Courtesy theconversation.com/

Archaeological excavations deep within the rainforests of Sri Lanka have unearthed the earliest evidence for hunting with bows and arrows outside Africa.

At Fa-Hien Lena, a cave in the heart of Sri Lanka’s wet zone forests, we discovered numerous tools made of stone, bone, and tooth – including a number of small arrow points carved from bone which are about 48,000 years old.

When was the bow and arrow invented?

The invention of the bow and arrow allowed people to hunt prey at a much greater distance. People no longer had to get within a stone’s throw” of prey which could suddenly bolt and escape. This innovation greatly increased the chances of a successful hunt.

Bows and arrows also made it much safer to hunt dangerous prey. If you don’t have to get too close, you’re less likely to be trampled or mauled by a hurt and angry animal.

The origin of the bow and arrow is one of the great mysteries of human technological innovation. How did it come about? When? Where? And why?

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Read more: What a bone arrowhead from South Africa reveals about ancient human cognition

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Currently, the oldest evidence for the use of the bow and arrow are small stone points found in Sibudu cave in South Africa, which are some 64,000 years old.

Outside Africa, the oldest finds were previously pieces of bows found in Germany dating back no more than 18,000 years.

Because bows and arrows are mainly made from highly perishable stuff like wood, sinew, and fibres, they don’t leave a lot of evidence behind for archaeologists to find. So the small bone points recovered from Fa-Hien Lena are an important discovery.

The bone points show evidence for having been fixed to a small shaft and shot at high speed into prey – which were apparently mostly small monkeys and giant squirrels, judging by the butchered bones thrown away at the site after meals.

Complex tools, complex minds

The discovery of such ancient bone arrow points is startling in itself. However, we also found other tools which give equally rare insights into the lives of the earliest members of our species currently documented in Sri Lanka.

Particularly interesting are well-preserved knives, scrapers, and awls made from the bones and teeth of monkeys and deer, which were used to work skins or plant materials.

These tools are our only way to learn about the other, more fragile items that may originally have been at the site, because anything made from leather or plant fibre (such as clothing, bags, baskets, mats, or nets) stood no chance of surviving 48,000 years in the humid tropical environment.

One of these artefacts is an unusual implement with carefully spaced notches down each side. It appears to be a shuttle for creating nets of woven fibres. No doubt nets would have been incredibly useful for catching the tree-dwelling prey the people of Fa-Hien Lena hunted, as well as bringing the fish up from the rivers.

These rainforest pioneers also left behind evidence about their social lives in the form of white shell beads and small blocks of mineral pigments in bright colours: red, yellow, and silver.

Each of the pigment nodules show signs they were used to create paints for the body, and three of the bright red nodules were drilled to be strung as beads – something we have not found anywhere else in the world.

The white shell beads, on the other hand, are similar to those found in Africa and Eurasia, but were collected or traded from the coast some 20–30 kilometres away. Apparently, small, shiny, white shell beads never get old.

With these finds, it is becoming more and more clear that we have only just begun to scratch the surface when it comes to understanding the earliest modern human communities.

By Shivanthi Ranasinghe Courtesy Ceylon Today

At the recently concluded Ranawiru Day commemoration, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa vowed “not to allow anyone to exert undue pressure and harass our war heroes who have sacrificed so much for the country” to return to the status of peace and tranquility to the people and our country. 

He then expanded, “If any international body or organisation continuously targets our country and our war heroes, using baseless allegations, I will also not hesitate to withdraw Sri Lanka from such bodies or organisations”.

Continuous target 

Ironically, independent onlookers instantaneously assumed that he was referring to the UN. Since then, many subject experts have articulated their concerns. Many warn that while the President’s words are great for local consumption, leaving the UN is not an option for Sri Lanka. Instead, they advocate that Sri Lanka must stay on and continue to engage with the UN. 

The fact that almost all jumped to the conclusion that the President was referring to the UN exclusively and was not making a general statement should get the UN bigwigs to closely study the President’s statement. The statement that he will not hesitate to leave offending entity cannot be taken in isolation.

 Instead, it must be taken in conjunction with the conditions that he specified that must come true for him to leave such an entity. The two conditions for him to leave are, if “our country and our war heroes” continue to be “targeted using baseless allegations”. 

Thus, the stress should be on “continuously target” Sri Lanka and “baseless allegations,” rather than on just target Sri Lanka with accusations. The allegations must be both baseless and continuous beyond reason for such a drastic step to be activated. 

Concrete evidence a prerequisite 

Therefore, President Gotabaya’s loaded statement can also be correctly interpreted as; any entity has the space to raise questions about our Military Forces’ conduct as long as it is not baseless. The charge must be followed with tangible evidence. This means, if there is evidence on which one can conduct a credible investigation, it will be done so. 

Hence, it is not enough to simply level allegations such as thousands had disappeared and insinuate that all disappearances had been involuntarily enforced. Each person who is alleged to have disappeared must be accompanied with details such as a name, his NIC number or some form of identification (if he is a minor) and so on. Otherwise, an investigation simply cannot be conducted on the mere allegation that “thousands have disappeared”.

A la Deutsch – the German way

It is not only the paucity of information that has stalled Sri Lanka’s efforts of conducting thorough investigations. It is also the lack of cooperation from the accusers. A classic case would be the arrest by German authorities of a person involved in Sri Lanka’s then Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar’s assassination. 

He, identified as only “Navanithan G” in line with German privacy rules, had applied for asylum in Germany in 2012. The war ended in 2009. At the asylum interview, he had admitted to have been a member of the LTTE. 

Instead of handing him over instantly to Sri Lankan authorities for further investigations, the German authorities arrested him in January 2019 and in 2020 sentenced him to prison for six years and ten months. As Germany did not share their information with Sri Lanka, our authorities still do not know the identity of Navanithan. 

He may well be listed as missing in Sri Lanka. How did he arrive in Germany? Did he leave Sri Lanka alone, if not, where are the others who accompanied him? What was he doing in Germany for seven years before his arrest? 

Navanithan is not an isolated incident. Over the past 11 years such “disappeared” persons have surfaced from many places including Tamil Nadu, Europe and Australia. Yet, none of these countries agree to cooperate with Sri Lanka to locate those who had disappeared from the Island but now settled in their countries. 

By allowing those with a criminal past, still nurturing the LTTE ideology, capable of unleashing violence against fellow Tamils domiciled in these countries such as extortion without any form of rehabilitation carries a risk. 

Yet, clearly it is a risk these countries are willing to carry. In 2009, summoning the UNHRC for a special session Germany tried to pass a resolution against Sri Lanka citing war crimes. Yet, Germany is unwilling to corporate with the Sri Lankan authorities to conduct investigations into these allegations. 

Navanithan gets German crime record!

Sri Lanka, instead of prosecuting the LTTE cadres, sent former LTTE cadres into rehabilitation. This was designed with the help of international experts, including Harvard. The programme, ranged from six months to two years depending on how high the level of LTTE ideology was indoctrinated, the cadres were either sent back to school or trained in a vocational skill. 

Afterwards, much support was extended to them to reintegrate into society and rebuild their lives. They now live amongst citizens without any branding or blemish attached to them. 

Thus, it is not as if cooperating with the Sri Lankan authorities would result in former LTTE cadres been subjected to gross human rights violations. Hence, the reluctance of countries that accuse Sri Lanka of war crimes to cooperate is questionable. 

The irony is, had Navanithan surrendered to the Sri Lankan authorities, the chances are that by now he would have been able to firmly put his violent past behind him. As it turned out, 11 years after the war ended, he is being punished for a crime he committed 15 years ago. In 2026 he will leave the German prison with a permanent criminal record. 

Yahapalana Govt co-sponsored defeated UNHRC resolution 

The second condition President Gotabaya stipulated was that Sri Lanka must also have the space to clear its name. Once Sri Lanka conducts and concludes an investigation, the matter must be allowed to rest. This is something Sri Lanka has not been allowed to do. In 2009, the Germany initiated UNHRC resolution against Sri Lanka was defeated. In fact, a counter resolution commended Sri Lanka for resolutely eradicating terrorism from the Island. Yet, the resolutions kept coming. Each time, the accusations within became more aggressive. 

Had the Yahapalana Government not co-sponsored the 2015 resolution, this exercise would have continued. However, co-sponsoring the resolution did not stop this process either. For instance, the Office for Missing Persons that came about as a result of this resolution states that if a missing person is located, his status as missing cannot be changed without his explicit consent. The whole premise of bringing closure to his loved ones who do not know his fate is thus lost. Worse, Military officers accused for his disappearance can never clear their name or record. 

LLRC and Paranagama Commissions

Contrary to what many internationally think about the Sri Lanka Government trying to push war crime allegations under the carpet it is not true. After the war, Sri Lanka engaged in two mechanisms – the Lessons Learnt and the Reconciliation Commission and the Paranagama Commission. The LLRC was made up of some of the finest legal brains in Sri Lanka. Citizens of all walks of life were encouraged to share their experiences and opinions vis-a-vis the war and causes that led to the war. 

The Paranagama Commission, though a domestic mechanism, also included experts on warfare and International Humanitarian Laws as Sir Desmond Silva, Sir Rodney Nixon, Major General John Holmes, Sir Geoffrey Nice, Professors David Crane and Michael Newton. 

Both commissions found the Sri Lanka Military did not intentionally target civilians, nor commit war crimes. Yet, these findings did not stand a chance. 

Ban Ki-moon violates UN mandate

Before the LLRC was concluded, the then UNSG Ban Ki-moon initiated his own fact finding mission – the Panel of Experts who produced the controversial Darusman Report. Though he violated the UN mandate, he assured that it was for his own personal appraisal. 

Yet, the contents of this report was leaked and republished by other sources. Today, these contents despite its questionability are established as true and factual, when true facts are pushed out of sight. More damagingly, Ban Ki-moon undermined the domestic mechanism without due cause. 

President Gotabaya is not being unreasonable when he noted that allegations must be with evidence that can lead a solid investigation and the findings must be accepted. He demonstrated his sincerity during the recent allegation involving an employee from the Swiss Embassy. Even in his Ranawiru Day speech, he did not accuse or address any specific entity. 

However, all independent onlookers immediately linked this to the UN. This despite the Gotabaya Administration pledging at the recent UNHRC session to continue to work with the UNHRC. This means the onlookers are accusing the UN of needlessly targeting Sri Lanka with baseless accusations. This is a very serious charge and the UN must immediately conduct an internal investigation as to the reasons for this presumption. 

ranasingheshivanthi@gmail.com.

By a Special Correspondent Courtesy Ceylon Today

Having lost his diplomatic post in Russia, poor Dr Dayan Jayatilleka is now singing lustily for his supper. Having burnt his bridges with the Rajapaksa camp, his latest sonnet A knee on the neck of the next Parliament”, published in DailyFT on 11 June 2020 is his attempt to get Sajith Premadasa’s attention. 

Premadasa is hoping to bag the position of Opposition Leader. Of course, having lost at the Presidential race, the premiership would be a nice consolation price. However, his fear of general elections indicates that he is not confident of winning the title. On the other hand, becoming the Opposition Leader would not be hard, for even those in the Rajapaksa camp would gladly help him to secure the position. 

It is not that he has an inside deal” with the Government. Opponents see him as rather a naive gentleman. On the other hand, his erstwhile boss and now nemesis Ranil Wickremesinghe is the absolute maestro in political games. Given a choice between Premadasa and Wickremesinghe, political opponents will happily choose Premadasa. 

Premadasa’s attempts of trying to attract the Buddhist votes with his sudden and recent show of interest in Buddhist sermons are nullified by his present company. Mangala Samaraweera, Malik Samarawickrama, Rajitha Senaratne, Patali Champika Ranawaka, Rishad Bathuideen, Rauff Hakeem, Azath Sally and Kabir Hashim make up his inner core.

They are openly disdainful of Buddhism and the Buddhists. They have been kicking the Sinhalese in the guts – right in the midriff. Except for Hashim, the Muslim politicians in this group are being accused of nurturing extremist ideologists. Bathuideen especially has been implicated with close ties with the Easter Sunday bombers. In the aftermath of this terrorist attack, the public demanded that he step down to allow impartial investigations. 

Resigned

In response, all the Muslim politicians in all parties in a show of solidarity resigned from their positions. This included Hashim as well. Unlike the other Muslim politicians, Hashim is not dependent on the Muslim vote bank but the Sinhala base. Hence, he in effect slapped across the face of his voters. Hashim is also accused of having played a complicit role in the infamous Central Bank bond scams. However, for incomprehensible reasons the blame is deflected to Ravi Karunanayaka, who really was not involved. 

Though true UNP stalwarts like Tissa Attanayaka and Imthiaz Bakeer Markar are fighting courageously to maintain a foothold in Premadasa’s camp, they really are not a match for these elements. Attanayaka especially dedicated himself to protect the UNP Party and leadership through the long and difficult years it sat as the Opposition to a powerful and popular government. In 2015, he did not leave the UNP for personal gain but in protest of a plan to be executed against the country. All attempts to prove him a liar and a forger have failed for events thereafter have vindicated him. A democracy needs a good and honourable Opposition and Attanayaka fits the bill. 

Imthiaz too is a respected politician who rejects racial or divisive politics to establish his vote bank. After years of being out of public eye, he came back to the political arena when Premadasa pushed himself forward as an alternative to Wickremesinghe. 

It is unfortunate that under Premadasa’s umbrella too they continue to be shown a back row seat. Die-hard UNP supporters, who hates Ranil Wickremesinghe for ruining the UNP should trace back and identify the exact point he started acting against the UNP grain. They will find it is the same causes that led them to be disgusted with Wickremesinghe that disappointed them with Sajith Premadasa. 

Tenacity

Under J.R. Jayewardene’s and Ranasinghe Premadasa’s governments, Wickremesinghe was not such a disaster. However, there is a difference between just skirting on the rim of the honeypot and the fly actually falling into the honeypot. It was a childhood friend” who took Wickremesinghe from the rim to the honey in the pot. It is thanks to Wickremesinghe’s own tenacity that he is still holding on to his turf. However, the credit of Wickremesinghe now standing as a discredited politician belongs to this friend. It is little surprise that this friend is now attached to Premadasa. 

Premadasa understands that Wickremesinghe’s former friends, who are now firmly flanked by his sides, will not attract the Sinhala Buddhist votes. Hence, making the COVID-19 as an excuse he tried his level best to get back to the dissolved Parliament without an election. However, Premadasa exposed his bogus concerns when his camp held protests over the arrest of Rajitha Senaratne notwithstanding the social distancing essential to prevent the spread of the pandemic. 

The irony is Premadasa would have been able to mark a new chapter in Sri Lanka politics had he started his fresh beginning with respected politicians like Tissa Attanayaka, Imthiaz Bakeer Markar and enticed solid personalities like Tilak Marapana. Most unfortunately though he chose to bypass intelligent voters for the rabid block that hates the Rajapaksas and the racist block that harbours extremist notions and inferiority complexes. 

It is in this backdrop that Dr Dayan Jayatilleka sings his ode. The message in his long harangue is that space for Tamils and Muslims is been taken over by the Sinhala, Buddhist military.

He asks, if the task force appointed to create a secure country, disciplined, virtuous and lawful society” is defined by one in which you can be ‘secure’ in the knowledge that if you skin an unarmed civilian and slash the throat of a five-year-old child, and you’ve been in the right uniform and the child is of a suitable ethnicity for you to do so, then even if you have been found guilty by a High Court and your appeal dismissed and the sentence upheld by the unanimous verdict of the Supreme Court, you can still be pardoned – with the pardon publicly justified”.

Dr Jayatilleka, who has represented Sri Lanka at the UNHRC, ignores that over 14,500 LTTE cadres were released without so much as a trial when the incumbent President was the defence secretary. These cadres were rehabilitated in programmes where they were either sent back to school or given a vocational training to help rebuild their lives. 

These cadres too were engaged in violent crimes, where not only toddlers but even foetuses were ripped out of mothers’ bellies. The long list of atrocities including the Anuradhapura massacre, bomb attack on the sacred Temple of the Tooth, Aranthalawa massacre, Central Bank attack, Gonagala massacre, ethnic expulsion of Sinhalese and Muslims, closing of Marvil Aru sluice gates denying water to over 15,000 agrarian families of all ethnicities were all committed by these cadres. Yet, today they are living peacefully with their families without so much as a criminal record.

Victims

Not a single HR activist has spoken against these releases on behalf of the victims of the LTTE terrorists. In staff sergeant Ratnayaka’s case, after 13 years of hearing his case, the courts continued to entertain reasonable doubts about his culpability. Even while handing him the death sentence, the courts noted that this heinous crime could not have been committed by Ratnayaka alone. Furthermore, it was not established in courts his exact act in the crime. 

In this context, to insist on upholding a sentencing of only one for a crime committed by a group, which if executed would be irreversible, is a gross violation of Ratnayaka’s human rights. The fact that this insistence on upholding his punishment is based on the racist element that this soldier is a Sinhala Buddhist should be universally condemned. 

Dr Jayatilleka also picks a bone with the task force appointed for the Archaeological Heritage Management of the Eastern Province. The fact that Defence Secretary General Kamal Gunaratne is heading both these task forces is a bitter pill for Dr Jayatilleka who does not see eye-to-eye with the General. 

In his article, Dr Jayatilleka notes that even the foreign journalist P.K. Balachandran has observed that this task force is without any Tamil or Muslim representation, despite these two communities constituting two thirds of the population. It is a pity that Dr Jayatilleka despite being the academic was unable to correct the misperception of a foreign journalist. The insinuation that the Sinhala Buddhists would do a disservice to Muslims or to Hindus should have been corrected. This kind of racist suggestions that a community can only trust their own kind and not the other Sri Lankans is despicable. 

If that were true, then one must wonder at the reasons for the Catholic MPs who were in the then Government to prevent the Easter Sunday massacres. Harin Fernando shocked Sri Lanka when he confessed to having been forewarned of the attacks and chose not to do anything other than save his skin. In the same argument, Sajith Premadasa, Rajitha Senaratne, Mangala Samaraweera, Patali Ranawaka or any of the Sinhala politicians in this camp should not fear elections, but they do. 

Dr Jayatilleka tsk tsk over Police brutality” for arresting those who were protesting the death of a man half way across the world, two weeks after the incident. There are some glaring omissions – including the absence of protests for the Sri Jayewardenepura undergraduate Pasindu Hiroshan. Pasindu sustained critical injuries to skull and brain after yet again another ragging incident went horribly wrong. The socialist groups ought to be protesting over these incidents than something unrelated to Sri Lanka. However, they will not; nor will the Premadasa camp.

