Courtesy Hiru News

05 arrivals from the UAE, & 01 from Ethiopia tested positive for Covid-19 increasing total infected in Sri Lanka to 3,321.

Courtesy Hiru News

A girl who is about to enter the first grade of a school next year had received an inspirational letter from the school.

Courtesy Hiru News

Former IGP Pujith Jayasundara making a statement today before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Easter attacks stated that former President Maithripala Sirisena has instructed him not to conduct any open investigation into Islamic extremist activities.

He was giving evidence before the commission for the second day today

This was when the Commission inquired whether the Prime Minister had been consulted without obtaining advice from the President at any time

Meanwhile, while Pujith Jayasundara was giving evidence, former President Maithripala Sirisena arrived at the commission at around 4.00 pm this afternoon.

Then, as he had done yesterday the former President sat in solitude at the back, observing the hearing and continued to stay there for about 45 minutes before leaving, where journalists questioned the former President.

Meanwhile, former President Maithripala Sirisena and his private secretary were again issued notices today to appear before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Easter attacks.

In addition, notices were issued to the three Auxiliary Bishops of the Archdiocese of Colombo to appear before the Presidential Commission tomorrow.

As of now India is on the best of terms with US and that partnership has etched out the Indo-US Pacific Strategy with India playing a greater role among Quad Nations. That India was a crucial link in US pivot to Asia is without a doubt and the US re-chartering its Asian venture is something that policy makers in both India & Sri Lanka must seriously worry about. The sudden rise in LTTE diaspora voices alongside the Church echoing a subtle ‘time to forgive’ and the silent manner western-government funded faith-organizations are evangelizing India & Sri Lanka is nothing India’s or Sri Lanka’s leader cannot ignore. The innuendo by Democratic VP candidate Kamala Harris on Kashmir and Indian Government’s own admission that Eelam includes Greater Tamil Nadu is a concern and behooves to question why Indian think tanks & Sri Lanka’s advisors are pretending not to see the dangers.

Though India played a major role in regime change in Sri Lanka, India was also well aware of LTTE’s threat on its shores. Now India is also nursing Jihadi terrorism. Though sample testing was done on Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, India cannot afford to sit pretty thinking India is immune. It is worthwhile for India’s think tanks & strategists to rewind their memories to how LTTE came to be adopted by the West for their geopolitical agendas. Isn’t this why the LTTE Diaspora are happily conducting shows from western shores? Have any western government made any attempts to clip their kitty or stop any of their international illegal rackets?

Simply placing a cosmetic ban, just to show the world LTTE is banned but allowing LTTE remnants to carry on business as usual is just fooling themselves. Let us be realistic, none of the tie-coat LTTE diaspora wish to go to the jungles and dirty their suits taking up arms when a better alternative prevails. The power of money, lobbying and corrupt politicians are the ingredients post-terror groups with a rich kitty have found more powerful than the latest cruise missiles. LTTE Diaspora can hire or retain the world’s best lawyers, get foreign MPs to cry over terrorists killed and even get former UN heads to cry foul over LTTE bogus ‘genocides’.

But when the Indian Central Government & the Tamil Nadu Government tells a tribunal that LTTE continues to nurture a ‘greater Tamil Nadu’ (inclusive of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh & North & East Sri Lanka) in 2014 December, we cannot but stop to wonder why India chose to play a role in regime change in Sri Lanka that brought to power the very coterie of characters who were wining and dining with these separatists. Did the arrival of a Chinese submarine to Sri Lanka, make blind India’s ability to identify the bigger threat? Can India that espouses to become a Permanent Member of the Security Council, even realize this dream if India is balkanized? An India that is continuously drumming ‘Concern for India’s National Security’ must realize that in helping weaken Sri Lanka, it has inadvertently weakened itself.

India may well like to take stock of the many NGOs it has revoked license, what their modus operandi had been, India may also like to look how entire villages across India are getting evangelicalized, even areas in Punjab. It is also happening in Sri Lanka to a lesser degree. But they have revamped their operations by building a set of people pretending to be faithful to the majority religion in both Sri Lanka & India but infiltrating the nationalist camps to draw people into their fold promising money & political positions. The weak and self-conceited always fall prey.

Govt told tribunal LTTE still wants ‘greater Tamil Nadu’ (Dec 2014)

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/govt-told-tribunal-ltte-still-wants-greater-tamil-nadu/

Tamil Nadu justifies ban on LTTE 

https://www.thehindu.com/news/Tamil-Nadu-justifies-ban-on-LTTE/article16011423.ece

Both India & Sri Lanka in particular must be worried about the dual citizenship aspect of the 20a that enables all LTTE Diaspora to even contest & buy land in Sri Lanka & create that Greater Tamil Eelam for their Western masters and then return to their foreign shores and allow West to dock & turn into a base to challenge and take on their real enemies.

LTTE Diaspora thus will help the West create the Southern-end of their geopolitical pivot.

Kamala Harris & Kashmir

The topic of Kashmir is a thorn in any conversation with an India. It has a bitter past, bitter experiences and is a topic India and Indian officials evade responding to.

It is an open secret that Biden is simply the puppet posed to enable a Democratic victory with Harris being groomed to function as the defacto US President.

While entire India did voice glee at her nomination, the cheers have waned somewhat to being confined to Southern India, where Harris’s maternal family hails from.

Indians and in particular Indian strategists have unusually turned a blind eye to an interesting remark made by Harris on Kashmir.

We have to remind Kashmiris that they are not alone in the world. We are keeping track of the situation. There is a need to interveneif the situation demands,”says U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris.

We all know what US means by ‘intervene’ it is to roll out R2P and this means Kashmir becomes Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria.

https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/op-ed/will-kamala-harris-be-a-game-changer-for-kashmirWill Kamala Harris be a game-changer for Kashmir

It is strange that India is ignoring such a public announcement of future plans.

The reason why we are alert to the US designs on Sri Lanka vis a vis the Pivot to Asia using the 3D approach – Diplomacy (SOFA), Defense (ACSA) and Development (MCC) is that US signaled its designs referring to Sri Lanka as America’s ‘real-estate’.

Sri Lanka occupies some very important real estate in the Indo-Pacific region, and it’s a country of increasing strategic importance in the Indian Ocean region”

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Alice Wells

http://www.colombopage.com/archive_20A/Jan26_1580024205CH.php

This naturally fits into our fears of why US/MCC wishes Sri Lanka to privatize all land including State Land and remove every constitutional & legal impediment to do so & all these changes for a paltry $480 disbursed across 5 years. So why have Sri Lanka’s leaders not realized that US Pivot means acquiring Sri Lanka’s real estate for imperial West to roost as a trade, diplomatic & military hub.

In India’s frenzy to rub shoulders with the West and crown itself a partner in Quad against China, India has unfortunately ignored the dangers lurking and this is likely to end up India becoming another Yugoslavia & Soviet Union. India will no longer command the power and presence it yields currently even among the South Asian nations. How could India’s strategists ignore the writings on the wall. Sri Lanka’s strategists by chirping ‘India First’ are only showcasing their ignorance of the ground realities.

Shenali D Waduge

By Rohana R. Wasala

It was reported in the media (September 8, 2020) that prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s proposal for a ban on cattle slaughter received cabinet approval as well as the approval of the government parliamentary group. Some Buddhist monks and allied groups who have long been agitating for such legislation to be enacted raised euphoric cries and invoked blessings on the prime minister and the president. I don’t know how the two privately reacted to the acclamation they received on the basis of a controversial measure tentatively proposed, but not finally agreed upon: Did they accept the still unearned accolades with a feeling of exultant self-vindication or with a sense of gnawing doubt that the whole thing might misfire? They are more likely to experience the latter state of mind, because this ban cannot be imposed without harmful repercussions, given the unalterable ground realities that must be recognized and accommodated before enacting and implementing the proposed ban. This is so particularly in relation to the prevailing economic and political crises in today’s globalized world, of which Sri Lanka is a small member, hardly noticed except for her strategic location and her beleaguered state due to the same circumstance, trapped between three superpowers, two global and one regional. The domestic fallout could be even more critical. This is the worst imaginable time for such a radical measure to be implemented, however popular it could be among a section of the people.

But let’s not be too alarmed. Media minister and Cabinet spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella (a good choice for the latter job, in my view) managed to assuage the fears of sceptics like me who are not convinced about the actual benefits, but are really concerned about the possible unsavoury economic, socio-cultural, and political consequences, of a ban being imposed on cattle slaughter, when Rambukwelle told the local media that prime minister Rajapaksa ‘hopes to ban cattle slaughter’ and that ‘he  would decide when to submit the proposal to the government’. The government announced that a final decision will be delayed by a month (as reported in the online Istanbul/Turkey based TRT News Magazine). Rajapaksa’s cautious non-commitment hints at the possibility of  a reassessment of the pros and cons of the move and points towards the likelihood of sanity finally prevailing. But this will need a lot of reverse convincing to do among the convinced (I mean, among those who are for the ban).

From my point of view (for what it is worth), it is vitally important to be mindful of how the ban would be viewed abroad as well as among domestic non-Buddhist religious minorities, though it might go down well with a majority of Buddhists and Hindus. There is no question about trying to assert our rights as an independent sovereign nation and to pursue political and economic policies that we believe serve the best interest of our people. However, divisive party politics of the recent years have landed Sri Lanka in such a vulnerable situation globally that any government  that even occasionally dares to defy undue superpower pressures in order to accommodate the legitimate demands of its own people gets labelled as undemocratic, autocratic, oppressive, and therefore ripe for replacement. For a Sri Lankan government to be on its best behaviour is no guarantor of its survival in a context where India, China, and America are each looking after their own national interest in a competitive relationship with one another at the expense of Sri Lanka’s very survival. But what can we do about it?  I think that the present government under the joint leadership of the president and the prime minister is doing what it can in these internationally beleaguered  and internally treacherous times. Insisting on passing potentially divisive legislation is no way to help them. 

Today, with Gotabaya Rajapaksa as President, we have the first executive head of government since independence who has found a way to consult with the Maha Sangha as a monolithic entity through non-political, non-sectarian interaction. He appointed a board of monks called the Bauddha Upadeshaka Sabhawa (the Buddhist Advisory Council) to advise him and had its first meeting on April 24, 2020. It consists of the Mahanayake Theras of the Three Nikayas and a group of prominent scholar monks, who are specialists in various fields connected with the Buddha Sasana in which they have time-honoured claims and commitments. The monks meet with the president on the third Friday of every month. In their last meeting on September 18, they commended the president for taking steps, in accordance with their proposals, for, among other things, the protection of historical sites of archaeological importance, development of Pirivena education, designing of a national educational policy, control of the drug menace, etc. But, as far as the Derana TV news coverage was concerned, there was no mention of the cow slaughter ban proposal. Can’t this be an indication that it is not being perceived as such a pressing issue? 

There is no gainsaying the fact that Buddhist monks worked tirelessly for the victory of the nationalist camp, and they did not do so for any personal benefit. There are a number of activist monk groups each articulating different issues of broad national interest such as environment protection in addition to the central issue of the threat to the Buddha Sasana, the predominantly Buddhist nation (the people) and the unitary state that comes from the handful of foreign sponsored separatist racists and religious extremists among the peaceful mainstream Tamil and Muslim minorities respectively. These traitorous elements dominated the previous regime. The president appointed the Buddhist Advisory Council partly in recognition of the service they did in helping to save the country from misgovernance, but primarily in fulfilment of the constitutional requirement of giving foremost place to Buddhism. We can expect nothing but good from this interaction between the prominent Nayake and scholarly monks and the president. Is it likely that they will  fail to understand the problematic nature of the proposed ban on cattle slaughter?  

Be that as it may, we can’t overlook the fact that some well known leading activists, heads of some animal rights and public health maintenance related organizations, welcomed the proposal with great enthusiasm, despite the principal proponent’s non-committal stance. These included such prominent personalities as the Justice for Animals and Nature Organization chairman  Ven. Dr Omalpe Sobhita Thera, founder of Sarvodaya Dr A.T. Ariyaratne, and GMOA head, medical specialist Dr Anuruddha Padeniya. They  published a public announcement cum invitation to ‘all professional and civil organizations’ asking them to attend a meeting  at the ‘Sangha Headquarters’ on Alvitigala Mawatha on September 20. They are urging the enforcement of the ban proposal. An announcement cum invitation was issued on September 17, the day that marked the 156th birth anniversary of Anagarika Dharmapala who had pioneered the agitation for putting an end to cattle slaughter. In his time, probably, it was more meaningful and less controversial to do so than today. This announcement appeared in the online Lankaweb Forum page the same day, where I read it. It must have been published elsewhere, too. The author and principal signatory to the document, Ven. Sobhita, wrote (in translation): ‘It need hardly be stressed that the principled, determined and fearless enactment of the praiseworthy decision taken by the government MPs headed by the prime minister requires the approval and support of the general public. We believe that we are going to get your fullest cooperation in this regard. We intend to call a meeting of delegates from such organizations and take decisions in connection with organizing the relevant future activities to achieve this aim.’

Personally, I have the highest respect for these three eminent persons (who have already done much commendable service to Mother Lanka in their different capacities) and the others mentioned in the document and also empathize fully with their commitment to the cause they believe in,  but I do not share their conviction about the feasibility, the functionality or the actual benefits of the proposition that they are wholeheartedly supporting. I would support a movement with the same devotion to stop animal slaughter in general, not just cattle slaughter, if there was such a movement, but I know that it is an unlikely initiative, an impossibility even. I don’t see any rationality in such a project. The kind of free rational thinking that the Buddha advised the young Kalamas to adopt without blindly following him – the way to Enlightenment, budh,rational intelligence, that Narendra Modi, invoking the common intellectual heritage of India which we too share through Buddhism, meant in the quote at the top, as opposed to yudh, war/conflict, as the best way to resolve problems – seems to be at a premium – there is paradoxically little available of it – in the sacred Treasury of Theravada Buddhism that Sri Lanka is often claimed to be. Occasional submergence of practical rational thinking as in this case – our rational faculty sometimes becomes manifest in its humblest form of common sense – could prove costly in more than one sense for the whole country.

Rational minds can conceive of alternative ways of dealing with a problem, when sometimes the most direct solution is likely to create worse problems than the original problem itself like the cattle slaughter ban, if implemented, will certainly do. It is not likely to contribute towards enhancing intercommunal goodwill as already implied above. Many Muslims are employed in the meat industry, and there are secondary industries like tanning (making leather out of animal hides), shoe making, and the manufacture of leather products such handbags, waist belts, saddles, some percussion instruments, etc. Import of beef from abroad will lead to increase in prices, in addition to the loss of jobs, and the drain on scarce foreign exchange that it will entail. We may easily imagine the problematic implications for the important dairy milk industry, the development of which is essential for stopping the import of toxic milk powder.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. For all communities in general who make Sri Lanka their home, and for the majority community in particular, these are desperate times indeed. However, cattle slaughter is not one of the burning problems that make the times desperate for them. There are much more serious problems they are faced with such as the menacing, so-called MMC Compact, the deleterious Yahapalana constitutional legacy – 19A – that prevents the executive and the legislature from readily restoring the democracy,the independence of the judiciary, and the rule of law and  the communal harmony that it effectively destroyed, the inevitable Covid-19 related economic consequences in the form of devastating blows on large income generating sources such as the tourism based hospitality industry and skilled and unskilled foreign employment, disruption of domestic industries due to mandatory lockdowns, social distancing, and other health restrictions imposed on physical movements in order to meet the pandemic emergency, all leading to the new administration’s devoted attempts to eliminate the drug menace and other forms of crime and corruption even more challenging and even more difficult than they are. 

Don’t the Ven. Mahanayake monks  and leading lay Buddhists have to devote their attention to barefaced threats to the Buddha Sasana both within it and outside of it, such as bogus Arhants explaining the Dhamma in idiosyncratic ways that confuse the average Buddhists with little education in the philosophy of Buddhism (the majority) for whom it is a religion like any other, and even egg them towards looking more promising faiths; disguised non-Buddhist men and women in yellow robes  spreading superstitious beliefs and practices under the label of Buddhism; proselytising preachers and faith healers misappropriating Buddhist symbol to enmesh credulous innocent Buddhists in their superstitions; some truly ignorant or sincerely ill-meaning You Tubers circulating the patent myth that Gautama Buddha was born, attained Enlightenment, and preached the Dhamma in Sri Lanka, ignoring the abundance of established historical evidence that proves that he was indeed from the subcontinent, and making money by turning out videos that feature illiterate ‘scholars’ who save their skin by hiding behind the hypocritical slogan ‘Here is the evidence. Believe it or leave it’, but there is only fake evidence. The Buddhist leaders must put their own house in order before driving our beleaguered nation into further crisis by trying to reform the world.

It is not that the monks and lay Buddhists who are agitating for a ban on cattle slaughter have forgotten what they can learn in this regard from the Buddha Gautama’s own policy of not forcing morality on people, but of helping them adopt moral behaviour by understanding evil as evil and good as good through self realization as illustrated in  the story about Chunda Sukara/Sukarika (Chunda the pig killer/keeper/professional pork seller). This pig keeper slaughtered his pigs after torturing them in unimaginably cruel ways. And he was a neighbour of the great sage. But he never responded to his teaching of avihimsa and eventually died a wretched death, unreformed.

Perhaps we can learn something from India in this regard. According to the Wikipedia, India  (pop.1.3 billion) is nearly 80% Hindu (with 14% Muslim, and 6% others). Beef eating is generally taboo for Hindus. It’s been estimated that the number of vegetarians in India equals the number of vegetarians in the rest of the world put together. But it seems to adopt a relaxed attitude towards cattle slaughter. The law governing cattle slaughter varies from state to state, and is flexible in some states. On 26 May 2017, the Ministry of Environment of the Government of India led by Bharatiya Janata Party imposed a ban on the sale and purchase of cattle for slaughter at animal markets across India, under Prevention of Cruelty to Animals statutes, although Supreme Court of India suspended the ban on sale of cattle in its judgement in July 2017, giving relief to beef and leather industries”. So, the cattle slaughter ban in India was made ineffective even before it was hardly implemented.

No doubt, this was a disappointment to prime minister Modi, his BJP, and others who supported the ban. It is no less so, it is interesting to learn, to most Muslims of India as well. Researchers Naghmar Sahar and Rashid Kidwai of the Observer Research Foundation of India say: The majority of Muslim leadership in India has, all along, been always in favour of a nationwide ban on cow slaughter, but somehow successive regimes have refrained from banning it” (India Matters/Aug. 12, 2019/ ‘A century of giving up beef: Muslims demand nationwide ban on cow slaughter’). Muslims have been making this demand in deference to Hindu sentiment, in the interest of peaceful coexistence with Hindus. The useful lesson in common sense we can learn from India’s experience with cattle slaughter banning is too obvious to need explaining. 

Can’t the Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Christians who disapprove of cattle slaughter think of a more efficient and easier way to minimise it (as eliminating is impossible) than trying to impose unenforceable legislation to ban it altogether? Just stop eating beef!

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna  ( Pohottu) had a sweeping victory at the General Election of 2020.  Pohottu got  59.09 %of the total vote and 145 seats. Nobody expected such a  landslide   victory and it was promptly dubbed the ‘mother of  all landslides’. Voter turnout island-wide was 71%.  It would have been more, but Pohottu supporters from abroad were unable to attend due to  Covid 19.. They have won a ‘super majority’, said BBC.  The two-and-half-year-old SLPP has placed a firm footprint in Sri Lanka’s political firmament, said analysts.  That remains to be seen.

 Cartoon is from Sunday Times 9.8.20

The general election is Pohottu’s third win.  Pohottu did  well at  its very first election, Local  Government elections in February 2018.  It polled 44.65% of the total votes polled and won the highest number of seats and local authorities.  Pohottu got 231 out of 338 Local Government  bodies.  Then at the presidential election in November, last year, SLPP candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa won 52.25% or 6.9 million votes.The SLPP has secured a steamroller majority in Parliament and needs only a single crossover from the Opposition benches to have two-thirds of MPs on its side, said analysts. It has 145 seats, and its allies which contested separately in some areas have four seats among them.

Pohottu is a brand new political party, built  around the Rajapaksa brothers, but primarily, Gotabaya ,not Mahinda.  The architect  was Basin Rajapaksa. Basil Rajapaksa formed the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) ahead of the Local  Government elections of February 2018.

However, the  Pohottu trade union, ‘Pragathashili Sevaka Sangamaya’ of Associated Newspapers of Ceylon, ( Lake House) was set up at ANCL even before the party was established, its chairman said.  Support was provided by SLPP National Organizer Basil Rajapaksa, while MP Gamini Lokuge provided the leadership.We are not functioning as a traditional trade union; we worked hard for the victory at the Local Government and Presidential elections,” the Chairman of the Union said, but he added that Basil Rajapaksa had instructed the trade union to stand for the rights of the employees.

During Yahapalana  time, Pohottu created two talk shops, ‘Viyathmaga’ in early 2016 followed by ‘Eliya’.  The emergence of the Viyathmaga, ‘Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s own political organization’,  as a political entity at the 2020 general election was a significant development. Civil society organization Viyathmaga has emerged as an influential group within the SLPP parliamentary group with eight out of nine contestants gaining entry into Parliament, said analysts.

 Nalaka Godahewa came first on preference votes in the Gampaha district polling 325,429 and Professor Channa Jayasumana with 125,980 came second in the Anuradhapura district. Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera came first in preference votes winning 328,092 votes in the Colombo district.  Viyathmaga candidates have also found places in the SLPP National List and were set to become Cabinet Ministers, said commentators. There hadn’t been a previous instance of a President fielding a team of his own for parliamentary election  said  Sarath  Weerasekera.

This is the first occasion where a landslide victory took place in a country where the Proportional Representation system (PR) exists. Proportional Representation system was introduced by President JR Jayawardene  to ensure not only that the UNP never lost an election but also that no party would ever command a two thirds majority in Parliament. It was thought that PR would prevent stable governments appearing. The SLPP leaders have given the lie to this claim.

Three  measures taken by President Gotabaya  ensured him the loving support of  the voters. One was the measures taken to contain the deadly Covid-19 from spreading. At present the number of those afflicted by the disease remains below 3,000 with only 13 deaths. That is a feat that could only be achieved by a developed country where the health system is advanced and modern.

The second is the major crackdowns he ordered on the illegal drug trade and the bosses who ran them, even from jails together with an order to crackdown on the underworld.  The third is his meet the people” election campaign  which won him  much public support.

 BBC commented, Sri Lanka has been one of the few nations to hold an election despite the corona virus pandemic.Just nine months after his impressive win in the presidential election, Gotabaya Rajapaksa has led his Sri Lanka People’s Front to a two-thirds majority. He is hugely popular among the Sinhala majority for crushing the Tamil Tiger separatist rebels in 2009 when he was Defence secretary. Many in the country also credit his administration for bringing stability and successfully containing the corona virus outbreak.

Lord Naseby, who is also the President and founder of the All Party British Sri Lanka Parliamentary Group in the UK said, ‘This is a truly remarkable result; yet again the ordinary people of Sri Lanka have turned out to vote at a level rarely seen anywhere in the World. This is true democracy at work.

