KAMALIKA PIERIS

The possibility of a coup d’etat had been known from 1958.  In Parliament in November 1958 NM Perera had dropped hints of a plan for a coup d’etat. He referred to Sidney de Zoysa, not by name, but as a person who was gathering power by placing his men in key positions in the police force.

Philip Gunawardene picked this up and expanded on the subject in Parliament in 1958. Sydney de Zoysa was a trouble maker, he said. During the emergency of 1958 where ever Sydney went, there was trouble. People were thrashed, Buddhist monks were turned out of their temples and   there would be an attack by the police after Sydney   left. Sydney has gone to Gal Oya, where the 1958 race riots had started, and given ‘political lectures’.

 Philip accused Sidney de Zoysa of leading a conspiracy to wreck the MEP government.  Sidney was brewing discontent in the higher ranks of the police. Good men in the police service were removed from their positions and replaced by Sydney’s men, Philip said.  The chief of CID had been removed and Sidney’s stooge put there. Sidney was regularly meeting naval officers and army officers to bring about a coup. He was at Diyatalawa, recently, canvassing   army officers to support him in overthrowing this government, Philip said.     

On May Day 1959, speaking at a public gathering Philip made open accusation against Sydney de Zoysa.  He appealed to Prime Minister to get rid of Sydney. Instead SWRD gave permission to Sydney to sue Philip for defamation. The defamation case was heard in 1960.

Judge agreed that the statements made were defamatory, but   the Penal Code made an exception for statements made in good faith in the public interest.   Philip’s May Day speech was made in that spirit.   Also, Philip’s unflattering observations about Sydney, that Sydney molested and ill treated people, was correct. Philip’s prediction of a junta was also correct. A junta led by Dahanayake, came to power after the death of Bandaranaike said the Judge. The judge acquitted Philip. He said that Philip had created a very favorable impression, specially compared to Sydney. Philip was candid and truthful.

Sidney de Zoysa   had links to the right wing of the MEP. Sydney de Zoysa’s brother Dickie was one of the persons behind the company set up by Buddharakkita, Ceylon Shipping Lines.   When Dahanayake became Prime Minister he appointed Sidney as Permanent Secretary to a newly created Ministry of Internal security.

In his 1958 speech in Parliament, Philip had also pointed out that there was foreign involvement in the matter. Powerful forces are at work, Philip told Parliament. The people of this country must be warned. There are vested interests, foreign as well as local that would like to see the MEP government    go. They wish to set up a government under them rather than permit the MEP government to carry on, continued Philip. They wish to set up a reactionary junta.

 Philip also drew attention to the close connection between foreign embassies and senior officers in the armed services. He specifically mentioned the US embassy. He said that the US embassy invited military officers to parties and got them drunk. Philip said that some control should be exerted. Hereafter military officers should get state permission to attend these functions.

America did not like the 1956 MEP government.  TIME said the government was seen as a high risk regime.  It was swinging sharply to the Left. US Assistant Secretary of state William Rouwntree visited Ceylon in 1958 to check on this.

Philip’s 1958 speech was the first time that the country became aware that a conspiracy was brewing, said Ananda Meegama. Philip’s allegations of 1958 were political dynamite, for they indicated that there was a group working overtime to over throw the government and also perhaps replace Parliamentary democracy with a military dictatorship.

Meegama says that Philip’s announcement of an impending coup triggered the events that led to his and William Silva’s eviction from government.  It was necessary to remove Philip from the scene, before Bandaranaike was killed, because otherwise he may have replaced SWRD.

Philip had pointed out the danger of keeping on the old gang” in army and police. He said the

High officers of the army and navy, particularly navy, do not look with friendly eyes towards the people of Ceylon and our independence in the control of our affairs. The higher echelons of the police and armed service were also unhappy about the progressive measures of the MEP.  The dangers of a coup were ever present.

  Philip had informed SWRD, directly that several leading officers in police and army were plotting to overthrow the government. But the MEP government   failed to make the much needed reforms in police and armed services. SWRD was getting ready to do something about this when he was killed.

Instead of the expected coup there was an assassination. Bandaranaike was killed on September 26.1959. At that time it was thought that the monk Buddharakkita had done it, because he did not get a sugar tender. It is now suggested that USA was behind the assassination. Bandaranaike was assassinated by a Buddhist monk at a time when the CIA was weaponising Buddhism, to contain the spread of Communism from the USSR and China, said Darini Rajasingham Senanayake .

This was a time when US, UK and retreating European empires were instigating assassinations, coups and regime-change in third world countries, from Patrice Lumumba in Congo to Mossadegh in Iran, to Suharto in Indonesia, she added.

But the MEP government did not fade away after the assassination of Bandaranaike. Sirimavo who took over was much firmer than SWRD and more decisive.The sudden departure of Electric Eel did not diminish his influence on the island. It seems to be even more powerful now that when he was alive, complained Flybynight in his Island inthe Sun series.  

 So Sirimavo also had to go. It was best to do so through a coup.  Philip had warned Sirimavo in 1960 that there could be a coup very soon.. Sri John has met some of his old war comrades in the Volunteer force, said Philip.  Also, there was a conference of the Ceylon Cadre battalions which was attended by the former commander, who had come from Pakistan to attend it, this would have been Major general Anton Muttukumaru who was then ambassador to Pakistan.

The commanding officer of the army was present, at this conference, continued Philip. Rear Admiral of the navy was  also present [possibly Royce de Mel]. The only outsider invited to this conference was Fr. Peter Pillai.  Next they are going to have another conference called nuclear conference in Diyatalawa, continued Philip. All important officers have been asked to attend this conference. I think that beneath the nuclear conference there must be   another conference, concluded Philip.

The coup  plans went through smoothly. The coup was planned for January 1962. A group of  senior officers in the military and police planned to topple the government during the night of 27 January 1962. Those involved were Colonel F. C. de Saram (Deputy Commandant, Ceylon Volunteer Force), Colonel Maurice De Mel, (Commandant, Ceylon Volunteer Force), Rear Admiral Royce de Mel (former Captain of the Royal Ceylon Navy), C.C. Dissanayake (DIG, Range I), Sydney de Zoysa (retired DIG) and Douglas Liyanage (Deputy Director of Land Development),

The plan was for troops to seize strategic positions and installations, cordon off Colombo preventing troops from the Panagoda Cantonment reaching Colombo and   arrest all ministers. Sir Oliver Goonetilleke, Governor General  would be asked to dissolve Parliament and take direct control of the state. He would be assisted by a Governing Council of Dudley Senanayake and Sir John Kotelawala, with Wijayananda Dahanayake also invited to join.

Wikipedia said that the coup leaders had intended to send Sirimavo to the United Kingdom by plane with her family to join her daughter who was studying at Oxford at the time.  This is unlikely. She would have been a threat to them wherever she was.    They would have had to kill her.

The coup was aborted at the last minute after an informant revealed the plans to the Prime Minister. The coup leaders were arrested and put into prison. The press focused on the discomfort and harassment these poor arrested leaders were facing in jail.

Since no shots were fired and no troops deployed, the Penal Code could not be used against the coup leaders. . Therefore the  government passed a new law called Criminal Law (Special Provisions) Act, No. 1 of 1962.  Supreme Court convicted 11 of the 24 accused including Col F.C. de Saram, Col. Maurice de Mel, Rear Admiral Royce de Mel, Douglas Liyanage, and Sidney de Zoysa. They appealed to Privy  Council. Privy Council held the Special Act of 1962   violated the  Ceylon constitution and had denied fair trial.  The coup leaders were acquitted on this technical point.

For decades the intelligentsia had suspected that the UNP leaders had a hand in the coup. The names of Sir Oliver Goonetilleke, and former Prime Ministers Dudley Senanayake and Sir John Kotelawala had come up in the investigation and at the  trial. Sir Oliver was removed from the position of Governor General.

 Wikipedia said that years later  J. R. Jayewardene had stated that at a meeting on 13 April 1966  he was told by  Sir John Kotelawala that he and Dudley Senanayake had been aware of the coup. JR’s biographers, K.M. de Silva and H Wriggins, 1988, recorded advice that JR had given to the key conspirator, Sydney de Soyza. Sirimavo  when she found out  had decided to keep the matter a secret.

If the 1962 coup had succeeded, there would have been civil war, with the 3^rd field regiment of the Ceylon Artillery taking on the Ceylon Light Infantry possibly at the Kirulapona Bridge as the regiment came in from Panagoda. The government later disbanded the 3rd regiment and raised another infantry regiment, the Gemunu Watch.

Of the 24  arrested 12 were Sinhalese, 6 were  Tamils and 6 Burghers. All were from the westernized upper class, property owning, well-educated and with right-wing ideologies. It showed the public that an antinational minority still wielded power in the country.

All 24 conspirators  were Christians. The percentage of Christian and Catholic in the armed force during the time of the coup was well above the national average for these two groups. Higher officers of the navy were Catholics. Recruitment to the army and navy are done by  boards which are all Catholic said Philip.    And the  Catholic Church  in Sri Lanka is against progressive movements, he added.

Today’s thinking is that most of the regime changes of the Third World or newly independent countries were engineered by the USA. USA was considered responsible for the1958 and 1977 coups in Pakistan and 1960 and 1980 coups in Turkey. Britain and the United States were active in 1965 coup by Suharto against President Sukarno in Indonesia, said analysts.

CIA played a crucial role in the Ba’ath coup d’état in November 1963 against PM Qassim in Iraq, against Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana and against Patrice Lumumba in Congo. CIA had a hand in coups in Ecuador in 1950and early 1960s. There was direct U.S .involvement in1949 and 1951 coups in Syria, analysts said. (continued)

Senaka Weeraratna 

The horrifying tragedy that is unfolding before our very eyes worldwide but particularly in India, and God fearing traditional Christian countries such as USA, Brazil, Italy, Spain, France, U.K., Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Norway and Sweden raises fundamental questions not only in respect to humanity’s capacity to combat the spread of the coronavirus that has taken a huge toll of over 3 .1 Million fatalities and over 147 million infections up to date, but also on the very existence of GOD on whom so much faith and trust has been placed by billions of people adhering to Abrahamic religions such as Catholicism, Protestant Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

Is the colossal damage being done globally by the Coronavirus pandemic evidence of God’s wrath or of God’s non – existence?

Have any Church authorities up to date announced and stated that the Coronavirus Pandemic was nothing but a demonstration of God’s wrath and punishment for the sins of the victims? In the aftermath of the Lisbon Earthquake (1755) Church leaders did exactly just that. Explained away the destruction of Lisbon by a trio of natural disasters as a manifestation of God’s wrath.

Alternatively, can the current ongoing annihilation of the human race by the Coronavirus be explained away on the basis of Karmic retribution?

Is God defying Coronavirus a form of Karmic Retribution targeting mostly countries that have done wrong to others? especially a number of select western countries that have a shared sordid past over a period of 500 years of rapacious colonialism all over the world, committing Genocide and Mass Murder of native people? 

India is not lily white either. India’s track record of interference in the affairs of neighbouring countries including training and support for terrorist groups like the LTTE to commit genocidal crimes and mass murder of innocent civilians in Sri Lanka before the brutal murder of Rajiv Gandhi by the LTTE, raises questions whether India too is now under the watch of Providence meting out punishment to wrong doers. Those who evade accountability under man made laws will have to one day answer and face punishment under the fiat of Providence. 

” There were chaplains on the slave ships that ferried human cargo across the Atlantic. The atomic weapons that obliterated civilian population centers in Japan were blessed and prayed over before being loaded onto U.S. bomber planes. The anti – semitic writings of Martin Luther, the Protestant Reformation hero who purportedly nailed his 95 grievances to doors of a Catholic church, were used by the Nazi government’s propagandists to convince German Christians that the imprisonment and expulsion of the Jewish people was a righteous cause. White slave owners in the South used the Bible to justify slavery and, a hundred years later, their descendants used the same Biblical texts to defend so-called separate but equal” segregation policies”. (Joe Forrest in ‘Instrument of Mercy’ – A Progressive Christian’s Blog on Faith, Culture, Doubt, and Secularism)

Western countries that manipulate the UN system including the UNHRC to project an unsustainable image as ‘Protectors of Human Rights’ ( while evading accountability for the gross violations of Human Rights of others ) must take full responsibility for the cynicism with which the Human Rights discourse is now viewed all over the world. Soiled hands undermine the moral credibility of an undertaking that they touch.    

Let alone Crimes against Humanity, what about Crimes against innocent animals which continue to this day in countries like Brazil, Spain and Portugal where the barbaric BullFighting is treated as a popular sport and shown on prime time TV.

Is this not an appropriate time for reflection and catharsis on the part of humanity all over the world, and particularly in countries badly affected by the Coronavirus pandemic ?

The purpose of this brief article is to open and explore significant religious and philosophical issues that have arisen in the light of the bewildering and catastrophic Coronavirus Pandemic that continues to rage havoc with no end in sight.

Points for reflection

1) Treatment of Animals

a) What we do to animals ruthlessly and brutally the Coronavirus is doing likewise to humans, generating so much fear, alarm and anxiety. Do humans deserve pity, when we have no pity for innocent animals, who are eternal victims of our cruelty and inhumanity?

b) Should the yardstick of judging a civilization and its progress, be based on massive development projects, technological inventions and innovations, political achievements, literature OR how it treats all creatures, big and small, on earth humanely to the maximum possible extent?

c) It was Mahatma Gandhi who said that a country’s progress should be judged by the way it treats its animals and all other living creatures. When someone asked him what he thought about Western civilization, his reply was: It’s a good idea.”

d) In other words, what Gandhi meant was that the West was not truly civilized, in a moral sense. If the West was civilized, would it have conquered, occupied and exploited Asian, and African countries and decimated the native people in the two Americas and Australia until they were almost extinct? And committed Crimes against Humanity, Mass Murder, and Genocide including Cultural Genocide?

e) Many condemn racial discrimination, caste discrimination, and mistreatment of vulnerable communities but hardly bother to refer to abhorrent treatment and mass killing of animals on an industrial scale. Are these non – human living beings meant to be expendable at the discretion, whim and fancy of human beings?

f) Recent expose of Wet Markets in Wuhan and other parts of China showed obnoxious eating habits and brutal slaughtering practices that by any definition would be classed as barbaric and primitive. Some Animals were shown plucked from the supermarket shelves and eaten alive. Anything that moves on legs, crawls, wriggles or swims (live or killed) is deemed edible and fit for consumption.

g) No health authority including the WHO has stated that flesh consumption is essential for human health survival. On the contrary there is enough evidence to show that meat consumption is the prime cause of many Chronic diseases such as cancers, type II diabetes (T2D) and cardiovascular diseases (CVD).

h) The biggest problem is that all those who consume and support the flesh consumption culture take the view uncritically and unscientifically that the earth belongs to humans and all other non – human living beings have no rights to live out their natural life to the fullest except to serve human needs and requirements including sacrificing their precious lives to fill the stomachs of humans.

i) This indefensible view is largely influenced by the Biblical Injunction ‘Kill and Eat Flesh’.

j) Ethically speaking it is an unsustainable argument. Buddhism in its very first precept rejects that view without qualification.

k) The Buddhist approach of peaceful co- existence between man and animal is supported by Jainism and several Western Philosophers such as Schopenhauer and Albert Schweitzer (philosopher, theologian, organist and physician, and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952 )

l) Albert Schweitzer made a remarkable statement when he said that Until he extends the circle of compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.” A man is truly ethical only when he obeys the compulsion to help all life which he is able to assist, and shrinks from injuring anything that lives.”

m) Spain is one of the major victims of the Coronavirus Pandemic. As much as humanity would like to extend its moral support to the people of Spain to overcome this crisis without further suffering, it would be tantamount to a dereliction of moral duty if the very humanity were not to raise the issue of Bull – fighting in Spain. Bull fights are not ‘ fair fights’ but a highly staged form of Spanish Govt. subsidized animal cruelty that projects the misleading view that torturing and killing animals for fun and amusement is acceptable. Animal cruelty of this kind should have no place in our world today, even though it is presented as a deep – rooted Spanish cultural tradition and sanctioned by the Spanish Supreme Court.

n) Every year, approximately 250,000 bulls are killed in bullfights. The countries where this cruel practice still takes place are Spain, France, Portugal, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, and Ecuador. All of these Catholic countries are reeling today under the onslaught of the Coronavirus Pandemic in varying degrees of intensity.

o) The detoxification of these countries to get rid of the coronavirus must also extend to scrapping the inhumane cruel practice of Bull Fights, falsely categorized as a Sport and which has brought nothing but shame and disgrace on both the Government and people of Spain.

p) The lock down all over the world has confined the vast majority of humanity to their homes. It is discomforting and frustrating being caged, metaphorically speaking. Is this not exactly what humans do to animals by forcing them to live within small spaces in cages in a vast prison euphemistically called a Zoo for the whole of their natural lives? To serve a life sentence without committing a crime. When will this injustice to animals be undone?

2. Do Prayers work?

Do prayers work? Is God listening? How does one explain the silence of God at a time of mass upheaval and sorrow among believers who are dying in their thousands? Is the appeal to God through prayer to save the flock an exercise in futility? These are valid questions.

Atheists, Agnostics and Pagans (their numbers are rising rapidly in Europe) are least troubled by these questions. The latest coronavirus related tragic events are an affirmation of their skepticism. It is more a challenge for the Believers.

We in Sri Lanka have faced similar questions and underwent this exercise in the wake of the Easter Sunday bombing in 2019

On 21 April 2019, Easter Sunday, three churches in Sri Lanka and three luxury hotels in the commercial capital, Colombo, were targeted in a series of coordinated Islamic terrorist suicide bombings. Later that day, there were smaller explosions at a housing complex in Dematagoda and a guest house in Dehiwala. Two hundred and fifty-nine people were killed, including at least 45 foreign nationals and three police officers, and at least 500 were injured. The church bombings were carried out during Easter services in Negombo, Batticaloa and Colombo.

Like in the currently unfolding Coronavirus tragedy where the vast majority of the victims are citizens of predominantly Christian countries of Europe, the majority of the victims of the 2019 Easter Sunday Attacks were ardent followers of Christianity, and praying in some of the hallowed Churches in the country e.g. St. Anthony’s Shrine (dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua and designated a national shrine and minor basilica), located at Kochchikade, Kotahena, Colombo 13.

These acts of violence targeting mainly Christians on a special Christian holiday inside Christian churches invariably raised legitimate questions on God’s benevolence and its powers of divine intervention. Why did God fail in his own house i.e. the Church? And on one of Christianity’s holiest days i.e. Easter Sunday, where church attendance in Sri Lanka is very high.

3. Does God Exist?

Lisbon Earthquake (1755) and the Fall out on changing religious beliefs in Europe

It is said that one of the first modern atheistic movements in Europe commenced after this tragedy, renouncing religious ideologies as basis of critical thinking.

We must go back in time. A terrible tragedy similar to the unfolding COVID – 19 Pandemic in Europe and other Western countries took place on a much bigger scale in Europe nearly 270 hundred years ago when Lisbon (capital of Portugal) was subject to a series of cataclysmic earthquakes on the morning of Sunday November 01, 1755, which was All Saints’ Day and many people were attending the Churches whose architecture and building structure was not resistant to seismic tremors.

The earthquakes caused massive damage to the city of Lisbon and demolished around 12,000 households, killing over 60,000 people.

This unfortunate coincidence of the earthquake on a Sunday was definitely one of the factors that had contributed to the extremely high death toll in this event, as the Christian devotees that stood between the weak walls of the churches were crushed in large numbers.

