RANJITH SOYSA

When we commemorate the victory over terrorism and separatism achieved in the fight to preserve unitary Sri Lanka, it is necessary to remember with gratitude the sacrifices made by our war heroes. Thousands of members of the armed forces were killed and thousands sill live in their homes or at special caring units with injuries sustained and many without a limb or some who have lost both.

To remember their priceless determination to protect the Motherland, let us in these difficult times of COVID 19.  hoist the national flag and say a silent prayer thanking the men of the armed forces.

We should also resolve ourselves never to give in to terrorism or separatism which if not nipped in the bud will result in another bold bath. We nearly were there, when the Easter carnage took place the nation by surprise and many hundreds of innocent civilians were massacred.

This nation is strong enough to withstand any illegitimate means of securing power with the use of armed violence as proved in the ancient as well as the modern history of the Island. Let us also dedicate ourselves to help the disabled members of the armed forces for their physical as well as mental rehabilitation and also to assist in any way possible to educate their children while we express our gratitude,

RANJITH SOYSA

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

I read a news report that contained an address of Mr.Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the president of Sri Lanka, and reported that the president stated the country needs to build a system that looks for graduates to employ in the organizations than graduates are looking for jobs.  This statement directed a very good vision and stressed that many missions need to achieve the vision. The literal meaning of the statement may not applicable, but the message gave to the policy-makers was strong and expects a radical change in education policies in the country.

The mission relates to the vision is broader and the president stated before his election to the office in the last year that he will change education policies to make a country that educated people would not leave the country people who left come back. The vision has a strong relationship with education reforms that are stuck with bureaucrats either they do not know how to develop policies in the mission to achieve the vision or the bureaucrats are sabotaging vis a viz policy aims of the president or there is a problem with a shortage of funds to spend for policy development.  

The traditional university education aims at granting a degree to university students to use it end of the name and university students satisfied with the role of universities as the job vacancies in the economy were sufficient to absorb all graduates pass out in each year.  When the number of universities increased and student numbers increased to show that there are students to universities, but the quality of education and the quality of degree programs were neglected by the university authorities, and when students passed out after graduation it was a problem that university graduates had no jobs in the market. The issue has a positive relationship with economic growth and development. Although a heavyweight should be given to the issues in education policies economic issues are not free from the aggregate issue.

During the past 50 years, graduate unemployment became a political issue, and politicians of the country have been using graduate unemployment to mislead voters and politicians who used the issue to expand political power university level finding a solution to the problem when the party achieves the power of the country.  The best example is the election in 1970 and 1977. Two different political parties attracted to power in 1970 and 1977 and no party has developed policies to solve the unemployment problem of graduates.

Graduate unemployment in the country has been a problem related to education reforms, university authority would have taken steps to reform education to improve the quality of education that creates the demand for graduates in the job market. It needed collaboration with economic policymakers of both sides, and the activities of policymakers showed that they were working isolation and finally not a single side achieved objectives of policymaking.  Traditionally, university authorities did not believe that university education concerns with the development of knowledge, skills, quality, values, and applicability of knowledge, skills, and values in the workplace.

Since the late 1970s, university graduates in Sri Lanka had opportunities to embark on the job market in Sri Lanka as well as in other countries, but university authorities did not initiate programs that promote knowledge, skills, and values of graduates.  They haven’t promoted opportunities for graduates to communicate in various languages such as English and European languages like French German and Russian, and Asian languages such as Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, and others. Left political parties such as JVP created problems university education forcing authorities to close universities and Ragging used to promote students to leave university and go oversea for education.  These problems new university authorities and never proposed workable solutions to the government. Some members of university authorities were active members of JVP, who were interested in promoting the political philosophy at the cost of students destroying higher education in Sri Lanka.

There were negative attitudes towards skills learning and many mythical views on blue-collar jobs. Left political parties invaded universities and university authorities have been prevented to reform education and diversification of programs and university students used to achieve political purposes.

To achieve the expectation of Mr.Gotabaya Rajapaksa all universities should unite to work policy decisions. During the CONID 19 problems, it seemed that many students have gone overseas for various education programs, which have not quality and recognition.  They wasted parents’ money and foreign exchange reserves of the country.  As a person with experience in education, economic and Banking, and finance policy development, I would live to suggest the following policy actions in favor of the president’s expectation.

• Students in Grade 10 and 12 must be given internationally recognized vocational training level Certificate 1 and 2 while they are gaining  education in high schools. When students complete Grade 10 and 12 they will get two certificates that are grade 10 or 12 certificates in general education and vocational training certificates. The vocational training should be given high schools combining with technical and vocational institutions and one day of a week should be given to study vocational and technical skills as preferred by students.  Private tuitions must stop and students should be allowed to participate in general and vocational education. When students completed Grade 12 education, they can go to universities or technical colleges for studies whatever the area they like to study.   Vocational and technical education should be offered by technical-vocational institutions.  Students can gain theoretical education at schools from visiting teachers from TVET institutions, and practical training will gain from attending programs in TVET institutions. No student will missout on this tertiary education from this system.  This system will allow students to be competent in various languages and skills. 
• The universities should allow programs from National Advanced Certificate to Postgraduate level and those students, who completed diploma level studies and working in workplaces should be allowed to gain university education in after-hours and weekends. Ragging must be treated as criminal acts and those who engage in ragging must be given rigorous presentments.
• University education must be based on competency and research, and campus recruitments should be promoted to show jobs looking for graduates.
• Education is an investment in a country that is the most gainful investment and the government should not reluctant to invest 5% of total spending on education and training.
• The government needs to identify a list of vocational training in terms of demand for jobs and the list should be annually updated.  Students should be allowed to choose a program that they prefer, but not what parents want. Any vocational training program will be useful to doctors, engineers, computer programmers, researchers, and any person. 

චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම, LL.B., Ph.D.

රාජා භවතු ධම්මිකෝ මතක්‌වීම

කොළඹදී රැස්වෙන නෝනා මහත්‌වරු, ඇල්ලේ ගුණවංශ හාමුදුරුවන් කියන ඕ මයි ගෝඩ් අයද, බුදු අම්මෝ අයද යනු පැහැදිලි නැතත්, ඔවුන් හැමදෙනාම, 2009 ට කලින් මේ යුද්‌ධය නම් කවදාවත්ම දිණන්න බෑ යයි කී පිරිසමය. ඔවුන් කළුසුද්දන් බව එලිවන්නේ රාජා භවතු ධම්මිකෝ… යන අගනා බෞද්‌ධ රාජ්‍ය පාලන සංකල්පය, පාලි ටෙක්ස්ට් (පාලි වචන) කියා බාල්දු කිරීමෙන්‌ය. මෙම සමහර විට නොදැන, නොසිතා කල අපහාසයේ බැරෑරුම්කම ඔවුන්ට ඉදිරියේදී හෝ වැටහෙන්නේ එය හැඳින්‌වීමට පාලි ටෙක්ස්ට් වෙනුවට ඉන්ග්ලිස් ටෙක්ස්ට් කියා යෙදුවොත්‌ය. වැදගත්, පාලි යන භාෂා වාහනය නොව, බෞද්‌ධ දේශනාවය. බුදු දහම ගැන හරිහමන් දැනීමක් නැත්නම් දේශපාලන අරමුණක් ඇති ලියුම් වලට දේවෝ වස්සතු…කතා නොදැමිය යුතුය. ඉන් සිදුවන්නේ, ජේ. ආර්ලාගේ ධර්මිට සමාජය, සිරිසේන/රනිල් යහපාලන-ලිච්චවි සමාජය මතක්‌වී, ජනයාට තරහක් ඇතිවීම පමණය.

ශීඝ්‍රයෙන් අඩුවෙමින් යන සාමාජිකයින් පිරිසක් සිටින මේ සමාගම, වරින් වර රටේ නොයෙක් දේ ගැන හොට දමයි. එවිට ඒච්. එල්. ඩී මහින්දපාල මහතා ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාවේ සිට ඔවුන්ට නිසි අවවාදද ලුණු ඇඹුල් සහිතව නොමිලයේම ලබාදෙමින් සිටී. ඔවුන් විසින් ජනාධිපතිට ලියූ අළුත්ම කෙටි ලිපිය, කේවට්ටයා බ්‍රහ්මදත්ත රජතුමාට දුන් උපදෙස් වලට සමානය (අයිලන්ඩ්, මැයි 16). ලියුමේ ඒකායන අරමුණ වන්නේ මේ ධර්මිෂ්ට පදය, ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 70 (7) වගන්තිය සමඟ පටලවා පරණ පිංගුත්තර පිරිසට (අතලොස්සක් හැර) දියවන්නා හොටලයේ දොර අරවා ගැනීමය. ඒ අනුව සිතන විට මේ සිකුරාදා කට්ටිය වනාහී රට කැබලි කිරීමේ මහා ව්‍යාපාරයට සම්බන්‌ධ කරත්ත රෝදයේ එක පොල්ලක් පමණය. මේ හැම දෙයකම අන්තිම අරමුණ රටේ යහපත, රටේ (නැති) ජනතා පරමාධිපත්‍යය නොව, 1921/23 පමණ සිට හටගත් විෂබීජයක්‌වූ දෙමළ බෙදුම්වාදයට (2009 මැයි 18 දා වැළලූ එහෙත් නොමළ) ඔක්‍ෂිජන් සැපයීමය .

නා නා මාදිලියේ පංචස්කන්‌ධ දියවන්නා හෝටලය ඇරගන්නට නොයෙක් ආකාරයේ කෙස්පැලෙන තර්‌ක ඉදිරිපත්කරයි. කලම්බු ටෙලිග්‍රාෆ් වෙබ් අඩවිය දැන් දියවන්නා හෝටලයේ ලන්ඩන් ශාඛාව වැනිය. මේ අතරින් කැපී පෙනෙන්නේ ජෙහාන් පෙරේරා, කුමාර් ඩේවිඩ් හා ලංකාවට කොඩිවිනයක්‌වූ දැන් ජීනීවා නුවරට පැනගොස් සිටින මාක්ස්වාදය යූ.එන්.පී. කල ජයම්පති වික්‍රමරත්නත් ය. වික්‍රමබාහු නම් කලේ එක වේදිකාවට නැග්ග එක පමණය. ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය නමැති බරව කකුලේ එල්ලී ඉන්නා මොවුන්ගේ එක් තර්‍කයක් නම් 2020 නොමිනේෂන්‌දී ඇති 150 කටත් වඩා, පරණ දියවන්නා හෝටල්කාරයින්ම නොවේද යන්නය. තිබෙන්නේ ලුනුමිදෙල්ල ලී නම් ඉන් බුරුත කැබිනට් එකක් සැදිය නොහැකි යයි කියන්නේ මේ නිසාය. පවතින බරවා කකුලෙන් ගැලවිය හැක්කේ පවතින ක්‍රමය තුලින්ම මිස නාගානන්ද ක්‍රමයට නොවේ. අළුත් ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් ගෙනා හැක්කේ එලෙසය. ඌරාගේ මාළු ඌරා පිටම කැපීමෙන්‌ය. පවතින දූෂිත නොමිනේෂන් ක්‍රමය හා චන්ද ක්‍රමය යටතේ, බෞද්‌ධ ක්‍රමයට අනුව දැනට කලහැකි දේ එයය. නමුත් ඉතා පැහැදිලි දෙයක් නම් ඒ 150 ට කලින් කල සෙල්ලම් කරන්නට, පගා ගෙන, බත් කා නිදාගන්නට ඉඩ නොලැබෙන, ඉඩ නොදෙන බවය. මහජනයාට පොරොන්‌දුවී ආ තම ප්‍රතිපත්ති ක්‍රියාවට යොදවන්නට අකමැතිනම් රජ්‍ය සේවයෙන් ඉවත්‌වෙන ලෙස ජනාධිපති දුන් අවවාදය අනාගත පො‌හොට්ටු මන්ත්‍රීලාටද වලංගුය. මන්ත්‍රී පරාණ පෙත්සම් මගින් ආපසු කැඳවීමේ බලයක් ජනතාවට ලබාදිය යුතුය.

රාජා ධම්මිකෝ පාර

රට ගැන හරිම දුකෙන් ඉන්නා සිකුරාදා පිරිස මෙවැනි යෝජනා වෙනුවට ගේන්නේ මොනවාද? යහපාලන කාලයේ මහජනයා වෙනුවෙන් කෙරෙන <යහපාලන> වැඩ ගැන නිදා සිටි මොවුන් අවදිවන්නේ ජනතා පරමාධිපත්‍යය, නැතහොත් යහපාලන කල්ලියට තර්‌ජනයක් එන විට පමණය. එසේත් නැත්නම් ඔවුන් කියන බහු වාර්‌ගික ලංකා සමාජය රැක ගැනීම උදෙසාය. ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කොමිෂමේ ලොකු නෝනාගේ පිටකසන්නන් වශයෙනි. දැන් මේ අළුත්ම ලියුම ගන්නේ අළුත්ම පාරකි. එය <රාජා භවතු ධම්මිකෝ> පාරය. මීට සතියකට දෙකකට කලින් කලේ උසාවියේ නඩුකාරයින් උදෙසා පිලියෙල කලා වැනි දීර්‌ග නීති සංදේශයකින් පරණ මන්ත්‍රී හෝටලය නැවත ඇරීම යනු ජනතා පරමාධිපත්‍යය රැකදීම යයි තර්‌ක කිරීමය. නමුත් මෙවර, කලින් සිරිසේන/රනිල් නඩුවේදී මෙන් ජයම්පති අටවාදී පැනගිය 19 සංශොධන හුටපටය තුලින් කබරගොයා තලගොයා කල හැකිවේද යන සැකයක් සිකුරාදා නීතිඥයින්ට පහලවී ඇතිසේය.

ජේ. ආර්. ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ අගට ඇති දේවෝ වස්සතු කාලේන…යන්න බෞද්‌ධයින් රැවටීමට කල ඇස්බැන්‌දුමක් මිස, ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ වගන්තියක් නොවේ. එය හරියට ව්‍යවස්ථා පොතේ කොලවල පිටු අංක වගේය. පිටු අංක ව්‍යවස්ථා වගන්තිද? එය නීතියෙන් 70(7) ට බද්‌ධ කල හැකි අදහසක් නොවේ. එය නීතියෙන් බාහිර බෞද්‌ධ සංකල්පයකි. දැනට තිබෙන තත්‌වය නම් ජනාධිපති මෙතෙක් ගෙන ඇති තීරණ ජයම්පති-සුමන්තිරන් ශූක්‍ෂම ප්ලෑනට අනුව යන්නය. දියවන්නා හෝටලය බෝම්බයක් වැටී විනාශ වුනොත් පාර්ලිමේන්තුව මාස තුනකට වඩා වසා තැබීම සිදුවනවා මෙන්, කොරෝනා නිසා එය වසා තැබීමට සිදුවීමේ නීති විරෝධී කමක් නැත. බලතල බෙදීමේ න්‍යාය නිසා, ඒ කාලයේ එන්.එම්-කොල්වින්ලා ව්සින් කතා සාප්පුවක් ලෙස හැඳින්‌වූ, දැන් නම් හරිහමක් කතාවක්වත් නැති බත් කඩයක්, නැවත ඇරීමට, ගලේ කෙටූවාසේ කෙරෙන බලකිරීමක් ලෝකයේ කොහේවත් නීති පොතක නැත.

ඒ නිසා මෙයට උසාවියට ඇඟිලි ගැසිය හැකි එකම විධිය නම් මහජන ආරක්‍ෂක පණත යටතේ හදිසි නීතිය ප්‍රකාශ කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය නැත යනුවෙන් ජනාධිපති ගත් තීරණය නීත්‍යාණුකූල වුවත්, ධාර්මික නැත (සුද්දගෙ නීතිය අනුව හිතුවක්කාර, අසාධාරණ) යයි තීන්‌දු කිරීමෙනි. මේ සඳහා, <නෙසසිටි> හෝ <එක්සෙප්ෂනලිසම්> යන සුද්දාගේ ඩොක්ට්‍රින්ස් පස්සේ දුව ගියත් අන්තිමට එන්නට වන්නේ මේ එක්ට්‍රා-ලීගල් (නීති පොතෙන් පිට) රාජා ධම්මිකෝ තියරි එකටය.

එසේ බාහිර කරුණු සළකනවා නම්, උසාවිය ජනාධිපතිගේ මනස විග්‍රහ කලයුතුවේ. ඔහුව බලයට පත්කලේ මුන් 225 ම එපා, මුන් අවුරුදු 71 ක් ම රටකෑවා යන සටන් පාඨය පිළිගත් ලක්‍ෂ 69 ක් විසිනි. එය සිදුවූයේ යහපාලනකාරයින් රටේ සංඝ ශාසනයට, බෞද්‌ධ නටබුන් වලට, රටේ පැවැත්මට කල හානි ඉදිරියේ පාරට බැස්ස හාමුදුරුවරුන්ගේ මැදිහත් වීම නිසාය. 69 ලක්‍ෂය 80 ක් ඉක්මවීමට පවා ඉඩකඩ තිබෙන්නේ, කෙතරම් භාධක ඉදිරියේ වුවත්, ජනාධිපති කිව් දේ කරණ කෙනෙක් යයි චන්ද දායකයින්ට පෙනීයාම නිසාය. උතුරේ අහිංසක දෙමළ ජනයා යුද හමුදාවට කැමතිය; සිංහල ජනයා යුද හමුදාවට කැමතිය. භටයින් දකින්නට අකමැති වංක දේශපාලකයාය. මිසිස් චන්ද්‍රිකා ඒ කාලයේ කී දෙයක් නම් හොඳ ඇමතිලා 10 ක් ඉන්නවා නම් ඇයට රට හදා දෙන්නට පුළුවන්‌ය කියාය! දැන් ජනාධිපතිට කරන්නට සිදුවී ඇත්තේ දක්‍ෂ, අවංක අමාත්‍යාංශ ලේකම්ලා සොයා ගැනීමය. ඒ සඳහා ඔහුට විශාල හමුදා පූල් එකක්ම ඇත. මීට ඊර්ෂ්‍යා කරන්නේද ජේවීපී ඇතුළු දේශපාලක හොරුමය.