By conducting a peaceful general election under very strict health precautions (even though this cost so much of money) Sri Lanka has become a model to the entire world under the present trying conditions of health and economy all over the world, said Father Vimal Tirimanne .

 The 2020 General Election is a clear indication that even with regard to local politics, there are quite a number of positive points that should never be ignored. As a matter of fact, this election could well be the moment of transition which marks the beginning of a new political culture in the country, Father Vimal  stated.

Mahinda Rajapaksa  was sworn in as Prime Minister  at Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara. After taking oaths as Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa visited  Vidyalankara Pirivena, Gangaramaya, Abhayaramaya, Pepiliyana Sunetra Devi Pirivena  and  Bellanwila Raja Maha Vihara .   The Prime Minister was acknowledging the support given to him by the Maha Sangha.

The  third and last ceremony, the swearing in of Cabinet of ministers was  held in Kandy, in the Audience hall next to the Dalada Maligawa. This Audience Hall  is not a part of the Dalada Maligawa. It is part of the royal palace. Therefore, the choice of venue  is most appropriate.

Both ceremonies included Pansil and pirit and was watched over by a formidable number of bhikkhus who sat  stolidly through the whole ceremony.     This excessive emphasis on Buddhist rituals is  significant.

It is the first time since independence that a Sri Lanka   government has decided to recognize the island’s unique  Sinhala Buddhist civilization and emphasis  the  Buddhist  ethos that accompanies it. This does not mean the   start of Buddhist rule”. There are no theocratic Buddhist states. The Buddhist philosophy does not  make this possible.

In  having a ceremony in Kandy, Pohottu is drawing attention to  Sri Lanka ‘s   historic  Sinhala kingdom. This Sinhala kingdom, carrying the name Sinhaladvipa, dates from the time of king Panduvasudeva, but the earliest accepted date is that of Devanampiyatissa,  250BC – 210. This Sinhala kingdom continued unbroken up to 1815,  making a total of around 2000  years of unbroken, sovereign, monarchical rule. This is, I  think, unique to  both South  and South East Asia, with the exception of China.

The new  government has   created state ministries for its agricultural commodities and cottage industries. There are cabinet portfolios for Batiks and handlooms, Gem and Jewelry, Pharmaceutical Production, Ornamental Fish Cane, Brass, Clay products. Also for Vegetables, Fruits, Chilies, Onions, Potatoes, Coconut,  Palmyra, Sugarcane, Maize, Cashew, Pepper, Cinnamon, Cloves and  Betel. 

This has been sniggered at. Actually, it is most praiseworthy. It  means that each  of these ‘village’ subjects will have a specific budget allocation  all to itself. This will be the first time ever that these village subjects have been given the financial attention they deserve.

These ‘subjects’ have been highly criticized and laughed at but there is a purpose, said a Pohottu spokesman. This is a very timely decision taken by the government to uplift the living standards of people dependent on those industries and also to expand the country’s export-oriented production,.

Through new State Ministerial portfolios, it is expected to achieve a considerable growth in local production. Unlike in the past, now State Ministers too have to play a key role in the Government’s development agenda. With the assignment of specific subjects for the State Ministers, the Government can easily monitor the growth of fields allocated for them, the spokesman concluded.  

The Lion Flag of Kandyan Kings briefly held monopolistic sway and fluttered in the winds of Sinhale over Senkadagala hills hours before modern day Lanka’s new Government were to be sworn in and officially come into being in the hallowed precincts of the Sri Dalada, said the media.

Over enthusiastic municipal workers were blamed for decorating Kandy town with a set of the now defunct Royal Flag of the Kandyan Kingdom, with the solitary lion symbolising Sinhala supremacy, the day before the Government carnival was expected to arrive in this once historic capital

When the Kandy Municipal Council finally awoke to the blunder and realised Kandy was awash with lion flags devoid of the green and orange stripes meant to represent the minority Muslims and Tamils respectively, an immediate counter operation to hoist down the offending ‘imposter’ flags,  flying , from every flag pole in the city was launched.  (continued)

Chanaka Bandarage

With the advent of 20A bashing the dual citizens has become a pastime of many. It has now become a fashionable social phenomena.

Currently dual citizens are seen as a ‘pariah community’.  They are attacked from left, centre and the right. They are despised in every corner. They are seen as the reason for every evil of the land.

When we refer to Sri Lankan dual citizens we largely mean the very large Sinhalese community who have taken up citizenship in developed western countries like the USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Germany, Switzerland  and France.

These people tend to work to preserve the unitary status of  Sri Lanka. Though they have left the motherland permanently, they are genuine patriots.

Some have returned to the motherland and contribute to the development of Sri Lanka.

True there are a large number of Tamil dual citizens, but, they are more or less referred to as the Tamil Diaspora. There is a perception that some of them support the creation of the separate Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka.

Over a million Sinhalese dual citizens live in those western countries.  Most of them left Sri Lanka during the war period.  In 1980s to early 2000s hundreds and thousands of educated Sinhalese left Sri Lanka to western countries to escape the war, and also in search of greener pastures.  The majority of them settled down well in their newly adopted countries. They have led exemplary, decent lives. They have mingled well with their respective western counterparts. They have brought forth much fame and glory to Sri Lanka.

A significant feature of them is that they have continued to maintain a close tie with the motherland. Since leaving, most of them have visited the mother country often as possible.  They send millions (perhaps billions) of valuable foreign remittance to Sri Lanka. They help their kith and kin in Sri Lanka in numerous ways.

During the war, the Sinhalese dual citizens  fought vehemently hard against the LTTE and their sympathizers operating in the west. They united themselves as a force. To bestow goodwill to Sri Lanka they conducted Bodhi Pujas in the temples that they have built in their adopted countries. Christians have also done similar things, though to a lesser degree.

It is also thanks to their struggles that the LTTE was able to be banned easily in those countries.  These good people did many things like positive lobbying, conducting demonstrations for Sri Lanka and directly confronting Tamil Tigers and their Sri Lankan and western supporters who are extremely strong and powerful in those countries. Dual citizens have fought hard to stop western nations from imposing various sanctions and restrictions against Sri Lanka.

The meritorious and righteous things that these dual citizens have done for Sri Lanka is many. The only ‘sin’ that they have committed is leaving mother Lanka during the time of the war and acquiring a second citizenship.

As stated in the beginning, there is a strong resentment in the country today against dual citizens.  This is because 20A attempts to lift the ban on them from entering the parliament.

Majority of the people oppose this stand. They correctly argue that dual citizens should not be allowed to enter the parliament. It is a justified demand. Dual citizens show allegiance to two nations – Sri Lanka and their newly adopted country.  Such people should not be allowed to enter the parliament. If they want, they must renounce their second citizenship first (the biggest joke is that there are a number of dual citizenship holders in the current parliament; it is rumored that several of TNA MPs hold dual citizenships.  Only Geetha Kumarasinhge was chased out of the parliament owing to be a dual citizen, and Gotabaya was compelled to renounce his US citizenship before contesting the Sri Lankan Presidential election 2019).

There is a demand that dual citizens should be stopped from holding any high level government position. This is not fair and reasonable. It is in the government’s interests that such qualified and highly experienced persons are offered top positions in the government’s administrative and management hierarchy. It is the creation of a ‘Win Win’ situation.

Clearly dual citizens are not enemies of the nation. As pointed out herein, they are genuine friends of the motherland (true patriots). Some say they love the motherland more than those who actually live there. As indicated earlier dual citizens have contributed immensely in the social, cultural and economic development and wellbeing of Sri Lanka in numerous ways. A separate book can be written about this!

The country should be kind to the dual citizens. They should not be attacked at every nook and corner like now. The writer states that those who attack them seem to be doing so with a cynical mindset.

Some say if dual citizens are allowed to enter the parliament, such dubious characters like ex Tamil Tigers and their sympathizers, members of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam would also enter it. This is a ridiculous argument. This cannot happen in any way. Some of these people have committed serious crimes against Sri Lanka and her people. We have existing laws to punish them for their crimes. So, instead of entering the parliament such criminals when arrive in the country should be presented with a charge sheet. 

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග 

ප්‍රංශ කවියෙකු, නවකතාකරුවෙකු සහ රොමෑන්ටික ව්‍යාපාරයේ නාට්‍යකරුවෙකු වූ වික්ටර් මාරි හියුගෝ 1802 පෙබරවාරි 26 වන දින ප්‍රංශයේ බෙසානොන් හි උපත ලැබීය.  වික්ටර් හියුගෝ උපත ලබන්නේ ප්‍රංශ විප්ලවය විසින් ශක්තිමත් කරන ලද ලෝකයක ය. ඔහුගේ පියා ජෝසප්-ලියෝපෝල්ඩ් හියුගෝ නැපෝලියන්ගේ හමුදාවේ ජෙනරාල්වරයෙකි. ලියෝපෝල්ඩ් හියුගෝ නැපෝලියන් වීරයෙකු ලෙස සැලකූ නිදහස් සිතිවිලි සහිත ජනරජවාදියෙකු විය. හියුගෝගේ මුල් ළමාවිය කැලඹිලි සහිත විය. හියුගෝගේ දෙමව්පියන්ගේ ප්‍රතිවිරුද්ධ දේශපාලන හා ආගමික මතයන්  දැරුවෝය. මෙම ආතතීන් හියුගෝගේම පවුල තුළ නිරූපණය විය. ඔහු සහ ඔහුගේ වැඩිමහල් සොහොයුරන් දෙදෙනා වන ආබෙල් සහ ඉයුජින් ඔවුන්ගේ මව සමඟ ප්‍රංශයේ පැරිස් නුවර ජීවත් වූ අතර ඔවුන්ගේ පියා ඉතාලියේ ජීවත් විය. හියුගෝට වයස අවුරුදු පහ වන විට කියවීමට හා ලිවීමට හැකි විය. වයස අවුරුදු හත වන විට ඔහුට ලතින් භාෂාව කියවීමට හා පරිවර්තනය කිරීමට හැකි විය. කුඩා කාලයේ දී හියුගෝ කවි ලිවීමට උනන්දුවක් දැක්වීය. හියුගෝ අධ්‍යාපනය ලැබුවේ පෞද්ගලිකව සහ පැරිස් පාසල්වලය. වයස අවුරුදු 17 වන විට ඔහු තම සහෝදරයා සමඟ සඟරාවක් ආරම්භ කර තිබුණි.

ඔහුගේ පරම්පරාවේ බොහෝ තරුණ ලේඛකයින් මෙන්, හියුගෝ ද   19 වන සියවසේ මුල් භාගයේ ප්‍රංශයේ ප්‍රමුඛ පෙළේ සාහිත්‍ය චරිතයක් වූ ප්‍රංශුවා-රෙනේ ඩි චැටෝබ්‍රියන්ඩ්ගේ ප්‍රබල බලපෑමට ලක් විය. එසේම වර්ජිල්ගේ ඇනයිඩ් කාව්‍ය ඔහු ප්‍රිය කලේය.  ඔහුගේ පළමු කාව්‍ය සංග්‍රහය (Odes et poésies diverses) 1822 දී ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කරන ලද්දේ ඔහුට වයස අවුරුදු 20 දී ය. තම ළමා වියේ පෙම්වතිය වන ඇඩෙල් ෆවුචර් කෙරෙහි දක්වන ආදරය සමරන බොහෝ කවි මෙහි අඩංගු වෙයි. මෙම පොතේ පෙරවදනෙහි වික්ටර් හියුගෝ මෙසේ ලිවීය: ” කවිතාව යනු සියලු දේ අතරින් හදවතට සමීප ම දෙයයි”

1823 දී ඔහු සිය පළමු නවකතාව වන ” Han d’Islande”  (Hans of Iceland) ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කලේය. හියුගෝ මෙම නවකතාව අද්දැකීම් අඩු තරුණ ලේඛකයෙකුගේ කෘතියක් ලෙස සලකන ලෙසට පාඨකයාට ආරාධනා කරයි.   ඔහුගේ දෙවන නවකතාව වන  “Bug-Jargal ” 1826 දී පළ වූ අතර එය ප්‍රංශ හමුදා නිලධාරියෙකු සහ වහල්භාවයේ සිටි අප්‍රිකානු කුමාරයෙකු අතර මිත්‍රත්වයේ කතාව විස්තර කරයි. මෙම නවකතාව දහනව වන සියවසේ යටත් විජිත ප්‍රබන්ධයේ වැදගත්ම කෘතියක් වන අතර ප්‍රධාන යුරෝපීය කතුවරයකු විසින් හයිටි විප්ලවය පිළිබඳ වඩාත්ම තිරසාර නවකතා සංග්‍රහය විය හැකිය. “Bug-Jargal ” අන්තර්-වාර්ගික මිත්‍රත්වය හා එදිරිවාදිකම් පිළිබඳ සිත්ගන්නා  කතාවක් වන අතර එය මානව බැඳීම් පිළිබඳ අනන්‍ය විස්තරයකි.

හියුගෝගේ පළමු නාට්‍යය වූයේ Marion de Lorme -මේරියන් ඩි ලෝර්ම් ය. ප්‍රංශ රාජාණ්ඩුව නිරූපණය කිරීම හේතුවෙන් වාරණයන් විසින් මුලින් තහනම් කරනු ලැබුවද, අවසානයේදී එය 1829 දී වාරණය නොකොට මංගල දර්ශනය කිරීමට අවසර දෙන ලදී, නමුත් නාට්‍යය සාර්ථක නොවීය. 1827 දී ඔහුගේ නාට්‍යමය රොමැන්ටික කෘතිය වන Cromwell  සමඟ වික්ටර් හියුගෝ රොමැන්ටික සාහිත්‍ය දක්ෂයෙකු ලෙස කීර්තියක් අත්කර ගත්තේය. මෙම නාට්‍යයේ එංගලන්තයේ ඔලිවර් ක්‍රොම්වෙල්ගේ අභ්‍යන්තර ගැටුම් පිළිබඳ කතාව අඩංගු විය. ඔලිවර් ක්‍රොම්වෙල් ඉංග්‍රීසි සිවිල් යුද්ධයේදී පළමු චාල්ස් රජුට එරෙහිව එංගලන්ත හමුදාවේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට නායකත්වය දුන් සහ 1653 සිට ඔහු මිය යන තුරුම බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය දූපත් සාමිවරයා ලෙස පාලනය කළ රාජ්‍ය නායකයෙකි. ක්‍රොම්වෙල් 1649 දී පළමුවන චාල්ස් රජුගේ මරණ වරෙන්තුවට අත්සන් තැබූ අයෙකි. රජෙකු ලෙස කිරුළු පළඳින ජනතාවගෙන් නැගිටින ජාතික නායකයෙකු මෙම නාට්‍යයේ මාතෘකාව විය. 

හියුගෝට ඉංග්‍රීසි සිවිල් යුද්ධය පිළිබඳ ගැඹුරු දැනුමක් ඇති බවත් ඔලිවර් ක්‍රොම්වෙල් නාට්‍යයෙන් පෙනී යයි. හියුගෝ ඔහුගේ ජනරජ නැඹුරුවාවන් සඟවා ගත්තේ නැත. ඔහුගේ ඉලක්කය වූයේ ඉතිහාසය පුරාම බොහෝ නායකයින් මුහුණ දී ඇති අභ්‍යන්තර ගැටුම නිරූපණය කිරීමයි. ක්‍රොම්වෙල්ගේ ජීවිතය හා වෘත්තිය නැපෝලියන්ට සමාන්තර විය. මෙම මිනිසුන් දෙදෙනා අතර බොහෝ සමානකම් තිබුණි. හියුගෝ තම සමකාලීනයන් සමඟ අඩු මතභේදයට තුඩු දුන් තැනැත්තා ගැන ලිවීමට තෝරා ගත්තේය.  නාට්‍යය පුරාම ක්‍රොම්වෙල් අවස්ථා කිහිපයකදී තම අභිලාෂයන් අතහැර දැමීමට භයානක ලෙස සමීප වේ. ක්‍රොම්වෙල් දුර්වල හෝ අනුකම්පා සහගත ලෙස නිරූපණය කිරීම හියුගෝගේ අභිප්‍රාය නොවීය.

ඔහුගේ “Hernani”  (1830) නාට්‍යයයේ මාතෘකාව ආරම්භ වන්නේ  1519  දක්‍ෂිණ බාස්ක් හි ස්පාඤ්ඤ නගරයකිනි. වහල්භාවයේ උපත ලැබූ උතුම් වංශාධිපතියෙකුගේ චරිතය නාට්‍යයේ කේන්ද්‍රයේ පිහිටා තිබේ. වංශාධිපතීන් දෙදෙනෙකු සහ අද්භූත කොල්ලකරුවෙකු – එකම කාන්තාව සමඟ ආදරයෙන් බැඳී සිටිති. තරුණ වීරයා වූ හර්නානි, පැරණි වංශාධිපතියෙකු වන ඩොන් රූයි ගෝමස් සමග ගැටීමක් ඇති කර ගනී.  හර්නානි  අපැහැදිලි සම්භවයක් ඇති කොල්ලකරුවෙකි. හර්නානි ඩොනා සොල් සමඟ ආදරයෙන් බැඳී සිටියි. පරමාදර්ශී කාන්තාව ඩොනා සොල් ,ඇගේ  වීරයාට වඩා වෙනස් ය. හර්නානි සහ ඩොනා සොල් ප්‍රේමවන්තයන් බව දැන සිටියද, රූයි ගෝමස්, හර්නානිව රජුට භාර දීම ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කරයි.  පසුව  නව අධිරාජ්‍යයා හර්නානිට සමාව ලබා දෙයි. එහෙත් නාට්‍යය අවසන් වන්නේ ඛේදවාචකයකිනි. රොමියෝ සහ ජුලියට් මෙන් ප්‍රේමවන්තයන් වස පානය කිරීමෙන් එකට මිය යති.

 “Hernani”  නාට්‍යයේ පෙරවදනෙහි හියුගෝ රොමෑන්ටිකවාදය දේශපාලන ලිබරල්වාදය සමඟ සංසන්දනය කළ අතර එමඟින් මුලදී මහජනතාවගේ අවධානය දිනා ගත්තේය. “Hernani”   නාට්‍යය  සමඟ හියුගෝ නාට්‍ය රචකයෙකු ලෙස කීර්තියට පත්විය. ප්‍රංශ රොමෑන්ටිකවාදයේ පැමිණීම හර්නානි නිවේදනය කළේය. එසේම හියුගෝ රොමැන්ටික සාහිත්‍ය ව්‍යාපාරයේ ප්‍රමුඛයා බවට පත්විය.  හර්නානි 19 වන සියවසේ නාට්‍ය කලාවට සදාකාලික බලපෑමක් ඇති කළේය. හියුගෝගේ නාට්‍යමය කාව්‍යයන් ප්‍රංශ සාහිත්‍යයේ නව යුගයක් ආරම්භ කළේය. හියුගෝගේ නාට්‍ය ඔහුගේ නවකතාවලට වඩා වෙනස් වන්නේ දේශපාලන බලය අවධාරණය කිරීමෙනි.

හියුගෝ ගේ Lucrezia Borgia (1833) යනු  පුනරුද යුගයේ ඉතාලි වංශාධිපතිනි ලුක්‍රේෂියා බෝර්ජියා නිරූපණය කරන ඓතිහාසික නාට්‍යකි. ලුක්‍රේෂියා ඇගේ සුන්දරත්වය හා ඇයගේ හැකියාව තුළින් ජනප්‍රිය වූවාය. 15 වන සියවසේ අග භාගයේ මූලාශ්‍ර මත පදනම්ව හියුගෝගේ ප්‍රකෝපකාරී නාට්‍යය  ජනප්‍රිය විය. හියුගෝට අනුව, විලියම් ෂේක්ස්පියර්ගේ මැක්බත් ආර්යාව මෙන් ලුක්‍රේෂියා ගේ දෑත් ලේ වලින් පිරී තිබේ. ඔහුගේ නාට්‍යයේ  කේන්ද්‍රය ව්‍යභිචාරය වන අතර, ලුක්‍රේෂියා ඇගේ අවජාතක පුත් ජෙනරෝ වෙනුවෙන් දරනු ලබන අස්වාභාවික ප්‍රේමය ප්‍රේක්‍ෂකයෝ වටහා ගනිති. රූපත් ඇයගේ චරිතය මිනීමැරුම් හා ව්‍යභිචාරය සමඟ සම්බන්ධ වේ. මෙම කුරිරු ස්ත්‍රී මාරක නාමය ඇය වටා සිටින සියල්ලන්ගේ හදවත් තුළ භීතියක් ඇති කළේය.

වික්ටර් හියුගෝගේ ප්‍රථම පරිණත ප්‍රබන්ධ කෘතිය Last Days of a Condemned Man 1829 දී ප්‍රකාශයට පත් වූ අතර, ඔහුගේ පසුකාලීන Les Misérables කෘතියට  බලපාන සමාජ හෘදය සාක්ෂිය පිළිබිඹු විය. මෙම කෘතිය  ලෙ  මිසරබල්ස්  නවකතාවේ පූර්වගාමියා ලෙස සලකනු ලැබේ. වික්ටර් හියුගෝ මෙම නවකතාව ලියා ඇත්තේ මරණ දඬුවම අහෝසි කළ යුතු බවට ඔහුගේ හැඟීම් ප්‍රකාශ කිරීම සඳහා ය. මෙම පොත 1829 පෙබරවාරි මාසයේදී චාල්ස් ගොසලින් විසින් කතුවරයාගේ නමක් නොමැතිව ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කරන ලදී.

මෙම Last Days of a Condemned Man නවකතාවට පාදක වන්නේ 19 වන ශතවර්ෂයේ ප්‍රංශයේ  මරණ දණ්ඩනය නියම කරනු ලැබූ මිනිසෙකු ඔහුගේ මරණය බලාපොරොත්තුවෙන් සිටියදී ඔහුගේ සිතේ හට  ගන්නා හැඟීම් ය. නවකතාව ගිලටිනයට මුහුණ දීමට පෙර සිය අවසන් දවස්වල ජීවත්වන මිනිසෙකු විසින් ලියන ලද දිනපොතක ස්වරූපය ගනී. මෙහි සිත්ගන්නා කරුණ නම්, හියුගෝගේ ලෙ මිසරබල්ස් හි වීරයා වන ජීන් වල්ජියන්ගේ චරිතයද  නවකතාවේ අඩංගු වීමයි . මරණ දණ්ඩනය නියම වූ තැනැත්තා සිර ගෙදර සිටින විටදී  ඔහුට තවත් සිරකරුවෙකු මුණගැසෙයි. තම සහෝදරියගේ පවුල බේරා ගැනීම සඳහා පාන් ගෙඩියක් සොරකම් කිරීම නිසා ඔහුව සිරගත වූ බව ආගන්තුක සිරකරුවා පවසයි. 

