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A cabinet subcommittee has been tasked with the constitutional formulation.
Its members are Prof. G.L. Peiris, Nimal Siripala de Silva, Ali Sabri, Dinesh Gunawardena and Udaya Gammanpila.
The about 10% Tamil minority in Sri Lanka were the privileged minority of one hundred and fifty years of the Divide and Rule” British Colonial administration, while the about 75% Sinhalese majority were the oppressed and disadvantaged majority, as they posed the greatest threat to the colonial administration.
Thus at independence, nearly 90%of Engineers and Surveyors and 60% of doctors, and a vast majority of the civilian administration were from the 10% Tamil minority. The first Sri Lankan to act as head of state in post independence Sri Lanka was a Tamil, Justice C Nagalingam , i1954 as acting Governor General. The first army commander in post independent Sri Lanka was a Tamil, Brigadier Anton Muthucumaru . The longest serving attorney general in SL was a Tamil, Siva Pasupathy. Till the time of the LTTE uprising in July 1983, that forced, many Tamils to flee SL as refugees to the west, lest their children would be forcefully conscripted into the LTTE ranks, the level of Tamil representation in all walks of Sri Lanka life was way more than the 10-12% Sri Lankan Tamils represented of the islands population. This is hardly the picture of Tamil discrimination they had by now started orchestrating in the west and to the world
When the British left Sri Lanka in 1948, attempts were made to redress the disadvantages of the Sinhalese especially in education. This led to the inevitable loss of the privileged status of Tamils and the over representation of Tamils in all walks of Sri Lankan life, especially in the much sort after positions. This was seen as and deliberately presented by some Tamils as discrimination to both fellow Tamils and the western world, ready to believe any claim of ‘’discrimination of a minority” . This led to the call in 1976 by some Tamils the TULF n Vadukuddai Northern SL, for a separate state of Elam consisting of 2/3rds of the coast line and 1/3 of the land of Sri Lanka , for this now 12% minority. This really reflected the privileged mind set, they still had.
They tried to draw support for this avaricious objective by claiming Elam to represent the Traditional Homeland of Tamils” . This picture of A Collection of Buddhist Shrines Dating Back To 3rd Century BC , still evident in the heart of Jaffna peninsula and other Buddhist archeological monuments scattered through out Sri lanka is witness to the fact that all of Sri Lanka was homeland to it’s Buddhist Sinhalese civilisation for 2500 years, as the Mahavamsa records. Tamis , Arabs & Malays were able to settle in various parts of SL , due to the kind & welcoming disposition inherent to Buddhism, acknowledged many times recently by no less a person than Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, head of the Roman catholic Church In SL
In 1983 this separatist Elam movement became a brutal terrorist war against the rest of Sri Lanka, waged by the LTTE, ( Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam)., at one stage labelled the world’s most brutal by the FBI US, no less. They drew support in finance and propaganda for their bloody campaign from an Internationally based Tiger Diaspora, that had by then become well established in the west , especially in the UK, Canada and USA, cleverly exploiting their claim of Minority Discrimination”, to hoodwink their unsuspecting host countries. Their hosts were ready believe these claims , without any evidence being supplied to support these claims, accepting it as the inevitable for a minority in a third world country.
The making of Sinhala, the mother tongue of the 75% majority in 1956, as the state language was one major complaint of the 12% Tamil minority. In most countries, much lesser percentage of the majority community would have been adequate to justify this. Not so for this minority used to 150 years of colonial privileges. The provisions of the Reasonable use of Tamil act that enshrined the right of every Tamil child to receive a free state education in the Tamil medium upto end of tertiary education, no different from a Sinhalese child, the right of every Tamil citizen to address the government for their wants in Tamil and receive a response in the same language, the provision for the courts in the Tamil majority districts to conduct their affairs in Tamil, and the right for any Tamil to compete for entry into the public service without any knowledge of Sinhalese provided they gained competence upto some level a few years later, did not satisfy the avaricious appetite of this once privileged group. Additionally this requirement to gain competence in Sinhalese , after joining however was not a requirement in professional fields like in medicine . Now Both Sinhalese & Tamil are state languages on par with each other.
After three decades, the brutal terrorism of the Tigers came to an end on 19th of May, 2009, when all of the LTTE Terrorists were laid to rest on the banks of Nandikadal Lagoon in Mullaitivu. This victory was thanks to the transformation of what was once ceremonial security forces to a truly professional service, conforming to the highest standards, as was widely acknowledged .
However, the internationally based Tiger Diaspora, that supported the Tigers with finance and propaganda throughout, were left entirely unscathed as was their Billion dollar war chest amassed through Distortion (misinformation to justify tiger terror so enable collections in the west), Extortion , ( forcibly compelling Tamils whom the diaspora helped to achieve refugee status in the west to contribute large portions of their social service handouts and forcibly taxing” by then well established Tamil businesses in the west) and Drug & Human Trafficking (Tiger Diaspora groups have been exposed of being guilty of this many times). With this burgeoning war chest no longer required for arms purchases, they had plenty of resources to procure cash trapped TV stations like Channel 4 UK to produce infamous films like Sri Lanka Killing Fields”, to discredit SL and their war achievements. A New York times critic described this as a collection of video strips, un authored and unlocated held together by a partial commentary that led the viewer to attribute all the ills shown, to be acts of the SL Security forces. Much of these strips have since been shown to be Tamil Tigers, clad in the uniforms of captured soldiers committing atrocities on these victims
This new phase of discrediting the war efforts after the annihilation of the Tiger fighters in SL in May 2009, was clearly a well planned move that was executed within days of the fall of the Tigers in Sri Lanka, by this well resourced , powerful and devious Tiger Diaspora, to discredit the Security Forces, by claiming that their victory had been achieved at the expense of gross human rights violations alleging an unacceptable loss of Tamil civilian lives of any thing between 40,000 -100,000 in the last few weeks of the war. They claimed this to be the result of indiscriminate & even directed fire at fleeing civilians. Though all the evidence was that nothing was further from the truth, & that the civilian toll was of the order of 7000, , they persisted in orchestrating these Tiger Diaspora allegations internationally with Joseph Goebbelian zeal, as they had done with all their false propaganda through the earlier three decades, till these were believed in the west .
The assessment of the UN representative based in Colombo at the end of the war Sir John Holmes was that the Tamil civilian casualties were about 7000 at most. This number was confirmed a few months later by a census carried out by the Tamil University Teachers, as the probable number Tamil civilian casualties. Wiki leakes leaked information also revealed that defence attaches in both the UK and US embassies at that time had confirmed these numbers in their dispatches to their various countries and had also mentioned that but for the care taken by the SL security forces to minimise Tamil civilian casualties, the war would have been over well before and with less SL security forces casualties. Besides, it made no sense for the SL forces to attack civilians and then a few weeks later for these same civilians, nearly 300,000 of them to flee straight into the arms of the security forces to escape from the Tigers who had held them as hostages to use as human shields against the advancing SL forces. These were all confirmed by these civilians once in the safe haven of the camps arranged by the SL forces. Even more these civilians were resettled in their homes within a few months after the war , once the SL forces had risked their lives to demine these areas , heavily mined by the retreating Tigers.
All of these were confirmed by documents tabled in the British House of Lords in 2017 by Lord Naseby , who after a long battle accessed some of these original dispatches from the UK H/Commission in Colombo. Additionally the Paranagama Presidential Commission tasked with investigating allegations of missing ersons, cleared SL forces of been complicit of systematic or direct killing of civilians . Additionally these findings were endorsed by a panel of several internationally well known panel of legal experts on war crimes, headed by Sir Desmond de Silva QC from UK
The Tigers derived their story of 40,000 casulaties or more initially from Gordon Weiss claiming from unnamed sources who later retracted it under questioning . He was an UN employee based in Colombo in May 2009, who was after boosting sales of his book. The major boost for the claim came from the Darusman commission Report. This commission having only interviewed the Tigers and Not SL sources, suggested this number as a credible allegation” but refused to reveal the source of this information for thirty years. So much for it’s credibility This commission was appointed by the then UNSG to report to him on accountability provisions in SL, without the authority of the UN or UNSC and against the specific wishes of two of its members, Russia and China and hence not a UN report. However , this did not deter the Tiger Diaspora from orchestrating this as a UN report to add muscle to their allegation. This label UN Report”has since stuck
It did not take long for them to go a notch higher making these evidence of Tamil Genocide , even more appealing to the unsuspecting liberal western minds. This allegation of Tamil Genocide has been craftily orchestrated since , even luring unsuspecting and misinformed western liberal parliamentarians to make this call, on their behalf,. This we saw most recently in May’20 with the Mayor Columbine from Canada and NSW state parliamentarian Mr Hugh McDermott from Australia, to coincide with the 11th anniversary of the fall of the Tigers.
If this is to be countered the first requirement would be making this information on the truths behind the Tamil Genocide Claim , widely known in the west, especially, Canada, UK and US , amongst it’s media and politicians , state and federal. These would then need to be orchestrated repeatedly, at every opportunity and creating opportunities, just like the Tiger Diaspora has done with misinformation.. These message would need to be repeated using modern media of email and others . Messages should be short where the bold titles conveys the main message, and repeated frequently. Eye balling the title is what most would do and that should convey the main message The aim would be to achieve a default position in the minds of these recipients and institutions that Tamil Genocide has no factual basis” and that it was post independence loss of privileges enjoyed under British colonial rule, was what was presented as discrimination”.
The next requirement is to highlight the motivation among a large section of the Diaspora, to continue to paint a negative picture of Sri Lanka and a risk to their safety in SL if they were sent back to SL, even if there is none , as their continuing to enjoy western privileges as refugees , depends on this.
On the other hand these should be coupled with information on life of Tamils in Sri Lanka now , showing the freedoms and opportunities they enjoy back in SL. A truly tri lingual Sri. Lanka would help the cause immensely. The Covid crisis has exposed the potential for TV & E teaching & learning and could be utilised to achieve this and so win – win for all.
The third requirement should be to focus spot light on The Tiger Diaspora, the funders of terror in Sri Lanka for over thirty years that saw the loss of over 300,000 lives , , now sitting snug in the comfort of their western homes. The call should be for a commission of inquiry, initially perhaps a Presidential Inquiry in Sri Lanka with a view to ultimately having them brought before courts, even international courts. This should provide something to keep them occupied, and away from orchestrating unsubstantiated calls of Tamil Genocide. There should also be an investigation to see if legal avenues could be used to curb the ongoing baseless allegations of Genocide, as a violation of the basic human rights of the accused , not to be subjected such ongoing baseless accusations
This three pronged approach should be coordinated and driven from Sri Lanka, utilising expatriates on the ground for advice , ideas and to execution . The expatriates should use their clout with the vote to get the message across to their rulers , as the Tiger Diaspora has done so effectively.
Almost certainly, these should be driven by a dedicated devision in the Foreign Ministry in the Government in SL , prepared for the long hall of a few decades. That was how long the battle with the sword took to win and this battle with the pen would be more devious and could be even more prolonged . It is certainly more challenging than the battles on the field ,& against a very wily opponent.
There should be a realisation in Colombo that, left unchecked or countered half-heartedly, the Tiger Diaspora has the capacity to undermine the SL administration’s best developmental efforts, for a long time to come, using mislead western governments, and UN agencies, to aid them in this ,as we have seen since 2009.
However, these efforts, should not detract from ongoing efforts at Integration rather than segregation as the answer to SL’ ethnic issues. Being truly trilingual and encouraging a fusion culture, perhaps fusion dances of the two cultures Barata Natyam and Kandyan Dancing , as we have in NZ who always sing the National anthem in two languages English & Maori are some thoughts.
Thank You
ගරු ජනාධිපති,
ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා,
ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලය,
කොළඹ 01.
ජනාධිපතිතුමනි,
රැකියා විරහිත උපාධිධාරී අභ්යාසලාභීන් පිරිසක් පත්වීම් වලින් ඉවත් කිරීම හා සුදුසුකම් සපුරා ඇති රැකියා විරහිත උපාධිධාරීන්ට පත්වීම් ලබා නොදීම සම්බන්ධවයි.
2020. 01. 01 දිනට පෙර රැකියා විරහිත උපාධිධාරීන් රැකියාගත කිරීමේ වැඩසටහන යටතේ 2020 මාර්තු 02 සිට 10 දක්වා ලබා දී තිබූ අභ්යාසලාභී උපාධිධාරී පත්වීම් 2020. 09. 02 දිනට යළි ලබා දීමේ දී අභ්යාසලාභී උපාධිධාරීන් සැලකිය යුතු පිරිසක් ඉන් ඉවත් කර ඇති බව පළමුව දන්වා සිටිමු. එසේ ඉවත් කිරීම පිළිබඳව උපාධිධාරී ජාතික මධ්යස්ථානයේ දැඩි විරෝධය ද පළ කර සිටිමු.
ඉවත් කිරීම සඳහා අදාළ කරගත් හේතු ලෙස ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇත්තේ පෞද්ගලික අංශයේ රැකියාවල නිරත වීම, පෞද්ගලික විශ්ව විද්යාල හා විදෙස් උපාධි ඇතුළු කරුණු කීපයක් ය. 2020 මාර්තු 02 වන දිනට පත්වීම් ලබා දීමේ දී එවැනි කරුණු පරීක්ෂා කර වඩා නිවැරදිව අභ්යාසලාභී පත්වීම් ප්රධානය කිරීමේ හැකියාව තිබිය දී වගකීම් සහිත රජයක් වශයෙන් උපාධිධාරීන්ට රැකියා ලබා දීමේ වැඩසටහන තුළ මෙවැනි ගැටළුකාරී තත්වයක් උද්ගත කිරීම වැඩි අවධානයකට යොමු කළ යුතුව ඇත.
ආණ්ඩුව රැුකියා විරහිත උපාධිධාරීන්ගෙන් අයදුම්පත් කැඳවීම ආරම්භ කරනු ලැබුවේ 2020. 02. 07 දින ය. අයදුම්පත් භාරගැනීමේ අවසන් දිනය 2020. 02. 20 දින ය. 2020. 03. 02 දින වන විට අභ්යාසලාභී පත්වීම් ලිපි ද නිකුත් කර අවසන්ය. දින 12 ක වැනි කාලයක් තුළ 72 000 ක පමණ අයදුම්පත් පරීක්ෂා කර බලා සුදුසුකම් ලාභීන් 62 000ක් පමණ වන බවට කරුණු තහවුරු කර තිබුණි. අදාළ අයදුම්පත් නිසි පරීක්ෂාවකින් තොරව ඒ මොහොතේ පැවති මැතිවරණ ඉලක්ක කර ගනිමින් අවිධිමත්ව එම පත්වීම් ලිපි නිකුත් කර ඇති බව මාර්තු නිකුත් කළ සියලූ අභ්යාසලාභී පත්වීම් ලිපි අවලංගු කිරීම තුළින් තහවුරු වී අවසන්ය.
02. මාර්තු මස පත්වීම් ලිපි නිකුත් කිරීමට පෙර පෞද්ගලික අංශයේ රැකියාවල නිරත වූවන් හඳුනාගෙන ඔවුන් සඳහා පත්වීම් ලිපි නිකුත් නොකළේ නම් ඔවුහු එම රැකියාවලම නිරත වන අතර අද මෙවැනි බරපතල ගැටළුවකට මුහුණ නොපාති. අද වන විට ඔවුන්ට පෞද්ගලික අංශයේ රැකියාව ද අහිමි වී ඇත. ලැබුණු උපාධිධාරී පත්වීමද අහිමි වී ඇත. #කොරෝනා වසංගත කාලය යටතේ රජය දුන් මූල්ය සහන පවා ඔවුන් රජයේ රැකියාවන් වල නිරතවන්නන් ලෙස තීරණය කර ලබා නොදුණි. 2020. 08. 16 දින ගනු ලැබූ තීරණය ඔවුන් සම්බන්ධයෙන් 2020 මාර්තු 02 දින ගනු ලැබුවේ නම් එම පිරිස මෙවැනි බරපතල අසාධාරණයකට ලක් නොවන බව පෙන්වා දෙන්නෙමු.
03. විදෙස් හා පෞද්ගලික විශ්ව විද්යාල උපාධි සහිත උපාධිධාරීන් ද ඉවත් කර ඇත. ඒ සඳහා හේතු ලෙස විශ්ව විද්යාල ප්රතිපාදන කොමිසමේ ලියාපදිංචි නොවූ පදනම යටතේ ඉවත් කර ඇත. ලියාපදිංචි හා අනුමත නොවූ උපාධි ලබාගෙන ඇති පිරිස් ඉවත් කිරීම ගැටළුවක් නැත. නමුත් විශ්ව විද්යාල ප්රතිපාදන කොමිසම අනුමත යැයි ලිඛිතව දන්වා ඇති උපාධි හිමි උපාධිධාරීන්ගේ පත්වීම් ද මේ වන විට අවලංගු කර ඇත.
04. ඉහත 02 හා 03 හි සඳහන් කරුණු 2ට අමතරව වෙනත් හේතූන් මතද පිරිසක් ඉවත් කර ඇති අතර ඉවත් කිරීමට බලපෑ කරණු පිළිබඳව උපාධිධාරීන් තුළ ව්යාකූල තත්වයක් මතුව ඇත.
2020 මාර්තු මස ආරම්භ කළ පුහුණුව 2020. 04. 25 දිනට නියමිත මැතිවරණය හා ප්රතිපල නිකුත් කර සතියකින් පසු ආරම්භ වීමට නියමිතව තිබූ අතර #Covid-19 වසංගත තත්වය නිසා මැතිවරණ කල් යෑමත් සමඟ පුහුණුවද කල් යන ලදි. ඒ අනුව ආණ්ඩුව සිදු කළ යුතුව තිබුණේ අදාළ පුහුණුව 2020 මැයි සිට ආරම්භ වූවා සේ සලකා හිඟ මාසික දීමනාව ද ලබා දී අදාළ කාලය පුහුණු කාලයට යටත් කිරීමයි. නමුත් සිදුකර ඇත්තේ ආණ්ඩුව යළිත් පත්වීම් ලිපි අවලංගු කර මාස 06ක පමණ කාලයක් අභ්යාසලාභීන්ට අහිමි කිරීමත්, පෞද්ගලික අංශයේ හෝ රැකියාවක් කරමින් ජීවත් වූ පිරිසකට රැකියා අවස්ථා සියල්ල අහිමි කිරීමත්, ආණ්ඩුව අලූතින් වියදමක් දරා පත්වීම් ලිපි නිකුත් කිරීමත් ය.
ගරු ජනාධිපති තුමනි, මෙම කරුණු සැලකිල්ලට ගනිමින් පහත සඳහන් ඉල්ලීම් හා යෝජනා ඉදිරිපත් කරමු.
01. අයදුම්පත් යොමු කර තිබූ, 2020 මාර්තු මස අභ්යාසලාභී පත්වීම් ලිපි නිකුත් කළ උපාධිධාරීන්ට හා සුදුසුකම් සපුරා තිබූ නමුත් මාර්තු මස තෝරා නොගත් ඉතිරි 12 000කට ආසන්න වන සියලූම රැකියා විරහිත උපාධිධාරීන්ට අභ්යාසලාභී උපාධිධාරී පුහුණු පත්වීම් ලිපි ප්රධානය කිරීම.
02. අභ්යාලාභී පුහුණු පත්වීම් ලිපි ලැබී මාර්තු මස ආයතන වෙත වාර්තා කර පසුව නම් ඉවත් කර ඇති පිරිස මෙවර ඉවත් නොකර බඳවා ගැනීමත් 2020 න් පසු සිදු කරන බඳවාගැනීම් වල දී පත්වීම් ලිපි ප්රධානයට පෙර අදාළ කොන්දේසි සැලකිල්ලට ගෙන ක්රියා කිරීම.
03. 2020. 09. 02 සිට බලාත්මක කිරීමට තීරණය කර ඇති අභ්යාසලාභී පුුහුණු පත්වීම් දිනය 2020 මැයි 02 බවට බලාත්මක කර එදින සිට පුහුණු කාලය සේ සලකා 2020 මැයි සිට මාසික දීමනාව ලබා දීම.
ඉහත ඉල්ලීම් පිළිබඳව ගරු ඔබතුමාගේ කඩිනම් අවධානය යොමු කරමින් දින කීපයක් ඇතුළත ගැටළුවට මුහුණ පා ඇති පිරිසට සහනදායී විසඳුමක් ලබා දෙන මෙන් කාරුණිකව ඉල්ලා සිටිමු.
ස්තූතියි.
මෙයට,
චන්දන සූරියආරච්චි
කැඳවුම්කරු
මහේෂ් විමුක්ති
කැඳවුම්කරු
(රැකියා විරහිත උපාධිධාරී සංගමය)
මහේෂ් අඹේපිටිය
කැඳවුම්කරු
(බාහිර උපාධි සුරැකීමේ සංවිධාන එකතුව)
සම්බන්ධීකරණය – 071 8178268
Contact – +94 71 8178268
පිටපත්:-
1. ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය – මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා (දැ.ගැ.පි./අ.ක.ස.)
2. ගරු රාජ්ය පරිපාලන අමාත්ය – ජනක බණ්ඩාර තෙත්නකෝන් මැතිතුමා (දැ.ගැ.පි./අ.ක.ස.)
3. ලේකම් – රාජ්ය පරිපාලන අමාත්යාංශය (දැ.ගැ.පි./අ.ක.ස.)
4. ලේකම් – මුදල් අමාත්යාංශය (දැ.ගැ.පි./අ.ක.ස.)
5. ඒකාබද්ධ සේවා අධ්යක්ෂ ජනරාල් (දැ.ගැ.පි./අ.ක.ස.)
Dr. Jay Gunawardana, a Sri lankan-born blood cancer researcher at the University of Queensland (Translational Research Institute in Brisbane, Australia) has received the prestigious American Society of Haematology Global Research Award.
This highly sought-after award is the result of a global search for competitive research proposals. It will enable Dr. Gunawardana to investigate the tumour microenvironment of the rare and largely neglected Nodular Lymphocyte Predominant Hodgkin Lymphoma subtype. His aim is to harness the power of patients’ own immune systems using combinatorial inhibitory drugs to remove ‘brakes’ that cause patient T-cells to become non-reactive towards cancers.
It is critical to match the biology of a patient’s tumour to a treatment that is both effective and will cause fewer side effects. This major step forward in our knowledge will be translated into new tools for matching a patient’s lymphoma to the correct treatment and improving patient outcomes. This research project is part of a broader effort to develop cell-based immunotherapy in conjunction with immune checkpoint blockade, a highly innovative endeavour previously not attempted in treating lymphoma” Dr. Gunawardana said.
Dr. Gunawardana will be working alongside Prof. Maher Gandhi, Director of Mater Research and Prof. Catherine Bollard, Director of the Program for Cell Enhancement and Technologies for Immunotherapy, The George Washington University School of Medicine. The team will also have access to the largest clinically curated lymphoma repository in Australia via The Australasian Leukaemia & Lymphoma Group and the largest collection of umbilical cord blood in Australia via the Mater Queensland Cord Blood Bank.
Dr. Gunawardana is an alumnus of Royal College (Sri Lanka), Temple University (USA), The University of Rhode Island (USA) and The University of British Columbia (Canada).
In a series of speeches made at the State Council, especially during 1933-34, Wimalasurendra identified the broad alliance that worked against the Hydroelectric Scheme. He used different names at times to identify this alliance: ‘Big Business’, ‘Oil and Coal Combine’, ‘Almighty Oil Interests’, ‘Big Business and Alien Combines’, ‘Imperialistic Element’, ‘Big Business Element’, ‘Big Business Party.’ – B.D. Witharana
• Wimalasurendra came upon the massive waterfall, which he brilliantly named, Laxapana – 100,000 Lamps – and engineered its hydroelectric scheme, but the English erased his name, claimed it as their invention, and screwed it up!
ee highly recommends this week’s story about DJ Wimalasurendra, the founder of hydroelectricity in Sri Lanka”. His absolutely fascinating contribution to early industrialization – thwarted and delayed to prevent us creating our own energy sources – appears almost erased. The metanarrative of imperialist suppression and white supremacism continues to this day, to prevent transformation of this colonial import-export plantation farce! (see ee Focus)
B.D. Witharana (Part 1)
Excerpts from Negotiating Power & Constructing the Nation: Engineering in Sri Lanka:
https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/66109/02.pdf?sequence=6
The streets of Colombo were provided with a few gas lamps in 1872 by the Colombo Gas & Water Co. Electricity was generated using diesel and was first introduced symbolically to the island in 1882 by illuminating the Billiard Room of the Bristol Hotel in the capital Colombo. It was provided on a commercial basis by Boustead Brothers Ltd since 1895 (Phillips 1981). Electricity was generated on a limited scale by generators of 5-122 horsepower scale for the use of plantations even by 1885…
Aberdeen-Laxapana Hydroelectric Scheme (1900-36) – My main interest is to revisit the idea about the non-emergence of a discourse on developmental nationalism in Sri Lanka, as witnessed in neighbouring India. Why did the demand for an industrially developed independent Ceylon made by Ceylonese leaders such as Marcus Fernando, Anagarika Dharmapala and Cumaratunga Munidasa not evolve into a mature ‘plan’ leading ultimately to the establishment of a Sri Lankan developmental nation? Or was there, in fact, such a ‘plan’ which escaped the gaze of historians for some reason? Exploring Land, Labor, Capital & Sectional Interests in the National Politics of SL, in the first part of the 20th century, a study on peasantry and agriculture, V Samaraweera (1981) observes… Ceylonese nationalists began to look towards a realistic program of industrialization for the country” only by the 1940s.
