Dr Chris D’Souza CFO & COO (Int), CMA Australia

Leadership is a responsibility. It’s not about being in charge. It’s about taking care of those in your charge.” -Simon Sinek

Never has good leadership been more critical and relevant in our lifetime than today as countries around the world struggle to fight the COVID-19 crisis. In times of crisis, good leaders rally to nurture and protect their flock.  Great Leaders with vision go beyond their own national boundaries and unite the world fostering global partnerships to work towards the common good.  However, as we struggle against an unprecedented pandemic sweeping through our world, our leaders are tackling this global crisis in very different and often controversial ways. The nature of this crisis demands global cooperation but requires action differing from nation to nation. Each country battling this crisis has very unique political, cultural, geographical and social dimensions.  The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted each country in a different manner and consequently the measures taken by leaders of different countries have varied. However, it is said that difficult times bring out the best in great leaders and arguably shine the spotlight on deficiencies and shortcomings of other leaders. Inevitably among other things the success of a nation’s leader’s during this pandemic will be judged by how well they have cared for those in their charge.

The Institute of Certified Management Accountants (Australia) commissioned a research study to evaluate the response and leadership shown in each country and to develop a Global Response to Infectious Diseases (GRID^TM) index to indicate how efficient and effective the leadership of the country and the preparedness of its health system were in tackling this pandemic. The ICMA was of the view that a country’s ranking on the index could be a motivator to a country in terms of being prepared for the next global pandemic or crisis.

The results of individual country’s performance on the GRID^TM index will be presented later in the article. First let us present an overview of the performance within specific countries and regions.

The ANZAC Response – Exceptional leadership by Scott Morrison and Jacinta Arden    

First, let us look at the leadership in the ICMA’s home country of Australia. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has emerged as a very capable leader and displayed remarkable leadership qualities in this crisis. The year 2020 had not begun well for Australia with horrific bushfires and our national leadership (particularly the Prime Minister) coming under severe criticism. Just one month later, in a dramatic turnaround, much to his credit, the very same Prime Minister Scott Morrison significantly picked up his game and upped the ante showing outstanding leadership during the COVID-19 crisis.  To start with, he created a national cabinet as a unique decision-making authority bringing together State Premiers of different political persuasions to work together on a common goal to overcome the crisis. He has also successfully overcome ideological differences with his opponents (in stark contrast to President Trump in USA); earning him the admiration of supporters and opponents alike. The result of this coordinated and carefully planned response to the pandemic is a dramatic downward trend in the number of new cases as well as active cases as illustrated in the attached diagrams from ‘worldometers’– Similar diagrams for every country are available and regularly updated on the ‘worldometers’ website.[1]

Besides the Australian Prime Minister, the Premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews has also emerged as a great leader. He led the state admirably during the bushfires and now the Pandemic. Other State Premiers have also cooperated well with the Federal government while taking appropriate statewide action.  Maybe there is a lesson for the USA to learn from here? A lesson that political differences need to be set aside and cooperation at all levels, State as well as Federal, together with a well thought-out and executed strategy, is the key to effective control of the Pandemic and any future crisis – global or national.

Before we go across the Pacific and look at leadership in America, we will look at countries closer to home. Across the Tasman, New Zealand is fortunate to have Prime Minister Jacinta Arden. Her leadership in the aftermath of the Christchurch massacre catapulted her into the international limelight; and now under her leadership in the pandemic, New Zealand seems to have achieved success like Australia in flattening the curve. Like Australia the opposition in New Zealand has cooperated with the ruling party to unite the country.

Connecting the Transparency Index with the Global COVID-19 Response 

Questions have been raised as to the reliability of the data on each country with regards to its reporting of tests, cases and deaths relating to COVID-19. Some countries have been accused of underreporting the actual impact for various reasons: economic, religious, scientific, national security, lack of transparency and sheer negligence, amongst others. Some leaders have tried to shift the blame and even conveyed misinformation to their citizens. Misinformation is some countries rises to the level of Information warfare tactics with characteristics of psychological operations (PSYOPS) to build morale among their citizens and image projection to the world at large.

As such, in developing the GRID^TM index, it was important to ascertain if there was a relationship between the level of COVID-19 information coming from a country and the transparency of the country providing the information. A country’s ranking on the Corruption Perception Index 2019 (CP Index) published by Transparency International[2]  was used as a surrogate for the level of information transparency in each country. Countries high on the list are perceived as being less corrupt and more transparent, and thus the COVID-19 information from them could be assumed to be more reliable.

It is interesting to note that the ANZAC countries are ranked high on the CP Index 2019; with New Zealand 1^st and Australia 12^th out of 180 countries. Three other countries in the Asia Pacific region that seem to be managing the crisis very well are Japan (20^th on the CPI), South Korea (39^thon the CPI) and Singapore (4^th on the CPI). These countries are comparatively higher on the CP Index than most of their Asian counterparts. These higher ranked Asian countries have leadership styles that are very different to that of the ANZACs. However, if you accept the fact that success in controlling the virus as measured by flattening the curve is a good barometer of leadership, then it can be accepted that these countries have demonstrated good leadership. Among countries ranked high on the CP Index is Hong Kong (16^th on the CPI) – however; the level of independence of its leadership from China has been questioned by some, and a factor in the infamous HK riots of 2019. The Chinese response and leadership during the crisis seems to have worked for its citizens; with reports coming out of China that it has successfully contained the outbreak. There have been doubts raised in the Western media, however, on the reliability of the data coming out of China (China is ranked a lowly 80^th jointly with 5 others including India, on the CP Index).

It is hard to commend or compare the success of leadership of countries that lack transparency. This is largely because there is not enough testing done in these countries, and also because in many cases the quality of the data coming out of these countries is in serious doubt. This includes some countries in the Middle-East, which though ranked higher on the transparency index due to perceived low corruption, are perceived to have unreliable data to evaluate effectiveness.[3] However, the leadership in most of these countries have locked down their citizens and are in a position to impose restrictions on their residents at will.

South Asia

India has a very strong central Government with the ruling party having a large majority in their parliament which has allowed Prime Minister Modi to enforce a 21-day complete lockdown. The success of this lockdown which has now been extended till the end of April 2020, will be evaluated in the weeks to come but yielded disturbing chaotic scenes of migrant workers fleeing the major cities en masse as their livelihoods disappeared. These scenes call into question how well the lockdown was planned and executed by India’s leadership.

Individual state leaders in India will also be judged for their leadership skills. In Mumbai, the commercial capital of India, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Udhav Thackrey, has emerged as a decisive leader acclaimed even by his political detractors.

As the contagious coronavirus cuts through India, the little islands of good news in these terrible times have been the performance of individual chief ministers such as Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan, Rajasthan’s Ashok Gehlot, Maharashtra’s Uddhav Thackeray, Chhattisgarh’s Bhupesh Baghel, Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal and the irrepressible Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal (Chaturvedi, 2020).[4]

The central government, however, is facing a divided nation just emerging from riots fueled by the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act 2019. An important aspect to be noted here is that India possesses a very unique diversity, comparable to none globally; and is the world’s largest democracy with over a billion people. Its approach has to be also unique and different from non-democratic countries like China and the Middle-East, and also different from that of western democracies.

In India, the first COVID-19 infection was reported in Kerala on January 20. From early March, the virus started to spread across India; currently, 30 out of the country’s 36 States and Union Territories (UTs) are affected. The government’s failure to detect, trace and isolate infected persons in the nearly two-month-long window of opportunity it had to protect people from the coronavirus shows its irresponsible handling of the COVID-19 crisis (Wilson, 2020).[5]

Great Leadership is different from populism – The Indian Prime Minister like many other leaders around the world is arguably a populist. This is evident from some of his popular actions like getting all Indians to clap hands at the same time and on another occasion getting everyone to turn the lights out and light candles ‘diyas’ for 9 minutes at 9pm. Popularity and populism will not win the battle against the Pandemic. The true test of his leadership will be how well he manages the fallout from this pandemic, irrespective of his popularity.

Consider India’s leadership response to that of neighbouring Sri Lanka. As the origin of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan was announced, Sri Lankan authorities started to take vigilance in stopping the potential danger. The military forces and the national intelligence service were put on high alert. The government created specialized aviation and border control expert teams, to track the movement of all inbound tourists and with a potential threat. Sri Lanka was one of the first countries to send rescue missions to Wuhan to evacuate 33 Sri Lankan families. The families were brought down via an exclusive carrier and quarantined in a unique quarantine military facility. All potential contacts were observed continuously under quarantine. Those in the military facility were given full access to information; and there was no government control of information, hence increasing its reliability.[6]

This explains why although Sri Lanka is placed a lowly 93rd in the CPI ranks; it is ranked 10th on the GRID^TM Index alongside countries such as Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The reason Sri Lanka responded so well is because Sri Lanka has a public health system which is free for all citizens. Going hand in hand, Sri Lanka has had a free education system until graduate school for the last 60 years; thanks to which it has trained thousands of well-qualified healthcare professionals and paramedical workforce for many decades through well-regulated and state of the art medical faculties covering all regions of the country; all free of charge. The doctors and paramedical staff receive post-graduate training and continuous medical education throughout their career. The island nation also has a robust century-old community health program. Health statistics such as maternal and child mortality rates are the lowest in the region. In fact, comparable to the western world. The life expectancy is highest in the region. The nation is 100% vaccination covered, and all treatments under the extended program of immunization are administered free of charge.

European Union

The European Union, UK and USA are currently the nations that are worst affected by the pandemic – the top 5 affected countries in the world being USA, Spain, Italy, France and Germany. Nine of top twelve affected countries are in Europe, Out of all the European countries seriously affected by COVID-19, Germany has best managed this crisis – not so much in containing the outbreak but in managing the fallout from the outbreak – `with a mortality rate below 2%. Germany was hampered by its open borders with the rest of Europe, specially Italy, which led to the high number of cases in the country. However, it seems to have managed the crisis exceptionally well.  The New York Times has credited Chancellor Angela Merkel’s leadership as one reason the fatality rate has been kept low.

Ms. Merkel, a trained scientist, has communicated clearly, calmly and regularly throughout the crisis, as she imposed ever-stricter social distancing measures on the country. The restrictions, which have been crucial to slowing the spread of the pandemic, met with little political opposition and are broadly followed” (Bennhold, 2020).[7]

Arguably the Worst Response – USA

History will be the judge of the leadership of the crisis by its President, Donald Trump. Opinion in the US is bitterly divided along partisan lines but from outside the US it is very clear that so far, his handling of the COVID-19 crisis has been disastrous and might potentially result in hundreds of thousands of lives lost.

Trump initially declared the virus to be hoax perpetuated by his political opponents and at every step of the denial he has bumbled along playing partisan politics and severely reprimanding the press for asking questions.  He refuses to take any responsibility and keeps repeating that the pandemic is not ‘his fault’. The utter unpreparedness and disarray of the USA for a pandemic indicates an appalling lack of leadership on Trump’s part, as well as the limitations inherent within the US when trying to implement nation-wide responses. The 2018 disbanding of a National Security Council unit set up by President Obama to focus on pandemic preparedness is an appalling lack of vision on the part of the Trump administration. The loss of stockpiled respirators to breakage because the federal government let maintenance contracts lapse in 2018 is a callous decision by the Trump administration that could otherwise prevent loss of precious lives in times of a pandemic like current COVID-19. The failure to store sufficient protective medical gear in the national arsenal represents the Trump administration’s failure towards protecting America’s valuable healthcare professionals. The gob-smacking spectacle of States bidding against other states for equipment, paying many multiples of the pre-crisis price for ventilators, shows an appalling lack of management skills by Trumps federal administration. Moreover, his constant public flip-flopping in his attitudes towards, and responses to the crisis, have confused the public.

Air travellers summoned home and forced to stand for hours in dense airport crowds alongside infected people – demonstrates a lack of nurturing and care towards the American people. Ten weeks of insisting that the coronavirus is a harmless flu that would miraculously go away on its own, is a clear indicator of Trump’s lack of understanding and reckless train of thought. The refusal of Republican State Governors to act promptly as illustrated by the failure to close Florida and Gulf Coast beaches until late March, are further proof of a lack of leadership at the highest levels. No doubt these State Governors share some of the blame, but the buck stops with President, Donald Trump. As President of the USA, he could have insisted they be closed, but he did not.[8] Experts increasingly point to President Trump’s willful negligence as a primary cause of the pandemic’s intensity, but MSNBC legal analyst Glenn Kirscher, takes things a step further, arguing controversially that Trump could be legally liable for coronavirus deaths after he leaves office.

I actually think he will see charges brought in each jurisdiction in which people have died as a result of his gross negligence. So, I have a feeling that he has got a lot of criminal legal exposure coming at him beginning in January 2021.[9]

The impact of the failure of Trump’s leadership are stark and clear for all to see – at the time of writing the COVID-19 cases confirmed in the US are well over half a million, and the President of the USA is on record as saying that restricting the death toll to 200,000 would be considered a great achievement. Clearly, this leader shows a remarkable lack of care for the people in his charge.

Global Response to Infectious Disease (GRID^TM) to Evaluate the Global Response and Leadership

In constructing a GRID^TM Index to evaluate the Global Response and Leadership in the COVID-19 Pandemic, an algorithm was developed incorporating the number of tests per million of population (weighted positive score) , the number of deaths per cases (weighted negative score), the number of deaths per million of population (weighted negative score), the number of cases per million of population (weighted negative score) and the CP Index (weighted positive score). The Raw data for the purpose of this ICMA research study was obtained from the worldometer[10] website. The reason for using these numbers are as follows:

• Percentage of cases tested to population indicates readiness of the health system to handle a pandemic.
• Percentage of cases to tests ratio indicates community spread of disease.
• Percentage of deaths to cases ratio indicates efficiency of health care system.
• Deaths per million of population indicating overall performance effectiveness of a country’s response.
• Percentage score above a benchmark CP Index indicates the reliability of the information provided.

Some of the results obtained in the GRID^TM Index for are provided in Appendix 1.

Against each country, the comparative CP Index score and rank from Transparency International is shown besides the GRID^TM Index ranking. Apart from a few outliers, there seems to be a positive co-relationship between the two Indices. To start with, both the Indices have a common leader – New Zealand. Australia ranks 4^th in the GRID^TM index which is better than its ranking of 12^th on the CP Index. That is partly because of its unique geographical and other factors, all of which would have been totally useless if its leadership had not stepped up to the plate.  On the other hand, European countries have been badly hampered by geopolitical factors like open borders and climatic factors such as the colder climate. Let us compare South Korea with the USA, since both countries had their first case of COVID-19 on the 20^th of January – USA ranks 23^rd on the transparency Index and South Korea ranks 39^th. On the GRID^TM index score, South Korea ranks 8^th in its efficiency and effectiveness in its response, and the US ranks 70^th mainly because of President Trump’s abject failure and inability to protect his people. South Korea reacted quickly and decisively testing and isolating in record numbers early in stark contrast with Trump who buried his head in the sand calling the virus a hoax perpetuated by his political opponents. The result was that lives were saved in South Korea, and lives were tragically lost in the USA. The death toll in the US is currently 23,644 (as of 14^th April, 2020) and was growing by 2,000 a day; whereas the death toll in South Korea is 222.

Many countries seem to be doing relatively well on the GRID^TM Index, based on the fact that the virus is only just beginning to take effect in those countries.  Brazil is an example where the behavior and leadership style of its President Jair Bolsonaro is very similar to that of Trump. Like Trump, he is fighting the Governors of states that are taking the Pandemic seriously. Consequently, the Pandemic is now exploding in Brazil with about two thousand new cases every day and over a hundred deaths each day. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, also followed these myopic leaders in asking Mexicans to live life as normal”, even as his health minister asked people to stay home. The Pandemic is rising in Mexico and their death toll is rising. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also took things lightly even shaking hands with Covid19 patients, and he almost paid for this irresponsible behavior with his life. Luckily for him, he got the best VIP treatment the NHS could provide and access to an ICU and is now recovering. Other citizens of his country have not been as lucky with a death toll currently near 9,000 which is an astonishing 10% of the confirmed cases.

The crisis is far from over. It is clear from the data we have so far that the actions of leaders in this Pandemic will either save lives or cost lives. The countries with good leadership at the helm will be able to save more lives and the countries where the leadership is either callous, negligent or inefficient will pay a heavy price for the failures of its leaders.

The GRID^TM index algorithm is constantly being refined as new information comes in. What we have provided here are the results of the first iteration. The performance of individual countries might change in the coming days and so will their position on the index. For example, Singapore handled the initial outburst of COVID-19 cases very well without locking down their economy. Now they too are forced to close down with the second spike of cases. However, it helps that they have a leader at the helm who said:  We are transparent – if there is bad news, we tell you. If there are things which need to be done, we also tell you. If people do not trust you, even if you have the right measures, it is going to be very hard to get them implemented.” [11]

Singapore is high on both the CP Index and the GRID^TM Index.

For most of us born post World War II, this is the biggest unprecedented crisis our world has faced in our life time. Our leaders will be judged by their performance during the course of this crisis. Some leaders have already failed their constituents and other leaders have stepped up to the plate. In this ongoing Pandemic and the biggest crisis of our lives, the requirement for good leadership has never been greater. Leaders who show genuine empathy and efficiently take care for the citizens of their country will be remembered and those who fail the test with misguided agendas and mediocre leadership will be judged harshly by history.

[1] https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

[2] Transparency International – Corruption Perception Index 2019 https://www.transparency.org/cpi2019

[3] APF (2020), WHO demands more data on virus from Mideast states”, Business Standard, https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/who-demands-more-data-on-virus-from-mideast-states-120031801522_1.html

[4] Swati Chaturvedi – From Thackeray To Gehlot, Effective Corona-Fighting In States – NDTV April 7, 2020, https://www.ndtv.com/opinion/gehlots-bhilwara-model-sets-standard-for-corona-fight-2207491

[5] James Wilson – Test not find not – Frontline April 10, 2020, https://frontline.thehindu.com/cover-story/article31272654.ece

[6] Health Review Global (220), Sri Lanka and Coronavirus, https://healthreviewglobal.com/sri-lanka-coronavirus-update-setting-a-global-example/

[7] Katrin Bennhold – A German Exception? Why the Country’s Coronavirus Death Rate Is Low – The New York Times, April 4, 2020 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/04/world/europe/germany-coronavirus-death-rate.html

[8] David Frum – This Is Trump’s Fault – The Atlantic – April 7, 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/americans-are-paying-the-price-for-trumps-failures/609532/

[9] Deconstructed, Is Donald Trump Criminally Responsible for Coronavirus Deaths?” – The Intercept,2 April, 2020 https://theintercept.com/2020/04/02/is-donald-trump-criminally-responsible-for-coronavirus-deaths/

[10] https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

[11] Olivia Ho Coronavirus could take years to run its course: PM Lee – The Straits Times – 30^th March, 2020.  https://www.straitstimes.com/politics/coronavirus-could-take-years-to-run-its-course-pm-lee

Courtesy Adaderana

Archbishop of Colombo His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has appealed to all Sri Lankans to observe a two-minute silence at 8.45 am on April 21, in remembrance of those who were killed in the terrorist carnage on Easter Sunday last year.

