LankaWeb Editorial

14th April 2022

Resolving  the ongoing crisis in Sri Lanka has now become the greatest challenge for the Rajapaksa Administration.

It is noteworthy to observe that Sri Lanka will be unable to make a USD 200 million loan repayment next week as the government decide to suspend all external debt repayments. This will place further pressure on the banking sector as a former national leader has observed which by itself is a true observation which lends credibility to the importance of quick remedial action needed to steer the teetering ship of Sri Lanka before it either sinks into oblivion or continues to flounder in a sea of uncertainty much to the chagrin of her beleaguered and restless population.

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 That the government has announced that the country is presently bankrupt seems an understatement where the responsibility is now in the hands of the new Finance Minister to discuss the prevailing situation with the International Monetary Fund during the talks scheduled for next week in Washington DC.

By mid-May, the Indian Line of Credit will be over and by June, private businesses will be unable to operate due to a lack of foreign exchange which is a harbinger of impending escalation of the present crisis where post haste remedial action now becomes imperative where government must now take full responsibility for the bankruptcy of the country and the restoration to a normal order which will placate unrest and ease tensions within the agitated population of Sri Lanka.

Realistically all  political parties need to be involved in this without any conditions where elections or constitutional amendments at this point will not solve the crisis in the country After discussions are held with the Government and all parties and a plan is formulated, conditions can be laid down towards the restoration of a once flourishing nation now in the throes of desperation. It is also the responsibility of the leadership to give everyone an equal hearing of the intended plan of action. In Lebanon for instance – the IMF agreement was reliant on it being tabled in Parliament for their approval. This must happen in Sri Lanka as well.”

Towards overcoming the crisis a national effort is surely needed to do so where despite a difficult period, fruition will follow if a plan is adhered to where the crisis could be surely overcome, so there probably is no need for the Nation to panic overly if they were to compare a similar situation where the former crisis in Lebanon  was resolved through help from the International Monetary Fund(IMF) and the direction which  Sri Lanka now needs to take.Other Nations like Argentina and Zimbabwe as examples too have faced similar crises  of a dire nature which they too have gainfully overcome.

The groundwork for this is already being laid.The New Finance Minister and the other responsible sources such as leaders of the Central Bank responsible for the financal needs of Sri Lanka have implemented a plan of action which sounds credible where hopefully tensions within the nation will ease.

Aspirations towards a better Sri Lanka as the Sinhala and Tamil New Year approaches where an anxious population awaits an auspicious and blessed outcome which now positively rests in the hands of her Administrators.

Asoka Weerasinghe (Mr) Kings Grove .Crescent . Gloucester ,. Ontario . K1J 6G1

13 April 2022

Mayor Patrick Brown MPP
Office of the Mayor
City of Brampton
2 Wellington Street West
Brampton, Ontario
L6Y 4R2

Dear Mayor Patrick Brown:

Now that I have gathered through  bylined Tonda Maccharles’s news item in the Toronto Star, Patrick Brown vows in video to end Canada’s ‘terrorist’ designation for Tamil Tigers. Your taking the plunge to be the God Father of the Canadian- Tamils, let me be the first Sinhala-Canadian to wish you a Happy Sinhalese & Tamil New Year.  Suba Aluth Avuruddka Waywa.  It happens today, on the same day, April 13, every year.

Woo..Woo! Smart move Patrick?  Sweet Mother of Jesus, I knew it was coming, but how is it that it took you this long to start your serious ‘ love-in with the Tamils’, with an eye to be the first Viceroy of the twin  Canadian-Tamil Kingdom of Brumtun-EllamMukkam down the road.

The news item said – ‘Conservative leadership candidate Patrick Bown says he will lift the ban”: on a designated terrorist organization known as the Tamil Tigers, open up immigratation to any Tamil family that wants to come to Canada.”

Well Patrick, if you think that Canada is your GrandMother’s and Mother’s piece of real estate – Go ahead and do it., You will lift the ban” you said.  Do it Patrick, for Pete’s sake, siphon every Tamil out of Sri Lanka and let my Sinhalese people live in peace -not having to look over their shoulders to see whether a Tamil Tiger is following him or her ‘with an AK47 to shoot and kill them.  

And the young Sinhalese Mother breastfeeding her infant in the open, not worrying that a Tamil Tiger would come and pluck the infant  from her bare breast and bash the head against a charnockite granite rock or bayonet the infant and celebrate watching the little skull split open and ooze ketchup blood.

And to help Tamil parents who suffer every October, November and December every year with the pandemic of Cancer, as their sons and daughters come in droves into the Sri Lanka High Commission’s Consulate Office in Ottawa; with telegrams in hand saying – Come home Immediately, Mother  (or Father) is dying of cancer,” andapplying for travel documents to get home quickly for their annual holiday, to soak in the Jaffna-Killinochchi sun to get back their tan that they lost during the Canadian Winter’s.  The Fathers and Mothers dying of  cancer were strings of lying Masala wade with a devilled shrimp curled in the center.

You know what Patrick, it is strange about these Convention Refugees who are not supposed to be returning to the country that they ran away from saying they were being persecuted and discriminated, and no other parents of other ethnic groups, like Sinhalese, Muslims, Burgers and other, are not afflicted by cancer during every October, November and December.”  That is proof positive  that all theTamils with telegrams in their hands are ‘economic refugees’ who came into Canada are scam artists with stories dipped in Jaffna’s Hogwash.  How do I know? I had to deal with some of them when the First Secretary (the passport officer) was not available between 1989-1994. .  And here are the numbers who came to the High Commission in Ottawa with telegrams in their hands applying for travel documents – in 1992 – 8624; in 1993- 5865; January, February, March 1994 – 1133 applicants,   

 Patrick, by siphoning all the Tamils from Sri Lanka , you will be a God’s send to help not to let these Tamils parents die of cancer every last three months of the year.

Are you a church going God loving man Patrick? Well … here is a chance for you to go to heaven having done a damn good deed.  Promise your Tamil-loving heart that you will siphon everyTamil out of my beautiful island, Sri Lanka with whom I am still romancing with and will not allow anyone, including you to hurt her unfairly.  You bet, Patrick, I am standing tall in guard for her in Canada’s Ottawa. And I am boxing my way in and out of the squared circle.

Sell Canada to the Tamils in Sri Lanka…Tell them that the Canadian roads are paved with gold, the grass is greener than in Kilinochchi and Vavuniya.  And that almost all the 37 million  Canadians carry credit cards with them , and the ATM machines are filled with paper money. and a forged passport is going for $25,000 a piece.

And tell them Patrick , don’t worry, I will shuttle you in my boat from your rusty Mother trawler parked in mid-sea”, and say,

 I will row…row..row my boat with you 

gently down the sea, 

Merrily..merrily… merrily,… merrily 

today your life starts with your dream.”

Patrick you said, ‘The Sri Lankan High Commission tells people that I’m LTTE,  Literally, the High Commission,’Brown says in the video So I am going to lift the ban.  I’m going to cancel the ban, I am going to give a public apology.,  I firmly believe that those who are defending loved ones in Sri Lanka against a government that was committing a genocide –  it was acts of self-defence against the Sri Lanka government that was committing a genocide – it was acts of self-defence against a Sri Lanka that was acting in a manner that was a modern  atrocity. Egregious. War criminals.“

Genocide” you say committed by the Sri Lankan government against the members of your surrogate Tamil families.

What moral right do you have Patrick  for you  to talk of  Genocide by the Sri Lankan Government”.  Damn it, Patrick. Even the UN proclaimed that there was no Genocide in Sri Lanka. When you are from the White-man’s clan” of Maestros of Genocide  of indigenous children and women in Canada. Shame on you.  The gall and the temerity you have is not worth even two dead capelin washed on the shores of Middle Cove in Newfoundland,  Shish, Man.. be mindful when you start spitting venom at my motherland Sri Lanka,  I just don’t like what you spit out. I resent it.

Here’s what you have to admit Patrick.  It is estimated that 20,000 indigenous children were taken away from their families and communities.  The white-man’s burden.  Even though your name is Brown, I consider that you are still a white” man.

Indigenous groups were demanding  action after the remains of 215 children were found buried in a former residential school in Kamloops, in B.C.   The bodies were discovered on May 27, 2021, were those of First Nation students who attended the school while it was in operation from 1890 to1978.

The Tk’emlupc te Secwe’pemc First Nation had been trying to unearth the remains for more than 20 years, but they had a breakthrough  using  an earth penetrating radar equipment and found children as young as 3-years old were thought to be among the unidentified students whose deaths were undocumented.  And there were a few more Genocide” sites committed by us Canadians.

So to you I say, Patrick. Don’t try to be smart at spitting at my Motherland Sri Lanka as you will hear my voice loud and clear, perhaps an angry voice as loud as London’s Big Ben when it announces with its Ding-Dong  that it is 12 noon.

 Let it be known Mayor Patrick Brown,  I am on a Mission to guard the good name of Sri Lanka,, the Mother who nurtured me for the first 19-years of my life.

You did hear from me earlier in a letter on December  6, 2012, when you and Paul Calandra lambasted the Sri Lanka Government on TV for not issuing visas to travel to Sri Lanka’s North to check on the Tamil refugee Welfare camps,  I asked you Who the hell do you think  you are? Come down from your high horse, expecting issuance of visas, when you were not even Junior Ministers,  and when the Canadian Government had already refused visas for some Sri Lankan Cabinet Ministers..”

You obviously were ignorant of unspoken  diplomatic reciprocity.

And I could go on and on Patrick.

But let me repeat so that you know.  Be mindful when you lambast Sri Lanka as there is a Sinhalese-Canadian who is following your story of your hateful relationship with Sri Lanka that I Love dearly.

Members of your surrogate Tamil families know me well, who wanted to blow up

the 15 storey Centennial building at 200 Kent Street, on  9 June 1987, as I was employed in the Communications Division of DFO,  It was a big security concern.

Intelligence and Police were involved.  I resent intimidation.  And this Asoka didn’t hide under a table nor behind a door.  Nor did I hide inside a Kent Street manhole.

Keep well and be SAFE.

Asoka Weerasinghe (Mr)

High Commission of Sri Lanka New Delhi

Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to India, Milinda Moragoda met with the Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister of India Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi, today (13 April) to review the present status of Indo-Lanka economic cooperation as Sri Lanka enters negotiations with the IMF for an economic adjustment programme.  

At the outset, High Commissioner Moragoda thanked the Indian Finance Minister for the assistance that India is extending to Sri Lanka in the form of credits for essential commodities and fuel, and also for balance of payment support extended at these challenging times.

The Minister and the High Commissioner observed that this assistance could form part of the bridging finance required by Sri Lanka until the economic adjustment programme with the IMF would be negotiated. It was also observed that India was the first country to support Sri Lanka in this manner to secure bridging finance until that programme would be in place.

In this context, High Commissioner Moragoda and Minister Sitharaman discussed how India could assist Sri Lanka in garnering international support to secure bridging finance and for the economic adjustment programme itself, through both bilateral and multilateral partners.

The High Commissioner briefed the Minister on the debt standstill announced by the Government of Sri Lanka. He informed her that the Sri Lankan authorities are seeking a consensual agreement on debt restructuring.

They explored the possibility of enhancing and restructuring some of the assistance already provided by India in the form of credits for essential commodities and fuel as well as balance of payment support.        

The discussion was also focused on how India could play an expanded role in promoting accelerated growth and development in Sri Lanka in the medium term. 

High Commissioner Moragoda and Minister Sitharaman reviewed and expressed satisfaction over the ongoing official-level discussions between Sri Lanka and India to establish a cooperation framework and to monitor the progress of economic cooperation between the two countries in the present context. The Presidential Advisory Group on Multilateral Engagement and Debt Sustainability, Governor of the Central Bank and the Secretary to the Treasury are engaged in these discussions representing Sri Lanka while India is represented by the Chief Economic Advisor of the Government and the Secretary (Economic Affairs) of the Ministry of Finance. The High Commissions of the two countries in each other’s capitals are also participating in these discussions.

During the meeting, the Finance Minister of India expressed her concern over the humanitarian cost of the economic crisis and said that India would stand by Sri Lanka to overcome its challenges. In response, High Commissioner Moragoda thanked Minister Sitharaman for the personal interest that she has taken in supporting Sri Lanka at this difficult time.

They also noted that Finance Minister of Sri Lanka Ali Sabry and his delegation would be meeting the Ministerial delegation from India next week in Washington D.C. on the wings of the IMF spring meetings. 

High Commission of Sri Lanka New Delhi

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

සමාජ,ආර්ථික හා දේශපාලන හේතු මත ගාලු මුවදොරට රැස්වී දැනට විරෝධතාවයේ නිරතවන පිරිස සමඟ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා වශයෙන් තමන් සාකච්ඡාවකට සූදානම් බව අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා දැනුම් දෙයි.

ඒ අනුව රට හමුවේ මේ මොහොතේ පවතින අභියෝගය ජයගැනීම වෙනුවෙන් විරෝධතාවයේ නිරත පිරිස දක්වන වටිනා අදහස් සාකච්ඡාවට ලක්කිරීමට අපේක්ෂිතය.

මෙම සාකච්ඡාව සඳහා විරෝධතාවයේ නිරත පිරිස සූදානම් නම් තමන් ඒ සඳහා එම පිරිසේ නියෝජිතයන්ට ඊට ආරාධනා කරන බව ද අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා සඳහන් කරයි.

චානක බණ්ඩාරගේ

(1). 2021 සැප්තැම්බර් සිට 2022 මාර්තු 10 දක්වා ඩොලරය ස්ථීර (fixed) කර තිබු අතර එම අගය වුයේ රුපියල් 203කි. හිටපු මහ බැංකු අධිපති (කබ්රාල් මහතා) මේ ක්‍රියාමාර්ගය ගැනීමට ප්‍රධානතම හේතුව වුයේ ඒ  වනවිට ශ්‍රී ලාංකාවට විදේශ විනිමය (ඩොලර්) ඒම ඉතාම පහළ වැටී තිබීමයි. රටේ ඩොලර් හිඟ වීම නිසා, රුපියලට සාපේක්ෂව ඩොලරයේ වටිනාකම ඉහල නැඟීණි. අප ආනයන මත යැපුණු ආර්ථිකයක් නිසා ඩොලරය ඉහල යත්ම උද්ධමනය (බඩු මිල ඉහල යාම) වැඩිවේ (JR ජයවර්ධනගේ සීමා විරහිත විවෘත ආර්ථිකයට පින්සිඳු වන්න අප අද දේශීය කර්මාන්ත සියල්ලම පාහේ වසා දමා සියල්ල – ඉඳිකට්ට පවා, ආනයනය කරන්නෙමු).

