by Dr Garvin Karunaratne

A depleted treasury- living on loans like a beggar on the streets, endless food queues-, is unfortunately Sri Lanka today. Today it is reported that the dollar has fetched over Rs 260  and unless one can imagine the cost of imports. A New Programme to make everything we import is mandatory and I hope our leaders understand this fact. 

Till 1977 Sri Lanka managed its economy without any foreign debt.

The IMF’s Structural Adjustment Programme imposed on Sri Lanka in 1977 ruled that the Public Sector should not do any commercial activities. Consequently all progressive programmes that brought production and poverty alleviation that had been implemented had to be abandoned. Though Departments could be abolished or abandoned, the personnel continued confined to the  barracks.

How can the administrators who manned these great programmes be brought back to man the ship?

My mind traverses back to two successful programmes . How these two programmes achieved success and who administered them may offer us ideas as to how we can proceed. 

The First is the Green Revolution in Sri lanka. When I joined the service of the Government in 1955 the battle for the use of high yielding paddy varieties was attended to by the Department of Agriculture and I being an Assistant Commissioner in the Department for the Development of Agricultural Marketing joined in. This Programme got a shot in the arm when the Paddy Lands Act was passed in1958 by Minister Philip Gunawardena. A new Department of Agrarian Services was formed overnight. The man behind the scene for the Paddy Lands Act and the creation of the Department was Dr. GVS de Silva, the Minister’s Private Secretary, a lecturer in Economics at the University of Peradeniya. The Department that was created overnight was the Department of Agrarian Services- MS Perera of the CCS was appointed the Commissioner. Instead of recruiting new hands GVS and MS Perera handpicked administrators whom they thought were efficient. I, Ediriweera and Mano Handy from the Marketing Department, GLDP Senaratne, Wickrema Gunasekara from the DROs, LNT Mendis, TG Peris  from Land Development and many more. This Department was entrusted with the task of implementing the Paddy Lands Act. I was entrusted with implementing the PLAct in Matara. Before long there was chaos in Parliament and Minister Philip Gunawardena was forced out by the forces of the right. However his socialist mission did not die. It was carried on by us. I implemented the Paddy Lands Act in Kegalla and later in 1963 and 1964 in Anuradhapura. What was special with the Paddy lands Act was the formation of cultivation committees which planned paddy cultivation. For the first time a vibrant people’s organization attended to paddy cultivation. 

The next stage came with the victory of the United National Party under Dudley Senanayake in 1965. He willingly took on the mantle of the Green Revolution headon. He never found fault with what had been done by the earlier government. If it was progressive, he furthered it. He made many changes. In the Districts the administrative head was the Government Agents who had hitherto nothing to do with paddy cultivation. However the GA was the key figure in any District. He brought in the GA to be in charge of the Green Revolution. The GA had a host of departments under him and to enable the GA to devote his sole attention to the Green Revolution he created a post of Additional GA in every district. .At Kegalla as the Additional GA, I was entrusted with all the work hitherto done by the GA. In addition I also assisted him in paddy cultivation work. The GA was also gazetteed as Deputy Director of Agrarian Services, of Agriculture and Cooperatives and his only task was furthering paddy cultivation. The GA was given an official vehicle for his use. And the progress of the programme was monitored closely by the Prime Minister personally. The GA Conference concentrated entirely on the progress of paddy cultivation. Once at this conference a GA said that there was only one jeep for a District and suggested that an additional jeep should be given to enable the paddy programme to succeed. . The Prime Minister immediately made an order that three jeeps should be given to each district. Then the yield of paddy was reported by the agricultural officers in each District. The Prime Minister wanted to be certain of the veracity and ordered that yields should also be checked by crop cutting surveys attended to by staff officers of other Departments. This was done. I had the task of being with the Prime Minister every Saturday and Sunday for the entire day for two full years, when he came to his electorate. I was at the Warakapola Rest House by nine in the morning to greet him and accompany him to a host of meetings, some organized by me and many organized by his supporters. Accompanying him meant I had to answer all his questions about the progress in paddy cultivation and he was never short of prying questions..

It was this administrative process headed by the GA that enabled Sri Lanka to achieve self sufficiency in paddy production by 1970, even while giving a ration of 2 kilos of rice per week on the ration free, the only country to do so. .

The key elements that enabled success lies in hand picking officers with proved ability and providing them with full powers to forge ahead.

The second Programme is the Divisional Development Councils Programme of the Sirimavo Government of 1970-1977

Under this DDCP agricultural farms and small industries were established all over the island. I laboured on this Programme in Matara in 1971-1973 and in addition to agricultural farms and small craft industries done in all districts, created a Mechanized Boatyard making seaworthy boats- established in two months. Under my direction my Planning Officer unearthed the art of making crayons and as instructed by me Sumanapala Dahanayake, the Member of Parliament for Deniyaya in his capacity as the President of the Coop Union established a crayon factory done in two weeks working on a 24 hour a day schedule. . It was developed to have islandwide sales. Mine was the only District to have two viable industries, successfully established. 

When President Jayawardena took charge in 1977 the DDCProgramme was abandoned at the instance of the IMF and the administrators consigned to the barracks.

The Government Agents, the king pin that made Sri Lanka self sufficient by 1970 and also implemented the DDCP Programme of 1970-1977 have no job now because his tasks were actually handed over to the Additional Government Agents in 1967. Today the Government Agents- very senior officers lay dormant, getting back some tasks that were earlier handed over to the Additional Government Agent. They have to be brought back and charged with the task of delivering the country out of the present abyss.

 Sri Lanka has all natural resources  sufficient  to be taken out of the present abyss. The Government is kindly requested to take the bull by the horns and   marshall the administrators to work. 

Take Coop Crayon, the art of making crayons equal to the world famous Crayola crayons of today was unearthed by my Planning Officer Vetus Fernando, a chemistry grad of the University of Colombo, who had no experience whatsoever after he left the University, aided by two science teachers of Rahula College, Matara. It took three months of experiments from six to midnight every day locked up in a school lab.  Thereafter crayons were successfully produced in a cooperative union headed by a member of parliament of the area- Sumanapala Dahanayake.  This success proves  that we can make everything we import and therein lies the employment and the production the country requires. Even exports can be aimed at. Sri Lanka became self sufficient in making jam, juice and tomatoe sauce in three years and eight percent of the pineapple products were  exported, done by the Marketing Department, where I worked then as an Assistant Commissioner.. 

Our leaders should act fast to get a programme of making everything we need. The success stories quoted proves that we can be a success.

With my experience and academic knowledge I can put my neck out to make a firm statement that Sri Lanka can even today make all fruit juices, jam and tomatoe products within one year- the mango trees are full of fruit and over half goes waste. We do not have a Cannery. The Kandy Area is ideal to plant vanilla and we spend millions to import it. Get planting vanilla, passion fruit. Once the Kandy area was producing gherkins for export. In my days in charge of the Tripoli Market my Marketing Officers were busy buying produce and the Canning Factory was working twenty four hours a day. Assistant Commissioner Oswald Tillekeratne was a task master and he not only made Sri Lanka self sufficient in jam, juice and tomatoe sauce but also built up an export trade in pineapple. Eight percent of the production was exported. Similar veteran administrators have to be found and put to work. 

Take Paper, President Gotabhaya resurrected the Valachenai Paper Mill and our country is full of paddy straw and illuk to make paper. This is a simple task that can be done within months. Order a few small scale paper making machines from India and install them in the colony areas and within six months Sri Lanka can be self sufficient. That was the speed at which I established the Mechanized Boatyard at Matara.

It is unfortunate to note that since 1977 our country has not had a single employment creation programme. The last was the Divisional Development Councils Programme of 1970-1977. Is it not sad that our Governments since 1977 to date for some four decades has been sleeping. Perhaps the officials of the IMF and our advisors from the IMF are ruling us.  From the late Seventies the IMF reined in the Third World to make it import goods from the Developed Countries so that the loans granted ended with profit back in their banks, leaving the Third World countries with a debt. That was the marvellous task well done by the IMF.  Sad our leaders fail to understand even now. 

No foreign exchange is necessary. The theory that printing money is causing inflation is a nonsensical theory by theoretical economists. Inflation comes when you waste printed money by giving free handouts like Samurdhi and fantastic salaries like a million rupees a month to consultants . .

We  also should follow the blue print that was followed since we achieved independence in 1948 to 1977, It was a country not in debt and our development- opening up land, irrigation work, agriculture etc. all development tasks were  done with local Rupees. Foreign exchange is required only to get down machinery but as I have pointed out  again and again in many industries like canning fruit, in making paper, making perfumes, making hardware items, we can easily re-coup the outlay on machinery within the very first year. We are importing  many items we can easily make like step ladders which can easily be made. Why are we creating work for people in Thailand and Singapore. It is a simple task to make three wheelers- only the engine has to be imported. 

Let me close with the request that our leaders should immediately approve a programme to make every item that we import and marshall our senior administrators who are now confined to the barracks.

. Though our own Divisional Development Councils Programme created only 33.271 employment in six  years- 1971-1977, I can assure employment to over a 50,000  in the very first year if I am involved in any form. We administrators have proved our worth in Sri Lanka as well as overseas and what we need is to be called upon to get active.  It is left to our leaders to take the lead. 

Garvin Karunaratne, Ph.D. Michigan State University,

Author of:

How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka and Alternative Programmes of Success, (Godages;2006)

How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development(Kindle/Godages:2017)

Selling the Motherland & Ideas for Developing Sri Lanka (Godages: 2022)

How the IMF’s Structural Adjustment Destroyed Sri Lanka(Godages:2022)

11032022,

ප්‍ර සමරසිංග

හැටනව ලක්ස ආරස්සාවයි!
හිතවත් ගොටයියේ,
මේ ලියමන කොහොම පටන් ගත්තොත් හොඳද කියා නිනව්වක් නැත. බොලාගේ සැප සනීප කොහොමද, මා නං සැප සනීපෙන්ය, කියා ආදි-කාලෙ ලියුං කරදහි පටන් ගත්තැහෙ පටන් ගන්නටද හැක. ඒත් නැත්නං, වැල්වටාරම් නැතුව කෙලින්ම කාරණාවට බහින්නටද ඇහැක.

කොයි හැටි වෙතත්, හැටනව ලක්ස පිහිටෙන් ගොටය්ය සනිපෙන්ය. බොලා වාගේම බඩපිස්සෙක් වන මට නං එහෙම නැත. පොඩි එකා සංදියේ නං බඩපිස්සෙක් වීමම භාග්යයකි. අම්ම අප්පච්චි ඇරෙන්නට තව තුන් හතර දෙනෙක් වටේ දැවටුන එක ලොකු දෙයක්ය. ගොටයියාටද එසේය කියා අසා ඇත්තෙමි. මේ ලියමනට හේතුවද එයමය. මහළු බඩපිස්සන්ට දැනෙන, තේරෙන කරුණු කාරනා, මහළු ලෝකලාට, මද්දුමයන්ට, ඩිංගින්ට, හින්නින්ට දැනෙන්නේද, තේරෙන්නේද නැතිය. මේ කතාව තේරුම් ගන්නට සමතෙක් වෙන නැත, දහ අතේ කල්පනා කර ලියමනක් එවන්නේ ඒ නිසාය.

කාලෙක ඉඳන් ‘බඩපිස්සු මාවත’ කියා හරි ‘බඩපිස්සු මඟ’ කියා හරි එකතුවක් පිහිටුවා ගන්නට හිතේ ඇත. හැටනව ලක්සයක් ඉන්න එකේ, පහසුවෙන්ම බඩපිස්සෝ රංචුවක් හොයා ගත හැක. උන්ලා ගෙන් සාමාජිකත්ව මුදලක්ද අය කර ගත්තාට පවක් නැත. ඊට පස්සේ, ‘බඩපිස්සන්ගේ දිනය’ කියා හරි ‘බඩපිස්සු දිනය’ කියා හරි දිනයක් උලුප්පා ගෙන අර හැටහුට හමාරක් පමණ ඇති දින අතරට රිංගවන්න ඇත්නං පන්කාදුය. එතකොට බතල මලක්, වැලක් එක්කම විකුණා කාසි ටිකක් හොයා ගන්නටද පුළුවන් වේය. බඩපිස්සන්ට, බඩපිස්සන් වීමේ ලා වෙන අකරතැබ්බද, අසාධාරනකම්ද, අකටයුතුකම්ද සාකච්චා කර ඒවා වැළැක්වීමේ පනතක්ද සම්මත කර ගන්නට ඇත්නං කියා සිතේය. අවුරුද්දට එක දවසක්, බලව්-දියව්, වරෙව්-නටව් කියමින් එක පාට කමිස ඇඳගෙන, ඒ පාටින්ම තොප්පිත් දාගෙන පාර දිගේ ටුවිස්ට් ඩාන්ස් එකක් දෙකක් දැම්මාම මක් වෙනවය? ප්රශ්නයකට ඇත්තේ දින දර්ශනයේ තව දින ඉතිරිව තියෙනවාද කියන එකය.

පුංචි සංදියේ, “මේක නෙවෙයි බං අරක කොරහන්” කියමින්ද “ඔහොම නෙවෙයි බූරුවෝ මෙහෙම කොරහන්” කියමින්ද, අම්ම අප්පච්චි එක්ක හරි හරියට මඟ පෙන්නුවො ලෝක,මද්දුම,ඩිංගි හා හින්නිය. අපූරුවට කකුල් දෙකෙන් ඇවිදින්නට පුළුවන්කම තියෙද්දිත් උන්ගේ කර පිටින් එහෙ මෙහෙ ගිය එකද මිහිරිය. ඒ කාලේ වැඩිමල් ඈයිං කියන, කරන දේකට හා, හී කියා ගෙන උන්නා නං අහවරය. එල්ලාං සරිය. එවරිතිං ඕල් රයිට්ය. උන් කරපු වැරදි, වැරදි ලෙසටත් නිවැරදි දේ නිවැරදි ලෙසටත් දකින්නට ඒ කාලේ හිච්චි බඩපිස්සෝ මෝරලා හිටියේ නැත. වැඩිමල්ලු උත්සහ කරන්නේ බඩපිස්සව සදා යටත්විජිතයක් ලෙස තබා ගන්නටය. බොලා වාගේම මාත් ඒ කාලේ අර චුං චෑන් වාගේය, අරක ගෙනෙන් කිව්වම දුවල ගිහින් ඒක ගෙනාවේය, මේක ගෙනෙන් කියා කිව්වමත් එහෙමය. අරූට ගහපං කිව්වමත් මූව එළවපන් කිව්වමත් කියූ සුනන්ගුවට රොබෝවෙක් ලෙස ක්රියාත්මක වුනේය. ඒ එදාය, තවත් නං බැරිය. දණගාද්දි ඇවිදින්නට අත දුන්නාය කියා හැමදාම උන් කියන කියන බහුභූත කල හැක?

හොඳයි මං අහන්නේ..අපි බඩපිස්සෝ වුනා කියල හරියට ඉගෙන ගත්තේ නැද්ද (හරි හරි..ඒක ඉතිං ‘කරාපිය’ කියල කන මිරිකලා කඳුළු පිටවෙන්න ටොක්කක් ඇන්නට  පස්සේ තමා), හොඳ රස්සාවක් කලේ නැද්ද( සම්මුඛ පරීක්ෂණ මණ්ඩලේ මද්දුන්ගෙ සමකාලීනයන් උන්න එකත් හැබෑව) හොඳ පරස්ථාවක් කර ගත්තේ නැද්ද ( ඒකත් දෙමව්පියන්ගේ උනන්දුවටය කියන කතාවෙත් ලොකු වැරැද්දක් නෑ තමයි) කොහොම හරි දරුවොත් හදල, උන් උස මහත් කරල, උන්ගෙ දරුවොත් නළවල, පුත්තලම් බූරුවෝ පස් හය දෙනෙක්ගේ වයසත් පහු කරන්න ඇවිදිල්ල ඉන්න මේ අපෙන්, උන්දැල තාම බලාපොරොත්තු වෙන්නේ අර එදා චුං චෑන්ව. වෙලාවකට හිතෙනවා වැඩිහිටුකම් පැත්තකට දාල, හොඳ කෝටුවක් අර ගෙන, ඒක කැඩෙන කල්ම පත බාන්න. මට මෙහෙම හිතෙනවා නං, බොලාට හැබෑට කොහොම හිතෙනවා ඇද්ද!

ඈ බං ගොටයියේ, බඩපිස්සන්ට තහනංද තමන්ගේය කියල මතයක් දරන්න? ආත්ම විශ්වාසෙකින් තමන් කරන කාරිය කරන්න? උන්ට කැපයි, අපිට අකැපයි. අපිත් යමක් කමක් තේරුම් බේරුම් කර ගන්න දන්න, අත්දැකීම්, පළපුරුදු තියෙන ඈයෝ නෙවෙද. ඒ මදිවට උන්දැලගේ අර යන්තං කරදඬු උස මහත් වුනු පැඟිරො ටික, රාජ ඌස්නේ ගහල එන්නෙත් අපිව ආණ්ඩු මට්ටු කරන්න. මට තියෙන ප්රශ්න ටිකම බොලාටත් ගෙඩි පිටින් තියෙනව නෙවෙද, හැබෑට මේකට මක් කලොත් හොඳද, මේ සේරෝම බඩපිස්සන්ට පොදු ප්රශ්නය, සාකච්චා මාර්ගයෙන් විසඳන්න පුළුවන්ද කියා සැකය. මිරිස් රටේ බැශලේ හම්බ වෙන්න යන්නත් හිතෙනවාය.

මගේ වාසනාවට, මං රාජකාරි කරන තැන උන්දැල නැත, උන්දැලගේ පැඟිරොද නැත. බොලාට එහෙමය, අගමැති ගෙන් පටන් ගත්තම තව ඇමතිලම 4-5ක්, නිකන් රශ්මි ධාරා කදම්භ වටේට කැරකෙනවා වාගේ, හැම එකටම හොට දා ගෙනය. බොලා හරිය කියල හිතන හැටනව ලක්සෙට වෙච්චි හරිහමං පොරොන්දුවක් වත් ලේසියෙන් ඉෂ්ඨ කරලා දෙන්න බැහැ නෙව හැබෑට! අනේ මන්දා, හොඳට නරකට දෙකම වැඩිමල්ලුය කියා හිතෙනවාය.

ඒ අව්අස්සේ මෝදිප්පගෙ ආදරේ, හරියට එවුන්දැගේ රටේ ප්රාන්තයක් කියල හිතානයි බොලාව මෙහෙයවන්නේ. ශි-ශින්පින්යිය ද අපට ආදරේය, ඔය කවුරු කවුරුත් ආදරේ කරන්නේ උන්ට වාසියක් නම් විතරය. අපට බැරි වුන දාක වුනත් උදව්වට එන්නේ තව දහ-පහළොවක් දේ හිතේ තබා ගෙනය. ඕක තේරුං කර ගත්ත නං හොඳය. 

ඒක නෙවෙයි, දැන් ඔය හේත්තු වෙන්න හදන හාදයා ජාමුලේ පාමුලට බොලාව දක්වනවයි කියන්නේ හැබෑද? පොඩි කාලෙක වින්දනයකට ජාමුලේ ණය උගුලේ පැටලුනහම කැප කරන්න සිද්ධ වෙන්නේ මහින්දයිය බේර දුන්න රට. 

’70 දශකයේ මුල වාගේ, අපි අපේ රට පැත්තට හැරෙන්නට ඕනය. විෂම චක්ර-ණය අඩු කර ගන්න, ලොකු-ලොක්කන් ගෙන්ම පටන්  ගෙන, පාරදෘශ්‍යව-ආදර්ශයෙන් බඳපටි තද කර ගත්තට ලැජ්ජ වෙන්න දෙයක් නැතිය. මේ, ස්වයංපෝෂිත ආර්ථික රටාවක්, රටකට නැතුවම බැරි කාලයක්ය. 3වන ලෝක යුද්ධයක පෙර නිමිති දකිමින් ඉන්න අවදියක කරන්නට ඇත්තෙ තව තව ණය ගන්න එක නෙවෙයිය. ජාමුලේ යදින එක නෙවෙයිය.

