By P.K.Balachandran/Daily Mirror

Colombo, September 28: Events leading to the controversial takeover of the Kandyan kingdom by the British in 1815 and the aftermath have been written about both from the British and the Sri Lankan viewpoint. The British view is vividly presented in Ceylon Ancient and Modern published by Chapman and Hall of London in 1876. It is authored by an anonymous former officer of the Ceylon Rifles.

In 1798, the Prime Minister of the Kandyan kingdom,  Pilimatalavuva Maha Adikaram (or Pilame as he is referred to in the book) had placed on the throne of Kandy, Sri Wickrama Rajasinha, the 18-year-old nephew of the wife of the deposed King Rajadhi Rajasinha. Pilame wanted to rule Kandy and replace the Naicker dynasty” by an indigenous Sinhalese” dynasty with the help of the British, who had replaced the Dutch as the European power in Ceylon in 1796.

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When Pilame conveyed his plan to Governor Fredrick North, the latter got excited at the prospect of turning Kandy into a British Protectorate. Kandy had been doggedly defying European attempts to subdue or absorb it. But North disapproved Pilame’s proposal for a British attack on Kandy to put his puppet Mootoo Samey (Muthu Swamy) on the throne. North said he would not object if Pilame himself removed Wickrama Rajasinha, and yet he wanted to protect the king! The troops’ presence in Kandy will be the only means of preserving the poor man’s life and dignity, which otherwise will be sacrificed to the ambition of his minister,” North wrote.

He also wanted Wickrama Rajasinha to formally agree to the stationing of British troops. And to talk about this, he sent Maj.Gen. Hay MacDowell backed by 2500 troops. But MacDowell was made to wait inordinately for an audience and had to kneel before the King. The annoyed General returned to Colombo. But Pilame would not give up. In 1802, to force the British to take punitive action against the king, he relieved some Moor merchants from the coast of their property and put the blame on the king. Gen.MacDowell proceeded to Kandy on a punitive mission. Wickrama Rajasinha fled but not before setting Kandy on fire. Pilame put Mootoo Samey on the throne and MacDowell left for Colombo leaving a small contingent of troops in Kandy under Major Davie. But the doughty Kandyans put back Wickrema Rajasinha on the throne.

READ: Roots of the cow protection movement in Sri Lanka

Thus thwarted, Pilame planned to kidnap Governor North during the talks they had at Dambedenia and also attack British garrisons. The timely arrival of Malay troops put paid to his plans. Nevertheless, Kandyans attacked the British troops, most of whom were too sick to fight. Maj. Davie surrendered Mootoo Samey and also his arms. The Kandyans massacred” all but Davie and Corporal Barnsley, who escaped.  The massacre sparked calls for revenge. But North’s plan to send the troops to Kandy did not fructify as the Madras Governor could not send the 3000 men he sought.

Commenting on the misadventure, the author of the book says: The great fault of all those engaged in this terribly ill-managed Kandyan affair was placing any reliance on the word of an Asiatic, or entering into any negotiations or conventions with them, in which Europeans are sure to be foiled by their superior finesse and want of faith. In dealing with these people there is only one policy to be adopted, a bold, straightforward one, with a firm reliance on one’ own right arm and a good display of  physical force –the only argument they understand, or at least are likely to attend to.”

READ: The dwindling Parsis of Sri Lanka

When North took up the massacres with Wickrama Rajasinha, the latter blamed Pilame from whom, he said, he had long since withdrawn his confidence. North suspected that the king was being dismissive and dodgy because he was expecting assistance from the French Adm. Alexandre Durand Linois, who was harassing British shipping in the Indian Ocean.

Continually disturbed by the plots and insurrections by his chiefs,” Wickrema Rajasinha became a sanguinary despot.”  The crafty Pilame was found plotting to assassinate the king, who beheaded him in 1812. Pilame was succeeded as Adigar by his nephew Eheylapola (Ahalepola). But Eheylapola had inherited his uncle’s disposition for plotting and secretly tried to get Governor Robert Brownrigg’s aid for dethroning Wickrama Rajasinghe and assuming power himself. Brownrigg declined to help.

READ: Sri Vikrama Rajasinha wore royalty on his sleeve even after losing his Kingdom

Meanwhile, the king had discovered Eheylapola’s conspiracy. Eheylapola fled to Colombo. But the tyrant (Wickrama Rajasinha) wreaked his vengeance on his (Eheleypola’s) wife and family and everyone within his reach. The place of execution in Kandy flowed with blood and the neighbourhood echoed with the shrieks of the victims. Eheylapola’s wife and four children and his brother and wife were either beheaded or drowned, and the mothers were compelled, under the dread of being disgracefully tortured, to pound the decapitated heads of their children in a paddy pounder.”

As a consequence of this outrage, war was proclaimed against  Wickrama Rajasinha in January 1815. In a few weeks, Kandy was again in the possession of the British, thanks to the defection of the king’s General Mollegodde ( Molligoda) and the gang up the principal chiefs against the king. The king, who was hiding, was found out by Aheylapola’s men and handed over to the British. Upon capture, a remorseful Wickrama Rajasinha told the British: Your English governors have one advantage over us kings. They have counsellors near them who never allow them to do anything in passion. But unfortunately for us the offender is dead before our resentment has subsided!”

READ: Some facets of the history of Muslims in Sri Lanka

In the eyes of the British, Wickrama Rajasinha was not unprepossessing in appearance, except when he was excited, when his eyes gleamed with the fire of a demon, and his face assumed an air or malignant cruelty.”

In March 1815, the Kandyan Convention, by which the kingdom was handed over to the British by the chiefs, was signed. The chiefs were guaranteed their ancient privileges and powers, the impartial administration of justice and the maintenance and protection of Buddhism. However, according to eye witness Dr Marshall, both the chiefs and the people began to show signs of impatience and openly wished for the departure of the British from Kandy inquiring when they intended to leave the country.”

One of the Kandyans told Marshall: You have deposed the king and now nothing more is required. You may leave us now.”

They showed no dislike to us individually, but as a nation, they abhorred us; they made no complaint of misrule or oppression, simply wishing we should leave the country,” Marshalls adds.

These feelings broke out into an open revolt in 1817, secretly fomented by Eheleypola, the professed friend of England”. By 1818, the revolt had spread like wildfire. A monk was made a claimant to the Kandy thrown and the tooth relic was taken out from the temple at Kandy and shown to the people to arouse their fanatical enthusiasm.”

In the 10-month desultory 1880 war, 1000 Indian soldiers fighting in the British army died, which was one-fifth of the entire force deployed.

The Kandyans never met their enemies openly, gave quarter or showed any mercy to those who fell into their hands, and the army imagined they would eventually be obliged to evacuate the country and fight their way out,” an observer said.

Eventually, the Kandyans submitted due to the destruction of their villages, cattle and crops and the loss of nearly 10,000 people due to famine, fever and war. Disunion had also emerged among the rebellious chiefs. Some submitted and others were executed. Peace was restored after the accidentally discovered” Tooth Relic (Dalada) was reinstalled at its rightful place in Kandy.

By P.K.Balachandran Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, September 27: China’s State Council Information Office has released the country’s blueprint for a better world entitled Global Community of Shared Future: China’s Proposals and Actions”.

Presented on September 26, the document projects a benign, accommodative and progressive image of China, contrasting it with its adversaries which are dubbed hegemonic and narrow-minded.

However, no adversary has been named.

The document says that it is wrong to assume that strong countries will naturally seek hegemony. It disputes the notion that China will be aggressive just because it is growing.

There is no iron law that dictates that a rising power will inevitably seek hegemony. This assumption represents typical hegemonic thinking and is grounded in memories of catastrophic wars between hegemonic powers in the past.”

China has never accepted that once a country becomes strong enough, it will invariably seek hegemony.”

The root of hegemony is an obsession with superior strength, and the zero-sum mentality” the document points out.   

It says that China is not in the hegemonic league because it understands the lesson of history – that hegemony preludes decline.”

China develops itself not by invasion or expansion but by creating opportunities for itself while creating more development opportunities for the entire world, and not in order to supersede or subjugate others.”

Further, the strong preying on the weak is not a way for humans to coexist. If the law of the jungle is imposed on human society, and the idea that might is right prevails, the principle of sovereign equality will be fundamentally undermined, and world peace and stability will be severely endangered.”

Making a strong pitch for globalization, the document says that globalization is not an option, but is the reality and the way of life in a highly interdependent and interconnected world.”

Describing the winner-takes-all” mind set as the law of the jungle,” the document says that the way forward is inclusive development for the benefit of all.”

Certain countries still cling to the zero-sum game and blindly pursue   monopolistic advantages but this will do nothing for their development over the long run.”

No country should hope for others to fail. Instead, it should work together with other countries for the success of all. This is an integrated world. Those who turn their back on it will have no place in it,” the document says.

Decrying protectionism, including de-coupling and de-risking” from China, the document says that such raising of walls will halt globalization.

The artificial walls thus created, coupled with the pandemic, resulted in the Human Development Index declining for the first time in 30 years.

The world’s poor population has increased by more than 100 million, and nearly 800 million people live in hunger,” the document says.

Describing the security deficit as glaring”, the document lays the blame on the Cold War mindset of some powers who have revived ideological warfare.

Some countries’ hegemonic, abusive, and aggressive actions against others, in the form of swindling, plundering, oppression, and the zero-sum game, are causing great harm,” the document says and points out that non-traditional security challenges, including terrorism, cyber-attacks, and transnational crime, have increased.

The panacea for these ills is in a drastic change in approach.

Standing at a crossroads, humanity is faced with two opposing options. One is to revert to the Cold War mentality that deepens division and antagonism and stokes confrontation between blocs. The other is to act for the common well-being of humanity, strengthen solidarity and cooperation, advocate openness and win-win results, and promote equality and respect,” the documents points out.

Stressing the need to accept the diversity of systems, the document says that the goal should not be to replace one system or civilization with another. Instead, it should be about countries with different social systems, ideologies, histories, cultures and levels of development coming together to promote shared interests, shared rights, and shared responsibilities in global affairs.

Non-recognition of diversity goes hand in hand with isolationism and exclusivism which run counter to the multipolar trend, the document argues.

It calls for democracy in international relations to make sure that the future of the world is determined by all, that international rules are written by all, that global affairs are governed by all, and that the fruits of development are shared by all.”

It points out that acceptance of diversity leads to mutual learning which gives an impetus to human progress.

It calls for an end to the practice of adopting double standards or selectively applying international law.

Calling or a joint approach to problems, the document says: Viewed from a country-first perspective, the world is small and crowded, and locked in fierce competition; but viewed from the perspective of a shared future, the world is vast and full of opportunities for cooperation. No country can overcome global development challenges on its own. Cooperation among all countries is the only viable option.”

Development is sustainable only when it is inclusive, it adds.

On China’s approach to international conflicts, the document says that when neighbours are in trouble, instead of reinforcing one’s own fences, one should extend a helping hand. As challenges often take on global dimensions, it is all the more important for countries to cooperate in addressing them, turning pressure into motivation and crises into opportunities.”

Citing the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as an example of meaningful cooperation, the document cites a World Bank report which says that if the projects are implemented, trade between BRI countries trade will increase by 4.1%.

And by 2030, the BRI will generate US$1.6 trillion in annual global revenues.

Among the successful BRI projects cited in the report are: the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor; the China-Laos Railway; the Jakarta-Bandung High-speed Railway (reaching a speed of 350 km an hour);  the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway; and the China-Europe Railway Express.

In addition to the BRI, China has set up the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the Silk Road Fund to fund hundreds of projects

As regards China’s Global Development Initiative (GDI) the document says that more than 100 countries and international organizations have expressed support for it, and over 70 countries participated in the Group of Friends of the GDI at the UN.

Through the Global Security Initiative (GSI) presented in 2023, China seeks to work with the international community in upholding the spirit of the UN Charter.”

The GSI calls for changes in the international landscape through solidarity, addressing traditional and non-traditional security risks and challenges with a win-win mind set, and creating a new path to security that features dialogue over confrontation, partnership over alliance, and win-win approach over the zero sum game.”

Declaring China’s belief in peaceful negotiations to settle disputes, the document says that Beijing has settled land boundary issues with 12 of its 14 neighbours and delimited the maritime boundary in the Beibu Bay with Vietnam.

China’s has offered a blueprint for a political solution to the Ukraine Crisis and mediated between Saudi Arabia and Iran successfully.

On the controversial maritime security issue, the document says that China has proposed a maritime community of shared future” concept and is committed to the peaceful resolution of territorial sovereignty and maritime issues and interests through dialogue and consultation.”

Further, China has signed and fully and effectively implemented the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea with ASEAN countries, and continues to advance consultations on the code of conduct in the South China Sea.

China has proposed to jointly build a partnership on Blue economy and strengthen maritime connectivity. The document says that China adheres to the path of pursuing joint development while setting aside disputes, and is actively exploring joint resource development with its maritime neighbours.

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

ණය පොලී අනුපාත ඉතා ඉහළ අගයක් ගැනීම, විදුලි – ජල බිල්පත්, ගෑස් මිල ඇතුළු බලශක්ති ප්‍රභවයන්ගේ මිල ඉහළ යෑම, සුළු හා මධ්‍ය පරිමාණ කර්මාන්ත සඳහා වන බදු ඉහළ දැමීම හා දේශපාලන ස්ථාවරත්වය පිළිබඳ වන ගැටලුකාරී තත්ත්වය යන කරුණු හතර හේතුවෙන් මෙරට දේශීය කර්මාන්ත පද්ධතිය බිඳ වැටී ඇති බවත් එවැනි මොහොතක වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුව ඉන්දියාව සමග ETCA ගිවිසුම (Economic & Technology Cooperation Agreement) අත්සන් කළහොත් දේශීය කර්මාන්තකරුවාට සිදු වන්නේ ගහෙන් වැටුන මිනිහාට ගොනා ඇන්නා වැනි වැඩක්” බවත් උත්තර ලංකා සභාගය පෙන්වා දෙයි.

බොරැල්ලේ පිහිටි කොමියුනිස්ට් පක්ෂයේ ප්‍රධාන කාර්යාලයේදී පැවැති උත්තර ලංකා සභාගයේ පක්ෂ නායක මාධ්‍ය හමුවේදී එහි ජාතික විධායක සභික, ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණේ ජාතික සංවිධායක, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ජයන්ත සමරවීර මහතා මෙසේ පෙන්වා දුන්නේය.

එබැවින් මෙරට දේශීය කර්මාන්ත පද්ධතිය සඳහා වන කිසිදු ආරක්ෂණ වැඩපිළිවෙළක් නොමැති වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුව, ඉන්දියාව සමඟ ETCA ගිවිසුම අත්සන් කිරීමට උත්තර ලංකා සභාගය දැඩි විරෝධය පළ කරන බව ද ඒ මහතා අවධාරණය කළේය.

මෙසේ දේශීය කර්මාන්ත පද්ධතිය බිඳ වැටී, භාණ්ඩ අපනයනය පහත වැටීම හේතුවෙන්, ගෙවීගිය වසර 30 පුරා සාමාන්‍යයෙන් ඩොලර් බිලියන 10 – 12ත් අතර අගයක පවත්වාගෙන ආ මෙරට වාර්ෂික අපනයන ආදායම මේ වසරේ දී බොහෝ සෙයින් අඩු විය හැකි බවත් ඒ කිසිවක් මායිම් නොකර රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ ජනාධිපතිවරයා, මෙරට කර්මාන්තකරුවන්ගේ, වෘත්තිකයන්ගේ, වෘත්තීය සමිති හා වාමවාදී ප්‍රගතිශීලී දේශපාලන පක්ෂවල දැඩි විරෝධය හේතුවෙන් මෙතෙක් කලක් අස්සන් කිරීමට නොහැකිව තිබූ ETCA ගිවිසුමට පණදීමට සූදානම්වීම සුළුවෙන් නොතකන ලෙසත් ජයන්ත සමරවීර මහතා ජනතාවගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටියේය.

දිනෙන් දින දේශීය කර්මාන්ත බිඳවැටී, වැසී යමින් තිබෙන මොහොතක, ETCA ගිවිසුම අත්සන් තැබුවහොත් ඉන්දියානු කර්මාන්තවලට පමණක් නොව, මෙරට සේවා ආර්ථිකයේ සියලු ක්ෂේත්‍රවලට ඉන්දියානු ශ්‍රමිකයන්ට ද රිසි සේ රිංගා ගැනීමට හැකිවන බවට ඒ මහතා අනතුරු ඇඟවූයේය.

එබැවින් ETCA ගිවිසුම අස්සන් තැබීමේ උත්සාහය පැරදවීමට, පටු වාදභේද අතහැර මෙරට සියලු ප්‍රගතිශීලී ජනකොටස් පුළුල් විරෝධතාවකට සූදානම් විය යුතු බව ද සමරවීර මහතා සඳහන් කළේය.

මෙම මාධ්‍ය හමුවට උත්තර ලංකා සභාගයේ ලේකම්, ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ කොමියුනිස්ට් පක්ෂයේ ප්‍රධාන ලේකම් වෛද්‍ය ජී. වීරසිංහ මහතා ද එක්ව සිටියේය.

(අනුරුද්ධ බණ්ඩාර රණවාරණ)
මාධ්‍ය ලේකම්,
ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණ

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lankan cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka has been found not guilty of sexual intercourse without consent following an accusation of stealthing” involving a Tinder date in Sydney.

The 32-year-old was arrested in November while in Australia for the T-20 World Cup, after he went for drinks with a woman near the Opera House.

He had chatted online for several days and then had dinner with the woman, who can’t be identified for legal reasons, before being invited back to her eastern suburbs home, the NSW District Court heard.

The Crown’s case was that he removed a condom during intercourse without the woman’s knowledge when she had consented only to protected sex.

The complainant told the court she did not see the batsman remove the condom, but saw it on the floor shortly after the intercourse stopped.

Woman gave two different accounts

Judge Sarah Huggett today found evidence about the genesis” of the woman’s complaint undermined the reliability of her evidence.

The judge said the woman had given different accounts in her two statements; the second, given in April this year, went into further detail about the issue of stealthing.

But the judge said the complainant did not have a clear memory” of what happened around the time she saw the condom on the floor.

The evidence establishes there was no opportunity for the accused to remove the condom during the intercourse because that intercourse was continuous,” she said.

Judge Huggett considered the woman’s first conversations with two close friends, which seemed to frame the complaint in terms of the roughness of the sexual activity.

Crown ‘failed to establish woman’s reliability’

Mr Gunathilaka’s defence counsel argued the woman lied, gave self-serving evidence and appeared to not remember parts of the night that were inconsistent with a narrative” she created, which morphed over time.

Murugan Thangaraj SC told the judge the Crown failed to establish the woman’s reliability and highlighted what he said were inconsistencies and implausibility in her version of events.

He said it was completely illogical” to claim she felt ambushed before lighting candles in her bedroom, effectively setting it up for a romantic sexual liaison”.

In court, the woman alleged Mr Gunathilaka kissed her forcefully” on the way home and on her couch, where she felt ambushed” before moving to the bedroom.

She further alleged he choked her three times during sex, leaving her fearful for her life, and ignored requests to go slow.

Judge Huggett found the woman was an intelligent witness who gave evidence in a considered way”, and was overall a calm and responsive” witness.

But the judge said there were times when it appeared the complainant was motivated by a desire to paint the accused in an unfavourable light.

Police interview played in court

In his police interview, Mr Gunathilaka said he told her his preference generally was to not use condoms but wanted to on the night because it was their first meeting.

In the interview, the cricketer made mention of there being two condoms because one malfunctioned — which the Crown said was a deliberate mistruth.

But Judge Huggett disagreed, finding that his answers were the result of confusion, fatigue, a language barrier and possibly memory”.

I formed the distinct impression he was doing his best to be truthful and assist the police,” she said.

Sitting in the interview room, Mr Gunathilaka told police the woman had organised him a taxi and he kissed her before leaving.

She didn’t even text me, I didn’t text her also,” he said.

And that’s it, then I’m here.”

Mr Gunathilaka has been in Australia on bail since mid-November.

Outside court, Mr Gunathilaka said the verdict says everything” and that his reputation had been restored.

He thanked his lawyers, manager, as well as friends and family back in Sri Lanka, saying everyone believed me, so that means a lot to me”.

I’m happy that my life is normal again, so I can’t wait to go back and play cricket,” he said.

Mr Gunathilaka said the last eleven months have been really hard”, particularly being in Australia without his parents.