මරණ දණ්ඩනය නියම වූ මිනිසාගේ චිත්ත ස්වභාවය හියුගෝ එළි කරයි. කාලය ගෙවී යත්ම, ඔහුගේ ඉරණම වෙනස් කිරීමට තමාට හැකියාවක් නැති බව ඔහු දනී.මරණ දණ්ඩනය නියම වූ දිනයේදී ඔහු තම තුන් හැවිරිදි දියණියව අවසන් වරට දකින නමුත් ඇය  ඔහුව හඳුනා නොගනී. නවකතාව අවසන් වන්නේ ඔහු කෙටියෙන් නමුත් මංමුලා සහගත ලෙස සමාව අයැදීමෙන් හා  මිනිසුන්ට ශාප කිරීමෙන් පසුවය. පෝරකය අවට එක් රැස්ව සිටින මිනිසුන් ඔහුව මරා දමන ලෙස කෑ ගසති. ඔවුන් බලා සිටින්නේ ගිලටිනයේ තියුණු තළය සිරකරුවාගේ ගෙල මත පතිත වන තෙක්ය. මෙම කෘතිය මගින් කතුවරයා මරණ දණ්ඩනය කෙතරම් විනාශකාරීද යන්න විස්තරාත්මකව පෙන්වා දෙයි.

හියුගෝ චිත්‍ර කලාව ප්‍රිය කල අතර ඔහුගේ ජීවිත කාලය තුළ චිත්‍ර 4,000 ක් පමණ ඇන්දේය. හියුගෝ සිය චිත්‍ර මහජන අවධානයෙන් ඉවත් කළේ එය ඔහුගේ සාහිත්‍ය කෘති  යටපත් කරනු ඇතැයි යන බියෙනි.  වික්ටර්  හියුගෝ සිය ජීවිත කාලය තුළ නවකතා හා නාට්‍ය 50 කට අධික ප්‍රමාණයක් ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කලේය.  1830 ගණන් වලදී හියුගෝ විසින් පද රචනා වෙළුම් කිහිපයක් ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කරන ලද අතර, හියුගෝගේ ගීත ශෛලිය පොහොසත්, තීව්‍ර සහ බලවත් ශබ්ද සහ රිද්මයන්ගෙන් පිරී තිබූනේය. හියුගෝගේ කවි අසාමාන්‍ය ලෙස පුළුල් පරාසයක තේමාවන් සමඟ  සම්බන්ධ වෙයි. 

වික්ටර්  හියුගෝ  දහනව වන සියවසේ වඩාත්ම බලගතු රොමෑන්ටික ලේඛකයෙකු ලෙස පිළිගැනේ.  රොමෑන්ටිකවාදය හැඩගස්වා ගත් දෘෂ්ටිවාදාත්මක ප්‍රවාහයන්ගෙන් උපත ලැබූ කවියෙකු ලෙස හියුගෝ පෙනී සිටි අතර, ඒ අනුව කවියා උත්තරීතර පුද්ගල නිර්මාණකරුවෙකි, විධිමත් නීති රීති හා සාම්ප්‍රදායික ක්‍රියා පටිපාටි දැඩි ලෙස පිළිපැදීමට වඩා නිර්මාණාත්මක ආත්මය වැදගත් ය. ඔහු 18 වන සියවසේ සාම්ප්‍රදායික ප්‍රංශ වාක්‍ය නීති රීති බිඳ දැමීය. ඔහු පරිකල්පනය , ආත්මීයත්වය, සිතීමේ හා අදහස් ප්‍රකාශ කිරීමේ නිදහස සහ සොබාදහම පරමාදර්ශීකරණය වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටියේය. හියුගෝ සාමාන්‍ය මිනිසාගේ කවියෙකු වූ අතර පොදු ප්‍රීතිය හා දුක පිළිබඳ සරල බවින් හා බලයෙන් ලිවීමට දැන සිටි හෙයින් ඔහුගේ අදහස්වල ත්‍යාගශීලිත්වය සහ ඒවායේ ප්‍රකාශනයේ උණුසුම තවමත් මහජන මනස තුළට ගෙන ගියේය.

වික්ටර් හියුගෝගේ කවි රොමැන්ටික යුගයේ ආත්මය ග්‍රහණය කර ගත්තේය. ඔහුගේ කාව්‍ය සංග්‍රහයන්හි යුගයේ විශිෂ්ටතම කෘති කිහිපයක් අඩංගු වන අතර මරණය, සොබාදහම සහ ප්‍රේමය වැනි තේමාවන් මෙන්ම ඔහුගේ කාලයේ දේශපාලන ප්‍රශ්න ද පිළිබිඹු වේ. ඔහුගේ  කාව්‍ය ශාස්ත්‍රීය ස්වරූපයෙන් නොව අදහස මත පදනම් විය. මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ගත් කල, ඔහු සර්ලයිලිස්වාදයේ සහ සංකේතවාදයේ පූර්වගාමියා ලෙස සැලකිය හැකිය.

යථාර්ථය පිළිබඳ හියුගෝගේ එළිදරව්වේ ප්‍රවේශය වූයේ  1886 දී ලියන ලද La Fin de Satan (සාතන්ගේ අවසානය”)  යන  පාරභෞතික කාව්‍යයයි.  මෙම කාව්‍යය නපුරේ ගැටළුවට මුහුන දෙයි. එය දිගු ආගමික වීර කාව්‍යයකි. මෙම කාව්‍ය සංගරහය ඔහු ලියන්නේ නොර්මන්ඩි වෙරළට ඔබ්බෙන් පිහිටි චැනල් දූපත්වල සිය පවුලේ අය සමඟ පිටුවහල්ව සිටියදීය.

 එංගලන්තයේ චාල්ස් ඩිකන්ස් මෙන්ම, වික්ටර් හියුගෝ ද කම්කරු පන්තිය අතර බෙහෙවින් ජනප්‍රිය විය. ඔහු  ප්‍රංශ සමාජයේ යටි පතුල් හෙළි කළ වීරයෙකු ලෙස සැලකේ.  ප්‍රංශ ප්‍රේක්ෂකයෝ ඔහුව මූලික වශයෙන් කවියෙකු ලෙස සමරනු ලැබුවද, ඔහු ඉංග්‍රීසි කතා කරන රටවල නවකතාකරුවෙකු ලෙස වඩාත් ප්‍රසිද්ධය. ඔහුගේ වඩාත් ප්‍රසිද්ධ කෘති අතරට  The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831) සහ  Les Misérables (1862) ඇතුළත් වේ. ඔහුගේ “ලෙ මිසරබල්ස්” 19 වන සියවසේ වඩාත්ම ප්‍රසිද්ධ නවකතාවක් බවට පත් විය.

 වික්ටර් හියුගෝ විසින් රචිත The Hunchback of Notre Dame නවකතාව වෝල්ටර් ස්කොට්ගේ “අයිවන්හෝ ” සම්ප්‍රදායේ ඓතිහාසික නවකතාවක් වූ අතර එහි කතාව  සිදුවන්නේ XI වන ලුවී (XIV-XV) ගේ පාලන සමයේදී ය. නවකතාව හරහා කතුවරයා පහළොස්වන සියවසේ ප්රංශයේ ජනතාව  ගේ ජීවිත හා සිරිත් විරිත්  විචිත්රවත් ලෙස ප්‍රති නිර්මාණය කරයි. එසේම මධ්‍යතන යුගයේ පැරිසියානු ජීවිතය පිළිබඳ පවසයි. තවද පැරිසියේ ගොතික් අතීතයේ ඇති තේජස හා වැදගත්කම පෙන්වා දෙයි. නවකතාව විවිධ සමාජ පංතිවල අරගල නිරූපණය කරන අතර පියකරු රෝමා තරුණියක වන එස්මරල්ඩා කේන්ද්‍ර කර ගත් ආදර ත්‍රිකෝණයක කතාව මෙහි දැක්වේ. එසේම අවලස්සන ක්වාසිමෝඩෝ” පිලිබඳ විස්තර මෙහි ඇත. 

ළදරුවෙකු ලෙස, ක්වාසිමෝඩෝව ඔහුගේම මව විසින් අතහැර දමන ලද අතර ඔහුව පල්ලිය විසින් හදා වඩා ගත්තේය. ඔහුගේ පිළිකුල් සහගත පෙනුම නිසා සමූහයා ක්වාසිමෝඩෝට බිය වෙති. ඔහු බිහිරි හා විකෘති වී ඇති අතර, ඔහුගේ පෙනුම ගැන මහජනයා විසින් නිග්‍රහ කරනු ලැබේ. පෙනුමෙන් ඔහු අර්ධ මෘගයෙකු හා අර්ධ මනුෂ්‍යයෙක් බව පෙනේ. පැරීසියේ පුරවැසියන් ඔහු යක්ෂයා යැයි සිතීම පුදුමයක් නොවේ.  ඔහු බොහෝ විට පැරිසියේ ජනතාවගේ අපහාස හා චෝදනා දරාගත යුතුය. එහි ප්‍රතිඑලයක් වශයෙන් ඔහුට දුකක්, හුදෙකලා බවක් හා තනිකමක් දැනේ.  ඔහු අවලස්සනය, රළුය. එහෙත් ඔහුගේ හදවත පිවිතුරුය. 

කතාව පුරාම ක්වාසිමෝඩෝ එස්මරල්ඩා ආරක්ෂා කිරීමට උපරිම උත්සාහයක් දරයි. කවුන්ට් ෆ්‍රොලෝ, ක්වාසිමෝඩෝ සහ එස්මරල්ඩා සාහිත්‍ය ඉතිහාසයේ වඩාත්ම විකෘති, විකාර සහ අනපේක්ෂිත ප්‍රේම ත්‍රිකෝණය විය හැකිය. නවකතාවේ සෑම පෞරුෂයක්ම “ස්ථාවර අදහසක්” වටා ගොඩ නගා ඇත. එසේම මෙම නවකතාවේ රජෙකුගේ සිට ගොවියා දක්වා ජාතියක සමස්ත සමාජ ව්‍යුහය පවතියි.  නවකතාව පන්ති අරගල කෙරෙහි වැඩි අවධානයක් යොමු කරයි. එසේම යහපත්කම, යුක්තිය සහ ආදරය පිළිබඳ අදහස මූර්තිමත් කරයි. මැවීමේ සෑම දෙයක්ම මනුෂ්‍ය සුන්දර නොවන බවත්, සුන්දරත්වය අසල කැත පවතින බවත් කතුවරයා පෙන්වා දෙයි. නවකතාවේ ප්‍රබල තේමාව නම් දෙවියන් වහන්සේ  ඇතැම් මිනිසුන් තුළ අසම්පූර්ණ ප්‍රතිරූපයක් නිර්මාණය කර ඇති බවයි. එය බොහෝ ආබාධ සහිත රූපයක් වන නමුත් එහි සීමාවන් ඉක්මවා අධ්‍යාත්මික ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨත්වය ළඟා කර ගත හැකි රූපයකි.  

“The Hunchback of Notre Dame ” ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම පැරිසියේ අමතක වූ ගොතික් ගෘහ නිර්මාණ ශිල්පයේ සංකේතයකි. නවකතාව භීෂණය, මරණය සහ ප්‍රේමය පිළිබඳව ගෙතී තිබුනද කතුවරයා ගොතික් ගෘහ නිර්මාණ ශිල්පයේ වැදගත්කම පවසයි. එසේම ගොඩනැගිලි පිළිබඳ විස්තර කෙරෙහි අවධානයක් යොමු කරයි. ” The Hunchback of Notre Dame ” නවකතාව පැරිසියේ ගොතික් ගෘහ නිර්මාණ ශිල්පය සුරැකීම සඳහා සටන් කළ ව්‍යාපාරයක් නිර්මාණය කිරීමට පොළඹවන ලදී.

වික්ටර්  හියුගෝ ගේ ප්‍රබන්ධ බොහෝ විට ප්‍රංශයේ දේශපාලන හා සමාජ වාතාවරණය ගවේෂණය කර විවේචනය කළේය. ඔහු පැරිසියේ වැඩ කරන දුප්පතුන් ගේ අසරණ යථාර්ථය නිර්මාණය කළේය.  1830 දී ප්‍රංශ කම්කරුවෙකුගේ දරුවෙකුගේ සාමාන්‍ය ආයු අපේක්ෂාව අවුරුදු දෙකකි. ප්‍රංශ අධිකරණ පද්ධතියේ දූෂිතභාවය සහ ප්‍රංශ බන්ධනාගාරවල තත්ත්වයන් පිළිබඳව ඔහු දැක්වූ පිළිකුල ඔහු ලෙ  මිසරබල්ස් හි ඉතා පැහැදිලිව ප්‍රකාශ කළේය.  ඔහු සමාජ සාධාරණත්වය පිළිබඳ ප්‍රශ්න මතු කලේය.

ලෙ මිසරබල්ස්” යනු වික්ටර් හියුගෝ විසින් 1862 දී ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කරන ලද නවකතාවකි. මෙම කෘතිය මගින් ඔහු සමාජ දුක්ඛිතභාවය සහ අයුක්තිය ගවේෂණය කරන ලදී. මෙම නවකතාව අයි. එම්. ආර්. ඒ. ඊරියගොල්ල මහතා විසින් මනුතාපය යන නමින් සිංහලට පරිවර්තනය කොට තිබේ.  

ලෙ  මිසරබල්ස් යනු පැරිසියානු සමාජයේ සහ එහි පාතාල ලෝකයේ විශාල පරිදර්ශනයක් වන අතර, එහි බොහෝ ප්‍රසිද්ධ කථාංග සහ ඡේද අඩංගු වෙයි.  නැපෝලියන් බොනපාට් යනු වික්ටර් හියුගෝට ලෙ මිසරබල්ස් කෙරෙහි බලපෑ එක් ප්‍රබල බලපෑමකි. නවකතාව තුළ හියුගෝ වල්ජියන් සහ නැපෝලියන් අතර සංකේතාත්මක සමාන්තරතාවයක් නිර්මාණය කරයි. දුප්පත් සිසුවෙකු ලෙස හියුගෝ ගේ ජීවිතයේ මතකයන් පසු කලෙක ඔහුගේ ලෙ  මිසරබල්ස් නවකතාවේ මාරියස්ගේ චරිතයට ආභාෂය ලබා දුන්නේය.   

 ලෙ  මිසරබල්ස් හි කතාව 1815 දී ආරම්භ වී 1832 දී අවසන් වේ. පාන් ගෙඩියක් සොරකම් කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් වසර 19 ක් සිරගතව සිටින සමාජයේ ගොදුරක් වූ ජීන් වල්ජියන් (සිරකරු 24601 ) පිළිබඳ කතාව මෙහි කේන්ද්‍රගත වේ. ඔහු නිදහස් වූ පසු, ඔහු යන සෑම තැනකම ඔහුව නෙරපා හරින ලද අයෙකු ලෙස සලකනු ලබති. බිෂොප් මීරියෙල් , ජීන් වල්ජියන්ට  නව ජීවිතයක් නිර්මාණය කිරීමට උදව් කරයි.  බිෂොප් මීරියෙල් ගේ ආදරය, කරුණාව සහ ත්‍යාගශීලිත්වය ස්පර්ශ කළ වල්ජීන්  නව අනන්‍යතාවයක් යටතේ අවංක ජීවිතයක් ආරම්භ කිරීමට පොරොන්දු වෙයි. ඔහු මොන්සියර් මැඩලීන් යන නම භාවිතා කර සාර්ථක කර්මාන්තශාලා හිමිකරුවෙකු බවට පත්වේ. කෙසේ වෙතත්, ඔහු දඩයම් කරනු ලබන්නේ  පොලිස් නිලධාරියෙකු වන ජාවර්ට් ය. ජාවර්ට් විශ්වාස කරන්නේ කිසිම අපරාධකරුවෙකු පුනරුත්ථාපනය කළ නොහැකි බවයි.  වැල්ජියන් සාමාන්‍ය මිනිසා මූර්තිමත් කරන අතර ජාවර්ට් එකල සමාජ ආයතන සංකේතවත් කරයි. ජීන් වල්ජියන් අවසානයේදී තම දරුකමට හදාගත් දියණිය වන කොසෙට් සහ ඇගේ සැමියා වන මාරියස් වෙනුවෙන් කැපවී සිටී. නවකතාව අවසානයේදී ජීන් වල්ජියන් සාමකාමීව මිය යන්නේ යහපත් හා ධර්මිෂ්. ජීවිතයක තෘප්තියෙනි. ලේඛකයාගේ ප්‍රධාන ඉලක්කය වූයේ මිනිසෙකුගේ නපුරේ සිට යහපත දක්වා, වැරැද්දේ සිට යුක්තිය දක්වා, මුසාවාදයේ සිට සත්‍යය දක්වා යන මාර්ගය පෙන්වීමටයි. 

මෙම කෘතියේ වඩාත්ම ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කරන ලද” වීරයා සදාචාරාත්මක ගොඩනැගීමේ දුෂ්කර මාවතකට පිවිසෙයි. එය ආරම්භ වූයේ ධර්මිෂ් බිෂොප් – හැත්තෑපස් හැවිරිදි චාල්ස් මීරියෙල් සමඟ අනපේක්ෂිතව හමුවීමෙනි. ජීන් වල්ජියන්ගේ ජීවිතය ආරම්භ වන්නේ සිරෙන් නිදහස් වීමෙන් පසුවය. කතාවේ ප්‍රධාන චරිතය වන ජීන් වල්ජියන් මුලදී දකින්නේ වෛරය මිස අන් කිසිවක් නොවේ. ජීන් වල්ජියන්ට නීතිය හා සමාජය කෙරෙහි ඇති වෛරය ඉදිරියට යන්නේ ඔහු තුළ නපුරක් ඇති කිරීමට පමණි. වෛරය ඔහුගේ එකම ආයුධය වූ අතර, ඔහු එය සිරගෙදර මුවහත් කර ඔහු පිටත්ව යන විට එය රැගෙන යාමට තීරණය කළේය. ජීන් වල්ජියන් තුළ ඇති නපුර මුළුමනින්ම අහෝසි කිරීම සඳහා වික්ටර් හියුගෝ ඩිග්නේහි බිෂොප්  චාල්ස් මීරියෙල් ඔහුගේ මාවතෙහි තබයි නපුර, වෛරය, උමතුව, පළිගැනීම සහ ඒත්තු ගැන්වීම වැනි තේමාවන් සමඟ වික්ටර් හියුගෝ සමාව දීම තුළින් සෑම චරිතයක්ම පරිවර්තනය කිරීමට ඉඩ සලසයි. ජීන් වල්ජියන්ගේ චරිතය වර්ධනය කිරීමේදී, වික්ටර් හියුගෝගේ ඉලක්කය වන්නේ, ජීන් වල්ජියන්ගේ වෙනස දෙවියන් වහන්සේගේ කරුණාවෙන් මුදවා ගන්නා පව්කාරයෙකුගේ ජීවිතය ලෙස නිරූපණය කිරීමයි.ආරම්භයේ දී, ඔහු මිනිසුන්ට යහපත කිරීමට ඉගෙන ගනී, පසුව සත්‍යයේ නාමයෙන් කැපකිරීමට, ඉන්පසු ඔහු ලෝකයේ වඩාත්ම ආදරය කරන දේ අත්හැරීමට ඉගෙන ගනී. අතහැරීමද   (Renunciation) නවකතාවේ ප්‍රවර්ධනය කරන එක් ගුණාංගයකි

නවකතාවේ ජීන් වල්ජියන්ගේ සම්පූර්ණ ප්‍රතිවිරුද්ධ චරිතය නම් පොලිස් පරීක්ෂක ජාවර්ට් ය.  ජාවර්ට් විශ්වාස කරන්නේ නීතිය පමණි. ඔහු තුල සැබෑ කරුණාව හෝ පරාර්ථකාමී බවක් නොපෙනේ. ජාවර්ට් යනු සමාජ පර්යායේ මුරකරු ය. හියුගෝ පැහැදිලි කරන්නේ ජාවර්ට්ට සැබවින්ම නීතිය කෙරෙහි ඇල්මක් ඇති බවය. ජාවර්ට් විශ්වාස කරන්නේ නීතිය කඩ කරන ඕනෑම පුද්ගලයෙකු අපරාධකරුවෙකු වන අතර පුද්ගලයෙකු අපරාධකරුවෙකු බවට පත් වූ විට ඔහු හෝ ඇය සැමවිටම අපරාධකරුවෙකු වනු ඇති බවයි. ඔහු ජීන් වල්ජියන් සොයා ගැනීම ඔහුගේ ජීවිතයේ කාර්යයක් බවට පත් කරයි. ඔහුගේ දරුණුතම සතුරා වන ජීන් වල්ජියන් විසින් ඔහුට ලබා දුන් අනපේක්ෂිත නිදහස් කිරීම මගින් ජාවර්ට් ව්‍යාකූලත්වයට පත්වේ.  ඔහු මිනිසුන් විසින් නිර්මාණය කරන ලද නීතිවලට වඩා යමක් ලෝකයේ ඇති බව අවබෝධ කර ගනියි.  නීතිය හා මනුෂ්‍යත්වය අතර ගැටුම නිසා ඔහු සියදිවි නසා ගනී.  

සැබෑ අපරාධකරුවන් හික්මවීමට අපොහොසත්  දූෂිත අපරාධ යුක්ති විනිශ්චය පද්ධතියක්  හොඳ මිනිසුන් දැඩි අපරාධකරුවන් බවට පරිවර්තනය කරයි  යන්න නවකතාවෙන් පෙන්වා දෙයි. පවත්නා නීති හා සිරිත් විරිත් මගින් සමාජ නපුර නිර්මාණය වී පෝෂණය වන බවට හියුගෝගේ විශ්වාසයයි. දහනව වන ශතවර්ෂයේ ප්‍රංශයේ නීතිමය හා සමාජ ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණ සඳහා වූ ව්‍යාපාරයට ලෙස් මිසරබල්ස් බලපෑම් කළේය. නවකතාවේ ආධිපත්‍යය දරන කේඳ්‍රීය තේමාවන් දෙක වන්නේ එහි ප්‍රධාන චරිතය වන හිටපු වැරදිකරුවෙකු වන ජීන් වල්ජියන් සදාචාරාත්මකව මුදවා ගැනීම සහ විප්ලවය තුළින් ජාතියක් සදාචාරාත්මකව මුදවා ගැනීමයි. වික්ටර් හියුගෝ මෙසේ පැවසීය: “මම වහල්භාවය හෙළා දකිමි, දුප්පත්කම දුරු කරමි, මම නොදැනුවත්කම උගන්වමි, මම රෝගවලට ප්‍රතිකාර කරමි, රාත්‍රිය සැහැල්ලු කරමි, වෛරයට වෛර කරමි. නවකතාව මානව දුක් වේදනා, දුප්පත්කම සහ නොදැනුවත්කමට එරෙහි විවේචනාත්මක ප්‍රකාශයකි. එහි අරමුණ කලාත්මක මෙන්ම දේශපාලනික ය.

