By P.K. Balachandran/Daily Express Courtesy Ceylon Today
When the British ruled Sri Lanka, peasant agriculture, with paddy as the main crop, was systematically weakened to yield place to plantation-based commercial agriculture monopolized by them.
Colombo, November 25: When the British ruled Sri Lanka, peasant agriculture, with paddy as the main crop, was systematically weakened to yield place to plantation-based commercial agriculture monopolized by them. Sri Lankan peasant agriculture is yet to recover from the historical neglect as the island nation continues to be dependent on food imports to fill vital gaps in supply.
In 2018, for example, the import of grains, milk, and a variety of food items of common consumption accounted for 7.2% of the total imports with the foreign exchange outgo being US$ 1.6 billion.
The slant against peasant agriculture directly and quickly led to the impoverishment of the indigenous peasantry even as British planters, civil servants and even governors made fortunes out of investments in the burgeoning plantation sector.
Though by the beginning of the 19th Century, when the British took over the island from the Dutch and laissez-faire was accepted as the ideal in Europe, the British in Ceylon were against the introduction of free trade on the plea that the civilization here had not reached a high level of development,” and what the people needed was good, stout despotism”. This theory was used to brazenly deny welfare and make exploitation of local human and natural resources for the exclusive benefit of the British. Concomitantly, collection of revenue rather than economic development of the indigenous population became the principal aim of the colonial regime.
Decisions taken in Colombo and London on land, taxation, labour and monopolies were, in essence, a throwback to the old and inveterate system of oppression” that characterized Dutch and Portuguese rule in the island, says Prof. P. V. J. Jayasekera in his book: Confrontations with Colonialism, 1796-1920 Vol I.
Right from 1796 to 98, the British authorities in London had set revenue targets for Ceylon. There was hardly any interest in rendering services to the people from whom the surpluses were exacted. Road building was a major activity in the 19th century, but it was not undertaken to benefit the locals, only to serve British commercial interests centred on a burgeoning plantation economy.
Irrigation, which had been provided by the native kings with the help of free Rajakariya labour, was neglected for the sake of road construction to serve British military and economic needs (principally the needs of the plantation sector).
When Governor Henry Ward arrived in 1855, he was bombarded with petitions to provide irrigation. While he realized the need for irrigation, the British planters who did not want peasant agriculture to grow and export, scuttled his bid for reform.
Earlier in 1849, the government had offered to give funds for irrigation development but these had to be paid back with interest in addition to providing free labour for the government’s public enterprises which were mostly infrastructure work for the benefit of British interests.
Prof. Jayasekera points out that in the traditional administrative system, the emphasis was on the maintenance and improvement of agriculture and irrigation and not just surplus extraction. The British justified their control over land saying they were only following a tradition in which the Kings had over-lordship over land as Bhupathis or Pruthivirajas. Under Rajakariya, the king granted land to peasants in exchange for services. The services expected were for public works like irrigation facilities. Special services were elicited on the basis of a person’s caste-related occupation. But the British disallowed any assertion of customary use of, and title over, land. Jayasekera points out that this was totally against the 1815 Kandyan Convention the British had entered into with the Kandyan chiefs. The document had explicitly stated that the people’s customary rights would be protected by the new British rulers.
In 1801, Ceylon’s first British Governor, Fredrick North, reasserted the governments’ right to both categories of Rajakiriya services but he introduced a direct tax on the produce of the land. The peasantry resented this. While under the Kings Rajakariya labour was used for irrigation works, the British used the system for their military needs and commercial agriculture. With the result, rice production declined to 50% of the requirement, and imports increased three-fold, Prof. Jayasekera says.
The precarious of returns in agriculture led to peasants going in for share-cropping, giving half the produce to the landowners. Land was being mortgaged at 25 to 50% interest,” he points out.
The British monopoly of cinnamon production and sale (until it was abolished) had deprived the peasant of a lucrative market in the West. Duties were imposed solely to benefit the British. Duties on imported British goods were slashed by 50%. Rice and cloth imported from India, which were used by the masses were taxed 8 to 12 %. Export duties on tobacco and areca nuts deprived the Ceylonese peasant of the large Indian market. To promote British shipping, goods brought by non-British ships were taxed 50% extra.
Free land was given to Europeans and Burghers for the cultivation of commercial crops like coffee, cotton, indigo and sugarcane. Tax exemption was given for 5 to 10 years for these enterprises. Their work force was also exempted from Rajakariya obligations. With the plantations becoming money spinners, planters and civil servants propagated the notion that paddy cultivation was a waste and did not deserve government encouragement, and the governors agreed.
One of the reasons why the plantation economy boomed was that the British bureaucracy was part of it as investors. Even governors invested in the plantations. When a legislature was set up, planters and British merchants were represented significantly. Planters’ interests were also strongly represented in the British government. According to Prof. Jayasekera the 19th Century colonial State in Ceylon was more powerful than it was in India because of the dominance of the British-controlled plantation economy in the island.
The ‘draconian’ Land Ordinance 5 of 1840 was based on the theory that all land belonged to the Crown unless they had been granted to someone earlier. This opened the floodgates to land grabbers and planters, a motley crowd of Whites including civil servants and governors. Unauthorized local holders of land were sent to jail or fined. This was one of the causes of the 1848 rebellion, which had to be put down with the use of brute force. A parliamentary committee went into the causes of the 1848 uprising but it made no difference.
Although it was acknowledged that peasant-cultivated coffee was of good quality, the British favoured giving coffee cultivation to large British-owned plantations, which could mint money using cheap and servile labour imported from the Madras Presidency in India.
In view of the importance of using a captive labour force in their plantations, the British discouraged peasant agricultural development by denying the latter improved irrigation and the protections they traditionally enjoyed under the rule of the kings. This was also meant to release peasants from their land for employment in the plantations. In addition, there was compulsory service which was used to clear land for the plantations and for road laying.
In 1832, compulsory service was abolished except for road construction. However, a Hut Tax was introduced in early 20th Century by Governor McCullum. Under this, the Sinhalese peasant had to send at least one member of his family for work in a plantation, if he was to be exempted from the Hut tax. Even so, the Sinhalese refused to work for the low wages in the plantation sector.
Prof. Jayasekera says British propaganda that labour had to be imported from India because the Sinhalese were ‘indolent’, was false. The Sinhalese worked in the plantations when wages were adequate. For example in 1890, there were 18, 000 to 23,000 Sinhalese peasants working in the plantations.
However, the use of Sinhalese labour ceased when cheap Tamil labour from the famine-stricken districts of Madras Presidency was available in abundance. The British-governed Madras collaborated by neglecting agriculture and forcing peasants to go to the colonies to work in British plantations.
Economic pressure is being added to baseless charges of authoritarianism at the behest of the Tamil separatist lobby, writes Sugeeswara Senadhira in Ceylon Today.
Colombo, November 23: As the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government completed its first year, the hostile West commenced its attacks on Sri Lanka with renewed vehemence.
Recent reports reflect the ardent desire of the West to find fault with every step taken by the Sri Lankan Government. The moment, a decision to curtail imports were announced with the intention of saving much-needed foreign exchange and also to increase domestic production and exports, the Ambassadors and High Commissioners of European Union countries came up with a joint statement opposing the move.
The EU said it had bought more than a billion Euros worth of goods (220 billion rupees) creating a trade surplus in favor of Sri Lanka. Trade, however, is not a one-way street. The current import restrictions are having a negative impact on Sri Lankan and European businesses, and on Foreign Direct Investment,” it said.
Banning duty-free luxury vehicle imports
Sri Lanka has every right to restrict imports and the EU statement is blatant interference in the right to regulate trade, which is an internal affair. EU envoys were persuaded to issue the statement by the German Ambassador and a few others, who were in turn influenced by multi-rich agents of luxurious motor cars in Sri Lanka. Luxury car imports were reduced to save valuable foreign exchange. It was a pragmatic move. Furthermore, most of the luxury cars were imported under duty free permits and the country did not get any tax revenue from these imports.
Stabilizing the dollar
The EU’s call came after the government presented the 2021 budget.It maintained that import restrictions must remain in place to stabilize the Rupee. The local currency had depreciated by over 9 per cent by early April against the Dollar. It was 196.75 rupees to the dollar and now remains stabilized around 185. This was mainly due to the banning of vehicle imports. GDP growth had reduced to 1.6 per cent year-on-year in the first-quarter of 2020, following a 2 per cent growth in the last-quarter of 2019, the Central Bank had previously said.
The EU also referred to World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, but failed to recognize that WTO member countries have the authority to impose trade restrictions on several grounds. Any country can impose duty even up to 200 per cent for luxury items.
Violators of democratic rights
Another attack came from former Irish President Mary Robinson who picked Sri Lanka from nowhere to list it as one of the violators of democratic rights. In news report published in The Independent in UK under the title: Former Irish President compares Trump’s refusal to concede US Election with ’volatile and undemocratic situations’ in SL”, she made erroneous and misleading comments.
The former Irish President is the latest ‘democratic champion’ who was gullible enough to swallow hook, line and sinker all the fabricated stories spun by the separatist Tamil Diaspora and their paid NGO lobby.
