HE Metropolitan Police have opened an investigation into war crimes allegedly committed by British mercenaries in Sri Lanka during the 1980s.
The force’s War Crime Team has begun a scoping exercise under Crown Prosecution Service guidelines, the Foreign Office has told the UN Working Group on Mercenaries (UNWGM).
The probe follows the publication earlier this year of Keenie Meenie: the British Mercenaries Who Got Away with War Crimes, by former Morning Star journalist Phil Miller.
Mr Miller exposed how British military veterans from a company called Keenie Meenie Services (KMS) evaded accountability for their part in war crimes against Tamil civilians at the start of Sri Lanka’s civil war.
KMS became involved in the conflict after a special adviser to then British prime minister Margaret Thatcher suggested that British support for the south Asian country’s security forces might be privatised.”
The company trained a new Sri Lankan police unit called the Special Task Forces (STF) which became notorious for carrying out atrocities, including the 1987 massacre at a prawn farm in which 85 people were killed.
KMS also hired British pilots who flew helicopter gunships on combat missions, such as an alleged raid on a village in 1985 in which 16 people died.
The London-based Tamil Information Centre (TIC) raised the findings with the UNWGM, which then submitted its concerns about KMS to the Foreign Office, asking what criminal measures the government had taken to combat impunity.”
Criminologist Dr Rachel Seoighe, who alerted the UN on behalf of the TIC, said: It is welcome that the Metropolitan Police have finally begun to investigate what KMS did in Sri Lanka, after allowing British mercenaries to operate with impunity for so long.
The UN was right to raise concerns about the lack of action by the British authorities.
Tamil survivors have waited decades to see those responsible for the massacres of loved ones held accountable.”
The UN also wrote to special-forces veteran David Walker, now aged 78, who ran KMS in the 1980s while serving as a Conservative councillor in Surrey, seeking answers to the allegations
Mr Walker did not respond to the agency and has previously refused to co-operate with a US investigation into claims that KMS bombed a hospital in Nicaragua during the Contra war in 1985.
New Secretaries have been appointed to 25 Cabinet Ministries today (13), stated President’s Media Division issuing a press release.
The new Ministry Secretaries were handed their letters of appointment by President Rajapaksa at the Presidential Secretariat this evening.
It is noteworthy that Dr. Anil Jasinghe has been appointed as the Secretary to the Ministry of Environment. Jasinghe has been serving as the Director-General of Health Services.
Meanwhile, Major General (Retd.) Kamal Gunaratne, and Admiral (Retd.) Jayanath Colombage have been appointed to their previous portfolios.
The newly appointed Ministry Secretaries are as follows:
01. Secretary to the Cabinet: W.M.D.J. Fernando 02. Ministry of Highways: R.W.R. Pemasiri 03. Ministry of Finance: S. R. Attygalle 04. Ministry of Public Services, Provincial Councils and Local Government: J. J. Rathansiri 05. Ministry of Mass Media: Jagath P. Wijeweera 06. Ministry of Plantations: Ravindra Hewawitharana 07. Ministry of Irrigation: Anura Dissanayake 08. Ministry of Industries: W. A. Chulananda Perera 09. Ministry of Power: Wasantha Perera 10. Ministry of Tourism: S. Hettiarachchi 11. Ministry of Land: R. A. A. K. Ranawaka 12. Ministry of Labor: N. P. D. U. K. Mapa Pathirana 13. Ministry of Fisheries: R. M. I. Ratnayake 14. Ministry of Defense: Major General (Retd.) Kamal Gunaratne 15. Ministry of Wildlife and Forest Conservation: M. K. B. Harischandra 16. Ministry of Transport: N. B. Monty Ranatunga 17. Ministry of Water Supply: Dr. Priyath Bandu Wickrama 18. Ministry of Trade: J. M. B. Jayawardena 19. Ministry of Health: Major General Sanjeewa Munasinghe 20. Ministry of Agriculture: Major General (Retd.) A.K. Sumedha Perera 21. Ministry of Youth and Sports: Anuradha Wijekoon 22. Ministry of Energy: K. D. R. Olga 23. Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Admiral (Retd.) Jayanath Colombage 24. Ministry of Environment: Dr. Anil Jasinghe 25. Ministry of Education: Prof. Kapila Perera 26. Ministry of Urban Development and Housing: Sirinimal Perera
Kurunegala Municipal Council members have left a council meeting expressing their displeasure over the Mayor’s failure to attend the meeting on time.
Reportedly, the Kurunegala Mayor had been attending an event inaugurating the newly appointed Minister of Highways Johnston Fernando while a council meeting had been convened today (13).
The Mayor had also made the welcome speech at the said function.
Subsequently, he arrived at the Kurunegala Municipal Council at around 12.10 pm following the conclusion of the function.
A member of the council proposed to postpone the meeting as many members had left the council by the time the Mayor arrived.
The mayor then adjourned the meeting, explaining the reason he had failed to arrive on time.
Meanwhile, Chairman of All Ceylon Farmers Federation Namal Karunaratne alleges that this meeting was convened to approve the payment of the lawyer’s fee of the Kurunegala Mayor’s case on the demolition of a part of the Buwanekaba Raja Sabha building in Kurunegala.
Karunaratne stated that there is an attempt to approve a sum of over Rs. 4.4 million to pay the lawyer’s fees in the case against the Mayor.
Every last individual who is responsible for the 2019 Easter attacks will be brought before the law, says newly appointed Minister of Justice President’s Counsel Ali Sabry.
He expressed these views speaking at a program held in Kandy yesterday (12).
He stated that he took oaths as the Minister of Justice not to serve one community but to for the whole country.
We are committed to establish the constitution of this country. I have sworn twice, once as a lawyer and another time as a President’s Counsel, to protect the constitution of this country.”
Sabry says that he will guarantee that he not commit even a minute wrongdoing towards this country, its peace, and its brotherhood.
For 1,100 years Muslims in Sri Lanka have lived with dignity. Therefore there is no other person who wants extremism eradicated from the Muslim community, more than us. Because we cannot live freely when extremists exist.
We are fully committed to bring every last person responsible for the Easter attacks before the law and punish them.”
Minister Ali Sabry says that he has come to bring people together and not to build walls between them.
He further said that the Muslims and the minority in the country have commenced on a new journey that is ‘national politics based on policies instead of politics based on race’.
However, when the minorities join this journey, it a responsibility of the major parties to extend their arms of brotherhood towards them.
The message given by the President and the Prime Minister when appointing him as the Justice Minister was that ‘all will be treated equally’, Minister Ali Sabry added.
Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau Prime Minister of Canada Office of the Prime Minister 80 Wellington Street Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A2
Rt Hon Prime Minister Mr Justin Trudeau,
Statement by the Prime Minister on the anniversary
of Black July 1983
This letter has reference to the statement made by
you (PM) on the 23rd July 2020 in Ottawa. While we as SriLankan
respect your views as the PM, and former national Boxing champion, and I being
a Tamil from SriLanka, Australian would like to loosen certain secrets of what
is happening in SriLanka right from 1948. I can only refer to certain web sites
and blogs for your government executives to read and digest rather throw it
into the bin, which then will project the true value given by Canada.
Vellupillai
Prabakaran (VP) was the leader of the LTTE, the worst terrorist among the group
of terrorists in the world. VP right from 1978 wanted racial riots to flare up
so that he can get international support from sympathy. However, he knew that
he had little support from Tamil Diaspora and particularly from Canada. He knew
the weakness of the western world and the willingness of the west to destroy SL.
The island is located in a strategic location in the Indian Ocean which gives
them a military advantage for dominating the SE Asian region. USA and China are
greedy of military dominance, which paves the way to access indirectly. Maybe
the people in SL are fools like wilder beast herd but some intellectuals can
understand what is going on in the west. However, it is a pity that some of
these can be bought through kickbacks and bribes.
As said above the 1983
incident was initiated by VP to drive a racial riot so that the western nations
will openly show their hostility towards SL. 13 military soldiers were blown up
with bombs in Tirunelveli in Jaffna which is a major road that links
Kankesanthurai to Jaffna. The corpses were taken to Colombo by the military and
cremated. Every human suffers from a certain kind of psychological weakness and
psychiatric issues. This incident was reacted with violence. I do not think
that as a person I will support a racial riot, however, such psychiatric nourished
patients like VP should have been eliminated by the people/military in the
first place. Sir, you will agree that any person who attempts to commit suicide
suffers from some degree of psychiatric disorder. In the USA and Canada, if
correct, I believe police personal are sent for psychiatric evaluation if they
shoot a civilian. In cognitive science (CS) area quote: CS is the interdisciplinary study of mind
and intelligence, embracing philosophy, psychology, artificial intelligence,
neuroscience, linguistics, and anthropology.
Not only this incident, but LTTE cadre members also carried
out machine gun shooting in Anuradhapura bus station killing several Sinhala
civilians. I cannot list all the killing here in this document. Please view and
read quote: (i) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Lanka_Flight_512
Sir, can you devise
some methods to control the emotions of your patriotic citizens when the wrong
killing of a group of Ottawa’s law & order personnel are killed by some
gangs? During the riots in 1983, several Tamil families were given refuge by
Sinhala Buddhist families in their homes and protected.
Therefore, the
conclusion is that the entire riot and killing was instigated and indirectly
inculcated and intoxicated by the LTTE.
Migration
Subsequently, VP
ordered some of his cadres to migrate to Canada and the UK in the name of
refugees so that they can work for him.
Sir, it is certain and
known that LTTE cadre in the rank of, Captain, intelligence and other officers
are hiding in Toronto, which may not be known to the Canadian government.
Canada opens up her arms to all. It is known that certain engineers and others
who came into Canada via the USA and ended up in Quebec were getting government
income support and also secretly earning income through working. I have to open
up this issue as Canada is a country which helps all but some people are crooks
who swindle the government. That’s Tamil culture. Today’s situation the true
refugees who migrated are small in number. However, those who associate with
politicians are not true refugees but came to Canada to earn money and elevate
their status. A gentleman name Gary Anandasangaree is the son of an unpopular
Tamil politician and has no grievances in SL. There are thousands of Tamils in
Canada who are there to motif a bad name for SL. What is those people’s
scientific contribution to the science and industry in Canada? Why do they want
to enter politics rather practice their discipline?
Statement by the PM of Canada
Quote: On behalf of the Government of Canada, I extend my deepest
sympathies to all those who suffered and lost loved ones during Black July and
the ensuing conflict. Canada remains committed to facilitating an
accountability process that has the trust and confidence of all victims, which
is central to achieving lasting peace and reconciliation. We continue to offer
support to all those working toward these goals.”
The world should regret to note that Canada has
forgotten to express their sympathies to those who were massacred by the LTTE
e.g. the Sinhalese civilians and military personnel. All are humans.
Development was slowed down as a result of the terrorism by the LTTE.
PM; Have you thought about the rest of the people in SL? How
can they live peacefully with terrorism planted on their soil? Tamils flee SL
in the name of refugee for the economic growth of their coffer. Sir, have you forgotten
the mass killing of red Indians like Incas, Mayans, & Aztecs from the soil
of America? Spanish wiped out several thousands of Indians in Lima leaving only
2 million people left a few hundred years later.
However, there were no mass killing or genocide in SL. It was
the Indians from India who invaded SriLankan soil in the early centuries and
wiped out several thousands of Sinhala people from the soil. It would be
preferred that non-history experts in Canada better keep their lips sealed
rather spitting unnecessary news and causing uproar among society.
It causes tension, bitterness & conflict among the people in SL, and raise
confusion around the world.
Heavy Weapons manufactured by the LTTE
Please refer to
annexure A” which depicts the type and number of weapons manufactured in
Mullivaykal by the LTTE. These weapons are not for pleasure drive or training
etc, however, for the mass killing of the people in SL. It is presumed to blow
up Naval ships owned by India and SL and passenger ships travelling to SL.
These are suicidal operation. Again, I wish to reiterate that anyone who
attempts to commit suicide can be regarded as suffering from a psychiatric
disorder. Therefore, the conclusion is that from top to bottom the LTTE cadre
may have been inflicted with a psychiatric disorder.
The big question is;
who supported the technical capability to design and manufacture these weapons.
If these weapons were used, just imagine the devastation that would have
occurred in SL.
Genocide, War Crimes, Missing People
Tamil Diaspora has
formed organisation, and Forums around the western world and have been shouting
that SL should be tried for war crimes, genocide and missing persons. Firstly,
who should be tried for war crimes? Is it the LTTE or SL military? All LTTE
cadre who should be tried for war crimes is have been given harem in the West.
The UN should know the distribution of Tamil refugees around the world. How can
Tamil refugees end up in Ukraine? It is sure that Tamil refugees when ended up
in a country change their name and hide under the new name, hence become
missing persons”.
As claimed by the TNA
and the Tamil Diaspora, there wasn’t any genocide in SL, and for sure we know
that Genocide was carried out by the Spanish, American, and how about the
millions of red Indians massacred in the USA and Canada? How is Canada treating
the Red Indians in Canada? Put them in Reservations”?
During the 2009 war,
the SL military rescued 300,000 Tamils to safer places.
During this pandemic
period of God’s punishment of COVID-19” to people who have uppishness and
megalomania attitude, why do Tamil Diaspora take such move when people are
suffering.
Bill 104 – AN Act to proclaim Tamil Genocide Education Week- Mr. V. Thanigasalam
This act is supposed to educate people on Genocide. Where and when
was the Genocide occur? If it is true, The Tamil LTTE carried out the genocide
of non-Tamils in SL since 1972. The Sinhalese people lived in fear of island-wide.
It is a request that the Canadian Government convene a meeting with the
Sinhalese experts and Tamils in Canada to discuss the truth and coverups. With
USA having an ulterior motive of establishing a base in SL, wish to intimidate
SL by acts such as this via Tamil US lickers. Why should Tamils allow such a
decree to be established in Canada when it is a cooked-up lie. Let the
Canadians rise to learn the truth and oppose the government not to allow any
Tom, Dick, & Harry to place such private members bill. Canada is a country
with intellectually knowledgeable human and scientific resources; however, it’s
neighbour the USA may be intimidating Canada. Canada is not like a third world
country with third world resources. The only mistake Canada made was to allow
with little knowledge of illiterates and half-baked people with lack of
perception. The Tamil Diaspora has a plan, working their way through from
getting into politics, enter the parliament and put forward such private member
bills. Already the January bill was pushed through if I am not mistaken.
The Canadian government
should study and understand the benefits that are accrued through these bills
in a multicultural environment. People should practice living cohesively in a
multicultural environment. The liability is cost only, while there are no
benefits.
