Michelle Ellner Courtesy Venezuela Analysis

Far from a symbol of peace, the article exposes Machado’s history of supporting coups, sanctions, and calls for foreign military intervention in Venezuela.

Maria Corina Machado is known for her incendiary speeches (AP)

When I saw the headline Maria Corina Machado wins the Peace Prize, I almost laughed at the absurdity. But I didn’t, because there’s nothing funny about rewarding someone whose politics have brought so much suffering. Anyone who knows what she stands for knows there’s nothing remotely peaceful about her politics.

If this is what counts as peace” in 2025, then the prize itself has lost every ounce of credibility. I’m Venezuelan-American, and I know exactly what Machado represents.

She’s the smiling face of Washington’s regime-change machine, the polished spokesperson for sanctions, privatization, and foreign intervention dressed up as democracy.

Machado’s politics are steeped in violence. She has called for foreign intervention, even appealing directly to Benjamin Netanyahu, the architect of Gaza’s annihilation, to help liberate” Venezuela with bombs under the banner of freedom,” She has demanded sanctions, that silent form of warfare whose effects – as studies in The Lancet and other journals have shown – have killed more people than war, cutting off medicine, food, and energy to entire populations.

Machado has spent her entire political life promoting division, eroding Venezuela’s sovereignty and denying its people the right to live with dignity.

This is who Maria Corina Machado really is:

• She helped lead the 2002 coup that briefly overthrew a democratically elected president, and signed the Carmona Decree that erased the Constitution and dissolved every public institution overnight.
• She worked hand in hand with Washington to justify regime change, using her platform to demand foreign military intervention to liberate” Venezuela through force.
• She cheered on Donald Trump’s threats of invasion and his naval deployments in the Caribbean, a show of force that risks igniting regional war under the pretext of combating narcotrafficking.” While Trump sent warships and froze assets, Machado stood ready to serve as his local proxy, promising to deliver Venezuela’s sovereignty on a silver platter.
• She pushed for the U.S. sanctions that strangled the economy, knowing exactly who would pay the price: the poor, the sick, the working class. 
• She helped construct the so-called interim government” a Washington backed puppet show run by a self-appointed president” who looted Venezuela’s resources abroad while children at home went hungry.
• She vows to reopen Venezuela’s embassy in Jerusalem, aligning herself openly with the same apartheid state that bombs hospitals and calls it self-defense.
• Now she wants to hand over the country’s oil, water, and infrastructure to private corporations. This is the same recipe that made Latin America the laboratory of neoliberal misery in the 1990s.

Machado was also one of the political architects of La Salida, the 2014 opposition campaign that called for escalated protests, including guarimba tactics. Those weren’t peaceful protests” as the foreign press claimed; they were organized barricades meant to paralyze the country and force the government’s fall. Streets were blocked with burning trash and barbed wire, buses carrying workers were torched, and people suspected of being Chavista were beaten or killed. Even ambulances and doctors were attacked. Some Cuban medical brigades were nearly burned alive. Public buildings, food trucks, and schools were destroyed. Entire neighborhoods were held hostage by fear while opposition leaders like Machado cheered from the sidelines and called it resistance.”

She praises Trump’s decisive action” against what she calls a criminal enterprise,” aligning herself with the same man who cages migrant children and tears families apart under ICE’s watch, while Venezuelan mothers search for their children disappeared by U.S. migration policies.

Machado isn’t a symbol of peace or progress. She is part of a global alliance between fascism, Zionism, and neoliberalism, an axis that justifies domination in the language of democracy and peace. In Venezuela, that alliance has meant coups, sanctions, and privatization. In Gaza, it means genocide and the erasure of a people. The ideology is the same: a belief that some lives are disposable, that sovereignty is negotiable, and that violence can be sold as order.

If Henry Kissinger could win a Peace Prize, why not María Corina Machado? Maybe next year they’ll give one to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation for compassion under occupation.”

Every time this award is handed to an architect of violence disguised as diplomacy, it spits in the face of those who actually fight for peace: the Palestinian medics digging bodies from rubble, the journalists risking their lives in Gaza to document the truth and the humanitarian workers of the Flotilla sailing to break the siege and deliver aid to starving children in Gaza, with nothing but courage and conviction.

But real peace is not negotiated in boardrooms or awarded on stages. Real peace is built by women organizing food networks during blockades, by Indigenous communities defending rivers from extraction, by workers who refuse to be starved into obedience, by Venezuelan mothers mobilizing to demand the return of children seized under U.S. ICE and migration policies and by nations that choose sovereignty over servitude. That’s the peace Venezuela, Cuba, Palestine, and every nation of the Global South deserves.

Tell the Nobel Committee: The Peace Prize belongs to Gaza’s journalists, not María Corina Machado!

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Colombo, October 11 (Daily Mirror ) – Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism Vijitha Herath attended the inauguration of the Grand Serendib Colombo, Sri Lanka’s first AI-powered hotel project, held last night (10) at the Shangri-La Hotel, Colombo.

The event also celebrated the 20th anniversary of ABEC, the company behind the project. Sri Lanka National Cricket Team Head Coach Sanath Jayasuriya and ABEC Premier Dilip K. Herath joined the minister in officially launching the landmark initiative.

Speaking at the ceremony, Minister Herath said, This project is a significant investment in Sri Lanka, reflecting the growing potential of our tourism sector. By integrating artificial intelligence, it will take the country’s smart hospitality and tourism industry to a new level.”

The inauguration was attended by Member of Parliament Dr. Harsha de Silva, professors, diplomats, and academics from both local and international universities, underlining the project’s significance for Sri Lanka’s tourism and innovation landscape.

Courtesy Adaderana

India on Friday upgraded ties with Afghanistan’s Taliban administration, giving a boost to the diplomatically isolated group, by announcing it would reopen its embassy in Kabul that was shut after the Taliban seized power in 2021.

The Afghan Taliban administration will also send diplomats to New Delhi, its foreign minister said.

India closed its embassy in Kabul following the withdrawal of U.S.-led NATO forces from war-torn Afghanistan four years ago, though it launched a small mission in 2022 to facilitate trade, medical support and humanitarian aid.

About a dozen countries including China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey have embassies operating in Kabul, although Russia is the only country to have formally recognised the Taliban administration, whose members are under U.N. sanctions including a travel ban and asset freeze.

INDIA’S MOVE INFLUENCED BY TENSIONS WITH PAKISTAN, CHINA

India’s announcement came during talks in New Delhi between Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and his counterpart in the Taliban administration, Amir Khan Muttaqi, who is on a six-day visit after getting a temporary exemption on his travel ban.

It was the first such trip to India by a Taliban leader since 2021.

India will raise its technical mission to a diplomatic mission in Kabul, and our diplomats will also come here,” Muttaqi told reporters on Friday, adding that the aim was for the two countries to slowly return to normalcy”.

India and Afghanistan have historically had friendly ties, but New Delhi does not recognise the Taliban government.

India and the Taliban are now recalibrating their ties because of souring relations with their neighbour Pakistan as well as New Delhi’s concerns about major power rival China making inroads in Afghanistan, said Harsh Pant, foreign policy head at India’s Observer Research Foundation think tank.

Engagement does not mean endorsement. There are many things that India is uncomfortable about (under Taliban rule) – minority rights, gender rights, and the human rights landscape in Afghanistan,” he said.

But there is a pragmatism inherent in India’s engagement with the Taliban … And this visit is, in some ways, continuing that tradition. It certainly can be considered the beginning of a new phase in India-Afghanistan relations under the Taliban government, which have been one-directional so far.”

Muttaqi’s visit aimed to develop ties with New Delhi and highlighted Taliban efforts to expand engagement with regional powers in a quest for economic relations and eventual diplomatic recognition, analysts said.

Western diplomats have said the Taliban administration’s path to recognition is being stalled by its curbs on women.

AFGHANISTAN WON’T BE SPRINGBOARD FOR TERRORISM, FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS

In his opening remarks on Friday, Muttaqi referred to ongoing counter-terrorism efforts and said the Taliban administration would not allow anyone to use Afghanistan’s territory for targeting other nations.

We hope that Afghanistan and India, on an official level and in different areas, increase their engagement,” he said.

In his remarks about Friday’s deal, Jaishankar said India was fully committed to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Afghanistan.

Closer cooperation between us contributes to your national development, as well as regional stability and resilience,” he said, adding that India’s technical mission” in Kabul was being upgraded to an embassy.

Jaishankar did not mention a timeline for the change.

Source: Reuters
–Agencies 

Courtesy Hiru News

The first cabinet reshuffle of the new government was carried out today, with President Anura Kumara Dissanayake swearing in three new Cabinet Ministers and ten Deputy Ministers.

The reshuffle increases the number of Cabinet Ministers to 23 and the number of Deputy Ministers to 33.

One significant promotion to the Cabinet is Susil Ranasinghe, who was sworn in as Minister of Housing, Construction, and Water Supply. He previously served as the Deputy Minister of Housing, Construction, and Water Supply.

In a major portfolio change, Bimal Rathnayake was sworn in as the Minister of Transport, Highways, and Urban Development, with the subjects of Ports and Civil Aviation removed from his previous portfolio. The former ministry was recently in the news over the controversial release of 323 containers from Customs.

The new Minister of Ports and Civil Aviation is Anura Karunathilaka.

Five parliamentarians were sworn in as Deputy Ministers for the first time:

Shripal Nishshanka

Dear President Anura,

Congratulations on passing a trouble free 365 plus days as the President of Sri Lanka.

Anyhow, it was not a pleasant speech that you delivered at UN assembly a few days ago. A head of a country shall never ever criticize its own country in public, which is just spitting up to the sky. In-house matters shall be resolved internally and not necessary to complain to the outsiders.

There is no country on the earth where corruption is zero.

Remember you are living today to govern a country which was liberated from a heinous terrorism and unless otherwise majority of the Sri Lankans would have been dead and gone today. It was a sudden surprise to almost all Sri Lankans when you voted to topple the government during the parliamentary budget vote at the last lap of eradicating terrorism from our beloved motherland Sri Lanka in 2008 budget for year 2009. Unfortunately, you were not thinking about the motherland wisely.

Anyway gone are the days Mr. President and time to take the correct middle path.

Please do not pray on heroic Sri Lankan forces ex-officers who did protect the country with bravery.

We all breathe today freely with freedom because of their dedication, devotion and determination.

We genuine diaspora will stand with you and stand by you.

Our motherland Sri Lanka is a small beautiful park if we develop properly and spread that word to the whole world where many more tourists would visit her and subsequently all Sri Lankan mothers and sisters who perform slavery work in abroad can come home with dignity.

 May the Triple Gem and All Good Guardian Deities protect, guide and bless you with Sri Lanka and the whole globe until eternity!

Thank you,

Yours truly,

Shripal Nishshanka

Shenali D Waduge

Over the past several years, there has been a string of attempts by successive governments in Sri Lanka to implement policies that mirror Western LGBTQIA ideologies at the national level, particularly targeting children. These included proposals to teach LGBTQIA content in schools, allow pride parades, provide sex clinics in government hospitals, promote sexual activity for children as young as 16, distribute condoms in schools, legalize abortion and prostitution, and more. If implemented, these measures could have led to alarming rises in AIDS, teen pregnancies, and the overall moral erosion of society. The dangerous consequences of these policies if implemented is not merely social but civilizational. A society unable to differentiate male from female, parent from child, right from wrong is a society headed toward collapse.

Fortunately, it was His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith who first raised the alarm publicly, drawing national attention to the grave risks of promoting LGBTQ tourism and sex-based ideology among children. Soon after, the Mahanayaka Theros of the four Nikayas issued a powerful collective letter to the President, condemning these Western-inspired agendas and urging the government to protect the country’s cultural and moral foundation.

Their united stand awakened the conscience of the nation — reminding all Sri Lankans that our children’s innocence, our moral integrity, and our cultural identity are not for sale.

Government Attempts

Despite the constitutional and Penal Code prohibitions — and in clear defiance of Sri Lanka’s deeply rooted cultural and religious values — successive governments have repeatedly attempted to introduce Western-inspired LGBTQIA policies into the national framework.

These attempts included efforts to:

• Introduce LGBTQIA education in schools, exposing children to premature and inappropriate sexualized content under the guise of awareness.”

• Permit pride parades and public promotions of LGBTQIA lifestyles, many of which, disturbingly, received sponsorship from some of Sri Lanka’s most reputable” corporations.

• Establish sex clinics in government hospitalsand lower the legal age of sexual activity to 16, violating the protective intent of the law and the spirit of child protection.

• Distribute condoms in schoolsand promote early sexual experimentation among youth under misleading health education” programs.
• Advocate for the legalization of abortion and prostitution, normalizing high-risk behaviors that undermine the sanctity of life, family, and moral responsibility.

Clearly, these proposals were trial balloons — floated to test the waters — and often tied to foreign aid conditions, or even threats to withdraw international support if not implemented.

When examined together, these initiatives form part of a coordinated ideological campaign to reshape Sri Lankan society in line with imported moral frameworks. They disregard not only our Buddhist, Hindu, Catholic/Christian, and Islamic ethical foundations, but also the public health, child protection, and social stability of the nation.

The real danger lies in their ultimate objective — the gradual dismantling of Sri Lanka’s value system and cultural coherence. A society that loses its moral compass cannot sustain itself. No development plan, sustainability goal, or economic reform can succeed when the moral core of the nation is deliberately weakened and corrupted.

Most tragically, these efforts strike at the heart of our nation’s future — its children — attempting to distort their understanding of identity, morality, and responsibility.
A nation that destroys the innocence of its children, destroys its own tomorrow.

Role of Religious Leadership

It was His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith who first brought this issue publicly to the attention of the Sri Lankan people. In his outspoken statements, he questioned whether the Government was in its right mind to even propose policies promoting LGBTQIA ideology and tourism. The Cardinal warned of the grave dangers of importing Western-style LGBTQIA frameworks that would harm children, destabilize families, and corrode society’s moral foundations. He firmly declared that foreign aid must never be conditional to destroying the child, the family, or the nation’s moral values.

Building upon this bold stand by the Cardinal, the Maha Nayaka Theros of the four main Buddhist Chapters — the guardians of Sri Lanka’s civilizational Buddhist heritage — submitted a comprehensive letter to the President, warning against:

• The promotion of LGBTQIA tourismand associated agendas.
• The spread of unsafe sexual practicesamong youth.
• The erosion of Sri Lanka’s moral, religious, and cultural fabricthrough foreign ideological intrusion.

Their united and timely intervention effectively halted the government’s plans to institutionalize these harmful policies. Left unchecked, such measures would have exposed generations of children to sexual confusion, exploitation, and psychological harm — damage that could not be easily reversed without lasting consequences to individuals, families, and the nation as a whole.

Consequences Averted

Thanks to the foresight, moral clarity, and courage of the Maha Nayaka Theros and Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, Sri Lanka was spared from what could have become a devastating wave of moral, social, and public health crises. Their timely intervention prevented policies that would have deeply harmed the nation’s children and corroded its civilizational foundation.

Had these policies been enacted, Sri Lanka would today be facing:

• Widespread sexual exploitation and abuse of children, which already persists in certain unregulated environments where state oversight is weak and foreign-funded NGOs operate unchecked. Meanwhile,DEI-based workplace policies are subtly coercing employees to conform to LGBTQIA expectations for career progression and job security — a form of moral and sexual coercion that must be called out for what it is and stopped.

• A surge in AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, and teenage pregnancies, trends that are already alarming in other countries that adopted such policies. Current local reports reveal a worrying rise even without official endorsement — underscoring how disastrous formal legalization would have been.

• Unmonitored foreign-funded NGOspenetrating deeply into schools, communities, and workplaces — using the language of rights” and inclusion” to erode moral boundaries and destabilize traditional family and religious structures. With lukewarm & vision-less response by the Govt & officials – the harm they are doing is immeasurable.

• Unregulated social media influence, which is rapidly detaching youth from education, respect for elders, and value-based living. Many Western countries that once promoted unfiltered online exposure are nowrestricting or banning social media and smartphones for under-16s, recognizing the long-term damage caused to mental health, morality, and learning.

• The normalization of prostitution and commercial sexual activity among minors, disguised under fashionable labels of freedom” and inclusivity,” erasing the protective distinctions between right and wrong, adult and child, moral and immoral.

• The erosion of Sri Lanka’s cultural and religious identity, which remains the moral anchor of our social fabric, ensuring stability, compassion, and respect for life.

It is significant that only after the bold, public interventions of Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith and the Maha Nayaka Theros did political leaders and parties begin to reconsider their stance and align with the conscience of the nation. Their leadership reawakened a moral awareness that transcended political divisions — reminding all that no government has the mandate to endanger the spiritual and moral wellbeing of its people.

A Call for Accountability and Reversal

Having been spared grave national harm through the foresight of our religious leadership, the time has now come for full accountability and decisive correction.

Sri Lanka must immediately revoke all policies, programs, and agreements through which the Government has directly or indirectly consented to LGBTQIA-linked or DEI-driven initiatives, including:

1. Training of Sri Lanka Policeby foreign missions or NGOs under the pretext of LGBTQIA awareness or DEI sensitization.

• Participation of public sector agenciesin LGBTQIA-related programs, workshops, or advocacy conducted by international or local NGOs.

• The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) Chairman’s letter of consentgranting an NGO access to train Sri Lanka’s tourism stakeholders in LGBTQIA content — an act that contradicts the moral and cultural ethos of this nation and must be immediately withdrawn.

The Government cannot simply issue vague statements to the media — it must act. Upholding the Constitution, the Penal Code, and the moral guardianship role expected of a sovereign state requires clear and public corrective measures.

Sri Lanka’s religious leadership has already illuminated the path forward.

The Maha Nayaka Theros and the Cardinal have demonstrated what moral courage looks like in the face of international pressure and domestic complacency.

Our duty now is to follow that lead — to safeguard the spiritual, cultural, and moral integrity of this nation for generations to come.

It is equally critical that private sector organizations which have adopted LGBTQIA-linked DEI policies re-examine their commitments. These imported frameworks, which are now being rolled back even in the West, have failed to produce inclusion or equity — instead fueling confusion, division, and social instability.

Sri Lanka must not follow their mistakes.

The Government and corporate sector alike must now reaffirm their duty to protect children, families, and national values above all else. No amount of foreign funding or corporate branding can justify policies that compromise the innocence of our youth or the moral foundation of our society.

Tax payers money cannot be used by either Govt or Private Sector to destroy the Nation & its People.

The vigilance and leadership of Sri Lanka’s religious figures have once again preserved the nation’s moral compass.

Let us now ensure that the Government, Opposition/Political Parties & Private Sector immediately apply corrective actions to match the moral clarity with which they have spoken.

The West is now retreating from the very ideologies it once exported under the guise of rights” and progress.”

Sri Lanka must have the wisdom not to repeat their mistakes.

A nation that protects its children protects its future — one that imitates failed experiments, destroys it.

Shenali D Waduge

By Palitha Ariyarathna

On the morning of 9 October 2025, a disturbing incident unfolded at Dharmasoka Mawatha, Arupola, Kandy, raising urgent questions about animal welfare, civic safety, and constitutional accountability in Sri Lanka. Mrs. D. Hearath, a concerned citizen and practicing Buddhist, was riding past the area when she witnessed a group of monkeys confined at the roadside without food, water, or visible care. Cages were present, the animals were clearly restricted and in distress. Eyewitnesses later confirmed that the monkeys were crying like babies, and some villagers had tried to feed them out of compassion.

What struck Mrs. D. Hearath most was the emotional behavior of the monkeys themselves, reaching out to comfort one another as if supporting their own community in fear. Moved by this suffering, she began filming the scene on her mobile phone, hoping to raise awareness and alert authorities. During the recording, a man entered the scene. Mrs. Hearath attempted to engage him to understand more about the group responsible for the monkeys. Instead of responding appropriately, he became hostile. He grabbed her phone and struck her, leaving her injured and traumatized. She is currently receiving treatment at Kandy Hospital. The video she was recording may contain crucial evidence of both the animal cruelty and the assault.

Man Seen Seated on Scooter Moments Before Assaulting Mrs. D. Hearath at Dharmasoka Mawatha, Kandy

When Mrs. D. Hearath explained she was acting to protect animal rights, the man demanded to see her ID card. This demand is not only unjust, it is legally irrelevant. Under Sri Lankan law, no citizen is required to belong to any organization or social group to question or report cruelty toward animals. The right to speak out is protected by law. This incident is a direct violation of the Sri Lankan Constitution, including Article 9, which affirms the protection of Buddha Sasana and the values of compassion and non-violence; Article 10, guaranteeing freedom of conscience; Article 12, ensuring equality before the law; and Article 14, protecting freedom of expression. It also breaches the Sri Lankan Animal Welfare Act and Mrs. Hearath’s fundamental rights as a citizen.

The monkeys Mrs. D. Hearath tried to protect are not only sentient beings, they are endangered. The Toque macaque (Macaca sinica), known locally as “Rilawa,” is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Over the past 40 years, their population has declined by more than half due to habitat destruction and human persecution. These animals are not pests, they are part of Sri Lanka’s ecological heritage. Every act of compassion toward them is also an act of conservation.

Toque macaques are present and frequently encountered in Kandy, particularly around areas like the Kandy Lake and the Royal Botanical Gardens, Peradeniya. Known locally as “Rilawa,” these small, golden-brown, endemic Sri Lankan monkeys hold a unique place in both the island’s biodiversity and cultural consciousness. Their presence in urban and sacred spaces reflects a long-standing coexistence with humans, one now threatened by shifting policies and public perception.

The Dharmasoka Mawatha incident is not isolated. It reflects a broader and troubling trend in Sri Lanka’s treatment of primates. In March 2025, the government conducted a controversial five-minute nationwide “rapid visual census” of crop-damaging wildlife. The survey estimated 6.5 to 7 million monkeys, a figure widely criticized by conservationists as scientifically implausible and methodologically flawed. In June, authorities removed all three native monkey species from Sri Lanka’s protected list, alongside peafowl and wild boars. This legal deregulation effectively allowed unrestricted culling, raising alarms among environmentalists. Following a nationwide power outage caused by a monkey in February, the government proposed exporting over 100,000 macaques to China. Though the plan was later shelved after public outcry, it revealed a growing institutional appetite for mass removal of primates without transparent ecological or ethical review.

These developments suggest a climate of hostility and misinformation around wildlife, where monkeys are increasingly framed as pests, and citizen interventions like Mrs. Hearath’s are met with aggression rather than support. Authorities must urgently answer key questions: Where are the monkeys now? What has been done with them since the incident? Who took custody, and under what authority? If any attempt has been made to release, relocate, or remove the monkeys without proper documentation or investigation, it may constitute tampering with evidence. These animals are not just victims, they are witnesses to cruelty, and their condition must be preserved for legal review.

If this incident is linked to any government department, contractor, or affiliated organization, Mrs. Hearath is entitled to seek compensation (wandi) from the man who assaulted her and from any party responsible for the unlawful capture and mistreatment of the animals. This is not just a personal ordeal, it is a public reckoning. Sri Lanka must stand by those who act from conscience and ensure that compassion is not punished but protected.

The courage shown by Mrs. Hearath echoes the wisdom of the Nala Jātakaya, Jātaka tale number 20, where the Bodhisatta, as a monkey king, led 80,000 monkeys to safety from a water demon. By crafting a single-holed reed straw (nala), he outwitted the demon and ensured his troop could drink and survive. His ingenuity and compassion saved lives. Today, women like Mrs. Hearath embody that same spirit, using moral clarity and fearless action to protect the vulnerable. In a world where cruelty often hides behind power, it is the quiet strength of conscience that leads others to safety. Her act was not just brave, it was profoundly Buddhist, deeply civic, and unmistakably just.

May the people of this country remember the wisdom of the Nala Jātakaya. In that ancient story, truth was not silenced by fear, and justice was not postponed by power. A single voice guided by compassion and moral clarity stood before a king to protect the innocent. Today, that same courage lives in every citizen who speaks out against cruelty, who defends the voiceless, and who refuses to be intimidated. Let us not forget: the strength of a nation is measured not by its silence, but by its conscience.

By Palitha Ariyarathna

Diplomatic Brief

Kelum Jayasumana

සමලිංගිකයන් ගැන කතාවේදී පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී හරිණි සංවේදී වෙයි!

National Development Bank PLC

NDB Bank has entered into a strategic partnership with SJP Global (Pvt) Ltd., further strengthening its commitment to empowering the next generation of Sri Lankans through education. The partnership was formalised with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 27th August 2025, with a focus on enhancing the NDB Student File proposition, a comprehensive solution designed to make overseas education journeys seamless, secure, and stress-free.

The MoU was signed by Sanjaya Perera, Senior Vice President – Personal Banking and Customer Experience, and Ashan Wickramanayake, Assistant Vice President & Head of Card Center, on behalf of NDB Bank, while Paranitharan Nadarajah and Evangeline Remona Stanislau represented SJP Global.

Through this collaboration, students aspiring to pursue education abroad will benefit from a streamlined process that combines NDB’s trusted financial solutions with SJP Global’s expertise in international education guidance. The NDB Student File offers parents and students a one-stop banking solution that covers everything from foreign remittances and account management to advisory services, ensuring that families can focus on academic ambitions while the bank manages their financial requirements.

SJP Global, through its GPS-Ed initiative, has built a strong reputation in providing tailored overseas education services with integrity and reliability. With operations spanning over 10 nations, the organisation has established itself as a trusted partner in shaping global education opportunities for Sri Lankan students. Its services include personalised advisory support, course and institution selection, and guidance for families on financial and personal requirements, ensuring a smooth transition from Sri Lanka to international universities.

Commenting on the partnership, Sanjaya Perera, SVP – Personal Banking and Customer Experience at NDB, stated: “At NDB, we believe that education is one of the most powerful investments in shaping the future. Through our Student File proposition and this timely partnership with SJP Global, we aim to provide Sri Lankan students and their families with an integrated banking and advisory experience that makes overseas education truly seamless. This collaboration aligns perfectly with our vision to empower the younger generation and contribute to the nation’s progress.”

The partnership between NDB Bank and SJP Global reflects a shared vision of creating meaningful pathways for Sri Lankan students to access international education, while also reinforcing NDB’s role as a trusted financial partner for families navigating this transformative journey.

NDB Bank is the fourth-largest listed commercial bank in Sri Lanka. NDB was named Sri Lanka’s Best Digital Bank for SMEs at Euromoney Awards for Excellence 2025 and was awarded Domestic Retail Bank of the Year – Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka Domestic Project Finance Bank of the Year by Asian Banking and Finance Magazine (Singapore) Awards 2024. NDB is the parent company of the NDB Group, comprising capital market subsidiary companies, together forming a unique banking and capital market services group. The Bank is committed to empowering the nation and its people through meaningful financial and advisory services powered by digital banking solutions.

Saeed Naqvi

Dated: 06.10.2025

What is the urgency driving Donald Trump to push his Gaza peace plan, even by dishonest means if necessary. In his eagerness to bid for the Nobel Peace Prize, Trump resorted to subterfuge, straight forward knavery. Even more compelling than his yen for the Nobel was the pressure of global public opinion which chastises the US collaborating with Israel’s unspeakable brutality, the genocide of Gaza, frame by frame on live TV.

A peace plan developed with representatives of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan attending the UN General Assembly, was further discussed by Trump and Netanyahu in the White House.

At a parallel meeting in Doha, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammad bin Abdulrahman, Al Thani and Hamas leaders were perusing the 20 points under the microscope. At this point the text of the 20 point plan with Netanyahu in the White House and the Qataris was the same.

Then Netanyahu, Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, a Zionist trio, got into a huddle. The text was radically altered in favour of Netanyahu, enabling him to boast in a video on the journey back to Israel. In a statement in Hebrew for Israeli television viewers, he said.

