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UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe says that the people are disgusted with all politicians since they are not working with the best intreste of the voters.
He was speaking at a function in Colombo today.
Former Sports Minister V.A. Sugathadasa’s 47th Commemoration Ceremony was held under the patronage of UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe at his statue near the Sugathadasa International Stadium in Colombo.
The Police Media Spokesman stated that the law will be strictly enforced against those who make false propaganda on social media that coronavirus infected people have been found in various parts of the island.
Accordingly, the police urge the public to trust only the official announcements made by the Corona Prevention Task Force or the Director General of Government Information regarding corona virus infected patients.
9 Jul 2020
Apprehending large hauls of narcotics in vogue now! Though this is nothing new the pace has accelerated since the election of President Gotabhaya. This has been happening over the years now more often than ever in the history of narcotics in Sri Lanka. Throughout what has been a mystery to the public is what happens to the apprehended narcotics? Although occasionally we have seen hauls of marijuana or ganja being burnt we have not seen what happens to the stuff like – heroin, ice, and other methamphetamines – how the stuff is destroyed – if at all!
The latest news is about a haul of heroin amounting to 247 kg apprehended mid-seas. It turns out that the haul has been handed over to a few low-ranking police officers for safe custody and storage pending production as exhibits at court hearings. What has happened to this narcotics haul is now the latest news. The part has been passed over to heroin dealers and the rest reconstituted with the addition of the food additive Ajino Moto (MSG) so that alike weight can be spirited away for later distribution through drug networks concealed in rice bags!
Heroin gets sold in milligrams. Thus 247 kg is 247 million grams with a street value running perhaps into billions of Rupees. Carrying a few grams is sufficient for a person to be put behind bars for many years in many countries including Sri Lanka, I believe. In this scenario is difficult to comprehend why such a highly-priced as well as a highly dangerous haul of drugs have been handed over to a few low-ranking police officers for safe custody.
The story gets even more juicier. The latest investigations reveal that this has been the practice during the last so many years to recycle the apprehended narcotics back to the streets by the very same officers in charge with the ‘understanding’ of their superior officers – under the very snotty nose of the law! So far it has escaped the eyes of the law how those narcotics officers including who knows colluding politicians connected with drug rings are getting super-rich. Some of the palatial residences they occupy their lifestyles as well as their investments show the extent of the money spread.
Most importantly the aspect that is not easily understood is the reason why these ‘so-called court exhibits’ need to be held in totality. One would imagine in this day and age with the available technology it is possible to suitably record, photograph such materials, and only statistically representative samples kept for court exhibits. The rest of the drugs that are more dangerous out in the street almost as fissionable radioactive materials should be destroyed in a fully transparent manner that will leave no legal stone unturned for its thoroughness or veracity.
THE NEW GOVERNMENT IS ON THE RIGHT PATH. LET US BRING A NEW PARLIAMENT THAT WILL SUIT THE ADMINISTRATION OF PRESIDENT GOTABHAYA – A ONE WITH AN OVERWHELMING OVER 2/3 MAJORITY FOR THE POHOTTUWA! IT IS TIME THE AUGEAN STABLES ARE CLEANED UP!
7 July 2020
Your Excellency David McKinnon
High Commissioner for Canada in Sri Lanka
33A, 5th Lane
Colpetty
Colombo 3
Sri Lanka
Dear High Commissioner David McKinnon: Re: Your Canada Day Message to Sri Lanka.
We must stand together and embrace our diversity as strength.” And you continued and said, Canada would continue to support the reconciliation process through their long-standing collaboration on national languages and by assisting with demining work,”
High Commissioner, did you not hear a chorus of Sinhlese voices responding to you saying Oya okkoma boru..boru.” With your smattering of the Sinhalese language, I suppose you were able to translate what they said. If you didn’t, well this is what they said, All what he said was lies..lies.” And do you know what High Commissioner McKinnon, I agree with those Sinhalese voices 100 per cent. What you said was a load of Diplomatic disingenuous goody-two shoes, poppycock. But since your bellywyck is Trade, I will excuse you for your partial ignorance about Canada’s acceptance of foreigners who are non-white as equals.
Here is a splendid opportunity for you to understand without prejudice, the ingrained white policy” in employment in Canada…”to embrace our diversity as strength.” Nonsense! You cannot embrace an inequitable population of Asian-browns and african/west indian blacks among the Canadian-whites and tell me that is where our Strength is.
Ummmm….Dream on High Commissioner McKinnon.
Diversity, of a Canadian Doctor qualified in Canada could practise medicine with no problem anywhere in Canada , but a Doctor qualified in Sri Lanka will be changing bed-pans in a Senior’s Home. Such diversity has no strength, except for disappointment, and losing one’s dignity. And some ‘Brown’ and ‘Black’ PhDs would be taxi drivers or Security Guards. I have met them all, That should be an exercise of a realty check for you, and you will be amazed!.
And here are the reasons :
The Victoria Memorial Museum in Ottawa was closed in 1969, promising the public that it will be opened with brand new exhibition Halls in a year, They didn’t have a clue what they were talking about as they knew nothing about Museum exhibition design.
The National Museums Corporation of Canada created a Design and Display Division, to research, interpret the Natural and Human Sciences and write storylines, design and construct 15 brand new Halls for the National Museum of Natural Sciences and the National Museum of Man. This Division was housed at 39, McArthur Road in Vanier.
This new Division had no difficulty to fill the positions of Chief (Tom Wood -War artist), Head of Design (Jacques Saint Cyr, The designer of the Maple leaf in the Canadian flag), and Head of Administration – Retd, Army Major Charles Jessop). But they had difficulty to fill the position of Head of Thematic Research, with liberal research- a scientist who would understand design in Canada). So they went Headhunting and found ‘yours-truly’, Asoka Weerasinghe, a research scientist (Geology/Palaeontology), an award-winning published poet, an award-winning artist and a sculptor in England, a musician/composer on the piano.
So they invited me to come over to join the Museums Design and Display team on 2 June 1970. I accepted the offer and left a very good paying job as a Geologist at an engineering firm, Marples Ridgway in London.
After my Canadian immigration clearance in London I arrived in Ottawa on the 16th October and started working on 1 November., 1970, At the end of March, 1971, Tom Wood, Jacques Saint-Cyr, Charlie Jessop and I, Asoka Weerasinghe, received letters from the Public Service Commision requesting us to come to their offices on Albert Street, to sign the papers of permanency on 1st April. All four of us were quite pleased.
On Wednesday, 31 March, 1971, morning, the phone rang at the office, and a person from the Public Service Commission tell’s me, Mr. Weerasinghe, please ignore the letter that we sent you to come over tomorrow to sign the papers of permanency. It was sent to you in error.”
Is this some kind of an April Fools joke. Are the other three coming over to sign the papers”, I asked.
Yes, Mr. Weerasinghe, but we have decided to open the competition for your job across Canada.” I was smarting by then.
Let’s cut out that ‘bull-shit, I said. You guys couldn’t find anyone to fill that position, and you found me in London, England, and invited me. I left an excellent job in London as a Geologist and here I am, and you tell me this.
If I had known that there was a White policy” in employment in Canada which Says –
If you are White, you are alright
but if you are Black stay back,
and if you are Brown stick around,
Yes, my skin colour is a beautiful shade of an Azetic-Bronze- Brown, but I won’t stick around. And I give you until noon on Monday, to make up your mind whether you want My services or not. If you don’t want me, I will be on the first plane back to London, England, where I came from. Let me tell you one thing. It was not the country Canada that made me decide to come over, it was the creative job in the National Museums, to interpret Sciences to the public through exhibits, an opportunity that I wouldn’t have missed. A dream that I had since I was a child in Sri Lanka, to work in a Museum.”
Well, High Commissioner McKinnon, the National Museums Corporation was bothered and was in an upheaval. And the issue went up to the Corporation ‘s Museums Directors and finally to the Deputy Minister for National Museums, Mr MacKenzie.
On Monday, 5 April, 1971, morning the phone rang at the office. It was a staffer from the Public Service Commission, who said, Mr. Weerasinghe, we are sorry for the confusion, please come to our offices to sign the papers.,”
Thank you. It was an excellent decision, as it is a Win-win situation, for me as I know I would love working at the Museums creating 15 brand new Halls, and the Victoria Memorial Museum gains an excellent creative research-Scientist. But please don’t tell me that there was a confusion” about my appointment. Rubbish! as you all knew exactly what it was all about. As it was all about the beautiful brown colour of my skin, which I am very proud of.
And there is one thing that you can be sure of. It is that no white-Canadianis going to take my dignity away because I am Brown-skinned, a member of the visible minority population.
High Commissioner McKinnon, if you ask me the question, Asoka after 50 years in Canada, do you think that things have changed for the better to erase your ‘Second Class citizen” attitude in Canada, my answer is an emphatic No”.
And I am still waiting after 50 years in Canada for your Manthra to happen – We must stand together and embrace our diversity as strength.” The time has arrived for you to go and preach it to your, hypocritical, bigot-White-Canadians, High Commissioner McKinnon.
Minorities in the Public Service – Let us be visible from top down Re: 1 in 5 PS recruits to be visible minority, Aug. 19.
I have waited 34 years to read a headline like this one. And I am glad of the news. It has been a long wait. I believe in the honesty of Privy Council Clerk Alex Himelfarb and that he is the person who will get the job done. It certainly makes sense to hold back the performance pay and bonuses of deputy ministers and senior executives of federal departments if they will not achieve these targets,
Not that there is a lack of bright, clever, intelligent, diligent, qualified visible minority candidates waiting to enter the public service, There are oodles of second-generation visible minority youngsters graduating from universities who can be eligible for such appointments. And, of course, their parents, with university degrees, with years of work experience, and the cream of the crop in their professions in their home countries, can be picked like potatoes from the taxi, security, cleaning and retail industries.
However, I hope that such recruitment will not be an exercise to cluster the new visible minority recruits at the bottom of the public-service employment scales to make up the numbers, but that they would be spread right along the ladder up to senior executive levels,
Although I cringe and have some difficulty accepting there will be two lists for recruitment one for whites”, and another for non-white”’ – unquestionably an aparthied system – I don’t care at this point anymore, as long as the federal government, which has encouraged these visible minorities to immigrate to Canada in the first place, gives back their dignity.
Asoka Weerasinghe, Gloucester
Say what you may, High Commissioner David McKinnon, your intentions may be genuine and sincere, to say to Sri Lankans in your Canada Day message that We must stand together and embrace our diversity as strength.” I don’t see how you could when the Canadian racist ‘white’ bigots will not allow the Brown and Black visible minorities stand shoulder to shoulder with the Canadian-whites, that exercise will not be possible. Embrace” you said. Let’s not be naive.
One late autumn of 1971, Dr. William Taylor, the Director of the National Museum of Man called me into his office and told me, Asoka we are in trouble with the storyline for the Orientation Hall because the Ethnologist and the North-West Archaeologist cannot agree.
You are an anthropologist, a geologist and palaeontologist and also and also an archeologist and poet, why don’t you hide yourself for two days at home and come up with a long poem to see whether we could break this negative spell.”
So this brown Asian-poet did as asked by Dr. Bill Taylor. The long Poem – The Trail of Mankind was accepted as the storyline for the Orientation Hall without an addition, editing or substraction.
High Commissioner, you may recall this Hall which was on the right when you entered the Victoria Memorial Museum with a human skeleton at the entrance with a crown on its head, and the long poem was piped softly from the recesses of the ceiling and also on panels. So this coloured brown Asian scientist-poet won the day for the National Museum of Man. So that was all the fuss about hiring me, a coloured. And I was not willing to let any White- Canadian take away my dignity as I am a proud coloured-Asian, proud of the colour of his skin.
4, Story No. 4. High Commissioner David McKinnon, here is the text book example of proof positive that yours and my 1975 Canada was well into practising ‘apartheid’, not allowing a Brown-coloured person to be appointed to a higher position in a Federal government Department, or a Black applicant for that matter.. .Your truly, Asoka Weerasinghe, is a brown-coloured Sri Lankan who was employed by National Museums Corporation as the Head,’
Thematic Research Section of the Design and Display Division in Ottawa. They found me in London, England, and thought that I would fit in the position perfectly. And I came to Ottawa on an invitation by Canada’s National Museums Corporation. Started working on 1 November 1970.
The first two floors of the Victoria Memorial Museum with eight brand new Halls was officially opened by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, on October 4, 1974. I was assigned to guide Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and his wife Margaet Trudeau through the Halls.
The International Museum reviews said they were excellent.
I continued working on the brand new exhibition Halls on the 3rd and 4th floors interpreting Canada’s Natural and Human Sciences.
I created, for Canada, exhibits of World Class- Excellence, within the walls of the Victoria Memorial Museum on Argyle Street.
Then, the summer of June 1975 came around and there was a meeting called at the Museum of Natural Science, Interpretation Division, and chaired by the Chief of Interpretation (Al.H). All who attended were white” Interpreters trying to create new exhibits, After the meeting was over, the Mammologist who attended the meeting, made a beeline to my office and said ‘Watch out Asoka, they are coming at you with their daggers drawn!”.
What really happened”, I asked. Al, told us that,we cannot knock
Asoka’s work, but we cannot let a coloured guy tell us what to do.” High Commissioner, if this comment is not one of raw classic ‘Apartheid’, then what is it.?”
High Commissioner David McKinnon, this white-Canadian got my goat as no White-Canadian will try to undermine my dignity since my skin colour was that of a beautiful shade of an Azetec-bronze.
Follow this conversation that I had with Al.H.
Al, what’s this announcement that you made at the meeting about exhibits, telling the interpreters to not to corporate with me, the
Head of Thematic Research Section of the Design and Display Division, by saying, ‘We cannot knock Asoka’s work, but cannot let a coloured guy tell us what to do’.
You disappoint me Al. Since we may have to work together for at least another five years, that observation of my colour should not have been brought into our work. Especially, with my 20 white-staff minus one, the Botanist, Dr. Fazal Mohammad, a Bangladeshi, working on the Botany Hall.
Do you know what Al, I am quite aware that you white-guys have difficulty to accept that I, the brown-Asian, in the Museums campus in Ottawa, was identified by the Deputy Minister Mckenzie, to lead the Musuomobile Programme, and informed by memo to all the Directors of Museums of the Corporation.
This is going to hurt you Al, as my observation about you and of your colour is most acceptable by me – that my Brown colour is on the crown of your Head, and your White is on the sole of my feet.
But that’s OK! I have no reason to point it out to anyone.
So lets not be stupid about all this, and you better come down from your high-horse. I know you seem stunned by my observation and seem that I have choked you. And now you know where I am coming from.
Let’s shake hands, forget about all this. I have no intention to declare war on you, and I hope you will sanitize yourself with your Apartheid’ notions about coloureds, specially me, as I won’t
take it that kindly. Lets have some harmony at our workplace. Al, now that you know where I am coming from, and the contributions of Excellence” that I have contributed to these exhibition Halls , let’s enjoy our Interpretive-creations and be proud of ourselves. Yes, I’m a coloured, a Brown, and so are you a coloured, an egg-shell White, and as a poet I could conjure the images of two beautiful people. Brown and an egg-shell White/ a halo of a heavenly delight…”
Let’s shake hands Al. Come on, let’s not be stupid. We both have
great jobs to do, and let’s enjoy it. I have no hard feelings anymore. Trust me.”
High Commissioner McKinnon,we were cautious from then on and
not trample each other’s toes, and we were extremely civil.
High Commissioner McKinnon, back to your comment in your Canada Day message to Sri Lankans, We must stand together and embrace our diversity as strength” is a charm for a Happy Canada. Since Canada is peppered with white- racist bigots, you will have to drum your manthra into their thick-skulls to succeed. I don’t think it would happen in my lifetime, but I pray that it happens during your lifetime, and for you to be proud of being a citizen of non-racist- Canada.
Sincerely,
Asoka Weerasinghe (Mr)
Colombo, July 8: Sri Lanka is likely to re-list some foreign organizations and individuals as terrorist” under UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution No: 1373 following intelligence reports that a group of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadres, including some rehabilitated ones, could be planning to stage suicide attacks on the lines of the Black Tigers”, a Sri Lankan expert on terrorism close to the government said.
The Lankan media said on Wednesday quoting the police, that four persons were arrested on information that there had been a plan to commemorate Black Tiger Day’ on July 5 this year with a suicide blast. Last Saturday, a bomb prematurely exploded in a house in Iyakkachchi in Kilinochchi. One of the injured is reportedly a rehabilitated LTTE cadre. He reportedly succumbed to his injuries on Wednesday.
Black Tiger Day is commemorated by the acolytes of the LTTE every year on July 5 to honor the LTTE’s first suicide bomber Vallipuram Vasanthan alias Capt. Miller, who drove an explosives-laden truck into an Lankan army camp in Nelliyadi in Jaffna district in July 5, 1967, killing anywhere between dozens of soldiers.
On April 1, 2014, the Sri Lankan government headed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa announced that it was banning sixteen organizations and four individuals under UNSC 1373, to freeze their funds, resources and assets. In addition,
As per a press release issued by the then Minister of External Affair, G.L.Peries, the Foreign Terrorist Organizations that were banned for alleged involvement with terrorism were: the LTTE; Tamil Rehabilitation Organization; Tamil Coordinating Committee; British Tamil Forum; World Tamil Movement; Canadian Tamil Congress; Australian Tamil Congress; Global Tamil Forum; National Council of Canadian Tamils; Tamil National Council; Tamil Youth Organization; World Tamil Coordinating Committee; Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam; Tamil Eelam Peoples’ Assembly; World Tamil Relief Fund; and Headquarters Group.
The foreign individuals listed were: Perinbanayagam Sivaparan alias Nediyabvan ; Rev.Fr.S.J.Emmanuel; Visuvanathan Ruthirakumaran, and Sekarampillai Vinayakamooorthy alias Vinayagam. A further 424 individuals had also been listed as terrorists and banned.
In March 19, 2015 an AFP report said that the government announced plans to remove 16 groups and hundreds of Tamils from a list of foreign terrorists” as part of an ethnic reconciliation process. The then Foreign Minister, Mangala Samaraweera, told parliament that the Rajapaksa regime had banned them to build up hysteria about an LTTE regrouping.” He further said that reviewing this list of individuals and entities is an important exercise at this juncture when the government of President Sirisena is seriously committed to expediting the reconciliation process.” Samaraweera also said that some of the 400-odd individuals list were long since dead and gone.
According to the terrorism expert quoted earlier, the Good Governance” regime dismantled the security apparatus set up after the war to keep an eye on the ex-cadres of the LTTE both in Lanka and overseas. With the result, there have been at least a dozen attempts at terrorism since the end of the war in May 2009,” the expert said.
While the LTTE’s military structure in Sri Lanka was destroyed by the Lankan forces, its shipping, commercial and political networks are still active in various parts of the world. In fact, Black Tigers Day is observed without let or hindrance in Tamil Nadu, UK, Canada, Europe and Australia.”
This year, the Black Tigers‘ Day was observed in Sydney Australia with a New South Wales MP, Hugh McDermott, as the Chief Guest. According to a report in Tamil Guardian of July 6, : Photos of 346 Black Tigers were displayed and the event ceremony was initiated by ex-LTTE cadre, Salkillai and his brother and ex-Sea Tigers training teacher, Vetharasa Dinesh, who both lit up the memorial flame.”
The Australian Aboriginal flag, the Australian flag and the Tamil Eelam national flag, were hoisted by the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam Australian representative and member, Perinbarasa Mukunthan, New South Wales MP, Hugh McDermott and Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam Australian representative and member Kalirasa Naventhira, respectively.”
