The best piece of legislation introduced by the yahapalana government is the clause related to dual citizenship. It highlighted the NATIONAL SECURITY aspect of a person who was a citizen of two countries contesting elections to hold public office & surfaced many conflicts that could arise from holding citizenship in two countries. Therefore, this important clause must remain in 20a. If the President of Sri Lanka had to forsake his dual citizenship to become President, there is no reason why any other cannot do so if they genuinely wish to serve Sri Lanka.Geetha Kumarasinghe was unseated because she was a dual citizen. Onus is on authorities to ensure that no other MP is seated in Parliament hiding their dual citizenship. MilindaM designate Sri Lanka High Commissioner with cabinet ranking as per media reports is also a dual citizen. This clearly nullifies his ability to serve as High Commissioner and petition can be filed to this effect. Dual citizenship nullification should also be extended to all public servants in the light of national security threatto Sri Lanka given our post-independence past of external interference into internal affairs by foreign destabilizing agents.

The 19^thamendment came into effect on 15 May 2015

Article 92(b) and Clause 20(4) of 19^thamendment & Article 91(1)(d)(xiii) of Constitution stipulates that No person shall be qualified to be elected as a Member of Parliament or to sit and vote in Parliament if (d) (xiii) a citizen of Sri Lanka who is also a citizen of any other country”from contesting elections.

Geetha contested for the 2015 Parliamentary Election from Galle District & was elected to the 15th Sri Lankan Parliament by receiving 63,955 preferential votes. She took her oaths on September 1st when the new Parliament convened.

Nominations for General Elections closed on 13 July 2015. The Elections Department had enough opportunity to reject nomination papers if the contestants were dual citizens. The UPFA Galle District list was challenged but the Returning Officer said he could not reject the entire UPFA list due to one candidate being a dual citizen.

Did the Elections Commission investigate dual citizenship status in 2015 & 2020?

16 September 2015 – Petition against MP Geetha K in Court of Appeal

5 voters of Galle District filed a Writ petition in the Court of Appeal requesting Court to declare Geetha K ineligible to remain in Parliament while holding dual citizenship.

The Petitioners W.W.E. Buweneka, J.K. Amarawardhana, A.C. Gunasekera, J.K. Wijesinghe and Prasanna Deepthilal from Galle electoral district.

C A (Writ) Application No. 362 / 2015

They cite Section 20 of 19^thAmendment, Article 91(1)(d)(xiii) of the Constitution.

MP Geetha files statement of objection in the Court of Appeal  

3 May 2017– Court of Appeal issued Writ of Quo Warranto declaring MP Geetha Kumarasinghe disqualified to be a MP. Attorney General was asked to recover expenses caused to the State by Kumarasinghe as per Parliament Election Act.

9 May 2017– Geetha appeals to the Supreme Court

12 May 2017– 3 bench judge (Justice Buwaneka Aluvihara, Justice Priyantha Jayawardena & Justice Anil Goonaratne issues Interim Order until 15 May staying operation of judgement by Court of Appeal

15 May 2017– Divided 3-bench Supreme Court grants special leave to appeal on petitionfiled by Geetha K. Date fixed for 25 September 2017.

Justices – Eva Wanasundera, Upaly Abeyrathne & Anil Gooneratne

Court extended Interim Order staying till final determination for 25 September 2017

2 Nov 2017 – 5 bench Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Priyasath Dept unanimouslyheld that UPFA MP Geetha Kumarasinghe was disqualified to be in Parliament as she was a dual citizen

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3 May 2017 – Court of Appeal unseats Geetha as MP

C A (Writ) Application No. 362 / 2015 – Judgement by Justice P Padman Surasena

Court of Appeal issued a Writ of Quo Warranto disqualifying UPFA MP Geetha as she was a dual citizen of Switzerland/Sri Lanka when filing nomination to contest Parliamentary elections & failing to negate her dual citizen status by renouncing her Swiss nationality before applying to contest to enter Parliament in August 2015.

J.C. Weliamuna PC appeared for the petitioners.

Manohara de Silva PC appeared for Geetha K.

Deputy Solicitor General Janak de Silva appeared for Controller of Immigration and Emigration, the Secretary General of Parliament and the Attorney General.

Why is the same not being done to other MPs hiding their dual citizenship status?

The Court of Appeal by its order dated 28.9.2015, directed the Controller General of Immigration and Emigration to produce all the documents relating to the citizenship status of MP Geetha

THIS MEANS OTHER DUAL CITIZEN MPs IN HIDING CAN ALSO BE EXPOSED by the Controller General of Immigration & Emigration.

Court of Appeal is charged with the jurisdiction to hear Election Petitions as has been provided for in section 93 of the Parliamentary Elections Act and Article 144 of the Constitution.

Court directed the State to recover costs from Ms. Kumarasinghe for each day she sat in Parliament knowing she was a dual citizen & disqualified to be a MP.

The Court of Appeal also highlighted the role of Parliament

Deputy Solicitor General Janak de Silva stated that Geetha who possessed citizenship in another country could not lay claim to any privileges provided to MPs because it violated Clause 91 (1) of the Constitution.

How many MPs are hiding their dual citizenship & enjoying privileges of an MP illegally?

Role of Attorney General

If the Attorney General could inform the Court of Appeal that MP Geetha was still a dual citizen – why cannot the AG inform if any other MPs are in Parliament hiding the fact that they are dual citizens. Geetha’s case is important because she was honest enough to disclose in her nomination papers that she was a dual citizen whereas others holding dual citizenship aware of the 19a provision against dual citizens, chose not to mention they were dual citizens.

Should the Election Commission & AG take a bigger role in declaring to the Public that there is no MP in Parliament who is a dual citizen. Can the EC & AG tell this with authority? EC is further bound to establish contestant’s dual citizenship status by Election Act too.

If the Controller of Emigration & Immigration wrote to Geetha to provide proof that she had relinquished her dual citizenship, can the Controller of E&I provide dual citizenship status of other MPs hiding their dual citizenship?

25 September 2017 – Geetha appeals to Supreme Court against Court of Appeal verdict

5 bench Supreme Court comprised – Chief Justice Priyasath Dep, B.P. Aluvihara, Sisira J. De Abrew, Anil Gooneratne and Nalin Perera.

Legal counsels representing Geetha – President’s Counsel Romesh de Silva, with Sugath Caldera and Niran Anketell,

Legal counsel representing 5 petitioners – J C Weliamuna

Written submissions on 10 October 2017

Arguments: 28 September 2017 and 3 October 2017

Decision 2 November 2017

2 November 2017 – Supreme Court upholds Court of Appeal decision

Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court upholds decision of Appeal Court to annul MP Geetha’s Parliamentary post as she was a dual citizen.

Some important aspects of the Supreme Court verdict 

http://www.supremecourt.lk/images/documents/sc_appeal_99_2017.pdf

The Court held that anyone who was a dual citizen on the day of the Parliamentary Election or on the day of taking oaths as a MP cannot be considered a MP.This means that if there is any MP in Parliament who on the day of the elections or on the day of taking oaths was a dual citizen, he/she cannot remain as a MP in Sri Lanka’s Parliament.

How many MPs in present Parliament are hiding their dual citizenship status?

Controller General of Immigration & Emigration affidavit to Court of Appeal stated Geetha was granted dual citizenship (SL & Swiss) on 29 August 2006 & dual citizenship certificate No.17096 was issued to her. 

THIS MEANS THE CONTROLLER IS ALSO AWARE OF ALL OTHER DUAL CITIZENS IN PARLIAMENT. How can he be made to reveal these names?

The need to produce evidence of negating one’s dual citizenship as per Sections 101, 103 and 106 of the Evidence Ordinance

Contention that writ of quo warranto does not apply to a Member of Parliament.However, Quo warranto is a remedy available to call upon a person who is holding a public office to show the authority under which he claims to hold the office but if holder is not legally entitled to hold public office, court has power to grant writ of quo warranto to oust holder. Justice Yapa cites examples:

Supreme Court gave an unanimous verdict with CJ Priyasath Dep, Justices Buwaneka Aluwihare, Justice Anil Gooneratne and Justice Nalin Perera all agreeing.

http://www.dailynews.lk/2017/11/06/political/133507/every-parliamentarian-should-be-probed-dual-citizenship?page=180

If President Gotabaya Rajapakse had to forsake his dual citizenship to serve the nation, all others holding dual citizenship must be forced to make that same sacrifice. As members of Parliament or holding public office & being looked after by the State of Sri Lanka, their loyalty and allegiance should ONLY be to SRI LANKA.

Shenali D Waduge

Dr Sudath Gunasekara

And what he says about DS, He not only took GGP into his Cabinet and made him the Minister of Industries but also accepted the name of his new Party UNP proposed by Governor Moor which itself meant that there were more than one nation in this country which was an absolute travesty of history which they deliberately planted here for the first time. Neither D.S. nor any other so-called Sinhala leaders in that Parliament had the brain to refute this diabolic lie and put the record right. None of them perhaps knew the history of the motherland beyond their noses or else deliberately ignored history to appease colonial masters in order to get the reins of power into their hands. More than that all of them were only crazy to take the power into their hands from the white people to consolidate their positions in Lankan society. I don’t think anyone of that group had a vision or a mission of building up an Independent.  a free and new nation.

As for me, I do not know whether they knew what freedom from a conquerer and independence means at all for a nation that was once on its own feet for two and a half millennia in all respects like territory, statecraft, legal system. economy. language, culture including religion, freedom of thought, and conscience no other nation enjoyed. I am lost to understand whether D.S or anyone else in that group knew. that we had a great heritage that was in par with ancient civilizations like Roman, Greek. Indian or Chinese, going back to 2500 years as against the colonial power who controlled us for 133 years were savage barbarians who did not know what civilization was

I pause these few questions to those who claim they have got Independence in 1948 to this country, including D.S?

.In 1948

1 Did they get back the full territory free of all encumbrances  including the Islands of Male, what was handed over to British  by Convention in 1815

2 Did they get the name of the country ‘Sinhale” that was  handed or in 1815, the name by which it was known  from the inception of history

3 Did they get  restored the place of Buddhism as the State religion in terms  of the Sec 5 of the Kandyan Convention

4 Did they get the full freedom to declare this country as the Independent Kingdom or at least Aa Republic

5 Did they get the freedom to have our own legal system restored

6 Did they get the language of the natives Sinhala  restored as the language of Public Administration and administration of Justice

7 Did they ask the British to take back all South Indian slaves brought by them to work on their projects, particularly the 1..2 million South Indians on their plantations in the Central Hill Country to make the country free of not only the British masters but also their coolies   to make sense of vacant possession of every inch of the motherland handed over to the original owners of the country?

8 Did they get back Katunayaka and Trikunamale bases  under our control  to make freedom meaningful

9 Did they get back the freedom to have our own system Governance and Administration restored?

10 Did they get the freedom to call the citizens of this country Sinhala as it had been for 2500 years up to 1815( (including Tamils and Moors) and declare that there is only one nation in this country. (Actually, even the word Ceylon  means the land of the Sinhala people and Sinhalese also means the people of the Sinhale) I really don’t understand why D.S and Co did not insist for this .and accepted the multi-national, multi-linguist, multiethnic and multi-religious nonsense crafted by the British and accepted Sec 29 of the Constiruriothat gave legal teeth to this concept for the first time in the instead of all these basic requirements to make this country fully independent, free and sovereign what di they do?

They accepted the Soulbury Constitution hook, line, and sinker that laid a permanent mechanism to perpetuate the Colonial control forever

According to K.M.De Silva

D.S.has accepted the concept of the presence of what they call Sulujaatin (minority nations such as Demala and Muslim) and their rights, Laankiya Ajtiya, the concept of a secular state, and the rejection of religious intervention in matters of State I see D.S The First Prime minister of Ceylon K.M.De.Silva) Unfortunately this is the tragic political legacy that is being continued up to date, which has become a veritable canker in the body politic of this country, Had these problems been addressed properly at the very beginning Sri Lanka would have been a different country today.

මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

          ලංකාව බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය යටත් විජියක් බවට පත් වීමට පළමු මෙරට පාලනය වන ලද්දේ ලිඛිත ව්‍යවස්ථාවකට අනුව නොවේ.නමුත් ශිලා ලේඛන මගින් ප්‍රකාශ කරන ලද්දා වූ පෙර රජවරුන් විසින් පිළිගන්නා ලද ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් විය.වෙසෙසින්ම සතරවන පැරකුම් රජු කාලයේ රචනා කරන දළදා ව්‍යවස්ථාව මගින් දක්වන ලද කරුණු සිංහල බෞද්ධ පාලකකයෙකු ගේ යුතුකම් වශයෙන් සළකන ලදී.එසේම මෙරට නායකත්වයට පත්වන පුද්ගලයා බෞද්ධයෙකු බෝධිසත්වයෙකු ලෙස පැවතීය යුතු බවට සම්ප්‍රදායක්ද ගොඩ නැගී තිබුණී.1815 වසරේ අත්සන් කරන ලද සිංහලේ බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය ගිවිසුමේ පස්වන වගන්තිය ප්‍රකාරව බුද්ධාගම ආරක්ෂා කල යුතු බවට ලිඛිත පිළිගැනීමක් සිදු විය.ඉංග්‍රීසි පාලනය විසින් මේ පිළිගැනීම පසුව කඩ කිරීම නිසා යටත් විජිත ක්‍රමය තුළ අන්‍ය ජාතිකයන් හා ආගමිකයන් ගේ පාලනයට නතු වීමට අපට සිදු විය. නමුත් 1948 වසරේ දී යම් දේශපාලන නිදහසක් ලැබී තිබුණද සෝල්බරි ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 29 වගන්තිය ප්‍රකාරව සිංහල බෞද්ධ අයිතිය තහවුරු කරගැනීමක් සිදු නොවීය.මේ අයිතිය නැවත තහවුරු කරන ලද්දේ 1972 සහ 1978 ව්‍යවස්ථාවන් පැනවීමෙන් පසුවයි.