The city walls, houses and buildings were not able to escape the 8.0 magnitude of the earthquake. Almost 85% of Lisbon’s buildings were reduced to rubble.

The earthquake had reportedly lasted about 5 minutes, causing 5-meter fissures in length which split-opened in the city center.

In addition the tremors triggered three (3) tsunamis of 6 meter wave length which were flooding the region wave after wave, drowning and killing even more people.

Fires broke out soon after the earthquakes killing a lot more people. The flames lasted for 5 days and destroyed many important documents and personal records of the Portuguese people. Many had died from inhaling the smoke and collateral damage.

The resulting chaos forced the citizens, including prisoners that used their chance of escape, to flee the city.

Survivors soon began questioning God’s existence and his absence at a time when God’s help was most needed to save lives. The scale of suffering opened up many issues among thinkers, the clergy, politicians, and philosophers.

On the other hand, the Church authorities in Lisbon did actually announce and state that the earthquake was indeed a demonstration of God’s wrath and punishment for the sins of the victims.

Amusingly, the sinful Lisbon’s red-light district had suffered only minor damages while the churches despite the purported piety were completely obliterated.

The Lisbon earthquake of 1755 exerted a great cultural, religious and political impact. Europe was stunned by the merciless destruction of one of the continent’s most opulent cities. Leading intellectual and philosophical figures—Voltaire, Rousseau, Pope, Goethe and Kant, among others—became fascinated by the question of divine intervention in human affairs. Lisbon, still home to the Inquisition, had been immolated: was this evidence of God’s wrath or of God’s nonexistence?

The Lisbon Earthquake also opened the door to new genre of literature questioning God and wisdom of relying solely on God and engaging in recital of prayers. Renowned French writer and philosopher Voltaire produced a classic piece of satirical writing called ‘Candide’ (1759). The events discussed in the novel are often based on historical happenings, such as the ‘Seven Years’ War and the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. Voltaire ridicules religion, theologians, governments, armies, philosophies, and philosophers. Candide satirizes various philosophical and religious theories that Voltaire had previously criticized including the belief in God. . .

4) The Portuguse Inquisition in Ceylon

Portugal and Spain were the two main centers of the Catholic Inquisition, which lasted for several centuries.

Though confined mainly to Europe, the Portuguese nevertheless introduced the Inquisition to countries in its Asian Empire such as Goa and Ceylon (later known as Sri Lanka). The Inquisition is infamous for its persecution of heretics which extended to Muslims and Jews in Europe, and Hindus and Buddhists in Goa and Ceylon.

Though both Portugal and Spain amassed great wealth during their hey days as empire builders they remained backward countries slow to evolve morally and ethically and distance themselves from barbaric cultural traditions such as Bull – fights. Unlike their neighbours in Northern Europe which broke away from the diktat of the Vatican, both Portugal and Spain together with Italy were unfortunately held captive for a long time in a stranglehold of religious dogma.

There was an intellectual aftermath of the Lisbon Earthquake disaster all over Europe. The cataclysm resulted in widespread Enlightenment discussions about God and the natural world.

Conclusion

The tragedy of the Coronavirus Pandemic has already rocked the world prompting wide ranging intellectual debates about the natural world and God’s place in human affairs. A new world order is emerging that can be expected to be vastly different to the one that is being left behind.

It is already attracting widespread attention and speculation among thinkers and policy makers. Would God continue to remain at the apex of the moral and spiritual world despite rising misgivings in the mono – theistic Abrahamic world?

Buddhism has shown that it is possible to establish a highly effective and admirable ethical system for humanity with benefits for all living beings seen as members of one moral universe, without reference to an all mighty creator God.

J. Takakusu, who was an internationally known Japanese Buddhist scholar, and Professor Emeritus of Sanskrit at the Tokyo Imperial University at the time of his death in 1945, had this to say:

if civilization is really what the present civilization of the West represents, it is a curse rather than a blessing. The shortest cut to remedy its shortcomings and make it complete is . . . to spread to the West the culture, philosophy and faith of Buddhism.”

Takakusu Junjiro , in  Europe Ripe for Buddhism ” (1927)

What will replace God if the belief in God becomes increasingly unsustainable in the wake of catastrophes such as the Coronavirus Pandemic?

Senaka Weeraratna

……………………………………………………

See also

Voltaire laments the destruction of Lisbon in an earthquake and criticises the philosophers who thought that all’s well with the world” and the religious who thought it was God’s will” (1755)

https://oll.libertyfund.org/quotes/243

From: Toleration and Other Essays (Voltaire)

By: Voltaire

In his long poem On the Lisbon disaster; or an Examination of the Axiom, “All is Well” (1755) Voltaire (1694-1778) laments the death of a hundred thousand whom the earth devours” and reminds us how fragile human life is and how close we all are to death from such cruelties of fate” :

Unhappy mortals! Dark and mourning earth!

Affrighted gathering of human kind!

Eternal lingering of useless pain!

Come, ye philosophers, who cry, All’s well,”

And contemplate this ruin of a world.

Behold these shreds and cinders of your race,

This child and mother heaped in common wreck,

These scattered limbs beneath the marble shafts—

A hundred thousand whom the earth devours,

Who, torn and bloody, palpitating yet,

Entombed beneath their hospitable roofs,

In racking torment end their stricken lives.

To those expiring murmurs of distress,

To that appalling spectacle of woe,

Will ye reply: You do but illustrate

The iron laws that chain the will of God”?

Say ye, ‘er that yet quivering mass of flesh:

God is avenged: the wage of sin is death”?

What crime, what sin, had those young hearts conceived

That lie, bleeding and torn, on mother’s breast?

Did fallen Lisbon deeper drink of vice

Than London, Paris, or sunlit Madrid?

Full Quote

About this Quotation:

The devastating earthquake in Haiti recalls the impact the Lisbon earthquake of November 1755 had on European society. In his later writings Voltaire referred to it repeatedly but his most extended commentary was in a long poem he wrote on it which had the rather odd subtitle or an examination of the axiom, all is well.” As in his philosophic tale Candide, or Optimism Voltaire wanted to attack the complacency of many European thinkers such as Leibnitz that this was the best of all possible worlds”. Voltaire thought the earthquake had a very different lesson, namely that nature can be capricious and does not respect human life. If there were to be a happier, more prosperous, and more just world, it would have to be one created by human activity.

https://oll.libertyfund.org/quotes/243

Dr Sudath Gunasekara Mahanuwara 

The following statement by the Indian Foreign Minister reported to have been made in the Indian Rajaya Sabha calling for early elections to Provincial Councils etc is a direct interference with the Sovereignty and Freedom of this country that should be deplored by every Sri Lankans.

0 .3 wants Sri Lanka to hold early election to provincial councils: Jaishankar Indian Foreign Minister

CHENNAI, April 19, 2021 18:34 IST

India supports the call of international community for the Sri Lankan government to fulfill its commitments on devolution of political authority including through early holding of elections to provincial councils, according to S. Jaishankar, External Affairs Minister.

This also covers the commitment of ensuring that all the provincial councils are able to operate effectively in accordance with the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka, Dr. Jaishankar has stated in his letter sent recently to the AIADMK’s Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) M. Thambi Durai.

The Minister’s reply was in the context of the AIADMK leader raising the Sri Lankan Tamil issue in the Rajya Sabha last month in the context of a resolution adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Pointing out that the position of India was conveyed during the deliberations on the motion at the Council, Dr. Jaishankar said the country voted in abstention at the UNHRC but it made a strong statement” as Explanation of Vote, stressing our abiding commitment to aspirations of the Tamils of Sri Lanka for equality, justice, peace and dignity.” It had also urged the Sri Lankan government to carry forward the process of reconciliation, address the aspirations of the Tamil community and continue to engage constructively with the international community.”

I would like to respond to this mad statement as follows.

The spokesman Jaishankar, External Affairs Minister is a South Indian Tamil politician in the Indian National Cabinet  From the above statement of the  Minister it appears that the Minister does not know the basic fat that Sri Lanka is not  part of India Otherwise how can he lays down these conditions as to how we should govern this country. The Tamils living in this country are Sri Lankan Tamils and not Indian Tamils, although both parties, the Tamils living in this country and the Indian Foreign Minister and even the Indian Government think otherwise. Things like the type of Constitution, form of Government, the legal system the administrative machinery a country should have and when to have elections etc  are entirely matter for Sri Lankan Government and its people to decide Sri Lanka is not a part of India We have a separate Independent sovereign country with our own Government elected by the people of this country with whom the sovereignty lies. So what legitimate right on earth Jaishankar External Affairs Minister of India, has to tell us to have election to Provincial Councils soon or any other political body in this country which is the prerogative of the citizens of this country. As such what business the Indian Foreign Minister has to talk about on these matters.

 We can understand his sentiments as a South Indian Tamil who descends from a set of people historically who have been craving to own this Island from the dawn of history or even before. We know this type of rhetoric is important for him to muster his votes in Tamilnadu to continue as a Minister in Delhi. We have no bone to pick with him but he should understand that thereby he is illegally interfering with the sovereignty of another country. Therefore the Delhi Government should lay down the limits to its Ministers within which they should operate when it comes to International matters.

But my question is as to why the Delhi Government or the Indian Prime minister don’t tells this Minister to mind his business in India without talking on matters that does not fall within his list of duties, unless he is doing so with the explicit connivance of the Indian Government and the Prime Ministers. If that is so it is still worse as it amounts to illegal interference and naked aggression by India on this country. On the other hand the Government of this country should lodge a strong protest with the Indian Government for this Ministers foolish statement.

Minister Jeisankar has further complicated this issue by trying to canvass international community on this matter when he says our abiding commitment to aspirations of the Tamils of Sri Lanka for equality, justice, peace and dignity.” It had also urged the Sri Lankan government to carry forward the process of reconciliation, address the aspirations of the Tamil community and continue to engage constructively with the international community

What does the Indian Minister means by just repeating these stale words prepared by Indian Kautillayan mandarins.as if there is equality, justice, peace and dignity for Tamils in South India. Does he know that Tamils in this country enjoy far better equality, justice and peace here than In India, although the Tamil Politicians say no.

What is even more important for us is why doesn’t the Government of Sri Lanka take up this issue with Delhi Government and protest or ask Delhi Government to appoint a man from   a non-Tamil state as foreign Minister who does not depend on Tamil votes in Tamilnadu so that he will be able to look at international matters from a broader perspective.

As far as I see there is hardly any difference between what Rajiv Ghandi did and Minister Jaishakar is doing now. He should not forget the fact Rajiv who did the same mistake, gav e32,m US ,provided military training for the LTTE and gave the all logistics and even military equipment and ammunition and finally gifted his bullet proof jacket as a gift to Prabhakaran somewhere in March to wage war against Sri Lanka Government was assassinated by the very LTTE on 29^th April the same year. 

Therefore the Government of this country should lodge its strong protest against this unwarranted silly statement and ask Delhi Government to put an end to this type of cheap politics and aggressing neighboring countries and mind its own business.

If the government is not doing that all patriotic people should, I think, protest against this interference and ask the Sri Lankan Government to abolish this PalathSabha huniyama as early as possible to save this country and the Sinhala Nation without betraying the Motherland and the Sinhala nation..

It is also high time that the Government tell all Tamils living in Sri Lanka to behave as citizens of this country who have to abide by the Constitution of this country and end their continued allegiance to India or any other. If they cannot do that the only alternative they have is to get back to any country with what they have their alleegiance

Ratanapala

26 April 2021

It was reported on Sri Lankan media about an incident involving two Muslim youths at Pannala in Ibbagamuwa, receiving injuries while making what is supposed to be fireworks. The news also says that the local Police together the Police Special Task Force are investigating with the assistance of the Government Analyst Department.

It is very clear from the description of the incident that the two youths Abdul Muhthalib Mujibur Rahman and Abdul Muthalib Mohammed Mufsil were making a rudimentary Pipe Bomb.

Wikipedia explains a pipe bomb as follows:

A pipe bomb is an improvised explosive device which uses a tightly sealed section of pipe filled with an explosive material. The containment provided by the pipe means that simple low explosives can be used to produce a relatively large explosion due to the containment causing increased pressure, and the fragmentation of the pipe itself creates potentially lethal shrapnel.

Premature detonation is a hazard of attempting to construct any homemade bomb, and the materials and methods used with pipe bombs make unintentional detonation incidents common, usually resulting in serious injury or death to the assembler.

In many countries, the manufacture or possession of a pipe bomb is a serious crime, regardless of its intended use.” Further information on Pipe Bombs can be obtained by visiting the following web site : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipe_bomb

So now it is up to the Police to investigate the matter as one related to terror activities and proceed without ‘pussy footing’ around the incident and wasting unnecessary time and government funds. This one is clearly an Islamic Terror related project that has backfired on the two-misguided youth, now at the receiving end of what they intended to do elsewhere on unsuspecting innocents. The Police should not leave any ‘stone unturned’, as this is definitely not an isolated incident, but with many connections to minor masterminds of which there could be hundreds within the island who are self-radicalized either on their own reading Islamic Texts or through involvement with like-minded individuals or organizations within or outside Sri Lanka. All those involved will lie through their teeth as they are proficient in the Art of Al Taquiyya!

Given the existing political climate and the desperation of the failed Islamic Project to incite violence from among the population following the Easter Sunday Terror attacks, this type of activity to revive the failed project is to be expected. Time is of the essence for the government to be doubly vigilant and eradicate without impunity all sources of terror within Sri Lanka. The danger to the ordinary citizens of Sri Lanka is still very high from the purveyors of Islamic Terror as well as from resurgent LTTE terror groups!   

ආචාර්ය වරුණ චන්ද්‍රකීර්ති

මෙයට පෙර ලිපිවලින් පැහැදිළි කළ ආකාරයට බෞද්ධ ජනරජය තුළ පක්‍ෂ ක්‍රමය අදාළ කරගනුයේ ජනතාවගේ විධායක බලය” ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමට පමණකි. ජනතාවගේ උපදේශන, ව්‍යවස්ථාදායක සහ අධිකරණ බලතල ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමට නිර්පාක්‍ෂික ක්‍රමයක් යොදා ගැනෙයි. පක්‍ෂ ක්‍රමයෙන් බැහැර වී ජනතාවගේ ව්‍යවස්ථාදායක බලය” ක්‍රියාත්මක කළ හැක්කේ කෙලෙසින් ද? මෙම ලිපියෙන් අපි ඒ ගැන විමසා බලමු.

රාජ්‍ය පාලනයට අවැසි ජනතා උපදේශනයේ වගකීම පැවරුණු උත්තරීතර උපදේශක සභාවක් පිහිටුවිය යුතු බව ද, ජාතික අරමුණුවලට අනුගතව අවශ්‍ය උපදෙස් සැපැයීම සඳහා ඒ ඒ විෂයය පිළිබඳ ගැඹුරු දැනුමක් ඇති අය ඒ සඳහා පත් කළ යුතු බව ද අපි හඳුනා ගත්තෙමු. ඒ වෙනුවෙන් තෝරා ගන්නා නියෝජිතයන් විෂයානුබද්ධ ජනතා ප්‍රවාහ” ඔස්සේ බිහි කළ යුතු බව ද අපි පෙන්වා දුන්නෙමු. ඒ ඒ විෂයය පිළිබඳ ගැඹුරු දැනුමක් ඇති අය මෙ ලෙසින් අදාළ විෂයානුබද්ධ ජනතා ප්‍රවාහය විසින් තෝරා පත් කර නම් කළ යුතු අතර ඒ සඳහා අදාළ කරගත යුතු නිර්ණායක සහ විධිවිධාන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවෙන් නියම කළ හැකි ය.

ජනරජයේ නීති, අන පණත් සම්පාදනය කළ යුත්තේ ජාතික ව්‍යවස්ථාදායක සභාව විසිනි. ජනමත විචාරණයක දී ජනතාවට ද ඒ සඳහා සෘජුව ම සහභාගී වීමේ අවස්ථාව හිමි වෙයි. නීති සම්පාදනය උදෙසා ජාතික ව්‍යවස්ථාදායක සභාව කටයුතු කළ යුත්තේ උත්තරීතර උපදේශක සභාව” විසින් ලබාදෙන උපදෙස්වලට අනුගතව ය.

කෙසේ වුව ද, නීති සම්පාදනය යනු ඕනෑ ම අයකුට කළ හැකි කාර්යයක් නොවන බව ද අපි වටහාගත යුත්තෙමු. ව්‍යවස්ථා සහ නීති සම්පාදනයට දැනුමක් ඇති අය පමණක් ජාතික ව්‍යවස්ථාදායක සභාවට පත් කරගත යුතු වෙයි. එ ලෙසින් පත් කෙරෙන අය තුළ ජාතික අරමුණු කෙරෙහි දැඩි බැඳීමක් තිබිය යුතු අතර බෞද්ධ දේශපාලන මූලධර්ම, සංස්කෘතිය, නීතිය, භාෂාව සහ සාහිත්‍යය, ඉතිහාසය, සමාජ – ආර්ථික කරුණු, පරිසරය වැනි විෂයයන් පිළිබඳ පුළුල් දැනුමක් තිබිය යුතු ය.

උත්තරීතර උපදේශක සභාව සඳහා තෝරා පත්කර ගන්නේ ඒ ඒ විෂයය පිළිබඳ ගැඹුරු” දැනුමක් ඇති අය ය. එ නමුදු ජාතික ව්‍යවස්ථාදායක සභාව සඳහා තෝරා පත්කර ගත යුත්තේ උක්ත සඳහන් විෂයයන් සම්බන්ධයෙන් පුළුල්” දැනුමක් ඇති අය ය. මෙවැනි පිරිසක් ජනතාව අතුරෙන් තෝරා පත්කර ගත හැක්කේ කෙසේ ද? මෙම කාර්යය සඳහා අනුගමනය කළ යුතු ක්‍රියාමාර්ගය කුමක්ද?

ජාතික ව්‍යවස්ථාදායක සභාව සඳහා තෝරා පත්කර ගත යුතු අය තුළ තිබිය යුතු දැනුම සහ ඒ සඳහා ඔවුන් විසින් සම්පූර්ණ කළ යුතු අනෙකුත් සුදුසුකම් කවරේ ද යන්න උත්තරීතර උපදේශක සභාව විසින් තීරණය කළ යුත්තේ ය. එ ලෙසින් හඳුනාගනු ලබන දැනුම අන්තර්ගත විෂයයන් ආවරණය වන පරිදි පවත්වනු ලබන විභාගයකින් සමත් වී තිබීම මේ සඳහා සම්පූර්ණ කළ යුතු මූලික සුදුසුකම වේ. මෙවැනි ඇගැයීමක් ජාතික මට්ටමින් මෙන් ම කෝරළ මට්ටමින් ද කළ යුත්තේ ය. පොදු කරුණු සම්බන්ධයෙන් ජාතික මට්ටමේ ඇගැයීම කළ යුතු අතර ඒ ඒ ප්‍රදේශයට අදාළ කරුණු සම්බන්ධයෙන් කෝරළ මට්ටමේ ඇගැයීම කළ යුතු ය. මෙම කාර්යය මෙහෙයවනු ලබන ජාතික ඇගැයීම් ආයතනය” උත්තරීතර උපදේශක සභාව යටතේ පිහිටුවිය යුත්තේ ය.

