Post-War Sri Lanka: Fractured and unjust for Tamils’ is the article appearing on TheDiplomat by Visvajit Sriramrajan on 15 May 2020. The article is replete in conjecture, abound in unsubstantiated allegations and completely distorting the situation in Sri Lanka. We presume readers who have little or no background knowledge of Sri Lanka will be misled by such propaganda//disinformation and wish to correct the distortions allowing people to question these lies with counter arguments and balanced reasoning.

Questions posed to Visvajit Sriramrajan

·     You speak of a Mullaivaikkal massacre of nearly 50,000 Tamils – while all LTTE were Tamils, all Tamils were not LTTE so we would like to ask you, whether you are referring to the massacre of LTTE or civilians? If civilians, provide data of names of the dead or at least a police complaint by their families. If LTTE, they were given 3 chances to lay down arms and surrender but they rejected and declared they would fight till their last man. In an armed conflict, the two parties battled it out and one side lost and the other side won. 

·     You say the Tamils are discriminated – please provide examples where legislatively and constitutionally Tamils are discriminated where legislatively and constitutionally the majority is not. Give examples where only Tamils exclusively are discriminated because they are Tamils 

·     You say that Tamils have been subjugated because of Gotabaya Rajapakse coming to power – he has been in power not even 6 months. Can you please cite where and how Tamils have been subjugated? Let us know so we can look into this

·     You say Rajapakse’s ‘orchestrated the Tamil genocide’ – wow, you are using genocide term which has a major connotation. Can you then explain how Tamil population is increasing if there is supposed to be ‘genocide’ of Tamils! This is really a strange scenario to understand. 

·     You say there is ‘high level of militarization’ in the North & East – can you please provide some previous articles of yours complaining about LTTE running a defacto state in the very areas you now claim are being militarized? Did you have no issue with LTTE ruling the areas with their guns?

·     You are making major statements and we hope that you can substantiate these with facts and evidence sans sensationalism. 

·     You say Tamils are reprimanded for commemorating their deceased – correction. Tamils are prohibited from commemorating LTTE because LTTE is banned – would US allow open commemoration of Bin Laden? Besides didn’t LTTE prohibit Tamil mothers commemorating Tamil militant group members that LTTE killed? Wasn’t Mahaveer Naal only for LTTE war heroes and not to commemorate members of other Tamil militant groups that LTTE killed? Hope you can provide a response to this. LTTE remains banned in Sri Lanka, India, US, UK, EU and 32 countries still.

·     You mentioned ‘enforced disappearances’ – now isn’t it strange that the Presidential Commission on Missing Persons has received only 23,586 complaints of missing covering period from 1983 and out of this 23,586 missing 5000 are missing soldiers … so now where is your hundreds and thousands of missing??? Surely, if they were missing their names should have been logged.

·     The crocodile story of Tamils being bed to the crocodiles another classic case of imagination going wild – you should seriously think twice about listening to that former minister who apparently had hired 2 convicts to disguise themselves and appear on tv and were paid to lie. There’s an ongoing court case against them now! Pl follow that and by the way can you also tell us where these 2 paid convicts said that Tamils were fed to crocodiles – we cannot remember these 2 stating that…. Hope you include this in your next article. 

·      You say Sri Lanka has not been tried for ‘heinous war crimes’ can you first give evidence of crimes – its been 11 years now and you people drum war crimes but produce some names of the supposed to be 40,000 dead (give a list of their names – then we can check if they were born even) you can even say 1million killed by it means nothing if there are no evidence of dead with at least a dead body. But the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission did declare 22,247 LTTE dead (now you cannot put this number as civilian) 

·      You seriously have to get your facts straight – Easter Sunday mass murder resulted in over 300 innocent people getting killed. It was a Christian/Catholic event – why should Sinhala Buddhists go attacking anyone for murders taking place inside churches and hotels?

·      You mention the burning of the Jaffna Library in 1981 – well the UNP leader apologized for it as it was done by UNP thugs but Tamils have no problem in voting for UNP and continue to do so. So much for the anger for burning the library. The LTTE attacked the sacred Sri Maha Bodhi killing 146 worshipping Buddhists in 1986. LTTE also attacked Kattankudy mosque in 1990 killing 147 Muslims praying. LTTE also attacked the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy in 1998.

·      You speak of vandalism and property demolition – have you taken stock of how many Tamil houses the LTTE took over from Tamils who did not support LTTE? Did you also do up a list of Tamils killed by LTTE starting from 1975 with the assassination of Jaffna Mayor Alfred Duraiappah. How about the assassination of Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, by LTTE – he was also a Tamil! You appear to suffer selective memory! We can provide you a very long list of Tamils killed by LTTE but this excludes the LTTE and other Tamil militant groups killed by LTTE for defying orders — on top of that list would be Mahaththaya who was LTTE deputy leader, killed by Prabakaran after much torture! 

·      Given that you are clueless about the ancient heritage and archaeological Buddhist sites in the North and East of Sri Lanka, this would require another essay to provide all details. Simply parroting what propagandists say does not help at all. What needs to be added is that no one is looking down on Tamil culture in fact there are plenty of Sinhalese who respect the Hindu gods & take part in Hindu events.

·      Sorry to correct you again – Sri Lanka’s conflict was no civil war – it was a terrorist conflict proved by the fact that LTTE killed scores of Tamils including foreigners.

·      A fact that none many wishes to acknowledge is that after LTTE defeat when Tamils discovered Prabakaran’s parents in their 80s were about to be attacked and the Sri Lankan Army had to remove them to safety – when they died later none of Prabakarans children or anyone in the LTTE attended the funeral. This was how they treated the parents of Prabakaran! The State looked after and fed them till they died.

·      Good that you raised the question of funds. As per Janes Intelligence LTTE was making $300m annual profits as far back as 2004 – how many roads, schools, libraries, parks did LTTE build? We can show you that LTTE built plenty of bunkers but did not even provide electricity to people of the Vanni who got electricity for the first time after almost 25 years with the end of the conflict. 

·      You should really look at how North looked under LTTE that ruled it since 1980s and what North looks like now after the defeat of LTTE – its an amazing place, so beautiful and blooming. The farmers are growing vegetables and fruits and people are getting on with their lives. Only people like you are feeding lies and crocodile jokes!

·      The extent of your lies is unbelievable. Citing isolated cases and creating lies. We too can make a fuss about paid advertisement by Tamils saying only Tamils to respond for renting/lease of houses! How discriminatory is that. This too was removed after raising complaint.

·      There was no such act called Sinhala Only Act. The Official Language Act of 1956 which was to come into effect only in 1964. It was to address the historical grievances of the Sinhalese and had nothing to do with Tamils. Besides can you prove that Tamil language had official status administratively under colonial rule from 1505 onwards? Only then can you claim a grievance to Tamil language. Sinhalese was used prior to that as state language and that got changed after colonial take over. This was what was being addressed in 1956.

·      You speak of Tamils as inferior —- thank you for the opportunity to highlight to the readers how the same PM in 1957 brought the Social Disabilities Act enabling low caste Tamils to gain education. What did the elite and high class/caste Tamil leaders do – they travelled all the way to London by ship to beg the British to disallow the act. So who didn’t want their own people to gain education? The Tamils. Please read about this and find out the truth for yourselves. These same Tamil leaders even begged the British to encode caste into the electoral system. They wanted their own people to remain low caste, poor and uneducated. Today, they have the audacity to refer to the Sinhalese as discriminating them. This is so because they want to hide what they did and continue to do to their own people via the caste system. 

·      You speak of Tamils receiving government letters in Sinhalese – well hello, we too have received letters in Tamil… but we don’t go complaining to the world for administrative hiccups

·      We would really love to accept your Mullaivaikkal massacre fairytale if it comes with some sort of believable evidence – like the names of the supposed to be dead. Let’s see that happening first. Without proof of dead bodies, no dead persons names, no skeletons — just wailing ‘massacre’ ‘genocide’ are people so stupid to believe. Any rational thinking person’s automatically want to have facts and statistics and evidence. The mystery to us is why you people are not providing this.

The editors of TheDiplomat, we hope your media ethics include asking the fundamental question – how believable are these stories. Why not ask yourself, if genocide is supposed to have been committed, there must be a major reduction in Tamil population. Just check the statistics. There is no such reduction. How fair is it to provide podium for lies? 

The crocodile story really takes the cake! But this is no laughing matter. No entities can be allowed to drum lies and ridicule a country and denigrate its armed forces. LTTE killed Sinhalese, Muslims, Tamils and even Foreigners. We can provide long lists of the LTTE killings and the LTTE attacks on public property. 

How come this author has not touched on the freedom that Sri Lanka provided to the Tamil children who were kidnapped by LTTE from their parents and turned into brutal murderers. These children were denied their fundamental rights to education and to obtain the love of their parents. Their entire youth and childhood was robbed by LTTE. 

On 18 May 2009 with LTTE’s defeat, the Tamil children were saved from becoming child soldiers. Their parents did not have to fear their children would get kidnapped. They didn’t have to hide them in underground bunkers inside their homes. This itself was a major victory for Tamils. No one has yet counted how many Tamil children LTTE killed by turning them into child soldiers. No one in Tamil Diaspora are speaking for these LTTE child soldiers because they were plucked from poor and low caste homes and their parents were too poor and too afraid to complain against the LTTE. They cried their loss of loved one’s alone. But today, the 594 child soldiers that surrendered in May 2009 to the Army were given a presidential pardon and returned to school. They held a pen instead of a gun and they were guided to find their paths in life. They have become artists, farmers, singers and actors. Gokulan is the singing sensation that all Sri Lankans love – he was a former child soldier. He lost his 2 brothers to LTTE and his sister was also recruited by LTTE during the last stages but thankfully she survived and has returned to her family. 

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

We can provide enough of happy stories for readers than the jokes of crocodile lies by this author.

https://thediplomat.com/2020/05/post-war-sri-lanka-fractured-and-unjust-for-tamils/

Shenali D Waduge

H. L. D. Mahindapala

May 14, 1976 is one of the most underreported, underestimated, underexamined dates in the political calendar of independent Sri Lanka. It was the date on which the Tamil leadership which had gathered in Vadukoddai passed a resolution declaring war against the democratically elected state demanding a separate state. Stitching bits and pieces of selected events from here and there, they painted their version of history which consisted of highly controversial accusations to demonise the Sinhala-state” – their terminology to stigmatise the democratically elected state as a racist entity with no space for the minorities, particularly the Tamils. So shedding copious tears for the Tamils, the Vadukoddai Declaration of War urged the Tamil youth to take up arms and never rest until they had achieved Tamil Eelam – a political haven of the Tamils, by the Tamils for the Tamils.

The call to take up arms was declared in the last two paragraphs of the Vadukoddai Resolution. It said: This Convention directs the Action Committee of the TAMIL UNITED LIBERATION FRONT to formulate a plan of action and launch without undue delay the struggle for winning the sovereignty and freedom of the Tamil Nation;

And this Convention calls upon the Tamil Nation in general and the Tamil youth in particular to come forward to throw themselves fully into the sacred fight for freedom and to flinch not till the goal of a sovereign state of TAMIL EELAM is reached.”

In these two concluding paragraphs the Tamil leadership assembled at Vadukoddai called upon the Action Committee  to formulate a plan of action” for the Tamil youth in particular to take up arms, abandoning their pretensions of being a non-violent movement. And from 1976 onwards both the Tamil elders and the Tamils youth followed the declared objective of winning the sovereignty and freedom of the Tamil Nation” through violence. It was a clear and decisive declaration to pursue a military course of action to achieve political goals This was the primary message delivered by the Tamil leadership to the Tamil people. It was the fateful day on which the Tamil leadership made their biggest political gamble by deciding to abandon the non-violent, democratic mainstream and go down the path of violence. They decided to change the course of history – and their destiny — with violence. They invested everything they had in pursuing violence and failed. Failed miserably!

Throughout the post-independent decades, the ageing Tamil leadership had pushed Tamil communalism to the extreme end and by May 14, 1976 the force of events generated by them had cornered them. They discovered rather late that the consistent, unrelenting and massive political campaigns they had whipped up, blaming everything on the Sinhala state” in the post-independent phase, had not gone in the direction they had wanted. Their aim was to divide Sri Lanka into two states – a task which they set out achieve with the typical Tamil arrogance boosted by historical distortions, political fictions, and anti-Sinhala-Buddhist venom. They had raised the hopes of the Jaffnaites overestimating their peninsular power and underestimating the consolidated historical forces that had created, built and sustained the nation over the ages.

By 1976 the false expectations they generated had risen to fever pitch and the internal forces – mainly, the Tamil youth — that rose with the high expectations had gone as far as they could and reached the end of their political tether. The Tamil youth were impatient and rebelling against the conservative and failed Tamil leadership demanding a change of course. The internal dynamics within the peninsula had gathered a momentum which demanded instant solutions. Eelam remained in the Never-Never land, elusive as ever. The hate politics of mono-ethnic Tamil extremism, targeting the Sinhala-Buddhists of the South, had gone too far to a point of no return, leaving no room for peaceful co-existence. Any moves for compromises were decried by one or the other Tamil party as surrender to the Sinhalese. Following Jinnah’s partioning of India the Tamil leadership declared that the marriage of partnership was over. They were determined to go for divorce which in their desperate circumstances seems to be the only way out.

In the Vadukoddai Resolution the Tamil leadership was throwing not a challenge but an ultimatum to the Sinhala state”. Pumped up by their mono-ethnic rhetoric, wrapped in mythologies, they were hoping to force their way into Eelam. The plan of the Tamil elders was to make use of the Tamil youth to pull their political chestnuts out.  In the process, they had painted themselves into a mono-ethnic extremity from which they could not get out except through violence. They were determined to dissolve the marriage made by the gods of geography and history. All what they needed was a public declaration justifying the hate politics of the North for them to declare war. The Vadukoddai Resolution was introduced to spell out the reasons why they refused to coexist. Demanding disproportionate shares of positions (particularly in the government service), power in the legislatures, privileges enshrined in the various constitutions and, most of all, territories as ethnic enclaves they had pushed themselves into a self-destructive political extremity. It led them to mono-ethnic politics, excluding the other”.  With this agenda they had nowhere else to go except to embrace violence.  This confirms the proposition that separatism and violence are inseparable.

It was amidst these overwhelming pressures that the Tamil leadership met in Vadukoddai and gave the official nod for the Tamil youth to take up arms against the elected state of Sri Lanka, hoping to ride on their backs to the seats of power in Eelam. The old Tamil leadership did not realise at this stage that they were handing over their traditional power, which they had wielded from feudal times, into the hands of the untried, untested and inexperienced Tamil youth. The immature Tamil youth who took over were armed with the Vadukoddai Resolution that legitimised their violence. Fired up by the Vadukoddai ideology they came out of their cells like bulls in a china shop. They literally went berserk believing that they had the Vadukoddai license to kill everything that crossed their path, including their political fathers.

In the meantime, the ageing Tamil leaders and the Tamil youth continued to maintain their two-pronged attack on the South. Needling the lower-level ethnic leadership of the South was a deliberate and chosen tactic of the Northern provocative politics, wrote Prof. A. J. Wilson, son-in-law of S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, father of Tamil separatism. The joint front of the Tamil elders and the youth were heading towards violence. Clearly, 1976” was segueing, slowly but surely, into 1983”. The explosion of 1983 did not come out of a misguided government turning a blind eye. It was the cumulative reaction to the collective violence unleashed in the Vadukoddai Resolution. No doubt, the aggressive reaction of the lunatic fringe in the South, provoked by the hate politics of Jaffna jingoism, too had aggravated the worsening inter-ethnic relations with reactive mob-violence breaking out sporadically. But the ultimatum issued in the Vadukoddai Resolution, and the provocative violence targeting the Sinhala state” that followed, were heating up communal tensions. Sinhala CTB bus drivers were returning to Colombo from Jaffna complaining that the Tamil shops were refusing to serve even a glass of water. By 1983 the two communities had drawn as far apart as they could. The last straw that broke the back of the Sinhala camel was the killing of the 13 soldiers.

Looking back, it is obvious that 1983” was the Southern reply to the arrogant politics of 1976” and the subsequent increase of violence of the Tamil youth threatening the sovereignty of the nation – the only place available to the Sinhalese in this lonely planet. At least nominally, the Tamil and Muslim communities had other historical havens to which they could withdraw in case the worst came to the worst. The Sinhalese had only Sri Lanka. It was the only base they built exclusively for themselves. Generations of Sinhalese sacrificed their lives to make it their safe haven. They had a historical right to claim it their own. It was not narrow racism / chauvinism. It was their legitimate, historical and natural right. The Vadukoddai Resolution posed a threat to their security and history and their defensive reaction was predictable.

The debate on the whys and the wherefores of 1983”, of course, is not going to end in a hurry. Taken out of its context and viewed as an anti-Tamil outburst of a society gone mad, the Tamils made 1983” the ultimate proof of their need for a divorce. But if it is placed in the context of consequences flowing from the ideological and political violence unleashed in the politics of 1976” and after, it is logical to conclude that 1983” was an inevitable outcome of the preceding Tamil aggressive and provocative politics. They asked for and they got it, was the general reaction of the Sinhalese. The sequence of events that flowed from 1976” ran incrementally, step by step, one leading to another, until escalating violence reached its explosive peak in 1983”.

Provocative rhetoric and actions of the North unravelled slowly but surely into 1983”. The explosion of 1983 was the counter-violence to end Tamil expansionism and aggressive power grab threatening the territorial integrity and the historical heritage left behind by the Founding Fathers of the nation. The ideological and emotional ambience for an ethnic explosion was prepared and fertilized by the Tamil leadership. The Tamil have always been quite clever in digging their own grave. The other two minorities escaped the horrors of a 33-year-old war because their leadership was wise enough not to hand over their grip on power to the misguided youth. It is the restoration of power to the non-violent stream of Tamil politics by the Rajapakse brothers that has introduced a new normalcy which, hopefully, will grow into a new nation.

Sinhala violence has invariably been reactive, responding to provocative political violence of the minorities. And 1983” is no exception. Besides, no responsible Sinhala leader, no respected or established Sinhala community organisation, nor the Sinhala state” had officially declared war against another community, despite the provocative violence they had faced. Like any other state it had reacted defensively to restore peace, and protect territorial integrity and sovereignty. It has never declared a war to impose its supremacy over the other communities.

The live-and-let-live policy of the Sinhala majority did not go beyond sporadic violence of the fringe freaks against the provocative acts of the minorities. Without condoning any kind of violence, it is clear that those explosions were like the fizz of the soda bottle. Sinhala violence has always gone down almost instantly, soon after its explosion, returning the nation to peaceful co-existence. Only the Tamil leadership decided to declare war against the Sinhala state” at Vadukoddai, creating the longest period of brutal violence. Their politics of hate leaves no room for peaceful co-existence. Vadukoddai Resolution was a recipe for separatist violence and chaos. But it was a wave of tsunamic violence that came from the volcanic sifting of the territorial plates in Vadukoddai and nowhere else.

I repeat, separatism and violence are inseparable. It is the kind of politics that can breed only hatred and not reconciliation.

To be continued

Kanthar Balanathan
Former Specialist Engineer Power & Control NRG-GPS.

Dr Hugh McDermott MP
PO Box 2518
SMITHFIELD NSW 2164

Hon Dr. Hugh McDermott MP,

Diagnosis of Genocide Account on Sri Lankan Affairs

With due respect to you Dr Hugh McDermott, as a true Australian citizen of this great country that practice ideal democracy, and having the statesman Hon Mr Scott Morrison as the Prime Minister and Hon Berejiklian, Gladys MP as the Premier of an assiduous state of NSW, and Hon Anthony Albanese as the Leader of Opposition, where people live in peace and happiness I seek to write to you Dr Hugh McDermott, regarding your speech on the SriLankan affairs.

I am of a SriLankan origin and a Tamil, able to speak fluently, English, Tamil & Sinhalese. I have lived and worked in the UK, SriLanka, Nigeria, India (short) Rhodesia-Zimbabwe, New Zealand, and Australia till to date and have an eclectic understanding of the cultures, ideology, and customary practices of the people in the above countries. I comprehend that Australia is the best country to work, live and retire. People in Australia live cohesively and that’s what our Aston MP and the Federal Minister advocates, which is quite fair. I contend that as a citizen we shall not get involved in partisan politics. Please forgive me for stating this. To me, all are equal although I am not a politician Dr Hugh McDermott.

I am sending two of my books published by separate post which may highlight the genuine authentic facts that prevailed in SriLanka. (i) SriLanka, Sovereignty, Democracy & Terrorism, (ii) Communication & Essays in Politics. These are by Engr. Kanthar Balanathan

I give below the text of your speech on Facebook. Quote ref: https://www.facebook.com/hugh2019/videos/253961789156113/

Hugh McDermott MP: State Member for Prospect

18 May at 03:01 · 

Today, May 18th is the 11th anniversary of the Mullivaykal Massacre. Part of the Genocide that targeted the Tamil Community in Sri Lanka and resulted in the deaths of 160,000 innocent, unarmed men, women and children. Many were murdered because of their culture, faith, language and traditions.

The Sri Lankan Government must acknowledge and accept responsibility for this Genocide. The international community must deliver justice to the families of the victims.

Although we cannot commemorate this genocide in person I would like to thank the Australian Tamil Congress for their unwavering fight to bring justice to the victims and their families so to ensure that this genocide will never be forgotten. I stand with you and remember.

Dr Hugh McDermott, with your permission I would like to discuss the responsibility of a State MP, please. To my understanding the responsibility of an MP is as follows:

https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/members/pages/members-ethics.aspx

In their electorate, MPs:
• receive requests for assistance and information from local people (for example, housing, transport, environment, taxes, etc.). They try to solve these problems or refer them to Ministers or other authorities;
• meet with local organisations, businesses, media and government departments and find out their needs;
• make representations to Ministers on behalf of local organisations and individuals;
• support provision of local services and facilities from government funds;
• be involved in local functions and meetings, and support local organisations and events;
• attend party branch/local supporters meetings.