In his speech Australian MP Mc.Dermott said: As you know I was attacked by the Sri Lankan government for supporting Tamils. I want to thank the Tamil community for rallying behind me. Not only here in Australia but all throughout the world. This fight is just the beginning. We will have recognition of the genocide and the systematic discrimination of Tamils. This fight has a long way to go, the current government is full of war criminals. I stand with you. May god bless everybody who gave a sacrifice that are not here today.”
Meanwhile in Sri Lanka, with the election fever increasing, seoratist Tamil nationalism has come to the fore with politicians and aspiring candidates vying to identify themselves with the LTTE and its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran who tried to establish an independent Tamil Eelam by force of arms. The former Chief Minister CV.Wigneswaran who is a key figure in the campaign in the Tamil-majority North Sri Lanka openly stated that Prabhakaran was his younger brother” and would always be.
The terrorism expert quoted above added that apart from banning the existing pro-LTTE organizations and individuals, the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government should re-establish the security system in the North and East, which were dismantled by the previous regime.
The armed forces should be brought close to the people by getting them involved in agriculture, construction and other grass roots level development activities,” he said. (The article originally appeared in Daily Express)
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has briefed the cabinet on Wednesday on the success of the economic fundamentals adopted to face the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and said Sri Lanka’s exports revenue had overtaken the imports revenue for the first time since the open economy was introduced in 1977, Cabinet spokesman and Minister Bandula Gunawardana said yesterday.
In June, Sri Lanka’s exports revenue has topped US$ 1,020 million while US$ 961 million has been spent on imports, saving US$ 59 million after four decades, Minister Gunawardana told the media at the weekly cabinet news briefing.
The government has been able to achieve this success after the imposition of import restrictions imposed soon after Gotabaya Rajapaksa assumed presidency in November last year. The Rajapaksa government clamped down on the import of food items, fruits, vegetables, spices and other commodities which can be produced locally. You may recall how the Yahapalana Government issued permits to import kites, Vesak lanterns, candles, toys, spices, pepper and even cashew with no concern at all on the unrestricted draining of foreign reserves,” Minister Gunawardana stressed.
Uncontrolled imports had contributed to the rapid depreciation of the rupee against the dollar under the Yahapalana Government and as a result, the rupee devalued against the dollar to Rs.180 by 2020 from Rs.131 in 2014, he added.
Minister Gunawardana said one of the main objective of import restriction was to increase foreign reserves and thereby appreciate the value of the rupee against the dollar.
President Rajapaksa is of the view that restriction of non essential or highly luxurious imports has begun to pay dividends. Despite the global recession brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, Sri Lanka has been able to keep the rupee around Rs. 180 against the dollar and make more exports than imports. This will appreciate the rupee against the dollar and contribute to bring down the cost of living,” Minister Gunawardana emphasized. (Sandun A Jayasekera)
Fifty-six persons from the Kandakadu Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre and a female counselor employed at the center have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, COVID-19.
Prior to being transferred to the Welikada Prison, the recently COVID-19 infected inmate had been detained at the Kandakadu Rehabilitation Centre for 03 months.
Accordingly, 450 inmates and staff at the Rehabilitation Center had been subjected to PCR tests.
So far, 56 among them have been confirmed to have contracted the virus, stated the Department of Government Information.
Meanwhile, a female from the Marawila area has also tested positive for coronavirus this morning (09). She is identified to be a counselor employed at the Kandakadu Rehabilitation Centre.
Health sectors and security forces are currently taking all necessary action for testing and quarantining in relation to the matter, states the Government Information Department.
With the new cases, the total number of COVID-19 cases reported in the country has spiked to 2,151 cases.
Four lorries, two vans and a luxury car belonging to two police officers attached to the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) have been taken into custody from Pallewela, Gampaha this evening (09).
These PNB officers in question are currently under detention over the alleged links they had with drug dealers.
The raid was carried out by the officers of the crimes investigation unit of Gampaha Police, under the supervision of Senior Superintendent of Police of the said police division, on a tip-off received by the Senior DIG in charge of the Western Province.
One of the four lorries belongs to a Police Sergeant and the rest of the vehicles were owned by a Sub-Inspector, according to reports.
All these vehicles had been rented to a factory in the area of Banduragoda in Pallewela.
The two vans were registered under a relative of the PNB Sub-Inspector, who was employed at the said factory, the police said.
The seized vehicles are to be handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for further investigations.
The Cabinet of Ministers has granted its approval to upgrade Gampaha Wickramarachchi Ayurvedic Institute as a fully-fledged university.
The relevant proposal was tabled by the Minister of Higher Education, Technology and Innovations during the recent meeting of Cabinet ministers.
Gampaha Wickramarachchi Ayurvedic Institute, which is currently affiliated to the University of Kelaniya under the University Grants Commission (UGC), offers undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Ayurveda and allied sciences.
Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour” the policy framework of the country had identified the institution to be upgraded as a fully-fledged university.
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa says that attacking the Rajapaksa’s was the main objective of bringing the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.
The Prime Minister expressed these views while participating at a meeting held in Mawanella today.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse states the Muslims should join the present government irrespective of party affiliation
The Prime Minister made this observation while addressing the Muslim community in Kurunegala.
Kurunegala District Muslim Conference was held under the patronage of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, while a group of electoral activists of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress joined hands to support the present government
Despite the repatriation of Sri Lankan workers from abroad in the wake of COVID-19 spread made a considerable change to our overall employment profile, Sri Lanka’s aim was to secure the lives of our workforce, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said.
Sri Lanka has a considerable workforce that is employed outside the country. Even during the period when restrictions for air travel were in force, we have repatriated nearly 15,000 Sri Lankans from destinations abroad so far” President said addressing ILO Global Summit on ‘COVID-19 and the World of Work – Building a Better Future of Work’ today (08).
The Summit, hosted by the International Labour Organization, commenced on July 01 will continue till July 09. Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres, Director-General of the World Health Organization Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu, and several world leaders addressed the largest ever online gathering of workers, employers, and governments.
Participants discuss addressing the economic and social impact of the pandemic, which has laid bare the extreme vulnerability of millions of workers and enterprises.
President Rajapaksa, addressing the Summit, stated he appreciates the efforts that all countries have taken for smooth sailings of their ‘Worlds of Work’ at this sensitive period when all are fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 posed us with perhaps the greatest human crisis in the modern period. As a result, the ‘World of Work’ is undergoing a massive reorganization in the post-COVID-19 period in developed as well as developing countries alike”.
Explaining the Sri Lankan context, President said that particular attention was paid to safeguarding the Sri Lankan workforce from the shockwave that was created by the impact the pandemic had on the global economy.
President said: We have an active labor force of 8.6 million, out of which, the private sector employs nearly 3.5 million. The social security measures that we introduced during the COVID outbreak covered all sectors of this workforce.”
The most notable one was the payment of a fixed monthly allowance (of Rs. 5,000/-) to the most affected self-employed categories in our workforce during April and May. These included all employees on a daily wage as well as many other vulnerable categories such as pre-school teachers and self-employed persons”, President said.
The Sri Lankan workers who returned from overseas will now have the choice to join the local labor force, without returning to their original countries of employment. This in turn will shape the ‘new normal’ of our ‘world of work’.
Skills sector of Sri Lanka required a re-thinking and re-engineering, in order to accommodate the new normal of the post-COVID period said the President adding that ‘Re-skilling’ and ‘upskilling’ of employees will be addressed in our action plan to empower those who lost employment during this crisis.”
Full text of the message delivered by the President:
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am very pleased to have this opportunity to share my thoughts at the ILO Global Summit on COVID-19 and the World of Work – Building a Better Future of Work”.
I wish to appreciate the efforts that all countries have taken for smooth sailings of their ‘Worlds of Work’ at this sensitive period when we all are fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 posed us with perhaps the greatest human crisis in the modern period. As a result, the ‘World of Work’ is undergoing a massive reorganization in the post COVID-19 period in developed as well as developing countries alike.
Sri Lanka is a developing economy with a sensitivity to external determinants. We paid particular attention to safeguard our work force from the shock wave that was created by the impact that this pandemic had on the global economy.
We have an active labour force of 8.6 million, out of which, the private sector employs nearly 3.5 million. The social security measures that we introduced during the COVID outbreak covered all sectors of this workforce.
The most notable one was the payment of a fixed monthly allowance (of Rs. 5,000/-) to the most affected self-employed categories in our work force during April and May. These included all employees on a daily wage as well as many other vulnerable categories such as pre-school teachers and self-employed persons.
Sri Lanka has a considerable workforce that is employed outside the country. Even during the period where restrictions for air travel were imposed, we have repatriated nearly 15,000 Sri Lankans from destinations abroad so far. Although this made a considerable change to our overall employment profile, our aim was to secure the lives of our work force. This fraction of the labour force will now have the choice to join the local labour force, without returning to their original countries of employment. This in turn will shape the ‘new normal’ of our ‘world of work’.
Skills sector of Sri Lanka required a re-thinking and re-engineering, in order to accommodate the new normal of the post-COVID period. ‘Re-skilling’ and ‘upskilling’ of employees will be addressed in our action plan to empower those who lost employment during this crisis.
Sri Lanka has pledged to eliminate hazardous child labour by 2022. Abiding by this commitment, our Department of Labour continued to conduct investigations on complaints received regarding hazardous child labour even during the lockdown period of COVID-19 outbreak.
Providing an umbrella cover to all activities related to the labour force is the Tripartite Task Force chaired by our Minister of Labour. This Task Force acts as a point of convergence where employment security, wage reconsideration and all related issues are discussed between representatives of employers, employees and the Labour officials.
Excellencies, I believe that the COVID-19 situation globally has not reached an equilibrium where countries can start having long term plans. However, it has given ample opportunities for creating a new normal in the short term and consolidating it in the medium term. Sri Lanka views this as a stepping stone towards re-shaping her ‘world of work’ to suit the new normal in the post-COVID 19 period.
I sincerely hope and wish that this opportunity will serve as a means for all countries to re-align their ‘worlds of work’ accordingly and emerge safer and stronger after this global calamity.
Thank you.”
හැඳින්වීම
1861 දී ජනාධිපති චන්දය කාලයේ ලින්කන් සිටියේ වහල් ක්රමයට පක්ෂවය. එහෙත් කාලයත් සමඟ ඔහු ඊට විරුද්ධ පරිණාමය වූයේය. ඒ වන විට වහල් ක්රමය රැකගැනීමට සටන් කල දකුණේ වහල් හිමියන්ද, ඔවුන්ගේ උදව්වට එන මෙන් තම වහළුන් ගෙන් ඉල්ලන තරමට හෙම්බත්වී සිටියේය. සිවිල් යුද්ධයේ ආරම්භයේදී ලින්කන්ට තිබූ බලවත්ම ප්රශ්ණයවූයේ හරිහමන් යුද හමුදාපතියෙක් හොයා ගැනීමය. දෙපැත්තෙන්ම ලක්ෂ ගණනක් මියගිය පසු, යුද් ධය දිණූ පසු ලින්කන් අණකලේ සතුරාට සිය තුවක්කුවද සමඟ ආපසු තම ගංබිම් බලා යන ලෙසටය. වහළුන්ට නිදහස ලබාදීමේ ප්රඥප්තියේ තීන්ත වේලිමටත් පෙර, 1865 දී ලින්කන්ව ඝාතනය කරණ ලද්දේ වහල් ක්රමය නැතිකිරීම නිසා උරණවූ පිරිස්වල කෙනෙක් විසිනි.
අතිගරු බාලසිංහම්
ලින්කන්ගේ මේ පරිවර්තනය මට සිහිකලේ ජී. එල්. පීරිස් මහතා අහම්බෙන් වැටුණ ඔහුගේ දේශපාලන ගමනය. සමහර විට ශිරානි බණඩාරනායක හරහා චන්ද්රිකා හඳුනාගෙන, නීලන් තිරුචෙල්වම්, ජයම්පති වික්රමරත්නලාද සමඟ රට කැබලි කිරීමේ පැකේජ් ඩීල් වලට, 1995-2000 කාලයේදී හවුල්වූ ඔහු, වික්රමසිංහ අගමැති සමයේ ඇන්ටන් බාලසිංහම්ට හිස් එක්ෂලන්සි යයි කියා ආමන්ත්රණය කරන්නට පවා ඩිප්ලොමැටික් විය. ඔහුගේ ඉල්ලීමට ලංකාවට ආදරය කල ස්කොට් ජාතික පෝල් හැරිස්ට ලංකාවේ පදිංචිවීමට නොදී රටින් පිටුවහල් කල විදේශ ඇමති ඔහුය. පෝල් කල වරද, 2002 සටන් විරාම ගිවිසුම ලෝකයේ ලොකුම පාවාදීම යයි කල ප්රකාශයය!
බකල් වුන පෙඩරල් මඟුල නොහොත් රටේ වාසනාව
මේ හැමටම වඩා චමත්කාර ජනක වූයේ, ඔස්ලෝ ගිවිසුම මඟින් ප්රභාකරන් විසින් ඊළමක් වෙනුවට පෙඩරල් භාරගෙන, පැරඩයිම් වෙනසක් කලා යයි ජී. එල්. කල උදම් ඇණීමය. නමුත් ප්රභාකරන් කලේ ඒ ගැන බාලසිංහම්ට බැණවැදීමය! නොයෙක් ආකාරයේ අවතාර වශයෙන් පෙනී සිටි ඔහු මෑතක් වන තුරුම පෙඩරල් පප්පා කෙනෙක්ම විය. ඉන් පසු සිදුවූයේ 17 දෙනාගෙන් කෙනෙක් වශයෙන්, ජී. එල්. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ රජයට ඒමය. කරු ජයසූරිය ආපසු ගියත්, ජී. එල්. ගියේ නැත. එතැන් සිට දිගටම ඔහු රැඳී සිටියේ ජාතික ලැයිස්තු වෙන් ආ ඇමති කෙනෙක් වශයෙනි. සජින් වාස් ගුණවර්ධනට පිඟන් කඩේට ඇතුල්වූ ගොනෙක් මෙන් හැසිරෙන්නට ඉඩ දෙමින්ම, විදේශ ඇමතිකමේ සිටීමට තරම් ඔහු නිහතමානී විය.
අහිංසක ගාමිණී ලක්ෂ්මන්
2015 දී මහින්ද සුළඟ හා ඉන් පසු පොහොට්ටු පක්ෂය පිහිටුවීමෙන් පසු හා විශේෂයෙන් ගෝඨාභය ජනාධිපතිවීමත් සමඟ, ලින්කන් වහළුන් නිදහස් කලා මෙන් ජී. එල්. ද පෙඩරල් පීල්ලෙන් එලියට පැන ඇතැයි සිංහලයා සිතුවේය. පෙඩරල් බදාගෙන හොරගල් අහුලන කීප දෙනෙක්ම පොහොට්ටුවේ සිටින බව රහසක් නොවේ. මේ අය නිහඬ බොදු බල සේනාවට හා හාමුදුරුවරුන්ට ඇති භය නිසාය. නමුත් දැන්, සජිත් ප්රෙමදාසගේ යාපනේ 13 වන සංශොධන ප්රකාශයෙන් හා අගමැති මහින්ද විසින් 13-ඒ හරහා රට බෙදීමේ සජිත්ගේ ජනාධිපති චන්ද ප්රකාශණය උපුටා දක්වමින් නිකුත් කල නිවේදනයෙන් පසුව, ජී. එල් විසින් පලාත් සභා චන්ද ඉක්මණින්ම පවත්වනවා යයි කල ප්රකාශණය නිසා සිංහල බෞද්ධ ජනයා විමතියට පත්වී ඇති බව නිසැකය.
මුන් 225 ම එපා නොහොත් අහක යන නයි කලිසම් සාක්කුවේ දමා ගැනීම
ජී. එල්. වැනි අයෙක් එවැනි ප්රකාශයක් කලේ ඇත්ත ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය වෙනුවෙන්ද, බොරු නාස් ලණු (තන්ත්ර) වාදය වෙනුවෙන්ද, පලාත් සභා රන් ආකර සේ සළකා වැජඹෙන හොරුන් රැළේ චන්ද හා ධන බලය නිසාද, දෙමළ බෙදුම්වාදීන් සතුටු කොට යම් දෙමළ චන්ද ප්රමාණයක්වත් ලබාගත හැකියයි සිතාද, නැතිනම් ඒ නිසා සිංහල චන්ද, විශේෂයෙන් ගෝඨාභය දිනවූ සිංහල බෞද්ධ චන්ද අඩුවී යාමේ අවදානමක් ඇතිබව නොදැනද යන සැක මතු වන්නේය. ඔහුද, මේ ලෝකයේ, ලෝභ-ද්වේෂ-මානයෙන් පිරි තවත් එක පංචස්කන්ධයක් පමණය. කරුණා අම්මාන් සොල්දාදුවන් මැරීම ගැන හෝ හරීන් ප්රනාන්දු කාදිනල්තුමා ගැන හෝ මෙන්, ජී. එල්. ද කටවරද්දා ගත්තාද විය හැකිය. මෙහිදී ඔහු පොහොට්ටුවේ සභාපතිවීම අපට අදාල නැත. ඔහු වැනි අයෙක් සිටිනවා නම් තුනෙන් දෙකක් ලැබුණත් සිංහල බෞද්ධයාට වෙන්නේ මුන් 225 ම එපා යන කතාව අවුරුදු 72 කට පසු දිගටම ගෙන යාමය. සිංහල බෞද්ධයා 2020 න් පසුව, නැවතත්, හිත හොඳ ගෑණියෙක් වී යාම මය.
ජී. එල්. ගේ වැඩිහිටි/වැඩිදුර අධ්යාපනය පිණිසයි
මැරෙණ තුරුම යමෙක් ඉගෙන ගන්නවා යන චීන කියමණ අනුව යමින් ජී. එල්, ගේ අධ්යාපනය පිණිස 2011 හා 2013 දී මා ඉංග්රීසියෙන් ලියූ 13-ඒ සම්බන්ධ දිගු ලිපි දෙකක් මේ සමඟ අමුණන්නේ හුදෙක් සිංහල ජාතියේ අභිවෘධිය පතාය. රට ජාතිය, එක් පුද්ගලයෙකුට හෝ එක් පක්ෂයකට වඩා ඉහළය. විශේෂයෙන්ම, චන්දයෙන් තුනෙන් දෙක ලැබුණු පසු අළුත්, මහජන අනුමැතිය සහිත, ආණ්ඩුක්රම ව්යවස්ථාවක් සදන බව රටට පවසා තිබියදී, ඊට පෙර සිදුවිය යුතු 19 සංශොධන මගඩිය ඉවත් කිරීම වෙනුවට, දැනට වලදමා ඇති පලාත් සභා මර උඟුලට පණ දෙන්නට කතා කරන්නේ ඇයි? මධ්යම ආණ්ඩුවක් හා ජන මූල සභා ක්රමයක් (ජන සභා වශයෙන් ප්රාදේශීය සභා?) ගැන ගෝඨාභයගේ චන්ද ප්රකාශණයේ ඇති ව්යුහයට, නැවත කඩිමුඩියේ පලාත් සභා චන්ද ගෙන ඒමට ජී. එල්. හා දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන ප්ලෑන් කරනවාද? චන්ද දායකයාගේ මනස අවුල් කරන්නට හදන්නේ මක්නිසාද? අළුත් ආණ්ඩුක්රම ව්යවස්ථාවෙන් කල යුතු වන්නේ, 2009 මැයි 19 දා ජනාධිපති යුද ආඥාවකින් අහෝසි කල යුතුව තිබූ 13-ඒ මර උඟුල නමැති පිළිකාවද සහමුලින්ම උඳුරා දැමීමය.