Source: ABC News
-Agencies

Courtesy Investing.com

Sri Lanka’s agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the next tranche of funds under a $3 billion lending program has been stalled, threatening to slow down the island nation’s recovery from its worst economic crisis in history.

The IMF team concluded a two-week visit to Sri Lanka on Wednesday without securing the staff-level agreement required to unlock the next $333 million disbursement. Despite Sri Lanka’s “commendable progress” in implementing economic reforms, measures to improve tax and revenue collection fell short of expectations, potentially undermining the government’s ability to provide essential public services and sustain debt.

The delay in agreement comes amidst Sri Lanka’s ongoing process of restructuring both its foreign and domestic debt, which was a condition for continuing with the IMF program. As of the end of 2022, both foreign and domestic debt totalled about $42 billion each.

In addition to these internal challenges, progress on negotiations has also been slowed due to tensions between Sri Lanka’s creditors, including geopolitical rivals such as China and India along with commercial bondholders.

Sri Lanka defaulted on its foreign debt last year following a sharp fall in its foreign reserves, leading to mass protests and shortages of essential goods such as fuel and medicine. This marked the first default by an Asia-Pacific nation in over two decades.

The country’s tax-to-GDP ratio plunged to one of the lowest globally at about 8 percent after former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa cut taxes in 2019. His successor, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has since taken a number of unpopular steps including raising some taxes, but according to the IMF, these measures have not met what was required.

“To increase revenues and signal better governance, it is important to strengthen tax administration, remove tax exemptions and actively eliminate tax evasion,” the IMF advised. The Sri Lankan official acknowledged that some reforms had taken longer than expected, but insisted that the country had made good progress in turning around its economy.

IMF Senior Mission Chief for Sri Lanka, Peter Breuerit, stated that disbursing of the second tranche would depend on two critical components: sustaining reforms and progress on the debt front. He also noted that there was no fixed timeline for the second tranche to be disbursed. The IMF mission team, led by Peter Breuer and Ms. Katsiaryna Svirydzenka, emphasized that full economic recovery is not yet assured despite early signs of stabilization.

Courtesy The Daily News

Today is World Heart Day.

Shereen Balasingham, a community medicine expert at the Directorate of Non-Communicable Diseases Division of the Health Ministry, said that the number of deaths and hospitalizations due to heart failure has increased significantly.

She stated that 52 percent of deaths in government hospitals in 2020 were due to heart attacks and that both men and women between the ages of 18 and 28 as well as between 29 to 39 years of age suffer from heart attacks.

She made these comments on Wednesday (27) while attending a press conference held at the Health Promotion Bureau.

The National Cancer Control Unit stated that how to quickly identify a heart patient should be added to the school syllabus.

Dr. Anidu Pathirana, a consultant cardiologist at the Colombo National Hospital, said that noise pollution is one of the main causes of heart disease. He also stated that if there are no laws to reduce noise pollution, new laws should be made or noise pollution should be prevented. He said that people suffer from heart attacks due to social and mental stress and the symptoms of pain in the body, difficulty in breathing and chest fatigue (wheezing) are symptoms of a heart attack.

By Peter Kornbluh

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No 8

Washington, D.C. – September 11 1998 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet. The violent overthrow of the democratically-elected Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende changed the course of the country that Chilean poet Pablo Neruda described as “a long petal of sea, wine and snow”; because of CIA covert intervention in Chile, and the repressive character of General Pinochet’s rule, the coup became the most notorious military takeover in the annals of Latin American history.

Revelations that President Richard Nixon had ordered the CIA to “make the economy scream” in Chile to “prevent Allende from coming to power or to unseat him,” prompted a major scandal in the mid-1970s, and a major investigation by the U.S. Senate. Since the coup, however, few U.S. documents relating to Chile have been actually declassified- -until recently. Through Freedom of Information Act requests, and other avenues of declassification, the National Security Archive has been able to compile a collection of declassified records that shed light on events in Chile between 1970 and 1976.

These documents include:

Cables written by U.S. Ambassador Edward Korry after Allende’s election, detailing conversations with President Eduardo Frei on how to block the president-elect from being inaugurated. The cables contain detailed descriptions and opinions on the various political forces in Chile, including the Chilean military, the Christian Democrat Party, and the U.S. business community.

CIA memoranda and reports on “Project FUBELT”–the codename for covert operations to promote a military coup and undermine Allende’s government. The documents, including minutes of meetings between Henry Kissinger and CIA officials, CIA cables to its Santiago station, and summaries of covert action in 1970, provide a clear paper trail to the decisions and operations against Allende’s government

National Security Council strategy papers which record efforts to “destabilize” Chile economically, and isolate Allende’s government diplomatically, between 1970 and 1973.

State Department and NSC memoranda and cables after the coup, providing evidence of human rights atrocities under the new military regime led by General Pinochet.

FBI documents on Operation Colombo and Condor–the state-sponsored terrorism of the Chilean secret police, DINA. The documents, including summaries of prison letters written by DINA agent Michael Townley, provide evidence on the carbombing assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt in Washington D.C., and the murder of Chilean General Carlos Prats and his wife in Buenos Aires, among other operations. These documents, and many thousands of other CIA, NSC, and Defense Department records that are still classified secret, remain relevant to ongoing human rights investigations in Chile, Spain and other countries, and unresolved acts of international terrorism conducted by the Chilean secret police. Eventually, international pressure, and concerted use of the U.S. laws on declassification will force more of the still-buried record into the public domain–providing evidence for future judicial, and historical accountability.  

THE DOCUMENTS Click on the to view each document.  

FBI, Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA), January 21, 1982 This report provides a summary of information taken from prison letters written by Michael Townley, the DINA agent responsible for the assassination of Orlando Letelier. This report includes information not directly provided to the FBI by Townley, but drawn from analysis of his correspondence with his DINA handler: details about meetings between Chilean President Pinochet and Italian terrorists and spies, codenames and activities of DINA personnel, collaboration between DINA and anti-Castro Cubans; the creation of a fake terrorist organization to take the blame for a DINA kidnapping in Argentina; DINA involvement in relations between Great Britain and Northern Ireland; and Townley’s fear that information about kidnappings and assassinations of prominent critics of Pinochet would somehow be traced back to him.  

FBI, Operation Condor Cable, September 28, 1976 This cable, written by the FBI’s attache in Buenos Aires, Robert Scherrer, summarizes intelligence information provided by a “confidential source abroad” about Operation Condor, a South American joint intelligence operation designed to “eliminate Marxist terrorist activities in the area.” The cable reports that Chile is the center of Operation Condor, and provides information about “special teams” which travel “anywhere in the world… to carry out sanctions up to assassination against terrorists or supporters of terrorist organizations.” Several sections relating to these special teams have been excised. The cable suggests that the assassination of the Chilean Ambassador to the United States, Orlando Letelier, may have been carried out as an action of Operation Condor.  

National Security Council, Chilean President’s visit to U.S., August 8, 1975 This memorandum, written by Stephen Low of the National Security Council, calls Scowcroft’s attention to Pinochet’s plans to visit the United States, and his requested meeting with U.S. President Ford. The memo states that the NSC asked the U.S. Ambassador to Chile, David Popper, to discourage the meeting by telling the Chileans that President Ford’s schedule is full. Fearing that such a visit would “stimulate criticism” and foster embarrassment, Low suggests an “informal talk” with Chile’s Ambassador Trucco.  

National Security Council, Disarray in Chile Policy, July 1, 1975 This memorandum, from Stephen Low to President Ford’s National Security Advisor, General Brent Scowcroft, conveys concern about wavering U.S. policy toward Chile in light of reports of human rights violations. The memo reveals a division within the U.S. embassy over dealing with Chile, with a number of officials now believing that all U.S. military and economic assistance should be terminated until the regime’s human rights record improves. According to Low, by reducing aid and sending “mixed signals” to the Chileans, the United States risks precipitating a crisis situation in Chile. Low concludes his memo by recommending that Scowcroft schedule a special meeting in which U.S. agencies can “clarify guidelines for future policy.”  

FBI Report to Chilean Military on Detainee, June 6, 1975 This letter, one of a number sent by FBI attache Robert Scherrer to Chilean General Ernesto Baeza, provides intelligence obtained through the interrogation of a captured Chilean leftist, Jorge Isaac Fuentes. The document records U.S. collaboration with Chile’s security forces, including the promise of surveillance of subjects inside the United States. Fuentes was detained through Operation Condor–a network of Chilean, Argentinian and Paraguayan secret police agencies which coordinated tracking, capturing and killing opponents. According to the Report of the Chilean National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation, he was tortured in Paraguay, turned over to the Chilean secret police, and disappeared.  

Department of Defense, Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA) Expands Operations and Facilities, April 15, 1975 This heavily excised Intelligence Report from the Defense Attache in Santiago Chile, describes the growth of DINA, the national intelligence arm of the Chilean government and “the sole responsible agency for internal subversive matters.” Many of the excised portions provide details about the strained relations between DINA and the Chilean Armed Forces because of DINA’s exclusive power. The report states that the head of DINA, Colonel Manuel Contreras, “has reported exclusively to, and received orders only from, President Pinochet.”  

Department of State, Kubisch-Huerta Meeting: Request for Specific Replies to Previous Questions on Horman and Teruggi Cases, February 11, 1974 This telegram, written by Ambassador Popper and directed to the U.S. Secretary of State, reports on a meeting between Assistant Secretary of State Jack Kubisch, and Chile’s foreign minister General Huerta on the controversy over two U.S. citizens–Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi–executed by the military after the coup. Kubisch notes that he is raising this issue “in the context of the need to be careful to keep relatively small issues in our relationship from making our cooperation more difficult.”  

Department of State, Chilean Executions, November 16, 1973 This memo, sent to the Secretary of State by Jack Kubisch, states that summary executions in the nineteen days following the coup totaled 320–more than three times the publicly acknowledged figure. At the same time, Kubisch reports on new economic assistance just authorized by the Nixon administration. The memo provides information about the Chilean military’s justification for the continued executions. It also includes a situation report and human rights fact sheet on Chile.  

Department of Defense, U.S. Milgroup, Situation Report #2, October 1, 1973 In a situation report, U.S. Naval attache Patrick Ryan, reports positively on events in Chile during the coup. He characterizes September 11 as “our D-Day,” and states that “Chile’s coup de etat [sic] was close to perfect.” His report provides details on Chilean military operations during and after the coup, as well as glowing commentary on the character of the new regime.  

Defense Intelligence Agency, Biographic Data on General Augusto Pinochet, August/September 1973 This DIA biographic summary covers the military career of the leader of Chile’s military coup, General Augusto Pinochet. The DIA, an intelligence branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, routinely collects “Biographic Data” on all high military officials around the world. The heavy deletions are likely to conceal Chilean sources providing information on Pinochet, his own contacts with U.S. officials, and commentary on his character, reputation, political orientation and actions during his career.  

Department of State, Memorandum for Henry Kissinger on Chile, December 4, 1970 In response to a November 27 directive from Kissinger, an inter-agency Ad Hoc Working Group on Chile prepared this set of strategy papers covering a range of possible sanctions and pressures against the new Allende government. These included a possible diplomatic effort to force Chile to withdraw–or be expelled–from the Organization of American States as well as consultations with other Latin American countries “to promote their sharing of our concern over Chile.” The documents show that the Nixon administration did engage in an invisible economic blockade against Allende, intervening at the World Bank, IDB, and Export-Import bank to curtail or terminate credits and loans to Chile before Allende had been in office for a month.  

CIA, Report of CIA Chilean Task Force Activities, 15 September to 3 November 1970, November 18, 1970 The CIA prepared a summary of its efforts to prevent Allende’s ratification as president and to foment a coup in Chile– track I and track II covert operations. The summary details the composition of the Task Force, headed by David Atlee Phillips, the team of covert operatives “inserted individually into Chile,” and their contacts with Col. Paul Winert, the U.S. Army Attache detailed to the CIA for this operation. It reviews the propaganda operations designed to push Chilean president Eduardo Frei to support “a military coup which would prevent Allende from taking office on 3 November.”  

National Security Council, National Security Decision Memorandum 93, Policy Towards Chile, November 9, 1970 This memorandum summarizes the presidential decisions regarding changes in U.S. policy toward Chile following Allende’s election. Written by Henry Kissinger and sent to the Secretaries of State, Defense, the Director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness and the Director of Central Intelligence, this memo directs U.S. agencies to adopt a “cool” posture toward Allende’s government, in order to prevent his consolidation of power and “limit [his] ability to implement policies contrary to U.S. and hemisphere interests.” The memo states that existing U.S. assistance and investments in Chile should be reduced, and no new commitments undertaken. Furthermore, according to Kissinger’s memo, “close relations” should be established and maintained with military leaders throughout Latin America to facilitate coordination of pressure and other opposition efforts.  

CIA, Briefing by Richard Helms for the National Security Council, Chile, November 6, 1970 This paper provides the talking points for CIA director Richard Helms to brief the NSC on the situation in Chile. The briefing contains details on the failed coup attempt on October 22–but does not acknowledge a CIA role in the assassination of General Rene Schneider. Helms also assesses Allende’s “tenacious” character and Soviet policy toward Chile. Intelligence suggests that Chile’s socialists, he informs council members, “will exercise restraint in promoting closer ties with Russia.”  

National Security Council, Options Paper on Chile (NSSM 97), November 3, 1970 A comprehensive secret/sensitive options paper, prepared for Henry Kissinger and the National Security Council on the day of Allende’s inauguration, laid out U.S. objectives, interests and potential policy toward Chile. U.S. interests were defined as preventing Chile from falling under Communist control and preventing the rest of Latin America from following Chile “as a model.” Option C–maintaining an “outwardly cool posture” while working behind the scenes to undermine the Allende government through economic pressures and diplomatic isolation–was chosen by Nixon. CIA operations and options are not included in this document.  

CIA, Cable Transmissions on Coup Plotting, October 18, 1970 These three cables between CIA headquarters in Langley, VA., and the CIA Station in Santiago address the secret shipment of weapons and ammunition for use in a plot to kidnap the Chilean military commander, General Rene Schneider. “Neutralizing” Schneider was a key prerequisite for a military coup; he opposed any intervention by the armed forces to block Allende’s constitutional election. The CIA supplied a group of Chilean officers led by General Camilo Valenzuela with “sterile” weapons for the operation which was to be blamed on Allende supporters and prompt a military takeover. Instead, on October 22, General Schneider was killed by another group of plotters the CIA had been collaborating with, led by retired General Roberto Viaux. Instead of a coup, the military and the country rallied behind Allende’s ratification by Chile’s Congress on October 24.  

CIA, Operating Guidance Cable on Coup Plotting, October 16, 1970 In a secret cable, CIA deputy director of plans, Thomas Karamessines, conveys Kissinger’s orders to CIA station chief in Santiago, Henry Hecksher: “It is firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup.” The “operating guidance” makes it clear that these operations are to be conducted so as to hide the “American hand,” and that the CIA is to ignore any orders to the contrary from Ambassador Korry who has not been informed of Track II operations.  

CIA, Memorandum of Conversation of Meeting with Henry Kissinger, Thomas Karamessines, and Alexander Haig, October 15, 1970 This memcon records a discussion of promoting a coup in Chile, known as “Track II” of covert operations to block Allende. The three officials discuss the possibility that the plot of one Chilean military official, Roberto Viaux, might fail with “unfortunate repercussions” for U.S. objectives. Kissinger orders the CIA to “continue keeping the pressure on every Allende weak spot in sight.”  

CIA, Genesis of Project FUBELT, September 16, 1970 These minutes record the first meeting between CIA director Helms and high agency officials on covert operations–codenamed “FUBELT”–against Allende. A special task force under the supervision of CIA deputy director of plans, Thomas Karamessines, is established, headed by veteran agent David Atlee Phillips. The memorandum notes that the CIA must prepare an action plan for National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger within 48 hours.  

CIA, Notes on Meeting with the President on Chile, September 15, 1970 These handwritten notes, taken by CIA director Richard Helms, record the orders of the President of the United States, Richard Nixon, to foster a coup in Chile. Helms’ notes reflect Nixon’s orders: l in 10 chance perhaps, but save Chile!; worth spending; not concerned; no involvement of embassy; $10,000,00 available, more if necessary; full-time job–best men we have; game plan; make the economy scream; 48 hours for plan of action. This presidential directive initiates major covert operations to block Allende’s ascension to office, and promote a coup in Chile.  

Department of State, U.S. Embassy Cables on the Election of Salvador Allende and Efforts to Block his Assumption of the Presidency, September 5-22, 1970 This series of eight cables, written by U.S. Ambassador to Chile, Edward Korry, record the reaction and activities of the U.S. Embassy after the election of Salvador Allende’s Popular Unity coalition. Known as “Korrygrams,” his reports contain some of the most candid, and at times undiplomatic, opinions and observations ever offered by a U.S. Ambassador. With titles such as “No Hope for Chile,” and “Some Hope for Chile,” Korry provides extensive details about political efforts to block Allende’s ratification by the Chilean Congress. The cables report on the activities of Chile’s political institutions in response to Allende’s election and provide Korry’s explicit assessments of the character of key Chilean leaders, particularly the outgoing president, Eduardo Frei.

චානක බණ්ඩාරගේ

 Lankawebහි 13/8/23 දින පළ වුනු  ‘Local adoption of the ICCPR Convention – a cunning enactment; works against Sinhala Buddhist activists and soft on Tamil separatist racists’ යන ඉංග්‍රීසි ලිපියේ සංශෝධිත සිංහල අනුවාදය, එම මුල් ලේඛකයා විසින්ම.

සිවිල් සහ දේශපාලන අයිතිවාසිකම් පිළිබඳ ජාත්‍යාන්තර සම්මුතිය (The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights – ICCPR)  1976දී බිහි විය. එය බහුපාර්ශ්වික ගිවිසුමකි. රාජ්‍යයන් 175කට වැඩි ප්‍රමාණයක් මේ වන විට එයට සම්මුති වී ඇත.

මෙම ගිවිසුමේ (මෙතැන් සිට, ‘සම්මුතිය’) මගින් වගකීම් පනවන්නේ රාජ්‍යයන් මත පමණි. එනම්,  සම්මුතියේ පාර්ශ්වකරුවන්.

උදා. එක්සත් ජනපදය තුල මෙම සම්මුතිය අදාළ වන්නේ එම  මධ්‍යම රජයට, සියලුම ප්‍රාන්ත රජයන් (States) සහ එම මධ්‍යම රජයේ සහ ප්‍රාන්ත වෙනුවෙන් රාජ්‍යය  කාර්යයන් ඉටු කරන පුද්ගලික කොන්ත්‍රාත්කරුවන්ට (agents) පමණය. එය සාමාන්‍ය පුද්ගලයන්ට එරෙහිව ක්‍රියාත්මක නොවේ.

මෙම සම්මුතියේ අරමුණ වන්නේ දේශයක පුරවැසියන්ගේ මානව හිමිකම්, අයිතීන් සම්බන්ධයෙන් රජයන් නිරන්තරයෙන්  සංවරව, ධනාත්මකව සහ තුලනව තබා ගැනීමයි.

කෙසේ වෙතත්, රටේ  පුද්ගලයන්ටද යුතුකම් සහ වගකීම් ඇති බවට සම්මුතියේ පූර්විකාවේ (Preamble) සඳහන් වේ.

නමුත්, රටක රාජ්‍යය මිස එහි ජනතාව මෙම සම්මුතිය මඟින් නීතිමය බඳවා ගැනීමකට හසු නොකරයි. 

 සම්මුතියේ පාර්ශ්වකරුවෙකු වන රටක්,  මානව හිමිකම් කඩකිරීම් කරනු ලැබීයයි කියනු ලබන එම රටේ  පුරවැසිකුට එරෙහිව, නිත්‍යානුකූලව දඬුවම් කිරීමක් ගැන මෙම සම්මුතියෙන් අනුමැතිය ලබා දීමක් හෝ ඒ පිළිබඳව සාකච්චාවට බඳුන් වීමක් සිදුවී නොවේ.

නමුත්, ශ්‍රී ලංකාව නම් සම්මුතිය පනතක් ලෙස දේශීයව අනුගත කර ඇත්තේ තම පුරවැසියනට දඬුවම් නියම කිරීමේ නියත චේතනාවෙන් බව පෙනේ.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා රාජ්‍යය සිය පුරවැසියන් වෙනුවෙන් සම්මුතියෙන් භාරගත් බොහෝ යුතුකම් සහ වගකීම් දේශීය පනතින් උද්දීපනය කර නොමැත.  

