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කොවිඩ් 19 වෛරස ව්යාප්තිය හමුවේ සාමාන්ය ජන ජීවිතය යථාතත්ත්වයට පත්කිරීම සඳහා ඇඳිරිනීතිය ලිහිල් කිරීමේදී රාජ්ය ආයතන පිළිපැදිය යුතු මාර්ගෝපදේශ මාලාවක් ඇතුළත් චක්රලේඛයක් ජනාධිපති ලේකම් පී.බී. ජයසුන්දර මහතා විසින් නිකුත් කර තිබෙනවා.
ඒ, අමාත්යාංශ ලේකම්වරුන්, පළාත් ප්රධාන ලේකම්වරුන්, දිස්ත්රික් ලේකම්වරුන් ඇතුළු රාජ්ය නිලධාරීන් වෙතයි
The multiple attacks launched by the Islamic Jihadis on April 21, 2019 on a number of selected targets including places of worship and leading hotels in Sri Lanka resulting in mass murder were tantamount to genocide and a crime against humanity. Over 300 innocent civilians lost their lives and scores were injured, some were maimed for life. A large number of families lost their bread winner. In some cases husbands who had remained in their homes lost the rest of their family members i.e. wives and children while at prayer in the church. It was the worst of times. The country was plunged into despair and mourning, and converted to a funeral house overnight with mass burials. Even foreign guests to Sri Lanka ended up in coffins.
This was a watershed moment in the history of Sri Lanka. The country witnessed an unimaginable level of crisis arising between the Muslim community and all other communities inhabiting this country. In the past Muslims were seen as a relatively peaceful community unlike the fractious Tamils who are persistently engaged in an unrelenting tug of war with the Sinhalese. That image of the local Muslims as a law abiding ethnic community minding their own business was shattered beyond recovery on the last Easter Sunday. Never has violence instigated by a group distinctly Islamic been able to cause such a high number of fatalities of innocent people over 300 in one single day and bring the country to a standstill. The multiplier effect of this mass murder was felt far and wide. Every single idea of foreign origin that had been foisted on the people of this country in recent times, without consent proved fatal failures – such as Reconciliation, Multiculturalism, Secularism, Diversity and Appeasement, Accommodation and the like, fell overboard instantly.
All over the country people began to question the wisdom of placing trust and faith in foreign born rather than home grown propositions if the final outcome of such misplaced trust was a tragedy of genocidal proportions. The sequel was logical. Even the Christian Community the most affected by the Jihadist violence and closest to western religious values began to call for the first time for strong arm military type leadership nationalist in character that would resonate with the exceedingly tight protection given to the ‘Rata, Jathiya Agama’ by Sinhala Kings of yore. The unequivocal cry everywhere was that there should not be any further compromise with any minority, ethnic or religious, pursuing an Agenda, aimed at undermining at any level the control and management of this country by the elected representatives of the majority. Enough is enough. Time for experimentation with ideas more applicable in a foreign context no longer mattered.
As we approach the 1st year anniversary of this horrifying and unspeakable tragedy that rocked Sri Lanka, we need to re – focus on some important issues.
Lessons for the Nation: NO MORE APPEASEMENT OF MINORITIES
In 2015 as a result of regime change a bandwagon of fragmented elements, united only by sheer greed for power and desire for siphoning of public funds e.g. Bond Scam, joined hands to create a legally questionable ‘national government’ making sweeping legislative changes and propping sets of unsavory characters to various public and important roles. That laid the foundation of subtly and slowly collapsing the administrative system of Sri Lanka without notice. It also meant closure of intelligence units tasked to shadow suspected jihadi groups while at the same time well trained intelligence officers were simply thrown into prison without framing charges for arrest. With leadership lacking, it was natural that the defense establishments would not have been given the freedom to monitor and protect the territorial integrity & sovereignty of Sri Lanka. Numerous controversial appointments some even ending up contesting elections showed the nature of penetration into the heart of Sri Lanka. The diabolical intent was to break the back bone of the two pillars that have historically protected Sri Lanka, namely, both the military and Sangha. A sizeable number of patriotic elements drawn mainly from the aforesaid two groups ended up being put into prison for trivial reasons. With the administrative set up neutralized it was only a matter of time that all the vultures and hyenas would descend on Sri Lanka. Wherever countries are weak, the same bandwagon of nefarious rogue elements creep in incrementally to further destabilize, maximizing and manipulating the shaky set up that was keeping Sri Lanka afloat.
What or where were Sri Lanka’s elected leaders? The rulers were following an un restricted appeasing line. Everything external elements requested was given with open arms. Nothing was refused. Nothing was questioned. Nothing was investigated and nothing was monitored. Nothing was non – negotiable, including the deeply respected national Sinhala Buddhist heritage of the country. In the light of what happened on 21/4 this more or less answers why the government was hypnotized or rather paralyzed by following an appeasement policy. In the end, it did not know what to do and in the power vacuum created the defense establishment took the reins to quickly round up the Islamic jihadis they had kept watch over until their units were closed.
No Government can afford to adopt an appeasement policy. A Government is elected to represent the People and protect the People and not to give into whims and fancies of external troublemakers, that consistently maintain an unceasing line of demands on the footing ‘little now, more later’ and aimed at finally destroying the hold of the Sinhalese majority on the country.
Lessons for the Majority: Questioning Multiculturalism or Secularism
The majority must not fall prey to new concepts that are being shoved with foreign funding as an incentive for governments to launch but with a hidden objective to usurp or downplay the role held by the majority in building and protecting the nation. It is the primary duty of any Nation to duly acknowledge the role played by those who built the nation. The role of the majority in this endeavor cannot be downsized just because some elements promote the notion that it hurts others. The fact that the Sinhalese over a period of 2,500 years built the unique Buddhist Civilization that is the foundation of this nation is undeniable. It was they who defended the nation against every invader that tried to conquer/invade it. Surely, that role cannot be set aside just because some feel they or their forbears had no role in it. That is probably because they were not around when the majority was defending the nation or some were working in step with the foreign invader. Betrayal of the country, race and religion does not sit nicely in our Buddhist Sinhala sub – consciousness. That is why History must be taught again comprehensively with a patriotic flavor beginning in our kindergarten. It is the majority of the country who must be empowered to define who we are, our roots and our ambitions and aspirations. The moment this function is delegated to external elements trouble starts. Invariably the historical narrative will then be written distorting, sidelining and diluting the role of the majority.
Bhoomiputras (Sons of the Soil)
Though Sri Lanka is the homeland of all its citizens a special place has to be reserved for the Bhoomiputras (sons of the soil) – those who built the nation. Sinhala Buddhists are the undisputed Bhoomiputras of Sri Lanka just as much as Muslim Malays are constitutionally recognized now as the Bhoomiputras of Malaysia.
The fundamental collective group rights of the Sinhala Buddhists cannot be usurped by new nomenclatures. No one denies or wishes to change that people of many faiths and ethnicities live in Sri Lanka. All of them have rights to practice their faith but that cannot mean that they can demand the same status of the majority or those who built the nation, or demand that contributions of the majority be marginalized or erased and everyone brought in one line. The contributions and sacrifices made by the Sinhala Buddhists in developing the civilization and the foundations of the country cannot be glossed over. They far exceed that of any other group that has entered this country later in point of time. On this score of group contribution to the common weal of the country over a period of time spanning more than two millennia, there are no co–equals to the Sinhala Buddhists.
Multiculturalism – a flawed concept
The primary reason to promote notions like multiculturalism and secularism in short is to ensure that ‘nationalists’ i.e. people who are proud of their history & heritage and wish to maintain that status quo, do not come to power. The concept of multiculturalism was conceived and promoted by Jews. In the international arena it is called Jewish multiculturalism. Their unfortunate situation leading to ethnic cleansing during the Second World War is attributed by Jews and fellow travelers to the nationalism of the German Nazis, despite the undisputed fact that anti – Semitism is of Christian origin and rooted in Biblical scriptures.
We, in Sri Lanka need not necessarily follow Jewish or Western scripts to solve problems created mainly by troublesome elements of minority backgrounds. Patriotism and Nationalism constitute the ideological underpinning that have inspired the heroic Sinhalese warriors throughout the long drawn history of the country to defend the country sacrificing both life and limb in conflicts with country’s enemies. This hard stubborn fact must be acknowledged and repeated in the public discourse i.e. schools, places of worship, parliament. Patriotism is sweet. It is the life line that can keep the people and country together.
Those who accept the flawed notions of multiculturalism and secularism are ever ready to appease and wish to bargain by reducing Sri Lanka’s innate values to enable external values to be brought on par till they completely annihilate the native values & replace them with foreign ones. This landscape can also be understood by the many initiatives and programs that get funded by UN/USAID/WF/IMF/and other international entities with plenty of funding as ruse. Several other Asian countries have also fallen victim to this shameful foreign conspiracy to undermine and destroy the traditional Asian value systems and then replace them with failed western monotheistic belief systems and western models of governance and development.
In particular, Right wing groups in USA, backed by the US Govt. continue to fund a huge missionary campaign in India, to convert the locals with use of financial inducements, despite widespread misgivings about the conversion strategy of Christian missionaries, among the majority Hindu public in India. One of the silver linings of the on-going Coronavirus Pandemic is the universal acceptance of the failure of the Western model of development, which is based on destruction of the natural environment and its living creatures, to sustain the unrestrained greed of people living mostly in western countries.
Lessons for the Minority
Divide and rule colonial policy fast forwarded to post-colonial powers ensured that the same divisions were manipulated and exacerbated to present the notion of siding with the ‘discriminated ’minorities against the ‘aggressive’ majority. In so doing, the minorities have come to use this as a tactical political ploy for the gaining of undue advantages upon themselves. Minorities have enjoyed making unfair and unreasonable demands and when these are not met they unhesitatingly take their ‘grievance’ to international levels, mostly former western colonial countries (who have yet to compensate the uncompensated victims or their descendants in Sri Lanka for colonial crimes), who are waiting anxiously to name and shame the majority again and again ad nauseam. We need not give instances of how external elements have manipulated internal friction to their advantage, using the country’s ethnic and religious minorities as their cat’s paw to destabilize Sri Lanka.
The minorities are always taught to play the victim card at the point their actions reach levels of questioning by the majority. The next option has been to play the ‘we are all for peace’ ‘national unity-reconciliation’ chant. Flag these internationally and external media is able to quickly shift the notion against the majority in favor of the minorities.
The minorities are told to follow the Goebbels theory of repetition and so we see constant reference to a handful of incidents repeated and repeated sans much detail but plenty of sensational news. But total up these incidents and you get hardly 10 fatalities to count. But then when they strike it is to eliminate hundreds and hundreds of people. Mentioning these cannot offset against the killings of nearly 300 killed in a matter of a few hours.
Easter Sunday attack killed in one crippling blow nearly 300 people. One year on some are still in hospital beds while others are crippled for life. Not many like to have these statistics repeated and when they are done its always ‘let’s forget and move on’ but this standard is never applicable for their citing of incidents.
Not many like when mention is made of the Jihadis abortive plan to blow up the Buddhist Temples and unique heritage sites in the sacred Buddhist citadel of Anuradhapura. It was by sheer stroke of luck that the cache of explosives hidden at Lacktowatta in Wanathawilluwa, Puttalam were discovered in time. The narrative would have been different had that Plan succeeded. The Sinhala Buddhist majority have to be lucky all the time from Islamic Iconoclasts. The Maldives, once a Buddhist land and historically related to Sri Lanka is now a strict Muslim state that has totally erased its Buddhist heritage from the land. Even Buddhist statues kept in Museums in Maldives have been removed and destroyed by Jihadis.
Lessons for international community claiming to be battling terrorism
If there is a war against terrorism there cannot be preferred terrorists and disliked terrorists and then some favorites becoming hated and some hated becoming favorites. What we see is that terrorists are getting imported and exported to fulfill the geopolitical goals of countries whilst pretending to be working towards eliminating terrorism and helping countries with countering terrorism. It simply does not make sense in saying something but doing the exact opposite. Eventually the terrorists’ pawns who learn from the master decide to take charge and become the master and innocent people end up dead.
ONE COUNTRY ONE LAW – NO PARALLEL SYSTEM OF LAW
If citizens of Sri Lanka truly believe in the concept of one country-one law, it means there can be no parallel systems of law e.g. Sharia law or personal laws. It is ridiculous to have some citizens be charged for marrying multiple times without divorce while another citizen can legally have multiple wives. The same marriage rule has to apply across the board for all men and women and polygamy cannot be allowed. Similarly, there cannot be exclusive banking system based on one religion or food labeling based on one religion simply because the issue has been internationalized to a level that unless a certificate is issued with compliance countries where the exclusive faith buys the product refuses to buy. The power of political correctness has been raised to such levels that because of the economic bullying the moral correctness ends up being set aside. If Article 12 of Sri Lanka’s constitution claims all citizens are equal before law there cannot be exclusive ethno-religious privileges for any particular minority community.
Lessons from Overseas in tackling the threat of extremist Islamism (Jihadism)
How Myanmar deals with extremist Islam
Myanmar Govt. has passed four Laws to Protect Race and Religion” in 2015
How Russia deals with extremist Islam
Russia has been a victim of Islamic terrorism and consequently has adopted strict regulations. Kremlin uses the phrase ‘traditional Islam’ and says only ‘traditional Islam’ is an integral part of the Russian cultural code. Kremlin has also defined hijab as not part of ‘traditional Islam’. Russian law allows the government to prohibit any activity of a religious association for violating public order or engaging in missionary ‘extremist activity’. ‘Fundamentalist Wahhabist, Salafist, radical’ is seen as a challenge to Kremlin.
The Russian court is also able to declare any material (book, leaflet, song, slogan, video website, webpages) as ‘extremist’ or ‘not traditionally Islamic’. The Justice Ministry can list these ‘extremist materials’. In January 2019 a Russian court in city of Samara banned a translation of Quran & blacklisted it as extremist. Kremlin says all foreign Muslims are to blame for the radicalization of Muslims in Russia. Which is why Russia seeks to ‘domesticate’ Islam so that the Muslims in Russia are part of Russia and not another Islamic state. Polygamy is illegal in Russia
How China deals with extremist Islam
Only religions that are permitted in China will have status in China
No one may use religion to make an attack on the order of society, harm the physical health of citizens, or impede the activities of the state’s education system.
Religious groups and religious affairs shall not be subject to the power of foreign domination.
All adherents are first beholden to the State of China not to their foreign heritage faith
Religious sites, religious ministers, religious schools, religious publications and collective religious activities in general need government registration or approval
Religion is not allowed to interfere in the performance of a business duty. For example, If a Muslim obtains a registration to sell goods, he cannot decline to sell Pork or Alcohol on ground of religion.
Polygamy is illegal in China. No multiple wives.
Only one child per family. Women cannot be used as Baby factories on a planned and deliberate basis to beget multiple children to naturally increase the number of any minority community in the country with a view to challenging in the future the power of the majority and its replacement.
China will rewrite the Bible and Quran to ‘reflect socialist values’. New editions must not contain any content that goes against the beliefs of the Communist Party. Paragraphs deemed wrong by the censors will be amended or re-translated. The party has called for a ‘comprehensive evaluation of the existing religious classics aiming at contents which do not conform to the progress of the times’. The order was given in November 2019 during a meeting held by the Committee for Ethnic and Religious Affairs of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, which oversees the ethnic and religious matters in China.
Conclusion – Steps to be taken by the Govt. of Sri Lanka
On 21/4 a tragic mass murder took place. Let us remember this with significance. Make 21/4 a National Day of Mourning with a 2 minute silence at 8.45 a.m. in memory of those whose lives were destroyed by the Jihadi Suicide Bombers.
Shenali D. Waduge
මේ සිංහල අපගෙ රටයි
මේ සිංහල අපගෙ රටයි
අප ඉපදෙන මැරෙණ රටයි
අප හද පණ ගැහෙන රටයි
මුළු ලොව ඒ රටට යටයි
අහස සිඹින ගිරි කඳුරූ
අහස සිඹින ගිරි කඳුරූ
පොලොව තෙමන වැව් සයුරූ
මුහුද අවට බැඳි පවුරූ
එරට අසිරි සිරි එයුරූ
මව්බිම වෙනුවෙන් පොරණේ
දිවිදුන් විරු දරුවන්නේ
ලේ වලිනුයි ඒ දෙරණේ
මිණිකැට මුතු ඇට මැවුනේ
සමනොළ ගිරි වළළු බිමේ
සමනොළ ගිරි වළළු බිමේ
සුදු සිරිපා පිපෙන හිමේ
සම කරුණා ගුණ මහිමේ
අප උපතින් ලද උරුමේ
මේ සිංහල අපගෙ රටයි…
ගායනය: නන්දා මාලිනී, පද බැඳුම: මහගමසේකර (සාරවිට චිත්රපටිය, 1965)
ඕ මයි ගෝඩ් ලංකාව හා බුදු අම්මෝ ලංකාව
පසුගිය (තුන්වන) කොටසේ සඳහන් කල උපුල් ශාන්ත සන්නස්ගලගේ වීඩියෝවෙන් එලිදරව්වන්නේ ලෝකයේ ලොකුම ස්ථූපය ලංකාවේ ඉදිකරනවා කියූ රනිල්, හිත ඇතුලෙන් මිහිඳු මහරහතන් වහන්සේව යුද සොල්දාදුවෙක් ලෙස සළකන බවය. වි. ජ. මු. ලොකුබණ්ඩාරලා යනාදීන් ගැන ඔහු කියන කතාව අදහන්නටත් බැරි තරම්ය. ඇල්ලේ ගුණවංශ හාමුදුරුවන් ඕ මයි ගෝඩ් ලංකාව ලෙස හැඳින්වූයේ, වෙන මොනවා නැතත්, රටේ ඉතිහාසය හා භූගෝල විද්යාව නොදත් මේ කළු සුද්දන් පිරිසවය. ලංකාවේ දේශපාලන ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය යනු මේ මයි ගෝඩ් සුළු පිරිස, බුදු අම්මෝ මහ ජනයා තම යටතට ගැනීමය. යමෙකුට යම් හදිසි අනතුරකට, යම් ඇබ්බැද්දියකට මුහුණදීමට සිදුවූවිට හෝ සුසාන භූමියක් ලඟින් යනවිට අවතාරයක් දුටු විට, බලාපොරොත්තු සුන්වීමක් වූ විට ඉබේම කටින් පනින්නේ මේ දෙකෙන් එකක්ය.
හ්ට්ට්ප්ස්://www.යොුටුබෙ.චොම්/wඅට්ඡ්?ව්=_උ2ඩ්MEOH3Cස්&ට්=235ස්
(2020 Sඅන්නස්ගල, Mඅර්ඡ් 6, 2020))
පන්සලේ ඉතිහාසය
1802 න් පසු ලංකාවේ ඉතිහාසය, මේ දෙපිරිස අතර ඇතිවූ ගැටුමේ ඉතිහාසය හෙවත් පන්සල හා සුද්දන්/කළු සුද්දන් අතර ගැටුමේ ඉතිහාසයය. මෙම ඉතිහාසයේ අවධි, විශේෂයෙන් 1815 න් පසු, දැන් කාලයේ මානව අයිතිවාසිකම් යන කඩතුරාව යටතේ මෙන්, යටත් විජිත කාලයේ සාමය හා මනාපාලනය යන කඩතුරාව යටතේ, සිංහල බෞද්ධයින්ගේ ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය අහිමි කිරීමේ හා ඊට විරුද්ධව පන්සල කල සටනේ අවධිය. පේරාදෙණිය විශ්ව විද්යාලයේ ශාලාවක් ධර්මපාල ශාලාව කියා ඒ කාලයේවත්, දැන්වත් නම් නොකලේ කවුද? මේ සිංහල අපගෙ රටයි සිංදුවට භයවූ රාජ්ය පාලකයා කවුද? එය තහනම් කිරීම නිවට කමක් මිස, ඉන් සාමයක් ලැබුණාද? මිසිස් චන්ද්රිකාගේ මනෝ ගනේෂන්ගේ සංහිඳියා නැටුමම නොවේද? ජාතික ගීය දෙමළෙන් ගැයීමෙන් ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය වැඩි වුනාද? මේවායේ ප්රතිඵලය නම් විග්නේෂ්වරන් විසින් දේවානම් පිය තීෂන් කෙනෙක්ව මැවීමය.
රතන සූත්රය හා පැටන් ප්රෙයර්
අසල පන්සලේ පිරිත් නිසා, රෑ එලිවෙනකං පාටි දමා, මහදවල් වනතුරු නිදාගන්නට නොහැකි නිසා උසාවි ගිය කතෝලික, එහෙත් කෝට්ටේ රජමහා විහාරයේ ප්රධාන දායක කම හාමදුරුවන් රවටා (අල්ලසක් දී?) ලබාගත්තා යැයි අනුමාන කල හැකි රවි කරුණානායකලා වැනි අයට, (කැළණියේ දායක සභාවෙන් රනිල්ව ඉවත් කරණ ලදී), රතන සූත්රය අසණ ලෙස කාදිනල්තුමා කල දැනුම්දීම චමත්කාර ජනකය. ඇමෙරිකාවේ දැනටත් භාවිතා වන <පැටන් යාඥාව> මීට සමානය. දෙවන ලෝක යුද්ධයේදී ජෙනරාල් ජෝර්ජ් පැටන්ට තිබුණු ලොකුම හිසරදය වූයේ දිගටම නොකඩවා වහින වර්ෂාවය. සැප්තැම්බර් මාසයේ සිටම නොකඩවාම ධාරානිපාත වැසි වැස්සේය. 1944 දෙසැම්බර් 8 දා ප්රංශයේ නැන්සි අසළ යුද පෙරමුණේ සිටි ඔහු හමුදාවේ චැප්ලින් (පූජකවරයා) ට කතා කර ජර්මන් සතුරාට සාර්ථක ලෙස පහර දීම සඳහා යහපත් කාලගුණයක් පතා කල හැකි යාඥාවක් තිබේදැයි විමසුවේය. එවැන්නක් සොයාගත නොහැකිවූ ඔහු අළුතින්ම යාඥාවක් ලියුවේය. මෙය කියවූ පැටන් එහි කොපි ලක්ෂ දෙකහමාරක් මුද්රණය කර හැම සොල්දාදුචාටම නත්තල් පණිවුඩයක් ලෙස බෙදන්නට අණ කලේය. පුදුමයක මහත! හැම දෙනා විෂ්මයට පත් කරමින් වැසි නතරවී ඉතා පැහැදිලි අහසක් දිස්විය. සතුරා පරාද කෙරිණ. ලෝක යුද්ධය අවසානය කරා ගියේය.