වික්ටර්  හියුගෝ ඔහුගේ කාලයේ වැදගත් දේශපාලන චරිතයකි. ඔහුගේ දේශපාලන ජීවිතය පදනම් වූයේ ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී ආණ්ඩුවක් ලෙස රිපබ්ලිකානුවාදයට ඔහු දැක්වූ සහයෝගය මත ය. මරණීය දණ්ඩනයට හා සමාජ අසාධාරණයට එරෙහිව ඔහු හඞ නැගුවේය. 1848 විප්ලවයෙන් පසුව, දෙවන ජනරජය පිහිටුවීමත් සමඟ හියුගෝ ව්‍යවස්ථා සම්පාදක මණ්ඩලයට සහ ව්‍යවස්ථාදායක සභාවට තේරී පත් විය. 1851 දී ලුවී නැපෝලියන් (III නැපෝලියන්) විසින් සිදු කරන ලද කුමන්ත්‍රණයෙන් පසු , හියුගෝ විශ්වාස කළේ ඔහුගේ ජීවිතය අනතුරේ පවතින බවය. ඔහු බ්‍රසල්ස් වෙත පලා ගියේය. හියුගෝගේ  ස්වේච්ඡා පිටුවහල් කිරීම වසර 20 ක් දිගු විය. 1853 නොවැම්බරයේදී හියුගෝගේ දරුණු නැපෝලියන් විරෝධී  කෘතිය වන  Les Châtiments  බෙල්ජියමේ ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කරන ලදී. III වන නැපෝලියන් මෙම කෘතිය හොඳින් කියවා පිටපතක් ඔහුගේ ඇඳ අසල තබා ගත් බව කියනු ලැබේ. හියුගෝගේ කුරිරු හෙලාදැකීම නිසා ලුවී නැපෝලියන් කෙතරම් විනාශයට පත්වී ඇත්දැයි කිවහොත්, ඔහුගේ පළමු කියවීමේ කම්පනයෙන් ඔහු කිසි විටෙකත් සම්පූර්ණයෙන් සුවය ලැබුවේ නැත. ලුවී නැපෝලියන්  ,හියුගෝ සමඟ සංහිඳියාව ඇති කිරීමට පවා උත්සාහයක් ගත් අතර,  හියුගෝට නැවත ප්‍රංශයට පැමිණෙන ලෙස ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ ආරාධනා කළේය.1859 දී ලුවී නැපෝලියන් සියලු දේශපාලන සිරකරුවන්ට පොදු සමාවක් ලබා දුන්නද, හියුගෝ එය ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කළේය. එයින් අදහස් කළේ ඔහුට රජය පිළිබඳ විවේචන සීමා කිරීමට සිදුවනු ඇති බවයි. ලුවී නැපෝලියන් බලයෙන් පහවී තුන්වන ජනරජය ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කිරීමෙන් පසුව 1870 දී හියුගෝ නැවත සිය මව්බිමට පැමිණියේය.    

හියුගෝගේ අවසාන නවකතාව වන Quatrevingt-treize-  (අනූ තුන ) 1874 දී ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කරන ලද්දේ ලෙ මිසරබල්ස්ගෙන් වසර දොළහකට පසුවය. ප්‍රංශයේ 1793 කැලඹිලි සහිත වසර කේන්ද්‍ර කර ගත් අතර ප්‍රංශ විප්ලවයේ පසුබිමට එරෙහිව මානව යුක්තිය සහ පුණ්‍ය කටයුතු නිරූපණය කළේය. මෙම නවකතාවෙන් විප්ලවවාදීන්ට පක්ෂව ඔහු සිටින්නේ කොතැනද යන්න හියුගෝ පැහැදිලි කරයි. විප්ලවවාදී හේතුව සාධාරණ එකක් බවත් අවසානයේ එය ජයග්‍රහණය කරන බවත් ඔහු දැඩි ලෙස විශ්වාස කළේය.  විප්ලවය අවසානයේ මානව වර්ගයාට ප්‍රයෝජනවත් වනු ඇති බව  හියුගෝ පැහැදිලි කරයි. මෙම නවකතාවේ සෘජු වීරයන් නොමැත. සෑම කෙනෙකුම පාහේ ඔවුන්ගේ අරමුණ වෙනුවෙන් ඝාතන  කිරීමේ හැකියාව පෙන්නුම් කරති. හියුගෝගේ පොතේ අසාමාන්‍ය බලය පැමිණෙන්නේ ඔහුගේ චරිත මෙහෙයවන සංකීර්ණ අභිප්‍රේරණයන් පිළිබඳ ඔහුගේ තීක්ෂ්ණ බුද්ධියෙන් ය. මෙම කෘතිය රොබට් ලුවී ස්ටීවන්සන් සහ ඇන්ඩ්‍රේ මෞරොයිස් අතිශයින්ම අගය කළහ. 

හියුගෝගේ කෘති අතිශය අසාමාන්‍ය බවත් නවකතාවේ මනෝ විද්‍යාත්මක හෝ විස්තරාත්මක සත්‍ය ලක්‍ෂණය සාක්‍ෂාත් කර ගැනීමට ඒවා අසමත් වන බව සමහර විචාරකයෝ පවසති.  මේ අනුව හියුගෝගේ කෘති දොස්තයෙව්ස්කි ගේ කෘති වලින් වෙනස් වෙයි.  වික්ටර් හියුගෝ සාමාන්‍ය පුරුෂයාගේ හා ස්ත්‍රියගේ ප්‍රීතිය හා ශෝකය සරළව ලිවීමට දැන සිටියේය. ඔහු දොස්තයෙව්ස්කි මෙන් අභ්‍යන්තර මනසේ විශ්ලේශණය ඉදිරිපත් කලේ නැත. එහෙත් දෙදෙනා අතර යම් සමානත්වයක් තිබේ. වික්ටර් හියුගෝ සහ ෆියෝඩර් දොස්තයෙව්ස්කි විශේෂයෙන් කාන්තාවන්ට සිදුවන සමාජීය කරදර කෙරෙහි අවධානය යොමු කළ අතර කාන්තාවන්ගේ අයිතිවාසිකම්වල දියුණුවට පක්‍ෂව තර්ක කළහ. හියුගෝට සමාජ අසාධාරණය හේතුවෙන් තනිකරම දුක් විඳි වැල්ජියන් සානුකම්පිත චරිතයක් බවට පත් කර ඔහුව ආදර්ශ පුරවැසියෙකු ලෙස පත් කළ හැකිය. නමුත් දොස්තයෙව්ස්කිගේ දුක් විඳි චරිත විනාශය කරා ඇදී යති.  

වික්ටර් හියුගෝ ගේ කෘති  ඔහුගේ කාලයේ පැවති දේශපාලන හා සමාජීය ගැටලු සහ කලාත්මක ප්‍රවණතා බොහොමයක් ස්පර්ශ කරයි. නූතන යුරෝපීය ඉතිහාසයේ අතිශය කැලඹිලි සහිත දශක හයක් පුරා විහිදුණු ඔහුගේ සාහිත්‍ය ජීවිතය කවි, නාට්‍ය, නවකතාව සහ ප්‍රබන්ධ නොවන ලේඛන ඇතුළත් විය. ලේඛකයෙකු ලෙස ඔහු විශ්වාස කළේ කලාකරුවන් තම සමාජයට දැක්විය යුතු කැපවීම ගැන ය. ඔහුගේ විප්ලවීය හා මතභේදාත්මක ලිවීමේ ශෛලිය නිසා හියුගෝ අතුල්‍ය වෙයි. හියුගෝ කලාව, මානව ස්වභාවයේ පූර්ණ පරිමාව පිළිබිඹු වන පරිදි සම්භාව්‍යවාදයේ විධිමත් බාධක වලින් නිදහස් කිරීම ගැන කතා කළේය. ඔහු දේශපාලන රාජ්‍ය තාන්ත්‍රිකයෙකු හා මානව හිමිකම් ක්‍රියාකාරිකයෙකුද  විය. ඔහුගේ ජීවිතයේ පුද්ගලික ඛේදවාචක බොහෝ තිබුණි. 1868 දී ඔහුට බිරිඳ අහිමි විය. ඊළඟ දශකය තුළ ඔහුට 1871 සහ 1873 අතර පුතුන් දෙදෙනෙකු අහිමි විය. ඔහුගේ දියණිය වන ලියෝපෝල්ඩින්ගේ මරණය ඔහුට දරා ගත නොහැකි විය. පියෙකු ලෙස ඔහුට තම  දරුවන් සිව්දෙනෙකු භූමදාන කිරීමට සිදු විය. ඔහු අත් විඳි ඛේදය බොහෝ විට ඔහු තම නිර්මාණයන්ට – විශේෂයෙන් කාව්‍යන්ට මුසු කලේය.

වික්ටර් හියුගෝ 1885 මැයි 22 වන දින පැරිසියේදී මිය ගියේය. ඔහුගේ අවමංගල්‍ය උත්සවය රාජ්‍ය තාන්ත්‍රිකයෙකුගේ උත්සවයක් වූ අතර ඔහුගේ අවමංගල පෙරහැර සඳහා මිලියනයක ජනතාවක් සහභාගී වූහ. ඔහුව තැන්පත් කරනු ලැබුවේ ප්‍රංශයේ පැරිස් හි පැන්තියන්හි ය.  

 හියුගෝ ප්‍රංශ සාහිත්‍යයේ දැවැන්තයෙකු විය. ඔහුගේ ජීවිත කාලය පුරාම හියුගෝ නොනවතින මානවවාදී ප්‍රගතියක් විශ්වාස කළේය. ඔහු සාහිත්‍යයේ විශිෂ්ට චරිතයක් ලෙස ගෞරවයට පාත්‍ර වූවා පමණක් නොව, ප්‍රංශයේ තුන්වන ජනරජය සහ ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය හැඩගස්වා ගත් රාජ්‍ය තාන්ත්‍රිකයෙකුද විය. හියුගෝගේ සාහිත්‍ය කෘති ඔහුගේ ප්‍රංශ සමකාලීනයන් වන සොලා සහ ගුස්ටාව් ෆ්ලෝබර්ට්ගේ  සිට ෆියෝඩර් දොස්තයෙව්ස්කි සහ චාල්ස් ඩිකන්ස්  සහ  ඇල්බට් කැමූ වැනි ලේඛකයින් කෙරෙහි ප්‍රබල බලපෑමක් ඇති කළේය. ඔහුගේ ලේඛනවල  නූතන සමාජයට අදාළ බොහෝ ලක්ෂණ ඇති අතර ඒවාට මානවවාදය, මානව හිමිකම්, යුක්තිය සහ ජනතාවගේ සාධාරණ, ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී පාලනය ඇතුළත් වේ.  

Works Cited

Brombert, V. H.(1984). Victor Hugo and the Visionary Novel. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 

Houston, J. P. (1988). Victor Hugo Revised Ed. Boston Mass.: Twayne Publishers.

Hugo, Victor. Les Misérables. Trans. Lee Fahnestock and Norman MacAfee. New York: New American Library, 1987.  

Richardson, J.(1976). Victor Hugo, New York: St. Martin’s Press. 

Robb, G. (1997). Victor Hugo: A Biography. New York: Norton.

By W.K. Prasad Manju Courtesy Ceylon Today

Several Party Leaders attached to the SJB alliance had not participated in the protest that was staged in Parliament yesterday (22) by the SJB while Minister of Justice, M.U.M. Ali Sabry, PC was presenting the draft of the proposed 20th Amendment to the Constitution, informed sources said.

Three of the SJB Party Leaders who had been absent during the protest had been the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress Leader Rauff Hakeem, the All Ceylon Makkal Congress Leader Rishad Bathiudeen and the Jathika Hela Urumaya Leader Patali Champika Ranawaka. Although the said trio is noted to occupy front row seats in Parliament in the Opposition, they were not to be seen when the SJB protest was staged in the House.

It is also said that a few of the Parliamentarians from the Parties led by the aforesaid trio had also been absent during the protest.

Though Hakeem was present at the time of the start of the Parliament session yesterday, when the protest against the 20th Amendment was launched by the SJB, he was not to be seen in the seat.

Both, Hakeem and Bathiudeen were also absent during the protest staged in Parliament by the SJB earlier against the decision taken by Speaker of the Parliament to allow death row inmate Premalal Jayasekara to be sworn in as a Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna MP.  

Courtesy Hiru News

7 arrivals from Kuwait, 2 from Saudi Arabia, 2 from UAE, an Indian national & an inmate from Kandakadu Rehabilitation Centre tested positive for Covid-19 raising the total in Sri Lanka to 3,312.

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

President Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa concerns education reforms, and I posted several articles on this website, regarding the reforming agenda, and my concern was directed to declining values in Sri Lanka’s society.  If value education included the curriculum with primary, secondary, and TVET education that could be used accelerating economic development, and growth, and to create value respected society in the country. Value education should be practiced from early childhood education to university education, and it is a broader practice.  Many problems in Sri Lanka are a result of lacking value practice in society. In any society, there may be less than 2% of people who don’t respect values, and it might associate with the Gene of a person.

Value education is a practical aspect of education that direct the development of positive attitudes, the education reforms agenda has become a talkative strategy than practical initiatives, and it seems that leaders in reforms are retired administrator, who were working in the 19^th century. Now the job is a way of making money in the retired status than developing essential policy forms in the 20^th century.  

Early in the first decade of the year 2000, after the 9/11 attack, the Australian Prime Minister and the Opposition leader opened a new debate on Australian values, and the Opposition leader suggested that not only migrants to Australia but also temporary visitors should be required to sign a statement at the time of applying for the visa that they will respect Australian values during the stay in the country. Some people expressed views that the debate appeared to be targeting migrants from certain countries, but it was a view only not a truth.  Many instances, original cultures, and social behavior of some people socked society, and tragedies experienced by the western world since the 9/11 attack and showed the way to suspect a certain type of religious, social, or cultural behavior of people may be a threat to Australian values.

Easter Sunday attack in Sri Lanka preceded to suspect activities and behavior of Muslims in Sri Lanka as a threat to peace-loving religious communities, and the response of many Muslims reflected that they were in a double stand or playing a double game in the society. Previous experience broadcasted that when there were cricket matches between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, although some Muslims who were citizens of Sri Lanka took the side of Pakistan and barracked against Sri Lanka.  It was not illegal behavior but the majority Sinhala people felt that it was disloyal to the country. When Sri Lanka lost games with Pakistan Muslims lighted firecrackers and enjoyed. It was a giving signal that when a tragedy occurred in the country some Muslims enjoyed rather than sharing the sorrow of the tragedy with the majority of the community. The behavior of some Muslims in Sri Lanka showed they did not respect values, and they are not consistent with even Muslim religious values.  Values are not against religions and they are consistent with all religions, which respect human dignity and equity. 

As civilized and educated people we must understand that people are individually and collectively different from birth and after death, they will become equal as ash or soil, which is the ultimate reality of the matter.  Many behavioral theories that support to confirm the reasons to be at variance with behavior.  Aristotle stated that people are different from size, shape, colors, and many other things, but people do share something universal, which is called HUMANESS”, that exists regardless of any human differences, and this is the reality of a human being.

People are born to deviating cultures and societies, which may not their choice, but it believes that it was the fate or the choices of God.” Buddhism and Hinduism interpret this as a result of Karma in a previous life.

What are values?  There are various definitions of values. Sometimes, we can see that the term value is used to refer to the inherently good things. For example, trust, fidelity, and love are good in society.  The term value also refers to as conviction, standard, which are used as a guide for behavior or making judgments about goodness, appropriate or integrity of actions, policies, or plans.  Different kinds of values see in society and values are not acceptable to other societies.  For example, the values of white society during the apartheid era in South Africa were not acceptable to democratic societies. One important thing concerning the values is that a person believes, respects, or adhere to think his or her values are superior and others inferior.  This is a cause for the origination of conflicts in society.

The ultimate reality of value is congruous although the culture or society may differ from each other due to climatic or people in various areas of civilization or stages of economic growth stated by Rostow.ww.  It was shown that some Australian politicians were dictating migrants, visitors, and citizens that they must respect Australian values, but no politician explained or initiated to educate migrants, visitors, and others about Australian values, which are not rhetoric, should respect and implement in society.  The other important point is politicians attempt to dictate values to migrants and visitors, but not for businessmen and investors.  Why do politicians think that money is more important than values? They think selling uranium to China or any other country where they do not respect Australian values to money is ok, whatever happen to values.

Politicians in Sri Lanka also behave similar way, for example, the nature of the behavior of politicians when destroying forest and trees they were either to looked for meaningless answers or blamed to private landowners thinking the destroying government forest is harmful but forest given to private investors by a leasing agreement is not harmful to the value of securing the environment.  If money comes to pocket it would not harmful when the environment is destroyed.

People should be aware of values, otherwise, they cannot obey them.  Without educating them about values mere rhetoric appears as the other side of the coin of white Australian policy.  Therefore, understanding Australian values would be supported to easily integrate into Australian society.  In Sri Lanka, there is no value structure to educate in schools, TVET institutions, and universities.  Disrespecting values and destroying values are obvious day to day experiences among students in Sri Lanka.

Education systems in many countries have integrated value education into the school curriculum. In the USA, Chile, South Africa, Vietnam, Colombia, and the Netherlands, value education is a specific part of primary and secondary curriculums.  This means school children in those countries gain a full understanding of their values in addition to general education in schools.  In Sri Lanka, value education is not a part of the school curriculum. Religious education has included school curriculums, but it is a deviation of educating students according to religions.  Value education is a common curriculum without religious differences and students in all religions study together.  In Sri Lanka, there is a value system called SARADHARMA”, they do not consist of democratic values, sometimes, SARADHARMA” demonstrates a strategy to attract respect to clergy and elders.  Respect is a value but it doesn’t mean that values limit the practical role to a limited group, it expands to a broader arena including the religion of self and others, etc.             

The National Framework of Value Education in Australian schools gives two views on values.

• The principles and fundamental convictions, which act as general guides to behavior, and the standards, which particular actions are judged as good or desirable (Halstead &Taylor, 2000).
• The deals that give significance to our lives that are reflected through the priorities that we choose and, that we act consistently” (Hill 2004).

Sri Lanka needs to develop a value structure to educate in schools and many Buddhist values such as Mercy, Compassion, Pity, Apprehension, and benignant could be included in the value structure. Religious values are similar in all religions.

There are nine Australian values in the framework for the school curriculum and they can adapt to value structure in Sri Lanka.

1. Care and Compassion – caring for self and others Care and compassion are vital values in any society.
2. Do your best – Seeking to accomplish something worthy and admirable, trying hard, and pursuing excellence.
3. Fair Go – Pursuing and protecting the common good where all people are treated fairly for a just society.
4. Freedom – Enjoying all the rights and privileges of Australian citizenship free from unnecessary interference or control and stand for the rights of others.
5. Honesty and Trustworthiness – Being honest, sincere, and seeking the truth.
6. Integrity- Acting by principles of moral, ethical conduct and ensuring consistency between words and deeds.
7. Respect – Treating others with consideration and regard, respect another person’s point of view.
8. Responsibility – Being accountable for one’s actions, resolving differences in constructive, non-violent, and peaceful ways, contributing to society, and civic life, and taking care of the environment.
9. Understanding -Tolerance and Inclusion – Being aware of others and their cultures, accepting diversity within a democratic society, being included, and including others.

Australian values are recognized for education in schools and common to every in the society.

Sri Lanka needs a Building a value Education structure to educate commonly students.

(The author acknowledges the reference made to the National Framework for Values Education in Australia published by Department of Education, Science, and Training)

by The Sri Lanka Study Circle 

In 2009 the people of Sri Lanka led by their Commander in Chief Mahinda Rajapakse and his Army, ably led by Sarath Fonseka, decimated Prabhakaran and his gang of proxy – terrorists who were attempting to carve out a portion of Sri Lanka to set up the State of ‘Eelam’.  

As analysed by several foreign and local intelligence agencies, the terrorists were backed by America and acted as mercenary soldiers for the Americans who considered Sri Lanka critical for the American domination of South Asia. 

The Defence Secretary at the time, providing excellent Administration to the anti-terrorist effort, was Lt Col Gotabe Rajapakse who had retired prematurely from the Army, about 15 years before, on completing the minimum number of years required, to secure a pension.  

While the war continued unabated, Gota had thereafter worked in the Sri Lanka Mercantile sector for about 7 years, before migrating to America, where he obtained American citizenship, after rejecting outright his Sri Lankan citizenship and pledging loyalties exclusively to America.  

Gota returned to Sri Lanka in 2005 to craft the ‘Administration’ required for brother Mahinda’s anti-terrorist campaign.  

During this time however, Gota reassured the Americans of his loyalty to America and its interests by retaining his US Citizenship.  

In 2007 Gota secretly negotiated with the American Government and committed Sri Lanka to America’s military interest and expansionism in the region by signing the first ACSA Agreement. 

With the decimation of Prabhakaran and his ‘invincible’ clique of proxy terrorists, the American plan to dominate South Asia received a major body blow. 

The Americans perforce had to rechart a new strategy and this they did when the US bi-partisan Senate Committee for Foreign Relations, sent a special team to evaluate the damage caused to US Foreign Policy in the region with the decimation of the terrorists.  

The John Kerry Report Sri Lanka: Recharting US Strategy after the war” was the result of that evaluation and was submitted to the US Senate in December 2009, just 6 months after the proxy-terrorists were wiped out. 

‘Pivot-to-Asia’, enunciated in 2009 by Obama, was the new strategic plan that evolved in the wake of the collapse of US Foreign Policy, following the eradication of  proxy-terrorism in Sri Lanka;   

Operation ‘MCC -Sri Lanka’ happens to be just one, but crucial, phase of that overall strategic Plan of US, ‘Pivot-to-Asia’   

The objective of Operation ‘MCC-Sri Lanka’ is: To create the State of Eelam by establishing a bridge-head along Line Trincomalee-Colombo.  

What the Americans failed to achieve after 30 years of terrorism, they now appear confident that they could now achieve it through Gota.  

The Americans failed because of the commitment and courage of the people, the political leadership provided by Mahinda Rajapakse and the military leadership and acumen of Sarath Fonseka. 

The question today on many lips is, ‘Are Gota and Basil, acting at the behest of America, attempting to carve out of Sri Lanka a State of Eelam? 

Considering the perceptions and expectations of the people before the Elections, the answer to that question would have been a shocked, No”.  

In 2019, Gota deceived a 6.9 Million people by posing off as the champion of the anti-MCC movement. On assuming office, he changed; today, Gota’s actions are deafeningly louder than his words. 

Gota and Basil – using, the MCC, the proposed Amendment 20 to the Constitution, the mechanism of ‘Dual Citizenship’ and Sri Lanka’s Gazette of 10^th September 2020 – appear to be setting the stage to establish a State of Eelam carved out from Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka 2050 

The above map, which visually divides the country into a North and a South, conveys the notion of Eelam, the territory North of the divide; this map comes very close to the Eelam map of Prabhakaran and was presented by MCC team leader, Steve Dobrilovic, at a meeting of Bank Lawyers at Temple Trees in September 2018. 

 U R De Silva, who has immodest hopes of inspiring youngsters, was at this meeting at Temple Trees; it is unlikely that he even inspired a toad on that day, when he chose to remain silent when shown the US map of Sri Lanka-2050, as was simultaneously shown to all others present.  

The Eelam area is clearly defined in the US map; the Eelam border with ‘Sri Lanka’ would be the two electric fences, on either side of the electrified railway line running between TCO and CBO, that perforce would have to be constructed to protect human and elephant lives. 

The electrified railway line, a massive project by any yardstick, will be constructed by Japan, the cornerstone of US military policy in the Pacific.  