By selecting the first mass-scale hydroelectricity generation scheme, the Aberdeen-Laxapana Scheme as my ‘worksite’, I discuss… how a widespread campaign for a Ceylonese developmental state was, in fact, present. The discourse anchored in the Aberdeen-Laxapana Scheme proposed an alternative future for the island against the romantic peasant agriculture based vision that succeeded…
The hydroelectric scheme that was under discussion for decades during British colonial rule. and began operations in the mid-20th century, was the terrain for a range of important colonial – anti-colonial – and nationalistic ideas and counter-ideas that have largely gone unrecorded in the discourse of Sri Lankan nationalism so far. The biography of DJ Wimalasurendra, the key Ceylonese behind the scheme, opens an avenue for one to visit this hidden past and to observe that a realistic program of industrialization was present long before the 1940s.
Both Marcus Fernando and Cumaratunga Munidasa were influenced by the ideas forwarded by Wimalasurendra. The initial ideas of industrialization presented on a ground of Sinhala nationalism, eg by Dharmapala, seem to have transformed into a clear narrative of developmental nationalism by 1920-30s, thanks to the contributions made by Wimalasurendra.
Anagarika Dharmapala, who had a more radical approach in comparison to most of the political and social elite, loyal to British at the time, was the leading figure who mixed social morality with Buddhist agitation and was hence instrumental in politicizing the movement. Dharmapala contrasted Buddhist values with the moral failings of missionaries, e.g. meat and alcohol consumption and lack of a norm against killing animals…
DJ Wimalasurendra (1874-1953) dedicated his entire life, from the days of his early career as a District Engineer of the Public Works Dept to his later life as a politician in the first State Council of Ceylon, to seeing the Scheme pushed through, amidst numerous obstacles. In the early 20th century he investigated in detail the possibility of developing the hydro potential of the island, made important contributions to design… The paper he presented in 1918 at the Engineering Association of Ceylon, Economics of Power Utilization in Ceylon” which linked hydropower with the development infrastructure for industrialization, can be considered as the first draft of a vision for a developmental nation, that evolved further during the following decades. Wimalasurendra who, out of frustration, took early retirement from the Dept of Electrical Undertakings in 1930, tried his best to campaign for the recommencement of construction of the Scheme, as a member of the first State Council 1931-36. Speeches made by Wimalasurendra at the State Council are a testimony to the advanced imagination of a Ceylonese developmental nation underpinned by the industrial potential provided by the Hydroelectric Scheme.
One can argue that this delay of almost half a century in implementing the Laxapana Scheme, which under normal circumstances would have taken just 4 years, could have prevented a possible early industrialization of Ceylon.
Wimalasurendra was born in 1874 as a member of the Navandanna, the caste that historically specialized in ‘engineering’, according to the division of labour defined in the local caste system… His father, Don Juan Wimalasurendra, earned recognition for his master-craftsmanship and was awarded the title ‘Mudaliyar’ by the colonial government. His family tradition can be seen as the original influence on Wimalasurendra’s practical skills. After completing his secondary education at the prominent Sinhala Buddhist school, Ananda College, Wimalasurendra received his initial education in engineering at the Ceylon Technical College. [He became] a Chartered Civil Engineer and Chartered Electrical Engineer, a rare achievement even by today’s standards. In 1924 he was appointed Head of the Electrical Engineering Section of the Public Works Department.
A detailed discussion of the evolution of the Hydroelectric Scheme is required to appreciate the nuances of the imagination of a technologically advanced Ceylon – an imagination in which Wimalasurendra takes centre stage…
A closer look at these sources spread over the span of half a century leads one to identify 2 rather incompatible narratives that highlight the important tensions that defined the final shape of developmental nationalism in the first half of the 20th century. The clarity of the ‘facts’ that are relatively clear in retrospect, may not have been so apparent in the heat of the controversies that surrounded this developmental imagination at the time…
Almost all the officials who held high office during the first half of the 20thC were British. Some of the post-independence sources… reflect some features of this first narrative as a result of their dependence on the colonial sources from the first half of the century. The 2nd narrative that contests the 1st colonial-narrative draws mainly from local sources and is interwoven closely with the life story of engineer DJ Wimalasurendra. Information can also be found to strengthen this second narrative in official colonial sources. However, when they are from colonial sources they do not appear in the main text but in the annexes produced by locals. There are also some colonial texts produced by Englishmen that can be used to strengthen the second narrative when they were written especially for the readership of locals (e.g. motions presented for approval of the Legislative Council, dominated by Ceylonese members).
The important feature that differentiates the 2 narratives from each other is the place reserved for Wimalasurendra. While narratives that use colonial sources underplay the role of Wimalasurendra, the 2nd narrative highlights it. 1910 is given as the date of the origin of the Hydroelectric Scheme in the first narrative: …Nov 1910, that FB Rylands, the Government Electrical Engineer attached to the PWD, reported, sufficient hydropower was available near Laxapana for the total electricity requirement of the government. The 2nd narrative, however, marking an extended history takes the origin of the Hydroelectric Scheme further back to the year 1901, and hence transfers the credit from Rylands to Wimalasurendra and the time when the idea of generating electricity from the Laxapana falls was conceived by Wimalasurendra.
While involved in a government assignment to search for minerals and particularly gold, Wimalasurendra, as an acting District Engineer, is said to have found the new ‘mine of gold’ in 1901 when he saw by chance the falls of Laxapana and realized their potential to generate electricity. It was this thought from 1901 that had led to his investigation of the hydroelectric potential of the island, which he published as a technical paper in 1918. Interestingly some of these important years do not appear as milestones in the colonial narrative on the Scheme…
After being appointed on 22 Aug 1904 as an Acting District Engineer and posted to Diyatalawa, a small town in the central hills, Wimalasurendra was assigned with 2 tasks: to build camps to house the South African Boer prisoners of war, and to search for prospects for minerals in the island. A Boer prisoner Ian Van Geyzel, who was an engineer himself, was selected by the government to accompany him on excursions in search of minerals. Wimalasurendra gives credit to his companion, who had the opportunity of traveling worldwide and experiencing hydroelectric power generation, for suggesting the possibility of tapping Laxapana for electricity generation.
The waterfall which was known till then as Kiriwan Eliya Falls was renamed by Wimalasurendra as Laxapana to mean 100,000 light bulbs”. Arumugam finds this new name as a proof of Wimalasurendra’s engineering genius. Based on the overall water-head (520m) and the installed capacity (100MW) of the present scheme, Arumugam calculates backwards to estimate the possible installed capacity of the water-head (129m) Wimalasurendra must have observed in 1901/4. The figure 11.6MWs Arumugam derives as the installed capacity is, in fact, equivalent to illumination of 116,000 of 100W light bulbs…
Another interesting contrast between the 2 narratives becomes apparent when the reasons for the delay in construction are discussed. The first narrative avoids discussion by just attributing it to ‘various reasons’ without further explanation, or just refers to the ‘unsatisfactory position’ with regard to the status of the Scheme. The 2nd narrative, however, adds clarity to the ‘mystery’. While some describe the delay within a framework of a personal conflict between Rylands and Wimalasurendra or between the white colonial government and Wimalasurendra, others point to a larger picture of institutionalized racism at work in the government service at that time. Wimalasurendra took it even further to position the delay in a discourse on the business and economic interests of the British imperialist project…”
see also
https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/66109
වැවිලි කර්මාන්ත අමාත්යාංශයේ රබර් ලේකම් කාර්යාලය හා ලංකා කාර්මික සංවර්ධන මණ්ඩලයේ රබර් භාණ්ඩ සංවර්ධන හා සේවා මධ්යස්ථානය එක්ව රබර් ආශ්රිත නිෂ්පාදන පිළිබඳ දැනුවත් කිරීමේ එක් දින වැඩසටහනක් සංවිධානය කර ඇත.
මෙම වැඩසටහන රබර් ආශ්රිත නිෂ්පාදන ක්ෂේත්රයේ නිරත ව්යවසායකයන් සහ රබර් නිෂ්පාදන ක්ෂේත්රයට අලුතින් එක්වීමට කැමති විභව ව්යවසායකයන් සඳහා ඉතාමත් යෝග්ය වන අතර න්යායික සහ ප්රායෝගික දැනුම ලබා දීම පුහුණු සම්පත්දායකයන් විසින් සිදුකරනු ලබයි.
මෙම වැඩසටහනේදී වාහන අමතර කොටස්, රබර් සීල් රබර් බිම් ඇතිරිලිද, රබර් මිශ්රිත මල්පෝච්චි, කුට්ටි, මැට්රස් ඇසුරුම් ද්රව්ය යනාදිය හා ලේටෙක්ස් ආශ්රිත නිශ්පාදන පිලිබඳ දැනුම ලබා දීමට නියමිතය.
මෙම වැඩසටහන 2020.08.25 දින පෙ.ව. 8.30 සිට ප.ව.4.00 දක්වා ,නො.33, නව නුගේ පාර, පෑලියගොඩ ලංකා කාර්මික සංවර්ධන මණ්ඩලයේ රබර් භාණ්ඩ සංවර්ධන හා සේවා මධ්යස්ථානය, වැඩසටහන පැවැත්වේ. මෙම වැඩසටහන සඳහා අළුතින් කර්මාන්තයක් ආරම්භකිරීමට අදහසක් ඇති අය හෝ දැනට මෙම ක්ශේත්රවල නියැලෙන කර්මාන්තකරුවන්ට හෝ එම කර්මාන්තවල නිෂ්පාදන අංශයේ/තත්ත්ව පාලන අංශයේ නියෝජිතවරයෙක් තත්වපාලකයන් හෝ සහභාගී විය හැක.
ලංකා කාර්මික සංවර්ධන මණ්ඩලයේ කොළඹ දිස්ත්රික් කාර්යාලය මගින් වැඩසටහනේදී ලිපිද්රව්ය, උදේ සවස තේ සහ දිවා ආහාර සපයනු ලබයි. වැඩසටහනින් පසුව කර්මාන්තය සඳහා ව්යාපාරයක් ආරම්භ කිරීම හෝ සංවර්ධනය දක්වා වූ අනෙකුත් සේවාවන් ලංකා කාර්මික සංවර්ධන මණඩල්ලය විසින් නොකඩවා ලබා දෙනු ලැබේ. මෙම වැඩසටහන සඳහා ලියාපදිංචි ගාස්තුව රු.1000 වේ. ඔබගේ පැමිණීම 2020.08.21 දිනට පෙර තහවුරු කරන්න.වැඩි විස්තර සඳහා 0112815009 ලංකා කාර්මික සංවර්ධන මණ්ඩලයේ කොලඹ දිස්ත්රික් කාර්යාලයට අමතන්න.
As the subcontinent struggles to flatten the coronavirus curve, with India alone recording 2.7 million cases and taking the third spot in the world, Sri Lanka offers a glimmer of hope in curbing the daily infection rate.
So far the country has recorded 2,893 cases among its population of 21.67 million people.
How did the Sri Lankan government manage to keep the deadly virus at bay?
Early lockdown, a high testing rate and effective social distancing measures have proved to be key for Sri Lanka in their fight against the pandemic and keeping the infection rate low.
From March to the end of April, the country had conducted 930 tests per 1 million people, while its South Asian neighbours had a very low testing rate: Bangladesh (393), India (602) and Pakistan (703).
“More than 50 percent of the COVID-19 cases in Sri Lanka are of people between the ages of 20-60. These are relatively younger people who are less vulnerable to a severe presentation of the disease. A reason why most of the cases are mild may be that the lockdown in Sri Lanka started very early,” said Razia Pendse, a WHO representative to Sri Lanka.
Another major source of support came in the form of The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) – it came up with policies for monetary easing from the start of 2020. CBSL suspended loan payments and launched a concessional refinancing programme of $27 million (Rs. 50 billion), which is 0.33 percent of the country’s GDP, for activities affected by the pandemic.
Robust healthcare
The Sri Lankan government, led by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, also committed 0.1 percent of GDP for quarantine and containment measures, and an additional $5 million to the SAARC COVID-19 Emergency Fund. A Petroleum Stabilization Fund (PSF) was built to utilise the lower international prices of oil. A separate presidential contributory fund was also raised, which is worth $7.4 million to date.
Apart from all these measures, the government laid a strong emphasis on the surveillance system to keep COVID-19 mortality at bay.
In light of a remarkable response to the pandemic, health experts from around the world have lauded Sri Lanka’s healthcare system, which has already been made a case study for other countries since the 1980s.
For instance, the Rockefeller Foundation’s report published in 1985, described Sri Lanka as a country that has created an affordable healthcare system. In most districts of the country, primary healthcare facilities are within 3 kilometres for each neighbourhood.
The ease of accessing health facilities, coupled with low cost services, has helped the country improve its public health.
Sri Lanka’s robust healthcare infrastructure was one of the main reasons the government was able to act swiftly to respond to the first calls of Covid-19 infections.
The government mobilised healthcare workers to closely monitor the pandemic’s movement right after the first case was reported in the country, and they ensured that most Covid-19 suspects are traced in potential hotspots.
“The first case came out in Sri Lanka in the last week of January, after which there were no cases till about mid-March. During that gap, the government ensured that the public health surveillance was activated to find any cases with respiratory illnesses. Once the cases were identified, we conducted the needed diagnostics so that we were able to rule out any suspected COVID-19 cases,” the WHO’s Pendse told German news organisation, DW. Source: TRT World
In his book Asymmetric Warfare at Sea: The Case of Sri Lanka” Adm. Dr.Jayanath Colombage, former Commander of the Sri Lankan navy, who is now the country’s Foreign Secretary, tells the fascinating story of the transformation of the Sri Lankan Navy (SLN) from a small, poorly funded and non-innovative conventional fighting force to a spirited, innovative and well-armed force which, in just three years, broke the back of the intrepid and deadly Sea Tigers, the naval wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
Adm.Colombage’s narrative begins with a candid account of the state of the SLN vis-à-vis the Sea Tigers during most the 30-year separatist war. The SLN was the underdog, suffering humiliations at the hands of the Sea Tigers, till the 2006-2009 Eelam War IV during which it emerged as the top dog to decimate the Sea Tigers.
While accounting for past failures, Adm.Colombage says that successive Lankan governments (barring the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime which came into being in 2005) saw the war against the Tamil militants as a land war to be fought principally by the army. Although the adversary was using the sea to bring in supplies, initially using the Palk Strait and eventually the wide ocean, Lankan governments did not see the need to strengthen the navy. It was relegated to the margins and expected to little more than defend itself when attacked, not to go hunting for the adversary. The navy was not given the manpower and equipment go on the offensive. It was also trained to fight conventional battles, not maritime terrorist groups whose tactics were unconventional, cunning, ever-changing and gutsy. Due to the differences in strategy and tactics, the Sea Tigers managed to destroy 28 SLN vessels in encounters.
In contrast to the Lankan State, the LTTE was a sea-oriented group from the very beginning. Its leader, Prabhakaran, and his initial band of followers, were sea farers from the fishing community of Valvettithurai. In contrast to Lankan strategists, Prabhakaran firmly believed that to fight the Lankan forces on land, he has to have command over the sea.
Therefore, the LTTE designed and appropriately armed small boats of four different kinds. Its suicide boats used stealth technology and were high speed and armored. The Sea Tigers used RADAR to ensure accurate firing. Besides, the LTTE acquired ocean-going vessels which cleverly combined legitimate business and arms smuggling, and acted as floating warehouses” on the high seas. The Sea Tigers had devised techniques to camouflage its gun-running vessels. To land its lethal cargo on the Lankan coastline, it used small boats disguised as fishing trawlers. Not short of ammo, thanks to its floating warehouses, the LTTE was able to rain artillery shells and mortar bombs to unnerve the Lankan army on the battlefront.
Not surprisingly, SLN’s lumbering vessels, including Fast Attack Craft (FAC), were overwhelmed by the Sea Tigers’ small, fast boats, attacking in swarms. The Sea Tigers also deployed suicide boats which conventional navies do not. It staged underwater attacks using modern equipment. The Sea Tigers not only attacked Lankan harbors but in 1997, even hijacked a vessel carrying 32,000 mortar bombs ordered by the SLN from Zimbabwe. That event showed the depth of the LTTE’s penetration into the Lankan defense Establishment. In contrast, Lankan intelligence gathering lacked penetration, was piecemeal and its use was uncoordinated, Adm.Colombage says. The air force did not undertake sea surveillance which could have helped the navy locate the floating warehouses long before September 2007 when they were located with US help.
Sea Change
But come Mahinda Rajapaksa as President and his brother Lt.Col (Rtd) Gotabaya Rajapaksa as Defense Secretary in 2005, a sea change occurred. The Rajapaksas decided that there would be no more talks (or a ceasefire) with the LTTE and that the war would be fought to the finish regardless of pressure from global powers and the peace and rights lobbies.
The navy had to go for the kill. The navy Commander was ordered to be unsparing with his subordinates, even as he encouraged brainstorming to get the best ideas from his staff. The Commander personally selected officers for key positions on merit and not seniority alone.
The strength of the navy was increased from 36,000 to 54,000 and the budgetary allocation went up by more than 60% by 2007. The required equipment was ordered. Where imports of were costly, naval engineers devised alternatives. Old equipment were reconditioned to the optimal level.
Tactics underwent a sea change with the SLN imitating the Sea Tigers and using small boats to penetrate the latter’s hideouts and confront them in swarms. Small boat production increased exponentially. The LTTE had to fight similar boats, similarly equipped and similarly-led but in much greater numbers. Guns on board Lankan vessels were enhanced through indigenous innovations.
The resources of the SLN were not only put to use, but enhanced. The Small Boat Squadron (SBS) was reactivated. The decision to acquire Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPV) – two from India and one from the US Coast Guard – and Fast Missile Vessels (FMV) from Israel, added to the reach, speed and punch of SLN vessels.
Following 9/11, the SLN used the Global War on Terror to get the US on board. The US said that it would help SLN locate the LTTE’s floating warehouses provided the SLN assured that it would not attack civilian vessels. The assurance was given. But the location of the OPVs was not easy as the LTTE had got wind of the SLN’s plan. It had stopped using satellite communication and kept off shipping lanes.
However, in September 2007, the US detected a target. But again, the SLN had an issue – the endurance of its OPVs so far from their base. SLN engineers solved such problems. The OPVs were then stationed in the calm waters of the equator to minimize wear and tear. Patrolling ships came to the equator to refuel and refit.
The Small Boat Squadron (SBS) also participated in the destruction of the Floating Warehouses with their Combat Rubber Raiding Craft (CRRC) firing Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs). The LTTE weaponry which went to the bottom of the sea included 152mm,130 mm,122 mm artillery shells and120 mm mortar rounds. MV. Koshia itself lost 29,000 artillery shells.
Meanwhile ,in Sri Lanka, the electronic surveillance network was enhanced to enable the Navy Commander and field commanders to get a real time picture. At the Defense Ministry level, the older system of various intelligence units working independently and in an uncoordinated way, was replaced by regular interactions in which information was shared and actionable intelligence distilled and communicated to the right units. All equipment required was acquired even though the West and India refused to sell or gift weapons on political or human rights grounds.
Corruption in military procurement was a major issue in the Lankan armed forces during most of the 30-year war. But an end was put to it by the formation of the Lanka Logistics Technologies Ltd.,(LLTL) involving service Commanders and Chief of Defense Staff. The LLTL helped standardization of equipment ordered. Procurement was made a confidential process.
All these measures helped reverse the earlier situation in which the Navy was lagging behind. When the SLN was using 20 mm guns, the Sea Tigers were using 23mm. The FACs were therefore modified to carry a 30 mm gun and a 107 mm rocket launcher. 25 and 50 KW RADARs were installed. The Fast Gun Boats were equipped with modified Multi-Barrel Rocket Launchers (MBRLs) to enhance their destructive capability.
A drawback which dogged the SLN was a lack of understanding between the army and navy commanders. But the ground commanders remained in close contact with each other and worked together enabling mutual support,” Adm.Colombage recalls. Be that as it may, the net result was the total destruction of the Sea Tigers and the elimination of its leaders.
The margin of the SLPP (Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna) victory, at the Aug 5, 2020 general election, stunned the ruling coalition. The best possible result the SLPP expected was around 130 seats, including National List slots. SLPP Chairman and its top National List nominee, Prof. G.L. Peiris, about aproximately 30 minutes after polling commenced, countrywide, told the writer they expected around 130 seats.
About two weeks earlier, the leader of the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) and Attorney-at-law Udaya Gammanpila, too, privately acknowledged they could secure around 130 seats.
Experienced campaigner and turncoat, S.B. Dissanayake, also of the SLPP, placed the number of seats, anticipated, a little less than 130 seats. But, they all predicted a very comfortable victory for the SLPP, though two-thirds seemed quite unrealistic.
The Aug 5 result proved a two-thirds majority was achievable, under the Proportional Representation (PR) system, though so-called experts thought otherwise. However, the margin of victory surprised even the three-and-half-year old SLPP, as well as the tattered UNP, established over 70 years ago.
For the first time, in our political history, a party (that ruled the country on several occasions) ended up without a single elected lawmaker. The UNP managed to secure one National List seat. The JVP did much better than the UNP by securing three seats, including one National List slot, but it was a comedown when compared to its previous performance at the August 2015 general election.
General Secretary of the UNP, Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, on Friday (7), blamed their worst defeat ever on their ‘own actions’ and those of others. The latter was definitely a reference to former UNP Deputy Leader Sajith Premadasa causing a split.
It would be pertinent to examine what Kariyawasam meant by ‘own actions’ in his pathetic attempt to explain the debilitating setback the once proud party suffered. The EC decision not to count preference votes, received by candidates of political parties that didn’t receive seats, saved them from further humiliation. If not, the paltry number of votes received by Ranil Wickremesinghe, Assistant Leader Ravi Karunanayake, National Organizer Navin Dissanayake, as well as financier Daya Gamage, would have become public, adding to the humiliating defeat.
The emergence of the SLPP, at the expense of the SLFP (Sri Lanka Freedom Party), should be studied, taking into consideration the deliberate wrongdoings, blunders, lapses, treachery and utterly irrational policies followed by the yahapalana administration, consisting of the UNP and a section of the SLFP-led UPFA.
Before we discuss why the voting public handed over such a massive mandate to the SLPP, it would be pertinent to mention that those who served the ruinous yahapalana coalition ended-up in four groups. The largest group formed (1) the Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB), (2) remained in permanently damaged UNP, (3) what was left of the SLFP and (4) those who returned to the Rajapaksa Camp, having served Maithripala Sirisena for some time.
Having publicly alleged that he would have ended up six feet under if Mahinda Rajapaksa had won the 2015 January presidential election, Maithripala Sirisena, too, returned to the Rajapaksa Camp to avoid being politically eliminated. If Sirisena’s SLFP contested the recently concluded general election, on its own, it, too, could have suffered the same fate that befell the UNP. The SLFP obviously avoided the disgraceful defeat by contesting under the flower bud symbol.
The SLFP, on its own, winning a seat in the Jaffna peninsula, is an exception. The SLFP contested the electoral districts of Jaffna and Kalutara. Final result of the Kalutara district reflected the ground situation, in 18 districts, where the SLPP recorded landslide victories. The SLFP polled 10,979 votes (1.57%), in the Kalutara district, and was placed 5th, whereas the SLPP obtained a staggering 448,699 votes (64.88%). The SLFP survived a political massacre by accepting the SLPP’s terms. The SLPP, quite rightly, dismissed the SLFP’s efforts to contest both the presidential and parliamentary polls, under a common symbol. Polonnaruwa district candidate Sirisena, in spite of being verbally abused and humiliated by fellow district SLPP candidate Roshan Ranasinghe, as well as Gampaha District SLPP leader Prasanna Ranatunga, polled the highest number of preferential votes from the Polonnaruwa District. Sirisena polled 111,137 preference votes, whereas Roshan Ranasinghe obtained 90,615. The SLFP, due to consensus with brazen SLPP, even at biased terms, has managed to save face.
‘Own actions’
The UNP suffered an irreparable setback, at the third parliamentary poll, since the conclusion of the war, in May 2009. The UNP’s loss, at the 2010 general election, was understandable. The then SLFP-led UPFA obtained 144 seats, including 17 National List slots, whereas the UNP secured 60. The UPFA taking the parliamentary election was a foregone conclusion in the wake of Mahinda Rajapaksa defeating General Sarath Fonseka at the 2010 January presidential election. But, the UNP obtained a respectable 60-member group and, five years later, used it to spearhead a high profile project to bring down Mahinda Rajapaksa.
But, the UNP, at the general election just concluded, has been reduced to just 1 National List MP. The UNP General Secretary should explain what he really meant by ‘own actions’ contributing to its downfall. Let me examine what these ‘own actions’ were as the SLPP triumph transformed the political landscape.
The SLPP can easily secure two-thirds with the backing of the SLFP (one elected from Jaffna) and three other Tamil and Muslim parties. Perhaps, it would be much better to amend the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, in consultation with the SJB (54 MPs), TNA (10), Jathika Jana Balavegaya (JJB/3) and the UNP (1) than exploiting the overwhelming majority to its advantage.
