Sarath Wijesinghe President’s Counsel former Ambassador to UAE and Israel

Land is precious

Israelis Lived in most hostile conditions at the initial stages

Land is more precious in Israel being a small fraction of Sri Lanka consist of baron land with deserts with no water except Galilee at the extreme corner of the country. Most of the land is state owned and expensive for the citizens sandwiched among enemies right round the boarders. Having evicted from various parts of the world Jews chose to settle down in the Promised Land despite most hostile conditions with no water other facilities and the barren land with no natural resources except the human resources hard work and determination. Environment was harsh, Galilee was swampy, Mountains were rocky, Negav was a desert, settlers have no farming experience, no water and the sabotage of canals and burning was common and rampant. Living collectively was the most logical way to be secured and   Kibbutzim was founded as agricultural villages initially by the ideals of Ancient Sparta particularly in education, industry, agriculture and community living with a mixture of socialist communist model influenced by Russia and Western model influenced by the influx of Jews from the West. Kibbutzim is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture which means gathering or clustering. The potential of Kibbutzim  was gradually extended to dairy poultry industry arms trade  and connected fields that  provided the highest yield from a cow world over  and best poultry output supplied to the rest of the world’s, best and most sophisticated small and heavy  arms and small and heavy arms and ammunitions to the world  except the neighbours and the world sometimes hostile to them. They organized the movement is a more organize way by creating United Kibbutxz movement with a unique bonded arrangements with the private sector and the state ever prepared to help in the field of innovation promotion and Start companies and SMEs. They assumed a more prominent role in military to protect and safeguard the country and borders and protecting themselves by arming themselves with production of arms which a money spinner today. In the 6 day war when Israel lost 800 soldiers 200 of them were from Kibbutzim and Kibbutzins made up 15% in the Israel Parliament. In 2010 there were 270 Kibbutzimin Israel Their factories and farms account for 9% of industrial output worth us 8 billion and 40% of its agricultural output worth over 1.7 billion us dollars Some Kibbutzim had also developed substantial hitch and military industries For example in2010 kibbutz Sasa containing some 200 members generated millions of annual revenue from its military plastic industry. First Prime Minister named father of nation is a product of a Kibbuth as many leading figures in Israel. Education innovations and industrial knowledge is given priority with the practice and in-house knowledge on religious education and the strong culture Israel’s carrying with them for thousands of years. It is told that there are thousands of state and uncollated lands the foreign companies are eying to grab in the guise of developments when the army commander has offered to assist Agro Tec based developments.

World’s most successful community movement

How do we adopt this to our system or any system with modifications and adjustments? In taking optimum use of land in housing, agriculture, industries, productivity and generally development and prosperity? What are main feathers and themes of the concept? Historians have called Kibbutz as the world’s most successful community movement and at one stage Kibbutzniks produced 12 percent of the nation’s exports in Israel shows the success story and how the system is integrated to the national working plan in all areas. The Kibbutz is a major   part of the overall trajectory of the Israel economic revolution. Israel politics is always volatile with controversies infighting and fights with all neighbours with bitter bloody wars which does not deter the developments agriculture or war machinery including manufacture of arms and ammunitions with the help of Kibbtuin movement too. Whether it was socialist develop mentalists or hybrid – the economic track record of Israel was impressive in par with political decisions. For few years she was in the non-alignment movement and shifted to the west for safety in order to fight and live with hostile neighbour’s right round. Original concept of the Kibbutzim was based to a large extent on sled sacrifice as incubators oneself sacrifice of its members Now that some have been transformed to large companies and the products of Kibbuths have reached the top which includes the father of the Nation theorist Prime Minister the originality may have slowed down but the nation still maintains Kibbuths as promoters on agriculture, industry and still incubators of the progress on diversified areas. Israel Jews crossed a huge desert in modern times to meet more desert and had to discover the richest of scarcity They invented new methods of living kibbutzim Moshavavin development of towns drilled and laboured and demanded much from themselves, they then turned to technology using Kibbutz as incubators they have no option but to proceed which is the success story with determination. Today they are not resting – they are enjoying and progressing despite the eternal struggle with the neighbours selling the products to the world over as leaders on technology and agriculture setting an example and on advisory capacity to her admirations. President Rajapaksa during the visit to Israel and Palestine with official meeting s with the President and Prime Minister of Israel and Prime Minister of Palestine (privilege is given to President USA Sri Lanka  and few world leaders due to complicated political climates to visit two conflicting countries simultaneously) There is a Buddhist Temple in Israel with few meditation centres with their intellectualism and it is time for us to be a party to show the olive leaf to conflicting parties for a settlement and for us to follow steps on rapid developments using their experience and knowledge with the great religions we are blessed with.

Land does not expand or multiply and limited to a land area of the nation in a country multiplying the   population at a rapid rate. Land is a precious to Israel’s as the land for them is limited having fought two thousand years to achieve the goal to reach the small Promised Land they are in possession today.   Land is very precious to us in Sri Lanka as the land area is limited and the population is rapidly increasing with invasions by invaders from time to time. We should not ruin destroy, misuse or alienate   valuable land for the construction of houses of inferior quality with law quality materials resulting destruction and waste of and valuable land. Best use of the land must be taken in construction and development whether privately owned or state owned. Land alienation, distribution and use for developments should be carefully scrutinized with strict laws, rules and regulations. This is the case in India, Israel, UK, and many parts of the world facing shortage of lands.  Very valuable estates are fragmented against law to block into small plots to give away the peasants with a part of the expenses for construction of a house of his choice and the pocket, and a closer look will show the criminal waste of valuable land otherwise could have been made use for construction of proper houses or any other use on productivity and maximum use. It is alleged that more funds are utilized for propaganda work on housing projects. Invariably the land given to peasants is either sold to a third party or the house is not constructed in majority cases is a known fact to an average citizen. It is time for us to adopt a novel system or a successfully tested concept known as Kibbutz” clusters (innovated in Israel) linked with agriculture, innovations, industry as incubators of start-up companies SMEs and multinational companies. With great success in development which has brought Israel to great heights on housing, innovations, agriculture and achieving success as a world power with the help of only human resources properly and scientifically utilized. A citizen can witness this sorry state either sides of the road and may hear sad stories on the plight of the valuable lands given on some criteria. Majority of Land in Sri Lanka is State owned, Company Owned, or encroached lands leaving the citizen a limited number due to the planned acquisitions of property  done by the British to the presents by acquiring  thousands of acres of land for few shillings forcibly which is on record. Fragmented lands to the Udagama’s” are lands belong to the state or may sometimes lands of archaeological importance and significance according to news reports with  allegations of being white elephants  of little use to the tenants.  Other countries instead of distributing lands condominiums with clusters and stories of houses are constructed scientifically with facilities for recreation, sports, saving land and making the best use of the land providing shelter to many with comfortable life. Udagama programme should be terminated forthwith to be replace by Kibbuths type of housing complexes linked to agriculture innovations education industry and community living for families and children to live study and work together in a commune with collective aims and ambitions for the development of the nation we love. By doing so the inmates will possess quality houses, goo quality of life, education on innovations industries and many areas including the children in house with freedom to be on their own, Kibbuths in Israel started small have now winded up with major Agriculture Farms, Dairy Farms Industrial Estates which one can witness by browsing the net on  the subject. We can adopt the concept with modifications to suit us with the experiences and the knowledge acquired on agriculture and innovations.

The author could be contacted on sarath7@hotmai.co.uk

Bilateral talks with President Mahanda Rajapaksa (currently Prime Minister) with President Simon Peres then President (2014) President Simon Peres is a product of a Kibbutz

රත්තනදෙණියේ මේධානන්ද හිමි

චන්ද්‍රිකා කුමාරතුංග රාජ්‍ය නායිකාව සිටි කාලයේ රාජිත සේනාරත්න සහ ඔහුගේ සහෝදරයෙක් එක්ව සේනාරත්න අසෝසියේට්‌ නම් වාණිජ ආයතනයක්‌ පවත්වාගෙන ගියා. එමගින් කෙරුණේ පිට රටින් දන්ත වෛද්‍ය උපකරණ හා ඖෂධ ගෙන්වා ඒවා රජයේ ඔසුසලටත්, ත්‍රිවිධ හමුදාවටත් සපයන කාර්ය කරගෙන යාමයි. ඔවුන් මේ ව්‍යාපාරය විශාල ධනයක් උපයන ජාවාරමක් ලෙස පවත්වාගෙන ගියා.

රහස්‌ පොලිසියට ලැබුන තොරතුරක් මත මේ ආයතනයට අයත් ගබඩාවක්‌ වටලලා පරීක්‍ෂණයක් ආරම්භ කළා. එහිදී කල් ඉකුත්වූ බෙහෙත් වර්ගවල පරණ ලේබල් ගළවා ඒ වෙනුවට ඉදිරියට පවතින දින සහිත ලේබල් අලවා ඖෂධ විකුණන නීච ක්‍රියාවලියක් ද සොයා ගැනුණා. මතක තබා ගන්න එම බෙහෙත්වල කල් ඉකුත් වූ දින වෙනස්‌ කොට ඉදිරි දින සහිත ලේබල් අලවා තිබුනේ ආරක්ෂක හමුදාවලට සපයන්න. මෙය එම පරීක්ෂණයෙන් හෙළිදරව් වුණා.

මේ සම්බන්ධ සොයාගත් සාක්ෂි මත රාජිතට විරුධව නඩුවක් මහාධිකරණයේ ගොනු කළා.ලස්සනම වැඩේ කියන්නේ නඩු විභාගය ඉවර වෙන්න ආසන්න කාලයේ මේ නඩුව විභාග කරන මහාධිකරණය විනිසුරු සහ රාජිත මීගමුව ප්‍රදේශයේ හෝටලයක දී එකට ආහාර ගන්නා අවස්ථාවක් ප්‍රාදේශීය පුවත්පත් වාර්තාකරුවකුට හසු වුණා.
එම පුවත පුවත්පත්වල පළ කළ ද වැඩි කාලයක් නොගෙනම විනිසුරු නඩුව අවසන් කලේ රාජිත නිදහස් කරමින්. ඇති හැකි අය ඉදිරියේ නීතියේ ස්වාධීනත්වය හා මහාධිකරණ විනිසුරුගේ අපක්ෂපාතීතත්වයේ තරමද මේ සිදුවීමෙන් පේනවා.

නමුත් ඊට එරෙහිව කෝවරන්ටෝ රීට්‌ ආඥවක් මගින් අභියාචනාධිකරණයේ නැවත රාජිතට විරුද්ධව පෙත්සමක් ගොනු කරනවා. දින 10 ක්‌ පුරා පෙත්සම් අංක 1164/98 යටතේ මෙම නඩුව අභියාචනාධිකරණයේ දී විභාග වුණා. ජනාධිපති නීතිඥ චොක්‌සි ඇතුළු රටෙ නමගිය ඉහළම නීතිඥ පිරිසක්‌ රාජිත වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී හිටියා. නමුත් 2000 වසරේ මාර්තු 31 දා අභියාචනාධිකරණය තීන්දුව ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කරන්නේ රාජිත වැරදිකරු කරමින්.

අභියාචනාධිකරණය ඔහු මන්ත්‍රී ධුරයක් දරන්නට නුසුදුස්සෙක් ලෙස තීන්දු කළා. වැරදි ආකාරයට ඖෂධ ජාවාරමක නියැළී උසාවියේ වැරැදිකරු වී මන්ත්‍රී ධූරය ද අහිමි කරගත් පළමු කෙනා රාජිත. එදා හමුදාවට එහෙව් බෙහෙත් සපයපු රාජිතට අද යුධ ජයග්‍රහණයේ විරුවන් ගැන කැක්කුමක් තියෙන්න විදිහක් නෑ. එදා හමුදාවට විෂ බෙහෙත් දුන් කෙනෙකුට අද ත්‍රස්‌තවාදීන් අපේම දරුවන් ලෙස පෙනීම පුදුමෙකුත් නෑ. මම හෘද සාක්ෂ්‍යයක් ඇති මිනිසුන්ගෙන් එක දෙයයි අහන්නේ. මෙවන් අයට තවදුරටත් ඔබ ඔබේ වටිනාම කතිරය ගසන්නේ ඇයි. මොවුන් පාර්ලිමේන්තු යැවිය යුතු මිනිස්සු ද ?

රත්තනදෙණියේ මේධානන්ද හිමි

Courtesy Ada Derana

The Cabinet of Ministers has decided to halt payment of Rs. 5,000 allowance to the families adversely affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, for the month of June.

The move comes after a letter was directed to the Presidential Secretary P.B. Jayasundera by the Election Commission’s chairman Mahinda Deshapriya on May 17, requesting the reconsideration of the payment of the allowance for next month.

The Election Commission, in its letter, had noted that the payment of allowance could turn into an election campaign ploy during next month ahead of the upcoming General Election which is scheduled for June 20.

The letter further stated that many complaints were received claiming that the Rs. 5,000 allowance payment is being used as a promotion of the political parties affiliated to the government.

Accordingly, the Election Commission has sought the Presidential Secretariat to remove local politicians from the allowance distribution activities.

The Election Commission’s letter has been discussed at length during the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers held on Wednesday (20).

A soldier of a National Army cannot be put on par with terrorist. Similarly, a mother of a solider cannot be put on par with a mother of a terrorist too. A war widow is the wife of a soldier laying down his life for the Nation. Wives of terrorists are not war widows (a different term should be created for them) But, they all have a right to mourn the deaths of their family members. The issue is with how that mourning is done.

Every parent loves their children. For every parent, their child is special. No parent brings up their child to do bad. As children grow, they decide their paths and they are responsible for their paths. Whatever, path they decide to take, the parents still cherish their child even if they disagree with the decisions of their children. There are of course exceptions. Just as there are evil parents, there are equally evil children.

How is a soldier different to a terrorist?

A soldier is a member of the country’s National Army, responsible for defending the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Nation & its people. A soldier who joins the Armed Forces or Police are people who represent the nation’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The soldier going to battle with terrorists face many obstacles. There may be 101 war manuals but none of them understands how a soldier can follow the rules when a terrorist in civilian clothing is about to shoot him dead. But the manual expects him to determine before returning fire whether the terrorist is actually a civilian or a terrorist. By the time the soldier decides, he has been killed. No soldier is commanded to kill unarmed citizens. But every army does have its miscreants.

How is a terrorist different to a soldier?