Interestingly, one of Gota’s American associates – another disloyal Sri Lankan – an adventurist businessman dealing in real-estate too, is Gota’s ambassador designate to Japan.   

The electrified railway line runs through the ‘TCO- CBO’ Corridor, much of which is State Land. Undoubtedly, prior to the construction of the railway line, there would be lucrative real-estate business and subsequently there is scope for a great deal of railway contracts.  

Amendment 20 is to be presented in Parliament on 22 Sep 20. If Amendment 20 is passed, as it is, it would empower the Diaspora terrorists having dual citizenship, with tremendous political power.  

Amendment 20 would enable Americans of the likes of Raj Rajaratnams, the Emmanuels, the Rudra Kumarans, the Hooles of the world to consolidate power in the local political councils in the North and the East and enable some of these Americans to enter Parliament and aspire for posts carrying the biggest responsibility. 

Thus, political power in the North and East (the territory North of the TCO – CBO Corridor) would be in American hands, Americans holding extreme ethnic ideologies. 

Parliament too would have its fair crop of American extremists.   

From the latest reports emanating from the Western Capitals, hordes of diaspora terrorists are lining up, pawing the ground and waiting to ‘invade’ the country on the passing of Amendment 20 in Parliament.   

/to be contd

KAMALIKA PIERIS

JVP   was   out to create a failed state. Firstly, it set out to weaken government authority at village level.  In 1971 insurgency, JVP killed government representatives in the village, such as GA postmaster, station master, and co-op manager. The first killing took place in Tangalle.

In 1987 insurgency, even Grama sevakas were not welcomed in the villages. JVP issued threats to government officials, followed by killing of such officials and their families. In April 1989 unprecedented number of government officials, grama sevaka, and security forces were killed. It did not matter whether they were UNP or SLFP.

We had a small family estate at Mawaramandiya, near Kadawatha,    said Garvin Karunaratne. the community leader of the area was one Wijesinghe. He was the President of the Cooperative society and was helpful to anyone that wanted anything done. He happened to be close to the leaders of the United National Party but he helped everyone irrespective of political party affiliations. I too visited his home when anyone known to me in the area had to face a problem with the government.

 He was hacked to pieces one night. The JVP had held him guilty of attending the funeral of a victim of its violence. Wijesinghe had arranged for a proper funeral to take place. The JVP order was that no funeral be held and the body be carried below the knee level and buried incognito. Wijesinghe’s murder sent creeps through everyone in the area. His brothers too left the village and his death left a power vacuum never to be filled ever again.

JVP also embarked on a comprehensive agenda to destroy the economy. JVP was instructed by its handlers, obviously, to create difficult economic conditions that would make the public rise against the state. A senior academic had designed the blueprint for this economic destruction to be implemented by JVP.

JVP succeeded in doing this, and by October 1989 the economy had been crippled. JVP and its handlers hoped that the resulting hardship would turn the public against the government. However,   this did not happen. Instead the academic who had    designed the plan fled the country with his family when the insurgency failed.

A group wishing to take over and run a country does not start by ruining its economic infrastructure as JVP did. The JVP burnt down 245 out of 545 agrarian service centers in the country along with paddy stocks and storage facilities in 1987-89.

Garvin Karunaratne, former GA Matara elaborated on this aspect. The JVP insurrection of 1986 to 1987 too took a toll of the rural areas, he said. Thanks to the JVP, the well to do people in the rural areas, the estate owners, the rice millers, lorry owners and traders all left the rural areas for the cities.  

In my subsequent visits to Matara I met many a rice miller and many a merchant who were the live wire in their rural habitat in Kamburupitiya, Hakmana etc. They had got rid of their rural possessions and migrated to the Matara town.

Many people who had been living happily on their estates left for good. Some have never stepped into their estates since the JVP uprising of 1987-1989. They have allowed their workers to manage the estates are satisfied with whatever returns they got.

The development of the rural areas requires the services of every entrepreneur and entrepreneurs come from the rich families with enough money to invest. They are not in the rural areas now. That was the legacy left by JVP with their two insurrections concluded Karunaratne.

JVP carefully and methodically hit the key sectors in the economy. Tea estates in the Uva Badulla areas and coconut and rubber estates in the south were badly hit. Over 2,09,000 kilograms of tea were destroyed by the JVP in the central provinces. The JVP targeted the transport sector  and  this paralyzed the country and brought it to a standstill. Public and private transport  was reduced to such low levels that food shortages threatened.

The two tactics used by JVP   to hit the economy were orders to close factories and work places and secondly, order to workers to strike. In 1987 Ramya Weerakoon’s apparel business was contacted by the JVP. Little notes were delivered to the security guard in the factory by JVP errand boys, she said.  Close the factory today with full pay for workers the notes said. A slip usually came on Friday or Monday, Ramya recalled.

If the two adjoining factories were also losing, she also closed her factory. The days of lost production hit them hard but they had to obey. A factory owner had defied the JVP order and they ordered him to shut down for a week. Another factory in Horana was burned down.

Between 1987 and 1989, JVP called many strikes. In September 1988, JVP ordered nationwide strikes with widespread compliance. Shops, transport, hospitals and government services were shut. Bank, Postal and telecommunications virtually halted. On 15 August 1989, the JVP called for a total island wide general strike on Indian Independence Day.

Some 90,000 tea plantation workers in the southern Ratnapura district went on a week-long strike from 7 September 1989 in response to a JVP call. Neither the imposition of emergency nor the threat of dismissal had any effect on the workers, possibly because of the terror the JVP inspired. The striking workers also could not be dismissed as that might have resulted in a wave of sympathy strikes in other sectors.

Employees of the government road transport service went on strike, demanding higher wages. They were later joined by the private run mini-buses and railways crippling the public transport.

The transport strike was followed by several token and one-day strikes. On 26 June 1989 the JVP called for a 24 hour general strike to sympathize with the 52,000 striking transport workers. Telecommunications and postal workers had walked out of their posts in support of the bus workers demands. Port workers and state sector workers staged a wildcat strike. Oil refineries remained closed due to JVP instigated strikes.

Twelve key trade unions had announced that they would launch agitations to seek Sri Lankan Rs. 2,500 as basic minimum wages, the amount which was being offered to the Jan Saviya families under the poverty line. The JVP had instigated these strikes.

JVP also took an anti India stance.    Wijeweera, set a deadline of 14 June 1989 for a complete boycott of Indian goods, departure of all Indians of Sri Lankan and Indian origin.

This call  had a devastating effect on the economy and bring the country to a standstill. Not only is Sri Lanka dependent on India for certain essential goods, there were eighteen private and public sector Indian companies operating in Sri Lanka, including state Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Indian Airlines  Air India,  Pugoda Textiles, Bombay Dyeing and the Taj group of hotels. Over 70 per cent of the state Transport Board buses were of Indian make and the Sinhala drivers could not defy the JVP boycott call. (Continued)

මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ ශ්‍රී ලංකා ප්‍රජාතාන්ත්‍රික සමාජවාදී ජනරජයේ
අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය

සියලු ජාතීන් සහ ජනයා අතර සාමය නැමැති පරමාදර්ශය ශක්තිමත් කිරීමට වෙන් කළ දිනය වන ලෝක සාම දිනය අදට යෙදී තිබේ. දශක තුනකට අධික කාලයක් තිස්සේ පැවතුණු බෙදුම්වාදී ත්‍රස්තවාදය පරාජය කළ රටක අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා වශයෙන් ලෝක සාම දිනයට පණිවිඩයක් නිකුත් කරනු ලබන්නේ මහත් ආඩම්බරයකින් හා අභිමානයකිනි.

1981 වසරේ දී එක්සත් රාජධානියේ සහ කොස්ටරීකා රාජ්‍යය ඉදිරිපත් කළ යෝජනාවක් අනුව, ජාතීන් අතර සහ ජන ප්‍රජාවන් අතර සාමය ප්‍රචලිත කිරීම සඳහා එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සංවිධානය විසින් ප්‍රකාශිත ජාත්‍යන්තර සාම දිනය, 1982 වසරේ සිට සෑම වසරකම සැප්තැම්බර් 21 වන දා සමරනු ලබයි.

ජාතීන් අතර මිත්‍රත්වය, සහයෝගීතාව දිගුකාලීන සම්බන්ධතාව පදනම් කර ගෙන මානව හිතවාදීව අන්තර්ජාතික වශයෙන්, ආර්ථික, සමාජීය, සංස්කෘතිය ප්‍රවර්ධනය අරමුණෙන් සමරනු ලබන සාම දිනය, සාමය හා සාමය පිළිබඳ සංස්කෘතියක් ගොඩනැගීමේ අඩිතාලමයි. 

මුළු ලොවම කොවිඩ්-19 වසංගතයට එරෙහි සටනක නියැළී සිටින මොහොතක අන් කවරදාටත් වඩා අප එකිනෙකාට සතුරන් නොවන බව පසක් කර තිබේ.

අනාගතයේ සාමකාමී ලෝකයක් සහතික කරලීම සඳහා සාමය සඳහා වූ ලැදියාව සෑම මිනිසෙක් තුළ තිබිය යුතු වැදගත් අපේක්ෂාවකි. සාමය වෙනුවෙන් වැඩ කිරීම ද සෑම පුද්ගලයෙකුගේ ම වගකීමකි. දශක තුනකට අධික කාලයක් පුරා ජාතීවාදී ත්‍රස්තවාදයෙන් බැට කෑ ශ්‍රී ලාංකික අප සදාචාරාත්මක මිනිස් කොට්ඨාසයක් ලෙස පළමුව තම අධ්‍යාත්මික සාමය ළඟා කරගැනීමට කටයුතු කළ යුතුය.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව තුළ නව පුනරාගමනයක් සනිටුහන් කළ යුගයක, ලබා ගත් නිදහස නොනැසී පවත්වාගෙන යාමටත්, අනාගත පරපුරට සමෘද්ධිමත් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවක් උරුම කර දීමත් අප සැමගේ  ජාතික වගකීමකි. වර්තමානයේ හිස ඔසවන්නට වෙරදරණ ජාතික හෝ ආගමික බෙදුම්වාදයේ විවිධ ස්වරූපයන් අභිමුව එකී අවස්ථාවන් අප බුද්ධිමත්ව තේරුම් ගත යුතුය.

අප ලබා ගත් සාමය සියලු ජාතීන් වෙනුවෙන් ඉදිරියට රැක ගැනීමටත්, ලොවට පරමාදර්ශී රටක් ලෙස භෞතික සහ අධ්‍යාත්මික සංවර්ධනය කරා ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයන් ලෙස සාමය මූලික ගමනක යෙදීමට මෙවර ලෝක සාම දිනයේදී පෙළ ගැසෙමු.

මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ ශ්‍රී ලංකා ප්‍රජාතාන්ත්‍රික සමාජවාදී ජනරජයේ
අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය

National Joint Commission

15^th September 2020.

The Committee on High Posts
Parliament of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
Parliament Approach Road,
Sri Jayawardenepura
Kotte

APPOINTMENT OF ASOKA MILINDA MORAGODA AS THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR THE REPUBLIC OF INDIA WITH SPECIAL CABINET RANK

We would like to bring to your notice the shocking and appalling points relevant to the above mentioned appointment which the Government of Sri Lanka does not seem to have taken into consideration in selecting the candidate Milinda Moragoda

Allegations of Corruption, Abuse of Power and Working for the American Government as an informant when working in the Sri Lankan government (to put it in simple language he is an American spy in the Sri Lankan political establishment). We would like to bring to your notice what is said in ”Wikipedia”” about Milinda Moragoda regarding his  Corruption, Abuse of Power and Spying for the American Government while working in the Sri Lankan Government

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milinda_Moragoda

Milnda Moragoda as a Government minister in the UNF government proposed that Sri Lanka move out of the Non-Align Group and form a Group of Nations Aligned to his masters the USA. Had this happened this would have had serious repercussions to Sri Lanka Foreign Policy and Security. The website referred below gives information in this regard.

http://www.dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/milinda-proposed-pro-us-group-to-counter-wikileaks/108-15409

We would also like to bring to your notice that MIlinda Moragoda is a dual citizen (i.e. a citizen of USA and Sri Lanka) while his spouse is an American citizen by birth. His appointment as the Sri Lankan High commissioner for India therefore is in violation of the constitution of Sri Lanka where under amendment 19A Dual Citizens cannot be a MP, and since MP’s are public representatives of the people, accordingly we interpret that High Commissioners and Ambassadors of the country who are representatives of the people cannot have dual loyalties.

USA is a superpower that has hegemonic and invasive designs on Sri Lanka and has intentions to evict Chinese interests from Sri Lanka as part of their Indo-Pacific Quad lateral Axis consisting of India, USA, Australia, & Japan. Therefore we believe that appointing Milinda Moragoda to a country which is part of this axis, would seriously compromise the foreign relations with other power blocs in bi-polar world such as China, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Cuba etc.

Major General Kamal Guneratna (Retd) the current Secretary to the Ministry of Defense in his magnum opus, Rana Maga Osse, states that Minister Milinda Moragoda had tried to convince General Guneratna to give up a forward position at the request of the LTTE and had bluntly declared that the Army could never defeat the LTTE. General Guneratna, in his book, quotes Milinda Moragoda as having told him that the Army could never win this war. He had further declared that although, the army had waged war for about 20 years, it could never bring the war to a successful conclusion. He had also said since the Army couldn’t achieve success, in the future, the government was going ahead with negotiations. 

In a matter of concern which needs to be checked out by your committee it is alleged that during the Peace Talk Process with the LTTE Milinda Moragoda was promoting a request made by the LTTE for Air Topology Maps of Sri lanka” that are highly classified under National Security. The request came through Milinda Moragoda on behalf of the LTTE in the pretext that these details were needed for the Twin Otter Aircraft flight that brought Anton Balasingham which landed in Iranamadu Tank runway. It was flown by two Canadian Pilots. This request for Air Topology Maps of Sri lanka” by Milinda Moragoda on behalf of the LTTE was refused by the MOD as it would pose a grave national security risk by making Sri Lanka extremely vulnerable to air attacks by her enemies.  However, we have been reliably made to understand that Milinda Moragoda had subsequently approached the Civil Aviation Authorities and they had provided the full set of Air Topology Maps which Moragoda had handed over to the LTTE. It is said that these maps were used by the LTTE to carry out the Air Attacks on the City of Colombo. That being the case, if this allegation is proven to be true and accurate then Milinda Moragoda has a history of being instrumental in giving out Nationally Classified Secret Information to the enemy of Sri Lanka and it is our contention that such a person is in no way suitable to represent Sri Lanka in a country like India.

In view and consideration of the information given above the National Joint Committee is of the firm view that Milinda Moragoda is no longer suitable to any position in the government of Sri Lanka, due to his dual citizenship, his allegiances to USA and track record of treacherous action against Sri Lanka.

We hope the members of this committee will consider our representation and prevent Milinda Moragoda from taking the position of High Commissioner of India with special Cabinet rank.   

Thank you

Yours faithfully.

Lt Col. Anil Amarasekera (Retd.)  Mr. K. M. B. Kotakadeniya (Retd. Senior DIG) Co-Presidents National Joint Commission

Chanaka Bandarage

The Constitutional Council (CC) is a 10 member constitutional authority tasked with maintaining the Independent Commissions and monitoring their affairs.

The CC is aimed at depoliticising the public service.

The CC was first established in 2000 under the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution. In 2010 President Mahinda Rajapaksa replaced it with a Parliamentary Council, under the Eighteenth Amendment. After Maithripala Sirisena was elected as the President, the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe presented reforms to reinstate a new Constitutional Council in 2015 under the Nineteenth Amendment.

Five independent commissions are established under the CC. They are the Public Service Commission, Election Commission, National Police Commission, Bribery or Corruption Commission, Human Rights Commission and the Finance Commission.

No doubt that establishing them (CC and the 5 Independent Commissions) was done in good faith. The objective was to minimise the Executive’s influence over those vital bodies and depoliticise the public service.

Are these objectives good?  Have we achieved them?

The answers to these two questions are Yes and No respectively.

As stated before the composition of the CC consists of ten members. Three of them are ex- officio members and the rest are appointed. As per Chapter VIIA, Article 41, of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, members of the CC consists of the following:

(a) the Prime Minister;

(b) the Speaker of the Parliament;

(c) the Leader of the Opposition;

(d) one person appointed by the President;

(e) five persons appointed by the President, on the nomination of both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition; and

(f) one person nominated by agreement of the majority of the Members of the Parliament belonging to political parties or independent groups, other than the respective political parties or independent groups to which the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition belong, and appointed by the President.

The CC makes the important appointments such as the Elections Commissioner, Public Service Commissioner, the Chief Justice, Attorney General, Chairman and members of the Police Commission, Bribery or Corruption Commissioner etc.

A simple glance at the CC’s mechanism shows that it is a mess.

Do we really need it?

Why should we go to such a lengthy extent to create a CC that comprised of 10 members?

It is like instead of driving on the Galle Road from Colombo to reach Galle, one taking the circuitous route of Ratnapura, Embilipiitya, Tangalle and Matara to arrive in Galle.

Though the end result is the same – the process to appoint personnel to the Commission is   bizarre and cumbersome.

One would argue that despite the difficulties, we could achieve a system that this independent and impartial.

The writer agrees with this argument.

But, unfortunately the manner in which the CC has operated in the past has shown that they have not been independent nor impartial.

The CC seems to have acted to please those who had appointed them in those plum positions.

A CC and Independent Commissions may work well to a degree in  a country like UK, France or New Zealand, but unfortunately not in Sri Lanka where corruption is rampant.  If the object is to depoliticise the public service, the best way to achieve this is by way of trying to eliminate bribery and corruption that is so endemic in our system. The existing laws must be enforced to the letter.

The fact that majority of the lay members are appointed directly or indirectly by the government shows that the process has lapses. Those members are likely to side with the government. Others would side with the party that appointed them.  Sadly, this is the human nature.

Recent examples have shown that CC had rarely rejected nominations submitted to it by the governments (except on very few occasions). After the present government came to power in November 2019, every single nomination submitted to it had been promptly approved. 

This shows that CC had operated in a way to ‘rubber stamp’ the nominations sent to it by the government.  Then, why should we maintain such a complex and an arduous process; at such an enormous expense?

When looking at the 5 Commissions, it has been obvious that some of the Commissions have not operated independently at all. They have worked according to the whim and fancy of the politicians. They have worked quite partially towards the incumbent governments.  A leading Sri Lankan website alleged that a Chairman of one of the key Independent Commissions solicited huge personal favours from the country’s Chief Executive.  There had been media reports that recommendations made by the Police Commission had not been carried out by the Police Chiefs. There had been stories of impropriety by the Commissioners of the Independent Commissions.

It is significant that at least 6/10 members of the CC are lay people – not MPs elected by the people.  Then what legal or moral authority do they have to go on to make such important appointments (to fill vacancies of the country’s most important public service positions)? 

Again, why should such an unelected body of people be given such enormous power?  Isn’t it contrary to the accepted principles of representative democracy?

The President, is the head of State of Sri Lanka. She/he is elected by the people at a Presidential Election. But she/he is not even a member of the CC!

The President should have the free hand to appoint personnel that she/he wants. Otherwise how can she/he fulfills the promises made to the people at the Presidential election? Why should the President be deprived of the opportunity to appoint personnel that she/he wants in the public service? It is his/her government (this is akin to a father being denied the opportunity of disciplining his children and that task given to an outsider).

It is the standard practice adopted in most democracies – the elected head of state fills the appointments of the important government positions (eg. President of the USA, Prime Minister & the Cabinet of the UK/Australia). These countries do not have CCs.

If the President makes wrong decisions she/he could be ousted at the following Presidential election.

Re other provisions of draft 20A, the writer shall express his views/position in a separate article, to be published in Lankaweb. While the writer intends to make a comprehensive analysis about them, for the time being states that it is good that the President’s term of office will continue to remain for 5 years and that his/her limit to hold the office is restricted to two terms.  The writer states that the Nineteenth amendment removed some of the immunity available for the President (Article 35 (3), and that this should remain the same.  

The writer is an International Lawyer

zx102@bigpond.com

VICE

VICE World News host Zing Tsjeng explores how the City of London and its financial institutions profited from slavery in America long after the slave trade was abolished. Empires of Dirt is a show about Europeans getting rich at the expense of everyone else. VICE World News host Zing Tsjeng uncovers the ugly history of the European colonial empires they don’t teach us in schools. Countries around the world were looted for their treasures, people were oppressed and exploited and European powers relentlessly profited. The far-reaching repercussions of colonialism are all around us, from our financial institutions to the food we have in our cupboards at home – and it’s about time we took notice. Watch the next episode from Empires of Dirt, in which we look at how Britain stole $45 trillion from India during its long and oppressive rule: https://youtu.be/x_jGPf764d0

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

When the US was there and sponsoring resolutions, as it did between 2012 and 2014, they got sufficient votes. But since the US has opted out of the UNHRC, the onus of getting a resolution passed will be on less powerful countries.”

Colombo, September 20: The absence of the US in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is going to make it difficult for the Sri Lankan Tamil lobby to get a resolution against Sri Lanka passed in the March 2021 session of the Council when the current resolution expires.

Informed political sources said that geo-political realities in the absence of the US will militate against any resolution censuring Sri Lanka.

When the US was there, and sponsoring resolutions as it did between 2012 an 2014, they got sufficient votes. But since the US has opted out of the UNHRC, the onus of getting a resolution passed will be on less powerful countries. These do not have the clout to get it passed,” a source said.

The resource, which did not want to be named, recalled that when the European Union wanted to sponsor a resolution in 2011, it realized that it did not have enough backers in the Council. So, it backed out. It was only when the US took up the case in 2012 that the Council could pass a resolution against Sri Lanka. Every time the US backed the resolution, it was passed. From 2015 onwards till the previous Lankan government fell in 2019, Sri Lanka co-sponsored the resolutions (against itself) and they were passed without a vote.

We realize that it will be futile to introduce a resolution if there is no guarantee that it will be passed. Therefore, we are discussing the matter with the Core Ggroup led by UK and Germany and plan to engage African, Asian and Latin American countries also,” said a leading Tamil politico.

We are counting on the strong statements made by the High Commissioner Michele Bachelet and the representatives of the Core Group,” the Tamil leader added.

However, other sources said that Bachelet seemed to have let Sri Lanka off the hook in her latest speech. She delivered a ‘watered down’ statement on Sri Lanka merely calling on the Council to give renewed attention to that country, said one media report. Another said she spluttered.”

In her statement to the 45th session of the Human Rights Council which was held a few days ago, Bachelet merely referred to the commitments made by the government in Sri Lanka adding that the Council would give renewed attention to that country in view of the need to prevent threats to peace, reconciliation and sustainable development.”

Unlike in the past, the High Commissioner stopped short of calling for international investigations hinting that the Council might move forward with a watered down engagement with Sri Lanka.

In a similar development, the UK’s International Ambassador for Human Rights, Rita French, delivering a statement on behalf of the Core Group comprising Canada, Germany, North Macedonia, Montenegro and the UK, expressed its strong solidarity with Sri Lanka’s civil society, and human rights defenders, and called on the government to take all steps necessary to allow them to operate freely.

