Larry Elliott, Phillip Inman and Helena Smith in Athens Courtesy Guardian (uk)

The International Monetary Fund admitted it had failed to realise the damage austerity would do to Greece as the Washington-based organisation catalogued mistakes made during the bailout of the stricken eurozone country.

In an assessment of the rescue conducted jointly with the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European commission, the IMF said it had been forced to override its normal rules for providing financial assistance in order to put money into Greece.

Fund officials had severe doubts about whether Greece’s debt would be sustainable even after the first bailout was provided in May 2010 and only agreed to the plan because of fears of contagion.

While it succeeded in keeping Greece in the eurozone, the report admitted the bailout included notable failures.

“Market confidence was not restored, the banking system lost 30% of its deposits and the economy encountered a much deeper than expected recession with exceptionally high unemployment.”

In Athens, officials reacted with barely disguised glee to the report, saying it confirmed that the price exacted for the €110bn (£93bn) emergency package was too high for a country beset by massive debts, tax evasion and a large black economy.”

Under the weight of such measures – applied across the board and hitting the poorest hardest – the economy, they said, was always bound to dive into an economic death spiral.

“For too long they [troika officials] refused to accept that the programme was simply off-target by hiding behind our failure to implement structural reforms,” said one insider. “Now that reforms are being applied they’ve had to accept the bitter truth.”

The IMF said: “The Fund approved an exceptionally large loan to Greece under an stand-by agreement in May 2010 despite having considerable misgivings about Greece’s debt sustainability. The decision required the Fund to depart from its established rules on exceptional access. However, Greece came late to the Fund and the time available to negotiate the programme was short.”

But having agreed that there were exceptional circumstances that warranted the biggest bailout in the Fund’s history, officials were taken aback by the much bigger than expected slump in the Greek economy. The country is now in its fifth year of recession and the economy has contracted by 17%. The IMF thought it would contract by just 5.5%.

In the evaluation of the package provided in 2010, the IMF said: “Given the danger of contagion, the report judges the programme to have been a necessity, even though the Fund had misgivings about debt sustainability.

“There was, however, a tension between the need to support Greece and the concern that debt was not sustainable with high probability (a condition for exceptional access).

“In response, the exceptional access criterion was amended to lower the bar for debt sustainability in systemic cases. The baseline still showed debt to be sustainable, as is required for all Fund programmes.”

In the event, the report added, the Fund was open to criticism for making economic projections that were too optimistic.”

While the report says a deep recession was unavoidable, it is critical of senior officials in Brussels and European capitals who said Greece would fare better outside the euro. Concerns that Greece could be ejected from the euro and return to the drachma intensified an already febrile situation.

“Confidence was also badly affected by domestic social and political turmoil and talk of a Greek exit from the euro by European policymakers,” it said.

Brussels also struggled to co-ordinate its policies with the ECB in Frankfurt, according to the report.

“The Fund made decisions in a structured fashion, while decision-making in the eurozone spanned heads of state and multiple agencies and was more fragmented.”

The Greek media recently quoted IMF managing director Christine Lagarde describing 2011 as a “lost year” partly because of miscalculations by the EU and IMF.

The authoritative Kathimerini newspaper said the report identified a number of “mistakes” including the failure of creditors to agree to a restructuring of Greece’s debt burden earlier – a failure that had had a disastrous effect on its macroeconomic assumptions.

“From what we understand the IMF singles out the EU for criticism in its handling of the problem more than anything else,” said one well-placed official at the Greek finance ministry.

He added: “But acknowledgement of these mistakes will help us. It has already helped cut some slack and it will help us get what we really need which is a haircut on our debt next year.”

ජයන්ත හේරත්

අපේ කොල්ලන් කෙල්ලන්

අරගල  කරන්නේ,

පිටි කිරි බොන්න නැති නිසාය .

highway එකේ රේස්

යන්න ඉන්ධන නැති නිසාය

පැය 24රේම

විදුලි පංකා වැඩ නොකරන නිසාය

වායු සමිකරණයේ සමිකරණය විසඳා ගන්න බැරි නිසාය

tv එකේ, අයි ෆෝනයේ එල්ලී ගෙන ඉන්න විදුලි-බලය නැති නිසාය

පිටි කිරි වෙනුවට

පොල් කිරි

සෝයා කිරි

කොට්ටම්බා කිරි

මයියොක්කා කිරි

තේ කෝපි වලට ගැලපේය

අපට ඕනෑ කරන්නේ  

මොනවා හෝ

සුදු දියරයක් දමා

තේ, කෝපි වල කළු පාට

මකා ගන්නටය.

ප්ලේන් ටී, කොෆි

වතුර බොන්නේ

පයින් යන්නේ 

primitive  මිනිස්සුය.

කොහොම වුනත්

හරක් කිරි වලට වඩා

පොල් කිරි, මයියොක්ක කිරි

කොට්ටම්බා කිරි, සෝයා කිරි

ඉතා ගුණදායකය.

ගෙදරදීම හදා ගත හැක.

හරකාගේ කිරි එරෙන්නේ

හරක් පැටියාට බොන්නටය,

මිනිස් පැටව්න්ට බොන්න නෙවේය.

හරක් කිරි

පෝෂ්ය ජනක වෙන්නේද හරක් පැටියාට විතරය.

ඔටු කිරි

එළු කිරි

බැටළු කිරි

බලු කිරි

බළල් කිරි

ගුණදායක වන්නේ ඒ ඒ සත්ව පැටවුන්ටය.

මිනිස් පැටව් හා මහ මිනිස්සු

සුදු කිරි හොය හොයා

බොන්නේ මෝඩ කමටය.

තේ කෝපි වලට

පොල් රා

කිතුල් රා

වුනත් වරදක් නැත.

හැබැයි ඒවා පාටෙන්

සුදු නැත.

ගෝල් පීසයේ අසබඩ තරුණයින්

ගමට යවා

කිතුල්

පොල් ගස්

නැගීම

ඒ මල් කපා

තෙලිජ්ජ බී

පැණි උණු කර

හකුරු හදන්නට

පුරුදු පුහුණු කල යුතුය

හකුරු දියවැඩියාවට හොඳය

හකුරු කෑමෙන්  

සීනි ආනයනය කරන්නට

යන ඩොලර් ටිකද ඉතිරි කර ගන්නට හැක.

කිතුල්, පොල් රා මැදීම ද ඉගැන්විය යුතුය

එවිට රටබීම වලට ගෙවන ඩොලර් ටිකද ඉතිරිය.

ඇමරිකාව

කරන්නේ හරක් හස්බන්ඩ්රිය

කන්නෙත් බොන්නෙත් හරක් කිරි හා ස්ටෙක්ය

පිටි කිරි බෙහෙතකටවත් හොයා ගන්නට නැත.

Biden ලොක්කා

පහුගියදා

ඉහලම උසාවිය

කළු කළේය

කළු විනිසුරු වරියක්

පත් කලේ

පලවෙනි වතාවටය.

මාර්ටින් ලුතර් කින් ට

තිබුනේ

dreඅm එකය.

කළු-සුදු ය.

එංග ලන්තයේ

ප්රීති

පාර්ලිමේන්තු ඝෝෂා කරුවන්

මට්ටු කරන්නේ

කටින්ය,

calm down and listen

කිව්වාම හරිය.

Zelensky

Putin

යුද්ධයෙන්

දැනට

අවතැන් වූ සංඛ්යාව

මිලියන් 5ක්ය

මිලියන 40 ම

ඇමරිකාවට ආවත්

නවාතැන් ප්රශ්නයක්  නැත.

ඇලස්කාව

මිලියන් 40 ටම

ප්රමාණවත්ය.

මිලියන 40 ම

ඇමරිකාවට ආවත්

ප්‍රස්නයක් නැත.

කෙරවලපිටිය

හරහා

විදුලි බල මණ්ඩලයම

ඇමරිකාවට පැටවිය හැක.

අර්බුද අරගල

නව අවස්ථාවන්‍ය.

අරගල

දිගුකාලීන

වර්ධනය

වේගවත් කරයි.

පුහුණු තරුණ ශ්‍රමය

තාක්‍ෂණයේ නිර්මාණාත්මක බලවේගය

සමග එක්වී 

පටු දේශපාලකයින් ගේ

සියලු කඩාකප්පල්කාරී 

බාධා 

ජයගනු  ඇත.

ආණ්ඩුව දෙන්නේ

highways ය.

දිය යුතුව ඇත්තේ 

අවුරුදු 30ක්

ජීවත් වීමට

තරුණ පුහුණු ශ්‍රමයය.

ලංකාවටම සිටියේ

ප්‍රශ්නය තේරුම් ගත්

එක අද්යාපන ඇමතිය

ඒ

කන්නන්ගරය.

එක

අධ්‍යාපන ලේකම්ය

ඒ

ප්‍රේමදාස උඩගම ය.

Shenali D Waduge

Sri Lanka is in a crisis. How much of that crisis is to be blamed on every government that ruled Sri Lanka since 1978 who have gone to monetary lending institutes for loans for loan repayment/development & meet budget deficits? From 1980s to 2009 much of the country’s expense went to defeating terror. Then post-war economic development. Then regime change in 2015 & from 2019 Sri Lanka faced a covid pandemic. Without a doubt every government that ruled has failed in managing the fiscal affairs of the country. We have spent beyond our means, we have not invested where we should have & we have failed to invest in areas that could have delivered not only revenues but employment as well. In short, country planning has failed. Taking loans to repay loans & committing to give up what we have is likely to end up with no roof over our heads. Politicians are quick to take the easy way out by agreeing to stringent conditions & hoping to somehow hold on to power & pass the buck to the next government to face. This warped thinking has landed the people or the nation nowhere except maintain the survival of all politicians. Do people realize what they are heading for?

The IMF and World Bank, part of the Bretton Woods heritage since 1944. IMF is the private investment arm of the World Bank. Sri Lanka has received 16 IMF loans. Where have we succeeded or failed? Leave it to the experts” the economists” they say but these experts & economists have come and gone & enjoyed hefty remunerations but they have not provided any blueprint for success or for Sri Lanka to emerge from the mess. Each time it’s always let the ‘experts’ decide but the buck always stops taxing and selling our assets.

IMF & Egypt

Egypt saw regime change in 2011 & the ousting of its leader Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt is Middle East’s most populace country. Egypt is the world’s largest importer of wheat majority coming from USA. Egypt imported 12million metric tonnes of wheat in 2015/16.

Conditions imposed by IMF for a $12billion loan

IMF conditions affecting Egypt – resulting in riots

• Cutting subsidies on bread main staple food of 92.2m people, a third of whom live in poverty. People rioted for ‘right for food & bread’ with women screaming for food for their children.
• New income taxes
• Selling public assets
• Reducing energy & food subsidies.
• When fuel was increased the consumer mafia hiked prices by 100% – sugar, cooking oil & rice saw short supply.
• The bread subsidy cut was revoked after riots
• Egypt’s tourism industry has been hit by 5 years of political turmoil
• Egyptian Parliament to pass value-added tax bill & introduce a law to allow landlords to raise rent with no ceiling to replace existing law that puts caps on rent increases.
• Proposal to slash public sector wage bill (could mean firing staff & cutting pensions) Egypt has 5m public sector.

However, it is clear that IMF/WB support together with economic policy changes HAS NOT SUCCEEDED to lower inflation. IMF says its policies are a ‘rescue for Egypt’ but Egyptians say it is eliminating their economic rights.

IMF & Kenya

IMF wants Kenya to overhaul its 3 top public universities as part of $2.34billion loan (Kenyatta, Nairobi & Moi) as a solution to the debt crisis from covid.

In addition IMF requires Kenya to financially evaluate Kenya Airways, Kenya Airports Authority, Kenya Railways Corporation, Kenya Power, Kenya Electricity Generating Company & Kenya Ports Authority.

Kenya’s public universities operate on a $100m budget gap. The Auditor General listed 11 institutes as being insolvent. Public universities have statutory debts totally $190m owed to the Kenya Revenue Authority. More than 80% of their budgets is spent on recurrent expenditure (salaries)

 
IMF & Pakistan

$6b IMF bailout program will expire in September 2022

IMF Conditions 2022:

• Increasing individual income tax by reducing the slabs to create higher tax
• Reduce tax credits & allowances except for the disabled & senior citizens
• Introduce special tax procedures for very small taxpayers & create new tax payers
• Increasing power tariffs
• Set up new institute for refinancing scheme (State Bank of Pakistan outstanding was Rs.1.22trillion as of Sept 2021)
• Pakistan to complete 1^st stage of recapitalization of 2 private sector banks
• Energy subsidy reform for residential consumers.
• Publication of beneficial ownership information from companies awarded public procurement contracts for Rs.50m & above.

IMF slaps at least 20 conditions on average for each loan.

Majority of conditions were focused on politically sensitive areas (public sector wage cuts/private sector reform) IMF loans require mandatory changes for each loan. IMF couldn’t care less what a country’s economic or country circumstances were. Even when the entire world suffered economically from covid, IMF did not budge from its conditions.

Loans given to Cyprus, Greece & Jamaica had 35 conditions each.

The question is – how can drastic cuts enable countries to repay loans while keeping the people from ending up in poverty?

IMF & South Africa

$4.3b IMF loan precedes a bailout with stringent conditions.

South African politicians were relieved that the IMF did not specify ministers to give up their residences & cars & pay for them out of their salaries

The European Network on Debt & Development declared that nations desperate for cash were at a disadvantage in dealing with the IMF which they said was like negotiating ‘at the barrel of a gun’ – some in Sri Lanka presume IMF is the best & only solution Sri Lanka has. Have they studied the conditions IMF imposes?

