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Minister of Trade Bandula Gunawardena says that a new gazette will be issued prohibiting the mixing of any edible oils with imported coconut oil.
This new gazette will cancel the earlier gazette issued in 2016, which allowed to do the same.
The results of the 1956 election baffled even the architects of its victory, said analysts. The MEP was stunned by its victory. SWRD was not expected to win. He had no proper candidates and the MEP coalition lacked financial resources. The 60 MEP candidates were facing a solid phalanx of 76 UNP, many of them sitting members.
But MEP did win a landslide victory. The momentum was unstoppable. We were left speechless, said Bradman Weerakoon. Unlike in previous elections, in this election there had been only a few instances of bribery, violence or impersonation, added Bradman.
The 1956 General election was a historic event in the post-colonial world too. This is not well known. The General election of 1956 was the first peaceful transfer of power from the legatee at independence to another party, in any part of the British Empire, said historian KM de Silva. (KM de Silva, Sri Lanka, Come wind come weather”. ICES (2015) p xvii)
Bandaranaike became head of state at a time when Ceylon and other post-colonial states were very newly independent. Post-colonial democracy had not yet been tested, and there were few political models around, said analysts. SWRD understood this, and called 1956 a period of transition.
When the MEP government took office, there was a sense of freedom and liberation in the air among students, peasants, urban workers and the intelligentsia, said Meegama. It was a time of great happiness. It was Ape Aanduwa.
Analysts point out however, that 1956” did not happen overnight. The Buddhist Revival and the Left movement also helped pave the way. People had worked hard for long years to usher in this change, said Ananda Meegama.
The 1956 Parliament met for the first time on 20th April 1956, amid scenes of unprecedented popular enthusiasm. Supporters of the government, mainly lower middle and working class crowded the public galleries. There were enthusiastic cheers as Prime Minister took his place.
When Parliament had finished its business, those in the public galleries, came down into the Parliament area and took turns to sit on Speakers seat. SWRD, as Prime Minister said ‘let them in.’ This was a once in a lifetime experience for the island and SWRD realized this. This is a historic event and it should be recorded as such. It is not something to be sneered at.
1956 was a major event in the political history of Sri Lanka said Wiswa Warnapala. A change that this country badly needed at that point of evolution. it was a watershed in the modern history of Sri Lanka, said I.D.S. Weerawardena.It changed the political landscape, agreed Meegama.Even the Marxist parties saw the 1956 as an advance to further democratic changes in the country.
1956 saw the first real change of regime the young state had ever faced, observed Bradman Weerakoon. it brought about a total transformation in the political culture of the country. A new political leadership emerged.
A new set of politicians who did not belong to the urban based English educated elite came to the forefront and began dominating the political landscape. They came from the rural intelligentsia and were Sinhala educated. Many came to Parliament straight from the village. Their manners, life style and leadership style showed their rural origin.
The rural intelligentsia, led by the chief priest of the village temple, the village school master and the Ayurvedic physician, also now came to the forefront of the political scene. This intelligentsia had become a political force in the rural areas long before, thanks to the State Council. They now graduated to the national platform.
1956 gave new life to the village. Neglected and impoverished, the village nevertheless had continued to function as a stable community. Its social values were intact, observed Wiswa. Language, religion and culture were emphasised in 1956 election campaign. This generated a great deal of popular enthusiasm.
In this new political culture, the common man became important. HM Gunasekera recalls that at the opening of the Kelani new bridge in 1957, SWRD invited a highly surprised worker in the audience to perform the opening. There was thunderous applause.
The common man for the first time found that he could change the government of the country peacefully, through ballot. He became a formidable factor. He now found that his grievances were addressed seriously by the politicians. His aspirations were taken into account by the new set of legislators who themselves came from the village and therefore could identify with the ordinary man.
The public institutions became more responsive to the needs of the ‘common man’. The Police, headmen, and Kachcheri officers now found that they had to treat the ‘villager’ with respect and not roughly as they used to do.
The 1956 change of government also led to a cultural renaissance in literature, cinema, drama and arts. The long neglected Sinhala culture got recognition only in 1956, observed Sarachchandra. Dance, music, kavi and other forms of the arts were given an important place in 1956.
The English speaking intelligentsia had persons who were supportive of Sinhala culture and wanted to strengthen it. Their products also appeared in 1956. Rekawa” by Lester James Pieris was shown in cinemas in 1956. Sarachchandra’s Maname” appeared on the stage. Sinhalese Social Organization by Ralph Pieris, Society in Medieval Ceylon by MB Ariyapala and Traditional Sinhalese culture” edited by Ralph Pieris, appeared in bookshops in 1956. These products were received enthusiastically by an appreciative audience, who saw straightaway what this elite was trying to do.
The 1956 MEP government unleashed a process of change which was unprecedented in the history of Sri Lanka. A series of people oriented policies were introduced. The reforms were far reaching and made a fundamental impact on public policy. The changes they introduced reverberate today. The ideas they initiated are now a part of accepted policy, said analysts.
The political and social upheaval caused by the 1956 government received a mixed reaction in Sri Lanka society. It had different connotations for different groups. For the English speaking elites in Colombo and a large section of the English educated group in the island, the world turned upside down. For the first time since independence Tamils were not included in the cabinet.
To others it heralded the beginning of a new dawn. It ended the privileges of the English speaking minority. The Sinhala educated had long objected to the ‘Mahaththaya’ culture, which treated them as inferior to the anglicized English educated middle classes. (Continued)
Resolution A/HRC/46/L.Rev.1 dated 16 March 2021 has been adopted by the UN Human Rights Council based on procedures and practices adopted by Committees of the General Assembly. Of the 47 Members in the Council, 22 Member States cast an affirmative vote, 11 members opposed it, and 14 abstained. The procedure adopted does not recognize the number of votes that abstained. Therefore, adoption of the Resolution was based on 22 affirmative votes, which is less than half the 47-members in the Council. This outcome should be a cause to fault the Council for adopting a procedure that permits a Resolution to be adopted even when more than half of its members decided not to support it for whatever reason.
However, other agencies of the UN adopt other procedures. For instance, the 15-member Security Council requires nine affirmative votes for a decision to be adopted. Others who see a moral obligation to the institution they represent require half plus one for a decision to be adopted. Simple majorities in most Parliaments require half plus one of its elected members for a Bill to become Law. Therefore, there is nothing comical if perceived from another perspective, that the resolution did not secure a majority of the 47 Member Human Rights Council and furthermore, that 25 Members did not affirmatively support the Resolution. The lesson, in particular for the Human Rights Council, is that the basis for adopting a Resolution should be revisited, because the current practice allows Resolutions to be adopted by less than half the number in the Council. This is not good enough a threshold for a UN institution as vital as the Human Rights Council where much is at stake for all States.
Notwithstanding all of the above, the hard reality is that the Resolution was adopted. Another hard reality that is of serious consequence is that the adoption of the Resolution comes at a great cost to the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter. In fact, having stated at the very outset that the Resolution is Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations …” the Resolution goes on to violate Article 1(2) and Article 2(7) of the Charter. In addition, it recalls co-sponsored Resolutions of 2015, 2017, and 2019, despite withdrawal from co-sponsorship because they violate Sri Lanka’s Constitution; a right granted under the Vienna Convention and furthermore, violates the mandate granted to the Human Rights Council under General Assembly Resolution 60/251. Under these circumstances, such a flawed Resolution should not be adopted, particularly with votes less than half the membership in the Council.
Article 1(2) states: To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect of the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples…”. AND Article 2(7) states: Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state…”.
Article 1(2): Right of Self-Determination
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights AND the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights state in Article 1 of their respective Covenants:
All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development”.
In view of the people’s right to freely determine its political status, the Resolution of the Core-Group states: …to ensure that all provincial councils, including the northern and eastern provincial councils, are able to operate effectively, in accordance with the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka” (Preamble to the Resolution)
COMMENT: This is a violation of the right of self-determination of a people to freely administer and govern themselves because it binds the people of Sri Lanka to a particular form of internal Government, and denies them the opportunity to self-determine a form of Local Government that best serves them. Therefore. this provision amounts to a denial of the fundamental freedom of a Peoples to govern themselves under a form of Government of their choosing. For the Human Rights Council to impose restrictions on how a Member State should govern itself is a denial of their fundamental right to self-determination.
The Preamble states: Noting the enactment of the twentieth amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka, while stressing the importance of democratic governance and independent oversight of key institutions”.
COMMENT: The need to remind the people of Sri Lanka the importance of democratic governance and oversight key institutions” is an insult in view of the fact that the amendment is a product the people of Sri Lanka have determined in keeping with their right of self-determination. Furthermore, Sri Lanka is not the only country to function under a Presidential system of government under provisions of separation of power and the internal arrangements in each are different as they are with the systems of governance in each state that supported the Resolution. Under the circumstances, the need to draw special attention to arrangements in Sri Lanka is a slur on what Sri Lanka has rightfully determined for itself.
It is indeed comical for the U.K. as the sponsor of the Resolution to stress the importance of democratic governance”, when three-fourths (¾) of U.K. Parliament was for staying in the European Union whereas the majority of the people of U.K. wanted to leave the EU, thus laying bare the U.K.’s deficit in democratic governance.
Article 2(7): Domestic Jurisdiction
Section 2 of the Resolution states: …implement the recommendations made by the Office and to give due consideration to the recommendations made by the special procedures ….”
Section 7 of the Resolution ‘expresses serious concern at the trends emerging over the past year, which represent a clear early warning sign of a deteriorating situation of human rights in Sri Lanka, including the accelerating militarization of civilian government functions; the erosion of the independence of the judiciary and key institutions; ongoing impunity and political obstruction; policies that adversely affect the right to freedom of religion or belief; increased marginalization of persons belonging to the Tamil and Muslim communities; surveillance and intimidation of civil society; restrictions on media; freedom, and shrinking democratic space; arbitrary detentions; alleged torture and sexual and gender-based violence’.
COMMENT: Section 7 of the Resolution is influenced by the Report of the Office of the High Commissioner. It contains comments and observations that violate provisions of Article 2(7) of the UN Charter in respect of issues that are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state” cited above.
Unlike under normal circumstances, the literal interpretation of Article 2(7) that prohibits UN from intervening in issues domestic as enunciated by Professor Kelsen and others of similar view, is justified under the extremely extraordinary background that Sri Lanka and the rest of mankind had to face due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This view was underscored by the UN when it decided NOT to intervene in issues domestic relating to how member states coped with the COVI-19 pandemic. What the Resolution addressed instead was the situation that prevailed in Sri Lanka in the background of a terrorist attack by Muslim extremists in 2019, and the measures adopted to cope with the pandemic in the absence of international guidelines that the UN should have spearheaded.
The extraordinary circumstances referred to above started with a new President being elected in November 2019. A bare two months later, starting January 2020, Sri Lanka encountered its first COVID-19 patient. Until August 2020 when a new Parliament was elected, it was the Executive that had to deal with the unprecedented challenges of COVID-19 pandemic.
In fact, most countries were at a loss as to what strategies to adopt to deal with the pandemic. Furthermore, a fact that should not be overlooked is that during the period of review by the Council, the Legislative and Executive Branches of the government in Sri Lanka had existed only for four months.
At the end of the day, governments have to make hard choices. In the background of a raging pandemic the choice is whether to implement strict controls by deploying personnel known for their ability to ensure strict adherence to health guidelines, or to relax them. Those countries that have decided to leave it to individuals as a matter of individual choice have experienced far more deaths than countries such as Sri Lanka that decided otherwise. Are they guilty of fratricide? To fault elected representatives for the choices they made in the fulfillment of their responsibilities to their people, is to place individual choice at a premium over state-initiated guidelines to contain a global crisis. Not to recognize the positive results in terms of lives saved because of the measures adopted by the government is not to recognize the most fundamental of all human rights which is right to life.
The impression conveyed upon perusing the list of societal shortcomings cited in Section 7 is that they are unique to Sri Lanka. On the other hand, over the span of one year there would be instances of societal shortcomings similar to those cited in Section 7, in every country. For instance, in other countries too, policies exist that affect freedom of religion or belief; marginalization of persons or groups; restrictions on media freedom; shrinking democratic space; sexual and gender-based violence etc. Such shortcomings exist, albeit to different degrees, in all of the 22 countries that supported the Resolution despite the existence of independent institutions, or how liberal and democratic their policies are. Therefore, what is so special or unique about Sri Lanka for it to deserve special attention?
Mandate of the Human Rights Council
Section 6 of the Resolution states: Recognizes the importance of preserving and analyzing evidence relating to violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes in Sri Lanka…and to develop possible strategies for future accountability processes for gross violations of human rights or serious violations of international humanitarian law…and to support relevant judicial proceedings in Member States with competent jurisdiction”.
COMMENT: The Human Rights Council has NO MANDATE nor the COMPETENCE to collect evidence relating to international humanitarian law or to support judicial proceedings in Member States. The Council is expected to function within the mandate stated in UN Resolution 60/251. The relevant provisions are:
3. Decides also that the Council should address situations of violations of human rights, including gross and systematic violations, and make recommendations thereon. It should also promote the effective coordination and the mainstreaming of human rights within the United Nations system;
4. Decides further that the work of the Council shall be guided by the principles of universality, impartiality, objectivity and non-selectivity, constructive international dialogue and cooperation, with a view to enhancing the promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development…”.
The mandate of the Council does not authorize it to share its findings with other Member states for them to engage in judicial proceedings because it violates the principle of equal sovereignty” (Article 1(1) of the Charter. If they do, what about the evidence sequestered for thirty years? Instead, what the Council is supposed to do, is to make recommendations to the states concerned. By focusing on Sri Lanka, the Council is being selective, thus violating the principles it is supposed to follow as stated in Paragraph 4 cited above.
A fact that should be borne in mind is that no investigations that could lead to a prosecution would be possible, using any evidence gathered for the purpose of future accountability exercises because access to victims and witnesses would not be possible due to Paragraph 25 of the OISL Report relating to confidentiality in the OISL Report.
CONCLUSION
Resolution A/HRC/46/L.Rev.1 dated 16 March 2021 has been adopted by the UN Human Rights Council based on the procedures and practices adopted by Committees of the General Assembly. Since the procedure adopted does not take into account the 14 abstained votes, the 22 members who supported the resolution prevailed over the 11 that opposed. Consequently, the procedure adopted enabled the Council to adopt the Resolutions based on votes that were less than half of the 47-member Council.
While the procedure adopted by the Council is acceptable for Committees of the General Assembly, the Human Rights Council is in a league by itself. Since its decisions impact on nearly every aspect of human life, the procedures and practices it adopts should be unique and stand alone. Another Council of similar standing is the Security Council. The procedure adopted by them is that out of its fifteen members at least nine should vote affirmatively for a decision to be adopted. Democratic Parliaments require half plus one of its members for a Bill or decision to have any legitimacy. Therefore, Sri Lanka should take the initiative to table a Resolution in the General Assembly calling on the Human Rights Council to take a fresh approach in the adoption of Resolutions. The outcome of such an approach should as a minimum be that even if the abstaining votes are not recognized, no Resolution should be adopted without half plus one of its members casting an affirmative vote for it to have any legitimacy i.e., more than 24 affirmative votes.
Having stated at the very outset that the resolution is Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter”, the Resolution goes on to violate Article 1(2) and 2(7) of the Charter, right of a State to withdraw from an undertaking if it is in conflict with the internal law of fundamental importance” to the State based on a right granted under Article 46 of the Vienna Convention, and violates the mandate granted to the Human Rights Council. If a Resolution violates the stated purposes and principles of the UN Charter, the General Assembly should take note and declare such a Resolution unadoptable.
The call on the Sri Lankan government to hold Provincial Council elections and to ensure that all Provincial Councils operate effectively in accordance with the 13th Amendment is a violation of Article 1(2) because it denies the right of self-determination to institute local government arrangements that suit them best and to bind the people of Sri Lanka to internal arrangements of governance set by external entities.
Article 2(7) does not authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state…”. In keeping with this provision the UN did NOT intervene in the decisions taken by member states to handle the enormous challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Having stayed in the sidelines they have decided to single out Sri Lanka to document what the Council determines as shortcomings in the manner Sri Lanka coped with the crisis presented by the COVI-19 pandemic in a background of a Muslim terrorist attack that denied the fundamental right to life of hundreds.
The resolution is not binding on Sri Lanka. Furthermore, as stated above it violates certain provisions of the UN Charter and holds Sri Lanka to commitments it withdrew from on legitimate grounds. What Sri Lanka could do is table a Resolution in the General Assembly highlighting the issues at stake and seek redress. In addition, such a Resolution should propose a revision on the lines suggested above to the procedures adopted by the Human Rights Council in respect of how it decides to adopt Resolutions since current procedures are totally inappropriate for an all-important institution as the Human Rights Council.