A terrorist is a member of an armed group taking up arms against the State. A terrorist is at war against his country & its people. A terrorist, commits crimes against the State and its people using terror.

Whatever reasons they may give to justify taking up arms, the terrorists are violating the rules that govern the state and invariably they end up attempting to destroy the nation and not defend it. Terrorists also end up killing the citizens. Yes, a terrorist is a citizen and a child of the country, but that child and citizen premeditatedly planned and killed hundreds and thousands of innocent and unarmed civilians. These killings were by command orders and followed by the terrorists. This is why LTTE has killed so many innocent civilians.

How is a soldier mother different to a mother of a terrorist?

There is no difference in the spoon of love fed from a mother to her child. A mother’s love for her child has no titles. In all probability the terrorist mother may be just as proud of her terrorist son as the pride of the soldier mother. Only a mother knows the feeling she has for her child. But there are exceptions to this too. There may be many a terrorist mother who are sad at what her child has become, knowing he has killed many innocent people. But, in death, her child remains still special for her.

When Prabakaran’s parents were ailing in their 80s and were scorned by Tamils who identified them in the refugee camp after the conflict ended, it was the soldier sons who rescued them and looked after them. None of Prabakaran’s brother and sisters wanted to come and visit their parents before their deaths and none arrived even for their funerals. It was the Sri Lankan soldiers who looked after the parents of the terrorist.

https://youtu.be/fPXvuewHe9g

The soldier mothers produced brave men who were ready to sacrifice their life for the country and not a cause. These mothers had patriotism into the minds of their sons who came forward when brave men were needed to defend the nation. These brave men and their parents will always have a special place etched in the history. Not many mothers have produced brave men and women who have come forward to defend the nation in its darkest hour.

How is a war widow different to a widow of a LTTE terrorist?

International definition of a war widow is given to the wife of a dead soldier and that definition cannot be diluted by attaching it to the wife of a terrorist. The importance of this is because many a LTTE combatant were married to fellow combatants. Therefore, it is wrong to call a combatant widow as a war widow especially because many of the ‘dead & missing’ LTTE wives are being referred to as war widows. Wives of terrorists cannot be war widows. Call them some other name but not war widows. We see a concerted effort by mischief making NGOs purposely attempting to bring soldier war widows on par with terrorist war widows. This cannot be allowed.

While the love of a wife towards her husband makes no difference if he is a terrorist or soldier. When international laws clearly differentiate a national army from armed non-state actors – then the references to their wives must apply too. The LTTE (men, women and child soldiers) killed Sinhalese & Muslims – what are we to name the wives of the men killed by LTTE?

The term war widows must only be for wives of dead soldiers.

How is mourning the dead soldier & mourning the dead LTTE different?

Any mother, wife, child has every right to mourn their dead and we do not even mind anyone mourning the LTTE dead but when it is organized as a major event with all the paraphernalia associated with LTTE and these funerals are used to continue the quest of the failed objective of separating Sri Lanka, then we have every right to object and demand its prohibition.

When mothers, wives, children & others mourn LTTE terrorists on the pretext of mourning ‘civilians’ and use LTTE symbols and emblems and hold tamashas across the world claiming ‘genocide’ and what not, then we seriously have a problem and we have every right to raise objection to it.

This is no natural or spontaneous morning but a well-planned and well-funded program to advance a political agenda. In reality this has nothing to do with mourning only publicity.

In short, the message to any LTTE family member is – mourn your dead, but mourn them in private. There is no requirement for huge rallies, demonstrations, mass protests, huge concerts, exhibitions, LTTE posters, flags, decorations, LTTE flowers, emblems, LTTE cut outs and what not to mourn one’s son, husband or father.

Shenali D Waduge

Palitha Sennayake

May 18^th is a significant day for Sri Lanka because that was the day the country finally overcame terrorism that plagued the nation for three decades killing more than one hundred thousand people and pushing the country back economically by three decades. It is since that day that people could get about their activities freely, the children could be sent to schools with no fear of explosions, the businesses could carry on uninterrupted and most of all the investors would mull to move in, attracted by the positive prospects.  Dividends of peace were apparent all over the country and especially in the north and east where child recruitment and death of young people have stopped bringing altogether a fresh breath of freedom, that the current generation didn’t even know was possible. Therefore, this date was a date of significance for the entire nation where it came out from the shackles of the most ruthless and organized terror group, the world ever experienced.

The previous regime however, did away with the state commemoration of this day and the reason given was that this celebration could be offensive to the Tamil community whose youth died in this conflict and therefore a commemoration could infer triumphalism over that community. In the same breath they argued that this could endanger reconciliation of the different communities affecting eventual national unification. If that is what it takes to achieve national unity then a few would have qualms about suspending the commemoration.

The irony however is, with this decision to ‘let go’ this day we could observe a flurry of activity among Tamil nationalist organizations to commemorate this day with epithets ranging from ‘Remembrance day’ to ‘Day of Tamil genocide’. In this regard, it is with concern that we note that the Leader of the Liberal Democratic party in  England, Edward Davie,  proclaiming May 18^th as the ‘Tamil genocide day’ while in Canada, May 18^th is to be commemorated in grand scale as the ‘Tamil genocide day’ with the participation of the country’s Prime Minister.  However, the message people in Sri Lanka have to convey to the organizers of these events, especially if they are foreigners, is that to call what happened in Sri Lanka, a genocide, they either do not know their English or they know nothing about the conflict that raged in Sri Lanka.  ‘Genocide’ means the total extinction of a group or race of people in their own habitat. Own habitat is to mean the country in which that race fostered their civilization all that while. Tamils are the natives of Tamil Nadu, in Southern India and therefore any conflict concerning Tamils in Sri Lanka could not be called‘genocide’. Therefore, those who have launched this campaign either have not understood the world genocide or if they have, they do not know that Tamil are not an indigenous community in Sri Lanka.

The Red Indians in North America faced genocide in the hands of invading Spanish and English. In Canada the English and French subjected the native Inuit population to genocide; so are the Maoris in New Zealand, the Aborigines’ in Australia. Therefore, if genocide is to occur in Sri Lanka it is the Sinhalese that have to be annihilated and even that is not an unlikely scenario given the propaganda advantage the Tamil nationalism has gained claiming ‘ genocide’ of Tamils in Sri Lanka.   

Yet, in the end what matters is not the true situation but propaganda. As Hitler’s Natzi propaganda chief Paul Joseph Goebbels always maintained that ‘when a statement is repeated more often and constantly, the unquestioning human mind losses its guard and accept it as the truth’. That is exactly what the Tamil propaganda machine has been doing for the past 72 years.  Any unjust cause needs a lot of propaganda to sugar coat that cause. Hitler picked a very versatile propagandist to justify his ambitious world conquering campaign and similarly Tamil nationalism has a very effective propaganda campaign to support its separatist course in Sri Lanka.  There however is a difference between the German Natzi movement and the LTTE,  and that is Hitler spawned the Natzi propaganda to justify his campaign whereas the LTTE just walked in  to the propaganda campaign spawned by Tamil nationalism and justified itself.

What the successive Sri Lankan governments have tragically failed to understand is this propaganda dimension of the Tamil nationalist lobby and the fact that it overwhelmed all other tactics deployed by them up to now, including the LTTE terrorism.  The LTTE reigned for 33 years and it is now gone but the Tamil propaganda outreach is more than 72 years old and it still prevails making the biggest humanitarian operation of the world that rescued 290,000 endangered civilians in to a ‘genocide’.  That is not all, and let us now observe the issue of the number of deaths that are said to have taken place at the Nanthikadal rescue operation in May 2009.

The important point to note here is that the number of deaths recorded during the real rescue operation  at Nanthikadal has been moderate and realistic but yet is in complete contrast with  the numbers that are being claimed by Tamil nationalist today. For instance all the records available such as those of, the US military attache, the British military attache ( as quoted by  Lard Neseby), the UN Country team, the UTHR J report, the ICRC report, all gave the number of dead in the range between 7,000 to 9,000 and that number included the LTTE combatants as well. All these were situation reports that recorded the events then and there during the operation. Ironically however, the UNSG’s Panel of Experts’ report ( Darusman report) that investigated after 2 years of the conflict has claimed 40,000 deaths. Then the same report after 2 years and 6 months quoted a figure of 75,000 deaths. Rev. Rayappu Joseph, giving evidnce before the LLRC claimed  that 147,000 Tamil civilians died at Nanthikadal. Franances Harrison, the BBC correspondent,  publishing a book in 2014 ( 5 years after) titled ‘Still Counting the Dead’also claimed 147,000 deaths. M/s Yasmin Sooka, a member of the UNSG’s Panel of Experts, in a report published in 2005 by the English Bar Association titled, ‘The Unfinshed War’ claimed 200,000 deaths. And the latest now is that the Tamils in Canada are commemorating May 18^th as the ‘Tamil genocide day’ where they claim 300,000 Tamils died.

Thus, we could now see that by every month and every year that passed since the conflict was over, that the number of deaths have increased exponentially. There definitely is a correlation between the increases of the  number that died during this rescue operation and the lapse of time since 18^th May 2009 and hence it is very probable that, a few years from now the Tamil  nationalist will be commemorating the deaths of about a million Tamil civilians in  Sri Lanka on the 18^th May, every year.   

Tamil nationalism has a cogent propaganda network that can turn things upside down with little help. With the turn of independence the Tamils started fighting for the loss of privilehes that they enjoyed up to then but they turned that in to post independent ‘grievances’. July 83 was the effect of years of terrorism by 5 Tamil militant groups up to then but they made it in to a cause to futher their quest.  

Therefore, the Sri lankan government, by doing away with the commemoration on the 18^th May is contributing to the Tamil nationalist propaganda by acknowledging that some wrong has been done to the Tamil community; quite oblivious to the fcat that what matters is countering propaganda  even above the elimination of terrorism. This is because a more indepth analysis will reveal that it is Tamil nationalism and its propaganda arm that created terrorism and sustained it for 30 years  and not vice versa.  Therefore, the need of the hour is, not to be an aplogist for eliminating terror but to make a concerted and sustained effort to counter the Tamil nationalist proaganda arm that has done so much damage to the image of this country and is still continuing to do so. Capitulation to Tamil nationalist propaganda will only serve Tamil separatism making reconciliation that much more elusive.

Courtesy Adaderana

SP Shantha Wickremasinghe, in charge of Colombo Central District 01 at the time of Easter attacks, admitted to the Presidential Commission of Inquiry that although there were instructions given prior to the bombings to increase security at catholic churches, no action was taken believing that such warnings would have created public panic.

This was revealed when the Presidential Commission of Inquiry probing the Easter Sunday attacks heard evidence from senior police officials from the Colombo Central Division 01 and the Colombo Fort Police Station, who were tasked with ensuring security in the area at the time.

Giving evidence, SP Wickremasinghe stated that, on the 12th of April 2019, SSP Upali Jayasinghe of Colombo Central Division had forwarded a 7-page document containing information about the Easter Sunday terror attacks.

The document consisted of Zahran Hashim’s photo and the details about the churches being targeted as well as clear instructions to inform the relevant parish priests on the threat.

At around 7.30 pm on the day prior to the attacks, DIG Lalith Pathinayake had communicated the high possibility of attacks, with instructions to tighten the security and surveillance on churches without delay.

SP Wickremasinghe noted that he had then issued instructions to all the OICs in the division, advising them to do so in a discrete manner to prevent public panic, hence warnings were not issued to the relevant churches.

The panel asked the witness of the distinction between informing the parish priests and the general public, however, he remained silent.

Subsequently, the Chief Inspector of Fort Police Sarath Kumarasinghe was summoned before the Commission to testify.

He told the panel that the OIC of the Fort Police failed to brief on any warnings of the attacks received within the days before he went on leave, adding that on the evening before the attacks, SP Shantha Wickremasinghe had telephones and instructed him to brief all officers on night duty of an imminent threat that night.

The Commission then questioned the witness on the steps taken to increase security and if checkpoints were placed at six key points in the area on April 20, 2019. He responded that due to the lack of sufficient police personnel at the time, only two checkpoints were manned.

The panel then asked him of the duties he engaged in that evening as the Acting OIC of the Fort Police Station at such a crucial time. He responded that he had engaged in a patrol around the Colombo Area. Including inspecting the checkpoints but failed to provide accurate details of the checkpoints in question.

The OIC of Fort Police then appeared before the Commission to witness hearing. The panel asked if Chief Inspector Sarath Kumarasinghe had informed him of the decisions taken during a briefing held on April 12, by the Colombo Central Division’s SSP regarding the warnings.

He responded that he had been summoned and briefed by the Chief Inspector Kumarasinghe before he went on leave.

However, when the Commission questioned the witness as to how the Chief Inspector could have done so if he had been on leave from April 13-18, the witness admitted that his previous statement had been faulty.

Courtesy Adaderana

Another person has tested positive for COVID-19 as of 10.15 pm on Wednesday (20), says the Ministry of Health.

The total count of coronavirus cases in the country thereby reached 1,028.

This new positive case is a returnee from Kuwait, who is currently undergoing mandatory quarantine.

In the meantime, coronavirus recoveries in the country moved up to 584 earlier today.

The Epidemiology Unit says that 435 active cases are currently under medical care at selected hospitals across the country.

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

Courtesy Adaderana

No community infections of the novel coronavirus, apart from among Navy personnel, are being reported from the country, says Director-General of Health Services Dr. Anil Jasinghe.

Thereby, it is clear that, apart from Navy infections, the COVID-19 outbreak situation in Sri Lanka is under currently under control, he said.

Further, the focus is on controlling the infection within the Sri Lanka Navy and containing the virus from spreading to the outside of the Navy community, said the Director-General.

Jasinghe pointed out that all 35 persons who were identified to have contracted the COVID-19 virus are Navy personnel.

Courtesy Adaderana

The law will be strictly enforced against those who were arrested over intentionally violate curfew regulations, said DIG Ajith Rohana.

Nearly 6,000 individuals who were arrested as such have been imposed with penalties so far, said the DIG.

Meanwhile, 60,425 persons have been placed under arrest for violating the curfew since March 20 and 16,924 vehicles have been seized.

Further, 17,193 persons have been filed court cases over violations of curfew regulations while 6,480 have been imposed with penalties, said the Police Media Division.

By Garvin Karunaratne

It has so happened that in Sri Lanka, instead of creating employment for the youth we have had the unfortunate experience of being forced to gun down the youth twice. In the April 1971 uprising at least ten thousand and in the late Eighties some Seventy or Eighty thousand had to be silenced.