ඩොලරය පා කලහොත් රුපියල දිනපතා අති සීග්‍ර වේගයෙන් බාල්දු වන බව දන්නා නිසාය කබ්රාල් මහතා රුපියල ස්ථිර කර තැබුවේ.

2022 මාර්තු 9 වෙනිදා විපක්ෂයේ බුද්ධිමතුන් තිදෙනෙක් ගොස් මහ බැංකු අධිපති හමුවිය. මොවුන් කියා ඇත්තේ උන්ඩියල් ක්‍රමය පරාජය කිරීම සඳහා ඩොලරය ස්ථිරව නොතබා වහාම පා කරන ලෙසය (මොවුන් හරියටම කීදේ කුමක්ද කියා මෙම ලියුම්කරු නොදනී). (විදේශ ශ්‍රමිකයන් (රටවිරුවන්) උන්ඩියල් ක්‍රමයට ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ඩොලර් එවීමට  පුරුදු වීම නිසා ඔවුන් සාමාන්‍යයෙන් වසරකට එවන ඩොලර් බිලියන 7ක් පමණ වන විදේශ විනිමය ඉන් භාගයකටවත් වඩා අඩුවී තිබුණි).

ඊට පසුදාම කබ්රාල් මහතා ඩොලරය පා කර හරින ලදී. එදාම ඩොලරය රුපියල් 260 ඉක්මවා ගියේය. එදාම හිටපු මුදල් ඇමති කීවේ ‘අපි විපක්ෂය කියන ඒකත් අහන්න එපායැ’ කියාය. අද ඩොලරය රුපියල් 320කි (මසක් ඇතුලත). තව මාස 6කින්?   සිම්බාබ්වේවල  පාන් ගෙඩියක් මිලදී ගැනීමට මුදල් පිරවූ වීල් බැරෝවක් හා සමාන මුදලක් ගෙවිය යුතුයි. ශ්‍රී ලංකාවෙත් එසේ වේද?

ඩොලරය මෙසේ එක් වරම මාර්තු 10වෙනිදා පා කිරීම ඉතාම වැරදි බව රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ පවසයි. එදා විපක්ෂයේ බුද්ධිමතුන් 3දෙනා දැන දැන රජයට කකුල් මාට්ටුවක් දැම්මාද, නැත්නම් ඔවුනනුත් ඊනීයා බුද්ධිමතුන් පමණක්ද? කෙසේ වෙතත් රජයට උපදෙස් දෙනවා නම් එය මහජන සුභ සිද්ධිය ගැන සිතා සද් භාවයෙන් පමණක් කළ යුතුය. මන්ද පහර වදින්නේ අහිංසක මහ ජනයාටය. අද ආර්ථිකය බ්රේක් නැති වාහනයක් මෙන් ගමන් කරනවා යයි නව මහ බැංකු අධිපති වරයා කීවේ මෙසේ එක්වරම ඩොලරය පා කිරීම නිසා සිදුවන උද්ධමනයේ වන අති සීග්‍ර වැඩි වීමයි. ඩොලරය රුපියල් 400 වන්නේ කවදාද (මැයිද, ජුනිද?).

අසාමාන්‍ය ලෙස ඩොලරය බැඳ තැබීමට තීරණය කිරීම නිසා ඒ කාලයේ බඩු මිල ඉහල යාම අද තරම් නොවීය. මහජනයාට අවශ්‍යද බඩු මිල ඉහල යාම නතර කිරීමය.

ඩොලරය පා කළා කියා උන්ඩියල් ක්‍රමයට මුදල් එවීම නතර වී නැත.  L/C විවෘත කිරීමට (ඩොලර් විකිණීමට – selling) අද බැංකු වල ඩොලර් නැත. රටවිරුවන් කෙලින්ම බැංකුවලට ඩොලර් එවීම සඳහා නම් කොටුවේ මර්නී එක්ස්චේන්ජ් ලා ඩොලර් සඳහා බැංකුවල ගෙවන මිලම ඒ අයද ගෙවිය යුතු බවට කබ්රාල් මහතා පැනවූ නීතිය දැඩිව ක්‍රියාත්මක කල යුතුය (තාවකාලිකව). දැනට එවැනි නීතියක් නැත.

රජය මේ අවස්ථාවේ දැඩි නීති නොදමන්නේ නම් කඩා වැටෙන්නේ අපේ බැංකු පද්ධතියය.

ඩොලරය ඉහල ගොස් ඇති නිසා ගණුදෙණුකරුවන්ගෙන් ඩොලර් මිලදී ගැනීමේදී (buying) බැංකුවලට ඉතා ඉහල මිලක් ගෙවීමට සිදුවේ. මෙය බැංකුවල මුල්‍ය පැවැත්මට තදින්ම බලපායි. බැංකුවල ඇත්තේ සීමාසහිත වූ රුපියල් සංචිත ප්‍රමාණයකි.

කොරේ පිටට මරේ කීවක් මෙන් රජය දැන් කඩිනමින් පොලී අනුපාත ඉහල දමින් සිටි.  ඒවා 13.5%, 14.5% දක්වා ඉහල නංවා ඇත. 25% දක්වා ඉහල නංවන කථාවක් ඇත! රටට ඩොලර් නොඑන මෙවැනි කාලයක මෙවැනි පෙරළිකාරී තීරණයක් රජය ගත්තේ ඇයි? 

මෙයින් රුපියල ශක්තිමත් වී උද්ධමනය අඩු වනු ඇතැයි රජය සිතයි, නමුත් එසේ සිදුවේ යයි කිසිසේත් සිතිය නොහැක. රජයට ඩොලර් නැත, රුපියල ගැන විදේශිකයන් තුල විශ්වාසයක් ඇතිකරගැනීමට රටේ රත්තරං ද නැත (තියෙන ටිකද කබ්රාල් මහතා වික්කේය). තවද දැන් ඩොලරය පාවේ. එවන් පසුබිමක රුපියල ශක්තිමත් වීම නොව තවදුරටත් දුර්වල වීමයි සිදුවනුයේ.   

පොලී ප්‍රතිශත වැඩි කිරීම නිසා බැංකුවලින් මුදල් ණයට ගත්තවුන්ට මේ අධි පොලී ගෙවීම ඉතා අපහසු වේ (සංචාරක කර්මාන්තයද බින්දුවටම වැටී ඇත). ඒ අය උවමනාවෙන්ම ණය පොළී නොගෙවා සිටිනු ඇත; විශේෂයෙන්ම කුඩා ව්‍යාපාරිකයන් සහ නිවාස ණය ගෙවන්නන්. මෙයින් බැංකු වලට තදින්ම පහර වදී. කොරෝනා නිසා බැංකුවලට ණය නොගෙවා සිටින බොහෝ දෙනෙකි.

දැනටමත් අපේ බැංකු දරා ගත නොහැකි පීඩනයකින් පසුවේ. ලෝකයේ සෙසු බැංකු හා සසඳන කල අපේ බැංකු කවදත් අති විශාල ලාභ ඉපැයූ බැංකු නොවේ. ඉතා සුළු ජනගහනයක් වෙසෙන අපේ රටේ උවමනාවට වඩා බැංකු ඇත. දේශපාලඥයනට සහ රජයේ උසස්ම නිලධාරීන්ට අල්ලස් දී රටේ කෝටිපති ව්‍යාපාරිකයෝ තම තමන්ගේ පුද්ගලික බැංකු ආරම්භ කර ගෙන ඇත. අති ධනවත් ඕස්ත්‍රේලියාවටම ඇත්තේ බැංකු 6 හෝ 7 පමණි. එම රජය ඒවා සිය ඇස් 2 මෙන් රකී. රජය දැන් මුදල් මුද්‍රණය කිරීමද නවතා ඇත. මෙවැනි අවධියක, බැංකු වලට මෙවැනි අධික පොලී අනුපාතයන් සිය ස්ථිර තැන්පත් කරුවන්ට ගෙවා ගත නොහැකි වුවහොත්? බැංකු කඩා වැටෙනු හැර වෙනත් විකල්පයක් නැත (පාරිභෝගිකයන් ඉල්ලු විට ඔවුන්ගේ රුපියල් දීමට බැංකු බැඳී සිටි – අපොහොසත් වුවහොත් එම බැංකුව කඩා වැටිය හැක).

 (2). අපනයන (තේ, ගාමන්ට්ස්, නොයෙක් ප්‍රති අපනයන භාණ්ඩ) සහ සංචාරක කර්මාන්තය හැරුණු කොට ක්ෂණිකව ඩොලර් සොයා ගත හැක්කේ තව තවත් විදේශ ණය ගැනීමෙන් පමණක් යයි රජය සිතයි. නිර්මාණාත්මක නව මාර්ග වලින් ඩොලර් සොයා ගැනීමට රජය විසින් කිසිදු වෑයමක් දරුනු නොලැබීය. රජයට උවමනාවක්ද නැති ගානය.

මැද පෙරදිග සේවය කරන්නන් හැරුණු කොට බටහිර රටවල සිටින සිංහල සහ දෙමළ ඩයස්පෝරාව ගත් කල අපේ රට විරුවන් ගණන ලක්ෂ 20කට වැඩිය. මේ අයගේ මාර්ගයෙන් අපේ විදෙස් සංචිත වැඩි කරගැනීමේ විවිධ මාර්ග ඇත. නමුත් මේවා ගැන සිතා බැලීමට රජයට වගේ වගක් නැත.

උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් විශේෂිත රටවිරුවනට මෙරටට වාහනයක් ගෙන ඒමට අවස්ථාවක් ලබා දීමත්, ඒ සඳහා වන රේගු බදු ඩොලර් වලින් ගෙවීමට නියම කිරීමත්ය. NRFC ගිණුම් වලට වැඩි පොළී අනුපාතයක් දැන් ගෙවන නමුත් ඒ මුදල් මුළුමනින්ම ආපසු ලංකාවෙන් පිටතට රැගෙන යාමේ බාධක ඇත. මේ නිසා නව NRFC ගිණුම් ඇරඹීමට රටවිරුවෝ පැකිලෙති. මේ විෂමතා දුරලිය යුතුය. මෙරට තුල තෝරා ගත් භාණ්ඩ සහ සේවා සැපයීමේදී ඩොලර් ඇත්තන්ට ඒවාට ඩොලර් වලින් මුදල් ගෙවීමේ පහසුකම් ඇති කල යුතුය. විදේශ සංචාරකයන්ට තම හෝටල් ගාස්තු, ගුවන් ගමන් ටිකට්, විවිධ දේශිය ස්ථානවලට ඇතුළුවීමේදී ගෙවන ගාස්තු ඩොලර් වලින් ගෙවීමේ ක්‍රමයක් සැකසිය යුතුය. ගුවන් තොටුපලෙන් පරිබාහිරව කොළඹ නගරය තුල නව තීරු බදු රහිත සාප්පුවක් (duty free)  ඇති කල යුතුය – ඩොලර් වලින් පමණක් ගනුදෙනු කරන. මෙහි දියුණුව බලා පසුව මහනුවර සහ යාපනයේ එවැනිම තීරු බදු රහිත සාප්පු ඇති කල යුතුය. කොටුවේ වැනි මර්නී එක්ස්චේන්ජ් ලා ළඟ ඇති ඩොලර් වැඩි අගයක් දී මහ බැංකුව විසින් මිලදී ගෙන තම ඩොලර් සංචිතය වැඩි කර ගත යුතුය.

රටේ ජනතාවගෙන් හැකිතරම් වැඩි මිලට රත්තරං මිලදී ගෙන මහ බැංකුවේ රත්තරං සංචිතය නැවත ඉහල දමා ගත යුතුය. රුපියල ස්ථාවර කර ගැනීමේ ඉතාම හොඳ ක්‍රමයකි මෙය – එවිට විදෙස් රටවල් රුපියල මඟින් ගණුදෙණු කිරීමට එළඹේ. (LTTE  පරාජයෙන් පසු කොළඹට ගෙනා රත්තරං කෝ?).

(3). පසුගිය මැතිවරණ සමයන්හි MCC ගිවුසුම ගැන පොහොට්ටුව සහ විපක්ෂයේ ජවිපෙ, ජානිපෙ, පිවිතුරු හෙළ උරුමය, පෙරටුගාමී  පක්ෂ බොහෝ බොරු කීහ. ඇමරිකාව විසින් අපට දීමට කැමති වූ ඩොලර් මිලියන 480 ආධාරය අප නිරපරාදේ අහිමි කර ගත්තෙමු. ඇමරිකාව ඒ මුදල නේපාලය වෙත ප්‍රධානය කරන ලදී. MCC මඟින් කොළඹ සිට ත්‍රීකුණාමලය දක්වා ඉඩම් කොරිඩෝරයක් ඇමරිකන් සමාගම් වලට පැවරීමේ කුමන්ත්‍රණයක් ඇති බවට මේ අය බොරු ගොතා කීහ (කැලණියේ නයා ආවා මෙන්). සමහර සමාජ මාධ්‍යවේදීන්ද මේ බොරු මතය ප්‍රගමනය කළහ.

මේ කිසි කෙනෙක් MCC ගිවුසුම් කියවා නැති බවයි පෙනෙන්නේ. නැත්නම් උවමනාවෙන්ම ඒ අය ජනතාවට බොරු කීහ. MCC මඟින් අප රටට ඉතා වැඩදායි ක්‍රියාවන් සඳහා ආධාර දීමට ඉදිරිපත් විය. රටේ මහ නගරවල තිබෙන අධික වාහන තදබදයට විද්‍යාත්මක විසඳුම් සෙවීම සහ අද  අවුලෙන් අවුලට පත්ව ඇති ඉඩම් පැවරීමේ දුෂිත ඔප්පු ක්‍රමය පරිගණක තාක්ෂණයෙන් නවීකරණය කිරීම මෙම ප්‍රධානය මඟින් සිදු කිරීමට බලාපොරොත්තු වූ සේවාවන්ය. එම ඩොලර් මිලියන 480ට පසු තවත් විශාල ආධාර දිගටම ප්‍රධානය කිරීමටයි ඇමරිකාවේ අදහස වුයේ. MCC ව්‍යවසනය නිසා අමරිකාව හෝ වෙනත් බටහිර රටක් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට නොමිලේ ආධාර කිරීමට පැකිලෙනු ඇත.  MCC ගිවුසුම රජය සමඟ කථා කර සංශෝධනය කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය නම් එසේ කල හැකි බව ඇමරිකාව කීය.