Nothing to offer

Both the Premadasa group and these socialists are fellow travellers. With nothing to offer to their voters, they are hoping to gain ground by discrediting the incumbent Administration. Dr Jayatilleka finds it opportune to join the chorus. He is waiting for Premadasa to notice him and beckon him to his side. 

However, Premadasa might not as he knows Dr Jayatilleka to be a slick character. Dr Jayatilleka does not have any special affinity with Premadasa or his politics. It is just that after his last encounter with the then Joint Opposition in which some members including Pavithra Wanniarchchi roundly told him off for his surreptitious attempts to push his devolution ideas into the camp, he feels that the Pohottuwa doors are forever closed for him. 

However, if by chance the present Administration gives him an ambassadorship, preferably to a country that snows, Dr Jayatilleka in his true opportunist style would effortlessly change his tune. He has done so many times before and to repeat yet again would not be an issue.

If such a chance dawns on him under this Administration, then he would not be worried about the overrepresentation of Sinhalese, Buddhists or military or the task forces bypassing elected officials. Then, he would be passionately arguing that as Sri Lanka is the only isle with the unique Sinhala Buddhist identity, whether the adjective should be Sinhala” buddhists or Buddhist” Sinhala. Unfortunately for Dr Jayatilleka, both this Administration and most probably the Premadasa’s camp know that to have him on board would be to deal with another Hoole.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The Cabinet has decided to provide relief to the tourist industry in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said.

He said this at a discussion held at Temple Trees on the problems faced by the tourist and hotel industries and on how best to resuscitate the tourist industry once more.

The discussion highlighted on many important points including tourist visa payment, provision of necessary facilities to local tourists, procedures to be followed in opening the country to foreign tourists and establishing a fund to strengthen the tourist industry.

The Prime Minister instructed the officials to maintain the tourist visa payment at US$35. (Thisari Walawege)

Courtesy Adaderana

As the method adopted by the leasing companies to seize vehicles of those who had failed to pay their loan installments is unlawful, no room should be left to continue this practice, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has ordered the Police, says the President’s Media Division (PMD).

Leasing companies do not inform the Police prior to such seizing. They lodge complaints only after taking over the vehicle,” the PMD’s statement read.

This kind of forceful action sometimes leads to grave violence. As such, the President instructed the Acting IGP Chandana Wickremaratne not to entertain complaints received from the leasing companies after seizing, the PMD said further.

Under the package of concessions offered to the public affected with the spread of COVID-19, recovery of leasing installments from three-wheeler owners was suspended for 6 months. It was clearly stated in Section 2 of the Circular 16/2020 issued on March 23 under the signature of the Secretary to the President.

In this context, seizing of vehicles for not paying the installment is a breach of the Government order. President informed the Police not to allow vehicles to be seized on the ground of non-payment of instalments, the statement continued.

The move comes after the Chairman of Self-Employed Professionals’ Three-Wheeler Association, Sunil Jayawardena was assaulted to death by a group of employees of a leasing company on May 10. Jayawardena was killed during an argument concerning a leased three-wheeler which belonged to one of his associates, who had missed payment of lease installments.

Sunil Yatalamatta Gamage 

I am accountable and responsible for the people of this country” Presidnet of Sri Lanka Hon. Gotabhaya Rajapakse

      President Gotabhaya has been introducing a new discipline to our nation, his legacy is progressing, the socioeconomic and cultural progress will bloom through that vision and as patriots we need to ensure his victory.

These days media platforms discuss the topic of Country’s Leadership”, qualities of state leadership”, and” what is the right leadership” etc. Which is good but not enough. When it comes to leadership in politics, we will definitely talk about our past political leadership in this country. We will remind only handful of such graceful leaders in this country. According to my memory early 70’s when Sri Lanka Freedom Party was in power; our country’s potential was great. We were a not debt ridden nation. People were disciplined, law abiding, our state institutions had a great respect, our judicial system was not exploited by politicians like today. Our judicial system should not exist to solve disgusting cases of UNP or SLFP political cases ; judicial system exist to a noble cause for citizen of the country. There was a judicial process which was called Mathew Peris, Priest murdering of Russel Ingram” and I remember the case was a quite famous hearing at that time. Some German judicial experts were in the country to see the grand justice process carried on in judiciary as visitors. We had a rule in our country where we were safe, human nature was respected, happy, and we were heading towards a promising more of our own proud tomorrow in the areas  of social, political, and cultural of preserving of our own heritage. Sri Lankans had, had been developing as a proud nation in every aspect of human development indexes. We were the first in many human development indexes in Asia. But as far as I know; year 1977 was the year of everything started to ruin and exploiting; As J. R. Jayawardena win the massive victory; he promised to feed us with 8 kinds of grains, and he used that victory to change the country in economic, social and cultural aspects by using western ideologies with the advises of handful of coated gentlemen. The powerful balanced coexistence of our social ecosystem started to collapse with underrepresented uncertainty. J.R. Jayawardena became the president with executive powers and introduced free open economy to our country. There were simultaneous things happen during this time. The economists who graduated Ph.D’s from western countries introduced open, market economy to our country and which was quite new at that time. We were able to wear generic Nike Shoes” and generic La Coste” t-shirts. At the same time they introduced drastic changes to our healthy industries, culture and heritage. We had been introduced new pop culture and compelled to thrive in that culture. We were ruined in that culture and our economy; which we ended up with huge economic draw back today. When we just look back and we find ourselves, those pundits and politicians accompanied our motherland’s future in the wrong direction which was the wrong path as we all know. J.R. Jayawardena not remembered even today as a patriot to our country or more suitably just a politician who ruined the country. His followers are still in that party and still want to continue the same black era to our country, and we experienced their actions and behaviour over the past five years. It was a curse to our beautiful country.

As fact Ranil Wickramasinghe and the gang threatened our constitution. He knows he cannot come to power through people mandate. During their so called rule he manipulated the constitution through different unacceptable methods, and those actions has caused a huge damage to its transparency, integrity and safety of our country. He should have taken oath to protect and preserve the constitution but made some mockery changes to our constitution to gain the power and has done a huge damage to justice system, constitution, and parliament system of the country. Even now Ranil and his gang make unaccepted plans to gain the power of the country. By all means our country was rocked in many ways for bad in terms of justice system, broad day light robbing the central bank, uncertainty, Safety of the country, well being of our people. People of our country must aware of these damages caused by that rule. Time to time he comments in media even now for democracy and he doesn’t have a mandate to speak such; as he is a disgusting political figure in Sri Lankan politics.

I am not sure, some of you may have observed in our country that the most of politicians trying to make people’s issues political” for their advantage. And they make use of issues” to discuss in front of media and get some advantage to their political fame. This is disgusting and it is not going to work for them. It is because the people are more intelligent and their political reading is more powerful. For example JVP; they have just handful of representation in the parliament. Their conduct and behavior not accepted by the people of this country. Over the years they had been contributing to change our constitution and supported Ranil and the gang to make that changes, but it didn’t work. JVP was trying to talk of introduction of a constitution with 3 or 4 representation of parliament or Were they trying to hijack 22 million people mandate? What we have seen with current leadership as such; he has empowered institutions and decision makers to do their jobs without inter fearing any political mediation to do their jobs. That is why our country was successful in combating with Covid-19 pandemic. This leadership need to develop more and more into many areas and we are happy as it is blooming.

Present day the leadership has defined in different context. Instead of focusing on what individual leaders do, need to think about what effects leadership have on the people around them: how they elevate talents, expand capacities and empower others and institutions to succeed. All of these only possible when people built Trust” on that leadership. When the leadership in charge of the rule, it requires think very carefully about crafting strategies and surrounding that offers leadership in the absence as well.

Ranil Wickramasinghe publicly addressed that the economy has been in a situation in dire condition and public need to be aware of that. This was his message to public plain and simple. So he forgotten that when he was the immediate past premier central bank was in his rule and he is responsible for plotting the robbing of central bank using Arjuna Mahendran. And he is one of the member’s of that gang responsible for the recent holy day attack and number of perils occurred to our country over past four and half years. Four years ago rule of Ranil and the gang history is a chaos to our country in social, political, Judicial, Legislation and security and many more ; we as citizens of the country don’t like to see that to occur again, and we don’t want to see repeating that ugly history repeating again. It is better to understand to visualize this time as a revolutionary” era. When Russian revolutionary time; writers use their pen to make articles and awaken people towards the revolution. This is not a weaponize revolution but it is about a revolution of mobilizing brains towards that prosperity revolution. We must not leave it only to President Gotabhaya. Writers, Media platforms, Artists, must write think and work on Dawn of a New Era to our contry.”

Think about what is happening in united states of America these days. There is a huge vacuum for political leadership in that country. Over the past three and half years; president Trump’s leadership has been a complete failure. These days all retired military Generals accusing to President Trump, as he is not being able to provide the leadership to unite the country. He was a in a bunker in Washington DC for his safety. Couple of days ago he built a fence around white house to protect him. These type of things never happen in united states of America. He has been criticized by many political circle for his failure. United States America history is the history of Black people, nobody can write history of that country without black people. But black people have been living under steel toes. George Floyd put to death in a horrendous style on the street, civilized world will never want see their own eyes. We all know how he was put to death. We all know there is an Organization called Human Rights”, which is always trying to make fresh accusations to our country on War Crimes”. But they are not dare enough to release a statement of the crime against George Floyd happened in Untied States Of America. As far as I know they never publicly release anything about black people’s tragedy in United States Of America. You can understand duplicity of this useless organization.

The central idea of this publication is to ensure that you love to your country. When that kept in your mind. You will never do any harm to your own country. You do everything putting your motherland in front of you. That is what is most important at this moment by the fellow citizens of our country. There is a strong evident reason to believe and confident as we have patriots in this country as rulers by now. They unite the country after a 3 decades of civil war. They are the rulers of the country by now. People of this country have the confidence they will take step wise approach to solve economic, social, cultural issues of this country.

I remember one time one of the ministers openly said that he will make this countries economy open like playground to play anything. So any one can play any game here. We need to have our own productions, manufacturing, research, our own creativity built into new inventions. Then only we can develop our economy. Liberal economic policies will not bring any prosperity to anywhere in the world. It has made poverty, few wealthy people, and disasters to environment, unrest among people and instability to society.

United National Party and other political parties aware that they will not be able to win this election and trying tactics to delay the election and find some mileage out of incidents by criticizing them. It is a huge draw back of their politics. A closer look what happen over the days is a huge draw back for them. Prof. Ratnajeewan Hoole was pleading from people not to vote Podu Jana Peramuna.” Dr. Hoole we would like to see and I believe your community even want to see that you do some good to our country. You are old enough and knowledgeable enough to understand that you must perform your duties within the frame work of state policies and to your job duties. You must not do politics while doing your job. Government must take disciplinary step to investigate your behavior in this case.

sunil yatalamatta gamage <sunilyatala@hotmail.com>

Shenali D Waduge

Why you should worry about MCC Sri Lanka

On April 25, 2019, the MCC Board of Directors approved the five-year Sri Lanka Compact. It was days after Easter Sunday mass murder. The controversy of this bilateral-corporation agreement should worry all Sri Lankans.

1. MCC has to be signed & passed by Parliament of Sri Lankamaking MCCa domestic law similar to 13^thamendment (Section 6.4) & impossible to remove.If Compact is only for 5 years why pass it in Parliament?

• Foreign Personnel & Service Firms given entry/work visas(Section 8.3) – how many for how long & who is paying them & what component of funding will go to them not given

• MCC granted FULL IMMUNITY(Section 6.8)

• GoSL delegates all of MCC Compact activity administration to a Private Company(Section 2.6) – its board comprises GoSL Secretaries (can public sector senior officials be employed in a private sector capacity WHILE working for the public?

• But, GoSL undertakes responsibility & accountability for all that this Private Company– MCA Sri Lanka does(Section 3.2)

• MCA-Sri Lanka is a private companyset up in Sri Lanka to function as GoSL’s PRIMARY AGENT”responsible for exercising the Govt’s rights & obligations to oversee, manage & implement the Program and Projects”. Is this legally/constitutionally allowed?

• MCA-Sri Lanka ‘shall have operational and legal independence and full decision-making autonomy’including ‘the ability, WITHOUT consultationwith, or the CONSENT or APPROVALof, ANY OTHER PARTY, to (how can Public servants be given full autonomy to take decisions as they like. Isnt this major conflict of interest)

1. Enter into contracts in its own name (MCA-Sri Lanka)
2. Sue & be sued

Establish an account with a financial in its own name (MCA-Sri Lanka) and hold MCC Funding in that account

• Expend MCC Funding
• Engage contractors, consultants and/or grantees, including without limitation, procurement & fiscal agents
• Competitively engage one or more auditors to conduct audits of its accounts

Program Implementation Agreement will provide further details of scope of MCA-Sri Lanka

MCA-Sri Lanka Board of Directors & Management Unit”

Board of Directors (11 voting members 2 non-voting observers) – each Board Member can be represented by an alternate” but be an ‘Additional-Secretary” or equivalent.

2 non-voting observers are CEO of MCA-Sri Lanka & MCC Resident Country Director.

1. Representative from President’s Office
2. Representative from Prime Minister’s Office
3. Secretary to the Ministry of Finance
4. Secretary to the Ministry of Transport & Civil Aviation
5. Secretary to the Ministry of Lands & Parliamentary Reforms
6. Secretary to the Ministry of Megapolis & Western Development
7. Secretary to the Ministry of Highways & Road Development & Petroleum Development
8. Secretary to the Ministry of Women & Children’s Affairs & Development of Dry Zone
9. One Private Sector Representative
10. Two Civil Society Representatives

Management Unit – comprises CEO & comprise ‘directors and officers as agreed upon’ and supported by appropriate additional staff – number not given

Any additional staff must have MCC approval (the GoSL ends up taking orders from a foreign corporation)

• MCA-Sri Lanka has to prepare Stake Holder Engagement Plan consistent with International Finance Corporation Performance Standard for the Assessment and Management of Environmental and Social Risks and Impacts and satisfy stakeholder committee structures by MCC’s Guidelines for Accountable Entities & Implementation Structures.

https://www.mcc.gov/content/uploads/2017/05/mcc-oceo-guidelinesforae.pdf

• MCA-Sri Lanka private company is given access to all of Sri Lanka’s state records (how can a country’s information be given to a foreign corporation?)

10.MCA-Sri Lanka though comprising board of Govt Secretaries must take permission from MCC to engage any entity of the GoSL Implementing Entity Agreement”. Fiscal Agent” Procurement Agent” all appointed meeting criteria of MCC.(Annex 1 – 37)

11.MCC funding dependent on GoSL implementing Bim Saviya (transferring deeds to title registration) & Land Special Provisions Act (converting State land permits & grans to absolute freehold rights-ALL land in Sri Lanka to be privatized) Parcel Fabric Map base for GoSL to complete inventory of State Lands in the same district to help GoSL to determine which State Lands are underutilized and available for investment” (Annex 1 – 28-29)

12.Parliament passes MCC Compact but MCC funds to do Parcel Fabriic Map of only 28% of land (7 targeted districts– Anuradhapura / Kandy/ Kegalle/ Kurunegala/ Matale/ Polonnaruwa/ Trincomalee/) (10 land registries out of 35 land registries) MCC will also fund the scanning & digitizing of valuation of property files in these 7 districts. Valuation will be linked to property registration system and digital fabric map using a unique parcel identification number. This is a violation of the fundamental rights of the citizens as the Parliament is passing an Act that is spending for only 7 districts (28% of land) 

13.GoSL has to undertake transfer of remaining 35 land registries via bim-saviya from deed to title registration at its cost. Has the GoSL costed this – where do they get money for this when they will have no land to tax after privatization?

14.MCC will fund State Land Inventory – mapping and inventory of State Lands vested in State institutions in those 7 districts(eSlims – Electronic State Land Inventory Management System) a basis for the State to determine the rights of citizens who are occupying State Lands and gather available documentation for the citizens claim to the land for future adjudication”(Annex 1-29)

15.GoSL undertakes to provide MCA-Sri Lanka all data by Commissioner General of Land, as custodian of State Lands in Sri Lanka for entry into eSlims (Annex 1-29)

16.GoSL took a loan & paid US firm $154m to cadastral mapping of Sri Lanka in 2017 (1 of 5 activities under MCC Land Project)  – Is this part of MCC or is it falling under GoSL cost. Exactly how much is GoSL incurring against this $480m to be given in chunks across 5 years? How much as GoSL spent so far given $154m has been paid to this US firm?

17.US embassy advertised for company to do e-Land Registry (1 of 5 activities of MCC Land Project)

18.GoSL undertakes to do

1. Bim Saviya (private deeds to title transfer) – only 600,000 out of 8million private properties has been transferred since 2006 under 1998 Title Registration Act (Bim Saviya)
2. converting permits & grants of State Land to ‘absolute land grants’ registered as freehold rights through Land Special Provisions Act (the previous Govt failed to pass this Act)

MCC Funding is condition to enacting Registration of Titles Act 1998 & passing LSPA

19.MCC Land Project allocated funding is $67,

Parcel Fabric Map & State Land Inventory                 $23,400,000.00

Deeds Registry Improvement                                        $11,400,000.00

Land Valuation System Improvement                          $6,500,000.00

Land Grants Registration/Deed Conversion              $19,300,000.00

Land Policy & Legal Governance                                  $6,700,000.00

TOTAL                                                                                   $67,300,000.00

(Article II-39)

20.MCC will fund hiring of staff for policy research group – Land Policy & Legal Governance Improvement Activity (5^thLand Project Activity of MCC) GoSL to provide location for LPLG Group in State location – Annex 1-31 (does hiring staff include paying salaries & does GoSL have to foot maintenance cost of location)

Note: MCC funding is dependent on 

• implementation of Bim Saviya program transferring deed system to title registration.
• State Land Privatization Act (Privatizing all State Land) 

21.MCC requires GoSL to maintain” the land information technology (IT”) systems and provide budget funding for the maintenance & updating of software & hardware of each year during Compact Term (5years)

22.MCC requires GoSL to maintain in place all legislation”required to implement the Land Project

23.MCC requires GoSL to ‘make sufficient resources available to ensure that registration of land parcels’occurs in timely manner

• MCC requires GoSL to provide all data necessary to MCC for monitoring and evaluations of the outcomes of the Land Project.