Politicians bellow rhetoric, making propaganda mountains out of molehills of achievements, whilst our beautiful island nation of phenomenal potential aimlessly drifts, forever the land of tomorrow. Given recent talk about granting licences to Indian fishermen (i.e. CRIMINALS) and holding elections for parasitic PCs, one wonders when Sri Lanka will be allowed to thrive.
Let’s have one law and actual progress for Sri Lanka. I believe that these two Constitutional proposals submitted by concerned citizens (members of the public) would be of interest for genuine patriots to read and share. If nothing else, one can enjoy reading them and think of what is possible. They can be accessed online via the weblinks below:
1. A New Basic Law, Singapore style Constitution (like in 1948): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qfy83ZDYUdNsQfC25NubiDbbZ-Ca9YqV/view
2. A New Presidential Constitution: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mjJqtWOcJvn05pO5B6opizipE9AHa7S5/view?fbclid=IwAR31gTLkt6OvsIPPHyV54fY0TcY9uHiFb5VcXvT95EYLI4_GRe6Kj0zbM3A
Why should one trade one tyrant five thousand miles away for five thousand Indian bootlicking political parasite tyrants one mile away? Hold a Referendum on such systems instead of pandering to the anti Sri Lankan agenda.
ආණ්ඩුක්රම ව්යවස්ථාවක් සඳහා යෝජනා දෙකක්:
1. 13A ඉවත් කරයි
2. නීති විරෝධී ඉන්දු ලංකා ගිවිසුම ඉවත් කරයි
3. සමාජ මිශ්රණය, වාර්ගික සමගිය සහ ජනවාර්ගික වාසස්ථාන පවතින පරිදි සිංහල, දෙමළ, මුවර්ස් සහ බර්ගර් දිවයින පුරා පදිංචි කරයි.
4. මුළු රට පුරාම එක් නීතියක් පැනවීම සහ සෝල්ස්බරි ආණ්ඩුක්රම ව්යවස්ථාවේ 29 වන වගන්තිය ප්රතිෂ් ores ාපනය කිරීම.
5. නීතියේ ආධිපත්යය පැනවීම
6. රාජ්ය සේවයේ සියලු අංශවලට සනීපාරක්ෂාව, කුසලතා සහ ස්වාධීනත්වය යථා තත්ත්වයට පත් කිරීම සහ රට දේශපාලනීකරණය කිරීම අහෝසි කිරීම
7. ජනවාර්ගික පක්ෂ තහනම් කිරීම
8. අපරාධකරුට හෝ දූෂිතයින්ට ආසන හෝ නිල තනතුරු දැරීම තහනම් කිරීම
9. සිහින් ආණ්ඩුව සහතික කරයි
10. සිංහල ජාතික භාෂාව, බෞද්ධ දර්ශනය සහ ඒකීය රාජ්ය ව්යුහය ලෙස පිළිගැනීම සහතික කරයි. සිංගප්පූරුවේ නිල භාෂා ප්රතිපත්ති ප්රවේශය අනුගමනය කරන අතර ඉංග්රීසි ඉගැන්වීමේ මාධ්යයක් සහ නිල සහ වැඩ කරන භාෂාවක් ලෙස භාවිතා කරයි
11. විකල්ප 1 හි සෘජුවම තේරී පත් වූ චාරිත්රානුකූල ජනාධිපතිවරයෙකු සිටින අතර එය සියලු ප්රජාවන් අතර (සිංගප්පූරුවේ මෙන්) වෙන් කර ඇත. විකල්ප 1 හි විධායක අගමැතිවරයෙක් සිටී ** (සිංගප්පූරුවේ මෙන්).
12. අමාත්යවරුන් 18 දෙනෙකුගෙන් යුත් සීමිත කැබිනට් මණ්ඩලයක් (පාර්ලිමේන්තු ලේකම්වරුන් / නියෝජිතයින් 9 කට නොඅඩු) සහතික කිරීම,
13. 101 පාර්ලිමේන්තුවක් (පළමුවෙන්ම තනතුර පසු කර) සහ 60 සෙනෙට් සභාව (ලෝඩ්ස් හවුස් හා සමාන සංශෝධන කුටියක්). ඕනෑම දෙයක් ශුන්ය බලය බෙදා හැරීමක් ඇත. ඕනෑම මැතිවරණයකට තරඟ කිරීම සඳහා වයස් සීමාවක් තිබේ.
14. මන්ත්රීවරයකු වීමට සුදුසුකම් සහ නුසුදුසුකම් සඳහා නීති රීති සමඟ විය යුතුය, නොවිය යුතුය, තවදුරටත් නොවිය යුතුය” යන මූලධර්මය අනුගමනය කරයි. හරස්කඩ තහනම් කර ඇති අතර එහි ප්රති result ලය අතුරු මැතිවරණයකි.
15. විකල්ප 2 හි විධායක ජනාධිපතිවරයෙක් සිටී (බලතල බෙදීම සහතික කිරීම සඳහා කැබිනට් මණ්ඩලය ව්යවස්ථාදායකයෙන් පිටත සිට තෝරා ගනු ලැබේ)
16. මුල් සිංහ ධජය සහ රටේ නම යථා තත්වයට පත් කරයි
Two proposals for a Constitution which:
1. removes the 13A
2. removes the illegal Indo Lanka Accord
3. settles Sinhalese, Tamils, Moors and Burghers across the island such that there is social mixing, communal harmony and zero ethnic enclaves
4. imposes one law across the entire country and restores Section 29 of the Soulsbury Constitution preventing any form of discrimination or privilege conferred on one that is not applicable to another
5. imposes the Rule of law
6. restores sanity, meritocracy and independence to all branches of the public service and obliterates politicisation of the country
7. bans ethnic parties
8. bans the criminal, or the corrupt from holding seats, or official positions
9. ensures lean government
10. ensures recognition of Sinhala as the de jure national language, the Buddhist philosophy and the unitary state structure. Adopts Singapore’s official language policy approach and utilises English as a medium of instruction and official and working language
11. Option 1 has a directly elected ceremonial President that is reserved/rotated amongst all communities (like in Singapore). Option 1 has an Executive Prime Minister** (like in Singapore).
12. ensures a limited Cabinet of 18 Ministers (with no more than 9 Parliamentary secretaries/deputies),
13. a Parliament of 101 (first past the post) and Senate of 60 (a revising chamber akin to the House of Lords). There is zero devolution whatsoever. There is an age limit on contesting any election.
14. adopts the principle of “to be, not to be and to no longer be” with rules for qualifications and disqualifications to be an MP. Crossovers are forbidden and result in a by election.
15. Option 2 has an Executive President (with Cabinet picked from outside the Legislature to ensure separation of powers)
16. Restores the original Lion flag and name of the country
They also categorically protect property rights, ensure efficiency in administration and sound business laws to get this nation moving again. With such a system in place, we can become another East Asian style powerhouse in next to no time.
Enough is enough with endless mediocrity. I encourage patriots to read those Constitutions. May this country finally achieve her potential.
For the first time in their lives, Sri Lankans Nalayini and Chinniah were earning enough money to eat three meals a day and pay for their kids’ education – thanks to one cow and a lot of hard work.
Nalayini and Chinniah, both in their 50s, have overcome more obstacles than most couples do in a lifetime.
They didn’t have an easy life before the civil war in Sri Lanka. They were living in poverty, raising their five children, and were only able to afford one meal a day instead of the usual three.
My husband worked as a labourer in the paddy fields and cut firewood, while I was at home with the children,” says Nalayini.
Life was very difficult…we didn’t have a traditional house with all the furnishings. We lived in a small place made from coconut leaves and slept on a mat on the ground. We would always get wet when it rained. We lived like that for a long time,” she says.
When the civil war started in Sri Lanka, Nalayini and Chinniah with their children fled for their lives. We moved from place to place because the bombs were falling everywhere. We hid in bunkers to protect ourselves. We were convinced we would die.”
The couple managed to make it to one of the camps for displaced people where they stayed for a year.
We were given food and water and other basics, but we couldn’t go anywhere. All we wanted was to go home.”
When the war was over, the family returned to their home village, but they were traumatised.
We were scared all the time. We feared the bombing would start up again—that the whole war would start all over.”
Not only that, when the family returned there was nothing left – home was destroyed and goats and cows were gone.
Nalayini and Chinniah rebuilt their lives step-by-step with determination. They didn’t have any other choice.
At first, we built a kind of makeshift house. After a couple of months, we were able to get some supplies to make our house a little stronger. After three years, we managed to build a sturdy, brick home for our family.”
At the same time, the couple joined Tearfund’s dairy farming programme. They had owned cows before the war and knew the basics of how to care for livestock.
We received a pregnant cow, attended various training sessions on how to care for and raise the cows well so we could increase their milk supply.”
The health sector in the country is now facing a threat of spreading non-communicable diseases and according to the latest records, 64 cancer patients are being detected and 38 patients lose their lives due to cancer every day, Power Minister Dullas Alahapperuma said.
He indicated the vision of ‘Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour’ of the President and while giving priority to localism, a trend has been created to manufacture medicines against cancer.
While drawing the attention of the President, special attention was also drawn to implement a mechanism for early detection of cancers, he said.
Also said that a special proposal in this regard was extended to cabinet ministers.
A total number of 30,000 cancer patients seeking treatment within a year and only 1,600 patients receive treatment.
People in this country are less likely to go abroad for cancer tests and treatment. The Government spends Rs.45,000 on a single cancer patient for importing radioactive drugs from India. If the said drug is manufactured locally, it would cost only Rs. 14,000 per patient.
Most of the main radioactive drugs are imported from India.
Therefore the Government has decided to establish a cyclotron base radioactive drugs centre in the country to minimise the cost and to protect the effectiveness that occurs while importing them.
Two more COVID-19 fatalities were reported today bringing the death toll in the country to 568, the Director-General of Health Services said.
Accordingly, an 85-year-old female from Wattala and a 74-year-old male from Eravur in Batticaloa are among the deceased.
Sri Lanka on Wednesday (March 31) received a consignment of 600,000 doses of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines donated by China.
According to Ada Derana correspondent, a special flight chartered by the national carrier SriLankan Airlines (UL869) carrying the China-made vaccines touched down at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) in Katunayake at around 11.28 am.
The vaccine consignment was ceremonially handed over to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the airport premises.
State Ministers Prof. Channa Jayasumana and Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle, Ambassador of China to Sri Lanka Qi Zhenhong and several other officials were also present at the airport premises to receive the vaccine stock.
Chinese nationals residing in Sri Lanka are expected to be given priority under the first phase of Sinopharm inoculation drive in the country.
Administration of the Sinopharm jabs to these Chinese nationals will thereby commence next week at four locations; Colombo, Kandy, Puttalam and Hambantota, Chief Epidemiologist Dr. Sudath Samaraweera said.
Sri Lanka on Wednesday (March 31) confirmed another 88 fresh cases of the novel coronavirus in the country as total infections detected within the day reached 244.
This brought the total number of Covid-19 confirmed in the country thus far to 92,706.
According to the Epidemiology Unit, 2,887 patients infected with the virus are currently under medical care at designated hospitals and treatment centres while total recoveries have reached 89,251.
The death toll due to the Covid-19 pandemic in the country stands at 568.
An individual from Chavakachcheri in Jaffna has been arrested on charges of money laundering by hacking into the accounts of banks in the United States.
https://adaderana-english-polly.s3.amazonaws.com/adaengmp3-31-03-2021-1617183336.mp3
The 41-year-old has been taken into custody by the officers of Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Police Spokesperson DIG Ajith Rohana said.
Investigators have uncovered that the suspect had hacked into U.S. bank accounts and transferred Rs. 13.4 million to his account in a private bank in Sri Lanka.
The police spokesperson said the suspect’s accomplices are based in the U.S. had aided and abetted him to transfer money from U.S. bank accounts. In return, the suspect had offered a commission to his accomplices.
According to DIG Rohana, since the 20th of April last year, nearly Rs. 140 million had been transferred through similar rackets to local bank account holders based in northern and eastern parts of the country.
In the meantime, nearly 30 suspects who were linked to offences of similar nature were also taken into custody during this period.
The suspect who was apprehended by the Criminal Investigation Department is to be produced before the court under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the police spokesperson said.
Further investigations into the incident are underway, he added.
සංවර්ධන ලොතරැයි මණ්ඩලයේ සුපර්බෝල්” හා ලග්න වාසනාව” ලොතරැයිපත් වලින් බිහිවූ සුපිරි ජයග්රාහකයින් සිව් දෙනෙකු සඳහා අග්රාමාත්ය ලේකම් ගාමිණි සෙනරත් මහතා අතින් අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේ දී අද (30) දින චෙක්පත් ප්රදානය කෙරිණි.
සුපර්බෝල්” 1403 වන වාරයේ සුපිරි ජයමල්ල වන රු.75,412,110 /- ක මුදල දිනා ගත් කැකිරාව කේ.ජී.රොෂාන් මහතා ඇතුළු ජයග්රාහකයන්ට අග්රාමාත්ය ලේකම් ගාමිණි සෙනරත් මහතා අතින් මෙලෙස ජයග්රාහී මුදල් චෙක්පත් ප්රදානය කළේය.
ලග්න වාසනාව” 3096 වන වාරයේ සුපිරි ජයමල්ල වන රු. 2,454,571/- ක මුදල දිනාගත් හිඟුරාන ආර්.ආරියදාස, ලග්න වාසනාව” 3098 වන වාරයේ සුපිරි ජයමල්ල වන රු.2,230,396 /- ක මුදල දිනාගත් කඩවත එච්.පී.තුසන්ත මහත්වරු සහ ලග්න වාසනාව” 3089 වන වාරයේ සුපිරි ජයමල්ල වන රු.2,347,887 /- ක මුදල දිනාගත් මහනුවර එච්.ජී.පීරිස් මහත්මිය මෙලෙස ජයග්රාහී චෙක්පත් ලබාගත්හ.
මෙම ජයග්රාහී ලොතරැයිපත් දඹුල්ල අලෙවි නියෝජිත පී.එච්.එස්.රත්නවිභූෂණ, හිඟුරාන අලෙවි නියෝජිත කේ.ඒ.එල් ස්වර්ණකුමාර, රන්මුතුගල අලෙවි නියෝජිත පී.ඒ.චන්ද්රසිරි මහත්වරු සහ බකමූණ අලෙවි නියෝජිත කේ.යූ.අයි ලක්මාලි මහත්මිය අලෙවි කර තිබිණි.
මෙම අවස්ථාවට සංවර්ධන ලොතරැයි මණ්ඩලේ සභාපති අමිත ගමගේ මහතා ඇතුලු නිළධාරී පිරිසක් සහභාගී වූහ.
30th March 2021An invasive water weed has decimated the wildlife and economy of one of Cameroon’s most significant lakes. But a tiny, ravenous weevil could reverse the region’s fortunes.A
A flock of water birds scavenges for insects on the dense, leafy weed that covers much of Lake Ossa, one of Cameroon’s largest lakes. The water weed is so closely packed that it looks like wide, flat green pasture, and the sure-footed birds pick their way freely across it as if they were walking on land.
Five years ago, Lake Ossa was teeming with freshwater turtles, crocodiles and more than 18 families of fish. It was also a bastion of the African manatee, a species listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List. But today, the lake is eerily quiet and almost empty.
The thick layer of vegetation is Salvinia molesta, a species known locally as kariba weed or simply Salvinia, and it is the cause of this dearth of life in the lake. The invasion has been declared a “conservation emergency” by the IUCN.
Salvinia, a free-floating, green-brown freshwater fern, has already invaded more than 40% of the lake’s 4,000-hectare (15.4-sq-mile) surface, according to the African Marine Mammal Conservation Organisation (AMMCO), a Cameroonian non-governmental environmental organisation.
Decimating the lake’s wildlife, and compromising the main source of income for the local population, the Salvinia takeover has been rapid and seemingly unstoppable. Lake Ossa is only one in a long line of freshwater bodies to be engulfed by Salvinia. As this invasive weed has spread around the world, from Brazil and Argentina to Australia, the efforts to control it have struggled to keep pace with the plant’s prolific growth.
But there is hope for Lake Ossa, and it comes in the shape of a small, innocuous-looking but remarkably powerful water-dwelling beetle. Not far from the lake’s shore, an army of weevils is now being mass-reared as a defence against Salvinia.