‘Mary Mary quite contrary’
Robinson, representing a group called ‘The Elders’ says US President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede US Election is similar to the volatile and undemocratic situation in Sri Lanka. God only knows why she thought fit to drag Sri Lanka into Trump’s refusal to concede defeat. Either ‘The Elders’ have become senile or those who briefed Robinson deliberately twisted the facts about Sri Lanka’s rich democratic tradition of peaceful transfer of power at every election since independence.
Neither the Prime Ministers of Sri Lanka nor the Presidents of Sri Lanka tried to forcefully stay in power. The moment they faced electoral defeat, they conceded publicly and handed over power peacefully. In fact, when President Mahinda Rajapaksa came to know that he was trailing behind opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena in the 2015 Presidential Election, he conceded defeat even before the final result was declared and not only quit office, but also handed over the official residence and returned to his ancestral home in Medamulana. The principle of respect to the democratic transition of power was displayed by every Prime Minister and every President of Sri Lanka. Mary Robinson’s allegation is an absolute canard.
POAC delists LTTE
If these instances were not enough to understand the agenda of the West and its relentless efforts to discredit the Sri Lankan government at every given opportunity, one should look at the wicked campaign to resurrect the separatist, terrorist outfit, the LTTE. In the United Kingdom, in Octoobe 2020, the Proscribed Organizations Appeal Commission (POAC) had delisted the LTTE. The POAC stated that it had found the UK Home Office decision to keep the LTTE proscribed as a terrorist organization was flawed and unlawful”.
the appeal was filed by unnamed members of a group that is believed to be a front for the LTTE called the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam’ (TGTE). It was filed against the UK Home Secretary’s refusal on March 8, 2019 to lift the ban on LTTE under the Terrorism Act 2000. TGTE, which is banned by Sri Lanka, is a Government-in-exile for the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora which continues to pursue the aim of establishing a separate country for the Tamils in Sri Lanka. The UK had listed the LTTE as a terror outfit in 2000 and it continues to be banned in 32 countries including India. The final decision of lifting the ban will be taken by the British Home Secretary.
Demanding a separate Tamil homeland in the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka, the LTTE ran a military campaign for nearly 30 years before its defeat in 2009 after the Sri Lankan Army killed its supreme leader Velupillai Prabakaran.
Sri Lanka had appealed against the judgment saying it has sufficient evidence to prove the remnants of the LTTE and groups aligned with its terrorist ideology are active in foreign countries, working to incite violence and destabilize the country”.
India continues LTTE ban
The Indian Government also urged UK not to lift the ban on LTTE. India has reportedly shared information on the LTTE to press for the continuation of the ban on the organization. On 13 May 2019, the Indian Government extended the ban for another five years on the LTTE.
At the 43rd Session of the UNHRC in Geneva, Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena explained to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights that Sri Lanka’s decision to withdraw from co-sponsorship of resolution 40/1 and the basis for doing so. He also pointed out a number of aspects of the resolution that were undeliverable as they were not in line with the constitution of Sri Lanka.
Minister Gunawardena, however, assured the government’s continuing commitment to achieving accountability and human rights despite withdrawing from the UN resolutions. Despite such cooperation from Sri Lanka, it is sad that the UNHRC continues its biased policy towards this country. Sri Lanka will have to be extremely vigilant to defeat the designs of the West to undermine its sovereign rights under dubious pretexts.
(The picture at the top shows Mary Robinson, former Irish Prime Minister)
It was with absolute pride and delight, the voters of Sri Lanka as a whole watched the address to the Nation, delivered by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on 18 November 2020, certainly to the exclusion of few political hypocrites of opportunism, rejected by the people. He articulated the following contents very much assertively: It is no secret that the majority who voted for me then were Sinhalese.
They rallied because they had legitimate fears that the Sinhala race, our religion, national resources and the heritage would be threatened with destruction in the face of various local and foreign forces and ideologies that support separatism, (religious) extremism and terrorism. The main appeal made by the people to me was to, Protect the Country”. When assigning subjects to Ministries, special attention was paid to several sectors related to agriculture, plantation, fisheries industry, traditional industries and promoting self-employment opportunities as these sectors affect the majority of the people in the country” (https://www.president.gov.lk/).
Eight Central Components
The conscious unity of the voters set the end to the head-nodding, neck-bending and the kneeling down cult of the west. The disgraceful era of the original majority community of Sri Lanka, living as refugees in their own motherland has come to an end. The finger pointing of communal terrorists to the political leaders, elected by the voters has been passed in to oblivion. Insulting war heroes by religious” racists, on the stage of official ceremonies, graced by Ambassadors of Foreign Missions, are already stories of the past.
Stability and peace has been established by the Rajapaksa regime. Yet, along with the world, the land is being mercilessly tortured by the COVID-19 crisis. Now the prosperity vision of the SLPP, in the face of the endemic, is in a terrific imbroglio. In an atmosphere, wherein, one person is compelled to hygienically doubt the one in front of him, no development vision is possible to be commissioned. The macro and mega projects, at present, seem impractical and the best country-suited modus operandi, to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis, appears to espouse simple strategies, our ancient ancestors of Heladiva Sinhala-Buddhist Civilisation compassionately taught. In such a context, there is couple of central components, in the void of which, any macro and mega development dynamism is diminished to the nullity of zero.
They are: (1) food (2) clean water (3) clothes (4) shelter (5) uncontaminated atmosphere (6) medicine (7) electricity and (8) the forest. This country was rich enough in the said eight constituents, with no scientific instruction of so-called international community. Our medicine had been based on the fauna and flora-enriched Ayurvedic science.
Therefore, the attention of the President in respect of the agricultural sector, must be grounded, for the most part, on the strategy and its simplicity, as elucidated by the tradition of our Sinhala Buddhist ancestors, certainly, blending with cybernetics and where appropriate, with partial high-tech manufacturing. What is the point of constructing the loftiest tower in South Asia, if the frustrated starving small children of the land are stirring up the dustbins, kept outside, to find leftover food, with tears dripping down from their innocent eyes?
This precisely is where, the Garden Agro-Engineering Vision of the SLPP founder, Basil Rajapaksa, flexes its muscle, to serve, as the best means to bloom stronger above and beyond the COVID-19 crisis. The depth of the strategy is deposited in its inseparable connection with the above stipulated eight pivotal components. Particularly with the Ayurvedic science, written by the greatest King Ravana 5000 years back. The Ayurvedic science has no pharmaceutical mafia, to administer medicines to be taken, till the end of once own life. It has no commercial destination to make monetary profits. Its profit is not money, but the health of the patient. It is very sad the Media is not giving the due coverage and publicity to the Garden Agro-engineering dynamism. It is the duty of the Media to make people conscious:
(1) of the project (2) its dimensions (3) possible diversifications (4) its fruitfulness (5) of the independence of self-sufficiency it can produce (6) the vast space for the improvement of health and many more. The Garden Agro-engineering Vision is the foundation for a healthy nation and happy family.
Rajapaksa Popularity
The project proliferation and the state of independence and self-sufficiency it will bestow, would strengthen the power base of the SLPP
The UNP became unpopular by reason of introducing the unbridled free market economy to Sri Lanka, though, at the initial stage, it was welcomed by many, by virtue of the ignorance of political economy. The culture of importing everything began and the cult of obsession to admire imported commodities could set its roots in the soil of the domain of consumption. The importing agencies began to mushroom and they produced profits, while destroying the traditionally well established strategy of agriculture and the conception of prosperity, based on independence and self-sufficiency.
The voters of this country now are well aware of this free market deception and the destruction it produced and continuing to produce. Hence, the Garden Agro-engineering, finally is the dream of the people, which, the Presidential Prosperity Production Task Force Chairman, Basil Rajapaksa has burdened himself to fulfil, as a farsighted mission for the culmination of the aspirations of voters. His timing is also intelligent. The COVID-19 has made the Basil Rajapaksa vision an inevitable imperative. Only fools or those, who take pleasure in betraying the Motherland, can oppose the project. Hence, it is the pressing duty of the present government not to concede in to the fake and deceptive homilies of UNP-supporting bureaucracy and to not allow them to take the upper hand and structure a strong network of conscious observation and also a second network to supervise and oversee the first network of observation, setting them against each other.
Besides, in order to emerge stronger, it is also vital to rightly comprehend the geopolitical rivalry-based global endemic circumstances and put them in to right use to produce prosperity profits for Sri Lanka as a whole.
Investment Opportunism
There are signs that some super powers are using the economic chaos of the pandemic, to go on a global shopping spree, for new businesses and investments. This strategy of investment opportunism comprises a terrific relevance in relation to third world countries, enriched with geo-domains, conducive to super-power zonal military hegemony agendas. They come with various proposals of bilateral and multilateral agreements, which virtually structure international instruments, creating territorial spaces in the land of the treaty partners, whose domestic jurisdiction is not valid and inoperative in the orbit of the territorial unit, which is subjected to the regulation of the normative contents of the covenant to be concluded.
At times, they also stagger to the extent of bribing the developing countries, by means of extending colossal financial grants, conditioned by investor-friendly bias clauses, formulated to profit only the investor. Now, the post-pandemic development plan of the present government must well digest this pandemic-abused investment opportunism, which would inflict infraction against the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Sri Lanka. This will politically be very much dangerous, since, the absolute majority of the voters are against such agreements, which may produce a constitutional crisis in the land and involve the Motherland in totally unnecessary super power geo-political games.
