Courtesy Adaderana

Six new confirmed cases of Coronavirus have been reported increasing the total to 771 positive cases in the country, the Ministry of Health said.

As of 11.30 p.m. on Tuesday (05), a total of 549 patients are currently under medical care for COVID-19 while the number of recoveries in Sri Lanka has risen to 213, the Epidemiology Unit of the ministry said.

The ninth fatality due to the virus in the country was reported on Tuesday. 

N.A de S. Amaratunga Courtesy The Island

It is necessary to place Ayurveda in its correct perspective in the context of COVID. In this regard one cannot do justice to traditional medicine without reference to the development of early science and medicine. Ayurveda, ‘Sinhala Vedakama’ and other similar traditional medicine are scientific in the broad sense of the word. From early times up to the present there was only one science for there is only one nature to explore and one sensory system to do that. The science that developed in ancient civilizations in Mesopotamia, China, India and Arabia was similar in the areas of study and the methods employed. If one disregards the mystic and superstitious aspects, it is seen that the method was based on observation, experiment, and deduction which is what present day scientists basically do. Ancient man was bewildered and fearful of his environment particularly of disease and experimented with various remedies. This happened in all ancient civilizations which were geographically far apart and therefore it was an independent activity in each country driven by the mystery of nature and the inquiring mind of the human being.

Traditional medicine developed in China, India and Arabia and to some extent in Sri Lanka too. Ancient physicians developed remedies for different ailments depending mainly on experience. They wrote treatises on medicine and surgery and later this knowledge which was refined to a remarkable degree by the Arabian scientists traveled across to Europe which was lagging behind due to the ‘Dark Ages’, largely by the translation of the works into Spanish and Greek, a huge undertaking known as ‘The Great Greek Translation of the 12th Century’ which took place in Turin, Spain.

Thus traditional medicine including Ayurveda and ‘Sinhala Vedacama’ should be considered as precursors of today’s Western medicine rather than an entirely different entity. A good example that supports this idea is the fact that surgical techniques developed by the Indian Surgeon Sushrutha (600 BCE) are still being adopted by surgeons in the developed countries (nasal repair technique for example), and Sushrutha is considered the father of plastic surgery. His treatise on medicine ‘Sushrutha Samhitha’ is considered a comprehensive description of concepts and theories of causation of disease, classification of diseases, and their treatment and remains a major contribution to Ayurveda.

One may ask why early medicine in the East did not develop like in the West. The same fate that befell early science in these countries had befallen early medicine too. For instance science including medicine prospered in India during Buddhist era and declined with the decline of Buddhism. Sushrutha lived in Varanasi the centre of Indian Buddhism. Most of Indian science was absorbed by the developing science in Arab and eventually transmitted to Europe where it gained rapid advancement. Further, China until the 15th Century was far ahead of Europe but stagnated afterwards due to several reasons which have been extensively analyzed by Joseph Needham (1954).

The value of these ancient systems lies in the fact that the remedies are based on experience, or in other words empirical evidence. The Ayurvedic physician examines a patient and on the basis of clinical features that he has seen before arrives at a diagnosis and prescribes a treatment he knows works for that particular clinical picture. His theories of the cause, the disease process, how the remedy works may not stand up to modern scientific investigation. But we cannot, for that reason, throw the baby with the bath water because for some diseases their remedy works. These theories, remedies and medicines must be subjected to scientific inquiry and further developed forgetting hypocrisy and prejudices.

With regards to the claim that herbal and Ayurvedic preparations have a role in the treatment or prevention of COVID-19 there is no evidence either from clinical trials or laboratory studies that they have antiviral or immune boosting properties. Immunity is crucial in the fight against COVID as there is no antiviral drug or vaccine at present. Therefore the question is whether it is possible to improve the patient’s immune system. The concept of ‘boosting the immune system’, however, doesn’t seem to have scientific validity.

This is because the immune system is a system and not a single entity. It has several subsystems with two main divisions, the innate and the acquired and several mechanisms in each such as cellular and humoral. Vaccines induce the immune system to produce immunity against a specific foreign agent. While weakening of function in these subsystems due to disease and nutritional causes is possible, an improvement by an extraneous agent is not yet possible except by vaccination. To explain further, in a healthy person the cells responsible for immunity are produced in excess than required and there is no need to artificially increase their numbers. But in an immune-compromised person the system may be deficient, yet there is no agent-mediated mechanism to improve the immune system. Blood plasma from a person recovered from the infection may be used in patients who are fighting the infection hoping that antibodies may be present in the plasma to help the patient recover.

The nutritional factors and other health related measures like exercise may not, in effect, directly improve the compromised system but may help to overcome the disease condition that initially affected the immune system and thereby indirectly bring about an improvement of the immune system. Vitamin D for instance acts in symbiosis with T cells in the immune mechanism that kills viruses. A deficiency of vitamin D may weaken the immune system but an excess will not boost it.

It is the factors that affect general health that is important to maintain good immunity such as adequate nutrition, exercise, no smoking, alcohol in moderation, weight, stress control and very importantly adequate sleep. These factors have no ability in themselves to boost immunity but as good health is important for maintenance of immunity they have a role in the prevention and treatment of infections including COVID. Similarly diseases like diabetes which compromise immunity has to be controlled to ensure adequate immunity. Extra intake of micro-nutrients may not help but deficiency must be avoided. Herbs and plants may have these nutrients but so would a balanced diet.

The early practitioners of medicine knew about the antimicrobial properties of herbs and plants, for example turmeric, Kohomba, clove, cinnamon, thyme and cumin and these were used as disinfectants by our elders. Scientific proof of these effects is now available and in fact the potential of these as future antibiotic sources to fight antibiotic resistant bacteria is being explored, and there is hope that drugs may be extracted from these plants that may be effective even against the dangerous Methicillin resistant infections (International Journal of Molecular Sciences, June, 2017). But viruses are different and very few antiviral drugs are available and none against Corona. Therefore COVID could only be controlled by the measures presently adopted until a vaccine or an antiviral drug is available.

Courtesy Adaderana

Nineteen more persons are confirmed to have contracted the novel coronavirus, says the Ministry of Health.

Accordingly, the number of new coronavirus cases detected today (04) has climbed to 33, thus raising the total of coronavirus cases in the country to 751 cases.

549 active cases are currently under medical care at hospitals across the island.

Ten patients have been discharged from hospitals today after recovering completely bringing the total recoveries to 194.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka reported another death from the coronavirus, with a 72-year-old female, who previously suffered from kidney ailments, succumbing to the virus.

Thereby, Sri Lanka’s record of fatalities from COVID-19 stands at 8.

The recent article by Dr. Nihal Jayawickrema reconfirms the doubts many have that the Election Commission was up to mischief and committing a series of blunders. The situation requires the President and his legal advisors to promptly mitigate the crisis without allowing the President’s 2nd March proclamation to fall null & void by 2nd June whereby the Old Parliament would continue to exist. The Election Commission has no constitutional provision to declare 20 June as an Island wide election date. A constitutional crisis has not arisen; it has been created by the Election Commission.

NO ONE other than the President is empowered by Constitution to declare elections in Sri Lanka. It is a task that the President cannot even delegate to another.

Did President follow Article 70(5) – YES

The President issued a proclamation dissolving Parliament (2 Mar), fixing a date for elections (25Apr), setting nomination period (12-19Mar) and declared a date to summon new parliament not later than 3months from proclamation date (14May).

3 months from date of proclamation falls on 2nd June. The President is required to by constitution ensure a new Parliament is convened by 2nd June. If a new Parliament does not convene by 2nd June the President’s 2nd March proclamation falls null & void & the Old Parliament continues to exist. The President will then have to again dissolve Parliament and call for fresh elections. Without allowing this situation to arise, the President can declare a fresh election date as per Interpretation Ordinance.

A New Parliament must convene by LATEST 2nd June

The Constitution also has a restriction that Sri Lanka cannot function without a Parliament for 3 months. When the President by proclamation dissolved the Old Parliament on 2nd March and fixed date for elections and a new date for convening the new Parliament, it meant that by 2nd June LATEST the new Parliament had to convene.

In other words, no sooner the dates were announced, the task of the Election Commission was simply to conduct the elections.

Blunders of the Election Commission

Nowhere in the Parliamentary Elections Act 1981 does it give the Elections Commission to declare elections

Nowhere does it give the Election Commission to cancel the President’s proclamation which he did on 19 March.

24/3 Parliamentary Act does not give EC mandate to cancel an island wide election – he can only cancel an electoral district & when doing so he must give a fresh date for poll in that electoral district

Election Commission fumbled with dates – 19 March after cancelling entire election (which EC cannot do) he did not give a fresh date, but said he would give a date on 26th March, then EC issues a gazette that a date 14 days after 30 April would be given (which EC didn’t do),

On 20 April the EC declared elections for 20 June. In so doing, EC has usurped the powers vested in the President not vested in the Election Commission. Is 20 June election date, legally questionable?

The Election Commission was well aware that a new Parliament had to convene by 2nd Knowing this, why did the Election Commission declare 20 June as election date?

The 31st March letter to President, confirms the EC knew very well that Parliament had to convene by 1st June when he said elections could be held on 27 to 28 May. Question is why didn’t he plan to hold elections and instead write a letter again to the President the next day asking the President to seek advice of the Supreme Court?

With the Election Commission committing a blunder, what is the recourse action that the President can take?

As per Interpretation Ordinance, the President can amend, vary, rescind, revoke the Proclamation issued by him (Dr Nihal Jayawickrema)

This means the President is within his powers to before 2nd June declare a fresh date/dates for election and the Election Commission is bound to hold a free and fair election on the date/dates declared by the President.

According to Dr Nihal Jayawickrema the Election Commission has assumed upon itself the powers vested to the President via Constitution as well as amended Article 70(5) which only confers powers to the President and not to the Election Commission or to anyone else.

According to Dr Nihal Jayawickrema, the Elections Commission has only a limited power under 24(3) to change only the date of an election in an electoral district not the entire Island.

There was no ‘unforeseen emergency situation’ on 19th March that warranted the Election Commission to indefinitely postpone elections in an electoral district or presume he could cancel the island wide election declared by the President for 25 April.

This means Election Commission cannot use 24(3) and cancel island wide election date declared by the President and arbitrarily issue a date for election to the whole country. The Elections Commission simply does not have powers to declare elections for 20 June.

If Election Commission has usurped constitutional powers vested in ONLY the President, by declaring 20 June as election date for the whole island what is the legal implication and validity of this election?

Will this 20 June election result be constitutionally valid?

As per constitution when the President, dissolves Parliament and sets an election date and also declares when the new Parliament will reconvene, it means that within the 3-month window, elections must take place and the latest date for the new Parliament to convene is 2nd June.

If a New Parliament is not convened by 2nd June the proclamation of 2nd March by the President will have no effect in law.

This means if an election is not held and a new Parliament is not convened before 2nd June, the Old Parliament will remain in force and will not be considered dissolved.

Has the Election Commission purposely put the Country & the President in difficulty by its announcement of elections for 20 June instead of conducting elections as planned for 25 April or even holding elections 14 days after 30 April or even holding elections on 27 or 28 May which would still have given time for Parliament to convene by 2nd June?

The President must now take over as the Election Commission is not mandated to declare island wide election and the 20 Jun election would be constitutionally invalid, giving opportunity for many to petition the Court.

If Only the President is empowered to declare elections – then the President must set a new date/dates for Election and command the Election Commission to hold the election as he is bound by mandate to do.

Shenali D Waduge

The President in dissolving Parliament on 2^nd March & setting a new date for polls followed all the rules. Having set a date it was left to the Election Commission to conduct the polls. Yes, the country was facing a global pandemic. But the country also weathered 30 years of terrorism and continued to hold democratic elections whatever the odds. All of the constitutional hiccups could have been amicably addressed without having to be bickering over clauses and dates if political parties, politicians and even members of independent commissions were mature enough to arrive at a consensus. However, their actions show that none of them are interested in the citizen voters but simply to safeguard their political careers or satisfy those they are aligned to.

Rules followed by the President

• Gazette notification declaring Parliament dissolved ONLY AFTER the stipulated 4 ½ years as per 19a – Article 70(1)
• Gazette notification gave date for Islandwide elections (25 April)
• Gazette notification gave nomination period (Mar 12 t o 19)
• Gazette notification gave date for convening of New Parliament

All steps that the constitution required the President to abide by was done.

The next part was in the hands of the Election Commission

12 March – The Election Commission began accepting nominations

19 March – The Election Commission closed accepting nominations

19 March – The Election Commission postpones 25 April elections without announcing a date but says a new date will be announced on 26^th March after consultations with health services

20 March – The EC issues gazette 2167/12 Parliamentary Elections Act Section 24(1) paras a) and c) but not a) to d)

21 March – The EC issues gazette 2167/19 postponing 25^th April elections & declares a date 14 days after 30^th April will be given as new date for elections.

31 March – The EC writes to President stating that new Parliament should convene on 1^st June citing elections could be held on 27 or 28 May 2020

1 April – The EC writes to President to consult Supreme Court on new elections date

20 April – Election Commission gazettes notification 2172/3 notifying Parliamentary Elections to be held on 20th June 2020

Where did the Election Commission err?

• As per Section 24(3) of Parliamentary Elections Act of 1981 subsection 10 – does the EC have a mandate to cancel an island-wide election or only to cancel election in an electoral district? Did the EC have the mandate to cancel island wide election set by the President for 25 April?

• If EC can only cancel an electoral district, EC is by constitution also bound to declare a new date 14 days from the date he cancelled (19 Mar) as the new date for elections in that electoral district. Why did the EC not do this on 19 Mar? EC did not specify any date when he cancelled the 25^th April island wide election declared by the President

• If elections had to be held 14 days after the postponement date as per 24/3 of Parliamentary Elections Act – why didn’t EC give a fresh date when he postponed the elections on 19^th March? http://www.dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/No-General-Elections-on-April-25-EC/108-185323

• On 19^th March the EC at the press conference cancelling 25^th April elections says he will give a fresh date for polls on 26^th March but the EC didn’t and did not give a reason why the EC was not giving a fresh date on 26^th March. http://www.asiantribune.com/node/93497

• Even by 21^st March, the EC in its gazette does not give a date but says a date will be given 14 days after 30 April. The EC did not declare a date. However, again the question of ‘can EC give an island-wide date for an election arises’.

• Why did EC write to the President on 31 March claiming that Parliament has to convene on 1^st June and that elections could be held on 27 or 28 May but the very next day write another letter to the President asking him to seek advice of the Supreme Court?   

• If EC has mandate to declare island wide election, why should Section 10 of the Parliamentary Elections Act stipulate the EC with maximum 7 weeks from closing date of nominations to declare a new date?

• As per section 10 of Parliamentary Elections Act, the EC has to set a date not less than 5 weeks and not more than 7 weeks from closing date of nominations. If so, can EC set 20 June as election date?

• 8 April – President’s Secretary replying to the EC informs that it is the duty of the EC to announce fresh poll date. The Secretary also states that Consultative Jurisdiction (Article 29) does not apply and the President does not wish to interfere in the duties of the EC. The Secretary also highlights shortcomings in EC’s gazette notification of 20 Mar.  

• What is the explanation EC can offer for issuing gazette 2167/12 on 20 March citing only Section 24(1) sub paras (a) and (c) but omitting sub paras (b) and (d)

• 20 April the EC gazettes that elections will be held on 20 June but he does not explain how the EC arrived at this particular date.

The Challenges

• Parliament requires to convene 3 months from dissolution of Parliament – the date given by the President was 14 May, if elections were held on 25 April. With elections not held on 25 April and the EC declaring elections for 20 June, the date given by the President to convene Parliament cannot be met. The situation that has arisen is not the fault of the President.

• The 24/3 of Parliamentary Elections Act says ‘ANY DISTRICT’ this does not IMPLY ALL DISTRICTS” so it questions the mandate of the EC to cancel elections in ALL DISTRICTS as he did on 19^th March by cancelling 25^th April election date set by HE the President.

• COVID19 – 11^th March 1^st Sri Lankan patient confirmed/ 28 March 1^st death & 7^th death on 8^th April. On 19^th March – the day EC postponed elections indefinitely Sri Lanka had no COVID19 deaths and only 53 confirmed cases. By 8^th April Sri Lanka had 7 deaths 140 active cases and 42 recovered. The country was not facing a medical emergency.

• As per gazette dated March 2 announcing the dissolution, the new parliament had to meet within 90 days or before June 2 – that it is unable to, is not the fault of the President but the many hiccups by the Elections Commission.

• Section 24(3) States: Where due to any emergency or unforeseen circumstances the poll for the election in any electoral district cannot be taken on the day specified in the notice relating to the election published under subsection (1), the Commissioner may, by Order published in the Gazette, appoint another day for the taking of such poll, and such other day shall not be earlier than the fourteenth day after the publication of the Order in the Gazette”. This means EC cannot declare island-wide election using section 24/3 but he can use this provision to carry out a staggered election.

Can Sri Lanka have an election?

The most unusual scenario is that the ruling party wants an election but the Opposition doesn’t and is pulling every trick possible to delay the election. They can only do so till Aug 2020 when the 5-year term automatically becomes null & void. However, with the dissolution of Parliament on 2 March, the Old Parliament technically does not exist. Given that Sri Lanka’s COVID19 situation is well under control with no ICU patients, no patient in serious condition and the intel services confirming they have identified all community clusters and there has been no COVID19 death since 8^th April, with the likelihood that COVID19 is unlikely to disappear any time too soon, we may as well conclude the election without further ado.

During the height of terror where both LTTE and JVP threatened to kill anyone going to vote, Sri Lanka has held 5 Presidential Elections, 5 Parliamentary Elections, 7 Provincial Council Elections, 10 Local Government Elections from 1979 to 2009. The COVID19 situation may be somewhat different but Sri Lanka cannot simply not hold an election waiting in anticipation for COVID19 to completely finish.

The 19a has given more headaches for Sri Lanka than any merit. The contradictions and confusions abound leaving a can of worms open for controversial judgements and interpretations. Amended Article 41B(6) says Election Commission is not answerable to Parliament while Article 104B(3) says Election Commission is answerable to Parliament. In such a scenario, is it fair to subject the Country/People for erroneous acts of a supposed independent commission to an ‘interpretation’ if an issue is taken to courts?

The EC itself is full of controversy. The 3 members are eternally bickering. Some members are even taking internal issues to public domain. Are these behaviors accepted by Public Establishment Code? The 19a Article 104(1) requires all 3 members to be present for quorum but Article 104(1) a states that while Chairman presides all meetings in his absence another member can preside. Isn’t this contradiction Article 104(1) which says all 3 must be present for decisions to be legal which is further contradicted in Article 104(3)? We have to now wonder how many decisions of the EC is actually legal given the confusions in quorum!

The EC had to give a fresh date at the time of cancelling the President’s set election date (regardless of whether he had a mandate to only cancel an electoral district and not islandwide) – NOT DONE (President set date for 25^th April / EC cancelled this date on 19 March but did not issue fresh date)

The EC’s new election date had to be 14 days from the date gazette for elections – NOT DONE

The EC was bound to ensure that a new Parliament convened by 2^nd June by holding elections – NOT DONE

The EC on 19 March says a new date will be given on 26 March – NOT DONE

The EC gazette on 21^st March says a date 14 days from 30 April will be set for new polls date – NOT DONE

The EC is bound by Section 10 of Parliamentary Elections Act to set a date not less than 5 weeks and not more than 7 weeks from closing date of nominations (between 27 April and 14 May) – NOT DONE (nominations closed on 19 March – 7 weeks from 19 March is not 20 June which is date EC has fixed)

The EC did not declare an election date after cancelling 25^th April election date.