භූගෝල විද්යාව දිණවූ කොරෝනාව
Yඔඋ චන්නොට් ලෙගිස්ලටෙ අගෛන්ස්ට් ගෙොග්රඵ්ය්
යුරෝපයේ භූගෝල විද්යාව (නව යටත් විජිත වාදය) විසින් ලංකාවේ භූගෝල විද්යාව යටත් කරගෙන සිටීම කොරෝනා වෛරසය විසින් නිවැරදි කලේය. මයි ගෝඩ්ලාගේ අතට අත දීම ආයුබෝවන් කීමට මාරුවීම භූගෝල විද්යාවට පටහැනි නීති පැනවිය නොහැකිය යන විශ්ව ධර්මයේ ශූක්ෂම ජය ගැනීමකි. ශ්රීෂ්ම රටේ ටයි කෝට් දැමීමේ නීතිය වැනිය. 1948 නිදහස ලැබුණා කියන උත්සවය දවසේ ටයි කෝට් දමාගත් අය දාඩිය දමමින් සිටි හැටි පරණ කැමරා පටිවලින් බලාගත හැකිය. ටයි දැමීමේ නීතියට නව පණක් දුන්නේ කෙහෙල්වත්තේ ලැවරියා විකුණුවා යයි කියන සරම ඇන්ඳ ප්රේමදාස උන්නැහේය! ඇමෙරිකාවේ විධායක ශ්රේණියේ රක්ෂා කරද්දී ශීත කාලයේ වත් මට නම් ටයි දමා බෙල්ල තද කරගෙන සිටිය නොහැකි විය. ටයි හා ත්රී පීස් සූට් වලින් වැසී තිබෙන්නේ මොන විධියේ පංචස්කන්ධද? බොහෝ විට ලෝක හොරු නොවේද? උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් ලංකාවේ මිනිසුන්ට සුද්දන් ඉදිරියේ තිබූ අතට අත දීමේ හීනමානය කොරෝනාව නිසා අන්තර්ධාන විය!
Oනෙ ලw ෆොර් ඨෙ ලිොන් අන්ඩ් ඔෂෙන් ඉස් ඔප්ප්රෙස්සිොන්
සිංහයාට හා ගවයාට තිබෙන්නේ එකම නීතියක් නම් එතැන ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදයක් නැත
එවැනි නීතියකට ආධිපත්යයක් තිබිය හැකිද? ලොකු මාළුවා පොඩි මාළුවා ගිල ගනී. අසාද් සාලිට නෝනලා දෙන්නෙක් දෙපැත්තෙන් තියා ගෙන නිදහස් සමරු උළෙලට යාමට ඉඩදීමත්, සිංහල මිනිසෙකු එසේ කර අසුවුණොත් හිරේයාමත්, මුස්ලිම් අයට අවුරුදු 12 ටත් කලින් විවාහ වීමට ඉඩ තිබීමත්, අනිත් අය හිරේ දැමීමත් යනු මොන ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදයද?
Tහෙ wඔර්ල්ඩ් ඉස් නොට් අස් මොබිලෙ ඔර් අස් ඉන්ටෙර්චොන්නෙච්ටෙඩ් අස් wඑ ලිකෙ ටො ඨින්ක්… Iන් ච්රැචිල් wඅය්ස්–ෆ්රොම් ඨෙ උනෙවෙන් ඩිස්ට්රිබුටිොන් ඔෆ් නටුරල් රෙසොුර්චෙස් ටො ඨෙ උනෙqුල් අවෛලබිලිට්ය් ඔෆ් ඔප්පොර්ටුනිට්ය්–ගෙොග්රඵ්ය් චොන්ටිනුෙස් ටො හොල්ඩ් බිල්ලිොන්ස් ඔෆ් පෙොප්ලෙ ඉන් ඉට්ස් ග්රිප්. Wඑ අරෙ අල්ල් බොර්න් ඉන්ටො නටුරල් අන්ඩ් චුල්ටුරල් එන්විරොන්මෙන්ට්ස් ඨට් ස්හපෙ wහට් wඑ බෙචොමෙ, ඉන්ඩිවිඩුල්ල්ය් අන්ඩ් චොල්ලෙච්ටිවෙල්ය්. Fරොම් ඔඋර් “මොඨෙර් ටොන්ගුෙ” ටො ඔඋර් ෆඨෙර්’ස් ෆෛඨ්, ෆ්රොම් මෙඩිචල් රිස්ක්ස් ටො නටුරල් හශර්ඩ්ස්, wහෙරෙ wඑ ස්ටර්ට් ඔඋර් ජොුර්නෙය් හස් මුඡ් ටො ඩො wඉඨ් ඔඋර් ඩෙස්ටින්ය්.
Hඅර්ම් ඩෙ ඹ්ලිජ්, Tහෙ Pඔwඑර් ඔෆ් Pලචෙ, (Oෂ්ෆොර්ඩ් U. Pරෙස්ස්, 2009)
ලංකාවේ ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය මහජනයා ඉදිරියේ මිථ්යාවක් වී ඇත්තේ පාලක කළු සුද්දන්, රටේ ඉතිහාසය හා භූගෝල විද්යාව නොදැනීම නිසාය යන කියමනේ ප්රායෝගික සත්යය නම් රටේ පවතින ස්වාභාවික සම්පත් අසමාන ලෙස, විවිධ ලෙස, රටේ භූමිය මත විසිරී තිබීම හා ඒවා උපයෝගී කරගැනීමට නීති පද්ධති මඟින් සපයා දී ඇති අවස්ථා අසමාන බව යන සාධක දෙක වටහා නොගෙන, පාලකයා විසින් එය අවුල් කර දැමීමය. උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් ලංකාවේ ඇත්තේ මේ සාධක දෙක නිසා ඇති ප්රශ්ණයක් මිස, යම් සුළු ජන වර්ගයකට වෙනස්කම් කිරීමක් නොවේ. උතුරේ ජනයාට මතුපිට ගංඟා නැත්තේ එහි ඇත්තේ හුණුගල් පාෂාණ නිසාය. කැළණි ගඟ ශීඝ්රයෙන් දූෂණය වන්නේ, අපවිත්ර වන්නේ, ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය භාර දුෂ්ඨ ත්රිකෝණය (දේශපාලකයා-නිලධාරියා- එන්ජිිෝ කාරයා) නිසාය. පගා දෙන හෝටල්කාරයෝ, පැක්ටරිකාරයෝ ලාභ ලබති. මහජනයා දුක් විඳිති.
කොළඹට කිරි, අපිට කැකිරි
ඕ මයි ගෝඩ්-බුදු අම්මෝ ලංකාව, 1948 දී පිළිවෙලින් කොළඹ ලංකාවක්-ගමේ ලංකාවක් එසේත් නැත්නම් ඉංග්රීසි කතා කරණ හා නොකරණ, පෝසත් හා දුප්පත් ලංකාවක් හා 1971 න් පසු කොළඹට කිරි අපිට කැකිරි ලංකාවක් විය. ප්රභාකරන්ගෙන් මරණයෙන් ගැලවී පැන ආ කර්නල් කරුණාගේ උදෘත පාඨය වූයේද කොළඹට ලැබෙන දේ අපටත් දෙන්න (ගිව් අස් වට් කලම්බු ගෙට්ස්) යනුය. මේවා ආර්ථික-ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදයේ අසාර්ථක බව පෙන්වන කියමන්ය. නාගානන්ද කොඩිතුවක්කු ඔහුගේ ව්යවස්ථා විප්ලවය ඉදිරිපත් කල විට ඔහුගෙන් ඇසූ ප්රශ්ණයක් නම් ඔහු ගන්නේ ධනවාදී, සමාජවාදී, කොමියුනිස්ට්වාදී පාරක්ද යනුය. ඔහුගේ පිළිතුර වූයේ එංගලන්තයේ හා යුරෝපා රටවල මිනිසුන් වැඩියෙන් ටැක්ස් ගෙවන බවත් එහෙත් ඒ වෙනුවෙන් රජය විසින් මරණය තෙක්ම ඒ මිනිසුන්ගේ දුක-සැප බලාගන්නා බවත්ය. එය කුමණ වාදයද යනුවෙන් ඇසීම අනවශ්යය යනුය! ඒබ්රහම් ලින්කන්ගේ මිනිසුන්ගේ ආණ්ඩුවක්, මිනිසුන් සඳහා වන ආණ්ඩුවක් හා මිනිසුන් විසින් කරණ ආණ්ඩුවක් යන කියමන ඉෂ්ටකරගත හැකිවන්නේ යම් රටක භූගෝල විද්යාවට අනුකූල වන පාලන ක්රමයක් මඟින් පමණය. ලෝක බැංකුව විසින් පවා රටවල් දියුණු කිරිමේ උපාය යයි කියමින් නොයෙක් බේත් යෝජනා කරමින් රවුම් ගසා, රටවල් තව තවත් අමාරුවේ දමා, දැන් භූගෝල විද්යාව දඩමීමා කරගෙන අළුත් ගමනක් යෝජනා කරමින් සිටී (වර්ල්ඩ් ඩිවෙලොප්මන්ට් රිපෝට් 2009: රිෂේපින් ඉකොනොමික් ජෝග්රෆි [ඩෙන්සිටි-ඩිස්ටන්ස්-ඩිවිෂන්, භූමි ඒකක කේන්ද්රීය වූ සංවර්ධනය]).
ලංකාවේ අගනුවර රජරටට (අනුරාධපුරය දෙසට) ගෙනයන ලෙස 1955 දී බෞද්ධ තොරතුරු විමර්ශන (බුඩිසම් බිට්රේයිඩ්) කොමිසම විසින් කල යෝජනාව, අනාගාරික ධර්මපාලතුමාගේ, කළුකොඳයාවේ ප්රඥාශේඛර නාහිමියන්ගේ, කොළඹ ක්රමයට (කලම්බු පැරඩයුම්) ප්රතිවිරුද්ධ ගම් මඟින් රට ගොඩනැඟීමේ සංකල්පය සංකේතවත් කලේය. එහෙත් ඒවා කඩාකප්පල් කල කළුසුද්දෝ නොයෙක් නම් වලින් නොයෙක් ගම කරට ගැනීමේ ව්යාපාර ආරම්භකලේය. යහපාලකාරයින් ගෙනා ගම්පෙරළිය අළුත්ම නමය. ගමේ මට්ටමින් පක්ෂ පාට අනුව මිනිසුන් එකිනෙකා මරාගන්නට ලෑස්තිකර මහජන මුදල්ම එහෙන් මෙහෙන් විසිකර පක්ෂ සංවිධායකලා තොරන් ගසා කුට්ටි කඩාගන්නා මේ ක්රමය කෙතෙක්දුරට ගෙන යනවාද?
කොරෝනාව කඩා වැටුන විට ප්රත්යක්ෂවූ කරුණක් නම් ලංකාවේ පරිපාලන පද්ධතිය කෙතරම් අකාර්යක්ෂමද යන්නය. මීට අමතරව 1978 ජේ. ආර්-ප්රේමදාස කාලයේ සිට සමූපකාර ව්යාපාරය, සතොස, අලෙවි සංවර්ධන ශාඛා යනාදිය විනාශකර හෝ දූෂණය කර ඇති අන්දමය. පුද්ගලික අංශයට ඉඩදීමෙන් වූයේ ජනයා සූරාකෑම මිස නිසි සේවයක් ලබා දීම නොවේ. හරියට ලංගමට වූ දේමය. මිනිසුන්ට, ලොරි චෙසි උඩ, දෙකට නැමී, කන් බීරි කරණ සද්දෙන් කෂඩ සිංදු අසමින් බස්වල යන යුගය කවදා අවසාන වේවිද? ලංකාවේ ග්රාම සේවා වසම් 14,000 ක් ඇත. ග්රාම සේවකට අමතරව, එහි තවත් ආණ්ඩුවේ නිලධාරීන් 4 ක් (සමෘධි නියාමක, කෘෂි පර්යේෂණ නිලධාරී, ආර්ථික සංවර්ධන නිලධාරි, සෞඛ්ය නිලධාරී)සිටී. මේ අනුව සෑම ප්රාදේශීය ලේකම් කාර්ය්යාලයකම කෙතරම් ආණ්ඩුවෙන් පඩි ලබන ශ්රම බලකායක් සිටීද? මොවුන් හරහා ඕනෑම බඩු බෙදාහැරීමක්, ගොවි නිෂ්පාදන එකතු කිරීමක් කිරීමට නොහැකිද? මොවුන් කඩිනමින් විනය ගරුක හා කාර්යක්ෂම කලහැක්කේ බණ මඩුවෙන්ද, කැරට් අලයෙන් හෝ වේවැලෙන්ද? මේවා නිසි මඟට ගැනීමට ලීක්වාන්ලා අවශ්යද?
මේ ගැන සිතන විට මා දුටුවේ බක් පෝයදා (අප්රියෙල් 7, 2020) අරලියගහ මන්දිර භූමියේදී මහාචාර්ය ඉඳුරාගාරේ ධම්මරතන හිමියන් කල අනුශාසනාවය. කොරෝනා මිණියක් ආදාහණය කිරිමට විරුද්ධව ඇති උද්ගෝෂණ, මතවාදයෙන් පරාජය කිරීමට අමතරව හාමුදුරුවන් අගමැතිට පෙන්වා දුන්නේ රටට ග්රාම රාජ්ය සංකල්පයේ (ගම් සභාවේ) ඇති අවශ්යතාවයය. සිගරැට් විකිණීමේ බද්ද, ඒවා පවිච්චි කිරීම නිසා ඇතිවන පිළිකා වැනි රෝග වලට ප්රතිකාර කිරීම සඳහා රජය දරණ වියදම්ද රටක ආර්ථික වර්ධන වේගය මැනීමේදී දළ ජාතික නිෂ්පාදනය ලෙස එකතු කිරීම වෙනුවට භූතානයේ භාවිතා කරණ මිනිස් සතුට මිණුම් දණ්ඩක් ලෙස ලංකාවේ යොදා ගන්නා දිනයක්, බටහිර කෘෂිකර්මය වෙනුවට අපේ අනාදිමත් ගොවිතැන කරලියට එන අවධියක් උන්වහන්සේ අපේක්ෂා කරන්නේය. රටේ ආර්ථික, සාමාජීය හා දෙමළ බෙදුම්වාදයට විසඳුමක් වශයෙන් මෙම ග්රාම රාජ්ය සංකල්පය යෝජනා කරමින් 2010 දී උගත් පාඩම් හා සංහිඳියා කොමිෂම ඉදිරියේදීත්, ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා හමුවී දෙවරකත් කරුණු (සංදේශ) ඉදිරිපත් කලත්, ඒ වෙනුවට රටට ලැබුනේ දිවි නැඟුම නම් වැඩ සටහනය. උපදේශකයින් හීතල හොරුන්ය.
ඉඳුරාගාරේ හාමුදුරුවන් මූලිකව නිර්මාණය කල ධර්මපාල පරපුර යන සංවිධාන ජාලාවත්, කලකට පෙර ලංකාවේ හැම බෞද්ධයෙක්ම නිල නොලත් පොලිස් නිලධාරියෙක් ලෙස සිතා ක්රියාකලයුතුය යන බොදු බල සේනාවේ ඥානසාර හිමියන්ගේ අදහසත් මෙම ග්රාම රාජ්ය සංකල්පය ඉදිරියට ගෙන යෑමේදී ඉතාමත් වැදගත්ය. ගමින් ගමට මේ අදහස පැහැදිලිකරදීම ගෝඨාභය මහතාගේ ජන මූල සභා අදහස වඩා අර්ථවත් කරණු නිසැකය. මධ්යම-පර්යන්ත බලය බෙදීමක් වශයෙන්, යහපාලන සුමන්තිරන්-ලාල් විජේනායක-(හා දැන් රටින් පැනගොස් සිටින රසායන විද්යා විභාගය වංචාකර අසුවූ) ජයම්පති වික්රමරත්න, විසින් තුන්වන පාලන තට්ටුවක් ලෙස නම්කර රටබෙදීමේ ප්ලෑන ඒ මඟින් සඟවන්නට සැදූවේය. රටවැසියා බිම් මට්ටමින් බලගන්වන මෙම ග්රාම රාජ්ය සංකල්පය පශ්චාත් කොරෝනා ලංකාවේ ගැලවුම්කාරයා වශයෙන් දියුණුකර ගැනීම අප සැමගේ අරමුණ වියයුතුය. මේ නිසා චපා බණ්ඩාර විසින් මධ්යම රජය විනාශ කිරීමේ කුමණ්ත්රනයක් ලෙස සළකන යහපාලන-ද්රවිඩ සංවිධානයේ තුන්වන ස්ථර ප්ලෑන, පලාත් සභා හා ප්රාදේශීය සභා වෙනුවට යෝජිත ග්රාම රාජ්ය සංකල්පය සමඟ පටලවා ගත යුතු නැත.
ඊට අමතරව මිලේනියම් චැලේජ් ඇමෙරිකන් ට්රෝජන් අශ්වයා ගෙන්ද මෙම ග්රාම රාජ්ය ක්රමය වෙන්කර ගතයුතුය. මිලින්ද මොරගොඩගේ පාත් ෆයින්ඩර් ඩොලර් සංවිධානය හා සම්බන්ධ පුද්ගලයින් ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභයගේ ලඟ උපදේශකයින්ව සිටිනවාය යන චාපා බණ්ඩාරගේ කරුණු දැක්වීමද මෙහිදී අමතක නොකල යුතුය. මෙම ඇමෙරිකන් ලණුවට මිලින්ද මොරගොඩ හරහා ගෝඨාභය පාලනය අසු නොවේය යනු කළු සුද්දන් නොවන හැම දෙනාගේම පැතුමය. මිලින්ද මොරගොඩ රටේ පවතින ආර්ථික අර්බුදය ගැන දක්වන සංඛ්යාලේඛන හා නිගමන (උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් ඉතා විශාල රාජ්ය සේවක පිරිසක්) නිවැරදි වුවත්, ඒවා නිවැරදි කල හැක්කේ ලෝක බැංකු පාරේ යමින් නොව, ලංකාවේ භූගෝල විද්යාවට අනුකූල පාරේ යමිනි. පාත් ෆයින්ඩර්වත්, ලෝක බැංකුවවත්, සුළු ජන වර්ගවල මානව අයිතිවාසිකම් රැකීමටය යන කඩතුරාවෙන් වසාගෙන ගේන යෝජනා හරහා, රටවල් කඩා දුර්වල කරන බටහිර-ඇමෙරිකන් මහාචාර්යවරුන්වත්, ඉන්දියාවේ පංචයාත්, ලංකාවේ ගම් සභාව ගැන වත් සඳහන් නොකරන්නේ ඇයි? ගම-වැව-දාගැබ යන ත්රිත්වය (සමාජ-ආර්ථික-දේශපාලන මොඩලය) මිලින්ද මොරගොඩ විසින් අධ්යයනය කලයුතුව ඇත.
බුද්ධාගම-නීතිය-භූගෝල විද්යාව
ඇමෙරිකාවේ හැදුන වැඩුන මිලින්ද මොරගොඩ නමැති භූමිකාවට, ගෝඨාභය කිරිකලයට ගොම බිංදුවක් දැමීමේ අවදානම ඉදිරියේ රටේ හාමුදුරුවරුන් විසින් දැන් ඉදිරියට ගෙනෙමින් සිටින ග්රාම රාජ්ය පාලන ක්රමය, බටහිරට-යුරෝපයට ගැති අය විසින් හෙලා දකින්නට සදන්නේ ඔවුන්ගේ නොදන්නා කමටමය. බලතල බෙදීමේ න්යාය ඔවුන් විසින් පිටපොට පටලවා ගත් අන්දම මීට පෙර කොටසක පෙන්වා දී ඇත. මොන්ටෙස්කිගේනියම අදහස ග්රාම රාජ්ය සංකල්පය වන්නේ ඉන් විශාල ඒකක සංඛ්යාවකට රාජ්ය බලය බෙදී යන නිසාය (කාර්යක්ෂම මධ්යම ආණ්ඩුවක් සහිතව). රූල් ඔෆ් ලෝ, පාර්ලිමේන්තු ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදී කතා බෞද්ධ සමාජයේ තිබූ බව ලෝඩ් ෂෙට්ලන්ඩ් 1931 දී පෙන්වා දුන්නේය.
මින් ඉදිරියට ගොස් බුද්ධාගම, නීතිය හා භූගෝල විද්යාව, ග්රාම රාජ්ය සංකල්පය තුලින් එක්වන බව අප වටහා ගතයුතුවා පමණක් නොව, ඒ බව හාමුදුරුවරුන් විසින් මිලින්ද මොරගොඩලාගේ තින්ක් ටෑන්ක් වලට දැණුම් දිය යුතුය. බුද්ධාගමේ මූලික දර්ශනයක් වන මධ්යම ප්රතිපදාව, නූතන නීති විද්යාවේ (ජුරිස්ප්රැඩන්ස්) රීසනබල්නස් ඩොක්ට්රින් සහ භූගෝල විද්යාවේ පදනම වන, පොලෝ තලයේ විවිධත්වය යන සංසිද්ධීන් තුන, ප්ලේස් (පෙදෙස/ප්රදේශය/ස්ථානය[ජන සභාව]) නමැති සංකල්පයේ ත්රිකෝණ පැතිය. සෑම නීතියකම මායිම වන්නේ එම නීතිය හා එය කැඩූවිට දෙන දඬුවම රීසනබල්ද (සාධාරණද) යන්නය. නීතියේ ආධිපත්යය හා කැළෑ නීතිය අතර වෙනස එයය. ගාන්ධි විසින්, මාටින් ලූතර් කිං විසින්, නීති කැඩුවේ මේ අනුවය. අනිත් අතට යමක් රීසනබල්ද යන්න එම ප්රදේශයේ භෞතික, සාමාජික සාධක අනුව තීරණයවේ. සව්දි අරාබියේ ගල් ගසා මැරීමත්, හොරකමට අත කැපීමත්, සිංගප්පූරූවේ මත්ද්රව්ය ලඟ තබා ගැනීමට දරුණු දඩුවම් දෙන්නේත්, කොරියාවේ, වියට්නාමයේ බලු මස් කන්නේත්, ලංකාවේ මුස්ලිම් මිනිසුන්ට ගෑණු පහක් තියාගත හැක්කේත් ඒ ඒ රටේ සමාජීය/මානව භූගෝල විද්යා සාධක අනුවය. මධ්යම ප්රතිපදාව කියන්නේ කම්ප්රොමයිස් යනුය. යම් අන්තවාදයකට නොයෑමය. ලංකාවේ අද සුළු ජනවර්ග තම තමන්ගේ ඇදහීම් කරගෙන යන්නේ (මුන්නේශ්වරම් සතුන්ගේ බිලි පූජා, ඉස්ලාම් හලාල්, ශාරියා බැංකු, යාපනේ තේසවලම් නීතිය) බුදු දහමේ ඇති මේ ගුණාංගය නිසාය. ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය යනුද එවැනි අනොන්ය ඉවසීමකි. සහජීවනය කියන්නේ ජාතික ගීය දකුණේ භාෂා දෙකෙන්ම ගයන විට උතුරේ එය දෙමළෙන් පමණක් ගැයීම නොවේ. මෙය මධ්යම ප්රතිපදාවක් නැතිකමය.
