What kind of double game is India playing? How long does India think it can pretend to be friends of its neighbors while planning the downfall of its neighbors? Obviously this stems from a DNA that goes back to colonial rule wherein India was Colonial Britain’s trusted sepoy. India became India only after the Colonial British christened it as India in 1947. When India is today not only part of the Five Eyes (US-UK-Canada-NZ-Australia) Intelligence Alliance in 2020 and a member of the QUAD since 2007, India is purely functioning as a vassal of the West and even India’s foreign policy is today decided by Washington.

There would have been a good reason why colonial Britain treated British India more of a sepoy than it did Ceylon. The British army was supported heavily by Indian sepoy army. South Indians were colonial Britain’s eye to prosperity, enslaving on their plantations and transported around the world. Indians that make up populations in the Caribbean, South Africa, East Asia are those that colonials transported as indentured labor. The Indian sepoy army played a key role in slaughtering their own people on behalf of the British East India Company. History is certainly getting repeated as India is ever ready to do as the West orders. Indian sepoys were recruited by the Portuguese, the French, the British and other Europeans in plundering nations.

India is agreeing to do the very same via R2P & Geneva Resolutions.Notice the manner West dishes out international positions, prestige, privileges to Indians who are doing a better job on behalf of the Western nations & their agendas than the Westerners themselves. Look at the number of Indians playing lead roles in the West at government & private levels! They claim to be ‘Indian’ for publicity only – their heart & mind serves western interests and the awesome feeling they get of rubbing shoulders with the white man. The Navi’s, the Biswals, the Bobby’s and the Kamala’s are West’s heart throbs for good reason.

Fast forward to present times the QUAD alliance was initially discussed in 2004 with official level meetings commencing in 2007. Note how it matches the timelines of Sri Lanka’s military offensive against LTTE. Obviously, India and West realized that Prabakaran was a barrier and a thorn to their designs for South Asia. They planned his ouster pretending to fight for his survival. A LTTE withou Prabakaran was a good tool for the West’s R2P Geneva.

The Pivot to Asia came in 2011, round about the same time that Ban Ki Moon suddenly decided to appoint a personal panel for a conflict that had concluded. No surprise his son-in-law is Indian and was in the IPKF! The successive UNHRC Resolutions against Sri Lanka since 2012 are no coincidental initiatives. India played a key role on the backdrop of each resolution, even the draft clauses inserted. India’s role was no different to its background role played when drafting the 2002 Cease Fire Agreement mediated by Norway. India played the silent partner.

Also note Sri Lanka’s regime change in 2015, it was the same time that India not only assisted US to oust Rajapakse but went on to sign a Joint Strategic Vision for Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean Regions with the US. The hype India promoted for ousting Rajapakses was allowing Chinese submarine to Sri Lanka claiming it a threat to India’s security. Ever since 2015, US planes have landed and flown across Sri Lanka and US ships and marines regularly docking at all of Sri Lanka’s Ports, is no matter of concern for India’s security it seems. Wait till US rolls out its other plans unbeknown to India! But, for the moment India is mesmerized by the new-found co-habitation with US and US is only happy to dole out titles knowing India will do anything in exchange.

When US renamed its Asia-Pacific Command in Hawaii as the Indo-Pacific Command, India was on cloud 9. India’s dream of becoming a member of the UNSC is momentarily replaced with the Malabar Exercise which is the military dimension of the India-US vision for an Asian NATO. Ironically, the camp that claims to be championing to challenge and contain China are all dealing with China more than any other countries. Hypocrisy at its best. China in fact spends much to help Indian start-up companies in India and have elevated plenty of Indian entrepreneurs.

Sri Lankans knows too well how Sri Lanka has suffered at the hands of India. Whether India was outfoxed into playing a role in nursing Tamil militancy, India was without a doubt a willing player in allowing India to be used as a logistics hub for LTTE and India trained and even funded over 3 dozen Tamil armed groups of which LTTE became the most prominent. India simultaneously pretended to be Sri Lanka’s friend, Tamil’s big brother, LTTE’s logistics partner and West’s consort in this ugly exercise.

We also know the role played by Indian intel even preferring to side with the LTTE ‘boys’ against India’s peace keeping force sent for a different reason but packed off for Sri Lanka’s fortune. India’s other agent JVP ensured a large number of lives were lost in vain during this horror period. We can all recall the infamous parippu drop violating our airspace, the phone threat by Dixit and the whisking away of Prabakaran to India in a helicopter until the Indo-Lanka Accord was signed in July 1987.

Sri Lanka’s terror would have ended in May 1987 and no May 2009 had it not been for India’s intervention.

All of India’s trade agreements with Sri Lanka has been one-sided and tipped to be advantageous for only India. India spends a lot of efforts in lobbying locals to be their mouthpieces. These voices are now well known to all.

Therefore, the local camp that follows the appeasing model ‘don’t anger India’ not only offer no alternative but wish to give anything and everything India demands of Sri Lanka completely ignoring India’s bad record of destabilizing Sri Lanka pretending to be its friend. Probably they played a role in preventing Pakistan PM from addressing Sri Lanka’s Parliament simply to please India. This highlighted the spinelessness of the Government. An element it needs to seriously take note of. Thankfully, the patriotic people have fought tooth and nail to ensure Colombo’s ECT was not given to rogue Indian port operator though Government stooges are now trying to do greater damage by offering WCT.

Exactly why should India be given anything if India is trying to at every level to destabilize Sri Lanka?India has never supported Sri Lanka in Geneva and India is now lobbying countries adopting bullying tactics learnt by its masters in the West to force countries to abstain from voting against the UK backed Core Group Resolution against Sri Lanka. When the Core Group inserts 13a and the UNHRC head parrots 13a in her report, India’s role against Sri Lanka is obvious.

How can countries of Asia rely on India if India shakes hands with one hand and has a readied—knife in the other.  Its a pity India wishes to be a foreigner in Asia amongst its Asian neighbours and working against its Asian neighbours.

Shenali D Waduge

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

The economic conference held in Colombo several years ago especially focused on economic issues such as foreign debt, regulation, and export performance. They were quite significant issues not only in Sri Lanka alone but also in many third-world countries.  The major macroeconomic attention of the conference was based on three vital aspects, competitiveness, government fiscal stability, and maintaining long-term sustainable economic growth. The current world problem of the Covid 19 crisis display that macroeconomic variables are subject to fluctuation and the concept of economic stability directing policy-makers to arm with policy ideas that could adapt to a fluctuating environment, is the essential thing to do in an unstable environment. The idea of a production economy was ignored by the conference, most probably to continuing import liberalization, which supported the Western and Asian countries associated with the thrust on the market economic system.  These three aspects were interconnected with economic reforms, which have been rhetoric of the international financial institutions such as IMF, World Bank, and Asian Development Bank towards developing countries since the ending of the cold war in the early 1990s.

Sri Lanka already identified several issues related to economic competitiveness and value engineering issues in the public enterprises during the 1977 general election, and the government budget presented for 1978 by Mr. Ronnie de Mel highlighted some of these issues in the budget speech with complicated corruptions had been in the country since 1956 socialist era mentioning a poem of John Milton. The elected government in 1977 initiated several policy measures for trade liberalization and market-oriented economic policies as they were essential conditions under the environment of that time.  The policy initiation of Sri Lanka and radical changes intended to implement in the economy were kicked off before Australia introduced many competitive measures into the economy.   Many criticisms against Sri Lanka’s policy initiatives, most probably because of ignoring the point of becoming a production economy. Later, rapid economic progress achieved in the country despite the assembled views of left political parties ascertained that the market economic policies were the right strategies for the country to entertain the public.

Although Sri Lanka initiated a competitive policy framework, it was lacking positive controls for good governance and economic disciplines when compared to Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia where had been undertaken a market economic system with strong economic disciplines. The countries where initiated liberal policies never undermined the process of production and the productive economy as they were associated with job creation and balanced growth.

The elected governments since 1990 have not been attempted to abolish the fundamental policy directions of the economy initiated in 1978 despite the market economic system rhetorically used as a baleful to blame in the political platforms by opposition political parties before elected them to office. The backsliding of open economic policies was a major challenge and the hardest task for elected governments in the 1990s. Politically motivated propaganda in public meetings and newspapers, the government with leftist ideology was willing to continue market policies in the country as it appeared satisfaction of public by the economic environment by such policies. The general public of Sri Lanka did not want to go back to the inward-looking policies of the so-called Bandaranaike era, which created queues and black markets for each essential item. Although the prices were a bit higher under the market economy, scarcity was not an issue and the producer too gained the right price for their products at an open market.

The trade competition of Sri Lanka involved many sectors to improve the product quality of the economy supporting the market-oriented equilibrium rather than an artificial counterpoise maintained by the Bandaranaike regime with a massive scarcity.  The initial way of competitiveness of the country is required by deregulating several key markets.  The main market was the financial market which consists of trading banks, non-bank financial intermediaries, investment banks, stock market, and superannuation market.  These market operations have been involved with a heavily regulated labor market and a rigid trade union system in the country. 

The budget speech of 2015 and the government policy initiatives reflected some tiny endeavors to deregulate the financial system but it appears that the effort was becoming purely unsuccessful because the contract between the president and the prime minister concerning policy implementations seem to be contradictory to each other based on either the political ideologies of the unity government or the policy disagreement between two different bosses of the government.

When economic reforms presenting it needs to understand the complexity in the South Asian region where can be observed disparity among all races and such differences clash with the policy implementation process.  The nature of economic development and growth in the Asian Region is that the ethnic similarity has contributed to stable economic progress in China, Soth Korea, Japan, Malaysia, and Taiwan. However, the South Asian Region has many disparities relate to religions, races, castes, and attitudes. The government of Sri Lanka has taken many steps to unite all human groups in the country, however, many groups using inconsequential points use to halt progressive steps. For example, China and India have large volumes of population and in the process of economic policy implementation India reflects a failure, the major reason is ethnic deviations of people in India.  Sri Lanka has limited ethnic groups and some factors such as castes are less influential in the economic policy process, notwithstanding, the actual situation, the diversity of ethnic groups in Sri Lanka have altered to a negative influential factor to create a competitive and productive economy in Asia, and value engineering in public enterprises.   

Mr.Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna wanted to avoid two bosses’ practices in the yahapalana regime to collective policy development integrating many political groups to a single government. The elections in 2019 and 2020 gave the mandate to the current government and becoming a competitive economy is an essential role and it needs to understand that competitiveness associate with several factors such as competitive pricing of products and services, innovations, value engineering in government and private firms and promoting market logics to attitudes of people.

The current nature of the political environment indicates that although the two bosses practice ended after the presidential election in 2019, the aspect of uniting the country seems to a failure or going to be failed on disguised diversity and religions attempt preaching against the selfish thinking practically religions failed to take the message to the wide society.  

Sri Lanka cannot afford for losing production and service firm’s power play of trade unions and the government needs to take actions for cracking down on Trade Unions that have become unreasonably powerful under the current regime may become a serious barrier to the competitiveness of the country. The experience in many factories in the past trade unions did harmful competitiveness as well as members of trade unions forcing firm owners to close factories and service firms.  The government needs to develop strategies and mechanisms to deal with trade unions and they need to be educated the public on the points of inflation, disturbances related to COVID 19, depreciation of the monetary unit.

Although many universities are providing education in Sri Lanka, the education system has visibly failed to eliminate mythical attitudes in the country, and many academics, as well as highly educated people, are either trust forecasts of uneducated astrologists and mythical instruction of soothsayers. These are signs that Sri Lanka’s constraints to be a competitive and productive economy in Asia.  Logical thinking is a vital factor for developing attitudes supportive the progress.  W.W.Rostow indicated in his stages of economic growth, the economic take-off would not be sustained if people of the country are slavers of mythical beliefs. This is a significant issue related to growth and development. It seems that although the government policy has failed to take modernization and technology to the rural economy mythical soothsayers have already invaded the technology to sow mythical attitudes in the country.

Value engineering in public enterprises relates compatible policies relate to cost-cutting, productivity, competitiveness, innovation, and cost leadership in public enterprises. Trade unions have swallowed public enterprises and political appointments to boards have failed to cut feathers of trade unions and value engineering should be the motto of public enterprises. If these work successful, Sri Lanka could be a productive and competitive economy in Asia, and public enterprises could be launched to value engineering and eliminating fiscal problems in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka has many limits to the growth and attitudes of people whether they are living in urban areas or rural areas they are affixed with delusion and changing or salvation of people from delusion is the essential condition for economic prosperity, politicians, religions, and policymakers are in an ocean of myth and people migrated to other countries from Sri Lanka too in this mythical world.  How can change this situation?      

KAMALIKA PIERIS

One of Philip’s great success stories was potato farming in Nuwara Eliya. This had been tried before and failed.  The MEP government wrote off the debt on this failed attempt and tried again with better seed potatoes. The trial was a complete success, and a potato research station was established in Rahangala.

In 1957 Philip reported that sugar cane production was begun on a large scale in Kantalai. This was the first time that lift irrigation on a large scale was being used in Sri Lanka.  In 1958 Philip reported that the sugar factory was also coming up.

Philip also started pineapple, coffee, cocoa, tobacco and cotton plantations. Pineapple was tried in Gampaha area, where the soil is suitable. Cocoa in Matale, Badulla and Koslanda, tobacco in Jaffna and Uva. Philip said that a citrus specialist from Australia had been surprised that we were not using the local varieties which will be more resistant to disease, unlike the imported varieties.

A large cotton farm was planned for Hambantota, in the area between Walawe and Kirindi oya, said Philip. We have developed a variety of cotton suitable for the area.  It is purchased at a good price by Wellawatte Spinning and Weaving Mills. Area under cotton was expanding as the villagers earned more by cultivating cotton. We propose to open a fairly large cotton farm in Ridiyagama area with Russian assistance, continued Philip.

G.T.Dharmasena recalled that in 1956, Lakshman Rajapaksa, MP for Hambantota and Deputy Minister for Commerce and Trade had in 1956 set up a cotton processing factory at Mirijjawila near Hambantota to encourage cotton cultivators in Hambantota and Monaragala. Cotton was a popular crop in Hambantota and Monaragala. Cotton was cultivated under rain-fed conditions. This factory functioned satisfactorily and it started processing their home grown cotton. It was set on fire by the JVP in 1971.

In dairy farming, Philip reported that they had experimented with crossing the Sinhala Cow with the Jersey and Frisian cows. The most successful match was with Jersey. The animal is larger than the Sinahla cow but not as large as Jersey. Milk yield was fairly satisfactory.