The EC did not declare a date 14 days from 25^th April

The EC did not declare a date 14 days from 30 April as assured in its gazette

The EC did not declare a date on 26^th March as assured during press conference on 19^th March

The EC did not follow rule of declaring date no less than 5 weeks and not more than 7 weeks from nominations closing date.

Without following any of the above, the EC announces 20 June as election date.

There is no requirement for any constitutional coup in a pandemic situation. Anyone who resorts to this avenue are simply doing so for their political advantage. With no conclusive end to COVID19, common sense should dictate that we cannot indefinitely postpone Parliamentary Elections.

The EC as shown above has messed up its role. But given that it has set a date, Elections must be held on 20 June. Political parties must refrain from childish endeavors to stall the elections. Their theatrics will not change election outcome. These dramas, if at all, are only reducing their chances of getting public approval.

One good outcome in the faux pas of the Election Commission & Political Parties is the increased public scrutiny of people in public roles and many are even reading the Constitution and making their own interpretations. These are all high points in any democracy where the sovereignty lies with the People and the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary are only acting on powers delegated to them by the People.

Shenali D Waduge

Ananda Wijesinghe Canada

Mother Nature Warns

            Incessantly destructive Human Activity, paying neither attention nor slightest regard for Mother Nature’s periodical deterrent warnings throughout a couple of millennia has now been responded to in her most relentless lash back, in what has been identified as an endemic: Corona Virus – aka CorVid-19, that has quickly plagued the entirety of the callous Mankind.

            Mother Nature did convey her protests time and again on the accumulation of unending misdemeanor and the destructive behavior of Mankind.  She had every right to do so, due to the endless devastations resorted to thanks to Mankind alone:

 *Didn’t she raise the Temperatures time and again?  She did

 *She raised the Sea Levels and created the Tsunamis. Didn’t she?

 *She did threaten with Earth Quakes, warning unmistakably and very frequently

 *Didn’t she Erupt Volcanoes time and again in hell-bent warning?  Yes: she did.

 *Wild Fires she ventured to set off caused inability for mankind to extinguish for many months spreading far and wide in many parts of human habitat.

 *Torrential Rains, Floods, Thunder-bolds, Storms, Hurricanes and devastating Draughts ….and many more warnings she made.

Industrial Disaster

                On the one hand, elements of never-ending fictitious scientific research, inventions, and production by power-hungry nations, for which continued exploitation and geological rape of Mother Nature has been executed regardless, in a multitude of chemical testing and technical erections, construction of factories, machinery, missiles, transport methodologies and a million other techniques resorted to, polluting rivers and streams in view of promotion of the economy, in an everlasting competition among the perpetrators. Here are a few destructions preferred against her: Just a few only: Needles to mention the mass production of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) against mankind itself in sheer competition:

                        *Mercilessly decapitated mountains for Gems, Gold, Metal, Coal etc. and constructions

                        *Polluted rivers and streams with poisonous and foul-smelling Industrial Waste

                        *Clear-cut millions of hectares of live forests for various human consumption practices

                        *Perished the Air with clouds of toxin, harmful chemical spray, and smoke, spacecraft, etc.

                        *Never ceased the greedy killing spree resorted to, sky-rocketing the virulent evil, causing even the extinction of some of Mother Nature’s Pets: the wild animals.

               On the other hand, Human activity, despite vehement and vociferous shout out from the top of the world its loud-sounding modern formulae – viz: the so-called Human Rights, continuously and callously disregarded the Right to Live, by mercilessly killing millions of Mother Nature’s beloved other sentient sector called Animals.  In this boundlessly falsifying, mercilessly wild and greedy Human Nature, humans resorted to kill and devour not-so-sapient wild animals, too, disregarding relevant norms of some religious prohibitions!   The evil continues unabated.

Enough is Enough

It is crystal clear that Mother Nature – the real scientific force viz-a-vis Man’s fictitious and regardless force has finally, come to a devastatingly stand where she seems to have realized the Human Nature and its incorrigible Activity as ‘enough is enough’.  She seems to look forward to ‘get rid of the incorrigible Human Part’ as soon as possible.  She is on the move this time, extremely forcefully, with one of her many biological creations, crowning as the latest of the series.  More to follow, if need be!

            The world did not know what to do when Mother Nature let go of some Tsunamis, time and again. There was no mercy, but they devoured millions of humans, lands, homes, property, and belongings.  But, her Pets – the sentient beings or wild animals who are still the perpetual victims of Man were saved indiscriminately.  Not a single Animal faced death.  Yet, the man did not know what to do next, despite Mother Nature showed the way.

            Then, she continued to re-iterate her warning cry by lashing out with Wild Fires, every year in succession. She set up an Annual Fire Season. Siberia was a devastating target.  California goes through her Fire Season every Summer. Western Canada does undergo pretty much of it year-in and year-out, inextinguishably spreading the year-round. Of course, Man certainly knew that Mother Nature was repeatedly telling something very important, but who cared!  The man simply did not care but pretended or preferred not to understand her loud and clear message.  They did not do anything.  They happily resumed the usual economic ventures, regardless of the pollution caused to Mother Nature, the wild animals, and the natural habitat. The man continued to exploit and consume nature’s resources, disregarding the devastating pollution caused to the environment. They simply did not care!  However this time with her CoVid-19, the warning came with an advanced bit of unprecedented, deadly force added to it, quickly covering the world as a whole. It is evident that Mother Nature considered it as ‘enough is enough’ and she appears to have decided to get rid of a fair portion of the untenable Mankind.

Environs Rejuvenate

            Surely, there is an absolute success in Mother Nature’s latest silent struggle.  There is a continuous lockdown on gatherings of humans, community groups, cutting down social events and merry-making and, shutting down pollution causing factories in every corner of the planet. Pollution causing waterways are being cleared and purified. The beautiful under-water animal kingdom recreates with new life. The Animal Kingdom has regained its right to live: thanks to Mother Nature’s grant of hard-earned Independence. Mother Earth and the Sky above her brighten with vitality and a healthy atmosphere free of pollution.  No aircraft, no missiles, no nuclear testing rockets, and explorer spacecraft that hitherto hid the Sun and the Moonlight falling on mother earth.  All are just grounded. Highways and byways are almost deserted: no vehicle gas emissions or deafening noise of vehicles experienced. City streets are clean and free of gas and smoke: hence, stars above are now visible to the naked eye. Man is being confined to their dwellings. The ‘pollution’ menace has completely disappeared.  Mother Nature should be enjoying her hard-earned vacation right now! Holiday mood could be seen everywhere with a rejuvenating environment.  All wild animals have already begun visiting the totally empty, abandoned City Streets, the world over.

Vulnerability Reigns

            Mother Nature has not forgotten to spare the newborn.  Those who are responsible to take care of the little ones, particularly below the middle age level, too, may survive, should they obey her rules of sanitation.  However, those above 50 – particularly the very elderly are at considerable risk and likely vulnerable.  Seniors already suffering a host of continuous ailments are most at risk.  Mother Nature seems to have considered their further suffering as unnecessary and it is time for them to say ‘good-bye’!

            In fact, she has been very fair: She urges all to be with their families for some time.  She also insists that we wash our hands many times with soap and/or sanitize, in order to keep away from contracting the virulent virus.  Close down those businesses that are not essential.  Trend and urge for traveling and touring be stopped forthwith and the merry-go-round of all nature should stop; she orders!

Indiscriminately Treatment 

            Mother Nature prompts that there is no justification in treating any country or nation as different from the other, be it rich or poor, large or small, powerful or innocent.  It does not matter what political system or ideology they belong to.  Just treat everyone alike, without discrimination.   She does not care about what religion they belong, or what language they speak: whether they are economically strong or technically and technologically vibrant or otherwise.  That is what Mother Nature tells us in her hour of threatening and warning. She insists that the world of humans forget their differences and emerge with corrective behavior in unison, without creating discrimination, killing her pets, or causing pollution.  She wishes that with the Covid-19 now in operation, Mankind would look back at its mistaken behavior and adopt a corrective pattern of life as warned.

Venture to Suggest

            Let us give Mother Nature as well as ourselves an unusual break, as never before…..!

            It is suggested that the world be shut-down for One Month, every year.  This month of April should be the best to start with.  Now, that the whole world is experimenting with continued shut-downs, it would be easy to adapt it universally to shut-down the world during the month of April, henceforth.  In fact, it should be the best month universally, as it is the month in which both hemispheres enjoy similar temperatures. The idea is not to take it in the form of a usual vacation as such, but observe the same corrective behaviors that the world is engaged in today, in this present month of April.  Let us re-live the present trends such as (but, not limit them to):

            *Abstain from killing any sentient being  (Animal) –  the pets of Mother Nature

            *Stop all operations that cause nasty pollution to the environment: never again rape Mother Nature

*Change the concept of Human Rights Slogan to be in par with Animal Rights, as they, too, cannot be denied their Right to Live.  Man will not be allowed to deny this right any further.

            *No traveling or touring the vicinity of the world at large

            *Everyone should confine to their homes, the whole month

            *No driving cars or riding bicycles

            *No touring in Buses, Trains or Air travel and Shipping tours or Canoeing in lakes, rivers or waterways.

            *Close all factories and workshops

            *No merry-making and partying outside home or with invitees or neighbours

            *Work from home where possible: others may get their vacation of leave (if any)

            *Prevail upon the United Nations to DELETE regulations on Human Rights  as

             At today and amend it suitably with Right to Live (All Sentient Beings included)

 UNHRC may change as UNCRL (United Nations Commission on Right to Live)

            These suggestions may not be easily digested by the world leaders, entrepreneur folks, and many factory owners the world over on the premise that their economy would breakdown.  Even state and other co-operate sectors may also not find solace in this type of shutting down an entire month from the year’s calendar of production and labour. There is no doubt that a bit of sacrifice is an essential feature in the context briefly laid down in this article in view of understanding the danger that Mankind may have to face again, since Mother Nature is in her path to eliminate the polluter and rapist from the face of the Earth, without further warning or soft-paddling the inherent, merciless Human Nature. Next possible thunder-bolt shall be a devastating last thrash and the world shall be completely rid of the incorrigible part. 

            Conclusively, in the next possible attack episode of Mother Nature, which would be much more severe, and if by some good fortune, Man may still survive her wrath, the economic impact the world may have to bear would be unimaginable.  But, if the world now considers remedial measure(s) for future guidance and safety in some form of averting/correcting the present human behavior against Mother Nature, the next generation may be in a position to face the music in a still better manner, with this experience.

            Human Nature’s behavior should change today for future survival.  It is a must…..!

Lankaweb Editorial

As they scramble for a cure or a vaccine to eliminate the COVID 19 the virus continues in its ever-changing perspective towards success the world watches on in eager anticipation as to who will get there first?
There are many pretenders towards it, many of them unqualified quacks
out to make a buck or for the cheap sensationalism of it all and thereby invoking the anxieties and expectations of many where the most famous and perhaps in a sense eerily unrealistic has been the exhortation of US President Trump to imbibe, inject and or ingest disinfectants into the human body, not only dangerous but suicidal and deplorable where the message seems to have been picked up by a few local individuals who have offered their own remedies making headlines in the media mostly tantamount to simple albeit ludicrous outbursts of health cures not to be taken seriously despite their very serious sounding presentations and the global search goes on.

 In all seriousness, it is a salient reality that while concerted efforts are being made towards finding the panacea in the various research laboratories around the world which will eventually emerge, it will not happen overnight and extreme caution and patience is needed especially in countries like Sri Lanka where panic and superstition go hand in hand and gullible people could be easily misled into accepting unauthorized remedies some of which are even broadcast on Facebook which at times could have dire repercussions and even be fatal and it is up to the authorities to monitor and quell the false propaganda towards keeping the country safe from the perils while advising the people of their futility and worthlessness which almost seems to be a bounden duty and hopefully, necessary action will be taken to prevent the spread of false propaganda mostly for personal gain it is presumed. The basic steps of self-distancing, self-isolation if necessary, hand hygiene, and all measures outlined by the Health Authorities need to be maintained where the ignorant need to be educated if necessary until that all-important cure arrives.

The Nation of Sri Lanka is in very good hands as her leadership has
proved during the tenure of the President and Prime Minister who have
taken all the necessary steps and more towards securing her safety and
the well being of her people during this worst-ever pandemic in the
annals of world history where previous ones have affected specific
parts of the world but never all of it as is the present situation and
subsequently, the timely actions of the administration have earned many
global accolades and has been ranked among the top 9 countries in the
a world towards this.

MEDIA RELEASE Mahinda Rajapaksa Prime Minister

The President, the government, and the state apparatus have focused their entire attention on combating Covid-19. The way in which the people have benefited from this is clearly apparent. Even in the midst of this national crisis and global disaster we see the unpleasant sight of the political opposition in this country vociferously demanding that the dissolved Parliament be reconvened and asserting that after the 30th of April, the President has no legal right to allocate funds for the maintenance of government services without the approval of the old parliament. They have even issued a threat to the effect that unless Parliament is reconvened, the President and all of us in the government-run the risk of the loss of our civic rights and the confiscation of our property.

Parliament was dissolved at the beginning of March when there were no Coronavirus patients in the country. After the first Coronavirus patient was found one and a half weeks later, the Elections Commission postponed the election till the 20th of June. The Elections Commission has already announced that the election could be postponed further depending on the advice of the medical authorities. The Elections Commission will hold the election at a suitable time in accordance with the powers vested in them. The opposition’s concern obviously is that if the election is held in a situation where the anti-Coronavirus campaign in Sri Lanka has shown much better results than in most other countries, they would be placed at a serious disadvantage. Hence we see that the opposition’s present efforts are aimed at getting the old Parliament reconvened and using their majority in Parliament to block government finances, thereby sabotaging the anti-Coronavirus campaign in order to bring the government into disrepute before the election.

Back in February, when there was no Coronavirus threat in the country, the opposition used their majority in Parliament to block payments to government suppliers of medicine and fertilizer so as to bring the new government into disrepute by creating a shortage of fertilizer and medicine in the country. The opposition argues that Article 150(3) of the Constitution allows the President to allocate funds for the running of government services at a time when Parliament has been dissolved only if the previous Parliament had not passed an Appropriation Act. They claim that the previous government had passed a Vote on Account up to the 30th of April and that therefore, after this date, the President has no authority to allocate funds for any purpose.

This is an absurd argument. Under Article 150(3) of the Constitution, the President has complete authority to allocate funds for any purpose for which funds had not been allocated by Parliament. It goes without saying that if Parliament has already allocated funds for a given purpose, there is no need for the President to intervene in the matter. The opposition also alleges that the President is not reconvening Parliament with the ulterior motive of misusing the funds coming in from abroad for the anti-Coronavirus campaign. They contend that Parliament should be reconvened to supervise how that money is spent. All funds received by the government go to the Treasury via the Central Bank system. There are procedures that have to be followed in spending this money. Funds in the Treasury cannot be spent in the manner that yahapalana ministers spent the money of the Central Cultural Fund.

After the new Parliament convenes. the opposition will have the opportunity to raise questions about how government money was spent between the time of the dissolution of the old Parliament and the convening of the new Parliament. Until then they should refrain from misleading the public with blatant lies. At this moment, we should set politics aside and concentrate on controlling the Coronavirus outbreak and restoring normalcy to the lives of the people. We all saw the magnitude of the Coronavirus cluster that had formed among Navy personnel due to their involvement in the anti-Coronavirus campaign. I wish them all a speedy recovery. This highlights the personal risks taken in the service of the people by our health sector workers, and Army, Navy, Air Force, and Police personnel at the forefront of the battle against the Coronavirus pandemic. I call upon all members of the public to extend their fullest cooperation to these heroic individuals to enable them to fulfill their duties effectively.

Mahinda Rajapaksa Prime Minister

මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනය මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය

ජනාධිපතිතුමාත්, ආණ්ඩුවත්, සමස්ත රාජ්‍ය යාන්ත්‍රනයත් තම සම්පූර්ණ අවධානය කොරෝනා මර්ධන ව්‍යාපාරය කෙරෙහි යොමු කර තිබෙන ආකාරයත්, ඉන් ජනතාවට ප්‍රතිඵල අත් වෙමින් පවතින ආකාරයත් කාටත් පෙනේ. මේ මහා ජාතික ආපදාව හා ලෝක ව්‍යසනය මධ්‍යයේ වුවත්, විසිරුවා හැර තිබෙන පරණ පාර්ලිමේන්තුව නැවත රැස් කළ යුතු බවත්, අප්‍රේල් 30 වෙනිදායින් පසු පැරණි පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ අනුමැතිය නොමැතිව ආණ්ඩුවට කොරෝනා මර්ධන ව්‍යාපෘතිය ඇතුලු රජයේ සේවාවන් පවත්වාගෙන යෑමට මුදල් වෙන්කිරීමට නෛතික බලයක් නැති බවත්, පරණ පාර්ලිමේන්තුව නැවත රැස් නොකොළොත්, ජනාධිපතිතුමා ඇතුලු ආණ්ඩු පාර්ශවයේ සිටින අපගේ ප්‍රජා අයිතිය නැති විය හැකි බවත්,  දේපළ රාජසන්තක විය හැකි බවත් තර්ජනය කරමින්, මේ රටේ දේශපාලන විපක්ෂය රණ්ඩු කරන ආකාරය අපි දකිමු.

මාර්තු මස මුලදී පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවා හරිනු ලැබුවේ ලංකාවේ එකම කොරෝනා රෝගියෙකුවත් නොසිටි අස්ථාවකය. ඊට සති එකහමාරකට පසු මුල්වරට රෝගියෙකු හමුවීම නිසා, මැතිවරණ කොමිසම විසින් ජුනි 20 වෙනිදා දක්වා මැතිවරණය කල් දමනු ලැබීය. සෞඛ්‍ය බලධාරීන්ගේ නිර්දේශ අනුව එම දිනයත් බොහෝ දුරට කල් යෑමට ඉඩ ඇති බව මැතිවරණ කොමිසම ප්‍රකාශ කොට ඇත. ස්වාධීන මැතිවරණ කොමිසමට හිමි බලතල අනුව සුදුසු අවස්ථාවක ඔවුන් මැතිවරණය පවත්වනු ඇත. ලංකාවේ කොරෝනා මර්ධන ව්‍යාපෘතිය ලෝකයේ බොහෝ රටවලට වඩා සාර්ථකත්වයක් පෙන්වා ඇති තත්වයක් යටතේ මැතිවරණයක් පවත්වනු ලැබුවහොත්, විපක්‍ෂයට අවාසිදායක වෙන නිසා, කෙසේ හෝ යලිත් පැරණි පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කැඳවාගෙන, ආණ්ඩුවේ මුදල් සැපයුම හිර කිරීම තුළින් කොරෝනා මර්ධන ව්‍යාපෘතිය කඩාකප්පල් කොට, මහා මැතිවරණයට පෙර ආණ්ඩුවේ ප්‍රතිරෑපය බිඳ දැමීම විපක්‍ෂයේ පරමාර්ථය වී ඇති බව පැහැදිලිය.

