Courtesy Pakistan Observer

President SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry Iftikhar Ali Malik Sunday urged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to work out timely bail out package to put defaulting Sri Lanka, a financially crumbled country, on track.

Talking to a delegation of women entrepreneurs led by Noreen Asim Siyal-an emerging youtuber, he said that main source of its revenue was tourism and deadly pandemic badly hit their tourism sector because of absence of foreign tourists which led to this ugly situation coupled with lack of good governance besides rising inflation.

He urged the world including SAARC member countries to come forward and save trembling Sri Lanka from total collapse.

He said being top leader of South Asia, he is confident that tourism will pick up again and worsening economic condition will be overcome in the days to come studed with good governance. He said Sri Lanka is seeking to restructure debts of more than $50bn its owes to foreign creditors to make it more manageable to repay. He said Sri Lankan government needs $4bn this year to little bit settle the score and bring the peaceful normal life.

Iftikhar Ali Malik, an octogenarian trade leader feared that Sri Lanka’s default is flashing a warning sign that surging inflation is set to take a painful toll in other developing nations.

Responding to a question of Noreen Asim Siyal, he said Pakistan will never become Sri Lanka, we have robust agriculture economy and colossal undocumented informal economy,which keeps the country sailing smoothly”. He said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is known for working over time and under his dynamic leadership Pakistan will flourish and an era of progress,prosperity and development will usher in with the active participation of private sector which will play key role in strengthening the national economy by broadening the tax base.—NNI

Courtesy MailOnLine

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A woman sits beside liquefied petroleum gas cylinders on a street in Colombo. Fuel is in short supply across Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka’s inflation hit a seventh consecutive record high in April as a petrol shortage worsened and food prices rose sharply, official data showed Monday.

The National Consumer Price Index rose 33.8 percent year-on-year in April, more than six times the 5.5 percent inflation of a year earlier.

Annual food inflation stood at 45.1 percent, according to the latest data released by the Department of Census and Statistics.

Hammered by a foreign exchange crisis, the country’s 22 million people have been enduring acute shortages of essentials — including food and medicines — for months.

Protests are continuing outside President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s office demanding his resignation over the unprecedented economic turmoil.

Inflation is likely to rise further in May as fuel price hikes of 35 percent for petrol and 65 percent for diesel — commonly used in public transport — feed into the wider economy.

Petrol remains in short supply with long queues outside the few pumping stations still distributing the fuel.

Sri Lanka asked the International Monetary Fund last month for emergency assistance. The country has defaulted on its $51 billion external debt and is seeking international aid to revive the bankrupt economy.

The economy has collapsed since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, with a nosedive in tourism revenues and foreign worker remittances.

Courtesy India Today

Sri Lanka’s contentious 21st Amendment to the Constitution was denied Cabinet approval after the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) objected to it.

In a major blow to Sri Lanka’s new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the proposal for the 21st Amendment to the Constitution to curb the unfettered powers of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, scheduled to be referred to the Cabinet on Monday, was not presented before it.

According to sources, the proposal was not presented in the Cabinet after parliamentarians of the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) objected to it in its present form. They demanded that the proposed legislation be approved by the Attorney General before referring it to the Cabinet.

The 21st Amendment is expected to annul the 20A which gave unlimited powers to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa after abolishing the 19th Amendment which had made Parliament powerful over the president.

Watch | Sri Lanka Crisis: Can Ranil Wickremesinghe save Sri Lankan economy?

The constitutional reform was a major plank of the agreement between Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe when he took over the job of prime minister on May 12.

Rajapaksa had also pledged reforms in the Constitution in an address to the nation earlier this month.

The 21st Amendment would make it impossible for those with dual citizenship to hold a seat in Parliament. President Rajapaksa, who is facing growing demand for his resignation for mismanaging the country’s economy, had relinquished his US citizenship in April 2019 before contesting the presidential elections.

Justice Minister Wijayadasa Rajapaksa had earlier said that the 21st Amendment seeks to further strengthen the powers of the existing commissions and to make them independent as well.

In addition to the existing Independent Commissions, the National Audit Commission and the Procurement Commission will be amended as Independent Commissions under the proposed legislation.

The justice minister said the new amendment also proposes the appointment of the Governor of the Central Bank to come under the Constitutional Council.

Read | Sri Lankan crisis puts spotlight on debt, freebie culture in India

The powerful Rajapaksa family tightened their grip on power after their massive victory in the general elections in August 2020, which allowed them to amend the Constitution to restore presidential powers and install close family members in key positions.

In his 2019 presidential bid, Gotabaya Rajapaksa won a convincing mandate for the presidency during which he sought full presidential powers over Parliament.

Sri Lanka has been grappling with unprecedented economic turmoil since its independence from Britain in 1948.

A crippling shortage of foreign reserves has led to long queues for fuel, cooking gas and other essentials, while power cuts and soaring food prices have heaped misery on people.

The economic crisis has also triggered a political crisis in Sri Lanka and a demand for the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The crisis has already forced prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, the elder brother of the president, to resign on May 9.

An inflation rate spiralling towards 40 per cent, shortages of food, fuel and medicines and rolling power blackouts have led to nationwide protests and a plunging currency, with the government short of the foreign currency reserves it needed to pay for imports.

READ | Sri Lanka crisis: Ship carrying relief materials from India reaches Colombo

By N. Sathiya Moorthy Courtesy Ceylon Today

Ironic but true. At the end of Act II, Scene II (if that is what it is), the villain has turned hero, and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, against whom the whole world seemed to have turned, has proved that he has Parliament on his side. The 119-68 headcount on the combined Opposition motion to suspend the Standing Orders, for the House to take up their ‘censure motion’ against the President showed the Government had more than the 113 required for an absolute majority in the 225-member House.

This outcome also bettered the earlier pro-Government vote to elect Ajith Rajapakse as Deputy Speaker, 109-78 with 23 invalid votes, or those who did not want to be caught ‘abstaining.’ Former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and son Namal were absent for the entire day. Unlike the censure motion, the Deputy Speaker’s election did not show an absolute majority for the Government, indicating that more members wanted Gota to continue as President than the Opposition might have assumed.

Parliament’s Standing Orders help fix the House’s schedule. By seeking to have it suspended, the Opposition wanted the ‘censure motion’ against President Gotabaya taken up for debate and vote on an urgent basis. For all this, a censure motion is only to express the ‘displeasure’ of the House. It is different from an impeachment motion with two-thirds majority or 151 votes.

The Opposition strategy was bald. With earlier Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa out of office, the pending No-Confidence Motion (NCM) against the Government – entitled to priority debate and vote – had become infructuous when the House met on Tuesday (17 May). As Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe explained with his years of experience as Parliament, now the ruling SLPP can take the ‘suspension-motion’ route to scuttle future debates on the censure motion, whenever scheduled for vote in the normal course.

Lone outsider

If Ranil had thought of upstaging Gota in his own way by making a public suggestion for a woman Deputy Speaker and thus avoid a contest, it was not to be. Taking him on his word, or to test his equations with President Gota, or to expose his limitations in this ‘unholy alliance of unprecedented convenience,’ the Opposition fielded a woman, Rohini Kavirathna. As if to tell the new Prime Minister on who called the political shots in this hybrid system in which Ranil is still the ‘lone outsider,’ the ruling SLPP fielded Ajith Rajapakse, and he won.

Ranil should have learnt his early lessons. Again unilaterally, or so it seems, he had appointed four of his UNP colleagues to take charge of the ‘shortage-sectors,’ including food, fuel, and medicine. This he did when new Cabinet Ministers were expected to take charge of each of these portfolios, leading to avoidable tension and confusion.

Maybe, the President did not react as sharply to dislodge Ranil’s nominees. Instead, he appointed four new minsters, though not all of them would be taking back the powers of the four Ranil men. Of course, with Parliament’s session set to commence on schedule and the Cabinet expansion expected to be delayed, it made sense for Gota to have more ministers to represent the Government in the House. Of them, Dinesh Gunawardena continues to be the Leader of the House.

Now it looks as if the Gota-Ranil camp did better to take the fizz out of the public protest of the people’s movement at capital Colombo’s Galle Face Green waterfront, rechristened as ‘GotaGoGama,’ or simply G-3. In the midst of the emergency and nation-wide curfew, the Gota Government allowed the protestors to return to the venue after the 9 May attacks on them.

The protestors were still demanding the President’s exit and his Administration was facilitating their return to protest, as if to establish the Government’s democratic credentials for the whole world to see. PM Ranil took the cake – and also the wind out of the protestors’ sail, even more – when he named yet another UNP leader to head a team of officials to ensure a regular supply of food and water and attend to other creature comforts of the protestors, as if they were protesting against some third-nation leader, if not were attending a carnival.

Yet, Gota’s greatest tactical victory was in the way he forced his elder brother and political mentor Mahinda to quit as Prime Minister, making it look voluntary. The popular leader that he was/is Mahinda lacked the strategic skills of Gota, which had gone a long way in helping his government annihilate the dreaded LTTE in its time.

Political historians

Once the dust settles, political historians, for years to come, would be analysing how Gota could do this to Mahinda, and still conclude that it’s what politics is all about. In doing so, they would acknowledge how Gota also managed to turn the Nation’s ire towards Mahinda when he alone was to be held accountable for misadministration on multiple fronts – tax concessions, Chinese organic fertiliser, etc, etc.

By getting all other Rajapaksas, including Mahinda, out of the people’s way, somewhere Gota seemed to have concluded that he would be spared or he could overwhelm popular sentiment through Parliament.  He may have a point, but it needs to be tested, too.

That way, after the 9 May ‘Monday Mayhem,’ especially the unprecedented arsonist attacks on the homes and other properties of 75 ruling party personalities, the Government has the Police and the Security Forces where they should be. As Minister Kanchana Wijesekera recalled for Parliament’s benefit, the attacks on MPs’ homes had commenced as far back as 4 April, and not as ‘retaliatory hits’ on 9 May, when alone ruling party goons targeted the peaceful protestors at Galle Face Green.

It means, the mass protests could continue as long as the protestors wanted to vent their anger in whatever peaceful forms possible. But it should have to and would have to end there – whether or not Gota quits as President, whether or not Ranil continues as Prime Minister, early elections or not!

About the writer:

The writer is a Policy Analyst and Commentator, based in Chennai, India. Email: sathiyam54@nsathiyamoorthy.com

By N. Sathiya Moorthy

By Shirani ranasinghe Courtesy Ceylon Today

There is a strong opinion in Sri Lanka that we need educated people in Parliament. The conclusion of many is that our politicians are not professional and that is the bane of the country.

Heeding that call, a number of top professionals entered the political arena at the last 2020 General Elections. Among them were Ali Sabry, Dr Nalaka Godahewa, Dr Seetha Arambepola, Professor Channa Jayasumana and Yadamini Gunawardena. They were joined by other professionals as Dr Ramesh Pathirana, Udaya Gammanpila, Pramitha Bandara Tennakoon and Kanaka Herath who were already engaged in politics. They entered Parliament with the genuine objective to serve the country.

Already in successful careers many did not accept a salary nor even a ministry vehicle. On 9 and 10 May their properties were identified, looted, vandalized and destroyed by anarchists. Some were burnt to ground. These properties were not accrued by these professionals after they entered politics and as such not from any deals or commissions. It was from their hard earned money. There is an effort to portray these mobs as the impulsive reaction of an outraged public. However, the speed at which the violence spread across the country and the uniformity of violence indicates a more organiSed force. How they had fuel in their possession at a time the country was suffering from a severe fuel shortage is questionable indeed.

This outrage should have been met with outright condemnation. Yet, it was greeted with silence and even applause by many, including fellow colleagues and peers in the professional field. Social, religious and political leaders who call press conferences at the drop of a hat yet to utter a word of reproach.

Is provocative,peaceful?

The concerted effort to describe the mobsters as peaceful protestors has not been adequately challenged by the independent Media. Perhaps the protestors who gathered at Galle Face Green as well as other protest sites may not have always been violent, but whether they could be described as peaceful as implied by the definition of the word is debatable.

Until violence erupted in Mirihana, in front of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s private residence on 31 March, no one paid much attention to the sporadic protests that precipitated over the shortages of essentials as gas, fuel, electricity and imported commodities as milk powder.

Drama queen

When former parliamentarian Hirunika Premachandra came before President’s house with a group of women on 5 March, another group of women gathered in protest in front of Premachandra on 6 March protesting over Premachandra’s protest. While she was in power she did not visit her own seat Kolonnawa when the area went under in floods. She only appeared days after the crisis, well after the flood water were receding. The area residents did not give her a good welcome. Therefore, her appearance before the President’s house was more theatrical than anything else. The tit-for-tat protests were simply political jabs at each other.

Targeted violence

However, the protests that ended in violence on 31 March were of very serious nature and caught the authorities off guard. The violence erupted closer to midnight, which in itself was unusual for a protest. Usually, protests are very much a daytime affair. Though it was brought under control within hours, the area thereafter resembled a war zone with burnt carcasses of buses and demolished parapet walls littering the vicinity. It was very clear that something very serious was afoot threatening national security.

However, that glimpse of violence afterwards immediately disappeared. This was replaced with the Colombo yuppy crowd, clad in black with slogans that introduced them as the ‘messed with the wrong generation’. Usually, protests in Sri Lanka are by lower middle class youth whose slogans are in Sinhala. These protestors however were mostly from middle or upper middle class and the primary language of protest was English. Clearly, this was a sector of society who had their privileges at the tip of their fingers. The discomfort of been denied comforts as electricity, air conditioning, internet and fuel was something they were not prepared to tolerate.

Threatening national security

These protests that began as small groups in every nook and corner, suddenly in a well coordinated move shifted to the front of the Presidential Secretariat. The media glare attracted socialites, artists, religious leaders, sports personalities and other notable characters to the site to pledge their support. As the protests became a trend, the movement became boisterous and the demands outrageous.

The louder the protestors became the greater the effort was exercised to recognise them as the singular voice of the Nation. By this time the Government was seeking assistance from the IMF and the World Bank. As such, undue tolerance was bestowed on the protestors perhaps to impress on these two financial institutions that the Government was most democratic.

Misusing this freedom without boundaries the protestors began to agitate for the resignation of both President and PM Mahinda Rajapaksa. While the freedom to protest is without contest, the need for civility was never impressed upon the protestors by the social and religious leaders who supported and endorsed the protests.

Hence, the use of language deteriorated and the messages itself became appalling and obscene.

It came to a point where protestors publicly removed their underwear and hung on police barricades to underscore their disdain to the President. Neither the law nor community leaders reacted to this breach in civility as indecent expose. Throughout these increasing vulgarity the protests continued to be described as ‘peaceful’.

Calling violence peaceful

Even the Rambukkana incident on 19 March when the police opened fire at a group who were pelting the police with rocks, after forcibly halting traffic in both road and rail and attempted to set a bowser filled with fuel on fire was described by the media as ‘peaceful protests’. Marketing the mobsters as peaceful protests” continues unabated even after the brutal murder of SLPP MP Amarakithi Athukorala. If this was the result of a peaceful protest, then the lynching of a Sri Lankan factory manager at a Pakistan factory in Sialkot cannot be anything else.

Mobster Leaders to Parliament

Former Minister Sabry’s bitter words in Parliament on 20 May were, I will never look at this Parliament again, I do not need it. We did not enter Parliament to see such circumstances. I will never come back again. I have not come here to wage a war. I am afraid for my children and my parents. We have not stolen even 5 cents or engaged in any form of fraud. I have paid nearly Rs. 42 million as income tax over the last five years prior to taking up a ministerial post.”  Speaking further he noted that when his house was attacked by mobs, several colleagues from the legal profession and even his own relatives had approved it via social media. Sabry questioned, how can the country move forward with such brutality?”