Former Central Bank Governor W B Lakshman in 1985 declared

Sri Lanka after 1977 has become yet one more laboratory for IMF-WB experimentation. These institutions, whose resources and policies are controlled by the developed countries of the West, probably sincerely believe that the free market, private enterprise, capitalist system which proved effective in those countries in the advancement of the forces of production, will also be effective in the Third World”

What is the good if the people of a country end up in more poverty from the tax burdens they face to meet the IMF conditions?

The countries that refer to themselves as ‘rich’ became so having plundered the resources of countries that they claim as ‘developing’.

Claiming to honor sovereignty, what is the point when western monetary bodies demand the privatization of country assets/resources which then fall into foreign hands? There is increasing demands interfering into a country’s internal affairs & domestic jurisdiction for loans too.

Why can’t the loans be tied to investments that enable to repay the loan in a negotiated period which leaves a country to enjoy full profit once loan repayment is complete. If IMF/World Bank invests in building a country’s manufacturing – not only employment but exports can also be satisfied.

What happens at present is a third world government once coming to power acquires the unpaid loans of previous governments & when a budget deficit arises after loan repayment & recurrent costs, a government invariably has to go to a lending body for another loan. If the lending shark demands the government to pay back the loans by increases taxes while also privatizing state assets, what happens is that the people are economically drained and the state loses ownership of its assets. When all IMF loans are eventually repaid – all that is left is a country still in debt or its people in dire poverty in view of the unbearable taxes & the country is left with not having any assets/resources to even come out of the economic crisis it has fallen into.

What do the protestors demanding the ouster of the present government as well as the entire parliament, have to solve the current economic situation?

Shenali D Waduge

By Raj Gonsalkorale

A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.” – The spirit of ancient Rome in its last days of glory. The hero of the story, the man called “a pillar of iron” is Marcus Tullius Cicero, the lawyer-statesman who tried vainly to save the republic he loved from the forces of tyranny. -Taylor Caldwell, A Pillar of Iron

Judging from press reports, indications are that Sri Lanka is heading towards anarchy and its leaders and citizens are now acting in a manner that invites anarchy. It is a situation fraught with danger with even greater political instability and consequently, further economic ruin. Sri Lanka doesn’t have a Cicero, so, for the sake of the once resplendent island, it is perhaps opportune, even imperative, for all stakeholders including the Mahanayakes, the vociferous Cardinal Ranjit, political party leaders, politicians, union leaders and the Galle Face protestors, to take a breather and call off the protest action for the moment. They have achieved a significant victory in remaking the government, and the general political ethos. Now, their protests appear to be leading the country to a situation that may get out of hand and lead to violence and damage to property, and even a confrontation with the Armed Forces, should they be called to restore law and order in the event of large-scale unrest.

Emotions are too high and rational thinking is too low. There is an expectation that a change of the Presidency and the government will bring about an immediate solution to the problems affecting most people of the country. Genuine, spontaneous protestors as well as opportunistic protestors, are raising the stakes for such an overnight solution that will result in shortages and queues for fuel, gas, food, medicines disappearing as soon as their demand for the President and the government to resign eventuates. Hardly any of the protestors have come up with solutions to the structural issues, both economic and political, that have led the country to where it is in now.

It is illogical to believe that there will be an overnight solution to the many problems facing the country today as a solution is going to be complex and time taking. If their sponsors are promising the opposite, then they are being mischievous, brazenly opportunistic and taking the protestors to be people who can easily be fooled. Whatever the outcome of any resignations, of the President, the cabinet or the government, there will not be any immediate relief to the people, and this will, without question lead to further protestations, and anger being directed towards a new government which would have replaced the current one.

In order to facilitate everyone taking a breather, a circuit breaker is needed to make it happen. A couple of immediate measures are suggested

1. A meeting of all party leaders, and the following agreed upon.
2. The Prime Minister and the newly appointed cabinet to resign.
3. A multi-party interim government to be formed with party leaders deciding on a new Prime Minister.
4. A new interim multi-party cabinet to be formed with no more than 20 ministers.
5. All State ministries to be temporarily suspended and their allocated functions re allocated to cabinet ministers.
6. The 20^th amendment to the constitution to be replaced with a reconstituted 19^th amendment with appropriate changes to shift executive power vested with the President, to the Prime Minister, who will be the head of the cabinet, and a cabinet of ministers, both answerable to the Parliament. The subject of Defense and Foreign Affairs to be retained under the President with a multiparty parliamentary committee to determine policy in these two areas.
7. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to submit himself to a vote of confidence from the Parliament once above is done, and to resign if the vote of confidence is lost. The Parliament will then elect a President from amongst the Parliamentarians to serve the remainder of the outgoing Presidents term.
8. The new Prime Minister and the cabinet assesses the status relating to the current shortages, how they will address these, and their action plan to ensure a shortage free supply situation relating to essentials and issue a statement to the public giving them a truthful picture
9. A general election is held in 2 years

It is heartening to note that party leaders have already begun discussions on the 21^st Amendment and proposals have been submitted to the Speaker. In developing a final version, it is hoped that public consultations are also held to enable inputs from the many who have been part of the political revolution, especially the Galle Face protestors, who effectively conceived the need for the 21^st amendment. The mechanics for a more meaningful, explicit role should be included in the 21^st Amendment for people’s participation in policy determination.

Secondly, the 21^st Amendment should also include mechanics as to how professionals, academics and other technocrats could contribute to policy determination. If these two essential elements are not included, the 21^st amendment would only be an exercise where power is still retained with the very people who failed the country and merely a shifting of that power from one entity to another.

The current extent of protests, the numbers who participate, although understandable in the circumstances the country is in, have raised some questions and increasing concerns amongst many. There appears to be a growing concern as to how well these protests have been organized and how they have been funded.  Reports have surfaced that some people have been ferried from area to area to participate in protests. Participation of huge numbers at long distance protests are questionable at the best of times and so are sudden protests labeled as spontaneous” protests taking place in different parts of the country.

A possible scenario relevant to Sri Lanka might be an unseen hand manipulating the situation either from within or without, or both.  The question to ponder is whether there is an unseen hand operating from within or from outside choregraphing events for some purpose, even a sinister one. Of course, it is true that it is the President and the government that has provided the fodder for such an unseen hand to do what it is doing if indeed it is doing it.

Quoting Taylor Caldwell, anyone saying or doing things in the open is less formidable, for he is known and carries the banner openly. But the unseen hand will move amongst protestors freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself”.

If such an unseen hand is a local hand, another question to ponder would be about the end objective of that intrusion. It could be for good reason such as bringing about a drastic upheaval of the political system which has brought the country to a state of bankruptcy.  Dynasty politics, crony politics, involvement and influence of criminal elements including drug dealers in election outcomes, divisive politics where Sri Lankans have been pitted against each other using religion, ethnicity as tools to divide, have all contributed to the soiled political system in the country. Changing this situation through these protests is a welcome development and the protestors have managed to achieve some outcomes which would not have been possible without this revolution.

However, if the local hand has as its ultimate objective the seizer of power using these protests and introducing violence into the protests and creating a total anarchic situation where the forces of the unseen hand themselves resorts to violence to seize power, then the protests are an unwelcome and dangerous development.

If the unseen hand is from outside and it has funded their local allies to stage these protests, the ultimate objective would be an attack on the sovereignty of the country.  Such occurrences are not uncommon and is the modus operandi of some major powers in the world. Sri Lanka is a pivotal strategic location and superpower interest in the country is a known fact and not anyone’s figment of imagination.

If the protestations become rudderless now, and the country ends up in the creek without a paddle, anarchy in other words, the suspicion that an unseen hand either from within or without, or both, manipulated it to end up in that situation would acquire some credibility.

By Harsha Kumar Suriyaarachchi Movement of Citizens for Our Values

Proposals to have a corruption free government which will not disrespect the generations of values of the Sinhalese society that protected and saved this country for last 2500 years

We have seen our motherland deteriorating very seriously in economic, political and technical aspects along with the spiritual values of the society. It has come to a socially unacceptable level where the country wide public protests erupted. Fortunately and wisely, these protests in general took the peaceful path. (The acts of mobs not considered a part of genuine protestors).

Despite a few suspicious unwise attempts to create unrest and violence, the government too generally behaved quite democratically in dealing with the protestors.

However, the protests took as the major demands as stepping down of the president and the prime minister. These two demands are logically not incorrect as the president and the prime minister are not only responsible to run a corrupt free country but also are suspected to be apparently supporting and abating the corrupt elements of the country, starting from many cabinet ministers. The public, while helplessly witnessing legal institution acquitting large number of political affiliates from corruption and criminal charges, while helplessly witnessing increase of commodity prices largely owing to the unbearable corruption by the politicians and officials, finally had to behold the events of unavailability of basic commodities which was proclaimed due to lack of availability of dollars.

People however, correctly identified the corruption by politicians as the root cause for the nose-dive degradation of the country even though the society did not fully address the role of the corrupt officials who too had vastly contributed to the degradation of the country.

The next major demand thereby of the protestors is for all the members of the parliament to resign. While the resignations demanded by protestors being turned down on the grounds of several fair looking excuses like constitutional limitations, the anger towards the president, prime minister, the cabinet and all the members of parliament sky rocketed as taking parallels as inflation and price hikes of the commodities.

The government in an attempt to show that it is listening to the protestors, re-constituted the cabinet of ministers but didn’t take any step forward towards the two main demands that President and Prime minister should resign. The new cabinet though is without other Rajapakshas, who the protestors demand to resign, the majority of the new cabinet ministers too are henchmen of theirs. Thereby, it eventually will fail to deliver the intended goal which is the non-corrupt country. The reconstituted cabinet subsequently will even fail to lead the country at least to see the end of protests.

While government is showing inapt to address the poor state of the economy and the social deterioration, the protests haplessly appear to be hijacked by various elements with ulterior motives. If to group some of such and to see who are behind, it is apparent that political, racial and anticultural malicious and organized elements are handling the show.

This is a dangerous and pathetic situation from the point of view of the country, that if the protests so being run by those malicious groups succeed the country will lose its long-maintained values and even if protests failed still the country will lose her fight for a corruption free society.

Citizens of the country should realize the gravity of this grave situation immediately. The society should be informed and the government should be pressurized. Hence, we, Movement of Citizens for Our Values”, are now coming forward to reveal the reality to the Sri Lankan society and to dilute the effect of the malicious groups who would otherwise thwart the great ongoing fight against corruption, which primarily started and being proceeded by so many of honest youth.

Consequently, we would take steps to support the ongoing protests against corruption by demanding the government to take following actions.

1. Start taking steps to hold local government elections due, and hold it as soon as possible, democratically and peacefully. This will enable youth all over the country seeking justice to find their leaders locally. Such will be the only practical step forward to remove all the corrupt politicians early from holding power on this soil.
2. Pass an act immediately to adopt electorate voting system for parliamentary elections. Use the electoral map of 1978 constitution and do not waste time on delimitation drag.
3. Withdraw the talks on 13+ and pass an act to revoke the 13^th amendment, which introduced provincial council and completely abandon provincial council concept for elections.
4. Stop, and stop mass media, from maliciously attacking Sinhalese and Buddhist values and the culture of this country that prevailed for thousands of years. Remove all the gazettes or other regulations or any acts that have demeaned, discriminated or non-prioritized Sinhala or Buddhism
5. Pass an act immediately to stop the government coming to any agreement with foreign countries or foreign companies or foreign individuals that has a validity period exceeding 35 years. Thereafter, Start renegotiating with the respective parties to remedy the existing agreements which have violated the above condition.
6. Take steps to utilize the abundantly available renewable energy to fully (100%) meet the energy demand of the country including transportation. This will stop the highest drain out of foreign currency (next to corruption, of course).
7. Take steps to empower Traditional and Ayurvedic medical systems to improve the health and longevity of the people, which would also retain foreign currency immensely in the country.

Harsha Kumar Suriyaarachchi

Movement of Citizens for Our Values

චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම, LL.B., Ph.D

ජේ.ආර් මරමු!

ජේ. ආර් විසින් ඔහු අතගැසූ හැම දෙයකින්ම රට ජාතියට ගෙනාවේ විනාශයය. එහෙත් ඔහු විසින් කල එක ක්‍රියාවකින් රට දෙකඩවී යාම වැළකුණේය. එය නම් මහල්ලෙක්වූ ඔහු  රජීව් ගාන්ධි නම් කොළුගැටයා ඉදිරියේ දණ ගැසීමය. එසේ නොකරන්නට රජිව් හා ඩික්ෂිට් උතුර හා නැඟෙනහිර අල්ලාගෙන එය ප්‍රභාකරන්ට පූජා කරන්නේය. ප්‍රේමදාස හා චන්ද්‍රිකාද ප්‍රභාකරන්ට උතුර බද්දට දීමට කල යෝජනාව රටේ වාසනාවට ප්‍රභාකරන් විසින් ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කලේය. 2002 CFA, P-tom, ISGA, 1995-2000 නීලන්-ජීඑල්-ජයම්පති රට කැබලි කිරීමේ ව්‍යවස්ථා පැකේජ් ඩීල් යනාදී රනිල්ගේ හා චන්ද්‍රිකාගේ පාවාදීමේ ව්‍යායාම දෙස බලනවිට රජිව්ව රැවටීමට ජේ. ආර්  සමත්විය.  මුස්ලිම් සම්භවයක් ඇති ජේ.ආර් ඔහු කල සියළු පව් මෙසේ දණ ගැසීමෙන් සේදී ගිය බව නොදත් ජේවීපී පිරිස් ජේ.ආර් මරමු කියා පාරේ බෝක්කු වල පවා ලිව්වේය. සිංහලයාට එක රටක් ඉතිරිකර දීම එදාටත් අදටත් රටේ ප්‍රධානියාට ඇති පරම යුතුකමය. දැන් ගොඨාභය ජනාධිපති මුහුණ දී සිටින්නේද මේ අභියෝගයටය. ගෝටා ගෝ හෝම් කියන අය දැන හෝ නොදැන රට කැබලිකිරීමේ ව්‍යාපාරයට කරගසන්නන්ය.