In Parliament, all Members:
• form part of Government, Opposition or Independents (or ‘Cross Bench’);
• attend sittings of Parliament;
• consider proposed legislation (they may also propose Private Members’ Bills);
• participate in debating and voting;
• participate in Parliamentary committees;
• network with other Members, media, community groups;
• raise issues in Parliament on behalf of constituents through such means as:
– questions during Question Time
– making Private Members’ statements
– presenting petitions;
• may have additional responsibilities such as a Minister or holder of parliamentary or party office (for example Speaker, Whip);
• participate in party meetings, party organisation and decision-making.

Any matter that focuses on foreign affairs is to be addressed by the Foreign Minister particularly in the case of ethnic differential and fragmented living by the groups in an overseas country. As far as Sri Lanka is concerned, the current Executive President thinks and acts that all shall be Sri Lankan and equal. I apologise for not being able to know under which of the above role you made a statement of a genocide, please. Please forgive me for highlighting this matter. As citizens, we would like to educate ourselves. I am citing two of my letters written to the Deputy Labour party leader and the Greens leader.

https://nrnmind.blogspot.com/search?q=letter+to+tanya+

https://nrnmind.blogspot.com/search?q=christine+milne

I would like to educate myself as to what is considered genocide: Maybe the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular nation or ethnic group.

Quote ref: https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/learn-about-genocide-and-other-mass-atrocities/what-is-genocide

Killing members of the group Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group

Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part

Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group

Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

The word genocide” did not exist before 1944. It is a very specific term coined by a Polish-Jewish lawyer named Raphael Lemkin (1900–1959) who sought to describe Nazi policies of systematic murder during the Holocaust, including the destruction of European Jews. 

It is not clear as to why some country politicians always refer to the 2009 affair as Genocide”. It believes that the 2009 affair was a war on terror” and not genocide. It may be that some countries want SriLanka to be subdued, however, SriLanka stands up straight and not bow down to foreign intrusion, hence those countries build up cooked stories. Dr Hugh McDermott, can anyone for sure prove that what happened in Mullivaykal was genocide?

Army rescued over 300,000 civilians across to safe place.

Dr Hugh McDermott, it is not fair to mix the WWII affair and the Nazi genocide with that of a small country like SriLanka. I am a Tamil and my village people safely exited Mullivaykal with the help of the army and safely returned to their place. They were driven by the LTTE as Human shield from Vaddukoddai to Mullivaykal in 1995. Genocide can be an example on Hitler, Americans, Canadians & Spanish wiping out millions of Jews, In cars, ascots, Mayans & red Indians.

1. Picture 1 above is a submarine of the LTTE. This is not fancy equipment or toy. This is to blow up Sri Lankan Navy and passenger ships. This is the worst form of terror.
2. Picture 2 is the civilians held as human shield exiting from Mullivaykal with the help of the army. numbers exceed about 100,000. This is only one lot of people who were safely allowed to safety. There were other lots of safety escorted to safety by the army. If then, how could this be a genocide Dr Hugh McDermott?
3. Picture 3 Army Field commanders in the liberation of the terrorist-held area. It is to be wondered as to who helped the terrorists to build aircraft and submarines.
4. Picture 4-Foreign military commanders advising the SriLankan military.
5. Picture 5-Another lot of hundreds of thousands exiting the human shield area.
6. Picture 6- Heavy weapon; 32 feet cannon buried in-ground by the coward LTTE.
7. Do you know the value of the property LTTE demolished? LTTE demolished a Cement factory which was producing 265,000 tons of cement per year. 132kV transmission lines/towers which was feeding electricity to the North.
8. Massacred thousands of Tamil civilians and buried them.
9. Murdered Rajiv Gandhi (PM India) and several SriLankan politicians.

Australia is a country where we all live and work hard to survive, it is considered that when politicians play on cheap partisan politics supporting only one side of the ethnic race, it is unfair, and maybe human rights violation. Why not talk to the SriLankan High Commissioner in Canberra, and the SPUR- Sydney & Victoria to study the real truth of the situation. It may be that the practice of democracy can lead to partisan politics, I do not know.

At this situation of the Corona Virus pandemic period; firstly, Tamils should not have gathered for Mullivaykal remembrance, but stayed at home and remembered. Secondly, Dr Hugh McDermott, you could have avoided a speech in FB about the false pretence of Genocide” as it would have hurt thousands of SriLankan Australians. It is to comprehend that you in the labour party may be attempting to drive a wedge between the two races in SriLanka, Australia and the world.

It is a polite request that kindly politicians could avoid practising partisan politics and let democracy take its progression.

Kind regards,

Kanthar Balanathan
Former Specialist Engineer Power & Control NRG-GPS.

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග
විශේෂ ස්තූතිය; විශේසඥ ප්‍රජා වෛද්‍ය ප්‍රසාද් රණවීර 

මැලේරියාව යනු පරපෝෂිතයෙකු විසින් ඇති කරන රෝගයකි. පරපෝෂිතයා ආසාදිත ගැහැණු ඇනොෆිලස් මදුරුවන්ගේ දෂ්ට කිරීම් මගින් මිනිසුන්ට සම්ප්‍රේෂණය වන මැලේරියාව තර්ජනාත්මක රෝගයකි. සෑම වසරකම දළ වශයෙන් මිලියන 210 ක ජනතාවක් මැලේරියාව ආසාදනය වන අතර 440,000 ක් පමණ දෙනා මෙම රෝගයෙන් මිය යති.  සෞම්‍ය දේශගුණික තත්ත්වයන් තුළ මෙම රෝගය සුලභ වුවද, නිවර්තන සහ උපනිවර්තන රටවල මැලේරියාව තවමත් බහුලව දක්නට ලැබේ.  මැලේරියාව වැඩි වශයෙන් ආර්ද්‍රතාවය සහ වර්ෂාව පවතින උණුසුම් දේශගුණයක් තුළ බෝ වේ. විසිවන සියවසේදී පමණක් මැලේරියාව මිලියන 150 ත් 300 ත් අතර සංඛ්‍යාවක් ජීවිතක්ෂයට පත්ව ඇති අතර එය සියළුම මරණ වලින් සියයට 2 සිට 5 දක්වා ප්‍රමාණයක් වේ. .

 මැලේරියාව ලොව පුරා මිනිසුන්ගේ ඉහළ රෝගාබාධ හා මරණ අනුපාතය ඇති කරයි.  2016 වසරේදී  මැලේරියාව හේතුවෙන් පුද්ගලයන්  මිලියන භාගයක් පමණ මියගිය බව වාර්තා වේ.   2018 දී ලොව පුරා මැලේරියා රෝගීන් මිලියන 228 ක් වාර්තා වී තිබේ. ඇස්තමේන්තුගත මැලේරියා මරණ සංඛ්‍යාව 2018 දී 405 000 ක් විය. වයස අවුරුදු 5 ට අඩු ළමුන් මැලේරියාවෙන් පීඩාවට පත්වන කණ්ඩායමයි; 2018 දී ඔවුන් ලොව පුරා මැලේරියා මරණ වලින් 67% ක් (272 000) ක් වාර්තා කර ඇත.  වර්තමානයේ සෑම මිනිත්තු 2 කට වරක් දරුවෙකු මැලේරියාවෙන් මිය යයි.

මැලේරියාව පාලනය කිරීම සහ තුරන් කිරීම සඳහා වන මුළු අරමුදල් 2018 දී ඇස්තමේන්තුගත ඩොලර් බිලියන 2.7 ක් විය. ලෝකයේ රටවල් 91ක තවමත් මැලේරියා රෝගය පවතී.   ඇමරිකානු මහද්වීපයේ  රටවල් 22 ක් මැලේරියාවෙන් පීඩා විඳිති. ලෝක ජනගහනයෙන් සියයට 40 ක් තවමත් ජීවත් වන්නේ මැලේරියාව සම්ප්‍රේෂණය වන ප්‍රදේශවල ය. මැලේරියා රෝගයෙන් වසරකට ලොව පුරා හාරලක්‍ෂයකට අධික පිරිසක් මිය යන අතර, ඉන් බහුතරයක් වයස අවුරුදු 5ට අඩු ළමයින් වෙති. මේ නිසා මැලේරියාව මහජන සෞඛ්‍ය ගැටළු වක් ලෙස හැැඳින්වේ.

 වෙනත් ඕනෑම බෝවෙන රෝගයකට වඩා මැලේරියාව ලෝක ඉතිහාසයට විශාල බලපෑමක් කර ඇත. වසර 50000 කටත් වැඩි කාලයක් මුළුල්ලේ මැලේරියා රෝගය මිනිසුන්ට දුර්විපාක ඇති කොට තිබේ.  මෙසපොතේමියාවේ කියුනිෆෝම් පිටපතක් සහිත මැටි පුවරුවල මැලේරියාව වැනි උණ ගැන සඳහන් වේ. ක්‍රි.පූ. 3200 සහ 1304 අතර ඊජිප්තු නටබුන් අතර මැලේරියා රෝගය පිලිබඳ ඉතිහාසික සාක්‍ෂි හමුවී තිබේ.  වෛදික යුගයේ (ක්‍රි.පූ 1500 සිට 800 දක්වා) ඉන්දියානු ලේඛන මැලේරියාව රෝගවල රජ” ලෙස හැඳින්වීය.  ග්‍රීක කවියෙකු වන හෝමර් (ක්‍රි.පූ 750 දී පමණ) ද ඉලියඩ් හි මැලේරියා වට සමාන උණ රෝගී තත්වයක් ගැන සඳහන් කරයි.  ක්‍රි.පූ 2 වන සියවසේදී චීනයේ මැලේරියා රෝගයට ප්‍රතිකාර කිරීම සඳහා  පැලෑටියක් භාවිතා කරන ලදී. 

ක්‍රි.ව. පළමු සියවසේදී මැලේරියාව රෝමයට පැමිණීම යුරෝපීය ඉතිහාසයේ හැරවුම් ලක්‍ෂ්‍යයක් විය.  යුරෝපයේ මැලේරියාව පැතිරීම රෝම අධිරාජ්‍යයේ  සහ 17 වන සියවසේදී සිදුවිය. අප්‍රිකානු වැසි වනාන්තරයේ සිට මෙම රෝගය බොහෝ දුරට නයිල් ගඟේ සිට මධ්‍යධරණී මුහුද දක්වාත්, උතුරින් ග්‍රීසිය දක්වාත් ව්‍යාප්ත විය. ග්‍රීක වෙළෙන්දෝ සහ ජනපදිකයෝ එය ඉතාලියට ගෙන ආහ.  ඊළඟ අවුරුදු 2,000 තුළ, යුරෝපයේ ජනාකීර්ණ ජනාවාස සහ ස්ථාවර ජලය ඇති ඕනෑම තැනක මැලේරියාව සමෘධිමත් වූ අතර, මිනිසුන් කාලානුරූපව රෝගාතුර වූ අතර, කාලානුරූපව දුර්වල හා උදාසීන විය.  මෙම රෝගය සමාජයේ සෑම ස්ථරයකම පැවති බවට සාක්ෂි වන්නේ ක්‍රිස්ටෝපර් කොලම්බස්, ඇල්බ්‍රෙක්ට් ඩියර්, සිසේරේ බෝර්ජියා සහ ජෝර්ජ් වොෂිංටන් යන සියල්ලන්ම එයින් පීඩා විඳි බවයි. 

මැලේරියාව යන වචනය ආරම්භ වූයේ මධ්‍යතන යුගයේ ඉතාලි භාෂාවෙන් ය: මැලා ඒරියා – නරක වාතය; වගුරුබිම් හා වගුරු බිම් සමඟ ඇති සම්බන්ධය නිසා මෙම රෝගය කලින් වයස්ගත හෝ වගුරු උණ ලෙස හැඳින්විණි. මැලේරියාව යන වචනය  ප්‍රථම වරට ඉංග්‍රීසි සාහිත්‍යයෙහි පළ වූයේ 1829 දී ය.   මැලේරියාව වරෙක යුරෝපයේ සහ උතුරු ඇමරිකාවේ බොහෝ ප්‍රදේශවල සුලභව දක්නට ලැබුණි.   1880 දී ඇල්ජීරියාවේ කොන්ස්ටන්ටයින්ගේ හමුදා රෝහලේ සේවය කරන ප්‍රංශ හමුදා වෛද්‍යවරයෙකු වන චාල්ස් ලුවී ඇල්ෆොන්ස් ලැවරන් විසින් ආසාදිත පුද්ගලයින්ගේ රතු රුධිර සෛල තුළ පරපෝෂිතයන් ප්‍රථම වරට නිරීක්ෂණය කොට මැලේරියාව පිළිබඳ විද්‍යාත්මක අධ්‍යයනයන්  කළේය. මැලේරියාව මෙම පරපෝෂිතයන් නිසා ඇති වන බව ඔහු යෝජනා කළේය.  

 1894 අප්‍රියෙල් මාසයේදී ස්කොට්ලන්ත ජාතික වෛද්‍ය රොනල්ඩ් රොස් ශ්‍රීමත් පැට්‍රික් මැන්සන්  මදුරුවන්ගේ මැලේරියා පරපෝෂිතයාගේ සම්පූර්ණ ජීවන චක්‍රය සනාථ කිරීමත් සමඟ පර්යේෂණ ආරම්භය විය. මෙම කාර්යය සඳහා රොස්ට 1902 වෛද්‍ය විද්‍යාව සඳහා නොබෙල් ත්‍යාගය හිමි විය. 

  මැලේරියාව උග්‍ර උණ රෝගයකි. ආසාදිත මදුරුවෙකු දෂ්ට කිරීමෙන් පසු සති කිහිපයක් ඇතුළත මැලේරියා රෝග ලක්ෂණ සහ රෝග ලක්ෂණ ආරම්භ වේ. මැලේරියාව වැළඳී ඇති සමහර පුද්ගලයින්ට මැලේරියා චක්‍ර අත්විඳිය හැකිය. සාමාන්‍යයෙන් ප්‍රහාරයක් ආරම්භ වන්නේ වෙව්ලීම හා සීතලෙනි, පසුව අධික උණ, පසුව දහඩිය දැමීම සහ සාමාන්‍ය උෂ්ණත්වයට නැවත පැමිණීම  සිදුවේ. සුලභ රෝග ලක්‍ෂණ වන්නේ තදින් උණගැනීම  අධික ලෙස දහඩිය දැමීම  වෙවුලන තරම් සීතලක් දැනීම  හිසරදය  ඇඟපත වේදනාව  තෙහෙට්ටුව  ඔක්කාරය  වමනය  පාචනයයි.  සමහර වර්ගයේ මැලේරියා පරපෝෂිතයින්   මිනිස් ශරීරයේ වසරක් දක්වා අක්‍රියව පැවතිය හැකිය.මැලේරියා රෝගී තත්වය වැඩියෙන්ම බලපාන්නේ දරුවන්ට හා ගැබිනි මව්වරුන්ටය.

මැලේරියාව මාරාන්තික විය හැක.  බොහෝ අවස්ථාවන්හීදී, මැලේරියාව. බරපතල සංකූලතා ඇතිකරයි.  මස්තිෂ්ක මැලේරියාව ,  රක්තහීනතාවය,  වකුගඩු අක්‍රියතාව වැනි සංකූලතා රෝගීන් අතර දක්නට ලැබිය හැකිය. එසේම මැලේරියාව  දිගුකාලීන සමාජීය හා ආර්ථිකමය ප්‍රතිවිපාක ගෙනදෙන විනාශකාරී රෝගයකි. 
මැලේරියාව නොමැති ප්‍රදේශවලින් පැමිණෙන සංචාරකයින්ට බොහෝ විට ප්‍රතිශක්තියක් නොමැති අතර ඔවුන් රෝගයට ගොදුරු වීමේ ඉඩකඩ තිබේ.

 මැලේරියාව යනු ප්ලාස්මෝඩියම් කුලයට අයත් පරපෝෂිතයන් නිසා ඇති වන දරුණු රෝගයකි.  මැලේරියාවට හේතු කාරකය වන්නේ ප්ලාස්මෝඩියම් විශේෂයට අයත් කුඩා ප්‍රෝටෝසෝන් වන අතර එය උප විශේෂ කිහිපයකින් සමන්විත වේ. එය ඇනොෆිලස් විශේෂයේ ආසාදිත ගැහැණු මදුරුවෙකුගේ දෂ්ට කිරීම මගින් මිනිසුන්ට සම්ප්‍රේෂණය වේ. මිනිසුන්ට ආසාදනය විය හැකි මැලේරියා පරපෝෂිතයන් වර්ග හතරක් ඇත: ප්ලාස්මෝඩියම්  වයිවෙක්ස් , ප්ලාස්මෝඩියම්  ඕවාලේ, ප්ලාස්මෝඩියම්  මැලේරියා සහ ප්ලාස්මෝඩියම්  ෆැල්සිෆාරුම්.  ෆාල්සිපරම්.  ප්ලාස්මෝඩියම්  ෆැල්සිෆාරුම් රෝගයේ වඩාත් දරුණු ස්වරූපයක් ඇති කරන අතර මෙම මැලේරියා රෝගය වැළඳුණු අයට මරණයට වැඩි අවදානමක් ඇත. ආසාදිත මවකට මෙම රෝගය තම දරුවාට උපතේදීම ලබා දිය හැකිය. මෙය සංජානනීය මැලේරියාව ලෙස හැඳින්වේ.  මැලේරියාව බහුලව පවතින ප්‍රදේශවල වයස අවුරුදු පහට අඩු දරුවන්ට බොහෝ විට රක්තහීනතාවය ඇති වන අතර සමහර විට එය මැලේරියාව නිසා වේ.  

මැලේරියා රෝග ලක්‍ෂණ මැලේරියාව හදුනා ගන්නා ක‍්‍රම දෙකක් තිබේ. එකක් රෝහලේ දි රෝගියා සම්බන්ධයෙන් වන සායනික පරීක්‍ෂාව වන අතර අනෙක අන්වීක්‍ෂ පරීක්‍ෂාව මගිනි. බොහෝ විට මැලේරියාව සාමාන්‍යයෙන් සනාථ කරනු ලබන්නේ රුධිර පටලවල අන්වීක්ෂීය පරීක්ෂණයෙන් හෝ ප්‍රතිදේහජනක මත පදනම් වූ වේගවත් රෝග විනිශ්චය පරීක්ෂණ (RDT) මගිනි. රුධිරයේ ඇති ප්‍රතිදේහජනක හඳුනා ගැනීම සඳහා වේගවත් රෝග විනිශ්චය පරීක්ෂණය  (RDT)   පරපෝෂිත ප්‍රතිදේහජනක පවතින බව සනාථ කිරීම සඳහා වන ප්‍රතිශක්තිකරණ පරීක්ෂණ වේ.  පොලිමරේස් දාම ප්‍රතික්‍රියා (PCR) යනු මැලේරියාව හඳුනා ගැනීමේ තවත් ක්‍රමයකි. මෙම ක්‍රමය මැලේරියාව හඳුනා ගැනීමේ සියලු සාම්ප්‍රදායික ක්‍රමවලට වඩා සංවේදී හා විශේෂිත වේ.

මැලේරියාවට එරෙහි ගෝලීය සටන 1955 දී ආරම්භ වූ අතර, මෙම වැඩසටහන ඩීඩීටී භාවිතා කරමින් මදුරුවන් තුරන් කිරීම මත පදනම් විය. මැලේරියා සම්ප්‍රේෂණය වැළැක්වීමට සහ අඩු කිරීමට ප්‍රධාන ක්‍රමය දෛශික පාලනයයි. නිශ්චිත ප්‍රදේශයක් තුළ දෛශික පාලන මැදිහත්වීම් ආවරණය කිරීම ප්‍රමාණවත් තරම් ඉහළ මට්ටමක පවතී නම්, යම් ආරක්ෂාවක් ප්‍රජාව වෙත ලැබේ. 

 මැලේරියා රෝගය සදහා මුල්ම ඵලදායි ප්‍රතිකාර ක්‍රමය වූයේ ක්වීනීන් අන්තර්ගත සින්කෝනා ශාකයේ පොත්තය. ක්විනීන් ඉතා ඉක්මණින් ලොව පුරා වරින් වර ඇති වන උණ සඳහා ප්‍රතිකාරයක් බවට පත්විය. මැලේරියාව වැළැක්විය හැකි සහ ප්‍රතිකාර කළ හැකි රෝගයකි. ප්‍රතිකාරයේ මූලික පරමාර්ථය නම්, සම්පූර්ණ සුවය සහතික කිරීමයි, එනම් රෝගියාගේ රුධිරයෙන් ප්ලාස්මෝඩියම් පරපෝෂිතයා වේගයෙන් හා සම්පූර්ණයෙන් තුරන් කිරීම  සහ අනෙක් අයට සම්ප්‍රේෂණය වීම අවම කිරීම මෙහිදී වැදගත් වේ.   මදුරුවන් දෂ්ට කිරීමට එරෙහිව පුද්ගලික ආරක්‍ෂණ පියවර ප්‍රතිඑලදායකය. මැලේරියා සම්ප්‍රේෂණය මූලික වශයෙන් රාත්‍රියේදී සිදු වේ. මදුරුවන් දෂ්ට කිරීම් වලින් ආරක්‍ෂා වීම සඳහා මදුරු ඇඳන් (වඩාත් සුදුසු කෘමිනාශක ප්‍රතිකාර කළ දැල්) භාවිතා කිරීම, ශරීරයේ වැඩි කොටසක් ආවරණය වන පරිදි ඇඳුම් ඇඳීම සහ නිරාවරණය වූ සම මත කෘමීන් පලවා හරින ද්‍රව්‍ය භාවිතා කිරීම මීට ඇතුළත් වේ.  