        1978 ආණඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව කරණ කොට සිංහල ජාතිය ශක්තිමත් වීම මෙන්ම දුර්වල වීම ද සිදු ව ඇත. වෙසෙසින්ම 1948 පුරවැසි පනතින් මෙරට පාරම්පරික වැසියන් භුක්තිවිඳි වරප්‍රසාදයක් ඉවත් කරනන්නට යෙදී ඇත. එම තත්ත්වය තුල සිංහල ජාතිකත්වය වෙනුවට ශ්‍රී ලාංකික ජාතිකත්වයක් ආරෝපණය කොට තිබේ. එසේම දිවයින පුරාම සිංහල භාෂාව භාවිතා කරලීමට තිබූ අයිතියද 13 වන ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනයෙන් අහිමි කොට තිබේ.නමුත් ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ නවවන වගන්තියෙන් බුද්ධාගමට බුද්ධ ශාසනයට තිබූ පිළි ගැනීම යම් ආකාරයකින් ශක්තිමත් කර තිබේ. ජේ.ආර.ජයවර්ධන මහතා මෙම ව්‍යවස්ථාව සම්පාදනය කරන කල්හි එක් අතකින් සිංහල බෞද්ධයන් තෘප්තිමත් කර ඇත. අනෙක් අතින් විදෙස් ගැති අන්‍යාගමිකයන්ද තෘප්තිමත් කරතිබේ.නවවන ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ සඳහන් පාඨය මෙලෙස දැක්වේ

ශ්‍රීලංකා ජනරජය බුද්ධාගමට ප්‍රමුඛස්ථානය පිරිනමන්නේය. එහෙත් 10 වන ව්‍යවස්ථාවෙන් සහ 14 ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ(1) වන අනු ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ (ඉ) ඡේදයෙන් සියලු ආගම් වලට පිරිනැමෙන අයිතිවාසිකම් ආරක්ෂා කරදෙන අතර බුද්ධ ශාසනය සුරක්ෂිතකොට පෝෂණය කිරීම රජයේ වගකීම විය යුත්තේය.

   ජයවර්ධන ජනපතිවරයා ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ සිංහල පිටපතේ කරන සඳහනින්.බුද්ධාගම මුල් තැන ලබා දෙන බැවින් බුදුදහම පිලිපදින බෞද්ධයාටද ප්‍රමුඛස්තානය හිමිවේ.ඒ අනුව ශ්‍රී ලංකා ජනරජය වන විධායකය ව්‍යවස්ථාදායකය මෙන්ම අධීකරණයද යන ආයතන තුනේම බෞද්ධයාට ප්‍රමුඛස්ථානය ලබා දී තිබේ. නමුත් ඉංග්‍රීසි පිටපතේ කරන ලද සුලු වෙනස්කමක් මගින් මේ ප්‍රමුඛස්ථානය නැවත නිෂේධනය වේ. එනම් මෙම වගන්තියේ වාක්‍ය අතර නැවතීමේ ලකුණ ඉවත් කිරීමෙනි. ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂා පාඨය මෙලෙසය.

The republic of sri lanka shall give to Buddhism the foremost place and accordingly it shall be the duty of the state to protect and foster the Buddha sasana while assuring to all religious the rights granted by articles 10 and 14 (1)(e) මෙම ඉංග්‍රීසි වගන්තිය මෙලෙස යොදන්නට ඇත්තේ කලු සුද්දන් සහ අන්‍ය ආගමිකයන් සැනසීමටයි.

   ඉංග්‍රීසි පාඨය මගින් ලැබෙන අර්තයෙන් බුදු දහමට ලැබෙන ප්‍රමුඛස්ථානයක් හිමි වන්නේ නැතැයි කෙනෙකුට තර්ක කළ හැකිය.නමුත්  යම්කිසි අර්බදුයක් ඇතිවූ අවස්තාවකදී සිංහල භාෂා පාඨය බලපැවැත්විය යුතු බවටද නීතියක් ව්‍යවස්ථාවට ඇතුලත් කර තිබේ.(1978 මුල් ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ තිබෙන්නේ රාජ්‍ය භාෂා ඵාඨය යනුවෙනි. 13 වන සංශෝධනයෙන් පසු දෙමළ ද රාජ්‍ය භාෂාව වූ බැවින් සිංහල බාෂා පාඨය යනුවෙන් ඇතුලත් වී තිබේ.)     ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ සිංහල භාෂා පාඨය සහ ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාපාඨය අතර ඇතිවී තිබෙන මේ වෙනස්කම මත බුද්ධාගමටත් බුද්ධ ශාසනයටත් හිමි ‌ ‌ෙඑතිහාසික ස්ථානය ආරක්ෂා වී අති බව පෙනේ. මෙම කාරණය පිළිබඳව සැලකිලිමත් වූ නිතිඥ අරුන උණවටුන මහතා මේ වන විට ඉහළ අධිකරණයට නඩුවක්ද ගොනු කර තිබේ.

     පෙර ඉතිහාසය තුළ බුදු සසුන ආරක්ෂා කරලීමට රජවරු අපමණ මහන්සි ගත්හ.දළදා වහන්සේ ප්‍රාණය මෙන්රැක ගිනිමින් සතුරු ආක්‍රමණ පරදවමින් අඛණ්ඩව අවිච්ඡින්නව සම්ප්‍රදාය රැක ගත්හ.සෙනරත් රජතුමා රාජවංශිකයෙකු නුවූ බැවින් දළදා වහන්සේ රැක ගත් කීරවැල්ල පරපුරෙන් කුමරියක් ලබා ගත නොහැකි විය. පසුව අවාහ කරගත් දෝන කතිරිනා අවසාන රාජවංශික බිසව කතෝලිකකරණයට ලක් වීම නිසා බුදුසසුනට කළ යුතු මෙහෙය නිසි පරිදි ඉටු කරලීමට රජුට නොහැකි විය.මේ තත්වය මත දළදා වහන්සේ ගේ රැකවරණයට කීරවැල්ල ඥාතීන් අතරින් කෙනෙකු තෝරා පත් කර ගැනිණ(රඹුක්වැල්ලේ විත්ති පොත ) .නායක්කර යුගය දක්වාම මේ සම්ප්‍රදාය පැවති අතර නායක්කර් රජවරු වන කීර්ති ශ්‍රී රාජසිංහයන් දළදා වහන්සේ මහා සංඝ රත්නයට භාර කළහ.ඉංග්‍රීසි යුගයේ දී දළදා වහන්සේ රැගෙන පළාගිය භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේලා සැම දෙනම කීරවැල්ල පරපුරට ළඟම ඥාති සම්බන්ධකමක් දැක්වූ වන්ය.බුදුදහමත් දළදා වහන්සේ පිළිබඳවත් තිබෙන පැරණි සම්ප්‍රදායන් මෙලෙසය.

    ඉංග්‍රීසීන් 1818 සිදු වූ ජාතික විමුක්ති අරගලයෙන් පසුව උඩරට ගිවිසුම සංශෝධනය කොට අන්‍යාගමික පූජකයන්ට විශේෂ වරප්‍රසාද හිමිකර දුන්හ.මේ නිසා ලංකාවේ සෑම පළාතකම දේවස්ථාන ඉඳි කරලීමට මෙන්ම බෞද්ධයන් ගේ වරප්‍රසාද අඩු කරලීමටද පියවර ගැනුණි.1848 අරගලයෙන් පසුව දළදා වහන්සේ සම්බන්ධ රජයේ වගකීම මහා සංඝ රත්නයටත් දියවඩන නිලමේ තුමාටත් භාර දීමෙන් පසුව ශාසනික වගකීම් සියල්ලටම උර දෙන ලද්දේ සැදැහැති බෞද්යන් ය. 1948 වර්ෂයේ දී ලංකාවේ පාලනය නැවත භාරදෙන කල්හි උඩරට ගිවිසුම ප්‍රකාරව කටයුතු නොකලා පමණක් නොව ලංකා  නිදහස් රාජඥා පනතේ 29 වන වගන්තිය තුළින් බුද්ධාගමටත් අනෙක් ආගම් වලටත් එක ලෙස සැලකීමට නීතිමය ප්‍රතිපාදන ඇතුලත් විය.වලිසිංහ හරිස්චන්ද්‍ර  තුමා අනුරාධපුරයට ගොස් කල අරගලයේ දී ඉංග්‍රීසි ආණ්ඩුවේ ඒජන්තව සිටි බුක් මහතා කීප වතාවකදීම බෞද්ධයන් ගේ පූජා විධි කහනම් කරන ලදී. විශේෂයෙන්ම හේවිසි වාදනය තහනම් කොට හේවිසි කරුවන් උසාවියට ඉදිරපත් කොට සිරදඬුවම් ද පමුණුවා ඇත.කලුතර බෝධිය කැපීම සඳහා ද ආණ්ඩුවේ ඒජන්ත වරයා උත්සුක වූ ආකරයද ඒ සඳහා ඇති වූ අරගලයේ දී ඇතිවූ පෙරළියද වාර්තා වී තිබේ.

    පශ්චාත් නිදහස් සමයේ ද මේ තත්වය විශේෂයෙන්ම බෞද්ධයන්ට සිදු වූ කෙණෙහෙලිකම් ගැන වාර්තා රාශියකි. 1972 ජනරජ ව්‍යවෂ්ථාව සහ 1978 ව්‍යවස්ථා දිගුව තුළින් සිදු වූයේ මේ කෙණෙහෙලිකම් යම් පමණකින් අඩු වීමයි.නමුත් විධායකය ව්‍යවස්ථාදායකය සහ අධිකරණය තුළ බෞද්ධ අයිතීන් තහවුරු වී නොමැත.78 ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 105 (4) ප්‍රතිපාදනය අනුව මේ වනු තුරුම සංඝාධිකරණයකට නීති පනවා නැත.වරින් වර ව්‍යවස්ථාදායකයේ සහ අධීකරණයේ මුල් පුටු වලට අබෞද්ධයන් පත් කර තිබේ.ඒ මගින් සිදු වූ හානියද සුලු පටු නොවේ.

 වර්තමානයේ දී 20 වන සංශෝධයක් ද කරළීයට පැමිණ තිබේ.පසුගිය යහපාලන ආණ්ඩුව ඉදිරිපත් කළ 19 සඳහා හොර රහසේම කාරක සභා අවස්ථාවේ රටට අහිතකර වගන්ති ඇතුලත් කලා සේ 20 සඳහාද එවැනි අහිතකර වගන්ති ඇතුලත් කිරීමේ ඉඩකඩක් නැතිවා නොවේ.වෙසෙසින්ම නව වන ව්‍යවස්ථාව හෑල්ලු කිරීමට නැතිනම් ශූන්‍ය කිරීමට යම් ප්‍රතිපාදනයක් ඇතුලත් කිරීමට ඉඩ කඩක් ඇත. මන්ද අධීකරණයේ මුල් පුටුවට අබෞද්ධයෙකු පත් වී තිබෙන බැවිනි.

මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

කොළඹ කොටස් වෙළඳපොළ ඩිජිටල්කරණය කර අවසන් කිරීම දැනුම් දීම සඳහා සුරැකුම්පත් හා විනිමය කොමිසන් සභාවේ නියෝජිතයෝ 2020.08.31 දින පැමිණ අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද  රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා  හමු වූහ.

නව මානයකින් ලෝකයට නිරාවරණය වීමේ ක්‍රමෝපායක් යටතේ කොටස් වෙළෙඳපොළ ඩිජිටල්කරණය කිරීමේ ක්‍රියාවලිය අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමාගේ උපදෙස්මත ආරම්භ විය.

ඒ අනුව සැප්තැම්බර්  17 දින සිට කොටස් වෙළඳපොළෙහි සියලු  කටයුතු ඩිජිටල්කරණය වීමට නියමිතය.

සුරැකුම්පත් හා විනිමය කොමිසන් සභාවේ සභාපති විරාජ් දයාරත්න මහතා හා අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල් චින්තක මෙන්ඩිස් මහතා අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා මුණගැසී ප්‍රකාශ කර සිටියේ කොවිඩ්-19 හේතුවෙන් දින 52ක් කොළඹ කොටස් වෙළෙඳ පොළ කටයුතු අඩපණ වුවද, සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම ඩිජිටල්කරණ වූ කොටස් වෙළඳපොළ ක්‍රියාවලිය නව මුහුණුවරකින් ලොවට පියනැඟීමක් බවයි.

එහිදී ලෝකය සමඟ ගණු දෙනු කිරීමේදී මෙන්ම රටේ ඉදිරි සංවර්ධන ක්‍රියාදාමයන් සමඟින් සුවපහසු මෙන්ම කාර්යක්ෂම සේවයක් කොළඹ කොටස් වෙළඳපොළ තුළින් ලබාදීම ඔවුන්ගේ ප්‍රමුඛ අරමුණ බව ද කියා සිටියේය.

මෙම අවස්ථාවට එක්වූ සුරැකුම්පත් හා විනිමය කොමිසන් සභාවේ සභාපති විරාජ් දයාරත්න සහ අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල් චින්තක මෙන්ඩිස් මහත්වරු එදිනට නියමිත ආරාධනා පත්‍රය අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාට භාර දුන්හ.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

බෙලිඅත්ත, පුවක්දණ්ඩාව, පන්ථාරාම මහා විහාරයේ විහාරාධිපති, දෙහිගහහේනේ ඥානවිමල හිමියන් බැහැදැකීමට අද 2020.09.01 දින බෙලිඅත්ත පුවක්දණ්ඩාව පන්ථාරාම විහාරස්ථානයට ගිය  ගරු අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා විහාරාධිපති හිමියන්ගේ සුව දුක් විමසා බැලුවේය.

රටේ ආර්ථික, සමාජීය හා දේශපාලන ක්‍රියාදාමයන්ට අදාළ ධර්මානුකූල පිළිවෙත් ගැන ඥානවිමල හිමියෝ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමාට මෙහිදී අනුශාසනා කළහ.

මෙම අවස්ථාව සඳහා ක්‍රීඩා හා තරුණ කටයුතු අමාත්‍ය නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ, දකුණු පළාත් සභාවේ  සභාපති සෝමවංශ කෝදාගොඩ මහත්වරු එක්ව සිටියහ.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාගේ සංකල්පයකට අනුව සෑම පුන් පොහෝ දිනකම පවත්වන අමාදම් සිසිලස” ධර්ම දේශනා මාලාවේ 201 වැන්න අද 2020.09.01 දින අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේදී පැවැත්විණි.

බුදු දහමේ සිසිලස සකළ ලෝ වැසියන්ට බෙදා දීමේ උදාර අරමුණ පෙරදැරිකර පවත්වන මෙම ධර්ම දේශනා මාලාවේ මෙවර ධර්ම දේශනාව පැවැත්වූයේ කැලණිය රජ මහා විහාරාධිපති, මහාචාර්ය කොල්ලුපිටියේ මහින්ද සංඝරක්ඛිත නාහිමියන් විසිනි.

සතර සංග්‍රහ වස්තු ගැන විමසීමේදී අද ආදර්ශයට ගන්න, අපේ අගමැතිතුමා. පඥා, වීර්ය, අනවජ්ජ, සංග්‍රහ කියන මේ සතර සංග්‍රහ වස්තු ඔබ සියලු දෙනාත් අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා වගේම ප්‍රගුණ කරනවානම්, දහස් ගණන් ජනතාව එකතු වෙලා බලයක් බවට පත් කර ගන්න ඒ හැමෝටම හැකියාව තියෙනවා” යැයි මහාචාර්ය කොල්ලුපිටියේ මහින්ද සංඝරක්ඛිත නාහිමියෝ පැවසූහ.