Lake Ossa is one of the largest lakes in Cameroon, and was home to a wealth of biodiversity before Salvinia arrived (Credit: AMMCO)
Lake Ossa is today littered with weed-laden fishing nets – abandoned by the local fisherfolk out of frustration. Wooden fishing boats have been hauled onto the lake’s shorelines – some have been there so long they are starting to rot. Those local fishermen who are still actively fishing in the lake, and the women who sell the fish caught, say they have lost about 80% of their income.
In the sweltering late morning heat, I meet Dina Marie-Louise, a fish retailer and resident of the lakeside town of Dizangue, as she disembarks from a wooden fishing boat. In the local business for 22 years, Dina has been visiting fishermen in the lake to buy their catch. Today, she frowns at the few fish in her basket. “Salvinia is killing us,” she says. “Seven of my 12 children have dropped out of school because of financial difficulties caused by Salvinia.”
Roland Ngolle, who has been fishing in the lake for 12 years, paints a similar picture. “We are running out of space to fish in this lake. If nothing is done, Salvinia will engulf all of Lake Ossa,” Ngolle says. “More than 100 fishermen used to visit this lake in a single morning. Today less than five come to fish. Everybody is discouraged.”
As well as fish, Lake Ossa used to be home to scores of African manatees, one of the most sparsely studied manatee species. Their population in the lake now appears to be declining. Many of the manatees are thought to be leaving the lake for its surrounding rivers, where they have better access to food, says Aristide Takoukam Kamla, founder of AMMCO.
The larvae of the Salvinia weevil are highly destructive and can bring a freshwater habtitat back into ecological balance (Credit: Alamy)
Salvinia is native to southern Brazil and northern Argentina, but it can spread between water bodies by wind, water currents, floods, animals and people. “[The] human factor is partly to blame for the presence of the invasive plant in the Cameroon lake,” says Kamla.
As well as physically moving the plant from one place to another, for example when it hitches a ride on boats, human activity is also thought to be responsible for allowing Salvinia to thrive in the lake.
“We noticed a heavy concentration of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous in Lake Ossa in 2016 – doubling from the historical value of 1985,” says Kamla. “This was a signal that something was happening in the lake called eutrophication, which is simply the enrichment of the lake in terms of nutrients.”
That made conditions perfect for Salvinia to proliferate. “The carpet formed by the plant at the surface prevents light from penetrating the water column and therefore reduces photosynthesis of phytoplankton on which most fish species feed,” says Kamla. “This results in a drastic depletion of fish production.”
With a fast-growing plant that can double in size every 10 days, the plant’s growth is almost unstoppable. “The absence of [Salvinia’s] natural enemies in a foreign environment facilitates its fast growth rate,” says Lum Fontem, an independent plant scientist based in Cameroon.
Numbers of the African manatee, pictured here in captivity, are in decline (Credit: Getty Images)
At every strategic corner of the bumpy earth roads around Dizangue, billboards carry messages alerting villagers and visitors to the Salvinia problem. Messages such as “Youths, Let’s Save Lake Ossa”; “Let’s Save Our Lake From Salvinia Invasion” appear on countless signs around the town. This may be Cameroon’s first experience of a Salvinia invasion, but there has already been an intensive response to it.
There are three main ways that the weed can be removed. The first, and most physically demanding, is removing it manually. “This includes hand-pulling, mostly for low infestation, and the use of specialised equipment, for high infestation,” says Fontem. “This method is labour-intensive, tedious and time-consuming.”
Since 2019, AMMCO has been mobilising locals to remove the plant manually to reduce the scope of spread. But it has not been without challenges. “This method is very demanding given that the invasive plant multiplies very quickly,” says Kamla. “We removed over 200 tonnes of Salvinia from the lake in 2019 and 2020. Yet, no impact was felt.”
This is because manual removal of Salvinia alone is not enough to control the weed, Lum says. Any plant left in the water will rapidly grow to replenish what has been stripped away.
The second option is chemical control, which involves the application of herbicides to kill the weed. But this comes with its own ecological drawbacks, as the herbicides pose a risk to other plants and could harm the lake’s other organisms. So far, the chemical approach has not been tried at Lake Ossa, and scientists including Fontem caution against trying it.
But there is one final option that could relieve Lake Ossa of Salvinia and restore its ecosystem: a small, brown-black water beetle native to Brazil known as the Salvinia weevil, which feeds almost exclusively on the weed. Measuring just 2-3.5mm long in its adult form, this tiny insect is equipped with a long, sturdy snout. But it is the weevil larvae that are devastating to the Salvinia by burrowing into the plant’s rootstalks and causing fatal damage.
Removing Salivinia by hand is very labour intensive, but so far it is the only method that has been attempted at Lake Ossa (Credit: AMMCO)
The Salvinia weevil was discovered by Wendy Forno, a scientist at Australia’s government research agency CSIRO, while carrying out surveys in South America between 1978 and 1982. The first releases of the weevil as a biological agent to destroy Salvinia were at Lake Moondarra, Mount Isa, Australia in 1980, with remarkable success.
“Lake Moondarra is mostly clear of Salvinia today. Fifty thousand tonnes of Salvinia on the lake was killed by weevils over a 400-hectare (1.5-sq-mile) infestation,” says Matthew Purcell, director of the Australian Biological Control Laboratory, a facility run by the United States Department of Agriculture and CSIRO.
“The weevil – both adults and larvae – only feeds on this fern and not on other aquatic plants,” says Purcell. “As the plants increase seasonally, so do the weevils. The weevils [and] Salvinia constantly increase and decrease through the seasons in balance.” The weevils never fully eradicate the weed, but help to “return the system to a balance”, says Purcell.
The weevil was also deployed in the Senegal River in the early 2000s, where it had similar success, says Arnold Pieterse, formerly a senior staff member of the Netherlands’ Royal Tropical Institute, now retired. He, too, underlines that the weevils’ strong preference for Salvinia as a food crop makes it an appealing choice for Salvinia control. “It has irrefutably been proven that the insects do not form any danger to the environment or crops,” says Pieterse.
South Africa, too, has successfully brought Salvinia molesta under control thanks to the release of the weevil into its fresh water systems since 1985. “South Africa had a number of systems infested with the weed throughout the country, mainly smaller impoundments and rivers,” says Julie Coetzee, deputy director and manager of the Aquatic Weed Biocontrol Programme at Rhodes University, South Africa. These waters took between one to three years to clear, depending on the nutrients in the water, and the climate. “We still do have some infestations appearing,” Coetzee says, but “once weevils have been released, we typically get clearing with a season”.
The Salvinia weevil was first tried as a method to control the weed in Australia, where it has also invaded rivers and lakes (Credit: Getty Images)
Though the Salvinia has no defence against the weevil, the weevils themselves have weaknesses. “No drawbacks were experienced initially but nowadays, we have noticed that there are sites where infestations have persisted, particularly in shaded sites,” says Coetzee. “We have also discovered a parasitic alga infecting [the weevil] population.” This alga, called Helicosporidium, reduces the weevil’s ability to reproduce.
Nevertheless, Coetzee is optimistic that weevils could clear Cameroon’s Lake Ossa of Salvinia. “Implementing a biological control programme in Cameroon is the most ecologically friendly, economically sustainable option for control of Salvinia,” she says. “Given the size of the infestation on the lake, it is going to take a while for the control agent populations to build up to sizes that will damage the plants, and cause them to sink. This is not a fast process. Patience is key.”
Purcell, too, is hopeful that the weevils could rejuvenate Lake Ossa. “The weevils should work in Cameroon. Most control is achieved within three years,” he says. “The control lasts indefinitely, much better than spraying which must be reapplied every year and every season, with negative consequences to the aquatic environment.”
It may not be much longer before Lake Ossa becomes the next Salvinia-ridden water body to welcome weevils. A task force involving several of Cameroon’s government ministries has been set up to oversee the eradication of Salvinia in the lake through the release of the weevils.
The local people of Lake Ossa, though, are frustrated at the pace of action. “Fishing is our only source of income. We are running out of patience,” says Jean Pierre Nga, a fisherman. Dora Sih, a fish seller in the business for 25 years, agrees: “Things are not moving.”
But in AMMCO and their partners’ facilities in Dizangue, the stock of weevils is steadily growing. “They will be released into the lake as soon as we receive the authorisation permit from the government,” Kamla says. “And we hope that after two or three years, we will overcome this invasive plant.”
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Colombo, March 30 (Daily Mirror): The human-elephant conflict is a modern phenomenon owning its existence to man’s increasing developmental needs and the expansion of the human population due to improved health and living conditions of people. Pushed by sheer need, if not greed, man has been forcibly intruding into places where elephants once roamed and foraged freely.
Earlier in the pre-industrial developmental era, people and elephants lived in peace and harmony. Elephants were not killed. They were, of course, captured and traded for use as draught animals, in war as mounts for commanders, and as attractions in temple and royal festivals. In the Indic cultures (ie: in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka) and much of South East Asia, elephants were objects of veneration. Indian records show that domestication of elephants dates back to 4,500 BCE. Hannibal, the great Carthaginian General, had crossed the Alps in 218 BCE using elephants as transport.
However, ivory hunting in Africa and the expansion of populations in Asia virtually ended domestication of elephants. Elimination of elephants began either for profit or to acquire and protect property in their natural habitat. In Sri Lanka, the opening up of new lands for cultivation by post-independence governments led to human-elephant conflicts, which in turn, led to mounting deaths on both sides of the divide.
New Awakening
In August 2020, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa told Wildlife Department officials that 122 human lives were lost and 407 elephants were killed due to the intrusion of elephants into villages in 2019. He pointed out that it was the responsibility of the Department of Wildlife to feed wild animals which live in 1.2 million hectares under the department’s control. He gave officials two years’ time to end the human-elephant conflict, pointing out that the problem has persisted despite talking about it incessantly for 40 years.
Elephant conservationists could not agree more. Their grievance is that their blueprint for conservation and harmonious human-elephant relations submitted to the government in December 2020, is gathering dust on a shelf. They feel that a solution is possible because it has been found that elephants in Sri Lanka do not migrate long distances but live in around 20,000 hectares.
Presently, Sri Lanka has the highest casualty rate in the human-elephant conflict in the world according to Dr. Sumith Pilapitiya, former Director-General of the Wildlife Department. But despite the constant killings, Sri Lanka still has around 7,500 elephants according to the BBC. Elephant density is the highest in Sri Lanka. But about 70% of the elephants live outside the officially Protected Areas (PAs), and thus are a source of conflict with humans. In fact, 85% of elephant deaths are due to clashes with humans.
According to a report in The Island, every year, between 2011 and 2020, 272 elephants had died on an average. In 2020, the toll had hit 407.
The average human death rate due to the human-elephant conflict was 71 between 2005 and 2010 and 54 between 1992 and 2001. The human death rate had increased by about 14% from the previous decade and by about 50% in comparison to the past two decades. The number of human deaths in this connection had spiked to 112 in 2020, a sharp increase. Interestingly, in India, more humans and fewer elephants die in such conflicts. The annual human death number in India is 400 as against 100 elephant deaths.
Writing in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, Matt W. Hayward of the University of Newcastle, Australia, says that elephants consume up to 150 kg of forage and 190 litres of water daily. Meeting these basic needs requires a large foraging area to provide a variety of grasses, shrubs, tree leaves, roots, and fruits. A typical family of elephants (5–20) has a home range size of 100 to 1,000 sq. km.
Hayward says that left to themselves, elephants enrich the environment by dispersing seeds over a wide area. There is therefore a requirement to maintain a healthy population of elephants, he argues.
Establishing ecological corridors is one way of approaching the human-elephant conflict. But development and infrastructure expansion in or surrounding elephant habitats are generally executed without concern for their ecological impact. This results in conflicts.
Electric fences, Trenches and Noises
Physical exclusion methods such as electric fences and trenches are commonly used to deter elephants from entering farmland and human settlements. But the cost of construction of these hurdles and their long-term maintenance is heavy. Interestingly, studies in Africa show that once elephants learn that their tusks do not conduct electricity, they use their tusks to break an enclosing electric fence! Physical barriers also negatively affect movement necessary for the elephants’ survival.
Making noises to frighten the elephant is another technique that is adopted. But some studies show that elephants quickly learn to tolerate these sounds and raid farms. Maintaining sound systems also present logistical challenges in remote areas, although the method is 65 to 100% effective. Recent studies in Africa show promising results for bio-acoustic methods such as using beehive fences to deter elephants. Beekeeping is also an income generator for farmers.
Early Warning Systems and Relocation
Early warning systems including placement of detectors are also used. But these require internet connectivity or network coverage to transfer alerts to farmers, which limits the practicality of infrasonic receivers in remote areas. Scientists can also put a radio collar on an elephant and trace its movements to warn farmers.
Removal or relocation of elephants is another method used to keep their movements in check. But elephants have a way of coming back to their homes – their original habitat, reports Malaka Rodrigo on the website www.mongabay.com. He reports that an elephant named Homey”, which was GPS collard in 2006 walked back home from Yala National Park’s Block II where it was relocated. It was then relocated to Udawalawe but came back. It was then dispatched to Maduru Oya. It tried to come back from there too but was shot dead on the way. Elephants detest relocation.
Agricultural Deterrents
Agriculture-based deterrents have proved useful. Chili-grease covered fences have proved to be effective to an extent. But this technique is expensive. Another agriculture-based deterrent involves interspersing commonly raided crops with crops that are less attractive or palatable to elephants. In addition to serving as repellents, these alternative crops, such as chamomile, coriander, mint, ginger, onion, garlic, lemongrass, and orange, can economically benefit farmers.
Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society (SLWCS) has the Project Orange Elephant. Elephants do not like citrus fruits of any kind. They will not approach a home or garden, no matter how food-filled it is if it means passing through a row of citrus trees. So the Project Orange Elephant’s goal is to get as many local farmers as possible to plant orange trees around their home gardens to create a soft buffer and deter invading elephants. According to www.treehugger.com since its inception in 2006, 17,500 orange trees have been planted and the goal is to reach 50,000 by 2025.
In the Hambantota District, the project uses a variety of grafted local orange (Citrus sinensis) known as Bibile Sweet that had been developed in Sri Lanka to suit local climatic conditions. This variety grows well in marginalised land and does not need frequent irrigation. It bears fruit within 1.5 to 3 years. Each tree can provide from 300 to 600 fruits per season. Each tree has a fruiting cycle of two seasons per year. Bibile Sweet is a high-quality fruit known for its fresh sweetness, value-added products, and has good market demand. By planting these trees alongside their crops, particularly in the border areas adjacent to elephant habitats, crop-raiding by elephants can be reduced, while also supplementing farmers’ income.
Saving Elephants by Helping People” is the underlying and overlying philosophy as well as the goal and objective of the Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society’s efforts to develop holistic and sustainable measures to mitigate the Human-Elephant Conflict in Sri Lanka.
Colombo, March 30 (Daily Mirror) – Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner-designate to India, Milinda Moragoda, is yet to travel to New Delhi despite India approving his appointment during the latter part of last year. His office says he will leave soon but with no confirmation of a date.
Sri Lanka and India have already gone through some diplomatic turmoil in recent months with the government refusing to hand over the East Container Terminal (ECT) to an Indian company, instead nominating the Western Container Terminal, then India abstaining from voting at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution on Sri Lanka last week and releasing a strong statement on Tamil issues in the island and now the latest issue of Indian fishermen poaching in Sri Lankan waters heating up once again.
When contacted, Moragoda’s Office confirmed that he will leave to take up his post to New Delhi soon but was unable to say when. An official said preparations were being made for him to leave for Delhi.
Moragoda was not available for a direct comment.
Speculation was rife months ago that Moragoda may be reluctant to take up his position as India had expressed some concerns over his cabinet rank. However the Daily Mirror learns that by the end of last year India had issued the clearance for Moragoda to be welcomed as Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner in New Delhi and with Indian officials maintaining to this date that his cabinet rank was more applicable to Sri Lanka than for New Delhi.
What we heard is this position would come into effect more when he is in Sri Lanka for diplomatic work and to communicate with the Sri Lankan government,” a senior Indian official said.
Moragoda was personally appointed to the post by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. (Jamila Husain)
Colombo, March 28: The international community, harping on war crimes allegedly committed in Sri Lanka has done the exact opposite of promoting national reconciliation.
While wars, atrocities and human rights violations in many guises continue in the rest of the world where the perpetrators are often powerful nations, millions of dollars have been raised the world over for lobbying and justifying the UN Resolution on Sri Lanka.
Now, the UNHRC is seeking US$ 2.8 million to set up an office to put together information about the so-called war crimes committed here. All this is money that could have been used for the Tamil people in Sri Lanka towards re-shaping their lives.