මෙවැනි පසුබිමක් යටතේ උසාවිය තීරණය කල යුත්තේ ජනාධිපතිට ජනතාව දී ඇති පරමාධිකාරී බලය භාවිතා කිරීමට ඉඩ දෙනවාද, නැත්නම් ජයම්පතිගේ-සුමන්තිරන්ගේ පොතේ ඇති බලතල බෙදීම නම් මන්ත්‍රී පරමාධිපත්‍යයක් නමැති මායාවක් ජනාධිපතිගේ මනසට බලෙන් ආරූඪ කරන්නට හදනවාද යන්නය. සිකුරාදා පිරිස දෙන්නේ මෙම ආරූඪ කිරීමේ උපදේශයය. එය කේවට්ටයා කල දේමය. ධ‌ර්මිෂඨ වීම කතාවෙන්, නීති පොතෙන් සිදුවනවා නම් ජේ. ආර්, රනිල් හෝ සිරිසේනලා ලංකාවේ ධර්‌මාශොකලාය. ගෝඨාභය එය ක්‍රියාවෙන් පෙන්වන්නට පටන් ගෙන තිබෙන්නේ, ධර්මිෂ්ට යයි කියන්නේ, සධාරණත්‌වය, යුක්තිය, සිංහල බෞද්‌ධයා නොපෙලා ගෙනයන පාලනයකට වීම නිසාය. මීට වෙනස් අර්‍ථකතනයක් ධර්‌මිෂ්ට යන්නට දීමට උසාවියට දැණුමක්, දැක්මක් තිබේද?

මෙම ඓතිහාසික හා රටේ මානව-දේශපාලන භූගෝල විද්‍යාවට අදාල සාධක සලකා බලන්නේ නම්, 1954 දී බ්‍රවුන් එරෙහිව බෝඩ් ඔෆ් එඩියුකේෂන් හා 2000 දී බුෂ් එදිරිව ගෝර් යන නඩුවලදී ඇමෙරිකන් සුප්‍රිම් උසාවිය දුන් තීන්‌දු දෙකේ හරයට අනුව මිස ඉන්දියන් හෝ පකිස්ථාන් නඩු හා බිර්ලාලාගේ පරණ නීති ග්‍රන්ථ කියවා, තමන්ගෙන් රටට හා ජාතියට (රටේ ශිෂ්ටාචාරය ගොඩනැඟූ ජාතියේ) හානිකර නිගමනයකට සුප්‍රිම් උසාවිය නොපැමිණිය යුතුය. හිටපු යහපාලන ඇමති හැරිසන් ඊයේ අනුරාධපුරේදී කටමැත දෙඩවූ අන්දමට උසාවි තීරණය නිසා සජිත්-රනිල් සමඟි වූ පසු ඇළුතින් නොමිනේෂන් දෙනවා යන්න නඩුකාරයින් ක්‍රියාකරණවාද යන සැකයක් මහජනයා තුල ඇතිවුනොත්, එය උසාවියේ මොටෝ එකට පටහැනිව යාමක් වන්නේය.

ප.ලි.
මේ පිලිතුරු ලිපිය කෙලින්ම ඔවුන්ට යැවීමට ඊමේල් ලිපිනයක් වත් දක්‌වා නැති නිසා මෙය අයිලන්ඩ් කතෘට යවන්නේ ඔහු එය ඔවුන්ට යවතියි බලාපොරොත්තුවෙනි.

Garvin Karunaratne

It is important to note that for the first time since 1977 Sri Lanka is taking action to ensure that our foreign exchange is not taken away by foreign countries. I refer to the recent action taken by our Central Bank to ensure that profits are not repatriated.

I enclose a paragraph from my Paper:  Playing Poodle to the IMF is not the way ahead”, appearing in the Lanka Web of  12/1/2020:

Third World countries have enticed McDonalds,  Pizza Hut and such Multinationals to come in. They bring in a small sum of foreign exchange initially to establish their business. They get into local trading in the local currency but take away the profits in foreign currency forever without paying any taxes. It amounts to a net loss of our foreign reserves.

Foreign companies getting into trading in local Rupees – like Uber etc. also amounts to a net loss of our foreign exchange as though they calculate profits in Rupees they take away their profits in foreign currency. One of the latest inroads is hotel bookings by foreign companies over the internet. Hotel bookings done insist on payment in Rupees to the hotelier, but the internet companies get fifteen percent of the payment paid to them in foreign currency. Again this goes from our reserves. It is sad that our Central Bank fails to even understand how our foreign reserves are being robbed by these foreign investors.

Needs it to be said that since 1977 our foreign exchange has been taken away to the Developed Countries by various methods.

If only our Central Bank orders that the intake of foreign exchange by Authorized Foreign Exchange Dealers should be credited to the Central Bank coffers we will amass a large amount of foreign exchange. Today the intake of foreign exchange at these Dealers does not come into our coffers. It is resold by the dealers. This foreign exchange only serves to make a profit to the Dealer. In actuality, it is a foreign currency that has come into our country and the country is entitled to it.  It is also necessary for all banks to accept foreign exchange offered by anyone without holding investigations- checking passports to check arrival dates, etc.

Our leaders should know that FDI (foreign direct investment) is a shrewd googly deployed by the IMF to take away foreign exchange from our reserves.

Our economists need to do some hard thinking about what happens to the foreign exchange that comes into the country.

Garvin Karunaratne

Dr. Gamini Padmaperuma, a Chartered Professional Engineer

e-Learning has become a buzz word nowadays. e-Learning essentially uses information and communication and technology (ICT) for teaching and learning. The importance and relevance of e-Learning can be well recognized in view of the current pandemic situation and general global trends in education.

His Excellency the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in his manifesto has given the highest priority to providing higher education opportunities to all those who pass the A/L exam. This indeed is a noble task and implementation of such a task can be greatly facilitated by e-Learning, which does not require heavy investments on expensive physical infrastructure to accommodate large numbers of students and facilities. An e-Learning approach with proper ICT networks, sound learning management systems (LMS) and appropriately developed e-Learning content can make a significant contribution towards enhancing the access to a larger portion of the deserving youth. The present situation associated with the COVID-19 pandemic has added another dimension to the importance and relevance of e-Learning. e-Learning came to the rescue of many pupils and students during the lock-down period as an alternative to  missed face-to-face classes and lectures. It is evident that the use of e-Learning can help us in meeting many of the challenges that are created by the emerging trends in education as well as emergency situations such as the current pandemic.

The global trends are: The demand for education is rising. The education which was previously accessible only to a limited few representing the elitist groups has become more widely accessible to members of the larger community. This has created enormous pressure on existing traditional educational institutions, which usually have limited resources and until recently operated only on the face-to-face mode of teaching.

The demand for distance learning is rising. Today the jobs are very demanding due to the rapidly advancing technology. Therefore, everyone has to continuously update or upgrade their training and education to stay competitive. Accordingly, many would resort to distance learning for keeping themselves up-to-date and stay competitive in their jobs. Also, many would like to acquire their initial qualifications or new skills to change their career paths, through distance learning.

Life-long learning is gaining increasing relevance. In view of the necessity to keep up with the changes in technology and to stay competitive in their jobs, many would embrace life-long learning as an appropriate approach.

Shift from teacher-centred learning to learner-centred learning. Another important change that is taking place is that the focus of teaching and learning has shifted from the teacher to the learner. The teacher’s role has changed from teaching or lecturing to coaching or facilitating. The future vision for education is identified as one that provides access for anyone, for any type (subject) of learning, at any place and at any time.

These emerging trends in the field of education amply highlight the importance and relevance of e-Learning as a useful means for meeting the challenges emanating from the new trends in education.

However, one of the biggest concerns among the educators involved in e-Learning is the lack of sufficient pedagogical input in the design of related instructions. It is obvious that e-Learning is a very worthwhile endeavour in present context. However, what is not so obvious is what it takes to implement e-Learning successfully.

Successful implementation of e-Learning has three main fronts to tackle. They are: the technological front, the front concerning the learner preparedness, and the front involving the effective design of instructions.

The technological front involves the provision of ICT networks with appropriate capacity, economy and reliability to meet the demands of e-Learning. This means having a reliable communication network, accessible to users throughout the country and capable of transferring large amounts of data including audio and video files at a reasonable speed and at affordable price. Presently, this does not pose a major concern to e-Learners, even if there are concerns in some areas, the necessary actions are underway to rectify them. The initiatives taken by Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) and network expansions undertaken by telecom companies would alleviate this concern to a large extent.

The second important front in implementing e-Learning is the learner preparedness. It is necessary for the learners to be computer-literate to participate in e-Learning. Despite the high rankings in traditional literacy ratings, Sri Lankans lag behind its neighbours in terms of computer literacy. The current computer literacy rate of Sri Lanka is 30.1%, where this percentage for urban sector is around 41.5%, and rural and estate sectors represent, 28.6% and 13.7%, respectively, as per the statistics available.   This is another major concern that needs to be addressed promptly.

Another essential factor under learner preparedness is the competency in English language. Our English Proficiency Indices are also lower than that of most neighbouring countries. It is obvious that without a competency in English the learners are unlikely to reap the full benefits of e-Learning. It is therefore necessary to initiate programmes to uplift the competencies in English and computer literacy throughout the country, particularly in the rural communities.

Solutions to this issue can also be found through Computer-Aided Learning (CAL) materials. Particularly, the improvements to the competency levels in English can be achieved through properly designed interactive multimedia learning materials to be made available through CDs. Provision of learning materials through such a medium will provide wider access and consistency in training, minimise the problems associated with the lack of human tutor support and also train the users towards e-Learning. These CDs can be run on individual computers without networks or Internet. A high degree of computer literacy is not required to use the CDs for learning.

The third front, which is not obvious to many, is the instructional design. It is important that e-Learning materials are properly designed with appropriate pedagogical inputs, if successful learning outcomes are to be achieved. It is quite possible that both the first two fronts are already satisfied (technology and user preparedness) but no successful implementation of e-Learning is possible since the e-Learning content is either not developed or poorly designed. It is therefore important to pay high attention to the design of e-Learning content with appropriate pedagogical inputs and sound instructional design techniques.

However, the objective of using the appropriate instructional design techniques is to achieve effective learning outcomes. The instructional designers design instructions, learning activities, discussion forums, practice sessions, assessments, feedback mechanisms, etc. These design activities are based on the context within which the learning takes place (learning context), the type of learner, and the type of learning task. The use of technology and media such as discussion forums, chat rooms, audio, video, etc. is dependent on the instructional design. The technologies should not be used indiscriminately just because they are available. On the other hand, appropriate use of technologies such as audio, video, animations, etc. in instructions may make them appealing to a diverse cross section of learners, thus making them more useful and effective.

Creating necessary facilities for e-Learning for both urban (20%) and rural (80%) sectors in the country may help reduce the existing inequalities between the two sectors in access to quality education thereby the overall economic and social gaps. Therefore, this is an excellent opportunity to be snatched by the authorities responsible for alleviating the social inequalities present in our society. However, if such facilities are not adequately provided to the rural communities in a timely manner, they will be further alienated by what is known as ‘the digital divide”.

It is advisable that policy makers have a thorough review of the total requirements for implementing e-Learning successfully and provide necessary direction to the appropriate institutions. e-Learning shall be used as a standalone approach as well as a complementary approach to traditional teaching and learning (Blended Learning), using existing educational institutions as well as new ones.

Author:

Dr. Gamini Padmaperuma, a Chartered Professional Engineer and a former Senior Lecturer at OUSL, holds a PhD from the University of Canterbury, NZ. His PhD thesis was on Instructional Design for Computer-Based Learning. email: gamini_pad@hotmail.com.

Dr. Sarath Obeysekera 

රටේ ආර්ථිකය බේරා ගන්න කොරියානුවන් තම කණ කර ආභරණ එරට භාණ්ඩාගාරයට දුන්නා.. අපද එසේ විය යුතුයි..

May 18, 2020 at 3:22 am | lanka C news

කොරියාවේ වැටුණු ආර්ථිකය ගොඩගැනීම සඳහා කොරියානුවන් තම කණකර එරට භාණ්ඩාගාරයට ලබාදුන් බව ඇමති සී.බී. රත්නායක මහතා සඳහන් කරයි.

කිසිවකුට අත නොපා අපි නැගිටිමු යන අධිෂ්ඨානයෙන් මෙම පරිත්‍යාගය එරට වැසියන් විසින් සිදුකළ බවද ඔහු පැවසුවේය.

මේ අවස්ථාවේදී ඒ දේශ මාමකත්වය මෙරට අපට ද තිබිය යුතු බවද ඔහු පැවසීය.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදු ජන පෙරමුණේ මූලස්ථානයේදී පැවති මාධ්‍ය හමුවකදී ඔහු මේ අදහස් පළ කළේය.

When I read the above article today I was really thinking whether Sri Lankan’s should start thinking  with patriotism 

I will gladly donate if the politicians all so start donating the wealth accumulated for the last 70 years after independence 

They should sell the luxury land cruiser and start driving a microcar or go to my public transport 

They can get rid of number of security guards 

They can sell on of their second or third house they own

They should bring  the money stashed abroad and replenish Treasury coffers 

Then I will gladly donate for the well being of the nation

Dr Sarath Obeysekera
CEO Walkers Colombo Shipyard
Colombo
Sri Lanka

by Asanga Abeyagoonasekera*

We’re going to turn it around. And we have the cards, don’t forget it. We are like a piggy bank that’s being robbed. We have the cards. We have a lot of power with China”[i] President Donald J. Trump during the 2016 election campaign.

President Donald Trump was elected on a platform challenging long-standing American foreign policy premises with a particular criticism of US – China relations. Tensions in the US – China relationship exacerbated due to Trump’s continuous rhetoric and action during his Presidency reminding the American polity that China’s rise as a global power was not beneficial to the US on economic and security domains. In the economic front, China’s protectionist regulations, non-transparency, intellectual property theft and economic cyber espionage has escalated towards a tense trade war and a national security threat. 

China’s economic dominance as the global manufacturing hub, providing financial assistance to many developing nations whilst expanding its tentacles towards the entire world through the Belt and Road initiative to AIIB has changed the geopolitical landscape in Asia. The tense US – China relationship which is at direct risk of a military confrontation is located in four geographical locations in Asia – the Korean peninsula, Taiwan, Senkaku/Diaoyu islands and the South China Sea. Protecting vital US interests and regional allies and friends from its liberal order established since the Second World War is at the core of US foreign policy. President Richard Nixon’s invitation to China in the 1970s of a diplomatic, economic and security partnership to secure US military presence in Asia was a geostrategic manoeuvre to draw China away from the Soviet orbit. This helped to strengthen US interest in the region to protect its allies and to end the Cold War three decades ago.

China’s Mask Diplomacy to Wolf Warrior Diplomacy

Today, thirty years after the Cold War, a Pandemic has triggered another cold war between the US and China, with US accusing China of a form of biological warfare. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused China stating that there was enormous evidence” supporting the claim adding there is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan…. I think the whole world can see now, remember, China has a history of infecting the world and running substandard laboratories.”[ii] Chinese media, responding to this direct accusation states, If evil politicians like Pompeo continue to lie and bluff, then the Americans ‘becoming great again’ can only be seen as a joke.”[iii] Previously on social media, Chinese diplomat Zhao Lijian strongly signalled their anger with the assertion that the coronavirus was a bioweapon used by American soldiers. China is carrying out wolf warrior diplomacy[iv], retaliating aggressively and responding with firmness than never before while carrying out its soft power mask diplomacy – a term employed for millions of masks donated with medical equipment. The dual diplomatic postures have increased Chinese soft diplomacy and power projection.

China, as part of its mask diplomacy, provided medical equipment and a concessionary loan of US$ 500 million with a repayment term of 10 years, to assist Sri Lanka in its fight against COVID19. This will increase the island’s existing debt profile with China and will certainly increase future borrowing from China due to unavoidable external shocks from the global recession. China, was seen by Anil Jai Singh as the first off the block to capitalize on the vulnerabilities created by the spread of this pandemic. It has reached out to nations and offered support that obviously comes with strings attached. While there has been some pushback against coercive debt-trap diplomacy, the ability of the poorer or smaller nations to avoid succumbing to Chinese pressure will depend on the alternatives available”.[v] According to IMF, Sri Lanka’s debt-to-GDP ratio is 82.7% one of the highest ratios in South Asia. The Economist [vi] in its ‘Which Emerging Markets are in Most Financial Peril?’ statics recently ranked Sri Lanka at 61, a significantly reduced position compared to a few other South Asian nations.

Domestic challenges and strategic alignments 

Months after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s appointment in November 2019, he was to prove his leadership to a significant external humanitarian crisis from a global pandemic. Similarly, his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa faced a devastating humanitarian crisis after being appointed Prime Minister in 2004 – the Indian Ocean tsunami that took almost 35,000 lives in Sri Lanka. Rajapaksa proved his leadership skills managing the challenge which eventually won him the Presidency in 2005. His brother Gotabaya, demonstrated his leadership contributing his military expertise, efficiently coordinating with armed forces, the police, intelligence and healthcare officials. Sri Lanka is the second-best in the region for COVID19 testing (graph) and perhaps the best in contact tracing with a low rate of death under 10. It appears as if the ‘Rajapaksa decision-making’ works well in a crisis. 