අමාදම් සිසිලස ධර්ම දේශනාව ශ්‍රවණය කිරීමට අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා, ආර්යා ශිරන්ති රාජපක්ෂ මැතිණිය, මැති ඇමතිවරුන්, සැදැහැවතුන් රැසක් එක්ව සිටියහ.

රොහාන් වැලිවිට,

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය ලේකම්.

ලංකාවේ වෙනදේ

ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ තීරණ උල්ලංඝණය කරමින් ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන පනත් කෙටුම්පත් සකස් කිරීම සහ අදාල වැරදි සිදුකර ඇති නීතිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ සහ නීති කෙටුම්පත් සම්පාදක දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ අදාල නිලධාරීන් සම්බන්ධයෙන් විමර්ශන කර නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන ලෙස ඉල්ලා පොලිස් මූලස්ථානයට නිතිඥ අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන විසින් පැමිණිලි කර ඇත.

 එම පැමිණිල්ල මගින් වර්ෂ 2002 දී 19වන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන පනත් කෙටුම්පතක් ගෙන එමින් ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 70 ව්‍යවස්ථාව සංශෝධනය කිරීමට උත්සාහ කරන ලද බව දක්වා ඇත. එම අවස්ථාවේ ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයේ විනිසුරුතුමන්ලා හත් දෙනෙකු විසින් ඒකමතිකව තීරණය කරන ලද්දේ ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 70වන ව්‍යවස්ථාව සංශෝධනය කිරීමට ජනමත විචාරණයක් පැවැත්වීම අවශ්‍ය බව දක්වා ඇති බවත් එසේ තිබියදී එකී ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ තිරණයට පටහැනි වන ආකාරයට සහ එකී ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ තීරණය උල්ලංඝණය වන ආකාරයට නැවත වර්ෂ 2015 දී ද දහනවවන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන පනත් කෙටුම්පතක් ගෙන එමින් ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 70වන ව්‍යවස්ථාව සංශෝධනය කිරීමට උත්සාහ කර ඇති බවත් වැඩබලන පොලිස්පතිවරයා වෙත පෙන්වා දී ඇත.

 වර්ෂ 2002 දී ඉදිරිපත් කරන ලද 19වන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන පනත් කෙටුම්පත මගින් ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 70වන ව්‍යවස්ථාව සංශෝධනය කිරීමට උත්සාහ ගත් අවස්ථාවේ ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ විනිසුරුවරු 7දෙනෙක් ලබා දුන් තීරණයට පටහැනිව වර්ෂ 2015 දී ඉදිරිපත් කළ 19වන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන පනත් කෙටුම්පත මගින් ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 70වන ව්‍යවස්ථාව සංශෝධනය කිරීමට ක්‍රියා කිරීම සදහා එකී 2015 දී 19වන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන පනත් කෙටුම්පත කෙටුම්පත් කර ඇති බවත් පැමිණිල්ල මගින් දක්වා ඇත.

වර්ෂ 2015 දී 19වන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන පනත් කෙටුම්පත ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ තීරණ උල්ලංඝනය කරමින් කෙටුම්පත් කිරීමට සම්බන්ධව වූ නීතිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ සහ නීති කෙටුම්පත් සම්පාදක දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ අදාල නිලධාරීන් ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ තීරණවලට සහ නීතියට ගරු කිරීමේ සිය යුතුකම ඉටුකර නැති අතර, නීතිය දැන දැනත් එය උල්ලංඝනය කරමින් පුරවැසියන්ව රැවටීමට ලක්කර ඇති බවත්,  නීතියෙන් ලැබී ඇති බලය සැළසුම් සහගතව අවභාවිත කර ඇති බවත්, ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ තීරණවලට සහ නීතියට අනුගත නොවී පනත් කෙටුම්පත් සකස් කිරීම, කෙටුම්පත් කිරීමට සම්බන්ධ වීම මගින් පොදු දේපල අවභාවිත කර ඇති බවත්, වැරදි කර ඇති බවත්, අනුබල දී ඇති බවත් ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් විමර්ශනය කර අදාල සියලු නිලධාරීන්ට එරෙහිව නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන ලෙස ඉල්ලා ඇත.

 පොලිස්පති වෙත යොමු කළ පැමිණිල්ලේ පිටපත් ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා, ජනාධිපති ලේකම්, කතානායක පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ මහ ලේකම්, රාජ්‍ය සේවා කොමිසමේ ලේකම් දයා සෙනරත්, අධිකරණ අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ලේකම් මායාදුන්නේ, ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ රෙජිස්ට්‍රාර්, නීති කෙටුම්පත් සම්පාදක සහ නීතිපතිවරයා වෙත යොමු කර ඇත.

එම පැමිණිල්ල පහත දැක්වේ.

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

සිංහරාජ රක්ෂිත වනාන්තරය අාසන්නයේ පිහිටා ඇතැයි හෝටලය සම්බන්ධයෙන් වන වීඩියෝවක් සංගීත ශිල්පී ඉරාජ් වීරරත්න විසින් එළි දක්වා තිබේ.

සිංහරාජ ප්‍රදේශය සංචාරයක් කරමින් ප්‍රදේශවාසීන්ගෙන් ද අදහස් ලබාගෙන මෙම වීඩියෝව නිර්මාණ නිර්මාණය කර ඇත

https://youtu.be/znNka8mNfbI

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The draft of the proposed 20th Amendment to the Constitution has been sent to the Attorney General for observations, the AG’s Coordinating Officer Nishara Jayaratne said.

She said Justice Ministry Secretary M.M.P.K. Mayadunne has referred the draft for the AG’s observation.

Courtesy Adaderana

President’s Media Division requests the general public to refrain from inviting President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to private functions.

This request is made considering that such invitations may hinder his priority to attend to vital national issues, stated PMD issuing a press release.

PMD points out that President Rajapaksa has given priority to expedite development projects and resolve issues of grass-root level public issues in his daily schedule.

Accordingly, the general public is kindly requested to refrain from inviting the President as he does not expect to spend time attending functions, prize givings, weddings and parties in addition to fulfilling national duties.

The PMD says that the President is invited to many private events due to the public’s respect and admiration towards him and that President Rajapaksa appreciates this bond between him and the people.

However, the President is determined to commit every hour spent away from official duties to work towards the upliftment of the people, PMD stated.

Courtesy Hiru News

06 arrivals from Qatar & 05 arrivals from Kuwait tested positive for COVID- 19, increasing total infected in Sri Lanka to 3,092

Two Indian nationals who arrived in the country tested positive for COVID-19, increasing the total infected in Sri Lanka to 3,075.

One arrival from India & 01 from the UAE tested positive for COVID-19, increasing total infected in Sri Lanka to 3,073.

Courtesy Hiru News

Flooding of many parts of Colombo, the commercial capital of the country as well as the most populous city, has been an unresolved issue for a long time.

About 35% of the area in Colombo city is inundated due to unauthorized and informal constructions.

Another factor is the inadequacy of canals to drain rainwater.

The people of Colombo have suffered from floods in the last few years.

In order to find a solution to this situation in 2013 several projects were launched according to a concept of the then Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

Out of the 55 projects, 45 projects have been completed by now.

Work on 10 more projects has already commenced and the new Muthuwella underground tunnel is being constructed as another phase.

Rainwater collected in Kotahena, Orugodawatta, Bloemendal, Dematagoda and other areas will flow through the new Muthuwella Aluthmawatha canal and will be taken to the newly constructed tunnel facing the canal.

Courtesy Hiru News

The Programme of providing 100,000 employment opportunities aimed at eradicating poverty will commence on September 02.

The objective of the Programme is to empower those who live in absolute poverty with no formal education and skills through the Multi-Purpose Development Task Force established by the government.

During 6-month continuous training programme a monthly allowance of Rs 22,500 will be paid.

Following successful completion of the training program trainees will have the opportunity to be appointed to an accepted permanent government position in his own residence area with a non-primary skilled salary of Rs. 35,000 and allowances.

After a satisfactory and uninterrupted career record of 10 years he/she will be eligible for pension

Courtesy Hiru News

Hiru CIA reports on another mangrove devastation in the Puttalam district amidst the devastation of the Anavilundawa Ramsar wetland.

The mangroves have been destroyed by changing the boundaries of a land belonging to the Forest Department with the direct intervention of the Chairman of the Kalpitiya Pradeshiya Sabha.

Today the CIA revelation is about this situation.

Courtesy Hiru News

Politicians expressed their views regarding the repealing of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution and the introduction of a new constitution.

Samagi Jana Balawegaya MP Rajitha Senaratne stated that the technical issues in the 19th Amendment should be resolved.

Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said that the 19th Amendment to the Constitution should be withdrawn as soon as possible.

Samagi Jana Balawegaya MP Manusha Nanayakkara stated that if the 19th amendment to the constitution is repealed, the voice of the people will be raised against it.

State Minister Sarath Weerasekara stated that the executive power has been devalued through the 19th amendment to the constitution.

Former Member of Parliament Vajira Abeywardena stated that a review is needed regarding the independent commissions created through the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.

With a two-thirds majority, there is every possibility of bringing in a new constitution, said MP SB Dissanayake. 

MP Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka stated that the government is ready to control various institutions.

Meanwhile, State Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara stated that nothing can be said until he sees the draft.

S. AKURUGODA

According to the disclosure of Foreign Secretary Admiral Jayanath Colombage to the media, the government is to appoint one time Minister Milinda Moragoda, as Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner of Cabinet rank to India and, once such status is afforded, Mr. Moragoda will be able to interact with the leaders of both the countries directly without the procedure of going through the respective foreign ministries.  

Meanwhile, considering the recorded background and chequered history of the person involved, social media have started to raise questions on the government’s intermediaries connected to Moragoda and his Pathfinder outfit.

Moragoda, founder of  Pathfinder Foundation, served in Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Cabinet from 2002 to 2004. We are fully aware of his close connections with the LTTE hierarchy including   Anton Balasingham, Norwegian Solheim etc and the key role played by him to make infamous Ranil-Prabhakaran CFA a success. (www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=7222)  It would be advisable for the government to revisit to that era, for a moment, and see what would have been the disastrous situation of the country today if Moragoda was successful in his endeavor.

Mr. and Mrs. Anton Balasingham with State Secretary of Norway, Vidar Helgesen and Sri Lanka’s Minister, Milinda Moragoda (right) (Photo: Jorn Tomter)

Although we are aware of the background and what he did in the past since 2002, his links to the USA, and allegations of corruption etc after going through media reports, the easiest way to convince information, acceptable to many, is to refer to Wikipedia. 

US Government interest and the services rendered by Moragoda are stated as follows.

US Embassy cables released by WikiLeaks show Moragoda to be a long time information source of the US Embassy in Colombo. The cables also state the US Government’s interest in Moragoda as their key partner in Sri Lanka.”

 Writing to Washington in 2003, then US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Ashley Wills says of Moragoda:

[Regarding] the U.S., the intelligent, articulate Moragoda is a perfect fit. born in Washington, D.C, he is a dual national Amcit (please protect) married to an American, with plenty of Washington connections, many from his days as a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation and at Harvard. A “big picture” person, Moragoda is also highly aware that the U.S. is the most powerful country in the world, and he feels that it is better that Sri Lanka recognize that fact and work within it.

Under the introduction and ‘allegations of corruption’ sections, Wikipedia states;

In 2007 the Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) accused then opposition parliamentarian Moragoda of large scale corruption during his time as a UNP minister. In a bid to dodge prosecution Moragoda crossed over to the ruling UPFA government and was appointed Minister of Justice and Law Reform.

Currently dual citizenship is a bar to enter the Parliament as an MP or to be a President of the country.  It looks like our politicos who are critics of appointing a Central Bank Governor with Singapore citizenship, during the previous government, haven’t learned a lesson from the past. Thus appointing a person with dual citizenship with past records of above nature as a High Commissioner of Cabinet rank” is highly questionable.

The Society for Peace Unity and Human Rights for Sri Lanka (SPUR)

The Society for Peace Unity and Human Rights for Sri Lanka (SPUR) has provided expatriate leadership to protect Sri Lanka’s unitary status, territorial integrity and sovereignty for over 25 years. It has fought many battles against Tamil diaspora led LTTE separatism and Muslim extremism, and Western denigration of our beloved Nation and its people. Attempts by the Yahapalana government since 2015 to prosecute valiant armed forces within and external to Sri Lanka in Geneva, undermine nationalistic values, persecution of Buddhists and despicable attempts at fabricating evidence to prosecute President Mahinda Rajapksa’s leadership team including the then Defence Secretary Hon Gotabaya Rajapaksa, were passionately and vigorously resisted and campaigned against.

While respecting the absolute right of the President to appoint people who he sees fit for positions of strategic importance to the Nation, we strongly believe the appointment of a person such as Milinda Moragoda as the Ambassador to India is counterproductive to the National Interest. Whilst we acknowledge the absence of any formal government announcement, we base our position on extensive media reporting of Mr Moragoda’s appointment and a reference to ambassadorial appointments made by none other than the Secretary to the Foreign Ministry, Dr Colombage that best career diplomats should be posted to neighbouring capitals” (Daily Mirror 26 August 2020).

Our request to reconsider the appointment of Mr Milinda Moragoda as ambassador to India is predicated on his past evidence based conduct that he is driven by personal or external interests, and not by Sri Lanka’s interests. Evidence referenced include but are not limited to his:
 Bias towards foreign nations detailed in the leaked cable sent by the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Ashley Willis in 2003 where he says Moragoda is the ‘perfect fit’ to promote the interest of USA in Sri Lanka and the region (Wikipedia 2020);
 Ongoing involvement with USA through close association with the Pathfinder Foundation established by Moragoda as recent as late 2017 during Yahapalana regime (Daily FT Nov 2017);
 Willingness to consider setting up an alternative cabal to counter the Non Aligned Movement (NAM). NAM is currently supported by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and is government policy;
 Provision of internal LTTE war related information to foreign powers undermining President Kumaranatunga, whilst being a cabinet minister (Scoop Independent News, Cablegate: Minister Moragoda reviews upcoming visit to Washington in meeting with US ambassador to Sri Lanka);
 Request foreign country representatives to pressure then President Kumaratunga to secure outcomes that are favourable to LTTE parroted by then PM Ranil Wickramasinha (Wiki Leaks);
 Willingness to receive 60 million Norwegian Krona funding (Rs 1,260 million in today’s rupees) from Norway to work with Indian NGOs Horizon and Sarvatra (Norad Report 2011);
 Establishment of the China-Sri Lanka Cooperation Studies Centre under the auspices of Pathfinder Foundation to balance bias towards US and Indian interests; and
 Arranging a CIA operative to attend weekly meetings of the intelligence community reported by retired, highly respected DIG Merril Gunaratne in his 2011 book titled ’Cop in the Crossfire’.

Given above-referenced evidence, we humbly request the President and the Foreign Minister Hon Dinesh Gunawardena to reconsider entertaining the appointment of Milinda Moragoda as the High Commissioner to India and select instead, a patriotic and competent career diplomat to this most important position.