Sri Lanka is in such a political-economic mess, the SLPP should act responsibly. The formidable political power shouldn’t pursue abusive policies against the backdrop of annihilation of the Opposition. It would be a grave mistake on its part to tinker with the Constitution for its benefit. Perhaps, a consensus can be reached soon, on an amendment, to allow the President to hold the Defence portfolio.
Treasury bond scams
Having ousted Mahinda Rajapaksa, at the 2015 January presidential poll, a cocky UNP leadership brought in Singaporean Arjuna Mahendran as the Governor of the Central Bank, in January 2015. Wickremesinghe simply ignored Sirisena’s concerns as regards the appointment. Under heavy pressure, Sirisena handed over Mahendran’s letter of appointment. The Singaporean moved into the Governor’s Office, on January 26, 2016. The then Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake made the recommendation in this regard. The first Treasury bond scam was perpetrated just four weeks later.
Kariyawasam’s reference to ‘own actions’ without doubt include the 2015 Treasury bond scam and the second perpetrated 13 months later, after the 2015 general election. The government was so cocky, it not only once but twice perpetrated massive Treasury bond scams at the expense of the national economy. In spite of the then yahapalana partner, the SLFP, making a big noise about Treasury bond scams, Sirisena’s party solidly stood by the UNP. Sirisena went to the extent of dissolving parliament, on the night of June 26, 2015, to prevent the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) presenting its report on the first Treasury bond scam to parliament. Sirisena exposed himself by delaying the appointment of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (P CoI) to probe the Treasury bond scams, till January 2017; over seven months after Dr. Indrajith Coomaraswamy succeeded the Singaporean.
The top UNP leadership caused the party downfall by its ‘own actions.’ The SLFP, too, contributed to the rapid deterioration of the yahapalana government by playing ball with the UNP. Having allowed the UNP to ruin the yahapalana arrangement, Sirisena resorted to a constitutional coup, in late Oct 2018, to take back control of the government. Sirisena failed miserably.
The new government now faced a huge challenge in bringing the Treasury bond scams case to a successful conclusion. Ranil Wickremesinghe and Ravi Karunanayake embroiled in Treasury bond cases are no longer lawmakers. Wickremesinghe and Karunanayake, having first entered parliament in 1977 and 1994 (National List), respectively, served as members of parliament successively until last week. Wickremesinghe and Karunanayake now face the bleak prospect of facing a long drawn out case.
Geneva betrayal
Between the February 2015 and March 2016 Treasury bond scams, the UNP betrayed the country, at the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Sirisena did absolutely nothing but to publicly criticize the Geneva betrayal. The President, in spite of being the Commander-in-Chief and the Defence Minister, answerable to the people, stayed with the UNP decision. In a bid to deceive the public, the yahapalana lot replaced the then Foreign Minister, Mangala Samaraweera, who directed the then Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative in Geneva Ambassador, Ravinatha Aryasinha, to co-sponsor the controversial resolution, with Ravi Karunanayake, in May 2017. In spite of on and off public criticism, Sirisena, and those SLFPers who received ministerial portfolios, remained with the UNP. Karunanayake, embroiled in the Treasury bond scam controversy, continued with Samaraweera’s Geneva project. When Karunanayake was compelled to resign in the second week of August 2017, over shocking revelations before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry, Wickremesinghe brought back Tilak Marapana to the cabinet. One-time Attorney General Marapana, PC, took over the Foreign Ministry. Marapana, too, faithfully continued with the Geneva project. The Geneva betrayal was part of the UNP’s agreement with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the US. Sumanthiran revealed the existence of a treacherous agreement, in June 2016, when he addressed a gathering in the US. Sumanthiran declared that he negotiated with the US and Sirisena’s government, on the Geneva resolution, and the inclusion of foreign judges in war crimes courts.
Lord Naseby, in Oct 2017, gave Sri Lanka a golden opportunity to counter war crimes allegations. Based on secret dispatches from the UK High Commission, in Colombo, in 2009 (January to May), Lord Naseby successfully countered the primary allegation, regarding the massacre of 40,000 Tamil civilians on the Vanni east front. The UNP turned a blind eye to Lord Naseby’s revelations. Yahapalana partner, the SLFP, too, followed the same policy. When the writer inquired about how the government intended to use Lord Naseby’s revelations for Sri Lanka’s defence, at the post-cabinet media briefing, co-cabinet spokesman Dayasiri Jayasekera reacted angrily, though he quickly calmed down. An irate Jayasekera accused the writer of raising unnecessary issues with a view to causing problems. Jayasekera revealed that up to the time the question was posed to him, the cabinet hadn’t at least discussed the matter. Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, as well as the SLFP spokesman Mahinda Sanarasinghe, at separate media briefings, in response to questions posed by the writer, admitted that the cabinet didn’t discuss the Geneva matter.
The Foreign Ministry’s thinking reflected the despicable UNP policy towards the armed forces. The initial Foreign Ministry response, to Lord Naseby’s Oct 2017 bid to save Sri Lanka, revealed its role in a high profile anti-Sri Lanka project. The Foreign Ministry issued a statement in response to a query posed by the writer to the then spokesperson. However, the Foreign Ministry cannot be faulted for following the instructions given by the Prime Minister, and the Foreign Minister, at that time.
The SLFP cannot absolve itself of the responsibility for the Geneva betrayal. Today, those SLFPers, who had fully cooperated with the UNP (2015 August –Oct 2018), are in parliament, on the SLPP ticket. They survived by contesting the Aug 5 parliamentary election on the SLPP ticket. If not, the SLFP, too, would have ended up with perhaps one National List MP, like its partner in ‘crime’ the UNP.
In the wake of the Geneva betrayal, several countries imposed travel restrictions on senior military commanders. Field Marshal Fonseka, Maj. Gen. Chagie Gallage and Army Chief Shavendra Silva are among those who were slapped with travel bans.
Now, it would be the responsibility of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government to set the record straight. The UNP and the Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi-led TNA, responsible for the Geneva betrayal, suffered serious setbacks at the general election. Having campaigned for 20 seats, the one-time LTTE mouth piece was reduced to 10 seats, including one National List slot. In the last parliament, the TNA had 16 lawmakers, including two National List slots. Obviously, the Tamil electorate snubbed the TNA by causing the ITAK leader Mavai Senathirajah’s defeat. The TNA, too, plunged into crisis with a section of the former LTTE proxy demanding that Senathirajah be appointed to parliament through the National List whereas the TNA, at the behest of Sampanthan, named Chairman of Ampara Navindaveli Pradeshiya Sabha Thawarasa Kalaiarasan as their National List member.
Prez-PM failure in 2019
The Treasury bond scams (February 2015 and March 2016) and the Geneva treachery (Oct 2015) was followed by the indefensible failure to thwart the April 2019 Easter Sunday carnage. In this case, too, both the UNP and Sirisena failed the country very badly. The revelations, made before the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC), in 2019, and the on-going Presidential Commission of Inquiry (P CoI), proved beyond doubt the culpability of both Sirisena and Wickremesinghe for the Easter Sunday carnage. In spite of knowing the imminent threat, posed by Thowheed Jamaat, Sirsena went on a pilgrimage to neighbouring India. Sirisena, wife, Jayanthi Pushpa Kumari, and other members of their family, offered prayers at the hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara. Sirisena took part in the ‘Suprabhatha’ ritual and offered prayers to the presiding deity of Lord Venkateswara. From there, the Sirisenas flew to Singapore. They were on holiday when Thowheed Jamaat carried out the near simultaneous attacks. Sirisena got caught lying to the PSC regarding the delay on his part in returning to Colombo in the aftermath of the attack. The PSC, in its report released to the public in Oct 2019, revealed how Sirisena shunned two earlier Sri Lankan flights to return in the early hours of the following day on a Singapore Airlines flight.
The SLPP will have to deal with media furore when the P CoI releases its report later this year. Sirisena, who held the Defence and Law and order portfolios at the time of the attack, in addition to being the Commander-in-Chief, cannot absolve himself of the responsibility for the unprecedented security failure.
H’tota deal and FTA with Singapore
Sirisena authorized the 99-year-lease on Hambantota port, in lieu of what Sri Lanka owed China, as well as the controversial Free Trade Agreement with Singapore (FTA) during his tainted presidency. On behalf of Sri Lanka, Sirisena’s nominee, Ports and Shipping Minister, Mahinda Samarasinghe, signed the agreement with China. Sri Lanka and China finalized the Hambantota port deal, in late July 2017, and the FTA with Singapore, in January 2018. Malik Samarawickrema signed the agreement on Sri Lanka’s behalf. It was finalized after six rounds of talks. Both Sirisena and Samarasinghe re-entered parliament on the SLPP ticket. Samarasinghe even took SLPP membership in the run-up to the general election. Samarawickrema, who was accommodated on the UNP National List in the previous parliament, quit parliamentary politics.
The SLFP has conveniently forgotten that it held the post of Deputy Speaker in Parliament till May 25, 2018. Thilanga Sumathipala served as the Deputy Speaker and the Chairperson of Committees of parliament. Sumathipala was replaced by Ananda Kumarasiri, who later headed the PSC that probed the Easter Sunday carnage. The Supreme Court has been moved by seven parties, including the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA), against the FTA with Singapore. The SC last heard the case in the second week of July, 2020. It will be taken up again on Nov 03, 2020. A committee, appointed by the government after the last presidential election to review the FTA with Singapore, is yet to release its final report.
Having promised to review the Hambantota deal, the incumbent administration subsequently dropped the idea after China, in no uncertain terms, objected to that move. Those who represented the previous parliament and those who elected to new parliament should keep in mind there is no difference in the 99-year-lease on Hambantota port and the outright sale of such a valuable asset.
ACSA et al
Sri Lanka first entered ACSA (Access and Cross Servicing Agreement) in March 2007. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in his capacity as the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, signed ACSA on Sri Lanka’s behalf for a period of 10 years. Sirisena, in his capacity as the President, authorized signing a far more comprehensive ACSA, in August 2017. Sirisena’s government also discussed SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) with the US, in addition to finalizing the MCC (Millennium Challenge Corporation) Compact.
When the writer raised the issue with Wickremesinghe at the final government media briefing, at Temple Trees, two weeks before the Nov 16, 2019 presidential election, the Premier, without hesitation, declared it would be signed. Now, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government will have to decide on the controversial agreement. The government is obviously in a dilemma. Having secured a near two-thirds majority, the SLPP cannot, under any circumstances, accept the agreement in its present form against the backdrop of Prof. Lalithasiri Gunaruwan’s damning report, in Sinhala, on it. Perhaps, copies should be made available to all members of the new parliament.
Sri Lanka shouldn’t accept SOFA, under any circumstances. Instead, Sri Lanka should guarantee that it wouldn’t engage in /allow foreign activity inimical to regional or world powers. The new government cannot be unaware how the majority community reacted to the UNP’s response to ACSA, SOFA and MCC. The SLPP campaign, against US agreements, gave Gotabaya Rajapaksa a tremendous boost at the presidential poll, as well as the recently concluded general election.
Paddy at Mattala airport
Having ousted Mahinda Rajapaksa, in January 2015, and then won the 2015 August general election, the UNP brazenly stored paddy at the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA). Wickremesinghe repeatedly called Sri Lanka’s second international airport a white elephant. Storing paddy at MRIA was nothing but political suicide. It was meant to humiliate the war-winning President and his administration.
Storing paddy at MAIA is as bad as betraying the war-winning armed forces in Geneva. Five years later, the majority community, through overwhelming votes at the presidential and parliamentary polls, sent the UNP home. Sajith Premadasa and his group survived by contesting under a different symbol. Whoever secures UNP’s solitary National List slot, one UNP lawmaker in parliament would be a grim reminder to those who destroyed the once great party.
The Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI)probing incidents of political victimization has issued summons on former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and former ministers Mangala Samaraweera, Patali Champika Ranawaka, Sarath Fonseka, Malik Samarawickrama and Rauff Hakeem.
They have accordingly been informed to appear before the PCoI on the 7th of September.
Further, Jathika Jana Balawegaya (JJB) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R. Sampanthan were also issued summons by the PCoI to record statements on the same day.
Former Director of the State Intelligence Service Nilantha Jayawardena stated that the State Intelligence Service also knew before the Easter attack that Rifkan Bathiudeen, the brother of former Minister Rishad Bathiudeen, had helped Saharan Hashim, who was evading court despite being issued a warrant, to flee to India by boat from Mannar.
This was when he testified before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Easter attack today (18).
He testified before the Presidential Commission today for the 13th day
He stated that he first received the intelligence on April 4 last year and stated that he had told the then IGP Pujith Jayasundara on April 7.
Meanwhile, former Minister of Defense Ruwan Wijewardene also appeared before the Police Investigation Unit of the Presidential Commission today (18) and statements were recorded from him for more than 5 hours.
Also, former Director of the CID Shani Abeysekara, who is currently in remand custody, appeared before the Commission’s Police Investigation Unit today
Sri Lanka has been confronting critical issues in constitutional reforms since independence, and many issues were underwater until 1970, in spite of receiving a dominion status in 1947 with a written constitution, constitutional reforms seemed to be a demand of academic and students. The constitutional reforms had been limited by the lack of parliament power (a two-third majority), and the election in 1970 gave the essential power in the parliament to a coalition government with SLFP, LSSP, and CP then began constitutional reforms. Although the ruling party gained a two-third majority in the parliament, a large volume of people represented the opposition with supports for constitutional reforms or without support for reforms. Constitutional reforms have contributed to political talk shows of loquacious people, and neglect the public demand for government intervention in policy-making for economic prosperity with the balanced growth process.
A large sum of funds spent on constitutional reforms and economically Sri Lanka gained nothing from the constitutional reform process than creating political differences and racial hates. The plurality of the population had no understanding or interest in constitutional matters and the contents of various clauses of the constitution are not apprehended by the public as they are related to legal matters.
The concept of constitutional reforms has created internal conflicts, armed struggles, and hate within a small volume of population. Now many people say constitutions reforms relate to personal matters or family matters than the requirement of the country. After the general election held in 2020, constitutional reforms have come again to doorsteps of people, and the new minister appointed for justice affairs has publicly expressed that cabinet papers are ready to dismiss the 19th amendment to the constitution replaced by the 20th amendment. As the amendment has not published, nobody knows what are contents in the amendment. The major question is, could the proposed constitutional reforms be united the divided community and if so how could be done it.
In addition to the basic idea, some people clamor to cancel the 13th amendment that created the provincial councils with a view to satisfying the Tamil community as the government at that time wrongfully believed that the creation of provincial councils would be an effective solution or a viable alternative to eradicate racial hates, and the war had been in the country between the government forces and LTTE terrorists mainly focused on creating a separated state in the North and East or a creating a combined provincial council with numerous power. Practical results reflect that the Tamil community has divided with the result of creating provincial councils than they were under a unitary structure of the constitution. Ordinary Tamil people in North and East gained nothing from constitutional reforms in the 13th amendment, but few leaders may have gained for job opportunities.
Tamil leaders expected more power to provincial councils such as the power to combining councils and others when enacted the 13th amendment, the police power and land powers to councils were not given, and many others such as the power to borrowing from overseas and to maintain the relationships with overseas countries reflecting a federal status or beyond the federal framework ignored as it was a creating a separate state. Mr.J.R.Jayawardane, the president of Sri Lanka at that time refused additional demands and agreed only to the delegation of central government power that considered appropriate to provincial councils for economic, social, and cultural developments in the area with strict supervision of the central government. A concrete argument of Mr.J.R.Jayawardane was Sri Lanka as one country should allow North and East to accommodate for people in the Western and Southern provinces when population explosion experience in these provinces. If additional power is given to provincial councils it would be creating problems in the country. The Indian advisors also viewed that allowing more political power to the provincial council could be a threat to India because LTTE terrorists intended to recreate the Vijayanagar Empire with a part of India and other Asian countries.
The reality of the 13th amendment was economically disadvantaged to the country because a large sum of government funds absorbed into unproductive provincial councils administration and economically provincial council administration created fiscal problems, inflation, and many problems to the monetary policy of the central bank. When compared to ideological gains received by the North and East people they cannot equalize the economic gains received by the country. The purpose of creating the provincial council was to helping economic decisions to improve the life of poor people in North and East as well as people in other areas of the country. The experience is more than 30 years in the past indicates that provincial councils are a whited sepulcher. If provincial councils dismissed the government can save a large sum of money and use them for the development purposes of the provinces. However, it may be a problem not only for people in the North and East but also to people in other areas too.
The 13th amendment has not supported to procreate economic federalism despite the support to maintain a unitary system in political administration. Economic federalism radically supports economic decision making at the provincial level and supports for balanced growth in the country. Since Donomore ameliorates economic decision-making at the provincial level was neglecting while the balanced growth has been gone to a unitary system that means economic decision-making and planning have gone to government bureaucrats, who are in the Colombo city. Top to bottom budgeting has been the priority Sri Lanka has become an economy depending on foreign debt, importing all items that could be produced in the country but the colonial government wanted a centralized system to control the country using bureaucracy. Several members of the state council (Mr.D.S. Senanayake, Mr.C.W.W Kannangara) wanted economic federalism giving justice to regional Sri Lanka. People in Sri Lanka want economic federalism that supports for economic planning and decision-making in regional. To provide water to rural farmers, open schools to educate rural kids, provide language skills (English) to rural people, and the ability to convert the current depending economy to a production economy. The economy cannot manage properly giving benefits to regional Sri Lanka by a unitary system that makes decisions from Colombo.
Under the reign of Kings and Queens, Sri Lanka had strong economic federalism and a unitary system in political administration. The economic federalism supported King Parakramabahu the great to export rice and the unitary system in political administration supported King Gajabu to invade India and bring back Sinhala people and additional South Indians and settle near the seaside area. Therefore, constitutional reforms in the country should be supporting task that strengthens economic federalism and political unitary system to keep Sri Lanka as a strong country.
Some people express that the protection of peoples’ sovereignty is a major expectation of constitutional reforms and for this purpose, appointing members from the national list and bonus MPs should be dismissed and the number of members to parliament limits to 100. The election system should be maintained based on electorates and not proportional representation. After the election in 2020, there are complaints that some electorates have no members. The president and representatives to legislature must be elected by votes of people.
The 19th amendment degraded the concept of people’s sovereignty helping to appoint representatives from a national list, who cannot obtain required supports from people. If people want to elect professionals to parliament it would be an issue because many professionals in various fields don’t like to engage in politics.
I have a dream! That one day, ministers will be chosen for their character and not for their family.
The scale and extent to which Sri Lanka has been captured by family-rule under the Rajapaksas is unprecedented. No country in the world sees such a depth and breadth of family members simultaneously occupying positions of power at every level of government.
Dynastic politics is common in South Asia. But the situation in Sri Lanka is orders of magnitude worse. Not only has there once again been brazen capture of the state apparatus by various clan-members, but the speed with which this happened, merely days after the election results, is both stunning and sickening.
This kind of clan-rule has happened in undeveloped African countries, but usually it has involved father-son dynamics only. Nowhere else in history have we seen father, uncle, son, another uncle, and nephew in cabinet together; not to mention both senior and junior minister posts being awarded to some of the same individuals.
The question that needs to be asked is,
Why doesn’t this happen in other countries?
The answer is simple,
It always fails.
In the span of human history, it is likely that other people have believed they and their blood line alone were the only ones fit to rule a nation. That is the nature of some megalomaniac rulers. And it is probable that throughout history, nations would have been captured by one particular family.
But why don’t we have any examples to refer to?
Because the nations which permitted this, or which were powerless to stop this, do not exist. They have been destroyed, or conquered, long forgotten, erased from human knowledge.
There is no contemporary country around the world where we have a similar situation as Sri Lanka is faced with.
Look at the pariah states — Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Syria, Cuba — not a single one sees a family cabinet ruling it.
Fine, Fidel Castro’s younger brother took over… but that’s the point. He took over, when Fidel stepped aside. He didn’t co-rule.
The Kim clan of North Korea rule in a hereditary manner, but only after the older person dies.
Let’s look at some respectable countries such as Japan, South Korea, France, Canada or Australia. Can you, off the top of your head, right now, tell me how many brothers or sisters the present leaders of each of those countries has?
Can you name Shinzo Abe of Japan’s children? Do you even know if he has any children? How many cousins does Justin Trudeau of Canada have? Do the numbers come to mind, right now? Can you name them? Without checking Wikipedia or searching online?
No. You cannot. Because those leaders don’t bring their entire family into the cabinet, or even give them prominent roles.
I was recently surprized to hear that Donald Trump, braggadocious even by American standards, had a younger brother! I read widely, but had no idea he had one. This is how it should be. And Trump, as a political outsider without backers, and surrounded by political enemies even within the Republican party, did not bring a single one of his children into the cabinet or give them a ministry to run. Why is that? Common decency, that’s why.
But why is it that Sri Lanka, a country honorably ruled by great Kings, and shaped by thousands of years of Buddhism which emphasizes compassion, has to be compared with the worst states of the present age? We are a democracy, the second oldest in Asia, and have many fine and talented citizens, who excel and become prosperous when they move abroad. But apparently, only one family deserves all offices of state.
And yet we are forced to plumb the depths of the global cesspit to even try and find a similar family-ruled country, and still, we come up empty-handed.
So Sri Lanka has become unique — an ugly wonder of the world.
During the war years from 2005-2009, most of Mahinda’s excesses and his close affiliation with gangsters such as Mervyn Silva (have we forgotten the attack on Rupavahini, and how he tied up an official to a tree, and how that victim was so scared to say what happened, that he said he had tied himself by accident?!) because there was a war to be fought. We ignored his jumbo cabinet and his purchasing of parliamentary votes through the dishing out of invented ministries, because there was a war to be fought.
And then the war was won. In 2011, Mahinda obtained a 2/3 majority in parliament in conjunction with Muslim parties. But nothing changed.
He had the chance to fix this country. He could have dismantled the 13A, a single action which would have solved multiple problems. It would have stopped the possibility of separatism, it would have removed the complication of transferring land and police powers, but most of all, repealing 13A would have reduced suffering: all those who have been beaten, bullied, and killed, tormented by the violent Provincial Council campaigns.
But no, Mahinda had other priorities. So he used his 2/3 majority to remove term limits on himself. And rather than strengthen democratic governance by appointing patriotic independent commissions, he took the power to appoint these committees for himself.
Mahinda has forgotten now, but it was due to the lawlessness, the corruption, and the day-to-day thuggery that ordinary Sri Lankans of every class suffered from 2011-2014, that he was rejected by the people on his 3rd election. The alternative was not the most appealing or well known person, and the association with Ranil made it a difficult decision, but in the end the Sinhalese decided that enough was enough, and booted him out.
Then in 2015, despite many realizing that yahapalanaya” was not what it was advertised as, and that a lot of the charges laid against the Rajapaksa regime were false, people still voted for a UNP government, even knowing that this would make Ranil the prime minister, again because they did not want a return to the Mahinda-domination of just a few months prior.
We have worked hard on these pages and on the earlier iteration (see footnotes), to fight against the lies, and treachery of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government, for five long years. We were appalled to see Mahinda and the Rajapaksa family — which despite all their many, many faults, still did rescue the country from terrorism and stood up to massive foreign pressure — being dragged through the mud, harangued, and vilified, not by some foreign occupier, but by our own lawyers, judges and prosecutors.
What is wrong is wrong. And locking up Namal and Wimal was wrong. Bringing war crimes charges against Gotabaya was wrong. Arresting Mahinda’s secretaries was wrong.
As 2019 approached, we needed a new leader to rally around, one who was patriotic and who would develop the nation, instead of dividing it and selling it. There were a few choices, but clearly Gotabaya, with his track record of efficient improvements to Colombo, was a good choice for president.
In manner, style, and speech, Gotabaya was different to the typical Rajapaksa. That is why he won the presidency. And during the recent general election campaign, the SLPP was able to get 2/3 purely because of Gotabaya. If you watch any of the media reports, you can see that he was at the forefront of the campaign, and he was the one who got the most air-time. The message was clear, and spoken by Gotabaya himself: vote SLPP, give me 2/3, so that I can fix the constitution and develop the country.
The people believed Gotabaya. The people trusted Gotabaya. They voted for Gotabaya to run the country in a different manner and style, with a focus on quality over quantity.
And then the cabinet was unveiled.
It was a coup.
Not Mahinda against Gotabaya, no. It was a coup of the Rajapaksas against the people of Sri Lanka.
Gotabaya hoovered up the votes of everybody by promising Singapore style efficient governance — not just from the Sinhala Buddhists, but even from some Tamils and Muslims who’d finally had enough of poverty and extremism, and even from UNP bastions of Colombo and Kandy — and placed them all in Mahinda’s lap.
The first sign of the trouble ahead was the swearing in of Mahinda. Rather than use a historic and humble setting, as has been the tradition until now, the government went for full theatrics. Mahinda’s inauguration as prime minister for the 4th time was nothing less than a coronation of a king.
The country is in serious peril on the economic front, but there was not a hint of the seriousness and gravity of the situation. In true show-man Mahinda fashion, the whole event was a celebration, an Ancient Rome style triumph, a carnival in honor of this man and every member of his family.
It doesnt’t seem to have registered that in reality he was just another MP, that he is not monarch for life but elected for just 5 years.
Out went the promised scientific method, and in came the same old Mahinda method. No, the determinant for a cabinet ministry was not suitability, skill set, or vision. Instead cabinet posts and ministries were handed out like candies, rewards for loyalty.
And don’t even get me started on the use of Sri Dalada Maligawa as the venue for the cabinet inauguration — someone please tell Mahinda, and Gotabaya, that they aren’t kings.