This question should echo in our conscience. This overall attitude of ours dripping with callousness and jealousy would in the future prevent educated and professionals from stepping forward to manage our country. Instead, we can expect characters who have their own private paramilitary forces that do not honor the law of the land to come forth. After all, the future parliamentarians must have the capacity to protect his own family and property first.

ranasingheshivanthi@gmail.com

(The views and opinions expressed in this column are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CeylonToday)

By Shivanthi Ranasinghe

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

SLPP MP Rear Admiral (retd.) Sarath Weerasekera says Prime Minster Mahinda Rajapaksa had not decided to resign on 09 May 09 although the SLPP MPs had been asked to bring supporters to Temple Trees for a meeting.Weerasekera said so when The Island asked him why he had skipped the Temple Trees meeting.One-time Public Security Minister said that the then PM Rajapaksa had, during a conversation with him on 08 May had denied reports that the latter was planning to resign the following day. MP Namal Rajapaksa, however, had asked a group of MPs and others to bring supporters to express support for the PM, MP Weerasekera said.

Weerasekera said he had been among those contacted by MP Namal Rajapaksa.The former Navy Chief of Staff said that the failure on the part of law enforcement authorities and the military to respond swiftly and decisively to a threat of breach of law and order had led to a disaster at time global attention was on Sri Lanka due to the deteriorating financial situation.MP Weerasekera questioned why police had refrained from firing at least once into the air when mobs arrived at some MPs’ houses, which were destroyed. For over 48 hours mobs had ruled the country, the MP alleged, demanding an explanation why shoot-on-sight orders had not been issued as soon as mobs started to attack MPs’ houses.MP Weerasekera said that serious accusations made by SLPP members, particularly Wimal Weerawansa, Dr. Ramesh Pathirana and Mahindananda Aluthgamage couldn’t be ignored. They accused some sections of the SLPP of conspiring to unleash violence and the police and the armed forces turning a blind eye to countrywide retaliatory attacks.

Newly-appointed Public Security Minister Tiran Alles said that he would order a thorough probe into the May 09 incidents. Minister Alles said so when The Island asked him what he would do against the backdrop of allegations of the police facilitating attacks on protesting public in the Kollupitiya and Fort police areas.MPs, Weerawansa and Dr. Ramesh Pathirana alleged in Parliament that Maj. Gen. Jagath Alwis, Secretary to the Ministry of Public Administration and C. D. Wickremaratne, Inspector General of Police prevented Deshabandu Tennakoon, Senior DIG, Colombo from mob attacks on the protesting public.

Former Minister Weerasekera said that the government, the SLPP and the police should come clean on this matter. MP Weerasekera said that the government mishandled the challenge posed by those who cleverly exploited the economic crisis. Perhaps one of the major blunders was allowing the public to block roads. Now, it has become a style. Interested parties also exploit the media and social media. The government seems clueless,” MP Weerasekera said, urging the government to review the developments.MP Mahindananda Aluthgamage, too, told The Island, the top SLPP leadership ignored repeated warnings. The former Agriculture Minister questioned whether those who had advised the Cabinet of Ministers chaired by the President deliberately deceived them.

Courtesy Adaderana

Proposals for the 21st Amendment to the Constitution have been presented to the Cabinet of Ministers today (May 23).

Accordingly, the Cabinet has decided to forward the draft proposals to the party leaders for their comments by Friday (27). 

The first meeting of the new Cabinet was held today under the patronage of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe says that a full report with the relevant amendments will be submitted to the Cabinet after consulting the party leaders on the 21st Amendment to the Constitution.

The Prime Minister said this while making a special statement regarding the relevant constitutional amendment.

He stated that the committee met today to discuss the 21st Amendment to the Constitution and that it was decided to discuss Minister Wijayadasa Rajapaksa’s draft proposal and present it to the Cabinet. 

The PM said they discussed this bill in the Cabinet and instructed to handed it over to all the party leaders in Parliament and instructed them to discuss with them and then report to the Cabinet.

Accordingly, Minister Wijayadasa Rajapaksa will hand over copies of the 21st Amendment to party leaders in Parliament. After that we hope to meet on Friday and get those ideas. Thereafter a full report will be submitted to the Cabinet along with the amendments,” he said.

We are looking at expeditiously publishing this amendment first in the Gazette and then allowing those who want to go to the Supreme Court. Present it to Parliament and pass this amendment immediately with the full support of all.”

Courtesy Adaderana

Minister of Mass Media, Transport and Highways Bandula Gunawardene has been appointed as the new Cabinet Spokesperson.

Meanwhile ministers Mahinda Amaraweera, Manusha Nanayakkara and Kanchana Wijesekara have been appointed as Co-Cabinet Spokespersons, the Govt. Information Department said. 

Courtesy Adaderana

The Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) in charge of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) has reportedly been transferred. 

It is reported that the Minister of Public Security has accepted the request for a transfer made by the DIG of the CID W. Thilakaratne.

The request had been made around two weeks ago while he has been transferred to the VIP Security Division. 

Meanwhile it is also reported that the DIG in charge of Nuwara Eliya, Prasad Ranasinghe is to be appointed as new DIG of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

Courtesy Adaderana

The appointing of eight more Cabinet Ministers of the All-Party Government took place before President Gotabaya Rajapaksa this morning (23).

The new ministers were sworn in at the President’s House in Fort, the PMD reported. 

Mahinda Amaraweera has been sworn in as the Minister of Agriculture, Forest Resources and Wildlife while Roshan Ranasinghe has been appointed as Minister of Irrigation, Sports and Youth.

Bandula Gunawardena has been sworn in as the Minister of Mass Media, Transport and Highways while MP Vidura Wickramanayake is appointed the Minister of Buddhashasana, Religious Affairs and Cultural Affairs.

Douglas Devananda is re-appointed Minister of Fisheries while parliamentarian Ahamed Naseer has been sworn in as the new Minister of Environment.

Keheliya Rambukwella has been appointed Minister of Water Supply in addition to his portfolio as Health Minister while Ramesh Pathirana has been appointed Minister of Industries, in addition to his portfolio as Plantations Minister. 

New Ministers:

1. Douglas Devananda – Minister of Fisheries 
2. Mahinda Amaraweera – Minister of Agriculture, Forest Resources & Wildlife 
3. Roshan Ranasinghe – Minister of Irrigation, Sports and Youth 
4. Bandula Gunawardena – Minister of Mass Media, Transport & Highways
5. Vidura Wickramanayake – Minister of Buddhashasana, Religious Affairs and Cultural Affairs
6. Keheliya Rambukwella – Minister of Water Supply 
7. Ramesh Pathirana – Minister of Industries
8. Ahamed Naseer Zainulabdeen – Minister of Environment 

Thirteen cabinet ministers including Rambukwella and Pathirana had been appointed on two previous occasions. Accordingly, this brings the total number of cabinet minister to 19.

Shenali D Waduge

Everyone is parroting system change but everyone is reluctant to point out where to start the change.

The present parliament is already elected. We cannot make changes to the present Parliament. But we can make sure the next Parliament makes the changes we want.

What are the changes that we want.

1. Re-allocating seats proportionately for each province by population (delimitation commission) – some provinces having undue number of seats enabling people with few thousands to enter Parliament.

1. We are all in unison that the current electoral system of preferential representation is a failure. People with a few thousand votes enter Parliament and become kingmakers & deal makers. This has to stop by reintroducing the First Past the Post System 

1. Criteria to become a MP to stand for Parliament should be a basic degree / for other entities it should be Advanced Level.

1. Mandatory to declare assets & liabilities

1. No criminal record or prison sentence – anyone exonerated may apply

1. Anyone to stand for election must be resident of area contesting for minimum 10 years

1. Status of National List – recommended that the 29 seats be given only to professionals who would act as an advisory body divided into key subjects (finance/Health/education etc) – they would not be given status of a MP. This way they will not hold any Ministerial portfolio. As professionals they are not politicians and should be utilized for their expert knowledge for strategy only.

We can add to this criteria but the basic requirement is to make the system change to bring in direct voting system where MPs are accountable to the people who vote for them. This can be done only via the First Past the Post system.

The allocation of seats needs to also be done so as to have equitable representation from a province.

More importantly, all those bellowing to remove 225 are completely silent about how to get about CHANGING THE SYSTEM and where the changes should be made to start off with.

Thus, this should be priority if people are serious about dealing with corruption, ensuring quality people enter Parliament & guaranteeing proper representation proportionate to a province

While the slogans and placards calling for system change are many, very few have presented a new electoral system that is representative of the population, where MPs are directly elected and are accountable to the People and puts to an end the current manner that corrupt deal makers & kingpins enter Parliament.

Shenali D Waduge

Shenali D Waduge

It was clear that 19a was drafted taking into consideration the President in power & the hurriedly appointing Ranil Wickremasinghe who was Opposition Leader as PM without removing the sitting PM (D M Jayaratne) The legality of this remains unanswered. 18 FR petitions were filed in SC. There were amendments to amendments with little time for Counsels to study before making submissions. Though public had a week to study as per Article 121, they did not get access to the latest version. This was a FR violation of the people’s right. Article 122 gives SC 24 to 72hours for Urgent Bills and if Article 121 is applied the Court can take 3 weeks for deliberation & until such time the Bill cannot be taken in Parliament. This was why 19a was rushed through Parliament as an Urgent Bill.

19a is full of confusions & contradictions.

19a was presented as an Urgent Bill and passed giving little time for People to object

19a that was passed differed to what was sent to Supreme Court for determination

• Why did 19a include age limit of 35 years to contest as President?
• Why was Presidential term limited to 2 terms
• Why was dual citizen clause inserted (was it in national interest or to deny anyone contesting – this is an important insertion but it was never properly enacted as even the Election Commission did not include provision to question if anyone was a dual citizen before accepting nominations)

19a clipped President’s Powers to PM & confusions 

• President cannot dissolve Parliament at his discretion & could dissolve only after 4 ½ years (as was done earlier – the disadvantage of this can be seen currently, where with the resignation of PM Mahinda, Parliament should have been dissolved & a new Govt elected instead of a person coming through the backdoor becoming PM)
• President could not remove the PM – only Parliament could
• President had to take advice from PM in appointing or removing Cabinet/non Cabinet/Deputy Ministers
• Contradictions in Clause 9 – Article 43(2), 44(1), 45(1) and 46(3)(a) contradicted with Article 43(1), 44(2) – first says President has to take advice in appointments & removals but second says President may choose to consult on appointments & removals. It also contradicts with Article 43(3) and 44(3) which says President may at any time change subjects/functions of cabinet/non cabinet & composition of Cabinet
• Presidential Immunity removed & subject to FR jurisdiction in SC
• President could not submit to a People’s Referendum any Bill rejected by Parliament
• President could not assign himself any subject/function not assigned to a Cabinet Minister
• 19a says President may not hold a portfolio – yet President is Head of Govt, head of Cabinet & Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces! As Head of the Cabinet he is a Cabinet Member. Voters gave executive powers to a President not for him to be a ceremonial President.
• If President decides on subjects of MPs and their powers & President appoints all MPs what is the point in inserting President ‘may not’ hold a portfolio in 19a?
• As per Article 30 the President is Head of the State, Head of the Executive & Govt, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces & has right to declare war & peace, however Section 51 of 19a says only the current President will hold Ministry of Defense. So in a future government though President is Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, to declare war he has to get the approval of the Defense Minister while the Defense Minister is appointed on recommendation of the PM. The PM cannot direct the Defense Minister to fight a war because the President can only decide that! 
• Article 154 allowing provision for President to dissolve Provincial Council was attempted to be slyly transferred from President to the PM/Parliament via Article 33a(2) of 19a – this was aligned with the calls for a separate state.
• As per Article 43(2) of 19a President can only appoint Ministers on advice of PM. President is not a MP & cannot hold a Ministry. Yet, Article 30(1) says President is Head of Executive, Head of Cabinet, Head of Government, Commander in Chief of Armed Forces YET Article 42(3) says PM is Head of Cabinet. If PM is Head of Cabinet, how can President attend it?
• Maithripala Sirisena held 3 ministries – Defense, Mahaweli Development & Environment but as per 19a these portfolios were only valid for sitting President & not future Presidents. How can there be a constitutional amendment applicable to only 1 President!

President has to seek opinion of PM to appoint specific Ministers, but

Article 46(1) of 19a allows him to decide on the number of Ministers with restrictions

Article 43(1) of 19a allows him to decide subjects & functions of Ministers

Article 43(3) of 19a allows him to change functions, subjects & composition of the Cabinet without approval of PM – this means the President can keep changing Cabinet Ministers as he likes.

Article 50(a) of 19a allows President to appoint all Secretaries to Ministries

Article 42(3) of 19a President is a member of the Cabinet & Head of the Cabinet. Though he is a member & head of Cabinet, the President cannot hold a Ministry but he has to hold Cabinet meetings!

Article 33(2) of 19a – President makes Policy Statement of the Government in Parliament. What if the President is from a different party to the party holding majority in Government which means the PM should be making the policy statement though President is Head of State. What if the President & PM disagree on the policy – the President has the powers to keep on changing & appointing Secretaries of his choice & Ministers would have to work with these Secretaries.

Where conflict can arise: The PM decides who should be Minister but the subjects & functions of these Ministers are decided by the President as well as the Secretaries assigned to the Ministries.

Powers of the  President is curbed by 19a – he remains answerable to Parliament (Section 6 of 19a) in exercising, performing, discharging his duties including public security.

The Executive President is answerable to Parliament but Parliament is not answerable to anyone & PM is not subject to any sort of review.

19a does not provide any limitation to the PM’s powers.

Other Confusions & Ambiguities in 19a

• Cabinet & Non-Cabinet could not exceed 30 while Deputy Ministers could not exceed 40 however a ‘national government’ allows Cabinet to have 45 and Deputy Ministers 55 but would be applicable only to the 2015-2020 Government.
• The 7 member Constitutional Council which included 3 eminent persons who would decide nominees for Independent Commissions & AG/IGP/Ombudsman/Secretary General of Parliament, CJ and Judges of other courts.
• Constitutional Council required 5 members to be present for quorum but Chairman did not have vote unless for an equal vote, which invariably meant that Chairman would always end up voting.
• While President’s immunity was removed CC which was making decisions/approvals & recommendations was made immune from any legal action & no one could question the decisions of the CC.
• CC was allowed to reject nominee of President even without valid reasons – this meant President could keep sending names & CC could reject them.
• Independent Commissions re-introduced. The bias of the ‘independent commission’ was evident from the behavior of the Election Commission member Hoole, who even went to file FR cases against a MP. Election Commission was not answerable to anyone while other Independent Commissions were answerable to Parliament. Role of Election Commission is not given & not mentioned in standing orders in Parliament.
• Election Commission lack of ‘independence’ was seen in its inaction while PC elections were postponed for 2 years by the Commission. So-called independent commission member Hoole even filed FR against holding elections!
• Right to Access of Information was included in 19a but contents of the Bill was not publicized!