හිතුවාටත් වඩා ලියමන දිගය. මගේ වටිනා කාලය අපතේ නොයවා මේ ලියමන කියවන්නේ නං හොඳාය. හැකි ඉක්මනට මං අර කියූ බඩපිස්සන්ගේ එකතුව, බඩපිස්සු දින ගැන තව දුරටත් දැනුවත් කරන්නෙම්ය.
 
එහෙන් මෙහෙං අඩු වුනත් හැටනව ලක්ස පිහිටයි!
මෙයට
හිතවත් බඩපිස්සා 

Dr Sudath Gunasekara, Mahanuwara, 

Shame!  Shame! For the Greatness of India! when Sri Lanka in dire distress, asked for a distress loan, for emergency supplies of food, fuel and medicines, instead of helping its neighbor, opportunist India is trying to fish in troubled Sri Lankan waters.

I earnestly request all my patriotic readers first, to read carefully the following arrogant and opportunistic and utterly undiplomatic statement India has issued and how she has reacted to a request made by the Sri Lankan Government for a distress lo purchase food, fuel and medicine from its worthy neighbor and thereafter please read my comments there to, that follows.

India imposes tough conditions for US$ 1 billion loan

Seeks road map to overcome economic crisis and outlines strategic projects in North and East; Basil’s visit off till then

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India has called for a road map from Sri Lanka on how it is going  to overcome its economic crisis in the long term as well as to clear the decks for a long list of its economic cum strategic demands for implementation in the North and the East of Sri Lanka.

Till then the future of the one billion dollar emergency loan from India seems uncertain.

Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa’s twice cancelled visit to India after securing a USD 500 million loan in December last year to clinch  a further one billion dollar loan for emergency supplies of food, fuel and medicines to overcome the ongoing economic crisis in Sri Lanka is yet to be rescheduled. The December loan taken by Sri Lanka was also to be repaid this week.

The Sunday Times learns that the Indian Government is awaiting the green light from the Colombo Government on both fronts, i.e. the economic action plan aimed at long term recovery from the country’s foreign exchange and debt repayment crisis and to the Indian list of demands to start economic projects in Sri Lanka. Neither Colombo nor New Delhi has officially mentioned either so far.

The Indian demands involve a string of maritime security agreements that will strengthen India’s strategic interests, particularly around the eastern Trincomalee harbour. These include Donier surveillance aircraft for the Sri Lanka Air Force, a ship repair dock for the Sri Lanka Navy in Trincomalee and posting of a Sri Lankan Navy officer at the Intelligence Fusion Centre, a Bahrain-based intelligence sharing office which is a US Navy initiative to combat international terrorism, the narcotics trade and ensure safe maritime passage for commercial vessels in the region.

One of the key pressure-points from the Indian Government is to start a renewable energy (solar power) project in and around Sampur near Trincomalee. An earlier plan by India to begin a coal power project in joint partnership with Japan has now been abandoned as Sri Lanka announced a move away from coal plants as part of its futuristic energy policy.

The reopening of the Palay airport for commercial operations and several cultural projects in the Jaffna peninsula are also among items on the list already made public.

The Indian Government also wants to enter into the renewable energy field in the Delft islet after it scuttled a Chinese company securing the project following an Asian Development Bank ((ADB) tender procedure.

The one billion US dollar loan from India agreed to earlier in principle by the Indian Finance Ministry remains suspended for now, until guarantees are given from the Sri Lankan side, it is learnt.

The Indian High Commission said it did not want to comment on Finance Minister Rajapaksa’s visit as it was not formally announced that he was to visit New Delhi for a one-billion-dollar loan facility. Last week, however, the mission stated that the visit fixed for last week was rescheduled as Foreign Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had to urgently visit Paris on official business.

Mr. Jaishankar was earlier due in Colombo on March 18, but the high commission remained tight-lipped on the visit takin

My Comments

Indian Kautilyan and Jewish demands

I do not propose to comment in detail on each of these typical Indian Kautilyan and Jewish demands and conditions it has rudely laid down, just like Shylock the Jew did when he asked a pound of flesh from the heart of the victim and I leave it for the intelligent readers to make their own assessments on the Indian attitude towards this country and its government. As a person who has closely studied the Indian attitude towards this country, starting from prehistoric times of Rama to date, I don’t trust the hypocritic goodwill of India for an atom in any field and I treat the usual political flattery like the long-standing close friendship and mutually beneficial relationship we had’ our politicians always repeat like parrots as mere rubbish which never prevailed between the two countries in known history.

On the Indian demands and conditions, I think, it suffices to state very briefly that it is like asking a man who is about to get drowned and die in the middle of the deep sea to catch a big fish if he needs help by a passing by fishing trawler.

India thinks Sri Lanka is already one of their colonies  

The long list of economic and strategic demands, which no sensible government in Sri Lanka can possibly agree without compromising its sovereignty and independence, presented by India for implementing in the North and East and those that will strengthen India’s selfish, strategic and political interests, like the renewable energy plant in Delft, Sampur Solar power project and the conditions laid down looks like as if this part of Sri Lanka is already   under Indian control and to that extent it also appears that. they are thinking as if Sri Lanka is already one of their colonies

a well-planned Indian steel net over the northern part of the Island

Obviously, this is a well-planned Indian steel net they are trying to throw over the northern part of the Island to consolidate the Indian grip over that area with very broad objectives. Firstly, to take physical control of the Northern part of the Island with air and naval presence. Second to consolidate Indian presence over this strategically important part including Palali Airport  and Trinco harbour, to take full control over Northern Sri Lanka and thirdly, to prevent any other power like China or USA getting in there. The only missing demand in this cleverly manipulated Indian conspiracy, as I see, is that they have not included the condition that the Central Hill Country, the HETTLAND of the Sinhale Kingdom to be made the Exclusive Homeland of Indian estate slave labour, brought by the British and left astray when they left and to grant them irrevocable deeds for the Heartland of this Island nation, that provides physical stability that decides the fate of the entire life system  and human civilization of this land, as all rivers in the country that gives life to the nation have their sources on these hills and also not to settle any native Sinhalese there” as a precondition. It is surprising that They have not demanded a lease document to this land or to make constitutional safeguards to that effect as they did it to the North and East by the Rajiv/Jr Accord of 1987 so that in the event of default the ownership of this part of the Island goes to India.

India is trying to fish in troubled waters

Overall, in this ridiculous letter India seems to have completely forgotten that Sri Lanka is a fully sovereign Independent Republic on the world political map, the same way as India is, with the same political status and not one of India’s suzerainties

This un-diplomatic letter clearly shows that India is trying to fish in troubled Sri Lankan waters as if someone is trying to light his cigar while the other’s beard is caught in fire”. It is obvious that India is trying to tighten its grip on this country by getting the Sri Lankan government to commit under the present desperate situation. Reading this Indian message reminded me the Lion and the Lamb story we learned in the kindergarten.

India has never been a true friend of Sri Lanka

As I have always consistently maintained that India has never been a true friend of Sri Lanka. It was the main invader and the biggest headache throughout history from time immemorial, say at least from the time of Rama- Ravana episode in the prehistoric period. Indian aggression on this little Island to own it had been the stark fact and also an eternal craving of India and the rule rather than the exception. There had been 18 recorded Indian aggressions on this Island from 2nd century BC up to Magha devastation in the 12 Century AD. This was the regular and crazy expansionist agenda India pursued, until the Portuguese invaded the island in 1505. In fact, the history of ancient Lanka is nothing but a continuous line of invasions from South India, where Sri Lankan rulers were trying to defend their motherland against these invaders until the 12^th Century when finally, the Rajarata Civilization was shifted to the South West of the Island in defeat. As a result, the Rajarata Sinhala Buddhist civilization, once acclaimed in par with ancient Roman and Greek civilizations was taken over by the jungle tide with sporadic ruins of ancient irrigation marvels and remnants of destroyed religious monuments vandalized and left behind by the invading South Indian Tamils.

This was the true situation of Northern and Eastern parts of the Island when Portuguese invaded and captured the maritime Provinces in 1505.Portuguese were followed by the Dutch (1665-1797) and the British took over from Dutch in 1797 finally they ceded the Sinhale Kingdom to their Empire by intrigue and deception in 1815 under the Kandyan Convention on 2^nd of March and they left in 1948 after ruling the country from 1815 to 1948 as Ceylon meaning the land of the Sinhala people.

Thereafter fortunately for us India had a long interval in invading this Island as India itself had come under the Western colonial rule. Meanwhile all three colonial powers brought South Indian slaves to work on their projects here.  British in particular brought them in large numbers as mercenaries first to fight against the Sinhalese freedom fighters in 1817 and 1848 freedom struggles. The worst Indian infiltration in the Islands history took place with the forceful recruitment of South Indian Tamil indentured labour in millions after 1830 to work on the newly opened up coffee and Tea plantations in central Sri Lanka by removing the entire primeval forest cover of the Island. When British left the island in 1948, they left behind all these Indian slave labourers numbering over 1.2 million stateless Indians high and dry deliberately creating a major demographic, economic, social and political headache for the newly independent Dominion as a part of their vicious colonial strategy to destabilize this Island nation.

The British maintained these plantation areas as a South Indian enclave separated from the native Sinhalese villages, as an alien community different from the natives with a different language, different religion and different culture.

After the British left in 1948 , Indian government restarted the old game

After the British left, again the Indian government  came in a different garb as their new god fathers. India renewed the age old Kautilyan expansionist agenda and claimed Sri Lankan citizenship for all Tamils labourers living on these plantations in  Sri Lanka with a vicious dream of creating a Malayanadu in Central Sri Lanka, the Heartland of the Sinhale Kandyan Kingdom that successfully defended the traditional Sinhale Kingdom for 500 years against three powerful colonial invaders

The period that followed the 1948 fake independence was marked by a series of communal agitation by Tamils both in the plantation areas and the North and the East demanding them to be recognized as a separate nation with special privileges using the weaknesses of the Soulbury Constitution which gave them recognitions as a minority nation (Sec 29 for the first time in Sri Lankan history) within this country.

Sad failures and weaknesses of the native Sinhala leaders in the post independent era paved the way for Tamil militancy.

The sad failures and weaknesses of the native Sinhala leaders to restore a fully independent country, Sinhale with all traditional native privileges we lost to the invaders in 1815 and whatever left, systematically destroyed by them since then. They include the name  of the Kingdom we lost in 1815 Sinhale, the National flag, the Language of the people Sinhala, their religion Buddhism, native Administrative and legal system, vacant possession of the motherland, without the Indian slave laboures brought by the British and settled on plantations, the native education system and restoring the Sinhale Kingdom or at least declaring an Independent Republic and reinstalling a native political system of our own without blindly embracing the alien British Parliamentary system, with a cancerous political party system that was designed to divide and destroy the Sinhala nation and this country laid down by the departing British as the foundation for a divided and disunited jumble called the Sri Lanka Nation.

Thereafter India heavily backed the Tamils and started to agitate on behalf of them calling them as people of Indian origin with no regard for this country as a separate sovereign and Independent State. Unlike in the past where only the South Indian Dravidayans like Chola and Pandyans were involved in aggressions, now new  India created by the British in 1947 got involved in Tamil issues in Sri Lanka as they form a part and parcel of the nearly 70 million Tamils  in Tamilnadu whose vote became a critical factor in the political power structure in Delhi , which apparently has made Tamilnadu more important to India than Sri Lanka. With these changes in the global political map Tamils in this country looked upon India as their protector and benefactor and the Indian Prime Minister as their Prime Minister. Even Indian Leaders like Ghandi, Subash Chandrabos and Gokahale were venerated like Gods and everything Indian were worshipped by them. In fact, they always treated India as their Motherland with second hand treatment to Sri Lanka, although they earn their daily living in this country. This is like saluting the sea after drinking water from the well. All Tamils living in Lanka were here only in their bodies and their bodies and dreams were always in India.

It was under this backdrop Ponnambalama asked for 50 50 in 1935 and Chelvanayagam a Catholic migrant from Malasia started his ambitious new political Party Ilankai Tamil Arusukachchi in 1947 with the aim of forming an independent Tamil State within Sri Lanka. This situation further complicated conditions in this country

It was in this backdrop Tamil Agitation began for a separate Tamil State in this country. The climax of these movements was marked with the rise of the LTTE separatist movement found in 1976 by Prabhaakaran to create an independent Tamil state for the Sri Lankan Tamil people with the ultimate objective of making Sri Lanka the Headquarters of future EELAM Empire for all the Tamils in the world, including India, Malaysia, Fiji Islands and many other countries having a Tamil population resident.

Prabhakaran’s vicious movement lasted for nearly 25 years and finally got defeated in 2009 thanks to the Sri Lanka security Forces under the President Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2009 May 29.

The LTTE terrorist movement was created with full support from India to compel the Sri Lankan government to give a separate State for Tamils in this country with the long -term dream of converting Sri Lanka in to what they called EELAM. They say it was the ancient name for this Island nation without accepting the hard fact that South Indian Tamils have coined it from the word Sinhale, meaning the land of the Sinhalese people, founded by them.

The LTTE was Fathered and mothered by India

This movement was manipulated, directed and largely funded by the Indian Government and nursed by the RAW openly. The whole world knows how India financed that terrorist movement, opened training camps all over India to train them with the LTTE headquarters in Tamilnadu, provided them with all facilities to fight against the Sri Lankan Government, such as weaponry, ammunition, know- how and everything else. Meanwhile in 1987 India invaded Sri Lankan airspace dropped Parippu and threatened old JR the then President of this country, that India will invade unless JR agree to sing almost at gun point the illegal and un-democratic and unconventional Rajiv/ JR Accord on29th July, violating all covenants of the Viana Convention on diplomatic norms.

As a result, the infamous JR/Rajiv Accord declaring northern and Eastern Provinces 1/3 of the country’s total area illegally as the Historical Home Land of Tamils (a complete travesty of the history of this country) with the following clauses was singed on 29th July 1987

1.The Northern and Eastern Provinces to be merged as one with provisions to merge it with one or more other provinces in future. (this was a long- term plan to merge Central, Uva And Sabavragamuwa where there is high concentration of Tamils as the next step if forming the nucleus of the future Greater EELAM)

2Giving Sri Lankan Citizenship to all illegal Indian immigrants (kallathonis) living in this Country,

3.Accepting Tamil as an official Language of Sri Lanka with special provisions and  privileges to the N&E.

4 Setting up of Provincial Councils to cover the whole Island under the 13th Amendment to the 1987 Constitution of Sri Lanka with wide powers on matters such as Land, Police and Legal to the PCC as the road map for future balkanization of this Island nation. One wonders whether this was a subcontract taken over by India from the British to divide this country to pieces and wipe out the Sinhala nation and Buddhism from the face of this planet, which they were hatching for centuries since 1797 by way of taking revenge for resisting their taking over this land when British were at the peak of world domination.

The only good thing we have ever got from India in known history is Buddhism.

The only good thing we have ever got from India known history is Buddhism. that was introduce to this Island in 307 BC during the time of Dharmasoka.

All the rest was a continuous chain of miserable invasion followed by looting, destruction and devastation.

So, in this backdrop, looking in retrospect India had always been our number one enemy of this country and its nation the Sinhala People trying to grab this Island nation throughout history.

Furthermore. In contemporary history India had always been against this country even in international fora at Geneva or New York. As I see it India is suffering from, an incurable chronic ailment, a craving to annex all its neighbors as if 3287 million km2 within the Subcontinent is not big enough for them.

Tracing back this ugly behavior of India, now look at what she has done to the SAARC. It is a funny situation with India that it never likes us having friendly relations with any other country either. When we were getting closer to America during JR time India was against it. Same when we were friendly with USSR in 1960s and 70s. And now India does not want us to be friendly with China the emerging power of Asia that might very likely be the world leader of the 22^nd Century, as renowned people like  Prof. Samuel Huntington in his The clash of Civilizations and remaking the World Order” and Martin Jacques the Author of When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order:” August 28, 2012. have predicted.

China a good Samaritan of Sri Lanka

Now looking at what China has done to help our country over the years, what is it that India has done to this country, other than festering us all the time interfering with our domestic affairs, blaming that we are not treating people of Indian origin living here with dignity, self- respect and what not as if they have given everything including equal rights, dignity and self- respect. None of these rights are given even in Tamilnadu, the historical Tamil Homeland of Tamils. India is preaching us long sermons while denying even official status to Tamil Language in spite of 70 million Tamils living there as their traditional Homeland from the inception of human history? The whole world knows how Nehru crushed Tamil claims for their rights when taken up by Dravidamunnetra kasagam.

Sri Lanka should withdraw its request for the 1 billion loan

In this backdrop, as a country with self-respect and dignity I suggest Sri Lanka withdraws its request for the loan and send a Thank you note diplomatically refusing to agree to any of those condition and demands India has laid down in their press release. The finance minister also should immediately withdraw our request for that infamous 1billiom distress loan and look for alternative strategies of meeting the present crisis on a multi-faceted approach.

Summon a SAARC Finance Ministers in Colombo to discuss Sri Lankan crisis

Since India has not come to our help when we are in distress there is no point in trying to build up cordial relationships with such a country. That is why I suggested in Lankaweb of 8.3.2022. that the Government convene a Colombo meeting of the SAARC Finance Ministers immediately to discuss our current crisis with a view to working out an alternative multilateral solution with SAARC members and let us see as to what India is going to do. If she does not attend the meeting then she will get isolated among the SAARC family. Already all the SAARC members

Reject Indian demands and conditions

Thereafter as an expression of our dissatisfaction Sri Lanka also should show that we are not prepared to accede to their unrealistic and unreasonable demands and conditions as we value more our own interests as and fully independent, sovereign and a free nation and take the following measures to protect our own interests. Also, we have to tell India that Sri Lanka is not a puppet of India and we are also a fully independent sovereign state as much as India is. We have always respected your independence and dignity and supported you at all international fora. We expect the same from you as well. although you have not been always so.

1.Pay back the 500 m US$ due immediately

2.Scrap the agreement with the IOC, a major pipe line laid to drain our wealth to Delhi, and hand over fuel distribution of all types within the country to CPC so that the profit presently going to India will come to the CPC and thereby increasing its income and profits and also save the Forex now going to India and employment for locals will also go up.

 (Mrs Bandaranayaka nationalized the foreign owned Shell. Caltex and Esso in 1962 and set up the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation. Ranil Wickramasinha sold part of CPC to IOC (A Subsidiary of Indian Oil Corporation) in 2002. And now in 2022 CPC is almost on the verge of closing down as it is unable to face competition from IOC)

3 Start a full review of all other agreements with India, such as Trinco Oil Farm lease, Mattala Airport and Colombo Harbour Western Terminal with a view to cancel them finally or at least re-negotiate the terms and conditions to make them favourable to Sri Lanka.

4 Take steps to close down the Consular Offices in Jaffna, and Hambantota as they are only Indian spying centers against Sri Lanka. Also close down Kandy Assistant Commissioner’s office as it has ceased to serve its original purpose of providing assistance to the Indian Estate labourers in the Central Province, annually going to India to deposit their earnings and see their relatives. In any case there is absolutely no need to have 3 additional Consular Offices in Jaffna, Kandy and Hambantota all at strategic  places.

5 Also request the Indian Central government to take immediate steps to stop illicit poaching by Indian Fishermen in the Mannar bay within the Sri Lankan maritime territory and instruct Sri Lankan Forces to arrest all encroaching on Sri Lankan territorial waters and take legal action without releasing them on the request of the Indian Government as they do it at present

6 Also take action to keep Indian imports to the minimum on a staggered basis going by national priorities.

7 Take legal action under the provisions of the 6^th Amendment to Constitution against those Tamil Politicians who go after the  Indian Government against the Sri Lanka Government in their agitation for separation and undue demands.