The 19A limits the cabinet to 30 ministers, but that doesn’t mean all 30 slots had to be filled! But we got this absurdity:
6 ministers could do the job of the 17 fake ministries listed above. A cabinet of 10 was more than enough.
Next, there is no limit for the number of State ministers, so we got this farce:
So that’s 30 state ministers doing the job of 9 state ministers. And the 10th one on the list, wildlife protection, could easily be part of the wildlife” cabinet ministry above. Simply put, there are 22 superfluous state ministries, with all their attendant perks, vehicles, staff, and expenses. And God knows how many thugs and crooks will be employed at each of these ministries, at taxpayer expense.
Now let’s look at how many ministries the Rajapaksas have awarded themselves:
So that is 8 out of 67 ministries. Five immediate members of the same family occupy 12% of all cabinet positions. How many salaries are they getting from the taxpayer? This is unprecedented — whether you are comparing with democracies or dictatorships.
Will the clause of the 19A barring dual-citizens from holding office also be scrapped, so that Basil can be brought into the government again?
Mind you, these are merely the open” Rajapaksas, there may be some other hidden” relatives with different names in the cabinet, and this does not account for those family members who work within ministries, state companies, regulatory bodies, or within the diplomatic service.
Men? Men are weak… It is because of men the Ring survives. I was there. I was there 3000 years ago… when Isildur took the Ring. I was there the day the strength of men failed. I led Isildur into the heart of Mount Doom, where the Ring was forged, the one place it could be destroyed! It should have ended that day, but evil was allowed to endure. Isildur kept the Ring.”
Lord Elrond speaks to Gandalf at Rivendell — The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Looking at what is going in front of us right now, I cannot help but feel like Elrond, the leader of the Elves, from The Lord of the Rings novels. He recounts how, when there was a chance to destroy evil forever, the man who should have done it faltered, was seduced by power, and thought he could use it to strengthen his blood line. In the end it destroyed his family.
Sri Lanka too is at a crucial moment in its history. The wretched citizens, with nowhere to turn, placed their hopes in Gotabaya — so desperate were they to lift themselves out of the abject poverty they find themselves in. But at the crucial moment, Gotabaya has faltered, and together with Mahinda, has been seduced by power.
As I said earlier, what is wrong is wrong:
It is wrong to give your own family members multiple ministries in the cabinet.
It is wrong to give your body-builder, undignified, poorly educated, uncultured son a ministry when there are plenty of others more qualified and better suited.
It is wrong to give your idiot brother Chamal ministries. It is wrong to give your good-for-nothing clown of a nephew Shasheendra a ministry when there are so many others who are deserving.
It is wrong to abuse the people’s trust like this. It is wrong to hold the people in contempt like this — they are free and sovereign citizens, with hopes and dreams.
It is wrong to obstruct others with talent from entering parliament by stuffing nomination lists with your clan, or gaining ministry experience.
It is wrong to treat this ancient nation with its great history and the legacy of all those who fought and died to protect it over millennia as if it is your personal property, to divide up into pieces and apportion those chunks to your own family members as you, and only you, see fit.
It is wrong to declare that only you and your blood line are capable, smart, and deserving enough to be ministers, prime ministers and presidents.
The placement of Namal, Chamal and Shasheendra on the minister list shows that Gotabaya and Mahinda have placed their clan above the country. They work not for the betterment of the people, but for the betterment of the Rajapaksas. We knew this was the case back in 2004-2014. But to see it repeating again in front of our eyes right now, and so soon, is stupefying. Have they learnt nothing from their rejection in 2015? Or perhaps the better question is, have we learnt nothing of the Rajapaksas?
There was a better way.
Gotabaya could have said Mahinda, I don’t think it’s right for you to be prime minister again, and what will the public think if I make Namal and Chamal and Shasheendra ministers?! Let us show the people that we will do things differently this time, that we are are responsible. Let us limit the cabinet to a bare minimum, given how small our country is and how poor we are.”
Mahinda could have said Gotabaya, I’ve been prime minister 3 times already, let someone else do the job. I will be your adviser instead. And no, of course Namal should not be getting a ministry! How embarrassing that would be for me, the public would think we are mad, spreading nepotism like this!”
Namal could have said Father, Uncle, I do not deserve a minister position. What skills do I have? I only got a 3rd-class bare minimum pass law degree from a 3rd rate polytechnic college. Let me be an MP and learn for a few more years. I want to become a minister on my own accord, through my own skills, and not through nepotism or favors. What will the public think?!”
But that is not what happened. The conversations at the dinner table at Temple Trees and the Presidential Palace took a different turn. There was only one thought process and only one mission. Mahinda, Gotabaya, Namal, Chamal, Shasheendra, and all the others spoke with one voice:
We are back! They’ve voted for us again! With 2/3 this time! Let’s take whatever ministries we can. Let’s reward our cronies. Let’s divide up the state and hand out pieces of it like candy to those who lick our boots. Let’s make sure Chamal succeeds Mahinda, and create a path so Namal succeeds Gotabaya, and Shasheendra succeeds Namal!”
Sri Lanka will weep because the power play of the Rajapaksa clan enriches the family, while the country is hobbled. It will remain impoverished, decaying and stagnant. The people will toil, and pray for decent leaders, but none will come. Those who are genuine, and honorable, and noble, and honest, will have all those good attributes ground out of them through frustration. No one with skill and ability will be allowed to rise up. They will be noticed and identified, and will be sidelined, or worse. The Rajapaksa clan will have taken over everything, from the parliament to the ministries to the regulatory bodies to the state enterprises to the the private companies.
At the beginning of this article I asked the question, why we do not see any other country, now or in the past, with a similar clan-based government? I answered that it was because such countries collapse and are conquered, and are erased from history.
Saddam Hussein worked hard to hand Iraq to his sons. Gaddafi wanted his sons to take over Libya. Mubarak wanted his son to take over Egypt. They all held onto power for decades, hoping to suffocate anyone who would be a challenger to their children, to their succession. It’s important to note that even these dictators did not stack their cabinets with relatives, though they had full power to do so.
But all three of these people failed. Their sons never saw power.
In America, the Bushes are a dynasty of far superior quality than any third world political family, and yet the youngest one, Jeb, was unable to secure the presidential nomination.
In a slightly different example, the great minds of Imperial Japan planned to create an ever-lasting East-Asian empire, but two atom bombs came out of nowhere and put an end to that.
Closer to home, Ranil’s father was adamant that Ranil should rule the country one day, but he could never become president, while his premierships always ended in failure. Chandrika became president, but her son has no chance of entering high office.
What I seek to illustrate by all this is that the best laid plans, even those created by far greater minds than the Rajapaksas of Medamullana, can go awry.
It is certain that without the backing of Gotabaya or Mahinda, who have huge political resonance due to the war effort, the Rajapaksa family will lose all its clout, and will shrink into obscurity.
Perhaps then, things will improve. Until then, never give up. Demand better! Do not let them get away scot-free. Until then, keep fighting!
We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender!”
Prime Minister Winston Churchill — Address to Parliament with Nazi invasion of Britain looming,
June 4th 1940
Sri Lanka has reached an important threshold of her history with the conclusion of the General Elections and the undisputed victory of the nationalist forces led by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, While we still remember the memorable victory of Mahinda Rajapaksa. over the Tamil Tiger terrorists in another epoch, we could not make use of the opportunities
created to pave the way for the defeat of anti-nationalist forces to wrest the control of affairs of the country in 2015. The action plan of the Yahapalanya completely overturned the destiny of the country in that the war heroes who saved the country from the rule of terror of the Tamil Tigers were hunted down and Sri Lanka became the co-sponsor of UNCHR resolution which was drafted on the assumption that our forces committed human rights violations, ‘discovered and concocted ‘ by some NGO scriptwriters and their fellow travelers. In regard to internal affairs, in our attempts to give recognition to the term, “reconciliation ” we were made to forget the separatist specter which was active in the country from the time of Independence. In the end, with the Islamic terrorists killing nearly 300 unarmed civilians the chapter on Yahapalnay ended proving again that the State should be strong enough to protect the people and the country at large.
One of the most critical issues which need the attention of the new government is to consider introduction of a unitary constitution for the country doing away with the 13ht amendment based on JR/Raviv accord signed on 29th July 1987. The 13th A not only diluted our constitution but also created a white elephant in the form of Provincial councils. The history of the Provincial Councils in Sri Lanka teaches us a lesson on how not to create tiers of administration which provides jobs for the marginalized politicians, how not to waste public funds and enterprise. The colossal wastage of funds on the running of the Provincial councils is a crucial factor to be recognized in the management of the post-Corvid economy. Based on the official sources. the expenditure figures are as follows.
“Sri Lanka Provincial Councils: Expenditure -1996 – 2017 | Yearly | LKR mn | Ministry of Finance
Sri Lanka’s Provincial Councils: Expenditure data was reported at Rs 286,031.000 million in Dec 2017. In 2016 it was Rs 276,147.000 million For the 31 years of the Provincial councils the expenses incurred had been calculated to be Rs 3.2 billion according to one reviewer. At present. the salary component of the expenditure is estimated to be 65% of total expenditure was spent on manpower while only 16% of their total budget was used for capital expenditure.” This abominable practice of spending money for the survival of the men in power cannot be justified under any acceptable criteria.
An important issue in creating the Provincial councils was that it would provide more opportunities for the minority Tamil people in the North and the East provinces. However, when the facts are analyzed one can conclude that it was again only an opening for an additional set of politicians to enjoy at the expense of the public funds. It was the central government that drove the economy and administration while the Provincial Councils enjoyed the ill-gotten benefits.
Therefore, the new nationalist government should;
1 Not plan to have elections for the Provincial Councils as it will be a big drain on the coffers of the country and it will a stepping stone to revive PCs. The present need is to spend every cent to plan the development and the administration of the country hit by COVID 19.
2 To initiate a course for the abolition of the 13 A and restore the Unitary Constitution of Sri Lanka within the next 3 months.
3 To draw up a plan to accommodate minority representation at the center through a second chamber or delegating powers to expedite the implementation of economic plans to joint District Development Councils.
RANJTH SOYSA
Published on: Aug 17, 2020 – බුද්ධ ශාසන අමාත්යධුරය ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් දැරිය යුතු බවට ප්රකාශයක් කරන ලෙස ඉල්ලා නීතිඥ අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන ශ්රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයට අද මුලික අයිතිවාසිකම් පෙත්සමක් ගොනු කර තිබේ.මේ වනවිට ජනාධිපතිවරයා යටතේ පවතින ආරක්ෂක අමාත්ය ධූරයද වෙනත් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්රීවරයෙකු වෙත පැවරීමට සූදානමක් ඇති බව දැනගන්නට ඇති බවද ඔහු සදහන් කර තිබේ. මෙම පෙත්සමේ වගඋත්තරකරු ලෙස ජනාධිපතිවරයා වෙනුවට නීතිපතිවරයා නම් කර තිබේ.
බුද්ධ සාසන අමාත්යංශය ජනාධිපතිවරයා යටතේ තබ නොගෙන එය මන්ත්රීවරයෙකු යටතට පත් කිරිම හරහා ආණ්ඩුක්රම ව්යවස්ථාව උල්ලංඝනය කර ඇති බවට නිගමනයි කරන ප්රකාශයක් නිකුත් කරන ලෙස ඉල්ලා ශ්රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයයට පෙත්සමක් ඉදිරිපත් වුනා. නීතිඥ අරුණ උණවටුන පෙන්වා දෙන්නේ රටේ සමස්ත ඡන්ද දායකයින්ගෙන් පත්වන ජනාධිපතිවරයා යටතේ ආරක්ෂක අමාත්යංශය මෙන්ම බුද්ධ සාසන අමාත්යංශයද පැවතිය යුතු බවයි.එය එක් දිස්ත්රික්කයක ඡන්ද හරහා පත්වන මන්ත්රීවරයෙකු යටතට පත්කිරිම ව්යවස්ථාවට පටහැගී බවයි බවයි ඔහුගේ මතය වි ඇත්තේ.
එලෙස කළහොත් එම ක්රියාව මෙන්ම බුද්ධ ශාසන අමාත්ය ධූරය පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්රීවරයෙකු වෙත පැවරීමෙන් ආණ්ඩුක්රම ව්යවස්ථාව උල්ලංඝණය වීමක් සිදුවී ඇති බවට නිගමනය කරන ප්රකාශයක් නිකුත් කරන ලෙසත් නීතිඥ අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන මහතා ශ්රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයෙන් ඉල්ලා තිබේ.
යම් දිස්ත්රික්කයක ඡන්ද දායකයන්ගේ ඡන්දයෙන් හෝ ජාතික ලැයිස්තුවෙන් පත්වන මන්ත්රීවරයෙකු මෙන් නොව ජනාධිපතිවරයා මුලු රටේම ජනතාවගේ සෘජු ඡන්දයෙන් පත්වන හෙයින් ආරක්ෂක අමාත්ය ධූරය හා බුද්ධ ශාසන අමාත්ය ධූරය ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් දැරීම ආණ්ඩුක්රම ව්යවස්ථාව අනුව කළ යුතු බවත් පෙත්සමේ සඳහන් ය.
එසේ නොකිරීම ආණ්ඩුක්රම ව්යවස්ථාවේ 9, 10 සහ 12 – එක ව්යවස්ථාවලින් ආරක්ෂා කර ඇති අයිතිවාසිකම් උල්ලංඝණය කිරීමක් හෝ උල්ලංඝණය කිරීමට අත්යාසන්න කිරීමක් බවත් පෙත්සම්කරු ශ්රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයට පෙන්වා දී තිබේ.
ආණ්ඩුක්රම ව්යවස්ථාවේ 30 වැනි ව්යවස්ථාව අනුව ජනාධිපතිවරයා රජයේ ප්රධානියා ද, විධායකයේ ප්රධානියා ද වී සිටියදී ආණ්ඩුක්රම ව්යවස්ථාවේ 9 වන ව්යවස්ථාව අනුව බුද්ධාගමට ප්රමුඛස්ථානය පිරිනමන්නේය යන්න අනුව ක්රියා නොකර සිටීමෙන් ජනාධිපතිවරයා නෛතික වැරද්දක් සිදුකර ඇති බව ද පෙත්සම්කරු සිය පෙත්සම මගින් පෙන්වා දී තිබේ.
මේ අතර ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ ආරක්ෂක අමාත්යධුරය ලබා ගැනීම, ආණ්ඩුක්රම ව්යවස්ථාවේ දහනම වැනි ව්යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය අමු අමුවේ උල්ලංඝණය කිරීමක් බව දේශපාලන ප්රවීනයන් පෙන්වා දෙනවා.ජනාධිපතිවරණයෙන් පසුව රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ ආණ්ඩුව සිය බලය අතහැර ගිය පසුව මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ප්රමුඛ පොදුජන එක්සත් පෙරමුණ ආණ්ඩු බලය ලබාගත් අවස්ථාවේදී ආරක්ෂක අමාත්යාංශය භාරව කිසිදු අමාත්යවරයකු පත් නොකර සිටියද මෙවර මහමැතිවරණයෙන් ලැබු තුනෙන් දෙකේ බලයත් සමඟ ජනාධිපතිවරයා ව්යවස්ථා විරෝධීව ආරක්ෂක අමාත්යාංශය සියතට ගැනීමට කටයුතු කර තිබේ.
19 ව්යවස්ථාවේ 43(2) ව්යවස්ථා ප්රකාරව අමාත්ය ධුරයක් දැරිය හැක්කේ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්රිවරයකුට පමණක් වන අතර ජනාධිපතිවරයා පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්රීවරයකු නොවන බැවින් ඔහුට අමාත්ය ධුරයක් දැරීමට හිමිකමක් නැත. #Gotabaya #Rajapaksa
නීතිඥ අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන ශ්රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයට ගොනුකල මුලික අයිතිවාසිකම් පෙත්සම පහත දැක්වේ.
The entire nation of Sri Lanka was left without power Monday in a seven-hour outage following a failure at a key electricity facility, officials said.
Minister of Power Dullas Alahapperuma said an unspecified “technical issue” at the Kerawalapitiya power complex just outside the capital Colombo was the cause of the blackout, which hit the entire nation of 21 million people at about midday.
Power was restored in Colombo after seven hours, but some other parts of the island nation were yet to be reconnected.
It was the worst disruption since March 2016, when the whole country was without electricity for more than eight hours following a massive system breakdown.
The public utilities regulator said there would be a probe into the failure and gave the state-run electricity monopoly, the Ceylon Electricity Board, three days to explain the massive disruption.
The power cut caused chaos on already congested roads in Colombo, with traffic lights not operating and police struggling to man key intersections.
Water supply was also affected as there was no electricity to operate the pumps.
Hospitals and other critical infrastructure in the country had power generators. The main airport has remained mostly shut because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Sri Lanka generates just over half of its electricity through thermal power. The remainder comes from hydro and wind power.
Kerawalapitiya is an oil-fired thermal power station with a 300-megawatt capacity, about 12 percent of the country’s electricity demand.
Localised power failures are not uncommon but nationwide outages are rare.
North Western Province Governor A.J.M. Mr. Muzammil says that it is mostly their own groups that is inciting racism.
He stated this while participating in a program held in Colombo yesterday afternoon.
ජනාධිපති නීතිඥ අලි සබ්රි මහතාට ජාතික ලැයිස්තු මන්ත්රී ධුරයක් සහ අධිකරණ කැබිනට් ඇමති ධුරයක් පිරිනැමීම සමාජයේ යම් කැළඹීමකට හේතු වී ඇත. එහෙත් ජාතික කොන්ග්රසයේ නායක ALM අතාවුල්ලා මන්ත්රීතුමා වෙනම තරඟ කර ජයගත් අතර ඔහුගේ පක්ෂයට ජාතික ලැයිස්තු මන්ත්රී ධුරයක් හෝ ඔහුට අඩුම තරමින් රාජ්ය අමාත්ය ධුරයක් හෝ ලබා නොදීම ගැන අඩු තරමින් කතාබහක් හෝ ඇති වී නැත.
ඒ.එල්.එම්. අතාවුල්ලා මහතා අගමැති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ සමග සමීප සබඳතා පවත්වන්නෙකි. ජනාධිපති නීතිඥ මොහොමඩ් අලි සබ්රි මහතා වඩාත් සමීපව ඇසුරු කරන්නේ ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතා බව රහසක් නොවේ.
අතාවුල්ලා මහතා නැගෙනහිර මුස්ලිම් නායකයෙකු වන අතර ජනපදනමක් ඇති නායකයෙකි. සබ්රි මහතා උගතෙකු වන අතර කොළඹ – කළුතර ප්රදේශවල ඉපදී හැදී වැඩුනු අයෙකි. සබ්රි මහතා පොදුවේ මුස්ලිම් ජනතාවට ආමන්ත්රණය කරමින් ආණ්ඩුවට සහයෝගය ඉල්ලා සිටි අයෙකි. ඔහුගේ ආමන්ත්රණය දැනුනේ සාමාන්ය මුස්ලිම් ජනතාවට නොව උගත් මුස්ලිම් ප්රජාවටයි.
අතාවුල්ලා මහතාගේ ආමන්ත්රණය අම්පාර දිස්ත්රික්කයේ මුස්ලිම් ජනතාවට වන අතර හතලිස් දාහකට ආසන්න මුස්ලිම් ජනතාවක් ඔහු සමග සිටගත් බව පැහැදිලි විය.
සබ්රි මහතාට ජාතික ලැයිස්තු මන්ත්රී ධුරයක් හිමිවුවත් අතවුල්ලාට වෙනම තරඟ ජයගැනීමේ අභියෝගයක් තිබිණි. සබ්රිට ජාතික ලැයිස්තු මන්ත්රී ධුරය ලබා දී අතවුල්ලාට කැබිනට් අමාත්ය ධුරයක් හෝ අඩු තරමේ රාජ්ය අමාත්ය ධුරයක් ලබාදිය යුතුව තිබිණි.
එහෙත් එය ඉටු කිරීමට තරම් මේ ආණ්ඩුව දූරදර්ශී වී නැත.
අතාවුල්ලා මුස්ලිම් ජනතාව අතර එතරම් ජනප්රිය නායකයෙක් නොවේ. ඒ ජාතික සහජීවනය ඔහුගේ මූලික තේමාවක් වන හෙයිනි.සුෆීවාදී සාම්ප්රදායික මුස්ලිම් බැතිමතෙකු වන ඔහුගේ පක්ෂයට වඩා වඩා තව්හීද් ජමාත් අනුගාමිකයෙකු වන රිෂාඩ් බදියුදීන්ගේ පක්ෂය නැගෙනහිරින් ඡන්ද ලබාගත්තේය.
ආණ්ඩුවේ වැඩි සැලකීමක් අතාවුල්ලාට නොලැබෙන බව නැගෙනහිර මුස්ලිම් ජනයා වටහාගතහොත් ඉදිරි මැතිවරණවලදී ඔවුන් අතාවුල්ලාගෙන් ඉවත් වීමේ අවධානමක් ඇත. එය මෙරට සිංහල මුස්ලිම් සහජීවනයට එතරම් හිතදායක නොවේ.මා එසේ පවසන්නේ ඇයි ?
සබ්රි සහ අතාවුල්ලා අතර බොහෝ අයගේ අවධානය යොමු නොවුණු තවත් වෙනසක් ඇති බව දැනගන්නට තිබේ. අතාවුල්ලා සුෆිවාදයට නැඹුරු සාම්ප්රදායික මුස්ලිම්වරයෙකි. අනෙක් අතට සබ්රි මහතා සුෆීවාදය හෝ සාම්ප්රදායික මුස්ලිම් බැතිමතෙකු නොවන බවද දැනගන්නට තිබේ.
ඔහු තව්හීද් ජමාතයට අයත් වන්නෙක් ද? මෙරට මුස්ලිම් සමාජයේ සම්ප්රදායික මුස්ලිම් සහ තව්හීද් වැනි වහබ්වාදී නව ප්රවණතා දක්නට ලැබෙයි. කන්තූරී දෙන, බයිත් සහ මවුලුත් ගායනා කරන, ෂියාරම්වලට ගරුකරන, මුහම්මද් නබිතුමාගේ උපන්දිනය සමරන,කත්තම් දෙන මුස්ලිම් බැතිමතුන් පිරිසක් සහ ඒවාට එරෙහි ව කටයුතු කරන පිරිසක් සිටින බව දිලිත් ජයවීර මහතාද ඇතුළු මෙරට බොහෝ දෙනෙකු නොදනිති.
සිංහලයන් මෙන්ම ගලේ බණ්ඩාර දෙවියන්ට සහ කිවුලේගෙදර අප්පුහාමි දෙවියන්ට ගරු කරන්නේ මෙරට සිටින සාම්ප්රදායික මුස්ලිම් බැතිමතුන් මිස වහබ්වාදීන් නොවෙති.
බේරුවල සිංහල මුස්ලිම් ගැටුමට සතියකට පමණ පෙර ඇතිවූ මුස්ලිම්-මුස්ලිම් ගැටුම සහ කාතන්කුඩියේදී සහරාන් කල්ලිය සහ ඊට එරෙහි මුස්ලිම් පිරිස අතර ගැටුම මේ දෙපිරිස අතර ගැටුම් බව මෙරට කී දෙනෙක් දනිත් ද?
මෙරට සෑම ප්රදේශයකම මේ මුස්ලිම් මුස්ලිම් ගැටුම දක්නට ලැබේ.මේ දෙපිරිස අතරින් මේ ආණ්ඩුවේ සහයෝගය හිමිවිය යුත්තේ සහරාන්ලා නියෝජනය කරන වහබ්වාදීන්ට ද?
එසේ නොවේනම් ජාතික සහජීවනයට කැපවුණු සාම්ප්රදායික මුස්ලිම්වරුන්ටද යන්න ගැන ජනාධිපතිවරයාට හෝ ආණ්ඩුවට අවබෝධයක් නැති බව පෙනේ.
එමෙන්ම ජනපදනමක් ඇති අයටද නැත්නම් ජනපදනමක් නැති අයටද යන්න ගැනද ඔවුන්ට අවබෝධයක් ඇති බවක් නොපෙනේ.
පසුගිය ආණ්ඩුවේ ද ඇමතිකම් සහ වෙනත් වරදාන සියල්ලක් ම පාහේ ලැබුනේ වහබ්වාදීන්ට බව නොරහසකි.
යහපාලනය කොතරම් හොඳින් ක්රියාත්ම වූවාද යත් සහාරන්ට එරෙහිව කාතන්කුඩි පොලීසියට කෙරුණු පැමිණිලි විභාග කර ඔහුව අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීමට ශ්රීලංකා පොලීසිය අපොහොසත් විය.
සහරාන් ට එරෙහිව මේ පැමිණිලි කර ඇත්තේ සිංහලයන් විසින් නොව ඒ ප්රදේශයේම සාම්ප්රදායික මුස්ලිම්වරුන්ය යන්න මෙරට සමාජය තේරුම් නොගන්නේ ඇයිද යන්න ගැටලුවකි.
මට දැනෙනා හැටියට ඕනෑවට වඩා සිංහල,දෙමළ හෝ මුස්ලිම් උගතුන් කෙරෙහි විශ්වාසය තැබීමට යෑම නිසා මේ ආණ්ඩුව සහ ජනාධිපතිවරයා කෙලවා ගැනීමට ඇත.