But at the same time, French appreciated Sri Lanka’s continued commitment to fostering reconciliation, justice and peaceful coexistence among Sri Lanka’s diverse communities.”

This kind of blowing hot and cold does not send an encouraging signal to the Tamil lobby, itching to fix the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government. The government, backed by a two thirds majority in parliament, is increasingly using army personnel in civilian jobs and had recently banned the commemoration of an LTTE hero Thileepan who had fasted unto death 33 years ago on September 26, 1987.

By Sugeeswara Senadhira/Ceylon Today

Repetition of unsubstantiated allegations in session after session puts in question not just the credibility of the UNHRC’s sources of information but the credibility of the UNHRC itself

It has been a practice during the last two decades, especially since 2009 for the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to wake up from its slumber on the eve of its September and March sessions and pick up some issue or the other in Sri Lanka to express ‘concern’.

Continuing the ‘Sri Lanka baiting’, last week at the opening of the UNHRC session, High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet expressed concern about the impact the 20th amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution would have on the independence of key institutions including the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission. She decided to jump the gun and make a stern statement, when the actual fact is what the government has put in the gazette is merely a draft proposal which will have to be debated in parliament, amended if necessary and be approved by a two-third majority before it becomes a constitutional amendment.

Sri Lanka strongly refuted the UN human rights chief’s remarks on the proposed 20th amendment as being unwarranted and pre-judgmental”. The draft amendment submitted through parliament will be discussed and debated following a complete democratic process in which all stakeholders will have the opportunity to present their views. Furthermore, it is for the elected law makers of Sri Lanka to decide on what is good for the country and not for an external institution that has been admonished severely for its bias by several countries including the United States.

If the Human Rights Council is going to attack countries that uphold human rights and shield countries that abuse human rights, then America should not provide it with any credibility,” American Ambassador Nikki R Haley said while announcing the US withdrawal from the Council.

In her reference to Sri Lanka last week, Bachelet charged that senior military officials accused of war crimes” had been appointed to key civilian governmental positions and alleged that attempts at the police and judiciary levels were made to thwart investigations into the said war crimes”, which she said set a very negative trend”.

It is a pity that her officials failed to bring to her notice the success of containing the COVID-19 pandemic by the Health Ministry headed by Major General Sanjeewa Munasinghe, a medical practitioner who was the head of the Army Hospital. UNHRC must clarify the demerits, if any, of appointing such a capable military officer as Secretary to the Ministry of Health.

We hope that this council would appreciate that Sri Lanka, while successfully containing the spread of COVID-19 through a balanced, multi-sectoral approach, and despite this challenge, held its commitment to the democratic processes, and conducted parliamentary elections successfully and peacefully, last month, which the EU has acknowledged,” Sri Lankan envoy told the Geneva forum.

Responding to Bachelet’s remarks, Sri Lanka’s acting Permanent Representative said that even as Sri Lanka withdrew from the co-sponsorship of Resolution 30/1, it made it clear that it will remain committed to achieving reconciliation, accountability and human rights within the framework of the Sri Lankan constitution through a domestically designed and executed process in line with the government’s policy framework.

Among other areas that came under Bachelet’s criticism was an alleged surveillance and intimidation of victims, their families, human rights defenders, journalists and lawyers. She called for an immediate end to such activities.

In response, Sri Lankan delegate said that the government has already publicly refuted these allegations and is committed to protecting and promoting freedom of expression and civil society space, and ensuring that complaints received on alleged attacks against journalists, human rights defenders and civil society are investigated and prosecuted.

The prime focus of the incumbent government is to ensure national security, and to uphold the rule of law and order in the country for all its citizens, with the aim of creating ‘an environment where any citizen can live freely without any fear for their safety and that of their families.’

It is indeed unbecoming for the HR High Commissioner to level false and unsubstantiated allegations against military officials in Sri Lanka, when the government has consistently refuted the credibility of these allegations and repeatedly pointed out that domestic processes such as the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) and Paranagama Commissions which examined these allegations particularly with regard to the last stages of the conflict, have not found substantive evidence against any of the senior military officials referred to in this regard.

In the absence of any substantive proof, Sri Lanka considers that the continued arbitrary accusations on crimes or crimes against humanity made against these senior military officials are unacceptable and a violation of the principles of natural justice,” Sri Lankan representative told UNHRC.

Bachelet’s statement clearly showed the ignorance of the international body about the ground situation in Sri Lanka. It is indeed erroneous that more attention has not been paid to the false information given by agencies including the OHCHR, which is required to seek the truth.

Bachelete has conveniently forgotten the need for allegations to always be subjected to the due process of investigation in accordance with established legal procedures. They should not be hastily credited to support unfounded assumptions.

While the people in North and East Sri Lanka demand more devolution of power and the imperative need to address their grievances, the Human Rights Council laments that Sri Lanka is yet to set up the special judicial mechanism to try so-called ‘war criminals.’ The action by the Sri Lankan Security Forces during the conflict was against a group designated as the most ruthless terrorist organization in the world by many countries, and not against any community. All communities in Sri Lanka were united against terrorism, and are working in unison towards reconciliation and economic progress.

Courtesy Sputnik

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Moscow Meegahalande Durage Lamawansa said on Monday he planned getting inoculated with Russia’s vaccine against COVID-19, dubbed Sputnik V, in the near future.

“I am ready to receive Sputnik V vaccine in the near future, as soon as I come back from Sri Lanka. The vaccine is now going through Phase 3 trials, I would be happy to take part in it”, Lamawansa said.

“As a doctor, I want to add that although some countries have recently recorded some decrease in the spreading of COVID-19, the global community should remain vigilant and unite effort to establish full control over the new infection”, the ambassador noted.

Russia became the first country to register a vaccine against the virus that causes COVID-19 in early August. The country has since reached agreements with more than 20 countries to deliver over a billion doses of the vaccine and agreements with five nations for the mass production.

According to the Russian health ministry, Sputnik V is safe and has proven to be capable of building immunity against the virus. The vaccine is yet to complete the required Phase 3 of clinical trials.

Suhasini HaidarMeera Srinivasan Courtesy The Hindu

By Xian Jiangnan (People’s Daily Online)  

The continuation of protectionism by America, the largest economy body in the world, will only result in further contraction of the world economy and aggravation of unemployment, poverty and deprivation, said Luxman Siriwardena, president of the Sri Lanka-based Pathfinder Foundation.

In a recent interview with People’s Daily Online, Siriwardena said that the unilateralism and protectionism currently being championed by the American administration goes against the values the West has promoted since the end of World War II.

When I was undertaking graduate studies at an American university in the 1980s, it would have been totally unacceptable for any of the economic professors to believe that the protectionism in trade and investment would enhance the welfare of the international community,” he recalled, sharing that since the establishment of formal China-Sri Lankan diplomatic relations, China has been the most reliable, all-weather friend of Sri Lanka.

In recent years, Sri Lanka has taken an active role in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which, he stressed, is the most logical development strategy for Sri Lanka.

The successful completion of the three major development projects in Sri Lanka under the BRI, namely Colombo Port City Project, Hambantota International Port and proposed Hambantota Industrial Zone, will have a transformative impact on the Sri Lankan economy.

In the post-pandemic era, the BRI is a functional machinery which can substantially contribute to the recovery of the global economy,” he noted, voicing hope that the initiative will have more inclusive and comprehensive programs encompassing a larger amount of countries.

While this is a decisive year for China to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and to end extreme poverty, according to Siriwardena, China’s development has been unprecedented” in the history of the entire world.

The process has been inclusive in the sense that China has uplifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty while achieving advancement in science, technology and culture,” he said, adding that China has addressed the social, economic and environmental dimensions of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the recent past, citing the pollution management in the city of Beijing as an example.

Looking ahead, Siriwardena said the two countries will enhance their cooperation in various fields, such as COVID-19 pandemic control and prevention, investment in manufacturing, logistics and services, infrastructure as well as economic digitalization, and people-to-people exchanges.

Faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, Siriwardena pointed out that both China and Sri Lanka have managed to control the virus with relatively minimal loss of life, and praised China’s commitment to distribute the vaccine to the rest of the world, which will contribute to the vision of building a community of health for all in the near future

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

MP A.L.M. Athaulla displays a copy of a letter he sent to the then President Maithripala Sirisena and PM Wickremesinghe underscoring the need to do away with the 19th Amendment(Pic courtesy National Congress)

… assures support for 20 A

Those who had a hand in engineering President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s defeat at the 2015 presidential election were behind the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks, National Congress MP A. L. M. Athaulla, told a media briefing at his Thalakotuwa Gardens road residence, Narahenpita yesterday (20).

Digamadulla District MP blamed 2014 organised attacks on Muslims in Aluthgama, Beruwela and Darga Town also on the same group hell bent destabilising the country. Instigating ethnic violence was part of their strategy, a one-time UPFA Minister said, urging all communities to be vigilant of despicable efforts to undermine political stability.

Athaulla said so when The Island asked him whether he subscribed to SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem’s recent declaration that the Easter Sunday attacks had been carried out by another force and not the National Thowheed Jamaat or its leader Zahran Hashim.

One-time Justice Minister Attorney-at-law Haleem alleged that the NTJ had been hired to carry out the operation.

SLMC leader Hakeem made the aforesaid claim on September 7 before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (P CoI) probing Easter Sunday attacks.

Athaulla said that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa would ensure a thorough investigation into Easter Sunday attacks. The MP also expressed confidence in the progress made by the PCoI which the National Congress leader said could reveal the truth.

When The Island pointed out that former Deputy Inspector General (DIG) in charge of the Eastern Range Edison Gunatilleke had recently accused Athaulla, former UPFA politician M H M Hisbullah et al of their involvement with extremists and terrorists, a smiling Athaulla said that there was absolutely no basis for such claims. He challenged Gunatilleke to prove his accusations. Athaulla said he didn’t even know Gunatilleke or even remember calling over the phone.

Lawmaker Athaulla questioned why Gunatilleke had waited so long to complain of political interference in police investigations. Declaring that he was among those politicians who received top level security, including bullet proof vehicles due to serious threats to his life, Athaulla denied ever working against the interests of the country.

Asked whether the unsubstantiated accusations had been levelled against him in a bid to deprive him of a possible cabinet portfolio, the National Congress leader replied in the negative.

Responding to a spate of media queries regarding the SLPP not accommodating him in the cabinet, Athaulla emphasized that he never asked for a cabinet portfolio nor would ever request for one.

MP Athaulla said that their responsibility would be to ensure required consensus in parliament to pave the way for the 20th Amendment in place of the 19th Amendment enacted at the onset of the treacherous yahapalana administration in 2015.

At the commencement of the media briefing, MP Athaulla said that the National Congress had backed the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa three conditions. We asked for the eradication of terrorism. We also sought the demerger of the Eastern Province from the North during President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidency and those demands were met.”

Athaulla said that the only request yet to be fulfilled was a Constitution that met aspirations of all Sri Lankans.

He said that the National Congress believed President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who had been the Defence Secretary during the war and the war winning President Mahinda Rahapaksa, now the Prime Minister, would succeed in introducing a new Constitution. Referring to the 19th Amendment, MP Athaulla pointed out that the controversial piece of legislation caused chaos with political parties having to seek intervention of the Supreme Court to ascertain how powers were shared.

When The Island pointed out that even the SLPP hadn’t been able to settle differences among various sections as regards the 19th Amendment, lawmaker Athaulla said that he was confident the Rajapaksas wouldn’t do anything to harm the country. He denied any ambiguity over his party’s support for the 20th Amendment.

The country couldn’t afford to have the President and the Prime Minister from different political parties under any circumstances, the former minister said, warning of dire consequences in foreign interventions in the making of the new constitution.

Referring to the high profile Oslo peace bid in 2002-2003 during Ranil Wickremesinghe’s tenure as the Prime Minister, Athaulla insisted that constitutional reforms introduced at the behest of foreign powers wouldn’t address local issues. The former minister said that the country’s strategic location attracted foreign interests therefore the country needed to be cautious.

Reiterating his backing for the 20th Amendment, MP Athaulla urged the government to take tangible measures to introduce a new Constitution. Underscoring the importance of the proposed new Constitution being a Sri Lankan effort, Athaulla recalled how the TNA and the SLMC had facilitated foreign intervention.

The former minister dismissed the Opposition’s claims as regards SLPP bid to do away with independent commissions. Independent commissions weren’t certainly independent, the MP alleged, pointing out that they didn’t do their job.

Athaulla however side-stepped a query regarding the 20th Amendment proposing to abolish restrictions on dual citizens contesting parliamentary polls.

Lahiru Pothmulla Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The government today reiterated that it has no decision to withdraw the 20th Amendment to the Constitution but said if needed, amendments to it can be made at the committee stage in Parliament.

Speaking at a news briefing held at the SLPP head office, SLPP Chairman and Minister Professor G.L.Peiris said the opportunity is available to make amendments to the piece of legislation at the committee stage.

The 20A which was included in the Order Paper of Parliament on September 17 will be presented to Parliament tomorrow (22). Within a week of tabling the 20A in Parliament, interested parties have the opportunity to challenge it in the Supreme Court. The Court has to decide within three weeks, whether challenged provisions are inconsistent with the Constitution. Afterwards, during the committee stage in Parliament, the 20A can be amended,” Minister Peiris said.

When asked whether the recommendations and conclusions made by the Prime Minister appointed committee, which was headed by Minister Peiris, to study the 20A would be considered during the committee stage, he said, If that’s what the majority wants.”

The minister reiterated the independent commissions would not be abolished but said, according to the 20A, the appointments to the commissions will be made by the President after considering the observations made by a Parliamentary Council. 

Courtesy Adaderana

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa says that Sri Lanka expects that the United Nations will place due emphasis on non-interference in the domestic affairs of other states.

The President expressed these views in a pre-recorded statement, at the High-Level Meeting to Commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations today (21).

At a time when the world is facing a common and an unrivaled threat, the United Nations We Need”, I am certain, will place due emphasis on the sovereign equality of States, respect for territorial integrity and non-interference in their domestic affairs”, President said.

President said that he firmly believes that partnerships fostered between the Member States and the UN continue at their best when no country is held hostage to the interests of a few.

UN Member States agreed in June 2019 that the UN will mark its 75th anniversary with a one-day, high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly on Monday, 21 September 2020 on the theme, ‘The Future We Want, the UN We Need: Reaffirming our Collective Commitment to Multilateralism’.

The President of the 75th Session of the General Assembly Volkan Bozkir made the opening statement at the meeting where leaders and delegates of 180 countries made their representations.

The world is plagued by the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, which has jeopardized our economies, health systems, and indeed our societies, just within a few months”, President Rajapaksa observed.

Sri Lanka was able to successfully face the challenge of COVID-19 through proactive intervention. We established the National Action Committee for Preventing COVID-19 even before the first patient was detected in Sri Lanka. Our approach synchronized the military, health as well as civilian authorities of national and regional levels.

Sri Lanka’s recovery rate stands at over 90% well above the global recovery rate.  Our success story owes much to our reliance upon ‘tracing and quarantine’, which was our greatest strength, President stressed.

Sri Lanka is hopeful that we of the United Nations would rededicate ourselves in efforts to strengthen this great institution to ensure the future we want. We owe our peoples and future generations no less”.

The full text of the statement by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is as follows:

Mr. President,

Mr. Secretary-General,

Excellencies,

Ayubowan!

Your Excellency Volkan Bozkir, I congratulate you on being elected as the President of the 75th Session of the General Assembly.

 I am deeply honoured to represent the people of Sri Lanka on this historic occasion.

Unfortunately, the world is not what the founders of this august body envisaged 75 years ago.

The world is plagued by the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, which has jeopardized our economies, health systems and indeed our societies, just within a few months.

Sri Lanka was able to successfully face the challenge of COVID-19 through a proactive intervention. We established the National Action Committee for Preventing COVID-19 even before the first patient was detected in Sri Lanka. Our approach synchronized the military, health as well as civilian authorities of national and regional levels.

Sri Lanka’s recovery rate stands at over 90% well above the global recovery rate.  Our success story owes much to our reliance upon ‘tracing and quarantine’, which was our greatest strength.

Sri Lanka has not reported a single case arising within the local society for over a month now.

Excellencies,

Sri Lanka has committed to the 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development. Poverty alleviation through an agri-based production economy is a major goal of my Government.

The steps that we had initiated earlier this year for enhancing local production, partial restrictions on imports as well as assisting small and medium scale entrepreneurs paid their dividend.

As we celebrate 65 years of UN membership this year, Sri Lanka is pleased to have contributed significantly to United Nation’s agenda, ranging from peacekeeping operations to programmes of its specialized agencies.

At a time when the world is facing a common and an unrivalled threat, the United Nations We Need”, I am certain, will place due emphasis on the sovereign equality of States, respect for territorial integrity and non-interference in their domestic affairs.

Excellencies,

I firmly believe that partnerships fostered between Member States and the UN continues at their best when no country is held hostage to the interests of a few.

Sri Lanka is hopeful that we of the United Nations would rededicate ourselves in efforts to strengthen this great institution to ensure the future we want. We owe our peoples and future generations no less.

Thank you.”

Courtesy Adaderana

The Commission to Investigate Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) has filed indictments against former Minister Ravi Karunanayake and the Perpetual Treasuries Limited owner Arjun Aloysius at the Colombo High Court.

Karunanayake has been charged under Section 19 (c) of the Bribery Act for taking up residence –all the while serving as the Finance Minister– at ‘No. 5 PH2, Monarch Housing Complex’ acquired under the Walt & Row Associates (Pvt) Ltd, where the second accused of the case Arjun Aloysius is a director, during the period from 12th February to 30th September, 2016.

The indictments allege that defendant Aloysius had paid a sum of Rs 11.68 million, through cheques of Walt & Row Associates (Pvt) Ltd and Purchasing Capital Company, for the said house.

Arjun Aloysius, the second accused in the case, has also been indicted under Section 19 (c) of the Bribery Act for aiding and abetting the process.

Accordingly, the total number of indictments filed against the two defendants in this case is six.

H. L. D. Mahindapala

Needling the South with provocative anti-Sinhala-Buddhist hate speech led the North all the way to Nandikadal. So why is C. V. Wigneswaran going down the same old path of divisive and  destructive politics? What does he hope to gain when the mightiest collective forces of the Jaffna Tamils failed to divide the nation under various constitutional formulas by basing their strategy on anti-Sinhala-Buddhist extremism? Besides, his hate speech is  loaded with toxic distortions of known realities which stand in the way of future reconciliation and  peaceful co-existence. It is apparent that he is merely re-enacting the inflammatory role of Hanuman who, in the Mahabaratha, set fire to the nation by gradually extending his flaming tail each time it ran out of fuel.

But Wigneswaran is not alone in propagating anti-Sinhala-Buddhist hate speech. He is, in fact, the latest avatar of a Jaffna-centric ideology that began  with G. G. Ponnamabalam, the father of the anti-Sihala-Buddhist ideology, who first lit the fires of communal passions  with his provocative attack on the Mahavamsa and the Sinhala-Buddhist history. It happened in June 1939 in Navalapitiya and communal riots spread quickly to the neighbouring towns. Since then the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist ideology used to sustain the mono-ethnic extremism of the North has never ceased. Projecting the image of the Sinhalese as the bogey man  threatening  the existence of Tamils has been an essential ingredient for the perpetuation and promotion of mono-ethnic extremism in the North. It has dominated the post-colonial period and dragged the nation through hell fires of death and destruction.

Ponnambalam’s anti-Sinhala-Buddhist ideology gathered momentum incrementally over the years and exploded in its most virulent form when the Tamil leadership officially declared war on May 14, 1976 at Vadukoddai and urged the Tamil to take up arms and never cease until they achieve Eelam. What the Vellala elite who held the reins of power from feudal times did not realise was that they were handing over power for the first time to untried and untested youth who went berserk with the gun. Velupillai Prabhakaran was the first-born child of the Vadukoddai Resolution. He is the ultimate manifestation of the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist ideology bred by Ponnambalam. It was his ideology that led to the longest war with disastrous consequences, particularly to the Tamils.

Tamil leaders never deviated from the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist ideology that sustained them in competitive electoral politics. They had nothing else to offer their electorate. They never offered alternative ideologies like socialism, liberalism, democratic humanism, pluralism etc. The rainbow colours of a multi-cultural and pluralistic society never arched over the skies of Jaffna. From  one end  of the political spectrum to the other Tamil leadership competed with each other promising to deliver more and more of mono-ethnic  extremism demonising the Sinhala-Buddhists and nothing else. The Tamils who lived by the sword of anti-Sinhala-Buddhist ideology also died by it.

It was constructed, defined and set in  motion  when Ponnambalam began his campaign demanding 50% of power to be the equal of the majority Sinhala-Buddhists. Of course, he knew that there was no rational basis on which he could convince the British that a minority of 12% could demand 50% of  power. He had to construct a rationale to justify his disproportionate claim. So, he opted for the strategy of proving that the Tamils were equal, if not superior to the Sinhalese. Mark you, it was also a time when the British  surveyors, archaeologists, and civil servants were digging  into the past and discovering  the glories of the ancient  and medieval Sinhala-Buddhist history. The unearthed discoveries were showering the Sinhalese with an aura of greatness. The grandeur emerging from the buried past was making the Sinhalese look like giants of a great civilisation. The political implication was clear : if they could have built and governed a civilisation of such magnitude then they could easily govern Sri Lankan without the British. The politics of Sinhala nationalism was resting on monumental history.

This placed the Tamils in a virtual vacuum. They had no history of comparable magnitude to base their arguments for such a grossly exaggerated claim of 50% of power to a minority of 12%. In making his over-blown demand, totally out of proportion,  Ponnambalam had to fight not only the political realities of the day but also the overwhelming presence of a past casting long shadows over the national scene. History was not on the side of the Tamils. Ever since then the Tamils have been labouring  to  rewrite history to fill in the blanks and deny the horrors staring  in their face.

In Ponnambalam’s time, the biggest icon in their history that began in the 10^th century was Sankilli – a pathological killer of the Tamils and the first recorded ethnic cleanser of Muslims and Sinhalese from Jaffna. On the Christmas eve 1544 he marched down to Mannar and massacred 600 Tamil Catholics, including pregnant women and children, who refused to recognise him as the sole representatives of the Tamils”. The Tamil Catholics owed allegiance to the King of Portugal. Since then the intolerant and inhuman Sankili culture of Tamils killing Tamils became a permanent feature in peninsular  politics.

Prabhakaran emerged as Sankili’s avatar in the 20^th century. History didn’t repeat itself as a farce the second  time in Jaffna. Prabhakaran went all out to outdo Sankili. To drive the Muslims out of Jaffna Sankili threw pig’s head into Muslim wells. Prabhakaran, on the contrary, forced them out with a gun pointed to their heads. His megalomania drove him to crush any form of dissent. He  feared his  own people. He slaughtered Neelan Tiruchelvam, Amirthalingam, Uma Maheswaran etc., etc., the cream of Tamil leadership, all because he feared them. S. C. Chandrahasan, son of the father of separatism, S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, and V. Anandasangaree, the President of TULF, are on record saying that Prabhakaran had killed more Tamils than others put together. With a monstrous history of a bloody past, where the Tamils were  deprived of their basic human rights under the Vellalas, the Tamils were desperately in need of a face-lift to make them look good, a defence that would make them look respectable in the eyes of the world. Not having one, Ponnambalam in his time discovered that attack is the best form of defence. 