8 Request the Indian Government to refrain from all sort of unnecessary interferences with the internal matters of this country and also to leave us alone to decide on matters pertaining to Tamils living in this country..

9 Recall the present Ambassador Milinda Molagoda for failing to successfully negotiate this loan and appoint a senior carrier SLOS person in place of Molagoda, before he sells the whole country to India under his Policy Road Map for Indo Sri Lankan relations

10 The Government also should at least now give up its foolish ”India First” policy as stated by the Prime Minister MR and instead we must adopt a Sri Lanka First” policy and all our diplomatic affairs should be geared to achieve that objective.

11 As a founder member [S1] of the NAN we should strictly maintain the non-Aligned policy, while maintaining special friendly realtions  with countries who help us in our needs but not with countries who are concerned with only their self- interests..

Let the arrogant Indian Kautillyan mandarins and selfish Indian Politicians of the day also understand the frustration we Sri Lankans feel about their non friendly attitude

12 Lay down a clear national policy statement on our national assets that will not change with change of government prohibiting outright sale or long-term lease to any country and never allow another country to have its military, communication or any other installation that can become a threat to national security of this country.

Now that the USA also has decided to impose a wide array sanction on India over S-400 deal with Russia this is an ideal time to take this course of action with regard to India.  

My million-dollar question is what is the friendship and the cordial and warm diplomatic or any other relationship Sri Lanka can have with a country like that,

1.First, refuses to lend a helping hand, by way of a loan, (remember not an outright grant) in a friendly manner to us in the hour of our need and when we are in dire distress asking for help.

2. Second, that had been gunning against us from the dawn of history and providing financial and military assistance including training to the LTTE to ousted the democratically elected government of this country for three decades (1976-2010)

3 Finally, its Prime Minister Rajiv Ghandhi in desperation presented his bullet Proof jacket to Prabhakaran, founder and leader of the most ruthless killer terrorist gang in the world in 1987 to protect himself in his indiscriminate killing spree against the unarmed Sinhala people including Buddhist Monks, devotes at observing sil at places of worship, destroying their historic places of worship like the Sacred Bo Tree in Anuradhapura, the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, the palladium of the entire Buddhist world and ordinary innocent men, women and children and also destroying national assets such as the nation’s premier International AirPort at Katunayaka along with a large fleet of brand new planes the central Bank of the nation, and a large number of trains and busses carrying passengers, to bring nemesis to a nation dastardly wishing him,

The son of the sun God” and the liberator of the Tamil nation on earth, you go back to the land of the Sinhalese and kill them indiscriminately whether young or old, men or women big or small in thousands with no fear and bring total annihilation to the Sinhala nation.  This Jacket will protect you against all evils on earth’ until you win your noble war against the Sinhalese the adversary of the Tamils and you raise the Tiger flag of victory on the top of the Adam’s Peak and declare the establishment of the newly won Kingdom of Tamil EELAM to the whole world.

(Postscript: Had Rajiv listened to my advice posted to him in march 1991 asking him to refrain from helping Tamil Tigers to kill Sinhala people in this country, who also descend from North India just like him. I also warned him in that letter that if he failed to do so, Prabhakaran will one day turn his guns at him in retribution., He was killed on his own motherland at Sriperumbudur on May 21, 1991 Had he listened to me he would have been alive even at this moment, perhaps as the Prime Minister of India)

What happened to India with his death, the Indian Congress almost disappeared, legendary Nehru tradition also disappeared from Indian soil and a period of mediocre politics emerged, who could be led on a blind alley by the Indian mandarins in contrast to the golden days of Jawaharlal Nehru. Today it is being run by pack of Indian Brahamin mandarins molded in the Kautilyan -Machiavellian crucible advocating the expansion of the Indian Empire, who believe on the dictum ‘ends justifie the means” are unusually busy in paving the way for the disintegration and Balkanization of India in the post-British period. Today India is at loggerheads with all the other SAARC members around, with giant Pakistan in the West and now emerging economic power Bangladesh in the East with no friends around.

It is in this backdrop, I think India is struggling to move south by encroaching on Sri Lanka with the help of Tamils living there and the So-called Tamil diaspora spread all over the world who are dreaming to establish their dream EELAM on this soil as an answer for India’s subjugation of their traditional Tamil Home Land on earth In Tamilnadu in South India.

This trend is more than evident when we see how India is having its Consular Offices all over the Island (Jaffna, Kandy and Hamabantota in addition to their main Embassy in Colombo. My question is as to why should they run four Embassies at sizable expense, in an Island of only 25,332 Sq miles. Then Its expansionism is successfully carried out in the central Sri Lanka at the moment with is 100,00o housing programme and all, other infrastructure facilities like roads, houses, hospitals, schools linked with Indian colleges for graduate and post graduate studies for Sri Lankan Tamil students annually awarded and what not. All this is a compact secret package implemented with a long-term agenda by Indian authorities while the Sri Lankan counterparts are dead asleep.

If India had maintained friendly and cordial relationships  with Sri Lanka from time immemorial respecting the freedom and sovereignty of  this country” as our politicians always used to say,   then how are we going to reconcile such lose words within this back ground

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 [S1]

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Selvarasa Pathmanathan a.k.a. Kumaran Pathmanathan a.k.a. “KP” (b. 1955) was an important figure in the Eelam war. Pathmanathan was a top LTTE official. He was the chief procurer of arms for the LTTE. KP functioned as the chief arms procurement agent for the LTTE throughout the Eelam war, starting from 1984. KP was the head of the most sophisticated weapons procurement net work operated by any terrorist organization   observed Shanaka Jayasekera.

Sri Lanka Army said KP” was born in Kankesanturai and belonged to the Karayar caste.  He had studied at Nadeshwar College in Kankesanturai and was studying commerce at University of Jaffna. On 25th March 1981 he robbed Rs. 7,909,813 from the People’s Bank in Neeraveli, Jaffna, and assassinated three police constables.

In an interview with Island newspaper, KP said that he was from Valvettiturai,  that Amirthalingam had introduced KP to Prabhakaran in the mid 70s, probably in 1976. He said, ‘we worked together thereafter.’ He was Prabhakaran’s best man at his wedding in India. KP kept a low profile.  He had direct contact only with Prabhakaran.He is one of the very few LTTE who had not received military training, Sri Lanka army observed. 

KP left Sri Lanka in 1983.  He was initially based in Malaysia. KP floated a company “Vikram Holdings” In 1989 at Kuala Lumpur, in partnership with three Malaysians of Sri Lankan origin. During the same period, he opened another company – “Point Pedro Shipping” – registered at Panama. This company was operating two ships “Sun Bird” and “Elicia”. The financing was done by K P.

 In 1990, Malaysia cracked down on LTTE activities, culminating in the seizure of an LTTE ship.  “Sun Bird”, flying the flag of Cyprus, was caught in Penang in December 1990, carrying communication equipment, underwater equipment, high speed boats.

KP then   moved to Thailand, married a Thai and settled down there.  Thailand was ideal for Eelam. Thailand was a short sea hop to Sri Lanka and had an excellent communications infrastructure.  Thailand provided easy access to   the former war zones of    Cambodia and Burma with their surplus weaponry.  Analysts observed that a terrorist organization with maritime capability needed to operate from foreign soil or a sea base in a remote island.

In Thailand KP established himself as the head of banking, procurement and shipping for the LTTE. KP ran a global network of LTTE offices which were engaged in weapons procurement, logistics and money laundering operations. Pathmanathan was solely responsible for   the elaborate   arms procurement operations for the LTTE and payments of large sums of money for the weapons (ordnance).

He managed the LTTE ships, procured supplies and provided guidance to the finance network, said Rohan Gunaratne., The LTTE was able to sustain a military campaign for so long only because Pathmanathan was able to procure its military requirements, observed analysts.

Around 1994 it is alleged that KP established a front company in Ukraine and procured weapon for the LTTE .Around 1998 he established. A front company in Dubai named Otherad cargo’ that facilitated weapons shipments to the LTTE.

Pathmanathan had a large network of contacts and links to the international illegal arms trade. He had an extensive list of illicit arms dealers,    Afghanistan, Soviet bloc, Yugoslavia, also Middle-East, Africa, and East-Asia including Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia.    KP obtained North Korea end user certificates.  Also an end user certificate from a weapons manufacturer in China.  In May, 2009 according to reports, he travelled to Kabul via Karachi to meet the Taliban government .

KP’s arms procurement operations were extremely secretive. Despite secrecy, some information has emerged on weapons purchasing. MV Swene carrying 60 tons of C4 explosives consigned to M/S Carlton Trading Co. Ltd., 60/61, Delugh Commercial Area, Dhaka, Bangladesh and a consignment of detonators consigned to E G C T International Ltd., Rangoon, Burma had left port of Nikolaev on 19/8/94 and sighted past Istanbul on 25/08/94. There had been no record of her voyage till she was reported leaving the Port of Lagos for the Port of Banjul in Gambia and intelligence indicated that in the intervening period of this north bound voyage she had off loaded the cargo to LTTE having entered the Indian Ocean.

The explosives had been purchased from Rubezhnoe Chemicals Plant “ZARYA” in Lugansk Region, Ukraine using end user certificate No: DP 816955 in the name of H.D. Hashin Noor Rahman. KP transferred US $ 50,000 from City bank account in Singapore in June 1994 to the Chemical Plant. (   Source: Aide memoire from Sri Lanka Foreign Ministry, June 2009)

KP’s arms procurement branch was known as the “KP Department”.  He procured modern hardware, paid for them through secret bank accounts, and shipped them to the LTTE using a merchant shipping network known as the “Sea Pigeons”, operated through the KP Department.

 KP was in charge of the shipping fleet too. Prabhakaran had instructed Kittu to meet Captain David, a merchant Navy officer who was on holiday at his home in Jaffna in February 1984. Captain David was asked to meet Prabhakaran regarding establishment of an LTTE shipping service.

 Captain David met Prabhakaran in Chennai in March 1984. Together with ‘KP,’ they chalked out an elaborate strategy to float maritime companies in Southeast Asia, based mainly in Singapore and Malaysia. ‘Arasu Maritime Private Ltd’ was one of their first ventures. Several firms were floated to make enquiries about military wares. ‘Captain David and Associates’ was one such firm. The support of Singapore-based Tamils was enlisted for this purpose.

An old Chinese vessel, ‘Sun-Hing,’ was purchased from a Mumbai based shipping magnate. The name of the ship was changed to ‘MV Cholan ’and the ship was registered in Panama in October 1984. Cholan was for smuggling arms and  equipment to the LTTE .

‘MV Cholan’ started its voyage in 1985 with general cargo from Southeast Asia to Vishakhapatnam in India. It also carried powerful boat engines, communication equipment, machine guns, tinned food, packet food, camouflage uniform items, tents and raincoats.”

LTTE got permission from Burma to establish a modest shipping concern based in the island of Twante located off the Irrawaddy delta. In 1990 they also had a niche in Phuket in Thailand.

The LTTE shipping fleet flouted the international laws governing international shipping operation. Ships would bring weapons from North Korea to the equator where the goods were transferred to small ships and subsequently into small fast boats. ( CONTINUED)

KAMALIKA PIERIS

KP was solely responsible for purchase of new ships for the LTTE. Five or six small freighters were added to the fleet, working under several dummy companies with offices in Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. These were officially to carry timber and grain  KP together with a UK based activists then purchased 11 merchant vessels.  By 2000, there were 11 well equipped ships, capable of transoceanic long distance sailing, for smuggling  LTTE had 13 ships in 2003.

There were many merchant navy officers, sailors and engineers from Valvettiturai   and elsewhere in the north east of Sri Lanka, available to the LTTE .Some of them had done training at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Nautical Engineering College in Mumbai.

Rohan Gunaratne said that the LTTE shipping and procurement staffers were highly skilled. They are masters in clandestine and compartmentalized operations. He said a double accountant, living in US, mostly purchased ships out of Japan. The ships were handled by R, living in Canada who had studied navigation. (Sunday Observer 6.12.09 p 9.)

In an interview to Colombo Page on May 22, 2017, KP provided some new information. He said that former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MG Ramachandran, known as MGR, provided the money to buy the ships and weapons. He said it was not difficult to acquire the ships at the time. “Anyone can open a shipping company. Anyone can operate ships, so it is a normal operation,” he said adding that there were many markets all over the world to buy weapons. The weapons shipments went to Jaffna via India. “Sometimes we would send a container to India and former Chief Minister would clear the container and hand over to us,” The containers were then taken by boat to Valvettiturai.

KP had also built a fleet of commercial boats, the only separatist group to be so equipped. Pathmanathan had established a state-of-the-art boatyard in Thailand, which manufactured over a dozen different boats, including mini-submarines and suicide boats, said Wikipedia. KP is at present running a boat manufacturing plant in an East Asian country, complained Sri Lanka in its aide memoir of 2009. 

In June 2000 Thai police had stumbled on a half built submersible in a Phuket shipyard.  The ship yard was owned by C.R. Lawrence a Jaffna born Tamil with a Norwegian passport. He had been arrested in an operation against oil smugglers. The authorities found instead of oil, sophisticated equipment meant for LTTE, such as radar and sonar.  They searched his shipyard and found the boat.  An American and a Thai had been co-owners of this yard.

The tourist operation of Lawrence was a cover up for smuggling arms via the Andaman Islands to the LTTE. He was convicted by Thai authorities but mysteriously disappeared from Thailand after an intervention by a woman posing as a representative of Amnesty International who had apparently got the Thai authorities to deport him to Norway.

The government of Sri Lanka succeeded in sinking most if not all of the LTTE ships, both hired and owned by LTTE. They started with MV Ahat (Yahata) on January 16, 1993. Having intercepted the LTTE vessel, on January 13, 1993, far from the Indian coast, Coast Guard Ship Vivek, backed by INS Kirpan, had forced the LTTE crew to bring it to a point, eight nautical miles off Egmore, and north of Madras, to facilitate an inspection. The LTTE blew up the vessel to avoid capture of top LTTE cadres, Kittu and Kuttisri.

MV Horizon, was sunk off Nayaru, on Feb. 14, 1996 ,MV Fratzescom, sunk off Mullaitivu, on Nov 2, 1997MV Mariamma, sunk 190 nm west of Nocobar, on March 11, 1998,MV Koimer, sunk off Mullaitivu, on March 10, 2003 and MV Shoshin, sunk off Mullaitivu, on June 14, 2003.

A vessel, without a name, was destroyed 120 nautical miles off Kalmunai on Sept 17, 2006. The SLAF carried out an attack in support of the Navy.MV Kiyoi was destroyed 365 nautical miles south of Dondra on Feb 28, 2007. MV Seiyoo and another unidentified vessel were destroyed 825 nautical miles south east of Arugam bay on March 18, 2007. MV Manyoshi and MV Seishin were destroyed 2200 km south east of Dondra on Sept 10, 2007. MV Koshia was destroyed south east of Dondra on Sept 11, 2007. MV Matsushima was destroyed 2600 south east of Dondra on Oct 7, 2007. An unknown vessel north east of Mullaitivu on Dec 20, 2008.

The LTTE had four remaining merchant vessels, under the two companies registered in Panama and Bahamas. They were run by cadres known as Nehru Jee in UK and Raja Ananda in Philippines.

In 2009, after the war ended, government of Sri Lanka took control of   three of these. In December 2009 it was reported in the media that Sri Lanka has seized three LTTE ships and is in the process of bringing them to Colombo. They were expensive craft, used by the LTTE for transportation of arms, ammunition and human smuggling. Princess Cristina, had been taken over in foreign waters, in Dec 2009. It was seized by the Navy during a clandestine operation.

In 2009 or so, KP left Thailand and returned to Malaysia. There is a rapid buildup of LTTE base in Malaysia as the major gathering point of top tiger operatives. K Pathmanathan known as KP has set up base there after quitting Thailand reported the media in March 2009.

Foreign agencies interested in the Eelam war continued their contact with KP in Malaysia. Norway had kept in touch with KP throughout.  V Nambiar, UN Under Secretary general had phoned KP in Malaysia. KP has also been in touch with Anton Balasingham.

When US saw that the government of Sri Lanka was winning the war, it was keen on getting the LTTE leaders out of Sri Lanka before the war ended. Mark Salter reported that there was a secret meeting in Kuala Lumpur between Norwegian Ambassador Tore Hattrem and chief LTTE representative Kumaran Pathmanathan ‘KP.’ The date is not given. The meeting was attended by Jon Westborg and Tomas Stangeland on the Norwegian side and V. Rudrakumaran and Jay Maheswaran on the LTTE side.”   Pathmanathan was working out a plan to get the LTTE leadership away to another country, possibly Eritrea, South Africa or East Timor. 

Pathmanathan was on Interpol‘s most wanted list for various charges including arms smuggling and criminal conspiracy He is also wanted in connection with the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 and for violation of the Terrorist Act and the Indian Explosive Act.

KP had used several aliases KP has been using more than four passports including one that has been issued from Sri Lanka. All other passports were from UK and India and different names have been used for those documents. He was believed to have had bank accounts in London, Frankfurt, Denmark, Athens and Australia. He could speak Sinhala, Tamil, English and French .

KP was LTTE’s chief international spokesman during the last months of the civil war.   When the LTTE was defeated in Sri Lanka, analysts speculated that KP will focus on taking control of all financial deposits the LTTE keeps in various secret accounts.  And also secure control of the groups most important assets including its shipping operations.

However, the government of Sri Lanka   had other ideas. It was determined to squash the next generation of LTTE leaders. KP was arrested on 5 August 2009 in the Tune Hotel, downtown Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia., by Sri Lanka military in a covert operation with the cooperation of local authorities. He was brought to Colombo, held in a heavily secured secret location,  and questioned. Pathmanathan was released from prison on 17 October 2012, when the complaints against him by Sri Lanka were withdrawn.

Many years later, KP was interviewed by the media.  He has given three interviews, to Colombo Page on May 22, 2017. Daily FT on July 2020   and Lanka Courier in June 2021.

In these interviews KP said that he had changed his position on LTTE after 2003. The world order had drastically changed following the 9/11 attacks of 2001. I could not carry on the procurement process as we had done earlier. Also I saw a change of attitude in the Rajapaksa government. They were confident. They obstructed the LTTE’s supply chains. This was the first sign of the LTTE’s impending downfall.    

From 2003 to 2008, I maintained a very remote communication with Prabhakaran.  After 2003, I urged Prabhakaran to pursue a political solution .I felt that there was no point in continuing the LTTE’s armed struggle anymore. We should opt for a political solution. But the LTTE thought I had changed in my thinking, and was trying to move away from the LTTE’s ideology. Those who were around Prabhakaran wanted the struggle to continue.  It appears that only Anton Balasingham and KP wanted the LTTE to go for a political solution and both were sidelined.

Yes, I have regrets. I am 64 years old and I feel I lost almost 40 years on an unworthy cause, KP said.  When I was arrested 10 years ago, I met Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa.  He asked me to forget the past and told me that they were not the kind of people who would take revenge. He told me I could live comfortably without any worries. We spoke for two hours that day. A friend of mine told me that I was the only one from the LTTE to win him over.