25.Though there is a Monitoring & Evaluation Plan” which must follow MCC’s Policy for Monitoring & Evaluation of Compacts & Threshold Programs” (MCC M&E Policy) M&E Plan can be modified without requiring amendments via MCC website (which means 24×7 someone will need to be monitoring MCC website for changes)

26.A 2 a) Program Description says MCC will offer ‘greater economic growth & poverty reduction” but Land Project Constraints Analysis says ‘private sectors finds difficulty in accessing land for investment purposes’ ‘the OBJECTIVE of the land project is to increase the availability of information on private land and under-utilized State Lands in order to increase land market activity”. The 5 land activities aim to address this problem. This is again highlighted in

27.If State land is to be privatized – does the State land have land to tax?

28.When Land Ministry and Central Bank units are already in place for Research Activity – why is a group of external parties allowed access to State confidential records?

29.Has GoSL factored in the danger of giving US all our intellectual property rights for past-present & future? This hype about digitizing – artificial-intelligence where all backoffice is controlled by US eventually means (Section 3.9)

Case Study MCC Madagascar 

http://admin.theiguides.org/Media/Documents/USAID_Land_Tenure_Madagascar_Profile.pdf

Just think about the dangers for Sri Lanka now & in the future

In 2016, the International Criminal Court broadened its mandate to include land grabbing as a crime against humanity”, which it will now prosecute.

Shenali D Waduge

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Revised 21.6.20

Historians agree that between the rule of King Devanam Piyatissa (247-207 BC) and king Dutugemunu, (161-137) there was a separate kingdom in Ruhuna. The founder of this Ruhuna kingdom was king Mahanaga, brother of Devanampiyatissa.

Mahanaga left Anuradhapura after a disagreement with his brother and set up a separate kingdom in Ruhuna, with the capital at Magama. This kingdom continued until Dutugemunu went up to Anuradhapura, kicked Elara out and   united the two kingdoms. The Ruhuna kingdom was in existence therefore from 3rd century BC to 2nd century AD.

Historians heartily agreed that there was a significant kingdom in Ruhuna, but avoided researching deeply into the kingdom. It did not seem important, attention was on Anuradhapura.  Ven. Ellawala Medhananda, however, while exploring the Buddhist ruins of the present day Eastern Province, came face to face with the Ruhuna kingdom. Madanakanda inscription spoke of an eastern kingdom, said Medhananda.

Medhananda has researched into two aspects of the Ruhuna kingdom, its boundaries and its kings. Medhananda said ‘I explored theRuhuna area on foot, staying in caves in forests.  It was scary but also interesting. Ruhuna history is interesting. Whenever they were in trouble, at Anuradhapura, not only princes but also monks ran to Ruhuna’.  This Ruhuna was the Ruhuna settlement of Baddhacacchana, said Medhananda.

The Ruhuna of the Magama kings was a very fertile area, said Medhananda. Medhananda had looked for Talapat   wewa, mentioned in the inscriptions, but could not find it. It was not recorded anywhere.   Digamadulla in ancient times included Ampara and Batticaloa. Gal Oya was the boundary between Ruhuna and Pihiti, added Medhananda.

The Magama kingdom did not start in the Tissamaharama – Kirinde area said Medhananda.  He had explored that area. There are absolutely no contemporaneous inscriptions of the early Magama kings south of the Kumbukkan oya. But there were plenty of inscriptions north of Kumbukkan oya. Indicating that the Magama kings ruled north of Kumbukkan oya.

The first Ruhuna settlement was north of Kumbukkan oya towards Heda oya, declared Medhananda.   The evidence lies in the Magul Maha vihara, Lahugala. This vihara was known as Ruhunu Maha vihara. I decided that Magul Maha Vihara was called Ruhunu Maha Vihara because it was the main temple within the Ruhunu kingdom. Medhananda   found that the word ‘Ruhuna’ was not mentioned in inscriptions from Kirivehera, Tissamaharama, Yatala, Situlpavva, or in the viharas in Yala, like Akasa chetiya.

The original Ruhuna settlement thereafter extended over Hulannuge, Karandahela, Lahugala,    and upwards to Pottuvil and Dighavapi, said Medhananda.  Malyadikanda inscription, found by Medhananda, showed that Dighavapi was known as the’ pracheena rajya’ or ‘eastern kingdom’.  Medhananda also found an inscription which spoke of ‘Dighavapi porana’ (nagara) and about the traders there.

The capital, Magama, Medhananda speculated, was at Pottuvil near the 15^th milepost. Medhananda said that at this milepost there is a small village called Magama in the map. Also at Vettumbagala close by there was an inscription which referred to the Magama kings .Namaluva, also close by, threw up an inscription which referred to ‘Mahagama’.  Rohana kingdom was not very large then, Medhananda observed. Yalpota  was a  important  village in Magama.

According to Medhananda, therefore, the original Ruhuna kingdom was a small one, situated bang in the middle of the present day Eastern province. Inscriptions show that   the middle of the present Eastern province contains the history of the [first] three Magama kings, said Medhananda. 

While the Magama kings were ruling in Ruhuna, there was a smaller kingdom in Kataragama ruled by a family of ten brothers, the ‘Kataragama dasa be’. They were there from the time of king Devanampiyatissa. Their capital was at Tissamaharama. Their symbol was the fish. This symbol could be seen in Henanegala inscription and elsewhere.   

Bowattegala, Kotademuhela, Budupatunkanda inscriptions gave information on these Kataragama rulers. Bowattegala inscription spoke of the Kataragama family, including their great grandson, Mahatisa.  Mahatisa would later be the father of Vihara Maha Devi. Budupatunkanda cave inscription showed that the Kataragama family was powerful in their area.

Contemporaneous inscriptions for Mahanama and Gotabaya were all found north of Kumbukkan oya, I did not find a single inscription south of Kumbukkan oya, said Medhananda. I decided therefore that the Kataragama family ruled Kumbukkan south and   Magama family ruled Kumbukkan north, said Medhananda. This writer, (Kamalika Pieris) found an observation from historian R.A.L.H. Gunawardene that Kataragama kings ruled between Kumbukkan oya and Menik Ganga.

There appears to have been some contact between the two ruling families. Henanegala inscription had valuable information on the Magama kings interaction with Kataragama kings, said Medhananda. Kotahamula inscription, a little away from Bowattegala, also indicated a link between the Kataragama royal family and Mahanaga royal family.

Inscriptions indicated that king Gotabaya thereafter entered the Kataragama area and eventually took it over.   Inscriptions found on the left bank of Kumbukkan showed that his power was expanding, said Medhananda. Mahavamsa said he killed them.

Medhananda found that inscriptions of Kavantissa were found south of Kumbukkan oya. It appears therefore that Kavantissa had   taken over the administration of the Kataragama territory. Kavantissa also took over several small principalities ruled by minor princes, said Medhananda.  In this way, Kavantissa united Ruhuna under him. The capital of Ruhuna then moved to Tissamaharama. The Ruhuna kingdom which was of such historical importance under Dutugemunu had been created.

Medhananda has given us vital information on the rulers of Ruhuna, also some nice personal information. He may be the first to do so. The information was taken from the inscriptions he had collected. 

These inscriptions indicated that there was a clear, uninterrupted, succession of five kings in the Ruhuna kingdom.  The succession was Mahanaga, his son Yatalatissa, his second son, Gotabhaya,   Gotabhaya’s son Kavantissa and Kavantissa’s son, Dutugemunu.   Medhananda states firmly that   Gotabaya and Yatalatissa were brothers, the sons of Mahanama. They were not father and son as the Mahavamsa said.

Medhananda had found inscriptions   that were decisive. The first of these is the cave inscription at Ahugoda Raja Maha Vihara.  This inscription gave the succession from Mahanaga to Dutugemunu in one sentence. The inscription said Mahanaga, son Gotabhaya, son   Kavantissa, son Dutugemunu”.Samangala aranya inscription spoke of uparaja Mahanaga, the brother of Devanam piyatissa’, kings Gotabhaya and Kavantissa and Saddhatissa. Such inscriptions are rare, said Medhananda.

There were other inscriptions. Malayadi kanda vihara, Ampara inscription speaks of the royal line, Mahanaga,         Gotabaya,        Kavantissa.  It says Yatalatissa was Mahanaga’s son.  Kusalan kanda Inscription speaks of Mahanaga king of Magama, followed by mention of     Gotabhaya and Kavantissa.  Kudulupothana malai   inscription   speaks of king Gotabaya and king Kavantissa. Henannegala len vihara inscription said that Gotabaya ruled Ruhuna south and Yatalatissa ruled the north. They were brothers.   

Malayadi kanda inscription said that during the rule of Mahanaga, his son Yatalatissa ruled Dighavapi, then it was ruled by Gotabaya and Kavantissa. Thereafter Dighavapi  was ruled by Saddhatissa.   Inscription at   Piyakalutota vihara ( near Rugam wewa)  said thatYatalatissa was administering Digamadulla, when Mahanaga was king.     

The inscriptions  found by Medhananda  also  gave information on the viharas constructed by these Magama  kings. Illuppiti Raja Maha Vihara, Gal oya, inscription  stated  that the vihara was built by king Mahanaga. Inscription at   Piyakalutota vihara shows that Yatalatissa built it.

Inscriptions such as Malayadikanda provided  information on Kavantissa,. Kavantissa had built many arama  in Dighavapi when he was ‘ruling’ there before he became king. Inscriptions also showed that Kavantissa had established Kudimbigala, Habutagala vihara and Ilupitikande vihara.  Habutagala was in Hulannuge, Ilupitikande near Hingurana sugar factory.

Medhananda decided that the swastika-on-stand  appearing in inscriptions  which mentioned Kavantissa, was the signature of king Kavantissa. It was there on several  caves.   Henanegala  and Karanda hela vihara, Hulannuge    had this in their inscription s. it was   cut into  the rock at Habutagala vihara.

Medhananda found several inscriptions on Vihara Maha Devi,. Madanakanda len arama inscription said that this cave was donated by the queen of Pachina bhumiya  , Abi Shavera, the daughter of king Damaraja’ son, Mahathisa,   and mother of   the ruler of the east. This valuable inscription  is not protected observed Medhananda .

Paranavitana’s findings on Vihara Maha Devi are confirmed in the Malyadikanda inscription, said Medhananda. It stated that after Kavantissa died, Viharamaha Devi had come to Dighavapi   and became a nun. The inscription found at Mundikulammalai refers to Shavera Shamani, which may be a reference  to Vihara Maha Devi, said Medhananda . 

Medhananda said that Ampara had lots of inscriptions  on Vihara Maha Devi, on how she came to Digamadulla,  to become an upasika. Medhananda found an inscription at Mahanahera cave,  Mullikulam on this subject. The cave was being broken up , Medhananda had managed to stop this and had taken down the inscription .

Medhananda said he founda lot of inscriptions on Dutugemunu and Saddhatissa. Samangala inscription spoke of Saddhatissa . In this collection, Medhananda found inscriptions  giving information on the family of king Dutugemunu. Piyangala inscription  said that Dutugemunu’s wife’s name  was Rajitha and that  Dutugemunu’s  daughter was married to Sunama, son of Nandimitra. Katupotakande  inscription  refers to a gal lena gifted by Dutugemunu..

Medhananda also provides us with  information on  Dutugemunu’s  ‘dasa maha yodayo’ .Medhananda  said in our society we view the story of Dutugamunu’s Dasa maha yodayo with derision.  Most see these as hilarious stories invented by the vamsa writers. But Medhananda found inscriptional evidence to show that at least one of the yodayo, Nandimitra was a historical person. Diyatitta wewa inscription states that Nandimitra was a Senepati of Dutugemunu.

Medhananda found many inscriptions, in places like Horowopotana, Korawakgala, Vavuniya, Periyapuliyankulam, Piyangala  which gave information on Nandimitra.  These inscriptions give  full information on Nandimitra’s lineage on father’s side, and  information on his wife and  daughter. He had two wives.  They were called Pussa and Ihana.    Beravayam kande inscription gave the  lineage of Nandimitra’s wife and his own.

Omunugala   had inscriptions on Nandimitra. His daughter  Gutta was married to Prince Tilakana. I was the first to find this and record this in newspapers, said Medhananda . Another inscription was on a donation from daughter of Nandimitra. An inscription found at Maha kachcha kodiya vihara.( Vavuniya) showed that  the descendants of Nandimitra were active there. Omunugala inscription indicated that  Nandimitra’s descendants lived there as well.

In an interview given to Sunday Observer in 2007, Medhananda provided more information on Nandimitra. Medhananda said he had gone to Diyatitta Wewa, a mountainous area bordering the Eastern province, to encourage villagers there to remain in the threatened village. Medhananda then stumbled upon a rock-inscription at the cave of the Buddhist monk of the village temple, leading to the finding of a series of rock-inscriptions in that mountainous and rather scarcely inhabited area.

Medhananda discovered 30 rock-inscriptions in the mountain range of Diyatitta Wewa, Madaya Kanda and Berawaya Kanda.   The rock-inscriptions showed that Nandimitra, was descended from a lineage of commanders. Nandimitra’s father, was a Senapati, and his mother’s name was Sunama. Nandimitra’s wife was Kusha, daughter of Sata Natata. This was  mentioned in three rock-inscriptions, Diyatitta Wewa, Berawaya Kanda and Maha Cachakodiya.  

Nandimitra’s daughter Upassica Gutta, was married to  prince Tilakana .  Nandimitra’s son was Duta Sumana, an ambassador. His son, as mentioned in Piyangala and Tonigala rock-inscriptions, was Padumaca Abaya. An inscription  found by Medhananda  at  Maha kachcha kodiya vihara, Vavuniya indicated that the descendants of Nandimitra had operated there.

 Paranavitana and Medhananda have looked at the implications of these inscriptions. There have  been three  sets of rulers in Ruhuna in Magama time,,  the Magama kings, Kataragama kings and the   Kelanitissa kings. ( The   history of the Kelanitissa kings  is well known, I am not relating it here.)

The Kelaniya referred to here, is considered to have been situated in Ruhuna itself, not the modern Kelaniya near Colombo. It was not possible for Vihara Maha Devi to come from Colombo all the way to Magama in a boat, without drowning on the way. Vihara Maha Devi was put to sea in Ruhuna and had come ashore at  Pottuvil, said Medhananda .

Paranavitana thought that there was a close connection between Anuradhapura royal family and  the Kataragama royal family. He thought they were related. Medhananda agreed. The Kelanitissa clan is  also linked to Anuradhapura clan,  said Medhananda . There is an  inscription at Yatala vihara, Kegalle which proves this. The Magama kings were of course,  part of the Anuradhapura royalty. Therefore  the  marriage between Kavantissa and Vihara Maha Devi simply  brought together two strands of the same family. This means that during  the Ruhuna period, the north, south and east of Sri Lanka  were all ruled by one single Sinhala royal family, concluded Medhananda .  ( continued)

Appendix.

• Medhananda  interpreted the word ‘Javacanaya’, in  the rock-inscription at Pottaya Kallu (near Omari at Kanchi kudichchiaru)  seen earlier by Paranavitana, to mean,‘Navicanaya‘ suggesting that  king Mahanaga had  once served as a  naval leader. Subsequent inscriptions  had proved that Mahanaga had served in the Puttalam District as a naval leader prior to his  departure to Ruhuna.  
• Rugam piyakaluta vihara  inscription showed that Mahanaga has been the  yuva raja in Magama, and Yatalatissa was ruler of Digamadulla. He  had set up an aramaya there.
• Inscription at Kadolupotana kanda ,Eravur had been destroyed. But Medhananda had found three cave inscriptions which showed that this area was under Kavantissa.
• Udagala Dagoba Inscription dated to 9  century AD refers to Dutugemunu.

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග 

ජෙෆ්රි  චෞසර්  මධ්‍යකාලීන යුගයේ ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨතම  තම ඉංග්‍රීසි කවියා ලෙස සැලකේ. ඔහු “ඉංග්‍රීසි සාහිත්‍යයේ පියා” ලෙසටද හැඳින් වේ. ඔහු තම කාලයේ ලේඛකයන්ට පොදු වූ ලතින් හෝ ප්‍රංශ භාෂාවට පටහැනිව තම ස්වභාෂා ඉංග්‍රීසියෙන් ලියූ ලේඛකයෙකි. ඉංග්‍රීසි කාව්‍යයන්ට එළිසමය හඳුන්වා දීමේ ගෞරවය ඔහුට හිමි වේ.චෞසර්  සමහර විට ඉංග්‍රීසි ස්වභාෂා සම්ප්‍රදායේ ප්‍රභවය ලෙස සැලකේ.   ජෙෆ්රි  චෞසර් ස්වභාෂා සාහිත්‍යයක් නිර්මාණය කිරීම පිළිබඳ පොදු  ඓතිහාසික ප්‍රවණතාවක කොටසක් ලෙස දැකිය හැකිය. කෙසේ වෙතත්, චෞසර්ගේ කාලයට සියවස් ගණනාවකට පෙර ඉංග්‍රීසි සාහිත්‍ය භාෂාවක් ලෙස භාවිතා කර ඇති අතර, චෞසර්   ගේ සමකාලීනයන් කිහිපදෙනෙකු වන ජෝන් ගෝවර්, විලියම් ලැන්ග්ලන්ඩ්, පර්ල් කවියා සහ නොර්විච්හි ජූලියන් ද ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාවෙන් ප්‍රධාන සාහිත්‍ය කෘති ලිවීය.  නමුත්  ජෙෆ්රි  චෞසර්  ගේ නිර්මාණ ඉංග්‍රීසි සාහිත්‍යයේ අනාගතය සනිටුහන් කලේය.  ඉංග්‍රීසි නීතියේ භාෂාව සහ ප්‍රංශ රොමාන්තික භාෂාව යන පිලිගැනීම පැවති කාලයක  ඔහු රොමාන්තික වචන එකතු කරමින්  ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාව පොහොසත් කලේය

ජෙෆ්රි  චෞසර්  1340 දී පමණ එංගලන්තයේ ලන්ඩන් නුවර සමෘද්ධිමත් වෙළඳ පවුලක උපත ලැබීය.  චෞසර් ගේ පියා වයින් වෙළෙන්දෙකු විය. ඔහුට වයස අවුරුදු හයක් පමණ වන විට කළු මරණය හෙවත් මහාමාරිය එංගලන්තය පුරා පැතිර ගියේය.  ඔහු ජීවත් වූ සමාජය යුද්ධ හා වෙනත් ක්ලමථයන් ගෙන් පිරී තිබුණි.  ඔහු කුඩා කාලයේ සිට කියවීමට යොමු විය. චෞසර් , ඕවිඩ්, සිසෙරෝ, වර්ජිල්, මැක්‍රෝබියස් සහ බොතියස්ගේ කෘතීන්  දැන සිටි අතර ඔහු පාසැලේදී ලතින් භාෂාව ඉගෙන ගත්තේය.  ඔහුට ලිවි සහ වර්ජිල්ගේ සිට ඔගස්ටින් දක්වා සම්භාව්‍ය ලතින් සාහිත්‍ය සම්ප්‍රදාය පිළිබඳ මනා දැනුමක් තිබුනේය. ඕවිඩ්ගේ කෘති ඔහු ප්‍රිය කලේය. 