For the country to move ahead, there is a need for the Tamil Diaspora, now foreign citizens who hardly visit this country but who are lobbyists for the Resolution, to understand the ground realities. Unbiased assistance by the international community would have gone a long way for Sri Lanka to develop genuine reconciliation and peace-building.
All that the UN Resolution on Sri Lanka may do is further divide the people of the country, increase feelings of suspicion and hate while taking the country away from economic, political and social stability and provide ample opportunities for diverse local and international segments to exploit the country’s quest for national unity to serve their diabolical interest.
UN and its effectiveness
With regard to the UN and its effectiveness, there seems to be scant introspection as it enters its 76th year of existence. Some describe the UN as a failed entity, conceptualized and created for the purpose of controlling the non-Western world for resources, human and material.
The intent to form a UN was first declared in 1942 and further discussed in 1943 where ‘a general international organization based on the sovereign equality of all nations’ was agreed upon. In 1944, the post war Charter for ‘collective security’ was mooted. By June 1945, deliberations for a Charter of the United Nations were completed and on July 28, the US which played a major role in the creation of this organization, approved the UN Charter.
Days later, on August 6 and 9, 1945, the United States dropped two atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing over 200,000 persons and maiming thousands of others (and future generations) for life. The UN with aims for a world that valued human rights came into formal ratified existence two months later, on October 24, 1945.
The international community, however, seems to think, selectively, that certain wars are tea parties; sans the death, the misery and the carnage but others bristle with war crimes and atrocities.
UN Stance
Will the UNHRC resolution against Sri Lanka be a magic wand that will enable justice that the Tamil people? Did they expect justice from the LTTE which tortured and killed anyone who opposed them, insisted on taxes from the Tamil people, recruited children, coerced youth to become human bombs and butchered Sinhala civilians, shot at Tamil civilians who were fleeing for their lives in the last stage of the fighting and drove out Muslims from their homes in North Sri Lanka?
Will this resolution promote any progressive step, like dedicating the month of May to unity, understanding and peace – something Lanka so desperately needs to bring about an honest locally driven discourse between different stakeholders, such as Tamil civilians, Sinhala and Muslim civilians and different political and civilian players.
How will the average life of the Tamil people in the North and the East of Lanka; those without wealthy diaspora relatives and those who are marginalized such as former rehabilitated LTTE cadres, improve as a result of the UN Resolution?
Do these foreign-based persons who created the stage for the resolution to be passed, care about the ensuing danger of the Sri Lankan economy through possible sanctions which would finally be borne by the most vulnerable of its populations, such as Tamil civilians of the North-East?
Much effort has been taken by the Board of Investment (BOI) through the Jaffna office and Tamil officials there to usher in industrial projects during the past 12 years in Jaffna, Killinochchi and Mullaitivu providing jobs for Lankan Tamils of the North East.
The international community had 12 years in which they could have encouraged the Tamil Diaspora to invest in projects that will benefit the Lankan Tamil people, instead of veering off in the opposite direction. During one of the floods that struck the North a few years ago, a Sinhala philanthropist who runs a charity organization was distributing dry rations as well as other goods in the area, quipped that he could not get the Tamil Diaspora to contribute ‘even a single mosquito net.’
Local mechanisms
Sri Lanka needs trust building between communities. Every ounce of strength has to be mustered by Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim intellectuals, politicians and all others in the society at large, including the police and the Security Forces, to represent the wellbeing of the people and country, giving national harmony utmost priority. Each human being should be an ambassador of peace.
The country should seek peace, fairness and unity because these are assets for stability of a nation and not seek them because the UN or the West wants us to. Sri Lanka should implement local mechanisms locally proposed for justice and uphold the law for national unity.
Sri Lanka has done the groundwork and produced objective reports, such as the Maxwell Paranagama Commission report on Inquiry into complaints of abductions and disappearances and the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission in Sri Lanka which held regular hearings in Colombo and the North and the East. These Commissions of Inquiries were the result of an independent initiative of the then Lankan government. It is imperative that all of its recommendations are carried out for the good of the citizens of the country.
These recommendations covered a vast realm from media freedom, societal freedom and the practical implementation of justice within the context of battling terrorism, including steps to be taken on matters relating to missing persons (Tamils – mostly LTTE cadres and the Sinhalese military personnel).
International community
Most of these recommendations by the LLRC and the Paranagama commission have been hailed by many Lankan intellectuals irrespective of political affiliations, as just and progressive.
If there have been aberrations justice should prevail as recommended. We should never give any Sri Lankan citizen, ever, whether it be Sinhalese, Tamil or Muslim any need whatsoever, reasons to complain to foreign nations about issues faced by them. Any citizen should feel safe complaining to his or her government, whether that citizen voted for it or not.
With regard to foreign countries telling Sri Lanka what should be done within the country, maybe Sri Lanka too can encourage nations such as America, to look into the human rights of its people, beginning with the original people of that land – the Native Americans as well as Black Americans, so that people do not get killed in broad daylight, like George Floyd was. This will need some serious researching so that any advice to another country on human rights should be aimed at unifying the diverse people of that country and not the reverse which will only encourage destabilization of a nation.
If the international community had been serious about unifying the people of Sri Lanka during the past 12 years, one of the first things it could have done is to encourage the Tamil Diaspora to see the importance of this unity forged through peace, inter-ethnic discussions, empathy and development. This may have changed the status quo.
The Diaspora is seen as a constant threat. The use of LTTE flags by the Tamil Diaspora during their protests against the Lankan Government show that they are not neutral but supporting a terrorist group that many of the Western countries had proscribed. Many Tamils may have forgotten the life under the LTTE. The documentary film Demons in Paradise” by Lankan Tamil Jude Rutnam speaks of certain aspects of these realities, beginning with the darkest scar on Lanka, the 1983 riots which should never have occurred. It led to the rise of the master of terror, Velupillai Prabhakaran.
Any Tamil citizen who has lived under the LTTE or any unbiased human rights activist would be able to come up with countless stories of how lands of Tamil citizens were confiscated by the LTTE, often for not paying up what was euphemistically called ‘taxes’ but was in reality extortion.
Everyday issues
No Tamil businessman, either in the North or the East or in Colombo or abroad, was free of the long arm of the LTTE money collectors. The response to not contributing as demanded could be lethal. The killings of hundreds of other Tamils – Tamil intellectuals, such as Rajani Thiranagama and Neelan Thiruchelvam and scores of members of rival militant groups, the forced recruitment of children for terrorism, the butchering of Sinhala villagers in the night are some of the acts of the LTTE.
It is possible for a Diaspora member to dismiss these writings as those of a biased Sinhalese. However, what I am writing is not theatrics. I could write tomes on what the Tamil people went through under the LTTE because I have visited these areas independently countless times from the time of the peace process to date in connection with my work in the media, research and capacity building. My interest in comparative spirituality and national heritage has involved countless visits to the North and the East.
Because I am familiar with the everyday issues of the North, I am aware of the kind of exploitation that goes on there. Wealthy Tamil men of Lankan origin who are now holding foreign passports visit the country for short spans time and lure these women with false promises of marriage. Do human rights activists and the Tamil Diaspora know the number of children born to young North East mothers through these liaisons? Mothers are now helpless, abandoned and culturally ostracized.
It is a senior Tamil government official who gave me the information in detail. This person; a Tamil who has held high ranking government positions based in the North during the last phase of the battle against terrorism, had been frank. These comments were thought of as being ‘traitorous’ to the LTTE to the extent that the social media used by the Tamil Diaspora had denounced this Lankan Tamil using the worst possible foul language, resulting in the traumatizing his children and other family members who were studying abroad.
On the question of the numbers of missing Tamil persons (those also referred to as the disappeared), this Tamil official explained how many parents did not know at the last phase of the fighting in 2009, whether their children who had joined the LTTE were living or dead. They did not know the locations of LTTE camps which kept shifting in the last stage of the battle. Every parent imagined that his or her child escaped alive.
Also described was how large graves were dug daily for hundreds of bodies to be buried during the last lap of fighting. ‘Naturally, the parents were unaware of these developments as they were not eye witnesses. To date, they think that their children were alive on May 18 when the hostilities ceased.
Disappeared
A young girl, an LTTE child recruit who was about 22 years when I interviewed her about five years ago, shuddered when she explained that she too could have been classified as one of the ‘disappeared’ if the LTTE cadre who was carrying her to safety listened to her and left her to die in the jungles. She could have died and animals would have eaten her and there would not be definite proof she was dead. She would be categorized as ‘missing’ by her relatives.
Justice and compassion when it is selective can be sour. Last week, this writer highlighted how Thamilini, the head of the LTTE’s women political wing division who surrendered to the military along with many others, faced difficulty in getting international agencies to give her the same amount of importance as they did to other LTTE members caught in the last phase of the battle.
A well known Sri Lankan Tamil lawyer retorted to Thamilini’s appeal for legal assistance by saying he would be only able to represent her case if she pays him the usual feels charged! Thamilini was finally assisted free of charge by a Sinhala Marxist oriented lawyer, with another Tamil lawyer later supporting them.
There are hundreds of rehabilitated LTTE cadres who cannot get jobs in the North, obstructed by issues such as caste. The LTTE saga can be analyzed in the context of caste, money and class. Lankan Tamils who had the benefit of so-called high caste, money, class and international connections went abroad and supported the battle in the North. The Sri Lankan Tamils who had none of it stayed here and fought. A Tamil commentator once described the Tamil Diaspora’s role as being akin to a spectator ‘paying the ticket’ to watch a war movie. Interestingly, the most vociferous defenders of the LTTE I have heard were those who never lived under them.
Epitome of evil
If the aim of the UN Resolution is justice, this cannot be sought by abnormally sainting one side who spearhead the violence and arbitrarily, making the other which countered it as the epitome of evil.
One cannot talk of alleged civilian deaths by the Security Forces when combatting the Tamil Tigers and be silent on the constant strategy adopted by the LTTE in positioning themselves within large groups of civilians, especially children – a strategy that was increased towards the last days where they dragged children and orphans wherever they set up fighting positions so that they could claim that the air-force was bombing schools and orphanages.
It is time Sri Lankans began creating an active and honest mechanism of dealing with internal issues pertaining to the concerns of our people – Lankans can no longer leave the rights of their people to the impaired judgment of the international community. It is time they realized that every single citizen and their grievance – whatever it is – should be looked into – with honest determination – within this nation – which is a sovereign nation that needs no foreign entity telling us what to do.
Honest determination in doing this will be the defining factor for Sri Lankans. Every human life lost in the past 30 years and before as part of violence was a valuable human resource that could have been used for the betterment of the country if the circumstances were different.
We can take a cue from the man who transformed the fishing village in Singapore and made it one of the richest places in the world. Lee Kuan Yew’s miracle was achieved by carefully drawing up a national framework where no civilian gets trapped in violence. He has maintained Singapore’s national sovereignty, economic independence and the wellbeing and dignity of all of its people.
BEIJING, March 29 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping said Monday that China stands ready to work with Sri Lanka to boost bilateral cooperation and provide robust impetus for the latter’s post-pandemic economic recovery and sustainable development.
In a telephone conversation with Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Xi suggested that the two countries steadily push forward major projects like the Colombo Port City and the Hambantota Port, and promote high-quality collaboration in jointly building the Belt and Road.
Xi pointed out that since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, China and Sri Lanka have pulled together and helped each other, writing a new chapter of China-Sri Lanka friendship.
China attaches great importance to the development of bilateral ties, and stands ready to work with Sri Lanka to determine the strategic direction and achieve steady growth of their relationship, he added.
China will continue to provide as much assistance as its capacity allows for Sri Lanka’s fight against COVID-19, he said, also suggesting that the two sides seek to gradually carry out cooperation in fields like aviation and education while keeping epidemic control measures in place, and continuously explore new channels and areas of collaboration.
Stressing that China and Sri Lanka are strategic cooperative partners that enjoy sincere mutual assistance and ever-lasting friendship, Xi said China will never forget Sri Lanka’s valuable support for the restoration of its lawful seat in the United Nations.
China, he added, is willing to make continuous joint efforts with Sri Lanka to firmly support each other on issues concerning their respective core interests, defend their legitimate rights, promote international equity and justice, and safeguard the common interests of developing countries.
For his part, Gotabaya said that Sri Lanka warmly congratulates the Communist Party of China (CPC) on the 100th anniversary of its founding and highly appreciates the historic achievements made by the CPC.
Particularly, under President Xi’s strong leadership, China has made great achievements in economic development and the fight against COVID-19, he added.
Sri Lanka, he said, thanks China for its valuable support, and is willing to collaborate closely with China to firmly support each other’s positions on issues concerning their respective core interests and safeguard their common interests.
He added that Sri Lanka hopes to learn from the CPC’s experience in governing the country, and especially looks forward to strengthening exchanges and cooperation on poverty alleviation and the rural vitalization strategy.
The Sri Lankan side is willing to work with China to expand cooperation in fields like infrastructure and tourism, and smoothly advance major projects such as the Colombo Port City, he said, adding that he is confident that these efforts will boost his country’s economic and social development and bring the Sri Lankan people more benefits.(Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun)
Breakfast is considered by many to be the most important meal of the day. What you eat in the morning replenishes those sleep jaded energy reserves and fuels your mind and body for the day ahead.
Unfortunately, as our lives become increasingly busy, many of us opt to skip or skimp on breakfast and the traditions and culture that go with it. Modern Western options such as cereals, toast or even granola bars now rule many a breakfast roost.More from AsiaOneRead the condensed version of this story, and other top stories with NewsLite.
Morning dining routines around the world often stem from deep roots. Breakfast culture is alive and kicking in many parts of Asia, even as fast-paced Western alternatives muscle their way in.
Being such a huge and varied continent, Asia is home to culinary and cultural extremes, richly reflected in its choices and attitudes towards breakfast.
Many nations claim to have the best breakfast, but when it comes to traditional morning meals, you would be hard-pressed to upstage the sumptuous Turkish spread.
Straddling the ancient Silk Road has greatly influenced Turkish cuisine, and particularly its breakfast choices. Over about 600 years, it has gradually evolved to embrace elements and ingredients from the distant reaches of historical trade routes and the far corners of the Ottoman Empire (1299 – 1922).
The traditional Turkish breakfast, known as kahvalti (meaning before coffee”), is made up of tapas-sized dishes, and is designed to be shared, bringing together families and friends for a slow easing into the day.
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Most modern Turks lead busy lives and often breakfast on a simple simit (a bagel-like hoop of bread covered in sesame seeds), observing the traditional kahvaltionly at weekends and family get-togethers.
Breads, ripened tomatoes, cucumber, fruits, olives, several cheeses, cured meats, eggs, honey, jams and copious amounts of strong Turkish tea are laid out like a banquet fit for a sultan.
You’re unlikely to ever see exactly the same make-up of a Turkish breakfast twice, as each is dependent on available and preferred ingredients.
The kahvalti is decadent and healthy in equally copious measures, and once experienced it’s never forgotten.
Heading east towards South Asia, flatbreads and pancakes gradually find their way onto breakfast tables.
A couple of the more unusual breakfast treats are Sri Lankan hoppers (appam) and string hoppers (idiyappam). The origins of hoppers are unclear, although they are believed to have arrived in southern India almost 2,000 years ago with either early Syrian Christian or Jewish settlers.
Hoppers are made from fermented rice flour and coconut milk, which is mixed into a batter and fried in a bowl-shaped pan. An egg is added and softly cooked to finish the crispy bowl-shaped hopper, which is served with sambal (spicy coconut chilli sauce) or curry sauce.
String hoppers are made by mixing rice flour with salt and water and then pressing the dough into noodles, which are knitted together to make small cakes and steamed. The dish is usually served with fresh coconut and curry or sambal.
Both styles of hopper are synonymous with breakfast in Sri Lanka but are also popular in South India and are eaten too at other times of the day.
Tracking with the trade winds along the old spice routes brings us to Malaysia, which is perhaps Asia’s greatest culinary melting pot. With bread and dairy produce blending into rice and spice, Malaysians proudly and regularly breakfast on what can be termed their national dish, nasi lemak, and national bread, roti canai.
Fragrant rice (nasi) is cooked in coconut milk with pandan leaves to give it a rich, creamy texture. Traditionally it comes with a hard-boiled egg, anchovies, peanuts, sambal and a side of rich rendang curry (usually beef or chicken), although there are many other variants.
The combination makes for an inspiring fusion of contradictory flavours.Read AlsoThe 5 best Asian restaurants in Singapore
Its origins are unclear, but nasi lemak wrapped in banana leaf in a triangular-shaped package can be found on most morning restaurant tables and at the top of most Malaysian five-star hotel breakfast menus.