Who would have believed this.?” Says he triumphantly. After all the people constantly saying – you must accept Hamas’s terms, get everyone (IDF) out (of Gaza). The IDF should withdraw, Hamas can recover and it can also reoccupy the strip.” He then exploded, No way. That’s not happening.”

He was asked if he agreed to a Palestinian state? Absolutely not. It’s not written into the statement, but there is one thing we did say – we would strongly oppose a Palestinian state.”

This diplomacy by deception is for a singular purpose. The pariah status that is sticking to Israel and the US in equal measure has to be shuffled off somehow. The mainstream media will be required to build the narrative that Netanyahu is trying to implement the 20 point but Hamas is obstructing. A follow up meeting, one of many expected is going on in Egypt.

Fortunately for the Palestinian, this media’s credibility is at its lowest for having been consistently in the service of establishments.

In the plan is an idea to have a Board of Peace”, with Trump as its Chairman and President. In an aside he said he may not have the time to be hands-on all the time. It was for this reason that former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair will be on the Board”.

There is no guarantee that the Trump plan will fly, but it does provide a clue to the plan having been tailored for right wing Zionist acceptability. The response from the Iran Supreme leader’s office hits the nail on the head: the plan gives to Netanyahu what he could not achieve on the battlefield: return of the hostages and an end to Hamas.

The irony is that the plan, even with this interpretation, is unacceptable to the Ben Gwir-Smotherick duet who want the Palestinians to disappear or live in other countries. Even though the plan gives to Netanyahu all that he could have hoped for, there remains a vast stretch on Israel’s Right, Far Right and Far Far Right capable of throwing a ginger fit if anything short of the Biblical plan for greater Israel is accepted.

Palestinians may be forgiven for being shocked at Tony Blair being inserted in matters concerning their future. Trump would have to search all corners of the globe to find a western leader more despised by Palestinians than Tony Blair, an exceptional favourite with Zionists.

Blair’s other claim to fame is the way he was chastised by the Chilcot report. Sir James Chilcot, after a six year investigation, shamed Blair for having misled the British public for joining the Iraq war in 2003. I remember him crying with copious tears for having been caught cheating.

The idea of privatizing the administration of Gaza at some later date is not without precedent. A plan to privatize the war in Afghanistan was drawn up in 2017 by Eric Prince, founder of Blackwater, the world’s biggest outlet for mercenary troops. Steve Bannon, Trump’s Chief of Staff, in Trump’s first administration forwarded a 100 page project to the White House suggesting that the US should hand the Afghan responsibility to private hands.

The British Raj’s administration was in the hands of the Viceroy. That precisely was the model offered by Prince. The project would cost 5 trillion, after which, in the hands of merry capitalism, the investment would start showing returns.

Astonishing though it may seem, this over-the-top plan had acquired life in the corridors of the White House until Secretary of Defence Gen. Jim Mattis shot it down.

If Hamas returns the hostages, what leverage will be left with it to deal with unreliable adversaries? The next hand has to be played in such a way as to retain global sympathy that Palestinians have earned by suffering genocide for two years.

It is a tough gamble. If Hamas returns the hostages, it loses leverage against a heartless opponent. If it does not return the hostages at this sensitive moment, it begins to lose global sympathy accumulated over two years of suffering.

When Yahya Sinwar and other Hamas commanders shook the world by their audacity on October 7, 2023, what were they looking for? Surely they were not embarked on a quest for quick victory over the region’s most powerful nation.

They had with clever deliberation provoked Israel expecting retaliation on a massive scale. If this indeed was their calculation they have succeeded in igniting world public opinion against Israel and its material, moral and political supporter – the US.

An opiated world has been woken up by Israeli genocide, non stop for two years. Even a Zionist supporter, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had to blurt out the truth, unpalatable to the Zionists surrounding Trump. Israel is no longer liked in America.” The great Israel lobby in the US will probably get into a huddle and sink in the deepest layers of thought.

https://naqvijournal.blogspot.com/2025/10/winners-and-losers-in-trumps-peace-plan.html

Shenali D Waduge

1️. The First Truth: Sex is Not a Choice

Your sex is decided the moment you are conceived.

Male: XY chromosomes

Female: XX chromosomes

These chromosomes exist in every cell of your body.
They determine your organs, hormones, and natural design —
and no drug, surgery, or hormone can ever change them.

2️. What a Biological Woman Is

• Born with XX chromosomes
• Has ovaries, uterus, vagina
• Produces eggs
• Experiences monthly menstruation
• Can carry and give birth to a child

No medicine can give a man these organs or functions.

3️. What a Biological Man Is

• Born with XY chromosomes
• Has penis and testes
• Produces sperm
• Can father a child

No amount of hormones or surgery can make a woman biologically male.

4️. What Sex Change” Really Means

Doctors can remove or reshape body parts,

They can remove your breasts – but you do not become a male as a result.

They can remove your penis – but you do not become a female as a result.

Doctors cannot create real organs inside either males or females.

Doctors cannot make a man into a biological woman

Doctors cannot make a woman into a biological man

What really happens After Sex Change” Surgery

1️. Artificial structures can’t work naturally
Doctors can only reshape the body — they can’t create real sex organs.

• A man-made vagina” can’t menstruate or have children.
• A man-made penis” can’t produce sperm or function naturally.

The procedures and medications can only change your body’s appearance – not your biological reality.

• A female can remove breasts & take medications to appear male but her female organs do not change
• A male can remove his penis & take medications to appear female but his male organs do not change.

Only your appearance changes.

Changing your appearance is not changing your sex — it is a medical illusion.

2️. Hormones for life

After removing natural organs, the body stops making sex hormones.

People must take artificial hormones forever — or face weak bones, heart problems, and sickness.

3️. Fertility is lost

Once the testes, ovaries, or uterus are removed, the person can never have biological children again.

4️. Long-term suffering
Many experience pain, infections, loss of feeling, depression, or regret.
Some later try to detransition,” but much of the damage cannot be reversed.

5️. The Hidden Truths You’re Not Told

• Gender-affirming care” is experimental, with no solid proof of long-term success.
• Thousands of people around the world are now detransitioningand speaking out against the harm that has come to them.
• Pharmaceutical companies and private clinics make billionsfrom lifelong hormone dependency. You are only their life long customer – dependent on costly drugs & checkups.
• NGOs and activists push this ideology under the banner of rights” and inclusion.” It is their job to promote it.
• Media rarely show those who suffer — only the polished success stories. Media is as much to blame as those indoctrinating you. Media spreads these notions, hides the suffering of those fooled into believing an illusion.

QUESTIONS TO ASK BEFORE YOU BELIEVE ANYONE WHO SAYS

YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR SEX”

1. Can any drug or surgery change my chromosomes (XX or XY)?

NO

• Can doctors give men real wombs, ovaries, or monthly periods?

NO

• Can women grow real sperm-producing testes?

NO

• If gender” is only a feeling, why am I told to permanently alter my body?

Ask yourself.

• Why are people encouraged to make life-changing decisions before 18?

Think about it.

• Who profits from my confusion — me, or the people selling hormones and surgeries?

Got the answer?

• Why do transitioned” people have to take medication for the rest of their lives?

Think about the cost & the side-effects & for how long

• Why aren’t we told about those who regret transitioning?

Have you tried to find out?

• Why are schools teaching children this ideology instead of science?

Good question – pose question to the Politicians & others pushing it

1. What happens if I regret my decision — can I ever go back?

Sadly, you cannot fully go back.

Many realise too late that their healthy bodies were changed unnecessarily and permanently.
Those who misled you will not share your pain — they move on, rewarded and funded to target others next.

Behind them stand powerful lobbies, medical industries, and paid activists who profit from expanding the LGBTQIA market.

You become their lifelong customer, not a free human being.

Don’t let anyone profit by confusing you.

Protect your body before it’s too late.

Seek counselling only from those who guide with truth, not from those trying to indoctrinate you.

6️. Final Truth

For generations, people who felt same-sex attraction lived privately without demanding surgeries or public celebration.

They did not ask to change their sex or redefine society’s understanding of male and female. They lived their lives separately & peacefully & people accepted that.

Everything changed when global campaigns began linking

• Children as a new target group
• same-sex marriage,
• transgender identity, and
• medical sex change” industries as a profit generator.

This shift was not organic or originated by the gays/lesbian community which is why many of them are now openly opposing them — it was funded and driven by political lobbies, NGOs, media and pharma-backed campaigns that turned a private matter into a public ideology.

They were told they must change” to be accepted — a lie that brings confusion, pain, and profit to those behind it.

While the lobbyists forced nations to accept the ideology as inclusive” but in reality giving a minor group exclusivity in rights often forsaking, silencing, suppressing and denying the rights of the majority.

The truth is plain & clear.

No one can rewrite your biology.

You are not born wrong. Never allow anyone to make you think so.

Don’t let activists, influencers, or even doctors convince you that destroying your healthy body is liberation.

You are special. There is no one in this world like you.

Learn to love yourself and surround yourself with people who truly care for you – and not those who use you for their agenda.

Sex is in your DNA — not your imagination.
 Truth heals. Lies harm.

We are not your enemy.

We only want to protect you from irreversible harm.

Stop listening to ideologies that harm you.

Protect your body. Protect your future. Protect your mind.

Shenali D Waduge

චානක බණ්ඩාරගේ

මම කිසියම් වැරැද්දක් කර ඇත්නම් සමාවෙන්න දෙවියනේ. මාව මරන්න එපා. මට දරුවන් තිදෙනෙක් සිටිනවා. ළමයින් පාසලෙන් නිවසට පැමිණ මා සොයා නොගත් විට ඔවුන් ද සාගින්නෙන් මිය යනු ඇත”. මේ මැදිවියේ මවක් අලියාට කිවූ දෙයක්.

මර බිය නිසා ඇයගේ මුවින් මේ එක් වදනක් වත් පිට නොවීය. ඇයට කළ හැකි වූයේ බිම වැතිර අලියාගේ දෑස් දෙස ආයාචනාත්මකව බලා සිවීම පමණි.

එවිට, අලියා (ඇතින්න) කාන්තාවගේ ඇඟ උඩින් තබා තිබු වන්ගෙඩියකට වඩා විශාල වූ සිය කකුල ඉවතට ගත්තාය.  සිය පුංචි දෑස් තවත් පුංචි කර, මිනිත්තු 2ක් පමණ අලියා කාන්තාව දෙස බලා සිටියාය.

ඇයව පාගා ඇට කටු කුඩු කර දැමීම සඳහා නැවතත් කකුල ඔසවා, එය කාන්තාවගේ ඇඟ මත තැබුවාය.

කාන්තාව බොහෝ අමාරුවෙන් අත්දෙක එකතු කර අලියාට යළි  වැන්දාය. අලියා ඇයගේ කකුල ඉවත්කර, එයින් දුහිවිලි අවුස්සා, කාන්තාවගේ මුහුණට විසිකර, සෙමෙන් කාන්තාවගෙන් ඉවත්ව ගියාය. 

‘නුඹ  විසින් මරා දමනු ලැබූ මගේ දරුවන්/නෑදෑයින් /මිතුරන් කොපමණ නම් ඇද්ද?  අධි විදුලි කම්බි  රැහැන්, හක්ක පටස්, තුවක්කු යොදා කරන වෙඩි තැබීම වලින් නුඹලා අපව මරා දමනවා.  අපට ඉන්න හිටින්න නැති වෙන්න අප ජීවත්වෙන කැලෑ කපා ඒවා අල්ලා ගන්නවා.  – කෲර, නපුරු මිනිසුන්’; ඒ ඇතින්න එම කාන්තාව දෙස විනාඩි 2ක් තිස්සේ කල්පනාකරමින් සිතුවේ මෙය නොවේද?

ඒ ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨ අලියා කාන්තාව නොමරා, ඇගේ ජීවිතය බේරා දී යාමෙන් අපට ඉගැන්වුවේ ඉතා කදිම පාඩමකි – අලියා අපට වඩා උතුම් බවද?

ටියුෂන් නවත්වන්න කියනවා නෙවෙයි; එය මාෆියක් වගේ තවදුරටත් වර්ධනය වීම නතර කළ යුතුයි කියායි ඉල්ලන්නේ. නියාමනයන් ගෙන ආ යුතුයි.

මේ අය ළමුන්ට, දෙමව්පියට පෙන්වන්න හදන්නේ ‘ඉස්කෝලේ ගිහිල්ලා වැඩක් නැහැ, අපි ලඟට ආවොත් විතරයි විභාග පාස් වෙන්නේ කියලා.

කෑම කනවා මෙන් ටියුෂන් යනු ළමුන්ට අත්‍යාවශ්‍යම, නැතිවම බැරි දෙයක් බව දැන් ඉදිවී ඇති ටියුෂන් සංස්කෘතිය  ළමුන්ට, දෙමව්පියන්ට සුක්ෂම ලෙස සාක්ෂාත් කර ඇත. මේවා කිරීමට ගුරුවරු, විදුහල්, රජයන් අනියමින් අනුබල දේ.   

O ’L වැඩ 9ටම A සහ A’L වැඩ 2ට A, ඉතිරිය B  ගත් ශිෂ්‍යාවක් – දුප්පත් පවුලකින් පැවත එන එම දියණිය කිසිසේත් ටියුෂන් නොගියේ හුදු ආර්ථික අපහසුකම් නිසායි. පාසැලේ උගන්වන දැනුමෙන් තමා  ඇය පාස් වුනේ. ඇගේ පන්තියේ සියළු යහළුවෝ වගේ රැල්ලට අහුවෙලා ටියුෂන් ගියා. අද ඈ විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයේ. 

තව ටිකක් කල් යනවිට විශ්ව විද්‍යාල ලමයිටත් ටියුෂන් ක්ලාස් දමයි, ටියුෂන් කාරයෝ.

සමහර ටියුෂන් ගුරුවරු කැමති කැමති විදියට මුදල් උපයති.  මුලදී එක් මුදලක් පවසා පන්ති ආරම්භ කල පසු ගාස්තු ක්‍රමානුකූලව වැඩි කරති. ඔවුන්ට සිතැඟි පරිදි එක් වරම What’s Up පණිවුඩ මඟින් පන්ති කැන්සල් කරති. සමහර විට ඒවාට නැවත පන්ති නැත. මුදල් රිෆන්ඩ් කිරීමක්ද බොහෝ විට නැත.

සමහරු විෂය මාලාව උගන්වා අවසන් නොකරති. ඒ වෙනුවට, මුද්‍රිත නෝට්ස් පිටු සිය ගණන් ළමුන්ට What’s Up මඟින් යවා, තම වගකීම ඉටු කලේ යයි පවසත්.

ළමා කාලය සෙල්ලමට සහ විනෝදයටද  යන  දරුවා  පසුව අන් සෑම දෙනා අභිබවා ඉදිරියට යන්නෙකි. 

1950 -70 දශකවල ළමෝ පාසැල් අවසන් වූ පසු පාසලේ විවිධ බාහිර ක්‍රියාකාරකම් වල යෙදුනහ. එදා පාසැල් ක්‍රීඩා පිටි විවිධ ක්‍රීඩා සඳහා පුහුණු වන ළමුන්ගෙන් පිරී තිබුණි.  

අද මළල ක්‍රීඩා උත්සවයකටවත් ළමුන් සොයා ගත නොහැකි බව එක් ගුරුවරයෙක් මේ ලියුම්කරු සමඟ පැවසීය. එදා ඉතා උත්කර්ෂවත් ලෙස පැවති පාසැල් තෑගී ප්‍රධාන උත්සව, පාසැල් විවිධ ප්‍රසංග අද ඉතා ඇල්මැරුණු තත්ත්වයට ගොසිනි. මේ බිඳ වැටීම් වලට ටියුෂන් පන්ති අඩු/වැඩි වශයෙන් දායක වී ඇත.

එදා සති අන්තය ළමුන් නිවසේ ගත කලේ ඉතා විවේක සුවයෙනි. පොත් පත් කියවීම එකළ සෑම ළමයෙකුගේම ජිවිතයේ කොටසකි. පොත් සොයමින් ළමුන් පුස්ථකාල පීරා ගියහ. අද?

1960 -80 දශකවල පාසැල් ළමෝ අද අය  මෙන් ඉතා බෙහෙවින් සිය දිවි නසා ගත්තේ නැත. කොළඹ පමණක් නොව ප්‍රාදේශීය පාසැල්වල පවා බොහෝ ශිෂ්‍ය සිය දිවි නසා ගැනීම් වාර්ථා වෙනවා.

පැරණි, දැන් විශ්‍රාමික, ටියුෂන් මුදළාලිලා සමාජ ජාලා මාධ්‍ය මඟින් ටියුෂන් සංස්කෘතිය රැක ගැනීමට, තව තවත් එය වර්ධනය කිරීමට නිතර කථා කරත්. ටියුෂන් යනු ඉතා අනගි, විශිෂ්ට, රටට ඉතා වැඩදායක, නැතිවම බැරි දෙයක් බවට පෙන්වා දීමට මේ අය තදබල ලෙස උත්සහ කරයි. ටියුෂන් වල ඍනාත්මක පැත්ත, සහාසික පැත්ත ගැන මොවුහු කථා නොකරත්.

මේ අය සමාජ ජාලා මාධ්‍ය හරහා ටියුෂන් ආදී ශිෂ්‍ය හමු/සංගම් පවත්වති. කළින් පන්ති වල වූදේ රස කර කර පවසති. නුදුරේදී පාසැල් ආදී ශිෂ්‍ය සංගම් පරයා මෙවැනි සංගම් බිහිවෙනු නිසැකය.

මේ සියල්ල කරන්නේ ළමුනට ටියුෂන් නැතිවම බැරි දෙයක් බව පෙන්වීමට විය හැක.

අද 10 වසරෙන් පසු බොහෝ ළමයිගේ ප්‍රධාන පාසැල ටියුෂන් කඩයයි, දෙවැන්න පාසැලයි. 

A/L කරන ළමුන් ඔවුන්ගේ 80% පැමිණීම පෙන්විය යුතුය යන නිතිය නිසා එම පන්ති වලට ළමුන් යම් තරමින් යත්.

මේ නිතීය O/L කරන ළමුන්ටද පැනවිය යුතුයි.

දියුණු රටවල මෙවැනි ටියුෂන් පිස්සුවක් නැත. ඒ ළමුන් තමනට අවශ්‍ය අධ්‍යාපනය සිය පාසලෙන් ලබා ගනී. 

නමුත්, ඕස්ත්‍රේලියාවේ මෙල්බර්න් නුවර දකුණු ඊසාන ප්‍රාන්තයේ නම් ටියුෂන් පිස්සුවක් වර්ධනය වෙමින් එන බවක් පෙනෙන්නට තිබේ. ඒ වෙන කිසී දෙයක් නිසා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවෙන් ගොස් සිටින අයගෙන් එම ප්‍රදේශ පිරී ඉතිරී යාමයි.

දියුණු රටවල පාසැල ඇත්තේ නිවසට ආසන්නවය. ඒ ළමුන් අපේ ළමුන් මෙන් නිතරම පීඩනයෙන් බරව ජිවත් වන්නන් නොවේ. ඒ ළමෝ ඉතා හොඳින්, සතුටින් සිය ළමා/යෞවන විය ගත කරත් (අපේ 1960 -70 අය මෙන්).

ටියුෂන් නොමැති නිසා පාසැලෙන්ම ඔවුන් අවශ්‍ය ඉගෙනුම ලබා ගනිත්.

ඔවුහු පුස්ථකාල පොත් පත් විශාල වශයෙන් පරිශීලනය කරති. වයස වැඩි ළමුන් කාණ්ඩ වශයෙන් එක්වී විභාග විෂයන් සාකච්චා කරති.

ටියුෂන් පිස්සුව නිසා විනාශ වන්නේ මල් කැකුළු වන අපේ දරු පරපුර පමණක් නොවේ, දෙමව්පියන්ද ඇතුළු මුළු පවුල් සංස්ථාවමය. ඒ නිසා, රටද අඳුරු, විනාශ මුඛයට යයි.

අද දෙමව්පියන්ට ටියුෂන් සම්භන්ධව පැමිණිලි කිරීමට ස්ථානයක් නැත.

‘ටියුෂන් ඔම්බඩ්ස්මන්’ වරයෙක් බිහිකිරීම ඉතා කාලෝචිතයි – ළමයි 100 එහා ඇති ටියුෂන් ආයතන සම්භන්ධව. මේවා කිරීමට ‘කොන්ද පන’ ඇති රජයන් තිබිය යුතුයි.

පාසැල් ගුරුවරු ළමුන්ට ගහන්න අවශ්‍ය නැහැ.

ගෙදර බිරිඳ/සැමියා සමඟ තරහ වී පාසලට පැමිණ ඒ තරහ පාසැලේදී ළමුන්ගෙන් ගන්න පිරිමි/ගැහැණු ගුරුවරු ඕන තරම් ඉන්නවා.

ගෙදරදී ආදරයෙන් දෙමව්පියන් විසින් හදන, කිසිදා ඔවුන්ගෙන් ගුටි නොකන දරුවා පාසැල් ගොස් ගුරුවරකුගෙන් ගුටි කනවා නම් එය විරුද්ධාභාශයකි (paradox).

මේ රජය වරින් වර හොඳ ප්‍රතිපත්තිද ගේනවා, විරුද්ධවාදීන්, යු ටියුබ් කාරයෝ කෑ ගහන කොට හකුලා ගන්නවා.

තම හොඳ ප්‍රතිපත්ති රටේ ජනතාවට තේරේන ලෙස පැහැදිලි කිරීමට රජයේ ඇමතිවරු අසමත් වෙලා.

ජනාධිපති හොඳයි කියල කියමුකෝ. ඒත් වැඩක් නැහැ ඔහුගේ බහුතර ඇමති මණ්ඩලය දුර්වල නම්/වැඩ බැරි නම්. අද ඒකයි වගේ වෙලා තියෙන්නේ.

මෙයට පිලියමක් අප අපගේ 7වෙනි ලිපියෙන් යෝජනා කළා.

රජයේ පරිවාස කාලය ගෙවී ගිහිං දැන් බොහෝ කල්.

රජය සමුපාකාර චන්දත් පරදිනවා.

පළාත් සභා චන්ද මේ අවස්ථාවේ නොතියා සිටීමයි ගුණ.

නවීකරණය කරනවා කියලා කොටුව දුම්රිය පොළේ පීලි ගලෝලා කොන්ක්‍රීට් කණු දාලා නැවත හයි කරනවා මේ දිනවල.  කෝටි ප්‍රකෝටි ගානක වැඩක්. ඇහුවහම කියනවා දුම්රියේ වේගය වැඩිකරන්නලු.

ස්ටේෂන් එකක් ඇතුලේ දුම්රියකට වැඩි වේගයක් අවශ්‍යද?

අප දන්නා පරිදි නම් මේවා හොඳ සිල්පර කොටන් තිබුණු හොඳ දුම්රිය පීලී. බොරුවට  පිලී ගලෝගන වටිනා මහජන මුදල් නිරපරාදේ වැය කර දමනවා වගේ.

ආණ්ඩුවට සල්ලි වැඩි නම්, කර කියා ගන්න වැඩි තරමට  සල්ලි ඇත්නම්, ඔය දැවැන්ත  දුම්රිය විදුලීකරණය කිරීම වැනි වැඩකට අත ගසන්න. බොරු වැඩවලට සල්ලි වියදම් කරන්න එපා.

අවශ්‍යම කරන්නේ කොටුව දුම්රිය ස්ථානය ඇතුලත ලස්සණ, පිරිසිඳු කිරීම සහ කළුවර නැතිකර ආලෝකමත් කිරීමයි.  කැන්ටින් වල පිරිසිඳුකම සහ ගුණාත්මය වැඩි කිරීම, ලොකු, විශාල කපුරු බෝල යොදා සැර ගඳ නිවාරණය කල  පිරිසිඳු ආලෝකමත්  වැසිකිළි, දුර ගමන් මගීන්ට – ගැහැණු, පිරිමි වෙන වෙනම, විවේක ගැනීමට නිසල විවේකාගාර (එය තුල තමන්ගේ  ආගම ඇදහිය හැකි පරිසරයක්/ස්ථානයක්), ඔරලෝසු සහිත ඩිජිටල් දුම්රිය කාලසටහන් පුවරු, කුඩා පුස්ථකාලයක්/පොත් කඩයක් වැනි දේ  තමා අවශ්‍ය. අබාධිත අයගේ සහ ජ්‍යෙෂ්ට පුරවැසියන්ගේ පහසුව සඳහා දැනට තිබෙන තරප්පු පඩි පෙළවල් විදුලි එස්කලේටර්  බවට පත් කල යුතුයි.  

අප කලින්ද කීවා ප්‍රධාන දුම්රිය මාර්ග වල,  ඉතා ජානාකීර්ණ වෙලාවලට, (කොළඹ – පොල්ගහවෙල, කොළඹ – පානදුර, කොළඹ – හලාවත, කැළණිවැලි) විනාඩි 5න් 5ට දුම්රිය ධාවනය කරවන්න, දැන් වගේ සෑම විනාඩි 20 – 30 වගේ නැතුව. දියුණු රටවල එහෙමයි.

මේ සඳහා නව එන්ජින් කට්ටල, මැදිරි කඩිනමින් මිලදී ගැනීම අවශ්‍ය  වේ. ඒ වගේම තමා ආදායමත් වැඩි වෙනවා.

රත්මලානේ දුම්රිය අංගනයේ සේවකයන් 50% – 60% පමණ යොදවා තිබෙන්නේ ඇල්ල ඔඩේසි දුම්රිය තනන්න. මෙයින්, සෙසු අත්‍යවශ්‍ය වැඩ පමා වෙනවා.

ඇල්ලට සුද්දෝ යන්න ඕන තමයි. නමුත්, අපේ අය?

දිනපතා යාපනයේ සිට කොළඹට එන දුම්රියන්  ගල්කිස්සෙන් මගීන් බස්සා, හිස්ව ආපසු දෙමටගොඩ අංගනයට එක පිම්මේ එන්නේ. මොන තරම් ඉන්ධන අපතේ යැවීමක්ද, සේවක පඩි නඩි, OT. කොළඹ සිට ගල්කිස්සට යන කොටත් එහෙමයි – හිස්වයි යන්නේ.

ගල්කිස්ස අයින් කරලා දුම්රිය කොටුවෙන් පටන් ගන්න ඕන. ඕනම නම්, කොටුව – ගල්කිස්ස සහ ගල්කිස්ස- කොටුව ස්ලෝ, මගී දුම්රියක් බවට එය පත් කල යුතුයි.

මොරගහකන්ද ජලාශයෙන් එන ජලය නිසා මින්නේරි වැව දැන් සැමදා පිරී පවතී. මෙය වී ගොවියනට ආශිර්වාදයකි. නමුත්, අගෝස්තු/සැප්තැම්බර් මාසවල මෙම වැව සිඳී පැවතිය යුතුය. මන්ද අලි පැටවුනට අත්‍යාවශ්‍ය විල්ලු තණ මෙසේ  ජලය අඩුකම නිසා නිරාවරණය වන වැවේ හට ගනී. සිය ගණනින් අලින් ඒ කාලයට මෙම වැවට එක් රොක්වන්නේ එහෙයිනි. නමුත් දැන් මෙය සිදු නොවේ හෝ සිදුවන්නේ අඩුවෙන්  

මෙය මේ රටේ සංචාරක කර්මාන්තයට තදබල පහරක් විය හැකියි. ලෝකයේ ලොකුම වන අලි එකතුව වන මෙය නැරභීම සඳහාම ශ්‍රී  ලංකාව වෙත පැමිණෙන සංචාරකයන් මෙහි නොපැමිණෙනු ඇත.

සංචාරක කර්මාන්තය දියුණු කල යුතුයයි රජයන් පුන පුනා කියයි. සංචාරකයන් මේ රටට එන්නේ කැලයේ සිටින අලින් සහ අනෙක් වන ජීවින් බැලීමට බවද රජයනට අමතකවීද?