 ජෙෆ්රි  චෞසර්  සොල්දාදුවෙකු, රාජ්‍ය තාන්ත්‍රිකයෙකු, රාජ සභික, රාජ්‍ය තාන්ත්‍රික  සිවිල් සේවකයෙකු සහ වන නිලධාරියෙකු ලෙස රජුට සේවය කලේය. රජයේ සේවකයෙකු ලෙස  චෞසර්ට සංචාරය කිරීමට අවස්ථාව ලැබුණි.  ඔහු ප්‍රංශයයේ හා ඉතාලියේ සංචාරය කළ අතර, මෙම රටවල් දෙකේ සාහිත්‍ය සංස්කෘතීන්ගේ බලපෑම ඔහුගේ නිර්මාණයන්හි දැකිය හැකිය. බොහෝ සමාජ ස්ථරයන් ආශ්‍රය කල ඔහුට සියලු සමාජ තරාතිරමේ පුද්ගලයන්   පිලිබඳව  හාස්‍යයෙන් හා නිරවද්‍යතාවයෙන් අද්විතීයව ලිවිය හැකි  විය.  චෞසර් 1366 දී පිලිපා රෝට් සමඟ විවාහ විය. ඇය ශ්‍රීමත් පේන් රෝට්ගේ දියණියයි. මෙම විවාහය ජෙෆ්රිගේ වෘත්තියට උපකාරී විය.     

පළමු ඉංග්‍රීසි කතුවරයා ලෙස හැඳින්වෙන චෞසර්  ඉංග්‍රීසියෙන් තම නිර්මාණයන් කලේ  ඉහළ පංතියේ ඉංග්‍රීසි බොහෝ දෙනෙක් ප්‍රංශ භාෂාව කතා සමයකය.  භාෂාමය වෙනස චෞසර් ගේ එංගලන්තයේ පන්ති වෙනසක් විය. ඔහු නෝමන් වංශවතුන්ට වඩා පහළ පංතියේ සැක්සන්වරුන්ගේ භාෂාව තෝරා ගැනීම සියවස් ගණනාවක් පුරා සාහිත්‍ය විචාරකයන්ව ව්‍යාකූල කර තිබේ. ඔහු ඉංග්‍රීසි ඉතා නම්‍යශීලී සාහිත්‍ය භාෂාවක් බවට පත් කලේය.  ජෙෆ්රි  චෞසර්  රාජ සභිකයෙකු වූ අතර, ඔහු ප්‍රධාන වශයෙන් වංශවතුන් වෙනුවෙන් පමණක් ලියූ උසාවි කවියෙකු යැයි සමහරු විශ්වාස කළහ. ඔහුව පරිවර්තකයෙකු හා කවියෙකු ලෙස හඳුන්වනු ලබන්නේ යූස්ටාච් ඩෙස්චැම්ප්ස් සහ ඔහුගේ සමකාලීන ජෝන් ගෝවර් විසිනි.  

1359 දී, සියක් අවුරුදු යුද්ධයේ (Hundred Years’ War)  මුල් අවධියේදී, III වන එඩ්වඩ් ප්‍රංශය ආක්‍රමණය කළ අතර,   ජෙෆ්රි  චෞසර්  ඉංග්‍රීසි හමුදාව සමග ක්ලැරන්ස් හි 1 වන  ආදිපාදවරයා වන ඇන්ට්වර්ප් හි ලයනල් සමඟ පෙරමුණට ගියේය. 1360 දී රයිම්ස් වටලෑමේදී   ඔහුව සතුරන් විසින්  සිර භාරයට ගන්නා ලදී.චෞසර් ගේ  රාජකීය සම්බන්ධතාවන්  මත III එඩ්වඩ් රජු ඔහුගේ කප්පම් මුදල ගෙවීය. නිදහස් වීමෙන් පසු චෞසර්  රාජකීය සේවයට බැඳුනේය. 

1369 වර්ෂය තරුණ චෞසර්  ගේ වෘත්තියෙහි සන්ධිස්ථානයක් සනිටුහන් කළේය. ලැන්කැස්ටර් හි ආදිපාදවරයා වන ජෝන් ඔෆ් ගෝන්ට්, ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාවෙන් ලියන ලද අනුස්මරණ කාව්‍යයක් රචනා කරන ලෙස ජෙෆ්රි  චෞසර් ගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටියේය.  චෞසර්  ප්‍රථම ප්‍රකාශිත කෘතිය වූයේ බ්ලැන්චේ, ලැන්කැස්ටර්හි ආදිපාදවරිය, ඇගේ වැන්දඹුව වන ආදිපාදවරයා අමතන ලද පේළි 1,300 කට අධික කාව්‍යයකි. 1370 දී ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කරන ලද  The Book of the Duchess, 1369 දී වසංගතයෙන් මියගිය   ලැන්කැස්ටර් හි බ්ලැන්චේට ගෞරව කිරීම පිණිස   ලියා ඇති බව විශ්වාස කෙරේ.   ඔහුගේ මෙම වැදගත් කාව්‍ය සංග්‍රහය සඳහා 13 වන සියවසේ අතිශයින්ම බලගතු ප්‍රංශ කාව්‍ය සංග්‍රහයක් වන රෝමන් ඩි ලා රෝස් විසින් ජනප්‍රිය කරන ලද සිහින දර්ශන ස්වරූපය චෞසර්  විසින් ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාවට පරිවර්තනය කරන ලදී.   

ඔහුගේ බොහෝ පොත් අතරට රෝමාන්ට් ඔෆ් ද රෝස්” (1370), ශාන්ත සිසිලියා” (1373), ඇනලීඩා සහ ආකයිට්” (1379), පාර්ලිමන්ට් ඔෆ් ෆූල්ස්” (1382) සහ ට්‍රොයිලස් සහ ක්‍රයිසයිඩ්” (1385) ඇතුළත් වේ. චෞසර්ගේ මුල් කෘති ප්‍රංශ සම්ප්‍රදායේ ආදර කාව්‍යයන් කෙරෙහි බෙහෙවින් බලපා ඇත.  චෞසර්  ඉතාලි කවියන් වන ඩැන්ටේ සහ පෙට්‍රාර්ච්ගේ කාව්‍යන් වලට ආශක්ත විය.   චෞසර්  ප්‍රංශ, ඉතාලි සහ ලතින් ඇතුළු භාෂා කිහිපයකින් චතුර ලෙස කතා කරන්නට ඇති බවට සිතීමේ සාධක තිබේ.   චෞසර්  ඉතාලි භාෂාව හා සාහිත්‍යය කෙරෙහි උනන්දුවක් ඇති කළ අතර එය ඔහුගේ ට්‍රොයිලස් සහ ක්‍රයිසයිඩ් කාව්‍යයට බලපෑම් කළේය. ඔහු යුරෝපීය දෘෂ්ටියකින් යුක්ත විය. සමස්තයක් වශයෙන් ගත් කල, රෝම සම්ප්‍රදාය ඔහුගේ කෘති වල දක්නට ලැබේ.

ජෙෆ්රි  චෞසර් රෝම දාර්ශනිකයෙකු වූ බොතියස් (ක්‍රි.ව. 480–524) විසින් රචිත Consolation of Philosophy පරිවර්තනය සම්පූර්ණ කළේය. ඔහු බොහෝ   කෙටි කවි රචනා කර ඇති අතර ඛේදවාචකයක් වන ට්‍රොයිලස් සහ ක්‍රිසයිඩ් ද විය. මෙම දීර්ඝ කාව්‍යය ට්‍රෝජන් යුද්ධයේ පසුබිමට එරෙහිව සකස් කර ඇති අතර එය පදනම් වී ඇත්තේ ඉතාලි ජාතික කවියෙකු වන ජියෝවානි බොකාසියෝ (1313–1375) විසින් රචිත කාව්‍යයකි.  සමහර විද්වතුන් එය පළමු ඉංග්‍රීසි නවකතාව ලෙස නම් කර ඇත.  රොමෑන්ටික හා වීර කාව්‍ය ප්‍රතිනිර්මාණය කිරීමේ සුන්දරත්වය හා සංවේදීතාව, ට්‍රොයිලස් සහ ක්‍රයිසයිඩ් යන විශිෂ්ටතම කෘතියෙන් නිරූපනය වෙයි.

චෞසර්  ගේ කෘතිවල ප්‍රධාන ලක්‍ෂණ වන්නේ විෂය, ප්‍රභේදය, ස්වරය සහ ශෛලිය සහ සංවේදී පැවැත්මක් සඳහා මිනිසා ලුහුබැඳීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇති සංකීර්ණතාවයන් ය. චෞසර්ගේ තාරකා විද්‍යාව පිළිබඳ නිබන්ධනය තාරකා විද්‍යාවේ ස්වරූපය හා භාවිතය විස්තරාත්මකව විස්තර කරන අතර සමහර විට එය ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාවෙන් තාක්ෂණික ලිවීමේ පළමු උදාහරණය ලෙස සඳහන් කර ඇති අතර, එයින් පෙන්නුම් කරන්නේ චෞසර්  ඔහුගේ සාහිත්‍ය කුසලතාවන්ට අමතරව විද්‍යාව පිළිබඳ මනා දැණුමක් තිබූ බවය. 

කැන්ටබරි කථා The Canterbury Tales චෞසර්  ගේ සාහිත්‍ය කීර්තිය ලබා ගත් අතර එය ඔහුගේ විශිෂ්ට සාහිත්‍ය ජයග්‍රහණය විය.  කැන්ටබරි ටේල්ස්  ඉතාලි සාහිත්‍යයට සමානකම් දක්වයි. එය කැන්ටබරි හි තෝමස් බෙකට්ගේ දේවාලයට යන බැතිමතුන්ගේ කතන්දර එකතුවකි.ජෙෆ්රි චවුසර් 1387 සිට 1400 දක්වා කාලය තුළ ලියන ලද  කතන්දර එකතුවක් වන   කැන්ටබරි ටේල්ස්  14 වන ශතවර්ෂයේ අග භාගයේ දී ඉංග්‍රීසි ජීවිතය පිළිබඳ සිත්ගන්නාසුලු අවබෝධයක් ලබා දෙයි. එය එංගලන්තයේ කැන්ටබරි වෙත බැතිමතුන් ලෙස සංචාරය කරන තිස් දෙනෙකුගෙන් යුත් කණ්ඩායමක කතාවකි. සමාජයේ සෑම තරාතිරමකම සිටින බැතිමතුන්, කැන්ටබරි වෙත යන අතරතුර  එකිනෙකාට කතන්දර පවසති.මෙම කෘතිය ඇත්තේ මධ්‍ය ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාවෙන් වන අතර එය නෝමන් ආක්‍රමණයෙන් පසු වර්ධනය වූ භාෂාවක්  විය. චෞසර් ඔහුගේ වන්දනාකරුවන්ගේ සජීවී ලක්ෂණ තුළ උපහාසාත්මක හා යථාර්ථවාදය මුසු කරයි. ඔවුන්ගේ කථා වල ස්වරය භක්තිමත් භාවයේ සිට හාස්‍ය දක්වා විහිදේ.  කැන්ටබරි කතා ඉංග්‍රීසි සාහිත්‍ය ග්‍රන්ථ සමූහයේ ප්‍රධාන ස්ථානයක් ගනී.  එය සාහිත්‍ය ඉතිහාසයේ වඩාත්ම විස්මිත පරිකල්පනයක වර්ධනය පිළිබඳ කතාවකි. 

කැන්ටබරි කථා යනු අතිශය වැදගත් සාහිත්‍යයකි. එය දහහතරවන සියවස පිළිබඳ යථාර්ථවාදී දෘෂ්ටියක්, මධ්‍යකාලීන සමාජයේ හරස්කඩක් පාඨකයන්ට ලබා දෙයි. කැන්ටබරි කතා සමහර විට 14 වන සියවසේ මැද භාගයේ ලියන ලද ජියෝවානි බොකාචියෝ (1313-1375) විසින් රචිත The Decameron සමඟ සැසඳේ. කෙසේ වෙතත් මෙම කෘති දෙක අතර ප්‍රධාන වෙනස්කම් තිබේ. කැන්ටබරි කථා ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාවෙන් ලියන ලද සාහිත්‍යයේ පළමු ප්‍රධාන කෘතියකි. මධ්‍යකාලීන යුගයේ දී මූලික වශයෙන් ආගමික අරමුණක් සහිතව වසන්ත නිවාඩුවක ලෞකික ප්‍රයෝජනය සමඟ ඒකාබද්ධ කළ වන්දනා ගමන හරහා මේ ලෝකයේ සැප සම්පත් හා දුෂ්ටකම් අතර සම්බන්ධතාවය සහ ඊළඟට ඇති අධ්‍යාත්මික අභිලාෂයන් පිළිබඳව  චෞසර් දීර්ඝ වශයෙන් සාකච්ඡා කරයි. 

කැන්ටබරි කථා සම්පාදනයට වෙලෙන්දන් , පැවිද්දන් වඩු කාර්මිකයන් යනාදීන් ගේ සිට  නයිට්වරු දක්වා විවිධ සමාජ ස්ථර නිරූපණය කරන විචිත්‍රවත් චරිත රාශියක් ඇතුළත් වේ. පළමු කතාව කියන්නා නයිට්වරයෙකි. නයිට් නියෝජනය කරන්නේ මධ්‍යකාලීන ක්‍රිස්තියානි මිනිසෙකුගේ පරමාදර්ශයයි. ඔහු සිය යුගයේ මහා කුරුස යුද්ධ 15 කට නොඅඩු ගණනකට සහභාගී වී ඇත. නිර්භීත, පළපුරුදු සහ විචක්ෂණශීලී, කථකයා වන නයිට්වරයා  තමාගේ මහිමය හෝ ධනය වෙනුවෙන් නොව සත්‍යය හා ක්‍රිස්තුස් උදෙසා සටන් කරන උදාර මිනිසෙකි. ඔහු බොහෝ විජාතික දේශයන් පුරා ජයග්‍රාහීව ගමන් කර ඇත.   නයිට්වරයා  නිර්භීත, ගෞරවනීය, බුද්ධිමත්,   හා ත්‍යාගශීලී ය.  නයිට්වරයා සියලු දෙනාගේ පැසසුමට ලක් වේ.  

නයිට්වරයා ගේ පුතා ස්කොයර්  වයස අවුරුදු විස්සක තරුණයෙකි.  ඔහු විශිෂ්ට අශ්වාරෝහකයෙක් වන අතර  ශක්තිමත් හා කඩිසර ය. ඔහුට ගායනා කිරීමට, නැටීමට, නළාව වාදනය කිරීමට, ලිවීමට, ඇඳීමට හා කවි කියවීමට හැකිය. ආදරය ගැන කතා කරන විට ඔහු උණුසුම් හා උද්‍යෝගිමත් අයෙකි. කැන්ටබරි කථා වල කතුවරයා වන ජෙෆ්රි  චෞසර් කතාවේ නිරීක්‍ෂකයෙකු ලෙස පෙනී සිටී. ඔහු වන්දනාකරුවන් පිළිබඳ සත්‍යය දක්‍ෂ ලෙස විස්තර කරන අහිංසක කථිකයෙකුගේ භූමිකාව රඟ දක්වයි.  

මෙම කථා සමූහයේ එන ෆ්‍රැන්ක්ලින් යනු නිදහස්, ධනවත් ඉඩම් හිමිකරුවෙකි.  විශිෂ්ට සත්කාරකයෙකි. ඔහු තම භූමියේ වෙසෙන ගොවීන්ට නිතර ආහාර සහ විනෝදාස්වාදය සපයයි. ග්‍රීක දාර්ශනික එපිකුරස්ගේ මූලධර්ම අනුගමනය කරමින් ෆ්‍රැන්ක්ලින් ප්‍රසන්න ජීවිතයක් ගත කරන අතර ඔහුගේ කතාවෙන් කියැවෙන්නේ විශ්වාසය හා ඇදහිල්ල මත පදනම් වූ විවාහයක ගුණාංග ගැන ය.

ප්‍රියරස් හෙවත් මැඩම් එග්ලන්ටයින්, කතෝලික පල්ලියේ උසස් කන්‍යා සොහොයුරියකි.  ප්‍රියරස් සමඟ කන්‍යා සොහොයුරියක් සහ පූජකවරු තිදෙනෙක් සිටිති. ප්‍රියරස් ක්‍රිස්තුස් වහන්සේ වෙනුවෙන් කැපවිය යුතු වුවත්, ඇය ලෞකික කාරණා කෙරෙහි වැඩි සැලකිල්ලක් දක්වයි: ඇගේ ඇඳුම් පොහොසත් ඇඳ ඇතිරිලි වලින් යුක්ත වන අතර, ඇය කුඩා සුනඛයන් සුරතල් සතුන් ලෙස තබා ගන්නීය.  එය පල්ලියේ නීතිවලට පටහැනිය.  පල්ලියේ නීතිරීතිවලට පටහැනි ආභරණ ද ඇය පැළඳ සිටියාය.  ඇය ප්‍රංශ භාෂාව කතා කිරීමෙන් අන් අයව ආකර්ෂණය කර ගැනීමට උත්සාහ කළත් ඇගේ ප්‍රංශ භාෂාව ඉතා  ග්‍රාම්‍ය බව කථකයා කියයි. ඇගේ කතාව යුදෙව් විරෝධී ආකල්පවලින් පිරී ඇත.  ප්‍රියරස්ගේ වඩාත් වැදගත් අංගයක් වන්නේ ඇගේ නමයි. කන්‍යා මරිය තුමිය සංකේතවත් කරන නමක් වන එග්ලෙන්ටීන්  පොදු සංකේතයක් විය. මරියා සංකේතවත් කරන මලකට පසු චෞසර් විසින් ප්‍රියරස් නම් කිරීම උත්ප‍්‍රාසාත්මක ය, මන්ද මරියා යනු ප්‍රේමයේ සහ දයාවේ ප්‍රතිමූර්තිය වන අතර, ප්‍රියරස් ඇගේ කතාවෙන් පෙන්වන කාරණා අනුව ඇය ප්‍රේමයේ සහ  දයාවේ ගුණාංග වලින් බොහෝ දුරස්ථය.  මෙය චෞසර්ගේ    උපහාසයකි; ඔහු  ප්‍රියරෙස් සඳහා නමක් තෝරා ගත්තේ ඇගේ සැබෑ චරිතයට පටහැනිවය.