Gotabaya asked me about my future plans. I told him I wanted to do something useful for the rest of my life, particularly for children and elders. He allowed me to visit Kilinochchi and select a place and start a children’s home. The lands were previously occupied by the Army, but when we requested they handed the lands back to us

KP is now taking care of four orphanages in the north,   Sencholai Orphanage and Sencholai Boys Home in Kilinochchi, Barathi Children’s Home and Andrew Children’s Home in Mullaitivu.   (CONTINUED)

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ වෙසෙන තෙළිඟු ජනතාවගේ සංස්කෘතික අනන්‍යතාව රැකෙන පරිදි ඔවුන්ගේ ජීවනෝපායට පවතින බාධාවන් ඉවත් කරමින් නිවාස, පානීය ජලය ඇතුළු අනෙකුත් අවශ්‍යතා ඉටුකරන්නැයි අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ලේකම්තුමා ඇතුළු ඒ ඒ විෂය භාර අමාත්‍යාංශ ලේකම්වරුන්ට සහ ආයතන ප්‍රධානීන්ට උපදෙස් දුන්නේය.

සමස්ත ලංකා තෙළිඟු ශිල්පීන්ගේ සංස්කෘතික සංගමය සමඟ අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේ දී අද (11) පෙරවරුවේ පැවැති සාකච්ඡාවේ දී අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා මේ බව දැනුම් දුන්නේය.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා තෙළිඟු ජනතාවගේ නායක කේ.ආර් අනවත්තු මහතා ඇතුළු දිවයින පුරා තෙළිඟු ජනතාව නියෝජනය කරමින් පැමිණි නියෝජිතයෝ මෙහි දී  තෙළිඟු ජනතාව මුහුණ පා ඇති ගැටලු සම්බන්ධයෙන් අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමාට කරුණු ඉදිරිපත් කළේය.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා එදා ධීවර අමාත්‍යතුමා විදියට සිටි කාලයේ අපට නිවාස 125ක් හදලා දුන්නා. ජනගහනය ඉහළ ගිහිං. දැනට අපේ ගම්මාන හතක් තිබෙනවා. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ජනාධිපතිතුමාගේ නායකත්වයෙන් 2015 දක්වා අපි ගැන සොයා බැලුවා. ඒ ගැන අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමාට ස්තූතිවන්ත වෙනවා. එහෙත් පසුගිය ආණ්ඩුව අපි ගැන සොයා බැලුවේ නැහැ. දැනටත් අපි පදිංචි ස්ථාන සඳහා ඉඩම් ඔප්පු නොමැතිවීම විශාල ගැටලුවක්” යැයි ශ්‍රී ලංකා තෙළිඟු ජනතාවගේ නායක කේ.ආර් අනවත්තු මහතා පැවසීය.

මාස තුනක පමණ කාලයක් තුළ මෙම ගැටලු විසඳීමට අවශ්‍ය ක්‍රියාමාර්ග ගැනීම සඳහා අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා විසින් මෙහි දී අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ලේකම් අනුර දිසානායක මහතාට උපදෙස් ලබා දුන්නේය.

ඒ අනුව වන ජීවී සංරක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ නියමානුකූල කිරීමේ එකඟතාව මත ප්‍රාදේශිය ලේකම් මාර්ගයෙන් මොවුන්ගේ දෙවැනි පරම්පරාවට අවශ්‍ය ඉඩම් නිදහස් කිරීමට අදාළ පියවර ගන්නා බව අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ලේකම් අනුර දිසානායක මහතා සඳහන් කළේය.

තෙළිඟු ජනතාව මුහුණ පා සිටින නිවාස ගැටලුව සම්බන්ධයෙන් අදාළ ප්‍රදේශවලට ගොස් සොයා බලා නිසි ක්‍රියාමාර්ග ගන්නැයි අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා මෙහි දී නිවාස සංවර්ධන අධිකාරියේ සභාපති දුමින්ද සිල්වා මහතාට උපදෙස් දුන්නේය.

ඊට අමතරව ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් මාර්ගයෙන් නිවාස ආධාර මුදල් ලබා දීමට කටයුතු කරන බව අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා තෙළිඟු ජනතා නියෝජිතයන් හමුවේ විශ්වාසය පළ කළේය.

තෙළිඟු ගම්මානවල මං මාවත් ඉදිකිරීම, අඩු ආදායම් ලාභීන්ට සමෘද්ධි  සහන පිරිනැමීම මෙන්ම විදේශ සංචාරකයන් වෙනුවෙන් තෙළිඟු සංස්කෘතික අංග ඉදිරිපත් කරන්නන් සඳහා හැඳුනුම්පතක් නිකුත් කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ද මෙහි දී අවධානය යොමු විය.

ඒ සඳහා අදාළ ආයතන කඩිනමින් කටයුතු කරන බව අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ලේකම් අනුර දිසානායක මහතා මෙහිදී  ප්‍රකාශ කළේය.

තෙළිඟු ජනතාවගේ සංස්කෘතික අංග දෙස් විදෙස් සංචාරකයන්ට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමේ දී අදාළ ස්ථානවල දැනට පවතින බාධාවන් ඉවත්කිරීමට කටයුතු කරන්නැයි ද අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා මෙහි දී උපදෙස් දුන්නේය.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ලේකම් අනුර දිසානායක, අමාත්‍යාංශ ලේකම්වරුන් වන ආර්.ඩබ්ලිව්.ආර්. පේමසිරි,  පී.ඒ.අයි. සිරිනිමල් පෙරේරා,  මහාචාර්ය කපිල ගුණවර්ධන, එස්. හෙට්ටිආරච්චි, අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය අතිරේක ලේකම් මහින්ද ගුණරත්න,  වනජීවී සංරක්ෂණ ජනරාල් චන්දන සූරියබණ්ඩාර, සමෘද්ධි අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල් ආර්.පී.බී. තිලකසිරි, සංචාරක සංවර්ධන අධිකාරියේ අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල් ධම්මිකා විජේසිංහ, නිවාස සංවර්ධන අධිකාරියේ සභාපති දුමින්ද සිල්වා, ජාතික ජලසම්පාදන  හා ජලාපවාහන මණ්ඩලයේ සභාපති නිශාන්ත රණතුංග, ජාතික උද්භිත උද්‍යාන දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ අධ්‍යක්ෂ (පාලන) වයි.එම්.වයි. යාපා බණ්ඩාර, මාර්ග සංවර්ධන අධිකාරියේ අධ්‍යක්ෂ (මාර්ග නඩත්තු) බී.ඒ.ආර්. ප්‍රේමරත්න, නියෝජ්‍ය අධ්‍යක්ෂ (මාර්ග නඩත්තු) ඒ.එම්.එම්. ජාබීර්,  සංස්කෘතික කටයුතු දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ සහකාර අධ්‍යක්ෂ ශාමිලා ක්‍රිෂාන්ති, මහත්ම මහත්මීහු සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකා තෙළිඟු ජනතාවගේ ප්‍රධාන නායක කේ.එන්. අනවත්තු,තෙළිඟු ජන සංගමයේ ලේකම් ඩී.නිමල් මහත්වරු ඇතුළු නියෝජිතයෝ මෙම අවස්ථාවට එක් වූහ.

Sugath Kulatunga

1.CURRENT STATUS

With impressive improvements in health and nutrition the latter half of the 20^th century has resulted in a revolution in longevity, which in Sri Lanka today is 76.98 years (2019).

 With high fertility in the past and rising life expectancies in the future, the number of elderly is rapidly increasing and the percentage of older persons was due to reach 15 percent by 2020.Because of their higher longevity more women elders will lose the support of their spouses in later life.

The traditional family culture of lifelong care for elders by the family is fast disappearing.

 Elders are not able to keep abreast of fast changing technology and rapidly expanding knowledge base which are making elders misfits in the workplace and society.

 Economic poverty in the majority of families makes caring for elders an unbearable burden.

 Respect for elders is no longer a strong feature in our society and the culture of non-caring of elders has made elders physically and mentally traumatized.

Today we see a revolution in longevity. The percentage of old people in the total population is growing steadily. In this background, all over the world, increasing attention has been focused on old people. Ageing is being considered only as a factor of social differentiation and not one of social discrimination.  At paragraph 15 of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing, 2002- it is stated that , Whereas specific policies will vary according to country and region, population ageing is a universal force that has the power to shape the future as much as globalization. It is essential to recognize the ability of older persons to contribute to society by taking the lead not only in their own betterment but also in that of society as a whole. Forward thinking calls us to embrace the potential of the ageing population as a basis for future development.” The present retirement age has been determined when the life expectancy was in the region of 50 to 60 years. Today life expectancy has risen over 75 years of age and at the former age of retirement of 60 years most persons were not only physically and mentally fit to continue working but also, they were at the peak level of competency. The government has to be congratulated for extending the age of retirement.

In the Article 10 of the declaration of the Second World Assembly on Ageing in Madrid- 12 April 2002, it is stated that The potential of older persons is a powerful basis for future development. This enables society to rely increasingly on the skills, experience and wisdom of older persons, not only to take the lead in their own betterment but also to participate actively in that of society.”

However, the present policy on elders is focused more on looking after the welfare of elders rather than harnessing their proven talent for further contribution to the society, Therefore, the policy on elders should combine the welfare function with that of active participation in society.

 Four areas in which policy options are available to support the elderly are

(4.1) labour and retirement policies.

(4.2) policies affecting traditional family support systems.

(4.3) policies that encourage saving and investment.

     (4.4) government and employer-sponsored pension schemes.

      (4.5) health care policies.      

There has to be a special policy package to involve their participation of elders in Socio economic development.

At Article 10 of the declaration of the Second World Assembly on Ageing, it is stated that The potential of older persons is a powerful basis for future development. This enables society to rely increasingly on the skills, experience and wisdom of older persons, not only to take the lead in their own betterment but also to participate actively in that of society as a whole.” Most retired persons wish to work, learn and continue to develop and utilise their abilities during their retirement to the benefit of the community and themselves. Many enjoy working and work provides purpose, status, scope to use one’s skills and abilities, and the opportunity to express their values, interests and objectives, and to progress. 

The information and communication technology has revolutionized the way, where and when of work. More and more people are able to work from home rather than face the hazards of commuting to work. In the future physical mobility will cease to be a vital factor of capacity to work. 

It is noted that the present retirement age has been determined when the life expectancy was in the region of 50 to 60 years. Today life expectancy has risen over 75 years  of age and at the present age of retirement of 60 years most persons are not only physically and mentally fit to continue working but also they are at the peak level of competency.

Advocacy on issues of ageing 

The promotion and protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to development, is essential for the creation of an inclusive society for all ages in which older persons participate fully and without discrimination and on the basis of equality. Combating discrimination based on age and promoting the dignity of older persons is fundamental to ensuring the respect that older persons deserve. Promotion and protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms is important in order to achieve a society for all ages. In this, the reciprocal relationship between and among generations must be nurtured, emphasized and encouraged through a comprehensive and effective dialogue.” 

In this background the ageing population has developed into a major factor in the economic and social development in the country but the issue is not given adequate attention. In this effort, the government could give priority to the themes identified in the International Plan of Action on Ageing, 2002, to the extent of their relevance to the Sri Lanka context. Although these proposals are now 10 years old, time  has made them more relevant now.

These are:

 (a) The full realization of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of all older persons.

(b) The achievement of secure ageing, which involves reaffirming the goal of eradicating poverty in old age and building on the United Nations Principles for Older Persons.

(c) Empowerment of older persons to fully and effectively participate in the economic, political and social lives of their societies, including through income-generating and voluntary work.

(d) Provision of opportunities for individual development, self-fulfilment and well-being throughout life as well as in late life, though, for example, access to lifelong learning and participation in the community while recognizing that older persons are not one homogenous group.

(e) Ensuring the full enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, and civil and political rights of persons and the elimination of all forms of violence and discrimination against older persons.

(f) Commitment to gender equality among older persons through, inter alia, elimination of gender-based discrimination.

(g) Recognition of the crucial importance of families, intergenerational interdependence, solidarity and reciprocity for social development.

(h) Provision of health care, support, and social protection for older persons, including preventive and rehabilitative health care.

(i) Facilitating partnership between all levels of government, civil society, the private sector and older persons themselves in translating the International Plan of Action into practical action.

(j) Harnessing of scientific research and expertise and realizing the potential of technology to focus on, inter alia, the individual, social and health implications of aging, in particular in developing countries.

In order to achieve the above objectives the Government should ensure that::

 Legislation on rights of older persons is enacted.

 Attention is paid to basic needs and poverty reduction among older persons.

 Special problems of older women are addressed.

 Retirement (pension) system(s) for all older persons are introduced.

 Integrated primary health care programs are commenced for older persons.

 Caregiving assistance is made available for older family members.

 Age-integrated (multigenerational) housing and living environments are launched.

 Employment promotion is undertaken for older persons.  

 Support is provided for income-generating activities for older persons.

 Educate the public for late life and strengthen multigenerational solidarity.

Sugath Kulatunga

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

තරුණ ලාංකේය ව්‍යවසායක මණ්ඩලයේ 23වන සංවත්සරික සැමරුම අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් ඊයේ (10) පස්වරුවේ කොළඹ ශ්‍රැංග්‍රිලා හෝටලයේ දී පැවැත්විණි.

ශ්‍රී ලාංකික ව්‍යාපාර 500කට වැඩි සංඛ්‍යාවක් ආවරණය වන තරුණ ලාංකේය ව්‍යවසාය මණ්ඩලය දේශීයත්වය ප්‍රමුඛ කොට ගත් ව්‍යවසායකයන්ගෙන් සැඳුම්ලත් මණ්ඩලයකි.

මෙම මණ්ඩලයේ ආරම්භක හමුවීම සඳහා ද අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා එක්ව තිබීම විශේෂත්වයකි.

එතැන් පටන් අවස්ථා ගණනාවක දී අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා මෙම මණ්ඩලයේ සංවත්සර සැමරුම් සඳහා එක්ව තිබේ.

තරුණ ලාංකේය ව්‍යවසායක මණ්ඩලයේ 23 සංවත්සර සැමරුම සමගාමීව පැවති මහා සභා රැස්වීමේ දී 2022/2023 වසර සඳහා නව සභාපති ලෙස දිමුත් චංකම සිල්වා මහතා පත්විය.

හිටපු ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන, රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍යවරුන් වන විදුර වික්‍රමනායක, දයාසිරි ජයසේකර මහත්වරු ඇතුළු තානාපතිවරුන් සහ තානාපති නියෝජිතයන්, හිටපු අමාත්‍යවරුන්, තරුණ ලාංකේය ව්‍යවසායක මණ්ඩලයේ හිටපු සභාපති සාරංග ගුණවර්ධන මහතා ඇතුළු තරුණ ව්‍යවසාකයෝ රැසක් මෙම අවස්ථාවට එක්ව සිටියහ.

නිපුණතා සංවර්ධන වෘත්තීය අධ්‍යාපන පර්යේෂණ හා නව නිපැයුම් රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශය

ඔරුගොඩවත්ත මෝටර් රථ ඉංජිනේරු අභ්‍යාස ආයතනයේ (AETI) සහතික ප්‍රදානෝත්සවය ගරු රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය විශේෂඥ වෛද්‍ය සීතා අරඹේපොල මැතිණියගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් ඊයේ දින (10) පැවැත්විණ.

මෙහි දී,

·         මෝටර් රථ යාන්ත්‍රික ශිල්පී පාඨමාලාව

·         මෝටර් රථ විදුලි ශිල්පී පාඨමාලාව

·         යන්ත්‍ර ශිල්පී පාඨමාලාව

·         ටිංකර්/ පෑස්සුම් ශිල්පී පාඨමාලාව

·         වාහන පින්තාරුකරු ශිල්පී පාඨමාලාව

·         වාහන වායුසමීකරණ ශිල්පී පාඨමාලාව

යන වෘත්තීය පුහුණු පාඨමාලා සාර්ථකව හැදෑරූ සිසු සිසුවියන් 456 දෙනෙකු සහතිකපත්ලාභීන් බවට පත් විය.

තවද ලබන වසරේ සිට මෝටර් රථ ඉංජිනේරු අභ්‍යාස ආයතනයේ පාඨමාලා සඳහා බඳවා ගන්නා ශිෂ්‍ය ධාරිතාවය දෙගුණයකින් පමණ ඉහළ දැමීමට කටයුතු මේ වනවිටත් සැලසුම් කර ඇත.

“ජපන් ටෙක්” ලෙස හඳුන්වන මෙම ආයතනයේ අද ලෝකයට ගැළපෙන පරිදි නවීන තාක්ෂණය පදනම් කරගෙන පාඨමාලා පැවැත්වෙන අතර දෙස් විදෙස් ආකර්ශණීය වැටුප් සහිතව රැකියාගත වීමේ ප්‍රතිශතය 100% කි.

මෙම අවස්ථාව සඳහා රුහුණු විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයේ හිටපු උප කුලපති ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ මහාචාර්ය ගාමිණී සේනානායක මහතා, ජාතික ආධුනිකත්ව සහ කාර්මික පුහුණු කිරීම් අධිකාරියේ සභාපති තරංග නලීන් ගම්ලත් මහතා, උප සභාපති මහින්ද ඒ. රූපසිංහ මහතා, මෝටර් රථ ඉංජිනේරු අභ්‍යාස ආයතනයේ විදුහල්පති අනුර දිසානායක මහතා සහ අධ්‍යයන අනධ්‍යන කාර්ය මණ්ඩලය ඇතුළු පිරිසක් සහභාගී වූහ.

මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය

නිපුණතා සංවර්ධන වෘත්තීය අධ්‍යාපන පර්යේෂණ හා නව නිපැයුම් රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශය

Shenali D Waduge

Citizens of Sri Lanka should be mature enough to put politics & preference for political parties aside when it comes to issues concerning the Nation. In such scenarios, citizens must be able to separate their personal preferences & evaluate if anything or anyone is doing wrong by the nation. We do not need to remind the citizens of the lies & illegalities taking place in the UNHRC against a UN Member State. We have seen too many of our own fly to Geneva to betray the nation. Not many have flown to set the story straight. Many of these sponsored trips have an ulterior agenda & are often linked to international geopolitics. It is with this background reality that those dashing to Geneva are perceived with the question ‘what are they up to now’& ‘whose agenda are they attempting to fulfill”. What does the Cardinal – the UNP – the LTTE/TNA & its associates have in common?

History provides lessons & links to understanding the present. History will reveal that there were no ethnic rivalries prior to 1505. Incidents that emerged thereafter was part & parcel of colonial legacy from divide & rule policies of the invaders that pitched minorities against the majority encouraging a less than 10% minority to demand 50-50 representation & formulating ethnic-based political parties that demanded a separate Tamil state even before independence. Backing for unfair demands led to the 1976 Vaddukoddai Resolution & emergence of Tamil armed militancy fanned & made worse because of international geopolitics.

Noteworthy is the manner these miscreants emerged during important historical events. The JVP & TNT (later LTTE) emerged when Sri Lanka formed its first republican constitution ending Queens rule as Head of State. This was followed by the separatist quest with the change of government in 1977 & a pro-West open economic policy.

Tamil militancy trained & funded by India emerged as India’s response to Sri Lankan president’s pro-US stand. An understanding of this is a must, given that it remains a puzzle why LTTE would assassinate Rajiv Gandhi, even if it was a hired job. But, it becomes clear that LTTE thereafter fell into different hands and was handled differently to serve geopolitical interests.

The LTTE diaspora handling the LTTE kitty became an all powerful bloc able to tap high profile international figures & even get them to stand on stage next to cut outs of Prabakaran or shed a tear or two at LTTE memorials while the TNA election manifestos clearly proves its support for LTTE.

It is important to be able to understand who supported LTTE militancy.

As we all know the Church is part & parcel of the Western bloc. It was a key component during colonial rule. Its mission to increase its flock remains on track. The bulk of NGOs that operated in the North were from faith-based organizations heavily funded by foreign governments or think tanks associated with them. None of these cared to save a single child from being turned into a child soldier though there were plenty of NGOs operating for children.

There are enough of instances that the Church openly sided with the LTTE. They even demonstrated for Prabakaran. The LTTE head quarters in UK was opened by none other than Rev. RayappuJoseph. Many a Church father initiated international petitions against Sri Lanka including Archbishop Desmond Tutu never bothering to hear the other version.