Philip improved the distribution of milk. Most of the milk went waste since the producing areas were so far from the towns and in a tropical climate milk soon goes bad. Therefore Philip set up two pasteurization plants in Gampola and Nattandiya where 10,000 pints of milk were collected daily, from producers. Milk Board planned to set up two more plants at Polgahawela and Kotagala.

The Milk Board in 1958 launched a programme to popularize milk drinking, and to increase the supply to those areas which were ready to drink milk. The Board planned a chain of six feeder units for collection, processing and storage at Nattandiya, Gampola and Welikanda, with Kotagala, Polgahawela and Galle to follow. The Board also up the Colombo Central Dairy with Colombo Plan aid, to serve the Greater Colombo district.

An American NGO, CARE, had been invited by the UNP government to distribute milk powder. CARE was an acronym for Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere’. Philip objected to CARE distributing milk powder. It could be done by local agencies. Also what was the need for CARE to set up an office here, for the mere supervision of the distribution. Why  did the previous government allow a voluntary  organization to set up a branch office in Ceylon. Philip was suspicious. ‘I fear the Greeks  even when they offer gifts ‘ Philip  tried to change the agreement ,but  found that was not possible. ‘I looked,’  he said. ‘( Continued)

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Philip Gunawardena is best remembered for the Paddy Lands Act of 1958. The main objective of this Act was to provide security of tenure of a permanent and heritable nature and regulate the rents paid by tenants. However its implementation was flawed owing to administrative deficiencies, observed Nimal Sanderatne.

The first Paddy Lands Bill was passed in 1953 under the UNP. It was a limited attempt at tenancy reform and was focused on Hambantota and Batticaloa alone. Under this Bill, tenant and owner should sign an agreement, valid for 5 years. Philip found that in Hambantota, only two such agreements had been signed.  Landlords avoided written leases. Without clear tenancy agreements, the benefit was for the money lender, said Philip.

Philip brought a revised Paddy Lands Bill before Parliament. It was entirely designed and implemented by Philip. It was a comprehensive Bill dealing with the whole question of tenancy, security of tenure, rights of landlords and tenants. It was to ensure long term security for the tenant and limited very strictly the rights of the land lord.

The new act gave the ande goviya tenure without a time limit.  The number of tenant farmers affected were around 300,000. Philip said the Bill would also free the tenant from his traditional servitude to the landlord. The tenant’s children had to work in the landlord’s house as servants, often without pay. Due to pressure from SLFP the bill did not include Colonization schemes.

Philip introduced his Paddy Lands Bill in 1957.  Meegama said that this Bill was perhaps the most important Bill presented in Parliament since 1947. This Bill will benefit the Kandyan peasantry more than any other worker. The Kandyan peasant is the most down trodden, said Philip. Philip spoke in both Sinhala and English on the Paddy Lands Bill.

Paddy Lands Bill was passed on Dec 19, 1957, with 61 for and 7 against. The Paddy Lands Act provided permanent security to the thousands of tenant farmers, who formed about 51 % of the cultivators. The Act also regulated the rents payable by the tenant to   the land owner. The Act said that the landlord share was to be limited to a fourth of the crop.

The lands were to be administered by a cultivation committee elected by the landlord and cultivator in the proportion of  3/4^th to be of cultivators. The power of the landlords was reduced by weighting these Committees heavily in favour of the actual cultivators. The Act  also created a new Agrarian Services Department , to ensure its implementation.

The first role of the Cultivation Committees was to help in the implementation of the tenancy provisions of the Act (Sections 8-19). The Committees were also authorized to act as intermediaries between landlord and tenant in the collection of rents, etc., thus reducing the personal hold of landlords over their tenants. This would also bolster confidence of the tenant-cultivators to actively claim their rights under the law.

Secondly, the Cultivation Committees were given important development functions, with powers for the advancement of paddy cultivation in their areas. They were given access to technical advice in the form of Agricultural Extension Officers and Village Cultivation Officers, who were made ex-officio members of the Committees, but with a right only to speak but not to vote at their meetings. It was hoped that with such technical advice emanating from within, and adopted by the Committees, would enable both paddy production and water-management to be greatly improved by the farmers.

A third major innovatory function of the Cultivation Committees was in respect of (irrigation) water management, with the Committees taking over the functions of the Irrigation Headmen (Vel Vidanes) at field level. These functions, among others, included enforcement of rules relating to cultivation dates, clearing of channels, fencing, etc, as well as improving water management  said Chandra Arulpragasam..

There was provision in the Paddy Lands Act to confer powers to the cultivation committees to make mandatory decisions for better cultivation practices in order to enable maximum production, added Garvin , but this section was not activated.

Chandra Arulpragasam observed that the Act was  an important innovation. For the first time in  South and South East Asia, legal powers in the implementation of tenurial reforms and the management of irrigation and cultivation at field levels were given to an elected body. The idea that an elected body of semi-educated farmers could take over functions from the government bureaucracy was revolutionary at that time.

The rent payable on a particular field was fixed as one-fourth share of the harvest. Only the cultivator would know how much that harvest was. The Act recognized that such questions could only be answered at field level by farmer groups. This was at least 40 years ahead of its time, concluded Chandra.

There were a lot of objections to the Bill, including tremendous opposition from the SLFP in the MEP, especially CP de Silva. The landlords were up in arms. The paddy owners objected strongly. Nothing should be done to disturb to the ancient  hallowed practices, they said.

Crippling amendments were made to the Bill. Philip said he had wanted to implement the Paddy Lands Act in the entire island within three years, but under pressure from landed interests and capitalist interests, he had to make it five years. The number of landlords in the Cultivation Committee was increased to 25%. They could refuse to attend.  They did and the committees could not function.

There was euphoria among the tenant-cultivators and agricultural workers when the Act was passed, heightened by their participation in the formation of the Cultivation Committees, which they felt would support them against arbitrary eviction and higher rents. Nanda Wanasundera recalls, there was one tenant on the paddy land in Peradeniya, owned by her mother, who insisted she must get three fourths with Mother getting only one fourth.

Garvin Karunaratne  said,  I introduced the Paddy Lands Act in the Matara District and was ably assisted by a band of  able Divisional Officers. We held publicity meetings everywhere where we whipped up the enthusiasm of the people through oratory.  All of us  followed the Hon Minister’s prowess in oratory, without the fire.  When landlords evicted cultivators we held inquiries and prosecuted the landlords.  With the management of paddy cultivation in the hands of the cultivators we were on the path to advanced management.

But things did not work out that way. The landlords got the Cultivation Committees declared legally invalid.  The Cultivation Committees were legally invalidated soon after their formation. Since the law and relevant regulations stipulated that all Cultivation Committees shall have twelve members, the refusal by landlords to elect their representatives would render most of the Committees invalid anyway, observed Chandra.

Faced with this situation on the ground one year later, we took the position (with the agreement of the Attorney-General) that if the landlords failed to elect their three representatives, the cultivators could elect the full twelve members of the Committee, since they (the cultivators) were entitled to elect a number not less than three-fourths” of the Committee.

 The landlords then consulted Mr. H. V. Perera, the highest legal luminary in the country. He argued  in Appeal Court that since the landlords were to elect a number   but had elected nought representatives. Nought is not a number. The Cultivation Committees were therefore  not legally constituted. On this abstruse mathematical argument, the Court decided that the Cultivation Committees were not legally constituted.

All past and future actions of such Committees were also declared null and void. This ruling encouraged the landlords to boycott the Cultivation Committee elections all over the country, thus rendering them legally invalid and their actions legally void, said Chandra.

Cultivation Committees  collapsed in the year following their legal invalidation. This collapse caused great demoralization among the cultivators, since they had gained great socio-psychological support from the Committees in standing up for their rights. With their collapse, many tenants surrendered their rights, accepting their plight as hidden tenants” with no rights under the law. There was chaos in the paddy fields too, since there was no agency left to ensure that the fields were fenced or the water issued.

Since these Committees had by law taken over important irrigation and cultivation functions (the vel vidanes having been abolished) their invalidation led to a breakdown in the common arrangements for cultivation and irrigation, thus causing complete chaos in the field.

The Department of Agrarian Services organized rounds of field-level meetings, trying to encourage the Cultivation Committees to hold fast, promising that legal amendments would soon be forthcoming to remedy their legal incapacity. But these amendments came too late. They were passed only after the landlords had already evicted their tenants, and only after the Cultivation Committees had been seen to have failed in their cultivation and irrigation duties, thus losing the confidence of the farmers themselves, concluded Chandra.

Chandra Arulpragasam had more to say. In early 1958, I was appointed Deputy Commissioner of the Agrarian Services Department, in charge of implementing the Paddy Lands Act of 1958. In setting out to draft the Administrative Regulations under the Act, I came across a number of structural, legal and operational considerations, which probably had not been foreseen by its authors. This was probably the first time that it was being looked at by an administrator with field experience – and the first time that it was being looked at by someone who was new to the Paddy Lands Act and to its thinking.

The legal  provisions of the Act  were likely to be challenged and its implementation obstructed. This made it necessary to examine its provisions from an adversarial point of view – which revealed many legal and administrative vulnerabilities. Also, there were new problems of implementation. For example, the Act safeguarded tenants, but there were no records of tenants or of landlords. New records of land ownership, tenancy, etc. would have to be created from scratch before implementation could even begin.

The Commissioner of Agrarian Services happened to be abroad for three weeks. Thus, not only was I was the Acting Head of a Class I, Grade 1 Department at the age of 28 years, but I also needed policy-level help, because this was hitherto unchartered territory in the country.

 So I asked for an appointment with the Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Phillip Gunawardene, the author of the Act, whom I had never met before. The Minister was charming, affable and even fatherly, over a cup of tea and cakes in Parliament. Getting down to business, I brought to his notice the number of legal difficulties and some of the administrative problems that needed his guidance.

In administrative terms, it was clear that there had to be two separate elections: one for the owners to elect their members, and one for the actual cultivators to elect theirs. This required that separate electoral lists be prepared for the owners and separate ones for the cultivators. Given the predictable opposition from the landlords, every name on every electoral list was liable to be challenged, while the elections themselves could be disputed in law.

I was so intent on my presentation of the potential legal problems of the Cultivation Committees that I failed to notice that he had tossed his spectacles on the table, which was a sign (I was told later) that he was losing his patience – and his temper.

 I was only half way through my list when he suddenly banged his fist on the table with a loud noise, stopping me abruptly. Young man” he exclaimed: Have you come across these difficulties in the field – or are they in your head?” When I pointed weakly to my head, Go and work”, he thundered! And when you come across these problems, then you come to me!”

I scooped up my files and scooted .This was the first and last time that I saw Mr. Phillip Gunawardene. Within a few months, every one of the legal and administrative problems that I had raised with the Minister had  come to pass, said Chandra.

The Act needed certain changes. 50 amendments had been prepared.  Philip pointed out that the necessary amendments to the Act were ready when he was asked to resign. But they were not introduced and many tenants were evicted from their lands. They blamed it on Philip, observed Meegama.

The enforcement of the Act depended on its proper administration. But Philip could administer the Paddy Lands Bill for only one year. Philip was pushed out of the Cabinet, to be succeeded as Minister of Agriculture by Mr. C. P. de Silva.

C.P de Silva  was opposed to the Act, He decided to let it fester in its own legal difficulties so as to discredit it countrywide. He was not prepared to push through the amendments which had been prepared,  and  which were badly needed to plug the legal loopholes, nor was he prepared to  publicly repeal the act, since it was popular.

The Paddy Lands Act, even without amendments could have been successfully implemented under a supportive minister and dedicated officers in the Agrarian Service Department, said Meegama.  ( Continued)

ආචාර්ය වරුණ චන්ද්‍රකීර්ති

ජනරජයක් යනු ජනතාවගේ ආධිපත්‍යයෙන් පාලනය වන රාජ්‍යයකි. ජනතා පරමාධිපත්‍යය යන්න අර්ථවත් වනුයේ ඒ සඳහා රාජ්‍යය තුළ පවතින අවකාශයේ ස්වභාවය අනුව ය. මෙයට පෙර ලිපියකින් සඳහන් කළ ආකාරයට පරමාධිපත්‍යයට ජනතාවගේ උපදේශන බලතල, පාලන බලතල, සාමූහික අයිතිවාසිකම්, මූලික පුද්ගලික අයිතිවාසිකම් සහ ඡන්ද බලය ඇතුළත් වන්නේ ය.” මෙම පරමාධිපත්‍යය ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම සඳහා අවැසි අවකාශය සැකැසීම බෞද්ධ ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදයෙන් සිදු කෙරෙයි.

ජනතාව එකිනෙකාගෙන් වෙන් කෙරෙන ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී ආකෘතිවල සරණ යෑම බෞද්ධ ජනරජය විසින් නො කළ යුතු ය. බෞද්ධ ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදයේ මූලික ම කාර්යය විය යුත්තේ මිනිසුන් එකතු කිරීම යි. එහෙයින් අප විසින් අනුගමනය කළ යුත්තේ පුද්ගලිකත්වය ඉක්මවා මිනිසුන් එකතු කිරීමට ඉඩ සළසන සාමූහික ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදයකි. බටහිර බහුපාක්‍ෂික ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය යනු මිනිසුන් එකතු කිරීම අරභයා ඇති කළ එකක් නොවේ. ඉවරයක් නැති කල්ලි කණ්ඩායම් තුළට මිනිසුන් බෙදා වෙන් කිරීම ඒ තුළින් සිදු වෙයි. තව ද විවාද මූල (බද්ධ වෛරය, ගුණමකු බව, ඊර්ෂ්‍යයාව, කපටිකම. ලාමක අදහස්, තම දෘෂ්ඨිය තදින් වැළඳගැනීම) ඇති කිරීමට සහ වර්ධනයට ඉඩක් ද ඒ තුළින් සැළැසී තිබෙයි.

නිතර රැස්වීම පමණක් බෞද්ධ ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදයට අදාළ නැත. සමගිව රැස්වීම ද, සමගිව කටයුතු කර, සමගිව විසිර යෑම ද ඒ වෙනුවෙන් සිදුවිය යුතු ය. බටහිර බහුපාක්‍ෂික ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය තුළ සමගිව රැස්වීමට ඉඩක් නොමැත. එම භේදකාරී ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදයේ සරණ යෑම නිසා අප රටට සිදු වී ඇති විනාශයේ තරම මේ වනවිට අපි සැවොම මැනැවින් අවබෝධ කරගෙන සිටිමු.