Among powerful nations, China provided one of the most substantial donations back then for the Tsunami affected island. Similarly, China was the first to step in to assist in this emergency. Behind the crisis, a tense geopolitical storm is brewing between the US and China. Crises usually accelerate geopolitical fissures, drawing out underlying pre-existing geopolitical fault lines and building strategic partnerships and alignments among like-minded nations. This was how the Quad (India, Japan, US and Australia) was created in 2004 after the Asian Tsunami. In the present day, as explained by Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan ‘The United States has stepped up diplomatic consultations for cooperation with a geographically diverse group of countries, which has now been dubbed the Quad-Plus as it includes South Korea, Vietnam and New Zealand in addition to the original Quad. China’s actions are making this cooperation easier.’[vii] 

The new grouping with like-minded countries will play a strategic role in the Indo-Pacific. Recently, US National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien conveyed US support to Sri Lanka ‘to provide much-needed ventilators’ and recognizing ‘Sri Lanka is an important part of a free and open Indo-Pacific region.’[viii] How will Sri Lanka face this new strategic alignment and manage its Chinese sphere of influence? Sri Lanka’s erudite Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar noted in 2004, China has never sought to influence the domestic politics of Sri Lanka” claiming that the country has never tried to dominate, undermine or destabilize Sri Lanka. China has never tried to strike a quick bargain in a crisis. There have been no strings attached to Chinese aid”.[ix]  Nearly two decades following this statement, China’s interest and its role in the Indian Ocean has evolved with strength due to the tense geopolitical atmosphere.

Countering the Chinese infrastructure diplomacy in the Indian Ocean with alternative options are already afloat by the western allies. As explained by Hudson scholar Satoru Nagao Bangladesh has already chosen Japan’s Martabali port project instead of China’s Sonadia port project. If the Trincomalee Port project—involving Japanese assistance—in Sri Lanka succeeds, then the importance of China’s Hambantota port will decline. Similarly, the Chabahar Port project in Iran can mitigate the importance of the Chinese Gwadar Port in Pakistan.” Further, to strengthen the western grip in Malacca Straits, India is modernizing infrastructure to deploy warships and planes in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. [x] 

The strategic relations established by President Mahinda Rajapaksa with the arrival of President Xi Jinping to the Island in 2014 will continue strongly under the current Presidency in a more complex setting. With Geopolitical Cold War 2.0 and domestic economic strain, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has the two daunting challenges ahead of him. He would have to navigate global shocks and balance the country’s internal political challenges within a squeezed economy. As explained by LKY Professor Razeen Sally, the present environment of unstable and contested geopolitics revolving around competition is going to squeeze global trade and globalization. Domestic malign mercantilism with more state intervention and restricted markets will see a different kind of capitalism coming out of this pandemic [xi]. Sri Lanka should foresee this danger to avoid malign mercantilism drifting towards losing liberal values. The nation has to balance its foreign policy, protecting its liberal democratic values and its important relationship with China amid a geopolitical storm. 

End Notes

 [i] https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2016/0502/Should-Trump-be-using-rape-to-describe-US-China-relations

[ii] https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/05/04/pompeo-continues-china-blame-game/

[iii] China’s National Radio https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3082665/china-has-history-infecting-world-us-secretary

[iv] Wolf Worrier Diplomacy, https://www.timesofisrael.com/chinas-wolf-warrior-diplomats-show-teeth-in-defending-virus-response/

[v] Anil Jai Singh, https://thediplomat.com/2020/05/the-quad-and-the-pandemic-a-lost-opportunity/ 

[vi] Economist, https://www.economist.com/briefing/2020/05/02/which-emerging-markets-are-in-most-financial-peril

[vii] https://www.cfr.org/blog/pandemic-and-china-are-strengthening-us-india-relations-now

[viii] O’Brien ‘National Security Council’, @WHNSC twitter message, https://www.newsfirst.lk/2020/05/09/us-national-security-advisor-calls-on-president-gotabaya-rajapaksa/

[ix] Quoted in J Dhanapala and J Goonaratne, ‘Sri Lanka:China as a growth of modernization’ in a resergent China:South Asia perspectives, eds S.D.Muni and Tan Tai Young( London Routledge 2012) pp 245-6. 

[x] Satoru Nagao, Hudson, https://www.hudson.org/research/14402-countering-china-in-the-indo-pacific

[xi] Razeen Sally LKY School online discussion Asia Thinker Series 6th May 2020

* This piece was initially published by the Observer Research Foundation(ORF) New Delhi. https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/sri-lanka-facing-geopolitics-of-covid-19-to-cold-war-2-0-66169/

Asanga Abeyagoonasekera is the author of ‘Sri Lanka at Crossroads’ (WorldScientific, Singapore).

He was the former Director General at the national security think tank INSSSL under the Ministry of Defence and former Executive Director at the foreign policy think tank LKIIRSS under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka. He can be contacted at asangaaa@gmail.com

Courtesy Mail on Line

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) – As couples do all over the world, Darshana Kumara Wijenarayana and his fiance, Pawani Rasanga, spent months planning a grand wedding.

And everything was on course for the Sri Lankan couple – until the coronavirus struck the island nation off India’s southern tip, leading to an indefinite lockdown.

“By that time, we had made all the arrangements. Clothes, rings and cakes had been ordered. The reception hall was booked. We had planned to invite 250 guests,” Darshana told The Associated Press by phone from his home in Malimbada, a small town about 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of the capital Colombo.

Family and friends urged them to postpone their April 27 wedding.

Instead, the couple chose to celebrate their love by feeding the poor.

The first COVID-19 patient in Sri Lanka was a Chinese tourist who fell sick in January during her vacation. She was discharged in February.

In this April 27, 2020, photo, Darshana Kumara Wijenarayana and his bride Pawani Rasanga walk with packets of food to distribute in the small town of Malimbada, about 160 kilometers (99 miles) south of the capital Colombo. The Sri Lankan couple cancelled a wedding party and instead, shared their wedding day with some of their neediest neighbors who have been economically hit due to the lock down following the new Coronavirus. (Darshana Kumara Wijenarayana via AP)

Until the first week of March, there was little panic about the disease. Then on March 11, the first Sri Lankan – a tour guide – tested positive for the virus, triggering fear and the closure of schools and universities and many businesses.

The ongoing curfew has curbed the spread of the virus, but also dealt a severe blow to many who survive on a daily wage.

As the couple’s wedding day approached, the local curfew was lifted during daytime hours, so they were free to host the wedding as planned, albeit under strict social distancing guidelines.

But they’d hatched another plan.

Darshana, the 30-year-old owner of a small retail shop, and Pawani, 25, a lab assistant at a state-run school, decided to share their wedding day with some of their neediest neighbors.

After registering the marriage with a few close family and friends, the couple cut the wedding cake and fed each other a piece before getting to work.

The groom wore a dark blue, three-piece, Western-style suit with an ivory tie and boutonniere, and the bride was in a white lace sari and a jeweled wedding headpiece with pink and purple flowers pinned above her chignon.

Both wore masks as they delivered plastic bags of goods to each home, some built of uneven wooden planks on mud floors. Little girls and their mothers beamed at the bride as she distributed colorful plastic headbands; they offered the couple blessings for a happy married life.

Darshana and Pawani presented children with toy cars. They even offered slices of their cake. Then, they applied hand sanitizer and moved on to the next home.

They have since received a flood of phone calls and visits at their home and shop from strangers who praised them for their generosity.

“By doing this, we got a great satisfaction,” Darshana said. “When you see the happiness on the face of these people, especially the kids … you see …. I don´t have words to explain that happiness.”

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While nonstop news about the effects of the coronavirus has become commonplace, so, too, have the stories about the kindness of strangers and individuals who have sacrificed for others. “One Good Thing” is an AP series reflecting these acts of kindness.

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In this April 27, 2020, photo, Pawani Rasanga hands a packet to a young girl, watched by her husband Darshana Kumara Wijenarayana in the small town of Malimbada, about 160 kilometers (99 miles), south of the capital Colombo. The Sri Lankan couple cancelled a wedding party and instead, shared their wedding day with some of their neediest neighbors who have been economically hit due to the lock down following the new Coronavirus. (Darshana Kumara Wijenarayana via AP)

In this April 27, 2020, photo, Pawani Rasanga hands a gift packet to an elderly woman, watched by her husband Darshana Kumara Wijenarayana in the small town of Malimbada, about 160 kilometers (99 miles), South of the capital Colombo. The Sri Lankan couple cancelled a wedding party and instead, shared their wedding day with some of their neediest neighbors who have been economically hit due to the lock down following the new Coronavirus. (Darshana Kumara Wijenarayana via AP)

In this April 27, 2020, photo, Pawani Rasanga hands a care package to a child in the small town of Malimbada, about 160 kilometers (99 miles) south of the capital Colombo. Rasanga and her groom cancelled a wedding party and instead, shared their wedding day with some of their neediest neighbors who have been economically hit due to the lock down following the new Coronavirus. (Darshana Kumara Wijenarayana via AP)

Courtesy DW.com

The island nation’s high testing rate coupled with its established healthcare and surveillance system has kept COVID-19 mortality at bay. However, it seems the country’s Muslims are not equally reaping benefits.

Sri Lanka reimposed a 24-hour curfew on Saturday in an apparent move to restrict people’s movements during the weekend, even though the government has begun easing a two-month lockdown.

The curfew relaxed on Monday morning with health authorities saying SARS-CoV-2 is under control in the Indian Ocean island nation. Private businesses and government offices had already reopened last week.

With a population of about 21.5 million people, Sri Lanka has only 960 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus with nine deaths. Sri Lanka’s success story can be partially attributed to its relatively high coronavirus testing rate. As of April 30, the country was conducting 930 tests per 1 million people, in comparison to other South Asian countries such as Bangladesh (393), India (602) and Pakistan (703).

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Sri Lanka also has seen milder cases of COVID-19 due in part to an early lockdown.

“More than 50% of the COVID-19 cases in Sri Lanka are of people between the ages of 20-60. These are relatively younger people who are less vulnerable to a severe presentation of the disease. A reason why most of the cases are mild may be that the lockdown in Sri Lanka started very early,” Razia Pendse, the WHO’s representative to Sri Lanka, told DW.

Subscribe to Corona Compact — DW’s newsletter tracking coronavirus in Asia

Lessons from Sri Lanka

Health experts from around the world have been using Sri Lanka’s healthcare system as a case study since the 1980s.

In 1985, the Rockefeller Foundation’s report, Good health at low cost, identified Sri Lanka as one of the countries that successfully secured good healthcare at low costs. The country has a legacy of early, decades-long investment in its health system and low overall spending. Most Sri Lankans live within 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) of a public health facility, and since 2000 there has been an average of three hospital beds per 1000 people (compared with the average of two beds per 1000 people in middle income countries).

According to the report, good geographic access combined with a lack of financial barriers to public facilities produced a relatively equitable health system in Sri Lanka.

Read more: Coronavirus: Countries scramble to retrieve tourists stranded in Asia

Established system of surveillance

Having learnt from its past experiences with numerous communicable and non-communicable diseases, Sri Lanka also invested in its public health surveillance system, which has proven to come in handy during the current coronavirus pandemic.

Sri Lanka closely monitored the pandemic’s movement right after the first case appeared in the nation, tracking any potential COVID-19 suspects. “The first case came out in Sri Lanka in the last week of January, after which there were no cases till about mid-March. During that gap, the government ensured that the public health surveillance was activated to find any cases with respiratory illnesses. Once the cases were identified, we conducted the needed diagnostics so that we were able to rule out any suspected COVID-19 cases,” explained Pendse from the WHO.

Sri Lanka had already developed a surveillance system based on the Open Source DHIS2 platform in early 2020. The system has since become the basis for the worldwide deployment of the DHIS2 COVID-19 response package via the Health Information Systems Program (HISP) to respond to the outbreak.

The country also released the mobile-app COVID Shield to help people keep track of their health and provide support during self-isolation and quarantine. The app is now being deployed in several other countries, including the Maldives.

In addition, the Sri Lankan government also closed down public health clinics and instead started delivering routine health checks and medication directly to the homes of patients. A hotline was created to allow non-COVID patients seek advice from healthcare workers.

Demographics matter

Oommen C. Kurian, the head of the Health Initiative at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), an Indian think tank, said the small nation of Sri Lanka cannot be directly compared to its larger, more populated neighbor, India.

“A direct comparison between India and Sri Lanka is difficult. Sri Lanka is a very small country. Managing that population is easier as compared to India,” explained Kurian. “Sri Lanka was lucky as compared to India as its coronavirus cases were clustered. About 40% of Sri Lanka’s cases were from a navy facility. This allowed Sri Lanka to take a targeted approach to deal with the virus,” he added.

However, the southern Indian state of Kerala has had a similar approach to the coronavirus pandemic as Sri Lanka. Kerala implemented a lockdown much before the rest of the country. The state, which had already dealt with a previous outbreak of another disease, effectively traced people with respiratory symptoms similar to those found in COVID-19 and isolated the infected patients.

Muslims as scapegoats?

Despite its success in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, Sri Lanka’s handling of the outbreak is not without its criticism. Members from the country’s Muslim minority have allegedly become stigmatized as carriers of the virus. Of the nine people who died of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka, four came from Muslim communities.

Religious tension in the country has been on the rise following last month’s anniversary of the 2019 Easter bombings. On April 11, the Sri Lankan government further exacerbated religious divisions when it amended its guidelines for the disposal of COVID-19 corpses – making cremation mandatory. Several Muslims decried the move, saying that cremation was against their religious right to bury the dead.

Sri Lankan authorities then arrested retired government official Ramzy Razeek after he criticized the cremation of a Muslim COVID-19 victim and warned against increasing hate propaganda against Muslims on social media.

According to guidelines from the WHO, dead bodies of COVID-19 victims can be cremated or buried.

Read more: Sri Lanka’s Catholics and Muslims deeply divided by terror attacks

Challenges with migrant workers

Sri Lanka also faces the risk of a possible new wave of the virus from imported cases. The country has over a million migrant workers abroad, of whom about 60,000 want to return home, according to the International Labor Organization.

However, one of the conditions for repatriating citizens back to Sri Lanka is based on the availability of quarantine facilities, explained Pendse.

“The influx of people is being managed according to the accommodation available in existing quarantine facilities. There has been an increase in the capacity for quarantine from when the pandemic first began,” she said.

Read more: Sri Lanka remembers Easter Sunday bombing victims

Courtesy Adaderana

Five more cases of COVID-19 infections have been reported a short while ago, confirmed the Ministry of Health.

With the new cases, the count of COVID-19 cases identified today (18) rises to 10. Previously, 5 Navy personnel were reported to have contracted the disease.

Thereby the total count of novel coronavirus cases reported in Sri Lanka has moved to 991.

The number of recoveries in the country rose to 559 earlier today while a total of 418 active cases are currently under medical care.

The number of fatalities due to the virus in Sri Lanka is 09. 

According to the Health Ministry, around 1,254 PCR tests were carried out yesterday and 21 new cases were identified within yesterday. 

Courtesy Adaderana

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa explored the possibility of finding employment for Sri Lankan youth at prominent shipping companies in the world in the context of the current situation where major shipping lines are facing labor shortages in the international market due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This was discussed during a meeting with the representatives of leading local shipping companies at the Presidential Secretariat, today (18), stated President’s Media Division.

The possibility for Sri Lankans working in foreign ships which are sailing from east to west close to the southern coastal belt to enter and leave from the Galle harbor was also discussed at the meeting.

The representatives of the shipping companies revealed that daily more than 300 trade vessels sail 10 nautical miles away from the Galle Port. They pointed out that by creating an environment for those sailors to return to their respective countries via Sri Lanka will pave the way to generate huge foreign exchange revenue. President Rajapaksa emphasized that this opportunity can be used to promote SriLankan Airlines as well.

It was pointed out at the meeting that the Galle harbor could be developed into a Global Crew Exchange Hub. President instructed the officials to adhere to health guidelines and regulations in the course of implementing this program.

Of the 1.6 million global shipping crews, 16,000 or 1% of the total are Sri Lankans, and they annually contribute USD 300 million to the Sri Lankan economy, states the PMD. President Rajapaksa added that a two-fold increase in the number of Sri Lankans in the field would double the country’s foreign exchange income.

With the assurance of a quality-centric service to foreign naval corporations, Sri Lankan employees can secure more opportunities to work for longer periods in foreign vessels, positively affecting the local economy.

Secretary to the President, P.B Jayasundara, Principal Advisor to the President, Lalith Weeratunga, Commander of the Sri Lankan Navy Vice Admiral Piyal De Silva, Chairman of Sri Lanka Port Authority, Retired General Daya Ratnayake and several heads of a number of prominent Naval Corporations were present at the discussion.

Courtesy Adaderana

Daughter of DIG Ajith Rohana, a statement, refuted the rumors that she had allegedly absconded the quarantine process made mandatory by the government for persons arriving in Sri Lanka from foreign countries.

Certain media reports claimed that the daughter of DIG Ajith Rohana had returned to the island from Belarus – where she had been studying – and had been escorted home without being subjected to the mandatory quarantine process.

However, posting a video on Facebook, she refuted all such claims and stated the relevant media reports were false.

She stated that nearly 400 Sri Lankan students are at the university in Belarus where she is carrying out her studies.

She further said that she hopes to return to Sri Lanka once her final examinations conclude at the end of June.

Courtesy Adaderana

The case filed regarding the shooting of a pet dog to death in Negombo was taken up at the Negombo Magistrate’s Court today (18).

A pet dog named ‘Max’ was shot dead in the Dalupotha area in Negombo, on the Vesak Full Moon Poya Day (May 07).

President’s Counsel Ashan Fernando made submissions to the court regarding the death of the dog.