The LTTE was running its Voice of Tigers alongside Radio Veritas, a Catholic broadcasting station run by the Asian Catholic Bishops Conference based in The Philippines. The Tamil Service of the Radio Veritas is run by the Tamil Catholics of Tamil Nadu. 

Voice of Tigers had a coordinating office” inside St. Sebastian’s Church in Mallavi, Wanni; Radio Veritas (run by Asian Catholic Bishops Conference) which reached an audience of 850,000 people

Even Madhu Church was used by the LTTE & no one saw fit to run to Geneva or Vatican to complain.

https://www.shenaliwaduge.com/sri-lanka-church-demands-easter-sunday-justice-did-church-punish-church-priests-linked-to-ltte/

All of the attacks that Tamils quote had a UNP hand in them & that includes the burning of the Jaffna Library, 1983 riots & 1977 riots. These attacks enabled many Tamils to relocate overseas where they have built a powerful diaspora. Annually in Geneva they come together to attack Sri Lanka.

The same coterie is behind the Islamic terrorism prevailing world over. Terror incidents are used to justify interventions. Easter Sunday attack must be perceived as part of this unfolding bigger plot.

Now we come to answering what the Cardinal-the UNP-the LTTE/TNA & its associates have in common & what their goal was in Geneva. 

We totally empathize with the victims of Easter Sunday, but Catholics were not the only victims. Death & killings is nothing new to Sri Lanka we have suffered millions at the hands of colonials, thousands by JVP, many more thousands during JVP-UNP beeshana years & 30 years of LTTE terrorism.

Not a single bomb or assassination took place from May 2009 (after LTTE defeat) to April 2019 until 6 Jihadist suicide bombers decided to target churches & hotels in a mass murder. Therefore, like the Cardinal we too want to know who planned the attacks & how they tapped 6 suicide bombers to carry it out.

However, going to Geneva & reading out a script is not going to provide answers. It will bring greater damage to the country. Was this the plan?

The FBI took the mobile records of the suicide bombers & have not come up with anything. Foreign intel landed immediately but it was our own who quickly rounded up those linked & it was many of these Geneva visitors that wailed to release some of those arrested.

Geneva could never stop LTTE killings, LTTE recruitment of children or even international illegal money transactions of LTTE & would they, when some of their accounts are safely deposited in Geneva banks!

99% of world conflicts involve jihadi terrorism backed by Western proxies –has Geneva stopped these?Has Geneva ever looked at the anti-Sri Lanka elements that had been at play & the countries & organizations involved in sponsoring change including funding election campaigns? The US has even admitted to funding UNP election campaigns (ref Prof. Levin) The anti-Sri Lanka campaign has a ready list of usual culprits who are bandied together – we saw how that campaign succeeded to bring yahapalana to power. So these groups of people may function in isolation but when required they are pooled together.

So exactly what was the Cardinal’s real objective in trotting off to Geneva & adding a political twist to his speech?

Here’s where things get really complicated.

If the Cardinal had gone to Geneva because he genuinely desired to catch the culprits of Easter Sunday & he deemed the UNHRC better than Sri Lanka’s AG’s Dept or the judicial system to provide justice, then how or who arranged for him to speak representing a NGO (Kiham Rehabilitation). The Cardinals slot was however given to SJB’s Harin Fernando at the last minute. This resulted in the Cardinal’s speech having to be allocated under another NGO. Finding an alternative NGO was not difficult –Franciscan International NGO had allocated a slot for Ambika Satkunanathan to speak. Amika S the supposedly unbiased former Human Rights Commissioner of Sri Lanka resigned to be included to TNA national list, gave up her slot for the good Cardinal to speak. Notice the connections!

https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1m/k1mkrqz7th

https://franciscansinternational.org/news/news/urgent-appeal-provide-protection-for-refugees-and-asylum-seekers-in-sri-lanka/?no_cache=1&L=998&tx_news_pi1%5Bcontroller%5D=News&tx_news_pi1%5Baction%5D=detail&cHash=ed86927b2d17a71901ebf7778234c4bb

Thus there are plenty of NGOs that allow anti-Sri Lanka speeches using their slots (NGO given 5 speaking slots). These so-called unbiased and transparent NGOs will never give a slot for a Sri Lankan war widow to question what happened to the 5000 missing Sri Lankan soldiers! Instead all are happy to search for LTTE dead!

Thus, it is not the demand for justice that we question but the coterie demanding the answers & the venue to seek that justice.

Shenali D Waduge

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, March 11 (newsin.asia): Sri Lanka and India on Friday signed an agreement to develop a solar power plant in Sampur as a joint venture.

The agreement was signed between NTPC Limited, India’s largest integrated energy company and the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), the Indian High Commission tweeted.

The High Commission in Sri Lanka said that the agreement will help strengthen the economic partnership between India and Sri Lanka for mutual prosperity, through cooperation in renewable energy.

Sri Lankan Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, three other ministers, and the Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Gopal Baglay were among those present at the event.

Courtesy Adaderana

The move to devalue the Sri Lankan rupee was aimed at improving macroeconomic stability as the country struggles with its worst financial crisis in years, the country’s Central Bank governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal said on Friday.

The central bank earlier in the week introduced a flexible exchange rate framework, which saw the rupee depreciate by around 30% to 260 rupees against the dollar on Thursday.

The decision to impose a flexible exchange rate has caused challenges but we are confident these can be managed,” Cabraal said in a short video uploaded on Facebook.

However, it was a step taken to maintain macroeconomic stability and ensure financial system consistency,” he added.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) says it has approved the request of the Ceylon Electricity Board for emergency power purchase subject to the conditions given by the PUCSL.

Considering the existing fuel shortage of the country and electrical energy capacity shortage of the CEB, coupled up with the long term forced outage of all thermal power plants at Kelanithissa, Sapugaskanda and Kerawalapitiya due to no fuel with severe depletion of water resources in reservoirs that led to experience more than 7 hours daily power cut to the electricity consumers, the cabinet has declared an emergency situation’ in the energy sector as required under section 43(4) (c ) (ii) of the Sri Lanka Electricity Act in keeping with the directive of the President have made on 02nd March 2022.

With that CEB has requested the approval of 93 MW of capacity under short term power purchase agreement from ACE Power (Embilipitiya) power plant for 6 months in order to reduce the long hours of power interruptions immediately. 

We approved the request given the priority of the fuel supply to CEB power plants,” the Chairman of Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka Janaka Ratnayake said. 

In the same time, we empathized having a steady long-term plan to ensure continues supply of electricity to Sri Lanka. We have approved 600 MW of LNG power plant already in supporting that.”

The head of the country’s electricity sector regulator stated that adequate supply of fuel to power plants could immediately resolve the rolling power outages in the country that has caused 200–400 MW loss to the national grid.

Lack of funds to buy enough fuel to fire power plants is the main reason for continues power interruptions in large parts of the grid in Sri Lanka. We also have run down hydro reservoirs and the hydro storage were used excessively in the months of December last year and January this year to provide electricity,”

The CEB forced to shut down 350 MW of Thermal power plants for past two weeks due to lack of fuel supply. We have generated 76 percent electricity from thermal power plants 19 percent electricity from hydro and 5 percent electricity from renewable for this month so far. Hydro generation has increased to 22 percent during the month of February this year due to unavailability of fuel for thermal generation plants which stood at 18 percent in the same month last year,” he said.

Apart for the lack of fuel supply, we also have a technical constraint in the Southern grid where we have advised the Ceylon Electricity Board to find immediate solutions way back in 2017 which has not been materialized yet,” he added. 

The currency crunch that the country is facing at the moment has delayed the imports of fuel, which has led to power cuts island-wide, says Mr Ratnayake. 

We currently are in the forex crisis where we do not have sufficient funds to buy fuel. We can end this power cut if we get sufficient fuel stocks to operate our power plants,” Mr Ratnayake said, adding the PUCSL is also aware of the financial issue that the Ceylon Electricity Board is going through. 

We are aware. We have asked electricity consumers to pay their bills on time to reduce the financial burden for the CEB to a certain extent. But the issue is bigger. The electricity generation cost has increased 120 percent from the last tariff hike. The generation cost per electricity unit is at the moment is 37 rupees. But we are providing the electricity unit at a cost of 16 -17 rupees on average, which not reflects the right generation cost. Also, the price of a crude oil barrel in the world market has increased to 113 dollars this year. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka also had taken a decision to float the rupee given the current economic conditions which have caused a higher market volatility at present. All these reasons have a much larger impact on the generation cost of electricity. We believe in a cost reflective tariff to strengthen the CEB and the economy of the country while not burdening the electricity consumers,” Mr Ratnayake said. 

Commenting on the Southern grid issue, the Chairman of PUCSL said that CEB was instructed to find long term solutions for the issue where 100-150 MW of capacity is being lacking at present. 

Courtesy Adaderana

Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal has denied media reports which stated that the meetings between Sri Lankan authorities and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials over the next few weeks are for the purpose of debt restructuring.

Taking to his official Twitter account, Cabraal said Meetings of Sri Lankan authorities with @IMFNews officials over the next few weeks are NOT for the purpose of #debt restructuring as stated by some news agencies. @CBSL #SriLanka #GoSL

Earlier today, Reuters news agency, quoting sources, reported that Sri Lanka is expected to begin discussions with the IMF on a plan to help the country, including assistance with debt restructuring and managing its foreign exchange shortage.

It also said Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa would travel to Washington D.C. in mid-April to present Sri Lanka’s proposal to senior IMF officials.

To find a way out of the crisis, the government will seek assistance with debt restructuring, the foreign exchange crisis, bolstering revenue generation and reforming state-owned enterprises, Reuters said further quoting sources

Courtesy Hiru News

Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal says that the economic plans of Sri Lanka had to be changed due to the Ukraine-Russia war crisis.

He made this statement to the media regarding the current economic situation.<br /><br />The purchase price of one US dollar was 256.22 rupees today (11) and it is reported that it has been decided to increase the prices of many goods and services including medicines.

Accordingly the Drug Price Control Committee has given permission to increase the price of drugs by 29%.

State Minister of Pharmaceuticals, Supplies and Regulation Channa Jayasumana said in Parliament today that he had been informed of the decision by the committee’s chairman, Dr. Palitha Abeykoon

Courtesy Adaderana

The Health Ministry says that another 467 persons have tested positive for Covid-19 today, as the daily count of new cases continues to rise in the country.

This brings the tally of Covid-19 cases registered in the country thus far to 655,383. 

According to official figures, 618,697 positive cases have recovered.

Following the new development, the number of virus-infected people who are undergoing treatment moved to 20,305. Meanwhile, the death toll stands at 16,381

The Director-General of Health Services has confirmed another 07 coronavirus-related deaths for March 11, pushing the country’s Covid-19 death toll to 16,381.

This figure includes 05 males and 02 females, according to the Department of Government Information. 

One of the deceased patients is between the ages 30-59 years and the remaining 06 are in the age group of 60 years and above.

.

Garvin Karunaratne,

Professor Susirith Mendis’s A Short Essay” and Sena Thoradeniya’s Where are Soul and Spirit of Peradeniya” (The Island.lk:18/2) took me back to my days at Peradeniya in the Fifties.

Truly Professor Ediriweera Sarathchandra walked tall at Peradeniya. I happened to be in his first batch of Sinhala Hons students. His greater contribution was to the country in drama. I have happened to write in his favour when he was unduly criticised.(Saratchandra’s Maname : Is it that bad?” : Lanka Web 1/2/2018)

My Master’s Degree was also under Professor Srathchandra and that ended with the publication of the dissertation: Modern Sinhala Poetry.

As Sena states the University was in the forefront in the Fifties. Dr GVS de Silva, a Lecturer in Economics serving as the Private Secretary to Minister Philip Gunawardena contributed heavily for agriculture through the Paddy Lands Act. It was GVS’s ideas that came through. Though Minister Philip and GVS had a short stay in the Government the Paddy Lands Act offering security of tenancy to tenants has come to stay permanently. Peradeniya shon all round with personalities like Professors Malalasekera and Hettiaratchi. Economics too moved in with Professor HAdeS Gunasekera as the Permanent Secretary of the Plan Implementation Ministry that implemented the Divisional Development Councils Programme of 1971-77, which brought employment to 33,200 youths. It was unfortunate that this Programme was dropped by President Jayawardena. However this Programme stands to the credit of Peradeniya, the last real development programme to date,

Subsequently as Sena says we saw entropy or utmost decay in the system of humanities and social sciences at Peradeniya.”

I too was involved with my University- Peradeniya. I came back to Sri Lanka in 1995. Working with peasants in the Administrative Service for eighteen years, I had long forgotten my Sinhala though my Master’s Dissertation is a text in moderen sinhala poetry today and marched over to economics with a Ph.D in Ag Econ and Non-Formal Education from Michigan State University. I had also designed and implemented the Youth Self Employment Programme in Bangladesh, where I worked as a consultant and by then it had guided over a million youths to become commercially viable entrepreneurs. Back in Sri Lanka, I wanted to make a contribution in Economics and sent in an application for a Visiting Lecturer’s position to my contemporary Professor Hewawitarana. I was appointed a Visiting Lecturer and told to prepare a lecture on any topic in econ and deliver it to the Staff in the economics department. I selected the subject of Microenterprise Development as the means of poverty alleviation and employment creation: the path out of the World Bank and IMF Stranglehold. I did deliver that two hour lecture to all dons at Peradeniya detailing how the IMF had enticed our country to follow the neoliberal economics of running a country on borrowed money, squandering the money in a non developmental manner-giving up all controls on imports and freely using the borrowed dollars to enable the rich to cruise, send off children for foreign study, leading to a situation where Sri Lanka was gathering a foreign debt- in 2005 our foreign debt was $ 11 billion, while till 1976 Sri lanka through careful planning lived within our means without falling into any debt. None of the dons raised a single question at the end of the lecture , but the lecture also sealed the fate of my Visiting Lectureship. Perhaps my critique of the IMF was forbidding. I edited that lecture and got it published: Microenterprise Development: A Strategy for Poverty Alleviation and Employment Creation in the Third World: The Way Out of the IMF and World Bank Stranglehold.(Sarasavi:1997). This book happens to be the first book critiquing the IMF’s Structural Adjustment Programme which was forced on President Jayawardena in 1977, when he requested Aid and which has today brought Sri Lanka to the brink of being a bankrupt country with a foreign det of $ 56 billion.

The dons not only at Peradeniya but all our Universities ignored what was happening to our country which was running the economy on loans, not gearing funds to bring about development. If only our economic dons had written that running a country on loans, without any plans to repay will someday bring us to bankruptcy, it would have been a contribution.

Today, when our country has by living on loans from 1977 come to a point where our Motherland, so full of resources- a fertile land, blessed with rain,and an array of excellent climates has become bankrupt and cannot find dollars even to import essentials, it is perhaps incumbent that our dons, the most qualified in economics in the country, should address the subject: Neoliberal economics of Milton Friedman, commence research and studies, and grope for the economic endeavour that can deliver our country out of the mess we are in today. Any of our Universities that embark , will surely shine among Universities and also make a major contribution to our Motherland.

Garvin Karunaratne,

Author of:

Microenterprise Development: A Strategy for Poverty Alleviation and Employment Creation in the

Third World: The Way Out of the IMF and World Bank Stranglehold (Sarasavi:1997)

How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka & Alternative Programmes of Success(Godages:2006

How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development(Godages:2017)

How the IMF’s Structural Adjustment Destroyed Sri Lanka(Godages:2022)

09032022 garvin_karunaratne@hotmail.com

ජයන්ත හේරත්

ස්පයිසි ෆූඩ් කටට සැරය

උයද්දි හැමතැන විහිදෙන්නේ ප්රණීත රමණීය සුවඳය

අනුභව කරද්දි රස නහර පිනා යන්නේය

ඇහෙන් කඳුළු වැක්කෙරෙන්නේය 

නාහෙන් දියර ගලන්නේය

සමහරුන්ට ඉහින් මුනින් දහඩිය ගලන්නේය

තවත් සමහරුන්ගේ මුහුණු, කන් රතුපාට වෙන්නේය

කෝකියන්ට හිනා යන්නේය

රස විඳින්නා ඉතා සතුටින් රස ලබන්නේය.

Wasabi

ඉඟුරු

තුනියට කැපූ

අමු Salmon Tuna මාළු

සමඟ ඉස්තරම්ය,

කද්දි Wasabi  සැර

කෙලින්ම දැනේනේ මොලයටය

එතකොට දෙය්යන් මතක් වෙන්නේය.

ජපානයේ ගිය අලුත

රෙස්ටොරන්ට්  එකකදි

ස්පයිසි ෆූඩ්

නොමිලේ කන්න ලැබුනේය,

ජපන් Chef ලා

හිනා පහල කලේ 

අපි කිසි ගානක් නැතුව

මිරිස්, ගම්මිරිස් Spices  කන හැටි දැකලාය.

විකටයෝ

නරඹන්නෝ

හිනස්සවන

ගමන් හිනාවෙන්නෝය,

අපට කිසි රසයක් නැති විහිළු වලට

හිනා යන්නේ නැතිය

ඒත්

උන් හිනා වෙන නිසා 

අපද ඔහේ හිනහ වෙන වෙලාවල් ඇත 

තවත් සමහරු අඬ අඬා

හිනහ වෙන්නෝය.

යුක්රේනයේ

Zelensky

Comedian ය.

විකට ශිල්පියෙකි 

එහෙමත් නැත්නම්

ජෝකර් කෙනෙකි

කාලයක් තිස්සේ

යුක්රෙනුවන්

හිනහ ගස්සවා

ජනාධිපති මැතිවරණයට

ඉදිරිපත් වී

එරටේ ජනාධිපති වීමේ වරම

එක පයින් ලබා ගත්තේය

Reagan වගේ

නළුවෝත් 

කලාතුරකින්

ජනාධිපතිලා වෙති.

Jackie Chun  ලා

joker + fighter + actor ලාය. 

දැන්

Zelensky

හිනාවෙන්නේ

අමෙරිකානුවන් හා යුරෝපියයන්

දෙස බලාය,

ඇමෙරිකානු යුරෝපියානු පොකැට්ටු වලට

හීන් නූලෙන්

විද්ද සතුටට

ඔහුට

නිකමුත් මුඛයෙන් හිනා යන්නේය.

අපේ

බස්වල pick pocket කාරයෝද 

මේ වාගේය.

යුක්රේනයට

ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය

සහ

NATO

ලබා දීමට

දුප්පත් ඇමෙරිකන්කාරයට ද

දායක වෙන්නට වෙලාය,

ඒ බිලද ගෙවන්නේ දුප්පත් එකා ය.

13 Billion ය.

මේවා දැකල මටත් හිනාය.

මේ වන විට

ලක්ෂ ගණනක්

යුක්රෙනුවන්

ඉන්න හිටින්න නැතිව 

අවතැන්ව දුක් විඳින්නෝය

දැන්

ඇමෙරිකාවේත්

උද්ධමනයය 

තෙල්,

ගෑස් මිල

බඩු  මිල

ඉහල ගොසින්ය.

කෙසේ නමුත්,

මේ යුද්ධයෙන්

එක හොඳක් සිදුව තිබේය

ඒ

Venezuela වලටය.

මේ තාක් කාලයක්

උතුරු ඇමෙරිකාව,

දකුණු ඇමෙරිකා රටවල්

ගණන් ගත්තේ නැත,

සතයකට මායිම් කලේ නැත

දැන්

උතුරු ඇමෙරිකාව

ගෑස් නිසා

Venezuela ව

සොයා දුවන්නට පටන් ගත්තේය.

Sanction කැලේය.

ඉරානයටත් දීප්තිමත් කාලයක් වගෙය. 

මේවා අහල මටත්  හිනාය.