අගමැතිගේ මාධ්ය නිවේදනයේ වැදගත් කොටස මෙසේය:
එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ 2019 ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂකයා ලෙස සජිත් ප්රේමදාස ඉදිරිපත්කල ප්රතිපත්ති ප්රකාශණය-
<ශ්රී ලංකාවේ ඉදිරි ගමනට සීමාවක් නැත. එක්ව ගමන යමු>
ජනතාවගේ ව්යවස්ථාව (පිටු 15-16)
මූලාශ්රය: ලංකා සී නිව්ස්, ජූලි 5, 2020
පලාත් සභා චන්දය වහාම තියනවා යන පොහොට්ටු පණිවුඩය, දෙමළ ඊළම් දේශපාලකයින්ට දෙන කෝඩ් එක (සිග්නල්) නම් ඉහත සඳහන් කාරණා ගැන බලාපොරොත්තු තැබිය හැක යන්නය. ඒ කතාව ඔවුන් විසින් දෙමළ ජනායාට දී ඔවුන් කියන්නේ ඒ නිසා ඔවුන්ට චන්දය දෙන ලෙසය. මේ නිසා සිදුවන්නේ දැනට ඊළම් විරෝධී ලෙස යාපනේ වර්ධනය වන චන්ද (ගෝඨාභය උදෙසා ලැබෙන්නට යන දෙමළ චන්ද) මේ බෙදුම්වාදී දේශපාලකයින්ට ආපසු හැරී යෑමය. මේ නිසා ජී.එල්. ගේ ප්රකාශය බරපතල ඉල්ලන් කෑමකි.
පලාත් සභා නම් හෙණ ගෙඩිය
පලාත් සභා සුදු අලියෙක් නොව කළු යකෙකි. දකුණේ සභා හත ගහ මරා ගන්නා දූෂිත, මහජනයාට සත පහකවත් වැඩක් නැති පිස්සන් කොටු නොවීද? නැඟෙනහිර සභාව හිස්බුල්ලාගේ අරාබි රාජ්යයකට ඉණිමඟක් නොවුනාද? දයාන් ජයතිලකලා වැනි මාක්ස්වාදී, ක්රිස්තියානි කළු සුද්දන් විසින් ඉහලින් වර්ණනාකල විග්නේෂ්වරන් විසින් රටටත්, ලෝකයටත් එලි කලේ 13-ඒ යනු ඊළම් සඳහා යන පෙඩරල් ඉණිමඟක් බව නොවේද? කොටින්ම කියතොත්, ඔස්ට්රේලියාවේ සිට තමන්ටම තුප්පහියා යයි කියා ගන්නා, දෙමළන් ජාතික ගීය ගායනා කල යුතුය යන ව්යාපාරයේ සඟවුණු පියාවූ, ගාල්ලේ උපන්, බර්ගර් ජාතික, මයිකල් රොබට්ස්ට පවා අන්තිමේදී තේරුණ අන්දමට, ඊළමක් එපා කියන මධ්යස්ථ දෙමළෙක් නැත මතය, කොළඹ ඉපදී, කොළඹින් සියළු දේම ලබාගත්, පුත්තු දෙන්නාටම සිංහල ලේලිලා ලබාගත් විග්නේෂ්වරන් ක්රියාවෙන්ම ඔප්පු කලේය. 1948 සිට සිංහල ආණ්ඩු දෙමළ සංහාරයක් කරගෙන යනවා යයි කීමටත්, උතුරට බුදු පිළිම එපා, පොල් රා එපා, නිරිත දිග මෝසම් (වාරකන්) සුළං කාලයේ උතුරට ධීවරයින්ට එන්න දෙන්න එපා යයි කීමට තරම් පහත්, දීන මිනිහෙක් බවට ඔහු පත්වූයේ ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ විසින් ප්රජා (තන්ත්ර)නාස්ලණුවාදය අනුව යමින් චන්දයක් තබා, වෙස්සන්තර කෙනෙක්වී, විග්නේෂ්ට උතුරු පලාත බන්දේසියක තබා පුදකල නිසාය (අවුරුදු 30 ක යුද්ධයකින් වූ මානසික හානිය අවුරුදු දෙක තුනකින් සුව කල නොහැකිය. නාසි හානියේ සුව කිරීම් අදටත් කෙරෙමින් පවතී). ඊට කලින් පිළිවෙලින්, ප්රේමදාස හා චන්ද්රිකා, ප්රභාකරන්ට උතුරු පලාත සින්නකර බද්දකට දීමට යෝජනා කලා වැනි විය. හැමදේම සිදුවන්නේ හොඳට වගේ මහින්ද එසේ නොකරන්නට මේ 13-ඒ කෙළියේ තරම රටට එලිවන්නේ නැත. එය දයාන් ජයතිලක ඇමතිද සමඟ වර්ධරාජා පෙරුමාල් උ-නැ මහaැමති රටින් පලායාමට වඩා වෙනස්, බෞද්ධ අහිංසාව ගනයේ අත්දැකීමක් විය. මේ වන විට විග්නේෂ් දමිළ ජනයා ඉදිරියේ අවලංගු කාසියක් වැනිය.
මීනින්ෆුල් ඩෙවොලූෂන්
රොබට් බ්ලේක්, හිලරි ක්ලින්ටන්, මන්මෝහන් සිං, බෑන්කි මූන් ලා ඒකාලයේ ඉල්ලූ නියමාකාරයේ බලය බෙදීම වනාහි වංක දෙමළ දේශපාලකයින් අතලොස්සකට උ-නැ අගමැතිලා වීමටත්, ඒ හරහා ඊළම් පාරක් කපා ගැනීමක් මිස දෙමළ ජනයා බලවත් කිරීමක් නොවීය. මෙය ඒකාලයේ සිංහල දේශපාලන කළු සුද්දන්නට මෙන්ම දැන් 2020 දී ජී. එල්ටත් නොවැටහීම අභාග්යයකි. ඊළම යනු උතුරේ කුලහීන යයි සළකන ජනයා, වෙල්ලාල කුලයට පාවා දීම බවත්, මිලේනියම් ට්රෝජන් අශ්වයාගෙන් එලිවෙන අන්දමට සිංහලයාගේ රට විනාශ කිරීමේ උපායක් බවත් මේ වන විට ඉතාමත් පැහැදිලිය. පාස්කු ප්රහාරයේදී පවා කතෝලික නොවන, ක්රිස්තියානි සුමන්තිරන් කියා සිටියේ ඊට හේතුව මුස්ලිම් සුළු ජන වර්ගයට කරණ අසාධාරණකම් යනුය!
භූගෝල විද්යාව, බුද්ධාගම හා නීති විද්යාව
ඊළම්වාදය පරාද කලයුතු ප්රායෝගිකව හා මතවාදීවය. යුද්ධය මඟින් පරාජය කලේ ප්රභාකරන්වාදය පමණක් නොව, 13-ඒ නම් ජරමරයදය. දෙමළ ජනයාට බලය ලැබෙන්නේ ජන සභා ක්රමය යටතේ බිම් මට්ටමින් ඔවුන්ට තීරණ ගැනීමට දීමෙන්ය. සිංහල, මුස්ලිම් අයටද එසේමය. ගම-වැව-දාගැබ යන අතීත පාලන ත්රිත්වය එවැන්නකි. එය පරිසර විද්යාවට අනුකූල විය. එපමණක් නොව එය රීසනබල් විසඳුමය. නීති විද්යාවේ රීසනබල් යනු බුද්ධාගමේ මධ්යම ප්රතිපදාවය. භූමියේ විවිධත්වය හඳුනා ගන්නා භූගෝල විද්යවට පටහැනි වුනොත් එතැන රීසනබල් කමක් හෝ මධ්යම ප්රතිපදාවක් (කොම්ප්රොමයිස්) නැත. 13 වන සංශොධනයට විරුද්ධ විය යුතු මේ නිසාය.
යම් දමිළ වැසියෙකුගේ පුද්ගලික අවශ්යතා (නීඩ්ස්) හා උවමනාවලුත් (වෝන්ට්ස්), දමිළ සමාජයේ පොදු අභිලාශත් (ඇස්පිරේෂන්ස්) අතර වෙනස හඳුනා ගැනීමට පක්ෂ දේශපාලකයින් අසමත්වීම ඛේදජනකය. ජන සභා මට්ටමෙන් නීඩ්ස් හා වෝන්ට්ස් සපුරා ගත හැකිය. ඒ සඳහා දේශපාලන පූසාරීන් අනවශ්යය. එසේ සපුරා ගැනීමට යාමේදී මහජාතියට ඉන් තර්ජනයක්ද එල්ල නොවේ. ප්රශ්ණය වන්නේ තමන්ගේ පැවැත්ම සඳහා වංක දේශපාලකයින් විසින් ජාතික අභිලාශ කතාවක් ඉදිරියට දැමීමය. එක ජන වර්ගයක අභිලාශ, තවත් ජන වර්ගයක අභිලාශ සමඟ ගැටෙන විටය. උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් යුරෝපය කතෝලික/ක්රිස්තියානි කර තබාගැනීම ප්රංශයේ අභිමතාර්ථයය. යුරෝපයේ රටක් වීම තුර්කියේ අභිලාශයය. මෙයට කියන්නේ යා දෙක නොරත රත කියාය. උ-නැ දෙමළ නිජභූමියක් ඉල්ලන අභිලාශය, සිංහලයාගේ සිංහලේට තර්ජනයකි. නිජ භූමිය ඉල්ලන අය විශාල පිරිසක් ඉන්නේ නිජ භූමියෙන් පිටවීම තුර්කියේ ජනයාගේ නොව තුර්කි දේශපාලකයින්ගේ ඉල්ලීම සිහිකරවයි.
පලාත් නවයේ බෙදීම රටේ භූගෝල විද්යාවට පටහැනි සුද්දාගේ කෘතිම බෙදීමකි. මේ නිසා කලයුතුව ඇත්තේ දැනට ඇති ග්රාම නිලධාරී වසම් 14,022, පරිසර සාධක අනුව නැවත මායිම් කිරීමය. ගංඟා ද්රෝණි, භූගත ජල ද්රෝණි වශයෙන් ඒවා හඳුනාගත යුතුය. එම මායිම් භාෂාව හෝ ආගම හෝ කුලය අනුව නොවිය යුතුය. මෙසේ බිහි කරණ ජන සභා (ජන මූල සභා) එකතු කර පරිසරයට අනුකූල ප්රාදේශීය සභා, ප්රාදේශීය ලේකම් ප්රදේශ මායිම් කල හැකිය. උවමනා නම් දැනට ඇති පලාත් නවයේ කෘතිම බෙදීම වෙනුවට රට ගංඟා නිම්න හතකට බෙදිය හැකිය (සිතියම බලන්න). එසේ නැත්නම් දිස්ත්රික් 25 ට ගැලපෙන සේ ගංඟා නිම්න 25 කට බෙදිය හැකිය. ලංකාවේ තිබෙන්නේ මධ්යම කඳුකරයේ සිට වටේට ගලනා ගංඟා 103 කි. මහවැලි ගඟ හැර විශාල, දිග ගංඟා පද්ධති රටේ නැත.
ඉතා කෙටියෙන් මෙහි සටහන් කලේ 13-ඒ පස්සේ දුවන්නට හදනවා වෙනුවට, පලාත් සභා චන්ද වෙනුවට ඒ මුදල් සිංහල හා දෙමළ භාෂා පාසැල්වල ඉගැන්වීමට විශාල වැඩපිලිවෙලක් සඳහා යොදා ගැනීමය. මේ සඳහා පරිගණක භාෂා ක්රමයක් දැනටමත් පිලියෙල කර එය රටේ පරිගණක වර්ධන වැඩ භාර ආයතනයට (අයි.සී.ටී.ඒ.) ඉදිරිපත් කලත්, එහි දූෂිත නිලධාරී කට්ටල යලි යලිත් එය ප්රතික්ෂේප කලේය!
මේ සමඟ ලින්ක් කර ඇති ලිපි දෙකෙන් හා ලංකාවෙබ් වෙබ් අඩවියෙන් පොතකට සෑහෙන තරමේ විස්තර මේ 13-ඒ මර උඟුල හා ඉන් ගැලවීමේ මඟ වශයෙන් ලියා වාර්තා කර ඇත. ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් රට, ලංකා වෙබ් අඩවියට ණය ගැති වන්නේ සිංහල භාෂාවෙන් මේවා දනගත හැකි වෙන මාධ්යයක් ලෝකයේ කොහේවත් සිංහල ජනතාවට නැති නිසාය.
https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/category/c-wijeyawickrema/
https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2013/03/31/bodu-bala-sena-and-llrc-buddhist-self-reliance/
http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2012/02/llrc-recommendations-and-path-of.html
Lockdown in Chennai? Well, not quite in my building. In the past three months of lockdown, a lot of un-locking has happened — unknown talents, unspoken dreams, unexpected actions.
Don’t tell anyone, but I am going to reveal a few things about my neighbours I believed I knew for years — without really knowing them at all — till a virus made them break out.
Aunty, your bra is showing…
I really never thought I’d see Mrs Ambujam of 5B walking around my neighbourhood in her bra.
Whoever thought this conservative Mami from the flat downstairs would be out hobbling about at 7.30am, in her bright flowery home-made face-bra, (the size looked to be a single 34A cup), standing before me on the fourth circle in the queue? She even pulled the elastic downwards seductively at Ponnusamy, our vegetable man, but only for a brief moment, to admonish him for not putting back his own mask hanging rakishly around one ear.
Ambujam Mami stuffed her yellow LG Asafoetida cloth bag with fresh keerai, and quickly walked past me. Who had time for idle chit-chat when there was so much housework to be done before sitting down to stitch more and more of her home-made face-masks — all from her granddaughter’s unworn dupattas?
Now that the face-bra had become compulsory over-wear, as obligatory to wear in society as underwear, I was so pleased to see that even Ambujam Mami was looking at the fashion industry, excited by the new business opportunities ahead. At first Ambujam Mami had been shocked when that bold Mrs Acharya of her Mylapore Ladies’ Club had suggested this word: ‘Face-bra’ for her home-made masks. Her son had set up something very complicated called Zoom on his laptop for her, but she was thrilled to see familiar faces from her neighbourhood pop up in small squares (even though some were unrecognisable as all she could see were big nostrils and diamond nose-rings) but over time, they learnt to ‘adjust’ and present better angles of themselves when they met twice a week. Face-bra?! Many had giggled in embarrassment over that word, hoping their family wasn’t listening in. But Mrs Acharya’s helpful demos soon had them all raiding their cupboards for new soft material to cut up, pin and stitch and even embellish — what about one with a touch of zari for that postponed wedding of her grand niece, coming up in February ’21?
Of course her cheeky teenager granddaughter had spread the word that her Paati was now making face-bras. And even getting made-to-order requests from her friends. ‘Paati, my friend’s father now wants one, too! But you must make it a plain, manly bra. And how about calling it a ‘Face-Bro’ just for guys, Paati!’
‘Thatha is behaving like a teenager…’
I met Cheenu Mama of 3C just as we both stepped into the lift. Without appearing rude, we both took extreme corners of the small lift, keeping at least a 3-foot distance till our respective floors came up. But in that 15-second masked encounter I did see what Cheenu Mama had furtively picked up in his red plastic shopping bag that day from Surya Greens: pizza bases!
I grinned unseen behind my mask. So Cheenu Mama was fed up of the daily Tam-brahm sambar-rasam-poriyal routine. I simply had to find out What Happened Next.
So I brought up the subject with Meenu Paati, Cheenu Mama’s wife, when I saw her one day at our common corridor. ‘Ayyo, any need for all this? Is he a teenager or what? But he quietly went and bought so many, many things just to make two small pizzas! A whole bottle of some red paste, a box of cheese cubes, expensive coloured koda-molagas, even some horrible mushrooms! Any need? And not to mention one herbs bottle from Amma Nana Stores! So what next, are you going to buy an oven just for this one day, from Viveks? I asked. No need! he says. I saw a YouTube video called Mangala’s Kitchen” where we can make pizza on our gas stove itself, with our tawa. Oho what a fine mess he created — trying to make it all by himself. I spent one hour just cleaning up the kitchen…’
But, hey, did I detect a mischievous delight and pride through this rant about her husband’s bold foray into the kitchen? ‘Meenu Paati! So that’s the great smell I was getting last week from your kitchen! Tell Cheenu Mama, next time, he has to make an extra pizza, just for me.’
Lipstick under my hijab…
It was on an evening terrace walk that I bumped into Jamila Aunty. Well, ‘bump into’ is only an expression; who does that anymore, even accidentally?
I thought I saw an extra spring in her 70+ legs during her walk these days (of course, I guessed the reason, but pretended I didn’t know a thing). ‘Hello Jamila Aunty! How’s life…’ I said, as I saw her emerge from the far end of our mottai-maadi. We stopped a respectful corona-dictated gap, but I felt there was no generation gap between us any more. If what her daughter-in-law Farah said was true!
Well, if I could only be a lizard on the wall of Flat 2B, I would be able to see for myself Jamila Aunty’s guilty secret.
Every Wednesday, at 7 pm, Farah, my good friend from 2B, would be ready, closing herself up in the drawing room for an hour, wearing her dancing shoes and red lipstick, for her Zoom online Salsa classes to begin. But it was only after a month of Wednesdays that Koki Ma’m, Farah’s Salsa teacher, began to spot a face in the far background intently peeping in, inside Farah’s square in the Zoom grid. ‘Watch out, Farah, your ma-in-law is spying on you!’ Koki messaged Farah after class that day.
Farah decided in her next class to see if it was true. Yes! There she was peering from the small grill window in the kitchen, into the drawing room. Farah danced on regardless with her class of eight happy young women — but did notice a huge big smile on her mother-in-law’s face, especially during a rather sexy Latino hip-swing that ended that day’s session.
It was Koki’s cheeky message after class that started it all. ‘Pull her in, Farah! What’s the bet she wants to dance too…’
And that’s how Jamila Aunty’s life changed. ‘Ammi, come, I’ll teach you some basics of Salsa…don’t worry, Ammi, my teacher says there’s no age to start learning; there’s even a 67-year-old lady in her Jive class who doesn’t miss a single day’s session!’
Farah laughed and told me all about this saas-bahu pact that had got Jamila Aunty swinging her hips again — just as she had years and years ago at Farah’s mehendi ceremony. ‘We had all forgotten how surprisingly well she danced. So now it’s our own little secret. Even my husband and kids don’t know a thing! We play Despacito on her cell phone in her bedroom, and I teach her beginner’s ‘shines’ or basic steps of Salsa, but I’m worried if she’s going to get better than me soon… Who knows, she could even join my class, Koki Ma’m insists!’
And you won’t believe what Ammi said today, after a fit of giggles… ‘But what about Koki Ma’m’s rules of your Wednesday class, Farah beti. Okay, I do have some heels I can wear again, but I need to borrow something from you. And only then I’ll be ready to dance — with lipstick under my hijab!’