Negombo Chief Magistrate Rajindra Jayasuriya ordered all reports regarding the incident to be submitted to the court on May 22.

Further, the case was postponed to May 26, when revoking of bail granted to the suspect will be considered.

Courtesy Adaderana

Supreme Court fixed May 22 to consider the petition filed seeking a writ order for the Elections Commission to reject the nomination papers submitted by the Samagi Jana Balawegaya for the upcoming general election.

The petition was taken up today (18) before a three-member Supreme Court bench comprising of Justices S. Durairajah, Murdu Fernando, and Yasantha Kodagoda.

The petition has been filed by United National Party (UNP) candidate Oshala Herath.

Members of the Election Commission including Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya, former Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, General Secretary of Samagi Jana Balawegaya former MP Ranjith Madduma Bandara, Chairman of ‘Ape Jathika Peramuna party’ Senaka Haripriya de Silva and its Secretary Diana Gamage have been named respondents of the petition.

The party which has handed over nominations for Samagi Jana Balawegaya is based on the ‘Ape Jathika Peramuna’ party, petitioner pointed out.

The petitioner further points out that the appointment of Ranjith Madduma Bandara as the General Secretary of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya has not been approved by the Working Committee of the UNP.

Accordingly, the nomination papers submitted with the signature of Ranjith Madduma Bandara as the General Secretary of Samagi Jana Balawegaya are illegal, petitioner claims.

Thereby, the petitioner has appealed to the Supreme Court to rule that the Elections Commission has no jurisdiction to accept the nomination papers and nullify relevant nomination papers.

Courtesy Adaderana

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa says that the Sri Lankan armed forces and police are the sentinels of the nation, ensuring the safety of the general public in all crises whether man-made or natural – whether the crisis is terrorism, floods or disease.

Issuing a statement to mark the 11th Anniversary of Sri Lanka’s victory against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Prime Minister points out this was not a war against the Tamil people but against an organization designated by the FBI as the deadliest terrorists in the world.

He says that the Sri Lankan armed forces and police, who won a war that was widely considered to be unwinnable, are now once again engaged in a successful joint operation with the state health sector in combating COVID-19.

Prime Minister Rajapaksa further says that he condemns the attempts of the Yahapalana political parties to create an artificial social dichotomy between ‘military’ and ‘civilian’.

A person who has retired from the armed forces is a civilian and no longer a member of the military”, the Premier said.

He says that as long as they will be in power, there will always be former members of the armed forces and police holding positions in the government as the ‘Ranaviru’ constituency is now an integral part of the ‘Sangha, Veda, Guru, Govi, Kamkaru’ social line up of former times.

The full message of the Prime Minister:

On the 19th of May, we mark the 11th anniversary of the victory against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. That was not a war against the Tamil people but against an organization designated by the FBI as the deadliest terrorists in the world. Due to the defeat of the LTTE, Tamil people are now free to live as they wish. Tamil children are no longer forcibly recruited by the LTTE. Tamil politicians no longer live in fear of LTTE assassins. Furthermore, due to the absence of the LTTE, elections can be held in the Northern and Eastern provinces and that has safeguarded the sovereign rights of the people of those provinces. 

The armed forces and police that amazed the entire world by winning what was widely considered to be an unwinnable war, are now once again engaged in a joint operation with the state health sector in combating Covid-19. All indications are that Sri Lanka is winning the battle against COVID -19 as well. The frontline role played by the armed forces and police in working with the general public, has undoubtedly been of immense help to the health sector in bringing the spread of Covid-19 under control in the present manner. 

This once again reminds all of us that the armed forces and police are the sentinels of the nation, ensuring the safety of the general public in all crises whether man-made or natural – whether the crisis be terrorism, floods or disease. In this context, I wish to condemn in the strongest possible terms, the attempt being made by the yahapalana political parties to create an artificial social dichotomy between ‘military’ and ‘civilian’. If a retired member of the armed forces is appointed to some position in the government, that is being portrayed by the opposition as ‘militarization’. A person who has retired from the armed forces is a civilian and no longer a member of the military. 

Furthermore, the Ranaviru constituency is now an integral part of the Sangha, Weda, Guru, Govi, Kamkaru social line up of former times. So whenever we happen to be in power, there will always be former members of the armed forces and police holding various positions in the government. We must always be mindful of the historic role that the armed forces and police have played in this country in safeguarding the peoples’ sovereignty based on the universal franchise by defeating all attempts to destroy the democratic system of government. 

On this 11th Anniversary of the war victory that amazed the whole world, I wish to reiterate that the manner in which the yahapalana government betrayed our armed forces internationally and the vicious manner in which they persecuted both retired and serving members of the armed forces have not been forgotten. We once again pledge that justice will be done to all those who faced humiliation and persecution under the yahapalana government.”

Mahinda Rajapaksa

Today, we commemorate one of the most significant milestones in Sri Lankan history, where 11 years ago we witnessed an end to the constant fear of death, terror and bloodshed. The courage of our brave and heroic soldiers ended the bloodshed that soaked our soil for decades. Thousands sacrificed their lives to end the terror that ravaged our land for over three decades. Today, once again, our brave war heroes have joined hands with the frontline health care professionals to heal our nation that’s grappling with the COVID-19 global pandemic. Today, I remember our war heroes with gratitude and utmost respect. They saved our nation from decades of terror in the past and is today working tirelessly to protect us and save our lives from a global pandemic. As we look to the past to appreciate and remember with gratitude the sacrifices made by our war heroes and their beloved families, I also look towards the future to join hands to re-build a prosperous nation together with you.

මිට වසර 11 කට පෙර අද වැනි දිනයක ශ්‍රී ලංකාව අභිමානවත් දේශයක් ලෙස ජයග්‍රාහී සන්ධිස්ථානයක් පසු කළේය. එනම් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවාසී සැවොම මරණය නමැති භීතියෙන් ඇලලී ගිය තිස් අවුරුදු සාපලත් යුද්ධය අභීත විරෝධාර රණවිරුවන් විසින් අවසන් කිරීමය. අපගේ විරෝධාර රණවිරුවන් දහස් ගණනින් සිය ජිවිත පුජා කරමින් මව්බිම ලෙයින් තෙත් කළ යුද්ධයට තිත තැබුවේ සිය නිර්භීත කම හා දක්ෂකම ලොවටම විදහා පාමින්ය. එදා සමස්ත ශ්‍රී ලංකාවාසීන්ට අභය දානය ලබා දුන් විරෝධාර රණවිරුවන් අද සුව විරුවන් සමග එක්වෙමින් කොරෝනා වෛරසයෙන් රට මුදා ගැනීමේ මෙහෙයුම සාර්ථකව නිම කරමින් පවතින්නේ ලොවම මවිත කරවමිනි. තිස් අවුරුදු සාපලත් යුද්ධයෙන් රට මුදා ගැනීමට සිය දිවි කැප කළ විරෝධාර රණවිරුවන් අභිමානයෙන් යුතුව මා සිහි කරන අතරවාරයේම අද කොරෝනා වෛරසයෙන් රට මුදා ගැනීමේ මෙහෙයුමට උරදී ඇති සියලුම රණවිරුවන්ට මා ස්තුතිවන්ත වන අතර අනාගතයේ සෞභාග්‍යමත් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවක් බිහි කිරීමට ඔබගේ දායකත්වය රටක් ලෙස අපි සැම අපේක්ෂා කරන්නෙමු.

We have only guestimates of Tamil children kidnapped by LTTE and turned into child soldiers. We don’t really know the exact numbers of Tamil children kidnapped, how many died during LTTE training, how many were killed trying to flee LTTE training camps, how many lie injured from training, how many children died during hostilities, how many children were brainwashed to commit suicide by biting cyanide capsule, how many children were suicide bombers, how many children were trained by the LTTE female child soldier trainer – the Australian nurse now living a good life in UK. But we do know that all of the Tamil children were kidnapped from low caste and poor Tamil homes and not a single Tamil child was kidnapped from any rich Tamil parent. On 18 May 2009, with LTTE’s defeat, it was a victorious day for the Tamil low caste and poor Tamils. They would never have to live in fear of their children getting kidnapped and turned into child soldiers.  

By end of the conflict some 12,000 LTTE combatants in civilian clothing surrendered to the Sri Lankan Armed Forces. Among them were 594 child soldiers – 364 males and 230 females.Sri Lanka decided to do what No military in the world and no foreign government has ever done. Sri Lanka’s then President declared Our hearts are not vicious. We will not prosecute children  and he offered the 594 child soldiers a Presidential Pardon and instructed that they be given the education they were denied. For years, the Tamil children that held a gun were finally given to hold a pen/pencil by the Sri Lankan Government. 

When the government drew up its indigenous rehabilitation & reintegration program, the entities that did nothing to stop LTTE from kidnapping children and turning them into child soldiers came to poke their noses to advise how Sri Lanka should rehabilitate the child soldier. 

Life of a Child soldier

Former LTTE child soldiers in government rehabilitation camps

The many messages and drawings by these children in the army camps that looked after them is testimony to the affection they were shown by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces and was clearly opposite to the gruesome treatment they received from the LTTE. Many of these children shed tears when the day came to leave and return to their families and restart life again.

Their youth was stolen by the LTTE. Their parents were denied watching their children grow. Parent and child lived in agony – all because of LTTE. Today the LTTE fronts are running global tamashas, have they ever sought to look after a single child soldier whom they used as cannon fodder?

Gokulan is one such child soldier who found freedom with the victory over LTTE. He found love and care instead of orders to kill. He was taught to hate the Sinhalese, today the Sinhalese love him. Gokulan is now a singer and actor. He is now 34years. He was dragged and taken away when attending A/L classes. Both his brothers were also child soldiers and both had died in battle. His sister had been conscripted by LTTE during the final stages. She luckily survived and surrendered in May 2009 and both have reunited with their families in Mankulam. Gokulan in the interview with Shanika Sriyananda thanks the Army Rehabilitation making special mention of Lt. Col. Manjula Gurusinghe as well as Anoja Weerasinghe who taught him. They filled the void of a father, guided and tapped our talent from the beginning and directed us to suitable paths to brush up our skills” said Gokulan. Gokulan, who sang and danced at the ceremony held to reintegrate 1,000 ex-LTTE cadres at Temple Trees in the presence of President Mahinda Rajapaksa two months ago, said he had a sleepless night as he had to perform before the leader who gave them the opportunity to surrender and secured for them a better future. Among his dreams now is to talk to the President to thank him for saving their lives.

http://archives.sundayobserver.lk/2011/12/04/fea10.asp

https://youtu.be/-B1unQNpKLM

Gokulan singing

But many children were not as lucky as Gokulan. Selvaratna Subitha recounts how the LTTE took her 16year old sister Marisalin Sukhandha in March 2009 –LTTE  female combatants disguised in civilian came to their home in Keppapilavu and dragged her away. They took away our children as if they were taking away goats and cows”. Sukhanda never returned. Sad as it is, she dies a LTTE combatant but not a civilian. Her civilian status was removed the moment LTTE handed her a gun and ordered her to fire and engage in hostilities.

We had only report after report from the West/UN and NGOs. They however, did nothing to prevent LTTE from recruiting children nor took action against LTTE for recruiting children.

2004 HRW report on forcible recruitment of child soldiers claimed LTTE had recruited over 3500 children from 2002 bogus ceasefire agreement brokered by Norway. 

https://www.hrw.org/news/2004/11/11/sri-lanka-tamil-tigers-forcibly-recruit-child-soldiers

There was a Sri Lankan too holding a top UN post responsible for both women and children but other than walking away with accolades for herself, she too did nothing to stop LTTE from kidnapping children and turning them into child soldiers or even recommending global action against LTTE for it.

Tragically the same Western/UN/NGO entities do nothing but encourage by their inaction as over 350 ‘LTTE madrassas’ are operating across Europe indoctrinating hate into the minds of Tamil children. None of these are likely to take up arms, but they are being indoctrinated to internationally be used as a witch hunt for political purposes against Sri Lanka. 

The subject of child soldiers and that they were plucked from POOR and LOW CASTE TAMIL parents is a topic that no one likes to broach on for it brings to the surface issues among Tamil society they would rather keep hidden. However, all of the LTTE combatants who have been rehabilitated and reintegrated are living life as outcasts in their own society. Many have been made to feel that they have failed the ‘cause’. How much of the very rich LTTE kitty enjoyed among the LTTE fronts is been utilized to look after these men, women and children who sacrificed their lives for the LTTE? While they were battling in the jungle, the richer Tamils nicely cried crocodile tears of discrimination and won themselves asylum in Western countries. They are now making an identity for themselves milking the ‘discrimination’ cow and even becoming politicians in their new foreign habitats. But, all the while they are beating the drums through tamashas like ‘genocide’ day. ‘mullaikvaikkal remembrance’ day and what not because that is the only way they can forge an identity for themselves and show their importance in those foreign countries. Are they looking after the Tamils that sacrificed in the dirt and thorny jungles – NO. 

It was the Sri Lankan Government in May 2009 that embraced the LTTE child soldier and turned them into human beings from the killer machines that LTTE had turned them into. 

LTTE turned them into Child Soldiers

Sri Lanka turned them into actors & singers

LTTE gave them a Gun

Sri Lanka gave them a Pen

LTTE kidnapped them from their Parents

Sri Lanka returned them to their Parents

LTTE destroyed their freedom

Sri Lanka gave back their freedom

Every commemoration of 18 May 2009 we also celebrate FREEDOM for the LOW CASTE & POOR Tamil CHILD SOLDIERS

Shenali D Waduge

උපුටා ගැන්ම FB

දිනය හරියටම 2009 මැයි මාසේ 17 වෙනිදා එළිවෙන ජාමය,හරියටම කියුවොත් අවුරුදු 11කට කළින් අද වගේ දවසක, එල්ටීටීඊ කදවුරු බිදගෙන ඉදිරියට ආපු හමුදා සේනංක මුළු උතුරු-නැගෙනහිරම නිදහස් කරගෙන මුලතිව් වලින් හමුවෙලා.නන්දිකඩාල් බිම් කඩට එල්ටීටීඊය කොටු කරල තිබුන අවස්ථාව.මේ රවුමෙන් සලකුණු කරපු බංකරයේ ඉඳල නන්දිකඩාල් කළපුව අතර දුර මීටර් 300 – 500 විතර..දැනුවත් වුන විදිහට, ඒ සිමාව තුල ප්‍රභාකරන් තමන්ගේ අවසාන ගැලවීමට රඳවාගත් අවසාන මිනිස් පලිහ වුන 50,000 පමණ දෙමළ ජනතාවක් රඳවාගෙන ඉඳල තියෙනවා.

මේ අතරතුර කොළඹ තත්වය වුනේ, ගෝඨාභය වටා යුඑන් සහ බටහිර තානාපති කාර්යාල අධික ලෙස පීඩනය යොදමින් ප්‍රභාකරන් ජීවග්‍රහයෙන් ලංකාවේ මුහුදු සිමාවේ නවතා තිබු ඇමෙරිකානු යුද නැවට පැටවීමේ මෙහෙයුමද ක්‍රියාත්මකයි.ඒ වෙනකොට හමුදාපති සරත් ෆොන්සේකා ඒකාබද්ධ මෙහෙයුම් කාර්යාලයේ වගකීම් වලින් ඉවත් වෙලා,මොකද එතුමා චීන නිළ සංචාරයකට සහභාගී වෙලා.නමුත් එතුමා මෙම බටහිර/ඇමරිකානුඅත පෙවීමකට සූදානමින් සිටින්න කියලා අවශ්‍ය උපදෙස් හමුදාවටත් දන්වලා තිබිලා තියෙන්නේ.

නමුත් ගෝඨාගේ නියෝගය වෙලා තිබුනේ, ඉක්මණට ගහල දාපන්, මෙතන මම බැලන්ස් කරගන්නම් කියන ස්ථිර වචනය. නමුත් ආරක්ෂක ලේකම්ට වුනත් බටහිර බලපෑම අල්ලන් හිදීම දරාගැනීමේ උපරිමයට ලඟා වෙමිනුයි තිබ්බේ. තානාපති කාර්යාල පීඩනය ක්‍රියාන්විතයේ යෙදුණු නිලධාරීන්ටත් නොතිබුනත්, ඔවුන්ට ඉවෙන් වගේ දැවැන්ත බටහිර මැදිහත්වීමක සලකුණු දැනෙන්න ඇති. කොහොම වුනත්, වැඩිපුර මිනිත්තුවක හෝ ප්‍රමාදය, ප්‍රභාකරන් තවදුරටත් ජිවත් වෙනවද නැද්ද කියන එක තීරණය කරනවා.ඒ කොටස කිවේ, ප්‍රමාද වෙන මිනිත්තුවක් රටේ දෛවය වෙනස් කරන්න ඇති කල හැකි බලපෑම ගැන අදහසක් ගන්න.

ඒ වෙනකොට, LTTE විශේෂ බලකාය හෙවත් කළු කොටි දියත් කරපු ප්‍රභල ප්‍රහාර රැළි 2කින් අපේ පිහිටුම කි.මි.1 වඩා පස්සට අරගෙන නැවත ඔවුන් දෙසට පීඩනය යොමු කරමින් ආපු ගමනකයි අපේ පිරිස ඉඳල තියෙන්නේ.