රටේ අලි සහ වන ජීවී සම්පත අප නැති කර ගතහොත්  සංචාරක කර්මාන්තයද අප නැති කර ගන්නෙමු.

එය රටවැසියාට තේරෙන විට සියල්ල සිදුවී හමාර වේ.

මේ රජය පැමිණි විගස මහව, තඹුත්තේගම පැත්තේ සිටී ලොකු අලි ජනගහනයක් ඔයා මඩු ප්‍රදේශයට පළවා හැරියා මෝඩ විදියට (ඒ ප්‍රදේශවල ජනයා සතුටු කිරීමට?). එයින් වුනේ ඔයා මඩුවේ නැති අලි ප්‍රශ්ණ ඇති වීමයි.

වන ජීවී දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට තව දුරටත් අපගේ අලියා ආරක්ෂා කර ගැනීමට නොහැකි බව ඔවුන්ගේ ක්‍රියා කළාපයන් මඟින් පැහැදිලිවම අපට පෙන්වා දී තිබේ. ඔවුන්ගේ සේවා සංස්කෘතිය ඉතා ඉක්මනින්  හොඳ මාර්ගයට වෙනස් කර ගත යුතුවේ.

දැන් ඉන්නා වන ජීවී ඇමති දන්නවද අඩුම තරමින් ඔහු කථා කරන්නේ කුමක්ද කියාවත්?

වන ජීවී දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව ගැමියන්ට අලි වෙඩි බෙදා හරිනවා නම්  එය ඉතා ප්‍රවේශමින් සිදු කල යුතු කටයුත්තකි. සමහර ගැමියෝ අලි වෙඩි පත්තු කර තරහට වල් වැදුන වල් අලින්ගේ ඇඟට විසි කරත්.  මෙයින් අලින්ගේ ශරීර පිච්චේ.

අලි වෙඩි වලට අලින් ඉතා බයය; අලි වෙඩි වලට බියෙන්  බියෙන් මර හඬ දී දිව යන අලින්ගේ වීඩියෝ තිබේ.

1995 මැදිරිගිරියේදී අලි වෙඩි පත්තුකර අලියෙකුට ගසා අලියාව පිළිස්සු කාන්තාවක් 2011දී එම අලියා විසින්ම ගසා මරා දමනු ලැබුවා.

මිනිසාටත් වඩා හොඳ මතක ශක්තියක් අලියාට තිබෙනවාලු.

අලි වැට අඩු ධාරිතාවයකින් යුත් විදුලි රැහැනකින් (වෝල්ට් 110) විය යුතුය. සමහර ගම්මු මේවා වෝල්ට් 220 ක දක්වා හොරෙන් වැඩි කර, එවැනි රැහැන් මඟින් අලි ඇතුන් විදුලි සැර වද්දවා මරා දමා  ඇති බවට වූ කථා මෙම ලේඛකයා අසා තිබේ.

අග්බෝට වෙඩි තබා මරපු අය තවමත් අල්ලා නැහැ නේද?

අලි කොරිඩෝවන් අවුරුදු දහස් ගණනක් තිස්සේ පවතින්නාවූ දේය. අලි ඇතුන් අප විසින් සාදන නව අලි කොරිඩෝ භාවිතා කිරීමට පටන් ගනී යැයි අප අපේක්ෂා කිරීම මෝඩකමකි.

අවමංගල්‍ය කටයුතු වලදී මිනී පෙට්ටි අසල ඇත්දළ ප්‍රදර්ශනය කිරීම නැවැත්වීමට නීති හඳුන්වා දෙනු ලැබුවහොත් වඩාත් සුදුසුය. මෙම භාවිතයෙන් කිසිදු සෙතක් කිසිවෙකුට ඉටු නොවන අතර එය අද සමාජයට සුදුසු ද නොවේ.

අධික වටිනාකමක් ඇති ඇත්දළ සඳහා නිරන්තරයෙන් අලින් මරා දමනු ලැබේ.

වනෝද්‍යාන වල ඉන්නා දල ඇතුන් පවා කෙතරම් වෙඩි තබා/වසදී/හක්ක පටස් ගසා මරා දල දෙක පැහැර ගෙන යත්ද?

අවමංගල්‍ය කටයුතු සඳහා කෘතීම ඇත් දල (ලීයෙන් කැපු ඇත් දල වැනි) භාවිතයට ජනතාව හුරු කළ යුතුයි.

පන්සල් වලද ඇත් දළ මහ ඉහළින් ප්‍රදර්ශණය කෙරේ. දැනට තිබෙන ඒවා එසේ තිබුනාවේ, ඉදිරියට නොකර ඉඳිමු.

අලි ඇතුන්ට ආදරය කළ සුදු ජාතිකයෙක් දකුණු අප්‍රිකාවේ වනාන්තරයක් මැද පිහිටි නිවසක ජීවත් ව මිය ගියේය. ඔහුගේ අවමංගල්‍යදා අලි 50 කට අධික පිරිසක් පැමිණ ඔහුගේ ගෙදර වට කර, එයට සහභාගී වී තිබුනාලු.

ඇතින්නක් තම පැටියාට දුන් උවදෙස – ‘මිනිසයි කියනා දෙපා සතාගේ ලඟින් ගියත් ඇති පොඩි  පුතුනේ ….‘ (ඇත් ගාලේ දරු පෙම, ශ්‍රී චන්ද්‍රරත්න මානවසිංහ).

නයා හොඳ බුද්ධිමත් සතෙකි. නිකරුනේ මරා දමාන්න එපා.

නයෙක් ගෙදරට ආ විට මරා දමනවාට වඩා වෙනත් ප්‍රදේශයකට (කැලෑවකට ) ගෙන ගොස් දමන්න. අනුරාධපුරය පැත්තේ නයි අල්ලා ගෙන යන කාරුණික මහතෙක්  ඉන්නවා, ඔහුට ටෙලිෆෝන් කරන්න (076 415 0566).

බොහෝ සතුන්, සමහර විට සර්පයන් පවා අප සමඟ මිත්‍ර වීමේ අදහසින් අප නිවසට පැමිණේ. බොහෝ විට අපි ඔවුන් පලවා හරිමු හෝ මරා දමන්නෙමු.

ගැරඬියෙක් ඔබේ මිදුලට පැමිණියහොත් ඔවුන්ට ඉන්න අරින්න. හරිම අහිංසක සතෙක්. බයම නම් සතාගෙන් ඈතට  භූමිතෙල් විසි කරන්න, එවිට ඔවුන් ඉවතට යනු ඇත. නමුත් කරුණාකර භූමිතෙල් තෙල් ඔවුන්ගේ සිරුරට විසි නොකරන්න – ඔවුන්ගේ සම පිලිස්සී යන නිසා. 

අප සමඟ ආදරයෙන් බැඳී සිටින ඩොල්ෆින්වරු අපගේ ධීවර බෝට්ටු සමඟ පීනති. එය ප්‍රයෝජනයට ගෙන අප ඔවුන්ව මරා දමා මසට ගන්නෙමු. හදවතක් නැත්තේ කාටද?

දේශපාලනඥයන් සතුන්ගේ  විශේෂයෙන්ම වන සතුන්ගේ සුභසිද්ධිය ගැන සැලකිලිමත් බවක් නොදක්වන්නේ වනාන්තරයේ හෝ ගෘහස්ථයේ සතුන්, වන ජීවින් හට  ඡන්දය නොමැති බව ඔවුන් දන්නා නිසාය.

තියෙන අහිතකර ගස් කපා සතුන්ට කා හැකි ගස් ආහාර කැලෑ වල වගා කරන බව රජය පවසයි. ගස් පැල හිටවලා විතරක් නොවෙයි ඒවා ලොකු වෙනකම් බලා ගන්න ඕන. සමහර කාලවලට දිනපතා වතුර දැමිය යුතුයි. ඕවා එලෙසින් කරයිද? තියෙන ගසුත් නැතිවෙන වැඩක්?

කැලෑ අභ්‍යන්තරයට මිනිසාට වැඩි වැඩියෙන් යන්න දෙනවා කියන්නේ වනජීවින්ට අසුබම  කාලයක්. දඩ මස් ජාවාරම්, දැව සහ අලි පැටව් හොරකම් මතක් වේ.

කිරි ගොවියන් කැලෑ ඇතුලට හරකුන් දැක්කීම නැවැත්විය යුතුය. මන්නාරම පැත්තේ  මෙලෙසින් එළුවන් දක්කනවා. මේ හරක්, එළුවෝ  කන්නේ කැලේ ඉන්න අලි, මුව, ගොනුන්, හාවන්ට කෑමට තිබෙන තණකොළ.

එක් ප්‍රබල දේශපාලන චරිතයක් තමනට අවශ්‍ය ලක්ෂණ බල්ලෙක් (සෙන්ට් බර්නාර්ඩ් හෝ ලැබ්‍රඩො විය යුතුයි) ස්විට්සර්ලන්තය වැනි රටකින් ගෙන්වා ගනීමට ශ්‍රී ලන්කන් එයා ලයින් ගුවන් යානයක් ඒ වෙනුවෙන්ම  යැවූ කථාවක් අසන්නට ලැබුනා.

ආනයනික වර්ග සොයනවාට වඩා අපේම සුනඛයන්/බළලුන් ඇති කළ යුතුයි. ඔවුන් අපේ රටට ආවේනික බැවින් නිවසේ හැදීමට ඉතාම ඉතාම සුදුසුයි.  ඔවුන් අප උපන් භුමියෙහිම  කොටසක්.  

විදේශීය සුනඛ/ බළලුන් මිලදී ගැනීම සඳහා මිනිසුන් විශාල මුදලක් වැය කරති. මෙය හාස්‍යජනකයි – මෙම සතුන් මඟින් සමජයේ උසස් තැනක් නිර්මාණය කර ගැනීමට හැකිවෙතැයි ඇතැම් මෝඩ මිනිසුන් සිතති (කාර්, ගෙවල්, ළමයාගේ පාසැල මෙන් සතුන් මඟින්ද මිනිස් සමාජයේ උසස් බවක් ලබා ගන්නා තැතක්; තමන්ගේ හොඳ ගතිගුණ වෙනුවට).

මෙම විදේශ අභිජනන බොහෝ විට අසනීප වේ. ඔවුන් සත්ව මස් හා උසස් තත්ත්වයේ ආහාර මත වැඩිපුර යැපේ. ඇත්ත,

විදේශීය සතුන් (බල්ලන්, පූසන්) ලස්සනයි. නමුත් අපේ  සතුන් ඒ සියල්ලටම වඩා ලස්සනයි.

ඉහළ පෙළේ පොලිස් නිලධාරියෙක් වරක් මෙම ලේඛකයාට පැවසුවේ අපේ දේශීය සුනඛයන් මනා පුහුණුවක් ලැබුවහොත් ඔවුන් විදේශීය සුනඛ අභිජනන වලට වඩා හොඳින්  පොලිස් රැකියාව කරන බවයි. සියල්ල රඳා පවතින්නේ පුහුණුව මත වන අතර අප ඔවුන්ව කොතරම් හොඳින් හසුරුවන්නේද යන්න වැදගත් බව ඔහු පැවසීය.

වනයේ වෙසෙන මුවන්, ගෝනුන් ඉත්තැවන් වැනි සතුන් මරා දමන අයට එරෙහිව නඩු පැවරීමට අපට නීති තිබේ; නමුත් ඔවුන්ගේ මස් හෝටල්වල පිස ආහාරය පිණිස තැබීම, මිනිසුන් ඒවා අනුභව කිරීමට එරෙහි නිතී අපට නොමැතිය. මෙය අපගේ  නීතියේ ඇති අඩුවකි.

දිවියා ඝාතනය කිරීම තහනම් නමුත් පුළුන් පිරවූ දිවියෙකු නිවසේ තබා ගන්නා වංශාධිපතියාට එරෙහිව නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක නොවේ.

කිසි පාලනයක් නොමැතිව වායු රයිෆල් අලෙවි කිරීමට රජය අවසර දීම නිසා එදා ගම් වල රෑට නිදහසේ සැරිසැරූ වල් ඌරා අද වඳවී යන තරමට අතුරුදහන් වෙලා. ඉත්තැවාටත් ඒ ආනිශංසයම අත් වෙලා.

වල් ඌරාව මරා දැමීමට තිබු තහනමත් මෑතක රජයක් විසින් ඉවන්ත් කළා නේද?

මෙම ලිපි පෙලේ කළින් ලිපියක අප සඳහන් කළා පොලිසිය විසින් තදින් විමර්ශනය කරමින් යන, රටේ නමගිය අපරාධ පිළිබඳව ඇතැම් යු ටියුබ් කරුවන් හුදු විව්ස් ගැනීමේ හෝ වෙනයම් සදාචාර විරෝධී අරමුණින් යු ටියුබ් වැඩසටහන් කර මහජන ප්‍රදර්ශනයට ඒවා දමන බව.

මෙය පොලීසිය විසින් සිදු කරගෙන යන අපරාධ විමර්ශනයනට හානියක්, බාධා අවුල් කිරීමක්ද විය හැකියි.

සමහරවිට අපරාධ චූදිතයන්, අපරාධයට සම්බන්ධ සාක්ෂිකරුවන් පවා මේ යු ටියුබ් කරුවන් බිය, සැක නැතුව ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ ස්වකීය වැඩසටහන් තුලින් ප්‍රශ්ණ කරනවා.

ඇත්තටම, පොලිසියට ඉස්සෙල්ලා යු ටියුබ් කරුවා  විසින් අපරාධය ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ විමර්ශනය කරනවා පමණක් නොවෙයි අපරාධ ගවේෂණය නොමඟ යවන ප්‍රකාශ පවා මේ වැඩ සටහන් තුලින් කෙරෙනවා.  

මේ ලඟදි එක පවුලේ සහෝදරියෝ රැසක් ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ ප්‍රශ්ණ කළා නේද, අප දන්නා තරමින් ඔවුන්ව පොලිසිය විසින් ප්‍රශ්ණ කිරීමටත් පෙර?

මේ යු ටියුබ් මඟින් සිදු කරන අපරාධ විමර්ශන; ශ්‍රී ලංකාව නිසා හොඳයි.

ජනතාව  තුල ත්‍රාසය, කුතුහලය අවුස්සා ඔවුන් තම යු ටියුබ් ගිණුම් මාර්ගයෙන් උපරිම ලෙස මුදල් හම්බ කරගන්නවා.

99%ක් පමණ අපේ යුටියුබ් කරුවන් මේ වැරදි දේ කරන්නේ නැහැ, ඔවුන් ඉතා ප්‍රවේශමෙන්, සදාචාරාත්මකව රටේ දැනට සිදුවන අපරාධ පිළිබඳව වාර්ථා කරනවා; චුදිතයන්, නොවීසිදුණු අපරාධයට සම්බන්ධ සාක්ෂිකරුවන් ගෙන්වා සිය වැඩ සටහන් තුලින් ප්‍රශ්ණ කිරීම මේ අය කරන්නේ නැහැ.

පොලිසිය තමන් මෙහෙය වන අපරාධ/වංචා  විමර්ශන පිළිබඳව පොලිස් මාධ්‍ය ප්‍රකාශක තුමා විටින් විට මාධ්‍ය දැනුවත් කරනවා. ඒවා මාධ්‍යය විසින් ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ වාර්ථා කිරීම නිවැරදියි. 

මේ තැනැත්තා මේ දෙය කරන්නේ ඔවුන්ගේ ක්‍රියාවේ බරපතළ බව නොදැන වෙන්න ඇති.

නැත්නම් අදෘශ්‍යමාන බලවේගයක් ඔහුව ආරක්ෂා කරනවා?

කෙසේ වෙතත් යු ටියුබ් කරුවා පොලිස් පන්නයේ විමර්ශණ ප්‍රසිද්ධ අවකාශයේ සිදු කිරීම වරදක්.

ඔහුගේ වැඩ සටහන් වලට සහභාගී වී ආපසු ගියවුන් ඝාතනයට පවා ලක් වුනා.

ඒත් පාඩම් ඉගෙන ගෙන නැහැ.

වටිනා මිනිස් ජීවිත අවධානමේ දානවා මොහු.

යුක්තිය පසිඳලීමේ ක්‍රියාවලියට භාධා කිරීම (perverting the course of justice) දියුණු රටවල ඉතා බරපතල අපරාධමය වරදක්. වසර ගණනාවක් හිරේ යන වැඩක්.

යු ටියුබ් කරුවා රටේ බුද්ධි අංශ වල කළින් සේවය කල නිලධාරින් තම වැඩ සටහනට ගෙන්වා රටේ ජාතික ආරක්ෂාවට බලපාන ඉතා සංවේදී කරුණු සිය වැඩ සටහන මඟින් විකාශනය කරනවා. ඇත්තවශයෙන්ම විශ්‍රාමික බුද්ධි අංශ නිලධාරියා කරන්නේ බලවත් නීති විරෝධී දෙයක් බව ඔහුටවත් නොවැටහේද?

අතිශය සංවේදී බුද්ධි රහස් – ඒවා නිරාවරණය කරන්නා පමණක් නොව අදාළ යු ටියුබ්කරු පවා Sedition (දේශ ද්‍රෝහිත්වය) යන බරපතල අපරාධමය වරදේ සහ ජාතික ආරක්ෂාවට එරෙහි වූවා වැනි  අවශේෂ අපරාධයන් යටතේ අමාරුවේ වැටිය හැකියි.

දැන්වත් මේ කරන වැරදි වැඩ නවත්තන්න.

මෙසේ යු ටියුබ් වැඩ සටහන් ප්‍රචාරණය කිරීමෙන් අති විශාල ලෙස ඔවුන් මුදල් හම්බ කරනවා විය හැකියි, නතර කරන්න අමාරු ඒ නිසා විය හැකියි.

අනාගතයේදීවත්  මෙවැනි දේ නොකිරීමට ඔහු වග බලා ගත්තොත් ඉතා මැනවි.

එම යු ටියුබ්කරු ඉතා ශික්ෂාකාමී රටේ ප්‍රසිද්ධ බෞද්ධ භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේ නමකට එරෙහිව  මේ ළඟදී ඉතා අපහාසමය වැඩ සටහනක් ප්‍රචාරය කරනු ලැබීය. මෙය ඉතාම බරපතළ වරදක්. පාප කර්මයක්.

හරි අපහාස නඩුවක් වැටුනදාට තේරෙයි –  කෝටි ගණන් වන්දි ගෙවන්න වෙනකොට.

අවුරුදු 80 පැනපු වයෝවෘද්ධ කතරගම දේවාලයේ කපු මහතා තම විකාශණාගාරයට ගෙන්වා ඔහුව ඉතා අපහසුතාවයට පත් කළා. එය  සදාචාර සම්පන්න ප්‍රශ්ණ කිරීමක්  නොවීය.

පසුව, ඒ කපු මහතා යම් කලක් රිමාන්ඩ් භාරයේ පවා සිටියා විය හැකියි (එදා මතු කල, ප්‍රශ්ණ කරන ලද වැරැද්දට).

මේ වැඩ සටහන් වලින් පසුව මිනිසුන් කතරගම යාම අඩු කරලද? ලඟදි ඒ පැත්තේ ගියා, මුළු කතරගමම හේදිලා ගිහිල්ලා වගේ දැන් එහි සෙනග ඇත්තෙම නැහැ.

දේවාලයට වැඩ ගොඩාක්ම අඩුයි, මිනිස්සු පුජා වට්ටියට සල්ලි තියන්නේ නැතිලු. තිබ්බත් පොඩි ගණන්ලු.

තැලෙන යකඩේමයි තලන්නේ කියනවා වගේ හැමෝම ගහන්නේ සිංහලයාට, බෞද්ධයාට සහ අපේ ගරුතර සංඝයා වහන්සේලාට, කතරගම, වැනි දේශීය දෙවිවරුන්ට.

අනිත් ආගමික ස්ථානවල වැරදි කෙරෙන්නේ නැද්ද; ඇයි ඒවාත් වාර්ථා නොකරන්නේ?

දැන් පවත්නා කැනඩා සහ මහා බ්‍රිතාන්‍යය රජයන් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට එරෙහිවූ  ක්‍රියාවල තදින්ම යෙදී සිටිනවා. ඔවුන් පසුගිය සතියේ අපට එරෙහිව ගෙනා ජෙනිවා යෝජනා එක් උදාහරණයක්.

කැනඩාව තම රට තුල ද්‍රවිඩ ජන සංහාරක ස්මාරක තැනීමට පවා ඉඩ දුන්නා. ඉදිරියේදී මෙය මුළු කැනඩාව පුරාම ව්‍යාප්ත වෙන්න පුළුවන්. අනෙක් බටහිර රටවලටත් පැතිර යන්න පුළුවන්.

අපේ රජයන් මීට වඩා ඒ රටවල් 2ට සිය අප්‍රසාදය සහ විරෝධය පළ කල යුතුයි.හැකි නම් ඔවුන්ගේ මහ කොමසාරිස් වරු විදේශ අමාත්‍යංශයට කැඳවා.

විජිත හේරත් මහතා හොඳ විදේශ ඇමතිවරයෙක්.

එම රටවල් දෙකේ සිටින සිංහලයන් ගැන ඇත්තටම ඇත්තේ කණගාටුදායක හැඟීමක්. මේ අයගේ සංඛ්‍යාව ඒ රටවල සිටින බෙදුම්වාදී අදහස් ඇති දෙමළ ඩයස්පෝරාවට වඩා බොහෝ වැඩියි. හැබැයි මීක් නැහැ.

අපට උගන්වා තිබෙන්නේ රට යනු අම්මා කියායි.

බෙදුම්වාදී දෙමළ ඩයස්පෝරාව එක් උද්ගෝෂණයක් කරණවා නම් එවැනි උද්ගෝෂණ 5ක් කරන්න තරම් අපේ අය මේ රටවල ඉන්නවා නේද?

උද්ගෝෂණ කරන්න බැරි නම් ඒ රටවල අගමැතිවරු, ඇමතිවරු ගොස් පුද්ගලිකව හමුවී සිය අප්‍රසාදය ප්‍රකාශ කර සිටිය යුතුයි. මින් ඉදිරියට මෙවැනි ශ්‍රී ලංකා විරෝධී කටයුතු නොකළ යුතු බව, නැත්නම් අපේ චන්දය නොලැබෙන බව නිර්භව කියා සිටිය යුතුයි.

තම මවු රට වෙනුවෙන් ඉදිරියට නොඑන මේ අය ගැන, කොයි තරම් උසස් රැකියා ඒ රටේ කළත්,  අපට ආඩම්බර වෙන්න බැහැ.

තමන්ට තිබෙන අඩුපාඩු ගැන සිතා සමහරු සමාජයෙන් කොන් වෙන්න බලනවා. මට හොඳ ඇඳුම් නැහැ, හොඳ ජොබ් එකක් නැහැ, ගෙයක් නැහැ, කාර් එකක් නැහැ, බැඳලා නැහැ, ළමයි නැහැ, ඩිවෝස්, මට කවුරුවත් සලකන්නේ නැහැ, ලෙඩයි, පවුලක් නැහැ, වයස වැඩියි, සල්ලි නැහැ, කැතයි, මෝඩයි, තේරෙන්නේ නැහැ, නෝනා බනිනවා, මහත්තයාගෙන් කිසි වැඩක් නැහැ, ළමයි ආදරේ නැහැ, බස් එකේ යන්නේ, කමිසේ ඉරිලා, හොඳ ස්මාර්ට් ෆෝන් එකක් නැහැ, හන්දියේ ත්‍රී වීල් පාක් එකේ අය මට හිනාවෙනවා ආදී විවිධ හේතු.

සමහරවිට නිෂ්පල වූ නිදහසට කරුණු තමන් විසින්ම මනසේ හදාගෙන සමාජයෙන් කොන් වෙන්න බලනවා, යාළුවන්ගෙන් ඈත් වෙනවා, පවුලෙන් ඈත් වෙනවා. හොඳ මානසිකයක් වර්ධනයක් කර ගෙන සිටින අය ඒ වගේ හිතන්නේ නැහැ.

අප ධාරණය කර ගත යුතුයි – මේ ලෝකේ කවුරුවත් සර්ව සම්පුර්ණ නැහැ. අද මා ලග නැති දේ නොවෙයි ඇති දේ ගැනයි හිතන්න ඕන, හෙට ඒවාත් නැති වෙන්න පුළුවන්නේ කියා.

ඒ නිසා බිය නැතිව, අනිත් අය මොනවා සිතයිද, කියයිද යන පුහු මෝඩ අදහස් ඇතිකරගන්නේ නැතිව ඉදිරියටම අප යා යුතුයි.  

සමාජයට බය නැතිව මුහුණ දෙන්න ඕන. අද මගේ මොලේ, අත්පා වැඩ කරනවා, අද මා ගාව බස් එකට සල්ලි තියෙනවා හෙට ඒකත් නැතිවෙන්න පුළුවන් කියලා වගේ හිතන්න.

හෙට, අද මට නැති පිළිකාවක් එන්න පුළුවන්.

ඕනෑම කෙනෙකුට ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨයෙක් වෙන්න  පුළුවන්  – තමන්ගේ දක්ෂතාව හඳුනාගෙන, ඒවා උපරිම තත්ත්වයට දියුණු කරගෙන, ඉතා තදබල කැපවීමෙන් වැඩ කරන්න ඕන. මනස ඒ වෙනුවෙන් ‘කන්ඩිෂන්’ කරගෙන ඒ තත්ත්වය  රඳවා ගන්න ඕන.

ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨ ගායකයෝ, නළුවෝ, වඩුවෝ, ගත්කතුවරු, වෛද්‍යවරු, කරනවෑමියෝ, රියදුරුවරු, නීතිඥවරු, දේශපාලනඥයෝ, පයිප්ප බාස්ලා නිවේදකවරු ආදීන්; ඒ අයගේ අංශවලින් අන්තිම ඉහලට ආවහම අපට ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨයයි කියා කියන්න පුළුවන්.

මෙය දවසින් දෙකෙන් වෙන දෙයක්වත්, කෘතීමව වෙන දෙයක්වත් නොවෙයි, ස්වභාවිකව කාලයත් සමඟ වෙන දෙයක්. හොර පාරවලින් ගොස්, බොරු කර, තමන් ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨයි කියා හිතා ගන්න අය ඉන්නවා – විශේෂයෙන්ම දේශපාලනඥයයෝ. ඒ පුද්ගලයාමයි මුලා වෙන්නේ , මොකද ජනතාව එසේ යයි කියා පිළිගන්නේ නැති නිසා.

අන්තිමට ඔබට ඉන්නේ ඔබ පමණයි. ඊට පෙර,  ඔබට (ආදරය කරන) ඔබේ පවුල සහ ඔබට ආදරය කරන ඔබ වටා සිටින සුළු පිරිස.

ප්‍රශ්නයක් ආවිට, ඔබ ඔය බියෙන් සැඟවෙන, හැමවිටම ධනාත්මක අගයක් ඔබ විසින් දීමට උත්සහා කරන සමාජය, ඒ වෙලාවට පළාතකවත් නැහැ.

තමන් හීනෙන්වත්, නොහිතපු, නොකියපු දේවල් හිතා සමහරු අමනාප වෙනවා. ගණන් නොගත යුතුයි; ඉදිරියටම යා යුතුයි. ඒ අයටම කවදා හරි තේරේවි. නොතේරුණත් කමක් නැහැ මොකද ඔබේ සිත සුද්ද නිසා.

අපේ රටේ බොහෝ දෙනෙක් කාරණා උපකල්පනය කර, ඒවා සත්‍යයයි කියා තදින්ම ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ අනෙකාට කියා සිටිනවා. තම උපකල්පන බොරු බව ඔවුනට වැටහෙන ප්‍රශ්ණ බොහෝ දුර දිග ගොසින් හමාරයි.