(Originally published in Lockdown Journal Chennai, July 2020)
(Indu wrote advertising slogans for a living, till the travel-writing bug bit her.(Free travel, free stays, free food!). Her 30-year advertising career at JWT led to her first best-seller, Don’t Go Away, We’ll Be Right Back: The Oops & Downs of Advertising. As a travel/humour columnist, Indu’s writings appear in Lonely Planet, Sunday Hindu, Firstpost, Readers Digest; and five anthologies of stories. Her romantic novel Runaway Writers has been republished in the UK as The Writers Retreat: indubee8@yahoo.co.in)
Colombo, July 8 (newsin.asia): The Sri Lankan Sinhala language feature film, The News Paper” has received a Commendation award at the IndieFEST Film festival, California, US.
The certificate of the award was presented to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa at the Presidential Secretariat today (July 08).
A number of countries including the USA, Italy, India, Australia, Lebanon, Syria, Switzerland and the UK had presented their work to the film festival.
The IndieFEST Film festival admired The News Paper” for its outstanding depiction of liberation, social justice and concepts of antagonism in a motion picture. It is a co-direction of Sarath Kothalawala and Kumara Thirimadura while it was co-produced by Minister Bandula Gunawardana, Ravindra Guruge and H.D. Premasiri.
Dimithri Wijesinghe reviewed the film for The Morning daily
The film tells the story of an unwavering friendship between two individuals on a journey to right a wrong; it is the story of two men from rural parts of Sri Lanka wading their way into the city to request a correction be printed on a newspaper which falsely accuses one of them to be a terrorist and the turbulent passage they endure along the way.
The movie premiered on 2 July and the first show at 10.30 a.m. was made open to the public free of charge. Healthcare services, tri-forces, Police, and media personnel who had been actively engaged in eradicating the Covid-19 virus are allowed to watch the movie once, using their office IDs.
We spoke to both Kothalawala and Thirimadura about the film and this intriguing time in which they are screening their movie.
Household names in the Sri Lankan cinema circuit, especially well-known as comic actors and theatrical performers, the duo stated that they screened the film very briefly prior to Covid-19 and once the pandemic hit; like all other films, they were forced to shut down distribution. However, now with the Government having given the go-ahead for cinema halls to reopen to the public, they said it is their responsibility to provide content that would entice the public to come to the theatres.
They shared that there really is no purpose of cinema halls reopening if there are no films to be screened particularly, as certain films are being withdrawn from cinemas because it would be a loss-making move to keep it up during these times where people are less likely to come see their film.
Thirimadura stated that they have chosen to screen their film in this way because they do not mind biting the bullet if it means it would encourage people to visit the cinema halls to watch the movie, thereby keeping the local cinema industry alive as well.
The duo also stated that as they do hail from the theatre background and are theatre people at heart, there is an underlying hope of success of cinemas reopening, lending itself to the eventual opening of stage dramas to the public as well. Their wish is that in contributing to the reopening of cinemas and hopefully providing for crowds to make their way to the cinema hall, they would in turn make it so that stage dramas too get back to normal and open up.
According to Thirimadura, while globally the entertainment industry is at an all-time high in terms of progression, Sri Lanka is still lagging behind; this is particularly due to the lack of collaboration and involvement on the part of the audiences in the island with the growth and sustenance of the cinema industry. Of course, there are numerous alternatives available now and unless the industry comes up with an extraordinary product, there is no need for the general public to spend their hard-earned money and precious time in a cinema hall.
Noting the fact that there are only 117 cinema halls in this country, which is shockingly low, he said live theatre and cinema are a dying art as technology and streaming has made it so that people would rather stay at home to watch new releases at home.
Thirimadura further shared that in Moratuwa, where he spent his childhood running from one film to the other, there was a total of six halls – namely, Tower, Emess, Manel, Vijitha, Odeon, and Padma – out of which four have been closed down. He said when he first heard that Odeon might close down, his heart skipped a beat and he was overcome with a melancholic feeling because that is where he has caught so many cinematic masterpieces that have inspired him to this day; it had been a place that holds a special place in his heart.
I was devastated when I heard it would close down. It is a shame that this is the state the local cinema industry has come to,” he emphasised.
While The Newspaper has been highly anticipated, there was another element that was cause for intrigue even before its release – it was co-produced by Co-Cabinet Spokesperson Dr. Bandula Gunawardana, Ravindra Guruge, and H.D. Premasiri.
We asked both Kothalwala and Thirimadura about the involvement of a prominent political figure in the country, particularly at such a time when the election is coming up and the political sphere is charged up. They both stated that they are not and have never been the type of people who wish to be entangled with politics, and while the nature of our country is such that one cannot speak or think entirely in isolation without the involvement politics, their film is not a piece of propaganda and you are sure to know this when you watch the film. They said they see no reason to either hide the involvement of a political figure or distance themselves in anyway.
They added that, however, if ever there was anyone who should be recognised for their contribution to cinema, they would have to say it is Minister Bandula Gunawardana as he has been a part of some of Sri Lanka’s cinematic masterpieces and facilitated the creation of them.
With regard to the co-production credit on the film, The Sunday Morning Brunch reached out to Minister Gunawardana. I have been making efforts to be a part of good cinema in Sri Lanka for about 37 years now. At first, I wanted to help make Dharmasiri Bandaranayake’s debut film Hansa Vilak, but I was unable to do so. However, in 1987, I was able to make his film Suddhilage Kathawa which went on to become the Best Film in Sri Lanka that year. Then in the case of Siri Medura, I brought down Parakrama Niriella to direct it, which went on to win nine awards that year including the Best Film. I gave Ayoma starring Swarna Mallawarachchi to Parakrama as well because I have already seen what he can do.”
Speaking about the current film, he said: As for this particular script, Thirimadura is an old student of mine and I saw that he has written a great script and that they were making rounds trying to find someone to produce it for them. They were told that since they are theatre folk coming from the theatre background, they should bring in somebody else to direct it. But I felt that if they wrote the script and will be acting in it, then they are best to direct it too. The concept in their heads cannot be executed better through an outside perspective.”
The Minister went on to add that he has cared deeply about local cinema for years and hopes only to contribute quality productions that we as people can be proud of, through which it will gain worldwide recognition while being entertaining to all.
I have made my best efforts to support good local cinema; back in the day, there was a system where the (National) Film Corporation would provide funds for filmmakers to produce films. However, that is no longer available. In order to support work such as this, I brought Ravindra Guruge and H.D. Premasiri and created the company which will function not as a profit-making entity, but one that will aid filmmakers in a corporative way. If there is a profit to be made, then that will go into a trust to be used for other good films,” he said.
He added that with the accreditation those involved in the film have received, he is glad to have been a part of something that could contribute significantly to Sri Lankan cinema.
Co-directors and stars of the production Kothalawala and Thirimadura stated that they believe their part of the deal is now complete; it is now up to the Sri Lankan audiences to show their support and play an integral role in reviving the local cinema industry. They said that they have created a piece of art they are proud of and hope it will be well received. They invite all Lankans to go and see the film in theatres and have an enjoyable time.
Colombo, July 8 (newsin.asia) – Maldives and Sri Lanka were today verified for having eliminated rubella, making them the first two countries in WHO South-East Asia Region to achieve measles and rubella elimination ahead of the 2023 target.
Protecting all children against these killer and debilitating diseases is an important step in our endeavor to achieve healthier population and health for all,” said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia Region, congratulating Maldives and Sri Lanka on their achievement.
The announcement was made after the fifth meeting of the South-East Asia Regional Verification Commission for Measles and Rubella Elimination, held virtually. The Commission comprises of 11 independent international experts in the fields of epidemiology, virology and public health. A country is verified as having eliminated measles and rubella when there is no evidence of endemic transmission of the measles and rubella viruses for over three years in the presence of a well performing surveillance system.
Maldives reported last endemic case of measles in 2009 and of rubella in October 2015, while Sri Lanka reported last endemic case of measles in May 2016 and of rubella in March 2017.
Coming at a time when the entire world is grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic, this success is encouraging and demonstrates the importance of joint efforts, Dr Khetrapal Singh said, lauding the Ministries of Health, health workforce, partners, and most importantly the communities, who together contributed to this public health achievement.
The Regional Director commended Member countries’ efforts to deliver life-saving vaccines to children even while battling the pandemic. Though mass vaccination activities have been postponed in several countries, it is encouraging to see that efforts are underway to resume them at the soonest,” she said.
In a global survey, more than half of all countries reported moderate-to-severe disruptions, or a total suspension of vaccination services in March and April. Preliminary information from the Region suggests both immunization coverage and surveillance have been impacted. However, countries in WHO South-East Asia Region have been making concerted efforts to resume immunization and surveillance activities and plug gaps that have arisen due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In recent years, all countries in the Region introduced two doses of measles-containing vaccine and at least one dose of rubella-containing vaccine in their routine immunization programme. First-dose coverage of measles-containing vaccine is now 88% and the second-dose coverage 76%. Since 2017, nearly 500 million additional children have been vaccinated with measles and rubella-containing vaccine. Surveillance for measles and rubella has been strengthened further.
We cannot allow for our progress towards measles and rubella elimination to be put on hold or reversed. We must achieve our 2023 target,” the Regional Director said, adding that WHO is committed to supporting Member countries and partners to fully revive immunization and surveillance activities, and to refine the strategic, operational and policy guidelines that will facilitate progress towards our goal.
Now more than ever, we must pull together to realize our vision of a Region in which no child suffers or dies from a disease as easily prevented as measles; where no pregnant woman loses her unborn baby due to a virus as avoidable as rubella; and where no neonate is born with a heart ailment or loss of hearing owing to a tragedy as needless as in-utero rubella infection,” Dr Khetrapal Singh said.
Member countries of WHO South-East Asia Region had in September last year set 2023 as target for elimination of measles and rubella, revising the goal of the flagship programme that since 2014 had focused on measles elimination and rubella control.
Bhutan, DPR Korea and Timor-Leste are other countries in the Region who have eliminated measles.
Convincing the importance of intelligence information to former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was totally absurd, said former Chief of National Intelligence (CNI) Kapila Hendawitharana while testifying before the PCoI probing Easter Sunday attacks today.
Hendawitharana informed the Commission when Ranil Wickremesinghe was serving as the Prime Minister between 2001 and 2004, he did not care about intelligence information provided by military intelligence.
Hendawitharana said that although the army was restricted in many ways during his time as Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI), army intelligence continued to work hard to prepare for the eventual clash with the LTTE.
“However, Mr. Wickremesinghe did not pay heed to our intelligence information,” he said.
A Commission member asked Hendawitharana whether he tried to convince Mr. Wickremesinghe about the need to take intelligence information seriously, he replied “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. This was what I know of them. That was why I tendered my resignation soon after the January 2015 election result. I knew the type of people who would come in. I knew well that I couldn’t work with them, that was why I left,” he said.
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa states that the aim of the United National Party and the Samagi Jana Balavegaya is to gain power at Sirikotha.
The Prime Minister made this statement participating at a public rally held at Katupotha, Kurunegala yesterday.
Meanwhile, the new Consular General for Australia, Sydney, New South Wales and Queensland, Lakshman Hulugalle met Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.
The National Archaeology Conference was held at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute this morning under the patronage of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.<
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa says that the previous government acted to take revenge from his family and not to serve the country.
The Prime Minister said this while participating at a meeting held in Pannala yesterday.
Shylock:
Ay, his breast:
So says the bond: doth it not, noble judge?
‘Nearest his heart:’ those are the very words.
……………………………………
…………………………..
Portia:
Have by some surgeon, Shylock, on your charge,
To stop his wounds, lest he do bleed to death.
In Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice, the vengeful usurer Shylock’s wicked attempt to settle an old score with honest Antonio who stood surety for a loan given to his friend and fellow merchant Bassanio is thwarted by Portia; Shylock demands a pound of flesh cut off from nearest the guarantor’s heart, as required in terms of a bond signed between him and the friends in case of the debtor failing to repay it by the due date. Portia, the rich lady love of Bassanio, contrives to hear the case herself, disguised as a learned doctor of laws. She skillfully demonstrates that the terms of the bond cannot be lawfully implemented if they are adhered to with literal strictness. In her epic judgement, she delivers justice to both Antonio and Shylock so that Antonio doesn’t have to die for his friend’s failure to repay the loan by the end of the agreed period; Shylock is spared capital punishment for trying to abuse the law to take revenge on Antonio, whom he hated. This sort of humane resolution of a conflict between the letter and the spirit of the law hasn’t happened in Sri Lanka recently. Ordinary Sri Lankans’ basic human rights have been violated for nearly five long years courtesy the infamous ‘good governance’ anarchy and its lingering legacy. They are demanding justice.
Anarchy is the antithesis of law and order, which is now being gradually but expeditiously restored where possible. This is the fulfilment of a basic need of government under the parliamentary system of democracy that we believe we still have. Under this system, the three main branches of government, legislative, executive, and judicial, are manned by humans (i.e., they operate through human agency). Men and women acting in these branches (MPs, President, and Judges, and various government functionaries including members of independent commissions) take moral as well as legal responsibility for their decisions which directly bear on the lives of all the citizens of the state including themselves. They can be relied upon to have a unique bond of cultural affinity in addition to natural human empathy with the general mass of the people, something we cannot and do not expect from foreigners. That is why we hate even a suggestion of imperialist foreign interference in our domestic affairs, particularly at the governance level, that involves the aforementioned three organs of government. Under yahapalanaya, this reality appeared not to have been sufficiently recognized. Further, there was a crazy disjointedness or lack of articulateness between the main branches of government, which ultimately made a mockery of democracy and national sovereignty. The essential law and order foundation of governance was undermined thereby.
With election campaigning hotting up, the Election Commission’s unprecedented decision to implement the 1981 parliamentary elections laws to the letter has run into controversy because it interferes with the accustomed way of electioneering by the candidates. The 1981 election laws were in abeyance or were ignored for forty years since their enactment. There has been no complaint during that long period about any particular problems that had resulted from their desuetude,. Were these normal times, various reasons could have been offered to justify it. The main reason would have to do with the much needed restoration of the deteriorated law and order situation in the country.
But these are not normal times for the whole world, particularly due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is more so for Sri Lanka, which is passing through the most critical phase of its political history since 1948, with what could be seen as occasional stirrings of an attempted return of separatist terrorism in the north and the deadly arrival of jihadist terror, and the global superpower poking around with its own strategic geopolitical axe to grind in the form of the MCC agreement. Sri Lankans are anxiously waiting to elect a parliament that is capable of working with president Gotabaya. The EC’s role in conducting the election process is an unenviable one, given the unprecedented complications that have come up.
The unacceptable conduct of one of the EC members, Ratnajeevan Hoole, (as shown, for example, in his advice, as reported in the media, to members of his own Tamil community in his hometown Jaffna not to vote for the SLPP) has brought that body to disrepute; the utterances and body language of EC chairman Mahinda Deshapriya seems to betray unnecessary fears about elections having to be held before the country is declared safe from Covid-19. But the government is managing the Covid-19 situation admirably well and the EC chairman need not wrack his brain about it. He has also given hints of his being a believer in the fallacy of an alleged majoritarian tendency among the majority Sinhalese Buddhist community that is peddled by racist anti-nationalists, and implicitly expressed caution about it.
In view of such instances of possible lack of impartiality on their part, the EC’s sudden decision to implement some absurd election laws that had remained in abeyance for almost forty years since their passage does not go down well with the public, particularly with the parliamentary candidates. The stringent restrictions imposed on the free display of their preferential numbers are very unfair. But such measures as the strict imposition of a complete ban on the abuse of state property for propaganda work by any party or individual candidate are very welcome. Yet, this is the worst time imaginable for enacting so far safely ignored, unfairly restrictive, impractical regulations relating to the holding of the polls. Why should the EC try to add to the difficulties caused by unavoidable constraints slapped on physical movements by health authorities in these dangerous pandemic hit times? At this particular juncture, for Sri Lanka, the holding of free and fair elections in which each and every adult citizen must feel obliged to use their franchise and cast their vote without let or hindrance for whichever party or alliance of their choice is of paramount importance.
This is because, the ordinary voters are set to elect the best possible parliament under the circumstances at this historic hour. It will definitely be a robust parliament filled with a majority of MPs with integrity and pluck who are worthy of probably the most inspired, work-oriented president the country has ever got. The already assured sweeping victory of the ruling SLPP and the impending utter rout of the opposition that is in complete disarray have rendered competitive campaigning somewhat lacklustre, and uninspiring and unexciting like a game of cricket or football between two widely unmatched teams. Unless the electoral contest is sufficiently intense and exciting, the eventual voter turnout is likely to be affected; a possible low turnout could proportionately diminish the value of the final outcome. This is not good for the faction that is set to win, but the losing side will like it for obvious reasons. A prominent government party politician has suggested that the EC’s determination to make the polling process relatively confusing and cumbersome might be a ploy to ensure this result.
Elect good, honest, educated, and morally upright people as MPs” is not a new slogan. It has been heard at least over the past half a century without any indication of its being heeded by anybody. This is because the voters have no choice over the matter. Parties nominate their candidates subject to various considerations that have little to do with their moral characters. This time, it may be assumed that there is a difference. The education and the moral background of candidates must have been taken care of by the nomination committees of the parties, at least to some extent. Under the existing electoral system, people vote for a particular party, unlike in the olden days, when widely known respectable individuals were elected to represent a constituency. Then it was the individual candidate, as much as the party, that was chosen. Today, for getting elected to parliament, a candidate must get enough preferential votes among a number of contending candidates put forward by each party for multi-seat constituencies; so naturally there is a form of undeclared war among candidates within each political party. Displaying their preferential number in a striking way for the voters to remember is of vital importance for every candidate across the whole range of parties, alliances, and groups. EC’s virtual obstruction of this essential and reasonable propaganda requirement, through its unfair insistence on following the law to the letter is going to be particularly disadvantageous for the two most important types of candidates: the new and the materially poor. Candidates who are poor cannot afford expensive media advertising; the little known new ones find it hard to make their numbers stand out among the numbers assigned to veterans whose already well known names and previous designations render them conspicuous and memorable. So the veteran candidates of every party will not object to the EC’s tough stand in this regard, for it will mean that they have already won at least 75% of the internecine war for preference votes. This situation is most prejudicial to the newer fresher competitors, and also contrary to the generally shared desire among the voters to elect a decent lot to the august body. (Both the UNP and the SLPP, please work out the implications of this, and use the opportunity to get rid of the old rogues who contributed to the yahapalana to the detriment of the nation out of pure selfishness.)
It is high time the EC eased this restriction immediately, before the thousands of candidates resort to some other innovative, but problematic way to circumvent the formidable obstacle placed on their path. Let’s not forget that there are more than one way to skin a cat.
I find the Hiru News broadcasts alternatively display the following pictures
1 Galle Fort
2 Nelum pokuma Theatre
3 Ramboda Fall
4 Sigiiriya back side picture
I presume the idea of displaying pictures on the TV back ground screen at such time is to inspire viewers on things like, Natural scenic beauty, unique Cultural identity of a country, (like religious and architectural) or engineering marvels etc among such other
Out of the above 4 items only the waterfall comes closer to this objective. Even then I would prefer St Clears, Devon, or Diyaluma at least to appear alternatively.
Galle fort is only a remnant of ugly colonial vestige that has nothing to do with our historical prestige. It only reminds us of a sad and ugly legacy of repressive colonial past left behind by a colonial invade that haunts our minds
Nelum pokuna may be an important cultural place. But the front picture does not display any such cultural beauty. It resembles only an ugly iron railing to the human eye There is hardly any esthetic beauty it displays.
