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.
The
writer is a graduate of University of Peradeniya, which was constructed during
the colonial period and opened by HRH prince Philip, the queen’s husband, ‘to
be more open than usual’ in the early 50s. The Engineering Faculty that was
established there was of the same standard as world leading universities like
Cambridge, following same courses. Those who passed out and gained scholarships
these universities did very well topping the batches. Moratuwa Technical
College also became an Engineering Faculty in early 70s.These universities
together with others now attract the top scorers of A’ Levels and are churning
out engineers more than what is required for the country. Majority of top
scorers in Engineering select Civil courses instead of Mechanical and
Electrical Engineering which are more relevant to today’s needs. Most of them
become managers in public or private sector. I believe this is a waste of
talents as they are not able to contribute much for the country in this digital
age.
When
we look at South Korea and Vietnam we see that they have achieved high level of
development and growth rates not through so much of expenditure on education
but by letting their entrepreneurs engage in digital technology and
manufacture. I believe we should do the same without wasting our meagre
resources and producing jobless graduates who become a burden on the government
after they pass out. The introduction to digital technology, particularly the
wiring up of electronic circuits should be started in the secondary school
level itself. The world is entering into a new realm of automation and our
youths should be trained to be at the forefront.
I give below some videos that explain the
current situation and the direction in which the digital technology is moving.
The organizations like BBC that introduced the BBC Micro in 80s to their
schools (and to other anglophone countries) prompted the birth of businesses
like ARM and are now promoting a new technology, which is a new way of
computing using an open source architecture in the CPUs. I think we too should
join them and get our students to build the machines of the future. I tried to
get our university guys to work on these about four years ago by writing to
them without any success. And we do not hear any of the academics in them
talking about these new developments( like RISC-V etc) If a thirteen year old boy can understand the
technology and build his computer by wiring up the RISC-V chip, as can be seen
from the third video down below, why not we get our secondary school students also
involved in similar projects?. The GOSL
should encourage these academics to get involved or initiate similar projects
without further delay.
Please
view these videos if time permits. The first one is from a Sri Lankan and the
comments there on shows how enthusiastic the local young ones are.
The Buddhists wish—and quite rightly—that in this country where they form 70 percent of the population, Buddhism should be recognized as the predominant religion of the people. In the rest of the world, Ceylon is regarded as essentially a Buddhist country, and they want this claim established here as well…They will not be content to remain in the position of inferiority to which they have been reduced by 450 years of foreign occupation… They have no desire to make Buddhism the State religion—in spite of the cry raised by self-seeking politicians— but they want the State to help them rehabilitate themselves and undo some, at least, of the injustices perpetrated against them during the days of their subjection.”
(quoted from a speech by Professor Gunapala Malalasekera, President of ACBC reproduced in Times of Ceylon, January 15, 1956, and referenced on page 196 of the book, Ceylon: Dilemmas of a New Nation,” by W. H. Wriggins, Princeton Univ. Press,
1960)
If the Tamils’ cry [Tamil politicians living in Colombo!] for separatism is given up, the two communities could solve their problems and continue to live in amity and dignity.” – M.C. Sansoni, CJ—(Sessional Paper No. 7 of 1980)
Talking once with a miner I asked him when the housing shortage first became acute in his district; he answered, when we were told about it,” meaning that till recently people’s standards were so low that they took almost any degree of overcrowding for granted.”
George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), 64a,
Any re-connection with our ancient village concept should primarily enable the creation of new ideas so that the soulless town becomes as holistically vibrant as the village.
Colombo, November 21: How is our village relevant to us in the city? What can having a ‘village in the city’ mean to a people such as us, Sri Lankans who have an ancient heritage that we have distanced ourselves from?
It is few years ago, soon after its creation, that I visited the Ape Gama (Our Village), located at the Jana Kala Kendraya in Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, conceptualised to be the way a village was typically before colonisation (where the houses were made of clay).
Subsequently as part of my research in how our heritage is looked at by Sri Lankans including the younger generation, I had interviewed in-depth some of those who were recruited to play act in Ape Gama the roles of teacher and Gamarala and several other characters respectively. I went to their hometowns/villages, some of them very remote to understand how their children related to the identity of the ‘village.’
In one instance the villagers pointed to a youth who was the son of one of the employees of Ape Gama and joked how the 22-year-old abhorred the traditional Lankan dress for males, the sarong, along with the traditional diet and how he spent his time roaming around on a motor bike his father had bought him and searching out typical ‘Western type food.’ This is a simple example to show that we have not succeeded in making the young generation vibe with their past and where they see their parent’s association with it is ‘backward.’ This is the malady of our nation that we should seriously strive to change.
The stereotype image of the typical ancient ‘village’ consists of clay huts (although in practical reality today they are seen as symbols of either poverty or ironically as abodes made for foreigners). In our actual reality we have not made clay, one of the most sustainable elements for construction as part of our living heritage. If we are having a concept such as Ape Gama in the heart of the city, we should also have a policy where the construction of clay houses is mainstreamed and encouraged in the town, with appropriate heritage driven sustainable city planning.
The Ape Gama concept could also be used as a strong influencer for schoolchildren to learn about their heritage in as detailed a manner as possible, systematically, in a backdrop where the school syllabus does little to contribute to this. This writer has in many instances pointed out that every child in Sri Lanka should grow up learning as basic everyday knowledge their indigenous food and medicinal heritage.
Overall, what we need in Sri Lanka is to actively, consistently and innovatively project the village not as a quant, docile entity but rather as a thriving life force of a nation. It is from the village that all inventions needed sprang forth and at a time when ‘sustainability’ a Western-dominated buzzword word is repeated by us without even contemplating on its true significance there is much potential to actively use a concept such as Ape Gama to promote Sri Lanka’s rural economic regeneration as well as influencing the city towards true sustainability.
The agrarian root of the village could be discussed at length and an endeavour such as Ape Gama should ideally explore initiatives involving conserving endemic plant varieties (Deshiya Beeja), and medicinal plants which are fast becoming extinct while encouraging the agrarian and irrigation policies of our kings to be re-enacted in real life. Related projects could be routed through the Ape Gama but initiated elsewhere in the country, especially the cultivation of trees. Such an initiative could lead to product creation for the local and export market as well, especially in times of pandemics, capitalising on the unique heritage of Sri Lanka such as the Deshiya Chikitsa medical heritage which we have totally undermined. There are also many ways in which a concept such as Ape Gama could be used to leverage Sri Lanka internationally at a time when that leveraging is desperately needed and tourism and indigenous medicinal knowledge sharing and export industry are just two of them.
