Global Srilankan Forum

Hon. David McKinnon,
High Commissioner,
High Commission of Canada to Sri Lanka and Maldives,
33A,5th Lane,
Colpetty,
Colombo 03,
Sri Lanka

Re: Tamil Genocide Education Week Act,2021(Ontario-Bill 104) facilitates separatism in Sri Lanka

Dear Hon. High Commissioner,

We would like to bring your attention to the above bill which received Royal Ascent on 12 May 2021.

The private bill tabled by MPP Vijay Thanigasalam of Sri Lankan Tamil descent, describes the entirety of the war, from 1983-2009 as a genocide that the Sri Lankan state perpetrated against Tamils.”

Further, genocide is described in the bill as the deliberate and organized killing of a group or groups of people, with the intention of destroying their identity as an ethnic, cultural, or religious group. Then the bill goes on to say that genocide against Tamils started in 1948 and was perpetrated through Sinhala-Buddhist centric government policies, programs, land grabs and ethnic cleansing. Furthermore, the bill refers to a UN estimate of 40,000 to 75,000 civilians killed in May 2009 alone. Also, there is reference to a higher death toll of 146,679, apparently derived from the difference between pre and post war statistics of regional population.

Most importantly, Bill 104 emphasizes the existence of a continued genocide against Tamils since 1948. In addition, the state of Sri Lanka has also been accused of systematic disenfranchisement of voting rights, suppression of language, religion, and culture of Tamil people.

With long established diplomatic relations between two countries, we believe that the Candain High Commission and the government are well aware of the fact that the genocidal picture portrayed in the above Bill/Act is pure fabrication.
• There is no evidence to support the death tolls mentioned in the bill.
• The actual number of deaths is estimated around 5,000-7,000 which is far below the average for a conflict of similar magnitude.
• There is no evidence to support a continued genocide since 1948.
• Alleged Tamil Genocide has never been determined by a court of law or an international tribunal.

If the above Act is unopposed and remains the law of the land in Ontario, we can contemplate the following consequences.
1. Alleged Tamil genocide in Sri Lanka will be formally recognized in Ontario.
2. Other Canadian provinces may be inclined to pass similar bills.
3. Federal government is likely to adapt the same.
4. Canadian example might be followed by other western countries.
5. LTTE separatists will be few steps closer to prove their case for a separate homeland.
6. Sinhalese students in Canada will be educated on a genocide allegedly committed by SL military forces but not proven in a court of law.
7. Sinhalese students may be subjected to bullying and discrimination in the classroom.

Further, we believe that the Act violates the Canadian constitution since the substance of the bill is of criminal nature albeit it being labeled as an Act related to education. It is regrettable that a fellow UN member states and a fellow member of the commonwealth allows its provincial bodies to interfere with internal affairs of another UN/commonwealth member state. Private member bills brought in the provincial legislatures to interfere with internal affairs of sovereign nations may set a bad precedence for a nation of immigrants from across the globe. If the trend continued, hundreds of international disputes will be introduced to Canadian political theatre with an adverse effect on relations among various communities.

Therefore, we strongly request the government of Canada to intervene in any possible mean to repeal/amend the Bill 104 to prevent further reputational damage to the state of Sri Lanka and the Canadians of Sri Lankan ancestry.

Sincerely,

Sunil Chandrakumara President Global Srilankan Forum
Ruwan Perera Director – International Affairs Global Srilankan Forum

By Raj Gonsalkorale

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is an integral part of an open and effective international economic system and a major catalyst to development. Yet, the benefits of FDI do not accrue automatically and evenly across countries, sectors and local communities. National policies and the international investment architecture matter for attracting FDI to a larger number of developing countries and for reaping the full benefits of FDI for development. The challenges primarily address host countries, which need to establish a transparent, broad and effective enabling policy environment for investment and to build the human and institutional capacities to implement them – OECD, Foreign Direct Investment for Development MAXIMISING BENEFITS, MINIMISING COSTS

Sri Lankan politics has not witnessed bi-partisan agreement amongst the major political parties on key issues that impact on the people of the country, the present generations and many more to come.

There has never been bi partisan agreement on foreign policy, on education, on health at least at the highest policy levels. Personality politics has dominated the political landscape and it has always been about the plaudits or damage a policy decision might make on a personality and as a consequence on the party or parties that person represents, and eventually whether or not that individual or the party would win the next election, and ones after that.

This absence of bi partisan agreement has now extended to one of Sri Lanka’s most daring, controversial to many and an out of the box venture, the Port City project. The absence of such agreement, and the statements made by the current Opposition that they will amend the Port Commission bill is bound to unsettle many would be investors. They will be wondering what would happen to their investments if the current regime is defeated at the next election and the terms and conditions in which they invested should change after 4 years or so. The investment period horizon would then be 4 years. It does not need an Einstein to conclude that investors would be very hesitant to invest in any long term project in such a climate.

The statement of the Opposition is not being questioned here as they have rightly said that although the constitutionality of the bill has been adjudicated by the Supreme Court, amendments made, but the policy contentions had not been addressed and amendments they had brought in had been rejected by the government. It is also not clear whether the amended bill, incorporated with the supreme court determined amendments, had been presented to the Parliament. The public certainly has not seen the amended bill.

The bona fides of the current Opposition of course is questionable, as they were the government in 2016 when they signed a tripartite agreement with the China Harbour Engineering Company and the UDA to develop the Port City into what they termed the Colombo International Financial City, which will be in the centre of the maritime city, will be one of the key phenomenon which will decide the future development of Sri Lanka” according to the then Megapolis Minister Champika Ranawaka at the signing of the tri partite agreement. He added that the project would also fuel the planned Maritime city, Aero city, Tech city, Industrial cities and Tourist cities. That agreement has not been made public to the best of the writer’s knowledge.

The Port City project and the Port City Commission are major undertakings that will bind many future generations to its positives, but more importantly to any possible negatives as well. It would not be out of place to say that the politics associated with this futuristic project could have been handled better in a more transparent and consultative manner.

In the first place, the origin of this project, the agreement signed with China, signed by the Presidents of China and Sri Lanka in 2014, to reclaim an area of the sea and to create a Port City, was not tabled in Parliament for discussion as far as can be ascertained.

Reports indicate that the project concept goes back to 2011 and construction was set to begin in March 2011 but due to several circumstances the project had been stopped. In mid-2012, the Sri Lankan Port Authority (SLPA) announced that the construction of the then Colombo Port City project would commence on 17 September 2014. The budget was estimated to be $15 billion.

The reclamation was to be carried out by China Harbor Engineering Corporation, who has been engaged by the investor. 125 ha (310 acres) was the land was given to government as well as 88 ha (220 acres) while owned by the government was planned to be leased for 99 years to the Chinese company. 20 ha (49 acres) was planned to be given freehold to the Chinese company.

Construction of the Colombo Port City project was launched on 17 September 2014 by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The Sirisena/Wickramasinghe government that was elected in 2015 suspended the project on environmental grounds, but it is understood that this was granted approval again in 2016 having agreed to pay a penalty of USD 100 million to the Chinese company for the delay encountered in proceeding with construction as per a country to country agreement. It is learnt that in exchange for not paying this penalty, the Hambantota Harbour was sold or given on a long term 99-year lease virtually on a platter.

On 12^th August 2016 the tripartite pact signed to construct a mega port city signed between Sri Lanka’s Urban Development Authority, the Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development and the China Harbour Engineering Company, and as far as known, this agreement too has not been tabled before the Parliament.

With the signing of the agreement, the Colombo Port City Development Project was newly renamed as the Colombo International Financial City with the government stating that the project would transform Sri Lanka into an international financial hub in the Indian Ocean region.

It is still not very clear as to the extent of land involved in this project as different extents have been mentioned in different agreements. It is also not clear whether whatever land extent has been registered with the land registry. Clarity on these will be useful.

While there is no indication that any of these two agreements had been tabled and ratified by Parliament, these two occasions are not the first time Parliament had not ratified binding agreements, if indeed they had been tabled in Parliament. The Ceasefire Agreement that Prime Minister Wickramasinghe signed with LTTE Leader Prabakaran in 2002 was not tabled in Parliament, and in fact not even known to the Executive President of the country at that time Chandrika Kumaratunga who saw the agreement after it had been signed by Wickramasinghe and Prabakaran. The consequences of that agreement are well known today.

In this backdrop comes the Port City Commission bill. While it is true that there was an opportunity for litigants to go before the Supreme Court to ascertain the validity of the bill with the Constitution, the people’s representatives, however low they are in their credibility in the eyes of the people, and neither the business community, and civil society leaders, were given an opportunity to consider the policy aspects of the bill in some depth and to work together to make it a national project of great importance to the country.

The SJB, and the residue of the UNP, as well as those who supported the Yahapalanaya government in 2016, cannot afford to oppose this bill in principle while they have the right to oppose sections of it if they differ with what they agreed to in 2016. As stated earlier, the writer stands corrected if the government and the Opposition could clarify to the public whether these important agreements were in fact discussed in Parliament and whether any attempt was made to have bi partisan agreement on them. Besides being an important consideration for the public in Sri Lanka, it would be vital to generate confidence amongst would be investors in the Port City project for long term projects. Unless there can be such a bi partisan agreement, it is unlikely that the objective of large and long term investments will be made in this project.

While some may entertain philosophical arguments against the concept of the Port City, and suspicions and fears about China getting an extended foothold in Sri Lanka, it is also true that Sri Lanka needs to raise its economic platform if the future generations are to enjoy the opportunities they need and deserve in years to come. The current economic platform, based on Tea, Rubber, Coconut and other agricultural exports, Apparel and IT products and services exports, foreign remittances, and tourism, is very volatile and inadequate to meet future challenges associated with investments required for infrastructure development, service improvements and social upliftment.

The longer term future of Tea and Rubber is uncertain, and foreign remittances may not be long lasting even once the COVID pandemic subsides. Sri Lanka needs a different approach and lateral thinking on economic policies if it is to free itself from debt and generate enough revenue to service its infrastructure development and service improvements. Besides the Port City project, there is no other innovative project that has been presented for discussion that would address the future economic needs of the country. While the management of its politics has left much room for improvement and some policy aspects may need adjustment, the fact remains that there is nothing else on the table to compare it with.

While it is not a critique of the bill itself, as the writer feels that should be left to the politicians as well as experts who are more competent to do so, there are a few questions pertaining to the clauses 64 and 65 in the agreement that needs some clarification as there appears to be a legal provision in the bill to extend the authority of the Port Commission to land associated with projects approved by the Commission, beyond the reclaimed land area that constitutes the Port City. In addition, these clauses appear to make the Board of Investments (BOI) irrelevant and an unnecessary entity as all its activities, past, present and future could easily be managed by the Port Commission.

1. Firstly, what does section 65. (1) mean? It says, from and after the date of commencement of this Act, all land comprising the Area of Authority of the Colombo Port City, shall be vested with the Commission in the manner set out in subsection (3)”. Sub Section (3) reads as follows.  For the avoidance of doubt, it is hereby stated that on the coming into operation of this Act, the President may, issue a Land Grant under the Crown Lands Ordinance (Chapter 454) in the name of the Commission, in respect of all land comprising the Area of Authority of the Colombo Port City as set out in Schedule I to this Act”

It is understood that President Sirisena by way of a gazette notification granted a land deed for the reclaimed land in favour of the UDA as mentioned by Presidents counsel Jayantha Weerasinghe at a recent press conference. The land given to the UDA on this grant apparently was given on a lease to the Chinese company by the UDA in 2016.

Is it to be understood that as per section 65, the present President is giving another grant of the same land to the Port Commission under section 65 when the land is owned by the UDA and leased to the Chinese company? This convoluted situation may not be accurate, and it would be good if the government could clarify this.

None of these land deeds have been registered as far as known and therefore no one has been able peruse them and ascertain the status of the grants and deeds. No wonder the Public is confused. It is also understood that the gazette which contains the deed signed by President Sirisena has the new plan as per the tripartite agreement under Cadastral system. It would be helpful if these documents are made available to the public. If the above confusion could be cleared, this sub section and what is referred to in Section 65 of the gazette notification looks harmless and innocuous if it is read as it is without any reference to any other Section.

• However, a question does arise as to what this Section (65) and Sub Section (3) mean in effect?

Is it that only the reclaimed land area referred to as the Port City, will be vested with the Commission? If not, what other land?

Some confusion and doubt does occur when it is read in conjunction with Section 64 which reads as follows. Clause 64

(1) The Commission may, where it considers necessary to do so, as an interim measure, permit an authorised person to engage in business from a designated location in Sri Lanka, outside the Area of Authority of the Colombo Port City, as may be approved by the President or in the event that the subject of the Colombo Port City is assigned to a Minister, such Minister, for a period not exceeding five years from the date of commencement of this Act. Such business shall, for such period of five years be entitled to all the privileges accorded to, and be deemed for all purposes to be, a business situated within and engaged in business, in and from, the Area of Authority of the Colombo Port City.

(2) Where an authorised person has been permitted to engage in business from a designated location in Sri Lanka, outside the Area of Authority of the Colombo Port City in terms of subsection (1), such business shall be subject to the provisions of this Act and any regulations made hereunder.

This Section raises two questions

1. Would such a project have to be approved by the Authority, meaning, will it have to be a new project and not an existing project? Does this not virtually open any part of the country for such a project to be located for 5 years? If so, effectively, the Authority has island wide authority for 5 years for approved projects. In this event, what is the role of the BOI, and why should projects seek approval from the BOI?

• When this is read in conjunction with Section 65 and sub section (3) does it mean that not only the reclaimed land but also any land allocated for an approved project for 5 years under clause 64 couldalso be vested with the Authority for 5 years with President issuing a Land Grant under theCrown Lands Ordinance (Chapter 454) in the name of the Commission?