වාර්ෂිකව පවත්වනු ලබන මෙම ඇගැයීමෙන් ඉහළ ම සුදුසුකම් ලබන තුන් දෙනා කෝරළ බුද්ධි මණ්ඩලයට පත් කළ යුත්තේ ය. තම බල ප්‍රදේශයේ අදාළ ආයතන සමඟ සම්බන්ධ වී ප්‍රාදේශීය ගැටලු, අවශ්‍යතා, සම්පත් සහ විසඳුම් පිළිබඳ විධිමත් පර්යේෂණ සිදු කිරීම කෝරළ බුද්ධි මණ්ඩලවල වගකීම වේ. මෙම බුද්ධි මණ්ඩලවල සේවය කරන අය ඇගැයීමේ ක්‍රමයක් ද උත්තරිතර උපදේශක සභාව විසින් හඳුන්වා දිය යුතු ය. ඔවුන් විසින් සිදු කරන පර්යේෂණවල ස්වභාවය, ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් පළ කරනු ලබන වාර්තා, ඔවුන් විසින් යෝජනා කරනු ලබන විසඳුම්වලින් ජාතික අරමුණු සාක්‍ෂාත් කරගැනීම සඳහා ලැබෙන දායකත්වය වැනි කරුණු පදනම් කරගෙන මෙම ඇගැයීම කළ හැකි ය.

ව්‍යවස්ථාදායක සභාව නියෝජනය සඳහා සෑම කෝරළයකින් ම එක් සභිකයා බැගින් තෝරා පත් කළ යුතු ය. එ ලෙස තෝරා පත්කිරීම සඳහා සළකා බැලිය යුත්තේ ඉහත සඳහන් ඇගැයීමෙන් සමත් වන අය යි. එ ලෙස සමත්වන අය අතුරෙන් සුදුස්සකු තේරීම සඳහා වන ඡන්ද බලය ඒ ඒ කෝරළයේ ග්‍රාමීය සහ නාගරික සභා නියෝජිතයන් වෙත ලබාදිය හැකි ය. සමාජයේ බිම් මට්ටම සමඟ යහපත් සම්බන්ධතාවක් පවත්වනු ලබන, එ මෙන් ම, නීති සම්පාදනය පිළිබඳ පුළුල් දැනුම ඇති නියෝජිතයන් ව්‍යවස්ථාදායක සභාවට පත් කරගැනීමේ අවකාශයක් මෙම ක්‍රමය තුළින් නිර්මාණය වෙයි.

ආචාර්ය වරුණ චන්ද්‍රකීර්ති

Courtesy Colombo Today

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

… UNHRC avoids query whether new probe unit can seek those dispatches from Colombo

Following the UK’s refusal to accede to Sri Lanka’s recent request for disclosing British wartime defence attaché Lt. Col. Gash’s dispatches from Colombo, Conservative member Lord Naseby has sought an explanation as regards the procedures followed by the Defence attachés in gathering and submitting information to Her Majesty’s Government.

Authoritative Sri Lankan government sources told The Island that the UK in spite of being a member of the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) had taken extraordinary steps to keep Gash dispatches under wraps.

Sources appreciated Lord Naseby’s efforts to unravel the truth in the face of a new high-profile inquiry initiated by the UNHRC.

In response to Sri Lanka’s request made in early March, the UK faulted Gash for not obtaining independent confirmation of reports he had sent to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) during the final phase of the Vanni offensive, only after Sri Lanka sought their release!

Sri Lankan government sources pointed out that the UK never questioned the legitimacy of its defence attaché during the conflict till over a decade after the end of the war.

The following are the questions tabled by Lord Naseby at House of Lords recently: (i) To ask Her Majesty’s Government what criteria they used to assess the credibility of evidence reports they have received which related to the situation in Sri Lanka during the civil war in that country between 1 January and 18 May 2009; and whether it has ever been their practice to accept reports from unnamed sources (ii) To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the information contained in dispatches written by UK defence attachés must be independently verified before submission; if so, whether it is standard practice to ensure that such attachés are briefed to that effect; and if so, what record, if any, they hold of Lieutenant Colonel Gash, being so briefed (iii) To ask Her Majesty’s Government what sources they used to inform their assessment of the situation in Sri Lanka during the civil war in that country between 1 January and 18 May 2009 and finally (iv) To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the dispatches written by Lieutenant Colonel Gash, the former defence attaché of the British High Commission in Sri Lanka about events in that country between 1 January and 18 May 2009 relating to the civil war, whether they consider all reports by UK military attachés and diplomats to be evidence based-assessments.

At the recently concluded 46th session of the UNHRC, the UK in its capacity as Sri Lanka Co-Chair led the offensive for the setting up of special unit at a cost of USD 2.8 mn to probe Sri Lanka accountability issues.

Sri Lanka requested the UK to handover Gash dispatches to the UNHRC in the wake of the proposal to set up a special unit to ‘collect, consolidate, analyze and preserve information and evidence’ in respect of Sri Lanka. The unit is also meant for the development of required strategies to deal with the country in case of gross violations of human rights or serious violations of international humanitarian law.

Meanwhile, The Island on April 06, 2021, having obtained prior sanction submitted the following question in respect of the ‘Oral statement of programme budget implications arising from draft resolution A/HRC/46/L.1/Rev.1 of the Human Rights Council,’: (i) Is there provision for the proposed unit set up to gather evidence, information et al to ask for British HC dispatches from Colombo (January-May 2009) or diplomatic cables from any other UN member state? (ii) What remedial measures Geneva can resort to in case governments decline to cooperate?”

In spite of repeated reminders Geneva didn’t respond to The Island query.

The month-long Geneva sessions ended on March 23, with the 47-member council adopting a fresh accountability resolution with 22 countries voting for, 11 against and 14 abstaining.

 We strongly believe those dispatches from Gash can facilitate Geneva investigations. However, the British, despite repeatedly assuring us of longstanding friendship denied credible information in their possession,” a government source familiar with accountability matters, said.

After Gash’s departure from Colombo, the UK discontinued having a resident Defence Advisor here. Instead, New Delhi-based Defence Advisor looked after matters pertaining to Sri Lanka for nearly a decade. However, in January 2019, the UK re-appointed Colonel David Ashman as their resident Defence Advisor in Colombo.

Sources pointed out that despite Lord Naseby’s disclosure of a section of the Gash reports in Oct 2017, Sri Lanka refrained from requesting examination of the dispatches till March 2021.

Gash countered the primary UN allegation (Panel of Experts’ report issued in March 2011 that the Sri Lankan military massacred 40,000 civilians. Gash estimated the number of deaths at 7,000 to 8,000, including LTTE combatants. His assessment largely tallied with a confidential UN survey (Aug 2008-May 13, 2009) that placed the number of dead at 7,721.

Sources said that the UK had taken contradictory positions as regards Gash dispatches at the hearings at the UK Information Commission following Lord Naseby’s initial bid compel disclosure and when Sri Lanka recently requested for the full disclosure of relevant dispatches. The UK owed an explanation whether those dispatches weren’t made available to POE and the Report of the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) also on the grounds they weren’t credible.

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, April 23 (www.counterpoint.lk): The miracle of Shenzen” inspired governments globally to find ways and means out of adverse situations that plague countries in terms of their economic performance, especially in the post-second world war era.

Shenzen was well-regarded the world over as the most judicious and prudent way of experimenting with fundamental economic reforms the Chinese leaders wanted to introduce to the country’s economic structure.

It was more of a litmus test of how market reforms such as liberalisation of the economy works within the global economic context.

The man behind the Shenzen success story was Chairman Deng Xiaoping. The story of Shenzen began in May 1980 and spread its wings rapidly across various parts of China, making dramatic and dynamic changes in that country’s economic growth story.

There was a similar success story in respect of economic growth in our own country when President J.R Jayewardene strategically placed Sri Lanka in the global open market by introducing the Greater Colombo Economic Commission (GCEC) through a parliamentary Act even before China embraced the market economy in a more phased out manner. Sri Lanka gradually lost its clout as a pioneering nation in the region to introduce market reforms, perhaps due to unforeseen and unknown reasons and internal political squabbles that led to economic instability.

At one stage former President Jiang Zemin, as a young engineer and a Vice Minister of China, visited Sri Lanka to study the pros and cons of a liberalised economy taking President Jayewardene’s model as a case study before launching the Shenzen in 1980.

Former Foreign Secretary Bernard Goonetilleke who was assigned to Beijing as our ambassador had a personal tete –a- tete with Chairman Jiang Zemin when he presented his credentials some years ago.

Mr Goonetilleke had this interesting story to relate on Chairman Jiang’s visit to Sri Lanka.

I presented credentials as Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the People’s Republic of China to President Jiang Zemin in early 2000 as the successor of Ambassador R.C.A Vandergert. Usually, several newly appointed ambassadors present their credentials to the Head of State at the same time.  The usual practice is that the Chinese president makes use of the opportunity to have a short discussion with the newly appointed ambassadors.

When the opportunity came for me to present my credentials to the President, he took approximately forty minutes to engage in a discussion with me which was unusual.  The intimate discussion demonstrated not only China’s interest in Sri Lanka as a friendly nation but also his affection towards our country.

The backdrop to the discussion was twofold. The first was the security situation in Sri Lanka resulting from the separatist war which was quite intense around that time. He wanted to get an overall picture of the security situation and how the security forces were managing it, in particular who was responsible for supporting the LTTE. His interest was justifiable on two counts. One was that China was among the few countries that were supporting Sri Lanka against the LTTE, supplying arms, ammunition and heavy artillery weapons to fight the guerailla group. The second was that China itself was facing a similar security situation in the Xinjiang autonomous region which was getting intense at that time.

The second area of discussion related to Sri Lanka’s experience with the open economy introduced by the government of late President J.R. Jayewardene. As you would recall, China itself was moving in the direction of an open market economy and welcoming foreign investments during the latter part of the 1970s.  The new administration in Sri Lanka wanted to open up the economy and sought the assistance of the UNDP to get it moving in a new direction. For this, in 1978 the government sought the support of UNDP and through it obtained consulting services from Shannon Free Airport Development Company Ltd. Phase I of the GCEC project started in June 1979 and lasted till April 1980 whereupon phase II started in mid-1982 and lasted till 1983. Phase III of the project started in August 1984.

Around this time young Jiang, with a degree in electrical engineering and having worked as an engineer in several factories, had become Vice Minister of the State Commission on Imports and Exports (1980) and become a member of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (1982).

During the conversation President Jiang said that in the early 1980s China was looking for a suitable model to open up its economy and sought the help of the UN (I presume it was UNDP) and decided to dispatch a team of experts for a study. For this purpose, they had selected two countries viz. Malaysia, which already had an open economy and Sri Lanka, which was moving from a closed to a free market economy with the establishment of GCEC assisted by the UNDP.

During the discussion, he said that the Chinese team first went to Malaysia and later visited Sri Lanka. He said that the government accorded them with all facilities and the GCEC officials were very cordial and helpful and requested the Chinese team to ask any question they wished to ask. After a successful visit, the Chinese team had returned home.

As an afterthought, President Jiang inquired from me whether I knew who was in the Chinese delegation and who headed it? While I knew of the visit, I was not privy to the details of the visit and I told him so. What followed was a burst of loud laughter and thumping of the chest by President Jiang, loudly saying I”, meaning that that delegation was led by none other than him.

While I do not recall when this visit had taken place, it would have taken place around 1980 or 1981, in between Phase I and Phase II of the GCEC project.  The rise of the Chinese economy commenced with the opening up of foreign trade and investment and the implementation of free-market reforms in 1979 which coincides with the establishment of the GCEC. There was no looking back so far as China was concerned, returning a real annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth averaging 9.5% through 2018, a pace described by the World Bank as the fastest sustained expansion by a major economy in history”.

Not even President Jayewardene would have thought that the young Vice Minister would become the President of China at a later stage.

President Jayewardene by all means was acting contrary to the assertions of the closed economic concept of Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike and cracked open the economy to compete with external market forces.

He was aware of the intricacies that would crop up with controversial legislation where the Commission was empowered to amend or suspend certain laws stipulated in a Schedule of the Act.

President Jayewardene was mindful to enact the Greater Colombo Economic Commission (GCEC) Act when the 1972 first republican constitution was still in force and the National State Assembly, which was later replaced and named as the Sri Lanka Parliament under the constitutional reforms introduced by him in September 1978, was in existence.

The GCEC Act came into being in March 1978 under which Sri Lanka’s first Special Economic Zone was established.

Through the1978 Constitution, among other things, the then UNP government in power added an entrenched provision which stipulates that the ‘Sovereignty of the People’ that included the legislative power of the people exercised through Parliament. Article 3 of the 1978 constitution makes the sovereignty of the people inalienable and Parliament in that context is unable to abdicate its power of suspending or amending Acts of Parliament and delegate the legislative power to another institution. Therefore, where the Colombo Port City Economic Commission (CPCEC) Bill is concerned, the government must take a fresh look at some of the provisions which would enable the Commission to exercise legislative power and which may fall outside its ambit. Legal experts are of the view that to make it workable, the government may have to go before the people for approval unless it finds another way out to surmount this difficulty.

With the GCEC Act, President Jayewardene nevertheless circumvented a foreseeable difficult situation by passing it when the 1972 Constitution was in force.  A two-thirds majority was sufficient to bring or introduce any reform necessary to make the GCEC workable. In the absence of the referendum clause linked to sovereignty in the constitution, President Jayewardene fulfilled the required tenets of granting the Commission the power to make necessary amendments to the parliamentary Acts specified in the Schedule. However, in the present context the government has to exercise caution in dealing with this specific situation.

The Colombo Port City Economic Commission is the second of its kind that is similar to the GCEC to encourage foreign direct investments to the country in a bid to boost its economic prospects. The main objective of the Colombo Port City Economic Commission (CPCEC) Bill is to showcase Sri Lanka to the entire world as a potential investment destination and an economic hub in the Indian Ocean with incentives. There are many arguments that it will be a separate entity and a pseudo-Chinese colony, but this argument does not hold any water. The definition for a separate state is stipulated in the Montevideo Convention which came into force in December 1933 among Latin American countries and the United States and is now considered a part of International Law. The criteria for statehood according to the Convention are that a state must possess a permanent population, a defined territory, a government, and the capacity to conduct international relations. As far as the Colombo Port City is concerned none of the conditions required to fulfil this have been found.

Minister of Justice Ali Sabry claimed that the Port City is very much a part of the Colombo administrative district but then there are arguments that the Bill should go before the Western Provincial Council for approval. Gamini Marapana, Presidents Counsel, however pooh-phooed this contention when he said that since the PC’s (Provincial Councils) are not in operation the argument does not arise with regard to the Colombo Port City. This is a point that the Supreme Court, the Apex Court looking into the constitutionality of the Bill, will look at.

In the meantime, the government should also take a close look at Clause 7 and Section 4 subsection 2 of the CPCEC Bill which respectively state that:

The Bill provides for the establishment of a Commission consisting of 5 -7 persons appointed at the sole discretion of the President;

The Commission shall, in consultation with the Project Company, and with the concurrence of the President or in any event that the subject of the Colombo Port City is assigned to a Minister, with the concurrence of such Minister, identify any amendments to the Master Plan, if such amendments are considered necessary in the national interest or in the interest of the advancement of the national economy, to ensure through its viability the enhancement of the businesses carried on, in and from the Area of Authority of the Colombo Port City

These apart, the former Governor of the Central Bank Dr Indrajit Coomaraswamy took a closer look at the CPCEC Bill and emphasized the need to compare it with the provisions of the GCEC which had more autonomy in terms of infrastructure, taxation, customs etc.

Dr. Commaraswamy’s observations are as follows.

Several countries have overcome ideological, political or capacity-related constraints to improving their business climate by creating special economic zones/ enclaves. FDI driven export growth has often been the key to accelerate the growth and employment generation trajectory of an economy. This has been the case for countries as large as China or as small as Singapore. Also, for more centrally planned economies such as Vietnam, or more market-oriented ones. Special zones have been a useful mechanism for attracting FDI and promoting exports as they present a more manageable prospect for pushing through policy, structural or institutional reforms which are more difficult on a national scale.

Shannon, in Ireland, provided an initial template for setting up special zones. Sri Lanka was one of the early movers in the developing world when it implemented the Greater Colombo Economic Commission (GCEC) Act.

The GCEC had a great deal of autonomy in terms of infrastructure provision, taxation and customs. It would be good to compare the GCEC Act with the current Colombo Port City Economic Commission (CPCEC) Bill in terms of their respective provisions concerning these matters.

An important dimension of this comparison needs to be how matters related to public finance (both revenue and public expenditure) are handled in terms of Parliamentary oversight. Any resources that have an impact on the Consolidated Fund would normally involve Parliamentary oversight. One would need to examine the constitutionality of avoiding Parliamentary oversight in such circumstances.

In a country where revenue collection is severely challenged (less than 12 per cent of GDP when peers mobilize over 20 per cent), it is questionable whether such generous tax concessions are necessary.

There is a large volume of research which demonstrates that tax concessions are not an important determinant of the location of investment. There are several other more significant considerations. Sri Lanka built up its vaunted social indicators by consistently collecting 20-21 per cent of GDP (please see op-Ed by Professor Mick Moore in Daily FT). Professor Moore also points out that revenue constraints lead to loss of sovereignty as governments are forced to accept external conditions to raise the financing they require.

Careful consideration should be given to the provisions in the Bill relating to the legal and regulatory functions of the Commission and the entities under it. They should be aligned with good practice elsewhere, particularly about the nexus between oversight functions within the zones and outside it.

The Bill should set out the mix of expertise and experience that should be reflected in the composition of the Commission. It should be built into the Bill as much as possible to ensure that the appointments are based on professional merit rather than political favour. One way of doing this is to provide for bodies such as the Charted Accountants of Sri Lanka, Bar Association of Sri Lanka, Association of Professional Bankers to recommend (even nominate) representatives for the Commission. This may not be perfect, but it is better than leaving it to individual politicians.

Entities such as the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Attorney General’s Department, Securities and Exchange Commission and Financial Intelligence Unit should have senior ex-officio membership of the Commission or key entities under it.

All provisions of the proposed Act should be carefully screened to ensure that they do not discriminate unduly against the rest of the economy.

I also should point out that taxation serves to transfer some of the benefits accruing from the Colombo Port City to the population at large. This is important given that tax collections would have assisted in financing the infrastructure and educating/ training workers for the CPC.

A recent Price Waterhouse Coopers report states that the Sri Lankan economy stands to gain from the proposed Colombo Port City. According to extracts from the study:

At present, Sri Lanka receives around USD 1.bn to USD1.5bn on FDI annually. Hence the expected flow of FDI would be sizable and it is expected that Sri Lanka will be well-positioned for attracting FDI due to Port City Development. Moreover, it is expected that there will be a spillover effect as well where the Port City may encourage FDI flows outside the project. Taken together, the Port City should be a key driver in attracting FDI in future Sri Lanka.

Government revenue will be derived through several channels during the development of Port City. At the land reclamation and common infrastructure development stage, GoSL may incur some costs for providing certain infrastructure facilities to the outer border of the Port City namely electricity, water, road access etc.

Some concessions and exemptions given on import duty may have a negative impact on government revenue (in terms of loss of royalty payments for sands, import of material etc).

Besides, in each operational year, the government could receive USD 800 million worth of revenue from income taxes, import duties, license fees etc. Taken together, the Port City will be a good source of revenue generation for the government and would certainly support the GoSL in increasing its expenditure on development and welfare activities elsewhere, along with reducing the dependency on borrowing. However, it should be noted that the estimates were based on the prevailing/proposed tax rates and any exemptions or concessions provided for the operators within Port City may lead to a reduction in tax revenue.