රැයක් එලිවීම, තවත් එවැනි රැල්ලක් හෝ අවදානම් සිමාව උන්ගෙන් අපිට මාරු වෙන්න ඉඩකඩ උපරිමයි. මේ කියන බංකරය මේ බෙදුම් රේඛාවේ තීරණාත්මක තැනක්. ඕක කඩපු ගමන් පිටිපස්සේ ඉන්න මිනිස් පලිහෙන් 2/3කට වඩා දොර ඇරෙනවා. ඊට පස්සේ විවෘත වෙන්නේ, තැනිතලා සහිත අභියෝගයන්.ඒ වෙනකොට, විශේෂ බලඝණයන් සහ ස්නයිපර් කණ්ඩායම් ඔවුන්ට නියමිත සමාන්තර වැදගත් කමින් යුතු මෙහෙයුම් වල අතිශයින්ම කාර්යබහුලයි. මේ ඉලක්කය දීලා තිබ්බේ, 58 සේනාංකය බාරව හිටපු ශවේන්ද්‍ර සිල්වාට, ඔහුගෙන් මේ කාර්යය බාර වෙලා තියෙන්නේ, බ්ලු චැනල් අන්වර්ථ නාමයෙන් යෙදුණු 586 (හෝ වෙනත් බ්‍රිගේඩ් එකක්) 9 වන ගැමුණු හේවා බල සේනාංකය බාර වෙලා හිටපු එවකට ලුතිනන් කර්නල් ලාල් චන්ද්‍රසිරිගේ කණ්ඩායමට. ඒ ඔහු ඊට නියමම සුදුස්සා නිසා (ඊටත් හේතු විශාල ප්‍රමාණයක් තියෙනවා).

ඔහුගෙන් මේ වගකීම පැවරෙන්නේ ඔහුගේ බලඇණියේ තුල නිර්මානය කල අටේ කණ්ඩායමට.මිට අදාලව රෑ 2ක් ඔවුන්ට බරපතල පුහුණුවක් ලබා දෙන්නත් කටයුතු කරලා තියෙනවා. කොහොම හරි, මේ 8 , 4 ඒවා 2ට බෙදිලා දෙපැත්තෙන් මීට සමාන්තර බංකර් පේළිය රෑම කඩල, මේකට විතරක් එළිවෙනකන් ගේමක් දීලා. අවතක්සේරු කරන්න එපා, LTTE විශේෂ බලකාය හෙවත් කළු කොටි අතිශයින්ම කාර්යක්ෂමයි, සහ ඔවුන්ගේ ප්‍රහාරක බලය ඉතාම ඉහලයි. එදා එලිවෙනකොටත් මේක ගලවගන්න බැරි වීම බොහෝවිට යුද්ධයේ හැරවීම් ලක්ෂයක් වෙන්න තිබ්බලු.

ඔතන අටේ ඉඳල තියෙනවා සාජන් හෝ කෝප්‍රල් කෙනෙක් (නම නොදන්නා නිසාම ඔහුට නාදුණන සොල්දාදුවා කියලා හදුන්වමු). මෙයා කියල තියෙන්නේ, ” සර් ටෙරාල ගහන විදිහට ඕක සුසයිඩ් එකකින් මෙහා ගලවන්න කිසිම විකල්පයක් නැහැ, මගේ අම්ම තාත්ත වයසයි, සහෝදරයෝ නැහැ, මම බැඳලත් නැහැ. අඩුපාඩුවකට තියෙන්නේ ගෙයක් නැති එක විතරයි. ඒකට අවුලක් නැහැ සර්, මම මේක ඉරපායන්න කලින් සර්ට මේක කඩල දෙනවා

” ඒ තමයි 9 වන ගැමුණු හේවා බල සේනාංකය බාරව හිටපු එවකට ලුතිනන් කර්නල් ලාල් චන්ද්‍රසිරිට ලැබුණ අවසාන පණිවිඩය..පැයක් ඇතුලත බංකරේ ඇතුළෙන්ම පිපිරීමක් ඇවිල්ල එතන හිටපු ටෙරාලගේ විශේෂ බලඝනයේ 10, 15ක් පිරිසත් එක්කම අපේ කොල්ලගේ ජීවිතෙත් අවසන් වෙලා තියනවා

.මේ අටේ කණ්ඩායමේ ඔහුත් සමග හිටපු කෝප්‍රල් සම්පත් පවසන ආකාරයට , අපේ එක්කෙනෙක් ඒකට පනින එකෙන් මෙහා එක ගලවන්න බැරි නිසා ඔවුන් අසරණ වෙලා හිටපු බව සහ මේ නාදුනන සොල්දාදුවා කෝප්‍රල් සම්පත්ට එයාගේ නේම් ටැග් එක ගලවල එයාගේ අම්මට දෙන්න කියලා භාර දීල.තමන්ගේ ජීවිතය කැප කරමින් මෙම ක්‍රියාවට පිටත් වූ බව..

මේ විදිහට, පරාර්ථය වෙනුවෙන් ස්වාර්ථය කැපකළ නාදුදන සොල්දාදුවන් දහස් ගානක් නිසා, විශේෂයෙන්ම දෙමළ ජනතාවටත්, මුස්ලිම්, සිංහල ඇතුළු, සමස්ථ ජාතියම අද නිදහසේ හුස්ම ගන්න බව ආශ්වාස ප්‍රාශ්වාසයේ යෙදෙන හැම මොහොතක සිහියට ගන්න.

අද මම ඔබ, ඔබේ දරුවන් ගන්න හුස්මක් හුස්මක් පාසා අප ඔවුන්ටත් ඔවුන්ගේ දෙමව්පියන්ට සහ දරුවන්ටත් ණය බව අමතක නොකරන්න.

අවසානයේ යුද්ධය අවසන් වීමෙන් පසුව, ලු.ක. චන්ද්‍රසිරි මහතාගේ පුද්ගලික මැදිහත්වීමෙන් ඔවුන්ගේ දෙමාපියන්ට නිවසක් තනා දී තිබෙනවා. පපුවට අත තියාගෙනයි ඔවුන් මෙවැනි ආකාරයට කැප කිරීම් කළවුන් ගැන කථා කරන්නේ.

මතක තබාගන්න මෙවැනි හසලක ගාමිණි කුලරතනල පන්නයේ, නම නොකියවෙන නාදුනන සොල්දාදුවන් දහස් ගනනක් ඔබට මට හෙට උපදින දරුවන්ට සුරක්ෂිත සාමයෙන් පිරි රටක් උදා කරදීම සදහා මෙවැනි තීරණාත්මක කඩයිම් බොහොමයක් දිවි පුදා පසුකරදුන් බව…

By Charles S.Perera

The opposition in the Sri Lanka Parliament was dissolved by the President on 2nd March 2020. is clamoring with the News First TV at the forefront asking the President to recall the dissolved parliament despite Article 150 of the Constitution, stating that he has no right to continue to take money under the consolidated Fund without the permission of the Parliament.   

This is a false argument, as the President after the dissolution of the Parliament is Constitutionally in full charge of running the country,  with the right to draw necessary finances from the Consolidated Fund until a new Parliament begins its sitting and for three months thereafter. The past obsolete opposition of the dissolved parliament argues that the 20th June 2020 set for the General Elections is not suitable to hold the General election as the country is not out of the  COVID -19 pandemic.

In view of this, it would be interesting for those pessimists of opposition to the government,  to note the situation with regard to France.  France has 142 291 reported Covid 19 cases. There had been 27 625 deaths. 19 432 patients are in hospitals, out of 2132 in reanimation.  The recovered cases reported are 61066.  

Despite this France has successfully eased off from the locked-up situation. 

After 55 days of confinement, France announced easing out of its citizens as from 11th May 2020.  It has been reported that the deconfinement was a success. They have announced that sea beeches will also be opened to the public and parks and gardens will eventually be opened. Schools and Universities have also been listed to be opened soon subject to conditions to be announced later.

The government of France held up the second round of local government election on the 15th March 2020 due to Covid – 19 pandemic. It involves 5000 municipalities representing more than 25 million French people.

The government is expected to decide next week if it is safe to hold the second round of local government elections by the end of June, after consultations with health experts.  Why should not Sri Lanka which is much safer than France under the Covid -19 pandemic find a safe method for holding elections in consultation with the Health Authorities, the Defence Forces, and the Police ?.

Today the 17 May 2020, first time after two months President Emmanuel  Macron attended a public gathering to commemorate the day  Charles de Gaulle still an unknown Colonel led an armored division to fight against the advancing Nazi Forces famously called the battle of Moncornet in which 60000 French soldiers lost their lives.

However complicating the situation in France further, it has been announced that   34 positive cases of Covid-19 affected persons were found among the workers in a slaughterhouse. The same has been reported in slaughterhouses in Germany,  and in America. They argue that it may have come from the workers living in insalubrious quarters close to the slaughterhouses. They still do not say whether the flesh of the slaughtered animals was either contaminated or the virus had been found in the slaughtered animals. 

Sri Lanka should start testing the butcheries, workers in slaughterhouses and also the workers in fish markets who cut and pack fish.

France not taking lessons from China did not start off well with its fight against Covid-19.  When China built two hospitals in two weeks to take care of the persons affected by the Virus, France did not eve open any existing hospital especially for the treatment of Corona Virus affected patients. France indicated a telephone number to be called if anyone suspects having signs of Corona Virus. It recommended self-confinement as it had no special quarantine centers to receive suspected patients.

France lacked masks even for sale for the public, whatever was available were meant for hospital stuff. Unfortunately last week it was said that France had found a stock of 362 million old and unusable masks which were destroyed.

”The stock of surgical masks was burned between January and March 2020, just as the coronavirus pandemic was beginning to take hold in Europe. Public Health France has defended the move, as they state the masks were out of date – but they weren’t checked to see if they were still usable prior to being destroyed. It comes as a stock of 362 million out-of-date surgical masks were found in storage, with almost a quarter, 85 million, considered to be fit for use.” https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1281806/face-masks-coronavirus-latest-france-ppe-Emmanuel-Macron-face-mask-shortage-eu-news.

Fighting off the Covid 19 is more political and the Medical experts are consulted but not seen much as they are in Sri Lanka where the government takes no action without consulting the Health Services.

By M D P DISSANAYAKE

Asking people to maintain social distance and at the same time opening the liquor shops will ruin the progress achieved so far in combating COVID 19.  Most of our people don’t enjoy a drink, they simply drink it as a glass of water, without mixing with soda, water, etc.  Rarely they use ice as a supplement.

The eagerness to have a drink they could not enjoy for the past several weeks was clearly demonstrated by a large number of queues outside bars, from the early hours of the morning.

A most important element of Sri Lankan drinking is that they naturally drink with friends an unlimited quantity, with a famous bite, Beef, Pork, or Chicken devil.    With curfews operating at night times from 8 pm, they gather in private residences in groups of friends, similarly to a Club environment.  They drink almost till 3 or 4 am. The Police raids are unlikely to enter private residences during curfew hours to arrest these culprits.

South Korea, which has controlled COVID 19,  relaxed the social distancing and opened Clubs and Bars a couple of days ago.  There is a sudden surge of infected persons since the relaxation 2 days ago.   This has prompted the South Korean government to close Bars and Clubs and re-introduce social distancing.

We urge the President and the Prime Minister to close all Bars and Clubs for an indefinite period of time.   Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya recently confirmed that the damage to the national economy, health, safety, criminal activities as a result of liquor consumption could be as high as 7 times greater than the revenue otherwise generated from selling liquor.  

For man Sri Lanka the kick from liquor is not enough.  Liquor does not work itself alone for them.   Sri Lankan drink Gal Arak, mix with Three Coins or Larger Beer.   This opens a market for Drug Runners, who sell large quantities to those who are intoxicated.  The recent capture of a massive haul of Drugs is a testimony to assess the size of the local market.

There is a strong case for the closure of liquor shops.

If Messrs Gotabaya and Mahinda cannot stamp out liquor from Sri Lanka, no one will ever be able to do it.

Dr sarath obeysekera 

Export Development  Board is quite active in trying to promote various export-oriented Industries to enhance foreign currency earnings for the country

One of the proposals they are promoting is the development of nautical tourism which involves boat and leisure craft building and various marinas around the island

One of the pioneers in Sri Lanka in nautical tourism Mr. Pier Pringers who is almost a  naturalized in Sri Lankan built few luxury boats to promote nautical tourism 

He invited the Tourist board to visit the boat which he called a Boutique floating hotel. Tourist Board misunderstood the meaning and visited the yard in Mirissa to inspect a boutique hotel 

When we met the tourist board to develop Game Fishing, they thought that they have to approve a boathouse  and the ground accommodation 

Tourism board does not have a clue what is nautical tourism and in their marketing strategy they cover only ground-based hotels etc

They hardly attended any of the EDB meetings to support nautical tourism which is the future

The government should appoint people who have broad-based exposure in the field of Nautical Tourism to support the bureaucrats who head these organizations 

Dr. Sarath Obeysekera
CEO Walkers Colombo Shipyard
Colombo
Sri Lanka

මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනයයි ගෙවිඳු කුමාරතුංග සභාපති යුතුකම ජාතික සංවිධානය

කොවිඩ් 19 සෞඛ්‍යය හා සමාජ ආරක්ෂණ අරමුදලට හුදී ජනයාට ද දායක විය හැකි පරිදි ‘ඉටුකම’ අරමුදල ඇරඹීම ඉතා වැදගත් ය. ඒ සඳහා දායකවීම රටට ආදරය කරන සෑම රටවැසියකු ගේ ම යුතුකම යි. ඒ සඳහා මහා සංඝරත්නය හා ජාතික සංවිධාන ජනයාට මඟ පෙන්වනු ඇතැයි අපේක්ෂා කරමු.

වැන්දඹු හා අනත්දරු අරමුදලට තම වැටුපෙන් කොටසක් පරිත්‍යාග කරන ලෙස ජනාධිපති ලේකම් ආචාර්ය පී. බී. ජයසුන්දර මහතා රජයේ සේවකයන් ගෙන් කළ ඉල්ලීමට ධනාත්මක ව ප්‍රතිචාර දැක්වීම ද ඉතා වැදගත් වේ. ඒ උතුම් පරිත්‍යාගය  සිය පවුලේ මෙන් ම රටේ ද සුරක්ෂිතතාවය  වෙනුවෙන් එකවිට කරන ඉතිරියකි; ආයෝජනයකි. වෘත්තිකයන් මේ අවස්ථාවේ රැකගත හැක්කේ රට රැකගැනීමෙන් පමණක් ය යන අවබෝධයෙන් කටයතු කිරීම  වෘත්තීය සමිති නායකතාවයේ ද යුතුකම යි. වෘත්තිකයන්ගේ ජාතික පෙරමුණට ඒ සඳහා නායකත්වය දිය හැකි ය.

මෙ ලෙස රට වෙනුවෙන් පරිත්‍යාග කිරීමට ඉදිරිපත් වන රටවැසියන් ඇගයීමට  රජය කටයුතු කරනු ඇතැයි අපි අපේක්ෂා කරමු. එය, සිය මවුබිමට ආදරය කරන රටචැසියන්ට හිමි වන අගනා සිහිවටනයක් වනු ඇත.

ගෙවිඳු කුමාරතුංග

සභාපති

යුතුකම ජාතික සංවිධානය

Sunil Yatalamatta Gamage 

Sri Lankans can be proud, as the country is developing in the areas of Political, Socioeconomic, and Cultural, directions. People could see, the areas of vital importance are blooming in the country. As compared to the previous administration, leadership and state governance are working responsible ways for the people of this country. We have experienced the development of many areas of above and it is continuing to grow and prosper in many ways as the leadership and his vision empowering and improving, progressively. At the same time state rule of law and order is working and politicians cannot interfere in its functioning. So we can hope we would have a much better-disciplined society in the future. 

Covid-19 Pandemic

Today the United States Of America suffers and bleeding more than ever in their history of mishandling of the pandemic. The Government of United States Questioning from the front line leaders of various works of professionals, to find out what went wrong, and why it happens, etc. This is happening in the powerful country of the United States of America. But as Sri Lankan’s we must be proud of our political leadership, health care hero’s, administrators, our valiant dedicated forces, and people; as altogether in the process of, beating the virus successfully. All these positive gains have been achieved because of the leadership, and it’s practicality. The task force was able to make decisions at the right time using the proper expertise of professionals as well as the law and order of the country. We felt and experienced, when the country moves forward with more positive achievements, we can be proud as a nation as we are being respected by others as well. We will never be able to achieve anything in the battle of Covid-19, if we were with the former parliament and the government. The former parliament and that bunch were playing games using the people mandate in the legislature. In many countries, the legislature itself is a respected place, but it was just my kind of place to behave irresponsibly way to achieve their narrow political gains. We all aware of how former prime ire behave in the parliament. They make use of the parliament to draft amend laws; betrayal to people mandate. Exactly, that is what happens in this parliament in the immediate past of previous government. Dr. Jayampathie Wickramaratne, so-called constitutional expert and the bunch were amending the laws of the constitution betrayal to our country. The big difference I may see with this president and his cabinet as such; they act as trustees for the people of the country. The President’s vision of prosperity will go a long way as it will do good to people of the country.

Politics

My personal opinion says the parliament will not need to summon. It will be an utter waste of public money. Our country doesn’t have money to waste. We must use money properly which is public money and should achieve expected results, otherwise calling for outdated parliament will not bring anything to the people of this country. Champika, Ajith Perera, Ranil, Premadasa, beating their old democracy of Liberal, neo-liberal movement in various ways to gain the power of the country through a parliament gathering. It seems the People mandate is fragile to Democracy, Constitutional readings, etc. It has been a passion in our politics as they are trying to find loopholes of the present governance and then appeal from the court the democracy of the Constitution. People’s mandate is powerful more than political gimmicks. The people of this country are happy and safe with the present governance. This governance is a blessing to our country & it has to prevail and continue, for the future good of the country. The approval rate of the current government is quite high, It is because of the president’s statesmanship, and craftsmanship in challenging situations of the country. He has proved himself on two occasions of his leadership by defeating Tamil terrorism and preparing the country to fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. In this pandemic, we have been a nation successfully challenged the Virus and controlled.