කොරෝනා උවදුර ඒමට පෙර පසුගිය පෙබරවාරි මාසයේදී මේ යහපාලන පක්‍ෂ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ ඔවුන්ට හිමි බහුතරය පාවිච්චි කොට ආණ්ඩුවේ පොහොර හා බෙහෙත් සැපයුම්කරුවන්ට මුදල් ගෙවීම වැලැක්වීම තුළින් රටේ පොහොර හා බෙහෙත් හිඟයක් ඇතිකොට අලුත් ආණ්ඩුව අපකීර්තියට පත් කිරීමට දැරූ උත්සාහය මුලු රටම දුටුවේය. දැන් ඔවුන් ඉදිරිපත් කරන තර්කය වෙන්නේ ආණ්ක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 150(3) වගන්තිය යටතේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවා හැරීමෙන් පසු ජනාධිපතිවරයාට රටේ සේවාවන් පවත්වාගෙන යෑමට මුදල් වැය කිරීමට බලය පවරා ඇත්තේ,  පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවා හැරීමට පෙර පැවති ආණ්ඩුව විසර්ජන පනත් කෙටුම්පතක් සම්මත නොකර තිබෙන අවස්ථාවක පමණක් බවයි. කලින් පැවති යහපාලන ආණ්ඩුව 2020 අප්‍රේල් 30 වෙනිදා දක්වා   අතුරු සම්මත  ගිණුමක් සම්මත කර තිබුණු නිසා, අප්‍රේල් 30 වෙනිදායින් පසු ජනාධිපතිවරයාට මුදල් වියදම් කිරීමට බලයක්  නැතැයි ඔවුන් තර්ක කරයි.

මෙය විකාර ස්වරූපී තර්කයකි. ව්‍යවස්තාවේ 150(3) වගන්තිය යටතේ,  පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවා හැරීමෙන් පසු ජනාධිපතිවරයාට  පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසින් මුදල් වෙන් කර නොමැති ඕනෑම කාරණයක් සඳහා මුදල් වෙන් කිරීමට බලයක් ඇත. අදාල කාරණය සඳහා පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසින් වෙන් කරන ලද මුදල් තිබේ නම් ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ මැදිහත් වීමක් අවශ්‍ය නොවන බව අමුතුවෙන් කිව යුතු නැත. ජනාධිපතිතුමා පරණ පාර්ලිමේන්තුව යළිත් කැඳවන්නේ නැත්තේ,  කොරෝනා මර්ධනයට පිටරටින් ලැබෙන මුදල් අවභාවිතා කිරීමට බව විපක්ෂය කරන තවත් චෝදනාවකි. ඒ මුදල් වියදම් වෙන ආකාරය ගැන අධීක්ෂණය කිරීමට පරණ පාර්ලිමේන්තුව යළිත් කැඳවිය යුතු බව ඔවුන් කියයි. ආණ්ඩුවට පිටරටින් ලැබෙන සියලුම මුදල් මහ බැංකුවේ අදාල පද්ධතිය හරහා මහා භාණ්ඩාගාරයට යයි. මේ මුදල් වියදම් කිරීමේ දී අනුගමනය කළ යුතු නිශ්චිත ක්‍රියා පටිපාටියක් ඇත. යහපාලන ඇමතිවරු  මධ්‍යම සංස්කෘතික අරමුදලේ  මුදල්  වැය කළ ආකාරයට මහා භාණ්ඩාගාරයේ මුදල් වැය කළ නොහැක.

අභිනව පාර්ලිමේන්තුව රැස්වූ පසු,  පරණ පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවා හරින ලද මොහොතේ සිට අලුත් පාර්ලිමේන්තුව රැස්වන අවස්ථාව දක්වා රජයේ මුදල් වැය වූ ආකාරය ගැන ප්‍රශ්න නැගීමට විපක්ෂයට අවස්ථාව ලැබෙනු ඇත. එතෙක් ඔවුන් ජනතාවට බොරු නොකියා සිටිය යුතුය. මේ අවස්ථාවේදී අපි මැතිවරණ හා දේශපාලනය ගැන කතා කිරීම සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම බැහැර කොට කොරෝනා වසංගතය පාලනය කිරීමටත්,  ජන ජීවිතය  සාමාන්‍ය තත්ත්වයට පත් කිරීමටත් අවධානය යොමු කළ යුතුය. කොරෝනා රෝගීන් සෙවීමේ මෙහෙයුමට එකතු වීම හේතුවෙන් නාවුක හමුදාවේ ඇති වූ කොරෝනා පොකුරේ තරම අපි කවුරුත් දුටුවෙමු. ඒ සියලු දෙනාටම ඉක්මන් සුවය මම ප්‍රාර්ථනා කරමි. අපේ සෞඛ්‍ය සේවකයන්, යුද, නාවුක, ගුවන් හමුදාව, පොලීසිය ඇතුලු මේ සටනේ පෙරමුණේම සිටින පිරිස් ජනතා සේවය වෙනුවෙන් මොන තරම් අවදානමක්  දරණවාද යන්න කාටත් පැහැදිලිවේ. මේ විරුවන්ට  ඔවුන්ගේ රාජකාරිය කිරීමට අපි කවුරුත්  උපරිම සහයෝගය දැක්විය යුතුය යන කාරණයත් මම මෙහිදී සිහිපත් කර සිටීමට කැමැත්තෙමි.

මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය

Dr. SARATH OBEYSEKERA 

I read the editorial of Divaina today during the wee hours and decided to pen my views. 

Part of the editorial which drew my attention is the proposal to repair the oil tanks in Trinco and put to service. 

I myself mooted a similar idea to be taken up with the Task Force with help from forward-thinking industrialists who love the country where we have to use not only tanks but also the whole of Trinco Harbour for parking ships oil tankers and oil rigs during lay-up times enforced by lack of worldwide trade and exploration of oil.

Finally, it may have opened the eyes of the Taskforce for development and we are invited to discuss the way forward.

The army cannot do this task on their own as the experienced Sri Lankan industrialists and experts who have worked worldwide can join the team to develop Trinco. talk farm and the Harbour basin.

We have a lot of stumbling blocks to overcome. 

We have a strict health regime to enforce a quarantine on ship crews on board ship and oil drill which deters them coming in Trinco Training Airforce flight paths over Trinco Harbour is also a problem as the height of oil rigs up to 80 m can be a hindrance.

Government has to devise a revolutionary non – conventional way to tackle these issues Hopefully head of Trinco Health Director can accept the proposal to use supply boats to transport them from ships to hotels in eastern province which are empty in and keep them for few months during lay-up period under quarantine. 

Oil companies will gladly pay a premium price for looking after the crew during lay-up times. Marble Beach in Trinco run by Airforce can be a seven-star resort to earn money!

Airforce helicopters can also earn money by transporting them as many oil rigs have helipads. 

This country with forward-thinking experienced industrialists can contribute to developing such schemes to go forward and convert the calamity into a dream. 

The problem could be that the bureaucrats who may object this proposal by claiming that this exercise may bring more Corona patients. 

Just like army airforce and Navy  have Lessons Learnt, we can overcome these problems. 

But we need a Task Master who can help The President to achieve this goal.

Our planned first meeting may give some light in these aspects. 

Quote 

Hayleys Energy Services Lanka (Pvt) Ltd – Providing Support Services for Oil & Gas Assets: Marine & Offshore Sector: Rig offloads, repairs, servicing, Lay-ups, Logistics & SCM, etc

Impacts on operations resulting in financial impact and FOREX earnings;

·         All imports of ship spares, good, equipment have halted

·         Customs Clearance on the above goods and delivery/transport of the above goods have ceased.

·         Garbage collection and disposal from the 02 Oil & Gas vessels on Lay-up at Hambantota is challenged with difficulties to obtain approval by the vendor from authorities

·         Crew Changes from both vessels have ceased and crew is staying over 03 weeks without change. No Sign on/off of crew

·         No orders from International companies to export stored tools/equipment from the Customs Bonded Warehouse for Oil & Gas Tools operated by Hayleys Energy Services in Sri Lanka as a hub

·         Planned repairs and servicing of the vessels have ceased

·         Planned FPSO moves from Hambantota Port to Trincomalee Port for a long term lay-up has been severely impacted, resulting in delays to provide FOREX earnings to SLPA. (plan sailing from 25th Mar, all preparation was impacted as no movement of the technical crew (foreign)

·         Oil & Gas Engineering Drafting BPO Center – due to holidays and no staff present, the Engineering Drafting Center is severely impacted without been able to function.

The above are high-level summarized points stemming from our current operations.

Unquote 

Dr. SARATH OBEYSEKERA 

Ex Oil and Gas Industry Professional 

ජයසුන්දර සහ තෙල් ටැංකි

ජනාධිපති ලේකම් ආචාර්ය පී.බී.ජයසුන්දර පසුගියදා සිය මසක වැටුප කොරෝනා අරමුදලට පරිත්‍යාග කළේය. ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවේ රාජ්‍ය සේවක ධුරාවලියේ ඉහළම තලයේ සිටින අංක 01 දරණ නිලධාරියා ජනාධිපති ලේකම්ය. මේ අනුව පී.බී.ජයසුන්දර සෙසු සියලූ‍ රාජ්‍ය සේවකයන්ගේ පරමාදර්ශී චරිතයය. ඔහු සිය මාසයක වැටුප ආණ්ඩුවට පරිත්‍යාග කරන්නේ කිසියම් පාඩමක් දෙනු පිණිස බව අපගේ වැටහීමය. මේ රටේ රාජ්‍ය සේවකයෝ පසළොස් ලක්ෂයක් සිටිති. මේ එක් රාජ්‍ය සේවකයකුට සිය මාසික වැටුපෙන් රුපියල් දහසක් මේ වෙලාවේදී ආණ්ඩුවට පරිත්‍යාග කළ හැකි නම් එමගින් රුපියල් 150,000,000ක් උපදී. (මෙය ආචාර්ය ජයසුන්දරගේ යෝජනාවක් නොව අපගේ යෝජනාවකි.) අපේ යෝජනාව අසන අය දුප්පත් රාජ්‍ය සේවකයා රුපියල් දාහක් දෙන්නේ කොහොමදැයි කියමින් හතර අතේ හෙන ඉල්ලන්නට පටන් ගන්නවා ඇත. මාසයක පමණ කාලයක් රාජ්‍ය සේවකයන් වැඩට ගොස් නැත. එහෙත් ඔවුන්ට මාසයක පඩිය ලැබී ඇත. ගතවූ මාසය තුළ ඔවුන්ට කිසිදු ගමන් වියදමක්ද නැත. අරක්කු බොන අයට අරක්කු වියදමද නැත. ලයිට් බිල්, වතුර බිල්, ටෙලිෆෝන් බිල්, කාර් ලීස්, බැංකු ණය වාරික ගෙවීම්ද හරි ආකාරව සිදුව නැත. ඒ නිසා පහළම ශේණියේ රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරියකුට වුව රුපියල් දාහක් පරිත්‍යාග කිරීමට බැරි නැත. දුම්රිය එන්ජින් ඩ‍්‍රයිවර් කෙනකුට නම් රුපියල් හාර පන්දහසක වුව පරිත්‍යාගයක් කළ හැක. ඒ පින්වත් මහත්වරු නොදුවන දුම්රිය ගැන කම්පා වෙමින් සිට රුපියල් ලක්ෂ එකහමාරකට වැඩි මාසික වැටුපක් ලබාගෙන ඇත. පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සිටින දෙසිය විසිපස්දෙනාටද පරිත්‍යාගශීලීන් බවට පත්විය හැක. ඔවුන්ගේ මාසික වේතනය රුපියල් ලක්ෂය ඉක්මවන අතර ඔවුන් අතරින් සමහරුනට ලැබෙන ආදායම සුවිශාලය. ආචාර්ය ජයසුන්දරගේ පඩි පරිත්‍යාගය හොඳ ආරම්භයකි. රටට කොරෝනාව හැදී තුන් මාසයක් පමණ ගතවී ඇති නමුදු කොරෝනා අරමුදල රුපියල් බිලියනයක් කරගන්නට තවමත් හැකිව නැත. පී.බී.ජයසුන්දර යනු දෘඩ රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරියෙකි. අප‍්‍රමාණ මූල්‍ය විනයක් ඇති හෙතෙම වැඩිපුර හිනා වීම සහ වැඩිපුර කතා කිරීම ප‍්‍රතික්ෂේප කරන අතර මහ මගදී මූණට මූණ හමුවුවද අහක බලාගෙන ගොස් අපගේ සිත් පාරා ඇත. එහෙත් මුවින් සිනා නොවුනද ආචාර්ය ජයසුන්දර හදවතින් සිනාවෙන කෙනකු බව ඔහුගේ පඩි පරිත්‍යාගයෙන් පෙනී යයි. 
 
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 අප දන්නා ඉතිහාසයේ මුල් වතාවට බොර තෙල් බැරලය ඩොලර් එකොළහට පහත බැස ඇත. යුරෝපයේ ශීත කාලයේදී තෙල් මිල ඉහළ යන නමුදු මෙවර එබන්දක් නොවූයේ කොරෝනාව නිසාය. සාමාන්‍යයෙන් වෙනත් ශීත කාල වලදී ඩොලර් හතලිහට පනහට නගින තෙල් බැරලය ඩොලර් එකොළහට බසින්නේ ලෝකයෙන් සියයට හැත්තෑ පහක්ම මේ මොහොතේදී වැඩ නොකර නිහඬව සිටීම නිසාය. මෙතැන් සිට අප කියන්නේ අඩුවූ තෙල් මිලෙන් ප‍්‍රයෝජනයක් ගන්නා හැටි ගැන අප තුළ ඇතිවන අදහසක්ය. 
 
 බි‍්‍රතාන්‍ය පාලකයන් විසින් අපට ලබාදුන් හොඳ දේවල් කීපයක් තිබේ. එයින් පළමුවැන්න මහා මාර්ග පද්ධතියයි. දෙවැන්න ඉංග‍්‍රීසි භාෂාවයි. තුන්වැන්න රාජ්‍ය පරිපාලන ක‍්‍රමයයි. අපගේ වැටහීමට අනුව ඔවුන් ලබාදුන් සිව්වැනි යහපත් දෙය ත‍්‍රිකුණාමලයේ තෙල් ටැංකි තොගයයි. බි‍්‍රතාන්‍ය අධිරාජ්‍යවාදියා 1924 – 1930 කාලය තුළදී තෙල් ටැංකි එකසිය එකක් ඉදි කළේය. ඝනකම් වානේ සහ තඹ තහඩු යොදාගෙන අක්කර අටසිය පනහක භූමියක් පුරා ඉදිකරන ලද මෙම සෑම තෙල් ටැංකියකටම ඛනිජ තෙල් ටොන් දොළොස් දහස බැගින් පිරවිය හැකිය. සාමාන්‍ය ගණන් හිලව් වලට අනුව නම් මේ තෙල් ටැංකි සියල්ලටම පිරවිය හැකි තෙල් ප‍්‍රමාණය ටොන් ලක්ෂ දොළහකි. බි‍්‍රතාන්‍ය අධිරාජ්‍යවාදියා ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාව තුළ මෙපමණ විශාල ආයෝජනයක් කළේ කවදා හෝ දවසක ලංකාව අත්හැර යාමට තමන්ට සිදුවෙතැයි කවදාවත් නොසිතූ හෙයිනි. එහෙත් 1948 දී ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවට නිදහස දීමත් සමගම ඔවුන්ට තෙල් ටැංකි තොගය අහිමි විය. ලංකාවේ තිබෙන මෙම විශාල දේපොළට අයත් තඹ තහඩු සහ වානේ තහඩු තොගය පවුම් කොටි ගණනක් වටින බැවින් ඒවා ගලවාගෙන කිසියම් රටකට විකිණිය යුතු බව 1949 දී එංගලන්ත පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී කතා බහට ලක්වූ නමුත් එයද කරගත නොහැකි විය. එයට හේතුව ලංකාවට නිදහස දීමත් සමගම බි‍්‍රතාන්‍යය ලංකාවේ කරන ලද සියලූ‍ම ඉදිකිරීම්ද ලංකාවේ දේපොළ බවට පත්වීමය. අපගේ යෝජනාව කෙටියෙන් කියමු. මේ තෙල් ටැංකි එකසිය එකෙන් කොටසක්වත් පිරිසිදු කර ගනිමු. ඉන්පසු කොහෙන් හෝ මුදලක් ණයට ගෙන ඩොලර් එකොළහේ මිලට බොරතෙල් ලබාගෙන මේ ටැංකි සියල්ල පුරවමු. ඉන්පසු මේ තෙල් ඛනිජ තෙල් සංස්ථාව හරහා ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා විදුලි බල මණ්ඩලයට පමණක් ලබාදෙමු. ආණ්ඩුව ලාබෙට තෙල් මිලට ගෙන මෙවැනි කටයුත්තක් කළොත් විපක්ෂයේ හැතිකරය කියනු ඇත්තේ ඞීසල් සහ පෙට‍්‍රල් මිල අඩු කරන ලෙසය. ඞීසල් සහ පෙට‍්‍රල් මිල අඩුකළ සෑම කාලයකදීම සාමාන්‍ය ජනතාවගේ ඉන්ධන පරිභෝජනය ඉහළ යයි. පාන් මිල කොතරම් අඩු කළද පාන් කෑ හැකි ප‍්‍රමාණය සීමිත බැවින් පාන් ඉල්ලූ‍ම අසීමිත ලෙස ඉහළ යන්නේ නැත. එහෙත් ඉන්ධන මිල අඩුවූ විට ගමන් බිමන් වලටත් ජෙනරේටර් කරකැවීමටත් කිසිදු සීමාවක් පැනවිය නොහැකි බැවින් තෙල් පරිභෝජනය ඉතා වේගයෙන් ඉහළ නගී. බොර තෙල් බැරලයක මිල බොන වතුර බැරලයක මිලටත් අඩුවෙන් පිහිටා ඇති මේ මොහොතේදී මේ රට එයින් ප‍්‍රයෝජනයක් ගත යුතුමය. අනෙක ඇමරිකාවේ, ප‍්‍රංශයේ සහ ජර්මනියේ හැර අන් කිසිදු රටක ත‍්‍රිකුණාමලයේ තරම් තෙල් ටැංකි තොගයක් නැත. අපේ අවසන් යෝජනාව මෙසේය. මේ තෙල් ටැංකි පිරිසිදු කර අලූ‍ත් වැඩියා කිරීම සඳහා ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා යුධ හමුදාවේ ඉංජිනේරු බලකායට භාර දෙමු.

Dr Sarath Obeysekera
CEO Walkers Colombo Shipyard
Colombo
Sri Lanka

By Dr Upul Wijayawardhana Courtesy The Island

“Where knowledge is sparse, experts proliferate” is, perhaps, the most important lesson I have learned during this troubled time we all are going through. At times, I wished Sir Tim Berners-Lee patented his invention – the World Wide Web – rather than gifting it to humanity. That would have prevented so many of my friends, and relatives, from forwarding many frivolous items, by e-mail and WhatsApp, as I am a Facebook shunner. Had they been obliged to pay, even the tiniest amount, they would have thought twice before forwarding most of these which, at best, are silly and, at worst, laden with darned lies. Had Sir Tim been selfish, he would have been a multi-billionaire, the richest man in the world, perhaps, and could then be a ‘philanthropist’, like some Americans, doling out millions to help the fight against the unseen-enemy. But that is another story.