• Section 65, sub section (2) reads as follows – Where any deed of transfer, indenture of lease, agreement or other similar document has been executed in respect of any land situated within the Area of Authority of the Colombo Port City, prior to the date of commencement of this Act, by the Urban Development Authority, established under the Urban Development Authority Law, No. 41 of 1978, such deed of transfer, lease, agreement or other similar document shall, from and after the date of the commencement of this Act, be deemed for all purposes to be a document executed by the Commission, in terms of the provisions of this Act and be valid and effectual as if executed hereunder”

The Port Commission Act has just been passed by the Parliament. In relation to this clause, besides the land that was leased to the Chinese company by the UDA in 2016, is it to be understood that there are projects approved by the UDA or any other body on land within the Area of the Authority? Is this clause to be understood as extending to projects already approved by the UDA, with some projects located outside the Port City precincts (as per Section 64) the benefits referred to in Section 65?  

It would be useful if the government tables a list of such projects so approved and their operational locations as the country has a right to know which project, located where, is to benefit from terms in Section 65.

These clauses, their meaning and effects need clarification as confusion does arise about the extent of authority the Port Commission has over land outside the Port city itself, even if it’s for 5 years. The potential does exist for the Port Commission to approve investment projects with say the headquarters office located in the Port City, but actual projects located anywhere else in the country, and enjoying all privileges and benefits accorded to the project irrespective of where its operations are located. Theoretically, farfetched it may be, the possibility exists for hundreds of foreign companies to have their projects approved by the Port Commission, with their operations located in any part of the country. The consequences of this possibility needs to be considered especially from the point of view of the impact on local farmers (if the projects are agriculture based) or industrialists who will not enjoy the benefits enjoyed by projects registered with the Port Commission.

Considering all of above, the extraordinary powers granted to the President of the country to make far reaching and binding decisions on what may turn out to be a sizeable component of the country’s economy could have the potential to be detrimental rather than beneficial to the long term interests of the country should the Presidency be in the hands of a person not entirely suitable to hold that office. Avenues for greater accountability of decisions made by the Port Commission and the President of the country have to be considered from this point of view.

By Noor Nizam – Peace and Political Activist, Political Communications Researcher, SLFP/SLPP Stalwart, Convener “The Muslim Voice” and Member “Viyathmaga”, May 26th., 2021.

HE. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa,

This approach towards making Sri Lanka aimed at transforming Sri Lanka’s economy into a green socio-economy with sustainable solutions to climate change is the most appropriate far sighted thinking Sri Lanka needs to create a Sri Lanka most suitable to our next generation.

The relevant plans tabled at the said meeting of the Presidential Task Force on Creating a Green Sri Lanka with Sustainable Solutions to Climate Change should “NOT JUST BE A PLAN” on the table – it should happen.

Your Excellency should take all steps necessary to implement these plans accordingly. Your Excellency should also take appropriate action to “EXTENSIVELY ENGAGE” all media in Sri Lanka, both Mainstream media and Social media and Youtube channels to bring out these plans and educate the “MASSES” especially the younger generation to “CLEARLY” understand these approaches and the benefit the nation will derieve at the end of the implementation. 

The “media gatekeepers” of Media groups like Sirasa TV, MTV, Swarnavahini, TNL, Rupavahini and ITN who are “ONLY” hell-bent in damaging such a development vision, will go pel-mel/all out to “MISINFORM” the Nation and sabotage the plans. Without the acceptance and the peoples support, this “VISION” cannot be a success please. 

The UNP, SJB, JVP, TNA, ACMC, SLMC, EPRLF, CTC, FSP, UCPF and Western influenced and funded NGO’s and unscrupulous multinationals engaged in promoting chemical fertilizers will do their utmost, behind the scene politically and socially to deprive Sri Lanka of the success of this programme. 

Therefore it is advisable/suggested that a “FRANK DIALOGUE” should be put in place to make them to understand  this “VISION” OUTSIDE OF PARTY POLITICS AND ELECTION GOALS AND TO COOPERATE FOR THE BETTERMENT OF OUR NATION AND “MAATHRUBOOMIYA”. 

This is a humble suggestion of a Citizen of Sri Lanka and a patriot, your Excellency.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

කොළඹ හුණුපිටිය ගංඟාරාම විහාරස්ථානයේ බුද්ධ රශ්මි ජාතික වෙසක් කලාපය බුද්ධශාසන, ආගමික හා සංස්කෘතික කටයුතු අමාත්‍ය, ගරු අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ සුරතින් අද (26) දින පස්වරුවේ විවෘත විය.

ගංඟාරාම විහාරස්ථානයට පැමිණි අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා සහ ආර්යාව ආගමිකවතාවත්වල නිරතවීමෙන් අනතුරුව  පිරිවෙන් අධ්‍යාපනය ලබන සාමණේරවරු 100කට අධ්‍යාපන ශිෂ්‍යත්ව ප්‍රදානය කිරීමේ වැඩසටහනට ද එක්වූහ.

මෙහිදී සාමණේර රැකවරණ” ශිෂ්‍යත්ව ප්‍රදානය සංකේතවත් කරමින් අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා සාමණේර හිමිනමකට ශිෂ්‍යත්වයක් ප්‍රදානය කළේය. අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ආර්යා ශිරන්ති රාජපක්ෂ මහත්මිය ද මෙම උතුම් කාර්යය හා එක්වූවාය.

ගංඟාරාම විහාරාධිකාරී ආචාර්ය කිරින්දේ අස්සජි ස්වාමීන්වහන්සේ මෙහිදී අනුශාසනාවක් පැවැත්වූහ. වෙසක් මංගල්‍යයේ අරුත් පැහැදිලි කළ උන්වහන්සේ කොවිඩ්-19 වසංගතයේ භයානකකම පෙන්වා දෙමින් මෙවර බුද්ධ රශ්මි ජාතික වෙසක් කලාපය සංවිධානය කළ ද ජනතාවට එය නැරඹීමට පැමිණිය නොහැකි බව දැනුම් දුන්හ.

ඉන් අනතුරුව අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා ගංඟාරාම සීමා මාලකය අසලදී බුද්ධ රශ්මි ජාතික වෙසක් කලාපය නිල වශයෙන් විවෘත කළේය.

අමෙරිකා එක්සත් ජනපදයේ ප්‍රධාන සංඝනායක වල්පොල පියනන්ද නාහිමි, මාතර හම්බන්තොට දෙදිසාවේ ප්‍රධාන සංඝනායක, මාතර හිත්තැටිය රජමහ විහාරය සහ කොට්ටාව මාලපල්ල ශ්‍රී සුදර්ශනාරාම අධිපති සහ හිටපු බස්නාහිර පළාත් පිරිවෙන් අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක්ෂ රාජකීය පණ්ඩිත අග්‍රහැර කස්සප නාහිමි ඇතුළු මහා සංඝරත්නය මෙම අවස්ථාවට වැඩමකළ වදාළහ.

තරුණ හා ක්‍රීඩා අමාත්‍යංශය

තරුණ හා ක්‍රීඩා අමාත්‍ය නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ උදාර සංකල්පයක් අනුව ක්‍රියාත්මක යොවුන් ශීල සමාධි වැඩසටහන් මාලාවේ පස්වැන්න වෙසක් පුර පසළොස්වක පොහොය යෙදුණු අද (26) දිනයේ කොළඹ හුණුපිටිය ගංගාරාම විහාරස්ථාන සීමාමාලකයේ දී පැවත්විණි.

තරුණ පරපුර සුගතිගාමී කරවීම පෙරදැරි කරගනිමින් රට පුරා සියලු විහාරස්ථානවල සෑම පසොලොස්වක පොහොය දිනයන්හීදීම තරුණ තරුණියන් ශීල සමාධියෙහි පිහිටුවීම හා දාන ශීල භාවනා වැඩසටහන්වලට යොමු කිරීමට යොවුන් ශීල සමාධි වැඩසටහනේ අභිමතාර්ථයයි.

ඒ අනුව අමාත්‍ය නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතා ප්‍රමුඛ තරුණ පිරිස ශීල සමාධියෙහි පිහිටුවීම අද පෙරවරු 06.30 ට ගංගාරාම විහාරාධිපති හිමි අනුශාසකත්වයෙන්, දේශප්‍රේමී භික්ෂු පෙරමුණේ ලේඛකාධිකාරී පුජ්‍යපාද බෙංගමුවේ නාලක හිමියන්ගේ මූලිකත්වයෙන් පැවැත්විණි.

පෙ.ව.07.30 සිට පෙ.ව.08.00 දක්වා පැවති බුද්ධ පූජාවෙන් අනතුරුව පෙ.ව.08.00 සිට පෙ.ව. 08.50 දක්වා ධර්ම සාකච්ඡාවක් ද පැවැත්විණි.

ගොලීය වසංගතයක්ව පවතින කොවීඩ් 19 වෛරස් තත්ත්වයෙන් අපේ රට මුදවා ගැනීමට හා ‍ඊට ගොදුරු වී සිටින සියලු දෙනාට සෙත් පතා පැවති රතන සූත්‍ර දේශනාවෙන් හා සත‍්‍යයක් ක්‍රියාවෙන් පසු  සිල් සමාදන් වූ පිරිසට අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේ සිට විසුරුවා හරින ලද ධර්ම දේශනාවට සවන්දීමේ අවස්ථාව හිමිවූහ.

කොවිඩ් – 19 මාර්ගෝපදේශවලට සහ පවතින සංචරණ සීමාවලට යටත්ව පැවති යොවුන් ශීල සමාධි වැඩසටහන වෙනුවෙන් දැහැමි සමාජයකට මං පෙත් විවර කරමින් ධර්ම දේශනාමය දායකත්වය මහාචාර්ය ඉත්තෑමලියේ ඉන්දසාර හිමි සහ මහාචාර්ය මැදගම්පිටියේ විජිත හිමි විසින් දරණු ලැබූහ.

මෙම වැඩසටහන සදහා බුද්ධශාසන හා ආගමික කටයුතු අමාත්‍යාංශයේ උපදේශකත්වය, තරුණ හා ක්‍රීඩා අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ජාතික තරුණ සේවා සභාවේ මෙහෙයවීමෙන් හා සංවි‍ධායකත්වයෙන්, රාජ්‍ය සේවා බෞද්ධ සංගමයේ සම්බන්ධීකරණය, ජාතික වෙළඳ හා ව්‍යවසායකත්ව සම්මේලනයේ හා පහන්සිත් පදනමේ ක්‍රියාකාරී දායකත්වයයෙන් සිදු විය.

මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය

තරුණ හා ක්‍රීඩා අමාත්‍යංශය

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

සෑම පුන් පොහෝ දිනකම ගරු අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ සංකල්පයකට අනුව පවත්වන අමාදම් සිසිලස” ධර්ම දේශනා මාලාවේ 210 වැන්න වෙසක් පුන් පොහොය යෙදෙන අද (26) දිනයේ අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේ දී පැවැත්විණි.

පළමුව අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා, ආර්යාව ඇතුළු පිරිස අරලියගහ මන්දිර පරිශ්‍රයේ පිහිටි බෝධීන් වහන්සේට මල් පහන් සුවඳ දුම් පූජා කොට ආගමික වතාවත්වල නිරත වූහ.

අනතුරුව ධර්ම දේශනාව සඳහා වැඩම කළ අමරපුර සිරි සුමන විහාර පාර්ශ්වයේ මහනායක පන්නිපිටිය ශ්‍රී දෙව්රම් වෙහෙර නිර්මාතෘ ආචාර්ය කොළොන්නාවේ සිරි සුමංගල මහනායක  ස්වාමීන්වහන්සේට  අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ආර්යා ශීරන්ති රාජපක්ෂ මහත්මිය දැහැත් වට්ටියක් පූජා කරමින් ධර්ම දේශනාවට ආරාධනා කළාය.

ප්‍රඥාවන්ත දැහැමි ජන සමාජයක් උදෙසා බුදු දහමේ සිසිලස බෙදා දීමේ අරමුණ පෙරදැරිව සෑම පුන් පොහෝ දිනකම පවත්වන අමාදම් සිසිලස” ධර්ම දේශනා මාලාවේ 210 වැන්න පින්බර වෙසක් පොහොය දිනයේ වැදගත්කම  සහ මෙම ජිවන දිවියේ අනිත්‍යතාව පෙන්වා දෙමින් ධර්ම කරුණු සාකච්ඡා කෙරිණි.‍

අදට වසර 2565 කට පෙර පිරිනිවන් පෑ සුගත තතාගථ බුදුරජාණන් වහන්සේ ඔබේ සිත තුල බුදු කුටියක් කරගන්නැයි සිරි සුමංගල නාහිමියෝ සමස්ත ලෝක වාසී බෞද්ධ ජනතාවගෙන් මෙහි දී ඉල්ලා සිටියහ.

අමරපුර සිරි සුමන විහාර පාර්ශ්වයේ මහනායක පන්නිපිටිය ශ්‍රී දෙව්රම් වෙහෙර නිර්මාතෘ ආචාර්ය කොළොන්නාවේ සිරි සුමංගල මහනායක  හිමියෝ මෙසේ ද කීහ.

පින්වත් අගමැතිතුමනි,  තිස් වසරක යුධ ගිනි ඇවිලී ගිය සමයක ඔබතුමාට මතකයි, ඔබතුමා  ඒවා ශීත කාමර වල ඉඳලා දැක්කේ නෑ, විඩියෝ වලින් දැක්කේ නෑ, එහෙම මිනිස් ජිවිත නැති වුනාය කියලා දැනෙන කොට ඔබතුමා එතනට ඇවිදගෙන ගියා. පිටකොටුවේ බෝම්බෙ මිනිසුන් කෑළි කෑළි වලට කැඩිලා බන්දේසි වලට ගොඩ ගහන කොට ඔබතුමා එතැනට ගියා.

කැබිතිගොල්ලෑවේ මිනිසුන් සියගානක් කපල කොටලා මරලා මිනිසුන් මළ කඳන් බදාගෙන අඩන කොට ඔබතුමා එතනට ගියා. ඔබතුමාට එදා මොනවද දැනුණේ. ඔය හදවත තුළ දැනුණා ඇටමිදුළු නහර අස්සේ කැවි කැවී දැනුණා, කොහොමද මේ යුද්දෙ නතර කරන්නේ කියලා. ඒ කැකුම වේදනාව හදවතට දැනෙන කොට ඔබතුමාගේ  ඇට ඇට මිදුළු නහර ඔබතුමාට කතා කළා.