The economic impact assessment undertaken which captures both direct and indirect effect clearly indicates that the Port City would have a significant impact on the national economy in terms of employment generation, attracting FDIs, GDP contribution, BOP (Balance of Payment) and government revenue when it progresses as envisaged.

The Port City could be classified as a strategic investment project and a potential source and driver of economic growth and development for Sri Lanka. Such investment projects elsewhere in the world have historically played a significant role in transforming developing economies into more advanced ones.

One of the key determining factors in achieving the expected result would be the pace of the city development process and the enablement of its smooth functioning. Delays in construction, as well as the red tapes to functioning, could significantly lower the economic potential. In this context, it would be beneficial to have a clearly defined regulatory policy framework for Port City, as this would support the achievement of the aforementioned economic targets. It is important to highlight that in addition to the impact on economic growth, any negative developments and barriers could affect the attraction of FDI’s to the Port City project and other investment projects in Sri Lanka.

Port City in short gives an explicit picture of how Sri Lanka could develop its economy to go forward in the global economic melee and stand as a steadfast economy in the developing world

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, April 26 (newsin.asia): Underlining the deep people-to-people connect and shared Buddhist heritage between India and Sri Lanka, Dr. Rewant Vikram Singh, Director of  Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre (SVCC), cultural arm of the High Commission of India, undertook a three-day Dhamma Yatra to Kadurawewa and Bingiriya villages of the Kurunegala district from 24 to 26 April.

The Yatra was undertaken mainly to commemorate the auspicious Bak Full Moon Poya Day, the Indian High Commission said in a press release.

During the Yatra, Most Venerable Mahasangha and the people of Kadurawewa and Bingiriya villages held a prayer on April 24, at Sri Sudarshanaramaya Temple to express solidarity with India and its fight against the COVID-19 outbreak.

Dr. Singh expressed gratitude to the Mahasangha and the people of the two villages for these prayers. He also prayed at the Devagiri Raja Maha Vihara at Bingiriya, and paid his respects to the Mahasangha on the same day.

Dr. Singh  visited the neighboring villages of Kadigamuwe and Panawawe upon the invitation of the local clergy on 25 April. In addition to paying homage to Mahasangha in these two villages, he prayed at the local temples and Pirivena.

On Bak Full Moon Poya day on 26 April, the Director SVCC participated in ‘Dhatu Wandana’ in Sudarshanaramaya Temple, Kadurawewa.

The Mahasangha and the people of the villages appreciated the Dhamma Yatra organized by the High Commission of India and requested for more similar, close interactions between the people and clergy of Sri Lanka and India.

It may be recalled that addressing the Dharma Chakra Day celebrations in New Delhi in 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that lasting solutions to the extra ordinary challenges being fought by the world could come only from the ideals of The Buddha. The Prime Minister had stressed these ideals were relevant in the past, are relevant in the present, and will remain so in the future too

by Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

The Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) yesterday (25) protested against the arrest of its Vanni District member Rishad Bathiudeen and his brother, Riyaj in connection with the 2019 Easter Sunday carnage under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

Rishad Bathiudeen is the leader of the All-Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC), a constituent of the SJB. The ACMC leader served as a Cabinet minister under both President Mahinda Rajapaksa (2010-2015) and President Maithripala Sirisena (2015-2019)

SJB MP Manusha Nanayakkara told The Island that the latest arrests had been made close on the heels of the main Opposition alleging possible involvement of some members of the intelligence services in the carnage.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and the Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) arrested Rishad and Riyaj from their respective residences at Bauddhaloka Mawatha and Wellawatte.

DIG (Legal) Attorney-at-Law Ajith Rohana said that Bathiudeen brothers had been taken in following a joint CID-TID operation. The suspects were being interrogated on a Detention Order obtained in terms of the PTA for a period of 72 hours, he said. 

Depending on the ongoing investigations, the police under the PTA could detain the suspects for further 90 days, DIG Rohana said, adding that they were among altogether 702 persons arrested in connection with the Easter Sunday carnage.

The DIG said that of those arrested 202 had been remanded and 83 held by the CID and the TID under the PTA.

The Police Spokesman said that investigators had conducted a comprehensive probe into funding of the Easter Sunday suicide bombers and a range of financial transactions that had taken place in the run up to the 2019 attacks.

Sources familiar with the high-profile investigation said the CID had quietly released Riyaj in late 2020 after declaring the police had not been able to gather sufficient evidence in respect of his alleged involvement with those who carried out Easter attacks. The CID arrested Riyaj on April 14, 2020. Riyaj’s release triggered protests within the ruling SLPP government with over 100 MPs including ministers signing a petition demanding an immediate inquiry into the unexpected development.

 Attorney General Dappula de Livera, PC, intervened amidst allegations that the police were suppressing information as regards Riyaj’s involvement. The AG summoned the DIG CID, Director CID and other officers directly involved in the inquiry for discussions at his department where fresh instructions were issued in respect of the investigation.

Attorney-at-law Rushidhi Habibi on behalf of the ACMC questioned the need for law enforcement authorities to raid the former minister’s residence when he always reported to the CID when asked to do so. The lawyer questioned why the police had behaved that way during Ramadan.

Alleging that Bathiudeen was a victim of a political conspiracy, the lawyer claimed the Presidential Commission of Inquiry that probed the Easter Sunday carnage had not found anything against the former minister. The ACMC spokesman alleged that Rishad had been targeted because his party with four members in parliament and 169 in Local Government bodies backed the Opposition candidate at the 2019 presidential poll.

 In a social media post just before the police took him away, Bathiudeen said that he would have come willingly if he had been asked to. The MP questioned the rationale behind over 100 policemen raiding his Bauddhaloka Mawatha residence as if they were coming to take Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Top Church spokesperson Rev Father Cyril Gamini yesterday told The Island that the Church was closely following the ongoing investigations. We are concerned. We are really concerned. Those who suffered expect justice not a cover-up. We are closely following the investigation,” he said, adding that they were in the process of examining all available information including statements made in Parliament on the Easter carnage.”

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

In the wake of the escalation of Covid-19 cases across the region, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will initiate a dialogue with his counterparts of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Afghanistan today on pandemic-related cooperation, poverty alleviation and other support needed at this hour, a Minister said.

Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardane told Daily Mirror that the virtual meeting would take place today afternoon, and Sri Lanka would present its position on the situation.

The meeting is meant for the exploration of new areas of cooperation during the trying time. Covid-19 is spreading fast in the region taking a heavy toll on human lives and economy.

Sri Lanka is planning to seek more and more investments from China. (Kelum Bandara)

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Chief Epidemiologist Dr. Sudath Samaraweera said numerous Covid-19 clusters were emerging in the country, but the cases could be traced back to their contacts.

Dr. Samaraweera told Daily Mirror the number of infections had increased because of the existence of many clusters. However, he said he could not view it as a sign of the disease spreading cutting across the country. (Kelum Bandara)

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

With the number of COVID-19 cases on the rise daily, there is a shortage of beds in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) for the COVID-19 patients in hospitals islandwide.

Primary Health Care, Epidemics and COVID-19 Disease Control Minister Sudarshani Fernandopulle told Daily Mirror that the available capacity in ICU was almost full.

Steps are being taken to increase the capacity in ICUs and High Dependency Units in order to address the issue,” she said.

She also said a new strain had been apparently identified and that’s why the ICU admissions had gone up.

There is a tendency of youths getting COVID-19 complications and being admitted in ICUs than adults at present,” she said.

However, we are taking all measures to mitigate the situation and minimise the risk,” she added.

Meanwhile, the State Minister said people were not careful and were acting in an irresponsible manner. (Sheain Fernandopulle)

Courtesy Adaderana

Education Minister Professor G.L Peiris announced that all schools, pre-schools and Piriven in the Western and North Western provinces will remain closed until the 30th of April, 2021.

This decision has been taken as a precaution due to the recent surge in new COVID-19 cases.

However, the schools in other provinces will reopen for students as per usual from tomorrow (27), the Education Ministry said.

The government has taken a decision to close all schools, pre-schools and Piriven located within the Western and North Western provinces until April 30.” 

There is no change in the academic activities of schools in the remaining provinces of the country. If there are any changes, we will notify immediately,” the Minister of Education said in a statement today. 

He also requested the parents and students to strictly follow the health guidelines within the schools that will remain open as it is highly important to do so.

UPDATE: In view of the government’s decision, all Catholic schools in the Western and North Western provinces will also be closed until Friday (April 30), the Bishop’s House said.

Courtesy Adaderana

Addressing the 77th Session of UNESCAP, Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said the government is keen on strengthening the island nation’s regional ties and emphasize the need to accelerate the South-South” cooperation.

Towards that end, we believe UNESCAP should commit itself to being relevant and responsive with measures such as assisting small countries with pandemic recovery and vaccination programs, encouraging growth of foreign employment opportunities, promoting Eco-tourism and Health-tourism and encouraging investments into and find markets for emerging nations.” 

Rajapaksa, today via a video message, addressed the opening segment of the 77th Session of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP). 

This year’s meeting was conducted virtually from April 26—29, 2021, under the theme Building Back Better from Crises Through Regional Cooperation in Asia and the Pacific.” 

While the COVID-19 pandemic dominated the discussions this year, other issues such as climate change, debt relief, investments, equitable health access, sustainable development and regional cooperation were also discussed. 

Full Text of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Speech

Madam Executive Secretary,

Chairperson,

Excellencies, 

Ayobowan! 

I am pleased to be able to address you at the 77th Session of UNESCAP. Despite the current challenges, it is very important for us to gather at this forum. This year’s theme is significant and timely as we work on strategies to overcome this pandemic, and start rebuilding our economies and societies. 

Sri Lanka has made remarkable progress in controlling the spread of COVID-19, recording a very low death rate and a high recovery rate through case detection, contact tracing, quarantining and patient treatment. Sri Lanka’s robust public healthcare system provided free access to health and helped control the pandemic. The Government also repatriated nearly 100,000 Sri Lankans and started our vaccination program in February.  

Even during the pandemic, economic activities continued in several sectors. The export sector continued to function, and tourism restarted in January. The Central Bank reduced policy rates and implemented several concessionary refinancing programs.

Excellencies, 

Our Government is deeply committed to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. For this purpose, an Inter-ministerial Steering Committee on Sustainable Development has been formed under my leadership. Our youth are also an important component of our development agenda. That is why decade 2021 to 2030 has been declared the Decade of Skills Development in our country.

We are also keen on strengthening our regional ties and emphasize the need to accelerate the South-South” cooperation. Towards that end, we believe UNESCAP should commit itself to being relevant and responsive with measures such as 

• Assisting small countries with pandemic recovery and vaccination programs.

• Encouraging growth of foreign employment opportunities. 

• Promoting Eco-tourism and Health-tourism 

• And

• Encouraging investments into and find markets for emerging nations. 

In conclusion, let me state that we deeply appreciate the timely efforts taken by UNESCAP to bring the Member States together for a constructive and interactive regional discussion on the COVID-19 pandemic. 

I wish your forthcoming sessions, every success. 

Thank you.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Director General of Health Services confirms three more Covid-19 deaths today, pushing the country’s death toll from COVID-19 to 647.

1. A 70-year-old female from Galpatha who had passed away on April 26 while receiving treatment at the Kalutara District General Hospital. The cause of death is reported as Covid-19 pneumonia. 

2. A 92-year-old male from Kandana who had passed away on April 25 while being treated at IDH. The cause of death is cited as Covid-19 pneumonia, acute kidney damage, high blood sugar, high blood pressure and kidney disease.  

3. A 70-year-old female from Avissawella who had been transferred from Sri Jayawardenapura Hospital to Neville Fernando Hospital after being identified as Covid-19 positive. She had passed away on April 26 due to complications caused by Covid-19 pneumonia and acute raspatory and heart failure.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Ministry of Health says that another 60 persons have tested positive for coronavirus increasing today’s total of new Covid-19 cases to 952.

All 60 new cases are close contacts of infected patients from the Peliyagoda cluster.

The total number of cases associated with the Minuwangoda, Peliyagoda and prisons clusters has climbed to 96,698 with this.

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases reported in the country so far has hit 102,376.

Courtesy Adaderana

Commander of the Army General Shavendra Silva announced that a decision has been taken to isolate several Grama Niladhari (GN) divisions in three districts with effect from 8.00 p.m. tonight (26) to control the spread of Covid-19.

Gampaha District:

Polhena, Heeralugedara and Kaluaggala GN divisions in Kotadeniyawa police area and Aswennawatta East GN division in Minuwangoda police area will be isolated from 8.00 p.m. tonight until further notice.

Kalutara District:

Miriswatta, Pelawatta North and Pelawatta East GN divisions in Meegahatenna police area will also be isolated in the same manner.

Trincomalee District:

Poompuhar Grama Niladhari Division in Trincomalee police area will also be isolated from 8.00 p.m. tonight. 

In addition to this the premises of the Dambulla Dedicated Economic Centre has been isolated for two weeks from today. 

Courtesy Adaderana

The Ministry of Public Administration says that the heads of all government institutions will be empowered to decide on the number of employees required to report to work from tomorrow (27).

The relevant circular will be issued tomorrow, the Secretary to the ministry said.

Accordingly, state sector offices will operate with a limited number of staff from tomorrow due to concerns over the spread of COVID-19. 

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka Police says that a total of 117 persons were arrested within yesterday for not following quarantine regulations, the highest number of arrests within a single day for offences under the quarantine law.

Sri Lanka Police has intensified the quarantine operation procedures because it has been observed that Covid clusters and sub clusters have been created in various localities, police spokesman DIG Ajith Rohana said. 

He said that the quarantine law gazette notification was published on the 15th of October 2020 and that however the police have been enforcing the law regarding the quarantine gazette since the 30th of October 2020.

He stated that they have arrested persons, produced them in courts and charge them under the provisions of the Quarantine and Prevention of Diseases Ordinance as well as the Sri Lanka Penal Code.

However, yesterday we have arrested 177 persons in connection with the violation of quarantine rules and regulations,” the police spokesman said.

This is the highest number of persons police have arrested within a period of 24 hours, since the 30th of October 2020 to date, he noted.

DIG Rohana stated that out of these individuals, 134 persons were arrested from Western Province alone and that 39 have been arrested within Colombo City.

Meanwhile 45 have been arrested in Gampaha District and 50 persons have been arrested in Kalutara area.

The police are continuing operations to arrest individuals committing offences under the quarantine law and all officers-in-charge (OICs) of police stations have been instructed to deploy police officers in civilian clothing and uniform in order to apprehend persons who violate quarantine rules and regulations, he stressed. 

He said that police officers especially observe whether the public are adhering to rules related to wearing facemasks and maintaining social distancing. 

In addition to that, no one should organize any events without the prior approval of health authorities and police, he said, adding that if an event is organized any person, he or she is liable for a punishment under the quarantine law.

We are going to strictly implement the quarantine rules and regulations. Therefore, everyone should wear a mask in public places and in public transportation.”

He added that OICs of police stations have been informed to monitor the situation in deploying surveillance teams in their respective areas. 

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

It seems that economic development and growth in Sri Lanka could be used with different approaches and many Sri Lankans mean that economic development is individual prosperity while growth is an aggregate status that could reflect the comparative position of individuals with the previous pattern of consumption and other matters. Many students who learn macroeconomics in Sri Lanka and other countries know that consumption function may reflect the points to assess the development and growth of a country. The demonstration effect is the best example of this idea and can this apply to determine the size and nature of economic development in Sri Lanka is a question. It is clear that the living standard of people in Sri Lanka has been improved since the independence in 1948, this could have further improved the population growth reduced to less than 1% and the depreciation of the currency unit controlled as the way country wanted.

I observed many UTUBE PROGRAMS” conducted by Sri Lankans attempt to show demonstration effect and could such situation explain as a better way of showing economic development and growth?  My answer is not and they are misleading people.  I started working in Sri Lanka in Mid-1975 and I observed in offices at that time people hadn’t positive attitudes among people many macroeconomic factors such as education and skills development, population control and productivity improvement, and many factors. When I was working in the offices, I had a feeling that people with outdated attitudes were considering education and skills development as a curse to the country. Some employees thought that English knowledge is the only way for development and growth, but not work skills and qualities. Later, when people were going overseas for working these people with outdated attitudes realized education and skills development key factors for the economic development and growth of the country.

 Now, it also seems that politicians and economic policymakers are stuck with inaccurate determination, and people in the country consider economic development and growth have associated with power playing politics. This is the notable difference meant in Sri Lanka regarding the development and growth compared to many countries. When I have been living outside Sri Lanka since 1990, I had a feeling that the economic status of the country being tremendously improved and the major criteria I was using the demonstration effect. During the COVID 19 season, my mind has pushed to the reality and now I feel that the demonstration effect in Sri Lanka is a witchery that hoodwinker of people outside the country. The true nature of development and growth is a mound raised by white ants of debts and it is not an economic improvement. Is that the meaning of economic development and growth in Sri Lanka? 

Sri Lanka has many limits to growth and development. The best example for this situation is looking at the economic achievements of China and Russia. while it could observe that China and Russia have been achieved rapid economic development and growth with rapid market-oriented policies Sri Lanka has failed to show economic development and growth to people like the way Chinese and Russian people achieved or demonstrated to the outside world. Policymakers in Sri Lanka conduct meeting every day and submit reports to political authority, but such actions have not impressed people to feel the economic development and growth. Why this situation is going on in Sri Lanka? Why politicians are too much talking about Singapore where the economic growth and development have strongly associated with macroeconomic factors such as population, skills development, investment, liberal approach for controls, regulating market than controlling.

Did the government and policymakers consider this situation and identify the reasons for not impressing people on the growth and development? The major reason is ignoring the concept of balanced growth, which is not a process like balancing accounts in an accounting process.  Balance growth is a broader concept that is going beyond the microeconomic process. Growth and development involve in the macroeconomic process that has links between sectors and the outcome of inter-industrial demonstrates that development is a mound raised by hard-working white ants or termites.

Economic development concerns two areas of policies, the restructuring of economic activities considering the cost and benefits of policies to supporting macroeconomic progress and directing investments for productive and possible developing future links to the economy. As I have seen in Sri Lanka that microeconomic reforms are needed for the improvement of productivity.  Politically based trade unions and other racist organizations have become a barrier to policy development and implementation. The best example is the policy development for the Colombo Port city project. Many critics of racist and trade unions have not made a positive approach and the best outcomes have been achieved and will be achieved from the project. The best outcome that could be observed is adding a piece of land to the country that has not been seen since the era of King Vijaya. I read many articles about the subject and nobody has mentioned this point.   

Economic growth is an aggregate position of the combination of various sectors’ outcomes compared to the quantitative status of the previous period. The quality of the progress may not ignore because if the quality of the progress is higher it would go to people, most probably the distribution of quality may have unequal apportionment.  The meaning of economic growth and development to Sri Lanka should consider as a successful outcome of both processes and the distribution of outcomes among the rural and urban population. China and Russia have demonstrated the successful outcome of development and growth, but Sri Lanka has collapsed coordination of the two processes and the main reason for this situation is the self-centered attitudes of policymakers and the authority of policy implementation.   

The direct impact of this dualistic process of economic development and growth seems that created by the instability of the economic policies of the country and the distribution of benefits of projects among people. The second problem with economic development and growth is policymakers have ignored the fundamental requirement of balanced growth and turning to politics of development for indulgence by media. The best example is the process of Port City Development in Colombo. The benefits of the project expand to a limited volume of population and media attempts to close eyes of people for political impression or influence.

The public needs to comprehend the issues social media out of the focus as many who use social media users have a lack of understanding of the subject matter and my feeling is the management of social media doesn’t bother about the development and growth.  I feel that social media also working like opium as the way Karl Marx talked about religions.