In a media briefing at the Archbishop’s House in Colombo today (16), the Cardinal requested the public to observe the two-minute silence at their respective homes, without holding any gatherings.

Speaking further, he noted that all the programs that were planned for the one-year commemoration of Eater attacks have to be adjusted due to the situation that prevails in the country.

Few suggestions made by the Cardinal to commemorate the victims of the carnage are as follows:
•Ringing the bells at all churches at 8.40 am on April 21. (The Cardinal also made a request to Buddhist temples to ring the bells in solidarity.)
•Observing a two-minute silence
•Lighting a lamp and observe religious practices at homes

The Cardinal also commended the government for continuing the investigations into the Easter Sunday terror attacks.

Courtesy Adaderana

Currently, 68 patients have recovered from the coronavirus infection and discharged from the hospitals, says the Department of Government Information.

Thereby, 5 patients have completely recovered and discharged within the day.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka has reported no new COVID-19 positive cases as of 5 pm this evening (16), says Director-General of Health Services Dr. Anil Jasinghe.

Accordingly, there is no change to the total number of coronavirus patients found in Sri Lanka, which is 238.

Currently, 163 active cases are under medical care at Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH), Welikanda Base Hospital, Colombo East Base Hospital and Iranawila Hospital.

The island has confirmed 7 fatalities from the novel coronavirus. 

Courtesy Adaderana

Meeting with the secretaries to ministries yesterday (15) at the Presidential Secretariat, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa discussed rebuilding the economy in the face of the current challenges.

Returning to normalcy without compromising safety 

A focal point of the discussion was on returning to normalcy, stated president’s Media Division. Thereby, the President emphasized the need for the public and private sectors to recommence its business activities. Thus curfew needs to be eased to allow these functionalities to proceed without undue obstruction. The responsibility of ensuring the public adhering to safety regulations and preventing large gatherings was entrusted on the secretaries to the ministries as well as heads of institutes. 

Creating a New Economic Trend

Rebuilding a policy-driven economy is the responsibility of all, noted President. Whilst protecting people and the local economy, the responsibility of creating a new economic trend lies with the ministries. It is important to establish new businesses and industries. Experienced entrepreneurs must have fresh opportunities. The relevant ministries must at the same time extend the required foundation and support needed for agrarian and fisheries sectors as well as other businesses to recover. 

Taking the global crisis into consideration, the need to pay special attention to the local agrarian economy was underlined. Facilities needed to maximize production of export agricultural crops from available land must also be provided, President instructed the officials. Thus it is very important that even the farmer at the village level has easy access to the State machinery. 

Recommencing stalled development projects 

The discussions also centered on restarting the development projects that were halted due to the prevailing crisis. As a starting point, the initiation to add 100,000 km to the existing road network was decided to be prioritized.

Secretary to the President P. B. Jayasundara, Principal Advisor to President Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary to the Prime Minister Gamini Senarath and Cabinet Secretary S. Amarasekera also joined the discussion.

Courtesy Adaderana

The government of China has donated yet another batch of medical supplies to Sri Lanka, said the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka.

Accordingly, the batch of medical supplies is to be air-freighted from Shanghai to Colombo by China Eastern Airlines tomorrow (17).

The latest batch of governmental aid includes:
 
–  20,016 test Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Nucleic Acid Diagnostic Kits(PCR-Fluorescence Probing) 
–  10,000pc Medical Protective Face Mask (Filtration rate≥95%); 
–  100,000pc Surgical Face Mask (3-layers); 
–  10,000pc Disposable Coverall (Type: one-piece coverall); 
–  1,000pc Medical Goggle (Anti-splash, Anti-impact, Anti-fog);  
–  50,000pair Single-use Rubber Surgical Gloves (Material: natural rubber latex),
   
The Chinese government has also included a total CIP price of US Dollar 693,191.2, as well.

The Embassy of China says that ‘it avails itself this opportunity to renew to the Sri Lankan government, her people and all the medical workers the assurances of its highest consideration, respect, and best wishes in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic’.

By Rohana R. Wasala

The Island newspaper of April 10, 2020, in a front page news report (PB ‘reads Election Act’ to EC chief”), published  a letter dated April 06, 2020 addressed to the Chairman of the Election Commission Mahinda Deshapriya by Presidential Secretary P.B. Jayasundara, which was in response to two letters from the former to the latter dated March 31 and April 01, 2020 under the title ‘Parliamentary Election 2020 and Date of Summoning of the New Parliament’. The president’s secretary expresses surprise ‘that letters which have been sent for the attention of His Excellency the President by the Election Commission, in respect of the official functions of the President of Republic, have been released to the press, prior to the receipt of the letters by this office and that the same have also been copied to several others’. He also points out that though the commissioner is obliged to give an alternative date for the election in the gazette notification issued under Section 24(3) in the event it could not be held on the originally specified date of April 25, 2020, regrettably, he has failed to do so, as the presidential secretary remarks. The highest civil administrative further explains that deciding the date of the election is the responsibility of the Election Commission and that the president has no wish to interfere with the duties and obligations of the EC. The presidential secretary finally informs the EC chairman that the question of consulting the Supreme Court in terms of Article 129 of the Constitution does not arise. (But EC member Ratnajeevan Hoole points out {as reported in Sunday Island/April 12} that it is still the case that averting a constitutional crisis is in the hands of the president, because only the president could consult the apex court about the matter, in Hoole’s opinion.)

An important aspect of the backdrop to the allegedly looming constitutional q impasse may be inferred from the following circumstances: At a time when politicians in general had earned a bad name largely due to the irresponsible behaviour of some elected buffoons in the dysfunctional parliament that was dissolved on March 02,2020, non-politician Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, a former Secretary of Defence, and also, of the Urban Development Authority, was elected by the people of Sri Lanka with the largest majority ever (over 1.3 million votes) to the post of executive president. Sri Lankans had been driven to despair by the Yahapalanya (2015-19) that, some of its critics rightly or wrongly felt, rode roughshod over the innocent majority Sinhalese at the behest of foreign powers with geopolitical axes to grind and separatists and INGOs parasitizing on those global powers unilaterally condemning them (the Sinhalese) as racists, xenophobes, chauvinists, and so on, whereas the truth is that the Sinhalese majority are the victims of racism, xenophobia, chauvinism, and other similarly reprehensible attitudes on the part of their critics (who should not be identified with the ordinary members of the minority communities that they falsely claim are illtreated by the majority community). It is suspected that these anti-national elements dominate/manipulate the media, especially the English press. Misinformation keeps the truth buried and out of sight. Because of this,  the term ‘international’ has become synonymous with the word ‘anti-national’ from the point of view of ordinary Sri Lankans. But nationalists always welcome and reciprocate the goodwill of other nations, subject to the principle of non-interference in each other’s internal affairs. 

Unfortunately, it has begun to look as if the EC, appointed under the failed Yahapalana  regime,were in sympathy with this anti-majority/Sinhalese mentality, and as if it (the EC) were sharing the opposition’s fears of parliamentary elections being held in the near future before the electorate has had enough time to forget about their past misrule. (But some of the defeated politicos of the opposition now seemingly favour early elections, apparently believing that the Corona-hit conditions have made the government unpopular enough for them to recoup their past electoral losses. As far as Hoole is concerned however, the Covid-19 pandemic is a godsend for him to try and get the president to seek supreme court advice in the hope or his wishful thinking that its decision would be favourable to the opposition side.) The conduct of two of the three members of the Commission, chairman Mahinda Deshapriya and member Ratnajeevan Hoole, is confirming the popular perception that they have a strong anti-majority bias. Hoole, compromised his credibility as a member of the EC, in addition to the integrity and independence of that honourable body, when he, among a number of others, challenged the dissolution of parliament in November 2018, thereby potentially seeking to prevent the holding of elections for a new parliament, for, by doing so, he appeared to be trying to rob the people of their right to vote at a critical juncture that demanded a change of government. In any case, the dissolution of parliament by the previous president was declared unconstitutional and the administration formed under Mahinda Rajapaksa came to an end limiting its existence to just 51 days, during which, they claimed, they were able to impede the disastrous course that the Yahapalanaya was set on, thereby preventing it from rushing some greatly harmful legislation through parliament. Before that, Hoole, while still being a member of the EC, egged on TNA’s Sumanthiran (then MP) ruling the roost in a parliament emasculated through the premature unraveling of the unholy Yahapalana alliance like Hedda’s  ‘the only cock in the yard’ in Ibsen’s play ‘Hedda Gabler’, (a description she used to taunt Brack, the friendly but unwelcome stalker, for always using ‘the back way’ for drawing her attention). For his part, chairman of the EC Mahinda Deshapriya was once heard, if my memory is not wrong, making a casually enigmatic remark to the effect that in a multiethnic democracy the view of the majority was not the correct one! 

With the quietly menacing entry of the impact of the global Covid-19 crisis into the island and the growing intensification of activities on a national scale aimed at containing it, involving the governmental health and security departments, Mahinda Deshapriya began repeatedly reminding/warning politicians, particularly government party politicians, against trying to make political capital out of those activities. Constitutionally, he has a right to do so in the post-dissolution period pending elections, but the bias he shows in this context perceptibly in favour of one party (the opposition side) and to the detriment of the other (government side) is unacceptable, to say the least. When an election has been announced, politicians in the ruling party naturally tend to draw such criticisms from the opposition ranks, whether they are guilty of abusing their functional authority for political advantage or not. Nominations having been accepted, the contestants are now known. Some unscrupulous ones among them are likely to promote themselves by participating in relief operations aimed at helping people stranded in an indefinite countrywide lockdown situation. However, it is not fair to expect them to focus on expressly demonstrating their candour in this connection instead of on successfully executing the tasks assigned them by their respective leaders in the COVD-19 pandemic related emergency. Their participation is indispensable, but how genuine their commitment to the national endeavour is hard to determine. They need to be given the benefit of the doubt.  In reality, therefore, the EC chairman is vulnerable to the accusation of politicising the Covid-19 emergency to the advantage of the opposition and to the disadvantage of the governing party. The leader of the National Freedom Front Minister Wimal Weerawansa directly addressed Deshapriya on air from a live interview at Derana TV with anchor Dilka Samanmalee on April 6 and gave him a comprehensive hard hitting answer over this particular issue; Weerawansa demanded that Deshapriya first stop Hoole politicizing the Corona crisis, which the latter was unashamedly still doing. Hoole had told the BBC, quite falsely as usual with him, that under Gotabhaya the country was moving towards a dictatorship. Weerawansa pointed out that it was not possible for the government and the health and security services alone to successfully handle the national Corona control effort; they needed the fullest participation of all including the opposition parties and alliances. Elections could be held when the conditions are safe. The EC had the constitutional authority to fix the date of the election.

Lanka C News (April 15) reported  Ven. Alle Gunawansa, a known supporter of the Gotabhaya-Mahinda government, as having stated that though there appear to be a group that is pushing for an early election, the idea should not be entertained until the country is completely safe from the Corona affliction. At a time when the president, the tri-services and the health authorities are successfully handling the epidemic containment job, they need to be allowed to finish it properly. No doubt, this is the government’s attitude. 

චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම

කොරෝනාව නිසා දේශපාලන වාසි ගන්නට ගහ ගන්නා දේශපාලකයින් කොතෙකුත් සිටිනවා වියහැකිය. මා දන්නා රටවල් දෙකක් ඇත. ඇමෙරිකාවේ ජනාධිපති, ප්‍රාන්ත ආණ්ඩුකාරවරු හා දේශපාලන පක්‍ෂ දෙක එසේ කොණ්ඩවලු පටලවා ගනිමින් සිටී. ලංකාවේ මා දකින්නේ මීට වෙනස් දෙයකි. එහි තිබෙන්නේ ලෝකයේ වෙන කොහේවත් නැති කැත, කුහක, දේශ ද්‍රෝහී, බලු හැසිරීම්වල සම්මිශ්‍රණයකි.. මහජනයා විසින් බලයෙන් පහකල යහපාලන හොරු රැළක් විසින් (ජේවීපීද ඇතුළුව) කෙසේ හෝ ආසන කීයක්වත් දිනා ගැනීමේ ඒකායන අභිප්‍රායෙන් කියන මෝඩ කතාය. මේ කතා නිසා රැවටෙන අවංක මෝඩ චන්දදායකයින් සතුටු කිරීම මොවුන් ලබන චූන් එකය. ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය විසින් ගෙනයන කොරෝනා කළමනාකරණ වැඩපිළිවෙල මේ කුහකයින්ට විඳදරා ගත නොහැකිව සිටී. නිදොස් කෙනෙක් මෙදියත උපදනේ නැත කියන පරිදි මෙම කළමනාකරණයේ නොයෙක් අඩුපාඩු ඇතිබව සැබෑය.

ලංකාවේ දැනට ඇත්තේ බකල් කරණලද, අසංවිධානාත්‌මක, පක්‍ෂ දේශපාලන ගැත්තන්ද සහිත රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරී පරිපාලන තන්ත්‍රයකි. මේවා සුද්ද කිරීමට ලීක්වාන්ලා අවශ්‍ය නැත. ආණ්ඩු විරෝධී ග්‍රාම සේවකලා, සමෘධි නිලධාරීන් සිටිනවා නිසැකය. එහෙත් මම, හිටපු ජනාධිපති චන්ද්‍රිකා, මහින්ද හෝ සිරිසේන කෙනෙක් නොව මම ගෝඨාභය, මට ඉන්නේ පරණ අයගේ උපදේශකයින් සෙට් එක නොව, අළුත් කණ්ඩායමක් යයි කියනු ඇසෙන විට රට වැසියා, විශේෂයෙන් සිංහල බෞ‌ද්‌ධ චන්දදායකයා ඉන් ඉමහත් අස්වැසිල්ලක් ලබනවා නිසැකය. එහෙත් මේ කියමන රනිල්, සජිත් පිල් දෙකට, සරත් ෆොන්සේකාට හා ජේවීපීකාරයින්ට ඉවසා ගත නොහැකි කම්මුල්පාරක් නොවේද?

එක අතකින් මේ කුහක හැසිරීම, ජාති ද්‍රෝහී හැසිරීම පුදුමයට කරුණක්ද නොවේ. රනිල්, රවි, කිරිැල්ලෙලා, ප්‍රභාකරන් හරහා ඒ කාලේ කලේත් මෙයමය. ලංකාවට විදේශ ආධාර නොදෙන්නයි ඉල්ලන තරමට රනිල් දුෂ්ටයෙක් විය. පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ අයවැය පරදා යුද්‌ධය ආපස්සට හරවන්නට මොහු ගත් වෑයම වැලැක්‌වූයේ විමල් වීරවංශ විසින් ජේවීපි පිරිස සමඟ කල අභ්‍යන්තර අරගලයක් මඟිනි. මේ යුද්‌ධය නම් කවදාවත් දිණන්න බෑ කියන්නට අනුර බණ්ඩාරනායක පවා අන්‌ධයෙක් විය. තොප්පිගල කියන්නේ කැලයක්, සල්ලි තියෙනවා නම් ඕනෑම ගොනෙකුට වුනත් යුද්‌ධ දිණන්න පුළුවන්, අලිමංකඩ කියා පාමංකඩ යනවා, කිලිනොච්චි කියා මැදවච්චි යනවා, හමුදාපති සැල්වේශන් හමුදාපති යනාදි ගොන් කතා කී මේ කල්ලියේ අළුත් ගොන්ම ප්‍රකාශය නම් රනිල් විසින් බීබීසී එකට කිව්වා කියන, නිලධාරීන් කොරෝනාව පාලනය කලා එහෙත් ආණ්ඩුව අසමත් වුනා යන කතාවය. රනිල්ගේ ජාති ද්‍රෝහී හැසිරීම නිසා ඔහුට උරුමවූයේ එක දිගටම චන්ද පරාජය වීම නමැති රෝගයය. ඔහුව එලවා ගැනීමට පාක්‍ෂික කල්ලි නොකල දෙයක් නැත්තේ රටට ආදරයටම නොවන බව දැන් කුරුඳුපොලු කාරයින්ගේ හා සජිත් පිලේ කොරෝනා කතා වලින් එලිවන්නේය.

මේ කුහකයින්ගේ හැසිරීම මතක් කරන්නේ මඟ සිටියොත් තෝ නසී, ගෙදර ගියොත් අඹු නසී යන කියමණය. ආණ්ඩුව මොනදේ කලත් මුන් දකින්නේ එහි වැරදි පැත්තක්‌මය. සජිත් පාමසි දොස්තර වැඩේ කරන්නට ගොස් නා ගෙන සමාව ඉල්ලා සිටියේද භාගෙටය. සමහරු ඇඳිරි නීතිය වැඩි කරන්න කියති. තවත් සමහරු ඒ නිසා මිනිස්සු බඩගින්නේ මැරෙණවා කියති. රංජන් ඒ අස්සේ දේශපාලන රැස්වීම් හා සම්භාහන වැඩ කරගන්නේ, තමා වැඩිම මනාපය ගත් මන්ත්‍රී කියමිනි. ඒ අස්සේ සුවපති, නැව්පති රාජිත ඔහුට නම් දින තුනෙන් මේ කොරෝනාව මර්‌ධනය කල හැකිව තිබුණා කියයි. සරත් ෆොන්සේකාත් හොට දමමින්, ලොක් අවුට් එක දාන්න ප්‍රමාදවුනා කියයි. පාසැල් වැහුවේ ගුරු සංගමයේ වැඩවර්‍ජනයට බයේ යැයි කලින්ම කියූ හිරුණිකා බබා දැන් නිහඬය. ජේවීපී කාරයින් කියන්නේ මොනවාද කියා මට මතක නැත. මොකක් හෝ අපභ්‍රංස, කෙස් පැළෙන තර්‌කයක්ම වියයුතුය. හැමදේම කියන්නේ චන්දය කල්දමා ගැනීමේ අරමුණින් බව හැමෝගේම පොදු සාධකය බව නම් පැහැදිලිය. ඒ අතර පරණ ජරා, කොළඹ බටහිර තානාපතිලාට අනුව ලෝකයේම උතුම්, පාර්ලිමේන්තුව, ආපසු කැඳවන ලෙස මැකෝ දේශප්‍රිය අල්ලාගෙන කරණ බැලුමක්ද විය. හරියට කොරෝනාව මේ අඥාන රැළේ හිස් ඔළුගෙඩි වලට එකපාරටම ඥාන-කල්කයක් විද්දා කියා සිතාය.