මැලේරියාව හඳුනාගත් පසු සුදුසු ක්ෂුද්‍ර ජීවී ප්‍රතිකාර වහාම ආරම්භ කළ යුතුය.මැලේරියාව සඳහා ඖෂධ ප්‍රතිකාර නිර්දේශිතය. ආටෙමිසිනින් මත පදනම් වූ සංයෝජන ප්‍රතිකාර (ACTs). පනත් බොහෝ විට මැලේරියාව සඳහා පළමු පෙළ ප්‍රතිකාර වේ. සමහරක් ඖෂධ පරියේෂණ මට්ටමේ පවතියි. විද්‍යාඥයන් මැලේරියාව සඳහා ආරක්‍ෂිත හා  එලදායී  එන්නතක් නිපදවීමට උත්සාහ කරති. කෙසේ වෙතත්, තවමත් මිනිස් භාවිතය සඳහා සාර්ථක මැලේරියා එන්නතක් මෙතෙක් නිපදවා නොමැත.

 මැලේරියාව බොහෝ දුරට සිදුවන්නේ ලෝකයේ දුප්පත් නිවර්තන සහ උපනිවර්තන ප්‍රදේශවල ය. මැලේරියාවෙන් පීඩා විඳින බොහෝ රටවල එය රෝගාබාධ හා මරණයට ප්‍රධාන හේතුවකි.  2018 දී ලෝක ජනගහනයෙන් අඩකට ආසන්න ප්‍රමාණයක් මැලේරියා රෝගයට ගොදුරු විය. ලෝකයේ සිදුවන මැලේරියා මරණ වලින් 90% ක් පමණ අද සිදුවන්නේ සහරා වලට දකුණින් අප්‍රිකාවේ ය. කෙසේ වෙතත්, ගිනිකොනදිග ආසියාව, නැගෙනහිර මධ්‍යධරණි, බටහිර පැසිෆික්  කලාප ද අවදානමට ලක්ව ඇත.  සමහර ජනගහණ කණ්ඩායම් අනෙක් අයට වඩා මැලේරියාව වැළඳීමේ හා දරුණු රෝග ඇතිවීමේ අවදානම සැලකිය යුතු ලෙස වැඩි ය.  මැලේරියාව යනු දරිද්‍රතාවයට පොදුවේ සම්බන්ධ වන රෝගයක් පමණක් නොවේ: සමහර සාක්ෂි අනුව එය දරිද්‍රතාවයට හේතුවක් වන අතර ආර්ථික සංවර්ධනයට විශාල බාධාවක් වේ.

ලංකාවේ මැලේරියා වසංගතය 1934 අග භාගයේ ආරම්භ වූ අතර 1935 අප්‍රේල් මාසයේ සිට විශාල ද්විතියික රැල්ලක් ලෙස හට ගත්තේය. ලංකාවේ දරුණු මැලේරියා වසංගත දහහත්වන සියවසේ මැද භාගය තරම් වාර්තා වී තිබුණද 1934  මැලේරියා වසංගතය නිසා මිනිසුන් බොහෝ දෙනෙකු මිය යන ලදි. එම කාලයේදී මැලේරියා මර්දන ව්‍යාපාරයේ අධිකාරී වෛද්‍ය කේ. ජේ. රුස්ටොම්ජි විසින් ලියන ලද සංදේශයකින් මැලේරියාව අපේක්‍ෂා කරන ලෙස පළාත් හඳුනාගෙන තිබුණි.  1935 වසරේ සති හයක් ඇතුළත මැලේරියා උණින් ළමයින් 3,500 ක් මිය ගිය බව වාර්තා වේ. 1934-35 කාල වකවානුවේදී මැලේරියා රෝගීන් මිලියන 1.5ක ප්‍රමාණයක් වාර්තා  වූ අතර ඉන් 80,000කට වඩා පිරිසක්  මිය ගියහ. මේ කාලයේදී රටේ ජනගහනයෙන් හතරෙන් එකකට මැලේරියා වැළඳුණු බව කියවේ. 1968 වසරේදී ලංකාව පුරා මැලේරියාව වැළඳුණු රෝගීන්ගේ සංඛ්‍යාව හාරලක්‍ෂයද ඉක්මවා එය දරුණු වසංගතයක් බවට පත්ව තිබිණි. එසේම 1968-1970, 1974-1976, 1986-1988 මෙන්ම 1991-1993 වැනි කාලවල ලංකාව තුළ මැලේරියා රෝගය වසංගත මට්ටමටම පත් වුණු බව වාර්තා වී තිබේ.  

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ මැලේරියා මර්දන වැඩසටහන වසර 100 ආසන්න කාලයක් පැරණිය. මැලේරියා රෝග මර්දනය සඳහා සෞඛ්‍ය අංශ මගින් කළ කැපවීමේ ප‍්‍රතිඵලයක් ලෙස පසුගිය කාලය පුරා විශාල ප්‍රගතියක් ලැබීය. 1991 වසරේදී 400,000 වූ මැලේරියා රෝගින් සංඛ්‍යාව 2012 වසර අවසානය වන විට ශුන්‍ය අගයක් ගත්තේය. අවසන් මැලේරියා (දේශීය) රෝගියා වාර්තා වූයේ  2012 වසරේ ඔක්තෝබර් මාසයේදීය. 2012 වසරින් පසුව දේශීය රෝගියෙක් වාර්තා නොවීමෙන් මැලේරියා පරපෝෂිතයා ලංකාවෙන් මුළුමනින්ම තුරන්වී ඇති බව තහවුරු වෙයි.   

 මැලේරියාව තුරන් කිරීම ජාතික සංවර්ධනය සඳහා සහ එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ තිරසාර සංවර්ධන ඉලක්ක සපුරා ගැනීම සඳහා  සෞඛ්‍ය ප්‍රමුඛතාවයකි. බොහෝ කලාපවල මැලේරියාව තුරන් කිරීම සඳහා පසුගිය දශකය තුළ වැදගත් ප්‍රගතියක් ලබා ඇති අතර, මෙම ප්‍රගතියත් සමඟ මුලිනුපුටා දැමීමේ ශක්‍යතාව යළිත් වරක් සාකච්ඡාවට භාජනය වේ. පසුගිය දශකය තුළ රටවල් හයක් මැලේරියාව තුරන් කළ බවට සහතික කර ඇත: මොරොක්කෝව (2010), ටර්ක්මෙනිස්තානය (2010), ආර්මේනියාව (2011), මාලදිවයින (2015), ශ්‍රී ලංකාව (2016) සහ කිර්ගිස්තානය (2016).   2016 වසරේ දී ශ්‍රී ලංකාව මැලේරියාව සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම තුරන් කළ රටක් බවට වූ සහතිකය ලෝක සෞඛ්‍ය සංවිධානය විසින් මෙරටට ලබා දෙන ලදි. නමුත් විදේශයන්හිදී මැලේරියාව වැළඳුන පුද්ගලයන් ලංකාවට පැමිනීම මගින් රෝග ව්‍යාප්තිය සිදු විය හැකි බව මෙහිදී අප අමතක නොකල යුතුය. 

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග
විශේෂ ස්තූතිය; විශේසඥ ප්‍රජා වෛද්‍ය ප්‍රසාද් රණවීර 

චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම, LL.B., Ph.D.

x.නීතියට ආත්මයක් නැත> – තිරන්ත වලලියද්ද
x.නීතිය අපකීර්තියට පත් නොකල යුතුය> – කාදිනල් මැල්කම් රංජිත්
x.මහජන විශ්වාසය හා ලබැඳියාව නඟාලීම> සුප්‍රිම් උසාවි මොටෝ එක

නඩුකාරවරුන්ගේ ළමා කාලය

කොසොල් රජතුමාගේ සීන දාසැය වනාහි, බයිබලයේ තිබෙන අනාගත වාක්‍ය වගේම මුළු ලෝකයම අලලා කරණ ලද විග්‍රහයක් මිස, එක රටකට, ඉන්දියාවට හෝ අනාගත ලංකාවට හෝ පමණක් විශේෂයෙන් කල විස්තරයක් නොවේ. සුප්‍රිම් උසාවියේ හා පහල උසාවිවල නඩුකාරතුමන්ලා කී දෙනෙක් මේ මහා සුපින ජාතකයේ සඳහන් වන කොසොල් රජතුමා දුටු සීන දාසැය කියවා හෝ අසා ඇද්ද කියා මට සිතුනේ, මේ ලඟදී කොළඹදී මුණගැසෙන, Fරිඩය් Fඔරුම් පිරිස විසින් <දේවෝ වස්සතු කාලේන> යන බෞද්‌ධ සංකල්පය, ඔවුන් විසින් ජනාධිපතිට යැවූ ව්‍යවස්ථා නීතියට අදාල ලිපියක සඳහන් කර තිබෙනු දුටු විටය. ඉහල උසාවි දෙක 1956 න් පසු තාමත් වැඩ කරන්නේ ඉංග්‍රීසියෙන් ය. නඩුකාර ක්‍රමය දූෂණය වීම ගැනද කොසොල් රජතුමා සීනවලදී දුටුවේය. රටේ නඩුකාරවරුන්ගෙන් කී දෙනෙක් ඉරිදා දහම් පාසැල් ගිය අයද කියාත් සිතේ.

නීති විද්‍යාව හා බුද්‌ධාගමේ සංකල්ප අතර පවතින ලඟ සම්බන්‌ධය පිළිඹඳ උදාහරණ දෙකක් පමණක් දෙනවා නම්: (1) චේතනාව හා (2) සාධාරණ‌ත්‌වය යන මූලධ‌ර්‍ම දෙකම මේ මිනිස් සංසිද්‌ධි දෙකේම පදනමය. ඉන්ටෙන්ෂන් හා රීසනබල්නස් නීති කරත්තයේ රෝද දෙකය. ධම්මපදයේ මුල් ගාථා දෙකේ දැක්‌වෙන යහපත් හා දුෂ්ට චේතනා හා කර්‌මය ගමන් කරන්නේ මධ්‍යම ප්‍රතිපදා පාරේය. මෙම මධ්‍යම ප්‍රතිපදාව, ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදයේද මුල්ගල වන <කොම්ප්‍රොමයිස්> හෙවත් නිති විද්‍යාවේ රීසනබල් ඩොක්ට්‍රින් (සාධාරණය/යුක්තිය) එකමය. යම් ස්ථානයක භූගෝල විද්‍යාවට (පොලොව මතුපිට විවිධ‌ත්‌වය) අනුව යම් ක්‍රියාවක් රීසනබල් වීමට හෝ නොවීමට ඉඩ ඇත. යම් ප්‍රදේශයක හෝ සමාජයක/රටක භූගෝල විද්‍යාවට පටහැනි වන නීති පැනවිය නොහැක කියන්නේ මේ පාරේ ඉදිරි ගමනටය.

තිරන්ත වලලියද්ද, අපරාධ නීතිය පිළිඹඳ විශේෂඥයෙකි. නීතියට ආත්මයක් නැතැයි කීමෙන් ඔහු අදහස් කරන්නේ ආත්මය (මනස?) තිබෙන්නේ නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක කරණා අයවලුන්ට යන්නය. ආත්මය යනු චේතනාවය. යුක්තිය ඉෂ්ට කල හැක්කේ ආත්මයක් තිබෙනවා නම් පමණය. 1600 දී සිට ඉංග්‍රීසි නීතිය විසින් සමාගම් වලට (පෙරදිග ඉන්දියා වෙළද සමාගම වැනි), සංස්ථාවලට, මිනිසෙකුට මෙන් කෘතිම ආත්මයක් ලබාදුන්නේය. ඉන් අදහස් වන්නේද ලියා පදිංචිකල සමාගමකට චේතනාව ආරූඪ කල හැකි බවය. නීතිය අපකීර්තියට පත්කරනවා යයි කීමෙන් කාදිනල්තුමා අදහස් කරන්නේද වලලියද්දගේ කතාවමය. නිතීය නමැති දෙවඟන මිනිසුන්ගේ චේතනාවෙන් අපවිත්‍ර වේ. සමහරවිට එංගලන්තයෙන් කොපිකල, ලංකාවේ සුප්‍රිම් හා ඇපැල් උසාවි මොටෝ එක උත්සාහ කරන්නේද, සද්භාවයෙන් ක්‍රියා කර උසාවි කෙරෙහි, නීතිය කෙරෙහි, මහජන ගෞරවය නංවාලීමය. මේ අනුව බලන විට මේ අදහස් තුන ත්‍රිකෝණයක් වැනිය. එහි පාදය උසාවියේ මොටෝ එකය. මැදින් තිබෙන්නේ නීති සම්භාරයය.

වළාකුලක් දැලකින් බඳින්නට සැදීම

ඉහත සඳහන් ත්‍රිකෝණය තුල ඇති නීතිය ඉහත සඳහන් පාර්‌ශව තුනට අනුව උත්තරීතර නොහොත් පාරිශුද්‌ධය. එහෙත් ඒ නීතිය කුමක්ද? නීති 282 ක් ඇති මෙසපොටේමියාවේ හමුරාබි කෝඩ් එක ක්‍රිස්තු පූර්‌ව 1754 දී පමණ ලියන ලද්දකි. දෙවියන් විසින් මෝසස්ට දුන්නාය කියන දස පණතද එවැන්නකි. විනය පිටකයද භික්‍ෂූ-භික්‍ෂුණීන් සඳහා පැනවූ නීති පද්‌ධතියකි. අතීතය අතහැර වඩා මෑත කාලයට ආ විට, 1802 න් පසු සුද්දන් විසින් අපට දුන්නේ සුද්දගෙ නීතිය හා ලන්දේසි නීතියේ මිශ්‍රණයකි. ලන්දේසි කාලයේදී කුරුඳු ගසක් විනාශ කිරීමට දඬුවම මරණයය. උඩරට රාජධානියේද යම් කඳුකර ප්‍රදේශවල (වන දුර්‌ගද ඇතුළු) කැලෑ එලි කිරීමට දඬුවම මරණය. මේ අනුව සිතා බලන විට පැහැදිලි වන කරුණක් නම් බලවතා, ලොකු මාළුවා පොඩි මාළුවා ගිලගන්නා කැලෑ නීතිය වෙනුවට මිනිස් සමාජය ක්‍රමයෙන් ආරක්‍ෂාව, සමාජ ක්‍රියා දාමයේ නිශ්චිත භාවය (සර්ටිනිටි), සමාජයේ සම්ප්‍රදායික සිරිත් විරිත් රැක ගැනීම යනාදිය සඳහා නීති පද්‌ධති ගොඩ නඟාගත්තා යන්නය. ඕනෑම සමාජයක බලයේ ඉන්නා සුළු පිරිසක් විසින් මේ නීති සදන්නේ ඔවුන්ගේ වාසිය පිණිසය. අද ලංකාවේ තිබෙන්නේ මෙසේ සුද්දන්ගේ වාසියට සැදූ නීති, ඉන් පසුව බලය ලබාගත් කළු සුද්දන් විසින් පැලැස්තර දමමින්, තව තවත් සවුත්තු කරමින් දිගටම ගෙන යාමය. නැතහොත් ඒවා අච්චාරු කරමින්, තෙම්පරාදු කරමින් පලප්‍රයෝජන භුක්ති විඳීමය. මෙම ක්‍රියාවලියේදී වැඩියෙන්ම හානි සිදුවූයේ රටේ ශිෂ්ටාචාරය ගොඩ නඟූ සිංහලයාටය. මැල්කම් රංජිත් කාදිනල්තුමාට පෙර, ලංකාවේ කතෝලික ජනයාට මෙය හරියාකාරයට වැටහුනේ නැත.

මෙසේ සෙසු සමාජයට නාස්ලණු දමා කළු සුද්දන් ගෙනගිය නීති සැදීම, 1960 න් පසුව, 1978 න් පසුව හා 2015 යහපාලනකාරයින් යටතේ ඉතාමත් පහත් අඩියකට වැටුනේය. උසාවිය රවටා නීති පැනවීම, කතානායක හොර අත්සන් ගැසීම, මෝඩ මන්ත්‍රීන් ඔහේ ඕනෑම දෙයකට අත ඉස්සීම නිසා නීතිය උත්තරීතරය යන ඉහත ත්‍රිකෝණයේ අදහස හුදු මිථ්‍යාවක් විය. වංචාකාරි ලෙස නොපැහැදිලි ලෙස නීති අනුමත කර මුළු ලෝකයම රැවටීමට හොඳම නිදසුන නම් 19 සංශොධනයේ 33(2)(සී) වගන්තිය නමැති බරව කකුලය. ඉන් කලේ සුප්‍රිම් උසාවියට වෙට්ටුවක් දමා පාර්ලිමේන්තුව තමන්ගේ ආයුකාලය තහවුරු කරගැනීමට අවශ්‍යවූ ජනමත විචාරණයකින් ගැලවීමය. මෙවැනි නීති වලට ගරු කල යුතුද, මෙවැනි නීති වලංගු කරමින් උසාවි දෙන තීරණ මහජනයාගේ කලකිරීමට හේතු නොවන්නේද යනාදී ප්‍රශ්ණ එමටය. එක් දේශපාලකයෙකු හිරේයාම වැලැක්‌වීමට ගෙනා විදේශ විනිමය පාලන අළුත් පණත රටටම කල හානියක් විය. සර් ඔලිවර් ගුණතිලකලා පවා ඒ කාලයේ රටින් පැන ගියේ මෙවැනි වංචා නිසාය. උසාවි මොටෝ එක බොහෝ විට වළාකුළක් දැලකින් බැඳීමේ ප්‍රයත්නයක් නොවේද කියා සිතෙන්නේ මෙවන් පසුබිමක් යටතේය.

නැති <ප්‍රජා-තන්ත්‍ර-වාදයකට> කරගැහීම

හදාගෙන, වවාගෙන කමින් තිබෙන <නීතිය> ගැන ඉහතින් කල කෙටි හැඳින්‌වීමට අමතරව, නීතිය ක්‍රියාවට නැඟීමේ කාර්යභාරය පැවරෙන ග්‍රාම සේවක, පොලිසිය, නිලධාරීන්, නීතීඥයින්, උසාවි යනාදී ඒකක සම්බන්‌ධයෙන් නැවත නැවත සුගන්‌ධිකා ප්‍රනාන්දු, නාගානන්ද, වික්ටර් අයිවන්ලාගේ පාරේ යාම, හෝද හෝදා මඩේ දැමීමකි. සුදු නිලධාරීන් විසින් ඒ කාලයේදී මහත් ව්‍යායාමයකින් රැකදුන් බෞද්‌ධ පුරාවිද්‍යා නටබුන්, දැන් බෞද්‌ධ පුරා විද්‍යා නිලධාරීන් විසින්, සමහර විට පගා ලබාගෙන, විනාශ කිරීමට ඉඩදී තිබීමත් නීතිය ක්‍රියාවේ යෙදවීමක් නොවේද? සුමන්තිරන්ට අනුව ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදයේ තුන්වන කකුල පාර්ලිමේන්තුවය. එය සදාකාලික අමරණීය අයාතනයකි. ලෝකයේ බොහෝ රටවල ඇත්තේ කකුල් තුනක් නොව ඊට වැඩි ගණනකි. විධායකය යනු තනි පංචස්කන්‌ධයක් නොව අතිවිශාල නිලධාරී පද්‌ධතිය. ඇමෙරිකාවේ හා ඉන්දියාවේ, රට ගෙනියන්නේ මේ අයය. ඇමෙරිකාවේ ජනාධිපති කෙතරම් හොඳ වුනත් ඔහුට, රටට, ඉස්තරම් දේම කරන්නට නොහැකි වන්නේත්, ඔහු කෙතරම් නරක් වුනත් රටට බරපතල හානියක් කරන්නට නොහැකි වන්නේත් මේ නිසාය. ඉන්දි‌යාවේද රටේ දිගුකාලීන ස්ථාවරභාවයට හේතුව බාල්දු නොවුන, නිවට නොවුන නිලධාරී සේවාවය.

සුමන්තිරන් විසින් නොකියන තවත් කකුලක් නම්, සදාචාර වන හෝ නොවන, ස්වාධීන වන හෝ නොවන මාධ්‍යවේදී හා මාධ්‍ය ආයතන රටාවය. කෙතරම් දුෂ්කරතා මැද වුවත් නිලධාරීන් හා මාධ්‍ය ස්වාධීන වීමට යෑමේ ප්‍රවනතාවක් දැන් දක්නට ලැබේ. නීතියේ ආධිපත්‍යය (රූල් ඔෆ් ලෝ) හා ජනතා පරමාධිපත්‍යය යන සිංදු දෙක, සම්පූර්‌ණයෙන්ම මිථ්‍යා දෙකක් නොවී පවතින්නේ මාධ්‍ය නිසාය. වේයන්ගොඩ පොලිසියේ මැරකම් හෝ මුහුදු මහා විහාරයේ ඉඩම් කොල්ලය හෝ රිෂාඩ් ගේ හිස්බුල්ලාගේ හොර හෝ හෝමාගම ක්‍රිකට් පිටියේ කතාව හෝ ඉහත සඳහන් සිංදු දෙක නිරුවත් කිරීමට උදාහරණ නොවේද? අන්තර්‌ජාලය මඟින් සාමාන්‍ය ජනයාට ලබාදී තිබෙන ප්‍රජානත්ත්‍රවාදය, ග්‍රීක-රෝම කාලයේ පුරවැසි අයිතියටත් වඩා ඉහළ දෙයකි. මේ නිසා මහජන මතයක් ඇතිකිරීමේ, විවේචන කිරීමේ, වැරදි එලිකිරීමේලා ඇති කකුල සුමන්තිරන් හොඳින්ම දන්නේය. අනික් හැමදේ මෙන්ම එය අයුතුලෙස භාවිතා කරණ කොටස්ද සිටින බව සැබෑය. ඒවා පාලනය කිරීමේ, මොනිටර් කිරීමේ ඇති අවශ්‍යතාවය නිසා ඇතිකල සංවිධානවලට, එන්ජිිෝ නඩ රිංගාගෙන ලංකාවට විරුද්‌ධව ක්‍රියාකරණ අවස්ථාද මෑතකදී අනාවරණය විය.