This is an indication
that the TD of Canada are not patriotic, however, attached to their own
country’s (SL) selfishness.
The parliament of
Canada should reject this bill.
Perception
Quote: Perception is an active mental act. It is a dynamic, a dialectical
conflict between the self-perspective transformation and external vectors of
power bearing upon us. That which we perceive is a balance between these
antagonists”. (Ref: Understanding Conflict and War: vol. 1: the dynamic
psychological field, chapter 11, by R.J. Rummel)
Humans perceive different
effects about the same state, as perceptions vary from person to person. People
assign different meaning to what they perceive. (Kanthar B)
Although all human males are
born with ≈1.5 kg of the brain, not all perceive the same thing in the same
perspective, the same way.
Knowledge is defined as
information, proofs, aptitudes and proficiencies, acquired through involvement
and practise; i.e. an appreciation of the theoretical and practical training,
and understanding of a subject or job.
Democracy
Third world democracy; – There cannot be any
principles to follow democracy. Collateral is the basic policy in this type of
democracy. It may be in the form of money, votes, or other interesting
materials plus through the racial campaign. This occurs mostly in the third
world like India, SriLanka Africa etc.
Ideal Democracy: This
exists in the developed world, which is the West. Collateral is not practised except some political parties
in some European world try to attract in getting votes through collateral.
The photos below are a sample of TD’s false make-believe. Indicate the Integrity Of TD.
Photo
B”- VP is discussing with Anton Balasingham.
Using Photoshop, the person edited and pasted VP’s dead body to show
that VP was viewing his own dead body.
That’s TD’s capability to fool the world.
Annexure
A”
Heavy
Weapons Manufactured & owned by LTTE
Kanthar Balanathan, Australia
These weapons were
manufactured and owned by the LTTE, Tamil terrorist group in Sri Lanka. Does
anyone think whether any government will ignore the LTTE with such Weapons? Who
manufactured these weapons? Who helped the LTTE to manufacture these weapons?
Was there any inner secret by the host in manufacturing? Do we think that the
USA or Canada will tolerate such weapons in their backyard? What do we think
the final result will be?
Does anyone think
that SL should not worry about their Sovereignty? If mushroom Malawi can be a
republic with peace, why not SriLanka? These weapons were not for luxury trips,
but the mass killing of the Sinhalese people and the state machinery. This can
be directed as “GENOCIDE”:
Most of the machine
is for suicidal assaults. Sri Lankan Navy does not own any of such Submarine.
To those who blabber the word Genocide” in SL, please study this and talk to the High Commission before you spit out garbage. There was never a Genocide” in 2009.
The animosity towards Buddhism in
Eastern Province is becoming confrontational. There is now an open tussle between the
Buddhists and non Buddhists in Eastern Province. Neither side is prepared
to give in.
Buddhists
are determined that the Eastern Province must continue as a Buddhist province.
They are setting up new Buddhist temples. It was reported In January 2019 that
construction work had started on the tallest Buddha statue in the Batticaloa
district at Mahindaramaya, Mayelankarachchi, Valaichchenai. The 60-foot statue
will be the tallest in Batticaloa said Mahindaramaya Chief Incumbent Ven. Kaddukasthodda
(Katugastota?) Mahindalangara.
Existing Buddhist temples in the Eastern
Province were to be enlarged .A new building for Sri Pantharma Temple in
Vellaveli was provided by the army in 2015.
The commemorative plaque was entirely in Sinhala, complained Tamilnet.
In the meantime, a Buddha statue had
been vandalized in Abhayaramaya in Trincomalee.
The dagoba at Sudaikuda in Sampur was razed
and its artifacts destroyed, before the
dagoba could be labeled an archaeological site. But
Archaeology Department said it intended to take over the site.
Attorney-at-Law
Dharshana Weraduwage filed a Fundamental Rights petition, in October 2019,
seeking an order directing authorities to investigate the imminent danger to
the Buddhist religious sites and several archaeological sites situated in the
Northern and Eastern Provinces.
A Hindu-Buddhist conflict
developed in Trincomalee over a mound found near the Kinniya hot wells. Archaeological Department had gone there to do
some routine conservation work. In the process some bricks had got dug up.
Buddhist and the Hindus both claimed these bricks. Bhikkhus such as Ven. Ampitiye Seelavansa of
Velgam vihara said they belonged to an
Anuradhapura era stupa which has been leveled and a Hindu temple built on top.
Hindus said this was the ruins of a Pillaiyar kovil.
The locals were extremely aggressive towards
the conservation work, said the Archaeological Department. A crowd of Tamils
had gathered. Tamil politicians had also
come. Television news showed two groups
fighting. Police, riot squad and Special Task Force were called in. Police came
with a magistrate order, to stop the protest, that it would cause communal
tensions.
Thereafter,
Kokila Ramani, a resident of Trincomalee, petitioned the Provincial High
Court, saying the land where the Kinniya
hot springs are located belonged to her
and the Archaeology Department is trying to construct a Buddhist structure
there without her permission. The Department plans to construct a temple on the
site of a Hindu kovil and Hindu devotees are being obstructed from entering the
site by the Department, she said. TNA Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran appeared
for her. Provincial High Court Judge M.
Illanchiyan issued an interim injunction suspending the conservation of the Kinniya
hot springs which will remove the alleged ruins of a Hindu kovil.
During
British rule, the Muhudu Maha Viharaya in Pottuvil owned 264 acres or so. The site had been excavated. We are not told
when. Hundreds of stone columns buried under the sand had emerged, indicating a
large monastery complex. About one hundred stone pillars were recovered. There
were extensive ruins buried in the sand. The stone columns that were unearthed
and brought out for display were stolen.
Muhudu Maha
Viharaya had been listed as a protected archeological monument in 1951, by the Commissioner
of Archeology, with an archeological reservation of 72 acres of land. In 1964 Muhudu Maha vihara was a coconut
estate owned by a Muslim, said Ellawala Medhananda. Excavations showed a vihara. In
1965, the Department of Archeology re-confirmed the protected monument status
of the Temple but with the reservation reduced to 32 acres. The reasons for the
drastic cut-back in the acreage is not known.
Some of the
temple land was forcibly occupied and the incumbent monks compelled to abandon
the temple in the 1990s. This was due to political pressure. Some of the statues
that were there in 1990 then disappeared. 11 acres were distributed under the
Jayabhoomi scheme of 1995-2002. Since
then, the temple has been continuously losing land and now
it has only a nominal ownership of three acres.
Visitors to Muhudu
Maha Vihara have known for years that the site was heavily encroached by Muslims. The authorities, including the Maha Sangha
who administered the temples of the eastern province have done nothing about
it. Anuradha Yahampath, Governor of the
Eastern Province, was the first to draw attention to this and ask for action. She
wanted an inquiry into the various clashes occurring over the ownership and
encroachment of the temple’s land.
President Gotabaya
sent a high level military delegation to visit the Pottuvil Muhudu Maha
Viharaya and report. The delegation included the Defence Secretary, Commanders
of the Army and Navy and the Acting IGP.
Defense
Secretary, Major General (Retd) Kamal Gunaratne on the instructions of
President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa ordered the Navy, to immediately establish a
naval contingent to protect the Pottuvil Muhudu Maha Vihara temple and its
land, and stop forcible acquisition by
other parties. Navy and the Police were
asked to work together to provide maximum security to the place and stop any
further encroachment. The Defense Secretary said steps would be taken to
reclaim all the lands belonging to the temple. Surveyor General was instructed
to survey the 30 acres belonging to the vihara and gazette it.
There was an
immediate reaction. The People’s Alliance for Right to Land (PARL) protested. PARL
is a voluntary coalition of civil society organizations working together since
2011 lobbying for land rights. It was
against land-grabbing, and for the housing, land and property rights of poor
and marginalized communities in Sri Lanka.
PARL said it
was deeply disturbed by the military intervention in Muhudu Maha Viharaya, and
the move to turn this into an archaeological site. No mention is made of the Tamils
and Muslims who have resided in the area for several centuries. Today, Muslim and Tamil populations densely
occupy the coastal belt, whilst the Sinhala population is largely concentrated
inland.
PARL
continued, the Dighavapi ‘sacred lands’, Pottuvil land and archaeology based
dispossession are clear examples of land disputes in the Ampara area which are
based on discrimination, use of force, and ethnic thinking. The demarcation of Muhudu Maha Vihara land as
an archaeological site lacks clarity, publicity, and threats of dispossession,
said PARL.
PARL has
documented the trend of using the Departments of Archaeology, Wildlife and
Forests, to acquire lands with vague or little justification. These arbitrary
land acquisitions have caused dispossession of established communities, and
created land disputes that affect ethnic minorities.
PARL calls on
the President to take all of the above into consideration, and to instruct the
Ministry of Defence to withdraw the establishment of a Naval unit in the
Pottuvil area without delay. military involvement in what is essentially a
civil administration issue will only make this issue worse. Any law and order
issue in this regard should be under the purview of the Police.
PARL calls on
the Minister of Lands to ensure that the designation and acquisition of land
for archaeological conservation or any other purpose is transparent based on
clear justification and that affected individuals and communities be included
in the process.
PARL calls on
the Minister of Land to recall instructions to acquire by gazette land
surrounding the Pottuvil Muhudu Maha Viharaya until this matter is properly
investigated by civilians, affected parties are consulted and heard, all
information made public and just and equitable solutions reached. (I have re-phrased some of the PARL
statement)
The government
was not impressed with any of this. President Gotabaya appointed a Task
Force on Archaeological Heritage Management in the Eastern Province (PTF) to conduct
a comprehensive survey of archaeological sites in the East and to take measures
to preserve them.
The PTF was headed by the Defence Secretary.
The others in the PTF were Ven. Ellawala Medhananda, Ven. Panamure
Thilakawansha, Chief Prelate for the Eastern and Northern Provinces, Anuradha
Yahampath, Governor Eastern Province, Senarath Bandara Dissanayake, Director
General of Archaeology, Chandra Herath, Commissioner General of Land, A.L.S.C.
Perera, Surveyor General, the Senior DIG
Western Province, the Provincial Land
Commissioner, Raj Somadeva and Kapila Gunawardena.
PTF was
given the task of conserving all archaeological heritage sites in the Eastern
Province irrespective of religion. PTF must identify the land that should be allocated
to each archaeological site and take necessary measures to allocate them
properly and legally. A data base containing
geo-spatial data of The archaeological sites would be created, to help
preservation and conservation work. PTF said it would work closely with all the
ethnic groups in the Eastern Province to restore and manage those historical
archaeological sites.
Rajan Philips commented. The appointment of a
Presidential Task Force for Archaeological Heritage Management in the Eastern
Province, with its ethnically exclusive but otherwise oddly mixed composition,
has created political ripples not only in Sri Lanka but also outside the
country, Philips said. When you add the
Islamic and Muslim cultural additions over nearly a thousand years, and five
hundred years of colonial accretions, there is much heritage to cherish and
preserve in Lanka’s East.
There
is also the question of whether atask
force on archaeology is needed at the moment in the midst of a global pandemic
and whether aPresidential Task Force
is a suitable cultural mechanism for preserving cultural heritage. The Task
Force excludes not only Tamil and Muslim archaeologists but also renowned
Sinhalese archaeologists, said Philips.
The matter could have been left to the
Department of Archaeology, one of the oldest and well-respected government
departments. It has a professional reputation that extends beyond Sri Lanka. It
has a well-established Exploration and Documentation Division that mandates
Archaeological Impact Assessments to be undertaken for any development project
on a parcel of land exceeding 0.25 hectares.
If the department is well funded and its
independence is not overridden by powerful politicians there should not be any
danger to Sri Lanka’s heritage resources due to human action. One does not preserve heritage by bulldozing
away living communities to create new vistas of past glories, concluded Philips.
The Eastern
Province was completely Sinhala and Buddhist when the British took over the
country. The British administration deliberately killed off the Sinhala
villages in the east. The Government Agents in the Eastern Province pleaded
with their British superiors, saying
‘these villages and its inhabitants are dying. All they need is a little help
to renovate their tanks.’ The British government instead, let the Sinhala
villagers die. And then introduced Tamil settlers from India, into the Eastern
Province. The arrival of the Tamils to the Eastern Province could therefore be
dated to mid 19th century.
When the Portuguese expelled the Muslims
living in their territory, the Muslims ran to the Udarata kingdom and told king
Senerat (1604-33) that they had nowhere to go. This meant that these Muslims were
not permanent settlers in the island. They were temporary residents in the
Kotte kingdom, who for some reason, were unable to return home. Senerat sent them to Batticaloa. The
Batticaloa settlement could therefore be considered the first Muslim settlement
in Sri Lanka.
The next
Muslim advance came in 1942, when D.S. Senanayake sent A.M.A .Azeez, then AGA
at Kalmunai, to accelerate food production in the Eastern Province. His area of
administration covered the whole of present day Ampara. Azeez distributed state land for paddy
cultivation, also for government run goat farms and poultry farms. Azeez used
the opportunity to further entrench Muslims in the area by giving them land
grants.
Land was
distributed through land kachcheries. Land allotted in this manner exceeded
12,000 acres, of which 4000 cares were given to farmers of Akkaraipattu,
Kokavil, Thambiluvil and Tirukovil. Some of the land distributions are: Pottanaveli
(130 acres) and Usaraveli (50) in Irakkamam. Anaivilunthan (100) and Mottaiyandeveli (60) in Sammanthurai. Pooranpuri (200) in Karaivahu. Kayattiyadi
(100) in Nintavur. Pallaveli (50) in Ampara. (CONCLUDED)
There were issues related to sharing of information between the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) during the time of the previous administration and that led to several interruptions to the investigations on extremist activities, IP attached to TID Gayan Ratnayaka today informed the PCoI probing Easter Sunday attacks.
In 2018, Ratnayake was serving at the TID Unit on Religious Extremism and Fundamentalism and the TID had conducted investigation on Zahran’s extremist preaching and practices. He said on February 28, 2019, he went to Zahran’s wife’s house in Kekunagolla with a group of TID officials.
“We questioned Zahran’s mother-in-law Sitthi Shahila and her brother Mohammed Anzar. During the inquiry Shahila told us that Zahran didn’t visit his family for two years, but Anzar told Zahran paid a visit about a month and a half ago,” Ratnayaka said.
He said during the inquiry, Anzar received a call from the CID. “The caller identified himself as SI Dias and told me that Anzar was being used as a private informant of the CID. He also said that Anzar was sent home to complete a task, and if TID had continue the investigation, it would hamper CID’s probing,” he said.