මේ ආයතනය බොරුවක් බවට හොඳම සහතිකය දුන්නේ පාලිත තේවරප්පෙරුමය. ඔහුට අනුව පක්‍ෂ නායකයින් ස්‌වල්ප දෙනෙක් සෙසු මන්ත්‍රීන් හරක්සේ සළකමින්, ඔවුන්ට නොයෙක් වරදාන (අල්ලස්) දෙමින් ගේමක් ගෙනයයි.කොරෝනාවට මුවාවී ගෝඨාභයට මඩ ගැසීමට, දවසකට කෝටි ගණන් වැයකර මොවුන්ට නොමිලේ කන්න සපයනවා හැර වෙන විශ්වක‌ර්‌ම වැඩක් මොවුන්ට පහලවේවිද? ගෝඨාභය විසින් මේ බැලුමේ හුලං යවන ලදී. පාලිත කරණ අන්දමට පාරට බැස සාගින්නෙන් පෙලෙන ජනයාට කෑම බෙදීම වෙනුවට, මේ ප්‍රාණ වලට ඕනෑ දියවන්නා ඔයේ ගුබ්බෑයමටම රිංගීම නොවේද? මේ අය අතර යම් තරුණ හොඳ අතලොස්සක්ද සිටිනා නමුත් ඔවුන්ට කලහැකි දෙයක් නැත.

මැතිවරණ කොමිසමේ සාමාජික, යහපාලන ගැත්තෙක්‌වූ, හූල් විසින් රට ඒකාධිපතිවාදය කරා යනවා යයි විදේශ මාධ්‍යවලට කියමින් සිටී. කොරෝනාව විසින් රටට ඉගැන්‌වූ වැදගත්ම පාඩම නම්, රටේ මේ තියෙනවා කියන නාස්ලණු ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය, ක්‍රමාණුකූලව, සංශොධනය කල යුතු බවය. ලෝකයේම ඕ මයි ගොඩ් කියන අය අතට අත දීම අත්‌හැර ඉන්නා කාලයක මෙය කජු කන්නා වගේ රාජකාරියක් නොවේද? ජනයා අසංවරලෙස හැසිරෙණ ආකාරය, සමෘධි හිඟන දීමනාව ගම් මට්ටමින් මිනිසුන් පක්‍ෂ ලැයිතු අනුව බෙදන ආකාරය, ඔවුන් ඇත්තටම ආත්මගෞරවයක් නැති හිඟන්නන් කර ඇති හැටි මහියංගන ගම් ප්‍රදේශයක දේශපාලක වල්ග සමෘධි නිලධාරිණියකට කල හිරිහැර (පැය භාගයක යූටියුබ් වීඩියෝවක්) මඟින් එලිවේ.

පන්සල, පොලිසිය, යුද හමුදාව, ජන මූල සභාව, ග්‍රාම සේවා වසමක ඉන්නා රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරීන් පස් දෙනා (ග්‍රාම සේවක, ආර්ථික සංවර්‍ධන නිලධාරී, සමෘධි නිලධාරී, සෞඛ්‍ය නිලධාරී, කෘෂි පර්යේෂක නිලධාරී) සමූපාකර සමිතිය, සණස යන මේ ආයතන මඟින් ජනයාගේ මූලික අවශ්‍යතා වන ආහාර, වස්ත්‍ර, ආවරණ, සෞඛ්‍ය-සනීපාරක්‍ෂාව, පාරවල්, ගමනාගමනය, පෙර පාසැල්, වැව් පිළිසකර කිරීම යනාදිය පක්‍ෂ දේශපාලකයාගෙන් තොරව ඉටු කිරීමේ වැඩපිළිවෙලක් සැදීම ඒකාධිපතිවාදය නම් ඊට විරුද්‌ධවන්නේ, දැනට, බොරු ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය හරහා සැප විඳින, රට සූරා කන, රට කැඩීමට ක්‍රියාකරණ කළු සුද්දන්, එන්ජිිෝ ඩොලර් කාක්කන්, විදේශ ඔත්තුකාරයින් පමණය. කොළඹ ධනපතියන් මෙන්ම මොන උප්පරවැට්ටියකින් හෝ සල්ලි ගොඩගසාගත් ගම්බද සරොං කාරයිනුත් මේ කළු සුද්දන් ගනයට වැටේ. ගැමි දිරිය නම් දේශපාලකයාගේ මැදිහත්‌වීමෙන් තොරව ගෙනගිය සාර්‌ථක ව්‍යාපාරයක් නොබෝදා රටේ තිබුණ බව බොහෝ දෙනා නොදනී. ජන මූල සභා අනුගමනය කල යුත්තේ ඒ නතර කල මඟ මිස දිවි නැඟුම-සමෘධි නියාමක පාර නොවේ.

Aloysius Hettiarachchi

In trying to take advantage of the lockdown that we have been subjected to, I decided to read a book on digital technology from which I had previously read here and there, this time with a determination of understanding it better. It had been written by a famous professor (US) who had inspired the likes of Linus Torvalds and the Norwegian duo Alf and Vegard (college students) to invent the Linux operating system and the AVR technology, respectively. The AVR technology in particular is used in many electronic devices today. This professor is old (same as me) but is still serving in a famous university in the Netherlands. And it dawned on me that this is an opportune moment for GOSL to take advantage to enlighten many youths (and even adults) about the digital technology using the electronic media and their ICTA guys.  Yesterday morning I was watching a TV program in ITN in which one psychologist taking part in the program said that normally our guys, when they go for an international event always take a back seat. Perhaps this may be the reason why we are backward when compared to those in countries like Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand and even India which were way behind us in the 60s. In the field of digital technology also we seem to have taken a backseat even though many businessmen come on various forums and talk about AI etc.  

1. To my mind there is no need for knowledge in science or engineering to understand the basics of digital technology; it is simple as understanding “yes” or “no”, “high” or “low”, 12 volts, 5 volts and 3 volts of batteries and the current flows in metal wires. Steve Jobs’ training was only on Cartography, but he was quick to understand the need for the computer to have a Graphical User Interface (GUI) and took the advantage along with Bill Gates and created the computer (and the mobile) that we use in our everyday life today. This was a huge loss of opportunity to Xerox which actually spent for the development of that technology in Polo Alto research facility. So, the smart guy who make use of the opportunity always wins.
2. The headquarters of manufacture of digital devices and products now is not the US (or UK & Germany) today, but Taiwan; this dispels the myth that a good knowledge of English is a prerequisite to gain knowledge of digital technology. Watch the video in the link given below to see how they ridicule this myth:

        ; TechNexion PCB design and manufacture in Taiwan

• The Prez should get his ICTA team that comprise professors, lecturers and Industrialist to give a series of lectures to students in A’level classes as well as in Universities explaining the basics in the computer organization as the lady in the link given below does. This may be given in Sinhala using the new terms that are used these days. This lady has a crash course that can be followed if necessary. I have observed that it is the top guys in any governmental organization that does the biggest damage to the country by staying put without contributing much. Software development is not digital technology; one does not need any knowledge of internal combustion engine to drive a car. Software development can be done without knowing any digital technology as long as one knows how operate a computer. I therefore believe that Prez should give them targets to be achieved in a definite time frame and should not keep them beyond that even if they try to help him in various ways or sing hosannas.

        ; Crash course1 on digital technology, the history

        ; Crash course3 Logic Gates

• It is the private sector that has helped countries to achieve greatness except in the case of Russia. It was IBM, Xerox, Apple, Microsoft etc in the US, ARM in the UK, Samsung in Korea and Acer and TSMC in Taiwan that has helped those countries to earn billions and improve the living standard of their people. (The recent pandemic shows that these countries ,except Taiwan, have been solely depending on these technologies for survival). These are all hardware companies except in the case of Microsoft but they too are constantly following the trends in hardware and that is why they send updates from time to time in trying to maintain the hardware acceleration etc. by even upgrading the booting system remotely all the time. I therefore feel that the government should encourage startups in this field by making things easier for such companies to operate in this field.
• It was in the news that the current PM even gave funds (Rs. 180 million) as early as 2014 to Moratuwa university to set up a facility for PCB design using software, whether they actually made use of it is not known. I give below two videos to explain what I am talking about; these are free open source software:

        ; KiCad, PCB design using cad syst

          ; PCB design

• I have visited couple of exhibitions recently including the one at Homagama ICT campus couple of months ago and found that the guys who were there to explain their ware did not have a good understanding of the controllers their exhibits make use of. For example the technical guy who was displaying the operations of a drone did not know the controller it was using. They had mounted a standard Raspberry Pi 3 as the controller which can use standard software that can be downloaded. But the drone lacked stability. If there are academics worth their salt who bring these items, they should design controllers using the facilities provided by the government and also enlighten their technical staff as to how they operate. Perhaps ministry of education should buy the kits the guy in the following two videos is using to demonstrate how an 8 bit computer can be made on just about ten bred boards and simple chips all of which costs no more than US$ 250.  The second video explains the basics of a building a graphics card. This will demonstrate how a simple computer can be built. The chip 6502 was the processor (8 bits) on which both BBC Micro and the Apple 11 computers were built and computer enthusiasts (including those of the ARM engineers) had experimented while our academics were concentrating on revolutions.

               Eight bit computer

        ; World’s worst video card

Founders of Microsoft, Bill Gates and Paul Allen not only had an intimate knowledge of the Basic and C languages they used (for the MSDOS system) but also had a good knowledge of the underlying hardware layers on which the microprogram operated. They had the confidence to leave the university courses they followed and start their endeavor that became the most valuable company in the world. After leaving the university they first enlisting themselves on a project with Washington road department for traffic count. The ‘engine’ of the laptop on which I am typing this today (Intel Core-i7 CPU on a 2016 Dell machine) is only an extension of Intel 8008 machine made in 1972 that they used in 1973.  And this machine had so many problems the Microsoft seems to have been trying to solve from the time I bought it. They seem to have tried to gain hardware acceleration at the same time to keep it power efficient at the expense of poor users. The display of my computer was not stable from the time I bought it in 2016 in a foreign country and it stayed that way until quite recently when they had remotely updated it with a different booting system (UEFI). I had seen people coming from distant places like Badulla carrying the same laptop to service centers in Unity Plaza in Bambalapitiya in Colombo saying their computer is not waking up from hibernation.  

Michael Dell was also a student in a university who experimented in building computers with cheap parts and when he found that his products were selling fast dropped out of uni to build his own company. He seems to be still experimenting in plants spread around the world. This particular machine I am using had been assembled in Malaysia but was unable to solve the problem when the vendor sent it there. So, why not our guys also embark on such ventures without fear?.

Because of the Corona virus our people have got the opportunity to make things like robots, ventilators, sanitizers etc for which we would have had to spend large amount of forex. So, necessity is the mother of invention and what I can say is automate, automate and automate for the next level. I have done this with software using AI techniques since 1990 in many of my projects, although it is only recently people have started talking about it

 To my mind education as tool to keep parents and children occupied is just wastage of resources and time; it is alsonot the solution to develop our economy. It did not happen in Korea or Taiwan, it will not happen in Sri Lanka either; it will only produce more jobless graduates the GOSL has to take care of while those who do science and engineering will have no option other than to emigrate and still do menial jobs overseas. To my mind our guys working in big software companies here and abroad are doing jobs similar to those of house maids but in a more dignified way.

I appeal to GOSL to get their experts in the field of digital Technology to come forward and give a series of lectures that may be useful to students (and even adults) using the TV channels that has been freed from Teledramas and make the best use of enforced holiday. If this is done may be in the near future we will have not billionaires (we already have them in the US?) but challenge the likes of Elon Musk who owns Tesla. The following video describe his efforts:

        ; Will Elon Musk be the first trillionaire

This video below gives an assessment of the ventilator basics and how Teslas machine made with car parts compares with a real commercial one. This is for the Vega guys who built their own ventilator with their car parts.

        ; Tesla Ventilator (food for thought of Vega engineers).

I am open to take both criticism as well as any kind words as I had to, 30 years ago.

Dr sarath obeysekera 

OPD of all hospitals are closed, there is no rush in the emergency ward. Private hospital make an enormous amount of money from people who tend to attend the OPD for a mild cough and cold 

Doctors are given a financial reward for ordering tests which may not really be required 

They are also paid for admitting patients 

With corona, all these malpractices have stopped.

No new patients are coming apart from corona obstructed patients.

There are no accidents due to the lack of vehicles on the roads. People do not so summoneth liquor and stop smoking this saving state funds to treat them when they fall sick of drinking and smoking 

Cases of heart attack, blood pressure, brain hemorrhage have suddenly reduced.

People tend to do meditation which reduces stress 

One of my friend who has psoriasis told me that the mediation had drastically reduced skin ailment due to steeds relief 

What has happened so suddenly that the cases of diseases have fallen so much?  Even the number of dead in the crematorium has decreased.

Has Corona controlled or destroyed all other diseases?

*No, Absolutely not?*

 Actually, now the reality is coming out that even where there is no serious disease, doctors were deliberately giving it serious form.

Ever since the influx of corporate hospitals, testing labs came into this country, the crisis had started deepening.

People were being forced to do tests worth thousands of rupees even in mild cold, cold and cough.  Operations were being carried out indiscriminately even in a small amount of trouble.

Patients were being kept in ICU.

More fear of illness was felt through treatment.

Now after Corona, how will

Does all this suddenly stops?

In addition, there is another positive change.

Due to the arrival of Corona, there has been a curb on people eating in the hotel.  People have started to prefer home food more than outside street food and even big hotels.

Many unnecessary spending of people has stopped.

Corona has changed the thinking of human beings.

Every person is awake.

*If you really understand how little needs are there to live in peace, then it can get rid of diseases, food and money concerns to a great extent. *

Tomorrow corona will be controlled, with that our life, which has been controlled today.

If we keep it in control in the same way, reduce the requirements, then life will become very pleasant and beautiful indeed.

*This is a bitter truth?*

*Definitely think about this once.*

Dr Sarath Obeysekera
CEO Walkers Colombo Shipyard
Colombo
Sri Lanka

Gamini Sarath Godakanda

The Pathfinder Foundation has set up a study group chaired by Pathfinder Senior Fellow and former Central Bank Governor, Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy to prepare a set of action-oriented recommendations aimed at steering the Sri Lankan economy into the post-COVID-19 era. Dr. Sisira Pinnawala, Department of Sociology University of Peradeniya and Dr. Ganeshan Wiganaraja, Executive Director, Lakshsman Kadirgamar Institute will serve as principal authors for this initiative. The report is expected to be presented to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa before the end of April.

Other members of the Study Group, which will consist of twenty leaders from academia, research and the private sector, include Prof. Sirimal Abeyratne, Prof. Saroj Jayasinghe, Prof. Rohan Samarajiva, Prof. Muttukrishna, Sarvanthan, Mr. Ashroff Omar, Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, Mr. Krishan Balendra, Mr. Mohamed Mushin.

Recently,  the Pathfinder Foundation was responsible for preparing 1) A National Security Strategy for Sri Lanka 2020 and  2) Study on Managing Foreign Policy and Relations with the UN System, both of which were presented to President Rajapaksa.

Gamini Sarath Godakanda

ජනමාධ්‍ය නිවේදනයයි ලංකා ගුරු සේවා සංගමය

අතිගරු ජනාධිපති,
ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්‍ෂ මැතිතුමා,
ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලය,
කොළඹ 01.

ගරු ජනාධිපතිතුමනි,

අධ්‍යාපනය සම්බන්ධව ජනාධිපති කාර්ය සාධන බලකායක් පිහිටුවීම සම්බන්ධවයි.

ඔබතුමාගේ නියමය පරිදි ආණ්ඩුක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 33 වන ව්‍යස්ථාවේ පැවරී ඇති බලතල ප‍්‍රකාරව ජනාධිපති ලේකම් පී. බී. ජයසුන්දර මහතා විසින් අංක 2169/2 හා 2020. 03.31 දිනැතිව නිකුත් කර ඇති අතිවිශේෂ ගැසට් පත‍්‍රයක් මගින් ජනාධිපති කාර්ය සාධන බලකායක් පත්කර ඇත. එමගින් ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවේ ප‍්‍රාථමික, ද්විතීයික හා තෘතියික අධ්‍යාපන ක්‍ෂේත‍්‍රයන් කාලීන අවශ්‍යතාවයන්ට උචිතවන සේ නවීකරණය කිරීමේ අවශ්‍යතාවයත්, මේ වනවිට උද්ගතවී ඇති කොරෝනා වසංගත තත්ත්වය හමුවේ අධ්‍යාපන ක්‍ෂේත‍්‍රයේ කිසිදු අයුරකින් පසුබෑමකට ලක්නොවී අඛණ්ඩව ඉදිරියට පවත්වාගෙන යාමේ ක‍්‍රමවේදයන් යොදා ගැනීමේ අවශ්‍යතාවත් අවධානයට ලක් කරමින්, සාමාජිකයින් 26 දෙනෙකු ඊට ඇතුළත් කර ඔවුන්ට බලතල පවරා ඇත. මෙම කාර්යසාධන බලකාය සම්බන්ධව ලංකා ගුරුසේවා සංගමය පහත සඳහන් කරුණු කෙරෙහි ඔබගේ අවධානය යොමු කිරීමට කැමැත්තෙමු.