රටට ඉතා ප්‍රයෝජනවත් වූ මේ ආධාර ඇමරිකාව ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සිය නව යටත් විජිතයක් කර ගැනීමේ කූට උපක්‍රමයක් බව කියා මේ වාමාංශිකයන් සහ ඊනියා සමාජවාදීන් ජනතාව බිය ගැන්වූහ. රටට ආදරය නොකරන මේ අයගේ එකම අභිලාශය වුයේ කුමන ක්‍රමයකින් හෝ තමන්ගේ චන්ද ගොඩ වැඩි කර ගැනීමය. මෙයින් පරාජය වුයේ රට සහ ජනතාවය.

(4). සය්ටම් පෞද්ගලික වෛද්‍ය විශ්ව විද්යාලයට විරුද්ධව පොහොට්ටුව සහ විපක්ෂයේ ජවිපෙ, ජානිපෙ, පිවිතුරු හෙළ උරුමය, පෙරටුගාමී  පක්ෂ සහ GMOA ඉතාම තදින් ක්‍රියා කර ඒ ව්‍යාපෘතිය මුළුමනින්ම විනාශ කර දැමුහ. . අභාවප්‍රාප්ත දොස්තර නෙවිල් ප්‍රනාන්දු මහතා රටට ආදරය කල උතුම් මිනිසෙකි. පෞද්ගලික වෛද්‍ය විශ්ව විද්යාලයක් මේ රටේ ඉදි කිරීමට එතුමා දෙවරක් උත්සහ කළේය (රාගම සහ මාලබේ); වාමාංශික දේශපාලන පක්ෂ (ජවිපෙ ඇතුළු) සහ GMOA ඉතා කෘර ලෙස ඒ දෙවතාවේම ක්‍රියාත්මක වී රටට හිමි වීමට ගිය ඒ මහඟු සම්පත විනාශ කර දමන ලදහ. සයිටම් තිබුනා නම් කොරෝනා කාලයේ අප රටේ තිබුණු උග්‍ර වෛය්ද්‍ය හිඟයට හොඳ විසඳුමක් සපයා ගත හැකිව තිබුණි. මෙවැනි විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයක් රටට විදේශ විනිමය ගෙන එන රන් ආකාරයකි (විදේශ සිසුන් මඟින්).

මෙකී වාමාංශිකයන්ගේ දරුවන් වැඩිදුර අධ්‍යාපනය සඳහා විදෙස් විශ්ව විද්‍යාලට යත්. ඒ හැකියාව නොමැති ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ දෙමව්පියනට තම දරුවන් වෛය්ද්‍යවරයෙක් කිරීමේ ඇති මාහැඟී ආසාව, පටු දේශපාලන වාසි ලබා ගැනීම සඳහා මේ අය ඉතා දුෂ්ට ලෙස පහර ගසා නැවත්වුහ.

(5). උමාඔයෙන් විශාල පරිසර හානියක් වන්නේ යයි ජවිපෙ කෑ ගැසිය. එය 100% සත්‍යයකි. නමුත් ඔවුන් කෑ ගසන විට බණ්ඩාරවෙල,ඇල්ල ප්‍රදේශවල විශාල පරිසර හානිය සිදු වී හමාරය (උමා ඔය සඳහා කැනීම් සිදු කර අවසානය). රජය  සුළු තරමින් හෝ හානී සිදුවූ ජනතාවට වන්දි ගෙවන ලදී.  

ජවිපෙ උද්ගෝෂණ නිසා ඇමරිකන් ඩොලර් මිලියන 550වු මුළු ව්‍යාපෘතියම අත් හැර දමන ලදී.  සම්පුර්ණ වූ පසු එය මහවැලියට පසු ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ සිදුවූ විශාලතම් සංවර්ධන ව්‍යාපෘතිය වන බවට ප්‍රචාරයන් 2010 – 2015 රජය විසින් කරන ලදී . එම  රජය කෝටි ගණන් මුදල් ගසා කා තිබුණ බවට වාර්ථා පළ විය.  

ජවිපෙ උද්ඝෝෂණ නිසා යහපාලන රජය මුළු ව්‍යාපෘතියම එක් වරම නතර කළේය. නතර කරන විට කිරීමට ඉතුරු වී තිබුනේ ජල විදුලි බලාගාරය සෑදීම (මෙගා වොට් 50) සහ හම්බන්තොටට ජලය බෙදා  හැරීමයි. එය සිදු කෙරුනා නම් හම්බන්තොටට ජලය ලැබී නව විශාල ඉඩම් ප්‍රමාණයක් වගා කිරීමේ අවස්ථාව සහ හම්බන්තොට වරාය අවට කර්මාන්ත ඉදි කිරීමට අවස්ථාව තිබුණි.

(6). රට බංකලොත් වීම විය හැකි බවත් එසේ සිදු වුවහොත් අපට ඉන් එහාට අනාගතයක් නැතැයි බොහෝ දෙනා, විපක්ෂයේ ආර්ථික බුද්ධිමතුන් පවා කියති. එය අපට දරා ගත නොහැකි ලැජ්ජාවක් බවද ඔවුන් කියති (බංග්ලාදේශයෙන් පවා හිඟමන් යැදීම ඊට වඩා ලැජ්ජාවක් නොවන්නේද?).

බංකලොත්භාවය (Bankruptcy) යනු ණය ගෙවා ගැනීමට බැරිව සිටින කෙනෙකුට නීතියෙන් හිමිවෙන සහනයකි. උසාවියෙන් බංකලොත් කල පසු ඒ තැනැත්තා සියළු ණය වලින් නිදහස්ය. අවුරුදු 3ට පසු බංකලොත් බවින් මිදී නැවත සාමාන්‍ය ජීවිතයක් ආරම්භ කල හැක. ඩොනල්ඩ් ට්‍රම්ප් මහතා සතු කොම්පැනි 2ක් බංකලොත් බවට පත්වී ඇත. ඒත් ඔහු ඇමරිකාවේ ජනාධිපති විය.

පුද්ගලයෙක් මෙන්ම රටක්ද නිතීමය ඒකකයකි. රටකට විරුද්ධව නඩු පැවරිය හැක; ඒ රටටද විවිධ අයට විරුද්ධව නඩු පැවරිය හැක. දැන් අප කල යුත්තේ රටක් ලෙස නීත්‍යානුකූල ලෙස බංකොලොත්භාවයට පත් වීමයි. මෙය දිස්ත්‍රික් උසාවියේ පෙත්සමක් (Debtor’s Petition) සහ දිව්රුම් පෙත්සමක් (Affidavit) මඟින් ගරු දිසා අධිකරණයේ, ඒක පාර්ශ්විකව ගොනු කිරිමෙන්, ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජයට බංකලොත් භාවයට පත්විය හැක. පෙත්සමේ ‘Statement of Affairs’ මඟින් අපේ දැනට තිබෙන සියළු ණය (දේශීය සහ විදේශීය), විදේශ වත්කම් සවිස්තරව ගරු අධිකරණයට සැල කල යුතුය.

මේ ණය ගෙවීමට අප ළඟ ඩොලර් සංචිත නොමැති බවත් වෙනත් ඩොලර් වත්කම් අපට නොමැති බවත් සඳහන් කල යුතුය. ඉන් පසු දිස්ත්‍රික් උසාවිය (කොළඹ දිසා අධිකරණ අංක 5 හෝ 6 විය යුතුය) අප රට නීත්‍යානුකූල ලෙස බංකොලොත් රටක් බවට තීන්දුවක් දෙනු ලැබේ. මෙම තීන්දුව ඩොලර් හෝ වෙනත් විදෙස් මුදල් වලින් ගෙවිය යුතු වූ ණය වෙනුවෙන් පමණක් රජයට බලපාන ලෙසට (උදා: ඩොලර්, පවුම්, යුආන්, ඉංදීය රුපියල් ආදී) තීන්දුව ඉල්ලිය යුතුය. විදෙස් ණය ඉල්ලා එන ණයකරුවනට (විදෙස් රටවල්, විවිධ බැංකු) වලට මේ තීන්දුවේ පිටපතක් ලබා දීම ප්‍රමාණවත්ය.

රජයේ බංකොලොත්භාවය ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයන්ට බල නොපාන්නේ ඔවුනට ඇති රජයේ ණය රුපියල් වලින් ගෙවීමට රජයට ඇති හැකියාව නිසාය.

මින් වන වාසිය නම් අප දැනට භරිත වී ඇති ඩොලර් බිලියන 60 පමණ වූ සියළු ණය වලින් එක්වරම නිදහස් වීමයි. ණය දුන් රටවල්/ආයතන ඔවුන්ගේ පාඩුව දරා ගත යුතුය. 

මේ වසරේ ජුනි මාසය වන විට අපට ඩොලර් බිලියන 1ක පමණක් ණයක් ගෙවීමට ඇත. දැන් අප ළඟ ඇත්තේ ඩොලර් මිලියන 100 පමණ වූ කුඩාම කුඩා සංචිතයකි. 

එවන් වාතාවරණයක් යටතේ අපට ඩොලර් බිලියන 60 පමණ වූ ණය කන්දක් කිසිදා ගෙවිය නොහැකි බව පොඩි ළමයෙකුට පවා තේරේ. ඉදිරියේ පරම්පරා 10ක් දිගටම  ගෙව්වත් මෙවැනි අති විශාල වූ ණය කන්දක් (පොලිද එකතුවේ) අපට ගෙවා නිම කල නොහැක. ඉදින් ගරු අධිකරණය මඟින් බංකලොත් භාවයට තීන්දුවක් ලබා අප මේ කරදරයෙන් නිදහස් නොවෙන්නේ මන්ද?

මෙම ණය තිබෙනතාක් අප රටට කිසිම නැගිටීමක් නොමැත.

අප 2022 ජනවාරි මාසයේ ඩොලර් මිලියන 500ක ණයක් ඉතාම අමාරුවෙන් ගෙව්වෙමු – අපේ රත්තරං  සංචිත පවා විකුණා. මෙය සිදු නොකළ යුතුව තිබුණි.

නැවතත්, ඩොලර් මිලියන 500 ණය නොගෙවා ඉන්න තිබුණි. අද පෙට්‍රල්, ඩීසල්, ගෑස්, බෙහෙත් ගෙන්වීමට මුදල් නැතිව ඔළුව කසමින් රජය සිටින්නේ මේ මෝඩ දේ ජනවාරියේ කල නිසාය.

ජනවාරි මාසයේ ඉතා අමාරුවෙන් ඩොලර් 500 ගෙව්වේ එය බැඳුම්කර ණය ගෙවීමක් නිසාත් එම ප්‍රතිලාභ ලැබුවේ රජයෙන් බැඳුම් කර මිලදී ගත් රජයට සම්බන්ධ පවුල් සාමාජිකයන්/මිත්‍ර සමාගම් බව නිසාත් යයි කථාවක් ඇත.  මෙහි සත්‍ය අසත්‍ය භාවය මෙම ලියුම්කරු නොදනී.

අප නීත්‍යානුකූලව බංකලොත් නොවී ‘අපිට සල්ලි නැහැ, ඒ නිසා ගෙවන්න බැහැ’ වැනි ප්‍රකාශයක් පමණක් විදෙස් රටවලට කිරීම ඉතා අනතුරුදායකය. මන්ද, එවිට විදේශ රටවල්/බැංකු ඉතා ඉක්මනින් ඔවුන්ගේ රටවල් වලදී අපව බංකොලොත් කිරීමට නීති මඟින් කටයුතු කරනු ඇත. එවිට අපට ඒ සෑම නඩුවකටම උත්තර බැඳ සහභාගී වීමට සිදුවෙනවා පමණක් නොව ඔවුන්ගේ නීතිමය ආධිපත්‍යට යටත් වීමටද සිදුවේ. ඔවුන් තීව්‍ර ලෙස අපෙන් හරස් ප්‍රශ්ණ අසනු ඇත. කූට ලෙස අපේ ඇතැම් වත්කම් (ජාත්‍යන්තර බංකොලොත්භාවයට හසු නොවන) හිමි කර ගැනීමට කටයුතු කරනු ඇත. සමහර රටවල බංකොලොත්භාවය ඉතා දිගුය – වසර 7කි. හොඳම දේ නම් අප ඉස්සර වී අප රට තුලදීම අප බංකොලොත් වීමයි. එවිට විදෙස් රටවලට අපට විරුද්ධව බංකොලොත් ක්‍රියාමාර්ග ගැනීමේ මාර්ගය අවහිර වීය.

අප බංකලොත් වුවහොත් ලොව පිළිගත් බැංකු ඉන්පසු අපට ණය නොදෙනු ඇත – IMF, WB, ADA වැනි. ඒ  අවුරුදු 3 කාල සීමාවට පමණි. ඩොලර් බිලියන් 60ක ණය බරකින් එක්වර නිදහස් වෙන්න ලැබේ නම් මේ අපහසුතාවය කුමක්ද?

බංකලොත් වූ පසු වසර 3 කාලය තුල විශාල ලෙස ඩොලර් ආදායම් අපට ලැබුනහොත් ණය කරුවන්ට (Creditors) එම මුදලින් කොටසක්, ගරු අධිකරණයෙන් පත් කරන බංකලොත් භාරකරු (Bankruptcy Trustee) මඟින් ණය කරුවනට ගෙවිය යුතුවේ.  

අප බංකලොත් වුවත්  අපේ හිතවත් රටවලට අපට දිගටම ණය දිය හැක – ඔවුන් කැමති නම්. අපට ඉතාම හිතවත් ඉන්දියාව, චීනය, ජපානය, දකුණු කොරියාව වැනි රටවල් මේ කාල සීමාව තුලදී අපට බොහෝ දුරට ණය දෙනු ඇත – ඔවුන් අපව තනි නොකරනු ඇත.

අවුරුදු 3ට පසු නව ජීවනයකින් යලි නැගිටි ඉදිරියටම යමු!

John Rozario Karnataka, India

Sri Lanka can follow ‘Bangladesh Economic Miracle’ model to avert its economic crisis. As Sri Lanka is going through an economic recession, its South Asian neighbor ‘Bangladesh’ has confirmed as a South Asian Economic Miracle’

As Bangladesh marks its 51^th independence anniversary this year, its tremendous economic growth has made it an emerging hub for regional connectivity, attracting more trade and investment opportunities.

According to the World Bank, the country has been among the fastest growing economies globally over the past decade, supported by a demographic dividend, strong ready-made garment (RMG) exports and stable macroeconomic conditions.

Bangladesh is also on track to graduate from the UN’s Least Developed Countries (LDC) list in 2026. Poverty fell from 43.5% to 14.3% in two decades, while in the last seven years, the country’s garment industry has increased its annual revenue from $19 billion to $34 billion—a 79% rise, according to the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF South Asia), Regional Office in New Delhi, India organized an online discussion titled, Bangladesh: Henry Kissinger’s basket case is an economic success” on April 7.