ජාත්‍යාන්තර  නීතියේ ප්‍රධාන රීතිය නම්,  ජාත්‍යාන්තර සම්මුතියක් (ගිවිසුමක්) දේශීය වශයෙන් අනුගත කිරීමේදී රාජ්‍යය විසින් සම්මුතියේ ගිව්සුම් ගතවූ බැඳීම් දේශීය පනතෙන් මනාව පිළිබිඹු විය යුතු වීමයි. සම්මුතිය දේශීය ගත කිරීමේදී එහි දැක්වූ වගකීම් රාජ්‍යය නැවත පනතින් අවධාරණය කළ යුතුවේ.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව වෙනස් ක්‍රියාමාර්ගයක් අනුගමනය කලත්,  සෙසු රටවල් දේශීය වශයෙන් මෙම සම්මුතිය ඔවුනගේ රටවල අනුගත කිරීමේදී අනුගමනය කර ඇත්තේ මේ සිද්ධාන්තයයි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව 1980 ජූනි 11 වැනි දින සම්මුතියට ඇතුළත් විය.  

එහෙත්,  1978 ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව මගින් ICCPR බැඳීම් ඒ වන විටත් දෙශියව අනුයුක්ත කර තිබුණි. උදා, ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 14 වැනි ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ (මින් ඉදිරියට වගන්තියේ) එන උප වගන්ති (උප ව්‍යවස්ථා) නවය –  14අ – 14එ.

14. (1) සෑම පුරවැසියෙකුටම – ((අ) භාෂණයේ සහ ප්‍රකාශනයේ නිදහස; (ආ) සාමකාමීව රැස්වීමේ නිදහස; (ඇ) සමාගමයේ නිදහස; (ඈ) වෘත්තීය සමිතියක් පිහිටුවීමට සහ සම්බන්ධ වීමට ඇති නිදහස; (ඉ) තමා විසින්ම හෝ අන් අය සමඟ ඇසුරු කරමින් හෝ ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ හෝ පෞද්ගලිකව, තම ආගම හෝ විශ්වාසය ප්‍රකාශ කිරීමට, \පිළිපැදීම සහ ඉගැන්වීමේ නිදහස; (ඊ) තමාගේම සංස්කෘතිය භුක්ති විඳීමට සහා ප්‍රවර්ධනය කිරීමට සහ තමාගේම භාෂාව භාවිතා කිරීමට තමා විසින්ම හෝ අන් අය සමඟ එක්ව ඇති නිදහස; කතා කිරීමේ, රැස්වීම, ආශ්‍රය,  රැකියාව ; ( උ) ඕනෑම නිත්‍යානුකූල රැකියාවක, වෘත්තියක, වෙළදාමක, ව්‍යාපාරයක හෝ ව්‍යවසායක තමා විසින්ම හෝ අන් අය සමඟ ඇසුරු කිරීමට ඇති නිදහස; (ඌ) ශ්‍රී  ලංකාව තුළ ගමන් කිරීමේ සහ ඔහුගේ අභිමත ස්ථානයක පදිංචිය තෝරා ගැනීමේ නිදහස; සහ (එ)  නැවත ශ්‍රී  ලංකාවට පැමිණීමේ නිදහස.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව විසින් 1980 සම්මුතියේ වූ බැඳීම්, සම්මුතියට පෙර, ඉහත උප වගන්තිවලින් 1978 දී ලබා දී තිබේ.

සරළව කිවහොත්,  සම්මුතියේ සමහර ප්‍රධාන වගකීම්  දේශීයව ගොඩනැගු  ICCPR  පනතෙහි අතුරුදහන් වුවද,  ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 10 –  14  සහ 2016 සම්මත වූ 14 A   වගන්ති මගින්, සම්මුතියෙන් මතුවෙන, ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජය විසින් ජනතාව වෙත පෑ යුතු මානව හිමිකම් බැඳීම්, පැහැදිලිව ලබා දී තිබේ.

10 – 14සහ 14A  වගන්ති ඉතා බලවත් විධිවිධාන වේ. ඒවා ක්‍රියාත්මක වන්නේ ජනයාගේ ‘අයිතිවාසිකම් පනත්’ (Bill of Rights)  ලෙස බව කෙනෙකුට නිර්භවව පැවසිය හැකිය.

ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව හරහා තම පුරවැසියන්ට මේ තරම් අයිතිවාසිකම් ප්‍රධානය කිරීම ගැන පුරසාරම් දෙඩිය හැකි රටවල් ලොව ඇත්තේ ඉතා ස්වල්පයකි. ඕස්ත්‍රේලියාවට තවමත් ඔවුන්ගේ ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ මෙවැනි  අයිතිවාසිකම් පිළිබඳ විශේෂිත අන්තර්ගත පනතක් (Bill of Rights) නොමැත.  ඒ වෙනුවට ඔවුන්ට ඇත්තේ වෙනම වූ මානව හිමිකම් පනත් මාලාවකි (5කි). ඇමරිකාවේ Bill of Rights පනතක් එහි ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ ඇත.

(ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ඕනෑවටත් වඩා ස්වකීය වැසියන්ට මූළික අයිතිවාසිකම්/මානව හිමිකම් ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව මඟින් ප්‍රධානය කර ඇතැයි  කියන පිරිසක්ද ඇත. අද මේවා කඩ වුයේ යයි කියා බොහෝ දෙනෙක් ගරු  ශ්‍රේෂ්ටාධිකරණය වෙත දිව යති. රජය සිය වැසියනට මේ නිසා වාර්ෂිකව ගෙවන වන්දි මුදල් ප්‍රමාණය අති මහත්ය. වැරදි කරන ලද රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරින්, විශේෂයෙන්ම පොලිස් නිලධාරින් බොහෝ දෙනෙක් මේ ක්‍රියාදාමයන් නිසා රැකියා අහිමිවීමට/ වීන්දිතයනට පෞද්ගලිකව වන්දි මුදල් ගෙවීමට සිදුවී ඇත).

මේ නයින් බලන කල ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ICCPR  සම්මුතිය දේශීයව සම්මත කිරීමේ පනතක් ගෙන ඒමේ තේරුමක් නැතැයි යනුවෙන් කෙනෙකුට සාර්ථකව තර්ක කල හැක.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවාසින් සම්මුතියේ දක්වා ඇති මූලික අයිතිවාසිකම් බොහොමයක් අපගේ ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව හරහා   භුක්ති විඳින වාරයේ, රජය 2007 දී    ICCPR  සම්මුති දේශීය පනත – (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Act, No. 56 of 2007; (මින් ඉදිරියට, ICCPR දේශීය පනත)ගෙන ආවේ තම ආත්මාර්ථකාමී අභිප්‍රායන් ඉෂ්ට කර ගැනීම සඳහා කපටි චේතනාවෙන් යයි කිව හැක. ඒ පිළිබඳව පහතින් විග්‍රහ වේ.

සුක්ෂමව බැලු කල, දේශීය ICCPR  පනතේ මූලික අභිප්‍රාය බව පෙනෙන්නේ ඉතා දැඩි වාර්ගික/ආගමික අපවාදයෙහි යෙදී සිටින වුවන් පමණක් නොව ආණ්ඩුව අකමැති රටේ පුරවැසියන්ට ඒ හා සමාන (බොරු) චෝදනා එල්ල කර නඩු පවරා දඬුවම් දීමයි. පළවෙනි කාණ්ඩයට එරෙහිව නිතීය තදින් ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම අවශ්‍යය – ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 14 අ වගන්තියට යටත්ව ( පුරවැසියාගේ කථා  කිරීමේ – භාෂණයේ සහ ප්‍රකාශනයේ, නිදහස).

(ගරු ශ්‍රේෂ්ටාධිකරණයේ නිවැරදි නඩු තීන්දු අනුව, ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ජාත්‍යාන්තර සම්මුතිවලට එලම්භියත් ඒවා දේශීයව ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමට නම් එම සම්මුති අප රටේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ පනත්  ලෙස නිත්‍යානුකූල ලෙස සම්මත විය යුතුයි. මෙම ICCPR දේශීය පනත රජය 2007දී ගෙන ආවේ ඒ නිසායි; නැත්නම් ICCPR ජාත්‍යාන්තර සම්මුතිය කෙලින්ම රටේ නිතීය බවට පත් විය හැකිව තිබුණි).

නීති සම්පාදනය කිරීමට රජයට සෑම ඉඩක්ම, හැකියාවක්ම ඇත. නමුත්, නව දේශීය ICCPR පනත, ජාත්‍යාන්තර සම්මුතියේ දේශීය අනුවාදය ලෙස නිරූපණය කර, එමගින් තම සැඟවුණු අභිමතාර්ථය ඉෂ්ට කරගැනීමේ තැත වැරදිය.  

නව දේශීය ICCPR පනතට සම්මුතියේ නම ලබා දීමෙන් තම සැඟවුණු චේතනාව මැනවින් ඉෂ්ට කර ගත හැකි වේ යයි  රජය අපේක්ෂා කල හැඩයි. තවද, ඒ මඟින් ජාත්‍යාන්තරය නොමඟ හරිය හැකි බව රජය දන්නා කරුණකි.

රජයක් පුද්ගලයෙකුට එරෙහිව දැඩි මානව හිමිකම් කඩකිරීම් සිදු කරන්නේ නම්, ජාත්‍යාන්තර ICCPR සම්මුතියේ වගකීම් කඩ කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් එම රජයට එරෙහිව සිවිල් නීති ක්‍රියාමාර්ග ගෙන ඒමට අගතියට පත් පාර්ශ්වයට හැකි  බවයි ජාත්‍යාන්තර සම්මුතිය කියවීමේදී අවබෝධ වන්නේ.  නමුත් දේශීය ICCPR  පනතින් පුරවැසියන්ට/පුද්ගලයන්ට රජයට එරෙහිව නඩු පැවරීමේ එවැනි සහණ ක්‍රමයක්/යාන්ත්‍රනයක් ගැන නොදක්වයි.  කළින් කීවක් මෙන්, එයින් කරන්නේ රජයට පුරවැසියනට විරුද්ධව නඩු දමා දැඩි දඬුවම් ලබාදීමේ ක්‍රමවේදයකි.  

නමුත්, රජයේ ක්‍රියාවලීන් වලින් මානව හිමිකම් කඩවුවනට වෙනත් මාර්ග හරහා රජයෙන් වන්දි/සහන ඉල්ලා සිටිය හැක – උදා. ආණ්‌ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්‌ථාවේ 126 වැනි වගන්තිය මගින් ලබාදෙන  රජයට එරෙහිව මූළීක අයිතිවාසිකම් අයදුම්පතක්‌ ගෙන ඒමට පුරවැසියාට ඇති අයිතිය, අභියාචනාධිකරණයේදී  සාධාරණ රිට්‌ ආඥා සඳහා අයදුම් කිරීමට ඇති හැකියාව ආදිය.

පුද්ගලයනට ICCPR සම්මුතිය තමන්ගේ උපරිම, පුද්ගලික  ප්‍රයෝජනය සඳහා භාවිතා කළ හැකි බව නිදර්ශනය කිරීමට:

මෙම ලේඛකයා ICCPR සම්මුතිය භාවිතා කරමින් ඕස්ත්‍රේලියානු රජයට එරෙහිව 1997 දී ඕස්ත්‍රේලියාවේ ෆෙඩරල් අධිකරණයේ පන්ති ක්‍රියා මාර්ග (class action)  2 ක් ආරම්භ කළේය. ඒවා  වුයේ:

ෆිලිප්  රඩොක් එදිරිව ගාමිණී වසන්ත ෆෙඩරල් උසාවියේ කැන්බරා රෙජිස්ත්‍රියේ) – පැමිණිලිකරුවන්සංඛ්‍යාව  ශ්‍රී ලාංකික  ජාතිකයන්  50ක් පමණ). මෙම කාරණය පසුව සිඩ්නි රෙජිස්ත්‍රිය  වෙත මාරු කරන ලදී.

ෆිලිප්  රඩොක් එදිරිව නෙයෝමාල් ප්‍රනාන්දු ෆෙඩරල් උසාවියේ  මෙල්බර්න් රෙජිස්ත්‍රියේ) – පැමිණිලිකරුවන් සංඛ්‍යාව,  ශ්‍රී ලාංකික පුරවැසියන්  150ක් පමණ).

පසුව, නඩු දෙකම එකකට ඒකාබද්ධ විය.

ඕස්ත්‍රේලියාවේ වෙසෙන ශ්‍රී ලාංකික පුරවැසියන්ට නිකුත් කර තිබූ මානුෂීය වීසාබලපත්‍රය  එවකට ඕස්ත්‍රේලියානු (ලිබරල් ආණ්ඩුවේ) ආගමන අමාත්‍යවරයා වූ ෆිලිප්  රඩොක්  (Phillip Ruddock) විසින් අවලංගු කිරීම මත මෙම ක්‍රියාමාර්ගය මතු විය. එය 435 උප පංතියේ වීසා බලපත්‍රය විය.

වසර ගණනක් ඕස්ත්‍රේලියාවේ 435 විසා ඛාණ්ඩය යටතේ සිටී ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයනට සති කිහිපයක් ඇතුළත ඕස්ත්‍රේලියාවෙන් පිටව යන ලෙසට රඩොක් අමාත්‍යවරයා නියෝගයක් 1997දී  නිකුත් කළේය .

435 subclass visa  යනු එවකට ශ්‍රී  ලංකාවේ පැවති ප්‍රචණ්ඩ සිවිල් යුද්ධ, විශේෂයෙන්ම  JVP කැරැල්ල හේතුවෙන් දින නියමයක් නොමැතිව ඕස්ත්‍රේලියාවේ රැඳී සිටීම සඳහා ඒ රටේ හෝව්ක් කම්කරු රජය විසින් ශ්‍රී  ලාංකිකයින්ට පමණක් නිකුත් කරන ලද සුවිශේෂ වීසා බලපත්‍රයකි. 1990  දශකයේ මුල් භාගයේ සංචාරකයන්,  සිසුන්, දෙමව්පියන්  සහ වෙනත් වීසා කිහිපයක් මත ඕස්ත්‍රේලියාවට  පැමිණි ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයන්ට අවශ්‍ය නම්  435 උප පංතියේ වීසා බලපත්‍රය සඳහා අයදුම්පත් කිරීමට එම රජය අවසර ලබා දුණි. එය විශේෂිත විසා බලපත්‍රයක් වුයේ ඒ මඟින් අපේ අයට පුර්ණ ලෙස රැකියා කිරීමට  ලබා දුන් අවසරය සහ , Medicare සඳහා ලැබුණු හිමිකමයි.

මෙම රෙගුලාසියෙන් අසාධාරණයට ලක් වූ ශ්‍රී  ලාංකිකයන් මෙම ලේඛකයා වෙත යොමු විය.  435 උප පංතියේ වීසා බලපත්‍රය එක්වරම අවලංගු කිරීමෙන් ඕස්ත්‍රේලියානු රජය උප පංතියේ 435 වීසා දරන්නන්ට දැක්විය  යුතු වගකීම් කඩ කළ බවට චෝදනා කරමින් ඔහු ඕස්ත්‍රේලියාවේ ෆෙඩරල් අධිකරණයේ අයදුම්පත් ගොනු  කළේය. ඕස්ත්‍රේලියාව එය අත්සන් කර ඇති ICCPR ජාත්‍යාන්තර සම්මුතියට පටහැනිව ක්‍රියා  කළේය යන චෝදනාව එමඟින් ඉතා දැඩිව (වෙනත් නිතීමය සාධකද ඇතුළුව) නැගිමී.

ඕස්ත්‍රේලියානු අධිකරණය මෙම ලේඛකයාගේ  අයදුම්පත් පිළිගත් අතර ඔහු  ඕස්ත්‍රේලියානු අධිකරණය ඉදිරියේ  එකී ශ්‍රී ලාංකික පුරවැසියන් වෙනුවෙන් බැරිස්ටර්වරයෙක් ලෙස වසර කිහිපයක් ඉතා  සාර්ථකව  කරුණු ඉදිරිපත් කළේය, තර්ක කළේය.

ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයෝ සතුටු වූහ; ඔවුන්ගෙන් බොහෝ දෙනෙක් දැන් ඕස්ත්‍රේලියාවේ පුරවැසියන්ව හොඳින් පදිංචි වී සිටිති.

මෙම නඩුව ඕස්ත්‍රේලියාවේ වැදගත් වන්නේ ආගමන නිතී පිළිබඳව එම රටේ මුල්ම පන්ති නඩුව (class action) වුයේ එය වීමයි. ඉන්පසු හතු පිපෙන්නාක් මෙන් එවන් නඩු ඕස්ත්‍රේලියාවේ සෑම ප්‍රාන්තයකම පාහේ පැණ නැගුණි.

ICCPR  සම්මුතිය රටක ජීවත්වෙන පුද්ගලයන්ගේ ප්‍රයෝජනය සඳහා ක්‍රියාත්මක වන ආකාරය දැක්වීමට මෙය කදිම නිදර්ශනයකි.

2007 දී ශ්‍රී ලංකාව කළේ පුරවැසියන්ගේ මූළික අයිතීන්/මානව හිමිකම් ආරක්‍ෂා වන පරිද සම්මුති බැඳීම් සියල්ල කෙටුම්පත් කරනවා වෙනුවට වාර්ගික/ආගමික භේධ ඇති කරන්නේයයි යයි චෝදනා නැඟෙන ශ්‍රී ලාංකික  පුරවැසියන්ට එරෙහිව ඉතා තදබල සම්බාධක පැණවීමට කටයුතු කිරීමයි.

මෙම ජාත්‍යාන්තර සම්මුතිය සැලසුම් කර ඇත්තේ රාජ්‍යයන් විසින් ‘ යහපාලනය’ සිදු කරවීමටය;  ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ දේශීය  ICCPR  පනත මූලික වශයෙන් කපටි ලෙස නිර්මාණය කර ඇත්තේ එය (පනත)  කඩ කරන පුරවැසියන්ට දැඩි දඬුවම් නියම කිරීම සඳහාය.

ICCPR  පනතේ යෝජකයින් තර්ක කරන්නේ   2007 දී රජය සම්මුතිය නිවැරදිව දේශීයව අනුගත  කළ බවයි; දේශීය ICCPR  පනතේ ප්‍රධාන විධිවිධානය වන  3 වන වගන්තිය බලාත්මක කිරීමට සම්මුතියේ 19 සහ 20 වගන්ති රජය විසින්  නිවැරදිව භාවිතා කරන ලද බවය.

මෙම ලියුම්කරු පවසන්නේ මෙම තර්කය  වැරදි බවයි:

පළමුව, සම්මුතියේ 20 වැනි වගන්තිය දේශීය ICCPR  පනතේ 3 වන වගන්තිය වේ.

දෙවනුව, සම්මුතියේ  19 වැනි වගන්තිය පනතේ  සම්මත කර ගෙන නොමැත.

දේශීය පනතේ 3 වන වගන්තිය පහත සඳහන් පරිදි කියැවේ –  කිසිම පුද්ගලයෙක් යුද්ධය ප්‍රචාරය කිරීම හෝ වෙනස් කොට සැලකීම, සතුරුකම හෝ ප්‍රචණ්ඩත්වය සඳහා උසිගැන්වීමක් වන ජාතික, වාර්ගික හෝ ආගමික වෛරය වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී නොසිටිය යුතුය.

සටහන, සම්මුතියේ 20 වැනි වගන්තිය පුද්ගලයන්/පුරවැසියන් කෙරෙහි විශේෂයෙන් යොමු කර නැත.

මෙම 3 වන වගන්තිය (පනතේ) ඉහළ අපරාධ අංගයක් ගණයට ගැනේ.  මෙම වගන්තිය කඩ කරන පුද්ගලයන්ට වසර  10ක් දක්වා සිරදඬුවම් නියම කළ හැකිය. ස්ත්‍රී දුෂණ, වෙනත් ලිංගික අතවරවල  යෙදෙන අයෙකුට සිර දඬුවමක් ලෙස ලැබෙන්නේ වසර 7 – 20 දක්වා පමණක් වූ සිර දඬුවමකි. මේ නිසා රජය කෙනෙක්   වාර්ගික/ආගමික කරුණක් ගැන බොහෝ විට වාචිකව හෝ ලිඛිතව කරන වරදක් පනත යටතේ ඉතාම දැඩි දඬුවම් ලබන වරදක් ලෙස කෙටුම්පත් කර ඇති බව පැහැදිලිව පෙනෙන සත්‍යයකි.  මෙය සාධාරණ නොවේ.