02. මෙම කාර්ය සාධන බලකායෙහි සාමාජිකයින් 26 දෙනා පත්කිරීමේදී විශේෂයෙන් අධ්‍යාපන ප‍්‍රතිපත්ති සම්පාදනයෙහි ලා කටයුතු කරන ජාතික අධ්‍යාපන කොමිෂන් සභාවට අවස්ථාවක් ලබාදී නැත. එමෙන්ම අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යාංශ යටතේ බලපැවැත්වෙන ජාතික අධ්‍යාපන ආයතනය හා විභාග දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව මෙන්ම මෙහි විවිධ ක්‍ෂේත‍්‍රයන් නියෝජනය කරන වෘත්තීය සමිති යන ආයතනද මින් බැහැර කර පෞද්ගලික පාසල් හා අර්ධ රාජ්‍ය පාසල් හිමිකරුවන්ට මුල් තැනක් ලබා දී තිබීම මෙහි කාර්ය සාධනය හා අරමුණු කෙරෙහි අනිසි බලපෑම් එල්ල වීම වැලැක්විය නොහැකි වනු ඇති බව දැඩිව අවධාරණය කරමු.

03. තවද මෙහිදී විශේෂයෙන් මෙරට අධ්‍යාපන ප‍්‍රතිපත්ති සම්පාදන ක‍්‍රියාවලියේ දී සෘජු වගකීම් දරන ජාතික අධ්‍යාපන කොමිෂන් සභාව මෙහි සාමාජිකයෙකු නොවීමත් ගේට්වේ පාසල් සමූහයේ ව්‍යාපාරිකයෙක් හා අර්ධ රාජ්‍ය පාසල්වල විදුහල්පතිවරුන් දෙදෙනෙක් සාමාජිකයින් වීමත් තුළ වර්තමාන ආණ්ඩුවේ ම අධ්‍යාපන ප‍්‍රතිසංස්කරණ කවර දිශානතියක් ගන්නේද යන්න මැනවින් පිළිබිඹු කරන්නකි.

04. එමෙන්ම මෙම පත් කිරීම් හා බලතල පැවරීම තුළ අධ්‍යාපන හා උසස් අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යංශය යටතේ මෙන්ම නිපුණතා සංවර්ධන අමාත්‍යාංශය යටතේ බලපැවැත්වෙන රාජ්‍ය යාන්ත‍්‍රණය තුළට සෘජුවම අතපෙවීමට මෙම පිටස්තර ව්‍යාපාරිකයින්ට අවස්ථාව උදාකර දී ඇත. එහිදී මෙම අමාත්‍යංශය සතු බොහොමයක් දත්ත ඔවුන්ගේ අතට පත්වීම වැළැක්විය නොහැකි වනු ඇත. එමගින් මෙරට සිසු දරුවන්ගේ නිදහස් අධ්‍යාපන අයිතීන්ට බරපතළ අභියෝගයන්ට මුහුණ දීමට සිදුවීම වැලැක්විය නොහැකි වනු ඇති බව අපගේ විශ්වාසයයි.

05. තවද මෙම කොරෝනා වසංගතය හමුවේ නිදහස් සෞඛ්‍ය හා නිදහස් අධ්‍යාපන අයිතීන් වල බොහෝ වටිනාකම් රටත් ජනතාවත් ඉදිරියේ වඩවඩාත් දැනෙමින් හා තහවුරුවෙමින් පවතින අවස්ථාවකි. පසුගිය දශක ගණනාව තුළ මෙම අයිතිවාසිකම් බරපතළ ලෙස සංවාදයට ලක්ව ඇත. නමුත් මහ මැතිවරණයක් අභියස මෙරට අධ්‍යාපනයේ ප‍්‍රතිසංස්කරණයක් සඳහා කාර්ය සාධන බලකායක් කඩිමුඩියේ මෙසේ පත්කිරීම මවිතයට කරුණකි.

එහෙයින් ඔබගේ බලතල ප‍්‍රකාරව විචක්ෂණභාවය, සාමාර්ථය සහ විශ්වාසවන්තභාවය කෙරෙහි මහත් වූ භක්තිය හා විශ්වාසය මත පත්කළ බව සඳහන් මෙම කාර්ය සාධන බලකාය අවලංගුකර ඍජුව ම ආණ්ඩුක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවෙන් ද තහවුරු කර ඇති නිදහස් අධ්‍යාපන අයිතීන් ආරක්ෂා කර එය වඩාහිඳුවීමට සමත් ආයතනික නියෝජනයක් සහිත වගකීම්සහගත පාර්ශවයන්ගෙන් සැදුම්ලත් නව කාර්ය සාධන බළකායක් ස්ථාපිත කිරීමට කටයුතු කරන ලෙසත් එසේ නොවන්නේ නම් මිට එරෙහිව ලංකා ගුරු සේවා සංගමයට සෙසු වෘත්තීය සමිති සහ වෙනත් සිවිල් සංවිධාන ඒකාබද්ධව ඉදිරි ක‍්‍රියාමාර්ග වලට අවතීර්ණ වීමට සිදුවන බව මෙයින් දන්වා සිටිමු.

ස්තූතියි.

මෙයට,
විධායක සභාව වෙනුවෙන්,
මහින්ද ජයසිංහ
ප‍්‍රධාන ලේකම්,
ලංකා ගුරු සේවා සංගමය.

පිටපත්
ලේකම් – උසස් අධ්‍යාපන, තාක්‍ෂණ හා නවෝත්පාදන අමාත්‍යාංශය
ලේකම් – අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යාංශය
ලේකම් – නිපුනතා සංවර්ධන, රැුකීරක්‍ෂා හා කම්කරු සබඳතා අමාත්‍යාංශය

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Provincial health authorities said that the measures taken to combat the coronavirus have been effective

Colombo, April 15 (newsin.asia): Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday explored the possibility of an immediate resumption of day-to-day economic activities at the provincial level to sustain the national economy.

Several representatives of the health sector including all Provincial Directors of Health briefed the President on the current situation in the country.

The provincial health authorities said that the measures taken by the government to combat the coronavirus have been effective compared to the rest of the world.

President instructed the Provincial Directors of Health to make necessary recommendations required to maintain normal activities in the industrial, agricultural and business sectors through the Director General of Health.

One of the main objectives is to pay a special attention to the livelihood of daily wage workers.

However, decisions to relax current restrictions will be taken only after consideration of the health situation at each provincial level.
Individuals who are infected with Corona virus at each province, people they have associated with and the current quarantine process were some of the topics discussed.

Attention was also paid to the system of identifying infected people on daily basis.

The President also inquired about the present conditions at quarantine centers and the changes needed to be made.

Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Secretary to the President, P.B. Jayasundara , Principal Advisor to the President, Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary Defence Major General (Retired) Kamal Gunaratne, Secretary to the Ministry of Health, Bhadrani Jayawardena, Chief of Defense Staff and Army Commander Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy, Rear Admiral Piyal De Silva, Commander of the Air Force, Air Marshal Sumangala Dias, Acting Inspector General of Police C. D. Wickremaratne and Director General of Health Services Dr. Anil Jasinghe attended the meeting, the Presidential Media Division said.

BY JAMES CHAPPLE Courtesy ttg

The carrier has suspended regular flights until 30 April, but is operating selected special services to repatriate visitors.

Limited commercial flight options otherwise remain for Britons seeking to return from the island nation, according to the Foreign Office (FCO) – which has confirmed the Saturday flight.

However, the FCO will not operate dedicated rescue charters until all commercial options are exhausted, and has urged any Britons still in Sri Lanka to return home by commercial means if possible.

“Sri Lankan Airlines have extended the suspension of regular flights until at least 30 April,” said the FCO, which updated its travel advice for Sri Lanka during the early hours of Wednesday morning (15 April).

“However, they will operate a special flight (UL503) from Colombo to London on 18 April. Sri Lankan Airlines have confirmed that seats are available on this special flight.

“Qatar Airways services have been reduced to one flight per day to Doha, with onward connections to the UK. The airline tell us that they intend to keep operating this route for as long as possible. We are unable to say how long that might be.”

The new FCO advice adds: “Airlines operating via the United Arab Emirates, including Emirates and Etihad, have suspended flights out of Colombo indefinitely.

“Some airlines are changing flight schedules with little prior notice. You should keep in close contact with your airline or travel agent.”

The FCO has, meanwhile, convened a rescue flight from Nepal, which will operate on Friday (17 April) from capital Kathmandu.

By Rathindra Kuruwita Courtesy The Diplomat

Beijing first stepped forward to assist Colombo, a move with geopolitical ramifications.

While countries like Sri Lanka have the capacity to implement a pandemic lockdown, they need technical assistance to test the extent of the spread of the novel coronavirus and to determine when it is safe to lift imposed restrictions. They also need funds that can help them weather the economic recession forecasted in the coming months. The World Bank expects a recession in Sri Lanka in the coming months with forecast growth between -3 percent to -0.5 percent for 2020 while PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) expects Sri Lanka’s economy to grow under 2 percent in 2020 if the country manages to contain the COVID-19 pandemic by the middle of the year.

To open up the economy in addition to ensuring that there will not be an outbreak after curfews are lifted, Sri Lanka and others in similar situations need technical assistance to contain the spread of the virus and a model to can follow. China is willing to offer both.

China to the Rescue?

Like many developing nations with extensive government structures, Sri Lanka has responded to COVID-19 with aggressive quarantining, imposing a partial lockdown and by promoting social distancing. Currently, Sri Lanka has entered the fourth week of curfew mandating that Sri Lankans, apart from those engaged in essential services, remain home. While this has ensured that the spread of the disease is low (233 cases by April 15) the country needs to greatly expand its testing capacity and it also needs masks, ventilators and personal protection equipment (PPE), which are in short supply. 

This is a situation faced by many nations in the developing world that have organized quarantines, but lack the technical capacity to ensure that an adequate number of people are tested. Testing is important to diagnose those with the virus and to work out how far the virus has spread in the country; this in turn will allow nations to decide when to lift their lockdowns and to attempt to bring about normalcy. Sri Lanka carried out around 150 PCR tests on average between March 25 and 30 and it has increased that up to 300. However, the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA), a professional body comprising of Sri Lanka’s doctors, insist that the country has over 42,000 people who have had contacts with those who have tested positive for COVID-19 and that at least 1,500 tests need to be carried out daily. Moreover, Sri Lanka suffers from a lack of resources and organizational skill to scale up testing. The inability to scale up testing has caused tensions between the GMOA and the Ministry of Health. Given the situation, the Sri Lankan government has turned to the international community for aid and technical assistance. 

China first stepped up. Between late March and early April, the Chinese government and companies that are involved in major projects in Sri Lanka have donated a large amount of masks, PPE, and test kits. Among these companies are China Merchants Port Group (CMPort), the parent company of Colombo International Container Terminals (CICT) and Hambantota International Port Group (HIPG); CHEC Port City Colombo, the company behind the project building a financial centre on 269 hectares of land reclaimed from the sea; Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC), which has won the contracts to build a number of infrastructure projects, including an airport highway; China National Aero-Technology International Engineering Corporation (AVIC-ENG), which built infrastructure projects from highways to water supply projects and Huawei; and a telecommunications giant with an office in Colombo.

China has also granted Sri Lanka a concessionary loan of $500 million, upon request, to aid its efforts to combat COVID-19. Chinese Acting Ambassador Hu Wei earlier presented Sri Lankan Minister of Health Pavithra Wanniarachchi a document that details lessons learned in China’s handling of COVID-19, which could be used by Sri Lankan authorities in their own battle against the pandemic.  Sri Lanka also received 20,064 detection kits (PCR-Fluorescence Probing) for COVID-19 from Jack Ma, whose foundation is currently donating 1.8 million masks, 210,000 test kits, 36,000 protective suits, plus ventilators and thermometers to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. 

The United States promised $1.3 million to help protect healthcare workers and slow the spread of the virus with infection prevention and control support.” The European Union (EU) said it will provide a 22 million euro ($24 million) grant to support Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 response. These pledges came on April 9, long after Chinese assistance began flowing.ADVERTISEMENT

Winning the PR War

This also follows favorable media coverage about the manner in which China tackled the COVID-19 epidemic. In recent weeks Sri Lankan doctors and security officials, two groups that have won admiration from the general public for the role they play, have continuously praised the decisiveness of the Chinese government and the discipline of the Chinese people. Thus the methodologies China used to tackle COVID-19 in Wuhan are seen as a model Sri Lanka can follow; this is a situation that can be observed in many countries that have received Chinese assistance. With continuous aid, which makes China seem like a friend in need and the positive coverage of their COVID-19 response, many people no longer see China as the origin of the virus but a model which is to be emulated. 

As earlier mentioned, what countries in the third world lack are the technical means of dealing with COVID-19, from PPE to test kits. In a discussion with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Chinese President Xi Jinping suggested a new Health Silk Road,” through which China will share the lessons learned in combating COVID-19 with partners around the world. China was the first country to respond to Italy’s calls for aid; as such, China won a major PR victory in a country that has been the most open EU nation to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Similarly, Chinese Acting Ambassador to Sri Lanka Hu Wei already shared the Chinese experience with Sri Lankan authorities, even before Sri Lanka imposed a lockdown. This approach has been also used in Serbia, where Chinese specialists have de facto taken charge of their containment efforts. The Chinese assistance turned Serbia from a potential coronavirus hotspot to a relative success story. After the arrival of Chinese specialists, testing is being massively increased and the  Serbians are now also using hospitals to house people with mild symptoms, to prevent them from infecting their families. Sri Lanka is also aggressively separating those who have been potentially exposed to COVID-19 into detention centers. All steps taken from China’s playbook. 

There is a school of literature that highlights the role of aid as a foreign policy tool. Bernhard Reinsberg in 2019 demonstrated that a number of countries had used aid as a part of campaigns to become a temporary member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). This is neither a new phenomenon nor one practiced by one country. In their Introduction to the Geopolitics of Foreign Aid, Helen V. Milner and Dustin Tingley claim that the richest states in the world have used transfers of goods, services, and funds as a means of interacting with other countries” and that while it is hard to pinpoint which goals aid actually achieves. But aid has always had geopolitical ramifications.” 

Foreign aid and loans have been a substantial share of the total government budget of Sri Lanka for decades. Especially in the years following the civil war, Sri Lanka has increasingly turned to non-traditional development partner financial disbursements and government and sovereign bond sales. According to various reports Sri Lanka’s 2017 market borrowings, which included International Sovereign Bonds and Sri Lanka Development Bonds accounted for 53 percent of foreign debt, up from just 3 percent in 2000. 

While Sri Lanka has a reputation for honoring its loans, given the economic slowdown following the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings and the impact of COVID-19, Sri Lanka urged its debtors to give it more time to pay back its loans. It will be difficult for Sri Lanka to access funding from international markets, given the high interest rates; it is likely that the country will seek assistance from donor nations. Given the economic impact of COVID-19, very few nations are likely to be in a position to assist Sri Lanka and so far only China has offered a concessionary loan of $500 million, to be paid in 10 years. As the country struggles to keep its economy going, a large number of companies have announced cuts to salaries and staff. Sri Lanka’s export sector, especially garments and tea, are expected to suffer heavily and, with a large number of migrant workers losing jobs, it is not unrealistic to expect that Sri Lanka will increasingly fall into China’s orbit.

Rathindra Kuruwita is a journalist and a researcher from Colombo, Sri Lanka. He holds a MSc in Strategic Studies from S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, NTU, Singapore. He writes on security and international relations to several publications and has written extensively on Sri Lanka – China relationship.

Courtesy Adaderana

The curfew currently in force in the districts of Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara,  Puttalam, Kandy and Jaffna which have been identified as High Risk Zones will continue until further notice, the President’s Media Division announced.

In all other districts, curfew will be lifted at 6.00am tomorrow, Thursday, the 16th April and will be re-imposed at 4.00 pm on the same day. Curfew in these areas will be effective until 6.00 am on Monday, the 20th April.

Imposing curfew in these districts after 6.00am on April 20th will be notified later, the statement said.  

The sole purpose of these measures including imposing curfew is to ensure the well-being of the people of this country in this critical situation.” Hence, the Government requests the public to bear the inconveniences caused as a result of ongoing curfew in a responsible manner.

Also, the Government emphasizes to purchase only the most essential items and to avoid unnecessary travelling. 

The Government further requests to limit the traditions and relationships during the Sinhala and Tamil New Year only to the members of the family.

The government has put in place a mechanism to continuously supply essential food and other goods enabling the public to purchase them while at homes, during curfew hours, the PMD said.

Those who are engaged in paddy farming and fishing and cultivation of small tea holdings and export crops in any district are permitted to carry out their activities.

Traveling to and from all districts has been completely prohibited except for the purpose of providing essential services.

Those who misuse regulations introduced with the prime objective of ensuring the smooth and efficient functioning of essential services will severely be dealt with according to the law, the statement added.

The villages which have been declared isolated areas in any district will remain in the same category.  No one will be allowed to enter or leave from these areas until further notice.

Courtesy Adaderana

UPDATE: The Department of Government Information says that the COVID-19 cases count in Sri Lanka stands at 238 as 5 positive cases were identified today (15). 

Four out of them have been found from quarantine centres and two of them were under quarantine at the facility in Palaly when they tested positive for the virus, the Department said.

The other coronavirus-infected person is reportedly a patient who was receiving treatment at a hospital.

The total count of COVID-19 infections in Sri Lanka has jumped to 237 as two more persons tested positive for the virus as of 8.0 pm today (15).

Accordingly, four coronavirus cases were identified during the course of the day.

The Department of Government Information says these four cases were reported from quarantine centres.

167 active cases are under medical care at Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH), Welikanda Base Hospital, Colombo East Base Hospital and Iranawila Hospital, the Ministry of Health stated.

Sri Lanka’s tally of coronavirus recoveries climbed to 63 today as two patients were discharged from hospital after recovering completely. The island has confirmed 7 fatalities due to COVID-19 so far.

Courtesy Adaderana

Investigations have revealed that Riyadh Bathiudeen –brother of former Minister Rishad Bathiudeen–has had direct links with an Easter Sunday suicide bomber.

Police Media Spokesman SP Jaliya Senaratne revealed this at a special press conference held at the Department of Government Information today (15).

On a day close to April 21, Riyadh Bathiudeen had met with one of the suicide bombers at a reputed hotel, said the Police Spokesman.

The suspects arrested yesterday (14) had borne titles at various welfare societies and organizations alongside the suicide bombers. It has been revealed that some suicide bombers had donated land and invested money into these organizations.

This is a very complex investigation. The investigation is being carried out through various aspects and links. Many teams are investigating along the different aspects of the investigation”, said Senaratne.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has arrested 119 individuals over the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks while the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) has arrested 78 suspects.

Senaratne said that 40 suspects at the CID and 52 suspects at the TID are being interrogated under detention orders.

Further, 33 suspects are currently under remand custody, the spokesman added.