The youth of a country, especially the youth who due to either the lack of qualification or due to the lack of employment opportunity have to be confined to attend to a menial job and have to scrape the barrel for life, needs to be taken care of. They deserve to be trained and guided to become a national asset.

In this context, the achievement of the Youth Self Employment Programme of Bangladesh comes of great importance in that it is the only  development programme that can claim success in guiding millions of drop out youths to become self employed on a commercially viable basis. It is easily the only youth employment programme that has achieved world status within the short space of three decades. It is a programme that has left its imprint on the sands of time.

In  Bangladesh when the new Military Government of General Ershard took over the country in 1982, the Ministry of Youth Development was providing skills training to 40,000 youths annually but the vast majority of them failed to find employment and continued to be unemployed for life. I happened to be the Commonwealth Fund Advisor to the Ministry on Youth Development and the new Hon. Minister for Labour and Manpower, Air Vice Marshall Aminul Islam at a Conference held to evaluate youth development programmes, ordered me,:

 What can you contribute to Bangladesh”?

I would suggest that you approve a self-employment programme to supplement the skills training programmes  that are being implemented by the Ministry of Youth Development, where the lecturers who train the youths in skills will,  in addition, also guide the youths to establish enterprises to manufacture items for sale and become self-employed entrepreneurs.”

The Secretary to the Treasury, the highest official in the country who was present vehemently objected.

Self Employment is not something that can be established. The International Labor Organization (ILO) with all their unlimited resources have just miserably failed to establish a self employment programme at Tangail in Bangladesh. They laboured for three years and brought experts from all over the world and failed. It was a massive loss and this Government is not going to waste any more funds again. Self Employment is not a task that can be done. That was the conclusion of the ILO and they are the only experts of international standing”

I replied:

Though the ILO failed,  I can establish a Self Employment Programme. I hold the experience of establishing self employment units in Sri Lanka for eighteen years and also hold the Ph.D in Agricultural Economics and Non Formal Education from Michigan State University. I am a trained expert not only in agricultural economics but also in community development and non formal education.”

. The Secretary to the Treasury the highest official in Bangladesh laughed loud at my attempt to make entrepreneurs out of school drop outs- the category from which the Department of Youth Development found youths for skills training. 

.. I argued that though the ILO failed I would succeed. The Secretary to the Treasury  was adamant that such a programme would never succeed, but I quoted instances where I had established  successful employment projects providing incomes to youths while simultaneously producing what the country imported.. He laughed at my telling that I had successfully guided unemployed youths to understand basic economic principles to become entrepreneurs by having a few cattle, a few dozen hens or making an item for sale. I explained that it was an easy task to provide training to the unemployed and to also guide them to open up small scale enterprises and guide them till they become successful entrepreneurs-  what  I had done again and again in Sri Lanka over eighteen years. I detailed how I would be guiding the youths to  master the art of making the right decisions and for them to develop their ability and capacity to think and act to become successful entrepreneurs. The battle went on for an easy two full hours.  The Hon Minister was listening in silence till his patience was exhausted.

 The Minister finally ordered us to shut up. He was the third in command in the military government and I was worried thick. The Secretary to the Treasury was the highest official in the land and even Secretaries of Ministries would never even dream of arguing with him. Instead of questioning us further, the Minister  asked for any  Government training programmes that guided youths to become entrepreneurs. The Secretary to the Treasury replied None”. Then the Minister asked for the  number of youths being trained in all vocational training programmes in the country..  He carefully totaled the figures of youths that were being trained.  Then the Minister asked for the number of school leavers in a year who would have not fed into the higher echelons of learning and also not finding a job and be relegated  to be under employed scraping the barrel for life. The answer for the number of youths scraping the barrel for life annually was in the millions while the number of youths under training in vocations was in the thousands. Without any hesitation, the Hon Minister ordered that I should establish a self employment programme.

The Secretary to the Treasury stumped,  stating‚  that there will be no  funds to establish a self employment programme, to which I replied that we will find savings within the  approved budgets  for the skills training of the youths and re deploy staff as necessary. The  Hon Minister  approved my suggestion.. .

We started planning work that night itself. The next morning I was addressing trainees at the training centers and also training our Lecturers and Youth Officers on how the programme should be done. The officers who had till then done traditional youth development work were trained in concepts of economics. All Training Institutes were immediately altered to Training Cum Extension Institutes where the youths in training were to be guided to become self employed. Overnight we established a countrywide special extension service for the lecturers to go out on inspections and help the youths who faced problems when they commenced enterprises.  The youths were guided to draft their own projects to become self employed, starting small farms even with a few cows or chicks. Dresses were sewn using the machines at the training centers that were kept open after work till ten at night.  The method was to intensively guide the trainees in the management of their enterprises. Every action from the planning of their projects, to the purchase of raw materials, the chicks, the feed, the process of manufacture, the process of the growth and sale of cattle, the making of garments and their sale was all monitored on a non formal education  basis where the youths were trained to look at the advantages and disadvantages of each course of action and act on their own. They were monitored closely and helped when they failed. . The trainees were taught basic economics related to their ventures‚  The training included understanding the free market economy and the youths were guided to think, understand and increase their ability and capacity in the process. This was non formal education in action. The achievement was within the village setting where the projects became family concerns with brothers and sisters becoming involved. On our Visits, Training sessions were provided impromptu where everyone could participate. Short training courses were provided as and when necessary. The effort was to make a youth movement to make youths establish enterprises and guide them till they are income bearing equal to the earnings of a clerical officer in the Public Service.

This Programme began at the beginning of April 1982 with a few trainees and was expanded to 2000 by October 1983. By the time I left Bangladesh at the end of October  1983- in  nineteen months my team was guiding 2000 youths.  The team comprised the Secretary, the Joint Secretary of the Ministry with a few hundred staff of Directors, Deputy Directors of Youth, Director for Livestock and Poultry , Directors of the 3 Residential Training Centers in Livestock & Poultry, Lecturers in Training Institutes- all of whom were taught the essentials of economics firstly to be able to analyse the economy of Bangladesh and to arrive at areas of economic activity where self employment production would be an asset.to the country This included national and regional planning culled down to the village level., where the self employment units were established.. They were also taught methods of imparting instructions in a manner that would evoke the active participation of the trainees and enable them to think and make their own decisions, developing their ability and capacity in the process.

We got down to work in earnest.. The officers were patriotic to the extreme. It was long hours every day for months.  Daily circuits in Toyota Hiace bone shakers- leaving early morning to return whenever. The officials responded to a man, patriotic to the extreme, working long hours..

 In an evaluation conducted in March 1983, eleven months from the commencement it was found that of the youths that commenced by May 1982,   283 youths had established  their own commercial ventures, with stocks of flocks and head of cattle  valued at Tk.911,630.00.  It was building up stocks, buying chicks and ducklings and seeing them grow. As much as 223 of them had reached a net income of TK 369.00 a month. Of them 83 earned over Tk. 500.00 a month. In the  Jamalpur District, in disciplines like dress making, fisheries, retail sales, electrical goods repairing workshops, welding, etc. 73 youths were involved, earning an average net income of Tk 445.00 a month with 20 of them earning net incomes of Tk. 500.00 or over:”

At that time Tk. 500.00 a month was the salary drawn by a Clerical Officer in the Government Service. Getting the youths to reach a net income of Tk. 500.00 a month was our aim.

In an Evaluation done in August 1983, 16 months since commencement  the Evaluation Report states:

A Programme of Excellence in every respect  unfolds in the results documented. .Of  500 unemployed youths who joined the programme in the early months,   479 are earning  an average net income  of Tk 596.00 in August 1983, 8 to 12 months after they commenced their commercial ventures, 55 of them earn over Tk. 1000.00 a month and 253 earn  over Tk 500.00.”

In August 1983, barely 16 months since the commencement, the achievement was hailed by the two Secretaries of the Ministry of Labour and Manpower; In their words:

Dr.Karunaratne’s significant contribution has been in the field of self employment to the drop-out youths. This programme was not only designed but also guided by him. This activity which was initially launched as a pilot experimental project has been a great success and has now being adopted as a fill-fledged Programme. The Government of Bangladesh..has been successful in providing meaningful employment to a large number of youths on this Programme” .(Asafuddowlah)

Dr. Karunaratne’s role as the formulator of the program has been particularly commendable. It was mainly through his dedication and hard work that the pilot project has now been formally accepted as one of the most important development projects. (Ayubur Rahaman)

The YSEP has stood the test of time for over three decades (1982-2019) The Five Year Plan of 1997-2002 devotes 8 pages to this program. This is easily the premier employment creation program that one can find in the world today. All other programs involve training and apprenticeship only and never include the tasks of motivating youths, involving them in non-formal education endeavor to develop their abilities and capacities, through technical guidance and management advice provided as they work on their projects aimed at their  becoming commercially viable, which are the cornerstones on which this programme  has been based.

Instead of traditional youth work, the aims of the Ministry of Youth had been altered: 

To facilitate the unemployed youth for gainful employment/self employment, providing vocational/skills development training and micro credit support.”.

To involve the youth in the mainstream of national development processes” (www.dyd.gov.bd/nyp_activities.php)

No subsidies of any sort were provided. What was provided was intensive training in residential settings, with payment of a meager monthly stipend. In many cases the youths invested their stipend to purchase chicks. They created capital by rearing chicks to become hens. Later, to the promising youths loans were arranged and carefully utilized under  close supervision. Short term training was provided whenever needed.

The above achievement of the Youth Self Employment Programme stands great in comparison to what was achieved by the ILO Project in Tangail in the earlier three years, where the number of entrepreneurs was only 626, where Tk. 1.38 million was disbursed of which only Tk. .61 million was recovered.  The best cases document people owning one milk cow or fattening one head of cattle for sale. Many of the 626 people had dropped off. The ILO had to eat humble pie, declare failure and erase the attempt from their books.

 By  August 1983, 16 months after commencement  The Department of Youth Development  was training  2000 youths. The Programme was expanded apace to involve 7000 youths by 1987, to 16,000 by 1992 and to 160,000 a year  from 1997. In 1982 we had only 3 Residential Training Centers. This was increased to 64 by 1997.

 In  2011 February  The Government of Bangladesh reported to the 34 th Session of the Governing Council of IFAD(FAO), one of the funders,   that this programme had guided as much as two million youths to be self employed‚  on  a commercially viable basis.(Statement by Bangladesh to the 34 th Session of the Governing Council of IFAD(FAO), dated19/02/2011)

My task was also to train the officers to carry on the programme after my‚  two year period of service ended.‚  True to a man Bangladeshi officers carried on the ardous task and‚   today 160,000 youths are being guided annually.. A full Department of Youth Development now devotes 95% of its time to training and guiding youths to become self employed..

Every country boasts of skills training programmes where youths are trained in the thousands but none provide training to guide the trained to become entrepreneurs- the task that was successfully done in this Youth Self Employment Programme.

It would behove  every Government to  decide that all skills training programmes should include guidance to enable the youths in training to establish enterprises of their own and become entrepreneurs. This can be achieved with little extra cost as the staff that train youths in skills can also be guiding them to become self employed.

Another important fact is that for the first few years, no new funds were provided for this Programme. . Savings were found within the skills training programme budgets for holding training workshops to create self employment..

Having a live successful employment creation programme is a great asset to any country. Guiding the unemployed  to become entrepreneurs, also enriches the economy with  produce to avoid imports..

I have detailed factually how I designed and established the Youth Self Employment Programme, a programme that has come to stay on a permanent basis for over  three decades and also find mention in the Five Year Plans of the country. The Commonwealth Fund tried to get my services  later, but I had to decline as I was employed in a permanent position in Westminster as a Lecturer. 

In actuality I converted a youth development department attending to traditional youth work to attend to economic development, training the youth and finding employment opportunities for them. I had to train the staff of the Department of Youth Development  in economics and methods of communication and educating youths to become commercial entrepreneurs. This is easily the one and only programme of this type in the world.

It may be a good idea for the Task Force to contact the Secretary to the Ministry of Youth Development of Bangladesh, to find veracity  for this unique programme. The officer who will know most is  the former secretary, Mr Muhammed Asafuddowlah, of the Bangladesh Civil Service, who was Additional  Secretary of the Ministry when I designed and established the Programme and who was  later the Secretary to the Ministry of Youth Development twice  and was instrumental in expanding the programme to what it is today.

The intrinsic success of this programme even merits a visit by a leading member of the Task Force to sus and find out how Sri Lanka  can learn  from this programme. 

A similar employment creation programme for the youth of Sri Lanka, if established,  will be a great credit to  the Government of President Gotabhaya and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.

I would deem it  a priviledge to provide more details and be of service if called upon.

. Garvin Karunaratne, Ph.D. Michigan State University‚ 

Commonwealth Fund Advisor of Youth Development to the Government of Bangladesh(1981-1983) and Government Agent, Matara(1971-1973)

Author of;

How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka and Alternative Programs of  Success (Godages)2006
Success in Development-(Godages)2010
Papers on the Economic Development of Sri Lanka-, Godages 2012
How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development,  Kindle/Godages, 2017

May 18, 2020, Colombo, Sri Lankagarvin_karunaratne@hotmail.com

By Noor Nizam – Peace and Political Activist, Political Communication Researcher, SLFP/SLPP Stalwart and Convener – “The Muslim Voice” – 19th., May, 2020.

THIS IS THE ONLY WAY THAT THESE INTERNATIONAL FRONT LOBBIES OF THE LTTE INTERESTS COULD GET THE CORRECT MESSAGE PROPERLY.  

A wonderful speech and gesture in honour of our War Heroes. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had also stated that the president will not allow anyone to exert undue pressure on the country’s war heroes or harass them.

They deserve it now and in the future. May the “ETERNAL FLAME FOR PEACE” in Sri Lanka lighted by the sacrifice of the brave soldiers and the tri-forces during the 30 years brutal terrorist civil war against the Nation of Sri Lankans (Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Malays and other minorities) burn forever by the Grace of God AllMighty’s blessings. 

There was also another war that was ongoing during this period and it was the war conducted by the Pro-Eelaam front lobbies in the Western countries, Europe, EU, North America and especially in Canada which was supported by the LTTE support lobby NGO’s and political parties/entities in the arena of the world “MASS MEDIA & THE PRESS/ELECTRONIC MEDIA, a battle that Sri Lanka, in the beginning, found it difficult to “OVER-POWER”, but subsequently was able to “TROUNCE” such campaigns due to the undeterred commitment of a few Sri Lanka “PATRIOTS” who loved their “MAATHRUBOOMIYA” and challenged the false propaganda openly in the media/press and in public forums, TV debates and even addressing the legislatures of these countries in defence of our “MAATHRUBOOBIYA” and our brave Tri-Forces, our “RANAVIRUWO”. 