A ‘living heritage’
We have to keep in mind that this endeavour to reproduce this village experience in the heart of the city was aimed at it being a ‘living heritage.’ To what extent our village is still a ‘living heritage’ in reality is debatable given that our current medicine tradition, our basic village, town and city planning policy is not even remotely connected with our heritage. We are a country who gave permission for soil destructing pine trees to be grown in the 1970s (on the advice of foreigners) and Dr. Ranil Senanayake, the man who objected to it in his capacity as an ecologist who had proposed a village-based agro-medicinal reforesting model had to finally leave his job. So, in any effort to replicate the village in the city, we have to eradicate any oriental or romanticising of the rural and see it for its practical worth.
In the village kiosk at the Ape Gama that I visited four years ago I drank herbal tea in a cleaned-up coconut shell thinking of the potential for detailed research in how the coconut shell is believed to have properties that will purify water and where prolonged use of water in a coconut shell is thought of as strengthening bones. (The coconut as a whole whether it is coconut water or the kernel or shell, holds significant curative properties especially coconut milk which is known to remove poison from the body). It is a pity that the average youth of a village whose biggest dream is to get to the city (and then leave for a foreign country) would not imbibe such information such as these. The purpose of an initiative such as Ape Gama should therefore be for a re-connection with what is ours, whether it is irrigation, agriculture, forestry, craftsmanship, construction techniques and traditional immunity boosting diet and medicinal heritage.
Any re-connection with our ancient village concept, should also primarily enable the creation of new ideas so that it is juxtaposed with the old but where the end result would not be that the village yearns to be like the town, but rather where the soulless town aims to become as holistically vibrant as the village.
How many of us drink pre-colonial herbal drinks such as Beli mal (flowers), Ranawara mal (flowers) and Polpala morning noon and evening as we drink tea introduced by the British? Despite having many indigenous herbal drinks, after 70 years of independence tea is promoted as our ‘heritage drink; and yes this is partially right – it is our colonial heritage but not representative of the thousands of years of our civilisation in which our food and drink evolved with what was endemic to our land.
The Ape Gama concept had fitted in the typical Gurukula (a teacher’s abode) like setting with one small clay made house reminiscent of a teacher’s residence which was the pre-colonial equivalent of the modern school. In this pre-colonial education system we had, the child learnt introspection, mindfulness, some specific craft and above all qualities such as gratitude to the teacher, kindness and empathy (qualities which are sorely lacking in today’s education sector).
Despite the British believing that they were the superior benefactors of so-called Western Science based ‘education’ it is Sri Lanka’s ancient Gurukula model that produced the architects and the engineers who designed world wonders such as Sigiriya where Western engineers (as well as Lankans who learn the Western model of engineering) are clueless as to how water flow was sent up to a high rock.
Among other potentials, one of the strongest points of the Ape Gama concept as this writer sees it is to resurrect the Gurukula system once again to be a training hub for children on diverse aspects of heritage as highlighted and detailed above throughout this article. In these times of pandemics, we need such knowledge to be especially related to the maintaining of health and immunity through traditional medicines and imparting a wide-scaled knowledge for children on their endemic herbs.
The knowledge of our indigenous medicine was imparted to everyone as Robert Knox observed in his memoirs. Training in traditional medicine that had put Sri Lanka on the map from the ancient most times of kings had received a significant importance in the Gurukula system. Today we have to keep in mind that strategising to build up a nation’s immunity and health go hand in hand with its economy and international positioning in the short and long term.
This pandemic time gives us the opportunity to take bold steps in our policy making and emulate countries such as Bhutan who came up with their own model of Gross National Happiness. With a concept such as Ape Gama we can mould a village development policy for ourselves where the village is positioned as a centre where innovation, nature, simplicity and economic activity go hand in hand. It should be reiterated that the village was the mother of all inventions – whatever that was needed for survival was invented in the village. Sri Lankans who built the world’s first hospital in the world in Mihintale were ancient villagers. Those who crafted the hospital surgical equipment (scores of them shaped like beaks of birds for specific purpose of operations) were educated in the Gurukula tradition and yes, they too were villagers.
It is lapse of Sri Lanka that we have not looked at each village as the epicentre of humane progress, of holistic advancement and as in the days of monarchy the representation of advanced science (that could make rough stone pulp to enable engraving and create ponds and carve palaces from sky high stone such as done in Sigiriya).
Thus, we have the potential to mould the village to be representative of our ancestors and their values and truly initiate both a training as well as research hub for retracing many of our lost heritage knowledge. Sri Lanka has many committed professionals in this regard who have spent years studying different branches of these themes.
What is our village to us?
Our village is the birthplace of all innovation. What we need we create. We do so with nature and without harming the natural world.
Our village is where we have an equilibrium between what we can create to sell to others so that we could buy what we need but we are not dominated by greed and mindlessness. Our village is a place that teaches us about life.
Our village is not a place which is of the distant past, it exists today and we create it and our values. We learn from it our indigenous principles of sustainability. Our Lankan village is a model to the world which can be emulated in any era.
Our village is not a sentimental myth which is a spectator’s novelty. Our village is the heart and soul of our tradition, of wellbeing and holding the spiritual ethic of the country.
Our village is the vein that connects our past with our present. In it exists our spiritual heritage, our medicinal legacy and our agrarian tradition.
Our village is not an isolated entity which is a prototype of poverty and backwardness. It is the opposite. It thrives as a hub where the world learns from Sri Lanka’s heritage knowledge whether it is our ancient Deshiya Chikitsa medical heritage or our vast knowledge in many areas that includes irrigation, ancient construction methods using rocks and clay respectively, artistry and craftsmanship.
Our village teaches the world by re-learning about our indigenous medicine Deshiya Chikitsa and bestows upon the world healing in uncertain times through the resurgence of an indigenous medical industry.
Our village is representative of what education should truly be and gives the world an example of the Gurukula system where students first learnt introspection, mindfulness, respect and gratitude to their teacher and then to create using the bounties of nature and with the creativity of their higher consciousness. It is the Gurukula system that bears testimony to the greatest artistic feats of Sri Lanka.
Our village represents Sri Lanka not as a mere exhibition point for a rustic experience but an experience that will change attitudes, ideology and lives forever. Our village brings the world together especially in this time of pandemics towards a whole new order of reflection missing today in a disjointed world.