Courtesy Adaderana

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa chaired a meeting at the Presidential Secretariat today (15) to explore the possibility of immediate resumption of day-to-day economic activities at provincial levels in order to safeguard the national economy.

Several representatives of the health sector including all the Provincial Directors of Health briefed the President on current situation in the country, the President’s Media Division said.

President instructed the Provincial Directors of Health to make necessary recommendations required to maintain normal activities in the industrial, agricultural and business sectors through the Director General of Health.

Decisions to relax current restrictions will be taken only after considerations of health situation at each provincial level.”

One of the main objectives is to pay a special attention to the livelihood of daily wage workers, the statement said.

Individuals who are infected with Corona virus at each province, people they have associated with and the current quarantine process were some of the topics discussed. Attention was also paid to the system of identifying infected people on daily basis.

President also inquired about the present conditions at quarantine centers and the changes needed to be made.

The provincial health authorities said that measures taken by the government to combat the coronavirus was effective compared to the rest of the world.

President Rajapaksa said that this prevailing situation also provides an opportunity to assess the current situation as well as to pay attention to the steps that should be taken to improve the strategy.

Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Secretary to the President, P.B. Jayasundara, Principal  Advisor to the President, Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary Defence  Major General (Retired) Kamal Gunaratne, Secretary to the Ministry of Health, Bhadrani Jayawardena, Chief of Defence Staff and Army Commander Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy, Rear Admiral Piyal De Silva, Commander of the Air Force, Air Marshal Sumangala Dias, Acting Inspector General of Police C. D. Wickremaratne and Director General of Health Services Dr. Anil Jasinghe  attended this meeting.

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka Navy deployed its Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) SLNS ‘Samudura’ to seize a vessel loaded with a large consignment of drugs in high seas about 548 nautical miles (985km) off Sri Lankan shores. 

The drug carrying vessel along with the suspects in connection to this drug racket were brought to the Dikkowita fisheries harbour this morning (15).

The navy said the interception is a result of a successful operation carried out by Sri Lanka Navy based on information received from persons aboard vessels seized in high seas on 28th March. 

Based on that information and by analysing local and international intelligence, it was revealed that there was another vessel loaded with drugs heading to Sri Lanka and a drug-consignment from that vessel to reach Sri Lankan shores. 

Responding promptly to the situation, on March 30, the Offshore Patrol Vessel SLNS ‘Samudura’ was sent out for a 14-day operation in high seas, the navy said.

It is in this backdrop, SLNS ‘Samudura’ was on surveillance in the said sea area and received several satellite images from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). After further analysis of these satellite images, the ship was directed towards the equator. 

Meanwhile, on 10th April 2020 at around 11.00 a.m., SLNS ‘Samudura’ was able to detect a Flag State-less foreign vessel loaded with drugs. During further search of the vessel, the Navy recovered about 281kg of heroin and 48kg of crystal methamphetamine (ice) worth over Rs. 3,270 million.

Commander of the Navy, Vice Admiral Piyal De Silva and several other senior officers of the Police Narcotics Bureau and the Navy were also present on this occasion where the drug-vessel and its suspects were escorted to the Dikkowita fisheries harbour. 

Meanwhile, further investigations and onward legal action with regard to the seized vessel, suspects and consignment of drugs will be conducted by the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB).

While conducting a record-breaking number of drug-bust operations in known history, the Navy has seized 718kg of heroin, 797kg of crystal methamphetamine, 581kg of ketamine and 2,475kg of Kerala cannabis in the first three and half months of year 2020. 

The street value of these mammoth consignments of drugs is estimated to be over Rs. 21 billion.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Navy says it will continue to conduct regular search operations and crackdowns on vessels carrying narcotics in international waters. In this regard the Navy makes use of local and foreign intelligence as well as satellite technology for surveillance. 

Further, the Sri Lanka Navy, working in coordination with the Police Narcotics Bureau, has taken necessary steps in pursuit of foreign and local partners in the narcotic supply chain. 

Addressing on this occasion, Commander of the Navy emphasized that the local fishing community should carry on their livelihood in such a manner that they do not get caught in trading of drugs.

Courtesy Adaderana

A total of 113 persons from Nagalagam Street in Grandpass have been directed to mandatory quarantine process.

According to reports, these people had been in contact with an individual from Suduwella, Ja-Ela who is suspected to have contracted the novel coronavirus – COVID-19.

They have accordingly been directed to quarantine centres in Punani and Sampur.

Courtesy Adaderana

The patients who tested positive for the novel coronavirus during the past few days appear to have a low viral load in them, says the Director General of Health Services.

The spread of COVID-19 in the community is also at a minimum level as of now, Dr. Anil Jasinghe said joining ‘Derana Aruna’ programme this morning (15).

He explained that out of the 15 COVID-19 cases confirmed yesterday, 8 were found from Palali quarantine centre while 4 of them were from reported Kilinochchi quarantine centre, he added.

Dr. Jasinghe also noted that repatriating Sri Lankans who wish to return to the island due to the global outbreak of novel coronavirus has to be properly managed.

There are thousands of people who are still being quarantined in Sri Lanka, Dr. Jasinghe said adding that the situation in the country should be improved before brining back Sri Lankans abroad.

Malwatuoyasoya Media

A Journey to the Heart of Civilization of Lanka Dedicated to the Children of the Irrigation Civilization

https://youtu.be/bv8cCI_lLuw

By Mahendra (Speedy) Gonsalkorale. January 2019 Courtesy colombomedgrads1962.blogspot.com