The 4th item Sigiriya completely deletes the popular image of Sigiriya we have in mind. I would appeal to those responsible to replace it immediately with the magnificent front view of that citadel and masterpiece by our ancient Sinhala engineers that is universally accepted and acclaimed as Sigiriya the 8th wonder of the world
As a patriotic citizen (Sinhala Buddhist) I would appreciate if all TV artists take my comments as constructive
Further I would like if all TVV could follow this principle in future in selecting background shots to achieve objectives like inspire the natives especially their children of the marvelous achievements , of the ancestors, adds publicity to the motherland among tourists so that you can attract more of them and leave indelible mental images of this Resplendent Island, the Paradise on earth, the Pearl of the Indian Ocean, the cynosure of the Great East W sea and Air roots, Legendary Kingdom of mighty Ravana and the proud repository of marvelous ancient Sinhala Buddhist Architecture and sculpturing, master pieces of irrigation and agricultural technology like unique terraced paddy fields of Alagalla, Walapane and Poddalgoda .
To help you to achieve these objectives I would like to mention few items here for your convenience.
Ruwanweliseya, Jayasri Mahaa Bodhia,Galviharala, Avukana, Yapahuwa, Samadhi pilimata, Jetavanaraamaya the highest brickwork and the 4th man made edifice in the ancient world, Sri Dalada Maligava Kandy with the lake, Samanala kanda, the 18 bends on the Kandy Mahiyangana road, Nuwara Eliya, Hakgala an dPeradeniy aBotanical gardens, Akasa Chaiyya Mihintale, Victoria Dam in spill, Parakrama samudraya, Galoya Tank and Lakegala (the Abode of Mighty Ravana from where he ruled his Lankapura and set the time for his entire Empire and the biggest bare rock outcrop on earth the only instant where a Rock has been named after a Country and a country has been named after a rock, conversely.
I am attaching a rare picture of Lakegala ‘The Legendary Abode of Ravana the Great” here for your convenience .
Dr. Sudath Gunasekara
(This was the picture I designed for my book Cover ‘Lakegala Pamula_Meemure”. You can edit it to suit the screen by deleting my name and the words Lakegala Pamula Meemure. But the legend Lokaye visaalatama niravaranitha galkula Galaka namin Ratak Rataka namin galak” must remain, as that is the focal message I want to give to the world).
PS: Special Attention of Mr Rangana De Siva: The versatile News broadcaster and commentator
Professor of Economics Richard Wolff explains the dire direction our economy is headed towards as unemployment continues to skyrocket.
Government designates nine persons as terrorists for trying to revive militancy in Punjab: Government declared nine persons including Gurpatwant Singh Pannu, the US-based legal adviser of the banned pro-Khalistan organisation, Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), as terrorists under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for their involvement in acts of terror and pushing Khalistan movement on July 1. The other individuals include – Wadhawa Singh Babbar, Lakhbir Singh, Ranjeet Singh, Paramjit Singh, Bhupinder Singh Bhinda, Gurmeet Singh Bagga, Hardeep Singh Nijjar and Paramjit Singh. The SFJ is the brain behind the “Khalistan 2020 referendum” and Pannu has been seen actively running a campaign against India and motivating Sikh youth from Punjab to join militancy. The Tribune, July 2, 2020.
Government blocks access to 40 websites run by SFJ in India:The Central Government on July 5 said that it has blocked nearly 40 websites that were being run and operated by the US-based pro-Khalistan outfit Sikh For Justice (SFJ), which has been declared as an “unlawful organisation” under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. The spokesperson of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (UMHA) said the action has been taken following the banned outfit launched a campaign for registering supporters for its cause – ‘referendum 2020’. The Tribune, July 6, 2020.
පබ්ලියස් වර්ජිලියස් මාරෝ නොහොත් වර්ජිල් ඔගස්ටාන් යුගයේ පුරාණ රෝම කවියෙකි. ඔහු උපත ලැබුවේ ක්රි.පූ. 70 දී උතුරු ඉතාලියේ බව කියවේ. වර්ජිල්ව තමන් ගේ ශ්රේෂ්ඨතම කවියා ලෙස රෝමවරුන් විසින් සලකනු ලැබීය.
රෝම සාහිත්යය ආරම්භ වූයේ ක්රි.පූ. 3 වන සියවසේ අග භාගයේදී ප්ලූටස්, ටෙරන්ස් සහ එන්නියස් වැනි විකට නාට්ය රචකයන් බිහි වීමත් සමඟ ය. රෝම කාව්යයන්ගේ ස්වර්ණමය යුගය (ක්රි.පූ. 70 – ක්රි.ව. 14) වර්ජිල්, හෝරස්, කැටලස්, ප්රොපෝර්ටියස්, ටිබුලස් සහ ඕවිඩ් වැනි ලේඛකයින් බිහි කළේය. වර්ජිල් තම පාඨකයන්ට රෝමය පිළිබඳ වඩාත් ආදර හැඟීමක් ඇති කළේය. වර්ජිල්ගේ තේමාවන් බොහෝමයක් පෙන්නුම් කරන්නේ ග්රාමීය ජීවිතයට ඔහු දක්වන ආදරයයි.
වර්ජිල්ගේ නිර්මාණ බටහිර සාහිත්යයට පුළුල් හා ගැඹුරු බලපෑමක් ඇති කර තිබේ. පළවන වන සියවසේ රෝමානු විචාරකකු වන ක්වින්ටිලියන් අධ්යාපන විෂය මාලාව වර්ජිල්ගේ කෘති මත පදනම් විය යුතු බවට නිර්දේශ කළේය. බටහිර රෝම අධිරාජ්යය බිඳ වැටෙද්දී පවා වර්ජිල් දක්ෂ කවියෙකු බව සාක්ෂරතාවයෙන් යුත් පිරිස් පිළිගත් හ. ඩන්ටේගේ ගේ ඩිවයින් කොමඩි වීර කාව්යයේ වර්ජිල් ගෞරවනීය ස්ථානයකට පත් කොට තිබෙන අතර වන අතර වර්ජිල් කවියා නිරය සහ පිරිසිදු කිරීම හරහා පාරාදීසයේ දොරටු දක්වා මඟ පෙන්නෙකුගේ තත්වයට පත් කොට ඇත.
වර්ජිල් තම ජීවිතය මුළුමනින්ම කැප කළේ කාව්ය අධ්යනයනය සඳහා ය. වර්ජිල් ඔහුගේ කාලයේ පැවති ප්රධාන දාර්ශනික පද්ධති වන එපිකියුරියන්වාදය සහ ස්ටොයිකවාදය විධිමත් ලෙස අධ්යයනය කළේය. ඔහුගේ සෞඛ්යය කිසි විටෙකත් ශක්තිමත් නොවූ අතර ඔහු හමුදා හෝ දේශපාලන ජීවිතයේ කිසිදු කාර්යභාරයක් ඉටු කළේ නැත. ග්රීක කවියෙකු වූ තියොක්රිටස්ගේ ආභාෂය ලැබූ වර්ජිල් සිය පළමු ප්රධාන කෘතිය වන එක්ලොග්ස් ( Eclogues ) රචනා කළේය. වර්ජිල් හට ග්රීක කවියෙකු වන හෙසියොඩ්ගේ කෘති වල බලෑමක් තිබුණි. තවද වර්ජිල් ග්රීක කවියෙකු වූ තියොක්රිටස් ගේ කාව්ය සංග්රහයන් කෙරෙහි ආශක්ත විය. වර්ජිල් ලතින් කාව්යයේ විප්ලවීය වෙනසක් කලේය.
රෝම අධිරාජ්යයේ පළමු අධිරාජ්යයා වූ ක්රි.පූ 27 බලයට පැමිණි ඔගස්ටස් සීසර් විසින් රෝමය සහ රෝම ජනතාව උත්කර්ෂයට නංවන වීර කාව්යයක් ලිවීමට වර්ජිල්ට පවරන ලදි. රෝමයේ පළමු අධිරාජ්යයා වූ ඔගස්ටස් සාහිත්යයේ ප්රචාරක වටිනාකම වටහා ගත් අතර, එබැවින් ඔහු ලේඛකයින් දිරිමත් කලේය. ඔගස්ටස්ගේ පාලනය බොහෝ විට රෝමයේ ස්වර්ණමය යුගය ලෙස හැඳින්වේ. ප්රධාන කවියන් වන වර්ජිල් සහ ඕවිඩ් විසින් රෝම කවි ලිවීම ඇතුළු බොහෝ සංස්කෘතික ජයග්රහණවල යුගය මෙය විය. නව අධිරාජ්යයා වූ ඔගස්ටස් සීසර්ට සාම්ප්රදායික රෝම සදාචාරාත්මක සාරධර්ම නැවත හඳුන්වා දීම තුළින් සමෘද්ධියේ හා සාමයේ නව යුගයක් ඇති කිරීමට අවශ්ය විය. ඔගස්ටස්ට අවශ්ය වූයේ රෝමවරුන්ට තමන්ගේම වීර කාව්යයක් තිබීමටයි. මෙම අරමුණු පිළිබිඹු කිරීමක් ලෙස වර්ජිල් ඇනෙයිඩ් ( The Aeneid”) කාව්ය ලිවීය.
ඇනයිඩ් , ට්රෝජන් වීරයා වන ඊනියාස් තමාට සහ ඔහුගේ කුඩා අනුගාමිකයින්ට නව නිජබිමක් සොයා ගැනීමට ගත් උත්සාහය ගැන කියයි. මෙය යුද්ධයට මුහුණ දෙන වීරයකු පිළිබඳ කතාවකි. ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම, ඊනියාස් හෝමර්ගේ චරිතයකි. ට්රෝජන් යුද්ධයේ කපිතාන්වරයෙකු ලෙස ඉනියාස් පෙනී සිටින අතර ට්රෝජන් නායකයා ලෙස ඇපලෝ සහ නෙප්චූන් යන දෙදෙනාම ඔහුගේ අනාගත අනාගතය වෙනුවෙන් ඔහුව බේරා ගනී. අනෙකුත් රෝමානු කතුවරුන් වර්ජිල්ට පෙර ඊනියාස් ගැන කතන්දර ලියා ඇත, නමුත් නිර්මාණශීලීත්වය සහ බලපෑම පිළිබඳ කිසිවෙකු ඇනයිඩ් වෙත සමීප නොවීය.
වර්ජිල් සිය වීර කාව්යය ලියමින් සිටියදී ඔගස්ටස් පුරාණ රෝම ජනරජය වෙනුවට නව ආකාරයක රජයක් පත් කිරීමට කටයුතු කරමින් සිටියේය. ඔගස්ටස් අධිරාජ්යා සිය රාජධානියේ සියලු අංශ පාලනය කළේය. ඔගස්ටස් අධිරාජ්යයාට රෝමවරුන්ගේ කීර්තිමත් හා පුරාණ ඉතිහාසයක් රෝමවරුන්ට ලබා දීමට ඔහුට අවශ්ය වූ අතර රෝමයේ අනාගත මහිමය පුරෝකථනය කළේය. ඔගස්ටස්ගේ අභිප්රායන් හුදෙක් ජාතිකවාදී නොවීය. ජනරජය යනු පුරාණ හා ගෞරවයට පාත්ර වූ ආයතනයකි. ඔගස්ටස්ට තමා සහ ඔහුගේ නව රජය වඩාත් පුරාණ හා ඊටත් වඩා ගෞරවයට පාත්ර කිරීමට ක්රමයක් අවශ්ය විය. ඔගස්ටස් වර්ජිල් ඉදිරියේ තැබූ කාර්යය ඇනෙයිඩ් මගින් සනිටුහන් කරයි.
පුරාණ වීර කාව්යය- එපික් කවි යනු සාමාන්යයෙන් වීරයන්ගේ මහා ක්රියාවන් පිළිබඳ විස්තරයකි, බොහෝ විට යුද්ධය, භයානක ගමන් හෝ වික්රමාන්විතයන් සම්බන්ධ වේ. ඒවා ද දිගු වේ. ඇනෙයිඩ් පද පේළි 10,000 කට ආසන්න ය. පුරාණ වීර කාව්යය වල ශක්තිමත් වීරෝධාර මිනිසුන් , වඩා ආකර්ෂණීය හා දෙවිවරුන්ට සමීප වූ ලෝකයක් විස්තර කෙරෙන අතර ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම දෙවිවරුන් බොහෝ විට වීර කාව්යයේ වැදගත් කාර්යභාරයක් ඉටු කරයි. උගත් රෝම ජාතිකයෙකුට, එපික් කාව්ය යනු ග්රීක නව නිපැයුමක් වන අතර, එහි වඩාත්ම ප්රසිද්ධ උදාහරණ වන්නේ ට්රෝජන් යුද්ධයට සම්බන්ධ ග්රීක වීරයන්ගේ කථා පැවසූ හෝමර්ස් ඉලියඩ් සහ ඔඩිසි ය.
රෝමානු කවියන් තමන්ගේම සමාජයේ කථා පැවසීමට උත්සහ කළහ. එසේ කළ පළමු තැනැත්තා වූයේ කාර්තේජ් සමඟ පනික් යුද්ධය පිළිබඳ කාව්යයක් ලියූ නේවියස් ය. මොවුන් අතරින් වර්ජිල් සුවිශේෂී ස්ථානයක් දරයි. ඔහුගේ ඇනෙයිඩ් කාව්යයේ ප්රධාන චරිතය වූ වීරෝදාර ඊනියාස් තම පෞද්ගලික වාසි වලට වඩා තම රටට සහ එහි ප්රමුඛතාවයට කැපවූ සහ පක්ෂපාතී මිනිසෙකු ලෙස නිරූපණය කොට ඇත.වර්ජිල් රෝමානු යන්නෙන් අදහස් කරන්නේ කුමක්ද යන්න පිළිබිඹු කිරීම සඳහා මිථ්යා පසුබිම හා චරිත භාවිතා කරන අතර අතීතය සහ වර්තමානය අතර සම්බන්ධතා ඇති කරයි. මේ අනුව ඉනියාස් සහ ඔහුගේ සගයන් ඉතාලියේදී මුහුණ දෙන අරගලයන් හොඳ රෝම ජාතිකයෙකු ජීවත් විය යුතු ආකාරය, ඔහු සතුව තිබිය යුතු සාරධර්ම සහ දුෂ්කර අවස්ථාවන්ට මුහුණ දිය යුතු ආකාරය පිළිබඳව පැහැදිලි කරයි. යුද්ධය රෝම මෙහෙයුමේ අත්යවශ්ය අංගයක් බවත්, මිලිටරි ගැටුම් තුළින් සාමය උදා වන බවත් වර්ජිල් පෙන්වා දෙයි. තවද යහපත් රෝමවරයෙක් දයාව හා පළිගැනීම සමබර කළ යුතු ආකාරය පිලිබඳව ඔහු කතා කරයි.
හෝමර්ට අභියෝග කිරීම සඳහා රෝමානු වීර කාව්යයක් ලිවීමේ අභිලාශය වර්ජිල් හට තම ජීවිත කාලය පුරාම තිබුනේය. ඔහු සිය ජීවිතයේ අවසාන වසර දහය තුළ ඇනෙයිඩ් කාව්යයේ පොත් දොළහෙහි වැඩ කළ අතර එය හෝමර්ගේ ඔඩිසි” සහ ඉලියඩ්” මත ආකෘතිගත කළේය. ඔහුගේ ඇනෙයිඩ් කාව්යය රෝමයේ උත්තරීතර කාව්ය සංග්රහයක් ලෙස සැලකේ. එහෙත් ඇනෙයිඩ් සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම අවසන් වීමට පෙර ක්රි.පූ. 19 දී වර්ජිල් මිය ගියේය. ඔහු ඇනෙයිඩ් කාව්යය ගැන සතුටු නොවූ අතර එය විනාශ කරන ලෙස ඔහුගේ මිතුරා වූ ලුසියස් වරියස් රූෆස්ගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටියේය. එහෙත් ඔහුගේ මිතුරන් ඇනෙයිඩ් කාව්ය සංග්රහය විනාශ කලේ නැත. කෙසේ වෙතත්, අසම්පූර්ණ වූවත්, ඇනෙයිඩ් සාහිත්ය කෘතියක් ලෙසත් රෝම අධිරාජ්යයේ උත්කෘෂ්ටත්වයට සාක්ෂියක් ලෙසත් වහාම හඳුනා ගන්නා ලදී.
ඇනෙයිඩ් ලතින් වීර කාව්යයේ විශිෂ්ටතම උදාහරණය සහ රෝම අනන්යතාවයේ මුල් ගලක් බවට පත්විය. රෝමවරුන් තමන් සහ ඔවුන්ගේ සංස්කෘතිය දුටු ආකාරය සහ රෝම ජාතිකයෙකු වීමට අදහස් කළේ කුමක්ද යන්න ගැන ඇනෙයිඩ් අපට බොහෝ දේ පවසයි. වර්ජිල්ගේ කවි, විශේෂයෙන් ඇනෙයිඩ් වසර 2,000 කට වැඩි කාලයක් පැවති අතර අදටත් කියවා විශ්ලේෂණය කර ඇත. ඔහුගේ කවි වල උපුටා ගැනීම් පොම්පෙයි හි කැණීම් කළ බිත්තිවල පවා තිබී ඇත.
ඇනෙයිඩ් හි භූගෝලීය අවකාශය විශේෂිතය. වර්ජිල් උතුරු අප්රිකාවේ පිහිටි කාර්තගේ, ජූනෝගේ ප්රියතම නගරය, පොහොසත් හා පැරණි ෆිනීෂියානු ජනාවාස පිළිබඳ පසුබිමක් ලබා දෙයි ( නූතන ටියුනීසියාව). වර්ජිලියානු භූ විද්යාව ඔහුගේ කවිය පුරා රැව්දේ.
වර්ජිල්ගේ විශිෂ්ඨතම කෘතිය ලෙසත් බටහිර සාහිත්ය ඉතිහාසයේ වැදගත්ම කාව්යයක් ලෙසත් ඇනෙයිඩ් පුළුල් ලෙස සැලකේ. ඇනෙයිඩ් , හෝමර්ගේ වීර කාව්යයන් වන ඉලියඩ් සහ ඔඩිසිගේ සාහිත්ය ආකෘතිය අනුගමනය කර ඇත. ඇනෙයිඩ් හි තේමාව වූයේ රෝමුලස් සහ ඔහුගේ සහෝදර රෙමස් විසින් රෝමය ආරම්භ කිරීම පිලිබඳවය. රෝමයේ අනාගතය, ඔගස්ටස්, ඔහුගේ මුතුන් මිත්තන් සහ ප්රසිද්ධ රෝමවරුන් සහ කාර්තජීනියානු යුද්ධ පිළිබඳ අනාවැකි වලින් ඇනෙයිඩ් පිරී තිබේ. ඇනෙයිඩ් කාව්යය අවසානයේ අශුභවාදී හා දේශපාලනිකව ඔගස්ටාන් තන්ත්රයට යටත් කිරීමක් ලෙස දකින අතර තවත් සමහරු එය නව අධිරාජ්ය රාජවංශයේ සැමරුමක් ලෙස සලකති.