Dr DASARATH JAYASURIYA PRESIDENT SPUR

Sinhala Net

මිලින්ද හොර-ගොඩඅතින් අරන් අහවල් එකේ තබා ගැනීමේ කලාවේ පිකාසෝ නම් අපේ මහින්ද මහත්තයා ය. එතුමා ඒ වාගෙ වැඩ කරගන්නේ දකුණේ පුරුද්දට කළගුණ සළකන්නට යාමෙන් බව අපි හැමෝම දන්නවා ය. මහින්ද මහත්තයා එහෙම හොඳම එකෙන් ඇර ගැනීමේ කතා ගොඩක් ඇත. නමුත් ප්‍රස්තූතයට ගැලපෙනම එක කතාවක් ලියා තබන්නේ අතීතය අමතක වෙච්ච අපේම බයි රාළලාට එය මතක් කිරීම වටිනා නිසා ය.

බයිරාළලා වන අපි අපේ මහ බයියා වන මහින්ද මහත්තයාටත් එතුමාගේ පවුලේ සැමටත් බොහෝ ආදරය ඇත්තතෝ වෙමු. සමහර වෙලාවට මේ ආදරය දෝරෙ ගලා ගොස් ඒ අයට හිත් රිදේවි යැයි කියා ප්‍රශස්ති ගයා ඒ අය අමාරුවේ දාන්නට ද අපේ බයි රාළලා පසුබට වන්නේ නැත.

කඩුවෙන් බෙල්ල කැපුනත් මැස්සෙක් වහන්නට වත් නොදෙමියි කියා මහින්ද මහත්තයා ඇතුළු පවුලේ සැම රැක ගන්නා පිණිස කඩු අමෝරා සටනට වදින්නට අපේ බයි රාළලා ජීවිත පරිත්‍යාගයෙන් ඉදිරිපත් වන්නෝ ය.

ඉතිං කතාව නම් මෙහෙම ය. මහින්ද මහත්තයා 2005 දී පළවෙනි වතාවට ජනාධිපතිවරණයට ඉදිරිපත් වුනා ය. ඒ වෙලාවේ හොරගොල්ලේ මද්දු අක්කා ඩාලි පාරේ කන්තෝරුවට ඉබ්බෙක් දැම්මා ය. ඒ වැඩේට හූඹිටි තිබ්බේ මහින්ද මහත්තයා මහන්සි වී පත් කර ගත් ලේකම් උන්නැහේමය. ඒ වුනාට මේ ඒක ගැන කතාවක් නොවේ ය.

අත්තනගල්ලේ මද්දු අක්කාව කැන්දන් ඒමේ සිට උන්දෑ සමග එකට හිටි මංගල සමරවීර උන්නැහේ මහින්ද මහත්තයා වෙනුවෙන් කාටත් නැති උනන්දුවකින් ශ්‍රීපතීත් සමග මාධ්‍ය ඉස්සරහ පෙනී හිටි හැටි කාටත් මතක ඇති යැ යි මම හිතනවා ය. අපට ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂකයෙක් විතරක් නෙවෙයි අගමැති අපේක්ෂකයෙක් ද ඉන්නවා යැ යි වැස්සක් වෙලාවේ පාට පාට කුඩේකුත් උස්සගෙන කිව්වේ මේ මංගල උන්නැහේ ය.

ජවිපේ කොල්ලන් හා කරට කර ඉඳිමින් මංගල උන්නැහේ මහින්ද මහත්තයාටතදටම වැඩ කළාය. එහෙම වැඩ කළේ හිතේ තවත් දේවල් ගොඩක් පොදි බැඳගෙන බව ජනතාවටත් මහින්ද මහත්තයාටත් තේරෙන්න කලින්ම මහින්ද මහත්තයා මංගල උන්නැහේට හැරෙන තැපෑලෙන් කළගුණ සැලකුවා ය. ආණ්ඩුවේ අගමැතිට පස්සෙ ඉන්නා ජේෂ්ඨම ඇමති තනතුරක් වන විදේශ ඇමති කම මහින්ද මහත්තයා ලෝස් නැතුවම මංගල සමරවීරට දුන්නේය. ඒ ප්‍රබලම ඇමති කම් හතරක් ද කොහේදෝ දුන්නාට පස්සේය. මංගල ලොක්කා හැරෙන තැපෑලෙන් මහින්ද මහත්තයාට ජාත්‍යන්තර මට්ටමෙන් ඇරියා ය.

එංගලන්තේ විදේශ ඇමති කියන එක අසා පොදු රාජ්‍ය මණ්ඩලයෙන් පකිස්තානය පන්නන්නට ඡන්දය දුන්නේ ය. මුළු දකුණු ආසියාවෙන් ම ඒ වගේ අසමජ්ජාති වැඩක් කලේ ඉන්දියාවයි ලංකාවයි ය. එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ මහා මණ්ඩලයේ දී ඇමරිකන් තානාපති කියන එක අසා පලස්තීනයට විරුද්ධව ඡන්දය දුන්නේය. ඒ මහින්ද මහත්තයා පලස්තීන ලංකා සහයෝගීතා සංවිධානයේ සභාපති වෙලා ඉන්නා විටය.

දැනුම් තේරුම් ඇති බයිරාළලා මං දැන් එන්නේ මොකාටදැ යි තේරුම් අරං ඇති බවි හිතනවා ය.

මිලින්ද ප්‍රශ්නය මට නම් සිංහරාජ ප්‍රශ්නයට වඩා බරපතලය. අපේ හමුදාවේ කොල්ලන්ට කිව්වොත් උන් ඕනනම් තවත් සිංහරාජයක් වවා දෙන බව මට නම් සහතිකය. නමුත් මිලින්ද ප්‍රශ්නය එහෙම නෙවෙයි ය.මිලින්ද උන්නැහේ 2019 ජනාධිපතිවරණයේ ගෝඨාභය මහත්තයාට මොන උදව්වක් කළා දැයි මට නම් තවම නිච්චියක් නැත.

2020 මහ මැතිවරණයේ දී කරපු උදවුවක් අපෙත් දැන ගැනීමට කවුරු හරි මෙහි ලියනවා නම් අපි බොහෝම සතුටු වෙන්නෙමු ය. කොළඹගේ උන්නැහේට උපදේශක කමක් දීපු එක ඇරෙන්න යමක් හුදී ජනයන් වන අපි දන්නේ නැත්තෙමු ය. කොහොම වුනත් මිලින්ද උන්නැහේට දෙන්නට යනවාය කියන තානාන්තරේට කැබිනට් ඇමති කෙනෙක් ගේ බලතලත් තියෙන බව කියනවා ය.

තානාපතිට කැබිනට් බලතල දෙන රටක් හුදී ජනයන් වන අපි නම් මේ ඇහුවේ පළමු වරටම ය. එහෙම එකක් දීලා ඉන්දියාවට යවන්න තරම් උන්නැහේ බැසිල් උන්නැහේ තරම්ම විශ්වාසවන්ත වුනේ කොළඹගේ උන්නැහේගේ කීම පිට නම් මහින්ද මහත්තයාටත් ගෝඨාභය මහත්තයාටත් තිස්තුන්කෝටියක් දෙවි පිහිටම ය.

කැබිනට් බලතල ඇති තානාපතියා විදේශ ඇමතිට යටත් නැත. මංගල සමරවීර උන්නැහේ කරපු කියපු ඒවා ආපහු හරවන්නට මහින්ද මහත්තයාට කැබිනට් එක කැඳවන්නට වුනා ය. කැබිනට් තානාපතියා හනුමන්තෙක් වුනොත් ඒ ගින්න නිවන්නට කැඳවන්නේ මොකක්ද කියා මේ දවස් වල මම අහස පොලොව ගැටලමින් සිතනවා ය.

අයියලා මල්ලිලා නිසා අර පළමුකොටම කියූ ලෙඩේ ගෝඨාභය මහත්තයාටත් හැදිලාය කියා සැක හිතෙන කොට මගේ නම් බඩ පපුව දාලා යනවා ය. ඒ වෙන මොකක් වත් නිසා නෙවේය. දෙදාස් පහළවේ ජනවාරි නම වෙනිදා හිටන් කන්නට බොන්නටත් අපුල වෙලා දවස් ගානක් හිඳ කතරගම යනවාය කියා කාල්ටන් ගියපු ගමනේ දී මහින්ද මහත්තයාව දැකපු හැටි මතක් වෙලා ය.

මිලින්ද ප්‍රශ්නය ගැන අපි බය වෙලා ඉන්නේ මෙන්න මේවා නිසා ය. හැම එකම පැලෑනේ කෑල්ලක්ය අපේ නායකයින්ට කවදාවත් වරදින්නේ නැතය කියා හිත හදා ගන්නට බැරි මොකක්දෝ අසනීපයක් මටත් හැදිලා වගේ ය. ඒ වුනත් වෙච්ච දේවල් වල හැටියට මිලින්ද ප්‍රශ්නය ගැන ආපහු හිතනවා නම් බොහොම වටිනවා ය

By Chandre Dharmawardana

Sri Lanka recently had a nationwide blackout that cost millions and even compromised its security. A blackout may be compared to a sudden heart attack, leaving a debilitated individual. This was the fifth  heart attack” suffered by the grid since the end of the Eelam wars, with blackouts in  2009, 2015, twice in 2016, and on 17th August 2020. So we have a chronically sick patient. Given that a big chunk of Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange income goes for importing fuel, any government must urgently look at the power sector and make it work efficiently, uninterruptedly, and as inexpensively as possible.

Letting the Cat out of the Bag.
The CEB authorities have conveniently ascribed the problem to human error”. The patient got the 5th heart attack accidentally, and to say that it was because he yawned too hard – without mention  his chronic condition would be absurd!

Dr. Tilak Siyambalapitiya has written to the island Newspaper (19-08-20) about the anatomy of the blackout”. We thank him for letting the cat out of the bag! He suggests that the CEB grid  can be perturbed by  small erratic inputs  from Solar and Wind energies, making the grid unstable!

The SL-power grid  provides about 2000 MW. However, even if many solar installations, wind farms etc., contributed erratically to the grid, they might hardly add to  10 MW within a  time interval of a few seconds. A few seconds is a large” time for electrical systems that react in milli-seconds or faster. A ten MW fluctuation in a 2000 MW system is  just a half  percent fluctuation!

So the human error” is merely the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. The 2000MW system should have  a peak to trough daily fluctuation of, say,  plus or minus 500 MW, and these are scheduled changes” handled by the grid using set procedures  for load adding and load shedding. But the system cannot handle other inputs because there is no monitoring system!

So the CEB  power system is not a smart grid controlled  by an intelligent set of algorithms that deftly and rapidly manipulate well maintained   on-load tap” changers, shunts, relays and switches. Instead focusing on such realities, we are told that a superintendent accidentally earthed a live  line and the system collapsed, almost like a cheap Wesak Pandol without a fuse built by the village Baas”. Such system has no protective mechanisms for such events!  The  Baas” and the CEB  technicians both seem to work without written-down procedures or risk management protocols. Is the CEB  just managing”, riding the cusp of the blame for neglecting to modernize it and maintain it.

There is hardly a scientific paper or engineering report published by CEB scientists  and engineers in peer-reviewed technical journals of, say, the IEEE, that would report the evolution of the  CEB’s control systems, its many blackouts etc. In effect, the officials have worked like Baas Unnaeheys”, with no Research and Development (R&D) or establishing a learning curve. Although five blackouts have occurred since 2009, does the CEB have in-house” capacity to simulate such events? Why does it have to call a Canadian or some outside company to simulate such breakdowns?  CEB’s only R&D” seems  to be to host an occasional student working with a University Professor to do research that costs a dime.

The CEB boasts of some 22 major hydro-electric stations. But it has not acquired the knowledge to, say, innovate a new pilot plant better fitted to the needs of the country.  If such competence had been acquired, it could  export its knowledge and win tenders in foreign lands!

So the CEB and its affiliates constitute an UNTHINKING beast that generates, transmits and sells power, and calls for tenders when needed within the standard frame of available ready-made” power plants. Anything beyond that set path, even a modest roof-top solar panel, gives the creature a heart attack.

Is there a Wealthy CEB Mafia”?
The public talks of  a power mafia leading a high life” in the CEB. The blackout has even been linked to conspiracies! A Derana TV discussion labeled the CEB  a fifth power” that can hold the country to ransom!

However, the CEB can point to successive governments that have scuttled their plans. Though building a power plant may take just a couple of years, the  approval, tenders, acquiring land and licenses may add decades.

The government can change every five years.  Sri Lanka  periodically changes  governments and the new politicians discredit and  smash the  plans of their predecessors.  Power plants proposed in the 1980s have been canceled, re-approved and new tenders called by politicians since the time of Premada, through Kumaratunga, to Rajapaksa and Sirisena a dozen times!

The CEB engineers can say, if  we only had that excess capacity” then these blackouts wouldn’t have happened!  On the face of it, this might indeed be true. But this is irrelevant given Dr. Siyambalapitiya’s admission that the system cannot even handle a 0.5% power fluctuation from un-monitored” sources like solar and wind”.

We now understand the foot dragging of the CEB in incorporating Wind, Solar and bio-energy. The grid is an ad hoc patchwork of wires connecting a bunch of power stations in the simplest manner possible. It is  a STUPID grid when a SMART grid that collects its own data and servo-controls the supply and demand is needed.

The engineers, taken individually, are technically capable well-trained  people whose integrity  must be accepted  until proven otherwise. They are not political appointees like some secretaries to ministers. But clearly, they have failed to maintain a healthy power grid and this is not simply because new power plants have not been built. There seems to be a culture of neglect  and mismanagement. They have taken advantage of the fact that politicians have created chaos to avoid admitting  their own failings. So, what has gone wrong?

How to correct the mess.
Given the finances of the CEB, it MUST be guided by its own vibrant research arm with in-house research, pilot projects  and research publications.
The research arm can advise and devise best practices for the CEB ro operate.

 If industries like Tea and Rubber can have their research institutes, how can the power sector which dominates Sri Lanka’s foreign expenditure not have one? The CEO’s of the CEB are  unforgivably guilty of not establishing such a research arm.  The first task of R&D should be to  to create a smart grid  with automatic data collection at a large number of monitoring stations within months.

Unlike in the old days when power engineering was the strength of a power utility, today the Information Technology division plays a key role. The CEB  R&D branch should  work on new technologies like solar power.  The public must not grudge high salaries and attractive perks to top engineers and researchers who produce new research, build pilot plants and usher in new technology. Here we are not talking of bureaucrats who spin narratives to justify ongoing failures.