A Historical perspective of people who influenced it and of culture related to the song(I don’t claim this to be a scholarly treatise; it is based chiefly on internet resources)
I discuss this subject in paragraphs and indicate the main subject in the sub-heading. You will see a thread running through the article which I hope is relevant. At first reading, it may appear disjointed but when your revisit, it will all make sense. Some of the views expressed are my own. I have done my best to check on accuracy.
John de Silva – (1857-1922)As far as I can determine, the lyrics of Danno Budunge was written by Makalandalage John de Silva playwright and play-producer, a pioneer in the field of Sinhala drama, for his drama Sirisangabo Charitaya.
Born in Kotte on January 13, 1857 to Catholic parents, he first attended Christian College, Kotte and then went to the Colombo Academy which later became Royal College, and at age 20 he was a teacher at St. Joseph’s College and later at Wesley College. As he moved closely with oriental scholars like Pundit Batuwantudawa, he had acquired a good command of the Sinhala language too.
Like many young men of his age living close to Colombo, John de Silva too must have been a theatre fan who tried his hand at play-writing and producing. The first play he wrote was Nala Raja Charitaya), which was staged in 1886, when he was only 29. This was followed by Dascon Natakaya (1888), the story of the Portuguese General who had a love affair with the Sinhala Princess Samudra Devi. He also wrote a play called ‘Parabhava Natakaya’ (1901-1902) a satire on the Europeanised upper class.
His next play ‘Ramayanaya Natakaya‘ was staged on May 31, 1889 (according to some writers in 1904) at the Floral Hall, Malwatte Road in Pettah, a popular venue for plays (sadly no more). It is said that on the night of the second performance, June 5, the hall caught fire, and stage sets, curtains, costumes etc. were destroyed. It was believed to be arson by those jealous of his success.
Shock and grief turned into anger and he gave vent to his anger in a booklet he published in Sinhala titled ‘Fire-fight or Hanuman comes to Floral Hall.‘ (It was Hanuman the monkey who set fire to the garden where Sita was kept a prisoner by Ravana). Later in the year, he printed and published the play with the title ‘Sita haranaya’ (abduction of Sita) or ‘Ginigath Ramayanaya’ (Ramayanaya that caught fire). Downcast and disgusted, he gave up writing and producing plays, entered Law College and qualified as a proctor, and started practising as a lawyer. This was in the 1890s.
But the theatre beckoned him and with the writing and producing of Siri sangabo, began the second and the best phase of his career as playwright and producer. First staged in 1903, Siri sangabo is perhaps his most popular play and a perennial favourite. After Siri sangabo, his group of actors (no actresses, as females were not allowed to act then, and it was usual for males to dress up as females for feminine parts), became professionals, known by the name Arya Suboda Natya Saba. They entertained audiences every night, and regular theatre-goers wouldn’t miss a John de Silva play.
By this time he had become a Buddhist and also a devotee of the Hindu Gods. It is on record in his own writing, says Sunil Ariyaratne who has made an in–depth study of John de Silva’s plays, “that after the first premier of Ehelepola, he made offerings to God Kataragama and God Vishnu”. He was convinced that Sinhala music had firm roots in India. He wrote There is evidence that Indian classical music existed in ancient Lanka during the times of our Sinhalese kings. Consider where Sinhalese poets of the past took their poetic meters. A careful analysis shows that Sinhala poetic meters originally belonged to the system of rāga [Indian melodic modes] and tāla [Indian rhythm cycles] found in North Indian classical music”. This explains why his songs had the Raga-tala tradition which he approved of.
John de Silva wrote plays not only to entertain the public. Through his plays, he tried to inspire in the audience a feeling of nationalism, a sense of pride in our culture and heritage and encourage them to regain the loss freedom. He poked fun at those who slavishly aped the white ruling class and he was averse to alcohol and championed temperance. It is on record that he didn’t engage any actors who had taken to drinking. In his own small way, he was contributing to the national movement, and he was among the Sinhala leaders arrested and jailed after the riots of 1915. In spite of that, he retained his love of Western attire and favoured the jacket, shirt and tie.
John de Silva’s last play was NaganandaNatakaya written in 1919 and staged at the famous Tower Hall. He passed away on January 28, 1922 after a brief illness. He was 65 years old. He had injured his foot while swimming in the sea, and being a diabetic, the wound had proved fatal.
The Tower Hall and John de Silva’s Nurti have become synonymous. When we speak of Tower Hall plays, we mean Nurti (also spelled Nurthi) and John de Silva’s plays.
But it was many years after the Tower Hall was built and opened for public performances that a play by John de Silva was staged there. Folklore says that the proprietor of Tower Hall, G. Don Hendrik Seneviratne, whose son-in-law Charles Dias was J. de S’s rival in the theatre, did not permit J. de S’s plays staged there. Only Charles Dias’ plays were staged at the Tower Hall for a number of years, and they were so popular that many actors left John de Silva’s Arya Subodha Natya Sabah and joined Charles Dias’s Arya Sinhala Natya Sabah.
The John de Silva Hall behind the Art Gallery in Colombo was built in 1974 in honour of and to commemorate this great playwright and play-producer who made theatre-going the most popular form of entertainment in the early decades of the 20th century
Danno Budunge composition – 1903
The melody was composed by the Indian musician Viswanth Lauji (also spelt Lawjee). Siri sangaboCharithaya was first performed in 1903, and the song Danno Budunge from it contains three verses sung separately by Sanghatissa, Sangabo and Gotabhaya as they approach Anuradhapura after crossing a wooden bridge and saw the city of Anuradhapura in the distance. The play is based on the story found in the thirty-sixth chapter of the Mahāvaṃsa. The thirty-sixth chapter is about a virtuous king named Siri Sānghabō who with his two friends Gōtābhaya, and Sangatissa, travel to the royal city of Anuradhapura to serve the Sinhalese king. The following is an English translation.
Sānghatīssā:                Behold in this mansion-like town many monks adhering to the preceptsDestroying their defilements and abiding by Buddha’s dharma teachings
Sirisānghabō:              Like heaven on earth!The shade of the many monks who travel by airDestroy hot sun rays
Gōtābhaya:                I see flocks of ducks wading in deep ponds, where stems of lotus and lily flowers rise to the top
The song describes the environment created by a large number of monks and the beauty of the city with lakes full of flowers and whistling fowls. The song describes the beauty of the city of Anuradhapura and is not directly a Buddhist song as such. But the words proclaim the wisdom of following the Dhamma. The religious and patriotic feelings aroused made the song very popular and became a favourite among the early musicians who made an attempt to create a place for the Sinhala song. Among them was Hubert Rajapakse, famous Tower Hall singer. Hubert Rajapakse, was the brother of Gate Mudaliar Tudor Rajapakse who donated land to build Ananda College and the Medical College. Their main house was “Gatherum” while they had two ancestral homes – one Maha Kappina Walauwa and the other in Muthuwadiya near Negombo. Hubert Rajapakse is believed to have sung this song in the 1920s. The public did not react well to his western” style of singing. Hubert was said to have been trained by the famous German opera singer Madam Mathilde Marchesi. According to Dr Tissa Abeysekara, Devar Surya Sena and Hubert Rajapakse were attempting to bring about a Sinhala music culture at a time of imperial rule and relaunched Danno Budunge with a few modifications.
It must be remembered that Hubert R sang this song in the 1920s, long after Siri Sangabo. His style of singing was apparently very different from the original which was sung in the Hindustani (vedic) style. He, for some reason, sang the first words as ‘Dharma Budunge’. Being the gramophone age, he recorded under the HMV (His Master’s Voice) label and the record was titled ‘Dharma Budunge’ (in Sinhala) – Ode to the Sacred City’. A popular notion is that Hubert Rajapakse being very western educated, had some difficulty pronouncing Sinhalese words properly and Danno became Dharma.
Another pioneer musician, H.W. Rupasinghe sang the song by himself while Rukmani Devi sang it twice, the second time accompanied by the Super Golden Chimes. Pandit Amaradeva’s rendition is highly rated as is Nanda Malini’s – the latter singing with a male chorus.
It is said that ‘Danno Budunge’ was popular with both Governor General Lord Soulbury and Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake. In fact, Lord Soulbury’s daughter Joan Ramsbotham sang the song. Joan has also recorded Olu Pipeela and Handapane, both sung in operatic style in 1948.   According to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe, when the Queen visited Sri Lanka on two occasions, ‘Danno Budunge’ was sung at both receptions.
The SLBC once played it as the signature tune when announcing election results.
The clock tower in front of the Central Bank always chimes the first two lines of ‘Danno Budunge’ before it strikes the time. This clock tower is a historical monument because it was from this point that distances from Colombo were measured. This clock tower was not properly maintained till recently. However, the Governor of the Central Bank decided to renovate this historical monument and to maintain it, and for this, the country should be grateful to the Governor of the Central Bank.
The other singers who sang this popular song included Lawrence Perera and Mohideen Baig in the 1950s, Dalrene Arnolda, Soul Sounds, Sudath Samarasinghe, Corrine Almeida, Janaka Wickremasinghe, Kapila Pugala Arachchi and Nelu Adikari and the well-known cricketer Sidath Wettimuny.
The latest of course is the operatic” version sung at the 68^th Independence Day celebrations at Galle Face Green in 2016, by the talented internationally famed Sri Lankan Soprano, Kishani Jayasinghe, causing such a storm. Kishani’s credentials were impeccable. She was a member of the Jette Parker Young Artistes Programme at the Royal Opera House from 2006 to 2008. She is also an Associate of the Classical Opera Company; an Alumni Laureate of the University of Nottingham; Zonta’s Woman of Achievement for the Performing Arts (2010) and the Asian Woman of Achievement for Art and Culture in the UK. Even her worst critics admire her musical talent.
Her husband Kaveenga who was surprised and disappointed by the overreaction says She is a Sinhala Buddhist woman, the former Head Prefect of Sri Lanka’s leading Buddhist Girls’ school Viskha Vidyalaya, who has mastered a revered and exalted form of singing – Opera, who has gained international fame and recognition, who sang a beloved Sinhala song in opera, wearing a traditional saree, in gold and maroon nonetheless, in dignified demeanour, meaningfully and respectfully but is vilified by a segment of her very same people, for petty political reasons, which has nothing to do with her. Those who say that she Christianised a traditional Sinhala song, despite singing it in the same melody with the exact original lyrics written by John de Silva, (who happens to be related to her), are being disingenuous. Singing a song in opera does not make it Western or Christian, if that was so, everything written or said in English or Italian should be considered as such. Singing a Sinhala song in opera is not an insult to the Sinhala language, yet some people seem to think so”.
Harsha Makalanda, the great-grandson of the composer commented thus on Kishani’s version “Kishani sang Danno Budunge” beautifully. The lyrics were written by my great grandfather Makalandage John de Silva for his immortal play “Sirisangabo” which stirred a wave of patriotism in real Sri Lankans in people who march forward into battle. Kishani’s rendition is Majestic as well as Spiritual-that unique combination my great grandfather wanted”
In “Sirisangabo” what was intended was patriotism and by all musical terms, Kishani conveys it and it takes someone who had studied music to properly understand it.
The reaction to Kishani’s song broadly ranged from mostly favourable to non-committal with fortunately only a small minority resorting to vile and insulting language. Some moderates commented that although the song was sung beautifully, the occasion was not right for it. But I don’t personally subscribe to that view although I have some sympathy for it.
At this point, it is relevant to a quote from another famous Sri Lankan musician, Devar Surya Sena, about the power of music. He said I realised the power of music to provide a common platform for the meeting of people of divergent races, creeds and interests”
Music and Cultural Background in Ceylon
An appreciation of the cultural background that prevailed in the late 19^th Century and early 20^th             Century helps us to understand the evolution of music and drama in Ceylon. The background to the story takes us through the various stages of drama in Ceylon (as it was called then) and the influence of foreign musical traditions on local music. It was also a time of display of national identity and moving away from colonial rule. There was a Buddhist revival with organised activity against Christian Missionaries who denigrated Buddhism. Key influences in this revival were people such as Hikkaduwe Sumangala, and Organisations such as the Buddhist Theosophical Society (Henry Steele Olcott) and the Maha Bodhi Society (Anagarika Dharmapala). The Press also proved to be a good medium to disseminate propaganda. The Buddhist revival became the dominant theme in John de Silva’s Nurti musicals. The other key influence was the advent of the vinyl record and how it changed the medium of musical entertainment available to the Public. Nearly every song that labels in Sri Lanka released between 1906 and 1930 were songs from the nurtitheatre. During this period gramophone players became status symbols of affluent homes in urban areas in Sri Lanka. This was coupled with one more important occurrence. This was the move of people to urban areas and their desire for entertainment, and the advent of the cinema.
Before the availability of the cinema, the chief mode of entertainment was the performance of Drama. The prevalent form in the mid 1880s was the Nadagam form, which was heavily influenced by India. The Nadagam were prolonged affairs, sometimes going on for days. John de Silva wanted to change this and can be regarded as the architect of the nurti form of drama. Nurti was derived from the Persian Theatre with its actors and musicians mostly from Gujerat and trained in the Hindustani school of classical Raga music. This heavily Persian influenced form was much more colourful and much shorter. Nurtis includedSri Wickrema Rajasinha” andSirisangabo,” (1903).
However, the nurti era also began to fade in the 1930s and aluth-sindu took its place. The melodies were derived from Hindi or Tamil songs and mostly musical imitations. One example of this is the Indian song (1940) Chal Chal Re Naujawan original tune from movie Bandhan, sung by Leela Chitnis and Ashok Kumar which was made into Dul Sal Vanē Lakal” Colombia Record by Mr Stanley Mallawarachchi and Mrs Greta Jennet de Silva and group, composed by late Mr U.D.Perera.
Sinhala songs continued to evolve and the next great chapter was the emergence of Sunil Santha who wanted to get away from Indian influence and create genuine Sinhala form. He was influenced by poet Munidasa Kumaratunga and Hela Hawula, a school of poets and intellectuals who placed importance on unsanskritised Sinhala known as Elu_Sinhala (also called Hela Sinhala). I will discuss Sunil Santha (and others like Ananda Samarakoon) in more detail in a later article. Suffice to say that he was a highly principled man who did not seek any personal glory in pursuing his love for Sinhala music.
Pundit Viswanath Lauji(Also known as Vishwanath Lawjee, Vishvanath Lowji, Vishvanath Lowji, Viśvanāt Lauji, Viśvanāt Lauji).
John de Silva (henceforth referred to as JdeS) was not a musician. He was more a lyricist and the melody for Danno Budunge was written by his Indian Musician friend, Pundit Visvanath Lauji, who came from Bombay. Lauji came to Ceylon with the Parsi theatre but stayed behind. It is said that Lauji was impressed by Western music and that he moved in circles which included Mendelssohn and Wagner. The story goes that John de Silva had met the Indian maestro of music, at a Christmas party hosted by Sir Solomon Dias Bandaranaike (the father of the late Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike) at his manor in Kotahena. JdeS invited him to compose fitting tunes to the songs in his dramas. He would describe the scene and the character around whom the song is written and read out the Sinhalese poetry and Lauji would hum various melodies and JdeS would choose the one he liked. In other words, Lauji composed suitable airs to the poetic verses in JdeS’s libretto. This has been compared to the famous Gilbert and Sullivan theatrical partnership.
Thus it can be seen that Danno Budunge music was composed by an Indian musician schooled in the Ragadhari tradition. Could this be truly called a Sinhala” song?  You can decide! John de Silva’s songs have become a part of Sinhala dramatic heritage as indeed was his intention. He was convinced that musical dramas portraying the finest periods of Sri Lanka’s history could arouse a sense of true patriotism; hence his choice of plays around Dutugemunu and Sri Wickrema Rajasinghe.
It is debatable whether Danno Budunge can be called a Buddhist” song, but the popular view that it is a Buddhist song is understandable in the context of the evolution of the song. The lyrics describe the beauty of the city Anuradhapura. It does praise the virtues of pursuing the Buddha dhamma and does arouse religious and patriotic feelings. On the other hand, throughout history, Buddhism was not associated with music although Art, on the other hand, has been heavily influenced by it. Buddhism is associated more with chanting than singing. But over time, the association of Sinhala history with the predominant religion in Sri Lanka has made it in the eyes of many people, a Buddhist Sinhalese song. A moderate critical view of Kishani’s version is that it failed to deliver the intention behind the lyrics as the melody and the manner in which the words are sung must bear semblance to the meaning of words in the song, and that is exactly what is lacking when sung in operatic like style – in the opinion of some.
Before Nurti
Nadagam, a kind of musical play, came to Sri Lanka about 1750. The music consisted of simple forms used in South Indian village plays. Instruments were the drums Mridangam or maddal, the wind instruments, Nadaswaram, and kaithalam. Sinhala nadagam became popular, and by 1850 was a hobby of the elite. But it had become poor in musical content and the limited melodies failed to attract urban audiences. The arrival of more lively North Indian music also played a role in the decline of the nadagam. In India with Muslim rule Sanskrit, drama had declined, but folk play traditions had continued. Local music had developed with new Arabian and Persian raga and tala.
In 1853 in Ayodhya, the musical play ‘Indrasabha’, comparing an earthly ruler to a deity, was created, guided by classical and folk music and it became very popular. Parsi entrepreneurs spread this and similar plays across much of India. In these early Indian musical plays many melodies were based on Ghazal, originally Persian, music for poetry.
There was also the influence of Western melodies. Indian musicians, it is conjectured, heard these from military bands. Europeans and their ways were sometimes uncritically emulated in India, and also in Sri Lanka.  On the other hand, Christian missionaries in India used Indian raga for Christian songs in English. These were now used in these plays, for travel and weddings scenes.
In the latter half of the century, when travel by sea became easier, North Indian melodies came to SL. Indian traders visited and some settled in Sri Lanka. Indian pilgrims to Kataragama landing at Galle were sought and hosted by nadagam practitioners. Their experts had no training in music. They appreciated the elegance of Hindustani songs. There was some influx of the melodies into nadagam.
Beginning in the late 1870s Calutantrige Don Bastian Jayaweera Bandara (1852- 1921) and his followers staged plays which used North Indian music, such as his ‘Rolina’ in 1877. He called these nurthia, Sanskrit word for a dance signifying a subject. In nadagam, each actor first appears in a dance conveying his or her character, and CDB’s early plays continued with this. He may have intended the new name as a contrast to nadagam. In popular use it became nurti. He is also recognised as a pioneer in establishing Sunday Buddhist schools and for setting up the first Sinhalese daily newspaper, Dianapata Pravurti. He is always referred to as C. Don Bastian.
In 1880 the Indian musical play company of Baliwalla arrived in SL, followed by others from India. Their plays were influenced by ‘Indrasabha’. These often used emotional love stories, which suited musical plays. Baliwalla’s first in Sri Lanka was ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Some of his others were based on stories of Arabic and Hindu deities.
CDB attended Baliwalla’s plays and learnt their melodies and instrumental passages. He too produced a ‘Romeo and Juliet’ which closely followed Baliwalla’s. CDB’s Sinhalese Drama Co. continued until about 1900.
John de Silva set up his company after CDB. His first two plays contain much music from ‘Indrasabha’ and Baliwalla. But he was the first playwright in Sri Lanka to try to understand the classical basis of Hindustani music. In 1885, he engaged Abdul Latif, a North Indian businessman in Colombo, to write the music for his ‘Nala Raja Charitaya’, an Indian-based play, and published a book with the raga and tala and the original Hindustani lyrics for each song.
A liking for Hindustani and Urdu music developed among Sri Lankans. Sinhalese and others who liked Indian music, regarded Hindustani as associated with music, as Italian was in Europe. A singer would follow a Sinhala song with a Hindustani one in the same melody to show it was authentic. It was quite common for the first line of the song to be the name of the original to indicate its derivation. Few in Sri Lanka knew Hindustani, and lyrics were often cleverly faked!
In 1888, JdeS got down a Gujarati copy of ‘Indrasabha’. The play was staged from Colombo to Hambantota. Its songs became popular. Renditions though were not always accurate. Until 1900, all musical plays in Sri Lanka were influenced by ‘Indrasabha’. Its song of welcome, king’s song and others were used in many Sinhala plays, with some adaptations.
Early Sinhala musical plays contained several alien Western melodies. This is an example of the emulation mentioned above.
Around 1900, soon after CDB’s co. closed down, as I have indicated earlier, JdeS brought new vitality to nurti by engaging Vishvanat Lavji, a professional musician involved in Hindustani and Gujarati plays. VL took music from such plays and altered it close to classical form. JdeS produced six Sinhala plays with his guidance, including ‘Siri sangabo’. He believed that the earliest Sinhalese were Hindus and were hence heirs to Hindustani music.
Other producers of plays in SL at the time freely used music from the six plays by JdeS and VL. After VL went back to India the Tower Hall co. engaged other Indian musicians for JdeS. Most of their music for nurti were popular melodies from Hindustani and Gujarati plays. In general, this was the case in Sri Lanka from the 1880s until the Tower Hall Company closed down. Three years before it did, Butabhai, a North Indian musician, convened all leading actors in Colombo and taught them ‘Indrasabha’ in Hindustani.
Another source for nurti music were the Malays” of Sri Lanka. They had heard Indian melodies from Indian soldiers in Singapore. They helped CDB by memorising Baliwalla’s music and in his plays, many were experts on the violin and dhol. Their saji meeting places were a source for the spread of nurti music. From time to time, well known Sri Lankan musicians composed for new plays, such as H.W. Rupasinghe, J.A. Sadiris Silva, and W. Satasivam. Incidentally, playing a lead role in the play Sirisangabo was Sadiris de Silva, popularly known as Sadiris Master for his musical talent. He was to assist Henry Jayasena who was invited to produce ‘Sirisangabo’ to mark the opening of the Tower Hall after exhaustive renovations in March 1978. It was coincidental that Sadiris Master’s son, reputed musician Shelton Premaratne handled the music in Henry Jayasena’s production.
Later, there was much competition and secrecy among those involved in musical plays in Sri Lanka. Nurti music declined because of the cost of getting down Indian musicians.
Alleged connections with Mendelssohn and Wagner
It has been stated many times, without firm evidence that Danno Budunge is based on a Wagner Organ Concerto. Nobody has so far produced any firm evidence to substantiate this. Another favoured Western influence is Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn’s Duetto op. 38 no. 6, in ‘Songs Without Words’ (MWV U119) does have a lot of similarity to the opening two lines of DB.
Mendelssohn also had an indirect connection with Ceylon, and this is referred to in an article which appeared in the Sunday Times Plus, Sri Lanka dated 17^th April 2016 by US. In 1829, when Ceylon was a British colony, Alexander Johnston, its ex-Chief Justice, asks Mendelssohn to compose music to given lyrics to mark legal changes in Ceylon including the abolition of slavery”. Mendelssohn does so. Johnston is impressed by the piece and says it can reform the Empire. In 1832 Mendelssohn. composes #38-6. A sequence of notes at the start (of its first voice”) is identical to that at the start of the Western version of Danno Budunge. Therefore, maybe he had written the same beginning for the Johnston piece, it was sung here, the melody survived, reached nurti, and Lavji altered it a bit”.Incidentally, in the same article, he says The first run of ‘Siri sangabo’ did not include Danno Budunge. This and two more songs were added in the second or third edition”, to provide more time for changes of sets. Maybe in this situation, Lavji was not that finicky about their origin? (In opera, for this purpose, rarely, a producer added a piece by a lesser-known composer!)”
It is possible that composers such as Mendelssohn and Wagner did influence the melody on DB. The evidence for being influenced by Mendelssohn is more compelling. But in the absence of definite evidence it is still largely speculation, but interesting.
Hymn for Ceylon
The next to consider in this historical piece is the Christian Hymn, Hymn for Ceylon”. This was written in 1923 by the Rev. Walter Stanley Senior. The notion that Danno Budunge was influenced by Hymn for Ceylon is clearly false as DB was composed long before Hymn for Ceylon. It is, in fact, the converse; Hymn for Ceylon borrowed the melody from DB.
Rev. Senior came to SL in 1906. By that time Sirisangabo nurtiya had been shown in Ceylon for at least 3 years. WSS wrote the Hymn for Ceylon at a much later stage. Devar Surya Sena composed music for this song in the 1950s using the Danno Budunge melody, slightly modified to suit Church singing.
Reverend Walter Stanley Senior. (10 May 1876 – 23 February 1938) 
He was an English scholar, poet and member of the Church Missionary Society and was popularly known as the “Bard of Lanka. Reverend Senior came out to Ceylon in 1906 and served as Vice Principal of Trinity College Kandy from (1906–1916). When the then Principal of Trinity, Rev. A. G. Fraser, was looking for talent in the English Universities to come and serve at Trinity College, he came across Senior who belonged to a set of brilliant men, including the late Dr Kenneth Saunders from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, N. P. Campbell, also a Balliol man recognised as a great scientist, and J. P. R. Gibson, later Principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge. In the absence of Rev Fraser, Senior also deputised as Acting Principal for a short period.
He retired to England, and one of his greatest desires, namely, to see Ceylon and some of his numerous friends before his death, was gratified when he was able to spend a short holiday in the Island two years before his death, already a very sick man who knew that the end was not far off. A few months before his death, he said: The idea has come to me that I should like my ashes, for I contemplate cremation rather than burial, to be interred in St. Andrew’s Churchyard, Haputale.” His gravestone at St Andrew’s is a testament to his life, bearing the plain legend He Loved Ceylon” preceded by the opening lines from his poem, Lanka from Piduruthalagala: Here I stand in spirit, as in body once I stood Long years ago, in love with all the land, this peerless land of beauty’s plenitude. The pulpit of the Trinity College Chapel is dedicated to his name.
A common vein in many of his finest pieces is an appreciation of the diversity and beauty that is Sri Lanka. Rev Senior also has the distinction of being the author of the famous Hymn for Ceylon as well as the Hymn of Trinity College, Kandy and that of St. John’s College, Jaffna. His best-known work, however, is the soul-stirring epic titled The Call of Lanka, which many consider to be arguably the finest poem dealing with Sri Lanka ever written.
The tune of the Hymn for Ceylon is another adaptation from the DB tune composed by John de Silva. The music for the Hymn for Ceylon was composed in 1950 by Devar Surya Sena. The tune is the same as that of the original tune of Danno Budunge except for the 5th and 6th lines which were altered by Devar Surya Sena. When it is sung in full harmony, it sounds wonderful.
According to Devar Surya Sena, Walter Senior gave him the words of his ‘Hymn for Ceylon’ (O father thou has promised the isles shall wait for thee), and suggested, Someday you’re going to write a tune for this Bertie.” Later, on my return from England…In a flash the thought came that the much loved melody of ‘Danno Budunge’, adapted slightly, would fit the metre…I…married the words to the tune, harmonising the melody in four parts”.
Deva Surya Sena (1899- 1981)
He was the son of Sir James Pieris and was baptised Herbert Charles Jacob Pieris. His cousin was the well-known Rev. Lakdasa De Mel, later Bishop and Metropolitan.

Devar was the pioneer who introduced Sinhalese folk songs to Western audiences. There he is in the same league as Ravi Shankar. Like most sons of rich families, he was sent to England for further education. He went to Tonbridge School in Kent and later read Classics and Law at Cambridge although his primary love was in music.  He initially returned to Ceylon as a lawyer but he travelled regularly to London and studied at the Royal College of Music (RCM) in London and obtained ARCM in singing.
In 1927 he decided to pursue a career in singing and left for England.  He said that the spiritual satisfaction that music gave him was far more valuable than materialistic comforts.  Once back in Ceylon, he developed an interest in Sinhalese traditional music and did extensive research on it. He dropped his Pieris name and called himself Surya Sena and wore Indian dress to de-Westernise himself. His wife Winifred (nee De Silva) a musician herself and mostly educated in Belgium, took the name Nelun Devi. They went around the country collecting folk songs which are now preserved at the Devar Surya Sena Trust. As they travelled the island, they heard, probably for the first time, the songs of the earth that were theirs. The devotional songs, the sacred chants, the haunting village lullabies, and the folk songs and rhythms became part of a new adventure of discovery and learning.  The vannams, or sung poetry of lion, elephant, horse, hare, cobra, monkey and hawk, are part of the earth and sky of this land; and the flutes and drums of the villagers, and the long sad chants of the Veddahs, return with reminding presence. Surya and Nelun, listening and learning, discovered the primitive wonder of indigenous music; the simple brooding songs of farmer, fisherman, carter and blacksmith – the folk music that accompanies hardship. Surya Sena expressed anew the emotions of love, joy, anger and grief expressed in song and dance and in the chanted poetry and silence of his people, and these became his own. He pledged to use his gifts to make this knowledge as widely known as possible.
Later, he expanded his interest into Hindustani music by studying at Maris College of Hindustani Music in Lucknow and Sangit Sangha at Calcutta. He also spent 9 months in Tagore’s Shantiniketan. In 1932, Devar and his wife Nelun Devi sang Sinhalese folk songs at a concert in London. The singer’s voice was most agreeable and musical”, said the Daily Mail. They toured Europe and America and introduced our folk songs to a wider international audience. He has written books and articles on Sinhalese Folk Music. 
Surya Sena used his wealth and experience to set up a Trust for the furtherance of education, music and art. He gifted his gracious home in Colombo 3 with its valuable effects to become what is known as the Surya Sena Centre. He was awarded the OBE in 1949.
The Hymn for Ceylon
O father, Thou hast promisedThe isles shall wait for Thee,The joyous isles of ocean,The jewels of the sea.Lo! we, this island’s watchmenWould give and take no rest;For thus hast Thou commanded -Till our dear land be blessed. //
Then bless her mighty Father,With blessings needed most,In every verdant village,By every palmy coast.On every soaring mountain,O’er every spreading plain,May all her sons and daughters -Thy righteousness attain. //
Give peace within her bordersTwixt man and man goodwill,The love all unsuspicious,The love that works no ill.In loyal lowly service,Let each from other learn,The guardian and the guarded, -Till Christ Himself return. //
To Him our land shall listen,To Him our land shall kneel;All rule be on His shoulder,All wrong beneath His heel;O consummation gloriousWhich now by faith we sing;Come, cast we up the highway -That brings us back our King! //

In conclusion, this wonderful song Danno Budunge loved and cherished by the people of Sri Lanka has been sung by many singers over the years and will no doubt continue to be sung by singers from future generations for time immemorial.

This refers to your letter addressed to the Sri Lankan President H E Gotabaya Rajapakse. It is unfortunate that you have been misinformed leading to you writing to a country’s President and exposing your ignorance. In Sri Lanka 7 COVID-19 deaths of which 3 are Muslim. Other than these 3 Muslims, all other Muslims have been burying their dead and are continuing to do so. You are writing to a country’s President on behalf of 3 COVID-19 Muslims completely ignoring the rest of the victims. This is not what is expected of a Special Rapporteur.

Freedoms and Rights of one stops where freedoms and rights of others are violated. This is the golden rule. If demands for rights or special privileges violates the rights of others, it cannot be allowed.

No Special Rapporteur can only address minority issues ignoring or compromising on national issues. Promotion & protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms cannot come at the sacrifice or compromise of others. Special privileges are not rights or freedoms.