Thanks to some friends, who have drafted me to their WhatsApp groups, I have been able to utilize the forced ‘free’ time available to do my own sociological study. I have been impressed, to my dismay, how gullible, even the most intelligent can be; how their interpretations are clouded by political affiliations, etc. It is very unfortunate, indeed, that they help in disseminating wrong information. Had Sir Tim patented ‘www’, I would not be spending so much time deleting these silly messages. Mind you, I need time to read and watch before I delete. Unfortunately, it is too late, by the time I realise that I have wasted time! It would, however, be ungrateful of me not to thank them, as well, for sending interesting items to lighten the boredom, which has become a universal problem.

There is absolutely no doubt that the Coronavirus causing COVID-19 is extremely dangerous; mostly because of the rapid spread, aided by extensive air travel of modern day. We are still not sure how killing it is, as death rates, from different countries, differ widely. Even if the mortality rate is not as high as with other recent epidemics, due to similar viruses, as it has infected over three million, all over the world, the total number of deaths would be high, even if the mortality rate was low. The SARS epidemic, of 2002/3, resulted in 8098 infections, with 774 deaths, the average mortality rate being around 11%, but nearly half of those over 60 died, unfortunately. So far, COVID-19 has killed more than 233,000. The current death rate, which works out to around 14%, is very likely to be a gross overestimate as in most countries, unlike in Sri Lanka, no active contact tracing is done and many who harbour the virus are not counted. For instance, in the UK, the current advice is for anyone with suggestive symptoms to self-isolate at home and contact the NHS, only if they develop problems, like breathlessness. There is no count of how many have done this!

It is very likely that, in many countries with rapid spread, the total number infected would rise exponentially, once extensive testing is done. Though the PCR test, done for diagnosis, is reasonably accurate, there are still no accurate antibody tests to diagnose past infection in those who had mild disease, or got the infection without any symptoms. In spite of the WHO cry ‘test, test, test’, accurate testing is hampered by the lack of validated tests. Some doctors have exploited people’s anxieties and a doctor in the UK made a killing with antibody tests. Dr Mark Ali set up website ‘New Harley Street Clinic’ and charged £375 for tests he got a private laboratory to do for £120. Fortunately, this COVIDIOT was exposed and he had to pay back a part of the millions he made!

Every day, we are shown graphs of deaths, in various countries, leading to unjustified conclusions being made. Some journalists, in the UK, are very keen to paint a bleak picture and try to portray the UK as having done worst in Europe so far. With the recent decision by the UK government to include out-of-hospital deaths as well, the UK now has more deaths than Spain, or Italy – the figure on 30th April being 26,771. In the USA, almost 64,000 have died, but the US population is five times that of the UK. Further, different countries collect data in different ways. Therefore, death rates should not be used for comparisons but only to gauge how the epidemic is progressing in that country. The UK has just turned the peak, as was announced on 30 April, by the Prime Minister at his first press briefing, following his near-death struggle with the virus, and it is to the credit of the government that the actions taken prevented overwhelming of the NHS. No patient was denied intensive care, or ventilatory support in the UK, whereas many other European countries struggled in providing appropriate care.

In spite of the recent spike, Sri Lanka can be very proud of the way the epidemic was handled. Of course, the international media have their favourites and will never give us the credit, even when we deserve. A few days ago, I read an interesting comment, from one our top ex-diplomats, Dr Palitha Kohona, “Why do only some countries like New Zealand, Israel and South Korea get the glittering international media headlines for managing the COVID-19 challenge, while Sri Lanka hardly gets a mention, despite its sterling performance”. Maybe, it is because Rajapaksa’s are doing it. After all, they are like Marmite, most love, some hate and Western Press are among the haters!

In fact, the recent spike in Sri Lanka is most likely due to the action of five COVIDIOTS, from the Suduwella area, who were drug users, and avoiding quarantine. Whether Naval officers, who got infected by trying to apprehend these drug addicts, did not take adequate precautions, remains to be established but the underlying problem was the anti-social behaviour of these idiots. In spite of the spike, there being no further deaths is very reassuring and a testament to the high quality of medical care that has been provided, during this grave emergency.

In response to my article “When experts disagree” (The Island, 23 April), Dr Sumedha Amarasekara has commented (COVID-19, experts and Ayuveda; The Island, 28 April) that I am no expert, in Ayurveda, and has stated “Ayurveda may not have infective theories that we can understand, through a set of western medicine glasses, but it certainly has the concepts of spread of disease, through contact, immunology and the concept of social distancing (Deyyange Leda) which, ironically, the developed world, where western medicine is being practiced, has trouble coming to terms with.” Though I am no expert in Ayurveda, I cannot comprehend Deyyange Leda being a reference to an infective aetiology, being more of a divine curse! Perhaps, we have outdone these gods; vaccinations introduced by Edward Jenner led to the elimination of small pox 40 years ago.

As most patients, who develop COVID-19, get cured with no treatment, many can claim cures but peddling unsubstantiated cures, in the midst of the most devastating epidemic of our time, is plain stupid! Or, for that matter, advancing implausible theories,the too, do great harm. Number of misguided fellows, in the UK, went round destroying 5G masts, as some COVIDIOT propounded the theory that the virus takes a ride on 5G waves!

A video, which has just started doing the rounds, is from a doctor who used to practice in the UK, who earned a name for himself by clarifying some aspects of Buddha Dhamma. He spoke sense but, like some others, got intoxicated with knowledge and claimed that he has attained Sotapanna. Maybe, from this exaltation, plus his medical knowledge, he has developed an insight into COVID-19. He opines that our immune system is damaged by wheat flour, genetically engineered to increase gluten levels, and local immunity of mucosal membranes are diminished by milk. He is confident that if we all give up using wheat flour and milk, the COVID-19 epidemic, in Sri Lanka, will be finished in two weeks. To make such claims, without any scientific backing is, to say the least, is very dangerous.

Having to battle a tiny virus, wreaking havoc, is bad enough but the attempts of those trying to be experts, COVIDIOTS, is even more dangerous!

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 cases count has soared to 718 as ten more persons tested positive for the virus, the Ministry of Health confirmed on Sunday (03).

In the meantime, twelve coronavirus patients were discharged from hospital after regaining health today. On that account, recoveries tally in the country has moved up to 184.

The Epidemiology Unit says, 527 active cases are currently under medical care at the IDH Hospital, Welikanda Base Hospital, Colombo East Base Hospital, Iranawila Hospital, Kattankudy Base Hospital, Navy Hospital and Homagama Base Hospital.

The death toll from COVID-19 in the country stands at 07.

Sri Lanka saw the highest daily surge in confirmed COVID-19 cases on April 27, with 65 new infections. The tally went up from 523 to 588 just within 24 hours.

Courtesy Adaderana

An individual linked to the 2019 Easter Sunday terror bombings has been arrested in Kalpitiya by the Police.

The suspect has been identified to be a trustee of an organization where Zahran Hashim, alleged ringleader behind the attacks, had conducted lectures.

https://youtu.be/cxdaMXC5HVA

Reportedly, the two sons of Mohamed Ibrahim had also conducted lectures at the organization.

The organization has been carried out in Asar Nagar in Madurankuliya.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) will be taking action to raid the organization, said Police Spokesman SP Jaliya Senaratne.

Courtesy Adaderana

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa says that Opposition’s efforts of reconvening the Parliament are aimed at using Parliamentary majority to block government finances, thereby sabotaging the anti-coronavirus campaign in order to bring the government into disrepute before the election.

He points out that, in February, when there was no coronavirus threat, the opposition used their Parliamentary majority to block payments to government suppliers of medicine and fertilizer so as to bring the new government into disrepute by creating a shortage of fertilizer and medicine in the country.

Premier Rajapaksa mentioned this issuing statement titled ‘Politicking in the midst of the Coronavirus Crisis’, today (03).

The Prime Minister assures that the President has complete authority to allocate funds for any purpose for which funds had not been allocated by Parliament under Article 150(3) of the Constitution.

Pointing out that one of the allegations of the opposition is that without the supervision of the Parliament, the government would misuse foreign funds allocated towards the anti-Coronavirus campaign, Rajapaksa stated that there are procedures to be followed in spending such funding.

He further said that the opposition will be able to raise questions on government expenditure with regard to the particular time period, once the new parliament convenes.

The full statement issued by the Prime Minister:

The President, the government and the state apparatus have focused their entire attention on combating Covid-19. The way in which the people have benefited from this, is clearly apparent. Even in the midst of this national crisis and global disaster we see the unpleasant sight of the political opposition in this country vociferously demanding that the dissolved Parliament be reconvened and asserting that after the 30th of April, the President has no legal right to allocate funds for the maintenance of government services without the approval of the old parliament. They have even issued a threat to the effect that unless Parliament is reconvened, the President and all of us in the government run the risk of the loss of our civic rights and the confiscation of our property. 

Parliament was dissolved at the beginning of March when there were no Coronavirus patients in the country. After the first Coronavirus patient was found one and a half weeks later, the Elections Commission postponed the election till the 20th of June. The Elections Commission has already announced that the election could be postponed further depending on the advice of the medical authorities. The Elections Commission will hold the election at a suitable time in accordance with the powers vested in them. The opposition’s concern obviously is that if the election is held in a situation where the anti-Coronavirus campaign in Sri Lanka has shown much better results than in most other countries, they would be placed at a serious disadvantage. Hence we see that the opposition’s present efforts are aimed at getting the old Parliament reconvened and using their majority in Parliament to block government finances, thereby sabotaging the anti-Coronavirus campaign in order to bring the government into disrepute before the election. 

Back in February, when there was no Coronavirus threat in the country, the opposition used their majority in Parliament to block payments to government suppliers of medicine and fertilizer so as to bring the new government into disrepute by creating a shortage of fertilizer and medicine in the country. The opposition argues that Article 150(3) of the Constitution allows the President to allocate funds for the running of government services at a time when Parliament has been dissolved only if the previous Parliament had not passed an Appropriation Act. They claim that the previous government had passed a Vote on Account up to the 30th of April and that therefore, after this date, the President has no authority to allocate funds for any purpose. 

This is an absurd argument. Under Article 150(3) of the Constitution, the President has complete authority to allocate funds for any purpose for which funds had not been allocated by Parliament. It goes without saying that if Parliament has already allocated funds for a given purpose, there is no need for the President to intervene in the matter. The opposition also alleges that the President is not reconvening Parliament with the ulterior motive of misusing the funds coming in from abroad for the anti-Coronavirus campaign. They contend that Parliament should be reconvened to supervise how that money is spent. All funds received by the government go to the Treasury via the Central Bank system. There are procedures that have to be followed in spending this money. Funds in the Treasury cannot be spent in the manner that yahapalana ministers spent the money of the Central Cultural Fund.

After the new Parliament convenes, the opposition will have the opportunity to raise questions about how government money was spent between the time of the dissolution of the old Parliament and the convening of the new Parliament. Until then they should refrain from misleading the public with blatant lies. At this moment, we should set politics aside and concentrate on controlling the Coronavirus outbreak and restoring normalcy to the lives of the people. We all saw the magnitude of the Coronavirus cluster that had formed among Navy personnel due to their involvement in the anti-Coronavirus campaign. I wish them all a speedy recovery. This highlights the personal risks taken in the service of the people by our health sector workers, and Army, Navy, Air Force, and Police personnel at the forefront of the battle against the Coronavirus pandemic. I call upon all members of the public to extend their fullest cooperation to these heroic individuals to enable them to fulfill their duties effectively.”

Courtesy Adaderana

Several areas of Beruwala and Kandy, previously declared isolated areas over COVID-19, are reopened for the public from today (03).

Pannila and Cheenakotuwa in Beruwala and Akrurana in Kandy were marked as isolated areas due to the high risk of COVID-19 infection.

No persons were allowed to enter or leave the aforementioned areas.

However, the isolation imposed on the areas has been lifted and the areas are reopened for the public, said the Commander of the Army Shavendra Silva.

Janaki Chandraratna

This comment is in reference to the recent calls to end the Covid 19 lockdown in Sri Lanka. I was surprised at such demands made on the govt. when the country is still grappling with the unprecedented world pandemic. In particular, this request is in spite of the fact that lockdown is the only solution demonstrated all over the world, that could be used to contain the virus, in the absence of a vaccine.

To put it mildly, it reflects an under-estimation of the virus and a disregard to major religious and cultural beliefs where the sanctity of life supersedes material economic gains. Balancing economic growth and controlling the spread of the virus are two main concerns of any government that faces the current pandemic. Towards this end the Sri Lankan govt. needs to be commended for the timely staggered release of lockdown procedures and the assistance given to the deprived sectors of the community to cushion Covid 19 impact, despite the depressed economy.

It is significant that this malign call, which has the support of the opposition parties, can be seen as a sinister move to undermine the govt.’s effort to control the virus, with a view to forcing the govt. to recall the dissolved parliament. The call to end lockdowns are also seen in countries with neo-liberal economies like the United States and the United Kingdom where the priority is for economic growth against social justice and welfare. In fact, this is the reason why the USA and UK were late in imposing lockdowns and have become today’s epicenters of the virus. As of 28 April 2020, the USA had reported 988,419 confirmed cases with 56,201 deaths. Corresponding numbers for Britain were 57,149 and 21,092 respectively. In comparison, Sri Lankan figures are 588 confirmed cases and 7 deaths, thanks to the vision and dedication of the govt., armed forces, and health professionals. I am certain Sri Lankans would not want to get rid of lockdowns and embrace economic development endangering human lives.

One reason for the latest spike of 60 new contacts on 26 April is for not adhering to the rule of social distancing, which is an alien concept to Sri Lankan social values. It is time that we Sri Lankans learn to adopt the recommended behaviors and mannerisms accepted in the rest of the world to combat the virus for the safety of our nation.

It is also time to seek new procedures for the scheduled parliamentary elections, as the numbers of confirmed cases are so low and nowhere close to that of South Korea, where an election was held at the peak of the virus spread. The use of electronic media, postal services for the propagation of election manifestoes, staggered voting on district basis, pre-organized assistance for the aged and other physically challenged persons to election booths, physical distancing, and hygiene procedures could be measures we need to adopt from South Korean experience. In fact, the non-use of expensive vast political party meetings characterized by unrest and intimidations, at times with murders would be a blessing for the country. We need to get rid of the affiliations we have to blue, green, red, purple, etc. and cast our valuable votes based on the credibility of the candidates and election manifestoes that reflect the respective party policies, programs/projects that are supported with proper financial analyses and practical timelines. There is nothing ‘unfair’ about this type of electioneering and in fact, Australians have very successfully run heir elections on these procedures for many years, so much so that the electors hardly ever see their candidates in person or at large election meetings. It is hoped these procedures would continue to be the new norm for future Sri Lankan elections.

Janaki Chandraratna

Rear Admiral ( Dr.) Sarath Weerasekera

It is observed that in Canada, on the occasion of Sinhalese and Tamil new year, the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, extended his exclusive good wishes to just the Tamils.

 There are more than three hundred thousand Sinhalese living in Canada and in contrast to his predecessors the Prime Minister deliberately ignored the Sinhalese and thought it fit to confine/focus his best wishes only to the Tamils.

The slighting of the Sinhalese by Trudeau is not an oversight because it is learnt that on previous occasions too he has in effect been advised to the contrary by the then Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Daniel Jean in this regard.

The Sinhalese in Canada have naturally learnt not to pay any heed to any type of “wishes” of Justin Trudeau mainly because they are aware that the majority of the Canadians do not approve of this type of discriminatory attitude of their Prime Minister .

Everyone knows why Justin Trudeau expresses his solidarity to Tamils in Canada. It is not due to a matter of any principal but simply because the Tamils have a strong voter base. The irony is that he has been apprised that the Tamils in Sri Lanka are fighting with the Sinhalese over the last few decades to realise their dream of  Tamil Homeland in the North of Sri Lanka. So he is very careful not to “antagonize” the Tamils in Canada by conveying his “wishes” to Sinhalese fearing that such an act would ultimately deprive him of Tamil votes in his next election. It explains his chronic allergy to the indigenous people in Sri Lanka, the Sinhalese.

 It is reiterated that the Sinhalese in Canada could not care less about any type of wishes extended or not by Trudeau. But being the Prime Minister of the country he should know that in actual fact the Tamils are not fighting with Sinhalese in Sri Lanka for a separate state.  Only the separatist elements, backed by terrorists, thrive for mono-ethnic, separate, racist Tamil State called Elam.

More than 50% of the Tamil population in Sri Lanka live peacefully amongst Sinhalese in the south. Decent and educated Tamils in any part of the world are not against Sinhalese.  Only the Tamils with separatist ideology hate the Sinhalese because for thousands of years they have fought and will fight even in future, to protect the unitary nature of their constitution.

Justin Trudeau should be aware that slighting the Sinhalese in Canada could only appease the separatist and not the decent Tamils in Canada.

As the  Head of a State, he should first study about Sri Lanka, the 2500 years of history of the Sinhalese, their rich heritage and culture and their advanced civilization reflected in some such as the unimaginably “modern” man-made tanks which are more like oceans.

When talking about reservoirs, it is prudent to mention that Canadian Engineers who built the Maduruoya Dam in Sri Lanka using the funds of the people of Canada (CIDA) in the 1980s had marvelled at the technology possessed by ancient Sinhalese because when they located the ideal site to build the sluice gate using the latest technology including laser equipment, a nearly 2000 old Bisokotuwa (sluice gate) had already been built there exactly at the same spot. So the people you are trying to sideline are descendants of them.

 The hospitality of Sinhalese is legendary.  Sinhalese are the only race in the world who greet people by clasping the hands together and with the greeting “Ayubowan”,  meaning “may you live long “. Incidentally everyone in the world, including Donald trump does that today, because of the very hygienic quality of this gesture, 

even though they may not yet be used to making the wish that the recipient “may live long”.

 As the leader of the country, Trudeau should take cognizance of all the national festivals of all ethnic groups living in his country. The Sinhalese and Tamil new year is not something of a fancy dress parade in which Trudeau delights, but everything to do with the movements of the planets and long-established traditions of which he seems to be fully ignorant.

The more Justin Trudeau cares to learn about the Sinhalese and their true nature, their culture and their civilization, I am sure, the more he would repent for slighting the Sinhalese in Canada over their main festival.

For sure, the lure of Canada is its beautiful quality and its immigration policy.  For sure, the lure of the Tamil vote is Trudeau’s bane.

Dr. Mervyn D. De Silva

Poverty, unemployment, youth disillusionment, social and Institutional degradation, and disintegration, and environmental despoliation continues relentlessly to haunt the world and our country. All this takes place in the backdrop of widening gaps between the super-rich and rich, rich and the middle class, and, the middle-class and the desperately poor, neglected, the lower class. Let’s not be ambiguous and blinkered; we do not live in a world that is economically and socially just and fair, information, knowledge, and ultra-modern technologies, notwithstanding.

Unsurprisingly, in the prevailing global socio-economic scenario where the dominating ethos is one of selfish arrogance, self-centeredness, and self-absorption, many countries still flirt about with a never-ending cycle of elections, of course, purported to register the voice of the people, the very authenticity of which is seriously questioned and doubted by the public expressing the substance in their hearts and minds.

When calls for honest, clean, and just and fair elections are made and, swell to reach a crescendo, violence gets unleashed. They, the people, get instantaneously transformed” and, are categorized as traitors”, anarchists”, conspirators” and terrorists”. They are then crushed and silenced by the elected” collectives using modern technological devices.