ඥාති සංග්‍රහය

1962 කියුබන්-රුසියන් මිසයිල් අර්බුදයේදී තම කැබිනට් මණ්ඩලයේ හැම දෙනාම යුද්ධයකට යාමට යෝජනාකරද්දී ජනාධිපති ජෝන් කෙනඩිගේ සහෝදරයාවූ නීතිපති රොබට් එයට එකහෙලාම විරුද්ධව පෙනී සිටීමෙන් තුන්වන ලෝක යුද්ධයක් වැළකුණි. තම පියාගේ බලවත් ඉල්ලීම උඩ අකමැත්තෙන් වුවත් ජෝන් කෙනඩි එම තනතුරට සිය බාල සහෝදරයා පත්කිරීම <ඥාති සංග්‍රහයක්> විය. රටේ ප්‍රථම කතෝලික ජනාධිපතිවූ ඔහු එම තනතුර ස්වාධීන කර තැබීමේ සම්ප්‍රදාය හොඳින්ම දැන සිටියේය. මේ අන්දමටම මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ, ගෝඨභයට ආරක්ෂක ලේකම් තනතුර දුන්නේය. හසළක වීරයා වැනි සිය දහස් ගණනක්  රණවිරුවෝ රට බේරා ගැනීමට කල දුෂ්කර සටන වනැස යූටියුබ් මඟින් රටට පෙන්වා දුන්නේය. එහෙත් ගොඨාභය නොසිටින්නට තිස් අවුරුදු යුද්ධය නිමාකිරීමක් සිදු නොවන්නට ඉඩ තිබුණේ මහින්ද පවා යුද්ධයකට බයේ සිටි නිසාය. ඔහුව ඒ සඳහා බලෙන් පටලවා ගත්තේ ජාතික හෙළ උරුමය  හා රටේ හාමුදුරුවරුනුත්ය.

මහා මංගල සූත්‍රයේ ඥාති සංග්‍රය ගැන සඳහන්වේ. එහෙත් අනිත් සෑම සංසිද්ධියක් මෙන් මෙයද  මධ්‍යම ප්‍රතිපදාව (රීසනබල්නස්) නමැති රීතියට, ධර්මතාවයට යටත්ය. අයිස්ක්‍රීම් කෑමේ වුවද සීමාව ඉක්මවා ගියොත් අනිසි විපාක හටගනී. නැපෝලියන් බොනපාට් කිසිවෙකුගේ උදව්වක් නැතිව ස්වෝත්සාහයෙන් ඉහළට ආ කෙනෙක් විය. එහෙත් ඔහු අධිරාජයාවූ විට ඔහුගේ නංගිලාගේ ස්වාමිපුරුෂයින්ට අල්ලාගත් රටවල් භාරදුන්නේ ඔවුන්ගේ සුදුසු නුසුදුසු කම නොසළකාය! ඥාතියෙකු පත්කිරීමෙන් ලැබෙන වාසියට වඩා අවාසිය රාජ්‍යපාලනයේදී සැලකිය යුතුමය.

බහුභූත ව්‍යවස්ථාව

නිකම්ම විශ්‍රාම යාමට සිටි සරත් ෆොන්සේකාව යුද්ධයට හවුල් කර ගත්තේ ගෝඨාභය විසින්ය. සරත් කලේ ලලිත් ඇතුලත්මුදලිගේ ප්ලෑන ක්‍රියාවට නැංවීමය. ඉවසීමක් නැතිකම හා රොබට් බ්ලේක්ගේ ලණුවක් කෑමෙන් සරත් රටට කල අද්විතීය සේවය කිලිටිකර ගත්තේය. ඊට පෙර ඔහු බුද්ධගයාවට ගියවිට එහි සිටි සිංහල වන්දනාකරුවන් ඔහුට වැන්දේය. මෙවැනි භක්ති ප්‍රණාමයක්, ගරු, අතිගරු යයි නමට කලින් කියවාගන්නා දේශපාලකයින්ට සිංහල ජනතාවගෙන් ලැබුණේ නැත. මේ නිසා ජේ.ආර්ට මෙන්ම තම පව් සෝදාගැනීමේ අවස්ථාවක් සරත්ට දැන් ලැබී තිබේ. ඔහු විසින් කලයුතු  රට කැබලි කිරීමට ක්‍රියාකරණ දේශපාලකයින්ගෙන් ගැලවී, පලිගැනීමේ මනසින් මිදී ගෝඨාභය සමඟ සිස්ටම් චේන්ජ් එකක් සඳහා එකතුවීමය. සරත් වීරසේකර සමඟ රට වෙනුවෙන් මිත්‍රවීමය.

මෙවැනි සිස්ටම් චේන්ජ් එකක් සඳහා සිදුවිය යුතු ප්‍රථම කරුණ නම් මහින්ද අගමැති ඉන් ඉවත්වී උපදේශකයෙක් වශයෙන් ක්‍රියාකිරීමය. මහින්දට, ගෝඨාභය විසින් පෙරලා දිය හැකි ලොකුම ඥාති සංග්‍රහය නම් ඔහුව විශ්‍රාම යාමට කැමතිකරවා ගැනීමය.  එය ජේ.ආර් රජිව් ඉදිරියේ දණ ගැසුවා මෙන් රටේ යහපත උදෙසා ගන්නා තීරණයකි. එය අෂ්ට ලෝක ධර්මය පිළිගැනීමකි. නාසි උවදුර ගැන කාලයක් තිස්සේ කතාකල වින්ස්ටන් චර්චිල්ට අගමැතිකම ලැබුණේ මහළු වියේදීය. ඔහු රටත් යුරෝපයත් බේරාගත්තත් ඊළඟ මැතිවරණයෙන් පරාජය විය. එහෙත් පසුව නැවතත් ඔහු අගමැති විය!

මෙම මූලික පියවර නොගෙන පොහොට්ටු පාලනයට විරුද්ධව නැඟෙන සාධාරණ විරෝධයට හා එය දඩමීමා කරගෙන යටින් ක්‍රියාත්මකවන දේශීය හා විදේශීය හතුරන්ට හා කඩාකප්පල් කාරීන්ට සාර්ථක ලෙස මුහුණ දීමට නොහැකි වන්නේය.

චන්ද්‍රිකා විසින් ජේ. ආර්ගේ 1978 ව්‍යවස්ථාව බහුභූතයක් යයි කිව්වත්, එහි නියම අර්ථයක් දැන සිටියේ නැත. හයෙන් පහක මන්ත්‍රී බලයක් තිබියදීත් ජේ. ආර් මන්ත්‍රීලාගෙන් දින රහිත ඉල්ලා අස්වීමේ ලිපියකට අත්සන් ගත්තේ, ජේ. ආර්ගේ ඒකාධිපති තනතුර පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ එක මන්ත්‍රීකෙනෙකුගේ චන්දයෙන් දණගැස්විය හැකිබව ඔහුට පෙනීගිය විටය. අද ඇති 113 නොම්මරයේ රහස එයය. චෙල්වනායගම්ගේ බෑණාවූ  විල්සන් ජේ ආර්ගේ ව්‍යවස්ථාව හදන්නට උපදෙස් දුන්නත් නැතත් ඔහු එය වර්ණනා කලේය. එහෙත් එය රටට හානිකරවූයේ ජනාධිපති මන්ත්‍රී හිඟමනේ යායුතු කෙනෙක් බවට පත්වීම නිසාය. මෙවැනි අකරතැබ්බයක් කලින්ම හෝ ප්‍රමාදව සිදුවන බව ජේ ආර්ගේ විශ්වාසය දිනාගත් ඔහු දැන සිටියේ නැද්ද?  පගාවදී හෝ මන්ත්‍රීන් එකතුකර ගැනීම ඉන් ආරම්භවිය. ප්‍රේමදාස විසින් අවශ්‍ය මනාප සංඛ්‍යාව සියේට 12 සිට සියේට පහට අඩුකිරීම නිසා සිදුවූයේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සුළු ජනවර්ග වලට අසාධාරණ බලයක් ලැබීමය. යහපාලන කාලයේදී  රිෂාඩ්ට ආයතන 50 ක් පමණ සහිත අමාත්‍යාංශයක් සදාදීමට සිදුවූයේ ඒ නිසාය.

ගෝල්පේස් මහජන විස්ව විද්දාලය

සිරස පැතිකඩේ ඩයස් විසින් ජයදේව උයන්ගොඩ ගෝල්පේස් ඒම ප්‍රචාරය කිරීම සිස්ටම් චෙන්ජ් කතාව ඇත්ත්වශයෙන්ම රෙජීම් චෙන්ජ් ප්ලෑනක්  නොවේද යන්න නැවතත් මතුකරයි. උයන්ගොඩ ගෝල්පේස් ආවේ උගන්වන්නට නොව <ගෝල්පේස් මහජන විස්ව විද්දාල යෙන්> ඉගෙන ගන්නට යයි කියයි. මන්ත්‍රීලා ඊළඟ චන්දයට කලින් පෙත්සම් මඟින් ඉවත් කිරීම බොහෝ රටවල සිදුවන සාමාන්‍ය දෙයකි. මෙය ගෝල්පේස් තරුණයින් විසින් සොයාගත් වික්‍රමයක්සේ උයන්ගොඩ හුවා දක්වයි. 1971 දී මෙන් දැන් 2022 දීද මේ උයන්ගොඩ රටේ සිංහල බෞද්ධ උරුමයට හතුරුකම් කරණ මාක්ස්වාදියෙක්මය. යහපාලනකාලයේදී රනිල් ඔහුව ඔවුන්ගේ බොරු ව්‍යවස්ථාදායක සභාවටද පත්කරන්නට සැදුවේය. ඔහු 1995-2000 චන්ද්‍රිකාගේ රට කැඩීමේ ව්‍යවස්ථා වලට නීලන් තිරුචෙල්වම් හා දැන් රටින් පැනගොස් සිටින ඔරුමිත්තනාඩු ජරමරය සැදූ ජයම්පති වික්‍රමරත්න නමැති මාක්ස්වාදියා සමඟ ක්‍රියාකලේය.

අරගලය සමඟ නිදාගැනීම

වික්ටර් අයිවන්ට තිබුණු ප්‍රශ්ණය නම් අරගලයට නායකයෙක් නැතිකමය. සේපාල් අමරසිංහ ජේවීපීකාරයින්ට උපදෙස් දෙන්නේ ගෝල්පේස් අරගලයට  එකතුවන ලෙසය. කන්‍යා භාවයත් රැකගෙන දරුවෙකුට උපතක් දිය නොහැකියයි ඔහු කියයි. වැට උඩ ඉඳගෙන ලබාගත් ජයග්‍රහණ නැතයි ඔහු කියයි. උයන්ගොඩගේ ගෝල්පේස් ආගමනය මොවුන්ට ප්‍රශ්ණයක් වන්නේ නායකයෙක් අවශ්‍යම නැතැයි ඔහු දේශනා කරණ නිසාය. ඒ අතරේ සන්නස්ගල තරුණ-තරුණියන් හතර දෙනෙක් ඔහුගේ ගෙදරට ගෙන්වා ගෙන සංඝ සංස්ථාවට පහර දෙන්නේ හිරේ යාමට පෙර රන්ජන් රාමනායක හසුරුණු ආකාරය සිහිපත් කරවමින්ය. නායකයෙක් නැතිකමත්, නායකයින් බහුලවීමත් යන දෙකම අයෝග්‍ය බව බුදු දහමේ කියැවේ. දැන් තිබෙන්නේ වික්ටර් අයිවන්, සේපාල්, නාගානන්ද, සුදත්ත, සන්නස්ගල, උයන්ගොඩ යන අය නායාචාරීන් ලෙස හොට දැමීමේ කණගාටුදායක ප්‍රවනතාවයකි. සිදුවිය යුත්තේ මෙය නොවේ. බෞද්ධ මධ්‍යම ප්‍රතිපදාව, බෞද්ධ ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය අනුගමණය කිරීමය.

අවංක තරුණ පිරිස් දැනුවත් කිරීමේ හා බලවත් කිරීමේ වගකීම

ගෝල්පේස් තරුණ පිරිසේ අරගලය ඔවුන් දැන හෝ නොදැන රට කැඩීමේ හෝ රටේ සිංහල බෞද්ධ ශිෂ්ටාචාරය විනාශ කිරීමේ  ව්‍යාපාරය සඳහා යොදවා ගැනීමට ඉඩ නොදිය හැකි වන්නේ ඔවුන්ට ඇති දැණුම, දැක්ම හා ජීවිත අත්දැකීම් සම්භාරයේ ප්‍රමාණය හා ගුණාත්මකභාවය මතය (quantity and quality of the information available). ඔවුන් විසින් ඇසිය යුතු ප්‍රශ්ණ රාශියකි.