ගොබෙල්ස් න්‍යාය අනුව නම් එම දැඩි දඬුවම සාධාරණ විය හැක.

මෙකී 3  වන වගන්තියට අනුව, එම පුද්ගලයා වරෙන්තුවක් නොමැතිව පොලිසියට  අත්අඩංගුවට ගත හැකි අතර ඇප ලබා දිය හැක්කේ මහාධිකරණයට පමණි, එයද සුවිශේෂී අවස්ථාවන්හිදී පමණි.

මෙය පැහැදිලිවම සම්මුතියට එරෙහි වූ  සම්මත කර ගැනීමකි.

සම්මුතියේ 19  සහ 20 වගන්ති සිවිල් (civil) ක්‍රියා  පටිපාටියට සම්බන්ධවේ  – සම්මුතිය කිසි විටෙකත් 19 සහ 20 වගන්ති කඩ කරන්නන්ට එරෙහිව (රාජ්‍යයන් – එහි සේවකයන්/ඒජන්තවරුන්) සාපරාධී සම්බාධක පැනවීමක් ගැන දක්වා නොමැත.

තම තමන්ගේ යටි අරමුණුවලට සරිලන පරිදි මේ තරම් නාටකාකාර ලෙස සම්මුතිය  පාවිච්චි  කර ගත් වෙනත් රටක් ගැන මෙම ලේඛකයා නොදනී.

 නැවතත්, මෙහිදී,  දේශීය පනත යටතේ,  සම්මුතිය තමන්ගේම මානව හිමිකම් හැසිරීම් නංවාලීම සඳහා මාර්ගෝපදේශයක් ලෙස භාවිතා කරනවාට  වඩා,  රජය තම පුරවැසියන්ට සාපරාධී දඬුවම් කිරීමට, ඔවුන් දඩමීමා කිරීමට  එය භාවිතා කරයි.

ඉතිහාසගතව බැලීමේදී, ශ්‍රී  ලංකාව තුළ රජය තම නරක, යටි අරමුණ ඉටුකර ගැනීම සඳහා සම්මුතිය භාවිතා කර  ඇත – තමන් අකමැති අය දඩයම් කිරීමට.

ව්‍යවස්ථාදායකය විසින් නිත්‍යානුකූල ලෙස සම්මත කරන ලද පනත්/නිතී  අනුගමනය කිරීමට අපගේ අධිකරණ බැඳී සිටී.  මේ අනුව,  දේශීය ICCPR  පනත යටතේ වැරදි සිදු කර ඇති පුද්ගලයන් සම්බන්ධයෙන් කටයුතු කිරීම, එම පනත අනුව වැරදි කරුවනට දඬුවම් දීම  සම්බන්ධයෙන් අප රටේ ගරු අධිකරණයට  කිසිකෙනෙකුට විවේචනය කළ නොහැක.  මේ අවස්ථාවේ දී ගරු අධිකරණය මුළුමනින්ම  නිර්දෝෂී ය.

දේශීය ICCPR පනත යටතේ අධිකරණයට ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇති නඩු තිබේ, ලේඛකයා ඒවායේ කුසලතා මෙහිදී සාකච්ඡා කිරීමට කිසිසේත් අපේක්ෂා  නොකරයි.

අපේ ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 14 (අ) උප ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ පුරවැසියාගේ කතා කිරීමේ නිදහස පිළිබඳ ඉතා පැහැදිලිව දක්වා ඇත. දේශීය ICCPR  පනත (3 වන වගන්තිය) මේ වගන්තිය  සමඟ ගැටෙන බව පෙනේ.  එවැනි තත්වයක් තුළ 14 (අ) වගන්තිය (භාෂණයේ සහ ප්‍රකාශනයේ නිදහස) දේශීය ICCPR  පනතේ විධිවිධානයට වඩා බලවත්ව නැගී සිටීයි. මෙය ICCPR චූදිතයනට මහත් සහණයකි.

ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම  ආගම් සහ මහා ආගමික නායකයින් හෑල්ලු කිරීමට කිසිවෙකුට නිදහසක් ලබා දිය යුතු නැත. රජයේ යුතුකම වන්නේ එවැනි වැරදි කරන අයට නඩු පැවරීමට විශේෂ නීති පැනවීමයි. ඒවා නම් අපහාස නීතී සහ ආගමික අන්තවාදයට එරෙහි නිතී (blasphemy laws).  අපට දැනටමත් සමහරක් මෙවැනි නිතී තිබේ. උදා, අපරාධ නීති සංග්‍රහයේ  291A සහ    B වගන්ති කිහිපයක් සඳහන්කල හැකියි.

යම් පුද්ගලයෙක්  සමාජ මාධ්‍ය භාවිතා කරමින්  තවත් කෙනෙකුට එරෙහිව නිරන්තරයෙන් අපිරිසිඳු,  අසභ්‍ය වචන (කුණුහරුප)  ප්‍රකාශ කරන්නේ නම් එය  නින්දිත ක්‍රියාවකි. මුළු සමාජයම ඒ පුද්ගලයා හෙළා දැකිය යුතුයි,  ඒ පිළිබඳව සමාජය ‘කුලප්පු’ විය  යුතුයි.

නමුත්,  ඔහු/ඇය වාර්ගික/ආගමික අසමගිය ඇති කිරීමට කිසිවක් කර නොමැති නම්, ICCPR පනතේ 3 වැනි වගන්තිය යටතේ ඔහුට/ඇයට චෝදනා නගන්නේ කෙසේද?  

ඒවා කෙනෙක් සිපිරි ගෙයට යැවීමට තරම් බරපතළ වැරදි නොවේ.  ඔහුට/ඇයට පොදු නීතියේ මහජන පීඩා උල්ලංඝනය කිරීම (public nuisance)  යටතේ චෝදනා එල්ල කළ  හැක.  අගතියට පත් පුද්ගලයින්ට ඔහුට/ඇයටවිරුද්ධව  සිවිල් අපහාසයක් සම්බන්ධයෙන් නඩු පැවරිය හැකිය.

දේශීය ICCPR පනතේ 3  වැනි වගන්තිය ශ්‍රී  ලංකාව තුළ සාපරාධී අපහාස චෝදනාව නැවත (යළි) හඳුන්වා දීමක්ද? රජය එළිපිට පැමිණ පැහැදිලි කළ යුතුයි.

මෙවැනි අවාසනාවන්තයින් සිරගෙට යැවීමටවඩා,  මානසික සෞඛය  ප්‍රතිකාර සඳහා සරණාගථාගාරයකට අනුයුක්ත කළ යුතුය.

පසුගිය වසර 30 තුළ සිංහල බෞද්ධයෙකුට තමන්ගේ යුක්තිය වෙනුවෙන් සටන් කිරීමට නැගී සිටීම එන්න එන්නම දුෂ්කර වී ඇත.  ‘සිංහල බෞද්ධ අයිතීන්’  යන  වචන මේ රටේ යම් තරමකට තහනම් වචන බවට පත්වී ඇද්ද?

 බෙදුම්වාදී දෙමළමන්ත්‍රීවරුන්/සමහර දෙමළ දේශපාලකයන් /සමහර දෙමළ ඩයස්පෝරාව – බටහිර රටවල සිටින විට පමණක් නොව ශ්‍රී  ලංකාව තුළද බොහෝ වාර්ගික/ආගමික  වෛරය ප්‍රචාරය කරයි.

 මේ අය දිගින් දිගටම අන්ත ජාතිවාදී ප්‍රකාශ කරන අතර බරපතළ ජාතිවාදී ක්‍රියාවල නිරත වෙත්.  එවැනි හැසිරීම් පිළිබඳ ලේඛනයක් ලේඛකයා සතුව ඇත.

ඔවුන් ධනාත්මක ජනවාර්ගික සබඳතා පෝෂණය කිරීමට මේ රටේ ඇති ප්‍රධානතම  බාධාව වේ.  උතුරු නැඟෙනහිර පුරාණ බෞද්ධ විහාරස්ථානවලට බෞද්ධ භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේලාට පවා වැඩම කිරීම දැන් ඔවුන් තහනම් කර ඇත.  උතුරු නැඟෙනහිර ප්‍රදේශවල බෞද්ධ පුරාවස්තු විනාශ වීම නිරන්තරයෙන් සිදුවේ.

මෙම ලේඛකයාගේ දැනුමට අනුව,  පසුගිය කාලය තුළ,  මෙම ජාතිවාදී  වැරදිකරුවන් සැලකිය යුතු කාලයක් දේශීය   ICCPR පනත යටතේ හෝ වෙනත් නීතියක් යටතේ  අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන රක්ෂිත බන්ධනාගාරගත කර නොමැත. ඔහුගේ එම විශ්වාසය වැරදි නම් එය පිළිගැනීමට ඔහු සුදානම්ය.

උතුරේ සහ නැඟෙනහිර දෙමළ කතා කරන ප්‍රදේශවල පදිංචි වීමේ අයිතිය සිංහළයන්ට අහිමි කර ඇත.  මූළීක වශයෙන්  සිංහළයන් සීමා වී ඇත්තේ මෙම කුඩා දිවයිනේ (භූමි ප්‍රමාණය  2/3ක් පමණ) පළාත් 7කට)පමණි.  මෙය දෙමළ හා මුස්ලිම් ජාතීන්ට මෙන්  සිංහල ජාතියට  ව්‍යාප්ති වීමට බාධකයකි.  

මේ රටේ සිංහළ ජනගහනය අඩු වෙමින් පැවතෙන බව සියළු දෙනා දන්නා රහසකි.

දෙමළ සහ මුස්ලිම් ජනතාවට තමන් කැමති ඕනෑම තැනක ජීවත් විය හැකියි. මෙය හරිය; මෙම ලේඛකයා එය විවේචනය නොකරයි. .

නමුත්, එම අයිතියම සිංහළයාට ද සතු විය යුතුය.

රටේ සෙසු ජාතීනට කෙසේ වෙතත් මහත් ව්‍යසනයකදී සිංහළයාව භාර ගැනීමට ලොව වෙනත් කිසිම රටක් නැත. ඔවුන් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවෙන්ම පැන නැගුවෝ වෙත් (indiginous people).

උතුරේ සහ නැඟෙනහිර ප්‍රදේශවල ඉඩම් මිලදී ගැනීමෙන් සිංහළයන් සූක්ෂම ලෙස  වළක්වනවා පමණක් නොව, බදු පදනම මත ඉඩම් ලබා ගැනීමට  පවා ඔවුනට නොහැකි තත්ත්වයක් පවතී.  අද ශ්‍රී  ලංකාවේ විශාලතම මානව හිමිකම් කඩවීම මෙයයි.

සිංහළයා උතුරේ පදිංචි වීම වැලැක්වීම සඳහා නොකරන දෙයක් නැති උතුරේ රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරීන් වෙත්.

උතුරේ සමහර සිංහළ ගම් වල ද්‍රවිඩ ජනයා ගෙනැවිත් පදිංචි කිරීමට/ සිංහළයන් එම ගම් වලින් ඉවත් කිරීමට ඔවුන් නොකරණ දෙයක් නොමැත.

මෙය අන් ජාතීන් සමඟ සැසඳීමේදී සිංහලයනට වෙනස් කොට සැලකීමකී. දේශීය  – ICCPR පනතේ 3 වැනි වගන්තිය තදබල  වශයෙන් උල්ලංඝනය කිරීමකි.

එමෙන්ම ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 14 ඌ වගන්තිය උල්ලංඝනය කිරීමකි (ශ්‍රී  ලංකාව තුළ ගමන් කිරීමේ සහ පුද්ගලයාග්  අභිමත ස්ථානයක පදිංචිය තෝරා ගැනීමේ නිදහස).   

එය සම්ප්‍රදායික ජාත්‍යාන්තර නීතියටද (Customary International Law) පටහැණි වීමකි.

කිසිවෙකු මේ ගැන කතා කිරීමට එඩිතර නොවේ;  මහා සංඝරත්නය පවා. සැම මේ  ගැන ප්‍රදර්ශනය කරනුයේ පුදුම නිහැඬියාවැකි.  මෙයට එක් හේතුවක් වන්නේ කලින් සඳහන් කළ පරිදි සිංහල බෞද්ධ අයිතීන් වෙනුවෙන් සටන් කිරීම සමකාලීන ශ්‍රී  ලංකාව තුළ යම් තරමකට තහනම් දෙයක් වීමයි.  එවැනි පුද්ගලයන් සමහර විට සිංහලයන් විසින්ම පහත් කොට හෙළා දකී,  සුවිශේෂයෙන්ම සමාජ මාධ්‍යයන්හි.

දේශීය ICCPR පනතක්‍රියාත්මක වී රජය ඔවුන්ව දඩයම් කරනු ඇතැයි ජනතාව නිරන්තර බියෙන් පසුවෙත්. මෙය රටකට හොඳ දෙයක් නොවේ. විශේෂයෙන්ම, ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ආසියාවේ මුල්ම ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය ක්‍රියාත්මක වූ රටක් බව මුළු ලොවම දන්නා නිසා.

දේශීය ICCPR පනත යටතේ සහ වෙනත් නීති යටතේ සිංහළ  ක්‍රියාකාරීන් අසාධාරණ ලෙස අත්අඩංගුවට ගත් උදාහරණ තිබේ.

පසුගිය වසර 30 තුළ සිංහල බෞද්ධ සංස්කෘතිය හා සාරධර්ම මර්ධනය විශාල ලෙස වර්ධනය වූයේ රට පාලනය කළ දේශපාලකයන්ට සහ දැනට රටේ තිබෙන බොහෝවිද්‍යුත් මාධ්‍යවලට ප්‍රධාන ලෙස  පින්සිදු වන්නටය.  මේ වන විට සමාජ මාධ්‍යද මේ මැන්ටලය කර තබා ගෙන යයි.  බෞද්ධ භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේලා  ඔවුන් නිරන්තරයෙන් හඳුන්වනු ලබන්ණේ ‘Yellow Pets හෝ Yellow Pests’ යනුවෙනි.

ඉදිරියට පැමිණ සිංහළ, බෞද්ධ ප්‍රශ්ණ ගැන කථා කල බොහෝ එඩිතර බෞද්ධ භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේලා ඊනියා සමාජමාධ්‍ය වේදීන් විසින් විවිධ උපක්‍රම යොදා නිහඬ කර ඇත.

නමුත්,  බුද්ධාගම ආරක්ෂා කිරීමට සහ පෝෂණය කිරීමට ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 9 වැනි වගන්තිය අප සතුව ඇති බව නම් අප ආඩම්බරයෙන් සැම විට  ප්‍රකාශ කර සිටිමු!

‘සිංහළ’ සහ ‘බුද්ධාගම’ ගැන සිතා මතා ම ගොඩනැගෙමින් පවතින අයහපත් හැඟීම නිසා අපේ ශ්‍රේෂ්ට  සිංහළ  සංස්කෘතියෙන්, , සාරධර්මවලින්,  චර්යාවලින් සහ බෞද්ධ ඉගැන්වීම්/අධ්‍යාපනයෙන් ළමයින් හා තරුණ පිරිස් දිගින් දිගටම ඈත් වෙමින් පවතී.  ඔවුන් විශාල වශයෙන් වෙනත් සංස්කෘතීන් සහ ආගම් වෙත වේගයෙන් ආකර්ෂණය වෙමින් යයි.  හොඳම  උදාහරණයක් නම්  මේ රටේ ඉවැන්ජලිකල්/පෙන්ටකෝස්ටල්  කණ්ඩායම් වල පුදුමාකාර ලෙස වන  නැඟීම්ය.  

සිංහල ජාතිය විශේෂයෙන් සිංහළ බෞද්ධයා පල්ළම් බැසීම පුදුමයක් නොවේ.  එය මිය යන ජාතියක් නොවේ, නමුත් නිසැකවම මෙම 21 ^වන සියවස තුළ මෙම භූමියේ සුළුතරයක් බවට ඔවුන් පත්වනු ඇත.

ethos8@bigpond.com

Insight By Sunil Kumar

While President Ranil Wickremasinghe insists that the Nation will maintain good relations with all countries and will take no sides he should also curb his Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Sabry from direct involvement in the ongoing conflict between India and Canada before it becomes an embarrassment to Sri Lanka straddled with her own issues to contend with.

Thus it was indeed surprising to see Foreign Minister Ali Sabry making a statement to the International Media  on the recent Indo-Canada conflict which has no relevance to Sri Lanka whatsoever and could easily be misinterpreted as meddling without a mandate.

His statement which seems to have been a personal one rather than being Sri Lanka’s official view, Sabry has  launched a scathing attack on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for his allegations against India, which Sri Lanka has neither relevance nor any privy to as his officious tone of voice could have far reaching ramifications to the good relations existing between Sri Lanka and Canada.

Sabry has said that” some of the terrorists have found safe haven in Canada” which in a sense has its realities in a relative sense as Canada has a reputation of harboring support towards the Tamils seeking secession who have sought refuge in Canada.

In the minds of many analysts it has been seen that Canada has often been sympathetic towards the Tamil cause and struggle for secession despite it being a violation of Sri Lanka’s Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity

It may be acceptable from some perspectives to see Sabry take on Trudeau when it comes to local affairs which might involve people of Sri Lankan origin but what seems to be unwanted at this moment of time is to see Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister interfering in a conflict between India and Canada and further dampen relations over a matter which bears no relevance to the Nation he is the Foreign Minister of and a Nation which is very supportive of Sri Lanka’s needs over decades.

It will be interesting to see if President Wickremasinghe also maintains the same view as Sabry relevant to the Foreign Minister who has openly made this statement over a conflict which does not involve the State,and whether he will get Sabry to maintain the PM’s own trend of thought  by saying that Sri Lanka will not take sides with either India or Canada.

Bearing in mind that  Sri Lanka has her own major issues to cope with presently and can definitely do without interfering in conflicts which do not concern the Government or the Nation, Sabry and others of his standing  could well do with maintaining a position of diplomacy rather than involving themselves with issues beyond their jurisdiction.

To reiterate : Sri Lanka has her own battles to cope with and can definitely do without interfering in conflicts which do not concern the Government or the Nation.

by Janaka Perera

Asoka Weeraratna – Founder of the German Dharmaduta Society,

Berlin Buddhist Vihara and Mitirigala Nissarana Vanaya

Professor Karl Heinz-Golzio

The 50th Anniversary (1957-2007) of the first Sri Lankan Buddhist Mission to Germany

 commemorated with the issue of a commemorative postage stamp

Janaka Perera

Colombo, (Asiantribune.com): Buddhism is definitely making headway in Germany and the rest of Europe.

http://archives.dailynews.lk/2007/08/28/news24.asp

Expressing this view were prominent German invitees to a very significant event marking the 50th anniversary (1957-2007) of the first Sri Lankan Buddhist Mission to Germany, at the Savsiripaya Auditorium in Colombo 7, Sri Lanka on August 22.

Sri Lanka honoured the mission – sponsored by the German Dharmadutha Society – with the issue of a commemorative postage stamp and a first-day cover by the Government Philatelic Bureau. This is the second time that a Sri Lankan Postage Stamp depicting a scene in Germany has been issued here. Nihal Sangabo Dias designed the new stamp issued on Wednesday.

Guest of Honour, German Ambassador in Sri Lanka, Juergen Weerth thanked the Sri Lankan Authorities for honouring his country in this manner. Focusing on Buddhism’s contribution to the creation of close and sustainable links between the two countries, he said the understanding of the teachings of the Buddha had been growing in Germany and the rest of Europe for the past 50 years.

He said: “Germans have always been fascinated by the Buddha’s teachings. Arthur Schopenhauer called it the most perfect of world religions. Einstein said that if there was any religion that would cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism.

Why are we fascinated? It is because Buddhism is a philosophy of rationality, realism and ethical purity. The respect for the Buddhist approach towards creation, in general, can lay the foundation of universal social ethics – that are dedicated to ecological well-being and social justice and to world peace.”

Delivering the keynote address – ‘The German Contributions to Theravada Buddhism and the Reception of Buddhism in Germany and its Influence on German Culture ‘ – Professor Karl Heinz-Golzio of the University of Bonn: traced the history of Buddhism in Germany from the early 19th Century to the present day and drew attention to the services of many a German thinker and scholar to the cause of Buddhism in Europe.

Among them were, Arthur Schopenhauer, Karl Eugen Neumann, Dr. Paul Dahlke, the Venerable Nyanatiloka (the first German to become a bhikku) and the Ven. Nyanaponika.

“Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer,” Prof. Golzio said, “was among the thinkers who had recognized the validity of Buddhism before its sources were edited and translated into European languages.”

Golzio said: “To him, Buddhism was the best of all religions because it is preferable to Brahminism with its caste system and even more to Christianity with its fallacious ideas about God and its defective code of ethics in which animals were given no consideration”.

The Professor further noted: “Schopenhauer claimed that his own philosophy agreed with the Buddha’s teachings. The affinity between Schopenhauer’s philosophy and Buddhism is in many ways striking. “

Golzio said that the advent of the Nazis heralded a dark period for Buddhism in Germany. Some Nazi sympathizers had distorted and misinterpreted the Buddha Dhamma, giving it a racial connotation and calling it an Aryan religion similar to Hitler’s National Socialism. At the same time, true Buddhists suffered under the Hitler regime.

Among them was Dr Paul Dahlke’s former Secretary, Dr Kurt Fischer who published a Buddhist Journal each issue of which the Nazis censored. After Fischer died of a heart attack in 1942 upon hearing that he was to be arrested by the notorious Gestapo, the latter confiscated all his books on Buddhism.

“Today, ” Golzio noted “More and more and more Western people have become interested in Buddhism – especially in meditation – as a way to mental peace and calmness. And they convert to Buddhism after a critical trial period.”

He said that Buddhism – although still not an officially recognized religion in Germany – it is now a subject in the school curriculum there. This according to him is very significant.

“It is a chance to teach Buddhist values and Buddhist ethics, loving kindness and compassion and unselfishness to the younger generation of Germans – especially at a time of materialism, consumerism, environmental crime, pollution and natural disasters, terrorism and war. Many western people have lost confidence in Christianity and are searching for rational ways of leading a spiritual life. They are also looking for guidance to lead meaningful and happy lives.”

Richard Lang – Director of Geothe Institute, Colombo – observed:

“One of the articles on Buddhism by Golzio has been particularly quoted again and again – because he puts forward a very interesting question: Whether we can expect even a larger number of Europeans to turn to Buddhism in the future – probably because of this in the world which we are living.”

Chief Guest, Public Administration and Home Affairs Minister Karu Jayasuriya said that the German Dharmadutha Society’s first mission – Initiated by a young Sri Lankan Businessmen Asoka Weeraratne – was the beginning of a long and deep-rooted relationship between Sri Lanka and Germany.

“It was not a mission for conversion but an undertaking to meet the German people and give them solace in their hour of need. Asoka Weeraratne saw the immense potential for Buddhism in Europe, particularly in post-World War II Germany.

“I reiterate that this mission was not for conversion but to give the Buddha’s message – to give that philosophy. It is the greatest gift Sri Lanka can offer to the West. I cannot think of anything better.”

The Minister said that today Buddhism has become part of the Western culture. According to him, in America alone, there are over a million people looking at Buddhism. “Germany and Sri Lanka have had a very long and warm friendly relationship. The people of this country have a very special place in their hearts for Germany.

Sri Lankans will never forget names such as Wilhelm Geiger, Paul Dahlke, Ven Nyanatiloka and Ven Nyanaponika. Socially Germans are very fond of this country. When they visit once they visit many times. I thank the good work done by the German Cultural Institute (Goethe Institute).”

Chief Sanghanayaka of Europe and Chief Patron of the Austria Buddhist (Theravada) Society, Sri Lankan Bhikku Venerable Dr Wijayarajapura Seelawansa after speaking briefly in Sinhala gave a lengthy talk in German on Buddhism to the Germans in the audience.

He said that many Germans are deriving an immense benefit from the services that the Berlin Buddhist Vihara (Das Buddhistische Haus) in Berlin – Frohnau in offers. Giving the vote of thanks Emeritus Prof J. B. Dissanayake spoke on the Buddhist connection between Sri Lanka and – Greece – the first European country known to people here.

The Honorary Secretary of the German Dharmaduta Society Senaka Weeraratna also spoke. Raja Kuruppu was the compere.

Asian Tribune

Ministry of Defence  – Media Centre

Pursuant to the Private Security Agencies Regularization Act No. 45 of 1998, the Ministry of Defence has taken steps to update the licensing conditions for the regulation and registration of private security agencies currently registered under the Ministry of Defence.

Accordingly, all registered institutions must submit applications for extension for the next 02 years before  three (03) months to the expiration of the license.  Operating without a valid license is an offense punishable under the Private Security Agencies Regulating Act No. 45 of 1998.

Further information and applications for extension of private security agency license and registration can be obtained from the Defence Ministry’s website www.defence.lk.

Media Release2023.09.28

As the latest of a series of activities to mark the 75^th anniversary of the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between India and Sri Lanka which falls this year, the High Commission of Sri Lanka in New Delhi has initiated a book project on Ramayana sites in collaboration with the internationally renowned publisher Dorling Kindersley Publishing Private Limited (DK) India.

The proposed book, with the working title In the Footsteps of Rama; A Cultural Journey through India and Sri Lanka”, will feature the Ramayana sites both in India and Sri Lanka giving reference to the historical, archeological and mythological aspects of these sites.

DK, a publisher of high-quality illustrated reference books plans to bring out the final production of the book by July next year.

The agreement pertaining to the publication was signed yesterday (25) at the High Commission of Sri Lanka in New Delhi. DK India’s Managing Director Aparna Sharma, Head Finance & Operations Alka Kumar, Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to India Milinda Moragoda, Deputy High Commissioner Niluka Kadurugamuwa, Minister of the High Commission Upul Pushpakumara and Minister Counsellor Gamini Sarath Godakanda were present at the signing.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය 

·       ගුරු පත්වීම් ලබා දීමේදී පළාත තුළ පුරප්පාඩු පිරවීමට පියවර ගත යුතුයි.

·       මත්ද්‍රව්‍ය ව්‍යාපාර වැළැක්වීමට ස්වේච්ඡා වැඩපිළිවෙළක් නැවත අවශ්‍යයි.

– අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන මහතා

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන මහතා සහ පළාත් ආණ්ඩුකාරවරුන්, අතර හමුවක් 2023.09.26 දින  අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේ දී පැවැත්විණි.

එහිදී අදහස් දැක්වූ අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය වරයා –

රටේ තිබෙන ආර්ථික, දේශපාලන හා පරිපාලන තත්ත්වය සාර්ථක කර ගැනීමේ වැඩපිළිවෙළ  හොඳින් ක්‍රියාත්මක කර ගැනීම අවශ්‍යයි. දැනටමත් මහජන නියෝජිතයන් නැති පළාත් පාලන ආයතන ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම පිළිබඳව අවධානය යොමු කළ යුතුයි.

පළාත් පාලන ආයතන වලත් වසරකට වැඩි කාලයක් ජනතා නියෝජිතයින් නැහැ. ජනාධිපතිතුමා දිස්ත්‍රික් සංවර්ධන කමිටු සභාපතිවරුන් පත්කරමින්  පළාත් සභාවල වැඩකටයුතුත් ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කාර්යාල වල සංවර්ධන කමිටුපත් කරමින් ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් බල ප්‍රදේශ වල වැඩ කටයුතුත් අඛණ්ඩව පවත්වාගෙන යාමට කටයුතු කර තිබෙනවා. ආණ්ඩුකාරවරුන්  දිස්ත්‍රික් ලේකම්වරුන් සමග එක්ව වැඩ කළ යුතුයි කියලා ජනාධිපතිතුමා චක්‍රලේඛයක් නිකුත් කර තිබුණා. ජනාධිපතිතුමාගේ නියෝජිතයින් හැටියට ආණ්ඩුකාරවරුන් සුවිශේෂ බලයක් භුක්ති විඳිනවා. රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරීන් සහ ආණ්ඩුකාරවරු හැම අංශයක්ම පිළිබඳවම හොඳ අවධානයක් යොමු කළ යුතුයි.

බහු කාර්‍ය සේවකයින්  ස්ථානගත කිරීම පිළිබඳ  අවධානය වැඩිපුර යොමු කරන්න. පළාත් සභාවල සහාය ඒකට ලැබෙන්න ඕනෙ. රජයේ දෙපාර්තමේන්තු වලින් පමණක් මේක කරන්න බැහැ. සමහර දිස්ත්‍රික්කවල කුඩා ප්‍රමාණයක් පමණයි ස්ථානගත කිරීම සම්පූර්ණ කරන්න තියෙන්නෙ. මේ අයට සාමාන්‍ය පෙළ නැහැ. එන්.වී. කිව්. විශේෂ පුහුණුවක් රජය විසින් ලබා දී තිබෙනවා. එම පුහුණුව පිළිගන්නා ස්ථානයකට මොවුන් ස්ථානගත කිරීමට පියවර ගන්න.  

ගුරු පත්වීම් පිළිබඳවත් ගැටලු තියනවා. ඒ ඒ පළාත තුළම පත්වීම් දෙන්න පියවර ගත යුතුයි. එමගින් ගුරු පත්වීම් ලබා දීමේ වැඩපිළිවෙළ සාර්ථක කර ගත හැකි යි. වෙනත් පළාතකට හෝ දිස්ත්‍රික්කයකට යැව්වට ඒ ගුරුවරු පාසල් වල ඉන්නේ නැහැ. සමහර කලාපවල අතිරික්තයක් ඉන්නවා. අපේ අරමුණ ශිෂ්‍ය ශිෂ්‍යාවන්ට අධ්‍යාපනය දීම මිස සහනදායි ස්ථාන මාරු දීම නෙවෙයි.  රජයේ ගුරුවරු බඳවා ගැනීමේ වැඩපිළිවෙළ ඒ ඒ පළාත් තුළම පුරප්පාඩු පිරවීම් සදහා ස්ථානගත කරන්න.  

හැම පළාත් පාලන ආයතනයකම ආදායම වැඩි කිරීමට පුළුවන් බව පළාත් පාලන අමාත්‍යාංශය හඳුනාගෙන තිබෙනවා. ඒ පිළිබඳ  විශේෂ උනන්දුවක් අවශ්‍යයි. උසාවි දඩ, මුද්දර ආදායම්, වෙනත් පැවරුම්, මූල්‍ය ප්‍රතිපාදන පළාත් පාලන ආයතන වලට  යොමු වීම අඩුයි. සංවර්ධන කමිටු මේ පිළිබඳව අවධානය යොමුකර වියදම් සමනය කළ හැකි උත්සාහය දරන්න. හිටපු ජනාධිපතිතුමත් වත්මන් ජනාධිපතිතුමත්  සූර්ය බල ශක්තිය වැඩි කරන ප්‍රතිපත්තියක හිටියා. නමුත් ප්‍රගතිය බොහොම අඩුයි. ව්‍යාපෘති ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමට පළාත් සභා හා දිස්ත්‍රික්  කමිටු ප්‍රමුඛත්වයක් දක්වන්න. පළාත් පාලන ආයතන ඩිජිටල් කරණය කිරීම මගින් ආදායම වැඩි කරගන්න පුලුවන්. අදාල කොමසාරිස්වරුන්ට ඒ පිළිබඳ උපදෙස් දීලා තියෙනවා. ඒ වගේම නිරීක්ෂණය කිරීමත් ඉතාම වැදගත්.   

ඇතැම් නීති විරෝධී ආදායම් ක්‍රම ගැන සොයා බැලිය යුතුයි. මත්ද්‍රව්‍ය භාවිතාව හෝ වෙළඳාම වැඩිවී තිබෙනවා. පොලිසිය සමඟ එක්ව පළාත් මට්ටමින් මේ පිළිබඳව අවධානය යොමු කරන්න. ඉක්මන් නොවුනොත් පාතාල කල්ලි ඝාතන  යුද්ධය කොහෙන් හමාර වෙයිද දන්නෙ නැහැ. මේ තත්ත්වය අනිවාර්යෙන්ම පාලනය කරගත යුතුයි. යුද්දෙ කාලෙ මහජන ආරක්ෂක  කමිටු හදාගත්තා. පොලිසිය අවදියෙන් හිටියා.  එවැනි ස්වේච්ඡා වැඩපිළිවෙළක් නැවත අවශ්‍යයි. ඒ තුළින්  මෙම තත්ත්වය පාලනය කර ගැනීමට උපදෙස් දිය යුතුයි. දරුවන්, ගුරුවරුන්, තරුණ තරුණියන් මේ පිළිබඳව අවබෝධ කර ගෙන මෙම මත්ද්‍රව්‍ය වැළැක්වීමේ ව්‍යාපාරය ඉදිරියට ගෙන යා යුතුයි. මෙම තත්ත්වය ඉක්මනින් මෙල්ල කිරීම සඳහා ආරක්ෂක අංශ, බහුජන සංවිධාන, ආගමික නායකයින් සමඟ සාකච්ඡා කරන්න.

පාසලෙන් පිටවන හැම දරුවකුටම විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයට යන්න බැහැ. ඔවුන් වෘත්තීය අධ්‍යාපනයට යොමු කළ යුතුයි. විශේෂයෙන් තොරතුරු තාක්ෂණයට ඔවුන් යොමු කිරීම පිළිබඳ වැඩි අවධානයක් යොමු කරන්න. දිස්ත්‍රික් මට්ටමින් ඒ පිලිබඳ උනන්දුවක් දක්වන්න. එහෙම නැති උනහම තමයි එක එක කල්ලි වලට මේ දරුවෝ එකතු වෙන්නෙ. තරුණ දරුවන් ඉදිරි අනාගත වැඩපිළිවෙලකට යොමු කරන්න.

රජයට හෝ රජයට සම්බන්ධ වතු ඉඩම් හෝ ඉඩම් ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණ කොමිෂන් සභාවේ අක්කර දහස් ගණන් ඉඩම් ඵලදායි දෙයකට යොදා ගන්නේ නැතුව නිකම්ම තියෙනවා. මෙම ඉඩම් තරුණ තරුණියන්ට කෙටි කාලයකට වගා කරන්න ඉඩ දෙන්න රජය තීරණය කළා. එම වැඩපිළිවෙළ ඉදිරියට ගෙනියන්න අවශ්‍යයි.  

මෙම අවස්ථාවට රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍යවරුන් වන ජානක වක්කුඹුර, අශෝක ප්‍රියන්ත, ආණ්ඩුකාරවරුන් වන මහීපාල හේරත්, විලී ගමගේ, ලලිත් යූ. ගමගේ, ඒ. ජේ. මුසම්මිල්, රොෂාන් ගුණතිලක, පී. එම්. එස්. චාල්ස්, සෙන්තිල් තොණ්ඩමන්, නවීන් දිසානායක, රාජ්‍ය පරිපාලන අමාත්‍යාංශ ලේකම් රංජිත් අශෝක සහ සියලු පළාත් ප්‍රධාන ලේකම්වරුන් සහභාගී වූහ.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය  

http://www.democracynow.org – In 1991, Nelson Mandela traveled to Cuba to meet with then president Fidel Castro on one of his first international trips after being freed from prison. Mandela called the Cuban Revolution, “a source of inspiration to all freedom-loving people” and thanked Cuba for supporting the African National Congress at a time when it was banned in South Africa and condemned by the United States. “Who trained our people, who gave us resources, who helped so many of our soldiers, our doctors?” Mandela said to Castro. “You have not come to our country — when are you coming?” Earlier today, Cuban President Raúl Castro spoke at the Mandela memorial in South Africa. Watch part of his speech at http://www.democracynow.org/2013/12/1… Democracy Now!, is an independent global news hour that airs weekdays on 1,200+ TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch it live 8-9am ET at http://www.democracynow.org.

Priyantha Hettige

The source for the collection of ideas and practices called ‘fascism’ (an Italian word) is to be found in the Holy Bible – the word of God. The Popes are fully fascist and rule through the power of God. Their rules are to be imposed on all of humanity without question or answer-back.

Fascism is a Christian political theory which states that a God-believing Head of State, deriving his legitimacy from the representative of God on earth – the Pope, must impose his power and authority over all his people including non believers.

It rejects “… ideas of individual liberty and equality, emphasizing national or racial superiority and concentrates authority on a dictatorial cult figure.” *

Fascism first arose and was first practiced by in Europe by the dictators General Franco of Spain, Dr. Salazar of Portugal, Hitler, Mussolini of Italy and Ante Pavlic of Croatia. All these men were Roman Catholic Christians. They blindly believed in God, the infallibility of the Pope and in their own infallibility. This movement culminated in the Second World War (1940- 1945CE) against Hitler, Mussolini and Pavlic. By simple common sense and sanity other European governments had to put an end to this “Bible-inspired” madness which resulted in 58 million people dead in World War II.

But even now, Roman Catholics continue to work quietly to make their fascist ideas of “One God, One Religion; One Pope, one (Christian) World” come to reality.

Other Christian groups, although in fierce competition even conflict with each other, do all agree to, and will collaborate to achieve the common goal of one world of Christians with one God reigning supreme which leads to “order” (and control) by the ruling elites.

All Christian sects work quietly to get their ideas accepted by the general population, using the press and friendly reporters, unsuspecting government agencies, etc.

They are busy now, targeting ex-Communist China and Vietnam and most Buddhist countries which they would like to slowly convert to Christianity over time.

You can see how Buddhist society in Sri Lanka has been corrupted by Christian ideas due to Christian colonization and its churches. Christian society has a good control of newspapers, news making and entertainment. They use these for their own propaganda purposes.

This is totally bad because Sri Lanka is the last place on earth that has a large society of free and independent thinkers who are able to openly criticize Christianity and its terrible history and insane beliefs.

* The Macmillan Encyclopedia 1983                        Adjutorium. August 2006

Prime Minister’s Media Division

Eid Milad-Un-Nabi Message

When Muslims all over the world celebrate the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammed who dedicated himself to peace, love, mercy and goodness and wellbeing of the world, let us recommit ourselves to creating harmony in the society as it is the most appropriate way to respect him.
It is a timely requirement to apply the humanitarian philosophy of the Prophet, who gifted a perfect way of life that brings prosperity, emancipation, peace and happiness towards social welfare of the people.
I offer Eid Milad-Un-Nabi Mubarak to the Sri Lankan Islamic devotees and their brethren across the world who respect the universal message of harmony professed by Prophet Muhammed.
 

කාදිනල් හිමි සම්පුර්ණ බොරු කරන්නේ | රාජ්‍ය නොවන සංවිධාන වලින් සල්ලි එකතු කරනවා | මිහින්තලේ හිමිගෙන් කාදිනල් හිමිට චෝදනා පත්‍රයක්

Courtesy Aljazeera

Global lender says it did not reach a staff-level agreement with Sri Lanka in its first review under a $2.9bn bailout package.

The International Monetary Fund did not reach a staff-level agreement with Sri Lanka in its first review under a $2.9bn bailout package, due to a potential shortfall in government revenue generation, says the lender.

Speaking after a two-week visit to the country, IMF delegation head Peter Breuer on Wednesday said a second tranche of about $330m under a lending programme would only be released after the IMF reaches a staff-level agreement, and there was no fixed timeline on when that would take place.

Sri Lanka has made commendable progress in implementing difficult but much-needed reforms. These efforts are bearing fruit as the economy is showing tentative signs of stabilisation,” the IMF said in a statement.

The team will continue its discussions in the context of the First Review with the goal of reaching a staff-level agreement in the near term.”

Video Duration 02 minutes 28 seconds02:28IMF reviews Sri Lanka’s progress: One year since economic collapse

The IMF delegation said despite early signs of stabilisation, full economic recovery is not yet assured and growth momentum remains subdued.

In the last six months, Sri Lanka has seen its runaway inflation drop to 1.3 percent in September, its currency appreciate by about 12 percent and foreign exchange reserves improve.

But the island has struggled to improve its revenue with additional measures likely to be taken in the upcoming budget in mid-November.

Despite revenue mobilisation having improved relative to last year, the IMF said revenue was expected to fall short of initial projections by nearly 15 percent by year end.

While partially due to economic factors, the onus of fiscal adjustment would fall on public expenditure if there were no efforts to recoup this shortfall. This could weaken the government’s ability to provide essential public services and undermine the path to debt sustainability,” said the statement.

https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.592.0_en.html#goog_1299905892Play Video

Video Duration 02 minutes 32 seconds02:32Sri Lanka drought: Government to compensate struggling farmers

Sri Lanka’s international bonds were unmoved by the news, trading slightly higher on Wednesday. The bonds are still in deeply distressed territory, trading between 46-48 cents to the dollar, Tradeweb data showed.