අද

Noise Generators වලින්

තොරතුරු ගලා එන්නේ

වක්කඩ කැඩුවාටත් වඩා වේගයෙන්ය

අන්තර්ජාල

TV

කරන්නේ

සීමා විරහිතව

පුවත් සැපයීමය.

මනස අවුල් කර ගන්නට

මේ තොරතුරු ප්රමාණවත්ය,

අනවශ්ය තොතුරු දා ගැනීම

කිසිසේත්ම සෞඛ්ය සම්පන්න නැත

මනස අසනීප කර ගන්නට හොඳ නැත

හිතට

විසබීජ එකතු කර ගෙන

මානසික රෝගීන් විය යුතු නැත

වතුරට

ලුණු එකතු කල විට

ලුණු වතුරය,

මනසට

විස එකතු කල විට

මනස විස වේය. 

එකම තැන කැරකෙන විට

කැරකිල්ල හැදේය

Merry Go Round ය.

මින් මිදීමට

චක්රය කැඩිය යුතුවන්නේය.

විදුලි කප්පාදුව ආවේ

හොඳ කාලයටයයි

මට හිතේ.

BY MAXIMILLIAN ALVAREZ Courtesy The Real News Network

Just like in the dark days after 9/11, corporate media have responded to the war in Ukraine with a craven ‘bloodlust’ that is making all of us less safe.

From the moment Russian troops invaded Ukraine the entire corporate media apparatus in the US moved to 24-7 coverage, filling airwaves with talking heads relentlessly beating the drums of war. Combined with Big Tech’s sophisticated means for silencing and punishing dissenting voices, the increasingly hostile and propaganda-filled discourse that is taking shape today is eerily reminiscent of the Russiagate” fervor and the cultural hysteria that permeated the post-9/11 years. TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez speaks with longtime journalist and activist Abby Martin about how the media’s manufactured bloodlust” for war makes us all less safe and how we must use independent media to advance the cause of peace.

Abby Martin is an American journalist, show presenter, activist, and artist. She helped found the citizen journalism website Media Roots and is the host of the investigative documentary and interview series The Empire Files. Martin has been involved in numerous film projects, including producing the recent feature documentaries Gaza Fights for Freedom, and she is currently producing another feature entitled Earth’s Greatest Enemy.

Abby Martin: How the media manufactures ‘bloodlust’ for war

Courtesy Sputnik

CC BY 2.0 / Tony Webster / BIOHAZARD

The Russian Defence Ministry earlier announced that the United States had poured money into biological research facilities in Ukraine, alleging they may have been used in order to create biological weapons and conduct bat coronavirus-related experiments.

Among the goals of the biological research laboratories in Ukraine suspected of having been funded by the United States was the creation of bioagents that would be capable of targeting certain ethnic groups, the Russian Defence Ministry revealed on Thursday.”The available documents confirm numerous cases of the transfer of biological samples of Ukrainian citizens abroad. With a high degree of probability, we can say that one of the tasks of the United States and its allies is the creation of bioagents that can selectively affect various ethnic groups of the population”, said Igor Kirillov, the head of the Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Protection Troops of the Russian Armed Forces.

Kirillov said that 350 cryocontainers with blood serum samples were transferred from the Public Health Centre of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine to a reference laboratory for infectious diseases at Australia’s Doherty Institute under the pretext of determining antibody titers.The Russian Defence Ministry has obtained documents confirming that the high-risk biological research in Ukraine is led by US specialists. According to Kirillov, the documents also showed that the US Defence Department funded the biological research in Ukraine.He also said that Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland “indirectly” confirmed American participation in the Ukrainian biological research when she said that Washington was concerned about the Ukrainian biolabs being taken over by the Russians.The biological research funded by the US in Ukraine, according to Kirillov, included the projects “UP-2, UP-9, UP-10, aimed at studying the pathogens of anthrax and African swine fever”. The UP-4 project, in particular, is said to have been in development in laboratories in Kiev, Kharkov, and Odessa, and was scheduled until 2020.

Studying the spectrum of pathogens spread by bats© Photo : Russian Defence MinistryPer Kirillov, the Pentagon was also interested in insect vectors that can spread dangerous infectious diseases.”The analysis of the received materials confirms the fact that more than 140 containers with ectoparasites of bats – fleas and ticks – were transferred from the biological laboratory in Kharkov abroad”, he elaborated.

Peculiarities of conducting military-biological research© Photo : Russian Defence MinistryMost of the documentation related to the research has already been evacuated from Ukraine by the Americans, Kirillov noted.”According to the available information, the Americans have already managed to evacuate most of the documentation from the laboratories in Kiev, Kharkov, and Odessa, including databases, biomaterials, and equipment to the Lvov Research Institute of Epidemiology and Hygiene and to the American Consulate in Lvov. It is possible that part of the collection will be moved to Poland”, he said.Additionally, biological laboratories in Ukraine and Georgia are working on a project involving bats as carriers of bioweapons, Kirillov said.Similar concerns were earlier voiced by Major General Igor Konashenkov, the spokesman of the Russian Defence Ministry. He said that the US-funded biological labs in Ukraine were conducting experiments with bat coronavirus samples and studying the possible spread of pathogens via wild birds, migrating between Russia, Ukraine, and other countries in the region.

Study of the possibility of spreading especially dangerous pathogens through migratory birds© Photo : Russian Defence MinistryWhite House press secretary Jen Psaki has denied that the United States is engaged in the development of biological and chemical weapons in Ukraine.”This is preposterous. It’s the kind of disinformation operation we’ve seen repeatedly from the Russians over the years in Ukraine and in other countries, which have been debunked, and an example of the types of false pretexts we have been warning the Russians would invent”, she said.According to Psaki, Washington is in “full compliance” with its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological Weapons Convention and has no plans to develop or possess such weapons anywhere.Victoria Nuland, whose statements were referred to by Igor Kirillov, said on Tuesday that “Ukraine has biological research facilities” and noted that Washington was “working with the Ukrainians on how they can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces should they approach”. She, however, did not elaborate on whether the US participated in the biological research in Ukraine.

Prof. Asoka Bandarage

Alas, many outstanding Sri Lankan scholars, journalists and social change activists have passed away in recent months. Here, I would like to honor a few of them personally known to me, some known more closely than others. While I am not able to do justice to the breadth and depth of each of their respective contributions, I will mention just a few of their works specifically focused on building peace, justice, and harmony in Sri Lanka.

Sirima Kiribamune

Beloved teacher and long-time friend, Sirima Kiribamune, a professor at the University of Peradeniya, passed away on December 27, 2021.

One of the foremost historians on ancient Sri Lanka, she wrote a number of seminal articles based on extensive archaeological and literary evidence demythologizing popular concepts on the origin of the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict. For example, in Tamils in Ancient and Medieval Sri Lanka: The Historical Roots of Ethnic Identity”, she discussed the falsity of the Aryan-Dravidian dualism: The division of people speaking these two groups of languages into distinct racial types is not valid even for India and less so for Sri Lanka” (Ethnic Studies Report, January 1986).

Ananda Wickramaratne

Ananda Wickramaratne, also a former University of Peradeniya professor, subsequently based in the USA, passed away in September 2021.

He was a leading scholar on the British colonial period in Sri Lanka. In publications such as The Roots of Nationalism: Sri Lanka (Karunaratne and Sons, 1995), he explored how British divide and conquer policies, especially in education and religion, reinforced communal consciousness and identities creating structural imbalances that led to conflicts in post-independence Sri Lanka.

S.W.R. De Samarasinghe

S.W.R. De (Sam) Samarasinghe, who passed on November 24, 2021, was also a former faculty member of the University of Peradeniya, subsequently based in the USA.

An economist, he published numerous papers with insightful observations on the costs of the armed conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE and the need for peaceful resolution. For instance, in ‘The Political Economy of Internal Conflict in Sri Lanka”, he concluded that …the Sri Lankan case supports the theory that it is not grievance but viability of rebel groups that determines the duration of rebellions” (Netherlands Institute of International Relations, 2003).

Hassina Leelaratne

Generous colleague and a graduate of the Department of English at the University of Peradeniya, veteran journalist Hassina Leelaratne departed on October 31, 2021.

After moving to California, she co-founded the Sri Lanka Express newspaper in 1980 with her husband, well-known journalist, Deeptha Leelaratne. Sri Lanka Express provided Sri Lankan Americans a sense of community through news and analyses of developments in both Sri Lanka and the United States. After Deeptha’s death in 2006, Hassina, a courageous writer and community activist, continued to publish Sri Lanka Express, reporting on a wide range of important issues not covered elsewhere. Articles, such as “Southern California Buddhist Temples Hit by Thieves in Middle Eastern Garb” (Sri Lanka Express, March 29, 2021) and US interfered in 4 elections in Sri Lanka to help the UNP says American professor” (Sri Lanka Express, April 30, 2017), are examples that highlight her wide ranging-concerns.

Bandula Jayasekara

Bandula Jayasekara, who died on March 5, 2021, was both a seasoned journalist and an outspoken diplomat.

Jayasekara served as chief editor of the Daily News from 2006 to 2007, as Sri Lanka’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, and as Sri Lanka’s Consul General in Toronto, where he played a crucial role during the final stage of the Sri Lankan armed conflict. Upon his return to Sri Lanka, he worked as a host of the influential Pathikada program on Sirasa TV, helping to broaden perspectives on important issues.

In the last stage of his life, while stricken with leukemia, he called on young journalists to, Get out of the internet. Don’t just copy and paste. Go to the field, do research, and raise awareness; give something beneficial to the society.”

He also courageously shared thoughts and emotions on dying that are rarely heard in the media. He left saying, My last appeal is to raise awareness, help improve palliative care and help medical specialists to improve the quality of life of poor terminally ill patients and their families” (Daily News, February 12, 2021).

Kamal Rajapaksa

London-based Kamal Rajapaksa was active since the 1980s in several organizations working to protect Sri Lankan interests. He passed away in May 2021.

Although public reports of his contributions are absent, his communications and commitment to Sri Lanka were widely known on Sri Lankan internet forums. As one of his fellow activists put it: Kamal was the epitome of the silent warrior patriot who never engaged in arguments in any Public Forum; he made his concerns and complaints objectively and directly to the Highest Destinations without any party-political fear or favor.” 

Jivinida De Silva

Jivinida De Silva, who resided in both Staten Island, New York, and the wilderness areas of Sri Lanka, passed away on November 28, 2021.

A community activist and naturalist, he contributed to numerous Buddhist organizations. He also engaged in communication and public efforts to counter LTTE propaganda and broaden international understanding of the Sri Lankan conflict.

Douglas Wickramaratne

Douglas Wickramaratne, who died on December 1, 2021, was a London-based public figure.

Wickramaratne was the founder-President of the Sinhala Association in the UK, which he organized to promote Sinhala culture and, more importantly, to provide the ‘international community’ with a balanced perspective on Sri Lanka. A well-informed, eloquent speaker and a courageous activist, he participated in innumerable media interviews, debates, and forums in the UK and elsewhere to challenge LTTE terrorism and the Tamil separatist movement. An indefatigable worker, he traveled to Geneva many times to attend the United Nations Human Rights Council sessions to help safeguard Sri Lanka’s interests.

His efforts led to a period of needing protection by Scotland Yard, due to threats from the LTTE for his single-handed exposure of LTTE falsehoods and propaganda. Wickramaratne also helped form the Overseas Sri Lankans’ Organization for National Unity in Melbourne in 1983, and the World Federation of Sri Lankan Associations in Toronto in 1984, serving the latter as its first President.

Collective legacy

Each of the recently departed colleagues mentioned above held different professional and ideological perspectives on Sri Lanka. Yet they shared a common commitment to peace, social harmony, and service to the country.

May their collective legacy of concern and action prevail to help others overcome apathy and despair over the current realities in Sri Lanka and the world.

Shenali D Waduge

It is no secret that one of the key impediments to Sri Lanka’s ability to function as an ‘independent’ & ‘sovereign’ nation is no one else but India. There is not an area that India has not influenced & put pressure on Sri Lanka. It is no different to the pressures suffered by India’s other neighbors. Knowing the pressures exerted by India, a government elected by the people should devise ways of reducing these pressures instead of encouraging them. In such a scenario, when calls by the general public to annul the provincial councils is ignored, we see no reason for a new constitution if we are to continue PC system in the new constitution. There is no requirement to hold PC elections if we are not going to continue it in the new constitution. Thankfully, the present provincial council system incorporated into the constitution in 1987 has failed to give the land & police powers that India demands through its Sri Lankan proxies to fulfil its greater Tamil Nadu quest bringing North under India’s sphere of influence. Demand for re-merger of NE is to bag Trinco Port.

We do not need to continuously remind Sri Lanka’s policy makers & advisors that with India joining Quad, together with the current court proceedings pushed by Sri Lanka’s so-called Indian friend, demands India’s right to Sri Lanka’s territorial waters. This aligns to the eccentric wisdom of our backdoor PM who wants to build a bridge joining the two nations. It also aligns with the US corporate goal to join two key ports of Sri Lanka via an electric train securing this land right for 100 years. Readers will recall the manner India has incrementally secured distribution of petroleum rights across Sri Lanka to also include operating an economic zone in Trinco & also given Trinco Oil Tanks. These areas now secured by India are declared exclusive zones where even Sri Lanka’s military cannot enter without permission. Having immediately secured this, India next uses its local proxies to demand merger of the North & East (part of the Indo-Lanka Accord & 13a) which also aligns with the US maneuvers in the East of Sri Lanka which increased since the yahapalana government with many US ships arriving & Sri Lanka’s navy put through numerous training programs all preparing our forces for a different mindset. All these take place with a plan & questions Sri Lanka’s plans to counter them & not simply walk into these traps taking place openly & with impunity. An appreciation of the ground scenarios should make Sri Lanka’s policy makers & military strategists worried.

What is the sole reason for doing away with the present constitution? To remove all of the clauses that have not served the nation or its people.

We identify the 13^thamendment as key impediment in terms of India’s ability to exert influence over Sri Lanka, the possibility of it being used to separate Sri Lanka & the likelihood of a future terrorist hotspot (taking lessons from the past) Additionally, the provincial council system that was introduced alongside the 13a has been nothing but a worthless & costly system providing little or no relief to the tax paying masses. The work of the PCs can easily be done by the Urban Councils & Municipalities. Therefore, if a government desires to cut its expenses & bring greater relief to the people, a government should remove the PC system instead of continuing it just to please India. That India demands its continuance is clearly seen by the manner it plugs the continuance of the PC system & 13a to the loan conditions it gives. Knowing how India functions, what is the response of the politicians to these unfair demands infringing on our sovereignty?

How did 13th amendment become part of Indo-Lanka Accord & India’s role in it

Indo-Lanka Accord – 13th Amendment & India

We have argued that the Indo-Lanka Accord is no longer valid as India did not uphold its end of the assurances given. Moreover, 13a was never part of the Indo-Lanka Accord. There is no line in the Accord that states 13a or Provincial Council system. The 13a, the PC system & the merger of the North & East were all birthed by India & not Sri Lanka’s Tamil leadership or LTTE

This is clearly evident in a letter 3 Tamil leaders sent to the Indian PM. It is also noteworthy that TULF had been negotiating with GoSL through the Govt of India on a devolution program since 1983. All these had been taking place in secret & without the knowledge of the Sri Lankan public. Noteworthy too is that the draft 13a & PC legislation had been gazetted without making available to India. This means, if Sri Lanka can gazette 13a & PC Bill without showing India, Sri Lanka should also be able to remove 13a & PCs without informing India.If Sri Lanka could suspend India’s role in talks in January 1986 – why can’t politicians take similar decisions now?

Sri Lanka’s advisors have always followed a policy of fear regarding relations with India we cannot anger India”. It is as a result of following a ‘fear of India’ policy that India deems it their right to tread on Sri Lanka as it sees fit. Do we need to elect leaders if they agree to do anything that India orders them to? As per TULF 1987 letter, India exerted pressure on President JRJ to agree to the unification of North-East & to create one PC, one governor, one chief minister & a board of ministers. One key area which we continue to ignore & which our legal luminaries pretend to be deaf, dumb & blind about is that it was required to have a referendum to decide on the continuance of the merger in Eastern province by 31 December 1988 which had been postponed & was never held. This clearly means the merger was an impermanent arrangement. But it was only in 2006 that the N-E was legally demerged after a petition.

TULF & GoSL held discussions on devolving provincial subjects as far back as July/Aug 1986. If this was done without India’s direct involvement, Sri Lanka’s government should be able to take bold decisions even though India blows hot or cold. As per TULF the 13a Bill & PC Bill retains power for Parliament to amend or repeal chapter pertaining to PCs, lists of subjects & power of Parliament to legislate subjects transferred to PCs by a 2/3 majority. If the JRJ govt could ensure the subject of Ports in particular Trincomalee Port was included to Reserved List & under Central Govt control, why are successive governments bargaining with Trinco?

India has been riding on the bogus concern for Tamils’ as a means to exert influence over Sri Lanka. The inclusion of Tamil as an official language with the 13a was not out of any love for Tamils but a pawn for India to use. India could have eliminated LTTE immediately after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, but it chose not to do so.

Let it also not be forgotten that it was the TULF that as far back as December 1985 that called for the merging of North & East & one Tamil linguistic state & not the LTTE. Noteworthy too is the manner Tamil political parties are promoting insertion of UNITED” instead of UNITARY” primarily because it is a term associated with confederation/confederacy & not an unitary state. Presently too, there are many efforts to replace UNITARY with UNITED.

It is clear that India is able to armtwist GOSL into agreeing to its wishes whatever Sri Lanka’s public demands to the contrary. The GoSL even agreed to devolution of power (within unitary framework) to PCs in May/June 1986 but without merging north & east. How did the merger take place then? Either GoSL representatives & advisors are not reading the documents they are being given as drafts or they recommend the leaders to sign knowing but ignoring the dangers at hand.

What we need to understand is that India has been manipulating not just Tamil political parties, the LTTE & other Tamil militant group but the GoSL/the Opposition as well as a plethora of others openly & freely in Sri Lanka.The dangers of this can be seen in the manner that these toys” are being manipulated for India’s political advantage. India will place these toys in one basket when necessary or have them fight each other where necessary too. We become mere spectators. However, looking back from the 1980s all that can be said is that India has made inroads into Sri Lanka with each coming year. There is no denying India played a key role in Tamil militancy & a big question mark remains regarding India’s role in Easter Sunday too. The tall & short of this is the manner Sri Lanka has been weakened & made vulnerable by our own.

There is little point in ushering a new constitution if we are not going to throw out the elements that make Sri Lanka vulnerable.

If 13a & the PC system is not going to be removed, then we do not require a new constitution.

If a new constitution is being peddled to plug the loopholes that disallows all of Sri Lanka’s enemies from taking Sri Lanka into further decline, then we do not wish for that new constitution. 

Since 1987, we have only had ‘demands to fully implement 13a’ but we have managed to weather these demands with the present constitution – thus it is not half as dangerous as a new constitution that may see our enemies influence what gets included & what doesn’t – from the manner India exerted pressure upon Nepal when it was told to change its constitution by the West should be a good example for Sri Lanka not to knowingly walk into traps.

Shenali D Waduge

Hussain Shazzad

The official journey of Bangladesh and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) relations started in 1975 when the KSA recognized newly born Bangladesh as a sovereign country. Since then, these two countries have been maintaining cordial and closer friendship prioritizing mutual understanding, deep sense of fraternity, and cooperation in multilateral sectors. State-level official visits from both sides have contributed to the further development of their bilateral bonding. The current Foreign Minister of the KSA, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, is expected to visit Bangladesh on March 16, 2022. Marking this historical visit, Bangladesh expects that the bilateral relations could be taken to a new height by ensuring more economic cooperation.