Our village shows the world how we looked at sustainability and humane progress.
The national security could not be still assured until the people who led Zahran Hashim to carry out the sudden terror attacks are identified, former SDIG of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Ravi Seneviratne yesterday informed the PCoI probing Easter Sunday attacks.
Testifying before the Commission former SDIG Seneviratne said that Zahran’s initial plan was to carry out the attack in 2020 and suddenly he had decided to conduct the attack in April, 2019.
We have to identify the persons who were above Zahran and operated to conduct the attack. Until we investigate that part, this inquiry is incomplete,” he said.
Former SDIG said that the plan to carry out the attack in April, 2019 was Zahran’s own decision and due to that decision some members of National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ) had a conflict with Zahran. He said that Zahran Hashim was active from 2014 and he had initially decided about the conduct of terror attacks in 2017 or 2018.
Then in 2018 vandalizing Buddha statues in Mawanella took place. In that instance Zahran had advised one of the suspects of Mawanella case Mohommad Ibrahim Abdul Sadiq to damage at least one Buddha statue,” he said. He further added that according to the CID inquiry it had found that NTJ had 41 bank accounts and the funds received to those accounts via Ibrahim brothers who blasted themselves at Shangri-La and Cinnamon Grand hotels on April 21, 2019.
Former SDIG said that the CID had led extensive investigations into Zahran’s connection with a foreign organisation but it could not trace anything regarding to that organisation.
Commissioners then questioned about Zahran’s plan to have another baby in March, 2019 and he had consulted a doctor together with his wife.
Responding to a question the witness said that the CID had also inquired about it and found the doctor.
However, Commissioners said that according to Zahran’s wife’s evidence given before the Commission Zahran Hashim did not have a such plan to have another baby.
Meanwhile, former SDIG said that according to CID’s investigations the plan of NTJ was if any suicide bomber had failed to carry out the attack, that bomber had to go to a safe place and the place was a church in Colombo. (Yoshitha Perera)
Four more Covid-19 related deaths are reported in Sri Lanka, the Director-General of Health Services confirmed.
One of the victims is reportedly a 70-year-old female from Colombo 15 area. She has died upon admission to the Colombo National Hospital on Saturday (21). The cause of death has been cited as Covid-19 pneumonia.
A 53-year-old male from Colombo 12 area also succumbed to the virus after being admitted to the Colombo National Hospital on Friday (20). As per reports, he died of a chronic respiratory disease induced by Covid-19 infection.
Meanwhile, an 84-yeard old female from Borella area, fell victim to the virus on Saturday (21). Her cause of death was determined as Covid-19 pneumonia.
Another man, a 75-year-old from Colombo 10, died virus infection while receiving treatment at the ICU of Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH) earlier today (20). The patient was under medical care at the Colombo National Hospital before being transferred to the IDH. Reports revealed that he also died of Covid-19 pneumonia.
This development brings the total number of Covid-19 deaths recorded in the country to 87.
The Easter Sunday terror attack was a conspiracy launched by a powerful nation to spread extremism in the country, says Samagi Jana Balawega MP Rishad Bathiudeen.
The MP, who is currently under remand custody at the Welikada Prison, mentioned this yesterday (21), testifying before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry probing the 2019 Easter attacks.
The State Counsel on the Commission inquired the MP whether he had influenced any of the investigations on FETO, a banned organization in Turkey, conducting business in Sri Lanka, which had been halted after a revelation that 02 Sri Lankan Cabinet Ministers –one of them being MP Bathiudeen -being involved with the FETO members.
The parliamentarian, claiming that it was untrue, said that he has no affiliation with any individual or organization in Turkey and that he had not influenced the investigations.
The Commission then inquired the witness whether he was aware that a house belonging to his sister in Canada was being used as a safe house by suicide bombers. To which the MP replied saying that he was not aware of that fact and that got to know about this only after the attacks.
Responding a query, he added that he had never visited the house in question. The Commission then asked Bathiudeen whether his brother Riyaj Bathiudeen was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department at any point.
He replied, Yes, he was arrested in connection with the investigation into the Easter attack. It was reported through the media that Cinnamon Grand Attacker Insaf Ahmed had taken 07 phone calls to my brother. I do not know the exact dates. Somehow it was taken before the Easter attacks, in 2019.
I asked my brother why Insaf had called. He said it was to seek some relief with regard to the government suspending copper exports. I don’t know if that’s what they talked about on all seven occasions. But on all 07 occasions, Insaf had called my brother.”
The Commission pointed out that while Rishad Bathiudeen had previously testified that he had not helped out Insaf Ahamed to buy copper, it is noted that Ibrahim’s son’s company had been issued 25,000 kilos more copper than other companies. The Commission asked Bathiudeen, who had signed for the marriage of Insaf, whether he had indirectly supported Insaf.
Bathiudeen said, I totally reject that claim. I categorically say that I have not helped any of Ibrahim brothers.”
A judge in the Commission asked, You said you were in a war refugee camp for five years after the LTTE expelled you from the North. How did you come to politics and become so wealthy?”
To which Bathiudeen replied that he does not have to beg because he became a refugee and that he could do business.
In response, the Commission asked whether he used his privileges as a minister and the ministry to amass such wealth and develop his and his family’s businesses.
Bathiudeen replied, No, I have not used such privileges in any way to advance the business. I have been a Member of Parliament since 2001 and have made declarations of assets and liabilities every year.”
The Commission member question again, We are not saying you have committed fraud, but I’m asking how you got so much money after being war-displaced.”
MP Rishad Bathiudeen responded to the question with some emotion: There is no relation between assets and the Easter attacks. These questions are better suited for character assassination. Therefore, I ask you to investigate the Easter attacks.”
Fresh COVID-19 positive cases were identified in Sri Lanka as the total number of cases reported from the Minuwangoda and Peliyagoda clusters reached 16,427.
The Department of Government Information said 175 more persons were tested positive for the virus.
All the new cases are close contacts of the Peliyagoda Fish Market cluster, reports confirmed.
With the new development, Sri Lanka has confirmed 19,946 novel coronavirus infections to date.
According to the Health Ministry’s data, 14,069 of the confirmed patients have made complete recoveries from the virus.
The committee of experts appointed to examine methods for disposal of Covid-19 victims has requested the authorities to continue with cremation until their final report is submitted.