ඇනෙයිඩ් යනු ට්රෝජන්ගේ පැවැත්ම, විපත්තියෙන් ජය ගැනීම සහ කෙනෙකුගේ ඉරණම සපුරාලීම පිළිබඳ කතාවකි. එය ගෞරවය හා පක්ෂපාතිත්වය පිළිබඳ කතාවකි. ඇනෙයිඩ් කාව්යයේ ප්රධාන චරිතය ලෙස, ඊනියාස් ඔහුගේ හැඟීම් සහ රෝමය සොයා ගැනීම සඳහා වූ ඔහුගේ අනාවැකිමය යුතුකම කෙරෙහි ඇති කැපවීම පෙන්වයි. ට්රෝජන් යුද්ධයේ අවසාන දිනවල ට්රෝයි ගිනි තැබීමේදී දිවි ගලවාගත් ට්රෝජන් කුමාරයෙකු වන ඊනියාස් ඉතාලියට ගිය ගමන සහ ඔහු එහි පැමිණි පසු ඔහු කළ යුද්ධ ඇනෙයිඩ් කාව්යය විස්තර කරයි. ඊනියාස් ජාතිවාදී සාරධර්මවලට ඇලුම් කිරීමෙන් කැපී පෙනෙන මිනිසෙකි. තම පුතාගේ අනාගතය සහ රෝමයේ ඉරණම වෙනුවෙන් පුද්ගලික සතුට ප්රතික්ෂේප කරයි. පුද්ගලයා සාමූහිකයට යටත් කිරීම බොහෝ විට රෝමානු දෘෂ්ටිවාදයේ ප්රධාන අංගයක් ලෙස දැකිය හැකි අතර, ඊනියාස් හි එහි ප්රතිමූර්තිය වීර කාව්යයේ කේන්ද්රීය ලක්ෂණයකි.
ඇනෙයිඩ් කාව්යය ආරම්භ වන්නේ ට්රෝජන් නාවික හමුදාව ඉතාලිය දෙසට යාත්රා කිරීමත් සමඟ ය. උතුරු අප්රිකාවේ වෙරළ තීරයේ ඇති වූ කුණාටුවකින් ඔවුන් නැව් ගසාගෙන යන විට, දෙවිවරුන්ගේ රැජින වන ජූනෝ විසින් ඔවුන්ට වෛර කරන අතර, ඔවුන් ඉතාලියට පැමිණීම වැළැක්වීමට උත්සාහ කරයි. ෆීනිසියාවෙන් (නූතන ලෙබනනය හා සිරියාව) මෑතකදී සංක්රමණය වූ කාර්තජීනියානුවන්ගේ නායක ඩීඩෝ රැජින මෙහි දී ඔවුන්ට හමු වන අතර නව නගරයක් වන කාර්තේජ් (පොත 1) ආරම්භ කරමින් සිටී. ට්රොයිගේ විනාශය (2 වන පොත) සහ ඔහු පසුකාලීනව මධ්යධරණී මුහුද වටා ගමන් කිරීම (3 වන පොත) ගැන ඩීනෝට ඊනියාස් පවසයි. ඔහු සහ ඩිඩෝ ඉක්මනින්ම ආදරයෙන් බැඳී සිටියත්, ඉනියාස් ඉතාලියේ කළ මෙහෙවර අමතක කිරීමේ අවදානමට ලක්ව ඇත, එබැවින් දෙවිවරුන්ගේ රජු වන බ්රහස්පති තම රාජකාරිය සිහිපත් කිරීම සඳහා බුධ ග්රහයා තම දූතයා යවයි. ඊනියාස්ගේ හදිසි ඉවත්වීම ඩීඩෝව විනාශයට පත් කළ අතර ඇය සියදිවි නසාගෙන අනාගත රෝමානුවන් සහ කාර්තජීනියානුවන් අතර සදාකාලික වෛරය ප්රකාශ කරයි (4 වන පොත). සිසිලියේ නැවතුමකින් පසු (5 වන පොත), තම පියාගේ අවතාරයට කථා කිරීම සඳහා ඊනියාස් පාතාලයට (නිරයට) යන අතර අනාගත ශ්රේෂඨ රෝමවරුන්ගේ ආත්මයන් ඔහු දකී (පොත 6). අවසානයේදී ඔහුට ඉතාලියට පැමිණිය හැකි අතර, එහිදී ඔහුව මුලින් පිළිගනු ලබන්නේ ප්රාදේශීය ලතින් රජු වන අතර, ට්රෝජන් සහ ලතින් ජාතිකයන් අතර සාමය මුද්රා තැබීම සඳහා ඔහුගේ දියණිය වන ලවීනියා විවාහයට අත දෙන බවට පොරොන්දු වෙයි. කෙසේ වෙතත්, අනෙකුත් ඉතාලියානුවන් මෙම විධිවිධානයට අමනාප වන අතර, ලතින්ගේ විවාහය බලාපොරොත්තුවෙන් සිටි ලතින්ගේ බිරිඳ අමාටා සහ ඉතාලි කුමරු ටර්නස් ද වූහ. ට්රෝජන් සහ ඉතාලියානුවන් අතර යුද්ධය ඉක්මනින්ම ඇනියාස්ගේ කලකිරීමට පත්වේ (7 වන පොත). ඊනියාස් තවත් ප්රාදේශීය රජෙකු වන එවාන්ඩර්ව හමු වේ.
ඇනෙයිඩ් කවියෙහි අවසානය අර්ථ නිරූපණය කරන්නේ කෙසේද යන්න විද්වතුන් වසර ගණනාවක් තිස්සේ විවාද කර ඇත. වර්ජිල් ඔහුගේ කාව්යය යුද්ධයේ අවසානය, ජාතීන් දෙක අතර සංහිඳියාව, සමහර විට ඊනියාස්ගේ ලැවිනියාව හා විවාහය හෝ ලවීනියම් පදනම විස්තර කිරීමෙන් විස්තර කරනු ඇතැයි අපේක්ෂා කළ හැකිය.
ඊනියාස් ගේ මනෝභාවයන් වර්ජිල් විස්තර කරයි. ට්රෝජන් වීරයා වන ඊනියාස් අනුකම්පා විරහිතව ලතින් රණශූර ටර්නස්ව මරා දමයි. ටර්නස් ඊනියාස්ගේ සතුරෙක් විය. ඔහු ඉලියඩ් හි ඇචිලීස් සම්බන්ධයෙන් හෙක්ටර්ට සමාන විය. කාව්යයේ අවසාන කොටස්වල ඊනියාස්ගේ චිත්තවේගීය පාලනය බිඳ වැටීම පෙන්වයි. හෝමර් ගේ ඔඩීසි කාව්යයේ එන ඔඩිසියස්ගේ බලයට වඩා ඊනියාස්ගේ බලය බෙහෙවින් අඩු ය. වර්ජිල් , ඊනියාස් ඔහුගේ ග්රීක සගයන්ට වඩා වෙනස් වීරයෙකු බවට පත් කරයි. ඇචිලීස් කෙතරම් ආත්මාර්ථකාමීද ? ඔහු තම සහෝදරවරුන්ට මිය යාමට ඉඩ දෙයි. ඇචිලීස් සටන් කරන්නේ තමන් ගේ කීර්තිය වෙනුවෙනි. ඔඩිසියස් සිවලෙකු මෙන් කපටි බව හෝමර් පවසයි. ඔඩිසියස් ඔහුගේ අණ යටතේ ග්රීකයන් ගණනාවක් සමඟ ට්රෝයි හැර ගියේය. ඔහු ඉටාකා වෙත යන විට, ඔහු පමණක් ජීවතුන් අතර සිටියේය. එහෙත් ඊනියාස් යනු සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම වෙනස් වීරයෙකි. ඔඩිසියස් ආත්මාර්ථකාමී වන තැන, ඊනියාස් පරාර්ථකාමීය ය. ඇචිලීස් ඔහුගේ ඉරණමට එරෙහිව අරගල කරන තැන, ඊනියාස් ඔහුගේ ඉරණම පිළිගනී. ඔඩිසියස් වැනි පැරණි කවි වල වීරයන්ට වඩා ඊනියාස්ගේ අභ්යන්තර කැලඹීම් සහ අඩුපාඩු නිසා ඔහු යථාර්ථවාදී චරිතයක් බවට පත් කරයි. මේ අර්ථයෙන් වර්ජිල් සම්භාව්ය යථාර්ථවාදයේ පදනම සැකසෙන සෙනෙකා වැනි පසුකාලීන රෝමානු කවියන්ට මග පෑදීය.
ඇනෙයිඩ් හි ස්ත්රී කතිකාව පිළිබඳ සංකල්ප, අදහස් වැදගත් වේ. කාතේජ් රැජින වන ඩීඩෝ ඊනියාස් සමඟ ප්රේම සම්බන්ධයක් හා ලිංගික සම්බන්ධතාවයකින් පසුව ඇති වූ ඛේදජනක චරිතයකි. වර්ජිල් පෙන්වා දෙන පරිදි ඩීඩෝගේ චරිතය අතිශය චිත්තවේගීය දෝලනයක් පෙන්නුම් කරන අතර, ඇය ත්යාගශීලී වීමට හා එක් මොහොතකට ආදරය කිරීමට සිට ඊළඟ මොහොතේ කෝපයට පත්වීමට හැකියාවක් ඇති බව පෙන්නුම් කරන්නීය. ඇය චිතාවේගීය වශයෙන් අසමබරය. ඩිඩෝ හුදෙක් සාමාන්ය කාන්තාවක් හෝ රෝම කාන්තාවක් නොවේ.ඇය රැජිණකි. ඇයගේ රාජාණ්ඩුවේ ස්ථාවරය ඇගේ ස්ත්රීත්වය සමඟ ආතතියට පත්ව ඇත.
ඊනියාස්ට ඩිඩෝ මුණ ගැසෙන්නේ අහම්බයෙන් මධ්යධරණී මුහුදේදීය. ඊනියාස් සහ ඔහුගේ සෙසු ට්රෝජන්වරු ග්රීකයන් විසින් විනාශ කර ඇති ට්රෝයි නගරයෙන් පලා යති. ඔවුන් යාත්රා කරන්නේ ඉතාලියටයි. එහිදී රෝමය සොයා ගැනීමට ඊනියාස්ට හැකි වෙයි.. ඔවුන් තම ගමනාන්තයට ළං වන විට දරුණු කුණාටුවක් ඔවුන්ව ඉවතට විසි කර කාර්තේජ් වෙත ගොඩ බැස්සවිය. කාර්තේජ් හි නිර්මාතෘ සහ රැජින වන ඩිඩෝ ඔවුන්ව සාදරයෙන් පිළිගත්තාය. ඩීඩෝ, ඊනියාස්ගේ නිර්භීතකම ගැන පැහැදී සිටින්නීය. ඩීඩෝ ඊනියාස් සමඟ ආදරයෙන් බැඳී සිටී. ඊනියාස් එම හැඟීම නැවත ලබා දෙන බවක් පෙනෙන්නට ඇති අතර, දෙදෙනාම පෙමින් වෙලෙති . පසුව ඩීඩෝ උපකල්පනය කරන්නේ ඔවුන් විවාහක බවයි. ඊනියාස් සහ ඔහුගේ ජනතාව කාර්තේජ් හි පදිංචි වී ගෞරවනීය ස්ථාන ලබා ගනු ඇත. කෙසේවෙතත්, තමාට කාර්තේජ් හි රැඳී සිටිය නොහැකි බව ඊනියාස් දනී. ඊනියාස්ට රැඳී සිටීමට අවශ්ය නමුත් දෙවිවරුන් පැහැදිලි කරන්නේ ඔහුගේ ඉරණම පවතින්නේ ඉතාලියේ මිස අප්රිකාවේ නොවන බවයි. ඊනියාස් ඩීඩෝ අතහැර දමා යාත්රා කරද්දී ඩීඩෝ සිය දිවි නසාගන්නීය. මිය යන හුස්මෙන් ඇය ඊනියාස්ට ශාප කරයි. මෙම කතාව එක්තරා අන්දමකට විජය කුවේනී පෙම් පුවත මෙනි.
රෝමියෝ සහ ජුලියට් සමඟ සමපාතව ඩීඩෝ සහ ඊනියාස්ගේ විනාශකාරී ප්රේමය බටහිර සාහිත්යයේ වඩාත්ම කල් පවත්නා තේමාවක් බවට පත්විය. මෙම කතාව සමඟ වර්ජිල් උත්සාහ කළේ රෝමයේ කාතේජ් සමඟ ඇති අමුතු සම්බන්ධතාවය පැහැදිලි කිරීමට ය. රෝමය කුඩා හා බල රහිත වූ විට එයට කාර්තජීනියානුවන්ගෙන් සැලකිය යුතු ආධාර ලැබුණි. එහෙත් රෝමයේ බලය හා අභිලාෂය වර්ධනය වෙත්ම එහි පැරණි සගයා එහි ප්රධාන ප්රතිවාදියා බවට පත්විය. රෝමය අවසානයේදී කාර්තේජ් සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම විනාශ කළේය. වර්ජිල්ගේ වාර්තාවෙන් ඇඟවෙන්නේ ඔවුන්ට තවමත් සංස්කෘතික වරදකාරී හැඟීමක් දැනී ඇති බවයි.
ඇනෙයිඩ් කාව්යයේ එන තවත් ප්රබල කාන්තා චරිතයක් වන ලවීනියා දෙස හැරෙමු. ලවීනියා ඇනයිඩ් වෙත දක්වන දායකත්වය සම්පූර්ණයෙන් තක්සේරු කිරීමට නම්, ඇය ආඛ්යානය කෙරෙහි ඇති කළ බලපෑම, එහි වර්ධනය සහ ඇනෙයිඩ් අතිමහත් අරමුන තුළ ඇයගේ ස්ථාවරය යන දෙකම ගවේෂණය කළ යුතුය. ඊනියාස්ගේ භෞතික හා සදාචාරාත්මක ගමනේ අවසාන ගමනාන්තය ලෙස ලවීනියාගේ ආගමනය පෙන්වා දිය හැකිය. ඊනියාස් සමඟ ඇයගේ විවාහයෙන් පෙනී යන්නේ ඇය කාව්යයේ වැදගත්ම චරිතයක් වන අතර එය ආඛ්යානයේ ගාමක බලවේගයක් බවයි. ඇනෙයිඩ් දෙවන භාගය අත්පත් කර ගත් යුද්ධය, ලවීනියාව සහ ලැටියම් දේශය වෙන් කළ නොහැකි වස්තුවක් බවට පත්වන අතර, ජයග්රහණයේ ප්රතිඑලයක් ලෙස භූමිය සහ ස්ත්රිය යන දෙකම අත්කර ගනී. ඇය ඊනියාස්ගේ ඉරණමට සහ රෝම ජාතියේ ආරම්භයට අත්යවශ්ය කෙරෙන චරිතයකි.
ඊනියාස් සහ ලවීනියා එක්සත් වීම සහතික කිරීම සඳහා දිව්යමය මැදිහත් වීමක් අවශ්ය වෙයි. අද්භූත බලවේග රෝම සමාජය තුළ අත්යවශ්ය ස්ථානයක් දැරූ නිසා දෙවිවරුන්ගේ නැවත මැදිහත්වීම රෝම ප්රේක්ෂකයින්ට ලවීනියා සහ ඊනියාස්ගේ විවාහයේ වැදගත්කම අවධාරණය කරනු ඇත. එබැවින් ඔවුන්ගේ මැදිහත්වීම විවාහයේ පරම වැදගත්කම පිළිබිඹු කිරීමක් ලෙස පෙන්වයි. ලවීනියා දේශපාලන වැදගත්කමක් දරන්නීය. ලවීනියාවේ දේශපාලන ඉදිකිරීම වර්ජිල් ලියූ සමකාලීන දේශපාලනය පිළිබිඹු කරයි. ලාවීනියාගේ විවාහය ඉනියාස් නියම කරනු ලැබුවේ දෛවය තුළ වන අතර එමඟින් රෝම ජාතිය ආරම්භ කිරීම වැළැක්විය නොහැකි වෙයි. ඊනියාස්-පුරාවෘත්තය’ දේශපාලන උපකරණයක සිට ජාතික අනන්යතාවයක් ප්රකාශ කිරීමේ මාධ්යයක් බවට පරිවර්තනය කළේය. ඇනෙයිඩ් රෝමයේ මූලාරම්භය විස්තර කරන අතර යුද්ධයට සාමයේ වැදගත්කම සහ ම්ලේච්ඡත්වයට වඩා ශිෂ්ටාචාරය අවධාරනය කරයි.
ඇනෙයිඩ් හි පුනරාවර්තන ප්රචණ්ඩත්වය පිළිබඳ තේමාව සියුම් විවරණයකි. බටහිර මධ්යධරණී මුහුදේ පාලනය සඳහා කාතේජ්ට එරෙහිව රෝමයේ පසුකාලීන යුද්ධ. ඒ හා සමානව, තම ජනතාව සඳහා නගරයක් සොයා ගැනීමට උත්සාහ කළ ඊනියාස්ගේ අරගලය ද යම් ආකාරයකින් රෝමය නැවත ස්ථාපිත කිරීමේදී ඔගස්ටස්ගේ අරගලයට පූර්වාදර්ශනය කරයි. කාල් ගැලින්ස්කි වර්ජිල්ව ‘ඔගස්ටාන්’ කවියෙකු ලෙස හඳුන්වයි, එයින් අදහස් කරන්නේ ඔහු ජීවත් වූ ඔගස්ටාන් සමාජයට ඔහු බලපෑම් කළ බවත්, ඇනයිඩ් මෙම පරිසරයට දක්වන ප්රතික්රියාවක් බවත් ය. ඔගස්ටාන්’ හි එක් වැදගත් අරමුණක් වූයේ රෝමය තුළ පැතිරී තිබූ සදාචාරාත්මක පරිහානිය පෙරලා දැමීමයි. ඔගස්ටාන් සමාජය දැනුවත් කිරීමේ අරමුණින් වර්ජිල් විසින් ඔගස්ටන්ගේ සදාචාරාත්මක න්යාය පත්රය ප්රවර්ධනය කිරීම ඇනයිඩ්හි කාන්තා චරිත හරහා තවදුරටත් ක්රියාත්මක කරන ලදී. ඇනයිඩ් තුළ ලැවීනියාගේ වඩාත්ම වැදගත් කාර්යභාරය සහ අරමුණ වන්නේ ආදර්ශමත් රෝමානු පාලිකාව වීමයි.
රෝමානු සමාජය තුළ දෘෂ්ටිවාදාත්මක රෝමානු පාලකයාගේ උච්චතම අවස්ථාව ලෙස ලවීනියාව තවදුරටත් පැහැදිලි කිරීමට සේවය කරන තවත් කාන්තා චරිතයක් වන්නේ කැමිලා ය. කැමිලා යනු ඇනයිඩ් තුළ ඇදහිය නොහැකි තරම් රසවත් චරිතයකි. වර්ජිල් ඇය කෙරෙහි ප්රසාදය පළ කරන බව පැහැදිලිය: ඔහු ඇයව හඳුන්වන්නේ ‘දෙවියන්ට සමාන කැමිලා ලෙසටය.