According to the discussions, in 2021 Bangladesh celebrated its golden jubilee of independence. Labeled as a basket case” by Henry Kissinger, the US secretary of state in 1972, this young nation stands today as a template of growth and economic success. Bangladesh started as a country with a low income per capita along with nations as Chad, Rwanda, Burundi, and Nepal. Today, the country has crossed the per capita income threshold of USD 2000, with a GDP of about USD 355 billion, securing itself a position In the top forty economies of the world in terms of GDP. So, our today’s discussions will look back into the story of growth.

 Bangladesh has made various progress economically, and business wise, social and health service in good conditions. From being an extremely poor country in the 1970s. Today, Bangladesh is confidently marching towards becoming a middle-income country before the whole decade will be over. It will be graduating from a middle-income country and that is quite a huge accomplishment. While Bangladesh’s journey over the last 50 years is highly admirable. In the coming years and decades, it will have to address challenges to support or even excel compared to its past performance. From my perspective, Bangladesh has become an important partner of Germany. And it is one of my goals as a member of the German parliament to further ease the cooperation and ties between Bangladesh and Germany, as this will be a solution where everyone benefits.

Bangladesh, has fulfilled all the requirements for graduating out of LDC status in 2026. Now, the question is, how did that happen? The fundamental answer is, of course, it is the toils and sweat of workers, of people, workers, farmers, entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, and NGOs all put together the effort by his diligent people all around. And the net result of mind efforts of all these variety, various groups of popular people in the country did produce the result. If you hear Henry Kissinger’s prediction, one would be extremely disappointed. But here is Bangladesh that surprises people. But it can be said it is not a surprise. It is not a paradox. It is the result of the efforts, hard toil and sweat of Bangladesh, people who are its main resources, we do not need mineral resources, mineral resources can be a curse, but people are not a curse.”

The systemic exploitation of the then East Pakistan, followed by a massive destruction of the economy, infrastructure and livelihoods caused by the Liberation War, posed insurmountable challenge to the government of the day. Millions of people returned home from India in a war-ravaged country and had no food, no shelter, no medical help, and other basic needs. It is at this point that Mr. Henry Kissinger called us a basket case. If he were there today, we are sure everyone would have edited his comments. Now after seeing the progress that we have made over the years in the past 50 years. To be precise. It is in this context is that the first generation of Bangladeshi NGOs appeared, primarily focusing on relief and rehabilitation.

It is well known that since the 1980s, Bangladesh has made astonishing progress in a wide variety of development indicators, such as reducing the prevalence of extreme hunger and poverty, increasing primary education, enrollment rates, and reducing child and maternal mortality, among others. This progress has been mirrored by an impressive record of sustained GDP growth, spending decades, much, if not most, of Bangladesh’s development has happened outside the purview of successive governments. For example, the 2003 four World Bank report showed that 34.1% of the foreign aid costs distributed for the NGO sector. The vibrant community of NGOs and civil society organizations working across the spectrum of development issues have been the principal drivers of progress. Undoubtedly, things like reducing poverty have been an enormous success. So, these are some of the contributions that NGOs have made to the development of Bangladesh and over the past 50 years and taking the country where it is today.

Apart from showcasing markers of economic and societal growth, Bangladesh has also seen a transition toward digitization, which has effectively given rise to a growing pool of entrepreneurs who are positively impacting lives in both urban and rural societies, such as through greater financial inclusion. Bangladesh is now a role model for other developing countries, owing to the participation of many stakeholders in both the public and private sectors. The online seminar referred to this theme of progress through the lenses of a sustainable economy, poverty reduction, and the impact of information technology in development.

Last year, Bangladesh celebrated its golden jubilee of independence after gaining independence from Pakistan in 1971. Over the years, the image and identity of post-independence Bangladesh have changed in the world arena. It has become a donor country from an aid recipient country. A silent revolution has taken place in the country.

The Coronavirus pandemic has devastated the world economies. The economies of all South Asian countries, including Bangladesh, have been negatively affected. However, in the midst of the pandemic, Bangladesh has surpassed the South Asian countries in terms of economic development. This success has been achieved in the 50^th year of independence mainly through manufacture and export of ready-made garments and remittances from expatriates.

The World Bank, an international lending agency, has given a positive outlook on the South Asian economy, overcoming the effects of the pandemic. In a report, titled South Asian Economic Bounce Back but Face fragile Recovery, the agency said that the average growth of South Asia’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the fiscal year 2021 could stand at 7.2 percent. After that, in the 2022 fiscal year, the average growth may be less than 4.4 percent.

Bangladesh is ahead of its two neighbours, India and Pakistan, in achieving this growth. The government has set a growth target of 6.1 percent for the current fiscal year and 7.2 percent for the next fiscal year.

Although Bangladesh is ahead in per capita GDP, India is one of the largest economies in the world in terms of size. India’s economy is 10 times bigger than Bangladesh’s. The best way to understand how rich a country’s citizens really are is to determine how much purchasing power they have. That is, with the money he earns, he can buy what he wants. This is why the size of GDP is calculated on the basis of purchasing power parity (PPP) to compare the economies of different countries. According to the IMF, India’s share of the world’s GDP on a PPP basis this year is 7.39 percent, while Bangladesh’s share is only 0.659 percent.

In terms of GDP, Bangladesh surpassed India for two consecutive years, but in some social indicators, Bangladesh surpassed the neighbouring country seven years ago. For example, Bangladeshi girls have a higher education rate and female birth rate than Indian girls. In Bangladesh, infant and under-five mortality rates are lower than in India.

However, in terms of GDP, Bangladesh surpassed India for two consecutive years, but in some social indicators, Bangladesh surpassed the neighbouring country seven years ago. For example, Bangladeshi girls have a higher education rate and female birth rate than Indian girls. In Bangladesh, infant and under-five mortality rates are lower than in India.

India is a very big country. There are states like Bihar and Chhattisgarh, as well as states like Delhi and Punjab. So, on average, the real picture of everyone does not come up. But Bangladesh is undoubtedly doing well. So, with the increase in per capita GDP and income, we have to look at different social indicators.

On the other hands, Bangladesh, which former US National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger acerbically referred to as a bottomless basket case” in 1972, has in the last 50 years performed better than Pakistan, the nation it separated from, says International Forum for Rights and Security (IFFRAS), an international think tank headquartered in Toronto, Canada.Bangladesh’s progress is not accidental. The economies of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan have grown at a much faster rate since 2004. This progress was maintained till 2016. But the situation started to change in 2017. Bangladesh’s growth rate has risen sharply in the Coronavirus pandemic.

Bangladesh shows the path rests. Sri Lanka can follow this model to avert its economic recession as Bangladesh’s rise is ‘from bottom less basket to economic rise Model’.

Courtesy The Telegraph India

The island nation, hit by its worst economic crisis since independence and on the brink of its first debt default, has been asking friendly nations for credit lines, food and energy.

India is willing to commit up to another $2 billion in financial assistance to Sri Lanka while also supporting the island nation with food and fuel, five sources told Reuters, as New Delhi tries to regain ground lost to China in recent years.

 Sri Lanka, hit by its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948 and on the brink of its first debt default, has been asking friendly nations including India and China for credit lines, food and energy. The Asian giants have already committed billions of dollars in financial support.Advertisement

We are definitely looking to help them out and are willing to offer more swap lines and loans,” said an Indian source aware of various discussions with Sri Lanka.

A senior government source in New Delhi said Sri Lanka’s warning on Tuesday of defaulting on debt payments was a worry, but that we can still give them up to $2 billion in swaps and support”.

 Another source familiar with Sri Lanka’s thinking said it was seeking India’s help to roll over some $2 billion in dues, such as those owed to the South Asia-focussed Asian Clearing Union. The source said the response had been positive from India.

 All the sources had direct knowledge of the matter or had been briefed on it, but they declined to be named as the discussions were private.

 India has so far committed $1.9 billion to Sri Lanka in loans, credit lines and currency swaps. Sri Lanka has also sought another $500 million credit line for fuel.

 China has extended a $1.3 billion syndicated loan and a $1.5 billion-yuan denominated swap, while negotiations are ongoing for more loans and credit lines.

 One of the sources said New Delhi was keen for its southern neighbour to cut its reliance on China. Sri Lanka has an outstanding debt of about $3.5 billion with China —  or 10.8 per cent of the island’s total — and Beijing has also built ports and roads in the country.

We want them to reduce their debt levels from China and we want to become stronger partners,” said the source.

India has also sent ships with sugar, rice and wheat —items of which it has a surplus, unlike China — to Sri Lanka ahead of the country’s Sinhala and Tamil New Year on Thursday.

 Four of the sources said though New Delhi had not formally made cutting Sri Lanka’s reliance on Beijing a condition for offering help, it had been able to make the Sri Lankans realise that it was in a better position to support them than China.

 Sri Lanka is due to formally start loan negotiations with the International Monetary Fund on Monday, and one of the Indian sources said that would be critical in New Delhi agreeing to more aid for the country.

Courtesy Channelnesasia

COLOMBO: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday (Apr 13) said that it supported Sri Lanka’s plans to engage in “collaborative dialogue” with creditors, a day after the country unilaterally suspended external debt payments amid a severe economic crisis.

“We assessed Sri Lanka’s debt to be unsustainable and that the country’s fiscal efforts and macroeconomic policy adjustments alone could not restore debt sustainability,” Masahiro Nozaki, IMF’s mission chief for Sri Lanka, told Reuters in a statement.

“Therefore, we welcome the Sri Lankan authorities plan to engage in a collaborative dialogue with their creditors,” Nozaki said, adding that the IMF was assessing the specific implications of Sri Lanka’s recent announcement.

Courtesy The Island

Also seeks financial help from other partners to alleviate the suffering of masses

The Ministry of Finance (MOF) yesterday announced the new the policy of the government concerning the servicing of Sri Lanka’s external public debt pending the completion of the government’s discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the preparation of a comprehensive debt restructuring programme.

MOF said that recent events including the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the fallout from the hostilities in Ukraine, have so eroded Sri Lanka’s fiscal position that continued normal servicing of external public debt obligations has become impossible.

Late last month, the IMF assessed Sri Lanka’s debt stock as unsustainable. Although the government has taken extraordinary steps in an effort to remain current on all of its external indebtedness, it is now clear that this is no longer a tenable policy and that a comprehensive restructuring of these obligations will be required,” MOF said.

Confronted by this hard reality, the government has approached the IMF for assistance in designing an economic recovery programme and for emergency financial assistance. The government is also seeking financial help from its other multilateral and bilateral partners in order to alleviate the suffering that this extraordinary situation has imposed on the citizens of Sri Lanka. The government intends to pursue its discussions with the IMF as expeditiously as possible with a view to formulating and presenting to the country’s creditors a comprehensive plan for restoring Sri Lanka’s external public debt to a fully sustainable position,” the finance ministry conceded.

NOF further said:

It shall therefore be the policy of the Sri Lankan government to suspend normal debt servicing of all Affected Debts (as defined), for an interim period pending an orderly and consensual restructuring of those obligations in a manner consistent with an economic adjustment programme supported by the IMF. The policy of the government as discussed in this memorandum shall apply to amounts of Affected Debts outstanding on April 12, 2022. New credit facilities, and any amounts disbursed under existing credit facilities, after that date are not subject to this policy and shall be serviced normally.”

The holders of all Affected Debts are being requested to capitalize any amounts of principal or interest falling due during this interim period, at an interest rate not higher than the normal contractual rate applicable to that credit, until a restructuring proposal can be presented to the creditors for their consideration.”

For record-keeping purposes (and for purposes of determining the outstanding principal amount of Affected Debts in the eventual restructuring), all principal and interest payments falling due after 5:00 pm (Sri Lanka time) on April 12, 2022 under Affected Debts shall be deemed to have been capitalized (that is, added to the outstanding principal of the relevant debt) and such amounts shall bear interest during the interim period at the normal contractual rate applicable to that credit. Promptly after the scheduled due date for each amount of principal or interest affected by this policy, the Ministry of Finance (Ministry) shall send to the creditor (or to the relevant trustee or fiscal agent) written confirmation of the new principal amount of the Affected Debt as shown on the Ministry records.”

The Ministry shall stand ready to execute a short-form instrument confirming the capitalization of maturing amounts as described above for creditors that may require such documentation for regulatory or accounting purposes.

The holder of an Affected Debt that wishes to receive the Sri Lankan Rupee equivalent of an amount falling due during the interim period in lieu of the capitalization of that amount as described above, should contact the Ministry as soon as practicable, but not later than one month from the day on which such amount fell due. The Ministry shall attempt to accommodate such requests provided that doing so (i) is consistent with the Central Bank’s monetary policy and (ii) is feasible under the relevant credit documentation.

Affected Debts

This policy shall apply to the following categories of external public debts of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (Republic) and its public sector borrowers:

(i) All outstanding series of bonds issued in the international capital markets;

(ii) All bilateral (government-to-government) credits, excluding swap lines between the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and a foreign central bank;

(iii) All foreign currency-denominated loan agreements or credit facilities with commercial banks or institutional lenders (including such institutions owned/controlled by foreign governments) for which the Republic or a public sector entity is the obligor or guarantor; and

(iv) All amounts payable by the Republic or a public sector entity following a call during the interim period upon a guarantee (or equivalent financial undertaking) issued in respect of the debt of a third party.

The Government is taking the emergency measures described in this memorandum only as a last resort in order to prevent a further deterioration of the Republic’s financial position and to ensure fair and equitable treatment of all creditors — commercial and bilateral — in the comprehensive debt restructuring that now seems inescapable.

The government has taken extraordinary steps in an effort to avoid a resort to these measures, but it is now apparent that any further delay risks inflicting permanent damage on Sri Lanka’s economy and causing potentially irreversible prejudice to the holders of the country’s external public debts.

The Government intends these emergency measures as temporary expedients designed to preserve the financial status quo until, with the assistance of the IMF and Sri Lanka’s other official sector partners, a full economic recovery programme can be prepared.

Courtesy Adaderana

Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe says elections or constitutional amendments at this point will not solve the ongoing crisis in Sri Lanka.

In a statement made today (April 13), the United National Party (UNP) leader stated that Sri Lanka is unable to make a USD 200 million loan repayment next week as the government decide to suspend all external debt repayments. This will place further pressure on the banking sector, he added.

This decision is an announcement by the government that the country is bankrupt, Wickremesinghe said further, noting that the responsibility is now on the new Finance Minister to discuss the prevailing situation with the International Monetary Fund during the discussions scheduled for next week in Washington DC.