In Canada, it was only a handful of Sri Lankans, 2 or 3 moderate Tamils and 2 Muslims, the only 2 organizations – the SLUNA (Sri Lanka United National Association in Toronto and the Toronto Maha Viharaya) who were in the forefront and took the lead in spearheading this fight. Though the Sri Lankan Foreign Missions during that decade failed to stand-up to the call of the “Nation” (exceptional case – Bandula Jayasekera – Consul-General – Toronto who was energizing this small group in Canada), the few Sri Lankans who spearheaded these ANTI-LTTE LOBBY GROUPS, domiciled abroad in those countries/regions and the two above Sri Lankan Organizations in Canada cannot be forgotten in this hour of the 11th anniversary of our “GREAT WAR HEROES” being “SALUTED” by the “NATION” and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, himself a “RANAVIRU” who was in the front line of the battle to destroy the most ruthless terrorist organization in the world, which many Nations and leaders and UN agencies concluded, cannot be destroyed. 

With the destruction of the LTTE by our “RANAVIRUWO”, they have given PEACE AND HARMONY to our beloved “MOTHER SRI LANKA” our “MAATHRUBOOMIYA” and it’s people – the Sri Lankans.

“The Muslim Voice” wishes to “SALUTE” all of them along with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa today.

“The Muslim Voice” also wishes to praise the “BRAVE POLITICAL INTERNATIONAL STATEMENT” quote: If any international body or organization continuously target our country and our war heroes, using baseless allegations, I will also not hesitate to withdraw Sri Lanka from such bodies or organizations,” unquote. 

THIS IS THE ONLY WAY THAT THESE INTERNATIONAL FRONT LOBBIES OF THE LTTE INTERESTS COULD GET THE CORRECT MESSAGE PROPERLY.

Sarath Wijesinghe President’s Counsel and former Ambassador to UAE and Israel

Start-up Company

If you have an apple and I have an apple then you and I have an apple each and then you and I will still have each one apple but we exchange apples and we exchange ideas we have two apples and ideas. (George Bernard Show) This is his quotation on exchange of knowledge and experience which is a prerequisite on innovations and start-up companies.

Start Up companies and SMEs are thriving on innovations and exchange of ideas and impart to be shared with visionaries to carry forward for the good of others and impart of knowledge and experience. Singapore, Malaysia, Israel, and Dubai are blessed with visions and visionaries when Sri Lanka is awaiting for a visionary with a vision on post Corona era. Start-up company or project is initiated by an entrepreneur so that it could be efficient developed and will undertake finest business models to suit him and the nation he is based on. Entrepreneur is an essential component in countries economic growth and small medium companies/enterprises as engines of economic growth. Entrepreneur is an innovator initially a novel business product or industry providing employment and /or generating income to the economy. Entrepreneur is a person with great innovative ideas that identifies the need for the creation of business to fill the void. Entrepreneur can be people with all ages though it is young in the lead today. Innovator is one who is doing things differently and in a most novel and modern way that none has done before based on his creativity. He embraces the idea and create tools and products. Initiatives and ideas derive ideas with valuable resources and ideas convert to useful products by transferring himself to an entrepreneur. Catalysing the innovator and entrepreneur environment, education and the compulsion by the society is a valuable factor depends on the environment facilities and push by the state.  Why do innovators and entrepreneurs mostly emerge in certain countries and surroundings? Is posed by those interested on the subject taking Israel as an example. 

 Bill Gate

Bill Gate is the richest man on the earth started as a small time entrepreneur is today with estimated income over 97 billion us dollars when a small time entrepreneur in a remote Sri Lanka or Israel with the potential to be a leader and a productive product to his country is influenced by the progress with humble beginnings of leading business leaders. Today world is with limited borders or restrictions for proactive entrepreneurs who are busy with leapfrogging innovations towards start-ups SMEs and multinational companies aiming to be Bill Gates. They are designing launching and running a new business which as a small business person who create a business taking high risks with confidence and future plans. Good news and sign in Sri Lanka is the current trend of emerging new and young entrepreneurs with new ideas and innovations and the current downturn on economy based on Corona may be a blessing in disguise for the bright and new future in the new world order of post Corona era. There are young and emerging entrepreneurs in the country with a penetration of 110% mobile network and computer literacy by many without lack of leadership and opportunities by leaders of commerce such as many chambers of commerce, departments spending millions on promotion of SME’s start up company’s trade and commerce in general in a traditional man inside the traditional box. IT education, training in technical and training centres paper to be following the same curriculum and attention to research an innovations appear to be nonexistence. Strangely still Sri Lankan departments depend on FAX messages when it has dis – appeared world over when Corona Debacle has brought the  use of what’s app email and modern IT trends to the surface. Data business has superseded income of gold and narcotics exploiting the public with their monopoly and silence/inaction of the Consumer groups and the regulator Consumer Affairs Authority discouraging the entrepreneurs and innovators using data for their researches. It is the duty of the State to assist, monitor, and promote Start-up and SMEs in a scientific and commercial methods by setting up a central body with dedicated and educated leaders with exposure to the world noting that we are not at all short of Sri Lankans inside Lanka and would’ve willing to take part and assist in any program/s noting what I lacking is the vision and the will of the persons concern with a note that it is necessary and urgent to place this neglected area under control. For entrepreneurs and researchers Data is a necessary tool as much as the average citizen ripped off by fat cat Data Monopoly. State should take this very seriously in addition providing more incentives and facilities to the prospective start up initiators and potential SMEs.

Why not us?

Almost half of the world’s top technologic companies have bought start-ups or opened research and development centres in tiny Israel with no resources for reasons confined to themselves. West needs innovations Israel has got it which is not rocket science for them who are living in an atmospheres of innovations every corner with facilities to share knowledge and experiences of others. Israelis are capable of providing the world necessary ammunitions to suit their needs to be utilized jointly by buying the small start-up company Why not US? Now there will be an emerging necessity to initiate SMEs in Sri Lanka- and many other countries- due to the forthcoming possible economic downturn and modern trend of IT educated young generation looking for challenges out of sheer necessity as Israel had to face a new life new country with challenges when life started 70 years before in the Barron land with no water and they worked harder to convert agriculture 95% technology with hard work innovations Start Ups and SMEs and innovations. What is lacking in us is exchange of ideas innovations with visions and creativity out of box aiming at one considers impossible. Israel’s have been pushed and chased away for nearly 2000 years until they settle down in the most hostile baron land with no water which they transferred to a world power with hard work, innovations out of shear necessity. Today Corona is chasing the world and us to be different and difficult with rapid transformation and applications of technology in all sphere of life and undoubtedly the fear will engulf us with the compulsion to change.

Start Ups in Sri Lanka

Not many start-ups  are available in Sri Lanka as in Israel or other small vibrant and developed as in Singapore, Hong Kong , UK, USA ect but the good sign is the small number of start-ups in Sri Lanka is manned by comparably young. We will name few start-ups – to complement and encourage themselves and new comers- such as Pick me, and Taksa.lk, lkaman.lk, Kapruka.com with the hope many to follow using the new world  trend learning from the leap frog world developments catalysed by Start Ups and SMEs taking control of the future in many areas on development and productivity. Sorry state is many earns less than one million with small number of foreign clients.  In Israel the start-ups are backed by the state and the system helps them to sell the business and products to the world with unprecedented profits based on the innovations entrepreneurship and productivity in a proactive society with every other citizen is an innovator out of compulsion in a society with highest concentration of graduates not demanding assistance from the state for employment as in Sri Lanka. Though Sri Lanka has few start-ups Israel has the highest Start-ups -currently 6000- in the world in number vibrant and active proportional to the population of the country.

Start Up nation-Israel

Israel is named start up nation due to activism on the subject and the abundance of start-ups as forward runners over 6000 SMEs with SMEs as engines of economic growth in an exemplary way raising the tiny nation to a nuclear world power only with the help of human resources in the absence of any natural resource water or any other assistance from outsiders fighting with all the neighbours right round. Having said that Israel is in the forefront in utilising the start-up companies and SMEs it is laying foundations for a leapfrog attempt to be major party in the field in par with the major players.

Innovations Development and Way Forward for success

Today innovations are a part parcel of development acting directly and a catalyst in reaching the targets of developments in all sectors generally with the assistance of the UN and the friendly members of the Globe with advanced knowledge and experiences in main areas of development. For example though Israel is a small nation she helps USA, India, China and many with their newly acquired knowledge on innovations and challenging models of developments. Developments will give positive changes in economy social structure infrastructure with developments on Education science and other components in life with the minimum time frame and with affordability. Quality and Quantity should be visible with the economic growth with human index in sustainable developments aimed by the UN assisting through the agencies. Continuity of water, energy, food, medicine Education with food security and public security are within the purview of development. Despite assistance from UN World Bank or friends the underline feather  for success on development is how and to what extent the counter faces challenges and the rate of innovations and plans of developments by Innovators Entrepreneurs, Start UP’s, SME’s State and the Private sector in an combined effect .

Writer could be reached on sarath7@hotmail.co.uk

President Mahinda Rajapaksa (then) currently Prime Minister in Sri Lanka and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Nethanyahue (Prime Minister to date) held bilateral talks in Jerusalem on 8/1/2014 during his visit to Middle east which included Palestine (visit initiated by then Ambassador Sarath Wijesinghe President’s Counsel)

RANJITH SOYSA

ATTN-   Mr  HUGH McDermott

ALP member for Prospect

YOUR MISLEADING STATEMENT ON THE 11TH ANNIVERSARY OF SRI LANKA GOVERNMENT’S VICTORY OVER THE TAMIL TIGER TERRORIST

ORGANIZATION IS A DIRECT INSULT TO THE VAST MAJORITY OF PEACEFUL AUSTRALIANS OF SRI LANKAN ORIGIN WHO STILL MAINTAIN

THEIR LINKS WITH SRI LANKA. WE WOULD LIKE TO CLARIFY THAT MOST OF US CONSIDER IT IS IMPORTANT FOR SRI LANKA TO CONTINUE

AS A SINGLE SOVEREIGN NATION AS IT HAS BEEN FOR OVER 2500 YEARS. WE ARE CERTAIN YOU WILL AGREE THAT NONE OF US WILL

APPROVE,  IF SOME ENTITY ATTEMPTS TO BALKANIZE AUSTRALIA TO CREATE A SEPARATE COUNTRY IN THE LAND MASS NOW KNOWN AS

AUSTRALIA. SRI LANKA IS SMALLER THAN TASMANIA AND ANY BALKANIZATION OF HER LAND WILL ONLY LEAD TO INTERNAL AS WELL AS

EXTERNAL INSTABILITY.

IN SRI LANKA THE SEPARATIST FORCES WHO WERE ATTEMPTING TO CREATE A RACIST MONO ETHNIC STATE CALLED ‘TAMIL EELAM’ WERE

WAGING A WAR WITH THE ELECTED SRI LANKAN GOVERNMENT FOR OVER 30 YEARS. IN THIS PROCESS THERE WERE PERIODS IN WHICH SOME

WESTERN NATIONS INCLUDING AUSTRALIA  ATTEMPTED TO SETTLE THE ISSUES THROUGH NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE TAMIL TIGERS WHO

EMERGED AS THE SOLE SPOKESPERSON OF THE EXTREMIST TAMILS. BUT, THE TAMIL TIGERS REFUSED TO TAKE HEED OF THE PEACE PROCESS AND

RESORTED TO KILLING OF CIVILIANS AND EXPLODING BOMBS TO DESTROY ECONOMIC TARGETS SUCH AS THE CENTRAL BANK OF SRI LANKA, HOTELS

AND THE AIRPORT ETC OF SRI LANKA. FINALLY, SRI LANKA UNDER THE HON MAHINDA RAJAPAKSE’S LEADERSHIP DECIDED TO LAUNCH A WAR AGAINST

TAMIL TIGER TERRORISTS IN  2006 WHEN THE TAMIL TIGER TERRORISTS PREVENTED WATER SUPPLY TO A SECTION OF THE POPULATION. THE WAR

WAS SUCCESSFULLY CONCLUDED ON 19 THE MAY IN 2009 WHEN THE TERRORIST CHIEF PRABHAKARAN WAS KILLED WITH HIS FELLOW TERRORISTS.

HOW CAN YOU REFER TO THE DEFEAT OF THE TERRORIST AS ‘A MASSACRE’. ‘GENOCIDE OF TAMIL COMMUNITY’ AS THE WAR WAS WAGED AGAINST

THE TAMIL TIGERS AND NOT THE TAMIL COMMUNITY. THE TAMIL TIGERS HAD A CADRE OF ABOUT 25,000 WITH THEIR CIVILIAN MEMBERS WHEREAS

TAMIL COMMUNITY CONSISTS OF 11.5% – 2.4 million- WHO LIVED IN PEACEFUL AREAS IN SRI LANKA, IF YOU WATCHED THE TV SCREENS OF

ABC, SBS AND OTHER MEDIA YOU WOULD NOT FORGET HOW NEARLY 90,000 TAMIL CIVILIANS RAN AWAY FROM THE YOKE OF THE TAMIL TIGER

TERRORISTS WHO WERE KEEPING THEM BY FORCE AND WERE USED AS CANNON FODDER. SRI LANKAN FORCES IN FACT LIBERATED THESE TAMILS AND

SPECIALLY ABOUT 3000 TAMIL CHILDREN WHO WERE SERVING THE TAMIL TIGERS AS CHILD SOLDIERS!.

EVEN THOUGH THE SCOURGE OF TAMIL TIGERS WAS ERASED BY THE SRI LANKAN GOVERNMENT MANY OF THE DIE HARD SUPPORTERS OF THE EEALM

LIVING IN THE WEST AND ALSO IN AUSTRALIA ARE CONTINUING THEIR ‘AGITATION’ THAT IT WAS A WAR AGAINST THE TAMILS MAINLY TO COLLECT FUNDS

FROM THE FELLOW SYMPATHIZERS TO KEEP THE ANTI SRI LANKA CAMPAIGN FULLED. SRI LANKA HAS GIVEN AN EFFECTIVE REASONS FOR THE WAR AND

IS AWAITING FACTUAL INFORMATION REGRADING THE NUMBERS KILLED AND EVIDENCE ETC NOT GUESSTIMATES AND MERE PROPAGANDA STUNTS TO

JUSTIFY ANTI SRI LANKA CAMPAIGN. SRI LANKA HAD PROVED THAT THE NUMBER KILLED INCLUDING THE SRI LANKAN SOLDIERS WERE AROUND 7000 USING

POPULATION DATA AND THE INFORMATION IS CORROBORATED BY THE US MILITARY ATTACHE AND LORD NASEBY- A MEMBER OF UK HOUSE OF LORDS.