මේ දුක මට දරන්නත් බැරිතරම්, දෙයියනේ දරුවෝ වදන්න කුසින් දරුවෝ මෙලොවට බිහි කරන්න හිටපු අම්මලාව කපල කොටලා මරල තියනව දකින කොට, කටේ කිරි සුවදවත් ගියපු නැති පොඩි හාමුදුරුවරු කැලි කෑලි  වලට කපල එකම දර සෑයක දැවෙන කොට, ඔබතුමාගේ හදවතට දැණුනා. ඒ සංවේගය වේදනාව අදත් ඔබතුමාට මතකයි.

ඒ වේදනාව සංවේගය ඔබතුමා පාඩමක් බවට පත් කර ගත්තා. මට මේකට විසඳුමක් ඕන කිව්වා. මම මැරෙන්න ඉස්සෙල්ලා මේක අවසන් කරනවා කරනවාමයි කියලා ඔබතුමාගේ හදවත නින්දේදිත් කෑ ගහන්න  ඇති. යුද්ධය මවාගෙන ජීවත්වෙච්ච සමාජයක ඔබතුමා යුද්ධය අවසන් කරන්න රණවිරුවන්ට පණ දුන්නා,  හයිය දුන්නා” යැයි සිරිසුමංගල නාහිමියෝ පැවසූහ.

දැයෙ පිනෙන් උපදින නායකයෝ ලෝකයේ අඩුයි. සංසාරේ පින් අරන් එන මිනිස්සු ලෝකයේ අඩුයි. මොනවදෝ හැංගිච්ච මහා පිනක්  ඔබ තුමා ළග  ඇති.” යැයි ද උන්වහන්සේ ප්‍රකාශ කළහ.

දොළොස් වසරකට පෙර යුද්ධය අවසන් කිරීමට හැකිවූවා සේ මෙම වසංගතයට පිළියමක් දෙන්නැයි අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමාගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටි නාහිමියෝ මෙරටින් මෙම වසංගතය අවසන් කරන්නට මුළු රටක් එකමුතුව ඒ ගැන සිතමින් එකමුතුව නැගී සිටිය යුතු බව සිය ධර්ම දේශනාව ඔස්සේ පෙන්වා දුන්හ.

වෛරය, ක්‍රෝධය, ඊර්ෂියාව තුරන් කරගෙන ජීවත්විය යුතු බව පෙන්වා දුන් මහ නාහිමියෝ වසංගත තත්ත්වය තමන්ගෙ දරුවගෙ මරණයට මල්මිටක් තැබීමටවත් අවසර නොමැති තැනකට පත්කිරීමෙන් පෙන්වා දෙන්නේ මේ ලෝකය මායාවක් මිරිඟුවක් බව යැයි දේශනා කළහ.

සෞඛ්‍ය මාර්ගෝපදේශයන්ට යටත්ව පැවති අමාදම් සිසිලස” 210 ධර්ම දේශනාවට අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා ප්‍රමුඛ අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ආර්යා ශිරන්ති රාජපක්ෂ මහත්මිය, රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය අජිත් නිවාඩ් කබ්රාල් මහතා සහ පවුලේ සාමාජිකයෝ කිහිපදෙනෙක් එක්ව සිටියහ.

A5 Channel SriLanka

By Lihini Ratwatte Courtesy The Diplomat

The first woman to be appointed as a deputy inspector general of police was removed from office just six months later.

It was a moment worthy of celebration for women in Sri Lanka when Bimshani Jasin Arachchi was appointed as Sri Lanka’s first female deputy inspector general of police (DIG) in October, 2020. This victory was short-lived, however. Six months later Jasin Arachchi was removed from her duties by a three-bench panel of the Supreme Court of Justice.

This decision followed the filing of a fundamental rights petition by 33 male senior superintendents of police (SSPs), stating that the appointment of Bimshani Jasin Arachchi as the first woman DIG violated the standard procedures followed in the promotion of senior police officers. The petitioners claim that Jasin Arachchi’s appointment was irregular as the provisions that allow for the appointment of DIGs do not include the word woman.”

Speaking to the local press, Jasin Arachchi stated:

Many hold a false belief that women are incapable of succeeding to […] higher ranks of the police because we are unable to do what is perceived to be ‘male’ work…

My expectation on behalf of all women is that we get a fair opportunity to prove our worth. The same selection criteria, training standards and promotions should be applicable to women as those applicable to male counterparts. It is about time this country brings a change in the society. Regardless of the sector, women should not be deprived of earning [the] recognition they deserve.

Like her female colleagues, Jasin Arachchi was no stranger to strife in her ascent to higher ranks within the Sri Lanka police force. She had to fight when securing her promotion as an assistant superintendent of police (ASP) through a fundamental rights application in 2008.

In a guest column for the Daily Financial Times, Prabodhini Munasinghe Wickrematunga explains that due to the differentiation of male and female police cadres, women are only able to progress in their careers within the structure provided for the female cadres. Only a limited number of posts are allocated for higher ranks of women officers and if these female vacancies” are already filled, women have no option to apply for other vacancies arising in the same rank that are reserved for male officers.

Archives from the Sri Lanka Police note that in 2020, eight SSP positions were allocated for female officers while 162 positions were dedicated for male officers. Once these eight positions are filled, a woman is unable to apply for a vacancy arising in the remaining 162 SSP positions reserved for male cadres, even if she were equally or more qualified. This is further compounded by the fact that female officers’ career progression in the police force stops at the title of SSP, while male officers can continue to ascend the career ladder to ranks such as DIG, senior deputy inspector general (senior DIG), and inspector general of police (IGP) – the highest-ranking position within the police force.

This is symptomatic of systemic discrimination underpinned by strong patriarchal notions that diminish the abilities of women as officers in the police force. It is also a residual effect of women being accepted into the police only in 1952, 86 years after the establishment of the police force in Sri Lanka, which by then was a male-centric institution. Adding to this, Jasin Arachchi was appointed as the first female DIG 68 years after the establishment of the female police cadre, only to be stripped from her title a mere six months later. It comes as no surprise that the female cadre position had been created with the underlying motive of maintaining the balance of power in favor of men.ADVERTISEMENT

Such norms that govern the Sri Lanka police force are in direct violation of Article 12 (2) of the Constitution of Sri Lanka, which stipulates that No citizen shall be discriminated against on the grounds of race, religion, language, caste, sex, political opinion, place of birth or any such ground.”

Female police officers are at a huge disadvantage, as the vastly unequal allotment of high-ranking cadre positions allows junior male officers to rise above senior women. Due to the prevailing norm that a woman can only rise within the female cadre positions, they cannot apply for promotions to the ranks of DIG, senior DIG and IGP. The police force does not recognize qualified women officers to hold any rank in the simply as police officers, but instead, limit their career progression through disproportionate allocations made for female cadres. This also explains why the fundamental rights petition by the 33 male SSPs calls for the word woman” to be included in promotion regulations.

The key takeaway here is that the appointment of Bimshani Jasin Arachchi should not have been done through this problematic existing structure, which does not accept women as high-ranking officers. Instead, as described by Wickrematunga in her article, the existing regulations on promotions should be amended to facilitate both men and women on an equal playing field, by allowing male and female officers to apply for the same positions through merit-based criteria. Alternatively, the structure of the existing cadres could be revised to accommodate sufficient allocations by gazetting senior ranks within the female cadre allocation to be on par with those ranks within the male cadre.

Referring to the female cadres as an ornamental police force,” veteran journalist Namini Wijedasa underlines that none of the existing women SSPs is heading any special divisions, while no female chief inspector or inspector has been made officer-in-charge of a police station – an indication that the female cadre designation still limits women’s career trajectory in the police force so that men have more opportunities, less competition, and easier access to senior positions. Wijedasa reiterates that to date, there has been no significant effort to reorganize the existing hierarchies and institutional structures of the police.

Jasin Arachchi’s case has brought these irregularities and discriminatory practices to light. It caused an uproar in urban areas of Sri Lanka and has been condemned via a public statement issued by the National Forum Against Gender-Based Violence – a collective of 53 agencies representing the government, United Nations, national and international nongovernmental organizations, community-based organizations, and individual experts in the field.

In response, a recent communiqué issued by the police spokesperson stated that Jasin Arachchi will be reappointed as a DIG, although there has been no written confirmation to date. This speaks to a conundrum now faced by the Sri Lankan police on how to retain a qualified female DIG within the existing institutional mechanism, while accommodating other senior women police officers that remain stagnated at the SSP level.

More often than not, there is a definite lack of accountability sprinkled with denial when perusing the subject of women’s access to and opportunities for leadership. For instance, when questioned on Sri Lanka’s limited female representation in leadership, political commentators are quick to respond that the country has witnessed the leadership of a woman prime minister (also the world’s first woman PM), and a woman president, without really addressing the core issues that prohibit women from shattering that glass ceiling. What commentators conveniently forget to mention is that both former Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike and former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga came from the same family with deep-seated political roots. Both women also garnered the sympathy vote to some extent, having run for office after their spouses were assassinated while leading active political lives. Therefore, their success cannot be applied to the average woman aspiring to enter Sri Lanka’s political arena, as witnessed in the abysmally low percentage of women legislators in Sri Lanka’s present parliament (only 5.3 percent women legislators, or 12 out of a total 225 legislators).

Sri Lanka should take a clear look at amending archaic systems and structures that discriminate against women aspiring for power, not only in the police force, but also in other sectors such as subnational and national government, the tri-forces, the private sector, etc. As a country healing from a 30-year civil conflict, it is essential that these underlying discriminatory practices be addressed in a systemic and structural manner in order to productively engage half of the country’s population – i.e. women – in sustainable peacebuilding and development processes, with ample opportunities for meaningful leadership.AUTHORS

GUEST AUTHOR

Lihini Ratwatte

Lihini Ratwatte is a development practitioner based in Sri Lanka. She has a BA in International Studies, Communications and Gender Studies from Monash University; and a MA in Global Diplomacy from SOAS – University of London. Ratwatte writes on the nexus of gender, development, peacebuilding and security in the Asia-Pacific region. The opinions expressed in this article are her own and do not represent the views of any affiliated organization.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

While wishing the members of the Venerable Maha Sangha and the Buddhist public, a blessed Vesak celebration, Archbishop of Colombo His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith said that in these troubled times, when Covid-19 is afflicting our nation, it is important for us to think about our life options in the light of the teachings of the Lord Buddha.

In his Vesak message, the Cardinal said it was also important to live a life based on the spiritual principles of self- negation and dedication to the wellbeing of one another.

The full message:

On the occasion of the celebration of the threefold festivities of the Birth, Enlightment and the Death of the Lord Buddha, I write to express our most sincere and fraternal greetings to the Most Rev. Mahanayake Theros and the members of the Sangha as well as to all our Buddhist brothers and sisters in Sri Lanka.

The Lord Buddha who, troubled by the immense suffering his fellow human beings were seen to be facing, left all the comforts of his royal upbringing and engaged in a search for personal liberation from that suffering. After following several ways of searching for a meaning to life, he found it in the understanding of greed as the cause of all suffering, its true nature and the path to freedom, which leads one to Nirvana, a total state of bliss.

His preaching led to the acceptance of this path to emancipation by millions of human beings the world over. The Lord Buddha’s teaching has also been the foundational source of Sri Lanka’s culture and religiosity. It has influenced us too and continues to shape our national identity.

In these troubled times, when Covid-19 is afflicting our nation in a significant manner, it is important for us to think about our life options in the light of the teachings of the Lord Buddha and live a life based on the spiritual principles of self- negation and dedication to the wellbeing of one another.

I wish all our beloved fellow citizens, specifically the members of the Venerable Maha Sangha and the Buddhist public, a blessed Vesak celebration.

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 death toll saw an uptick today (May 26) as Director-General of Health Services confirmed 29 more victims. 

The latest fatalities have moved the country’s death toll to 1,298, according to official data.

Two of the deaths took place on May 26 and the remaining victims have succumbed to the virus infection between the period of May 20 – May 25, the Department of Government Information stated.

The deceased were identified as residents of Kalutara, Haliela, Mawathagama, Kurunegala, Galgamuwa, Minuwangoda, Maspotha, Kekunagolla, Polgahawela, Anguruwathota, Gonapola, Bulathsinhala, Nainamadama, Hapugasthalawa, Nawalapitiya, Raththota, Koswatta, Malwana, Mattakkuliya, Nawalapitiya, Colombo 14, Colombo 15, Valachchenai and Katuneriya areas.

The youngest among the latest victims was identified as a 20-year-old female who died of cardio pulmonary arrest followed by hypoxia and exacerbated by cardio pulmonary abnormalities and COVID-19 respiratory tract infection.

COVID-19 Deaths Confirmed on 2021-05-26 by Adaderana Online on Scribd

Courtesy Adaderana

Daily COVID-19 cases count moved to 2,325 on Wednesday (May 26) as 744 more people were tested positive for the virus in Sri Lanka.

The new development brings the total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus reported in the country to 172,275.

Courtesy Adaderana

Acting Solicitor General Sanjay Rajaratnam has been sworn in before President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, as the 48th Attorney General of Sri Lanka.

The new Attorney General took oaths at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo this evening (May 26), the President’s Media Division (PMD) said.

Rajaratnam, who served the Attorney General’s Department for the past 34 years, has held the posts of Senior State Counsel, Deputy Solicitor General, Additional Solicitor General and Senior Additional Solicitor General before being appointed as the Acting Solicitor General in 2019.

Educated at St. Peter’s College and Royal College in Colombo, Rajaratnam holds a Master of Laws from the Queen Mary University of London. He is also a Solicitor of England and Wales.

Rajaratnam was sworn in as a President’s Counsel in 2014, before then-President, PM Mahinda Rajapaksa.

With an extensive experience in civil law and criminal law, Rajaratnam has appeared in several notable cases as well.