පල්ලිය හා සම්බන්ධ කැන්ටබරි කතාන්දර අතුරින්, පාර්සන් වඩාත් අවංක හා සිත් ඇදගන්නා සුළු ය. ඔහු දුප්පත් නමුත් ශුද්ධ  පුද්ගලයෙකි. ඔහුට විශාල පල්ලියක් ඇති අතර, ඔහුගේ පල්ලියේ සාමාජිකයන් හොඳින් රැකබලා ගැනීමට ඔහු උපරිම උත්සාහයක් දරයි. ඔහු බයිබලය හොඳින් දන්නා අතර එය නිසි ලෙස දේශනා කරයි. ඔහු කාසි හෝ භාණ්ඩ ලබා ගන්නා සෑම විටම ඔහු ඒවා දුප්පතුන්ට ලබා දෙයි. ප්ලොව්මන් යනු පාර්සන්ගේ සහෝදරයාය. ඔහු පහත් ගොවි සේවකයෙක් වන අතර, පාර්සන් මෙන් ප්ලොව්මන් ද දුප්පත් නමුත් ශුද්ධ ය. ඔහු බොහෝ විට අයකිරීම් නොකර අන් අය වෙනුවෙන් වැඩ කරයි. පාර්සන්  මධ්යකාලීන යුගයේදී පරමාදර්ශී පූජකයා ලෙස සැලකේ.

යේමන් යනු  නයිට් ගේ සේවකයෙකි. පෙනුමෙන්, යේමන් රොබින් හුඩ්ට සමාන ය. ඔහු කොළ පැහැයෙන් සැරසී දුන්නක් හා ඊතල රැගෙන පලිහක්, කඩුවක් සහ කඩුල්ලක් රැගෙන යයි.  ඔහු ශාන්ත ක්‍රිස්ටෝපර් පදක්කමක් සහ දඩයම් අඟක් ද පැළඳ සිටී. යේමන් වනාන්තරයේ මාර්ග ගැන බොහෝ සෙයින් දැණුවත් ය.

The Wife of Bath -වයිෆ් ඔෆ් බාත් පැමිණෙන්නේ ඇවොන් ගඟේ පිහිටි බාත් නගරයේ සිටය. ඇය වෙළඳාමෙන් මැහුම් ශිල්පිනියක් වන නමුත්  වෘත්තීමය භාර්යාවකි. ඇය පස් වතාවක් විවාහ වී ඇති අතර විවාහය හා පුරුෂයින් හා ස්ත්‍රීන් අතර සබඳතා පිළිබඳ ලෝකයේ විශේසඥවරියක් ලෙස  ඇය ඉදිරිපත් වේ. වයිෆ් ඔෆ් බාත් යනු සොබාදහමේ බලවේගයක් වන අතර එය ජීවිතයට වඩා විශාල චරිතයකි.  ඇගේ තම අදහස් ප්‍රකාශ කිරීමට බිය නැත.  ඇගේ කතාව අතරතුර, නිවසක් පාලනය කළ යුත්තේ කවුරුන්ද යන්න පිළිබඳ ඇගේ හැඟීම් ප්‍රකාශ කරයි. ඉතා ස්ත්‍රීවාදී කාන්තාවක් වූ ඇය  වගකීම පැවරිය යුත්තේ බිරිඳට බව  කියන්නීය.  මධ්‍යකාලීන යුගයේ මෙම අදහස අතිශයෝක්තියක් ලෙස සලකනු  ලැබීය. සියලු කැන්ටබරි කථා චරිත අතුරින් වඩාත්ම විශ්වාස කළ හැකි හා වඩාත්ම විචිත්‍රවත් වන්නේ වයිෆ් ඔෆ් බාත් ය. ඇය චෞසර් ගේ කාලයේ ලිංගික ආශාව සහ කාමුකත්වය පිළිබඳ සංකේතයකි. වයිෆ් ඔෆ් බාත් නිරූපණයක් තුළින් චෞසර් මධ්‍යකාලීන සමාජය තුළ ආවේනික වූ ස්ත්‍රී පුරුෂ සමාජභාවය පිළිබඳ ගැටළු කිහිපයක් විසඳීමට උත්සාහ කරයි . බාත්ගේ බිරිඳ නිසැකවම ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණවාදියෙකි. ක්‍රිස්තියානි මධ්‍යතන යුගයේ කාන්තාවක් සඳහා ඇයට දැඩි රැඩිකල් අදහස් කිහිපයක් තිබේ. වයිෆ් ඔෆ් බාත් නැවත නැවතත් ඉදිරිපත් කරන තවත් කාරණයක් නම් විවාහයකදී පුරුෂයාට හෝ ස්ත්‍රියට වැඩි බලයක් තිබිය යුතුද යන්නයි. පරමාදර්ශී කාන්තාවක් නොවන ඇය විවෘතව තම ලිංගිකත්වය මෙවලමක් ලෙස භාවිතා කරයි. 

සියලු කැන්ටබරි කථා චරිත අතුරින්, සමාව දෙන තැනැත්තා වඩාත් නපුරු ය. ඔහු අනුකම්පා විරහිත, ආත්මාර්ථකාමී සහ වංක ය. පල්ලිය සමඟ ඔහුගේ ස්ථාවරය වන්නේ පව්කාරයන්ට සමාව විකිණීමයි. සමාව ලැබීමෙන් ලැබෙන මුදල් දුප්පතුන්ට උපකාර කිරීම වැනි යහපත් දේ සඳහා පල්ලියට යා යුතුය. කෙසේ වෙතත්, ඔහු තමා වෙනුවෙන් මුදල් තබා ගනී. සමාව දෙන තැනැත්තා ඇටකටු භාජනයක්  ගෙන යන අතර ඒවා සාන්තුවරයන්ගේ ඇටකටු යැයි කියා මිනිසුන්ව රවටා ඒවා විකුණයි.   සමාව දෙන තැනැත්තා සමලිංගික හෝ ද්වීලිංගික විය හැකි බව කථකයා ඉඟි කරයි.

ෆ්රියාර් යනු හියුබට් නම් විහිළුකාර මිනිසෙකි. ඔහු දුප්පතුන් ගැන එතරම් තැකීමක් නොකළ නමුත් අල්ලස් ලබා ගැනීම සඳහා ධනවතුන්ට සමාව දීමට ඔහු සැමවිටම කැමති විය. ඔහු කථනයෙන් දක්ෂ වූ අතර ඔහු තොල්වලින් කතා කළේය. ඔහු තරුණියන් සමඟ විනෝද වූ අතර බොහෝ විට ඔවුන්ට කුඩා තෑගි ලබා දුන්නේය.  

ඔක්ස්ෆර්ඩ් ලිපිකරු වනාහී  ඔක්ස්ෆර්ඩ්හි ශිෂ්‍යයෙකි. ඔහු ඔහු ශරීර ප්‍රමාණයෙන් සිහින් වන අතර කෙට්ටු අශ්වයෙකු පිට නැඟී යයි. ඔක්ස්ෆර්ඩ් ලිපිකරු ඉතා දුප්පත් වන අතර ඔහුට කාසියක් හෝ දෙකක් ලැබුණු විට ඔහු ඒවා පොත් සඳහා වියදම් කරයි.  ඔහුගේ ඉගෙනීමේ කටයුතුවලට උදව් කරන අය වෙනුවෙන් ඔහු යාඥා කරයි. ඔක්ස්ෆර්ඩ් ලිපිකරු සදාචාරාත්මක ගුණධර්ම පිළිබඳ දර්ශනයක් අනුගමනය කරයි. ඔහු සතුටින් ඉගෙනගෙන සතුටින් උගන්වයි. ඔක්ස්ෆර්ඩ් ලිපිකරු සැලකිලිමත් වන්නේ ඔහුගේ අධ්‍යාපනය පිලිබඳ පමණි.

 චෞසර් ගේ  කැන්ටබරි කථා වල එන  පැවිද්දා පල්ලියේ නරක නියෝජිතයෙකි.  පැවිද්දන් දුප්පත් හා ලෞකික භාණ්ඩ නොමැතිව ජීවත් විය යුතු නමුත්  චවුසර්ගේ පැවිද්දා පොහොසත් ඇඳුම් වලින් සැරසී අශ්වයන් ස්ථාවර හා දඩයම් බල්ලන්ගේ කූඩුවක් පවත්වාගෙන යයි.  ඔහු තම කාලය වැඩි වශයෙන් ගත කරන්නේ ආත්මයන් බේරා ගැනීම වෙනුවට දඩයම් කිරීම සඳහා ය. ඔහුගේ කබාය මිල අධික රන් ආවරණයක් සමඟ සවි කර ඇත. ඔහුට , දිලිසෙන මුහුණක් සහ දිලිසෙන තට්ට හිසක් ඇති අතර, ඉදිමුණු, අඳුරු ඇස් ඇත.  එය කෑදරකමේ සහ කුහක බවේ සංකේතයක් ලෙස කථකයා පෙන්වා දෙයි.  ඔහු පැවිදි ජීවිතයකට වඩා ද්‍රව්‍යවාදී ජීවිතය අගය කරන අතර හෙඩොනිස්ට්වාදියෙකු ලෙස පෙනේ. 

 චෞසර්  බොහෝ පූජකයන් හෙළා දකින අතර,  දහහතරවන සියවසේ පල්ලිය තුළ පැවති කුහකභාවයන් හෙළි කරයි.  පැවිද්දා දෙවියන් වහන්සේට වඩා මුදලට ආදරය කරන බව හෙළි කිරීම නිසා ඔහුගේ අත් ලොම් වලින් වැසී ඇති බව විස්තර කිරීම වැදගත් යැයි චෞසර්ට  හැඟුණි. මෙම විස්තරය හරහා චෞසර්   යෝජනා කරන්නේ ඇදහිලිවන්තයන්” සියලු දෙනාම විග්‍රහ කළ තරම් භක්තිමත් නොවූ බවයි.

සියලු කැන්ටබරි කතා චරිත අතුරින්, කැඳවුම්කරු –   Summoner වඩාත් පිළිකුල් සහගත ය. ඔහුගේ මුහුණ ගෙඩිවලින් වැසී ඇති අතර ඔහුගේ මුහුණ පුරා රැවුල තිබේ.. ඔහුගේ පෙනුම කෙතරම් නරකද යත් එය දරුවන් බිය ගැන්වීය. ඔහු කෙරෙන් දුඟදක් හැමීය. ඔහු වයින් වලටද ඇලුම් කළ අතර බොහෝ විට බීමත් වී අතාර්කික ලෙස ක්‍රියා කළේය. ඔහුගේ කාර්යය වූයේ මිනිසුන් උසාවියට කැඳවීමයි.

කථා මාලාවේ එන වෙළෙන්දා රැවුල වවාගෙන මොට්ලි ඇඳුමින් සැරසී සිටියේය. ඔහු බීවර් තොප්පියක් සහ මිල අධික බූට් සපත්තු ද පැළඳ සිටි බව කථකයා කියයි.    වෙළෙන්දා නිතරම තම ව්‍යාපාරයේ සාර්ථකත්වය ගැන පුරසාරම් දොඩයි, නමුත් ඔහු ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම ණය බරින් මිරිකී සිටී. ඔහු ධනවත් හා සාර්ථක යැයි හැඟීමක් ලබා දීමට උත්සාහ කරන අතර, එය විශ්වාස කිරීමට මිනිසුන් රවටා ගැනීමේ කාර්‍යක් සිදු කරයි. 

 කැන්ටබරි කථාහි ජෙෆ්රි චෞසර් ගේ චරිත නිර්මාණයන් අපූරුය. චරිත ප්‍රබන්ධ වුවද, ඔවුන් තවමත් එකල පැවති සිරිත් විරිත් හා භාවිතයන් පිළිබඳ විවිධාකාර අවබෝධයක් ලබා දෙයි. චෞසර් විවිධ චරිත භාවිතා කරමින් කතාවක් විකාශනය කිරීමට සහ ඔවුන්ගේ අදහස ඔවුන්ගේ පෞරුෂත්වය තුළින් ප්‍රකාශ කරයි. කැන්ටබරි කතා වල චරිත නිරූපණය කරන්නේ ජෙෆ්රි චෞසර් ගේ මධ්‍යකාලීන සමාජයේ සන්දර්භය තුළය.  මෙම කථා වල විවිධ සමාජ පංති නිරූපණය කර ඇති අතර සියලු වන්දනාකරුවන් අධ්‍යාත්මික ගවේෂණයක යෙදී සිටියද, ඔවුන් අධ්‍යාත්මික දේට වඩා ලෞකික දේ කෙරෙහි වැඩි සැලකිල්ලක් දක්වන බව පෙනේ.   

කැන්ටබරි කථා   ඓතිහාසික ලේඛනයකි.  එය  උපහාසාත්මක බුද්ධියෙන් පොහොසත් වන අතර යථාර්ථවාදය පිළිබඳ සංකල්පයක් මෙන්ම   දහහතරවන සියවසේ එංගලන්තයේ ප්‍රබුද්ධ සමාජය පිලිබඳ විවරණයක් සපයයි.  කැන්ටබරි කථා මගින් මධ්‍යකාලීන ජීවිතයේ එක්තරා පැතිකඩක් පිලිබඳව අවබෝධය ලැබේ.   චෞසර් ගේ පද රචනා කුසලතාව සහ පරිකල්පනීය ශක්තිය ගැන සමකාලීනයන් විසින් ඔහුට ප්‍රශංසා කරන ලද අතර, ඔහුගේ ශෛලිය හා විෂය කරුණු තෝරා ගැනීම ඔහුගේ කාලයේ ලේඛකයින්ට සහ පසුකාලීන ලේඛකයන්ටද බලපෑවේය. කැන්ටබරි කතා ලියා ඇත්තේ ඉංග්‍රීසි ඉතිහාසයේ කැලඹිලි සහිත කාලයක ය.  1381 ගොවීන්ගේ කැරැල්ල සහ දෙවන රිචඩ් රජු බලයෙන් පහ කිරීමත් සමඟ ඇති වූ දේශපාලන ගැටුම්, කැන්ටබරි කථා  ලියන කාලය තුළ පැවතුණි.

කැන්ටබරි කථා දහහතරවන සියවස පරිණාමය වූ ආකාරය පිළිබිඹු කරයි.  කැන්ටබරි කථා ආරම්භයේ සිටම ඔහු පෙන්වා දෙන්නේ තරුණ පරම්පරාව පැරණි ජීවන රටාව ප්‍රතික්‍ෂේප කිරීමට පටන් ගත් ආකාරයයි. නිදසුනක් වශයෙන්,   නයිට්වරයාගේ පුතා නයිට්වරයාට වඩා වෙනස් ය. නයිට්වරයාගේ පුතා එම වෘත්තිය සඳහා පුහුණුව ලැබුවද, ඔහුගේ පියා කළ වීරත්වය හා අඛණ්ඩතාවයට වඩා ගායනය සහ කවි වැනි කරුණු කෙරෙහි ඔහු අවධානය යොමු කරයි. ප්‍රභූ පැලැන්තිය තුළ සමාජයේ භූමිකාවන් වෙනස් වූ ආකාරයද මින් නිරූපණය වෙයි. චෞසර් හට ස්ත්‍රිය හා ස්ත්‍රියගේ අයිතිවාසිකම් පිළිබඳව ඔහුගේ කාලයට වඩා ප්‍රගතිශීලී මතයක් තිබුණි.  මධ්‍යකාලීන පල්ලිය විසින් පෝෂණය කරන ලද ස්ත්‍රී-විරෝධී ලියවිලි රාශියක් සමාජය පුරා පැතිරී තිබූ අතර චෞසර් එම අදහස් වලට අභියෝග කරන කාන්තා චරිත හඳුන්වා දුන්නේය.

ජෙෆ්රි චෞසර් ගේ  කැන්ටබරි කථාහි මුල් සැලැස්ම කතන්දර 100 කට වඩා වැඩි ගණනක් සඳහා වූ නමුත් සම්පූර්ණ කර ඇත්තේ 24 ක් පමණි. චෞසර් කැන්ටබරි කථා  නිම නොකළේ මන්ද යන්න පිළිබඳව බොහෝ අනුමාන පවතී. එක් සිද්ධාන්තයක් නම්, ඔහු මරණයට වසර පහක් හෝ හයකට පමණ පෙර 1390 ගණන්වල මැද භාගයේදී චෞසර් එය ලිවීම අතහැර දැමීමයි. හවුස් ඔෆ් ෆේම්” යනු චෞසර්ගේ නිම නොකළ කාව්‍යයන්ගෙන් එකක් වන අතර, දුර්ලභ උසස් චින්තනයක් අඩංගු වෙයි.     මධ්‍යතන යුගයේ දී දායක වූ සාහිත්‍ය කෘති හා ලේඛන ශෛලිය මගින් චෞසර් සාහිත්‍යයට   විශාල බලපෑමක් කළ අතර අතර ඔහු සාහිත්‍ය කෘති 500 කට අධික ප්‍රමාණයක් ලිවීය.  

විලියම් ෂේක්ස්පියර් ජෙෆ්රි චෞසර් ගේ නිර්මාණ අගය කළේය. චෞසර් ගේ කවි විලියම් ෂේක්ස්පියර් ඇතුළු මහා බ්‍රිතාන්‍යයේ කතුවරුන්, කවියන් සහ නාට්‍ය රචකයින් බොහෝ දෙනෙකුට බලපෑම් ඇති කළේය. ෂේක්ස්පියර් ඔහුගේ කතන්දර කිහිපයක් චවුසර්ගේ කවි වලින් ලබා ගත්තේය. 