1. ආණ්ඩුව විසින් සාකච්චාවට එන්නැයි ආරාධනා කලවිට එයට සහභාගී නොවීමට ඇති සාධාරණ හේතු මොනවාද? එසේ යාමෙන් අරගලයට සිදුවිය හැකි හානිය කුමක්ද? අරගලකරුවන් තමන්ද එක්තරා අන්දමේ වෘත්තීය සමිතියක් යයි සිතනවාද?
2. සිස්ටම් චේන්ජ් සම්බන්ධයෙන් හා රටේ නොයෙක් ප්‍රශ්ණ සඳහා විසඳුම් ඉදිරිපත්කර ඇති පක්ෂ දේශපාලනයට සම්බන්ධ නැති වියතුන් සමඟ සාකච්චාකර උපදෙස් ලබා නොගන්නේ මන්ද? උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් දෙරණ අළුත් පාර්ලිමේන්තු වැඩ සටහනේ අලුත් මාවත යනුවෙන් අප්‍රේල් 20 දා සහභාගීවූ වියතුන් හතර දෙනා හමුවීමට තරුණයින් කණ්ඩායමක් නොයන්නේ ඇයි?
3. ඉහත අංක 2 හා  අනුව යමින්ම සිතන විට, රටේ නමගිය සිංහල බෞද්ධ විරෝධීන්, මාක්ස්වාදීන් මිස වෙනත් ස්වාධීන මතධාරීන් ගෝල්පේස් එන්නේ නැත්තේ ඇයිදැයි ඔබලා සිතා බලනවාද? ඔවුන්ට ආරාධනා කිරීම ඔබලාගේ යුතුකම බව නොතේරෙන තරමට ඔබලා ලාමකද?
4. සිස්ටම් චේන්ජ් එක ගොඨාභය ජනාධිපති හරහාම කරගත නොහැකියයි ඔබලා සිතන්නේ කුමක් නිසාද? අරාබි රටවල් හා ලංකාවේ බෞද්ධ සමාජ ක්‍රමය අතර වෙනසක් ඇති බව ඔබලා නොදන්නේ ඔබලා අතර සිටින්නේ ඉරිදා දහම් පාසැලකට නොගිය, රටේ ඉතිහාසය හා භූගෝල ව්ද්‍යාව නොදන්නා පිරිසක්වීම නිසාද?
5. කැත්තට පොල්ල වගේ නොසිට කල නොහැකි අසාධාරණ කොන්දේසි වෙනුවට වැඩේ කෙරෙන විධියක් සෙවීම ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය නොවේද? උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් ඔබලා ඉල්ලා සිටිය යුතු අගමැති ඉවත්විය යුතුය යන්න මිස ගොටා ගෝ හෝම් නොවිය යුතුය. සිස්ටම් චෙන්ජ් එකේ ආරම්භයේ මුල් පියවර එයය.
6. ගෝටා ගෝ හෝම්  කීම හරිගියොත් ඉන්පසු ඔබලා රටට කරණ දේ ගැන ඔබලාගේ සැළැස්ම කුමක්ද? එසේ නැත්නම් ඔබලාත් 1971 හා 1988/89 පිරිසත් අතර වෙනසක් මට නොපෙනේ. එම ක්‍රමෝපාය රටට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීම දැන් ගෝල්පේස්වල කෙරීගෙන යන සංදර්ශන වලට වඩා වැදගත් නොවේයයි ඔබලාට සිතෙන්නේ නැද්ද?
7. පක්ෂ දේශපාලකයින් විසින් 1948 සිට කොල, නිල්, රතු යනාදී වශයෙන් රට වැසියා ගම් මට්ටමේ සිටම බෙදා පාලනය කලේ සුද්දන් 1948 ට කලින් කලාටත් වඩා කැත ලෙසටය. මිනිසුන් දේශපාලකයින්ගේ හිඟන්නන් බවට පත් කලේය. ජනාධිපති කාර්යාලයේ සිට ග්‍රාම සේවා නිලධාරී  දක්වාම පැතිරීගිය දුෂ්ඨ ත්‍රිකෝණ වලින් රට විනාශවී ගියේය. ඩී.එස්ගේ සිට මහින්ද දක්වා නායකයෝ වංක, රටට වඩා තම ආත්මලාභය ගැන සිතූ අය විය. මෙවැනි කාරණා ඔබලා දැනගතයුතු වන්නේ එවිට ඔබලා ගෝටා ගෝ හෝම් යන්නේ තේරුමක් නැතිබව වටහා ගන්නා බව නිසැක නිසාය.
8. බුදු දහම ආශ්‍රයෙන් ඔය සිස්ටම් චෙන්ජ් එක කරගත හැකි බව ඔබලා දන්නවාද?

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ නායකත්වයෙන් යුතුව ආණ්ඩුව ශක්තිමත්ව පවත්වාගෙන යෑමේ යෝජනාව පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ කමිටු කාමර අංක එකේ අද (21) පස්වරුවේ රැස්වූ ආණ්ඩු පක්ෂ මන්ත්‍රී කණ්ඩායම් රැස්වීමේදී ඒකමතිකව සම්මත විය.

රටේ උද්ගතව ඇති තත්ත්වය හමුවේ ආණ්ඩුව ඊට ශක්තිමත්ව මුහුණ දිය යුතු බවත් ඒ සඳහා අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ නායකත්වයෙන් යුතුව ආණ්ඩුව ඉදිරියටත් පවත්වාගෙන යායුතු බවත් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී සහන් ප්‍රදීප් මහතා මෙම රැස්වීමේ දී යෝජනා කළේය.

සියලුම මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් ඉහළට අත් ඔසවමින් එම යෝජනාවට ඒකමතිකව සහය පළ කළ අතර පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී යූ.කේ.සුමිත් මහතා එම යෝජනාව ස්ථිර කළේය.

ඉදිරි සති කිහිපය තුළ ජනතාවට අවශ්‍ය කඩිනම් සහන ලබා දීම සඳහා ගෙන ඇති ක්‍රියාමාර්ග මෙහිදී විෂය භාර අමාත්‍යවරු විසින් පැහැදිලි කරනු ලැබූහ.

මෙහිදී අදහස් දැක්වූ විදුලිබල හා බලශක්ති අමාත්‍ය කංචන විජේසේකර මහතා පැවසුවේ සති කිහිපයක් ඇතුළත ඉන්ධන සහ විදුලි කප්පාදු ප්‍රශ්නය විසඳීමට අවශ්‍ය පියවර ගෙන ඇති බවය. ගෑස් ගැටළුවද සති කිහිපයක් ඇතුළත විසඳිය හැකි බව අධ්‍යාපන හා වැවිලි කර්මාන්ත අමාත්‍ය රමේෂ් පතිරණ මහතා මෙහිදී කියා සිටියේය.

උද්ගත වූ තත්ත්වයත් සමඟ පක්ෂයේ ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ  මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් අමාත්‍යධුර  වලින් ඉවත්ව ලබා දුන් සහයෝගයට පක්ෂයේ සියලු මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්ගේ ස්තූතිය මෙහිදී පිරිනැමිණි.

නවක අමාත්‍යවරුන්ට ශක්තිමත්ව ඉදිරි කටයුතු කරගෙන යෑමට අවශ්‍යය සහයෝගය ලබාදෙන බවට මන්ත්‍රීවරු මෙහිදී පැවසූහ.

ආණ්ඩුව අස්ථාවර බවට ගෙන යන වැරදි ප්‍රචාර තුළින් ජනතාව ආණ්ඩුව කෙරෙහි තැබූ විශ්වාසය බිඳ දැමීමට යම් යම් පිරිස් කටයුතු කරගෙන යන බවද ආණ්ඩුව අස්ථාවර වීමට පක්ෂයේ මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් ලෙස කිසිසේත් ඉඩ නොතබන බවද ආණ්ඩු පක්ෂ මන්ත්‍රීවරු මෙහිදී අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමාට විශ්වාසය පළ කළහ.

ආණ්ඩුව ශක්තිමත් කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය සහයෝගය ඉදිරියේදී තවත් ඉහළ යනු ඇතැයි මන්ත්‍රීවරු මෙහිදී ප්‍රකාශ කළහ.

මෙම අවස්ථාවට සභානායක අමාත්‍ය දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන, ආණ්ඩු පක්ෂයේ ප්‍රධාන සංවිධායක අමාත්‍ය ප්‍රසන්න රණතුංග, හිටපු අමාත්‍ය බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ මහත්වරු සහ ආණ්ඩු පක්ෂය නියෝජනය කරන මැති ඇමතිවරුන්, පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සභානායක ලේකම් හර්ෂ විජේවර්ධන, ආණ්ඩු පක්ෂ ප්‍රධාන සංවිධායක ලේකම් චමින්ද කුලරත්න, අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය පාර්ලිමේන්තු කටයුතු සම්බන්ධිකරණ ලේකම් ප්‍රියන්ත රත්නායක මහත්වරු ඇතුළු පිරිසක් සහභාගී වුහ.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

ආර්ථික හා සමාජීය සංවර්ධනයේ ස්ථාවරත්වය සඳහා චීනයේ සහාය ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ලබා දෙන බවට අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා සමඟ අද (22) පැවති දුරකථන සංවාදයකදී චීන අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ලී කෙකියැන්ග් (Li Keqiang) මහතා සහතික විය.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව දැනට මුහුණ දෙන දුෂ්කරතා සහ අභියෝග පිළිබඳව චීනයට අවබෝධයක් ඇති බවත් ශ්‍රී ලංකා ජනතාවගේ ජීවනෝපාය වැඩිදියුණු කිරීම සඳහා අප උපරිමයෙන් කටයුතු කරන බවත්” චීන අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ලී කෙකියැන්ග් මහතා අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට පැවසීය.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව දැනට මුහුණ දී සිටින හදිසි මූල්‍ය ගැටලු කිහිපයක් විසඳීමට චීනය ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජය සමඟ එක්ව කටයුතු කරන බවට ද චීන අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා මෙහි දී සහතික විය.

නිදහස් වෙළඳ ගිවිසුම පිළිබඳව කඩිනමින් සාකච්ඡා පැවැත්වීම, මෙරට වෙළඳ හිඟය අවම කිරීම සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට වැඩි වශයෙන් චීන සංචාරකයින්  ආකර්ෂණය කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ද දෙරටේ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරුන් අතර පැවති මෙම දුරකථන සංවාදයේදී සාකච්ඡාවට ලක්විය.

දෙරට අතර මිත්‍රත්වය අඛණ්ඩව පවත්වාගෙන යමින් පවතින සබඳතාව ප්‍රවර්ධනය කිරීම සඳහා ඉදිරියටත් අපි එක්ව වැඩ කරනවා” යැයි චීන අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා මෙහිදී පැවසීය.

 මේ මොහොතේ ඔබ මුහුණ දෙන දුෂ්කරතා පිළිබඳව අපට හැඟීමක් තිබෙනවා. එම දුෂ්කරතා මගහැරීම වෙනුවෙන්ද අපි එක්ව කටුයතු කරන්නෙමු”යැයි චීන අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ලී කෙකියැන්ග් මහතා  මෙහිදී කියා  සිටියේය.

චීන රජය විසින් මෑතකදී ප්‍රකාශයට පත්කළ මෙරට වෙනුවෙන් පිරිනමන මානුෂීය ආධාර සහ අඛණ්ඩ සහයෝගීතාව වෙනුවෙන් අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා මෙහිදී චීන රජයට සිය ස්තූතිය පුද කළේය.

Jubeda Chowdhury

The United States recently released a report on the human rights situation on 198 countries in 2021. The country’s state department made various allegations of human rights violations against Bangladesh.

The US State Department’s annual global report on human rights was launched on April 13, 2022, by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

In Bangladesh, there have been claims of widespread impunity for security force abuses and corruption, according to the report.

According to the 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Bangladesh report, “significant human rights issues included credible reports of unlawful or arbitrary killings, including extrajudicial killings; forced disappearance; torture or cases of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by the government or its agents on behalf of the government.”

Rejecting the report, the state minister, Shahriar Alam has already said in a briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs last Sunday. Shahriar Alam said the report was given without verifying the information. The US ambassador to Dhaka will be summoned for this.

In an official response, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs said that the US report is far from the reality of Bangladesh. The state minister also claimed that information was taken from weak sources in making it. He said that in Bangladesh, there are issues that are far from reality, which we are excluding from outside. Which Bangladesh will never be able to entertain? Especially the rights issues of homosexuals that have been mentioned. There is a big problem with the quality of research that has been used. The sources from which the information was taken are weak. It is a clear political agenda.

The state minister said the United States needed to hold talks with Bangladesh before releasing the report. The information mentioned in the US report will be verified by the concerned ministry and the US ambassador will be summoned in this regard. “We hoped they would share the matter with us first,” he said. It also falls within a rule. We have decided that we will talk to the United States about every issue. Shahriar Alam said the government does not expect anyone else to interfere in the internal affairs of Bangladesh.

“The government took little means to investigate and prosecute cases of corruption, abuse, and murders by security officers,” according to the report.

Bangladesh’s government said on April 17, 2022, that the United States’ human rights country report “heavily underplayed” Bangladesh’s existing system of accountability over law enforcement agencies, while Dhaka remains “intensely engaged” with the UN mechanism and US recommendations to protect human rights.