උසාවිය බිලි දීමේ යහපාලන උපක්‍රම

කාදිනල්තුමා කියන නීතිය අපකීර්තියට පත්කිරීම යනු, ශුද්‌ධ සිංහලෙන් කියනවා නම් නීතිය දූෂණය කිරීමය. 2009 මැයි 19 දාට බොහෝ කලකට පෙර සිට කළු සුද්දන්, එන්ජිිෝකාරයින් හා කොළඹ තානාපති කාර්‌යාල මන්තරයක් ජපකරණවා මෙන් දිගින් දිගටම කියා සිටි, මේ යුද්‌ධය නම් කවදාවත්ම දිණන්න බෑ යන්න මිත්‍යාවක් වූ පසු, ඔවුන් විසින් ගෙන ගිය කූඨ ව්‍යාපාරය වූයේ, රාජපක්‍ෂ ආණ්ඩුවේ දුර්‍වලකම් ප්‍රයෝජනයට ගෙන, බෝම්බෙන් බැරිවූදේ පෑණෙන් දිනා ගැනීමය. මෙය 2020 තෙක්ම අසාර්‍ථකවූයේ ලංකාවේ හඳහනේ හොඳකම නිසාමය. එසේ නැත්නම් රට රකිනා යම් අදෘෂ්‍ය බලවේගයක් නිසාය. පාටලී චම්පික වගේ කෙනෙක් 2015 සිට, රට-ජාතියට විරුද්‌ධව කල ද්‍රෝහී ක්‍රියා පවා නිශේධ වන්නේ ඒ නිසාය.

2015-19 කාලයේදී මේ රට කැඩීමේ ව්‍යාපාරයට <ගෝඨාභය භීතිකාවක්> තිබුණේ ඒ නිසාය. දැන් අතුරැලියේ රතන හාමුදුරුවන්ගෙන් එලිවෙන තොරතුරු වලට අනුව, ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රීපාල, ගෝඨාභය අගමැති කරන්නට ගත් ප්ලෑන බකල් වුනත්, පක්‍ෂ දේශපාලකයින් රටට කරණා විනාශය ගැන මහජනයා අතිශයින්ම කළකිරුණේ, පන්සල් දඩයම, පුරාවස්තු සංහාරය, විපත්තු විනාශය, කුරගල-මුහුදු මහා විහාර ඉඩම් කොල්ලය, විග්නේශ්වරන්ගේ දේවානම් පියතීෂන් කතා, චන්ද්‍රිකාගේ නිර්‍වශ්ත්‍රම් පරමං සුඛං සින්දු, හම්බන්තොට වරාය අවුරුදු 200 කට කුණුකොල්ලයට විකිණීම, මත්තල වී ගබඩා කිරීමේ හෙනගහන අපරාධය, සුමන්තිරන්-ජයම්පති-රනිල් ව්‍යවස්ථා මගඩිය යනාදීන් සමඟින්, පාර්ලිමේන්තුව හෙවත් දියවන්නා හෝටලය බල්ලටම යෑමය. මුන් 225 ම එපා යනු 1971 හා 1988/9 කැරලිවලට සමාන සාමකාමි කැරැල්ලකි. මෙහි ප්‍රතිපලය වූයේ පන්සල් විසින් ගොඨාභය මහතා දිනවා ලංකාව හා සිංහල මහජාතිය රැක දීමය. සුළු ජාතීන් රැකෙන්නේ මහජාතියට පාඩු කිරීමෙන් නොවන බව, දෙමළ හින්‌දු ජනයා, පහත් කුලයයි සැලකෙන දෙමළ ජනයා විසින් අවභොධකර ගනිමින් සිටින බව දැන් දක්නට ලැබෙන උපනතියකි. යුද හමුදාව කෙරෙහි යාපනේ ජනයා දක්වන කැමැත්ත දෙමළ බෙදුම් වාදීන්ට ඇති ලොකුම තර්‍ජනයය.

කොරෝනා සරණං ගච්චාමි!

2018 පලාත් පාලන චන්‌දයෙන් ආරම්භවී, 2019 දී සිදුවු අන්ත පරාජය ඉදිරියේ, සුමන්තිරන්ලා/මංගලලාගේ රට බෙදීමේ යහපාලන ප්ලෑන විසින්, කොරෝනාව පිදුරු ගසක් සේ සළකා ක්‍රියාකරන්නේ මහජනතාව ඉදිරියේ සුප්‍රිම් උසාවිය බිල්ලට දීමෙන්‌ය. ඊට හේතුව කෙසේ හෝ පරණ දියවන්නා හෝටලය ඇර ගත්තොත්, ඒ මඟින් රටේ ඇතිවන දේශපාලන ව්‍යාකූලත්‌වය, ගෝඨාභය විජයග්‍රහණයට භාධාවක් කරගත හැකිවන නිසාය. ගියවර මෛත්‍රීපාල/රනිල් නඩුවේදී මෙන් 33(2)(සී) බොරු කකුලක් කර සුප්‍රීම් උසාවිය කලදේ මෙන්, මෙවරත් උසාවිය මැජික් තර්‌කයක් ගෙනaේය යන්න යහපාලනකාරයින්ගේ හා කොළඹ තානාපති කාර්‌යාල වල විශ්වාසයය.

මගේ යන්තම් දැණුමේ හැටියට, මෙවර උසාවියට ඉතිරිව ඇත්තේ ජනාධිපති, රටේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවක් ආපසු කැඳවීමට හදිසි තත්‌වයක් නැතැයි ගත් තීරණය අත්තනෝමතික තීරණයක් යයි නිගමනය කර දියවන්නා හෝටලය යළි ඇර දීමය. මෙහිදී උසාවියේ පංචස්කන්‌ධ පහ ගැටෙන්නේ ජනාධිපති නමැති පංචස්කන්‌ධය සමඟ නොවේ. ලක්‍ෂ 69 ක ජනතා පරමාධිත්‌වය සමඟය. කලින් නඩුවේදී උසාවිය දුන් තීරණය, පලාත් පාලන චන්දයේ මහජන තීරණයට පටහැනි වූවක් මෙන්ම, ඒ නිසා රටේ ඇතිවූ අරාජක ස්වභාවය (ෆේල්ඩ් ස්ටේට්), රටට කල විශාල විපතක් විය. ඒ පංචස්කන්‌ධ හත, නීතියේ ආධිපත්‍යය හා මහජන පරමාධිපත්‍යය නාමයෙන්, මහජනයාගේ පැත්තෙන් බලන විට නම්, ලොකු මිථ්‍යා දෙකක නාමයෙන්, දුන් තීරණය, පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරයට වක්‍රව හෝ වගකිව යුතු වන්නේ යයි කීම උසාවියට අපහාස කිරීමක් නොව, උසාවියේ ත‌ර්‌ක විද්‍යාවේ තිබූ අඩුපාඩුවක් පෙන්‌වා දීමය. බළලාගේ බෙල්ලේ ගෙජ්ජියක් දැමීමක්‌ය. මෙහි පහතින් පෙන්‌වා දෙන අන්දමට නිර්‌මානාත්මකව, අළුත් ප්‍රශ්ණ අසමින්, රේල් පාරෙන් ඉවතට පැන, පෙට්ටියෙන් ඔබ්බට සිතා ක්‍රියා කරන උසාවි ලෝකයේ ඇත. ටනල් විෂන් කුමණ මානව සංස්ථාවකට වුවත් හානිකරය.

හැකිය-යුතුය සංවාදය

විසුරුවා හල දියවන්නා හෝටලය නැවත ඇරීමට නැතුවම බැරි ආකාරයේ <හදිසි තත්‌වයක්> රටේ ඇතැයි ජනාධිපති සිතන්නේ නම්, ඔහුට එය නැවත ඇරිය හැකිය යන්නෙන් කාරණා කීපයක් සනිටුහන් වේ. (1) ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ සඳහන් කරණ හදිසි තත්‌වය කුමක්ද? (2) ඒ හදිසි තත්‌වය හා ජනාධිපති සිතන හදිසි තත්‌වය එකම දේද නැද්ද? (3) 1 & 2 මොනවා වුනත්, හෝටලය යලි ඇරීම කල හැකි මිසක් කලයුතු යයි කොහේවත් ලියා නැත්තේ ඇයි? සුමන්තිරන් කියන ආකාරයට තුන්වන කකුල නැති රටක ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදයක් නොතිබිය හැකි නම්, ඒ කකුල නැතිව සිටිය හැක්කේ උපරිම වශයෙන් මාස තුනක් පමණක් නම්, අඩු තරමින් කල හැකිය වෙනුවට කලයුතුය කියා සුමන්තිරන්ලා හා ජයම්පතිලා ඒ කාලයේ එය වෙනස් නොකලේ ඇයි?

මෙහිදී හුනුවටයේ කතාව මෙන් ජනාධිපතිගේ හිත විමසීමට උසාවියට අවශ්‍ය නොවේ. ඊට හේතුව 2019 චන්දයේදී ඔහුගේ හිත එලිකර තිබීමය. මුන් 225 ම එපා යන චන්ද විරෝධය ඉදිරියේ ජනතාවට ගෝඨාභය දුන් පොරොන්‌දුව නම් පරණ පිරිස ඉඩ ලද වහාම ගෙදර යවන බවය. ඔහු එය ඉෂ්ට කලේය. එය ඔහු විසින් ජනතා පරමාධිත්‌වය ක්‍රියාවට නැඟීමකි. තුන්වන කකුලට (පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට) බලය එන්නේද ජනතාව ගෙන්‌ය. උසාවිය බිල්ලට දෙනවා යයි කියන්නේ මේ නිසාය. පෙත්සම් මඟින් යහපාලනකාරයින් උසාවියට කියන්නේ ජනතාව ඍජුව ජනාධිපතිට දුන් බලය, ජනතා විශ්වාසය කඩකල අවලංගු කාසි 225 කට
යටකරණ ලෙසය!

කියන දේ කරණ ජනාධිපති

චන්දයේදී පොරොන්‌දුවූදේ හැකි උපරිමයෙන් ඉටු කිරීම මේ ජනාධිපතිගේ අභිප්‍රාය බව ජනතාව පිළිගෙන ඇත. පක්‍ෂ දේශපාලකයෙක් නොවන ජනාධිපති යන්නේ <මරණ තුනක් ඇති මිනිහෙක් පැණිකෑය> යන කවි පදය සිහිපත් කරවන අන්දමේ දුෂ්කර ගමනකි. උසාවි විසින් ඔහුගේ මේ ගමනට භාධා නොකරතැයි බලාපොරොත්තුවන බව ඔහු ප්‍රසිද්‌ධියේම කියා සිටියේය. ලංකාවට අවුරුදු 72 ක් පුරාම සිදුවූයේ මරණ තුනක් නොව සියගණනකට මුහුණ දීමටය. 1971, 1988/9 කැරැලි, 30 අවුරුදු යුද්‌ධය, ගමේ ස්ත්‍රීන් අරාබි වහල් සේවයට යැවීම, තරුණියන් රෙදි පැක්ටරි වල අසරණ වීම, මුළු සමාජයම දූෂිතවීම පක්‍ෂ දේශපාලකයින් කොසොල් රජතුමාගේ සීන නොසලා හැරීමේ ප්‍රතිපලය. දැන් අන්තිමේදී කොරෝනාව මුළු ලෝකයටම මේ පාඩම උගන්‌වා තිබේ.

නඩුකාරතුමෙක් බිහිවන්නේ කෙසේද?

ගාන්‌ධි වරක් කිව්වේ නීතීඥයින්, බාබර්ලා මෙන් සමාජයට අත්‍යාවශ්‍යම කොටසක් බවය. ඇමෙරිකාවේ නම් නීතී‌ඥයෙක් වීමට පෙර වෙන උපාධියක් තිබිය යුතුය. ලංකාවේ ක්‍රමය අනුව නීති කෝච්චියට නැංගොත් ඉන් බසින්නේ ඒ ක්‍රමයට අනුව මොළ සේදු කළුකබා කාරයෙකි. මෙය හරියට ඕනෑම අහිංසක කෙනෙක් පොලිසියට බැඳුනොත් ඔහුට වෙනදේ වගේය. මේ සාමාන්‍ය රීතියට පිටි ගිය නීතිඥයා හෝ පොලිස්කාරයා, පිලිවෙලින් දුගී හා උසස්වීම් රහිත කොන්‌වුණ අයෙකි. අතීතයේදී නම් නීති විද්‍යාලයට ගියේ දේපල තිබූ අයය. දැන් යන අයගේ අරමුණ ගාන්‌ධිගේ අරමුණ නොව සේවාදායකයා නමැති මල තල තලා රා බීමය. මෙවැනි ආකල්පයකින් ඉස උදුම්මවා ගත් සමහරෙක් නීතිපති දෙපාර්‌තමේන්තුව හරහා ඉහළ උසාවියට යයි. සමහරු රජයේ රැකියා ලබා ගනියි. තවත් අය උසාවි වල බඩගා පහල උසාවි තනතුරු ලබාගනී. දේශපාලකයින්ට හේත්තුවී ජනාධිපති නීතීඥයින්වේ. තනතුරු සඳහා බලවත් තරඟයක් ඇතිවීම පුදුමයක් නොවේ.

සිවිල් සේවයට වඩා නඩුකාර සේවය බාල්දු කල වෙන රටක් නැති තරම්‌ය. ජනාධිපති ඉදිරියේ දිව්‍ර‌ැම් දීම, සේවය සළකා උසස්වීම් නොදීම, ව්‍යවස්ථා සභාව බොරුවක් වීම යනාදිය ගැන සිතන විට මේ වෘත්තියේ සිටිනවාට ඔවුන්ට ස්තුතිකල යුතුය. එහෙත් නාගානන්ද කොඩිතුවක්කු විසින් ඉතාමත් හොඳින් පැහැදිලි කරදෙන ආකාරයට ලංකාවේ මුළු යුක්තිය පසිඳලීමේ ක්‍රමයම උඩු යටිකුරු කල යුතුය. සමථ මණ්ඩල, ගම් සභා උසාවි යනාදිය මඟින් නීතීඥයින් හරහා කෙරෙන සූරාකෑම හා මිනිසුන් සතුරන් කරණ ක්‍රියාවලිය අවම කල යුතුය. විදේශ තානාපති කාර්‌යාල හා විනිසුරුවන් අතර සම්බන්‌ධතා තහනම් කල යුතුය. මෙය නීති සංගමයටද අදාලය. ඉද හිට මතුවන තරුවක් හැර නඩූකාරයින් සබන් පැක්ටරියක සබන් කෑලි වැනිය. නඩු වාර්‌තා වලට පිටින් ලෝකය ගැන කියවා දැනගතයුතු දේ බොහෝය.

ලංකාවේ පක්‍ෂ දේශපාලකයින් විසින් නඩුකාරවරුන් පඹයින් බවට පත්කර තිබේ. උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් මොන අටමඟුලක් හෝ කතානායක විසින් අත්සන් කල පසු ඒ ගැන විමසීමට සුප්‍රිම් උසාවියට නොහැකිය. හැන්සාඩ් එකෙන් එලිවන හොර දූෂණ නීති වැඩ මහජනයා දැනගත්තත් ඒ ගැන උසාවි වල අත්බැඳ තැබීම නිසා හෑල්ලුවන්නේ උසාවියේ උතුම් කමය. රට ජාතිය ගැන සළකා අළුත් විධියට සිතන්නට යම් නඩුකාරතුමෙකුට නොසිතෙන්නේ මේ <වහල් ක්‍රමය> නිසාය. අලි මදිවාට හරක් මෙන්, නිහඬව, නිශ්චලව ඉන්නා අයට විශ්‍රාම ගිය පසු නොයෙක් සන්තෝෂම් බලයේ ඉන්නා දේශපාලකයින්ගෙන් පිරිනැමේ. මෙවැනි හිත් දූෂ්‍ය කිරීම් වැලැක්‌වීමේ විධි විධාන තිබිය යුතුය.

තම රටේ නීතිය වර්‌ධනය කිරීම, යථාර්‌ථවත් කිරීම, කාර්යක්‍ෂම කිරීම රටක සුප්‍රීම් උසාවියක යුතුකමය, වගකීමය. මේ සඳහාම වැටුප් ලබන්නේ නීති උපාධි ආයතනවල ගුරුවරුය. මානව අයිතිවාසිකම් වැනි ලෝක දේශපාලනයට ගෑවුණ, පුද්ගලික වාසි ලැබෙන ගනයේ මාතෘකා අල්ලාගෙන ලිපි ලිවීම මිස නීතිය ක්‍රියාවේ යෙදීමේදී ඇතිවන ගැටළු, ක්‍ෂේත්‍ර පර්යේෂණ හෝ අඩුතරමින් මහේස්ත්‍රාත් උසාවි වල නඩු වාර්තා ආශ්‍රයෙන් පර්යේෂණ පත්‍රිකා පිලියෙල කිරීමට සිය ශිෂ්‍යයින් යොමු කිරීමවත් මොවුන් කරණ වාදැයි මම නොදනිමි. මේ සම්බන්‌ධයෙන් මා දන්නා ඇමෙරිකන් උදාහරණ කීපයක් මෙසේය.

ප්‍රසිද්‌ධ ඇමෙරිකන් නීති‌ඥයෙක්‌වූ ක්ලැරන්ස් ඩැරෝ (1857-1938) ගේ ජීවිත කතාව ගැන ලියා ඇති <ක්ලැරන්ස් ෆෝ ද ඩිෆෙන්ස්>, අර්වින් ස්ටෝන්, (1941) යන පොත, නීතිය හා සම්බන්‌ධ ලංකාවේ හැමදෙනෙක්ම කියවිය යුතුය කියා මා සිතන්නේ ඔහු විසින් ඇමෙරිකාවේ නීතියේ වැඩිදියුණුවට කල දායකත්‌වය දැනගැනීමටය. 1939 සිට 1975 දක්වා ඇමෙරිකන් සුප්‍රිම් උසාවි නඩුකාරයෙක්‌වූ විලියම් ඕ. ඩග්ලස් ගැන බ්‍ර‌ෑස් මර්ෆි විසින් ලියා ඇති <වයිල්ඩ් බිල්> (2003) යන පොතද එවැනිමය. ඔහු විසින් අවුරුදු 35 ක් තුල නොයෙක් ඇමෙරිකන් නීති යාවත්කාලීන හා වඩා අර්‌ථවත් කලේය.

නීති අර්‌ථ නිරූපනය කරනවා යන්නට, තිබෙන ලිඳ තවත් හෑරීම (ජඹුර කිරීම) හෝ පලල් කිරීම හෝ මෙන්ම, අළුත් ලිඳක් හෑරීමද අයත් යයි ක්ලැරන්ස් හා විලියම් යන දෙන්නා පෙන්‌වා දුන්නේය. මෙසේ කිරීමේදී පරණ නඩු තීන්‌දු වලින් හා නීති පුස්කොල පොත් වලින් ඔබ්බට ගොස් ඉතිහාස, භූගෝල, දේශපාලන, සමාජ විද්‍යා හා සාහිත්‍ය පොත්ද කියවිය යුතු වන්නේය. මෙහිදී මට මතක් වන්නේ 1972 දී ක්‍රිස්ටෝපර් ස්ටෝන් විසින් ලියූ, <ගස් වලට උසාවි යාමට ඉඩදිය යුතුද?> යන නිබන්‌ධනයය (ෂුඩ් ට්‍රීස් හෑව් ස්ටෑන්ඩින්). ඒ මඟින් ස්වභාවික පරිසරයට නීතිමය අයිතිවාසිකම් දිය යුතුය යන මතය ඇමෙරිකන් උසාවි වලට, පරිසර නීතියට, සමාජයට හා විද්‌වතුන්ට කල බලපෑමේ සීමාවක් නැත.

මෙවැනි තවත් නඩුවක් නම් බ්‍රවුන් එදිරිව බෝඩ් ඔෆ් එඩියුකේෂන්, ටොපිකා, කැන්සස් ය (1954). 1896 සිට ඇමෙරිකාවේ පැවති නීතිය වූයේ සමාන පහසුකම් තිබෙනවා නම් කළු හා සුදු ලමයින් වෙන් වෙන් පාසැල් වල ඉගෙන ගැනීම, සමාන අයිතිවාසිකම් රැකීමේ 14 ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශොධනයට පටහැනි නොවන බවය. එහෙත් නීති පොත් වලින් බාහිරවූ, සමාජ විද්‍යාත්මක, මනෝ විද්‍යාත්මක ශාක්‍ෂි අනුව, 1954 දී සුප්‍රිම් උසාවියේ නඩුකාරවරුන් 9 දෙනා ඒකමතිකව තීරණය කලේ, සමාන පහසුකම් තිබුණා හෝ නොතිබුණා හෝ, කළු හා සුදු වශයෙන් වෙන වෙනම පාසැල් තිබීම නෛසර්‌ගිකවම අසමාන ක්‍රමවේදයක් වන බවය (ඉන්හෙරන්ට්ලි අන්‌ඊක්වල්).

අධර්මිෂ්ට සමාජය හා උසාවිය

යහපාලනයට සම්බන්‌ධ පෙත්සම් කරුවන් උසාවියට ආවේ පාර්ලිමේන්තු දෙවඟන රැක ගන්නට නොවේ. ඔවුන්ගේ අරමුණ පක්‍ෂ දේශපාලනයය. හෝටලය අරවා ගෙන දෙකට කැඩුණු රනිල්-සජිත් පිල් සමඟිවී යලි නාම යෝජනා දිය හැකි උපක්‍රමයක් සළසා ගැනීමය.
විරුද්‌ධ පක්‍ෂයක්, ඕනෑම කොන්දේසියක් උඩ ආණ්ඩුවට සහයෝගය දෙන්නම්, නැවත පාර්ලිමේන්තුව (දියවන්නා හෝටලය) ඇර දෙන්න කියා හිඟාකනවා නම් එතන තිබෙන්නේ මොන පාර්ලිමේන්තු ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදයද? එවැනි තැනක් සුමන්තිරන් කියන අන්දමේ තුන් වැනි කකුලක්ද නැත්නම් බොරු කකුලක්ද? ජනාධිපතිට දැනට තිබෙන නීති රාමුව තුල කොරෝනාව කළමනාකරණය කල හැකි නම් මේ යහපාලනකාරයින් කඩිමුඩියේ පණවා ගන්නට සිතන නීති මොනවාද? නිතී හැදීමේලා මොවුන්ගේ වාර්‌තාව රටටත්, උසාවියටත් අමතකද?