By Rohana R. Wasala

 ………Please understand the global movement that becomes a cat’s paw of other individuals and groups who have nothing to do with your deep faith and your sincere desire to live your religion to the fullest to reach their selfish goals. Be brave enough to reject extremism. Rise up against schools and organizations that brainwash (the faithful) to kill people in the name of religion. ….” 

• Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith to My dear Muslim brothers and sisters”of Sri Lanka

No ethnic or religious strife to be quenched in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has never had an ethnic conflict between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority. It’s only a separatist problem that had its origins in the last decades of the divisive British colonial rule that came to its demise in 1948; but its powerful ghost is still haunting Sri Lanka in the form of Western neocolonialist interventionism. Tamil separatism gradually escalated into a fully fledged military confrontation/a civil war of over twenty-five years duration (1983-2009). While the government security forces clashed with armed rebels, mostly in the jungle and while separatists mounted terror attacks on civilian targets in towns, the ordinary Sinhalese and Tamils lived in accustomed peace and amity, equally tortured by the extremists’ terrorist violence.  Mainstream Muslims (mostly following the Sufi tradition) who form the second largest ethnic minority in the country, largely Tamil speakers themselves (Tamil-Sinhala bilingualism is more common among them than among the other two communities), used to get on well with both Sinhalese and Tamils until, with the recent advent of Wahhabism/Salafism related Islamist isolationism, a sort of religious separatism came into the picture. (If there is any subterranean Muslim vs non-muslim religious division in Sri Lanka, the total responsibility for that lies with the handful of Islamist extremists who have taken cover behind certain powerful opportunistic communal Muslim politicians as strongly suggested by information gathered by the police   and army intelligence agencies since the 2019 Easter blasts and evidence revealed in the course of investigations by the PCoI. 

Apparent travesty of justice in some PCoI recommendations

Though these politicians are mentioned in the PCoI Final Report with relevant allegations of having been accountable for behaviours which were contributory towards the provocation of the Easter bombings, apparently no punitive action is recommended against them. Two outstanding cases are All Ceylon Makkal Congress leader Rishad Badiuddeen and Ceylon Tawheed Jamath leader Razik Abdul.  In stark contrast, there is a special severeness in the recommended treatment of Ven. Galaboda-Aththe Gnanasara Thera in the same context whose name appears at the end of the list: The organization that he heads should be banned on the basis of the allegation that its activities undermine religious harmony. His speeches and and actions are alleged to have partly contributed to the radicalisation of Muslim youth. The AG is to consider instituting criminal action against him under the ICCPR Act for his speeches made at Aluthgama in June 1914 and on Feb. 17, 2013 at Maharagama, which will mean that he will be charged with an unbalable offence leading to a heavy sentence. A strange case of criminal suspects with plausible evidence against them going free, while the complainant is sent to jail. There must be some power or force behind such a judicial aberration. This reminded me of (then MP, now Minister) Udaya Gammanpila’s emotional speech in parliament on May 9, 2019 on the subject of a brazen attempt at direct  interference in our judiciary by a foreign power geared to reinforce the ‘successes’ achieved through the regime change that they engineered in January 2015, which, according to him were: pushing through the until then stalled federal constitution and anti-terrorism acts, and the witch-hunt against the war heroes. In this speech Gammanpila also praised the Cardinal (who, he said, was one of the total 120 Cardinals who provided spiritual leadership to the 1.3 billion Catholics of the world) for his sagacity in calming down the targeted Catholics and in bravely identifying the Easter attacks as the result of an international conspiracy, and not the work of the country’s Muslim community (something he repeated with more conviction  during a commemorative ceremony on the second anniversary of the attacks held on April 21 this year a couple of days ago, as you will see below – RRW). The MP remarked on the existing accustomed peace and fellow feeling among the communities demonstrated in the fact that Buddhist pansalas were offered to the Catholics to perform their services, and that Muslims helped apprehend suspect extremists among them and hand them over (to the police).  

A history of colonial discrimination against the majority community through the preferential treatment of a small elite of the minorities 

Just as the European colonialists used a minuscule elite of the minority communities through preferential treatment during their rule to the disadvantage of the majority Sinhalese, whose unique historic homeland they were occupying, their successors, the Western hegemonic powers, assisted by determined Indian expansionism, are capitalizing on false allegations of Sinhalese majoritarianism and ethno-religious (Sinhalese) Buddhist intolerance by a handful extremists of the same minorities and supportive foreign funded NGOs, to undermine the Lankan state. These same neocolonialist powers seem to have found an ally in the widely known global exporters of ruthless Islamist extremism in destabilizing the Sri Lankan state purely in the interest of their geopolitical agenda in the so-called ‘Indo-Pacific’ region, where it is geographically located. It will be to the great detriment of Sri Lanka for its politicians, whether in or out of power,  to agree to kowtow to the latter (i.e.,  those that the Americans earlier held to be purveyors of Islamic extremism) while allowing them to act on the false assumption that mainstream Muslims of Sri Lanka are single-minded supporters of the few Wahhabist/Salafist extremists. 

His Eminence the Cardinal’s special statement on April 21, the second anniversary day of the Easter bombing

In his special statement on April 21, 2021 the second anniversary of the Easter Sunday attacks, His Eminence Malcom Cardinal Ranjith reiterated his not unreasonable allegations of  neglect and dereliction of duty by the highest political and civil authorities of the previous regime that allowed the attacks to be carried out. He was clearly dissatisfied with the level of progress so far made under the present administration in bringing those responsible to justice. Was there an attempt to sweep the truth under the carpet in order to let those behind the crime escape punishment as a result of some political wheeler-dealing? Politicians of both the previous and present governments acted and are acting in an indifferent, inactive manner swayed by changing political winds. He repeated his determination to pressure the authorities to deliver justice. The cardinal expressed special appreciation of the Buddhist clergy and the laity for always being with the Catholic community in dealing with the tragic aftermath of the devastating terror attacks, while preserving national peace and unity. The Catholic prelate implied that the Muslims’ attitude was different on the whole. You haven’t still come forward to condemn the Easter attacks. If you joined us in an earnest spirit, demanding (of the authorities) to find out who was responsible for the attacks, the problem would have been resolved by now….”. But, in the same breath, he stated that this lapse on the part of Muslims in general was only until that moment (of speaking), for the moulavi who spoke before him (Hassan Moulana) stressed how his fellow Muslims totally rejected the terrorists who blew themselves up (because they were not true Muslims), and how they refused to accept their bodies for burial and handed them over to the army to be disposed of in whatever manner they decided. 

The Cardinal further said (in verbatim translation): …Therefore I’d like to take this opportunity to make a special request of you my dear Muslim brothers and sisters: In geopolitics, there are its local agents and brokers who are prepared to commit any form of betrayal out of their greed for money and power. Please understand that religious extremism is a useful tool for attaining their goals. Please rise up against Wahhabist schools and organizations that brainwash (adherents) to kill in the name of religion. Let us bring pressure on the government to fulfill the promises given to the people. Because the process of finding out the truth is still not happening at an acceptable level of transparency, and because it is the expectation of everybody to see that goal achieved, let us encourage the authorities to devise an express mechanism to that end. We urge that steps be taken immediately to implement the relevant recommendations of the PCoI to ban schools and organizations that propagate Wahhabism”.  

What Ven. Dr Omalpe Sobitha said

Ven. Dr Omalpe Sobitha Thera said that the most primary obligation of a government was to protect the people. The previous government miserably failed to perform this responsibility. He pointed out that there were many allegations heard from all directions that the present government was not doing better in the area either, and that they must immediately improve matters. He remarked that though some one billion rupees was received from the Muslim World League for helping the affected families, no one knew what happened to those funds. (However, the monk seems to be ill informed about it; the money has still not been paid by the Islamic NGO as MP Wijedasa Rajapaksa complained recently. – RRW)

‘National Conference on Peace, Harmony and Coexistence’

After these background comments, let me address the subject proposed by the title. A (actually, the second) meeting  of the so-called ‘National Conference on Peace, Harmony and Coexistence’ was held at the Nelum Pokuna Theatre, Colombo on March 4, 2021. The chief guest was the general secretary of the Saudi-based pan-Islamic NGO the Muslim World League (MWL) Dr Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdul Kareem Al-Issa. (MWL leader Mohamed Abdul Kareem had pledged USD 5 million to support the families of the dead and injured in the Easter Sunday terror attacks at the first National Peace Conference that took place at the same venue under the patronage of the previous president Maithripala Sirisena on June 30, 2019; but this money has not been received yet.) This arguably questionable NGO involvement in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday suicide bombings through this rather adventitious National Conference on Peace, Harmony and Coexistence has passed almost unnoticed in the media. The negative repercussions of this well- or ill-intentioned intervention in a situation created by dangerously radicalized Muslims will be evident in the time to come. The MWL itself deserves our gratitude for offering to help us on this occasion. Not so the politicians involved, who should be the object of our reproach. (Strangely, MP Wijedasa Rajapaksa, who believes in the good intentions of the MWL, has made an issue of the nonpayment of the promised money by the Saudi based and funded NGO even by the second anniversary of the Easter bombings. Shouldn’t he have known better, I wonder. Doesn’t he know the calibre of the Muslim politicoes mentioned in the PCoI Final Report who appear to seeking undeserved refuge under the wings of the powerful global Islamic organization?)

The Hiru TV news footage of the event that I watched the next day (March 5, 2021) showed PM Mahinda Rajapaksa and former presidents Maithripala Sirisena and Chandrika Bandaranaike attending the event along with some Muslim politicians including A.H.M Fowzi, Rishad Badiuddeen and M.L.A.M Hizbullah and others (the last two having got ‘honourable’mention in the Final Report as shown above). There were also a group of Buddhist monks who had been invited as guests (though it was evident that they were unwilling guests). The news report featured two leading monks expressing their views about the incompatibility between  the Islamic religious ideology that the MWL espouses and the ethical philosophical doctrine of Buddhism where peace-making was concerned; one of them spoke in Sinhala and the other in English. The monks were the Anunayake of the Asgiriya Chapter Ven. Wendaruwe Upali Thera, and Ven. Dr Omalpe Sobhita Thera. The first, speaking in Sinhala, emphasized the ideological hiatus between religion/s and the (Buddha) dhamma: 

Anunayake of the Asgiriya Chapter Ven. Wendaruwe Upali Thera’s definition of the difference between religions and Buddhism 

The truth about our participation in this event must be stated: It needs to be remembered that we are here as a mark of respect to the order given by the Mahanayake Theras,  and that too, only as observers. It must be due to some shortcoming somewhere that this multi-religious concept has come about. All religions might be the same; but it is a well known fact that the Buddha Dhamma is not a religion. Religion and the dhamma are clearly two different things. The dhamma guards the mind whereas religion gratifies the mind. When a Buddha statue was damaged (by jihadist fanatics) at Mawanella, it was as if we were struck on the head. But won’t you accept the fact that our Mahanayake Theras did not incite the Buddhist public to violence (in retaliation)? How forbearing we were (even under such provocation)! How well were peace and harmony preserved avoiding a bloodbath after the April 21 attacks due to the calming voice of (His Eminence) the Cardinal! In reality, we don’t have anything to learn from  you about peaceful coexistence; it is we who are teaching you (now) and have taught you (before this moment) about it”. 

(What I have added parenthetically and what I have specially emphasized in my translation here are naturally grasped by a Sinhala speaking audience without them being explicitly expressed. The valid point the monk raises here is something not very easy for a non-Buddhist or a non-Sinhala speaker to grasp and appreciate. Even today, in rural Sri Lanka, Christians are colloquially mentioned by Buddhist neighbours among themselves as ‘agamkarayo’ (people of religion), the implication being that what they follow for moral and spiritual guidance, Buddhism, is not a religion. The important Article 5 of the Kandyan Convention of 1815 contains the crucial phrase The Religion of the Boodhoo….” in its English version (The phrase was actually a product of a political and linguistic sleight of hand by ace intriguer and spy John D’oyly who drafted it). The Sinhala original, which was really important from the point of view of the occupied nation, had the equivalent of the ‘sasana of the Buddha’ or Buddhist establishment and the ‘agama’ (religion) of the devas (deities)”; but this didn’t appear in D’oyly’s English version. When Christian Europeans arrived in Sri Lanka at the beginning of the 16th century, there was no religion in the modern sense in the country, but a highly cultured society with its Buddhist spiritual foundation, the Buddha Sasana and its characteristic practices and cultural rituals; there was no Buddhist ‘religion’. (Of course, no one could expect a positive response to the monk’s words from the head of an Islamic NGO that is devoted to the task of promoting a particular brand of  religion in a world where the scientific knowledge enlightened people are fast moving towards a global humane culture without religion.)

Ven. Dr Sobitha’s challenge to the Islamic peacemakers 

In the course of his speech, which was in English, the other monk, Ven. Dr Omalpe Sobhita, said, as reproduced here thus unedited: While we are trying to be united together as Sinhalese, Tamils, Buddhists, Christians and Hindus, it is regretted that our Muslim friends are demanding for a separate food system, they are demanding for separate law and order system, separate uniform and dress code, separate education, separate universities, separate, separate, and separate. Ultimately, we understand this separatism paved the way for separate from the whole. Actually, friends, we are hurt so much; we are disappointed. Then we find out what is the  reason for these different ideas and separatism. Then I found the very reason is the Quran. I am not criticising the Quran. I am revealing the truth. Let me quote certain phrases of the Quran: ‘Allah will shed human blood while angels praise in heaven (Surah Al Baqarah No 2); again, ‘Kill disbelievers wherever you find them, but if they desist in their unbelief, don’t kill them’ (Surah Al Baqarah). ‘Attack on the necks of the disbelievers whenever you fight against them. Those who die fighting for Allah will be rewarded’ (Surah Muhammad No 47). Lastly, I just quote this line (from) Surah Al Fath: ‘If you refuse to fight for Allah, he will punish you with a painful doom’.  If this is the teaching in this holy book, how can it be implemented to achieve peace and harmony in this society? Please enlighten us if we are wrong, and let us enlighten you if you are wrong”.

From their point of view, the monks here, no doubt, believe that they have hit the nail on the head: the root of the trouble is in the religion itself, in its basic teachings (but this view is not likely to be shared even by the least dogmatic Muslim. Dr Omalpe Sobhita’s desperate challenge or invitation to some sort of intellectual or ideological interaction is not likely to be entertained by the MWL or its local proteges. But the monk cannot be blamed for that. The BBS leader Ven. Galaboda-Aththe Gnanasara has, on a number of occasions, also hinted at the idea of arranging a peaceful resolution of the growing Islamic extremist problem through a rational dialogue or debate with Islamists, the sort of adversarial but cultured interreligious disputation between erudite Buddhist monks and unrelenting Christian missionaries equally well versed in their religion in the form of the famous Five Great Debates (Pancha Maha Vadaya) including the iconic Panadura Vadaya (1873) in the latter part of the 19th century. The missionaries were well and truly beaten by the monks in this ideological confrontation. The news of the Panadura Debate impressed the American soldier, journalist, lawyer and theosophist Colonel Henry Steel Olcott. His arrival in Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) in 1881 contributed to the boosting of the already burgeoning Buddhist revivalism in the island. But such an easy resolution of the anti-Buddhist Islamic fundamentalist problem is impossible, given the fact that Muslim believers, particularly the Wahhabist literalists that the MWL was believed to represent in the past (Wikipedia) will never be amenable to any form of argument that contradicts Quranic teachings or challenges their infallibility. It would be too naive for these monks to even remotely imagine that their form of ‘non-religious’ (Buddhism is not a religion) polemic will prevail against what is accepted as divine revelations by Muslims the world over. By now, they are informed enough about the differences between Muslims’ religious beliefs and their own characteristically liberal Buddhist attitudes; these differences cannot be resolved through dialogue with those extremists. For dogmatic Muslims, religion and politics are one. Something that the Islamic peacemakers should not overlook is the fact that these monks know more about the religion of Islam than they (Islamic peacemakers) themselves probably know about Buddhism.

Any reason for MWL’s involvement?

As far as I can see, there is no reason why the NGO known as the Muslim World League should offer to make peace or mediate between Sri Lanka’s minority Muslims and their non-Muslim neighbours (the majority of whom are Buddhists) between whom there has never been any religious controversy  or physical clash that we know of in our post-independence history. A few Buddhist monks started sounding warnings about foreign funded promoters of potentially violent forms of Islamism in the country at least two decades ago, and have come out with evidence of unacceptable activities targeting Buddhists (and Tamil Hindus) by Islamic and other religious extremists; they have brought it to the attention of the authorities. But the monks’ complaints fell on deaf ears. Nothing was done about provocative anti-Buddhist excesses committed by Jihadists, such as encroaching on ancient Buddhist archaeological sites, vandalizing Buddha statues, and raising false allegations against the activist monks to demean and deprecate them in the eyes of the world. The most prominent one among these monks was reported to have been described by the leading April suicide bomber Zaharan, as a ‘demon’. Zaharan had been angered to call Ven. Gnanasara a demon by his relentless but just criticism of the former’s violent movement. 

During the Presidential Commission of Inquiry on the Easter attacks (PCoI) investigations it was revealed, as the media reported, that though Zaharan’s original plan was to bomb the Kandy  Perahera which is annually held in August, he changed his target and advanced the time of attack in order to make use of the then prevailing lax national security situation under Yahapalanaya to avoid the risk of his plan being discovered and aborted. Attackers did not differentiate between Buddhists and Catholics. However, it was evident that anti-Buddhist elements and media regretted that there was no indication of a Buddhist link to the bombings.

Why does a Muslim World NGO seem to take it upon itself to re-create the interreligious peace that is already there? This is like the West’s reconciliation mantra. It is true that a handful of Islamic extremists who probably had enjoyed the patronage of the Saudi-based movement tried to wreck that peace in the name of the religion that the MWL fosters, which means that the MWL should do better to rehabilitate those misguided Islamists from among whom the suicide bombers emerged. Be that as it may, the fortuitous National Conference on Peace, Harmony and Coexistence that hosted its chief met about two and a half months after the bombings. No doubt the organization has good intentions. When it was first held, the Yahapalana president Sirisena presided, with his predecessors Mahinda and Chandrika in attendance. People are yet to learn what new thing they learned about peace, harmony and coexistence? The same dignitaries were dutifully present at the NGO’s recent  second meeting. What did they achieve for the country by having this sort of thing organized? What is more important?National dignity need not be relinquished in accepting charity offered in friendship. National sovereignty was debased and national security compromised under president Sirisena. Should that evil legacy be allowed to continue into the future indefinitely? Unfortunately, there has been no clarity in this department of governance in the wake of the yahapalana maladministration, a situation worsened by the choppy waters of humanity denying geopolitics amidst the still rampant the Covid-19 pandemic. The MWL, on other hand, should be careful not to be misled by the local promoters of Islamist extremism that caused the Easter Sunday attacks to take place two years ago.  

The solution lies mainly with the mainstream Muslims 

I wish to conclude this piece with the following part of the Cardinal’s appeal to his dear Muslim brothers and sisters” during his commemorative statement on April 21 aforementioned, which makes oblique reference to the interventionist global powers that instrumentalise Islamist fundamentalism in pursuit of their geopolitical agendas:  ………Please understand the global movement that becomes a cat’s paw of other individuals and groups who have nothing to do with your deep faith and your sincere desire to live your religion to the fullest to reach their selfish goals. Be brave enough to reject extremism. Rise up against schools and organizations that brainwash (the faithful) to kill people in the name of religion. ….”    