The COVID-19 virus is nothing anyone can firmly make final conclusions about. All are testing or experimenting and making adverse, contradictory or confusing statements across the globe. This confusion and uncertainty cannot impact on the general population and cause greater chaos by ignorance. In such scenarios it is prudent to take the worst case scenario & adopt the most extreme measures. The Government is beholden to ensure the safety of the living and future which cannot and should not be interpreted or promoted as disrespecting the dead.

The whole world is in chaos. The Western world inspite of all its infrastructure & technology is overwhelmed to handle the situation. The health authorities and staff in these countries cannot be questioned on how they are handling the abnormal situation they find themselves in. Anyone who is not facing the pressure are free to comment and criticize but only those in the thick of things know the ordeal they are going through. So, let us not patronize the health services of any country & their decision making at this juncture. They are spending sleepless nights fighting to save lives and they are not able to follow any book at this juncture except to do the right thing and no one can reprimand them for this.

If you listen to the first Sri Lankan COVID-19 patient who recovered and has returned home, he will reveal how well he was looked after with the hospital doctor even bringing him porridge made at his home.

Officials in the UN can throw all the dictums and terms on the table because they are not facing any of the pressures that doctors, nurses and others facing the COVID-19 are undergoing. They can preach you should have done it this way, should have not done it this way” which is all that UN officials generally like to patronize countries with. But would they handle the situation any better?

So, tell us if the tube wells, water systems, agriculture etc in Sri Lanka get contaminated from burying dead covid-19 bodies – what is your solution, what can you personally do to address this? WHO has given only general guidelines. It is not a rule that all countries have to follow. In Ecuador covid-19 dead bodies are lying on the roads, what is UN/WHO guideline for this and what is your solution?

In a national crisis none of individual or community freedoms come to play. The nation must face the problem as One Nation and One People. Therefore, in a national crisis it is no time to be thinking exclusively as a majority or minority or making demands of a minority or majority or demanding rights as an exclusive community. Privileges are not rights. In a national crisis the country’s decision makers take decisions considering every person as ONE AND THE SAME CITIZEN and not compartmentalizing them. Therefore, it is very strange that people who refer to themselves as Special Rapporteurs are writing to promote the interests of only one community. This is very wrong and unfair by others who are no less victims.

When the Government declares a lockdown or curfew – it doesn’t say the lockdown is applicable to majority, minority or a community. It says the curfew is applicable to ALL and when it is applicable to ALL – ALL must obey and follow the orders given.

When the Government sets up quarantine centres or hospitals – the government is not treating anyone or any community differently. All are patients, all are given the same food, all are given medication equally and free too. This is nothing that the Western world is even doing. Patients who have no insurance or cannot pay or are old are not even admitted to hospital. Sri Lanka, though a third world stands way above in terms of delivery for covid-19 situation than most countries of the first world.

You can quote all the Articles under the Conventions but can you handle a COVID-19 situation simply quoting clauses? Can you protect people from contamination and disease by quoting Articles & Conventions? Please be realistic and practical.

You seem to be confused in your hurry to address a Country’s President  

Muslims have been burying their dead in the past and Muslims are continuing to bury their dead. How?

Any Muslim who has died other than from COVID-19 are having their dead buried. EVEN NOW. Did you not know this?

IT IS ONLY the 3 COVID-19 DEAD MUSLIMS who were cremated.

So you are writing to the President of Sri Lanka representing 3 COVID-19 dead when all other dead Muslims are getting buried.

Hope you are not embarrassed by this.

But you should seriously take stock of facts before addressing a letter to the President of a country.

Then the other factor is that you are totally ignoring the fact that all of the 7 COVID-19 dead had the same method adopted in disposing of their dead bodies. Therefore, if you as Special Rapporteur speaking on behalf of the 3 Muslims, you should also be speaking on behalf of the other 4 COVID-19 dead too. Out of this 4 – 2 are Catholics and Catholics also bury their dead. So why are you not speaking a word on behalf of the Catholics?

Last of all, in noticing your name – Ahmed Shaheed, it is prudent to remind you that you cannot be the judge of your own case. As a Muslim there is a major conflict of interest arising clearly evident by the nature of your reply. In such a situation, it is only fair that you recuse yourself from making statements.

However, now that you have gone so far as to even write to a country’s President, please note that Muslims have buried their dead and are continuing to bury their dead and only exception is COVID-19 dead which is applicable to not only Muslims but all citizens of Sri Lanka. The Government is making no exceptions to the rule of cremating all COVID-19 dead.

You have written on behalf of 3 dead COVID-19 Muslim victims ignoring the sensitivities of the families of the other 4 COVID-19 dead who were also denied fulfilling the funeral rites for their dead.

Is it fair for you to be sending a letter to the head of State on behalf of only 3 victims of Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 deaths COMPLETELY ignoring the sensitivities of the other 4 COVID-19 dead victims without realizing that non-Covid-19 dead Muslims are burying their dead?

Shenali D Waduge

https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/respect-burial-rights-stop-hate-speech-against-muslims-un-tells-gota/

By Rohana R. Wasala

This article was partly inspired by Orpheus Perera’s commendable writeup under the title ‘Open letter from the Chinese embassy to the Editor of the Wijaya Newspaper’/Posted April 11, though my subject is not the same as his. As Perera’s article suggests, there are more plausible explanations of the actual origin of the novel Coronavirus than what the West-controlled media want us to believe. At the moment the Chinese government appears to be playing it cool (perhaps because they know, and want to show, that they are blameless), while trying to combat and contain the unexpected COVID-19 outbreak and its fallout in and outside China. Dr Palitha Kohona, our former UN Ambassador, described how the Americans tried to prematurely pin the label of perpetrator on China in an informative article published here in Lankaweb a month or so ago. The Americans’ apparent prescience was a clear giveaway on their part. Neutral websites are awash with factual articles that direct suspicion in the same direction. The Canadian Global Research – The Centre for Research on Globalization has already published a number of papers on the subject. We have also enjoyed reading a few interesting contributions dealing with the subject from some fellow Lankaweb writers. 

On a different note, Perera’s mention of a so-called faith healer named ‘Digana Kumara’ deserves a comment too. The fellow must be the same person known elsewhere as ‘Deegala Kumara’, not Digana Kumara, unless the latter is another potential religious crook of the same kind or an alias for the former. I think Deegala Kumara was reportedly in police custody over the incident involving the bread allergic child brought to him for faith healing. There were You Tube videos of this man’s faith healing gatherings attended by unimaginably large crowds of  patients, who were overwhelmingly Buddhists as could be guessed (nominal, no doubt). Of course, the videos could be spliced ones of unrelated masses of people like election rallies, meant to exaggerate the numbers. But, again, DK’s videos may be showing authentic numbers, considering the largeness of the bovine population among Sri Lanka’s rural Buddhists; their participation in such unbuddhistic rituals is a disgrace to their Buddhist identity; these idiots who are mesmerized by mere talk will be more vulnerable to the non-viral non-bacterial mad cow disease than to Corona. Plainly the mass meetings, in tone and substance, are non-Buddhist events, while nevertheless externally exhibiting Buddhist symbols like the multicoloured Buddhist flag, and the picture of the lotus, which are actually misappropriated by the organizers as decorative camouflage. There is no faith healing in Buddhism. Of course, there are charlatans who claim to effect cures through occult powers, but these are not offered as Buddhist practices.  It looks like that there is some well funded evangelical movement behind this superstition vendor’s activities. He keeps the venues of the meetings secret. It is up to young You Tubers to expose hypocrites like this. There is another very musical evangelical preacher/stalker who suddenly exclaims ‘Jesus is the Supreme Truth’ in the middle of his speeches to large crowds of mostly Buddhists with yellow robed men in the guise of Buddhist monks on the stage (which is reassuring to the largely gullible audiences). He affirms or asserts his personal religious belief among Buddhists thus maybe because of his implicit faith in Buddhist tolerance. But it is no compliment to Buddhist tolerance, but really an affront. This man might do the same in front of an Hindu audience without mishap. But he must ask himself if he’d dare wear his religious heart on his sleeve before non-Buddhist (or non-Hindu) audience. 

Probably, in answer to the well known characterization of Buddhism as a wholesome practical ethical philosophy that agrees with modern scientific thinking and as an antidote to the evil of religion, the very idea of religion being rejected as delusion, superstition in the Buddhist teaching, this sly zealot has lately begun, tongue in cheek, to denounce religion (!) as I heard him doing in a video interview recently. It is no harm if he shares his wisdom with people in public speaking engagements for which he gets paid as probably he is a professional in the field. But his proselytizing zeal should not transgress the borders of others’ religious spaces. It is possible that he justifies his tresspasses as aimed at religious reconciliation. However, religious reconciliation is an attractive but ultimately meaningless slogan; striving for so-called religious reconciliation is not an actual necessity, because, there has to date been no discernible enmity among people of different religions in Sri Lanka, where the extremely tolerant and accommodating Buddhist and Hindu religious cultures dominate, except for the deliberate irritation or provocation caused to some young Buddhist monks by the outrageous invasive activities of a handful of religious extremists associated with, but not representative of, the two traditionall mainstream Christian and Muslim communities. The tragic reality is, though, that the moment the monks point out these atrocious acts of aggression with documentary evidence and firsthand accounts of  witnesses from among traditional Christians and Muslims themselves who have suffered at the hands of those fanatics, the monks are misinterpreted and attacked as intolerant mischief makers, thugs, racists, xenophobes, etc. The way the outspoken Bodu Bala Sena leader Ven G. Gnanasara was treated by the previous regime was despicable to say the least. An allegedly large contingent of armed police on the instructions of the now virtually disgraced former IGP Pujith Jayasundara tried to intercept the monk and arrest him like an escaping bandit or terrorist or murderer around 10 o’clock at night oneday when he was returning to his monastery tired and exhausted after a busy day having participated in a series of religious events; only the enraged intervention of the passing-by drivers and local residents prevented the police from arresting him there and then (to befit the rogue image falsely and criminally attributed to this upright monk by the religious fanatics and minority racists that he angered by opposing them. (There was, at that time, a You Tube video of this incident from which I gathered this information years ago; even then I was living abroad). No main party politician in or out of power, has ever uttered a word in support of this monk’s genuine dedication to his extremely legitimate cause – protecting the country and the Buddha Sasana from religious fanatics and vandals – except for Gotabhaya Rajapaksa (who was not a politician) when he was Secretary of Defence. GR, engrossed with countless responsibilities on his shoulders as the live wire between the political leadership and the military during the decisive final phase of the war on separatist terrorism, first shouted at him and drove him away, as the monk claimed only recently, when he went to see him once with his complaints. But, later he relented and listened to him patiently; he understood the justness of the monk’s previous outbursts, and even implemented lawful practical solutions (e.g., removal of unauthorized structures from the Kuragala archaeological Buddhist site in the Balangoda area. Lawless enemies and political opportunists fabricated stories about a secret liaison of a political nature between the monk and Gotabhaya. This was in order to undermine the pre-2015 Rajapaksa administration. There was not an iota of truth in those stories, but they did a lot of unimaginable damage to the country, facilitating, among other evils, the growth of  unprovoked Islamic terrorism that culminated in the devastating Easter Sunday suicide bomb blasts on April 21 last year (2019) that left over 270 dead and 500+ injured, some grievously. Towards the end of the former Rajapaksa government, Gotabhaya had promised Ven. Gnanasara that he’d fix the Islamic extremist problem within three months (which would have involved nothing more than the fearless assertion of the country’s laws in the relevant context), when the unexpected exit of that triumphant administration in January 2015 was engineered by local reactionary forces in collusion with global geopolitical meddlers. 

The Corona outbreak seems to have given these treacherous elements new hope and the gumption to think of rekindling the doused fires of minority racial and religious extremism against the nationalist camp. There is an FB video of a group of militant sounding Muslim activists called ‘Safeguarding the rights of Muslims in Sri Lanka’, which must have drawn the attention of the security forces. Its threats are too openly menacing to be ignored. What about the stockpiles of knives and swords hidden in mosques discovered in searches conducted after the Easter bombings (as shown in TV newcasts over a few days following the atrocity? Remember how the then army commander made light of these unheard of hauls of knives and swords, some of them freshly imported from somewhere (China?), claiming that he himself had four or five swords at his house, something not likely to be true? Did the Sinhalese  make any unnecessary noise about these lethal weapons (whose potential target was not difficult to guess in the circumstances, leaving it to the security and law enforcement authorities to deal with whatever was amiss if that was the case? Some Buddha statues were vandalized by some young Muslims in Mawanella, but Buddhists did not take the law into their hands against them. A secret hoard of weapons believed to belong to a suspected Islamic terror outfit was discovered by police in an abandoned coconut estate in Wanathawilluwa in the Puttalam district, before last April attacks, but nothing apparently was done about the discovery. The bombings took place. The foreign NGOs and media were unpleasantly surprised when it was found that it was not the work of Buddhists. Groups of shocked citizens, the majority of them Buddhists queued up to donate blood, and to help injured survivors and bereaved families. This haphazard catalogue of  atrocities that didn’t provoke any retaliatory violence from the constantly slandered Buddhists is to show that this long tradition of Buddhist bashing is very unfair. Even the scattered incidents that took place elsewhere than where the Islamic attacks took place, that too about a month after those incidents, were found to have been the work of mischief makers brought from other areas just to try and implicate Buddhists in violent incidents against Muslims; as those miscreants were strangers to the area they just targeted the houses and business places of both communities indiscriminately. The victimization of Buddhists wherever there was violence usually went unremarked or unreported by the biased media. 

This is because the Sinhalese who have an unbroken spiritual tradition with a recorded history of over two thousand three hundred years are nevertheless a global minority with few friends around the world. They are therefore obliged to fall back on their own defences and ensure their survival themselves. It will be a constant struggle for ensuring the survival of our distinct  race ennobled by the heroic deeds of our ancestors of yore, our unique linguistic heritage, our Buddhist spiritual tradition, our inalienable motherland of countless millennia. Sinhalese Buddhists, as a patriotic Buddhist monk said recently, stop living in their country as if they were mere boarders there, but as its owners, which they really are. When the Sinhalese Buddhists flourish, the racial and religious minority communities sharing the same land and the same resources in perfect harmony and goodwill ensured by the most humane and inclusive Buddhist culture will automatically flourish too. Asserting this historical reality should not be identified as racism. There cannot be a Sri Lankan nation without due recognition being given to this fact. It is only when the citizens are inspired by this nationalist fervour that they make sacrifices in the name of the country in critical situations, be they outbreaks of terrorist violence or global pandemics like what we are going through at this moment.  

Now, the Buddhist monks who are always roundly condemned for their alleged violence do not, in reality, try to grab land or anything else belonging to others; they don’t mean to convert people of other faiths; they do not discriminate against anyone on the grounds of religion or race when they come to them for help in any critical situation. Yet, monk bashing has become a tradition in Buddhist majority Sri Lanka today; nay, it is a long standing tradition that is now intensifying, because ‘the worm has turned.’ This must stop.  All Sri Lankans have a responsibility to look into their genuine grievances if any and implement remedies as appropriate within the framework of one country, one state, and one law. The same must apply to the minority racial and religious communities as well without any discrimination. All Sri Lankans remaining as one nation is the only way we can survive as an independent sovereign country. What would be the situation today in the face of the COVID-19 epidemic if the country had been divided into nine provincial administrations each with separate land and police powers? Unless the non-racist, non-fanatical, absolutely democratic nationalist camp that comprises the sensible Sri Lankans belonging to all communities win the next general election and form a stable government with Gotabhaya as the executive president and become able to reinforce its unitary status as an independent sovereign state, the majority community will remain in the doldrums for the foreseeable future, but are bound to rebound with might and main, sooner or later, sooner than later. The caravan that is the inclusive accommodating cosmopolitan Sinhale nation will move on though dogs bark.

චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම

ලංකාවේ නියෝජිත ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය නමැති නාස්ලණුව දමාගෙන දඟලන නියම ගොන් නාම්බෙක් නම් රංජන් රාමනායක නම් හිටපු මන්ත්‍රීය. ඇත්තවශයෙන්ම මට ඔහු ගැන ඇත්තේ අනුකම්පාවකි. ඔහුව මුරුංග අත්තේ තබනවා විනා ඔහුට ඔහුගේ මේ අවාසනාවන්ත හැසිරීමෙන් ගොඩaේමට සහාය දෙන කෙනෙක් නැද්ද? ඔහු කොරෝනා ආධාර බෙදන්නට ගියවිට ඔහුට ගම්පහ පැත්තේ ගෙවල් වල මිනිසුන් දක්වන ප්‍රතිචාරය අනුව ඊළඟ චන්දයකදී ඔහු දිණනවා නිසැකය. ඔහුගේ බඩු බෙදීමේ ව්‍යාජ ස්‌වරූපයත්, පාලිත තේවරප්පෙරුමගේ බත්-මාළු- කරවල බෙදීමේ අව්‍යාජ කමත් ලොවට පෙන්වන්නේය. නාස්ලණුව දමාගත් රංජන් වැනි අය ඔහුගේම වචන වලින් කියනවා නම් -කෙළවන්නේ- රාජකාරිය ඉෂ්ට කල පොලිස් නිලධාරියාට නොව රටේ තියෙනවා කියන බොරු තන්ත්‍රවාදයටය. මේ කොරෝනාව ඉගැන්‌වූ තවත් අනගි පාඩමකි.

රංජන් ඇඳිරි නීතිය කඩකරමින්, බොරු කියමින් ක්‍රියාකරන්නට, ඔහු කියන පරිදි ඔහුගේ පිසිකල් තෙරපිස්ට අනුබල දුන්නේ ඇඹිලිපිටියේ සිට කෝට්ටේ මන්ත්‍රී නිවාස දක්වා ඒමටය. මෙම පුද්ගලයා පිසිකල් තෙරපිස්ට් කෙනෙක් නොවේ යයි එම සංගමය කියා සිටී! එසේ නම් ඇඳිරි නීතිය කඩකරමින් ඇඹිලිපිටියේ සිට මොහුව ගෙන්නා ගන්නට රංජන්ට තිබුණ තදියම කුමක්ද? පාර්ලිමේන්තු නිවාස ගේට්ටුවේදී වාහනය නතර කල විට, රංජන් එතැනට පැමිණ යකා නැටුවේ තමන් වැඩිම මනාප ගත් මන්ත්‍රී කියමින් ය. ඔහු පොලිස් නිලධාරියාට වේ–පුතා කියා පරුෂ වචනයෙන් බැණ වැදුනේ නූගත් කමටද, නැත්නම් ආණ්ඩුවට විරුද්‌ධ යම් බලවේගයකගේ ඉත්තෙක් නිසාද?