Practical ways to cut costs, and boost hydro and solar to meet targets.
A large fraction (usually over 50%) of the cost of a unit of power goes for the generation step, and  additional costs arise in transmission and marketing.  The generation cost of hydro-electricity in Lanka is about Rs 2 to 4 per unit. Clean coal and dendro energy (biomass energy, see :
https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2019/05/23/rebooting-agriculture-to-provide-clean-practical-solutions-to-sri-lankas-energy-crisis-ii )
  may cost Rs 12 per unit, while fossil fuels (LNG or Diesel) need Rs 20-30  per unit.  Today, a unit of solar or wind energy may be less than Rs 10 for large scale installations. Of these,  hydro, wind, solar, and dendro are the only environmentally acceptable energy sources.

Clearly the best option is hydroelectricity. Although most hydro sources are already tapped, there is at least a 30% increase possible with very little effort.
This is because  hydroelectric installations have been designed  with no though for conservation of water, the most important asset of any hydro-system. Engineers rarely  think about losses of water  from evaporation, although this is a very serious problem.

I have written much about floating solar installations since 2009 and why they are particularly suitable for Sri Lanka. Even in a  recent article in the Island as well as the Lankaweb (https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2019/05/06/clean-practical-solutions-to-sri-lankas-energy-crisis-i)  I wrote about  the advantages of floating solar panels which cuts evaporation of water, generate electricity, and provide the land area needed for installation of new solar panels, without the need for complicated land acquisition steps or dealing with  the private properties of hundreds of roof-top owners. In fact India,  Europe and China are increasingly using this approach. It opens up mass-scale installation of solar panels and economies of scale, bringing down the cost of production of a unit of electricity (a kWh)  to less than Rs 10.

 The CEB is gung ho” for building floating (off-shore) LNG storage units and coupling them with pipelines dangerously passing through busy urban areas to deliver fuel  to a new 300 MW power plant. And yet, it does not seem to be able to put floats and cover hydro-electric reservoirs to prevent the evaporation of the water that occurs day and night! Evaporation will get even worse with global warming. But the CEB has no plans for global warming.

So, preventing evaporation will rapidly increase the island’s power capacity by, say, 30% .  Given some 22 major hydroelectric reservoirs with a surface area of about 1000 ha each, if 50% of the surface be covered using floats, 11,000 ha (110 sq km) are protected. It can be shown that the environmental impact is positive. The annual  hydro-power of about 6000 GWh will rise to 8000 GWh when evaporation is cut. This is the cheapest and cleanest electricity!

Typically,  sunlight can annually produce about 100-200 GWh per sq. km (100 ha) under Sri Lanka’s conditions. If solar panels are also placed on the floaters deployed to cut evaporation, then 1000-2000 GWh per annum  of solar energy can be harvested, with no hassle about acquiring land rights. Any excess daytime energy can be saved by retaining the corresponding amount of hydro-head in the reservoirs, without sending the reservoir water down into the turbines. That is, solar electricity has been stored without batteries!

Of course, this kind of fine tuning and optimal control cannot be done using the stupid” grid that is available to the CEB at the moment!

[The author has published over a hundred research papers on high-energy density matter and topics on laser-assisted fusion energy, often in collaboration with scientists at the French Atomic Energy Commission & Electricité de France, the US Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, and the US Los Alamos Laboratory.]

Sunil Yatalamatta Gamage

Country weather the storm of Covid-19, for individuals, businesses, routines of lives; by developing resilience muscle is the tool to improve reality, make lives meaningful, and improvised. – Research On Resilience

Our country is changing in many ways towards progress. It is happening everywhere for better. The country was in a crisis situation in two ways and still not yet over. First of all we haven’t had the safety as well as political stability. Ranil Wickramasinghe had introduced mockery to our constitution to stay in power in his position. The result was complete anarchy which was prevailed during the time of Yahapalanaya” regime. He has allowed drug business to thrive as a business in this country. Because of those unsafe, ground realities and constitutional mockery; the big picture of the country was quite unstable & we were fast moving to a failed state in the region.

However, the present government has taken timely decisions to fight with the reality and long way to go to achieve objectives. Government leadership and vision has been the driving factor for change and it is the trust of people. Like every country we are in a crisis time with less ability to complete eradication of Covid -19. So this is a profound time for businesses and individuals to develop positively adapt to disturbances that threaten its functioning, viability & development. In other words we need to develop the Resilience” muscle as individuals and organizations. It is time to grow through our ability in many fronts and we need to understand and dynamic, which explains in resilience. One school of thought of resilience is the ability to go on with life or continue living a purposeful life after hardship or adversity. Resilience makes positive outcomes during adversity possible. The most important thing to consider what have we learn over the past 4 years during the Yahapalanaya time. People build up uncertainty on daily basis which builds anxiety in the hearts and minds of the people. As a result of a power hungry government and a rule.

People went to work with uncertainty. They were not sure the bus or train will be there for them get to work. Farmers were not sure they might be able to procure fertilizers for the farming. They were not sure they could sell their harvest to a better price. Parents were in fear of sending their children to schools due to drug abuse environment of the community. Police was not maintaining law and order of the country. As a result Pascu Sunday attach killed more than 250 people and disabled many lives in the country. There was massive corruption scandals every where in the country. In rural areas of the country; people were positive in their daily lives and mitigated among their communities how to live safely in an uncertain time. The contagion part of that resilience was remarkably positive. People were helping each other and, inspiring each other and leading each other to overcome hardships.

We all know the world is in a crisis situation due to pandemic. The economic activities are not functioning as it was. Economic theories need to rewrite again by taking a different perspective of self sufficiency of a country. As a country we weather the storm and will be much prepared to face the challenges & disturbances which will experiencing during the time.

During this time improving the resilience muscle and  entrepreneurship is the way to change the identity of the way we doing things and live. People have made many changes to the ways they do their businesses. Virtual sessions, online purchasing etc. As everybody aware tourism industry hit hard and continue due to Covid-19. The entrepreneurial thinking has changed the way they do their businesses. Hotel Lavanga” at Seenigama in southern Sri Lanka has open their hotel for locals. They reduced the prices and made changes to their food menus & done positive changes to attract local businesses. I think the hotel owner was more resilient in the face of challenge and had come out with better solutions. So the resilient people always find opportunity in the face of challenge and come out with more characteristics to their business and find ways, they do their businesses. There are 3 distinct characteristics of resilient people they are; a/ Accept the reality, b/Believe that life is meaningful, c/Ability to improvise.

Another way of building ourselves on resourcing from resilience in front of challenges. What happen in resilience; the process in which an individual or system positively adapts to disturbances that threaten its functioning, viability or development. So there are key two things happen in resilience the disturbance and a positive action. There are key things to build capacity over time. The first is dynamic. Think about Ajith Perera in Sri Lanka. He is the dynamic Potter in Sri Lanka trying to mobilize the industry to a position in the world. Resilience is not a trait. Which means it is not a characteristic or quality. It is something a person can built over time. Which could be developed. Most important is how a person could develop resilience muscle over a disturbance.

There are three ways could boost resilience. 1. Risk focused strategies; which means reduce or prevent risk. We need our decisions to be more greater viable places from all perspectives of operations, but reality is it is quite difficult. The second 2. Resource focused strategies; which means increase resources or access to resources. The third one is one which will help to build anyone’s resources or utilize the resources. Practice and promote the resources in the environment. 3. Process- focused resources; Practice and promote adaptability/agility.

When think of resources what are them; which are resources of resilient functioning for people; In the big picture of research there some individual attributes, relational attributes, social attributes that people are doing quite well. Some of the protective factors demonstrate are 1. higher problem solving skills, self regulations skills, Motivation, self efficacy (belief themselves, they think they can do hard things), Internal locus control(Person will have the influence to know over what happening to you), psychological tendencies towards faith, hope, optimism. High quality social relationships, well functioning organizations and communities.

Think about the the new state ministries portfolios and the functioning expectations to achieve goals of sufficiency. Those functions parameters and resources use has been well documented and relied on to build the rural economy from a diverse perspective.

The three ways of increasing more resilience by improving thinking process focused strategies of normalize the struggle and embrace the ambivalence in all of our moments. Think of what is happening to us now, and what we are going through the pandemic. By observing the positive and negative incidents we be able to find a path for growth.  Identify the ways we can re-narrate things; take control of your story. We cannot control the environment. Think about the life when this time pass of Covid-19. As the hotel industry going through a pause for its momentum. The Lavanga” made changes to its target customer focus and did introduced changes to menus, slashed down prices, and made it more family oriented resort for locals. What a wonderful thinking of resilience. The last aspect is Investing in your relationships even when it is hard to do so. It is quite hard when living in a pandemic. Most of the time people perspective they do act defensively, undermine relationships, it is actually time to investing our relationships being more compassionate on co workers, friends & more to help us become more resilient ourselves.

Well having noticing change in many ways people doing things one of the key need to improvise as individuals is pride certainly. Person like Ajith Perera, and Hotel lavanga owner has shown their resilience to lift others up for better by believing themselves, engaging and achieving. From the perspective building our lives of people which matters during the pandemic. One of the foremost common to rest of the world and our country we are all together in this time of pandemic. It doesn’t matter person live in Canada, U.S.A, England, France, or India. All experience the same intensity of the pandemic. People & groups connecting through virtual platforms to share things with them to feel better themselves. Grand parents are involving with the children to help out speaking and schooling time with them. All these activities strength our bonds with each other. One of the key aspect of compassionate to other is something need to build each other during the time, it is because nobody knows what is going on with other person at this moment of time.

Resilience through challenges grows in the country as the government encourage our own industries to grow and  prosper. The key intervention of Ajith Perera and his clay industry to establish the brand initiative through Sri Lankan image has enormous contagion entrepreneurial spirit. He is mobilizing the concept among youngsters; it is contagion & growing. There is hidden inspirational potential to explore, put into crafting the image. I am certain he is doing it in the coming years inspiring with the others. The most important advantage for his initiative of entrepreneurial thinking of establishing brand is blessed by the present government. The government will encourage & will support of improving the clay industry and exporting products. 

New normal under the circumstances is different by now. Personally myself, I am going through a tough time, but as a person I realized the the reality, and always want to think life has to be spent meaningfully. And trying to improve as an individual and through my commitment to my children. My own story is a see myself more resilient way and my engagement has been inspirational to certain people which is resilient to me as well as for others.

By Noor Nizam – Peace and Political Activist, Political Communication Researcher and SLFP/SLPP Stalwart since 1969, 31.08.2020.

Sabry asks MPs to abhor Machiavelli type behaviour

Hon. Justice Minister Ali Sabry.

The above news item about your presentation in parliament on the debate on vote on account, is woderfull though the full speech had not been published due to space management – https://island.lk/sabry-asks-mps-to-abhor-machiavelli-type-behaviour/. But, in my opinion as a Political Communication Researcher and a student of Communication Studies, your speech to educate your member of parliament colleagues on that day was like a “beautiful melody sung in the wilderness” of parliament. 

Looking at the TV report on that speech on TV, I found ONLY just a handful of the 225 MP’s present/seated in the parliament well. The MP’s, 90%, both from the Government and the Opposition were “NOT PRESENT” to listen to your wonderful speech please. Therefore, I most kindly request/appeal to you to do something, with notice to HE. the President, the PM and the Speaker to bring in parliamentary procedures that will make it compulsory for all MP’s to be present during parliamentary sittings and debates in the future. MP’s failing to do so must be subject to heavy penalties. This may not be your in your purview, but it will be a great service to the nation and our “MAATHRUBOOMIYA”.

YOU ARE THE ONLY MP/MINISTER WHO CAN ACCOMPLISH THAT TASK SUCCESSFULLY. 

The MP’s are elected by the people to be present in parliament to “LISTEN, THINK, PONDER, CONTEMPALTE and UNDERSTAND” issues and act accordingly for the benefit of the “PEOPLE”. They are NOT ELECTED to collect “pocket money and perks” at the end of every month and galavant around the country doing “NOTHING” at the taxpayers of the masses but staging “DRAMAS” for the media and TV broadcasters.

– විමලසිරි ජයලත් mawratanews

බණ්ඩාරනායක මැතිනිය කියල තියෙනවා කරත්ත රෝදෙ එක පැත්තකට කැරකෙනව වගේම අනෙක් පැත්තටත් කැරකෙනව කියල. එතුමිය කියල තියෙනව එතුමිය බලයට ආ විගසම මේ ව්‍යවස්ථාව වෙනස් කරල එතුමියටත් එතුමියගේ ඇමැතිවරුන්ටත් විරුද්ධව ජනාධිපති කොමිෂන් සභා තියල ප්‍රජා අයිතිය අහෝසි කළා වගේම යූ.ඇන්.පී. ආණ්ඩුවේ නායකයන්ටත් එරෙහිව කටයුතු කරනවා කියල. මම එතුමියට කියන්න කැමැතියි කරත්ත රෝදෙ එහාට කැරකෙන්න පුළුවන් වගේම මෙහාටත් කැරකෙන්න පුළුවන්. හැබැයි මේ ව්‍යවස්ථාවට අනුව සමානුපාතික ඡන්ද ක්‍රමය යටතේ ආයි කවදාවත් තුනෙන් දෙකේ බලයක් ගන්න සක්‍ර දේවේන්ද්‍රයටවත් බෑ. ඒ නිසා මම එතුමියට කියනවා තුනෙන් දෙකේ බලයක් ගන්න බැරි නිසා ව්‍යවස්ථාව සංශෝධනය කරන්නත් බෑ කියලා…”

මේ, 1980 දී ජේ.ආර්. බණ්ඩාරනායක මැතිනියගේ ප්‍රජා අයිතිය අහෝසි කරන යෝජනාව පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ගෙනැවිත් සම්මත කළාට පසු මැතිනිය කී කතාවකට දුන්න උත්තරයය. ජේ.ආර්. මේ කතාව කළේ ආයේ මේ සම්මජ්ජාතියේ තුනෙන් දෙකේ බලයක් තියෙන ආණ්ඩුවක් ලංකාව ඇතුළේ තමන් හදපු සමානුපාතික ඡන්ද ක්‍රමය යටතේ බිහි නොවන බව ඉන්තේරුවෙන්ම දැනගෙනය. මොකද ඒ ඡන්ද ක්‍රමය යටතේ කවදාවත් තුනෙන් දෙකේ බලයක් ගන්න බැරි බව ජේ.ආර්. හිතාගෙන සිටියේය.

හැබැයි ජේ.ආර්. හිතපු නැති විදිහට ජේ.ආර්.ගේ ව්‍යවස්ථාව යටතේ, ජේ.ආර්.ගේ සමානුපාතික ඡන්ද ක්‍රමය යටතේ තුනෙන් දෙකේ අතිවිශේෂ බලයක් තමන්ගේ පක්ෂයට අරන් දෙන්න පදනම දැමූ මිනිහා වෙන කවුරුවත් නොව බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂය. එහෙමත් නැත්නම් බී.ආර්.ය. කවදා හෝ බැසිල් තමන් හදපු ව්‍යවස්ථාව යටතේ තුනෙන් දෙකේ බලයක් අරන් පෙන්වයි කියා ජේ.ආර්. හීනෙකින්වත් හිතන්න නැතුව ඇත. එදා මැතිනියට උත්තර දුන් කතාවේදී ජේ.ආර්. සක්‍ර දේවේන්ද්‍රයාටවත් තුනෙන් දෙකේ බලයක් තමන්ගේ ව්‍යවස්ථාව යටතේ ගත නොහැකි බව කීවේ ඒ නිසා විය යුතුය.