The report appears to urge the creation of a lawless society in order to destabilize society and the government,” the foreign ministry stated in a statement. It goes on to say that the Bangladeshi legal system forbids killing by indiscriminate use of firearms.

Md Shahriar Alam, State Minister for Foreign Affairs, stated that the government will seek an explanation from the United States noting that there are fundamental flaws in the report.

There are many limits of the reports published by the US state department. The report is based on the results of various non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the majority of which are supported by donors. They do not fund such programs out of their own pockets. Because these NGOs, particularly those in Western countries, are supported by donors, they feel compelled to collect negative news, fearing that if there is just positive news, their financing will be cut off. Politics may or may not play a factor in this.

They are naturally loyal to whichever country provides the funds because they are supported by donors. Even large NGOs rely on donations, and they struggle if they do not receive the funds they require. During the pandemic, this is exactly what happened. During the pandemic, NGOs were largely inactive. Because the western world was also hurting from the pandemic’s consequences, the NGOs were unable to contribute much funding. In this sense, there is a constraint.

The US, like Bangladesh, did not delegate this obligation to the UN. Who entrusted them with the task of compiling reports about other countries? What is the law in this regard? It is their own set of rules. Is this report credible in the eyes of the world community? No country, neither Bangladesh, India, or China, has entrusted them with this task.

Whatever they are doing may be logical, but it would have been great if they had done so after consulting Bangladesh. By making and publishing the reports, The US always tries to interfere into some internal affairs of other countries. Human rights are a universally accepted term. Bangladesh is also working to promote human rights, law, peace and harmony in the country. Bangladesh has own human rights commission. The legal codes of Bangladesh ensure the protection of human rights in Bangladesh.

Because we have a strategic engagement with them, they may have brought this up during those meetings. Bangladeshis must also be informed about human rights violations in the United States, or this endeavor will lose credibility. There are numerous examples of human rights violations in the United States.

Extrajudicial killings are committed by US police. In the United States, roughly 1,000 such occurrences occur each year on average. In addition, there was the Black Lives Matter movement. In fact, not only Bangladeshi students, students from the whole Indian subcontinent face hate crimes. Let’s talk about the human rights situation in the USA. recent 918 people have been shot and killed by police in the USA in the past year. This isn’t my data. This is the data of the ‘Washington Post.’ Protests over the 2020 Black Lives Matter, revived by the extrajudicial killing of George Floyd by three Minneapolis police officers, indicate the largest protest movement in U.S. history. The US should look at the human rights situation in its territory first.

On February 26 this year, UN human rights experts called on the US government to end police torture and racial discrimination in the United States. According to reports of Western media outlets such as The Guardian, BBC, there are serious violations of human rights in the USA. Shouldn’t US loot at the human rights situation in its territory first?

The constitution of People’s Republic of Bangladesh clearly spells out the fundamental principles of state policy. The Constitution explicitly articulates the protection and promotion of human rights (art. 11). It obliges all branches of government to respect and ensure the rights it enunciates.

There are might have some separate incidents but Bangladesh Police aims to enhance the capacity and willingness of all its members to contribute in a collaborative manner to the creation of a safer and securer environment based on respect for human rights, equitable access to justice, and rule of law in accordance with the spirit of our constitution and the principles of the universal human rights. It is true that there might have some separate incidents but the US authority shouldn’t evaluate the whole scenario by a single framework. In the case of Bangladesh, Security forces may fire several times to save lives when terrorists fire their weapons. There might have been some separatist incidents.

We (Bangladeshi citizens) shouldn’t spark any new controversy and worry based on this recent human rights. US-Bangladesh bilateral relations wouldn’t affect. We have recently had the US-Bangladesh Partnership Dialogue where we discussed several important topics ranging from military cooperation. condition based on This is not the first time the US has produced a study like this in recent years. There isn’t much of a difference between those and the latest report. It is the natural habit of the US to make such kind reports every year.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The government leaders have been chest-thumping over the dictatorial powers awarded to the President through the 20th Amendment to the Constitution adopted in October 2020 and its two-thirds majority in Parliament gained at the general election held in August 2020

The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) government is no longer a strong government, despite it commanding a simple majority in Parliament. One cannot give an assurance of even its simple majority which is 113 seats in the House being intact if a secret ballot was taken over any issue. Irrespective of its numerical strength, the confession-like statements by leaders of the government, especially President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, are a clear manifestation of the weakness of the government.   

The government leaders have been chest-thumping over the dictatorial powers awarded to the President through the 20th Amendment to the Constitution adopted in October 2020 and its two-thirds majority in Parliament gained at the general election held in August 2020. They were so arrogant that they openly facilitated some traders to plunder more than Rs. 15 billion by offering them a huge tax cut for sugar imports. They insulted the very constituent parties of the government and the senior members of the previous Rajapaksa government with their public statements and step-motherly treatment.   

However, with the exposure of the government’s failure to offer solutions to the current unprecedented economic crisis and the mass agitations across the country against those failures, they have lost their moral high ground and stooped to make public confessions and offering to give up their dictatorial powers.   

It was not with the understanding that an interim Cabinet comprising members of all parties in Parliament would help solve the current economic issues that the President got his ministers except for the Prime Minister resigned on April 3 and called on the other parties to nominate members to such an interim Cabinet. It was sheer desperation in the face of his government’s failure to maintain the smooth supply of essential items including cooking gas and electricity and mounting protests by the masses without any political affiliation.   

Against the backdrop of the Opposition parties and the groups that have left the government having rejected the President’s offer, he now has appointed a Cabinet of ministers comprising relatively younger members of his party. This, sometimes, prompted some of the older members who lost portfolios to join the bandwagon that has already left the government to declare that they act as an independent group in Parliament. If that happens, the government might lose even the simple majority in Parliament. And it reminds us of a similar situation where 12 senior ministers joined the Opposition after they lost their portfolios when President Chandrika Kumaratunga formed the so-called Parivasa government” with only 25 ministers in 2001.

However, here too, the President was not sure that a Cabinet with younger members would help solve the economic problems or appease the countrywide agitators. It was another desperate action and an indication of the susceptibility of the government.   

During his address to the new ministers, the President admitted that his decision to ban chemical fertiliser and other agrochemical imports in May last year was faulty and the government should have sought assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) much earlier to ease the foreign exchange crisis.   

It is not clear if the President in fact made these confessions with the realisation of the facts on the ground or was just attempting to pacify the masses who are frustrated to the core by the economic issues they are facing day in and day out. He, even after the destruction of crops during the last Yala and Maha seasons due to the dearth of fertiliser, took a swipe at the Opposition recently for the agitations across the country by the farmers. Given the arrogance in that stance, the latest confession indicates that the numerical strength of the government and the dictatorial powers of the executive Presidency is a far cry from the real strength of the government, in the face of public agitations.   

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa called the protestors for discussion days ago, but they rejected the offer through social media. Then he made a public statement with a veiled threat of a bloodbath, which was also ignored. On Tuesday, he told Parliament that the government is prepared to bring in the 19th Amendment to the Constitution back with suitable amendments. It was under his leadership that the democratic institutions that somewhat contained the dictatorial powers of the executive Presidency were scrapped twice, not once. When the same person prefers the same institutions all of a sudden, it cannot be out of love for democracy, but a manifestation of desperation or an attempt to hoodwink the masses.   

It is against this backdrop one has to think about the way out. There is no solution in sight to the immediate economic issues that affect the ordinary people, as the foreign exchange crisis is to worsen in the forthcoming months, increasing fuel prices hikes in several rounds. That would correspondingly create further huge jumps in prices of essential items, deepening the political crisis. Public agitations in line with the current protest at the Galle Face Green in front of the Presidential Secretariat might spread.   

Contrary to many calling the Galle Face Green protest apolitical, it is in fact a political protest with the strongest political demand, Gota go home.” In spite of it being one that was called by mutually unrelated social media activists, the discipline and the orderliness at the site is incredible. There seems to be a permanent group with strong political will who kept the tempo intact during the late-night hours when many people leave the place and during the festive days of Sinhala and Tamil New Year.

What if Gota goes home?” It seems to be no way within the Constitution to elect an untainted person to fill the vacancy. Also, one cannot see or foresee any ‘out of the Constitution solution,’ until such an eventuality happens.   
Once Gota goes home,” Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa will immediately take over the reins until parliament elects a new President from among its members within a month. Most probably, if things flow smoothly, a member of the SLPP or the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) or the solitary member of the UNP, Ranil Wickremesinghe would be elected. All these groups have been in power and proven to be corrupt to the core. The possibility of a member of not corrupt or least corrupt Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) being elected is a remote reality. Then, the efforts and sacrifices of the masses that agitated for an untainted leader would go down the drain. 

 
If the protestors decide to heighten the pressure on the government using the current susceptibility of it to bring back the democratic institutions, as the Prime Minister has suggested, that would at least be an achievement for the moment. That was how the JVP used the situation to bring in the 17th Amendment in 2001. Yet, it would not be a solution to the immediate burning economic issues. Even an untainted leader would take a long time to bring in the serenity on the ground. 

CNA

Ayres Investment Management LLP, DecisionBoundaries LLC and Perella Weinberg LP are among firms seeking to provide financial advice to Sri Lanka’s creditors, sources said, as the country heads towards a revamp of its $12 billion of external debt.

Some bondholders are weighing their options after the South Asian island nation unilaterally suspended external debt payments ten days ago, four sources familiar with the situation said, asking not to be named because talks are private.

The move comes as the government faces ongoing street protests over fuel, food and medicines shortage. With little foreign currency, the crisis-hit nation of 22 million people has also asked for emergency aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and bilateral lenders, such as China and India.

Asset managers BlackRock Inc. and Ashmore Group Plc. are among the creditors organizing in a group ahead of the talks, and have hired law firm White & Case for advice.

Recent filings show major asset managers such as Fidelity, T Rowe Price and TIAA also hold some of the country’s outstanding dollar bonds.

The creditor group hasn’t decided which financial adviser to hire, said one creditor who is part of the group. Another source close to the situation said it was not yet clear on whether the group would hire one at all.

A debt restructuring would be the first for Sri Lanka, facing its worst economic crisis in decades.

The government, which has recently appointed Ali Sabry as finance minister, is also in talks with multiple firms to hire both financial and legal advisers.

The country’s 2025, 2026 and 2027 bonds are all trading at distressed levels of just over 40 cents in the dollar and close to all time lows hit in early March, Tradeweb data showed.,,.

The premium demanded by investors to hold the country’s debt over safe haven U.S. Treasuries has widened to 3,228 basis points – the highest since mid-March, the JPMorgan EMBIG Global Diversified index showed.

Courtesy Business Standard

India has extended the duration of the $400-million currency swap facility which had been concluded with the island nation in January.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Visiting Israeli film crew at Bandaranaike International Airport with Frames TV & Film Productions and Sri Lanka Tourism officials

• Feature film is expected to be screened in Israel and over 50 countries across Europe  
• UCM, Sri Lanka Tourism and Frames TV & Film Productions to co-produce film
• SLTPB says project is a great opportunity to promote destination SL and mitigate ‘current negative publicity’ towards country

Israeli film production house United Channel Movies (UCM) is currently in Sri Lanka to shoot its latest feature film ‘Arugam Bay’ in the eastern region of the island nation.  

The filming will start on May 3 and is expected to wrap up by May 22, the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau (SLTPB) said in a statement to the media yesterday.

The main filming will be taking place in Arugam Bay, Colombo as well as in Tel Aviv – Israel.  This film is expected to be screened in Israel and over 50 countries across Europe.

I have been travelling to Sri Lanka for over 15 years and it is like a second home to me. The current situation facing Sri Lanka did not stop my return to the island and undertaking this film.  We are happy to be back in Sri Lanka and I’m confident this film ‘Arugam Bay’ will gain greater success,” said Film Director Marco Camal while sharing his thoughts on filming in Sri Lanka.

While creating a greater promotion for the destination of Sri Lanka as well as the Eastern province as an unforgettable beach destination, with many adventure and leisure activities, the SLTPB said the Arugam Bay project expects to generate foreign revenue for the country’s economy. 

The statement highlighted that the project is a great opportunity for Sri Lankan international film industry as well as for the inbound film tourism industry.  

The film is about a young Israeli group travelling to Sri Lanka for surfing and life experiences. The film will also highlight the warm hospitality of Sri Lankan and the genuine love and care offered to foreigners in general, the SLTPB said.

Sri Lanka-based international film production company Frames TV & Film Productions will be joining hands with UCM Productions, Israel Film Commission and Sri Lanka Tourism to produce the film.

Sri Lanka Tourism and the partnering organisations expressed confidence in the popularity generated via this film helping to mitigate the ‘current negative publicity’ towards Sri Lanka and inspire more international productions to select the island nation as the most preferred tropical film destination. 

The SLTPB said it supported the destination promotional film production as part of the ongoing International Film Tourism Promotions and expects to further promote the island as one of the leading film location destinations in South Asia.

Courtesy https://www.reuters.com/

GALLE, Sri Lanka, April 22 (Reuters) – With its ancient fort and sandy beaches, the city of Galle on Sri Lanka’s southern coast should be awash with holidaymakers at this time of year.

Instead, another power cut has plunged the city into darkness, and the historic quarter lies mostly deserted except for a lone tourist using a flashlight to find his way along the pitch black street.

As Sri Lanka sinks deeper into its worst economic crisis since independence, hopes in Galle that it could once more become the booming tourist destination it was before COVID-19 halted global travel in 2020 have been dashed.