මෙහිදී උසාවිය විසින් කල යුතු ජනාධිපතිට ලැබුණු ජනවරම කුරෝළු වන ආකාරයේ තීරණයක්දී රට අවුල් ජාලයකට දැමීම නොව, 2000 වර්‍ෂයේ බුෂ් එදිරිව ගෝර් නඩුවේදී ඇමෙරිකන් සුප්‍රිම් උසාවිය කලා මෙන් රට ගැන සිතා හැකි ඉක්මණින් චන්දය පැවැත්‌වීමට මැතිවරණ කොමිෂමට උපදෙස් ලබා දීමය. ඒ සඳහා උසාවිය 1954 ඇමෙරිකන් නඩුවේදී මෙන් නීති පොත් වලින් බාහිර (එක්ස්ට්‍රා ජුඩිෂියල්) කරුණු සළකා බැලීමේ <විප්ලවයක්> ආරම්භ කල යුතුය. කොසොල් රජතුමා දුටු සීන දාසැයට දුන් විග්‍රහය, කොරෝනාව විසින් සනාථ කර ඇති බවත්, අවුරුදු 72 කට පසු ඊට නොබියව මුහුණ දීමට රටවැසියා විසින් විශේෂ පුද්ගලයෙකුට බලය ලබා දුන් බවත්, එය බකල් කිරීමේ දුෂ්ට උත්සාහයට උසාවිය ඈඳාගැනීමට ඉඩ නොදිය යුතු බවත් එවැනි බාහිර සාධකය.

I. de Silva Canada

The Editor
Diplomat Matazine
Ottawa, Ontario

Dear Ms. Campbell:

                                   Re: Post War Sri Lanka: Fractured and Unjust For Tamils by Visvajit Sriramrajan

I am writing to correct the many falsehoods in this article. The first sentence indicates clear bias and false information that continues throughout the article. To support this statement I am providing you with examples of falsehoods in the article. 

The opening statement states ” This month marks 11 years since the Mullivaikkal massacre which shook the Northern Province of Sri Lanka back in 2009 with the brutal killing of nearly 50,000 Tamils over just a few days”. There was no massacre.  Even the Tamil terrorists overseas propaganda machine called Tamilnet,  clearly acknowledged that in the last stages of the war the number of dead was 7398.   Since then, this number has been increased to 40,000, 50,000, and even 100,000 by the LTTE propaganda overseas.  However, nowhere in the Northern Province has there been evidence of mass graves. Nowhere has there been any evidence of indiscriminate killing by the Sri Lankan forces. The fact remains that it was 7398, acknowledged in 2009 by the Tamil terrorist supporters overseas and confirmed by the U.N. representative in Sri Lanka.  How can it be called Tamil genocide when it was the Tamil terrorists who terrorized, murdered, and massacred Sri Lankans of every ethnicity? The terrorists were the Tamils known as the Liberation Tamils of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).  In May 2009, the Sri Lankan security forces finally destroyed the leadership of the Tamil Terrorists  (LTTE) who had terrorised Sri Lanka for nearly 30 years. The LTTE cadres who surrendered to the government forces were rehabilitated and released. Over 300,000 civilians who had been held by the Tamil terrorists as a human shield were looked after in camps set up for them by the Government of Sri Lanka and released into civilian life.

Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa was the Defence Secretary in the Government of Sri Lanka in 2009 and is acknowledged as the leader who finally defeated the Tamil terrorists in Sri Lanka to the consternation of the western countries who throughout the war maintained that the Tamil terrorists could not be defeated militarily and therefore the Sri Lankan Government should give in to their demands to divide the country. The Tamil terrorists were funded by their Tamil supporters overseas and western political leaders who did so just to get Tamil votes in their respective countries. They had no concern for the plight of Sri Lankans who were being terrorised. There was no “Tamil Genocide”, only the defeat of the leadership of the Tamil terrorists. To state that “Rajapakse orchestrated the Tamil genocide” is a blatant lie and merely indicates the bias and support that the writer has for his Tamil terrorists. The fact that Mr. Gotabaya Rajapakse was elected in 2019 with a commanding majority clearly indicates that Sri Lankans acknowledge and commend him for the great service he provided to all Sri Lankans who can now live without fear of being terrorised by the Tamil terrorist LTTE.

Mr. Rajapakse is what the citizens of Sri Lanka wanted and voted for as their President. They voted for his agenda. That it does not suit non-Sri Lankans such as the writer is of no consequence to Sri Lankans.

Yours truly,

I. de Silva

Canada

Dr sarath obeysekera 

During this difficult period, we keep watching how vegetables were wasted and rotten fish getting disposed

Fruits rotting away due to difficulties in transportation 

We should now think carefully about preserving food for a rainy day 

In Russia, people keep preserving cabbage cucumber, carrot  and beetroot, etc and bottle them for consumption during winter

In Scandinavia, they  smoke fish and use it in wintertime 

We should do the same 

We should bottle excess cucumber and vegetables 

We should smoke fish and chicken and preserve 

We should crush fruits and preserve the creamy paste

Novel thinking is needed for our future 

Dr Sarath Obeysekera
CEO Walkers Colombo Shipyard
Colombo
Sri Lanka

Courtesy Adaderana

Avant-Garde Chairman Nissanka Senadhipati has revealed that former Director General of the Bribery Commission had offered to release him from all legal proceedings if he implicates Former Defence Secretary and current President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the case.

He stated this appearing before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry probing incidents of political victimisation during the period of 08 January 2015 to 16 November 2019, on Tuesday (26) to provide evidence pertaining to a written complaint he had lodged before.

He told the panel that revenue of over Rs. 500 Mn was brought to the country via his business and it had provided employment to over 4,500 people.

Senadhipathi went on to say that following the government of Good Governance coming to power, the harbour police station of Galle had inspected the floating armoury ‘M V Mahanuwana’ owned by Avant-Garde, on 18 January 2015, adding that the police had reported information to the Galle Magistrate’s Court on operating an illegal armoury.

Meanwhile, a legal counsel representing Senadhipathi told the Commission, not a single suspect was named, even by the time when 5 years had passed since Galle Police filed the first B-report with regard to inspecting the Avant-Garde vessel, to Galle Magistrate’s Court.

He added that then-DIG in charge of Galle had filed a B-report, saying the vessel was an unidentified one, after he obtained instructions from then-Minister Rajitha Senaratne in person.

Senadhipathi meanwhile told the Commission that he was politically victimized in an attempt to imprison former Defence Secretary and current President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, pertaining to a legal case.

He went on to say the former Director General of the Bribery Commission Dilrukshi Dias had told him that she will release him from all legal proceedings if he signs an affidavit saying money was given to former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa pertaining to the Avant Garde case.

Senadhipathi added that Dilrukshi Dias has later apologized over her actions and confessed she filed cases against him and Gotabaya Rajapaksa over political pressure.

Dr. sarath obeysekera  

We have had Easter attack last year and now the Corona pandemic which has caused a heavy burden ion people But most   of the professionals in technical, financial and management fields are sitting at home and spend quite a life without infusing revolutionary ideas which are practical and workable to overcome the problems 

We have been watching TV and reading social media publications and news on the web 

What we see are all about the precarious situation our country is in with no hopes 

Project Task Forces have been meeting regularly and thE public is not aware of what plans  they have other than corona  control related activities 

While admitting that it is the most important part to handle at this hour, new ideas should be put into practice to overcome the enormous  problems we are going to face ahead 

We cannot see any progress in agricultural development We cannot see any plans to deploy  abundant  resource to invent new production methods 

We cannot see any plans to deploy somewhat inactive human resources  to manufacture items  at home

We cannot see and fishery development taking place 

Media should stop publishing antisocial news and start brainwashing the people that situation we will be  facing In time to come will be full of hardships and also  disastrous

People who have stashed an enormous amount  of money should be voluntarily used to feed hungry people and bring the moral up

We need revolutionary thinking today 

Dr. Sarath Obeysekera
CEO Walkers Colombo Shipyard
Colombo
Sri Lanka

සමස්ත ලංකා වරාය පොදුසේවක සමිතිය.

සභාපති,
ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා වරාය අධිකාරිය,
කොළඹ.

සභාපතිතුමනි,

#කොවිඩ්- 19 #Covid- 19 හේතුවෙන් ආයතනය හා සේවකයින් මුහුණ පා ඇති ගැටලූ සඳහා විසඳුම් සෙවීමට පොදු යාන්තණ‍්‍රයක් සකස් කිරීම.

#කොවිඩ්- 19 #Covid- 19 වසංගතය හේතුවෙන් වරාය හමුවේ ඇති අභියෝග ජය ගැනීමටත් ඉන් පැනනගින සේවක ගැටලූවලට හා සේවාලාභීන්ගේ ගැටලූවලට සාර්ථකව මුහුණ දීම සඳහා පොදු යාන්ත‍්‍රණයක් සකස්කරන ලෙස ආරම්භයේදීම අප ඔබතුමන්ගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිමුත් මේ දක්වා එවැනි යාන්ත‍්‍රණයක් වරාය තුල සැකසී නැත.

කරුණු එසේ තිබියදී පාලනාධිකාරීය විසින් විටින්විට ගනුලබන එකිනෙකට පරස්පර තීරණ හේතුවෙන් විශේෂයෙන් වරාය සේවකයා දැඩි දුෂ්කරතාවයට පත්ව ඇත.

එහි ආසන්නතම ගැටලූව 2020/05/18 දින වඅධි/ප‍්‍ර01/විවිධ/2020 යටතේ කළමණාකාර අධ්‍යක්‍ෂකතුමා විසින් නිකුත් කරන ලද චක‍්‍රලේඛය පෙන්වා දිය හැක.  
එමගින් 2020/05/18 දින සිට වරාය සේවා කටයුතු හා සේවයට පැමිණීම සාමාන්‍ය තත්වයට පත්කර ඇත.

එම චක‍්‍රලේඛයයේ පවතින අඩුපාඩු දක්වා අප විසන් 2020/05/22 දිනැතිව යොමු කරන ලද ලිපියට ප‍්‍රතිචාර ලෙස එදිනම උප සභාපතිතුමා විසින් එම චක‍්‍රලේඛයට වැඩිමනත් ලෙස දන්වමින් 2020/05/22 දින වඅධි/ප‍්‍ර01/ විවිධ /2020 යටතේ නව චක‍්‍රලේඛයක් නිකුත් කර ඇත.

එමගින් සේවාමුර සඳහා නොපැමිණෙන සේවකයින් තම පුද්ගලික නිවාඩු දැමිය යුතු බව දන්වා ඇත. එම චක‍්‍රලේඛය ප‍්‍රකාරව අංශ ප‍්‍රධානීන් විසන් 2020. 05. 18 සිට සේවයට වාර්තා කර නැති සේවකයින්ට පුද්ගලික නිවාඩු වාර්තා කරන ලෙස දන්වා ඇත.  

ජීවත අවධානම නොතකමින් පොදු ප‍්‍රවාහන සේවාවන් ක‍්‍රියාත්මක නොවන වටපිටාවක වරාය සේවකයින් සැලකිය යුතු පිරිසක් ආයතනයේ අභිවෘද්ධිය වෙනුවෙන් මේ දක්වා තම සේවය ලබා දෙමින් ඇත.

කොළඹ හා ගම්පහ දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කවල ඇඳිරි නීතිය ක‍්‍රියාත්මකව පවතින තත්වයන් තුල පුද්ගලික වාහන යොදා ගනිමින් සේවයට පැමිණ කැපවීමෙන් යුතුව සේවකයින් මෙතෙක් කරන ලද සේවාව නොසලකා සේවා මුරයට නොපැමිණෙන සේවකයින්ගේ පුද්ගලික නිවාඩු අඩුකිරීමට පාලනාධිකාරිය ගෙන ඇති තීරණය හේතුවෙන් සේවකයින් දැඩි කණස්සල්ලට පත්ව ඇත.

එසේම එම චක‍්‍රලේඛය මගින් මේ දක්වා සේවයට වාර්තා කර නොමැති සේ්වකයින් සම්බන්ධයෙන් කිසිවක් සඳහන්කර නැත.  

කරුණු එසේ හෙයින් ඇඳිරි නීති තත්වය ඉවත්කර පොදු ප‍්‍රවාහන පහසුකම් නිසිපරිදි ක‍්‍රියාත්මක වන තෙක් වරාය සේවකයින්ගේ සේවයට පැමිණීම රජයේ නවාඩු දින සේ සලකා කටයුතු කර 2020/05/22 දිනැතිව වඅධි/ප‍්‍ර01/විවිධ/2020 චක‍්‍රලේඛය අහෝසිකරන ලෙස ඔබතුමාගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිමි.  

තවද අප විසින් පූර්වයෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටි හා නැවත මෙම ලිපිය මගින් දන්වා ඇති පොදු යාන්ත‍්‍රණයක් සකස් කර අපද එහි කොටස්කරුවන් කර ගන්නා ලෙස ඉල්ලා සිටිමි.  

ස්තූතියි.  

මෙයට විධායක සභාව වෙනුවෙන්

චනද්‍ර්සිරි මහගමගේ
ප‍්‍රධාන ලේකම්

Sepal Amarasinghe

Buddika Kumari Amarasinghe1 day ago (edited)ඉරාජ් වීරරත්න ට , අමිත් වීරසිංහ ට ජාතිවාදී කියන අය මේවා දකිද්දී හරි නිහඩයි. ඉරාජ් , අමිත් “Block” කරන්ට දගලන සිංහල අයත් ඉස්ලාම් උනා නම් ඊට වඩා හොදයි. මොකද එහෙම අය මෙහෙම මේවාට කට අරින්නෙ නෑ ජාතිවාදය ඇවිස්සෙයි කියලා 😂 තිස්ස ජනනායක ගුරුතුමා කීවා වගේ ලැජ්ජායි සිංහල බෞද්ධ කියන්ට . ඒත් මිනීමරු සහරාන්ලා අහිංසක දරුවෝ කියන්නේ ආඩම්බරෙන් . අමිත් ,ඉරාජ් වගේ අය නැත්නම් මඩකලපුව , කූරගල අහිංසක මිනිසුන් මේ ත්‍රස්තවාදීන් ගෙ ගොදුරු වෙලා . කිසිදු ත්‍රස්ත ක්‍රියාවක් නොකළ, මුස්ලිම් අන්තවාදය ට විරුද්ධව කතා කල අමිත් වීරසිංහ ට නඩු රාශියක් . ගෙදරින් එලියට යන්ට බෑ . Facebook එකේ ඔහුගේ පින්තූරය ක් දාන්ට වත් බෑ .ඔහු කල වරද සහරාන් වගේ මිනීමරුවන් ගැන කලින්ම කියපු එක. සෝම හාමුදුරුවෝත් මරලා දැම්මා . මෝඩ සිංහල යෝ රන්ඩු කරනකොට තමන්ගේ ම මිනිසුන් විනාශ වෙනවා . මේ පාර මහනුවරින් අමිත් වීරසිංහ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ගියොත් මේ අපරාධයට යම් විසදුමක් තියෙයි. රට ජාතිය ආගමට ආදරය කරන මහනුවර අය හොද තීරණයක් ගන්ට 🙏

The Pathfinder National Security Strategy was developed in 2018 for the previous government. Then came Presidential elections in November 2019. This meant it was not a document incorporating the vision or mission of the new President though it was handed to the new President immediately after Presidential victory.  Given that Pathfinder Foundation operates and is linked to various think-tanks and entities in India, China and US what is its position vis a vis this trajectory and how does PF wish to position Sri Lanka with its proposal?

The Pathfinder founder Milinda Moragoda’s National Security Strategy for Sri Lanka is based on a ‘code of conduct for the Indian Ocean’ and raises the question – code & conduct for whom! Obviously this is linked to Pathfinder’s programs titled Trincomalee Consultations-2018’ to promote Trincomalee port. What are the littoral countries in the Bay of Bengal that Pathfinder wishes to promote?

How did emerging security dynamics in the Indian Ocean Region in early 2019 become part of Pathfinders mandate? In April 2019 on Easter Sunday, Sri Lanka witnessed mass murder but the US envoy to Sri Lanka claimed the US had no intelligence on it despite India giving 97 intel warnings!

PF claims Sri Lanka needs a coherent national security strategy with a clear national security policy. Do we not have such?

PF claims its policy framework views national security from the perspective of the State & its citizens, taking to account traditional national security threats and new actors of international terrorism.

The most interesting aspect of this report is the statement given by the Pathfinder Chairman who says PF DOES NOT CONSIDER national security policies covering SURVIVAL OF HUMANITY and HUMAN SECURITY (food security, environment security) 

In the context of covid-19 and the fact that Sri Lanka may have to re-draw all of its policies within this new health dynamic, completely negates Pathfinder’s policy strategy. 

PF national security strategy is non-committed and excludes national security aspects that cover citizens and security of citizens vis a vis food and environment security. If so, on what basis can PF say that its national security strategy is from the perspective of the citizen if the citizen’s human survival, food and environment is not part of PF strategy?

How can safety of citizens” exclude the all important aspect of human survival?

This conflicts with their later statement how to balance between ‘military and defense based physical security of state and its citizens (Hard Security)and guaranteeing more general form of security that includes physical security of people and their safety and wellbeing, even at the expense of threats to state security and sovereignty (soft security)”.

Is Pathfinder laying blame for Sri Lanka’s economy on the high & increasing level of dependency among elderly population of Sri Lanka (are they not among this category themselves) More than 50% of covid-19 casualties in Europe are from nursing homes where elderly lived raising concerns of foul play. We cannot accept any proposition to raise the economy by eliminating the elderly!  We cannot forget – they too contributed to the country in their youth!

It is also regrettable that the local team has also described 1983 as ‘ethnic riots’ when it was a government organized attack and Sinhalese were protecting and keeping their Tamil friends and neighbors in their homes. The wrongful labelling of Sri Lanka’s conflict as ‘ethnic’ or ‘civil’ has no justifiable basis. Sri Lanka’s conflict was terrorist. LTTE terrorists killed even Tamils. Sri Lanka’s Armed Forces were fighting Terrorists and Separatists not Tamils. If Sri Lanka’s conflict was ethnic or civil why would over 5000 armed forces personnel lay down their lives to save 300,000 Tamils kept by LTTE as human shields and hostages?

Is the Pathfinder assuming that Sri Lanka’s past conflicts took place because it had not national security strategy? Based on this same logic and given that other countries like US, EU, UK have sound national security strategy, how can Pathfinder explain the numerous acts of terror happening inside their countries with some local acts far more gruesome than foreign terror attacks? (church shootings, mall shootings, school shootings etc are regular features) How have their national security apparatus handled ‘threats from within’.

Pathfinder explains that traditional national security was a nation state defending itself & the citizens through military means.

Pathfinder says that ‘soft security’ requires inclusion of a wider set of agencies and experts from political, economic, diplomatic. Is this another name or explanation for demilitarization and to hand over task of national security to others away from the military apparatus? Is this why Pathfinder is laying emphasis on the increasing role of NGOs which should really be named foreign government funded organizations and they are doing their utmost to erode nation-state sovereignty.

Can Pathfinder explain what it means by ‘blurring the very important distinction between national security and human security’?When a nation is given life by the existence of the People and the People’s security is founded in the nation – how can the two be considered separate?

Pathfinder says Sri Lanka faces 3 types of National Security Threats

1. Geopolitical related external threats
2. Internally generated threats rooted in socio-political & ethno-religious environment
3. Threats related to globalization

In describing the 1^stit is interesting that Pathfinder says ‘Sri Lanka is likely to be pressurized to conclude agreements with foreign countries to serve THEIR NATIONAL INTERESTS”.

Ironically, Pathfinders Economic Proposal to the GoSL in its Proposal 5 – recommends GoSL sign and implement the MCC (Millennium Challenge Corporation compact agreement)

This completely nullifies the present document as an impartial proposal.

Having recommended Sri Lanka sign the MCC, the Pathfinder in its National Security Strategy says Sri Lanka should consider developing a multi-directional foreign policyas has been practiced by Vietnam relying on ‘three no’s policy i.e., ‘no participation in military alliances, no foreign military bases on Vietnamese territory, and no reliance on one country to fight against another’.

Is this the reason for the trend to insert Sri Lanka would be ‘NEUTRAL”?

Switzerland is the country often mentioned for its position of ‘NEUTRALITY’ but Switzerland joins EU in voting against Sri Lanka at UNHRC and has shown no reason for anyone to consider Switzerland anything but neutral in its diplomatic affairs.

To be Neutral” is like watching a woman being raped and refusing to assist or save her simply because one’s policy says I will not take anyone’s side”. 

A country in a position of power can make very condescending statements of being ‘Neutral’ (but actually be not) but can a developing country, up to its neck in debt do so, when it is our improved relations and mutual exchanges of good will diplomacy that promotes countries to assist us?

No one can deny that it is after signing the non-aligned charter and becoming a member, that Sri Lanka was able to make a mark internationally.To this day, it is that non-aligned seal of relations that continue to sustain relations with other nations of the world gaining respect as a non-aligned nation. Sri Lanka as a nation that wears the cap of ‘NEUTRALITY’ is self-isolating itself from the rest of the world and the non-aligned nations that historically Sri Lanka has long relations with. 

Is the actual game-plan to make Sri Lanka self-isolate itself and in so doing lose the traditional friends it had?