Rajaratnam also served at the consultant of Financial Intelligence Unit of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL). He is a member of Law Commission of Sri Lanka and the Council of Legal Education.

Courtesy Adaderana

Sinovac, China’s other front-runner COVID-19 vaccine, will be manufactured in Sri Lanka, says State Minister of Production, Supply and Regulation of Pharmaceuticals Prof. Channa Jayasumana.

Developed by Beijing-based biopharmaceutical company ‘Sinovac’, the vaccine is officially named CoronaVac. It uses inactivated viral particles to create an immune response.

The Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka has confirmed that the government of China will sponsor the process, the State Minister said further. Several rounds of discussions we have held in this regard have been fruitful. We expect to manufacture the Sinovac vaccine in our country within the next two months, as a joint venture between the Sri Lankan and Chinese governments.”

Prof. Jayasumana said preliminary preparations on the process are currently under way at a factory in Kundasale.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka today (May 26) received the second batch of Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine donated by the government of China. SriLankan Airlines flight UL-869 carrying 500,000 doses of vaccines had departed from Beijing on Tuesday and touched down at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) in Katunayake early this morning.

The Chinese Ambassador officially handed over the vaccine consignment to Minister of Health Pavithra Wanniarachchi at the BIA.

State Minister Jayasumana, who joined the event, revealed that Sri Lanka is expecting 2 million more Sinopharm jabs within the next month as part of a purchase order placed by the State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC).

By Rathna Kulathunga

Toronto – May 25, 2021. Bill 104: Tamil Genocide Education Week Act was passed in Ontario without fact checking and amid a huge line-up of deputation requests to the Clerk of the committee by thousands of concerned Sri Lankans of Canadian Origin. This Bill was released to the 3rd reading without modification on the 5th of April and passed without debate from the Ontario legislature on the 6th of May in an unprecedented move by the Ontario Conservatives purely intended to pacify electoral votes for the upcoming election.

The 2nd para of the new Law that praises Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as freedom fighters and GoSL as perpetrators, states:

Genocide is the deliberate and organized killing of a group or groups of people, with the intention of destroying their identity as an ethnic, cultural or religious group. Acts of genocide against the Tamils started in 1948 after Sri Lanka gained its independence and were perpetrated through Sinhala-Buddhist centric government policies, pogroms, land grabs and ethnic cleansing. 

The bill does not contain any text that the GoSL have a right to defend its citizens just as much Canadian forces would defend Canadians in the sight of brutal terrorists. Many United nations reports highlight LTTE Tamil Terrorists’ use of suicide squads and child soldiers to bring terror to all parts of Sri Lanka. 

Buddhist monks have been a constant target of the LTTE. One such instance was the Aranthalawa massacre of 33 Buddhist monks, most of them young novice monks, and four civilians by cadres of LTTE Tamil Tigers on June 2, 1987, close to the village of Aranthalawa, in the Ampara District of Eastern Sri Lanka. In recent news Buddhist monks were also the target of pro-ltte elements. 

The inference of Buddhists to be behind violence, is against the 5 Precepts of Buddhism to help people behave in a moral and ethical way.

My child learns about how Buddhists caused violence and then goes to Dhamma school to learn five precepts” claimed one parent who wished to remained anonymous.Since the scope of the Bill is Education, which is a provincial jurisdiction, all Ontario schools are now in scope to receive materials in-line of this hate speech and radicalization.

Buddhism has one of the largest following in the world with around 535 million people with China having the largest following with around 244.1 million, while Cambodia has the largest per country following of around 96.9% of population. Sri Lanka has a Buddhist population of around 70.2%.

There are political and court avenues to repeal the bill that is causing much embarrassment to those who supported it openly. An MPP can present a motion to repeal the Bill which then have to be passed from the house. With the current money power of pro-LTTE diaspora, it is unlikely that the politicians will turn an eye on the facts, as they are focused on re-election.

The other method is to bring the fight to court and let justice prevail. Spokesman for Sri Lankan Canadian Action Coalition(SLCAC) stated that a legal fund to collect funds to fight this Bill in court was launched as the armed conflict was never accepted by the Federal government or the United Nations along with a list of impingements in provincial and federal acts by Bill 104. He stated the trajectory of the case ending up at Supreme court raises more pressure on fundraising. Currently SLCAC is seeking support from businesses and people from around the world to donate to the GoFundMe campaign to help fight the Bill 104 in court.

More information on Bill 104 can be found at:
www.OntarioBill104.ca GoFundMe Link:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/legal-fund-for-fighting-against-bill-104

Sarath Wijesinghe President’s Counsel, former Ambassador to UAE and Israel, President Ambassador’s Forum

Unseen, unknown, uncontrolled ferocious virus in action

The above statement by H E the President is so important and crucial when the country and the world is going through a most difficult patch in the annuals of history on health crisis when some parts of the world ‘Human’ are dying at an unprecedented rate. President’s statement should be properly understood and interpreted as coming from a person struggling with other world leaders to save the lives of the people dying of the unknown, unseen, uncontrolled virus spreading freely unconcerned and with freedom to spread due to the careless making of the human by default. Indeed there is a duty by all citizens, including professionals, journalists, politicians including governance and the opposition with critics and all concerned citizens to know their limits duties and parameters until the end of the difficult period we bound to achieve one day to come sooner or later based on our own acts and behaviour. Still, we are not disciplined and not behaving properly. President needs help from every segment of the society to win the war on the dreadful virus spreading fast. Whilst one group is making all attempts to control the pandemic and the impact on the human race, some attempt to take advantage of the situation for personal political and professional uplift with the most selfish motives. Undoubtedly the success of the major pandemic depends on the joint efforts and operations in the most organized and scientific methods for the end to be a success story-the ambitions of the majority and one wonders whether some have different views with different agendas. We were successful in the first wave, but messed up in two and three by our own making with the number of deaths and countless and unimaginable disastrous consequences to the community fearing of invasion of a wave similar to India, and the President is trying the best with the group led by the political front and the able Army Commander struggling hard with his team seeking a vision for the campaign and it seems a vision is insight learning from previous mistakes In this most serious and ferocious pandemic situation.  The assistance of the opposition and independent activist including the media is an essential component reminding of the contributions made by the traditional left opposition during the post war malaria and smallpox situations, when the modern leftists and opposition is making irresponsible statements with no constructive propositions, directions or guidelines to see an end to the agony which is brewing so rapidly spreading the third wave faster than expected. Media being the fourth pillar of democracy, has to be careful when there is a national and international calamity on pandemic situations citizens dying in India and many parts on the road and in front of hospitals which we witness on television images with crying eyes and helplessness and sadness cursing the cruel virus spreading fast. This is the time the media should act and react with a sense of responsibility, avoiding exaggerations, misrepresentations, and misreporting for personal and professional gains breaking the accepted norms and policies of journalism, a noble profession the journalists are engaged in. Having witnessed carefully, we find the most journalists and some professionals are doubtful whether genuine and straight forward to speak the truth to the world and the President may justified his contention and it is time for them to change the stunt and themselves being independent professionals answerable to the people and not to the President. In the resolution of the crisis, the help of the journalist and the professionals are imperative and it is time they change themselves in the side of the country. The world is helpless to help others, when many parts of the hemisphere have not received a single dose of vaccine. Are we not fortunate in that sense being helped to a certain extent despite our foreign policy and relations are not in the expected standard? The unseen and uncontrolled virus is flourishing, attacking the world over. Today our death toll is 600 and in India 300,000. It is indeed worrying.

Not satisfied with the way pandemic is fought but it is not the time to change governance-‘give a chance’

We are not satisfied at all on the way the pandemic is fought, and many steps taken by governance. But this is not the time to change governance or resist the efforts by the professional and the dedicated health group wanting a vision and scientific directions, as in Israel and the United Kingdom successful today in combating the menace with minimum deaths and the pandemic arrested. Fortunately, Army and forces are doing an excellent job with no proper vision but following instructions to the last word. We come across irresponsible voice cuts, statements, and advice by pseudo scientists, and officers with conflicting and different views enjoying taking to media like parrots criticizing and finding fault of any for publicity which is dangerous and misleading. President’s statement above is prompted by a statement made by some groups after having met the President at a crucial meeting giving conflicting view to the media outside, proposing lock downs and other steps. Groups and professionals must speak with one word –voice and should be responsible to the nation at this difficult hour of danger. This applies to media, who should be more careful and responsible in their dealings with the dangerous Covid 19 and other situations at this difficult hour. Honestly, GMOA, OPA, BASL, and other professional organization we had utmost faith has let us down as mere hollow talk shops like to give voice cuts only. We presume it is time for the President to take over rains without giving instructions and getting things done via Army doing an excellent job in complying orders with no proper vision and long-term scientific and planned strategy. Please learn from our mistakes and the success stories of our dear friends.

Current situation

The current situation is not satisfactory with 44 deaths, 4000 new cases, 1133 deaths all so far, 2959 positive cases missing and 30% unable to find the origins, which is alarming with rough calculations and 10.000 hidden unknown somewhere is a dangerous situation but a reality to bear and take notice of, with forecast of deaths of 100 a day and one million cases soon if the situation continues, which is frightening with 88000 detections in western province alone. No doubt the situation has to be controlled and put to an end without the loss of further losses of further human beings. Let us learn from our mistakes and other countries that succeeded in the fight against the pandemic. Let us take two countries known and close to us partially victorious such as Israel and the United Kingdom, where the death toll have and the pandemic situation have been highest and now under control. Sri Lanka is hesitant to go for a full lockdown for obvious reasons understood as the country is obviously unable to withstand the consequences. This is the time the Unions, active and professional groups should come forward, learning from the two examples we have shown proven the success story. We are so worried and angry on the dead silence of the professional organizations such as OPA, BASL, other professional bodies, leading Fat Cat companies forcing 400% profits, and super rich with enormous undeclared wealth not realizing they must have a country to earn and enjoy more if they wish to in future. Israel, with 839308 cases, and 6397 deaths in January 2021 is zero deaths, and UK, with 4460446 and 127716 deaths on 21-may, have no new cases or deaths. These are not miracles. It is hard scientific and systemic explorations we should a follow, and to adopt our own methods with variants according to our environment. It is time for the country to be on a war footing like until the issue is completely resolved consolidating efforts harnessing the efforts of all in one direction, with professional and scientific methods. The situation around us is fast brewing for the worst. Nepal,(8%V) Bangladesh,(2%V) India,(7%V) Malaysia, and Thailand are in trouble without proper and sufficient vaccinations when only 7% Indian population is vaccinated, and there is a 1000% rise of the infections in Sri Lanka indicating the dangerous situation in the region when the virus do not travel and transmitted via carrier showing the need to be careful and take precautions ever increasing countrywide and worldwide. Our close friend the Minister Health may be tired and exhausted and it is advisable it to be given to a more professional and strategist – the outspoken Dr Sudarshani Fernandopulle with a little bit of freedom. We are not in a part of the governance nor holding any position/s, but concerned professionals love the country equal to our life.

Towards a resolution

Resolution is possible if and when the proper and scientific methods are applied listening to the genuine educated and experienced professionals. It is time to revisit the foreign policy and relations with the world when we are depending mostly on China always prepared to help us as a good friend even though our policy is otherwise. Sri Lankan Prime Minister has had discussions with the Chinese ‘’Ambassador Qi Zhenhong’’ who has agreed to donate 500,000 doses of ‘’Sinopharm’’ which is great as the success of Israel has been the vaccines and taking additional measures simultaneously. Other measures are their innovations they are experts on. Initially the death toll was high as they live long up to 100 average pruned to be victims of Covid 19 easily. Years Therefore it is advisable to concentrate on vaccinations initially and go back to basics which is easy to practice when Lock down is difficult – but a necessity under the circumstances. Now that the state has decided to go through the difficult process of lock down instead of the slow process at the cost of economic downtown, which the country may not be able to bear. Government must take steps to extract funds from the extra rich and ‘’Fat Cat’’ companies to feed the poor with daily wages, and the agriculture sector and definitely there will be no opposition from the public. The attack on Virus must come from all sides. We must reactivate our friendships with the world through the inactive and inefficient network of Ambassadors most whom are not pushy and up to standard to deliver goods to the nation, by activating them and get the support for more and more vaccines as examples have proved that the vaccines are working. We do not think the vaccine programme launched have been successful sufficient effectual and efficient at all. It has not been done well, scientifically on time and it should have been given to a person of the calibre of Dr Gunasena who appears to be doing an excellent job or Professor Tissa Witharana – a world renowned scientist in this area. President appear to an honest hardworking personality lacking a vision for the war on Covid 19 in the absence of proper and genuine advisors and I wish he reads articles of this nature written genuinely and impartially expecting no benefits. We believe he spends more and more on Covid until full eradiation which is possible if cards are played well. We also appreciate the efforts made by the Prime Minister with seen and unforeseen constraints, in trying to find funds from Chinese Government that has given a positive response by giving 500,000 doses of ‘Sinopharm’ and substantial loans on low interests, indicating the foreign relations play a pivot role in the process of resolution of the pandemic crisis when many countries are without any assistance and vaccination in sight. Vaccination programme should have been given to Professor Tissa Witharana and Dr Sudarshani Fernandopulle to manage as she speaks sense and acting professionally. It is still not too late to make changes. There are promises to give us more vaccines the we must get the full use of the drugs as it has been proved vaccine is a way out leering forum Israel and United Kingdom.

Can we win the war?