Ratnayaka also said that SI Dias had asked the TID team to leave Zahran’s wife’s house without causing interruption to the probe.
IP Ratnayaka further added that the TID had requested the investigations report which was compiled by the CID on Zahran did not say whatsoever that Anzar was used as CID’s private informant.
The witness also said a written request had been made to the then Director of the TID on March 6, 2019 requesting permission to summon Ansar to the TID to question him, but Ansar was never questioned until the Easter Sunday suicide attack took place.
Girls and women with low access to water supply and sanitation face additional disadvantages because of their ethnicity or economic class.
Think of the last time you went to the movies, a sporting venue, or any public place, and had to use a restroom. Did you notice that the queues for the women’s restroom were generally longer than the men’s?
Most building codes provide for equal toilet areas for both men and women – in which case the men get more urinals in the same amount of space as the women – or for an equal number of toilets. However, because women take longer to use the restrooms for various reasons, including attending to menstrual hygiene, the speed of access to these spaces is anything but equal.
We listened to voices of diverse women, especially those in areas where poverty rates are high and access to water supply and sanitation is low.
To ensure that the Sri Lanka Water Supply and Sanitation Improvement Project (WASSIP) was inclusive, we listened to the voices of diverse women, especially those in the estate sector where poverty rates are high and access to water supply and sanitation is low.
Three clear areas of concern emerged which the project has sought to address.
1) Socially or economically marginalized women are more likely to be deprived of safe water and sanitation facilities
Only 43 percent of those in the estate sector, such as Badulla and Nuwara Eliya, have access to water and sanitation. Photo: PhilipYb Studio / Shutterstock.com
Although both men and women living in the estates are affected, the women bear the brunt of this deprivation as they are responsible for fetching water, often with children in tow. One woman we talked to said, It takes half a day if we go to the river to bathe and wash our clothes. Or else we have to travel by bus or three-wheeler to fetch water from Balangoda three kms away.” This regular chore is now more fraught with danger because it is tough to maintain physical distancing at water points.
To ensure that these women benefitted equally from our interventions, the project prioritizes female-headed households and other vulnerable groups in districts with high poverty and large estate populations, such as Badulla and Nuwara Eliya.
2) Adolescent girls are likely to have worse educational outcomes because schools lack provisions for menstrual hygiene
The project is therefore building period-friendly toilets that include discreet waste disposal and incineration facilities for used menstrual hygiene products in eight schools, with efforts underway in 17 more. It also seeks to change collective thinking by raising awareness about menstrual hygiene among school managements, teachers, and students.
3) Women are less likely to be in leadership positions in the water sector and more likely to face social consequences if they are in such positions
Although community-based organizations and water user associations (WUAs), serving communities in rural and estate areas respectively, provide the space for employing women, they are usually excluded from leadership positions. This is because women do not enjoy the same social or economic status as the men who are seen as ‘natural leaders’.
To ensure that women’s voices are heard when community decisions are taken, the project mandates the participation of women in WUAs. A formal mentoring and support system will be encouraged for young women to take on and retain leadership posts, instead of feeling pressured to leave.
Although water user associations provide space for employing women, they are usually excluded from leadership positions.
The WASSIP project is building period-friendly toilets in eight schools.
Listening to the women talk about the importance of having running water and toilets at home highlighted how inclusion and gender equality are critical, not only for women’s empowerment but also for the country’s sustainable development because of their impact on health, education and the quality of life of people.
A record 405 elephants were killed by humans in Sri Lanka last year, up from about 360 in 2018.PHOTO: AFP
COLOMBO (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s coronavirus lockdown has helped reduce the death toll from clashes between elephants and humans, conservationists have said.
A record 405 elephants were killed by humans in the country last year, up from about 360 in 2018. A total of 121 people were killed by elephants, up from 96 the year before, according to government data.
Speaking ahead of World Elephant Day on Wednesday (Aug 12), Mr Jayantha Jayewardene, a leading international expert on elephants, said: “We can say that the human-elephant conflict eased during curfews.
“But this is a temporary situation. Farmers will start defending their crops and the killings will resume.”
Most of the killed elephants are shot dead or poisoned by farmers trying to keep them off their land. The beasts are considered sacred in the majority-Buddhist island and are protected, but prosecutions are rare.
Most of the humans are killed by elephants who have seen their habitat drastically reduced, rampaging in villages looking for food.
Dr Sumith Pilapitiya, a conservationist and former director-general of the government’s wildlife department, estimated that the number of elephant deaths decreased by 40 per cent during the coronavirus lockdown, which started in March and officially ended in June.
Dr Pilapitiya said an average of 240 elephants were killed annually between 2010 and 2017 and the rate had accelerated since.
“The Asian elephant is classified as endangered, so we cannot afford to lose elephants at that rate,” he told AFP.
He expressed hope that a significant reduction during the shutdown – which included nationwide stay-at-home orders, with people only allowed out to buy essentials – would bring down the overall toll for the year.
Sri Lanka’s elephant population has declined to about 7,000 according to the latest census, down from 12,000 in the early 1900s.Related Story
Dr Pilapitiya said a new panel of experts on measures to reduce human-elephant conflicts in the country would have its first meeting on World Elephant Day.
“This may be an auspicious beginning and hopefully the government will implement the recommendations of this committee,” he said.
During the shutdown, Dr Pilapitiya accompanied wildlife trackers who reported spotting baby elephant twins at the Minneriya sanctuary northeast of Colombo, the first pair seen in the wild in Sri Lanka and a rare sight anywhere.
But the shutdown of wildlife parks during the pandemic saw an increase in poaching and illegal hunting of all wild animals, prompting the government to order a crackdown in July.
Environmental lawyer Jagath Gunawardena said law enforcement authorities were preoccupied with the coronavirus, which made poaching easier.
“Incidents of elephant-human clashes were few, but there was an increase in killing animals for their flesh,” Mr Gunawardena said.
While the lockdown officially ended on June 28, Sri Lanka’s borders remain closed to foreign tourists. And that has badly hit some residents who rely on the country’s elephants for their income.
The Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage closed during the lockdown, fearing that the animals might contract the virus. It opened again last month, but its 84 elephants are mostly undisturbed by visitors.
“Hardly anyone visits here during the week,” said shop operator Suneth Sanjeeva who runs a business outside the elephant orphanage, 80km east of Colombo.
A restaurant owner nearby said she served about 200 guests before the pandemic, but now she hardly has any customers.
China’s civil aviation regulator said today it has suspended three Shanghai-bound international air routes due to passengers on recent flights being infected with the coronavirus.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China said in a statement that it suspended an Etihad Airways route from Abu Dhabi and a China Eastern Airlines route from Manila for one week, as well as a Sri Lankan Airlines route from Colombo for four weeks, China Daily reports,
A total of six passengers on the August 3 flight from Abu Dhabi tested positive for the coronavirus, as well as six passengers on the August 5 flight from Manila and 23 passengers on the August 7 flight from Colombo, meeting the conditions for a “circuit breaker” suspension of the flight route, it added.
In keeping with an international flights adjustment policy announced in early June, the administration issued its “circuit-breaker” directive and announced the suspension of the three routes would begin on August 17.
The administration also noted that the three carriers can still operate their flights before the order takes effect. But the time of the suspension will be extended if more passengers test positive for coronavirus.
On June 4, China eased restrictions on international passenger flights contingent on epidemic risks being under control. Authorities highlighted the “reward and circuit breaker mechanism” for the carriers to increase or have flights suspended in accordance with the companies’ epidemic control work.
Under the policy, airlines must suspend flights on a route for a week if five passengers test positive for coronavirus. If the number exceeds 10, the airline must suspend the flights for four weeks.
As an incentive, carriers may increase the number of international flights to two per week on a route if for three consecutive weeks no passengers test positive for the virus in nucleic acid tests.
While the moderate TNA will have to do a lot of tight rope walking, the radical Tamil nationalist groups have to prove that it can do what TNA could not. And that’s going to be very hard and the consequence of failure will be total rejection in the next elections.
C.V.Wigneswaran, M.A.Sumanthiran and Angajan Ramanathan
Colombo, August 9: The August 5 Sri Lankan parliamentary elections have put the Tamil parties based in the Northern and Eastern provinces at the cross roads. In contrast to the past, voters in the Sri Lankan Tamil homeland, did not support any single party but had distributed their votes among a variety of parties, each with a different stock in trade. This makes it difficult to be precise about the overall future trend, though some surmises can certainly be made.
While one section represents Tamil radicalism, another is manifestly pro-government. However, the third and the single largest section is still made of the same mould as in the past – a section which is opposed to the government but is moderate in its demands.
The radical section is represented by C.V.Wigneswaran of the Tamil Makkal Thesiya Kottani (YMTK) and Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC). The pro-government section is represented by Douglas Devananda and Kulasingham Dileepan (Eelam Peoples’ Democratic Party); Angajan Ramanathan (Sri Lanka Freedom Party); Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan (Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal) and Sadasivam Vyalendran (Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna).
The moderately anti-government group is represented by Sivagnanam Sritharan, M.A.Sumanthiran, Dharmalingam Sidharthan, Rajavarodhaya Sampanthan; Era Chanakyan and Govindan Karunakaran (all Tamil National Alliance).
Wigneswaran and Ponnambalam are newcomers to parliament and are expected to voice their radical views stridently. And unlike the moderate Tamil nationalist TNAs, the duo will seek an internationally supervised referendum among the Tamils on the ethnic question and strive to drag the Lankan government to the International Criminal Court (ICC) even though Sri Lanka has not signed the Rome Statute which created the ICC.
The radicals will have to do their utmost in this regard as these demands have been their USP for long. They hope to carry on the campaign with the support of the UN Human Rights Council, the US State Department, the pro-LTTE Tamil Diaspora in the West and Australia and Tamil radicals in Tamil Nadu.
Votes wise, G.Ponnambalam got 31,658 preferential votes and C.V.Wigneswaran 21,554. They were able to get elected with such small numbers because of the Proportional Representation System which enables small parties to get seats. But as MPs, they enjoy equal status and opportunities to voice their demands.
From the pro-government group are: Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan (who got 54,1980- the highest secured by a Tamil candidate and that too while being in jail in a murder case); Angajan Ramanathan (36,365); Douglas Devananda (32,146); S.Vyalaendran (22,218); and Gunasingham Dileepan (3,223).
From the moderately anti-government TNA, the following won: S.Sritharan (35,884); Era Chanakyan (33,332); M.A.Sumanthiran (27,834); Govindan Karunakaram (26, 382); Charles Nirmalanathan (25,668); D.Siddharthan (23,840); R.Sampanthan (21,442); Selvam Adaikalanathan (18,563); Vino Nogarajalingam (15,190).
Of these the strongest group, with the largest voter base is the moderately anti-government TNA, followed by the pro-government group. The radicals are the smallest.
According to Premananth Thevanayagam, former editor of the Jaffna-based daily Uthayan, the votes that the radical and pro-government groups got were those of Tamils who were disillusioned with the TNA which had been in parliament in strength from its founding in 2001 under the auspices of the LTTE leader Prabhakaran. In the parliament elected in 2015, TNA had 16 elected MPs. This time its representation among the elected MPs has come down to nine.
Due to its strong links with the United National Party (UNP)-led Yahapalanaya government from 2015 onwards, the TNA promised that it would deliver a new federal constitution with substantial devolution of power to the Tamil-speaking Northern and Eastern Provinces. But despite its best efforts, majoritarian Sinhalese MPs, even from the UNP, backed out from their pledge at the last moment fearing a backlash from the Sinhalese majority.
Fixated on constitutional changes, the TNA’s lawyer-leaders failed to deliver on the economic development front also. Sinhalese leaders of the UNP also backed out of their promise to set up war-time accountability mechanisms leaving the TNA out in the cold.
Even as radical followers left the TNA, a section of Tamils, particularly the youth, began to see the futility of pursuing the radical political path and began to wonder if they could opt for economic development. These elements rallied around the pro-government Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan (54, 198 preferential votes); Angajan Ramanathan (36,365); Douglas Devananda (32,146),S,. Vyalendran (22,218) and Gunasingham Thileepan (3,226).
As Premananth Thaivanayagam put it, the youth’s option of migrating to the West has ceased to exist with the West raising barriers to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The youth now feel that they will have to live here and make something of their lives with government support,” he said.
Knowing that a brazen association with Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) would be considered anti-Tamil, the pro-government group, except S.Vyalendran, fought under other banners like SLFP and EPDP with the tacit understanding with the SLPP, that it would work with it in parliament and accept ministerial posts, Thevanayagam said. This group got three seats while the radicals got only two.
TNA’s controversial second leader and spokesman, M.A.Sumanthiran, admitted that the alliance had not delivered on its promises and had therefore suffered serious damage. He said that the need of the hour is to sink differences, find a common platform, and purse the Tamils political and economic goals.
However, unity is unlikely to come about because the radical group would be eager to prove that it’s tough posture will help it push the Tamils’ case hard with Diaspora and international support. The TNA is equally sure that such radicalism has no chance of succeeding in a situation when a tough militarized, China-supported, Sinhala majoritarian government is in power in Colombo both in the Executive Presidency and parliament with a two-thirds majority. Traditional supporters of the Tamil cause like India and the US are now weak with domestic problems galore.
Furthermore, although the TNA has appealed to all Tamil parties to join, it will not give up its pre-eminent position in the united group, which it feels it is entitled to. The TNA will also not entertain unity with the pro-government group as it has to play on the anti-government sentiment of the majority of Tamils. It has been succeeding so far because the majority of Tamils have seen it as the most credible and safe voice of the Tamils on the issue of ethnic rights. It cannot go over to the government side wholesale.
The TNA will have to keep playing the Tamil nationalist card with its demand for federalism and war-time rights violation accountability mechanisms and foreign involvement in solving the ethnic issue. But on the other hand, it cannot bring about a federal constitution without the support of the Sinhalese parties because, for any constitutional change, it will need two-thirds support in parliament and perhaps even popular Sinhalese support in a referendum.
While the TNA will have to do a lot of tight rope walking, the radical Tamil nationalist groups have to prove that it can do what TNA could not. And that’s going to be very hard and the consequence of failure will be total rejection in the next elections.
The safest among the three groups is the moderate pro-government group. It has the greatest chance of delivering on its promises as both President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa want to set develop Sri Lanka economically through a centralized administration, with developmental benefits being distributed throughout the country irrespective of ethnic, religious and regional differences.
Economic development will take place within the framework of national sovereignty, the experts added.