WE REQUEST YOU TO GO THROUGH THE STORY FROM THE SRI LANKAN ANGLE AND AS MUCH AS THE WEST INCLUDING AUSTRALIA CELEBRATE EVEN

THE BRUTAL METHODS USED BY THE ALLIED FORCES TO STOP THE NAZI AND FASCIST FORCES TO USHER IN THE PEACE  IN 40s, ANY COMMENTATOR

WOULD AGREE IF HE GOES BY ACCURATE INFORMATION ,  THAT SRI LANKA DID THE RIGHT THING BY THE SRI LANKANS IN DEFEATING THE

TERRORISTS WHILE LIBERATING 21 MILLION OF HER POPULATION FROM THE GRIP OF BLOOD THIRSTY TAMIL TIGERS.

WE REQUEST YOU TO EITHER TO WITHDRAW YOUR MISLEADING STATEMENT OR TO ISSUE AN AMENDED FACTUAL VERSION ESPECIALLY TO PROTECT THE

HONOR OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

WE WILL SUBMIT YOU WITH INFORMATION PERIODICALLY ABOUT SIR LANKA’S PROGRESS FOR YOUR INFORMATION,

BEST WISHES

RANJITH SOYSA

DANDENONG . VIC

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

When reading The the attached communication issued by the President’s office I wonder why they cannot   use the other two ports as well

We proposed to develop Trinco as a location for oil rig lay-up facilities and requested the government to restructure quarantine procedure to accommodate the crew changes of rigs and tankers 

It is a source of a large amount of firearm currency 

Idling hotels can be offered to the crew to combine a holiday and self-quarantine at a premium price 

I am not sure why Hamabantota is overlooked when Mattaka airport is just close by ??

Can they look into this?

Courtesy Adaderana

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa says he will not allow anyone to exert undue pressure on the country’s war heroes or harass them and also assured he will not hesitate to withdraw Sri Lanka from any international body or organization that continuously targets the country and its war heroes using baseless allegations.

He made these comments while delivering a speech during the ceremony held today (19) at the National War Heroes’ Monument in Battaramulla to mark the 11th National War Heroes’ Day. 

War is not a bed of roses.” Especially, the war heroes had to face numerous bitter experiences and difficulties when battling one of the most ruthless terrorist organizations in the world which did not respect law, he said.

He said that during those 30 years, helpless civilians got killed everywhere in the country. A large number of lives and properties were lost due to suicide attacks, bombing in buses, trains and buildings carried out by the terrorists, he said.

The prime objective of the Humanitarian Mission was to bring lasting peace in the country,” he said.

Because of the exceptional sacrifices made by our war heroes, today we have the opportunity to live in peace and harmony in a unitary state.”

The President stated that the country, nourished by Buddhist philosophy, possesses a form of administration that is an oasis for all religions and all nationalities.  
Throughout its history, people in this country including Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, Malay and Burgher have had equal rights, he said.

The motive of the extremists was to divide us. If they were successful in their attempt, our history could have taken a different course,” he said. 

Sri Lanka could have become a country where communities hate each other, engage in continuous battles for borders, fear of war is a common norm of life and another hapless and divided country, he pointed out.

He stated that the honor of liberating the country from this catastrophe should be given to all heroic troops who fought for the peace in the country for a long time.

Pain of the war is not strange to me.”

Therefore, I will not allow any room for attempts to discredit and destroy the dignity of our war heroes who made countless sacrifices to bring peace to entire Sri Lanka,” he emphasized.

The President assured that under his administration, they will take every measure always to protect the dignity of the country’s heroic forces.

It is a national responsibility to ensure their rights.”

President Rajapaksa also vowed to withdraw Sri Lanka from any international body or organization which continuously targets the country and its war heroes.

In a situation where even leaders of powerful countries have emphatically stated that they would not allow any action against their war heroes, in a small country like ours where our war heroes have sacrificed so much, I will not allow anyone to exert undue pressure on them or harass them.”
 
If any international body or organization continuously target our country and our war heroes, using baseless allegations, I will also not hesitate to withdraw Sri Lanka from such bodies or organizations,” he declared.

Full text of the speech made by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the National Ranaviru Day commemorations:

Reverend Maha Sanga representing Maha Nayaka Theros and Anu Nayaka Theros of Malwatta and Asgiriya Chapters, Amarapura and Ramannya Nikayas,

His Eminence Cardinal,

Hindu Kurukkal leader, Islam Mowlawi,

·         Hon. Mahinda Rajapaksa, former President and the Prime Minister of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka,

·         Hon. Maithripala Sirisena, former President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka,

·         Admiral of the Fleet Wasantha Karannagoda,

·         Marshal of the Air Force Roshan Gunatilleke, Governor of the Western Province

·         Secretary to the President,

·         Secretary Defence,

·         Chief of Defence Staff and Commander of the Sri Lanka Army, Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy, Commander of the Sri Lanka Air Force,

·         Acting Inspector General of Police, Director General of the Department of Civil Defence,

·         Distinguished guests,

·         War heroes of Army, Navy, Air Force, Police and Civil Defence,

·         Dear parents, wives, sons and daughters of war heroes,

May 19th is a very important milestone in the history of Sri Lanka.

11 years ago on a day like this, on May 19th 2009, we completely defeated the separatist terrorism which had been a curse to the country for nearly 30 years.

It was President Mahinda Rajapaksa who gave the leadership for this battle in his capacity as the Commander-in-Chief.

With the end of terrorism, an environment where people could live without fear or anxiety and enjoy their human rights freely was created.

After a period of 30 years, we ensured democracy and build an atmosphere where free and fair elections could be held.

The atmosphere where people can travel freely without any restrictions to any place of the country was restored.

Our war heroes and their families made immense sacrifices to usher in peace to the country which was engulfed in terror.

War is not a bed of roses. Especially, the war heroes had to face numerous bitter experiences and difficulties when battling one of the most ruthless terrorist organizations in the world which did not respect law.

During those 30 years, helpless civilians got killed everywhere in the country. A large number of lives and properties were lost due to suicide attacks, bombing in buses, trains and buildings carried out by the terrorists.

The prime objective of the Humanitarian Mission was to bring lasting peace in the country.

Because of the exceptional sacrifices made by our war heroes, today we have the opportunity to live in peace and harmony in a unitary state.

Our country, nourished by Buddhist philosophy, possesses a form of administration that an oasis for all religions and all nationalities.  

Throughout its history, people in this country including Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, Malay and Burgher have had equal rights.

The motive of the extremists was to divide us. If they were successful in their attempt, our history could have taken a different course. Sri Lanka could have become a country where communities hate each other, engage in continuous battles for borders, fear of war is a common norm of life and another hapless and divided country.

The honor of liberating the country from this catastrophe should be given to all our heroic troops who fought for the peace in our country for a long time.

We remember with immense gratitude, all the war heroes including General Kobbekaduwa and General Vijaya Wimalarathna who fought for this victory for more than 3 decades and laid their lives for the country.

As an officer who was engaged in active service for around 20 years, later as the Secretary Defence for 10 years as well as a citizen I am very well aware of the sacrifices made by our war heroes.

Pain of the war is not strange to me.

Therefore, I will not allow any room for attempts to discredit and destroy the dignity of our war heroes who made countless sacrifices to bring peace to entire Sri Lanka.

I assure you that under my administration, we will take every measure always to protect the dignity of our heroic forces.

It is a national responsibility to ensure their rights.

In a situation where even leaders of powerful countries have emphatically stated that they would not allow any action against their war heroes, in a small country like ours where our war heroes have sacrificed so much, I will not allow anyone to exert undue pressure on them or harass them.

If any international body or organization continuously target our country and our war heroes, using baseless allegations, I will also not hesitate to withdraw Sri Lanka from such bodies or organizations.

We pay the tribute of the nation to all war heroes and their families who contributed to the battle against separatism for 3 decades.

The highest honour that can be bestowed on them is to transform this country which was protected by them by laying their lives to a land where every citizenry can live in peace, harmony and with dignity.

At this War Memorial, I invite all patriotic citizens to make your fullest contribution towards this endeavor.

I thank you all.

May the noble Triple Gem bless you.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Health Ministry confirmed that two more patients have tested positive for COVID-19 increasing the total number of cases reported in the country to 1,023.

Accordingly 31 new cases have been confirmed so far within the day.

The Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry says that 445 active cases are currently under medical care while the number of recoveries has increased to 569.

The death toll due to the virus in Sri Lanka is 09.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Ministry of Defence urged the public not to be misled by certain posts circulating on social media platforms regarding threats posed in Sri Lanka by extremist elements.

There is no truth in news being circulated in social media networks. The intelligence agencies have not received such information related to extremist threats in Sri Lanka,” Defence Secretary Major General (Retd) Kamal Gunaratne said.

He reiterated that the national security of the country had not been overlooked while deploying Security Forces and Police personnel to contain the spread of Coronavirus pandemic.

Defence Secretary said all intelligence agencies, which were brought under one network under President Rajapaksa’s Government, had been fully strengthened to be alerted on internal and external security threats.

He said there was a required number of military and Police personnel to be deployed to support the Government’s efforts in controlling the spread of the virus while maintaining national security.

The Sri Lanka Navy, which has been affected with its sailors getting infected with the Coronavirus while fighting to control its spread, is fully engaged in nabbing drug traffickers operating locally and internationally. The military and Police are also engaged in controlling organized crimes and dealing with any other forms of terrorism,” he said.

Courtesy Adaderana

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, with the concurrence of the Ministry of Defence has promoted a total of 177 Officers and Senior Officers have been to their respective next ranks, stated Sri Lanka Army.

The promotions have been granted with the recommendations of the Commander of the Army Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva.

This is one of the largest segments of promotions, made in recent times, the Military Secretariat Branch announced this evening (18).

Accordingly, the 117 military officers have been promoted as 05 new Major Generals, 04 Brigadiers of Sri Lanka Army Volunteer Force, 39 Lieutenant Colonels, 69 Majors, and 60 Lieutenants of the Army.

Brigadier Priyanka Fernando, who was under the spotlight for facing off pro-LTTE activists protesting near the Sri Lanka High Commission in Britain, too has been promoted to the rank of Major General.

Promoted Major Generals:

Major General C.U Marasinghe RSP USP
Major General T.J Kodithuwakku RWP RSP ndu
Major General H.P Ranasinghe RWP RSP ndc
Major General A.P.I Fernando RWP USP
Major General C.D Weerasuriya RWP RSP ndu

Promoted Brigadiers:

Brigadier S.N Samarawickrama
Brigadier H.M.N.B Herath
Brigadier N.G.S Thilakarathne
Brigadier K.N Perera

Courtesy  Hiru News

The Director General of Health Services Dr. Anil Jasinghe believes that the curfews in Colombo and Gampaha districts can be eased within a short period of time.

He made this observation while participating in the Hiru TV program “Rata saha Heta”.

Ada Derana

විශ්‍රාමික මේජර් ජෙනරාල් කමල් ගුණරත්න – ආරක්ෂක ලේකම්
ලුතිනන් ජෙනරාල් ශවේන්ද්‍ර සිල්වා – යුද හමුදාපති
අද්මිරාල් ඔෆ් ද ෆ්ලීට් වසන්ත කරන්නාගොඩ – හිටපු නාවික හමුදාපති
මාර්ෂල් ඔෆ් ද එයාර්ෆෝස් රොෂාන් ගුණතිලක – හිටපු ගුවන් හමුදාපති

https://www.facebook.com/adaderana/videos/566087120710094

It’s now bordering the ridiculous when foreign MPs are muttering ‘genocide’ without stopping to actually ask a basic question – how many actually died or were killed. It is ludicrous of them to be parroting ‘genocide’ for killing ‘terrorists’ even banned by their countries. As for ‘civilians’, to claim genocide, surely we must know how many civilians died or were killed. The simplest method to ascertain that is if those mourning their dead can at least produce the names of the supposed dead, or a police complaint that they are still missing. However, in the absence of all these basic facts – groups of people have got some white men and women foreign MPs to be parroting ‘genocide’ across the world. This is now looking rather hilarious when it is clear that they are being used to commemorate LTTE dead.

Fundamental questions to answer

How many civilians died or were killed during the final phase of Sri Lanka’s conflict? 

–      We need to have a number

–      We need to know their names

Were they really civilian (by international definition)

–      Rules of War clearly define who a civilian is. Therefore, no one who had been engaged in hostilities can claim to be a civilian.

–      The distinction of a civilian is blurred by LTTE because some LTTE fought in civilian attire,

–      LTTE had its own civilian clothed army, LTTE recruited (forcefully/voluntarily) civilians

Thus, 

–      Any LTTE fighting in civilian clothing and getting killed is NOT A CIVILIAN

–      Any LTTE member of the LTTE CIVILIAN ARMY is NOT A CIVILIAN

–      Any Civilian who died engaged in hostilities IS NOT entitled to claim to be A CIVILIAN 

LTTE must take blame for blurring the distinction of ‘civilian’ afforded to civilians in an armed conflict and by Geneva Conventions.

Thus, 3 groups not entitled to be called civilian are

1. LTTE fighting in civilian clothing & getting killed
2. LTTE civilian army fighting & getting killed
3. Civilians who took up arms and were killed engaged in hostilities

But, we must know how many died in the above groups too.

• how many LTTE were killed fighting in civilian or LTTE uniform?
• How many LTTE CIVILIAN ARMY combatants died?
• How many civilians forced to or voluntarily taking up died engaged in hostilities?

Thereafter, we come to the all-important question – how many civilians who were not members of the LTTE, who did not engage in any form of hostilities with the army, who did not die from natural causes were killed?

Answering this is not easy, because LTTE fired and killed fleeing civilians.

How many of these civilians, fleeing LTTE, were shot & killed by LTTE? 

These deaths cannot be credited to the Sri Lanka Army. 

For anyone to claim ‘genocide’ accusing a national army of killing civilians must answer the above questions first.