සිත තදීන්ම කියනවානම ඕක හොඳ  වැඩක් නොවෙයි කියලා, කරන්න එපා ඒක.

ඔබේ සිත අවංක නම්, ඔබ වරදක් කරලා නැත්නම් කිසි දෙයකට බිය නොවිය යුතුයි; මුළු ලෝකේම ඔබට ගල් ගැහුවත් නොබියව, හිස කෙලින්කර ඉදිරියටම යන්න.  හිතින් තැවෙන්නේ ඒ බොරුකාර අයයි.

ජීවිතේ ගොඩාක් දුරයි. ගිරිදුර්ග, වන දුර්ග, ජල දුර්ග අතරින් ගෙනියන ජීවිතේ පාර වැරදෙන වාර අනන්තයි. ඒත් පාර වැරදුණා කියලා ජීවිතේ නතර කරන්න පුළුවන්කමක් නැහැ. නව, තව පාරක් සොයා ගන්න උත්සාහ ගන්න ඕන. 

සතුට සම්පත වාසනාව ආවහම, කාටවත් කරදරයක් නැත්නම්, ඒවා ආදරයෙන් වැළඳ ගන්න; අවස්ථා පැහැර යන්න ඉඩ දෙන්න හොඳ නැහැ. මන්ද, ධානාත්මක අවස්ථා නිතරම නොඑන නිසා.

මිත්‍රත්වය රැක ගෙන, එය ඉදිරියට ගෙනයාම මිත්‍රයන් දෙදෙනාගේම වගකීමකි, එක්කෙනෙකුට පමණක් එය කල නොහැක.

ඔලු ගෙඩිය අවුල් කරගත්තොත්,  කඩා වැටෙන්නේ ජීවන ඉනිමගයි.

එක බොරුවක් වහන්න බොරු 10ක් කියන්න වෙනවා.

අධ්‍යාපයනය යනු පාසැල් ගොස් පොත පත ඉගෙනීම පමණක් නොවේ. පරිසරය සුරැකීම, ආගමානුකුලව ජිවත් වීම, වැඩිහිටියන්ට සැලකීම. සතුන්ට නපුරු නොවීම, සමගියෙන් සමුහ ක්‍රීඩා කිරීමට හැකියාව; මෙවැනි දේ ඉගෙනුමත් අධ්‍යාපනයයි.

මේ ලෝකේ හැමෝටම මොනයම් දෙයකට හරි දක්ෂතාවය තියෙනවා. ඒවගේමයි   අදක්ෂතාවයත්.

දියුණු බටහිර රටවල rational reasoning (තාර්තික තීරණ ගැනීම) හොඳින් ක්‍රියාත්මක වෙනවා; ඒ නිසා හැමෝටම වගේ අවස්ථා ලැබෙනවා. ඒ රටවල Win Win අවස්ථා වැඩියි.

කාර්මික විප්ලවය (1750 – 1900) චීනයේ නොවී එංගලන්තයේ සිදු වීමට  එක් ප්‍රධාන හේතුවක් වුයේ  ඔවුන්ගේ වූ මේ තාර්තික තීරණ ගැනීමයි.  ඔවුන් තාක්ෂණික දැනුම/රහස්, ඒවායේ තම අයිතිය නිතීමය ලෙස තහවරු කර ගන්නා අතර (copy rights), ඒවා එකිනෙකා අතර බෙදා ගත්තා. එකළ චීනයේ අය  ස්වකීය දැනුම සඟවා ගත්තා. ඒ නිසා, බොහෝ දැනුම එකී පුද්ගලයා සමඟම මැරී ගියා.

අපේ රටේ, සමහර අය ඉන්නවා හැසිරීම නිසා අන්තිම ‘කාලකන්නි’ වගේ පේන්නේ. නමුත් දක්ෂ නායකයා දන්නවා ඕනෑම කෙනෙකුගේ දක්ෂතා හඳුනාගෙන, කාලකන්නියාගේ පවා හොඳ ගතිගුණ හඳුනාගෙන, ඒවායින් දෙදෙනාටම හොඳ, වාසිදායක පල ප්‍රයෝජන ලබා ගන්න.

අද, එංගලන්තේ වගේ රටවල වාහනයක් හෙඩ් ලයිට් සංඥාව දෙන්නේ  ‘ඔබ යන්න, මම නතරවෙන්නම්’ කියන්නයි. ලංකාවේ හෙඩ් ලයිට් සංඥාව දෙන්නේ ‘මම යනවා, ඔබ ඉන්න’ කියන එකයි.  උපරිම ආත්මාර්ථකාමිත්වය විදහා පෑමක් ලංකාවේ.

මෙහෙ වගේ පෝලිම් පනින මිනිස්සු ඒ රටවල නැහැ.

මේ රටේ සමහරු පාරේ ඇවිදින්න දන්නේ නැහැ, උවමනාවෙන් හෝ නොසැලකිලිමත් බැවින් ඇඟේ හැප්පෙන්නමයි එන්නේ. අනෙකාට ඉඩ දීමක් නැහැ. ආත්මාර්ථකාමී ඒ අය ගාල කඩා  යන හරකුන් හා සමානයි.

පෙව්මන්ට් එකේ, සමහර විට නිදාගෙන වගේ ඇවිදින අය ඉන්නවා. ඇඟේ හැප්පුනහම කඩාගෙන පනිනවා. මේ අයගෙන් විද්‍යාමාන වන්නේ විනයක් නැති, ගුණමකු සමාජයක්.

අපි බස්/දුම්රියට නගින්නේ අනිත් අය පෙරලගෙන. හැමදාම වැඩිහිටියෝ, ආබාධිතයෝ මඟ නතර වෙනවා නැග ගන්න බැරුව.

අපි බස් එකේ ඉඳ ගන්නෙත් ඊළඟ එක්කෙනාගේ පැත්තෙනුත් ඉඩ අල්ලාගෙන. ලඟින් කෙනෙක් ඉඳ ගත්තවිටත් අයින් වී සිට් එකේ ඉඩෙන් කොටසක් දෙන්නේ නැහැ.

ගොඩාක් වෙලාවට මේ ආත්මාර්ථකාමීන් සමඟ කකුල් වද්දමින් තමයි බසයේ යන්න වෙන්නේ. ලංකාවේ අයට මෙය සාමාන්‍ය දෙයක්, දියුණු රටවල කිසිදා සිදු නොවෙන දෙයක්.

පාරේ ඇවිදින්න නොදන්නා, බස් එකේ හරියට වාඩිවී යන්න නොදන්නා ගේ චරිතය කොයි වගේද කියලා ඒ අයගේ ඒ කල් ක්‍රියා වලින් අපිට නිරාවරණය කර දෙනවා.

අද කාලේනම් දුර ගමන් සේවා බසයකට ගොඩ වුණොත් නින්දයන කතාව හරි පොතක් කියවන එක නම් බොරු. බස් රථයේ ඇසෙන සින්දුවල කන්දොස්කිරියාවට ඔලුවේ කැක්කුම හැදෙනවා. හොඳ සංවර සින්දුවක් හිමිහිට වාදනය කලාට කමක් නැහැ. නමුත් මේ බස් වල දමන වීඩියෝ බලන්නවත් හිතෙන්නේ නැහැ: තරුණයෝ පාරේ නටන පරණ සංගීත සංදර්ශනවල  වීඩියෝ සමඟ ඒවායේ කර්ණකටුක සංගීතය, (නොහොත් ඝෝශාව), උගුර යටින් කෑ ගහන, කිසි චාරයක් නැති නිවේදකවරු. 

බස් එක ඇතුලේ දුරකථන ඇමතුමක් ආන්සර් කරන එක බොරු. ඒ තරමට සංගීතේ ඝෝෂාව සහ එන්ජිමේ සද්දේ.

අපි හරිම කැමතියි කාගේ හරි අඩුපාඩුවක්, වැරැද්දක් අල්ලාගෙන, පුළුවන් තරම් දොස් කියන්න; බොහෝ විට දොස් කියන්නේ ප්‍රශ්නය හරි හැටි නොදැන මතුපිටින් පමණක් බලා.

සමහරු, විශේෂයෙන්ම කාන්තාවෝ කුඩ ඉහලාගෙන උජාරුවට පාරේ අව්වේ යනවා, අනිත් අය ගැන හිතන්නේ නැහැ. බැරිවෙලාවත් කුඩ කූරක් ඇහැක එහෙම වැදුනොත්.

‘කෙනෙක් දියුණුවේ ඉහලට යනවා’ ……. ‘නිකන් ඉන්න එපා කොහොම කොහොම හරි ගහපල්ලා බං පෙත්සම්’ – ෆ්‍රෙඩි සිල්වා මහතා කදිමට මෙසේ පෙන්වා දුන්නේ මිනිසත් කමේ තියෙන ඉතා නරක ගතිගුණයක්.

ලෝකයේ තිබුනු යල් පැනගිය බහු බූත මත සීග්‍රයෙන් ක්ෂය වී යන කාලයක් මේ. ඉදිරියේදී ජිවත්වන අය අද ඉන්න අපට වඩා වාසනාවන්තයි, ඒ මොකද සමාජය පරිනාමය වීමේදී, තිබෙන විෂම අදහස්/ ක්‍රම ක්‍රමයෙන් තුරන් වෙනවා, හොඳ අදහස්, හොඳ නීති උඩට එනවා.

අපි අනෙකාට උදවු නොකලොත් අපිට ඕනා වෙලාවට උදවු කරන්නත් කෙනෙක් නැති බව වටහා ගනිමු.

සත්‍යය ගරුකව, සොබා දහම සමඟ ජීවත් වන පුද්ගලයාගේ සිත කලාත්මක හැගීම් වලින්ද පරිපුර්ණයි.

අපේ රටේ පගාවක් ගන්නේ නැතිව මනුස්සයකුට වැඩක් කරලා දෙන රජයේ නිලධාරින් ගොඩාක් ඉන්නවා. පගාව දීගන්න බැරි අහිංසක මනුස්සයන්ට කාගේ පිහිටක්ද? 

දෙපාර්ශවයක් ඉන්න ප්‍රශනයක් නම් මේ ගොල්ල දෙපැත්තෙන්ම පගාව අරං ප්‍රශ්නේ තවත්  උග්‍ර කරනවා.

ඉස්සරනම් පගාව දුන්නොත් කොහොමහරි වැඩේ කරලා දෙනවා. නමුත්, දැන් කාලේ පගාව අරං වැඩේ නොකරන අය ඉන්නවා. එක් අතකින් මෙය පගාව දෙන අයට දෙවරක් සිතා බැලීමට  වූ හොඳ පාඩමක්.

අද පඳුරක්, පඳුරක් ගානේ මහාචාර්යවරු, ආචාර්යවරු, ශාස්ත්‍රපතිලා, දර්ශනපතිලා වැහි වැහැලා.  මේ සමහර අය අචාර්ය, මහාචාර්ය උපාධි ගත්තේ කොහෙන්ද, විස්තර ඇහුවහම ඉක්මනට මග හැරලා යනවා.

වංචාවෙන් මැරකමෙන් ජිවත් වීම වැඩි වෙලා. ඒ නැති බැරි කමට නොවෙයි. අනුන්ගේ දේවල් කඩා වඩා ගැනීම සමහර අයගේ එකම ආදායම් මාර්ගයයි. සමහරුන්ගේ ජාන වල මේ ලක්ෂණ තියෙනවද?

වැරදි කරන අය දුප්පත්කම, නුගත්කම නැත්නම් සමාජයේ ඇති වැරැද්ද වැනි හේතු තමන් කල වැරැද්දට හේතු  සාධක වශයෙන් දැක්වීම නිදහසට කාරණා නෙවෙයි. වරදට දඬුවම් කිරීමේදී නම් මේවා බලපානවා.

සිරකරුවන්ට සමාව දීමේදී, චුදිතයන්ට ඇප දීමේදී සමාජයේ අහිංසක ජනයාගේ ආරක්ෂාව ගැනත් සිතන්න වෙනවා. ඇප ලබා එලියට පැමිණ නැවත මිනිමරණ අය කොතෙකුත් ඉන්නවා.

එක දරුණු මත් ද්‍රව්‍ය ජාවාරම් කාරයෙක් ඇප ලැබුන දවසේම වගේ රටින් පැනලා. ඔහු මොනතරම් විනාශයක් දැන් පිට රට සිට මේ රටට කරනවද?

ගරු අධිකරණයට දොස් කීමෙන් වැඩක් නැහැ. එය කරන්නේ පවත්නා නිතීය ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමයි.

ජීවත්වන ජනතාවගේ සුභ සිද්ධිය ගැන සිතා රජයන් දරුණු අපරාධකරුවන්ට ලෙහෙසියෙන් ඇප ලබා නැවත සමාජයට යාම වැලක්වීමට ඇප පනත සංශෝධනය කළ යුතුයි.

රටේ ජීවත්වෙන සාමකාමී ජනතාවගේ සුභ සිද්ධිය තකා බරපතල අපරාධ වලට මුහුණ දෙන්නන් (චූදිතයන්) දැන් ගරු අධිකරණ වලින් ලබා ගන්නා ලිහිල් ඇප කොන්ද්දෙසී ඉතා දැඩි කල යුතුයි. ඇප පිට නිදහස් කරන්නන් දිනපතා ප්‍රදේශයේ පොලිස් ස්ථානයට වාර්ථා කිරීම වැනි කොන්දේසි අවශ්‍යයි.

රිමාන්ඩ් සිර මැදිරි පිරෙනවා, රජයට කන්න දෙන්න බැහැ කියා දරුණු අපරාධකරුවන් රිමාන්ඩ් නොකර නැවත සමාජයට නිදහස් කරනවා.  ඔවුන් එළියේ ඉන්න තාක් කල් දරුණු අපරාධ යළි යළි කරනවා.

මිණීමැරුම්, කප්පම් ගැනීම්, කුඩු බිස්නස්, බරපතළ ආයුධ සන්නද්ධ සොරකම් බොහොමයක් කරන්නේ ඇප ලබා එළියට ඇවිත් සිටින අය බව පොලිසිය කියයි.  

ඇප ලබාගත් පසු මේ අයගේ නඩු ඇසෙන්නේ බොහෝ ප්‍රමාද වී නිසා මේ අය ඒ කාලය තුල බොහෝ වෙනත් බරපතල අපරාධ කරත්.

මෙයට විසඳුම: ඇප නොදී, දරුණු අපරාධකරුවන්ගේ නඩු ඉක්මනට අසා අවසන් කල යුතුයි. එතෙක් ඔවුන්ව රිමාන්ඩ් බන්ධනාගාර ගත කර තැබිය යුතුයි.

කෙනෙකුගේ ආත්ම ගරුත්වය ඉන්න පළාත අනුව වෙනස්වෙන දෙයක් නොවේ. උසස් ලෙස ජීවත්වන පුද්ගලයා කොහේ සිටියත් ඒ විදීයට ජීවත් වේ.

අපිට මහත්සේ ආඩම්බර විය හැකි, වසර දහස් ගණනක සිට එන අපේ ශිෂ්ට සම්පන්න ගති පැවතුම්, සිරිත් විරිත් ක්‍රමයෙන් ක්ෂයවී යනවා. රැක ගනිමු, නව පරපුරට ඒවා කියා දෙමු.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා ඉතිහාසය පාසල් වල ඉගැන්වීම නතර කලේ එක් අධ්‍යාපන ඇමතිවරයෙක්   1972 දී විතර.  ඉන්පසු මෑතක සිට  නැවත ඉගැන්වෙනවා, නමුත් ‘සැර’ බාල කරපු  ශ්‍රී ලංකා  ඉතිහාසයක්.  ජාත්‍යාන්තර පාසැල් වල, උතුරේ පාසල් වල  ශ්‍රී ලංකා ඉතිහාසය උගන්වන්නේම නැහැල්ලු; තව හොයලා බැලිය යුතු දෙයක්.

මැක්ඩොනල්ඩ්ස්, KFC, පිඩ්සා හට් – මේවා ඇබ්බැහි වෙන කෑම. කුඩා ළමුන්ට පවා දියවැඩියාව හැදෙන්න පුළුවන් ඕනාවට වැඩිය චිප්ස්, බර්ගර්ස්,  බේකන් කන්න ගියොත්, කෝක්, පෙප්සි. ෆැන්ටා  බොන්න ගියොත්. හැමදේම ප්‍රමාණයක් සහ ක්‍රමයක් තියෙනවා.

බටහිරෙන් එන සැම දේම පිළිනොගත යුතුයි.  හොඳ දේවල් පමණක් තොරා බේරා අපේ ශිෂ්ට සම්පන්න ගති පැවතුම්, චාරිත්‍ර වාරිත්‍ර, සිරිත් විරිත්, ඇඳුම් පැළඳුම්,  වලට හානි නොකර ඒ දේවල් තෝරා ගමු.  

සුද්දා (ඉංග්‍රීසීන්) අපේ රට යටත් කර ගත්තට පස්සේ අපට වෙනස්වූ, අමුතුම  සදාචාරයක්, සාරධර්ම, නීති අපිට පුරුදු කරන්න හැදුවා, පුරුදු කලා. ඒවායේ හොඳ තත්ත්වයන් මෙන්ම අවුල් වියවුල්ද ගොඩාක් තියෙනවා.

සමහරවිට, මේ සංස්කෘතීන්,  නීති පද්ධතින්, සාරධර්ම  අතර ගැටුම් වලට අපි අදත් මැදි වෙලා – අවුල් ජාලයක ඉන්නවා. සමහරු, ‘අපි කවුද’ කියා නොදන්නා තත්ත්වයකට පත්වෙලා.

ගොඩක් දේවල්, විශේෂයෙන්ම නීතිමය,  සංස්කෘතිමය, සභ්‍යත්වය ට අදාළ කටයුතු අපි බොහෝ දුරට අවුල් සහගත කරගන්නේ මේ නිසා.

‘අපි වමේ – දක්ෂිණාංශික ලිබරල්; අපේ රටට සම්ප්‍රදාය, සභ්‍යත්වය, සංස්කෘතිය, චාරිත්‍ර වාරිත්‍ර, සාරධර්ම, ඉතිහාසය, ආගම  අවශ්‍ය නැහැ. අපි මේ සියල්ල වෙනස් කරනවා’ කියා මෝඩ වදන් ප්‍රකාශ කරන්නේ මෙසේ අතරමං වුවන්ගෙන් ඇතැමෙක්.

ඒ අයට අප අනුකම්පා කරමු. ඔවුනට නැණස, බුද්ධිය පහළ වී, සත්‍යය  අවබෝධ වේවා!

උග්‍ර  වාම/කොමියුනිස්ට් වාදී, සම්ප්‍රදා විරෝධීන් වූ ස්ටාලින්, මාඕ, පොල් පොට්, කිම් ඉල් සුං, විජේවීර* වැන්නන්  නිසා එම රටවල මහා ජන/ආගම් සංහාර සිදු වුනා.  

*විජේවීර යම් තරමකට සිංහල බෞද්ධ සම්ප්‍රදායට, ගතාණුගතිකත්වයට ගරු කළා.

එදා අපේ කුල කාන්තාවෝ ආදර්ශවත්, ඉතා උසස් වූ දිවිපෙවතක් ගෙවා මුළු ලොවටම ආදර්ශයක් වුනා.  උඩරට කාන්තාවෝ මෙහිදී ප්‍රමුඛත්වය ගත්තා.

බටහිර අධිරාජ්‍යවාදීන් අපේ රටේ මුතු මැණික්, අලි ඇතුන්, කුරුඳු, කොප්පරා, කළුවර, බුරුත, මැහෝගනී වැනි වටිනා දැව රට පටවා ඔවුන්ගේ ආර්ථිකය හදා ගත්තා. අපේ කුරුඳු, ගම්මිරිස් වැනි කුළු බඩු  රට පැටෙව්වා අපට මුදල් නොදී. අපේ කඳුකරයේ වන සම්පත කපා හෙලා වැවිලි ආර්ථිකයක් ස්ථාපිත කර ඒ ආදායමද තම මවු රටවලට යැව්වා.

යම් දායාදයක් අපට ඉතිරි කර ගියා නම් ඒ වැවිලි ආර්ථිකය, අගනා පාරවල්, දුම්රිය මාර්ග පද්ධතිය,  ක්‍රමවත් සිවිල් සේවය (අද අවුල් ජාලාවක්), නීති පද්ධතිය, හොඳ සෞඛ්‍ය සේවය සහ විධිමත් අධ්‍යාපන ක්‍රමයයි.  මෙයින් කිසි ලෙසකින් වත් අදහස් කෙරෙන්නේ නැහැ ඊට පෙර පැවති අපේ  දේශිය ජිවන රටාව (සෞඛ්‍යය, අධ්‍යාපනය, නීති ඇතුළු), මේ බටහිර ක්‍රම වලට දෙවෙනි වූ බව.

වැඩියෙන්ම අපව මොළ සෝදා පාලුවකට ලක් කලේ, අප තුල හීනමාන අදහස් ඇති කරවන්න උත්සහ කලේ, කළු සුද්දන් බිහි කලේ (මේ කළු සුද්දෝ අදත් අප සමාජය රජ කරනවා) ඉංග්‍රීසි කාරයායි.

පෘතුගිසින් සහ ලන්දේසින්, විශේෂයෙන්ම පෘතුගීසින්, ඉතා දරුණු වූ බව ඇත්ත; ඒ වාගේම ඔවුන් අප ජනතාව සමඟ කිට්ටුවෙන් මුසු වුනා. අන්තර් – විවාහ ලිස්බන් අධිරාජ්‍යය අනුමත කළා. බර්ගර් නමැති අලුත් ජාතියක්  මෙහි ඇති වුනේ ඒ නයින්.

කෙනෙක් තම බුද්ධියෙන් සිතා බලා තම ආගම වෙනස් කරනවානම් එහි වරදක් නැහැ. නමුත් දුප්පත්කම  වැනි දේ දඩමීමා කරගෙන,  නැත්නම් බලහත්කාරයෙන්, ආගම් වෙනස් කරන්න හදනවා නම් එය වැරදියි.

තායිලන්තය ලංකාවටත් වඩා බෞද්ධ රටක් – 95% විතර බෞද්ධ. අවාසනාවකට, අධි බටහිරකරණය වීම නිසා එහි ප්‍රධාන නගර ආසියාවේම කාම පුර වගේ බවට පත් වෙලා. කාම්බෝජය, ලාඕස් වැනි බෞද්ධ රටවලටත් මේ තත්ත්වය උදාවෙමින් තියෙනවා.  බුරුමයත් ඉදිරියේදී ඒ පාරේ යන්න බොහෝ ඉඩ තියෙනවා.

ඒ නිසා, මේ පින්බර දිවයිනේ ඉන්න අප බොහෝ පාඩම් ඉගෙන ගන්න ඕන, පරෙස්සම් වෙන්න ඕන.

ගණිකාවන්, කුඩු බොන අය, සැම ලිංගිකයන් අප ජීවත්වන සමාජයේම කොටස්.  මේ කිසි වෙකුට ආසාධාරණ නොකළ යුතුයි.

මෙයින් කියන්නේ නැහැ ගණිකා වෘත්තීය මේ රටේ නීතීගත කරන්න, සම ලිංගික විවාහ අනුමත කරන්න කියා.

රාත්‍රී විදී ගණිකාවන්ට ආරක්ෂාව ලබා දීම, සෞඛ්‍ය පහසුකම් සැලසීම,  කිසියම් මූළික අධ්‍යාපනයක්/වෘත්තීය පුහුණුවක් ඔවුන්ට ලබා දීම (ඒ මඟින් ඔවුන් ගණිකා වෘත්තීයෙන් බැහැර කිරීම) හොඳ දෙයක්.   

කුඩු කාරයන්ටත් එහෙමයි – ඒ අය ඒ ප්‍රශ්ණ වලින් ගොඩ ගන්න අප සමාජය ක්‍රියා කළ යුතුයි. සැමදා ඔවුන්ට ගැරහීමෙන් පළක් වන්නේ නැහැ.

අපේ රාජ්‍ය නොවන සංවිධාන මීට වඩා පණ ඇතිව වැඩ කළ යුතුයි.

බොහෝ වැඩ කිරීමට තිබෙනවා.

රජය වැඩ කරන්නේ නැහැ කියා එය විවේචනය කරනවා යු ටියුබ් කරුවන්, ෆේස් බුක් කරුවන්.

ඒ කියන අයමයි රජය කරන හැම වැඩකටම අකුල් හෙලන්නේ, රජයට කකුල් මාට්ටු දාන්නේ. මොවුන් ඉතා භායනක අය.

රටේ ප්‍රශ්ණ තිබේ නම් රජය ඒවා විසදන්න ඕන, ප්‍රශ්ණ නැහැ වගේ මෙතෙක් කල් සෑම රජයක්ම සිටියා. දැන් විසදන්න හදන කොට කෑ ගසනවා.

උපන්දින සාද ගන්න, උත්සව  පවත්වන්න. එදාට නටන්න, වයන්න,  ගයන්න. කිසි වරදක් නැහැ.

හැබැයි  ඒ එක්කම මතක් කර ගන්න, අප ඒ  දිනයේදීත් තව එක දිනයකින් මරණය වෙත ලං වුන බව.

නමුත්, මරණය ගැනම මෙනෙහි කර කර ඉන්න ඕන නැහැ. බුද්ධාගමේ කිසි ලෙසකින් එවැන්නක්‌ කියා නැහැ.

හැකිතරම් නීතිය ඉගෙන ගැනීමට පුරවැසියන් උත්සහ ගත යුතුයි, වෘත්තියක් වශයෙන් නොකලත්. නිතිය දන්නා කෙනාට බොරු කරන්න අමාරුයි, ජීවත්වෙන සමාජය ගැන හොඳ අවබෝධයක් ලැබෙනවා, ප්‍රශ්න විසඳීමේ හැකියාව ලැබෙනවා. ආත්ම ධෛර්යය/ශක්තිය ලැබෙනවා.

බටහිර රටවල නිතීය විෂයක් ලෙස පාසැල් විෂය මාලාවේ තිබෙනවා.

දියුණු බටහිර රටවල දැන් නඩුවලින් 30%ක් පමණ දැන්  කථා කරන්නේ නීතිඥවරු නැතුව පාර්ශවයන් තමන් විසින්මයි. ඒ රටවල උසාවි, නීතිඥ සමිති ඒ ක්‍රමවේදය සඳහා තදින් අනුබල දෙනවා, සහාය වෙනවා.

බටහිර රටවල් දැන් ‘නීති භාෂාව’  සාමාන්‍ය ජනතාවට තේරෙන ඉතා සරළ බසින් සිදු විය යුතු ලෙසට ප්‍රතිපත්ති සකසා තියෙනවා.

කෙනෙකුගේ අදහස් තවත් අයෙකුට පැවසීමේදී ඒ පුද්ගලයා එය තේරුම් ගන්නේ බොහෝ දුරට තමන්ටම ආවේණික අත්දැකීම් අනුවයි. ඒ නිසා සමහර විට යම් පුද්ගලයෙකු පවසන යම් දෙයක් එය අසා සිටින තැනැත්තා විසින් බොහෝ වෙනස් විදියට තේරුම් ගන්නා අවස්ථා බොහෝයි.  මෙයින් මතුවෙන ප්‍රශ්ණ/ආරවුල් ද බොහෝයි.

නොදන්නා අය තමයි වැඩිපුර දන්නා බව පෙන්වීමට හා ප්‍රදර්ශනය කිරීමට ආසා කරන්නේ.

මරාගෙන කන්න බැරි සතාවත් විකුණගන කන තරම් මිනිසුන් ඉන්න ලෝකයකයි අප ජීවත් වන්නේ.