Why not? Israel and UK has won by being innovative, scientist, and methodical and why not we succeed in the war by following them while our own techniques. We need funds to withstand lock downs and purchase vaccines. It is a good idea to make our own vaccine with the help go China or Russia and give the responsibility a person such as Professor ‘’Tissa Vitharana’’ world reputed scientist on the subject. Israel is a friendly country of ours became a world power and leaders on water, innovations, agriculture with a close friendship with us with the nation’s inception 73 years ago. Two Prime Ministers met each other in Israel ( when the writer was then Ambassador) on Sri Lankan Prime Minister’s visit cementing existing relationships is a good foundation to exchange knowledge and experiences of the leading innovators, for us to win the war on Covid 19 until full eradication. The initial death toll of Israel and the UK have been extremely high with almost zero today due to their hard work, scientific approach and the proper strategy. It is time to mend fences with our traditional friend the UK to seek assistance main on professional assistance advice and directions based on their success. The writer happens to be in the UK these days being quarantined at home, experiencing excellent treatment to the citizen with utmost care and professionalism. The testing kit is sent home by post, and every now and then health workers telephone you with advice, assistance and help in kind if necessary. Your GP is constantly in touch and the citizen is well looked after. Test kits are made in India as a household item and there is no reason why we do not follow suit as this may go on for some time. We are very sorry that the leader of the opposition and spouse has contracted the deadly virus, fortunately in a mild form, which is not a good example to others who should be careful and vigilant. We wish them and colleagues full recovery urging the leaders of the country to be careful to help others requesting them to be more responsible in making statements and giving voice cuts to media on Cvid19 setting an example to media. In short, this is a winnable war if we play the cards well, act carefully and professionally harnessing all energy and efforts, leaving aside the political and all other differences, for the betterment of the nation and the citizen in need of our help, strength and guidance. Sarath7@hotmail.co.uk

මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

ලංකාවට නිදහස ලබන විට රත්තරන් පවුමත් වී බුසලත් එකම මිලක් නොහොත් රුපියල් විස්සකට තිබුණි යැයි කතාවක් තිබේ.හැටේ දශකය වන විට එම මිල රුපියල් දෙසීයකට නැග තිබුණි.2000 වර්ෂය පමණ වන විට රුපියල් 2000 ආසන්නයේ තිබුණි යැයි දැන ගන්නට ඇත.අද වන විට වීබුසලක මිල රුපියල් දෙසිය දහයකි. රන්පවුමක මිල රුපියල් එක්ලක්ෂ අටදාහකි.මෙය සිදු වූයේ කෙලෙසකද .ඒ පිළිබඳ මනා විශ්ලේෂණයක් කෙරී තිබේද.සැබවින්ම ස්වදේශික දේශපාලකයන් විසින් භාරගත් රට දීර්ඝ අරගලයකින් පසුව 1972 දී පූර්ණ නිදහසක් අත්පත් කර ගත්තේය.පූරණ නිදහසක් නම් ආර්ථික නිදහසත් ඇතුලත් විය යුතුය .ඒ සඳහා යම් උත්සාහයක් සිරිමා මැතිණිය විසින් ගන්නා ලද නමුත් 70 -77 කාලයේ දී ආණ්ඩුව තුළ ඇතිවූ අර්බුදයන් නිසා ඒ වෑයම සාර්ථක කර ගැනීමට නොහැකි විය

.එහි අවසාන ප්‍රතිපලය වූයේ ජයවර්ධන රජය විශාල චන්ද පදනමකින් බලයට පත් වීමයි..ඉන්පසු විවෘත ආර්ථික සංකල්ප මගින් රට පාරාදීසයක් කිරීමට දොරටුවක් විවෘත වී යැයි පාරම්බාන ලදහ.අවසානයේදී සිදු වූයේ ලංකාවේ මූල්‍ය ඒකකය විශාල වශයෙන් පරිහානියට පත් වීම ඇරඹීමයි 1978 දී මහ කොළඹ ආර්ථික කොමිසම පිහිටුවා රට විශාල ආර්ථික පිම්මක් පැන්නීමට ගත් උත්සාහය බලාපොරොත්තු වූ තරම් සාර්ථක නුවුණු බව අද අපට තේරුම් යා යුතුය. සිරිමා මැතිණියගේ ආර්ථික මොඩලය වූයේ ස්වයංපෝෂිත බව තුළින් සමෘද්ධියයි. එහෙත් 1977 සිට ස්වයංපෝෂී රාජ්‍යය විසින් ගොඩනගාගෙන තිබූ රාජ්‍ය සම්පත් ප්‍රමාණයක් කුණු කොල්ලයට විකුණා දමන ලදහ. අවසානයේ සිදු වූයේ හැකි තරම් ආනයනය කරමින් අපනයනයට වැඩි මුදල් ප්‍රමාණයක් ලබා ගැනීමට රුපියල බාල්දු කරමින් ගත කළ කාල පරිඡේදයයි. 1980 -2000 කාල වකවානුව තුළ ඇති වූ කොටි ත්‍රස්ත මෙහෙයුම නිසා ඇති වූ ආර්ථික පරිහානියද දේශපාලන අස්ථාවරත්වයද   සුලු පටු නොවේ.සිරිමා මැතිණියගෙන් පසු බිහිවූ සෑම පාලකෙයෙකුම විදෙස් ආයෝජන පතා ලොව පුරා හිඟා ගියහ.ලැබුණු ණය කන්දරාවට හිලවු වශයෙන් රටේ සම්පත්ද ප්‍රතිපත්තිද පාවා දෙන්නට සිදු විය. විදෙස් ආයෝජන සමග බිහිවූ කොමිස් කුට්ටි සහ අල්ලස් නිසා පාදඩ ධනපති පන්තියක ආරම්භයක් ඇති විය. ඔවුහු දේශපාලනයටද පිවිසියහ.

 රටේ අහිංසක ජනතාව යම් නිෂ්පාදනයක් කර්මාන්තයක් හෝ වෙළෙඳාමක් කරමින්  හම්බ කරන මුදලින් රජයට අය විය යුතු බදු මුදල අය වැය පියවීමට ප්‍රමාණවත් නැත. අය වැය හිඟය පියවීමට තවත් ණය වීම සෑම අවස්ථාවකදීම සිදු වෙයි. ලංකාව සහලින් සවයංපෝෂිත රටකි. නමුත් තවමත් තිරිඟු පිටි මෙට්රික් ටොන් 15000 පමණ ලංකාවට ගෙන්වති. වියදම ඩොලර් මිලියන 385ක් පමණ වේ. ඒක පුද්ගල තිරිඟු පිටි පරිභෝජනය කිලෝ 65 ක් දක්වා වැඩි වී තිබේ. රටේ සමස්ත ආහාර ආනයන වියදම ඩොලර් මිලියන එක්දහස් පන්සිය පනහකි..තිරිඟු පිටි සීනි පරිප්පු  සහ අනෙකුත් ආහාර එයට ඇතුලත් වේ.සැබවින්ම අප ණය ලබා  ලබාගන්නේ රටේ නිපදවිය හැකි දේ ආනයනය කර ගැන්මටයි.රටේ වී නිෂ්පාදනයට මිලක් ලබා දෙන්නේ නැති බව ද රුපියලේ අගය වැඩි කර ගැනීමට එය කිසිසේත්ම ප්‍ර යෝජනවත් නොවන බවද ඒත්තු ගන්වා තිබේ. එවැනි මගඩි ආර්ථිකයක් තිබෙන රටකට ආයෝජන කොතෙක් පැමිණියද වැඩක් නොවේ. හිල් කල ගෙඩිකට වතුර වක්කරන්නා මෙන්ය.

චීනා ලංකාව සමග ගනුදෙනු කිරීමේ ඉතිහාසය ක්‍රි.ව.පස්වන සියවස දක්වා ඈතට දිව යයි.ඔවුහු වැඩි වශයෙන්ම මෙරටට පැමිණෙන ලද්දේ ලංකාව සුපිරිසිඳු ථෙරවාද බෞද්ධ රටක් බැවිනි.ලංකාවේ නිෂ්පාදනය කල හරිත පාෂාණ(නිල්දණ්ඩාහීන්න) බුදු පිළීමයක් වරක් චීනයට තෑගි කොට යැවිණ.කෝට්ටේ යුගයේ දී චෙන්හෝ නම් සෙනවියෙකු ලංකාවේ පාණදුර වරායට පැමිණ මෙරට ආක්‍රමණික මුස්ලිම් වානිජයන් පළවා හැරියහ. රට මුස්ලිම් වීම වැලකුණි.අනතුරුව මුස්ලිම් අයට උදව් කළ රයිගම සිටි අලකේශ්වර රජුව අත් අඩංගුවට ගෙන චීනයට ගෙන ගියේය. අවසානයේ සයවන පරාක්‍රමබාහු රජ දවස දී චීනය සම දැඩි මිත්‍ර සම්බන්ධකමක් ගොඩනැගුණේ චීන අධිරාජ්‍ය සමග ගනුදෙනු කිරීම නිසයි. ඒ මගින් රටේ ආර්ථික සමෘද්ධිය ඇති විය.රජුගේ පුත්‍රයා දූත ගමනක් ගිය අවස්ථාවක චීන රජ කුමරියක් සමග විවාහ වුණු බවද  අද ඒ දරු පරපුර පවතීන බවද තොරතුරු වාර්තා වේ..එවැනි ඉතිහාසයක් ලංකාවත් චීනයත් අතර පවතී.   චීනයේ නිෂ්පාදිත පිඟන් දහනව වන සියවසේ දී පමණ ලංකාවට ලැබුණි.ඒ එංගලන්තය හරහාය.ඒ නිසාම චීන මුදල්ද මෙහි සංසරණය විය.චීනාට අවශ්‍ය වූයේ ලංකාව ස්වකීය වෙළඳ පළක් බවට පත් කර ගැනීමයි.නමුත් බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය පාලනය යටතේ සිටි බැවින් ඉන් එපිට ගනුදෙනුවක් සිදු නොවීය.චීනයේ සංස්කෘතික විප්ලවයෙන් පසු චීන සාම්ප්‍රදායික සිතුවිලි බැහැර වන්නට වූ බව නොරහසකි. කොමියුනිස්ට් පාලනයත් නිළධාරිවාදයත් නිසා චීනවැසියන් සංස්කාතික බැමි බිඳ හෙලා ඇමරිකානුවන් අනුගමනය කරමින් ලොව ධනවත් ව්‍යාපාරිකයන් බවට අද පත් වී තිබේ.මෙරට සිටින ඇතැම් ජාතිකවාදීන් යයි කියා ගන්නා මාකස්වාදී පිරිස් චීනා පැමිණීම අගය කරන්නේ චීන කොමියුනිස්ට් බලපෑම මගින් ලංකාවේ ජාතිකත්වය දියකර හැරීමට අවස්තාවක් ලැබෙන බැවිනි.

    කොළඹ වරාය අතීතයේ දී මෙන්ම අදත් ආක්‍රමණිකයන් ගේ තිප්පලකි.ගෙරිහම්කඩක ප්‍රමාණයෙන් වූ භූමියක් පෘතුගීසින්ට දීම නිසා කෝට්ටේ රජුට සදාකාලික ප්‍රශ්ණයකට මුහුණ දීමට සිදු විය.නමුත් පරංගින් ගේ පැමිණීමත් සමග මුස්ලිම් ආක්‍රමණ අවම වූ බවද සිහිපත් කළ මනාය. කොළඹ වරායට නුදුරින් වරාය නගරයක් මුල් වරට යෝජනා වූයේ 2002 රීගේනින් ශ්‍රී ලංකා ව්‍යාපෘතිය යටතේය. පසුව රනිල් ගේ ආණ්ඩුවේ අදහස මහින්ද රජපක්ෂ ණයට ගත්තේය.ඒ ඔහු නිතරම රනිල්ව අනුගමනය කල බැවිනි.චීනයේ නව සේද මාර්ගය ට මෙම වරාය නගර ව්‍යාපෘතිය   ගලප්පා ව්‍යාපාර ගනුදෙනුවක් කිරීමට මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ පොළඹවන ලද්දේ ඔහුගේ ආර්ථික උපදේශකයන් විසිනි. මහා දැවැන්ත ව්‍යාපෘති කිරීමත් ශෝබනය ප්‍රදර්ශනය කිරීමත් එම ව්‍යාපෘති වලින් කොමිස් ගැසීමත් මහින්ද වටා සිටි හොරු රැලට නැතිවම බැරිය.නෙලුම්කුළුණක් අටවා ගත්තේ මේ සඳහාය.කිසිම පරිසර අගැයීමක් නොකළ වරාය ව්‍යාපෘතිය දේශපාලන හයියෙන් ඉදිරියට පැමිණුනි. වරාය බිම්කඩ වැලි මගින් පිරෙව්වද මායිමට මෙන්ම ගොඩනැගිලි සෑදීමටද කලුගල් අවශ්‍ය වෙයි. කලුගල් ගෙනෙන්නේ කොන්ත්‍රාත්කරුවන් යයි ඇමතිවරයෙක් පවසා ඇත. නමුත් ගල් කඩන්නේ රට අභ්‍යන්තරයෙනි. දැනටමත් කලුතර දිස්ත්‍රික්කය තුළ ගල් කොරි රැසක්ම මේ සඳහා වෙන් කර ගෙන තිබේ.කඳුකර වැසි වනාන්තර බිහි කරන කඳු පන්ති බිමට සමතලා කිරීමෙන් පසු දිය උල්පත් හිඳෙන බව මේ කොන්ත්‍රාත්කරුවන් දන්නේ නැත. හොරණ තිබ්බටුගොඩ ගල් වල නිසා කුඹුරු වලට ජලය සපයන දිය කඳුරු දෙකක් සිඳී ගොස් තිබේ. වරාය නගරයෙන් එන අතුරු ප්‍රතිඵල මේවාය.

1977 සිට මේ දක්වා කරන ලද විදෙස් ආයෝජන ගත් කල්හි ඇමරිකන් ඩොලරයට සාපේක්ෂව රුපියල සම තත්වයක හෝ ආසන්න තත්වයක තිබෙන්නට අවශ්‍යය. නමුත් එසේ සිදු වූයේ නැත.භෞතික සංවර්ධනය වන අධිවේග මාර්ග තට්ටු ගොඩනැගිලි ජන සංනිවේදන පහසුකම් මෙන්ම විදුලිබල පහසුකම් දියුණු වී ඇත. එහෙත් අපගේ විදේශ සංචිත හිඳී ගොස් ඇත.උපයන දේ මිල කොට රුපියලේ අගය වැඩි කර ගැනීමෙට අපට හැකියාවක් නැත.එකම විසඳුම වී ඇත්තේ ණය ගැනීමෙන් ඩොලරය සමබර කර ගැනීමයි. ඉදිරියේ දී චීන හෝ ඇමරිකානු ආයෝජන මත ද එසේම වනවා හැර වෙන යමක් සිදු වන්නේද නැත. ඊට හේතුව චීනා මෙන්ම ඇමරිකානුවාද ලංකාවේ මේ දේශපාලන ඩීල් කරුවන් හෝරුන් බව දන්නා හෙයිනි.