By mid-May, the Indian Line of Credit will be over and by June, private businesses will be unable to operate due to a lack of foreign exchange, the former prime minister pointed out.

He said the incumbent government must take full responsibility for the bankruptcy of the country.

They must now engage all other political parties without any conditions. Last week in Parliament as the Opposition we apologized to the public for the failing. However, elections or constitutional amendments at this point will not solve the crisis in the country.”

After discussions are held with the Government and a plan is formulated conditions can be laid down. It is our responsibility to give everyone an equal hearing. In Lebanon the IMF agreement was reliant on it being tabled in Parliament for their approval. This must happen in Sri Lanka as well.”

The former prime minister, stating that Sri Lanka is in a very difficult situation, said the country is ending the year as a bankrupt country. He, however, expressed confidence in overcoming the crisis. It will take a national effort to do so. We will face a tough period, but we must face it. We can overcome this crisis and strengthen our economy. But this can only be done if we work together and to a plan.”

We will end this year as a bankrupt nation, but begin the New Year on a new journey. This can be done if everyone joins together. I wish you and your loved ones a happy Sinhala and Tamil New Year.”

Corporate Communications & Digital Marketing Specialist Lanka Property Web (Pvt) Ltd

According to the recently released House Price Index of LankaPropertyWeb that is based on asking prices for Q1 of 2022, the overall selling prices of apartments have soared by 36.08% from Q1 of 2021 while the overall residential land prices of Sri Lanka have reduced by 29.77%. 

Further analysis of the Colombo apartment prices showed that average prices of a 3 bedroom unit have increased from LKR 49.93 million in Q1 of 2021 to LKR 69.14 million in Q1 of 2022 accounting to a 27.28% increase in just over a year. Meanwhile, the average value of a 4 bedroom house in Colombo had reduced by 5.08% between the first quarters of 2021 and 2022.

A study on the foreign visitors to the LankaPropertyWeb website revealed that over the past 3 months, the foreign traffic increased by 20.6% especially after the government started floating the Rupee in the open market. Most visitors are from the United States (USA), UK, Australia, Canada and UAE and many have been on the lookout for houses for sale in Colombo followed by apartments for sale in Sri Lanka.

The search behavior patterns of these foreign visitors to LankaPropertyWeb also revealed that the highest number of searches for properties were in areas such as Colombo, Negombo, Jaffna, Kandy and Galle. This indicates similar local buyer patterns, where a high number of searches are for the suburbs away from the hustle and bustling city life.

With the pandemic and economic instabilities, the average USD value against LKR from 2020 January to 2022 March increased from LKR 180 level to LKR 295. This is a 64% rupee value depreciation in just 2 years. While this has negatively impacted the cost of living in Sri Lanka, for expats, this has opened an opportunity for investments in the country.

House Price Index 2021 vs Foreign Traffic

LankaPropertyWeb Research further analyzed the changes in property prices over the past year in relation to the foreign traffic hike. According to the House Price Index over the past 4 quarters of 2021, the overall selling prices of houses increased by 19.3%. The average 4 bedroom house that was priced at 45.17 million in Q1 was recorded as 53.9 million in Q4. Meanwhile, the value of apartments during the same period increased by 15.5% while land prices saw a reduction of 7.3%.

Given the increase in construction prices and US dollar value fluctuations, property prices are expected to increase further in the future in LKR. The Central Bank’s housing cost measure ‘Housing Index’, showed that house construction costs had risen by 909 points in Q2 of 2021 from Q1 of the same year. However, for expats, investing in property in USD during this time proves to be one of the most profitable investments.

Commenting on the current local market trends and buyer behavior, Bimasara Gamage, Managing Director of BIMSARA – Safetynet (Private) Limited said, Individual house constructions are on the decline with the escalated construction costs and now a majority tend to show a reluctance into building. But the demand for apartments is expected to grow and may even surpass the demand for houses, given the current situation.”

A study of the House Price Index further showed that the demand for houses and apartments in Q4 of 2021 had increased by 22.53% and 17.68% respectively. These were an all-time high compared to the previous records with the selling price of a 3 bedroom apartment unit in Colombo rising by 24.11%.

Most of the visitors are looking for apartments between Colombo 02 to 08 and the demanded price range is LKR 30-60Mn. Apart from the greater Colombo area Dehiwala, Mount Lavinia, Piliyandala and Battaramulla are highly regarded by the buyers who search for apartments between the price range of LKR 20-50Mn.

With developers offering monthly installment basis payment plans in partnership with commercial banks in Sri Lanka, buyers can now invest in property without having to pay in full at once.

For more details on the invest options available in the real estate market, contact us on 011-7167 167.

Courtesy Hiru News

Due to several reasons including the COVID-19 pandemic, global political imbalances and gradual erosion of fiscal position of the country, Sri Lanka is now facing social, economic and financial distress leading to disturbances to normal lives of our people.

Although the authorities are taking measures to address the current situation of the country including taking steps to actively manage its debt obligations, finding immediate financial assistance from friendly nations and progressing with the discussions with the International Monetary Fund for a comprehensive programme, the positive impacts of such measures will be enjoyed by our people only in the medium to long term.

However, urgent measures are needed to enhance the country’s foreign reserves position to meet day-to-day essential imports including food, fuel and medicines.

In this background, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) warmly welcomes the communications made by the Sri Lankans living abroad expressing their willingness to support the country at this crucial juncture by donating much needed foreign exchange to the Sri Lankan’s foreign reserves.

The well-wishers may make foreign exchange transfers to the following accounts maintained at respective banks by the CBSL, and the CBSL assures that such foreign currency transfers will be utilized only for importation of essential imports including food, fuel and medicines.

Courtesy Hiru News

The finance ministry in a press release said that the Sri Lankan government is suspending normal debt servicing of all affected external debts.  Sri Lanka is entering into a ‘pre-emptive negotiated default’ by giving notice ahead of time and asking lenders to come to the negotiating table, which is not a ‘hard default’ Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe said.

The Sri Lankan government announced it would default on its external debt (estimated at $51 billion ) pending a bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

For record-keeping purposes (and for purposes of determining the outstanding principal amount of Affected debts in the eventual restructuring), all principal and interest payments falling due after 5.00 p.m. local time today (12 April), under Affected Debts shall be deemed to have been capitalized (that is, added to the outstanding principal of the relevant debt) and such amounts shall bear interest during the interim period at the normal contractual rate applicable to that credit. Promptly after the scheduled due date for each amount of principal or interest affected by this policy, the Ministry of Finance shall send to the creditor (or to the relevant trustee or fiscal agent) written confirmation of the new principal amount of the Affected Debt as shown on the Ministry records.

The Finance Ministry said it would stand ready to execute a short-form instrument confirming the capitalization of maturing amounts for creditors that may require such documentation for regulatory or accounting purposes.

The holder of an Affected Debt that wishes to receive the Sri Lankan rupee equivalent of an amount falling due during the interim period in lieu of the capitalization of that amount, should contract the Finance Ministry as soon as practicable, but no later than one month from the day on which such amount fell due.

The Finance Ministry said it would attempt to accommodate such requests provided that doing so is consistent with the Central Bank’s monetary policy and is feasible under the relevant credit documentation.

The finance ministry said creditors, including foreign governments, were free to capitalise any interest payments due to them from Tuesday afternoon (12) or opt for payback in Sri Lankan rupees.

Sri Lanka will temporarily suspend foreign debt payments to avoid a hard default, the central bank governor said today(12), with its limited foreign reserves required for imports of essential items such as fuel.

“It has come to a point that making debt payments are challenging and impossible. The best action that can be taken is to restructure debt and avoid a hard default,” Governor P. Nandalal Weerasinghe told reporters.

Sri Lanka is due to start talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a loan programme next week, with the country suffering from prolonged power cuts alongside shortages of food and medicines.

Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves stood at a paltry $1.93 billion at the end of March, with foreign debt payments of around $4 billion due this year, including a $1 billion international sovereign bond maturing in July.

The governor said the action was being taken in good faith, emphasizing that the country of 22 million people had never defaulted on its debt payments.

“This will be on a temporary basis until we come to an agreement with creditors and with the support of a programme with the IMF,” said Governor P. Nandalal Weerasinghe, who took office last week.

“We need to focus on essential imports and not have to worry about servicing external debt,” he said.

“It has come to a point that making debt payments are challenging and impossible. The best action that can be taken is to restructure debt and avoid a hard default,” Central Bank Governor P. Nandalal Weerasinghe told reporters.

https://www.treasury.gov.lk/api/file/54a19fda-b219-4dd4-91a7-b3e74b9cd683

Courtesy Hiru News

Finance Ministry Secretary says that they will issue a new circular to line ministries to reduce expenditure. 

Budget deficit has risen sharply due to high govt spending and lower revenues, therefore revenue has to be increased significantly and various methods will be introduced to achieve the target.

Courtesy Adaderana

The World Bank has agreed to provide an emergency funding of USD 10 million to Sri Lanka for the purchase of essential pharmaceuticals by next week.

In an exclusive interview with Ada Derana, Finance Minister Ali Sabry, PC, said Sri Lanka has additionally sought an aid of USD 500 million from the World Bank, for the provision of chemical fertilizer and paddy seeds to the farmers with the aim of alleviating the issues they are facing.

Minister Sabry noted that the government is also looking to provide a monthly allowance for poverty-stricken people, and to find an intermediate solution for the liquefied petroleum gas issue until the economy of the country is put back on track.

Responding to a question brought up on the government’s plan of action to resolve the fuel and LP gas crises, the finance minister said, It is very challenging. We cannot deceive the people by saying there is no issue at all.”

The government, at present, is trying to extend the Indian credit line and looking into the possibility of debt restructuring, Sabry explained, adding that Sri Lanka does not have to repay its debts, if attempts for debt restructuring are successful.

In response to a question, Minister Sabry said the Sri Lankan delegation is expected to engage in discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 18-23 April, adding that many rounds of talks with the IMF, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and representatives of foreign countries are also expected in the future.

We will have to take multiple unprecedented radical decisions in the future, or else we’ll head towards a crash-landing.”

Many important decisions will have to be made to prevent long-term damage to the country’s economy and to protect some of the country’s key locations, and to protect the banking system, Minister Sabry added.

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

 The study on the economic history shows that there have been fluctuations in economic growth from time to time and people in the world experienced negative and positive economic outcomes resulting from fluctuations. The changes in economic prosperity either positively or negatively impact human lives. This reality could be seen in all countries and people in Sri Lanka narrowly think that the impact of economic downturns affects only Sri Lanka and political parties use these changes for gaining publicity and this situation became politics in Sri Lanka equalizing to rubbish than a valuable process of policymaking.  International news focuses on economic downturns and the negative results impact on poor people in many countries. I saw in Australian news irrespective of whether they are owned by the government or private firms they consider human difficulties    

The media attempts to show that an economic downturn is an isolated event in Sri Lanka, but the truth, it is associated with many countries and how people look at the event is disagreed from one country to another. Talking about economic difficulties is a reflection of the short sight of the news system in Sri Lanka and the motivation of certain political parties.  

The story expressed in data might be lies and we learnt that data is also a kind of lie or a system to use for misleading people. People in Sri Lanka must note that economic achievements have limits and whatever the data express the reflection of the human condition may be changed from time to time. Generally, more than 97% of people believe in a religion but the behaviour of people seems to be contrary to religious teaching.

The protest against the president of Sri Lanka consists of less than 20000 people and it is reflected as a valid public opinion.  If it wants to convert to a valid public opinion minimum of 10 million must be participated in protest rallies, the total participation of rallies was less than 20000 people and it is not equal to the total university’s student population.

The human condition in Sri Lanka is comparatively better than in many poor countries and the people of Sri Lanka have not improved in thinking power, knowledge and attitudes. They think they are educated but they have no analytical power to think logically and they are stuck with allegorical views and whoever says fabricated lie they believe it. For example, protest rallies against Gota consisted of less than 20000 people in Gall Face Green but it was not true and people believe that millions of people participated in protest rallies.

The economic difficulties of Sri Lanka were contributed by the economic condition of the world, fabrication of people, misuse of information and many reasons.  Economic managers were responsible for a downturn in economic undermanagement.

The following constitutional and policy action is required to properly manage the country.  International politics seems to be associated with the problem especially the problems between India and China have complicated problems and the superpowers may be behind the issue.

• The parliament in Sri Lanka including elected and appointed members should be limited to 90 or 100.
• The cabinet should be limited to 15 and they should not be provided other than monthly payments.  They should not be given a pension. Payment of ETF and EPF for the period of working is acceptable.
• It should stop appointing party members to director boards of government corporations.
• Government contracts of any form should not be offered to politicians or nominated people.
• If the country could ban political parties, it would be better and party politics must be eliminated in the country.
• Gota should be allowed for two terms and the role should be closely monitored.
• The Central Bank is the regulatory authority of the financial system of Sri Lanka and no market operations should be done by the central bank. New institutions must be established to operate the superannuation market and EPF, ETF, other funds should incorporate with the proposed institution. 5000 unemployed graduates should recruit to a new institution they should be given one year finance and accounting diploma with strong mathematics, statistics and econometrics. Unemployed graduates with a degree in whichever subject can work in a new institution.
• 50% of all public enterprises must be privatized and borrowing should be stopped by the government.
• The government must submit balanced budgets or excess budgets
• Free education and health service should be provided only to unaffordable people.
• All political parties based on religion and ethnic-based must be stopped.
• Religious clergy should not allow representing the parliament and other administrative institutions.
• If the government cannot pay a debt restructuring and reducing repayment are essential and those who left the country are not sending money, they should not be given any facilities including duty-free purchases.

ජයන්ත හේරත්

ලෝක ගම්මානෙට

ප්රබල මුදල් සංචිත

වර්ග කීපයක්

අවශ්යය.

ගම්මානේ

ශක්තිමත්ම මුදල් list එකේ

US dollar එක 10 වෙනියාය.

චීනයේ

යුඅං 6.37 ක්

ඩොලර් එකකට දෙන්නේය.

යුඅං

මුදල් සංචිත නායකත්වයට

හොඳ contender කෙනෙකි.

ඉන්දියන් රූපී ද ශක්තිමත්ය.

මුදල් සංචිත නායකත්වයට

හොඳ contender කෙනෙකි.

ලෝක ගම්මානේ

ශක්තිමත්ම මුදල KWD Kuwait Dinar ය.

Dollar 3.28 ක් KWD එකය.

අපේ

සතේ

මක බෑ වී  ගිය එක

ලොකු දෙයකි.