බෞද්ධ ජනරජය තුළ අලුත් නීති පැනැවිය යුත්තේ පෙර සිට පැවැත එන සම්ප්‍රදායට අනුකූලව ය. ඒ සම්ප්‍රදාය බිඳීම, එය නොතකා ක්‍රියා කිරීම ජනරජයේ පරිහානියට හේතු වෙයි. ස්වකීය සම්ප්‍රදාය පිළිබඳව මැනැවින් දන්නේ වැඩිහිටියන් ය. එහෙයින් ඔවුනගේ වචනය පිළිගැනීම ජනතා නියෝජිතයන්ගේ යුතුකමෙකි. වැඩිහිටියන් යන්නෙන් අදහස් කරනුයේ වයෝවෘද්ධ අය පමණක් නොවේ. සීල වෘද්ධභාවය, ගුණ වෘද්ධභාවය, තපෝ වෘද්ධභාවය සහ ඥාන වෘද්ධභාවය කෙරෙහි ද මේ සැළැකීම සහ අවනත බව තිබිය යුතු ය. රාජ්‍ය පාලන උදෙසා ජනතා උපදේශනය සළසන උත්තරීතර උපදේශක සභාව” විසින් එකී වැඩිහිටි පිරිස නියෝජනය කෙරෙයි.

විෂයානුබද්ධ ජනතා ප්‍රවාහ” තුළට එක්වන අදාළ විෂයයන් පිළිබඳ ගැඹුරු දැනුමක් ඇති අය නියෝජනය කරමින් උත්තරීතර උපදේශක සභාව” බිහි වෙයි. මෙම නියෝජිතයන් ජනතා ඡන්දයෙන් පත්විය යුතු නැත. දැනට ක්‍රියාත්මක දෙවැනි ජනරජ ව්‍යවස්ථාව තුළ ජනතාවගේ අධිකරණ බලය” ක්‍රියාත්මක කරනුයේ ජනතා ඡන්දයෙන් තෝරා පත්කර ගනු ලබන නියෝජිතයන් විසින් නොවේ. අධිකරණ විෂයය ගැන ඉහළ දැනුමක් ඇති අය ඒ වෙනුවෙන් පත් කෙරෙයි.

කෙසේ වුව ද, සමස්ත ජනතාව නියෝජනය ආකාරයෙන් මෙවැනි පත්කිරීම් සිදු කළ යුතු වේ. රටේ සමස්ත ජන සංයුතියේ දළ නියෝජනයක් ජනතාවගේ බලතල ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමට ඇති කරනු ලබන සියලු ආයතනවලින් ප්‍රකාශ විය යුතු ය. ජනතාවගේ උපදේශන බලය ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම සඳහා පිහිටුවනු ලබන උත්තරීතර උපදේශක සභාව” තුළ ද; ජනතාවගේ අධිකරණ බලය ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම සඳහා පිහිටුවනු ලබන පහළ ම උසාවියේ සිට ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය දක්වා වන ආයතන තුළ ද රටේ ජන සංයුතියේ දළ නියෝජනයක් තිබිය යුතු ය.

ජනතාවගේ ව්‍යවස්ථාදායක බලය” ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම සඳහා පිහිටුවනු ලබන ජාතික ව්‍යවස්ථාදායක සභාව” සඳහා ද උක්ත කාරණය අදාළ වේ. ව්‍යවස්ථා සම්පාදනය යනු ඒ පිළිබඳ පුළුල් දැනුමක් ඇති පිරිසක් විසින් ක්‍රියාත්මක කළ යුතු කාර්යයකි. (මෙම කාර්යය සඳහා නියෝජිතයන් පත්කර ගත යුතු ආකාරය ඉදිරි ලිපියකින් පැහැදිළි කෙරෙයි).

ජනතාවගෙන් දුරස්ථ වූ පාලන තන්ත්‍ර ඇති කිරීම ද බෞද්ධ ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය තුළ සිදුවිය යුතු නොවේ. ව්‍යවස්ථා සහ නීති සම්පාදනය හැරුණු විට අනෙකුත් කටයුතු විවිධාකාරයෙන් ජනතාව වෙතට ගෙන ආ හැකි ය. කෙසේ වුව ද, පළාත් සභා” වැනි ජනතාවගෙන් ඈත් වූ ආයතන පිහිටුවීමෙන් මෙම කාර්යය ඉටු කළ නො හැකි ය. ගම් සභාව සහ කෝරළ පාලනය (මෙම ප්‍රවාදය තුළ කෝරළ වශයෙන් හඳුන්වනු ලබන්නේ දැනට ක්‍රියාත්මක ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කොට්ඨාශ බල ප්‍රදේශ වේ) මේ සඳහා අදාළ කරගත හැකි ය.

මුළු රට ම නියෝජනය වන පරිදි ජනතාවගේ සෘජු ඡන්දයෙන් තෝරා පත් කරගත යුතු ඉහළ ම පාලන ආයතනය විය යුත්තේ ජනරජයේ විධායක ජනාධිපතිවරයා ය. ජනරජයේ ආණ්ඩුවේ පාලනය මෙහෙයවීම සඳහා විධායක ජනතාධිපතිවරයාගේ නායකත්වයෙන් දිස්ත්‍රික් නායක මණ්ඩලයක් ද ඒ ඒ විෂයය පැවරුණු අමාත්‍යංශ පාලනය පිළිබඳ විධානය භාර අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩලයක් ද පිහිටුවිය යුතු වේ. මෙම කාර්යයන් සිදු කරන ආකාරය ඉදිරි ලිපිවලින් පැහැදිළි කෙරෙයි.

ආචාර්ය වරුණ චන්ද්‍රකීර්ති

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

දෙදහස් විසි එකේ පෙබරවාරි 05 දින අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩල සංදේශයට අනුව භූමිතෙල් සහනාධාරය ප්‍රතිපූර්ණය කිරීම සහ බොරතෙල් සඳහා වන වරාය හා ගුවන් තොටුපල සංවර්ධන බද්ද නැවත සකස් කිරීම සඳහා පත්කරන ලද අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩල අනු කමිටුව ගරු අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් පළමු වරට අද 2021.03.08 දින පෙරවරුවේ මුදල් අමාත්‍යංශයේ දී රැස්විය.

භූමිතෙල් සහනාධාරය අවභාවිතයකින් තොරව සෘජුවම ගොවීන්ට හා ධීවරයින් ඇතුළු ඉලක්කගත ප්‍රතිලාභීන් වෙත ලබාදීමට ඇති හැකියාව පිළිබඳව සොයා බලන ලෙසත්  ඊට අදාළ ක්‍රමවේදයක් සකස් කරන ලෙසත් අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා අදාළ නිලධාරීන්ට මෙහි දී දැනුම් දුන්නේය.

එමෙන්ම තෙල් සංස්ථාව විසින් රාජ්‍ය බැංකු වලින් ලබා ගන්නා ණය ඩොලර් වෙනුවට රුපියල් වලින් ලබා ගැනීමේ හැකියාව රාජ්‍ය බැංකු සහ මහ බැංකුව සමඟ සාකච්ඡා කරන මෙන් රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය අජිත් නිවාඩ් කබ්රාල් මහතාට අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා උපදෙස් දුන්නේය. 

මෙම අවස්ථාව සඳහා අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩල අනු කමිටුවේ සාමාජික අමාත්‍යවරුන්වන උදය ගම්මන්පිල, ඩලස් අලහප්පෙරුම, ඩග්ලස් දේවානන්දා, ප්‍රසන්න රණතුංග, රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය අජිත් නිවාඩ් කබ්රාල් මහත්වරුන් සහ මුදල් අමාත්‍යංශ ලේකම් එස් ආර් ආටිගල මහතා ඇතුළු විෂය භාර අමාත්‍යාංශවල ලේකම්වරු සහ රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරීන් රැසක් එක්ව සිටියහ.

By Senior Lawyer  [e mail srilankastudycircle@yahoo.com]

The purpose of this article is to present the   expert views and advice so far published on how to preserve our sovereignty, when nations which describe themselves as a ‘core  group’, comprising Canada, UK, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Germany, have proposed a resolution at the 43rd session of the UNHRC that threatens the very sovereignty of Sri Lanka.   This group proposes to violate Sri Lanka’s sovereignty, by changing the global rules, masquerading under the cover of ‘Human Rights’.  Their   proposed resolution, as reported, is based on the outrageous Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet  who has no clue of what happened in Sri Lanka and is relying on questionable ‘hearsay’ evidence.  

The Government has the responsibility to  tell the people in detail what they will do at the UNHRC. They must tell the people that Bachelet with the CORE GROUP are cutting the path to recolonise Sri Lanka, as acceptance of  her report means, the international community will  take appropriate collective action,taking away our  independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.     

The Government must   request a friendly Non Aligned Movement [NAM] country, member of the Human Rights Council, to call for a vote. If we do not, the draft resolution  will be adopted by  consensus without a vote .

This is the reality because this is the procedure practiced at the UNHRC. It is similar to seconding a motion. If the draft resolution is  adopted    the  Sri Lanka Government will be implicitly accepting that it is  unable and unwilling to protect its population from war crimes ,  genocide,  crimes against humanity and /ethnic cleansing.   By doing so we will be admitting we are a failed state and therefore exposing the forces to be tried outside the country    

Have Bachelet and the 5 ‘Core Group’ forgotten what  President Bush said after the 9/11, terrorist attack? He said  “Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”     

 People of great character in Sri Lanka have stood-up to bullies before, and we shall do the same, this time too. Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam spoke at a Sinhalese Conference in 1919 for the purpose of organizing ‘People ‘s Associations’ throughout the island. This was during the British colonial period when he said, The people are deprived of all power and interest in the administration of their affairs; we are almost like cattle, driven at the pleasure of their official masters. People have been reduced to a state of helpless dependency.”  [ ‘Speeches and Writings of Sir  Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam’ , my friend, a granddaughter of that great gentleman, gifted the  invaluable book. The time is right to get together to form a   similar  ‘People’s  Associations’. 

This article is based on the path shown by   great, present day patriots like Tamara Kunanayakam who was Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN in Geneva, Chairperson of the UN Working Group on the Right to Development leading intergovernmental negotiations, and a senior official at OHCHR,   Shenali Waduge that indomitable vanguard and heart of  Sri Lanka patriotism with her prolific writings and research  and the many committed members of the Sri  Lanka Study Circle and  other groups including Nidahas net work, Professionals’ National Front (PNF),  who, fed by the people, have kept alive the spark of a great Nation.    

They all point out that colonisation in the 21st Century is mainly not with weapons,  but by hegemony where the minds of the people are bombarded with fake reports, false allegations and with the use of Human rights as a weapon.

.   

Has  the  government looked into the  legality of Bachelet   Report

Has  the  government looked into the  legality of Bachelet Report  with regard to its compatibility with  the UN Charter and  the 1970 General Assembly Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Corporation among States, which is the authentic interpretation of the Charter? The patriots point out that Bachelet  has  shown utter contempt  for the  mandate given to her by the General Assembly within the framework of the Charter .   To understand the legality of the Bachelet Report , attention must be drawn to the doctrine  known as the Responsibility to protect          [ R2P].  The Bachelet report   attempts to use the Responsibility  to Protect’ [R2P] to advance a vision of a  unilateral world order  to replace the multilateral order based on the UN Charter. 

The birth of the doctrine ‘Responsibility  to Protect’ people of other nations [the  R2P ]

The Responsibility to Protect (R2 P) concept was coined, not by the United Nations, but by the 2001 International Commission of Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS), which was set up by the Government of Canada in 2001. 

The doctrine marked a poignant transformation of international understanding of ‘sovereignty’. In the words of the drafters, a country loses its sovereignty if it is proved to have committed four atrocious crimes: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.   Such was the case when UK and US  simulated the language of the Responsibility to Protect [R2P] doctrine to justify waging war in Iraq in 2003 under the guise of humanitarian grounds. Is this justifiable?. 

Tamara Kunanayagam   repeatedly  alerts the government to the  R2 P  language sneaked into the  Bachelet Report  found in Para. 56 of R to P : that is —       The Government has now demonstrated its inability and unwillingness  to pursue a meaningful path towards accountability for international crimes and serious human rights violations.”  It is this language that Bachelet uses to justify a call for preventive action and   application of unilateral coercive measures against Sri Lanka such as sanction  which are, incompatible with the UN Charter.’’

Does this imply  the Government admits that it is unable and unwilling to protect its own people? 

People ask, why has the Government not responded to the R2P logic underlying  the  Bachelet Report. Does this imply that  the Government admits that it is unable and unwilling  to protect its own people.  The report  is not about promoting and protecting the   human rights of  Sinhalese, Tamils or Muslims but  paving the way for foreign occupation and interference in our internal affairs with aggressive unilateral measures

Bachelet’s   new precedent to exercise R2P in the conduct of the UNHRC  is a warning to all countries  

The Bachelet Report, by adopting the logic and language of  R2 P, attempts to set a precedent to undermine Charter based multilateralism and the sovereignty principle.   The Study Circle in its  articles point out to the Government that if we concede and accept the outrageous report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,  we will  lose our sovereignty and we will   endanger other countries by allowing an illegal precedent to be set up much against the UN Charter, whereby  other nations will  also automatically lose their sovereignty.   

 The UNHRC members [34 from NAM ] who suffered immensely under colonial domination  must realize the new precedence  to recolonize. 

   The Foreign Minister at the 43rd UNHRC session rightly said that Sri Lanka rejects the resolution and seeks closure. If that is so, the only way forward   is to call for a  vote  through a  friendly member state. It is on the basis of common interest that we must mobilise the countries of Non Aligned Movement and the Global south to vote against the resolution. If we fail in this regard it can imperil the foreseeable future of many countries. It is therefore a grave responsibility cast on us, the Non-Aligned nations, by history to preserve our independence and sovereignty.

Sri Lanka’s vital role to unite the NAM  to prevent return to foreign occupation and  domination

Sri Lanka today has a major role to play as before when NAM  was founded to unite all the countries to strengthen the Non Aligned Movement to prevent a return to foreign occupation and  domination

 The Sri Lanka study circle asks, ‘Why does Colombage barefacedly lie that the key to our Foreign Policy is ‘Neutrality’.   What strength would we be able to garner if we had the 120 countries of the Non Aligned Movement with us, on a common platform? Can we afford to alienate 120 out of the 193 countries, members of the United Nations, 34 out of the 47 members of the Human Rights Council ? Can we afford to isolate ourselves and become prey to the ambitions of a hegemonic power?

 Why does Colombage   say   that we will not surrender without a fight?.   Does it mean that   the Government has an idea to surrender ?. 