The Sri Lanka Armed Forces can only be accused of killing civilians who were not LTTE firing in civilian clothing, civilians in LTTE CIVILIAN ARMY, civilians who temporarily engaged in hostilities)

What is this number? Do they have facts to prove so? 

What has happened since 2009, is that even the international pundits in the UN and UNHRC without answering these fundamental and basic questions are allowing the usage of the term ‘genocide’ unfairly against a National Army, who was only doing their duty in protecting the Nation and its People from an armed non-state actor indulging in terror.

Until such time those making allegations can prove by name and number as well as evidence that Sri Lanka Armed Forces purposely and with intent killed civilians, no charges against the Sri Lankan Armed Forces should be entertained and the GoSL must make this very clear to the foreign governments. 

We also see quite a lot of commemorations by Tamil groups across the world.

Are they commemorating LTTE dead or Civilians?

Obviously, the reason why they are hesitant to give names and numbers is that the moment they give a name, Sri Lanka’s intelligence will be able to determine if

• They are LTTE member
• They are in LTTE CIVILIAN ARMY
• Or if they were actually born – the level of lies taking place, we can be sure that they may likely create names.

A recent report that did forward some names were all LTTE asylum seekers or runaway LTTE and this is possibly why the LTTE fronts are reluctant to name anyone as dead for it will expose their lies.

As a result, they are more than happy to fund foreign MPs to mutter ‘genocide’ and in turn become a laughing stock over social media as was seen in the manner people were ridiculing Mayor in Canada, MPs in UK & Australia.

ARMY DEAD

As per the report by Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (2011)

• 5,556 Sri Lanka Armed Forces personnel died in battle
• 28,414 Sri Lanka Armed Forces personnel were wounded in battle
• 169 Sri Lanka Armed Forces personnel were missing in action

(note: adding 169 to the 5556 makes 5725 deaths)

LTTE DEAD

As per the report by Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (2011)

• 22,247 LTTE combatants killed in battle
• 11,812 of the 22,247 LTTE identified and named
• 10,435 LTTE dead were not identified and named

This 10,435 LTTE dead CANNOT be put as CIVILIAN DEAD

Therefore, the GoSL must conclude identifying and naming this 10,435 LTTE dead and ensure these names are not quoted by any groups claiming Sri Lanka killed civilians.

Therefore, Robert Blake, Siobhain McDonagh, Gordon Weiss, Charles Petrie, Times of London, Amnesty International, Alan Keenan, UK Guardian must be able to answer all above questions before blurting numbers unfairly alleging Sri Lanka Armed Forces.

What cannot be overlooked is the figures given with facts – the names of these must be used to verify against the names that may be duplicated to present ‘dead’ civilians

• 7400 dead (included LTTE probably in civilian clothing) / 2600 missing (1600 had been with LTTE) – Survey by Govt at conclusion of conflict
• 7721 dead – UN Country team in Sri Lanka
• 7896 dead – Survey by Tamil officers in July 2011 covering migration, deaths & untraceable persons from 2005 to 2009 & placed natural deaths at 1102.
• 7432 dead – GoSL census by Tamil teachers in Feb/Mar 2012 (without armed forces)
• 10,000 – 18,000 – Dr. Michael Roberts
• 7398 – Tamilnet LTTE propaganda

The Presidential Commission of Missing Persons listed 23,586 missing as of 2017 (covering 1982 to 2009), of which 5000 are missing Sri Lankan soldiers.

Who are the 18,586 in the Missing Persons Commission? (are they all Tamil or people belonging to other communities) 

Are they still missing – how many are living overseas as refugees, how many are LTTE and fled overseas? Who can answer? GoSL must seek lists of refugee seekers by name through foreign ministry from respective countries. 

The ‘Missing’ issue also poses further questions

• How many Tamils were forcibly taken by LTTE& killed for disobeying LTTE
• How many Tamils were forcibly taken by LTTE, made to fight & died fighting
• How many Tamils fighting for LTTE in civilian clothing were left to die or shot by LTTE when injured to prevent them disclosing details to Sri Lanka Armed Forces
• How many LTTE fighters who were injured were killed by LTTE (ex: put into buses & exploded)
• How many Tamils did LTTE bury without informing their parents?
• How many unidentifiable LTTE fighters who died during fighting were not accepted by LTTE when ICRC wanted to hand over bodies to them and had to be buried by Sri Lanka Army (none of these can be categorized as civilians)
• How many Tamils fled the country & where did they flee too?
• How many Tamils are using UN cards & buying time to gain residence in countries?
• How many Tamils applying as asylum seekers/refugees are kept secret by foreign govts for geopolitical arm twisting against Sri Lanka.
• How many Tamils who were not involved in hostilities died due to collateral damage as a result of both LTTE & Sri Lanka Armed Forces exchanging fire
• How many are intentionally hiding and living under a bogus name but are claiming to be ‘missing’ in order for their families to claim compensation?

All those crying crocodile tears commemorating Mullaivaikkal dead – please let us know how many LTTE dead you are mourning – that the Mullaivaikkal commemorations are for LTTE is visible by the emblems and decorations used.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maaveerar_Naal– LTTE flowers used during Maaveerar Naal commemorating dead LTTE. Tamils in UK universities commemorating this event & emblems used is further highlighted https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/british-tamil-students-hold-maaveerar-naal-tributes%C2%A0

Can these Canadians answer the above questions

Can UK’s Foreign Secretary Dominique Raab, 

Surely, these foreigners should not make a fool of themselves making statements without knowing facts. The commemorations claiming them to be ‘genocide day’ ‘Mullaivaikkal commemoration’ ‘Remembrace Day’ etc is only to mourn the DEAD LTTE and no one else. 

Shenali D Waduge

MEDIA RELEASE Mahinda Rajapaksa Prime Minister

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

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

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

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

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

Mahinda Rajapaksa

Prime Minister

මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනය මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය

දෙමළ ඊළාම් විමුක්ති කොටි සංවිධානයට එරෙහි යුද ජයග්‍රහණයේ එකොළොස් වන සංවත්සරය අපි මැයි 19 වන දා සමරන්නෙමු. එය දෙමළ ජනතාවට එරෙහි යුද්ධයක් නොව ඇමරිකාවේ එෆ්.බී.අයි ආයතනය විසින් ලෝකයේ දරුණුම ත්‍රස්තවාදීන් හැටියට නම් කරනු ලැබූ සංවිධානයකට එරෙහි යුද්ධයක් විය. කොටි සංවිධානයේ පරාජය නිසා දෙමළ ජනතාවටද දැන් නිදහසේ ජීවත් වීමට ඉඩ ලැබී ඇත. දෙමළ ළමුන් දැන් කොටි සංවිධානය විසින් පැහැරගෙන යන්නේ නැත. දෙමළ දේශපාලනඥයින් කොටි ඝාතකයන්ට බියෙන් ජීවත් වන්නේ නැත. කොටි සංවිධානය පරාජය කිරීම තුළින් උතුරු නැගෙනහිර පළාත්වලත් මැතිවරණ පැවැත්වීමට හැකිවීම නිසා එම ප්‍රදේශවල ජනතාවගේ පරමාධිපත්‍ය බලයද නැවතත් තහවුරු වී ඇත.

කොටි සංවිධානයට එරෙහි යුද්ධය ජය ගැනීමෙන් මුළු ලෝකයම මවිත කළ ඒ ත්‍රිවිධ හමුදාව හා පොලිසිය අද කොවිඩ්-19 උවදුරට එරෙහිව සෞඛ්‍ය අංශත් සමග ඒකාබද්ධ මෙහෙයුමක නිරත වී සිටි. මේ අවස්ථාවේ සියලුම කරුණු වලින් පෙනෙන්නේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාව කොවිඩ්-19 සටනින්ද ජයග්‍රහණය කරමින් සිටින බවයි. මහජනතාව අතර රෝගය පැතිරීම වැලැක්වීමට ත්‍රිවිධ හමුදාව හා පොලීසිය සිදුකරන පෙරමුණු බළඇණි කාර්යභාරය, කොවිඩ්-19 රෝගය මේ ආකාරයට පාලනය කිරීමට සෞඛ්‍ය අංශ වලට අතිමහත් පිටිවහලක් වූ බව අවිවාදාත්මකය.

මෙයින් නැවත වතාවක් තහවුරුවන කාරණය වන්නේ ත්‍රස්තවාදයක්, ගංවතුරක්, හෝ වසංගතයක් වේවා, සෑම ආපදා අවස්ථාවකම ත්‍රිවිධ හමුදාව පොදු මහජනතාව සුරකිමින් පෙරමුණේ සිටින බවයි. මේ නිසා, අපේ සමාජය තුළ ‘සිවිල්’ හා ‘මිලිටරි’ වශයෙන් කෘතිම භේදයක් ඇති කිරීමට යහපාලන දේශපාලන පක්ෂ අද ගනිමින් සිටින දුෂ්ඨ උත්සාහය මම හෙලා දකිමි. කුමක් හෝ තනතුරකට ත්‍රිවිධ හමුදාවෙන් විශ්‍රාම ගිය නිලධාරියකු පත් කළහොත් එය ‘මිලිටරිකරණයක්’ හැටියට ඔවුන් හඳුන්වති. ත්‍රිවිධ හමුදාවෙන් විශ්‍රාම ගිය අයෙකු සිවිල් පුරවැසියෙකු මිස හමුදා සාමාජිකයෙකු නොවේ. එදා සිටි සඟ, වෙද, ගුරු, ගොවි, කම්කරු බලවේගයට අද රණවිරු පාර්ශවයත් එක්වී සිටි. එමනිසා අපේ ආණ්ඩුවක් බලයේ සිටින විට ආරක්ෂක හමුදාවල හිටපු සාමාජිකයන් අනිවාර්යෙන්ම ආණ්ඩුව තුළ විවිධ තනතුරු දරණු ඇත.

ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී ක්‍රමයට පිටින් පැමිණි සියලු අභියෝග පරාජය කොට මේ රටේ ජනතාවගේ සර්වජන ඡන්දය මත පදනම් වූ පරමාධිපත්‍ය බලය රැක දීමට ත්‍රිවිධ හමුදාව හා පොලිසිය ඓතිහාසිකව කර තිබෙන කාර්යභාරයත් අපි මෙහිදී සිහිපත් කළ යුතුය. මුළු ලෝකයම මවිත කළ යුද ජයග්‍රහණයේ එකොළොස් වන සංවත්සරය සමරන මේ අවස්ථාවේ යහපාලන ආණ්ඩුව අපගේ ත්‍රිවිධ හමුදාව ජාත්‍යන්තරව පාවා දුන් ආකාරයත්, ත්‍රිවිධ හමුදාවේ දැනට සේවය කරන හා විශ්‍රාම ගිය විශාල පිරිසක් දඩයමට හා අවමානයට ලක් කළ ආකාරයත් අප කිසිසේත්ම අමතක කර නැත. ඒ අගතියට පත් සියලු පිරිස් වලට යුක්තිය ඉටු කරන බවට අපි නැවතත් ප්‍රතිඥා දෙමු.

මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය

Asoka Weerasinghe (Mr.) Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . K1J 6G1 Canada

17 May 2020
Your Worship Bonnie Crombie
Mayor of Mississauga
Mississauga Civic Centre
300 City Centre Drive
Mississauga
L5B 3C1
Ontario,

Dear Mayor Bonnie Crombie:

I read with much disappointment your Statement on the Tamil Memorial Day.

What was that all about, Mayor. What Tamil Memorial Day are you talking about..?

I hope you are going to tell me – Oops ! Asoka, it was  a genuine typo.  It was meant to read as ‘Mississauga’s Sinhalese Memorial Day.” It was a day meant to commemorate the days of 30-savage bloodying years, that saddened all of us, when Tamil Tigers  killed 1000s of your unarmed innocent Sinhalese folk with Kalashnikovs. Claymore mines; plucking infants from the young Sinhalese mother’s breasts and dashing their heads on hard charnockite-granite boulders and enjoying watching ketchup blood oozing out of smithereened little skulls; or creeping into Sinhalese fisherfolk’s adobe Huts at night and chopping innocent mothers and infants and men, like Tamil Nadu Roadside butchers with machetes (Dollar and Kent Farms,  Vavuniya. 30.11.1984); like pulling out 32 novice Buddhist monks from a pilgrim-bus and shooting them point blank. (Aranthalawa, Amparai, 2.6 1987); and bringing down the Central  Bank Building in the Fort, Colombo, with a Truck bomb. (31.1.1996) The 60 tons of explosives bought from the Ukraine’s Rubezone Chemical Factory with a cheque cut from a Bank in Vancouver. The explosives were of 10 tons of hexagon, a plastic explosive like Semtex, 50 tons of trinitrotoluol (TNT) that killed 114  innocent  civilians, and 1338 were maimed for life. I know these Tamil Tigers were no paragons of virtue.  Nor were they Babes-in-the-Woods, who perfected the human suicide body pack used to assassinate two Heads if State, Rajiv Gandhi of India, and your President Premadasa of Sri Lanka.”

If this is really not your story with an apology to your City’s Sinhalese-Mississaugans, then let me tell you Mayor Bonnie Crombie;

Mayor your naive understanding of separatist Tamil deceptive politics, made you Miss-a-Saga of a deception of theirs, that got you trapped and made you slither into their well gingerly-oiled trap-net, trying to reach  for the slippery gingerly-oil covered  election-ballots.  Pity! 

 A fool is born every minute of the day.  It is no different in the community of Canadian politicians.  What a brilliant catch for the Mississauga Tamils. Another Liberal politician fell for the Tamil Humbuggery.  Sad.

I am not sure whether I want to cry or let my angry cart-wheeling eyes spit out dragon breath with anger.

So you Missed-a-Saga of another unfounded Cock-and-Bull, Tamil Lie accusing Sri Lanka of Genocide.  Unfounded lie, I said.  Are you able to prove it? You know what, if the Liberal’s Ugly 5 (Robert Oliphant, Derek Lee, Jim Karygianni, Judy Sgro and Alibina Guanieri), who tried the same shenanigan during the Special Debate called by NDPs Jack Layton, on Genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka, on February 4, 2009 afternoon, during the Jack Layton’s Canadian Tamil Blarney Gong Show, at the Parliament Chambers,  they failed miserably.  They tried to stick that label of Genocide with crazy glue on Sri Lanka, but it was too Tamil-Vindaloo-lying-Hot as an unfounded lie and the body politic of Sri Lanka rebelled and refused to let it stick on her. Knowing what happened Mayor Crombie, you have insulted the worthy Mayoral Chain that you wear around your neck.  Please do not try your Liberal luck again for a few hundreds of Tamil-Canadian votes.  Pity.  Do not give it a try again, as it’s foolish, specially, when your effort to tell the world that We are holier than thou, Sri Lanka ”, is a bitter concoction of lies, when we Canadians are absolutely NOT squeaky clean.  I know it, and I am sure you know it too.