The pandemic is a multi-faceted phenomenon. The first priority, subsequent to the pandemic crushing, is to build up domestic enterprise and then to acquire the totally beaten-down firms to be revitalised with the help of the government. On the flip-side, the commercial realm is desperate for credit, since, to revive the collapsed business, the entrepreneurs have to undergo a difficult post-COVID-19 period, with diminished purchasing capacity of the consumers.
Exploiting Super Power Contradictions
On the global level what can be predicted is the supply-chain vulnerabilities, being spotlighted by the crisis. This will accelerate the decoupling process already under way, particularly, between the U.S. and China. As the White House Administration has piled sanctions on China, U.S. companies are attempting to shift their supply chains for goods and services to other Asian countries, to avoid exposure to tariffs. The shock of COVID-19 may bring Sri Lanka closer to the moment, when Washington and Beijing represent separate, opposing poles of economic influence – especially as the Washington Administration casts China in hostile terms.
The United States has described the COVID-19 pandemic as the worst attack” ever on the U.S., eclipsing even Pearl Harbour and 9/11 Islam terrorist attack, and has pushed the so-far unsubstantiated theory that COVID-19 originated in a Wuhan laboratory. In recent weeks, the White House and Labour Department have directed the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, which controls federal retirement funds, to stop investing in Chinese companies. According to Consumer News and Business channel” (CNBC), the British officials have accused Chinese hackers of trying to steal research into COVID-19 vaccines. Several Republican Senators introduced a bill that would allow Washington to sanction China for refusing to cooperate with investigations into the virus’s origins. Thus, the super power geopolitical rivalry seems to have created a favourable space for Sri Lanka to make the best use of these contradictions to profit the country, particularly, where lop-sided international instruments are proposed to be concluded.
About the writer:
Dr. Gamini Ilangakoon is a Lawyer, specialising in International Treaty Laws
Former Director of the State Intelligence Service (SIS) SDIG Nilantha Jayawardena had contacted the Personal Security Officer (PSO) of former President Maithripala Sirisena three times on the day of the Easter Sunday attacks, it was revealed, on Thursday night, at the PCoI probing Easter Sunday attacks.
A Warrant Officer of the Sri Lanka Air Force, Anura Nishantha, who had manned the phone exchange at Sirisena’s official residence at Paget Road on April 21, 2019 revealed this at the PCoI.
Responding to the question raised by the Commissioners, Nishantha said that Sirisena and Jayawardena had regular telephone conversations. The witness added that the former President had never used an official personal mobile phone and if someone wanted to contact him they had to contact Sirisena’s PSO.
Sirisena had two PSOs and when he traveled overseas one of the PSOs would always accompanied him, Nishantha said. The witness said that PSOs had roaming facility on their mobile phones and those at the exchange unit at the Paget Road residence would contact the PSO with Sirisena.
Earlier it was revealed that a 159 second telephone conversation took place between Jayawardena and Sirisena or Sirisena’s PSO at 7.59 a.m. It was also revealed that around 20 telephone conversations took place between Sirisena and Jayawardena from April 4 to 21, 2019. April 04, 2019 was when Jayawardena had received a warning, from a foreign counterpart, of a possible terror attack. It was also revealed that a total of 221 telephone calls had taken place between Sirisena and Jayawardena from January to April 2019. Sirisena told the PCoI that he probably had not received all those phone calls.
The details of the calls were revealed when the former President was cross examined by President’s Counsel Shamil Perera, appearing for the Archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith.
Perera asked Sirisena whether Jayewardena had given him a call at around 6.16 p.m. on 20 April. Sirisena said he was receiving treatment in a Singaporean hospital at that time and not even his personal security officers were able to approach him that day.
Perera then said that the telephone records clearly state that Sirisena had called the former SIS Director at around 7.59 am on April 21, 2019. This was before the Easter Sunday attacks. Sirisena said that he had first contacted Jayewardena only after the bombings.
The President’s Counsel told the Commission that despite Sirisena’s statement the phone records showed that Sirisena had made a large number of telephone calls on April 21 morning.
I don’t know what is mentioned in this report but I was in the hospital on April 21morning. It was not possible for me to make phone calls while undergoing treatment. I came back to the hotel and then heard about the attacks,” Sirisena said.
Perera also said about seven telephone calls were exchanged between Sirisena and the SIS Director after the bombings. The attorney said that a 133 second telephone call had taken place between the former President and Jayawardena on 21 April at 8.58 am, a 184- second telephone call at 9.13 am, and a 688 second telephone call at 1.10 pm.
Perera also asked Sirisena how he made these calls if he was feeling extremely sick.
I was still weak but this was a serious development. I made a series of calls and advised all, including the Prime Minister, the Inspector General of Police and the Tri- forces Commanders to take necessary action,” Sirisena said.
Perera also questioned how Sirisena returned to Sri Lanka on the same night if his medical condition was so grave. In response, the former President said that the relevant medical reports could be submitted to the Commission in secret.
A significant number of COVID-19 deaths reported from the Minuwangoda and Peliyagoda COVID-19 clusters have occurred at home, says Chief Epidemiologist Specialist Dr. Sudath Samaraweera.
He points out that the elderly and individuals with chronic diseases in high-risk areas should be more alert about new illnesses.
Elderly people in high-risk areas and people with chronic illnesses need to seek medical attention immediately if they develop any new symptoms. It can be a fever, cough, cold, sore throat, or difficulty in breathing.
It could also be symptoms such as weakness, loss of appetite, or inability to taste or smell. If such a condition persists, seek medical attention immediately. Alternatively, you can call 1999 for advice.
Do not wait until such a condition worsens. Since the identification of the COVID-19 clusters in Minuwangoda and Peliyagoda on October 4, a significant number of the 81 COVID-19 related deaths have occurred at home.”
Sri Lanka’s death toll from the coronavirus has risen to 96 as two infected persons have succumbed to the disease, the Department of Government Information confirmed.
The deceased are a 45-year-old woman from Colombo 12, and an 80-year-old man from the Pannipitya area.
The woman had passed away at the Colombo National Hospital on November 23 from a cardiac arrest caused by COVID-19.
The male had been transferred from the Sri Jayawardenepura Hospital to the Pimbura Base Hospital upon being diagnosed as a COVID-19 patient. He had passed away today (November 25). The cause of death has been determined as the liver disease worsened by COVID-19 infection.
The biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has released data on what is now the third promising vaccine candidate against COVID-19 – and it has several advantages over those of its competitors, Pfizer and Moderna.
On Monday, AstraZeneca released interim analysis of its phase 3 trial data of 23,000 volunteers from the U.K. and Brazil. These results show that the test vaccine is between 70% and 90% effective in stopping COVID-19, depending on the vaccine doses administered. Although less effective than the reported results from the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine candidates, this vaccine is still more effective than annual influenza vaccines that reduce the risk of flu by between 40% and 60%. Notably none of the vaccinated participants needed hospitalizations or reported severe disease.
Like most vaccine experts, I am intrigued by large differences in effectiveness between two tested dosages of AstraZeneca’s vaccine. Until March, I was developing vaccine candidates against Zika and dengue. Now I am coordinating a large crowd-sourced international effort to better understand the scope and severity of COVID-19 in cancer patients. The COVID-19 vaccine trials generally exclude most people with a history of cancer, so I am eagerly awaiting vaccine efficacy data for this risk group when these vaccines become widely available.
Intriguing dose response
AstraZeneca’s vaccine was originally planned to be given in two full doses, four weeks apart, as injections in the upper arm. A third of the volunteers were injected with a dummy saline placebo.
One of the few details that AstraZeneca released is that of 131 cases of COVID-19, only 30 cases were detected among 11,636 who were given the vaccine; 101 cases occurred among the volunteers who got the placebo. That suggests that the vaccine is 70% effective overall.
However, an error in the early stages of the trial meant that some participants received only a half-dose in the first round. In the group of 2,741 volunteers who received a lower dose of the vaccine candidate followed a month later by a full booster dose, the efficacy was 90%, according to AstraZeneca. The efficacy was only 62% among the 8,895 volunteers who received both full doses.
It is not clear why the half-dose plus the full dose sequence of the vaccine performs better than two full doses. One explanation could be that since the vaccine is based on a common, although nonhuman, cold virus, the immune system probably attacks and destroys it when the first dose is too large.
It is also possible that progressively increasing the dose more closely mimics a natural coronavirus infection. Beginning with a lower first dose might be a better way of kicking the immune system into action; then a stronger, more effective immune response occurs after the second full booster dose. Despite enormous progress in human immunology, scientists still don’t understand the best strategies for inducing protective immunity.
These results are based on the evaluation of about one-third of volunteers who are expected to participate in this trial, which is ongoing in other parts of the world and will enroll up to 60,000 people.
AstraZeneca will now seek approval from the FDA to also evaluate the half-dose protocol in the ongoing U.S. trial. The current trial involves 30,000 participants and is evaluating only the two full-dose regimen. AstraZeneca’s trials in the U.S. were halted temporarily in early September after a study participant in the U.K. fell ill, but resumed in the U.K., Brazil, South Africa and Japan.