ජෙෆ්රි චෞසර් අන්තර් සංස්කෘතික සාහිත්‍ය අනන්‍යතාවයේ ආලෝකයක් ලෙස නම් කල හැකිය. ඉංග්‍රීසි සාහිත්‍යයේ පියා ලෙස නම් කරන ලද  ඔහු ඉංග්‍රීසි ස්වභාෂා සම්ප්‍රදාය සොයා ගැනීමට උදව් කළේය. ඔහුගේ කෘති ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂා ශබ්ද කෝෂ නිර්මාණය කිරීමට වක්‍රව දායක විය.14 වන සියවසේ ජනප්‍රිය ඉංග්‍රීසි කවියෙකු වූ ජෙෆ්රි චෞසර් 1400 ඔක්තෝබර් 25 එංගලන්තයේ ලන්ඩන්හිදී මිය ගියේය.  ඒ වන විට ඔහුගේ වයස අවුරුදු 60 කි.  ඔහුට වෙස්ට්මිනිස්ටර් ඇබේ හි සුසාන භූමියක් ලබා දෙන ලදී. වෙස්ට්මිනිස්ටර් ඇබේ හි  Poets’ Corner  අංශයේ තැන්පත් කරන ලද පළමු පුද්ගලයා ජෙෆ්රි චෞසර් විය . 

Works Cited

Ann W. Astell, Chaucer and the Universe of Learning (Cornell University Press, 1996)  

Bloom, Harold, ed. Geoffrey Chaucer. New York: Chelsea House, 1999.

Chaucer, Geoffrey. “The Canterbury Tales.” In The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Middle Ages, by Afred, Simpson, James David, 218-315. New York: Norton and Company, 2006.  

Childress, Diana. Chaucer’s England. North Haven, CT: Linnet Books, 2000.

Cooper, Helen. Oxford Guides to Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Howard, Donald R. Chaucer: His Life, His World, His Works. NY: Dutton, 1987.

Kolve, V.A. & Glending Olson, Eds. The Canterbury Tales: Nine Tales and the General Prologue. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1989.

BY LASANDA KURUKULASURIYA Courtesy The Island

Sri Lanka’s handling of the Covid-19 outbreak has, comparatively speaking, produced commendable results. Tracing the trajectory of the response, it may be seen that early moves, to prepare for what lay ahead, served well to mitigate the outcome. A Task Force, drawing on expertise of all relevant sectors, was appointed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, on January 27th, the day the first Covid-19 case was reported – that of a Chinese woman tourist.

The first local case was detected on March 11th – a tour guide who had been infected by an Italian tourist. School closures were announced the next day, followed by the shuttering of theatres, cinemas, libraries, sports grounds and other public places, along with prohibitions on public and private gatherings. Around mid-March, Colombo’s international airport was closed to inward passengers. The rupee plummeted, the stock market crashed. As part of a now-familiar narrative of lockdown, Sri Lankans hunkered down to an island-wide curfew, on March 20th.

The moves to arrange for essentials of food and medicine, to be delivered to people’s homes, served to cushion the impact of the restrictions. Farmers, and fisher people, were allowed to go about their routine activities, regardless of the curfew, to sustain rural livelihoods, and for food security. Government intervened in purchasing and distributing produce and getting it across to consumers. There were predictable difficulties during these operations, amid the new health and safety measures.

Compared to many Western states, whose daily statistics of death and infection were mind-boggling, Sri Lanka’s report card, on containment of the coronavirus, looked good. Two months after the emergence of the first local patient, as of May 9th, Sri Lanka counted a total of 835 confirmed cases of Covid-19. Of them, 255 had recovered, while nine had died, leaving 571 active cases.

Right track

“Sri Lanka is on the right track to contain the epidemic, through the increased tracking, testing, isolation, and treatment strategy,” said the World Health Organisation (WHO). “Containment is feasible and remains the top priority in Sri Lanka” it said in a statement, on May 10th. The ambassadors of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania and the EU Delegation, in Colombo, met the head of the Presidential Task Force on Essential Services, Basil Rajapaksa, to commend the government’s cooperation in assisting their nationals. The EU said, in a statement, that they were “impressed with the low number of cases in Sri Lanka so far” and made a EUR 22 million grant to help fight the disease. Heads of missions, representing the US, the UK, Australia and Canada, are reported to have likewise acknowledged the government’s progress in dealing with the pandemic and pledged continued support, as have the governments of India and Japan.

The most steadfast assistance, to Sri Lanka, in the wake of the pandemic, has come from China. Having pledged to share its knowledge, and expertise, with Sri Lanka’s Health Ministry, China continued to make donations of tons of medical supplies, tens of thousands of masks, PCR test kits and other supplies. China’s Acting Ambassador assured President Rajapaksa that his government would help rebuild the economy.

Public health system

Sri Lanka’s robust response, to the Covid-19 outbreak, could be attributed to its well-heeled public health system, helmed by dedicated medical professionals, despite being underfunded. Dr Ramya Kumar, from the Department of Community and Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Jaffna, wrote, in a conference paper last year, that “The most remarkable feature of Sri Lanka’s public healthcare system is that it offers services on a walk-in basis with no charges at points of use. Financed chiefly through (regressive) indirect taxation, the system has achieved impressive geographic spread at relatively low levels of spending (< 2% of GDP).”

In its bid to curb the spread of coronavirus, Sri Lanka adopted a strategy of aggressive contact tracing and isolating, in quarantine facilities, with positive cases being hospitalized for treatment. The approach to testing did not follow the dictum of ‘test, test, test.’ “Testing is being conducted on a targeted algorithm and policy and not just on a whim at every junction” Director General of Health Services Dr Anil Jasinghe is reported, as saying in the Sunday Times. “Those who are tested are in the highly-vulnerable group, like those in Intensive Care Units (ICUs), those having Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI), those whom the clinicians want tested, those in quarantine centres, and other vulnerable groups, such as those living in congested areas, substance abusers, municipal workers, trishaw drivers, fish vendors, etc.” Between 1500–2000 PCR tests (Polymerase Chain Reaction tests) are said to be carried out, per day.

Asked if Sri Lanka’s approach to testing was appropriate and adequate, the WHO office, in Colombo, in an email response, said “The current testing is appropriate and in line with the cluster phase testing plan and all appropriate groups are currently being tested.”

Health officials say there has been no ‘community spread’ of the disease. This assertion would seem to be based on the random testing carried out in the community, which, according to Dr Paba Palihawadana, Deputy Director General of Health Services, comprises about 50% of the samples collected.

Navy cluster

The Sri Lanka’s armed forces make a significant contribution to the Covid-19 response, under the direction of Lt. Gen. Shavendra Silva, Chief of Defence Staff and Commander of the Army, who heads the National Operations Centre for Prevention of Covid-19 (NOCPC). Forces personnel are tasked to move identified persons to the quarantine facilities, run by the military, at 45 locations around the country. Diverse groups, leaving after their 14-day stay, and interviewed on public television, have, without exception, praised their high standard and the attentive treatment they received. The State Intelligence Service focuses on contact tracing, while forces personnel continue to assist in a variety of tasks.

So, it is ironic that the first major spike in numbers was triggered, within the Sri Lanka Navy. An officer had been infected while on duty during an operation, in Ja-Ela, to round up drug addicts for quarantining, who later tested positive, a statement by the Army Commander said. The largest cluster yet, resulted from this calamity. A Situation Report of the Epidemiology Unit showed that between April 22nd (the start date of the Navy cluster) and May 31st, 794 out of 1,312 confirmed cases reported, were Navy personnel and their close associates. However, the recoveries, within this group, have been swift, possibly owing to their age and fitness profile.

Sri Lankan returnees

The bigger challenge, that emerged recently, has been an increasing number of Sri Lankans returning, from overseas, under a government repatriation programme, and found to be Covid-19 positive, on arrival. Health authorities say these returnees were already infected at the time of their departure, and categorise them as ‘imported’ cases. Out of 466 migrant workers, who returned from Kuwait on May 19th, 324 were reported to be Covid-19 positive.

The new development has presented a complex set of issues. The anxiety of health officials is palpable. Dr Sudath Samaraweera, Chief Epidemiologist, has urged vigilance, saying “At this point there is no undue pressure on the health system, It can be carefully managed. Right now, there are no cases reported from within the community. But this does not mean we can claim there are no cases within the community. Therefore, we must continue to assume there may be infected persons out there. That’s the only way we can bring it under control because we are not 100% safe as yet.” (Ada Derana TV 28.05.20) The total number of confirmed cases of Covid-19, as of May 31st, stood at 1,620, which included 10 deaths. With 801 having recovered, this left a total of 809 active cases.

There has been a clamour, among Sri Lankan migrant workers, to return, owing to the worsening risk of contracting Covid-19 in the host countries, lack of access to medical facilities, loss of job, or lodging, and other contingencies, in the wake of the pandemic. Around 40% are believed to be working illegally (‘not registered’), making them more vulnerable.

As at 27 May, 42,522 persons, from 123 countries, were seeking to return to Sri Lanka, according to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Relations, on May 29th. “Of these, migrant workers amounted to 34,881, of which 20,893 are living in the Middle East, while 4,961 were short term visa holders, and 2,016 were students” it said.

It added that the repatriation programme would continue, with priority being given to those who have lost their legal status, or employment. Of the 466 returnees from Kuwait, 379 arrived on the basis of an amnesty agreement between the two governments, the ministry said, while 87 were from Kuwaiti prisons, and detention centres.

Government’s responsibility

Migrant worker remittances have been Sri Lanka’s top foreign exchange earner for the past several years, ahead of apparel and tourism. Worker remittances constituted 58.9% of export earnings, in 2018, of which over half came from West Asia, according to Central Bank statistics.

On the instructions of President Rajapaksa, returnees, from overseas, will now be subjected to PCR testing at the airport, where a lab will be set up for the purpose. They will be sent for quarantine, only after the results are known. ‘Everyone who wishes to return to the motherland’ should be given the opportunity to do so as soon as possible, the President’s office reported him as saying.

“The bottom line is that we want to get the Sri Lankans back, but in a manner that would not jeopardise (the safety of) people here” said Admiral Jayanath Colombage, Additional Secretary to the President, and a member of the Task Force.

Statements suggest that the government considers Sri Lankan migrant workers as its responsibility. This is a welcome change in governmental attitude, since 2013, when a young Sri Lankan housemaid, Rizana Nafeek, was barbarically beheaded in Saudi Arabia, without a fair trial, for the alleged murder of an infant, in her care, when she was underage.

The plight of migrant workers, caught up in the pandemic, raises questions as to why so many are working illegally – making them more vulnerable – and why such a large number of citizens need to leave the country to provide for their families in the first place. If more decent employment was generated, within the country, would they not be spared these ordeals?

These are issues for which long term solutions would be needed – assuming the government has the political will to address them. The immediate challenge is that of fulfilling obligations towards Sri Lankans, in distress overseas, without compromising the safety of its citizenry at home. As the country gradually comes out of a gruelling two-month lockdown, to resume life under the ‘new normal,’ this could be the acid test that determines whether Sri Lanka’s impressive record (so far) of battling Covid-19 can be sustained.

Dr. Sarath Obeysekera 

Photos illustrated here show Galle Harbour with several yachts owned by foreign sailing tourists who are in Sri Lanka during this lull tourist period 

Next to the yacht park in the Harbour Is the building which is a  yacht repair facility established in 2014

This project was abandoned in 2015 by the foreign investor with local participation due to various reasons in the country at that time 

Local partners tried several years to recommence but four ministers who were in charge the port since that time never wanted it to be revived When I personally met them and proposed various ways of reviving the yacht repair yard in smaller scale    Ministers were not willing to help due to reasons you can always guess.

One minister called me  Panditaya when I was persistent that it is a waste of a valuable space 

Southern area development minister was approached once again and he gave many excuses not to allow it. At one point I shook my head due to sheer frustration and dismay and  I was severely reprimanded by the minister.

When I pass by the Galle port I feel sad that our  country cannot go forward because of these type of short-sighted ministers 

Today building which was purchased by investors from the  Port is standing idle for six years and finally, last week has taken over for by the Navy for Corona quarantine per purpose 

Now you can see the garbage lying in the Harbour and lack of basic facilities. Foreign yacht owners were treated badly by customs and Port with no food supplies and other basic needs 

It is unfortunate that the Tourist Board and SLPA do not understand the potential of Galle as a Tourist destination.

We have to do something about developing nautical tourism and attract more foreign Income during these lean days 

Tourist Board once asked us what is Nautical Tourism when we met them to explain  they said that they know only about tourist arriving by air and going to beach 

It is paramount that The president takes immediate action and develop Galle  port firstly by removing the scrap barge originally imported by Mundo Gas and now obstructing the port’s valuable berthing space 

This mammoth ugly scrap barge is  berthed for over 16 years which can sink at any moment 

This barge was deployed with the connivance of the minister at that time and now trying to keep mum about it 

The new minister can do a few things to develop Galle .

Fast track expansion of Galle Marina project with state of the art facilities to attract tourists 

Remove the scrap barge and cement bagging plant next to the pier ( again allowed by a minister which is an eyesore)

Restart the yacht repair yard

Establish a tourist office to help the yacht owners 

Allow the private sector to develop social entertainment in Galle Harbour or in vicinity especially in Galle Port 

Simplify custom and Security Procedures and allow free movement of tourists to Galke Port to spend  the day 

Dr. Sarath Obeysekera 

Protect All Wildlife

When South African conservationist Lawrence Anthony was asked to accept a herd of 7 ‘rogue’ and ‘trouble-making’ Elephants on his reserve at Thula Thula in 1999, his common sense told him to refuse. But he was the herd’s last chance of survival – notorious escape artists, they would all be killed if Lawrence wouldn’t take them. He agreed, but before arrangements for the move could be completed the animals broke out again and the matriarch and her baby were shot.

The remaining Elephants were traumatised and very angry. As soon as they arrived at Thula Thula they started planning their escape. As Lawrence battled to create a bond with the Elephants and save them from execution, he came to realise that they had a lot to teach him about love, loyalty and freedom.

Set against the background of life on the reserve, with unforgettable characters and exotic wildlife, he wrote The Elephant Whisperer, a book that appealed to animal lovers worldwide.The original herd of 7 Elephants has now increased to 29 Elephants, the maximum sustainable capacity of Thula Thula. Thanks to the local community, Thula Thula has the opportunity to add a further 3500 hectares of land to increase their habitat.

This solution requires 35 km of electric fencing as well as roads, increased security, guard training, security equipment and vehicles, conservation, land management and the list just go on, to keep the wildlife safe. Community projects such as this, not only support the wildlife but also improve local employment and education.

By P.K.Balachandran/Daily Express Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Reasons are ineffective implementation, absence of a holistic approach and entrenched biases against the Blacks

Although America is recognized as the oldest democracy, its record in ensuring racial equality has been embarrassingly poor. Though governments had legislated in the right direction since 1862, the efforts had been half-hearted and piecemeal. A holistic approach, taking into account the basic issues, was missing. And most importantly, the White majority had consistently scuttled affirmative action in favor of Blacks, through both covert and overt means.

Admittedly, there is a marked change now. After George Floyd’s murder by a White cop in full public view, the issue of racial inequality has come to the fore again with multi-racial demonstrations, both peaceful and violent, taking place all over the US. There is even a move to defund” the police department, which in effect, means cutting funds and diverting these to bridging the yawning socio-economic Black-White gap. In many Southern States statues of 19 th. Century Confederate (secessionist) leaders are being pulled down.

However, the nagging question is: Will progress towards equality be holistic and sustained? Donald Trump’s White majoritarian constituency cannot be wished away especially as the Presidential election is only five months away.

Chequered History

In 1808 President Thomas Jefferson officially ended the African slave trade, but domestic American slave trade was allowed. In 1822, steps to send freed slaves to Liberia in Africa was instituted instead of absorbing them in America itself. But repatriation was only partial. In 1862, President Lincoln passed the Emancipation Law, formally ending slavery while fighting a bloody war against the Southern Confederate States which were against the abolition of slavery. In 1865, after the defeat of the Southern States, the 13th Constitutional Amendment was passed to formally abolish slavery. In 1870, the 15th Amendment gave Black men the right to vote, but the Southern States began to pass segregation laws to counter it.

Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865, and was succeeded by the pro-slavery Andrew Jackson. But Lincoln himself was confused about what to do with the freed Black slaves. His favored option was to renew repatriating them to Liberia but he acknowledged that was not a practical proposition. At the same time, he found keeping freed Black slaves in the US equally problematical as it meant giving them equal rights, which he and the Whites at large, were averse to.

However, Prof. Eric Foner author of The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery” says that in the twelve years following the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, the former slaves made meaningful political, social and economic gains. Black men voted and even held public office across the South. Biracial experiments in governance flowered. Black literacy surged, surpassing those of whites in some cities. The Civil Rights Act of 1866, was the first US federal law to affirm that all citizens are equally protected by the law. The 14th constitutional Amendment of 1868, granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the US, including former slaves, and guaranteed all citizens equal protection of the laws.”

Shot-lived Gains

But progress in the Blacks’ position these acts brought about, were short-lived. By the early 1900s, nearly every Southern State had barred Blacks from voting and from serving in public office, on juries and in the administration of the justice system. The justice system tended to send Blacks to jail even on petty grounds like roaming around employed (under the Vagrancy Law). These convicts would then be leased” out to White-owned farms and factories where the conditions of employment were no different from the days of slavery.

Successive US governments failed to give any material assistance to the freed Blacks to do business or farm. Martin Luther King told a TV interviewer in the 1960s, that no land was given to the former slaves while millions of acres were given to immigrants from Europe.

In the decades that followed, tough crime laws with racist undertones kept hitting the Blacks hard. Mandatory minimum sentencing laws were applied in racially discriminatory ways. Even today, the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world, with 2.2 million behind bars, even though crime has decreased significantly since the early 1990s. And while black Americans make up only 13% of the US population, they are 37% of the incarcerated population. 40% of police killings of unarmed people involve Black men, who make up merely 6% of the population, according to a 2015 Washington Post report. George Floyd was killed on a Minneapolis street brazenly in public view for trying to buy a packet of cigarettes with a 20 dollar fake note. Any complaint of a suspicious” movement of a Black or a Brown man (even if he is grandfather going for a walk) can lead to the police killing him on the spot and the jury and the courts would go with the police version.

Issue of Segregation

In the 1950s and 1960s, racial segregation was a major issue in the Southern States. Buses and public utilities were separate for the Blacks. There was advancement on the legal front, but implementation was poor. In 1948, President Truman issued an Executive Order to end segregation in the armed services. In 1954, the Supreme Court ended racial segregation in public schools. But still, many schools remained segregated. In 1955: Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black was brutally murdered in Mississippi for allegedly flirting with a white woman. Nine black students known as the Little Rock Nine” were blocked from integrating into Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. President Eisenhower eventually sent federal troops to escort the students. Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 to help protect voter rights. The law allowed federal prosecution of those who suppressed another’s right to vote.