Social

COVID – 19 has given us the opportunity to think about our social behavior to re-imagine again. As individuals, we need to be responsible and accountable for our actions and behaviors. At the same time, the virus gave us the opportunity to think about how to be responsible to keep social distancing, wear masks. We have seen how dedicated our health inspectors were in their duties to educate the public in this educational event. They have been empowered to do their jobs, and they did it very well and continuing. We saw how people behave when liquor shops open for the public. The liquor stores were closed for a few days and then open. I saw the big queues to buy their liquor needs.  At the same time, we saw some people start drinking by the roadside and throwing the bottle into bushes. This is where the conflict begins with others. You cannot throw the bottle into a bush. And you cannot drink liquor in public. And media people must aware as they cannot advertise those behaviors in public. These little things matter a lot when a nation going through the process of becoming a more civilized nation. When we practice our freedom and autonomy we need to care about using it the way we wanted, but we need to comfortable admitting it because we have been taught to prioritize the environment, and proper recycling. 

Environment

As we know we had a government that couldn’t remove the municipal garbage even. It was such a periled and disable the rule, we Sri Lankans went through,  over the years, and there were two different people as president and a premier did massive devastation to our country in many ways by the name of Yahapalanaya”. I am so adamant of the writing of that rule and it’s suffering to our people and an immense curse to our country. Now the same culprits: they skillfully preach democratic rights in the parliament and even now they are very much with high tones about protecting so-called democracy & constitution, which they couldn’t save the precious lives of Holy Sunday. Those people who suffered are remembered at this moment even. I know Sri Lankan people never ever will bring those heinous criminals to bring to power again. Those people’s names must be erased from Sri Lankan politics and Sri Lankan people have the right to know the truth behind this crime and those culprits must be brought to justice and punished. Our country is a beautiful land with enormous biodiversity. Every plant, animal, waterfall, grasslands, forest lands, must be preserved with strict laws. We must love our country’s beauty. In my younger age, I went and explore through the Sinharaja” rain forest. I still remember the flora and fauna in that beautiful place. The diversity of plants, that is the most important rain forest in our country. It must be preserved for future generations of this country. When I was a young boy I learned about monsoon rain. But those days, never had floods, displaced people, and natural disasters. Over a period of time, we never preserved enough our natural flora and fauna, and now the result is torrential rains causing huge environmental damage. We need to preserve our environment with strict laws. I firmly believe it is an essential and prominent duty we all need to implement, practice more than so called ethnic reconciliation. This is our land we must protect, and preserve it for us to living and hand over the beautiful heritage to our younger generation. People who devastated our forests and natural forests must be given capital punishment if they have been proved and done crimes in the previous government. All Sinhalese, Tamils, Moors, burgers, etc, need to be aware as this is their country; love their country. There is no other place in this world beautiful as our motherland of Sri Lanka. 

Historic Valuables.

We are a nation enriched in Buddhist culture. Sinhalese are the key nation of the country. Former northern Governor of Sri Lanka tried in many ways to challenge this truth by defamation of our written history Mahavamsa”. And our culture also enriched with Tamils and Muslims. Those people are integral parts of our nation and their unique cultures. All of us make a country called the Democratic Socialist Republic Of Sri Lanka. We love your cultural values, and entities. There are no barriers in the country to practice your religion and culture in my country. So please respect that freedom and cherish and talk about that freedom openly. Buddhist historic valuables and monuments are buried, every corner of the country. Ancient Sri Lankan kings preserved Buddhist values and religion as one entity. That is how we became a great nation in the world. So please do not try to make new history by vandalizing Buddhist monuments and culture. It cannot be done. It will never be possible as well. We need Tamil Kovils, we need Christian churches, we need our mosques. We need to respect those cultures and values and practice from ourselves in deep of our hearts.

Tamil /Sinhalese Language

We must make Tamils and Sinhalese as equal languages. Public service needs to take this entity seriously. Public service: preference of recruiting must be given to employees who could speak, write, read both languages. Executive-level jobs in public service must only be given to employees who could handle both Tamil and Sinhalese fluently. In Tamil dominated areas when somebody speaks Sinhalese must be translated to Tamil at the same time. Reconciliation lies in these types of collaborative efforts not by fighting for constitutional changes asking for a separate land in north and east. We must respect our Tamils and Muslims as our own people. Think about the upcountry people employed in Tea Plantation. Those people are the backbone of our economy. They are one of the partners of our economy. So they are our hero’s. Please have that attitude and do more to bring their livelihood prosper.

We have a window of opportunity to develop as a country and prosper our economy more than ever before, but to achieve this goal is not easy the leadership of the country alone cannot do that. We need to get together as one nation, despite politics. We need to prepare leadership for the future as well at the same time. That is the way to bring prosperity to our beautiful country of Sri Lanka. Be a patriot to your country.        

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

පසුගිය අප්‍රෙල් මස 21 වැනිදා වැලිසර නාවික හමුදා කඳවුරෙන් පළමු කොරෝනා ආසාදිත සෙබළා හඳුනා ගත් පසු මේ වන තෙක් එම කදවුරේ ආසාදනය වීමේ අඩුවක් දකින්නට නැත්තේ මන්දැයි වසංගත රෝග විශේෂඥයන් කරුණු පැහැදිලි කරයි.

සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශයේ වසංගත රෝග විද්‍යා අංශයේ විශේෂඥ වෛද්‍ය සමිත ගිනිගේ මහතා පෙන්වා දෙන්නේ නාවික හමුදා කඳවුරේ සෙබලුන් 5600 පමණ සිටින සංයුක්ත තැනක් නිසා මෙම තත්ත්වය ඇති වී තිබෙන බවයි.

මෙම සීමිත ඉඩකඩ තුළ එකිනෙකා සමග ගැටීමේ ඇති ඉඩකඩ ඉතා වැඩි නිසාද මෙම තත්ත්වය මෙසේ වීමට බලපා ඇතැයි ද ඔහු සඳහන් කළේය.

දැනට වැලිසර හමුදා කඳවුරේ සිටින ආසාදිතයන් එහි විවිධ අවස්ථාවන් පසු කරමින් සිටින බවද ඔහු පැවසීය.

කෙසේ නමුත් වැලිසර කදවුරෙන් වෛරසය කිසිසේත්ම සමාජගත වීමක් සිදු නොවන බව තහවුරු කළ හැකි යැයි ද ඔහු අවධාරණය කලේය.

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

This comprises 3,078 students, 4,040 short term visa holders, 27,854 Migrant workers, 3527 dependents and 484 dual citizens and others.

Colombo, May 17 (newsin.asia): Over 38,983 Overseas Sri Lankans (OSLs) in 143 countries at present seek to return home, based on information gathered mainly through the ‘Contact Sri Lanka’ Web Portal of the Ministry of Foreign Relations. This comprises 3,078 students, 4,040 short term visa holders, 27,854 Migrant workers, 3527 dependents and 484 dual citizens and others. Meanwhile since 21 April, up to now, 3600 OSLs have been repatriated from 15 countries, largely comprising foreign students and government officials on training, as well as their dependents.

A press release from the Ministry of Foreign Relations said that recognizing the need to collect data on vulnerable OSLs, the Ministry of Foreign Relations, with the assistance of the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA), on 26 March 2020 created the ‘Contact Sri Lanka’ Web Portal, within a week following closure of the airport to inbound commercial flights. In parallel to the Portal, Sri Lanka Missions were also instructed to collect data on those who wish to return. The two sources, serve as the base for identifying vulnerable groups, prioritizing and repatriation.

The Contact Sri Lanka Web Portal also serves as a virtual help desk for the benefit of OSLs. According to Acting Director General, Economic Affairs (Multilateral) and Overseas Sri Lankans Anzul Jhan, since its launch, 78,033 Sri Lankans have registered on the Portal and a dedicated team operating effectively 24/7, have answered 7,788 questions posed by OSLs from across the globe – mainly on assistance on repatriation and consular issues, but also relating to other operational and policy matters.

The portal has not only been able to direct Sri Lankans to the nearest Sri Lanka Diplomatic Mission, specially where there is no Sri Lankan representation in the countries concerned, but also to help connect with vulnerable categories of Sri Lankans who are in need of food and also face medical emergencies, with provision of dry rations, medicines and in some occasions facilitating arrangements for shelter. It has also prompted streamlining issues pertaining to transfer of funds by migrants to Sri Lanka and to short term travellers and students from Sri Lanka. Some Missions have also helped students who faced issues in educational institutions and those whose employment contracts have expired to secure new employment agreements, so that they are not compelled to return due to unemployment.

Participating in a television discussion on Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation on Saturday (16 May), Foreign Secretary Ravinatha Aryasinha said, the ‘Contact Sri Lanka’ portal has become a reliable analytical organizational tool in forward planning and in fine-tuning the relations and direct communications between the Ministry, the Missions and the OSLs. He also added that the Ministry looks forward to expanding its utility and functions in the future.

Courtesy Adaderana

COVID-19 cases count of Sri Lanka reached 981 as of 11.30 pm today (17) following the detection of 11 new patients, says the Ministry of Health.

Ten new positive cases of coronavirus were reported earlier today. Accordingly, a total of 21 cases have been confirmed within the day.

In the meantime, the number of patients who recovered from the virus has increased to 538.

The Epidemiology Unit says that 434 active cases are currently under medical care at selected hospitals across the country.

The country’s death toll from COVID-19 currently stands at 09.

Courtesy Adaderana

Foreign Secretary Ravinatha Aryasinha called on Sri Lankans overseas to carefully calibrate the effect repatriation at this time could have on their jobs and education, before making decisions to seek to return to Sri Lanka, availing of the limited flights operated by the Government for those facing compelling circumstances.

He made this observation during a televised programme on Saturday (16), where he noted that over 38,000 Sri Lankans are seeking to be repatriated, of that nearly 28,000 migrant workers, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

The comments made by the Foreign Secretary are below:

Priority right now of the Government following the Cabinet Paper presented by my Minister Dinesh Gunawardena two weeks ago, is to bring back the migrant worker category which needs to come, but more so in some cases have to come. Because they have gone out of status and are illegal, they also as a result of being illegal do not have access to the health facilities and anything else in those countries. There are many who have been thrown out of jobs. They are pretty much destitute. Thereafter we can consider those who want to come, but who have jobs and who simply want to come on holiday to avoid any Corona vulnerability.

Our plea to these employees, as we did to students some time ago, is to ask them to carefully calibrate the possible loss of jobs or loss of educational opportunity or major delays which can occur from their coming. Because in students, we particularly find that in some places, one set of parents want children to come, another set of parents want children to stay and finish their exams. So, while I know these are personal choices alright, I think there must be some rationality in doing this. Because from the Foreign Ministry perspectives, we are working very hard to get them back today, but I know that one month, two months from now, we will once again be asked to try to reconcile their status as students when there are difficulties for them to get back or lose out on semester. It is the same with those who lose their employment.

So as much as the Foreign Ministry and the Government is trying to bring back people, that these people who are wanting to return, make a very careful assessment of their essential needs, as against just wanting to come for the short term. This may not be the best time to use this limited window and have to go into quarantine for 21 days when they come here as well.

We are going to try as much as possible to ensure that those who stay back are assisted to the extent possible, particularly the most vulnerable through the various networks of our 67 Missions, 16 where SLBFE is also present, to try and provide dry rations and where necessary medicines so that the problems they face are managed out there where they are.

As for those on short term visits, we have to bring them back. They have nowhere to go. We are conscious of that. The difficulty to some extent is the fact that they are spread all over and Sri Lankan Airlines, even cargo flights which now are flying, are not flying out to many of these capitals. So, while we are integrating them in flights already coming, how we bring them all back is a matter which is at the moment being discussed at the highest levels.

චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම, LL.B.,Ph,D.

<ඕ මයි ගෝඩ් බෞද්‌ධයින්>

2020 ට පෙර ලංකාවේ අගමැති හා ජනාධිපති ධූර දැරූ අය රටට කල විනාශ යන මාතෘකාව යටතේ අපක්‍ෂපාතීව ලිපියක් ලියමින් ඉන්නා විට, 2019 සැප්තැම්බර් 11 දා චන්දන ගුණවර්‌ධන සමඟ හරීන්ද්‍ර ජයලාල් විසින් කල පරණ වීඩියෝ සාකච්චාවක් දැනට දින කීපයකට පෙර දැක ගැනීමට ලැබුණි. චන්දනට අනුව ලංකාවේ සිට ඇත්තේ දුරදක්නා නුවණක් තිබූ දේශපාලකයින් දෙන්නෙක් පමණය. ඒ නිදහස් අධ්‍යාපනයේ පියාවූ සී. ඩබ්ලිව්. කන්නන්ගර හා අගමැතිනි සිරිමාවෝය. නිදොස් කෙනෙකු මේ ලොව උපදිනේ නැත යන සුභාෂිතයේ කවි පදය අනුව ලෝභ-ද්වේෂ-මෝහයෙන් පිරි අගමැති-ජනාධිපති පංචස්කන්‌ධ රටට කල හොඳට වඩා දිගුකාලීනව රටට කල හානිය විශාල බව මගේ අදහසය. මීට හේතුව මොවුන් ඇල්ලේ ගුණවංශ හාමුදුරුවන් කියන ආකාරයේ <බුදු අම්මෝ බෞද්‌ධයින්> නොවීමය. මොවුන්ට කියන අනිත් නම සුද්දන් බෝකර ගිය කළු සුද්ද්දෝ කියාය. එය කිව්වේ අනගාරික ධර්‌මපාලතුමාය.

ජේ. ආර්. ජයවර්‌ධන ජනාධිපතිව උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් ගත්තොත්, ඔහුත්, ආර්. ප්‍රේමදාසත් අතගැසු හැමදේම රටේ විනාශයට හේතුවිය. එහෙත් ඕනෑම නරකදේක වුනත් හොදකුත් තිබෙන්නට පුළුවන් යන කතාව (සමහර යුද්‌ධ, වස මිශ්‍ර කර හදන බේත්) අනුව සිතන විට,< රජීව් කොළුවාට> යටවී ගිවිසුමට අත්සන් කිරීම ඔහු විසින් කල හොඳම දේය. එසේ නොවන්නට ඩික්‍ෂිට්ලා උතුරු-නැඟෙනහිර ප්‍රභාකරන්ට භාරදී පෙඩරල් ප්‍රාන්තයක් සදා දෙන්නේය. ඉතිහාස කතා හෝ මිථ්‍යා කතා හෝ දෙස බලනවිට මහාභාරතයේ අර්ජුන සිය නෑදෑයින් විනාශ කලේ ඇයි. ලංකාවේ පණ්ඩුකාභය රජතුමා මාමාලා හත් දෙනෙක්වම මැරුවේ ඇයි? පරාක්‍රමභාහු රජතුමාට මහා කියා නාම විශේෂණයක් දැම්මත්, ඔහු විසින් කල සමූලඝාතන නිසා රාජකීය ඩී.එන්.ඒ. නැතිවයාමෙන්, ඔහුගේ ඇවෑමෙන් සුළු කලකින් ලංකා රාජධානිය බහිනකලාවට නොවැටුනේද? 1988/89 කාලයේ 60,000 ක් පමණ සිංහල තරුණයින් ඝාතනයද මෙවැනි ඩී.එන්.ඒ. අහිමි කිරීමකි.

ජනාධිපතිවරණයට කලින් චන්දන විසින් කියා ඇත්තේ ලංකාවට තිබෙන්නේ විසඳුම් දෙකක් බවය: (1) රටේ හාමුදුරුවරු එකතුව ආණ්ඩුවකට බලකර රට හැදීම හෝ (2) මිලිටරි පාලනයක් මඟින් රට හැදීමටය. දැන් බලාගෙන යනවිට මේ දෙකම යම්තාක් දුරකට සිදුවෙමින් පවතී. මා නම් සිතන්නේ ජන සභා ක්‍රමයක් මඟින් ගම් මට්ටමින් ජනතා පාලනයක් සදන අතර, විද්‌වත්, පක්‍ෂ දේශපාලන හෙංචයන්ගෙන් තොර, ජනාධිපති උපදේශක සභා මඟින් ජාතික ප්‍රතිපත්ති සදා, දැඩි විනයක් ඇතිව ඒවා ක්‍රියාවට නැංවීම ලංකාවට සුදුසු බෞද්‌ධ රාජ්‍ය පාලන ක්‍රමය බවය. අඳිරි නීතිය ලිහිල්කල වහාම බාර් පෝලිම්වල මරා ගන්නා, හොර කසිප්පු ජාවාරම සරුවට කෙරෙන, කුඩු බෙදීම ඊටත් වඩා ජයට සිදුවන හා ඒ හැමටම වඩා පරණ යහපාලනකාරයින් හා ජේවීපීකාරයින් කොරෝනාව අස්සේ කරගෙන යන දුෂ්ට ගෝඨා-මහින්ද-බැසිල් විරෝධී ව්‍යාපාරය ඉදිරියේ අවුරුදු 72 ක් ඉවසුවා ඇති යයි බෞද්‌ධ, කතෝලික සිංහලයාත්, හින්‌දු දෙමළාත් මෙම දැඩි විනයට (හිට්ලර් නොවන) එකඟවන බව නිසැකය. <හිට්ලර් නොවන> කියන්නේ ආර්. ප්‍රේමදාස හිට්ලර් ඇදහූ අයෙක් නිසාය. සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාසගේ හා අනිකුත් යහපාලනකාරයින් වන රාජිත, මංගල, හරීන්, කාවින්ද, රංජන්, හිරුණිකා, අජිත් පෙරේරා, සුජීව සේරසිංහ, හර්‍ෂ, රවි, කිරිැල්ල යනාදී කට්ටලවල ඩී.එන්.ඒ. මොනවා විය හැකිද කියා ඔවුන්ගේ හැසිරීමෙන් සිතාගත නොහැකිද? මොවුන් කොරෝනාව මුස්ලිම් කර සිංහල ජාතියට, විශේෂයෙන් සිංහල බෞද්‌ධයාට අසාධාරණ ලෙස පහර දෙන්නේ පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරයේ සැබෑව එලිවෙනවාට ඇති බියද නිසාය.