Good aspects of 19a

• Inclusion of dual citizenship denial to be a MP or President
• Removal of Urgent Bills’ used to pass legislation (Bill has to be made available to public & given 14 days before placed on the Order Paper of Parliament – prior to 19a it was only 7 days)

Major fallacies of 19a

• While CC nominated IGP and President appointed him – there was no clause regarding his termination. Following the Easter Sunday, the IGP could only be sent on compulsory leave & a deputy IGP was appointed.
• Impediment to democracy (will of the People) placing restrictions on the dissolution of Parliament – allowing to dissolve Parliament in 4 ½ years of a 5 year term has no logic especially in instances where a Government is not functioning to the people’s wishes & people appeal to the President to take action – he cannot because of this 19a clause preventing him from dissolving Parliament.

19a & Supreme Court

Article 80(3) imposes a ban on Supreme Court from reviewing a law after it has been passed and no court or tribunal can inquire into it.

19a was passed no differently to how 13a was passed. 13a had a 9member bench with CJ Sarvananda. 3 judges upheld 13a, 5 judges claimed it contravened Article 2 of the Constitution, Judge Palinda Ranasinghe impugned certain provisions which AG Shiva Pasupathi made amendments to in the Bill & was hastily passed. 13a remains a problem for this reason, the very reason why 19a is full of ambiguities as well.

Article 2 of 19a attempts to replace Article 4(b) of Constitution providing President executive powers including defense. This has to be read alongside Article 33a of 19a which makes President act on advice of PM or a Minister authorized by PM.

Though 19a as per Article 2(b) says executive powers are with the President, in reality it is negated by Article 33a(2) which gives executive powers to the PM & not the President. This is a violation of the legal maxim ‘delegatus non potest delegare’ which in other words means delegated power cannot be re-delegated (thus the President cannot delegate powers given to him to the PM) – ‘shall’ is used as a mandatory requirement for the President in the 19^th amendment (Articles 33A (2) and (3) reduces the President to a mere puppet in the hands of the PM and questions the duplicity in including a clause that says the President exercises the People’s power.

Party leaders objected to the clause that required President to act on advice of PM & it was removed from gazette presented to parliament but was included in draft sent to Supreme Court.

Shenali D Waduge

සුදත් ගුනසේකර මහනුවර

“මේ රට සින්හල බෞද්ධ රාජ්‍යයකි” යන මූලික සම්මුතිය ඇතුළු පහතසඳහන් ජාතික ප්‍රතිපත්ති පිළිගෙන ඒවා ක්‍රියාත්මක කරණ බවට මහනුවර ශ්‍රී දළදා මාලිගාවේදී ත්‍රයිනිකායික නායක හිමිවරුන් ප්‍රමුඛ සන්ඝ සභාවක් ඉදිරියේදී දිවුරා පොරොන්දු නොවන කිසිවෙකුට මේ රටේ කිසිදාක පාලන බලය නොදිය යුතුය”

                                           1 කොටස

එක්සත්, සව්භාග්‍යමත් ප්‍රබල ශ්‍රී ලාන්කික ජාතියක් ගොඩ නැගීම සඳහා මේ රටේ සියළු දෙනාම ඒකමතිකව පිළිගත යුතු ජාතික  සම්මුති මාලාවක් පහත දක්වම

1″මේ රට සින්හල බෞද්ධ රාජ්‍යයකි

2.ශ්‍රි ලන්කාව ඒකචත්‍ර රාජ්‍යයකි

ලෝක ඉතිහාශය ආරම්භවූ දා සිටම ඉන්දීය සාගරයේ පිහිටි සින්හලද්වීපය නම්වූ, වර්ගසැතපුම් 25,332  (65,610 කි.මී)පමණ වු මේ දිවයින, ඒකචත්ත්‍ර රාජ්‍යයකි.

3 රටේ නම සින්හලේ (ලන්කාදීප) විය යුතුය

 ක්‍රි.පූ. 543 සිටම අඛණ්ඩව පැවති පරිදි මේ රටේ නම සින්හලේ/(ශ්‍රී ළන්කාව) විය යුතුය. ඒ හැර ඉලන්කයි, ඊළම්  ආදි වෙනත් වචනවලින් එය හැඳින්වීම රාජද්‍රෝහී අපරාධයක් වශයෙන් සැළකිය යුතුය.දෙමළෙන් ලන්කා යන අරුතින් ඉලන්කෙයි කියාද සින්හලයින්ගේ රට යන අරුතින් ඊළම් කියාද දකුනු ඉන්දියානුවන් අතර භාවිතා වී ඇත. ඉතිහාශය පුරාම නම් 23 කින් පමණ විවිධ ජාතීන් විසින්  (තම්බපන්නී වශයෙන් එක්වරක් හැර ) මේ රට හඳුන්වා ඇත්තේ  සින්හලයින්ගේ රට යන අර්ථයෙන්මය. සිලෝන් (Ceylon) කියා ඉන්ග්‍රීසීන් කීවේද සින්හල්යින්ගේ රට යන අර්ථයෙන්මය.

1815 මාර්තු 2 උඩරට ගීවිසුම අනුව ඉන්ග්‍රීසීන්ට භාරදී ඇත්තේ සින්හලේ නම්වූ රාජධානියයි. එබැවින් ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම රටේ නිවැරදි නම ලබාගත යුතුව තිබුණේ,1948 දී රටේ පාලනය භාරගත් අමණ සින්හල නායකයින් විසින්මය.

4  මේ රට ලෝකයේ තිබෙන එකම සින්හල බෞද්ධ රාජ්‍යයයි”.

කි පු. 307 සිට 1815 දක්වා නිලවශයෙනුත් එදා සිට අද දක්වාම නිලනොවන ලෙසිනුත් අඛන්ඩව වසර 2329 පැවති පරිදි මේ රට සින්හල බෞද්ධයින්ගේ පරම මාතෲ භූමිය බව මෙරට වාසී සෑමදෙනාම මෙන්ම සමස්ථ ලෝකවාසීන්ම අවිවාදයෙන් පිළිගතයුතුය

තවද කිසිම අවස්ථාවකදි කිසිවෙකුට ඒ තුල වෙනම රාජ්‍යයක් ඉල්ලීමට අයිතියක්ද නැත. එබඳු ප්‍රකාශ කිරීම හෝ ක්‍රියාවන්වල යෙදීම   රාජද්‍රෝහී වරදකි.

මේ අතර ඉතිහාශයේ වරින් වර මෙරටට  පැමිණ දැනට එහි පුරවැසියන් වශයෙන් ජීවත්වන දෙමළ, මුස්ලිම් සහ වෙනත් සුළුජන කොටස්, මේ බිමෙහි වසර 2500 කට වැඩි කාලයක් පුරා ශිෂ්ඨාචාරය බිහිකොට එහි  පරම උරුමකරුවන් වශයෙන් සිටි සින්හලයින් සමඟ සුහදව ජීවත් වී ඇත. ජාතියේ උරුමයට තර්ජනයක් නොවන තුරු ඔවුන්ද සින්හල අපගේම සොහොයුරන් වශයෙන් අපි සැමදා සලකමු. කෙසේ වුවද අපගේ එම පරම උරුමයට ඔවුන් යම් කිසිදිනක වචනයෙන් හෝ ක්‍රියාවෙන් තර්ජනයක් නොවිය යුතුය. එමනිසාම ඔවුන් කිසිවෙකුට මේ රටතුල අයිතිහාසික නිජබිම් හෝ වෙනම රාජ්‍යයන් ඉල්ලිමට කිසිදු අයිතියක්ද නැත. මේ රටේ ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ දැන්වත් ඒ බව ව්‍යව වස්ථා  ගත කළ යුතුය.  එසේම සැමදෙනාම ඒ බව පැහැදිළිව වටහාගත යුතුය.

5 මේ රටේ ජාතිය සින්හල

 ක්‍රි පූ.548 සිට අඛණ්ඩව පැවති පරිදි මේ රටේ ජාතිය සින්හල වියයුතුය. දෙමළ, මුස්ලිම් සහ වෙනත් බෙර්ගර්, මැලේ ආදී ජනකොටස් යනු මේ සින්හලයින්ගේ රටට විටින් විට පැමිණි, සින්හලේ රජවරුන්ගේ සහ පසුව මේ රටේ පාලකයින්ගේ අනුග්‍රහය ඇතිව මෙහි පදින්චි පුරවැසිකම ලබාගත් සන්ක්‍රමනික ජනවර්ග පමණි. ඔවුන් අතීතයේදී කිසිම අවස්ථාවක මේ රට තුල වෙනම ජාතීන් වශයෙන් ප්‍රකාශ කොට නැත. එබැවින් වර්ථමානයේද නොකළ යුතුය. එසේම එවැනි ප්‍රකාශ කිරිම හෝ කටයුතුවල යෙදීම රාජද්‍රෝහී අපරාධයක් වශයෙන් නීතිගත කළයුතුය

6 රටේ රාජ්‍ය භාෂාව සින්හල විය යුතුය

1978 විවස්ථාවේ තිබුණු පරිදි රාජ්‍ය භාෂාව නැවතත් සින්හල විය යුතුය. (ඒ අනුව ජේ.ආර් ගේ දේශද්‍රෝහී සහ ජාතිද්‍රෝහී 16 වන ව්‍යවස්ථා සන්ශෝධනයද  අහෝසි කළයුතුය). මේ රටේ මුළු ජනගහනයෙන් 70-2 % ක් සින්හල වන අතර මුළු ජනගහනයෙන් 99 % කටම සින්හල කථා කිරීම හා ලිවීම කළ හැක.ඉන්දියාවේ දෙමළ ජනයා  7 කෝටියක් සිටියත් දෙමල භාෂාව, එහි  රාජ්‍ය භාෂාවක්ද නොවේ. එසේ තිබියදී මේ රටේ දෙමළ මිනිසුන් මෙන්ම ඉන්දියාවද දෙමළ භාඅෂාවත් රාජ්‍ය භාෂාවක් කරණ මෙන් අරගල කරණුයේ කුමණ පදණමක් මත දැයි මට නොතේරේ. ලෝකයේ පෞරාණික ශිෂ්ඨාචාරයන් ඇති සෑම රටකම ජාතිය නම්කර ඇත්තේ එම රටේ ශිෂ්ඨාචාරය බිහිකළ ප්‍රජාවගේ මව් භාෂාව නමින්ය.

ඒ අනුව මේ රටේ ශිෂ්ඨාචාරය බිහිකළ සින්හළයින්ගේ භාෂාව වූ සින්හල නමින් මේ රටද නම්කළ යුතුය. එය ඔවුන්ගේ පරම ජන්ම අයිතියයි.

7 මේ රටේ රාජ්‍ය ආගම බුද්ධාගම විය යුතුය.

ක්‍රි.පූ 307 සිට 1815 වනතුරු රටේ රාජ්‍ය ආගම වශයෙනුත් 1815 සිට අද දක්වාම රටේ ජනගහනයෙන් 70.2 % කට වැඩි පිරිසකගේ ආගම වශයෙනුත් පවතින බැවින් නිළ වශයෙන් රජය ඒ බව පිලිගත යුතුය. ඉතිරි 30% න්  මුහුදුබඩ ප්‍රදේශවල 5%  කතෝලික කලේ 1505 න් පසු සුද්දන් විසිනි. දෙමල සහ මුස්ලිම් වරුන් බෞද්ධයින්ට එරෙහිව සන්විධානය කලේද ඔවුන් විසින්මය. මේ රටේ හින්දූන් වර්ථමාණයේ පවතින පරිදි 12.6% (50% කින් වැඩිවූයේද) උඩරට වතුකරයට සුද්දන් විසින් ගෙන ආ  සුද්දන්ගේ දකුණු ඉන්දියාණු දෙමළ වහල් කම්කරුවන් නිසාය.

ක්‍රි. පූ.307. සිටම අඛ්ණ්ව බුද්ධාගම මේ රටේ රාජ්‍ය ආගම විය. එබැවින් වසර 2329 ක් තිස්සේ පැවති පරිදි අදද බුද්ධාගම මේ රටේ රාජ්‍ය ආගම විය යුතුය. එමනිසාම බුද්ධසාශනය සුරක්ස්ෂිතකොට පෝෂනය කිරීම  රජයේ පරම වගකීම වියයුත්තේය.කෙසේ වුවත් ඒ තුළ සියළුම ආගම් ඇදහීමේ පූර්ණ අයිතියද සහතික කළයුතුය.

8 මේ රටේ ජාතික කොඩිය 1815 තිබුණ සින්හලේ කොඩියයි.

1815 තිබුණ සින්හලේ කොඩිය නැවත මේ රටේ ජාතික කොඩිය වශයෙන් ප්‍රකාශකළ යුතුය.1952 දෙමළ සහ මුස්ලිම් ජනයා නියෝජනයට කියා පටි දෙකක් ඇතුලත් කළද  ඔවුන් කිසිදිනක මේ රටේ නීත්‍යානුකුල ජාතියේ කොටස්කරුවන් වශයෙන් පෙනී සිටියේ නැත. නිතරම ඔවුන් දෙගොල්ලගේම අරමුණ වන්නේ රටේ උරුමකරුවන්වන සින්හලයින් යටත් කරගෙන හෝ,එලවා දමා හෝ සමූල ඝාතනයකොට දමා හෝ  මේ රට අයිතිකර ගැනීමය. එමනිසා ඒ පටි දැමීමෙන් ඔවුන්ගේ ජාතිවාදය වැඩි උනා මිස සින්හලයින් සමඟ සහයෝගයෙන් ජීවත් වීමේ අදහස වර්ධනය වූ බවක් නොපෙනේ. එබැවින් ඒ පටි දෙක මේ රටේ කොඩියේ තිබීමෙන් කිසිදු පලක් නැත.

(මේ හැම එකක්ම ඉතිහාසයේ ආරම්භයේ සිටම  1815 දක්වා මේ රටේ තිබුණු, එතැන් සිට ඉන්ග්‍රීසි අධිරාජ්‍යවාදීන් විසින් විනාශකළ සින්හලයාගේ පරම ජාතික උරුමයන් මේ රටේ පරම උරුමකරුවන් වන සින්හලයින්ට නැවත ආපසු ලබාදීම මිස අලුතින් නිර්මාණය කරණ දෙයක් නොවේ )

9 ජාතික ගීය

ජාතික ගීය දිවයින පුරාම ගායනා කළ යුත්තේ රටේ රාජ්‍ය භාෂාව වන සින්හලෙන් පමණි. එයවත් කිරීමට අසතුටු පුද්ගලයින් හැකිපමණ ඉක්මනින් තම තමන්ගේ මව් රට්වලට යා යුතුය.

10. මුලු රටටම බලපාන පරිදි එක නීතියක් –සින්හල රටේ සින්හල නීතියක්

එක රටක් හා රාජ්‍යයක් වෂයෙන්  රටේ සියළු දෙනාටම එක නීතියක් තිබිය යුතුය.එසේ නොකොට සුළුජන කොටස් වලට වෙනම නීති තීමෙන් රටේ උරුමකරුවන්ට බලවත් අයුක්තියක් හා අසාධාරණයක් සිදුවී ඇත.

මේ රටේ සියළු දෙනාටම එක නීතියක් තිබිය යුතුය. ඒ අනුව දැනට රට තුල ක්‍රියාත්මක වන සියළුම අන්දමේ මුස්ලිම් නීතිද එසේම තේසවලමෙයි නීතියද අවලන්ගු කළයුතුය.මන්ද එක රටක නීති කීපයක් තිබිය නොහැකි බැවිණි. ඒ අතරම මේ රටේ වසර 2500 කට වැඩි දීර්ගකාලීනව පැවති දේශීය නීතිය අනුව අපටම අනන්‍ය නීති පද්ධතියක් නිර්මාණය කිරීමට පාලකයින් දැන්වත් කටයුතු  කළ යුතුය..  ඔවුන්ගේ මව් රටවල නීති අනුව තම කටයුතු කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය මිනිසුන්ද ඔවුන්ගේ මවුරටවල් බලා යා යුතුය

11.මේ රටේ නිදහස් දිනය මැයි 22 වශයෙන් දැන්වත්   ප්‍රකාශ කළයුතුය.