The mighty roti canai is another fusion wonder. Early Tamil immigrants discovered that a dough of maida flour, oil and water, swirled around like a pizza base and cooked on a lightly oiled hotplate, then folded, could build in pockets of air.
This process gives the pancake-like bread a crispy yet soft and chewy texture.
The roti is ideally torn apart and dipped in dhal for the perfect simple breakfast. Some diners choose to add ingredients such as an egg (roti telur), a banana (roti pisang), ghee and sugar (roti boom) or even Milo (roti chocolate).
Colonial influences also reflect on the breakfast tables of Vietnam and Laos. Both were once part of French Indochina and inherited the baguette from their former colonial rulers.
The fast food” breakfast of choice in Vietnam is the banh mi, a small baguette that must rank as one of the world’s best sandwiches, sold on stalls across the country.
This Franco-Viet taste bomb came around in late 1950s Saigon, when Vietnam was sliced in half. This was when the Vietnamese were first officially permitted to modify French cuisine, and so Mr and Mrs Le – refugees from the north – decided to add local ingredients to their morning baguettes.Read AlsoTravel through Southeast Asia by dining at these 10 restaurants
The Le family still have a restaurant, called Banh Mi Hoa Ma, serving sandwiches to the people of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City).
A typical Vietnamese banh mi might include local ingredients such as cha lua (pork sausage), coriander leaf, cucumber, pickled carrots and pickled daikon combined with French condiments such as pâté and mayonnaise. Added extras may include chopped meat, cheese, eggs and spicy sauces.
Across the border, you’ll find the near identical Laos sandwich.
Pho and bun bo Hue noodle soups are also popular breakfast dishes in Vietnam, while khao soi (flat noodles, ground pork, fresh herbs and vegetables with chilli in a soup) hits the spot for breakfast – and almost any other time of the day – in Laos.
Variations on congee rice porridge are served as a breakfast staple in most of Southeast Asia. In Thailand, the most popular is jok (pronounced joke”), which has a thick, fine consistency.
Minced pork balls and chicken are the meats of choice for most jok eaters, along with an egg and a garnish of ground chilli, coriander and shaved ginger.
The exact origins of jok and regional variations are unclear, although rice porridge in China has been documented as far back as the Zhou dynasty, in 1000BC.
For the most pungent breakfasts, head to Japan. The traditional repast to greet the rising sun is based on several key dishes and is designed to be both healthy and stimulate all five senses. It is the kind of meal you would consider eating at other times of the day, too.
Steamed rice, miso soup (based on fermented soy bean), grilled fish, tsukemono (preserved vegetables and herbs) and omelette are all popular components, although the list of ingredients varies.
Even though travel is not possible right now, you could always kick-start the day by taking your taste buds on a sensory journey around Asia’s finest breakfast tables.
This article was first published in South China Morning Post.
Colombo, Mar 30 (Prensa Latina) Sri Lanka will install seven thousand rural solar plants in an equal number of villages within the framework of a program under the name ‘Electricity for All’, according to the press.
The Minister of State for the Development of Solar, Wind and Power Grid Generation Projects, Duminda Dissanayake, explained to the Daily News newspaper the new trends in the field of renewable energy development in the country.
750 megawatts (MW) are intended to be added to the national grid from these emerging facilities, the source said.
Referring to the Electricity for All program, Dissanayake said that there are around 99,675 homes without electricity and they expect to provide the service to the 33,360 families most in need.
He also pointed out that a program to supply rooftop solar panels to 100,000 beneficiary families is under way.
https://www.businessinsider.com/why-ceylon-cinnamon-sri-lanka-so-expensive-2021-3?r=US&IR=T
Following is a transcription of the video.
Narrator: Ceylon cinnamon is native to just one region of the world, and producing it requires hours of delicate work. Even the most skilled workers can make only a few pounds of quills a day. One pound of cinnamon quills can cost $27, but not all spices labeled cinnamon are the Ceylon variety. Many in the Western market are actually cheaper types of cinnamon called cassia. So what makes Ceylon cinnamon so favorable? And why is it so expensive?
Ceylon cinnamon is named after the old British name for Sri Lanka, and it is often considered “real” cinnamon. It is made from the dried inner bark of a tree called Cinnamomum verum. Growing these trees is an investment. Farmers must wait four years after a tree is planted before they can begin harvesting. At harvest, workers break down the branches early in the morning, when the bark is still moist. Ruwanpura must continuously care for the trees throughout the year, otherwise the branches won’t be suitable for making cinnamon at all. The rigorous nature of this job has only just begun.
Now peelers must do the delicate and essential work of stripping the inner bark of each branch by hand. This is the most labor-intensive part of the process, and it’s not as easy as simply shaving the outside of the bark as you would the skin from a potato. To produce the most valuable cinnamon, the bark must be made extremely thin. The thinner the quills are, the more costly they will be. Ruwanpura has spent 40 years mastering this skill. Soon after the bark is removed, each piece dries under the sun and curls up within a few minutes. After drying, the small pieces are stuffed inside a straight piece of bark, forming one 42-inch quill. By the end of a long day, workers will have only produced about 3 pounds of quills. Those then need to dry for three to four days before they’re packed into bales and sent off to a separate facility. That’s where there’ll be graded and officially priced based on their width.
PDRomanis and Sons buys bales of cinnamon from various peelers. At its facility, quills are graded over 10 scales. The most valuable quills are classified as Alba. It takes a peeler four times longer to produce one kilogram of Alba than to produce the same quantity of lower grades. The leftover, smaller cuts are turned into ground cinnamon and make up the cheapest form. But even the most valuable quills are often confused with a more widely accessible and cheaper variety of cinnamon.
Cassia comes from another kind of cinnamon tree, called Cinnamomum cassia, and it doesn’t require as much time or effort to make. Cassia bark is hard and sturdy, so quills are made as one curled piece of bark without the fillings. Ceylon cinnamon, on the other hand, is tender and soft and needs those inner layers to prevent the quill from breaking. Cassia is very fragrant and brown, whereas real cinnamon is paler, with a milder flavor. Cassia also contains, on average, higher levels of coumarin, an organic compound that can cause liver damage if consumed in large amounts. This is why researchers say Ceylon cinnamon is ultimately the healthier option. But if you’re buying cinnamon in the US, it can be hard to tell the difference between them.
Part of the confusion between the two comes from the use of the label cinnamon. In the US, it is legal to label both Ceylon and cassia cinnamon as cinnamon, while in the UK and other countries, cassia must be labeled cassia and cannot be classified simply as cinnamon. Regardless of what it’s called in the US, consumers worldwide prefer the real thing. In 2018, Ceylon cinnamon accounted for more global revenue than any other variety. And even as demand is expected to grow through 2025, climate change already poses a serious threat to cinnamon production. In recent years, Sri Lanka has experienced droughts over several months. And these long periods of dry weather can kill cinnamon trees, which need marshy, wet soil to survive. There’s also a shortage of cinnamon peelers, another threat to production that’s likely to drive up prices. This industry relies on experienced peelers who can practice the difficult work of making these quills over many years.
The separatist politician Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam who is supported by the remnants of the LTTE international network is active again. After having masked the horrendous human rights atrocities committed by the LTTE, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam has started to masquerade as a human rights activist. Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam has written to the German Government using Sri Lanka Parliamentary stationary. Terrorist supporters have historically exploited the free education, other opportunities and privileges the country has offered them, to attack the very country. They receive the security of the State such as security guards, but attack the very Security Forces that restored stability and security for all.
The campaign of Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam was funded by the LTTE fronts. The most respected Tamil journalist D.B. Jeyaraj wrote
‘Tiger’ Diaspora Backs Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam led All-Ceylon Tamil Congress (TNPF) in Polls” http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/42456 exposed how LTTE funded Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam.
Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam is notorious for promoting the genocide canard developed by
M. A. Sumanthiran and the LTTE lobby leader in Geneva Gary Anandasangaree of the Canadian Tamil Congress, the most resourceful terrorist front in Canada.
During the General Debate on the United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner’s report on Sri Lanka, 26 March 2014 the President of Tamil National People’s Front [TNPF], Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, said that there is on-going genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka, said the remedy for violations at the level of gravity that occurred ultimately, cannot be anything short of a judicial process through the ICC [International Criminal Court] or an Ad Hoc special tribunal,” adding, [a]nything less would undermine the concept of international justice and the application of humanitarian law.” Selvarajah Kajendran, General Secretary, TNPF, and Visvalingam Manivannan, National Organiser, TNPF, were investigated for receiving LTTE funds from overseas on behalf of Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam.
The key question should be asked, how much did LTTE fronts pay Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam so, that the LTTE human smugglers can continue the bogus asylum seeking operations?
Why has the Inspector General of Police Chandana D. Wickramaratne not continued the investigation of LTTE funding for Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam and not recommended him for designation under UNSCR 1373?
Selvarajah Kajendran, General Secretary, TNPF, and Visvalingam Manivannan, National Organiser, TNPF, were investigated for receiving LTTE funds from overseas on behalf of .Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam and why have they not been listed?
Why has the speaker of the Parliament and others not drawn attention to Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam for misusing parliamentary stationary to support the human smugglers and bogus asylum speakers? Is this not a crime?
Let us investigate Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam and others who have never done any good for Sri Lanka, but continue to spread venom and hatred to breakup beautiful
Sri Lanka.
Two bowser trucks with coconut oil stocks have been seized by the Dankotuwa Police on suspicion of containing carcinogenic substances.
According to reports, the raid was carried out on Monday night (March 29) following a tip-off received through Hotline 119.
Thereby, 27,500 litres of coconut oil have been taken into custody by the investigating officers. The bowser trucks were found while parked at a mill in the Dankotuwa area.
Two drivers of the bowser trucks were also placed under arrest, however, they were later released after recording statements.
Dankotuwa Police said the samples obtained from the seized coconut oil stock will be directed to the Government Analyst for testing.
In the meantime, Director-General of Sri Lanka Customs has informed the companies, which had imported unrefined coconut oil, to re-export the consignment in question within this week.
Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI) has confirmed through tests that the unrefined coconut oil stocks, imported to Sri Lanka by four companies, contain the highly carcinogenic substance called Aflatoxin.
The SLSI, the Food Safety Unit of the Ministry of Health, and the Industrial Technology Institute (ITI) re-tested the samples of imported unrefined coconut oil, following the appeals made by the importing companies.
However, the test results released on Monday (March 29) reconfirmed that the unrefined oil stocks indeed contained the carcinogen Aflatoxin.
Thereby, Customs Chief Major General (Rtd.) G. Vijitha Ravipriya has ordered the relevant importing companies to re-export the stocks.
Ministry of Health on Tuesday (March 30) confirmed 37 more new cases of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka as the daily cases count reached 139.
The new development has brought the total number of COVID-19 confirmed in the country thus far to 92,442.
According to the Epidemiology Unit, 2,749 patients infected with the virus are currently under medical care at designated hospitals and treatment centres.
Total recoveries from the virus infection have reached 89,090 while the death toll stands at 566.
Colombo Magistrate’s Court today (30) acquitted and released Former Chief Justice Mohan Peiris and two others from a case filed by the Bribery Commission.
When the case was called before Colombo Chief Magistrate Buddhika Sri Ragala earlier today, Additional Director General of Bribery Commission Subhashini Senanayake informed the court of the complainant’s intent to withdraw the indictment against the suspects.
Accordingly, Former Chief Justice Mohan Peiris, Supreme Court Justice A.H.M.D. Nawaz and former Secretary to Ministry of Power and Energy M.M.C. Ferdinando who were named as defendants in the case were acquitted and released under the provisions of Section 189 of Criminal Code Procedure.
They were accused of committing an offence under the Bribery Act by failing to provide necessary instructions to take legal action against the purported irregularities which took place during the purchase of a plot of land by the Lanka Electricity Company (Pvt) Ltd (LECO) between 1st and 10th of December in 2010.
The Cabinet of Ministers has granted approval to construct four elevated railway tracks in the city of Colombo.
The project will be implemented as a private-public partnership covering the Colombo city, Cabinet Co-Spokesperson Minister Udaya Gammanpila said during the press briefing held this morning (March 30) to announce Cabinet decisions.
The four railway tracks have been named Raktha (Red), Neela (Blue), Haritha (Green) and Dham (Purple), according to the minister.
Raktha railway track, which is to be constructed from Ragama to Kottawa via Colombo Fort, is 42km in distance. Haritha railway track is 28km in distance and it is set to be elevated from Moratuwa to Kelaniya via Narahenpita.
Meanwhile, Neela railway track which is 23km long will be built from Kottawa to Hunupitiya through Irusupaya. The fourth elevated railway track, Dham, will be constructed from Port City to Athurugiriya via Borella.
Dear all Patriots,
I invite your immediate and very serious attention to the following news item with the view to stop this right royal betrayal. There is no use in closing the gate after the horse is gone
Indian fishermen to be licensed to fish in Lankan waters
March 29, 2021 by Pamodi Waravita
Proposed as solution to illegal poaching
Local Fisheries Association threatens union action
The Ministry of Fisheries is currently in discussions with the Government of India for the implementation of a programme that would permit Indian fishermen to fish in Sri Lankan waters, The Morning learnt. There are two main problems we face in our waters. Indian fishermen illegally crossing the border, and engaging in bottom trawling. To settle these problems we have proposed that a limited number of Indian boats be given licenses to fish here per week,” Minister of Fisheries Douglas Devananda told The Morning yesterday (28). Devananda further said that this plan is currently being discussed with the Indian government and would likely be implemented within a few months. However, he insisted that bottom trawlers would not be allowed to venture into Sri Lankan waters since they ruin the wealth of the country’s fisheries resources. In 2014, the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Act was amended to make bottom trawling an offence with a maximum prison term of two years and a maximum fine of Rs. 50,000. Bottom trawling is widely regarded as ecologically destructive since trawlers drag heavy nets along the ocean floor, thus depleting aquatic resources. Speaking to The Morning, All Island Fisheries Association Convenor Rathna Gamage claimed that issuing licenses to Indian fishermen to fish in Sri Lankan waters is akin to handing over the country to India. We would be engaging in strict union action if this plan goes ahead as it would negatively affect our sovereignty, our resources, and our marine environment, including the ocean bed,” said Gamage. Gamage also alleged that approximately 30,000 boats cross illegally into Sri Lankan waters per month. Our leaders have no backbone. Instead of protesting and stopping their illegal activities, they have decided to assist them,” added Gamage. Last Thursday, the day after the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) voted on a resolution on Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Navy arrested 54 Indian fishermen, the largest at a given time since June 2014. It was reported that many in diplomatic circles considered the arrests retaliation, following India’s abstention from the vote. It was also reported that 40 of the 54 fishermen were initially released due to interventions by the Ministry of Fisheries. The following day, the Ministry intervened to have the remaining 15 fishermen also released. Indian fishermen have allegedly been fishing illegally in Sri Lankan waters for decades, especially during the height of the war between the Sri Lankan Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), reportedly with the blessings of the LTTE. However, the end of the civil war in 2009 made the north eastern waters accessible to Sri Lankan fishermen and set the fishermen of the two countries on a collision course. Over a decade later, the issue is yet to be resolved.
March 29, 2021 by Pamodi Waravita 0 Comments”
My response to this news
The first step in this process of national betrayals to India by our post-1948 politicians was of cause taken by JR Jayawarhana on 29th July 1987 for fear of his life. Thereby JR has gone down in history as the first politician who started this historic crime. As for him this is no wonder as he was the first Sri Lankan politician who once proposed that this country should be a part of India if we are going to develop as the days of Dutugemunu and Parakaramabahu are gone and they are only dreams
JR ceded this land that had been the traditional historic Motherland of the Sinhala Nation, at least, for the past 2500 years, to India by his historic betrayal of 29th July 1987 Rajiv/JR Accord as follows.
1 By accepting the Northern and the Eastern Provinces, that is 1/3 of the Land area of the country and 2/3 of our marine territory.as Traditional Homeland for Tamils domicile here for them to form their dream EELAM, which Wardharja Perumal declared unilaterally in 1990.
2 Gave Citizenship on a letter signed by a JP to all Indians (contrary to all accepted International covenants on awarding citizenship) who had been brought by the British to work on their plantation estates and left behind as British citizens and all those Tamils who had entered illegally and remained here as illegal immigrants
3 He also made Tamil an Official Language by abrogating Sec 18 of the Constitution that had declared Sinhala the Official Language of the country
4 He also agreed to merged the North and the East as one Province and laid the foundation for the permanent division of the country in to two States a) A mono Tamil State in the North and East with future provision to merge it with the central part of the country (by including provision for the merger of more than two Provinces with the covert strategy of annexing the Central, Sabaragamuwa and the Uva Provinces where there is a large Tamil population
Is this going to be the grand finale of that process of betrayal
Is this going to be the grand finale of that process of betrayal that is going to be taken by this Government by allowing legal rights, agreed upon bilaterally to ceding the right for fishing in our waters for Indian Fishermen who were illegally poaching in marine territory and robbing our national fish resources right throughout history?