උස නම් සෙකියුරිටි-මිටි නම් කම්කරු>

සජිත්ගේ ඉහත සඳහන් ප්‍රකාශය බුදු දහමට පටහැනිය. මිනිසුන් දෙන්නෙක් යනු පංචස්කන්‌ධ දෙකකි. දෙන්නෙක් එකිනෙකාට සමාන නොවේ. සෙකියුරිටි හා කම්කරු යනු රක්‍ෂා දෙකකි. ඒ රක්‍ෂා දෙකට සුදුස්සන් තේරිය යුත්තේ, එක පංචස්කන්‌ධයක් උසද, මිටිද යන්න උඩ නොවේ. සංඝ රත්නයක් නැත කියා දැන් සංඝ කල්ලියක් ලෙස එය සංශොධනය කර ඇති මංගල සමරවීරත්, සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාසත් සමානවන්නේ ඔවුන් දෙන්නා මෝඩ නොව, කපටි <බොරු බෞද්‌ධයින්> දෙන්නෙක් වන නිසාය. මුස්ලිම් කොරෝනාව නමැති වලිගයක් අල්ලාගෙන බුදුරජාණන්වහන්සේගේ නාමය ඊට ගාවා තම දේශපාලන පැවැත්ම සඳහා සිංහල බෞද්‌ධයින්ට ලෝකයා ඉදිරියේ මඩ ගසන්නේ ඒ හේතුවෙනි. < සල්ලි තියෙනවා නම් ඕනෑම ගොනෙකුට යුද්‌ධ දිණන්න පුළුවන්> යන කිරිැල්ලගේ කතාව මෙන් මේ උස-මිටි කතාව කරත්තය ගොනා පිටිපසින් එනවා මෙන් සජිත් සමඟ ඇදෙන්නේය.

සජිත්ගේ ඉංගිරිස් ප්‍රහාරය

මේ දිනවල ටිවිටර් මඟින් විනෝදය සපයන්නේ සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාසගේ ශ්‍රී හස්තයෙන් ලියන ලදැයි කියන ඉංගිරිස් ගැනය. ඊට දමා ඇති කමෙන්ට්ස් බලන විට මේ වාගේ අහක යන නයි ඔහුට අල්ලා දෙන්නේ කවුද, දිරච්ච ලණු දෙන්නේ කවුද, කියා සිතෙන්නේ එය කවුරුන් හෝ ඔහුට ලියාදුන් එකක් බව පෙනීයන නිසාය. මනමාලියක් වුනත් තැනට සුදුසු විධියට කතා නොකලොත් අමාරුවේ වැටේ. ඩයානා කුමරියටද ඉංග්‍රීසි ටියුෂන් ලබාදුන්නේ ඒ නිසාය. පසුගිය කාලයේ නිතර සිදුවූ දෙයක් නම් සී. වී. විග්නේෂ්වරන් විසින් යම් අරාධිත දේශණයක් දීමට පෙර සංස්කෘත භාෂාවෙන් යමක් කීමය. ඔහු මොනවා කිව්වාද කියා දන්නේ ඔහුම පමණය! සජිත්ට මෙය ලියාදුන් තැතැත්තා කර ඇත්තේත් එවැන්නකි. ලැටින් භාෂාව දත් අගමැති බණ්ඩාරනායක, ෆීලික්ස් ඩයස්, ලලිත් ඇතුලත්මුදලි වැනි කෙනෙක් හෝ ඕල්ඩ් ඉන්ග්ලිස් දන්නා ශේක්ස්පියර්ගේ ගෝලයෙක් හෝ වූවා විය යුතුමය!

කොරෝනාව හා කොසොල් රජතුමා දුටු සීන දාසැය

සජිත්ගේ ඉංගිරිස් පාඩමේ සාමාන්‍ය අපට තේරෙන යම් යම් වචන හරහා අපගේ ඇස් පාදන වෙනත් සත්‍යාවභොධයක් අඩංගු නොවේද කියා මට සිතුනේ සජිත් විසින් දෙවියන්-බුදුන් පටලවාගෙන ඔතාගත් පඹගාල විච්චේදනය කිරීමට මා ගත් ව්‍යායාමය තුලින්‌ය. කොරෝනාව ඔප්පු කරන්නේ මහාසුපින ජාතකයේ එන කොසොල් රජතුමාගේ සීන දාසැය නොවේද යන්නය. බයිබලයේද අනාගතවාක්‍ය එමට ඇතත්, නූතන රාජ්‍ය දේශපාලන විද්‍යා ක්‍රමවේදය ගැන කිරි ගහට ඇන්නා මෙන් අවුරුදු 2,500 කට පෙර රාජ්‍ය පාලන ප්‍රතිපත්ති විවරණයක් දී ඇත්තේ ඉන් පමණය. ඒ අනුව ඇසිය හැකි අළුත් ප්‍රශ්ණයක් නම්, කොලම්බස් යුගය, යටත් විජිත යුගය මෙන් ලෝකය දැන් කොරෝනා යුගයකට අවතීර්‌ණව තිබෙනවා නේද යන්නය.

එන්නත් බෙහෙතක් සොයා ගත්තත් නැතත්, ගොනා පිටිපස ඇදෙන ගැල මෙන්, තුන්වන ලෝක යුද්‌ධයක් මෙන්, කොරෝනා වසංගතය ලෝකය වෙනස් කර තිබේ. මෙම අළුත් ලෝකය බෞද්‌ධ රාජ්‍යපාලන ප්‍රතිපත්ති, ලෝකයටත්, යළි වරක් ලංකාවටත්, හඳුන්වාදෙන යුගය ලෙස නම් කල නොහැකිද? බුදු දහමේ පෙන්‌වා දුන් දිවි පෙවෙත කෙතරම් උචිතද, කාලෝචිතද යන්න, අතට අතදීම වෙනුවට <ආයුබෝවන්> කීමට කොරෝනාව සමඟ තරහෙන් සිටින ජනාධිපති ට්‍රම්ප්ටත් සිදුවීමෙන් සංකේතවත් වන්නේය. ඇල්ලේ ගුණවංශ හාමුදුරුවන් කියන ඕ මයි ගෝඩ් පිරිසට, බුදු අම්මෝ පිරිස සමඟ අකමැත්තෙන් කැමතිවීමට සිදුවීමය!

බක උපාසක සජිත් (බක ජාතකය)

මොකක්දෝ වැටෙනතුරු එළුවා පස්සේ ගිය නරියා මෙන්, ඓතිහාසිකව, සිංහල දේශපාලකයින් මුස්ලිම් චන්ද පස්සේ ගියේ දෙමළ බෙදුම්වාදයට අඩයක් වශයෙන් මුස්ලිම් නායකයින් යොදා ගැනීමට මිස දූරදර්‌ශී බෞද්‌ධ පාලන ක්‍රමයක් අනුගමණය කිරීමකින් නොවේ. මෙම වංක හැසිරීම නිසා 1921 සිටම දෙමළ බෙදුම්වාදය අනාගත් මෙම කළු සුද්දන් (ඒ කාලයේ 1956 වනතුරු සිටියේ බොහෝ විට සිංහල ක්‍රිස්තියානි පිරිසකි) ඊටත් වඩා භයානක මුස්ලිම් ගර්‍භාෂවාදයට, විශේෂයෙන් 1978 න් පසු ඉබේම ගොඳුරුවිය. මෙහිලා අළුත්ම උදාහරණය සජිත් ඇතුළු කල්ලියේ වත්මන් පැස්බරා වැල්ලේ හිස ගසාගත් හැසිරීමය. රටේ සිංහල ජනයා අන්‌ධ යයි සිතන සජිත්ට හදිසියේම කොරෝනාව හරහා අසීමිත මුස්ලිම් දයාවක් හටගන්නට ඇත්තේ ලඟදී එන කොළඹ මන්ත්‍රී චන්දයේදී හතරට පහට බෙදී යන යූ.එන්.පී. චන්ද ගැන ඇති බිය නිසා විය යුතුය. මෙම යටි අරමුණ නිසා ආණ්ඩුවේ කොරෝනා මර්‌ධන වැඩ පිළිවෙල ගැන මහජන හිත දූෂ්‍ය වන සේ කටයුතු කිරීම සුනඛ ක්‍රියාවකි. ඒ සඳහා බුදුදහම ගාවා ගැනීමට ඔහුට අයිතියක් නැත්තේ ඔහුගේ මව, අක්කා හා නෝනා, රෝසි සේනානායක පාරේ ගොස් නැවත-උපන් ක්‍රිස්තියානීන් වූ අය නිසාය. ආරියාවත් සමඟ ඔහු (නාරාහේන්පිට?) පල්ලියට යනවා ඉරාජ් වීරරත්න සිය ජනේලයෙන් නිතරම පාහේ දැක ඇත.

සජිත්ගේ ඉංගිරිස් කියමන් දෙක එක්කෝ වංකය. නැතහොත් නොතේරෙන ඉංගිරිස්‌ය.

මුලින් එකේ ඔහු කියන්නේ:
<…අපේ සමාජයේ දැනට දළුලමින් තිබෙන (ඉන්සිපියන්ට්) වර්‌ග වාදය, අපේ මව්බිමේ මිනිසුන් අතර (අමන්ග්ස්ට්) පවතින, ජාති, ආගම් හා සමාජ බෙදීම් තීව්‍ර/උග්‍ර/ප්‍රචන්ඩ (එක්සැසබේටඩ්) කර ඇත. මෙය අපේ ජාතික යහපතට (ඉන්ටරස්ට්) හානිකාරී (ඉනිමිකල්) හා විනාශකාරීය (ඩිට්‍රිමන්ටල්). එය දෙවියෙක් කෙරෙහි විශ්වාසයකට වඩා, මිනිස්කම, තර්‌ක-ඥානය, විද්‍යාව හා මානව දයාව ඉහළය යන මතවාදයට (හියුමනිසම්) හා මිනිසාගේ පරම යුතුකම මිනිස් සංහතියේ ශුභ සාධනය බවත්, දිව්‍ය මැදිහත්‌වීමකින් තොරව මිනිසුන්ට ස්‌වයං පාරිශුද්‌ධ (සෝවාන්?) භාවය ලඟාකර ගත හැකිය යන දර්‍ශණයටත් (හියුමනිටේරියනිසම්) පටහැනිය (කන්ට්‍රැරි).>

දෙවෙනි එකේ භාෂාව පොල් පරාලයක් ගිල්ලා වැනිය. පණිවුඩය යන්නෙ කොහෙද, මල්ලේ පොල්‌ය!
<… අපගේ මුස්ලිම් සහෝදර-සහෝදරියන්ට විරුද්‌ධව සිද්‌ධ කරණ (පර්පෙට්ට්‍රේටඩ්) ජාතිවාදී වධ හිරිහැර ක්‍රියා පැතිරීයෑම (ප්‍රිවැලන්ස්), හිරිකිතය/අශික්‍ෂිතය (ඇබොරන්ට්). එය අප සියළු දෙනා විසින් දැඩිලෙස හෙලා දැක සටන් කල යුතුය/ (කන්ෆරන්ට්). එවැනි දුෂ්ට (හෙයිනස්) ක්‍රියා බුදුරජාණන් වහන්සේගේ උතුම් ඉගැන්‌වීම් වලට පටහැනිය (කන්ට්‍රැරරි). එවැනි ශුද්‌ධ (බ්ලෙස්ඩ්) ගුණධ‌ර්‍ම (ප්‍රින්සිපල්ස්) වැරදි ලෙස අර්‌ථ කතනය කිරීමට දරණ උත්සාහ භයානකය, මිථ්‍යදෘෂ්ටිකය (ට්‍රෙචරස්). දේශභ්‍රෂ්ටය (අන්පැට්‍රියොට්‍රික්).>

මේ මා විසින් ඉන්ටර්නෙට් ඩික්‍ෂනරිය බල බලා කරන්නට සැදූ පරිවර්‌තනයය.

[ඉඳ හිට හෝ යුරෝපීය බෞද්‌ධයින් විසින් බ්ලෙස්ඩ් වන් (බුදුන් වහන්සේ) ලියනවා හැරෙන්නට, උපතින් බෞද්‌ධ, ඉරිදා දහම් පාසැල් ගිය සිංහලයින් නම් <බ්ලෙස්ඩ් ප්‍රින්සිපල්ස්> කියා (බුදු වදන/බුද්‌ධ දේශනාව) හඳුන්වන්නේ නැත. එසේ යොදන්නේ ක්‍රිස්තියානි දේවධ‌ර්‌ම වාදී අභාෂයක් ලත් අයෙක් පමණය. මේ අනුව නිසැකවම මෙය ලියා ඇත්තේ ක්‍රිස්තියානියෙකි.]

පාඩම් අරහං සජිත්

කලින් වරක් කොරෝනාවට බේත් පෙති දෙකක් නිර්දේශකලා මෙන්, පාඩම් ඉගෙන නොගන්නා සජිත් මෙවරත්, බුදු දහම හා කොරෝනා භූමදාන/අදාහන පටලවා ගෙන, රටේ බෞද්‌ධ-ඉස්ලාම් භේදයක් ඉස්මතු කරන්නට හොට දමා ඇත. ඔහු දන්නා කෙහෙල් මල් <බ්ලෙස්ඩ් ප්‍රින්සිපල්> එකක් නැත. පරණ යහපාලන හොරුන් කෙතරම් අමණද කියා සිතෙන්නේ ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්‍ෂ ජනාධිපති චන්දය ඉල්ලන්නට ඉඩ තිබෙනවා යයි ඔවුන්ට ඉඟියක් ලැබණු දවසේ සිටම එය වැලැක්‌වීමට ඔවුන් ගත් කැත දුෂ්ට ප්‍රයත්න ගැනත්, ජනාධිපති වූ පසු ගෙනයන සිය දිවිනසා ගන්නා සුළු හැසිරීමත් ගැන සිතන විටය. මේ යන විධියට මොවුන් සමහරෙක් පරණ වැව් ශුද්‌ධ කිරීමට ගෙනයාමට පවා ඉඩ තිබේ. රාජිතගේ කිඹුල් සුදු වෑන් එලිදරව්වේ සිට දැන් කොරෝනාව අල්ලාගෙන මොවුන් නටන නාඩගමට සීමාවක් නැද්ද? අතේ ඔරලෝසුවක් බැඳගෙන අයිසීයු එකේ සිට ඇඳෙන් එන්නට තරම් රාජිතලා මෝඩ විය. මේ ලියන මොහොතේ සුවපති රාජිත හිරගෙදර ඉන්නේ යුක්ති ධර්‍මය සුරැකිණ මහාධිකරණ විනිසුරුතුමෙක් නිසාය. මොවුන්ට අනුව සිංහල බෞද්‌ධයින් දිගින් දිගටම මුස්ලිම්වරුන්ට වධ දෙමින් සිටී.

මුස්ලිම්වරුන්ට කරණ වධ හිංසා!

1. පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරය සම්බන්‌ධයෙන් යටගසා තිබූ පරීක්‍ෂණ අළුත් කොට නොයෙක් තරාතිරමේ අය අත් අඩංගුවට ගැනීම ජාතිවාදයද?
2. කොරෝනා හැදුන අයෙක් මුස්ලිම් නම් එය එලිකිරීම ජාතිවාදයද? සිංහල, දෙමළ ගම් වලටත් එසේ කර නැද්ද?
3. ඒ නිසා මුස්ලිම් ගම් කොටු කිරීම ජාතිවාදයද? ඒවා එලි නොකරණ සේ මාධ්‍යවලට මුකවාඩම් දාන්නද?
4. බොහෝ දුප්පත් මුස්ලිම් ජනයා ජීවත්‌වන්නේ එකට ගොඩගැහී තදබදයෙන් වීමට හේතුව ඔවුන්ව ශාරියාකාරයින් විසින් ගර්‍භාෂ යුද්‌ධයකට (ලමයි බෝකරණ පැක්ටරි) ඇදදමා ඇති නිසාද විය නොහැකිද? පර්‌චස් 40 ක ඉඩමක, බාබර් සාප්පුවක්ද ඇතිව, 200 ක් ජීවත්‌වන්නේ කෙසේද? ගඩාෆි හා පලස්තීනයේ යසර් අර්ෆත් මේ ගර්‌භාෂ ආක්‍රමණයේ නායකයින් විය.
5. මුස්ලිම් මිනිහෙක් රෑ 12 ට අල්ලපු ගමේ පන්සලක දොරට තට්ටුකර දොර අරවාගෙන හාමුදුරුනමක් බදාගෙන මූණට කැස්සේ, සජිත් හෝ රාජිත හෝ බිමාල් රත්නායක වැනි ජේවීපීකාරයින් හෝ විසින් උසිගන්නලාද? එසේ නැත්නම් ශාරියා විෂබීජය රටපුරාම පැතිරිලා ඇති නිසාද?
6. වැළලූ මිනියකින් කොරෝනාව පැතිරේද නැද්ද යන්න ගැන සැකයක් තිබෙද්දී ඒවා (ඉන්දියාවේ හි‌න්‌දූන් අතර මෙන් දර වෙනුවට) ගෑස් මඟින් ගිනිදෙවියාට දැමීමට ගත් තීරණය මුස්ලිම් විරෝධී තීරණයක්ද? ගමක හාමුදුරුනමකගේ පුංචි අම්මා මළවිට එය කොරෝනාද නැද්ද යන්න ගැන සැකයක් නොතිබියදී පවා ගමේ මිනිසුන් එය මිහිදන් කිරීමට විරුද්‌ධවූයේ නැද්ද?
7. ලෝක සෞඛ්‍ය සංවිධානය මොනවා කිව්වත් මීගමු වෙරළ අසල භූගත ජල මට්ටම ගැන දන්නේ ලංකාවේ මීගමු වෙරළ ගැන දන්නා අයය. අඩි අටක් හාරනවා කියන්නේ ඕලන්දයේ (නෙදර්ලන්තයේ) මෙන් පාවෙන මිණී වළවල් සදාගැනීමය. සාමාන්‍ය මිණීවත් වැළලීමට තහනම් කලාප ඒ රටේ ඇත්තේ ඒ නිසාය. ඇමෙරිකාවේ ලුවිසියානා ජනපදයේ අති විශාල මිසිසිපි ගංඟා කලාපයේ මිණී තැන්පත් කරන්නේ පොලොවෙන් උඩ කොන්ක්‍රීට් ආවරණයකය. ඊට හේතුව පොළොවේ වැළලුවොත් අධික වර්‍ෂාවකදී මිණී පෙට්ටි මතුවී උඩ පාවෙන නිසාය.
   මැරිලින් මොන්‍රෝගේ මිණිය තැන්පත්කර තිබෙන්නේ මිණී ගොඩනැඟිල්ලේ බිත්තියක එය හිටගෙන ඉන්නා ආකාරයටය. ඒබ්‍රහම් ලින්කන් ගේ මිණිය හොරකම් කරගෙන යෑමේ තර්‍ජනය බලවත් ප්‍රශ්ණයක් විය. ඇමෙරිකාවේ වෛද්‍ය විද්‍යාල වලට මුල්කාලයේදී තිබූ ලොකුම ප්‍රශ්ණය නම් සිසුන්ට අධ්‍යයනය සඳහා මිණී ලබාගන්නේ කෙසේද යන්නය. මිණී වළවල් හාරා මිණී හොරකම් කර විකිණීමද සිදුවිය.
8. කොරෝනා මිණියක් වැළලීමට සැතපුම් 60-70 ක් රටතුලට ගෙන යෑමේ අවදානම හා වියදම ගන්නේ කවුද? එසේ ගෙන ගියත් සුසාන බිම අසල භූගත ජල අවදානමක් ඇද්ද, නැද්ද යන්න තීරණය කරන්නේ කවුද? අද නැති අවදානම ලබන අවුරුද්දේදී හෝ ඉන්පසුවට නැතැයි කිව හැකිද?

මේ සම්බන්‌ධයෙන් උසාවියට කල හැකි දේ කුමක්ද? කොරෝනා වසංගතය පැතිරීම වැළැක්‌වීමේලා විද්‍යාත්මක ක්‍රියාවලියට මැදිහත්‌වීමට උසාවියකට ඇති දැණුම කුමක්ද? මෙය සිහිපත් කරන්නේ මිනිසා වඳුරාගෙන් පරිණාමය වුනාය යන අදහස ආණ්ඩුවේ පාසැල්වල ඉගැන්‌වීම තහනම් කරමින් පැනවූ ඇමෙරිකාවේ ටෙනසි ප්‍රාන්තයේ නීතිය, 1925 දී එහි උසස්පෙල ජීව විද්‍යා ගුරුවරයෙක්‌වූ ස්කෝප් විසින් කඩකිරීමට විරුද්‌ධව දැමූ නඩුවය. නඩුකාරයා විත්තියට නොයෙක් භාධා කරමින් විත්තිකරු වැරදිකරු කලත්, සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස ලියූ හියුමනිසම් හා හියුමනිටේරියනිසම් යන කතා යටපත් කරන්නට බයිබල් කතාවලට නොහැකිවිය.

1. මළවුන් නැඟිටීම ඉස්ලාම් ආගම ඉපදීමට බොහෝ කලකට පෙර සිටම ක්‍රිස්තියානි ආගමේ පවතින්නේය. එහෙත් කාදිනල්තුමා සඳහන් කලේ ක්‍රිස්තියානි කොරෝනා මළමිණි පිච්චීම කල යුතුම බව නොවේද?

තමන්ගේ මියගිය ලඟ ජාතීන්ගේ (අම්මා/තාත්තා/දරුවා/ස්වාමියා/භාර්‌යාව) මිණී අළු විසිතුරු භාජනයක දමා නිදන කාමරයේම හෝ සාලයේ හෝ තබා ගැනීම ඇමෙරිකාවේ මා දැක ඇති දෙයකි. සමහරු ඒ අළු, ලෝහ ලොකට් එකකට දමා සීල්කර, මාලයක් ලෙස කරේ පළඳී! ලංකාවේ නම් හිස් ඉඩමකට පවා මිණී අළු දැම්මොත් ඒ ඉඩමට මූදේවි (මූසල වෙනවා) ගසනවා යයි සැළකේ.

එසේ වුවත් මිණියක් තමන්ගේ ගෙදරට ගෙනයාම ඇමෙරිකාවේ තහනම් ය. මියගිය තමන්ගේ ආච්චිගේ මිණිය කරෝල වගේ වියලිව තබාගෙන වාර්ෂිකව එය එලියට ගෙන සරසා ගෙන යන සමාජයක් පෙන්වන නැෂනල් ජෝග්‍රෆික් විඩීයෝවක් මා දැක ඇත.

1. මිණිය කපා කෙටීම, ජීවත්‌ව සිටියදී කපා කෙටුවා වැනියයි සිතීමට ඕනෑම කෙනෙකුට පුද්ගලික අයිතියක් ඇත. එහෙත් රටේ වැසියාට පොදු අයිතියක්ද ඇත. එය නම් නූතන විද්‍යාවට අනුව (වෙන මොනවා නැතත් මිනිහෙක් හඳට ගියේ විද්‍යාව නිසාය) කල යුතු දෙය හා පුද්ගලයාට ඕනෑ දේ අතර ගැටුමක් තිබේ නම් පුද්ගලයා පරාජයට අකුලා ගත යුතුය යන්නය. ජනාධිපතිගේ මිත්‍රයා වුනත් අලි සබ්‍රිටත් එය එසේමය. 1950-60 ගණන් වල මැත් ප්‍රොපෙසර් සුන්දරලිංගම් ඒ කාලයේ පහල කුලවල ජනයා ගෙන් කෝවිල් අපිරිසිදුවීම වලක්වන්නට ගිය විට, කලින් ඔහුගේ ශිෂ්‍යයෙක්‌වූ දෙමළ පොලිස් සුපිරින්ටැන්ඩන්ට් ඔහුව බලය යොදා නතර කලේය.
2. දැන් අළුත් ප්‍රවෘතිය නම් මුහුදු මහා විහාරයේ ඉඩම් මංකොල්ලය ආපසු හැරවීමට එහි නාවික හමුදා කඳවුරක් ස්ථාපිත කිරීමය. සෙනරත් පරණවිතාණ යුගයේ අක්කර 77, 1965 වන විට 30 අඩුවී, 2020 වනවිට අක්කර 4 කටත් අඩුවිය. දැන් එය 30 දක්වා නැවත ලබාගෙන ඉදිරියේ ඉතිරි 47 ත් ක්‍රමයෙන් නැවත ලබාගන්නවා යයි විශ්වාස කල හැකිය. නැඟෙනහිර ආණ්ඩුකාරවරිය මෙහිලා මූලික වූවා යයි සිතමි. රිෂාද් බදියුද්දීන්ගේ මාළිගාව යළි පන්සලේ ඉඩමක් වනු ඇසීම මොනතරම් සතුටට කරුණක්ද? සිංහල දේශපාලකයින් හා දෙමළ නිලධාරීන් එක්ව කරණ බෞද්‌ධ නටබුන් විනාශය නතර කිරීම සජිත්ගේ බුද්‌ධාගමේ <බ්ලෙස්ඩ් ප්‍රින්සිපල්ස්> වලට පටහැනිද? එයට අමතරව දීඝවාපී ඉඩම්ද බේරා ගැනීමට යනවා යයි වාර්‌තා විය. මෙය සමානකල හැක්කේ, උඩරට උස් කඳු නිවාස සඳහා වතුකරයේ දෙමළ ජනයාට බෙදාදීම සමඟය. එය කරන්නේද සිංහල දේශපාලකයින්‌ය. මහවැලි, කළණි, වලවේ, කළු ගංඟාවල අබසරණයි (හදබිම සංකල්පය-සුදත් ගුණසේකර).

පුරා වස්තු කඩා ගෙනගොස් වැසිකිළි ගල් ලෙස යොදා ගැනීම මොන මානව අයිතිවාසිකමක්ද?

වැළලූ මිණියක ඇට දිරන්නට යන කාලය හා මළවුන් නැඟිටීම

මෙහිදී සජිත්ගේ <හියුමනිසම්> අනුව සිතන විට මතුවන ප්‍රශ්ණයක් නම් ඇට සැකිල්ලක් පොලොවට පස් වීමට කෙතරම් කාලයක් ගතවනවාද යන්නය. මළවුන්ගේ නැවත ඉපදීමට ඇට සැකිල්ලක් අවශ්‍යද යන කරුණ ගැන මම නොදනිමි. එහෙත් එය පොලොවට පස්වෙනවා නම්, ඒ වෙනුවට මිණී අළු තබාගැනීම වඩාත් ගැලපෙන්නේ නැද්ද? බොහෝ සොරැස්ට්‍රියන් පාර්සි වරු තවමත් <මිණී අහසේ වැළළීම> කරයි. බොම්බාය වැනි නගරයක නම් උස් කුළුණකට ගෙන ගොස් දමන මිණිය අව්වට වේලී හා කුරුල්ලන් මස් කා දමයි. මා අසා ඇත්තේ ඇට පමණක් ඉතුරුවූ විට නෑදෑයින් ගොස් ඒවා එකතුකර කුඩුකර පසට දමනවා යනුය. එය සත්‍යයක් දැයි මම නොදනිමි.

විද්‍යාවේ දියුණුව ඉදිරියේ සමහර රටවල කරණ දෙයක් නම් අනාගතයේ නැවත පණ ගත හැකිවන ආකාරයට මිණිය ඉතා අධික ශීතකරණයක තැබීමය. මෙය දැන් ධනවත් ලෝකයේ සරු වානිජ ව්‍යාපාරයකි. විද්‍යාව විසින් ශරීර අවයව, හෘදය, අක්මාව, මොළය යනාදියට අදාල ගැටළු විසඳා ගනිතැයි යන්න ඔවුන්ගේ බලාපොරොත්තුව හා විශ්වාසයය. මිනිස් ශරීරයක් යනු, පටවි, ආපෝ, තේජෝ, වායු හා අවකාශය (ස්පේස්) යන අංශු පහේ එකතුවක් ලෙස බුද්‌ධාගමේ උගන්වන නිසා මෙම විද්‍යාඥයින්ගේ පර්යේෂණ අන් ආගම් වලට අර්බුදයක් වුවත් බෞද්‌ධයින්ට එහි අවුලක් නැත.

මෙම ලිපිය දිග වැඩිවන නිසා (1) සිංහල දේශපාලකයින් කලින් දෙමළ බෙදුම්වාදය නමැති දදය කැසුවාසේ, මුස්ලිම් දදය කැසීම ගැනත් (2) බුදුදහම මිනිස් ශරීරය සමඟ විහිළු තහළු නොකිරීම ගැනත් පසුව ලියමි. කොරෝනාව වෙස්වලාගත් භාග්‍යයක් සේ සළකා ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභයට සහාය වී බෞද්‌ධ රාජ්‍යපාලන තන්ත්‍රයක් පිහිටුවා ගැනීමට වචනයෙන්වත් උදව් නොකර, රට මකබෑ වුණත් තමන්ට අහිමිකරගත් පාලන බලය කෙසේ හෝ ලබාගන්නට සිතා සජිත්-රංජිත් මද්දුමබණ්ඩාර යනාදී කුහකයින්ට ලීක්වාන්ලා කලේ කුමක්ද? රතන සූත්‍රය රට පුරා දේශනාකරණ ලෙස කාදිනල්තුමා කල ඉල්ලීමෙන් වත් සජිත් ඇතුළු යහපාලනකාරයින් පාඩමක් ඉගෙන නොගන්නේ ලංකාවේ පරණ පව කටද?

When Roy Ives was taken into hospital a month ago, his family were told that night to prepare for the worst. Thanks to the efforts of NHS doctors and nurses he was able to pull through, despite suffering from a number of underlying health issues, and is now back home recovering. Roy said: “The NHS staff are angels, they have done so much for me. I will never forget Dr Hetti and he will be in my thoughts every day as a way to say thank you.” We’ve got a special surprise for Roy as he is reunited with Dr Hetti!

by Pain Pathways Magazine 

Coconuts – and coconut oil, specifically – are part of the most talked about food purported to have health benefits these days. So can coconut oil reduce pain?

Coconut oil comes from pressing the dried meat” of mature coconuts, harvested from coconut palm, to extract the oil. This oil has been shown to provide a multitude of health benefits including reducing inflammation, fighting germs and supporting almost all processes of the body. The evidence is not definitive, although much is being written about the benefits of coconut oil. However, many reputable sources, including WebMD, Dr. Oz and Livestrong have all covered the subject extensively on their websites.

What’s in it that is good for you

For starters, coconut oil is over 80% saturated fat, consisting mainly of medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), or fatty acids, rather than the long-chain fatty acids that most people consume regularly. Unlike long-chain fatty acids which must be broken down before the body can absorb them, MCTs, abundant in coconut oil, can be absorbed whole. MCTs also contain fewer calories per serving than their long-chain counterparts.

The most critical MCT, which constitutes approximately 45-55% of the saturated fats in coconut oil, is lauric acid. Lauric acid converts in the body to a monoglyceride called monolaurin, a powerful germ-fighter that is effective against many viruses, bacteria and protozoa. While lauric acid cannot be credited with all of the benefits received from coconut oil, a 2015 analysis suggests that many of the benefits are directly linked to it.

Specific benefits of coconut oil

Immune system

Coconut contains two special ingredients that make it excellent for immunity: lauric acid, mentioned already and caprylic acid. Both have anti-viral properties and are well-known for fighting off yeast overgrowth (candida), as well as with bacterial infections. People looking for an immune-system boost should be eating other immune-enhancing foods as a regular part of their diet. But if they are looking for something extra to add to build up their immune systems, experts say that coconut oil is an easy addition to their daily routine.

Pain relief

Coconut oil has the potential to reduce inflammation in muscles and joints. A study published in the journal Pharmaceutical Biology showed that virgin coconut oil has anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. Simply by virtue of its high levels of lauric acid, coconut oil helps reduce inflammation – which directly impacts pain. Some studies have even found that extracts from coconut oil were just as effective as Indomethacin, a popular prescription pain medication.

Aside from improving temporary pain conditions, the anti-inflammatory elements of coconut oil have been shown to naturally help a more serious condition: arthritis. While many turn to prescription medications for the pain relief associated with this chronic condition, others are looking for more natural sources to ease their pain. Coconut oil is often used as a low-cost and effective alternative treatment. The topical application helps to increase blood supply to the arthritic area and reduce the localized pain and swelling. Many see coconut oil as extending beyond helping arthritis sufferers to those with other joint-pain conditions, such as fibromyalgia.

Energy boost

Low on energy? Add some coconut oil to your diet! Coconut oil has demonstrated physical and mental energy level benefits in both the short and long-term. It serves as a much healthier alternative to energy drinks, which often rely on caffeine and sugar, which can help in the short-term but cause an energy level crash” in the long-term. Because the MCTs in coconut oil are processed and metabolized faster – and are natural, unlike sugar – these types of fatty acids give a sustained boost to energy. Bonus: The fat calories are immediately converted to energy.

Muscle cramps

For much the same reason coconut oil can reduce general pain and inflammation, it can serve as a treatment for muscle cramps. Muscle cramps can come about from too much exercise or not drinking enough water but also blood flow issues. A good massage incorporating coconut oil can keep the blood flow healthy while accelerating healing.

How to use coconut oil

Primarily, there are three ways to get the benefits from coconut oil: ingest it, apply it topically and use it in a massage.

Ingest it

For some people, the taste of coconut oil is not bothersome. For others, they’ll want to mix it into a recipe or using it in cooking. While no specific dosage for optimal benefits has been determined, it appears that one to two tablespoons per day can be beneficial. Since coconut oil is still a fat, you won’t want to push your total fat intake beyond 25-35% of your daily caloric intake.

Coconut oil recipes abound, and once you start substituting with this oil, you’ll find it easier to incorporate it into your diet.

Topical lubrication of joints

When applying coconut oil to your body, the easiest way to use it is to apply it to the skin like a lotion, using a light coat. For reducing stiffness or to keep joints completely lubricated, you can make it a regular part of your hygiene. Apply the coconut oil right after you shower or bathe each day. Alternately, you could also add a quick coat before beginning physical exercise.

Experts recommend applying a teaspoon of coconut oil for every 50 pounds of body weight when you start using it. After a few days, you can increase the amount of oil you use. If only trying to prevent the onset of pain or inflammation, sticking to one teaspoon a day is sufficient.

Massage

You can also use coconut oil topically as part of a massage. Warm up some coconut oil and combine it with a few pieces of camphor or mix it with some essential oils. Then massage the mixture deeply into the area where you’ve got joint pain. This increased circulation benefit of massage brings more oxygen to tissues revitalizing them and speeding up healing and growth. Add to that the medicinal properties of coconut oil – and massage becomes a great way to get the benefits quickly and directly.

If you’ve made coconut oil a part of your daily diet or are using it topically, let us know your experience in the comments below.