1948 දී නිදහස ළැබුණායයි කිවද, මේ රට ජනරජයක් බවට ප්‍රකාශ කරමින් සැබෑ නිදහස උදා කළේ 1972 මැයි 22 දින බන්ඩාරනායක මැතිනිය විසිනි. එබැවින් ඒ වීර ලක් දියණියට කරණ ගෞරවයක් වශයෙන් හෝ මැයි 22 ජාතික නිදහස්  දිනය වශයෙන්  නැවතත් ප්‍රකාශ කළයුතුය.

1972 සිට 1977 දක්වා මැතිනියගේ රජයෙන් මැයි 22 නිදහස් දිනය අභිමානයෙන් සැමරින. නමුත් 1977 බලයට ආ ජේ. ආර්ගේ. අධිරාජ්‍යගැති  එ.ජා.ප රජය ජෙනින්ගේ බිරිඳගේ උපන් දිනය වූ පෙබ් 4 මේ රටේ නිදස්දිනය වෂයෙන්  නැවතත් ප්‍රකාශකලේය. 1994 එ.ජ. ප රජය පැරදුනද බණ්ඩාරනායක යුවලගේ දුව චන්ද්‍රිකාද සෝබෝන් ක්‍රමයට යමින්   පෙබ් 4 ම මේ හෙළුවැලි නිදහස් දිනය පැවත්හ්විය. ඊටත් වඩා පුදුමය කියන්නේ මැතිනිය නිසාම තම දේශපාලන අනාගතය උදාකරගත් මහින්දද ඉන් පසු ශ්‍රී ලන්කා පක්ෂයේම මයිත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේනද සුද්දාගේ දිනයේම නිදහස  සැ(මැරීය.) බන්ඩාරනායක පහණෙන් තම දේශපාලානයේ කිරුළු පලන් රාජපක්ෂලාද (ගෝඨාභය සහ මහින්ද) නැවතත් 2020, 21 සහ 22  කෝටි ගණන් මහජන මුදල් නාස්ති කරමින්  පෙබ් 4 ම මේ කවදාවත්ම නූපන් නිදහස් දරුවාගේ උපන්දිනය මැරීය. රටට හා ජාතියට  අබමල් රේණුවක ආදරයක් නැති රට ගැන හෝ ජාතිය ගැන අබැටක් පමණ හෝ ජාතික අභිමානයක්  නැති මෙවැනි අඳබාල පරගැති දේශ පාලුවන් අභිමානවත් සහ සෞභාග්‍යමත් දේශයක් ගොඩනගන්නේ කෙසේද?කවදාද?

1948 දි අපට පුර්ණ නිදසක් නොළැබුණු නිසා පෙබරවාරි 4  නිදහස් දිනය වශයෙන් සැමරීම ජාතික විහිලුවකි. එසේම එය තවමත් අධිරාජ්‍ය  ගැතිබව පිළිගැනීමේ නිවට කම ජාතියක් වශයෙන් ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ ප්‍රදර්ශනය කිරීමකි

12 මේ රටේ,ජනාධිපති, අගමැති, අග්‍රවිනිස්චයකාරතැන,ත්‍රි විධ හමුදාපතිවරුන්, පොලිස්පති සහ නීතිපති    හැමවිටම සින්හල බෞද්ධයින්ම වියයුතුය.

එඟලන්තය ඇතුලු හැම රටකම මේ තත්වය තිබේනම් වසර  2500 කට වැඩි කලක් ආරක්ෂාකරගත් සින්හල බෞද්ධ අපට ඒ තත්වය රැකගත නොහැක්කේ ඇයි?

13 මේ රටේ තිබිය යුත්තේ ජාතික දේශපාලන පක්ශ දෙකක් හෝ උපරිම 3 ක් pපමණි.

සියළුම ජන වර්ගවල චන්ද දායකයින් ඒ පක්ශ දෙකට අනුගත විය යුතුය

රටතුල භාෂා, ආගම් සහ වාර්ගිකත්වය අනුව දේශපාලන වෂයෙන් ජාතිය බෙදීමට හේතුවී ඇති බැවින් ජනවර්ග,ආගම්,ආදිය මුල්කරගෙන පිහිටුවා ඇති සියළුම දේශපාලන පක්ශ වහාම තහනම්කළ යුතුය. ආර්ථික ප්‍රතිපත්ති අනුව වෙනස්කම් අනුව ජාතික දේශපාලන පක්ෂ දෙකක් හෝ තුනක්   තිබිමට ව්‍යවස්ථාවෙන් අව්සර දිය හැක.

14 මේ රටේ මඩ්‍යම  කඳුකරය, ශ්‍රී ලන්කාවේ හදවත මෙන් රැකගත යුතුය.

මන්ද, හදවතේ ගැස්ම නතරවූ දාට ජීවියා මිය යන්නාසේ මධ්‍යම කඳුකරයේ භෞතික ස්ථාවරත්වය නැතිවූ දාට  මේ දිවයිනේ  සියලුම ගන්ගා ගැලීම නතරවීම නිසා සමස්ථ දිවයිනේම           සකළ ජීවී පද්ධතියම අතුරුදන් වී මේ රටේ ශිස්ඨාචාරයද අවසන් වන බැවිනි. ඒ නිසා මේ රට තව වසර 25 කින් බීමට ජල බිඳක් නැති, කිසිදු ජීවයක් නැති මරුකතරක් වීම වැලැක්වීම සඳහා යෝජිත  වැඩපිලිවෙලක් පහතින් දක්වමි.

1. මධ්‍යම  කඳුකරයේ මු. ම. අඩි 5000 ඉහල සෑම ප්‍රදේශයක්ම. අධිරක්ශි ප්‍රදේශ වශයෙන් ප්‍රකාශකිරීම. කිසිම වගාවක් හෝ ජනාවාශයක් මේ තුල  සපුරා තහනම් කළ යුතුය.

11. අඩි 3500-5000 අතර විශාල තේ වතු තිබුණද ඒ තුළද සෑම වර්ගයේම ජනාවාශ තහනම් කළයුතුය. 

111.කඳුකරයේ සියළුම ජනාවාශ අඩි 3500 යේ සීමාවෙන් පහල ප්‍රදේශ වලට සීමා කළයුතුය.

1ව්.කඳුකරයේ   1000-3500 අතර ප්‍රදේශ ගම්මිරිස්,කරාඹු,කෝපි,එනසල්, පලතුරු වැනි මිශ්‍ර භෝග සහ, ගෘහස්ථ සත්ව පාලනය සහිත කුඩා ගොවිපල ව්‍යාපාර සඳහා වෙන්කළ යුතුය.මෙසේ කිරීමෙන් උඩරට ප්‍රදේශයේ ඉඩම් නැති ජනතාවගේ මෙන්ම ඉහල වතුකරයෙන් ඉවත් කෙරෙන වතු ශ්‍රී ලන්කා පුර වැසියන්වන දෙමල වැසියන්ගේ ඉඩම් ප්‍රස්නයද විසඳෙන අතර ඔවුන්ගේ ආර්ථිකයද දියුණු වණු ඇත.

15 ජාතික ආර්ථිකයේ මුල්තැන ගොවිතැනට දිය යුතුය.ඉනුත් වී වගාවට ප්‍රමුඛත්වය දිය යුතුය. ඒ සඳහා අවශ්ය ජලය,පොහොර, කෘෂිරසායනික, ව්‍යාප්ත සේවා  අලෙවි පහසුකම් සහ නිස්චිත මිල ක්‍රමයක් ආදි සියළු සේවා සහ පහසුකම් ලබා දිය යුතුය.

මේ රටේ ජාතික ආර්ථිකයේ මුල්තැන ගොවිතැනට දිය යුතුය.

16 රටේ ආර්ථිකය, සන්වර්ධනය, සන්ස්කෘතිය සහ අධ්‍යාපනය ආදිය පිලිබඳ ආණ්ඩු මාරුවීමත් සමඟ වෙනස් නොවෙ‍න ජාතික ප්‍රතිපත්තියක් තිබිය යුතුය.

17 රටේ රාජ්ය පාලනයේ සියළු කටයුතු රටේ සින්හල ජාතිය ප්‍රමුඛ සියළුම ජනවර්ග, ආගම් නායකයින් නියෝජනයවන, සහ රාජ්‍ය තන්ත්‍රයේ ප්‍රධානීන්ගෙන් සමන්විත උත්තරීතර ජාතික උපදේශක සභාවක  උපදෙස් අනුව සිදුවිය යුතුයි.

ඒ මණ්ඩළය මෙසේ විය යුතුයයි මම යෝජනා කරමි

1ත්‍රයිනිකායික මහනාහිමිවරුන්  හතර දෙනා                                      4

2කෝට්ටේ, දඹුල්ල, රුහුණු සහ වනවාසී නායක හිමිවරුන්             4

3.මහානායක හිමිවරුන් විසින් වසර 5 කට නම්කරණු ලබන පඬි හිමිවරුන් දෙදෙනෙක් (විද්යෝදයෙන් හා විද්‍යාලන්කාර පිරිවෙන් දෙකින්)                                                                                                 2

 4.ශ්‍රීලන්කා කතෝලික සභාවේ නියෝජිතයෙක්                                1

5 හින්දු පූජක වරයෙක්                                                                         1

4මුස්ලිම් පූජකවරයෙක්                                                                        1

5.අග්‍රවින්ස්චයකාරතැන                                                                       1

6.නීතිපති.                                                                                             1

7 විගණනාධිපති                                                                                   1

8 පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ කථානායක සහ                                                    1

9 රාජ්‍ය සේවයේ ප්‍රධානියා (භාණ්ඩාගාරයේ ලේකම්)                        1

     සභාවේ මුළුගණන                                                                        18                                     

18 මේ රට පාලනය කළයුත්තේ 100 නොවැඩි පාර්ලිමේන්තුවක් , 17 කට නොවැඩි අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩලයක්  සහ විධායක බලතල රහිත ජනාධිපතිවරයකු සහිත රජයක් මගිනි,

19. රට පාලනය කළයුත්තේ  රජයන් මාරුවීමත් සමඟ වෙනස් නොවන ජාතික ප්‍රතිපත්තියක් අනුවය.

20. රාජ්‍ය ප්‍රතිපත්හ්ති සහ සැළැසුම් ජනතා හිතවාදීව ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරිම සඳහා දේශ පාලනයෙන් තොර ස්වාධීන අධිකරණයක්  හා රාජ්‍ය සේවයක් ස්ථාපිත කළයුතුය

                                        11 කොටස 

කුමන රජයක් බලයට පැමිණියද ශ්‍රී ලන්කා ජන රජය විසින් අනිවාර්‍යයෙන්ම කළයුතු කාර්යයන්

1.1815 වේ සිට මේ රටේ සින්හල ජාතියට අහිමිවූ සියළු උරුමයන් නැවත ලබාදීම (සියළු සුළු ජන කොටස්වල වාර්ගික හා ආගමික අයිතීන් ආරක්ශා කරමින්)

2.1948 ලබාගත්තායයි කියන ඊනියා නිදහස 1972 ජනරජයක් වූ දින සිට පූර්ණ නිදස් රාජ්‍යයක් බවට පත් කිරීම

3.මේ රටේ ඉතිහාශයේ පළමු වතාවට, යුද්ධයකදි පරාජය වීමකින් හෝ රටේ ජනතාවගේ කැමැත්තකින් තොරව  එක් පුද්ගලයකුගේ තීරණයක් අනුව  ජනතා විරෝධය මද්ධ්‍යයේ හදිසි නීතිය ප්‍රකාශකොට මහජන නියෝජිතයින්ගෙන්  දින නොමැති අස්වීමේ ලිපි අත්සන්කොට ගෙන  ඔවුන් ප්‍රාණ ඇපකරුවන් වශයෙන් රඳවාගෙන චන්දය ගන්නා වෙලාවට පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට දක්කාගෙනවිත් විධායකයේ බලපෑමට යටත් කොට අත්සන්ගෙන  හදිසි නීතිය ප්‍රකාශකොට  නීති විරෝධීව අත්සන් ලබාගෙන ව්‍යවස්ථා විරෝධීව ජේ. ආර්. විසින් මේ රට ඉන්දියාවට පාවාදුන් 1987 ජූලි 29 රජිව්-ජේ.ආර්. ඉන්දු-ලන්කා ගිවිසුම සහ ඉන් උපන් මේ රටට සාපයක්වූ ඉන්දියාව විසින් බලහත්කාරයෙන් අප හිස මත පැටවූ 13 වන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සන්සෝධනය  සහ එහි අවජාත දරුවාවූ පලාත් සභා හූනියමද අහෝසි කිරීම 

4. දේශපාලකයින් විසින්මේ රටේ දිසා පාලනය ආයතන සහ රාජ්‍යසේවකයින්, විශාල වශයෙන් වැඩිකොට, රාජ්‍ය පාලනය විමධ්‍යගතකිරීමටයයි කියා, තවත් මඩ්‍යගතකොට, මහජන සේවයේ කාර්‍යක්ශමතාව බින්දුවටම බස්වා , රාජ්‍ය වියදම,    නාස්තිය සහ දුෂනය අසීමිත ලෙස වැඩිකරමින් රාජ්‍ය සේවයේ කාර්යක්ශමතාව නැත්තටම නැතිකොට දිස්ත්‍රික් පාලනය සේවාව අවුලෙන් අවුලට පත්කොට  සමස්ථ දිස්ත්‍රික් සේවයම විනාශකොට ඇති පලාත් සභා ක්‍රමය වහාම අහෝසිකොට, 

රාජ්‍යසේවය ගැන මළපොතේ අකුරක් නොදන්නා දේශපාලන අනාතයින් සහ කොලඹ ලොක්කන්ගේ ගැත්තන් වන පින්පඩි කාරයින් රැළක් වන ආණ්ඩුකාරයින් වහාම ආපසු කැඳවා දිස්ත්‍රික් පාලනයේ වගකීම වුර්තීය රාජ්‍ය සේවකයින් වන  දිසාපති වරුන්, ප්‍රාදේශීය උප දිසාපතිවරුන් සහ ග්‍රාම සේවා නිලධාරින්ට භාරදී දැන්වත් දිස්ත්‍රික් පාලනය වැටී ඇති අඝාධයෙන් ගොඩගත යුතුව ඇත.

මෙසේ කිරීමෙන් රට ආර්ථික වශයෙන් ඉතා දුස්කර කාලයකට පත්ව ඇති මෙම අවස්ථාවේ  වසරකට රුපියල් බිලියන ගානක්  ඉතිරිකරගත හැක.

5.දැනට මේ රටේ පවතින බටහිරින් ආනයනය කරණළද අප සන්ස්කෘතියට ආගන්තුක පක්ෂ දේශපාලන ක්‍රමයේ පවතින බෙදීම් සහ ආත්මාර්ථය වෙනුවට බුදු දහමෙන් අපට උරුමවූ, රටේත්, ජනතාවගේත්  මෙන්ම සියලු සත්වයන්ගේත් සුභසෙත මූලික පදනම වශයෙන් සලකන බෞද්ධ දේශපාලන ක්‍රමවේධයක් නිර්මානය කරගැනීම,

6.මේ රටේ දේශීය සන්ස්කෘතිය, චිරාගත සම්ප්‍රදායන් සහ සිරිත් විරිත් පදනම් කරගත් දේශයට ගැලපෙන නව ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් වසරක් තුල ජනමත විචාරණයට ඉදිරීපත් කිරීම, යන කරුණු සියල්ල ඉටුකිරීමට දිවුරා සපථ කිරීම.

