බවත් පසුව එය වෙනස් වීම සැක සහිත බවත්ය.

ටෙන්ඩර් කැඳවීම්වලින් තොරව මේ ආකාරයෙන් විදුලිය මිලට ගැනීමෙන් පාඩුව සිදුවන්නේ මෙරට විදුලි පාරිභෝගිකයන්ටය. මෙවන් සැකමුසු තැන් කීපයක් සමග ආරම්භ වන මෙම බලාගාර පිළිබඳ පාර්ලිමේන්තුව තුළද පක්‍ෂ විපක්‍ෂ මන්ත්‍රීවරු රැසක්ම අදහස් දක්වා තිබිණි. පසුගියදා අතුරලියේ රතන හිමියන් මේ පිළිබඳව මෙසේ අදහස් දැක්වීය.

පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේත් විවාද
විදේශීය සමාගම්වලින් විදුලිය නිපදවීමට තමන් වහන්සේ විරුද්ධ නොවන නමුත් එය සිදුවන්නේ කුමන ආකාරයෙන් දැයි ගැටලුවක් පවතිනවා. අවසානයේ අපගේ සුළඟත්, එහි අධිකාරයත් කොම්පැණිවලට ලැබෙන බැවින් ගිවිසුම්වලට එළඹීමේදී අප ගන්නා හුස්ම ටිකේ අයිතියවත් අපට තිබිය යුතුයි. අපට ස්වභාවධර්මයෙන් ලැබෙන හිරු එළියට, සුළං ටිකට ඩොලර්වලින් ගෙවීම් කළ නොහැකියි.”

මීට පිළිතුරු වශයෙන් කංචන විජේසේකර ඇමැතිවරයා පැවසුවේ නිකන් ලැබෙන සුළඟ යැයි, නිකන් ලැබෙන හිරු එළිය යැයි පවසමින් අව්වේ පිච්චෙමින් සුළං වැදෙමින් සිටිය හැකි බවත්, නමුත් මේවා පාවිච්චි කළ හැකි වන්නේ මේ සඳහා ආයෝජනය කළ හැකි, දැනුම ඇති පුද්ගලයන් පැමිණියහොත් පමණක් බවයි. එලෙස ආයෝජකයන් පැමිණියහොත් පමණක් දේශීය ආයතන සඳහාද අවස්ථාව ලබාදිය හැකි බව වැඩිදුරටත් පැවසීය.

මෙරට සතු තාක්‍ෂණය
මෙරට අතීත මුතුන් මිත්තන් සතු ශිල්පීය ඥානයට අභියෝග කිරීමට ලොව මෙතෙක් රටක් බිහිව නොමැති තරම්ය. සුද්දා කැලේ සිටින කාලයේ අපේ මුතුන් මිත්තන් උඩින් ගියහ. දියුණු වාරි ශිල්පීය ක්‍රම භාවිත කළහ. සෑම ක්ෂේත්‍රයකින්ම එය ඔප්පු වේ. සුළං බලය සම්බන්ධයෙන්ද ඒ ආකාරයෙනි. සුළං බලය යොදාගෙන කර්මාන්ත ශාලාවක කටයුතු කළ ලොව පළමු රට ශ්‍රී ලංකාවයි. ඒ කිස්තු පූර්ව 3 වන සියවසේදී යකඩ උණුකරන උදුන් ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම හරහාය.

අපගේ පම්බපවනී සුළං බලාගාරය විවෘත කිරීමේ උත්සවයට එක්වූ එවකට විදුලිබල ඇමැති ඩලස් අලහප්පෙරුම මහතා පැවසුවේ මෙම ව්‍යාපෘතියේ සැලසුම, ඉංජිනේරු තාක්‍ෂණය, ශක්‍යතා අධ්‍යයන ආදී සියල්ල ශ්‍රී ලංකා විදුලිබල මණ්ඩලය සතු බවයි. මෙවන් බලාගාර හැදීමට අවශ්‍ය දැනුම මෙරට සතු නම් ඉන්දියාව දෙසින් නිදහසේ හමා එන සුළඟ නැවත ඉන්දියාවේ සමාගමකින්ම ඩොලර්වලට මිලට ගත යුතු නැත. මේ ඇදී යන්නේ මෙරට විදෙස් සංචිතයි. මෙරට බලශක්ති ඒකාධිකාරයයි.

එසේම පම්බපවනී බලාගාරය විවෘත කිරීමේ උත්සවයේදී දුමින්ද දිසානායක මහතා පැවසුවේ එම බලාගාරය සඳහා වැයවන මුදල අවුරුදු 3 ක් තුළ උපයා ගැනීමට හැකි බවයි. එසේනම් අදානි සමාගම මෙම බලාගාර දෙකින් මොනතරම් ලාභයක් ලබයිද. අප මුළු ජීවිත කාලය තුළම ඉන්දියාවට ඉහළ මිලක් ගෙවා ඔවුන් කියන ගණන්වලට විදුලිය මිලට ගත යුතු නොවේද?. මේ ආකාරයට අඩු මිලට විදුලිය නිපදවිය හැකි බලශක්ති ප්‍රභවයන් විදේශිකයන් අතට පත්කිරීම නිසා අවසානයේ සිදුවන්නේ විදුලි පාරිභෝගිකයන් විදෙස් සමාගම්වල අඩන්තේට්ටම්වලට ලක්වීමටයි. දැන් සිටින පාලකයන් සිදුකරනුයේ ලක් මවගේ දේහයේ කොටස් එකිනෙක විකිණීමයි. විදේශීය වෙළෙඳපොළේ ප්‍රසිද්ධ වෙන්දේසියේ මේ දිනවල අලෙවි කරන්නේ මෙරට ප්‍රාණ වායුවයි. ඒවා විකුණා ලැබෙන මුදලින් කා බී විනෝද වෙති. අවසානයේ ලක්මව මියැදුණු පසු හත් දවසක් නොව දින 14 ක්ම ලක්මව තබාගෙන බූරු ගැසීමට සූදානම් පිරිසක් අදවන විට පාර්ලිමේන්තුව තුළ සිටී. ඊට අනුබල දෙන තවත් පිරිසක් නිලධාරි පැළැන්තියේ සිටී. මේ කිසිවකුට ලක්මව සුවපත් කර ගැනීමට යළි දෙපයින් නඟාසිටුවීමට කිසිදු වුවමනාවක් නැත. ඔවුන්ට අමතකව ගිය දෙයක් වන්නේ මේ සියල්ල නැති වූ කල ඔවුන්ටද මෙරට සිටීමට සිදුවනුයේ වහල්ලුන් ලෙස බවය.

සමීර කන්නන්ගර

China says Ball is in Sri Lanka’s court

August 27th, 2022

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Responding to Sri Lanka’s request for China to change its tune on debt relief, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy said the ball is in Sri Lanka’s court, not China’s.

The spokesman told Daily Mirror China communicated to the Sri Lankan Finance Ministry three months ago about its readiness to discuss how to address the debt issue with the Chinese banks.

He said China encouraged its banks to discuss it. The Chinese position was also communicated during the telephone conversation between Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and then Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.

We sent proposals to the Finance Ministry. But, there was no response from them. Also, Sri Lanka insisted that it should complete the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) first. The ball is in Sri Lanka’s court,” the spokesman said.

Sri Lanka’s total bilateral debt was estimated at $6.2 billion at the end of 2020 by the IMF.

Japan and China hold the largest shares. India has provided around $4 billion to help keep Sri Lanka’s economy afloat, mainly through credit lines and swaps this year. Sri Lanka also has $14 billion of international sovereign bond debt. (Kelum Bandara)


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