Isn’t this part of military strategy where the enemy is isolated from all defenses making the attack all the greater and gruesome with no help from anyone.

Sri Lanka’s leaders must not fall for this trap of neutrality– Sri Lanka must remain non-aligned by word and continue its relations with the bloc of non-aligned nation.

Pathfinder national security strategy should have provided solutions to the illegal fishing by India on Sri Lanka’s territorial waters instead of simply saying ‘both countries should address this long-standing issue’. The document is mostly of what everyone already knows and has nothing innovative for Sri Lanka to follow.

Pathfinder mentions that the separatist conflict in north and east as well as the 2 youth rebellions in the South and the Easter Sunday threatened the economy and security of citizens and that the separatist conflict and the Easter Sunday attacks is linked to transnational threats to Sri Lanka’s security. Yes, but it is only diplomatically and via government that Sri Lanka can deal with countries that continue to harbor LTTE diaspora inspite of their countries banning them.

The country was caught unprepared not for any reason but for inefficiency, incompetency of the people wrongly appointed for these roles and blame lies nowhere else but in the leadership of the past government.There was enough intel within the country and there was more than enough intel from foreign sources to have prevented the attack. To ensure future crisis does not arise means to ensure the most suitable persons are given the roles.

Sovereign states cannot unilaterally solve problems, that is why Sri Lanka needs to continue to maintain good diplomatic relations. Claiming to be neutral is not going to land Sri Lanka with any help from anyone or any country when in need!

In the event of trade sanctions or even a natural disaster/calamity etc if Sri Lanka continues with its ‘NEUTRAL’ song would any friendly country even come to our assistance? 

We do not need to tell Pathfinder who are the main source of illegal international drug trafficking and how they operate and why the world will never see an end to international narcotics trade or smuggling except for countries to secure their borders. Again with human smuggling too, countries that claim to champion it have allowed Sri Lanka’s terrorists to flee and operate from their land. When such duplicities and hypocrisies prevail what can a country do but to adjust and find ways to mitigate the situation!

A well-coordinated intelligence apparatus can quickly ascertain where trouble-makers are looming and nip the situation in the bud before it spreads like a cancer, is the lesson Sri Lanka has to take from all of its past conflicts. Not taking action when Sri Lanka should have, is the mistake Sri Lanka made and as a result, suffered consequences.

That Sri Lanka was stopped from taking action must also be mentioned via bogus ceasefire agreements (to which the Foundations’ founder was also party) was only meant to provide the enemy time to regroup and return with venom.

Sri Lanka’s national strategy following the path of curbing terror and trouble-makers while another country’s national strategy of encouraging or using terror and funding trouble-makers is the situation all countries facing conflicts suffer from. No strategy can solve this in a piece of paper or a proposal.

Let it not be forgotten, that presumably without a ‘national security strategy’ Sri Lanka defeated the most ruthless terrorist organization linked to foreign countries and indigenously carried out a rehabilitation, resettlement and reintegration program to success. Countries with near-perfect national security strategies are continuing to fight terror with no success in sight.

With Pathfinders emphasis on formulation of ‘Expert Committees’ within the National Security Secretariat, is Pathfinder attempting to secure a place within this apparatus?

Pathfinder makes reference to the 3 main players in Asia. The three may regard each other as a risk to themselves but that does not necessarily mirror Sri Lanka’s opinion. Just because India or US regard China as a threat or China regards India & US as a threat – Sri Lanka does not need to take the same position as either bloc. Sri Lanka has relations with the 3 for Sri Lanka’s own interests and they have relations with Sri Lanka for their own interests.If there is rivalry between China-US-India it is between them and Sri Lanka should not get involved but have relations with each based on Sri Lanka’s interests only.

During Indo-Pak war and Pakistan requested to refuel in Sri Lanka, India objected but Mrs. Bandaranaike firmly stated her stand and to this day both countries respect her for her stand. This was diplomacy at its best. 

Pathfinder recommends Sri Lanka follow Vietnam’s 3 no policies – no participation in military alliances, no foreign military bases on Vietnamese territory and no reliance on one country to fight against another’. But the loophole is that the ‘No’ allows defense cooperation – so what’s the big deal in the ‘No’s’.

RAND Cooperation says as long as characterizations of military exchanges remain vaguer, Vietnam is likely to be willing to engage more extensively’.

So what does Pathfinder recommend that Sri Lanka keep its terms vague with room to do exactly what Sri Lanka claims it will not?

Let us note that Vietnam has given China ‘comprehensive strategic cooperative’ status,

Japan is Vietnam’s ‘extensive strategic partner’ 2014 (more than strategic but not yet comprehensive)

Australia was Vietnam’s ‘higher defense level strategic partner’ (2013)

US is Vietnam’s ‘strategic partner’.

All these partnerships remain, though Vietnam says ‘no military alliances’.

So who are we fooling with the thesaurus.

Vietnam’s liberalizations (advantageous to transnational corporates) are drummed by Western entities as a success story to its development which hides the impacts to the Vietnamese whose status of life hasn’t improved though country statistics has!

The Pathfinder National Security Strategy team comprises Chairman Bernard Goonetilleke, Lalith Weeratunga (former Secretary to the President), H M G S Palihakkara (Former Foreign Secretary), Roshan Goonetilleka (Former Air Force Commander & present Governor Western Province), former Commander of Sri Lanka Navy & Director of Pathfinder Foundation Admiral Jayanath Colombage, Former Commander of Army General Daya Ratnayake, Executive Director of Pathfinder Foundation Luxman Siriwardena. Dr Sisira Pinnawala who developed the theoretical framework. http://www.pathfinderfoundation.org/index.php?start=3

Pathfinder recommends Sri Lanka does not say what Sri Lanka will do and keep terms vague.

The most shocking aspect of Pathfinders proposed national security strategy is its omission of the survival of humanity and human security concerns (food security, environment security etc)

Shenali D Waduge

Sri Lanka has marked its 10^thCOVID-19 death with the news of a Kuwaiti-returnee passing away at a quarantine centre in Trincomalee on 25 May 2020. She was 51 years and had returned to Sri Lanka on one of the 2 flights which carried some 437 Sri Lankans by Kuwait Airlines on 19^thand 20^thMay. The 437 Sri Lankans had apparently been put up in 3 quarantine centres. Of the 120 so far tested unfortunately 91% have tested positive. It is unfortunate that Kuwait has repatriated these Sri Lankans from Kuwait without testing a single before boarding them on their plane to Sri Lanka.For a country reliant on foreign workers, a basic human gesture by Kuwait before sending back people who had worked for them, should have been to at least, test them and treat them. Kuwait boasts to be the fourth richest country in the world per capita, but when 70% of its 4.2million population are foreigners, the world would have expected Kuwait to treat migrant workers more humanely. 

Kuwait has recorded 165 deathswith its first death recorded on 12 April 2020 and some 21,967 confirmed cases. Kuwait is undergoing complete lockdown from 10^thMay 2020 till 30 May.  

Thomas Reuters Foundation News of 21 May 2020 reported that South Asian Governments were rushing to repatriate some 40million migrants stranded mostly in Gulf nations without work and money. Sri Lanka was also mentioned alongside India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan & Afghanistan already overwhelmed at home mitigating the covid pandemic. 

While these migrant workers find themselves jobless, without money, some without even a place to live – their home nations are equally worried on how to accommodate them back home in the quarantine centres and how best to absorb them into an already faltered economic system. In Sri Lanka’s case some 10,000 may need to be absorbed into work at home.

The article highlighted the concerns of increase in coronavirus infections as a result of mass movements of people which as per John Hopkins University is about 179,000 confirmed cases.

As the article highlighted the concern for all countries repatriating their people is to ensure prevention of community transmission. 

Only Indians showing no signs of illness were allowed to board flight back home. However, in the case of Sri Lankans in Kuwait, the Kuwait Airlines had put Sri Lankans without any testing and brought them to Sri Lanka where they had been put into 3 quarantine centres and of the 120 tested 91% have tested positive. 

https://news.trust.org/item/20200519093700-jyf6o

COVID-19 has certainly left countries like Sri Lanka in a serious predicament. With those employed overseas finding they don’t have jobs, with many not having medical insurance to seek health care overseas, their options have been to request return to their native land. Back home in Sri Lanka, the government, health officials and armed forces are themselves grappling to not only treat the confirmed cases but ensure community transmission is prevented. But with the rising numbers of foreign workers most of whom are labour/domestic worker category, the country is now faced with how to absorb these into a work environment within Sri Lanka to be able to earn to feed their families. The situation is certainly a challenging one for Sri Lanka on account of revenue generation coming to a halt as a result of COVID-19 and precautionary lockdowns and curfew imposed to successfully handle the situation. 

While Sri Lanka steered by its President, intelligence services, health sector, armed forces and police has done an enviable task in handling the COVID-virus crisis internally, the other larger issues related to economic and employment will pose the newer hurdles to overcome. 

However, it is unfortunate that rich countries like Kuwait prefer to simply discard their foreign workers, pack them off to their home countries without even testing them before boarding them on the flight.

It is suggested that the diplomatic channels and the GoSL request these basic human rights requirements be included as mandatory by WHO guidelines when repatriating foreign employees in future. 

Shenali D Waduge

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

Historical evidence of Sri Lanka unambiguously indicates that she had been used monetary units in assorted names in the past before the current monetary unit, Rupee introduced into the country.  The fascinating coins triumphal arch installed in Bank of Ceylon Head Quarters in Colombo displays the models of different monetary units had been administered in Sri Lanka in history.  A controversial view on currency printing in Sri Lanka has already expressed by a Sri Lankan academic that counterfeit coins of foreign currencies were printed in Sri Lanka before 2000 years ago and many so-called archaeologists have not expressed an opinion on this matter. 

Before the rupee has introduced to Sri Lanka as the legally valid monetary unit for exchange purposes in 1872, several monetary units were used during the European rules, and Protégées used their currency unit, and Dutch administration used monetary units imported to Sri Lanka from Indonesia. Robert Knox, who was a moving prisoner in the country during the regime of King Senkadagala Rajasinghe had recorded that Portuguese and Dutch monetary units were used as valid exchange units in the Kandyan Kingdom too and King Rajasinghe also accepted such foreign monetary units as valid currencies for exchange purposes.

After taking over the power by British rulers, Sri Lanka was introduced British pound as the valid monetary unit and historical evidence denotes that first batch of treasury notes for exchanging purpose was issued in 1927 canceling the Rix Dollar unit, which had been widely using in Sri Lanka before the introduction of the British pound.  How Rix Dollar came to use in Sri Lanka is formidable to trace in history without clear evidence, but it can be assumed that from the later part of Dutch rule in Sri Lanka to 1827, this particular Rix dollar had been used in the country for exchange purposes. The writer of this article has never seen this currency note so it is difficult to explain the style of it.

The word RUPEE is assumed to be a term of Bhasha Indonesia (Originated from Sanscrit) and the Rupee or Rupiah monetary unit is being used as an exchange unit in Indonesia, Maldives Islands, Sri Lanka, and India.  The procedure adopted by British Rulers when they were canceling the Rix Dollar unit in the country was the parity of 10 Rix Dollars to a British pound.  When British rulers introduced Rupee into the exchange system of Sri Lanka, the exchange rate was one British pound equal to 10 Ceylon rupees.  That exchange rate was higher than the foreign value of current USD or AUD.  The most horrible story and the serious question of many Sri Lankans at present are why the foreign value of Sri Lanka rupee badly depreciated despite the abundant thrust of economic development and measures to maintain foreign exchange reserves. It is agreed with the economic theory that foreign value to currency would not automatically attract, but it should fulfill certain favorable economic conditions in the country to freely appreciate the foreign value of a currency unit. The conditions are vulnerable to sudden changes and past information might not relevant to the present or future.

After the introduction of Rupee into Sri Lanka’s economy, paper currency was issued by the Treasury but that authority was transferred to the Currency Board System, which established by  No 32 Currency Ordinance of 1884.  There is no argument that Currency Board System was an authority of a dependent economy, however, the system was able to maintain the stability of the external value of Sri Lanka rupee to a certain extent compared to the weak independent central banking, which is powerless when the foreign value of the currency is subject to a sharp decline in the open market. Although it is the prime objective of the monetary authority of the country as indicates in the original central bank act the central has failed to achieve the prime objective. 

Another weak central bank policy of Sri Lanka is it has no strict policy focus on short term market intervention to secure the value of the currency as it has a lower level of reserves to make quick buying and selling activities to adjust the rate and the International Monetary Fund may not agree with a short-term play to maintain the value of Sri Lanka’s rupee when there is a small quantum of foreign reserves.

It is also an issue that if the central bank goes such practice, can the economy respond to bank actions bearing losses or gains might be created.  The strategic plan to stabilize the foreign value of Ceylon rupee under the Currency Board System was the linking of Sri Lanka rupee operations with the British pound and the influence of a strong economy supported to stabilize exchange value at the money market.  The strong economic conditions not in one or two sectors but the favorable conditions in the entire economy are the secrets of strong currency value in any country. We can see that many problems in Sri Lanka’s economy despite the favorable reflections after 2010 especially to the government budget and the balance of payment.

Although certain socialist economists in Sri Lanka (Gunesekera, H.Ade S, From Dependent Currency to Central Banking in Sri Lanka) criticized the linking Sri Lanka rupee with the British pound under the Currency Board System pointing to certain fluctuations, which had been occurred in line with the British pound. It is proud to note that the exchange parity of Sri Lanka rupee with the British pound remained higher, when Sri Lanka gained political independence in 1948, one British pound was equal to 13 Sri Lanka rupees.  The history of European monetary units demonstrates that they were badly depreciated due to wartime economic depressions or recessions but they always recovered as soon as possible by the use of appropriate economic policy actions.  Therefore, the fluctuation of rupee value under the Currency Board System was not too bad to make extravagant criticism. 

After independence in 1948, Currency Board System in Sri Lanka was canceled in terms of the recommendation made by John Exter and established the Central Bank of Sri Lanka with several fundamental objectives about to foreign and domestic value of Sri Lanka rupee.  Although these authoritative changes have not been effective for radical changes in linkages of Sri Lanka rupee with British Sterling Pound as the major export companies of Sri Lanka were listed in London Stock Exchange and the price of export commodities was tagged in British pound.

When contemplating other countries where are used rupee as the monetary unit, Sri Lanka uses cents as a single subunit, and other countries use deviated named subunits. For example, India could be given.  We can imagine that the reason for a single named cents” for the subunit is that Sri Lanka had been used Rix Dollar and Cents before the introduction of rupee in 1872.  Therefore, the Rix Dollar name for the currency unit of Sri Lanka is unique and has a significant historical value and the country can rethink to replace the Rix dollar and cents under the current modernization process. After winning the terrorist war in 2010, Sri Lanka has become a new country with different attitudes and people of Sri Lanka committed to modernizations and the application of new technology and greater cooperation with other countries irrespective of the political ideologies.

While Sri Lanka rupee had been linked with the British pound sterling foreign value remained in a stable parity until the official depreciation of the British sterling pound in 1967. The devaluation of Sri Lanka’s currency was subject to over-value the Rupee at the foreign exchange market, and had potentials to disadvantages to the export economy.  The government of Mr. Dudley Senanayaka officially depreciated Sri Lanka rupee by 20%, which was advised by the International Monetary Fund despite criticism made by left political parties on the rising the cost of living and giving a fairly higher pay rise to Sri Lanka’s workforce.  Although left political parties promised to revalue Sri Lanka’s Rupee when they will come to power in 1970, the elected collision government did not revalue Sri Lanka rupee and the cry of left political parties on the revaluing of foreign-value of Sri Lanka’s rupee was rhetoric to attract political supports at the election rather than implementing policy actions.  The policy action to officially depreciate Sri Lanka rupee by 20% in 1967 was an accurate decision for securing the export market. 

In addition to official devaluation, Foreign Exchange Entitlement System which was an unofficial devaluation strategy introduced in 1968 had been subjected to devalue Sri Lanka rupee by 30%, and since then Sri Lanka rupee was gradually distancing from the British pound and aligned to USD.  However, unexpected market shocks in 1972 to USD, and gold parity, and Oil crisis in 1973 laid a foundation to further depreciate the foreign value of Sri Lanka rupee but adjustable peg system and manage currency policy of Central Bank were able to maintain artificial foreign value for Sri Lanka rupee despite international advice for depreciation or floating the currency.  In 1974 one USD was approximate with 6 Sri Lanka rupees, which was a favorable condition without sufficient foreign currency or gold reserves but invited tight exchange controls for international capital movements.

When Sri Lanka’s economy was opened to the world in 1978, Sri Lanka rupee hasn’t had economically strength environment for facing domestic and international economic trends, and the pressure mounted from the terrorist war situation since the early 1980s to 2010, the foreign value of Sri Lanka rupee dramatically eroded despite the positive objectives of the Central Bank to maintain the domestic and foreign value of Sri Lanka rupee, which currently values one USD equal to more than 180 rupees.  There is no doubt that the floating of rupee is appeared to be beyond reality. 

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

It is considered that the rapid decline of Sri Lanka rupee created a favorable environment for exporters and Sri Lankans who are in foreign employment, however, the reality is that a rapid decline of the rupee value has massively impacted on the increase in domestic inflation as well as the increase in the budget deficit which forces to borrow to cover the budget gap and increase taxes.  The current low foreign value of Sri Lanka rupee is a hindrance to maintain macroeconomic stability in the country achieving sustainable economic growth. 

After ending the war in 2010, there were many positive signals that the country should have moved upward trend and several sectors of the economy such as tourism, agriculture, and fisheries are embarking to high growth.  Sri Lanka is recognized as an emerging economy.  Although the size of the economy needs to be expanded to 10 times than current level, foreign assets and reserved should visibly be increased, economic policy actions have less focused on macroeconomic fundamentals, in the effort to gain international value to Sri Lanka, it is essential a strong currency unit for reflecting the international value of Sri Lanka’s assets.

What should do to give international value to Sri Lanka’s assets?  Sri Lanka does not want an over value currency unit, which erodes international competitiveness.  Sri Lanka needs to work as a strong merchandise and service export base in Asia.  However, the rupee will not support to fulfill the expectations of the nation and this writer considers that changing the monetary unit rupee replacing the RIX DOLLAR would support to maintain internationally better valued currency unit in the country, which represents a reasonable international value of Sri Lanka’s assets.  The current 100 rupees could be set to one Rix dollar, in which a USD will be equivalent to Rix $ 1.20 and all currency and rupee assets could transfer to Rix dollar bases according to and this would not be a complex process.  Sri Lanka has good experience in demonetarizing policy by the cancellation of Rs 100 and 50 notes in 1970 and people can be adapted into new currency without any difficulties.

Many countries in the world have changed their currency units and many countries will be changed their currency units in the future and this will not be the end of the world.  The change of Sri Lanka rupee to Rix dollars with a new parity will reduce current administration cost for maintaining a massive volume of notes and new dollar notes could be issued with a yellow back with a picture of a branch of Jayasri Mahabodhi in similar denominations for 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500 denominations.  When people are telling greenback to USD, they will tell yellow back to Sri Lanka’s currency. 

In the year 2000, all European countries change their exchange unit to Euro, it was a peaceful transformation and at the beginning, Euro had a declining trend but later it came up as a strong currency unit despite some problems in certain European countries such as Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Italy.  Under the market economic policies that widely initiated after the cold war, many countries allowed to float domestic currency units but primary commodity-exporting countries’ currency units badly declined despite a strong recovery of the economy in the mid of 1990.  Metal and oil prices were double during the past two decades despite a favorable increase in prices and improvement of domestic economic conditions, currency units are subject to decline, which creates many problems for these primary commodity-producing countries. Commodity prices have changed during the past decade and the COVID 19 further declined the prices.  Many countries talk going back to production bases and changing the economies.  The IMF has concerned about the declining trend of hard currencies but reluctant to talk about the declining trend of emerging nations.

Sri Lanka’s economic renaissance after ending the terrorist war in 2010 invites radical changes in many areas and changing the monetary unit is an essential change that should have effected from 2015 to boost the economy as well as to give due international recognition to Sri Lanka.  The yahapalana regime did not concern in these matters, they were hanging in unnecessary issues. 

Politically, Sri Lanka has a good environment to change the name of the official currency unit.  After becoming the president, Mr.Gotabaya Rajapaksa it seems that he has an intention to make a fresh start in all areas of the economy and change of the name of the monetary unit will be the beginning of a renaissance in all areas of the economic, political, social, ethnic and religious system. Mr.Gotabaya Rajapaksa can give excellent leadership.

Vijitha Bulathsinghala

Hi Bonnie,

I would like to protest to your speech on a so-called Tamil Memorial Day.

Please do your homework about this front line of  Terrorist group Who kill their supporters. Rajiv Gandhi Prime-Minister of India was supporting LTTE terrorist group and he was blasted into pieces and Sri Lankan President Premadasa  extended hand to them and He was blasted into pieces. Please do not help to bring this Terror to Canadian territory.

 
Racist Terrorism should be defeated. We should live as brothers and sisters of one country in Canada. Tamil Genocide Bill and Ontario Education Bill is a hindrance to the peaceful co-existence of Canadians in Canada as well as for Sri Lankans in Sri Lanka. Let ‘s reject both with due contempt it deserves. Let’s stop transplanting of Extremists’ Tamil racism from Sri Lanka to Canada. Let’s live like one race of human beings. Bonnie if you help Tamil Terrorists and Terrorist Sympathisers, you are doing a great mistake. Tamil terrorist propaganda machine is powerful but full of bogus and fabricated lies, created videos and pictures.

They even post innocent Civilians Killed by Tamil Terrorists as killed by Government forces. 

There was never a Genocide, In fact it was the other way May 18th Sri Lankan Armed forces saved more than 300,000 Tamils, who were kept by force, from the clutches of Tamil Terrorist Leader. In fact, the Tamil population in Sri Lanka has been going up all alone.

Only selected Terrorists were killed and millions of people were saved on the so-called Tamil Memorial day. IT IS NOT THE OTHER WAY.