සතේ

විතරක් තිබුනා නම්

හාල් කිලෝ එකක් ගැනීමට

සත

ලොරියක දමා ගෙන

යන්න වෙන්නේය.

දැන්

අපේ රුපියල් 330 ක්

US dollar  එකය.

ජපානය

71 දී 

Yen 350ක්

US dollar 1 ට දුන්නේය.

අපි

නිෂ්පාදනය නොකරන නිසා

රුපියල් 600 ක්

උනත් ප්‍රශ්නයක් නැත.

රුපියල් 350ක

වටිනාකමක් නියම කල

නව ලංකා-ඩොලර

මුදල් ඒකකයක්

හදන්නට ඕන නම් පුළුවන.

අංක විජ්ජාවකින්

උද්ධමන සංඛ්යා

එහා මෙහා

අඩු වැඩි කල හැක.

මිල අධික භාණ්ඩ

ගැනීම වැළකී සිටීමෙන්,

පරිභාවිත කරන ප්‍රමානය අඩු කිරීමෙන්

උද්ධමනය අඩු කර ගත හැක.

ලෝක ගම්මානේ

ගං-මුලෑදෑනින්

තනි අයිතිය

සහ

පාලනය ලබා ගන ඇත.

ක්‍රීඩාව monopoly ය.

යුඅං ට බයය,

සෞදි රියාද් වලටත් බයය.

Euro ටත් බයය,

රූබලයට බයය,

ඉන්දියන් රුපී ටත් බයය.

සවුදිය එක්සත් රාජධානිය සමග සිටි කාලයේ

පවුම බලවත්ය

සවුදිය එක්සත් රාජධානිය අත හැර

එක්සත් ජනපදය සමග

සිටි කාලයේ පටන්

US Dollar බලවත්ය.

සවුදිය චීන යුඅං සමග එක්  උනොත්

යුඅං බලවත් ය.

සවුදිය + චීන යුඅං + රූබල් එකතු උනොත්

අලුත් බලවතුන්ය.

Monopoly බකල්ය.

ඒ නිසා

උන්

මුන් ටික

ඉහළ සිට

පහලට 

පාලනය වන

නූල් සූත්තර

මගින්

හෝ

ඇතුළත ඇති

අතකින් චලනය කරයි

කුලප්පු කරයි.

ගෝලීයකරණ

යාන්ත්‍රනය

එහෙමය.

යුක්රේන-රුසියා

අවුලෙන්

මිලියන් 4  පමණ

මිනිස්සුන්

දැනට

රට හැර ගොස් ඇත.

යුද්ධය

අවුලවන්නේ

වටේ සිටින උන්ය.

cheer leaders ලය.

අවතැන් වූවන් ගෙන්

මේ මොහොතේ

ඇමරිකාව

භාර ගන්නේ ලක්ෂයකි.

මේ ගාන මදිය.

අඩුම තරමින්

මිලියන් 1 වත් ගත යුතුය.

අපට

අවශ්ය new blood ය.

කමලා

ඇමෙරිකාවේ ඩෙපියුටි ලොක්කිය

රිෂි

එංගලන්තයේ Chancellor of the Exchequer

බජට් ලොක්කාය.

සජීඩ්

එංගලන්තේ  හෙල්ත් ලොක්කාය.

එංගලන්තේ  විදේශ කටයුතු ප්රීතිට බාරය.

අපේ උන්ට

කෙල උනේ

JVP-NPP කාරයෝ 

පුහුණු ශ්‍රමිකයින්

නිපදවීමට අකුල් හෙලූ නිසාය.

පුහුණු ශ්‍රමිකයින්

හරහා

dollar සංචිත

නිපදවීමට අකුල් හෙලූ නිසාය.

පුහුණු ශ්‍රමිකයින්

හරහා

විදෙස් සම්පත්

නිපදවීමට අකුල් හෙලූ නිසාය.

පුහුණු ශ්‍රමිකයින්

නිපදවීම හරහා

විදේශ වල

පාලන තන්ත්‍රයන්ට  

ඇතුළු වීමේ

මග අහුරා අකුල් හෙලූ නිසාය.

Puppeteers ලාගෙන් 

නැටවෙන අපි 

රූකඩය.  

මුදල්

dollar සංචිත

වැඩි කරන්නට නම් 

හැමදාම

බණ්ඩක්ක

වට්ටක්ක

තේ රබර් පොල්

වවා මදිය.

පුහුණු ශ්‍රමිකයින්

නිපදවීමේ වේගය වේගවත් කල යුතුය.

අලුතින්

නිෂ්පාදන

කල යුතුය.

අලුත්

යුධ අවි

නිෂ්පාදන කල යුතුය.

විකිණිය යුතුය.

වටේට 

ගිනි අවුළුවා

යුද අවි ආයුද

විකිණිය යුතුය.

Shenali Waduge

Protestors who sincerely wish to end corruption must divert their demands to a key area that goes unnoticed.

How many Secretaries/Envoys & Senior Public Servants have betrayed the nation being spineless party to preparing treacherous agreements. The excuse that they are only doing their job CANNOT be accepted. Secretaries before 1978 resigned & refused to do anything outside of their mandate.

The current secretaries are in reality more corrupt than the politicians & they escape people’s radar as a result their corruptions go unnoticed.

Now that we are trying to clean up the system, while the current attacks are against ALL POLITICIANS the next attack should be on Secretaries (former and present) Envoys (former & present) Senior Public Servants (past & present) who were party to treachery.

There is little point in cleaning up the stables of corrupt politicians if the corrupt public officials continue the dirty work with the next government.

DEMAND LEGAL ACTIONS AGAINST THEM FOR THESE TREACHERIES & LAWYERS MUST COME FORWARD TO TAKE THESE CASES

Sarath Wijesinghe President’s Counsel and former Ambassador to UAE and Israel. A former Chairman of Consumer Affairs authority. President Ambassador’s Forum

World Consumer Day

World Consumer Day is remembered on 15^th March every year worldwide by governments and organizations, in order to raise global awareness about the consumer needs and their rights. They have a right to know of the information on price quality and standard of the consumer items and services. The current world consumer day is celebrated since 1983 initiated by the inspiring speech by the President John Kennedy to the US congress on March 15^th 1962 spoken on safety, right to be informed, choose, and many rights today recognized by the United National  nations and other institutions  worldwide. Every year a topic is chosen to discuss and give publicity to the chosen topic to educate and make the voice heard of the citizen to the rest of the world on the consumer and the connected information as an eye opener of the governance.. Annual events worldwide has a ripple effect on the consumerism activism worldwide reaffirming the rights available to the consumer awaiting for the assistance of the consumer organizations and the active and alert consumers in dealing with the unfair and errant traders, and industrialists exploiting the consumer.  Some of the topics chosen for the world Consumer Day are timely useful and current to the entire world. The names are chosen carefully depending on the needs of the society at the time of the given year.  2013 it was Consumer Justice, 2014 Fix the Phones Right,2015 Healthy Diet ,2016 Antibiotics in the Menu 2017 building a Digital World, 2018 Trusted Smart Products,2019 Sustainable Consumer and 2020 Tackling Plastic Pollution that has made the world known of the needs and awareness programs connected to the event worldwide. Theme chosen this year is most relevant to the entire world and the member nations with living beings and the earth the existence is threatened due to pollution which has aggravated due to plastic pollution which is not a degrading materials sometimes do not decay over millions of years and the threat is ever increasing due to indiscipline of the human beings damaging the environment the health of the human and animal kingdom including the environment you live in.

Theme of this Year – Tackling Plastic Pollution

The annual celebrations on the theme are followed by various projects worldwide led by the World Consumer Federation with branches all over the word.  This year the topic chosen is ‘’Tackling Plastic Pollution’’ which is a timely and a current topic which is a theme that has become to the threat to the future of the earth and animal kingdom including the human being threatened by the environmental destructions, pollution, deforestation and the threat of extensions and imbalance of water levels threatening large scale environmental catastrophes,  and now  over usage and manufacture of plastic is excessive and use cannot be controlled due to free availability a  cheaper in  price and convenience in day to day life and industries. The event is remembered in over 250 outlets worldwide including Sri Lanka when the Consumer Affairs Authority and Central Environment authority Information Department OPA BASL and Ambassadors’ Forum are expected to be actively involved. Ambassador’s Forum based in Sri Lanka and UK is organized  a Webinar  with the participation of the Ministry of Information and CAA with expert Panel including Professor ‘Prathiba Mahanamahewa’, Sarath Wijesinghe Presidents’ Counsel and a former Chair CAA, CAA officials, Dr Anil Jayasinghe the Secretary Ministry of Environment ,‘Dilantha’ an activist  and many other activists worldwide. The links could be obtained from the five sites hosted by the Ambassadors’ Forum and Mrs Gaya Siriwardens the administrative Secretary of Ambassador’s forum will liaises with the public on ‘0094771327909’ , dilkiv@gmail.com.

Effects of Plastic Pollution

80% of marine debris is plastics and 5.25 Trillian micro plastics and in the ocean ever increasing rapidly. Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles in the earth environment that adversely effects human wildlife and habitat that  effects the waterways environment and ocean It is estimated 8.8 million tons of plastics waste enters the ocean every year it is estimated that in 2050 there could be more plastics than  first in the ocean by weight. As in 2019 368 million tons of plastics is poured each year. Impact of Plastic on our health and environment is huge and disastrous in the destruction of earth and the lives of the living being. The few basic information indicates the imminent and future dangers to the earth and the living beings on the excessive and uncontrolled use of plastics by the human. As of 2019 368 million tons of plastics is poured to the can and earth every year and 12 million tons of plastic are poured to the ocean alone every year, ad 80% of marine debris is plastic, and there are 5.2 Trillian micro piece units are hovering in the environment floating in weighing up to 26, 90000 tones killing the lives of 100,000mamals, and turtles annually. The vast damages to the environment and in return to the world are ever increasing with no or limited controls due to the developments taking place at an unprecedented rate worldwide. Pollution and destruction is caused due to action and inaction of the human behaviour selfish conduct and lifestyle, which is controlled by some disciplined societies. In many western countries the waste disposal is streamlined and controlled with different garbage containers at residencies and public places. World suffers and the danger is in your doorstep harming all members of the family and the pets. Even Elephants, fish and many in the living kingdom are victims with harrowing images and stories published on media often with most disturbing images. Water in major and other water streams and public places are polluted due to bad habits of the undisciplined citizen. Main rivers from ‘Kelani’ river is polluted due to waste by councils, industries, and private households. The catalogue is endless with ever increasing pollutions in all respects which is a health hazard and ugly when we are about on achieving booming tourism after the drawback on ‘Covid Pandemic’ given us the highest blow to our economy.

Origin of World Consumer Day

World consumer day is an annual event on 15^th March every year for celebrations, activism, and solidity among the consumer and consumer organizations worldwide. Consumerism has a historical significance until WCD was originated in 1983, and subsequently the consumer rights were elevated to a position of international recognition and legitimate by adopting guidelines by the United Nations. John F Kennedy said in 15/2/1962 that consumer by definition includes the largest economic groups affecting and effected by almost every public and private economic decisions yet they are the very important group whose views are often not heard. Today things have changed as in the west where the consumer is organized and powerful. WCD is one of those events of showing strength and powered of the consumer. Seminars shows and workshops and shows of activism give a sense of power and strength to the consumer. Junk food generation which has adverse effect of the health of the human being especially children have been a popular important topic of the day. Some topics chosen before of unethical drug promotion, GM food, Consumer and water, control of food chain, selection of the same topic junk food consecutively for two years indicates the importance of the topic. Twenty million children around the world are already overweight. Most children are targeted to multinational organizations as victims. As a result there is a strong campaign to urge world to introduce an international code on marketing unhealthy food to children Consumer rights day depends on   initiatives  planned functions  and projects carried by  consumer organizations on every country, This takes the shape of a special campaigns press conferences exhibitions workshops  and similar events. Unfortunately Sri Lanka there is less activism leaving the helpless consumer alone in the hands of the errant trader in industrialist continues to exploit freely despite inactive regulatory led by the Consumer Affairs Authority which is established by the act no 9 of 2003 with highest expectations to protect the consumer, regulate trade, from consumer organizations and shoe the strength of  the consumer to the governance and the trader, and compel the regulator to regulate the trade and get the government machinery to provide e the consumer quality food and consumer items  of quality at a reasonable price.

Consumer and Consumer Day in Sri Lanka

Consumer is defined simply in the dictionary as one who consumes or buy or uses goods or services when  act no 9 of 2003 gives a more detailed definitions as an actual or potential user of any goods or services made available for a consideration by any trader or manufacturer. It can be considered that almost every citizen is a consumer and the main regulator the CAA regulates the price and the quality of consumer items with other regulators namely the Public Health inspectors, Local Authorities, and statuary bodies meant to regulate trade when the concept of price control is shifted to regulation by abolition of acts 1/79 consumer Protection Act, 1/87 Trading Commission Act and Control of Prices Act. Pollution is a dangerous health hazard and Plastic pollution is a more dangerous and long term hazard that is to be tackled by the state, private sector and individuals. It is timely and opportune for the consumer International to choose the theme tackling plastic pollution because it affects the health of the living beings and standards of all consumer items consumed by the consumer. Consumer day is celebrated but the main regulator CAA other interested group academics and concerned citizen individually as a part of the world awareness projects which has a ripple effects of the member countries and responsible governments. Unfortunately the average Sri Lankan consumer (citizen) appear to be  still irresponsible conducting the waste disposal habits that increases the sangers to the environment on garbage collections hap- hazily  and irregularly. In UK, Netherlands and many western countries the citizen is disciplined to dump waste in separate garbage containers giving priority to environment and the health of the citizen long and short term.