Shenali Waduge—in her article titled  ‘ Bring intrusive UNHRC Resolution against Sri Lanka to a conclusion with a VOTE’    endorses Tamara Kunanayagam who with her experience had said this in many interviews.   

 .  The Non-Aligned Movement’s objectives are clearly enunciated  by Fidel Castro in his Havana Declaration of 1979.  As he said the Movement is the safety net to  ensure the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries in their struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, and all forms of foreign aggression, occupation, domination, interference or hegemony as well as against great power and bloc politics. 

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 by Jamila Husain Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, March 8 (DailyMirror) – Health officials from the Colombo Municipal Council said that the COVID-19 infections in Colombo were on the decline in recent weeks and from an estimated 250 random PCR and antigen tests being conducted, an average one or two people were testing positive in comparison to the average 70 or 80 positives.

Chief Medical Officer of the CMC, Dr. Ruwan Wijemuni told Daily Mirror that random tests were ongoing in targeted public areas, but a lower number were now testing positive. He however urged people to remain cautious and follow all the health protocols stating that the COVID19 virus continued to be a threat , especially in the urbanized areas.

Admitting that the number of random PCR and antigen tests conducted across Colombo city, following the launch of the mass vaccination programme since February, was lesser than what was conducted before the vaccinations started, Dr. Wijemuni however said that testing was ongoing in high risk areas and in populated areas.

He further said all first line contacts continued to be tested immediately after a patient was identified and the second and third contacts were also tested after they were identified.we will continue conducting random tests in public bus stands, markets and other public areas, to detect more patients. (Jamila Husain)

By P. K. Balachandran Courtesy Urasia Review

Following the unequivocal support extended by China to Sri Lanka on the Core Group’s draft resolution at the UNHRC, Sri Lanka questioned the reliability of the data in the report on the Uighur Muslims of China.  

Following the unequivocal support extended by China to Sri Lanka on the Core Group’s draft resolution at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Sri Lanka questioned the reliability of the data in the report of the Special Rapporteur, Ahmed Shaheed, on the Uighur Muslims of China.  

Sri Lanka’s representative C.A.Chandraprema strongly defended China’s treatment of the Uighur Muslims in the Xinjiang province of China in the Interactive Dialogue on March 4.

Chandraprema said that Special Rapporteur Shaheed’s claims about discrimination against the Uighurs were based only on biased and sensational reporting in the Western media. 

Problems facing the Muslims community in Sri Lanka received a brief reference in Shaheed’s report, specifically referring to mob attacks against Muslims in which the police appeared to be complicit. In reply to Shaheed, Chandraprema said that the Sri Lankan Constitution upholds the right to freedom of religion and denied violence and discrimination against Muslims following the Easter Sunday bombings in April 2019.

Focus On Defending China

Having said that Ambassador Chandraprema quickly switched focus to the UN Special Rapporteur’s findings on the treatment of the Uighurs in China’s Xingjiang province. He said Shaheed’s report on the Uighurs had quoted various Western media outlets” that had made various sensational claims” about issues encountered by the Muslims in China.

We have serious concerns about the credibility of these sources. We note that the policy of freedom of religion has been fully implemented in the Xinxiang province,” he said.

In a broadside against Western countries, the Sri Lankan Envoy said: Many Muslim countries have been destroyed in the past two decades in the guise of promoting democracy. However, Xinxiang has been at peace and has enjoyed democracy with the rest of China during this period.”

Shaheed had also been critical of the Indian Government in his Islamophobia report which drew a harsh response from New Delhi’s representative participating in the Interactive Dialogue. But the Lankan  Ambassador did not make a reference to the allegations against India during his intervention.  

Colombage Defends China 

Sri Lanka’s Envoy’s remarks came in Beijing’s defense came in the wake of Foreign Secretary Adm. Prof. Jayanath Colambage’s assertion that he had seen no evidence” to suggest genocide in Xinjiang. 

The Foreign Secretary had called the Government of China guardians” of the people of Xinjiang. Colambage’s interview was widely circulated in the form of a promotional video by the Chinese State media.

China Backed Sri Lanka

China had earlier strongly backed Sri Lanka over the Core Group’s draft resolution on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka and the war crimes charges against its armed forces.

Chinese envoy Chen Xu had said: The proposed targeted sanctions contained in the OHCHR’s report are clear interference in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka and exceed the mandate of the OHCHR. We hope that the HRC and the OHCHR will strictly follow impartiality, objectivity, non-selectivity and non-politicisation principles, respect the sovereignty and political independence of all nations, respect the efforts of the nations for the protection and promotion of human rights, advocate constructive dialogue and cooperation, and abandon the practice of interfering in the internal affairs of other countries and exerting political pressure.”

UN View on Uighurs 

Draft UN experts and activists claim that one million Muslim Uighurs are detained in camps in Xinjiang Province. Last week, UN Human Rights Chief Michelle Bachelet decried the ill-treatment of the community and demanded access into the region. 

In February, the Dutch Parliament passed a non-binding motion saying the treatment of the Muslim Uighur minority in China amounted to genocide, the first such move by a European country.

Chinese Envoy Reprimanded

During Thursday’s Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur, China was reprimanded by the Chair for using its time to launch a scathing attack on Shaheed. The Chinese Delegation said Shaheed had relied only on BBC and New York Times” to slander and smear China. 

The Special Rapporteur was wantonly” spreading false information, the Chinese representative said, adding that Shaheed lacked basic professional ethics and serves as a political tool for Western countries”.

The Chair said: I would like to remind the speaker that I cannot allow derogatory or inflammatory remarks to be made against a special rapporteur. That is not allowed by the rules. No personal attacks should be made.” 

Ahmed Shaheed’s Report

Introducing his damning report about Islamophobia world over at the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday, Shaheed said institutional suspicion and fear of Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim have escalated to epidemic proportions.” 

The UN Special Rapporteur said that numerous” States, regional and international bodies were to blame. In a report to the Council, he cited European surveys in 2018 and 2019 that showed that nearly four in 10 people held unfavourable views about Muslims. 

In 2017, 30% of Americans viewed Muslims in a negative light”, the Special Rapporteur added.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Parts of Muthurajawela Wetland cleared for private commercial constructions

Intending to build public opinion against the foreign private enterprises taking over lands on a large scale and causing irreversible impact on the environment, a forum named ‘Our Land is Not For Sale’ was formed recently with the participation of environmental activists and other civil groups movements in collaboration with the Centre for Society and Religion (CSR).  

Today we see a tendency that the State mechanism has created room for selling lands and resources to large scale private enterprises. This has not only posed a threat to the forest cover but also to the coastal resources. Most ongoing development strategies seemed to be based on this.

Need for collective action

 It is necessary that all concerned citizens and organisations work together to overcome challenges related to the environment. Today we rally here, as a first step to oppose the foreign private companies taking over our lands,” said Rev. Fr. Rohan Silva, the Director of the CSR. He said there was a need to remind the responsible authorities of the great saying by Mihidu Thera: we’re only caretakers of Earth, not its owners. We must protect it for our children.”  

 We are living in a context in which political systems take turns. We have a doubt about how our politicians talk and make decisions regarding certain vital issues. It is our intention to develop this country. There is a question which is the model they use to achieve this. The successive governments seems to have, maybe due to external influence, followed the same model,” Fr. Silva added. He said the gap between the rich and the poor was rapidly increasing around the world. Even in Sri Lanka most of the wealth is with a few people who accumulate a large amount of money and increase the poverty crisis while making the richer rich and the poor poorer. These are the outcomes that the model we have been following has given us. We are in dire need of an alternative model which could ensure sustainable development. A government often gives opportunities to private investors to implement their hidden agendas. One of the most tragic parts of this issue is selling thousands of acres of lands to these investors,” he lamented.  

 The Director of Environmental Conservation Trust and the Convener of the Lands and Agricultural Reforms Movement Convener Sajeewa Chamikara said, Today we see a tendency that the State mechanism has created room for selling lands and resources to large scale private enterprises. This has not only posed a threat to the forest cover but also to the coastal resources.” He said most ongoing development strategies seemed to be based on this. When analysing The ‘Saubagya Dakkma’ manifesto– Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour, Mr. Chamikara said that it reminded citizens of their caretaker role in protecting fauna and flora. The wanton destruction of natural resources violates the manifesto and even the environmental laws,” he added.  

 The National Fisheries Solidarity Movement’s convener Mr. Herman Kumara said, At a time the 73rd Independence Day was celebrated on February 4, Hambantota district farmers had launched a hunger strike urging the responsible authorities to resolve their issues related to the human-elephant conflict. They are in a situation where they cannot sleep as the elephants could enter their lands and either kill them or destroy their cultivation. It is necessary to develop a country but wanton destruction of forests cannot be tolerated and would not lead to sustainable development.”  

 The National People’s Council’s convener Chameera Perera said the lands were being sold based on neo-liberal principles. Explaining how neo-liberalism had entered the country he said the state had become structured. The Executive presidency was such a structure that neo-liberalism brought into the country. It is always citizens’ struggles that have made a great impact on the state. These neo-liberal policies have posed a threat to the land rights of the people. The Government in Sri Lanka is structured in such a way that allows room for the land grabbers in the guise of investors to sneak into the country,” he added.  

 Expressing his views at the forum the Government Trade Unions Workers Association’s Chairman D.M.D. Abeyratne said, People in this country will experience what is left for them soon. There is a question of how long the resources in this country will be protected. The governments try to sell the country’s resources to strengthen their power. The public sectors’ privatisation was evident after 1977. The then government started to sell lands and resources to investors. Thus, resources and the public sector were being gradually privatised and were given to foreign enterprises. The revenue that should have been gained for Sri Lanka was shifted to multinational companies.” He said many government institutions that had profits were being privatised and sold, adding that the human-elephant conflict had become a pestering issue. As the forest cover depletes due to development projects the elephants have started to come to the villages. They destroy the cultivations and even kill people. Even when the people protest against these issues, the Government seems to have little or no concern for them. Both the people and animals have no space as deforestation continues,” he noted. Mr. Abeyratne called on the citizens to give their collective support and show their resistance to the destruction of the environment.  

Muthurajawela Sanctuary under threat

 The Muthurajawela wetland was declared a sanctuary on Oct. 31, 1996, under the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance. It was also named one of the 41 internationally important wetlands in the country by the Asian Wetland Inventory of 1989. According to a study by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Muthurajawela is home to 209 species of animals and insects along with 194 species of trees, 40 species of fish, 31 species of reptiles, 102 species of birds and 48 species of butterflies. There are 18 out of 22 mangrove species in 
Muthurajawela wetland.  

 Expressing his opinion on some landfilling attempts at the Muthurajawela sanctuary by private companies, the Muthurajawela Protection Organisation leader Anil Jayamaha said, Environmentalists have urged authorities to stop attempts to fill up Sri Lanka’s largest coastal wetland, the Muthurajawela sanctuary. For 73 years, we have not been able to choose a proper leadership. This has resulted in forming forums or organisations of this nature. We saw Government’s inefficiency when it allowed the destruction of about 5,500 hectares of valuable wetlands in Muthurajawela. He said the environmental laws in Sri Lanka, having identified the invaluable contribution of ecosystems to people’s livelihoods, did not allow for any action that posed a threat  to this sanctuary.  

P.K.Balachandran Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Before Sri Lanka became predominantly Buddhist following the conversion of the 3rd. Century King Devanampiya Tissa (247 BC-207 BC), the island had an amazing assortment of religious cults, practices and faiths including animism, Jainism, Shaivism, Brahminism and Buddhism. There were many gods, goddesses and deities of local and Indian origin.   

According to the ancient Sri Lankan chronicles such as the Mahavamsa and the Dipavamsa, Buddhism was introduced into the island in the 3rd., Century BC after the Third Buddhist Council by Mahinda Thera and Therini Sangamitta, son and daughter of the great Buddhist Emperor Asoka of India.   

However, the Mahavamsa itself says that Buddhism had its adherents in Sri Lanka even earlier in the 5th. Century BC, during the lifetime of the Buddha. He had visited Sri Lanka thrice. The first visit was made to Mahiyangana in the ninth month after he attained Enlightenment. During this visit, the Buddha subdued the Yakshas thereby setting the stage for the establishment of Buddhism later on.   

His second visit was made to Nagadeepa in North Sri Lanka in the fifth year after his Enlightenment. Here he settled a dispute between the Naga kings Chulodara and Mahodara. In the eighth year after Enlightenment, the Buddha made his third and final visit, this time to Kelaniya with 500 Bhikkhus, at the invitation of a Naga King Maniakkika. 

 
According to the author of the Mahavaṃsa, Prince Vijaya, the ancestor of the Sinhala people, arrived in Sri Lanka on the day the Buddha lay down between the two Sala trees to pass into Nibbaṇa (Nirvana). In the midst of the great assembly of the Gods, the Buddha told the Sakka around him: Vijaya, son of king Sihabāhu, is coming to Laṅka from the country of Lāta, together with seven hundred followers. In Laṅka, O lord of Gods, will my religion be established, therefore carefully protect him with his followers and Laṅka.”   

When the lord of gods heard the words of the Tathagata, he handed over the guardianship of Laṅka to the god Upulvan, the Mahavamsa says. 

 
However, Buddhism took root in Sri Lanka only in the 3rd. Century BC after the conversion of King Devanampiya Tissa. Prior to that, the religious scene in the island was a hodgepodge of faiths and practice. There was no one religion in the island, as Geethani Amaratunga and Nadeesha Gunawardana of the Departments of Sociology and History at the University of Kelaniya say in their 2019 paper in the International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science. Evidently, no systematically organised national or state religion, existed in the island, they say.   
People worshipped Yakshas, Devas, and snakes. There were Nigaṇṭhas (followers of Jainism, an Indian faith), Paribbajakas (wandering saints), Nagas (worshippers of snakes) Saivas (worshippers of Lord Siva). Ajivakas (those who believed only in destiny) and Brahmins practising Brahminism with its rituals. King Paṇḍukabhaya (437 BC to 367 BC), the builder of the city of Anuradhapura, had built a monastery for Paribbajakas and a house for Ajivikas there.   

Ajivikas

According to www.britannica.com the Ajivikas were an ascetic sect that grew in India about the same time as Buddhism and Jainism. The sect was founded by Gosala Makkhaliputta, a friend of Mhavira, the founder of Jainism. The Ajivikas believed that the affairs of the entire universe were ordered by a cosmic force called Niyati (rule or destiny) which could not be altered by human effort. The Ajivikas practised austerities.   