Isn’t it like the owner of the house helping the burglars to carry the stuff robbed form his house and giving them consent in writing to loot his house as they like as and when they want.
I now pause the question, was it for this type of governance that the 7 million Sinhala people the Bhoomiputras of this Island elected this President, the Prime Minister and their followers and the government in to power in 2019 and 2020 respectively? Does the Government honestly think it is for this type of Governance that nakedly betrays the Sinhala Buddhist nation the 7 million people have elected them by defeating the rogue Yahapalanaya anarchic Government? After all why should we have a government at all if this is the way how they govern?
As I understand it, I don’t think anyone who voted this regime in to power will ever and never approve this kind of disastrous agreement with any country that concede to giving in to this kind of foreign aggression. Even in 1987 India did this. First by invading our air space with supersonic jets and dropping parippu” as they say it and thereafter threatening old JR of the consequences and the price he has to pay if he says no and got him to sign the Accord which even JR”s Minister of Defense Lalith Atulathmudali boycotted in protest.
Are we going to repeat the same folly again by signing another agreement this time to sell our national resources to India by another Government that has got elected for five years only?
As protecting the country from foreign invasion, being one of the cardinal functions of any Government, I sincerely and fervently hope and wish neither the President nor the Prime minister or any other man or woman in the Parliament led by people like Sarath Weerasekara, Dinesh Gunawardhana, Vidura Wikramanaayaka, Gammanpila and Wimal Weerawansaeve will allow this tragic disaster to be inked.
One more final query before I wind up
Who is the two footed donkey adviser that made this proposition to the Government? Doesn’t that open gates?
Firstly, to fish in all our waters right round the Island using it as Indian version of legitimacy and
Secondly, to claim the right for sharing all our resources even on the land as Kautilyan Indian bureaucrats and Taminadu politicians would definitely argue based on the logic behind Rajiv/JR Accord of 1987 and historian turned legal eagle politicians with their Sivalinga theory would cry.
Why can’t the Government of Sri Lanka go by the International boundary between the two countries instead and confine fishing strictly to one’s own waters accordingly an dapply the law ? On the other hand if the GOSL agrees to give that right to Indian Fishermen then the same right should be demanded for the Sri Lankan fishermen to fishing in Indian waters as well by the same agreement ensuring that neither the Indian Government nor the Tamilnadu Government or Tamilnadu fishermen will directly or indirectly obstruct Sri Lankan fishermen
ආගමික කුමන්ත්රණ කරුවන් නැවතත් තම දෙවියන්ව තැපෑලේ ඔබා නිවසටම තැපැල් කරන්න උත්සහයක් සහ බුදුහම හා සිංහල කම සුරකින අප වැනි අයට යෝ -වහා එවූ ගියවර ලියුමට 2020-10-17 දින පිළිතුරු ලිපිය දුනිමි. නමුත් ඒ මුග්ධ වැඩේ ඔවුන් නවත්වන්නේ නැතිව තව ලිපයක් ”ප්රේමණීය” මාතෘකාවක් ඔස්සේ කතෘ වන මා හට ඒවා ඇති බැවින් එයට නිසි පිළිතුර කාගේත් දැනගැනීම අද තබන්නෙමු !
දැන් ඉතින් අලුත් කොටසට හැරෙමු !!!
ගියවර යෝ -වහා තැපෑලට දමා තිබ්බේ ”බාස් වීරසිංහ” කියා නම තිබෙන පේරාදෙණිය පැත්තේ මහා අමාරු කාරයෙක් බව තැපෑලෙන් එලියට ආ යෝහොවා සිංහල බොදුනුවෙකු වන මා හට පැවසුවේය යෝ -වහා එදා (2020-10-17 දින ) කියා සිටියේ මෙන්න මෙසේය”
‘බාස් වීරසිංහ ‘ කියන මනුස්සයා මහා අමාරු කාරයෙක්, පේරාදෙණියෙන් මිනිහා මාව දැම්ම අඳුරු පෙට්ටියකට, මම කැ ගැහුවා මේ වගේ අපරාධ මට කරන්න එපා කියල. ඒ මදිවට කවුදෝ ‘ දෙතුන් පාරක් ‘ යකඩයකින් මුද්රණ තැබුවා, ඒ යකඩ පාරට මගේ ස්වරුපයත් වෙනස් උනා . ඉතින් ඊට පස්සේ ගොනියක
වැටිලා තැම්ඹි තැම්බි තාම හිටියේ . හරිම අමාරුයි !ඔබතුම එළියට ගත්තේ නැත්නම් මාර කරුමයක් වෙන්නේ.ඉතින් පාලිත මහත්මයා , අනේ මට සමාවෙන්න අප්රිය සහගත පුද්ගලයෙක් හෝ අප්රිය සහගත දෙයක් ආගමික වශයෙන් හෝ අපට වඩා සදාචාර සම්පන්න වූ නිති පන්සිල් රකින ඔබතුමාගේ නිවසට පැමිණීම හා ඔබතුමාගේ දින චරියාව අහලා මට ලැජ්ජා හිතුනා. ඔබතුමා හරිම කරුණාවන්තයි. මාව ‘කුණු ගොඩට විසික් කරන්නේ නැතුව. ‘ආගන්තුක සත්කාර කරලා ‘ තැපැල් පතේ ‘බාස්ගේ ‘ අකුරුවලින් බන්ධනය කරලා හිර කරලා තිබ්බ මාව ‘පිරිත් පැන් ඉහලා ඒ ආනුභාව සම්පන්න භාවයෙන් මුදවාගෙන තාමත් මට සලකනවා.
නව දෙබසේ ආරම්භය ; 2021-03-25 දින…
නැවතත් ගෙදරට ආ යෝ- වහා මට කියූ දේ !
තැපෑලෙන් එළිය ආ යෝ-වහා :-
අනේ පාලිත මහත්තයෝ මම ඔබතුමා මට කියූ සහා එදා උපකාර කල හැටි මම පේරාදෙණියේ බාස් වීරසිංහට කිවා. අපේ රටවල් වලින් විදේශ ආධාර ලබාගෙන හොර අන්යාගමික කරණයේ යෙදීම නීති විරෝධී බවද මම කිවා . ඔබතුමා මාව පොලිසියට අල්ලලා දෙන්නේ නැතිව. මට හොඳට සලකලා නිදහස් කරලා ධර්මානුකුල පණිවිඩයකුත් දුන් බව කිවා . ඒ කියන්නේ අපි වගේ පස්පවූ වලට දිරිදෙන ආගම් ඔබතුමා අදහන්නේ නැත්තේ සතර අපායෙන් බෙරිමටත් සසර කෙටි කරගැනීමටත් බවත් ඔබතුමාලාගේ හත්මුතු පරම්පරාවම පස් පවු නොකරණ ජාතියක් කියලා , ඕනෑම ආගමක පස් පවු දස අකුසල් තියෙනවනම් එවැනි ආගම් ප්රතික්ශේප කරන්නත් ඔබතුමාගේ මුතුන් මිත්තෝ ඔබතුමාට කියා දී තිබෙන සැටිත් සසර නිකරුනුණේ දික් කරගත් අප වැනි මිනිසුන්ට පවා එය හොඳ ආදර්ශයක බවත්. අහල පහළ පන්සලක උනත් පස්පවු දස අකුසල් වෙනවානම් ඔබතුමා ඒ පැත්තෙවත් යන්නේ නැති බව කිවා .ඒ වගේම බාල වැඩ නිසා නොදැන පස්පවූ කිරීම ආගමක් නාමයෙන් කිරීමෙන් පවා අපි නිකරුණේ සසරද දික්කරගන්නවා කියලා.
ඉතින් ”පාලිත මහත්තයා” බාස් මගේ ඇඟට ගොඩවුනා හා එහෙනම් දැන් තොත් සිංහල බෞද්ධද කියා ඒ ආගමික මාරයාගෙන් අනුනමයෙන් ජිවිතේ බේරාගෙන පැන්න කවදත් මට ”ප්රේමණීය හිතවත ” කියලා අමතන මාතර මැද්ද වත්තේ කේ.ඩී ගුණසිලි ගේ ගෙදරට මගේ ජිවිතේ ආරක්ෂාවට. ඉතින් බාස් වීරසිංහගේ ගෙන් පැනගත්ත මම කියුවා ”ප්රේමණීය හිතවත් යෝවා ” කියා අමතන ඔබතුමිය හොයාගෙන ආවේ වැදගත් සත්ය පණිවිඩයක් දෙන්න කෙටියෙන් කිවහොත් මමත් 2060 වෙනකොට වගේ මේ ආගමික කුමන්ත්රණය නවත්වනවා ලෝකයෙන්ම අතුරු දහන්වෙනවා කියලා දැන් දැන් එන්න එන්න ලෙඩ රෝග දුර්භික්ෂ වැඩයි. ‘ මිනිස්සු අහන ප්රශ්නවලට මමත් හොල්මන් වෙනවා’ මිනිසුන් තම තමන්ගේ දියුණුවේ හා තම තමාගේ ලෝකෝත්තර දියුණුව සොයන විට ‘ බුදු හාමුදුරුවෝ කියූ මග යන්න පටන් ගන්නවා’ බටහිර රටවලත් මේ ප්රවණතාවය එන්න එන්නම වැඩි වෙනවා. අපේ නායකයෝ ඔක්කොම ‘ අන්ධ මන්ධ වෙලා ඉන්නේ.
ඒ නිසා ගුණසිලි අපිත් මේ සිංහල බෞද්ධන්ව නීති විරෝධී ආකාරයෙන් අපේ ආගම් වලට හැරවීම නවත්වමු කියා. ඒවගේම මම ගුණසිලිට කියුවා ගුණසිලි මහත්මිය දන්නවාද නො. 19/2003 ශේරෂ්ඨාධිකරණය තීරණය. එකෙන් පැහැදිලිව කියනවා ආගම් ප්රචාරය කිරීමේ අයිතිය , මුලික අයිතියක් ලෙස ආණ්ඩුක්රම ව්යවස්ථාව පිළි නොගන්නා බව. සදාචාර සම්මත ක්රමවලින් පවා ආගම් ප්රචාරය කිරීම තුලින් පවා කෙනෙකුගේ මුලික අයිතිය වන නිදහස් චින්තනය බලපෑම් කිරීම නීති විරෝධී බව. ගුණසිලි ඔයාගේ ඊළඟ දේව රැස්වීමේදී මේ බව අපි සැම දෙනෙකුටම මේ පණිවිඩය කියා දෙමු .නිකන් නඩු හබ වලට පැටලෙන්නේ නැතුව ඉමු කියලා. රැවටීමෙන්, වංචාවෙන්, ප්රයෝගයෙන්, ‘ දේව රාජ්ය ආගමික අදහස් ලියුමක් අස්සේ දාල අනුන්ගේ වැට මායිම පැනලා අයිතිකරුගෙන් අහන්නේ නැතුව ශ්රීලංකා තැපැල් අන පනත්ද කඩලා අනුන්ගේ ගෙදරටයැවීම කෙනෙකුගේ මුලික අයිතය වන නිදහස් චින්තනය බලපෑම් කිරීම නීති විරෝධියි කියලා. ඒවගේම දුගී දුප්පත් කම, විරැකියාව,ලෙඩ රෝග, අධ්යාපනික හෝ වෙනත් දුර්වල තාවයන් හෝ දඩ මීමා කරගෙන කෙනෙක් වෙනත් ආගමකට හැරවීමෙන් කාගේ හෝ මුලික අයිතියක් වන නිදහස් චින්තනයට සහ හෘදය සාක්ෂියට ඊටත් වඩා බලපෑම් සිදු කිරීම හා කවර ක්රමයකින් හෝ බෞද්ධයන් ක්රිස්තියානියට හැරවීම හා ඒ තුළින් බුද්ධ ශාසනයේ පැවැත්මට විශාල තර්ජනයක් ඇති කිරීම නීති විරෝධියි කියා . ඒවගේම එය ශ්රිලංකාවේ නමවෙනි ව්යවස්ථාවටද විරුද්ධ බව අපි සැමදෙනාටම කියා දෙමු.
ඉතින් පාලිත මහත්තයා ගුණසිලි මගේ දිහා අමුතු විදිහට එම කථාව අයට කියනවිට අසාගෙන හිටියේ කල්පයකින් පස්සේ ආය ඇහෙන බුදු බණ වගේ ඉතින් මම හිතුව ඇයටත් අපි මේ කරණ වැරදි වැඩේ වැටහුන වෙන්න ඇති කියලා . ඉතින් ඇය සවදානයෙන් මගේ කථාව අසා සිටින නිසා මම දිගටම අපේ අතින් වෙන වැරදි හා පස් පවු ගැන මෙහෙම කිවා..
සිංහල බෞද්ධන්ට ගමේ හාමුදුරුවෝ ඉන්නවා ඕනෑම දෙයකට අතීත මහා සටන් හා දුර්භික්ෂ ඇති කාලයන් තුලදී ‘ උන්වහන්සේලා සිංහල බෞද්ධයන් සැම කරදරයකින්ම බෙරා ගෙන තිබෙනවා ‘ ඒවගේම පස් පවු දස අකුසල් වලින් සිංහල බෞද්ධන්ව බේරාගත්තා. ඒ වගේම අපේ දෙමාපියන් අපිට ”ඒ යෝවා වන මාහට” කුඩා කාලයේ දීවත් ‘ පස් පව් හා දස අකුසල් නොකරන්න කියා කියලා දීලා නැහැ හැමවෙලේම ”දේව රාජ්ජ්ය දේව රාජ්ජ්ය” දුෂ්ඨ පාලකයන්ගෙන් හා පාලනයන් විනාශයට පත්කොට දේව කැමැත්තට එකඟව පාලනයක් මඟින් යහපත් මනුෂ්යයින් වෙනුවෙන් ආරම්භ කිරීමට නියමිත දේව රාජ්ය පාලනය ගැන තාම කියලා දුන්නේ. සාමය ,සතුට, සුවසහනය ,නිරෝගී බව ලබාදෙන පොලෝ තලයෙන් මරණය තුරන් කරන බව සඳහන් කර කර මාව හැම රටකටම වාගේ උසි ගැන්නුවා. මම ඉතින් හැම තැනම ගිහිල්ලා එකම දේ කලේ. ලංකාවේ සිංහල මිනිසුන්ටත් මම ඔයටිකමයි කියා දුන්නේ මෙන්න මේවා :
ඔබගේ රාජ්ය ඒවා ,දේව රාජ්ජ්ය අපිට ඕනේ ඇයි ?,දේව රාජ්යයේ රජු කවුද ?, දැන් ඉඳලාම සහායෝග දෙන්න, දේව රාජ්ජ්ය ඉටුකරන්නේ මොනවාද ?, ඔයා හිතන්නේ දේව රාජ්ජ්ය කියන්නේ මොකක් කියලාද කියා ?.
ඉතින් දේවරාජ්ජ්ය කියන්නේ නිකන් සුළුපටු දෙයක් නෙවෙයි : දේවරාජ්ජ්ය කියන්නේ ස්වර්ගයේ පිහිටුවලා තියෙන ආණ්ඩුවක් . එකේ රජ යේසුස් – යෙසායා 9:6.7: මතෙව් 5:3: ලුක් 1:31-33.
ඒ අපේ රාජ්යයේ ඉටු කරණ රාජකාරි අතරට මේවත් අයත් පොලවේ සිද්ධ වෙන හැම නරක දෙයක්ම නැති කරලා මිනිසුන්ට හැමදාටම සාමදානයෙන් ඉන්න පුළුවන් කාලයක් උදා කරලා දෙනවා – දානියෙල් 2:44:මතෙව් 6: 10…
හෝවූ හෝවූ පොඩ්ඩක් ඉන්න යෝවා කතෘ වන මම:
හැමදාටම සාමදානයෙන් ඉන්න පුළුවන් කාලයක් උදා කරලා දෙනවා කියලා තියෙන්නේ මේ පෘතුවියේ වගේම කපටි වංචනික කෛරාටික පාලකයෝ දේව රාජ්ජ්ය තුලත් ඉන්න නිසාද ?