What boggles the minds of the minority of the few, is, the question how long will the vast majority of the people have to wait until the silent majority break the shackles that chain their minds and souls, and, step forward to organize themselves to clinically examine, with intellectual vigor and religious honesty, and, compassion, the current political systems and ruling political cultures. Is there any hopes of the silent majority raising their voices to demand radical changes, where necessary, as their sublime duty towards the vast majority of the poor, in fact, worldwide, who also have a god-given right to the fruits of the riches of this world; now, tightly controlled by the levers of power; political, financial, commercial, banking, and, even, ethnic and religious. Will they dare to salvage and re-enshrine authentic democracy and good governance, the most workable arrangement for ensuring economic and social justice to all human beings. To a minority of informed people, in these confusing times, it seems incomprehensible how a world endowed with such advanced connectivity in the 21st century, could remain so insensitive to the utter debasement of the political cultures through the criminalization of politics and, rapacious greed for wealth and money by those concerned.

The proclivity of the people in this, and, many other countries to elect as their representative celebrities, totally unsuited in a place where the country’s law is evolved, reminiscent of square pegs in round holes, and/or, persons of inferior educational and background qualities, results in poor standards of debate and deliberation in the so-called august assemblies.

This is the tip of the iceberg that has led to a rotten, non-functioning façade democracy, where the force of argument has given way to the argument of force. The sum total of the contributions the occupiers of positions in the political establishments and institutions, do not help in the advancement and evolution of economic and social development, and long term political and social stability.

Laws and regulations are no doubt passed without any incisive analysis and exchanges of differing points of view, while even the best contributions made by the opposition are, more often than not, rejected. The alpha and omega of a ruling caucus are how to use parliamentary majorities to further their own interests, of their extended families, friends, supporters, and, the money changers who help these representatives” to gain power and retain power. To add to this sad situation is, the astounding fact of the servility of professionals, bureaucrats, and public servants, towards those in power.

It is time, that the leaders of all political parties and, more importantly, the silent majority, self-anesthetized, wake-up and strive towards bringing about drastic changes and reforms to restore authentic democracy and, the integrity of all public institutions before tsunamis of descent emerge and leave waves of destruction.

There is much scope and, windows of opportunity, to use hackneyed terms, for sincere and genuine leaders, political, civil, and head of religious organizations, to perform some skillful surgery. There is an amorphous mass of paid politicians and their cohorts in all organs of the state in the exercise of governance, who are only dedicated to goals of enriching themselves. If this is done, those who have the strength of political purpose will find their names written in letters of gold.

What is the return the majority of poor citizens get from these costly political outfits? They are Human Beings trying to survive the ravages of past colonialism and, now, neo-colonialism, the hegemonies of globalization, and the unseen hands undermining the levels of production of our own economy, particularly, agriculture that is going-on on a daily basis. It was none other than Jawaharlal Nehru who once said: everything can wait but, not agriculture”. Sadly, we seem to fail to see reality– the fact, that democratic practices, law and order, and plain downright decency in conduct, have become hostages to the maneuvering of selfish political forces, national and international.

Finally, we may do good in pondering and taking to heart the words of wisdom of a great Indian leader, Rajendra Prasad who warned his country which was raging with economic, political, and social conflicts at a crucial time, much like our today.

Only a blend of honest political leadership and healthy public institutions will ensure the success of democracy in a cacophonic culture such as India.”

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Buddhism arrived in Sri Lanka during the time of the Buddha in the 6^th century BC. The Maha Sangha however, was established 300 years later, when by prior arrangement, Arhat Mahinda brought in the Upasampada to the island.

Arhat Mahinda was directly linked to Arhat Upali who had presided over the first Buddhist Council. Mahinda’s Upasampada was therefore considered exceptional.  The Upasampada brought by him to Sri Lanka was therefore equally exceptional.

Arhat Mahinda introduced ordination to Sri Lanka. The first to receive ordination was Suman Samanera who had come from India with arhat Mahinda. The second was Ariththa, a relative of king Devanampiyatissa and also a minister of the king’s government. Later Queen Anula and her retinue also took robes. This ensured immediate acceptance and a high social standing for the new Sangha.   It was also in keeping with the Buddhist strategy of obtaining the support of the rich and successful first.

From this ordination came Sri Lanka’s first Nikaya, the Maha vihara nikaya.  This has remained the leading fraternity of the Anuradhapura period and thereafter too. No other nikaya ever took its place. Maha vihara was the sole royal monastery in Sinhala history, as far as I can see. 

Maha vihara owned extensive lands, both near and far away.  These monasteries were closely monitored by Maha vihara. They were subject to a weekly, monthly, annual financial audit which, RALH Gunawardene said, would have done credit to any modern accounting firm.

The 32 Bhikkhus who presided over the Maha vihara are listed in the Nikaya Sangrahaya, starting with the well known Iththiya and Uttiya.   (For the full list see TG Kulatunge’s Buddhist Nikayas in Sri Lanka p 8.) Several chief priests of Maha vihara are also mentioned in other literature. Ven. Mahasiva is mentioned in the Dighanikaya attakatha. When Samantapasadika was being written, the chief incumbent of Maha vihara was Ven. Sanghapala.  Kulatunge gives many other instances.

Two hundred years later, came the first separation from the Maha Vihara, the creation of the Abhayagiri nikaya. This is not as awful as it is made out to be. A second monastery would have been created in Anuradhapura   eventually. A single monastery could not have coped with all Buddhist activity.

However, the popular story is that King Vattagamani Abhaya   caused this division by building Abhayagiri vihara, despite the opposition of the Maha vihara. Kulatunge provides another explanation which is far more acceptable. He quotes Vansatthapakasini which says that King Vattagamani Abhaya built Abhayagiri and gave it to Ven.  Kupikkala Tissa, who had helped the king when he was in hiding. The king had also known Ven. Hambugallaka Tissa .

 Thereafter a disagreement arose in the Mahavihara, regarding the interpretation of the Khandaka Parivara of the Vinaya Pitaka. Ven. Hambugallaka Tissa broke away with five hundred bhikkhus and went to live at Abhayagiri.  Kulatunge noted that Maha vihara did not take any action against Hambugallaka Tissa.

Vansatthapakasini   observed that there were no big differences in Vinaya between the Mahavihara and Abhayagiri. The differences were on procedures such as higher ordination through messengers and small details, such as use of ivory handled fans.

Kulatunge noted that the information on Abhayagiri is one sided, it is all from Mahavihara sources. Abhayagiri did issue its own history, ‘Uttara vihara vamsa’ but this is no longer available. We know of its existence only because there are references to it in the literature.

The ‘Uttara vihara vamsa’ is seen by Christian analysts   as a rival vamsa to the Mahavamsa. It is nothing of the sort. It is simply an addition to the vamsa tradition of Buddhist historical writing.  Projection of hostility between Maha vihara and Abhayagiri is a Christian interpretation. The Buddhist attitude to disagreement is different.  The different schools of   Buddhism do not fight with each other.

Abhayagiri was a vast complex far exceeding the extent and buildings of the Mahavihara. Fa Hien who visited in 410-412 said that Mahavihara had 3000 monks while Abhayagiri had 5000 monks. That is because it was carrying out a bigger task. Abhayagiri was like a modern University, said Kulatunge, with four fraternities, Uttaramula, Kaparamula, Mahanetpamula, and Vahadumula. But it had only one chapter house, the Ratnapasada where they all assembled to perform Vinaya karma.

 Inscriptions show that Abhayagiri had monasteries all over the island.  Kantaroda in Jaffna and Ramba vihara in Hambantota were Abhayagiri monasteries. Abhayagiri temples were established at Nedunkerni and Ottimalai in Vanni, also at Badulla, Yapahuwa and Panduvasnuwara.

Excavations at Abhayagiri have shown much evidence of Mahayana. Several Avalokitesvara images were discovered. Abhayagiri started to teach Mahayana in the     4th century. The Chinese pilgrim Hieun Tsang who visited India in 7th century said that Abhayagiri taught both Mahayana and Theravada doctrines. Abhayagiri taught Sanskrit as well as Pali.  Abhayagiri was also a centre for Tantra.

There is  an Abhayagiri Vihara in Ratu Boko in Java ( Indonesia) .An inscription dated 792 AD says the complex was constructed for the Sinhala bhikkhus of Abhayagiri vihara of Sri Lanka .’  It is a huge complex, situated in a prominent location. There are magnificent doorways, meditation caves and a stupa which resembles those at Kantarodai. The southeastern part of the complex resembles the padhanaghara in Thapovana, Abhayagiri.

The third nikaya, the Jetavana Nikaya, of the Sagalikas, was a breakaway group from Abhayagiri. They left, according to Vamsattapakasini, due to disagreement with Abhayagiri on the interpretation of the Vinaya pitaka.  This Sagalika group moved to Jetavana which had been built in the premises of the Mahavihara itself, by King Mahasen, despite the objections of Mahavihara. They would have been a most unwelcome presence in the Mahavihara.

Vijayabahu I (1055-1110) found that Buddhism    had declined in Sri Lanka during the Chola occupation and the Upasampada was under question.  He got down the Upasampada from Ramanna (Lower Burma). This Upasampada was considered to be the Sinhala Upasampada, since it was from Sinhala bhikkhus who had migrated to Ramanna or their pupils. Therefore no separate nikaya was created. 

The next development was the disappearance of two of the three Nikayas. That was done by Parakrama bahu I (1153-86) under the guise of unifying the three Nikayas. The method used was quick and simple. There was a purification of the Sangha. The bhikkhus of each nikaya were examined. Then the corrupt monks were expelled and the pious monks sent to Mahavihara. In this way all were brought under the Mahavihara. Never again, says Kulatunge, were bhikkhus indentified as Abhayagiri and Jetavana.

 However, there had to be subdivisions in the Sangha, for the purpose of management at least. By this time, teacher-pupil lineages had emerged called Mula and the temples within a Mula were known as ayatanas. The Mula groups were now utilized for managing the   Maha Sangha. 

There were eight mulas in the Anuradhapura period.  Abhayagiri had Uttara mula, Mahanethpa mula, Kapara mula and Vahadu mula. Jetavana had Vilgam mula, Senevirat mula, Galaturu mula and Dhakkina mula.  Some historians say that Galaturu and Vilgam mula were in Mahavihara.  This is probably correct. It is absurd to say that Mahavihara had no Mula. The teacher-pupil lineage would have been very important for Maha vihara too.

The eight mulas developed in Anuradhapura were formalized by Parakrama bahu I. Mahavamsa says he build eight palaces for the eight mula institutions. (astayatana.)  Four out of the eight astayatana or astamula which became powerful after Parakrama bahu I came from Abhayagiri, noted analysts.

The literature of the time mentioned these mula. Vidagama said he belonged to Mahanethpa mula. Sri Rahula said he was Uttara Mula.  Vilgammula said he was Galaturu mula. Palkumbura sannasa refers to Senevirad mula.

A Pali sandesa titled Vuttamala, praised the chief monks of Galaturu, Senevirad, Mahanethpa and Vilgam.  Dathopatissa II had a grandson who became a monk and lived at Selantara mula in Rohana.  Analysts noted that after the Polonnaruwa period, there was no mention of Kapara mula or Vahadu mula.

During the Portuguese and Dutch occupation, Buddhism declined, bhikkhus became corrupt and the pure Upasampada disappeared.    Several Udarata kings got the Upasampada from abroad, but they did not last. Sri Lanka at last succeeded in getting a stable Upasampada during the time of king Kirti Sri Rajasinha (1782-98)

Kirti Sri Rajasinha sent a mission to   Ayuthya in present day Thailand, using Dutch ships. He sent   a mission consisting of Pattipola Atapattuwe Mohottala, Allepola Vedikkara Mohottala, Vilbagedera Naida, Iriyagama Muhandiram, and Ayittaliyadde Muhandiram to handle the negotiations. Another 62 persons from different castes and professions were also sent.  The delegation took with them two messages, from Ven. Saranankara of Malwatte and from Ven. Golahanwatte Dhammadassi of Asgiri. 

King Boromkot of Thailand received the mission. A delegation of Thai monks was dispatched to Sri Lanka in one of his own ships. The   Sinhala delegation return in the ship they came in.  They got home first.

The Thai delegation led by Ven. Upali arrived in Trincomalee in May 1753.   Vilbagedera, whose account is available, stated that the Thai mission consisted of 18 Upasampada bhikkhus and 7 samanera. The group also contained clerks, physicians, chefs, musicians, drummers, pages and servants.  Before they left, this group went on pilgrimage   to many places in the island.  This shows that Sri Lanka was still considered an important place of Buddhist worship, with Tooth Relic and Sri Maha Bodhi.

Ehelepola Adhikaram, Angammana Dissawa, Hulangamuwe dissava, Kodituvakku mohotti rala, Vedikkara mohotti rala, Ahelepola mohottala, Viyalla Mohottala, Harasgama Muhandiram and Mahantara Ralahamy were sent to meet the delegation. They met the visitors at Tambalagama at Kantale and then proceeded to Godapola near Matale where the visitors rested a few days. The chief monks of Malwatte and Asgiri came to Godapola to meet them.

Then they all arrived at Senkadagala. The king had erected a new building at Senkadagala called Dhammikaramaya for the Siamese monks to live in. This is today the Pusparama of Malwatta.

The Thai team then got down to the business of the Upasasampada. A sima was established and on 19 July 1753 a Thai samanera was ordained by Ven. Upali. That was to show the Sinhala monks how an Upasampada was done. Then Upali invited the Maha thera of Malwatte to perform the    Upasampada the next day. Six monks were ordained with Ven. Upali as preceptor.

But some ganninanses refused to accept the Upasampada. The king then repaired the Dharmasala built by Vimaladharmasuriya II and fixed stones outside its eight corners to make a badda seema. Each stone was checked by Ven. Upali and the monks were re-ordained there. 97 novices from Asgiri and Malwatte were   ordained.

Ven, Upali set up another   sima at Asgiri. He then set up sima at 25 other places, including Sat korale Rajamaha vihara and at Vanamandava, Maddepola, Medawala, Mahiyangana, Arattana, Gadaladeni,  Velagama, Devanagala,  Diyasunnata, Vattarama,  Ridigama, Kandulava, Varavala, Angangala, Badagamuwa, Hambalagala, Maddepola, Tissava, Mavatapola, Veragoda, Aluvihara, Valala, Hurikaduwa and   Karavliyadda. This prevented the Upasampada from collapsing as it had done before.

Texts on dharma were received from Siam between 1753 and 1756. A   second team of bhikkhus arrived from Thailand in 1756 to train the Sinhala bhikkhus. The monks were trained in bhikkhu practice, observing vas, uposatha, kathina ceremony, training in meditation, chanting pirit. Ven. Upali gave the nikaya a katikawata, a code of disciplinary rules. This was superseded by the katikavata   issued by Kirti Sri.

The king declared Ven. Saranankara as Sangharaja, supreme chief of the Sangha, Siddhartha Buddharakkhita of Tibbotuwawe  as chief prelate of Malwatte and Uruluwatte Dhammasiddi  as chief priest of Asgiri. Kirti Sri entrusted the Tooth Relic to Asgiri and Malwatte. They were to be its guardians. this gave Asgiri and Malwatte great standing.  The Raja Maha viharas were also placed under them. The Siam nikaya was established.

All authority for the Siyam Nikaya was held by Malwatte and Asgiri in Kandy. Kandy was the centre. Asgiri and Malwatte had existed as two separate bhikkhu traditions before the Siyam nikaya was established. Asgiri, originally vanavasi, was older than Malwatte. Asgiri traced its origin to Dimbulagala in the 13 century, from where they moved to Valasgala and then to Senkadagala. Malwatte had greater prestige since Saranankara was based there, and Ven. Upali had resided there.  Initially there was a tussle for power between the two. Then authority was divided between them and matters settled amicably.

The Siyam nikaya was set up in the Udarata kingdom   when the low country was under Dutch rule. The Dutch started by suppressing Buddhism, but when things got difficult, they decided to   drop this and permit new temples. This unleashed a force that gained momentum under the British who took over the country in 1815.

The Udarata Sangha, was very contemptuous of the low country monks and refused Upasampada to them. Upasampada should be given only to those in the Udarata and not low country, Malwatte said.

The low country monks discovered this when they went up one day, in the 1880s, for ordination. Low country monks led by  Dharmakirthi Mangala chief Sangha nayake of Colombo, Ven. Valane Sidartha, Bentara Athtadassi and Parakumbure Vipassi as preceptors,  had taken a set of samanera to Malwatte,  for ordination, They  went in procession, in  bullock carts  ,from  Galle,  to Bentota, Panadura, Colombo and up to Kandy.(Date not supplied),

 When they got there, Malwatte refused to ordain them. The low country Sangha entered the sima and started to ordain.   The Udarata monks, including the chief monks had rushed in fuming with anger. There was ‘aggressive jabber’. The samanera had started sobbing.  Malwatte said that they objected to ordaining monks from low country. The low country group departed home. They had ‘walked down the Kadugannawa precipice’ . 

they met to discuss the matter at Butgamu vihara and founded Kalyani Samagri Dharma Maha Sangha sabha. This was probably the first breakaway sect of the Siyam Nikaya.

Kalyani Samagri erected a sima on a barge in Kalani River and did the ordination. They informed Malwatte that they had decided to cut themselves off from Malwatte.  The chief priest of Kelaniya Raja Maha vihara was not prepared to offer residential facilities there for future Upasampada. But a lay devotee, Mulhitiyawe Lekam had donated land by the river for the purpose. Nelligaswatte Kalyani Vamsikaramaya stands there today.

The low country monks thereafter assembled at Kotte Rajamaha vihara  and founded the Kotte Kalyani Samagri Dharma Maha Sangha sabha (1855) as a separate entity, independent of Malwatte. The leaders were Bentara Aththadassi of Bentara vanavasi vihara, Maligaspe Dharmakirti of Kotte raja Maha vihara, Panadure Sumangala of Maha Arukgoda Indasararama. Papiliyane Silavamsa of Galgoda Sri Maha vihara, and  Valane Siddhartha of Ratmalane Parama Dhamma Cetiya Pirivena. The Upasampada was thereafter transferred to   Kotte Raja Maha vihara, A sima was set in 1894 and this sima operates to this day. 

Kulatunge noted that Bentara Aththadassi had considered a separate ordination, even before the Malwatte incident. he had earlier made inquiries from Ramanna in   Burma about higher Ordination. 

However the earlier   Kalyani Samagri Dharma Maha Sangha sabha” did not disappear. it continued to function over the years. It consisted of   five groups, Ratmalana Mulleriyawa, Gampaha, Kakulandola and Rajarata. These were headed by Valane Sidartha, Pimbure Dhammananda, Avariwatte Jinaratana, Kalukondayawe Pannasekera, Halgastota Devananda,   and Batagama Pannananda.         

Later the names changed to Bentara Vihara group, Kotte vihara group , Arukgoda vihara group, Galgoda Vihara group , and Ratmanalana vihara group. Then Bentara created a second group, Daksina Vihara group to accommodate the  growing numbers.

In 2015 this Nikaya had 594 temples  in Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa , Ampara, Trincomalee , Galle Matara, Hambantota,  Kalutara, Colombo, Gampaha Matale, Kandy Nuwara Eliya,  Badulla Monaragala , Kurunegala, Puttalam Kegalle and Ratnapura.  The Nikaya also has temples in America, Canada, India,  Japan Malaysia, Singapore and UK.