චන්ද්‍රසේන පණ්ඩිතගේ විසිනි

නලා කාරයාත් හොද කලා කාරයෙකි. නලාවේ හඩ ගෙනහැර පාන්නේ, එය පිඹින නලාකාරයාගේ කලාත්මක කුශලතාවයයි.  ඒ කුශලතාවයට, නයෙක් මෙන්ම සමාජයක් වුවද නැටවිය හැකිය. මේ නැටවීම අපූරු කලාවක් වන අතර, නැටවීම නම් වූ සංකල්පයත් සමග නටන්නෙක්ද ඉස්මතුවේ. මේ ඉස්මතුවූ නව චරිතය, නැට්ටුවා ලෙස කරලියට එනවිටම නලා කාරයාගේ තාලයට ගයන නව චරිතයක්ද ඉස්මතුවේ. ඒ ගායකයා ලෙස සමාජගතවන නව කලා කරුවෙකි, මේ වාදනය, ගායනය, හා නර්තණය බැලීම සදහා එක් රොක් වෙන සමාජ බලකායක්ද ඉස්මතුවන අතර. එම නව බලකාය ප්‍රේක්ෂකයින් වශයෙන් හැදින්වේ.මේ නලා කාරයා කලාකාරයා බවට පත්වී සිදු කරන ලද  සමාජ විප්ලවයයි.

මේ විප්ලවය කිරීමට තුවක්කු බයිනෙත්තු හෝ අත් බෝම්බ ඇවැසි නොවේ. සත්‍ය වශයෙන්ම අවශ්‍ය වන්නේ හොද නලාවක් හා එය මනාව හැසිරවිය හැකි නලාකාරයෙක් පමණි. මේ කලා කාරයා බවට පත්වූ නලා කාරයා මුළු මහත් සමාජයම තම කලා කුශලතාවයන් මගින් හසුරවන බල මුළුවක් බවට පත්වී සමාජයට විවිධ ආකාරයේ පණිවුඩ නිකුත් කිරීම ආරම්භ කරයි. ඔහු දෙන පණිවුඩය, සමාජය විසින් ඩැහැගන්නේ මහත් අභිමානයෙනි. ඒ පණිවුඩය තුල ඇති ගුණාත්මක බාවය සම්බන්ධව වෙහෙසෙනවාට වඩා, එය වැලදගෙන මනෝරාජ්‍යයයීය කලා කරුවෙක් බවට පත්ව කටයුතු කිරීමට ජනතාව පෙලඹේ. මෙය සමාජීය යතාර්ථයයි. නලා කාරයාගේ අරමුණ සමාජයට හොද පණිවිඩයක් ලබාදී ගුණ ගරුක සමාජයක් ගොඩ නැංවීම නම්, ඔහු මේ කලා බලමුළුව යොදා සමාජය ගොඩගන්නා අතරම, එහි ප්‍රතිවිරුද්ධය වුවද ඔහුට ඉටු කල හැක.

කලාව තුලින් සමාජය නව මාවතකට ගෙන ඒම සදහා ජනතා හිතවාදී මාවතේ කලාව මෙහෙය වන විට එය සමාජ විප්ලවයක් වශයෙන් දකින මනසට, ජනතා ද්‍රෝහී මගෙහි කලාව හසුරවන කලා කරුවා දකින්නේ  ප්‍රති විප්ලවවාදී කලා කරුවෙකු වශයෙනි. කලාවට කල හැකි කාර්ය භාරය අතිමහත්ය. කාර්යක් කිරීමට ශක්තියක් ඇවැසි වන බව අපි දනිමු, ඒ මත පදනම්ව බලන විට කලාව යනු ප්‍රබල ශක්ති ප්‍රභවයකි. මේ ශක්ති ප්‍රභවයෙහි බලය හදුනාගත්තවුන් ඒ ශක්ති ප්‍රභවය තමන්ගේ සතුරන්ව පුළුස්සා දමන්නට පාවිච්චි කරන්නේ ඉතාමත් සියුම් ලෙසය, කලාත්මක ලෙසය,

ඇත්තටම මේ කලාවට ඔතරම් ප්‍රබල කාර්යයක් ඉටුකල හැකි ශක්ති ප්‍රභවයක්ද? යන පැනය මේ අවස්ථාවේදී මිනිස් මනස තුල මතුව ඒ. කලාව මොටකර ඇති සමාජයක, ජන මනස තුල පැන නගින එක ප්‍රශ්නයකි ඒ. කලාවෙන් මොනවාද කල හැක්කේ, කලාව කන්නද? යන ප්‍රශ්න ඇසූ මෙරට සිටි ප්‍රබල දේශපාලකයින් තමන්ගේ දේශපාලන රැස්වීම් පවත්වන විට, දේශපාලන කතාවකට පසු ගායකයකුගේ හෝ ගායිකාවකගේ ගැයුමක්  යොදා ගත්තේ ජනතාව නොසෙල්වී රැස්වීම් බූමියේ රදවා ගැනීමටය. දේශපාලකයාගේ කථාවෙන් රැස්වීම් භූමිය හැර යාමට සිතක් පහල කරව ගන්නා ප්‍රේක්ෂකයාගේ මනසහි ගත් තීරණය වෙනස් කර, භූමියේ තව දුරටත් රදවා ගන්නා තීරණය ගන්නේ කලා කරුවාගේ ඇති ජන මනසට බලපෑම් කිරීමට ඇති ශක්තිය හේතුවෙණි.

වාදනය, ගායනය, නර්තණය මිනිස් සමාජයට උරුම වූයේ දිව්‍ය ලෝකයෙන් නම් ඒ දිව්‍ය ලෝකයට ඤාතිත්වයක් දරණ කලා කරුවා, මේ භූමියේ දේශපාලනය කරන දේශපාලකයා අභිමුවේදී නිවටව නියාළුව සිටිය යුතු නොවේ. නමුත් මේ රටේ සිටින කලාකරුවන්යයි කියා ගත් පරපුර දෙස බලන විට, සැබෑ ලෙසම මේ කලා පරපුර, යුගයේ කාර්යභාරය ඉටුකරනවාද? යන පැනය, අප ඉදිරියේ සිටගෙන, ඇයි මේ සම්බන්ධව කතිකාවතක් ආරම්භ නොකරන්නේ යන පැනය අසන්නේ, අපටද බලපෑම් කරමිණි. අපේ කලා කරුවා පසුගිය ඉතිහාසයේ ලද ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨ යුද ජයග්‍රහණය උදෙසා හෝ ලැබූ යුධ ජයග්‍රහණයේ බලය ජන මනස තුල ස්තාපිත කරන්නට සිදු කලේ කුමක්ද යන පැනය ඉදිරියේ, අපව අතරමං නොකරවන්නේ, සුනිල් එදිරිසිංහයන්, සහේලි, හා ” ධවල භීෂණය” හා බැදුන කලා පරපුරයි. මේ යුධ ජයග්‍රහණය ඉදිරියේ අපේ සම්භාව්‍ය කලාකරුවන් අතරමංවෙලා සිටියේ ඩොලර් නෝට්ටු අතරේ දැයි ප්‍රශ්නයක් ජන මනස තුල ඇත. ජාට්ඝියේ අභිමානවත් අවස්තාවක ගයන්නට සිතෙහි ගී පදවැල් මතු නොවෙන කළා කාරයා ඔබින්නේ කුණු බක්කියට මිස ඉහළ පුද සත්කාර ලැබීමට නම් නොවේ. අපේ කළා පරපුරට  ඇයි එහෙම උනේ යන පැනය ජන මනස තුල ප්‍රබලව ගමන් කරන පණිවුඩයයි. මේ රටේ ප්‍රබල ගීත රචකයින්ගේ පෑන් තුඩින් මේ උදාර කර්තව්‍යය සම්බන්ධව ගී පදවැල් නොලිය වුණෙ ඔවුන් මුදල් අරබයා ගී පදවැල් ලියූ සිරගත කලාකරුවන්වූ බැවින්ය යන මතය ජන හද තුල බුර බුරා දෙන දෝංකාරයයි.සැබෑ කරුණද වන්නේ එයයි.

මෙරට ගීත රචකයින් හා ගායකයින් හා ගායිකාවන් මේ අභිමානවත් යුධ ජයග්‍රහණය ඉදිරියේ නිදි පෙති අරගත්තවුන්සේ නිද්‍රාවට පත්ව සිටින විට, සාමාන්‍ය ජනතා සිත්වලින් මේ යුද්ධය හා එහි වටිනාකම ක්‍රම ක්‍රමයෙන් මැකී යෑම සිදුවෙනු ඇත. අප ජන හදවත් තුල මේ යුධ ජයග්‍රහණය හා බැදුන වර්තමාන සංවර්ධන කාර්යයන් නිධානයක් සේ නිධන්ගත කරවන ගීතාවලියක අවශ්‍යතාවය රට ඉදිරියේ මතුව පවතී. එය කලාකරුවන් උදෙසා පවතින අභීයෝගයකි. නමුත් කිසිදු කලාකරුවෙක් ඒ කාර්යට අත ගැසුවේ නැත. යුද්ධය නිම කිරීම තුලින් ලද නිදහස උපයෝගී කරගෙන සංදර්ශන පවත්වමින් මුදල් ඉපයීමේ කාර්යටම සිය කාලය යොමුකළ කලාකරුවා මෙරට ජනමනස තුල ඒ වටිනා පණිවුඩය නිධන් නොකර යලිත් ජනමනස තුල ත්‍රස්තවාදී බිජ රෝපණය වී පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරය සිදුවී වසර දෙකකට පසුව, කොහිද යුක්තිය, කොහිද ධර්මය, කොහිද නිතිය යයි අසන්නට කිසිදු අයිතියක් නැති බව කීමට සිදුව තිබේ. මුදල් පසු පසම හඹා යන ඔබලා හෙට අනිද්දා මේ අපරාධකාරයින්ව අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන දඬුවම් දීමට කටයුතු කරන විට “යදමින් බැද විලංගුලා මගේ පුතා රැගෙන යා” යයි කියමින් ඔවුන් වෙනුවෙන් ගී ගැයුවද මෙරට ජනතාව පුදුම නොවෙති. ඒ අපේ කළා කරුවන්ගේ ස්වභාවයයි රටට ජාතියට වැඩදායි කලාකරුවන්ගේ ප්‍රබල හිඟයක් ඇතිබව ඉතා පැහැදිලිව පෙනේ…

චන්ද්‍රසේන පණ්ඩිතගේ විසිනි

INSIGHT BY SUNIL KUMAR

But China has told us take whatever (money) necessary and pay back whenever possible.” Parliamentarian S.B. Dissanayake (to Rev. Keppitiyagoda Siriwimala Thero – 4.4.2021)

Days after the presidential election of 2010, the Rajapaksa siblings gathered to enjoy an evening of musical extravaganza. Organised by the state-owned ITN and titled Jaya Jayawe (Victory Victorious), the show was billed as a Musical tribute to the Heroes of the Nation.” The evening began with a lullaby about how King Mihindu” and his Chief General Gotabaya” saved Mother Lanka from demons. Song after saccharine song followed, hailing the wisdom and valour the Heroes of the Nation,” Mahinda Rajapaksa and – to a lesser extent – Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The evening ended with a tribute to the Rajapaksa sibling’s heaven-dwelling mother.

In May 2009, the royal astrologer” had predicted that President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Rajapaksas will rule this country for a long time.” Jaya Jayawe was a symbol of this New Civilisation,” veteran politician J.R.P. Sooriyapperuma explained in his guest lecture. The message was clear. The Rajapaksas saved Sri Lanka. Therefore, like in the old folk and fairy tales, the country belonged to them. All Lankans owed them a sacred duty of obedience.

Monarchy, said Voltaire in A Philosophical Dictionary, is a system where a single individual exercises absolute power, accumulates all honours and tastes all pleasures, provided he has plenty of money.” Kingdoms can be poor but kings can’t. The Rajapaksas faced this dilemma in 2006, when they came up with the plan to transform the family’s birthplace Hambantota from a sleepy backwater into a dazzling, bustling metropolis.

The first item on the agenda was the Hambantota Port. Neither India nor international lending agencies were willing to shell out the necessary funds. That was when China stepped in. The Rajapaksas needed a patron with deep pockets. China was looking for clients in South Asia. It was a match made in Tiãn (Chinese Heaven).

Sri Lanka’s gravitation towards China’s orbit accelerated with the advent of President Xi Jinping and his Belt-and-Road fantasy. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor was gathering steam. An artificial island on India’s doorstep, built and controlled by Beijing, fitted in with China’s aggressive moves to become the predominant power in South Asia, a prelude to its larger plans to replace the US as the new global hegemon.

Official Lankan propaganda claimed that the idea of an artificial island was birthed in President Mahinda’s brain. In reality, it was contained in an unsolicited proposal by the China Harbour Engineering Company. Going by Chamal Rajapaksa’s recent revelations, this was the time that plans were being made to construct two massive reservoirs in the Sinharaja Forest. Sri Lanka was being transformed into a politico-economic periphery of China. To ensure their place as Sri Lanka’s overlords, the Rajapaksas were becoming China’s satraps.

These best laid plans came unstuck in 2015 when Mahinda Rajapaksa lost the presidency. Had he won, Sri Lanka’s future as a Rajapaksa fiefdom and a Chinese client-state would have been set in stone. Though the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration violated many of its pledges – not least the one to put an end to the Port City project – it enabled Sri Lanka to be freer internally and more non-aligned externally.

So the country the Rajapaksas regained in November 2019 was not quite the country they lost in January 2015. In the intervening five years, people had lost their fear, and become accustomed to criticise and ridicule their leaders. The rule of law had been restored to some extent. A handful of Rajapaksas and Rajapaksa acolytes had been charged with crimes ranging from corruption to murder in courts of law. Sri Lanka, while vulnerable to Chinese inveiglements, had ceased being a Chinese satellite on the regional and world stage.

That semi-democratic interregnum has compelled the Gotabaya-Mahinda regime to start from square one. Familial rule has to be restored and dynastic succession assured. Sri Lankans have to be returned to the old habit of unquestioning obedience. Sri Lanka needs to be placed back in China’s orbit.

Little wonder the family is in a hurry. To quote the immortal Khayyam, the Bird of Time has but a little way to fly…”

The House of Rajapaksa

In Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens introduces the reader to the Circumlocution Office. This unique institution has a finger in the largest public pie, and in the smallest public tart,” and is peerless in perceiving how not to do things.” From the economy to pandemic-control, from environment to corruption, the performance of the Gotabaya-Mahinda regime resembles this Dickens’ invention. But when it comes to protecting core Rajapaksa interests, the Siblings move with a speed and a focus that leave their opponents scrambling to understand let along respond adequately.

The Rajapaksas have also mastered the art of timing. Lasantha Wickremetunga was murdered one week after the taking of Killinochchi and one day before the fall of Elephant Pass. Shani Abeysekara was arrested four days before the 2020 parliamentary election. Hejaaz Hisbullah was arrested on the day before the Sinhala and Tamil New Year in 2020.

This New Year season was an extra busy time for the government. On April 13, civil society activist Asela Samptha was arrested for poking fun at tuition master-turned-economic guru Bandula Gunawardane’s relief package.” Minister Sarath Weerasekara used the holidays to announce government plans to amend the penal code to punish those who disseminate fake news” or engage in extremist propaganda” on the internet.

On April 9, Premier Mahinda tabled a resolution in parliament which aims to free Rajapaksa siblings, sons, nephews, cousins, and acolytes from all legal entanglements. Never mind that this amounts to a gross violation of the doctrine of separation of powers, as the BASL points out. The only separation of powers the Family is willing to tolerate is the one within the Family. The UNHCR Resolution 46/1 is spot on. Under Rajapaksa rule, all doors to justice and accountability will remain closed and bolted.

The Rajapaksas also used the festival season to unveil another seminal piece of legislation, the Colombo Port City Bill. The Bill turns the Port City into a Chinese enclave. Unsurprisingly. Why else would China pump money into creating an artificial island off Sri Lanka, but to create its own exclave? The raison d’être for Colombo Port City is to give China a secure foothold on India’s doorstep. The Rajapaksas ignoring this danger was understandable. They were doing a deal, Chinese patronage for Lankan fealty. The rest of us have no right to be surprised or outraged. The Colombo Port City was never going to be anything but a Chinese city. If we didn’t see it, it was because we opted not to.

The world seems to be on the verge of a new cold war, with Asia as its main theatre of conflict. This week, top US intelligence officials provided the American Senate with their assessment of threats facing US interests globally. China tops the list. Avril Haines, director of national intelligence, described China as a near-peer competitor challenging the United States in multiple arenas, while pushing to revise global norms in ways that favor the authoritarian Chinese system.” President Joe Biden’s first virtual engagement was with the leaders of the QUAD countries, a loose formation grouping US with India, Australia, and Japan, aimed mainly at containing China. Mr. Biden’s first in-person meeting was with the Japanese prime minister, with China being the number one item on the agenda.

When big powers are lining up against each other, the best place for small countries like ours is the sidelines, aligned with none and opposed to none. If ever there was a time to stick to a non-aligned position vis-a-vis both the US and China, that is now. But thanks to Rajapaksas’ power hunger, Sri Lanka is placing herself right in the middle of the battle zone.

Two back-to-back happenings this week serve as a warning of the pitfalls of our new dependent status. On April 13 it was reported that the Chinese Defence Minister will visit Sri Lanka later in the month. On April 14 an Indian navy destroyer made a sudden visit to Sri Lanka for a two day visit.

The future of the House of Rajapaksa cannot be secured without Chinese patronage. The price of that deal is likely to be Sri Lanka’s disastrous entanglement in the coming cold war. When big powers want to prick each other, the chosen method is slashing the other’s proxies. So it was in the last cold war. So it will be in the coming one.

A revolt in the Rajapaksa temple?

At his one and only media conference as presidential candidate, Gotabaya Rajapaksa admonished the journalists for asking questions about his past.  You are talking all the time on the past, no. Ask the future. I’m trying to become the president of the future Sri Lanka. If you concentrate on the future, I think it is better,” he said, interspersing his words with his signature laughter.

The past Gotabaya Rajapaksa wanted us to forget is haunting two men who laboured more than most to make him president. Wijeydasa Rajapakhse, by his own admission, used his authority and influence as justice minister to keep Gotabaya and other Rajapaksas out of jail. Muruttetuwe Ananda Threo turned his temple into the Rajapaksa political headquarters, when the electorate ousted the Brothers from power. This week, these two Rajapaksa acolytes reportedly had a taste of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s ire.

President Gotabaya’s alleged conduct towards Mr. Rajapakshe and Muruttetuwe Thero bears a striking resemblance to Defence Secretary Gotabaya’s reported conduct towards the then Sunday Leader editor, Frederica Jansz. In July 2012, Ms. Jansz called Mr. Rajapaksa over a Swiss puppy. An enraged Mr. Rajapaksa reportedly called Ms. Jansz a shit eating pig” and threatened her. In less than three months, a Rajapaksa cipher purchased the Sunday Leader. Out of a job and fearful for her life, Ms. Jansz fled the country.

Threatening critics is in the Rajapaksa blood. On November 25, 2007, the Sunday Leader reported the details of an alleged conversation between President Mahinda Rajapaksa and editor Lasantha Wickremetunga. I will show you what it is to be scared,” the President allegedly told the Editor. I will rest only once I have destroyed you.”

In some places, the past is the present and the future.