පොලොව තලයේ විවිධත්වය, ස්වභාවික පරිසරය හා මිනිසා අතර ඇතිවන සම්බන්ධතාවයේ මතුපිට දර්ශනය (ලෑන්ඩ්ස්කේප්) නීතිවල ප්රතිඵලය. උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් කඳුකරයේ තේවතු ජාලය, ඊට සම්බන්ධ ප්රවාහන ජාලය, ඉන්දියන් ලැයින්, මිරිකී ගිය ගම්මානවල ජනයා වියලි කලාපයේ ගොවි ජනපදවලට ගෙනයාම, පාංශු ඛාදනය, නායයාම් පෙන්වා දිය හැකිය. සෑම මිනිසෙක්ම තවත් වෙනත් මිනිසෙකුගෙන් වෙනස්ය යන බෞද්ධ න්යාය, සෑම මිනිසෙකුගේම ගැලවීම ඇත්තේ ඔහුගේ/ඇගේ හැසිරීම, ක්රියාකලාපය උඩය යන අදහස අනුව බලනවිට, නීතිය, යමෙකු මවකගේ ගර්භාෂය තුල පිළිසිඳ ගැනීමට පෙර (මව සිගරැට් බීම නිසා දරුවාට වන හානිය ගැන සිගරැට් කොම්පැණියෙන් වන්දි ලබා ගැනීම) සිට ඔහු/ඇය මියගිය පසු (අන්තිම කැමති පත්රය) දක්වාම පුද්ගලයා හසුරවන්නේය! අනෙක් අතට එය නිදන කාමරයේ සිට කොම්පැනි බෝඩ් රූම් දක්වා ස්ථානවලට අතපොවන්නේය.
රටක ඉතිහාසය කියන්නේ ඒ රටේ අතීත භූගෝල විද්යව හෙවත් ලෑන්ඩ්ස්කේප් ය. වෙනත් වචනවලින් කියනවා නම් පොලෝතලය මත සිදුවන ක්රියාවලීන් (ප්රොසෙසස්) නිසා එක් එක් රටාවන් (පැටර්න්ස්) හටගනී. යම් ග්රාම සේවා වසමක්, ප්රාදේශීය ලේකම් කොට්ඨාශයක් වශයෙන් මෙම රටා වෙනස් වියහැකිය. එහෙත් වැදගත් කරුණ නම් කෘතිම මායිම් වෙනුවට පරිසර විද්යාවට අනුකූල වන සේ මෙම පරිපාලන ඒකක වල මායිම් හඳුනා ගැනීමය. තිරසර සංවර්ධනය නියම ලෙසම අර්ථවත් වන්නේ එවිටය. ඇමෙරිකාවේ සිට නිව්සීලන්තය දක්වා ලොකු කුඩා බොහෝ රටවල දේශපාලන ඒකක ජල විද්යාවට (හයිඩ්රොලොජි) අනුව මායිම් කර ඇත. ලංකාවේ අනාදිමත් ත්රිත්වය, ගම-වැව-දාගැබ යනු ජලවිද්යා ඒකකයකි! කොරෝනාවත් සමඟ රටවල් ගස් වලට, ගංඟා වලට, පුද්ගලයින්ට මෙන් නීතිමය අයිතිවාසිකම් දීමට ක්රියාකරමින් සිටී. ඉක්වඩෝර් එක් උදාහරණයකි.
ගෝලීය වශයෙන් හිතන්න, ගම් මට්ටමින් ක්රියාකරන්න යන අවවාදය, කර්ක්පැට්රික් සේල්ගේ හියුමන් ස්කේල් සංකල්පය හා එකඟය. සියළු දේශපාලන කටයුතු අන්තිමේදී බලනවිට ලෝකල් හෙවත් ගම් මට්ටමේය. ජේවීපී අය 1971, 1988/9 කාලයේදී සිතුවා මෙන් දේශපාලන බලය එන්නේ තුවක්කු බඳෙන් නොව ග්රාම රාජ්ය සංකල්පය තුලින්ය. ඊජිප්තුවේ පිරමිඩ් හා ලංකාවේ යෝධ දාගැබ් අතර වෙනස අපේ රජවරු ශ්රමය සූරාගත් වහල් හිමියන් නොවූ බව වන්දනාවේ යන අයගේ යටිහිතේ කිමිදී තිබීමය. ඊජිප්තුවේ සංචාරයේ යන අයට එවන් මානසික සහනයක් නැත. 1978 ට කලින් ලංකාවේ පැවති ලෝකල් දේශපාලනය දිස්ත්රික් මනාප බලු පොරයක් මඟින් විනාශ කර, මුළු රටමත් විනාශ මුඛයට හසු විය.
මෙම ලිපි කාණ්ඩයේ අවසාන ලිපිය, ලී ක්වාන්ලා ගැන නොසිතා, හිට්ලර් කතා නොකියා, ලංකාවේ දැන් ඇති නාස්ලණුවාදය (බොරු ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය), බෞද්ධ ප්රතිපත්ති අනුව සංශොධනය කලහැකි ආකාරය සළකා බලයි. දශරාජ ධර්මය හෝ මල නොතලා රොන් ගැනීම වැනි තර්ක නොව, විනය ගරුක සමාජයක් ගොඩනැගීම හරහා මෙම ශල්යකර්මය සිදුකිරීමට ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභයට මහජනයා බලය පවරා දී තිබේ.
As there is a long list of countries that used Martial Law for various reasons given below are details relating to a few countries to present a broad idea about this Law.
Australia
The Black War was a period of violent conflict between British colonists and Aboriginal Australians in Tasmania from the mid-1820s to 1832. With an escalation of violence in the late 1820s, Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur declared martial law in November 1828—effectively providing legal immunity for killing Aboriginal people. It remained in force for more than three years, the longest period of martial law in Australian history.
Canada
Canada is a country that widely used these laws on many occasions. The War Measures Act was a Parliament of Canada statute that allowed the government to assume sweeping emergency powers, stopping short of martial law, i.e., the military did not administer justice, which remained in the hands of the courts. The act was invoked three times: During World War I, World War II, and the October Crisis of 1970.
During the colonial era, martial law was proclaimed and applied in the territory of the Province of Quebec during the invasion of Canada by the army of the American Continental Congress in 1775–1776 and twice in the territory of Lower Canada during the 1837–1838 insurrections. On December 5, martial law was proclaimed in the district of Montreal by Governor Gosford, without the support of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada. It was imposed until April 27, 1838. Martial law was proclaimed a second time on November 4, 1838.
EGYPT
Egypt was under Martial or Emergency Laws continuously since the death of President Gamal Abdel Nasser, a great friend of Sri Lanka who thwarted American and European moves to impose fuel sanctions on Sri Lanka in the 1960s.
State of Emergency had been in effect in Egypt since 1967. Following the assassination of President Anwar el-Sadat in 1981, a state of emergency was declared. Egypt had been under a state of emergency ever since; the Parliament had renewed the emergency laws every three years since they were imposed. In May 2010, the state of emergency was further extended, albeit with a promise from the government to be applied only to ‘Terrorism and Drugs’ suspects. A State of Emergency in that country gives military courts the power to try civilians and allows the government to detain for renewable 45-day periods and without court orders anyone deemed to be threatening state security. Public demonstrations are banned under the legislation.
On 10 February 2011, the ex-president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, promised the deletion of the relevant constitutional article that gives legitimacy to the State of Emergency in an attempt to please the mass number of protesters that demanded him to resign. On 11 February 2011, the president stepped down and the vice president Omar Suleiman de facto introduced the country to martial law when transferring all civilian powers from the presidential institution to the military institution. It meant that the presidential executive powers, the parliamentary legislative powers and the judicial powers all transferred directly into the military system which may delegate powers back and forth to any civilian institution within its territory.
The military issued in its third announcement the “end of the State of Emergency as soon as the order is restored in Egypt”. Before martial law, the Egyptian parliament under the constitution had the civilian power to declare the State of Emergency. When in martial law, the military gained all powers of the state, including to dissolve the parliament and suspend the constitution as it did in its fifth announcement. Under martial law, the only legal framework within the Egyptian territory is the numbered announcements from the military. These announcements could for instance order any civilian laws to come back into force. The military announcements (communiques) are the de facto only current constitution and legal framework for the Egyptian territory. It means that all affairs of the state are bound by the Geneva Conventions.
On September 7, 1978, in response to public demonstrations protesting the perceived government involvement in the death of the son of Ayatollah Khomeini, Mostafa Khomeini, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi appointed Chief of Army Staff General Gholam Ali Oveisi as the military governor of the capital city of Tehran. On September 8, the government declared martial law on the capital along with several other cities throughout the country, after which further protests erupted that lead to the army opening fire on a group of protesters in Tehran’s Jaleh Square on the same day which is referred to as Black Friday. Unable to control the unrest, the Shah dissolved the civil government headed by Prime Minister Jafar Sharif-Emami on November 6 and appointed General Gholam Reza Azhari as the prime minister who ultimately failed in his efforts to restore order to the country. As he was preparing to leave the country, the Shah dissolved the military government and appointed ShapourBakhtiar, a reformist critic of his rule, as the new prime minister on January 4, 1979. Bakhtiar’s government fell on February 11 and gave rise to the Islamic Republic and the creation of a new constitution.
Article 79 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran forbids the proclamation of martial law without the approval of the Islamic Consultative Assembly.
As of 2013, Israel had been condemned in 45 resolutions by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Since the creation of the Council in 2006, it has resolved almost more resolutions condemning Israel than on the rest of the world combined. The 45 resolutions comprised almost half (45.9%) of all country-specific resolutions passed by the Council, not counting those under Agenda Item 10 (countries requiring technical assistance).[1] From 1967 to 1989 the UN Security Council adopted 131 resolutions directly addressing the Arab–Israeli conflict.
The military administrative government was in Israel in effect from 1949 to 1966 over some geographical areas of Israel having large Arab populations, primarily the Negev, Galilee, and the Triangle. The residents of these areas were subject to martial law. The Israeli army enforced strict residency rules. Any Arab not registered in a census taken during November 1948 was deported. Permits from the military governor had to be procured to travel more than a given distance from a person’s registered place of residence, and curfew, administrative detentions, and expulsions were common. Although the military administration was officially for geographical areas, and not people, its restrictions were seldom enforced on the Jewish residents of these areas. In the 1950s, martial law ceased to be in effect for those Arab citizens living in predominantly Jewish cities but remained in place in all Arab localities within Israel until 1966.
Following the 1967 war, in which the Israeli army occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights in Syria, and the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, martial law over the Palestinian population as well as the Jordanian, Syrian, and Egyptian populations in these areas was put in place. In 1993, Israel agreed to give autonomy to the people of Gaza and disengaged militarily from Gaza from 2005 until 2007, when a military blockade was put in place on Gaza in response to the election of Hamas to the local government.
During the 2006 Lebanon war, martial law was declared by Defense Minister Amir Peretz over the north of the country. The Israel Defense Forces were granted the authority to issue instructions to civilians and to close down offices, schools, camps, and factories in cities considered under threat of attack, as well as to impose curfews on cities in the North.
Instructions of the Home Front Command are obligatory under martial law, rather than merely recommended The order signed by Peretz was in effect for 48 hours and was extended by the Cabinet and the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee over the war’s duration.[
Martial law was declared in Pakistan on 7 October 1958, by President IskanderMirza who then appointed General Muhammad Ayub Khan as the Chief Martial Law Administrator and Aziz Ahmad as Secretary-General and Deputy Chief Martial Law Administrator. However, three weeks later General Ayub—who had been openly questioning the authority of the government before the imposition of martial law—deposed IskandarMirza on 27 October 1958 and assumed the presidency that practically formalized the militarization of the political system in Pakistan. Four years later a new document, Constitution of 1962, was adopted. The second martial law was imposed on 25 March 1969, when President Ayub Khan abrogated the Constitution of 1962 and handed over power to the Army Commander-in-Chief, General Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan. On assuming the presidency, General Yahya Khan acceded to popular demands by abolishing the one-unit system in West Pakistan and ordered general elections on the principle of one man one vote.
The third was imposed by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the first civilian to hold this post in Pakistan after the Bangladesh Liberation War. On 21 December 1971, Bhutto took this post as well as that of President.[
The fourth was imposed by General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq on 5 July 1977. After several tumultuous years, which witnessed the secession of East Pakistan, politician Zulfikar Ali Bhutto took over in 1971 as the first civilian martial law administrator in recent history, imposing selective martial law in areas hostile to his rule, such as the country’s largest province, Balochistan. Following widespread civil disorder, General Zia overthrew Bhutto and imposed martial law in its totality on July 5, 1977, in a bloodless coup d’état. Unstable areas were brought under control through indirect military action, such as Balochistan under Martial Law Governor, General Rahimuddin Khan. The civilian government resumed in 1988 following General Zia’s death in an aircraft crash.
On October 12, 1999, the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was dissolved, and the Army took control once more. But no martial law was imposed. General Pervez Musharraf took the title of Chief Executive until the President of Pakistan RafiqTarar resigned and General Musharraf became president. Elections were held in October 2002 and Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali became Prime Minister of Pakistan. Jamali premiership was followed by Chaudhry ShujaatHussain and Shaukat Aziz. While the government was supposed to be run by the elected prime minister, there was a common understanding that important decisions were made by President General Musharraf.
On November 3, 2007, President General Musharraf declared the state of emergency in the country which is claimed to be equivalent to the state of martial law as the constitution of Pakistan of 1973 was suspended, and the Chief Justices of the Supreme Court were fired.
On November 12, 2007, Musharraf issued some amendments in the Military Act, which gave the armed forces some additional powers.
During the Second World War, President José P. Laurel placed the Philippines (then a client state of Imperial Japan) under martial law via Proclamation № 29, dated 21 September 1944 and enforced Proclamation № 30 declaring the existence of a state of war between the Philippines and the United States and the United Kingdom, effective 10:00 that day.
The country was under martial law again from 1972 to 1981 under President Ferdinand Marcos. Proclamation № 1081 (“Proclaiming a State of Martial Law in the Philippines”) was signed on 21 September 1972 and came into force on 22 September. The official reason behind the declaration was to suppress increasing civil strife and the threat of a communist takeover, particularly after a series of bombings (including the Plaza Miranda bombing) and an assassination attempt on Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile in Mandaluyong.
The policy of martial law was initially well-received, but it eventually proved unpopular as the military’s human rights abuses (e.g. use of torture in intelligence gathering, forced disappearances), along with the decadence and excess of the Marcos family and their allies, had emerged. Coupled with economic downturns, these factors fermented dissent in various sectors (e.g. the urban middle class) that crystallized with the assassination of jailed oppositionist senator Benigno Aquino, Jr. in 1983, and widespread fraud in the 1986 snap elections. These eventually led to the 1986 People Power Revolution that ousted Marcos and forced him into exile in Hawaii where he died in 1989; his rival presidential candidate and Aquino’s widow, Corazon, was installed as his successor.
During this 9-year period, curfews were implemented as a safety measure. The majority of radio and television networks were suspended. Journalists who were accused of speaking against the government were taken as political prisoners, some of them being physically abused and tortured by the authorities.
Others have stated that the implementation of Martial Law was taken advantage of by the Marcos regime. Billion pesos worth of property and ill-gotten wealth was said to be acquired by Marcos’ consort, First Lady Imelda Marcos. This alleged money laundering issue was brought back recently, particularly in the Pilipinas Debates 2016 for the recently held Philippine Presidential Elections on May 9, 2016. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr., Marcos’ son, ran for the Vice Presidency and lost.
There were rumours that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was planning to impose martial law to end military coup d’etat plots, general civilian dissatisfaction, and criticism of her legitimacy arising from the dubious results of the 2004 presidential elections. Instead, a State of National Emergency was imposed in 2006 from 24 February to 3 March, in order to quash a coup attempt and quell protesters.
On 4 December 2009, President Arroyo officially placed the Province of Maguindanao under a state of martial law through Proclamation № 1959.[18] As with the last imposition, the declaration suspended the writ of habeas corpus in the province.[19] The announcement came days after hundreds of government troops were sent to the province to raid the armories of the powerful Ampatuan clan. The Ampatuans were implicated in the massacre of 58 persons, including women from the rival Mangudadatu clan, human rights lawyers, and 31 media workers. Cited as one of the bloodiest incidents of political violence in Philippine history, the massacre was condemned worldwide as the worst loss of life of media professionals in one day.[18]
On 23 May 2017, President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law throughout the main southern island of Mindanao, through Proclamation No. 216, due to the attack of Maute Group in Marawi City, Lanao del Sur. It was announced in a briefing in Moscow by Secretary Ernesto Abella,[20] and will be in effect until December 2019.
In October 1946, the United States Army Military Government in Korea declared martial law as a result of the Daegu Riot. On November 17, 1948, President Syngman Rhee regime proclaimed martial law in order to quell the Jeju Uprising On April 19, 1960, Syngman Rhee government proclaimed martial law in order to suppress the April Revolution.
There are no provisions for martial law as such in Switzerland. Under the Army Law of 1995the Army can be called upon by cantonal (state) authorities for assistance (Assistenzdienst). This regularly happens in the case of natural disasters or special protection requirements (e.g., for the World Economic Forum in Davos). This assistance generally requires parliamentary authorization, though, and takes place in the regular legal framework and under the civilian leadership of the cantonal authorities. On the other hand, the federal authorities are authorized to use the Army to enforce law and order when the Cantons no longer can or want to do so (Ordnungsdienst). With this came many significant points of reference. This power largely fell into disuse after World War II.
The martial law regime between the 1963 Syrian coup d’état and 2011 is the longest ranging period of active martial law.
Martial law in Thailand derives statutory authority from the Act promulgated by King Vajiravudh following the abortive Palace Revolt of 1912, entitled “Martial Law, B.E. 2457 (1914)”. Many coups have been attempted or succeeded since then, but the Act governing martial law, amended in 1942, 1944, 1959 and 1972, has remained essentially the same. In January 2004, the Prime Minister of Thailand, ThaksinShinawatra, declared a state of martial law in the provinces of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat in response to the growing South Thailand insurgency. On September 19, 2006, Thailand’s army declared martial law following a bloodless military coup in the Thai capital of Bangkok, declared while Prime Minister Shinawatra was in New York City to address the United Nations, General Assembly. General SonthiBoonyaratglin took the control of the government, and soon after handed the premiership to ex-Army Chief General Surayud. Sonthi himself as Chief of the Administrative Reform Council. At 3 am, on May 20, 2014, following seven months of civil and political unrest, Army Commander-in-Chief Gen. Prayut Chan-ocha, declared martial law nationwide.
Since the foundation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923 the military conducted three coups d’état and announced martial law. Martial law between 1978 and 1983 was replaced by a State of emergency in a limited number of provinces that lasted until November 2002. On July 15, 2016 a section of the military in Turkey attempted a coup(failed) and said to have implied martial law in a broadcast on their national television TRT.
The United States which claims to be the champion of Democracy, fair play, human rights and a prism of equality had been under Martial Law, partially confined to some areas or fully many times in its history. In the United States martial law has been declared for a state or other locality under various circumstances including after a direct foreign attack (Hawaii after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, New Orleans during the Battle of New Orleans), after a major disaster (Chicago after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, San Francisco after the earthquake of 1906), and in response to chaos associated with protests and mob action (San Francisco during the 1934 West Coast waterfront strike, Montgomery, Alabama following the mob actions against the Freedom Riders). It has also been declared by renegade local leaders seeking to avoid arrest or challenges to their authority (Nauvoo, Illinois by Joseph Smith during the Illinois Mormon War and Utah by Governor Brigham Young during the Utah War).
The martial law concept in the United States is closely tied with the right of habeas corpus, which is, in essence, the right to a hearing on lawful imprisonment, or more broadly, the supervision of law enforcement by the judiciary. The ability to suspend habeas corpus is related to the imposition of martial law. Article 1, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution states, “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.” There have been many instances of the use of the military within the borders of the United States, such as during the Whiskey Rebellion and in the South during the Civil Rights Movement, but these acts are not tantamount to a declaration of martial law. The distinction must be made as clear as that between martial law and military justice: deployment of troops does not necessarily mean that the civil courts cannot function, and that is one of the keys, as the Supreme Court has noted, to martial law.
In United States law, martial law is limited by several court decisions handed down between the American Civil War and World War II. In 1878, Congress passed the Posse Comitatus Act, which forbids U.S. military involvement in domestic law enforcement without congressional approval.
The above details related to the proclamation of Martial Law justifies our need to proclaim this law at the earliest and save the country and the people now itself. Already due to the visionary steps taken by the President appropriate security personnel have been assigned duties at many important places and only an official proclamation is needed to let the caravan move in the right direction. At the same time, stern action should be taken against curfew violators and there is a possibility that these people are deliberately doing it to under an organized plan to challenge the authority of the government since the number of these violators has exceeded over 12,000 by now. In Russia, although Corona threat is at a minimum level in that country compared to western European nations and America, President Vladimir Putin has declared that anyone who acts in a manner to spread the virus threat will be jailed for 7 years. We too need such measures, Mr. President.