ජේ.ආර්. මේ කතාව කරන කොට බැසිල්ද දේශපාලනයේ හිටියේය. ඒ කාලයේ බැසිල් සිටියේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයේ සාමාජිකයකු ලෙසටය. එකල මහින්ද බණ්ඩාරනායක පරපුරේ ඔටුනු පලන් කුමාරයා වන අනුර බණ්ඩාරනායක සමඟ ළඟින් ඇසුරු කරද්දී බැසිල්ද අනුරගේ ළඟම හිතවතෙක්ව සිටියේය. ජේ.ආර්. මැතිනියගේ ප්‍රජා අයිතිය අහෝසි කොට ජනාධිපතිවරණයට පිටපොට ගසද්දී ශ්‍රීලනිපයට ඒ ඡන්දෙන් දිනන එක ලේසි පහසු නැති බව බැසිල්ට වැටහී ගොස් තිබිණ. ඒ වන විට අනුරද සිටියේ මැතිනියගෙන් පසු ඡන්දයට එන්න බලාගෙනය. හැබැයි බැසිල් ඒ වෙනකොට ශ්‍රීලනිපයට කියා සිටියේ ජේ.ආර්. එක්ක තරග කොට දිනන්න නම් ශ්‍රීලනිපයේ මෛත්‍රිපාල සේනානායක ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂකයා කොට අනුර අගමැති අපේක්ෂකයා විය යුතු යැයි කියාය. එවිට දිනන සංයෝගය හදාගත හැකි බව බැසිල් කියා සිටියේය.

හැබැයි එදා ශ්‍රීලනිපයේ සිටි නායකයන් බැසිල් දුරදිග බලා කී මේ කතාව පිළිගත්තේ නැත. අඩුම තරමින් විජය – චන්ද්‍රිකාවත් බැසිල්ගේ කතාව පිළිගත්තේ නැත. අන්තිමේදී ශ්‍රීලනිපය පරාජයට පත්විය. විජය – චන්ද්‍රිකා පක්ෂය කඩාගෙන එළියට ගියහ. බැසිල්ද රට ගියේය.

ඒ කියන්නේ බැසිල්ට දේශපාලනයේ දුර දකිනා නුවණ ආවේ අද ඊයෙ නෙවයි කියන එකද?”

ඇත්තම කතාව ඒකය. බැසිල්ට දේශපාලන ගණන් හැදිල්ලේ ගණදෙවි නුවණ පහළ වී තිබුණේ ඒ කාලයේ සිටමය. ඒ අතින් බලද්දී බැසිල් සහ ජේ.ආර්. අතර අපූරු දේශපාලන සමානකම් රැසක්ම දැකගන්නට පුළුවන.

1956 මහ මැතිවරණයෙන් යූ.ඇන්.පී. එක ආසන 8ට වැටී පරාජයට පත්වීමෙන් පසු පක්ෂය යළි ගොඩගන්න කිසිදු නායකයෙක් ඉදිරිපත් වූයේ නැත. එවකට පක්ෂ නායක සර් ජෝන් කොතලාවල සිටියේ ලන්ඩනයේ සවාරි ගහමිනි. හිටපු නායකයා වන ඩඞ්ලි සේනානායකද පක්ෂයෙන් ඉවත්වී මහ ඡන්දෙටවත් තරග නොකොට නිහඬව ගෙදරට වී සිටියේය. ඒ වෙලාවේ යූ.ඇන්.පී.යත්, පාක්ෂිකයනුත් ගොඩගන්න තනිවම ඉස්සරහට ආවේ වෙන කවුරුවත් නොව ජේ.ආර්.ය. ජේ.ආර්. එදා රට පුරාම ආසනයෙන් ආසනයට ගොස් යූ.ඇන්.පී.ය කෙළින් කටින් හිටුවන්න කටයුතු කළේය. මහ ඡන්දෙන් පසු පැවැත්වුණු පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණයේදී කොළඹ නගර සභාව දිනවලා පක්ෂය දිනන මාවතට අවතීර්ණ කර පෙන්නුවේය.

බැසිලුත් ගැහුවේ ජේ.ආර්. මේ ගහපු ගේම් එකමය. ඉතිහාසයේ පළමු වතාවට යූ.ඇන්.පී. එකත්, ශ්‍රී ලංකා එකත් 2015දී ජාතික ආණ්ඩු ගසා එකට ආණ්ඩු කරද්දී යූ.ඇන්.පී. විරෝධී ශ්‍රී ලංකාකාරයෝ සිටියේ අන්ත අසරණ වෙලාය. ඒ ශ්‍රී ලංකාකාරයන්ට යන්න එන්න තැනක් තිබුණේ නැත. අඩිය ගහන්න පක්ෂයක් තිබුණේ නැත. ඒ යූ.ඇන්.පී. විරෝධී ශ්‍රී ලංකාකාරයන් ඒ කාලේ හිටියේ ආතක් පාතක් නැතුව නන්නත්තාර වෙලාය.

හැබැයි බැසිල් පොහොට්ටුව හදලා මේ නන්නත්තාර වෙලා හිටපු යූ.ඇන්.පී. විරෝධී ශ්‍රීලංකාකාරයන්ටත්, යූ.ඇන්.පී. විරෝධී බලවේගවලටත් බය නැතිව පය ගහල ඉන්න හිටින්න පුළුවන් ස්ථිර වාසස්ථානයක් සකස් කර දුන්නේය. පොහොට්ටුව ඒ යූ.ඇන්.පී. විරෝධී බල කඳවුර නියෝජනය කළ පක්ෂය විය. ජේ.ආර්. යූ.ඇන්.පී.ය කෙළින් කටින් කරලා පළාත් පාලන ඡන්දෙන් කොළඹ දිනා පෙන්නුවා සේ බැසිල් පොහොට්ටුව හදා තිබ්බ පළමු පළාත් පාලන ඡන්දෙන්ම මුළු රටම දිනා පෙන්නුවේය. ඒ අතින් බලද්දී ජේ.ආර්. සහ බී.ආර්. කියන්නේ එක වගේම චරිත දෙකක්ය.

එකල ජේ.ආර්.ට හරියට දේශපාලන හතුරෝ සිටියහ. ඒ හතුරෝ පක්ෂයට එළියෙන් මෙන්ම පක්ෂයට ඇතුළේද වූහ. 56 පරාජයෙන් පසු පක්ෂ නායකයා වූ ඩඞ්ලි වටේ සිටි ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨයන් සියලු දෙනාම පාහේ හිටියේ ජේ.ආර්.ට විරුද්ධවය. ඔවුන් නිතරම ඩඞ්ලිගේ ඔළුවට දැම්මේ ජේ.ආර්.ගෙන් පරිස්සම් වෙන්න යැයි කියාය.

ජේ.ආර්. කියන්නේ නොම්බර එකේ ගේම්කාරයෙක්. ඒ හින්දා ජේ.ආර්. එක්ක පරිස්සමින් ගනුදෙනු කරන්න”

යූ.ඇන්.පී. ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨයෝ ඩඞ්ලිගේ ඔළුවට දැම්මේ එහෙම කතාය. ඩඞ්ලිගේ ආණ්ඩුවේ ප්‍රබල ඇමැතිවරුන් වූ එම්.ඩී. බණ්ඩාත්, ඊරියගොල්ලත් ජේ.ආර්.ගෙන් පරිස්සම් වන ලෙස ඩඞ්ලිට උපදෙස් දුන්හ.

යූ.ඇන්.පී.යෙන් එළියේ සිටි ශ්‍රීලනිපයේ මැතිනියත්, ලංකා සමසමාජ පක්ෂයත්, කොමියුනිස්ට් පක්ෂ නායකයනුත් ජේ.ආර්. ගැන විශාල බියකින් පසුවූහ. ඒ නිසාම එකල මේ සියලු දෙනාම ජේ.ආර්.ට වටකරගෙන ගැසූහ. යැංකි ඩිකී යැයි කීහ. අධිරාජ්‍යවාදී ගැත්තා යැයි කීහ.

අද බැසිල්ටත් සමහරු ගහන්නේ එදා ජේ.ආර්.ට ගැහුවා වාගේමය. අදත් බැසිල් එක්ක ඇතුළේ ඉන්නවා වගේම එළියේ ඉන්න අයත් බැසිල් ගැන ඉන්නේ පුදුම බයකින්ය. 2015 ජනාධිපතිවරණය පැරදුණු වහා මහින්දව ගෙදර යැව්වේ බැසිල් කියමින් ඇතුළේම කට්ටිය බැසිල්ට එළිපිටම පහර ගැහුවේ ඒ නිසාය. ආණ්ඩුව ගත්ත හැටියේම මෛත්‍රි, රනිල් තුනෙන් දෙක හදාගෙන 19 වැනි සංශෝධනය ගෙනැල්ලා බැසිල් පාර්ලිමේන්තුව ඇතුළට එන එක වළක්වන්න ද්විත්ව පුරවැසිභාවයේ වගන්තිය ගෙනාවේ ඒ නිසාය. ඒ වගන්තියෙන් ඉලක්ක කළේ වෙන කවුරුවත් නොව බැසිල්වමය. මොකද ඒ වෙලාවේ ගෝඨා දේශපාලනයට එන්න කිසිම තීන්දුවක් ගෙන තිබුණේ නැත. එනව නම් එන්න හිටියේ බැසිල් විතරය. ද්විත්ව පුරවැසිභාවය මෛත්‍රි – රනිල් 19ට දැම්මේම බැසිල් ඇතුළට එන එක වළක්වන්නය.

අදද විපක්ෂය පමණක් නොව ආණ්ඩුවත් එක්ක ඉන්න සමහර හවුල්කාර පක්ෂ පවා ද්විත්ව පුරවැසිභාවයේ වගන්තිය අහෝසි කරන්න එපා යැයි කියමින් හඬ තලන්නේ බැසිල් පාර්ලිමේන්තු එනවාට තියෙන බය නිසාය. මොකද බැසිල් ඇතුළට ආවොත් 2025 ජනාධිපති පමණක් නොව 2030 ජනාධිපතිත් කවුද කියා තීන්දු කරන්නේ බැසිල් බව මේ සියලු දෙනාම හොඳින්ම දනී.

එදා ෆීලික්ස් ඩයස් ජේ.ආර්.ට කිව්වේ ජේ.ආර්. යනු හොඳ දෙවැනියෙක් මිස පළමුවැනියෙක් නොවේ යැයි කියාය. ජේ.ආර්.ට ජනතා ආකර්ෂණය දිනාගන්න බැරි බව ෆීලික්ස් කීය. ජේ.ආර්. ජනතාව අතර ජනප්‍රිය නැති බව කීය. හැබැයි ෆීලිකිස් එහෙම කිව්වත් ජේ.ආර්. තනිවම රට වටේ ගිහින් පක්ෂයක් හදලා ඩඞ්ලිව දෙපාරක් අගමැති පුටුවේ වාඩිකර පෙන්නුවේය. ඩඞ්ලිගේ අභාවයෙන් පසු නායකත්වය ජේ.ආර්.ට දෙන්න පක්ෂය තීන්දු කළේ ඒ නිසාය.

ඒ වගේම අද සමහරු බැසිල්ටත් කියන්නේ බැසිල් ජනප්‍රිය නැතැයි කියාය. බැසිල්ට ජනතා ආකර්ෂණයක් නැතැයි කියාය. බැසිල් හොඳ දෙවැනියෙක් යැයි කියාය.

හැබැයි ජේ.ආර්. එකම පක්ෂයෙන් අගමැතිවරු දෙන්නෙක් හැදුවා වාගේම බී.ආර්., රාජපක්ෂ පවුලෙන් ජනාධිපතිවරු දෙදෙනෙක් හැදුවේය. එක්කෙනෙක් එම්.ආර්. හෙවත් මහින්දය. දෙවැනියා ජී.ආර්. හෙවත් ගෝඨාභයය.

ඒ නිසා වෙලාව ආවාම ජේ.ආර්. වගේම බී.ආර්. හෙවත් බැසිලුත් මේ රටේ ජනාධිපති වේදැයි කියන්න දන්නේ නැත.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

A discussion between Education Minister Professor G. L. Peiris and Acting Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Hu Wei revealed that China was keen to extend their fullest support for Human Resource (HR) Development in relation to the industrial and investment zone planned for the Hambantota District, the Ministry of Education said.

The discussion focused on preparation for the industrial and investment zone with the manufacture of pharmaceutical products and the tyre factory as major components of the activity envisaged.

A variety of skills, especially in the construction and logistics fields, would be required for speedy implementation of these projects. The two sides agreed that it is important to anticipate the kind of skills which would be needed, and to take rapid steps to develop these skills within the next few months.

In addition, the Ministry said the discussion focused on the whole range of support expected from China for the successful implementation of the extensive programme of the Ministry of Education and related activities. (Thisari Walawege)

Ajith Siriwardana Courtesy The Daily Mirror

While claiming that the Attorney General had no power to decide on Premalal Jayasekara attending Parliament sittings, Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara said today it should be decided by the Speaker and Parliament.

He told a news conference that the AG can only appear in court on behalf of the plaintiff.

The AG has said that MP Jayasekara cannot attend Parliament sittings. He has no power to decide that. It should be decided by the Speaker and Parliament. The AG can only appear in court on behalf of the petitioner,” he said responding to a question raised by a journalist.

He said Mr. Jayasekara has filed an appeal against the verdict and added that the verdict is halted after being appealed.

He is not a convict now. It is decided after the verdict of the Court of Appeal. If he was convicted by the Court of Appeal, then, everything is over,” he said.

Minister Nanayakkara said former MP Duminda Silva, who was convicted, was also allowed to attend Parliament sittings after appealing against the court order. 

Courtesy Adaderana

Thirty-one more foreign arrivals have tested positive for the COVID-19 infection jumping the total count of coronavirus cases recorded in the country to 3,049.

All 31 cases are recent returnees from Qatar, Department of Government Information confirmed.

Accordingly, a total of 36 new cases have been reported within the day. Among them, 32 are from the Qatar, 02 from the United Arab Emirates while the other 02 is from India,

As per the Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry, 169 active cases are currently under medical care at selected hospitals.

In the meantime, the number of recoveries from the disease has moved up to 2,868 as 08 patients were discharged upon recovery today (31).

Sri Lanka has witnessed 12 deaths from the virus so far.

Courtesy Hiru News

North – Western Governor A J M Muzammil sworn in as Governor of the Uva Province & Uva Governor Raja Kollure sworn in as North Western Governor before the President.