Director-General of Health Services Dr Asela Gunawardena said the committee had conveyed this to the Secretary of Health Ministry.
A committee of experts was appointed by the Health Ministry after the Muslim community raised concerns over cremation of Covid-19 victims, stressing that it is against the dictates of their faith.
The topic was also brought to the attention of the Cabinet of Ministers on several occasions.
However, the Cabinet decided to refer the matter back to the experts’ committee to look into the possibility of burying Covid-19 victims in a remote, dry area.
Last week, UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka, Ms Hanaa Singer wrote to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, reiterating the concerns of the United Nations with the existing Health Ministry guidelines, which stipulate cremation as the only method for the disposal of bodies suspected of COVID-19 infection.
In her letter, Singer had noted that the common assumption that people who died of a communicable disease should be cremated to prevent spread is not supported by evidence.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has issued an Extraordinary Gazette, establishing two new ministries – Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of Technology.
The gazette notification, dated November 20, elaborates the scope of functions and duties of the two new governmental agencies.
Thereby, the Public Security Ministry is tasked with ensuring public safety while maintaining law and order by creating an environment suitable for all citizens to live freely.
Four institutions namely Sri Lanka Police, Civil Security Department, National Police Academy and Department of Multipurpose Development Task Force will be assigned to this ministry.
The Technology Ministry will meanwhile establish digital governance services to effectively manage the health, education, welfare, public services and business sector.
According to the gazette notification, 10 institutions including the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL), Sri Lanka Standards Institution, Sri Lanka Telecom and Department for Registration of Persons are to be brought under the purview of the Technology Ministry.
Donald Trump continues to keep America and the
world guessing as to his next move which should be to concede victory to Joe
Biden. But he has not done so formally, though he is sending signals indicating that he is
willing to concede without, of course, taking any meaningful action to vacate
the White House. This appears to be a game he is playing for a tactical
reason: he is playing for time. Though Joe Biden won on the popular vote
by nearly seven million votes nothing is certain until the Electoral College
confirms his victory. On paper he has the votes of the Electoral College too.
But there is speculation as to whether the electors from rogue” Republican
states will vote for Biden at the Electoral College.
Despite all traditions and precedents binding the
electors of the states won by Biden to vote for him there is no guarantee that
they will do so in the coming Electoral College vote on December 14.
There are instances where electors have voted against the will of the people of
the state and voted for their favourites. In 2016,” states POLITICO (November 19),
seven electors ultimately broke their pledge to vote for who they said they
would support.Five electors voted for someone other than Hillary
Clinton despite Clinton carrying their states, while two abandoned Trump.” This
means that Trump still has a chance of overturning the will of the people if a
sufficient number of electors certified to vote for Biden at the Electoral
College turn against him and vote for Trump. Remember Trump lost the popular
vote and won in the Electoral College in 2016. According to David A. Bell of
POLITICO, election experts are still worried about the talk of legislatures
going rogue between Election Day (November 3) and the selection of Electoral
College electors.” (December 14). If, as speculated, the Republican rogue”
states gang up against Biden on the pretext of vote fraud, or some other
technicality, there is still a chance available for Trump to remain in the
White House. So why concede victory too early when there is still some hope,
though it is diminishing fast. And who cares if more Americans die as a result
of the obstructionist policy of Trump to prevent the new Biden administration
working out strategies for the Corona crisis. Corona-caused deaths have gone
beyond 250,000. What does it matter to Trump who dismisses it as only another
kind of flu?
Clearly, Trump is putting America through a meat
grinder. His ego-centric politics is tearing America apart. It is difficult to
find in living memory another rough and divisive passage in
American history like the post-2016 period. At the core of the American
apple is Trump wriggling and eating into its vitals like a revolting worm which
came from within the system. He is doing to America what pariah dogs on the run
do to lamp posts. He defines himself each time he opens his mouth and fills it
with lies. Each time he spits out his egregious hyperboles unsubstantiated by
facts or figures he drops deeper and deeper into Dante’s hell. He is fixated on
creating and living in the Napoleonic cult of greatness — a small man
with big ideas. He imagines that history began with him. In his statements he
tries to give the impression that nothing great has happened in American
history before his arrival at the White House. Nor has there been anyone in
history as great as him. Once, he made a concession to Abraham Lincoln but that
too was done grudgingly. He has dragged America to the depths of despair with
two devastating crises: 1. Corona pandemic and 2. the constitution. The most
notable part of his Presidency is in creating a cult of his own fathering a
following that is ready, willing and able to go along with all his
crudities.
He performs theatrically on the political stage as
the most popular public figure hero-worshipped by the millions. Considering the
figures he had scored in the last election he is not wrong either. It reveals
that there is an on-going love-hate relationship between him and America. Half
of America loves him and the other half is divided between hate and awe. He had
brazenly done what all other politicos had feared to do: he had unmasked
America and exposed the hidden face caked with liberal cosmetics. He has
revealed the fragility of the American democracy which can flip any time under
the demagoguery of a swaggering braggart bent on breaking the rules and
dismantling the institutions that safeguard the security and the democratic
values. Above all, he has proved that he can silence with one twitter
even the most respected Republicans who hated his guts in the beginning
and then fell in line like a herd of rhinos with thick skins impervious to the
rising threats to everything of value created and preserved by the mighty
American adventure.
He displays all the symptoms of an egomaniac riding
the populist path overdetermined by Trumpism — the new political cult rising
to shape the next generation of American policy-makers. It is putting deep
roots into the soil fertilized with hate politics. His aim, as declared by him,
is to make America great by putting America first — seemingly innocuous labels
marketed to disguise the hidden racist ideology of white supremacists.
Instead of the fiery, mob-manipulating, hate politics of Hitler he does it the
modern way with a consistent flow of Gobbelsian twitters. The only thing that
seems to stand in his way of becoming a Yankee Hitler is his Jewish
son-in-law, Jared Kushner – the man behind the historic move of making
Jerusalem the capital of the Jews.
His total indifference to the hundreds of thousands
of Corona virus victims is inhuman and unpardonable. Like the way he places
himself above the law he places himself over and above the universal laws of
physics and science. His delusional belief in his own power to force men,
events and the laws of nature obey his commands is a trait that is a
serious threat to planet earth lurching from one critical crisis to
another. There can’t be a bigger threat to the welfare and the future of
the world than a voodoo Frankenstein presiding over the mightiest nation on
earth. The consequences can be far-reaching and colossal as seen in the way he
has handled the Corona virus. He condemns his best experts like Dr. Fauci as idiots”
and disasters”. With his inhuman policy of presiding over the premature
deaths of 250,000 Corona victims he deserves to go down in the annals of
American history as the most obnoxious and notorious undertaker ever.