Throughout 1961, Black and White activists, known as Freedom Riders, took bus trips through the Southern States to protest segregated bus terminals and attempted to use Whites-only” restrooms and lunch counters. The Freedom Rides were attacked by White protestors, which drew international attention. In 1963, Governor George Wallace personally blocked the doorway at the University of Alabama to prevent two black students from registering. The Alabama standoff continued until President Kennedy sent the National Guard to the campus.

On August 28, 1963, 250,000 people Blacks and Whites took part in The March on Washington” for Jobs and Freedom in which Martin Luther King gave his I Have A Dream” speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial. He said: I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.” In 1964: President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, preventing discrimination due to race, color, sex, religion or national origin in employment. The same year, Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to prevent the use of literacy tests as a voting requirement. It also allowed federal examiners to review voter qualifications and federal observers to monitor polling places.

On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King was assassinated Memphis, Tennessee. A White man, James Earl Ray, was convicted of the murder. A few days later, on April 11, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (the Fair Housing Act) providing equal housing opportunity regardless of race, religion or national origin.

Despite the Civil Rights Movement and progressive governmental measures, the Blacks’ socio-economic conditions did not improve and the Black-White gap remained wide, for want of effective implementation, the absence of a holistic approach and entrenched biases against the Blacks.

V Sajeev Kumar  Kochi Courtesy The Hindu Business Line

The availability of imported Sri Lankan pepper in the consuming markets of Delhi and Mumbai seem to have perked up some demand from end-users.

Traders in these markets are reported to have covered Sri Lankan produce from Tamil Nadu dealers at ₹300 + GST+ freight and this sale confirms the arrival of more containers in the domestic market and are being traded after the first consignment of 167 tonnes, said Kishore Shamji of Kishor Spices.

The RBI and the Customs authorities have to play a major role as regulators since FEMA rules are grossly violated in such shipments. It is feared that the Customs authorities have not looked into the value of the imported pepper at which the duty is paid and the prices prevailing in the producing country (Sri Lanka) and the consuming country (India), which is a major factor to look into for such imports, he said.

Meanwhile, the prices of other origin pepper in Indonesia have moved up to $2,950, Brazil ($2,450) and Vietnam ($3,000-3,100) for shipment of Asta grade pepper. There were also reports that Sri Lankan importers are planning to approach their authorities for redress under bilateral agreements of SAFTA and ISFTA as well as the removal of MIP that would cater to the flow of Sri Lankan pepper.

As agreements are due for renewal, Shamji said the government should take a judicious decision by taking into account the past incidents of other origin pepper slipping into India via Sri Lanka with a due certification of their produce. Even Swaminathan Committee had warned the Indian government on the consequences of such imports.

Meanwhile, spot pepper prices in Kochi remained steady at ₹315 for ungarbled on an offtake of 33 tonnes.

Courtesy Adaderana

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa says the Government is ready to give its fullest support to the export sector to realize its full potential through correctly identifying and rectifying prevailing grievances and obstacles faced by it.

The challenge before the exporters is to show results by expanding the export sector which is at present limited to a range of few items to greater heights aiming the international market, President said.

President Rajapaksa made these comments during a meeting with a large number of leading exporters called to apprise them on the current steps taken by the Government to revive the economy whilst the country returning to normalcy and to identify issues in the sector, held at the Presidential Secretariat today (11).

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an adverse impact on every sector of the economy; with the gradual resumption of day to day activities followed by the successful mitigation of the virus, the economy is re-bounding beyond expectations, President pointed out.

We have very few export businesses that surpass 1 billion US dollars in foreign exchange income. Opportunities are available to expand this, President added.

Higher incomes can be earned by adding values to agro products such as cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. A new market is now emerging in the global economy with the spread of COVID-19. A large market has emerged in the Asian region centered around the Middle East, China, and India.”

The President said that he firmly believes our exporters with their broad knowledge in management and marketing will be able to conquer this new market.

Using this potential, the exporters will also have the responsibility of strengthening the economy rapidly with new vigor, emphasized the President.

Even though Sri Lanka is a small island state we allocate more funds for the education and health sectors. As a result of these steps our country successfully faced the COVID-19 epidemic situation.”

President Rajapaksa said that the government was able to control and prevent unhealthy developments in the foreign exchange market by introducing prudent measures to halt the importation of agricultural products that can be grown domestically and halting the importation of non-essential products as well as to protect the farmers.

There is criticism in the society regarding the contribution of the public and private banking sector for the economic revival of the country. It can be clearly seen that the reliefs granted by the government for the benefit of the public as well as for business enterprises were not passed down adequately to society. It is a matter that should be promptly addressed.

President Rajapaksa emphasized that if the officials of the Central Bank or the State Banks do not take steps to implement the guidelines formulated by the government, he will not hesitate to remove them from their positions and continue to work with individuals who are ready to fall in line.

The President also said that he will take decisions without fear to deviate from conventional thinking and work methods to overcome the recession.

The entrepreneurs pointed out the issues related to the non-availability of fertilizer for certain export crops and the shortage of animal food for animal husbandry. 

The President said that steps have already been taken to solve these issues. The exporters said that the support given by the institutions directly related to the export process like Port, Airport, BOI, and Customs is praiseworthy. The representatives also commended the role played by the Head of the Presidential Task Force, Mr. Basil Rajapaksa in this regard.

Issues revolving the exportation of coconuts, coconut oil, coconut-based products, tea, apparels, vegetables, fruits, rubber and rubber-based products, Information Technology, seafood, minor crops including black pepper were discussed in depth. Export diversification was recognized as essential during the discussion.

Several raw materials have to be imported for re-exportation purposes. However, this should be done without causing adverse effects to the local farmers, Basil Rajapaksa stated.

The Government expects households to meet their coconut consumption requirement from their own home gardens. In the global market, there is a very high demand for coconut-based exports. As such, the government has devised plans to protect coconut plantations and uplift the Coconut industry in the Northern Province along with other provinces. The exporters stated that the use of advanced technological methods to gather data of the agro harvests across the country will allow them to purchase these harvests without difficulty.

Exporters were confident that if the right technical equipment and devices are imported they will be able to produce low-cost laptops, computers, mobile phones, and telephones locally. President Rajapaksa agreed to assist them in this endeavor.

Ministers Ramesh Pathirana, Prasanna Ranatunga, Chairman of the Presidential Task Force, Basil Rajapaksa, Secretary to the President, P.B Jayasundera, business leaders in the export sector and several heads of institutes related to imports and exports were present at the discussion, stated President’s Media Division.

Courtesy Adaderana

The hearing of evidence by the Presidential Commission probing the Eater attacks continued today (11) with the recording of statements from the Senior DIG in charge of the Western Province who stated that he was skeptical rather of the possibility of an attack since no prior information had been circulated of the existence of such a group before.

The DIG responsible for the Western Province at the time of Easter attacks Nandana Munasinghe giving evidence before the Presidential Commission revealed that he had received a confidential document from the office of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), warning of an imminent attack by the National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ) organization.

The witness stated that the letter, marked ‘Top Secret’ and ‘Top Priority’ was based on information provided by State Intelligence Services (SIS) Director Nilantha Jayawardena which has been forwarded to the IGP by National Intelligence Chief Sisira Mendis.

He added that the letter had been marked ‘For Necessary Action’ by the IGP and was shared with STF Commandant DIG M. R. Lathif, DIG in charge of the Special Security District DIG Priyalal Dissayanake and the Director of Terrorism Investigation Division (TID).

The Commission then asked the witness whether there had been any attempts made to contact the IGP for further instructions. To which he responded that as the LTTE had taken 10 years to develop the use of suicide vests he remained skeptical about the veracity of the information as no prior intelligence had been received regarding the emergence of such organization. 

To this he added that he did not seek any such instructions and neither did the IGP contact him to confirm the receipt of the letter.

The Commission then asked the witness whether he had attempted to contact the National Intelligence Chief due to the letter being an intelligence document, to which he replied, that 2 days after receiving the letter he had contacted SIS Director Nilanthe Jayawardena.

The Senior State Counsel then asked the witness if any reports on Muslim extremism were received before the warning letter to which he responded in the negative.

The witness was then asked whether he was aware of the discovery of explosives in Wanathawilluwa and the arrest of 04 Muslim suspects on January 16, 2019. He responded although he was aware of the incident, as the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) had not informed him of the details of the probe, or the fact that the group was an organized terror outfit, was not convinced that an attack could take place.

The Commission then questioned the witness whether the original confidential letter from the IGP containing the warning of the attack was submitted as evidence, to which he stated that letter in question had been handed over to the CID on June 10, 2019.

In response being questioned as to why he had kept such letter in his possession for a period of two months before handing it over for evidence, the witness told the Commission that the decision to keep the letter or even destroy it remained solely at his discretion.

The witness’ statement was chided by the Commission who reminded him that it was a legal requirement to keep to keep a record of every document for a period of five years.

The witness was then questioned by the Senior State Counsel if any discussion were held on the content of the letter between the IGP and other senior police officials, to which he replied in the negative.

The witness accepted that if going by media reports where it had been made clear that the IGP had been informed of a threat on numerous occasions by the National Intelligence Chief, any discussion on the subject could have prevented the incident.

Courtesy Hiru News

The inquiring committee appointed to investigate alleged irregularities in the ETI Investments met President Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the Presidential Secretariat today(June 11).

The Committee informed the President that the ETI Investments had not followed the proper procedures in their conduct from its inception. It had invested its assets in other institutes and at the same time, it had not been supervised by the Central Bank, the Committee pointed out.

President Rajapaksa instructed the Committee to investigate into the irregularities in depth and pay more attention to return people their deposits immediately. The Central Bank cannot evade its responsibility in this matter, President emphasized.

The Central Bank is obligated to protect depositors if any irregularities are discovered in a financial institution. The Central Bank has failed in its duty, the President said.

Retired Supreme Court Judge K.T. Chitrasiri chairs the three-member committee. The other members are retired Solicitor General Suhada Gamlath and Senior Banker D.M. Gunasekara.

Secretary to the President, P.B. Jayasundera also participated in this meeting

Courtesy Hiru News

One (01) more person has tested positive for Covid-19 (new coronavirus) infection.

The country total has increased to 1,876 according to the latest information by the Epidemiology unit of the Ministry of Health.

Two (02) more persons confirmed for Covid -19: SL Country total increases to 1,875

Two (02) more persons have tested positive for Covid-19 (new coronavirus) infection.

The country total has increased to 1,875 according to the latest information by the Epidemiology unit of the Ministry of Health.

Courtesy Hiru News

Opposition and ruling party politicians have expressed their views regarding the resignation of former MP Mangala Samaraweera.

Courtesy Hiru News

It is 30 years since the LTTE terrorists killed 600 unarmed policemen in the Eastern Province.

The commemoration of the death of the police officers was held at the Ranaviru Memorial in front of the Ampara Police Superintendent’s office today.

Courtesy Hiru News

Pasindu Hirushan who was admitted to hospital with serious head injuries has left the hospital today.

Pasindu, a student of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, was hospitalized for nearly three months after a tire fell on his head.

Hospital sources further say that the student’s health is good.

A series of photographs showing how he was recovering has now surfaced on social media.

Old News

By Rohana R. Wasala

The Sinhala language online lankacnews/June 6, 2020 reported that the controversial Elections Commission member Ratnajeevan Hoole, in an interview with the regional Tamil language DAN TV channel in Jaffna, asked the voters in the north not to vote for the SLPP at the coming general election. The website carried the piece of news with a facsimile of the top part of an English language publication from which it was relaying the item of news; the latter carried Hoole’s picture alongside the headline in big letters, which ran: ‘Do not vote for SLPP…’. Hoole allegedly said this in Tamil. A number of other news sources have disputed this; Hoole said no such thing; his message had been garbled by supporters of the SLPP. According to lankacnews/June 8,Hoole,  interviewed by Sirasa TV/June 7, 2020, denied having asked voters not to vote for the SLPP; he had only stated that they should not vote for corrupt persons, liquor bar owners, individuals prone to violence, etc. Asked to comment on Hoole’s alleged controversial remarks supposed to have been made in Tamil, EC chairman Mahinda Deshapriya refused to comment on it until he received an authentic translation of the same. (Subsequently, Deshapriya has declared that he agrees with Hoole’s position, which suggests that the latter is not acting alone.) Some opposition speakers, meanwhile, are gleefully taunting the SLPP: ‘If the cap fits, wear it!’ 

Of course, the opposition might have something more than this chance of jeering the SLPP to thank Hoole for. Be that as it may, what, in my view, is important here is whether Ratnajeevan Hoole is capable of saying what he has been rightly or wrongly blamed for saying. Certainly he is capable of shooting his mouth off like that in the current highly charged pre-poll situation. His accustomed political postures, actions, and utterances over a long period of time, apparently inspired by a strange tribalism never expected in such a respected knowledgeable person, leave us in no doubt that it is not beyond him to act in that morally and legally unacceptable way.                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Is it because he probably thinks that he is about to be in at the kill, when, as he hopes, the coup de grace is delivered to the unitary Sri Lanka by completing the interrupted Yahapalana agenda after having the dissolved parliament recalled through some constitutional sleight of hand with the help of Sumanthiran exploiting the Covid-19 situation? Hoole charged, as reported in the online lankacnews mentioned at the beginning of this piece, that the SLPP is engaged in spreading misinformation against him through the media; news channels supportive of the SLPP are disseminating falsehoods about him, he complained. He has declared that he does not know Sinhala to read the ‘garbage’ published in that language. He is also reported to have stated that some people claim that he is going to resign from the EC, because they think that, when they say so, he will stop his activities. But, he added, the 19th Amendment makes it difficult to mess around with the election. (Now, who is trying to ‘mess around with the election’ by trying to postpone it indefinitely or cancel it altogether under the pretext of allowing time for dealing with the catastrophic Covid-19, which, however, has by now been definitely brought under control?  The government or the opposition? Any rational observer can understand it is the opposition.)

To date, while being an EC member, he has conducted himself as if he is interested only in what he believes is good for his own tribe, to the exclusion of the rest 85% of the multiethnic population. I am 100% sure that the vast majority of ordinary Tamils do not expect him to behave in the way he does, which must be embarrassing to them. Obviously, the LTTE’s alleged hostility to him did not mean that he was a friend of the Sinhalese, or of all those including Tamils who opposed it. The older Sri Lankans have not forgotten news reports to the effect that he was accused of collecting funds for the LTTE in Nigeria in the 1980s.  Just before the presidential election in November 2019, Hoole made public utterances encouraging MP Sumanthiran of the appointed opposition’s TNA, who used to hector in parliament to bungling ministers of the UNP administration (the rump of Yahapalanaya on its last legs); when parliament was dissolved, he unsuccessfully moved court against it. Wikipedia says that Ratnajeevan Hoole is a dual citizenship holder (SL and US), which must be true. But he  didn’t seem concerned about the injustice the current president Gotabaya Rajapakse was subjected to by his opponents and their NGO allies or sponsors persistently challenging his candidature for presidency on the false charge that he had failed to renounce his USA citizenship, despite the American embassy in Colombo having confirmed that GR had legally given up his American citizenship well ahead of the announcement of his nomination. 

Practically, Hoole opens his mouth only with a view to frustrating the country’s democratic return to the permanent peace and political stability of the five years 2009 to 2015, established after the nation having paid for it in blood, sweat, and tears, and thousands of innocent lives lost, and some fourteen thousand young soldiers – some in their early twenties – maimed for life, and now lingering in army hospices, some of them lying in bed like vegetables; to this must be added losses incurred and casualties, mostly suffered by the young, on the rebel side, very much a part of the cream of Sri Lanka’s human population, like the young soldiers who fought in defence of the state. Only the mindless racist fringe represented by Hoole and others of his ilk are impervious to their pain and suffering, and now remain deliberately in denial of the collective anxiety experienced in that deadly past returning to haunt innocent Sri Lankans of all communities  in the menacing shadow of the Covid-19 monster.

Ratnajeevan Hoole seems to be nursing a pathological hatred of the Sinhalese, particularly, of Sinhalese Buddhists. He despises everything associated with the Sinhalese, their history, their literature, their ancient knowledge, and their spiritual heritage. Once, referring to the claim by a scholar that the 15th century CE Sri Lankan Buddhist university Vijayaba Pirivena of Thotagamuva (- though primarily a large Buddhist pirivena, it was a centre of secular learning as well, that flourished during the reign of king Parakramabahu VI of Kotte) was one of the earliest universities of the world, Hoole took umbrage at that description and denounced it as an insult to other universities of the world! His recent confession that he does not know the Sinhala language reflects his mysterious antagonism towards the Sinhalese. It doesn’t seem to matter that he was born and had school education in Nallur, Jaffna, in the north and that he completed his university education in Colombo in the south, as a beneficiary of free education, among the traditionally peaceful and egalitarian Sinhalese, before proceeding to UK and US for his postgraduate studies in engineering. 

The trouble dealing with Hoole is that, in the country’s dominant traditional culture, people believe that the learned are disciplined (vidya dadaati vinayang – knowledge imparts discipline)   and therefore, are worthy of respect and paying heed to); in their innocence, they equate learning with education; they don’t know that a person may have much learning but little education. We have been plagued with quite a number of characters like that in politics recently. But the cultured ordinary citizens, out of the respect they have for this engineering professor, have so far viewed his ludicrous behaviour which is unworthy of him as a member of the august body that the elected parliament assigned him to, with some amused indulgence. Probably, he has forgotten about his own self respect in his anxiety to live up to the commitments he might have made to the cynical politicians who put him in that position with certain ulterior motives. But enough is enough! He must either resign or serve out his term with the appearance of an honoured senior citizen who is growing old gracefully, something he owes to the peace-loving Sri Lankan people.

Dilrook Kannangara

At long last Mangala Samaraweera has decided to end politics. Assuming it is true, a wise decision, albeit too late. Mangala was a regressive force in Lankan politics contributing nothing much positively. He earned the wrath of the people in whatever ministerial portfolio he held – media, construction, foreign, finance, etc.

He played a not so small part in disrupting the war effort by Chandrika and Mahinda regimes. While the army was battling Tamil terrorists under trying conditions in July 1995, his ‘Sudu Nelum Movement’ ridiculed the military while he was a senior minister of the same government. Around 1998 he said the report of the ‘Sinhala Commission’ that looked into some Sinhala grievances must be rubbished. That was both racist and malicious. He was the campaign manager of Mahinda in 2005 but soon after Mahinda’s election as president, Mangala disrupted him and defected from his regime.