Power cuts and essential food shortages have hit the island nation hard for weeks, drawing out protesters onto the streets and putting President Gotabaya Rajapaksa under mounting pressure to resign. On Tuesday, one person died in a protest, the first fatality since the demonstrations began last month. read more

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An officer wearing protective gear walks inside the airport as Sri Lanka’s government scheduled to reopen the country’s airports for tourists from January 21, 2021, as they were closed since March 2020 due to spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at Bandaranaike International Airport in Katunayake, Sri Lanka January 20, 2021. REUTERS/Dinuka LiyanawatteRead More

Tourism earned Sri Lanka $4.4 billion and contributed 5.6% to GDP in 2018, but this dropped to just 0.8% in 2020. However, arrivals topped 100,000 in March for the first time in two years, Sri Lanka’s tourism office said. Overall tourism numbers are higher than they were in 2021, marking what many thought would be a pandemic revival.

“People are protesting. Roads are blocked. (Tourists)…need to travel and they need fuel for that and they can’t wait in the queues,” said Samitha, who gave only one name and works as a front office executive at a hotel in Galle.

Restaurant and hotel owners in Galle are also pessimistic about a robust revival now, as Sri Lanka scrambles for about $3 billion in bridging finance from multiple sources including India, China and the World Bank to pay for critical imports. The country is also negotiating for a programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to address its foreign exchange crisis. read more

On a recent windy afternoon in Galle, as a few foreign tourists posed for pictures and strolled through its quaint streets, antique shop owner Sepalika Abeysundara choked up while talking of her troubles.

“Not only me but all businesses are suffering because of the current situation. I feel really sad about the state of our country,” she said.

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RegisterReporting by Sunil Kataria in Balapitiya and Galle, Additional reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe, Writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar in Mumbai, Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky

Courtesy MailOnLine

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Sri Lanka’s economic crisis has led to clashes at nationwide demonstrations calling on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step down

Sri Lanka’s unprecedented shortages of food, fuel and vital medicines will worsen before an international bailout is negotiated, its finance minister warned Friday as inflation hit another record high.

Ali Sabry, who is in Washington for talks with international lenders, said an IMF bailout may take months, but he was seeking about $2.5 billion in emergency assistance from others.

“It is going to get worse before it gets better,” Sabry told reporters in an online press conference. “It is going to be a painful few years ahead.”

However, he added that he was optimistic Sri Lanka could “come out of this strong and we may not even have to go for an IMF program ever again.”

His remarks came as official data showed Sri Lanka’s inflation hit a record high for the sixth consecutive month as the country was gripped by shortages never experienced before.

The statistics office said the broad-based National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) rose 21.5 percent year-on-year in March, more than four times the 5.1 percent inflation of a year earlier.

Food inflation in March stood at a whopping 29.5 percent, the highest ever.

The figures are likely to rise further: the state-run oil company has subsequently raised the price of diesel, commonly used in public transport, by 64.2 percent.

The worsening economic woes has led to clashes at nationwide demonstrations calling on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step down over mismanagement and corruption.

Sri Lanka tapped the International Monetary Fund this week for emergency assistance, but was told that its external debt was “unsustainable” and must be “restructured” before any help.

“Approval of an IMF-supported program for Sri Lanka would require adequate assurances that debt sustainability will be restored,” the IMF said.

The government last week announced a default on its external debt and said precious foreign exchange will be reserved to finance essential food and medicines.

– ‘Worst financial crisis’ –

Sabry said he admitted to the IMF that Sri Lanka’s recent economic blunders in slashing taxes worsened the crisis and that Colombo should have sought its help much earlier.

“We have accepted our mistakes… There is no denying the fact that we are facing the worst financial crisis in the history of our country,” he said.

Sabry added that Colombo will move for debt restructuring as demanded by the IMF and in the meantime tap neighbouring India for more credit lines to import fuel and other essentials.

He was also hopeful of getting “about $500 million” from the World Bank to import food and cooking gas within the next four months, he said.

Sri Lanka will also turn to other key bilateral lenders – China and Japan – to address the crisis of foreign exchange.

The acute shortages has led to widespread discontent. Police clashed with protesters in central Sri Lanka on Tuesday, killing one of them and wounding nearly 30.

At least eight people have also died waiting in long lines for fuel in the past six weeks.

The country’s foreign exchange shortage has led to a slowing down of imports, including essentials.

Shops have rationed the quantity of rice, milk powder, sugar, lentils and tinned fish sold to consumers.

Sri Lanka’s economy has collapsed since the onset of the pandemic, with a nosedive in tourism revenue as well as foreign worker remittances.

Courtesy Adaderana

The price hike announced by Litro Gas Lanka Limited has been rolled back after the government refused to give the go-ahead to the move.

Earlier, Litro Gas, the primary liquefied petroleum gas supplier in the country, announced that the price of a 12.5kg LP gas cylinder would be increased to Rs. 5,175, with effect from midnight today.

Accordingly, it is reported that the price revision announced by the company has not been given approval.

Litro Gas said increases in LP gas prices will be made only after receiving the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

During a phone conversation with Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, China’s Premier Li Keqiang assured China’s support to Sri Lanka to facilitate greater stability in economic and social development.

China feels for Sri Lanka for the difficulties and challenges you face, and we want to do our utmost to provide help to improve the peoples’ livelihoods in your country,” Premier Li said to Prime Minister Rajapaksa.

The Chinese Premier also assured Prime Minister Rajapaksa that China will work with the Sri Lankan government to address some of the urgent financial issues that Sri Lanka is currently facing. Among other areas discussed during the phone conversation were the possibilities of fast-tracking negotiations on the free trade agreement, reducing Sri Lanka’s trade deficit with China and attracting more Chinese tourists when the situation permits.
“We will continue to work together to advance and promote friendship and relationship between our two countries,” Premier Li said, “and we do feel for you for the difficulties you face at the moment, and we will also work together to address the difficulties.”

Prime Minister Rajapaksa thanked the Chinese Government for the recently-announced humanitarian aid and the continued support and cooperation.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said today the no-confidence motion against the government was delayed following a request made by him.

He said this when Leader of the House Dinesh Gunawardena asked as to why the opposition didn’t bring in the no-confidence motion against the government as planned earlier.

“The opposition said that they would bring in the no-confidence motion against the government. It is Friday today. Why it is not presented as said?,” he asked.

Mr. Wickremesinghe said that it was absurd brining in the no-confidence motion before the speech of the finance minister who is in Washington to engaged in discussions with the IMF.

“I requested to delay the NCM. It would serve no purpose brining in the NCM before the Finance Minister’s speech. We can get together and discuss what should be done after his speech,” he said. (Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera)

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

PM and Cabinet should resign and form an all party govt- Dullas writes to Prez Former Minister Dullas Alahapperuma in a letter to the President says the Prime Minister and cabinet should resign immediately and form a new All Party government soon.

In his two-page letter, the former minister stated that a small cabinet representing all parties in parliament should be appointed for at least one year period in order to find the immediate solution to the current crisis situation.

While praising the President for appointing a cabinet with a majority of young MPs, the former Minister said that the decision could have taken much earlier and now it too late.

Courtesy Adaderana

A unanimous decision has been taken at the parliamentary group meeting of the ruling party to strengthen and continue with the government under Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, the PM’s Office said.  

The parliamentary group of the ruling party had convened a meeting at the parliament complex today (21) and unanimously approved the proposal to strengthen and continue with the government under the leadership of PM Mahinda Rajapaksa, the statement said.

During the meeting, MP Sahan Pradeep had proposed that given the current state of affairs in the country, the government should face it vigorously and for that the government should continue with the leadership of Prime Minister Rajapaksa. 

All parliamentarians had raised their hands in unanimous support of the proposal which was then ratified by MP Sahan Pradeep, the PM’s Office said.

The statement added that the relevant ministers had explained, during the meeting, the steps taken to provide relief to the people in the coming weeks.  

Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekara had stated that necessary measures have been taken to resolve the fuel and power cuts issues within a couple of weeks while Minister Ramesh Pathirana expressed hope that the gas issue could also be resolved within a couple of weeks. 

චන්ද්‍රසේන පණ්ඩිතගේ විසිනි

උත්තරීතර ස්වභාව ධර්මය තුල සාධාරණය හා අසාධාරණය දෙකරුනම අඩංගුව පවතී. විටෙක සාධාරණය ඉස්මතුවෙන අතර තවත් විටෙක අසාධාරණය ඉස්මතුව දිදුලන බවක් අපි දකිමු. මේ ලොවෙයි අගනා දර්ශනයන් රාශියක් ග්‍රන්තාරුදව ඇති අතර, මේ ග්‍රන්ථ අතර ඇති තවත් වටිනා ග්‍රන්ථයක් වන්නේ බයිබලයයි. මේ වටිනා ග්‍රන්ථය පරිශීලනය කිරීම තුලින් උගත හැකි පාඩම් සංඛ්‍යාව මෙතෙකැයි කියා නිම කල නොහැක. බයිබලය කියන්නේද අනිකුත් දර්ශනයන් මෙන්ම වරක් කියවා ඉවත දැමිය හැකි කෘතියක් නොවේ. එය නැවත නැවත කියවීම තුලින්, මිනිස් මනස තුල සිදුවෙන චින්තන පරිවර්තනය අතිවිශාලය. එවැනි තත්වයකට පත්වූ මිනිසාට මෙරට මිට වසර තුනකට පෙර සිදුවූ පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරය සම්බන්ධව සාධාරණත්වය ඉටුකරන මෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටින ඉල්ලීම තුල ඇති හිස්භාවය පැහැදිලිව දර්ශනය වේ
ජිවිතයක ආරම්භයක් හා අවසානයක්ද ඇත. යේසුස් ක්‍රිස්තුස්වහන්සේගේ උපත සම්බන්ධව කරුණු දැනගත් හෙරෝද් රජු, උන්වහන්සේව ළදරු අවදියේදීම ඝාතනය කිරීමේ අරමුණෙන්, බෙත්ලෙහෙම අවට සිටි අවුරුදු 2කට අඩු සියලුම ළදරුවන් ඝාතනය කරවන ලදී. ඝාතකයා කවුදැයි සියල්ලෝම දැන සිටියහ. නමුත් කිසිවෙක් ඒ ඝාතකයාට දඬුවම් දීමට ඉදිරිපත් නොවිණි. නමුත් ඔහුට ස්වභාවය විසින් දඩුවම් කල බවක් පසක් වන්නේ,යේසුස් ක්‍රිස්තුස්වහන්සේ ළදරු අවදියේදීම හෙරෝද් මියගිය බව සඳහන්ව ඇති බැවිණි.

යේසුස් ක්‍රිස්තුස්වහන්සේව කුරුසයට තබා ඇණ ගැසීමට මුලිකව කටයුතු කලේද එදා දේව මාලිගාව ආශ්‍රිතව කටයුතුකළ ප්‍රධාන පුජකයින්ය. එදා පුජකයින් යේසුස් ක්‍රිස්තුස්වහන්සේ නිර්දෝෂී පුද්ගලයෙක් බව දන දැනම, ඔහු වැරදි කාරයෙක් කිරීමට බොරු සාක්ෂි නිර්මාණය කල ආකාරය, අපිට යලි සිහියට නැගෙන්නේ, වර්තමාන අගරදගුරු රන්ජිත් මැල්කම් පියතුමා, පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරයට කිසිදු සම්බන්ධයක් නැති, ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ් බලයට එම සඳහා මේ ප්‍රහාරය සැලසුම කලාදෝයි යන සැකය ඇති බව සියුම් ලෙස කතෝලික ප්‍රජාවගේ සිත් තුලට කාවැද්දීම තුලිනි. මේ පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරය සිදුවෙන මොහොතේ ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂයන් ජනාධිපති වශයෙන් තරංග වැඩිම සඳහා කිසිවෙක් නම්කර නොසිටි පුද්ගලයෙකි.

එදා  නිර්දෝෂී යේසුස් ක්‍රිස්තුස්වහන්සේව කුරුසයට තබා එන ගසා සතුටුවූ ඒ පුජක පරපුරේ තත්වයට අගරදගුරු රන්ජිත් මැල්කම් පියතුමා ගරා නොවැටිය යුතුය. ඒ එදා ලේ විලක් බවට පත්වීමට ඉඩතිබු මේ රට එසේ නොවීමට වගබලා ගත්  ගෞරවනීය පුද්ගලයාද වන්නේ, අගරදගුරු, රන්ජිත් මැල්කම් පියතුමා විසින් ඉවසිලි වන්තව කතෝලික ජන සමාජය තුලවූ ශෝකය හා කෝපය ඉතා සංයමයකින් හැසිරවීම හේතු කොටගෙනය.

එදා යේසුස් ක්‍රිස්තුස්වහන්සේගේ ඝාතනයට වග කිවයුතු කිසිවෙකුට දඩුවමක් නොලැබිණි. ඒ ඝාතනය 2019 මහා සිකුරාදා සමරා,උට්ඨනයේ, ප්‍රීතිය බුක්ති ව්දීමට සුදානම්වූ කිතුනුවන් රාශියක් ඝාතනය වීම හා තවත් පිරිසක් තුවාල ලබා මේ වෙනතුරු කායික හා මානසික පිඩාවන්ට ලක්ව සිටීම ඉතාම කනගාටු දායකය. මේ මිනිසුන්ව කිසිවෙකුගේ පටු දේශපාලන අරමුණු වෙනුවෙන් පාවිච්චි කිරීමට කිසිවෙකුට ඉඩදිය යුතු නැත.