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ගරු
අග විනිසුරු ජයන්ත ජයසූරිය මැතිතුමා, සභාපති, අධිකරණ සේවා කොමිෂන් සභාව, කොළඹ. (අධිකරණ සේවා කොමිෂන් සභාවේ ගරු ලේකම් තුමාගේ මාර්ගයෙන්) 2020/04/17 ගරු මැතිතුමනි, පාස්කු ඉරිදා සිදුවූ ත්රස්ථ ප්රහාරයන් සම්බන්ධ සැකකරුවෙකුගේ නීතීඥභාවය අත්හිටුවීම පිළිබද ඉල්ලීමකි. නීතීඥ හිජාස් හිස්බුල්ලා මහතා 2019 අප්රේල් මස 21වන පාස්කු ඉරුදින සිදු කරන ලද ත්රස්ථ ප්රහාරය සම්බන්ධයෙන් සැකපිට අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවෙහි අත්අඩංගුවට පත්ව ඇති බව මේ වන විට අප සියලු දෙනාම දැනුවත් කරුණකි. මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් පොලිස් දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව 2020 අප්රේල් මස 15වන දින කරුණු පැහැදිලි කරමින් සඳහන් කර සිටියේ එම නීතීඥවරයා මරාගෙන මැරෙන බෝම්බකරුවන් දෙදෙනෙකු සමග සබඳතා පැවැත් වූ බවටත්, බෝම්බකරුවන් සමග විවිධ සංවිධානවල නිළතල දරා ඇති බවත් එපමණක් නොව පාස්කු ඉරුදින සිය ගණනක් වන අහිංසක ජනතාව සමූල ඝාතනය කරනු ලැබූ ම්ලේච්ඡ ත්රස්ථ ප්රහාරයෙහි සැලසුම් ක්රියාවලියට පවා දායක වී ඇති බවටත් කරුණු අනාවරණය වී ඇති බවයි. ගරු අග විනිසුරුතුමනි, යමෙක් අධිකරණයක් මගින් වරදකරුවෙකු කරනු ලබන තෙක් එකී තැනැත්තාගේ නිර්දෝෂීභාවය පිළිබදව පූර්ව නිගමනයක් ඇති බව අප දනිමු. නමුත් මෙම නීතිඥවරයාට එරෙහිව එල්ල වී ඇති චෝදනාවන්ගේ බරපතළ භාවය හමුවේ විමර්ෂණ නිලධාරීන් ඔහුගේ නිර්දෝශී භාවය තහවුරු කරන තෙක් හෝ අධිකරණයක් ඉදිරියෙහි ඔහුගේ නිරවද්යභාවය ඔප්පු කරන තෙක් හෝ මෙම නීතීඥවරයාට නීතීඥ වෘත්තියෙහි නියැලීමට ඉඩකඩ සැලැසීම භයානක ප්රතිඵල ගෙන දිය හැකි කරුණක් බව අප විශ්වාස කරමු. විශේෂයෙන්ම ආගමික මුලධර්මයකින් ආරම්භ වූ ත්රස්ත කණ්ඩායමක් විසින් එල්ලකළ මරාගෙන මැරෙන ප්රහාරයක් සම්බන්ධයෙන් සැකපිට අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන ඇති තත්වයක් යටතේ මෙම පුද්ගලයාට අධිකරණ පද්ධතියට ඇතුළත් වීමට ඉඩකඩ සැලැසීම විනිශ්චයකාරවරුන් ඇතුළු අධිකරණ නිලධාරීන්ගේ මෙන්ම නීතීඥවරුන් හා සාමාන්ය ජනතාවගේ ද ජීවිත අනතුරෙහි හෙළිමක් බව අප තරයේ විශ්වාස කරමු. විශේෂයෙන්ම ඉස්ලාම් අන්තවාදීන් විසින් ෂරියා නීති පද්ධති ක්රියාත්මක කිරීම සදහා ඇති බාධකයක් වශයෙන් සාමාන්ය නීතින් ක්රියාත්මක කරනු ලබන අධිකරණ පද්ධති සළකන බව ද ඔබතුමන්ගේ අවධානයට යොමු කරමු. මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් එක් පූර්ව නිදර්ශනයක් වශයෙන් 2005 වසරේ ජමාත් උල් මුජහිදීන් සංවිධානය විසින් බංගලාදේශ ජනරජයේ අධිකරණ පද්ධතියට එල්ල කරන ලද මරාගෙන මැරෙන ත්රස්ථ ප්රහාර මාලාව පිළිබදව ද සිහිපත් කරමු. තවද මෙවන් තැනැත්තෙකු හට ඔහුගේ නිර්දෝෂීභාවය තහවුරු වන තෙක් නීතීඥ වෘත්තියෙහි නියැලීමට ඉඩකඩ සැලසුනහොත් අධිකරණ පද්ධතිය කෙරෙහි පවත්නා ජනතා විශ්වාසය බිද වැටීමකට ලක්වනු ඇති බව ද ගරු මැතිතුමන්ට සිහිපත් කර සිටිමු. ගරු අගවිනිසුරුතුමනි, මෙකී කරුණු සියල්ලම සළකා බලා නීතීඥ හිජාස් හිස්බුල්ලා මහතාගේ නීතීඥභාවය විමර්ෂණ නිලධාරීන් ඔහුගේ නිර්දෝශී භාවය තහවුරු කරන තෙක් හෝ අධිකරණයක් ඉදිරියෙහි ඔහුගේ නිරවද්යභාවය ඔප්පු කරන තෙක් හෝ අත්හිටුවීමට පියවර ගන්නා මෙන් ගෞරවයෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිමු. ස්තූතියි, මෙයට විශ්වාසී, රාජකීය පණ්ඩිත පූජ්ය ගලගොඩඅත්තේ ඥානසාර හිමි, මහ ලේකම් – බොදු බල සේනා පිටපත් – අතිගරු ජනාධිපතිතුමා, අධිකරණ සේවා කොමිෂන් සභාවේ ගරු ලේකම් තුමා, අධිකරණ අමාත්යවරයා, Email: info@bodubalasena.org Web: www.bodubalasena.org Hot Line: 076 6880030 011 866090 Office: No 615, Nawala Road, Rajagiriya. |
Mr Ahmed Shaheed, ‘Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief’ had recently addressed a letter to the President of Sri Lanka adverting to the Government including the SL Health authorities’ decision to bury COVID 9 victims and freedom of religion and the rights of minorities. We have had the experience of many a UN Rapporteur attempting to pontificate to Sri Lankan government on how to manage the armed forces, how to compensate missing persons and how to run our judiciary et. These attempts are too many to mention and Sri Lanka had begun to treat such intimidating lectures with a pinch of salt.
It is on record that Mr. Ahamed Shaheed attempted to intervene irresponsibly sometime ago too when he warned Sri Lanka’s counteraction after the Eastern carnage violated the freedom of religion. Sri Lankan government rejected his position at the UN by stating that ..” the Government rejects the inaccurate references in the Special Rapporteur’s report to serious concerns” regarding Sri Lankan security forces colluding with mobs and not acting to prevent or stop the violence”; the lack of response from the authorities against this violence”; and the claims that acts of violence are indulged by the silence and inaction from the authorities”. It is regrettable that these inaccurate accounts have been included in the report, even after they have been fully rebutted and explained by the Government soon after the alleged incidents,”
The Sri Lankan delegation also said that it was regrettable that the report has sought to portray instances where criminal investigations have been conducted to prevent acts of terrorism in accordance with the law, as an endeavor to violate the freedom of religion or belief.”
When faced with a very serious issue such as COVID 9 which is receiving the attention of the whole world and Sri Lanka is engaging all its resources to control the pandemic, it is indeed unfortunate again to listen to such misguided pontifications made on behalf of narrow sectarian interests or the NGO WING, thus vitiating the bigger picture.
RANJITH SOYSA
ශ්රී ලංකාවේ පැතිර පවතින කොරෝනා වසංගත තත්වය මර්දනය කිරීම සදහා වෛද්ය ආධාර තොගයක් රැගෙන චීනයේ සිට ගුවන් යානයක් අද (17) රාත්රී කටුනායක ගුවන් තොටුපළ වෙත පැමිණ තිබේ.
අද දින රාත්රී 7.00 ට චීනයේ ෂැංහයි සිට චයිනා ඊස්ටන් ගුවන් සේවයේ එම්.යූ.- 231 දරන ගුවන් යානය එසේ වෛද්ය ආධාර තොගය රැගෙන කටුනායක ගුවන් තොටුපළ වෙත පැමිණ තිබේ.
කොරෝනා වෛරසය සමාජය තුළ ව්යාප්ත වීම කාලයේදී වාර්තා වූයේ ඉතාම අවම වශයෙන් යයි සෞඛ්ය ඇමැතිනී පවිත්රා වන්නි ආරච්චි මහත්මිය සඳහන් කරයි.
අති බහුතරයක් රෝගීන් වාර්තා වූයේ නිරෝදායන ක්රියාවලිය තුලින් යැයි ද ඇය පෙන්වා දෙයි.
සමාජය තුළ රසය ව්යාප්ත වීම නැත්තටම නැති තරමටම පත්වී ඇති නිසා රට ප්රකෘති තත්වයට පත් කිරීම ගැන සිතා බැලීමට කාලය පැමිණ ඇතැයි ද ඇය පැවසුවාය.
ඇඳිරිනීතිය දිගටම පවත්වාගෙන යාමට හැකියාව ඇතැයි තමන් විශ්වාස නොකරන බවද ඇය පවසයි.
ඒ නිසා ඉදිරි දින කිහිපය තුළ මෙරට පවතින තත්ත්වයෙන් මුදාගත යුතු බව තම පෞද්ගලික අදහස බවද ඇය කියා සිටියාය.
ඇමතිවරිය මෙම අදහස් පල කරන ලද්දේ කොරෝනා පැතිරීම වැලැක්වීමේ ජාතික ක්රියාන්විත මධ්යස්ථානයේදී පැවති මාධ්ය හමුවක් අමතමිනි.
Two more persons have tested positive for novel coronavirus (COVID-19) as of 10.00 pm today (17) bringing Sri Lanka’s confirmed cases tally to 244.
The Health Ministry says that a total of 6 coronavirus cases were confirmed during the course of the day.
In the meantime, nine COVID-19 patients have returned to health today and the total number of recoveries in the country jumped to 77.
Currently, 160 active cases are under medical care at Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH), Welikanda Base Hospital, Colombo East Base Hospital and Iranawila Hospital, the Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry says.
Sri Lanka has so far confirmed 7 fatalities from the novel coronavirus.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it is reviewing a request from the Sri Lankan government regarding a Rapid Credit Facility and is discussing whether Sri Lanka wants to switch to the new RCF program.
We received a letter from Sri Lanka government about our Rapid Credit Facility, you know, the program, RCF program,” said Mr. Changyong Rhee, the Director of the IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department.
We are now starting to review it. And we are now discussing with the government whether they want to switch their previous program into our new Rapid Facilities,” he said.
Mr. Changyong Rhee stated that the IMF and the Sri Lankan government will be discussing the matter this week.
He stated this while responding to a question during the Asia and Pacific Department Press Briefing of the IMF.
According to the IMF website, the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) provides rapid concessional financial assistance with limited conditionality to low-income countries (LICs) facing an urgent balance of payments need.
The RCF was created under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) as part of a broader reform to make the Fund’s financial support more flexible and better tailored to the diverse needs of LICs, including in times of crisis.
The RCF places emphasis on the country’s poverty reduction and growth objectives.
Financing under the RCF carries a zero interest rate, has a grace period of 5½ years, and a final maturity of 10 years.
Colombo, April 15 (newsin.asia): Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday explored the possibility of an immediate resumption of day-to-day economic activities at the provincial level to sustain the national economy.
Several representatives of the health sector including all Provincial Directors of Health briefed the President on the current situation in the country.
The provincial health authorities said that the measures taken by the government to combat the coronavirus have been effective compared to the rest of the world.
President instructed the Provincial Directors of Health to make necessary recommendations required to maintain normal activities in the industrial, agricultural and business sectors through the Director General of Health.
One of the main objectives is to pay a special attention to the livelihood of daily wage workers.
However, decisions to relax current restrictions will be taken only after consideration of the health situation at each provincial level.
Individuals who are infected with Corona virus at each province, people they have associated with and the current quarantine process were some of the topics discussed.
Attention was also paid to the system of identifying infected people on daily basis.
The President also inquired about the present conditions at quarantine centers and the changes needed to be made.
Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Secretary to the President, P.B. Jayasundara , Principal Advisor to the President, Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary Defence Major General (Retired) Kamal Gunaratne, Secretary to the Ministry of Health, Bhadrani Jayawardena, Chief of Defense Staff and Army Commander Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy, Rear Admiral Piyal De Silva, Commander of the Air Force, Air Marshal Sumangala Dias, Acting Inspector General of Police C. D. Wickremaratne and Director General of Health Services Dr. Anil Jasinghe attended the meeting, the Presidential Media Division said.
Colombo, April 17 (SAM): Exactly a 100 year ago, Sri Lanka had the experience of going through a horrendous pandemic the Spanish flu or influenza, which claimed nearly 20,000 lives.
The fIu” claimed 50 to 100 million lives across the globe; hit the poor as well as the rich; the prosperous West as well as the poverty-stricken East. And all were struck with equal severity. In South Asia, more than 20 million died in India and 20,000 perished in Sri Lanka.
Mahatma Gandhi, who had just then arrived from South Africa, caught the deadly flu in Bombay. He survived, but was so weakened by it that he wrote: I lost all interest in living.”
As in the case of COVID-19, influenza came to Sri Lanka from abroad. In the 1918-19 case, soldiers returning from the World War I European battlefields to India and the US, brought it to their home countries. Travel and trade between the West, India and Sri Lanka brought it to Sri Lanka through then important sea ports of Colombo and Talaimannar. In the case of COVID-19, the carriers were tourists, business travellers and migrant workers entering through the airport in Colombo.
As in the case of COVID-19, the 1918-19 flu hit particular age groups. While COVID-19 is proving to be dangerous or even fatal for seniors above 60 and the very young, and for men more than women, the flu of 1918-19 hit the early middle age group up to 45. While COVID-19 has apparently spared women, the 1918-19 flu hit the women hard.
Langford and Storey
An academic paper entitled: Influenza in Sri Lanka, 1918–1919: the impact of a new disease in a pre-modern Third World setting” by C.M. Langford and P. Storey of the Department of Population Studies, London School of Economics, tells the sad tale of the past.
Here are some extracts from the paper: As elsewhere, there was a mild first wave followed by a virulent second wave which was characterized by fatal pneumonic complications. Fertility fell about 1.1 per cent of the population died. Mortality seemed to be concentrated among those aged 20–40 and especially those aged 25–35. There was also a third wave in some cases.
The first wave was in the spring-summer of 1918 and was apparently fairly mild. The second was in autumn-winter of 1918. This showed a terrible propensity to lead on to pneumonic complications and death. About 20% of those contracting the flu developed pneumonic complications and eight out of these 20% died. The third wave (where there was one) came in the early part of 1919. It was serious but its overall impact was much less.
United States then as now
As in the COVID-19 case, the US had a big part in the flu epidemic. In the current case, though the coronavirus started its journey in China, it was when it went to the US that it became a pandemic. A century ago, according to Langford and Storey, the flu began in the US in March 1918 and spread across the world in the next four months.
It struck Britain in June and July, reached Bombay in June 1918and came to Colombo and Talaimannar thereafter. At that time, Talaimannar was second only to Colombo in terms both of the number of vessels using the port and the size of their crew. About 200,000 people passed through Mandapam quarantine camp in Tamil Nadu in 1918 en route to or from Sri Lanka.
In 1918-19, death due to influenza in Sri Lanka was 19,102 of which18,887 were recorded in the last quarter of 1918.The first to get the flu were Colombo dock workers. But by September and October 1918 nearly every province and district in the island was affected.
A notable feature of the disease was a rapid onset of pneumonia which is a lung inflammation caused by bacterial or viral infection in which the air sacs are filled with pus and become solid. Deaths were mostly due to broncho-pneumonia.
Malaria complicated matters
At the end of November 2018, influenza abated, but malaria surfaced in a big way. The latter made the people so weak that when attacked by flu they succumbed to it. Many cases of malaria were complicated by a pneumonic sequel probably due to influenza, local health officials reported.
Districts in the Dry Zone (such as Anuradhapra) suffered more than those in the Wet Zone. According to the authors, the Dry Zone suffered more because it was generally less healthy, less developed and less well provided with health and sanitary facilities than the Wet Zone. And the Dry Zone was also much more prone to malaria than the Wet Zone. Malaria combined with flu proved to be deadly cocktail.
In the South, the plantation sector suffered a lot because of the congested living conditions, the unhealthy environment in the Line Rooms” where the tea workers lived, and the poor health of the estate workers who were poor laborers from impoverished South India.
Ethnic differences
According to the 1911 Sri Lankan census, 66% of the population were Sinhalese, 13% were Ceylon Tamils, 13 % were Indian Origin Tamils and 6% were Ceylon Moors.
In the short term, and in the worst months, the Indian Origin Tamils bore the brunt of the pandemic. The Muslims were next in line, and the Sinhalese were third. This position of the Sinhalese may well have reflected the fact that their habitations were much more scattered while other communities tended to live in close proximity.
However over a longer 15- month period, ethnic differences in morbidity disappeared, the researchers noted.
Women
It is clear from the data that women suffered higher mortality than men. A possible factor is the risk associated with pregnancy and childbirth. In most pandemics up to and including that of 1918–19, there were reports of abortions and stillbirths due to influenza.
In 1918–19, a series of 1350 pregnant women who had influenza were observed and it was found that abortion, stillbirth or premature labor occurred in 26% of those without pneumonia, and 52% of those with pneumonia.
But the authors state that the higher mortality experienced by females during the 1918–1919 epidemic could not be entirely explained by pregnancy-related factors. The real answer may be that, in general, at that time in Sri Lanka, mortality tended to be higher for females than males, they pointed out. The mean expectation of life at birth in Sri Lanka, in early 20th Century, based on the ‘normal’ rates, was 32.7 years for males and 30.2 years for females.
Mortality rates were higher for females than males in all ages except during infancy and in the 45–54 age group. Indian Origin Tamil women tended to suffer heavier mortality than men in the 1918–1919 epidemic partly because they were already in a somewhat worse health than men.
Food shortage
The effect of the epidemic on agricultural production, and the possible significance of food availability for mortality in the 1918-19 epidemic cannot be ignored Langford and Storey said.
There is little doubt that the influenza epidemic disrupted agricultural production in Sri Lanka. Low local production and the Indian ban on exports of food items (India was also suffering from the epidemic) were at least partly to be blamed for the food shortage and the consequent nutritional deficit and mortality in Sri Lanka, the authors stated.
Colombo, April 17 (newsin.asia): In the Global Response to Infectious Diseases index, Sri Lanka and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa have been ranked ninth, said a note from the Sri Lankan President’s Media Division on Friday.
This is an index designed to rank the efficiency and effectiveness of the leadership of the country and the preparedness of its health system to combat COVID 19, the note said.
Describing the current situation in the island nation as regards the fight against COVID-19, the current problems and achievements and future prospects, the note said: While it is clear that Sri Lanka has been successfully containing and controlling the COVID 19 threat, it is also clear that the crisis is far from over.”
We are still fighting with an invisible enemy that we have not yet understood fully. The fact that this is a global pandemic further complicates the issue. Staying safe while rescuing our economy from a changing world are the challenges before us.”
Still, we have reasons to be optimistic. We have already begun our return journey to normalcy. If the current progression continues, by mid-May schools and universities can reopen for the second term. It is hoped that the parliamentary elections too could be held before June, allowing people to exercise their franchise to select the government that they see fit.”
At a recent meeting with the Secretaries to Ministries, President Gotabaya discussed the need to ease the curfew to allow the public and private sectors to return to work without undue impediments. The need to protect the local economy was emphasized. Ministries were instructed to provide the necessary support to the agrarian and fisheries sectors as well as other businesses to recover. The President also advocated exploring business avenues to create new economic trends.”
People’s Movement Against COVID 19
The Administration is clearly not alone in the war against this deadly virus. People from across the Sri Lankan society have risen to the challenge. Many young adults have found novel solutions to pressing problems. They have made contributions in manufacturing health and medical equipment locally that are otherwise very expensive if imported. Social service activities to help the vulnerable have been initiated.”
The special COVID 19 Healthcare & Social Security Fund that was initiated by President Gotabaya on March 23 with LKR 100 million from the President’s Fund, has already got LKR 703 million.”
From the inception, contributions have been pouring in from individuals and organizations to this special Fund’s account No: 85 73 73 73 at Bank of Ceylon. On April 1, Akbar Brothers (Pvt) Ltd contributed LKR 50 million. This took the balance to over LKR 242 million. A week later, among many contributors was retired teacher Mr Sarath Kumara Gurusinghe who donated his entire month’s pension. Mr Uyanahewage Ashoka, whose vision is impaired in both eyes, gave LKR 500,000.”
April 16 was significant as on this day alone LKR 48 million was collected. Among the notable contributors was Venerable Dr Kirinde Assaji Thero Chief Incumbent of the Gangaramaya temple in Colombo. The venerable Thero gave LKR 10 million from the Gangaramaya Vesak Fund. On behalf of the Kaleni University Professors’ Association Venerable Dr Malwane Chandrarathana thero handed over LKR 2.5 million. The Engineers Association of the National Water Supply & Drainage Board gave LKR 2.5 million to the Fund. Huawei Technologies Lanka (Pvt) Ltd gave LKR 1.5 million. The Fund also received LKR 1 million from Mr S.D. Amarasinghe.”
This Fund will be managed by a 17-member committee headed by the Central Bank Governor Dr W.D. Lakshman. The Secretary to the Committee is the Chief Financial Officer at the Presidential Secretariat Ravindra J Wimalaweera. Among the office bearers are the Secretary to the Treasury S.R. Attigala, Defense Secretary (Rtd) Major General Kamal Gunaratne, Director General Health Services Dr Anil Jasinghe, Acting IGP C.D. Wickramarathna, Director General Sri Lanka Customs Major General G. Wijitha Ravipriya and Lanka Sathosa Chairman Nushad M Perera.”
Committee’s Tasks
The committee is tasked to utilize this Fund for the following: Invest in and purchasing medicines and testing kits as well as increasing healthcare capacities; Ensuring the health and safety of those in the health sector and in the essential services; Meeting the financial needs of children, women, low income earners, elders, physically challenged and other vulnerable sectors; Integrating the public health systems, rural and remote dispensaries, testing and treatment centers and health care systems to reduce the risk of infectious diseases; Supporting the health sector through innovation and production of indigenous medicines by using the resources, knowledge and skills in the country; Promoting in the global market the protective clothing and hygiene products developed through our knowledge and experience in the medical and scientific fields; and finally ,conducting media and educational campaigns to promote a healthy lifestyle centered on our traditional values and organic food.”