මානසිකව සහ කායිකව තරුණව සිටින්න බලමු, මහලුකමට ජීවිතය යට කරන්න ඉඩ නොදිය යුතුයි.

වයස යනු හුදු අංකයක් පමණි.

අපේ සිතේ පිරෙන අදහස් නිසා තමයි බොහෝ දේ සිද්ධවෙන්නේ. අවාසනාවකට, අද සමාජයේ, අපේ ජනතාවගේ, හිත් පිරෙන්නේ නරක දේ වලින්.

මනස මහා බලගතුයි.  මහත්මා ගාන්ධි, හිට්ලර්, මාර්ටින් ලුතර් කිං, මැන්ඩෙලා, ඔබාමා, ප්‍රභාකරන්, තෙරේසා මවු තුමිය, තැචර්, නෙතනියාහු, සෙලෙන්ස්කි, පූටින්,ට්‍රම්ප්; මේ අයත් සාමාන්‍ය මිනිස්සු, ගැහැණු; නමුත් මොන තරම් පෙරළියක් (හොඳ හෝ නරක අතට) මේ අයට කරන්න පුළුවන් උනාද?

තම උත්සාහය අසාර්ථක වුවත් ඉන්දියාව වෙන් වීම‍ට  එරෙහිව ගාන්ධි තුමා වැඩ කළා.  නේරු, ජින්නා ඉවසීමෙන් කටුයුතු කළා නම් ඉන්දියාව බේරා ගන්න තිබුනා කියා කියනවා, ඒකීය රාජ්‍යයක් හැටියට.

20 වෙනි සියවසේ පහල වූ ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨතම පුද්ගලයා මහත්මා ගාන්ධි කියලා කියන්න පුළුවන්.  මන්ද, එතුමා අවිහිංසාවෙන් බලගතු  බ්‍රිතාන්‍යය අධිරාජ්‍යවාදය පැරදවුවා.

21වෙනි සියවසේ,  මේ දක්වා –  සමහර විට ට්‍රම්ප් වෙන්න පුළුවන්.  ඔහු ලෝක යුධ බිය සමනය කර ගෙන යන විදියට. ඉන්දීය-පකිස්ථාන, ආර්මේනියා/අසර්බයිජාන්, යේමනයේ හුතී, නිරිතදිග කොන්ගෝ ප්‍රශ්ණ ඔහු සාර්ථකව විසඳුවා. පලස්තීන, යුක්රේන යුද්ධත් ට්‍රම්ප්ට  තමා සුව කරන්න පුළුවන්.

බයිඩන් (හිටපු ජනපති), දැන් සිටින යුරෝපයේ නායකයෝ – රාමුවෙන් පිටතට බලන්න අදක්ෂ වුනා; ට්‍රම්ප්ට කිට්ටුවෙන්න වත් බැහැ පෞරුෂත්වයෙන් සහ ක්‍රියාවෙන්.

හොරකම්, බොරු, චාටු, වංචා වලට නිරතුරුවම අහුවෙන අවංක, හොඳ කෙනෙක් උනත් ක්‍රමයෙන් එවැනි නරකදේ කරන්න පෙළඹෙන්න පුළුවන්.  බොරු නොකියනම අය බොරු කියන්න පටන් ගන්න පුළුවන්.  ඒ වගේමයි නරක අය හොඳ ආශ්‍රය නිසා හොඳ වෙන්න පුළුවන්.

පියෙක් පුතෙකුට දුන් ඔවදන් 2ක්:

‘පුතා දන්නවද අර ගිරව් දෙන්නගේ කතාව.තාපස ගිරවයි,අලුගෝසුවාගේ ගිරවයි. ඒ කියන්නේ ආශ්‍රය කරන අයගේ ගොඩ අනුවයි කෙනෙක්ගේ පැවැත්ම.’

‘නරක’ සමාජය තුල හැදෙන හොඳ පුද්ගලයෙක් කාලයක් යනකොට ‘නරක’ වෙනවා. මේ සිද්ධාන්තය අනිත් පැත්තටත් එහෙමයි’.

මැණික් ගලක් ඔපවත් වන්නේත්, ඉතා මිල අධික වන්නේත් එය නිකන් ෂෝ කේස් එකේ තබා තිබීමෙන් නොවෙයි; හොඳට කපා, මැද, පොලිෂ් කර ෂෝ කේස් එකේ දැමු පසුයි.  හුඟක් වෙලාවට මැණිකෙන් පෝසත් වෙන්නේ එය ගැරු හෝ එය මුලින්ම අලෙවි  කල තැනැත්තා නොවෙයි, එය, ‘ඔප දමා මැද, පොලිෂ්’ කර විකුණු තැනැත්තායි.  

අපේ සහජ දක්ෂතා ගැනත් කිව යුත්තේ එයමයි.  ඒවා  හොඳට ‘මැද, පොලිෂ් කර’ සමාජයට  අලෙවි කලොත් කෙනෙක් බලාපොරොත්තුවන ප්‍රසිද්ධිය, මුදල් හදල් ඒ මඟින් උපරිමව ලබා ගන්න පුළුවන්.

අතීත වේදනාකාරී මතකයන් ගෙන් තොරව ජීවිතය ගත කරන්න බලමු.

ගැහැණිගේ ශාරීරික ශක්තිය මිනිසුන්ට වඩා දුර්වලයි, නමුත් දෙගොල්ලම මනසින් එකවගේ ශක්තිමත්.

ප්‍රශ්නවලට, ද්‍රරිධතාවයට එකම විසඳුම  විෂ මත්පැන්, විෂ කුඩු නොව උත්සාහයෙන් ජීවිතය ජය ගැනීමයි. රැකියාවක් සොයා ගත නොහැකි නම් ස්වයං රැකියාවක් පටන් ගන්න – මාළු ලෑල්ලක්, ත්‍රී වීලරයක්,  කඩවලට කඩයප්පන් හදා දැමීමක්, ස්වීප් ටිකට්/වඩේ විකිණීමක්  හෝ මහන මැෂිමකීන් මැසීමක් උනත් කමක් නැහැ.

සල්ලි නැහැ හෝ වෙන කිසියම්ම හේතුවකට හොරකම් නම් කරන්න එපා.  නැතිම නම් හිඟා කන්න.

ලෝකයේ විශාල ලෙස දන් දෙන මිනිස්සු මේ අප ඉන්නා පුණ්‍ය භුමිය, ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ඉන්නවා.

විශාල වශයෙන් බඳ ප්‍රදේශය ප්‍රදර්ශනය වන අයුරින් ඇතැම් කාන්තාවන් දැන් සාරි/ඇඳුම් අඳිනවා. නව ප්‍රවනතාවක්. බොහෝ දුරට දකුණු ඉන්දීය අභාෂය නිසා විය හැකියි.

පොඩි දරුවන්ටත් මෙය පුරුදු කරනවා.

කුඩා/තරුණ  කාලයේදීම ඇඳුම් වරද්දගත්තොත්, ලොකු වෙලා හදන්න අමාරුයි.

තෙරපුණු/මිරිකුණු  බස් තුල මිනිසුන් ගියත් ඔවුන් අතර රන්ඩු සරුවල් නැත්තේ/අඩු අපේ මිනිසුන්ගේ ඇති හික්මීම සහ කොයිදේත් සතුටින් ඉවසීමට හැකිවූ  හොඳ කාරණායි/ගතිගුණයි.

බස් රථයක් තුල අමුතුම ‘සංස්කෘතියක්’ තියෙනවා; එය දන්නේ බස් වල යන මගීන් පමණයි. උදාහරණ සමහරක්:

වැඩිහිටියෙක්, ආබාධිතයෙක්, ගැබිණි මවක්  නැග්ගහම දුර ගමන් සේවා බසයක් වුනත් නැගිටලා තම අසුන ඒ කෙනා වෙනුවෙන් පිරිනමනවා, තදබද වුනු බසයක හිටගෙන යන මගියෙකුගේ භාණ්ඩ අසුනක ඉඳන් ඉන්නා කෙනෙක් ඉල්ලා සුරක්ෂිතව එවා ඒ තැනැත්තා වෙනුවෙන් බලා ගන්නවා.

තව, මගියෙක් හෝ ඒ කෙනා අත තියෙන බඩු භාණ්ඩයක් ඇඟේ හැපුනත් මුකුත් නොකියා  ඉවසීම පෙන්වනවා, ඩ්‍රයිවර්/කොන්දොස්තර  මොන තරම් ගමන ප්‍රමාද කලත් ඔවුන්ට බනින්නේ ඉතාමත් කලාතුරකින්. මේවා ඉතා උසස් ගුණාංග.  තියෙන අඩුපාඩු  හදාගෙන මේ හොඳ ‘බස් සංස්කෘතිය’ තවත් දියුණු කර ගනිමු.

මත්පැන්, මත් ද්‍රව්‍යය සමාජයට කරන්නේ මහා විනාශයක්.

මාර්ග අනතුරුවලට මුලිකම හේතු නොසැලකිලිමත්බව, මත්පැන්, අබලන් වාහන සහ අයහපත් මාර්ග/යටිතල පහසුකම්.

බීලා රිය පදවන්න නම් එපා, අනතුරක් කරගන්නවාමයි; අද බැරිවුනොත් හෙට.

මත්පැන් සහ රිය පැදවීම කවදාවත් නොගැලපේ. අනුන්ගේ පමණක් නොව ඔබේ ජිවිතයද අවදානමේ තබනවා.  

මත්පැනින් හොඳටම  පදම් වූ කෙනෙක්ව තව දෙදනෙක් උස්සා ගෙන ගොස් වාහනයේ දොර ඇර සුක්කානම ඉදිරියේ තැබුවා. එයා වාහනය එලවාගෙන ගියා. එයාට වාහනයක් එලවනවා තියා පයින් යන්නවත් බැරි තත්ත්වයක් තිබුනේ. කී දෙනෙක් අහිංසකයන්ව එයා මැරුවද දන්නේ නැහැ එදා රාත්‍රියේ.

බිලා රියපදවන්නා අන්තිම මෝඩයෙකි, වසලයෙකි.

මෝටර් සයිකල් අනිත් වාහන අස්සෙන් අස්සෙන් රිංගලා යනවා; වාහන අනතුරු බොහෝමයයි. හැප්පුනහම වැඩියෙන්ම තුවාල වෙන්නේ ඒ ගොල්ලන්ට.

හෙල්මට් එකක් නොදා කිසිදා මෝටර් සයිකලයක, පා පැදියක නොයන්න. 

බිලා මෝටර් සයිකලයක්, පා පැදියක් එලවන්න එපා.

වසරකට මෝටර් සයිකල් අනතුරුවලින් පමණක් 1,000ට වැඩිය මැරෙනවා. ඒ කියන්නේ සතියකට 20ක්!

1951 වසරේදී අප රටේ ඒ මුළු අවුරුද්දටම වූනේ රිය අනතුරු මරණ 286යි.  2024 වසරේදී පදිකයන් පමණක් වාහන අනතුරු වලින් 1,000ක් පමණ මිය ගියා.

උගතටයි නූගතාටයි (විශේෂයෙන් සැකය වැනි ලෙඩ තියන) එකට ඉන්න බැහැ. උගතා බොහෝවිට අකාලයේ මැරෙන්නත් පුළුවන්.

නූගතා/උගත් මෝඩයා කරන මෝඩ වැඩ වලට ප්‍රෙෂර්, හාට් ඇටෑක්, දියවැඩියාව  හැදෙනවා. තව  කෝටි ගණන් මුදල් නාස්ති වෙන වැඩ ඒ අය කරන්නේ. මේ අයගෙන් නම් මුල් අවස්ථාවේදීම වෙන්වීම හොඳයි.

උගතා කියන්නේ ඩිප්ලෝමා/ඩිග්‍රී ගහ ගත්ත කෙනා නොවෙයි; යහපත් අදහස්, ආකල්ප හා පෞරුෂය ඇත්තායි,ශුභවාදිව ප්‍රශ්න දෙස පළල් දෘෂ්ටිකෝණයකින් බලන්නායි. අනුන්ට වැරද්දක් නොකර තමන්ටත්, රටටත් යහපතක් කරගන්නායි.

සමහරු වැරදි තීරණ අරගෙන ඒවා හරියි  කියා සිතාගෙන ඒවයේ දැඩිවම එල්ලී සිටිනවා, විශේෂයෙන්ම පවුලක. මේවායින් අමාරුවේ වැටෙන්නේ  වැඩිහිටියන් පමණක් නොවේ දරුවන්.

මිත්‍රත්වයක් පවත්වා ගෙන යාමට නම් දෙදෙනාම  ධනාත්මකව කටයුතු කරන්න ඕන. එක්කෙනෙක් විතරක් මිත්‍රත්වය පවත්වා ගෙන යන්න කටයුතු කරනවානම් එය සැබෑ මිත්‍රත්වයක් නොවේ.

අඹ ගෙඩියට මැරෙනතුරු මෙන් සටන් කල ‘අඹ යහළුවෝ’හි සුනිල් අප්පෝට තැලුණු, බෙරිවෙච්ච අඹ ගෙඩිය ආපසු දීමෙන් දුප්පත් නිමල් අපට පෙන්නුම් කලේ තන්හාව, ලෝභ කම, ආසාව යනු හුදු පුස්සක් බව නොවේද?

මේ ලෝකේ එලිය දකින්න තාත්තා  අම්මා  දෙන්න‍නෙක් ඕනේ. දෙන්නවම අමතක කරන්න බැහැ.

ගෙදර බුදුන් අම්මා; ගෙදර දෙවියෝ තාත්තා.

ඉර හඳ කුමටද අම්මා නැත්නම්.

පාප මිත්‍රයෝ ආශ්‍රය කරන්න එපා.

එකිනෙකාට  ආශිර්වාද කරගැනීම,, සුභ පැතීම, සමාව අයැදීම, කණගාටුව ප්‍රකාශකර ගැනීම, නිහතමානි මිනිසුන් විසින් කරන හොඳ දේවල්.

100% ප්‍රත්‍යක්ෂභාවය තමන්ට දෙන්නත් බැහැ, අනුන්ගෙන් අපේක්ෂා කරන්නත් එපා.

කතාවකට කියනවා ළදරුවෙකුට පමනක්ලු දෙව්ලොව යන්න හැක්කේ. මන්ද, ඔවුන් පමණයි පිරිසිඳු සහ ශාන්ත.  ඊර්ෂ්‍යාව සහ ක්‍රෝධය ඔවුන් තුල නැත.

ලේ පිරිසිදු වෙන ඕනෑම දෙයක් කියන්න; ලේ කෝප වෙන දේ කියන්න  එපා.

ගමක පොලිස්කාරයෙක් ඉන්නවා නම් එයාට හැම කෙනෙක්ම වගේ බයයි, මේ ඉස්සර ඉඳන්ම ආපු තත්ත්වය හොඳ නැහැ.

වැරදි කරන බොහෝ අය කියන්නේ සමාජය ඒ අයට  එහෙම කරන නිසා ඒ අයත් එහෙමලු. මේක බොහෝම අවාසනාවන්ත තත්ත්වයක්.

අප ඒ අයට පෙන්නලා දෙන්න ඕන සමාජයේ කොච්චර හොඳ අය ඉන්නවද, කොච්චර හොඳ දේවල් වෙනවද,  පටු විදියට හිතන්න හොඳ නෑ විශේෂයෙන්ම උසස්, ගුණ ගරුක සමාජ ක්‍රමයකින් එන අප.

1970 සිරිමා බණ්ඩාරනායක රජයේ ‘සුදුස්සාට සුදුසු තැන දෙන’ ප්‍රතිපත්තිය මත, කවදාවත්  දේශපාලනය නොකළ, ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ නුතන කළමනාරණයේ පියා (Father of Modern Management) – වසර 20කට වැඩි කාලයක් ලීවර් සමාගමේ (Uni Lever) පිරිස් කළමනාකරු, පසුව සාමාන්‍යාධිකාරී, ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ප්‍රථම කළමණාකරන උපදේශක (Management Consultant) සහ ප්‍රසිද්ධ සමාගම් අධ්‍යක්ෂ තුමාට ජාතික පේෂකර්ම සංස්ථාවේ  සභාපති කම පිරිනැමුවා. පාඩුවට තිබු සංස්ථාව ඔහු අවුරුද්දකින් වගේ ලාභ ලබන ආයතනයක් බවට පත් කළා.

පෞද්ගලික පාවිච්චිය සඳහා දී තිබුණු සංස්ථා වාහනේ පාවිච්චි කලේ බොරැල්ල ගෙදර ඉඳලා හෝර්ටන් ප්ලේස් වල තිබුණු සංස්ථා ප්‍රධාන කාර්යාලයට යාමට පමනයි.   තුල්හිරිය, වේයන්ගොඩ, පූගොඩ (එවකට තනා නිමකළනොකළ)  වැනි කම්හල් වලට ඔහු නිතරම ගියා – සති අන්තයේ පවා. ඒ ගියේ, පෞද්ගලික පාවිච්චිය සඳහා දී තිබුණු සංස්ථා වාහනේ හෝර්ටන් ප්ලේස් කාර්යාලයේ දාලා, ඩබල් කැබ් එකකින්. 

ගමනට අවශ්‍ය කරන කොළඹ ප්‍රධාන කාර්යාලයේ කළමනාකරුවන්, ගනඛාධිකාරීන්, ක්ලාක්ලා  ඔක්කොකම එකේ දාගෙන යනවා සංස්ථාවට පෙට්‍රල් ඉතුරු කරලා දෙන්න.

වරක් ඔහුට විදේශ රජයක තානාපති කාර්යාලයකින් වටිනා විස්කි, වයින් ඇතුළු නොයෙක් රට මත්පැන් සහිත (පුද්ගලික) පෙට්ටි කිහිපයක් තැගී ලැබුනා හිතවත්කමට. ඒක සංස්ථාවට කපු නූල් සපයන රටක්. ඔහු වහාම  සිද්ධිය අදාළ ඇමතිවරයාට වාර්තා කරලා (TB සුභසිංහ) තෑගි භාණ්ඩ  සංස්ථාවේ තුල්හිරියේ ‘අමුත්තන්ගේ නිවාසයට’ භාර දුන්නා, ඉන්වෙන්ට්‍රියක් එහෙම හරියට හදලා.

දෙවිවරුන් වැනි මෙවැනි සංස්ථා සභාපතිවරු අද කෝ?

උදේට නැගිටලා මේ භාවනාව කරන්න – ‘මගේ පෙනීම කවදාවත් හිරු එලිය නොදුටු මිනිසකුට දෙන්න කැමතියි , මගේ හදවත නිමක් නැති වේදනා බර දවස් ගෙවන මිනිසකුට දෙන්න කැමතියි, මගේ රුධිරය රිය අනතුරකින් ඔත්පොලව ශල්‍ය කර්මයට බදුන් වුවෙකුට දෙන්න කැමතියි, මගේ දේපල ගෙදර සුන් බුන් වී නැවත ගෙදර හදන මිනිසාට දෙන්න කැමතියි,  මගේ වකුගඩුව වකුගඩු යන්ත්‍රය  මත දිනපතා ලේ පිරිසිඳු කරන ජීවිතයක් ගෙවන්නකුට දෙන්න කැමතියි, මගේ ඇටකටු , නහර , නාඩි හැමදේම මැරුණු පසු  වෛද්‍ය පර්යේෂණ වලට දෙන්න කැමතියි, මගේ කකුල් දෙක අබ්බගාත පොඩි  ළමයෙකුට ඇවිද යන්න දෙන්න කැමතියි, මගේ මළකඳ කුණු පණුවන්ට ආහාරයක් වෙන්න අරින්න කැමතියි, මගේ දුර්වලකම්/වැරදි මගේ මිතුරන්ට අදාර්ශයක් නොවෙන්න ඉඩ හරින්න කැමතියි.’

උපන් බිමට කිසිදා ගරහන්න එපා,දේශය යනු මවයි.

හැමවිටම මේ සංකල්පයේ සිට වැඩ කරන්න – ‘මට පෙර මාගේ රට’.

වැදගත් ඕන මහත්මයෙක්/මහත්මියක් කියන කතාවක් – ‘ මාව මැරුවත් කමක් නැහැ. මගේ චරිතය,  නම් විනාශ කරන්න එපා’.

ඉවසීම අඩු අයට භාවනාව ඉතා හොඳයි.  හොඳ තැන් – රන්ගිරි-දඹුලු භාවනා ආරාමය, රාජගිරියේ  තපෝවනය, කඳුබඩ හෝ හිඳගල භාවනා අසපු, මැකාර්ති පාරේ විපස්සනා භාවනා අසපුව හෝ මහරගම ධර්මායතනය. අන්‍ය ආගමිකයන්ටත් එවැනි විශේෂ වූ ස්ථාන තියෙනවා. 

යොගා ජිවන ක්‍රමයට අදාළ කරගන්න; කිසිදාක වරදින්නේ නැහැ.

හැකි සෑම විටම පාරේ දකුණු පැත්තේ ගමන් කරන්න, ඔබේ ජීවිතය බේරෙන මඟක්. පේව්මන්ට් තියෙනවා නම් පේව්මන්ට් එකේම ගමන් කරන්න.

අපේ රටට ආදරේ වැඩි අයයි,  රට ගැන හුඟාක් දුකින් ඉන්නේ. රට ගැන නිතර ලියන්නේ, කියන්නේ.

විටෙක පෙලපාලි නොගිහින් බැරි බව ඇත්ත.  ඒත් පොලිස් කදුළු ගෑස් වලට, ජල ප්‍රහාර වලට සුදානමින් හිටියොත් හොඳයි.

යාළුවෝ  බොහෝ වෙලාවට නෑයින්ට වඩා හොඳයි. යාලුවන්ගෙන් ප්‍රයෝජන ගන්න, ඉල්ලුවොත් ඔවුන් උදවු කරනවා.

නොඉල්ලුවොත් කොහොමද උදව් ලැබෙන්නේ? ජේසුස් වහන්සේ කීවා ‘තට්ටු කරන්නාටයි දොර ඇරෙන්නේ කියා’.

පොඩි පොඩි විරසකට හොඳ යහළුවෝ  අහක දාන්න එපා, මහා අවාසනාවක්.  පාඩුව ඔබටයි, යහළුවටයි.

කුඹුරේ, තේ වත්තේ වැඩකරන අය සීතල ගතිය මගහරවා ගැනීමට, නිදිමත දුරු කර ගැනීමට  බුලත් හැපීම කරනවා. බුලත් කෙල මහ පාරේ ගැසීම නම් වැරදියි.

අද අප රටේ තියෙන ලොකුම ප්‍රශ්නයක් වන්නේ බොහෝ දෙනෙක් තමන්ගෙන් විය යුතු වැඩේ හරියට නොකර, මතුපිටින් පමනක් කිරීමයි; මුලටම ගිහිල්ලා යමක් කරන්නේ නැහැ.  

සාර්ථකත්වය කෙටි මං (shortcuts) වලින් හොයන්න බලනවා, හරියන්නේ නැහැ. 

දුක් විඳලා, ‘කට්ට කාලා’, ‘හම’ ගොරෝසු කරගන්න බලන්න. හදවත දැඩි කරගන්න. ඉන් පසු ඕන ප්‍රශ්නයකට මුහුණ දෙතෑකි. 

උදේට හිස තියන් ගොස් කඩයප්පන් විකුනලා, ඒ සල්ලි අම්මාට දීලා ඉස්කෝලේ ගිය, පස්සේ  දක්ෂ, සාර්ථක ජනාධිපතිවරයෙක්  වූ කෙනෙක් හිටියා.

අවස්ථානුකූලව තීරණ නොගෙන දැඩිව තම මතයේම සිට, විසදුම් සොයන්න හදන  කෙනෙකුගේ හැසිරීම නිසා සිදුවන පාඩුව අපමණයි. ඒ පුද්ගලයා තමන් විසින්ම පරිහානිය ලඟා කරගන්නවා. අනුන්ටත් ඒ දෙය අත් පත් කර දෙනවා.

මහා පාරේ මුත්‍රා කිරීමට පිරිමින්ට ලයිසන් බලපත්‍රයක් ලැබිලද? පායාන කාලෙට පලාතම කුණු ගඳ ගස්වන මේ නරක පුරුද්ද නැවත්වීමට දැන් කාලය ඇවිත්. දියුණු රටවලනම් නඩු දානවා.

මතු සම්බන්ධයි …..

Soutik Biswas Courtesy BBC News

It’s happening again.

In early September, a cluster of unexplained child deaths in a small town in Madhya Pradesh sent local health workers scrambling.

At least 19 victims – aged one to six – had died within weeks of taking a common cough syrup. Officials tested everything from drinking water to mosquitoes before the truth emerged: their kidneys had failed.

Weeks later, a state laboratory in the southern city of Chennai confirmed the worst. The syrup in question contained 48.6% diethylene glycol, a toxic industrial solvent that should never be found in medicine. Kidney failure is common after consuming this poisonous alcohol.

The horror wasn’t confined to Madhya Pradesh. In neighbouring Rajasthan state, the deaths of two young children, allegedly after consuming a locally-made Dextromethorphan syrup – a cough suppressant unsafe for very young children – sparked outrage and a government investigation.

For India, this brought a grim sense of déjà vu.

Over the years, diethylene glycol in Indian-made cough syrups has claimed dozens of young lives. In 2023, Indian syrups tainted with diethylene glycol were linked to the deaths of 70 children in The Gambia and 18 in Uzbekistan.

Between December 2019 and January 2020, at least 12 children under five died in Jammu in Indian-administered Kashmir allegedly from cough syrup, with activists suggesting the number of casualties might have been higher. In the past, there’s also been abuse of cough syrups containing codeine, external, a mild opioid that can produce euphoria in high doses and lead to dependence, and is not advised for young children.

Each time regulators promise reform, contaminated syrups reappear – reflecting a fragmented drug market and, critics allege, a weak regulatory system struggling to oversee hundreds of low-cost, often unapproved syrups produced by smaller manufacturers and sold over the counter.

Days after the latest child deaths, India’s health ministry urged “rational”, external use of such medicines – effectively warning doctors to exercise more caution when prescribing them to young children – seized samples of the syrup, suspended and banned sales, and ordered an investigation.

But the problem, critics say, runs deeper than over-prescription. Each new tragedy exposes the rot in India’s drug oversight system – a maze of weak enforcement and regulation. The Indian cough syrup market is set to soar from $262.5m in 2024 to $743m by 2035, growing at a compound annual rate of 9.9%, external, according to Market Research Future.

But none of this would happen if India, and Indians, could wean themselves off their obsession with cough syrups. For decades, doctors have prescribed them, and patients have taken them, even though most do little good and can potentially do serious harm.

Marketed as quick relief for sore throats and stubborn coughs, these sweet syrups mix sugar, colour and flavouring with a cocktail of antihistamines, decongestants, expectorants.

In theory, each ingredient plays a role: one dries secretions, another loosens phlegm, a third dulls the cough reflex. In practice, evidence of them doing much good is small – most coughs get better on their own in a few days.

• Cough syrup deaths: Why drugs made in India are sparking safety concerns

A cough can result from either infection or an allergic reaction. Cough syrups broadly fall into two types – sedatives that help the child rest, and bronchodilators that ease breathing – and doctors usually prescribe one or the other, not a mix.

Most persistent coughs in children in increasingly polluted Indian cities are not caused by infection but by allergies and irritation of the lower airways, according to Dr Rajaram D Khare, a Mumbai-based pediatrician. Allergies occur when the immune system overreacts to triggers such as dust and pollution.

These children often have a cold or runny nose and a cough that worsens at night or early morning, recurring every few weeks. In big cities, he says, such recurrent, wet coughs are commonly triggered by dust and smog, sometimes accompanied by mild bronchospasm.

Dr Khare said such coughs respond best to bronchodilators – medicines that open up the airways – preferably through inhalers or nebulisers, though many doctors still rely on syrups that offer only limited relief.