The global lender said Sri Lanka would need to strengthen tax administration, remove tax exemptions and actively eliminate tax evasion to increase revenues and signal better governance.

Sri Lanka accepted offers to exchange about $10bn worth of defaulted local debt for new bonds, taking it a step towards meeting debt restructuring requirements ahead of the IMF review.

Sri Lanka has also held multiple rounds of talks with bondholders and bilateral creditors including Japan, China and India to reach an agreement to rework its foreign debt after suspending repayments in May last year.

The island’s debt restructuring is also being discussed at a meeting of the Institute of International Finance and Paris Club scheduled for later in the day, according to the agenda seen by Reuters news agency.

Bloomberg News

COLOMBO, Sept 27 —Some members on the committee of Sri Lanka’s official creditors are pushing to reach a deal to restructure the nation’s debt without the participation of China, Bloomberg News reported today citing people familiar with the matter.

The members want the group of major creditors, including the US, Japan and India, to sign a memorandum of understanding with Sri Lanka around the time of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings scheduled for next month in Morocco, the report added. — Reuters

Courtesy NekkeiAsia

Fund says crisis-hit economy needs tax reforms to boost coffers

A vendor waits for customers at a marketplace in Colombo on Sept. 27. “The people of Sri Lanka have shown remarkable resilience and the authorities have made significant progress on important reforms,” the IMF said in a statement.   © AP

MUNZA MUSHTAQ, Contributing writerSeptember 27, 2023 19:13 JSTUpdated on September 27, 2023 22:50 JST

COLOMBO — Crisis-hit Sri Lanka suffered another setback on Wednesday, after it failed to clinch a staff-level agreement on the next stage of its bailout from the International Monetary Fund, which did not give a timeline for disbursing a second $330 million aid tranche.

In its first official review since agreeing to the $2.9 billion assistance package in March, the IMF said that while there were encouraging signs of stabilization in Sri Lanka, a full economic recovery was not yet in sight.

“The people of Sri Lanka have shown remarkable resilience and the authorities have made significant progress on important reforms,” the IMF said in a statement at the conclusion of a two-week visit. “Discussions will continue towards reaching a staff-level agreement in the near term that will maintain the reform momentum needed to allow Sri Lanka to emerge from its deep economic crisis.”

Peter Breuer, the IMF’s senior mission chief for Sri Lanka, told media that the release of the second tranche will depend on whether the government could sustain reforms and make progress on paying down debt.

The IMF expects revenue mobilization gains to fall short of initial projections by nearly 15% this year and wants the government to find ways to boost its coffers. “To increase revenues and signal better governance, it is important to strengthen tax administration, remove tax exemptions, and actively eliminate tax evasion,” Breuer said in the statement.

Dhananath Fernando, CEO of Sri Lanka-based economic policy think tank Advocata, agreed that Sri Lanka needed to streamline and improve its taxation system by following international standards of transparency.

“If we stick to those principles, we can achieve the revenue targets,” Fernando said. “Also, tax holidays provided on a selective basis based on political affiliations need to be reversed to improve the tax revenue. When a tax system is simple, stable and neutral, many people fall into the tax base.”

Chayu Damsinghe, head of macroeconomic risk advisory at Colombo-based Frontier Research, also said that Sri Lanka needed taxation reforms.

“It’s worth noting that such reforms may take a year or two to yield results, but they are a crucial part of the solution,” he said. “Additionally, even Sri Lanka’s middle class must acknowledge that sustaining their consumption and lifestyle requires a fair contribution through taxes.”

But critics of the IMF said that taxes alone will not be enough and that the body should have enforced cost-cutting measures on the government to begin with.

“Had the policy program been designed as a blended approach at the origin, both IMF and the government would not have faced this embarrassing situation,” said W. A. Wijewardena, a former central bank deputy governor. “Since curtailing expenditure will not take place, the IMF expects the government to increase taxes further. It seems that the professionals who went before the IMF team for relief have been given a harsh treatment.”

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe addresses the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Sept. 21. He is expected to visit China in October.   © Reuters

Colombo-based economist Talal Rafi said the main issue was Sri Lanka’s external debt. “The government has made progress with new laws and gains on important fronts like primary balance targets. The elephant in the room is the external debt restructuring. Hopefully, President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s visit to China can make progress on this,” he said.

Wickremesinghe is expected to visit China in October and to encourage more investments in Sri Lanka.

Rafi added that the IMF setback may even be a positive development for Sri Lanka, as it will force the government to work harder on structural reforms, including in the state-owned enterprises sector and governance-related matters. “As elections approach next year, it is easy for the government to turn more populist,” he said.

The IMF did point to some positive developments in its statement — inflation has come down to below 2% in September from a peak of 70% a year ago, while gross international reserves increased by $1.5 billion during the March to June period, and shortages of essentials have eased.

Much of the public remains skeptical of the country’s direction. A survey by Verite Research revealed that around 45% of Sri Lankans believe the IMF’s bailout package will make things worse in the future, while only 28% were of the opinion that the ongoing program will lead to a better outcome for Sri Lanka’s economy.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission team concluding its visit to Sri Lanka said that despite early signs of stabilization, full economic recovery is not yet assured.

The team led by Peter Breuer and Ms. Katsiaryna Svirydzenka said Sri Lanka has made commendable progress in implementing difficult but much-needed reforms.

The people of Sri Lanka have shown remarkable resilience in the face of enormous challenges. Sri Lanka has made commendable progress in implementing difficult but much-needed reforms. These efforts are bearing fruit as the economy is showing tentative signs of stabilization. Inflation is down from a peak of 70 percent in September 2022 to below 2 percent in September 2023, gross international reserves increased by $1.5 billion during March-June this year, and shortages of essentials have eased. Despite early signs of stabilization, full economic recovery is not yet assured. Growth momentum remains subdued, with Q2 real GDP contracting by 3.1 percent on a year-on-year basis and high-frequency economic indicators continuing to provide mixed signals. Reserve accumulation has slowed in recent months.

The statement issued by the IMF team said it is important to strengthen tax administration, remove tax exemptions, and actively eliminate tax evasion.

Full Statement:

The people of Sri Lanka have shown remarkable resilience in the face of enormous challenges. Sri Lanka has made commendable progress in implementing difficult but much-needed reforms. These efforts are bearing fruit as the economy is showing tentative signs of stabilization. Inflation is down from a peak of 70 percent in September 2022 to below 2 percent in September 2023, gross international reserves increased by $1.5 billion during March-June this year, and shortages of essentials have eased. Despite early signs of stabilization, full economic recovery is not yet assured. Growth momentum remains subdued, with Q2 real GDP contracting by 3.1 percent on a year-on-year basis and high-frequency economic indicators continuing to provide mixed signals. Reserve accumulation has slowed in recent months.

Sustaining the reform momentum is critical to put the economy on a path towards lasting recovery and stable and inclusive economic growth. The authorities have met the program’s primary balance targets and remain committed to this important pillar of the program so as to support their efforts to restore debt sustainability. However, revenue mobilization gains–while improved relative to last year–are expected to fall short of initial projections by nearly 15 percent by year end. While partially due to economic factors, the onus of fiscal adjustment would fall on public expenditure if there were no efforts to recoup this shortfall. This could weaken the government’s ability to provide essential public services; and undermine the path to debt sustainability. To increase revenues and signal better governance, it is important to strengthen tax administration, remove tax exemptions, and actively eliminate tax evasion.

Against continued uncertainty, it also remains important to rebuild external buffers by strong reserves accumulation. Building on the Central Bank of Sri Lanka’s success in controlling inflation, refraining from monetary financing will help keep inflation in check. Other challenges include maintaining cost recovery of electricity pricing.

The government has made steady progress on structural reforms. Key legislations passed in Parliament, including the new Central Bank Act and the Anti-Corruption Act, could improve governance if implemented effectively. The IMF Governance Diagnostic report would inform future reform measures to strengthen governance when published. A new welfare benefit payment scheme was enacted with new eligibility criteria that aims to improve targeting, adequacy, and coverage of social safety nets. To ensure financial stability, steps were taken on conducting bank diagnostics, developing a roadmap for addressing banking system capital and liquidity shortfalls, and improving the bank resolution framework.

The authorities have also made headway on regaining debt sustainability through the execution of the domestic debt restructuring and advancing discussions with external creditors. As Sri Lanka is restructuring its public debt which is in arrears, Executive Board approval of the first program review requires the completion of financing assurances reviews. These financing assurances reviews will focus on whether adequate progress has been made with debt restructuring to give confidence that it will be concluded in a timely manner and in line with the program’s debt targets.

Discussions are on-going, and the authorities are continuing to make progress on their plans for revenue mobilization targets, anti-corruption efforts, and other important structural reforms.

The IMF team held meetings with President and Finance Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Central Bank of Sri Lanka Governor Dr. P. Nandalal Weerasinghe, State Minister Mr. Shehan Semasinghe, Chief of Staff to the President Mr. Sagala Ratnayaka, Secretary to the Treasury Mr. K M Mahinda Siriwardana, and other senior government and CBSL officials. The IMF team also met with Parliamentarians, representatives from the private sector, civil society organizations, and development partners.

We would like to thank the authorities for the excellent collaboration during the mission. The team will continue its discussions in the context of the First Review with the goal of reaching a staff-level agreement in the near term. We reaffirm our commitment to support Sri Lanka at this difficult time.”

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Five fishermen who trafficked 151.341 kilos of heroin on 2nd November 2019 were sentenced to death on three charges by the Colombo High Court today.

The suspects were sentenced to death after a long trial by Colombo High Court Judge Namal Ballale, observing that the prosecution case against the five accused were proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

The five convicts Chaminda Rohana Fernando, Anton Susantha Fernando, Dulag Ravindra Perera,Liyanadurage Surange and Tharindu Jayamal Fernando who were residents of Kattuwa Negombo were sentenced to death by High Court Judge Namal Ballale.

They were sentenced to death on three charges of conspiracy, trafficking and peddling 151 .341kilos of heroin in the southern High seas of Sri Lanka on 2nd November 2019 by a Multi-Day Trawler.

The detection was made by the Sri Lanka Navy during their patrol duty in the southern High Seas of Sri Lanka and following the arrest of the suspects with contraband and were handed over to the Police Narcotic Bureau for further investigations.

The Bureau on concluding their investigations the Attorney General indicted the convicts in the Colombo High Court.

During the hearing State Counsel Oswald Lakmina Perera prosecuted while Senior Counsel Jagath Abeynayake defended the 1st accused, Senior Counsel Ranjan Silva defended the 2, 4 and 5th accused. Counsel Pradeepa Kaluarachchi defended the 3rd accused.(T .Farook Thajudeen)

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

A future National Peoples’ Power (NPP) government will never hesitate to work with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other institutions, former NPP MP Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa said today. 

He told reporters that the NPP will deal with the IMF while respecting the people’s mandate and will be committed to implementing the proposals agreed to by the mandate.

He alleged that the present government is only trying to postpone the economic crisis by hiding behind the IMF proposals rather than genuinely intervening to resolve the true crisis.

Dr. Jayatissa said the government was forced to adhere to whatever conditions set by the IMF as the government had failed to seek assistance at the right time.

When asked whether the NPP government would continue the IMF programme agreed upon by the present government, he said governments in the past had not completed the IMF programme all the time and that only eight times out of the 17 occasions, Sri Lanka had completed the IMF programme.

“We will review the IMF programme agreed upon by the present government. We will discuss with the IMF and implement only the proposals to suit our mandate. Any institution will honour the mandate of a government,” he said.

He said this following a special discussion with representatives of the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) and the National Peoples’ Power (NPP) at the JVP headquarters where they discussed issues faced by the health sector. (Ajith Siriwardana)

By Sena Thoradeniya

(Contd. From 17 September 2023)

1. Land Claims of Chieftains

In 1875 a vast quantity of valuable forest land was claimed by Chiefs and Headmen what were known as British Grants” conferred upon them soon after the Kandyan War of Independence in 1817-1818 for the services rendered by them to the British Crown in quelling the uprising. In many cases the extent of field held by virtue of the deed was far in excess of what was specified. This was the observation made by A.R. Dawson, Assistant Government Agent of Sabaragamuwa on land claimed by Kandyan chiefs. At this time Sabaragamuwa was a part of Western Province.

How Kandyan Chieftains claimed Crown” land, their extents and administrative work with regard to land claims and dilemmas faced by British Civil Servants will be discussed in a separate article after the conclusion of this series which shows the unquenchable greed, avarice of Chieftains for land.  

2.Village Committee Elections and Casteism

In Kandy District caste played a major role in the elections held in 1927 to elect members to Village Committees (VC) under the Ordinance No. 9 of 1924. For the 35 Village Committees, five Chief Headmen of upper” caste (for 31 VCs), three of depressed” castes and one Tamil were elected as Chairmen. It was a peculiar situation where Rate Mahattayas contesting all Korales in his division and getting elected as Chairmen of all Korales in most cases by virtue of the high office they held in the division with full blessings of the British Government Agent of the Province.

2.1.  Udunuwara:  T. B. Nugawela, Rate Mahattaya of Udunuwara was elected as Chairman of Gangapalatha Korale, Medapalatha Korale and Kandupalatha Korale (all 3 korales in the division).

2. 2.  Yatinuwara:  T. B. Mampitiya, Rate Mahattaya of Yatinuwara was elected to Gangawata Korale and Gangapalatha Korale as Chairman (2 korales in the division); S. Sundarasekera (of a depressed caste”) was elected Chairman of Kandupalatha Korale.

2.3. Harispattuwa:  H. Nugawela, Rate Mahattaya of Harispattuwa was elected as Chairman of all 5 Korales in the division.

2.4.  Patha Dumbara:  T.B. Ratwatte, Rate Mahattaya of Patha Dumbara for Pallegampaha Korale, Palispattuwa East Korale, Palispattuwa West Korale and Wendaruwa Korale (Chairman of 4 Korales); A. N. Seneviratne (a commoner” as Chairman of Uda Gampaha Korale.

2.5. Uda Dumbara:  H.B. Rambukwella, Rate Mahattaya of Uda Dumbara as Chairman for 6 Koralas out of 7. Ran Banda Korala (a commoner”) was elected Chairman to Gampaha Korale West.

2.6. Tumpane:  W. Madawela, Rate Mahattaya of Tumpane as Chairman of 2 Korales; for the other two Korales in the division another Rate Mahattaya and a Basnayake Nilame were elected as Chairmen respectively.  

2.7. Patha Hewaheta:  J. A. Rambukpotha, Rate Mahattaya of Patha Hewaheta   as Chairman of all 3 Korales in the division.

2.8. Uda Palatha: H. D. Keppetipola, Rate Mahattaya of Uda Palatha as Chairman for 2 Korales; M. B. Panabokke as chairman of Ganga Pahala Korale; S. M. Mudalihami (a commoner”) as Chairman of Ganga Ihala Korale.

2.9. Uda Bulathgama:  J. Marambe, Rate Mahattaya to Ambagamuwa Korale and C. Kanagasabai (a Tamil) to Pasbage Korale as Chairmen.

In Kandyan Provinces the same type of office-seekers contested at the elections held to elect members to State Council and later Parliament. Several former Rate Mahattayas and Dissaves were elected as State councilors and Members of Parliament. 

Comments made by Kindersley, Government Agent of Central Province are important: There has been a great political awakening during the year among the Kandyan masses. The first cause was chiefly the Village Committee elections under the new Ordinance No. 9 of 1924. The visit to the hill capital of the Royal Commission on the Constitution of Ceylon added no small degree to this awakening.” (Kindersley was referring to the Donoughmore Commission).

He adds: The results of these elections have been to intensify caste feeling and to produce considerable bitterness. Caste played a great part in these elections. In the Kandupalatha of Yatinuwara the Chairman and committee members of the Village Committee belong wholly to one caste. This is a great pity, as any accentuation of caste differences is likely to prolong the existence of caste distinctions, which were tending slowly to evaporate. It is to be hoped that suchinstances will be rare in the future and that the swing of the pendulum will in time result in the abolition of many, if not of all caste distinctions.”

Why did Kindersley lament like this? The Rate Mahattaya, a govigama high strata” man was not able to win Yatinuwara Kandupalatha Korale was the reason. For him it was a great pity”. But he should have been happy that a non-govigama candidate winning that Korale, if he wanted to see elimination of caste distinctions, which he thought were tending slowly to evaporate” without prolonging their existence. At the same time, he did not realise that the said Korale was dominated by non-govigama people, who were determined to elect their own people as members and Chairman.  A single high caste” person winning all or the majority of Korales of a division was not a problem to Kindersley. He had disregarded three commoners” and a Tamil getting elected.

In 1933 something contrary to earlier election happened. Kandy District should have 37 Village Committees, one each to each Korale of a division. But inhabitants of Kandapahala Korale in Uda Dumbara and Wendaruwa Korale in Patha Dumbara refused to elect committees when it was explained to them that they could not have Rate Mahattayas elected as Chairmen. The Government Agent personally held the abortive election at Wendaruwa Korale and tried to persuade the people to elect a Committee, but the people declined to do so.  Government Agent Hodson had the solution for this predicament. He thought of attaching these two Korales to neighbouring divisions for Village Committee purposes.

It was very clear that the villagers were incited by the Rate Mahattayas as they (Rate Mahattayas) thought that Chairmanship of Village Committees as another feather in their caps. 1927 experience shows how Rate Mahattayas grabbed all or almost all Korales in their divisions. It is sheer madness if some theorist theorises what happened in 1933 as defying Colonial authority by the Kandyan office holders.

Village Committees maintained village roads (known as gansabha roads), bridges, edandas, wells, ambalams and water spouts (peeli).

Our Village Committee Chairmen began to pilfer public funds from the very inception of Village Committees. One Village Committee Chairman was prosecuted for drawing money from Kandy Kachcheri for work which had not been performed.

3.Elephant Kraals Organised by Chieftains

Robert Knox (1681) was the first English writer to write about the way of catching elephants” in Ceylon. According to Knox, elephants were caught when the King commanded to do so and only tuskers were caught.  She-elephants were brought to lure the tuskers; they were caught sometimes by snares or driving them into a kind of Pound”. If the King did not like the animal, he commanded its release into the woods. This description shows that there was no indiscriminate capture of elephants; after two or three years the captured elephants were sent back into the woods.

John D’oyly’ gives a detailed account of the Kuruwe or elephant department, the way elephants were caught and the famous Etgale in Patha Dumbara.  It was John Davy (1821) who described a journey along Etgala Para. Etgala fort ofthe Britishers was attacked by Patha Dumbara freedom fighters in 1818.

For the British Royalty, Governors and provincial administrators and their spouses, attending elephant kraals was a pastime full of pleasure and amusement. For the Kandyan chieftains, organising elephant kraals was an occasion to show their allegiance to British Crown, that they were providing pleasurable experiences to their Masters, their individual power and skill and the influence they have over the village folk.

In 1889 when Herbert Wace was the Acting Government Agent, Governor visited the newly created Sabaragamuwa province and proceeded to an elephant kraal at Panamure in the Kolonna Korale. Wace wrote in his Diary on June 30, 1889, that he discussed with Maduwanwela Rate Mahattaya  (hero of some columnists who think that Maduwanwala defied British colonial administrators as he had tiled his manorial house with tiles portraying Queen Victoria: we have stated earlier that the British tile manufacturer was more anti-colonial than Maduwanwala) about the kraal which was organised by him and Ellawela Rate Mahattaya. Four herds said to be in the neighborhood” he wrote.

On August 8 Wace planned with the Rate Mahattaya the sites of bungalows and accommodation for visitors to kraal. As there was a shortage of roofing material-no talipot or cadjan– roofing material had to be brought from Maduwanwela village.

His Imperial Highness the Cesarewitch visited the elephant kraal at Wewilla on 18 and 19 February in 1890. Nine elephants were captured and the Chiefs of the District presented the smallest bull-elephant to Imperial Highness and was taken to Russia.

An elephant kraal was organised by Iddamalgoda Rambukpotha Kumarihamy and Delwela Rate Mahattaya at Niriella in January 1894 at which Governor was present. Only seven elephants were captured.

Later a large kraal was held at Panamure in the Kolonna Korale by Ellawela and Maduwanwela Rate Mahattayas; 42 elephants were captured, a record capture” for Ceylon at that time.

Maduwanwela Rate Mahattaya had another kraal in 1900 resulting in capturing 19 elephants. For this he was highly praised by Evan M. Byrde, Government Agent of Sabaragamuwa Province. 