Colombo, August 7 (Xinhua): A new government in Sri Lanka has been endowed with a mandate from the new parliament to stabilize and revive the national economy while defending the country’s sovereignty, local experts said here Friday.
Sri Lankan voters have given a clear mandate to the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), which won 145 out of 225 parliament seats in the elections which were held on Wednesday, to find a solution to economic woes including low growth, unemployment and rising costs of living, President of the International Business Council Kosala Wickramanayake said.
The business community is expecting policy reform in order to boost the economy in the way of tax reform, ease of doing business and boosting local and foreign investment,” Wickremenayake said, adding that the SME sector which accounts for 75 percent of jobs and 50 percent of GDP was especially in need of support.
Wickremenayake added that the government should be commended for its efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and the successful holding of the elections.
This election victory is historic and comparable to the first post-war parliamentary election in 2010. People have given trust to the leadership of the president and prime minister to strengthen national security and protect the country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty from both domestic and external threats,” said Asanga Abeygoonesekera, founding director general of the Ministry of Defence’s Institute of National Security Studies Sri Lanka (INSSSL).
A nearly two-third majority in parliament ensures political stability for the next several years and strengthens the ability of the government to regain the momentum of economic growth, Abeygoonesekera said.
Commenting on the historic win, political and economic analyst and former executive director of the Pathfinder Foundation Luxman Siriwardena said that voters were expecting greater state discipline, including elimination of corruption from government institutions and increased efficiency of government services, especially in rural areas.
The primary concern of the newly formed government will be to continue to protect the public from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The government will have to create a conducive environment for foreign investment and negotiate with multilateral lenders in order to shore up foreign exchange reserves,” Siriwardena said.
Celebrated actresses and artistes have the capability to succeed in politics and prove the naysayers and sexists wrong, writes Gitanjali Marcelline
Sri Lankan actress politician Geetha Kumarasinghe
Can female celebrities from various fields face the rough and tumble of politics and make a mark in it? That is the question that the masses in Sri Lanka had been asking ever since the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) fielded actresses, including Geetha Kumarasinghe, in the recently concluded parliamentary elections.
I believe there’s much that celebrities can do in politics using their fame to fetch votes for themselves and the party they represent. Film and tele-drama actresses especially, are endowed with mass appeal. They are best suited to enact this role as acting is an essential ingredient in politics. Did not the bard say: All the world’s a stage and we’re all players in it?”.
By definition, politics is a field open to all: young and old, educated and uneducated, the rich and the poor, the famous and the ordinary. A talent for appealing to people on one ground or the other effectively is all that is needed to make a mark. However, simple as this may sound, not everybody has the talent, the grit and determination to survive and succeed in the unsparing man eat man world of politics.
Eva Peron of Argentina
Still, many who had no background of politics, including film and teledrama actresses, have succeeded in making it to the top and earned laurels in the process.
Leading the list is a radio artist turned political activist, Eva Peron of Argentina. In a 1996 interview, Tomás Eloy Martínez referred to Eva Perón as the Cinderella of the tango and the Sleeping Beauty of Latin America.” Martínez suggested she has remained an important cultural icon for the same reasons as fellow Argentine Che Guevara.
Although Eva never held a government post, she was the de facto Minister of Health and Labor in her husband Juan Peron’ government (1946 to 1952). As such, she earned the gratitude of the poor by awarding generous wage increases to the unions. Her own Eva Perón Foundation, which was supported by voluntary” union and business contributions plus a substantial cut of the national lottery and other funds, helped her carry out her mission. These resources were used to establish thousands of hospitals, schools, orphanages, homes for the aged, and other charitable institutions.
Eva was largely responsible for the passage of the Women’s Suffrage law and the formation of the Peronista Feminist Party in 1949. In 1951, although dying of cancer, she obtained nomination for the Vice Presidency, but the army forced her to withdraw her candidacy.
Alessandra Mussolini of Italy
Even after her death in 1952, Eva remained a formidable influence in Argentine politics. Her working-class followers tried unsuccessfully to have her canonized, prevented it.
Italy too has had its fair share of celebrities in parliament. Sex bomb Gina Lollobrigida took to photographic journalism after her acting career ended and made a bid for the European Parliament in 1999, but failed. Alessandra Mussolini, actress, model and grand-daughter of the Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, made a huge splash in Italian politics. Alessandra (b.1962) is a right wing conservative politician, who served as a Member of the European Parliament for Forza Italia. She was a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 2008 to 2013 and the Italian Senate from 2013 to 2014. She was the founder-leader of the national conservative political party Social Action”.
Llona Staller porn star cum Italian politician
The sensational porn star Llona Staller aka La Cicciolina was elected to the Italian parliament in 1987 with 20,000 votes. According to the website thelocal.it, Staller started out as a model in Hungary and later developed her career as a porn star in Italy. In the early 70s, she met pornographer Riccardo Schicchi with whom she co-hosted a radio show called Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?, which featured live calls from listeners about sexual matters.
Staller and Schicchi then co-founded Diva Futura, a pornography and erotica film studio. During the 1970s, Ciccoliona not only starred in porn films but also made several television appearances – the most infamous of which was in 1978, when she bared her breasts live on air in the show C’era due Volte.
Entering politics, she first ran for parliament as a candidate of Italy’s first Green party, the Lista del Sole, but lost. She continued to star in and produce porn films, the most famous being The Red Telephone, which she co-produced with Schicchi in 1983. In 1987, she finally won a seat in the Italian parliament as a member of the Radical Party. Later she championed human rights and supported campaigns against nuclear energy and NATO membership. Four years later, she abandoned the Radicals to set up her own protest party, the ‘Party of Love’, with another porn star.
Jayalalitha Jayaram actress turned Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
In 2012, Staller founded the Democracy, Nature and Love Party (DNA) with her partner Luca di Carlo, a criminal defense lawyer. Its objectives included: a guaranteed minimum wage for young people; a properly functioning judicial system for every Italian; and the elimination of the privileges of the rich political caste”, all commendable goals.
Closer home, there was the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Jayalalitha Jayaram, who was a famous Tamil film star before she plunged into politics. Teaming up with matinee idol cum political bigwig M.G.Ramachandran aka MGR, Jayalalitha won laurels in Tamil Nadu politics too. She was an active Member of Parliament. As Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu several times, she initiated people-oriented welfare schemes which earned her the title Puratchi Thalaivi” or Revolutionary Leader”.
Bollywood actress Shabana Azmi became a famous social and women’s rights activist, a Goodwill Ambassador of UNFPA and a member of the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of the Indian Parliament.
Malani Fonseka of Sri Lanka
Last but not the least, at home in Sri Lanka, stars of Sinhala cinema have also made it big in politics. Rosy Senanayake, a former Mrs. World and an actress, rose to be High Commissioner in Malaysia, an MP, Mayor of Colombo and Leader of the Opposition in the Western Provincial Council.
Leading actresses Malani Fonseka and Geetha Kumarasinghe were also Members of Parliament. While Malani brought gracefulness to parliament, Geetha was a quintessential activist. Her dual citizenship (Swiss-Sri Lankan) unseated her in 2017 as per the 19th.Amendment of 2015. But being keen on a political career, she renounced her Swiss citizenship and contested the August 5, 2020 parliamentary elections from Galle District and won with 63,356 preferential votes.
Shabana Azmi Hindi film acress
I have great respect for Geetha for her acting, film production skills, activism and political abilities. She got the National film Festival and Sarasawiya awards. She had produced films such as Palama Yata, Salambak Handai, Loku Duwa, Anurgaye Ananthaya, Wasuli and Geetha., Her productions Palama Yata and Loku Duwa won her Best Film Awards at the Sarasawiya Awards Function.
Geetha’s portrayal of Dulcie in Pembara Madu and Dotty in Palama Yata won her critical acclaim. For Palama Yata, she actually lived the life of the subjects, the poor living under the Kelaniya Bridge. Geetha is said to be gender sensitive. She is also well positioned to promote the rights of migrant, garment factory, plantation, film industry and informal workers in the tourism industry.
Going by the foregoing facts, it can be surmised that celebrated actresses and artistes have the wherewithal to handle the rough and tumble of politics and prove the naysayers and sexists wrong.
MP-elects Maithripala Sirisena, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, Susil Premajayanth, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, S.B. Dissanayake, Mahinda Samarasinghe and John Seneviratne did not receive cabinet or state ministerial portfolios at today’s (12) swearing-in.
Dissanayake received his appointment letter as the Nuwara Eliya district coordination committee chairman.
There was no oath-taking in the portfolio of State Minister of Educational Reforms, Open Universities and Distant Education Promotion.
Sources say Dr. Wijedasa Rajapaksa was due to take oaths in that portfolio, but he was absent on the occasion.
Ex-president Sirisena, who polled the highest preferential votes from Polonnaruwa (111,137) did not receive any portfolio.
Unconfirmed reports say Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena will be appointed as the speaker of parliament.
As per constitutional provisions, appointments can be made to two more cabinet portfolios and one state ministerial portfolio.
Ex-president Maithripala Sirisena has told heads of the new government yesterday afternoon (11) to grant to someone else in the SLFP the ministerial position proposed to be given to him, say party sources.
The proposal was to grant him the environment portfolio, according to the sources.
The former president was present at this morning’s swearing-in of the ministers.
SLFP’s Nimal Siripala de Silva and Mahinda Amaraweera received labour and environment cabinet portfolios respectively.
Also, its Duminda Dissanayake, Dayasiri Jayasekara, Lasantha Alagiyawanne and Sudarshani Fernandopulle received state ministerial portfolios.
Darshana Sanjeewa Balasurirya and Sheain Fernandopulle Courtesy The Daily Mirror
Former President and SLFP Leader Maithripala Sirisena did not receive any Cabinet portfolio at the swearing-in ceremony of the new Cabinet held in Kandy today.
He was elected to Parliament from the Polonnaruwa District under the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) garnering 111,137 votes, which is the highest number of votes from the district.
Meanwhile, two cabinet ministerial portfolios and three State Ministry portfolios were given to the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) members who contested under the Sri Lanka People’s Freedom Alliance at the General Elections held last week.
A total of 13 candidates from the SLFP, who contested under the Sri Lanka People’s Freedom Alliance and one candidate who contested under SLFP at the General Elections have been elected to the country 9th Parliament.
Accordingly, Nimal Siripala de Silva and Mahinda Amaraweera have been appointed as Cabinet Ministers while Dayasiri Jayasekera, Duminda Dissanayake and Lasantha Alagiyawanna were appointed as State Ministers.
Cadar Mastan and Angajan Ramanathan have been appointed as District Coordinating Committee Chairpersons.
However, Shantha Bandara, Shan Wijayalal, Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, Saradi Dushmantha, Jagath Pushpakumara and Chamara Sampath have not been given portfolios in the new government.
Meanwhile, W. D. J Seneviratne, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, Susil Premajayantha, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, Mahinda Samarasinghe, Dilan Perera and Chandima Weerakkody, who were senior politicians contested under SLPP, did not receive any portfolios.
However, senior politicians including Keheliya Rambukwella, Gamini Lokuge, Nimal Siripala, Dullas Alahapperuma, Mahinda Amaraweera, Bandula Gunawardane, who contested under the SLPP, received respective portfolios.
Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, former ministers Champika Ranawaka, Mangala Samaraweera and JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake have been summoned to appear before the PCoI on political victimization on August 21.
The Cabinet of Ministers and State Ministers of the new Government led by Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) were sworn in before President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
The swearing in ceremony was held at the MagulMaduwa (Audience Hall) of the historic Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic premises in Kandy this morning (12).
The President has repeatedly stressed the requirement of an efficient Cabinet of Ministers dedicated to build a prosperous nation in the future, says the President’s Media Division (PMD).
According to Saubhagyaye Dekma” (Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour), policy statement the composition of the Cabinet has been formulated in a pragmatic and a realistic manner to implement the national programme. Special attention was paid to the areas of national security, economic development, infrastructure facilities, education, health and sports in the process of formulation of the ministerial structure.
The new Cabinet of Ministers comprised 25 Ministers including the Prime Minister. There are 39 State Ministers. 23 Members of Parliament have been appointed as District Coordinating Committee Chairmen.
Maha Sangha invoked blessings on newly appointed Ministers and Committee Chairmen.