In the meantime, the Chief Incumbent of the Lankarama, Venerable K Ganarathana Thero, who is chairman of the Mahakaruna Buddhist Association in Singapore along with the Sri Lankan High Commissioner Shashikala Premawardena and the Chairman of Humanity Matters Association Ong Keng Yong handed over to the Presidential Secretariat, LKR 10 million worth of medical equipment to combat COVID 19 in Sri Lanka.”
Turning the Economic Tide
On March 10 the first Sri Lankan was found to be infected with COVID-19 virus. As a precautionary measure vacations for schools and the universities, normally due in April, were advanced to March 13. The special public holiday given soon after was turned into an all-Island curfew on March 20. Everyone was asked to work from home except those in essential services, the agrarian sector and the media.”
Naturally this disrupted the economic machinery and many business processes were stalled. Sectors like tourism that were just recovering after last year’s Easter Sunday massacres were seriously affected.”
By March 30 the Sri Lankan rupee began to feel the pressure and began to slide against the US dollar. It fell to LKR 191.99 and from that point onwards began to steadily fall. On April 07, the Rupee suddenly plunged from LKR 193.75 to LKR 199.40 per USD. Two days later the Rupee fell to LKR 200.47.”
The Administration however kept a very steady hand. The State machinery continued to support vulnerable sections of society including low income families, samurdhi beneficiaries, pensioners and the differently-abled. They were given an additional LKR 5,000 as a means of financial support. The State also bought 900,000 kg of fresh produce from the farmers.”
Steps were taken to rescue a number of Sri Lankans who were trapped in vulnerable places overseas. Other Sri Lankan expatriates were asked to remain in their host countries until the situation in Sri Lanka settled. Sri Lankan missions overseas are all functioning and ready to assist Sri Lankan expatriates in this difficult period.”
At the same time, non-essential exports were banned. An appeal was made to the Sri Lankan expatriate community to remit foreign currency to ease the pressure on the LKR. Economic activities have been allowed to resume in a controlled fashion.”
Citizenry Responds Enthusiastically
As citizens, Sri Lankans are responding very positively. Many corporate top executives have decided to take pay cuts instead of laying off their employees. The Rupee has already started to recover because of this collective effort. On April 15, it appreciated to LKR 195.49 against the USD.”
It is very clear that we are walking on a tightrope. Balance is of utmost importance to meet the current challenges as well as the ones ahead. The people have shown commitment to the goal and the courage to achieve it. The State machinery from security to health and social services have complemented the political will. Victory over COVID-19 deadly virus is well within our reach. It is up to all of us not to let the victory slip from our grasp.”
Not only Muslims but people of all other faiths too have to deal with traumatic restrictions in bidding farewell to their loved ones amid a global pandemic. Muslim nations are having to modify or cancel their religious rites. While Muslim adherents globally are placing the health and safety of the living loved one’s over the dead and adhering to customs. Quite a number of increasing incidents are getting reported of Muslim villages protesting against burials in their villages while in most cases where burials are taking place it is often after weeks.
General burial tradition of a Muslim
Iraq: Population 40million
Cases: 1,400
Deaths: 78
Morgues are full of dead COVID-19 bodies without a place to bury. People who live near sites of government designated burial grounds are opposing burial fearful that the bodies will bring virus to their locality. Some bodies are lying in the morgue for 10 days and some for weeks.
24 March 2020 – Nahrawan city, 34km east of Baghdad people gathered near town cemetery opposing burial of COVID-19 victims and succeeded. Authorities took the dead bodies back to Baghdad.
The reason for this was a landfill established in 2015 near the town that polluted the nearby soil (Raseef22 media interviewed protestors)
21 March 2020: the body of a 67year old was kept for 9 days until permitted to be buried in Najaf/South Iraq. Previously family rejected proposal by govt to bury in remote plots outside Baghdad.
Iraq’s COVID-19 bodies are
As a result of public protest families of the deceased are having to seek private security to protect them from protestors.
https://observers.france24.com/en/20200407-iraq-baghdad-covid-19-coronavirus-bodies-burial-victims
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-52223193
Egypt: 98.4million population
Cases: 2,350
Deaths: 178
Funerals are traditionally attended by large gathering to pray. But the government has placed strict restrictions. The dead are wrapped in bags stamped ‘danger’. No one is allowed to attend the washing rite except health workers who have to wear protective gear and be one-metre from the body. There was no funeral prayer call.
11 April – Villagers in Shubra el-Bahou refused to allow COVID-19 deceased doctor to be buried in village cemetery.
https://gulfnews.com/world/mena/covid-19-burial-traditions-clash-with-fears-of-contagion-1.70849921
Pakistan: 219million population
Cases: 5,988
Deaths: 107
COVID-19 dead cannot be taken inside homes which is a tradition in South Asia. But the Govt fears that families may be hiding families of COVID-19 dead in order to hold religious funerals. In so doing, the govt knows the risk of contaminating the entire community/village.
India: 201million Muslims
Cases: 11,555
Deaths:396
9 April: 65-year-old Muslim COVID-19 victim from Mumbai suburb denied permission to bury his body there, his family members alleged on Thursday. Family allege that Malad Malwadni Kabrastan trustees denied burial. Though the police and a local politician tried to intervene the trustees would not budge and the family agreed to cremate body in a Hindu crematorium.
Iran: 82 million population
Cases: 74,877
Deaths: 4,683
All of Iran’s 31 provinces have been hit by the virus. Iranian leaders have also contracted the virus – Iraj Harirchi, Iran’s deputy health minister, Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri while an adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, has died. 78-year-old Ayatollah Hashem Bathayi Golpayegani died just two days after he tested positive.
Iran’s heath authorities require families to coordinate covid-19 burials with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps to ensure families do not break social-distancing norms by gathering in large numbers at the cemetery.
Professional body washers are refusing to cleanse COVID-19 bodies for fear of catching the virus from the corpses. Some mortuaries are getting seminary students to wash the dead (BBC) There are also instances of death certificates claiming cardiac arrest or flu as cause of death but in reality cause of death being covid-19.
According to satellite images of trenches some 250 victims had been buried as of 3 March by the Iranian Govt had reported only 77 deaths!
https://www.businessinsider.com/iran-coronavirus-covid19-deaths-cases-updates-2020-3
Hospitals have been told to hide COVID-19 deaths by doctoring the cause of death. Only those who have been COVID-19 tested positive and died are to have their death given as covid-19. Hospitals that do not have covid-19 deaths cannot report covid-19 deaths.https://observers.france24.com/en/20200312-iran-coronavirus-authorities-hiding-covid-19-deaths-reports
This document posted on Twitter March 5 purports to show a death report for Hamed Jalali, a conservative activist from Qom who died February 28. The report lists ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome) as the cause of death, but his friends say Jalali died of COVID-19.
Tunisia: 11.7million Muslims
Cases: 747
Deaths: 34
Residents in Bizerte and Beja in Jalla district prevented municipal authorities from burying 2 COVID-19 victims in their local cemeteries. The Tunisian security forces had to use tear gas against the residents.
Brunei: 433,285 Muslims
Cases: 136
Deaths: 1
Ministry of Health sets strict guidelines and only specially trained personnel can handle funeral arrangements of covid-19 victims. Brunei’s first covid-19 dead was a 51year old woman. Only immediate family was allowed. Only some prayers were allowed. The body is not allowed to be brought home or to the mosque. Only dry ritual purification is allowed on the encased body bag of the deceased. The body is not dressed in a shroud. Family members can only watch from afar. No one can recite talkin during the burial.
Bangladesh: 146million Muslims
Cases: 1231
Deaths: 50
The fear of Muslims in Bangladesh was such that when a 60 year old woman from Abupur village died of kidney failure villagers refused to allow her to be buried fearing her death was from covid-19. The locals even vandalized the ambulance. She was later buried in another area.
https://unb.com.bd/category/Bangladesh/locals-stop-womans-burial-over-covid-19-fear-in-feni/49588
Indonesia: 225million Muslims
Cases: 5,136
Deaths: 469
Indonesian Government appealed to citizens not to reject burial of covid-19 dead.
The dead are wrapped in plastic bags and placed in sealed coffins then sprayed with disinfectant. However much the Govt communicated to the people they could not answer the fears of the people.
Jakarta even launched a 120 strong special police unit to guard burials of COVID-19 victims in view of protests by residents. This came after angry residents in Sulawesi island and Central Java blocked streets to prevent ambulances transporting victims to local cemeteries.
15 April – Residents of Sewakul, Central Java prevented the burial of a nurse who died from coronavirus while working at a hospital in Semarang.
Similar incidents have taken place in Gowa (Southern Sulawesi), Bandung (West Java), Semarang Regency.
22 doctors and 10 nurses have died in Indonesia.
https://en.tempo.co/read/1330626/govt-plead-to-citizens-not-to-reject-covid-19-patient-burials
Malaysia: 19.5million Muslims
Cases: 5,072
Deaths: 83
COVID-19 victims can only be handled by trained personnel. Bodies will not be handed to the families and no one will be allowed to touch the COVID-19 deceased, or bathe him or dress him as per Islamic funeral rites. Hospitals will prepare body and the body will not be taken to the home or to the mosque for final prayers (solat jenazah)
Only dry ritual purification (dust or air) and no shroud (kain kapan)
France: 5.76million Muslims
Cases: 143,303
Deaths: 15,729
COVID-19 dead are put into covers and coffins immediately and limited family members are allowed to see only a closed coffin.
On 2nd April, France officially banned washing, embalming and other forms of funerary preparations – Muslims and Jews could not perform traditional funeral rites. COVID-19 dead could not be washed. Only 600 out of Frances 35,000 municipalities are offering grave sites for Muslim burials.
USA: 3.45million Muslims
Cases: 615,406
Deaths: 26,164
Muslim comprise 3% of New York City. A Muslim funeral generally costs $2000 including plot of land for burial but the prices are now $10,000
China: 20million Muslims
Cases: 82,295
Deaths: 3342
China has banned funerals, burials and other related activities involving the corpses of deceased victims of the novel coronavirus that originated in Wuhan. Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Public Security, issued new regulations Saturday stating that all victims who succumb to the virus must be cremated at the nearest facility.
Videos
posted on March 24 shows locals refusing to let sanitation workers and families bury eight people who died of coronavirus in a nearby cemetery. The locals followed them in a car right up to the gates of the cemetery.
Circulating online since about March 14, shows a burial taking place somewhere in Iraq. It stirred controversy online, with many people saying that the burial didn’t conform to religious traditions or proper hygiene measures
Member of parliament Hakem Zamli calls on the authorities to figure out an emergency solution for the bodies that are piling up in the town of Sadr” (an eastern suburb of Baghdad).
Iran: This video shows at least 56 body bags awaiting burial at a facility at the main cemetery in Qom – March 2. “The bodies in this room have been here for five or six days, but they still haven’t been buried. The situation is horrible.” The deputy prosecutor general of Qom said March 5 that the man who filmed the video was later arrested.
Countless arguments but all contradicting and offering no solace.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention & Control claims that the virus cannot be transmitted from a victim’s body unless from direct contact with bodily fluids or contaminated personal effects. This is the issue with fears of groundwater contamination in Sri Lanka.
Netherlands has found COVID-19 in wastewater (RIVM National Institute for Public Health)
In Thailand a forensic worker died after contaminating COVID-19 from a dead COVID-19 body. https://www.businessinsider.com/first-death-coronavirus-healthcare-caught-from-dead-body-thailand-2020-4 This incident marks the first instance of a dead body contaminating a living being and causing fatality.
This virtually puts to rest those who claim COVID-19 dead cannot contaminate. Therefore burials are certainly cause for worry. It can only be seen in years to come how countries that have buried their dead face health issues.
An example to highlight this is St. Louis where neighbors noticed a steep in people dying from cancers, lung disease, thyroid problems. It was later revealed that the US had used the area to store radioactive waste from its nuclear weapons program.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cdc-investigating-possible-cancer-cluster-near-st-louis/
There are plenty of examples where toxic waste is dumped the health risks to residents are high. It is therefore, natural for villages cited above to complain and protest against COVID-19 dead being buried.
Those not living in areas of burial sites will no doubt continue to demand burial but the Muslims the world over even in some of the most conventional & traditional Muslim villages are refusing to bury the dead.
Shenali D Waduge
[This is a shortened version of a more technical paper, 15-04-2020]
Introduction.
An outbreak of a new type of pneumonia like disease was first reported on 31st December 2019 from Wuhan City in the Hubei Province of China. It was identifies as caused by a ‘Novel Corona Virus’ on 7th January 2020, and renamed Covid-19 on 11th February 2020. The WHO upgraded the disease to a pandemic on the 11th of March 2020.
From then on, many countries all over the world rushed to impose social distancing, lockdowns and curfews to prevent the spread of the disease. Sri Lanka’s initial official response to Covid-19 began on January 27 when quarantine measures were imposed on incoming air passengers. The first local case, a guide working with Italian tourists, was detected on 10th March, and the importance of methodically identifying transmission chains became clear. This can be more important than blindly testing populations looking for Covid-19 positive cases (see my article in the Island, 1st April).
The government at first attempted to contain the people in their homes by declaring public holidays and extending them. However, from March 18th the government began to impose curfews in Covid-19 hot spots, many being in areas to which returnees from abroad, travelers or religious teachers had arrived and irresponsibly ignored social distancing and quarantine requirements. Other who hold irrational beliefs (e.g., that the disease is caused by non-humans working in consort with Naga beings”) also ignored social distancing, wearing masks etc., and proposed inhaling herbal smoke and consuming broth made from traditional rice” for fighting the disease!
In Western countries too, patterns of transmission through human chains proved important. Also, support workers who worked in multiple nursing homes were potential carriers for spreading the disease. Nearly half of the dead in Canada from Covid-19 are in nursing homes. Such transmission chains are not normally implemented in simulation models that are used in epidemiology. Furthermore, some countries, when releasing daily data of “new cases” do not separate out cases that appear in quarantined populations from cases that appear from within the general public. New cases detected in quarantined locations do not add to the growth of the epidemic and should be treated differently in epidemiological modeling. What are labeled as “Covid-19 cases” in one country may not conform to the same labeling in another country.
Many of the epidemiological simulation models in current use are well known in the physical sciences and in ecological studies (see Bolker, Ecological models and data. Princeton University Press). They are applied to competing chemical reactions, polymerization processes, competing plant growth etc. Most of these processes begin with a period of exponential growth which gets gradually dampened and flattens out”. That is, many growth processes that are very different at the “individual level” all display growth and saturation characteristics having a universal shape. The so called logistic model is one of the simplest models belonging to this class. Here we exploit this universality and use a more sophisticated version of such a model to study Sri Lanka’s Covid-19 data.
Data analysis and modeling.
The Epidemiology unit of Sri Lanka’s ministry of Health (EU-SLH) has provided authoritative documentation in monitoring the evolution of Covid-19 via its daily bulletins. The cumulative numbers, i.e., the total confirmed cases” reported by EU-SLH data are displayed in Figure 1 (curve with squares).
The data from 10th of March to 15th April have been used in constructing our epidemiological model which can be constantly updated as new data comes in. It is clear that the trend in the data changes from 25th to 30th March, and then resumes its upward trend though with a different rate. This bi-modal characteristic is seen in the daily-change figures as well, in spite of the noisy nature of the data. This suggests two independent loci of infection, or the effect of government interventions to control the epidemic, occurring with a time lag.
Efforts have been made to account for the fact that the confirmed cases” reported daily by the EU-SLH includes new cases that appear among quarantined people. If the quarantining is effective, such new cases should not push the curve upwards” and change the final flattening trend of the curves. For instance, on the 13th of April 15 new cases were reported, when the cumulative number of confirmed cases jumped from 218 to 233. However, all 15 new cases were from those already confined in quarantine centers, and hence cannot be included as infection loci for the public. A data curve corrected for such cases is given (with triangles) in the figure, and labeled confirmed public cases”. Using these sets of data, we give our model results, and predict the long-term behaviour (asymptotic behavior) and the number of cases to expect when the curve flattens”, in each scenario.
Figure 1. Models for the time evolution of the total number of Covid-19 cases, showing projected long-term behaviour for three types of data treatment.
If we consider the data set labeled as confirmed public cases”, where Covid-19 cases arising among quarantined people are not considered relevant to the spread of the epidemic, then the long-time asymptote is about 206, and definitely below 210. If all cases (the cumulative daily totals reported by the EU-SLHD) are included in fitting the model, then the projection is 298, and certainly below 310. On the other and, if only the initial data set (prior to the imposition of social distancing and curfews) were used, the asymptote is ~325, but alternative parameter choices giving even 600 are possible. This shows that social distancing and curfews were effective in constraining the evolution of the epidemic.
Figure 2. A comparison of daily new” numbers of the model prediction and actual data.
The model can now be used to predict the daily new” numbers from
10th March onwards, and examine how well they agree with the observed data. Note that what was fitted was the cumulative daily totals, and not this differential quantity. Hence good agreement with
the general trends in the daily new” numbers is a useful test of the quality of the model. Our model reproduces the rough bi-modal character of the observed data and the general trends (Fig. 2).
Conclusion.
Assuming that that the hospital resources are able to handle even 500 cases, these studies suggest that Sri Lanka should be able to resume nearly normal economic and civic activity by the end of the first week of May, assuming that the epidemic retains the characteristics shown in the current data. The confirmed new cases are arising mainly in hotspots in six districts, while the other districts seem close to normal. Hence a graduated approach to opening the economy should be followed. Important civic activities like elections can be held while still imposing physical distancing. Sri Lanka’s economic rekindling is linked to domestic needs as well as those of its foreign trading partners.
The Covid-19 epidemic has created a situation where working online is becoming permanently institutionalized, and this is environmentally very desirable in reducing travel stress, particulate dust and combustion of fossil fuels. The re-opening should make all such desirable features a permanent characteristic of the economy.
1. The first recorded use of toilet paper was in 6th Century China.
2. By the 14th Century, the Chinese government was mass-producing it. As usual, it went viral in China, but not elsewhere, unlike Corona !!
3. Packaged toilet paper wasn’t sold in the United States until 1857.
4. Joseph Gayety, the man who introduced packaged TP to the U.S. had his name printed on every sheet.
5. Global toilet paper demand uses nearly 30,000 trees every day. AND RISING
6. That’s 10 million trees a year.
7. It wasn’t until 1935 that a manufacturer was able to promise Splinter-Free Toilet Paper.( Before it was “OUCH”!!??)
8. Seven percent of Americans admit to stealing rolls of toilet paper in hotels.
9. Americans use an average of 8.6 sheets of toilet paper per trip to the bathroom.
10. The average roll has 333 sheets.
11. Historically, what you use to wipe depended on your income level.
12. In the middle ages, they used something called a Gompf stick which was just an actual stick used to scrape.
13. Wealthy Romans used wool soaked in rose water and French royalty used lace.
14. Other things that were used before toilet paper include: Hay, corn cobs, sticks, stones, sand, moss, hemp, wool, husks, fruit
peels, ferns, sponges, seashells, knotted ropes, and broken pottery (ouch!).
15. 70-75% of the world still doesn’t use toilet paper because it is too expensive or there is not sufficient plumbing.
16. In many Western European countries, bidets are seen as more effective and preferable to toilet paper.
17. Coloured toilet paper was popular in the U.S. until the 1940s.
18. The reason toilet paper disintegrates so quickly when wet is that the fiber used to make it are very short.
19. On the International Space Station, they still use regular toilet paper but it has to be sealed in special containers and Compressed.
20. During Desert Storm, the U.S. Army used toilet paper to camouflage their tanks.
21. The Pentagon uses, on average, 666 rolls of toilet paper per day.
22. IN AN EMERGENCY CAN BE USED AS A TEMPORARY FACE MASK
Sri Lanka’s worst and abhorrent quisling MangalaSamaraweera’s earnest and sadistic desire is to see the people of this country die in scores as in the United States, Italy and Spain uncared by the government and people suffer immense hardship due to lack of food and medicine. This sadist who does not have proper knowledge of Sri Lankan culture has never read or studied Ummagga Jathakaya, Selelihini Sandeshaya, Subashitaya, or Mahawamsa which are a few cornerstones of the Sri Lankan culture is not aware that Sri Lankans are inherited with a spirit of spending their last cent and even selling or pawning their last dress or article to save the life of their kith and kin.
This nincompoop whose only objective is to topple this government through whatever Bandits possible and install a neo-liberal, western slavish government under an imbecile puppet-like SajithPremadasa the present self-assumed leader of Shameless Jabbering Bandits (SJB) has said that the President spending funds to combat the spread of Corona Virus are unconstitutional.
Issuing a lengthy statement this quisling has said that since there was an interim budget up to April 2020 the President has no constitutional power to approve any additional expenditure.
He says that it is the Parliament that has the sole administrative authority on Fiscal Assets of the State and it is mentioned in the first sentence in the Chapter relating to Fiscal matters in the Constitution. In the Interim Expenditure Account approved up to 30th April by the Parliament details of State revenue, expenditure and the limit of loans obtainable have been stipulated and it is under this legal framework that the State fiscal activities should be carried out.
This former lingerie designer who accidentally became the Finance Minister of this country and who acknowledged on the very first day of his appointment his unsuitability to the post compared to those who have held this post in the past states that the President cannot approve an interim expenditure account and it is only Parliament that can do it. He accuses the President of violating the constitution and illegally approving the interim budget particularly to meet the expenditure needed to combat Corona Virus related activities.
It is obvious that this quisling has made these allegations against President violating fiscal restrictions stipulated in the constitution by becoming annoyed and furious about the detailed announcements made by the former Minister Basil Rajapaksa in the Derna 360 programme om Monday 30th March. In this programme the former Minister who heads the 40 member Special Task Force said that Rs. 5,000 each will be given to several hundred thousand people including daily wage earners, three-wheel, truck and van drivers, Samurdhi recipients and many other categories in addition to home-delivered food, essential items, and medicines.
This furious and envious quisling who does not want to see people of this country living happily and that was why he through his 2018 budget reduced the price of beer and arrack when there were many things that needed price reductions since he wanted to make the people of this country including ladies drunkards has also taken the opportunity for demanding to re-convene the parliament, a pet slogan of theirs, which has been dismissed by many legal luminaries and experienced politicians as a futile and unwanted measure
He also blames the President for approving funds more than what is required as capital expenditure for the government completely ignoring the country’s duty and responsibility to meet the expenditure required to combat the spread of the virus and care for the affected patients. He has also criticized the President for reducing taxes that had been imposed by him many goods and VAT and for providing tax relief for several manufacturing industries as bad economic management.