The Terrorists were doing mass killing by blasting mass suicide bombs at Railway stations, Commercial centers, Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Also responsible for Killing thousands of innocent Civilians and Leaders of Sri Lanka including President of Sri Lanka, President of India Rajiv Gandhi, etc. It is time to stop this nonsense now.  

Please do not get carried away by false propaganda. Please do not issue any statements for bogus “Tamil Memorial day” hereafter – it is actually a Terrorist memorial day.

Vijitha Bulathsinghala
549 Novostar Drive 
Mississauga ON L5W1C8
416-505-0099

P.s. I am ready to meet you and share my knowledge with you if you need any information on Sri Lankan affairs related to the destruction of Sri Lanka by Tamil Terrorists. Be careful they pay and send people to work for you as volunteers during elections. Those people are supposed to work hard and win you.  So that you tend to believe what they say. PLEASE BE CAREFUL WE WOULD LIKE TO HAVE YOU AS MAYOR FOR SOME MORE TIME – PLEASE DON’T FORCE US TO VOTE AGAINST YOU.

Thank you, 
Vijitha Bulathsinghala FRI, CRES, CNE, ABR, MBA, B Sc.Civil Engineering
Certified Real Estate Specialist, Real Estate Broker, Insurance agent
A fellow member of Real Estate Institute of Canada, Accredited Buyer Representative, Certified Negotiation Expert, Cell –416-505-0099 2nd Cell 416-836-0380 Fax 905-670-3428
Email-bulath.com@gmail.com,   Website: www.bulath.com
Office-Century 21Leading Edge Realty Inc., T- 905-405-8484 Fax-905-405-8881 Remax “Hall of Fame”, “Centurion Producer 2010 – 2018″,”Top Producer” 2005,2006,2007,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015

Gyan de Mel. Melbourne.

LETTER SENT TO

Mr. Hugh McDermott MP: State Member for Prospect

24/05/2020

Dear Mr. McDermott,

Achieving your political ambitions by fuelling racial disharmony and insulting a sovereign nation.

This is in regard to the fictitious statement made by you about the genocide of Tamil people” in Sri Lanka.  Let me state categorically that you are engaging in the lowest form of gutter politics. How can you go so low?  You are continuing in the footsteps of politicians in the International Community” Eg. Britain,(David Cameron, David Miliband, Boris Johnston, ) Canada,((Justin Trudeau) the USA (Hilary Clinton, Robert Blake, Obama)  and some Nordic countries (Erik Solheim – Norway)  who deceive the Tamil people in their electorates. Similarly, the gullible Tamil souls in your electorate believe that your noble heart is bleeding because of the genocide” their kith and kin were subjected to during the civil disturbances in Sri Lanka. Just for a few stark lies in your Facebook” or a few juicy” words at some public function, these people will fund and support you all the way to the Australian Parliament. They make very good foot soldiers for any political campaign.

In your statement, you have quoted 160,000 innocent, unarmed men, women and children Many were murdered because of their culture, faith, language and traditions” Congratulations Hugh,  you have won the Numbers Game” Your  160,000 is at the top of the heap. Other numbers bandied by different people in the international community” are given for you reference: –

Navi Pillay UN High Commissioner for HR  2,800
Gordon Weiss. UN spokesperson in Colombo.  Civilian casualties  7,000
Gordon Weiss on his return to Australia 15,000
Gordon Weiss in his book The Cage” written in Australia  10,000 to 40,000
Journalists Frances Harrison & Alan Keenan  147,000
Journalists for Democracy and Channel 4.    147,676

Please be a gentleman and clarify how you computed the 160,000 innocent, unarmed, men, women and children. Were they inclusive or exclusive of the following categories: –

1. the LTTE’s mostly unrecorded ‘blitz’ conscription of combatants and auxiliaries during the last five months;
2. the unknown number of Tigers and civilians who slipped through the Navy cordon in 2009 and reached India;
3. those who were killed by the Tigers during their escape into government controlled areas.
4.  those who drowned when fleeing across Nanthikadal lagoon;  
5. those corpses – from whatever cause – buried without a record being kept (then or subsequently in testimony);
6. those corpses in the jungle that simply decomposed or became food for monitor lizards, jackals and termites; and finally
7. the considerable number of Tigers and civilians who survived but slipped out of the detention centres before being formally registered.
8. death by natural causes.

If genocide” were genuinely tugging at your heart-strings, you have to look no further than your backyard. You will see a well -planned genocide that was executed for more than 100 years. The ultimate aim of this extermination was to “eventually forget that there were ever any Aborigines in Australia”

The original owners of this land, were poisoned, hunted as animals, tortured, murdered, raped etc., and an entire generation uprooted from a land they occupied for 40,000 years.

The book The Killing Times” counts the human cost of more than a century of frontier bloodshed and how it would be swept under the carpet.

The truth of Australia’s history has long been hiding in plain sight.

The stories of The killing times” are the ones we have heard in secret, or told in hushed tones. They are not the stories that appear in our history books yet they refuse to go away.

The colonial journalist and barrister Richard Windeyer called it the whispering in the bottom of our hearts”. The anthropologist William Stanner described a national cult of forgetfulness”. A 1927 royal commission lamented our conspiracy of silence” ………….”

And a 1914 letter to the editor of the Northern Star, a newspaper published on the NSW north coast, gives you some insight into what was going on:

"Besides the Myall Creek massacre there were other and greater massacres perpetrated … for trivial offences, and sometimes for no substantial reason at all. The whites had a method of seeking retribution that was a disgrace to Christianity – that of punishing a tribe, probably an innocent one, for the crime of an individual. The whites, far from showing any regard for the lives of the original owners of the country, ignored all their rights as to property, and yet were most brutal when their own rights were transgressed."

Would you, Mr. McDermott, face the truth and speak about these people rather than speak on a subject you know absolutely nothing about, on a myth created by Western nations? Only one problem Mr. McDermott. The original owners of   Australia do not possess money to fund your political campaigns, but the Tamils do have plenty of the stuff.

Coming back to the issue of genocide”, if you sincerely want to know the truth about Sri Lanka, I invite you very sincerely, to come with me to Sri Lanka, where I can introduce you to ex-LTTE cadres who surrendered to the Security Forces and are now leading normal civilian lives. I also have video footage of how these people campaigned for the newly-elected President, who was supposed to be their sworn enemy. These young men and women were at the epi-centre of the conflict and lived to tell the story. Tamil people living in Australia are living in a world of bitter disappointment or are refugees who have told stories of torture and rape” to enter Australia through the back door.

Julie Bishop and Scott Morrison, when they were in the opposition, in February 2013, made an investigative journey to Sri Lanka, met independent individuals and politicians of all persuasions and concluded that life was fast returning to normal. They did not make an armchair” assessment of what was happening in that country. (video clip available)

Incidentally, I have withdrawn my membership of the Labour Party because I can no longer be associated with people who are the very epitome of dishonesty.

All the Best and take care,

Gyan de Mel.
Melbourne.

By : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA

Sumanthiran, the protégé o9f Tamil separatists, since 2012 Singapore Agreement was signed with quisling Mangala Samaraweera was making all efforts together with Terrorist Grandpa Sambanthan against whom visual evidence of fund raising for the terrorists in Canada are available, to get a new constitution, a federal and secular constitution adopted and to repeal the existing constitution.  It was almost ready to be adopted but calling of the presidential election obstructed the sinister move and then this separatist promoter vigorously campaigned for Sajith Premadasa (SP) brazenly calling on Tamil voters to vote for SP to defeat the Sinhalese.(repeat to defeat the Sinhalese).

Having failed in all sinister moves from 2012 to 2019 this separatist Clone, sporting a sheep\s cloth has recently attempted to pretend that he is opposed to megalomaniac Prabhakaran’s ideals and his terrorist struggle and gas said that he does not acknowledge Prabhakaran’s armed struggle for a separate state, and he abhorred Jaathivaadaya and extremism.  His primordial allegiance with separatist policies is however well known even to elementary students.

If this hypocrite was genuinely opposed to Prabhgakaran’s strategies, being in the safe zone of Colombo during the 30 years of terrorist aggression why he remained silent without opposing Prabhakaran’s horrendous terrorist aggressions, closing of Mavil Aru anicut and depriving the innocent farmers’ cultivation and drinking water, suicide bombings targeting strategic places and buses and abduction of students in the North to be used as child soldiers and commend our war heroes for rescuing nearly 300,000 Tamil civilians who were being ferried by the terrorists using as human shields. 

The man who strongly urged to defeat the Sinhalese is now attempting to fool the Sinhalese (Gonaata Andanna) thinking as Prabhakaran said that Sinhalese will forget anything in one or two weeks and hence any atrocities can be caused to them as they will vanish into thin air.  

An important question that Chamuditha Samarawickrema has missed to ask was where was Sumanthiran all the years of terrorist aggression and who was responsible for bringing him to politics and the agenda that has been assigned to him?

Sumanthiran who was considered as the leader of the TNA in waiting as Sambanthan is in a Wala payay goda payay (one foot in the grave and the other on the surface) status has created a thundering storm in the TNA and Tamil political circles by the statements he made in the interview.  Four former TNA parliamentarians – Charles Nirmalanathan (Wanni), S. Sivamohan (Wanni), Easwaran Saravanapavan (Jaffna) and Mavai Senathirajah have written a letter to their leader Sampanthan, protesting against the remarks as to their view reportedly is that Prabhakaran had made a great sacrifice to win the rights of the Tamil people and Tamil youth had laid down their lives. These former MPs have said that Sampanthan should take whatever action he deems necessary and Sumanthiran should immediately be dismissed as the party’s media spokesman.

Samnbanthan in turn for reasons unknown has defended hypocrite Sumanthiran saying that the remarks have been made in his personal capacity although, in the nearly 22-minute interview, Sumanthiran does not say so. In this interview he has answered a variety of questions and continued to acknowledge the key role he played in the TNA and has said that  Sampanthan contacted him on all matters” related to the alliance before making decisions. He has also stated that he accepted the Sri Lanka national flag and the national anthem.

Charles Nirmalanathan yjr former MP for Wannidisreict has written a separate letter to Sampanthan stating that Sumanthiran has been expressing views opposing the ultimate sacrifice made by the LTTE for the sole purpose of the liberation of the Tamil people in the recent past. He has said that Sumanthiran should stop expressing critical views against the LTTE and has asked the old man to call for the Central Committee meeting of ITAK immediately to take a decision in this regard.”

Sumanthiran’s effigy tied to a lam[ [pst near the Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil which says that I am an enemy of the Tamil race”.  It was reported that similar effigies were found in some other parts of the North as well and even in Chennai, Tamil Nadu put up by the staunch LTTE supporter film producer Seeman who attended the Maavir day commemorations in Jaffna last Novermber..  

Northern political sources claim that he was trying to cut a deal with the ruling alliance.  The furthest is that he has moved away from his former Yahapalana partners and ambitiously leaned on the government. An Intelligence source said that when the Tiger guerrillas dominated the ground in the north during the separatist war, a close relative of Sumanthiran had been tied to the same lamppost and assaulted for being critical of them. Northern political sources also indicate that the lamp post effigy instances clearly show that there still remains a deep-rooted affinity in the minds of some of the people towards the former Tiger guerrillas. Most of them have lost a brother, sister or a relative to the movement and still regard them as martyrs.”

Making matters worse for Sumanthiran with northern voters was a meeting he held with Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on May 13^th  It was to be slotted originally for the previous day Tuesday, but two TNA former MPsSelvam  Adaikalanathan and Dharmalingam Siddharthan had raised issue with those at the Premier’s Office claiming that Sumanthiran alone cannot represent the TNA and the meeting should therefore be disallowed. Later, the matter has been resolved with other TNA leaders agreeing that Sumanthiran could go for the meeting since he was in Colombo.

Sunday Times Political Editor (STPE) on 17^th May reported that by then Minister Douglas Devananda, having come to know about that Sumanthiran had sought a meeting with Premier Rajapaksa., he met the PM together with a group of his Central Committee members prior to Sumanthiran’s meeting and discussed a number of issues including the release of more private land to their owners in the Jaffna peninsula, the release of LTTE suspects and the conversion of the Oluvil Port in the east as a fisheries harbour. He has said that the port not fully operational, sand bars were forming and from the meeting, the Premier telephoned his Secretary Gamini Senarath and asked him to formulate a Cabinet Paper for this purpose.

STPE said that it was at 7.30 p.m. on Wednesday when Sumanthiran had a one-on-one meeting with Premier Rajapaksa at the latter’s Wijerama official residence. He had brought along with him a list of Tiger guerrilla suspects who have remained in custody for more than twenty years. This is a sequel to this issue being raised at Premier Rajapaksa’s May 3 meeting with former MPs. The Premier has told Sumanthiran that he would place the matter before President Gotabaya Rajapaksa whose task it was to take a decision on the matter and the government is not averse to releasing at least some of the cadres after a whetting process. The Premier has also told him that he wished to have a meeting with women who have been widowed by the separatist war when he visits Jaffna soon.

Sumanthiran has also discussed matters relating to a new Constitution and opined that the issue was whether the country should have a presidential system or revert to the parliamentary form of government saying that he preferred the latter. The Prime Minister has explained that it would depend on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa who had won the people’s mandate at the November presidential election and  he would brief the President on the issues discussed.

Commenting on the constitution issue the STPE says it is noteworthy that Sumanthiran should now talk of a return to a parliamentary system of governance but under the previous yahapalana” government, Sumanthiran was a principal architect when the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. Together with Jayampathy Wickremeratne,, they were responsible for drafting many a provision with the acquiescence of the UNP. That is not all. At his, and Sampanthan’s behest, the TNA supported legislation under the previous regime to put off elections to Provincial Councils (PC). It was paradoxical from a party that had demanded more devolution of power to make the PCs stronger. Even today, not one PC is functioning.

STPE further states that Sumanthiran’s remarks, which he has now claimed are personal, will nevertheless impact on the voters at the impending parliamentary elections and in a bid to do some damage control, Sumanthiran has now told Tamil social media that he did not criticised the Tiger guerrillas or Velupillai Prabhakaran. However, the recorded video interview in Sinhala, has gone viral.

Reoports said thatcriiticism against him in the Tamil social media has been on the increase and there is little doubt it will place him on a confrontation course with the Tamil diaspora. Sections of them are demanding a public apology that should also endorse the contribution or sacrifices the guerrillas and their leader have made for Tamils.

Sumanthiran’s meeting on Wednesday with Premier Rajapaksa at his Wijerama Road residence

The foreign based pro-terrorist racist scribe D,B,S,Jeyaraj stated that the past week or more saw Sumanthiran being attacked viciously by many in a heated exhibition of ‘manufactured rage’ over the mainstream Tamil media and social media within and outside Sri Lanka. A number of media statements were issued by Tamil politicians condemning Sumanthiran.

He said a common factor in most of the rants and raves was the labeling of Sumanthiran as a Tamil traitor.and effigies of Sumanthiran were displayed with a placard around the neck saying Naan Our Thamizh Thurogi” (I am a Tamil traitor)

In a desperate attempt to defend Sumanthiran Jeyaraj says that Sumanthiran himself released a 12-minute YouTube video where he gave an ‘explanation’ of what had actually transpired and how his interview in Sinhala was being distorted by interested parties to vilify and attack him and the ex-MP from Jaffna stated that he had responded with restraint to many hostile questions by the interviewer as he wanted to explain some points rationally to a Sinhala audience.

Jeyaraj says that Sumanthiran pointed out that a TV aligned to the ruling regime had taken a few of his comments out of context and publicized them in Tamil in a distorted manner and to his credit Sumanthiran defiantly stood by all that he had actually stated in the interview while denying the unfounded accusations of his critics. Jeyaraj adds that this YouTube video by Sumanthiran turned the tide in his favour as far as sensible people were concerned.

In further defense of Smanthiran, Jeyaraj says the targeting of Sumanthiran as a ‘Tamil traitor’ indicates that the recurring phenomenon of ‘traitorisation’ is occurring again within the sphere of Tamil nationalist politics in Sri Lanka and reminds that he has written about this tragic curse afflicting the Tamil people in the past and – given its longevity – he may have to write about it in the future too. It is against this backdrop therefore this pro-terrorist scribe says that he makes some specific observations on the traitorzing tragedy in the Tamil polity relying to some extent on his earlier writings.

This pro-terrorist scribe says that in this writing he uses the word traitorisation instead of treachery or treason in order to differentiate between those who are actually treacherous or really are committing treason as opposed to those being falsely accused or labeled as ‘traitorous’ or traitors. The reality is that most persons dubbed as traitors or ‘thurogigal’ by their political opponents are not ‘guilty’ as charged and do not deserve such a description. ‘Traitorisation’ is a terrible ‘Goebbelsian’ process by which political rivals are falsely portrayed or depicted as traitors.

The ‘traitor’ label in contemporary Tamil political discourse refers generally to Tamils accused of working against the so-called Tamil cause and/or collaborating with the enemy. Concrete proof of such conduct is not necessary. What is required is a massive propaganda effort by which the cry ‘traitor’ is repeated incessantly at multiple levels as advocated by Herr Goebbels in Nazi Germany and the s Goebbelsian approach is patently visible in the orchestrated attacks on Sumanthiran. Tamil nationalist politics made use of the Goebbels technique liberally in dubbing those perceived political rivals as traitors. Merely holding a different political view was sufficient to be called traitors to the cause or collaborators with the enemy. The problem was that both the cause and enemy were difficult to define clearly. Moreover, the nature of the cause as well as the identity of enemy underwent changes periodically. Despite these variations, what has remained constant is the practice of traitorisation.

In order to justify his attempts to protect Sumanthiran this pro-terrorist scribe presents long narrations from the past political activities covering the periods of G.G.Ponnambalam. Chelvanayagam and up to Neelan Thiruchelvam which I have omitted mentioning here as they were  irrelevant to Sumanthiran’s issue. 

Meanwhile the Tamil Guardian published from London reported that Sumanthiran has denied that was critical of the LTTE and Prabhakaran and said that his statements in the interview with Chamuditha had been mistranalated and misquoted by the Tamil media and the vested interests.

Aruna Laksiri Unawatuna B.Sc(Col), PGDC(Col), AAL

1.) The 19th Amendment Bill was first presented to the Parliament in 2002 by amending Article 70 of the Constitution to remove the power of the President to dissolve the Parliament one year later.

2.) Seven Supreme Court judges unanimously decided on the 2002 bill, amending the 70th Article of the Constitution for removing the president’s power to dissolve the Parliament one year later which requires to  be passed by  the special majority and approved by the people at a  referendum.

The final paragraphs of the determination are as follows;

“[(3)    The  inconsistency  with  Article  3  read  with  the  relevant provisions  of  Article  4  would  cease  if  clauses  2,  3,  4  and5 are deleted and substituted with an appropriate amendment to proviso  (a)  to Article 70 (1) of the Constitution by removing the  period  of  one  year  in  the  proviso  and  substituting  that with  a  period  not  exceeding  three  years.

SARATH  N.  SILVA,  CJ.

S.  W.  B.  WADUGODAPITIYA,  J.

DR.  SHIRANI  A.  BANDARANAYAKE,  J.

A.  ISMAIL,  J.

P.  EDUSSURIYA,  J.

H.  S.  YAPA,  J.

J.  A.  N.  DE  SILVA,  J.

Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution unconstitutional and requires to  be passed by  the  special majority and approved by the  people at a  referendum  subject  to  item  3  of the  determination.)]”

3.) The Supreme Court determination of the 19th ammendment bill of 2002 can be read by selecting the following link of the website of the Ministry of Justice.

https://www.lawnet.gov.lk/2002/12/31/in-re-the-nineteenth-amendment-to-the-constitution/

(The above mentioned Supreme Court determination will be provided in Sinhala language by the writer in the near future.)

4.) The 19th Amendment Bill which was presented to the Parliament in 2002 was  abandoned because the Supreme Court stated that the 19th Ammendment should be approved by the  people at a  referendum.

5.) For the second time, the 19th Ammendment of the Constitution was presented to the parliament in 2015 for ammending another 16 provisions of the Constitution and also for removing the president’s power in Article 70 of the constitution regarding the dissolving the Parliament one year later.

(Total of 17 provisions including 16 new provisions and the other provison of

removal of the power of the President to dissolve the Parliament one year after as in 2002)

6.) The Supreme Court determination was delivered in 2015 by three Supreme Court judges for 16 out of 17 provisions of the 19th Amendment Bill that was presented to Parliament for the 2nd time.

7.) The Supreme Court determination of the 19th ammendment bill of 2015 can be read by selecting the following link of the website of the Parliament.

https://www.parliament.lk/si/business-of-parliament/sc-decisions-on-bills

(The above mentioned Supreme Court determination will also be provided in Sinhala language by the writer in the near future.)

8.) In 2015, the Supreme Court decided on 16 provisions, other than the provision which seven Supreme Court judges had made a determination  on the removal of the President’s power to dissolve Parliament a year later by amending Article 70 of the 19th Amendment in 2002.

9.) In 2015, the Speaker of the Parliament violated the last proviso of Article 79, Sub Article 80.2 of the Constitution and the Supreme Court determination regarding the 19th ammendment in 2002 and also did not consider both the determinations of 2002 and 2015  ( all 17 provisions) of the 19th Amendment of the Constitution, although it was legally required to do so.

10.) The Speaker deprived the franchise of the President, Supreme Court judges, other judges, lawyers, university lecturers, teachers, public servants, journalists and all other citizens by violating the decision of the referendum given for the ammendment of article 70 which was secured by the Supreme Court.

11.) The Executive and the Judiciary’s ‘soundless procedure’ regarding the fact that the Speaker of Parliament acted in contravention of the unanimous determination of the Supreme Court in 2002 and deprived the referendum franchise right of the people raises serious doubt about the people’s voting right which belongs to excercising their sovereignty.

12.) Who are the so-called (Maha) democrats who deprived the referendum franchise right which was given to the people by the Supreme Court in the 19th Ammendment in 2002, with an English conspiracy in 2015?