Genetic material encoding the spike protein, which enables to infect human cells, is inserted into a modified cold virus from chimps. This combination is the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine that was then injected into volunteers. The vaccine allows the muscle cells in the arm to manufacture the spike protein, which gives the body a preview of the virus and allows it to develop an immune response should the real virus strike. University of Oxford, CC BY-SA
A modified chimpanzee cold virus
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is another example of a new strategy being used to rapidly develop vaccines against the coronavirus that has already infected over 58 million people worldwide.
A vaccine works as a primer to train the immune system against a pathogen.
Conventional vaccines are made by weakened viruses or by purifying their disease-causing protein, such as the spike protein, which decorates the surface of a coronavirus. But these methods can take decades to develop new vaccines. Coinvented by the University of Oxford and its spinout company, Vaccitech, this vaccine uses different molecular tools to provide a preview of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to the human body.
The original adenovirus causes common cold in chimpanzees and it rarely, if ever, infects humans. The virus is further modified to ensure that this chimp virus cannot grow in people. The AstraZeneca vaccine uses the modified virus as a vehicle to deliver the COVID-19-causing spike or S-protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Under the agreement with the University of Oxford, AstraZeneca is responsible for development, worldwide manufacturing and distribution of the vaccine.
This isn’t the first time that University of Oxford scientists have tried a vaccine using this harmless virus. Previously, it testedthe concept against a closely related coronavirus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in animal studies. So this time, soon after the sequence of the novel SARS-CoV-2 became available, the Oxford scientists retooled the chimp virus for a vaccine that induced robust immune response against SARS-CoV-2 in mice and rhesus macaques.
Not-so-frigid storage requirement
Despite a somewhat later arrival, with less than the effectiveness claimed by its competitors, AstraZeneca’s vaccine might be favored because it can be stored, transported and handled at standard refrigerated conditions of between 36 and 46 degrees Fahrenheit for at least six months.
Another important advantage of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is being tested in collaboration with a larger number of global sites, is that it should cost less because of AstraZeneca’s commitment to COVAX, a global initiative that aims to distribute low-cost vaccines to low- and middle-income countries. Pfizer and Moderna have not joined the COVAX initiative, but AstraZeneca has agreed to make the vaccine on a not-for-profit basis for the duration of the pandemic.
Wait and watch
However, like all other candidate vaccines for COVID-19, AstraZeneca’s vaccine is also lacking in key details such as the breakdown in infections, the durability, or the efficacy in the different age groups of trial participants.
For all the vaccine candidates, we have only preliminary data from a small number of infections, and none of the groups developing the COVID-19 vaccine candidates has so far published complete data. So it is difficult to fully assess the differences between them.
We will have to wait for more follow-up and longer-term data to evaluate the effectiveness of all the COVID-19 vaccines in finally getting the COVID-19 pandemic under control.
More than 500 million people will be able to take the pioneering Russian Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus next year. Its developers say the two-shot jab will be sold cheaper than those of its foreign competitors.
The drug will be produced not only in Russia but also by leading foreign pharmaceutical companies” who agreed to cooperation deals with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). Talks with additional international partners are underway to further increase production capacity.
Sputnik V will be two or more times cheaper than mRNA vaccines with similar efficacy levels,” RDIF said in a statement.
A single dose of the Russian vaccine is going to cost $10, according to the producer, meaning it will set each person back $20 for two shots – which is still way below the price tags of US biotech firms Pfizer and Moderna, who are eyeing $39 and $50-74 for their vaccines, respectively.
Notably, it’s only foreign buyers who would need to pay up, as the Russians will be getting Sputnik V for free. International customers are scheduled to receive first shipments of the vaccine in January.
The competition is tough on the vaccine market, with Sputnik V facing a lot of criticism in the West since it became the world’s first registered vaccine against the virus in August. But with Covid-19 already infecting some 59.4 million and killing over 1.4 million people around the globe, Russia is eager to become a part of a global effort to stop the pandemic.
Pfizer and Moderna also reported that the effectiveness of their vaccines was at around 95 percent. Those are very good” figures and we have no reason to doubt” them, Kirill Dmitriev, RDIF’s CEO, told RT.
Two Bank of Ceylon (BoC) accounts operated by former Eastern Province Governor M.L.A.M. Hizbullah had received over Rs. 4 billion in terms of foreign funds within a period of three years before the Easter Sunday terror attacks, according to what transpired during deliberations of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry probing Easter Sunday attacks.
Testifying before the Commission, former BoC Bank Manager of Colpetty Branch I.C.K. Kannangara said that Hizbullah had operated five accounts at Colpetty branch.
However, evidence had been led before the Commission pertaining to two accounts named Sri Lanka Hira Foundation and Batticaloa Campus Private Ltd, out of five accounts operated by Hizbullah.
The two accounts were current accounts. Sri Lanka Hira Foundation account had received foreign funds on fifteen occasions and Batticaloa Campus Private Ltd. account had received foreign funds on seven occasions during the period between 2016 and 2019,” the witness said.
According to the Financial Transaction Regulation Act (FTRA) in Central Bank, transactions on an account receiving more than one million, have to be reported to Central Bank.
However, during the testimony it was informed to the Commission that BoC had never reported details pertaining to transactions involving such large sums operated by Hizbullah, to the Central Bank.
Customer service managers at the BoC Colpetty Branch had informed that these funds were suspicious and it had been reported to the Compliance Division of BoC Head Office. However, the head office had reported that they didn’t find these transactions were suspicious,” the witness said.
However, after the Easter Sunday terror attack, the bank had reported to Central Bank that these transactions were suspicious and accordingly the Central Bank had made a complaint before the Financial Investigation Unit (FIU). The witness said that the first account, Sri Lanka Hira Foundation, had been opened on August 18, 1993, as a social service organisation operated account.
The witness also said that the Bank had received the registration certificate from the Department of Social Services in September, 1993, one month after opening the account.
Earlier, it was revealed to the Commission that the particular registration certificate from the Social Services Department produced by Hizbullah, was a forge document.
According to the details mentioned in the documents, Hizbullah’s Sri Lanka Hira Foundation account had received Rs. 313 million within the period between 2016-2019 through fifteen transactions. All the transactions happened through Inheritance Ali Abdullah Al Juffali by US City Bank, Siddique Diana Osamn by HSBC and Credential Ltd by Lloyds bank, Britain,” the witness said.
Moving to the second account, Batticaloa Campus Private Ltd. the witness informed the Commission that the account had been opened on September 09, 2016 and it had received Rs. 3.6 billion foreign funds within the period of 2016 -2019.
It was also informed to the Commission that the foreign funds pertaining to the second account were received through Inheritance Ali Abdullah Al Juffali, a Charity, that wired some USD 24.5 million to the Batticaloa Campus between 2016 and 2017. (Yoshitha Perera)
The project will be developed under a credit line facility from the Exim Bank of India.
The Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority has issued a tender to seek consultants for the pre-feasibility study of a large scale PV power plant.
The project will be developed under a $100 million credit line facility from the Exim Bank of India. Of this sum, $85 million will be devoted to the deployment of rooftop PV arrays in government buildings under the country’s net metering scheme, $5 million will be used for floating installations, and $10 million will be allocated for installing solar-plus-storage systems for low-income households.
Interested consultants will have time until December 9 to submit their bids.
According to a recent joint study by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and Asian Development Bank (ADB), Sri Lanka has the potential to deploy 16 GW of solar power. It aims to cover its entire power demand with renewables by 2050.
At the end of 2019, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency, the country had 215 MW of installed solar power. Through its solar energy program, dubbed the Soorya Bala Sangramaya (battle for solar energy), Sri Lanka hopes to add 1 GW by the end of 2025.
Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) leader and parliamentarian Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan” has been granted bail by the Batticaloa High Court.
The Batticaloa District MP was ordered released on bail by Batticaloa High Court Judge T. Wigneshwaran, when the case filed over the murder of former TNA MP Joseph Pararajasingham was taken up today.
Four other defendants in the case who were in remand custody were also granted bail by the court, Ada Derana reporter said.
They were ordered released on two personal bonds of Rs 100,000 each while the case was postponed until December 08.
Pillayan had been in remand custody since his arrest on October 11, 2015 when he arrived at the CID to give a statement in connection with the assassination of the late Tamil politician Joseph Pararajasingham, who was shot dead on Christmas Eve in 2005.
A gunman opened fire on TNA MP Pararajasingham after he received communion at St Mary’s church in Batticaloa, killing him and injuring eight others including his wife.
Contesting at the General Election 2020, Pillayan had obtained the highest number of votes from the district of Batticaloa and entered Parliament.
Four new Covid-19 related deaths have been reported in Sri Lanka, the Director-General of Health Services confirmed a short while ago.
One of the victims is a 74-year-old male from Ginigathhena area. Reports revealed that he passed away on November 22 while receiving treatment in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Ragama Teaching Hospital. The cause of death was cited as multi-organ dysfunction due to complications of diarrhea induced by Covid-19 infection.
The second victim, a 54-year-old male from Siyambalape South who was under treatment at the Colombo National Hospital has died on November 22. The death was ruled as a result of coronavirus infection and chronic kidney disease.
A resident of Colombo 05 area, a woman aged 73 also died of Covid-19 infection earlier today. She was admitted to the Colombo National Hospital after testing positive for the virus and was later transferred to the Homagama Base Hospital. Covid-19 pneumonia was determined as the cause of death.