තවදුරටත්,

7 බෙදා පාලනය කිරීමට සුද්දා විසින් අපට උරුමකොට දී ගිය  මැතිවරණ ක්‍රමයටත් වඩා චන්දදායකයින් සිරස් සහ තිරස් අතට බෙදන  එසේම ජනතා කැමැත්ත කිසිසේත්ම ප්‍රකාශ නොවන පවතින මැතිවරණ ක්‍රමය වෙනස් කොට,ආසනයක මිනිසුන්ට පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ නියෝජිතයෙක් සිටින පරිදි, පැරැණි ආසන ක්‍රමය යළි හඳුන්වා දිය යුතුය. අනුපාත, මනාප සහ බහු ආසන  ක්‍රමය ඉවත්  කිරීම, අපේක්ශකයන් තේරීම අදාල ආසනවල චන්දදායකයින්ට දීම සහ අපෙක්ශකයකු වීමට අදාල චන්ද කොට්ඨාශයේ වසර 5 ක් හෝ ඉස්ථිර පදින්චිය හෝ ඉපදී තිබීම අනිවාර්ය කිරීම

8 තවද මේ යටතේ රාජ්‍ය  සභාවේ දැනට ඇති ආසන 225 හ 95 දක්වා අඩුකොට දියවන්නාවේ පාර්ලිමේතුව නැවතත් ගාලුමුවදොර පාර්ලිමේන්තු ගොඩනැගිල්ලට ගෙන ආයුතුය. විධායක ජනාධිපති ක්‍රමය අහෝසිවූ විට එම ගොනැගිල්ලද හිස්වන බැවින් එහි ගැටලුවක්ද ඇති නොවනු ඇත.

9 ජාතික ලැයිස්තුව අහෝසිකිරීම. ඒ වෙනුවට රටට විශිෂ්ඨ සේවයක් කර ඇති යම් යම් ශේෂ්ත්‍ර පිලිබඳ විසේසඥ දැණුමක් ඇති කීපදෙනකු පත්කල මන්ත්‍රීන් වශයෙන් ගැනීමට ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ ප්‍රතිපාධන සැලසීම.

10        දරුණු අපාරධ වලට මරණ දඬුවම දීම දීම

11 දේශීය සහ විදේශීය රාජ්‍ය සේවය වුර්තිකයින්ට පමණක් සීමා කිරීම සහ ශ්‍රී ලන්කා විදේශ සේවයට යන සෑම නිලධාරියෙකුට්ම රටේ ඉතිහාශය, සන්ස්කෘතිය, ආර්ථිකය  ජනතාවගේ අවශ්‍යතා යනාදිය පිළිබඳ යටත් පිරිසෙයින් වසර 3 ක හෝ න්‍යාය සහ ප්‍රායෝගික දැණුමක් ලබා දී පරීක්ෂනයකින් සමත් වීම අනිවාර්ය කළ යුතුය.

12 වෙනස්නොවන නොබැඳි විදේශ ප්‍රතිපත්තියක්

13 සෑම පුරවැසියෙකුටම රටේ ඔනෑම තැනක පදින්චියට, දේපල මිලදි ගැනීමට සහ රැකියා කිරීමට අව්ස්ථාව            සැළසීම

14        මේ රට පෙඩරල් රාජ්‍යයක් කොට දෙමල බලය නන්ග්වා සින්හල බලය බිඳ දමා සින්හල ජාතිය විනාශ කිරිමට            ඉන්දියාව විසින් බලහත්කාරයෙන් අප හිසමත පැටවූ 1987 ජූලි 29  ඉන්දු-ලන්කා ගිවිසුම සහ ඒ තුළින් උපන් 13 වන ව්‍යවස්ථා සන්සෝධනය අහෝසිකොට මේ රටට හා ජාතියට  හූනිමක් වි ඇති පලාත්සභා වහාම අහෝසි කිරීම.

15 මේ රටේ ආර්ථිකය බිඳවැටීමට ප්‍රධාන හේතුවක් වන  දැනට පවතින අධික රජයේ නිවාඩු දින ගණන ජාත්‍යන්ත්‍ර සාමන්‍ය ගණන වන 12 හෝ ඊට ආසන්න සන්ක්‍යාවකට  අඩුකොට  වසරකට අපතේ යන මිනිස් දින ගණන රටේ සන්වර්ධනයට යොදාගතයුතුය.එය පහත සඳහන් පරිදි විය යුතුයයි යෝජනා කරමි

. නම                                   මාසය                    දින ගණන

1 සින්හල අලුත් අවුරුද්ද  අප්‍රේල්  13 &14               2

2 වෙසක්                             මැයි    වෙසක්  පෝය    2

3 ජනරජ දිනය                          මැයි  22                   1

4  ජාතික ගොවි කම්කරු දිනය    මැයි 1                   1

5  සින්හලේ ජාතික දිනය (පොසොන් පෝය)            1                                                

රජය විසින් තීරණය කලයුතු නිවාඩු දින 

6    ජාතික වීර දිනය                                                 1

7   පරිසර දිනය                                                         1

8 ජාතික ළමා  දිනය                                                 1

9 ජාතික මව්වරුන්ගේ දිනය                                    1

10 ජාතික වැඩිහිටි දිනය                                           1

මුළු ගණන                                                              12                                                             

මීට අමතරව සෑම පෝය දිනයක්ම රජයේ නිවාඩු දිනයක් කිරීමෙන් තවත් නිවාඩු දින 49 ක් රජයේ සේවකයින්ට එක්වෙයි, ඒ අනුව පාසල් සතියද සකස්කරගත හැක. මේ අනුව රටේ සින්හල බෞද්ධ අනන්‍යයතාවද  ආරක්ශා වනු ඇත.

අනෙකුත් ආගමික නිවාඩු දින අදාල ආගම අදහන අයට පමණක් සීමා කලයුතුය

16 සියල්ළුම වුර්තීය සන්ගම් ක්‍රියාවන් අදාල වුර්තිය අවිතිවාසිකම් වලට පමණක් සීමා කළයුතුය

17 සියළුම මට්ටම්වල මැතිවරණ අපේක්ශකයින් සඳහා අවම වයසක්,අධ්‍යාපන, වත්කම්, චරිත සුදුසුකම් නියම කලයුතුය.

18 ජනතා නියෝජිතයින්ගේ සියළුම අමතර වරප්‍රසාද අහෝසි කිරිම උදා= විශ්‍රාම වැටුප්, තීරුබදු රහිත වාහන , නිලරථ,නිල නිවාශ ඇතුළු සාමාන්‍ය පුරවැසියෙකුට නැති සියළුම වරප්‍රසාද අහෝසිකළ යුතුය.

19 සෑම දේශපාලකයෙකු සහ රාජ්‍ය සේවකයෙකුගේම කාර්ය සාධනය පිළිබඳ නිරන්තරයෙන් කෙරෙන ප්‍රගති සමාලෝචනයක් තිබිය යුතුය. එය මාසිකව,6 මාසිකව හෝ වාර්ශිකව කලහැක.  ඉලක්ක නොසපුරන පුද්ගලයින් රැකියාවලින් ඉවත්කිරීමේ වැඩපිළිවෙලක් සකස්කළයුතුය.

20 රාජ්‍යසේවයේ. අතිරික්ත ආයතන මෙන්ම සේවකයින්ද ඉවත් කොට ඔවුන්ට විකල්ප ස්වයන් රැකියා වැඩපිලිවෙලක් සකස්කල යුතුය.

21 රාජ්‍ය ආයතනවකට සේවකයින් බඳවා ගැනීම භාණ්ඩාගරයේ සේවක සහ සන්ක්‍යා දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ නියමයන් නොක්මවිය යුතුය. එම දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව විසින් සෑම රාජ්‍ය අයතනක්යකටම සහ සන්ස්ථාවකටම අවශ්‍යය අවම සේවක සන්ක්‍යා සකස් කළ යුතුය.

22 රටේ ඉන්ධන අවස්‍යතා අනුව අමතර තෙල් තොග ගබඩාකර තබාගැනීමට ත්‍රිකුණාමලයේ තෙල් ටැන්කි යොදාගැනීට වැඩ පිලිවෙලක් සකස්කල යුතුය

23 මැති ඇමති, පලාත් සභා ආණ්ඩුකරවරුන්ගේ අරක්ශාව වහාම ඉවත්කළ යුතුය

24 දේශපාලකයින්ට තමන්ම හෝ වෙනත් අය හරහා රජයේ  කොන්ත්‍රාක් කිරීම සපුරා තනම් කළයුතුය.

25 දේශපාලකයින් හා රජයේඉ නිළධාරින්ගේ රාජකාරිය නිස්චිතව පැහැදිළි කල යුතුය එමෙන්ම රාජ්‍ය සේවයට දේශපාලන ඇන්ගිලිගැසීම් සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම නතර කළ යුතුය නිලධාරින්ගේ කටයුතු පාලනය කළයුත්තේ පරිපාලන සහ මුදල් රෙගුලශි මගින් මිස දේශපාලකයින් විසින් නොවේ. එසේ වූ විට රාජ්‍යසේවය කාර්යක්ස්ෂම වනු ඇත.

26 රජයේ කාර්යාලයකට එවන ලිපියකට දින 3 ක් ඇතුලත පිළිතුරු එවන සුද්දන්ගේ කාලයේ තිබුණ සම්ප්‍රදාය වහාම නැවතත් ඇතිකළ යුතුය.

27 රාජ්‍ය සේවය දේවකාර්යක් මෙන් ඉටුකළයුතු බව දේශපාලකයින්ට මෙන්ම රාජ්‍ය සේවකයින්ටද අවභෝධ කළයුතුය.ජනතා සේවය ඒ අන්දමින් ඉටුකරන බවට සියළුම දේශපාලකයින් සහ රජයේ සේවකයින්ගෙන්ද පත්වීම් දෙන අව්ස්ථාවේම ලිඛිත පොරොන්දුවක් ගත යුතුය.

28දැනට මේ රටේ පවතින දේශපාලකයින් විසින් ,දේශපාලකයින් සඳහා පවත්වාගෙනයනු ලබන දේශපාලකයින්ගේ දේශපාලන සන්ස්කෘතිය සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම උඩු යටිකුරුකොට, ජනතාව විසින්,ජනතාව සඳහා සිදුකෙරෙන ජනතාවගේම දේශපාලන ක්‍රමයක් මේ රටේ නිර්මාණය කළ යුතුය

29 එසේම දැනට ලන්කාණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්තාවේ xx11 පරිච්චේදයේ සඳහන්වන පරිදි ජනාධිපති, කථානායක, ඇමතිවරු සහ නියෝජ්‍ය ඇමතිවරුන්, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් සහ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවෙ මහ ලේකම් අධිකරණ සේවා කොමිසමේ සහ රාජ්‍ය සේවා කොමිසමේ සාමාජිකයින් සහ මීට අමතරව අධිකරණ යේ සියළුම විනිස්චය කාරවරුන් වැනි අය රාජ්‍ය සේවකයින් නොවේ යන ප්‍රතිපාදනයද වහාම අහෝසිකොට ඒ වෙනුවට රජයෙන් වැටුප් ගන්නා සෑමකෙනෙක්ම රාජ්‍ය සේවකයින් වශයෙන් නම්කල යුතුය.

30.ඒ සමඟම ඒ සියළුම මට්ටම්වල දේශපාලනඥයින්ට සහ රාජ්‍ය සේවකයින්ටම දැඩි  ආචාර්ය ධර්ම මාලාවක් සහ දැඩි විනය මාලාවක්ද සකස්කොට ක්‍රියාත්මක කල යුතුය

මන්ද,

මෙවා මෙසේ තිබියදී සියළු දෙනාම නීතිය ඉදිරියේ සමානය සහ ශ්‍රී ලන්කා ජනරජයේ පරමාධිපත්‍ය ජනතාව කෙරෙහි පිහිටා ඇත්තේය ආදි වශයෙන් ව්‍යවස්තාවේ 3 යටතේ දක්වා තිබීම අර්ථ සූන්‍යය. එසේම හාස්‍ය දනවනසුළුය.

                                          111  කොටස

මේ සියල්ල කිරීමට පෙර රනිල් අගමැතිවරයා විසින් දැන්  වහාම කළ යුතුව ඇත්තේ

මේ කිසිවක් කිරීමට පෙර රනිල් අගමැතිවරයා විසින් දැන්  වහාම කළ යුතුව ඇත්තේ උද්ගතව ඇති අලුත්ම තත්වය යටතේ වියරු වැටුන රටේ ජනතාව පාර්ලිමේතුව, රජගෙදර සහ අරලියගහ මැදුරටද ගිනි තැබීමට පෙර වහාම නව දේශපාලන සන්ස්කෘතියකින් වැඩ ආරම්භ කොට  ඒ සියළු ව්‍යසනයන්ගෙන් රට බේරාගැනීම යයි  මම යෝජනා කරමි.

ඒ සඳහා ඔහු විසින් වහාම ගතයුතු පියවර කීපයක් පහතින් දක්වමි.

22.5.2022.

1 කිසිම හේතුවක් නිසා ඇමති මණ්ඩලය 17 කට වඩා  වැඩි නොකරනු

මන්ද, මුලින් කී 15 දැන් 20 වි ඇත. තව ටික දිනකින් එය 25  සහ අවසානයේ 30 ම වනු ඇත. ඒ සමඟම ඊනියා රාජ්‍ය ඇමතිවරුද 30 ක්-40 පත්කිරීමට සූදානම් බව පැවසේ. ඒ බහුතරය රැකගනීමටය.මේ යන්නේ කොහේටද. මුලින් සිටි තැනටම නේද. ඇමති 70 ට. පළමු ප්‍රස්නය මොවුන්ට පඩිනඩි දෙන්නේ කොහෙන්ද.  මේ විගඩම රටේ ජනතාව ඉවසයිද?මෙයින් සිදුවන්නේ තවත් රට ගිනිතියන එකනේද?

එමනිසා 17 නොඉක්මවනු . එසේම එකම රාජ්‍ය ඇමති, නියෝජ්‍ය ඇමති වරයකු මේ අවස්ථාවේදී පත් නොකරන්න. එවිට ජනතාව ඔබ සමඟය.එසේ නොවුනහොත් ඔවුන් තවදුරටත් අරගල කරුවන් සමඟය

2 ඇමතිවරුන් පත්කිරීමේදී දැන්වත් හොරුන්, තක්කඩීන් බේබද්දන්, පගාමරුවන්, කොමිස් රජවරුන්, බේබද්දන්   සහ පාලිමේන්තුවේ නිදාගන්නා උන් නැතිව, රට ගැන හා ජනතාව ගැන සිතන අය පමණක් ඇමතිවරුන් වශයෙන් පත්කර ගැනීම

3 නිමල් සිරිපාල, කෙහෙලිය.වැනි මිනිසුන් ඇමතිවරුන් වශයෙන් පත් කිරීමට විරුද්ධවීම. ඒ වෙනුවට මේ වෙලාවේදි රට ගොඩගත හැකි විද්වතුන් පත්කරනමෙන් ඉල්ලීම.