Bangladesh, being a Muslim-majority country, attaches a special priority to its relations with Saudi Arabia as the birthplace of Islam. Both countries have common social norms and cultural values derived from their religious practices. Also, they share similar views on many regional and global issues especially those are directly related to the Muslim world. Their common interest led them to cooperate in different regional and international platforms such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), UN, etc. Their current ties have further been reinforced by ever-deepening cooperation in the fields of investment, trade, investment, manpower, defense, education, culture etc.  As Bangladesh perceives KSA as one of its trusted friends, it is the need of the hour to analyze the expectations of the mass Bangladeshis from the KSA Foreign Minister’s Visit to Bangladesh.

The tremendous economic growth of Bangladesh in the last 50 years has made the country a financial and industrial hub of South Asia. According to the World Bank, Bangladesh is one of the fastest growing economies of the world supported by its consistent growth in ready-made garment (RMG) exports, demographic dividend, and stable macroeconomic conditions. Because of the economic success, the KSA now perceives Bangladesh, going beyond religious dimension, as one of the lucrative investment designations. The KSA is now one of the most reliable bilateral development partners of Bangladesh, the relations dynamics of which have evolved from one-layered to multi-dimensional cooperation over the time.

Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) is planning to allocate some 300 acres of land to Saudi investors in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Shilpa Nagar in Chattogram. It is expected that both countries will sign billion-dollar worth investment proposals, from the part of Saudi Arabia, including some energy sector related projects. Apart from energy sectors, Saudi investors can invest in Bangladesh’s 100 special economic zones, large-infrastructure undertakings, textiles, IT, Agro-based industries etc.

The KSA is the largest and most valued destination for the Bangladeshi expatriates. From 1976 to 2021, Bangladesh exported a total of 45.81 lakh migrant workers to the Kingdom which is almost 34 percent of the country’s total manpower export. Even amid the pandemic gloom in 2020 when most of the labor markets remained shut down, the Kingdom employed 1.61 lakh Bangladeshi workers. Last year, Bangladesh exported 6.17 lakh migrants to abroad of which 4.57 lakh, almost 76 percent of total overseas employment, were sent to the KSA. In the last five years, Saudi Arabia has become the top destination for Bangladeshi migrant workforces. The Gulf country is implementing a number of megaprojects under its Vision-2030” which may turn the country a better job destination for Bangladeshis if proper steps are being taken targeting the upcoming visit.

Bangladesh is on the highway to be graduated from the Least Developed Country (LDC) group by 2026. After the graduation, Bangladesh will not be eligible for many preferential treatments that are exclusively available for the LDCs in global trade. Limited access to these preferential facilities will have adverse impact on the balance of payment of Bangladesh especially with the unavoidable negative impact on its total export earnings. To counter these challenges, Bangladesh may negotiate with KSA for ensuring duty-free access to the Saudi market even after the LDC-graduation.

Since the genocide orchestrated by Myanmar military on Rohigya community in 2017, Bangladesh has been hosting 1.2 million Rohingya refugees. Besides, Bangladesh had been experiencing a negative trend in the international humanitarian assistance funds for supporting these refugees. Being the leader of the Muslim world, Bangladesh may expect that Saudi Arabia will take initiative to end the plight of Rohingyas, the deprived Muslim minorities, by ensuring safe and dignified return to their homeland. Also, Bangladesh may talk with the KSA Foreign Minister for more financial support to ensure life-saving assistance required to support the Rohingya refugees.

Marking the visit of the KSA’s Foregin Minister, Bangladesh should prepare itself to convey the message that it can cooperate with KSA in implementing its Vision-2030” by cooperating in the field of manpower, trade, investment, agriculture, and education.  Also, Bangladesh requires Saudi’s extensive engagement and economic cooperation to materialize the country’s Vision-2041”. Apart from state-level visits, economic and investment-related delegations and cultural and defense cooperation can play a crucial role in taking the ties to a new level. Greater economic engagement from both sides can fundamentally change the overall relationship dynamics between these two countries in future” which should get preference in the upcoming visit.

High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to India

High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to India Milinda Moragoda met with the Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Housing and Urban Affairs of India Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, (10th March) at the Ministry of Urban Affairs in New Delhi.  

At the outset, High Commissioner Moragoda thanked Minister Puri for the assistance that India has provided to Sri Lanka as envisaged under the four-pillars of cooperation, agreed during the visit of Sri Lankan Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa to India in December last year, in particular the USD 500 million line of credit to purchase petroleum products. Additional assistance too has been provided by India to enhance Sri Lanka’s petroleum stocks.

High Commissioner Milinda Moragoda also briefed Minister Puri on the challenges that Sri Lanka is currently facing as regards to the supply and distribution of petroleum products and their impact on the country’s energy sector. The High Commissioner and the Minister discussed modalities through which India and Sri Lanka could further expand cooperation in the petroleum sector to help overcome the present crisis.  

The discussion also focused on a range of issues pertaining to the energy sector, including ways and means through which Sri Lanka could establish long-term strategic ties in the petroleum, oil, gas and related logistics sectors. Minister Hardeep Singh Puri was a distinguished career diplomat prior to joining politics. He had served at the High Commission of India in Colombo during the period 1984-1988

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

ශ්‍රී ලාංකීය කාන්තාව සමාජීය,ආර්ථික හා දේශපාලනික වශයෙන් ඓතිහාසික කාර්යභාරයක් ඉටු කර තිබෙන බව අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ආර්යා ශිරන්ති වික්‍රමසිංහ රාජපක්ෂ මහත්මිය පැවසුවාය.

ඉන්දුනීසියාවේ කාන්තා සවිබල ගැන්වීම් සහ ළමා ආරක්ෂණ අමාත්‍යාංශය (MoWECP) ජකර්තා නගරයේ සිට අන්තර්ජාලය ඔස්සේ මෙහෙයවූ “බලවත් කාන්තාවන් කතා කිරීමට නිර්භීතයි” මැයින් වූ ජාත්‍යන්තර කාන්තා දින සැමරුම -2022 අන්තර්ජාතික සැසිය සඳහා වීඩියෝ තාක්ෂණය ඔස්සේ එක්වෙමින් ප්‍රධාන දේශනය පැවැත්වූ අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ආර්යා ශිරන්ති වික්‍රමසිංහ රාජපක්ෂ මහත්මිය ඊයේ (09) මේ බව සඳහන් කළාය.

“සවිබල ස්ත්‍රිය සියලු බාධා බිඳ දමා අයිතිවාසිකම් වෙනුවෙන් ඉදිරිපත් වෙයි” තේමාවෙන් අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ආර්යාව සිය දෙසුම ඉදිරිපත් කළාය.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ආර්යා ශිරන්ති වික්‍රමසිංහ රාජපක්ෂ මහත්මිය  කළ කතාව මෙසේය.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට කාන්තාවන් සවිබල ගැන්වීමෙහිලා ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨ ඉතිහාසයක් තිබෙනවා. ශ්‍රී ලාංකීය කාන්තාවන් සෑම විටම තීරණ ගනු ලබන්නේ තම පවුලේ අවශ්‍යතා සුරක්ෂිත කිරීමෙහිලා පෙරමුණ ගනිමින්. එහෙත් ආසියාතික කාන්තාව පොදුවේ පවුල කේන්ද්‍ර කරගත් සමාජයීය කාර්යභාරයේ දී ඉතා දුක්ඛිත අවස්ථාවන්ට මුහුණ දෙන බව සත්‍යයක්.

එහි අවාසනාවන්ත තත්ත්වය නම් කාන්තාව පවුල වෙනුවෙන් ඉටු කරන කාර්යය භාරය ඔවුන්ගේ ප්‍රධාන සහකරුවන්ට නොදැනීමයි. ඒ නිසා බොහෝ විට වාර්තා  නොවන ගෘහස්ථ හිංසනයට අපගේ කාන්තාවන්ට  මුහුණ දීමට සිදුවෙනවා.

අපගේ කාන්තාවන් පවුල සුරක්ෂිත කිරීම වෙනුවෙන් ආර්ථික අවශ්‍යතා සපුරාලීම සඳහා සංක්‍රමණික රැකියාවලට යොමුවන අවස්ථා බොහොමයක් තිබෙනවා. එසේ නිවස හැර යන කාන්තාව අනිසි ලිංගික අපයෝජනයන්ට ලක්වන අවස්ථා කොතෙකුත් තිබෙනවා.

අප සමාජයේ මෙසේ අසරණ වන කාන්තාව වෙනුවෙන් කළ හැකි කාර්යය වන්නේ ඔවුන්ට ආරක්ෂාව හා යහපැවැත්ම සහතික කරන විශ්වාසනීය රාජකාරී පැවරීමයි.‍

මෙහිදී ඓතිහාසික වශයෙන් ශ්‍රී ලාංකීය කාන්තාවන් සමාජීය ආර්ථික හා දේශපාලනික වශයෙන් වැදගත් කාර්යභාරයක් ඉටු කර ඇති බව සිහිපත් කළ යුතුයි. ලොව ප්‍රථම කාන්තා අගමැතිනිය වූයේ අතිගරු සිරිමාවෝ බණ්ඩාරනායක මැතිනියයි. ඇය කාන්තාවන් සැමට ආදර්ශමත් නායිකාවක්.

කාන්තාවන් සවිබල ගැන්වීමේ දී කාන්තාව සහ පිරිමි එක්ව ක්‍රියාකිරීමයි වැදගත් වන්නේ. තනිව නොව ගම්මාන සහ සමූහ වශයෙන් සවිබලගැන්වීම ශක්තිමත් පදනමක් ඇතිකරනවා. මෙම සැසියේ දී මම ඔබ සමඟ බෙදා ගැනීමට කැමති පාඩම  මෙයයි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ අපට උගත හැකි පාඩම් රැසක් අපේ සංස්කෘතිය  තුළම ක්‍රියාත්මක වෙනවා. සමාජයීය ගෞරවය උපයාගන්නා ක්‍රියාශීලී කාන්තාව නිරායාසයෙන් බලය දරන බවයි මාගේ විශ්වාසය. ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයන් ලෙස අපට සම අවස්ථා ලැබීමත් ඒ සඳහා ඉදිරියට ඒමත් කළ හැකි කාර්යයක්.

අපේ සමාජයේ කාන්තාව සවිබල ගැන්වීම යනු  සමස්ත පද්ධතියටම  අවශ්‍ය  අවකාශය සවිබල ගැන්වීමයි. අධ්‍යාපනය, රැකියාව හෝ වෙනත් ඕනෑම කාර්යයක දී කාන්තාවන් තෝරා  ගන්නා ඕනෑම මාර්ගයක් වෙනුවෙන් ඔවුන්ට නිදහසේ පිවිසීමේ අවකාශය තිබිය යුතුයි. අපේක්ෂා කරන උසස් රැකියා අවස්ථා ඇත්නම් ඒ සඳහා කාන්තාවන් දිරිමත් කිරීම පවුල තුළින්ම සිදුවිය යුත්තක්.

ඊළඟ පරම්පරාවට දරුවන් දායද කරන්නේ කාන්තාවන්. ඒ නිසා ඔවුන් නිසි අධ්‍යාපනයකින්  සහ යහපත් සෞඛ්‍යකින් හෙබි පරපුරක් බවට පත් කිරීම සියලු දෙනගේ වගකීමක්. ආගමික විශ්වාස මත වෙනස් නොවී සියලු කාන්තාවන්ට එම අයිතිවාසිකම් හිමිවිය යුතුයි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ නම් සංස්කෘතික වශයෙන් කාන්තාවන්ට බාධ ඇත්තේ ඉතා සුළු ප්‍රමාණයක්. එහෙත් ඔවුන් ආර්ථික වශයෙන් විවිධ බාධා වලට මුහුණ දෙනවා.

කාන්තාවන්ගේ ජීවන  තත්ත්වය සහ ඔවුන්ව ස්වයං සවිබල ගැන්වීම  සඳහා ඔබ අප වැනි රටවල් එකට එක්ව ක්‍රියා කළ හැකියි. කාන්තාවන් අපේක්ෂා කරන්නේත් එයයි.

ඉහළ ගුණාත්මක අධ්‍යාපනයක් සහ රැකියා පහසුකම් ලබා දීමෙන් තරුණ  ගැහැණු ළමුන්ගේ අනාගතය සවිබල ගැන්වීමට හැකියි. එමෙන්ම උසස් තත්ත්වයේ ළමා රැකවරණයත් වැඩ කරන මව්වරුන්  සඳහා පහසුකම් තිබීමත් ප්‍රමුඛ අවශ්‍යතා වෙනවා.

කාන්තාවන් සවිබල  ගැන්වීම සඳහා එක් එක් ජාතීන් ගන්නා පියවර සහ යොදවන කාලය ඉතා වැදගත්. එම පියවර ඉදිරියට ගෙන  යන ආකාරය පිළිබඳව  දැනුම බෙදා ගැනීමට අපේ ජාතීන් එක්ව කටයුතු කරනු දැකීමට මම කැමතියි.

කාන්තාවන්ගේ පූර්ණ හැකියාව අවබෝධ කර ගන්නේ ද හිරිහැර හා ගෘහස්ථ  කෲරත්වයට ලක් වූ  කාන්තාවන්ම ය. පවුල තුළ ඇය ට නැගී සිටීමට අවශ්‍ය පසුබිම සලසා දීම විශ්වාසනීයත්වය තීව්‍ර කරයි.

ඒ නිසා කාන්තාව ශක්තිමත්ව බල ගැන්වීමට අපි එක්ව කටයුතු කරමු, යැයි මම ඔබට යෝජනා කරනවා.

ලෝකයේ සියලුම නිර්භීත කාන්තාවන් සමඟ එක්ව කාන්තාවන්ට එරෙහි ප්‍රචණ්ඩත්වය පිටු දැකීමටත් කාන්තාව  සවිබල ගැන්වීම සඳහාත් අපි නැගී සිටිමු.

ගෘහ සේවිකාවගේ පටන් ඕනෑම රටක ඉහළම  තනතුරක් දරන කාන්තාවටත් සම අයිතිය ලැබෙන  ජාත්‍යන්තර කාන්තා දිනයක් වේවා! යැයි ප්‍රාර්ථනා කරමි.

නිපුණතා සංවර්ධන වෘත්තීය අධ්‍යාපන පර්යේෂණ හා නව නිපැයුම් රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශය

‘Connection Glory Future’ තේමාව යටතේ  ශ්‍රී ලංකා නව නිපැයුම්කරුවන්ගේ කොමිසම සහ Huawei ශ්‍රී ලංකා සමාගම එක්ව පැවැත් වූ Huawei ICT 2021 -2022 තරගාවලියේදී විශිෂ්ට දස්කම් දැක්වූ ශ්‍රී ලාංකීය විශ්ව විද්‍යාල සිසුන් අතරින් ජාතික මට්ටමේ මුල් ජයග්‍රාහකයින් විසිදෙනා ඇගයීමේ සම්මාන ප්‍රදානෝත්සවය ගරු රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය, විශේෂඥ වෛද්‍ය සීතා අරඹේපොල මැතිණියගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් ඊයේ  (09) දින පැවැත්විණ.
මෙම වසරේදී පැවැත්වීමට නියමිත මෙම තරගාවලියේ කලාපීය අදියර සඳහා ශ්‍රී ලංකාව නියෝජනය කරමින් මෙම ජයග්‍රාහකයින් කණ්ඩායම් දෙකක් ලෙස තරග වැදෙනු ඇති අතර ගෝලීය වශයෙන් පැවැත්වෙන අවසන් මහා තරගය සඳහා ද සහභාගී වීමට නියමිතයි.
ඉදිරියේදීත් මෙවැනි ජාත්‍යන්තර මට්ටමේ තරගාවලි පැවැත්වීමට එකඟතාවය පළ කරමින් Huawei ශ්‍රී ලංකා සමාගම සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකා නව නිපැයුම්කරුවන්ගේ කොමිසම අතර අවබෝධතා ගිවිසුමක් ද මෙහි දී හුවමාරු කර ගැනිණ
ශ්‍රී ලංකා නව නිපැයුම්කරුවන්ගේ කොමිසමේ කොමසාරිස් මහාචාර්ය එන්.එම්.එස්.සිරිමුතු මහතා, Huawei ශ්‍රී ලංකා සමාගමේ ප්‍රධාන විධායක නිලධාරී Liang Yi මහතා, Huawei එන්ටර්ප්‍රයිස් ව්‍යාපාර අංශයේ උප සභාපති ඉන්දික ද සොයිසා මහතා සහ විශ්වවිද්‍යාලවල සිසු සිසුවියන් ඇතුළු පිරිසක් මෙම අවස්ථා සහභාගී විය.
මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය
නිපුණතා සංවර්ධන වෘත්තීය අධ්‍යාපන පර්යේෂණ හා නව නිපැයුම් රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශය

-ප්‍රොටෙක්ට් සංගමය-

ජාත්‍යන්තර කාන්තා දිනයට සමගාමීව, ප්‍රොටෙක්ට් සංගමයේ හැටන් සහ ලක්ෂපාන ශාඛාවල සාමාජික සාමාජිකාවන්ගේ සහභාගීත්වයෙන් පැවැත්වුණු වැඩසටහන් මාලාවක් ඊයේ (09) ගිනිගත්හේන නගරය කේන්ද්‍ර කොට ගනිමින් පැවැත්විණ. ඒ සඳහා ගෘහස්ථ ශ්‍රමිකයන් ඇතුළු අවිධිමත් අංශයේ සහ ස්වයං රැකියාවල නියුතු කාන්තාවන් විශාල පිරිසක් සහභාගි වී සිටියහ.

එම වැඩසටන් මාලාවේ පළමුවැන්න ලෙස ප්‍රොටෙක්ට් සංගමයේ හැටන් සහ ලක්ෂපාන ශාඛාවල සාමාජිකයන් විසින් අඹගමුව ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කාර්යාලය වෙත ලිපියක් බාර දෙමින්, සංගමය විසින් අවිධිමත් අංශයේ සහ ස්වයං රැකියාවල නියුතු වන කම්කරුව්න් වෙනුවෙන් පවත්වනු ලබන පුහුණු වැඩසටහන්වල දී අවශ්‍යය කරන සහයෝගය ලබා දෙන ලෙස ඉල්ලා සිටියේ ය.

ඉන් අනතුරුව අඹගමුව ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කාර්යාලයේ සිට ගිනිගත්හේන නගරය වෙත පා ගමනින් පැමිණි පිරිස ගිනිගත්හේන නගරයේ පොදු ජනතාව දැනුවත් කරමින් ඔවුන්ට ආරාධනා කළේ, ‘තිරසාර හෙටක් සඳහා අද ස්ත්‍රී-පුරුෂ සමාජභාවය වෙනුවෙන් නැගී සිටීමට’ පෙරට පැමිණෙන ලෙසයි. ඒ අතරවාරයේ ම ‘වැඩබිම් තුළ කාන්තා අයිතිවාසිකම් සහ ස්ත්‍රී-පුරුෂ සමාජභාවය වෙනුවෙන් පෙළගැසෙමු’ යන මැයෙන් අත්සන් ව්‍යාපාරයක් (Signature campaign) ද සංවිධානය කොට තිබිණි.

ඉන් අනතුරුව ප්‍රොටෙක්ට් සංගමය විසින් සංවිධානය කළ ජාත්‍යන්තර කාන්තා දින සැමරුමක් ගිනිගත්හේන සී/ස විවිධ සේවා සමූපකාර සමිති ශාලාවේ දී පැවත්විණි. එහි දී කාන්තා අයිතිවාසිකම් පිළිබඳ පැමිණ සිටි පිරිස වේදිකා නාට්‍යයක් ඇසුරෙන් ද දැනුවත් කරන ලදි.  මෙම අවස්ථාවට ගිගත්හේන පොලීසියේ කාන්තා සහ ළමා ඒකකය නියෝජනයනය කරමින් නිලධාරිනියක්, ප්‍රදේශයේ මහජන සෞඛ්‍ය පරීක්ෂක නිලධාරීවරයා, ගිණිගත්හේන- පවුල් සෞඛ්‍ය සේවා නිලධාරිනියත් යන නිලධාරීන් පැමිණ සිටි අතර ලංකා වතු සේවා සංගමය ඇතුලු වෘත්තීය සමිති නියෝජනය කරමින් එහි නියෝජිතයන් සහ සිවිල් සමාජ සංවිධාන නියෝජිතයන් පිරිසක් ද සහභාගි වී සිටියහ.