What this Gehenu Jangiya implies is that we Sri Lankans too like his inhuman zealots in America, Italy and Spain should leave virus patients to die unattended. It may be the culture of his white skimmed dry toilet user partisans but not that of Sri Lankans.
This quisling predicts a very bleak economic prospect for Sri Lanka and there is every possibility that they would do everything possible to create more hardships to the people and make the country ungovernable. It was not to destroy this country by the ilk of this quisling that people waited for the dawn of November 16thand voted on that day to get rid of the foreign and terrorist servile government.
There is every possibility that this quisling whose earnest frenzy is to topple this government by whatever means regardless of whatever hardships that may befall on people of this country will resort to all possible mechanisms to spread the virus situation and achieve their objectives over the cadavers of corona victims. For this purpose, all the politically ditched guys such as Sajith Premadasa, Rodee Ranawaka, Kallatoni descendent Gameshan, Hakeem, alleged Jungle eater Bathiudeen and their ilk will get together as many of them could get eclipsed in the ensuing election. It may be a rehearsal of this vicious arrangement that Rodee Ranawaka held a clandestine meeting at his residence recently.
At a time each and everyone in this country, as it is happening throughout the world, needs to join hands and make all efforts to defeat the spread of virus devoid of the party. color, ethnicity and religion, the politically discarded treacherous elements are all out to create divisions among communities and disrupt health sector services. The Hakeem and Mujibur Rahman have tried to espouse the Muslim sentiments against the mode of holding the funeral of deceased Muslim patients. At the same time, it is sad to note that attempts are being made at this critical hour to dissociate health and public sector employees from attending to corona containing activities and instigate them to resort to boycott or strike measures demanding for their long-standing grievances by taking this opportunity as the best time to get their demands achieved.
If these traitors launch such a situation the government should mobilize the people to take over health and other activities and our educated and patriotic masses will enthusiastically respond to government’s mobilization call as they did in 1971 to curb the JVP uprising by guarding Police stations and launching search operations to apprehend the JVPers. In this instance, it will not be difficult for our educated girls and boys and even the elderly persons to join this mobilized battalion and attend to even health-related activities such as measuring the temperature, blood pressure of the people and perform other activities under the guidance of our dedicated doctors.
There is every possibility that a misbegotten discarded political gang could instigate the innocent people and some public servants in the essential service sectors for their vicious motives. The government should give firm instructions to security services personnel and the Police to deal harshly with such demonstrators and particularly with those who instigate the people to demonstrate.
Moreover, these mavericks should be reminded that President Xi Jinpeng of China has already expressed China’s readiness to send a team of Doctors and health staff who have gained experience in combatting Corona at any time Sri Lanka need their services. Therefore, the government should make urgent requests to China, Russia, and Cuba to send teams of doctors and health staff to curb the Coronavirus situation in this country. Already Russian and Cuban doctors and nurses are carrying Corona combat activities in Italy successfully.
In the meantime, the abhorrent INGOs have launched measures to defame Sri Lanka saying that Sri Lanka uses pandemic to curtail free expressions and Police have been ordered to arrest critics in Military-Led COVID-19 Response. China has in its own initiative send a planeload of testing kits last week and another planeload of testing kits and other materials are due to arrive this week.
Another gang of treacherous misbegotten fellows has found to have opened a new front against the government and being involved in a well-planned conspiracy of spreading fake news and frightening the people deploying mercenary scribes using the social media avenues. The Police have already taken into custody 16 of such fake news propagandists together with their computer accessories. The Police should not just merely stop by taking these front line guys but should go deep into investigating and apprehend the main culprits behind the curtains. It is a well-known fact that quisling Mangala Samaraweera who follows Goebel’s policy of repeating a lie several times to make people accept the said lie as a truth used to operate several fake news media websites in the recent past which gained popularity among internet users. Meenakshi Ganguly of the Human Rights Watch in collaboration with a Sri Lankan named Eranga Jayawardene has said that Sri Lanka’s inspector general has ordered police to arrest those who criticize” officials involved in the coronavirus response or share fake” or malicious” messages about the pandemic, She says that according to the order, issued on April 1, officials are doing their utmost with much dedication to stop the spread of COVID 19,” but those officials’ duties are being criticized, minor issues are being pointed out,” and messages are being posted that scold” officials, thus severely hindering” their duties.
The article says that as of April 2, Sri Lanka had 151 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 4 deaths. So far, more than 10,000 people have been arrested since a curfew intended to slow the spread of the virus was imposed on March 20 and adds that the global pandemic is a challenge for authorities as they try to protect the population with necessary public health measures. However, criticism will not hinder their work, even if some find it aggravating or unjustified.
She states that blanket censorship and threats of arrest for speech not only violate Sri Lanka’s obligations under international human rights law, but are counter-productive and officials who need to know of shortcomings to address gaps in their response will not be helped by the withholding and censoring of information
Meenakshi further states that during curfews and lockdowns, many citizens will need help obtaining basic necessities, and they should be able to share their views and exchange information and Sri Lankans’ concerns that their rights will be respected are particularly crucial since President GotabayaRajapaksa has assigned the army chief to lead Sri Lanka’s coronavirus response. She states that Gen. Shavendra Silva, who heads the National Operation Centre for Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak, faces credible allegations of war crimes during the final months of Sri Lanka’s long civil war and ethnic Tamils, Muslims, and critics of the government, who have long borne the brunt of security force abuses, will be especially concerned that their civil and political rights will not be respected.
Continuing further she states that a rights-respecting response to COVID-19 needs to ensure that accurate and up-to-date information about the virus, access to services, service disruptions, and other aspects of the response to the outbreak are accessible to all and a failure to uphold the right to freedom of expression during the pandemic undermines basic human rights and could undermine trust in government actions. While a great majority of the people feel ashamed and disgusted for having elected by them the biggest quisling in the country they also feel proud and honoured for having elected the young politician of the district former State Minister KanchanaWijesekera who urged the President on 19th March to impose Martial Law at least for a short period to combat the spread of the virus situation. This view has been echoed by the GMOA and many civil organisations and politicians and many people have warned that there are clandestine attempts to politicise the situation by encouraging the spread of Corona as a vicious move against the government. Several scribes have also written articles endorsing this view.
As it seems opinion in favour of Mr.KanchanaWijesekera is gaining momentum let us see what is meant by imposing Martial Law, its possible implications on the society, and how countries in the world used this Law to deal with emergency situations in their countries.
Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civilian functions by a government, especially in response to a temporary emergency such as invasion or major disaster, or in occupied territory. It can be used by governments to enforce their rule over the public, as seen in multiple countries. Such incidents may occur after a coup d’etat; when threatened by popular protests; to suppress political opposition, or to stabilize insurrections or perceived insurrections; in cases of major natural disasters, etc.
Martial law has also been imposed during conflicts and in cases of occupations, where the absence of any other civil government provides for an unstable population. Examples of this form of military rule include post World War II reconstruction in Germany and Japan, the recovery and reconstruction of the former Confederate States of America during Reconstruction Era in the United States of America following the American Civil War, and German occupation of northern France between 1871 and 1873 after the Treaty of Frankfurt ended the Franco-Prussian War.
Typically, the imposition of martial law accompanies curfews; the suspension of civil law, civil rights, and habeas corpus; and the application or extension of military law or military justice to civilians. Civilians defying martial law may be subjected to military tribunal (court-martial).
To be continued…………………
Sri Lanka and its leadership were ranked 9th in the Global Response to Infectious Diseases (GRID) Index which evaluates how efficient and effective the leadership of the country and the preparedness of its health system were in tackling COVID-19 pandemic.
The Institute of Certified Management Accountants (ICMA) of Australia commissioned the research study to evaluate the response and leadership shown in each country to develop the Global Response to Infectious Diseases (GRIDTM) index.
The ICMA said it was of the view that a country’s ranking on the index could be a motivator to a country in terms of being prepared for the next global pandemic or crisis.
Sri Lanka ranked 9th in the index and shared the rank with Hong Kong, UAE, Japan and Taiwan.
The index, in its introduction on Sri Lanka, said Sri Lankan authorities started to take vigilance in stopping the potential danger as the origin of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan was announced.
“The military forces and the national intelligence service were put on high alert. The government created specialized aviation and border control expert teams, to track the movement of all inbound tourists and with a potential threat. Sri Lanka was one of the first countries to send rescue missions to Wuhan to evacuate 33 Sri Lankan families. The families were brought down via an exclusive carrier and quarantined in a unique quarantine military facility. All potential contacts were observed continuously under quarantine. Those in the military facility were given full access to information; and there was no government control of information, hence increasing its reliability.
This explains why although Sri Lanka is placed a lowly 93rd in the CPI ranks; it is ranked 10th on the GRIDTM Index alongside countries such as Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The reason Sri Lanka responded so well is because Sri Lanka has a public health system which is free for all citizens. Going hand in hand, Sri Lanka has had a free education system until graduate school for the last 60 years; thanks to which it has trained thousands of well-qualified healthcare professionals and paramedical workforce for many decades through well-regulated and state of the art medical faculties covering all regions of the country; all free of charge. The doctors and paramedical staff receive post-graduate training and continuous medical education throughout their career. The island nation also has a robust century-old community health program. Health statistics such as maternal and child mortality rates are the lowest in the region. In fact, comparable to the western world. The life expectancy is highest in the region. The nation is 100% vaccination covered, and all treatments under the extended program of immunization are administered free of charge,” it said.
It said great Leadership is different from populism and added Indian Prime Minister like many other leaders around the world is arguably a populist.
“This is evident from some of his popular actions like getting all Indians to clap hands at the same time and on another occasion getting everyone to turn the lights out and light candles ‘diyas’ for 9 minutes at 9pm. Popularity and populism will not win the battle against the Pandemic. The true test of his leadership will be how well he manages the fallout from this pandemic, irrespective of his popularity,” the index said.
New Zealand, Singapore, Iceland, Australia and Finland ranked among the top 5 countries respectively.
It said arguably the worst response was from the US.
The index has connected the GRID Index with the Corruption Perception Index 2019 (CP Index) which has been used as a surrogate for the level of information transparency in each country. Countries high on the list are perceived as being less corrupt and more transparent, and thus the COVID-19 information from them could be assumed to be more reliable.
“Apart from a few outliers, there seems to be a positive co-relationship between the two Indices. To start with, both the Indices have a common leader – New Zealand. Australia ranks 4th in the GRIDTM index which is better than its ranking of 12th on the CP Index,” it said.
The variation between the two indices of Sri Lanka was high at 83.
Leadership is a responsibility. It’s not about being in charge. It’s about taking care of those in your charge.” -Simon Sinek
Never has good leadership been more critical and relevant in our lifetime than today as countries around the world struggle to fight the COVID-19 crisis. In times of crisis, good leaders rally to nurture and protect their flock. Great Leaders with vision go beyond their own national boundaries and unite the world fostering global partnerships to work towards the common good. However, as we struggle against an unprecedented pandemic sweeping through our world, our leaders are tackling this global crisis in very different and often controversial ways. The nature of this crisis demands global cooperation but requires action differing from nation to nation. Each country battling this crisis has very unique political, cultural, geographical and social dimensions. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted each country in a different manner and consequently the measures taken by leaders of different countries have varied. However, it is said that difficult times bring out the best in great leaders and arguably shine the spotlight on deficiencies and shortcomings of other leaders. Inevitably among other things the success of a nation’s leader’s during this pandemic will be judged by how well they have cared for those in their charge.
The Institute of Certified Management Accountants (Australia) commissioned a research study to evaluate the response and leadership shown in each country and to develop a Global Response to Infectious Diseases (GRIDTM) index to indicate how efficient and effective the leadership of the country and the preparedness of its health system were in tackling this pandemic. The ICMA was of the view that a country’s ranking on the index could be a motivator to a country in terms of being prepared for the next global pandemic or crisis.
The results of individual country’s performance on the GRIDTM index will be presented later in the article. First let us present an overview of the performance within specific countries and regions.
The ANZAC Response – Exceptional leadership by Scott Morrison and Jacinta Arden
First, let us look at the leadership in the ICMA’s home country of Australia. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has emerged as a very capable leader and displayed remarkable leadership qualities in this crisis. The year 2020 had not begun well for Australia with horrific bushfires and our national leadership (particularly the Prime Minister) coming under severe criticism. Just one month later, in a dramatic turnaround, much to his credit, the very same Prime Minister Scott Morrison significantly picked up his game and upped the ante showing outstanding leadership during the COVID-19 crisis. To start with, he created a national cabinet as a unique decision-making authority bringing together State Premiers of different political persuasions to work together on a common goal to overcome the crisis. He has also successfully overcome ideological differences with his opponents (in stark contrast to President Trump in USA); earning him the admiration of supporters and opponents alike. The result of this coordinated and carefully planned response to the pandemic is a dramatic downward trend in the number of new cases as well as active cases as illustrated in the attached diagrams from ‘worldometers’– Similar diagrams for every country are available and regularly updated on the ‘worldometers’ website.[1]
Besides the Australian Prime Minister, the Premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews has also emerged as a great leader. He led the state admirably during the bushfires and now the Pandemic. Other State Premiers have also cooperated well with the Federal government while taking appropriate statewide action. Maybe there is a lesson for the USA to learn from here? A lesson that political differences need to be set aside and cooperation at all levels, State as well as Federal, together with a well thought-out and executed strategy, is the key to effective control of the Pandemic and any future crisis – global or national.
Before we go across the Pacific and look at leadership in America, we will look at countries closer to home. Across the Tasman, New Zealand is fortunate to have Prime Minister Jacinta Arden. Her leadership in the aftermath of the Christchurch massacre catapulted her into the international limelight; and now under her leadership in the pandemic, New Zealand seems to have achieved success like Australia in flattening the curve. Like Australia the opposition in New Zealand has cooperated with the ruling party to unite the country.
Connecting the Transparency Index with the Global COVID-19 Response
Questions have been raised as to the reliability of the data on each country with regards to its reporting of tests, cases and deaths relating to COVID-19. Some countries have been accused of underreporting the actual impact for various reasons: economic, religious, scientific, national security, lack of transparency and sheer negligence, amongst others. Some leaders have tried to shift the blame and even conveyed misinformation to their citizens. Misinformation is some countries rises to the level of Information warfare tactics with characteristics of psychological operations (PSYOPS) to build morale among their citizens and image projection to the world at large.
As such, in developing the GRIDTM index, it was important to ascertain if there was a relationship between the level of COVID-19 information coming from a country and the transparency of the country providing the information. A country’s ranking on the Corruption Perception Index 2019 (CP Index) published by Transparency International[2] was used as a surrogate for the level of information transparency in each country. Countries high on the list are perceived as being less corrupt and more transparent, and thus the COVID-19 information from them could be assumed to be more reliable.
It is interesting to note that the ANZAC countries are ranked high on the CP Index 2019; with New Zealand 1st and Australia 12th out of 180 countries. Three other countries in the Asia Pacific region that seem to be managing the crisis very well are Japan (20th on the CPI), South Korea (39thon the CPI) and Singapore (4th on the CPI). These countries are comparatively higher on the CP Index than most of their Asian counterparts. These higher ranked Asian countries have leadership styles that are very different to that of the ANZACs. However, if you accept the fact that success in controlling the virus as measured by flattening the curve is a good barometer of leadership, then it can be accepted that these countries have demonstrated good leadership. Among countries ranked high on the CP Index is Hong Kong (16th on the CPI) – however; the level of independence of its leadership from China has been questioned by some, and a factor in the infamous HK riots of 2019. The Chinese response and leadership during the crisis seems to have worked for its citizens; with reports coming out of China that it has successfully contained the outbreak. There have been doubts raised in the Western media, however, on the reliability of the data coming out of China (China is ranked a lowly 80th jointly with 5 others including India, on the CP Index).
It is hard to commend or compare the success of leadership of countries that lack transparency. This is largely because there is not enough testing done in these countries, and also because in many cases the quality of the data coming out of these countries is in serious doubt. This includes some countries in the Middle-East, which though ranked higher on the transparency index due to perceived low corruption, are perceived to have unreliable data to evaluate effectiveness.[3] However, the leadership in most of these countries have locked down their citizens and are in a position to impose restrictions on their residents at will.
South Asia
India has a very strong central Government with the ruling party having a large majority in their parliament which has allowed Prime Minister Modi to enforce a 21-day complete lockdown. The success of this lockdown which has now been extended till the end of April 2020, will be evaluated in the weeks to come but yielded disturbing chaotic scenes of migrant workers fleeing the major cities en masse as their livelihoods disappeared. These scenes call into question how well the lockdown was planned and executed by India’s leadership.
Individual state leaders in India will also be judged for their leadership skills. In Mumbai, the commercial capital of India, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Udhav Thackrey, has emerged as a decisive leader acclaimed even by his political detractors.
As the contagious coronavirus cuts through India, the little islands of good news in these terrible times have been the performance of individual chief ministers such as Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan, Rajasthan’s Ashok Gehlot, Maharashtra’s Uddhav Thackeray, Chhattisgarh’s Bhupesh Baghel, Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal and the irrepressible Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal (Chaturvedi, 2020).[4]
The central government, however, is facing a divided nation just emerging from riots fueled by the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act 2019. An important aspect to be noted here is that India possesses a very unique diversity, comparable to none globally; and is the world’s largest democracy with over a billion people. Its approach has to be also unique and different from non-democratic countries like China and the Middle-East, and also different from that of western democracies.
In India, the first COVID-19 infection was reported in Kerala on January 20. From early March, the virus started to spread across India; currently, 30 out of the country’s 36 States and Union Territories (UTs) are affected. The government’s failure to detect, trace and isolate infected persons in the nearly two-month-long window of opportunity it had to protect people from the coronavirus shows its irresponsible handling of the COVID-19 crisis (Wilson, 2020).[5]
Great Leadership is different from populism – The Indian Prime Minister like many other leaders around the world is arguably a populist. This is evident from some of his popular actions like getting all Indians to clap hands at the same time and on another occasion getting everyone to turn the lights out and light candles ‘diyas’ for 9 minutes at 9pm. Popularity and populism will not win the battle against the Pandemic. The true test of his leadership will be how well he manages the fallout from this pandemic, irrespective of his popularity.
Consider India’s leadership response to that of neighbouring Sri Lanka. As the origin of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan was announced, Sri Lankan authorities started to take vigilance in stopping the potential danger. The military forces and the national intelligence service were put on high alert. The government created specialized aviation and border control expert teams, to track the movement of all inbound tourists and with a potential threat. Sri Lanka was one of the first countries to send rescue missions to Wuhan to evacuate 33 Sri Lankan families. The families were brought down via an exclusive carrier and quarantined in a unique quarantine military facility. All potential contacts were observed continuously under quarantine. Those in the military facility were given full access to information; and there was no government control of information, hence increasing its reliability.[6]
This explains why although Sri Lanka is placed a lowly 93rd in the CPI ranks; it is ranked 10th on the GRIDTM Index alongside countries such as Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The reason Sri Lanka responded so well is because Sri Lanka has a public health system which is free for all citizens. Going hand in hand, Sri Lanka has had a free education system until graduate school for the last 60 years; thanks to which it has trained thousands of well-qualified healthcare professionals and paramedical workforce for many decades through well-regulated and state of the art medical faculties covering all regions of the country; all free of charge. The doctors and paramedical staff receive post-graduate training and continuous medical education throughout their career. The island nation also has a robust century-old community health program. Health statistics such as maternal and child mortality rates are the lowest in the region. In fact, comparable to the western world. The life expectancy is highest in the region. The nation is 100% vaccination covered, and all treatments under the extended program of immunization are administered free of charge.
European Union
The European Union, UK and USA are currently the nations that are worst affected by the pandemic – the top 5 affected countries in the world being USA, Spain, Italy, France and Germany. Nine of top twelve affected countries are in Europe, Out of all the European countries seriously affected by COVID-19, Germany has best managed this crisis – not so much in containing the outbreak but in managing the fallout from the outbreak – `with a mortality rate below 2%. Germany was hampered by its open borders with the rest of Europe, specially Italy, which led to the high number of cases in the country. However, it seems to have managed the crisis exceptionally well. The New York Times has credited Chancellor Angela Merkel’s leadership as one reason the fatality rate has been kept low.
Ms. Merkel, a trained scientist, has communicated clearly, calmly and regularly throughout the crisis, as she imposed ever-stricter social distancing measures on the country. The restrictions, which have been crucial to slowing the spread of the pandemic, met with little political opposition and are broadly followed” (Bennhold, 2020).[7]
Arguably the Worst Response – USA
History will be the judge of the leadership of the crisis by its President, Donald Trump. Opinion in the US is bitterly divided along partisan lines but from outside the US it is very clear that so far, his handling of the COVID-19 crisis has been disastrous and might potentially result in hundreds of thousands of lives lost.
Trump initially declared the virus to be hoax perpetuated by his political opponents and at every step of the denial he has bumbled along playing partisan politics and severely reprimanding the press for asking questions. He refuses to take any responsibility and keeps repeating that the pandemic is not ‘his fault’. The utter unpreparedness and disarray of the USA for a pandemic indicates an appalling lack of leadership on Trump’s part, as well as the limitations inherent within the US when trying to implement nation-wide responses. The 2018 disbanding of a National Security Council unit set up by President Obama to focus on pandemic preparedness is an appalling lack of vision on the part of the Trump administration. The loss of stockpiled respirators to breakage because the federal government let maintenance contracts lapse in 2018 is a callous decision by the Trump administration that could otherwise prevent loss of precious lives in times of a pandemic like current COVID-19. The failure to store sufficient protective medical gear in the national arsenal represents the Trump administration’s failure towards protecting America’s valuable healthcare professionals. The gob-smacking spectacle of States bidding against other states for equipment, paying many multiples of the pre-crisis price for ventilators, shows an appalling lack of management skills by Trumps federal administration. Moreover, his constant public flip-flopping in his attitudes towards, and responses to the crisis, have confused the public.