ඒ වෙනුවට 16.5.2022 දින ලන්කාවෙබ් හි පලකෙරුණු මගේ ලිපියෙන් යෝජනා කල පරිදි ජාතික ලැයිස්තුවෙන් විද්වතුන් කීප දෙනකු හෝ ඇමතිවරුන් වශයෙන් පත්කරන මෙන් ජනාධිපති වරයාගෙන් ඉල්ලීම.

4 රාජ්‍ය ඇමතිවරුන් කියන නාඩගම වහාම නතහර කිරීම  සහ නියෝජ්‍ය හෝ උප ඇමතිවරුන්ද මේ දුශ්කර අවස්ථාවේදී පත් නොකිරීම. මෙසේ කිරීමෙන් අති විශාල මුදලක් ඉතිරිකරගත හැක.

5 ඇමතිතනතුරු නැතිව පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ ඉන්ට බැරි මන්ත්‍රී වරුන්ට ගෙදර යන මෙන් කීම

6 අපරාධයන් කළ බවට බන්ධනාගාර ගතව සිටින මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්  පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ගෙන  ඒම වහාම නතරකිරීම.

7 පලාත් සභා වහාම අහෝසි කිරීම සහ ඒවා අකර්මන්‍යවී අවුරුදු පහක් පමණ ගතව තිබියදීත් රටේ පරිපාලනය ගැන මෙලෝ දෙයක් නොදන්නා ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ හෙන්චයියන් පිරිසක් පින්පඩි ගෙවමින් ආණ්ඩුකාරයින් වශයෙන් තබාගෙන සිටීම මහා ජාතික අපරාධයක්  නිසා වහාම ඔවුන්ද එම පදවි වලින් ඉවත් කරන මෙන් ජනාධිපති වරයාට දැන්විම. ඒ සමඟම ඒවා කල්දැමූ දින සිට ආණ්ඩුකාරයින්ට ගෙවූ වැටුප් සහ දීමනා ආපසු අයකර ගැනීමට පියවර ගැනීම

මෙය වහාම නොකලොත් වැඩි දිනක් යාමට පෙර,ගොටා ගෝ ගමේ සහ නෝ ඩීල් ගමේ අරගල කරුවන්, ආණ්ඩුකාරවරුන්ද ඔවුන්ගේ කාර්යාල වලින් ඇද දමන දිනය උදාවනු නොඅනුමානය.

6 ඒ සමඟම රටේ පාලනය කඩාවැටීමක් නොවීම සඳහා දිස්ත්‍රික් පාලනයද  ශක්තිමත් කළ යුතුය,

 ඒ යටතේ  රටේ ප්‍රාන්ත පලනය දිසාපති,ප්‍රාදේශීය උප දිසාපති සහ ග්‍රාම සේවා නිලධාරීන්ට භාර දීම සහ ඔවුන් පලාත් සභා ග්‍රහනයෙන් මුදාගැනීම

8තවද ඉන්ධන .ගෘහස්ථ ගෑස්, විදුලිය අඛණ්ඩව සැපයීම

9රෝහල්වලට ඖෂදලබා දීම මෙන්ම

10. අත්‍යාවස්ය අහාර ද්‍රව්‍ය සැපයීම සහ ඒවායේ මිල පාලනය කිරිම ආදී හදිසි සැපයීම් කෙරෙහිද ඔබගේ දැඩි අවධානය යුඔමුකළ යුතුව ඇත.

11රටේ පවතින අරාජික තත්වය පාලනය කිරීම සඳහා

අන්තරය,ජේ, වි,පිය සහ  පෙරටුගාමී පක්ශ තනම් කිරීම අන්තරේ මෙහෙයවන එහි සභාපති චතුර සේනාරත්න, හිටපු සභාපති ලාල් කාන්ත  සහ කුමාර් ගුනරත්නම් මෙන්ම ජේ.වී.පි යේ මැයි 9 වන දින දීපව්‍යාප්ත තම දිසා නායකයින් ලවා ගිනි තැබීම් කරවූ,(සමුදිතට කී පරිදී ලාල් කාන්ත. දේශපාලන වුර්තීය සන්ගම් මෙහෙයවන ජොසොප් ස්ටාලින්. මහින්ද ජයසින්හ සහ  ගොවි පෙරමුනේ කැඳවුම්කරු ආදි සියළුම ජේ.වී.පී.නායකයින් අත් අඩන්ගුවට ගෙන ඔවුන්ට විරුද්ධව නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක කල යුතුය. ඔවුන් සියළු දෙනාම අද මෙ කරන්නේද 1971 සහ 1989 රට පුරා සිදුකළ විනාශයේ තුන්වන අදියර යයි මම සිතමි.

ජාතියක් නැති, ආගමක් නැති, මේරටේ පය තබාගෙන නැති,මනසින් රුසියාවේ ජීවත්වන  මේ රට  එහි ඉතිහාශය හෝ සන්ස්කෘතිය  හා සමාජ හරයන් ගැන නොදන්නා මොවුන්ගෙන් විනාශකාරී අරගලය හැර අන් කුමක් බලාපොරුත්තු වන්නද.

12.මෙහිදි කිවයුතු තවත් වැදගත් කරුණක් ඇත. එනම් දිවයිනේ කිසිම ඉන්ධන හලකින් හෝ වෙනත් තැනකින්  බුලිවලට ඉන්ධන නිකුත් නොකලයුතු බවට නීතියක් පැණවීමයි. මන්ද මොවුන් පසුගිය මැයි 9 දා මෙන් යලිත් මෙසේ ලබාගන්නා ඉන්ධන වලින් මුළු රටම ගිනි තියනු ඇති නිසාය.

මේ අවස්ථාවේදි ගොඨාභයට ඔබ ඔහුගේ ගැලවුම් කාරයාය. ඔබ නැතිව ඔහුට පැවැත්මක්ද නැත, එමනිසා අනිවාර්යෙන්ම ඔහුට, ඔබට සවන් දීමට සිදුවනු ඇත, එමනිසා එම අවස්ථාවෙන් උපරිම ප්‍රයෝජන ගෙන ඔබගේ මුලු දේශපාලන ජීවිතයේම රට වෙනුවෙන්  කිරීමට නොහැකිවු විශාල වැඩ කොටසක් ඔබට මේ අවස්ථාවෙඩ්දී කළ හැකියයි මම සිතමි.

අගමැති තුමනි, දේශප්‍රේමියකු වශයෙන් මම ඔබට මෙන්ම රටට හා ජාතියට ශුභපතමි!

Shenali D Waduge

This is the question everyone should be asking. To answer this we need to return to the regime change & coup that led to the January 2015 Presidential election of Maithripala Sirisena as President & the swearing in of Ranil as PM without removing the sitting PM D M Jayaratne. With this technicality unsolved, a bogus national government” was created with the 19a that controversially attempted to transfer the powers of the executive president to a controversially seated prime minister. Parliamentary Elections were eventually held in August 2015 only after Parliament was hurriedly dissolved before COPE could make some startling revelations. While numerous objections were filed against the 19a, poignant is the determination by Chief Justice Sri Pawan that a referendum was required in order to transfer powers from a President (who was directly elected by the People), to a Prime Minister who was only selected by 224 member Parliament. So this judgement plays a significant role in 21a or any other attempt being made to usurp the powers of the President & transfer to Prime Minister/Parliament.

We therefore, cannot put aside the regime change attempt to make constitutional changes between 2015-2020 and many other attempts to dilute the sovereignty of Sri Lanka, providing open doors for nations to interfere in Sri Lanka.

President Sirisena eventually understood the dangers & decided to put a stop as even land was being compromised through electronic systems and the MCC. In an address to the Nation, President Sirisena clearly disclosed why he was removing Ranil as PM. This speech is extremely relevant as to why PM Ranil was removed & Mahinda appointed as PM. He ruled for only 52 days, leading to the return of Ranil as PM with full backing of US-EU and alliances. PM Mahinda was ousted in May 2022 to again return Ranil as PM.

Not surprisingly, the same players that supported the regime change, plotted to bring Ranil to power & introduced the 19a are once again in action to push for 21a that seeks to fulfil the unaccomplished task of abolishing or transferring Presidential powers to PM. Are we watching Yahapalana 2?

Sirisena ceded Presidential powers in 2015 simply to sit as President, Gotabaya Rajapakse it appears is knowingly or ignorantly ceding powers or being forced to cede Presidential powers! Sirisena woke up & prevented any major changes & it is now time for Gotabaya to do the same. Unlike Sirisena, much was expected from Gotabaya & 69lakh people deem it his duty not to break their trust & faith in him.

Ranil became PM controversially in 2015 and controversially again in 2022. The situation in 2022 is bizarre because not only did Ranil lose the General Election, his party could not win a single seat and thanks to the proportional representation system, one national list seat was allocated to the UNP. After months of tug-of-war with national list nominees demanding that single slot, rejected Ranil broke democratic principles to enter Parliament.

Fast forward to May 2022, PM Mahinda knowingly or unknowingly ends up getting an unexpected ‘farewell’ by having to give up his premiership, after a coup within his own camp forced him to resign as PM. It would be good for PM Mahinda to find out who betrayed him from within.

Be that as it may, Mahinda resigns as PM and then suddenly Ranil returns as PM again. How did a man rejected by his own vote base, enter Parliament immorally through the backdoor as a national list MP being the only representative in Parliament, hooted from his own former UNPers now seated in SJB, become the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka for the 6^th time?

These are democratic case studies!

If this is yahapalana 2, it was no surprise that the stage was set to return Ranil, initially with the creation of the GoHomeGota gama, by a bevy of Colombians, Bar Association, JVP, FSLP, Sisters & Fathers of the Church, LTTE Diaspora, NGOs, Muslim groups – the same coterie that has always backed Ranil (though shy to openly say so).

On the face of it the aragalaya” was used as a platform to further the hora” hora” campaign kicked off in 2014, resulting in regime change which created an illegal FCID and eventually that led to a Presidential Commission in 2020 on victimization during 2015-2020 – isn’t it strange that the Bar Association proposals on the economic crisis is recommending the annulment of this commission together with its recommendations! Ask yourself what does this have to do with an economic crisis!

The aragala” project will soon close shop, as another set of players are tasked to take over.

While fanfare began about corruptions” – the slogans are suddenly only about 21a. Was this the ultimate goal? Why is there little emphasis on ‘anti-corruption’ ‘tender process procedure’ ‘moratorium on siphoning resources & assets’, parliamentary ratification process, procurement criteria? If people of the ‘aragalaya’ are so concerned about the Nation, why are they not demanding a stop to the sale of assets & resources? Why are they not highlighting that a government is only temporary custodian for a term of 5 years? Why are they not highlighting the importance of national security?

Part of the overall project appears to be to degrade the police & armed forces & demoralize them. The manner selected groups have been tasked to ridicule the uniform, showcases how well the campaign has been orchestrated to corner every individual/group that puts the Nation first and attempts to protect the interest of the Nation. Everyone who looks at issues from the prism of what benefits or what is disadvantages to the nation is being targeted.

Ranil took over as PM claiming to solve the economic crisis. The constitution has nothing to do with the economy & should not be touched until there is stability in the country. People’s minds are diverted to home problems, is this why these constitutional changes are being hurriedly passed as part of the unfulfilled plans started out in 2015?

As citizens, we must take a Pro-Sri Lanka stand. Petty political alliances should be set aside. In a national crisis, the interest of the Nation must come first.

It is important for people to realize the dangers of passing Presidential powers to a Prime Minister. President is Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, passing this role to Parliament means in a crisis, a decision cannot be taken unless majority in Parliament agree. With the 13a in force & demands for police & land powers, every President has withheld giving these powers knowing its ultimate outcome.

The sitting Prime Minister, no one should forget signed a controversial cease fire agreement in 2002, this document remains secret & out of public domain & handed territory to terrorists confining the armed forces to barracks. This same PM, allowed the co-sponsorship of UNHRC resolution with the state accepting war crimes by our armed forces. This same PM was always reluctant to end the war & has never backed the armed forces.

Inspite of people’s attention being diverted, the judgement by CJ on presidential powers requireming referendum needs to be revisited.

We are having a situation where a person elected as President by votes of 69lakhs of people are subtly being transferred to a prime minister who has been rejected by his party. In such a scenario why should the President have to take advice of such a PM?

Article 154(b)(2) where the President rules through the governor will also result in this unmandated PM deciding on crucial matters of national security importance.

With an unsolved economic crisis, Sri Lanka cannot walk into another political and constitutional crisis as a result of personal political goals aligned to external lobbying by geopolitically interested parties. Protestors are all demanding a solution to the economic crisis. No one is asking for constitutional amendments, therefore MPs must raise this concern in Parliament. Naturally, the MPs have been subtly neutralized by attacks on their homes as a tactic to make them not object to the constitutional googly’s being plotted.

19a was drafted to specifically fit 2 persons brought to power. This is why attempts were made to transfer powers from President to Prime Minister introducing clauses relevant for the Presidential rule of only Sirisena. How can such draft insertions hold national interest?

Personal aspirations cannot be a flag carrier for constitutional changes. This is why until the country is stable economically, no changes should be hurriedly passed.

Shenali D Waduge

Pathik Hasan, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

 The Cambodian media has published excellent article praising Bangladesh’s economic model. Cambodian media has  lavished praise on Bangladesh and its economic success. 

At age 51, Bangladesh is going to be a South Asian economic miracle. Although Bangladesh is also a South Asian country , an immediate neighbour of Sri Lanka, it has surpassed Colombo in almost all socio-cultural and economic indicators. Being South Asian countries, the story of Bangladesh is totally different from Sri Lanka. Cambodia sees Sri Lanka as a friendly state. So, Cambodia wants a economic solvent Sri Lanka. Thus, Cambodia suggests Sri Lanka to overcome its economic recession by following its neighbor Bangladesh. That is the attraction Bangladesh now holds in Cambodia. Rare praise from Cambodia is the highest recognition for Bangladesh.  

Cambodia says that Dhaka is on the right track to achieving a middle-income status nation and integrating economic growth with social betterment. 

Cambodia’s newspaper has had an excellent article appreciating Bangladesh’s success story. One focused on how Bangladesh has improved its quality of life, economic strength and improved education and research. Today, even countries in Africa are being urged to look towards Bangladesh.  

The article in the Cambodian media spoke about how Bangladesh inherited a shattered economy and a completely broken infrastructure when it became a free nation in 1971. Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had called it a basket case” in 1974. Today, the world is both surprised and delighted to see a phoenix rising from the ashes. 

The article  noted how Bangladesh has now given assistance to Sri Lanka and Sudan from its foreign exchange reserves. It argued that South Asia can learn a lot from Bangladesh. 

The prestigious newspaper in Cambodia, had an article by India based researcher John Rozario. He wrote: The Bangladesh story is an attractive one. How can a country so vulnerable to natural calamities outperform its much larger, better-endowed neighbours — India and Pakistan — in most socio-economic indicators?” 

He felt that Bangladesh may miss being a middle-income country by 2024 but mega infrastructure projects like Padma Bridge, Karnafuli Tunnel and Metro Rail could help it become a developed country by 2041. But this will require an uninterrupted development environment and strong leadership.  

The article comparing the Bangladesh model of economic growth with Sri Lanka’s. It spoke highly about Bangladesh becoming the next South Asian economic superstar.  

While the Cambodian media is now asking Sri Lanka government to follow the Bangladesh model, it remains an important point that Bangladesh is also a South Asian country, an immediate neighbour of Sri Lanka.