Courtesy Hiru News

Negombo prisons SP Anuruddha Sampayo & three others granted bail by Negombo Magistrate’s Court.

H. L. D. Mahindapala

Of all the oddities displayed at the opening of the new Parliament – and there were some exceptional ones like an MP arriving in a prison van and another landing in a boat etc. – the most significant one to my mind was the presence of two fathers-in-law sitting on opposite benches, facing each other, ready to go into verbal duels at any given moment.  There are, of course, many precedents where distant and blood relatives crossed swords on the floor of the House. One of the earliest was Colvin R. de Silva (Bolshevik-Leninist Party of India /LSSP) in the Opposition benches firing at the politics of his brother, Walwin, a UNPer, and vice versa. Another memorable instance was when Anura Bandaranaike joined the UNP government and tearing into his mother’s politics who was sitting in the Opposition. Considering that the genealogy of Sri Lankans runs like a wild wine creeper twining practically through each other’s legs in devious ways, there could have been many unaccounted relatives battling it out from the opposite benches.

But the marriage of Vasudeva Nanayakkara’s son to C. V. Wigneswaran’s daughter makes the two fathers-in-law a first in the Parliament. Both will occupy their seats as two incendiary explosives that could go off any moment in the House. That is inevitable, particularly because both are impulsive fire-brands.  In fact, one report said that they were exchanging heated words in the lobby on their first day in Parliament when the Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa, noticing the sparks flying between the two, eased his way through the crowd and stepped in to defuse the rising tensions. But this is only the prelude for more things – more ominous things — to come later.

In the new Parliament they represent the two divisive polarities that are bound to collide. They are the outstanding and controversial symbols of the ominous forces of our time hanging overhead like the Damocles sword. Their politics has the potential to outweigh even the critical issues of the economy which are yet to unfold in all its fury. The proposed Constitution will be the new battleground for the old issues of power sharing that began in colonial times. It is predictable that the old wounds of the inter-ethnic relations between the North and the South will open up with the rival contenders going at each other’s throats, hopefully without the devastating consequences experienced by both parties in the recent past.

The Northern political elite whose life and soul depended on exploiting mono-ethnic extremism (aka, Tamil nationalism, Eelamism, federalism, separatism, self-determination) bared its tigerish teeth on the very first day of the opening debate. C. V. Wigneswaran did not hesitate to demonstrate his style and substance with his provocative and controversial speech. He did not hesitate to echo the old mantra that pull the heartstrings of the Tamils: the Tamil language. Using his standard tactic, with nothing else to crow about, he paid homage to the Tamil language which resonates as the primary source of sustaining and pursuing Tamil identity politics. This is also his signature tune and he signalled that the Parliament is going to hear more of it in the days, months and years to come. It is, of course, a variation of his notorious resolution passed in Northern Provincial Council condemning all Sinhala leaders since Independence as genocidal maniacs who had decimated the Tamils. The likes of Wigneswaram survive in the competitive politics of the peninsula only by distorting known facts, recorded history and the grim realities that refuse to surrender to their disproportionate and extremist demands.

Most of the leaders who welcomed the new Speaker maintained a neutral tone and the formal decorum that is expected on this occasion. Only Wigneswaran’s speech went off the rails. He could not help being Wigneswaran – the new kid in the bloc showing off his no-hands-on-the-handle ride down the main street. It needs to be quoted in full as it foreshadows the shape of things to come. The following quote is from the Hansard:

(The Hon. C.V. Wigneswaran) மாண்ᾗமிகு சபாநாயகர் அவர்கேள, தமிழ் மக்கள் ேதசியக் கூட்டணி சார்பில் ᾙதற்கண் உங்கᾦக்கு என் வாழ்த்ᾐக்கைள த் ெதாிவித்ᾐக்ெகாள்கின்ேறன். I start my felicitations, Hon. Speaker, hailing you in my mother tongue, the oldest living language of this world and the language of the first indigenous inhabitants of this country, and proceed in the link language. I thank you for accepting such a high position in our Parliamentary tradition. Sir, I am sure, you would bring with your high Office your experience with men and matters gained throughout your long political career. We have a very powerful Government now. A similar Government was constituted under the late J.R. Jayewardene in 1977. It was during that regime that we had the 1983 Pogrom. Certainly, this Government too could follow the path of the Elephant of that time and end up as today reduced to a single Member in the future. But, I am sure they would not. They would prefer to learn from our mistakes of the past and usher in a period of peace and prosperity where all communities would feel equal to each other and walk with dignity and pride as children of Mother Lanka. That freedom and equality could dawn only if we shed the false historical perspectives of the past and recognize the intrinsic rights of the people living in the North and the East of Sri Lanka, who are entitled to the right of self-determination as per Article 1 of Chapter one of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in addition to their hereditary and traditional rights to be recognized as a nation. Sir, I hope, we would not be called upon in this August Assembly of Parliamentarians in the future, during your term of Office, for your protective assistance since we would respect each other’s rights and our duties towards each other. We are sure that you will guide us all without fear or favour if any such impasse comes to pass. There is no need Sir, in a country which professes Buddhism to expect a hegemonic dominance from anyone. We have not forgotten what the Sinhala villager is only too well familiar with, that every act has its opposite reaction; කළ කළ ෙNJ පල පල ෙNJ. ස්ƱƯɐ, ගɞ කථානායකƱමǧ .English equivalent: You will reap what you sow.

Though short it summarises the usual litany of complaints recycled unceasingly by the Tamil leadership blaming the Sinhalese. In the next day’s sittings of the House G. G. Ponnambalam, the grandson of the father of virulent Tamil communalism, G. G. Ponnambalam, Snr., who sparked off the first communal riots in 1939 by attacking the Mahavamsa and the history of the nation, went beyond Wigneswaran to focus on the two nation” theory. That is a claim that must be dealt in a separate chapter next Sunday. First, attention must be focused on Wigneswaran dragging his aggressive, anti-Sinhala-Buddhist politics from his launching pad in the Provincial Council in the North to a higher level in the Parliament.  To being with, there is nothing new in Wigneswaran’s whingeing. He is only reiterating what every other Tamil propagandist has said for the nth time before. But what does it portend? It is this kind of rhetoric that paved the path to the Vadukoddai violence unleashed in 1976. Blaming the Sinhala-Buddhists has been the only ideological trick they had to seduce their people into the path of brutal and futile violence.

For instance, Prabhakaran was nurtured, encouraged, supported, financed and defended at all times by the Tamil Vellala elite which retained their grip on power in the peninsula by demonising the Sinhala-Buddhists. Prabhakaran knew nothing but the hate politics fed to him by the Tamil theoreticians / propagandists who manufactured a fake history of Tamils which invariably ended in projecting the Sinhala-Buddhists as the permanent enemies of the Tamils. The essence of this ideology was encapsulated in the Vadukoddai Resolution which declared war on the Sinhala-Buddhist in 1976.

In the current political context of the post-Gotabaya Presidential election, the choice before the Tamils is either to go back to the Vadukoddai Resolution and kick-start the road to Nandikadal again, or carve out a more realistic path for peaceful co-existence taking into consideration the lessons learnt in Nandikadal. It is, indeed, sad that Wigneswaran has chosen to ignore the new realties haunting the Northern landscape. He has reverted to the same-old, same-old hate politics. He made use of the occasion to address the extremists who are likely to follow him into the never-never land of elusive Eelam. He talks of the right of self-determination”, the right to be recognised as a nation”, hegemonic dominance” of the majority, the 1983 pogrom”,  a claim to be ”the first indigenous inhabitants of this country”, and, of course,  the oldest living language of this world”.

Take the last one first. To boast about the Tamil language being the oldest, boosts only the egos of the Tamils who have nothing else to crow about in Sri Lanka. Besides, it is a specious argument because if antiquity is a mark of superiority then the Sinhalese language, which the Tamils say came into being only in the fifth century, should be considered superior to the English language which blossomed into what it is today, only in the 15^th-16^th centuries under Geoffrey Chaucer and modernised by Shakespeare later.

Besides, the Tamils of Jaffna did not create the Tamil language which, indeed, is a cultural gem. The local Tamils brought it in their bag and baggage when they crossed the Palk Straits in the 12^th-13^th centuries. Tamil historians have openly admitted that the Jaffna Tamils were merely second-hand imitators of the Tamil Nadu culture. No original masterpieces ever came out of Jaffna. On the contrary, the Sinhalese created and gifted to the world a whole new language rich enough to express the subtle nuances of the greatest philosophy of India, Buddhism. As opposed to this, the imitative Jaffna Tamils are prone to pretend that they have been the virtual founders of the great Tamil culture that flourished in S. India. Simply because Arumuka Navalar and C . W. Thamotherampillai excavated the neglected Tamil classical texts from S. India and printed them in Jaffna they assume that they have been the virtual founders, discoverers, and revivalists of Tamil language and culture. The fact is that Jaffna had not contributed anything substantial to the greatness of the Tamil language. So which community can claim to be superior to the other? Is it those who are parroting a language borrowed from another land? Or those who with their creative genius minted a new language?

The Sinhala-Buddhists also gave the world a new civilisation and a new culture. In fact, the great aesthetic savant, Ananda Coomaraswamy, wrote a classic monograph on Medieval Sinhala Art. Being a Tamil, wouldn’t he have written an equally great monograph on Jaffna art if the Tamils had anything comparable to that of the Sinhalese? So what is Wigneswaran crowing about? Why is he trying to pretend that the Tamil language came from his father’s loins when its origins go way back in time to the dim distant past in another land? In comparison let’s take the case of the American and the Australian migrants who took the English language with them as they migrated into new lands. They do not bask in the supremacy and the glory of English language created in Britain. They take pride in the creative power of their own people who produced a new culture of their own demonstrating their innate genius. Can Wigneswaran at least point to the genius of the Jaffna Tamils comparable to that of the English migrants domiciled in America or Australia? He may not be familiar with these two cultures. Can he, therefore, tell us in what respects the Jaffna Tamil culture – not that of Tamil Nadu – is superior to that of the Sinhalese?

Then he talked about the first indigenous inhabitants of this country.” This is another symptom of the common Tamil malaise to imagine histories that never happened. Their political aspirations are based on believing in a fabricated past that could justify their current political agenda to create a separate state.  Vadukoddai Resolution (1976) is a typical example of the Tamil mytho-maniacs concocting a political manifesto to sustain and pursue their unattainable aspirations”. Besides, conflicting theories question the validity of their self-serving history which eventually led to the Vadukoddai Declaration of war in 1976. Political violence depends on the extent to which it is possible to manufacture hate politics, extremism and myths. As the primary aim of the Vadukoddai Resolution was to provide a valid justification to claim proprietary rights over Sri Lankan territory they went overboard by declaring the myth that they were the first arrivals.

This claim also makes them believe that they are superior to all other migrants who came later. Let us for the sake of argument concede that they came first. Then they must explain why the inferior Sinhalese who came later built a unique civilization, culture and language that stand to their glory surpassing all activities of the superior Tamils. Besides, if they came earlier why did they withdraw and confine themselves to a littoral strip in the sands of the North? Isn’t it because the Tamils began their settlements, according to Tamil historians, only in the 12-13th centuries?

Each time the Tamils claim that they are superior to all others in the island, they are forced to explain why they played such an inferior role in the history of the nation. For instance, if the Tamils are so superior to the Sinhalese and the Tamils played such a pivotal role in the national history how did the inferior Sinhalese come out on top dominating every inch of the way in history to the 21^st century, overcoming all challenges they faced, mostly from the Dravidians of the North?

Take, for instance, the simple issue of demographics. If they came first they had the field wide open for them, with no opposition, to populate and leave their indelible stamp on every conceivable aspect in history. But they didn’t. They had Paskaralingams, Mahalingams, Panchalingams, and whole lot of lingams none of whom had the capacity to populate the island with sufficient demographics to dominate the historical landscape.  So how did the Tamils fail and why did the Sinhalese succeed? Recorded history states categorically that the Sinhalese were exceptional because they outstripped the Tamils in their historic journey through the ages gone by. Throughout the better part of history, the Tamils lived under the shadow of Sinhala rulers. They accepted Sinhala as the official language with which to communicate, from royalty down to the common trader in Chetty Street. This also leads to a serious question: Does history belongs to those who make spurious claims to justify the politics of the day or to those who made history with their blood, sweat and tears down the ages?

In one of Wigneswaran’s sober moments he states that we (should) shed the false historical perspectives of the past”. True. Absolutely true. But he has a motive for saying this. He wants the world to accept his narrative of events rejecting the one that contradiction his version. As in any other conflict there are two sides to story. He wants the world to shed the false historical perspective” that contradicts his narrative. In other words, like all Tamil partisans marketing their one-sided story to the world he is making a strong bid to hide the subhuman history of Jaffna that humiliated, persecuted, oppressed, suppressed and even massacred their own people on a mass scale for centuries under fascist Vellalaism. He is deliberately falsifying the historical perspectives of his past because the truth will blast his political myths to bits. He would, for instance, find it very difficult to give another example of the ruling class/caste denying their own people the right to walk in God-given sunlight. These outcasts were allowed to come out only in the night declaring loudly as they walked that the Turumbas – the lowest of low castes — are coming, purely to warn the Vellalas to close their doors and windows to maintain the purity of their eyes.

So when he says that we should shed the false historical perspective of the past” he should begin from his end before pointing fingers at his bete noir the Sinhalese. He should first examine critically and objectively how his forefathers treated their own people before he accuses the Sinhalese of discriminating against the Tamils, or denying them their dignity and rights. What dignity did his ancestors give the low-castes when they refused to open the doors of the Vellala-owned temples to the low-caste Hindus to worship their common God/gods?  Or kept the front pews of the Church to the high castes and the last rows to the low-castes? In America the Negroes were not allowed to sit in the front rows of the busses but only in the back seats. In the Vellala fiefdom the low-castes were not allowed to sit on any seat, front or back. They had to sit on the floor of the bus. This was institutionalised discrimination that dehumanised Wigneswaran’s own people. He refuses to examine the horripilating tortures, persecutions, oppression and agonies of his own history. As a former judge it is his moral duty to weigh the available evidence before passing judgment. He should begin by asking: Why didn’t our leaders make our own people  feel equal to each other and walk with dignity and pride as children” of Tamil homeland? ”

The debacle at Nandikadal must open the eyes of the Tamils to recognise that the Tamil leaders have been congenital idiots” (Prof. David Kumar). With all the accumulated knowledge gathered from their misadventure on the road to Nandikadal they must, at least at this late stage, accept responsibility for their folly. Blaming the Sinhalese is not going to take them to their unattainable Eelam. They must be more pragmatic and admit that it is the false historical perspective of the past” that led the Tamil leadership to the self-destructive Vadkoddai Resolution. They were arrogant and intransigent political animals who led their people to a humiliating and disastrous end in Nandikadal.  The rhetoric recycled by Wigneswaran can lead only the next Nandikadal. Is this what the Tamils want?