Air travellers summoned home and forced to stand for hours in dense airport crowds alongside infected people – demonstrates a lack of nurturing and care towards the American people. Ten weeks of insisting that the coronavirus is a harmless flu that would miraculously go away on its own, is a clear indicator of Trump’s lack of understanding and reckless train of thought. The refusal of Republican State Governors to act promptly as illustrated by the failure to close Florida and Gulf Coast beaches until late March, are further proof of a lack of leadership at the highest levels. No doubt these State Governors share some of the blame, but the buck stops with President, Donald Trump. As President of the USA, he could have insisted they be closed, but he did not.[8] Experts increasingly point to President Trump’s willful negligence as a primary cause of the pandemic’s intensity, but MSNBC legal analyst Glenn Kirscher, takes things a step further, arguing controversially that Trump could be legally liable for coronavirus deaths after he leaves office.
I actually think he will see charges brought in each jurisdiction in which people have died as a result of his gross negligence. So, I have a feeling that he has got a lot of criminal legal exposure coming at him beginning in January 2021.[9]
The impact of the failure of Trump’s leadership are stark and clear for all to see – at the time of writing the COVID-19 cases confirmed in the US are well over half a million, and the President of the USA is on record as saying that restricting the death toll to 200,000 would be considered a great achievement. Clearly, this leader shows a remarkable lack of care for the people in his charge.
Global Response to Infectious Disease (GRIDTM) to Evaluate the Global Response and Leadership
In constructing a GRIDTM Index to evaluate the Global Response and Leadership in the COVID-19 Pandemic, an algorithm was developed incorporating the number of tests per million of population (weighted positive score) , the number of deaths per cases (weighted negative score), the number of deaths per million of population (weighted negative score), the number of cases per million of population (weighted negative score) and the CP Index (weighted positive score). The Raw data for the purpose of this ICMA research study was obtained from the worldometer[10] website. The reason for using these numbers are as follows:
Some of the results obtained in the GRIDTM Index for are provided in Appendix 1.
Against each country, the comparative CP Index score and rank from Transparency International is shown besides the GRIDTM Index ranking. Apart from a few outliers, there seems to be a positive co-relationship between the two Indices. To start with, both the Indices have a common leader – New Zealand. Australia ranks 4th in the GRIDTM index which is better than its ranking of 12th on the CP Index. That is partly because of its unique geographical and other factors, all of which would have been totally useless if its leadership had not stepped up to the plate. On the other hand, European countries have been badly hampered by geopolitical factors like open borders and climatic factors such as the colder climate. Let us compare South Korea with the USA, since both countries had their first case of COVID-19 on the 20th of January – USA ranks 23rd on the transparency Index and South Korea ranks 39th. On the GRIDTM index score, South Korea ranks 8th in its efficiency and effectiveness in its response, and the US ranks 70th mainly because of President Trump’s abject failure and inability to protect his people. South Korea reacted quickly and decisively testing and isolating in record numbers early in stark contrast with Trump who buried his head in the sand calling the virus a hoax perpetuated by his political opponents. The result was that lives were saved in South Korea, and lives were tragically lost in the USA. The death toll in the US is currently 23,644 (as of 14th April, 2020) and was growing by 2,000 a day; whereas the death toll in South Korea is 222.
Many countries seem to be doing relatively well on the GRIDTM Index, based on the fact that the virus is only just beginning to take effect in those countries. Brazil is an example where the behavior and leadership style of its President Jair Bolsonaro is very similar to that of Trump. Like Trump, he is fighting the Governors of states that are taking the Pandemic seriously. Consequently, the Pandemic is now exploding in Brazil with about two thousand new cases every day and over a hundred deaths each day. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, also followed these myopic leaders in asking Mexicans to live life as normal”, even as his health minister asked people to stay home. The Pandemic is rising in Mexico and their death toll is rising. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also took things lightly even shaking hands with Covid19 patients, and he almost paid for this irresponsible behavior with his life. Luckily for him, he got the best VIP treatment the NHS could provide and access to an ICU and is now recovering. Other citizens of his country have not been as lucky with a death toll currently near 9,000 which is an astonishing 10% of the confirmed cases.
The crisis is far from over. It is clear from the data we have so far that the actions of leaders in this Pandemic will either save lives or cost lives. The countries with good leadership at the helm will be able to save more lives and the countries where the leadership is either callous, negligent or inefficient will pay a heavy price for the failures of its leaders.
The GRIDTM index algorithm is constantly being refined as new information comes in. What we have provided here are the results of the first iteration. The performance of individual countries might change in the coming days and so will their position on the index. For example, Singapore handled the initial outburst of COVID-19 cases very well without locking down their economy. Now they too are forced to close down with the second spike of cases. However, it helps that they have a leader at the helm who said: We are transparent – if there is bad news, we tell you. If there are things which need to be done, we also tell you. If people do not trust you, even if you have the right measures, it is going to be very hard to get them implemented.” [11]
Singapore is high on both the CP Index and the GRIDTM Index.
For most of us born post World War II, this is the biggest unprecedented crisis our world has faced in our life time. Our leaders will be judged by their performance during the course of this crisis. Some leaders have already failed their constituents and other leaders have stepped up to the plate. In this ongoing Pandemic and the biggest crisis of our lives, the requirement for good leadership has never been greater. Leaders who show genuine empathy and efficiently take care for the citizens of their country will be remembered and those who fail the test with misguided agendas and mediocre leadership will be judged harshly by history.
[1] https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
[2] Transparency International – Corruption Perception Index 2019 https://www.transparency.org/cpi2019
[3] APF (2020), WHO demands more data on virus from Mideast states”, Business Standard, https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/who-demands-more-data-on-virus-from-mideast-states-120031801522_1.html
[4] Swati Chaturvedi – From Thackeray To Gehlot, Effective Corona-Fighting In States – NDTV April 7, 2020, https://www.ndtv.com/opinion/gehlots-bhilwara-model-sets-standard-for-corona-fight-2207491
[5] James Wilson – Test not find not – Frontline April 10, 2020, https://frontline.thehindu.com/cover-story/article31272654.ece
[6] Health Review Global (220), Sri Lanka and Coronavirus, https://healthreviewglobal.com/sri-lanka-coronavirus-update-setting-a-global-example/
[7] Katrin Bennhold – A German Exception? Why the Country’s Coronavirus Death Rate Is Low – The New York Times, April 4, 2020 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/04/world/europe/germany-coronavirus-death-rate.html
[8] David Frum – This Is Trump’s Fault – The Atlantic – April 7, 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/americans-are-paying-the-price-for-trumps-failures/609532/
[9] Deconstructed, Is Donald Trump Criminally Responsible for Coronavirus Deaths?” – The Intercept,2 April, 2020 https://theintercept.com/2020/04/02/is-donald-trump-criminally-responsible-for-coronavirus-deaths/
[10] https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
[11] Olivia Ho Coronavirus could take years to run its course: PM Lee – The Straits Times – 30th March, 2020. https://www.straitstimes.com/politics/coronavirus-could-take-years-to-run-its-course-pm-lee
Archbishop of Colombo His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has appealed to all Sri Lankans to observe a two-minute silence at 8.45 am on April 21, in remembrance of those who were killed in the terrorist carnage on Easter Sunday last year.
In a media briefing at the Archbishop’s House in Colombo today (16), the Cardinal requested the public to observe the two-minute silence at their respective homes, without holding any gatherings.
Speaking further, he noted that all the programs that were planned for the one-year commemoration of Eater attacks have to be adjusted due to the situation that prevails in the country.
Few suggestions made by the Cardinal to commemorate the victims of the carnage are as follows:
•Ringing the bells at all churches at 8.40 am on April 21. (The Cardinal also made a request to Buddhist temples to ring the bells in solidarity.)
•Observing a two-minute silence
•Lighting a lamp and observe religious practices at homes
The Cardinal also commended the government for continuing the investigations into the Easter Sunday terror attacks.
Currently, 68 patients have recovered from the coronavirus infection and discharged from the hospitals, says the Department of Government Information.
Thereby, 5 patients have completely recovered and discharged within the day.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka has reported no new COVID-19 positive cases as of 5 pm this evening (16), says Director-General of Health Services Dr. Anil Jasinghe.
Accordingly, there is no change to the total number of coronavirus patients found in Sri Lanka, which is 238.
Currently, 163 active cases are under medical care at Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH), Welikanda Base Hospital, Colombo East Base Hospital and Iranawila Hospital.
The island has confirmed 7 fatalities from the novel coronavirus.
Meeting with the secretaries to ministries yesterday (15) at the Presidential Secretariat, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa discussed rebuilding the economy in the face of the current challenges.
Returning to normalcy without compromising safety
A focal point of the discussion was on returning to normalcy, stated president’s Media Division. Thereby, the President emphasized the need for the public and private sectors to recommence its business activities. Thus curfew needs to be eased to allow these functionalities to proceed without undue obstruction. The responsibility of ensuring the public adhering to safety regulations and preventing large gatherings was entrusted on the secretaries to the ministries as well as heads of institutes.
Creating a New Economic Trend
Rebuilding a policy-driven economy is the responsibility of all, noted President. Whilst protecting people and the local economy, the responsibility of creating a new economic trend lies with the ministries. It is important to establish new businesses and industries. Experienced entrepreneurs must have fresh opportunities. The relevant ministries must at the same time extend the required foundation and support needed for agrarian and fisheries sectors as well as other businesses to recover.
Taking the global crisis into consideration, the need to pay special attention to the local agrarian economy was underlined. Facilities needed to maximize production of export agricultural crops from available land must also be provided, President instructed the officials. Thus it is very important that even the farmer at the village level has easy access to the State machinery.
Recommencing stalled development projects
The discussions also centered on restarting the development projects that were halted due to the prevailing crisis. As a starting point, the initiation to add 100,000 km to the existing road network was decided to be prioritized.
Secretary to the President P. B. Jayasundara, Principal Advisor to President Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary to the Prime Minister Gamini Senarath and Cabinet Secretary S. Amarasekera also joined the discussion.
The government of China has donated yet another batch of medical supplies to Sri Lanka, said the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka.
Accordingly, the batch of medical supplies is to be air-freighted from Shanghai to Colombo by China Eastern Airlines tomorrow (17).
The latest batch of governmental aid includes:
– 20,016 test Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Nucleic Acid Diagnostic Kits(PCR-Fluorescence Probing)
– 10,000pc Medical Protective Face Mask (Filtration rate≥95%);
– 100,000pc Surgical Face Mask (3-layers);
– 10,000pc Disposable Coverall (Type: one-piece coverall);
– 1,000pc Medical Goggle (Anti-splash, Anti-impact, Anti-fog);
– 50,000pair Single-use Rubber Surgical Gloves (Material: natural rubber latex),
The Chinese government has also included a total CIP price of US Dollar 693,191.2, as well.
The Embassy of China says that ‘it avails itself this opportunity to renew to the Sri Lankan government, her people and all the medical workers the assurances of its highest consideration, respect, and best wishes in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic’.
The Island newspaper of April 10, 2020, in a front page news report (PB ‘reads Election Act’ to EC chief”), published a letter dated April 06, 2020 addressed to the Chairman of the Election Commission Mahinda Deshapriya by Presidential Secretary P.B. Jayasundara, which was in response to two letters from the former to the latter dated March 31 and April 01, 2020 under the title ‘Parliamentary Election 2020 and Date of Summoning of the New Parliament’. The president’s secretary expresses surprise ‘that letters which have been sent for the attention of His Excellency the President by the Election Commission, in respect of the official functions of the President of Republic, have been released to the press, prior to the receipt of the letters by this office and that the same have also been copied to several others’. He also points out that though the commissioner is obliged to give an alternative date for the election in the gazette notification issued under Section 24(3) in the event it could not be held on the originally specified date of April 25, 2020, regrettably, he has failed to do so, as the presidential secretary remarks. The highest civil administrative further explains that deciding the date of the election is the responsibility of the Election Commission and that the president has no wish to interfere with the duties and obligations of the EC. The presidential secretary finally informs the EC chairman that the question of consulting the Supreme Court in terms of Article 129 of the Constitution does not arise. (But EC member Ratnajeevan Hoole points out {as reported in Sunday Island/April 12} that it is still the case that averting a constitutional crisis is in the hands of the president, because only the president could consult the apex court about the matter, in Hoole’s opinion.)
An important aspect of the backdrop to the allegedly looming constitutional q impasse may be inferred from the following circumstances: At a time when politicians in general had earned a bad name largely due to the irresponsible behaviour of some elected buffoons in the dysfunctional parliament that was dissolved on March 02,2020, non-politician Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, a former Secretary of Defence, and also, of the Urban Development Authority, was elected by the people of Sri Lanka with the largest majority ever (over 1.3 million votes) to the post of executive president. Sri Lankans had been driven to despair by the Yahapalanya (2015-19) that, some of its critics rightly or wrongly felt, rode roughshod over the innocent majority Sinhalese at the behest of foreign powers with geopolitical axes to grind and separatists and INGOs parasitizing on those global powers unilaterally condemning them (the Sinhalese) as racists, xenophobes, chauvinists, and so on, whereas the truth is that the Sinhalese majority are the victims of racism, xenophobia, chauvinism, and other similarly reprehensible attitudes on the part of their critics (who should not be identified with the ordinary members of the minority communities that they falsely claim are illtreated by the majority community). It is suspected that these anti-national elements dominate/manipulate the media, especially the English press. Misinformation keeps the truth buried and out of sight. Because of this, the term ‘international’ has become synonymous with the word ‘anti-national’ from the point of view of ordinary Sri Lankans. But nationalists always welcome and reciprocate the goodwill of other nations, subject to the principle of non-interference in each other’s internal affairs.
Unfortunately, it has begun to look as if the EC, appointed under the failed Yahapalana regime,were in sympathy with this anti-majority/Sinhalese mentality, and as if it (the EC) were sharing the opposition’s fears of parliamentary elections being held in the near future before the electorate has had enough time to forget about their past misrule. (But some of the defeated politicos of the opposition now seemingly favour early elections, apparently believing that the Corona-hit conditions have made the government unpopular enough for them to recoup their past electoral losses. As far as Hoole is concerned however, the Covid-19 pandemic is a godsend for him to try and get the president to seek supreme court advice in the hope or his wishful thinking that its decision would be favourable to the opposition side.) The conduct of two of the three members of the Commission, chairman Mahinda Deshapriya and member Ratnajeevan Hoole, is confirming the popular perception that they have a strong anti-majority bias. Hoole, compromised his credibility as a member of the EC, in addition to the integrity and independence of that honourable body, when he, among a number of others, challenged the dissolution of parliament in November 2018, thereby potentially seeking to prevent the holding of elections for a new parliament, for, by doing so, he appeared to be trying to rob the people of their right to vote at a critical juncture that demanded a change of government. In any case, the dissolution of parliament by the previous president was declared unconstitutional and the administration formed under Mahinda Rajapaksa came to an end limiting its existence to just 51 days, during which, they claimed, they were able to impede the disastrous course that the Yahapalanaya was set on, thereby preventing it from rushing some greatly harmful legislation through parliament. Before that, Hoole, while still being a member of the EC, egged on TNA’s Sumanthiran (then MP) ruling the roost in a parliament emasculated through the premature unraveling of the unholy Yahapalana alliance like Hedda’s ‘the only cock in the yard’ in Ibsen’s play ‘Hedda Gabler’, (a description she used to taunt Brack, the friendly but unwelcome stalker, for always using ‘the back way’ for drawing her attention). For his part, chairman of the EC Mahinda Deshapriya was once heard, if my memory is not wrong, making a casually enigmatic remark to the effect that in a multiethnic democracy the view of the majority was not the correct one!
With the quietly menacing entry of the impact of the global Covid-19 crisis into the island and the growing intensification of activities on a national scale aimed at containing it, involving the governmental health and security departments, Mahinda Deshapriya began repeatedly reminding/warning politicians, particularly government party politicians, against trying to make political capital out of those activities. Constitutionally, he has a right to do so in the post-dissolution period pending elections, but the bias he shows in this context perceptibly in favour of one party (the opposition side) and to the detriment of the other (government side) is unacceptable, to say the least. When an election has been announced, politicians in the ruling party naturally tend to draw such criticisms from the opposition ranks, whether they are guilty of abusing their functional authority for political advantage or not. Nominations having been accepted, the contestants are now known. Some unscrupulous ones among them are likely to promote themselves by participating in relief operations aimed at helping people stranded in an indefinite countrywide lockdown situation. However, it is not fair to expect them to focus on expressly demonstrating their candour in this connection instead of on successfully executing the tasks assigned them by their respective leaders in the COVD-19 pandemic related emergency. Their participation is indispensable, but how genuine their commitment to the national endeavour is hard to determine. They need to be given the benefit of the doubt. In reality, therefore, the EC chairman is vulnerable to the accusation of politicising the Covid-19 emergency to the advantage of the opposition and to the disadvantage of the governing party. The leader of the National Freedom Front Minister Wimal Weerawansa directly addressed Deshapriya on air from a live interview at Derana TV with anchor Dilka Samanmalee on April 6 and gave him a comprehensive hard hitting answer over this particular issue; Weerawansa demanded that Deshapriya first stop Hoole politicizing the Corona crisis, which the latter was unashamedly still doing. Hoole had told the BBC, quite falsely as usual with him, that under Gotabhaya the country was moving towards a dictatorship. Weerawansa pointed out that it was not possible for the government and the health and security services alone to successfully handle the national Corona control effort; they needed the fullest participation of all including the opposition parties and alliances. Elections could be held when the conditions are safe. The EC had the constitutional authority to fix the date of the election.
Lanka C News (April 15) reported Ven. Alle Gunawansa, a known supporter of the Gotabhaya-Mahinda government, as having stated that though there appear to be a group that is pushing for an early election, the idea should not be entertained until the country is completely safe from the Corona affliction. At a time when the president, the tri-services and the health authorities are successfully handling the epidemic containment job, they need to be allowed to finish it properly. No doubt, this is the government’s attitude.
කොරෝනාව නිසා දේශපාලන වාසි ගන්නට ගහ ගන්නා දේශපාලකයින් කොතෙකුත් සිටිනවා වියහැකිය. මා දන්නා රටවල් දෙකක් ඇත. ඇමෙරිකාවේ ජනාධිපති, ප්රාන්ත ආණ්ඩුකාරවරු හා දේශපාලන පක්ෂ දෙක එසේ කොණ්ඩවලු පටලවා ගනිමින් සිටී. ලංකාවේ මා දකින්නේ මීට වෙනස් දෙයකි. එහි තිබෙන්නේ ලෝකයේ වෙන කොහේවත් නැති කැත, කුහක, දේශ ද්රෝහී, බලු හැසිරීම්වල සම්මිශ්රණයකි.. මහජනයා විසින් බලයෙන් පහකල යහපාලන හොරු රැළක් විසින් (ජේවීපීද ඇතුළුව) කෙසේ හෝ ආසන කීයක්වත් දිනා ගැනීමේ ඒකායන අභිප්රායෙන් කියන මෝඩ කතාය. මේ කතා නිසා රැවටෙන අවංක මෝඩ චන්දදායකයින් සතුටු කිරීම මොවුන් ලබන චූන් එකය. ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය විසින් ගෙනයන කොරෝනා කළමනාකරණ වැඩපිළිවෙල මේ කුහකයින්ට විඳදරා ගත නොහැකිව සිටී. නිදොස් කෙනෙක් මෙදියත උපදනේ නැත කියන පරිදි මෙම කළමනාකරණයේ නොයෙක් අඩුපාඩු ඇතිබව සැබෑය.
ලංකාවේ දැනට ඇත්තේ බකල් කරණලද, අසංවිධානාත්මක, පක්ෂ දේශපාලන ගැත්තන්ද සහිත රාජ්ය නිලධාරී පරිපාලන තන්ත්රයකි. මේවා සුද්ද කිරීමට ලීක්වාන්ලා අවශ්ය නැත. ආණ්ඩු විරෝධී ග්රාම සේවකලා, සමෘධි නිලධාරීන් සිටිනවා නිසැකය. එහෙත් මම, හිටපු ජනාධිපති චන්ද්රිකා, මහින්ද හෝ සිරිසේන කෙනෙක් නොව මම ගෝඨාභය, මට ඉන්නේ පරණ අයගේ උපදේශකයින් සෙට් එක නොව, අළුත් කණ්ඩායමක් යයි කියනු ඇසෙන විට රට වැසියා, විශේෂයෙන් සිංහල බෞද්ධ චන්දදායකයා ඉන් ඉමහත් අස්වැසිල්ලක් ලබනවා නිසැකය. එහෙත් මේ කියමන රනිල්, සජිත් පිල් දෙකට, සරත් ෆොන්සේකාට හා ජේවීපීකාරයින්ට ඉවසා ගත නොහැකි කම්මුල්පාරක් නොවේද?
එක අතකින් මේ කුහක හැසිරීම, ජාති ද්රෝහී හැසිරීම පුදුමයට කරුණක්ද නොවේ. රනිල්, රවි, කිරිැල්ලෙලා, ප්රභාකරන් හරහා ඒ කාලේ කලේත් මෙයමය. ලංකාවට විදේශ ආධාර නොදෙන්නයි ඉල්ලන තරමට රනිල් දුෂ්ටයෙක් විය. පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ අයවැය පරදා යුද්ධය ආපස්සට හරවන්නට මොහු ගත් වෑයම වැලැක්වූයේ විමල් වීරවංශ විසින් ජේවීපි පිරිස සමඟ කල අභ්යන්තර අරගලයක් මඟිනි. මේ යුද්ධය නම් කවදාවත් දිණන්න බෑ කියන්නට අනුර බණ්ඩාරනායක පවා අන්ධයෙක් විය. තොප්පිගල කියන්නේ කැලයක්, සල්ලි තියෙනවා නම් ඕනෑම ගොනෙකුට වුනත් යුද්ධ දිණන්න පුළුවන්, අලිමංකඩ කියා පාමංකඩ යනවා, කිලිනොච්චි කියා මැදවච්චි යනවා, හමුදාපති සැල්වේශන් හමුදාපති යනාදි ගොන් කතා කී මේ කල්ලියේ අළුත් ගොන්ම ප්රකාශය නම් රනිල් විසින් බීබීසී එකට කිව්වා කියන, නිලධාරීන් කොරෝනාව පාලනය කලා එහෙත් ආණ්ඩුව අසමත් වුනා යන කතාවය. රනිල්ගේ ජාති ද්රෝහී හැසිරීම නිසා ඔහුට උරුමවූයේ එක දිගටම චන්ද පරාජය වීම නමැති රෝගයය. ඔහුව එලවා ගැනීමට පාක්ෂික කල්ලි නොකල දෙයක් නැත්තේ රටට ආදරයටම නොවන බව දැන් කුරුඳුපොලු කාරයින්ගේ හා සජිත් පිලේ කොරෝනා කතා වලින් එලිවන්නේය.