The Siyam nikaya in the  ‘low country’ had a long history of protests against Malwatte. From 1921 they had  been   saying that they did not recognize the degraded higher ordination of Malwatte.

 In 1942 Low country monks of Malwatte assembled at Jayamaha vihara pirivena in Kitulewela, Matara organized by Valivitiye  Sorata and Beddegama Piyaratna of Vidyodaya Pirivena . In 1954  low country Siyam nikaya monks decided to separate fully from  Malwatte and begin a separate higher ordination ceremony.

Siyamapali vanavasa nikaya had separated from Malwatte and performed their vinaya karma separately.  It has  its centre at Tibbotuvave vanavasaya at Vaturuvila, Elpitiya. it changed its name four times and was eventually registered in 1968.

In 1981, Ven Kamburupitiye Vanaratana called the heads of the second and third ranked  temples  in the area and founded the Matara district Pradesiya  Sangha sabha” of the  Siyam nikaya.

The formidable Sri Rohana Samgha Sabha  of the Siyam nikaya was formed in 1984. It had its own constitution and katikavata. Malwatte did  not object  to Sri Rohana carrying out its own Upasampada and the Sabha was registered for  Upasampada. Two ordinations were carried out in 1987, at Tihagoda, Tissamaharama and Randupata Raja Maha Vihara in Kotuwegoda, Matara.

Today, says Kulatunge,  Sri Rohana  has 555 viharas under it. they are in Galle, Matara, Hambantota, Monaragala, Ratnapura, Ampara Nuwara Eliya, Puttalam Gampaha, Polonnaruwa, Matale Kalutara, Anuradhapura , Colombo, Kandy, Kegalle and Kurunegala.

The Siyam nikaya did not continue as a monolithic Nikaya in the Udarata either.In the Udarata itself, it broke up into other nikayas, which  also went as Siyam.

Syam vamsika nikaya of Uva was started in 1939 at Kalabulu Landa vihara in Welimada. Since it was difficult for samanera to travel to Kandy for ordination, higher ordination was provided at Palugama and Kalabulu vihara which were considered ancient viharas.  This nikaya is still in existence. its viharas are mainly in Badulla and Moneragala districts with a few in Central, Saparagamu and Western provinces.

The best known Udarata Siyam nikaya sect today is Rangiri Dambulu samgha sabha. This was established in 1979 with Rangiri Dambulu vihara as its centre. Higher ordination was given for the first time in 1985 at a sima built on Kandalama wewa. The nikaya was registered in 1991 on a court order. ( continued)

Dr. Niroshana Wickramarathna, Ph.D., M.Sc., M.Ent., B.Sc.
Senior Lecturer Kandy, Sri Lanka

Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has already put our lives in jeopardy and exhibited potential to reshape the norms of our society. A mounting number of deaths being reported due to Covid-19 and pending economic recession have chilled us to the bone, social disruptions caused by locked-downs, indefinite curfews enforced, running out of food and essential supplies have triggered enormous anxiety in societies across the globe. On the other hand, the wild animals whose natural freedom suppressed by activities of human beings have been set free (not sure if this holds true for animals caged in zoos who have unfairly been imprisoned for the mere sake of human pleasure), the air polluted with greenhouse gases has suddenly become much cleaner, hustling and bustling cities characterized by unbearable noises have gone pinfall silence, and more importantly, in a slower pace of lives, innovative and out-of-the-box ideas have emerged. Simultaneously, we all impatiently wait for an end of lock-downs and curfews so that normality in all facets of our lives could be restored. Would that normality be again characterized by the free-market economy, political corruption or anarchism, rampant ecological destruction, relentless pursuit of profit and economic growth, ever-widening social inequalities (the world’s twenty-six richest people own as much wealth as half the entire world’s population) that were key detrimental features of neoliberalism?

In a year or two, the current situation would have eased out with a discovery of a proper vaccine or people becoming more immune to the virus. For some, it would mark the defeat of the pandemic and signal the light at the end of the tunnel. Because, we often cling on to identify an enemy of a given calamity instead of figuring out enmity within us, thus, we do not give a priority for deciphering the message encoded in the particular situation. In other words, we prefer to answer the effect instead of digging deep into the root causes which have resulted in this dire condition across the world. Yet, it is strongly believed that the scale of devastations has been so much that the world order would not fall back to the status quo prevailed in the pre-Covid era. If it does, that would really be a tremendous missed opportunity as Covid-19 has presented us with a harbinger of making a new world order which should mark a paradigm shift in our socio-economic landscapes.

At this juncture, two possible directions could be envisaged concerning the trajectory of our civilization, a) continuing with the globalized open economic approach that has already run havoc in many ways, b) making solid changes in our socio-economic system by transforming a globalized economic model to a localized economic approach, and by transforming an individualistic based society to a more of a community based (co-existing) living characterized by loving-kindness, compassion, empathy, equanimity (four sublime attitudes). Various developments that are currently underway, do not seem to furnish any conclusive shreds of evidence for the final trajectory along which the world would be heading during the post-Covid era. Although the aim of this article is to look at how Covid-19 pandemic may influence two of these possible trajectories that our civilization is likely to propel, at first, it is worth understanding western hegemony in socio-economic, political, and scientific landscapes.

End of the road to Western hegemony?

In the wake of Covid-19, powerful nations that have portrayed themselves as the world’s superpowers, who also stranglehold smaller nations and should largely be held accountable for instigating anthropogenic destructions to this world, have run like cockroaches in a flash of light. Covid-19 made them look very small. One of the world’s prestigious research centers, NASA, which usually engaged in initiating space travels to the moon, searching for lives in other planets, was forced to shut down, a Navy captain in one of the biggest nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in the US Navy who feared of its crew members over Covid-19 was sacked for raising health concerns. In a confrontation with an invisible virus, the might of ammunition power searched for hiding grounds. At some corners even in the West, leaders appeared to push for radical changes in the world order, for instance, Italian PM recently told a newspaper that “after the coronavirus, nothing will be as before, we will have to sit down and rewrite the rules of trade and the free market”. Developments being unfolded and voices of people battered by a thing of a few microns suggest that there must be a shift in the human civilization trajectory that has propelled along an axis of evil in pursuit of wealth. Changes should be unique for a given state, because, the world is currently stewing in its own juice as the dependency of socio-economic parameters on cultural diversity had been ignored for too long. Institutions established by coalitions in the post-war era played a major role in manipulating and normalizing cultures of smaller nations according to desires of veto powered nations. It is very clear throughout various eras in history, the objective has been to dominate smaller nations, though the controlling mechanism had been different. In the colonial era, cheating natives with treaties and forceful persuasion were adapted, whereas institutions under United Nations established the control mechanism in the post-war era, and in the most recent decades in neo-liberal era, a globalized free-market economy and human rights have been instrumental in achieving their control over poorer states. This western hegemony is well summed up in one of the native American poems.

The whites were always trying to make Indians give up their life and
live like white men—go to farming, work hard, and do as they did—and
the Indians did not know how to do that and did not want to.
If the Indians had tried to make the whites live like them,
the whites would have resisted.

Changes that might be introduced, should depend on the cultural basis of a given state and decouple any mechanisms that foster western hegemony to prosper. According to one of the prominent figures of western scientific philosophy, Paul Feyerabend (author of Against Method), new theories came to be accepted not because of their accord with the scientific method, but because their supporters made use of any trick – rational, rhetorical or ribald – in order to advance their cause. He also came up with a famous phrase, “anything goes”, which underlines that any knowledge carried forward traditionally could not be ruled out as superstitious or non-scientific. As this challenged Karl Popper’s theory of falsification that was meant to demarcate other systems of knowledge (according to the West, non-scientific) from western scientific knowledge, Feyerabend is widely regarded as science’s worst enemy. Thus, it is appropriate to use native methods that have been bequeathed upon us by our ancestors and proven successful for thousands of years rather than attempting to find a western scientific basis/pieces of evidence in support of our methods. In other words, we do not have to validate our methods by using Western sciences because our methods have historically been proven correct and they do not need the support of western sciences to prop up as they can withstand on their own.

Keep the ball rolling

Many leaders in former superpowers before Covid-19 have already expressed their urgency to prematurely open locked-down countries or states for business. These countries or leaders may step up the industrial production in an endeavour to compensate for the losses during locked-downs and to beef up their economies. As a result of increased consumerism, enhanced inequality, intensified pollution, loss of justice, democracy, and privacy, the exacerbation of the status of the earth prevailed in the pre-Covid era will surely expedite.

For instance, US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) took measures to suspend enforcement of its laws so that industry can pollute the environment without limits as long as it can be proved that their business is somehow connected to the pandemic. Following the same approach, China expects to beef up its production by relaxing its environmental laws. In observing other recent developments, it has already given signs that in the post-Covid era, justice and democratic values could be at stake, for instance, the Hungarian parliament passed a bill that allows its PM to govern by decree, furthermore, anyone could receive a five-year jail term if s/he is proven to be responsible for disseminating false information. The Department of Justice in the US filed a request to craft legislation allowing chief judges to indefinitely hold people without trial and suspend other constitutionally protected rights during the coronavirus. Israeli’s PM has managed to partially shut down the country’s courts. Following China, Taiwan, and South Korea, Israel has passed an emergency decree to use cellphone data to retrace the movements of individuals who test positive for the virus.

Covid-19 has also pushed constitutions of certain countries to their limits, particularly in the West, thus, the political bubble they have been entrenched in to is about to rupture. In the US, the president argued that the power of lifting the lock-down lies with him while governors and legal experts of certain states claimed that the president does not have the authority according to the federal constitution. In addition, the fear of uncertain future and mistrust has engulfed many places such as in the US, people purchased record-breaking numbers of guns amid coronavirus. Even the dormant racism in the West has resurfaced as two French doctors suggested a potential vaccine for coronavirus should first be tested on people in Africa.

Blow away the cobwebs

Covid-19 should not, however, send a signal to be introverted as nations but to localize. The word, glocalization may be perceived as a process that integrates local concerns with the global needs or adaptation of global trends to match the local concerns. Since the colonial period, Sri Lanka as a country has failed to make this transformation. Also, with the embankment of neo-liberalism in the country, lifestyles rapidly veered towards self-centered compartmentalization from a co-existing environment in which human beings were considered to be a part of the entire ecosystem. So, we will soon have to make a reverse transformation from individualism to co-existence. Some drastic changes in our perceptions and practices are required to instigate in our socio-economic system, some of which are discussed in the following.

Native knowledge. Whether it be the history (local or global), sciences, medicine, or anything else, we have been taught to rely on western sciences and norms, and often disregard our own knowledge as myths. In other words, western sciences have become more of a religion than its original motive. Many recent disclosures have fueled the claim that scientific facts are suspect and that science is in crisis. Scientists appear to engage in facing interests instead of revealing interesting facts. It was ridiculous to observe that the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) in Sri Lanka, could not adopt recommendations by the World Health Organization (WHO) to match local requirements. When WHO initially declared that the severity of the pandemic did not reach a level where the face masks could be used, GMOA requested the public to abstain from using face masks. But, countries like the Czech Republic did not heed to WHO’s recommendations, and they became one of few countries in Europe that well managed the spread of the disease. When WHO soon changed its position and recommended to use face masks, GMOA also switched its position. The point is that the West has had no clue of this disease, even if their physical sciences can at least provide some workable solutions, much of their medical technology largely relied on conclusions made by medical researchers is reported to be misleading, exaggerated, or flat-out wrong. And, even though the publication of medical research considers to be the cornerstone for the propagation and dissemination of medical knowledge, instances of individuals and institutions subverting the ethos of honesty and integrity have become significant. At the moment, some people in the West have significantly rejected to entrench in delusions of medical technology, thus, in countries like Germany, almost 40% of people use complementary and alternative medicine.

We need to urgently enhance the trust of our own methods that have survived more stringer testing times in history. In the historic tragedy of the island of Ceylon, written by a Portuguese Captain, Joa Ribeiro in 1685, wrote that “they are great herbalists, and in case of wounds, tumors, broken arms/legs, they affect a cure in a few days with great ease. As for cancer, which is a loathsome and incurable disease among us, they can cure it in eight days, and I have seen a large number of soldiers and Captains cured during my residence in the country, and ease with which this was done was marvelous”. The author further describes Portuguese being responsible for spreading sexually transmitted diseases such as Syphilis among natives, and how natives dealt with common fever to smallpox. Not only the knowledge on medical science and technology, but we have also had a system of knowledge on various fields (metallurgy, irrigation, farming), which are uniquely sustainable and lead to enhance co-existence than conquering one another. Where has this system of knowledge gone? It is worth reviving our knowledge if it has already been buried in time.

Value based-education. The institutionalized education that has been taught does not produce individuals with values. Let alone the values, they are not yet good enough to compete with global challenges even though the entire education system aims at producing a globalized citizen. It is easier to imitate but it is almost impossible to emulate someone else’s trade. Perhaps, it is nothing to do with capabilities but they certainly lack the confidence to win challenges locally. Starting from primary schools, pupils are bombarded with various curriculum, it is very rare that they are being demonstrated of any behavioral habits. Thus, the approach to education requires a major overhaul that transforms a vision with a mere global orientation to a mission that satisfies local requirements.

Unfortunately, we have failed to evolve a value-based education system, a significant portion of the global crises could be attributed to our failure in evolving a value-oriented education system. The intellectual movement dawned in Europe (characterized by the values of reasoning, creativity, and entrepreneurship) transformed dark-aged medieval Europe into a civilized, the scientifically sound, commercially progressive union called, the West.- that assumed the global leadership and dictated the entire course of the human history for the past five centuries. The Western civilization was nurtured by the unwholesome elements of greed, hatred, and perverse understanding corrosive to the humanitarian values and environmental degradation. These elements induced lustful Colonial motives, thus the scientific and technological education directed to promote totalitarianism, imperialism, genocides, and now heralding the anthropogenic era announcing the extinction of the human & animal lives from the planet. In Eleven years in Ceylon, Major Forbes wrote a detailed account on elephant shooting for recreation, he quoted an incident published in a newspaper, “we had excellent sport, having “bagged” one hundred and six elephants among four of us in three days.” Even though having conducted such barbaric acts through imperialism and supremacy, western civilization has been biasedly described in the euro-centric world view as rational, educated, and civilized.

Values and ethics had been the bedrock of civilization in the East. For instance, the Chinese had invented the steam engine before James Watt and made voyages around the world by the manufacturing of ships. However, the Chinese did not want to conquer and colonize other nations, because their education would have linked with Confucianism or Taoism that put more emphasis on benevolent inner values. In contrast to the shape of western civilization, and education should evoke wholesome values in a journey for wisdom. For this, the current institutionalized education needs to be replaced by the Buddha’s Arya scientific inquiry underlying the value-oriented vision for education.

Governance. The country desperately needs to restructure the present governing system. During the locked-down period of Covid-19, a lot of aspects in political administration went relatively smoothly and swiftly in comparison to having 225 individuals calling the shots in the parliament. Of course, there may have been mishaps occurred at such an unprecedented time but it was surely better than 225 people who could not prevent the Easter attack even after receiving contact details of the attackers. The handling of Covid-19 proved that country can move forward with a much smaller team as political administrators. This should be in line with Raja-Andu-Kramaya (refer to the West debunked Raja-Andu-Kramaya would have easily surpassed democratic myth). More liberal and democratic states (as the West & its slaves prefer to claim) have unfortunately got more losses of lives due to Covid-19 than countries run by authoritarians or dictators (as labeled by the West). It is pathetic how the head of the world’s superpower reacted to the pandemic, he wanted to keep the country open for business when the lives of millions of people were at risk. It took hundreds and thousands of lives before he changed his position. Is this the democracy (profits over lives) that our educated pundits have been boasting that has prevailed in the West?

As a starting point, it is high time that we push for abolishing at least one from a chain of hierarchical governing bodies such as urban, district, provincial, and parliament. The most appropriate initiative would be to abolish the 13th amendment of our constitution which was forcefully imposed on us. As racist politicians in northern and eastern Sri Lanka longing for separatism, granting land, police, and judiciary powers to each province and at the same time removing executive powers of the president could easily pave the way for the balkanization of the country. Covid-19 also questions the appropriateness of the 19th amendment of our constitution, it was extremely lucky that the corrupted parliament had already dissolved by the time Covid-19 affected the country. 19th amendment must also be abolished as the executive president elected by the majority of people in the country should possess the power to dissolve a parliament before a period of 4.5 years, if it is deemed that it is detrimental to the country in some ways (national security, economy, etc.).

Glocalized development model. During the Cold War, the US and its European allies were recognized as the first world, the former USSR, China, and their allies were named as the second world, and the countries which remained non-aligned neither with these two blocks were defined as the third world. The political and economic states were instrumental in making these divisions. After the collapse of the former USSR, the word third world has been replaced by developing countries. So, the development of a state is determined by its political alignment and economic prosperity measured by certain norms that were defined by so-called the first world.

Throughout our civilization, people in this country had interlinked with nature, farming and agriculture have been the profession of many. After the profit maniac neo-liberalism and globalization came into the scene, agricultural trade clandestinely turned to commercial business. People started to think of global markets and make profits in foreign currencies instead of pursuing a trade that caters to the demand of the local community. An individual gained material wealth, a country with a high Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and satisfying some other parameters were led to label as a rich individual and a developed nation respectively.

A capitalist society is inevitably linked with a higher degree of consumerism, and the production needs to beef up in order to soothe the enhanced demand for consumption. With limited resource availability for production, it is not possible to keep entertaining our sensual faculties that understand no limits in consumption. We will have to revisit and redefine the term development whether it is something to do with acquiring material wealth and consumption. As a holistic approach to development, instead of GDP, Gross National Happiness (GNP), has been used in a few countries, which values collective happiness as the goal of governance by emphasizing harmony with nature and traditional values. Thus, the government should come up with a development model that ensures the well-being and happiness of the population. The pursuit of material wealth derived by ignorance and driven by greed, hatred could not guarantee any of these. Features such as simplicity instead of wealth, happiness instead of pleasure, and charm instead of gaudiness, may be borne with wisdom and be driven by getting rid of unwholesome thoughts, could assure a state of well-being not only in the society but also in the total environment.

Co-existence through enhanced values. Neo-liberalism originated with individualism as the foundation, thus, an individual was decoupled from the total environment as well as from other individuals in the society. A former British PM, Margret Thatcher once mentioned that there is no such thing as a society, there are only men and women, and families. Such opinions have made detrimental effects to a co-existing society in which human beings are only a part of the environment. The origin of this individualistic perspective could be perceived as a culmination of the scientific revolution, as Francis Bacon stated that the man should be above nature (i.e. a nature in which man is not a part of), and even went on to an extent of describing torturing nature to reveal her secrets”. In general, the basis of the ever-progressive scientific world view encourages meddling with the virgin nature for the benefit of humans or in other words, conquering nature. The further context into this can be found in “From immoral conquest of nature to moral coexistence taught in Buddhism: A timely transformation.”

Neo-liberalism went a step further by separating individuals or families from society. Hence, we would need to go two steps back, thinking as communities instead of individuals, considering human beings/communities as a part of our ecological environment instead of conquering and dominating nature for mere human benefits. Thus, if we want to get out of this failed trajectory, we will have to make choices of our social or economic aspects in such a way that human values are enhanced and kept intact. The communities around the world attempt to help those in need almost surpassing the speed of pandemic outbreak, which signals that the world has suddenly become a place with loving-kindness and compassion.