Cabinet of Ministers
1. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa – Minister of Defence
2. PM Mahinda Rajapaksa – Minister of Finance
3. PM Mahinda Rajapaksa – Minister of Urban Development & Housing
4. PM Mahinda Rajapaksa – Minister of Buddha Sasana, Religious & Cultural Affairs
5. Prof. G.L. Peiris – Minister of Education
6. Nimal Siripala de Silva – Minister of Labour
7. Pavithradevi Wanniarachchi – Minister of Health
8. Dinesh Gunawardena – Minister of Foreign Relations
9. Gamini Lokuge – Minister of Transport
10. Dr. Bandula Gunawardana – Minister of Trade
11. R.M.C.B. Rathnayake – Minister of Wildlife and Forest Conservation
12. Janaka Bandara Tennakoon – Minister of Public Services, Provincial Council & Local Government
13. Douglas Devananda – Minister of Fisheries
14. Keheliya Rambukwella – Minister of Mass Media
15. Chamal Rajapaksa – Minister of Irrigation
16. Dullas Alahapperuma – Minister of Power
17. Johnston Fernando – Minister of Highways
18. Wimal Weerawansa – Minister of Industries
19. Mahinda Amaraweera – Minister of Environment
20. S.M. Chandrasena – Minister of Land
21. Vasudeva Nanayakkara – Minister of Water Supply
22. Udaya Prabhath Gammanpila – Minister of Energy
23. Ramesh Pathirana – Minister of Plantation
24. Prasanna Ranatunga – Minister of Tourism
25. Rohitha Abeygunawardena – Minister of Port and Shipping
26. Namal Rajapaksa – Minister of Youth & Sports Affairs
27. Mohamed Ali Sabry, PC – Minister of Justice
28. Mahindananda Aluthgamage – Minister of Agriculture
State Ministers
1. Chamal Rajapaksa – Internal Security, Home Affairs and Disaster Management
2. Piyankara Jayaratne – Foreign Employment Promotions and Market Diversification
3. Duminda Dissanayake – Solar, Wind, Grid Power Generation Projects Development
4. Dayasiri Jayasekara – Batik, Handloom Fabrics and Local Apparel Products
5. Lasantha Alagiyawanna – Cooperative Services, Marketing Development and Consumer Protection
6. Sudarshani Fernandopulle – Prisons Reforms and Prisoners’ Rehabilitation
7. Shehan Semasinghe – Development of Samurdhi Home Economy, Microfinance, Self-Employment and Businesses and Under-Utilized State Resources
8. Vidura Wickremanayake – Promotion of National Heritage, Performing Arts and Rural Artists
9. Arundika Fernando – Coconut, Fishtail Palm, Palmyra and Rubber product Promotion and Allied Industrial Production and Export Diversification
10. Nimal Lanza – Road and other Infrastructure Facilities
11. Jayantha Samaraweera – Container Warehouse Facilities, Container Yards, Port Supply Facilities and Boats and Shipping Industry Development
12. Roshan Ranasinghe – Land Management Affairs, State Business Lands and Property Development
13. Sanath Nishantha – Development of Rural and Regional Drinking Water Supply Projects
14. Dr. Sarath Weerasekara – Provincial Councils and Local Government Affairs
15. Anuradha Jayaratne – Development of Rural Paddy Fields and Associated Tanks, Reservoirs and Irrigation
16. Piyal Nishantha – Women and Child Development, Pre-School and Primary Education, School Infrastructure and School Services
17. Kanaka Herath – Company Establishment Reforms, Tea Estate Crops, Tea Factory Modernization and Tea Export Diversification
18. Prasanna Ranaweera – Cane, Brass, Clay Furniture and Rural Industry Promotion
19. D.V. Chanaka – Aviation Services and Development of Export Zones
20. Tharaka Balasuriya – Regional Cooperation
21. Indika Anuruddha – Rural Home Construction and Building Materials Industry Promotion
22. Senior Prof. Mohan de Silva – Regulation of Fertilizer Production and Supply, use of Chemical Fertilizers and Pesticides
23. S. Viyalendran – Professional Development of Postal Services and Mass Media
24. Thenuka Vidanagamage – Rural and School Sports Infrastructure Promotion
25. Sisira Jayakody – Promotion of Indigenous Medicine, Development of Rural Ayurvedic Hospitals and Community Health
26. Kanchana Wijesekara – Ornamental Fish, Freshwater Fish and Shrimp Farming Development, Multi-day Fishing and Fish Export
27. Wimalaweera Dissanayake – Wildlife Conservation Protection Programmes including Electric Fence and Ditch Construction and Re-Forestation and Wildlife Resources Development
28. D.B. Herath – Livestock and Farm Promotion and Dairy and Eggs Related Industries
29. Shasheendra Rajapaksa – Paddy and Cereals, Organic Food, Vegetables, Fruits, Chilies, Onions and Potatoes, Seed Production and High Tech Agriculture
30. Dr. Nalaka Godahewa – Urban Development, Coast Conservation, Waste Disposal and Public Sanitation
31. Jeevan Thondaman – Estate Housing and Community Infrastructure Facilities
32. Dr. Seetha Arambepola – Skills Development, Vocational Education, Research and Innovation
33. Prof. Channa Jayasumana – Pharmaceutical Production, Supply and Regulation
34. Ajith Nivard Cabraal – Finance and Capital Market and Public Enterprise Reforms
35. Vijitha Berugoda – Dhamma Schools, Bhikku Education, Pirivenas and Buddhist Universities
36. Janaka Wakkumbura – Development of Sugarcane, Maize, Cashew, Pepper, Cinnamon, Cloves, Betel Production and Promotion of Allied Products and Export
37. Dilum Amunugama –Vehicle Regulation, Bus Transport Services and Carriages and Automotive Industries
38. Lohan Ratwatte – Gem and Jewelry
39. Siripala Gamlath – Development of Common Infrastructure Facilities of Settlements and Canals in Mahaweli Zones
By Noor Nizam – Peace and Political Activist, Political Communications Researcher, SLFP/SLPP Stalwart and Convener – The Muslim Voice”, August 11th., 2020
The Rajapaksa
family is Stronger than the Sigiriya Rock. Because they have not done wrong and
no harm to others, they have come out of being pushed aside from governance by
the conspiracies of the minority politicians and the anti-Rajapaksa forces and
the R2R schemers and LTTE front lobby over the last 4 1/2 years. Loyal
SLFP/SLPP stalwarts and party sympathizers will always stand by President
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, PM Mahinda Rajapaksa, Basil Rajapaksa and their family. The
recent general elections show the faith the Sri Lankans had in them by giving
the 2/3 majority in parliament as requested by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa at
the August 5th., general elections. It was great of the National Organizer of
SLPP, Basil Rajapaksa to express gratitude to those who stood with them to form
the SLPP and during the local government elections in 2018 and in a surprise
result, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna led by former president and the new PM
Mahinda Rajapaksa, came first by winning 40% of the votes and securing the most
number of seats and local authorities.
That was the
begining of the “come back” to the Rajapaksa family. The
National Organizer of the SLPP expressed these gratitude during his apprearance
in the “SALAKUNA” TV programe broadcasted yesterday (10.08.2020), by
Hiru TV.
PM. Mahinda
Rajapaksa should at least now understand who the backstabbers” from within the
SLFP and those who surrounded him at his peak of power were. Opportunitic
politicians and individuals of all communities have already started to gather
around him and his family with selfish and ulterior motives, not with the
“TRUE LOVE” to dfefend our “maathruboomiya”, Sri Lanka.
PM Mahinda
Rajapaksa should have also known who the political cut-throats and
opportunistic individuals of the Muslim and Tamil communities are. President
Mahinda Rajapaksa should never, never, never ever tolerate them in the future.
The Rajapaksa brothers should also be alert to new faces who will now gather
around them and creep into the center of governance to benefit themselves and
their kith and kin at the expences of longstanding and loyal supporters of the
Rajapaksa family. In politics these things happen.
This
happened to late Madam Sirimavo Bandaranike, to J.R. Jayawardene, to Kamraj, to
Mujibu Rahuman, to Zulfikar Ali Butto and many other leaders who were loved by
their people.
Their
near kith and kin became victims of their opponents, both political and
otherwise.
Yet
they came back or their next of kin came back to power by the grace of God
AllMighty as long as they were clean. It was only a matter of time. The
Rajapaksa brothers/family are back in power to govern Sri Lanka for the next
decade by the Grace of God AllMighty.
The People have voted
overwhelmingly to support the President at the General Election. I stress
– to support THE PRESIDENT – and not the cabal of usual faces in Parliament who
may try to now hijack the administrative boat and take the nation on a
pointless procrastinatory Indian jaunt again. The President must now swiftly
act and GET THINGS DONE.
No excuse. The two-thirds is in place. No delays. No saying “give it time”. ACT NOW and do what should have been done the moment the war against the Indian terrorists ended:
The following must be done to save Sinhale/Ceylon once and for
all:
1. Abolish the 19A – This will restore the Presidency who is directly elected by the People and remove the atrocious elements of the 19A which were passed without a referendum.
2. ABOLISH the Indo Lanka Accord – No sovereign nation, nay a nation with any self-respect, would abide by an illegal treaty forced upon it that prohibits it engaging with other countries without the approval of India. At the moment, India has the final say over our Ports! What nonsense is this? We are not part of India and are meant to be independent! The Trincomalee Tank Farm must also be taken back from India. Any leases or ventures in future must be put out to a proper GLOBAL tender and not to third rate Indian companies. The Indo Lanka Accord is illegal and was forced upon us under duress. India’s interests, or “concerns” are of NO CONCERN to us.
3. ABOLISH 13th amendment AND Provincial Councils – The 13A contains DISASTROUS elements which mention ethnic homelands, ethnic laws and areas and encourage corruption and parochialism. The Provincial Councils waste the nation/taxpayer over $2-3 BILLION (approx. LKR 555,000,000,000) EVERY YEAR. That is money that can be put to far better use. The country only needs one accountable government and efficient Civil Service to get things done. Local authorities (i.e. village, or urban councils) should only be required to manage very minor matters such as refuse collection, or minor street repairs. 4. BAN ethnic parties and ethnic ghettos – No part of this nation should be mono-ethnic. The entire population should be mixed. No party or political entity/aspirant should campaign based on ethnicity, religion, caste or region. 5.BUILD public housing to settle people in mixed settlements islandwide. Settle Sinhalese and Burghers in the North – Implement an “ETHNIC INTEGRATION POLICY” islandwide like in Singapore. This is eminently feasible. For instance, the Gal Oya Schemes initiated by DS Senanayake settle populations of mixed settlements in the North and East, housing Sinhalese, Tamils, Moors, Burghers and Malays together. In Singapore, the National Housing and Development Board regulates the population by building public housing and mixing residents. It regulates sales to conform to bands that represent the overall demographics of Singapore. If you do this in Sinhale/Ceylon, there will be no more mono-ethnic North and no more ghettos.
6. ABOLISH unnecessary pointless public institutions (e.g. various boards that fix prices and are merely entities to fill with “jobs for the boys“). Government jobs should be extremely limited and confined to an elite, efficient and meritocratic corps of taskmasters who carry out government policy, irrespective of who is in power. Decentralisation of the Civil Service can occur, but there must be ZERO devolution. There needs to be a bonfire of RED TAPE that holds the People and businesses back. 7. RECREATE ONE school system with all children in one classroom learning in either Sinhala, and/or English medium in ALL districts without exception – There should be zero compulsion to force Sinhalese to learn in Tamil. Instead, the focus should be to teach the Sinhalese their mother tongue of Sinhala AND a first class knowledge of English. Teaching other languages like Korean, Mandarin and Japanese as an additional language should also occur. The focus at the primary, secondary and tertiary level should be the STEM education model to create PRODUCTIVE graduates. All children should be taught the ancient history of this country and history of the noble Independence Movement. 8. BAN INDIAN lorry buses, trains, three wheelers and Indian Modi jackets 9. INVEST in Chinese and Japanese electric trains nationwide (a bullet train can cross North to South in 70 minutes) 10. INVEST in electric buses nationwide – the city of Shenzhen in China is a good model for this where all transport is electric. 11. BUILD an MRT for Colombo and light rail/DLR systems for places like Kandy, Hambantota, Galle, or else electric trams (like we used to have in the 1950s). 12. ENFORCE THE RULE OF LAW – start from the top. Make the punishment for corruption a thorough CANING like in Singapore. In Singapore, after a Minister returned having gone a trip with a businessman (a conflict of interests), he was arrested the moment he landed back in the country. The criminals who committed high treason such as Sirisena and the architects of the Bond Scam should be fully prosecuted. Any present government-linked ministers to high crimes or corruption must be duly punished. WITHOUT THE RULE OF LAW, SINHALA CAN NOT BE A GLOBAL BUSINESS HUB. So get it done. 13. ENFORCE ONE LAW, ONE NATION, ONE PEOPLE.BAN madrassas. There should not be multiple ethnic laws. There should not be one law for politicians and another for the people. We should live as one Ceylonese people, under one national law with one indomitable destiny to achieve our full potential to be a first world paradise nation. 14. Tell India to go to hell when they issue diktats. This country was never part of India, is not now and never will be. We are not part of India’s sphere of interest, nor India’s backyard. 15. RE-TENDER the Trincomalee Harbour/oil farm to a mixture of domestic players – including the public CPC – and all global majors (e.g. Shell, Sinopec, Petronas, Total) and NOT the pathetic Indians 16. RE-ENFORCE a meritocracy on our island. No more cronyism and political yes men in positions. 17. Have SELF RESPECT and cane Indian fisherman who illegally plunder in our waters. – There is nothing to negotiate about fishing rights. These are our waters, our fish and our coral reefs that these Indians are destroying illegally entering our waters. 18. Make RAPID strides to join ASEAN (we were invited at founding) 19. RESTORE the national Lion flag raised in 1948 – This was rediscovered by the Independence movement in the Royal Chelsea Hospital in London. It was duly returned by the British and that was the flag that was raised on 4th February 1948. The original Lion flag should represent us all. There should be zero stripes, or demarcations for ethnicities. 20. RESTORE the name of the country toSINHALE and CEYLON and remove the Indianised “Sri Lanka”. The official name should be “Republic of Sinhale”. All citizens should be called Sinhaledeepans, or Ceylonese. 21. CODIFY the languages to either:
OPTION 1
National Language and anthem –
Sinhala
Official Languages – Sinhala and English
Working Languages/Mediums – Sinhala and English
OR
OPTION 2
National Language and anthem – Sinhala
Official Languages – Sinhala, Tamil and English
Working Languages/Mediums – Sinhala and English
What we have now under
the current constitution, is a disaster. Tamil is given
National Language status when it isn’t a national language. And English is
given the ridiculous Indian style title of “link language” which has
zero meaning. So the Language Laws must be corrected to one of the above
options.
24.
INSTITUTE PRO BUSINESS LAWS AND LABOUR LAWS – end this Marxist/Socialist
nonsense and end crony capitalism and crony socialism. The country needs to be
as productive as the competitor nations of Singapore, South Korea, Japan and
Malaysia.
24.
STOP PANDERING to India. You will notice how Indians derogatorily refer to us
as “Lankans” even omitting the Sri in our name.
25. BUILD,
MAINTAIN AND PRESERVE OUR BUDDHIST AND ANCIENT HERITAGE – I am glad to see the President is taking
a keen interest in this. There are ancient stupas, Buddhist relics and
monuments to ancient kings that must be preserved. Like in Buddhist nations
like Thailand and Burma, Sinhale/Ceylon must build Stupas nationwide. The
ancient tank system must be revived. All citizens should be taught their
history.
Additional suggestions:
26.) EXPAND
the Port City and EXPAND relations with China and ASEAN companies
27.) BUILD
a Changi/Hong Kong style International airport in Colombo and/or Trincomalee .
We cannot claim to be a “HUB” if we lack a Transit airport with less
than 100 million passenger capacity. Our competitors are Istanbul, Dubai,
Singapore and Hong Kong.
28.)
MOVE Mattala Airport (i.e. rebuild) to the Hambantota Harbour itself which is a
more appropriate location next to the Port.
29.) DO
NOT TOLERATE TOMFOOLERY. Any Minister who even suggests to
buy Indian should be publicly caned on the Galle Face.
31.) Rebrand and reset Sri Lankan
Airlines. Separate the debt of the carrier and create a NEW national airline
with a professional management team. Call it Ceylon Airlines which
will have a better brand name. Set the same standards as Singapore Airlines
where only YOUNG cabin crew serve (stewardesses have to retire after 10 years
and there is an age limit after 30-35 you give way to new recruits) and only
NEW aircraft are sourced and utilised. You need a young crew and young fleet of
planes.
32.) OFFER ONLY
young, vibrant and honest candidates at all future elections. No more
mankollakarayas and fat buffoons. I am aghast that Nimal Sirpala and Sirisena
were nominated as candidates. There are 21 million of our citizenry. There
are Sri Lankans even working at NASA. You cannot tell us that some of these
politicians are the best of us.