It was in this setting that Ponnambalam came out swinging against the Mahavamsa and the history of the Sinhala-Buddhists. His strategy was to downgrade Sinhala-Buddhist history in order to prove the superiority of Tamil history. The most popular phrase was to condemn the Sinhala-Buddhists as racist bigots  obsessed with the Mahavamsa mentality”. It became the pop phrase even among the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist Sinhala intellectuals to denigrate those who defended the historical heritage that made Sri Lanka great.  The Mahavamsa mentality” was a phrase used frequently to demean anything and everything that restored to the Sinhala people the heritage they lost under nearly 500 years of colonialism. The Mahavamsa mentality” was also blamed for resisting the divisive politics of the Tamils claiming 50% for just 12%. But none of the intellectuals dared to speak of Jaffna jingoism” leaping from one extremism  to another until it pushed the Tamil people like lemmings over the cliff to their self-destruction. 

Ponnamabalam’s strategy was to attack the past and the present of the Sinhalese for him to advance his claim of 50-50” – a mathematical formula that runs counter to all known democratic principles of  governance. Except in authoritarian regimes all institutions – from  the state to non-governmental institutions — are run on majoritarian consensus with, of course, guarantees to minority rights. But Ponnambalam could not wage a frontal attack on the established and universally accepted principles of democracy. So, he resorted to two deviant tactics: 1. he attacked the past of the Sinhalese to downgrade its value as a legitimate force to inherit power. 2. downgrade the Sinhalese as a majority that discriminates against the minority. The Soulbury Commissioners listened to him on this issue of discrimination and dismissed it as hogwash. The attack on Sinhala-Buddhism was not an issue canvassed at the Commission. However, it became the main  political tool used by the Tamil extremists in the public domain to make the Sinhalese the bogeyman – the cause of all evils of the Tamils. It  still rides  in peninsula politics bedevilling national politics.

From the time of G. G. Ponnambalam in the thirties to  C. V. Wigneswaran, this has been the consistent theme propagated to downgrade not only the Sinhalese, their main target, but also the low-caste Tamils of Jaffna, regional Tamils in Batticoloa and the Indian coolies” in the central hills and even the Tamil-speaking Muslims. Jaffna-centric arrogance and intransigence have been two of the perverse strands that runs through peninsular politics. It is most regrettable that Wigneswaran continues  to harp on the racial superiority of the Tamils in the post-Nazi era. He knows that it  has bred and continues to breed racial hatred with all its tragic consequences. Of course, he  has right to praise his language and culture. What  is unacceptable is when he uses it to devalue Sinhala-Buddhism. His attempt to place Jaffna Tamils at a level far superior to Sinhalese by condemning their history is not  only unhistorical but also provocative playing into the hands of extremists on both sides. It is also counter-productive and it has not led them anywhere except to Nandikdal.

What is worse, it is a hollow claim not  worthy of a man who sat as a judge in the Supreme Court. He repeats that the Tamils (meaning, of course, the high-caste Vellalas) are great because he speaks Tamil, the  oldest language in the  world. His other tack is to denigrate the Mahavamsa and Sinhala-Buddhist  history because it  is the Ponnambalam-Wigneswaran way of making Tamils look superior to the Sinhalese. But both are cheap political tactics that had worsened the North -South inter-ethnic relations. Take, for instance, his claim to be superior because he speaks Tamil, the oldest language in the  world, as opposed to the Sinhala language which he says came into being around 5^th century. But this is a silly boast of a vacant mind. No one  denies the antiquity and the  greatness of the Tamil language and its culture. But how can he claim to be great by parroting a language created by another country, another nation? The greatness belongs to the Tamils of S. India who created it and invested it with all its richness. Wigneswaran, or any Tamil in Jaffna, has nothing to do with it. The Wigneswarans are nothing but mediocre  parrots trained to repeat the language that came out of the creative genius of Tamils of S. India. The imitative Jaffna mediocrities had not contributed anything great to  the glory of the Tamil language or its culture. So, when Wigneswaran talks of his greatness because  he  speaks the Tamil language he is fooling himself and not  impressing the  world. Everyone knows that he  is trying to shine in borrowed feathers. Wigneswaran and his anti-Sinhala-Buddhist extremists are pretending that they are the Einsteinian giants of Tamil culture. The more he opens his  mouth to boast about his greatness because he speaks Tamil the more he exposes his mediocrity. 

The Sinhalese, on the  other hand, minted a new language of their own rejecting the dominant classical languages of their time. Sanskrit, Pali and Tamil were already established vehicles for all religious, social and  intellectual uses. The strength  of the Sinhala language is that it never surrendered to these overwhelming linguistic forces of its  time. Rejecting all these languages the Sinhalese created their own linguistic medium for inter-personal communication and expression of their spiritual and philosophical thoughts. If the Tamils came first, and if their language was superior, and if they were the geniuses they claim to be how come they failed to make their language the lingua franca of the nation? Why did the Sinhala language and the Sinhalese triumph over the Tamil geniuses? How did the young Sinhalese beat the old Tamil settlers? Repeating ad nauseam that Tamil language is great because it is one of the oldest doesn’t make it great because of its age. Languages that came later have delivered greater achievements for the  advancement  of mankind.

The Sinhalese, for their part, have proved that it is their language that has served them more than any other language that came with the migrants. Besides, if Wigneswaran wants to prove that his Jaffna culture is great then he  has to match it with the achievements of the Sinhalese and not  bask in the glory of S. India. It is because he can’t that he keeps on attacking  the Mahavamsa – a classic that is the envy of the culturally bankrupt Tamils of Jaffna. Incidentally, if he rejects the Mahavamsa then he has to reject the Tamil historical record, Yalpana Vaipava Malai, written by poet Mylvakanam, in 1736 for the benefit of the Dutch Governor, Jan Maccaras. In his own twisted way, Mylvakanam acknowledges Vijaya and his Sinhala followers as one of the original founders of the nation.

As I know it, Wigneswaran is a clueless political speculator who is hanging on to his obsessions with Tamil greatness mainly because he has no other viable political ideology to make his mark in politics. Sometime back when he was challenging  everyone to debate with him on this issue I accepted his challenge. Then he backtracked. He asked me to present to him my arguments for him to check with academic authorities before agreeing to debate. I asked him whether he, as a prosecuting lawyer, went to court and asked the defence lawyer to reveal his case to him before going to trial. That is Wigneswaran, the great defender of Tamils who does not know whether  he is coming or going. Obviously, he is not sure of his case. Now he is asking for a commission to investigate and adjudicate on what happened in history. He does not know his own Tamil history. He is still learning. In the meantime, he  is playing the Tamil card purely to score points over his political competitors in Jaffna.

He relies entirely on one argument: he is great, the Tamils of Jaffna are great – nay superior to the Sinhalese! – because of the Tamil language. If Wigneswaran claims greatness on a borrowed language shouldn’t the Sinhalese be placed on a far superior scale of greatness for having created a new language and  with it given the world a new culture and a  new civilisation? What have the Jaffna Tamils done in their sterile settlement since the 10^th century that can match the achievements of the Sinhalese?

What is more, the Tamils who boast of their great history is yet to produce an authoritative history of Jaffna. The first task of Jaffna University, established in 1972, should have been to produce a scholarly study of its past. More so, because history  has been abused to mislead people into Nandikadal. But it has not done so to this day. Giants of historiography with the stature of Prof. Kingsley de Silva have not yet graced the halls of learning in the Jaffna University.  K. Indrapala, the first professor of history of Jaffna, had to  leave the University in a hurry because his  original thesis on which he obtained his doctorate, was rejected by the politically hostile forces that proclaimed the Tamils were the original settlers from the dawn of time”. Indrapala said that the Malabaris who migrated from S. India decided to remain as permanent settlers only in the 10^th century.

The intellectual level of Wigneswaran makes it obvious that the future of reconciliation and even peace is at great risk. If the political thinking of the Tamils is to remain at Wigneswaran’s level we can certainly look forward to another bloody Nandikadal. If Wigneswaran thinking came from a cheap politician trying to win the most number of preferential votes one could turn a blind eye, though repugnant. But when Wigneswaran  fails to distinguish between fact and fiction a serious question arises: How on earth did he pass judgment, fairly and objectively, in the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka? Considering the way he is handling the available evidence before us all shouldn’t there be a commission appointed to review his judgments?

KAMALIKA PIERIS

In both JVP insurgencies, 1971 and 1987, JVP tried to infiltrate all four security services, police, army, navy and air force.  The 1971 insurgency this was not very successful in this. Only about ten persons became   JVP supporters in each of the four services in 1971 said Chandraprema., Some joined the JVP when the insurgency ended.  However, Godahewa observed that several members of the armed forces were recruited into the JVP and used very discreetly.

Wijeweera had tried to recruit   army personnel who were thought to be loyal to SLFP, but they were not interested.  Wijeweera was more successful with the navy. Wijeweera targeted the Sri Lanka navy from the very beginning. A list of navy personnel were submitted to him by a contact.   Wijeweera met this group at Trincomalee navy base and spoke to them,   probably in 1965. And a group of JVP navy men” was created. Many naval personnel attended the JVP classes in 1966 and 1967. Naval ratings who were close to Wijeweera were among the instructors at the JVP training camps.

Able Seaman H.M. Tillekeratne was the ‘Coordinating Officer’ between the Navy and the JVP, and the JVP was planning to appoint him as North-East commander if they seized power.     He was in the habit of regularly travelling between the Elara Camp and the Trincomalee Naval Base.  He was conducting political classes for some Navy personnel. 

The notion that in 1971 the JVP was only interested in taking over police stations is incorrect. This was only a cover. Even then, the target was the armed forces and the military installations. During the 1971 insurgency, JVP took over the Anuradhapura air strip and was eyeing the one at Vavuniya. JVP planned to establish military units in each police area in the country. 

JVP was also planning to take over Trincomalee by sending JVPers parading as football players to start the insurgency there. Towards the end of March, 1971, the Trincomalee Naval Base received a letter from the Peradeniya University requesting to arrange a football match between university students and Navy personnel on the naval base grounds n Trincomalee on April 5. The letter also requested the Navy to arrange for the university team to spend the night at the base, since it was difficult for them to return to Peradeniya the same day after the match.

The naval authorities were wary.  The Navy decided it was not safe to allow a football match between the Navy and University team at Trincomalee. The university authorities were informed that the naval base grounds could not be given for the match.

JVP planned to take over the navy bases in Jaffna or at least their weapons. Sailors who supported the JVP has been posted to the armories there. Within 48 hours of the JVP uprising Superintendent of Police Jaffna, received a message from Colombo of a suspected move to put sleeping tablets into the water filters at the Elara Camp’s officers mess. The police took immediate action. They arrested Tillekeratne and after a squirmish, shot him dead.

After Tillekeratne’s death, police searched his personal belongings and found secret documents, and several bottles of sleeping tablets which were to be put into the water filters of the Elara Camp’s officers’ mess. Tillekeratne’s plan was to seize all weapons and ammunition from the camp’s magazine, before joining his JVP comrades, after making naval officers unconscious.”

Since the army and navy had refused to go over to the JVP wholesale, it was necessary to somehow put them out of action during the 1971 insurgency. JVP had planned to put laxatives and sleeping pills into the food in the army and navy camps.  They   were   going to introduce an ayurvedic laxative, japala seeds, which tasted like coffee. If taken in excess it could even cause death by dehydration. This was known as the ‘japala plot’. The army was aware that something of the sort had been planned. Around March 1971 army officers who were in camp had heard that there was a threat to poison them, said one commentary.

One of the tasks assigned to the JVP in 1987-89 was to    weaken the Sri Lanka army and divert military attention away from the Eelam war. The first targets of the JVP in 1987 were, therefore, armed forces and police.

JVP planned this well. An Increasing number of youth were reported,   when arrested, in 1987, to have in their possession detailed maps of army camps, important government institutions, and residences of government politicians. One youth had several maps of the Panagoda army camp. It was obvious that JVP   was planning large scale strike against the state, noted Chandraprema.

Saman Piyasiri, head of the DJV, had plans of vital military installations, photographs and documents, in his house when he was taken into custody.  The photos included installation of the military police headquarters Sri Lanka.

JVP launched their attacks on military establishments at the height of the Eelam wars. On 15 April 1987, JVP attacked the Pallekele Army Camp in Kandy. Lead by a former soldier, under the directions of Shantha Bandara. JVP successfully raided Pallekelle and took off with firearms and ammunition. JVP   seized 12 Type 56 assault rifles, seven sub-machine guns and ammunition. The daring and ingenuity of the Pallekelle raid in early hours of New Year day showed the imprint of a well organized movement, said Godahewa. 

When the 1987 Vadamarachchi campaign was turning out well, three days after the Indian ‘parippu’ drop, JVP launched two armed attacks on the Katunayake air force base and Kotelawala Defence Academy,  removing a valuable haul of weapons from each.  They had support inside the Air force base    and were able to take away eleven T56 and 15 submachine guns.

 In Oct 1987 JVP  attacked Kallar army camp in Trincomalee and  after a   20 minute gun battle, over ran the camp and took away a huge amount of  weapons, six T56, three LMG spare barrels,  This was the JVP ‘s Largest haul of weapons to date. The Kallar army camp was near Mahindapura in Serunuwara in the Kantalai police division

In Jan 1988 JVP attacked the army training camp at Kumbukke in Horana. In April 1988 there was a second attack on Katunayake Air Base and JVP took away weapons and ammunition. In November 1988 JVP attacked the Pannala National Air Force training camp .The arms haul from Pannala was bigger than those from Kallar. At Pannala JVP was helped by an air force deserter.   There was also an unsuccessful attack on Panagoda army camp.

In the period 1987-1989, soldiers were killed not only by the LTTE but also by the JVP. JVP targeted and   killed members of the armed forces. In 1988, a soldier of Gemunu watch was beheaded when he was on leave at Weeraketiya. In 1989 two soldiers were knifed at Tyre Corporation,  two NIB officers were gunned down in Timbirigasyaya  and a soldier who came to celebrate New Year at Navagamuwa was killed on his way to see an Avurudu play and his severed head displayed. Many STF officers were killed when they came home on visit or on sick leave.

In 1988 JVP ambushed an army commando unit sent out on to track down JVP killers at Kirula in Hungama area. Three commandos died. In April 1989, there was a spate of landmine blasts in Embilipitiya, four soldiers were killed. There were    landmines in Hungama, Tissamaharama, Angunokolapelssa, Kamburupitiya, Urubokka, and Middeniya as well. Land mine in Medirigiriya killed four police officers.

JVP specially targeted the Counter Subversive Unit (CSU) set up to hunt them down. CSD operatives were handpicked as targets, their homes were burned and loved ones killed.  In 1987 PC Sapukotana of Matara police was stabbed and killed. This was the beginning of a series of attacks on CSU operatives, said Gunaratna.   Peliyagoda CSU sub inspector Wickremasinghe was   killed as he was driving. In December 1987 JVP shot dead the Director of the CSU, Terrence Perera. CSU  did not develop after his death.

JVP  humiliated the armed services. In October 1988 an army detachment was attacked with stones by demonstrating school children in Ambalantota. Family members of security forces were made to walk at the head of JVP demonstrations, so that they would be the first to be killed if the force opened fire.

From 1984 onwards JVP had infiltrated the armed forces. JVP infiltration of armed service in 1987-89 was more successful than in 1971 observed Chandraprema. DJV had a registry with names of over 700 service personnel from police, army, navy and air force who held membership in JVP or supported it. The registry also showed how to contact them. 

JVP successfully infiltrated the lower rungs of the police and armed services. Three policemen attached to Kandana and Middeniya police     stations were JVP activists. At Athurugiriya a soldier killed tenother soldiers in the night. A pro JVP  police officer had infiltrated the military police of the army. JVP also had a military officer in the Ops Combine   audio visual unit. He had given JVP the names and addresses of officers engaged in anti JVP operations.

There was  another benefit from the infiltration. JVP infiltration helped to retard army attacks on the JVP. There was   at least a degree of hesitation, said Rohan Gunaratna. The government found that the army was not that eager to go after the JVP in March- April 1987 said Chandraprema. 

Infiltrating the army was not difficult as persons were recruited to army and police without full screening in 1984, said Godahewa. But the army soon realized that its lower rungs had been infiltrated. There were acts of indiscipline and appropriation of arms. The army suspended its training of one batch of recruits suspecting that they were JVPers. And the batch recruited in 1986 to the army was not sent for training until they were fully screened.

The JVP was able to get some service men to desert, mainly from the lower and middle grades. There were over 150 desertions, between 1984-1987   and there were     250 desertions from 1987 onwards, said Chandraprema.  They were asked to bring a weapon with them but   most of the desertions took place without weapons.

These deserters were useful to the JVP .The military campaign in the south was started by three deserters from the army.  Another deserter, a ‘trained ex army man,’ led the operation at Pallekelle. Army deserters had trained JVP in three locations in Kandy district.

However, JVP was unable to infiltrate the armed forces in the number needed to generate large scale desertions.  JVP  even approached those who were suspended from the army.  In 1988 JVP asked the security forces to desert and join JVP.    In late June 1989 the JVP repeated its call to the armed forces to defect from the State by July 29, 1989, but large-scale desertions did not happen.

JVP had also hoped for a large scale mutiny of army. JVP were waiting for forces to mutiny and come to their side but this did not happen, though JVP waited a long time, said Chandraprema.

 JVP then decided on strong arm tactics. JVP issued threats to members of the armed services and police that they should resign or be killed. JVP threatened the families of service personnel who did not desert.  Police officers investigating JVP activity also got death threats. Letters were sent to OIC of police directing them to release suspects already taken into custody. Due to JVP threat many in the army retired or  left the service.

JVP radio repeatedly warned that August 1989 was the deadline for security forces personnel of all ranks to desert or face the consequences which was death.  In  the Ranabima bulletin of 21st April 1989, JVP specially threatened the families of those active in counter-insurgency operations, the  Rapid Deployment Force (RDF) and the Special Task Force (STF). Chandraprema observed that a similar threat had  been made in 1988 as well.

 In 1989 JVP carried out their threats. JVP already had the addresses of captains, lieutenants, and second lieutenants. Over hundred homes of military men were set on fire in south and northwest.   JVP killed 122 members of families of security forces and police in the most brutal fashion. Some were hacked to death, some were burned alive in their homes which were set on fire. JVP  made no   allowance for old people or children.

One such case was the murder of mother, brother, sister in law and two nephews of a DIG ( Udugampola) who was serving in the south. They were shot and whilst still alive, their residence was set on fire with them inside. The IGP had said he wanted to finish off the JVP.

JVP’s decision to kill family members of the security forces and to destroy their property was the main factor in changing the security forces’ approach towards the JVP. The security forces became very angry.  Among the public also, there was a wave of indignation against JVP. JVP had made an irrevocable and fatal mistake.

No one in the JVP took responsibility for the decision to kill servicemen. They all denied it when  they were arrested. JVP’s deputy leader Gamanayake had said that this threat was not intended to be carried out, but only to neutralize active sections of the security forces.

No sooner had they issued death threats to the families of the servicemen, posters appeared all over the country under the name of vigilante group, Deshapremi Sinhala Tharuna Peramuna, announcing, Ape ekata thope dolahak!”

Deshapremi Sinhala Tharuna Peramuna also circulated a note to the families of the JVPers, which read as follows:

“Dear father/Mother/Sister,

“We know that your son/brother/husband is engaged in a brutal murder under the pretence of patriotism. Your son/brother/husband, the so-called patriot, has cruelly taken the lives of mothers like you, of sisters, of innocent little children. In addition he has started killing the family members of the heroic Sinhalese soldiers who fought with the Tamil Tigers and sacrificed their lives, in order to protect the motherland.

“It is not amongst us, ourselves, the Sinhalese people, that your son/brother/husband has launched the conflict in the name of patriotism? Is it then right that you, the wife/mother/sister of this person who engages in human murder of children should be free to live? Is it not justified to put you to death? From this moment, you and all your family members must be ready to die. May you attain nirvana! Deshapremi Sinhala Tharuna Peramuna.”

Then came the counter attack. There were ruthless series of counter terrorist groups, PRRA, Black cats, Yellow cats, Rajaliya, Ukussa. They killed  JVPers and dismembered the bodies and hung placard round their necks warning similar fate to others..

‘In October 1989 after Capt T.E. Nagahawatte, the Assistant Registrar of the Peradeniya University, who was also a volunteer soldier was killed by two gunmen inside the University premises, eighteen heads were found the next day placed neatly around the University pond. The headless corpses had been placed in various postures in the vicinity. Bodies kept appearing by the dozen in the rest of the country, as well.’

The army also attacked the JVP. A Sri Lankan Army official said ‘we have learned too many lessons from Vietnam and Malaysia. We must destroy the insurgents completely. We have no choice. ‘  At Embilipitiya  the  Army intercepted JVP letters at the post office itself, so no extortion letters reached the public. The public appreciated the army effort. By December 1989 all members of the new JVP committee were taken in,  the last was  taken in January 1990. (Continued)

චන්ද්‍රසේන පණ්ඩිතගේ 

ඉන්දියාවේ දඹදිව වැඩ විසු බුදුරජානන්වහන්සේ දෙසු ධර්මස්කන්ධය තමන්ගේ ධර්මය කොටගත්,70%ක ජනතාවක් වාසය කරන ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ, තවත් ජන කණ්ඩායමක් පෘතුගීසින් මෙරටට ගෙන ආ රෝමානු කතෝලික ධර්මය තම ධර්මය කරගෙන ඇත. තවත් ජන කණ්ඩායමක් ලන්දේසින් මෙරටට ගෙන ආ රෙපරමාදු ධර්මයද  තමන්ගේම ධර්මය කරගෙන සිටි. එංගලන්තයේ උපත ලැබූ එංගලන්ත සබාවේ ධර්මය හා මෙතොදීස්ත සභාවේ ධර්මය තවත් මෙරට වසන ජන කණ්ඩායමක ධර්මයයි. මේ අතර ඉන්දියාවේ ආරම්භවූ හින්දු ධර්මය තමන්ගේ ධර්මය ලෙස සලකන තවත් ජන කණ්ඩායමක් එම ධර්මය තම ධර්මය කරගෙන ඇත. ඒ ආගමික සංස්කෘතීන්ට මෙරට ජනතාව අනුගතවී ඇති ආකාරයයි.

මෙරට ඇත්තේ රෝම ලන්දේසි නීතියයි. එය රටපුරාම බල පැවැත්වෙන නිතිය වේ. ඒ අප සතු නීතියයි.

මෙරට ඇත්තේ එංගලන්තයේ වෙස්ට්මිනිස්ටර් පාර්ලිමේන්තු සම්ප්‍රධායට අනුව ගොඩනගාගත් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවකි.ඒ අපේ දේශපාලනයේ එක උපාංගයකි.