සමාජයෙන් දිගින් දිගටම මේ විරෝධය මතුවුවහොත් සබ්රි මහතා වුවද මේ තනතුරේ වැඩි කලක් නොසිටුණු ඇතැයි සිතමි.
සුමේධ වීරවර්ධන.- ජ්යෙෂ්ඨ කථිකාචාර්ය සුමේධ වීරවර්ධන
අලුත් ඇමති මණ්ඩලය දිවුරුම් දුන්නා. අලි සබ්රි පත් කිරීම සහ තවත් ඇතැම් පත්කිරීම්/පත්නොකිරීම් ගැන මගේ එකඟත්වයක් නැහැ. අලි සබ්රි කියන්නෙ සියුම් මුස්ලිම් අන්තවාදියෙක්. ඒ බුද්ධිමතකු වියතකු උගතකු නොවූ මට තේරෙණ විධිය. එක්තරා බුද්ධිමත් ජාතිකවාදියකු කියනවා අපට ඇත්තේ හුදෙක් සබ්රි විරෝධයක් කියලා.
ඔහුට අනුව ගෝඨාභය අතින් වරදක් වෙන්නෙ නැහැ. ඒ නිසා සබ්රිට ඔහුට අවශ්ය දෙයක් කරන්න බැහැ. මා නම් ඒ තර්ක පිළිගන්නේ නැහැ. ඇයි ඉතින් සබ්රි ව ම දා ගත්තෙ. වරදක් වෙන්නෙ නැති වෙන කවුරුවක්වත් නැද්ද?
මා සබ්රි පුද්ගලික ව හඳුනන්නෙ නැහැ. සබ්රිට විරුද්ධ ව නැගුණු විරෝධය හිරු ප්රධානීන්ගේ මූලිකත්වයෙන් වූ එකක් බව කියන්න ඇතැමුන් උත්සාහ කරනවා. මා එය විශ්වාස කරන්නේ නැහැ. කිසිවකු හිතනවා ද මාත් හිරු ප්රචාරයට අහුවෙලා කියලා. සබ්රි පසුගිය කාලයේ කළ ප්රකාශ ඇතැමුන් සඳහන් කර තිබෙනවා. ඒ කියවා බලන්න පුළුවන්.
අලි සබ්රිට අනුව ඔහු අවුරුදු තිහක් පමණ ජාතික දේශපාලනයක යෙදිල. මා දැන ගෙන හිටියෙ නැහැ. සබ්රිට අනුව ඔහු ඇමතිවරයකු ලෙස පත්කිරීමට විරුද්ධ වන්නේ ජාතික දේශපාලනයට විරුද්ධ අය. මාත් සබ්රි පත්වනවාට කැමති නැහැ. ඒ ඔහු පසුූගිය දිනවල සිදු කළ ප්රකාශ නිසා. මා මෙතෙක් දැන සිටියේ නැහැ මා ජාතික දේශපාලනයකට විරුද්ධ අයකු බව. ඒ බව දැන ගැන්වීමට සැලැස්වීම ගැන සබ්රිට පින් දෙන්න බැහැ. ඔහුට පව් පින් තියෙනවා කියල මා හිතන්නෙ නැහැ.
ජාතික ලැයිස්තුවෙන් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට පැමිණි අලි සබ්රි අමාත්ය මණ්ඩලයට නැතිව ම බැරි බුද්ධිමතෙක් ද? ඔහු අවුරුදු තිහක් ජාතිකවාදී දේශපාලනයක හිටියත් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට නවකයෙක්. මා දන්නේ නැහැ මේ ඇමති මණ්ඩලයේ (කැබිනට්) තවත් නවකයන් ඉන්නවා ද කියා. මා හිතන්නේ මේ පත් කිරීමත් සමග යම් ජාතිකවාදී පිරිසක් ආණ්ඩුව සමග කළකිරෙනවා කියා. එහෙත් ඔවුන්ට පක්ෂ වීමට වෙනත් දේශපාලන පක්ෂයක් නැහැ.
ඊයේ පෙරේදා ජාතිකවාදී දේශපාලනයට පැමිණි මට නම් කළකිරෙන්න දෙයක් නැහැ. පහුගිය අවුරුදු තුනේ දෙරණ සබ්රිට 360 අඩු තරමෙන් දෙවරක් දීල තියෙනවා. සරත් වීරසේකරට හරි දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධනට හරි එක වතාවක්වත් දීල නැහැ. දිනේෂ්ට පහුගිය අවුරුදු පහළොවට ම දීල නැහැ කියලයි මගේ මතකය හරි අමතකය හරි.
මටත් 360 ලැබෙන්නෙ හාවා හඳ දකින්න වගේ. දුන්නම ඔවුන් හදන්නෙ මා වංචනිකයකු බව පෙන්වන්න. ඔවුන් ප්රශ්න කරන්නෙ ඒ අරමුණෙන්
.අද අගෝස්තු 12 වැනි දා තවත් අතකින් වැදගත්. අද හර්තාල් දිනය බව ඇතැම් වම්මුන් දන්නෙ නැතිව ඇති. ඒත් තිස්ස විතාරණ වැන්නන්ට අමතක වේවි කියල හිතන්න බැහැ. හර්තාලෙ සිද්ධ වුණෙ 1953 දි. අවුරුදු 67කට පෙර. මට මතකයි කුඩා ළමයකු ලෙස මා ගෙදර ඉඳන් බලා හිටියා සැතපුම් තුන්කාලකට පමණ එහා දුම්රියකට ගිනි තැබීම නිසා පිට වූ දුම. රේල් පාරෙ ගැහැණු උදවිය ආප්ප පිච්චූ බවටත් ආරංචි වුණා.
පාණදුරේ එකල නම් සමසමාජ පුරයක්. පනස්හයේ ම එ පෙ ජයග්රහණය කළා.එ ජා පක්ෂය අටට බැස්සා. ජේ ආරුත් කැලණියෙන් පැරදුණා. ඒ ගෝඨාභය සේනානායකට (ආර් ජී).
අද රනිල් පෑරදිලා. ඔහු කැලණියේ දායක සභාවෙන් පන්නල ටිකක් කල්. කොහොම වුණත් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ අගමැති ලෙස හතරවැනි වරට දිවුරුම් දුන්නෙ කැලණියෙ ඒ තවත් ගෝඨාභය කෙනකු ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ ඉදිරියේ. වාමාංශිකයන් පනස්හයේ ජයග්රහණය විග්රහ කෙළේ හර්තාලයේ ප්රතිඵලයක් ලෙස.
මෙවර තුනෙන් දෙකේ ජයග්රහණයත් හර්තාලයේ ප්රතිඵලයක් ද දන්නෙ නැහැ. වමට පමණක් නොව අප කාට කාටත් අවශ්යයි ජයග්රහණය උරුම කර ගන්න. වම පනස්හය ගැන කිව්වෙ ඒක හර්තාලයේ ජයග්රහණයක් ලෙස. සමසමාජ පක්ෂය එදා මහජන එක්සත් පෙරමුණේ කොටස් කාරයකු නො වෙයි. එන් එම් පෙරේරා විරුද්ධ පක්ෂයේ නායකයා වුණා. ඔවුන් කිවුවෙ නැහැ විරුද්ධ පක්ෂයෙ නායකයා වීම හර්තාලයෙ ප්රතිඵලයක් ලෙස. මෙරට වම එදත් අදත් අනුන්ගෙ ජයග්රහණ වෙනුවෙන් කැප වෙනවා.
ඒත් රණසිංහ ප්රේමදාසගෙ ජයග්රහණයට හේතුව තමන්ගෙ විප්ලවය බව නම් ජ වි පෙ කියල නැහැ. සකර්බර්ග් හා වෙනත් පඬියන් පඬි පෝතකයන් පඬි නැට්ටන් අර මොකක් ද ජන බලවේගය පැරදුණෙ ඇයි කියල කියන්නෙ නැහැ. ඒ වෙනුවට ඔවුන් ආණ්ඩුව අසාර්ථක වෙන බව කියනවා.
ඒකට හිතවත් අහවල්ලු අහවල්ලු ප්රතිවිරුද්ධ මත දරණ අය කියල කියනවා. ඒක ඇත්ත. ඕන ම දේශපාලන සංවිධානයක එහෙම විරුද්ධ මත දරණ අය ඉන්නවා. කිසිම පක්ෂයක් සජාතීය නො වෙයි. වම්මුන් අතරත් ප්රශ්න තියෙනවා. උදාහරණයක් ලෙස අර බලවේගයට සහාය දුන් කුමාර් ඩේවිඩ් හා නදීක ගුරුගෙ දරන්නෙ එක ම මතයක් ද?
ඔවුන් අඩු තරමෙන් කම්කරු පංතිය කියන්නෙ මොකක් ද කියන එක ගැනවත් එකඟ වෙනවා ද? ඒත් වමට ඒ ප්රතිවිරුද්ධකම් ප්රශ්නයක් වෙන්නෙ නැහැ. ඔවුන් සම්මජාතියෙ බලයට එන්නෙ නැහැ. මොන තරම් වාසනාවන්තයන් ද? ප්රතිවිරුද්ධකම් එළියට එන්නෙ නැහැ.හර්තාලයෙ දි රජයේ දේපළ විනාශ කෙරුවා. වමේ නායකයන් ඒ ගැන විරුද්ධ වුණා කියල මට මතකයක් නැහැ.
සමහර විට ඒ වන විට මා කුඩා ළමයකු නිසා ඒ මතකයක් නැතිවා ද දන්නෙ නැහැ. හර්තාල් කියන්නෙ සිංහල වචනයක් නොවෙයි. හර්තාල් කියන වචනෙ එන්නෙ ගුජරාටි භාෂාවෙන්. ගුජරාටියේ ගාන්ධි ඒ වචනය යොදා ගත්ත ඉන්දියානු නිදහස් සටනෙ දි. වෙනත් ඉන්දීය භාෂාවලත් ඒ වචනය තියෙනවා. එයින් කියැවුණෙ යම් විරුද්ධතාවක් වෙනුවෙන් කඩ සාප්පු කාර්යාල ආදිය වසා දැමීම. අපේ රටේ දහනවවැනි සියවසෙන් පසුව ඉංගිරිසින්ට විරුද්ධ ව සමූහ ජනතා සටන් විදිවල නොතිබූ බැවින් එවැනි උපක්රම විසිවැනි සියවසේ කලින් යොදා ගෙන තිබුණෙ නැහැ.
කොහොම හරි වම කම්කරු පංතිය විතරක් නොවෙයි හර්තාලයත් පිටින් ගත්තා. 1953න් අවුරුදු පහළොවකට විතර පස්සෙ ඊනියා නව වම බවට පත්වුණූ ජ වි පෙ හර්තාලයෙන් ඔබ්බට ගියා. ඔවුන් ආයුධ සන්නද්ධ අරගලයකට ගියා. එහි දී හර්තාලයටත් වඩා එහාට ගිහින් රජයේ දේපොළ විනාශ කෙරුව. ඊනියා නව වම පැරණි වමෙන් ඉගෙන ගෙන තියෙනවා. ජ වි පෙ 1971 දි සටන් වැදුණෙ බණ්ඩාරනායක මැතිණියගෙ ආණ්ඩුවට විරුද්ධ ව.
ඒ ආණ්ඩුවෙ පැරණි වමත් හිටියා. එන් එම් ජ වි පෙ හැඳින්නුවෙ සී අයි ඒ කෙමණක් හැටියට. එය ඇත්තක් ද කියා මා දන්නෙ නැහැ. ඒ කොහොම වුණත් 1977 දි බණ්ඩාරනායක මැතිණිය පැරදිලා ජේ ආර් ජයග්රහණය කළා. ජ වි පෙ ඒ ජයග්රහණයට නම් උරුමකම් කීවෙ නැහැ. සබ්රිට අනුව මා ජාතිකවාදී දේශපාලනයට විරුද්ධයි. සමහර විට මා අලුත් වෙන්න පුළුවන්. මට ඉගෙන ගන්න හුඟක් දේ තියෙනවා. ඇතැමුන් කියනවා ඒ අය මගේ ගෝලයන් කියා. ඒක වෙන්න බැහැ.
ඔවුන් අවුරුදු තිහකට වඩා ජාතිකවාදී දේශපාලනයක යෙදුණු අය. මට සබ්රිගෙන් හා දෙරණෙන් ඉගෙන ගන්න බොහෝ දේ තියෙනවා. දිනේෂ්ට ඇමතිකමක් ලැබීම ගැන සතුටු වෙනවා. ඒත් මා හිතන්නෙ ඔහු දෙරණේ කතුරෙන් බේරුණේ යම්තමින් කියා. අද ක්රියාත්මක වන්නෙ දෙරණේ ජාතිකත්වය. එය මා අලුතින් ලබාගත්් ජාතිකත්වය නොවන බව පැහැදිලියි. එහෙත් ජාතිකත්ව රාශියක් තියෙන්න පුළුවන් කියන එක මා පිළිගන්නවා.
මට අවශ්ය සිංහල බෞද්ධ රාජ්යය යළි පිහිටුවන්න. ඒ බර කරත්තයෙන් ආපසු අනුරාධපුරයට යන්න නො වෙයි. අපට ක්වෙන්ටම් පරිගණක අවශ්යයයි. මා ඒ ගැන කතා කරන්නෙ කොළඹ විශ්චචිිද්යාලෙ හිටිය දවස්වල ඉඳලා. මා මේ ආණ්ඩුවෙන් සිංහල බෞද්ධ රාජ්යයක් බලාපොරොත්තු වෙන්නෙ නැහැ. ඒ සඳහා අත්තිවාරමක් පමණයි බලාපොරොත්තු වෙන්නෙ. දෙරණ ජාතිකත්වයෙන් වුණත් එය ඉටුකරගන්න පුළුවන්.
2020_08_12
I refer to the two articles of Kalyananda Tiranagama, Executive Director, Lawyers for Human Rights and Development, under the titles Is Sinhala the Official Language of Sri Lanka” and How Premadasa turned the Official Language Policy upside down” appeared in The Island dated 28th and 29th respectively.
The articles quoting typical examples of the plight of the Sinhala people in the North and the East are facing today, gave a detailed account analysing how the crafty Tamil and Muslim politicians in the North and East got the relevant Constitutional provisions changed to suit them by extending the support to the power-hungry politicians in the South.
As stated by Mr Tiranagama, the people in our country, including the politicians and the political parties in the South may believe that Sinhala is the Official Language of Sri Lanka applicable throughout the country. But the Tamil and Muslim politicians in the North and the East know that it is not the case.
We have seen several articles and heard many speeches expressing the harmful effects of 13th and 19th Amendments to the Constitution and why those should be repealed or replaced. Unfortunately people in our country, including most of the current politicians in the South, seem not aware of the contents of the 16th Amendment or its repercussions which was introduced in December 1988, just 2 days prior to the Precedential Election, when there were disappearances, abductions and killings were the norms of the day during the infamous ‘Bheesana Samaya’ in late 80s.
Thus, we must be grateful to Mr Tiranagama for educating the readers on this important subject and its impact on the general public. https://island.lk/is-sinhala-the-official-language-of-sri-lanka-i/ and https://island.lk/how-premadasa-turned-the-official-language-policy-upside-down/
Sinhala remained the Official Language of Sri Lanka continuously for 32 years from 1956 to 1988. Although Tamil was also made an official language in 1987 under the 13th Amendment, it did not relegate the status given to Sinhala as the Official Language of the whole country.
As per the 16th Amendment made in 1988, Sinhala language, in effect is no longer The Official Language or the language of administration throughout Sri Lanka. It is only an Official Language in the sense that it is the language of administration in seven provinces other than the Northern and Eastern Provinces where as Tamil can be the language of administration throughout Sri Lanka in addition to its Official Language status, since there is no limitation imposed on its application as in the case of Sinhala. Sinhala is no longer the language of administration throughout Sri Lanka.
As stated in the article, this has resulted in the denial of the rights of tens of thousands of Sinhala speaking people in the Northern and Eastern Provinces in Sri Lanka from conducting communications with Provincial administrations and local authorities in their national language and placing them in great difficulty, compelling them to transact their communications with public institutions in Tamil, a language they are not conversant with.
The articles also state how the provisions of the 16th Amendment paved the way for the creation of minority linguistic ethnic units at the Divisional Secretariat level using languages different from the language of administration in the province as the language of administration for such areas. The said articles reveal, sighting examples, how racist politicians of ethnic and religious minority political parties have bargained and are continuing, step by step, to do so with the power-hungry political leaders in the South during election times.
As I remember, Dr. Colvin R de Silva, deputy leader of the LSSP who opposed the Official Languages Act in 1956 said that one language would result in two countries. What is really happening today is that two languages in one country are gradually paving the way for resulting two countries at the end.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa asked for a strong Parliament to abrogate the 19th Amendment. At the recently-concluded General Election, he received an overwhelming mandate with a rare two-thirds majority. The Opposition, struggling to keep its nose above water was too distracted and embarrassed even to oppose it. It is the West-mentored civil organisations and Media bodies outside Sri Lanka that are deeply concerned over the fate of the 19th Amendment.
West Mentored Gentle Coaxing
The Guardian and The Hindu echoes that the Rajapaksa brothers are now with powers to change the constitution and unravel democratic safeguards…made by the previous administration aimed at decentralising power and preventing the rise of another strongman.” Sophie Landrin for ‘Le Monde’ – a French Daily writes, This concentration of power is fearful of the worst in this country scarred by decades of civil war.”
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet has urged the Rajapaksa Administration to preserve and build upon the gains which have been made over the last few years.” According to her, ‘Independent institutions, strengthened under the 19th Constitutional Amendment, are a key pillar in its democratic structure.’
Understanding the Constitution first
However, this hastily pushed through Amendment is with many misinterpretations and ambiguities. It is almost as if those who drafted this Amendment were unfamiliar with the Sri Lankan Constitution. For instance, the 19th Amendment implies that the President may not hold a portfolio. Yet, the Constitution stipulates the President as the head of the Government, Cabinet, Armed Forces and Defence. As the Head of the Cabinet, the President is naturally a Cabinet member. As such, the President may or may not hold a portfolio.
Furthermore, all ministers derive their executive powers from the President. The voter only gives passage for an MP to enter Parliament. It is the President who decides the subjects and vests the necessary powers on the person awarded with the subject. Therefore, ministers are in effect the President’s representatives.
The best case to illustrate this point would be the appointment of Ali Sabri as the Minister for Justice. This appointment was made amidst the controversy that brewed in social Media as to whether Sabri was the best man for the job. The fact that he is a Muslim by faith was held against him, despite his track record and stance against Islam extremism. He publicly frowns upon the burka, which he dissociates from the faith and links with the Arab culture. He advocates anyone who wishes to live in Sri Lanka must embrace the Sri Lankan culture.
Therefore, despite the opposition orchestrated by some quarters, President Gotabaya without any qualms appointed Sabri for the post. As far as President was concerned, the only thing that really mattered was the fine subject knowledge Sabri would bring to the complex decision making process. Hence, even if some of his voters were against Sabri becoming the Minister of Justice, the prerogative lies with the Executive President and not with the voter. When this is the case, it is an absurd supposition that the President cannot hold a portfolio.
Nonexistent Independent Institutions
This is not the only confusion the 19th Amendment presents. The independent institutions supposedly strengthened by this Amendment that Bachelet spoke of in reality do not exist. This is best exemplified by the drama played out by the Election Commission (EC).
The three-member commission has become the biggest joke. Throughout its appointment, its undisguised objective had been NOT to hold Elections. During its tenure, local Government Elections were postponed for two years. Interestingly, none of the entities who are expressly concerned over democracy under the Rajapaksa Brothers worried over this delay. They are yet to raise even a peep over the delay of holding Provincial Council Elections. The Provincial Councils are the key to decentralising the power at the Centre. Yet, as Election have not been held when the Council’s term expired, all nine provinces have fallen defunct.
On 29 October, 2018 President Maithripala Sirisena sacked his Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and moved for fresh Parliamentary Election. This raised a howl of protests from the Yahapalana Government proponents. While the objections from Wickremesinghe’s vote base are acceptable, that from Election Commission member Professor Ratnajeevan Hoole was not. Yet, he was among the petitioners who submitted to the Supreme Courts his objections AGAINST holding Elections.
EC cannot be excused
The fact that the 19th Amendment prevented the President to call for fresh Elections when the then Government was failing should not be dismissed lightly. The absurdity of having to endure a failing Government for four and half years out of a five year term cannot be lost on a genuine advocator for democracy. As the High Commissioner for UNHR Bachelet should seriously study the causes that allowed for the Easter Sunday massacres just six months after President Sirisena’s desperate move to establish proper governance in the country. It was none other than the 19th Amendment that prevented President Sirisena from doing so.
The 19th Amendment forced the voter to suffer the presence of political entities who had lost credibility. Had the 19th Amendment not prevented an Election on 5 January 2019 as President Sirisena wanted, the Yahapalana Government partners would have merely lost the Election. The local Government Election that were held in February 2018 attests to this fact. However, the voter was not allowed to decide for a further one year and eight months. The consequent festering resentment resulted in politicians such as Ranil Wickremesinghe not just losing the Election, but been resoundingly sacked by the people.
The manner the EC conducted itself during the COVID-19 pandemic certainly did not inspire people’s confidence in the Commission. Using the pandemic as an excuse, the Sajith Premadasa-Ranil Wickremesinghe led Opposition protested against Elections. Using that very same cover, the EC too baulked at conducting General Election on the due date.
As the pandemic was an extraordinary and unprecedented experience, the EC can be arguably excused for indefinitely postponing the Elections that were due on April 25. However, the EC cannot be excused for its failure to explore alternative avenues to hold Elections or complete the tasks that they could have executed. It seems that they too were waiting with the expectation that the dissolved Parliament would be recalled as demanded by the Opposition. This would then excuse them from their obligation to hold Election.
SC decides
The matters deteriorated to the point it ended up in Supreme Courts. A main demand before the SC was for the President to recall the gazette that dissolved the Parliament and called for Elections. However, disagreeing with the petitioners, the SC deemed that to allow a President to recall a gazette could lead to a dangerous precedence. In normal circumstances, the new Parliament must convene within three months from the date of dissolution. However, the SC ruled that under extraordinary conditions as the pandemic, the new Parliament may convene even after the lapse of three months. After all, the law does not expect the impossible.
With this ruling from the SC, the EC had to proceed with the Election. It was at this point that Hoole took matters to his own hands and started an active campaign against SLPP. This is obviously in violation to the Commission’s mandate. Yet, the EC members are of the same league as a Supreme Court judge. Thus, when a member turns rogue as Hoole did, the way to terminate him would be to impeach him in Parliament. As it turned out, the Parliament was not in its ‘proper sense’ to deal with such a matter.
How did the 19A strengthen Democracy?
A similar obstacle prevented the termination of the IGP, even after it transpired that his gross neglect of duty allowed the Easter Sunday Massacres. The Government was then forced to send him on compulsory leave and appoint an acting IGP. Even when he was taken into remand custody, he could not be terminated. In short, the 19th Amendment made a comedy out of the State affairs. Its aim was to clip the President’s executive powers. However, such a move needs a referendum from the people. After all, this power is vested in the President by the people. Thus, it is not possible to shift this power to another source without the people’s consent.
Even though the 19th Amendment is being pandered as a reform that strengthened democracy, the Yahapalana Government feared to seek permission from the people to implement the Amendment. Instead, they tried to work around the clauses that demand a referendum. This is how the Constitution got bogged with a chicken-wire-chewing-gum Amendment.
Sri Lanka has suffered immensely because of the 19th Amendment. The time to bin it is long overdue. Those who had not studied this Amendment or understood its failures should not profess an opinion about it.
ranasingheshivanthi@gmail.com
To date, Sri Lanka is among the elite group of countries that have controlled this epidemic successfully.
This is a result of all the hard work and commitment showcased by all Sri Lankans.
We have won the first battle to control the epidemic. Still, the war with the virus will continue for years to come, and it will test our resilience and endurance as a country to uphold this achievement until COVID-19 is eliminated.
Thank you all, and we hope you will make Sri Lanka proud for years to come.
Sri Lanka is the first country to defeat Regime Change”. The fact that this whole operation was reversed by the ballot makes this accomplishment irrefutable. It is after all in the guise of strengthening democracy that this Regime Change” Operation was launched. Critics have tried to downplay this turn of events by claiming that the voter turnout was the lowest in the decade. With a voter turnout of over 71 percent however, the recently concluded general elections can hardly be considered to have been apathetic.
This election was held at a time that is trying for the whole world. There was an attempt within the country to postpone elections indefinitely and instead for the dissolved Parliament to be recalled. This would have allowed those politicians whose popularity that had nosedived to remain as decision-makers without a people’s mandate.
It is interesting that advocates of democracy found fault with President Gotabaya. They accused him of running the country without a Parliament. However, instead of taking the ground situation into account or exploring ways of safely conducting elections, their expectations were also for the dissolved parliament to be recalled and elections to be postponed. Surprisingly, it did not bother them that such an act would violate the people’s franchise.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa however decided that he could still meet the challenges with the powers vested in him. True to his word, the infected clusters were quickly contained. Sri Lanka is yet to face the dreaded second wave that had engulfed most other countries. Though imports were severely controlled, his Administration ensured that there were no shortages of any essentials.