Why is that?

* [This  is an English translation of the writer’s article dated 16.05.2020 –

“ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය විසින් 2002දී තහවුරු කළ විනිසුරුවරු, නීතිඥවරු , විශ්ව විද්‍යාල කථිකාචාර්යවරු, ගුරුවරු, රජයේ සේවකයන්, මාධ්‍යවේදීන් ඇතුළු ඡන්ද දායකයන්ගේ ඡන්ද බලය 2015 දී කථානායකවරයා විසින් අහිමි කළ ආකාරය. 

ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය විසින් 2002දී තහවුරු කළ විනිසුරුවරු, නීතිඥවරු , විශ්ව විද්‍යාල කථිකාචාර්යවරු, ගුරුවරු, රජයේ සේවකයන්, මාධ්‍යවේදීන් ඇතුළු ඡන්ද දායකයන්ගේ ඡන්ද බලය 2015 දී කථානායකවරයා විසින් අහිමි කළ ආකාරය.

Aruna Laksiri Unawatuna

B.Sc(Col), PGDC(Col), AAL

Email <arunaunawatuna@gmail.com>

tpratt441

Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) hits the nail straight on the head in the opening minutes on HBO’s new series ‘The Newsroom’. He is asked by a college student a simple question during a campus debate. ‘What makes America the greatest country in the world?’. Daniels initially goes the politically correct route then at the last minute goes with a honest, bold, straight forward answer that sums up a lot of the worlds problems that so many are afraid to accept because we all want to believe in our system and that it is our system that works. The evidence that is out there today is to the contrary and he discloses such information in his argument. We used to be the worlds best of the best and now we are just pretending. The first step to solving a problem is to admit there is one.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

A flight with Sri Lankan passengers which was scheduled to arrive in the country tomorrow from Qatar was cancelled after more than 70 COVID-19 patients were found among the 466 passengers previously arrived from Qatar and at quarantine centres, Additional Secretary to the President for Foreign Relations Jayanath Colombage said.

He said previous passengers arrived in the country from Kuwait on May 19. 

The cancelled flight (UL218) was scheduled to leave from Doha at 5.45 a.m with 273 Sri Lankan Passengers.

However, a senior official of the airport said a large number of persons including Airport service personnel, health service officers and armed forces personals had taken to PCR tests at the airport today following the arrival of 466 Sri Lankan passengers from Kuwait on May 19.

Meanwhile, an Emirates flight had arrived in the country from Dubai with one Sri Lankan passenger who was stranded in South Africa for two months.

That passenger was a technical officer attached to the Emirates Airlines. He has been stranded in South Africa for two months after completing his trainings. (T.K.G. Kapila)

Courtesy Adaderana

Eighteen more persons have been diagnosed as Coronavirus infected patients increasing the tally of confirmed cases in Sri Lanka to 1,182.

The Ministry of Health said that all new positive cases are returnees from Kuwait.

Forty-one new cases of COVID-19 have been identified so far within the day.

A total of 477 patients who have tested positive for the virus are currently under medical care while the number of recoveries in the country stands at 695.

The 10th death due to the virus was reported in Sri Lanka today after a 52-year-old woman, who had returned from Kuwait and had been undergoing quarantine at the Trincomalee center, succumbed to the virus this evening.

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka reported its tenth death from the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, a short while ago, confirmed Director General of Health Services Dr. Anil Jasinghe.

A female who had arrived from Kuwait and had been undergoing quarantine at the Trincomalee quarantine center has succumbed to the virus in this manner.

The 52-year-old deceased woman had been suffering from heart conditions prior to death, the Director-General said.

Accordingly the total number of deaths reported in the country due to COVID-19 has now reached 10.

Meanwhile, the total count of coronavirus cases reported in the country is at 1,162.

Currently, 458 active cases are under medical care at selected hospitals across the country, as per the Epidemiology Unit.

A total of 695 COVID-19 patients have been discharged from the hospital upon complete recovery from the illness

Courtesy Adaderana

The special flight scheduled to bring back stranded Sri Lankans from Qatar tomorrow morning (May 26) has been canceled.

A SriLankan Airlines charter flight was previously scheduled to leave the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) at 5.45 am tomorrow to repatriate 273 Sri Lankans from Doha, Qatar.

This is in the backdrop of 70 among 466 individuals who were repatriated from Kuwait on May 19 have tested positive for COVID-19. Further, one of the returnees succumbed to the virus earlier this evening (25) marking Sri Lanka’s 10th death from the disease.

A large number of airport workers, health service personnel, and military personnel who had provided the necessary service for the group which arrived from Kuwait on May 19 at the BIA, were subjected to PCR testing yesterday (24).

Meanwhile, a Sri Lankan who had been unable to return to the island from South Africa arrived in Sri Lanka last evening through an Emirates flight from Dubai. He, a technical officer of the Emirates Airlines had visited South Africa for a training program.

Courtesy Adaderana

The High Commission of the Republic of Seychelles issued a statement on the recently disputed incident of admitting a group of Seychelles national to Sri Lanka for urgent medical treatment.

The High Commission stated that 35 citizens of Seychelles – 24 of whom require urgent medical care, of which 11 critical patients are being accompanied by their relatives -were admitted into Sri Lanka on May 23, before promptly being directed to a hotel in Waskaduwa to be quarantined under the monitoring of the Sri Lanka Army and the Ministry of Health.

According to the statement, PCR tests carried out on all 35 passengers by both countries have produced negative results for COVID-19.

On completion of the mandatory quarantine period set by the Sri Lankan government the Seychelles nationals will be admitted to the Hemas Hospitals in Thalawathugoda and Wattala to continue their treatment and procedures, read the statement.

The High Commission also noted that Seychelles had only reported 11 cases of coronavirus infections in total, the last infection being identified on May 06. Further, no deaths have been recorded which gives the country a clean COVID-19 bill.

Stating that Sri Lanka had been a preferred destination for medical tourism among the Seychelles nationals the High Commission states that this travel is testament to the trust and credibility on the health system of Sri Lanka.

This also highlights the confidence Seychelles has on Sri Lanka as a safe destination to send their non COVID patients for treatment even during a pandemic”, read the statement.

Full statement issued by the High Commission:

On behalf of the Government of Seychelles, we wish to place on record our gratitude to the Government of Sri Lanka, its Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Health, for enabling the visit of a group of 35 citizens of Seychelles, 24 of whom require urgent medical care, of which 11 critical patients are being accompanied by their relatives, for coronary angiography and angioplasty, tetralogy fallout corrective surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, retinal detachment repair and many other high end surgery and interventions.

The group arrived in Sri Lanka on Saturday, 23rd May, on a special Air Seychelles flight.  This turnaround flight took back 14 Seychelles nationals who found themselves stranded in Sri Lanka due to the current situation and then onto Chennai to evacuate more Seychellois.

The patients have fulfilled all precautionary measures including the PCR Tests in Seychelles and were cleared for foreign travel. On arrival, they were transferred to a hotel in Wadduwa for paid quarantine and were under the watchful eyes of Sri Lanka Army and Ministry of Health, thereby complying fully with the quarantine protocol of the Government of Sri Lanka. The HEMAS Hospital medical team was present at the quarantine center to receive the patients, assess their health condition and to decide on the care plan while in quarantine. The HEMAS Laboratory team extracted the PCR samples from all 35 citizens of Seychelles and was sent for immediate testing. All tests were negative.

On completion of the quarantine period and clearance obtained after a second round of PCR testing for Covid 19, they will be admitted to Hemas Hospitals in Thalawathugoda and Wattala to continue their treatment and procedures.

The Seychelles side further wishes to state that there has been no active Covid -19 cases in Seychelles since 07th May 2020 after the last of 11 positive patients was discharged from its qrantined centre. It is also to be noted that Seychelles is testing for seven gene targets with RSPCR, making the test accurate in terms of specificity and sensitivity. Seychelles implemented very strict measures to contain and control the spread of the virus and its international airport is only to be reopened on 1st June 2020.  The last case (11th) was detected on 6th April and no deaths have been recorded which gives the country a clean COVID-19 bill.

Sri Lanka has been a preferred destination for medical tourism among the Seychelles nationals over last few years and we wish to thank Hemas Hospitals for their untiring effort in facilitating the visit of this group of patients and wish to state that this travel is testament to the trust and credibility on the health system of Sri Lanka. This also highlights the confidence Seychelles has on Sri Lanka as a safe destination to send their non COVID patients for treatment even during a pandemic. We salute the armed forces and the medical teams in Sri Lanka led by His Excellency President Gotabhaya Rajapakse for managing the pandemic very well that has given us the confidence to select Sri Lanka for medical treatment for foreign patients needing urgent critical care.

This is yet another milestone in promoting the long standing bilateral relationship between the two nations.”

Courtesy Adaderana

The World Health Organization on Monday suspended its trial of hydroxychloroquine, the drug backed by President Donald Trump to combat the deadly coronavirus. 

The Executive Group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the Solidarity Trial while the safety data is reviewed by the Data Safety Monitoring Board,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters at a press briefing.

The other arms of the trial are continuing,” Tedros said. This concern relates to the use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine in Covid-19. I wish to reiterate that these drugs are accepted as generally safe for use in patients with autoimmune diseases or malaria.”

Hydroxychloroquine, which Trump has repeatedly touted as a potential game-changer in fighting the coronavirus, is an anti-malarial drug that’s also used by doctors to treat rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

Numerous clinical trials are looking to see if it’s effective in fighting the coronavirus, but it is not a proven treatment.

But despite the lack of scientific evidence presenting hydroxychloroquine as a viable coronavirus treatment option, Trump told reporters earlier this month that he has been taking the drug to avoid contracting the disease. 

I happen to be taking it,” Trump said during a roundtable event at the White House.

A lot of good things have come out. You’d be surprised at how many people are taking it, especially the front-line workers. Before you catch it. The front-line workers, many, many are taking it.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC. 

The outbreak has spread to dozens of countries, with more than 5.4 million confirmed cases worldwide and over 345,059 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. There are at least 1.6 million cases in the United States and at least 97,000 deaths, according to the latest tallies.

Source: CNBC
-Agencies

Courtesy Adaderana

The government is currently looking into limiting the repatriation of Sri Lankans who are stuck overseas due to the COVID-19 pandemic, stated Director-General of Health Services Dr. Anil Jasinghe.

He points out that the arrival of a large number of people from foreign countries could be problematic in a context where the issue of Sri Lanka Navy infections has not been resolved as of yet.

Therefore, the government may take a decision to restrict the repatriation of Sri Lankans abroad, Jasinghe said.

Meanwhile, nearly 50 guidelines for carrying out various social activities are set to be released within the upcoming 2 days, the Director-General of Health Services said.

The relevant guideline will inform the general public on action to be followed once the curfew is lifted, he added.

Courtesy Adaderana

Individuals who do not maintain social distance once the curfew is lifted will be arrested from tomorrow (May 26) onwards, stated DIG Ajith Rohana.

He mentioned this speaking to the Ada Derana’Big Focus’ program today (25).

Accordingly, any person who does not maintain the prescribed social distance, whether at queues or in buses, they will be arrested and prosecuted under Section 264 of the Penal Code of Sri Lanka, he said.

The DIG further said if convicted of such an offense, one could face up to six months in prison.

Joining the program, Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said that buses can transport passengers only up to the number of seats available.

The National Transport Commission has been instructed to take necessary legal action if a bus is found transporting passengers exceeding the number of seats available on the bus, the Minister said.

With the ease of curfew regulations tomorrow, traveling between districts except in the two districts of Colombo and Gampaha will be permitted.

Inter-provincial bus services will also recommence operations from tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the Railways Department will be deploying 29 trains for the general public to reach Colombo.

However, those who wish to take the train may enter the train station only if they hold the token provided by the Railways Department once the passenger is registered at the Department through their employee ID, said Deputy General Manager of Railways A. D. G. Seneviratne.

Guidelines issued by the health authorities, including disinfection, wearing face masks, washing hands from time to time, and maintaining social distance should strictly be followed during the use of public transportation, stated President’s Media Division.

Courtesy Hiru News

Curfew lifted at 5.00am tomorrow Tuesday 26 May 

The curfew imposed in Colombo and Gampaha districts for more than two months will be temporarily relaxed tomorrow.

This is with the two day all Island curfew that will be lifted tomorrow (Tuesday, 26 May) at 5.00 am. Curfew will be effective only between 10.00 pm to 4.00 am daily in all the districts in the island from tomorrow, May 26th onwards until further notice.

Following the detection of the first Sri Lankan coronavirus patient in Sri Lanka on March 11, police curfew was imposed on March 20 in order to curb the spread of the virus.

However, after 52 days, curfew that was imposed in all districts of the island except for Colombo and Gampaha was relaxed under the program to restore the normalcy of civilian life.

Curfew lifted guidelines have to be followed

The police stated that although the curfew has been relaxed from tomorrow, guidelines prescribed by the health authorities to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus should strictly be followed during the operations of factories, institutes, offices and shops as well as public transportation.

Speaking at a press conference held at the Police Headquarters today, DIG Ajith Rohana stated that action will be taken tomorrow to arrest persons who do not maintain social distancing.

Hotels, restaurants and cafes in Colombo, approved by the Tourist Board permitted to open

Colombo Municipal council states that the Tourist Board approved hotels and restaurants within its limits could be opened for business effective tomorrow.  

Chief Medical Officer of the Council, Ruwan Wijemuni said such business entities should follow strict health guidelines while in operation.

Gyms, pavement hawkers, weekly fairs not permitted to operate still

Meanwhile, food outlets, gyms/bodybuilding centers, weekly fairs and pavement traders throughout the country are not permitted to operate at this time.

Railways – can get in with work ID

Meanwhile, the General Manager of Railways Dilantha Fernando stated that due to the addition of extra compartments for the trains, people who have not registered with the Department of Railways will be able to travel after producing their office Identity cards.

He further stated that the general public can use the trains in all districts excluding Colombo and Gampaha districts.

However, the Secretary of the Railway Engine Drivers Union Indika Dodamgoda stated that the trains deployed is not sufficient due to the prevailing situation.

Bus Service – 5000 buses deployed

Meanwhile, inter-provincial bus services will also be allowed to operate from tomorrow onwards in all districts except Colombo and Gampaha. Chairman of the Sri Lanka Transport Board Kingsley Ranawaka stated that 5000 buses have been deployed for this purpose.

Similarly, Minister Mahinda Amaraweera requested the public of Colombo and Gampaha districts to use buses for service requirements only.

Buses operating from the Southern Expressway will be travelling only to Kottawa. The bus service will commence at 4.30 am and will end at 6.00 pm. The fare should be charged only to the location a passenger is dropped and the buses should display the destination in the front.

The National Transport Commission has also decided to extend the present validity period of the permit of the buses up to June 30.

The Ministry issued a statement regarding the decisions taken at the meeting.

Buses travelling along five routes to Colombo will not enter Colombo but stop at the entry points as noted below.

Inter-provincial buses coming to Colombo on Kandy road will be limited to Nittambuwa.
Inter-provincial buses coming to Colombo route 5 will be limited to Minuwangoda
Inter-provincial buses coming to Colombo on Galle Road will be limited to Panadura
Inter-provincial buses coming to Colombo via Avissawella on low level and high-level roads limited to Avissawella.
Inter-provincial buses coming to Colombo on Negombo Road from Puttalam and Kuliyapitiya will be limited to Negombo. 

Similarly, with the curfew in the Colombo district being lifted tomorrow, there is a trend of cleaning up the city and a group of cleaning workers have expressed their views.

Colombo stock exchange operational hours extended

Meanwhile, it was announced that the Colombo Stock Exchange will resume trading tomorrow. Renuke Wijayawardhane, the Chief Regulatory Officer has stated that the CSE has decided to extend the trading hours from Tuesday 26th May 2020 as set out below:

Pre-open session – from 10.30 a.m. to 11.00 a.m. Open Auction – at 11.00 a.m.
Regular Trading – will commence after the Open Auction at 11.00 a.m. Market close – at 2.30 p.m.

Weddings 

In addition, the Ministry of Health states that it is illegal to bring more than 100 people to weddings even if there is a large seating capacity in the hall.

The ministry also announced the need to maintain the minimum number of participants and to maintain personal distance in accordance with health instructions during the festivals.

During the time the function is held, it should be based on health guidelines including maintaining individual distancing of one meter. Only a maximum of 40 percent of the usual number of guests the hall can accommodate under normal situations, should be invited. 

The guidelines include hand washing before entering the halls, disinfecting the utensils and furniture before the event, temperature checks, wearing of face masks, ventilation, avoiding physical greetings, displaying health guidelines and several other instructions. Responsibility is with the people However, it is the people who are at the forefront of the entire effort to restore normalcy to civilian life.

The Director General of Health Services Dr. Anil Jasinghe stated that the coronavirus can be eradicated from the country only if people follow proper health procedures.

No Vetting for Sri Lanka’s New Major Generals”is the latest of Sooka’s witch hunt against Sri Lanka and adds to her record of issuing close to 70 reports against Sri Lanka since 2009. The disclosure of military details publicly by a foreign government funded entity raises serious concerns about the security and risks to the lives of Sri Lanka’s military personnel. The concern is valid given the debacle faced in 2002 as a result of disclosing military intelligence details that led to LTTE assassinating 58 intelligence personnel and close to 80 intelligence operatives whose identities had been disclosed to LTTE. It is clear that this witch hunt is by remnants of the LTTE operating from overseas and if the lives of these gallant officers that contributed to deliver peace in Sri Lanka are in any way compromised Sooka and her ITJP must take direct accountability. The GoSL must take serious note of the increasing threats to the Armed Forces.

Sooka or her ITJP have no legitimacy beyond the fact that they are a foreign funded entity. On what basis can they make public statements regarding the decisions of a sovereign country and publicize personal details of the armed forces. Is this not indirectly exposing them and making them an open target for misadventure similar to what took place in the Millennium City debacle of 2002?

Where does it say that an elected President of a sovereign country has to seek permission from a foreign government funded foreign NGO to appoint or promote military officers to its National Army? That’s the first question ITJP and Sooka must answer.

If Yasmin Sooka can question the choice of individuals and claim them as ‘highly politicized’ we too would like to question who Sooka is to pass judgement. She is not an elected political leader, she is nothing but a paid employee of a foreign government.

We would also like to know who she defines ‘victims’ – is it the victims of LTTE or the LTTE to whose events she gets welcomed as comrade – no wonder she sees the gesture of Maj. Gen. Priyankara Fernando as a crime and not the stomach slitting of pregnant mothers by LTTE during its attacks on villages or the butchery of other innocent unarmed victims of LTTE.

For Sooka a hand gesture is a crime but LTTE shooting to death 146 Buddhists in prayer in Sri Maha Bodhiya Temple Anuradhapura and killing 147 Muslims inside Kattankudy mosque is not even worthy of mention or even a report. A woman who has not said a word against LTTE’s crimes or produced a single report on LTTE crimes has no business to be making statements against anyone. It just completely nullifies her credibility.

Her apparent bias is further strengthened in claiming Isaipriya as a ‘Tamil TV presenter’ when she was SHOBA the LTTE TV anchor. Isaipriya’s LTTE ID card was 03424-T ESAYRUVI. She was married to senior LTTE Trincomalee sea tiger Siri Ram. She is no civilian and any female combatant dying during exchange of hostilities cannot feature as a civilian dead in any report.

Who are these torture suspects that the ITJP has interviewed? While she is rolling out the curriculum vitae of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces with their brigade details etc, why is she keeping secret the details of the ITJP interviewees. Is she hiding their identity because they are runaway LTTE?

Out of curiosity, given that her entity is not even set up to monitor Sri Lanka, why is her concentration only on Sri Lanka? What about civilian casualties from collateral damage by US and NATO bombings in countries they are illegally intervening in? How about running a dossier on these US NATO pilots and armed forces dropping bombs or shooting civilians? What is preventing her producing reports and naming Western army personnel?

Why is she gunning after only Sri Lankan Armed Forces? Sooka, your answers are long overdue.

Sooka is issuing these reports courtesy ITJP – International Truth & Justice Project which is incidentally administered by the Foundation for Human Rights in South Africa. The FHR was set up in 1996 funded by the EU to deal with issues related to South Africa. Sooka was its Executive Director from 2001 to September 2019.  This means she was an EU employee while being selected as a member for the Ban Ki Moon personal report.

If the funding by EU is for South Africans, is EU funding ITJP too? If not, why is ITJP administered within a EU funding project for South Africa? 

However, though she left FHR as its Executive Director in September 2019 there has been 13 reports since September 2019 on Sri Lanka. 9 ITJP reports in 2020 alone. Does this mean Sooya is still part of FHR but only ITJP? This type of witch hunt under the façade of human rights, accountability and other mumbo jumbo cannot denigrate a sovereign state and its armed forces and character assassinate their personalities and career track records.

Besides all this Sooka and the entity cannot be allowed to jeopardize their lives by exposing their details publicly. The US, UK, NATO or even India will not allow disclosure of their military personnel. The GoSL must also protect its Armed Forces by not allowing some publicity-seeking hardly known entities to make public, personal details about Sri Lanka’s Armed Forces.

The GOSL through the Foreign Ministry must question the EU and the South African Government as well as the present Board of the FHR regarding Sooka’s role in FHR and in particular reconfirm if ITJP continues to be administered within the FHR by Sooka.

If Sooka has left FHR as Executive Director does it mean she is still continuing the ITJP within the FHR or has ITJP been transferred elsewhere, if so, where to? ITJP’s latest report continues to be part of the FHR so we now question whether Sooka is still part of the FHR to continue ITJP work in which case EU, South African Government & FHR would still need to provide Sri Lanka an explanation.

The GoSL in protecting Sri Lanka’s Armed Forces and Intelligence Personnel must seek legal consultation to take action against ITJP and all entities linked to it for exposing personal details of a National Army and issue notices to them that they will be personally held responsible if any harm should come to them. 

Shenali D Waduge