මේ හොරු රැළ පෝෂණය කරමින් ඔවුන් සතු දේශපාලන බලයට හයියක් වෙමින් ඉදිරියට යනවා හැරෙන්නට වෙනත් යමක් අපට ඉතිරිවන්නේ නැත. ලෝකයේ රටවල් පණස් ගණනක මෙවැනි මූල්‍ය නගර තිබුණද ඒ සැම සාර්ථක වී තිබෙන්නේ දේශපාලන ස්ථාවරත්වය මගිනි.පක්ෂ දේශපාලනය විසින්ද දූෂිත ධනපති පන්තිය නිසාද බෙදුම්වාදය නිසාද වර්තමාන ලංකාව අස්ථාවර රටකි.මුස්ලිම් අන්තවාදය සහ ඇමරිකන් බලපෑම මේ ව්‍යාපෘතිය මගින් යම් තරමකට පාලනය කර ගැනීමට හැකිවන්නට පුළුවන.එහෙත් දෙවනි රාජසිංහයන් පරංගීන් විනාශ කර සිය හස්තය දිගු කරන ලද්දේ ලන්දේසීන් වෙතයි. ඉන් වැඩක් වූයේ නැත. අවසානයේ 1766 දී ලංකාවේ මුහුදුබඩ පළාත් වලින් ගව්වක ප්‍රමාණයක් ලන්දේසි කොම්පඤ්ඤයට ගිවිසුමකින් පවරා දීම සිදු විය.ඒ පැවති දේශපාලන අස්ථාවරත්වය නිසයි. වර්තමානයේ සිදු වන්නට ඉඩ තිබෙන්නේ ද එයයි. චීන කොම්පඤ්ඤයට අවශ්‍ය පරිදි රට නැටවීමත් තවත් පසෙකින් ඇමරිකන් ණය උගුල තීව්ර වීමත් තුළ කිසිම  ගැලවීමක් ජාතියට ලැබෙන්නේ නැත.

   ඒ මහා භෞතික සංවර්ධනය අගය කිරීම මෙන්ම ඉන්රස විඳීමට මෙරට මධ්‍යම  පන්තිය උත්සාහ දරනවා නිසැකය. ඒ අධිවේගී මාර්ගයේ ගමන් යන එනවා මෙන්ය. නමුත් රටේ සම්පත් වන ගහනය දිය උල්පත් මෙන්ම ස්වදේහිකයන්ගේ ඉඩම්ද ඔවුන් පැහැර ගන්නවා ඇත.ඉදිරියේ බිහි වන සැබෑ නායකයෙකුට පවා රට නිවැරදි දිශාවකට ගෙන යෑම මහත් අභියෝගයක් වනු ඇත.පවතින දේශපාලනය තුළ නැගී තිබෙන දූෂිත බල අධීකාරිත්වය චීන කොම්පඤ්ඤය සමග එක්ව ඇති කළ හැකි කුමන්ත්‍රණ කුමන ස්වරූපයක් ගන්නේ දැයි පවා පැහැදිලි කරලීමට හැකි වන්නේ නැත.

මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ  ශ්‍රී ලංකා ප්‍රජාත්‍රාන්ත්‍රික සමාජවාදී ජනරජයේ අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය 

සම්බුදුරජාණන් වහන්සේගේ උප්පත්තිය, බුද්ධත්වය සහ පරිනිර්වාණය සිහිගැන්වෙන වෙසක් මංගල්‍යය ලොව පුරා වෙසෙන බෞද්ධ සැමගේ උතුම්ම මංගල්‍යයයි.

බෞද්ධ උරුමයන්ගෙන් සුපෝෂිත ප්‍රෞඩ සංස්කෘතියකට උරුමකම් කියන ශ්‍රී ලාංකේය ජනතාව ලෝකවාසී බෞද්ධයන් සමඟ එක්ව මෙම උතුම් තෙමඟුල බැතියෙන් සමරති.

ආමිස හා ප්‍රතිපත්ති පුජාවන්ට මුල් තැන දෙමින් වෙනදා ඉමහත් හරසරින් සමරන වෙසක් මංගල්‍යය මෙවර සැමරීමට සිදුව ඇත්තේ ලොව පුරා පැතිරයන කොවිඩ් වසංගත තත්ත්වය හමුවේ ය.

ඒ නිසා බෞද්ධ දර්ශනයේ එන ඉගැන්වීම් ප්‍රායෝගිකව වටහා ගැනීමටත් බුදුන්වහන්සේ වඩාත් අගයකොට සැලකූ ප්‍රතිපත්ති පූජාවන්ට නැඹුරුවීමටත් මෙම කාලය වඩාත් යෝග්‍යය වේ.

බුදුරජාණන් වහන්සේ දේශනා කොට වදාළ ශ්‍රී සද්ධර්මය නිවැරදිව අවබෝධ කරගැනීම මෙවන් අභියෝගාත්මක කාලයකට මුහුණදී  ධර්මානුකූලව ජීවත්වීම සඳහා මනා පිටුබලයක් සපයයි.

උත්තරීතර බුදු දහම බෞද්ධයන්ට පමණක් නොව සමස්ත මිනිස් සංහතියටම උරුම වූවකි. එහෙයින් ඉතිහාසය පුරාවට ජාතික හා ආගමික සහජීවනය වැඩිදියුණුවීමට බුදු දහමෙන් අප ලැබූ හික්මීම මහඟු කොට බලපෑ අතර ශ්‍රී ලාංකේය ජාතියක් ලෙස ලොව හමුවේ අභිමානයෙන් නැගී සිටීමට ද එය ඉවහල් විය.

මෙවර ජාතික වෙසක් උත්සවය යාපනය නාගදීප රජ මහා විහාරය කේන්ද්‍ර කරගනිමින් උත්කර්ශවත්ව පැවැත්වීමට නියමිතව තිබුණ ද පවතින වසංගත තත්ත්වය ඊට බාධා පැමිණුවේය.

එසේ වුවද උතුම් වෙසක් දිනය අර්ථවත්ව සැමරීමට වසංගත තත්ත්වය බාධාවක් නොවන අතර ප්‍රතිපත්ති පූජාවන්ට මුල්තැන දී නිවසේ සිට බැති සිතින් උතුම් වෙසක් තෙමඟුල මෙවර  සමරන්නැයි සියලුම ශ්‍රී ලාංකේය බෞද්ධ ජනතාවගෙන් මම ඉල්ලා සිටිමි.

කොවිඩ් වසංගතය මුළු ලොවින්ම තුරන්වී සියලු ජනතාවට පෙර පරිදි නිරෝගීමත්ව ජීවත්වීමට හැකිවේවා ! යැයි මෙම උතුම් වෙසක් දිනයේ ඔබ කරන ප්‍රාර්ථනාවට බුද්ධශාසන, සංස්කෘතික හා ආගමික කටයුතු අමාත්‍යවරයා මෙන්ම අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා වශයෙන් මම ද එක්වෙමි.

සියලු ලෝ සතුනට ඉවසීම දයාව කරුණාව හා මෛත්‍රිය පිරි ශ්‍රී සුබ වෙසක් මංගල්‍යයක් වේවා !

මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ

ශ්‍රී ලංකා ප්‍රජාත්‍රාන්ත්‍රික සමාජවාදී ජනරජයේ

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

වෙසක් උත්සවය නිමිත්තෙන් හෙට (26) සහ අනිද්දා (27) දිවයින පුරා පිහිටි සියලුම සුරාසල් සහ මස් මාංශ අලෙවි සැල් වසා දමන්නැයි බුද්ධශාසන, ආගමික හා සංස්කෘතික කටයුතු අමාත්‍යවරයා වශයෙන් ගරු අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා නියෝග කර තිබේ.

ඒ අනුව 26 හා 27 දෙදින සියලුම සුරා සැල්,සතුන් මරණ ස්ථාන, මස් මාංශ අලෙවි සැල් වසා දැමිය යුතු අතර සුපිරි වෙළඳ සැල් ඔස්සේ මත්පැන් අලෙවිය මෙන්ම මස් මාංශ අලෙවි කිරීම නතර කරන්නැයි අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා දන්වා ඇත.

සංචරණ සීමා කාලයන්ට අදාළව දැනටමත් සුරා සැල් වසා තබන්නැයි රජය විසින් නියෝග කර තිබෙන අතර වෙසක් උත්සවයට සමඟාමීව හෙට සහ අනිද්දා මස් මාංශ අලෙවිය ද මුළුමනින්ම නවතා දැමිය යුතු බව අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා දන්වා සිටියි.

තරුණ හා ක්‍රීඩා අමාත්‍යංශය

ජාතික හා ජාත්‍යන්තර ජයග්‍රහණ අපේක්ෂාවෙන් ශ්‍රී ලංකාව තුළ කරාතේ සහ ටෙනිස් ක්‍රීඩා ඉහළ නැංවීම සඳහා අදාළ සංගම් සමග ගිවිස ගැනීම තරුණ හා ක්‍රීඩා අමාත්‍ය නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතා‌ගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් ඊයේ (24) පැවැත්විණි.

ඒ අනුව ශ්‍රී ලංකා කරාතේ දෝ සංගමය සමඟ තරුණ හා ක්‍රීඩා අමාත්‍යංශයේදීත් ටෙනිස් සංගමය සමග ශ්‍රී ලංකා ටෙනිස් සංගම් මූලස්ථානයේදීත් අදාළ ගිවිසුම්වලට එළැඹිණි.

මහේල ජයවර්ධන මහතාගේ සභාපතිත්වයෙන් යුතු ජාතික ක්‍රීඩා සභාව සහ උසස් දක්ෂතා කමිටුව විසින් ජාතික හා ජාත්‍යන්තර ජයග්‍රහණ ලබාගත හැකි බවට නිර්දේශ කරමින් ප්‍රමුඛත්වය දිය යුතු බවට නිර්දේශ කළ ක්‍රීඩාවන් 05 අතරට කරාතේ සහ ටෙනිස් ක්‍රීඩාව ද ඇතුළත්ය.

තරුණ හා ක්‍රීඩා අමාත්‍ය නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ උපදෙස් පරිදි එම ක්‍රීඩාවන්හි එක් අවුරුදු උසස් දක්ෂතා ක්‍රීඩා සංවර්ධන ව්‍යාපෘතියක් සඳහා  මෙම ගිවිසුම්ගතවීම හා මූල්‍ය ප්‍රදානයන් සිදුවිය.

කරාතේ ක්‍රීඩාවේ නිරත ක්‍රීඩක ක්‍රීඩිකාවන්ගේ දක්ෂතා වැඩිදියුණු කරමින් ඔවුන්ව දිරි ගැන්වීමේ අරමුණ ඇතිව රුපියල් 20,300,000/-ක මුදලක් ශ්‍රී ලංකා කරාතේ දෝ සංගමයටත් ටෙනිස් ක්‍රීඩාවේ ප්‍රවර්ධනයට රුපියල් 19,464,000/-ක මුදලක් ශ්‍රී ලංකා ටෙනිස් සංගමයටත් මෙම ගිවිසුමට සමගාමීව ප්‍රදානය කෙරිණි.

තරුණ හා ක්‍රීඩා අමාත්‍යංශයේ ක්‍රීඩා සංවර්ධන දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව විසින් කරාතේ දෝ සංගමය සහ ටෙනිස් සංගමය වෙත මෙම මූල්‍ය ප්‍රදානය පිරිනමන ලදි.

තරුණ හා ක්‍රීඩා අමාත්‍යංශය වෙනුවෙන් ක්‍රීඩා සංවර්ධන දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල් අමල් එදිරිසූරිය මහතා සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකා කරාතේ දෝ සංගමය වෙනුවෙන් එහි සභාපති එච්.එම්.සිසිර කුමාර මහතාත් ශ්‍රී ලංකා ටෙනිස් සංගමය වෙනුවෙන්  එහි සභාපති බින් ඉසැක්  මහතාත්  අදාළ ගිවිසුම්වලට අත්සන් තැබූහ.

මෙම අවස්ථාවන් සඳහා තරුණ හා ක්‍රීඩා අමාත්‍යංශයේ සහ ක්‍රීඩා සංවර්ධන දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ නිලධාරී මහත්ම මහත්මීන් සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකා කරාතේ දෝ සංගමයේ සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකා ටෙනිස් සංගමයේ නිලධාරී මහත්ම මහත්මීහු පිරිසක් සහභාගි වූහ.

මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය

තරුණ හා ක්‍රීඩා අමාත්‍යංශය

By Prof.Kirthi Tennakone, National Institute of Fundamental Studies
(ktenna@yahoo.co.uk )

Discussions on chemical fertilisers aroused by the belief they are harmful and degrade the environment worry farmers. The crux of the confusion appears to be that many have forgotten the science learnt in the eighth grade.

At school every kid learns that plants grow when green leaves assimilate carbon as carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and roots extract essential chemical elements in the form of compounds dissolved in water from soil. Both these processes utilise energy derived from sunlight. Plants synthesise; carbohydrates, proteins and fats – the crucial components of foods eaten by humans and animals.

Chemical elements the plants require in largest quantities derived from soil are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium; denoted N, P and K. Plant growth and metabolism also utilise substantial quantities of sulfur (S), magnesium (Mg) and calcium (Ca). The elements N, P, K, S, Mg and Ca which plants obtain from the soil are termed macronutrients. Plants also need much smaller quantities of several other elements; notably; zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu) and boron (B); termed micronutrients.

What is a fertiliser?

Fertilisers are substances containing plant macro and micro nutrients in chemical constitutional forms that could be absorbed by roots.

In the sense of the above dentition; carbon is not a fertiliser, because plants harvest carbon from the atmosphere.