The Supreme Courts agreed with the President that he had taken the right steps in dissolving Parliament and calling for general elections. Therefore, the onus of holding elections were with the Elections Commission.
The EC that had already postponed elections twice had no other choice but to proceed. By this time, since the Kandakadu cluster, not a single new patient had been identified from within the Island.
It is also noteworthy that independent observers have declared this election to have been both fair and peaceful. Therefore, no one can interpret the two third majority that the Gotabaya Rajapaksa Administration received as anything but a clear mandate from the people.
A healthy voter turnout, elections conducted in a peaceful environment despite the trying circumstances and a clear message from the people attests to the strength of the democracy in Sri Lanka. Yet, the silence from the so-called proponents of democracy is deafening.
Mandate Received in
2015n & in 2020
After the 2015 presidential and parliamentary elections, many international players as well as independent bodies applauded Sri Lanka for reestablishing democracy. Some even took credit for it. The then US State Secretary John Kerry revealed that nearly USD 800 million of American taxpayers’ money was invested to change the governments of four countries. Sri Lanka was one of them.
Yet, none of the countries that propelled the Yahapalana Government into power enthusiastically extended its support for the 2019 presidential elections. India’s lackluster approach is understandable. As far as India is concerned, the betrayal of leasing of the Hambantota Port to China for 99 years, which can be extended for another 99 years is equivalent to LTTE assassinating Rajiv Gandhi.
During the Mahinda Rajapaksa Administration, the ambitious Chinese-funded projects made India uneasy. The occasional visits from Chinese nuclear subs hardly compares though to the permanent residency Yahapalana Government granted to China with th leasing of the Port.
Absurd amounts of money were spent on the elections by all parties, especially on social media. However, it is not clear if the Yahapalana candidate, Sajith Premadasa received the same or similar support that Maithripala Sirisena did from external bodies.
In 2015, the Yahapalana Government came to power after receiving much support and assistance, especially in social media, from external sources. This was somewhat reminiscent to the LTTE days when the Government troops struggled without weapons comparable to those of the enemy. Likewise, the Mahinda Rajapaksa Administration too could not counter the social media onslaught.
Yet, the mandate the Yahapalana Government received in 2015 was not as clear as that received by the Gotabaya Administration in 2019-2020. By this time, the playing field in social media had leveled out. This allowed the Rajapaksa camp to effectively counter disinformation as well as carry out their own campaigns. Therefore, it is possible to surmise that the voters’ decision was less manipulated in 2019.
Manipulations for a
Democratic Majority
After Maithripala Sirisena won the 2015 Presidential Elections, he took control of the SLFP. This was a bizarre situation as the SLFP was the main party of the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA). As such, backed by the UNP, Maithripala Sirisena contested against the UPFA. Thus, when he took over the SLFP, he effectively became the Head of the Government as well as that of the legitimate Opposition.
Sirisena came to power on the UNP vote base on an apolitical” platform. Hence, the UNP voter was rather taken aback when he become the leader of their arch rival. They however calmed as Sirisena was then able to exert influence over the UPFA, enabling Ranil Wickremesinghe’s minority government to plough ahead unhindered. This allowed the minority government to even tinker with the Constitution.
Except for Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekara, the new Opposition was in a confused daze and somewhat cowered by Mahinda Rajapaksa’s defeat. Therefore, they offered zero resistance. Their failure resulted in the 19th Amendment which they too supported. In the course of the next four years, the country was to suffer immensely because of an amendment without due democratic process.
To overcome the failure of obtaining a majority at the 2015 General Elections, Ranil Wickremesinghe formed a National Government. Maithripala Sirisena too helped in this manipulation by convincing about 40 UPFA MPs to join this union. He even replaced the names of those on the list placed before the electorate as National List nominees with defeated candidates who were loyal to him.
This violated the people’s mandate. Candidates rejected by the people do not have the moral right to represent them. Moreover, the National List is a means to bolster the intellectual capacity of the Parliament by inviting highly respected personalities and subject experts with a proven track record. It is most definitely not for candidates scorned by voters. The voters were in effect cuckolded twice because the promised National List was not the one that eventually materialized.
Maithrpala Sirisena’s actual motive was self preservation. Had he not got his own team, he would have been a mere puppet of the UNP. Yahapalana Government supporters argued that this as a progressive move that would end the era of divisive politics with both main parties on the same side.
In reality however, Maithripala Sirisena fortified with a team of his own began to assert his own independence. As a result, the two factions – one led by Sirisena and the other by Wickremesinghe – could not agree on many issues. This indecisiveness led to nine different economic policies within three years. By the fourth year, a Cold War of sorts had set in between the two camps, which led to the catastrophic Easter Sunday massacres.
Before this fission became apparent, the extraordinary lengths the Yahapalana Government went to ensure its dominance in Parliament were heralded as democratic. The various western agents who dropped in” heaved a sigh of relief that the era of Mahinda Rajapaksa authoritarianism is over”. It was only after Donald Trump became the US President that ended these visits, which in reality were a trespassing of our sovereignty.
These agents who oohed” and ahhed” over the democratic reforms” ushered in with the Regime Change Operation, refused to see just how much the democratic norms were been violated. Maithripala Sirisena was able to lure only about half of the UPFA MPs. The corruption charges against these MPs miraculously disappeared. Despite the lure of power and perks, 55 MPs refused to be part of the Yahapalana Government. They continued to be persecuted by a special criminal investigation division directed by the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
This group presented themselves as the Joint Opposition (JO) as they contested against the Yahapalana Government. As such, the mandate JO received from their voters was to oppose the Yahapalana Government. Therefore, none of the UPFA MPs had a right to sit with the Yahapalana Government.
JO was the largest group in Parliament as an opposition. Together, this group represented eight of the nine provinces. Yet, Maithripala Sirisena as the President and Karu Jayasuriya as the Speaker refused to acknowledge the JO as the Opposition. Instead, the TNA with its meager presence in the Parliament, representing only two of the provinces was appointed as the Opposition Leader.
While Karu Jayasuriya agreed to treat the ostracized group as a separate entity, he refused to acknowledge the large number in the group. As such, he refused to allocate a reasonable time for the JO to speak in Parliament.
An Opposition Protective of Its Government
The TNA, while accepting the prestige of the position of the Leader of the Opposition, never spoke on any of the National issues. In fact, they barely disguised their complicit partnership with the Government. They never raised an issue over the Central Bank bond scams, even as the interests rates began to rise as a direct rippled effect of these scams. The economic repercussions were enormous as businesses collapsed and cost of living soared. As imports increased while the export markets struggled, the rupee came under intense pressure. The sudden devaluation of the rupee by 31 percent was unprecedented. This in turn increased our debt burden, causing our interest rates to rise even more.
During the tenure of the Yahapalana Government, Sri Lanka experienced a number of tragedies. Droughts and floods are common phenomenon in Sri Lanka. Apart from these, the Salawa explosion, the Meetotamulla garbage disaster and the massive Aranayaka landslide took place while the TNA sat as the Opposition. Not a single TNA MP visited any of these disaster sites, nor raised in Parliament the delay in compensating the victims. They did not even raise the issue faced by the Northern fishermen due to poaching by the South Indian fishing trawlers.
The TNA’s focus was holding the Sri Lankan Military accountable for alleged war crimes and gaining more autonomy. These were also the very objectives of the Yahapalana Government. As such, both the Yahapalana Government and the TNA were working in partnership.
While the Yahapalana Government co-sponsored the UNHRC Resolution 30/1, the TNA was formulating a new constitution with irreversible conditions to strengthen the provinces at the cost of the central government. They were thus working on the same project.
Even as the TNA were pushing for more autonomy, they failed to protect the powers they already have at hand. One by one the Provincial Councils became defunct as the PC elections were postponed indefinitely. The very reasons Provincial Councils were created was as a step to redress the grievances of the Tamils in the North and East. Yet, to date they have not expressed any distress over the fact that these councils are no longer functioning. It is ironic indeed that since the expiration of these councils, the provinces are being run by the Government.
It was indeed eyebrow raising when the TNA tried to protect the Yahapalana Government. As the popularity of the Yahapalana Government plummeted, a petrified TNA beseeched India to protect the government. By doing so, TNA must have become the first Opposition to want to protect the sitting government.
Democracy Advocators Break their Silence
Not a single West mentored entity was bothered by these vulgarities that shammed democracy. They continued to be relieved that the Rajapaksas were not at the helm. However, the people have voted with an overwhelming majority the Rajapaksa brothers back to power.
This is very alarming to the West-led foreign media as well as civil groups. They refuse to acknowledge any positive stride taken by the new Rajapaksa headed Administration. Even Sri Lanka’s superb management of the COVID-19 pandemic is met with countless criticism and without a single word of praise or acknowledgment of its remarkable successes. They worry that the democratic reforms” introduced by the previous government will be rolled back.
Sri Lanka can be assured that the next four years will be a never ending complaint from these entities as they nitpick over isolated incidents and make mountains out of molehills. They may moan and groan, but it is the people in Sri Lanka who has to live with the situation. Therefore, it is the Sri Lankan citizen who must decide what is right and not for Sri Lanka.
(ranasingheshivanthi@gmail.com)
The cut-off point in proportional representation has to change from 5% to 12.5% in the new constitution.
POLITICAL PARTIES BASED ON COMMUNITY, RELIGION AND COMMUNAL BASIS HAS TO BE BANNED IN SRI LANKA BY THE 2/3 MAJORITY NEW GOVERNMENT, THE SINHALESE COMMUNITY AND NATIONALIST SINHALA FORCES IMMEDIATELY UNDER ANY NEW CONSTITUTION TO BE PRESENTED IN PARLIAMENT. FOR THIS – ALL SINHALA FORCES, INCLUDING THE MAHA SANGHA, THE SLFP, UNP (those who love the maathruboomiya”), JVP AND OTHER PATRIOTIC POLITICAL PARTIES INCLUDING THE SLPP/SLFP SHOULD GIVE THEIR FULLEST SUPPORT TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN. SEVENTY FOUR PERCENTAGE (74% ) SINHALA MP’s (voters) CAN EASILY DO THIS. MINORITY REPRESENTATION SHOULD ONLY BE IN THE NATIONAL PARTIES BY MEMBERSHIP AND BY BEING ELECTED FOR OFFICE IN THOSE PARTIES.
THIS IS THE ONLY WAY VOTE BANK CREATION BY MINORITY COMMUNITY POLITICAL LEADERS (THE MUSLIMS AND TAMILS) WHO TRADE THE VOTE BANK FOR SELFISH PERSONAL BENEFITS, FORGOING THE REAL BENEFITS FOR WHICH THE MINORITY GROUPS, ESPECIALLY THE MUSLIM VOTERS CAN BE SURE TO REAP THE TRUE BENEFITS OF THEIR POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS AND INSPIRATIONS, BE MADE POSSIBLE / A REALITY. A good example is the confession made by Rauf Hakeem when Rauf Hakeem admitted that he took money from Mahinda Rajapaksa, then President, to vote in favour of the 18th., Amendment Bill to the constitution on September 8th., 2010. One of the SLMC stalwarts, Segu Dawood exposed this incident and Rauf Hakeem admitted it in public. Browse this web link and learn how this political leader (MP. Rauf Hakeem) got money to vote for the 18th., Amendment in parliament on 8th., September 2010.
http://www.jaffnamuslim.com/2016/07/blog-post_144.html (for Muslim tamil readers).
In 1994, when the SLMC found an opportunity, supported by R. Premadasa to reduce the cut-off point in proportional representation from 12.5 to 5 per cent, in return NOT to field a Muslim candidate as a Presidential candidate, to stop the Muslims voting Premadasa. This done, the SLMC joined the UNP. Rishad Bathiudeen and the Atthaullah, regional Eastern province Muslim party), began to adopt THIS POLITICAL TRADING OF THE MUSLIM VOTES” and making DEALS” with the national parties that were struggling to form governments, to form goverments, that was of NO BENEFIT, BUT DETRIMENTAL TO THE MUSLIM FACTOR”. These deals were supported by the All Ceylon Jamiyathul Ulema and so-called Muslim Civil Society groups, whose leadership also were given a SHARE” of these SPOILS and BENEFITS”, became the NORM” of the SLMC, ACMC, NATIONAL CONGRES, ACJU, THE NATIONAL SHOORA COUNCIL and the MUSLIM COUNCIL OF SRI LANKA, in the equation of Minority politics in Sri Lanka since 1994/1980. As a result of these deceptions, the Muslims in Sri Lanka do NOT have a voice – a POLITICAL VOICE” for that purpose. The Muslims did not benefit to resolve their economical, employment, development, land education and fundamental rights issues by VOTING the SLMC, ACMC or THE NATIONAL CONGRESS. The Muslims became POLITICAL ORPHANS” in Sri Lanka at last. Today this has become a MENACE and a SICKNESS in the democratic political process of our country. Not only has it affected the Sri Lanka Muslims, but also PRALALYSED THE DEMOCRATIC RIGHT OF THE MAJORITY SINHALA COMMUNITY WHICH IS 74% OF THE NATION TO MAKE ANY DECECIVE POLITICAL CONCLUSSION BENEFICAL TO THEIR AND OUR MAATHRUBOOMIYA” OR TO AMEND / ADJUST THE CONSTITUTION TO THEIR NEEDS FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE NATION AND OUR MAATHRUBOOMIYA”. It created a lot of constitutional conflict in parliament is a result of this POLITICAL PLIGHT” since 1994. With the SLPP getting a 2/3 majority government in parliament on August 5th., 2020, without having to make “deals” with the minority community parties, to make the cut-off point in proportional representation from 5 to 12.5 per cent is only a matter of parliamentary procedure.
With the media uncovering the corruption and deception of the Muslim political leaders in recent times and exposing these DECEPTIVE AND HOODWINKING” Muslim politicians and their operating beneficial gangs, the Muslim political culture has begun to change. Today this VOTE BANK TRADING BY MINORITY MUSLIM AND TAMIL POLITICAL PARTY LEADERS” has become a MENACE and a SICKNESS in the democratic political process of our country. THIS HAS TO STOP FORTHWITH FOR A HEALTHY POLITICAL PROCESS TO TAKE PLACE IN OUR COUNTRY and the RIGHT for the voters to decide what their communities should do and the majority who are SINHALA VOTERS to decide what is best for the country they should do.
As for the Muslim Minority Community, the fact remains NOW, they do NOT wish to be represented by these MUNAAFIKK and DECEPTIVE MUSLIM POLITICIANS”. THE SLMC AND ACMC MP’S SHOULD ALSO ACT ON THEIR OWN NOW and decide to support the new government, Insha Allah. We Muslims should set an example like our predecessors who TRUSTED” the majority community in the wake of the British trying to delay giving us independence in 1948. The role of Dr. T B Jayah becomes paramount at this moment to recollect, because had he, or the Muslim community, sided with the British at that time, granting of Independence to Ceylon would have been postponed. It is only because the minorities agreed that there was a United Front of Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims asking for Independence. But one man was against it. That was G G Ponnambalam who tried to extract his pound of flesh. He said I will sign on the dotted line only if you agree to Fifty Fifty”. That is 50% of the seats for the Sinhalese and 50% for the minorities. Only if you agree to that, he told D S Senanayake, will I support the call for independence. It was at this point that Jayah rejected the ‘fifty fifty’ formula. He said he preferred to work in trust, to work in faith and goodwill with the majority community. Thereby T.B.Jayah totally undercut G G Ponnambalam’s fifty fifty” cry. That was the death knell of Fifty Fifty”. If Jayah joined the fifty fifty” cry at that time, Independence would have been postponed. One has to remember that even the word Sinhala was erased from the political lexicon. S W R D Bandaranaike ditched the idea of the Sinhala Maha Saba and he first joined the UNP and later set up the Sri Lanka Freedom Party which too did not have racial connotations. Everybody felt that communal parties were counter-productive.
It is time up that a “NEW POLITICAL FORCE” that will be honest and sincere that will produce CLEAN” and diligent Muslim Politicians to stand up and defend the Muslim Community politically and otherwise, especially from among the YOUTH has to RISE”, and this NEW POLITICAL FORCE” has to support the new government formed under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and PM Mahinda Rajapaksa and the majority Sinhalese citizens notwithstanding the fact that the Tamils of the North and East and the Upcountry Tamils and all minorities should be equally respected, politically, for a better Sri Lanka, God willing, Insha Allah. Nearly 650,000 Muslims have voted the SLPP and casted their votes in support of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the New President of Sri Lanka and PM Mahinda Rajapaksa and the SLPP/SLFP Alliance this August, 2020 wholeheartedly, and to be part of the VICTORY OF THE SRI LANKANS in helping to form a 2/3 majority government by those who love our MAATHRUBOOMIYA”, Insha Allah. The new government has to help the Muslims create a “NEW POLITICAL CULTURE” by declaring the above change in the new constitution or parliament at the earliest.
Lional Bopage, who was the first General Secretary of the 1971 JVP, who was the first of the 21 leaders of JVP accused for launching a rebellion to topple the government and who was a close associate of Victor Ivan and who now enjoys a luxury life in Australia and who was also responsible for the untimely death of thousands of poor educated village youth in 1971 in an article to foreign sustained NGO vulture Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu’s one of the websites, the Groundviews titled The best and the worst – 2020 General Elections” states the general elections on 5 August turned out to be an outstanding victory for the Rajapaksa Family and the Sinhala Buddhist nationalists and ordinary members of the country’s majority community. He says that in his opinion a victory of this magnitude provides a great opportunity which could be used for the benefit of the country and its people. It also brings up, he says, a more worrisome scenario where militarisation of the democratic institutions will continue, concerns of minorities will be ignored, and erosion of the rule of law and less transparency and accountability are most likely to occur and this victory has opened a new chapter where the government could perform at its best or at its worst.
He claims that when the Rajapaksa regime led the campaign to defeat the Tamil terrorists (which he calls as a Tamil militancy and not as terrorism) solely based on a strategy of war, he was critical of that approach and after the military defeat of the LTTE the regime had a unique opportunity to address the issues that caused the war by developing a just solution to the Tamil demands and even now these issues remain unresolved and keep festering since a historic opportunity was missed. He adds that had this been handled with honesty and statesmanship, it could have paved the way for the regime to stay in power for a long time, with the possibility of Mahinda Rajapaksa even becoming a Nobel laureate.
Bopage says that Sri Lanka had several such opportunities in the past when different political persuasions were brought to power by the electorate with a two-thirds or even higher majority. Mr S W R D Bandaranaike, Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike and Mr J R Jayawardena, all had the same opportunity, but they did not rise to the occasion due to their self-centred desire to remain in power which they could only do by catering to the partisan needs and demands of their political factions and most of the time, these factions could not see beyond the tunnel vision of a mono-cultural unitary state and their own corrupt financial interests.
This doomsday pundit states that from 1956 till 2015, the minority parties did not play any major policy determining role as constituent parties of government. Despite this, for nearly 60 years there was no constructive solution proposed or implemented to address the numerous issues the minority communities had raised and now that the new government is free from the elements that the SLPP identified as racist”, there is another great opportunity to concretely address the power-sharing issues with minorities and create a better country for all.
This doomsday pundit has completely ignored the solution President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa offered during his first foreign visit, during the visit to India in which when the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned about the need to implement the 13th amendment the President responded that he has been elected as the President of all Sri Lankans and he is committed to serve all Sri Lankans alike without any ethnic, religious or caste discriminations. What else we need and why the doomsday pundits cannot understand the real meaning of this noble statement by thevisionary President and commend him for this stance.
Continuing further Bopage states that at the election, the plea of the SLPP leadership was to grant them a two-thirds majority to change the constitution to rearrange the power relationships between the parliament and the president. Yet, under the current constitutional arrangements, the brothers, Gotabhaya and Mahinda continue to enjoy the totality of presidential and prime ministerial powers between them. Whatever the changes that would be made in the future, the totality of constitutional power shared between the two brothers will remain the same and only the checks and balances that scrutinize their activities by parliament and independent commissions are open to manipulation.
Having received an overwhelming majority and not at the mercy of the so-called minority racist and extremist parties he says that the SLPP and the Rajapaksas have now got an opportunity to carry out their long-term political intentions unhindered. What they proposed he says was to modify the constitution by abolishing the 19th and 13th amendments and discarding these (oppressive) safeguards will abolish the devolutionary nature of the governance established under those amendments and debilitate the independence of the institutions that were established to scrutinize (dominate) the process of governance.
Not only the 13th and 19th the 15th amendment which reduced the original percentage of votes required by a political party to become eligible for parliamentary sear from 12.5% to 5% should also be repealed. This amendment was adopted 48 hours before the 1988 presidential election on the commandeering of Ashroff to Premadasa to get Eastern province Muslim votes in the 1988 highly manipulated and rigged presidential election. If it was not for this political bribe to Ashroff, Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike would have won the presidential election in 1988.
Bopage claims that these amendments were adopted with the intent of addressing certain fundamental issues that prevailed for many long years and that that intent was wantonly diluted from the drafting stage onwards, and even before the bill was presented to the cabinet for approval, it was further diluted by last minute amendments made during the final parliamentary proceedings. Some of those responsible for such dilution later became leaders of parties like the Samagi Jana Balawegaya.
Referring to 1970s Bopage states that the Constitutions of 1972 and 1978 were imposed upon the people without any consultation and the constitution making process was neither participatory nor inclusive. This claim applies only to 1978 constitution whereas in respect of 1972 constitution it was formulated by Parliament for which the National State Assembly constituted itself as a Constitution assembly in which all parties including the then major Tamil party TULF participated and this constitution was not unilaterally imposed on the people as the bizarre 1978 constitution well known as the Bahubootha Vyawasthawa.
He warns that the Nationalist extremists in the new regime could negatively influence the chances for justice, democracy, human rights and economic opportunities, except for a select few. This may lead to escalating corrupt practices, disempowerment of the judicial and parliamentary processes, ignoring legislative responsibilities (was there legislative responsibilities during the last five years?), sidelining non-majoritarian communities (was not the Sirisena/Ranil government over appeasing TNA diktats and neglecting its duty and responsibility to the majority community?), ethno-religious discrimination in policy and decision making, adopting antagonistic foreign policy positions, and introducing repressive legislative and constitutional arrangements. This doomsday pundit who confined his JVP in 1971 only to rural Sinhala youth and pontificated against Tamils in their 5 political orientation classes now states that here could be protests and strikes by the disillusioned electorate, who would be forced to rethink about who they have brought into power and it could also lead to bloodshed.
He says that the election results also reflect a class divide between the intelligentsia and the ordinary people of the country. Confirming he still holds his allegiance to the JVP he says that the low vote for the National People’s Power (the camouflaged JVP) and similar organisations represents the mismatch of the thinking patterns between the people at the grassroots level and those of the intelligentsia. The necessity of the traditional organisational patterns at the grass roots level and the urban intelligentsia, mostly professionals, want a regime for good governance, rule of law, and an economic model that would cater for the increasing profitability of a few.
Bopage says that the working people, both rural and urban, however, want to elect a regime that would provide them with work opportunities that satisfy their basic needs, such as shelter and food for the survival of their families and in any political and economic endeavour, both these needs need to be catered for and this can only be done by analysing the prevailing issues based on evidence and their causes. Only then can these issues be addressed and polices developed that address these issues at the ground level. Otherwise the election results for progressive parties (Do we have anyparty that can be branded as a progressive party other than the SLPP. Bopage’s colleagues the JVP is now an utter reactionary party prepared to do any scavenge for monetary benefits) will continue to be abysmal, as has been the trend for at least two decades.
In a form of ridiculing the high literacy rate in Sri Lanka, this doomsday pundit says that it refers only to those who have the actual ability to read and write and such a literacy level has not developed the ability at a societal level or the capability at an individual level to develop political empathy in understanding the differences between a mono-cultural society and a multicultural one with its attendant advantages for long-term peace and prosperity.
There is unfortunately a global trend in which a strong segment of nationalist intelligentsia does not focus on the betterment of society and the long-term future of the generations to come. Instead, they, like ‘Viyath Maga’ in Sri Lanka and their collaborators, appear to focus on developing better ways for duping people, promoting individual self-greed with short-term emphasis, he says and adds that even during the 1920s in Germany, similar intellectual groupings helped Hitler to gain and sustain power, while the media similarly played the role of providing publicity only to Hitlerite Nazi views.
Ordinary people will attend a meeting; listen to leaders and go back home, later to be trapped by the political and idealist influences of the mass media and the organisational networks that largely serve the interests of the privileged and the ultra-nationalists. Without organisational networks at the grass roots level to mobilize people and counter such influences, the efforts of the intelligentsia will fail as attested by the current elections.
Bopage, who still persists in his original JVP ideology states that in addition, ordinary people who had been previously politically active may have perceived those trying to influence them from the top as leaders, intellectuals or outsiders as a threat rather than working for the collective benefit of all and it had become increasingly difficult to expose the misleading positions presented by the nationalist intelligentsia to the people at the grassroots level due to the barrage of misinformation spread via strong media campaigns. He says the election results confirm the success of the nationalist intelligentsia and a notable failure of the efforts of the more pluralist orientated approach of the intelligentsia.
Commenting about the future he asserts that the disastrous failure of the political forces that value plurality, diversity, equity, fairness and social justice to get political traction compels Sri Lankans to rethink, re-strategize, regroup and reorganize and such an effort cannot be made by daydreaming or being an armchair critic. He says that Sri Lanka’s most urgent priority is to connect with the ordinary working people both rural and urban and enter into a dialogue with them, learn about the issues that concern them most and then produce evidence based and consensually agreed solutions on issues that affect their lives.(If it is so, why did his acolytes, the JVP functioned as loyal stooges of Sirisena/Ranil dispensation during the last five years?)