At least on basic humanitarian necessities it
was his moral duty to cooperate with the Biden team to alleviate the suffering
of the victims of the Corona virus. Trump’s vindictive politics is aimed at
obstructing and frustrating any Biden initiatives to succeed. In his last
days he is making desperate moves to tie down the Biden administration to his
dangerous policies in global and domestic affairs. Trump out of office
can be more dangerous than in office. A part of his tactic is to play the
role of victim whose victory was stolen by a rigged election. He knows that his
future is not going to be rosy with rows of legal cases awaiting his exit
from the White House. The evidence against him is overwhelming. His main
defence is to play the innocent victim of a corrupt, rigged system.
What is the legacy he is leaving behind? Take the
case of Israel. He is leaving legacy mined with explosives. His policy of
legalising the Jewish occupation of Palestinian lands in the West Bank is a
time-bomb placed under Biden’s chair. The 600,000 Jews in 142 West Bank
settlements in Palestinian land has been declared illegal by the global
community. Biden will go along making Jerusalem the capital of Israel. It
is accepted by the Christian voters of America. But legalising the land
occupied by the Jews is an issue that is going to burn the Middle East – and
perhaps the world – in the foreseeable future.
Above all, his decision not to abide by the
democratic will of the people is going to make him the ugliest American
in history books. For the moment he will survive because he is riding high on
the passions he has injected into the apathetic veins of the sleepy Americans.
Credit must be given to him for keeping the American nation awake 24/7
with his provocative twitters. He kept the nation alive and kicking on a
regular diet of lies. Not surprisingly the latest polls indicate that a
substantial percentage of voters believe that Trump lost because the election
was rigged.
What is happening in America is surreal. Only
a brash maverick like Trump could make it happen. He has validated the
rejection democracy as a fit form governance as first declared by Socrates and
Plato. They opted for philosopher kings”. The problem with that
theory is that there are enough Donald Trumps in the world who claim to be
philosopher kings”. In fact, philosopher Bertrand Russel blamed the
Platonic concept of philosopher kings” for breeding Hitlers and Stalins.
They presumed that they had the key to unlock the mysteries of history by
playing the messianic role of political saviours. Driven by their
ideologies they made the 20th century the cruellest age in
history.
Humanity has suffered untold miseries at the hands
of these fake messiahs – from Hitler and Stalin to Rohana Wijeweera and
Prabhakaran. What is unacceptable is the willingness of a section of humanity
to follow the Wijeweeras and Prabhakarans. A good example of this
is Prof. Jayadeva Uyangoda, who, for all intents and purposes, seems to be a
rational human being. After all he was an academic who held a chair in
the professoriate. He not only believed in the goodness of these brutal
messiahs but also theorised on their behalf to justify their obscene
violence. Once he returned from a fleeting meeting with Prabhakaran as if
he had seen the earthly manifestation of the heavenly Prince of Peace. Taking
Prof. Uyangoda and a Trump-follower as empirical evidence that demonstrates the
political mind-set of messianic devotees one is entitled to ask whether
there is any difference between the two?
If you look around the pundit class (synonymous, of
course, with the chattering class) you can find enough and more theorists who
pretend to be the panacea to complex and all intractable problems of the
nation. Take the case of Dayan Jayatilleka, another one of those pundits whose
theories are tailored mostly to advance his next career move. In his latest
outpouring he has blamed President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his model of
governance for the second wave of Corona virus.
After circumambulating around his pet hates,
including Sinhala-Buddhism, he concludes that the fight against Covid-19 isn’t going
well because of the unscientific or pseudo-scientific metaphysical
ideology through which the Rajapaksa regime sees everything. To him the end of
the world has come. It is the Corona Chernobyl. The holocaust. And Hiroshima
and Nagasaki — all rolled into one.
It is apparent that the hidden agenda behind his
attack is to target the Rajapaksa regime which has rejected him. It is partly a
personal attack on Gotabaya Rajapaksa and partly an attack on the Rajapaksa
model of governance. All his theoretical conclusions about the second wave is
to downgrade the Rajapaksa achievements which he had praised to the skies not
so long ago when he was with the Rajapaksas. He says: For this regime,
it is more important to believe in its model of governance, its system, than to
seek truth from facts” as was Deng Xiaoping’s motto. The regime does not see
the need to look at how the really successful countries have managed this and
learn from their strategies…” because it is an article of faith that Sri Lanka
under the present leadership is the really successful country”, and it is felt
to be more important than anything else to keep the faith in this postulate,
whatever the empirical evidence to the contrary. Nobody dares to contradict the
new model, still less learn from the strategies” of the really successful
countries”. In consequence, we may be running the risk of a Corona Chernobyl.
The current Sri Lankan
model is one which is derived a priori from a
sense of superiority stemming from a mix of having won the war (again, falsely
listed as the only or the first victory over terrorism, at least in the 21st century) and the
innate superiority of the Sinhala-Buddhist culture, civilization and way of
being. To question the results on the basis of evidence, i.e. the successes of
the model, acknowledge defeats and failures, and shift course” as Dr.
Ranan-Eliya urges, is to question the sacrosanct model itself and verges on
heresy and treason.”
This attack covers a whole
range of factors that characterise the Rajapaksa government. He is making use
of the Corona crisis purely to hang his political attack on it. His real
motive is to use the second wave as an excuse to run down the Rajapaksa
regime for acting without seeking the truth from facts”. By the way, I am not
citing Deng Xiao-ping to show off my familiarity with the founding fathers of
the Chinese Revolution because it is threadbare statement commonly used in
practically every civilization long before he was born. In any case, it is not
such a profound or original statement that needs the backing of a
distinguished authority. It would have had the same impact if he quoted Haramanis
Singho instead of Deng. Throwing in big names as authorities for trite
statements is a part of his style to show off that he is not one of those the
run-of-the-mill political scientists. Writing advertisement about himself to
enhance his image as a political scientist is also a common ploy of his to
impress his readers that he must be taken seriously and not treated as a
frivolous yes-man” hired to manufacture excuses to boost the political
fortunes of his new master.