අපි පළමුව තේරුම්ගත යුත්තේ මේ රටතුල නීති ගරුක හෝ යුක්තිගරුක සමාජයක් නැති බවයි. එවැනි සමාජයකින්, මේ වින්දිතයන් වෙනුවෙන් අපේක්ෂාකරන සාධාරණත්වය ඉටු නොවන බව සියල්ලන්ම තේරුම්ගත යුතුය. එවැනි සමාජයක් නැති නිසා එවැනි සමාජයක් ස්ථාපිත කිරීම අරමුණු කරගෙන අප වර්තමාන ජනාධිපතිතුමාව බලයට පත්කර ගනු ලැබුවද, වඳ පිදුණ කෙසෙල් ගසක් මෙන්වූ මේ රාජ්‍ය යාන්ත්‍රනය භාවිතා කොට ඒ කාර්ය ඉටු කිරීමට එතුමාටද නොහැකිය. ඒ මේ රාජ්‍යයේ නිලධාරීන්ට මුදල් වෙනුවෙන් කල නොහැක්කක් නොමැති බැවිනි. හාස්‍යට කරුණ වන්නේ,මේ වනවිට පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරයට වගකිව යුතු රජය කළවුන් කතෝලික පල්ලිය සමග එකතුව Go Gota go home කියනවිට මෙරට ජනතාවට ඇතිවෙන අප්‍රසන්නතාවයයි. එදා ක්‍රිස්තුස්වහන්සේ සැරිසැරුව සමාජයම මෙහි නිරුපනය වෙන බවක් අපට දැනේ.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

ජනතාව මුහුණ දෙන ප්‍රශ්න කඩිනමින් විසඳීම සඳහා රජය ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන වැඩපිළිවෙළට වෘත්තීය සමිති තුළින් ලැබෙන සහයෝගය අගය කරන බව අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා පැවසීය.

ප්‍රගතිශීලී වෘත්තීය සමිති ජාතික මධ්‍යස්ථානයේ වෘත්තීය සමිති නියෝජිතයන් සමඟ ඊයේ (20) පස්වරුවේ අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේදී පැවති සාකච්ඡාවකින් අනතුරුව අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා මේ බව සඳහන් කළේය.

වර්තමානයේ පවතින අර්බුදය නිර්මාණය වුයේ සියලු දේශපාලන පක්ෂ අතීතයේ ගත් තීරණ නිසා බවත්, එමගින් නිර්මාණය වූ ආර්ථික අර්බුදය අද දේශපාලන අර්බුදයක් දක්වා පැමිණ ඇති බවත් වෘත්තීය සමිති නියෝජිතයෝ මෙහිදී පැවසූහ.

අර්බුදය නිර්මාණය කිරීමට දායක වූ පිරිස නිර්දෝෂීන් ලෙස පෙනී සිටිමින් වර්තමාන රජය මත සියලු චෝදනා එල්ල කරමින් සිටින බවද වෘත්තීය සමිති නියෝජිතයෝ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා හමුවේ පෙන්වා දුන්හ.

ජනතාව මුහුණ දී ඇති අසීරු තත්ත්වයෙන් මුදා ගැනීමට රජය ගන්නා ක්‍රියාමාර්ග කඩිනම් කර ගැනීම වෙනුවෙන් වෘත්තීය සමිති ලෙස ලබාදිය හැකි සෑම සහයෝගයක්ම ලබා දෙන බව මෙහිදී වෘත්තීය සමිති නියෝජිතයෝ පැවසූහ.

මෙම අවස්ථාවට පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ, අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ලේකම් අනුර දිසානායක මහත්වරු සහ පොදුජන ප්‍රගතිශීලී සේවක සංගමය, ප්‍රගතිශීලී රාජ්‍ය සේවක සම්මේලනය, ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන ගුරු සංගමය, පොදුජන වතු සේවක සංගමය, පළාත් පාලන සේවක සංගමය,  පොදුජන පෙර පාසල් සංගමය ඇතුළු ප්‍රගතිශීලී වෘත්තිය සමිති ජාතික මධ්‍යස්ථානයේ වෘත්තීය සමිති නියෝජිතයෝ රැසක් එක්ව සිටියහ.

Media Release

https://sites.google.com/view/heladiva-net/hela-voice-today

Sugath Kulatunga

In the past we had Civics as an important subject in the school curriculum. Later this subject was hidden in a broad collection called social studies. When one observes the palpable ignorance of the general population and even many politicians, on the Constitution of the country it behooves that the subject of CIVICS be reintroduced as a compulsory subject for all students. It is ridiculous that a campaign with a battle cry of ‘Gotago’ is underway without knowing that a President is deprived of his post only with his resignation, his death, a vote of no confidence in Parliament and not by street demonstrations or shouting slogans in Parliament. There are some learned persons claiming that sovereignty of the people allows them to sack a President or change a government. Fortunately, it is not open-ended. The Constitution is clear on how the sovereignty can be exercised.

The Sovereignty of the People shall be exercised in the following manner

 (a)the legislative power by Parliament and by the People at a Referendum.

(b) the executive power by the President of the Republic elected by the People;

(c) the judicial power by Parliament through courts, tribunals and institutions created and established, or recognized, by the Constitution.

This reveals the level of the knowledge of the Constitution of the country by most Parliamentarians and even some professionals who think that the Constitution is made of rubber.

SL is one of the first among developing countries to enjoy universal adult franchise, which was introduced in 1932. However even with the long history of democratic institutions and high levels of literacy, we cannot be proud of our level of civic consciousness and awareness of basic instruments of government. In recent decades, increasing numbers of Sri Lankans have disengaged from civic and electoral activities, voluntary associations, community-based organizations, and lost interest in balanced and dispassionate information on public issues.

But now the present crisis in the economy, its total mismanagement and the resultant unprecedented burdens on the citizens have created a protest campaign which has brought a new awakening in citizens’ rights. But it is only a lopsided Civic consciousness which must start with a clear appreciation of the rights and duties of the citizen. In the Constitution of Sri Lanka sovereignty of the people is enshrined in the constitution. To fully enjoy the sovereignty endowed with the people, they should become fully aware of their powers, and rights. 

There are also the Directive principles in the Constitution, which call for affording all possible opportunities to the People to participate at every level in national life and in government.

The exercise and enjoyment of rights and freedoms is inseparable from the performance of duties and obligations, and accordingly it is the duty of every person in Sri Lanka inter alia –

(a)    to uphold and defend the Constitution and the law;

(a)(b) to further the national interest and to foster national unity and

(a) c) to respect the rights and freedoms of others.”

(b)   Unless the people are fully aware of their rights and duties the high principles and expectations in the Constitution cannot be realized.

Good governance is a primary duty of any government, and the maximum participation of the people is a main plank of good governance. People cannot meaningfully participate in governance if they are not equipped with the knowledge and skills of proficient citizenship and there is a lack of communication between the government and the governed. The main cause of the present crisis is the abysmal lack of communication between the executive and the legislature and even within the Cabinet. Of course it cannot be accepted as a convenient excuse.

Today we live in a culture where the absence of the rule of law is most conspicuous. Rule of law means that the dominant or mainstream culture, ethos, and thought in a society are sympathetic to the rule of law. In a society governed by the rule of law, people can participate in the making and implementation of laws that bind together all the people and institutions in society, including the government itself. Under the rule of law, everyone, irrespective of race, creed, color, gender, family background, or economic, social, and political circumstances, is to be treated uniformly. Rule of law can flourish only where there is a well-informed, enlightened, and responsible citizenry.

Civic consciousness is not something that can be imposed on people or can be brought about by sermonizing or exhortation. It includes imparting of knowledge, developing skills and most importantly instilling attitudes such as fairness and tolerance. The making of a civic minded citizen must start with the young who should be equipped with the needed values and social attributes that enhance their acceptance, integration, and participation in the society.
It can be achieved only by exposing the youth to appropriate learning experiences and activities that help to raise their civic consciousness and develop appropriate social values and attributes for effective relationships in the society. This is best achieved in the schools where they are exposed to a microcosm of the society. For several reasons, school-based education is the most promising way to advance and foster the requisite qualities. By changing the attitudes and knowledge of the next generation, students can become a key constituency in effecting long-term change.

Fundamentals of Civic Education

At the core of Civic Education are the values and principles of transparency, participation,

responsiveness, accountability, empowerment and equity.

Civic Education is a critical and effective empowerment tool for promoting citizen participation in democratic and development processes. It empowers citizens, both as individuals and as part of collective groupings. Citizen participation is built by protecting individual and collective rights and ensuring appreciation of each citizen’s obligations to the society of which s/he is a part.

Fundamentals of civic education as are defined as:

1) learning for effective participation in democratic and development processes at both local and national levels,

2) essential for transforming people’s lives and therefore a core part of the democratic governance,

3) a key enabler for exercising civil, political, economic and social rights and for bringing about greater transparency and accountability,

4) a prerequisite for stimulating, enhancing and deepening civic engagement,

5) an area that needs to be understood in its own right and not simply equated with civic participation.

In the current context of Sri Lanka, civic education should accord the highest priority to imbibe in the young the importance of the fundamental duties of a citizen i.e. to further the national interest and to foster national unity and to respect the rights and freedoms of others.

Devolution of power and any institutional arrangements for empowerment of the people will bear no fruit unless the capacity of the people for civic engagement is enhanced through civic education starting from the impressionable young age.

Campaigns like at Galle Face would be more meaningful if all the participants are driven through a civic consciousness devoid of partisan politics.

නීතීඥ අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන B.Sc(Col), PGDC(Col),  සමායෝජක, වෛද්‍ය තිලක පද්මා සුබසිංහ අනුස්මරණ නීති අධ්‍යයන වැඩසටහන.

මහජන ජාතික ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් (People’s National Constitution) කෙටුම්පත් කිරීම මේ දක්වා “Gotagogama” තරුණ පරපුර ආරම්භ කර නොතිබීම නීතිය නොදැනීම පිළිබඳ ප්‍රශ්නයක් පමණක් නොවේ. එය රටේ ජනතාවගේ නෛතික නිදහස පිළිබඳ මූලික ප්‍රශ්නයකි. ගෘන්නෝම”/ Grundnorm  නීති මූලධර්මය ගැන අවබෝධයක් නැතිකම පිළිබඳ ප්‍රශ්නයකි.

“The People’s Constitution should be drafted and presented to the people according to the Grundnorm principle before or after the president Gotabhaya is sent home.
If not a dictatorship may arise.”

“ගෝඨාභය ජනාධිපතිවරයා ගෙදර යැවීමට පෙර හෝ පසූව මහජන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව කෙටුම්පත් කර ජනතාව හමුවේ තැබීම ගෘන්නෝම මූලධර්මය අනුව සිදුවිය යුතුයි.
එසේ නොවුණහොත් ඒකාධිපති පාලනයක් බිහි වනු ඇත.”

වැද්දා වටුකූරුල්ලන්ට දැල දැමූ පසු වටුකුරුල්ලන් ඉන් මිදුන ආකාරය ලස්සන සිත් ඇදගන්නා බෞද්ධ කතාවක් පමණක් නොවේ. ඉන් ඉගෙනිය හැකි පාඩම් බොහෝය.

පළමු වැන්න වන්නේ අනතුරේ හෙළන්නාගෙන් කිසිවිට සහායක් නොඉල්ලිය යුතු බවයි. ඒ මූලික පාඩම “Gotagogama” අරගලයේ යෙදෙන තරුණ ප්‍රජාව මේ දක්වා අවබෝධකර නැති බව පෙනී යන්නේ ගෘන්නෝම (Grundnorm) නීති මූලධර්මය ගැන ඔවුන් මේ දක්වා කතිකාවක් ආරම්භ කර නැති හෙයිනි.

එනම් පවතින නීතිය උල්ලංඝනය කරමින් නව මහජන ජාතික ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් (People’s National Constitution) කෙටුම්පත් කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය මූලික සංවාදයවත් ඔවුන් මේ දක්වා ආරම්භ කර නැත.

ඒ පිළිබ‍ඳ කතිකාවක් ආරම්භ කිරීමට පවතින ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව උල්ලංඝනය කරමින් අලුත් ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් තැනිය හැකි ජර්මන් ජාතික දාර්ශනිකයෙකු වූ කෙල්සන් (Kelsen) ඉදිරිපත් කළ ගෘන්නෝම නීති මූල ධර්මය පිළිබඳ දැනගත යුතුය.

දෙන්නන් කාසිවලට යමක් කිරීමට යාම හෝ  ගෙනෙන නීතියේ මූලික ආකෘතිය නොමැතිව නීති කැඩීමට යාමේ ඇති අනතුර පිළිබ‍ඳව බුද්ධිමත්හු කල්පනා කරති.

වැද්දා දැල දැමූ විට වටු කුරුල්ලෝ වැද්දාගෙන්  දැල අයින් කර දෙන ලෙස ඉල්ලා නොසිටි අතර, වටු කුරුල්ලන්ම එකතු වී දැල අයින් කර ගත්තේය. ඒ සමාජ සිද්ධාන්තය මෙහිදීද අදාල වේ.