33.) Teach the good and bad of colonial rulers and of our post
independence leaders. Lee Kuan Yew recognised (like our own Independence movement)
that the colonials did terrible things and had no right to rule them. However,
whatever little that was good must be utilised and rightly acknowledged. He
also noted his disappointment that his fellow independent nations’ leaders
were corrupt and ruining their countries. Our own politicians for instance have
ruined our tea industry and brand image. HISTORY must be based on FACTS and
not based on the REVISIONIST HISTORY propagated by POLITICAL PARTIES (to
glorify themselves) or the INDIANS (who whitewash their crimes and control over
our island).
34.) Build Solar parks and store electricity from hydroelectric
and solar using Battery farms (e.g. the Tesla Battery Farm in Australia). BAN
Coal plants.
In short GET THINGS DONE. There is ZERO EXCUSE not to abolish
the 13A and Indo Lanka Accord now.
NO EXCUSES. DO WHAT MUST BE DONE.
The Sinhalese nation. Ceylon is Sinhale in English.
What our trains should be like. Would you rather have
Provincial Councils, or bullet trains?
The Lion flag of the Sinhalese nation, raised once more
in 1948
Nelson
called Trincomalee “the finest harbour in all the world”. Should it
be laying idle under Indian control? This should be a bustling metropolis like
Singapore, Hong Kong, San Francisco Bay etc.
TEN years since
we defeated the Indian LTTE. We should have already been like Singapore by now.
May the heavens grace our country and may this opportunity not be squandered.
Please Mr. President, be one of us – the people – and don’t let the politicians
ruin your term in office!
The Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) yesterday finalised its national list nominees while arriving at a compromise with the minority parties, Harin Fernando said.
Those included in the SJB national list are, SJB General Secretary Ranjith Madduma Bandara, National Organizer Tissa Attanayake, Harin Fernando, Eran Wickramaratne, Imtiyaz Bakeer Markar, Mayantha Dissanayake and Dayani Gamage.
We have arrived at a compromise with the minority parties with regard to the national list slots,” Mr. Fernando said.
Meanwhile, SLMC Leader Rauff Hakeem had earlier told journalists that his party had requested for one national list slot.
Five new cases of COVID-19 have been identified hiking the number of virus-positive cases in the country to 2,880.
The new cases have been identified as recent arrivals from Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates the Department of Government Information confirmed.
Accordingly, a total of 9 new cases have been detected in the country within the day.
As per the Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry, 247 active cases are currently under medical care at hospitals.
In the meantime, the number of recoveries from the disease in Sri Lanka has moved up to 2,622 cases with 29 patients being discharged after recovery, today (11).
Sri Lanka has thus far witnessed 11 deaths due to the virus outbreak.
Russia has registered the world’s first coronavirus vaccine early Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin announced amid widespread concerns about the rapidly developed vaccine’s safety.
The state-run Gamaleya research institute last week launched Phase III trials of the Covid-19 vaccine involving thousands of volunteers. The Health Ministry has said it plans to begin mass production of the vaccine as soon as next month and launch a mass vaccination drive in October.
This morning, for the first time in the world, a vaccine against the new coronavirus was registered,” Putin said in a televised cabinet session broadcast.
I know that it’s effective and forms sustainable immunity,” he said.
Putin said one of his daughters, whose identity he has neither confirmed nor denied to date, has already taken the vaccine.
Experts, including an industry body representing multinationals that conduct clinical trials in Russia, have called the vaccine’s swift registration without completing Phase III trials a Pandora’s box.”
Russia has the world’s fourth-highest Covid-19 caseload with almost 900,000 infections.
Gamaleya’s vaccine is a so-called viral vector vaccine, meaning it employs another virus to carry the DNA encoding the necessary immune response into cells. It is based on the adenovirus, the common cold.
At the auspicious moment this morning on the ninth of August 2020,
when our Prime Minister is being inaugurated it is my humble request that he
considers the full development of the Hambantota District and a Youth
Development Programme for special implementation.
The Hambantota District has been a
district where I did work long ago. I have been struck with the
sincerity of its people and their sufferings. My first novel, Mukulita Piyumo
Ayi Vana Meda Me details the travails and tribulations of its innocent
people. I have hoped that someday the
people will be delivered from their poverty. My Paper tells it all. I propose
the development of its agriculture and industry. These thoughts come in my
Paper: Mattala Airport is not for sale.
The youth of a country has to be the prime concern of any
Government. I had the opportunity to beat hollow the ILO, the world reputed
organization, when I worked in Bangladesh as a consultant to the Ministry of
Labour and Youth way back in 1982. When the Military Government of General
Ershard took over the country he was disillusioned with the work done by the
Ministry of Youth Development where I served as the Consultant. The Minister for Labour and Manpower in his
Government, the Hon Aminul Islam, Air
Vice Marshall ordered me, What can you contribute for Bangladesh?” It was
delivered in a vein implying that foreign consultants were non grata. I
replied: Please consider approving a new self employment programme to enable
the 40,000 youths we trained in vocations annually.” The Secretary to the
Treasury the Highest Officer in the land objected stating that the ILO had
failed miserably to establish a self employment programme in the earlier three
years and said that self employment was not something that could be achieved
and that it would inevitably end in a
waste of funds. I vehemently contested this statement. A two hour verbal duel
ensued with my providing details of how it can be done while he contested every
idea. This slang battle went on for over two full hours, with the Hon Minister
painstakingly listening making notes.
The Minister finally had heard enough and ordered us to stop the verbal
battle. Then he ordered. I approve this Advisor implementing a Self Employment
Programme for our beloved country and I look forward to see it being done. He
has convinced me.” The Secretary to the
Treasury stumped at one stating that he will not provide any funds to which I
promptly replied that I needed no funds more than what was approved on the
youth training budget. I requested approval to find savings within our approved
budget and make variations and rewrite the remits of officers. He approved my
request. My task was to design and implement a self employment programme and
also train Bangladesh officers to continue it after my two year assignment was
over. The rest is history, Today it is a
Programme that is on going, This Programme is today the premier programme the
world has known and has guided over three million youths to become self
employed. This Programme is today the premier programme of youth development
the world has known.
I look forward to see two major programmes from the Government of
President Gotabhaya and Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has made the difficult decision
not to sell the Mattala Airport to India. It is the right decision
and he deserves to be congradulated.
I wrote about how the Mattala Airport and the Port of Hambantota
have to be activated back in 2014. That Paper is annexed because every detail
of what I then wrote will hold good for today. Nothing happened in 2014 and we
lost the Port during the regime of the UNP.
Let me hope that the contents of this Paper will reach our leaders
President Gotabhaya and Prime Minister Mahinda. To make the Mattala Airport
pay is very simple.
Firstly we must understand our resources. The Chena
cultivators in Hambantota and Moneragala have to be activated to plant melon,
red pumkin, ash pumkin. A Marketing Department has to be re established with
two of their earlier programmes- the vegetable and fruit purchasing scheme and
the Cannery. The MD can be created overnight. The cost of creating
it can be recouped within the very first year from the profits that come in by
the purchase of veg and fruit that is supplied to the Cannery.
A Cannery has to be set up. A medium scale Cannery has to be
imported and assembled. My take is that it can be done within three to four
months judging at the speed I worked at Matara in 1971..
The produce is already there the chena cultivators will produce
all the Red Pumpkin, Ash Pumpkin we need and Melon to make all the fruit Juice
and Jam and within one year we will be self sufficiuent in Jam and Juice. The
foreign exchange we spend to get imports of Jam and Juice today will easily
match the production we make in the very first year. We can grow Tomatoes and
be self sufficient in items like Tomatoe Sauce.
If we can find the equal of Assistant Commissioiner Oswald
Tillekeratne we can even export pineapple. He was in charge of the
Cannery. We then exported 8% of our pineapple products.
I have seen children in Lunugamvehera running behind my car to
sell us mangoes. Our crop of Mangoes is vast and half goes waste as we pluck to
the ground.
The Mattala Airport is to be used to export the products.
That is easily the way ahead. Someone in the Administrative
Service has to be put in charge.
If there is none to bell the cat I can undertake, though lingering
in my Eighties I can undertake that job.. A place in the Administrative Service
or an assignment will do that trick. Establishing a Marketing Department, a
Cannery and getting it going will be far easier a task than establishing the
Youth Self Employment Programme in Bangladesh which I did in 1983 when working
as a consultant.
If anyone confronts and tells that this cannot be done. I will be
there if intimated.- (garvin_karunaratne@ hotmail.com) Once I had a
two hours’ duel with the highest officer in Bangladesh- the Secretary to the
Treasury who contested my statement that I will establish a self employment
programme. He quoted the International Labour Organization’s failure to
establish a self employment programme after trying for three years and getting
down experts from all over. The Minister who presided at our duel Air Vice
Marshall Aminul Islam, the Minister for Labour and Manpower was convinced of my
arguments and immediately approved my establishing a self employment programme.
An entire Department of Youth Development took orders from me and within
nineteen months I established the programme and also trained the staff to continue
it. Today that Programme is the premium employment creation programme in the
world and has by now guided three million youths to become self employed.
Establishing a Marketing Department and a Cannery is a far simpler task. If I
had failed I would have been court marshalled for wasting funds, as it was a
military government
It will be a pleasure to work for my Motherland. and I am dead
certain that the task of establishing a Cannery can be accomplished and our
country can also be self sufficient in all jam, Juice, Sauce and many more
items that are imported today.
A Rural Renaissance in the
Offing
Posted on January 12th, 2014 in Lanka Web
By Garvin Karunaratne
My travel to Kataragama in December 2013 took me to the Mattala
Mahinda Rajapaksa Airport and via the new road that is being built through
Lunugamvehera Tank to Kataragama. .
I have worked stationed within Hambantota for over a year working
in the Agrarian Services and Marketing Department and have covered Hambantota
from Matara for another two years working on the Paddy Purchasing Scheme of the
Agrarian Services Department and the Vegetable and Fruit Marketing Scheme of
the Marketing Department. . I lived in a chummery with Vet Surgeon
Balachandran and Assistant Commissioner Nanayakkara. We had to have a bath
under the street tap at night or have a swim in the sea. Hambantota was easily
the worst district I worked in. There was hardly any decent restaurant
other than the Rest House . That District has to be developed. The travails of
the colonists at Meegahajandura detailed in my novel Mukulita Piyumo Ayi Vana
Meda Me”(Godages) and the poverty of the fishing settlements the subject
of my novel Landa Liyange Sihina Atare”(Godages) have to cease someday
My work has taken me to remote areas covered by the paddy
purchasing unit- the cooperative societies that were seething with life. In my
eighteen years’ of life in the Administrative Service I have seen the pulse of
the people in the Dry Zone marching from a peasant economy to a commercial
economy but the neglected areas were many. While the Mattala Airport has the
capability of breathing life to the Hambantota District in particular and
the entire South, the Lunugamwehera- Kataragama Road will breathe life to
a section of villages that were hitherto away from communication links with the
rest of the country.
To me the manner in which President Rajapaksa has dealt with
foreign aid- in using it to fund development projects- like the Mattala
Airport, the Hambantota Port the Lunugamwhera Road- the massive highways
tells me of a shift in the manner of using foreign aid. Hitherto, since the IMF
took over the development of our country in 1977 and dictated us to follow the
freemarket and the liberalization of foreign exchange, taking away the handling
of foreign exchange that comes into the country from the hands of the sovereign
government into the hands of the banks, the multinationals and their salesmen.
Instead of using the foreign aid and the foreign currency that we
earn for the development of the country and its masses we used it since
1977 to import everything for the rich in terms of luxury imports, to
fund the education of the rich children overseas, for luxury cruises and
endless foreign travel for the rich. The foreign aid and foreign income was
used to satisfy the luxury craze of a miniscule section of our population
instead of being use for the masses. The new Strategy of President Rajapaksa
heralds to me a shift in the use of foreign exchange.
Since 1977 foreign aid was not used for the masses except
in the Mahaweli Project, the brain child of the LTTE assassinated
Minister Gamini Dissanayake.
Driving along the Lumugamvehera- Kataragama mud track- which was
being built, I saw mangoes in plenty on the trees and the people, dressed
in rags in their attempt to get some income chased behind my car
with a few mangoes for sale. It was a sheer attempt to find an income.
Every year I spend a few months in the motherland I love. At
Katunayake Airport I slump into a roadworthy rental car sent to the
Katunayake Airport by King Rent a Car at Battaramulla and clock a few
thousand miles driving down the roads I drove once as an administrative officer.
Then I had the ability to listen to the people and do something for them.
In charge of the Tripoli Market, the headquarters of the Vegetable and
Fruit Marketing Scheme I often ordered a fleet of lorries to Producer fairs
where the entire produce was bought. In Colombo Oswald Tilekeratne another
Assistant Commissioner in charge of the Cannery turned Red Pumpkin into
Golden Melon Jam, Ash Pumpkin into Silver Melon Jam. Now I listen to them and
write about them in my endless Papers and novels, hoping that my writing will
reach the eyes of someone in power who will be spurred to action.
My recent travel tells me that easily half the crop of mangoes
goes waste today. The Marketing Department Cannery established by us,
when I served as an Assistant Commissioner, enabled that Department to offer
floor prices for Red Pumpkin and Ash Pumpkin. Mangoes and Oranges were
used to make fruit juice. Now the Cannery came under the axe of the IMF
in 1978 by the executioner of the Third World, the IMF that decided that
the Public Sector should not do commerce and the Cannery was privatized.
The people of the Dry Zone that drew high incomes for their produce now cannot
sell their produce. I have repeatedly suggested that Canneries be opened
in Tissamaharama and Dambulla and Anuradhapura to make fruit juice. We have
melon in plenty and tomatoes that go waste. Now we import fruit juice, tomatoe
sauce and jam from Developed countries like the USA, Australia. All this while
our produce is wasted; our people have no incomes. The IMF strategy is for
structuring the Third World to contribute to the Developed Country and we
have to follow the IMF because we are an indebted country. That was the legacy
of the UNP that accepted the Structural Adjustment Programme of the IMF.
Why do we not realize the folly of following the IMF following it so far for
over three decades.
Let me hope that this Writing gets to the eyes of someone in
power, The building of the Port, the Airport and the Highways is the first part
of progress. Let me hope that Canneries will be set up to bring incomes to the
masses that produce. Let me see Sinharaja Water for sale in Colombo. The
development infrastructure of Canneries, Small industries that was all
abolished by the IMF from 1977 by the United National Party has to be set up
once again.