Way Forward for a Clean and Healthy Environment to benefit the Citizen and the World

The state and UN has resolved to look after the interest of the consumer in need of help and also the ruling governance is bound to regularize trade business and economy of the country keeping the balance among the trader regulator industrialist and the consumer. Consumer is vulnerable and needs assistance and help of the governance and the non-governmental organizations worldwide. UN has resolved 29/248 on 16/4/85 and 70/186 dated 22/12/2015 UNCGOD guidelines for access to essential goods, to vulnerable groups of consumers, prevent giving hazardous consumer items, access to information, consumer education and on dispute resolutions. All kinds of environmental disasters are an imminent threat to the world over including Sri Lanka the most careless victim of undisciplined groups responsible for deforestation, sand mining, and various kinds of destructions taking place uncontrolled plastic pollution being the main course with little or no control. The main statutory bodies to check destructions are CAA consumer Affairs Authority a main regulator on consumerism The Central Environmental Authority the state has allocates millions for environment protection, department of forestry, wildlife, trade, environment, Ministries of defence and many others including local authorise are expected to be partners in protecting environment including large scale pollutions appear to be dormant and inactive. Non-Governmental organisations and civil society has a mail role to play in this war against pollution and destruction and meet the threat of plastic pollution in order to tackle it against the tide. There should be a concerted effect by all the parties concerned to work together to minimize pollution in all kinds such as marine, water, earth, and environment general. Sri Lanka is vulnerable as it is an Island exposed to sea and the disasters that has affected by polluting the sea due to disasters in the sea. Sri Lanka is  a part of the world family exposed and most vulnerable unless precautionary matters are taken in all respects with a disciplined society with international standers of precautionary matters successfully adopted by the many states in the west. It is estimated that the sea will have more debris than fish if precautions are made and many images are emerging the fish full of plastic materials inside and animals including elephants with full of plastics in the digestive system which are not perishable an degradable. Therefore it is high time the member states take the threat seriously and resolve on the word consumer day to save the earth to save our generation to come.

Pollution (Plastic) in Sri Lanka / alternate solutions for plastic menace

Pollution in Sri Lanka is rampant and rapidly increasing in all sectors. Deforestation is taking place in large scale with sand mining destroying the environment and damaging the river banks and lands at a repaid phase. In Sri Lanka pollution is mostly manmade due to various reasons as overfishing, logging forest degrading mangroves damaging coral reliefs’ soil erosions due to digging and sand mining air pollution water pollution and mismanagement of waste disposal and common factors of causing environmental destructions by the human. Air pollution is due to over unplanned industrialization and waste disposal is unplanned and primitive. Rivers are polluted due to releasing industrial and human waste in large scale by individuals companies and local authorities. Waste is collected with only 24% household has waste disposal mechanism. In a country of21.4 million the generation of waste is 7000 metric tons with 800 waste daily by Colombo Municipality which are not properly regulated with waste mountains and polluted rivers creating mountains of waste all over with ‘’Meethotamulla’’ in mind. 50% of plastic products are of single use and will not degrade at times over millions of years. In other countries the Ministry of Environment is the most active and in the front seat, but in Sri Lanka it is hardly heard of. Sri Lanka produces 1.59 ‘MMt’ a year which is poorly or not managed as in the west top priority is given to scientific and orderly waste disposal with the cooperation of the community and the local bodies. Sri Lanka has over 500 companies producing plastic products with 1600000 metric tons imported per year which is not properly regulated ( may be not at all) giving free hand to the industries citizens to use it freely with no control or discipline. 800,000metric tons of plastic is imported and 1600000 metric tons of plastic is used locally on industries released to the environment at same stage in some way. Oil spills are causing tremendous damages and it is good news that UN is planning a new Treaty on Plastics which is on the way covering many areas.350 tons of oil was released to the sea with wanton damages to the sea environment and the living creators of all kinds. The ship wreck has released 500000 metric tons of plastic products will be in the sea for millions of years damaging the environment and the living beings in the sea. 20^th may 2021 the X- Press Perl rejected by two countries arrived our sea causing the wanted damages to us for generations to come releasing 348 tons of oil, 25 tons of Arsenic, and 75 billion pellets to our clear best sea converting it to be the worst pouted sea in the ocean – a tragedy indeed.  What are the alternative resolutions and steps to be taken to protect our environment and the lives of living beings? We must improve our waste disposal methods to international standards by maintaining discipline among ourselves collectively and individually. We must have innovators and innovative methods to find alternatives for plastic which we have with us traditionally based on our traditional handicrafts made from local degrading   materials. It is affordable beautiful and environmental friendly. Educating on good habits from schools and community with the assistance of the media is vital for the campaign to save our life and environment. A through study and strict implementation a legal system is paramount to compel the citizen to be disciplined coupled with education. Media has a vital role to play in this by educating and give correct picture to the citizen faced with imminent danger or perish together if no proper steps are taken immediately. Plastic pollution continues every second worldwide and it is the duty of the world citizen to act individually and together to stop the menace for the existence of the earth and the living beings. The author could be contacted on sarath28dw@gmail.com and whats app 00947777880166 active in UK

Prof. Hudson McLean

Weligama Sri Lanka: New flats start from £114k

Weligama Sri Lanka: New flats start from £114k Myra Butterworth Southbeach Weligama is a new development of 106 flats in Sri Lanka, with prices ranging from £114k for a one-bed…

When I saw this Advertorial, I could not believe if this is true!

Soon after Covid-19, followed by Ukrainian Russian conflict balancing towards a Nuclear conflict, with Sri Lanka in political upheaval,  riots in the news, and Holiday Homes investment at a mouth-watering price.

Anyone who could afford close to a million dollars has many other choices.

Just two years ago, Sri Lanka suffered a bloody Easter massacre killing many in Catholic Churches and luxury hotels.  How safe can a private holiday home be away from security?

Mind boggles!

Express Your Opinion – Read What Others Say!
The Independent Interactive Voice of Sri Lanka on the Internet.

Please visit -: http://www.lankaweb.com/

Chula Rajapakse MNZM Wellington, New Zealand

Dear Editor ,

The very laudable efforts of many organizations and individuals world wide to raise funds to help SrI Lanka with obtaining the essential wares that have become unavailable to Sri Lankans through the current economic debacle, is much appreciated.

However The intervention that is likely to have the quickest result to gain the much wanted Dollars , with dignity would be the return of tourist that was happening in droves even In March , that saw over 100,000 thousand .

Since 3/4/22 these have rapidly dried up. 

This is the unfortunate negative outcome of the demonstrations seen in SL and world over expressing the justifiable abomination against its rulers that presided and does still preside over this most recent slide in Lanka’s economy.

This loss going by 2018 figures of $4 billion in the year is worth $40 million a day.

Pointing out this enormous negative consequence to these well intentioned demonstrators on the roads and side walks of Sri Lanka and internationally is the obligation of all who want the tourist Dollar 

back to SL  to supply the much needed gas, oil, electricity and food to it’s much deprived citizens. 

This will outdo by far what could be raised by any fund raiser or donation any organisation could make.

I call upon the leadership  and participants of these laudable fund raising efforts to not shirk this obligation , by not making any effort to at least begin raising awareness among the demonstrators of this enormous negative consequence of their well intentioned actions.

With much compassion and Metta

Chula Rajapakse MNZM

Wellington, New Zealand

KAMALIKA PIERIS

President J.R.Jayewardene (1978 – 1989) had as his close advisors, two leaders of the Tamil Separatist Movement, A.J.Wilson and Neelan Thiruchelvam. Professor A.J. Wilson served as a constitutional advisor to J.R. from 1978-83.  And Neelan Thiruchelvam was associated with Wilson in discussions with JR.

JR would undoubtedly have come under their influence. We had a carefully planned operation, to arrest Tamil terrorists, said Army Commandeer Cyril Ranatunga. The operations were conducted on a low key with no publicity; JR was many times on phone to inquire about the release of the arrested Tamils. Obviously the TULF was standing beside him.

JR helped to further entrench the Tamil ethnic group. JR ignored the Sirima- Shastri Pact and   gave citizenship to the 93,000 estate Tamils still in Sri Lanka at the time.  To do this, the government revised the Citizenship Act,   to include the Grant of Citizenship to Stateless Persons of Indian Origin.

JR initiated the 16th amendment of 1988 which made Tamil the language of administration and legislation across the island .The right to speak in Tamil was now extended to whole country. The 7^th amendment of 1983 created the Kilinochchi district.

  JR had met Prabhakaran in secret in Bangalore, around 1987. Prabha was living there, reported Shantha Kottegoda. But according to Ranatunga, the JR government did not consider the LTTE threat a serious one. During the JVP insurgency, Cyril had reported directly to Sirimavo, In the JR government, there was no one to whom Ranatunga could report directly.

When I informed the authorities, that the first batch of LTTE trainees were going to India, they ignored it, said Ranatunga. He had informed Secretary, Defence that he had reliable information that Tamil separatist youth were leaving for various unknown destinations in India via Katunayake for military training. Defence Secretary Colonel C.A Dharmapala was indifferent.  He had said only few were going and they would not make any difference to the LTTE fighting capacity.

Commander Ranatunga had displayed photos of 35 Tamil terrorists all over the island, caught 27 and sent them to Colombo. This was in Operation Round up, in the mid- 1980s probably.   They were wanted for bank robberies, highway robberies and murder. They were freed by DefEnece Secretary and returned to Jaffna, without even informing Ranatunga.

Colonel C.A Dharmapala was Defence Secretary from 1977 to 1983. He was also Security Adviser to JR. The appointment of Col Dharmapala was one of the worst decisions taken by JR, said Ranatunga. There was no point in complaining against him to JR either. They were old friends.

JR heads the list of Presidents who helped to advance the cause of Eelam by obstructing the Eelam war and preventing a military victory. He stopped the Vadamarachchi operation which would have helped to crush the LTTE in 1987. Can JR be considered a traitor after Vadamarachchi, asked Izzeth Hussain.

 President Jayawardene started by agreeing to eliminate the LTTE. He supported the Vadamarachchi operation of 1987, which would have crushed the LTTE and stopped any further war. LTTE were surrounded and were about to be defeated.

In 1987, the Sri Lanka Army under the command of Major General Denzil Kobbekaduwa and Brigadier Vijaya Wimalaratne had broken out of their defensive positions in the general area  of Vadamarachchi and were steadily advancing towards Jaffna town which was held by the LTTE. LTTE were surrounded and were about to be defeated. They contacted India and asked to be saved. India rose to the occasion.

The Government of India had  told our President J.R. Jayawardene to cease this operation or face dire consequences. When Sri Lanka turned back Indian boats carrying food, India did a food drop by air.

Before the Sri Lanka army could advance to the next stage of the  Vadamarachchi campaign, the operation was stopped on the orders of J.R. who said that he could not fight India. General Ranatunga had two hours to stop the war. He had no option other than to order the ceasing of this advance.  When the soldiers were informed  I saw the disappointment on their faces.’

The Indian Air Force transport aircraft escorted by four Mirage 2000  fighter aircraft  were   para dropping supplies to the Jaffna area, recalled Ranatunga. .Air Force Commander asked me to  inform Palaly that our aircraft, which in fact were only helicopters, were not to get airborne, recalled Ranatunga.

I requested permission to get a helicopter airborne to video this gross infringement of our air space. He very curtly told me nothing is to get airborne”. He said that the four  Mirage 2000 fighter bombers had the capability of flattening almost half of Colombo, said Ranatunga.   I went up to the control tower and watched the ‘parippu drop’. I recall J.N. Dixit, who was the then Indian High Commissioner, telling me, “India will never permit Jaffna to be taken over.”  

JR Jayewardene  also carried out another historic maneuver. He  merged the Northern and Eastern  provinces. The two provinces were merged in 1988 under Emergency Regulations. This was a  significant step towards the creation of Eelam. Varatharaja Perumal then declared an UDI for the merged North-east.

JR had exceeded his powers in making this merger. He had  assumed legislative powers which parliament alone possessed.  This merger was declared ‘unconstitutional, illegal, and invalid’ .

A five-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Sarath Silva held that President Jayewardene could not invoke Emergency Regulations to effect the merger. According to the constitution, only Parliament could merge provinces, and not the President, Court said. The merger was to be ratified in a referendum, but this was not held. Successive governments had been postponing the referendum.  The two provinces were de-merged in 2006.

Ven. Kitalagama Seelalankara ,better known as Dimbulagala Hamuduruwo and Ven. Ellawala Medhananda decided that the best way to prevent  LTTE coming into the East was to settle Sinhalese in the Maduru Oya area. Dimbulagala Hamuduruwo led a movement to settle some    40,000 landless Sinahla peasants  in Maduru oya.

  ‘We settled the excess population from Hingurakgoda  and Minneriya, numbering 40,000 in Toppigala, Kunchanamalai,  Nelugala,  Atubandigala,  Vesibandigala and  Piyangala.     We informed President  JR  Jayewardene that we were going to settle Sinhalese there. JR was against this, but we  continued  with the project, recalled Medhananda .

The proposed settlement of Sinhalese on Maduru oya right bank  came under opposition from  Tamil separatists and international donors.  JR had sent Ranil Wickremasinghe  for a first hand report on ‘what the Dimbulagala priest is doing out there.’

Under their growing pressure JR ordered the forcible removal of all settlers. The settlements were dismantled and the Sinhalese displaced. Subsequently Maduru oya and 20 other small projects were closed down, reported Asoka Bandarage.

 The settlers were assaulted and chased away, on JR’s orders, by Paul Perera, said Medhananda    UNP Minister Paul Perera was  the invisible leader of the Gampaha underworld, observed Dharman Wickremaratne. The houses of the settlers were set on fire. The settlers  took refuges in Dimbulagala pasala. They were later sent to Dollar and Kent farms  where they were  killed, said  Medhananda. ( Continued)

Dr Sudath Gunasekara. Mahanuwara

And, instead, put all the Sri Lankan politicians, who have robbed and destroyed the motherland since 1977 in these cages, if you want to rediscover and restore, that was Sri Lanka, once hailed as the Pearl of the Indian Ocean and the Granary of the East”.  Because such drastic punishment to corrupt and rogue politicians will teach a good lesson for them and those who come to politics hereafter will never rob public money in future or do anything detrimental to the Motherland or the people so that it will also create world history, another first to Sri Lanka.

Such action will also ease congestion in jails in the country and provide a human zoo for exhibition of a unique  kind of animals for the citizens as well as tourists.

Talking about the animals in the Zoos they should never be put in a zoo for public exhibition or any other purpose, for the following reasons

1 It is inhuman for us to keep these animals imprisoned for life like this for they also have a right to live free in their natural habitat as much as humans have as our ancient Kings had said.

2 Sri Lanka never had animal zoos in its entire history other than a bird reared at homes as a pet (Oh king animals in the jungle also have the right to roam freely in their natural habitat as humans do Mahinda Mahaathera to King Devaanam piyatissa who was on a hunting spree 307. BC)

3 This is a sinful practice blindly copied from the European Colonial invaders.  

(I remember how SWRD released his fathers private zoo kept to entertain his Colonial friends)

4 As there is no need to have imprisoned animals for people to see as people anywhere in the world can view them at home freely moving around in their natural habitats thanks to modern technology.