Being suppliers of macro and micro nutrients to plants; all fertilisers are intrinsically chemical in nature and non-chemical fertilisers does not exist. The plants synthesise food for everybody, utilising air, water and inorganic macro and micro nutrients, via a series of chemical reactions.

Chemical Fertilisers

Inorganic chemical fertilisers contain concentrated quantities of macro and micro plant nutrients, generally in optimally available chemical constitutions. Nitrogen in form of nitrates, ammonium salts or urea; phosphorus as phosphates of calcium, potassium or ammonium; potassium as sulfates, chlorides or phosphates and micronutrients as inorganic salts of respective elements. These are stable sources of essential elements, mixed in appropriate proportions. Unless excessively applied, chemical fertilisers are not toxic to plants or pose no serious threats to environment or human health. Above-mentioned chemical fertilisers in their exact and ideal compositions and applied optimally are economical, healthy and least damaging to the environment compared to alternatives. Environmental damages caused by fertiliser manufacturing processes has been minimised, but cannot be avoided completely.

Problems of Commercial
Chemical Fertilisers

Some brands of commercial chemical fertilisers may be contaminated toxic heavy metals such as cadmium, arsenic and lead, as a result of their occurrence in the original precursor minerals or other substances used in the manufacturing process. Their presence can be easily detected by chemical analysis. The problem of heavy metal contamination pertains mostly to phosphate fertilizers; because some rock phosphates deposits used to produce more water-soluble fertilisers, naturally contain hazardous amounts of heavy metals. Arsenic could also be a contaminant of sulfuric acid used in beneficiation of rock phosphate (apatite) to increase the water solubility.

The other hurdles of chemical fertilisers arise as result of their excessive application- beyond amounts plants require. Excess nitrogenous and phosphate fertilisers pollute water and soil creating environmental and health issues.

Use of uncontaminated brands and educating farmers, resolve both these problems.

Fertiliser Manufacture

Until early 1930s world food production has been largely limited by availability of nitrogenous fertilisers – starvation, malnutrition and famines quite common. Nitrogenous manures used were plant and animal waste products often converted to compost and rarely naturally occurring nitrates.

Although nitrogen is abundant in the atmosphere; its chemical inertness prevents easy conversion into nitrates or ammonia. A process which does it (conversion to nitrates) once in a way is lightning – obviously insufficient to manage agriculture. Bacteria associated with leguminous plants also fix nitrogen, but insufficient to meet the demand.

The first person to fix nitrogen artificially was the British chemist Humphrey Davy. In 1807, he found small quantities of ammonia could be produced by electrolysis of nitrogen purged alkaline water.

A major breakthrough by German Chemist Fritz Haber in 1807, changed the world forever. He found an efficient method of combining gaseous nitrogen and hydrogen to form ammonia activated by a catalyst. The process further improved by Carl Bosch, widely commercialised beginning 1930, provided the ample supplies of nitrogenous fertiliser, boosting agriculture and food production – greatly reducing premature deaths due to starvation and malnutrition. Demographic data clearly indicate, the trend of population expansion initiated by Haber-Bosch process (see figure above). World population limited by supply of food escalated exponentially; increasing from approximately 2 billion in 1930 to 7.7 billion today. The world can marginally sustain only about half of the present population without nitrogenous fertilisers synthesised via Haber-Bosch process. If this process was not invented; the glamorous comforts we have today and many of us would not be here.

It can be argued, the unprecedentedly aggressive COVID-19 pandemic is a consequence of the Haber –Bosch nitrogenous fertiliser production, because high population density happens to the main cause of virus propagation. Again, nitrogenous fertiliser based agriculture may irreversibly impair the environment. Can we curtail fertiliser production by Haber-Bosch process because of above reasons? Yes, but half of world’s population will faces the risk starvation and conflicts originating as result of food shortage would kill many more!

Green Revolution and Fertilisers

Haber-Bosch process opened the way for the green revolution the next step in the ladder of agricultural development. The main achievement of the green revolution initiated 1960s has been breeding high yielding varieties of crops. Cultivation of such crops using chemical fertilisers and agrochemicals, uplifted food production particularly in developing countries. These crops were bred and made to evolve under conditions of a good supply of plant nutrients applied as chemical fertilisers and their continuation require same treatment. They would not perform satisfactorily, when fed with inferior fertilisers.

Organic Fertilisers and
Bio – fertilisers

Organic fertilisers sometimes erroneously referred to as carbon fertilisers use plant or animal derived materials as sources containing nutrients. In highlighting the term ‘carbon fertiliser’ the ignorant tend to believe that plants could consume carbon in soil and grow! Organic manures contain macro and micro plant nutrients, converted to inorganic forms by denaturing and bacterial decomposition. They have the advantage as soil conditioners and retainer of nutrients, owing to presence carbonaceous substances. Microorganisms present sometimes establish symbiotic relationship with plants. However, the concentration of nutrients per unit weight of organic fertilisers turns out to be orders of magnitude smaller than that of commercial chemical fertilisers. Consequently, their storage, packaging and transport are more cumbersome and costly. If based entirely of plant or animal derived materials; organic fertilisers remain largely uncontaminated with toxic heavy metals. Nevertheless, one need to be cautious in converting domestic and city refuse to compost. In addition to vegetable and animal derived waste; garbage invariably contains metallic objects, plastics, discarded batteries and pieces of electronic components. All these non-biological things in garbage contain heavy metals and other toxic substances. Processing of organic fertiliser also degrade the environment.

Bio-fertilisers means preparations containing microbes, claimed to promote plant growth when introduced to soil. Microbes are said to establish symbiotic relationship with the plant root system, enhancing nutrient absorption and may also fix nitrogen. An open question is whether an inoculum of microbes will proliferate and survive sufficiently long in every soil associating with different crops. The literature on the subject inclines more towards advertising products rather than analysis of experiments and field trials to determine the efficacy and reproducibility. Evidence doesn’t exist to the effect that bio-fertilisers could replace conventional chemical fertilisers and deliver yields adequate to feed the world population.

Another much advertised fashion is organic farming. The concept of the organic farming imply use of only naturally occurring materials as fertilisers and agrochemicals. Although the yields of organic farming rarely compare with conventional products they are claimed to be healthier and attract the affluent. Avoiding synthetic pesticides is definitely a merit. However, the claim that organic fruits and vegetables contain no toxic heavy metals couldn’t be always true. Organic farming permits use of rocks as fertiliser components and therefore apatite as a source of phosphorous. Some apatite ores are contaminated with heavy metals, including radioactive elements.

Hydroponics

Hydroponics refers to growing plants without soil in water enriched with macro and micro plant nutrients and illuminated by sunlight or electric lights. The method minimise fertiliser wastage almost completely avoiding their seeping to soil and affords using purest chemical fertilisers, entirely free of toxic contaminants. Even if purest chemical fertilisers are adopted to grow plants in soil; they would still take-up toxic components present in soil. The cumulative accumulation heavy metals and other toxins in our bodies as we get chronologically older, adversely interfere with our health – one of the causes of biological aging. Consuming hydroponically grown vegetables may enhance human longevity. Hydroponic agriculture has many other virtues including habitation in Moon or Mars. Unfortunately, every plant cannot be grown hydroponically. We need to exploit the potential of hydroponics.

Why we cannot abandon
chemical fertilisers

Plants have existed on earth for billions year and fed humans and animals without being fertilised artificially. With the advancement of human civilisation and establishment settlement; humans began to grow preferred varieties of plants for food – birth of agriculture. The success of this effort; provided more food, increasing population further. Whenever societies encounter episodes population increase, demand for food also increase; compelling people to seek new avenues produce more food. The sequence of these events has now culminated with a global population of 7.7 billion fed by an agricultural system based high yielding crops, fertilised by effective and concentrated plant nutrients (chemical fertilisers).

If we suddenly abandon these optimised techniques and revert to older techniques (organic manure) which provided food for a much lesser population; there will be starvation, malnutrition and famines. We cannot avoid chemical fertilisers and continue to feed the existing population.

Invariably production and use of fertilisers cause some degradation of the environment. It is a consequence of an irrevocable dictum of nature, which state: The orderliness (betterment) in one
sector of a closed system cannot be achieved without bringing disorder (impairment) to another sector
of the same system and the disorder (impairment) incurred in the second system can be reversed only by obtaining necessary energy from an outside source.

Plants and animals have lived harmoniously on earth for billions of years without degrading the environment and any damages to the system restored by energy coming from the sun, now we
are beginning to exceed the limits.

Text and Pix By Dinasena Ratugamage  Courtesy The Island

Ongoing lockdowns have dealt the pumpkin and ash pumpkin farmers in Kilinochchi a crippling blow; they are unable to sell their produce, says President of the Pooneryn Farmers’ Association S Arluananthan.

Stocks of pumpkin and ash pumpkin had been lying in sheds for over three weeks, but traders could not come to the fields to collect them, Arluananthan said. Although the farmers of Kilinochchi take their produce to Special Economic Zones in Dambulla and Thambuttegama a large number of their colleagues sell their produce to the traders coming from other areas, according to Arulananthan.  The farmers were in a desperate situation as they could not sell a kilo of pumpkin or ash pumpkin even at Rs. 10 a kilo, the President of the Pooneryn Farmers’ Association said.

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, May 25 (newsin.asia): India promptly responded to an emergency request by the Sri Lanka Navy and deployed multiple assets to douse the fire on MV X Press Pearl off Colombo on 25 May 2021.

The Indian High Commission said in a release that the assets sent included vessels Vaibhav, Vajra and Samudra Prehari of the Indian Coast Guard and the Tug Water Lilly by Director General, Shipping in addition to a Dornier aircraft for aerial reconnaissance.

The assistance of the Government of India for firefighting as well as pollution control was sought by Sri Lanka Navy at 1200 hrs on 25 May 2021.  This came in the wake of an onboard explosion on 25 May 2021 on the Singapore-flagged MV X Press Pearl.

Immediately upon receiving the request, relevant authorities in India were alerted and assets were deployed expeditiously. While the Dornier aircraft reached Colombo at around 1600 hrs on 25 May 2021, the first Vessel would reach around 1900 hrs, the release said.

India has the tradition of being the first responder during crises in Sri Lanka. It may be recalled that a potentially huge oil spill was averted with assistance from India after MT New Diamond with 200,000 metric tons crude oil on board caught fire off Sri Lanka’s Eastern Coast in September 2020. Three Indian Naval Ships rushed with assistance following the floods in Sri Lanka in May 2017, the mission said.

According to The Maritime Executive, Sri Lankan authorities responded on May 20 to a distress call for container fire aboard a feeder containership reported to be carrying dangerous chemicals. The vessel was anchored outside the port of Colombo awaiting terminal space on a trip from the Middle East.

The 37,000 dwt vessel X-Press Pearl arrived off Colombo on May 19 and anchored approximately 9.5 nautical miles northwest of the harbor. She is loaded with 1,486 containers including 25 tons of Nitric Acid, a corrosive chemical used in the production of fertilizers, explosives, and for oxidizing metals. The cargo is also reported to include cosmetics and other potentially dangerous chemicals.

The Sri Lanka Navy dispatched two vessels and a fast boat to the scene of the fire. They were joined by a tug from the Sri Lanka Ports Authority. Pictures from the scene showed the tug spraying water on the fire, assisting the crew onboard in the firefight.

Reports indicated that the fire had been brought under control, but the firefighters were standing by in case the fire reignited. Navy officials said that there remained hot spots aboard the vessel which could cause the fire to flare up.

The vessel’s 25-member crew includes Philippine, Chinese, Indian and Russian nationals. The vessel had left the Hazira port in India on May 15 and was on its way to Singapore via Colombo.

Sri Lankan authorities told Reuters that experts from the Netherlands and Belgium were surveying the ship. A special Dutch flight with vital equipment to contain the fire is now expected to reach Sri Lanka,” Sri Lanka’s shipping minister Rohitha Abeygunawardena said.

Sri Lankan Navy spokesman Capt. Indika de Silva said crew members and salvage and firefighting experts evacuated the ship after the explosion. Several containers also tumbled into the sea, he added.

Mis-declared Cargo?

According to The Maritime Executive, a team from the Sri Lanka Navy and Ports Authority which boarded the containership overnight to inspect the fire, suspected that the fire was caused by a chemical reaction or possibly mis-declared cargo. The smoke from the fire was in part due to the chemicals mixing with the rain and later the water from the tugboat.

The vessel has a crew of 25 aboard and the authorities reported that the crew was safe and had not experienced any injuries.

The 610-foot-long containership was recently commissioned after having been delivered to X-Press Feeders in February 2021. It is registered in Singapore and operates on the company’s Straits Middle East service traveling between Qatar and the UAE to India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Singapore. The X-Press Pearl had departed Hazira, India on May 15 and was heading eastbound on the last leg of a voyage from the Middle East.

Second Fire in X-Press Feeders

This is the second reported fire in recent months aboard a vessel operated by X-Press Feeders. In September 2020, the Indian Coast Guard, provided assistance to the 10,600 dwt vessel X-Press Godavari, which was in an anchorage near the Indian city of Haldia when a fire also broke out in some of the 500 containers aboard the vessel.

Environmental Damage

Rohan Maskarola, CEO of the Colombo Shippers’ Council, said that he is worried about the environmental damage that the gutted and sunk ship loaded with chemicals, would cause.

Eight to nine containers had reportedly fallen into the sea and are drifting towards Negombo, North of Colombo,” he said. Negombo is a fishing center.

Asked if such disasters could be averted Maskarola said what could have been done could be ascertained only after a thorough inquiry. The captain and the crew, who are on shore, would be able to throw light.”

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, May 25 (Xinhua): Sri Lanka on Tuesday said that floating toxic or poisonous material or packages from the burning and abandoned ship X-Press Pearl” may reach the shores of the country and warned people to stay away from beaches.

In a statement, Sri Lanka’s Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) strictly warned people from touching or opening the packages or materials and requested them to contact the Sri Lanka Navy or the police upon the sight of any such items.