This can be done fast- in a few months if the Government Agents
are activated. We established The Matara Mechanised Boatyard that made 40 foot
seaworthy fishing boats and Coop Crayon, a crayon factory that
supplied high quality crayons for a tenth of our requirements in 1971
within three months. Our administrators can do that job. They are used to
it. There was one of us that made Paper at Kotmale. Now we export Waste
Cardboard some 30,000 tons every month to India and buy Paper in return.
That senario must cease to bring employment and incomes to our
people. It is heartening to note that the 2014 Budget is emphasizing
import substitution, to make everything imported in Sri Lanka bringing
employment and incomes to Sri Lankan youth and not creating employment and
incomes to people in countries like the USA and Britain who are ranged against
us to take our leaders to the War Crimes, Coop Crayon, the Crayon factory
that I as the Government Agent and Sumanapala Dahanayake the member of parliament
struggled and established in Deniyaya in 1971 tells us that we can succeed in
import substitution. The quality of the crayons made by Coop Crayon equalled
the quality of Crayola and when I and Sumanapala showed the crayons we made to
the then Minister of Industries Mr. Subasinghe he was surprised and readily
volunteered to preside at the ceremony to open sales. That art of making
crayons was unearthed in the science lab at Rahula College. Matara in
1971 by my Planning Officer Vetus Fernando working with science teachers.
That success itself tells me that Sri Lanka can succeed in import substitution.
But the full blast of the IMF and their lackeys the Pathfinder Foundation in
Sri Lanka and their mouthpieces the economists shout from the tree tops that import
substitution will derail our economic effort.(See Sunday Times 29/12). Let us
ask any of them whether they have ever established any industry, import
substitution or otherwise in their entire life. Let them tell us of what
industries they have established before advising.
They all the economists as well as the IMF forget the man at the
helm , the personage of extreme courage who delivered Sri Lanka from terrorism,
a task that every Superpower said we could not ever achieve.
Let me live in hope that President Rajapaksa will now take full
charge of the economic development of Sri Lanka.
The Youth Self Employment Program of Bangladesh.
The Ministry of Youth
Development where I was working as a two year consultant from the Commonwealth
Secretariat was attending to traditional youth work and providing skills
training to 40,000 youths annually. The Military Government that took over in
1982 expressed dissatisfaction with the programmes and at an evaluation,
presided over by Air Vice Marshall Aminul Islam, the Minister for Labour and
Manpower, I was questioned as to what
contribution I could make for Bangladesh.
I replied that it would be
ideal to have a Self Employment Program which will guide and train the
youths undertaking skills programs to
become self employed. Then most of the trained youths remained unemployed. The
Secretary to the Ministry of Finance,
the highest official in the land, objected, stating that this was something
that can never be achieved because the ILO had miserably failed to establish a
self employment program in Tangail in the earlier three years. The Secretaries
of the Finance and other Ministries strongly objected, stating that it would
end up in a waste of funds and also that the Youth Ministry should not be
entrusted with the task of creating employment opportunities. I argued that
though the ILO failed, I had the ability to
succeed because I had established many employment projects in my work in
Sri Lanka. I also argued that youth work should concentrate on skills training
and guiding the trained to establish enterprises. The Hon Minister listened
carefully to an easy two hours’ arguments between me and the Secretaries of
some Line Ministries. Finally he ordered all of us to shut up and asked the
Secretaries for the number of drop outs of the education system in any one
year, those who would be searching for employment without any qualification.
The answer was in the millions. Then he asked for the number of youths who
would be guided to become self-employed through Government Programs. The answer
was none. He immediately ruled that I should be allowed to establish a youth
self employment program. The Secretary to the Treasury immediately vetoed it by
stating that there were no funds. I immediately said that I needed no funds,
but authority should be granted for the Ministry to re deploy officers, redraft
their work remits and to find savings within the skills training budgets for
expenses on holding workshops to train and guide youths to become self
employed. The Hon Minister granted that request.
The Ministry of Labour and
Manpower got cracking the very next day, identifying key areas where the work
will commence, drafting training schedules to train the staff who attended to
skills training on how to guide the youths to make their own assessment of how
they can be self employed in their habitat. The Ministry took over elements of
national planning, in identifying areas where there was a potential for youths
to become self employed. I with a core of officials addressed the 40,000 youths
in training on identifying areas where they could generate incomes, and how they should draft plans to be self
employed. It was to be a family basis where the parents and elders of the
youths were also consulted. All skills training institutes were activated till
late at night to enable youths to utilize the machinery to make something
that could be sold. What they made was evaluated
at the next days training and this took on a process of training to make
marketable products. The three Livestock and Poultry Training Institutes of the
Ministry established an extension
service to help youths who commence farms in their homes. The Deputy Directors
of Youth Development in charge of Districts took on the mantle of guiding the
youths to establish income generation activities and guiding them on a day to
day basis. In short the Ministry of Youth Development became in facto a Ministry creating
employment and providing training for that purpose/.
In 1982 I commenced training
the staff in economics and techniques of community development and non formal
education where the thrust was to enable youths to make their own
decisions and develop their abilities to
make them become successful entrepreneurs. I was training 2000 youths and also
training the staff to continue the program when I leave.
The design of the program and my accomplishment is recorded in the
certificates issued by the two Secretaries with whom I worked.
Mr Ayubur Rahaman, The Secretary to the Ministry wrote on
5/10/1983:
His contribution
towards successful launching of a number of skills development training programs to promote
employment of youths deserves special appreciation. His role as formulator of
the self employment project has been particularly commendable. Dr
Karunaratne applied his initiative,
skills, expertise and energy on training of youth officers, preparation of
business profiles for encouraging self employment and guding youths to
formulate small projects. It was mainly through his dedication and hard
work that the pilot program for self employment has now been formally accepted as one of the
most important development projects to be implemented by the Youth Development Department.”
Mr Md. Asafuddowlah, Joint Secretary on 28/8/1983:
Dr Karunaratne’s significant
contribution has been in the field of self employment to the drop out youths.
This Programme was not only designed by him but also guided by him. This
activity which was initially launched as
a pilot experimental project has been a great success and has now been adopted as a full fledged programme of the
Youth Development Department. This is a non subsidy programme in which the youths are subjected to non
formal education inputs while they are engaged in viable bur small scale
commercial ventures. The Government has
been successful in providing meaningful
employment to a large number of youths
on this programme.
Mr Md Asafuddowlah,
Secretary to the Ministry, on 20/2005, eihht years later, wrote to me:
You will be happy to learn that the Self Employment Program of
the Youth Development Department has
expanded across the country and attained great success. I have not forgotten
your valuable contribution to the success of this programme.”
In 1993, the Government of Bangladesh through the Commonwealth
Fund requested my service as an Advisor but I had to decline as I was in a
permanent post as an Assistant Professor at Westminister.
The Programme has been
expanded apace. On 19/2/2011, the Government of Bangladesh, in its Report to the 34 th Session of the
IFAD(FAO) stated that two million youths have found self employment on this
Programme. By now (2020) this Programme has guided over three million youths to
become self employed and derive incomes equal to the earnings of a clerical
officer in the Public Service. This target has never been reached in any other
programme anywhere in the world.
Today this is the largest
employment creation program the world has known. The Programme currently
guides 160,000 youths to become self
employed and the Youth Ministry has taken over the task of national planning to
create employment. Today, Ninety five
percent of the work of the Youth Development Ministry is to create employment
for the youth.
I am proud that I was able to
establish the Youth Self Employment Programme in Bangladesh on my own and to
have trained Bangladeshi administrators to
continue it after my assignment was over. The only Programme that can
stand comparison is the Comilla Rural Development Programme of Bangladesh,
implemented in 1958- 1969 which doubled the yield of paddy and achieved full
employment in the Kotwali Thana- a Division in Bangladesh. This was established
by Dr Akhter Hammed Khan with the help of a number of professors from Michigan
State University who were in residence in Comilla.through a decade.
The Youth Self Employment
Programme of Bangladesh stands out as a success that can be repeated in many a
Third World country
By Email_*84, Tambrook Drive Agincourt, Ontario Canada M1W 3L9 August 9, 2020
His Excellency, Gotabhaya Rajapakse President of Sri Lanka Presidential Secretariat Colombo 1, Sri Lanka
Your Excellency,
Whither Sri Lanka under your Leadership
Let me firstly congratulate you on your principled campaign and winning the Presidential election in November 2019, and able leadership demonstrated in winning the peoples’ mandate at the recent general election with an overwhelming majority.Your effective leadership in containing the Covid 19 pandemic and bringing same under control with the limited facilities available gives ample confidence in your capacity to lead the nation and bring her out of the grip of desperation to a positive direction of development and growth.
You must be currently inundated with advice from your own party caucus, various experts and other lobbyists who would want you to adopt particular policies and economic models to overcome various problems faced by the country.You have rightly chosen to give an impetus to local agriculture and provide incentives to those who could replace foreign imports with local products of nearly equal or better value.
I wish to seek your permission to submit a few proposals for your consideration which I trust would be Important and beneficial to the country we love which is our motherland.I am giving below some of the ideas that I have submitted to the Sri Lankan leaders from time to time for their evaluation and adoption:
1.*_New Constitution:_*
*(a)**Retain Presidential system under a unitary structure of government;*
*(b)**Make elected officials subject to judicial scrutiny for their* *actions*;
*(c)**Retain provisions per Chapter II, Article 9, which allows the foremost place and at the same time enjoins the state to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana as prevailing for the past 2300 plus years in order safeguard this vital civilizational pillar, while accommodating all other religious beliefs and practices that arrived later. *
*(d)**Enact Anti-Conversion Bill to prevent exploitation of the poor members of society through offerings of any form of allurement.Conversion only through conviction should be acceptable.*
2.*_13^th Amendment:_*
*(a)**As an interim measure*, *steps should be taken on an urgent basis to amend 13A by deleting Police powers, restoring rights over land matters by transferring the related powers to the Central Government, and revoking the right of two or more Provincial Councils from amalgamating to form a unified__**Provincial Council.*
*(b)**Revoke 13^th Amendment and Replace with Ten Multi-District Councils to which adequate powers may be delegated as opposed to devolved powers directly relating to matters of local interest, while sharing more power at the Centre with the minority communities.**The ideal unit needed to replace the Provincial **Councils would be Multi-District Councils tailored to deal with the common problems affecting neighbouring districts as grouped below:*
*i)Northern Multi-District Council to be formed by combining the districts of Jaffna, Killinochchi and Mannar;
*ii)North-Eastern Multi-District Council to be formed by combining the districts of Mullaitivu and Trincomalee;
*iii) North-Central Multi-District Council to be formed by combining the districts of Vavuniya, Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa;*
iv) North-Western Multi-District Council to be formed by combining the districts of Puttalam and Kurunegala;*
*v)Central Hill Country Multi-District Council to be formed by combining the districts of Matale, Kandy and Nuwara Eliya;
vi) South-Eastern Multi-District Council to be formed by combining the districts of Ampara, Batticaloa and Kalmunai;*
*vii) Megapolis Multi-District Council to be formed by combining the* *districts of Gampaha, Colombo and Kalutara;*
*viii) Kegalu-Sabaragamuwa Multi-District Council to be formed by combining the districts of Kegalle and Ratnapura;*
*ix)Uva Multi-District Council to be formed by combining the districts of Badulla and Moneragala; and
*x)Southern Multi-District Council to be formed by combining the districts of Galle, Matara and Hambantota.
*Some of the powers to be decentralized to the District Councils amongst others to be determined by a competent authority, are listed below for your perusal*:
*·**Licensing of Automobile Vehicles in the district***
*·**General Health and Sanitation***
*·**Local power generation***
*·**Minor roads and bridges***
*·**Administration of District Courts, Family Courts and Local Dispute Arbitration***
*·**Junior Technical Colleges***
*·**Primary School Education***
*·**Special Police to handle Court duties, Traffic control and non-criminal offences***
*·**Welfare services***
*·**Sports and Cultural activities***
*·**Small scale industries***
*·**Agrarian services to localized farming communities*
*3._**_*_*Enhanced Sharing of Power at the Centre: *_***
**Allow for minority representatives to play a role in the decision making process by contributing to the development of policy, implementation and monitoring same through participation in Ministerial Consultative Sub-Committees.In addition, the following senior positions in government may be reserved for minority community representatives**
***. Minister of Tamil Language and Culture***
*·**Deputy Minister ofDisaster Relief and Re-Settlement***
*·**Deputy Minister of Community Development and Social Inequity Eradication***
*·**Deputy Minister of Education***
*·**Deputy Minister of Health Care and Nutrition***
*·**Deputy Minister of Local Government and District Councils***
*·**Deputy Minister of Justice and Law Reform***
*·**Deputy Minister of Plantation Industries*
4.*_Switching from Preferential Voting to First Past the Post on Electorate Basis:_*
*(a)**Political parties should nominate candidates for each electorate as in the past instead of a whole slate for each district*. *It would be useful to specify educational or other work experience requirements to be considered for eligibility to seek candidature for electoral office.***
*(b)**The bonus places or additional seats given to nominees in the National List to which the political parties become eligible could still be determined based on the overall voting strength of each party.*These additional seats could preferably be reserved for enlisting competent persons who are recognized for their outstanding knowledge, technical skills or volunteer services to the larger community.