5 In view of the colossal expenditure annually incurred to maintain them particularly at a time like the present, when every cent saved is crucial for our survival in this country and where the state has no money even to provide the basic needs of the people like food, water, medicine, cooking gas, electricity, fuel needed for transport and industry and where the whole country has gone bankrupt due to theft, waste and extravagant expenditure by the government[S1] 

(The total expenditure incurred by the Government consolidated fund at the end of 2019 was Rs. 457.891 million as capital expenditures and Rs. 457.815 million as recurrent Expenditures (Total 915,706 M) How on earth we can justify spending such a colossal sum of money annually to keep an innocent set of animals imprisoned for life when its citizens are starving

6 What is more is after all we inherit a rich culture for over 2500 years as  a Buddhist country where all sentient beings are treated as our equal, when it comes to freedom and right for life and compassion and love for all sentient beings is cardinal.

The article referred to above.

Shut down the Dehiwala Zoo for helpless animals imprisoned for life denying h teir freedom to life and Bir Senaka Weeraratna

It is time that right thinking people take a strong stand against the establishmentand maintenance of Zoos.

In today’s world with so many modern gadgetry available such as computers, videos, internet, broadband, Youtube, and the like, there is no justification for keeping animals incarcerated in cages and small enclosures for the rest of their lives in Zoos maintained purely for the benefit and pleasure of human beings.

Animals are made to serve a life sentence in miserable conditions in zoos without having committed a single crime. Had any human being been placed in that situation he or she would become a cause célèbre around the world. We price the freedom of fellow humans and disregard the claims for freedom of other sentient beings.

Animals are sentient beings and like humans they too would like to have their freedom to roam in the fields, jungles etc. without restrictions. Zoos deny them this freedom.

It is man’s inhumanity and insensitivity towards other living beings that makes some people perpetrate abusive conduct and the rest of us (with exceptions) to look the other side without sticking their neck out to help save the life of another living being e.g. animal.

Today anyone can watch any animal anywhere in the world including some even at the bottom of the sea and their natural behavior with the latest technology. With the availability of such modern technology it is morally indefensible to incarcerate animals for life in a zoo.

What joy can anyone get by seeing the sad sullen faces of caged animals staring into empty space. They live in small enclosures. They are all mental wrecks. Many of these animals suffer trauma and are pathologically mentally unsound being deprived of their freedom and scope for natural behavior.

What moral lessons can visitors especially children learn from seeing animals in captivity pleading in silence for someone to rescue them. This scenario is human cruelty at one of its worst. Compassion to animals is one of the great lessons of humanity. But this is hardly visible inside a Zoo.

Let us join hands and put an end to animal prisons for good. We must try to make Sri Lanka a better place not only for humans but animals as well. They are also morally entitled to a better existence like us. Let us make it happen.

Wrongful imprisonment of humans is a crime under the Penal Code. It is unequivocally a manifestation of an injustice. Likewise the imprisonment of animals in cages in Zoos is equally wrong. A travesty of Justice. 

The Rule of Law must extend also to the protection of animals.

The Human Rights Discourse is being viewed cynically not only because the pedlars of HR are people with soiled hands dishing out HR with self serving agendas but because of their lack of empathy for the cause of animals. When it comes to pain and suffering, both humans and animals are in the same boat.

Let us work together to phase out Zoos and end Zoo culture in Sri Lanka. Animals do not exist for human abuse or human entertainment. They are entitled to our respect as we are all united, from a Buddhistic point of view, of being fellow travellers in the Sansaric journey.

Under these circumstances, we urge the Govt. of Sri Lanka, to consider taking the following steps, without delay:

1) Relocate all Zoo animals to sanctuaries or open parks in Rideegama and Pinnawela, thereby giving them greater freedom of movement,

2) Allow the uncaged free roaming birds that visit the Dehiwala Zoo regularly to fly in and fly out as in the past, without hinderance,

3) Convert the Dehiwala Zoo to an urban jungle by transplanting indigenous plants that will grow into large shady trees. This will add to making the former Zoo area into an ‘ urban lung ‘ thereby enabling the dense population of Colombo and adjacent outstation areas to breath in the Oxygen produced by these Trees and in turn for the Trees to absorb the Carbon di Oxide (CO2) exhaled by humans and other living beings.

4) Establish a modern centre for the study of Plants (Botany) and Pharmacology, among others, at the Dehiwala Zoo once it is no more a Zoo,

5) Discard the ill informed decision to establish another similar type of Zoo in Kahapola, Piliyandala. Instead follow the example of Buddhist Bhutan which have closed down all Zoos except one or two kept open for the specific purpose of preserving and looking after the welfare of endangered animals that have their roots in Bhutan.

6) Refrain from exchanging local born animals specific to Sri Lanka with foreign countries. Animals born in Sri Lanka have a right to exist in this country until the end of their natural life. They should not be forcefully seized and exchanged as gifts or chattels with foreign zoos, particularly those that are located in temperate climates. Harsh cold climates are totally unsuited for animals such as Elephants that require a tropical climate for healthy living. Place the interest of the animal as paramount in any deals with foreign zoos.

7) Introduce Animal Protection as a subject in schools from the pre – school stage. The younger generation has to be taught their responsibility and historic obligation to re – establish an Animal Friendly Culture in Sri Lanka.

We must reconnect ourselves with our pre – colonial heritage which conceded greater respect for animals than the post – colonial generations.

There is no record of Zoos being established to keep caged animals as a matter of public policy by our former Kings except in one or two instances. This is a unique historical achievement and cause for pride for Sri Lanka even in the international arena.

It is time that Sri Lanka reverts back to the ancient practice of giving freedom to animals respecting their sentience and caring for them rather than imprisoning them in Zoos, a practice which we have uncritically acquired from our former colonial masters and now find ourselves incapable of decolonizing our minds and lifestyles as a prelude to giving freedom to innocent animals imprisoned in Concentration Camps deceptively called Zoos.

Justice for Animals and Nature

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උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

කොළඹ ජනාධිපති කාර්යාලය ඉදිරියේ විරෝධතාවේ යෙදෙන පිරිස සදහා බුරියානි බෙදා දීමක් සිදු කර තිබේ.

ලොරි රථයකින් පැමිණ බුරියානි බෙදා දෙන ආකාරය සමාජ ජාලාවන්හි පින්තූර හුවමාරු වෙමින් ඇත.

ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට ධුරයෙන් ඉල්ලා අස්වන බල කරමින් මෙම පිරිස් විරෝධතාවය.

මිලියනයේ විරෝදතාව ලෙස නම් කර ඇති මෙය පැවැත්වෙන්නේ සිවු වන දිනටයි.

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

කොළඹ ජනාධිපති කාර්යාලය ඉදිරියේ විරෝධතාවයේ යෙදෙන විරෝධතාකරුවන් සඳහා ඊයේ රාත්‍රියේ අරක්කු ලොරියක් ලබාදී ඇති බව එම විරෝධතාවේ ඉදිරිගාමියෙකු වන උපුල් ශාන්ත සන්නස්ගල මහතා සඳහන් කරයි.

විරෝධතාවය ඇතුලෙද ආණ්ඩුවේ ඔත්තුකරුවන්ට සිටිනා බවත් ඔවුන් සියලු රහස් රජයේ පාර්ශ්වයන් වෙත ලබා දෙමින් සිටින බවත් ඔහු චෝදනා කළේය.

තමන් ළඟ සිටින සියලු දෙනාම අවිශ්වාස කරන ලෙසත් එමෙන්ම විශ්වාස කරන ලෙසත් ඔහු ඉල්ලා සිටියේය.

සමාජ ජාලා ක්‍රියාකාරීන් යයි කියාගන්නා පිරිස් අරගලය පාවිච්චි කරමින් ජාවාරමක් සිදු කරමින් සිටින බවද තවදුරටත් චෝදනා කළේය.

අන්තර්ජාලය ඔස්සේ වීඩියෝවක් නිකුත් කරමින් ඒ මහතා මෙම චෝදනා එල්ල කරන ලදී.

Sri Lanka’s street protests over soaring inflation and lengthy power cuts have shaken President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s hold on power, with government ministers resigning while the opposition called for fresh elections in the South Asian nation. The political turmoil is complicating efforts to manage the island’s foreign exchange crisis and secure more funds to keep its tourism-reliant economy running, having already been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.

1. How did the crisis start?

Rajapaksa carried out populist tax cuts in late 2019, reducing revenues just months before the pandemic devastated the economy, with international flights grounded and successive lockdowns ordered. Remittances from overseas Sri Lankan workers dried up as well as many lost their jobs. With foreign-exchange earnings plunging, Sri Lanka struggled to manage its external debt, which had grown in part due to loans from China to fund ambitious infrastructure projects. Even though Sri Lanka has received credit lines from neighbors like India, it has been unable to regularly pay for imports of fuel and essential foods. Making matters worse was Rajapaksa’s pivot last year to organic farming with a ban on chemical fertilizers that triggered farmer protests and saw production of critical tea and rice crops decline. 

2. What’s happening to the economy? 

The $81 billion economy is under severe pressure, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine raising global oil prices. Sri Lanka’s growth is slow and inflation is at multiyear highs. The authorities have since raised interest rates, devalued the local currency and placed curbs on non-essential imports. But with a meager $2 billion in foreign exchange reserves and $7 billion in debt payments due this year, restoring the country’s economic health remains an uphill battle. Consumer prices rose nearly 19% in March from a year earlier, the fastest rate in Asia, after a 15% jump in February. 

3. Why are people protesting?

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Sri Lankans, who voted Rajapaksa into the presidency three years ago, are finding themselves in increasingly difficult living conditions. Households and businesses have endured daily power cuts since March, with the duration stretching to 13 hours in April, as the government struggles to pay for energy supplies. There are long lines at gasoline filling stations and daily shortages of essential food items, which if available, are becoming prohibitively expensive. On March 31, protesters clashed with police outside Rajapaksa’s private home after a crowd surged past the barricades, screaming for him to step down.

4. How has the government responded?

Rajapaksa, who usually reacts with issuing extraordinary gazettes late at night, declared an emergency and imposed a weekend curfew through April 3. The government also restricted access to social media platforms including YouTube, WhatsApp and Facebook for about 13 hours, a move it said was needed to preserve social order. Critics said it was to prevent the protests from spreading. Demonstrations continued despite the curfew as Sri Lankans kept chanting Gota go home,” which became a trending hashtag on Twitter. Rajapaksa, who holds sweeping executive powers based on a 2020 constitutional amendment, has reached out to the opposition with an offer to work together to resolve the crises. Opposition leaders were instead talking about holding fresh elections and repealing the amendment. 

5. What’s the bigger picture?

The country, off India’s southern tip, has struggled with conflict since gaining independence from Britain in 1948. Civil war between the Sinhalese-dominated government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam went on for decades and killed 100,000 people. The war ended in 2009 with a government victory — and allegations of human rights violations on both sides. There was a lull in violence until the 2019 Easter Sunday suicide bombing attacks, which killed more than 200 people and the government blamed on a little-known Islamic group. Rajapaksa, a former military officer whom many voters view as a hero of the civil war, was elected president months later. Sri Lanka has also become a battleground in which China and India compete for influence. Rajapaksa and his family members in government have shifted the country closer to Beijing. However with approaching maturities and interest repayments keeping policy makers on their toes, Sri Lanka has reached out to India for aid. On April 12 it warned creditors of a possible default and suspended payments on some foreign debt. The finance ministry also said it would expedite talks with the International Monetary Fund for an aid package. The Rajapaksa government has had a deep-seated reluctance to ask for IMF help since it can involve unpopular austerity measures.

Courtesy Frnace 24

Consumer prices in the US surged by 8.5% in March, the fastest pace since 1981. The inflation spike was fuelled by a 32% jump in energy costs, linked to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Many American consumers are struggling to keep up with the price rises. Also in the show – Emmanuel Macron appears to waver on his pledge to raise France’s retirement age to 65, and Sri Lanka enters default as its economic crisis deepens. 

It will not be imposed on farmers but the choice will be left to them: Minister K. Govardhan Reddy

Environment-friendly organic farming will be promoted in the State to ensure premium price for the farm produce, Agriculture Minister Kakani Govardhan Reddy said, adding: However, the switch to organic farming will not be a sudden one as in Sri Lanka that has been plunged into an economic crisis.”

Enough precautionary steps would be taken based on the bad experience of Sri Lanka, where the ban on chemical fertilisers became one of the reasons for an unprecedented economic crisis, he explained, adding that under no circumstances organic farming would be forced on the farmers. The choice will be left to the growers who will be encouraged to cut costs and adopt best agronomic practices including organic fertilisers and pesticides,” he said.

The State government would act as a facilitator so that the enterprising farmers took to organic farming on their own to protect the soil health and get a remunerative price in the market by going for branding of organic food, he explained.

The Rythu Bharosa Kendras(Farmer Assurance Centres) would be made more vibrant to ensure timely farm inputs to farmers including quality seeds and fertilisers. The RBKS, in coordination with the Civil Supplies department, would also make best efforts to ensure a remunerative price for the farmers’ produce, he added.

Meanwhile, P. Anil Kumar Yadav, Irrigation Minister in the outgoing Cabinet, told reporters that he would extend full cooperation to Mr. Govardhan Reddy who is the only MLA to get a Cabinet berth from SPSR Nellore district.

He would again get an opportunity to serve as Minister in the Cabinets of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy in the future, Mr. Anil Kumar expressed confidence. Replying to a question, he said he did not receive any invitation for the swearing in ceremony.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

China on Tuesday reiterated that it is doing its ”utmost” to provide assistance to debt-ridden Sri Lanka.

Asked about the reported request of Sri Lanka to China for monetary help to tide over the present crisis, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian on Tuesday reiterated his ministry’s previous remarks that China has been doing its utmost for Sri Lanka and will continue to do so.

”Since the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Sri Lanka, the two countries have lent mutual support and understanding to each other,” Zhao told a media briefing in Beijing.

”China has been doing its utmost to provide assistance for the socio-economic development of SL and we will continue to do so going forward,” he said, reiterating what his ministry said on March 9.

Courtesy Hiru News

පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරයට පෙර සහරාන් හෂීම් ඇතුළු කණ්ඩායම විසින් පටිගත කරන ලද එම ප්‍රහාර එල්ල කිරීමට හේතු දැක්වෙන වීඩීයෝවක් අද මාධ්‍ය වෙත නිකුත් කරනු ලැබුවා.

අද පැවති ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවකට එක්වෙමින් ආරක්ෂක ලේකම්වරයා කියා සිටියේ පාස්කු ඉරු දින ත්‍රස්ත ප්‍රහාරය සම්බන්ධයෙන් අත්අඩංගුවට ගත් පුද්ගලයින් 735 දෙනෙකු අතරින් 196 දෙනෙකු රක්ෂිත බන්ධනාගාර ගත කර ඇති බවයි.