In brief, Covid-19 proved that interconnectedness created by a globalized free-market economy has come to a sticky end, the supremacy of the West through industrial and scientific revolutions, dissemination of knowledge and culture has been pegged back (“knowledge is power” may not be valid anymore), rampant consumerism by catering to ever replenishing desires of our sensual faculties has been interrogated. So, through Covid-19, once again nature decided to severely chastise wrong-doers and showed big brothers of the earth the way forward. Let us hope that it will not be like flogging a dead horse.

A Worried Citizen

I think Sri Lanka has handled the Coronavirus issue brilliantly well compared to many of the developed countries. Please look at the numbers below from the BBC.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52491210

As you can see Belgium has the highest number of deaths per 100,000 people. I believe the reason for this is that Belgium is a small country with a high population density. Their population is 11.59 million and the land area is 11,849 Sq.miles. 

The population density is 978 people/Sq.Mile. Sri Lanka has a population of 21.67 million and the land area is 25,332 Sq.Miles. Therefore the population density is 855 people/Sq.Mile. We have to also remember that ¾ of the population lives in the Southwest quarter of the island which is very dense in terms of population. The real density is closer to 2556 people/Sq.Mile.

Belgium has had 19.3 deaths per 100,000 people whereas Sri Lanka has had 0.03 deaths per 100,000 people (based on 7 deaths we had up to date). 

Yet some of our lying politicians in the opposition have started their usual lying all over again now that the elections are drawing near. I would suggest that the government should challenge all these false statements unlike in 2015 and take them to courts for libel if any statements are false. Please do not remain silent like in 2015. I hope the people will not be fooled by the lies put out by the JVP, TNA, and SJP  and vote correctly to save the country. 

My heartfelt gratitude to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa along with their team of doctors, and service personnel who have saved us from a fate too fearful to even imagine. 

By A. Abdul Aziz.

Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be on him, Promised Messiah and Imam-al-Mahdi and Holy Founder of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Islam, in 1905, he warned the world in the following words:

 Remember, God has informed me of many earthquakes. Rest assured, therefore, that as earthquakes have shaken America and Europe, so will they shake Asia. Some of them will resemble the Day of Doom. So many people shall die that rivulets of blood shall flow. Even the bird and the beasts will not be immune to this death. Havoc shall sweep the surface of the earth which shall be the greatest since the birth of man. Habitations shall be demolished as if no one had ever lived in them. This will be accompanied by many other terrible calamities which the earth and the heavens will send forth, till their extraordinary nature will become evident to every reasonable man. All the literature on science and philosophy shall fail to show their like. Then mankind shall be sorely distressed and wonder what is going to happen. Many shall escape and many perish. The days are near, in fact, I can see them close at hand when the world shall witness a terrible sight; not only earthquakes, but also many fearsome calamities shall overtake man, some from the skies, and some from the earth. This will happen because mankind has stopped worshipping their true God and have become lost in their affairs of the world with all their heart and their effort and their intent. If I had not come these afflictions would perhaps have been delayed a little. But with my coming the secret purposes of an affronted God which were hidden so far, became manifest.

Says God: ‘We never punish until We send a Messenger’.       

Those who repent shall find security and those who fear before calamity overtakes them shall be shown mercy. Do you think you will be immune to these calamities?

Or can you save yourselves through artifice or design? Indeed not. That day all human schemes shall fail. Think not that earthquakes visited America and other continents but that your own country shall remain secure. Indeed, you may experience severe hardship.

O Europe, You are not safe, and O Asia, you are not immune. I see Cities fall,  and settlements laid waste. The One and the Only God kept silent for long. Heinous deeds were done before His eyes. He said nothing. But now he shall reveal His face Majesty and Awe.

Let him who has ears hear that the time is not far. I have done my best to bring all under the protection of God, but it was destined that what was written should come to pass

Truly do I say that the turn of this land, too, is approaching fast. The time of Noah shall reappear before your eyes, and your own eyes will be witnesses to the calamity that overtook the cities of Lot. But God is slow in his Wrath. Repent that you may be shown mercy! He who does not fear Him is dead, not alive.” (Haqiqathul Wahi – pp: 256, 257).     

Note: The time of Noah refers to the people who rejected Prophet Noah – and had become lost in the affairs of the world, punished by God with mighty floods. Similarly Prophet Lot – the people who rejected him and extremely had the foul practice of sodomy – because, they were punished by God through devastating earthquakes.

Dr. Sarath Oveysekera 

We are fighting Corona, which is a virus supposedly originated from animals.

We are also supposed to be descendants of monkeys, and we are ruining the environment and forests in the name of development. Animals may be trying to eradicate their harmful descendants of their own by introducing these dreadful viruses. Elephants including peacocks often ruin crops trying to chase the human species away. Lately, urban monkeys around the cities in our country  in large numbers are ruining our crops .i myself planted plantains, avocado, mangoes, Kadju, Rambutan, etc and I could not consume a single variable because  the monkeys keep eating them

Planted manioc is often eaten by porcupines and large mice

A large number of parrots destroy long bean plants 

The government wants the people to grow vegetables but the animals keep attacking the crops 

One of these days crows and monkeys may bring another decease and we will be helpless 

As Buddhism preaches, we may have to meditate and convince ourselves and to live with the idea of ending the Sansara and end of reincarnation and leave the world to the original owners of this planet 

Dr. Sarath Obeysekera
CEO Walkers Colombo Shipyard
Colombo
Sri Lanka

සමස්ත ලංකා වතු කම්කරු සංගමය

ගරු ජනාධිපතිතුමා
,කොරෝනා මර්ධන ජනාධිපති කාර්ය සාධක බලකාය,
ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලය,
ගාලූුු මුවදොර,
කොළඹ-01
ගරු ජනාධිපති තුමණි
වතු කම්කරු ජනතාවට රු 5000/= දීමනාව ලබා දීමට කඩිනමි අවදානය යොමුකරන ලෙස ඉල්ලීම
කොරෝනා වෛරස් උවදුරේ බලපෑම හේතුවෙන් සියලූම ශ‍්‍රී ලාංකිකයින් මුහුණදී සිටින්නේ බලවත් අසීරුතාවයකටය. ඔවුන්ට තම තමන් නියැලූණ ආර්ථික කටයුතු වලින් ඉවත් වන්නට සිදුවී ඇත. එහි ප‍්‍රථිපලයක් ලෙස ඒ සියළුදෙනාම ජීවත්වීමේ අර්බුදයකට මුහුණපා සිටී. එම අර්බුදයට මුහුණ දීමට නොහැකිව සිටි ජනතාවට යම් අස්වැසිල්ලක් වූයේ රජය විසින් ලබාදුන් රු 5000 දීමනාවයි.
තම ආදායම් තත්වය ඉතාමත් පහත් මට්ටමක වන වතු කම්කරුවන්ද මේ වනවිට ජීවත්වීමේ අර්බුදයකට මුහුණ දී සිටී. මාසයේ දින 25 ම වැඩ කළත් ඔවුන්ට උපයා ගත හැකි වන්නේ රු 19,000 කට අඩු මුදලකි. පසුගිය කාලයේ පැවති අයහපත් කාලගුණ තත්වය නිසාත් මාර්තු මස 20 වන දිනෙන් පසු ඇඳිරිනීතිය ක‍්‍රියාත්මක වීම නිසාත් වතු කම්කරුවන් හට අඛණ්ඩව වැඩ කිරීමට නොහැකි විය. කොරෝනා වෛරසය නිසා තම ආර්ථිකය කඩා වැටුන අනෙකුත් ජනතාවට මෙන් තම ගෙවත්තේ පොල්, කොස් වැනි බෝග වලින් ලැබෙන අතිරේක ආදායම් මාර්ග කිසිවක් නොවීමද කොළඹ වැනි දුරබැහැර නාගරික ප‍්‍රදේශවලට ගොස් කුලී වැඩක් කිරීමෙන් තම පවුලේ සාමාජිකයින් හරහා ලැබුන ආදායමද මේ මොහොත වනවිට ඇහිරිගොස් ඇත. එවැනි හේතු කාරණා නිසා ගෙවෙමින් තිබෙන කාලපරිච්ෙඡ්දය ඔවුන්ට දරාගත නොහැකි පීඩනයකින් ජීවත්වීමට සිදුව ඇත. එබැවින් ලක්‍ෂ එකහමාරක් පමණ වන වතු කම්කරු ප‍්‍රජාවට රු 5000/= සහන දීමනාව කඩිනමින් ලබාදෙන ලෙස ගෞරවයෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිමි.
ස්තුතියි
මෙයට,
කේ. සෙල්වරාජ් ජේ.එම්.ඒ. පේ‍්‍රමරත්න
සභාපති ලේකම්

සමස්ත ලංකා හෙද සංගමය.

භද්‍රාණී ජයවර්ධණ මහත්මිය
ලේකම්,
සෞඛ්‍ය හා දේශීය වෛද්‍ය අමාත්‍යංශය,
සුවසිරිපාය,
අංක 385, පුජ්‍ය බද්දේගම විමලවංශ හිමි මාවත
කොළඹ 10.

මහත්මියනි,

#කොවිඩ්– 19 #Coved- 19 වසංගතය හමුවේ සේවා සපයන හෙද කාර්ය මණ්ඩලයේ අමතර සේවා, ප‍්‍රසිද්ධ නිවාඩු දින හා කාර්ය වියුක්ත නිවාඩු දින සේවය සදහා මුදල් ගෙවීම

#කොවිඩ්- 19 #Coved- 19 වසංගතය මැඩලීම හමුවේ අසීරු ලෙස සේවා සැපයූ සෞඛ්‍ය කාර්ය මණ්ඩල සේවයේ යෙදවීමේ දී මතුවී තිබු ගැටළු විසදාගැනීමටත්, සෞඛ්‍ය කාර්ය මණ්ඩල සාමාජිකයින් ආරක්ෂා කර ගනිමින්, ඔවුන් අනතුරු දායක ලෙස #කොවිඩ් ආසාදිත රෝගීන්ට නිරාවරනය වීම වලකා රෝහල් පද්ධතියට ප‍්‍රසස්ත සේවාවක් ලබා ගැනීම අරමුණු කර ඔබ විසින් අවස්ථා කීපයකදී නිකුත් කරන ලද උපදෙස් ලිපි පිළිබද අවධානය යොමු කරවමු.

ඔබගේ එම උපදෙස්වලට අනුකූලව රෝහල්වල සේවා සැකසුම් කර ගැනීමට යෑමේදී සමහර රෝහල් ප‍්‍රධානීන් සමග දැඩි අරගලයක් කිරීමට සිදුවූ බවත් කණගාටුවෙන් වූවද සදහන් කරමු. එසේම අද වන විට හෙද කාර්ය මණ්ඩලයේ මාර්තු සහ අප‍්‍රියෙල් මාසවල සිදුකරන ලද රාජකාරීන්ට අදාලව යොමුකර ඇති අමතර සේවා ඉල්ලූම්පත් වල ගෙවීම් අනුමත කිරීමේදී බොහෝ ආයතන වල ප‍්‍රධානීන්/ විශේෂ ශ්‍රේණියේ හෙද නිලධාරීන් ඔබගේ උපදෙස් නොසලකා තම තමන්ට රුචි ආකාරයට හෙද නිලධාරීන්ගේ #කොවිඩ් වසංගතයට අදාලව ඉටු කල රාජකාරීවලට ගෙවීම් කිරීමට උපදෙස් ලබා දෙන අතර එම උපදෙස් බොහෝ විට හෙද කාර්ය මණ්ඩලයට දැඩි ආර්ථික අවාසි ගෙන දෙන බැවින් හෙද නිලධාරීන් දැඩි කනස්සල්ලට හා අසරණභාවයට පත්ව සිටී.

01. 2020. 04. 12 දිනැතිව ඔබතුමිය සියළු රෝහල් ප‍්‍රධානීන් වෙත යොමුකර තිබෙන උපදෙස් ලිපියට අනුව වසංගතයට මුහුණ දීම සදහා රජය විසින් සකසන ලද විශේෂ සේවා මුර වැඩපිළිවෙලට අනුව හෙද හෙදියන් සක‍්‍රිය සේවයේ නොයෙදුනද ඔවුන් රාජකාරියේ යෙදුනා යැයි සලකා කටයුතු කරන ලෙසට උපදෙස් ලබාදී ඇත. ඒ අනුව අදාල කාලපරිච්ඡෙදය තුල රාජකාරී කල හෙද නිලධාරීන් ඔවුන්ට හිමි කාර්ය වියුක්ත දින සහ ප‍්‍රසිද්ධ නිවාඩු දිනයන්ද (Day Off & PH) ඉහත උපදෙස්වලින් දක්වා ඇති පරිදි සේවය කර තිබේ. එසේ වූවද ඔවුන්ට එම රාජකාරී ඉටු කිරීම වෙනුවෙන් ගෙවිය යුතු දීමනා කප්පාදු කිරීමට රෝහල් බලධාරීන් කටයුතු කරමින් තිබෙන බැවින් එය වැලැක්වීම සදහා ඔබගේ 2020. 04. 12 ලිපියේ අංක 02 ජේදයේ සදහන් පරිදි සක‍්‍රීය සේවයේ යෙදුනේ හෝ නොයෙදුනේ වූවද අදාල මාසය සදහා වන කාර්ය වියුක්ත නිවාඩු දින සහ ප‍්‍රසිද්ධ නිවාඩු දින සියළුල වෙනුවෙන් හිමි දීමනා සියල්ල ගෙවීමට කටයුතු කරන ලෙස ආයතන ප‍්‍රධානීන්ට උපදෙස් නිකුත් කරන ලෙස කාරුණිකව ඉල්ලමු.

02. #කොවිඩ්- 19 #Coved- 19 වසංගතය පාලනය සදහා 2020. 03. 20 දින ඇදිරි නීතිය ක්‍රියාතමක කල මොහොතේ පටන් අද වනතුරුත් සාමාන්‍ය මගී ප‍්‍රවාහන සේවා නිසි පරිදි ක‍්‍රියාත්මක නොවන තත්වයක් තුලද බොහෝ හෙද නිලධාරීන් තම පුද්ගලීක වාහනවලින් හෝ කුලී රියකින් සේවයට වාර්තා කිරීමට වගකීමෙන් යුතුව කටයුතු කලහ. සෞඛ්‍ය කාර්ය මණ්ඩල සදහා ප‍්‍රවාහන සේවා පසුකාලීනව ආරම්භ කලද ඒවා ප‍්‍රමාණවත් නොවන අතර බස් රථ ප‍්‍රධාන මාර්ගවල පමනක් ධාවනය විය. එබැවින් සෑම හෙද නිලධාරියෙකුටම රාජකාරියට වාර්තා කිරීම සදහා අමතර පිරිවැයක් දැරීමට සිදුවිය.

එසේම තමාගේ සහ නිවැසියන්ගේ ආරක්ෂාව පිළිබදව කටයුතු කල යුතු හෙයින් තම නිල ඇදුම් හා අනෙකුත් ඇදුම් පැලදුම් සියල්ල දිනපතා සෝදා ගැනීමටත්, විශේෂයෙන් කොරෝනා ආසාදිත හා සැක කටයුතු රෝගීන්ගේ සාත්තුවේදී PPE ඇගලා සේවය කිරීමේදී එක් සේවා මුරයකදී දෙවතාවක් නිල ඇදුම් මාරු කිරීමටත් (දහදියෙන් තෙත්ව යන නිසා) සිදුවන බැවින් ඒ සදහා අමතර පිරිවැයක් දරන්නට සිදුවේ. එමෙන්ම සේවා නිමවී පැමිණි පසු තම අසල්වැසියන් මෙන්ම තමාගේ නිවැසියන්ද කිසියම් දුරස් බවකින් හැසිරිම තුල දැඩි ච්ත්ත පීඩාවකටද ඔවුන් ලක්ව ඇත.

එබැවින් මෙම කරුණු සැළකිල්ලට ගෙන හෙද නිලධාරීන්ගේ සේවා කැපකිරීම ඇගයීමටත්, ඔවුන්ගේ චිත්ත ධෛර්යය වර්ධනය පිණිසත් සක‍්‍රිය සේවයේ යෙදුන සෑම දිනක් වෙනුවෙන්ම භේදයකින් තොරව මූලික වැටුපෙන් 1/20 ක දීමනාවක් සියළු හෙද හෙදියන්ට ගෙවීමට කටයුතු කරන ලෙස වැඩිමනක් වශයෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිමු. ඊට අමතර වශයෙන් විශේෂිත කොරෝනා ප‍්‍රතිකාර මධ්‍යස්ථානවල සේවයේ නියුතු කාර්ය මණ්ඩල වෙත අමතර දිරි දීමනාවක් ලබාදීමටත් කටයුතු කරන ලෙස ඉල්ලා සිටිමු.

ස්තුතියි.

මෙයට,
හෙද නිලධාරී එස්. බී. මැදිවත්ත
ප‍්‍රධාන ලේකම්

සමස්ත ලංකා හෙද සංගමය.

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

But the government has laid down some conditions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus

Colombo, May 1 (newsin.asia): Even as a curfew will be in force in the districts of Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara and Puttalam, civilian life and state and private sector activities will be resumed from Monday, May 11, the Sri Lankan Presidential Media Division said in a press release on Friday.

In order to ensure return to normalcy in civilian life and to revive the economy including continuous provision of essential services in these districts, both public and private sector entities should resume their work from Monday, 11th May, the release said.

Heads of institutes are advised to make necessary arrangements taking into consideration of the required number of employees to run their organizations. Head of each entity should ensure strict adherence to the guidelines issued by the Director General of Health Services and other health authorities to control the spread of COVID – 19 virus while carrying out their operations.

The responsibility to decide who should come to office work and their number lies with head of the each state organization including Departments, Corporations and Boards. The private sector entities are requested to open for work at 10.00am daily.

As a measure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus the public must refrain from unnecessarily coming to roads and gathering at various other places. Buses belonging to Sri Lanka Transport Board and railway carriages can only transport employees who are reporting for work.

Civilians, except those who are essentially required to report to work, are requested to remain in their homes. People are allowed to leave their homes only to purchase essential items such as food and medicines. Corona prevention health recommendations should strictly be followed at each instance. Curfew passes issued by the Police authorities are valid only if the driver and passengers wear facemasks.

Curfew in other districts of the island except in the districts of Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara and Puttalam will only be effective from 8.00 pm to 5.00am everyday till Wednesday, the 06th of May.

The curfew which will be imposed at 8.00pm on Wednesday, the 06th of May will continue till 5.00am on May 11th.

by C. A. Chandraprema Courtesy The Island

Some members of the SLPP have expressed the fear that if the Parliament is reconvened as demanded by the opposition, the latter which has the majority in Parliament could present an impeachment motion against the President. Going by the behavior of the opposition, such fears may not be unfounded and it could be that the opposition does harbor hopes of being able to present an impeachment motion against the President if Parliament is reconvened. The requirements to carry through to a successful conclusion an impeachment motion against a President are heavy. So much so that there is absolutely no chance of such an attempt succeeding. However, there may be some in the opposition who think that by presenting an impeachment motion against the President, the dissolution of the reconvened Parliament can be blocked at least for a while.