He predicts that such actions will provide the opportunity to critically examine the previous approaches and re-strategize for the future, and only then Sri Lanka could work towards an alliance that is open to all people travelling in the same direction, who are taking diverse paths for achieving the same goals of prosperity, human rights, rule of law and good governance, that will benefit all members of Sri Lankan society as a whole and not just a few.
Again focusing attention on two thirds majority he asserts that Sri Lanka’s post-independence history has witnessed on several occasions, regimes coming to power with a two-thirds or a higher majority but they failed, and failed abysmally, leading the country into three major rebellions. Afterwards, the regimes that led to such situations have also been defeated. If the new government traverses a path creating better opportunities for all and a rule-based society that values individual life, treats everyone with dignity and respect, ensures a guaranteed minimum standard of living, and empowers people so they may develop their full potential – then we have a duty and responsibility to support such moves and otherwise, it would not be too long before the disillusioned voters take to the streets demanding implementation of the many pledges made to them, in particular the improvement of their socio-economic conditions, in an organised and democratic manner, he concludes.
In the meantime the notorious Tamil servile traitor Dayan Jayatilleke who is obsessed with the craze of devolution of power to Tamils even in excess of what is outlined in the despicable 13th amendment enforced by hegemonic India and who was a Minister in the Varadaperumal’s Eastern Provincial Council and associated Perumal in his unilateral and illegal declaration of indepemdemce for the Eastern province and later became a close associate and shameless advisor to former President Premadasa and who unsuccessfully attempted to infiltrate Viyathmaga to create internal dissensions and got kicked out from that patriotic organization and now reported to be functioning as a political advisor to imbecile Sajith Premadasa in an article titled Understanding the unipolar moment of Sinhala nationalism” states that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa repeatedly made two requests to voters during his electioneering walkabouts and one was that they had given him 69 lakhs (6.9 million) of votes at the Presidential Election but now he wanted 79 lakhs (7.9 million) votes and the other was that he wanted a two-thirds majority. He didn’t get his first wish, but has surely got his second and strategically more significant.
Continuing his anti-Sinhala rhetoric he says that one cannot comprehend the 2019-2020 steamroller majority without understanding who and what it rolled over; who and what the voters chose to bury – and why one could not understand its precursors 1956, 1970 and 2010 without understanding the target profile the UNP presented.
Dayan asserts that the new hyper-majority, which unprecedentedly empowers the Rajapaksa clan and the Sinhala supremacist agenda, can be traced to clusters of factors and tracked through specific periods and states that the most proximate was ‘Yahapalanaya’ which contained within itself a grand asymmetry: it had not won the majority of the majority which happened to be Sinhala-Buddhist. It should have been mindful that in the Sinhala heartland it was on very thin ice indeed. Instead of consolidating and expanding its Sinhala base in concentric waves, it adopted a pronouncedly minoritarian profile starting with Ranil’s appointment of the expatriate Central Bank Chairman and the top appointee of Mangala Samaraweera to ICTA, and ending with the outline documents of a new constitution which dropped the definition ‘unitary’ in English and substituted ‘orumittanadu’ instead.
When Mahinda was defeated in January 2015, the Sinhala nation was in shock. The Sinhala people felt that Mahinda was their hero and he had not been displaced by their collective electoral consent. They felt it occurred without their warrant. This translated into a sense of conspiracy. It manifested itself in a spontaneous surge of Sinhala solidarity with Mahinda. Sinhala angst, guilt and outrage were the springboard of the rapid revival and resistance, starting with the Nugegoda ‘Mahinda Sulanga’ rally of February 2015 and culminating in MR’s triumphant re-election last week.
The 2015 Yahapalana experiment does not, by itself, explain the volume and velocity of Sinhala nationalism that made the two-thirds majority possible.
The ‘driver’ was the mismatch
between the military defeat of Tamil separatism in May 2009 and the adventurist
over-assertiveness of Tamil nationalism after and despite that defeat, the
Tamil Diaspora was in denial about the defeat and that state of denial took the
form, backstopped by inflows of funds, of encouragement of Tamil political
personalities and parties to go on a permanent political offensive, abandoning
the framework of and pressing beyond the 13th Amendment in talks with President
MR in 2011. This was mightily compounded after 2013 by Chief Minister
Wigneswaran’s provocative political discourse and behavior, which swung the
balance of opinion in Sinhala society, from settling Tamil grievances by
negotiated political accommodation based on devolution, to unilateral
imposition of a post-war order.
This traitor points out that at the dawn of Yahapalanaya, Sumanthiran trumpeted
it as proof that the minorities had political weight equal to the majority and
the Yahapalanaya state media and supportive ‘civil society’ lustily
disseminated these ideas in an orgy of nihilism towards the war, the Lankan state,
and the Sinhalese majority.
To the collective Sinhala psyche, he says that it appeared as if the fellow-travellers of Prabhakaran, fronted by those Sinhalese who had appeased and collaborated with Prabhakaran, would have a greater hold on political power and the state than would the Sinhala nation that comprised the overwhelming majority, which had resisted, sacrificed and defeated armed separatism. An effort was underway he says to overturn the military victory by political means, demonise and vilify the victorious war and the side that won it, install the losers as political winners, and move towards dismantling the unitary state the military fought for – making for future separatism.
He points out that the Sinhalese felt an existential threat and hence turned to Mahinda Rajapaksa who had saved them before. But with his second defeat at the August 2015 Parliamentary Election, word travelled on the temple network MR had operated on after his defeat – and the word was ‘Gotabaya’. He alone could be guaranteed to generate, by taking it the next level, that enhanced Sinhala swing which could offset the entrenched minority support for the UNP. It was a Fox News/Trump candidacy moment.
The Gotabaya succession, he admits, had been in gestation during MR’s second term, hence the launch of the volume with the hyperbolic title Gota’s War” (2012), but it took Ranil-Mangala-Chandrika discourse and policy direction within the Yahapalanaya administration to give it the traction needed for the candidacy and victory.
Referring to the heroic war heroes, this Tamil acolyte says that the role of the ex-military brass was crucial and they saw in Ranil Wickremesinghe, the leader who had called off a Long Range Rapid Penetration ( LRRP) hit on Prabhakaran, arrested Military Intelligence officers, entered a lopsided ceasefire agreement, allowed the LTTE back into Jaffna, permitted a Tiger buildup around Trincomalee harbour – and this time around, endorsed a self-hating Geneva resolution and a non-unitary federal and secular draft Constitution.
He asserts that the confluence of the Sinhala masses of the heartland (represented by Mahinda Rajapaksa), the monks, and the ex-military brass (around Gotabaya), created the hegemonic social bloc of today which is quite determined never to experience, permit or leave room for the humiliating experiences the Sinhala majority was put through under the Sirisena/Ranil government. He says it will therefore demolish every reform ‘tunnel’ that makes such traumatic incursion possible and build a wall and moat around Sinhala political power, promulgating a new Constitution which changes power-relations so that hierarchy is inscribed, full-spectrum Sinhala-Buddhist domination entrenched and its ideology driven deep, and minorities permanently marginalised by the truncation of proportional representation, restoration of a high cut-off point, and ethnic gerrymandering (‘re-demarcation’) of electorates.
Tamil servile Dayan further states that Wigneswaran’s arrogance and mythology will cease to be possible once the 13th Amendment is castrated, boosting the power of the Governor, ex-military governors appointed, and devolved land annexed.
Referring to ITAK/TNA’s failed constitutional reformsoverreach and Wigneswaran’s ‘developmental boycottism’ has revived avatars of Chelliah Kumarasuriyar and Alfred Duraiappah in the North. He says that the regime gleefully believes in the Trump-Jared Kushner-Netanyahu formula of the trade-off of political self-identity and territorial autonomy claims in return for development funding.
This 13th amendment maniac nutty political commentator in conclusion states that the sole salvation for the Tamils is to apply the written advice that Lord Soulbury gave C. Sunderalingam in 1964, which denotes that all their political representatives must ally with and support Sajith Premadasa and mount a defense of the 13th Amendment and boasts that this imbecile and
ignoramus guy for whom he functions as am advisor is the only southern political leader who stands by it while the JVP and FSP are non-committal.
To be continued……….
වසර ගණනාවක් රටේ එක පෙදෙසකට වැස්ස. වතුරට ගෙවල් යටවෙලා, මිනිසුන් අනාත කඳවුරු වල. කඳු කඩා වැටිලා මිනිසුන් ඒවාට යටවෙලා මැරෙනවා. ඒ රටේ එක පැත්තක. අනික් පැත්තේ නියගය. කෙළවරක් නැති නියගය.මිනිසුන් එකතුවෙලා දෙවියන්ට කන්නලව් කළා. අඛණ්ඩව වසර හතරක්ම කන්නලව් කළා. අවසානයේදී දෙවියෝ තීරණය කළා මේ කර්තව්ය සඳහා විෂම කාර්ම පුත්ර රාජයාව මනු ලොවට එවීමට.. ඔහු පැමිණ නියගයත් ගංවතුරත් එකවරම නිම කිරීමට අදිටන් කර ගත්තා.
මිනිසුනේ! මට පුළුවන් මේ ප්රශ්නය විසදන්න. මම මේ ගැටලුව විසදන්න මහා යන්ත්රයක් හදනවා. ඒ යන්ත්රයට පුළුවන් මේ දෙගොඩ තලා යන ගංවතුර වියලි කලාපයට පොම්ප කරන්න. එවිට ගංවතුරත් නියගයත් දෙකම නවතිනවා. හැබැයි මේ පොම්පයේ කොටස්කරුවන් බවට පත්විය යුත්තේ ඔබ සැමයි. ඒ සඳහා ඔබ සුදානම්ද?
ඔව්! ඔව්! ඔව්! අපි සුදානම් සියල්ලන්ම මොර දුන්නා.
හොදයි මේ යන්ත්රයට අවශ්ය කරන උපාංග බවට ඔබ සැම මම පත්කරනවා.ඒ උපාංගය කල යුතුදේ ඉතා හොදින් කිරීම ඔබේ වගකීමයි.
සියල්ලන්ම ඉතා උනන්දුවෙන් මේ වෙන්න යන්නේ කුමක්දැයි බලා සිටියා.
මෙන්න බලන්න මේ යන්ත්රය හදන්න අවශ්ය කරන උපාංග දෙස.
1. Casing 2. Impellers 3. mechanical seals 4.Bearings 5. Roller bearings 6. Ball bearings 7.Babbit bearings 8. Sleeve bearings
9. Connecting rods 10. Connecting rod bearing 11. Pistons 12. Plungers 13. Wrist pins 14. Pump valves 15. Relief valves
16. Pressure gauges 17. Couplers 18. Oil seals 19. O ring seals
මෙන්න මේ උපාංග මේ දැවැන්ත යාන්ත්රනය හදන්න අවශ්යයි. මේ යන්ත්රයේ උපාංගයක් බවට පත්වීම මහා ගෞරවයක්. ඔබ හැමට ඒ සඳහා අවස්තාව දැන් ලබාදීලා තියෙනවා. ඔබ සමාව එම උපාංග බවට පත්කරනවා.
සියලුදෙනාම මේ සිදුවෙන්නේ කුමක්දැයි ඉතා සතුටින් බලා සිටියහ. විෂ්ම කාර්ම දිව්යරාජයා එහි සිටි සියල්ලන්වම දැවැන්ත යන්ත්රයේ උපාංග බවට පත් කළහ.
රට සුරකින යාන්ත්රණයේ උපාංග බවට පත්වූ මේ මිනිස්සු තමන්ට සිදුව ඇති දේ දැක මුමුණන්නට පටන් ගත්හ.
බලන්නකෝ මට වෙලා තියෙන දේ මම නිකම්ම නිකම් Connecting rod එකක් වෙලානේ, අඩු තරමෙන් මම Piston එකක් වුනා නම් කමක් නැහැ.
නොසතුටට පත් ය මොන මොනවා හෝ කියන්න ගතතා. මේ බව වටහා ගත විශ්ම කාර්ම ඔවුන් අමතා.
ඔබ තවම උපාංග පමණයි.කලබල වෙන්න එපා. ඔබ හැම එකලස් කලාම තමයි මේ මහා යන්ත්රය නිර්මාණය වෙන්නේ. දැන් ඔබ connecting rod එකක් වුනාට ඔබ සියල්ලන්ම එකලස් කලවිට මහා දැවැන්ත යන්ත්රයක් නිර්මාණය වෙනවා. එතකොට මිනිසුන් ඔබ දෙස බලන්නේ උපාංගයක් ලෙස නොවෙයි මහා දැවැන්ත යන්ත්රයක් ලෙසයි. පැහැදිලි කළා.
ඔබව සැනසීමට මට ඔබ සමාව Impellers හෝ Piston බවට පත්කළ හැකියි. එවිට මේ රටේ තියෙන දැවෙන ප්රශ්නය විසදන්න
අවශ්ය කරන යන්ත්රය නිර්මාණය වෙන්නේ නැහැ. පසුගිය වකවානු පුරාම සිදුවුයේ එයයි. ඒ දේ කරන්න මම මෙතනට අවශ්ය නැති බව පවසා, කෙලෙසක හෝ තමාට බාරදුන් වගකීම ඉටුකරන බවට අදිටන් කරගත් විශ්ම කාර්ම දිවය පුත්රයා නික්ම ගියහ.
දැන් ඇමෙරිකාවේ ජීවත්වන සන්ඩේ ලීඩර් කතෘව සිටි, ෆෙඩ්රීකා ජෑන්ස් වරක් කියා සිටියේ ලංකාවේ පත්තර හොඳ, මාළු ඔතන්නටය කියාය. දියවන්නා හෝටලය නඩත්තුවට යන වියදම, මන්ත්රී ප්රාණ විසින් කරණ කුණුහරුප කතා හා විෂයට අදාල නැති කතාද ඇතුළු මුළු කතාවල වචන ගණනින් බෙදුවොත් එක වචනයකට යන වියදම කෙතරම් විය හැකිද? මේ ප්රජා-තන්ත්ර (නාස්ලනු) වාදයට රටවැසියා ගෙවන බිල නොවේද? ලංකාවේ මෑත ඉතිහාසය පන්සල හා කළුසුද්දන් අතර අරගලයේ ඉතිහාසය ලෙස සළකණ විට, පසුගිය අවුරුදු 72 න් පසු නොව, 1960 න් පසුව, 1970 න් පසුව හෝ 2005 න් පසුව සිංහල හෝ සිංහල බෞද්ධ මන්ත්රී පඬරැල් කී දෙනෙක්, 1956 සිට 2002 දක්වා කාලය තුල රටේ රජයෙන් ප්රසිද්ධ කල බෞද්ධ කොමිෂන් සභා වාර්තා ගැන පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී එක වචනයක් හෝ කතා කර තිබෙනවාද? එතෙක්, මෙතෙක්, මුස්ලිම් මන්ත්රීලා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී ආගමික පණත් ගෙනාවිට මේ සිංහල බෞද්ධ මන්ත්රී ප්රාණ අඳ, ගොළු බිහිරන් සේ සිටියේ නැද්ද? මේවා ගැන රටේ මහානායක හිමිවරු දන්නවාද?
බුද්ධාගම රකිනවා, පෝෂණය කරනවා යන 9 වෙනි වගන්තිය මොන තරම් ප්රෝඩාවක්ද යන්න එලිදරව් වන්නේ මෙවැනි අළුත් ප්රශ්ණ අසන්නට අපට ශක්තියක් තිබෙනවා නම් පමණය. ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රුවන්වැලි මහසෑය ඉදිරියේ දිවුරුම් දීමේ අව්යාජ බවත්, අනිත් අය ඒ අනුව කොපිකරමින් කැළණියේ හා දළඳා මාළිගාව අසල දිවුරුම් දීමත් අතර වෙනසක් පේන්නේ, දේශපාලකයින් සහභාගී වූ විට රටේ සෑම තැනම කියවෙන පිරිත් ප්රමාණය සුළුපටු නොවන නිසාය. ඒවා ඒ කණෙන් අසා මේ කණෙන් පිටවී ශබ්ද පමණක් නොවීද? දශමයක හෝ අවධානයක්, පිළිපැදීමක් වූවා නම් රට පින් කෙතක් නොවන්නේද?එන්න එන්නම අතේ බැඳ ගත් පිරිත් නූල් ප්රමාණය කඹ තරම් මහත් වන්නේද මේ න්යායට අනුවය. පිරිතෙන් පාලියෙන් කියන්නේ සියළු සත්වයෝ සුවපත්වේවා කියාය. මුස්ලිම් පල්ලියේ පාරට හැරවූ ලවුඩ් ස්පීකර් වලින් අරාබි බසින් යාඥාකරන්නේ ලංකාව අල්ලාගේ රට කියා නොවේද?
මා දන්නා අන්දමට, තම අතේ <දේශපාලන> පිරිත් නූල් බඳින අය අතරින් ඉන් පිහිටක් ලැබෙන බව එලිපිටම කිව්වේ, සොල්දාදුවන් 400 ක් මුදවා ගැනීමට කල පුනරින් ආක්රමණයේදී, සතුරාගේ කාලතුවක්කු වලින්, මහ දවල්, තම නැව් දෙක බේරා ආවරණය ලබාදුන් ධාරානිපාත වැස්ස හා වළාකුළු ගැන සඳහන් කල රෙයාර් අද්මිරාල් සරත් වීරසේකර පමණය. මෙය දෙවන ලෝක යුද්ධයේදී ජෙනරාල් ජෝර්ජ් පැටන් විසින් වැස්ස නතරකර ගැනීමට ඔහුගේ චැප්ලින් ලවා ලියවා ගත්, අදටත් ඇමෙරිකාවේ පල්ලි වල ගයන <පැටන් යාඥාවට> සමානය! චන්දය දිණුවාට පෙර හෝ පසු පවිත්රාදේවි වන්නිාරච්චිද ඈ එහි ගියවිට රත්නපුරේ මහ සමන් දේවාලයේ දෙතැනකින් හමා ආ මල් සුවඳක් ගැන සඳහන් කරනවා මම දුටුවෙමි!
අගමැති බණ්ඩාරනායක කාලයේ විද්යෝදය හා විද්යාලංකාර පිරිවෙන් දෙක විශ්ව විද්යාල කර සංඝ සමාජයට දිගුකාලීනව කල හානිය, මිසිස් බී ගේ කාලයේ ඉතිහාසය පාසැලෙන් ඉවත් කිරීම, සිලෝන්/සිංහලේ වෙනුවට ශ්රී ලංකා යයි රටේ නම් වෙනස් කිරීම, ඩඩ්ලි විසින් ඉරිදා සෙනසුරාදා වෙනුවට, පෝය පෙරපෝය නිවාඩු කිරීම, පාරේ භාෂාවෙන් කියනවා නම්, සිංහල බෞද්ධයාට යම් <මෝඩ සුදියක්> දුන් පරිදිම, 9 වගන්තිය කියන්නේ කුමක්දැයි නිර්වචනය නොකිරීමද මේ රැවටීමටම අයත්ය. මේ වගන්තිය හා බුද්ධ ශාසන ඇමති හා අමාත්යාංශය යනු, බෞද්ධයින්ව රටතුලත්, පිට ලෝකයේදීත් අමාරුවේ දැමූ මුග්ධ ඉල්ලන් කෑම් විය. උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන්, ලංකාවේ බුද්ධාගමට විශේෂ වරප්රසාද දෙනවා කියා ඊළම්කාරයින් හා ලෝකල් එන්.ජී.ඕ කාරයින් කෑ ගසයි. ආණ්ඩුවෙන් ආධාර දෙනවා යන කතාව නිසා පන්සල් වලට දායකයින්ගෙන් ලැබුණ ආධාර අඩුවිය. ඒ අතරතුර, සමහර විට ඉරිදා දහම් පාසැලකටවත් නොගිය බුද්ධ ශාසනය භාර නිලධාරීන් දුප්පත් පන්සල් හිඟන්නන්ගේ ගනයට දමා හිතුවක්කාර බලධාරීන් ලෙස ක්රියා කරයි. මොවුන් මුදල් ආධාර අවශ්ය පන්සල් වල විස්තර ලැයිස්තු, අල්ලස් දී හෝ නොදී ඒවා ලබාගන්නා ක්රිස්තියානී හා වෙනත් විදෙස් සතුරු බලවේග වලට සපයාදේ. යූ.එන්.පී භාණ්ඩාගාරිකව සිටියේ ටකරම් පල්ලි (යාඥාමඩු) දෙතුන්සීයක් භාරව සිටි අයෙක් බව දන්නේ කී දෙනාද?
එහි ඇති ගුණය නිසා හොද්ද සමඟ පිඟානට වැටී ඇති කරපිංචාද බත් සමඟ කෑමට ඇමෙරිකාවේදී මා පුරුදුවූ නිසා, හොද්දෙන් කරපිංචා විසිකිරීම ගැන ඇති කියමන මට දැන් අදාල නැත. එහෙත්, ලංකාවේ සිංහල බෞද්ධ දේශපාලකයින්, පොදුවේ සංඝ සමාජයටත්, කලින් කලට ඉන් තෝරා ගත් ජනප්රිය සංඝයා වහන්සේලාටත් සළකන්නේ කරපිංචා වගේ නොවේ යයි කියන්නට පුළුවන්ද? බුද්ධාගමේ ඉගැන්වෙන අනිත්යය, එහි අවුරුදු 5,000 ආයු කාලය, හැම පෘථග්ජනයාම ලෝභ-ද්වේෂ-මෝහයෙන් පිරි පංචස්කන්ධ යන්න හා කොසොල් රජතුමාගේ සීන දාසැයෙන් ලොවට දී ඇති බෞද්ධ දේශපාලන විග්රහය අනුව සළකණ විට, හිතහොඳ ගෑණී කතාවට හෝ දත් මැදලා දමණ දැහැටි දඬු වලට හෝ වඩා මේ කරපිංචා කතාව වඩා ශීලාචාර යයි යමෙකුට පෙනී ගියොත් එය සාධාරණය.
ක්රිස්තු පූර්ව පස්වන ශතවර්ෂයේදී බෞද්ධ ඉන්දියාවේ ලෝකයට වඩා, 2020 ලෝකයේදී ලංකාවේ ථේරවාද බෞද්ධයින් වනාහි, ක්රිස්තියානි මූලධර්මවාදය, ශාරියා-ඉහ්වාන්වාදය හා විග්නේෂ්වරන්ලාගේ බුදුපිළිම අරහං දෙමළ බෞද්ධයා වාදයට, ඩොලර් එන්.ජී.ඕ කොම්පැනිවාදයට හා චන්ද්රිකා-රෝසි-මංගලලාගේ සමරිසි ලිබරල්වාදයට, මැදිවූ, එනම් බිලියන් හය හතක ලෝකයක, මිලියන 15 කටත් අඩු වඳවෙමින් පවතින ජන කොටසකි. මෙය සමාන කල හැක්කේ ගිරයට අසුවූ පුවක් ගෙඩියකට වඩා දත් තිස්දෙකට මැදිවූ දිවකටය. ඊට හේතුව හතුරා විසින් බලා ඉන්නේ ඉඩක් ලැබුණු හැම අවස්ථාවේදීම, කෝ බුද්ධාගමේ කියන මෛත්රීය කියා, නැත්නම් මියගිය ස්ටැන්ලි තම්බයියාගේ අවිහිංසාවාදය ගැන කියන බෞද්ධයින් මිණීමරන්නේ ඇයි කියා අසමින් කොටුකර පහර දෙන්නටය. කඩුව හෝ මුගුර අවශ්ය තැන නවගුනවැල ගණින්න එපා යයි නන්දා මාලිනී ගයන්නේ ඒ නිසාය. අශොක රජතුමාගේ ධර්මිෂ්ට රාජ්යය, ඔහු මියගොස් වැඩිකලක් යන්නට පෙර ඉන්දියාවෙන් අතුගෑවී ගියේය. අද ඉතිරිවී ඇත්තේ, ඉන්දියන් ජනාධිපතිලා වන අබ්දුල් කලාම්, ප්රතිභා පටිල් හා අගමැති මෝඩිලාගේ බුද්ධාගමේ රාජ්ය පාලන වටිනාකම ගැන කරණා ආවැඩීම් පමණය.