I am not reconciled to a world in which a gesture or a word misunderstood can cost a life”, wrote Heinrich Böll in Billiards at Half Past Nine. Thanks in part to men like Wijeydasa Rajapakshe and Muruttetuwe Thero, Sri Lanka is back in that world where words can have lethal consequences. There might be a shade of poetic justice in what is happening to them. Still, so long as they remain victims of Rajapaksa vengeance (they might shift to a song of obedience soon, as they did during the 20th Amendment drama), they deserve the solidarity of those who value their own freedom.

The spat, irrespective of its final outcome, is important because it demonstrates that the Rajapaksa project rests on just one lynchpin, Premier Mahinda. He is the only Rajapaksa who is capable of hegemony. If his siblings and sons were to stay in power, after him, their rule will be based primarily, even exclusively, on dominance. Only Mahinda Rajapaksa can hold the disparate coalition together, only he can prevent the base from cracking.

The art of gaining the consent of allies with the optimum mix of persuasion and coercion, a Mahinda Rajapaksa forte, is clearly beyond the capacity of President Gotabaya. The image of him as a hegemonic figure was an artificial construct, an illusion that has not worn well. President Gotabaya is Defence Secretary Gotabaya in a bush shirt. If anything is restraining him – and the family as a whole – it is probably the Magnitsky Act which became global only in 2016. That piece of legislation is used by the United States and several other Western nations to identify (some) human rights offenders, and impose travel bans and asset freezes on them. Not a prospect the Rajapaksas can take lightly, given their familial connections with the US.

The essence of Gotabaya-Mahinda rule is restorationist. The Rajapaksas fought to regain power not to enthrone their loyal acolytes (lay or ordained) but to enthrone themselves. The purpose of every controversial deed of the last 17 months was to set the House of Rajapaksa on a solid foundation. That those very deeds are exacerbating the divisions within the government is a result of the changed politico-psychological landscape the reincarnated Rajapaksa project is compelled to navigate.

The House of Rajapaksa came into being with Mahinda Rajapaksa. Can it survive sans him? What role will the military play in a Gotabaya-Basil-Namal (or a Basil-Namal) government? What will Beijing do to ensure its political, economic and security interests are not undermined by its client’s internal political developments? Will we find ourselves in the same unenviable condition countries like Guatemala, Chile, Grenada et al found themselves during the Cold War, subject to coups and conspiracies, paying the penalty of being a super-power’s dependent?

Mahinda Rajapaksa is our king…. King Rajapaksa’s name will be written in history in letters of gold…” a boy barely older than a toddler lisped at the 2010 musical extravaganza. Will those gold letters be in mandarin?

Tony Donaldson, with underlining emphasis inserted bt The Editor, Thuppahi Courtesy Thuppahi’s Blog

On 1 October 1949, the People’s Republic of China was proclaimed by Mao Zedong. Two months later, on 6 January 1950 the Ceylon government recognised Red China– one of the first countries to do so. Seven years later, in early 1957, the Premier of China, Zhou Enlai, made an historic five-day visit to the island, which paved the way for the establishing of diplomatic relations between Ceylon and China. Before exploring Zhou’s visit to Ceylon, it is worth diverting for a moment to briefly sketch the key events that led to his historic visit.

Zhou Enlai in China relaxing shortly after his trip to Ceylon.The story begins in 1950. A few months after Mao’s proclamation, a remarkable telex from Hong Kong arrived on the desk of Terence de Soysa at the C. W. Mackie & Co in Colombo.[1] The telex was offering a deal to purchase rubber from Ceylon to be shipped to Red China. At the time however, the US and UK did not recognize China and frowned on countries having anything to do with China. Fully realising the dilemma, Terence de Sosya went to meet the Prime Minister of Ceylon D. S. Senanayake to seek his advice on the proposed rubber deal, as described by his son Rohan:

He [my father Terence] related how he came to office one morning, in 1950, if I remember right, to find a telex from a Hong Kong agent. He was offering to pay 8 old pence per pound of rubber more than the then world-market price of 40 old pence per pound — if he would ship to Red China. None of the other rubber producing countries, for example, Thailand and Malaysia, would do so. Ceylon was a friend of America, which was then at war with China, in the Korean War. Thus, my father was in a quandary.

Having ascertained it was not a joke, he went and met the Prime Minister, D. S. Senanayake, and asked him what action to take in view of the ongoing Korean War. D.S. asked him, Terence, is it good for our country?” When my father told him it was very good, D. S. told him to go ahead — it was in our interest to do so.[2]

This was the beginning of trade ties between Ceylon and China. While it cannot be ascertained whether Terence de Soysa’s rubber deal with Red China occurred before or after the Ceylon government’s recognition of China in 1950 — it doesn’t matter as a country can freely trade with another country even if it doesn’t recognise the government of that country. Whatever the circumstances, Terence de Soysa’s deal with China was the foundation stone” of the Rubber-Rice Pact, which was signed in Peking two years later on 4 October 1952. During the signing of the Pact, the leader of the Ceylon delegation to Peking, R. G. Senanayake, a cousin of D.S., marked the occasion by inviting Premier Zhou Enlai to visit to Ceylon. These developments indirectly helped to accelerate decolonialisation in Ceylon.

However, the invitation to Premier Zhou fell into abeyance the following year after Sir John Kotelawala became Prime Minister of Ceylon. Pro-Western, and staunchly anti-communist, Sir John refused to allow Zhou Enlai’s goodwill delegation to visit Ceylon. The situation reverted back again however, after Sir John lost power to SWRD Bandaranaike in 1956. Shortly after coming to power, SWRD rekindled R. G. Senanayake’s invitation to Zhou Enlai, and it was agreed that Premier Zhou Enlai and a Chinese delegation would visit Ceylon during Independence Day celebrations in February 1957.

Zhou Enlai arrived in Ceylon on 31 January 1957. The next day (1 February), Premier Zhou and his delegation, which included Deputy Premier Ho Lung, began a provincial tour to the hill country, including Kandy and Peradeniya. The party travelled by road from Colombo – occasionally stopping at a village for refreshments and to greet local villagers.

On visiting the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens, Premier Zhou planted a sapling to commemorate his visit to the island. He and the Chinese delegation also visited Peradeniya University. Here, they met the Vice-Chancellor Sir Nicholas Attygalle and senior university officials. These visits and meetings were recorded in black and white photographs published in the Ceylon Daily News, which remain a valuable historical record of Zhou Enlai’s visit to the island.

  A visit to the Peradeniya University: Premier Zhou Enlai is seen (left) with the Vice-Chancellor, Sir Nicholas Attygalle and the Chinese Vice-Premier, Mr. Ho Lung (right).

 The Vice-Chancellor of Peradeniya University Sir Nicholas Attygalle receives a gift from Premier Zhou Enlai on behalf of the University.

 Premier Zhou Enlai plants a sapling at Peradeniya Botanical Gardens to commemorate his visit – a tradition which all important visitors follow.

In Kandy, Mr. Zhou visited the Sri Dalada Maligawa and handed over a cheque to the Diyawadana Nilame, Mr. C. B. Nugawela and the Nayake Theros as a gift for work on the temple. As noted in the Ceylon Daily News, at the time, Zhou’s donation to the Maligawa was the biggest single donation ever offered by a distinguished visitor, royal or commoner, Buddhist or non-Buddhist.” Mr. Zhou also presented the Maligawa with a set of valuable Buddhist books containing pictures of paintings and statues of Gautama Buddha, edited by the Chinese Buddhists’ Association, and published by the National Publishing House of Peking.

Premier Zhou also met the Mayor of Kandy, Mr. E. L. Senanayake. After a civic address of welcome given by the Mayor, Mr. Zhou delivered a speech to the citizens of Kandy thanking them for their warm and enthusiastic welcome and went on to predict a successful future for Ceylon-China relations.

 Premier Zhou Enlai is accorded a civic reception as he enters the city of Kandy. Here, Mr. E. L. Senanayake, the Mayor, is seen with the visiting Premier, who spoke to the vast gathering that turned out to welcome him.

Press conference with Premier Zhou Enlai in Colombo

Premier Zhou and his party returned to Colombo on 3 February to attend Independence Day events on the following day. Before leaving Ceylon, on the afternoon of Tuesday 5 February, Zhou Enlai held a one-hour press conference at Queen’s House. During the press conference, Zhou declared: The peace and prosperity of Asia must be planned and worked out by Asians themselves – on the principles adumbrated at Bandung.”[3]

He disliked the idea of Asian countries obtaining foreign assistance with strings attached,” as such assistance inevitably led to military packs.” This process, he said, was bad for the economy of the country receiving assistance. He also discussed Hungary, the US, India, Pakistan, and the Kashmir problem. The following are edited extracts from the press conference, taken from the article ‘Beware Foreign Aid with Strings’, published in the Ceylon Daily News on 6 February 1957.

What are conditions like in China for the Catholic Church?

China has no particular dislike for the Catholic Church. There are 3,000,000 Catholics in China. China allows people of various religious persuasions to practice their religions without hindrance.

What is the purpose of your present tour of Asia?

My visit has three purposes: (a) to seek friendship, (b) to seek for peace, and (c) to seek for knowledge. We have achieved all three purposes in our visits to eight Asian countries.[4] We have found that the people of the eight Asian countries strongly want peace and friendship. We have learnt much from these countries. We have always thought that we have something good in our own countries which can be learned from other countries. We also contacted the leaders of the eight Asian countries for discussing matters of mutual interest on the basis of the Bandung Principles of peaceful coexistence. Efforts for the promotion of peace and cooperation will be continued.

What agreements have been reached for economic cooperation between Ceylon and China?

Nothing specific has been finalised between Ceylon and China.

Do you think UN mediators will settle the problem of Kashmir?

We were always of the opinion that no good result can be achieved by referring the question to the UN. We are also not in favour of UN forces being sent to Kashmir. We appeal to India and Pakistan to seek a peaceful solution by themselves. At present, the Western countries are exploiting the situation to create conflict between the two countries. The attention of the world is now focused on the Middle East and Asian countries. I appeal to these countries to stand united on the basis of the Bandung Principles in order to shake off the shackles left behind by colonialism.

In your meeting with the two Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan, have you discussed the basis of a mutual settlement?

The Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan did not reject our appeal and of course, for the two sides to have direct negotiations it is probably not an easy thing. It is because there are difficulties in the way of such direct negotiations that we are trying to promote such direct negotiations instead of allowing Western countries to sow dissension.

What is your view of Mr Eisenhower’s Middle East Doctrine?

The purpose of the Middle East program of Mr Eisenhower is to take the place of Britain and France in the Middle East, and the Near East. The US President’s State of the Nation speech also revealed this plan.

People of Asian countries want to live in peace and friendship with other countries, and for this purpose they need the help of other countries. Such help must come without strings. Some countries want to make use of such help to ask for privileges, to ask for military bases, to ask the countries receiving such help to join blocs. Although such a policy of giving help might be effective in some places for a period of time, eventually the aggressive purpose of such a policy will be revealed.

The harm in accepting help, under such a policy, to the people in the receiving countries will also be revealed in time. It will become a burden to those countries. They will have to pay the price in granting privileges to those countries giving them help and this will ultimately impoverish the receiving countries. So, in short, Mr Eisenhower’s Middle East policy will, in the long run, bring no good results.

Could you comment on Israel’s refusal to leave Gaza, and the tension created as a result?

We always anticipated that Israel would give trouble over this matter. The West is now trying to exploit this situation to maintain tension in the Middle East and in the Near East.

Will China consider making a fresh approach to bringing about an understanding with the US by releasing the Americans held in prisons in China?

Why should we always listen to the words of the President of the US. The US does not recognise China and has always obstructed China being recognised by the United Nations. The US is still carrying on that policy. The US is still hostile to China. Why do not our Asian friends appeal to the United States to change its policy towards China? We Asians have all suffered from colonialism, and why should we pay so much attention to the Western countries, still less to the US government? Even without the US government we will continue to exist – to live well. Let the US continue not to recognise China for ten years, for 100 years, but China will not topple down just for that!

What is your view about the Afro-Asian Secretariat?

The proposed Afro-Asian Secretariat will be a very helpful thing for solving Asian economic problems.

What are your relations with General Chiang Kai-shek and the position of Formosa?

That is a delicate question on which I do not like to speak.

What is your view about the situation in Hungary?

Last year [1956], from the end of October to the middle of November, Western countries exploited discontent of the Hungarian people. Western countries carried on their propaganda by the despatch of agents through Vienna. Such agents worked with the counterrevolutionaries in Hungary. They succeeded in taking control of the Government by massacring the people. Bishop Mindszenty was directing such activities, and the Bishop eventually escaped to the American Embassy in Budapest. There were enough documents to prove such activities.[5]

Could you say more about the suggested collective security pack for Asia?

We proposed this idea some time back, but it is not developed yet. To develop that we want the cooperation of all the countries in Asia, and the Pacific region, because no country can be left out.

At the conclusion of the press conference, Zhou Enlai freely gave his autograph to those attending. When one pressman offered his visiting card, Mr Zhou autographed it and said: Now you can come to China with this.END NOTES

***** *****

END NOTES

[1] Terence de Soysa acquired C. W. Mackie & Co in 1946. It was the first major British company to be Ceylonised.

[2] Rohan de Soysa, Decolonisation in the Rubber Trade, 1946 to 1954,” in Slow-Cooked Thoughts: Articles, Talks, Essays, One Old Poem and Two Tales. Singapore: Partridge, 2019.

[3] This refers to the Bandung Conference, also known as the Afro-Asian Conference, which was held in Bandung in April 1955 with 29 countries participating. The Conference paved the way for the formation of the Non-Aligned movement.

[4] The eight countries were Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Burma, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal and Ceylon. Zhou’s tour of Asia went from late 1956 to early 1957.

[5] A few weeks before his visit to Ceylon, Zhou Enlai led a Chinese delegation to the Soviet Union on 7 – 10 January 1957. The delegation met separately with officials from the East German government and visited Poland from 11 to 16 January. On 16 January, Zhou visited Hungry to meet with senior government leaders and to give speeches at mass rallies. Thus, he was well-informed about the Hungarian revolution in 1956.

THUPPAHI EDITORIAL ADDITIONS

JB Kelegama 2020 [from 2002] A Landmark Trade Pact: Rubber-Rice Deal between Sri Lanka and China, 1952,” 23 July 2020,

A Landmark Trade Pact: Rubber-Rice Deal between Sri Lanka and China 1952

Wikipedia n. d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Gotabhaya_Senanayake

Ananda Kannangara 2017 Rubber-Rice Pact – An Agreement of Friendship,” 29 December 2017, ……………………………………………. http://www.dailynews.lk/2017/12/29/business/138464/rubber-rice-pact-agreement-friendship%E2%80%99

Courtesy Doctorharold.com

Transcript: As the vaccine to protect against COVID-19 continues to roll out to more and more people, there is bound to be more and more side effects. Today, we are discussing the most dreaded side effect, i.e., Cerebral Venous Thrombosis (CVT)” Great concern of the people today is to have the COVID-19 vaccine against COVID-19 or not, and that is the question. Because of this situation the hesitancy rates seem increasing, and the anticipated herd immunity may be prolonged for at least another 4 years. Recently, it has been discovered a few people have got brain blood clots within 14 days of having the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, among the ages less than 60. These clots have been recorded from other vaccines like Pfizer Biotech, Moderna, and Johnson and Johnson. • The World Health Organization, the U.K.’s medicines regulator and the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis have all said that the benefits of administering the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot far outweigh the risks. WHO message is not to alarm people, but to calm them down to have the jab in a general sense. But you could be the exceptional case that could have the blood clots from the jab, and that becomes part of the statistics, no concern to the public. It is only a concern to your immediate loved once and close associates. These blood clots seem to be combined with low levels of blood platelets occurring within two weeks of vaccination. They are referred to as Cerebral Venous Thrombosis (CVT). These blood clots seem to occur in the sinus veins, and not in arteries of the brain, where the blood moves slower and the platelets have the time to over-react and clot. Reported cases of CVT per million population, in the general population- the incidence is 0.4 due to other causes. After Pfizer vaccine- 4 cases of CVT per million people Moderna- 4 cases per million people AstraZeneca- 5 cases per million people Video link https://youtu.be/FANlHolmISk Website: www.Doctorharold.comSo, the incidence of CVT is much higher among those COVID-19 who had no vaccine. People who contract COVID-19 before the vaccine was administered, seem to be 100 times more likely to experience CVT than the general population. It is also claimed that blood clots up to 10 times common with those who has contracted COVID-19, having had no vaccine. This will open your mind to consider having the vaccine. You are between the devil and the deep blue sea as the expression goes. Two teams of scientists in Europe recently said they have discovered the cause of the rare blood clots among some patients who received the first jab of AstraZenecaCOVID-19 vaccine. CVT was also found to be more common among people who received either Pfizer, Moderna or AstraZeneca vaccines- at a rate of between 4-5 per million. This also means that people with corona virus infection are between 8-10 times more likely to develop the blood clots than those who have been vaccinated against it. A group of German scientists led by Professor Andreas Greinacher from the University of Griefswald believe that blood clots in the brain of a few cases who received the AstraZeneca vaccine, is due to an overactivation of platelets in the blood. This led to the possible deadly blood clots. This overaction seems to be due to damage to the changes in the inner lining of the veins. In such endothelial cells damage situation, the platelets seem to meet exposed collagen and von Willebrand factor, becoming activated. Von Willebrand disease is an inherited bleeding disorder that results from the low levels of specific clotting protein in blood. This protein is called von Willebrand factor (VWF) Von Willebrand disease is common, and in Australia there are more than 10,000 cases per year. These activated platelets after the COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccine seem to change in shape and pseudopods form on their surfaces, determining a star-like appearance. These activated platelets are coated with collagen and leads to thrombin activation. Thrombin is an enzyme in blood plasma which causes the clotting of blood by converting fibrinogen to fibrin and activates other procoagulant factors. So, human thrombin activates clotting. So, I hope you understood the mechanism of blood clotting in COVID-19 and after vaccination. Recently, Australia recorded the first death from blood clots likely linked to AstraZeneca Covid vaccine. That was a woman 48 years old. The case is the third instance of the rare blood clotting disease linked to the vaccine in Australia but the first death. It was revealed that this woman had complicated underlying medical conditions, including diabetes. Platelet factor 4 (PF-4) Platelet factor 4 (PF-4) is a strong inhibitor of angiogenesis i.e., development of new blood vessels.”There’s some good data to suggest [the AstraZeneca vaccine] is creating an inappropriate immune reaction against a protein that’s found in blood platelets called platelet factor 4,”. Platelet factor 4, or PF4, allows blood cells to communicate with each other. There are antibodies that deactivates Platelet factor 4. These Anti-PF4 antibodies which activates platelets have been found in almost all other cases reported internationally of blood clots with thrombocytopenia (low platelet count) associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine. In Australia TGA said there had been at least 885,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine administered, and only three cases of the rare blood clotting have occurred and that is equivalent to approximately one in 250,000, after AstraZeneca vaccine. Cerebral venous thrombosis CVT Blood clots are as prevalent with Pfizer and Moderna vaccine as with AstraZeneca. A study by Oxford University found the number of people who receive blood clots after getting vaccinated with a coronavirus vaccine are about the same for those who get Pfizer and Moderna vaccines as they are for the AstraZeneca vaccine. According to CBS News based on a preprint study -4 in one million people experienced CVT after getting the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. With AstraZeneca 5 in 1 million had CVT. AstraZeneca’s vaccine use has been halted or limited in many countries on blood clot concerns. Seven people have died from unusual blood clots after getting the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the UK. UK vaccine regulator reports 68 more cases of rare blood clots after AstraZeneca jabs in total 168cases- but insists ‘benefits outweigh risks’ with 21 million people now having had the shot. Moderna vaccine CVT incidence =4.1 %per million people Rare blood clots occurring in combination with thrombocytopenia. Possibility of exceedingly rare cases of blood clots combined with low levels of blood platelets occurring within two weeks of vaccinations in 86 European cases. Plausible explanation for these rare side effects is an immune response to the vaccine. Benefits of vaccination outweighs the risk. All vaccines have a risk, but the risk is small. The UK regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, has concluded from its review of cases in the UK that the overall risk of the rare blood clots was approximately one in 250,000. On Tuesday, April 13, 2021, U.S. health agencies called for a pause” in use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine after ongoing safety monitoring identified a rare blood clotting disorder in six people who had received the vaccine. This adverse event is extremely rare. Those who have not had any specific vaccine so far, should not rush to any conclusions about the vaccine. Over 31 million people in the US have received at least one dose of the vaccine with minimal side effects. Even the few cases of the dreaded CVT incidence, people are bound to increase their fears, and in half a mind whether to have or not have the jab. However, there is an inconclusive link between the disorder and vaccines, and it is stressed that the vaccines are safe. The disorder is not enough to avoid getting the vaccine. The risk of developing a serious illness from Covid-19 is much greater than developing the rare disorder. Scientists have repeatedly insisted that there is no proof that the extremely rare cerebral blood clots are from the coronavirus vaccines. So, in a way it is essential to have the jab, considering these serious episodes. If you ask for my advice, you should have the jab, especially if you are planning travel during the festive season. Hope this video talk was useful. Stay safe and Goodbye for now

Courtesy Daily Mirror

Colombo, April 24 (Daily Mirror) – The guidelines for tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka is expected to be updated owing to the present COVID19 situation, Tourism Ministry sources told the Daily Mirror yesterday.