Before the 19th Amendment, our Constitution had Article 70(1)(c) which stated that the President shall not dissolve Parliament after the Speaker has entertained a resolution to impeach the President. However, Article 70(1)(c) no longer exists in the Constitution after the 19th Amendment. Hence the President can dissolve Parliament even after an impeachment motion has been entertained by the Speaker in the reconvened Parliament – if such a reconvening takes palce.

According to Article 38(2)(a) of the Constitution, any Member of Parliament may, by a writing addressed to the Speaker, give notice of a resolution alleging that the President is permanently incapable of discharging the functions of his office by reason of mental or physical infirmity or that the President has been guilty of – (i)   intentional violation of the Constitution, (ii) treason, (iii) bribery, (iv) misconduct or corruption involving the abuse of the powers of his office, or (v) any offence under any law, involving moral turpitude and setting out full particulars of the allegation or allegations made and seeking an inquiry and report thereon by the Supreme Court.

Article 38(2)(b) states that no notice of such resolution shall be entertained by the Speaker or placed on the Order Paper of Parliament unless (i) such notice of resolution is signed by not less than two-thirds of the whole number of Members of Parliament ; or (ii)  such notice of resolution is signed by not less than one-half of the whole number of Members of Parliament and the Speaker is satisfied that the allegations made merit inquiry and report by the Supreme Court.

The opposition does have more than one half of the MPs in Parliament and the Speaker is with them, so they can in fact start an impeachment process under Article 38(b)(ii) if they wish to. Had the old Article 70(1)(c) still existed, this would then have prevented the President from dissolving Parliament again for a while until the impeachment motion either succeeded or fizzled out. If one half of the MPs in Parliament and the Speaker act in concert, the impeachment motion can be taken only as far as being ‘entertained’ by the Speaker.

For it to be taken to the next level where it is referred to the Supreme Court under article 38(2)(c), a resolution has to be passed by Parliament by a two thirds majority of the whole number of Members of Parliament including those not present. Even if the Supreme Court deems the President to be at fault as alleged in the impeachment, the latter cannot be removed from office without yet another vote by a two thirds majority of the whole number of Members of Parliament. So even if an impeachment motion gets to the point where it is entertained by the Speaker, it cannot be taken to the next level by the yahapalana political parties. But then again, all that they would want from an impeachment motion at this stage is simply to buy them some time by preventing the President from dissolving Parliament again after reconvening it.

However, as we pointed out earlier, the absence of the old Article 70(1)(c) in the Constitution means that the President can dissolve Parliament even after an impeachment motion against him has been entertained by the Speaker. The reason why Article 70(1)(c) was dropped, may have been because the 19th Amendment created a Parliament that cannot be dissolved for any reason whatsoever before the lapse of four and a half years of its term. The formulators of the 19th Amendment may also have considered the fact that it was very unlikely that any Parliament would want to impeach the President in the last six months of its tenure.

So perhaps as far as the 19th Amendment was concerned, there was no need to have a special provision preventing the President from dissolving Parliament in the event an impeachment motion against the President is entertained by the Speaker. After that four and a half year period however, the President is completely free to dissolve Parliament, even in the event where an impeachment motion against him has been entertained by the Speaker. The old Article 70(1)(c) was quite a comprehensive provision which prevented the dissolution of Parliament until the impeachment motion against the President either succeeded or failed. The absence of this provision means that if an impeachment motion is in mid-process at the time that Parliament reaches that four and a half year cut off point in the 19th Amendment, the President can simply dissolve Parliament and make short shrift of the proceedings against him!  

Argument about

government funding

At this present moment, the opposition’s main argument for demanding the reconvening of Parliament is the claim that the President does not have the authority to authorize government spending after the 30th of April. The contention being that under Article 150(3) of the Constitution, the President may allocate money to keep government services running after Parliament has been dissolved only if Parliament has not previously made provision for such matters. They contend that the yahapalana government had passed a Vote on Account that would last until 30 April and therefore, after that date, the President has no power to allocate money for the maintenance of government services.

However, it’s quite clear that what Article 150(3) of the Constitution says is firstly, that there is no need for the President to make allocations for a given purpose if Parliament has already done so – which is self-evident. Secondly, if Parliament has not made allocations for some need that arises after Parliament has been dissolved, the President has the power to make the required financial allocation, and thirdly that the President will retain this power to allocate money for the purposes of government until the lapse of three months after the date set for the first meeting of the new Parliament – a provision obviously designed to cover the days or weeks required by a new government to get its act together and to formulate a budget.

Parliamentary democracy itself would not be possible without such a provision. Similar provisions giving the head of state temporary control over government finances when Parliament has been dissolved for an election to be held has been in every Constitution we have had since independence. Viz the following:

Ceylon Constitution Order

in Council 1946

Article 67(3) – Where the Governor-General dissolves Parliament before the Appropriation Bill for the financial year has received the Royal Assent, he may, unless Parliament shall have already made provision, authorize the issue from the Consolidated Fund and the expenditure of such sums as he may consider necessary for the public services until the expiry of a period of three months from the date on which the new House of Representatives is summoned to meet.

First Republican Constitution 1972

Article 86(3) – Where the President dissolves the National State Assembly before the Appropriation Bill for the financial year has passed into law, he may, unless the National State Assembly shall have already made provision, authorize the issue from the Consolidated Fund and the expenditure of such sums as he may consider necessary for the public services until the expiry of a period of three months from the date on which the new National State Assembly is summoned to meet.

The 1978 Constitution  

Article 150(3) – Where the President dissolves Parliament before the Appropriation Bill for the financial year has passed into law, he may, unless Parliament shall have already made provision, authorize the issue from the Consolidated Fund and the expenditure of such sums as he may consider necessary for the public services until the expiry of a period of three months from the date on which the new Parliament is summoned to meet.

It will be noticed that through seven decades and three different constitutions, little has changed in this particular provision. Parliamentary democracy would not have lasted till this day if not for this provision. The most important thing to notice is that in the 1948 and 1972 Constitutions, even the nominal head of state exercised the same powers as the present elected executive President in this regard. The reason why the 1948 and 1972 Constitutions allowed the nominal head of state who was not elected, not the head of the Government and not the head of the Cabinet to exercise such powers is obviously because some suitable state functionary has to exercise the power to make financial allocations to keep government services going in situations where Parliament is no longer able to do so.

In all three constitutions, the head of state steps in to wield financial powers only if an allocation has not already been made by Parliament for the purpose at hand. Going by this standard provision which has changed so little from one constitution to the next, if the previous government had passed a Vote on Account till 30 April, well the President should carry on from where that allocation stops. Indeed the wording of this provision clearly indicates that even if the Vote on Account was still operative, but there was some need for which Parliament had not provided for in that Vote on Account, the President can step in and allocate the funds needed for that purpose.

The whole idea in having this provision is for the President to be able to do what is needed to keep things going until the new Parliament meets. It’s the height of absurdity to claim that Parliament has to be recalled to pass funds when the whole purpose of Article 150(3) is to facilitate the running of the country between the dissolution of one Parliament and the election and commencement of another Parliament. 

Courtesy Hiru News

Twelve (12) more persons have tested positive for Covid-19 (new coronavirus) infection.

The country total has increased to 702 according to the latest information by the Epidemiology unit of the Ministry of Health.

The daily numbers of the PCR tests performed have been released and the updates have captured the PCR tests conducted for the last ten days along with the patients reported.

Courtesy Hiru News

Assistant Director of the National Intelligence Service, Parakrama Silva says that all Covid-19 infected persons in the country are under their control.

He made this statement while participating in a TV talk show today

By Rohana R. Wasala

The online Asian Tribune of February 21, 2020, carried a profusely illustrated article under the title A Historical Leadership Program Launched by Professor Nandana Wijesinghe”. The event was reported to have been conducted on the weekend -14th -16th February 2020 at the Ridee Viharaya Conference Centre, Ridi(ya)gama, Kurunegala, organized by this professor who, according to the news report, heads the Department of Sociology, University of Peradeniya. Having read the Asian Tribune article, I wanted to find out something more about the university don involved, for his name was new to me. So I did a google search, and what I incidentally came across was an extremely unpleasant surprise to me as a patriotic journalist.

I am not a professional journalist in the sense of a person who is earning a living by their journalism. It is not a vocation for me, but an avocation, a hobby. I don’t write articles and have them published for any material reward or gain, financial or otherwise. My broad journalistic focus is threefold: education, culture, and current affairs; the last has dominated my attention over the last ten years out of more than two decades of freelance journalism. The overriding objective of my journalistic exertions is, apart from desired self-fulfilment, national service in the form of trying to project to a global readership, through the medium of English, a correct view of Sri Lanka’s domestic political landscape that is characterised at the grassroots level by benign and inclusive Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism. An apparent documentation error committed by Nandana Wijesinghe has betrayed or misrepresented me to the members of his specific global academic community that is relevant to my aforementioned journalistic objective as a friend of the long entrenched local and international anti-Sinhalese Buddhist propaganda brigade whose diabolical distortions have done and are still doing near irreparable damage to Sri Lanka.  Following is my story in this connection:    

Asian Tribune editor K.T. Rajasingham published an article in his online paper on September 19, 2010, that, he claimed, consisted of a part of the evidence that he had allegedly given before the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (May 2010 – November 2011). When I read this article I thought that KTR was guilty of grossly misrepresenting the facts relating to the so-called Sinhalese-Muslim Riots of 1915. So I immediately replied to him in an article under the title The Truth about the 1915 Riots” published in The Island of September 21, 2010 (http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=7150). My reply article began thus, following it with a few paragraphs quoted from KTR’s: 

QUOTE Mr K.T. Rajasingham, editor of The Asian Tribune, carried a part of his evidence given before the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission in his online daily news publication on September 19, 2010. It contained the following patently erroneous references to the so-called Sinhalese –Muslim Riots of 1915. END OF QUOTE 

The paragraphs that I quoted from KTR at the beginning of my reply article were as follows:

QUOTE After the Kandyan Rebellion of 1817-18 to overthrow British rule, the British, by a proclamation dated November 21, 1818, greatly reduced the privileges granted to Sinhalese chiefs and changed the guarantees on religion given in the Kandyan Convention. Consequently, it was absurd that the Sinhalese wanted to celebrate a clause in a convention that was no longer in force.

Also, the government agents of Kandy had informed the trustees of the Gampola Buddhist temple that in taking their annual Perahera (procession) in Kandy they would not be allowed to beat drums or play any musical instruments within 100 yards of a new mosque in Castle Hill Street.

The trustees turned to the courts, arguing that a perahera of the old Kandyan kingdom was permitted in terms of the Kandyan Convention of 1815. The District Court of Kandy decided in their favor, but on an appeal by the government the Supreme Court reversed the judgment. The trustees then appealed to the Privy Council in England.

In the meantime, Buddhist preachers went about the country urging Buddhists to demonstrate against Muslims. Incidentally, the anniversary of the birth of The Lord Buddha fell on May 28, 1915, and a procession began that night. The celebrations were marred by an incident near the mosque, where some 25 men were arrested on charges of housebreaking and rioting.

Sinhalese attacks on Muslims continued, spreading from the central province to the western and northwestern provinces until June 6, 1915. Muslims sustained heavy losses. According to available records, losses sustained included 86 damaged mosques, more than 4,075 looted boutiques and shops, 35 Muslims killed, 198 injured and four women raped. Seventeen Christian churches were burnt down…….END OF QUOTE

Professor Nandana Wijesinghe (NW) erroneously attributes to me these paragraphs from KTR’s Asia Tribune article quoted in my The Island article titled The truth about the 1915 riots” above mentioned. NW does so in a paper published in the Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Universities (JIABU, Vol. VII, 2016) titled ‘Buddhist-Muslim Collision in Sri Lanka: A Partial History’, where the first footnote reference is to me (Rohana R. Wasala) as a source of information (He gives the WEB link to my Island article). Thus, Nandana Wijesinghe, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, wrongly attributes to me KTR’s deliberate misrepresentation of the 1915 incidents. Wijesinghe doesn’t seem to have read my article at all. He must have run his eyes through the first six short paragraphs of my article (which were actually paragraphs quoted from KTR as copied above) and come to the conclusion that I was merely propagating the long prevalent anti- Sinhala Buddhist version of the 1915 unrest. This sort of crass negligence is not worthy of an academic researcher of Nandana Wijesinghe’s stature. It is regrettable that the lecturer had not read my article at all apart from taking a hurried glance at the first few paragraphs or had not read it carefully enough to properly understand it. One reason why he apparently misread the very beginning of my article was that the quotation marks duly inserted in the original text had been inadvertently omitted in a typographical mishandling committed during the digital transference/printing process at the newspaper office (which was beyond my control). But the text of my article makes it very clear that the five paragraphs after the opening (copied above) are extracts from KTR’s problematic article. That is, the opening paragraph is mine, at the end of which there is a colon (:), which  indicates a ‘list’ of the ‘erroneous references’ previously mentioned. Paragraphs 2 to 6 are reproduced from KTR’s Asian Tribune article, which contain those references. My article holds KTR’s distortion of the factual history of the 1915 clashes to derision and offers an authoritative historical account of the fateful events of that year as reflected in the famous cause célèbre known as the Gampola Perahera Case. 

The fact that I totally rejected KTR’s narrative about the 1915 Sinhala-Muslim conflict was the very reason I wrote that reply; it was just a newspaper article, though; there was nothing academic about it, but it was based on some authentic literature I had read relevant to the subject. The more important reason for Wijesinghe’s mixup was probably that he was anxious to quote something that confirmed his own prejudices.  In his paper, Wijesinghe betrays a decidedly anti-Sinhala Buddhist frame of mind. The subtitle ‘A Partial History’ could be an attempt to salve his conscience.

Nandana Wijesinghe announces his prejudices in his opening paragraphs:

QUOTE Sri Lanka is no stranger to eruptions of communal violence.  The most glaring testimony to this stands in the form of the notorious thirty year civil war that was a result of conflicting Sinhala and Tamil political ambitions.  Obviously, these expressions of violence do not emerge overnight but rather progress around a number of events spanning extended lengths of time, finally escalating into their terrible forms.  The recent controversy springing out of the Buddhist-Muslim clash clearly shows the dangerous potential of communal rifts to disintegrate societies and dissolve them in rivalry and hatred.  A look into the historical underpinnings of Buddhist-Muslim exchanges provides valuable insights into the contemporary dynamics of this relationship. END OF QUOTE

He accepts the notorious myth that the thirty-year civil war was a communal conflict, not an armed conflict between a democratic sovereign state and a treacherous terrorist organization assisted by foreign vested interests, bringing misery to all peaceful Sri Lankans. Then, what does he mean by ‘Buddhist -Muslim exchanges’? Verbal exchanges/negotiations or armed confrontations/clashes? Imprecise vocabulary is not a mark of academic writing.

Describing the background to the breakout of violence between the two communities in 1915, Wijesinghe writes:

 QUOTE Tensions between the two communities were running high with the Buddhists complaining about the increasing number of mosques springing up in the area, and the Muslims retaliating by objecting to a Buddhist procession conducted in the vicinity of a mosque.  On 29 May 1915, a Buddhist mob torched a mosque and began to attack Muslim homes and businesses.  Soon the violence spread to Central, North Western, Western, Southern and Sabaragamuwa Provinces. END OF QUOTE

This is the section (consisting entirely of fabricated information) for which he incorrectly mentions my name in a footnote as the source. To anyone who cares to read my ‘The Truth about the Sinhala-Muslim Riots of 1915’, it will be clear  that these blatant lies are not found there; not even in the extracts from KTR given at the beginning of that article, i.e., paragraphs 2 to 6. Wijesinghe must have borrowed them from some other faulty source/s, unless he has himself manufactured those fictions, which, however, is not conceivably possible.

Lankaweb online forum (November 06, 2014) carried an updated version of my Island article. I deleted the introductory part that referred to KTR, including the above mentioned extracts from his Asian Tribune article. This is the preamble to the updated article which I renamed What happened in 1915?” (https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2014/11/06/what-happened-in-1915/)

QUOTE The following is an updated version of an article of mine entitled The Truth about the 1915 Riots” published in The Island on September 20, 2010. It has been specially prepared here for Lankaweb News and Forum readers. The real cause of the disturbances traditionally described as the Sinhala-Muslim Riots of 1915” has sometimes been deliberately obscured by opponents of Sinhala Buddhists as merely something to do with the native (Sinhalese) capitalist class, just emerging under the auspices of the British, exploiting communalism to advance their interests. The truth about what actually led to the ‘riots’ was otherwise as revealed at the court case instituted in 1913 by the aggrieved authorities of a historic Devale/temple near Gampola important to Buddhists challenging the government’s subjection, at the behest of some members of an extremist Muslim group, the issue of a permit for holding an age-old perahera to the fulfillment of an unjust demand insisted on by the latter.

 The principal source of information about the famous Gampola Perahera Case was the book Studies of Some Famous Cases of Ceylon” by Walter Thalgodapitiya (Formerly of the Ceylon Judicial Service and Commissioner of Assizes), M.D. Gunasena & Co. Ltd, Colombo, 1963. The late Justice Thalgodapitiya had an unblemished reputation as an incorruptible legal functionary and a great human being of impeccable honesty. His analysis of the case is unlikely to be disputed by anyone, in my opinion. END OF QUOTE

(The Lankaweb article is available at https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2014/11/06/what-happened-in-1915/)

 To return to Wijesinghe’s JIABU paper/article, among the conclusions he draws are the following:

QUOTE Especially in light of the current upheaval in the international community regarding the Human Rights situation in Sri Lanka, it is imperative that the island strengthens its existing cordialities with friendly nations, most of whom are Muslim countries.  If domestic conditions turn unfavorable to the Muslim community in Sri Lanka, it would be logical to assume that these countries would be less inclined than they are now to show their solidarity with the island nation. END OF QUOTE

This is very shallow reasoning. It amounts to advocating an undignified offer of mea culpa to uncommitted human rights violations out of mere servility; but it was in accordance with the treacherous Yahapalana thinking. 

The concluding paragraph quoted below summarizes the anti-Sinhala Buddhist mentality of the sociological researcher, Nandana Wijesinghe.

QUOTE Buddhist-Muslim clashes in Sri Lanka, as this essay shows, are not a recent phenomenon.  However, they did become more pronounced in the recent past with the renewed interest of BBS, among others, in the Muslim community and the threat they pose to the Sinhala-Buddhist community.  Since Buddhist monks comprise a very potent tool that shapes public opinion, it is extremely important that they deliberate on their views and stances before involving the public in certain issues because though their actions are fundamentally oriented towards the preservation of Buddhism and the Sinhalese, if their actions themselves serve to warrant international interference in Sri Lanka to probe the Human Rights condition of the country, the very entities that they strive to preserve will be the first to be compromised. END OF QUOTE

It is strange that this academic was not informed enough about the existing local realities (not exclusively those uncovered with evidence by the BBS – Bodu Bala Sena) relating to the problem of the menace posed to Sri Lankans of all races and religions and worldviews, especially to Sinhala Buddhists and Tamil Hindus who together form over 80% of the population,  from Abrahamic religious fundamentalists (not from the mainstream adherents of those religions), when he wrote to that international journal. These monks do ‘deliberate on their views and stances before involving the public…’; there is nothing wrong with their actions, but whatever can they do if they are misreported to the world by indifferent media, and immature ill-informed academics? (A personal opinion)