The container ship X-Press Pearl” registered under the flag of Singapore, was carrying 1,486 containers with 25 tons of nitric acid and several other chemicals and cosmetics from the port of Hazira, India on May 15, according to the Sri Lanka Navy.

The vessel sent out a distress call as it approached the Colombo Port on May 20, and soon caught fire, resulting in the Sri Lankan Navy dispatching vessels to bring the fire under control.

By Tuesday morning, eight cargo containers had fallen into the sea and the vessel was reported to be unstable, the MEPA said.

The Sri Lanka Navy said it had rescued 25 crew members from the ship. Two injured Indian nationals among the rescued had been hospitalized for treatment.

The distressed container ship had crew who are Philippine, Chinese, Indian and Russian nationals.

By Tuesday evening, the Sri Lanka Navy said the fire was now spreading to the quarterdeck. The fire was being exacerbated by strong winds due to changing weather conditions.

The navy further cautioned the fishing community to avoid the sea area where the vessel was burning.

The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) said it had deployed Bell-212 helicopters to drop dry chemical powder on the X-Press Pearl to douse the fire.

While these operations were ongoing amid inclement weather, the MEPA urged citizens in capital Colombo to avoid going to the beaches and touching any floating objects in the water as they might be chemicals from the burning fire.

The MEPA has launched a probe to assess if there has been any environmental destruction due to the fire

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The United States has clarified that there is no change in the terrorist threat level for Sri Lanka.

The US State Department had on Monday issued an updated travel advise on Sri Lanka telling Americans not to travel to Sri Lanka.

A part on terrorism was also in the advise raising fears that there was a terrorist threat to Sri Lanka

Do not travel to Sri Lanka due to COVID-19. Exercise increased caution in Sri Lanka due to terrorism,” the updated travel advise said.

However, the US Embassy in Sri Lanka said the travel advisory for Sri Lanka had been updated from Level 3 (reconsider travel) to Level 4 (do not travel) solely due to the prevailing COVID-19 situation in the country.  

There is no change to the terrorist threat level,” the Embassy said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US issued the Level 4 travel health notice for Sri Lanka due to COVID-19, indicating a very high level of COVID-19 in the country. (Easwaran Rutnam)

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

කොරෝනා ආසාදිතව දැනට රෝහල් ගතකර සිටින සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතාගේ බිරිඳ වන ජලනි ප්‍රේමදාස මහත්මියට ඔක්සිජන් ලබා දෙමින් සිටින බව විපක්ෂයට හිතවාදී අන්තර්ජාල පුවත් අඩවියක් වාර්තා කර ඇත.

කොරෝනා ආසාදනය වීමේ හේතුවෙන් සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතා ද මේ වනවිට රෝහල් ගත කර සිටියි.

කෙසේ වෙතත් සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතා රෝහලේ සිට ප‍්‍රකාශ කරන ලද්දේ තමන්ට සහ බිරිඳට වෛරසයේ සංකූලතාවන් ඇති නොවූ බවයි.

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

අත්‍යවශ්‍ය භාණ්ඩ ලබා ගැනීම සඳහා සංචරණ සීමාවේ ලිහිල් කල අද දිනයේ බොහෝ පිරිසක් හැසිරුණු ආකාරය ගැන සතුටු විය නොහැකි බව හමුදාපති ශවේන්ද්‍ර සිල්වා මහතා සඳහන් කරයි.

එනිසා ඉදිරියේදී වෙළඳසැල් විවෘත කිරීම වෙනුවට විකල්ප ක්‍රියා මාර්ගයකට යොමු වීමට සිදු වනු ඇතැයිද ඒ මහතා කීය.

ඒ අනුව අත්‍යවශ්‍ය භාණ්ඩ ජංගම රථ යොදවා බෙදාහැරීමේ වැඩපිළිවෙළට ඉදිරියේදී යොමු වීමට සිදු වනු ඇතැයි ද ඔහු පැවසීය.

තමන්ට ආසන්න වෙළඳසැලෙන් අත්‍යවශ්‍ය භාණ්ඩ ලබා ගැනීමට දුන් අවස්ථාව ඇතැමුන් අවභාවිත කළ ආකාරයක් පෙනෙන්නට ඇතැයි ද පැවසූ ඔහු ජනතාව මෙලෙස අවිචාරවත් ලෙස කටයුතු කිරීම නිසා අහිතකර ප්‍රතිඵල ලැබෙනු ඇතැයිද කියා සිටියේය.

එමෙන්ම මෙවන් හැසිරීම් හේතුවෙන් කොරෝනා පැතිරීම වැඩි විය හැකි යැයි ද ඔහු තවදුරටත් අනතුරු ඇඟවීය.

By Kalinga Seneviratne Courtesy Eurasiareview

A former musician turned Buddhist monk, Bhante Sujato, an Australian, has taken up a mammoth task to translate and publish thousands of Buddhist texts known as Sutta (discourses of the Buddha) into many languages. Accompanied by Sri Lankan Kandyan dancers and drummers, he recently launched an Internet portal ‘Sutta Central’ to make the Buddha’s teachings available to the world free of charge.

The word Sutta derived from the ancient Indian language Pali in which the Buddha preached his dhamma (teachings) and its literature forms the backbone of the Buddhist teachings. The Suttas were originally transmitted orally, thus when the Suttas are chanted in the Pali language—which is very popular in the Theravada Buddhist tradition—they usually commence with the phrase evaṃ me sutaṃ,” meaning thus have I heard”.

< A former musician turned Buddhist monk, Bhante Sujato

In Suttas, Buddha talked about the abundance of love. Buddhism has compassion for the whole world. That is the abundance of Buddhist philosophy and anyone can come to Sutta Central and find something useful,” Bhante Sujato told an audience of about 150 Buddhists from different traditions at the launch of the portal in Sydney.

Sutta Central contains early Buddhist texts contained in the Tipiṭaka or Three Baskets”. The Tripitaka includes Sutta Pitaka (discourses of the Buddha), Vinaya Pitaka (discipline for the monks), and Abhidhamma Pitaka (psychological-philosophy of the teachings). 

The Sutta Pitaka is a large collection of teachings attributed to the Buddha or his earliest disciples, who were teaching in India around 2500 years ago. They are regarded as sacred canon in all schools of Buddhism. Sutta Central hosts the texts in original languages, translations in modern languages, and extensive sets of parallels that show the relationship between them all.

I have been a voracious reader since I was a young boy,” Bhante Sujato told Lotus News in an interview. I wanted to read dhamma books (because I was told that) the real stuff on the dhamma was in the suttas and I wanted to read them,” he said. As soon as I started reading these I began to realize that this is where all (the teachings) comes from.”

Born as Anthony Best in Western Australia in 1966, he played with the post-punk Australian band Martha’s Vineyard in his youth. After backpacking to Thailand to find something different, he came across Buddhism at Wat Ram Poeng, a popular backpackers’ monastery in Bangkok. I went to Thailand to extend my horizons because I thought life here in Australia was getting a bit monotonous,” he recalls.

After a few more visits to Thailand and attending Buddhist retreats in forest monasteries, he became a monk in 1994, when he was ordained at Wat Pah Narachat in Ubon Ratchathani. He lived in Thailand for many years, before returning to Australia. 

When asked, how he found life as a monk after being a musician in Australia, his response was interesting. Being a monk did not change my lifestyle that much as being a musician, in the sense that both circumstances I did not have money. Being a musician in Australia it is a struggle to make a living.”

For me, music was a voyage of discovery I had to learn about myself. Becoming a monk was also being curious,” he adds. When I learned the dhamma it was certainly much deeper than anything I have learned before…. So I realized there is a path where I needed to listen.”

Upon returning to Australia he spent several years at Bodhinyana Monastery in Western Australia that was founded by the respected Australian Buddhist monk Ajahn Brahm, before going on to found Santi Forest Monastery in 2003 where he served as its abbot. In 2012, Bhante Sujato turned it over to become a nun’s monastery, and he decided to concentrate on developing Sutta Central, which was in fact launched in 2005, but copyrights issues with Pali translations of the Sutta hindered its progress. 

When we first started Sutra Central I had no experience with Internet (and) as we expanded the project we realized we are making connections with different Buddhist traditions so it became a vehicle for connection,” points out Bhante Sujato.

Buddha’s teachings have bound people together for such a long time through connections—through oral transmissions—until it was handwritten as ‘Tripitaka’ at the Aluvihara in Sri Lanka in the 1st century BCE. Thus the Suttas have been handwritten for almost 2000 years, printed for over 400 years, and it is now digitized in the past 30 years. 

The launch of Sutta Central may well become a landmark event in the history of the dissemination of the dhamma, as every Sutta is now not only digitized but is gradually being available in different languages from the same source. 

Bhante Sujato’s dedication to the project is such, that after being unable to secure copyright-free digital translations of the Pali Canon for Sutta Central, he moved to a remote island of Chimei, off the coast of Taiwan, to undertake the task of creating English translations of the nikayas (volumes of the Suttas), living there from 2015 to 2018. The Pali Sutta Piṭaka is divided into five main collections called nikāyas, that includes the longer versions called the Dīgha Nikāya and the shorter ones called Majjhima Nikāya (middle-length discourses), Saṃyutta Nikāya and Aṅguttara Nikāya (shorter texts). The translations of the latter nikayas in particular, have since been published on Sutta Central, and as free edition books.

Sutta Central has materials that have been translated into English not only from Pali but also from Tibetan, Chinese, and Sanskrit. From the Pali canon, these are Suttas taken from India to China usually around 400AD(CE) and translated into Chinese. These are in Sutta Central, I don’t speak ancient Chinese but translated by others. This is an ongoing project,” says Bhante Sujato. The translations are done by people, he points out, not by machines, such a Google Translate. Those (Google) translations don’t work,” he adds

In a virtual address at the portal launch in April, Bhante Sujato’s mentor Ajahn Brahm described Sutta Central as an easy way to learn what the Buddha taught. It’s wonderful to have the information clear and trustworthy,” he said. We need to inspire people to become good Buddhists by getting proper teachings.”

Bhante Sujato believes Sutta Central is a generational job” and it will be an ongoing project for some time. So far we have some translations in over 40 languages. There are certain language groups better represented than others like main Asian languages Hindi, Chinese, Sinhala, Thai, Burmese, Vietnamese, and European languages German, French, English, Spanish,” he points out. We don’t have many translations in Arabic and we don’t have any translations in Swahili or any other African languages. It will be wonderful if every person in the world could read the Suttas in their language.”

Bhante Sujato emphasizes that everything they do is free and they also make it available in iPad, apps and will soon make it available in books. A ‘Sutta Central Development Trust’ has been established to help raise funds for the ongoing activities to expand its offerings.

Bhante Sujato wants to point out a new addition to Sutta Central. In Sutta Central, we also read the Suttas for you. Especially for people who are visually impaired or anybody who wants to read the Suttas .. maybe when you are driving a car or so. It’s in English and expanding to other languages as well.”

Note: Sutta Central can be accessed via https://suttacentral.net/ To contact ‘Sutta Central Development Trust’ email suttacentraldevelopmenttrust@gmail.com

Courtesy Lanka Business Online

Since of late, there has been a massive mud-slinging effort against me and my family carried out in an organised manner by a group of persons. At present, that group is claiming that my son Chatura Cabraal is employed by the Company which is carrying out the construction work of the Colombo Port City, thereby insinuating that I have supported the new Colombo Port City Commission Law, due to that connection”.

Chatura (35) is qualified engineer who has graduated from a US University in 2010, and has been employed by this Company since 2016. He secured this employment on his own merit, without any political or personal influence, and that is obvious by the fact that in 2016, we were in the Opposition. Similar to the current allegation, even previously, utterly false and vituperative allegations had been levelled against my children, claiming they had scolded officials at the airport, misbehaved on expressways, involved in fights, etc, but it has been proved beyond doubt that all those claims were blatantly false. Therefore, it is clear that such fake news had been a part of a greater plan to discredit me and my family, as well as distract and discourage me in carrying out my duties.

There is no doubt that Sri Lanka’s politics has degenerated in recent times, and personal attacks against a person’s family members is common place and fair game for certain persons. Nevertheless, any right-thinking person will agree that a parent’s subsequent position as a Minister should not be a disqualification for a grown-up son or daughter to continue in employment which he/she has secured before his/her parent assumed office as a Minister.

Finally, I wish to state that those who indulge in such falsehoods only display their pathetic political bankruptcy, and therefore I can only feel sorry for them.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The Cabinet approval was granted to award the contract for the construction of the elevated highway to Kelaniya New Bridge (NKB) via Rajagiriya connecting Outer Circular Highway at Athurugiriya to the China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), co-cabinet spokesman, Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila said.

Addressing the weekly cabinet briefing at the Information  Department, the Minister said the approval was granted to the CHEC to complete the project within three years. 

“It has been given another 15 years to operate and earn their revenue. After 18 years, the company has to hand over the elevated highway to the Sri Lanka government, Minister Gammanpila said.

“The cabinet ministers decided to hand over the construction considering the company that takes the least amount of time to complete the project and the least period to recover their cost,” he said.

Accordingly, the most attractive bid was presented by the CHEC and therefore the cabinet ministers approved to hand over the construction,” the Minister added. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka has registered 28 more victims of COVID-19, Director-General of Health Services confirmed on Tuesday (May 25).

The latest fatalities have moved the country’s death toll to 1,269, according to official data.

Five of the deaths took place on May 25 and the remaining victims have succumbed to the virus infection between the period of May 18 – May 24, the Department of Government Information stated.

Reportedly, 11 of them have been recorded as domestic deaths.

The deceased were identified as residents of Galle, Kalutara, Bulathsinhala, Unawatuna, Horana, Govinna, Galpatha, Hunnasgiriya, Maththaka, Wanchawala, Meepe, Matara, Ahangama, Veveldeniya, Ruwanwella, Meegahathenna, Agalawatta and Dehiattakandiya areas.

COVID pneumonia was recorded as the cause of death of majority of the victims. Some of them also suffered from diabetes, heart diseases, hypertension, sepsis and other complications.

COVID-19 Deaths Confirmed on 2021-05-25 by Adaderana Online on Scribd