වර්ජිල්ගේ දෙවන ප්රධාන කෘතිය වන ජෝර්ජික්ස් ප්රකාශනය සාමාන්යයෙන් ක්රි.පූ 29 දක්වා දිව යයි වර්ජිල්ගේ ‘ජෝර්ජික්ස්’ ගොවිතැන පිළිබඳ පොත් හතරකින් ලියැවුණු කාව්යයකි. එය ලතින් භාෂාවෙන් ලියා තිබුණද, වර්ජිල් සිය කාව්යයට ජෝර්ජිකන්”, ග්රීක කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය” හෝ පොළොව වැඩ කිරීම” යන මාතෘකාව ලබා දුන්නේය. ජෝර්ජික්ස් වර්ජිල්ගේ දෙවන ප්රධාන කෘතිය ලෙස සලකනු ලබන්නේ ඔහුගේ දේශන අනුගමනය කරමින් සහ ඇනයිඩ් වලට පෙරය. මෙම කවිය විවිධාකාර පූර්ව මූලාශ්රයන් උකහා ගන්නා අතර පුරාණ කාලයේ සිට වර්තමානය දක්වා බොහෝ පසුකාලීන කතුවරුන්ට බලපෑම් කර ඇත. දේශපාලන දෘෂ්ටි කෝණයකින් බලන කල, එවකට රෝමානු ජාතියේ ප්රගතියට අත්යවශ්ය වූයේ ගොවිතැන මිලිටරි මෙහෙයුම් වලින් ආපසු පැමිණෙන සොල්දාදුවන් සඳහා සුදුසු හා දේශප්රේමී රැකියාවක් ලෙස දැකීමය. ජෝර්ජික්ස් ප්රකාශනය ඉතාලි ගොවියාගේ ජීවිතය පිළිබඳ තරමක් පරමාදර්ශී චිත්රයක් ඉදිරිපත් කරයි.
වර්ජිල්ගේ කවි වල ලිංගිකත්වය දක්නට තිබේ. ප්රේමයේ හා ලිංගික තෘෂ්ණාවේ විනාශකාරී බලය පිලිබඳව ඔහු කතා කරයි. පුරාණ රෝමයේ සමලිංගිකත්වය සාමාන්ය චර්යාවක් ලෙස සැලකුනි. ලිංගික ක්රියාකාරකම් අනුමත කිරීම හෝ ප්රතික්ෂේප කිරීම පදනම් වූයේ විවිධ ක්රියාවන් කරන ජනතාවගේ සමාජ තත්වය මත ය.සමලිංගික ක්රියාකාරකම් ආධිපත්යය අනුව සලකනු ලැබීය.රෝම අධිරාජ්යය තුළ සමලිංගික සබඳතා පැවැත්වීම හා සමාජ ගොඩනැගීම විශේෂයෙන් වැදගත් විය. වර්ජිල් සමරිසියෙකු ලෙස සැලකේ. ඔහු ග්රීක වහලුන් දෙදෙනෙකු වන සෙබෙටිස් සහ ඇලෙක්සැන්ඩර්ට ආදරය කළේය.
වර්ජිල්ගේ ඇතම් නිර්මාණ වල මිනිස් ස්වභාවය පිළිබඳ අඳුරු සහ බොහෝ විට අශුභවාදී දෘෂ්ටිය පිළිබිඹු කරයි. වර්ජිල් පිරිමි ළමයෙකුගේ උපත පිළිබඳ කාව්ය සංකල්පනා ලියූ අතර පසුකාලීනව එය සඳහා ක්රිස්තියානි ධර්මයේ ප්රකාශයක් ලෙස සලකනු ලැබීය. මෙම කවිය ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම ගැහැණු ළමයෙකු බිහි කළ ඔක්ටේවියන්ගේ බිරිඳ ස්ක්රිබෝනියාගේ ගැබ් ගැනීම ගැන සඳහන් කළ කවියකි. මධ්යකාලීන කිතුනුවන් වර්ජිල්ව අර්ධ දෙවියෙකු ලෙස සලකන ලදි . සමහර මධ්යකාලීන කිතුනුවන් විසින් ඔහුගේ සමහර කෘති ක්රිස්තුස් වහන්සේගේ පැමිණීම රූපක ලෙස පුරෝකථනය කර ඇති අතර, එබැවින් ඔහු එසේ අනාගතවක්තෘවරයෙකු බවට පත් කළේය.
වර්ජිල් ගේ අවසාන කාලය ආකුල එකක් විය. ඉතිහාසය අවුල් ජාලයක පවතින බවත් සුන්දරත්වය නිර්මාණය කිරීමට ඔහු දැරූ උත්සාහයේ යථාර්ථය ව්යාජයක් වූ බවටත් සිතමින් අවසන් කාලයේදී වර්ජිල් විශාදියට පත් විය. මේ නිසා ඔහු ඇනයිඩ් අත් පිටපත පුළුස්සා දැමීමට සිතුවේය. එහෙත් එය වලකන ලදි. මෙගරාහිදී ඔහුට උණ වැළඳී රෝගාතුර වූ අතර ඔහු ක්රි. පූ 19 දී මිය ගියේය. ඔහුගේ දේහය නේපල්ස් කේන්ද්රයේ සිට සැතපුම් දෙකක දුරින් පිහිටි දිස්ත්රික්කයක් වන පීඩිග්රෝටා හි පුරාණ රෝම උමගක දොරටුව අසල තැන්පත් කරන ලදී. වර්ජිල්ව ජාතික කවියෙකු ලෙස රෝමවරුන් විසින් සලකනු ලැබීය. වර්ජිල්ව ඔවුන්ගේ ජයග්රහණ හා පරමාදර්ශයන් වෙනුවෙන් හඞ අවදි කලේය. වර්ජිල්ගේ කවි ඔහුගේ ජීවිත කාලයේ සිට කිසි විටෙකත් පොදු ප්රසාදයෙන් බැහැර වී නැත.
වර්ජිල් ගේ නිර්මාණ මානව සංස්කෘතික ඉතිහාසයේ ගමන් මග වෙනස් කළේය. ඔහුගේ මරණයෙන් පසුවද වර්ජිල්ගේ බලපෑම යුග ගණනාවක් පුරා අනෙකුත් කවියන්ට බලපෑමක් ඇති කලේය. ඒ අතර ඩන්ටේ ,වර්ඩ්ස්වත් , මිල්ටන්, ඇලෙසැන්ඩර් පෝප් , ඩී.එච් ලෝරන්ස් ,ටී. ටී. එස්. එලියට් ප්රධාන වෙයි.
Works Cited
Anderson, W. (1969), The Art of the Aeneid, New Jersey.
Desmond, M. (1994) Reading Dido : gender, textuality, and the medieval Aeneid. Minneapolis.
Farrell, J. (2001) Latin Language and Culture. Cambridge.
Hardie, P. R. (1986). Virgil’s Aeneid: Cosmos and Imperium. Oxford.
Lovatt, H. V. (2013) The Epic Gaze : Vision, Gender and Narrative in Ancient Epic. Cambridge.
Nugent , S.G. 1992 . Vergil ’ s ‘Voice of the Women’ in Aeneid V .” Arethusa 25 : 255 – 92 .
SLPP Colombo District candidate Wijeyadasa Rajapakse leaving Presidential Commission on ‘Political Victimization’ at the BMICH recently (pic by Sujatha Jayartne)
One-time Justice Minister, Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakse, PC, recently questioned serious shortcomings in the parliamentary as well as political party system to address contentious issues which may have major security implications.
Against the backdrop of recent trouble, at the Colombo port, over the handing over of the East Container Terminal (ECT) to India, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Colombo district candidate Wijeyadasa Rajapakse discussed the controversial and highly dangerous deal with China over the Hambantota port. The outspoken politician emphasized the responsibility on the part of the next parliament to inquire into those inadequacies and take remedial measures.
Alleging that the country’s security is at stake, the former President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) PC Rajapakse called for a thorough public discussion on what he referred to as a matter that may cause further instability due to external interventions. The Easter Sunday carnage should be thoroughly investigated, taking into consideration a possible external role in the National Thowheed Jamaat (NTJ) terror project now being examined by a Presidential Commission of Inquiry (P CoI).
The former Justice Minister asserted that debilitating Western interventions would continue as long as the Hambantota port remained in the hands of the Chinese. Having realized further threats posed by powerful enemies, the then UNP lawmaker sought to introduce a Private Members’ Bill to abolish the agreement on the Hambantota port. Rajapakse told the writer: “Several months after I handed over the Bill to the Office of the Secretary General of Parliament, I was informed of the Attorney General Department’s decision with regard to my Bill. It is certainly an unfortunate situation.”
AG on Wijeyadasa’s Bill
The SLPP candidate made available a copy of a letter he received from Tikiri K. Jayathilake, Assistant Secretary General (Legislative Services).
The following is the text of Jathilake’s letter dated Feb 27, 2020: A Bill to abolish and repeal the concession agreement for the establishment of a Public-Private Partnership for Hambantota Port by and among Sri Lanka Ports Authority, Government of Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, China Merchants Port Holdings Company Limited, Hambantota International Port Group (Private) Limited and Hambantota International Port Services Company (Private) Limited.
This has reference to the request made by you to introduce the above Private Members’ Bill in Parliament. The above Bill had been referred to Hon. Attorney General on 2nd Oct 2019 to obtain his opinion under Standing Order No 52 (3). As per the opinion of the Hon. Attorney General, repealing of the Concession Agreement will have an impact on the funds of the Republic, thus it attracts the provisions of Article 152 of the Constitution. In terms of the said Article such a Bill can only be introduced by a Minister unless such Bill or motion has been approved either by the Cabinet of Ministers or in such manner as the Cabinet of Ministers may authorize.
Therefore, I would like to inform you that a Private Member could not introduce a Bill in parliament, which attracts the provisions of Article 152 of the Constitution (end of letter).
Wijeyadasa Rajapakse handed over the Bill to Parliament on July 30, 2019. Rajapakse wanted to abolish and repeal the Concession Agreement entered into on July 29, 2017. The former minister cited four reasons for his decision to move a Private Members’ Bill against the Concession Agreement (1) The agreement hadn’t been endorsed by two thirds majority in parliament (11) in terms of Sri Lanka Ports Authority Act, the ownership, control and operation of all Sri Lankan ports are vested with SLPA, therefore the Concession Agreement is illegal (iii) the Concession Agreement has exposed Sri Lanka to severe danger and (iv) foreign powers continuously interfered and threatened Sri Lanka’s defence thereby exposing the country and its people to grave danger.
In case the parliament endorsed a Bill to abolish and repeal the Concession Agreement, gazette bearing No 2044/20 dated 66.11.2017 and gazette No 2048/32 dated 66.11.2017, too, would be abolished and void in law.
PCoI on Easter carnage proceeds
The police, attached to the PCoI inquiring into the Easter Sunday carnage, recently recorded a statement from the writer as regards several articles on NTJ operations published in The Island in 2019. The former UNP lawmaker’s unsuccessful move to take up the Hambantota port matter in parliament, in 2019, was brought to the notice of the PCoI by the writer. Copies of the Bill, in Sinhala and English, too, were handed over to the PCoI, along with a copy of the letter received by the former minister from Parliament Assistant Secretary General (Legislative Services) Tikiri K. Jayathilake.
Wijeyadasa Rajapakse entered parliament following the 2004 parliamentary polls during Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga’s tenure as the President. Kumaratunga accommodated Rajapakse on the National List. The new entrant received the appointment as the Chairman of the parliamentary watchdog committee COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises). Rajapakse took the COPE to new heights. The newcomer to parliament was soon on a collision course with the top SLFP leadership, following moves to accommodate a group of dissident UNPers in the government parliamentary group. Trouble began in the wake of UPFA moves in this regard, following the 2005 November presidential polls. The SLFP-led coalition went ahead with the questionable move, in spite of Wijeyadasa’s objectives. The MP declared his intention to function as an independent candidate in Nov., 2007, as some of those accommodated happened to be the ones exposed by Wijeyadasa’s COPE report. Wijeyadasa contested from the Colombo District at the 2010 parliamentary polls on the UNP ticket. The high profile politician was re-elected at the 2015 parliamentary polls. The former SLFPer received the Justice and Buddha Sasana portfolios. Wijeyadasa Rajapakse earned the wrath of the top UNP leadership for strongly opposing the politically motivated project directed at the wartime Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and similar investigations, as well as challenging the controversial Hambantota port deal.
The SLPP candidate told The Island: “The Concession Agreement violated the Constitution. In terms of Article 157 of the Constitution, such a pact cannot be finalized without having two-thirds parliamentary approval. The cabinet collectively violated the Constitution by handing over the strategically located port on a 99-year-lease to China, the emerging Super Power. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against China or any other country. My constant stand that angered an influential section of the UNP is the opposition to privatization of state assets.”
Wijeyadasa sacked
Interestingly, the UNP found fault with Wijeyadasa Rajapakse for breaching the collective responsibility as a member of the cabinet. On the UNP’s request, the then President Maithripala Sirisena sacked Wijeyadasa Rajapakse in August 2017. The candid parliamentarian caused quite an uproar in the previous year (2016 Nov.) by openly declaring that Sri Lanka faced a serious Muslim extremist threat, with some in the UNF government even accusing him of having a tribal mentality. The yahapalana lot simply ignored the then Justice Minister’s timely warning. In May 2017, the UNP, in consultation with President Sirisena, brought in SLFPer Mahinda Samarasinghe as Ports and Shipping Minister. Samarasinghe replaced Arjuna Ranatunga, who rejected the Hambantota port deal. Ranatunga took a stand very much similar to that of Wijeyadasa Rajapakse. Minister Samarasinghe finalized the obviously illegal port deal prompting Rajapakse to go on the offensive. The then government brought in UNPer Thalatha Atukorale as the Justice Minister.
Wijeyadasa Rajapakse said that the port deal should be examined taking into consideration the entire range of issues – NTJ attacks, possible external links to that heinous project and regional and global political-economic and security aspects. “We should seek a thorough inquiry,” the former minister said, appreciating efforts made by the incumbent government to ascertain the truth.
Wijeyadasa Rajapakse, on July 30, 2019, explained the threats faced by the country. Addressing the media, at the Sri Lanka Foundation (SLF), the President’s Counsel declared that the Attorney General’s Department owed an explanation as to why it sat on hardcore NTJ member Zahran Hashim’s file for nearly two years. The AG’s Department lapse was revealed during the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) proceedings from May 2019-Oct 2019. The PSC consisted of Deputy Speaker Ananda Kumarasiri (Chairman), Ravi Karunanayake, Dr. Rajitha Senaratne, Rauff Hakeem, M.A. Sumanthiran, Dr. Jayampathy Wickremaratne, Ashu Marasinghe and Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa.
The writer, in his statement to the police unit, assisting the PCoI, pointed out the inclusion of the President’s Counsel in the PSC as he, just a week after the Easter Sunday carnage, at an event at the BMICH (where the PCol sits), publicly justified the NTJ operation. Later, Hakeem meeting Zahran Hashim and visiting the latter’s brother, in hospital, while receiving treatment for a bomb blast injury, transpired. The inclusion of two Easter Sunday bombers’ father in the JVP National List, at the 2015 parliamentary, didn’t discourage the then Speaker Karu Jayasuriya from accommodating the JVP in the PSC (Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa represented the JVP).
Nearly 270 perished in seven separate suicide blasts, and another 500 were wounded with the Colombo Shangri-La targeted by two persons, including Zahran. And quite a number of the wounded are maimed for life.
Wijeyadasa Rajapakse said that the AG’s Department couldn’t remain silent in the wake of shocking revelations made before the PSC.
Pointing out that the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) had sought the AG’s approval, in June 2017, to take action against Zahran Hashim, in terms of the ICCPR (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights), Rajapakse said the then AG Jayantha Jayasuriya, PC, had handed over Zahran’s file to Deputy Solicitor General Azad Navavi and then to State Counsel Malik Aziz.
Referring to the incumbent AG Dappula de Livera moving court against suspended IGP Pujith Jayasundera and the then Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando over their failure to thwart the Easter Sunday attacks, Rajapakse asked who would indict AG’s Department officers.
He underscored the importance of ascertaining why those who were authorized to decide whether Zahran could be arrested, as he posed a grave threat to the society, had refrained from doing so.
Rajapakse acknowledged that the PSC was quite useful, though he had written a letter to Speaker Karu Jayasuriya requesting him not to constitute it.
He, at the same time, however, insisted that the PSC was meant to clear All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) leader Rishad Bathiudeen, in addition to saving Pujith Jayasundera et al and placing the blame squarely on President Maithripala Sirisena.
AG’s Department role questioned
At the onset of his briefing, Rajapakse alleged that western powers had undertaken a high profile destabilization project here, consequent to the incumbent government handing over the Hambantota port on a 99-year-lease to China. The former Justice Minister alleged that the Muslim community and the Islamic State were used by interested parties (Easter Sunday attacks: UNP MP blames AG, H’tota port deal – The Island, July 31, 2019).
Wijeyadasa Rajapakse should seek an explanation from parliament regarding the delay in seeking Attorney General’s advice. Having received the then MP’s Bill, on July 30, 2019, why did parliament refer Wijeyadasa Rajapakse’s Bill to the Attorney General, only on Oct 2, 2019? When did the Secretary General’s Office receive the Attorney General’s Office response to the query from parliament? By the time Wijeyadasa Rajapakse was informed, by Assistant Secretary General Tikiri K. Jayathilake, about the Attorney General’s Department decision, there was consensus among all stakeholders, regarding the dissolution of Parliament on March 2.
The process took seven months. Parliament owed an explanation as to how such matters of public interest are conveniently ignored at the expense of the country’s well-being. Interested parties seemed hell-bent on subverting the parliamentary system of governance, though the former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, is on record as having claimed that Sri Lanka’s parliament rated among some top 170 Parliaments.
The previous government seemed to have pathetically failed in its responsibilities, in spite of boasting of a mega US-funded project, implemented during 2016-2019, to improve state standards at a cost of staggering Rs 1.92 billion (USD 13 mn) .
Wijeyadasa Rajapakse questioned the dismissal of his Bill on the basis of the provisions of Article 152 of the Constitution that the repealing of the Concession Agreement would have an impact on the funds of the government. The former Justice Minister emphasized the pivotal importance of establishing the truth. Perhaps, the SLPP Colombo District candidate should seek a copy of the Attorney General’s opinion on the Hambantota port deal, in terms of the Right to Information Act, without delay. Did the Attorney General endorse the Hambantota transaction?
Did AG grant approval to MCC Compact?
It would be pertinent to mention that the Finance Ministry, on Oct 31, 2019, claimed to have received the Attorney General’s consent for the implementation of the MCC agreement. There is absolutely no reason to question the validity of the Finance Ministry’s statement as it was issued rather emphatically, just the day after Wickremesinghe declared his intention, at a Temple Trees briefing, to sign the MCC agreement in a rather cavalier fashion, in the run up to the last presidential election. Minister Samaraweera, in a statement, titled ‘MCC agreement drafted with the consent of AG will be presented in Parliament’, justified the project.
Samaraweera insisted: “The whole process and the final Agreements were done under the guidance of the Attorney General and well within the legal framework. The Attorney General is in the opinion that the Agreements are in order and there exists no legal impediment to execute same”. The agreements, referred to therein, were the Compact Agreement and the Programme Implementation Agreement.
Responding to The Island queries, Wijeyadasa Rajapakse asserted that his Bill needed to be endorsed by a simple majority in parliament. As the quorum was 20, the Bill could have been approved with just 11 votes if taken at a time only 20 members were present. But, obviously there was probably a wider agenda, the President’s Counsel charged, pointing out that the police didn’t file a ‘B’ report in court as regards the Easter Sunday carnage, carried out by a group of Islamic extremists, a minority among a minority in this predominantly Buddhist country, with sizeable Hindu and Christian populations, till April 28 – a good seven days after near simultaneous suicide attacks sent shock waves through the country, and even the world. The UNF government sacked Justice Minister, for being forthright, pointed out that the ‘B’ report referred to his complaint as the cause for the police to bring the Easter mayhem to the attention of the court. The police should at least now explain the inordinate delay in initiating investigations, the former Justice Minister said. The PSC as well as the on-going PCoI revealed the staggering extent of the law enforcement establishment’s failure, leading to the worst ever single coordinated attack carried out in Sri Lanka.