ක්‍රමවේදයේ හා එය ක්‍රියාවට නැඟීමේ ඇති අඩුපාඩු නිසා මිනිසුන්ට බඩගින්නේ වීමට සිදුවීම ගැන පාලිත කරණ චෝදනාව තේරුම්ගත හැකිය. ඔහු පක්‍ෂ දේශපාලනයක් කරන්නේ නැත. කොරෝනාවට භයේ සැඟවී ඉන්නා හිටපු යහපාලන බොරුකාරයින්‌වූ, සුවපති රාජිතත්, පණ්ඩිත අජිත් පෙරේරාත් ගැන ඔහු උපහාසාත්මක ලෙස කතාකරන්නේ ඒ නිසාය. තව එවැන්නෙක් කොරෝනා ඉස්පිරිතාලයක් හදනවා කිව්වත් තමා ඔහුගේ ගේ ඉදිරියේ බත් බෙදු බව පාලිත සඳහන් කලේය. එහෙත් රංජන්ගේ ගේම් එක ඊට වෙනස්‌ය. රංජන්, පාලිත මෙන් දහඩිය වඟුර වමින් බත් උයන, බත් බෙදන, හාල් පරිප්පු මුට්ට කරගහන්නේ නැත. ඔහු කලේ වාහනයේ දොර ඇර හාල් ගෝනි ගන්නා ලෙස ඔහුගේ චන්ද දායකයින්ට දන්වා පසුව එක් නිවසක, පොඩි පහේ චන්ද රැස්වීමක් පවත්‌වා රාජපක්‍ෂලාට දොස් පැවරීමය. චීන ඩොලර් මිලියන් චීන ආධාර (ණය) බෙදීම භාරව ඉන්නේ බැසිල් යයි අවඥාවෙන් සඳහන් කලේය.

ලංකාවේ නාස්ලණුවාදය පිළිකාවක් මෙන් සළකා එයට බෞද්‌ධ රාජ්‍ය පාලන ක්‍රමය අනුව ශල්‍යක‌ර්‌ම රැසක්ම කලයුතු බව නාගානන්ද කොඩිතුවක්කු පෙන්වා දුන්නේ දූෂිත අධිකරණ ක්‍රමය ඉස්මතු කර පෙන්වමිනි. කුණුහරුප හඬපටි, වීඩියෝ මඟින් රංජන් තහවුරු කලේ ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය බොරුවක් බවය. රංජන් මන්ත්‍රී වරප්‍රසාද වංචා කරණ අයෙක් බව මේ අළුත්ම කොරෝනා ආධාර ගේනවා යයි බොරු කියා ඇඳිරි නීතිය කඩ කිරීමෙන් හා ඒ සම්බන්‌ධයෙන් වරද පිළිගන්නවා වෙනුවට රස්තියාදුකාරයෙක් මෙන් හැසිරීමෙන් ඔප්පු විය. මානව දයාව කුමක්දැයි පාලිත ගෙන් පේන නමුත්, රංජන්ගෙන් එලිවන්නේ ඔහු වංක මෝඩයෙක් බවය. නිකරුණේ ඇදිරි නීතිය කඩන මිනිසුන්ගෙන් එලිවෙන්නේ රංජන්ලා ලක්‍ෂ ගණනින් ලංකාවේ වසනා බවය.

මිනිසුන්ටත්, සතුන්ටත් පොදු දේ ලෙස සංස්කෘත ස්ලෝකයක දක්වන්නේ ආහාර, නින්ද, කාමය හා භීතියය. තමන්ට භය ඇතිබවක් මෙතෙක් පෙනී නොගියත්, හිරුණිකා බබා ඇතුළු ස්ත්‍රීන් සමඟ කල පෙම්කතා මඟින් ඔහු සිය කාමයේ වරදවා හැසිරීම ඔප්පු කලේය. රංජන්,හිරුණිකා, මර්වින් සිල්වා වැනි අය මන්ත්‍රීන් කරවන ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදයක් මක්කටද? එවැනියන්ට නොමිනේෂන් දෙන දේශපාලන පක්‍ෂ හා ඒවායේ නායකයින් දේශපාලන නපුංසකයින් නොවේද? මේ අප දැනට දන්නා තුන් දෙනාය. නොදන්නා අය කෙතරම් ඇද්ද? එලිපිට සවුත්තුවුණ පොහොට්ටු මිනිහෙක්‌වුනේ ගම්පහ පැත්තේ සරණ ගුණවර්‌ධන නම් හොරාය. ඔහුට නොමිනේෂන් දී නැතැයි මම සිතමි. තමන්ට වැඩිම මනාප ලැබීම නීතිය කඩකිරීමට ඔහුට ඇති බලය සේ රංජන් සිතයි! මේ දූෂිත චන්ද ක්‍රමය නමැති නරාවල තුල දඟලන පක්‍ෂ දේශපාලකයින්ගේ හෙංචයියලගේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුව, මෛත්‍රීපාල-රනිල් ගැටුමේදී (අගමැතිකමෙන් ඉවත් කිරීම හා පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවා හැරීම) රට කැඩීමට වලිකන බටහිර තානාපතිලා හැඳින්‌වූයේ මුළු ලෝක ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදයටම ආදර්‍ශයක් වන තැනක් ලෙස නොවේද? රංජන්‌ව ගොනාට අන්‌ඳවා ඔහුගෙන් බලු වැඩ කරවාගත් රනිල් වෙනුවට රංජන් දැන් ඔහු විසින්ම හිරුණිකා සමඟ එක්‌වී ඉතා පහත් ලෙස ගැරහූ සජිත්ගේ බළල් අතක් චී සිටී.

මේ සියළු දෙයින්ම සනාථවන්නේ ඥානසාර හිමියන් කියන අන්දමට විපත්තිය සම්පත්තියක් කරගෙන, කෝටි 400 ක චන්ද වියදමක් නොදරා, කුණු දේශපාලකයින්ට එකිනෙකාට කුණු විසිකිරීමට අවස්ථාවක් නොදිය යුතු බව නොවේද? සෑම අර්බුදයකටම, ඉන් ගැලවීමේ අවස්ථාවක්ද ඇතුලත්‌ය. ලංකාවේ ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය සංශොධනය කල යුතුමය. සුද්දගෙ නීතිය සුද්දකර දෙවන ලෝක යුද්‌ධය කාලයේදී සුද්දා කලා මෙන්, කළුකොඳයාවේ ප්‍රඥාශෙඛර නාහිමියන් කලා මෙන් ජන මූල සභා (ජන සභා) හරහා පන්සලේ-කොවිලේ-පල්ලියේ හා යුදහමුදාවේ අධීක්‍ෂණය යටතේ පක්‍ෂ දේශපාලනයට ඉඩ නොතබා විනය ගරුක, ධර්මිෂ්ට සමාජයක් ගොඩ නැඟීමේ අවස්ථාවක් දේශපාලකයෙකු නොවන ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභයට උදාවී තිබේ. වසංගතයක් හරහා මේ ඉඩ පාදා දීම ගැන පරම්පරා ගණනාවක සිට දුකින් පෙලෙමින් ඉන්නා ලංකාවාසි ජනයා කොරෝනාවට ස්තුති කලයුතු නොවේද?

2013 කාලයේදී බොදු බල සේනාවට අපහාස කරමින්, ඥානසාර මචං යයි ලියූ සේපාල් අමරසිංහ දැන් රාජිත සේනාරත්න කිව්වා කියන, මාව මිනිත්තු පහකට වත් හිරේ දාන්න බෑ යන ප්‍රකාශය ගැන බලන්නේ ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රයේ බොරුව යන පැත්තෙන් නොව රාජිත නැව් ගත්තේ කෙසේද යනාදී වශයෙනි. ඔහු කල යුතු මේ හොරා කියන තමන් ඇමති නම් දවස් තුනෙන් කොරෝනාව නතර කරණවා යන කතාව අභියෝගයට ලක්කිරීමය. ඔහු රංජන් ගැන කියන්නේ මොනවාදැයි බලා සිටිමු.

Dilrook Kannangara

China-bashing has raised its ugly head again. A section of Sri Lankans displays their anti-China hatred at any given moment. The twitter account of the Chinese embassy in Colombo was not functioning for some time and it was made into a China-bashing event. To their misfortune and for the fortune of most Sri Lankans, it soon came back live. The same group demonizes China for helping Sri Lanka financially.

China is Sri Lanka’s closest ally economically, politically, socially and militarily. Economically because Chinese investments have transformed Sri Lanka into what it is today. However, a section of Sri Lankans openly abhors China for no fault of the People’s Republic.

That is because they are Indian communities living in Sri Lanka making up around 23% of the population. Their sympathisers also join them in bashing China. The majority community loves China and wants to further strengthen bilateral relations. It is important to distinguish this ethnic difference.  

If not for Chinese funded Mattala airport, Sri Lanka would not have a back-up international airport. The need for a back-up international airport was very strongly felt during the time Tamil terrorists attacked the only international airport at that time (Rathmalana in 1978 and Katunayake in 1986, 2001 and 2007). If not for Chinese investments in power generation, Sri Lanka would be having power cuts every day. If not for China, Sri Lanka would not have international standard conference halls, roads and internet facilities. Politically China has stayed out of interfering in Sri Lanka’s domestic affairs which is commendable when India, USA and others try poking their dirty fingers into to everything under the sun.

Chinese supplies were essential to defeat Indian funded Tamil terrorists and bring peace to Sri Lanka.

Presence of China in UN Security Council has brought some stability to otherwise unstable world where might is right.

Given this context it must be stated in black and white that the majority community in Sri Lanka support and is grateful for China. Only the Indian minority communities lead the charge against China. It is understandable given the Indian animosity towards China.

Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grover Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . Canada

14 April 2020 (Sinhala & Tamil New Year Day)

Editor (Letters)
THE OTTAWA CITIZEN
Ottawa, On.

Dear Editor:

So I, as a Sinhalese-Sri Lankan-Canadian finally got it.  

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in his approach, to show the world Canada’s arrogant

New World Order,  clinically and surgically removed Sri Lanka’s historical tradition by

dissecting Sinhala and Tamil New Year celebrations into two by his statement, “Today, Tamils in Canada and around the world celebrate Puthandu, and welcome the beginning of a new year.”

No such courtesy towards me and my Sinhalese-Canadian brothers and sisters by wishing us,  “Today, Sinhalese in Canada and around the world celebrate Sinhala Avurudu, and welcome the beginning of a New Year.”

I got it Canada.  Your Justine Trudeau’s Liberal Government just slapped me with this racist

innuendo.  When I arrived in Canada on October 16, 1970,  from London, England, on an invitation by the National Museums Corporation to help the design team as Head, Thematic Research Section, on the renovation of the Victoria Memorial Museum in Ottawa with their 15 brand new exhibition Hall, I came bringing with me my rich Sinhalese Heritage culture, which included the annual Sinhala and Tamil New Year celebration every April. Prime Minister Justine Trudeau has just dissected that one event of harmony between the two ethnic peoples.

All that it has done was to show Canada’s hypocrisy when she harps on “reconciliation” between the two communities which were at war for 30 long bloody- years because the separatist Tamils wanted their mono-ethnic, separate, racist Tamil state, Eelam.

 I hope the Sri Lankan Government and the Canadian Sinhalese populous will note this hypocrisy by Canada.

Let me inform Prime Minister Justine Trudeau and his Liberal Government.  You may have

slapped me Ladies and Gentlemen of the Liberal Party of Canada, but I will ever remain Asoka Weerasinghe, the proud Sinhalese Sri Lankan-Canadian who arrived with a rich Sinhalese cultural heritage in his baggage, on October 16, 1970, and no one is going to take that away from me, as I am determined to walk tall, whether you are the lovers of the  Sri Lankan Tamil-Canadian community or not, and not us, Sinhalese.

That is how the cookie crumbles.

Asoka Weerasinghe

By P.K.Balachandran/Daily Express Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is keen on holding the polls at the earliest despite reservations of the Election Commission

There are indications that the postponed Sri Lankan parliamentary elections will be held on May 27 or 28, so that the newly elected parliament meets before the set three-month deadline of June 2.

The government expects to control the spread of the novel coronavirus by the end of April 30 to allow parties to campaign for the polls. According to WHO, as on April 11, there were 200 cases of which 138 were active”. 54 had recovered and seven had died.

The Sri Lankan President’s Secretary, Dr.P.B.Jayasundara, has clearly indicated that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is keen on holding the elections early, so that the new parliament meets, as scheduled, before June 2.

Following this, the Election Commissioner, Mahinda Deshapriya, reportedly said that the commission will meet on April 20 to decide on the revised date of the elections.

The gazette notification, through which parliament was dissolved on March 2, had set April 25, as the date of polling, and May 14 as the date on which the new parliament would meet. But on March 19, after the nominations had closed, the Election Commission announced that the polls had been postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

But the commission had not set a new date for the polling. According to the President’s Secretary, the EC should have mentioned a date as per law.

Meanwhile, as the government had put the country under lockdown, the opposition parties began to clamor for the total cancellation of the March 2 gazette dissolving parliament. They not only mentioned the impossibility of campaigning with a pandemic raging in the country, but also the fact that after April 30, the government would not be able to withdraw money from the Treasury without parliamentary sanction. They pointed out that there will be no parliament on April 30, to give the sanction.

However, Finance Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said that the President is empowered to withdraw from the Consolidated Fund in emergencies like this. By saying so, the government clearly indicated that reconvening the old parliament was ruled out. Fresh elections were the only way out, according to it.

Late this week, the government decided to reopen schools on May 11, indicating that the country is going to be rid of the pandemic by May first week and that the climate would be suitable for holding the elections.

According to informed sources, the government may lift the curfew in the non-high risk” districts on April 20, and in the high risk” districts of Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara, Puttalam, Jaffna and Kandy on April 30, so that elections could be held in May end.

Earlier in the week, the government had already said that it would review the curfew regimen after the Sinhala and Tamil New Year season” which would be around April 20.

Perhaps due to the prodding of the opposition parties and certain others, who have been wanting a postponement of the elections citing the pandemic, the Election Commissioner Deshapriya wrote to the Secretary to the President Jayasundara requesting the President to consult the Supreme Court on the matter. He took this step though the law clearly stated that he could himself postpone the date of polling if the ground situation could not ensure the proper conduct of polls.

Deshapriya had mentioned the pandemic as the reason and said that it might not be possible to hold the election even in June. If he thought so, he could have set a suitable fresh date as he was expected to by law.

Be that as it may, there was a constitutional hitch too. As per the original Presidential gazette dated March 2 announcing the dissolution, the new parliament had to meet within 90 days or before June 2.

Deshapriya did not ask the President to cancel the March 2 gazette to solve the problem, but suggested that he consult the Supreme Court.

The President clearly ruled out seeking the Supreme Court’s advice. He also indicated that the March 2 gazette will not be withdrawn as he was keen that the people exercised their franchise at the earliest.

In his reply to Deshapriya’s pleas, Presidential Secretary Jayasundara said that holding the elections at a suitable alternative date considering the ground situation is the exclusive prerogative of the Election Commission. He pointed out that the Commission had itself said, on March 21, that it will appoint a day after 14 days from April 30 as the day of the poll.

Jayasundara also stated in no uncertain terms that as per the advice by His Excellency, it is not possible, at this point of time, to state that the election cannot be held on or before 28.05.2020.”

This gave a clear indication that the President wants the polls be held on or before May 28.

Jayasundara then went on to say: I need hardly emphasize that it is the right of the people of this country to exercise their franchise, which is their sovereign right.”

He further said: The date for fixing the poll is the responsibility of the Election Commission and His Excellency has no wish to interfere with duties and obligations of the Election Commission.”

And in conclusion he said: In the total circumstances set out hereinbefore, I am instructed to inform the Election Commission that the question of Reference to the Supreme Court in terms of Article 129 of the Constitution does not arise.”

By throwing the ball back into the court of the Election Commissioner, the Secretary to the President had put him in a bind. However, given the political culture of Sri Lanka, even statutory institutions do not defy a powerful and determined President. Therefore, the Election Commission may also fall in line with the President, eventually.

This is perhaps the reason why the Election Commissioner had said that a decision on a new date will be taken when the commission meets on April 20 after the Sinhala and Tamil New Year. We will know if the country is rid of the coronavirus by the 20th of April and then decide the due course of action,” Deshapriya told The Sunday Morning.

The EC had also said that if the new parliament is to be convened on June 1, the parliamentary polls must be held on May 27 or 28, and that the preparation for the poll should commence on April 20.

by Melani Manel Perera Courtesy AsiaNews.it

The Archbishop of Colombo led Easter Mass without worshippers, streamed live, urging the faithful to bear witness to the resurrection of Christ through a new life, as an instrument of transformation of society.” About 218 people have tested positive so far for the COVID-19 virus.

Colombo (AsiaNews) – Despite the coronavirus outbreak the country is struggling to cope with, no one in Sri Lanka has forgotten last year’s Easter Sunday attacks, on 21 April, which left at least 279 people dead and almost 600 wounded from blasts in three churches, two Catholic and one Protestant, and three hotels.

Even though they wanted to destroy us, we didn’t seek revenge. We loved them,” said Card Malcom Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo, during the Mass on Easter Sunday.

Due to the safety measures taken to control the pandemic, the service was held without people, but was streamed live. The cardinal’s two auxiliary bishops, J. D. Anthony and S. Maxwell, took part in the celebration.

We forgave them,” said Card Ranjith. We could have taken a worldly and human decision and reacted against them, but we did not do so”. Instead, we responded with the Good News of Risen Lord, and forgave them.”

One year later, it is still unclear who was behind the attacks. The then president Maithripala Sirisena first blamed Islamic extremists, then international drug traffickers, supposedly trying to undermine his anti-narcotics drive.

At the time, Card Ranjith had called on the entire Sri Lankan cabinet to resign, given its failure to investigate an “international conspiracy” behind the attacks.

The prelate called on Catholics to bear witness to Jesus’s resurrection. Let us try to show that we are not worldly, earthly beings. We have something that is noble inside each of us, whatever our religion, culture or language. Everyone has something to contribute to humanity.”

No one should think only about themselves. This is about the resurrection, the new existence. As for a second chance, let us give quality to our lives by following what the Lord says, and become an instrument of transformation of society.”

Sri Lanka’s Health Ministry has reported 218 coronavirus cases so far with no deaths and at least 59 people completely recovered.