You know what Mayor Crombie, Sri Lanka will gesture at you and say, Shish!…Lady.. see who is speaking, surely not you, when your Canada is a maestro of Genocide as you did it to the First Nations peoples missing and murdered girls and women.  I think you should consider using Teflon tape across your mouth if you are not sure of the Tamil context when it comes for discussion at Council and at Caucus.  

Mayor Crombie, give me/us a break and stop hurting us Sinhalese-Canadians with your foolishness.  I am one of them, and I do not take it kindly. It is best for you to stop flirting with the Tamils.  Joining them to hurt us Sinhalese -Canadians is not acceptable not even for a plate of Vindaloo beef, Dhal curry and  yellow-rice, which had a dinner-table value of $60 at a fundraiser  for the Tamil Tigers organized  by FACT on May 6, 2000, in Toronto, attended by then Minister of Finance Paul Martin, Maria Minna, Minister responsible for CIDA and nine other Liberal backbenchers from the Greater Toronto area..

As for the yellow belly-aching Tamil separatists of Mississauga, who whine and lie,  let me remind them, and you take notes Mayor Crombie. I demand from them to tell the Truth and nothing but the whole TRUTH to you Mayor Crombie and to your Councillors.  If not that they and You all at the City Council will hear my voice loud and clearly like the 12-noon chimes of the Big Ben, with the WEERASINGHE’s TAMIL FACTS. We Canadian-Sinhalese, especially me, have had enough of your lies and insults about us, the honest Sinhalese-Canadians.  And I say to you politicians of all brands, to Hell with Tamil votes and  STOP insulting us Sinhalese-Canadians.  We had enough of it.

Sincerely,

Asoka Weerasinghe (Mr.)

Cc. stephen.dasko@mississauga.ca 
karen.ras@mississauga.ca
chris.fonseca@mississauga.ca
john.kovac@mississauga.ca
carolyn.parrish@missisauga.ca
ron.starr@mississauga.ca
dipika.damerla@mississauga.ca
matt.mahoney@mississauga.ca
pat.saito@mississauga.ca
sue.MacFadden@mississauga.ca
George.carlson@mississauga.ca

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Responding to some of the media reports and concerns over the proposed International Cricket Stadium in Homagama, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) today said the project will be an absolute and private investment of SLC and no government funds will be utilized and/or will be sought at any stage of the construction.

In a statement, the SLC said there were several media reports published regarding the proposed International Cricket Stadium in Homagama and some of these reports may have created misconceptions in the minds of the readers, which are detrimental to the image of both the Government and the SLC. 

“We wish to state that the renowned R. Premadasa International Cricket Stadium in Khettarama has been obtained for a 30-year lease from Sugathadasa Sports Complex Authority of Sri Lanka in 2006 and SLC is proud to say that a substantial amount of Cricket has been played in the stadium annually and it is now designated as the High-Performance Centre for Cricket with a view to raise the game to the next level.
For a considerable period of time, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has been on the watch and was exploring possibilities in acquiring a suitable land closer to Colombo to build a fully-fledged International Cricket stadium with a view to accommodating 40,000 spectators, as the need has arisen with the popularity of the game of Cricket and to best suit the demands of the World Cricket.
In the meantime, the proposal was extended to SLC by the Government of Sri Lanka allocating 26 Acre land in Homagama in order to build an international Cricket stadium at SLC’s cost. In view of the diverse climate and bio conditions in the Country, SLC has invested in International Level Cricket Stadiums around the country, which is aimed at playing in different seasons in consideration of the respective weather conditions.
SLC having discussed the Homagama International Cricket Stadium project, called for an Expression of Interests from reputed Audit Firms in Sri Lanka to carry out a feasibility study on the finances associated with the project along with repayments of the capital expenditure to be staggered for a period of 15 years.
In view of the increasing demand for the game and especially due to the popularity of the short formats of the game, the need has arisen to cater to large crowds with easy access in an urban environment. It should also be noted that ICC has now afforded the opportunity for member countries to express the Interest in staging the World Cup series in the respective countries for which it is expected to have at least five international level cricket stadiums in the country with a seating capacity of around 25,000 – 40,000.
It is undoubted that Cricketing events of such magnitude will bring massive foreign currency inflow to the Country which is an essential fact in today’s economy standpoint. Further, it is important to note that Sri Lanka Cricket has also expressed interest in the ICC’s request to host two ICC World Cup events which are scheduled to be held in the year 2023 to 2031.
Taking all aspects into consideration and after evaluating the completion of a comprehensive study on the project’s operational aspect and its financial feasibility, the Executive Committee of Sri Lanka Cricket will decide on how to proceed with investing in this project as the sole investor.

It also should be noted that financial feasibility should assure the non-hindrance to the operational and other development projects which are currently engaged by SLC due to the commencement of the Homagama International Cricket Stadium project,” the statement said.

BY A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA

We Sri Lankan should feel fortunate to have an altruistic, utterly-patriotic. determined, and iron-willed President at a time when the whole world is gripped with the deadly Corona pandemic. When this epidemic erupted in Wuhan in China’s Hubei province and was spreading very fast to countries beyond China our futuristic visionary President took immediate action on 27th January to form an all-embracing Task Force comprising the tri-forces, the civil protection forces. The health sector establishment personnel, the Police, the officials of the strategic services, the provincial, district, regional administrators, Samurdhi, and Grama Sevaka services officials and entrusted them the joint and individual tasks that needed to be undertaken to save the people from the epidemic. 

Incidentally, on the same day 27^th January, the first Corona infected patient of this country, a 44-year-old female Chinese tourist was found and she was admitted to the IDH hospital for treatment.  The Task Force made all arrangements necessary for establishing 45 quarantine centers with proper guidance from the health service personnel, army personnel constructed several extension units to hospitals, the Police mapped out operational plans to be undertaken under Curfew and other sectors also got in readiness to undertake their tasks.   However, there was no patient-reported for the whole month of February, which gave ample time for the Task Force to get properly established. The first local patient, a tourist guide serving for Italian tourists, was reported only on 11th February.  Subsequent detections were all from people who have arrived from Iran, Italy, India, and South Korea and tourist guides who have served foreign tourists.  (Please refer to a detailed description of how potential patients were traced, quarantined, and cured outlined by the Secretary to the Ministry of Defense Major General (Rtd) Kamal Gunaratne in an interview with Derana TV – highlights of the interview translated into English follows)at the tail-end of this article.)

In the meantime, the President who was very much concerned about the people’s hardships under the curfew, established another all-embracing Task Force, headed by the former Minister of Economic Development Mr.Basil Rajapaksa to provide redress to the people. Among the functions undertaken by this Task Force included ensuring an uninterrupted and adequate supply of food, medicine, and other essential items to the people throughout the country, farmers provided with adequate fertilizer and another utensil, ensure rice, vegetables, fruits, eggs, and other farm products are purchased by government authorities for distribution at concessionary prices and for free distribution for destitute people, prevent high jacking of prices by middlemen, ensure transport of these items to all over the country, ensure the distribution of Rs. 5000 /- per month distress allowance to the needy families, to prevent hoarding, creating artificial shortages and shooting up of prices by unscrupulous traders, etc.

 The people throughout the country belonging to all walks of life, all ethnicities and all religions appreciating the efforts being taken by the government to save the people and curb the spread of the virus joined hands with the government efforts by making enormous sacrifices and foregoing many of their activities. 

Buddhists refrained from visiting temples on Bak and Wesak Full Moon Poya days to offer various poojas, observing Sil at temple premises, listening to overnight pirith and Poya Day Damma sermons at temples.  Instead, they performed all these activities including offering Aamisa and Prathipatti poojas in their houses.  There were no Pandols, Dansals, and other roadside and public places Wesak illuminations but they carried out these activities in their home gardens and decorated their houses.  There were no Wesak tour bus services and community tours to prominent temples including Sri Pada, Sri Maha Boduya and Sri Dalada Maligawa.

Sinhala and Tamil New Year celebrations faded into inhouse events. There were no crackers, no cross country races, no pillow fights, no pol pora events, no climbing of greased poles, no swimming and boat roving contests, no chariot (thirikkal) races, no coconut scraping and weaving of thatches, no breaking of pot by the blind, no placing of the eye for elephant by the blind, no search for the hidden guest, no spoon and lemon and gunny bag races, no bun eating and bursting of balloon contests, no selection of New Year Queen or Avurudu Kumarata to name a few traditional events.  Kevum, Kokis, and other food items were prepared for the consumption of family members.  There were no oil annointing functions at the village or area temples and it was done in the houses itself by the elders.  Even money transactions known has Ganu Denu were carried out among family members.

It was reported that President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa did not visit his ancestral home, Medamulana this year to celebrate New Year with his brothers, family members, relations and villagers and instead, he held several meetings in Colombo to review progress and shortcomings to Coerona arrest, food and medicine distributions, curfew control by the Police and other contingencies.  It was also reported that the President donated his salary for three months to the Virus Control Fund and a cheque amounting to Rs. 292,5000 in this respect was handed over to his private secretary P.B.Jayasundera to deposit in the Fund.          

The Christians too gave up many traditional religious observances and commemorations performed at the Churches including visiting churches for Sunday mass, observing Lent, Maundy Thursday, Goof Friday, and Easter Sunday commemorations and instead they were held at their residences. There was also no staging of crucifixion displays and pandols displaying Jesus Christ’sresurrection.

Muslims rescind from attending Friday Jumma congregational prayers and the five times a day congregational prayers at mosques and many social and community activities related to the Holy month of Ramadan and performed such activities individually in their residences.  The activities included performance of long hours congregational night prayers Tharaweeh by men and woman, performance of congregational Qiyam ul Lail prayers after midnight during the last 10 days of Ramadan and congregational pre-dawn Thajjud prayers in the mosques. There were no whole night congregational prayers and supplications on the 27^th day of Ramadan called Lailathul Qadr, the blessed night,  holding community Ifthar breakfasts, group Ifthars in mosques, group recital of Holy Quran called Hizb at mosques after Tharaweeh prayers, visiting friends houses for Tharaweeh snacks and drinking sherbeths  etc.  

Tamils too did not have any communal public functions in respect of the New Year, and refrained from holding Sivarathri poojas at kovils, and holding Ther (chariot) processions and offered all their poojas individually in their residences without going to Kovils.

Many philanthropists also came forward to offer considerable assistance to the Virus control, programme. The business tycoon Dhammika Perera placed orders worth Rs. 29 Million for the import od several ventilators, ICU facilities and many modern hospital beds.  Mr. Dulith Jayaweera, offered his 150 Roiom Citrus Hotel in Hikkaduwa with necessary modifications to use as a quarantine centre, Hemas and John Keels also offered their hotels in the Eastern province to be used as quarantine centres.  Kalutara District MP Vidura Wickremanayake and many others offered their ancestral bungalows to be used as quarantine centres. Several Apparel industries, including Brandix changed their production schedules to manufacture face masks and corona protection kits.

Several media institutions and civil service organizations made arrangements to distribute rice dry ration, vegetable, and fruit parcels to households in many areas.      

However, it is sad to note, that despite all sacrifices being made by people all over the country devoid of ethnic and religious differences, the opposition politicians in this country were the only disgraceful and loathsome ruffians in the world who politicized the virus threat and wholeheartedly aspired for its extensive escalation throughout the country in vicious anticipation of the collapse and fall of the government and did not come forward even to offer a bottle of water or a Maalupaan (fish bun) to the distressed people.  They wanted Sri Lanka to become the worst affected country in the world even surpassing the situation in their country of mentors, America and Britain. They condemned all the gallant and splendid measures being taken to combat the virus threat.

The Chinese President Xi Jinpinh who sent several plane loads of face masks, corona prevention kits, testing machines, disinfections and other equipment has telephoned the President and commended the excellent and exemplary work being carried out for combating the virus threat. He has said that China and Sri Lanka, while ensuring COVID-19 prevention and control, should gradually resume practical cooperation in various fields, advance major cooperation projects, in an orderly manner, and promote the high-quality construction of the Belt and Road initiative, and has added that such efforts would provide impetus for Sri Lanka’s economic recovery.

Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that Xi recalled that various sections of Sri Lankan society offered China active support at a critical moment in China’s fight against the coronavirus disease, with many moves particularly heart-warming and touching measures. The report stated that the Chinese President noted that under Gotabaya’s strong leadership, Sri Lanka had effectively contained the spread of the epidemic, adding that China stood ready to continue to provide firm support and as much assistance as its capacity allowed for the South Asian country in line with its needs and expressed his confidence that the people of Sri Lanka would certainly defeat the epidemic at an early date.

It said that Xi also thanked the Sri Lankan government and people for taking care of Chinese citizens in their country, during the pandemic, and said the Chinese side would continue to ensure the safety and health of Sri Lankan citizens on its soil.

The Rodiya caste pseudo Buddhist Pa.Cha.Ranawaka who has a record of joining political parties and betraying them (For instance- JVP,Sinhala Urunaya, Hela Urumaya) and now in the Shameless Jabbering Bandits (SJB) group attempting to become its deputy leader bypassing founders such Harin Fernando, Mangala Samaraweera and Rahitha Senaratne has been continuously critical of the government’s activities and making hollow gallery talks similar to his political root fellows Jeppos perhaps to get support from the politically infantile members of the Bandits group.  Statements that had been made by this Rodiya caste nincompoop include that the government figures on Corona Virus incorrect, Only President’s prime Minister’s family members and staff are being thoroughly checked about virus infection, government deliberately subjecting security forces to become virus infected victims.   Another statement made by this nincompoop was that the President had been an American citizen at the time of his election and he should be forced to vacate the posy.  He got a thundering slap for this statement from the American Ambassador Aliana B, Teplitz.  She said that as per their records Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa relinquished his American citizenship from April 2019.