මීළඟට ඇමෙරිකාවේ ජනාධිපති ක්‍රමයට සමාන ජනාධ්පතිවරයෙකු මෙරට ස්ථාපිත කිරීමට ජේ. ආර්. ජයවර්ධන මහතාට අවශ්‍යවී, එම ක්‍රමයද ස්ථාපිත කොට ඒ ආකාරයේ ජනාධිපති වරයෙක්ද අපට නිර්මාණය වී ඇත.

ඒ අතර ඉන්දියාව බලහත්කාරයෙන් මෙරටට පැන පළාත් සභා ක්‍රමයක්ද ස්ථාපිත කොට ඇත.

දැන් අපේ දේශපාලනයේ ඔලුව ඇමරිකන් ක්‍රමයේ වන අතර, කඳ එංගලන්ත වෙස්ට්මිනිස්ටර් ක්‍රමයට නෑකම් කියමින් සිටි තත්වයක් යටතේ කකුල් ඉන්දීය පළාත් සභා ක්‍රමයට ගැට ගසා ඇත.

අපේ දේශපාලන දර්ශනයන් හැම  එකක්ම බටහිර දාර්ශනිකයින් ගෙන් ලබාගත් දැනුමෙන් යුක්තය.

අපි ඉගෙන ගන්නේ මොනවාද? ඉතිහාසය හා සාහිත්‍ය හැරුනවිට හැම දෙයකටම ඇත්තේ විදේශීය ඥාතිත්වයයි.

මෙවන් තත්වයක් පතින විට අපේ විනිශ්චකාර්යින්ද බටහිර රාජ්‍යන්ට ගොස් පුහුණුව ලබා එන තත්වයක් තුලදී.

අපේ එවුන් ද්විත්ව පුරවැසියන් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ගියහොත් සිදුවිය හැකි හානිය සම්බන්ධව මහා දේශනා පවත්වමින් සිටි.

ස්වාමිනි! මුළු රටම විදේශීන්ට විවිධ ගිවිසුම් මගින්ද ගැට ගසා ඇති මේ අවදියේ, අපිට දේශප්‍රේමී සටන්කරුවෝ තවමත් බිහිවෙන්නේ,ඇමරිකන් ජාතික හෙන්රි ඕල්කොට් ප්‍රමුඛ ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයින් විසින් ගොඩනැගු පාසල් වලිනි.

අපි දේශප්‍රේමී කවි මතුරන්නේ, ටිබෙට් ජාතික මහින්ද හිමි ලිවූ කවිය.

අවුරුදු 30ක යුද්ධය පවතී සමයේ අපේ එකද කලාකරුවෙක් සටන් කරන රණවිරුවන්ගේ චිත්ත ධෛර්ය වදන එකද ගීයක් ගායනා කලේ නැත. ඒ අපේ කලාවයි.

එවන්තත්වයක් තුල ද්විත්ව පුරවැසිභාවය හිමියා බිල්ලෙක් ලෙස මවා පාන වංචාවට අසු නොවන්න  ඔබට හොදින්හිතන්න.ඔබට සත්‍ය මනාව වැටහේවි. රට රකින්න

විදේශයන්හි පුරවැසියන්ව ඉන්න අපේ ජනතාවනි පෙරමෙන්ම පෙරට එන්න..
ද්විත්ව පුරවසියෙනි පෙරට එන්න.
රටට ආදරය කරන ජනතාවෙනි අත්වැල් බදාගන්න.
බොරුව හා වංචාව පරදවන්න

සී. ඇම්. මද්දුම බණ්ඩාර  සම්මානිත මහාචාර්ය, පේරාදෙණිය විශ්වවිද්‍යාලය

 පළාත් සභා ක‍්‍රමය ගැන වර්තමානයේ පවතින නිහඬ සමාජ අසන්තුෂ්ටිය තුළින් උත්පාදනය වන නව චින්තනයක් ක‍්‍රමයෙන් මෝදුවෙමින් පවතින අයුරු දැකීම සාමාන්‍ය පුරවැසියන්ගේ අමන්දානන්දයට හේතු වේ. මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් මීට දින කිහිපයකට පෙර, අග‍්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමන් විසින්ද, පසුව පළාත් සභා ඇමැතිවරයා විසින් ද, කරන ලද ජනමාධ්‍ය ප‍්‍රකාශ වලින් පැවසුන චින්තනය, (ලංකාදීප සැප්තැම්බර් 10 වන දින) මේ රටේ අනාගතය කෙරෙහි බෙහෙවින් වැදගත් සන්ධිස්ථානයක් ලෙස සැලකිය යුතුව ඇත. විශේෂයෙන්, එතුමන් රටේ අනාගතය ගැන දරන ප‍්‍රායෝගික චින්තනය බෙහෙවින් අගය කළ යුතු වේ.

 ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවේ දැනට පවතින පළාත් 9 මීට වසර 130ට පෙර (1889) අවසන් වරට ව්‍යවස්ථාපිත වූ, යටත්විජිත අරමුණු සපුරාලීම සඳහා ඉදි වූ, පාලන යාන්ත‍්‍රණයක් බව අපි පසුගිය දශක 03 තුළ විවිධ අවස්ථාවල පුනපුනා කියා සිටියෙමු. ඒ වෙනුවට අපේ මාතෘ භූමියට සහ ස්වභාවික සම්පත් පදනමට අනුකූල වූ, රටේ චිරස්ථිතිය බවට හා අනාගත සංවර්ධනයට මං පාදාන්නා වූත්, අද රටට ගැළපෙන පාලන ව්‍යුහයක්, නිර්මාණය විය යුතු බවට අපි අවධාරණය කළ සිටියෙමු. ඒ අනුව දැන් තිබෙන පළාත් සංඛ්‍යාව වෙනුවට ඊට වඩා තුන් ගුණයකින් අඩු අතීතයේ සිට අප උරුම කරගෙන ආ රුහුණු, මායා, පිහිටි නම් වූ පාලන බල ප‍්‍රදේශ තුන පාදක කර ගත් ප‍්‍රාදේශීය රටාවක් නිර්මාණය කර ගැනීම කෙරෙහි අවධානය යොමු කළ යුතු කාලය දැන් එළෙඹ ඇතැයි අගමැතිතුමා පවසන අදහස ඉතා කාලෝචිත වේ.

 * සාමුහික ජනමතය

 edifea2මීට පෙර විපක්ෂ නායකව සිටි ආර්. සම්බන්ධන් මහතා ද, අගමැතිතුමා දරන මතයට සමාන්තර අදහසක් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ දී ප‍්‍රකාශ කරන ලදී (2015 ජනවාරි). එතුමා කියා ඇත්තේ ලංකාව වැනි පුංචි රටකට පළාත් තුනේ සිට පහ දක්වා ප‍්‍රමාණයක් හොඳටම සෑහෙන බවයි. එහෙත් පළාත් මායිම් බෙදීම වෙනත් විදිහකට කිරීමේ යටි අදහසක් එතුමා තුළ තිබෙන්නට ඇත. කෙසේ වූව ද, ලංකාව වැනි කුඩා රටකට පළාත් තුන හතරක් හොඳටම සෑහෙන බවට එකඟතාවක් ප‍්‍රධාන ජන කාණ්ඩායම් අතර පවතින බව මෙයින් ගම්‍ය වේ. තවද, පසුගිය රජය කාලයේ පැවතුණ ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන පිළිබඳ ජනමත විමසීමේ සභාව (නීතිඥ ලාල් විජේනායක කමිටුව) මඟින් ද, ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාව සෑම පළාතකටම මුහුදු වෙරළ තීරයක් පිහිටන සේ ගංගා ද්‍රෝණි අනුව පළාත් පහකට පමණ සීමා කිරීම යෝග්‍ය බව නිර්දේශ කොට ඇත. මෙම වර්ධනය වෙමින් පවතින සාමුහික ජන කතිකාව ක‍්‍රියාත්මක කරලීමට සුදුසු ස්ථාවර දේශපාලන, වාතාවරණයක් දැන් ගොඩනැගී ඇති බව අපගේ විශ්වාසයයි.

 අගමැතිතුමන් ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇති, අප ඉතිහාසයෙන් උරුම කරගෙන හා රුහුණු, මායා, පිහිටි නම් වූ ත‍්‍රිවිධ බල ප‍්‍රදේශ ව්‍යුහය, ප‍්‍රායෝගිකව නිර්මාණය කළ හැකි ආකාරය මෙම ලිපියෙන් තරමක් දුරට විග‍්‍රහ කිරීමට අපේක්ෂා කෙරේ. එය සාක්ෂාත් කර ගත හැකි යථාර්ථයක් බවටත්, ඒ සඳහා ඉතිහාසයෙන් පාඩම් ඉගෙන ගත අයුරුත්, මෙහිදී පැහැදිලි කර දැක්වීමට ප‍්‍රයත්නයක් දරනු ලැබේ. මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් පළමුවෙන්ම පැරණි රටවල් බෙදීමේ පදනම ලෙස සැලකුණු ගංගා, ද්‍රෝණි උපයෝගී කරගෙන පිළියෙල කරන ලද සිතියමක් මෙහි දක්වා ඇත (සිතියම බලන්න). සිතියෙමෙහි එක් එක් ප‍්‍රදේශයට ඇතුළත්වන භූමි ප‍්‍රමාණයෙන් පෙන්නුම් කර ඇත. තවද අදාළ වගුවක් මඟින් ජන සංඛ්‍යාවල ජනගහනයේ දළ ජනවාර්ගික සංයුතිය ද පෙන්නුම් කර ඇත (2012 ජන සංගණනය). ප‍්‍රදේශ සංඛ්‍යාව අවම කිරීම සඳහා පවතින ජන අභිලාෂයන් සැලකිල්ලට ගෙන මීට පෙර අප විසින් කරන ලද යෝජනාවලට වඩා වර්තමාන මතය වඩාත් ප‍්‍රායෝගික විය හැකි බව අපගේ හැඟීමයි.

 * ඇසෙන ඇතැම් ප‍්‍රශ්න

 ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාව වැනි ප‍්‍රමාණයෙන් කුඩා රටකට, ප‍්‍රාදේශීය බල ප‍්‍රදේශ අවශ්‍ය වන්නේ ඇයි ද යන ප‍්‍රශ්නය සමහරු අසති. ඈත අතීතයේ සිටම එබඳු ප‍්‍රදේශකරණයක් ස්වභාවිකව සිදුවීමට ඓතිහාසික හේතු සාධක පැවතුණි. විශේෂයෙන් මේ රට කුඩා දිවයිනක් වුවද, එහි පවතින විවිධත්වය අතිමහත්ය. භූමි ලක්ෂණ, දේශගුණය, ගහකොළ, සතාසිව්පාවා මෙන්ම ජනතාව අතර ද මෙය මැනවින් පෙනේ. ‘‘ ඒකීය’’ නොව ‘‘එක්සේසත්’’ සංකල්පයක් ගොඩනැඟුණේ මේ විවිධත්වය එක් චක‍්‍රයක් යටතට ගෙනඒම පිණිසය. යටත්විජිත පාලකයන්ගේ අගනුවරින් පාලනය වන සංකේන්ද්‍රිත පාලනයක් ගොඩනැගුණේ ඉතිහාසයේ පසුකාලවලදී ය. ඊට පෙර ‘‘මහරජ’’ මුළු රටටම අධිපතියා වූ අතර ‘‘යුවරජවරු’’ ප‍්‍රාදේශීය පාලනයට යෙදවීම හා ඊට පහළ මට්ටම්වලදී දිසාවේවරු වැනි ප‍්‍රාදේශීය පාලකයෝ ද, පැන නැගුණහ. මේ නිසා රටේ සමස්ත ධනය, බලය, හෝ පෙර නායකත්වය එක් පෙදෙසකට එක් අගනගරයකට ඒකරාශී වීම සීමා වූ අතර, දුර බැහැර ගම්බිමවල පවා ජීවන මට්ටම් එතරම් පහළට නොවැටි සමාන්තර තත්ත්වයක පවතින්නට ඉඩ තිබුණි. යට දැක් වූ දේශජ ප‍්‍රාදේශීය පාලන තන්ත‍්‍රයකට, රටේ ස්වභාවික සම්පත් පදනම් කොටගත් ප‍්‍රදේශ සීමා උපයෝගි කර ගැනීමට ඒ අනුව හැකිවිය. මෙසේ පිහිටි රටත්, මායා රටත්, දැදුරු ඔය නිම්නයෙන් වෙන් විය. එමෙන්ම පිහිටි රටත්, රුහුණු රටත්, වෙන් වූයේ මහවැලි නිම්නයෙනි. රුහුණු රටත්, මායා රටත්, වෙන් වූයේ බෙන්තොට ගෙඟනි.

 නිදහසින් පසු ජල සම්පත් සහ භූමිය, සංවර්ධනය සඳහා කැපවී ඇති මහා ආයෝජන වෙන සියලූ අංශ අභිබවා සිටී. එම ආයෝජනවලින් නිසිඵල ලබා ගැනීමට නම් ප‍්‍රදේශ සීමා නිර්ණයේදී සොබාවධර්මයෙන් අප උරුම කොටගෙන ඇති සම්පත් යොදවා ගැනීම අදටද මනාව ගැලපේ. විශේෂයෙන් ලෝක දේශගුණ විපර්යාස නිසා ඇතිවන දේශගුණ අවිනිශ්චිතතා උග‍්‍රවෙමින් පවතින මෙවන් සමයක, අතීත ඥානය සොයා යෑමට නැඹුරු වීම බෙහෙවින් යුක්ති යුක්ත වේ.

 * සිතියම් විග‍්‍රහය

 ඉහත සඳහන් පරිදි සිංහලයේ එක් එක් රටවල මායිම්, භූමිය මත නිර්ණය කිරීමේදී, අතීත සම්ප‍්‍රදාය අනුව යමින් ජලපෝෂක ප‍්‍රදේශවල සීමා ඒ සඳහා යොදවා ගන්නා ලදී. මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් අදාළ වූයේ මහවැලි ගඟ, දැදුරු ඔය සහ බෙන්තොට ගඟ යන සාම්ප‍්‍රදායික ගංගාධාරයන්ය. එසේ බෙදා ගත් කළ රුහුණු රටට දිවයිනේ මුළු බිම් ප‍්‍රමාණයෙන් 31.02% ක් ද, මායා රටට 14.78% ද, පෞරාණික පිහිටි රටට හෙවත්, රජරටට 54.19% ක් ද, ලැබුණි. පිහිටි රටෙහි භූමියෙන් අතිවිශාල ප‍්‍රමාණයක් අදත් වනාන්තර, වන ජීවි ක්‍ෂේම භූමි සහ වැව් ජලාශවලට ද යට වී ඇත. රුහුණු රටෙහි ද, ජාතික වනෝද්‍යානවලට විශාල බිම් ප‍්‍රමාණයක් වෙන් වී ඇත.

 අයත් වන ජන සංඛ්‍යාව 2012 ජන සංගණනයට අනුව රුහුණු රටට දිවයිනේ මුළු ජන සංඛ්‍යාවේ 20.16% ක් ද, මායා රටට 38.21% ද, පිහිටි රටට 41.63% දඅයත් විය. පිහිටි රටෙහි ජනසංඛ්‍යාවෙන් 33.46%ක් දෙමළ සහ මුස්ලිම් ජනයා වීම විශේෂයෙන් කැපීපෙනේ. රුහුණු රටෙහි ද මුළු ජනසංඛ්‍යාවෙන් 25.54%ක් එම ජන වර්ගවලට අයත් විය. රුහුණු, මායා, පිහිටි යන ත‍්‍රි සිංහලයේ සෑම රටකම සිංහල ජනයා මුළු ජනගහනයෙන් තුනෙන් දෙකකට වඩා වැඩි වේ. තවද අතිවිශාල සිංහල ප‍්‍රතිශතයක් එනම්, 84.73% ක් මායා රටේ වෙසෙන බව, සංඛ්‍යා ලේඛනවලින් පැහැදිලි වේ. ඉහත දැක්වූ සංඛ්‍යා දිස්ත‍්‍රික් මට්ටමින් ගණනය කර ඇති හෙයින් ග‍්‍රාම නිලධාරි වසම් මට්ටමින් ගණනය කිරීමේදී සුළු වෙනස්කම් පෙන්වීමට ඉඩ ඇත. ඉහත සඳහන් සිතියම් විග‍්‍රහයෙන් මැවෙන මහා චිත‍්‍රයෙන් ගම්‍ය වන බලපෑම් විවිධ අය විසින් රුචි පරිදි විවරණය කළ හැකිය. එහෙත් සමස්තයක් ලෙස ගත් කල එය රටේ දේශපාලන ස්ථාවර බවට මෙන්ම ආර්ථික දියුණුවට ද, ජනවාර්ගික සංහිඳියාවට ද, ස්වභාව සම්පත් සංරක්ෂණයට මෙන්ම ස්වභාවික ව්‍යසන මඟ හරවා ගැනීමට වඩා මහෝපකාරි විය හැකි බව අපගේ විශ්වාසයයි.

 (සිතියම් විද්‍යාත්මක මෙන්ම සංඛ්‍යා තොරතුරු සම්පාදනය කර ගැනීමේදී, පේරාදෙණිය සරසවියේ ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ කථිකාචාරිණි කුමුදුනි කුමාරිහාමි මෙනෙවියට ද, ස්වභාවික සම්පත් සංසදයේ අසේල බණ්ඩාර මහතාට ද, ජාතික ආපදා මධ්‍යස්ථානයේ හිරාන් තිලකරත්න සහ රංජිත් විජේසේකර මහතුන් ද, ලබාදුන් නොමද සහාය බෙහෙවින් අගය කරමි)

My commens on the above article

Sudath Gunasekara

Mahnuwara 20.9.2020.

මෙම ලිපියෙන්  ඉදිරිපත්ව ඇති යෝජනාව එකහෙලා අනුමත කරමි. මන්ද මා සැමදාම දැරු අදහසත් මෙයම බැවිනි.මෙම ලිපියේ කතුවරයා මෙන්ම මාද භුගෝල විද්යා සිස්යයෝ වෙමු. එතුමා සරසවියෙන් පිටවූයේ 1983/4 පමණයයි සිතමි. මා පිටවූයේ 1962 වසරේදීය. එතුමා විස්වවියාල මහාචාර්ය වරයෙකු වීය. මා ශ්‍රී ලන්කා පරිපාලන සේවයට බැදුණු අතර එම විසය පිලිබද සුවිශේසී දැනුමක් සහ වසර 35 ක අත්දැකිම් සමුදායක් ලැබූවෙක්මි. අප දෙදෙනා අතර ඇති වෙනස එපමණි. ජාතික ප්‍රස්න වලදී  මතවාද හා සන්කල්පික වශයෙන් අපි දෙදෙනාම සිටිනුයේ එකම පදනමේය.

එබැවින් මෙම යෝජනාවට එකන්ග වීම ඉතා පහසුය.අනෙක අපි දෙදෙනාම මේ යෝජනාව ඉදිරිපත් කරන්නේ රටේ හා ජාතියේ යහපත වෙනුවෙන් මිස වෙනත් කිසිම අරමුනකින් නොවේ. එක්සේසත් රාජ්යක් වශයෙන් රට ශක්තිමත් වීම , ස්ථාවර රාජ්ය පාලන ක්‍රම්වේදයක් නැවතත් මේ  රට තුල ස්ථාපිත කිරීම, සුද්දා විසින් මේ රට බෙදා පාලනය කිරීම සදහා කෘතීම ලෙස බෙදු රට නැවත සින්හලේ රජවරුන් විසින්  ඔවුන්ගේ තුන්කල් දක්නා ණුවනින් භූමියේ යථාර්තයන් සහ රාජ්ය පාලනයේ පහසුව සහ කාර්යක්ශමතාව  පදනම්කොටගෙන රටේ සම්පත් උපරිම අන්දමෙන් ප්‍රයෝජනයට ගැනීම සදහා ඇතිකරන ලද තුන් සින්හලේ නැවතත් පිහිටවිය යුතු බව මා කියන්නේ දශක තුනකටැත් වැඩිකලක් තිස්සේය.මේ පිළිබද මවිසින් සින්හල සහ ඉන්ග්‍රීසියෙන් ලියනලද ලිපි රාශියක්පුවත්පත්වල සහ ළන්කාවෙබ් පුවත් අඩ්වියේ නිතර පලවී ඇත. ඒ හැම ලිපියකින්ම තුන් හෙලේ ඇති  භූ දේශපාලන සන්කල්පයේ ඇති යථාර්ථය,ස්වාභාවික, දේශපාලනික, ආර්තික හා සමාජික වටිනාකම් සහ අපගේ අභිමානනීය අතීතයේ නැවුම් සුවන්ද සහ ස්ථාවර අනාගතයක පදනම ඉතා පැහැදිලව මවිසින් මා දන්න පමණින් පෙන්වාදී ඇත මේ රටේ හා ජාතියේ අඛණ්ඩ පැවැත්ම සන්දහා තුන් සින්හලය නැවතත් ලක් පොලව මත ස්ථාපිත කිරීම අත්තවසයෙන්ම මගේ එක් වැදගත් සිහිනයකි. එහි මායිම් දැදුරු මහවැලි සහ බෙන්තොටම විය යුතු යයි මම නොකියමි. දැදුරු ඔය සහ බෙන්තොට ගන්ගා කාලීන වශයෙන් වෙනස් වීමේ වරදක් මම නොදකිමි. මන්ද අතීතයේදිද මේ මායිම් වරින් වර සුළුවශයෙන්වෙනස්වු අවස්ථා ඇති බැවිනි. එහෙත් මහවැලිගන්ගනම් කිසිසේත්ම වෙනස් නොවිය යුතුය යන්න මගේ දැඩි ස්ථාවරයයි. තවද මහවැලිගන්ග මෙන්ම මායිම්සදහා තෝරාගන්නා අනෙක් ගන්ගා දෙකද මද්යම කන්දුකරයෙන්ම ආරම්භවන ඒවා වියයුතුය .මන්ද තුන් රටටම මේ රටේ සමස්ථ ජීවී පද්ධතියේ මෙන්ම ශිස්ඨාචාරයේ පදනම වන සියලුම ගන්ගාවන් ආරම්භවන දේශයේ හදවතවන මද්යම කන්දුකරයේ සමාන අයිතියක් අනිවාර්යෙන්ම තිබියයුතු නිසාය.

තුන් සින්හලේ සහ යෝජිත පරිපාලන දිසා 27 ක් සන්දහා  මවිසින් යෝජනාකොට ඇති  මායිම් දැක්වෙන සිතියමද මීට අමුණා ඇත.

Source: Sudath Gunasekara 1991

ඔබගේ ලිපියේ දක්වා ඇති පරිදි අගමැතිතුමා සහ පලත්පාලන ඇමතිතුමාද මේ අදහස අනුමත කොට ඇතිබව මාගේ ඉමහත් අමන්දානන්දයට හේතු වෙයි.

අපගේ මාතෘ භූමියට සහ සින්හල ජාතියට ශුභ අනාගතයක් උදාවීමේ පෙර නිමිත්තක් වශයෙන් මම එය දකිමි.