*5.**_Political Party Names or Labels should not carry a Religious or Ethnic Connotation:_*
*(a)**Political parties with narrow religious or ethnic interests should by law be prohibited from standing for election to the National assembly, as they seek special treatment causing discord and disunity.*
*(b)**One law should apply to all citizens alike in matters of social conduct.*
*(c)**Establish proper guidelines for establishment of places of worship.*
**
*6.**_Ensure Protection of Archaeological and Historical Sites:_*
*(a)**Upgrade the laws relating to the preservation of all archaeological and historical sites in the island, and ensure adequate protection and imposition of severe penalties for desecration or destruction of such sites.*
*(b)**Make the teaching of National History a compulsory subject in schools.*
**
*7.**_Update Animal Welfare Laws and the Fauna and Flora Act:_*
*(a)**Take immediate steps to upgrade the Animal Welfare Laws with due penalties and the Fauna and Flora Act to safeguard the environment.*
*(b)**Strengthen the laws governing the conservation of forests and game parks to safeguard the limited forest cover needed to ease the harmful effect of Climate change.*
*(c)**Resolve the issue of constant clashes between humans and wild elephants due to theencroachment by human settlements obstructing elephant corridors and their foraging grounds. *
*8.**_ACSA, SOFA and MCC Compact:_***
*(a)**Take immediate steps to terminate the ACSA Agreement and re-negotiate terms more in accord with the national interest.*
*(b)**Reject SOFA as it is a direct threat to National security.*
*(c)**MCC Compact should not be signed as it could lead to the loss of sovereignty and *
*depletion of the country’s territorial boundaries.*
**
*9.**_Other Necessary Legal Steps to be Taken:_*
*(a)**Regulate all NGOs and INGO operating in Sri Lanka and auditing of all accounts as in the case of private companies.*
*(b)**Repeal orAmend 19A by eliminating objectionable clauses including the one that prevents dissolution of parliament even when there is no functioning government.*
*(c)**Amend the OMP Act by removing clauses granting excessive powers to the Commissioners, and delete clauses that grant compensation to wrongdoers that attempt to overthrow legally and democratically elected governments by violent means.*
*(d)**Ensure that the Supreme Court is the superior court and the arbiter of final appeal, and that all other courts are subordinate to it whether it be a special court such as the earlier proposed Constitutional Court.*
**
*10.**_Establishment of an Office of OMBUDSMAN_***
It is felt that a useful role could be played by an *Independent Ombudsmen *who may be authorized to look into complaints of abuse by the state sector or other establishment or person, as a large segment of the people are too poor to litigate or seek redress for wrongs done or perceived to have been done against them.
**
This is by no means complete.I trust you would give due consideration and take steps to implement what ever is possible based on national priorities. With best wishes for a successful term as the President of the nation which hopefully will make great strides in taking the country forward.
Mr.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the president of Sri Lanka stated at the final rally of the
election, held in Hambantota that the government of that he will form, has a
plan to develop four Mega Commercial Cities, Colombo, Jaffna, Trincomalee, and
Hambantota. This concept needs expanding to five cities including the North
Western Province, where is the best area to attract investment for tourism,
manufacturing, and agriculture development. Later the project could be expanded
to more cities such as Anuradhapura, Sothern Province, (Matara and Galle),
Polonnaruva, and Sabaragamuwa (Ratnapura), and Central Province (Kandy). If it leaves out Colombo, other cities have
land for infrastructure development, especially for a network of roads
connecting the entire country, Electric light rail systems, and development of
water reserves for agriculture, controlling floods and reserving excess water,
and hydropower generation within the area without depending on other areas. The
significance of the project would be it will ignore the federalism and uniting
the country integrating economic development. This system could be broadly
defined as economic federalism and political and administrative unitary system.
The
population of the country has distributed in cities (domains) containing ethnic
diversities, despite the expected ethnic integration, there is an ability to
mixing ethnic groups within the areas (domains). When five areas plan for
development Sri Lanka could be easily removed ethnic and religious issues, and
the country can be developed as an integrated community or a nation called Sri
Lankans. Politically, the implementation
of the concept will eliminate small political parties that are primarily based
on ethnicities such as Tamil, Muslim and Sinhala and nastic political
philosophies such as JVP and Marxists, integrating all into one nation, which
will support the country for an integrated nation, and one law for all ethnic
communities with a strong cultural design. This process will remove personal
laws such as Thesawalamai, Muslim, Kandyan, Mukkuwa, Buddhist Vihara, and
Property laws. One criminal, civil, and administration laws will be applied to
Sri Lankans as well as people living in the country from other countries. This was been the difficult and gigantic task
since independence in 1948. The political administration of the reign of Kings
and Queens in history succeed one law for all and was able to maintain unity
with one nation.
The
concept of Mega Cities (domains) began after 1978, and the World Bank granted a
small volume of funds for an integrated district development projects, but the
project was unsuccessful mainly due to LTTE terrorists, JVP terrorists, and the
apprehension politics of the ruling political movement. The project was purely
focused on infrastructure development and to introduce information technology
through education. The computer lab given to Southern people was destroyed by
JVP terrorists. The actions to eliminate terrorism had been accomplished by the
Rajapaksa regime, however, the yahapalana politics embarked after 2015 worked
against the uniting Sri Lanka, and aimed to create a psychological condition of
people that abases traditional values and cultural accoutres of Sri Lankan
society. The result of the unity of reactionaries in international politics and
domestic agents of international reactionaries, who were enjoying with bones and
secret grants as believed by the mass community in Sri Lanka, was temporarily
indisposed the expected development. People have been stimulated by the victory
of Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2019.
The
presidential election in 2019 and the general election in 2020 seem, have
eliminated reactionary forces and now people in Sri Lanka have a Herculean
opportunity to unite the country and indoctrinate projects for economic and
social development that is the desires of people. The effort of uniting the
country should not be a political game and a genuine effort to develop the
country with the unity of ethnic and religious communities.
The
concept of Mega Cities would be a cradle to national unity and redistribution
of the population that has been prime gist to create ethnic, social, and
religious issues in the country. This
idea can be further interpreted that the nature of population distribution
procured a ground for emerging and growing fertile land to grow ethnic, social,
and religious issues, and the redistribution of the current population would be
the point that should break the vicious circle of poverty and the cultural,
ethnic, and religious enthralment of the country. The development and
investments in various economic development-related projects will redistribute
the population creating a new equation of population configuration if the
Mega-Cities project will felicitous in the implementation process with massive
job creation. The proposed project should not be relegated to the fate incurred
to the district development project in 1978.
The
proposed mega-cities (domains) project should absorb excess population from the
Western, North-Western, Southern, and the central provinces to the Northern and
Eastern provinces through the employment of people. This means when investment
projects created with more employment opportunities people will come to the
North and East cities and reside with families supporting the new equation of
population distribution. Although the current
population apportionment seems or a reason to promote distorted racial
attitudes of ethnic communities if the economic prosperity of people in the
area and migrants from other provinces with the process of Mega-Cities
development, new developments would eradicate the negative feeling of people.
The
essential requirement to succeed in the aim of population redistribution will
relate to education expansion providing three languages teaching in schools and
giving more opportunities for kids to participate in a variety of education
such as TVET, medical, engineering, information technology, and other areas. The current education policy has, directly,
and indirectly supported the division of communities on ethnic, religious,
caste basis, and poor kids in North and East provinces have discouraged
participating in language learning and skills learning. The foundation political parties in North and
East have used the current education distribution to stick people to their
political parties and to promote ethnic and religious hate. Providing equal education opportunities to
kids would eliminate the vicious thinking or attitudes of all ethnic
communities, Sinhala, Tamil, and Muslim, and support and brace the community
together. The new policy promotes inter-marriages and creates a new generation.
Many
pass pupil associations in Colombo and schools in other cities might show
opposition to the new policy, and many members of the pass pupil associations
are politically heavy hands of all political parties that will work directly or
indirectly against the policy of educating three languages in rural schools and
providing medical, engineering, IT and TVET in rural schools. Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the president of Sri
Lanka needs to understand these disguise reactions and the point that people
have elected him to create a new society. Average people like to unite and
integrate into the new education policy, they like to gain abilities to
converse in three languages and mix through intermarriages. In Colombo and
provincial towns Schools merging or acquisitions need to create synergy in
school administration and to allow resources in schools to distribute and use
of all students. If we look at Kotahena (Colombo 13) there are many schools
which divided on religious, ethnic, and language basis, and merging these
schools to a few coeducation units the new policy would save resources and
expand quality and equity in education.
I
have written many articles on the need for balanced growth in the country. The concept of balanced growth had been a
popular theoretical idea of the world since the ideologies of classical
economists. Many developed countries have been able to allocate resources to
country areas and achieve the concept of balanced growth giving justice to
rural people. It can be seen the mean
earning of a person in rural and urban is closer and there is no feeling that
urban people and rural people have divided. The concept of balanced growth has
been ignored in many countries, and investments and markets have networked to
urban areas. A significant reason for the inequalities in developing countries has
been contributed by the attitudes of policy-makers. Similar attitudes have /had UNP policy-makers
and the new government of Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa must focus to achieve balanced
growth. Regional people in wide Sri Lanka voted for Sri Lanka Podu Jana
Peramuna in the presidential election 2019 and the general election 2020 with
hope achieving justice.
New
mega-cities project should distribute investments in the city area and except
Colombo city, all other cities could distribute investment throughout the area
as one unit, and in history, Sri Lanka operated as integrated mega-cities such
as Ruhuna, Pihiti, and Maya, there were no ethnic or religious issues in
history. Inter-cities relationship should be maintained with a good
input-output plan or an inter-industrial plan. The Inter-industrial plan
supports for the production-based economy that generates employment
opportunities for people in the area.
The
COVID pandemic has created labour force related problems in developed countries
and there will be a massive demand for educated and skilled migrants as many
skilled people have become unemployed, who have less potential for reemployment,
and developed countries would look for migrants with knowledge (qualified) and
skilled. Future potential for skilled labour in developed and the Middle East
countries would be higher and a considerable volume of qualified people will
leave Sri Lanka during the coming decade. The other vital point is Middle East countries
must offer high salaries to attract labour competing with developed countries
and to successfully attract knowledged and skilled labour. The Middle East
countries must offer higher wages but can those countries do it with heavily
dependent economies on petroleum products.
This economic environment will challenge Sri Lanka because the labour
forces of the mega-cities attempt to leave for green pastures in other
countries. It would be a giant problem for Sri Lanka and the education reforms
should be accelerated to provide quality technical and vocational education and
training. If it works well more foreign
exchange will inward and the foreign reserves could be increase to the US $ 20
billion within six years.
What happened on August 5 was an epic rout of the Opposition. No time since the proportional representation system was adopted under the 1978 Constitution, had the Opposition been relegated to oblivion as it was at the parliamentary election held last week. Not even before that. Many refer to the UNP landslide in the Parliamentary election in 1977 when it won 140 seats out of 168 in the National State Assembly, the then Parliament. The SLFP won just eight. However, the first-past-the-post system at the time was responsible for creating a greater disparity between the actual votes polled by each party and the number of parliament seats they secured. To secure 5/6th of seats at the National Assembly, the UNP won only 50.9% of the popular vote, whereas the SLFP which won 29.7%, had just 8 seats!
Proportional Representation system was introduced to avoid such imperfection, though it created its own problems. JR Jayawardene should now be turning in his grave. The system he introduced is producing results with the near resemblance to its predecessor. Worse still, the UNP and its fratricidal offspring are at the receiving end.
In electoral dynamics and voter impulses, this election has much in common with the General Election of 2010, which was held right after another disastrous presidential election, which Sarath Fonseka lost to Mahinda Rajapaksa by 1.8 million votes. Mahinda Rajapaksa-led UPFA won the subsequent Parliament election with 60% of popular votes, against the UNP’s 29%, and polling more than twice of the UNP vote tally, and securing 144 seats, six shy of the two-thirds majority.
This time, SJB polled only 2.77 million votes or 23.9% of total votes. Less than half of popular votes Sajith obtained barely nine months ago!
This election is still worse. During the last presidential election, Sajith Premadasa polled 5.56 million votes or 42% of total votes. This time, SJB polled only 2.77 million votes or 23.9% of total votes. Less than half of popular votes Sajith Premadasa obtained barely nine months ago!
Where did the missing 2.8 million votes go? Around 800,000 of that number went to a combination of the TNA(327,168), UNP (249,000) and SLMC (34,428), fringe Tamil nationalist parties, which ate into the TNA vote base (around 170,000) and the rest to other small groups.
Then where is the lion share of approximately two million missing UNP votes? One should look at the disparity between the voter turnout and number of rejected votes in the presidential election and the just-concluded parliamentary polls.
In the presidential election in November last year, 13.38 million (83. 72% of total votes) cast their franchise. Last week, only 12.34 million voters (75.89%) voted. One million voters who voted at the presidential election, chose to stay at home. The voter apathy is further vindicated by the number of rejected votes. There were 135,452 rejected votes at the previous presidential election. This time, there were 744,373 rejected votes (4.58% of total votes). That is 600,000 more than the presidential election. Effectively, 1.6 million voters (10% of total voters) who cast their vote in the presidential election did not either vote or spoiled their votes. These don’t indicate as just voter apathy, but of a heightened sense of resignation of the anti-government, anti-Pohottuwa voters.
It is natural that a Parliamentary election that follows a presidential poll, tend to produce identical results, the prospect of which also generated a sense of apathy in the voters who vote for the opposition. However, the result of the presidential election itself was a foregone conclusion; Gotabaya Rajapaksa was predicted to win with a double-digit margin and Sajith Premadasa was destined to lose. Still, despite the manifest asymmetry of electability, 5.56 million voted for Mr. Premadasa. This time, nearly half of them did not vote at all or spoiled their votes. Whereas, the SLPP and its allies; as a whole increased their fortune. Gotabaya Rajapaksa polled 6,924,255 votes. SLPP fell short by 100,000 of that number, but with the votes polled by its coalition partners, EPDP, TMVP, SLFP and Muslim Alliance, SLPP managed to obtain 150,000 more votes than its presidential candidate did. A fraction of that increase might have come from the traditional UNP vote base, but those numbers are statistically insignificant to set against the preponderance of the likely UNP/SJB voters who abstained from voting. The looming voter resignation of the traditional UNP voters, in effect enlarged the SLPP vote share. In the Presidential election, Gotabaya Rajapaksa who polled 6.92 million votes claimed for 52.25% of the total vote. In the just-concluded parliamentary election, SLPP, which polled 6.85 million claimed for 59% of total votes. The disparity translates into the number of parliamentary seats. SLPP alone has secured 145, and with the help of its allies, the two-third majority in Parliament.
If it was how it happened, why this happened? What explains the intense sense of resignation of the likely anti-government, anti-Rajapaksa voters? The answer is self-evident, and this prospect was feared and warned, including many others and by this writer. Only a dim-witted fool would have concluded that the split of the Grand Old Party, the UNP, right before the Parliament election, would have served the interests of either party, the UNP or the SJB. What happened was a classic case of mutually assured destruction.
During the election campaign, the two parties were more at each other’s throat, than campaigning against its common rival, the SLPP. The traditional UNP voters and the independent voters who might have voted to stop the government from getting a 2/3rd, were repulsed by this ugly spectacle. The UNP was reduced to insignificance and the SJB did not fare much better. There are those who derive a sinister satisfaction by the plight of the UNP. But, the UNP did not collapse alone, with it, the liberal, multi-ethnic, pluralistic camp also crumbled. There is no likely candidate who could fill that void in the years to come.
Before the election, I warned the looming prospect of the absolutism. It has become the reality and sadly though made possible to a great degree by the foolhardy nature of the opposition camp.