ඉන්න පුළුවන් කාලයක් උදා කරලා දෙනවා කියලා නිත්ය වශයෙන් නොකියන නිසා එක නිකම් විශ්වාසයක් නැති පාටයි. දේව රාජ්ය ගැන අපිට වඩා දන්නා දානියෙල්ලාට මතෙව් ලාටත් ඒ ගැන හරි විශ්වාසයක් හරියට නැතිනම් ඇයි ඕවා ගැන මේ ආගමික හැරවීම් කරකර නැති බොරු කියා කියා යන්නේ ඔයා දන්නවනේ යෝවා අපේ මුතුන් මිත්තෝ අතීතයේදී මරා දාපු අයගේ ආගමත් ඕක කියලා.
ඒවගේම අපි දැකලා තියෙනවා කොටි 250 කට වඩා මිනිසුන් අතීතයේදී ඔය ආගමට හැරවීමට හා විරුද්ධ උනා කියා මාර දාලා තියෙනවා. ඔයා වැඩි විස්තර දන්නවනේ යෝවා. මේ සිංහල බෞද්ධය න්ටත් වඩා. ඔයා දන්වද ”ඒවා” ප්රාණඝාතය, සොරකම, කාමයෙහි වරදවා හැසිරීම,බොරුකීම සහ මදයට හා ප්රමාදයට හේතුවන මත්වතුර මත්ද්රව්ය භාවිතය. ආදියද දස අකුසල් වන ප්රාණඝාතය, සොරකම, කාමයෙහි වරදවා හැසිරීම, බොරුකීම, කේළාම් කීම,පරුෂ වචන කීම, හිස්වචන කථා කිරීම, අවිද්යාව නම් වූ විෂම වූ ලෝභය, ව්යාපාදය නම් වූ තරහව සහ මිථ්යාදෘෂ්ටියයි.ඉතින් ඔයා අපු රටවල් වලින් නේද මේ හැම එකක්ම කරපින්නාගෙන ඇවිත් අවියෙන් අධර්මයෙන් අපේ අතීත මුතුන් මිත්තන් සමුළ ඝාතනය කර බියවද්දා ඔයවගේ සතර අපා ගතවන විදි හා ක්රම වේද ආගමේ නාමයෙන් අපේ වරිගයේ මිනිසුන් හට කියා දුන්නේ ඒ වගේම ‘ ඒවා ‘ඔයාගේ ආගමික පොතේම තියෙනවා 144000 ක වගේ සුළු පිරිසකට තාම අවස්ථාවක් හම්බවෙන්නේ ඔය කියන දේව රාජ්යට ඇතුළුවෙන්න ඉතින් ඕකට්ටිය මේ කරණ අපරාදේ මොකකක්ද රටේ නීතියට එරෙහිව බෞද්ධයන් බිලි බාන්නේ. මට හිතෙන්නේ මිහිපිට නැති කවුරුත් දැකනැති දේව රජාගෙන් ‘ එක දාගන්න නේද ? (ලකුණු දාගන්න නේද ? නැත්නම් අපිව ඇපේට තබලා දේව රාජ්යට පැනගන්න නේද ? ) ඕවා කැත වැඩ ”ඒවා”.
ඉංග්රීසියෙන් මෙන්න මෙහෙම තියෙනවා ‘ඒවා ‘
Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that exactly 144,000 faithful Christians from
Pentecost of 33 AD until the present day will be resurrected to heaven as immortal
spirit beings to spend eternity with God and Christ. They believe that these
people are anointed” by God to become part of the spiritual Israel of God”
.Based on their understanding of scriptures such as Revelation 14:1-4,
Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that exactly 144,000 faithful Christians go to
heaven to rule with Christ in the kingdom of God.
ඉතින් ‘ඒවා’ බිලියන 2.3 ඉන්න මිනිස් ලෝකවාසීන් වන ක්රිස්තියානි මිනිසුන් හා දැනට හිටි ලෝකේ අවසාන දිනය දක්වා ඉන්න මිනිසුන් නැගිටනවිට ඔවුන් ඔවුන්ගේ සුක්ෂම ශරීරය හෝ දළ ශරීරය මේ පොළෝ තලයෙන්ම සාදා ගන්නකොට මේ අපි වසන පෘථිවියේ පස් මදිවී මේ අපේ මනුෂ්ය ලෝකය විශ්වයේ ගිලියයි
නේද නොවා. ලෝකය කිරි තැටියක් හෝ හතරැස් කියා ආගම් පොත්වල ලියා තබා තිබෙන කිසිවෙක් එදා හරියට භූගෝල විද්යාව දැන ඉඳලා නැහැ ලෝකේ මැවුවා කියන දෙවියොත් ”ටොම් පච හා කෙප්ප හා බෙගල් තාමා’ දේශනා කරලා තියෙන්නේ. අල්ලපු රටවල් වල තවත් මහා ශිෂ්ටාචාර තිබුණු බවවත් ඔය කියන දෙවියන්ගේ පුත්රයන් දැක නැහැ ”ඒවා ‘ පොඩ්ඩක් පැත්තකින් දාලා අඩුම ගානේ නීති පන්සිල් රකින සමාජයකවත් භිහි කරන්න උත්සහා කරන්න එතකොට ඉබේම ඔය දේව රාජ්ජ්ය මෙහෙම පහලවෙලා මිනිසුන්ට සතුටින් කාලය ගත කරගන්න පුලුවන් වෙයි. අෂ්ට ලෝක දහමට මිත්යා ආගම් අදහන මිනිසුන් බයයි. එකයි ”ඒවා ” අර කොල්ලෝ කියන විදිහට ” බොරු චුන් ගන්නේ එක එක ඒවා කිය කියා ” (බොරුවට ලෝකයේ තිබෙන යථාර්තය නොදැන එනම් ඇතිවීම,පැවතීම,නැතිවීම යන ධර්මතා නොදැන සදාකාලික දේව රාජ්ය සංකල්පයක් මව මාවා බටහිරයන්ගේ මුදල් වලට ගුණසිලී වගේ අහිංසක ගෑණුත් අසුවන්නේ ඊළඟට මේවාට කත් අදින්න බොරු බේගල් ලිය ලියා දිගටම බොරු කිරීම මහා පාප කර්මයක්. අනේ යෝ- වහා ‘රහසින් හෝ ඔබතුමා තාමත් ගුණසිලි මහත්මිය හා එක්ව මේවා කරනවානම් ඒ කියන්නේ ”පස්පව් සහ දස අකුසල් ඒවා මුළුමනින්ම බැහැර කරන්න ‘ දස අකුසල්වල අවසාන කරුණු තුන වන්නේ විෂම වූ ලෝභයත්, තරහව සහ මිථ්යා දෘෂ්ඨිය
හෙවත් වැරැදි දැක්මයි. ඉතින් යෝ – වහා ගමේ පන්සලයි මේ රටේ තිබෙන බුද්ධ ශාසනයයි එක්ක තරහෙන් ඉන්න එපා ‘ අපිව හරවන්න බලන්න එපා ඒ ඇයි කිවහොත් තරහව ක්ලේශයක් ඒවගේම අකුසලයක් . බුද්ධ ශාසනයයි එක්ක තමන්ගේ පිල අඩුයි කියා ඔය කට්ටිය තරහෙන් හිටියාම (වුනාම ) ඉබේම යෝ -වහා විෂම වූ ලෝභය ඇතිවෙලා අන් සතු වස්තුව කෙරේ පවා තෘෂ්ණාවක් ඇතිකරගැන්වා එය ක්ලේශයක් වෙනවා එය අකුශලයක්ද වෙනවා.මම මිට කලිනුත් ඔබතුමටා පැහැදිලි කලා. තැපැල් නීති රීති නොතකා මේ පාරත් වැට පැන්නා ලැජ්ජා නැද්ද ?.එය නීති විරෝධියි.
ගෙදරට ආ යෝ- වහා:
ලැජ්ජා නෙවේ පාලිත මහත්තයෝ විලි ලැජ්ජයි මම ඔබතුමාට පොරොන්දු උනා ආය ඔබතුමාගේ ගෙවල් පැත්තේ එන්නේ නැහැ කියලා කෝ ඉතින් හැමදාම ප්රේමණීය ”ඒවා ” කියා කථාකළ ගුණසිලි රෙද්ද බාගෙට උත්සාගෙන මගේ ඉස්සරට පැනලා ‘ තෝ දන්න කෙහෙල් මළ මම දැන් නිකන්ම නිකන් ගුණසිලි නෙවේ…
‘ මුර ටැඹ කේ.ඩි ගුණසිලි කියා ඕනෑම එකෙක් දැලේ දාගන්න දන්නවා ” තෝ රැවටුනෙත් ප්රේමනීය හිතවත ”කියන මායමෙන් දැන් තෝ ‘ඒවා ‘ මගෙන් කුණුහරුප නාහා පලයන් අයෙත් පාලිතගේ ගෙදර කියලා මහත්තයෝ සුරුට්ටුවක් වගේ අපේ ”මුර ටැඹ” පුවත් පත්රයක ඔතා තැපැල් කන්තෝරුවේ මුද්රණය බොඳ වෙන ආකාරයෙන් මුද්රණ තබා ලකුණු කොට ඔබතුමාගේ ගෙදරට මම බෑ බෑ කියද්දී ඔය ”වේ….වේ…” ඔබතුමා වගේ සත් ගුණවත් උත්තම පුරුෂයෙකු ඉස්සරලා මට ඔය කටින් පනින්න අපු පරුෂ වචනේ කියන්න බැහැ , නමුත් ඔබතුමාට තේරෙන්න ඇතිනේ මම කියන්න ගියේ මොකක්ද කියලා. ඉතින් පාලිත මහත්තයා මට අයෙත් සමාවෙන්න දහස්වාරයක් නමුත් ඊළඟ පාර ඔබතුමා නීතියෙන් මේගැන කටයුතු කරන්න. නැත්නම් මේ ගුණසිලි මුළු ලංකාවම කවදාහරි ඔය මුර ටැඹ කාරයන් එක්ක ඒකතුවෙලා විනාශ කරනවා. පාලිත මහත්තයෝ ‘ අනේ කරුණාකර බුද්ධ ශාසනය දිවි හිමියෙන් රැක ගන්න. ඔබතුමාට බොහෝ පින්. අපි සිංහල බෞද්ධන්ට කපපු මහාවලේම වැටිලා අන්ත අසරණ වෙලා ඉන්නේ. යන යන තැන මුදල්වලට අපේ දේව රාජ්ජ්ය පවා දෙනවා. අපි හරවාගත්ත උන්. පුළුවන්නම් නායක හාමුදුරුවරුන්ට මේ ගැන දන්වලා , රටේ නොයෙකුත් සමාජ තලවල සිදුවෙන අන්යාගමික කරණය නවත්වන්න. නැත්නම් තව ටික කාලයකින් සෝම හාමුදුරුවන්ට උන අපරාධයට සමාන අපරාධ මේ රටේ වැඩි වෙයි. එදා උනේ රටින් පිට ඉදිරියේදී රට ඇතුලේ.
ඔබතුමා අදත් ගොඩාක් දේවල් පැහැදිලි කලා මොන කරදරේට ලක් උනත් ඒ කියන්නේ පාලිත මහත්තයෝ ‘සුරුට්ටුවක් වගේ මාව ඔතලා එවුවත් ඔබතුමා එක ගිනිගොඩට දැම්මේ නැහැ, අහක දැම්මේ නැහැ . මේ බාස්ලා, ගුණසිලිලා එහෙම නැහැ ‘ බුදුපිළිමයක් දුටුවොතින් මොනවා හරි කරලා එක විනාශ කරන්න බලන්නේ දැක්කනේද අර ප්රසිද්ධ සංගීත කාරයෙකුගේ ගෙදර තිබ්බ බුදු පිළිම ,පොත් පත් වලට කරපු විනාශය. නමුත් පාලිත මහත්තයෝ ඔබලාගේ රජයෙන් මේවා ගැන හරියට හොයා බලන්නේ නැහැ බුද්ධශාසන, ආගමික හා සංස්කෘතික කටයුතු ඇමතිලා තාම නිදි .ඔබතුමා කියුවා නේද 19/2003 ශේරෂ්ඨාධිකරණය තීරණය අනුව එකෙන් පැහැදිලිව කියනවා ආගම් ප්රචාරය කිරීමේ අයිතිය , මුලික අයිතියක් ලෙස ආණ්ඩුක්රම ව්යවස්ථාව පිළි නොගන්නා බව. සදාචාර සම්මත ක්රමවලින් පවා ආගම් ප්රචාරය කිරීම තුලින් පවා කෙනෙකුගේ මුලික අයිතිය වන නිදහස් චින්තනය බලපෑම් කිරීම නීති විරෝධී බව. ඉතින් පාලිත මහත්තයෝ මේ ප්රචණ්ඩ මිෂනාරි මේවා ගණන් ගන්නේ නැහැ . ඔවුන් උඩ ඉන්න මිනිසුන්ගේ පවුල් පිටින් හරවලා . බොරුවට සිංහල බෞද්ධයන් වගේ රඟ පානවා .ඔබතුමාට තව කිවහොත් පක්ෂ,විපක්ෂ නායකයන්ගේ දු පුතුන් මේ අපි ගෙනාව කුමන්ත්රණයට හසුවෙලා ඉන්නේ මම ලඟදි දැක්ක නෙත් එෆ් එම් ගුවන් විදුලියේත් අපි කරන්න යන හා අපි මෙරටේ මිනිසුන්ව බිලි බාන හැටි හෙළි කලා. ඒවා ඇහෙනකොට හරිම ලැජ්ජයි ඒවගේම සිංහල බෞද්ධයන් රැවටීම ඉතාම පහසු නැහැ. දැන් අපේ දේව රාජ්ය කාරයන් ක්රිකට් ක්රීඩකයන් බිලි බාලා තියෙන්නේ. ඒ වගේම මහත්තයෝ අපේ දේව රාජ්යයේ ‘සෙට් එකක් ” ඒ කියන්නේ කල්ලියක් ආණ්ඩුවල උඩ පුටුවල ඉන්නේ හොර පල්ලි, නීති විරෝධී පල්ලි රාශියක් තියෙනවා. ඒවා තමා අගරදු ගුරු තුමා මිට අවරුදු ගාණකට පෙරත් ප්රකාශ කලේ මේවා එන්නේ ඇමෙරිකාවෙන් කියලා.
කතෘ වන මම :
යෝහොවා ඕවා ගැන විශාල තොරතුරු ප්රමාණයක් 2009 අන්යාගමික කරණ කොමිෂන් සභාවේ වාර්ථාවෙනවා නමුත් මේ හොර මිෂනාරි නඩය දිගටම ඔය බලු වැඩේ කරනවා. ඔයා හරි අපේ ආණ්ඩු වල තියෙන දුර්වලතා නිසා තමයි. යෝහොවා මේ ගාථාව මතක තියාගන්න.
”මධූවා මඤ්ඤතී බාලෝයාව පාපං න පච්චතියදාච පච්චතී පාපංඅථ බාලෝ දුක්ඛං නිගච්ඡති”
අඥාන තැනැත්තා පාපය විපාක දෙන තෙක් එය මිහිරි කොට සිතයි. යම් දිනෙක පාපය විපාක දේද එදිනට අඥාන තැනැත්තා බලවත් වූ දුකට පැමිණෙයි”
ඉතින් යෝහොවා (ඒවා ) මේ පණිවිඩේ නැවතත් දෙන්න ඔය කියන මුර ටැඹ නඩේට මේක ලංකාවේ සියළුම අනිකුත් ආගමිකයන්ගෙන්ද කරණ ඉල්ලීමක් ”හැබෑවටම මෙරටේ පස්පව් සහ දස අකුසලයන්ගෙන් බැහැර වූ සත්පුරුෂ මනුෂ්යයෝ බොහොමයක් ඉන්නවා. එවැනි සත්පුරුෂ මනුෂ්යයෝ ගුණයන්ගෙන් හිස් මිනිසුන් මෙන් ඝෝෂා නොකරයි . බාහිර ආටෝපයට කැමැති නොවෙයි. මා ’සිල්වතා’ යැයි ව්යංගයෙන් හෝ කියාපාන්නට උත්සාහ නොකරයි. අනුන්ව නොදන්නා බේගල් ඇද බාලා බොරු ආගම් මාරුවට ඇද නොහලයි. ඒ නිසා එවැනි උතුම් පුද්ගලයන් වෙත අධර්මයේ කරුණු තැපැලකින් හෝ එවන්න එපා. එය නීති විරෝධිද වේනවා. මේ වැඩේ දිගටම ගියොත් එක් නීතයක් එක් රටක් යන තැනට ආපු දාට පෙර හෝ ඊට ප්රථම මෙම ආයතනවලට නීති ප්රකාරව වැඩකිරීම වැඩි කල් නොයන බවද පවසා සිටින්න. පිටරටවල් වල මුදල් වලට ”යෝවාට ඒවාට” රෙද්ද උස්සන ගුණසිලි හා බාස්ලාට නිකරුණේ හිරේ විලංගුවේ වැටීමට සිදුවීමට සිදු වෙන බවද කිව යුතුය.