Alleging that the parliament lacked authority to inquire into the Easter Sunday attacks, against the backdrop of judicial process, Wijeyadasa Rajapaksa asserted that the external angle needed to be thoroughly investigated. At the time of the attacks, President Sirisena held both Defence and Law and Order portfolios, following the Oct 26, 2018 short-lived constitutional coup perpetrated by the SLFP-Joint Opposition combine.
ECT controversy
The continuing controversy over the Colombo Port’s East Container Terminal cannot be ignored. Hope the government remembers the battle between President Sirisena and Premier Wickremesinghe over the UNP’s agreement with New Delhi to handover the ECT to the nuclear armed neighbour that has been behaving often like a bully towards our country, from the time of the JRJ’s regime. May be Mrs. Indira Gandhi was justified in her behaviour at the time as Junius Richard Jayewardene, dubbed Yankie Dicky, because of his open admiration and support for the USA, having even wanting to give Trincomalee to Washington, while India, at the time, was firmly in the Non-Alignment Camp, but seen by the West as being more pro- Soviet Union
Subsequently, Japan was also brought into the ECT agreement. Recent protests at the Colombo harbour revealed discontent and suspicions among various trade unions over the incumbent government’s intentions. The crisis at the Colombo port should naturally be discussed, taking into consideration the rushed ‘illegal’ agreement between Sri Lanka and China as there’ll be no further discussions on the 99-year agreement, finalized in 2017.
With China aiming high, the US-India-Japan coalition is likely to pursue what can be described as their containment or ganging up policy against Beijing in respect of Sri Lanka and elsewhere in Asia. Finalized ACSA (Access and Cross-Servicing Agreement) as well as MCC (Millennium Challenge Corporation) and SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) sought by the US are grim reminders of entanglements waiting to happen that could prove to be extremely beyond the country’s capacity to handle in the days to come for want of consensus among political parties, represented in parliament, without the government having a sound majority there. National security and foreign policy shouldn’t be part of the political agenda as the government and the Opposition battled for control of parliament, which the former Justice Minister once called the most corrupt institution in the country and to this day he has not retracted one bit.
The Attorney General Dappula De Livera has returned another 38 ‘incomplete’ investigation files on suspects arrested in connection with the Easter Sunday terror attacks, to the Acting IGP C. D. Wickramaratne.
On June 26, the Attorney General had returned 40 incomplete investigations files, pertaining to the suspects arrested in relation to the Easter attacks.
The Coordinating Officer of the Attorney General said the Acting IGP was also instructed by the AG to conclude the investigations properly.
No amendment has been made to the ‘Special Interest Scheme for Senior Citizens’ program, says Minister Bandula Gunawardena.
The Minister of Higher Education, Technology, Innovations, and Information & Mass Media mentioned this offering an explanation into a newspaper article published yesterday (06) under the caption ‘Senior Citizens Deposit Interest is falling to 8%’.
Gunawardena pointed out that the program Special Interest Scheme for Senior Citizens” has been implemented since 2014 with the aim of safeguarding the income status of senior citizens who have dedicated their youth to the development of the country.
He said that the program still continues as no amendment has been made to this benefit designed for senior citizens yet.
He pointed out that while the report also states that the income tax concession given to senior citizens on interest income has been withdrawn, the government has not taken such a decision.
Gunawardena added that:
The new Government has increased the tax-free monthly interest income of Rs 150,000 up to Rs. 250,000 with effect from January 01, 2020. Accordingly, income up to Rs 3,000,000 per year has been exempted from tax.”
Therefore, the tax exemption granted on interest income has not been abolished as stated in the article in question, he further said.
Inspector of Police (IP) Saman Wasantha Kumara, who is involved in passing drugs in the custody of the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) to drug dealers, has been detained for interrogation.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) will accordingly detain the suspect for 7 hours under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), Police Media Spokesperson said.
Earlier today, it was reported that Sri Lanka Police was seeking public assistance into apprehending the 49-year-old police officer named Weherawatta Kankanamlage Saman Kumara Wasantha.
IP Saman Wasantha Kumara, who was residing at the address 189, Kirikatta, Weliweriya, later surrendered to the Kadawatha Police.
He was then handed over to the CID for further investigations.
One more tested positive for COVID- 19, an arrival from Saudi Arabia, increasing total infected in Sri Lanka to 2081.
Covid-19 positives go up to 2,080
With the finding of two more Covid-19 positive persons, the total infected in Sri Lanka have gone up to 2,080.
Our President Gotabhaya has cleared finance for banks by ordering the Central Bank to relax. This has been done. Can the availability of finance by banks in itself bring about development- create production, create employment and achieve the goal of poverty alleviation. Import controls that have been imposed to save foreign exchange, will inevitably cause a shortage of goods.
The responsibility of immediately approving small industrial units to spring up to create the lost production within our country falls on our new Government. This is a situation that has to be faced and won.
My mind travels in nostaglia to two world class development programmes which commenced without a budget. I speak not from hearsay or reference, but from sheer experience as I happened to be a major player in both programmes.
One is the Divisional Development Councils Programme, the flagship programme of the Sirimavo Government of 1970-1977. This Programme created employment for 33,270 youths.
The other is the Youth Self Employment Programme of Bangladesh. a programme that was solely designed and established by me within nineteen months, which, being implemented later by officers trained by me, is today the premier employment creation programme the world has known, a programme that has by now guided some three million youths to become self employed.
I would kindly request our leaders to read through this Paper which details – how we did implement major programmes without a budget.
The Divisional Development Councils Programme was implemented with great hopes- to create 100,000 jobs. The leading economist in the island, Professor HAdeS Gunasekera was hand picked and appointed as the Secretary of a new Ministry- the Ministry for Plan Implementation. One senior SLAS Officer was his assistant and a staff of a dozen clerical officers were detailed. This Ministry was housed in a section of the Central Bank. I do not actually know how they were paid. However it would not amount to any major deal.
In implementation, the Programme was thrust on the Government Agents and the Divisional Secretaries. They were not given any additional payment, not even a traveling allowance. The Programme was given great prominence and to enable immediate implementation, even a helicopter was placed for Professor Gunasekera’s travel. At the District level, in the earlier Government of Premier Dudley Senanayake, prominence was given to agriculture. What happened was that the Government Agents decamped from attending to agriculture and concentrated on this new programme.
The Government Agent of a District is in charge of a a dozen or more departments and in Matara I selected the ablest staff officers to attend to this programme in addition to their duties. In my eighteen years’ experience I have always found a core of able patriotic officers who are prepared to do additional work without any additional pay, provided they are convinced of the worth of the programme.
The DDCP was commenced by the Government Agents through the Divisional Secretaries. There was no budgetary provision but conferences and training workshops were held, work was apportioned, development projects were sought, feasibility studies were done, all without any budgetary expenditure. It took a few months for Graduate Assistants to be selected and that required budgetary provision. Around fifteen Graduate Assistants were posted to the District and they worked with the staff officers who were already on the job. It was later that Planning Officers were appointed- one per district.
The Development Councils made suggestions and feasibility studies were done by staff officers in the katcheri. The Graduate Assistants joined the service for the first time and they were actually being trained by the katcheri staff officers and the Divisional Secretaries. The task of development fell on katcheri staff that were not paid any additional pay.
Feasibility Studies were done for the establishment of industries aimed at the creation of employment for the unemployed youth and also to make something that was imported and after submission some of these were funded by the Ministry of Plan Implementation. A Mechanized Boatyard was approved and this was established in Matara within two months. We worked very fast to get a large workshop built. I yet remember how the purchase of machinery was shortcircuited- it would have taken months to call for tenders. Instead I selected staff officers of the katcheri, officers who could be trusted fully, accompanied by the Executive Engineer to proceed inspect the machinery, negotiate and purchase the machinery. This was done within two days and the machjnery was installed fast. This Boatyard made seaworthy boats and made around 30 boats a year which were issued to cooperatives. Ran Ariyadasa, the Divisional Secretary took the brunt of implementing this Boatyard with one Development Assistant
This experience tells me that our Government could make a decision to establish a dozen boatyards immediately and the boats put on the seas can make our country self sufficient in fish. It is nonsense to import fish to an island country, where the seas abound in fish. Let us call it a day and decide to get going with building boats straightaway. The cost of the machinery can easily be recouped within the first years’ savings on imports.
The Ministry of Plan Implementation was frightened of making decisions to establish new industries. The Ministry wanted me to concentrate on small scale smithys, sewing units, the type that was already done by the Department of Small Indiustry. My idea of creating new industries was effectively silenced.
Finally I decided to make a move.
It was my idea to find the art of making crayons and establish an industry on our own as the Ministry of Plan Implementation. I thought of establishing a major industry and I with the Planning Officer, a chemistry graduate and other interested staff officers were at the science lab of Rahula College which we had requisitioned every night for our experiments. It took three months of experiments locked up in the Rahula school science lab, when we unearthed the art of making crayons.
Later on when I finally decided to establish the Coop Crayon factory and I decided that it be done in two weeks, the Planning Officer, and other katcheri staff officers broke rest for two weeks- it was a 24 hour a day operation. Finally, Coop Crayon, the work of many an unpaid worker won the day to be the flagship industry of the DDCP. That was also the hard work put in by Sumanapala Dahanayake the Member of Parliament for Deniyaya, in his capacity as the President of the Morawak Korale Cooperative Union. He was enthusiastic and his patriotism knew no bounds as long as the task was developmental.
It so happened that all Districts had established only small scale agricultural and industial projects like sewing units and smithys. The only medium scale industries established were the Boatyard and the Crayon Factory in the Matara District and the Paper Factory at Kotmale in the Nuwara Eliya District. The twenty four Government Agents in charge of the Districts, included major figures who later became Secretaries of Ministries. However the major industries established were in only two districts.
Judging from the total work done I am of the opinion that easily seventy to eighty percent of the work of the DDCP was done by staff officers of the districts without any additional pay or even a traveling allowance, entirely in addition to their normal duties.
This experience tells me that we can easily make a move to establish some import substitution industries without major funds. This is a task that awaits a word from our President to get cracking. The players are cloistered within the Administrative Service. In my forays into administrators whom I have casually met, I have spoken to some administrators who are waiting for a chance to get cracking. The Adminsitrative Service comprises a wealth of experienced personnel who can be utilized, motivated and guided to attend to major tasks. That has been my experience.
The Youth Self Employment Programme of Bangladesh
In 1982, when the military government of General Ershard took over Bangladesh, I was working as the Commonwealth Fund Advisor on Youth to the Ministry of Youth Development. The Military Government was very skeptical and critical about the work done in the Youth Ministry. A Conference was held to evaluate the programmes, when I was ordered to detail what contribution I could make for Bangladesh. I recommended that there should be a programme to guide youths in training to become self employed because most of the 40,000 youths trained each year remained unemployed. The Secretary to the Treasury, the highest ranking officer in the service objected on the grounds that a self employment or employment creation programme was something that can never be achieved. He quoted the miserable failure of an attempt by the International Labour Organization(ILO) to establish a self employment programme in Tangail, Bangladesh in the earlier three years and vehemently insisted that I will never be able to establish a self employment programme. I contested his views and persisted that I had the experience as well as the academic qualifications and could be certain of success. A bitter argument ensued, my detailing how I will succeed, while he was adamant that I would fail. I had to offer a challenge- that though the ILO of the United Nations with all their funds and world famed experts failed, I will succeed. This battle in an intensive and gruelling form went on for over two hours between the two of us till the Minister had enough of it and ordered both of us to shut up. He then said that he had been listening to both sides and that I had convinced him and ordered that I should establish a self employment programme. There were no Feasibility Reports and conferences. All details were uttered impromptu by me and immediately assessed by the brain of an army commander who was convinced to spur into action. The Secretary to the Treasury, the officer who held the purse strings stumped stating that he will not be providing any funds for any such programme as there were no funds to waste. I immediately replied that I needed no new funds, but our Ministry should be authorised to find savings within the aproved youth training budgets and utilize such savings for establishing the self employment activities. I added that our Ministry should be authorized to vary the remits of officers working in the Youth Ministry. The Minister approved my suggestion to the chagrin of the Secretary to the Treasury.
I started work the very next day with around a few hundred youth workers, deputy directors of youth, who had hitherto worked only on traditional youth work and lecturers who were involved in vocational training. They volunteered to guide the trainees to estabblish self employment projects in addition to their work. I commenced teaching them elements of economics, national economic priorities-how to identify areas where employment creation will result in increases in production, how the youths should be guided to develop their abilities and capacities as they engaged in activities to establish minor income generating projects. This was national planning in detail and motivating youths to take on the mantle of national development. It was a combination of economics and non formal education. We were motivating the youths to utilize the skills they were learning and get into a process of action which will bring them incomes.
In nineteen months, by the time my assignment ended 2000 youths were being guided to become self employed. By March 1985 6024 youths had established income generating projects.
This Programme which commenced in mid 1982, continued entirely funded from savings from other youth training budgets till 1985 when it was accorded an annual allocation by the Five Year Plan of the Planning Commission of Bangladesh.
With this allocation the Programme was developed further. Its 3 residential training centers in 1982 was increased to 10 by 1984/65 and to 64 by 1997.
By 2011 the Government of Bangladesh reported to the IFAD(FAO), one of the funders, that two million youths had become self employed. Today it is an ongoing programme where 160,000 youths are guided annually to become self employed.
This YSEP is easily the premier programme of employment creation the World has known that has by now(2020) guided over three million youths to become self employed. The Youth Development Department that implements this Programme today spends 95% of its time and budget to create self employed youth out of school dropouts. All this was achieved by a programme which was entirely funded from savings in voted budgets for the first four years 1982 to 1985.
Today, in my eighties, I am proud to have designed and established this world class programme, with the active support of Bangladeshi administrators trained by me.
Over to our new leaders: Please consider funding a few projects to be funded from savings. The quoted instances prove that this can be done. May I suggest for kind consideration that the projects selected be of the import substitution type, where there is an immediate benefit in terms of obviating foreign exchange being used for imports. There are many projects that can be commenced within months, which can be made sustainable within a year.
Our country yearns for any such initiative today.
Garvin Karunaratne
Former G.A. Matara
06/07/2020
Author of: How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka & Alternative Programmes of Success(Godages:2006)
Papers on the Economic Development of Sri Lanka,(Godages: 2010)
How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development (Kindle/Godages:2017)
UK banned LTTE in 2001 but continues to turn a blind eye to LTTE fronts openly campaigning for LTTE and separatism. No amount of diplomacy or goodwill can change that. UK has also been sympathetic to Islamic extremism. There is little point in appealing to the UK Govt or authorities to realize the dangers. The best response was to simply wait until UK eventually learnt its lesson. Unfortunately, innocents have died as a result. UK and all other governments treating terrorists as pet poodles must wake up to the reality that these killers eventually bites the hand that rocked its cradle.
Michelle Ramsden 36 years of Hounslow, West London converted to Islam at the age of 24 and changed her name to Safiyya Shaikh. She planned to copy Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday jihadi suicide bombers by attacking St. Pauls Cathedral. Just like Sri Lanka’s suicide bombers – her objective was to kill kafirs or non-believers and gain access to heaven. Her journey of radicalization started from 2007 following extremist preachers on Facebook. She even tells undercover officers that she would love to take the head off a kafir. It was as a result of undercover officers that the Britisher was prevented from killing innocent people. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-53264640
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48035043
On 21 April 2019, 9 Islamic suicide bombers killed close to 300 innocent people targeting hotels and churches across Sri Lanka. One of the suicide bombers Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed studied aerospace engineering at Kingston University between 2006 and 2007. He had also studied for a post-graduate degree in Australia.
In 2016, Minister Wijayadasa Rajapakse revealed some 32 Muslim family members had gone for ISIS training to Syria. An uncanny feature was that they were all from rich and educated families completely negating the notion that poverty inspired terrorism.
If we go a little further back to 2013 we can recall Samantha Lewthwaite, the Kenyan Mall Killer.
Part of the problem is to glorify terrorists and boast about being a terrorist. Adele Balasingham, Beate Arnestad and Niromi de Zoysa glorify terrorism & public killings and turn female terrorists into martyrs and in so doing people like Samantha Lewthwaite and now Michelle Ramsden emerge. Samantha Lewthwaite gunned down over 100 innocent people. Samantha converted to Sunni Islam when she was 17 and adopted the name Sherafiyah. Samantha became the ‘white widow’ and member of Al Qaeda affiliate Al-Shabab. Her husband Germain Lindsay blew himself up in a London underground train causing UK’s 7/7 that killed 52 people. Lewthwaite was eight months pregnant at the time with their second child, a daughter.Samantha is also wanted in connection with plotting attacks on hotels and restaurants in 2011. She is a wanted criminal but is being protected by a suicide squad of elite fighters
Aunty Adele the white nurse pioneered and trained female LTTE terrorists and turned children into child soldiers and instructed them to commit suicide biting a cyanide capsule. She has even written books boasting about her life in LTTE.
Beate Arnestad broke Sri Lankan immigration laws by entering Sri Lanka under a false name (Ms Smith) to make her film funded by the Norwegian Government. Norway would also remember the name Anders Behring Breivik who killed 77 people for no reason.
Niromi de Soysa claims to be a former child soldier and proceeds of her book was to go to her alma mater which was St. Joseph’s College, Jaffna. Niromi being female could not have attended an only boys school! She is exposed elsewhere too.
Lankan writers Arun Ambalavanar (http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2011/08/farce-of-fake-tigress.html), Michael Roberts(http://groundviews.org/2011/08/31/forbidden-fruits-niromi-de-soyzas-tamil-tigress-noumi-kouri-and-helen-demidenko/) and
Muthukrishna Sarvananthan(http://groundviews.org/2011/11/19/outing-a-counterfeit-guerrilla-a-tale-of-lies-by-tamil-tigress-niromi-de-soyza/)
Since Commander Richard Smith, head of counter-terrorism at UK’s Scotland Yard understands the danger, we hope that the UK takes greater measures to deal with jihadi elements linked to Sri Lanka and the UK LTTE fronts hob-nobbing with UK politicians like they were long lost friends!
Foreign governments and their intelligence agencies as well as counter-terrorism units must first ask whether the lives of ordinary people are more important than providing safe haven to terrorists and using them as a covert/overt operation to put pressure on foreign governments. Ultimately Rajiv Gandhi had to pay the price with his life. LTTE assassinated him in his own country/India while campaigning.
Another aspect that even Sri Lankan authorities should not dilly-dally with is the reality that mushrooming Shariah madrassas proven to be breeding grounds for hate speech and hatred bordering brainwashing to kill infidels cannot be allowed and must be nipped in the bud. The arrest of a prominent lawyer connected to Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday mass murder and his association with a madrassa that was training children to kill and use fire arms is a case in point. The discovery of a Arabic/Islamic Law College immediately questions what the modus operandi of setting up such a school is all about when the public echo the need to have ONE LAW in ONE COUNTRY for ALL. Anyone wishing to have this strict component of religious dogma are more than welcome to resettle in countries where only this law, this Shariah life and associated culture is practiced. But feigning ‘multicultural’ mask no one should be entitled to subtly change the ethos of the country by hiding behind the cloak of ‘minority discrimination’ and using that as a façade to create a parallel culturel, law & society in Sri Lanka and this is an issue that even people in the West are angry about and find fault with their governments for appeasement policy that has weakened the country and made the citizens vulnerable to extremist attacks.
Shenali D Waduge
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