වර්තමනයේ සමාජ ආර්ථික ජීවන ප්‍රශ්නය ඇති කිරීමට මුල් වූයේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ 225 සහ විධායක ජනාධිපතිවරයා පමණක් නොවේ. අධිකරණය සහ පරිපාලන යාන්ත්‍රණයත් එයට වග කිව යුතුය. ජනතාව ගෑස්, තෙල් පෝලිමේ දුක් විඳීමට සැළැස්වීමට සහ විදුලිය කප්පාදුවට විධායකය, අධිකරණය සහ ව්‍යවස්ථාදායකය එකිනෙකා නොදෙවෙනි ලෙස දායක වී ඇත. ඒ සත්‍ය එළිදරව් කරන්නෝ බන්ධනාගාර ගත කිරීමෙන් ප්‍රශ්නය පාලනය විය හැකි වුවත් ජනතාවට සහනයක් ලැබෙන්නේ නැත.

ජනප්‍රිය පාසල්වලට සිසුන් ඇතුළත් කරන අයදුම්පත්‍රවල ලිපින අනුව පාසල් බස් රථ හෝ පාසල් වෑන් රථ මෙතරම් ප්‍රමාණයක් නගර වෙත  පැමිණීමට අවශ්‍යතාවයක් නැත.

විධායක, ව්‍යවස්ථාදායක සහ අධිකරණ ආයතන ත්‍රිත්වයේ අකාර්යක්ෂමතාවය,නාස්තිය, දූෂණය පිළිබඳ සමාජයේ ප්‍රසිද්ධ සංවාදයක් ඇති වී තිබේ. “Gotagogama” තරුණ ප්‍රජාව ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් අවධානය යොමුකර නැති අතර, ගෝඨාභය ජනාධිපතිවරයා ඉලක්කකරගත් පෞද්ගලික අවලාද කිරීමක ස්වරූපයෙන් උද්ඝෝෂණ මෙහෙයවන ආකාරයක් දක්නට තිබේ.

ඝාතන කිහිපයක් පමණක් ඉස්මතුකරමින් සහ තෙල්, ගෑස්, විදුලිය අර්බුදයට පමණක් සමාජ ආතතිය සහ සමාජ පීඩනය ලඝු කරමින් වසර ගණනාවක් සමාජය මුහුණ දෙන වහල් පාලන ක්‍රමය පිළිබඳ සාකච්ඡා නොකිරීමට   “Gotagogama” තරුණ පරපුර පරිස්සම් වන ආකාරයක්ද දක්නට තිබේ.

සමාජයේ පවතින සෑම ආයතනයකම, ව්‍යුහයකම පවතින බලවන්තයින් විසින් දුබලයන් සහ සම්බන්ධතා නොමැති අය පෙළන පාලන ක්‍රමයේ ගැටළු “Gotagogama” සාකච්ඡා කරනවා පෙන්නුම් කරන්නේ නැත.

එය ගෝඨාභය ජනාධිපතිවරයා ධූරයෙන් ඉවත්කිරීමේ සීමිත ඉලක්කයක් පමණක් දරයි.

ගෘන්නෝමය (Grundnorm) ගැන නීතීඥවරු පමණක් දැන සිටීම ප්‍රමාණවත් නොවේ.  “Gotagogama” තරුණ ප්‍රජාවද ඒ පිළිබඳ සකච්ඡා ආරම්භ කළ යුතුය.

“Gotagogama” තරුණ ප්‍රජාගේ අරගලය ජන අරගලයක් වන්නේ ඔවුන් එය තේරුම් ගැනීමට කල්ගත නොකිරීම සහ දක්වන උනන්දුව මතය.

නීතීඥ අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන B.Sc(Col), PGDC(Col),  සමායෝජක, වෛද්‍ය තිලක පද්මා සුබසිංහ අනුස්මරණ නීති අධ්‍යයන වැඩසටහන.
දුරකථන 0342256066, 0342256067, 0712063394

Embassy of Sri Lanka Washington D.C

The Embassy of Sri Lanka to the United States has noted with disappointment the unjustified and undue criticism leveled against the eight member delegation led by the Minister of Finance who are currently attending the Springmeetings of the Bretton Woods Institutions in Washington DC. It must be emphasized that these meetings and the various bilateral engagements undertaken by the Sri Lankan delegation are aimed at garnering international support in aid of Sri Lanka’s economic recovery pursuant to the several challenges being faced by the country.

Among the meetings in the schedule of engagements, apart from the regular Spring meetings of the IMF/Worlds Bank, a number of additional meetings were held with relevant divisions and departments of the IMF/World Bank including meeting with the Managing Director of the IMF and the World Bank’s Managing Director of Operations.

In addition, during the short duration the delegation met with the US Department of the Treasury, the US
Department of State, USAID, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and had a number of bilateral
engagements including with the Finance Minister of India. The delegation will continue with its work with theexpectation of garnering the best possible outcomes for Sri Lanka.

Social media postings have been made with distorted accounts and malicious attempts to denigrate the
delegation and its work. These are apparently made with the invidious goal of undermining Sri Lanka’s efforts forovertly political gain by fostering hatred against and opposition to the delegation – aimed specifically at Sri Lankan-Americans and Sri Lankans resident in the United States and, generally, at Sri Lankans all over the world.

These efforts to incite enmity among national stakeholders apparently seek to undermine national efforts that will accrue to the benefit of Sri Lankan people and the nation. Among the negative comments made are the supposed wastage of funds at a time of economic crisis, particularly on facilities for transport and accommodation made use of by the 8-member delegation.

The posts show a photograph taken at random of two luxury vehicles parked at some location, insinuating that these are the vehicles being made use of by the delegation. The Embassy would like to state for the record that the delegation has been provided with two sedans which are non-luxury vehicles. In addition, an extra vehicle was provided free of charge by the Embassy for the use of the delegation due to space constraints.

As to accommodation, the hotel/s chosen were from a list recommended by the IMF/World Bank for the use of all international delegations visiting Washington DC. These hotels are offering concessionary rates for the delegations in Washington DC at present. The Hotel chosen by the Sri Lankan delegation is not among the more expensive in the list.

It can only be assumed that the posters of the distorted, inaccurate information only intend to sow disharmony and disapprobation among Sri Lankans and those interested in the country’s welfare. The Embassy wishes to place on record the factual situation in order that these misleading statements and misrepresentations are understood in context and the motivation and intent behind these mischaracterizations and the personalities involved, are exposed.
Embassy of Sri Lanka
Washington D.C
20.04.2022

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

*PM is now to table the 19th amendment in Parliament soon with some amendments to the clauses

* One of the proposals to which consensus will be sought from all party leaders is for Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step down as President

A tug of war seems to have broken out between President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa with the latter now preparing to push for the 19th amendment which will take away the powers of the executive and empower more powers back to the Parliament. 

The Daily Mirror learns that for weeks now, there has been severe political instability among the government parties and its coalition members, many of who are now seated in the opposition with the 11 member alliance calling for Mahinda Rajapaksa to resign as the Prime Minister while some others stating that if there is a resignation then it should be the President who should step down.

Senior political sources said that the recent cabinet appointments and all the state ministry appointments were done by the President’s selection alone and the Prime Minister was not consulted nor did he attend the swearing-in ceremonies.

The Prime Minister had been calling for some senior ministers to be included in the cabinet but President Rajapaksa had insisted for a younger and new cabinet, hoping that this would calm down the protestors and put the country back on track. 

The Prime Minister is now to table the 19th amendment in Parliament soon with some amendments to the clauses while the Daily Mirror learns that the main opposition the SJB will also table the 19th amendment in Parliament this week.

UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe who has also hinted that he will support the 19 amendment has proposed for a two-day discussion with the All-party Leaders where proposals are going to be sought as to what the immediate solution to the crisis should be.

The Daily Mirror learns that the party leaders will meet today and tomorrow to discuss the proposals and one of the proposals to which consensus will be sought from all party leaders is for Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step down as President.

If consensus is reached, then the decision will be conveyed to the Speaker by Friday after which he will convey it to the President. However whether the President will then step down is to be seen. (JAMILA HUSAIN)

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The International Monetary Fund said discussions with Sri Lanka on a potential IMF loan program are at an early stage and any deal would require “adequate assurances” that the island country’s debts can be put on a sustainable path.

In a statement emailed to Reuters, IMF Sri Lanka Mission Chief Masahiro Nozaki said that IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva discussed lending options and policy plans with a Sri Lankan delegation on Tuesday.

“An IMF-supported program should be designed to resolve Sri Lanka’s acute balance of payments problems and put the economy back on a sustainable growth path as early as possible,” Nozaki said.

The statement came after protests in response to shortages of fuel and other essentials turned deadly on Tuesday and Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister formally asked the Fund for a Rapid Financing Instrument loan for countries needing urgent balance-of-payments support.

Nozaki said the IMF is “very concerned about the current economic crisis in Sri Lanka and hardships suffered by the people, especially the poor and vulnerable.”

But he noted that IMF staff had determined last month in an annual economic review that Sri Lanka’s public debt was unsustainable, and the country needs to take steps to restore debt sustainability prior to any IMF lending, including the emergency Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI).

Such restoration of debt sustainability typically requires a restructuring or reprofiling of public debts, which in Sri Lanka’s case would require cooperation from China, one of its largest bilateral creditors.

The IMF used the low-conditionality RFI loans extensively to assist countries during the COVID-19 pandemic and has provided such loans to ease balance of payments problems after natural disasters, conflicts and commodity price shocks.

“These considerations would need to be examined for a potential RFI for Sri Lanka, once adequate assurances are obtained that debt sustainability will be resolved,” Nozaki said.

He added that the specific design of a Sri Lanka IMF loan, including program targets and conditionality, would be agreed through extensive discussions between the government and IMF staff.

“The discussions are still at an early stage,” Nozaki said.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) today appealed to the general public engaged in protests to assist unhindered passage of transport movements without blocking roads and causing inconvenience to the public.

In a special message issued today (21), the Chief of Defence Staff and Commander of the Army, General Shavendra Silva stated that in the face of present economic constraints, people of Sri Lanka in various areas are holding protests and agitations in a peaceful manner. 

We have not to-date caused any hindrance to such peaceful protests.” 

However, he emphasized that a few elements, who have shown up at those places were seen in the past few days engaged in particularly blocking road movements, causing inconvenience to the general public and transport of fuel supplies and essentials to different island-wide areas

He said the Sri Lanka Army at the request of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), in an attempt to assist the Police, particularly for unhindered passage of transport movements since yesterday (20) has deployed Army troops and other forces to assist in this connection.

He therefore urged all Sri Lankans to lend the same degree of support at this critical juncture to all the armed forces and the Police for passage of essentials to the public by dispensing with roadblocks and other obstructions.

The army chief recalled how all Sri Lankans overwhelmingly supported the armed forces during the height of COVID-19 control work and the war against terrorism by way of holding blessing ceremonies, services, etc. 

The full text of his message is as follows;

In the face of present economic constraints, people of Sri Lanka in various areas are holding protests and agitations in a peaceful manner. We have not to-date caused any hindrance to such peaceful protests. However, a few elements, who have shown up at those places were seen in the past few days engaged in particularly blocking road movements, causing inconvenience to the general public and transport of fuel supplies and essentials to different island-wide areas”.

The Sri Lanka Army at the request of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), in an attempt to assist the Police, particularly for unhindered passage of transport movements since yesterday (20) has deployed Army troops and other forces to assist in this connection. Particularly we saw on Wednesday (20), some members of the general public who have volunteered and come forward to remove those blockades on their own, for which we would like to pay tribute to such volunteers”.

Let me earnestly appeal to all intelligent Sri Lankans to support our forces and the Police in the same way you all cooperated with the armed forces in the control of the most recent COVID-19 epidemic and the war against terrorism in the past. 

I kindly urge all Sri Lankans to lend the same degree of support at this critical juncture to all the armed forces and the Police for passage of essentials to the public by dispensing with roadblocks and other obstructions”.

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Professor G.L. Peiris met with the Ambassador of China to Colombo, Qi Zhenhong, at the Foreign Ministry on Thursday (21).

While welcoming the Ambassador, Minister Peiris appreciated China’s continued assistance to Sri Lanka which had begun even before establishing formal diplomatic relations between the two countries. 

He also recalled the Chinese monuments erected in Sri Lanka with the funding of the Chinese Government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

The Foreign Minister also apprised the Ambassador of the current situation in the country and the shortage of energy which has adversely affected the economy of Sri Lanka. 

He briefed the Ambassador on the measures which are being put in place by the Government to immediately overcome the prevailing situation, including the ongoing discussion with the IMF for financial assistance as well as reformulating Sri Lanka’s debt and in that context Minister Peiris requested further assistance from China, particularly in the field of bridging finance during a difficult time.

The Ambassador of China stated that the Embassy of China in Colombo and Beijing were closely monitoring the evolving situation in Sri Lanka. 

Ambassador Qi assured that the Chinese Government would continue extending assistance to Sri Lanka in every possible way including direct Chinese Government support, regional Government support and support through Red Cross China.

The China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) has pledged an urgent emergency humanitarian aid of RMB 200 million to Sri Lanka, including 5000 tonnes of rice (with the previously announced 2000 tonnes), pharmaceuticals, production materials and other essentials. 

Furthermore, the Yunnan Province has announced a donation of RMB 1.5 million worth of food packages to Sri Lanka.

The Foreign Minister extended Sri Lanka’s profound gratitude to the Government of China for the unwavering and consistent support, the release said. 

The ministry said the discussions also focused on people to people exchanges, support at the multilateral fora, poverty alleviation, among others.

Foreign Secretary Admiral Prof. Jayanath Colombage, senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and officials of the Chinese Embassy were present during the meeting.