Most childhood coughs are viral, self-limiting, and resolve on their own within a week. Physicians say no syrup shortens their course; at best, they offer fleeting comfort. At worst, they carry risks of addiction, toxicity and overdose.

“I don’t usually prescribe cough syrups for ordinary coughs and colds – except occasionally for comfort. If a child is coughing badly and can’t sleep, I may give a dose of a mild syrup just to ease the discomfort. The main goal is relief, not treatment, especially when the cough is dry and part of a viral infection,” says Dr Khare.

So why are cough syrups so widely prescribed in India?

One reason is the weakness of India’s primary healthcare system, particularly in smaller towns and rural areas. As rising air pollution fuels persistent coughs, they are increasingly misused for routine respiratory infections.

The problem runs deeper in the countryside. In rural India, up to 75% of primary care visits are handled by informal providers, external – often self-taught “RMPs” or rural medical practitioners without formal medical training.

In places where the local public health clinic is far away, under-staffed, or shut, they are the de facto doctors – and syrups are their most trusted tools. When posted in Gorakhapur, a town in Uttar Pradesh, Dr Kafeel Khan, a pediatrician, remembers “syrups being handed out everywhere – even by those with no degree”.

In many of these towns, patients rely on anyone who seems medically knowledgeable – from informal practitioners to shopkeepers – to manage even routine coughs.

“Many poor patients turn to local chemists for advice, assuming the person behind the counter is a pharmacist; in 10 out of 10 times in rural India, that is a wrong assumption,” says Dinesh Thakur, a former Indian drug executive-turned-public health expert.

“While anecdotally, it appears that this problem is largely confined to small towns and rural India, there is some data that it is not. We see similar behaviour among people in big cities too. The only difference is the quality of drug supply in small towns and rural India is an order of magnitude worse compared to larger cities.”

Another factor driving the trend is the combined pressure from anxious parents and gaps in medical knowledge.

“Parents aren’t always well-informed, and they can become impatient. If a child’s cough or cold doesn’t improve in a couple of days, they often consult another doctor who will give a cough syrup,” says Dr Khan.

Low knowledge among doctors adds to the problem. Dr Khan says he has “seen even MD pediatricians prescribe ambroxol cough syrup for children”.

“It’s meant to break up sputum, but kids under two can’t spit it out, so the mucus can be aspirated into the lungs, causing pneumonia – yet it is still prescribed.”

India needs a clear policy on cough syrups and nationwide awareness among doctors and parents to curb reckless use. The stakes are real: the Madhya Pradesh doctor who prescribed the syrup linked to recent child deaths defended his practice,, external saying, “I’ve been prescribing this cough syrup for 15 years.

Ministry of Defence  – Media Centre

The Deputy Minister of Defence, Major General Aruna Jayasekara (Retd), paid an official visit to the Sri Lanka Navy Headquarters in Colombo yesterday (07 October).

Upon arrival, the Deputy Minister was warmly received by the Commander of the Navy, Vice Admiral Kanchana Banagoda, and accorded a ceremonial welcome. He also took the opportunity to observe the operational dynamics of the Naval Operation Room, Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) and the Information Fusion Centre (IFC).

Addressing the senior officers, Major General Jayasekara, on behalf of His Excellency the President, commended the Sri Lanka Navy for its valiant and highly successful anti-narcotic operations at sea, which have been pivotal in curbing drug trafficking and safeguarding national security.

He further recognized the Navy’s strategic contribution through its authorized On-board Security Teams (OBST) operations, emphasizing their significance in advancing the government’s broader national interests.

Highlighting key policy priorities, the Deputy Minister reaffirmed the government’s steadfast commitment towards ensuring accountability and eradicating corruption at all levels.

He also underscored the importance of enhancing Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) to strengthen the Navy’s operational capabilities and overall professionalism. In conclusion, he stressed the vital principle of ‘Command Responsibility’, urging all leaders to uphold the highest standards of integrity, accountability and discipline in the execution of their duties.

National Development Bank PLC

NDB Bank recently entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with DIMO, a leading diversified conglomerate in Sri Lanka, to extend affordable and accessible leasing facilities to a wide spectrum of customers. This partnership reflects NDB’s continued focus on enabling mobility and empowering individuals and businesses through flexible, customer-friendly financial solutions.

Through this collaboration, customers can now access DIMO’s renowned range of passenger vehicles including Mercedes-Benz and Tata together with tailor-made leasing solutions from NDB. With quick approvals, minimal documentation, no guarantor requirements, and repayment plans designed to meet diverse customer needs, NDB ensures that customers can drive home their dream vehicle with unmatched convenience. The Bank’s wide branch network and specialized leasing centres across the island, supported by dedicated leasing officers, further strengthen this offering by providing end-to-end support and accessibility.

The partnership also extends to DIMO’s robust Tata commercial vehicle range, which has long been trusted by Sri Lankan entrepreneurs and enterprises for durability and performance. NDB’s structured leasing solutions for commercial vehicles are specially designed to support SMEs and corporates, offering affordable financing options that ease the acquisition of essential transportation for business operations.

Commenting on the partnership, Dilum Amarasinghe, Assistant Vice President – Leasing at NDB Bank, stated, We are delighted to partner with DIMO, a household name in Sri Lanka’s mobility sector, to provide customers with seamless access to both passenger and commercial vehicles. Reliable transportation is a key enabler of growth for individuals and businesses alike, and through this collaboration we are empowering more Sri Lankans to move forward with confidence.”

Rajeev Pandithage Executive Director of DIMO said DIMO has always stood for turning aspirations into reality by pairing world-class mobility solutions with trusted aftersales care. With NDB’s attractive financial solutions and DIMO’s trusted aftersales care, we are enabling customers to access their aspired vehicles with greater ease and peace of mind. Whether it is a family pursuing their dream car or a business strengthening its fleet, this partnership ensures a seamless ownership journey backed by DIMO’s unmatched service excellence across the island”.

By combining DIMO’s trusted vehicle portfolio and after-sales expertise with NDB’s innovative financial solutions, this partnership delivers an unparalleled mobility proposition for the Sri Lankan market, one that is reliable, affordable, and future-focused.

NDB Bank is the fourth-largest listed commercial bank in Sri Lanka. NDB was named Sri Lanka’s Best Digital Bank for SMEs at Euromoney Awards for Excellence 2025 and was awarded Domestic Retail Bank of the Year – Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka Domestic Project Finance Bank of the Year by Asian Banking and Finance Magazine (Singapore) Awards 2024. NDB is the parent company of the NDB Group, comprising capital market subsidiary companies, together forming a unique banking and capital market services group. The Bank is committed to empowering the nation and its people through meaningful financial and advisory services powered by digital banking solutions.

Courtesy fibre2fashion

Insights

• Sri Lanka’s economy is projected to grow 4.6 per cent in 2025, yet recovery remains incomplete, the World Bank said.
• Its Sri Lanka Development Update urges reforms to improve spending efficiency, manage public wages, and enable private-led growth.
• The report stresses better-targeted investments and governance to secure sustainable and inclusive development.

Sri Lanka’s recent economic rebound has been strong but remains incomplete, with growth still below pre-crisis levels and poverty significantly elevated, the World Bank said in its latest Sri Lanka Development Update – Better Spending for All.

The report projects the economy to expand by 4.6 per cent in 2025, supported by an industrial rebound and steady services growth, before moderating to 3.5 per cent in 2026.

Despite low inflation and robust external inflows, reserves have slowed, and economic output is still below 2018 levels. Although poverty is declining, it remains double that of 2019, with around 10 per cent of the population living just above the poverty line. 

The report calls for urgent reforms to strengthen the recovery — including easing trade and investment barriers, improving the business environment, modernising tax administration, and reforming land and labour regulations to foster private sector-led growth.

Public spending efficiency remains a major challenge, as over 80 per cent of government expenditure goes to public sector salaries, welfare, and interest payments, leaving limited fiscal room for infrastructure, health, and education.

The World Bank urged Sri Lanka to reform its wage bill with fairer pay structures and modern payroll systems and to prioritise investment in key infrastructure gaps, project completion, and maintenance funding.

The report accompanies the South Asia Development Update – Jobs, AI, and Trade, which projects regional growth at 6.6 per cent in 2025 but speaks of a slowdown ahead. It emphasises that greater trade openness and AI adoption could help South Asian economies, including Sri Lanka, boost job creation and sustainable growth.

While Sri Lanka’s recent economic progress is encouraging, the recovery is uneven and incomplete. To build a stronger, fairer economy that benefits all households, in a fiscally constrained environment, Sri Lanka needs the private sector to invest and create jobs and ensure that every rupee of public money is well-spent,” said David Sislen, World Bank division director for Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.

Courtesy Adaderana

It is a key goal of the current government to gradually ensure all teachers become degree holders, Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Higher Education, and Vocational Education, Dr. Harini Amarasuriya stated.

The Prime Minister expressed this view today (8) during a parliamentary debate on educational reforms.

Teacher training colleges have not been reformed in a long time. The lack of attention isn’t just about resources – there hasn’t been enough focus on how they operate either.

Within this year, we need to design a curriculum that matches both current needs and proposed educational reforms. Our goal is to produce the kind of teachers the country truly needs. Toward that, we are already training both the teachers currently in these colleges and those involved in teacher education.

The government’s aim is to progressively move toward a system where all teachers are degree holders. We want to elevate the teacher training colleges to a level where they award degrees. Currently, the Kuliyapitiya Teacher Training College already confers degrees, and we plan to bring the remaining 19 training colleges up to that same level,” said Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya.

Udaya Gammanpila

National Development Bank PLC

NDB Privilege Banking successfully hosted the Global Education Expo 2025, an exclusive event curated for Privilege customers and their families, in collaboration with ACH Education. The event was held at the NDB Privilege Havelock Centre Branch and brought together a distinguished audience of clients keen on exploring global education opportunities for their children.

The Expo provided participants with invaluable access to over 30 leading international universities, represented by their officials, who shared insights on academic programs, admission processes, scholarships, and pathways for higher education across destinations such as Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, and popular European countries.

For NDB, the event also highlighted the unique benefits of the NDB Student File proposition, designed to make overseas education seamless for students and their families. The Student File serves as a comprehensive financial solution for those pursuing education abroad, offering a trusted framework for fee payments, remittances, and value-added banking services tailored to the needs of students.

The Global Education Expo 2025 welcomed around 50 valued Privilege Banking clients, offering them not only expert guidance from international universities but also the personalised banking advisory of NDB Privilege Relationship Managers. The event underscored NDB’s continued commitment to supporting its clients in some of the most important milestones of their lives, particularly in shaping the educational and professional journeys of the next generation.

Through partnerships with reputed institutions such as ACH Education, NDB Privilege Banking remains at the forefront of empowering its customers with exclusive access, tailored solutions, and seamless financial services that extend far beyond traditional banking.

Top News Lk

Monara

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

1. Background

Sri Lanka’s strategic location in the Indian Ocean, along major East–West shipping routes, offers an unmatched opportunity to position the country as a regional hub for offshore, marine, and energy-related services.

The newly developed Colombo Port City, adjacent to the existing Colombo Harbour, provides a world-class urban and business environment ideal for attracting international companies in engineering design, project management, and consultancy sectors.

However, compared to regional centers such as Chennai and Singapore, Sri Lanka’s international investment inflow into knowledge-based and offshore-support services remains low. A focused strategy is required to attract high-value foreign participation and to integrate with the emerging offshore development hub in Trincomalee.

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2. Vision

To transform Colombo Port City into a Regional Offshore Industry Management and Consultancy Hub, supporting the growth of Sri Lanka’s marine and offshore engineering sector centered around Trincomalee Port.

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3. Objectives

1. Attract Global Players such as KBR (UK), Worley (Australia), Technip Energies (France), and other PMC/EPCM and design consultancy companies to establish satellite or regional offices in Port City.
2. Provide management and engineering support for offshore and onshore industrial projects in Sri Lanka and the wider Indian Ocean region.
3. Integrate Colombo Port City’s high-end business ecosystem with Trincomalee’s industrial infrastructure to create a seamless national platform for offshore development.
4. Enhance local capacity by linking these foreign offices with Sri Lankan universities, vocational institutes, and design centers.

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4. Strategic Rationale

• Colombo Port City offers a tax-efficient, investor-friendly environment under a separate Special Economic Zone framework, ensuring transparency and protection for foreign investors.
• Direct expressway connectivity between Port City and Bandaranaike International Airport facilitates efficient international access.
• High-quality living accommodation and social infrastructure in the Colombo hinterland support relocation of international experts and families.
• Trincomalee, with deep-water port facilities and large industrial land availability, can serve as the operational nucleus for offshore fabrication, assembly, and marine support services.
• Together, Colombo Port City (management and design) and Trincomalee (industrial operations) can create a dual-core blue economy growth model for Sri Lanka.

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5. Proposed Actions

1. Establish a Port City Offshore Industry Promotion Unit” (PCOIPU) under the Ministry of Industries / BOI to coordinate investor engagement.
2. Conduct targeted investor missions to major engineering and consultancy hubs (London, Dubai, Singapore, Chennai).
3. Offer incentives such as tax holidays, 100% repatriation of profits, and long-term business leases within Port City.
4. Promote Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs) linking international firms with local companies in design, fabrication, and training.
5. Develop a digital platform to showcase investment-ready projects in Trincomalee, Galle, and Colombo.

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6. Expected Outcomes

• Creation of high-value employment opportunities for engineers, planners, and project managers.
• Development of Sri Lankan expertise in offshore energy, marine engineering, and digital design.
• Attraction of foreign direct investment (FDI) into both Port City and Trincomalee.
• Positioning Sri Lanka as a regional blue economy hub in the Indian Ocean.

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7. Conclusion

This initiative aligns with the Government of Sri Lanka’s objective to expand the Blue Economy and promote export-oriented industrial growth.

By linking Colombo Port City’s global business environment with Trincomalee’s industrial and offshore capacity, Sri Lanka can establish itself as a strategic destination for marine, offshore, and energy service investments in South Asia.

Regards

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Courtesy The Independent (UK)

Exclusive: Asoka Jayaweera, a strict vegetarian, died after choking on a piece of food while attempting to ‘eat around’ the meat in the meal he was served instead of the meatless one he had requested, according to his family

A Southern California cardiologist flying Qatar Airways from Los Angeles to Sri Lanka was denied the vegetarian meal he had ordered, then died after choking on a piece of food while attempting to eat around” the meat in meal he was given instead, according to his grieving family.

The pilot couldn’t make an emergency landing to get 85-year-old Asoka Jayaweera to a doctor because the plane was traveling over the Arctic Circle/Ocean,” alleges a newly filed wrongful death lawsuit obtained by The Independent.

However, Jayaweera’s son Surya contends the aircraft was actually over the Midwest at the time and could have easily diverted, their complaint states.

When the flight eventually touched down in Edinburgh, Scotland, Jayaweera, a strict vegetarian,” had been unconscious for some three-and-a-half hours, according to the complaint. It says he was taken to the hospital – but that it was already too late.

In addition to standard options such as chicken biryani and couscous with beef, Qatar Airways, the flag carrier of the Emirate of Qatar, offers 19 special meals – of which seven are meat-free: a vegan meal completely devoid of meat, poultry, fish, honey, eggs, or dairy products; a raw vegetarian meal containing only uncooked fruits and vegetables; a vegetarian lacto-ovo meal, which does not contain any meat, poultry, or seafood, but does include egg and/or dairy products; a vegetarian Hindu meal; a vegetarian Jain meal; a vegetarian Oriental” meal; a children’s vegetarian meal; and a fruit platter.

Travelers with specific dietary restrictions have run into trouble before, midflight. Last year, British reality star Jack Fowler, who has a severe nut allergy, said he almost died aboard a Qatar Airways flight to Dubai being served a chicken curry containing nuts. The same thing reportedly happened to Fowler a year earlier when he was served ice cream with nuts, also aboard Qatar Airways.

Over the summer, a Singapore Airlines flight from Frankfurt to New York City was forced to land in Paris when a 41-year-old New York City woman allergic to shellfish became violently ill” after she said she was served a meal containing shrimp.

A Qatar Airways spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Monday. A message sent to the attorney representing the carrier in the suit brought by Surya Jayaweera – who told The Independent he was bogged down with errands and was unable to be interviewed – went unanswered.

On June 23, 2023, Asoka Jayaweera booked a trip from LA to Colombo, Sri Lanka on Qatar Airways, according to his son’s complaint, which was initially filed July 31 in California state court, and removed to Central California federal court on October 3.

A week later, Jayaweera boarded the flight at Los Angeles International Airport, with a connection in Doha, it states.

About two-and-a-half hours into the 15-and-a-half-hour flight, the onboard meal service began, the complaint continues.

Mr. Jayaweera was a strict vegetarian and requested a vegetarian meal,” the complaint goes on.

Instead, it says, the flight attendant informed him that there were no vegetarian meals left and that they could only provide him a regular meal with meat and instructed him to ‘eat around’ the meat.”

While attempting to ‘eat around’ the meat in the meal that he was provided, Asoka Jayaweera began choking shortly thereafter,” the complaint states, without specifying what exactly Jayaweera choked on.

Members of the flight crew stepped in to help, and got on the phone with MedAire, a Phoenix, Arizona-based service that has aviation-trained ER doctors available to remotely guide airline staff through in-flight medical emergencies, according to the complaint.

At approximately 02:46 UTC, Asoka Jayaweera was monitored with an oxygen saturation level of 69 percent,” the complaint says.

Oxygen saturation levels below 88 percent are considered dangerous.

Although the flight at that moment was passing over Wisconsin, the flight crew told Jayaweera’s travel companion, who is not identified in court filings, that the captain was unable to divert because they were already above the Arctic Circle and about to cross the Arctic Ocean, the complaint alleges.

Meanwhile, the crew administered oxygen to Jayaweera, to no avail – his saturation levels never again exceeded 85 percent, according to the complaint, which says Jayaweera lost consciousness at about 07:30 UTC and was administered drugs.”

It was not until approximately 11:00 UTC that the aircraft was brought down in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, and Asoka Jayaweera was transported to the hospital,” the complaint states. Asoka Jayaweera would die in Edinburgh on August 3, 2023, due to aspiration pneumonia,” an infection caused by inhaling food or liquid into the lungs, rather than swallowing it.

The lawsuit notes that Qatar and the United States are members of the Montreal Convention, the international treaty that governs airline liability. It sets a statutory payout limit of roughly $175,000, at current exchange rates, for onboard death and injury claims.

Surya Jayaweera is seeking damages for negligence and wrongful death, in excess of Montreal Convention guidelines, to be determined at trial, plus pre-judgment interest and court costs and attorneys’ fees.

Shenali D Waduge

Countries that once proudly promoted inclusivity” and gender diversity” in schools are now backtracking —the United Kingdom is leading that reversal after destroying lives of 500,000 British children. It began as a movement to end bullying” and quietly turned into a campaign that taught children to question their own sex, reject biology, and distrust parents & distance themselves from faiths. Between 2010 and 2020, the UK government allowed foreign-funded NGOs and activist groups to rewrite school policies under the banner of LGBTQIA rights.” Teachers were re-trained, curriculums rewritten, and children as young as five were told that being born in the wrong body” was normal. Sri Lanka’s Govt is trying to launch this same program.

The British government that once enforced these teachings has declared them harmful, unscientific, and inappropriate for children. Parents, teachers, and doctors have sounded the alarm on the psychological and physical damage caused to an entire generation of children. The Govt will reverse policy – but the damage done to 500,000 British kids is irreversible.

This is why we cannot allow this failed experiment to be launched in Sri Lanka.

As Sri Lanka faces growing pressure to adopt similar inclusivity” and gender education” under imported DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) models, we must pause and learn from the UK’s experience — before our own children are exposed to the same harm.

Between 2015 and 2022, over 9 million UK schoolchildren were taught gender ideology as part of inclusivity” lessons.

Within a few years, at least 20,000–25,000 were sent for medical gender referrals, while another half a million children showed signs of confusion, anxiety, or distress.

The UK government has since shut down the Tavistock Clinic, restricted teaching of gender ideology, and admitted that these lessons were not age-appropriate and caused harm.

1.                 How it Started

• Around 2010–2015, the UK government began promoting inclusivity and diversity”in schools under the banner of LGBTQIA rights and gender identity education.
• This came through new Relationships and Sex Education (RSE)
• It was heavily supported by NGOs, activist groups, and foreign-funded organisationswho said it would help reduce bullying” and make schools safe spaces.”
• By 2020, it became compulsoryin all English schools to teach about different kinds of relationships” — including same-sex relationships and gender identity — even to very young children.

2.                                         What these Policies meant in Practice

Schools were told to:

• Teach children as young as 5that they could be born in the wrong body.”
• Use cartoons like The Genderbread Person”(instead of Gingerbread Man) or The Gender Unicorn” to explain that gender is a spectrum.”
• Replace words like boy”and girl” with learners” or friends.”
• Allow children to choose new names or pronounswithout informing parents.
• Make teachers attend gender sensitivity” trainingand face complaints if they didn’t use preferred pronouns.
• Display Pride flags and gender postersin classrooms — even in nurseries.

What British Children were really taught

In Primary Schools (Ages 5–10):

• Children were told that you might have a boy’s body but a girl’s brain” — and that only you can know who you really are.”
• Pupils learned songs and stories saying that boys can have babies” and girls can have penises.”
• Teachers were instructed to replace he” or she”— with  they” or friends.”
• Classrooms displayed Pride flagsand gender symbols year-round, not just during June.
• Some schools used colouring books asking children to choose what gender they feel like today.”
• Storybooks like Introducing Teddy” (a teddy bear that changes gender) and Julian is a Mermaid” were made part of early literacy lessons.
• Children were told to try on different clothes and see what gender feels best.”
• Gender-free bathrooms” were introduced, causing distress and complaints from both parents and students.

In Secondary Schools (Ages 11–16):

• Teachers were told to treat a child’s declared gender identityas fact, without parental knowledge.
• Lessons taught that sex is assigned at birth”and gender is fluid.”
• Some schools asked students to list their pronouns”at the start of class (e.g., she/her,” they/them”).
• Videos shown in class explained how to bind your chest” or come out safely” to parents — without medical or parental guidance.
• Students who disagreed were called transphobic”or sent for inclusivity counselling.”
• Teachers faced disciplinary action for using the wrong pronoun.”
• Biology teachers had to say people who menstruate”instead of girls.”
• Some schools invited activist speakers who claimed gender is a feeling, not a fact.”

What British Parents and Teachers Said

• My daughter came home crying because her class was told that if she likes trucks, she might be a boy.”
• Our 7-year-old was told she could change her name and pronouns without telling us.”
• Teachers were warned that questioning the school material was discrimination.”
• Boys stopped joining sports teams because they were afraid of being called sexist.”
• Even science class became politicised — they told us biology is ‘socially constructed.’”

Outcome

By 2023–2024, even UK officials admitted these lessons were inappropriate, confusing, and ideologically driven — not based on science or child psychology.

The Cass Review called the system built on weak evidence, activist influence, and lack of clinical safeguards.”

3.                       What Went Wrong

Within less than 5 years, parents, teachers, and even doctors began to raise serious concerns:

• Children were confused— many thought normal childhood feelings meant they might be transgender.”
• Parents were not consultedabout what was being taught.
• Genuine Teachers were afraidto question or discuss the materials for fear of being labelled transphobic.”
• Hundreds of childrenwere referred to gender clinics like the Tavistock Centre, which later shut down after investigations found serious harm and lack of proper medical oversight.
• Mental health issues roseamong confused students.
• Faith-based schoolsfelt their values were being overridden.

4.                       Public Backlash and Investigations

• A major UK review (the Cass Review, 2024) found that gender identity services had rushed children into medical treatmentswithout proper evidence. Irreversible health issues for children.

Having to take lifelong expensive medication.

• The UK’s Education Departmentbegan investigating schools that taught gender ideology as fact instead of a belief or debate.
• Parents protestedacross the UK, demanding transparency and the right to withdraw their children.

5.                                         Why Policies are Now being Reversed

In 2024–2025, the UK government began reversing or restricting the LGBTQIA-DEI policies because:

1. The teachings were not age-appropriate.
2. They caused psychological confusionamong children.
3. They were based on ideology, not science.
4. Parents’ rights were ignored.
5. They divided schoolsand distracted from real education.

Today, many UK schools have removed gender identity” lessons, and new guidance says:

• Children under 9 must notbe taught about gender ideology.
• Schools must not teachthat gender can change or that people are born in the wrong body.”
• Any discussion on gender identity must be presented as a contested idea, not fact.

6.                       The Lesson for Sri Lanka

What started as inclusivity” in the UK has ended in confusion, regret, and reversal.
Sri Lanka must learn before it imitates the psychological-mental & even physical damage to children. Only a parent will understand the horrors.

• Our Constitutionalready guarantees human rights to all — there’s no need to create special categories.
• Our religions and cultureuphold respect and morality without promoting private lifestyles.
• Our childrendeserve protection from imported ideologies that even their creators are now rejecting.

Learn from the UK:

• Protect Our Children,
• Our Culture,
• Our Classrooms.

The Warning for Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka does not need to repeat the mistakes of the West.

Our Constitution already guarantees equality and human rights for every citizen — regardless of identity. What it does not do is grant special privileges based on private sexual behaviour or imported ideologies that contradict our culture, religion, and national values.

The UK’s reversal is proof that gender education” was not inclusion — it was a confusion.

It divided classrooms, silenced teachers, undermined parents, and left thousands of children with emotional scars and lifelong regret.

Let us protect our next generation from this same fate.

Let Sri Lanka remain a country that values family, faith, moral education, and biological truth — not imported theories that even their creators are now abandoning.

If Sri Lanka imports these programs, every one of our 4.2 million schoolchildren would be exposed — but even if just 2–3% experience confusion, that’s 80,000–120,000 children at risk of serious psychological harm.

Once such teaching begins, it is almost impossible to reverse without deep damage — as the UK discovered.

Shenali D Waduge

• https://apnews.com/article/uk-transgender-health-care-children-e3e94aad2994da7296880915f9b2e6ed

• https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/10/thousands-of-children-unsure-of-gender-identity-let-down-by-nhs-report-finds

• https://policyexchange.org.uk/publication/asleep-at-the-wheel/

• https://www.attitude.co.uk/news/schools-gender-identity-465555/

• https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/07/15/labour-clearing-way-gender-identity-lessons-schools-tories/

• https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/jan/31/school-defends-lgbt-lessons-after-religious-parents-complain

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cass_Review

By Raj Gonsalkorale

Sri Lanka GDP growth rate needs to rise above 8% over ten years to achieve a GDP of USD 200 million and a GDP per capita of USD 9000 to qualify as an upper middle-class status. A high-income status requires a per capita of $13,846 or more. Can Sri Lanka achieve these targets? It is noteworthy that Singapore GDP in 2024 was USD 547.4 billion and per capita 90,674.07 USD while Sri Lanka’s GDP was USD 98.96 billion with a per capita of 4,515.57 USD. Singapore’s projected GDP will be 900 billion USD in 10 years with a per capita of USD 130,000. Sri Lanka must decide where it wishes to be in ten years

Despite some economic progress in Sri Lanka over the years, the fact that the country was declared bankrupt in 2022 negates such achievements from the point of view of sustainability of the country’s economy and shows a structural weakness in economic fundamentals. Excessive borrowings for projects without a proper return on investment assessments, spending far in excess of actual costs for infrastructure projects, operational expenditure in excess of income, accumulating large foreign debts and using some such borrowings especially International Sovereign Bonds for consumption rather than for specific projects with a return on the borrowings in excess of the cost of borrowing, are but some of these structural shortcomings. Thanks to the often-criticized entry of the IMF, Sri Lanka has been able to instill some financial discipline in economic management and virtually compel the governments since 2022 to adhere to an economic framework in return for the USD 2.9 Billion bailout package negotiated with them. It is well for those who were and still are critical of the IMF to remember that their entry was a result of successive government’s financial indiscipline and politically influenced monetary policies, and had economic fundamentals been strategic and sustainable, there would not have been a necessity to seek IMF assistance to save the country and assist it to overcome its bankruptcy.  