The imbecile ignoramus self assumed leader of the Shameless Jabbering Bandits (SJB) Sajith Premadasa has suggested that the government should suspend holding elections and that expense should be used to pay the salaries of the servants. The firmer Minister of Finince Mr, Ravi Karunanayake criticizing this statement which has exposed Sajith Premadasa’s lacuna of economics has skinned him saying that several times of the amount required for holding the election is required to pay public servants salary.  He has hinted that it is better for Sajith Premadasa to refrain from talking about unknown economics.

The other morons who are worried about the success being achieved by the government are the despicable Jeppos.  Belimal Ratnayake who had been alleged to have functioned as a Gonibilla in 89-90 period and betrayed innocent JVP supporters has said the Corona in African countries is less than in Sri Lanka exposing his dimwit nature as it is only now the corona virus has entered the African continent.  In another statement this blockhead has said that some mercenaries who are being paid by the Rajapaksas were criticizing the JVP since they are he says a significant force.  On top of this his leader Mr. 3% has accused that the President was not respecting the constitution and the country is now in a lawless status.   

Reopening the country from 11^th May by confining curfew only to Colombo and Gampaha districts was a great success.   The CGR and the SLTB played significant roles in this measure.  10 office trains carrying public and private sector staff arrived from Beliatte , Kandy and other destinations and there were adequate SLTB bses to take them to their offices and work places.  In the evening they were taken back to their homes by return services.  All measures had been taken to disinfect the offices and work places by 10^th May and provide safety measures at work places.  Only wayside shops remained closed in these two districts but that too are expected to be opened in this gradual process of reopening the country. The CGR has also announced normal train services to be commenced from 18^th may.

Meanwhile, the State Airlines, the Sri Lankan Airlines played a significant role by bringing back stranded Sri Lankan students and public servants who were on training in foreign countries.  All those who were brought in this manner wer subjected to disinfection and then ferried to quarantine to undergo a minimum 14 days quarantine period.  The airline has announced that its normal services will start from the 18^th May. 

It was sad to note that a meeting convened by the Prime Minister to enlighten the former parliamentarians by the health service and security personnel on the measures being taken to combat the virus threat, keep them advised about the current situation and obtain their views and views and suggestions was boycotted by the former parliamentarians of the opposition except by members of the TNA. After the meeting the Prime Minister told the media that the boycott of the meeting by the opposition displayed their utter disregard for the welfare and protection of the people of this country.   

The Educational, Health and Security sectors are reported to be cautiously reviewing on the possibility of reopening Universities and schools as they are very much concerned about the vulnerability of students to the virus in a situation of difficulties to maintain minimum distance requirements and other essential virus prevention requirements. They are also reported to be planning to open this sector taking into considerations the guidelines that had been issued by the WHO.

Meanwhile, all arrangements have been made to commemorate the 11^th Victory Day (on 19^th May), celebration of which had been suspended since 2015 by the terrorist servile and TNA obsessed Sirisena/Ranil government The function will be held under the leadership of President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.   Over 1,000 persommel belonging to all units of the security forces are to be promoted on this day.  

Major General (Rtd) Kamal Gubaratne participating in the Derana 360 peogramme, interviewed by veteran TV journalist Dilka Samanmalie said that when you have a determined leadership to support, when you have the right dedicated personnel and when you plan it properly there can be nothing that can prevent you from achieving your objectives.  He said that when the deadly corona virus erupted in Wuhan in the Hubei province of China and was fast spreading all over and beyond China and killing people the President took a bold decision on 27^th January that we should make all efforts to defeat the virus and prevent the people of our country falling prey to it. Accordingly, he formed a Task Force integrating the tri-forces, the health sector personnel, the Police, the intelligence service units, the civil defense force, officials of the strategic service departments, provincial, district and regional departments and samurdhi service and grama seva department officials. 

Incidentally, the first corona infected person from our country was reported on 28^th January that was a 44 year Chinese female tourist who was admitted to the IDH Hospital.  For the whole of February no virus infected person was reported on 8^th February and by that time we were in full readiness on how to tackle the situation, on the mechanism to be undertaken, roles to be played by the health service personnel, the intelligence services and each and other allied services. We were fully prepared. Then there were increase and decrease in the number of infected persons. 

He said that they have full confidence that unlike America, United Kingdom. France, Italy, Spain where thousands of people have died despite being the powerful, rich, resourceful countries in the world.  The reason for that those countries completely entrusted the task of curbing the spread of the virus.  That was the difference between the measures adopted by them and the measures being undertaken by us. The Defense Secretary explained that it was a race between the virus and us.  The virus was running fast but their forces ran faster ahead of the virus and took measures to curb it.  This was done by intelligence gathered and identified on the potential areas of virus attacks and taking action to combat it.  That was why, he said, that when all the powerful countries were genuflecting before the virus, we proudly stood straight and firm.  It was possible because we as in developed countries did not palm it out only to the health sector and said that the PHIs, MOHs and Nurses too rendered an enormous contribution. 

Major General Gunaratne said that the first local patient was reported on March 8^th and today being May4th there had been only 7 corona virus deaths and the 8^th death reported on that had been due to renal disease.  He said that this splendid achievement was possible due to form leadership and guidance being given to them.  He pointed out that there were many criticisms from some politicians that we are putting patients in danger as we do not have sufficient ICU facilities,   He said that upto now only one patient has been treated in  the ICU. Countering an allegation that had been made by former MP Patali Champika Ranawaka that the country is being militarized under the guise of Corona eradication, the Major General regretfully said it is sad to find some people expect the people of our country expect the security forces to leave the citizens of this country die on roads like cats and dogs. 

Explaining about the spread of the virus the Major General said that a priest from Switzerland had cisited Jaffna and had   held prayer sessions for which many people have participated.  The person who served acplyte of this got with the virus and upon making enquiries it was found that the said priest has died from Corona upon returning to Switzerland.  Then the intelligence officers with great difficulty found more than 250 persons who have attended prayer sessions.  All those 250 people were sent to quarantine centres and out of them 16 were identified as virus infected patients.  He said that Jaffna is an area with high density of population and if they did not manage to identify and treat those 16 persons it would have been a great calamity in Jaffna.  Explaining further he said that on 19^th may 2009 at 19.39 a.m. they put an end to terrorism in this country.  After that the political leaders in Jaffna said that there is no war there and the army should be withdrawn.  Even today these political leaders are making this demand in foreign countries. He said that none of those 16 affected persons volunteered to identify themselves and if the intelligence officers did not make a large number of people in Jaffna would have perished by now. 

Explaining about the modus operandi undertaken to trace the affected patients her said that when they come across a patient he said that the intelligence service personnel (ISP) enquire about people he/she had associated recently, he/she had visited recently and then they check his telephone records to ascertain hos/her vosots etc.  He said that some provide accurate information but some others do not do so.  For some people from Colonbo may say that he/she went to Kurunegala whereas he/she had actually gone to Hambantota.  It was facong such difficulties, he said, that the ISPs traced the people.   Giving statistics pertaining to patients in hospitals and those who have left for homes, he said that almost 50% have been cured and left for homes.   He asked in which country that 50% had been cured and left for hones other than in Sri Lanka.

Commenting on lockdown of villages, the Defense Secretary said that when there was suspicion of lsrge number of people in certain areas could get affected such areas were locked down and sometimes all of them in that village was brought under self quarantine under the observation of PHIs and Police officers and people were not allowed to go out from or come into that area. He said that in certain instances the potential threatened miber of people were high all the people in the village, or in a street or on a certain floor of a flat were takren to quarantine centres for a ,minimum period of 14 days quarantine and after that they are brought back to their residences with advise to undergo a further 14 days of self quarantine at their residenes, and some people who have not followed these rules strictly have got attacked again.

Explaining about large number of Navy personnel getting affected by the Virus, Mr/ Gunaratne said that a youngster in Suduwella, Ja Ela area was apprehended by the police for possessing drugs and then he was found to be infected with Corona virus and he has associated a large number of drug addict persons.  Many of them were found to be virus infected and when it was requested for them to go to quarantine centres they refused and became violent.  It was he at this time requested Navy personnel in the Welisara camp to go to Suduwella and make arrangements to take them for quarantine even by force if it becomes necessary. Only some of them in them in the camp had face masks, gloves and virus prevention kits.  Others despite lack of protection attire did not refuse to go there voluntarily regardless of potential they would encounter.  That was how they became infected.  He said that most of them were not critically affected and they are getting cured and returning to their camp safely.  Explaining further he said that in the camps of the security forces they have closely laid camp beds one above the other, a common mess for consuming meals, and common toilets.  That was also one factor that made them vulnerable. However he said if the Navy personnel had refused to go to Suduwella without protection gear by now the virus could have invaded Wattala, Mabola, Kandama. Ekala and many other areas in the Gampaha district.

Responding to a question about the reopening of the country from 11^th May, the Defense Secretary said that the President does not take unilateral decisions on nationally important issues and this decision for gradual re-opening of the country from 11^th May onwards had been taken after extensive review of the situation and in consultation with all parties involved in the current operation.

Referring to the allegations being made against our se4curity forces as communal, the Defence Secretary said that it was the security which combed all over Jaffna and identified over 250 people who could have become virus victims and took all steps necessary to quarantine and cure them without just leaving them that they are  Tamils and let anything to them.  He said a female PHI in Jaffna telephoned him and personally requested to continue with the curfew in Jaffna said that she wants to get her peopled.  Her said that on 19^th 2009 the war was ended for all people of this country. Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, Malay and Burgher from Point Pedro to Point of Dondra to live  as one nation as Sri Lankans devoid of ethnic, religious and other differences.  

Dr. Chula Rajapakse MNZM Spokesperson USLA.

https://www.facebook.com/srilankans.nz

Thank you for affording me the privilege of being able to reinforce for the 11th  consecutive year, our deep debt of gratitude to the Ranaviru for having liberated Sri Lanka from three decades of Tiger terror and even more for the life and limb that some lost in the process.

Sadly for five years from 2015, the sanctity , might and majesty of these achievements and sacrifices had been tarnished by an UNHCR resolution that implied acceptance of the baseless allegation initiated by the Tiger Diaspora that this liberation was achieved at a cost of an unacceptably high loss of civilian lives , anything from 40 to 100 thousand despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. This they claimed tantamounted to war crimes and demanded international investigation.

However, the greatest scandal  was that this resolution was co-sponsored in 2015 by Sri Lanka’s very own government of the day . This cloud hung over the achievements and sacrifices of the Ranaviru  for five years, despite the mounting evidence exposing the fallacy of the premise of this resolution. This evidence included the UN resident representative in Colombo in May 2009 at the end of the war, estimating a casualty figure of around six to seven thousand. This figure has since been corroborated by the Tamil University Teacher’s census, the Paranagama Commission’s findings & Wikileaks revealed cables from  both US & UK embassies in Colombo. In 2017 , Lord Naseby tabled many of the originals of these documents in the House of Lords in London after a hard fought battle with authorities to access them.Besides no traces have been found of graves of the claimed 40 to 100 thousand killed or the two to thee times more that should have been injured, the well established ratio of injured vs killed in warfare.

Despite these , the administration that cosponsored this scandalous resolution continued to annually reaffirm it  at the UNHCR  sessions in Geneva each March.

Thankfully, at these very same sessions  in March 2020, the newly elected administration of President Gotabaya Rajapakse, himself a Ranaviru who ensured the coordination of the tri forces war effort, that played a pivotal role in Sri Lanka’s liberation from Tiger Terror, forthwith withdrew sponsorship of this resolution , so putting to an end a most shameful phase in Sri Lanka’s over two thousand five hundred year proud history.

This was despite considerable pressure being brought on him not to do so particularly by the US, the other cosponsor of this resolution and the UK, both of whom were probably  driven by political expediency. However, leaders of both of these countries have stated publicly that they will never allow their soldiers to be hauled before war crimes tribunals, despite much more strong  evidence of these in Afganistan and Iraq respectively . One rule for them and another for little Sri Lanka!

That President Gotabaya withstood these pressures and did what he did will go down as another Golden Moment in  Sri Lanka’s history, like the moment when his brother President Mahinda withstood similar pressure from the foreign ministers of UK and France who had travelled to Sri Lanka in April 2009, to force him to withdraw the Ranaviru war effort, reminding them that Sri Lanka was no longer their colony”.     

With the glory and sanctity of the Ranaviru achievements and sacrifices now restored, we can once again pay homage to these with dignity , reminding our selves that it is because of these achievements and sacrifices that:

·      People of all ethnicitie, Tamils Sinhalese, Muslims & Burghers  can now live in Sri Lanka in peace and travel to and around Sri Lanka  without fear of a Tiger attack destroying or maiming them

·      That Mothers and Fathers and families of all ethnicities in SL can travel together in the same bus or train without the fear of  them all being wiped out by one bomb.

·      That children of all ethnicities can go to school without similar fears 

·      That SL was able to replace their pot whole ridden road network with well surfaced roads and expressways without fear of being destroyed by Tiger bombs

·      That SL  has been able to build new ports, airports, a port city in Colombo without fear of Tiger generated destruction.

·      That SL was able to beautify Colombo and make it a worthy travel destination 

·      That SL has been able to provide electricity to every corner of SL, an unparalleled achievement in South Asia

·      That the per capita income doubled and trebled in the first five years post liberation , though stagnant since 2015,

·      That SL was named the top travel destination, twice by lonely planet and once by CNN

It is for all of these and many other reasons that we reaffirm our gratitude to the Ranaviru ,   the unsung heroes and unnamed privates and corprals coming from heart land Sri lanka , whose mothers , fathers brothers, sisters, and even children released their young men to go to war to liberate SL, & even more to the 25000 that never returned home and even many more that were left maimed

We shall remember them.

The many decorated Generals and other ranked security forces leaders who planned and led the campaigns,

We shall remember them.

The many war administrators and political leaders who gave leadership and support to the war effort,

We shall remember them.

The many civilian victims of Tiger carnage , drawn from all communities, Tamil, Sinhalese, Muslims and Burghers

We shall remember them.

The many great and successful campaigns of the war , the not so successful campaigns of the war,  to the final campaign of liberation on the lagoons and shores of Nandikadal,

We shall remember them

The flame of gratitude and remembrance will never cease.

May the blessings of the Triple Gem protect the Ranaviru and  us all.

Dr.Chula Rajapakse MZM

Spokesperson

USLA

19.5.20

RANJITH SOYSA

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

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

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

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

RANJITH SOYSA

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම, LL.B., Ph.D.

රාජා භවතු ධම්මිකෝ මතක්‌වීම

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

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

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

රාජා ධම්මිකෝ පාර

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

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

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

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

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

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

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