An article in the Cambodian newspaper has suggested that Sri Lanka, which is in the throes of an economic crisis, follow the model of Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in resolving the crisis. The article, published in the Cambodian Khmer Times, was written by John Rozario of India.

Sri Lanka, a South Asian tourism-dependent island nation, is going through a severe economic crisis, according to the article. The country can follow the model of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in resolving the crisis. Strong leadership has been one of the main reasons behind the success of Bangladesh model. Sri Lanka can follow this model tested to overcome the current crisis.

Cambodia’s Khmer Times article advises Sri Lanka to follow Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s model

An article in the Cambodian newspaper has suggested that Sri Lanka, which is in the throes of an economic crisis, follow the model of Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in resolving the crisis. The article, published in the Cambodian media, was written by John Rozario of India.

Sri Lanka, a South Asian tourism-dependent island nation, is going through a severe economic crisis, according to the article. The country can follow the model of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in resolving the crisis. Strong leadership has been one of the main reasons behind the success of Bangladesh model. Sri Lanka can follow this model tested to overcome the current crisis.

Bangladesh is a role model of development during the Corona period. This development is remarkably wonderful. Bangladesh has gone from a least developed country to a developing country. The main contributor behind this is Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Through his tireless efforts, Bangladesh has become a middle-income country from a bottomless basket.

Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange reserves have fallen at an alarming rate. Many important things are not going to be imported due to lack of money. Paper imports have been shut down. As a result, many educational institutions are not able to take exams. The country is facing a severe gas, fuel oil and cooking gas crisis.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  Colombo Today

බුදුන්ගේ ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨ නාමයට හා බුදු දහමට අපකීර්තියක් සිදුවන ආකාරයේ පොතක් මුද්‍රණය කිරීම හා බෙදා හැරීම සිදු කළැයි කියන සිද්ධිය සම්බන්ධයෙන් අධිකරණය හමුවේ පෙනී සිටි කන්දේ කපුගේ ශ්‍රීනාත් චතුරංග හා උපුල් ශාන්ත සන්නස්ගල යන අයට එක් අයකුට රුපියල් 50,000 බැගින් වූ ශරීර ඇපයක් මත මුදා හැරීමට කොළඹ ප්‍රධාන මහේස්ත්‍රාත් නන්දන අමරසිංහ මහතා ඊයේ (මැයි 20) නියෝග කළේ ය.

මෙම සිද්ධියට අදාළව තවදුරට ත් විමර්ශන පවත්වා නීතිපති උපදෙස් ලබා ගැනීමෙන් අනතුරුව ඉදිරි දින අධිකරණයට වාර්තාවක් ඉදිරිපත් කරන ලෙසට ද මෙහිදී මහේස්ත්‍රාත්වරයා අපරාධ බුද්ධි විශ්ලේෂණ හා නිවාරණ කොට්ඨාසය වෙත නියෝග කළේ ය.

මෙම සිද්ධිය සම්බන්ධයෙන් අධිකරණයේ පෙනී සිටින ලෙසට ඉකුත් අප්‍රේල් මස 29 වන දින නිකුත් කරන ලද නොතීසියකට අනුව සැකකරුවන් දෙදෙනා ඊයේ දින අධිකරණය හමුවේ පෙනී සිටි අවස්ථාවේදී මෙම නියෝගය නිකුත් කෙරිණි.

කරුණු සැලකිල්ලට ගත් මහේස්ත්‍රාත්වරයා මෙම නඩුව ලබන සැප්තැම්බර් මස 9 වන දින දක්‌වා කල් තැබීමට නියම කළේ ය.

‘බුදුන්ගේ රස්තියාදුව’ නම් ග්‍රන්ථය රචනා කර මුද්‍රණය කර බෙදා හැරීමේ කටයුතු කළැයි මෙම දෙදෙනා නඩුවේ සැකකරුවන් ලෙසට නම් කරන ලෙසට නීතිපතිවරයා උපදෙස් ලබා දී ඇති බව ත් ඒ අනුව මෙම සැකකරුවන් දෙදෙනා අධිකරණය හමුවට ඉදිරිපත් වීමට නොතීසි නිකුත් කරන ලෙසත් ඉල්ලමින් අපරාධ බුද්ධි විශ්ලේෂණ හා නිවාරණ කොට්ඨාසය ඉකුත් අප්‍රේල් මස 29 වන දා අධිකරණයට කරුණු වාර්තා කර තිබිණි.

මෙම පොත මුද්‍රණය කර බෙදා හැරීම මගින් බුදු දහමට අපකීර්තියක් හා බුදුන්ගේ ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨ නාමයට අපකීර්තියක් සිදුවී ඇති බව ත් එහි අන්තර්ගතය තුළ ඉතා පහත් සහ නිහීන ලෙස බුදුන් වහන්සේට නින්දා හා අපහාස කර ඇති බව ත් සඳහන් කරමින් 2018 අගෝස්තු මස 20 වන දින එවකට සංස්කෘතික කටයුතු අමාත්‍ය විජයදාස රාජපක්ෂ මහතා විසින් කරනු ලැබූ පැමිණිල්ලකට අනුව මෙම විමර්ශන ආරම්භ කළ බව අපරාධ බුද්ධි විශ්ලේෂණ හා නිවාරණ කොට්ඨාසය පසුගිය දින අධිකරණය හමුවේ වාර්තා කර තිබිණි.

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, May 21 (Xinhua):  Pettah Market is one of Sri Lanka’s most important and busiest commodity hubs in Colombo,  where one can find a wide variety of goods. Due to the economic crisis, business in Pettah Market is not as prosperous as before, but the wholesale food market, which is closely related to the lives of locals, is still very busy.

Here are some scenes from Pettah as captured by Xinhua photographer Tang Lu:

Courtesy The TelegraphOnLine

21st Amendment to the Constitution to be referred to the cabinet for approval on Monday.

Sri Lanka’s minister of justice has said that the 21st Amendment to the Constitution will be referred to the cabinet for approval on Monday, a media report said on Sunday, paving the way to curb the unfettered powers of embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

The 21st Amendment is expected to annul 20A, which gave unfettered powers to President Gotabaya after abolishing the 19th Amendment that had made Parliament powerful over the President.Advertisement

The amendment would make it impossible for those with dual citizenship to hold a seat in Parliament, the News First portal quoted minister of justice Dr Wijayadasa Rajapaksa as saying.

Gotabaya, who is facing growing demand for his resignation for mismanaging the country’s economy, had relinquished his US citizenship in April 2019 before contesting the presidential elections.

In addition to the existing Independent Commissions, the National Audit Commission and the Procurement Commission will be amended as Independent Commissions, the report said.

The Rajapaksa family tightened their grip on power after their massive victory in the general elections in August 2020, which allowed them to amend the Constitution to restore presidential powers and install close family members in key positions.

How two powerful brothers fell out and took their country down with them

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The mob was bashing on the gates of the Sri Lankan prime minister’s official residence, its size and fury swelling dangerously.

For weeks, Mahinda Rajapaksa, the 76-year-old prime minister, had been under pressure to resign as the economy imploded and protests erupted. The brother of the president, Gotabaya, and a patriarch of his own political dynasty, Mahinda was once hailed as appachchi, the beloved father of the people. Now he was huddled in his second-floor bedroom, accompanied by relatives who frantically called army officers, pleading to be rescued.Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Outside the gates, anti-government protesters who had been attacked earlier by Mahinda’s supporters were taking their revenge — rioting, burning buses and torching hundreds of homes owned by allies of the Rajapaksas. A lawmaker from their party was beaten to death, his body dragged through the streets.Advertisement

That day, May 9, was one of the most violent andchaotic in recent Sri Lankan history. But it was precipitated by years of turmoil inside the house of Rajapaksa.

The Rajapaksa brothers have dominated politics here for most of the last 20 years. After helping Mahinda win the presidency in 2005, his brothers Chamal, Gotabaya and Basil took over ministries that controlled three-quarters of the national budget and built popular support despite allegations of human rights abuses and corruption. But by 2019, when Gotabaya became president, the family was marred by infighting and dysfunction that would drive South Asia’s most developed nation into ruin.

In interviews, current and former ministers, foreign diplomats and Rajapaksa confidants, some of whom spoke for the first time as they saw the family splinter, said Gotabaya and Mahinda, and their respective factions, clashed over ministerial appointments and agricultural policies, investment deals and political favors. As the economy went into free fall this year, Mahinda, backed by several Rajapaksa scions, resisted Gotabaya’s wish that he step aside.Advertisement

Distrust deepened to the point that members of Mahinda’s inner circle, besieged in his compound May 9, felt that the president had abandoned them. Udayanga Weeratunga, a cousin who was with the prime minister, and another family aide who was present, told The Washington Post that they suspect Gotabaya’s supporters in the army purposefully delayed coming to their aid for six hours.

Gotabaya is clinging to power after replacing his brother with a new prime minister, who revealed this week that Sri Lanka has less than $1 million in foreign reserves, dwindling medical supplies and almost no fuel.

Sri Lanka faces total destruction,” former president Maithripala Sirisena said. The country has learned a lesson about dynastic politics.”

The family business

When Mahinda, the son of a wealthy rice and coconut farmer who was active in politics, ran for parliament in 1970, he was following in the tradition of the few elite families that dominate Sri Lanka, a lush teardrop-shape island off the coast of India.Advertisement

You cannot win [in politics] if you’re not from an established family,” said Razeen Sally, a professor at the National University of Singapore. So the system is left to established insiders who can pillage the state.”

The second of nine children, Mahinda was charismatic, loved crowds and stuck close to his younger brother, Basil, who is considered the family’s political strategist. Their middle brother, Gotabaya, was always different: aloof, politically inexperienced, a teetotaler and vegetarian who spent 21 years in the military. He would visit the ancestral home only during New Year,” recalled Weeratunga, their cousin who is close to Mahinda.

The Rajapaksas ran the country like a family business during Mahinda’s 10-year presidency, starting in 2005. He named Gotabaya defense secretary while Basil and their oldest brother, Chamal, were placed in charge of irrigation and economic development. Sri Lanka enjoyed years of growth, fueled by a mountain of foreign debt.Advertisement

Mahinda enjoyed the adulation of voters, who approved of his bloody but decisive victory in a 26-year civil war against Tamil rebels and his frequent appeals to Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism.

But allegations of corruption, including questionable deals with Chinese state companies and officials, swirled around Mahinda. Gotabaya was also implicated, though to a lesser extent, and faced scrutiny over the 2006 purchase of MiG fighters from Ukraine.

Sankhitha Gunaratne, deputy executive director of Transparency International Sri Lanka, said Mahinda and Basil have faced numerous accusations, including diverting tsunami relief aid and using public funds to buy land, but many cases have stalled or been withdrawn. The alleged Rajapaksa corruption is like a large tree that provides shade to many people,” she said.Advertisement

In 2021, a leaked trove of financial documents known as the Pandora Papers revealed that a niece of the Rajapaksa brothers had millions of dollars hidden in offshore accounts.

Amid growing anger over the Rajapaksas’ alleged cronyism and corruption, Mahinda lost a bid for a third term in 2015. Almost immediately, an eclectic coalition of pro-Western business executives, military hard-liners and Buddhist monks identified a new candidate: Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

The middle brother

It quickly became apparent that Gotabaya, backed by new political sponsors, would clash with Mahinda. The men rarely confronted each other directly, yet they disagreed on everything, including high-stakes political gamesmanship and petty corruption, family confidants said.

Dilith Jayaweera, a media magnate who is widely credited with launching Gotabaya’s candidacy, remembers an incident from 2018 when he was called by Mahinda to Gotabaya’s home. Mahinda had put Gotabaya’s name on the title to an illegally built resort so that a powerful monk, a political ally, could get free electricity. The scandal was about to leak and, as was often the case, Mahinda was reluctant to tell his brother, so he nudged Jayaweera to break the news to him.Advertisement

Gotabaya was livid,” Jayaweera said, and stormed off to a Buddhist temple, refusing to share a car with his brother.

In October 2018, a constitutional crisis erupted when Sirisena, then president, fired his prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, and replaced him with Mahinda,who he had defeated at the polls just three years earlier. The capital was tense as both men made claims on the country’s No. 2 job and rumors swirled that Wickremesinghe might be removed by force. Fearing Mahinda and Basil were trying to outflank him and engineer their own return to power, Gotabaya secretly met Wickremesinghe to pledge his support.

Soon after, the Supreme Court ruled against Mahinda’s claim, and he backed down. The family had no option but to support Gotabaya.

In the run-up to elections, terrorist attacks by Muslim extremists rocked Sri Lanka, galvanizing Sinhalese Buddhist support around the former military man. On the campaign trail, Gotabaya spoke of security, good governance and development, pitching himself as a technocrat, and Colombo, with its emerging skyline of Indian- and Chinese-funded skyscrapers, as the next Singapore. He won in a landslide.Advertisement

On the day of his swearing-in on Nov. 19, 2019, Gotabaya signaled a break from his family. He refused to wear a red sataka,” the Rajapaksa clan’s signature scarf, favoring a short-sleeved shirt. Unlike Mahinda, who printed his own image on 1,000-rupee notes while he was president, Gotabaya prohibited government offices from hanging his official portrait.

But the next day was the beginning of the downfall,” said Nalaka Godahewa, a former financial executive who was later Gotabaya’s minister of mass media.

Gotabaya’s pro-Western business-sector backers had recommended a list of appointments, but when the president unveiled his first Cabinet, it was led by Mahinda as prime minister and stocked with Basil and Mahinda loyalists. They enacted steep tax cuts and argued against seeking aid from the International Monetary Fund despite mounting debt. Gotabaya personally pushed through a ban on chemical fertilizers that hurt crop yields, just as global food prices soared.Advertisement

Mahinda’s supporters said they had shaped the Cabinet only to be undermined by Gotabaya’s appointments. In several instances, the government issued trade policies that were retracted within 24 hours. You had ministers fighting secretaries,” Weeratunga said. Fighting permeated the administration.”

The Rajapaksas were united on one issue: A constitutional amendment passed in 2020 that weakened commissions investigating corruption and granted the president far-reaching powers over the courts.

The fall

By early 2022, the economy was in free fall. Foodstuffs like rice doubled in price from a year prior. Gasoline and electricity were in short supply. Foreign currency reserves were running out.

In April, nightly demonstrations took root in the capital demanding that the Rajapaksas leave politics, and some turned violent. Gotabaya’s entire Cabinet — which included Basil, the finance minister; the elder brother, Chamal; and Mahinda’s son — resigned, giving Gotabaya a chance to form a new government. Sri Lanka needed a stable image to present to foreign lenders and negotiate an urgent bailout.

But Mahinda, the prime minister, resisted calls from the opposition and even signals from the president to quit.

Gotabaya didn’t force the issue. G.R. would say, ‘He knows what I want,’ ” said Godahewa, who joined the Cabinet after several Rajapaksas departed. He felt he needed the support of Basil and Mahinda.”

With pressure mounting on Mahinda, his supporters organized a May 9 rally at Temple Trees, the prime minister’s compound. The patriarch, feeling deflated and mulling resigning, suddenly seemed energized, according to two family insiders and videos of the event.

As a leader who has always listened to the people, I now ask you: What needs to be done?” Mahinda said to thousands of supporters sitting cross-legged in a chandelier-lit hall. You must stay!” the crowd roared. Does that mean I shouldn’t resign?” he asked again, soaking in calls to fight on.

When the rally ended, supporters streamed out of Temple Trees with steel rods and wooden sticks, beating anti-government protesters and sparking a bloody backlash that shocked the nation.