The fourth victim was identified as a 42-year-old male from Atulugama area in Bandaragama. According to reports, he was transferred to the Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH) from Panadura Base Hospital. He has died of complications of Covid-19 infection, chronic liver disease and encephalitis.
Following the new developments, Sri Lanka’s Covid-19 death toll now stands at 94.
Fresh COVID-19 positive cases were identified in Sri Lanka as the total number of cases reported from the Minuwangoda and Peliyagoda clusters reached 17,436.
The Department of Government Information said 171 more persons were tested positive for the virus. A total of 287 more new Covid-19 cases were reported earlier evening bringing the total cases so far to 20,795, the Health Ministry said. All contacts are close contacts of earlier patients.
All the new cases are close contacts of the Peliyagoda Fish Market cluster, reports confirmed.
With the new development, Sri Lanka has confirmed 20,966 novel coronavirus infections to date.
According to the Health Ministry’s data, 14,462 of the confirmed patients have made complete recoveries from the virus.
The 26th of November is the
Birthday of the dreaded leader of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE) who was shot dead in 2009. Prabhakaran
assassinated the elected leaders of the Tamil community in the 1980s [1],
massacred other rival groups, suppressed dissent, and hijacked the control of Tamil politics,
to launch a brutal war against the Sri
Lankan government that lasted some three decades, ending in May 2009. The whole of Sri Lanka, including the majority of Tamils who live in the South with
the Sinhalese celebrated the event. It was recorded as such in film by Poongkothi
Chandrahasan [2] the grand daughter of SJV Chelvanayagam, the acknowledged
leaders of the Tamil Nationalist movement. Luckily for him, SJV” passed away before the rise of Prabhakaran.
Mr. Amirthalingam, SJV’s
lieutenant, was shot dead by
Prabhakaran’s agents to pass mantel of Tamil leadership to Prabhakaran un-equivocally.
SJV founded the separatist Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi, or Lanka Tamil
Kingdom Party” that envisioned a separate Tamil kingdom known as Eelam
in 1949 [3]. SJV may have settled for a federal solution with strong autonomy”
for the 12% population of Tamils. But the forces that he unleashed demanded Arasu
itself, roused Sinhala extremism, and proposed to create a Tamil kingdom by
force in in the Vaddukkoddai resolution” [4]. Nevertheless, Sri Lanka, India and the West
sought a futile peaceful solution” that led to near four-decades of Eelam
wars, State Brutality and Tiger Terror extending even to Tamil diaspora who
faced extortion and Tiger violence.
The first suicide offensive of the Tigers
is usually ascribed to Vallipuram
Vasanthan alias Captain
Miller” of the LTTE in 1987. He drove a truck of explosives into an army camp
in Nelliyaddi (නෙල්ලියැද්ද). However, he
diabolical distinction of being the first dispoasable Tiger should go to
Sivakumaran who tried to rob a bank in Kopay (Bopé, බෝපේ ) in June 1974, and committed suicide to
prevent arrest. This gave Prabhakaran the idea of a cadre of suicide killers
who make the ultimate commitment” to him personally, and to the Tiger
movement. The day after Prabhakaran’s birthday was selected for the annual commemoration and
glorification of these human explosives as great heroes” or Maaveer”.
These events were held in a grand ritualist format during Prabhakaran’s
lifetime.
Seconds before Tamil Tigress exploding
When the North became accessible during the peace breaks, it revealed itself steeped in the notion of self-sacrifice. Tamilselvan, the late head of the political wing of the Tigers stated that it is not killing oneself” or thatkolai”, but thatkodai”, which means to give yourself” to cause maximum damage to the enemy with just one lost to the Tigers. Thamilini was the 30-year-old head of the female suicide cadre. Some 30 to 40 percent of suicide fighters, including the assassin of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 have been young women. Many of them had been
trained by Adel Balasingham, an Australian now living herself, after approaching to garland Gandhi living with impunity in the United Kingdom [5].
Pictures of suicide attackers like Captain
Miller” were every where in Tiger territory. The Tigers filmed their suicide attacks and sold CD’s
with songs glorifying the Black Tigers,
and videos of attacks on the airport, the central bank and other targets. The
Tamil Disapora approved the violence or
remained silent out of fear, and donated money” anyway. These amounted to millions of dollars annually [6].
Today, even though the LTTE was decapitated
in Sri Lanka, it is alive and well in Canada, UK, and other Western countries
where such tributes and memorials are held every year on 27th
November. The sale of videos, memorabilia and the collection of donations”
help to fatten the coffers of pro-LTTE
organizations even today.
The glorification of Black Tigers as role
models for the young is accompanied by a justification ofhttps://policy-research.ca/publications/
violence claiming that there was a Genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka who fought
for liberating their traditional homeland”.
Pro-Tiger politicians have attempted to
create an Education Week” in Ontario to teach a re-packaged false history of
the conflict and hide the nature of these diabolical human bombs and present
them as Martyrs of human rights. The
real facts of the alleged Tamil genocide”, an allegation already rejected by
the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2015 (Al Z. Husein, U-Tube, Rejecting the Genocide claim
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7bhAkM8PaM),
may be followed in more detail at the website https://dh-web.org/Canada/Background104.html
. The
present article deals with the history of the Black Tigers, or Suicide
killers whose techniques were closely copied by the Al Queda.
Sivakumaran’s radicalization shows that
attempts to appease” fanatically brain-washed individuals is of little use.
Thus, in July 1970 the Deputy Minister of Cultural Affairs Somaweera
Chandrasiri, a Sinhalese politician, claimed that Sinhalese and Tamil cultures
were linked, angering Sivakumaran who tried to assassinate Chandrasri in
September 1970.
Sivakumaran and Chelva”.
Sivakumaran’s cases show that if any moderate” Tamil or Sinhalese were to look for peace and middle ground between the two communities, they were targeted for elimination. This followed the doctrine of the irreconcilability” of the Sinhalese and the Tamils announced by the ITAK theoretician V. Navaratnam in 1957. Although SJV presented a façade of peacefulness, he had no hesitation in nurturing boys” like Sivakumaran[7] who had attempted to blow up the Minister Somaweera Chandrasiri in 1970, and the Tamil Mayor Durreiappah in 1971[8].
Once Prabhakaran became the unquestioned leader of the Tigers, it was not necessary for him to carry out or lead assassinations in person. He created the dreaded Black Tigers made up of men and women whose job was to become human bombs who can get to a target and blow themselves, killing the intended victim as well as all innocent by-standers who become mere expendables. For this purpose, the LTTE fashioned a suicide vest that could be worn unobtrusively, and could be activated by the Tiger at an opportune moment. The Tigers shared their suicide technology with Arab terrorists that they had links with at the time. The concept of sacrifice and belonging to the community and caste rather than to oneself, and the belief in rebirth made the gift of the supremesacrifice” for the cause socially acceptable to these young men and women.
An LTTE attack on a funeral in Akuressa lights up the background.
The induction process or brain-washing” was slow, and even depended on dedicated orphanages like the Tiger Orphanage in Sencholai and Arivuchcholai, where a handler became the parent and confidante who guided the children to become suicide killers who have accepted the higher destiny” of blowing themselves. The songs” of the orphanage will send a chill down the spine of most people but not to many members of the Toronto Tamil diaspora!
The Sencholai Padalkal” goes as
follows [9]:
The tomb shall wait for me Flowers as offerings shall there blossom A memorial for me who turn into a myriad atoms The burning embers shall watch over me.
The LTTE crashed a light plane in asuicide attack on the Revenue Dept. Sri Lanka in Jan. 2009.
The macabre poet” who autoured this then
describes a variety of possible deaths
awaiting her – such as shells and bullets. The
satanic poem” runs:
The poison (cyanide) I bore since I became a Tigress Shall also await me. The hawk and the hound to taste my flesh Shall stalk the field where I do battle. …All these will I endure for my land To me a grateful nation shall arise.
The Sri Lankan army honours and remembers its dead as all other armies do, without the sacrificial mysticism of the LTTE
When this training-camp cum orphanage of Tiger Suicide Cadre was bombed in 2006, the Western-funded NGOs in Colombo and the Tiger Diaspora in Canada raised an international campaign against Sri Lanka claiming that it bombs orphanages”. While pro-Tiger spokesmen addressing Western audiences take care to claim that the suicide cadre only targeted soldiers, quite the opposite is true. Civilian political leaders have been blown up with heavy civilian casualties. The suicide attack on the Central bank in 1996 killed close to 100 people, while even funerals have come under attack.
The Tigers built many war memorials and
grave yards for the black tigers who blew themselves up, killings dozens of
people. Theses grave yards (see figure on the right)
are like Christian graveyards, with much propaganda value. This is indeed contrary to Hindu cultural practices where dead bodies are burnt (cremated), and graveyards are shunned except by the very “lowest castes”. However, many of the suicide cadres were Catholics, and the Tamil population had been Christianized to a larger extent than the Sinhalese in the south. Furthermore, the Tigers cleverly exploited the Natu-kal” tradition of South India to justify the practice and bring it to the areas controlled by the tigers [10].