Now that he has parked
himself in Sajith Premadasa’s camp he is doing just that :
struggling to manufacture excuses to boost his master’s fortunes. Both
are trying to politicise the COVID-19 wave to gain some political mileage. But
the more sensible and constructive approach to the Covid-19 crisis was
enunciated by Ruwan Wijewardene, the Deputy Leader of the UNP, who urged
all parties to unite to overcome the crisis. (Daily Mirror – 17/11). Now that
is a sign of a mature and responsible leader who genuinely cares for the
people.
The last thing that this nation needs is
another fake theorist who is singing for his supper
UK that occupied & ruled Sri Lanka from 1803 to 1972 (169 years) and unabashedly committed scores of human rights abuses, crimes against humanity, nowhere near to what the FCO will even dare put to paper, is annually issuing reports on human rights! Politically correct UK is today the home of all things the British, care to do without. Isn’t that what led to Brexit – now isolated & hated by even Europe! They said the sun never set on the British Empire, at the rate UK is going, the sun maybe issued a discrimination card for being colour insensitive! No human rights crimes can come anywhere to what the British committed – in Sri Lanka, they military ate breakfast watching natives being hung, the British sport in then Ceylon was to run after pregnant elephants and shoot them dead, punishment for natives was to throw their children to the crocodiles. No wonder the former colonial rulers do not wish to have their dirty crimes put out and are now secretly destroying colonial records. People will soiled hands have the audacity to preach without atoning for the sins committed over 500 years! If independent former colonies could sanction the countries that committed colonial crimes – UK would be in the wilderness along with all other former colonial countries! That fete is impossible because the former colonial powerhouses quickly put in place international entities that they continue to rule over, maintaining their supremacy.
UK has put 30 countries on its human rights priority list: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Burundi, Central African Republic, China, Colombia, North Korea, Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories, Libya, Maldives, Myanmar, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Yemen & Zimbabwe.
Ironically, many of these countries are former British colonies! Its baffling how Israel made it to the list considering the many times UK has vetoed UN resolutions against Israel! Its also baffling how Libya & South Sudan made it to the list – Libya was liberated from Gaddafi and every Libyan was promised life would be honky dory, while South Sudan was carved out of Sudan promising freedom and prosperity too!
The countries entering UK’s ‘areas of deterioration’ list not surprisingly are China & Russia. Countries are unlikely to make UK’s human rights blacklist if they allow Jehovah’s Witnesses to do as they like and turn all citizens into LGBT. With so many fact-finding missions demanding access across ‘targeted’ countries – while the access has been given through various arm-twisting, what are the ‘facts’ that have emerged and what have been the solution, is anyone’s guess with no answers!
Fancy UK should mentioning surveillance – didn’t the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights hearing arguments presented by Amnesty International, Liberty, Privacy International and other human rights organisations from four continents highlight the unlawfulness of the UK’s bulk surveillance practices.
Research by CCTV.co.uk concludes that in London there is now 1 CCTV Camera for every 13 people, meaning there are now 691,000 CCTV Cameras in London. The average Londoner is caught on CCTV 300 times a day.London’s CCTV is a mixture of government surveillance, business security, and private home cctv systems owned by individuals. Inspite, of all the cameras UK police recorded 5.8 million crimes in England and Wales in the 12-month period to year ending June 2020.
Before wagging any human rights violation cards at countries, why don’t UK’s human rights minister look at the manner Julian Assange is being treated. This is what UN special rapporteur on torture & other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment – Nils Melzer said Unless the UK urgently changes course and alleviates his inhumane situation, Mr. Assange’s continued exposure to arbitrariness and abuse may soon end up costing his life,”The prestigious LANCET group of 60 medical doctors also wrote to the UK Home Secretary to express our serious concerns about the physical and mental health of Julian Assange having documented a history of denial of access to health care and prolonged psychological torture. They did not even receive a response from the UK Home Secretary. There are enough and more campaigns for Assange’s release, all falling on deaf UK Govt ears!
Just because UK Govt issues human rights reports, anyone linked to terrorism cannot be released even if they are a high profile lawyer! UK may well like to look into the legality of the UNHRC Resolutions against Sri Lanka as well as the LTTE fronts operating in the UK – Sri Lanka can well handle the LTTE issues in Sri Lanka. We have not had a single bomb or LTTE suicide mission since the end of LTTE in May 2009. The Islamic terrorist attacks as the Presidential Commission on the Easter Sunday mass murder shows, the utter negligence & incompetence of the government that the West and India helped to bring to power in January 2015 for watching a mass murder take place, even when clues and warnings were given prior to the attack.
Before referring to military appointments to government roles, the UK may like to explain why UK judges blocked war crimes prosecution against Tony Blair for UK’s role in Iraq war.
While the UK report is whining about delaying parliamentary elections because of covid-19, UK should really explain why it kept mum on Yahapalana govt’s postponement of provincial council elections indefinitely! Where were the reports against the previous government?
Sri Lanka’s covid-response headed by the President, complimented by the health services, armed forces, police and intel agencies ensured that until October 2020 – Sri Lanka had just 13 deaths. Sri Lanka was featured as no.2 world-wide in the effort to combat and respond to covid. UK has 1.4milion covid cases and 54,286 deaths as of 21 Nov 2020.In UK not only are Muslims struggling to find burial plots, but they are even unable to bury their dead in the stipulated time frames. Lord Ahamed may like to find out why Muslims have a higher covid death rate in UK!
In Sri Lanka, Muslims have special marriage and divorce rights, while the majority Sinhalese and Tamils can marry & have one spouse, Muslims have multiple and thereby enjoying special state privileges, they also have special banking and food laws – all new cultural trends, and they have no issues about constructing their places of worship anywhere they like – how many countries afford such rights to minorities.
Sri Lanka’s majority does not have special marriage, divorce, banking or food laws!
The decision of covid cremations rests with the sovereign government elected by the people. UK appointed Trevor Phillips whom British Muslim opposed to investigate into how black & minority ethnic communities bore the brunt of covid cases. Labor MP Yasmi Qureshi tweeted: Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi tweeted: To appoint Trevor Phillips, who has boasted about being labelled as an ‘Islamophobe’ undermines the integrity and credibility of the review.” Over in Sri Lanka inspite of many objections from even the Maha Sangha the present President opted to appoint a Muslim as Sri Lanka’s Justice Minister.
Sri Lanka is no longer a colony of the UK. The British are well advised to remember this.