යම් සමාජ ශොධක හිමිනමක් අපවත්වූ විට එය අපවත් කිරීමක්ද යන සැකයක් අසන්නට ලැබෙන්නේ ඇයි? මිගෙට්ටුවත්තේ ගුණානන්ද හිමියන්ටද වස දෙන්නට හැදුවා යයි කතාවක් මා අසා ඇත. කොටගම වාචිස්සර හාමුදුරුවන්ගේ මරණය හා තවත් එවැනි උදාහරණ ඇත. බණ්ඩාරනායක අගමැතිට කැබිනට් රැස්වීම් මේසයේදීම දුන් නයි විෂ දැමු කිරි වීදුරුව වැරදීමෙන් බිව්වේ සීපීද සිල්වාය. රනිල්, රාජිතව ශල්ය කර්මය සඳහා රජයේ වියදමින් සිංගප්පූරුවට යැව්වේද මේ බය නිසාය. සෝම හමුදුරුවන්ගේ අභාවය කුමන්ත්රණයක් නොවේයයි, යම් ඩොලර් බලයක් විසින් රාවයේ වික්ටර් අයිවන් යොදවා, පන්සලේ විප්ලවය යනුවෙන් පොතක් ලියවූයේය. අයිවන් ඒ පොතෙන් සෝම හාමුදුරුවන්ට, සිනමා නළු රූපයක් සහිත ප්රේම සම්බන්ධයක්ද පැටලුවේය. යහපාලනකාරයින් මාදුළුවාවේ සෝභිත හිමියන්ව සිංගප්පූරු යැව්වේ භාගෙට මළ පසුවය. මෙම සිද්ධි වලදී සෝම හාමුදුරුවන් සතුරාගේ උගුලට අසුවුනේ පෘථග්ජන තෘෂ්ණාව නිසාය. ජීවිතය පුරාම රට ජාතිය වෙනුවෙන් බැටකා ලේ හැලූ සෝභිත හිමිඳුන්ද ඇමෙරිකන්-චන්ද්රිකා යහපාලන ගැටයට අසුවුනේද ඒ නිසාය. මේ ඉතිහාසය ගැන සිතන විට ඥානසාර හිමියන් ඝාතනයෙන් බේරී සිටීම, ජනාධිපති ගොඨාභය දෙවන වරටත් ඝාතන උත්සාහයකින් බේරී සිටිය යුතුවීම තරම්ම ජාතික වැදගත් කමක් ඇති කරුණකි.
පුද්ගලයෙකුට කලහැකි හැම අපහාසයක්ම කර, චන්දය ඉල්ලීමට හැම භාධාවක්ම කර, මාධ්ය හා ඇමෙරිකන් මුහුණු පොත් කොම්පැනියෙන් පවා වාරණ දමා, අන්තිමේදී යම් අදෘෂ්යමාන බලවේගයකින් ඥානසාර නම් මන්ත්රී උන්නාන්සේ කෙනෙක් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සිංහනාද කිරීමට දුන් අවස්ථාව ප්රමාද කිරීමට දැන් සිදුවෙනදේ සමාන කල හැක්කේ, අන්තිම මොහොතේ ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂක කම නැතිකිරීමට රණවිරුගාය හැදුන චන්ද්රගුප්ත තේනුවර හා වියන්ගොඩ විසින් උසාවියෑම හා, ජනාධිපතිවූ වහාම ස්විස් තානාපති විසින් කල විගඩමටය. බොදු බල සේනාව පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට යෑම හරියට සියළු සුදු-කළුසුදු හතුරන් පරදා අනාගාරික ධර්මපාලතුමා ඩොනමෝර් රාජ්යමන්ත්රණ සභාවට ගියා වැනිය. කලකට පෙර දළඳාව පැහැරගෙන යන ලෙස ඥානසාර හිමියන්ට යෝජනාකල රතන හිමියන්, මේ අවස්ථාවේ කල යුතු වන්නේ, උන්වහන්සේව පාර්ලිමේන්තු අසුනේ තබා, මන්ත්රීගේ පුද්ගලික ලේකම් වශයෙන් සෙවනැල්ලක්සේ පාර්ලිමේන්තු ගොඩනැගිල්ලට ගොසින් තම අවුරුදු 15 මන්ත්රී අත්දැකීම් එතුමාට ලබාදීම නොවේද? රතන හිමියන්ගේ දළඳා මාළිගා උපවාසය කෙළවර කල හැකිවූයේ කාදිනල්තුමා එතැනට ඒමෙන් නොව, ඥානසාර හිමියන් විසින් යහපාලනකාරයින්ට තර්ජනය කරමින් කොළඹ බලා ඒමට ආරම්භකල මහජන පෙලපාලිය නිසාවෙන්ය. මාවිල් ආරුවේදී සටන් කාමීවූ රතන හිමි, උපවාස කරණ රතන හිමි වූ පසු, මතවාදී සටන භාරදියයුතු බෝධි සත්ව නාගයාට යන්න මින් ඔප්පු විය.
වස විසෙන් තොර-සූර්ය, සුළං බල-සිංහල-වතු දමිළ සහජීවනයෙන් පිරි- රටක් ගොඩ නැඟීමේ කාරිය තමන් විසින් තවදුරටත් කරගෙන යමින්, නොයෙක් රට කඩන මතවාද, පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සිට මතවාදයෙන් පැරදවීම ඥානසාර හිමියන්ට භාරදීම රතන හිමියන්ගේ යුග පුරුෂ කාරියය. දැන් අළුතෙන්ම ඥානසාර හිමියන් දුන් මාධ්ය සාකච්චාව අනුව එලිවන්නේ රතන හිමියන් වැරදි දෙක තුනක්ම කර ඇති බවය. උන්වහන්සේගේ අවුරුදු 15 මන්ත්රීකාලය, රනිල්ගේ අවුරුදු 26 ට සමානය. ලේකම් භික්ෂූ විමලතිස්සව හොයා දෙනවා මිස උසාවියට යෑමට යෝජනා කිරීම 67,000 ක චන්ද දායකයින් පිරිසක්, උසාවි පංචස්කන්ධ දෙක තුනකට පාවා දීමකි. නාම යෝජනා පත්ර ප්රතික්ෂේපවීමේ සිටම, රතන හිමියන් දැන හෝ නොදැන, යම් සංවිධානාත්මක කුමණ්ත්රනයක් සිදුවී ඇති බව දැන් පෙනීයයි. කොළඹ නාමයෝජනා වලට මැදිහත්ව ඇත්තේ සෝලංගආරච්චිගේ බිරිඳය. තුෂාර පීරිස් නම් පැරිසියේ වසනා පාතාලයෙක්, අරඹේපොල රතනසාර නම් භික්ෂුවක් සමඟ මේ පට්ට කුමන්ත්රණයට හවුල්වී ඇතැයි ඥානසාර හිමි මාධ්යයට කියා සිටියේය. එක් එක් කාලයේ හා එක් එක් වයස් වලදී මේ රටේ ප්රසිද්ධ සමාජ සේවක හාමුදුරුවරු තම හැකියාවේ හා තම භූමිකාවේ ලක්ෂණ එලිකලේය. මිගෙට්ටුවත්තේ ගුණානන්ද, වල්පොල රාහුල, ගංගොඩවිල සෝම හා මාදුළුවාවේ සෝභිත යන හාමුදුරුවරුන් ගැන සිතා බලන විට මේ වෙනස්කම් පෙනේ. මඩිහේ පඤ්ඤාසීහ හාමුදුරුවන් ජේ.ආර් ට යැවූ සංදේශ කාලය අපතේ යැවීමක්, බීරී අලියෙකුට, ජේ. ආර්. පී. සූරියප්පෙරුම මහතා කී පරිදි කපුටු බෝ ගසකට දත නියවීමක් විය! මෑතකාලයේදී ඥානසාර හිමියන් කරණ සිංහනාදය, රතන හිමියන් සිය තරුණ වයසේදීවත් කර නැත. ලොවින් එකෙක් එක් දෙයකට වෙයි සමත කියන්නේ මේ නිසාය. ධර්මපාලතුමා, දිඹුලාගල හාමුදුරුවෝ, නාමල් උයනේ වනවාසී රාහුල හිමි, මඩකලපුවේ මංගලාරාමයේ අම්පිටියේ සුමනරතන හිමි එක් එක් ආකාරයේ වෙනස් යුතුකම් ඉටුකල/කරණ, ඒ සඳහා ජීවිතය කැපකල පංචස්කන්ධ විය. පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ අනිත් 224 ඉදිරියේ මතවාදයෙන්, ඊළම්වාදය, ශාරියාවාදය, ක්රිස්තියානි මූලධර්මවාදය, ලෝක ලිබරල්, කොම්පැනි ධනවාදය පරාජය කිරීමේ හැකියාව හා පෙර ආත්මයෙන් එන පින තිබෙන්නේ ඥානසාර හිමියන්ටය.
1551 දී දොන් ජුවන් ධර්මපාලගේ සිටම සිදුවූයේ, සිංහලේ හා සිංහලයා, ශ්රී ලාංකික කිරීමේ ව්යාපාරයය. රජමහා විහාරයට යාබදව පල්ලියක් සදා, කෝට්ටේ ප්රභූන් කතෝලික කිරීමෙන් ඇරඹුණ මේ ක්රියාවලිය, එතැන් සිට, කළු සුද්දන් බෝ කිරීමේ ව්යාපාරයක් වශයෙන් ප්රවර්ධ නයවී, 1948 දී කළු සුද්දෙක් අගමැති වීමෙන් කූඨප්රාප්ත විය. 2015 දී එය යහපාලන ශාපයක් විය. 1815 දී සිංහලේට නැතිවූ නිදහස, 1947 දී 29 වෙනි වගන්තිය මඟින් නැවතත් නැතිකරණ ලදී. මේ ගැන තරුණ සිංහලයින්ට කියා දිය යුතුය. මානසික වශයෙන් සිංහල ජාතිය තම මව්බිමේම එක් ජන වර්ගයක් පමණක් කලේ ඒ වගන්තියෙන්ය. මේ නිසා ඩී. එස් නිදහසේ පියාද යන්න නැවත විමසා බැලිය යුතු නොවේද? පෙත්සම් ගැසූ විට නියම නිදහසක් දෙන යටත් විජිත පාලකයෙක් නැත. එක්සත් ජාතියක්, එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය තුලවත් නොවීය. සිදුවූයේ පෙඩරල් කාරයින් ප්රසිද්ධියේත්, ශාරියා කාරයින් දිය යටිනුත්, සිංහලේ නමැති පාන් රාත්තලෙන් කෑලි කුනිත්තා ගැනීමය. 1957 බණ්ඩා-චෙල්වා ගිවිසුමෙන් දමිළ ජන වර්ගයට ලංකාවේ කෘතිම මව්බිමක් යෝජනා කරණ ලදී. 1965 දී ඩඩ්ලි හා ජේ ආර් එය තහවුරු කර දෙන ලදී. 1987 දී 13-ඒ හරහා එය නීතිගත කරණ ලදී. ඒකීය රටක් නීතිය ඉදිරියේ දැනට නැත.
වෙන රටවලදී මෙන් මේ කුඩා දූපත කැබලි කරගැනීම ප්රමාදවූයේ රටේ, ජාතියේ මුරදේවතාවුන්වූ භික්ෂූ පරපුර නිසාය. මේ ඉතිහාසයේදි වැරදි පාරේ ගිය, හා යන, සිල්වත් නොවන භික්ෂූන් සිටින්නේමය. භික්ෂූ සාසනයේ මේ පිරිහීමට සුද්දන්න්ට වඩා වගකිව යුතු සිංහල බෞද්ධ යයි කියනා පාලක කළු සුද්දන්ය. 1920 ගණන් වල සිට අරාබි ආගමික පාසැල්, 1951 දී කාති උසාවි යනාදිය නීති මඟින් සදාදුන් පාලකයින්, අඩු තරමින් උසාවි කොරිඩෝර් වල රස්තියාදු වෙන හාමුදුරුවරුන් සඳහා ශීලාචාර ක්රමයක් හදා දෙන ලෙස සුදු නඩුකාරයින් කල් ඉල්ලීමටවත් කන් නොදුන් අන්දම, ප්රින්ස් ගුණසේකර විසින් 1958 දී ලියූ විහාර නීති විත්ති යන පොතේ විස්තර කර ඇත. සුද්දගෙ නීතිය අදවන විට කළුසුද්දන් රකින, වඳින නීතිය වී තිබේ. අනිත් සුළු ජන වර්ග වලට ශ්රී ලාංකික යන පලිහ සමඟ, මුස්ලිම්-දෙමළ යන කඩු අතට දී ඇති අතර, සිංහලයාට ඇත්තේ උපතින් ඔහුට/ඇයට ලැබුණ අත් දෙක හා කකුල් දෙක පමණය.
උප්පැන්නෙන් සිංහල ජාතිය යන්න ඉවත් කර, සිංහලයා දිවයිනේ එක් ජනවර්ගයක් කිරීමේ හොර උත්සාහයට විරුද්ධව චන්ද කාලයේදී ප්රසිද්ධියේ කතා කලේ විමල් වීර වංශ හ උදය ගම්මන්පිල පමණය! සිංහල බෞද්ධයා හිත හොඳ ගෑණී වූවා පමණක් නොව සිංහලයා පාපිස්සක්, මුව හමක් බවට පත්වී ඇත. මෙම අවාසනාවන්ත ඉරණම නතර කිරීමට 1956 <අපේ ආණ්ඩුව> අසමත් විය. ඊට හේතුව එය කළු සුද්දන්ගේ ග්රහණයට අසුවූ ආණ්ඩුවක් වීමය. විශාල වශයෙන් සිංහල-දෙමළ ලිපිකරුවන් බඳවා ගන්නටත්, විපක්ෂය ආණ්ඩුවට සම්බන්ධ කරගන්නටත්, තරුණ ගම්පහ මන්ත්රී, පසුව ඉඹුල්ගොඩ වීරයාවූ, ඇස්.ඩී. බණ්ඩාරනායක කල යෝජනාව අගමැති විසින් ප්රතික්ෂේප කලේය. මාස දෙකක් යන්නටත් පෙර බෞද්ධ බලවේගයේ එල්. එච්. මෙත්තානන්ද අගමැති ගෙන් ඉවත්ව ගියේය. 1960 හා 1970 දශක වල මිසිස් බී, මාක්ස්වාදීන්ගේ, ඇන්ග්ලිකන් ෆිලික්ස් ඩයස්ගේ, ඉස්ලාම් බදිුද්දීන් මොහමඩ්ගේ බලපෑම් වලට ගොදුරුවිය. එන්. කිව්, ඩයස් තනියෙන් සටන්කල නියම බෞද්ධයා විය. උපාසිකාවක් ලෙස සැළකෙණ මිසිස් බී, දළයිලාමාට දළදාව වැඳගැනීමට සංචාරක වීසාවක් යටතේ දවසකටවත් ලංකාවට ඒමට ඉඩදුන්නේ නැත්තේ චීනයට බයේද නැත්නම් චීන පිලේ සේනානායක දෙබෑයින්ගේ (රත්න දේශප්රිය) බලපෑමටද? පසුව එතුමාගේ මවගේ වළල්ලක්, එතුමාගේ නැඟනියක් විසින් දළදා මාළිගාවට පැමිණ පූජා කලේ ඒ නිසාය.
ඥානසාර හිමියන්ට පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට යෑමේ අවස්ථාව අහිමි කලත්, ඒ වෙනුවට, මතවාදයෙන් සිංහල බෞද්ධ හතුරන් පරාදය කිරීමට විභව ආත්ම ශක්තියක් ඇති මන්ත්රීන් කීපදෙනෙක්ම දැන් පත්වී සිටී. එහෙත් මේ අය, අඩු තරමින්, <ඥානසාර මතවාදය> අනුමත කල 2017 ජූනි 20 හා ජූලි 4 අස්ගිරි ප්රකාශනයෙන් හා අස්ගිරි නිවේදනයෙන් පසුව වත්, ඥානසාර හිමියන් වෙනුවෙන් ප්රසිද්ධියේ වචනයක්වත් කතා කලාදැයි මම නොදනිමි. පක්ෂ දේශපාලනය හා විනය විසින් ඔවුන්ට, ඥානසාර හිමියන්ට ඇති ස්වෛරීභාවය නොදෙනු ඇත. චන්දයේදී ඔවුන් කී එක රටක්, එක නීතියක් යන සංකල්ප ක්රියාවට නඟන්නේ කෙසේද?
මේ නිසා රට පුරා උත්සව පවත්වමින්, ලැබුණ ධූර ගැන නාහෙන් අඬමින්, පන්සල් ගානේ යමින් හැසිරෙන පොහොට්ටු මන්ත්රීන් තේරුම් ගතයුතු කාරණා රාශියක්ම ඇත. දැනට ඇති අමාත්ය සංඛ්යාවද විශාල වැඩිය. රැවුලත්, කැඳත් බේරා ගැනීම, දැනට රටේ තිබෙන නාස්ලණුවාදය යටතේ කල යුතු බව සැබෑය. එහෙත් එහි සීමාවක් තිබේ. ඒ සමඟ සාධාරණකමක්ද ඇති බව චන්දය දුන් අයට පෙනී යායුතුය. විජේදාස රාජපක්ෂට, විදුර වික්රමනායකට සළකා ඇති ආකාරය පුදුමය.
පණ්ඩුකාභය රජතුමා මෙය කලා යයි පැවසේ. ගම-වැව-දාගැබ යන ත්රිත්වය අපගේ ආර්ථික, සාමාජික හා දේශපාලන මොඩලය නොවූයේද? මේ ආකාරයට ස්වාභාවික පරිසරය අනුව, ලොකු කුඩා ගංඟා ද්රෝණි අනුව පරිපාලන ඒකක මායිම් කිරීම නිව්සීලන්තයේ ව්යවස්ථා අනුව අනිවාර්යකර ඇත. තිරසර සංවර්ධන සංකල්පය අපට අළුත් දෙයක් නොවන්නේද?
දැනට සිදුවන ජාතික මන්ත්රීධූර කුමන්ත්රණය මඟින් එලිවන්නේ ඥානසාර හිමියන් විනාශ කිරීමට 2012 සිටම සිතූ පිරිසේ වෑයමය. හාමුදුරුවන්ට මඩ ගැසීමට ගෙනා කාරණා දෙකටම (නෝර්වේ ඒජන්ත හා බීමත්ව රිය පැදවීම) අවශ්ය පැහැදිලිකිරීම් ඒ කාලයේදීම ලබාදෙන ලදී. බොදු බල සේනාව ගැන චෝදනා නොකර ඒ ගැන විමසීමට (අළුත්ගම සිද්ධිය වැනි) කොමිෂමක් පත්කරණ ලෙස ඥානසාර හිමි ආණ්ඩුවලට දිගින් දිගටම අභියෝග කලේය. උන්වහන්සේට චෝදනා කල කිසිවෙක් මුහුණට මුහුණ දී විවාදයක් කරන්නට ඉදිරිපත්වූයේ නැත! මේ නිසා මන්ත්රී උන්නාන්සේ කෙනෙක් වශයෙන් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ගියොත් මන්ත්රී පංචස්කන්ධවලට වෙනදේ අපට සිතාගත හැකිය.
The massive mandate received from the people should not be obstructed by sepoy scribes who have infiltrated the high places of the Editorial staff and always writing to please embassies of western countries & NGOs with anti-national, anti-Sinhala, and anti-Buddhist narratives. There is a well-funded campaign to vilify Buddhists & Buddhism in particular by the private owned mainstream English newspapers giving a platform to writers using pseudonyms. While writers using their real names can be challenged, people throwing stones hiding behind a bogus name cannot be held accountable for the malicious & vindictive manner they write. In such a scenario, it is the editors of these mainstream newspapers and even web journals who have to be held to account as they know the identities of the cowards who do not wish to say what they want to say openly but do so hiding behind a false name. This ugly practice must stop. The Media Minister & the new Government must also look into the grievances of the majority and one key area is the denigration the majority is subject to in all forms of communication channels. Strict rules and regulations must be issued to the mainstream media channels with regard to attacking Buddhists and Buddhism using pseudonyms and hiding behind ‘freedom of press’ ‘rights of media’. The Sri Lankan Press must be sensitive to all readers. Name calling and ridiculing 2/3 of the people of Sri Lanka by cowards is not acceptable.
Who are these cowards writing & bashing Buddhists & Buddhism using pseudonyms?
– Don Manu
– Vishwamithra
– Naan
– Cassandra
– Notebook of Shani
This is nothing but biased and unethical gutter journalism at play.
The mainstream English newspapers are circulated internationally and end up being the main source that individuals and organizations refer to. If the international community have an adverse opinion against the majority in Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankan press has to be held accountable in view of their role in vilifying the majority Sinhala Buddhists.
The manner the editors and the owners allow scribes to ONLY ridicule and denigrate the majority Sinhala Buddhists is nothing they can deny. A content analysis will reveal the derogatory nature of Buddhist bashing press, the editors facilitating the bashing and the scribes given a forum to do so. To add to injury the editors do not even allow right of replies or even opportunity for new writers. The same columnists have been writing for decades. Dictatorial nature of editorial positions can be assuaged in the manner main editors have also been glued to their seats while they lambast politicians for not retiring!
In a country with 74% Sinhalese – the Buddhist opinion is purposely suppressed and even Poya Day supplement write up by English mainstream private newspapers is given to a non-Buddhist or a pseudo-Buddhist to question Buddhism or put forward some uncouth opinion. How many editors are Buddhists? How many writers are allowed to put forward Buddhist opinion? Thankfully the alternate media and social media have enabled the Buddhists to challenge the injustices. Soon the print media, already in decline, will realize that they will have no circulation or purchase of their papers because they carry the same old vindictive opinions of writers and the same denigration and offer people nothing new to think about.
Given that the Press Complaints Commission is under the Media Minister and a Code of Professional Practice binding newspapers, publishing companies, editors, journalists and contributors for print & online exists, the Minister must clearly issue a circular banning pseudonym writers bashing Buddhists/Buddhism.
If they want to bash Buddhists/Buddhism come into the open and do so, without being cowards, hiding behind the editors and throwing stones via pen.
Code of Professional Practice for Sri Lankan media.
6.3 of the code: a journalist
shall not knowingly or willfully promote communal or religious discord or violence. The conclusion of the article declares ‘
6.4 of the Code:
The Press must avoid prejudicial or pejorative reference to a person’s race, color, religion, sex or to any physical or mental illness or disability’.
Use of pseudonyms by scribes only displays their moral cowardice seeking cover under a fake name and throwing stones.
No country allows mainstream press to give a platform to scribes to bash the majority using a pseudonym. Sri Lanka should not either.
The media minister must appoint a national media commission and release report along the lines of 1964 Press Commission Report.
The media minister must bring legislation banning pseudonyms attacking Buddhists/Buddhism via mainstream media
The media minister must build Patriotic writers to defend Sri Lanka.
War of arms is over in Sri Lanka.
The soldiers did their part magnificently
Now is the War of words
It is the task of the patriotic writers to defend the Nation using the pen.
The Govt must recruit a team of such writers.
The pen army will be Sri Lanka’s next defense.
They must dictate the narrative which has been unfairly held by sepoy press, lascoreen journalists & coward scribes.
Patriotic forces of Sri Lanka must be on top in the war of words.
Sepoy Journalism must be replaced with Patriotic Journalism.
Shenali D Waduge
The Progressive Women’s Collective (PWC) is delighted with the announcement that theNational List parliamentary seatof the National People’s Power (NPP) has been offered to, and accepted by, Dr. Harini Amarasuriya. Dr. Amarasuriya is an extremely accomplished activist and educator, and we are thrilled that such an active advocate for education rights and women’s rights will represent the NPP at the Parliament.
PWC has consistently advocated for the increase of women in political leadership and decision-making. Along with NPP, PWC supported and lobbied for 20 number of women candidates put forward by the NPP in the recently concluded parliamentary election. The appointment of Dr. Amarasuriya as the National List candidate, we believe, shows the NPP’s true and integral commitment to the feminist vision outlined in the PWC policy as well as NPP’s overall policy regarding women’s participation in politics. This is principle in action—walking the talk. We are also thrilled that it is our colleague Dr. Amarasuriya who will represent us, and women and men in Sri Lanka as an NPP Member of Parliament.
Dr. Amarasuriya has been an ardent advocate for public educational rights in Sri Lanka, supporting and leading movements which demand structural change in our education system. Dr. Amarasuriya has always been led by a passionate commitment to ensuring that education in Sri Lanka be accessible, equitable, just and truly public. But her commitment to social transformation isn’t limited to any one issue. Dr. Amarasuriya, in her role as a member of the Public Representations Committee for Constitutional Reform, advocated for public representations to be taken seriously on matters of the state, religion, socio-economic rights and more. Her deep respect for a diverse range of stakeholders was evident through this process, and it enabled her to bring these representations into multiple fora and public discourse in a meaningful way.
Dr. Amarasuriya’s contributions within the Progressive Women’s Collective have been invaluable. Her insightfulness and perceptiveness enabled her to make incisive contributions in shaping PWC’s feminist vision and policy. She has also advocated tirelessly for the adoption of a feminist lens within the broader NPP.
It is common to see petty politicking within political parties following elections, where party leadership typically sideline original National List candidates or female candidates in the final seat allotment, in favour of candidates who didn’t get sufficient preferential votes to win a seat. We trust that this is an instance where NPP has shown our commitment to democratic and participatory politics, eschewing patronage politics and exclusionary practices. We are setting a new trend in politics, where politics is no longer a matter of self-gain and individual advantage, but a broad praxis where principles and vision rules the order of political decision-making.
As women, we believe that NPP’s decision to allot the National List seat to Dr. Amarasuriya is a defining moment in our Left political history. We deeply appreciate this move by the NPP as bold decision. In this time of profound electoral setbacks for left political parties, we remain hopeful that the NPP will become a touchstone of political incorruptibility and ethical behaviours, committed to a safer, healthier, and economically sustainable society. We also laud the courage that Dr. Amarasuriya has shown by accepting this invitation of the NPP during such challenging times. For us, as the PWC, this is an indication that the long road ahead will be one of unity, respect, and commitment to women’s rights in Sri Lanka, a sign, that the times are, indeed, changing, after decades of political neglect of female leaders by left and right political parties.
Progressive Women’s Collective
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