The Maaveer Thuyilim Illam or “Martyrs” sleeping house was in
Kopay’s Northeastern city limits. Around 2000 epitaphs had been placed, but it
has been alleged that many of the graves were empty.
The
Sri Lankan army removed the stonework leaving behind only a commemorative
plaque, following the practice of the Allied army in WW-II in dealing with Nazi
cemeteries[11]. Tiger supporters simply
retaliated by destroying the commemorative plaques.
Today, the right to remember the dead”
has been abused and used as an excuse to
hold politicized memorials for the suicide killers. The Northern Provincial
Council which gave powers to rule the majoritarian-Tamil Northern Province, led
by the controversial Mr. Wigneswaran,
did very little to ameliorate the economic well being of the Tamils. It
devoted most of it efforts to Eelamist propaganda, trying to build memorials to
the Maaveer and obstructing more moderate Tamil politicians like Mr.
Sumanthiran. The extreme fringes of Tamil politics in Sri
Lanka have used the 27th of
November, the Maaveer day” as a
day for mounting confrontations with the Sri Lankan police and the army, by
trying to hold memorials with glorification of suicide killers and poltical
speeches. This would be equivalent representatives of the extreme Right in Germany trying to
commemorate fallen leaders of the SS or other killer squads of the Nazis today.
Politicized sections of the Western diaspora continue to support Prabhakaran’s violent version of Tamil Nationalism vigorously and continue to seek means of reviving the ashes of the LTTE is Sri Lanka itself. This enables them to support bogus refugee claims by asserting that Tamils are Not safe” in Sri Lanka. They claim that thousands of tamils have disappeared and that 146,679 Tamils were killed in the last days of trhe Eelam war, using falsified statistics that should now be laid to rest
in view of the investigations by the British House of
Lords led by Lord Naseby where the number dead is estimated to be less than
7000 [12,13]. These matters, and the
numbers unaccounted for, have been examined by several commissions including
the Paranagama commission [14]. The
General Secretary of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) pointed out how
the LTTE eliminated its very own cadre and wounded civilians
during its retreat to Mulliavaikkal as
the LTTE regarded its wounded as a
liability, adding to the disappeared”.
In 2018, (during the
Sirisena-Wickremasinghe govenment), an Eelamist motor bicycle drive-in by youths (mostly politicized Jaffna
University Undergraduates) wearing black outfits, black and white flags etc.
brought them to Mullivaikkal (Mul-vakkadé, මුල් වක්කඩෙ) [15]. A rally was held
here as a “Remembrance Day” event where the more moderate leading
Tamil politicians were excluded, in a manner reminiscent of the exclusion of
the TULF by the early LTTE, and by other
early youth movements of the late 1970s. It was declared a day of “Genocide
Remembrance” by C.
Wigneswaran, the first Chief Minister of the Northern provincial
council who was the only politician allowed in.
Wigneswaran, an upper class Colombo
Tamil and Ex-Judge who worked
closely with the Sri Lankan government
before he came to politics, has embraced political extremism, even rejecting
inter-marriage between races to safeguard “Tamil” racial purity, even
though his own children have rejected such racist views. He also holds a romanticized view of the
history of the Island where the Tamil people are believed to have a long and glorified role extending to millennia
contrary to the accepted historical narrative. The Eelamists hold that the
North and East of Sri Lanka are the “Traditional Homelands of the
Tamils”, a doctrine enunciated in 1949 by the Tamil political party. However,
the mere fact that a majority of older place names in the North and East are
based on Sinhala Place Names testifies to the fact that these areas had been
under Sinhala Rulers, as also testified by stone inscriptions, and the Pali
chronicles.
Tt is well known that most Tamil
expatriates belong to
Ur-Societies” linked to villages (Ur) back in Sri Lanka [15]. They visit their
villages happily, safely and regularly, belying claims that Sri Lanka is unsafe
to Tamils. Over 50% of the Tamils live in the south and are leaders of
business, industry, export-import and banking, occupying a more influential
place than even the majority community.
Unfortunately, the open and liberal society
in Canada is exploited by the pro-LTTE Diaspora groups, and political organizations like the
Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) to paint a false picture. They
have sought to hold Maaveer celebrations, glorify suicide killers and teach violence and ethnic hate to a
younger generation that these political organizations hope to exploit in the
future years to come. Wittingly or unwittingly, Canadian politicians who nurse
electorates with sizable Tamil populations have even attended these suicide-killer memorial events that are held
in the guise of mourning of lost kith
and kin!
[6] Ms. Jo Becker of Human Rights Watch (see, The Globe and Mail, March 16,
2005 report by Timothy Appleby) stated that “In Canada, families were
typically pressed for between $2,500 and $5,000,” Ms. Becker wrote,
“while some businesses were asked for up to $100,000”. These
assertions have also been supported by the RCMP and other Canadian law
enforcement organizations, and finally led to the banning of the WTM in 2008.
The Sri Lankan government alleges that the victims of LTTE-bombings and suicide
attacks at the Colombo Central Bank, at the Bandaranaike Airport, and places of
worship, schools, railways, public buses etc., were funded from Canada.
[15] https://www.asiantribune.com/node/91870
The commemoration ceremony on 17-May-2018 in remembrance of Tamil civilians who
died in Vella-mulliwaikkal during the last days of the ethnic conflict- Asian
Tribune, Rajasinghan, 19-May-2018
[16] Thanges Paramsothy, Caste within the Sri Lankan
Diaspora, Anthropology Matters Journal, 18, No.1 (2018)
President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s Anniversary speech and the brilliant 2021 futuristic Budget presented by the Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa have raised the trust of the people who suffered immensely under the destructive yamapalana government for the last 4 ½ years. The Anniversary speech clearly outlined the performances achieved during President’s first year under various obstacles made by the Sirisena/Ranil government and restrictions that had been placed upon him by the obnoxious 19th Amendment. The President also outlined details of the work to be carried out and steps to be taken in the next four years of his term. Hat these measures will definitely be carried out regardless of opposition from any quarters.
In this atmosphere
the foreign servile discarded and despicable Dayan Jayatilleke(the 3 D
Jayatilleke) in his utter frustration of success being made by thus government
has made silly and stupid attempts to admonish the President on what and what
he should do and what and what he should not do and what coarse correction he
should undertake. This stupid writer says that the President must seek the
Middle Path, occupy the moderate political centre, not the extreme, and return
to the mainstream democratic political culture and tradition of his family, the
Rajapaksas
Thinking that he is the Messiah
reborn he states that the President has made strategic blunders and his term of
office will end up in a one-term wonder, like the Trump Presidency (2016-2020),
Yahapalana (2015-2019), and the Samagi Peramuna (1970-1977).
Showing his dislike with one of Sri Lanka’s much-admired political columnists Chandraprema, he says that back in June, GR insider, author of the Gota’s War (2012) and Sri Lanka’s new ambassador/PR to the UN-Geneva, commented that Trump will win and argued assuredly that polarisation around the ‘law and order’ vs. ‘anarchy’ issue guaranteed a white majoritarian tsunami for Trump and this 3D stupid adds that in a fascinating coincidence, this was the core of the successful GR game-plan of 2019.
Referring to Sirisena presidency he states that when that Sirisena Government was heading rapidly in the wrong direction, which will prove unsustainable, result in unfavourable polarisation, and crash and burn unless there’s a drastic course-correction back to the moderate centre, Sirisena heeding to the advice given by him and some other prominent people instituted a coarse correction. Ignoramus Sirisena may have needed such advice but it does not apply in the case of much talented and highly erudite President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
This 3D fool says that the
Gotabaya Presidency, as per his diagnosis won’t end well, but it will end
sooner rather than later.
He blames the President for adopting a zero merit policy and asserts that the Gotabaya administration hasn’t yet had a bond scam type scandal on its watch, but the factor underlying that scandal is something that the GR Presidency has been greatly susceptible to not appointing officials on the basis of the highest merit of excellences similar to Ranil Wickremesinghe’s choices. In President Gotabaya’s first year, the abandonment of meritocracy has become a rule rather than an exception. Despite internationally admired steps that have been taken to arrest Covid-19, this fool asks whether anyone believes, or can anyone believe, that the finest available Sri Lankan talent, the best available brains, the human resources of the highest quality and achievement in the fields relevant to the COVID-19 virus, have been mobilised and are actually driving the national/State effort to rescue us from the pandemic?
The President’s appointments
to/within the military have been fine, but the appointment of the serving and
retired military to posts in which they have registered no expertise or
experience, still less excellence, will prove at least as systemically
damaging, he says. He may have said the
same thing when Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa as the Secretary to the Ministry of
Defence took steps to place suitable security personnel to fight the terrorist
aggression.
He points out that the retreat
from the principle of merit in post-Independence Sri Lanka began with the
Sirimavo Bandaranaike Government’s twin measures (in the early 1970s) of the
abolition of the independent public service and the introduction of
district-wise and media-wise standardisation at university entrance.
The government of Madam
Bandaranaike was forced to introduce the standardization system for University
Entrance to rectify and overcome a long felt anomaly for Sinhala and Muslim
students under which majority of students selected for the Medical and
Engineering faculties had been Tamil students.