-ප්‍රොටෙක්ට් සංගමය-

සමස්ත ලංකා ප්‍රවාහන සේවක සංගමය

ගරු ප්‍රවාහන අමාත්‍ය,
දිලූම් අමුණුගම මැතිතුමා,
ප්‍රවාහන අමාත්‍යංශය,
07 මහල,
‘‘සෙත්සිරිපාය’’,
බත්තරමුල්ල.

ගරු ඇමති තුමනි,

බස් රථයේ ඩිකියේ හොරෙන් ගමන් කළ පාසල් සිසුන් පදනම් කරගෙන අදාල බස්රථයේ කොන්දොස්තර මහතාට කිසිදු දඬුවමක් ලබානොදෙන ලෙස ඉල්ලා සිටීම.

2022 මාර්තු 07 වන දින මොණරාගල පහතරාව අතර ගමන් කළ ශ්‍රී ලංගම බස්රථයක ඩිකියේ පාසල් සිසුන් කිහිප දෙනෙක් හොරෙන් ගමන් කර ඇත. අදාල බස්රථයේ කොන්දොස්තර මහතාට බසයේ පිටුපසින් ශබ්දයක් ඇසීම නිසා බසය නවතා ඔහු එම බස්රථයේ ඩිකිය පරීක්‍ෂා කර ඇත. එවිට පාසල් සිසුන් ඩිකියේ ගමන් කරන බව ඔහු දැක ඔවුන් ඩිකියෙන් බස්වා බස් රථයේ ඇතුලට නංවාගෙන ඇත.

එම සිසුන් ගමන් කළ අදාල පාසල් බස් රථය අතරමඟ ආපදාවකට ලක්වූ නිසා එම සිසුන් මෙම රථයට නංවාගෙන ඇත. එම මොහොතේ පවා මොණරාගල පහතරාව බස් රථයේ අධික මගීන් ප්‍රමාණයක් ගමන් කරමින් සිටින ලදී. බස් රථයේ මගී ප්‍රමාණය අධික වූ නිසා පාසල් සිසුන් හට බස් රථයේ ඩිකියේ ගමන් කිරීමට සිදුවී ඇත. මෙම සිද්ධිය පදනම් කරගෙන මොණරාගල පහතරාව බස් රථයේ කොන්දොස්තර මහතා දැනට පොරොත්තු සේවයේ යොදවා ඇති බවට අප සංගමයට තොරතුරු ලැබී ඇත.

ගරු ඇමතිතුමණි, අධික ලෙස බස්රථයේ මගීන් සිටිය නිසා පාසල් සිසුන්ට එම ක්‍රියාව සිදුකිරීමට සිදුවී ඇති අතර, මගී ප්‍රවාහනය සඳහා ශ්‍රී ලංගම බස්රථ වැඩිපුර යෙදවීම ශ්‍රී ලංගමයේ සහ ඔබතුමාගේ වගකීම වේ. ඒ අනුව ශ්‍රී ලංගමයට අවශ්‍ය බස්රථ ලබාගැනීමට අවශ්‍ය පියවර කඩිනමින් ගන්නා ලෙසත්, අදාළ කොන්දොස්තර මහතා පොරොත්තු සේවයෙන් ඉවත්කර ඔහුගේ සුපුරුදු සේවය ඔහුට ලබාදෙන ලෙසත් අප සංගමයට ඔබතුමාගෙන් කාරුණිකව ඉල්ලා සිටින්නෙමු.

ස්තූතියි.

මෙයට,
සේපාල ලියනගේ
සමස්ත ලංකා ප්‍රවාහන සේවක සංගමය.

පිටපත් :
1. ශ්‍රී ලංගම ගරු සභාපති, කිංස්ලි රණවක මැතිතුමා.
2. ජා.වෘ.ම. සභාපති, – කේ. ඩී. ලාල්කාන්ත මැතිතුමා.
3. ශ්‍රී ලංගම සියලූම වෘතීය සමිති වෙත
4. ප්‍රාදේශීය ප්‍රධාන කළමණාකාරතුමා – ඌව ප්‍රා.කලාපය
5. ඩිපෝ කළමණාකාරතුමා – ශ්‍රී ලංගම මොණරාගල
 ඩිපෝව

රජිත් කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ/ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍රය

මැතිවරණ ක්‍රම සංශෝධනය පිළිඳව පාර්ලිමේන්තු තේරීම් කාරක සභාව වෙත පොහොට්ටුව පක්ෂය විසින් ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇති පළාත් පාලන ඡන්ද ක්‍රම සංශෝධනය තුලින් කාන්තා නියෝජනය 25% සිට 16% දක්වා අඩුවනු ඇත. පළාත් පාලන නියෝජනයයේ මේ වන විට  23% ක කාන්තා නියෝජනයක් පවතී.  නව මැතිවරණ ක්‍රමයේ නිර්මාතෘවරුවරුන් කුමක් කීවත් නව ක්‍රමය ක්‍රියාත්මක වන්නේ නම්, කාන්තා නියෝජනය 16% ක් දක්වා පහත වැටීම නොවැලැක්විය හැකිය.  මේ රටේ සියළුම කාන්තා සංවිධාන, සිවිල් සංවිධාන පළාත් පාලනයේ කාන්තා නියෝජනය අඩු කරන පලාත් පාලන ඡන්ද ක්‍රම සංශෝධනය පරාජ කිරීමට එක් විය යුතු යැයි ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍රය නිවේදනයක් නිකුත් කරමින් පවසයි.

පලාත් පාලන ආයතනයන් හි සභික සංඛ්‍යාව වැඩි බවට වන ජයප්‍රිය තර්කය මත පදනම්ව කාන්තා නියෝජය පහත දමමින් 35%ක ඡන්ද ප්‍රමාණයක් ලබා ගන්නා පක්ෂයකට පළාත් පාලන ආයතනයේ 60% ඉක්මවන සභික සංඛ්‍යාවක් ලබා ගැනීමට නව ඡන්ද ක්‍රමයෙන් උත්සහ දරයි.  1965 වන විට ලංකාවේ පළාත් පලාන ආයතනයනි හි සභිකයින් 9000 ක් සිටි අතර, අද වසර 55 කට පසුව රටේ ජනගහනය මිලියන 10 ක් පමණ වැඩිවී ඇති නමුත්, සභික සංඛ්‍යාව 8711 කි. වත්මන් පලාත් පාලන ක්‍රමය තුල නොමැති අර්බුදයක්/ප්‍රශ්නයක් මතු කරමින් ඡන්ද ක්‍රමයේ සමානුපාතික නියෝජනය විකෘති කිරීම ඡන්ද යෝජනාවේ අරමුණ වී ඇත.

මහාචාර්ය සුදන්ත ලියනගේ ගේ කාන්තා නියෝජන සංකල්පය ‘කතාව දෝලාවෙන් – ගමන පයින්‘ ආකාරයේ නෙයියාඩගමකි.  සමානුපාතික ක්‍රමය, කාන්තා නියෝජනය සුරංගනා කතා කියමින් සමානුපාතික නියෝජනය විනාශ කරමින්, කාන්තා නියෝජය හකුලා දැමීමකි.

පලාත් පාලන ආයතනයන් හි කාන්තාවන් 2002 ක් සභිකාවියන් ලෙස කටයුතු කරයි.  එය ප්‍රතිශතයක් ලෙස සභාවල මුළු සභික සංඛ්‍යාවෙන් 22.98% කි.  වත්මන් පළාත් පාලන ආයතනයන් හි ද, කාන්තා නියෝජනය 25% ක් ලෙස පවතින්නේ නැත.   

පලාත් පාලන කොට්ඨාශ 5077 කින්, කාන්තාවන් ජයග්‍රහණය කරනු ලැබ ඇත්තේ කොට්ඨාශ 554 ක් (10.9%) ක් පමණී. සභාවන් හි කාන්තා නියෝජනය 23% දක්වා ඉහළ නංවා ගැනීමට හැකි වුවේ, සමානුපාත ක්‍රමය යටතේ හිමිවන සභික ධූර අනිවාර්ය කිරීමෙනි.  තෝරාපත්කර එවනු ලැබූ සභිකයින් 3634 ක් අතර සභිකාවියන් 1448 (40%) ක්ම කාන්තාවන් ය.  දේශපාලන පක්ෂ නායකයින්/මහ ලේකම්වරුන්ට, තෝරාපත් කර එවන සභික සංඛ්‍යාවෙන් 40%ක් කාන්තාවන් පත් කිරීමට සිදු වූවේ කැමැත්තකින් නොව, එය අනිවාර්ය කිරීම නිසාමය.

2018 පලාත් පාලන ඡන්දයෙන් දෙවන, තෙවන, සිව්වන ස්ථානවලට පත්  එජාපය, එජනිස, ජවිපෙ, මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්ගෙන් බහුතරය කාන්තාවන් වී ඇත්තේ ඒ නිසාය.

නව ඡන්ද සංශෝධනය තුල එල්ලන ලද මන්ත්‍රී සංඛ්‍යාව (Over Hang) ඉවත් කිරීම තුල මහ ලේකම්වරුන්ට කාන්තාවන් පත් කිරීමට ඇති ‍අවකාශයෙන් ආසන 385 ක් ඉවත් වී යයි.   

මහාචාර්ය සුදන්ත ලියනගේ විසින් පාර්ලිමේන්තු තේරීම් කාරක සභාවට  ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇති  යෝජනාවෙන් සභික සංඛ්‍යාව 20 ට විට 1 ක් ද,  20 ට වැඩි සභිකයින් සහිත ආයතන ජයග්‍රාහකයින්ට සභික ධූර දෙකක් ද, බෝනස් වශයෙන් ලබාදීමට යෝජනා කර ඇත. මෙය සමානුපාතික නියෝජනය ක්‍රමයේ පදනම විනාශ කිරීමකි. 

කොට්ඨාශ මට්ටමින් අනිවාර්යයෙන්ම ඉදිරිපත් කරනු ලබන කාන්තා අපේක්ෂිකාවන්ගේ සංඛ්‍යාව 20% දක්වා ඉහළ නැංවීමකින් පමණක්, කිසිදු ආකාරයකින් 25%ක කාන්තා නියෝජනයක්  සභාව තුල ස්ථාපනය කළ නොහැකිය.  ඒ සඳහා කොට්ඨාශයවලින් 40%ක කාන්තාවන් ප්‍රමාණයකට නාම යෝජනා ලබාදීම අත්‍යවශ්‍ය වනු ඇත.  

දිගු කාලීන අරගලයක ප්‍රතිඑලයක් ලෙස ස්ථාපනය කරනු ලැබූ පළාත් පාලන ආයතනයන් හි කාන්තා නියෝජනය ආණ්ඩු බලය සහිත දේශපාලන කණ්ඩායමට අවශ්‍යතාව මත විකෘති කිරීම පරාජය කිරීමට සියළු කාන්තා සංවිධාන හා සිවිල් කණ්ඩායම් එක් විය යුතුව ඇත.

සමගි ජනබලවේගය, එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානය, ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ ඇතුළු සියළුම දේශපාලන පක්ෂවල කාන්තා සංවිධාන කාන්තා නියෝජනයේ 25%ක කෝටාව හෝ රැකගැනීමට පෙරමුණ ගත යුතුව ඇත.

රජිත් කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන්

විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ/ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍රය

James Conca Courtesy Forbes

Again and again, new solutions for the environment and human society fail if not properly planned and executed. Whether it’s widescale use of renewables, closing nuclear plants with no plan to replace the generation, or big infrastructure builds just to make jobs, if the rush to emplace is more important than their success, then they will fail.

The latest example of this is organic farming. Ted Nordhaus, Executive Director of the Breakthrough Institute, and Saloni Shah, Food and Agriculture Analyst, provided a dismal picture for organic farming on a large scale, especially when done without care.

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa promised in his 2019 election campaign to transition the country’s farmers to organic agriculture over a 10-year period. Last April, Rajapaksa’s government jumped ahead of themselves, and imposed a national ban on the import and use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and ordered the country’s 2 million farmers to go organic – eight years ahead of schedule.

The result was brutal and swift. Contrary to claims that organic methods can produce similar yields as conventional farming, domestic rice production fell 20% in just the first six months. Sri Lanka, long self-sufficient in rice production, has been forced to import $450 million worth of rice even as domestic prices for this staple of the national diet surged by 50%.

The ban also devastated the nation’s tea crop, its primary export and source of foreign exchange, accounting for 70% of total export earnings. Just yesterday, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka devalued its currency as its foreign reserves dwindled, potentially accelerating the worst inflation surge in Asia as the nation struggles to service its debt and pay for imports.

Faced with a deepening economic and humanitarian crisis, Sri Lanka has cancelled their poorly-planned national experiment in organic agriculture. By November 2021, with tea production falling, the government partially lifted its fertilizer ban on key export crops, including tea, rubber, and coconut. The government is also offering $200 million to farmers as direct compensation and an additional $149 million in price subsidies to rice farmers who incurred losses.

Which hardly makes up for the damage and suffering the organic order produced. The drop in tea production alone will result in economic losses of over $400 million.

Human costs have been even greater. Prior to the pandemic’s outbreak, the country had proudly achieved upper-middle-income status (see GDP figure below). Today, half a million Sri Lankans have sunk back into poverty. Soaring inflation and a rapidly depreciating currency have forced Sri Lankans to cut down on food and fuel purchases as prices surge. The country’s economists have called on the government to default on its debt repayments in order to buy essential supplies for its people.

Rajapaksa might be forgiven if the orders had arisen from a firm belief in organic farming practices and concern for the environment, but Rajapaksa seemed to just want some notoriety as a president overseeing an agricultural revolution”. Rajapaksa also wanted excuses to slash fertilizer subsidies and imports as well as finding a nice-sounding banner for his election campaign.

Of course, when he fired those honest ministers who acknowledged the failure, the jig was up.

This horrible turn in Sri Lanka’s fortune began in 2016, with Rajapaksa’s formation of a new movement called Viyathmaga. Promising everything from national security to anticorruption to education policy to fully organic agriculture, Viyathmaga was the perfect election platform.

Unfortunately, most of Sri Lanka’s leading agricultural experts and scientists were kept out of the planning, which included promises to phase out synthetic fertilizer, develop 2 million organic home gardens to help feed the country’s population, and turn the country’s forests and wetlands over to the production of biofertilizer.

To add insult to injury, right after Rajapaksa’s election, the COVID-19 global pandemic arrived, devastating Sri Lanka’s critical tourist sector. By the early months of 2021, the government’s budget and currency were in crisis, the lack of tourist dollars so depleting foreign reserves that Sri Lanka was unable to pay its debts to Chinese creditors following a binge of infrastructure development over the previous decade.

Since the Green Revolution of the 1960s, Sri Lanka, like much of Asia, subsidized farmers to use synthetic fertilizer. The results were startling – yields for rice and other crops more than doubled. Sri Lanka became food secure while exports of tea and rubber became critical sources of exports and foreign reserves. Rising agricultural productivity allowed widespread urbanization, and much of the nation’s labor force moved into the formal wage economy, culminating in Sri Lanka’s achievement of official upper-middle-income status in 2020.

But by 2020, the total cost of fertilizer imports and subsidies was close to $500 million. Rajapaksa’s organic push seemed to him a win-win, ending the costly $500 million-a-year government subsidy and improving the nation’s foreign exchange situation.

But wishful thinking is no substitute for expertise. From the moment the plan was announced, agronomists in Sri Lanka and around the world warned that agricultural yields would plummet. The government claimed it would increase the production of manure and other organic fertilizers in place of imported synthetic fertilizers.

Unfortunately, i

it’s not possible for the nation to produce enough fertilizer domestically to make up for the shortfall since that would require five to seven times more animal manure, which would require a huge and costly expansion of livestock holdings, with its own environmental damage.

The loss of revenue from tea and other export crops dwarfed the reduction in currency outflows from banning imported fertilizer. The bottom line turned even more negative through the increased import of rice and other food stocks. And the budgetary savings from cutting subsidies were more than outweighed by the cost of compensating farmers and providing public subsidies for imported food.

Farming is a fairly straightforward energy in, energy out process. For most of recorded human history when global populations were less than a billion, the primary way humans increased agricultural production was by adding land to the system.

Contrary to popular notions that preindustrial agriculture existed in greater harmony with nature, three-quarters of total global deforestation occurred before the industrial revolution. As recently as 200 years ago, more than 90% of the global population labored in agriculture. There was no Middle Class.

A true transformation came with the invention of the Haber-Bosch process in the early 1900s, which uses high temperature, high pressure, and a chemical catalyst to pull nitrogen from the air and produce ammonia, the basis for synthetic fertilizers. Synthetic fertilizer remade global agriculture and, with it, human society. Crop yields increased dramatically and allowed human labor to shift from agriculture to sectors that offered higher incomes and a better quality of life.

Synthetic fertilizers have allowed global agriculture to feed nearly 8 billion people. These fertilizers, combined with other innovations such as modern plant breeding and large-scale irrigation projects, allowed global population to more than double, and allowed agricultural output to triple on only 30% more land.

Without synthetic fertilizers and other agricultural innovations, there would be no urbanization, no industrialization, no global working or middle class, and no secondary education for most people.

On the other hand, all of organic agriculture production serves only two populations at opposite ends of the income spectrum. At one end are the 700 million or so people globally who still live in abject poverty, practicing old fashioned subsistence farming, barely eking out a living, not able to afford fertilizer or any modern technology. This is now termed agroecology to make such poverty sound good.

At the other end of the spectrum are the world’s richest people, mostly in the West, for whom consuming organic food is a lifestyle choice with romanticized ideas about agriculture and the natural world. Who else would pay five bucks for a cup of coffee made with organic shade-grown coffee beans shipped up from the Amazon?

As a niche within a larger, industrialized, agricultural system, organic farming works reasonably well, especially since its small scale is easily supported by existing animal manure. But it has to stay small-scale.

Rajapaksa continues to insist that his policies have not failed, but as farmers begin their spring harvest, the fertilizer ban has been partially lifted. Unfortunately, the fertilizer subsidies have not been restored.

Much of the global sustainable agriculture movement have turned a blind eye and have not come out to denounce Rajapaksa’s policies. Food Tank, an advocacy group funded by the Rockefeller Foundation that promotes a complete phase-out of chemical fertilizers and subsidies, has been mum now that its favored policies have taken such a disastrous turn.

There is no example of an agriculture-producing nation successfully transitioning to fully organic or agroecological production. The European Union has promised for decades such a full-scale transition but has failed.

In Sri Lanka, as elsewhere, there is no shortage of problems associated with chemical-intensive and large-scale agriculture. But there are solutions to these problems – innovations that allow farmers to deliver fertilizer more precisely to plants when they need it, bioengineered microbial soil treatments that fix nitrogen in the soil and reduce the need for both fertilizer and soil disruption, or genetically modified crops that require fewer pesticides and herbicides to begin with.

GMOs are not not-organic. They are just a quicker way to cross-breed which we’ve been doing for ten thousand years.

These innovations will allow countries like Sri Lanka to mitigate the environmental impacts of agriculture without impoverishing farmers or destroying the economy. Proponents of organic agriculture, by contrast, committed to naturalistic ideologies and suspicious of modern agricultural science, can offer no credible solutions.

What they offer, as Sri Lanka’s farmers have found, is misery.