Holed up in Temple Trees with his sons, who had urged him to stay, Mahinda told his speechwriter at 4 p.m. that he was resigning. The speechwriter spread the news to the media, but that didn’t stop the violence, said two people inside the compound. Despite the family’s pleas, the army didn’t send reinforcements until 11 p.m., after protesters had already breached a gate. At 4 a.m., Mahinda was evacuated by soldiers to a military base.

Mahinda understood this stalling was deliberate,” said Weeratunga, who accused Gotabaya of trying to intimidate his brothers. But two ministers who were by the president’s side that day said he furiously called military officers to no avail.

He could neither control the army nor police,” Godahewa said.

Godahewa and foreign diplomats said army commander Shavendra Silva — who has been in frequent touch with Western officials — was reluctant to deploy his forces for fear of being seen as ordering a military crackdown.

The absence of the military that day widened the fissures among the brothers. In a speech to parliament this week, Chamal chastised Mahinda for not leaving politics in 2015. And at a recent meeting of the Rajapaksas’ party members, family allies angrily askedwhy they were not protected on May 9 in a rare display of discord. How Gotabaya treats the party now will decide the direction of the people’s wrath,” Weeratunga said.

On May 12, an embattled and isolated Gotabaya named a new prime minister: Ranil Wickremesinghe, the man he secretly met with in 2018 when he first jockeyed for the position against his brother.

Four years later, Sri Lanka’s most powerful family was crumbling — maybe for good, said Jayaweera, the media magnate.

The Rajapaksas, and Sri Lanka, ended in tragedy,” he said. It ended because of their own doing.”

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

An Indian ship carrying urgent relief supplies including rice, life-saving medicines and milk powder arrived in Colombo on Sunday and the consignment was handed over to the government, the Indian High Commission said.

High Commissioner Gopal Baglay handed over a large consignment of humanitarian assistance worth more than SLR 2 billion from the people of India to Foreign Minister Prof. G.L Peiris.

The consignment consists of 9,000 MT of rice, 50 MT of milk powder and more than 25 MT of drugs and other medical supplies. 

The consignment was flagged off from Chennai port by Thiru M.K Stalin, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on 18 May 2022. This is also the first consignment under a larger USD 16 million commitment of 40,000 MT of rice, 500 MT of milk powder and medicines by Government of Tamil Nadu.

The Indian High Commission said that handed over materials shall be distributed among vulnerable and needy sections in various parts of Sri Lanka including Northern, Eastern, Central and Western Provinces by Government of Sri Lanka in the coming days. 

Courtesy Adaderana

The residence of an owner of a filling station in the Ipalogama area in Anuradhapura has been set ablaze by a certain group of individuals.

The incident had occurred at around 9.40 p.m. last night (21) at the residence located in the Bogaha Akkare area in Ipalogama.

The home owner’s wife and two children had also been at home at the time of the incident, however none of them had sustained any injuries.

However, the house in question has almost completely been destroyed by the fire. 

It is reported that the filling station owner’s eldest child is preparing to sit for the Advanced Level examination and that all his books and study material have been destroyed by the fire. 

The exact reason behind the torching of the house is yet to be uncovered while Ipalogama Police are conducting further investigations. 

Courtesy Adaderana

Governments need to subsidise the cost of food and energy for the poorest members of society and without the correct support, the protests seen in Sri Lanka could be repeated in other countries.” 

This is the observation of the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva.

Kristalina Georgieva, while speaking to the BBC, said that such similar unrest before the Covid-19 pandemic, from France to Chile, was caused by a sense of inequality growing” and decisions being made without the support of the people. 

If we are to learn any lessons from 2019 it is to be much more humble about policy decisions and engage in multiple ways with people because policies must be for people, not the paper we write them on,”

Kristalina Georgieva said that the support needs to be provided in a very targeted manner, preferably by providing subsidies directly to people”.

On The Cost Of Living Crisis

There are two priorities, one the very poor people, segments of society that are now struggling with high food and energy prices. The second, she added, is to support those businesses that have been most damaged by the war in Ukraine,” Georgieva told the BBC.

Advise To Governments

Georgieva is also concerned about the impact those higher borrowing costs will have on governments who have to repay huge debts they took on to get through the pandemic. With that in mind, she said governments needed to be very careful” about how much money they spent and what they spent it on.

Source: BBC

–Agencies

By Raj Gonsalkorale

Sri Lanka has defaulted on a foreign loan interest component for the first time in its history. It is a day of shame for a country that boasts of such a rich and ancient cultural heritage, and which has produced so many people of eminence in so many fields of expertise over the years. It is regrettable that the people of Sri Lanka had been remiss in their responsibilities and acumen not to have had accountability, credibility, and honesty as priorities in selecting their political leaders to govern the country on their behalf. It is shameful that the political leaders and their flock who were trusted by the people have been utterly irresponsible in allowing the country to sink to this depth of despair and hopelessness. A country that has no fuel, no cooking gas, no medicines and now, increasingly, no food, power cuts, water cuts, with all this contributing to the anger and anguish of millions of people.

Whether the President of the country thinks or not, or like it or not, he has to take full responsibility for this shame as he had all the powers he needed under the 20^th amendment to take early preventive action to avoid a catastrophe of this degree. The buck has to stop with him, and although none of his predecessors ever did that, he should have set an example. His immediate predecessor Sirisena did not even apologize to the nation for the Easter bomb fiasco that happened under his watch. The first Executive President Jayewardene did not either in the aftermath of the 1983 pogrom against the Tamil community in Sri Lanka. This is the quality of leaders voted in by the public.

Despite being a nation of beggars now, undergoing such ignominy as looking for firewood to cook the next meal, standing in queues for hours for some fuel, foregoing some medicines as they are not available, facing possible food shortages and being unable to buy these even if available due to the astronomical price hikes, power cuts, now water cuts, political leaders and their flock are still placing their quest for power over the welfare of the country. They should have all thrown their party labels to the Diyawanna Oya and entered the Parliament without party affiliations to work together to save it from further ignominy.

The ongoing IUSF protests and any other protest, while understood and empathized, are ill timed and unreasonable. These and the Galle Face Confab has brought about a significant change in governance, personnel associated with it and the style of governance. The civil society has been awakened and it is unlikely that they will allow a return to the past.  This is a very positive and an invigorating development and one hopes that the civil society will never ever go back to sleep, conjured by politicians steeped in avarice, dishonesty, and vulgar behavior. No doubt there is more to be done to institutionalize the changes and to bring about cultural changes amongst the public in order to ensure a governance model that has no place for the type of politicians who have brought the country to the state it is in today. There is no future for Sri Lanka if it is to be governed by the kind of politicians who are in Parliament today, of course with a few exceptions.

The crisis faced by the country today is such that if the immediate issues are not addressed, there will not be a sovereign country left to govern even for good men and women of the soil. The country will not disappear, but its sovereignty will as it could be taken over for all intents and purposes by a power that has the money and the strength to do so. In desperation, the country has turned to Ranil Wickremasinghe to save it from ignominy and a likely foreclosure by such a power or powers.

Wickremasinghe has placed the true situation of the country’s economy before the people. He has stated in no uncertain terms that it is bankrupt, it will have to face more hardships in the next few months, and it will face food shortages. All those leaders and political representatives who have brought the country to this state are an absolute disgrace and they do not deserve to be called Sri Lankans as they are still bickering about technicalities when they should have offered to work together unconditionally to avert the looming disaster.

The immediate, desperate urgency is to stay together and work together to avert the unthinkable, the loss of the country’s sovereignty. This message is primarily for the protestors and the public as they will be the biggest losers should the country lose its sovereignty. It is also not a time for Presidential and Prime Ministerial aspirants to place their ambitions ahead of the interest of the country. Whatever Wickremasinghe’s past failures when he held the wheels in his hands, on five occasions, this occasion is like no other past occasion, as neither he nor the country has faced a situation as dire as this in the past. He has stuck his head out and placed it on the block, a very brave thing to do given the perilous situation the country is in. If he succeeds in taking the country out of its desperate and hopeless situation, he deserves all the plaudits and a special place in history like no other. If he fails, he knows his head is on the block.

Wickremasinghe nor any other mortal holding the wheel will be able to steer the country out of trouble by himself or herself. He needs a small, competent, dedicated team of professionals to assist him as cabinet ministers and senior officials, and the Parliamentarians to take a break and stay home. The ongoing pretense of two tongued politicians that they can carry on, pretending things are normal and its business as usual, will have to stop if the country is to be saved from its ultimate disgrace. What Sri Lanka needs is an emergency government, with an emergency cabinet and an emergency task force of officials to manage a situation that is far worse than an emergency.

All non-essential cabinet positions, all State minister positions should be temporarily suspended. The emergency government should be given unfettered powers to get the country out of its dire predicament while the parliamentarians are kept out of such a government and directed, by the people, to get the 21^st amendment passed and implemented. Prime Minister Wickremasinghe has indicated that this will be done within a few weeks.  The Executive Presidency has failed Sri Lanka and it needs to be replaced with a cabinet system of government and a Prime Minister responsible to the Parliament.

Besides this, the 21^st Amendment must include accountability measures for all politicians and public officials, particularly those in senior positions. Submission of annual assets and liabilities of politicians and senior officials has to be made compulsory with members of the public given free and unfettered access to such statements. Failure to do so and failing to account for their assets and how they acquired them, must be made punishable with harsh punishments including confiscation of such unexplained assets, fines and jail sentences. Besides passing the 21^st Amendment as a priority, a new Constitution must be finalized in the next 12-18 months with input from the people, and a general election held within 2 years under the new constitution.

The shame must end and those who caused it held to account for not taking early action to avert it.

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, May 21 (Newswire) – Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekara says that the government has decided to supply fuel for electricity generation as a priority, to ensure uninterrupted electricity supply in the country.

He said that with the Norachcholai power plant expected to be back in full operation by tomorrow after the repair work and along with the hydro power generation, government is contemplating to provide uninterrupted power supply to the entire country by early next week.

Initial plan was to give uninterrupted electricity by 1st of June but now we are looking into whether we can start it from early next week” Minister said.

The minister said that with this decision, he is expecting people to not hoard fuel for private power generators. Therefore, more fuel should be available for general public for transportation needs.

Kanchana Wijesekara went on to say that the government expects to put an end to the power crisis on priority but the fuel crisis does not have a short term solution.

He also said the government is planning to resume operations of the Sapugaskanda oil refinery as well. The minister expressed these views while addressing the media at a press briefing held at the ministry premised today (21).

Anne-Marie Gulde  Courtesy IMF

Bulgaria’s latest stabilization program, which included the introduction of a currency board, marked the end of a period of economic turmoil and near-hyperinflation. What accounts for its success?

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After several failed stabilization attempts, Bulgaria introduced a currency board on July 1, 1997. Controversial and difficult to implement because of Bulgaria’s serious structural problems, the currency board has been a crucial factor in the success of the country’s latest stabilization program. Combining a traditional, rule-based exchange arrange-ment with legal and structural measures that addressed pressing banking sector and fiscal issues, it was well designed for the task at hand—credible but flexible enough to allow Bulgaria to tackle a systemic banking crisis.

Initial conditions

In late 1996, Bulgaria was in the midst of a banking crisis and entering a period of hyperinflation. Support for the government was declining and popular protest calling for new elections was widespread. In view of the failure of the country’s earlier stabilization programs, a perception was developing that, to be credible, a renewed stabilization attempt would require a visible, rule-based system, such as a currency board. Nevertheless, the economic and financial problems confronting Bulgaria seemed insurmountable at first.

Macroeconomic and structural setting. The depth of the macroeconomic crisis was daunting. On an annual basis, inflation had soared to almost 500 percent in January 1997 and surpassed 2,000 percent in March. The causes of the rapid acceleration of inflation included liquidity injections to support the country’s weakening banking system, continued central bank financing of the budget deficit, and—increasingly important—faltering confidence in the Bulgarian lev, which reduced domestic money demand. In an effort to soften the currency’s depreciation—from lev 487 to lev 1,588 per US$1 in the first quarter of 1997—the central bank depleted its international reserves; remaining reserves covered less than two months of imports. At the same time, falling output and growing tax evasion caused tax revenues to plummet, from almost 40 percent of GDP (annualized) to 14.7 percent of GDP in February 1997. To finance the fiscal deficit, the government issued treasury bills with successively shorter maturities and higher interest rates. Real output, which had grown in 1994 and 1995, contracted by more than 10 percent during 1996.

Full Report

https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/1999/09/gulde.htm

IMF

A currency board combines three elements: a fixed exchange rate between a country’s currency and an “anchor currency,” automatic convertibility, and a long-term commitment to the system, often made explicit in the central bank law.

The main reason for countries to consider a currency board is to demonstrate that they are pursuing an anti-inflationary policy.A currency board is credible only if a country’s central bank holds sufficient official foreign exchange reserves to cover at least its entire monetary liabilities, thereby assuring financial markets and the public at large that every domestic-currency bill is backed by an equivalent amount of foreign currency in the official coffers.

Demand is higher for a “currency-board currency” than for currencies without guarantees because holders know that, rain or shine, their liquid money can easily be converted into a major foreign currency. Were it to come to such a testing of the system, its architects contend, automatic stabilizers would prevent any major outflows of foreign currency.

The mechanism works through changes in the money supply, which lead to interest rate changes, which, in turn, encourage funds to move between the domestic and the anchor currency. This is essentially the same mechanism that operates under a fixed exchange rate, but the exchange rate guarantee implied in the currency board rules ensures that the necessary interest rate changes and the attendant costs for the economy will be comparatively lower.

The obvious advantages of a currency board are economic credibility, low inflation, and low interest rates. But currency boards can prove limiting, especially for countries that have weak banking systems or are prone to economic shocks. With a currency board in place, the central bank can no longer serve as a lender of last resort for banks in trouble.

At most, it is limited to acting as an emergency fund that is either set aside at the time the currency board is introduced or funded, over time, out of central bank profits. Another disadvantage is that, with a currency board arrangement, it is not possible to use financial policies—that is, adjustments of domestic interest or exchange rates—to stimulate the economy. Instead, economic adjustment can be achieved only through wage and price adjustments, which can be both slower and more painful.

By Dilini Madushanki Courtesy Ceylon Today

Courtesy Adaderana

The World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) have jointly decided to support Sri Lanka’s response to the ongoing economic crisis.

The three institutions announced their decision in a statement issued after the first joint coordinated meeting held on the 19th of May.

All three institutions are adopting a coordinated approach to sustain basic services and livelihoods and to mitigate the impact of the economic crisis on the people of Sri Lanka.”

This includes access to essential items such as medicines, cash assistance, gas and fertilizer through the reallocation of resources from existing projects, the statement read further.

Courtesy Adaderana

China says it stands ready to work with relevant countries and international financial institutions and to continue to play a positive role in easing Sri Lanka’s debt burden.

China fully relates to the difficulties and challenges facing Sri Lanka and stands ready to play a constructive role in its steady economic and social development,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Mr. Wang Wenbin said at a media briefing yesterday (May 20).

He also stated that China is prepared to work with relevant counties and international financial institutions and to continue to play a positive role in easing Sri Lanka’s debt burden and helping the island nation to achieve sustainable development.

In the meantime, we hope and believe that Sri Lanka will work in the same direction and make independent efforts to uphold the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investment and financing partners and maintain stability and credibility of its investment and financing environment, Mr. Wenbin said further in response to a question raised during the media briefing.

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka Police has decided to begin island-wide raids from tomorrow (May 22) in search of people hoarding diesel or petrol for resale.

Police spokesperson said such persons will be taken into custody.