Yakshas

The Yakshas and Yakshnis were benevolent spirits that could also be mischievous, capricious, sexually rapacious, or even murderous. They were powerful magicians and were the custodians of treasures, cities and lakes. The Yaksha was a term used for believers in such spirits. The Yakshas were among the earliest deities to be depicted in art and sculpture, preceding the depiction of the Bodhisattvas and Brahmanical deities, whose representation they influenced.   

Nagas

The Nagas were snake worshipping people of South Indian origin. H. Parker, a British historian and author of Ancient Ceylon” considers the Nagas to be an offshoot of the Nayars of Kerala. Cobra worship was later adopted by Buddhism. The Naga King Muchalinda had shielded the Buddha from getting wet in the rain by coiling around him and holding his large hood above his head. The Nagas were one of the four aboriginal people who ruled Nagadeepa or Naga Nadu in North Lanka from the 6th century BC to the 3rd century AD. Several kings of Rajarata were from the Naga tribe. Many Buddhist temples in south Sri Lanka have made the divine form of Naga (Natha Deva) into a Bodhisattva.   

Worship of Deities 

God Sumana of Samantakuta is also a pre-Buddhist deity. According to Amaratunga and Gunawardana, the Buddha had gifted strands of his hair to the God Sumana during his first visit to Sri Lanka. When he was lying on the bed for his Nibbaṇa in the midst of the great assembly of Gods he asked for the protection of Prince Vijaya and his followers in Laṅka. When the Lord of the Gods heard the words of the Tathagata he handed over the guardianship of Laṅka to the God Upulvan. 

 
Brahminism

Brahmins or Brahmanas were a force in pre-Buddhist Sri Lanka. The Mahavamsa mentions a Brahman named Paṇḍula, whose son, Chandra, was the priest in the court of King Paṇḍukābhaya. The Rasavahini sheds light on a Brahman called Sirinaga who ruled Anurādhapura for a short period.   

Jainismand Saivism

Before the advent of Buddhism, Jainism was well entrenched in Sri Lanka during the reign of 21 Kings. Jainism crossed over to Sri Lanka from South India around the 8th., Century BC and became one of the most important religions of Lanka. According to the Mahavamsa, King Pandukabhaya accommodated them in Anuradhapura. The Jains were called Niganthas in Sri Lanka. The Niganthas eventually lost influence due to actions taken by King Vattagamini (29 BC to 17 BC), but managed to survive up till the 14th.Century AD. There is ample evidence of the existence of Saivism in the island. The Mahavaṃsa sheds light on the SivikaSāla built by king Paṇḍukābhaya.   

Consolidation of Buddhism

As a result of the work of later South Indian Buddhist scholars who were associated with the Mahavihara, mainly Buddhaghosa (4th–5th century AD, Dhammapala and Buddhadatta, Sri Lankan Buddhists adopted Pali as their main scholastic language, which enabled them to go international and spread Theravada Buddhism. From the 5th Century AD to the 11th., Century, Sri Lanka came under periodic attacks by Tamil rulers from India who were staunchly Hindu. They had banished Buddhism from their land and attempted to crush it in Sri Lanka too. But the eventual triumph of the Sri Lankan Buddhist rulers over the invaders ensured Buddhism’s survival and growth to be the religion of 70% of Sri Lankans. However, as Geethani Amaratunga and Nadeesha Gunawardana, say in conclusion, that despite the overwhelming power of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, pre-Buddhist cults and practices have survived, either after incorporation into Sri Lankan Buddhism or independently as part of folk culture. The umbilical connection with India still remains an essential ingredient of Sri Lankan Buddhism. 

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka has registered 177 more positive cases of Covid-19 today (March 08), the Ministry of Health confirmed.

Thereby, Sri Lanka has detected 334 new positive cases of COVID-19 within the day.

As per statistics, the total number of Covid-19 infections confirmed so far in the country now stands at 86,039.

Recoveries from the virus meanwhile climbed to 82,513 earlier today, as 454 more patients regained health.

However, 3,024 active cases are still under medical care at selected hospitals and treatment centers located across the island.

Total lives claimed by the pandemic outbreak sits at 507 at present.

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka has reported 05 more coronavirus-related deaths, the Director-General of Health Services confirmed today (March 08).

As per the Department of Government Information, one male patient and four female patients are among the victims.

The new deaths bring the number of COVID-19 related deaths witnessed in Sri Lanka to 507 in total.

Courtesy Hiru News

The former OIC of the Kelaniya Divisional Crime Bureau and other officers who have been suspended for allegedly assaulting Migara Gunaratne, the son of former Governor Maithri Gunaratne, made a special revelation at a press conference today.

He also released audio recordings of a threatening phone call he received after the incident.

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Philip Gunawardene    was the creator of the Multipurpose Cooperatives Society. Until 1956, the cooperatives had been single purpose ones. There were separate cooperatives for food distribution, for savings and loan disbursement.

 There were about   10,500 of cooperatives   and they were of 70 different types. Philip decided to weld them into one organization, the Multipurpose Cooperative Society.  By 1958 a fair number of Multipurpose Cooperatives were formed, others were converted. There was terrific enthusiasm on the part of the public, said Meegama

The village level Multi-purpose Cooperative was a small unit and it would have to depend on the private sector for its stock. Therefore Multipurpose Cooperatives were combined into unions.  each Union of multipurpose Cooperative had a fleet of lorries to transport goods and distribute them to the to the individual multipurpose cooperatives This Union of Multipurpose Cooperatives played a major role in the development of the area  long  after Philip Gunawardene had left the  Ministry, said Garvin Karunaratne.

S. Piyasena, who had contested under MEP in the 1960 election, said that Philip’s greatest achievement was not the Paddy Lands Act, but the creation of the Multi-purpose cooperative society. Those days, where Gunasinghepura is today, you could see ranks upon ranks of stalls with cheap vegetables and other food items, brought there from all over the island by rows of lorries emblazoned with the insignia of the Multi-Purpose Co-operatives.

later he tried to reform the fisheries on the same lines of cooperatives to enable the fishermen to get some of the profits that were going to the middleman, the fish mudalali, but vested interest prevented this.

Philip took over the Cooperative Wholesale Establishment. CWE was selling a bare minimum of items at that time.  the public had to go to the private trader for the rest. Philip gave CWE trading rights and monopolies in respect of several items of food stuffs.  Philip wanted to make the CWE the sole importer of all essential food stuff.   He appointed a new Board of directors and the CWE had shown a profit in 1956 itself.

Philip found that there were five firms which imported fertilizer, Colombo Commercial, Baur, Shaw Wallace, Moosajee and two other small firms. They have a virtual monopoly. CCC, Baur and Shaw Wallace work together. The government subsidizes 50% of the cost to the paddy cultivator and also pays out enormous amounts for fertilizer for coconut, rubber and paddy.  All these go to the importing firms. We are their mercy said Philip.

Philip wanted to make the CWE the sole importer of fertilizer. The idea was opposed, by many including the Minister for Commerce.  Cabinet refused to give approval for CWE to import fertilizer.Even the Prime Minister had objected to the state importing fertilizers.

Philip then suggested creating a separate state organization for the purpose. It would be able to sell fertilizer cheaper. And eliminate the high profits the   three foreign firms were making   since they had a monopoly on it.  Nothing came of this.

The Marketing Department under Philip had four services, a Vegetable Marketing Scheme, a Fruit Cannery, a Bakery and Retail Fair Price Shops in all cities. I can state that The Marketing Department functioned very effectively under Hon. Philip  Gunawardena said  Garvin Karunaratne  I was Assistant Commissioner of Agriculture Marketing at the time.

The Vegetable and Fruit Marketing Scheme, implemented by the Marketing Department was something unique to Sri Lanka, said Garvin. Its function was twofold- to provide a high price to the producer to encourage production as well as sell to the consumer at cheap rates, a scheme that kept inflation of local produce in check, said Garvin.  This was a Scheme begun during the days of World War II. Under Philip, this mechanism had to work perfectly.  

Tripoli Market was the Headquarters of the Vegetable and Fruit Marketing Scheme. Garvin, together with another officer were in charge in 1956. Tripoli Market was   at that time, in a large hanger in the Colombo Goods shed. 

We bought vegetable and fruit from producers at the producer’s fairs all over the island. This controlled the prices at which the traders purchased vegetables. we then fixed a selling price higher than the   purchase price and kept ten to fifteen percent mark up to cover transport and handling.  

we sold vegetables at this price at 50 well stocked small retail shops in Colombo. the traders all fell in line. With vegetables   offered at low prices at our retail shops no one would buy from other  traders at a higher price  in this way we controlled the prices  very effectively  but unofficially.  

We did not use middlemen. We handled the goods from the producer to the consumer.  there were Purchasing Units in all the producer areas. Marketing Department had a Purchasing Unit present at every major vegetable fair. These Units purchased vegetables at a higher price than what the private trader paid.

 The purchasing price was decided at Tripoli Market which had 24 hour surveillance on the availability of produce and the prevalent wholesale prices at the Colombo Wholesale Market.  Three to four officers were on duty there.

The vegetables purchased at the Fairs were sent to Tripoli Market overnight by rail and lorry and by ten in the morning the vegetables had to be distributed to the retail units in all corners of the city. We had a staff with a dozen lorries always on the move in the City. The Department with over a hundred lorries, purchased only around ten percent of the produce, but that was sufficient to unofficially control the prices.

We had a staff of Marketing Officers in every producing area and Assistant Commissioners were always on the move. The Assistant Commissioners contacted major producers and advised them on what varieties were required for the market in Colombo. This was done through the Divisional Revenue Officers as well.

At Ratnapura where I worked in 1956, on four days in the week, I was driving on the tortuous roads to the Fairs at Embilipitiya, Colombage Ara, and Godakawela. I had to be there before six in the morning to ensure that my staff of Marketing Officers made purchases. The vegetables were packed and sent to Tripoli Market overnight. We had to relay the prices at which traders purchased at the Fairs to Tripoli Market and daily discuss prices. 

Marketing Department Cannery was probably set up by Philip, for Garvin says, The Cannery being established, the Department offered floor prices for Red Pumpkin, Ash Pumpkin and Pineapple, turning them into Golden Melon Jam, Silver Melon Jam and Juice. This stopped imports from Australia and saved our foreign exchange.  A Floor price meant that we purchased everything offered by the producer. the officer in charge of the Canning Factory went often to Europe to find markets for pineapples and we built up an export market.  (continued)

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Philip Gunewardene, who was very sympathetic towards the farmers, introduced a Crop Insurance Scheme which benefited the farmers immensely. I am not sure whether this insurance scheme is still operative, said Elmo de Silva in 2020 . 

Philip   prepared a Crop Insurance Bill in 1958. It was necessary to protect the farmer from crop failure, through crop insurance. This would be tried out first in two pilot projects, one where risk is high and one where risk is low. The pilot projects will not be experimental ones, they will be fact finding. At present we do not compensate when there is loss of crops. We wait till they are destitute and then give relief.

Philip was also deeply concerned with the plight of the farmer  when it came to selling his rice. The Department of Agricultural Marketing, handled the Guaranteed Price Scheme to buy paddy from farmers at a premium price, recalled Garvin Karunaratne. We were extremely strict to ensure that the premium price got to the real producer. 

Philip wanted to reduce the payment of Rs 12 for a bushel of paddy to Rs 10 with the remaining        2 paid in form of fertilizer. It was to be retained by the Cooperative to make it easy for farmer to buy fertilizer and other agricultural supplies. There was opposition. CP de Silva was the strongest opponent of the scheme.

Protests were organized with the support of mudalalies of Polonnaruwa and Minneriya who bought the farmers paddy at Rs 8 or lower and who stood to lose. They brought people in vans and cars from those areas and picked up some from Dematagoda, Bambalapitiya and other places and organized a demonstration to defeat the proposal. Philip’s Harbor and Dock workers Union met the march and there was a free for all. Prime Minister got frightened, when he saw the demonstration and supported   CP de Silva. Philip had to drop the scheme, and a proposal that would have led to an increase in paddy yields was blocked, said Meegama.

The rural sector needed a body which would give them medium and long term credit. There were no credit facilities available for the small traders either.  The two available banks, Agricultural and Industrial Credit Corporation and the Cooperative Federal Bank did not help. Bank of Ceylon was not operating in rural Sri Lanka, either. The main sources for credit were the private loan agencies.

Philip wanted to set up a Cooperative Credit Bank, which would provide credit to the ‘small man’ in industry, trade or agriculture, as the existing commercial banks did not support him. The Cooperative Credit Bank would grant loans to the rural sector, for financing small agricultural industries and businesses, and also give loans for building. It would also act as a pawn broker.  The Bank would have branches in the principal towns and rural centers. The plan was to open 100 branches in the first year.

The Bill had received the support of the Central Bank. Governor of the Central Bank Arthur Ranasinghe had in a personal letter to Philip, praised the idea and offered the services of his staff to help the take over the Cooperative Federal Bank into the new Bank. Amendments suggested by Central Bank were incorporated.

The Cooperative Credit Bank Bill was put to the Cabinet in 1958.  It received the unanimous approval of Cabinet. Then the Bill was opposed by Minister for Lands and Land development, CP de Silva and Minister of Finance, Stanley de Soyza. CP de Silva said they would give Rs. 10 million to the Cooperative Federal Bank, instead.  Stanley de Soyza attacked the Bill when the draft was published in Daily News.  He protested that this Bank was to be set up under its own Act, and would have the powers of a normal commercial bank, not a cooperative bank.

Philip explained that the Cooperative Credit Bank which was a pioneer venture had to be liquid if it was to provide credit into the rural sector. It had to first make that money. ‘We have combined the function of a commercial bank with the functions of a development bank. The commercial side was to earn the money and lending was to be done by the development side, he said. There are savings among the farmers when the harvest is in and these could be banked. 

Philip thought that foreign banking interests were behind the opposition. The Finance Minister is expected to   see that banking facilities were provided to the rural sector. Instead he took the side of the foreign vested interests and opposed the setting up of this bank. SWRD took over the Bill from Philip, promising that he would see it through. That did to happen.  Philip resigned from Cabinet and the Bill was forgotten. In any case, a Cooperative Development Bank would have needed a strong Minister to successfully implement it as there were powerful vested interests opposing such measures, observed Meegama. (Continued)

මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ශ්‍රී ලංකා ප්‍රජාතාන්ත්‍රික සමාජවාදී ජනරජයේ අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය

රටකි, දැයකි, ලොවකි ඇය” යන තේමාව යටතේ සමරන ජාත්‍යන්තර කාන්තා දින ජාතික සැමරුමට සුභාශිංසන පළ කරනුයේ ඉමහත් සතුටිනි.