A kraal was held in February, 1902 on the banks of Mee Oya in Wanni Hatpattuwa. No less than 102 elephants were driven into the kraal, this being the largest number on records. Between 40-50 elephants were noosed which was also a record; remainder broke through the stockade and escaped.  Governor was present. Government Agent of North Western Province H. L. Crawford wrote, Hulugalle Rate Mahattaya of the Division was indefatigable in his efforts to make the kraal a success and was ably supported by the other chiefs of the Hath Korale.

Maduwanwala even after his retirement to show his allegiance to the Crown organised an elephant kraal in 1907 at Panamure attended by Commodore Sir George Warrender. Thirty-nine elephants were captured.

 In 1912 September he held a kraal at Panamure resulting in capturing 33 elephants.

Two more kraals were organised by him in September for the pleasure of Acting Governor Stubbs. Only 8 elephants were captured. At the second kraal held three weeks later 24 elephants were driven in. The kraal in 1914 organised by J.W. Maduwanwala was not a success according to Government Agent of Sabaragamuwa R.N. Thaine as only one elephant was captured.

 A successful kraal was held in 1920 in Wanni Hatpattuwa; 39 elephants were noosed and removed from the kraal.

An elephant kraal was held on the borders of Demala Hathpattuwa and Puttalampattuwa in September-October 1913. None was brought within the reach of the stockade wrote John Scott Assistant Government Agent of Puttalam-Chilaw.

A successful kraal was held in August 1920 in Wanni Hathpattuwa. 39 elephants were kraaled” of which 33 were noosed. Acting Governor Sir Graeme Thomson was in attendance.  

In 1921 an elephant kraal was held at Malwalakelle, Kukulu Korale in Sabaragamuwa organised by J. H. Meedeniya Adigar and P. B. Muttetuwegama and F. Marambe Rate Mahattayas. Governor was in attendance. Fourteen elephants were captured and 2 died.

The last kraal was held in 1950 at Panamure, organised by Dissava Samuel Alexander Iddamalgoda Elapatha better known as Sam Elapatha, grandson of Iddamalgoda Kumarihamy. The famous Panamure eth raja” wholater immortalised by a Sinhala vocalist died inside the stockade. Sabaragamuwa elephant lovers do not agree with the lyricist of the above song as the elephant killed in the stampede was not a tusker and it cannot be called an eth raja”. 

4. Visits of Royalty

When Duke of Edinburgh visited Kandy in 1870 all Kandyan Chiefs attended with their retainers. Diyawadana Nilame and Rate Mahattayas gave all the aid in their power towards the work of offering a fitting reception to their illustrious guest”, wrote Russell, Government Agent of Central Province. A levee was held at the pavilion. He was taken for an elk hunt at Bopaththalawa. Men worked for five weeks cutting roads and erecting encampments for the hunting party under the supervision of Headmen. 

In part I of this series we have discussed how Dullewa Adigar made preparations for the visit of His Imperial and Royal Highness, the Arch Duke of Austria in 1892 exactly for 48 days and his search for a somana cloth fancied by the Duke. The Rate Mahattaya of Kalagam Palata, Ratwatte Banda, had to facilitate the Duke’s sports” (read as hunting) at Kalawewa.  

When Royal dignitaries visited Kandy (for example, Duke and Duchess of Connaught and Princess Patricia in 1890 March) Kandyan chiefs from all parts of the Island held a reception at the Audience Hall, decorated in Kandyan style”.

In 1904 Princess Louise Augusta of Schleswig- Holstein visited Ceylon. Accompanied by Governor Blake and his wife she was warmly received by the Chiefs of Anuradhapura.

In 1910 Crown Prince and Princes of Germany visited Central Province including Nuwara Eliya; an elk hunt was arranged in Kantalai.

For the visit of Prince of Wales to Kandy in 1922 preparations were made months ahead with the help of an Advisory Committee. He came to Kandy in a special train. Addresses were read at the station. Kandyan chiefs and Chief prelates of Malwatta and Asgiriya Chapters were in attendance. In the evening a durbar of Kandyan chiefs were held at 9.30 p.m. followed by a Raja Perahera at 10 p.m.

In Nuwara Eliya District unveiling of photogravures of the Prince in all schools was the main item of celebrations attended by headmen. A procession of school children was held in addition to sports events and fireworks in the night. The school children were made to salute the Union Jack.

On the day Prince of Wales passing Rabukkana station, Kandyan chieftains dressed in traditional Kandyan dress assembled on the platform. There were gaily dressed school children”, elephants and dancers along the road bordering the railway line who amply demonstrated the loyalty of the masses to the Throne” wrote G. S. Wodeman, Assistant Government Agent of Kegalle. The Prince descended on to the platform and was greeted with loud and prolonged cheers”. The chief headmen had the honour of being presented to the Prince” by the Governor.” Great enthusiasm prevailed and the loyal welcome given by Rambukkana and Kegalle Districts to the Prince has been depicted in the illuminated London papers”.

Similar celebrations were held at Anuradhapura organised by the chiefs.

In 1921 Crown Prince of Japan visited Kandy (a special perahera was held in his honour); in 1926 Chieftains were privileged to host Their Royal Highness Crown Prince and Princess of Sweden when they arrived in Kandy on December 4. His Majesty King Alphonso of Spain also visited Kandy in 1921. 

To mark the funeral of King George V on January 28, 1936 religious services were held also in Buddhist temples in North Western Province and alms were distributed to people under the guidance and supervision of chieftains and chief prelates. 

5. Governor’s Visits 

It was customary for a new Governor visiting every district and also as a farewell at the time he was leaving; in addition, the Governor visited districts on special occasions and for inspections. He was received by the Colonial administrators and chieftains befitting an uncrowned King. 

In 1888 Sept 13, the Governor visited Sabaragamuwa and he was taken in a perahera. In 1889 August he visited the newly created Sabaragamuwa Province. On September 25, 1890 Arthur Elibank Havelock visited Sabaragamuwa and accepted the Address presented by Ekneligoda Dissava and the other Chiefs and Headmen of the Province of Sabaragamuwa. 

When the Governor visited Nuwara Eliya in1896 he was escorted from Nanuoya to Queen’s Cottage with a perahera consisting of Kandyan Chiefs, Headmen, elephants and native music”.

In 1903 after opening the Kelani Valley Railway at Yatiyantota, Governor’s party was rowed down the Kelani river in a decorated barge as far as Ruanwella. The Old Fort was decorated in Kandyan fashion. In the evening a perahera with 40 elephants was held followed by a durbar next day. Meedeniya Adigar was made a Justice of Peace.

When the Governor and wife arrived in Kandy and Matale and other provincial towns peraheras and receptions were organised by Kandyan chiefs. 127 elephants took part in the perahera that was held in Kegalle in 1907.

On September 11, 1907 Sir Henry and lady McCallum arrived at Kandy. Following day, a perahera was held and a reception by Chiefs of Central Province at the Pavilion. In November the Governor made his first visit to Matale. He was received with a perahera of Kandyan Chiefs.

In 1919 when the Governor visited Talduwa (a part of Kegalle District), the headmen provided” a perahera.

On March 8, 1913, Acting Governor visited Kandy. From Kandy railway station he was taken in a perahera by Kandyan Chiefs to the Pavilion where the Chiefs were introduced to the Governor.  

When Robert Charmers visited Kandy in 1913 Kandyan Chiefs arranged a Guard of Honour at the Miller’s Corner and from there escorted him in a perahera to King’s Pavilion.  

The Governor visited Kurunegala in1926 and attended an At Home” at Maligawa.

In 1927 Kandyan chiefs in Kandy held a perahera in honour of Sir Hugh Clifford who was leaving the Island.

W. Ormsby Gore, Under Secretary of State for Colonies visited Kandy in 1928; a perahera was organised by the chiefs in his honour. 

When Governor and Lady Stanley visited Kurunegala a perahera was held. He received 4 Addresses from the native chiefs. A Levee and Durbar of Kandyan chiefs were held at King’s Pavilion, Kandy. When he inspected Batalagoda tank and anicut Madahapola Rate Mahattaya of Hiriyala Pattuwa held a reception. 

The Governor visited Kandy in May 1931. His visit displayed the ethnic divide prevalent at Kandy. How it happened should be investigated correctly, whether it happened by design by Government Agent T.A. Hodson or not. Four pandals were erected to greet him. Ward street pandal was erected by the Tamil community opposite National Bank and the leader of the Tamil community was introduced to the Governor. Next halt of the Governor was at the pandal erected by the Kandyan Chiefs and two Adigars, Diyawadana Nilame and Mampitiye Rate Mahattaya were introduced to him. Perahera to the King’s Pavilion commenced from the pandal erected by the Muslims. One side of the Pavilion was decorated by minor headmen and the other side by Girls’ Guides and Boys’ Scouts. When the HE entered the Dining Room Mahanayakes of Malwatte and Asgiriya chapters with ten other attendant Bhikkhus recited four verses of Jayamanagala Gatha. 

It should be noted that Mampitiya was made a Dissava in 1933, another peculiar promotion made by the Colonial administrators.

6. Presentation of Addresses

Presentation of Addresses” (on ola leaves) was a common practice adopted by Kandyan chiefs at the ceremonies associated with welcoming foreign dignitaries and Governors and retirement of Civil servants. Address presented by Ekneligoda and other Sabaragamuwa chiefs welcoming Arthur Elibank Havelock in 1890 was a fine example to show the servility and slavishness of Kandyan chieftains.

It goes like this: To His Excellency Sir Arthur Elibank Havelock, KCMG, CC. We the Chiefs and Headmen of the Province of Sabaragamuwa, desire most respectively and cordially to welcome Your Excellency on this your first public visit to Sabaragamuwa and to assure you of our loyalty  to the throne and person of her most gracious Majesty Queen Victoria and to Your Excellency as her representative in the Island”.

That Your Excellency and family may long live in the enjoyment of all possible happiness is the prayer of Your Excellency’s faithful servants”.

The contents of this Address” or in Sinhala the Sthuthi Pathraya need no interpretation which assures loyalty to the throne and prayers for Governor’s happiness.

In 1913 Address to Robert Charmers was read and presented by Dunuwila Dissava: all chieftains attended the ceremony.

In 1913 such Presentations were made to L. W. Booth on his retirement by Kandyan Chiefs. 

On 24, January ,1914 Governor Sir Henry McCallum paid a visit to Kandy before his departure from the Island. On behalf of Kandyan Chiefs S. N. W. Hulugalla Adigar of North Western Province presented an Address.,

When Ekanayake Mudiyanselage Kiri Banda arachchi of Gallella, a village in Harispattuwa was presented a sannas for his long service at his retirement in 1914 he requested the permission of Government Agent of Central Province G. S. Saxton to speak for only five minutes. Kiri Banda made a Presentation to Saxton in prose and verse reminiscing a work of classical Sinhala literature, no doubt a creation of an erudite monk or a lay person well-versed in Sanskrit, Pali and elu, full of panegyrics, eulogizing the King, Governor, the Agent and other Radala chiefs. In one verse Banda compares Saxton to Lord Buddha who vanquished maras at the time of His Enlightenment.

Saxton had got the verse and prose renditions translated into English. I have included Banda’s eulogy in my novel Handunmal Kadulla” which deals with Kandyan Chiefs and peasantry in Dumbara, Mataleand Nuwara Kalaviya respectively published in 2016.

7. Governor Attending Weddings and Some Other Matters

Governor attending a wedding of a chieftain’s scions was a highly sought honour and privilege much to the envy of fellow chieftains.

In 1911 Governor Hugh Clifford attended the wedding of Mahawelatenna Rate Mahattaya’s daughter to Ratwatte at Mahawelatenna. On the same day the Governor attended the wedding of Meedeniya Rate Mahattaya’s daughter to Molamure at Ruwanwella.

Rivalry of Kandyan Chiefs was manifested even in seating order at receptions. In 1931 Diyawadana Nilame P. B. Nugawela Dissava met the Government Agent of Central Province and said that his seniority should be recognized as next to Meedeniya Adigar and above Ratwatta Adigar at the HE’s dinner.  The Government Agent disagreed with Nugawela and Nugawela said that he was meditating” not to attend the reception. But unfortunately, Nugawela was in a hopeless position as he had accepted the invitation under protocol below Ratwatte and had to eat humble pie attending the dinner according to the protocol.

In 1911 the Government Agent of North Central Province writes in his Diary that the daughter of Bulankulama Rate Mahattaya had married the son of Hurulla Rate Mahattaya, an important event for the GA to record in his official diary.

In 1911 Government Agent of North Central Province reports the death of D.B. Ratwatte ex-Rate Mahattaya of Kalagam Palatha, depressed at losing the appeal case about his new walawwa and his enforced retirement.” Certain villagers had sued him for ejecting them from the land he build a new walawwa. Later the Government Agent visited his widow, who had two sons attending Trinity and a daughter. A few months later Ratwatte Kumarihamy met the Government Agent requesting jobs to her sons. 

In 1912 the Government Agent of North Central Province sees as a bad luck” a Kandyan boy of good family Mahadiwulwewa” going to a school in Jaffna as he could not get into Trinity”.  But it was a practice of well-to-do people in North Central Province to send their sons to schools in Jaffna.

END OF PART VI

Next: Government Agent’s and Assistant Agent’s Circuits; Passive Resistance of Peasantry

by Sarah Raymundo

Increasing numbers of activists around the world are turning to Vincent Bevins’s The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our World to learn more about the horrific atrocities committed by the United States against peoples’ struggles for the right to self-determination in the so-called postcolonial era. In particular, the book describes how imperialist expansion destroyed revolutionary struggles in the third world.

Citing Kwame Nkrumah’s blunt description of the new way of the world” from his 1965 book Neocolonialism: The Last State of Imperialism, Bevins posits that neocolonialism has been significantly marked by U.S. counterinsurgency via the Jakarta method” throughout the long 1960s across the world, from Indonesia and Brazil to Guatemala and Chile. The Jakarta method was a combination of imperialist economic plunder and grave human rights violations, ranging from political vilification, kidnapping, and disappearances of dissenters to assassinations and massacres of villages by organized forces. As Nkrumah asserted, foreign capital is used for the exploitation, rather than for the development of the less developed parts of the world and that imperial powers no longer even had to admit what they were doing—not even to themselves.”¹

Neoliberalism and the Third World”

Over half a century after the birth of the Jakarta Method, a new generation of left activists are inspired and mobilized by anti-imperialist movements that trace themselves back to revolutionary anticolonial movements. How does that period in our collective history of struggle inform our shared experience of the global neoliberal offensive that has partly shaped the conduct of progressive and revolutionary movements in the last forty years? How does this shared experience allow us to imagine new ways of organizing South-to-South anti-imperialist solidarity movements—adding to what we have learned from past historical intersections and the different discursive and practical routes they took over the years?

Bevins tracks the intellectual, political, and romantic journey of two Indonesians, Francisca and Zain, who are among other important figures in the massive slaughter backed by the United States in Indonesia and Latin America. They left the country to study in Holland after Sukarno claimed independence in 1945. The waves of anti-imperialist struggle that shaped the minds and actions of a generation of radical intellectuals like this couple were inseparable from the struggles for national liberation and toward socialism:

[The couple] began dating in earnest in the late 1940s, [when] colonial independence struggle was intimately tied to left-wing politics. So she, a wholehearted supporter of Indonesian freedom, fell naturally into socialist circles, as the two struggles had long been married together. In the 1930s and 1940s, practically no Europeans supported colonial independence except the leftists. The Indonesian Communist Party, the Partai Komunis Indonesia, was founded in 1914 as the Indies Social Democratic Association with the help of Dutch leftists, worked alongside Sukarno and pro-independence Muslim groups in the 1920s, and then engaged in active antifascist work during the Japanese occupation.²

With the decline of socialism in the 1980s and throughout the ’90s, and the ascendancy of neoliberal globalization, the link between national liberation struggles and socialism that once targeted Euro-U.S. imperialism had taken on obscurantist versions of conflict. The so-called failure of socialism was equated with the end of history under capitalism and representations of the world fracturing only along cultural or civilizational divides. This new constellation purportedly ended the three worlds,” the history of which, as Bevins narrates, began in the postwar period after the United States demonstrated its superior military strength and the apocalyptic damage it could unfurl from the air when it dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”³ This reminder sheds light on our present moment in all its patterns, origins, continuities, as well as its ruptures from the past and the potentials it generates for the future.

The first world consisted of the U.S.-led rich countries in North America, Western Europe, Australia, and Japan, all of which had gotten wealthy while engaging in colonialism.” The second world were the socialist states of the Soviet Union and European territories that aligned with the Red Army. In contrast to the first world, the USSR of the second world had publicly aligned itself with the global anti-colonial struggle and had not engaged in overseas imperialism.”⁴ The third world was not just unaligned, Bevins insists, but also, more significantly, formed a liberatory horizon for the oppressed majority.

The term was coined in the early 1950s, and originally, all of its connotations were positive. When the leaders of these new nation-states took up the term, they spoke it with pride; it contained a dream of a better future in which the world’s downtrodden and enslaved masses would take control of their own destiny. The term was used in the sense of the Third Estate” during the French Revolution, the revolutionary common people who would overthrow the First and Second Estates of the monarchy and the clergy. Third” did not mean third-rate, but something more like the third and final act: the first group of rich white countries had their crack at creating the world, as did the second, and this was the new movement, full of energy and potential, just waiting to be unleashed. For much of the planet, the Third World was not just a category; it was a movement.⁵

Third world, in this definition, bears the specter of popular and revolutionary struggles in the semi-colonies, helping explain the cruel methods of U.S. counterinsurgency, even in the age of so-called free markets and elections. The Jakarta Method provides a comprehensive account of the period in which struggles for national independence against imperialism worldwide were brutally overthrown. The steady rise of U.S.-led capitalism in the postwar period and its Cold War with its socialist rivals also meant a deeper integration and consolidation of third world nations into the global capitalist system through covert and overt methods of untold brutality.

This history continues to impact the present. One of the neoliberal world’s most vicious tyrants, Philippine president Rodrigo Roa Duterte, resorts to this tried and tested method of suppressing political dissent through counterinsurgency. Taking heed of Suharto’s dark legacy, Duterte ordered the armed forces of the Philippines to replicate Suharto’s campaign against the communists in Indonesia: Do not fight them, destroy them…kill them.” This command came shortly after he signed an executive order in December 2018 that established the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, a national framework of a localized approach to counterinsurgency. For the last three years, this has meant pitting local government servants against red-tagged civilians in the Philippines’ rural areas, strategic hamletization of Indigenous communities, the deployment of fake rebel surrenderees,” and mass killings of peasant communities.⁶

Duterte’s command was an expression of the historical lessons taken from the U.S. colonial war waged against the Filipino people, from the Spanish-American War to the CIA-sponsored destruction of the Hukbalahap Rebellion, as Bevins thoughtfully notes throughout the book. Bevins points to something else, too: the moment’s potential for solidarity and internationalism. No other revolutionaries in the world reported on the CIA counterinsurgency operations in the Philippines, for example, as the Indonesians did. The People’s Daily, maintained by radical Indonesian journalists like The Jakarta Method‘s Francesca and Zain, reported on Washington’s counterinsurgency operations in Iran and the Philippines.

U.S. covert operations, including methods of psychological warfare and torture, were first tested in the Philippines and subsequently applied to Indonesia and Vietnam (but failed in the latter). Bevins illuminates this often-forgotten period in Philippine history—a period that has been effectively revised as the process of democratization,” led by U.S. counterinsurgency agent-turned-Philippine president Ramon Magsaysay and U.S. military advisor Edward Landsdale.

This U.S. counterinsurgency operation in the Philippines targeted the left-wing Hukbalahap Rebellion during the Japanese occupation. After the Japanese left the Philippines, the Huk opposed the U.S.-sponsored Magsaysay regime. Magsaysay was handpicked by Landsdale to implement a counterinsurgency operation involving the use of military artillery including napalm and psychological warfare operations that utilized intelligence reports on Philippine folk beliefs. As Bevins notes, CIA agents spread the rumor that an aswang, a bloodsucking ghoul of Filipino legend, was on the loose and destroying men with evil in their hearts. They then took a Huk rebel they had killed, poked two holes in his neck, drained him of his blood, and left him lying in the road.”⁷

At the time, the communist insurgency in the Philippines had been well underway since the 1930s. But unlike in Indonesia, the Philippines never had a president who embraced the aspirations of national liberation and shared it with other third world leaders like Sukarno did. No government critical of the West and no people’s movement can be spared from U.S. empire’s anticommunist fervor, which has destroyed countless lives and economies.