තැපෑලෙන් එළිය ආ යෝ-වහා :-
ඔබතුමාට ධර්මය ගැන පහදා දීම නිසා බොහෝ පින්. එත් එක්කම අර 144000 කථාව මගේ හිතට වැදුනා ඇත්ත තාම අපි මේ යන්නේ රේස් එකක ”ධාවන තරඟයක් ” දේව රාජ්යට යන රේස් එකෙන් මම ගැලවුණා ඔබතුමාගේ පැහැදිළි කිරීම නිසා. මම කොහොම හරි අපි නිසා වලේ වැටුන පිරිස දවසක බුදු හාමුදුරුවන්ගේ ධර්මය කියාදී සතර අපායෙන් බේරා ගන්නවා මගෙනම දිගටම උන් පාවිච්චි කරාවි අනේ ඔබතුමා ඒ වරද මට පවරන්න එපා. සැම දෙයකටම ඔබතුමාට මම හදවතින්ම කෘතඥ වෙමි. ඔබතුමා බොහෝ කල් වැජබේවා !!!
යෝ-වහා අතුරු දහන් වුනෙමු !.. දෙබස නිමි.
ගරු ජනධිපති තුමනි, බුද්ධශාසන, ආගමික හා සංස්කෘතික කටයුතු ඇමති තුමනි යෝ- වහා තැපෑලෙන් දෙවන වරටත් 25/03/2021අපේ ගෙදරට හොරෙන් ආවා. නමුත් සිංහල බෞද්ධයන් වන අපහට කරදර කරණ මේ ”ඒවා යෝහොවා ” මුර ටැඹ කාරයන් මේ රටෙන් පන්නන්නේ කවදාද ? ප්රසිද්ධියේ නීති විරෝධී අන්යාගමික කරණයේ යෙදෙන මොවුන් මේ කරන්නේ නීති විරෝධී ක්රියාවක් නොවේද? අනේ කරුණා කරලා පහදා දෙන්න.
ශ්රී ලංකාව තුළ බෞද්ධාගමට ප්රමුඛස්ථානය දී තවතවත් එය රැක ගතයුත්තේ මේ ආගමික නඩ විසින් බලෙන් බුදුදහම අතුරුදහන් කිරීමේ ක්රියාවලියට පිලිතුරක්ද වශයෙන් හා බුදු දහමට නියම ඊට ඉඩකඩ හා ආරක්ෂාව මුළු ලෝකයෙන්ම හිමිවී ඇත්තේ අප රට තුල පමණක් වන බැවිණි.
නිදහසින් පසු මෙරට පාලනය කළ පක්ෂ, විපක්ෂ නායකයින් තම සුරක්ෂිතභාවය හා බල ව්යාපෘති සඳහා බුදු දහම අඩු වැඩි වශයෙන් උපයෝගීකරගත්තා මිස, තම වාසිය පිණිස අවස්ථාවාදී වරණීය අනුග්රහයන් තෝරාගත් බෞද්ධාගමික සිද්ධස්ථාන හා භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේ වෙත ලබා දුන්නා මිස ව්යවස්ථාපිත වගකීම හෙවත් බුදු දහමට ප්රමුඛත්වය දීමට කටයුතු කළ බවක් අද වෙනකම් නොකළ බව කතෘ වන මගේ හැඟීමයි.
ඊනියා නිදහස ලත් දා පටන් මෙරට බෞද්ධ සමාජ සංස්ථාවේ චිරස්ථිතිය උදෙසා ඉරිපත්වී ඇති නිර්දේශ ක්රියාත්මක වීම සිදුකරන්නේ කවදා ද ?
වෝහාරිකතිස්ස, ගෝඨාභය, හතරවන කාෂ්යප, මහා පරාක්රම බාහු දුටුගැමුණු වැනි නරපතියන් ශාසනය රැක ගැනීමට දීවිහිමියෙන් කළ කැපකිරීම් නිසාම හා අනගාරික ධර්මපාල ,මිගට්ටු වත්තේ ගුණානන්ද හිමි ,ඕල්කට් තුමන් වැනි උත්තම පුරුෂයන්විසින් සිදු කල තීරණාත්මක තීන්දු තීරණයන් නිසා වීව ධ අවස්ථාවලදී නිර්මල ථෙරවාදී බුදුසමයේ ආරක්ෂාව අතීතයේ තහවුරු වී ඇත.
නමුත් දැන් කවුරු විසින් එය සිදු කරයිද ? අපි සියල්ලන්ම බලා සිටියි !
අනේ කුඹින්නේ ඔබට රජෙක් ඇත්තේ අපට රජෙක් නැත්තේ ඒ නිසාවෙනි අපි පසු තැවෙන්නේ !!!
ඔබ සැමට තෙරුවන් සරණයි !
පින්තුරවල දැක්වෙන්න මාහට තැපල් කල ලිපියේ අමුණා ආ මුලිකව ආගමික කුමන්ත්රණ කිරීමට ආඩි තාලම යෙදු ප්රේමනීය හිතවත ලියුමේ කොටසක් කිහිපයක් හා ඊට අමුණා බෙදා හරින මුද්රණය කරණ ලද ලිපි පෙළ.
–දෙශාඅභිමානී සුර්ය වංශ රත්න විභූෂණ පාලිත ආරියරත්න සෙන්කඩගල සිංහ ද්වාරයේ සිට2021-03-28 – මැදින් පුර පසළොස්වක පෝය දින
දෙවැනි ජනරජ ආණ්ඩුක්රම ව්යවස්ථාව තුළ විධායකය සහ ව්යවස්ථාදායකය පැහැදිළිව වෙන් කෙරී නොමැත. පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්රීවරුන් අතුරෙන් අමාත්ය මණ්ඩල සාමාජිකයන් තෝරා පත්කර ගැනීම නිසා මෙම ගැටලුව පැන නැගී තිබේ. මෙම හේතුව කරණ කොට ගෙන බරපතල ව්යාකූල තත්ත්වයක් රට තුළ නිර්මාණය වී තිබේ. විධායක හැකියාවක් ඇති නමුත් ව්යවස්ථා සම්පාදක හැකියාවක් නොමැති අය පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට පත්වීම නිසා මෙය සිදුවෙයි. මෙම ගැටලුව නිරාකරණය කර විධායකය සහ ව්යවස්ථාදායකය එකිනෙකින් පැහැදිළිව වෙන් කෙරෙන වැඩපිළිවෙළක් මෙම ප්රවාදයෙන් යෝජනා කෙරෙයි.
ඕනෑම රටක රාජ්ය පාලනයේ මූලික ම වගකීම පැවරෙනුයේ විධායකයට ය. පවත්නා නීතිවලට අනුකූල පරිදි ජනරජයේ ආණ්ඩුවේ පාලනය මෙහෙයවීම ඒ වෙනුවෙන් පත් කරගන්නා විධායකට විසින් සිදු කළ යුතු වේ. ශ්රී ලංකාවේ දෙවැනි ජනරජ ආණ්ඩුක්රම ව්යවස්ථාවට අනුව ආයතන තුනක් හරහා (එනම් ජනරජයේ ජනාධිපතිවරයා, අමාත්ය මණ්ඩලය සහ රාජ්ය සේවය යන ආයතන තුන හරහා) විධායකය ක්රියාත්මක වෙයි. ජනතාව විසින් තෝරා පත්කර ගනු ලබන ජනරජයේ ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් ඔහු වෙත පවරනු ලබන ජනතාවගේ විධායක බලය” ඔහු විසින් සෘජුවම ද අමාත්ය මණ්ඩලය සහ රාජ්ය සේවය වෙත අභිනියෝජනය කිරීමෙන් ද ක්රියාත්මක කළ යුතු වෙයි.
රාජ්යය එක්සේසත් කරන විධායක ජනාධිපතිවරයකු සිටිය යුතු බව මෙම බෞද්ධ ජනරජ ප්රවාදයෙන් ද නිර්දේශ කෙරෙයි. එ මෙන් ම, ඒ වෙනුවෙන් ම පවත්වනු ලබන නිලවරණයක දී මුළු රටේ ම ජනතාව විසින් එම විධායක ජනාධිපතිවරයා තෝරා පත්කර ගත යුතු බව ද මෙයින් අවධාරණය කෙරෙයි.
විධායක ජනාධිපතිවරයා තෝරා පත්කර ගැනීමට නිලවරණය පවත්වනු ලබන අවස්ථාවේ දී ම කෝරළ සභාවල සභාපතිවරයා තෝරා පත්කර ගැනීමේ අවස්ථාව ද ජනතාවට හිමිවෙයි. කෝරළ සභාවක සභාපතිවරයා යනු කෝරළ පාලනයේ මෙහෙයවීම භාර ජනතා නියෝජිතයා ය. මෙ ලෙසින් කෝරළයේ ප්රධාන විධායක තනතුර හොබවන අතර ම එම නියෝජිතයා හට රාජ්ය මන්ත්රණ සභාව” නියෝජනය කිරීමේ අවස්ථාව ද හිමිවෙයි.
යෝජිත රාජ්ය මන්ත්රණ සභාව” යනු ජාතික ව්යවස්ථාදායක සභාව” නොවේ. (මෙම ප්රවාදයෙන් නිර්දේශිත ජාතික ව්යවස්ථාදායක සභාව” පිළිබඳ කරුණු ඉදිරි ලිපියකින් ඉදිරිපත් කෙරෙයි). මෙම ආයතනය (රාජ්ය මන්ත්රණ සභාව”) ව්යවස්ථා සම්පාදන බලයක් රහිතව ස්ථාපනය කරන්නකි. රාජ්ය පාලනය සඳහා විධායකයට සහය වන අතර ම විධායකයේ අඩුපාඩු පෙන්වාදීම රාජ්ය මන්ත්රණ සභාවේ වගකීම වෙයි. ආණ්ඩුවේ වාර්ෂික අයවැය සම්මත කරදීම, දෝෂාභියෝග සහ විශ්වාසභංග යෝජනා ගෙන ඒම වැනි කටයුතු රාජ්ය මන්ත්රණ සභාවට සිදු කළ හැකිය.
ජනාධිපතිවරයා සහ ඔහුගේ මූලිකත්වයෙන් පත් කරනු ලබන ජාතික විධායක සභාව” විශේෂිත ආයතන දෙකක එකතුවක් ලෙසින් සැකසෙයි. විෂයානුබද්ධ කටයුතු භාර අමාත්ය මණ්ඩලය” සහ භූමිය පදනම් කරගෙන පත් කරනු ලබන දිසානායක මණ්ඩලය” එම ආයතන දෙකයි.
විෂයානුබද්ධ කටයුතු භාර අමාත්යවරුන් තෝරා පත්කළ යුත්තේ සෑම අමාත්යංශයක ම පාලනය භාරව එයට අනුබද්ධ ආයතනවලින් සහ වෘත්තීය ධාරාවලින් තෝරා පත්කර ගන්නා වූ නියෝජිතයන්ගෙන් ද ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් පත්කරනු ලබන්නා වූ නියෝජිතයන්ගෙන් ද සමන්විත වන්නා වූ විෂයානුබද්ධ පාලක සභාවලිනි. බලයට පත් වූ පසු තමන් විසින් අමාත්යංශ පාලක සභාවලට පත්කරනු ලබන නියෝජිතයන් නම් කිරීමේ පූර්ව අවශ්යතාව ජනාධිපතිවරණයට ඉදිරිපත් වන අපේක්ෂකයන් විසින් සපුරාලිය යුතු වේ. ඒ අනුව විෂයානුබද්ධ දැනුමක් ඇති හෝ එවැනි දැනුමක් ඇති අයගේ අනුමැතියට ලක්වන අය විෂයානුබද්ධ අමාත්ය ධූර සඳහා පත්කිරීමේ අවශ්යතාව මෙ මඟින් සපිරෙයි.
ජාතික විධායක සභාව” පත්කිරීමේ දී විෂයානුබද්ධ පදනමට අමතරව භෞමික නියෝජනය ද සළකා බැලිය යුතු වෙයි. ඒ ඒ දිස්ත්රික්කයේ කෝරළ සභාවලට ජනතාව විසින් තෝරා පත්කරනු ලබන සභාපතිවරුන් අතරින් එම අවශ්යතාව තහවුරු කෙරෙන දිසානායක මණ්ඩලය” සඳහා නියෝජිතයන් පත් කළ හැකිය. දිස්ත්රික්ක නියෝජනය සඳහා එක් අයකු බැගින් තෝරා පත්කිරීමේ අභිමතානුසාරි බලය විධායක ජනාධිපතිවරයා සතු වේ.
ඒ අනුව ගම් මට්ටමේ විධායක බලය ගම් සභාව” විසින් ද ජාතික මට්ටමේ විධායක බලය ජනතාව විසින් තෝරා පත් කරගනු ලබන විධායක ජනාධිපතිරයා සහ ඔහුගේ මූලිකත්වයෙන් පත්කරනු ලබන ජාතික විධායක සභාව” විසින් ද ක්රියාත්මක කරනු ලැබේ. තව ද පෙර ලිපියකින් පැහැදිළි කළ ආකාරයට ස්වාධීන (එනම්, නිර්පාක්ෂික) පදනමින් ගම් සභාව ද බහුපක්ෂ ක්රමය අනුව කෝරළ සභාවල සභාපතිවරුන් සහ විධායක ජනාධිපතිරයා ද පත් කෙරෙයි.
නිර්පාක්ෂික සහ බහුපාක්ෂික නියෝජනය තුලනාත්මක අයුරින් වැඩට ගත හැකි ක්රමවේදයක් මේ තුළින් නිර්මාණය වෙයි. ඒ අනුව, එක් අන්තයකට යොමු නොවී ක්රම දෙකෙහි ම යහපත් ඵල භුක්ති විඳීමේ අවස්ථාව ජනතාවට හිමිවන අතර ඒවා අන්යොන්යව පාලනය කිරීමට ද මෙකී මැදුම් පිළිවෙත උපකාරි වනු ඇත.
ආචාර්ය වරුණ චන්ද්රකීර්ති
Colombo, March 29 (DailyFT): A Bill to provide for the establishment of the Colombo Port City (CPC) Special Economic Zone has been published in the Gazette and is slated to be presented to Parliament next month.
The 76-page Bill provides for the establishment of a Commission empowered to grant registrations, licences, authorisations, and other approvals to carry on businesses and other activities in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) to be established within the Colombo Port City.
The five-seven-member Commission will oversee all activities within the SEZ, including identification of a single-window investment facilitator for the promotion of ease of doing business within the Zone, and determine and grant incentives and other exemptions for the promotion of businesses of strategic importance within the SEZ.
According to the Bill, the SEZ will be an international business and services hub with specialised infrastructure and other facilities for the promotion and facilitation of economic activity, including international trade, shipping logistic operations, offshore banking and financial services, information technology and business process outsourcing, corporate headquarters operations, regional distribution operations, tourism, and other ancillary services.
The objectives of the Commission will be to promote the CPC to be a leading Special Economic Zone in the region and an attractive investment destination to attract enhanced foreign direct investments into the country.
It will oversee the creation of a safe and conducive business environment and facilitate ease of doing business in and from the Area of Authority of the Colombo Port City and endeavour to ensure that the Ease of Doing Business Index in its area of authority is maintained at a level like other attractive economic zones in the region.
The Commission will also ensure ease of transacting its business operations and administration efficiently, reliably, and transparently to enhance investor confidence; promote tourism and ancillary services by facilitating duty-free shopping, entertainment, and other similar facilities; generate employment opportunities and promote sustainable development.
The Commission will consist of not less than five members and not more than seven members, and they will be appointed by the President, under whose purview the Colombo Port City functions.
The appointees will be drawn from among experts in the fields of investment, finance, law, information technology, engineering, business or accountancy. One member among them will be appointed as the Commission’s Chairperson.
The Commission, in consultation with and with the approval of the President, will appoint a suitable person as the Director-General of the Commission, who will function as its Chief Executive Officer.
The Commission will have its own fund with a sum of Rs. 400 million being the initial contribution payable by the project company to the fund of the Commission, on account of the Commission discharging inter alia the functions of the investment facilitator of the Colombo Port City.
This sum will be used by the Commission to defray initial setting up and operational expenditures, including international promotional expenditures for the Colombo Port City and Sri Lanka, and other expenses as may be incurred by the Commission in terms of this Act.
The Bill, titled the ‘Colombo Port City Economic Commission Act’, is slated to be presented to Parliament next month.
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