Investigation carried out in this respect revealed that prior to the
University Entrance examinations Tamil Professors held clandestine classes for
Tamil students and passed out the question papers and also they were told to
write the word OM” in their answer scripts to facilitate their
identification. Only after the
standardization system and the Z score system the anomaly was rectified and
students from remote areas like Monreagala and Anuradhapra districts got a fair
treatment for entering Universities and the artificial merit system of Tamil
students getting concocted higher marks were stopped.
Today, he says that it is
presupposed that ex-military appointments across the state system, and the
annexation of civilian functions under the Defence Ministry headed by a retired
General, accord with the criterion of merit, because the military/ex-military
has the collective institutional ‘karmic merit’ for having performed the
ultimate meritorious deed of saving the country from terrorism.
This 3D fool further states that
on many occasions since January, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has gone on
public record, including two international audiences – the SAARC leaders
virtual summit and the UN 75th anniversary world leaders summit – respectively
downplaying the danger and claiming success in containing Corona (in
self-congratulatory detail). If the anti-coronavirus campaign had been fought
by an elite Task Force of the finest trained and credentialed professionals in
the field, the President would not have made such statements because he would
have been far better briefed and advised. Instead he has set up an echo
chamber. Sadly, he is imitating the practices not of the victorious last war –
the nation’s and his elder brother Mahinda’s finest hour, and his own finest
contribution.
He predicts that the next major
crisis we shall face is the economic crisis. This time too, it won’t matter to
the suffering citizenry that there was a global pandemic, any more than it
mattered to the voters who threw the Sirimavo Bandaranaike Government overboard
in 1977 despite the OPEC oil shock of 1973 affected a great many countries.
As in the case of combatting
Covid-19, this is not what the Gotabaya administration has done. Pushing Dr.
Dushni Weerakoon, Executive Director of the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS),
out of the Monetary Board is hardly a sign which inspires confidence. Having obtained
her PhD at age 27, she has risen to be perhaps our top professional economist,
with a reputation for non-partisan, independent policy diagnosis and lucid
prescription.
He asserts that the Sirisena/Ranil
government was doomed to a one-term existence by its adherence to an
ideological model rather than to Realism. That Government felt it more
important to drive through a set of reforms which stemmed from its obsolescent
ideological model of the neoliberal glory days of the 1980s and 1990s.
Referring to the previous government which he admired in all its aspects, the 3D bluffer now says that the UNP Leader, Ministers and civil society ideologues were blissfully unaware that in the 21st century a social backlash had overthrown the model in favour of statist-nationalism in Russia and populist religio-nationalism in Eastern Europe. Even when the rebellion reached the West with Brexit, followed by the Trump victory of 2016, the UNP didn’t change course. These global trends apart, the reality of Sri Lankan society – made transparently clear at the Feb 2018 Local Authorities Election – made the Ranilist UNP model utterly untenable.
The UNP, he adds, sought to turn us into a neoliberal neo-colony of the West. The GR model was designed to turn us into a military-occupied territory ‘liberated’ from liberal-democracy and inhabited by a regimented, controlled, drone-monitored citizenry. The Yahapalana and Gotabaya administrations share the assumption that their electoral victories were some kind of ‘revolution’ and a mandate for a total transformation in accordance with their respective ideologies.
The first anniversary of the Gotabaya Presidency coincides with the victory of Joe Biden. He admonishes that President GR must learn the correct lessons of the defeat of President Trump, whose proudest boast of not being a ‘politician’ but a success in other fields, was the source of his biggest blunders, since as a political amateur he had no respect for the values, norms and ethos of democratic politics and governance.
GR and his fellow (Sinhala) long-time supporters of the California Republican Right must absorb the lessons of the two-thirds vote that the Democratic ticket obtained in California (possibly due to Kamala Harris). With or without Democrat control of the Senate, President Rajapaksa can surely figure out the implications of a Democratic administration. Space could open for generalised, permanent ‘lawfare’ under ‘universal jurisdiction’, which could go global.
For the moment the biggest political advantage that President Gotabaya enjoys is the fog of intellectual and psychological confusion in the democratic resistance space. In a threatening note to President GR this American worshipping 3D fool says that in the USA, the democratic intelligentsia (most indelibly Noam Chomsky), the media and the politicians (most notably Barack Obama) sounded the clarion call that the main existential danger was a second term for President Trump – Chomsky called it a threat to humanity – and that the indubitably overriding objective must be to prevent it. In the midst of the primaries, the Democratic field suddenly cleared for the candidate who had the best chance of winning back the blue-collar white voters and breaking through to the American heartland. The left, progressives, women, and the Black community rallied around him, submerged differences to attain the objective of stopping a second Trump term, perceived as the portal to Fascism of some variety and form.
He laments that by contrast, the Lankan democratic intelligentsia remains ‘The Gang That Couldn’t Think Straight’. Recently, an emeritus political science academic urged the democratic Opposition to model itself on that led by Sirimavo Bandaranaike – who it must be noted, never proceeded to lead her country after she lost the General Election in 1977 and was beaten to the presidency by populist Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1988.
This pro-Indian betrayer states that he associated Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa for more than 20 years and hence he knows more than Viyath Maga-Eliya hawks may assume and adds that being only a student of politics, he remained a passive participant at the meetings his father had with Lakshman and George Rajapaksa, gathering valuable points”
When an extremist ideological
network-cum-pressure group (self-professedly pro-China) – the Janavegaya –
arose within the ruling family and Coalition Government and spread through the
State apparatus, George and Mahinda Rajapaksa stood against it. The Rajapaksa
political culture was light years away from a ‘Military First’ or ‘Make the
Army Great Again’ (the local MAGA) perspective in peacetime. It was civilian,
parliamentary, democratic, centre-left progressive, moderate nationalist,
undogmatic, pragmatic, flexible, open, reasonable and consensual.
In a ridiculous attempt to create a rift between the President and the Prime
Minister similar to the failed attempt he made to creep into Viyath Maga and
create dissensions in that organisation this 3D foreign stooge says that Mr.
Mahinda Rajapaksa’s decade was not reshaping the country according to some
ideology or model and he was determined to achieve a decisive end, operating
within the democratic Constitution, to the existential danger that confronted
the nation: Prabhakaran and his LTTE. By doing so MR achieved the most historic
transformation of all. Like his elders, he was very comfortable with the
country’s democratic character and civic way of being, in which he swam like a
big fish in the sea.
1. Abolition of Indo Lanka Accord.
Adoption of a Foreign Policy of Balance to counter regional players. Adoption
of a “Total Defence” policy based on Psychological, Social, Economic,
Civil, Digital and Military Defence.
The following two sections should be
included in a future constitution and national policy:
A lesson in history:
2. It was a catastrophic,
incompetent, foolish and UNMITIGATED DISASTER to have abrogated the Anglo
Ceylon Defence Agreement (of 1947) in 1957. This led to a loss of a
guaranteed ally and assistance in the event of foreign attack. Had we kept it
in force, then India would have been kept at bay. It was a mutually
beneficial agreement and provided an indirect export to Ceylon also. During
that period we had an independent foreign policy as proven by the simultaneous
existence of this Defence Agreement with Britain and the Rubber Rice Pact with
China.
It is absolute FOOLISHNESS and
revisionist history of leftists to claim that this was somehow a flaw, or “not
independence” or a bad situation to be in. Ceylon was FULLY independent
and its status akin to what Singapore enjoys today in terms of defence. It is
furthermore, INSANE for many of these same “critics” to remain silent
on the Indo Lanka Accord which BLATANTLY strips us of our independence and
ability to engage with whomever we damn well please. This so called “non
alignment” and “neutrality” that we have suffered (not enjoyed)
has sadly been nothing more than Indian subservience and the restrictions of a
vassal state status, to third rate India to add insult to injury!
Under the original Defence Agreement
we enjoyed from 1947:
1. It was not constitutionally
objectionable (unlike the Indo Lanka Accord)
2. It was for an indefinite period
and allowed for any modification by agreement
3. A commitment by the United Kingdom
to provide defence against external aggression and for the protection of
essential communications
4. Military assistance included naval
and air assistance.
5. Bases for forces required for the
purpose of defending Ceylon would be provided as may be MUTUALLY AGREED and
only if required for said defence.
6. The Government of Ceylon would
receive military assistance in the training and development and equipping the
Ceylonese Armed Forces.
7. Unlike other nations at the time
like Australia, Ceylon would not have to pay Britain for the upkeep,
maintenance and equipment for any forces provided (that were mutually agreed)
to defend us. This provided us with an indirect export.
8. Ceylon would have no obligation to
pursue the foreign policy of its partner, nor was it a commitment to any
alliance. Indeed, Ceylon was protected from the more noisy antics of the
Americans and Soviets as well as the hegemonic ambitions of its third rate
neighbour India.
It is sad that when one views
historical footage of our Independence Day celebrations of the past in the
1940s-60s, that we had more planes/jets then than we do now! How is this
acceptable?
The removal of this Defence, the
failure to make up for this by arming the country to the teeth, the complete
incompetence at developing the country left us open to India to force itself on
us leaving us in this dismal state today.
This must be reversed and a competent
Defence and Foreign policy pursued!
There is no racial inequity in Sri Lanka, but there are spatial (georaphical) inequities, and lack of equal access to oppurtunites affecting all its citizens.”
APRC and the bio-regional vision, The Island, 25/2/2009.