ලෝකයේ කාන්තා අයිතිවාසිකම් වෙනුවෙන් එක් දිනයක් සැමරීමට ලක් වුවද සෑම මොහොතක්ම කාන්තාවන්ගේ අයිතීන් වෙනුවෙන් වෙන්විය යුතු බව මාගේ විශ්වාසයයි.

දියණියක, බිරිඳක මෙන්ම ලොව උතුම් මව් පදවියට පත්වන්නේ ද කාන්තාවකි. මානව වංශය වෙනස් කළ සියලු ශාස්තෘවරුන්ගේ සිට මානව පැවැත්ම සාක්ෂාත් වන්නේ ඒ ඔස්සේය.

මේ නිසා කාන්තාවන්ට සමාජය තුළ නිසි ගෞරවය නිතැතින් හිමිවිය යුතුය. සෞභාග්‍යයේ දැක්ම ප්‍රතිපත්ති මාලාවෙන් ද කාන්තා අයිතිවාසිකම්වලට මුල්තැන ලබාදෙනවා මෙන්ම ඔවුන්ව දිරිය කතුන් ලෙස සවි බල ගැන්වීම පිළිබඳව නිතැතින් අවධානය යොමු කර තිබේ.

කාන්තාවන්ට එරෙහි ප්‍රචන්ඩත්වය මෙන්ම වෙනස් කොට සැළකීම අප රජයක් ලෙස තරයේ හෙළා දකිමු. ඔවුන්ගේ නැගී සිටීම සමාජ යහපතට යෙදී ඇති අවස්ථා අප රටක් ලෙස අත්විඳිමින් සිටියි.

ඉතිහාසයේ විහාරමහ දේවියගෙන් ද නූතනයේ ලොව ප්‍රථම අගමැතිනිය සිරිමාවෝ බණ්ඩාරනායක මැතිණියගේ ආදර්ශයෙන් ද ශ්‍රී ලාංකේය  කාන්තාවගේ වීරත්වය හා නායකත්වය ලොවටම විදහාපායි.

එම අභාෂයන් අනුව යමින් මෙරට කාන්තාවන් අද වන විට විවිධ ක්ෂේත්‍ර ඔස්සේ මාතෘ භූමියේ බොහෝ වගකීම් දරමින් සිටීම ආඩම්බරයට කරුණකි.

ආර්ථික සමාජයීය හා දේශපාලන වශයෙන් ද කාන්තාවන්ගේ මැදිහත්වීම අපි අගය කොට සළකමු. සමාජයේ කුඩාම ඒකකය වන පවුල සුරක්ෂිත කිරීමට වෙහෙසෙන කාන්තාව, අවසානයේ මුළු රටම සුරක්ෂිත කිරීමට දායක වී තිබේ.

විවිධ හේතුමත මේ දක්වා සමාජය තුළ කාන්තාවන්ට තිබෙන අභියෝග බොහොමයකි. මේ අභියෝගාත්මක ලොව තුළ සෑම කාන්තාවක්ම අවදියෙන් සිටිය යුතුය. ඔබට ජයග්‍රහණය හෝ පරාජය මෙන්ම යහපත හෝ අයහපත ලැබෙනුයේ ඔබගේම සිතුවිලි හා ක්‍රියාවන් අනුවය.

ඒ නිසා සියලු කාන්තාවන්ට අභියෝගය තෝරාගන්නැයි මම ආරාධනා කරමි. ඔබගේ සාමුහිකත්වයේ දායකත්වය අනුව ගොඩනැගෙන අනාගත මාතෘ භූමිය මෙන්ම දියුණු ලෝකය දෙස සියලු දෙනා බලා සිටින බව සිහිපත් කරමි.

මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ
ශ්‍රී ලංකා ප්‍රජාතාන්ත්‍රික සමාජවාදී ජනරජයේ අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

ජාත්‍යන්තර කාන්තා දිනයට සමඟාමීව පවත්වන ආශිර්වාද පූජාව කැලණිය රජ මහා විහාරයේ දී ගරු අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා සහ එම ආර්යාව ශිරන්ති රාජපක්ෂ මහත්මියගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් අද 2021.03.07 දින පස්වරුවේ පැවැත්විණි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන කාන්තා පෙරමුණ මෙම ආශිර්වාද පිංකම සංවිධානය කර තිබිණි.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා සහ ආර්යා ශිරන්ති රාජපක්ෂ මහත්මිය බෝධීන් වහන්සේට මල් පහන් පූජාකිරීමෙන් අනතුරුව කැළණිය චෛත්‍ය රාජයාණන් වහන්සේ ගරු අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා අතින් ආලෝකමත් කෙරිණි.

ආලෝක පූජාවෙන් අනතුරුව කැලණිය චෛත්‍යරාජයාණන් අභියස දී මෙම ආශිර්වාද පූජාව පැවැත්විණි.

කැලණිය රජ මහා විහාරාධිපති මහාචාර්ය කොල්ලුපිටියේ මහින්ද සංඝරක්ඛිත නාහිමියෝ ප්‍රමුඛ මහා සංඝරත්නය ආශිර්වාද පුජාව පැවැත්වූහ.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා මහා සංඝරත්නය උදෙසා අටපිරිකර පූජා කළේය.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන කාන්තා පෙරමුණට සිවු වසරක් සැපිරීම, කොවිඩ්-19 රෝගය වැළඳුණු රෝගීන්ට ඉක්මන් සුවය ප්‍රාර්ථනා කිරීම සහ මෙම වසංගතය තුරන් වී සියලු ලක් වැසියන්ට ඉන් ආරක්ෂාවීමට ආශිර්වාද  එක් කිරීම මෙම පිංකමේ ප්‍රධාන අරමුණකි.

අමාත්‍යවරුන්වන මහාචාර්ය ජී.එල් පීරිස්, ප්‍රසන්න රණතුංග, ශ්‍රි ලංකා පොදුජන කාන්තා පෙරමුණේ සභාපතිනි අමාත්‍ය පවිත්‍රා දේවි වන්නිආරච්චි, රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍යවරුන්වන සිසිර ජයකොඩි, ප්‍රසන්න රණවීර, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී නලීන් ප්‍රනාන්දු, සබරගමුව පළාත් සභාවේ සභාපති කංචන ජයරත්න, ප්‍රාදේශිය සභා සභාපතිවරුන්,මන්ත්‍රිවරුන් ඇතුළු මහජන නියෝජිතයන් සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන කාන්තා පෙරමුණේ සමාජික සාමාජිකාවන් ඇතුළු මහත්ම මහත්මීන් රැසක් මෙම අවස්ථාවට එක්ව සිටියහ.

By Gitanjali Marcelline/newsin.asia    

International Women’s Day, originally called International Working Women’s Day, is marked on March 8 every year. The UN theme for Women’s Day in 2021 is Women in Leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world”. The theme celebrates the tremendous efforts made by women and girls around the world to make the post-COVID-19 world more equal than it has been so far.

The way I see it, equality begins at home with the responsibility of raising the children and doing household chores shared equally between husband and wife. Currently, in most households, there is a major disparity in this area, mainly due to stereotyping and patriarchal attitudes, where the husbands are of the firm belief that it is the wives sole responsibility to raise the children and attend to housework.

The reality of the matter is that the wife for a day works on 4 shifts! Yes, you heard me right, 4 shifts. It starts at dawn  by preparing breakfast and lunch, getting the children ready for school, attending to laundry, getting ready to go to work, seeing or dropping the children off to school (1^st shift). Then concentrating on her 8 – 5 job (2^nd shift).  Upon returning home, she has to iron the laundered clothes, fold them, supervise the children’s homework (or e-class), fix dinner and do the dishes (3^rd shift). Whereas, the husband, once he comes home showers and is all fresh to watch TV or get on his phone on social media, or goes to meet his friends. He comes home to dinner and retires to bed ready to claim his conjugal rights, whereas the poor woman by then is dead beat! (4^th shift) And if she doesn’t oblige, God forbid! It results in an argument, domestic violence, infidelity or divorce.

According to the UN, this year is like no other. Even before COVID-19 hit, violence against women and girls had reached pandemic levels. Globally, 243 million women and girls (Sri Lanka included), were abused by an intimate partner in the past year. Meanwhile, less than 40 per cent of women who experienced violence reported it or sought help.  As countries implemented lockdowns to stop the spread of the coronavirus, violence against women, especially domestic violence, intensified. In some countries, calls to help lines have increased five-fold. In others, formal reports of domestic violence have decreased, like in Sri Lanka, as survivors find it harder to seek help and access support through the regular channels. School closures and economic strains left women and girls poorer, out of school and out of jobs, and more vulnerable to exploitation, abuse and harassment.

For women, achieving an equal future, leave alone in a Covid-19 world, in a normal world has been hard. In the context of political participation, in Sri Lanka, despite having had two female leaders (Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike as Prime Minister and Chandrika Kumaratunga as President) and that too from the sympathy vote, women are marginalized owing to the general perception that they lack desirable traits to engage in the political and decision-making process. Such attitudes are more apparent in the South Asian region, Sri Lanka included. Women are not encouraged to empower themselves and develop confidence in their capacities, but discouraged from involving in the political/decision-making process and engaging in healthy discussions relating to issues which affect them and children.

The reality relating to quotas for women’s representation in Parliament and local government in Sri Lanka is that, currently a very low percentage has been allocated (4.4%), which means there are very few women Parliamentarians. Although said to be having equal participation in the decision-making process, this is not really the case. If at all, the current Parliament has only 10 female legislators out of its 225 members! They are  subjected to discriminatory practices and stereotyping.  

Although the Women’s Caucus in Parliament forwarded a Memo several years ago suggesting increased representation of women in Parliament, nothing has come of it. If at all it has remained a dismal 4%. India has 78 members in Parliament (14.3%), Pakistan has 20.2%, Bangladesh 19.7%. Whilst it is heartening to note that some of the  members of the Women’s Caucus in Parliament have spoken for the rights of the recently appointed woman Deputy Inspector General of Police and submitted a motion seeking the Public Services Commission to probe gender-based discrimination, so far I have not heard, leave alone a roar, even a whimper from them regarding the non-increase  of women’s representation in Parliament to at least 25% (ideally 50%), so that they can raise their voices on issues which affect them such as sexual and reproductive health, decent work, children’s health, education, etc.  

Like I said before, in this era of Covid-19 pandemic, School closures and economic strains have left women and girls poorer, out of school and out of jobs, and more vulnerable to exploitation, abuse, forced marriage, and harassment.

Brighter Side

Yet, there have been tremendous strides in the workplace where women’s leadership is concerned. Since March 2011, Women in Management, Sri Lanka, have been conducting the ‘Professional and Career Women Awards’ celebrating the achievements of remarkable women who inspire those around them.

This year’s ‘Top 50’ awards also saw a special appreciation of those who helped combat COVID-19 in 2020, specifically during the height of the pandemic. These special appreciation awards went to the Sri Lanka Police, Sri Lanka Army, Public Health Officers and Medical Practitioners for their contribution as part of the COVID-19 taskforce in Sri Lanka, risking their lives. Yet, it is unfortunate that one of the award recipients, the newly appointed first woman Deputy IGP, Bimshani Jasin Arachchi’s promotion was not viewed well by some of her male colleagues who had gone to court over the matter. Spoil Sports!

Neelika Malaviga, a professor at the University of Sri Jayawardhanapura and a visiting professor at the University of Oxford walked away with the award for Inspirational Women of the Year (COVID-19 category) for her contribution in COVID-19 research. Top awards were also presented to women leaders from a cross section of industries. Notable was the award given to Hiran Cooray, Chairman of Jetwing Symphony for being the Male Champion of Change. This, I think is a commendable feature – a male being a change agent for women in leadership roles. Three cheers! for the gentleman concerned.

Yet, there have been tremendous efforts by women and girls around the world in shaping a more equal future and recovery. Some have engaged in efforts such as helping husbands who lost their jobs, owing to the companies they worked for downsizing or going bankrupt, by starting SME’s such as food catering services, small sewing units, etc. to help make ends meet. I once had a gentleman deliver food in a Mercedes! His story was that he had been a top executive in a mercantile firm, used his privileges and taken housing loans, car loans, etc. Owing to the Covid-19 situation the company downsized and he suddenly found himself out of job with a huge debt burden in his hands. Since in this scenario it was difficult to find another job and in order to make ends meet, the wife had started a food catering service.

Last, but not least, in the legal sphere too, Judges have an equal or more responsibility to ensure parity by adopting a functional and practical approach promising justice and equality in the law and to better ensure that the law meets the reasonable expectations of both men and women.

By P. K. Balachandran/Ceylon Today

Colombo, March 8: India-Sri Lanka trade goes far into the past, to the Early Historic Era in fact. The island had also played the additional role of being a transit point, a hub, in the trade between the Eastern and Western worlds.

The story of India-Sri Lanka trade in ancient times is told by Prof. K. Rajan of Pondicherry University in his book: Churning the Indian Ocean: Maritime Trade of Early Historic Peninsular India.”

Rajan says that if the similarities between South India and Sri Lanka are striking it is partly because they were part of a single land mass in the Pleistocene Epoch. India and Sri Lanka were connected by a natural land bridge across the Palk Strait. The Pleistocene Epoch is defined as the time period till about 11,700 years ago.Stone artefacts found in Lanka which are identical to Indian artifacts have been dated between 45,000 to 80,000 BP (BP is ‘Before Present’ with the year 1950 being considered the ‘present’).

Microlithic tools found in Teri in Tamil Nadu are similar to those found in Lanka. A microlithic tool is a small stone tool, usually made of flint. They were made between 35,000 and 3,000 years ago. Microliths were used as spear points and arrowheads.The microlithic tools found in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka could be dated between 45,000 and 5500 BP, Rajan says. 

When the physical separation of Sri Lanka from India took place about 11,700 years ago, the contact between the two did not cease. South India and Lanka continued to be a single cultural entity with frequent interactions on many planes, Rajan asserts. In the Iron Age, iron technology and ploughshare agriculture were shared. And technology moved both ways, he points out.

Megalithic culture, which lasted from the Neolithic Stone Age to the Early Historic Period (which spanned from 6th century BC to 4th century BC) is an important landmark in the evolution of society and culture. It is marked by the use of stones.The structural similarity between the megalithic monuments in South India and Sri Lanka, the nature of the rituals performed during monument building, are indicators of culture diffusion, Rajan says.