It would be better for Britain to first account for its colonial crimes committed. Except for 22 countries, the British Empire ruled the world. That rule was nothing rose for the natives – bloodshed, mass murder, scorched earth policies, orders to kill everything that moved including babies are nothing that Britain can walk away from and pretend to be righteous.
We hope Lord Ahmed issues a warning to France’s Macron too!
The
main focus of the budget speech of the prime minister for 2021 has reported
that the reduction of the budget deficit, and creating a production economy in
the country. The idea has been written
in my articles during the past several years as I observed that macroeconomic
issues have been less concentrated by the government since the 1990s. The world
bank had developed and stressed policy correction as a vital policy direction
for reviving economies. The world bank advice was practically result-oriented,
and many developed countries followed the advice and achieved quick results
during the last decade of the 19oo century and the first decade of 2000. Sri
Lanka was the country where adapted radical market economic policies in the
late 1970s, however, the country achieved less economic outcomes from the
market policies compared to many Asia-Pacific countries as the policies have
been implemented without disciplines and clear targets for achieving the
economic strength of the country.
In
this effort, it shouldn’t forget that a successful solution to macroeconomic
problems could not be given by ignoring microeconomic issues. For example, if
it takes a jungle, which has systems of different kinds of plants, the problems
of plants in the jungle as a whole could solve only if it provides solutions to
individual trees or plants in the system. This is the fundamental idea that the
government should understand when policy directions are made on macroeconomic
issues. If we look at the world economy after the cold war developed countries
were efficiently done was while making microeconomic reforms they concentrated
on macroeconomic problems, and it was successful. For example, many developed
countries solved problems of public enterprises by privatizing a large portion
of enterprises holding the control of firms and saved a significant volume of
budget expenditures to retire budget deficits and public debt. This should be a fundamental step to reduce
the budget deficit.
Sri
Lanka has tremendous microeconomic problems in various firms, it is not only in
public investment programs but also in privately owned firms that are concerned
about the many issues such as productivity, excess labor, and various problems. Reforming public and private enterprises would
be the best solution for strengthening the macroeconomy that is involved in
issues such as government budget deficit, public debt, unemployment, trade-related
problems, and many others. When the
problems of individual trees are solved the entire jungle would be quality,
productive, and give high value to the economy. However, the initial policy of
Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna was not supported to sell public assets overseas
and the same idea expressed by the president expressed addressing the public
recently, it is a good policy, and some local investors are willing to invest
for gaining the ownership of public enterprises. If public enterprises are reformed to higher
returns to shareholders local people ready to invest in shares of public
enterprises and prop up the stock market and job opportunities in the country.
It
is an alternative to selling assets overseas and getting the private sector for
the better management of enterprises. In
the current dynamic environment, public enterprises need to invest more funds
for innovation, technology, and managerial changes, but the owner government
has no funds to allocate such purposes and needs to give the responsibility to
the private sector to manage public enterprises. It will not harm the policy of
the government.
Although
the budget speech of the prime minister focused on the two major macroeconomic
problems, many other issues such as population, unemployment, higher interest
rate, foreign and local debt, and many other problems are associated with the
macroeconomy in the country. Many
macroeconomic issues are associated together with the ideas of the vicious
circle of poverty, and investment is the breaker of macroeconomic problems that
are circled with problems. Mr.Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the president of Sri Lanka
expressed while presenting credentials by the new Chinese Ambassador to Sri
Lanka, Mr. Qi Zenhong that Sri Lanka needs investment instead of further
borrowing in its development drive. My
personal view is China can make a massive investment in Sri Lanka at less risk
and take back profits or reinvesting profits in other fields.
Sri
Lanka wants to stop migrating its labor overseas and investing them in the
country to keep happy people. It will
help to reduce the government’s massive spending on foreign relations and
integrating the culture for development purposes.
The
motives or direction of the prime minister should be treated as excellent
purposes of the budget, opposition politics may not comprehend the motives of
the budget and reported that many irrelevant points raised. They are like
beggars with destitute wounds with an entirely single purpose to gain an
advantage out of the economic problems.
I read a news item that Ms. Diana Gamage wants to grow cannabis and
export them when there are many opportunities for export developments. The opposition politics are so stupids and
Sri Lanka is not an immoral country with desperation for engaging in black
economic activities.
Since
the Korean War in the 1950s, Sri Lanka followed the deficit budget system to
increase the aggregate demand of the country.
There is no doubt that aggregate demand may have increased with the support
of an increasing population. The
negative impact of the deficit budget was enlarging taxes and borrowing. Many developed countries used similar types
of fiscal strategies, the difference between Sri Lanka and developed countries was
that developed countries had a clear plan to reduce the budget deficit, Sri
Lanka has been blindly hanged in the budget deficit without considering
effective methods to reduce the deficit with fiscal strategies.
The
major strategy to reduce the budget deficit is creating a production economy in
the country. It is a very good strategy, however, the negative impact on the
tourism industry and foreign employment by the COVID 19 crisis directs that the
contribution from the agricultural and industrial sectors need to be massively
increased then only Sri Lanka can drive to a production economy. However, the recent statement of the EU on
the restriction of imports showed that Europe is against creating a production
economy and Sri Lanka doesn’t want to respect such self-centered policies. The
experience of Asian countries such as Japan, China, Korea, and India indicate
that they did not hesitate to reject the self-centered policies of other
countries.
The
production economy could be achieved only if the country attracts more investment
for the agriculture and industrial sectors.
There has been a trend in expanding the service sector in developed
countries after the cold war, the COVID crisis showed that the economy is
depending heavily on services would not be helpful always because a crisis in
the world may change the economy quickly affecting the service sector, and
balanced growth is the best policy direction.
Sri
Lanka cannot ignore economic fundamentals and since the 1990s it has been
persistent with popular trends ignoring fundamental problems. The message is that the budget always needs
to focus on reducing the burdens of macroeconomic issues while reforming the
microeconomic problems in individual institutions.
It was obvious not a year that made for pomp and pageantry, even if that was the desire. All issues have been either framed or impacted by Covid19. In any case, he’s not, for example, a Mahinda Rajapaksa. Covid19 of course was so sobering that the contrast was lost. No-frills is good but presidents are not elected to be less or more showy than their predecessors. It’s about manifestos, mandates and delivery. Delivery ran into the Covid19 wall, but this doesn’t mean that it should not be assessed.
Since the country, like the world, has been Covid19-driven, the response needs to be evaluated. One would think.