Foreign reserves

Trading Economics (https://tradingeconomics.com/sri-lanka/foreign-exchange-reserves) states that foreign exchange reserves in Sri Lanka were 6.107 USD Billion in August 2025 and Singapore’s foreign exchange reserves were SGD 502.02 billion (approximately 390 billion USD) in August 2025 (https://tradingeconomics. com/singapore/foreign-exchange-reserves). The total reserves of Singapore based on publicly available data from Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), the Government of Singapore owned multinational investment firm Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and government’s Central Provident Fund (CPF), are conservatively estimated at S$2.5 trillion (2024) (US$1.87 trillion). Many analysts believe that the reserves are substantially larger than publicly acknowledged. The Ministry of Finance keeps the full details of the reserves private so as to prevent currency speculation attacks on the Singapore dollar.

Individually, besides the government foreign reserves of USD 390 Billion, GIC’s portfolio value was estimated at approximately US$800 billion as of May 2025 according to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute (SWFI), Temasek Holding portfolio S$434 billion (USD 287 Billion) as of 31 March 2025. (https://www.temasek.com.sg/en/news-and-resources/news-room/news/2025/temasek-net-portfolio-value-grows-to-record-high-of-434-billion), and as per Wikipedia, CPF managed a portfolio of US$463 billion (S$594 billion) for 4.2 million account holders.

Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves are woefully inadequate as it can only fund about 2 months of imports to the country. This period will be less when the debt capital and interest payments are considered. Singapore too has a substantial gross external debt, reportedly over S$2.4 trillion, but possesses zero net debt because its substantial financial assets—like foreign currency reserves far exceeds its liabilities. Unlike in Sri Lanka, the high gross external debt reflects Singapore’s status as a major global financial hub, attracting large amounts of international deposits and investments, primarily held by private corporations rather than the government.

If Sri Lanka is to move to a different and higher economic platform, its thinking, meaning peoples thinking, their attitudes, as well as those of politicians and officials, has to change and none should harbour a view that doing the same thing expecting different results, simply will work. While economic data is not easy to find in1948 when Sri Lanka became independent, Wikipedia reports that in 1960 Sri Lanka’s (then Ceylon) per capita GDP was 152 dollars, Korea 153, Malaysia 280, Thailand 95, Indonesia 62, Philippines 254, Taiwan 149. Singapore’s GDP per capita in 1960 was approximately $395 to $428 USD. The Monetary Authority of Singapore says that in 1965, when Singapore became an independent nation, its nominal GDP per capita was around US$500.

No doubt in 77 years since independence, Sri Lanka has moved along progressively to reach a per capita of USD 4515.57 by 2024. However, Singapore since its independence in 1965 has moved from USD 500 to USD 90,674.07 in 60 years.

The history, culture, politics, demographics, the geography, the country size, its agriculture and crop diversification and many other factors are vastly different in Sri Lanka and Singapore, and it is perhaps not a fair comparison to make when it comes to the economic status quo of the two countries. However, some fundamental comparisons can and should be made about the basic, logical economic management policies and outcomes irrespective of the differences mentioned earlier. In fact, some of these differences are advantages enjoyed by Sri Lanka over Singapore although the outcomes and returns from these advantages have been very much less than optimal. The population density of the two countries and the land areas illustrate a distinct advantage that Sri Lanka has, and not capitalised, and how Singapore has used less to make more within these two challenging realities.

Singapore’s population density is approximately 8,387 people per square kilometres (or 21,722 people per square mile) as of mid-2025, making it one of the most densely populated countries in the world. This high density is a result of careful long-term planning to manage land scarcity in the city-state of 700 square kilometres. Sri Lanka’s population density is approximately 370 people per square kilometres (959 people per square mile) as of 2025. This density is based on a total land area of 62,710 square kilometres

Future economic trajectory for Sri Lanka

While GDP and GDP per capita are arguably not the best measures to judge a country’s economic health, they are the measures used globally to do so at present. Some argue that these measures represent the thinking of international institutions like the World Bank and IMF, and that they represent the viewpoint of Western economies led by the USA.

Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics and University Professor at Columbia University,  former chief economist of the World Bank (1997-2000), former chair of the US President’s Council of Economic Advisers, former co-chair of the High-Level Commission on Carbon Prices, and lead author of the 1995 IPCC Climate Assessment and Co-Chair of the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation and the author, most recently, of The Road to Freedom: Economics and the Good Society (W. W. Norton & Company, Allen Lane, 2024) says in an article published in the Scientific American “GDP measures everything,” as Senator Robert Kennedy once said, “except that which makes life worthwhile.” The number does not measure health, education, equality of opportunity, the state of the environment or many other indicators of the quality of life. It does not even measure crucial aspects of the economy such as its sustainability: whether it is headed for a crash”. (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/gdp-is-the-wrong-tool-for-measuring-what-matters/). Readers are referred to an article written by this writer titled GDP and GDP growth: Are they measures that really matter?(https://www.ft.lk/opinion/GDP-and-GDP-growth-Are-they-measures-that-really-matter/14-774796),to get a brief idea about statistics on a range of underlying disparities, inequalities and inequities amongst its people despite developments” visible to the naked eye.

However, at the end of the day, there are some fundamentals to consider irrespective of arguments for or against the contention that GDP alone being a measure of the economic health of a country. Amongst some of them are affordability by the entire population of a quality, modern universal health care, a good education system, that widens and deepens knowledge and prepares the younger generation to be more self-reliant, technological advancements including Artificial Intelligence and access to them, efficient and affordable transportation, quality housing for all, food security, absence of poverty and malnutrition, and ability for all to live in a free and non-violent, equal and equitable society. Clearly achieving some of these ideals need substantial amounts of monetary investments and therefore strategic, out of the box, economic thinking, policies and effective and efficient economic management becomes paramount.

While Sri Lanka has achieved a high standard in many areas such in education and health in particular, its overall economic management has not been satisfactory and in fact, if the country and all its people are to achieve a higher, sustainable quality of life, the entire country, not just its politicians, need to move towards a substantial paradigm shift in economic thinking. Sri Lanka rising to a higher economic platform in effect means a rise in GDP, and in 10 years it will depend on its economic growth rate between 2025 and 2035. The GDP growth forecast for 2025 is 3-4%, and for 2026 is around 5%. With a starting point of $99 billion GDP in 2024, and assuming a sustained growth rate of around 4%, Sri Lanka’s GDP would be approximately $147 billion in 2035 and a per capita of USD 6300.00. 

The question has to be asked whether this is sufficient for people to enjoy a better-quality of life and whether it is sufficient to renew confidence in the country amongst its current and future generations.

If one were to consider the current per capita GDP of USD 97604.00 in Singapore, and if Sri Lanka is to achieve at least half of it (USD 45,000), Sri Lanka’s GDP would need to be approximately $990 billion This would require a tenfold increase from the 2024 GDP of $99 billion to achieve the desired per capita figure. Achieving such a figure would seem an impossibility based on where the country is placed now. However, the policy makers and the people should at least target to achieve the World Banks’s classification of a higher income country, which is a per capita in excess of USD 13,846, which is a tripling the country’s current per capita of USD 4515.00. This would require an increase in GDP to approximately USD 300 Billion from the current USD 99 Billion.

The current trajectory of predicted GDP growth around 4-5% is not sufficient to give the people in the country anywhere near what is required to provide the economic and social ideals mentioned earlier. Whilst the government has outlined plans to increase exports, earnings from tourism, and foreign investments, all of which are very commendable, this article wishes to suggest that a more dramatic paradigm shift is needed in economic thinking, strategy and management if the country is to move towards a high-income country. A few key areas are mentioned for purpose of discussion

Industrialization and agriculture – Focussed on food security and exports

• Value adding industrialisation for local consumption but more importantly for exports.
• Further development of the fisheries industry, for local consumption and exports
• Moving from traditional approaches relating to the tea, coconut and rubber industry and venturing into research based higher yields using less land, maximisation of water resources and replacing unproductive plantations with alternate crops,
• Intercropping where two or more crops simultaneously in the same field to improve land use, increase yields, reduce risk, and enhance biodiversity. Coconut plantations are a good example where intercropping could be done with coffee, cocoa and other suitable crops between coconut trees.

Finance – Increased investments and foreign reserves

• Increase foreign reserves by providing incentives to exporters and those remitting foreign exchange by buying the foreign exchange from them at a higher premium over normal bank interest rates.
• Creating a government owned foreign reserve management entity (for a component of the government foreign reserves) on the lines of entities in Singapore, enabling it to invest in select fund management entities.
• Creating a National Investment Bank with private sector equity participation and dedicated exclusively to engage in investments both locally and overseas

Private sector – Greater role for the private sector as the engine of growth

• Consideration given to creating an exclusive ministry headed by a high-level cabinet minister to plan and promote growth of a sustainable private enterprise in the country.
• Community Service Responsibility activity – Providing tax benefits to companies engaging in priority projects of the government with a view to achieving long term sustainability of such projects.

Transforming diplomatic services to be commercially oriented to attract investments and promote exports

• Appoint commercially astute diplomats (High Commissioners, Ambassadors) to key overseas postings to coordinate investment interests amongst potential investors, both citizens of the respective countries as well as amongst Sri Lankan expatriates in such countries.

Conclusion

Sri Lanka has to develop its economy in order to provide a fair, equitable, healthy, knowledgeable and dignified lifestyle for its citizens and its future generations. It needs to provide enough opportunities to them and foster their confidence in the country. While the country’s long history and its rich colourful culture are important in shaping the identity of the country, it also needs to think of the future and how it will provide a safe, secure and healthy environment for its people in a sustainable manner. Sri Lanka does not have to emulate any other country as the uniqueness of Sri Lanka in terms of its natural beauty, history and culture provides an enviable environment for it to grow its economy to provide a more quality future for its people. However, it needs resources, both financial and capable human resources to provide a future for its emerging generations. The country has to earn more, save more and equip itself more to provide the outcomes that are desired. Its thinking therefore has to be futuristic and strategic and not confined to yesterday’s glory days. Economic policies have to look towards the future and not be focussed on the past.

by Garvin Karunaratne. Courtesy The Island/03.05.2023

The Sri Lankan government is finding it hard to fulfil the regulations agreed upon with the IMF in the Houses of Parliament on April 28, 2023. However, there was no other option but to agree. According to Professor Vasanta Atukorale, the increases in taxes amount to a staggering 441%. The IMF’s experts fail to understand that implementing these regulations will cause untold hardships to the public and may even lead to a severe recession. Perhaps, this is the ulterior motive of the IMF.

Sri Lanka was not a dollar in foreign debt in 1977. From 1948 to 1977, the country made strides in development, opening up land, colonisation schemes for people, building tanks, developing agriculture and industries, and implementing welfare measures. The country became self-sufficient in paddy production, its staple crop, and produced all its textiles. This development effort involved agricultural marketing, agricultural extension, small industry, and district administration. The golden era of Premier Dudley Senanayake’s rule, lasting 29 years, was where the people enjoyed freedom and development.

1977 – JR and IMF

The IMF abolished many development programmes in 1978. The problem began with the Structural Adjustment Programme imposed on Sri Lanka by the IMF when President J. R. Jayewardene sought assistance from the IMF, which gave loans freely on condition that Sri Lanka follow neoliberal economics and allowed the rich to spend foreign funds that the country had obtained as loans. This led to foreign debt. Worse still, President Jayewardene and his Minister of Finance Ronnie de Mel were made to believe that this path would lead to development.

In 1978, the IMF even gave grace periods, when Sri Lanka did not need to pay the interest and repayment instalments on loans so that the leaders would not be burdened with the repayment. The burden was shifted to future leaders.

IMF also responsible for  Sri Lanka crisis 

Many specialists have proposed alternative ways of dealing with the current crisis. The World Bank Country Director Fariz Hadad Zerous has said that the current crisis is not a temporary liquidity shock but the result of longstanding structural weaknesses, poor governance, and a public debt that is unsustainable. However, the World Bank Country Director needs to be told that it was the IMF itself that is to blame for taking Sri Lanka on this path of living on loans.

From Independence in 1948 to 1977, Sri Lanka’s development was done through various development programmes that involved people in production aimed at self-reliance. The IMF abolished all the developmental departmental activities and confined the administrators to the barracks while coming up with the ludicrous basis that the private sector was to be the engine of growth. It was this decision of the IMF imposed in 1978 that crippled the development of the country. The private sector has self-aggrandizement as its aim. The development of the country is not their concern.

 T. B. Illangaratne time

Until 1977, the country had import restrictions in place to ensure that it could manage with its earnings. The development of the country was entirely run with local currency – the rupee – collected by taxes supplemented by money printing, while the foreign exchange that came in through exports and services was precisely collected and used for the purchase of importing essentials. Very small allocations were made for imports. The total expenditure of Sri Lanka in 1961/62 was Rupees 2013 million, all local rupees. The 1963 Budget Speech of Minister T. B. Illangaratne tells how imports of textiles were reduced by a third, powerlooms were imported, but imports of cars were banned.

The Budget Speech outlines the strategy to manage imports within the available expenditure, highlighting its potential as a developmental exercise. Minister Illangaratne said, We stopped the import of coffee to increase coffee production” (p.1237). I met Minister Illangaratne in 1971, when I needed his approval for foreign exchange allocation to import dyes for my Crayon Factory in Morawaka. The Ministry of Industries refused to provide us with an import allocation because we were a cooperative. However, I learned that the Controller of Imports was about to allow an allocation of foreign exchange for the import of crayons. So, I intervened and convinced the Import Controller that by giving our Crayon Factory a foreign exchange allocation for the import of dyes, he could cancel all imports. I needed Minister Illangaratne’s approval as this procedure had never been done before. When I showed him the crayons we produced, I remember the gleam on his face. He insisted that I establish a Crayon Factory in Kolonnawa, his electorate, and ordered the total cancellation of all imports on crayons. That is how statesmen served the national interest.

Foreign aid could go either way 

Today’s economic meltdown, with foreign debt amounting to $56 billion, did not come without warning. In 1990, I began a series of lectures on Third World Studies at the Westminster Adult Education Institute, where I discussed how Sri Lanka’s foreign debt was increasing. By 1989, the foreign debt had increased to $5 billion. In 1992, the South Asian Forum of the University of London invited me to speak on Sri Lanka, and I commented that foreign aid could serve as an engine of growth if handled prudently. However, foreign aid could lead to chronic debt, poverty, high unemployment, and even uprisings if accepted in a non-developmental manner. I also mentioned that the healthy balance of payments achieved during the period of 1970-1976 turned into a nightmare of adverse deficits due to the governments that came into power since 1977 (From How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka & Alternative Programmes of Success, Godage, 2006).

The foreign debt ballooned to $9.5 billion by the end of the UNP rule, $11.5 billion by 2005, $42.9 billion at the end of 2014, and $56 billion by 2019. Initially, the IMF gave loans, but it later backed out, and the country had to raise funds through other sources on less attractive terms. International sovereign bonds were obtained at high interest, as much as $4 billion during the Rajapaksa Regime of 2008-2015 and $10 billion ISB loans during 2015-2019. It is important to note that President Gotabhaya did not create the foreign debt. However, he made wrong decisions, such as providing a massive tax break to large enterprises and his infamous agricultural extension programme of using compost and banning the use of inorganic fertilisers, which led to massive crop failure. It is difficult to imagine a successful military commander failing to act forcefully in the interests of the country, but it did happen. The cause of Sri Lanka’s total economic meltdown lies in the salient features of the Structural Adjustment Programme imposed on Sri Lanka since the end of 1977. We have not used the loans for any purpose in development but lived extravagantly on loans, as dictated by the IMF. Corruption and politics in decision-making also aggravated distress, but the salient factor is that Sri Lanka started living on loans and abandoned development programmes. The IMF even disbanded the Planning Department and confined all development workers to the barracks.

2023 IMF loan – No measures to increase the productivity

It is unfortunate to note that the IMF’s $3 billion loan provisions for Sri Lanka do not include any measures to increase the country’s productivity and boost people’s incomes. The IMF’s focus is primarily on increasing the tax base, restoring price stability, restructuring debt, rebuilding reserves, and enabling the country to purchase essential goods from abroad in order to put it on a growth path. The Central Bank is expected to purchase foreign exchange worth $1.4 billion to rebuild reserves. According to the Financial Times, the reforms also involve addressing corruption and inefficiency at state-owned enterprises, combating inflation, recapitalising the banking sector, and overhauling the tax system, which currently sees half of the country’s taxpayers paying less than 5% of their income to the state.

However, the IMF seems to overlook the fact that taxes are collected in local currency and do not have any direct impact on the repayment of foreign debts. Therefore, Sri Lanka’s only viable option is to implement import substitution programmes that will reduce the country’s dependence on imports and simultaneously generate incomes for the people. The IMF has not prohibited such productivity-enhancing measures, and it is up to Sri Lanka’s leaders to devise programmes that can increase production.

Sri Lanka has previous experience with successful development programmes such as the Divisional Development Councils Program (DDCP) implemented by the government from 1970-1977. The DDCP provided employment training to 33,200 youths, established agricultural farms, and set up small industries. Many Districts also established small agricultural farms and industries, such as the Mechanised Boatyard at Matara, which produced 35 seaworthy fishing inboard motor boats a year and a Cooperative Crayon Factory, which had country-wide sales. These were established in a short period, within two to three and a half months, respectively.

Employment creation programmes that can also boost production have proven successful, such as the Youth Self Employment Programme established by the author in Bangladesh, which has created three million entrepreneurs and is now recognised as the world’s most successful employment creation programme.

It is worth noting that since Sri Lanka started following the IMF’s policies in 1977, no new development programmes have been implemented to reduce poverty, develop the country’s resources, or train people to make what is imported. The author highlights the work of previous statesmen in implementing successful development programmes, which can serve as a model for current leaders.

In conclusion, it is crucial for Sri Lanka’s leaders to establish programmes that will produce what is currently imported and create incomes for the people while simultaneously reducing the country’s foreign exchange expenditure on imports.

(Dr. Karunaratne is a former Government Agent and Commonwealth Fund Advisor to the Ministry of Labour and Manpower, Bangladesh 1981-1983.)

The Island/03.05.2023

e-Con e-News

blog: eesrilanka.wordpress.com

‘Before you study the economics, study the economists!’

e-Con e-News 28 September – 04 October 2025

‘Ranil Wickremesinghe had been a shrewd driver & just before he left the office, he got the parliament to enact special legislation binding future governments to uphold the goals set by him. That legislation, the Economic Transformation Act or ETA had nothing to do with transforming the economy but adding to the law books the goals & targets set by IMF for its EFF (Extended Fund Facility) … If AKD fails to attain these goals, his government is liable to be challenged in courts.’– WA Wijewardena (see ee Economists, 1^st year of AKD Govt: Is it RW in driving seat with a difference?)

‘Sri Lanka permits 100% foreign ownership

in most sectors, with constitutional guarantees for investment protection & unrestricted repatriation of earnings, fees, & capital.’– US State Department Report

Despite all the ‘driverless’ remote controls, leghold traps & capital giveaways that grip the Sri Lanka government in bosom bondage, many US investors supposedly ‘remain wary given the NPP leadership’s historically anti-Western, Marxist-influenced ideology’. So claims the US government’s 2025 Investment Climate Statement, even as former members & ardent critics of the present government claim, the JVP’s brandishing of hammers & sickles and red flags & slogans about workers are but crimson icing for cakes programmed, made & baked elsewhere. (The standard ‘Old Left’ critique describes the JVP as an ‘ultraleftist’ decoction of the CIA, which has always been used to undermine any nationalist endeavours).

     The US is nevertheless warning investors to plan ‘exit strategies’: ‘Some senior government officials regularly castigate private sector-led economic growth & publicly promote state-owned collectivism as the country’s preferred investment model.’ And while the US government is publicly asserting its wish to make their own country ‘great again’, while claiming to end wars, even as they wage both horrific proxy – on Russia (Ukraine), West Asia (Palestine), China (Myanmar, Taiwan, etc.) – & undeclared wars (see ee Random Notes, Somalia) their stated aim in Sri Lanka is to ‘reduce state dominance’, and to ‘simplify approvals’ to privatize national resources.

     The US report thus whines about ‘rigid labour rules’ – ‘Rigid dismissal rules make restructuring [i.e., privatization] costly, while emigration has intensified shortages in IT, apparel, tourism & engineering.’ Interestingly, they make no mention of the damage to our state health sector by emigration (aka brain drain). Yet they highlight, ‘garment industry reports turnover rates of 40%’ and somehow also lament that despite such ‘rigidity’, ‘weak social protections & limited coverage for informal workers contribute further to labour market inflexibility’. Inflexibility is a euphemism for sacking workers easily. In fact, most business news is reported via such euphemistic synonyms for privatization, such as ‘market access’ etc.

     Also groaning about ‘restrictions on foreign participation’, the same US report says it is busy ‘eyeing’ the ‘ICT (information & communications tech), energy, aviation & defence’ sectors, while demanding further privatization. The US claims, the current administration suspended the unelected Ranil Wickremesinghe government’s ‘privatisation efforts upon taking office’. ‘The Economic Transformation Act, which was intended to abolish the Board of Investment and replace it with 5 specialised agencies, has not been implemented, leaving approvals fragmented and slow… The stalled privatization of deficit-ridden State-owned enterprises, notably the Ceylon Electricity Board, hinders development of cost-effective energy supplies crucial for industrial operations.’

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‘For Sri Lanka, US energy offers lower prices, diversification away from Middle East dependency, & the potential to turn Hambantota into a regional hub.’DKW Wegapitiya (see ee Industry, Energy imports from US offer the most practical & strategic solution)

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The latest (US-controlled) World Bank team to visit Sri Lanka, met parliamentary ‘finance oversight committees’, and also added their 2 cents to US energy demands. They duly call for ‘urgent energy, public sector & PPP reforms.’ Meanwhile, WKH Wegapitiya, the founder of LAUGFS, which runs ‘South Asia’s largest LPG transshipment terminal in Hambantota’, and recently tied up (described in apropos Trumpian hyperbole as ‘a beautiful partnership’) with Vallibel’s Dhamikka Perera, is claiming, despite being far far away, that ‘US energy imports… offer the most practical & strategic solution’ (to the US imposition of high tariffs), ‘to not only secure better terms for apparel exports but also position Hambantota as a gateway for US energy into Asia’ Wegaptiya appears to be blissfully unaware that ‘Middle Eastern’ oil is still US (Exxon)-controlled. (Vallibel is linked to Hayleys, Delmege, etc, see ee Focus, for their historical role in the English underdevelopment of the country).

     The US meanwhile, adding to the general merchant siren song of privatization, claims Sri Lanka’s 527 national enterprises, ‘including 55 designated as strategic… remain a major burden on public finances’. The US report, nevertheless, offers ‘a comprehensive overview of the investment conditions in over 170, providing a crucial starting point for US companies’!

     The US report inevitably gets around to its favorite war mongering tropes: ‘The Government’s decision to impose new taxes on service export firms while granting exemptions for [China’s] Port City projects has reinforced perceptions of uneven treatment. Corruption in procurement persists despite legislation passed in 2023.’ And purportedly lament their allies’ misfortunes: ‘Confidence was dented when Adani Green Energy exited a $400mn wind farm after the Government sought to renegotiate an awarded contract.’ (‘Confidence’ is yet another euphemism for merchant control)

     Other areas the US is clearly eyeing are the ‘restrictions on land & ownership’: ‘Foreign companies with more than 50% equity are generally barred from purchasing land, with only narrow exceptions… Caps of 40% apply across sectors such as agriculture, natural resources, shipping & education, while retail under $5mn, pawnbroking & coastal fishing are entirely prohibited.’

     The report also reveals how the US is salivating over ‘the country’s large, government-controlled pension funds, the Employees’ Provident Fund & Employees’ Trust Fund’. This was recently enunciated by their favorite parliamentary proxies, for the ETF & EPF to provide long-term funding to small & medium enterprises (SMEs, another euphemism for fronts that vend foreign industrial products).

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Standard Chartered Bank, SL, reported a total profit of Rs44,002,000;

HSBC SL Branch reported Rs45,931,350; Citibank USA, SL Branch

reported: 21,199,660, 2020-24 – ChatGPT

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There are 19,000 private equity funds, &

14,000 McDonald’s food outlets in the US

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• ChatGPT apparently cannot divulge how much profits, different banks and companies operating within Sri Lanka, remit, officially and unofficially, outside the country…. Last week, ee noted the sale of England’s HSBC’s retail operations in Sri Lanka. However, HSBC is in fact not totally withdrawing, but is holding on to its ‘Corporate & Institutional Banking’ business, which ‘enables 2-way trade & investment flows between clients operating in Sri Lanka & around the world’. In March, Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), had already said it would ‘divest its wealth & retail business in Sri Lanka’ while retaining its ‘strong presence in the country through our Corporate & Institutional Banking (CIB) business, which will continue to connect Sri Lanka to global opportunities whilst helping international clients access the market here’. SCB claims to be ‘one of the oldest foreign banks’ in Sri Lanka, with ‘a network of 7 branches across 7 cities’ (see ee Focus, for SCB’s role in England’s opium trade in China & colonial apartheid in South Africa).

     Multinational banks claim: retail banking (checking/savings accounts, small loans, mortgages) offer low-margin of profits compared to investment banking, wealth management, or corporate lending. They claim: ‘Shifting demographics, accelerated technological advances (fintechs, digital payment) & rising consumer expectations – all in an increasingly crowded financial services ecosystem’, make maintaining branch networks, ATMs & customer service staff costly. They don’t mention that in a fraught economic climate, going after ‘non-performing loans’, court cases & seizing goods already sold are messy affairs, better left to local actors.

     The claim for withdrawal is that traditional retail banks are now charging depositors / clients / customers to keep their money, offering minus to zero or low interest rates, while people have more profitable alternatives now, investing in a variety of other schemes, from term deposits to finance companies to stocks & crypto, etc.

     For example, multinational banks are supposedly ‘retreating’ from Africa including South Africa because the domestic financial sector & new digital challengers dominate (so says, US credit rating agency Moody). The MNCs have ‘struggled’ to break into the country’s retail banking market, but ‘entrenched local players & fintech startups’ have strong footholds. In Sept 2025, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) gazetted the official closure of HSBC Private Bank in South Africa, ending 30 years of operations. HSBC’s South African client base is being transferred to FirstRand’s corporate & investment arm, Rand Merchant Bank (RMB). 5 major international finance groups have either closed their operations or scaled back in South Africa over the last 2 years. BNP Paribas shut down its corporate & investment banking business in May 2024. Barclays and Standard Chartered have ‘significantly reduced their presence; across Africa.  Moody’s claims the absence of standardized national identity (ID) systems in many countries, complicates compliance with strict ‘know your customer’ requirements. Foreign lenders are focusing on ‘large corporates & high-net-worth clients’ in urban centres, leaving vast segments of the population untouched.

     Yet, when we delve deeper into these investment ‘alternatives’, many of them, including so-called private commercial banks & finance companies are controlled by imperialist multilateral agencies operated by the World Bank, ADB, etc, or by so-called development banks, which themselves are only fronts for their industrial exporters’ associations. Last week’s World Bank team included the IFC Senior Country Officer Victor Anthonypillai. The IFC (International Finance Corporation) is the World Bank’s private lender, which has not only ‘lent’ money to private commercial banks (ComBank, etc.) but also to private companies like PickMe, Sunshine Holdings (which we suspect, with its palm-oil addictions, is either a Ceylon Tobacco Co or Unilever front) 

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In 2016, information was leaked to the Sunday Times (ST) that Englsand’s HSBC Sri Lanka branch allegedly passed ‘bogus’ loans to agriculture sector clients, to meet a Monetary Board (MB) stipulation that 10% of the loan portfolio of all commercial banks must go towards the agriculture sector. These loans were passed before the reporting date at the end of certain financial quarters, when the figures are officially conveyed to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL). The CBSL was ‘informally’ aware of what was going on but, former Governor Arjuna Mahendran’s connections with HSBC (as its former Wealth Manager in Singapore) had allegedly helped avert trouble.