Language-blind regional development units, The Island, 25/10/2006
Prevention of black-whites’ plan to balkanaize Sri Lanka, Lankaweba (LW) , 22/10/2017
Reconciliation & balkanization in Sri Lanka, LW, 11/3/2018
Michael Robert meets Anaagaarika Dharmapala, LW, 14/8/2016
President Sirisena (2016) confronts Commissioner Colebrooke (1832), LW, 3/11/2016
End of Humiliation, LW, 9/9/2009
LLRC and the future of Sri Lanka, LW, 16/8/2011
Who is afraid of the Buddhist flag? (educating Navaneetham Pillay) LW, 4/10/2013
Ambassador Sison and Asath Sali, LW, 5/5/2013
Sri Lanka: black-white rule and the temple, LW, 24/10/2017
19-A and balkanization plan, LW, 7/12/2018
Wigneswaran Damanaya (taming the shrew!)- part 1, LW, 15/2/2015
Report of the Local Government Reforms Commission (The Abhayawardena Reoport) (Sessional Paper 1-1999)
By the adoption of a variety of tactics, tailored to suit the power-equation at any given point of time, Lankan Buddhists kept blunting the attack and managed to preserve Buddhism as the dominant religion of the island.
Sri Lankan Buddhists came under a sustained and frontal assault by Christian missionaries during Portuguese and Dutch rule for nearly three centuries (1505 to 1796). Given the adverse balance of power, many Buddhists compelled or enticed to convert to Roman Catholicism under the Portuguese and to Calvinism under the Dutch. But by the adoption of a variety of tactics, tailored to suit the power-equation at any given point of time, Lankan Buddhists kept blunting the attack and managed to preserve Buddhism as the dominant religion of the island.
Sir James Emerson Tennent, Colonial Secretary from 1841 to 1850, traces the ultimate success of the Sinhala Buddhists to one of their innate qualities. In his book Christianity in Ceylon (John Murray, London, 1850), Tennent says: In the hands of the Christian missionary they (the Buddhists) are by no means the plastic substance which such a description would suggest – capable of being molded into any form or retaining permanently any casual impression – but rather an yielding fluid which adopts its shape to that of the vessel into which it may happen to be poured, without any change in its quality or any modification of its character.”
The nature of the assault on Sinhala-Buddhism and the ingenious ways in which the Buddhists tackled and overcame the threat are graphically described by Prof.P.V.J.Jayasekera in his book: Confrontations with Colonialism Vol:1 1796-1920 (Vijitha Yapa, 2017). Jayasekera uses the term Christian colonialism” for Portuguese and Dutch rule as both Christianity and colonialism as a politico-economic system went hand in hand. The agenda of the colonialists was to exercise political, economic and spiritual control over their subjects simultaneously. Indeed, the spiritual and the temporal reinforced each other.
The ideology of Christian colonialism” was rooted in the assertion of Pope Innocent IV in the 13 th.Century, that, as the Vicar of Christ, the Pope had the power not only over Christians but also over non-believers. Through a series of Papal Bulls and Inter Caeteras from 1455, the Portuguese and the Spanish were given the power to exercise temporal and spiritual control over believers and heathens the world over. They were authorized to vanquish, enslave, humiliate or subdue the non-believer in pursuance of the divine mission.”
In Sri Lanka, the Portuguese systematically destroyed Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic places of worship. Harsh laws were enacted to prevent the practice of indigenous religions. At that time, Lankan Buddhists believed that salvation could be reached through multiple paths and therefore allowed the Portuguese to engage in conversion. King Buvanekabau of Kotte (1458-1550) even invited missionaries, though he himself refused to convert.
But his grandson and successor, Dharmapala (aka Don Juan), converted in 1557. Put off by that, the Buddhists revolted. Thirty Bhikkus were martyred. There were at least ten popular revolts in 44 years. One of which was led by Edirille Rala (1594-1596) which the Portuguese described as the revolt of the Sinhalese nation”. Portuguese chronicler Queroz noted that a saintly monk Budavance” was behind the uprising in Sitavaka. Missionaries and churches were attacked. In 1630-1631, destruction of Portuguese properties was extensive. To put it down, the Portuguese stepped up destruction of places Buddhist and Hindu worship.
Interestingly, many of the rebel leaders like Edirille Rala, Kangara Arachchi and Nikapitiya Bandara were themselves converts! Many who converted for one reason of the other eventually revolted or relapsed to their old faith. This made the Portuguese (and later the Dutch) despair that conversion of a Sinhalese meant nothing really. Even 50 years after the establishment of Portuguese rule on the West coast, they were busy destroying Buddhist temples showing that missionary activity had not borne fruit. Disappointed with adult conversion, the Portuguese concentrated on children in the schools they set up.
The symbolic crowning of the Kotte King Don Juan Dharmapala by the King of Portugal after his convesion to Christianity.
Dutch Used Laws
The Dutch, who ruled Sri Lanka from 1658 to 1796 immediately after the Portuguese, were less violent but more legalistic in their proselytization. The Dutch used laws backed by a system of harsh punishments.. Baptism was needed to bequeath property. Marriages had to be registered in church. Many Buddhists had to convert on the death bed to bequeath their property to their heirs. A non-convert’s evidence was not admissible in court.
Schools were established mainly for the purpose of conversion and school masters were made in-charge of adherence to Christian practice. The Governors of the Dutch provinces (Disawes) accompanied by Dutch pastors inspected schools four times a year with armed escorts. Those who neglected their duties were severely punished. Heavy fines and forced labor in chains for three months were the order of the day. On seeing that people were ignoring the Placcaats or orders, the Dutch in 1732 issued an order asking all village headman to eliminate Buddhist temples in their areas. To enforce it, the Dutch enhanced punishment to 2000 Rix dollars or chained labor for 25 years.
But despite the harshness of the punishments, defiance by the Buddhists continued both passively and violently. In 1646, Kottapitiya Appuhamy of Weligama Korale, rebelled. Monks and Silvatas (lay preachers) openly mocked Dutch pastors. The put up anti-Christian arguments written on Ola leaves on tree trunk so that people could read.
Monks and lay preachers from Galle and Matara were particularly active, which made the famous Goan Jesuit missionary Fr.Jacome Gonsalves say that the Buddhists of Galle and Matara were particularly attached to Buddhism. The southern rebels had the full support of the Kandyan monks also. A desperate Dutch Galle district Church Council wrote to Amsterdam in 1736 saying: The native has an aversion to Christianity and is attached to Heathenism.”
The Buddhists fought hard for the recovery of the Kelaniya Raja Maha Viharaya, which the Buddha had visited and which the Dutch occupied. The Dutch had used the temple’s stones to build the Colombo Fort. In 1647, the Kandyan King Rajasinghe II (1629-1687) asked the Dutch to vacate the temple but he was ignored. Subsequently, King Wimaladharmasirya II (1687-1707) asked for permission to Buddhists to at least worship there. But the Dutch would not allow idolatry. The Dutch relented only 140 years later in 1780, when they decided that persecution would not work with the Sinhalese Buddhists.
(The painting at the top shows the Portuguese destroying a Buddhist temple in Sri Lanka: Picture credit goes to Prasanna Weerkkody)
The doctor who was arrested by the Maharagama Police for shooting a school student with an air-rifle has been remanded by the order of the Nugegoda Magistrate’s Court.
A 17-year-old student of the ErewwalaEast Dharmapala Vidyalaya had entered a private property near the school, yesterday (22) to retrieve a ball that had been thrown into the property during a game of cricket.
Reportedly, an argument has ensued between the students and the owner of the property, a doctor serving at the Apeksha Hospital in Maharagama.
This has resulted in the doctor firing an air rifle at the students.
The student injured in the incident is currently receiving treatment at the Colombo South (Kalubowila) Teaching Hospital.
The doctor was subsequently arrested by the police over a complaint received by them and was produced before the Nugegoda Magistrate’s Court today (23).
Accordingly, the Magistrate ordered him to be placed under remand custody until December 02.
At the Presidential Commission of Inquiry probing Easter Sunday terror attacks, it was revealed that funds worth Rs. 04 billion has been received to two bank accounts that belong to former Governor of the Eastern Province M.L.A.M. Hizbullah.
It was revealed that these funds had been received from foreign countries on several occasions.
It was further revealed that even the Central Bank had not been informed about receiving such a large amount of money.
The speaker stated that the Parliamentary Council has verified the nomination by the President to appoint C.D. Wickramaratne for the post of Inspector General of Police and 14 Judges to be appointed to the Court of Appeal.
Speaking to the Hiru news team the Speaker said that the Parliament also recommended the names of 14 Court of Appeal Judges presented by the President.
The names of High Court Judges Menaka Wijesundera, D.N. Samarakoon, M. Prashantha de Silva, M.T.M. Lafar, C. Pradeep Keerthisinghe, Sampath B. Abeykoon, M.S.K.B. Wijeratne, R. Gurusinghe, G.A.D. Ganepola and K.K.A.V. Swarnadhipathi nominated by the President has been verified by the Parliamentary Council.
W.M.N.P. Iddawala, Sampath Mendis, Mayadunna Cooray and Prabhaharan Kumaratnam of the Attorney General’s Department nominated by the President as Justices of the Court of Appeal have also been verified by the Parliamentary Council.