At the socio-cultural-religious level also, the ties were close. They seem to be indelible too. The marriage of the progenitor of the Sinhala race, Prince Vijaya from Bengal, with a Pandyan Princess from Tamil Nadu, and the arrival of Mahinda Thera with Buddhism from Bihar in North India, testify to close links and the lasting impact of these links. The use of the Brahmi script to write Tamil and Prakrit (the common man’s language) in Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu is another indicator of the Indo-Lankan link. As in peninsular India, in Sri Lanka too, human settlements are at the ports and the mouth of rivers and on river banks. These indicate the importance of communication and trade in the lives of the people. Examples of port cities cum trading hubs are: Mantai (Mahathitha or Mathotam) is Sri Lanka; Korkai and Arikamedu in Tamil Nadu. Major settlements in Sri Lanka linked to rivers are: Salavathotta (Chilaw) on the Deduru Oya; Wattala on Kelani Ganga; Kalathitta (Kalutara on the Kalu Ganga; Bhematitta (Bentota) on Gin Ganga; Mahawalukagama (Weligama) at Polwatta Ganga; Milwala thitta (Matara)  on Nilwala Ganga. These ports had maritime links with the outside world.

The Second Century rouletted pottery found in Arikamedu in Tamil Nadu and Tissamaharama in Lanka are similar. Rajan says that these rouletted pottery are not necessarily from Rome as a British archeologist thought,but were local. According to Heidrun Schenk polished greyware found in South India and Sri Lanka were from the Gangetic plain in North India. According to Schenk again, fine greyware from North India arrived in Sri Lanka from the 5th. Century BC to 2nd. Century BC but that ceased around 100 BC.

The Brahmi scripted potsherds found in Arikamedu, Alangulam and Kaveripatinamin Tamil Nadu are of Sri Lankan origin. Mantai in Mannar was trading with Alankulam and Korkai in Tamil Nadu. Tissamaarama traded in rouletted ware, beads of semi-precious stones, glass and potsherds inscribed in Prakrit. Glass ingots were found in shipwrecks off Godavaya. Kautilya’s work on economics the ‘Arthashastra’ mentions pearls from the Gulf of Mannar. The Chinese came to Lanka and India to buy glass and pearls in exchange for silk and gold.Sri Lanka was also known for its gems across the world.

Role of Traders

Besides Buddhism and Jainism, traders had a huge role in connecting India and Sri Lanka. Traders introduced the Brahmi script which Emperor Asoka of North India (268 to 232 BC) had popularised to spread Buddhism. But recent evidence shows that the Brahmi script in Sri Lanka predated Asoka’s Mauryan Empire and was being used by traders. Siran Deraniyagala discovered that the script was used in Anuradhapura in the 4th and 5th Century BC. Brahmiscript of Sri Lankan origin was found by epigraphist Iravatham Mahadevan in Arikmedu, Alankulam and Kodumanal in Tamil Nadu.

Pearl fishing had also contributed Indo-Lankan links. Pearl oysters moved from one coast to another in the Gulf of Mannar. This made the Baratha community move from the Indian to the Sri Lankan coast and  vice versa. According to Pushparatnam, there are 21 inscriptions in Sri Lanka bearing the name Baratha. Some had the term Tissa added to the name, indicating high status. Baratha Tissas were Royal emissaries, captains of ships, and big traders. In the 2nd Century BC, Tamil traders carrying the title Tissa had made offerings to the Buddhist Sangha. Tamil traders Magha and Perumaga find a place in inscriptions in Anuradhapura and Mihintale, both Buddhist centres.

In an inscription in Anuradhapura, dated 2nd Century BC, Navika Karavas or sea traders are mentioned. The father of Kannagi, the heroine of the Tamil classic ‘Silapathikaram’ was a Maha Navikan, or a prosperous member of the Tamil community owning ships. In Thirupparan kundram in Tamil Nadu, there is a Tamil Brahmi inscription with the name Ila-kutumpikan (A man belonging to a family from Eelam or Lanka). The Tamil work Pattinapalai’ speaks of an Ila-kutumpikan contributing to Jain monks in Tirupparankundram.

According to the Mahavamsa, two Tamil horse traders, Sena and Guttika, were the first Tamil rulers in Sri Lanka (177 to 155 BC), and they came from Tamil Nadu. Another Tamil king, Elara, ruled from 145 to 101 BC.

However trade those days was not linked to politics. Trading was done independently of Kings. Trade associations existed to help promote trade. Inscription carry terms denoting trade organisations like Nikama, Nigama, Sreni and Sattan (Tamil).

Coins have been found in South Sri Lanka, not so much in Anuadhapura.  This is because Anuradhapura was a political and not a trading centre. Trade was largely conducted in South Lanka. Traders used coins and  did not carry any reference to a Raja (ruler) indicating  they were issued by traders. Roman traders did not directly trade with Sri Lanka but through South India, Rajan says. Lankan goods like ivory, glass ingots, pearls and semi-precious stones were taken to Indian ports from where ships took them to ports in the Arab world and Rome. West Asian ceramics like ivory and Turquoise shell found in Tissamaharama may have come via India, Rajan says.

The Buddhists of Sri Lanka and the Krishna Valley in Andhra Pradesh were in close contact. The bas reliefs or rock cut images depicting the life of the Buddha were imported from the Amaravati-Nagarjunakonda in Andhra Pradesh by traders and monks.

Courtesy The Straits Times

Colombo, March 7 (newsin.asia): The Sri Lanka Port Workers’ Union General Secretary Niroshan Gorakahenna told the media on Saturday that the workers are opposed to handing over the port to the Adanis and asserted that the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) itself should undertake to build the WCT.

It can do the ECT, it should be able to do the WCT too,” he said and added: Sri Lankan nationalists cannot oppose foreign involvement in the East Container Terminal and allow it in West Teminal. Workers will oppose it. We plan to talk about this to the Chairman of the SLPA on Monday,” Gorakahenna is quoted in Virakesari as saying.     

On Friday India had denied Sri Lanka’s announcement that New Delhi had cleared the proposal of an Adani group company to develop the West Container Terminal (WCT) at Colombo port. The Telegraph online said

Our high commission in Colombo has already conveyed to the government of Sri Lanka that their media release in so far as the reference to the approval of the High Commission was concerned, is factually incorrect. We understand that the government of Sri Lanka has engaged directly with investors on this project,’’ external affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said.

This is the first time the ministry has commented officially on the Lankan government’s announcement.

Cabinet approval has been granted on 01-02-21 to develop the West Container Terminal of Colombo South Port as a private–public limited company in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Ports Authority and parties nominated by Indian and Japanese government,” the Lankan announcement on Tuesday had said.

It added that the proposal presented by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (APSEZ Consortium) had been approved by the Indian High Commission.

Asked on Friday if India had got the formal offer for participation in the project, spokesperson Srivastava did not give a specific answer.

He said: Our High Commission in Colombo has already conveyed to the government of Sri Lanka that their media release in so far as the reference to the approval of the High Commission was concerned, is factually incorrect. We understand that the government of Sri Lanka has engaged directly with investors on this project.’’

Adanis On A Roll In India

Meanwhile, the Adanis are on a roll in India. P.Manoj of Hindu Business Line reported from Mumbai as follows:

With three big acquisitions having a combined value of INR 146590 million in five months, the Gautam Adani-led Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) is on a roll. On March 3, APSEZ acquired a 31.5% stake in Gangavaram Port Ltd (GPL) from a unit of private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC for INR 19540 million and said it was in talks with D V S Raju and family, the promoters of the port located in Visakhapatnam, for buying their 58.1% stake in GPL.

APSEZ’s second big acquisition in Andhra Pradesh, India’s second biggest maritime state by cargo volumes handled, after picking up a 75% stake in Krishnapatnam Port Co Ltd (KPCL) for an enterprise value of INR 120000 million on October 5.

On February 16, APSEZ said it has completed the acquisition of Dighi Port Ltd, located close to state-owned Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), for INR 7050 million under India’s bankruptcy law.

A consortium led by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) will soon announce a deal to develop the West Container Terminal (WCT) at Colombo Port with an investment of over $1 billion under a government-to-government agreement.

The three Indian acquisitions expand APSEZ’s market share to 30 per cent on a pan-India basis, a level many believe will not make it a monopoly, adversely impacting competition. This is because the 12 major ports owned by the Centre controls more than half of the country’s ports traffic.

Yet, many smaller, single terminal operators are frightened at the scale at which APSEZ is expanding. I told my promoter let us pack up and leave”, said the CEO of a company operating a single berth at a port on the eastern coast.

Industry sources said that only Adani has the money and the appetite to buy ports and terminals. Because of its demonstrated capability to run ports efficiently, banks are also comfortable in lending money to APSEZ for acquisitions,” said an investment banker.

The stress facing many single terminal or stand-alone single port operators, in the wake of the COVID  are making them sitting targets for take over at reasonable valuations, particularly reflected in the case of Krishnapatnam and Gangavaram.

APSEZ’s size and capability

Despite the industry fears over the growing size of the APSEZ empire, Singhal opines that it could become even bigger”. Even today, APSEZ is under-estimated,”

The port and logistics field are open to all, but others Indian business houses could not make it because they did not have the management capability and the vision to grow bigger. It is not Adani’s fault,” he said referring to concerns that rivals have been left far behind.

For instance, the erstwhile UK port operator P&O Ports (which was later acquired by D P World) approached the Tata Group for a partnership when it was building India’s first private container terminal at JNPT in the late 1990’s. But Tatas declined the offer and lost the opportunity to enter a sector which would have fetched high value proposition to the Group and made it a big player,” the executive who made the offer to Tatas said.

APSEZ’s model, according to Singhal, is to offer integrated solutions to customers. The game is not just ports, the game is ports, hinterland transport and logistics parks to provide single window supply chain solutions to industrial clients,” he said.

APSEZ is efficient, can raise huge capital and has integrated into the entire logistics chain encompassing ports, container trains, dry ports and multi-modal logistics parks, he said.

If ports give X revenues, hinterland logistics could give 3-4 times more revenue,” he noted. In contrast, the margin from port business is as high as 70 per cent whereas in inland logistics, it could be about 15per cent.

Once APSEZ has control over the hinterland cargo, Adani would control large swathes of national supply chain which in turn would augment Adani port volumes and port profit margins creating a value enhancing virtuous circle. That’s the game plan,” he added.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Austrian authorities have suspended inoculations with a batch of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine as a precaution while investigating the death of one person and the illness of another after the shots, a health agency said on Sunday, Reuters reported.

The Federal Office for Safety in Health Care (BASG) has received two reports in a temporal connection with a vaccination from the same batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the district clinic of Zwettl” in Lower Austria province, it said.

One 49-year-old woman died as a result of severe coagulation disorders, while a 35-year-old woman developed a pulmonary embolism and is recovering, it said. A pulmonary embolism is an acute lung disease caused by a dislodged blood clot.

Currently there is no evidence of a causal relationship with the vaccination,” BASG said.

Austrian newspaper Niederoesterreichische Nachrichten as well as broadcaster ORF and the APA news agency reported that the women were both nurses who worked at the Zwettl clinic.

BASG said blood clotting was not among the known side effects of the vaccine. It was pursuing its investigation vigorously to completely rule out any possible link.

As a precautionary measure, the remaining stocks of the affected vaccine batch are no longer being issued or vaccinated,” it added.

An AstraZeneca spokesman said: There have been no confirmed serious adverse events associated with the vaccine,” adding that all batches are subject to strict and rigorous quality controls.

Trials and real-world experience so far suggests the vaccine is safe and effective and it had been approved for use in well over 50 countries, he said.

AstraZeneca also said it was in contact with Austrian authorities and would fully support the investigation.

European Union regulators at the end of January approved the product, saying it was effective and safe to use, while the World Health Organization (WHO) in mid-February listed the product for emergency use.

Adverse reactions seen in trials were short-lived for the most part and blood clotting issues were not reported.

A safety assessment by Germany’s vaccine regulator of more than 360,000 people who received the Astra vaccine in the country between the launch in early February and Feb. 26 concluded that adverse reactions were in line with the safety profile described in clinical trials.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Recommendations made by the Presidential Commission, which probed the Easter Sunday attacks should be implemented soon while more investigations should be carried out to determine as to who organised and facilitated the attacks, Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said today.

Cardinal Ranjith who was speaking to the media after participating in the Black Sunday protest at St. Sebastian’s Church Katuwapitiya said the government should immediately implement the recommendations made by the Presidential commission.

The Commission had recommended action against certain people and this action should be taken without delay,” Cardinal Ranjith said.

It is also essential to carry out further investigations to determine who facilitated the attackers and who got them to carry out the Easter Sunday attacks,” he added.

We hope to see practical steps in this regard by April 21 this year,” he also said.

Pope Francis is currently touring Iraq and had discussions with Muslim leaders of that country. Therefore, global religious leaders are working towards bringing about religious unity. Sri Lanka should also follow and bring about religious unity,” he stressed.

Cardinal thanked everyone who worked towards making today’s Black Sunday a success including the Buddhist monks and members of Muslim communities.

Cardinal said this at the mass at St. Anthony’s Shrine Kochchikade and proceeded to Katuwapitiya Church to participate in the Black Sunday programme.  (Yohan Perera)

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa today said, they are ready to accept responsibility for not being able to prevent the Easter Sunday attacks as a member of the previous regime.

He also called for a proper probe to identify the real perpetrators who were behind the attack.

Speaking during the Opposition Leader’s mobile service programme in Bundala, Mr. Premadasa said it is the people’s desire to see a real transparent probe taking place to find the real culprits behind the Easter Sunday attacks.

 It is the view of the people that the real criminals behind the Easter Sunday attacks are roaming freely at the moment. This is not a story that was fabricated by me, it the opinion of the common man in this country. Therefore a transparent probe is a paramount need at this moment,” Mr. Premadasa said,.

The official stance of my party is that the terrorists and the drug traffickers and drug peddlers should be subject to capital punishment. It should be introduced through a legislation in Parliament. Some are criticising me for having taken this stand. However are we to keep the criminals in prisons throughout their lives using public funds?” he questioned. 

Sri Lanka should find out as to why there is no terrorism and/or drug trafficking in Singapore, and should introduce a same set of laws here as well,” he stressed.(Yohan Perera )

Courtesy Adaderana

Courtesy Adaderana

Archbishop Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith says he will continue to protest until justice is done for the victims of the Easter attack.

He mentioned this speaking a peaceful protest in front of St. Anthony‘s Church in Kochchikade carried out in parallel to the ‘Black Sunday’ protest declared by the Archdiocese of Colombo.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Colombo declared today as a ‘Black Sunday’ against the lack of justice for all those who died and were affected by the Easter attacks.

Accordingly, Catholics island-wide dressed in black attire to attend the Sunday Masses today.