The Opposition says ‘fail’ and that’s laughable. The worthies in the Opposition ruled the country for 5 years. They brought in a constitutional amendment violating all established procedures and even giving the Supreme Court the proverbial finger. They created kangaroo courts to hound political opponents: hundreds of cases, not a single conviction at the end of five years. If special procedures and institutions were required to circumvent flaws in the judicial system then the architects should have addressed systemic flaws. Failed (even as the ‘kangaroo courts’ functioned) to do so. Failed.
Easter Sunday attacks. Need we say more? A clueless duo at the top of the roost who set new standards for incompetence on all counts. Need we say more? Failed. That was a period when the notion of ‘failed state’ would have been an eminently appropriate descriptive. As predictable, once their pals took over governance reins, they dropped that nomenclature, brushing off the dust for re-use only when they realized that their pals were about to be ousted. And now they have to maintain the lie.
They’ve made some short videos, probably to convince funders that they are still relevant. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu has talked of militarization, authoritarianism and majoritarianism. He’s mentioned presidential task forces and the appointment of former military chiefs to key positions (in these and in other institutions). He believes some human rights organizations are practicing self-censorship (maybe they have nothing to say/market these days). He whines that their activities are being scrutinized and are being asked about how they spend their money. Well, should they remain unaccountable? We do know that these NGO lords and ladies insisted that their organizations be left out of RTI purview. For a reason. Obviously.
Saravanamuttu also says that the 20th Amendment took us back to the situation in 1978. He has not uttered one word about all the flaws of the 19th, the tinkering associated with it and the confusion regarding executive power which in part facilitated the Easter Sunday attacks. What the 20th did they must bother these people most is removing the Constitutional Council, in which their brethren were members and therefore had a say in appointments to the so-called independent institutions. The CC facilitated the appointment of regime-loyalists to top posts, even violating basic principles of meritocracy in appointments to the Supreme Court. President Rajapaksa, in contrast, without the ‘plus’ of ‘civil society’ involvement, recommended the six senior most judges for promotion to the SC. The president hasn’t insisted that meritocracy should override all else in all spheres. He should.
Bhavani Fonseka talks about the period when parliament was dissolved and elections had been postponed. She’s upset that during this period the President called the shots. Well, it’s not as if at that time some NGO consortium could have been asked to run the country, surely? The Supreme Court was petitions, remember? The SC didn’t find anything wrong.
Ruki Fernando, just like her, has talked of human rights activists being intimidated. Vague claims. No substantiation except for mentioning a lawyer who is under detention. Neither dare mention the reason for detention: suspicion over involvement in Easter Sunday attacks. If a terrorist is a lawyer, journalist or wears some ‘ok’ garb, identity is drawn from dress and not the body it covers. That’s par for the course for these people. Hijaz Hisbullah has not been found guilty. The jury is out. However, one cannot blame a government for refusing to take chances. We saw what THAT policy did just 19 months ago. In the name of celebrating diversity (intent being to deliberately confuse ‘majority’ with ‘majoritarianism’ and ridicule, harass and put down Sinhala Buddhists) and championing freedoms, the yahapalana years saw the entire security apparatus being effectively dismantled.
They’ve developed a sudden love for vulnerable groups and this is a good thing. They are talking about fishermen, people in low income categories, garment workers etc. They are saying that Covid19 has made them more vulnerable. Yes, this is correct. It is however not a reflection of any pohottuwa-policy regime. They won’t say that though.
Then we have Jayadeva Uyangoda, who (unlike Saravanamuttu) says the 20th has given the president more powers than those vested in the office in 1978. No elaboration on this has been offered. The president has more power than those given by the 18th Amendment he says. Well, the 20th didn’t remove the term-limit imposed by the 19th. The passage of the 20th followed proper procedure. SC was petitioned. The Attorney General informed court that certain clauses would be amended at the committee stage (the 19th saw wholesale changes when even the British tradition, which yahapalanists love to refer to, allow only minor changes by the House of Lords), the SC objected to just one article and said it would require both a special majority in parliament (two-thirds) and a referendum. It was duly dropped.
Burial of Muslims who have died on account of Covid19 has been mentioned. There’s an issue here. Again, the government has erred on the side of caution. And that’s a good thing. As has been the case since February this year, decisions have been informed by health authorities and epidemiologists. State institutions and personnel have been tasked accordingly. They’ve worked 24/7. Politicians bragged about the efforts of containment, but not at any point were people told to drop their guard. They were told to follow protection protocols even after curfew was fully lifted.
The second wave was not unanticipated. We still don’t know enough about the behavior of the virus. However, there was a plan and it was executed. Quarantine centers were transformed into intermediate hospitals for asymptomatic patients (tested positive) and symptomatic parties were moved to hospitals. First contacts were asked to self-quarantine. Limited resources have been and are being used efficiently.
There have been complaints about privacy and about people being forcibly taken to quarantine centers. Privacy or death, that’s the issue. Angela Merkel said as much and Germany, as private a country as there is, went along. Those living in bubbles can complain. And it’s not as though anyone can be ‘private’ in the year 2021; certainly not most of the whiners who’ve willingly given enough ‘private data’ when they use credit cards, apple phones, use PickMe or Uber, order food, do their keyboard-‘warrioring’ on social media etc.
Were people herded into quarantine centers? They were certainly not allowed to say ‘no’. The relevant authorities moved and moved fast. Had they not, then containment would have been a problem hundreds of times worse. Again, it’s good that an NGO consortium wasn’t mandated to handle the situation.
So. Gota after a year. No frills. Has he turned Sri Lanka into a country that has reached its full potential? No. Close to it? No. On the road to it? No. There’s a lot to be done. Right now, there’s a need to control the Covid19 situation without compromising the economy. There’s a need to protect the most vulnerable sections of the population. There’s a need to move from aid-dependency to domestic production. There’s a need for development banks to be set up. There’s a need to set up a cooperative bank (which the People’s Bank was supposed to be!). There’s a need for a new constitution which resolves once and for all the big question of what kind of governance structure suits us best: presidential or parliament-driven.
There’s a lot being done without fanfare. Perhaps there’s a big communications-gap. No-frills is nice. No communication is not. Are the people happy? I don’t think so. The Covid-19 situation and all the restrictions have not made for roaring laughter. Does it mean they want the yahapalana failures back in the saddle. Highly unlikely.
It’s too early to say ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ but that day will come. Right now it is absolutely laughable to say ‘fail,’ and hilarious when rank failures make this claim.