     HSBC is predominantly a corporate bank. The loans – which amounted to short-term cash injections to the relevant corporate clients – were then reversed after the reporting date. The ST knew the names of at least 2 companies involved but did not divulge them. These bogus loans helped HSBC to avoid the ‘penalty’ & to hoodwink the regulator. The MB had stipulated that, in the event any banks do not comply with the minimum 10%, the percentage shortfall as an equivalent amount in Sri Lankan rupees should be transferred to the refinance fund operated by the CBSL. Former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Patrick Gallagher was implicated and transferred to HSBC London. The bank was also alleged protecting senior Risk Managers, with auditors ‘covering up the issue’. The Chief Risk Officer (CRO) was suspended in December 2015, but reinstated to protect Gallagher, compromising the compliance risk model. It is ‘always the local staff that suffer and have to pay the price’.

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• One of the merchant media’s favorite myths in still-colonized Sri Lanka is that the English created & maintained an uncorrupt civil service & police and companies, and Sinhala politicians ruined this ruling machinery. This ee Focus offers some ohay references from Krisantha Sri Bhaggiyadatta’s Very Personal Ingrisi History of the World, which endeavors to show the enduring link between the colonial state & top banks & companies in Sri Lanka today, such as Standard Chartered, HSBC, Keells, Hayleys, etc. These details date the rise of England’s merchants & agency houses, their forever-war-making state, which enabled the trade in chattel slavery of Africans, the indentured slavery of Indians & Chinese, and opium wars. Here then is the rule of a so-called aristocracy in England & their colony Scotland, which continues to this day in their colonial import-export plantation economy (especially Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co or P&O), whose corporate media has been one of the main architects of the charges of so-called ‘corruption’ in Sri Lanka, and the so-called promoters of the myth of the ‘Chinese Debt Trap’ via Hambantota.

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‘Societies that live closer to the equator are warmer.

Why are they also poorer?… People are not lazier,

they’re just less productive in higher temperatures.’

(see ee Economists)

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So insists a recent article headlined, Why Warm Countries Are Poorer. Yet, as SBD de Silva searingly argues, such climatic theories have always been ‘part of an ideology which rationalizes & naturalizes an existing social & economic order.’ This ee Focus continues Chapter 2 of SBD’s classic The Political Economy of Underdevelopment, where he details how at the ‘birth of capitalism’, the plantation colonies had first depended on white indentured labor, whose conditions were no better than the enslaved Africans they later came to depend on. SBD also suggested the various reasons why these white servants ‘precluded a uniform standard of treatment’, conditioning the ‘institutional basis of the plantation economy’, and giving rise to ‘absentee interests and enslaved labour’. He shows how ‘employment patterns & their economic roles’ determined the relations between workers, drawing from examples across the Americas (Canada, Puerto Rico, etc), Asia (Malaysia), Africa (East, South & West), and the Pacific (New Zealand), etc. The later division of the world between settler & non-settler colonies were also based on the ability of peoples to resist – security being a ‘a paramount concern’. There was also the strong economic competition from other merchants, peasants & workers. The promotion of a ‘structure of race relation… made manual labour degrading’ for whites in some non-settler colonies.

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ee Focus also continues Gustavus Myers’ History of Tammany Hall, about that infamous political machinery parading as a charity, as many NGOs do today. Myers here describes the inevitable concentration of power in one or a few individuals, and the art of ‘bossing’, recruiting compliant politicians, officials and workers while pretending to be honest and efficient. Denouncing ‘corruption, extravagance and waste’, while demanding kickbacks for contracts to supply municipal necessities such as water, roads & railways. Yet the age of kings is long over, as modern ‘princes’ operate through corporate boards or political vanguard parties, albeit through tight cadre networks…

Contents:

NPP Leaders are Anti-Western & Marxist: So says the USA

Darini Rajasingham Senanayake

Rithika Kodithuwakku as a Tamil Sakkili Woman in Asoka Handagama’s art house rape fantasy which effectively character assassinated Chile’s Poet Laureate, Pablo Neruda in a different sort of ‘Operation Colombo’ to that which followed the CIA backed coup against Democratic Socialist President Dr. Salvador Allende in September 1973

September saw anniversaries in the chilling deaths of two democratically elected Socialist heads of state during the United States’ led Cold War anti-communist crusade that unfolded across the world between 1948-91: The first assassination of concern here happened in Colombo, the capital of the geostrategic Indian Ocean island of Ceylon on September 25, 1959. 

The second death happened half way across the world fourteen years after the assassination of South Asia’s first Socialist Prime Minister S.W.R.D Bandaranaike. On September 11, 1973, President Salvador Allende, South America’s first Socialist head of state died during a US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), backed coup as military helicopters strafed the Presidential Palace in Santiago de Chile. The campaign of murder, suppression and disinformation against the Left that followed Allende’s death was  Code Named Operation Colombo”.

Both deaths of democratically elected Socialist heads of State were Cold War operations, which sent shock waves around the world at the time. Both Bandaranaike and Allende, had promised to fully de-colonize and nationalize their countries’ plantations, ports, minerals and mines to benefit their native peoples, rather than foreign corporations drawing profits from the resource wealth of Global South countries. Both Bandaranaike and Allende died three years into their terms in office before they were able to deliver on the promise of full Economic independence for their citizens.

Remarkably, Prime Minister Bandaranaike was killed minutes after the US Ambassador, Bernard Gufler, had visited him in Colombo. Details of Gufler’s brief visit to Bandaranaike and departure from the scene of the crime just minutes before the assassination were revealed in de-classified US State department documents, some published on Wikileaks and corroborated by British intelligence source reports.[i]

The narrative that a Buddhist monk had shot the Prime Minister compounded the shock, horror and grief that engulfed the British Dominion of Ceylon which had received faux independence just 9 years earlier in February 1948.

US Ambassador Guffler’s profile is of interest here. He was a Special Ambassador and a veteran of GLADIO, the clandestine NATO and CIA ‘stay behind’ secret operations network in Europe, established after World War 2 in partnership with British intelligence.[ii] Gladio was set up to contain socialism and communists and the Soviet Union/ Russia. GLADIO operations included ‘false flag’ terror attacks staged by right-wing paramilitary cells with secret NATO weapons caches– in order to blame and discredit European Left organizations and networks. Gladio would later spill over into other containment strategies against Communist China in Indo-China and Southeast Asia, including Ceylon, where religion, particularly, Buddhism and Islam, were weaponized to combat God-less” communists and destabilize the region.

The story that Bandaranaike’s assassin was a home grown Buddhist monk and ipso facto the killing an internal affair served to bury the external finger prints and motives behind the assassination plot of South Asia’s first democratically elected Socialist head of state in a period of escalating Cold War killings and regime change operations against socialist leaders in de-colonizing Asia, Africa and South America. This was a time when retreating Anglo-European empires sought to retain their economic and security interests and influence in the post/colony.

 ‘Operation Colombo’ in Santiago De Chile

 Operation Colombo” was the Code Name of the dirty war killing spree and Disinformation Campaign against Chile’s leftists that followed the regime change coup against President Allende. Indeed, decades later in 2017, General Augusto Pinochet, Allende’s CIA-backed successor was tried for the Operation Colombo” case, including the disappearance of 119 leftists and other grave human rights violations by the Chilean Secret Police units or DINA.[iii]

‘Operation Colombo’, was followed by the notorious CIA networked clandestine ‘Operation Condor’, to track, trace and eliminate communists across South America in partnership with right wing regimes. The US’ Monroe Doctrine helped keep Socialists and Leftist regimes at bay during and indeed after the Cold War.

Was it an accident that ‘Operation Colombo’ was the Code Name for the bloody anti-left violence, disappearances and mutilation which included a particular Dirty War aesthetics of terror, torture and Disinformation, designed to spread fear and control society that engulfed Santiago de Chile September 1973 onwards? Why was the Psychological operation of murder, fear and disinformation against the Left in Santiago code named ‘Operation Colombo?

Who if anyone in General Pinochet’s inner circle was familiar with parallel events like the assassination of Prime Minister Bandaranaike halfway around the world in Ceylon? Or, the more recent purportedly leftist 1971 Janatha Vimukthi Peramnuna (JVP) uprising, ironically to overthrow the elected leftist Socialist government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike– the world’s first woman head of state.

At the time of the JVP student insurrection of 1971 there were widespread rumours in Colombo that the CIA was involved. Clearly, those who named code named the killing spree against Chilean Leftists Operation Colombo’ in Santiago de Chile in 1973, referenced these events in Ceylon. Retrospectively, the 1971 JVP student uprising in Ceylon that instrumentalized university students and rural discontent appears as a classic GLADIO-style false flag” event.  The JVP uprising served to delegitimize, divide and fragment the left in Ceylon, and derailed and delayed the country’s full de-colonization from British Dominion status that Bandaranaike had promised amidst Cold War headwinds.

WOKE film and Disinformation: Aborada as Character Assassination

Within two weeks of the death of President Allende in September 1973, Pablo Neruda, Chile’s Nobel Laureate and Allende’s friend and Foreign Minister also died under mysterious circumstances. Neruda had planned to escape to Mexico to tell the world the truth about the Coup in Chile and Allende’s death. As Neruda’s family members who sought repeated investigations into his death suggested, he was arguably another victim of ‘Operation Colombo’.

Remarkably, Neruda had spent time as a young diplomat and Chilean Consul in Colombo, Ceylon during 1929-30, just as in the early 70s, Russia’s now famous Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, was posted to Colombo and learned Sinhala as a young diplomat.

Was it a coincidence or a disinformation operation that years, nay decades later in 2021 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, a Woke feminist film titled Alborada was released about Pablo Neruda’s purported rape of a beautiful low caste maid?  Alborada directed by well-known art house film director Asoka Handagama, based on a poem that Neruda ‘never wrote” by Handagama’s, own admission, effectively served to character assassinate Neruda. May we in future expect similar salacious Woke Art House Disinformation about Lavrov’s sojourn in Colombo?

How, now, and why was the Socialist Neruda who had fallen prey of the anti-Left Operation Colombo carried out by the Chilean secret police DINA in Santago in 1973, subject to character assassination in Colombo Sri Lanka almost fifty years later?!

Alborada’s international release took place in Tokyo. It is not a secret that Japan is Washington’s closest Asian ally and a leading light of QUAD.  Handagama also worked at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), famous for bond scams leading to the country’s first Sovereign Default in 2022. His recent film Rani, about the 1989 State-JVP terror period and the killing of human rights and media activist Richard de Soyza purportedly by state aligned paramilitary groups has been also criticized for a lack of reserach. That film was also funded by USAID.

Released in 2024, Handagama’s Rani inexplicably glossed over the role of former President Ranil Wickramasinghe in the Dirty War terror and torture house violence of 1989-1992. This, despite the fact that US- backed Wickramasinghe was the main beneficiary of the string of political assassinations of leaders of the United National Party (UNP) – including Lalith Athulathmudali, Gamini Dissanaike, and President Ranasinghe Premadasa, around the time of the chilling killing of Richard de Soyza. This being the period of Batalanda terror and torture operations in which he, Wickramasinghe was implicated if the Batalanda Commission Report is accurate.

This period of State-JVP dirty war with both penetrated by external intelligence agencies occurred when Israel’s Mossad and the British SAS officers of the Keenie Meenie mercenaries trained and worked with the Sri Lankan Special Task Forces (STF) in the South of Sri Lanka during the second JVP uprising in 1989-1992. The STF, like the Chilean Secret Police DINA that were accused of paramilitary terror and disappearances, were also later accused of war crimes.

It would seem that Handagama’s Woke identity politics films like Alborada and Rani have served to promote Culture Wars, saturate the public sphere and distract from substantive truths– a form of art house disinformation?

Weaponizing Religion: An assassination by a Monk or a Psy Op?

Bandaranaike’s assassination purportedly by a Buddhist Monk compounded the shock, horror and grief that engulfed the island nation in September 1959. The campaign of disinformation that followed during the British Scotland Yard’s investigation into the Bandaranaike assassination also appeared to be a psychological operation to Gaslight the hapless natives of Paradise Lost. Oxford educated Bandaranaike was cast as an anti-minority ‘racist’ who had mobilized the Sinhala masses and blamed for his own death at the hands of a nationalist monk who purportedly converted to Christianity before he was hanged.

New research into declassified State Department and Asia Foundation documents indicate that the CIA with the Asia Foundation was weaponizing religion/s, including Buddhism seen as a conservative force to undermine leftist governments. This, to divide socialist and communist de-colonization, national liberation and independence movements sweeping across the Global South, against Euro-American Imperialism.

Weasponizing and fragmenting religion/s to counter ‘God-less Communists’ was a tried and tested strategy of Washington’s proxy and dirty war, Cold War playbook across South America, Africa and Asia as Dianne Kirby and other scholars have shown.[iv] Indeed, Kirby describing the politics of church and state in the Cold War era and the extent to which Evangelical churches played an anti-communist role,  affirmed that the ‘Cold War was one of history’s great religious wars.’ In the case of Socialist governments in the Global South, assassination of leaders and or regime change through application of the ‘Jakarta Method’ also to ‘Make the Economy Scream’ were standard operating procedure.

The history of the CIA’s weaponization of Theravada Buddhism as part of an anti-communist strategy is brilliantly documented in the book Cold War Monks: Buddhism and America’s Secret Strategy in South East Asia”, published by Yale University Press (2017). Southeast Asian Cold War Area Studies included Theravada Thailand, Burma/Myanmar, and Ceylon/ Sri Lanka.

The London Privy Council backstopped the court case against the accused monks, Thalduwe Somarama and Mapitigama Buddharakkita, his purported lover, Wimala Wijewardena who was a Cabinet Minister at the time, and a list of bit players. The British Scotland Yard’s investigation of the Bandaranaike assassination reads retrospectively like a classic disinformation and psychological operation: A cover up investigation worthy of the plot of Peter Greenaway’s classic film The Cook the Thief, his Wife, and her Lover”.

The accused Monk Buddharakita’s interest in recently nationalized geostrategic Colombo Port’s shipping lines were said have crossed a Norwegian Shipping line somewhere during the assassination plot! Meanwhile, the chief suspect, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Sidney de Zoysa seemingly escaped over the wall robe in hand; only to return to stage a Coup attempt three years later in November 1962, against Bandaranaike’s widow and the world’s first woman Prime Minister.

Much like the assassination of Buddhist Burma’s Socialist leader, General Aung San on the eve of that country’s independence in 1947, which effectively sabotaged Burma’s unity, or the murder of Congo’s Patrice Lumumba in 1961in a Belgian and CIA operation, Bandaranaike’s killing it appears was partly an ‘inside job’.[v] Arguably, so too the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, January 1948, on the eve of India’s Independence, after which India was partitioned.

The national police, armed forces and law and order institutions in the post/colony, like the investigative and judicial branches were penetrated and effectively controlled by Anglo imperial external powers working with segments within the State. Ceylon had only received faux independence from the British Raj in February 1948 when it morphed from a Crown Colony into a British Dominion. The assassination of Prime Minister Bandaranaike who had promised full de-colonization would delay Ceylon/ Sri Lanka’s full sovereignty and independence for another 13 years until his widow and world’s first woman Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike delivered on that promise on May 22, 1972 having faced down the JVP insurrection of 1971, an attempted Coup in 1962, huge Disinformation and ongoing attempts to Make the Economy Scream”.

PART 2

De-Colonizing Global South History: Operation Colombo to the Jakarta Method.

‘Operation Colombo’ in Santiago de Chile in 1972, reverberated with the same Disinformation that unfolded across Indonesia during the 1965 coup against President Sukarno, who was like Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike, a leader of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in the Global South, then called the Third World. President Sukarno had hosted the famous Afro-Asian Bandung Summit with the heads of state of 29 newly independent countries near the Indonesian capital Jakarta.

Ten years after the Bandung Conference the CIA’s Jakarta Method” Operation unfolded across Indonesia against Sukarno in 1965, and a decade later across Chile and Brazil during the Dirty wars escalating in South America. These events are brilliantly detailed in the award-winning book by Vincent Bevins, ‘The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anti-Communist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped our world” published in 2020. What later came to be termed the Jakarta Method” or ‘Jakarta Operation’ to destroy the world’s largest Communist Party outside of China, in Indonesia, was also unleashed in Brazil and Chile.

As Bevins wrote Operation Jakarta was the name of a secret part of an extermination plan… which was aimed at destroying the structure of the Brazilian Communist Party.. the goal was the physical elimination of communists. Operation Jakarta was a hidden plan to extend state terror to communist party members operating openly with civil society groups or the media (pg. 194). The Brazilian Public would not hear the words Operation Jakarta for another three years. But in Chile the word Jakarta” made a very public arrival”. The graffiti scrawled on walls in Santiago was a warning that Allende’s days were numbered.

Clearly, whoever code named the campaign against Chile’s Leftists in the wake of the Jakarta Operation leading to the death of President Allende, Operation Colombo”, was fully updated not just about Socialist Prime Minister Bandaranaike’s assassination in Colombo, Ceylon half way across the world in 1959.  Those who code named the Chilean Secret Police DINA’s ‘Operation Colombo’ to decimate the Left in Chile 1973 in the wake of the coup (until Operation Condor superseded Operation Colombo), were clearly fully cognisant of more recent developments in Ceylon. That is, the attempted 1971 Leftist youth insurrection by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), against Bandaranaike’s wife and successor, Sirimavo, to divide and de-legitimize the Left.

The code name Operation Colombo” in Santiago de Chile clearly referenced the more recent failed, so-called Marxist insurrection by the JVP in 1971, which resulted in numbers of youth killed and the Left delegitimized. It was another Gladio style false flag operation. The JVP uprising of 1971 ended with the quashing of leftist youth.  Colombo fought off the rebels with the help of neighbouring India, close to the Moscow, while it was widely rumoured that the CIA was involved in destabilizing the county to sabotage Ceylon’s push to full independence from British Dominion status.

Was the JVP youth uprising in early 1971 staged to disrupt and stymie the Socialist Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranike’s move to deliver on the promise to make Ceylon fully independent? At the time, Sirimavo in Colombo was close friend of Indira Gandhi in New Delhi. Both ladies were allies of Moscow.

Unsurprisingly, the JVP was virulently anti-Indian, projecting India as a neocolonial power during the Cold War. However, it has shifted its anti-India stance over time along with its principle foreign patron’s stance against India softening at the end of the Cold War. Indeed, in recent times the US and India have drawn closer in an apparent collaboration to contain the Chinese dragon and Belt and Road initiative (BRI) in the Indian Ocean region.

In any evert, in the following year, on May 22. 1972, the fully independent and Sovereign state of Sri Lanka came into existence under the First Republican Constitution. The county’s name changed from the British Dominion of Ceylon to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. The island’s courts became independent of London’s Privy Council.

At the time of the JVP uprising in 1971 a Minister expressed strong suspicion that the CIA was involved in the Bandaranaike assassination and the subsequent 1971 JVP insurrection to destabilize the Socialist Government of the world’s first woman head of state, a staunch leader of the Non-Aligned Movement. But so great was the disinformation campaign against Sirimavo Bandaranaike and the left amid the State-JVP Dirty war and the smear campaign of racism” against the Senior Bandaranaikes that Sri Lanka today barely recognizes May 22 or celebrates Republican Day unlike India where Republican Day celebrates Independence.

Decolonizing History: A Global South Historical Methodology of the Present

History repeats as Marx rightly said. Sri Lanka became a fully independent Sovereign State on May 22, 1972, officially rid of the British Monarchy, the JVP insurrection to derail and delay the push to full independence notwithstanding.

However, the county was precipitated into its first ever staged Sovereign Default in 2022 amid another regime change operation. This was another leaderless chaos operation against a no doubt unpopular regime by youth tired of two years of brutal Covid-19 Lockdowns and militarized mass injections. It was also a GAFAM social media remote platform-operated Gen-Z Aragalaya protest against local corruption that did not mention the global financial supply chain of corruption. The country has since effectively lost economic sovereignty to the Washington Twins (IMF and World Bank), BlackRock and other colonial Club de Paris Vulture Funds, and International Sovereign Bond or Eurobond holders whose names are secret, being caught in a neocolonial US dollar debt trap.

Clearly, British and US interference in the county’s domestic affairs and political outcomes remain in place, much as in Chile, which speaks to the importance of de-colonizing history with comparative global South studies across continents, Cold War Area Studies disciplinary partitions, and beyond the modern national state. Clearly, we need to rescue global south history from Orientalist tropes and Euro-centric grand narratives of the violence of ‘dark natives’ and disinformation campaigns like ‘Operation Colombo’.[vi]

Increasingly patterns in Cold War history and related dirty war violence are visible across continents, Asia, Africa South America and the Global South. This despite layers of accumulated disinformation, and years and decades of cover up investigations with deep penetration of investigation and law and order institutions of many countries in the Global South by neocolonial powers, often under the guise of Development Aid, expertise sharing and technical training. Increasingly, it makes sense for social scientists and historians to triangulate events across continents — to see patterns in a shared Global South Past.

As new scholarship and research based on recently de-classified US State Department documents and British Home office sources by brave scholars and journalists like Vincent Bevins and Phil Miller of Declassified UK circulates through open source channels, the space exists for countries in the Global South to brush history against the grain” and understand how apparently ‘internal’ conflicts and violence were often substantially contoured in Cold War regional proxy wars which roiled much of Asia, Africa and South America with a great deal of Operation Colombo-style disinformation.

Thus, events like the Bandaranaike assassination or the JVP insurrections of 1971 and 1989-91, read through a ‘hermeneutics of suspicion” may be better understood via Operation Colombo” in Santiago de Chile, or the ‘Jakarta Method’ in Brasilia’s favelas and elite neighbor hoods. Such reinterpretation of the historical record in Asia, Africa and South America is especially needed as decoding history and recovering what Walter Benjamin called the Oppressed Past” in the Global South from ‘history’s apparent victors’ (Euro-centric history), is further complicated by Artificial Intelligence (AI), algorithms designed to game our national history, archives and local memory, and divide us from ourselves.

De-colonizing History amid Distracting Culture Wars

Having failed to de-colonize history and pivot to the BRICS and Global South, Sri Lanka today continues to witness barely concealed regime change operations, system shocks, ethno-religious, gender LGBTQ.. xyz Culture Wars, that may be weaponized for social media remote platform coordinated Araglaya protest and regime change operations. The country’s intelligentsia, civil society and funded NGOs remain caught in Disinformation games as seen in the Woke film Alborada.  Thus the vast majority in,South Asia’s wealthiest country by all metrics bar the exorbitantly privileged US dollar believes the county to be ‘Bankrupt’ at this time!

Meanwhile, so-called anti-corruption, levelling crowds unleashed via social media for regime change chaos operations predominantly constitute by deluded youth now fashionable recast as Gen-Z protesters sabotaging their own futures, burning down courts and parliament seeking regime change as recently happened in Nepal and Bangladesh appears to be the new normal. All this of course advances the program to Make the Economy Scream” (as Nixon famously instructed the CIA to do to stymie and eventually take down President Salvador Allende in Chile in early 1970).

Simultaneously, woke disinformation amid endless Culture Wars helps the re-cycling and circulation of the same politicians like the Ranil Rajapakses and/ or Political Parties like the JVP, albeit with a puppet show of democratic elections. Meanwhile, the elected representatives of the people whether Right wing, Green or Left, all push the same Washington Consensus designed neoliberal policies. Such is the case of the current re-branded faux Leftist JVP National People’s Party (NPP), regime that implements with alacrity the dictate of the Washington Consensus! The rebranded JVP in the form of the NPP government having benefited from the Araglaya chaos operation for regime change and staged Default in 2022, thus rushed to sign the IMF’s International Sovereign Bond debt restructure once it came to power in December 2024. This was arguably, the biggest Central Bank bond scam yet!

Having turned its back on the BRICS, Shanghai Corporation Organization, greater integration with Asia and the Global South, the JVP-NPP regime in Colombo continues to dance to the tunes of Sri Lanka’s Anglo-European neo-colonizers.

The NPP is now in a rush to implement the IMF’s call to unbundle”, fragment and eventually privatize the Ceylon Electricity Board’s (CEB) national electricity grid system and supply chain. This under the guise of ‘reform’ and restructuring the CEB’s so-called legacy debt” concocted by IMF’s accountants. This in lieu of outright Debt Cancellation by the State of the state owned CEB’s debt– as national experts have recommended. Breaking up the CEB into 5 entities, under the jargon of unbundling’ would hollow out the CEB while restructuring dubious ‘legacy debt’ with private banks as a prelude to privatizing the national electricity system presents a clear and present danger to Sri Lanka’s energy and economic security.

Indeed, fragmenting and privatizing the electricity grid may presents a National Security threat in the context of planned Big Data Centers to benefit GAFAM data mining corporations that require huge amounts of electricity and water for cooling systems in an era of Digital Colonialism, which will see local electricity bills skyrocket.[vii]

The JVP’s newest face mask however seems to be slipping along with its IMF designed neo-liberal policies, despite a faux Left (red T-shirt?) veneer labelled pragmatism” in the legacy press and related social media echo chamber. We live in complex times in an apparently upside down world where social analysis has been rendered Woke memes.

But clearly, those who do not know their history like those who chose to forget it, are doomed to repeat it.

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[i] LOWENSTEIN: Well, Bandaranaike was assassinated shortly after Gufler arrived. I went with

Gufler to the Prime Minister’s as a note taker. When we got there, he said, “I don’t think I will

take a note taker, stay in the car and wait for me.” He went in and came out and we left

Bandaranaike’s house. As we drove out the gate and down the street, there was a popping noise.

We got back to the Embassy and a friend of mine from the British Mission who was their

intelligence guy called me and said, “Chap’s been shot.” I said, “What chap?” He said, “The PM

old boy.” I said, “Really, that is impossible, we just saw him.” “Well,” he said, “He was shot

right after you saw him.” And indeed he was. I think Gufler was the last person who saw him

alive. I can’t imagine that anybody else could have gotten in there between Gufler’s departure and

the time.  https://adst.org/Readers/Sri-Lanka.pdf initially uploaded at Wikileaks Lowenstein’s interview is fascinating and provides insight into the wider geopolitical backdrop of Bandaranaike’s killing.

 Q: The previous governments had been pro-Western, but Bandaranaike was not.

LOWENSTEIN: He was very much in the non-aligned movement and saw himself as a sort of

junior Nehru, and so did all his successors. Non-alignment was a very big thing, but it was a

loaded non-alignment. It was much more anti-American non-alignment than it was pro-Russian

or pro-Chinese non-alignment. The Chinese had a rice/rubber agreement and were in there trying

to carve out a sphere of interest.. https://adst.org/Readers/Sri-Lanka.pdf

[ii] https://files.libcom.org/files/NATOs_secret_armies.pdf

[iii] See Peter Kornbluh of the National Security Archive https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/128985-operation-colombo and https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2024-06-18/pinochet-regime-declassified-dina-gestapo-type-police-force-chile;

[iv] https://www.scribd.com/doc/262246516/Dianne-Kirby-Religion-and-the-Cold-War

[v] Who killed General Aung San? https://www.irrawaddy.com/from-the-archive/who-killed-gen-aung-san.html

[vi] https://indepthnews.net/literary-prize-politics-cold-war-and-the-disinformation-game/

[vii] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kkre0dQCJRw