The Archbishop said, We are holding this protest in the hope that justice will be done. We wanted the commission to find out who was behind this attack. We do not know to what extent it has been activated. I am reading that report these days. There are many things that can be enforced, especially the implementation of the law against the perpetrators.

My belief is that the government should be more committed to conducting an honest investigation. I wonder if it was necessary to appoint the six-member committee. What is needed here is for the President to carry out what he directly has to do on a practical level. It would be wrong to choose only some of them [the perpetrators] and punish only them.”

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith further said that they will continue to carry out this protest campaign until they receive a definite sign.

He added that other religious organizations will also be involved in the campaign as it is an issue that affects all people in the country.

Meanwhile, several monks of the National Bhikku Front had also joined in the protest.

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka’s COVID-related fatalities crossed the grim milestone of 500 today (March 07) as five more individuals fell victim to the virus infection.

Thereby, total lives claimed by the pandemic outbreak in Sri Lanka now stand at 502, the Department of Government Information said.

Details of the deceased are as follows:

01. A 74-year-old man from Pallekele area – He was under medical care at the Kandy National Hospital at the time of his death on March 02. The cause of death was recorded as COVID pneumonia and brain haemorrhage.

02. An 82-year-old man from Nugegoda area –After testing positive for the virus, he was transferred from Colombo South Teaching Hospital to National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) where he passed away today. The cause of death was reported as COVID-19 infection and lung infection.

03. A 72-year-old man from Barawardhana Oya in Kandy District – He died of cancer and COVID-19 infection earlier today while receiving treatment at the Badulla General Hospital.

04. A 77-year-old woman from Matara area – She has passed away on admission to Dambadeniya Base Hospital on February 25. The cause of death was recorded as acute heart disease and COVID-19 infection.

05. A 67-year-old man from Kannaththota area in Kegalle District – He has passed away on December 20, 2020 due to COVID pneumonia. He had been under medical care at the Karawanella Hospital at the time of his death.

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka registered 183 more positive cases of COVID-19 today (March 07) as total novel coronavirus infections reported within the day reached 359.

Department of Government Information says 321 of today’s cases are close contacts of earlier cases linked to the Peliyagoda cluster.

Sixteen others have been detected from the prison cluster and the remaining 22 were identified as arrivals from foreign countries.

New development has pushed the country’s confirmed COVID-19 cases count to 85,695.

According to COVID-19 figures, 3,134 active cases are still under medical care at selected hospitals and treatment centres.

Meanwhile, total recoveries reported in the country now stand at 82,059.

Sri Lanka has also witnessed 502 fatalities due to the outbreak of the pandemic.

What kind of double game is India playing? How long does India think it can pretend to be friends of its neighbors while planning the downfall of its neighbors? Obviously this stems from a DNA that goes back to colonial rule wherein India was Colonial Britain’s trusted sepoy. India became India only after the Colonial British christened it as India in 1947. When India is today not only part of the Five Eyes (US-UK-Canada-NZ-Australia) Intelligence Alliance in 2020 and a member of the QUAD since 2007, India is purely functioning as a vassal of the West and even India’s foreign policy is today decided by Washington.

There would have been a good reason why colonial Britain treated British India more of a sepoy than it did Ceylon. The British army was supported heavily by Indian sepoy army. South Indians were colonial Britain’s eye to prosperity, enslaving on their plantations and transported around the world. Indians that make up populations in the Caribbean, South Africa, East Asia are those that colonials transported as indentured labor. The Indian sepoy army played a key role in slaughtering their own people on behalf of the British East India Company. History is certainly getting repeated as India is ever ready to do as the West orders. Indian sepoys were recruited by the Portuguese, the French, the British and other Europeans in plundering nations.

India is agreeing to do the very same via R2P & Geneva Resolutions.Notice the manner West dishes out international positions, prestige, privileges to Indians who are doing a better job on behalf of the Western nations & their agendas than the Westerners themselves. Look at the number of Indians playing lead roles in the West at government & private levels! They claim to be ‘Indian’ for publicity only – their heart & mind serves western interests and the awesome feeling they get of rubbing shoulders with the white man. The Navi’s, the Biswals, the Bobby’s and the Kamala’s are West’s heart throbs for good reason.

Fast forward to present times the QUAD alliance was initially discussed in 2004 with official level meetings commencing in 2007. Note how it matches the timelines of Sri Lanka’s military offensive against LTTE. Obviously, India and West realized that Prabakaran was a barrier and a thorn to their designs for South Asia. They planned his ouster pretending to fight for his survival. A LTTE withou Prabakaran was a good tool for the West’s R2P Geneva.

The Pivot to Asia came in 2011, round about the same time that Ban Ki Moon suddenly decided to appoint a personal panel for a conflict that had concluded. No surprise his son-in-law is Indian and was in the IPKF! The successive UNHRC Resolutions against Sri Lanka since 2012 are no coincidental initiatives. India played a key role on the backdrop of each resolution, even the draft clauses inserted. India’s role was no different to its background role played when drafting the 2002 Cease Fire Agreement mediated by Norway. India played the silent partner.

Also note Sri Lanka’s regime change in 2015, it was the same time that India not only assisted US to oust Rajapakse but went on to sign a Joint Strategic Vision for Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean Regions with the US. The hype India promoted for ousting Rajapakses was allowing Chinese submarine to Sri Lanka claiming it a threat to India’s security. Ever since 2015, US planes have landed and flown across Sri Lanka and US ships and marines regularly docking at all of Sri Lanka’s Ports, is no matter of concern for India’s security it seems. Wait till US rolls out its other plans unbeknown to India! But, for the moment India is mesmerized by the new-found co-habitation with US and US is only happy to dole out titles knowing India will do anything in exchange.

When US renamed its Asia-Pacific Command in Hawaii as the Indo-Pacific Command, India was on cloud 9. India’s dream of becoming a member of the UNSC is momentarily replaced with the Malabar Exercise which is the military dimension of the India-US vision for an Asian NATO. Ironically, the camp that claims to be championing to challenge and contain China are all dealing with China more than any other countries. Hypocrisy at its best. China in fact spends much to help Indian start-up companies in India and have elevated plenty of Indian entrepreneurs.

Sri Lankans knows too well how Sri Lanka has suffered at the hands of India. Whether India was outfoxed into playing a role in nursing Tamil militancy, India was without a doubt a willing player in allowing India to be used as a logistics hub for LTTE and India trained and even funded over 3 dozen Tamil armed groups of which LTTE became the most prominent. India simultaneously pretended to be Sri Lanka’s friend, Tamil’s big brother, LTTE’s logistics partner and West’s consort in this ugly exercise.

We also know the role played by Indian intel even preferring to side with the LTTE ‘boys’ against India’s peace keeping force sent for a different reason but packed off for Sri Lanka’s fortune. India’s other agent JVP ensured a large number of lives were lost in vain during this horror period. We can all recall the infamous parippu drop violating our airspace, the phone threat by Dixit and the whisking away of Prabakaran to India in a helicopter until the Indo-Lanka Accord was signed in July 1987.

Sri Lanka’s terror would have ended in May 1987 and no May 2009 had it not been for India’s intervention.

All of India’s trade agreements with Sri Lanka has been one-sided and tipped to be advantageous for only India. India spends a lot of efforts in lobbying locals to be their mouthpieces. These voices are now well known to all.

Therefore, the local camp that follows the appeasing model ‘don’t anger India’ not only offer no alternative but wish to give anything and everything India demands of Sri Lanka completely ignoring India’s bad record of destabilizing Sri Lanka pretending to be its friend. Probably they played a role in preventing Pakistan PM from addressing Sri Lanka’s Parliament simply to please India. This highlighted the spinelessness of the Government. An element it needs to seriously take note of. Thankfully, the patriotic people have fought tooth and nail to ensure Colombo’s ECT was not given to rogue Indian port operator though Government stooges are now trying to do greater damage by offering WCT.

Exactly why should India be given anything if India is trying to at every level to destabilize Sri Lanka?India has never supported Sri Lanka in Geneva and India is now lobbying countries adopting bullying tactics learnt by its masters in the West to force countries to abstain from voting against the UK backed Core Group Resolution against Sri Lanka. When the Core Group inserts 13a and the UNHRC head parrots 13a in her report, India’s role against Sri Lanka is obvious.

How can countries of Asia rely on India if India shakes hands with one hand and has a readied—knife in the other.  Its a pity India wishes to be a foreigner in Asia amongst its Asian neighbours and working against its Asian neighbours.

Shenali D Waduge

MALINDA SENEVIRATN​E

What if the British High Commissioner in Colombo Sarah Hulton met with the Ambassador of South Korea Woonjin Jeong on Tuesday, the 2nd of March, 2021? What if he was accompanied by former Foreign Minister and the man who happily tossed Sri Lanka under the UNHRC bus driven by a warmongering Uncle Sam? What if Canadian High Commissioner in Colombo David McKinnon held discussions with his Bangladeshi counterpart, Tareq  Ariful Islam, at the Canada House, Colombo 7, around the same time? 

Now there are no laws against diplomats meeting other diplomats. There are no laws to stop diplomats meeting citizens of the country they happen to be posted in. However, it is significant that both South Korea and Bangladesh are members of the Human Rights Council. It is significant because in a few days time a vote will be taken in Geneva on a resolution on (well, ‘against,’ really) Sri Lanka. It’s a one country-one-vote situation, and therefore every vote can count. Indeed, if it is a close affair then that one vote becomes even more significant.

The Resolution is not just against Sri Lanka; it is a vote which, if succeeds, will set a dangerous precedent and effectively turn ‘human rights’ into an even more ironic, preposterous and pernicious weapon that the worst thug-nations in the world can deploy to wreck nations and regimes refusing toe the line. In other words, it would give credence to vexatious persecution

The earth is not flat, this we know. Neither is Switzerland despite the lovely mountains, except in th dullness of the flavors pertaining to political economy. Countries might have equal voting worth on paper, but then again few would not have heard of that stinging truism ‘some are more equal than others.’ That oft quoted Golden Rule makes sense: he who has the gold makes the rules (we’ll come to that shortly). One can add ‘guns’ to the equation except that such killing-instruments are outdated in a world where there are nuclear weapons and countries which possess them have not hesitated to use biological weapons.

If it has come to a point where local diplomats have been directed by their respective governments to canvass votes then it simply means that the bosses driving the resolution have got jittery. Now one might be persuaded to imagine these diplomats sipping green tea and trying to persuade the relevant counterparts to join the club. However, persuasive arguments were never part of the story. It’s never been about right or wrong, good or evil. No. It’s about proposals that end with ‘or else…’ directly stated or suggested. Bribes too are part of the story. ‘How about if we…’ could be the ice-breaker in such situations.
Considering the geographical (and yes, ideological) location/orientation of the key players, this is essentially a West vs East game. This brings to mind a curious case of ‘seeing the light’ not too long ago. Let me elaborate.

It is no secret that the UNP faction of the previous regime was cosy with the political West. You could, if you are generous, call it ideological agreement of course but there has always been a streak of servility that prompts one to think and label, ‘colonial remnants.’ 

That dispensation, led by Ranil Wickremesinghe banked on the West. Mangala Samaraweera, Foreign Minister of that government, played ‘local agent’ to the extent that he bent backwards to get Sri Lanka to dig a hole and crawl into it. He’s gone now, but he (and all those in that government who either cheered, watched in silence or looked away) essentially laid a minefield for those who would arrive later to walk on. This is why ‘Geneva’ is still in the news.  

This, however, is not about that kind of political intrigue. It’s about the West (and therefore, obviously, the East). Wickremesinghe’s cabal, sweethearts as far as the West was concerned, operated as though we live on a planet so misshapen that there was only the West. Obviously the word means nothing if there’s no East, so maybe they operated as though the East, existent though it is, was inconsequential.
Brexit hit them between the proverbial eyes. Wickremesinghe came up with a classic and ironical observation: ‘we will look to the East.’

OMG! Wickremesinghe, thought of as some kind of whizkid in things economic, we learned, hadn’t heard of China or known that China and Japan own North American and European debt! OMG all over again!

So then, that’s how we need to frame this charade. East vs West. T.S. Eliot, in his iconic poem ‘Wasteland’ had a pretty and perceptive line (if it’s ok to interpret it in terms of a tectonic shift in ‘seeing’ and true domination):

There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.


The above is obviously a description of someone moving from West to East. We can think of it as an ideological shift or even a re-alignment of philosophical orientation, but at a more mundane level, it’s about a shift in the balance of global power. In that sense, the Geneva Circus of Vexatious Persecution using/abusing Sri Lanka is but symptomatic of a last gasp effort on the part of those who have called the shots for a long century and are suddenly realizing that they are going to lose their voices.  

The title has ‘India’ in it. Why India, someone might wonder. Well, India seems ideologically confused and geographically challenged right now. The West (or rather the spokespersons for the ideological and political camp that uses the locational term as identifier) has made it’s position clear: ANTI-SRI LANKA. The key voices of the opposite camp, led of course by China, have backed Sri Lanka. Even Japan and Australia (the other two Quad members) haven’t shown any of the belligerence of the world’s worst human rights offender over the past several centuries, Britain (yes, add ‘perpetrator of genocide, common thief, generator of inter-communal conflict, pyromaniac’) and her present day allies. India hasn’t mimicked the ‘Mother Country’ of course, but the noises are not supportive. They are marked by grumpiness. So much so that it would not be unfair if the relevant authorities assume ‘India will side against Sri Lanka.’ India could abstain, but at this point, it would be silly for India to assume that Sri Lanka would applaud such a position.

It’s simple, really. India has an issue with a strident China. India can play pawn and scoot over to the country that raped her. India might even be envisaging a future world order that is divided between two new superpowers, China and India. India could, on the other hand, envisage a new world order led by powerful nations which will not settle things with guns and bucks, even if they have the bombs and the gold. Instead of carving up the world (as the European powers carved up —and impoverished — Africa at the Berlin Conference in 1884), India, with China, could use new found sway to heal the world and make it a better place (for you and for me, as MJ said).

India has a single vote. However, the stand that India takes will be taken note of. Sri Lanka certain would. Other nations would too. Sometimes, arms need not be twisted (as the British and Canadian mission heads in Colombo might very well be doing — Bangladesh and South Korea are proud nations, we still believe, by the way). A threat if often more powerful than its execution, as the great Polish and French chess master Savielli Tartakower once said.

So. India. Where is it located or rather where does India wish to locate itself? That’s the question. The answer will be important for Sri Lanka because it will could persuade Sri Lanka to reassess her location (as nations do from time to time).

[The writer is the Director/CEO of the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute. These are his personal views].

malindasenevi@gmail.com. www.malindawords.blogspot.com.