As Bevins explains, though in a fragmented fashion, U.S. counterinsurgency melds economic policy and statecraft seamlessly to reinforce a foreign policy based on the U.S. imperialist commitment to so-called national security. This is based on a

growing consensus within the United States that the military should be given more power and influence in the Third World, even if it meant undermining democracy. In the 1950s, an academic field of study called Modernization Theory began to gain influence in Washington. In its basic approach, Modernization Theory replicated the Marxist formulation that societies progress through stages; but it did so in a way that was highly influenced by the anticommunist, liberal American milieu in which it emerged. The social scientists who pioneered the field put forward that traditional,” primitive societies would advance through a specific set of stages, ideally arriving at a version of modern” society that looked a whole lot like the United States.⁸

Modernization theory is the equivalent of counterinsurgency in the realm of economic theory, which Bevins discusses in relation to the U.S. Mass Murder Program.” The International Monetary Fund and World Bank call this variant of tough love structural adjustment,” but this is simply code for a program that effectively debilitates people’s movements aimed at third world economic self-reliance and self-determination.

What of the Bandung Spirit?

Though the spirit of the Bandung Conference, or simply Bandung, was born in France in 1951…it really only came into its own in 1955, in Indonesia.” As Sukarno recognized in his opening speech, it was the first intercontinental conference of colored peoples in the history of mankind,” and aimed to address the ruthlessness of colonialism. Bandung helped establish the conditions for subsequent historic gatherings of third world peoples, including the 1958 first Asian-African Conference on Women in Colombo, the 1961 Cairo Women’s Conference, and the 1961 founding of the global Non-Aligned Movement in Belgrade, among others.⁹

The communist horizon in the anticolonial struggle represented by Bandung did not escape the architects of U.S. expansionism. As Bevins importantly discerns, there was a difference between the nationalism of (Western) Europe and that of Bandung:

For leaders like Sukarno and [Jawaharlal] Nehru, the idea of the nation” was not based on race or language—it indeed could not be in territories as diverse as theirs—but is constructed by the anticolonial struggle and the drive for social justice. With Bandung, the Third World could be united by its own common purposes, such as antiracism and economic sovereignty, Sukarno believed. They could also come together and organize collectively for better terms within the global economic system, forcing rich countries to lower their tariffs on Third World goods, while the newly independent countries could use tariffs to foster their own development.¹⁰

In other words, the struggle for a nation means, as Samir Amin proposed, a delinking from the imperialist world system. This is a program for genuine and serious reformers whose stakes on prosperity, peace, and social justice align with the revolutionary socialist program. Yet, for the longest time, imperialist thinking has consistently reinforced a false binary between reform and revolution, akin to the colonial and imperialist divide-and-rule method.

The Jakarta Method, while sharply critical of U.S. counterinsurgency and the mass targeting of entire populations in the name of anticommunism, seems to conflate the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, China under Mao Zedong, and Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh.¹¹ This is an interesting dynamic given that the very framework of lumping together all socialist experiments (especially third world ones) has been central to U.S. Cold War strategy.

Bevins’s Jakarta Method does not end on a conciliatory note. It concludes, instead, with the author’s real-life encounter with an Indonesian named Winarso, who asserted that the Cold War was a conflict between socialism and capitalism, and capitalism won.”¹² How did we win?,” Bevins asked. And Winarso answered: You killed us.”

Bevins provides a wide-ranging, necessary historical account of the global entanglements of people’s uprisings and U.S. counterinsurgency, and concludes that third world struggles ended with the limited prospects of that period: It was safe to say that the Third World movement was in disarray, if not destroyed.”¹³ He has a point.

Nevertheless, revolutionary imperialist movements did not end with the 1960s. The longest-running communist insurgency in Asia and the world is that of the Communist Party of the Philippines, reestablished in 1968.¹⁴ Jose Maria Sison, its founding chairperson, openly talks about his stint in Indonesia as a scholar of Indonesian language and its radical mass movement.¹⁵ This is the communist movement that President Duterte has sworn to slaughter and wipe out, Suharto style. No U.S.-backed Filipino president in the post-Ferdinand Marcos (the Philippines’ Suharto) era has rejected U.S.-imposed counterinsurgency programs.

As the people’s protracted war for national liberation and socialism rages in the form of armed struggle in the countryside and an unarmed mass movement in the cities, the legacy of the Marcos dictatorship reemerged with his son Ferdinand Bongbong” Marcos Jr., who is leading in the polls of the next presidential election. The relevance of Bevins’s Jakarta Method in the Filipino people’s contemporary struggle against historical revisionism, massive disinformation, plunder, and impunity cannot be overstated. We must not forget, we must say never again” to what they did to the Indonesian people. Bevins’s moving and harrowing exchange with Winarso, who rightly refers to U.S. counterinsurgency as genocide, takes inspiration from an interview conducted by U.S. historian David Sturtevant, author of the 1976 book Popular Uprisings in the Philippines, 1840–1940.

Sturtevant examined U.S. interrogation reports of alleged Sakdalistas of the 1935 Sakdal (peasant) uprising in the Philippines. Suspects’ names were listed in one column and their responses to the interrogation in another column. Were you involved in the uprising?” No.” The papers followed this pattern for pages until Sturtevant saw the name of a woman—Salud Algabre—and her corresponding affirmative response when asked if she had taken part in the uprising. Sturtevant traveled to the Philippines and met Algabre, by then already 72 years old. He asked her why the uprising had failed and Algabre responded: No uprising fails, each is a step in the right direction.”¹⁶

Notes

1. ↩ Vincent Bevins, The Jakarta Method (New York: Public Affairs, 2020), 227.
2. ↩ Bevins, The Jakarta Method, 53.
3. ↩ Bevins, The Jakarta Method, 24.
4. ↩ Bevins, The Jakarta Method, 24.
5. ↩ Bevins, The Jakarta Method, 25.
6. ↩ See Dahlia Simangan and Jess Melvin, Destroy and Kill ‘the Left’”: Duterte on Communist Insurgency in the Philippines with a Reflection on the Case of Suharto’s Indonesia,” Journal of Genocide Research 21, no. 2 (2019): 214–26. Under the Philippine Republic Act 11188, also called An Act Providing for the Special Protection of Children in Situations of Armed Conflict and Providing Penalties for Violations Thereof,” strategic hamletization refers to an armed conflict strategy used by one party…that isolates a community of importance to the other party which is inhabited by children, including relocating a community away from crucial zones and could be used to control the activities of the people in said areas.” Republic Act No. 11188,” The LawPhil Project, accessed April 20, 2022. In practice, strategic hamletization is exclusive to the practice of state forces, amounting to a clearing strategy through military bombardment. During the Vietnam War, this strategy was used by the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese army to fight communist infiltration. See Spencer Tucker, The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History (Oxford: ABC-CLIO, 2011), 1070.
7. ↩ Bevins, The Jakarta Method, 61.
8. ↩ Bevins, The Jakarta Method, 111.
9. ↩ Bevins, The Jakarta Method, 85.
10. ↩ Bevins, The Jakarta Method, 81.
11. ↩ See Bevins, The Jakarta Method, 23, 31–34.
12. ↩ Bevins, The Jakarta Method, 309.
13. ↩ Bevins, The Jakarta Method, 227.
14. ↩ On December 26, 1968, Jose Maria Sison founded the Maoist Communist Party of the Philippines, which broke away from the old Jose Lava-led Communist Party. The re-established party criticized and repudiated the old party for its subjectivist and opportunist errors, as resulting from its modern revisionism. See Armando Liwanag, Stand for Socialism Against Modern Revisionism (Utrecht: Foreign Languages Press, 2017).
15. ↩ See Ramon Guillermo, Blood-Brothers: The Communist Party of the Philippines and the Partai Komunis Indonesia,” Southeast Asian Studies 7, no. 1 (2018): 13–38.
16. ↩ See Malou Camagay, Salud Algabre: A Forgotten Member of the Philippine Sakdal,” in Women in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movement, ed. S. Blackburn and H. Ting (Singapore: NUS Press, 2013), 125–45. For Sturtevant’s interview with Algabre, quoted by Camagay, see David Sturtevant, Popular Uprisings (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1976), 298. The author credits Judy Taguiwalo, Francis Gealogo, and E. San Juan for their indispensable insights on Salud Algabre and the body of work on her life.

The author, Sarah Raymundo is assistant professor at the Center for International Studies, University of the Philippines. She is the international liaison officer of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (New Patriotic Alliance) and chairperson of the Philippines-Bolivarian Venezuela Friendship Association. She is a columnist for Bulatlat, an alternative online news publication in the Philippines.

Vincent Bevins, The Jakarta Method (New York: Public Affairs, 2020), 429 pages, $28, paperback.

Shenali D Waduge

An article by Ron Nixon written to the New York Times in April 2011 highlighted the following

• US democracy-building campaigns played a big role in fomenting protests
• Key leaders of the movements were trained in campaigning organizing through new media tools & monitoring elections by US.
• Those directly involved in the revolt on 6 April Youth Movement in Egypt, the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights & activists like Entsar Qadini (youth leader in Yemen) were trained by the International Republican Institute, National Democratic Institute & Freedom House

IRI Sri Lanka supports 

• election observation
• Emerging Leaders Academy (ELA) was formed in 2019 – convenes youth community leaders, ages 21 to 35, from different sectors across Sri Lanka
• March 2021, IRI launched its Women’s Campaign Academy (WCA) to support and equip grassroots-level women
• Since 2019, IRI has also supported approximately 400 political party actors from six major political parties with communications trainings
• Egyptian youth leaders attended a 2008 technology meeting in New York & were taught to use social networking, mobile technologies to promote democracy – the meeting was sponsored by Facebook, Google, MTV, Colombia Law School & US State Dept.

IRI receives funding from US State Dept, USAID, NED

https://www.iri.org/iri-around-the-world/asia-pacific/sri-lanka/

The National Endowment for Democracy created in 1983 received $100m annually from Congress.

Egypt’s protests & strikes began on 25 January 2011 – the National Police Day. Protests lasted 18 days.

Like in Sri Lanka, the protestors claimed not to have a leader and all solutions were to be offered later”. In Egypt the protest site was Tahrir Square, in Sri Lanka it was Galle Face Green.

In Egypt the death of Khaled Said triggered the trained media campaign We are all Khaled Said” – it is interesting why a similar campaign did not take shape following the Rambukkana shooting incident in Sri Lanka. It could have been that in Egypts case the modus operandi was to go against the police, while in Sri Lanka, protestors had been lured to get the police & armed forces onto their side, though some youth were seen verbally attacking the armed forces in very vulgar & inappropriate language & none of their elder mentors seem to be bothered to correct them! It showcased a complete disregard for elders, for law & order – all signs of walking into a state of statelessness, where everyone was encouraged to take the law into their own hands. This was perversely encouraged by the immature and unprofessional behavior of the legal fraternity, brought to ridiculous heights in the manner some 100 lawyers were seen even clapping as the arrested were given bail. Their offers to provide free legal assistance made matters worse. We have to wonder why these lawyers made such a spectacle of themselves & to please whom?

Social media has a power of its own & has the ability to turn an insignificant incident into a mega drama. The training given to youth and journalists is part of this larger effort to choreograph any incident into a largescale movement. Governments need to address this area without compromising on people’s freedoms and rights by addressing people’s duties and responsibilities.

US uses & dumps

Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak was a long standing friend of the US since 1981. US however used a people’s revolt to depose him in 2011, he was imprisoned and died in 2020. Mubarak was no ‘dictator’ so long as he supported US/West. Mubarak’s ouster resulted in Islamist groups coming forward as political parties. Eventually Muslim Brotherhoods Muhammad Morsi was elected President in June 2012. That elected leader was overthrown by the military a year later (2013). Did this overthrow have footprints of the US? It sure did and this should keep post-aragala leaders in Sri Lanka warned that it is too early to be celebrating Christmas.

UC Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting shows US channeled funds through US State Dept to the Middle East to support activists & politicians that resulted in February 2011 ouster of Mubarak. We have every right to wonder if a similar funding was disbursed to Sri Lanka given the active role of the US ambassador in Colombo.

The US funding went to an exiled Egyptian police officer (Omar Afifi Soliman) who plotted the violent overthrow of the Morsi Govt in 2013 – information from Freedom of Information Act (there are several Sri Lankan police officers in exile appearing even on notorious C4 documentaries)

US regulations ban use of American taxpayers money to fund foreign politicians or finance subversive activities that target democratically elected governments – however USAID, NED, NDI, Freedom House and associate entities are doing just that!

Journalist Emad Mekay of UC Berkeley has shown NED funding for the above exiled police officer from 2008-2011 to incite violence in his native country Egypt. Soliman is living as a refugee in US after NED offered a human rights fellowship.  NED has removed public access to its Egyptian grant recipients, according to Emad.

All those who took part in the aragalaya storming of Presidents House, Presidents Secretariat, Prime Ministers Office & Residence as well as attempt to storm Parliament in 2022 may like to also know that US-funded exiled Egyptian police officer took credit for a failed attempt to storm the Egyptian Presidential palace with handguns & Molotov cocktails to oust Morsi in 2013. The US was funding Soliman since 2008. Therefore, the copy cat attempts certainly has parallels.

Emad also highlights a 34 year old woman – ‘longtime grantee’ of NED funding who called for people to lay siege of mosques & drag Muslim preachers & religious figures out. US federal records show her NGO received funding from NED, MEPI & NDI. In 2011 from NED alone she had received $75,000. This aligns with the ugly posters against the Buddhist clergy displayed by the aragala protestors.

Another comparison with Egypt is the manner US taxpayer money has been sent to some of Egypt’s richest anti-Morse protestors where even TV channels went anti-Morsi as a result of US-funding. Can we notice similarities with Sri Lanka, here as well?

One such Egyptian organization was founded by opposition figures among who was Egypt’s richest man a Coptic Christian billionaire and a top US oil company partner and a politician with close ties to the US embassy in Cairo. Don’t we see similarities in Sri Lanka too? Though these organizations deny receiving US funding, the US govt documents are exposing them.

Egyptian soldiers & police killed over 50 Morsi supporters, luckily in Sri Lanka supporters only landed in the Beira. There was also use of women & children as shields in Egypt – no different to the same tactic used in Sri Lanka. An audit of US funding to entities & individuals in Sri Lanka will reveal much.

Egypt took action against 43 local & foreign NGO workers on charges of illegally using foreign funds to stir unrest in Egypt. Do we have similar provisions in Sri Lanka?

US got rid of US-friend Mubarak in 2011 and ousted elected Morsi in 2013 by military coup & installed dictator Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi who suspended the 2012 constitution. Egypt produced 3 constitutions 2012, 2013, & in 2014. This was democracy in action in Egypt. Gen El-Sisi contested elections in 2014 & won & US even congratulated him. El-Sisi is responsible for 2017 blockades against Qatar, supporting Khalifa Haftar in Libya and brutal suppression in Egypt itself. Egypt like Sri Lanka is geopolitically located & the West wishes to prevent both from turning towards Russia or China.

It would be good for Sri Lanka’s Galle Face protestors to look at the colored revolutions that have taken place while others should look for the funding that choreographed these revolutions”

Shenali D Waduge

Press Release by the Ministry of Labour and Foreign Employment and ILO Sri Lanka

September 4-7, 2023: Spearheaded by Mr. R.P.A. Wimalaweera, Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Foreign Employment, a distinguished Sri Lankan delegation embarked on a four-day study tour to Indonesia. Their primary objective was to draw insights from Indonesia’s exemplary journey in establishing a holistic social security framework, placing specific emphasis on their acclaimed unemployment insurance mechanism.

This immersive experience granted the delegation the privilege to meticulously understand the nuances of Indonesia’s social welfare blueprint. Through in-depth dialogues, collaborative knowledge exchange, and observational studies, the team garnered invaluable insights. These lessons promise to profoundly influence and shape the evolution of Sri Lanka’s own social security system.

One of the landmark outcomes from this educational voyage is Sri Lanka’s prospective launch of a comprehensive national social security model. A noteworthy feature of this initiative is the introduction of an unprecedented unemployment insurance scheme. The goal is clear: to fortify a more robust, just, and secure employment landscape for Sri Lankans across both formal and informal sectors.

Hon. Manusha Nanayakkara, Minister of Labour and Foreign Employment, expressed his gratitude to the International Labour Organization (ILO) for orchestrating such an enriching learning experience in Indonesia. He further emphasized the Sri Lankan government’s staunch commitment to mirroring similar successes in their homeland.

Post the tour, a debriefing session ensued, resulting in the identification of pivotal action points:

1.Disseminating the knowledge acquired from the Indonesian visit amongst top-tier governmental Secretaries.
2.Drafting a comprehensive Cabinet Note that encapsulates the fundamental design facets of the envisioned social security program, which encompasses financial, legal, and operational dimensions.
3.Elevating the design outline and proposal for the scrutiny of the Presidential Social Protection Committee.
4. Launching an expansive awareness drive, aiming to enlighten the citizenry about the impending transformative social welfare changes.

Ms. Simrin Singh, ILO’s Country Director for Sri Lanka and the Maldives, extended her commendations to the Sri Lankan government, employers’ associations, and trade unions. She celebrated their unanimous and prompt endeavor in architecting a robust social security infrastructure for the nation.

To encapsulate, these strategic initiatives reflect Sri Lanka’s holistic vision for labor and foreign employment sector reformation, centralizing on social welfare. The approach underscores not just administrative leadership but also accentuates the importance of public engagement and multi-stakeholder participation – ingredients pivotal to the fruition of such landmark ventures.

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, Sept 26 (DailyMirror) – Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC)  has expressed its desire to host all Afghanistan’s home series in Sri Lanka. It also wants to host all the India-Pakistan matches in Sri Lanka. 

These suggestions have come from Prof. Arjuna De Silva, the chairman of the medical panel of the SLC. 

Speaking exclusively over the telephone from Colombo on Monday morning, he said, with the Asia Cup finishing, we would love to invite Pakistan and Afghanistan to make Sri Lanka their cricketing home. Our fans have an excellent relationship with the players of these countries”. 

The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) did recently play against Pakistan and the bilateral matches were organised by the SLC on behalf of the ACB. 

In the past, the PCB made the UAE as its home” because the international teams were refusing to travel to Pakistan for security reasons and also, in the absence of facilities in Afghanistan, the ACB made UAE and India their home” for a few series. 

India and Pakistan are not playing each other in their own countries, so at least both teams can play together in our country”, Professor added. 

In the recent Asia Cup, both India and Pak. teams played matches in Sri Lanka. 

Actually the SLC president is likely to have requested to both boards to consider this proposal and if not, will write to them”, Prof. Arjuna signed off. 

උපුටාගැණීම අද දෙරණ

Courtesy Adaderana

The makers of British television network Channel 4’s documentary on the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks in Sri Lanka have admitted that they do not have credible evidence to support the claims made by Azad Maulana, the ‘whistleblower’ who made serious allegations about the complicity of state officials.

This came to light during a recent event in Geneva, attended by the documentary’s Director Thom Walker and Executive Producer Ben de Pear.

On September 06, Channel 4 aired a controversial documentary containing startling accusations relating to the bombings on Easter Sunday 2019 which targeted several Catholic churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka. The carnage claimed the lives of more than 260 people and left hundreds of others wounded.

Channel 4’s latest ‘Dispatches’ investigation titled ‘Sri Lanka’s Easter Bombings’ is a nearly 50-minute-long videos with serious, yet straightforward allegations about the attacks. It was based on the testimonies of high-placed whistleblowers who alleged that senior governmental officials were complicit in this heinous act.

The main whistleblower Hanzeer Azad Maulana was a spokesman for LTTE’s breakaway group Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pullikal (TMVP) led by current State Minister of Rural Road Development Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan.

According to the documentary, Maulana, who has sought asylum overseas, had witnessed a meeting in Puttalam in 2018, between the suicide bombers and a top Sri Lankan intelligence officer, which was aimed at hatching a plot to create insecurity in the country to pave the way for former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to win the presidential election later in 2019.

However, the founder of UK-based documentary production company Basement Films, Thom Walker has said he does not have any evidence of a prior meeting between Zahran Hashim and Suresh Sallay.

When asked about Azad Maulana’s intentions of making such claims, he said he did not know if Maulana had direct contact with Zahran. I cannot give a clear answer as to why Azad Maulana joined in coordinating the meeting. Frankly, I have no evidence of any such prior meeting between Zahran and Sallay,” Walker said adding that the two could have known each other for years. Walker also mentioned that he did not know if Sallay had necessarily attended the said meeting.