Quite rightly he says, in one of his lucid moments, that we should learn from our mistakes of the past and usher in a period of peace and prosperity where all communities would feel equal to each other and walk with dignity and pride as children of Mother Lanka”. But here he is pointing his finger, as usual, at the Sinhalese. In saying this he is in denial. Actually, he is lying through his teeth. He is the living example of Tamils and Sinhalese walk(ing) with dignity and pride as children of Mother Lanka.” He was given a free education at Royal College, the best school run by the Sinhala state”. He was also given a free education at Law College run by the Sinhala state”. (In Chennai he would have had to pay through his nose to qualify as a lawyer). 

He practiced as a lawyer in the courts of the Sinhala state” and not in any of the pseudo courts in de facto state run by his Tamil hero, Velupillai Prabhakaran. He rose to the highest rank as judge in the Sinhala state” where he could walk with dignity and pride as an independent judge who would not have to bow down to the dictates of his Tamil Thalaivar. Above all, his daughter is married to a Sinhalese. Would he ever have given his loving daughter to a Sinhalese if he knew that she would not feel equal to each other and walk with dignity and pride as children of Mother Lanka”? So why is he painting the Sinhalese as the evil demons when he has, all his life, thrived and walked with dignity and pride as a child of Mother Lanka? Besides, should he not think compassionately about his own people, who had suffered enough due to the follies of their leaders, and ask what chances he has of taking his people beyond the next Nandikadal with his kind of logic and rhetoric?

Wigneswaran is typical of the derelict, rudderless Tamil leader wandering in no-man’s land in the post-Prabhakaran period. With Prabhakaran the Tamils had a center to hold them together, however obnoxious he was to the civilised world horrified by his fascist violence. With Prabhakaran they had something to lean on. After him the Tamils have fallen into a vacuum and they are running around like chooks without heads. Finding a  new path that would not lead them to another Nandikadal is the task for the Tamil leadership. Threatening the nation with another round of Vadukoddai violence is counter-productive. But the rhetoric unleashed by Wigneswaran and his fellow-Vadukoddian, Ponnambalam, on the first two days in the new Parliament expose not only their obsession with the failed politics of the immediate past but also the bankruptcy of the Tamil leadership stuck at the cross-roads without a compass. To go back to regain their political leverage by militarising and weaponising their separatist politics they have to find another Prabhakaran. Neither the ground realities of the post-Nandikadal period nor the international support for Prabhakaranist terrorism is there for them to go that far. Clearly, they have to find a more viable alternative. Ponnambalam spoke arrogantly of his two state theory” as if nothing has happened since his Grandfather sparked off the first communal riots in 1939 with anti-Sinhala rhetoric in Navalapitiya.

For what it is worth, this theory must be revisited next Sunday for the pragmatic Tamils to realise that they can no longer float forever in the dark clouds that thundered and drenched them with the blood of their own people at Nandikadal.

KAMALIKA PIERIS

First person accounts of the second JVP insurgency have been given in autobiographies of Drs B.J.C.  Perera, Sarath Weerasinghe and W.A. Wiswa Warnapala. They have spoken of their experiences with the JVP in their places of work.

 B.J.C. Perera was Consultant Pediatrician in Kurunegala in 1988.  In Kurunegala there was a lot of public support for JVP and people in the area were openly sympathetic to the cause said BJC. JVP   were in almost total control.  Hospital had JVP sympathizers on the staff. Two of his House officers were also JVP.  They tried to disrupt the working of the hospital. ‘’But I did not allow them to disrupt ward activities,’ Said BJC.  

The hospital was not closed for even one day. Kurunegala was one of the few hospitals which functioned normally, he said. Kurunegala child Immunization clinic was over loaded, with about 300 children brought from outstation in lorries and cars, since the other clinics were not working. ‘We managed to immunize them all,’ said BJC.  This  service was provided for several weeks.

JVP was watching him and liked his concern for his patients. They sent him a message that since he had a baby at home, he could use the electric lights in the house. JVP   had ordered the public not to put on electric lights. BJC refused, saying he would be labeled a JVP sympathizer, so they told him to use thick curtains and only a couple of lights.

 Towards the end of the insurgency, both army and JVP were active in Kurunegala. An army officer came to the hospital, said BJC. He spoke separately to doctors, and asked them to continue the good work, told nurses, separately that any saboteurs would be treated like insurgents, told laborers that he knewexactly who JVP were. He will kill the two of them and hang them for all to see at the entrance to the hospital. He will personally shoot them through the heads, said the army officer.

In 1988 JVP made final error in Kurunegala, said BJC. They had dragged out a supporter of the government His children had come running and hugged the father. JVP killed the children as well. This disgusted the public who went to the police and army and told them details of JVP activity in the entire Kurunegala region. The force and police came out at night, rounded up the JVP.  Nothing was heard of them after that. They were    apparently eliminated and burnt in the jungles and forest areas of Kurunegala. The insurgency collapsed virtually overnight in 1989 in Kurunegala, concluded BJC Perera.

Dr.  Sarath Edirisinghe, who taught at the Medical Faculty, Peradeniya, spoke of his encounters with the JVP in the University in the Bheeshanaya period. One day a group of medical students who were JVP informed us lecturers that they were going to have a meeting in Physiology Theater and all the staff must attend. We all trooped in there, a medical student activist spoke, and scolded us for not being receptive to the vast changes taking place. We must respond to the youth uprising. They said, among other things, , that they had to     right to stop and check any vehicle passing Wijewardana. We were not allowed to voice our views, said Sarath.

On one occasion Sarath watched the captive medical staff of Peradeniya Teaching Hospital, carrying placards against the IPKF, herded along toward Peradeniya   road junction. A consultant had told him later that they had been taken to Peradeniya Bo tree bus stop, given paste and told to paste posters on the buses that stopped there.

Once there was a huge commotion at the turn off to Wijewardana Hall. There was a huge crowd and  much chaos. Sarath saw a man tied to a tree. Someone started beating  him.  He was later taken away.  We heard later that he was the driver of a passing vehicle owned by a UNP MP. He was found murdered in a nearby quarry.

The Meewatura University house complex, where Sarath lived, had been visited by JVP and identity cards confiscated. Electric transformers in the area had been bombed or vandalized. On dark days” the residents did not switch on the lights. Sarath was pulled up for putting on lights when all round it was dark.  These JVP were definitely University students, said Sarath.  

JVP said they were going to send him a set of instructions to be conveyed to the rest of the houses. Sarath had said how to read instructions when there are no lights. He was told that around 3 am, instructions would be pushed through the door and to comply. Use torch to read it. However, since they had a baby, he was told to have a 15 or 25 watt bulb in a back room.

The document arrived. They were told to display a large placard saying that IPKF must leave Sri Lanka, also hang a black flag. Their activities would-be closely watched throughout the day. At dawn  Sarath saw a row of University houses with black flags. Some had torn umbrellas to get the black cloth.

Then the army came. Sarath and others were warned in time,  they  pulled the black flags down. An army jeep came, with two rows of  unsmiling soldiers scrutinizing the houses, When the army left the academics put back the placard and flag. Throughout the day, there were young men on motorcycles checking our houses.

Then JVP bombed the Water Purification plant, nearby, which meant no water for the houses.  The Vice Chancellor appealed to JVP by poster   to get the plant working. JVP complied.    The    ‘Reply’ poster came, saying plant will be repaired and water will be issued for two hours a   day.

 It was well known that these University campaigns were carried out by IUSF and the Deshapremi Sishya Viyapraya.   The leading activists were hardcore JVP members, and they included final year students and university staff.  There was also a group of third-liners,  who were clearly followers not leaders. Sarath met a few of them.

One day, Sarath found that there was no one in the Medical Faculty and he went  along to the Dean’s room, where he found Dean and the Senior Assistant Registrar, Miss Jayasuriya. While he was there,  the door opened with a bang and a well dressed, bearded young man came in and wanted to know why the Faculty was open, it was a hartal day. Miss Jayasuriya had shouted back and said the man had no business entering the Dean’s office and ordered him to leave immediately. The man said something threatening but left the office. The man was a technical officer in the Medical Faculty, said Miss Jayasuriya.

After several murders had taken place at Peradeniya campus, a dozen senior academics, from the Medical Faculty, led by Prof Ralph Panabokke had gone to see Vice Chancellor Arjuna Aluwihare, by appointment. There were three student activists there, recalled Sarath. We were introduced to the students.

 Prof. Panabokke said his say which was translated to the students, who said very eloquently in Sinhala that there was a liberation movement taking place and we should recognize the fact and as academics we should extend our support. Panabokke said that murders by University students should be stopped.  The students looked agitated, they had a short discussion among themselves and the leader blurted out that they had no control over these activities.

Sarath and his family then went to Nugegoda, where again they met the JVP.  Sarath’s wife, Jayanthi visited an uncle who was a retired army man. when she knocked on the door,     a young man holding a gun pulled her into the house. Jayanthi, who was a lecturer in the University, guessed that these were probably University students.  She shouted at the gang telling them she was a University don. She asked them to leave the house immediately. They had a whispered conversation and left, warning her not to leave for one hour and not to get the police. They had cut the telephone wires beforehand. They had vanished into thin air, there was no sound of a motor cycle.

Sarath and his family   returned to Peradeniya . A Senior Assistant Registrar had been killed near Senate House. In retaliation, around ten youths  were killed and  their severed heads placed round the Alwis pond. ‘One can imagine how brutal the government backed counter terrorist activities were at the time.’ said Sarath.

Towards the end, there was fear, panic and danger everywhere. Militant students patrolled the area on wheels and on foot. They were checking vehicles. They expected a showdown with the government and counter preparation were being readied by them.

The showdown came soon after. In the biting pre-dawn, Sarath and other academics  living in Meewatura heard  students in Hilda Obeyesekera Hall, ( then a male student hall) calling out  names of lecturers and begging those lecturers to come  and rescue them as they were surrounded by the army.

Instead of running to the rescue, the lecturers in the Meewatura houses were all in their back gardens watching. We did not see any army activity until a helicopter came by. The cries of students rounded up by the armed forces could be heard, then there was silence, said Sarath.

Helicopters kept swooping down on  the Halls of residence till mid day. There was also bus after bus transporting students out of the campus. As they went past Meewatura to Gampola  villagers hooted, some shouted don’t come back.” The Bheeshanaya was blamed on University students and  the  surrounding villages were relieved to see the student evicted from campus. The  Campus was closed,  concluded Sarath.

W.A.Wiswa Warnapala, was SLFP organizer for Kegalle in the 1980s. In 1987, party activity in Kegalle was done amidst JVP terror, he said. JVP mounted a campaign of violence in Kegalle  to prevent a free and fair election. They wanted to prevent the voters from voting     also from   participating in election activity.

The SLFP  organizers were provided with guns and were expected to arrange for their own security. JVP  threatened Wiswa with death and  he was prevented from going to certain villages by blocking the road to these places. There was a large spate of political violence throughout the country  at the time.   

Wiswa was  teaching political science  at University of  Peradeniya , during the Bheeshanaya  period. The    violence inside the University  particularly University of   Peradeniya   was such that the University could not control it,  said Wiswa. No one was safe inside the campus. The Inter University  Student  Federation  formed Action Committees and  these committees were behind the violence.

The frightened University authorities gave recognition to the Action Committee, in order to avoid open confrontation and prevent destruction of life and property. The Action Committee   turned itself into a parallel administration  making use of the University administration and issuing orders to University officials.  There was  sporadic stoppage and boycott of lectures. No Department could function steadily. Academic progammes came  to a standstill, said Wiswa. ‘Palamuwa mawbima devenuva upadhiya’ said the slogan.    

Wiswa observed that the  JVP leaders in the University  came  not from Arts faculty, but from science, engineering and medicine. This was  strange  because they  were sure of getting jobs and rising in life,  but these   students, unlike in the past, came from different social backgrounds. The undergrad community of the 80s was entirely different to that of the 50s, they were more militant and aggressive.  Wiswa was a strong critic of the JVP. He got a threat on his life.

Violence, threats and killings were the order of the day inside  Peradeniya  campus. Nobody  was safe inside. Any trivial matter was enough for the students to indulge in violence and they were armed with lethal weapons, said Wiswa.

A Senior Assistant Registrar was shot at the entrance to Senate House at 12 noon by a JVP who came on a push bike. Victim died leaning on a car. Culprit escaped and no attempt was made to apprehend him. .

On another occasion, there were ten bodies in front of the arts theatre.   it was rumored that this was done by the state, which shot them one by one as a message to the JVP. this murderous act  was a part of the reprisals of the state. Those responsible for this terrible event blocked the roads so they could commit the crime with impunity . This act devastated the academic community, said Wiswa.

One activity of these students was to watch the comings and goings of the academics. When Wiswa’s brother in law, a Brigadier in the army  visited Wiswa,  the JVP ‘had the audacity  to come and question me as to why there was an army visit,’  said Wiswa.  When  B.S. Wijeweera, one of his post graduate students had visited Wiswa at home, JVP  thought that Rohana Wijeweera had visited .

 Osmund Jayaratne, a lecturer in Physics said in his autobiography, that he was informed, after he left Peradeniya that the academics living in Mahakanda had put up a notice saying ‘Osmund Jayaratne no longer lives in this housing scheme’. ( continued)

Dilrook Kannangara

It is pointless responding to CV Wigneswaran who seems to find relief in false beliefs to comfort the sad realization that Tamils do not have a nation of their own. Craving for a nation of their own is just and fair. But it must not be on someone else’s land. His claims are baseless and his own beliefs are inconsistent with them.

Mahabharata is an ancient Hindu epic of the land now called India. Its content is mythical but some of the actors and events are reasonably probable. It was written between 3 century BCE and 3 century AD. It relates to events supposedly happened a few thousand years earlier.

Mahabharata mentions Sinhalas on many occasions including the Kurukshetra war (at times with unflattering descriptions). However, there is no mention of Tamils. There is a mention of Dravidians but Tamils are only a fraction of Dravidians. Of the Dravidians mentioned therein, they could well be Telegu or any other Dravidians other than Tamils. Many other ethnic groups are specifically mentioned in the Mahabharata.

Dravidians or Tamils are certainly not mentioned in relation to the island of Lanka. Only Sinhalas are mentioned in relation to the island of Lanka.

Over 95% of Tamils are Hindus and believe in the Mahabharata.

That is conclusive proof that Tamil (Nadu) language is not older than the Sinhala language and there were no Tamil Nadu language users in the island of Sri Lanka, only Sinhalas at the time the ancient Hindu epic was written.

Whatever disagreements Sri Lanka had with Wigneswaran and his crowd were sorted out in the battlefield in 2009. It is not worth the while to repeat it when all proof points to the absurdity of his beliefs and claims. If Tamils are serious about self-determination, Tamil Nadu is their starting point.