Mangala was a burden to whatever party he aligned. Although he could win in his home district of Matara thanks to his paternal and maternal political heavyweights, his views were in sharp contrast to mainstream views.

Mangala, you won’t be missed.

Dr. Sarath OBEYSEKERA 

Secretary-General’s letter

Dear Colleagues,

Following the virtual town hall meeting held on Thursday, 4 June 2020, in New York, I wish to share with you a rough transcript of what I said to the colleagues in New York.  We gathered amidst the COVID-19 pandemic to focus on another urgent challenge – the plague of racism, prompted by a murderous act of police brutality that has led to widespread protests in the United States and, now, cities around the world.

The position of the United Nations on racism is crystal clear: this scourge violates the United Nations Charter and debases our core values.  Every day, in our work across the world, we strive to do our part to promote inclusion, justice, dignity and combat racism in all its manifestations.  

I also want to be clear about the recent guidance issued by the Ethics Office and relevant Departments.  It does not in any way indicate that staff are to remain neutral or impartial in the face of racism.  To the contrary, there is no ban on personal expressions of solidarity or acts of peaceful civic engagement, provided they are carried out in an entirely private capacity; rather, the guidance was meant to emphasize the need to balance such activities with one’s best judgement as international civil servants and our official duties.

The United Nations has a proud record of fighting racism and all forms of discrimination, from our leading role in the struggle against apartheid to the welcome extended to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Indeed, our own illustrious former colleague –Ralph Bunche – was the first person of colour to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and a front-line figure in the civil rights struggle.

You will see in the attached transcript that I am calling for a deep and sincere discussion among colleagues about racism, including at the United Nations.  I look forward to continuing our dialogue and, together, strengthening our Organization to face the critical challenges of our age.  

Yours sincerely,

António Guterres

********

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL’S REMARKS AT TOWN HALL MEETING, 4 JUNE 2020

Before we start I want to suggest that we have a minute of silence for all the victims of racism in the United States and abroad.

I want to once again express to all colleagues my enormous appreciation, my enormous gratitude, for your fantastic professionalism, your flexibility and the way you have been able to fully deliver for the people we care for during this period. And to say that as we hopefully approach a moment in which we might return to normality, that we will do it very carefully and in a phased way, because the safety and the well-being of the staff will be the primary consideration.

But of course, today we are here gathered for another reason. I will not be able to stay until the end, and management colleagues are here to answer any questions. But I felt compelled to give you my testimony in these dramatic moments.

We are all shocked by the brutality of the murder of George Floyd. And we are all impacted and concerned, with lots of events that followed that we have been very attentively looking at. And I think it’s important to recognize that the center of these is a serious question of racism. Now, racism is abhorrent, nasty, and must be rejected everywhere at any moment, condemned in a clear way. Racism is the rejection of our common humanity, which is a central aspect against the Charter of the United Nations. So something that justifies the Charter of the United Nations is the fight against racism.

But I think we need to go a little bit further, and to look into this from an ideological perspective, from an economic and social perspective, and also from a perspective of relations between police, governments and people.

First, the ideological perspective. We are unfortunately entering a phase that some have called the post-enlightenment. Enlightenment is a European concept largely but I think the values of the enlightenment — the primacy of reason, tolerance, mutual respect — are common to many civilizations and many cultures around the world.

And indeed it is as if these values are now being put dramatically into question. It is nationalism, it’s irrationality, it’s populism, it’s xenophobia, it is racism, white supremacism, it is different forms of Neo-Nazism, that are apparent in our societies. And it is clear that in the center of these drives to irrationality, there is racism, and many other things have racist components. We have been fighting a lot against antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred. And in antisemitism and anti- Muslim hatred, there is a racist dimension. So racism is in the center of many other things that we deal with and fight against.

It’s important to recognize that this is an ideological battle, in which it is essential to assert our values, the values of common humanity, the values of the Charter, equality, non-discrimination,

mutual respect, and the capacity to support all the movements that fight for these values that are also deeply linked to the affirmation of human rights.

Now, if racism is something that exists everywhere, racism also exists within the United Nations. This is another aspect that I would like to underline today. We have very robust policies in relation to discrimination, harassment, abuse of authority. There was recently a review of those policies that are in the SG bulletin. But we have not paid enough attention within the Organization to the specific question of racist bias and racist discrimination.

Of course, there is a general question of diversity and inclusivity. When we try to fight sexual harassment, the most important instrument is gender parity. When you try to fight racism, the most important instrument is to have regional diversity and inclusivity in our work. But this is general and of course we are fighting for it. But we need to go deeper.

I think we need to have within the United Nations an honest conversation on racism. We have some instruments already that were decided. We have the united in respect” dialogues. We have the inclusion dialogues. But these are, again, generic. We need to have something specific. I asked the Ombudsman together with the human resources department to prepare, in articulation with the staff representatives, a plan of action for a one-year debate on racism within the Organization, aiming at conclusions that, obviously, I want to listen to and be able to act upon. I would like to have a chapter on racism in the next staff engagement survey to see if we are able to make progress or not in this regard. My idea is for there to be a free-flowing discussion. I want people to feel totally at ease through the Ombudsman offices, through the civility café, through inviting experts to come and do TED talks and through debates that are organized. I’ve seen the staff engagement survey, I know that some feel that there is not enough respect within the Organization, that they can’t freely express themselves because they are afraid. I want this debate to be a clearly open, free-flowing debate without any restriction, and I’m very much interested in participating.

There is also a social and economic dimension in all of this, the central question of inequality in society, the central question of discrimination in society. And it is clear that diversity is a richness, not a threat. The societies that are diverse can only succeed if there is a massive investment in social cohesion, by governments, local authorities, civil society, churches, against discrimination and inequality. This is central to our 2030 Agenda, and this is central to the Sustainable Development Goals, and central to the values of the United Nations. So our values are not only related to the questions of racism as a human rights violation, they are central to the questions of inequality and discrimination. And these are vital in the perspectives of the work we do in relation to the 2030 Agenda and to diversity.

We also need to understand that when we have situations in which social cohesion does not exist, where social protection is not enough, and where we have different forms of discrimination, there are grievances: those grievances have a legitimate right to be expressed in societies. And for that demonstrations are something that is perfectly normal. It is our role to ask for demonstrations to be peaceful and at the same time to ask authorities to listen to the grievances and for police forces and others to be restrained in the way they handle these situations. And this is very much at the center of what we have been saying in relation to the recent events and other similar ones around the world.

And this brings us to the question of police brutality. One of the central problems that we are witnessing, and it’s very general, it’s not only police brutality, it is the difficulty of many authorities to deal with diversity. The most obvious aspect, which is less evident, but many colleagues have already felt it, is the so-called profiling.

But more dramatic than that is, of course, the police brutality in itself. We have seen a murder, but there are many other forms of police brutality that we see around the world, expressing racism. Police forces need to be fully trained on human rights. Many times police brutality is the expression of the frustrations of the police officers themselves, as well as of the lack of adequate psychosocial support to them.

Now the UN positions have been clear. The Human Rights High Commissioner has spoken. I have also been very clear in all my messages. Of course, many colleagues would like to be much more vocal and active, and we have the limitations of being International Civil Servants. But there is one thing that we all can do, which is to spread the UN messages. This can be done by everybody with the tools at their disposal. All of us can multiply and amplify our messages against racism, our message against police brutality, our messages against the inequalities and discriminations that lead to situations like the ones we live in, fully asserting our values.

And I’d like to say that I count on our colleagues and on the staff representatives to help us organize an effective internal discussion on racism. Because I think we need to look deeply into it. And we all need to look into ourselves, into our prejudices and do everything possible to eradicate these aberrations from us and from the societies around us.

Dr. Sarath OBEYSEKERA 

Dr Sarath Obeysekera
CEO Walkers Colombo Shipyard
Colombo
Sri Lanka

Courtesy PBS News

JERUSALEM (AP) — Several dozen people protested against police violence in Jerusalem on Tuesday following the deadly shooting of a Palestinian man last month.

Police said they arrested six people for blocking the city’s light rail line during the demonstration. Protesters chanted: A violent cop needs to be in jail,” and held signs with the picture of Eyad Hallaq, the 32-year-old Palestinian with autism who was shot and killed by Israeli police in Jerusalem on May 30.

Similar protests were staged in Haifa and Jaffa, the latest in a series of demonstrations against police violence in Israel following Hallaq’s death. The shooting has drawn comparisons to the death of George Floyd in the U.S.

Speaking earlier Tuesday while hosting a committee to address police treatment of special needs individuals, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said the country must do everything so that a terrible incident like this doesn’t repeat itself.”

Hallaq was chased by Israeli border police forces into a nook in Jerusalem’s Old City and fatally shot as he cowered next to a garbage bin after apparently being mistaken for an attacker.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the deadly police shooting of Hallaq a tragedy.”

Palestinians and Israeli human rights groups have long accused Israeli security forces of using excessive force in some cases. Last summer, the killing of Ethiopian Israeli teen Solomon Teka by police officer sparked widespread protests by the country’s Ethiopian community over its treatment by law enforcement.

Aloysius Hettiarachchi

The world is in the midst of a serious pandemic in which several hundreds of thousands of people have already died. Fortunately for us in this country, we have not been affected badly up to now, but that does not mean that another wave cannot come with a new and dangerous mutation of the virus. Therefore we cannot allow a large number of people to gather at this moment where the country is heading for an important and decisive election is to take place in less than two month’s time. Also fortunately for us, there is a law promulgated by the British in the 1880s as a result of some other pandemics that may have prevailed at that time. I think that law is the one that saved Sri Lanka from the influx of millions of Tamils from Tamil Nadu. According to an article that I read recently, they had been coming into the country freely without any restriction through Colombo port. However, when Cholera broke out in India they had to stop them coming here probably to save the lives of Brits serving in Colombo. They were allowed to come via Manar and taken directly to plantations.

Frontline Socialist party has somehow taken control of university students, and we all know who its leader Kumar Gunaratnam is The guy was engaged in disruptive activities and when the government was going to arrest him during the time when present Prez was the defence secretary he slipped out to Australia and got citizenship there. And it was Ranil Wickeramasinghe who brought him back and gave the dual citizenship, perhaps to use him in a future date. That date has now arrived. No other people would venture out to stage protests like this. A small group comprising many Tamils took part in these protests. That was evident as they were mainly speaking in Tamil when they were being pushed to the police vans. It was these people who created havoc during the Yahapalana days every other day blocking Colombo roads. RW did not mind it because he wanted to disrupt everything and make the maximum inconvenience to Sri Lankans as they did not put him to power. And now the stage is set for all those good for nothing trade unions also to get together and create chaos saying they are sympathizing these people. Now the look at the people who are coming for their support- Samanali Fonseka, Dr. Nimal Ranjit Devasiri etc etc. All NGO kakkos who have no love for this country at all. In addition, there comes a tweet from the Jewish woman Teplitz, the American ambassador. She says she is with the minorities who are protesting for their rights. This has double meaning: it can be a way of supporting the campaign the blacks have mounted against the whites for the inhuman way George Floyd killing. He may have had criminal records. But looking at the picture ( those who are surrounding him) of that famous speech by Martin Luther King Jr, one can now understand what he actually was trying to do. Therefore there is a lot more than that meets the eye in that killing. Looking at what the ambassador said there is the possibility that this whole thing can even be financed by the US embassy. Considering the fact that US-funded the creation of the disaster management facilities funded by the US in sensitive areas like the East of our country, her activities should be closely guarded. They can even bring Covid-19 sufferers and give another gift to us qui4etly.

Now back to FSP and JVP and see who are these fellows: starting from the mid-60s these are the people who destroyed our university education system.  Our usual enemies may have funded some academics like Doric De Souza who secretly conducted classes in Peradeniya in their houses to unleash an armed struggle against the democratically elected government of the country. My roommate was insisting that I also join him on those classes. He was once beaten by the police and hospitalized when he took part in one of those protests. People like Bahu who got scholarships did nothing to the country in return after coming back. Kumar David is another one. Until today he will write about politics and not anything about his subject- electrical engineering. When his contemporaries in the US universities were engaged in the initial stage of the computer development and some were even becoming billionaires these guys were thinking about how to create disorder in the system. If it is the Tamil Nadu (or the Indians) that is involved, they have been largely successful. Their boy is the head of google while our fellows are thinking of starting on digitalization. Theirs graduated after passing out almost immediately get places in high tech companies like intel while our guys have to do the menial software development job. I know this personally as they are of higher quality.

I am sure when those universities open again the same situation will prevail: the students will be granted the Mahapola funds just to while away the time on our streets demanding silly things. When they come out it is the same GOSL that will have to find employment for them.

We as a nation cannot identify our real enemies and friends; we just act with our hearts without using the heads. Trade unionists are the worst offenders. They just sleep while racketeers siphon off EPF money which is their member’s pension fund. Perhaps they even benefit from a portion of the loot, as was explained by the SLVlog site in the case of Central Bank bond scam.

During the Yahapala days, those FSP fellows built Attala (raised platform) at the very place where their leader was arrested yesterday. I used to walk past that place a few times every week and I saw middle-aged fellows reading Sinhala novels while seated on the Attala.  There must be a funding mechanism for them to waste time. Or are they still Mahapola fund receivers?.

May we request the US ambassador to give visas to some of these fellows to migrate to US and help those underprivileged minorities in the same way the Australian government gave citizenship to KG.

Courtesy thenational.ae

Travellers will have coronavirus tests at the airport and must stay in the country for at least five nights

Sri Lanka will reopen to travellers from Saturday, August 1.

The country had closed its borders in a bid to prevent the spread of Covid-19, but will reopen to all nationalities and all types of travellers in August, according to the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau.

In preparation for its reopening, several safety guidelines and precautionary measures are being implemented across the country.

These include mandatory face masks on flights, in airports and when travelling around the country.

The traditional Sri Lankan greeting of Ayubowan is also being promoted as the recommended way for people to greet one another, as it involves less contact than shaking hands, hugging or kissing on the cheeks.

Covid-19 tests will be free

All travellers landing in Sri Lanka will need to bring a valid, negative Covid-19 test that has been taken within the past 72 hours. Travellers will then be tested at their arrival airport in the teardrop nation. Results are expected within 24 hours, with hopes that the process will get faster in the future.

Once travellers enter the country, they will need to have another Covid-19 test five to seven days later, and again between 10 and 12 days for anyone staying longer. The tests will be conducted free of charge, but if results are positive, travellers will need to foot the bill in designated quarantine hotels or hospitals where they will be charged $100 (Dh367) per night.

All tourists need visas

There will be no more visas issued on arrival or visa free statuses given to travellers. From August 1, all tourists entering Sri Lanka must apply online for tourist visa. The cost of this visa is $100 per person.

Visas will be issued for a period of 30 days and are extendable for up to six months after arrival. Applications can be made here. Before applying for the visa, travellers must have confirmation of their accommodation booking.

Travellers can only book approved hotels

Travellers need to plan to spend the first night of the holiday near the airport. That means booking a stay in Colombo or Negombo for anyone flying into Bandaranaike International Airport. This is so that travellers are in proximity to the airport while their Covid-19 tests are being processed.

The train journey from Kandy to Ella is said to be one of the most scenic in the world, but for the moment it’s going to be off limits to tourists in Sri Lanka

Once cleared to leave, visitors might not be able to head for that tiny homestay in the hills of Jaffna or coveted surf shack in Kalametiya. That’s because tourists can now only book to stay in hotels and guesthouses approved by the ministry of tourism.

All approved accommodation will have enhanced hygiene policies, including on-call doctors, temperature scanners and strict policies on food services. An updated list of places to stay can be found on the Sri Lanka tourism website and there are several varieties of accommodation on offer with everything from luxury five-star hotels to boutique villas and heritage homes.

Swimming pools and health facilities remain closed in Sri Lanka, but the tourism bureau has published detailed rules that properties must follow for their operation if the government relaxes this restriction.

No public transport

The train journey from Kandy to Ella is said to be one of the most scenic in the world, but for the moment, it’s going to be off-limits to tourists in Sri Lanka. Foreign travellers cannot use public transport and must arrange transportation to their accommodation before arriving in the country.

No travel restrictions will be put in place between districts and travellers will be able to visit the majority of the country’s tourism sites where enhanced safety protocols will be in place. Places such as Yala National Park, Udawalawe, Arugam Bay and Trincomalee will be among those open to tourists.

Travellers can opt to get around the country by private taxi, car or bus and these should be arranged via accommodation providers or travel agents.

Previous reports that Sri Lanka planned to reopen its tourism sector in mid-June by allowing only small groups of visitors to begin with, were deemed false by the tourism bureau. All types of travellers whether tour groups, families or individuals can travel to Sri Lanka from August.

The country reported another 20 cases of the virus on Saturday, May 30, taking the total number of cases so far to 1,859.

The country attracted about two million tourists last year, and the sector contributes about 11 per cent to the nation’s gross domestic product.

The main tourist season in Sri Lanka typically begins in November, but the teardrop island is popular with holidaymakers from the UAE year-round.

Courtesy Adaderana

Five more navy personnel have tested positive for COVID-19 increasing the total number of cases reported in the country to 1,868.

The five new cases are navy personnel from Iyakachchi quarantine camp, the Ministry of Health confirmed.

Accordingly 09 new cases of Coronavirus have been reported so far today (10).

This includes 07 navy personnel, a returnee from Qatar and a returnee from Mumbai.

A total of 733 patients infected with the virus are currently under medical care while recoveries has reached 1,122 in Sri Lanka.

Courtesy Adaderana

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has instructed the officials of the State Development and Construction Corporation to pay attention to the construction of housing schemes for middle and low income families.

The President gave this directive at a meeting to review the progress of the State Development and Construction Corporation held at the Presidential Secretariat today (10).

He emphasized the need for State institutes to deviate from routine practices and transform them into profit making entities, the President’s Media Division said. 

The President requested the officials to present him with a report on the status of the organization when it was handed over to the new administration at the end of the previous 5 year period and the progress thereafter. President also told them to plan out targets this year itself which are to be achieved next year.

Highlighting the importance of securing new construction opportunities available in the private sector by the State entities, the President reiterated the necessity of promoting the standards and the quality in order to compete with the private sector.

Attention was also paid to the issue of outstanding dues owed by state organizations to the corporation, the PMD said.

President Rajapaksa instructed the officials to probe into this matter and work out a mechanism to recover this money.

Secretary to the President P. B. Jayasundera, Chairman of State Development and Construction Corporation D. P. M. Chandana and the members of the Board of Directors were also present during the discussion.