මේ කුහකයින්ගේ හැසිරීම මතක් කරන්නේ මඟ සිටියොත් තෝ නසී, ගෙදර ගියොත් අඹු නසී යන කියමණය. ආණ්ඩුව මොනදේ කලත් මුන් දකින්නේ එහි වැරදි පැත්තක්මය. සජිත් පාමසි දොස්තර වැඩේ කරන්නට ගොස් නා ගෙන සමාව ඉල්ලා සිටියේද භාගෙටය. සමහරු ඇඳිරි නීතිය වැඩි කරන්න කියති. තවත් සමහරු ඒ නිසා මිනිස්සු බඩගින්නේ මැරෙණවා කියති. රංජන් ඒ අස්සේ දේශපාලන රැස්වීම් හා සම්භාහන වැඩ කරගන්නේ, තමා වැඩිම මනාපය ගත් මන්ත්රී කියමිනි. ඒ අස්සේ සුවපති, නැව්පති රාජිත ඔහුට නම් දින තුනෙන් මේ කොරෝනාව මර්ධනය කල හැකිව තිබුණා කියයි. සරත් ෆොන්සේකාත් හොට දමමින්, ලොක් අවුට් එක දාන්න ප්රමාදවුනා කියයි. පාසැල් වැහුවේ ගුරු සංගමයේ වැඩවර්ජනයට බයේ යැයි කලින්ම කියූ හිරුණිකා බබා දැන් නිහඬය. ජේවීපී කාරයින් කියන්නේ මොනවාද කියා මට මතක නැත. මොකක් හෝ අපභ්රංස, කෙස් පැළෙන තර්කයක්ම වියයුතුය. හැමදේම කියන්නේ චන්දය කල්දමා ගැනීමේ අරමුණින් බව හැමෝගේම පොදු සාධකය බව නම් පැහැදිලිය. ඒ අතර පරණ ජරා, කොළඹ බටහිර තානාපතිලාට අනුව ලෝකයේම උතුම්, පාර්ලිමේන්තුව, ආපසු කැඳවන ලෙස මැකෝ දේශප්රිය අල්ලාගෙන කරණ බැලුමක්ද විය. හරියට කොරෝනාව මේ අඥාන රැළේ හිස් ඔළුගෙඩි වලට එකපාරටම ඥාන-කල්කයක් විද්දා කියා සිතාය.
මේ ආයතනය බොරුවක් බවට හොඳම සහතිකය දුන්නේ පාලිත තේවරප්පෙරුමය. ඔහුට අනුව පක්ෂ නායකයින් ස්වල්ප දෙනෙක් සෙසු මන්ත්රීන් හරක්සේ සළකමින්, ඔවුන්ට නොයෙක් වරදාන (අල්ලස්) දෙමින් ගේමක් ගෙනයයි.කොරෝනාවට මුවාවී ගෝඨාභයට මඩ ගැසීමට, දවසකට කෝටි ගණන් වැයකර මොවුන්ට නොමිලේ කන්න සපයනවා හැර වෙන විශ්වකර්ම වැඩක් මොවුන්ට පහලවේවිද? ගෝඨාභය විසින් මේ බැලුමේ හුලං යවන ලදී. පාලිත කරණ අන්දමට පාරට බැස සාගින්නෙන් පෙලෙන ජනයාට කෑම බෙදීම වෙනුවට, මේ ප්රාණ වලට ඕනෑ දියවන්නා ඔයේ ගුබ්බෑයමටම රිංගීම නොවේද? මේ අය අතර යම් තරුණ හොඳ අතලොස්සක්ද සිටිනා නමුත් ඔවුන්ට කලහැකි දෙයක් නැත.
මැතිවරණ කොමිසමේ සාමාජික, යහපාලන ගැත්තෙක්වූ, හූල් විසින් රට ඒකාධිපතිවාදය කරා යනවා යයි විදේශ මාධ්යවලට කියමින් සිටී. කොරෝනාව විසින් රටට ඉගැන්වූ වැදගත්ම පාඩම නම්, රටේ මේ තියෙනවා කියන නාස්ලණු ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය, ක්රමාණුකූලව, සංශොධනය කල යුතු බවය. ලෝකයේම ඕ මයි ගොඩ් කියන අය අතට අත දීම අත්හැර ඉන්නා කාලයක මෙය කජු කන්නා වගේ රාජකාරියක් නොවේද? ජනයා අසංවරලෙස හැසිරෙණ ආකාරය, සමෘධි හිඟන දීමනාව ගම් මට්ටමින් මිනිසුන් පක්ෂ ලැයිතු අනුව බෙදන ආකාරය, ඔවුන් ඇත්තටම ආත්මගෞරවයක් නැති හිඟන්නන් කර ඇති හැටි මහියංගන ගම් ප්රදේශයක දේශපාලක වල්ග සමෘධි නිලධාරිණියකට කල හිරිහැර (පැය භාගයක යූටියුබ් වීඩියෝවක්) මඟින් එලිවේ.
පන්සල, පොලිසිය, යුද හමුදාව, ජන මූල සභාව, ග්රාම සේවා වසමක ඉන්නා රාජ්ය නිලධාරීන් පස් දෙනා (ග්රාම සේවක, ආර්ථික සංවර්ධන නිලධාරී, සමෘධි නිලධාරී, සෞඛ්ය නිලධාරී, කෘෂි පර්යේෂක නිලධාරී) සමූපාකර සමිතිය, සණස යන මේ ආයතන මඟින් ජනයාගේ මූලික අවශ්යතා වන ආහාර, වස්ත්ර, ආවරණ, සෞඛ්ය-සනීපාරක්ෂාව, පාරවල්, ගමනාගමනය, පෙර පාසැල්, වැව් පිළිසකර කිරීම යනාදිය පක්ෂ දේශපාලකයාගෙන් තොරව ඉටු කිරීමේ වැඩපිළිවෙලක් සැදීම ඒකාධිපතිවාදය නම් ඊට විරුද්ධවන්නේ, දැනට, බොරු ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය හරහා සැප විඳින, රට සූරා කන, රට කැඩීමට ක්රියාකරණ කළු සුද්දන්, එන්ජිිෝ ඩොලර් කාක්කන්, විදේශ ඔත්තුකාරයින් පමණය. කොළඹ ධනපතියන් මෙන්ම මොන උප්පරවැට්ටියකින් හෝ සල්ලි ගොඩගසාගත් ගම්බද සරොං කාරයිනුත් මේ කළු සුද්දන් ගනයට වැටේ. ගැමි දිරිය නම් දේශපාලකයාගේ මැදිහත්වීමෙන් තොරව ගෙනගිය සාර්ථක ව්යාපාරයක් නොබෝදා රටේ තිබුණ බව බොහෝ දෙනා නොදනී. ජන මූල සභා අනුගමනය කල යුත්තේ ඒ නතර කල මඟ මිස දිවි නැඟුම-සමෘධි නියාමක පාර නොවේ.
In trying to take advantage of the lockdown that we have been subjected to, I decided to read a book on digital technology from which I had previously read here and there, this time with a determination of understanding it better. It had been written by a famous professor (US) who had inspired the likes of Linus Torvalds and the Norwegian duo Alf and Vegard (college students) to invent the Linux operating system and the AVR technology, respectively. The AVR technology in particular is used in many electronic devices today. This professor is old (same as me) but is still serving in a famous university in the Netherlands. And it dawned on me that this is an opportune moment for GOSL to take advantage to enlighten many youths (and even adults) about the digital technology using the electronic media and their ICTA guys. Yesterday morning I was watching a TV program in ITN in which one psychologist taking part in the program said that normally our guys, when they go for an international event always take a back seat. Perhaps this may be the reason why we are backward when compared to those in countries like Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand and even India which were way behind us in the 60s. In the field of digital technology also we seem to have taken a backseat even though many businessmen come on various forums and talk about AI etc.
; TechNexion PCB design and manufacture in Taiwan
; Crash course1 on digital technology, the history
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Eight bit computer
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Founders of Microsoft, Bill Gates and Paul Allen not only had an intimate knowledge of the Basic and C languages they used (for the MSDOS system) but also had a good knowledge of the underlying hardware layers on which the microprogram operated. They had the confidence to leave the university courses they followed and start their endeavor that became the most valuable company in the world. After leaving the university they first enlisting themselves on a project with Washington road department for traffic count. The ‘engine’ of the laptop on which I am typing this today (Intel Core-i7 CPU on a 2016 Dell machine) is only an extension of Intel 8008 machine made in 1972 that they used in 1973. And this machine had so many problems the Microsoft seems to have been trying to solve from the time I bought it. They seem to have tried to gain hardware acceleration at the same time to keep it power efficient at the expense of poor users. The display of my computer was not stable from the time I bought it in 2016 in a foreign country and it stayed that way until quite recently when they had remotely updated it with a different booting system (UEFI). I had seen people coming from distant places like Badulla carrying the same laptop to service centers in Unity Plaza in Bambalapitiya in Colombo saying their computer is not waking up from hibernation.
Michael Dell was also a student in a university who experimented in building computers with cheap parts and when he found that his products were selling fast dropped out of uni to build his own company. He seems to be still experimenting in plants spread around the world. This particular machine I am using had been assembled in Malaysia but was unable to solve the problem when the vendor sent it there. So, why not our guys also embark on such ventures without fear?.
Because of the Corona virus our people have got the opportunity to make things like robots, ventilators, sanitizers etc for which we would have had to spend large amount of forex. So, necessity is the mother of invention and what I can say is automate, automate and automate for the next level. I have done this with software using AI techniques since 1990 in many of my projects, although it is only recently people have started talking about it
To my mind education as tool to keep parents and children occupied is just wastage of resources and time; it is alsonot the solution to develop our economy. It did not happen in Korea or Taiwan, it will not happen in Sri Lanka either; it will only produce more jobless graduates the GOSL has to take care of while those who do science and engineering will have no option other than to emigrate and still do menial jobs overseas. To my mind our guys working in big software companies here and abroad are doing jobs similar to those of house maids but in a more dignified way.
I appeal to GOSL to get their experts in the field of digital Technology to come forward and give a series of lectures that may be useful to students (and even adults) using the TV channels that has been freed from Teledramas and make the best use of enforced holiday. If this is done may be in the near future we will have not billionaires (we already have them in the US?) but challenge the likes of Elon Musk who owns Tesla. The following video describe his efforts:
; Will Elon Musk be the first trillionaire
This video below gives an assessment of the ventilator basics and how Teslas machine made with car parts compares with a real commercial one. This is for the Vega guys who built their own ventilator with their car parts.
; Tesla Ventilator (food for thought of Vega engineers).
I am open to take both criticism as well as any kind words as I had to, 30 years ago.
OPD of all hospitals are closed, there is no rush in the emergency ward. Private hospital make an enormous amount of money from people who tend to attend the OPD for a mild cough and cold
Doctors are given a financial reward for ordering tests which may not really be required
They are also paid for admitting patients
With corona, all these malpractices have stopped.
No new patients are coming apart from corona obstructed patients.
There are no accidents due to the lack of vehicles on the roads. People do not so summoneth liquor and stop smoking this saving state funds to treat them when they fall sick of drinking and smoking
Cases of heart attack, blood pressure, brain hemorrhage have suddenly reduced.
People tend to do meditation which reduces stress
One of my friend who has psoriasis told me that the mediation had drastically reduced skin ailment due to steeds relief
What has happened so suddenly that the cases of diseases have fallen so much? Even the number of dead in the crematorium has decreased.
Has Corona controlled or destroyed all other diseases?
*No, Absolutely not?*
Actually, now the reality is coming out that even where there is no serious disease, doctors were deliberately giving it serious form.
Ever since the influx of corporate hospitals, testing labs came into this country, the crisis had started deepening.
People were being forced to do tests worth thousands of rupees even in mild cold, cold and cough. Operations were being carried out indiscriminately even in a small amount of trouble.
Patients were being kept in ICU.
More fear of illness was felt through treatment.
Now after Corona, how will
Does all this suddenly stops?
In addition, there is another positive change.
Due to the arrival of Corona, there has been a curb on people eating in the hotel. People have started to prefer home food more than outside street food and even big hotels.
Many unnecessary spending of people has stopped.
Corona has changed the thinking of human beings.
Every person is awake.
*If you really understand how little needs are there to live in peace, then it can get rid of diseases, food and money concerns to a great extent. *
Tomorrow corona will be controlled, with that our life, which has been controlled today.
If we keep it in control in the same way, reduce the requirements, then life will become very pleasant and beautiful indeed.
*This is a bitter truth?*
*Definitely think about this once.*
Dr Sarath Obeysekera
CEO Walkers Colombo Shipyard
Colombo
Sri Lanka
The Pathfinder Foundation has set up a study group chaired by Pathfinder Senior Fellow and former Central Bank Governor, Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy to prepare a set of action-oriented recommendations aimed at steering the Sri Lankan economy into the post-COVID-19 era. Dr. Sisira Pinnawala, Department of Sociology University of Peradeniya and Dr. Ganeshan Wiganaraja, Executive Director, Lakshsman Kadirgamar Institute will serve as principal authors for this initiative. The report is expected to be presented to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa before the end of April.
Other members of the Study Group, which will consist of twenty leaders from academia, research and the private sector, include Prof. Sirimal Abeyratne, Prof. Saroj Jayasinghe, Prof. Rohan Samarajiva, Prof. Muttukrishna, Sarvanthan, Mr. Ashroff Omar, Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, Mr. Krishan Balendra, Mr. Mohamed Mushin.
Recently, the Pathfinder Foundation was responsible for preparing 1) A National Security Strategy for Sri Lanka 2020 and 2) Study on Managing Foreign Policy and Relations with the UN System, both of which were presented to President Rajapaksa.
Gamini Sarath Godakanda
අතිගරු ජනාධිපති,
ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා,
ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලය,
කොළඹ 01.
ගරු ජනාධිපතිතුමනි,
අධ්යාපනය සම්බන්ධව ජනාධිපති කාර්ය සාධන බලකායක් පිහිටුවීම සම්බන්ධවයි.
ඔබතුමාගේ නියමය පරිදි ආණ්ඩුක්රම ව්යවස්ථාවේ 33 වන ව්යස්ථාවේ පැවරී ඇති බලතල ප්රකාරව ජනාධිපති ලේකම් පී. බී. ජයසුන්දර මහතා විසින් අංක 2169/2 හා 2020. 03.31 දිනැතිව නිකුත් කර ඇති අතිවිශේෂ ගැසට් පත්රයක් මගින් ජනාධිපති කාර්ය සාධන බලකායක් පත්කර ඇත. එමගින් ශ්රී ලංකාවේ ප්රාථමික, ද්විතීයික හා තෘතියික අධ්යාපන ක්ෂේත්රයන් කාලීන අවශ්යතාවයන්ට උචිතවන සේ නවීකරණය කිරීමේ අවශ්යතාවයත්, මේ වනවිට උද්ගතවී ඇති කොරෝනා වසංගත තත්ත්වය හමුවේ අධ්යාපන ක්ෂේත්රයේ කිසිදු අයුරකින් පසුබෑමකට ලක්නොවී අඛණ්ඩව ඉදිරියට පවත්වාගෙන යාමේ ක්රමවේදයන් යොදා ගැනීමේ අවශ්යතාවත් අවධානයට ලක් කරමින්, සාමාජිකයින් 26 දෙනෙකු ඊට ඇතුළත් කර ඔවුන්ට බලතල පවරා ඇත. මෙම කාර්යසාධන බලකාය සම්බන්ධව ලංකා ගුරුසේවා සංගමය පහත සඳහන් කරුණු කෙරෙහි ඔබගේ අවධානය යොමු කිරීමට කැමැත්තෙමු.
02. මෙම කාර්ය සාධන බලකායෙහි සාමාජිකයින් 26 දෙනා පත්කිරීමේදී විශේෂයෙන් අධ්යාපන ප්රතිපත්ති සම්පාදනයෙහි ලා කටයුතු කරන ජාතික අධ්යාපන කොමිෂන් සභාවට අවස්ථාවක් ලබාදී නැත. එමෙන්ම අධ්යාපන අමාත්යාංශ යටතේ බලපැවැත්වෙන ජාතික අධ්යාපන ආයතනය හා විභාග දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව මෙන්ම මෙහි විවිධ ක්ෂේත්රයන් නියෝජනය කරන වෘත්තීය සමිති යන ආයතනද මින් බැහැර කර පෞද්ගලික පාසල් හා අර්ධ රාජ්ය පාසල් හිමිකරුවන්ට මුල් තැනක් ලබා දී තිබීම මෙහි කාර්ය සාධනය හා අරමුණු කෙරෙහි අනිසි බලපෑම් එල්ල වීම වැලැක්විය නොහැකි වනු ඇති බව දැඩිව අවධාරණය කරමු.
03. තවද මෙහිදී විශේෂයෙන් මෙරට අධ්යාපන ප්රතිපත්ති සම්පාදන ක්රියාවලියේ දී සෘජු වගකීම් දරන ජාතික අධ්යාපන කොමිෂන් සභාව මෙහි සාමාජිකයෙකු නොවීමත් ගේට්වේ පාසල් සමූහයේ ව්යාපාරිකයෙක් හා අර්ධ රාජ්ය පාසල්වල විදුහල්පතිවරුන් දෙදෙනෙක් සාමාජිකයින් වීමත් තුළ වර්තමාන ආණ්ඩුවේ ම අධ්යාපන ප්රතිසංස්කරණ කවර දිශානතියක් ගන්නේද යන්න මැනවින් පිළිබිඹු කරන්නකි.
04. එමෙන්ම මෙම පත් කිරීම් හා බලතල පැවරීම තුළ අධ්යාපන හා උසස් අධ්යාපන අමාත්යංශය යටතේ මෙන්ම නිපුණතා සංවර්ධන අමාත්යාංශය යටතේ බලපැවැත්වෙන රාජ්ය යාන්ත්රණය තුළට සෘජුවම අතපෙවීමට මෙම පිටස්තර ව්යාපාරිකයින්ට අවස්ථාව උදාකර දී ඇත. එහිදී මෙම අමාත්යංශය සතු බොහොමයක් දත්ත ඔවුන්ගේ අතට පත්වීම වැළැක්විය නොහැකි වනු ඇත. එමගින් මෙරට සිසු දරුවන්ගේ නිදහස් අධ්යාපන අයිතීන්ට බරපතළ අභියෝගයන්ට මුහුණ දීමට සිදුවීම වැලැක්විය නොහැකි වනු ඇති බව අපගේ විශ්වාසයයි.
05. තවද මෙම කොරෝනා වසංගතය හමුවේ නිදහස් සෞඛ්ය හා නිදහස් අධ්යාපන අයිතීන් වල බොහෝ වටිනාකම් රටත් ජනතාවත් ඉදිරියේ වඩවඩාත් දැනෙමින් හා තහවුරුවෙමින් පවතින අවස්ථාවකි. පසුගිය දශක ගණනාව තුළ මෙම අයිතිවාසිකම් බරපතළ ලෙස සංවාදයට ලක්ව ඇත. නමුත් මහ මැතිවරණයක් අභියස මෙරට අධ්යාපනයේ ප්රතිසංස්කරණයක් සඳහා කාර්ය සාධන බලකායක් කඩිමුඩියේ මෙසේ පත්කිරීම මවිතයට කරුණකි.
එහෙයින් ඔබගේ බලතල ප්රකාරව විචක්ෂණභාවය, සාමාර්ථය සහ විශ්වාසවන්තභාවය කෙරෙහි මහත් වූ භක්තිය හා විශ්වාසය මත පත්කළ බව සඳහන් මෙම කාර්ය සාධන බලකාය අවලංගුකර ඍජුව ම ආණ්ඩුක්රම ව්යවස්ථාවෙන් ද තහවුරු කර ඇති නිදහස් අධ්යාපන අයිතීන් ආරක්ෂා කර එය වඩාහිඳුවීමට සමත් ආයතනික නියෝජනයක් සහිත වගකීම්සහගත පාර්ශවයන්ගෙන් සැදුම්ලත් නව කාර්ය සාධන බළකායක් ස්ථාපිත කිරීමට කටයුතු කරන ලෙසත් එසේ නොවන්නේ නම් මිට එරෙහිව ලංකා ගුරු සේවා සංගමයට සෙසු වෘත්තීය සමිති සහ වෙනත් සිවිල් සංවිධාන ඒකාබද්ධව ඉදිරි ක්රියාමාර්ග වලට අවතීර්ණ වීමට සිදුවන බව මෙයින් දන්වා සිටිමු.
ස්තූතියි.
මෙයට,
විධායක සභාව වෙනුවෙන්,
මහින්ද ජයසිංහ
ප්රධාන ලේකම්,
ලංකා ගුරු සේවා සංගමය.
පිටපත්
ලේකම් – උසස් අධ්යාපන, තාක්ෂණ හා නවෝත්පාදන අමාත්යාංශය
ලේකම් – අධ්යාපන අමාත්යාංශය
ලේකම් – නිපුනතා සංවර්ධන, රැුකීරක්ෂා හා කම්කරු සබඳතා අමාත්යාංශය
Colombo, April 15 (newsin.asia): Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday explored the possibility of an immediate resumption of day-to-day economic activities at the provincial level to sustain the national economy.
Several representatives of the health sector including all Provincial Directors of Health briefed the President on the current situation in the country.
The provincial health authorities said that the measures taken by the government to combat the coronavirus have been effective compared to the rest of the world.
President instructed the Provincial Directors of Health to make necessary recommendations required to maintain normal activities in the industrial, agricultural and business sectors through the Director General of Health.
One of the main objectives is to pay a special attention to the livelihood of daily wage workers.
However, decisions to relax current restrictions will be taken only after consideration of the health situation at each provincial level.
Individuals who are infected with Corona virus at each province, people they have associated with and the current quarantine process were some of the topics discussed.
Attention was also paid to the system of identifying infected people on daily basis.
The President also inquired about the present conditions at quarantine centers and the changes needed to be made.
Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Secretary to the President, P.B. Jayasundara , Principal Advisor to the President, Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary Defence Major General (Retired) Kamal Gunaratne, Secretary to the Ministry of Health, Bhadrani Jayawardena, Chief of Defense Staff and Army Commander Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy, Rear Admiral Piyal De Silva, Commander of the Air Force, Air Marshal Sumangala Dias, Acting Inspector General of Police C. D. Wickremaratne and Director General of Health Services Dr. Anil Jasinghe attended the meeting, the Presidential Media Division said.
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