The move comes after the health authorities issued new health guidelines for the country effective till May 31.

Tourism Ministry sources said that they anticipate a change in the number of days tourists need to be quarantined when visiting Sri Lanka.

Tourists visiting the country are currently restricted to a bio bubble.

Meanwhile Army Commander

General Shavendra Silva said yesterday Sri Lankan citizens returning back to the country will have to undergo the 14 day quarantine once again due to the present virus situation.

For those who are fully vaccinated, discussions will be held by the Health Ministry and a new set of guidelines will be issued soon, the Daily Mirror learns. (Jamila Husain)

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) leader and ex-Cabinet Minister Rishad Bathiudeen is a prominent Sri Lankan politician, who is very often in the news for the wrong reasons. 
The 48-year-old Bathiudeen hailing from Dharapuram in the Mannar District is an engineer by training. Known widely as Rishad, he was first elected to Parliament from the Northern Vanni electoral district in December 2001. He has been consistently elected as Vanni MP since then in 2004, 2010,2015 and 2020. Rishad has also served continuously from January 2007 to November 2019 as Cabinet Minister in the governments of Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithripala Sirisena. Currently his party the ACMC has 4 MP’s and 169 Local Authority Members. 
Rishad Bathiudeen was arrested by the Police at 3 a.m. on Saturday, April 24 2021. Prior to Rishad Bathiudeen’s arrest at his residence on Bullers Road (Bauddhaloka Mawatha) in Colombo 7, his brother Riyaj Bathiudeen was arrested at his house in Colombo 6 by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Police. 
Shortly before his arrest, the ex-cabinet Minister Tweeted:

The CID has been standing outside my house in Bauddhaloka Mawatha since 1.30 a.m. today attempting to arrest me without a charge. They have already arrested my brother. I have been in Parliament, and have cooperated with all lawful authorities until now. This is unjust.”
A video in Tamil was also posted on Rishad Bathiudeen’s official Facebook in which the sarong clad Vanni District MP said that the Police refused to answer when queried whether the Speaker of Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena had been informed that the MP was going to be arrested. 
I’m a Member of Parliament and a leader of a political party. If I’m to be arrested, they must first inform the Speaker,” 
emphasised Rishad.

He also said there was no response when asked whether the Police had an appropriate arrest warrant to take him into custody. Bathiudeen also stated in the video that he was being arrested in the holy month of Ramazan when people of the Islamic faith engage in a 30-day fast during the daytime.
The ACMC leader kept repeating in the video that he was totally innocent and that he along with his brother were being penalised unjustly. He also reiterated that there was a conspiracy to silence him to prevent his speaking out on behalf of the Muslim people in Sri Lanka.

Aiding and Abetting

Later Police Spokesperson DIG Ajith Rohana told the media that the Bathiudeen brothers were arrested at their residences.
 They were arrested by the CID on the charges of aiding and abetting the suicide bombers responsible for the 2019 April 21st attacks,” said DIG Ajith Rohana. 
The Criminal Investigations Department had recorded statements from witnesses and collected circumstantial as well as scientific evidence, he added.
 Further investigations will continue under the provisions of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), he said. It is learnt that both the Bathiudeen brothers have been detained for 72 hours under the PTA.

Meanwhile, Public Security Minister Sarath Weerasekara told the Sunday Times that the former Minister and his brother were arrested following a long-running joint investigation by the CID and the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID). 
He claimed that there was evidence that the suspects had maintained links with the Easter Sunday suicide bombers and aided and abetted them to amass funds to carry out their activities. While police have already forwarded eight files on the eight suicide bombings carried out on that day to the Attorney General, Weerasekara said suspects were still being taken into custody from time to time as more evidence emerged.

Some hours after the arrest, a statement was issued by Rushdhie Habeeb, Attorney-at-Law. Habeeb stated that he had been authorised by the families of the Bathiudeen brothers and the All Ceylon Makkal Congress to issue the statement on their behalf. Here are some relevant excerpts-
We have been instructed by the members of the family of Hon. Rishad Bathiudeen MP and his brother Reyaj Bathiudeen and the All Ceylon Makkal Congress to issue this statement to the media conveying their shock and surprise on the sudden and unannounced arrests by officers of the CID, past midnight on Saturday 24th April 2021 from their homes.”

All Ceylon Makkal Congress

At the outset, we have been asked to appeal to the members, well-wishers and the island-wide voters of the All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC), a registered political party with four elected Members of Parliament and 169 members of local authorities, to stay calm and continue the fasting in this holy month of Ramazan.”

We are instructed to state that if the CID had noticed the two of them, they would have appeared at the CID, as they had done many times in the past, both as party noticed as well as complainants. There was no need to have demonstrated, any show of force to the rest of the family or those around. We understand that no reasons for the arrest had been given at the time of their arrest by those who conducted the midnight raid. We are shocked that those representing the democratic state should begin this process in violation of the law which requires the persons arrested to be informed of the reasons at the time of the arrest or to uphold the principle of the presumption of innocence.”

“At the outset, we have been asked to appeal to the members, well-wishers and the island-wide voters of the All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC), a registered political party with four elected Members of Parliament and 169 members of local authorities, to stay calm and continue the fasting in this holy month of Ramazan”

The Easter Sunday Attacks Commission headed by an Honourable Judge of the present Supreme Court had gone into all the complaints and allegations made against the two of them. They had heard and recorded the evidence of the complainants, the investigators and several others. They had heard the two, who were accused of allegations of aiding and abetting a suicide bomber.”

The Commissioners had heard in evidence and by affidavit that Hon. Rishad Bathiudeen, in his then capacity as Minister, had refused to grant an appointment to meet the Minister, to one of them who had sought the appointment, at a time when no one in the country knew that he would turn out to be a suicide bomber later on. They had also received the evidence that Minister Bathiudeen was sent a letter of demand by the future bomber claiming damages for refusing the appointment and for not granting the meeting he had requested.”

Commission Found No Evidence 

Having evaluated the evidence, the Easter Commission found no evidence of any one of the Bathiudeens having aided or abetted the suicide bombers in the Easter Sunday bombings. Their arrest without any justifiable material is in violation of the rule of law.”
We are instructed to state that the arrests are politically motivated. The ACMC supported the present opposition at the last Presidential and General Elections. The ACMC is today a part of the country’s opposition. The ACMC also represents a predominant share of the Muslim community.”

Interestingly enough references to the Bathiudeen brothers figured at a press conference conducted by the Catholic Church last week. A joint press conference was held by Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, Bishop of Chilaw Most Rev. Valance Mendis and the Bishop of Galle Most Rev. Raymond Wickremesinghe on 19 April. It was about the 2nd anniversary of the Easter Sunday bombings on April 21st. According to a news report on the Economy Next website, the Cardinal was asked at the press conference whether he was satisfied with the progress of inquiries into the Easer Sunday bombings. 

The Cardinal had replied that political wheeler-dealing appeared to be obscuring efforts to bring perpetrators to justice. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith referred to how the Government secured the support of Muslim legislators to ensure a two-thirds majority for the 20th Amendment and warned that the Government should not take him for a fool.
Tell it to the Chinese with a Ponytail

“The Commissioners had heard in evidence and by affidavit that Hon. Rishad Bathiudeen, in his then capacity as Minister, had refused to grant an appointment to meet the Minister, to one of them who had sought the appointment, at a time when no one in the country knew that he would turn out to be a suicide bomber later on. They had also received the evidence that Minister Bathiudeen was sent a letter of demand by the future bomber claiming damages for refusing the appointment and for not granting the meeting he had requested”

A few days before seven Muslim MPs voted for the 20th Amendment, (former Minister) Rishad Bathiudeen’s brother was released from custody……… When I raised this issue, the government said there was no connection (to the 20th Amendment)…….. But, we saw the way they voted. Especially, to support a person who came to power saying he did not want the votes of Muslims. There is a saying (tell it to the Chinese with a ponytail) Do they think we are ” (Usually a derogatory term referring to a dimwit)
According to the news report the Cardinal had gone on to say that ad hoc arrests and releases would not inspire confidence in the investigations into the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks that killed 269 and wounded over 500 people. However, he had said the Church was willing to give more time for the authorities to identify all those behind the attack and bring them to justice.
Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith was referring to Rishad Bathiudeen’s brother Riyaj being arrested in Mid-April 2020 under the PTA and detained for five and a half months before his release in early October.   

When Riyaj Bathiudeen was arrested there were media reports alleging that his arrest was in regard to several telephone conversations with Inshaf Ahmed Ibrahim who was the suicide bomber who targeted Cinnamon Grand Hotel. Riyaj Bathiudeen’s wife wrote a letter to Dr Deepika Udagama, who was the Chairperson of the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission at that time. 

In that letter, Mrs Fathima Bathiudeen explained that her husband who was a businessman had several telephone conversations regarding commercial matters with Inshaf Ibrahim, whose family were the leading Spice exporters in Sri Lanka.
The then Police Spokesman SSP Jaliya Senaratne explained the reason for Riyaj’s release thus: 
A person is arrested only after a reasonable suspicion has arisen regarding an investigation. As soon as the suspicion was nullified, the suspect was released. That is what happened to Riyaj Bathiudeen.” 
Jaliya Senaratne’s reasoning was not acceptable to many including Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Colombo convened a press conference on October 3, 2020, where he aired his misgivings and doubts candidly. 
According to media reports the Cardinal said he was astounded and dismayed” that a powerful Muslim politician’s brother detained under special laws for his alleged part in the Easter Sunday attacks has been set free. 
Cardinal Ranjith said he could not comprehend how a person who the Police said had dealings with the Easter bombers, did business with them and engaged in discussions with them is suddenly found to be entirely innocent and released unconditionally.” 

The Catholic prelate queried openly whether the Government was cutting a political deal” with Rishad Bathiudeen to get his support for the controversial 20th Amendment to the Constitution and therefore releasing his brother Riyaj from detention.
The Cardinal’s allegation had a quick and unexpected response from the Country’s Executive President himself.  
On Oct 4, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa posted on his Facebook account the following ensuring national security is the first and foremost responsibility of my Government. I emphasize that our government has not entered into any political deal with Parliament member Rishad Bathiudeen”. 
President Rajapaksa further said:

 I am not prepared to hand over the power of arresting or arbitrarily releasing people to politicians, as happened in the past. I assure my citizens that I will not forsake the trust that they have placed in me and I will most certainly continue to work towards strengthening the trust we have built.”
In a further development, more than 80 MPs belonging to the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) signed a letter addressed to both President Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Rajapaksa. The Govt MPs demanded that the released Riyaj Bathiudeen be re-arrested immediately. They also emphasized that no political deals should be struck to garner a two-thirds majority in Parliament.

Bargain with Bathiudeen

All this speculation about a political deal being struck with Rishad Bathiudeen was over the 20th Amendment to the Constitution that was passed in late October last year. 
With some of the minor parties in the Govt showing signs of dissent”, there were doubts whether the Govt could get the two-thirds majority necessary for a Constitutional Amendment. 
Against this backdrop, there were many rumours that a bargain had been entered into with Bathiudeen whose ACMC had 4 MP’s in Parliament with one each from the Vanni, Anuradhapura, Amparai and the Puttalam Districts.  

When Cardinal Ranjith gave voice to those suspicions publicly, President Rajapaksa responded through Social media to allay such doubts. It appeared that there was going to be no deal with Rishad Bathiudeen.
Nevertheless when the 20th Amendment vote was taken, Six Muslim MP”s from the Muslim Congress (SLMC)led by Rauff Hakeem and the Makkal Congress (ACMC) led by Rishad Bathiudeen supported the amendment from the Opposition. Another MP from the ACMC voted for 20 A at the Committee stage. Only SLMC leader Hakeem and ACMC leader Bathiudeen voted against the 20th amendment totally. 

This bizarre voting pattern of the Muslim parties led to much excitement in a nation noted for its fascination for conspiracy theories. It is indeed noteworthy that both the SLMC and ACMC have not taken effective action against its MP’s for flouting Party discipline and voting with the Government despite the facade of an inquiry” being conducted. Currently, both Hakeem and Bathiudeen seem to be leaders without followers in Parliament. The four SLMC and three ACMC Parliamentarians seem to be in” but not of” their respective parties.

Deal or No Deal?

This state of affairs too has given rise to renewed suspicion that a deal had indeed been cut. This question of deal or no deal” has once again been aired publicly by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith through his candid comments followed by the Brouhaha caused by the arrest of the Bathiudeen brothers.
ACMC Leader Rishad Bathiudeen’s arrest and detention under the PTA has come in for heavy criticism by several Muslim and Tamil political leaders. Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leader Rauff Hakeem MP issued a statement expressing sadness at the manner in which Rishad and his brother Riyaj were arrested. 

He also condemned the arrest. Tamil Progressive Alliance leader Mano Ganesan MP was critical of the arrest in a post on his Facebook. Ganesan asked whether Rishad Bathiudeen was a member of the underworld to be arrested in this manner. 
It remains to be seen as to what the Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa has to say about the arrest. Bathiudeen campaigned for Premadasa at the Presidential elections and contested on the SJB ticket at the Parliamentary elections.

Despite the reasons given  for the arrests by the Police Spokesperson and Public Security Minister, one is not sure of the real motives behind the arrest. 
Obviously, both Rishad and Riyaj would have voluntarily submitted themselves for interrogation by the CID or TID if the Police had noticed them. 
This sudden arrest by night” grandstanding seems unnecessary. It is unclear as to why the arrests were made in this way. Was it a knee jerk reaction to the Cardinal’s assertion that he was not a Kondhaya Bandhapu Cheenu”?
Whatever the reason the arrest by night grandstanding certainly leaves much to be desired. Already the Gotabaya Government has been severely faulted for the way it is alienating the Muslim people of Sri Lanka. It is an issue that has been raised even within the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). 

Political Witch-Hunt

Whatever his flaws, Rishad Bathiudeen is the leader of a party that represents a sizeable number of the Muslim people. The Govt may be able to win over MPs elected from the ACMC through carrot and stick methods. However, the people who voted for them are not so fickle and would remain steadfast loyalists of the party for quite a while. The Govt would do well to avoid creating an impression that Rishad Bathiudeen and his brother are targets of a political witch hunt. 

 D.B.S.Jeyaraj can be reached at dbsjeyaraj@yahoo.com   

Courtesy India Today

Researchers in Sri Lanka say they have detected a new variant of coronavirus on the island nation which is highly transmissible and can remain airborne for nearly an hour. Sri Lanka is reporting over 600 new cases each day.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The variant is highly transmissible: immunologist Neelika Malavige
• Sri Lanka’s ministry of COVID prevention has issued new guidelines to contain the spread
• Symptoms are now more visible and young people are more likely to develop them: Dr Asela Gunawardena

Anew coronavirus strain that is airborne and more potent than all those found previously in Sri Lanka has been discovered in the island nation, according to a top immunologist based in Colombo.

The variant, which is highly transmissible, can remain airborne for nearly an hour and is spreading fast, Neelika Malavige, the head of the Department of Immunology and Molecular Sciences of the Sri Jayawardenapura University said.

“This variant of coronavirus is more highly transmissible than all found so far in the island. The new strain is airborne, the droplets can remain airborne for nearly an hour,” Malavige said.

Health authorities feared that the new variant is spreading rapidly after last week’s New Year celebrations with more younger people getting infected.

“In the next two incubation periods, the disease can progress to a third wave,” Upul Rohana, of the Public Health Inspectors said, adding that the real situation would emerge only in the coming 2-3 weeks.

Meanwhile, the ministry of COVID prevention issued new guidelines which would remain in force until May 31.

The guidelines dictate a 50 per cent capacity operation for most institutions with all forms of revelry being banned.

The country-wide cases which were around 150 before the mid-April New Year have now shot up to over 600 a day.
Sri Lanka is also running out of its health care capacity, officials said.ADVERTISEMENT

Sri Lanka, like many other nations, is witnessing a surge in the number of coronavirus cases, with the current figure standing at 99,691 cases and 638 deaths due to the disease.

Director General of Health Services Dr Asela Gunawardena said hospitals still have enough ICU capacity to treat COVID-19 patients but it is more important that health guidelines are followed in order to avoid infection.

“Previously the symptoms were not very apparent. Now they are much more visible and young people are more likely to develop them,” he said.

Those who have tested positive now develop more breathing difficulties, requiring ICU admission and oxygen, he said.

Sri Lanka is not the only nation to have witnessed new strain of Covid-19 but also other Asian nations such as India, Pakistan, Indonesia among others

Courtesy Pakistan Today

ISLAMABAD: A 14-member delegation of visiting Buddhist monks from Sri Lanka visited several archaeological sites of Gandhara civilisation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and performed religious rituals.

The delegation arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday for a week-long visit aimed at strengthening cultural ties between Islamabad and Colombo based on shared Buddhist heritage.

The guests visited the sites in Taxila, Khanpur, and Takht-i-Bhai and evinced keen interest in the preservation of the sites by the government.

They praised the restoration of the Buddhist religious sites at Bhimala in the Khanpur town of Haripur.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Tourism Zulfi Bukhari, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa tourism secretary, and scholars accompanied the delegation.

The monks were informed about the progress of work on the Buddhist sites in Taxila and Khanpur for the promotion of religious tourism by the government.

Bukhari while talking to reporters on the occasion said the government has a vision to complete the world’s biggest Ghandhara trail by 2022.

The tour has been arranged by the Pakistan High Commission in Colombo to boost religious tourism in Pakistan by showcasing its rich cultural heritage.

The visit is in line with Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision to promote religious tourism, project the country’s historical treasures and strengthen cultural ties, said Ayesha Abu Bakr Fahad, Second Secretary at Pakistan Mission in Colombo.